Too sudden, too soon.
Too sudden, too soon.
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In Memoriam: Raul Ruiz – 1941- August 19, 2011
In “On Top of the Wale” (1982) Ruiz studies the relations between (descriptive) anthropology and the ancient (and modern) archetypes of human beliefs – the difficulties anthropologists feel while trying to understand our ancestors’ behavior, the people of today or their own personal sensibilities. According to the film, anthropological and linguistic anthropology’s research is near meaningless if not to simultaneously analyze the irrational connection between people’s behavioral or verbal self-expression and the structures of their belief systems. In Ruiz’ resourceful thinking (expressed in, sometimes, shocking visual images) the modern scientific enterprise is just another case of collective delirium the main character-a scientist investigates among the indigenes of Patagonia. In several intense and unforgettable scenes Ruiz shows the Immaculate Conception as a psychological complex behaviorally activated and acted out.
In “Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting” (1979) Ruiz depicts an elaborate analysis of series of paintings (by the leading character – a sophisticated and dedicated scholar of art) leading the viewers to the conclusion of the existence of a hidden psychological archetype that motivates the adult males of the ruling social stratum in various cultures. This archetype makes them fixated with a latent animosity on young males and male adolescents. According to the film, the mystery of omnipresence and popularity of wars is basically determined by this psychological nucleus of intergenerational relations – by an unconscious irrational hate adult males feel towards the future generations. The film analyzes the reasons for this hate.
In “The Suspended Vocation” (1978) Ruiz concentrates on the fight, inside the different denominations of Christian Church, between the exceptional priests occupied with the precious uniqueness of Christ’s humanistic message and the bureaucratic Church hierarchy that transforms this message into an (abstract) dogma to worship Christ’s Godly wisdom but not to try to realize it in real life. This position of mighty impostors inside the Church establishment made Christianity a typical religious system of power and control. ”The Suspended Vocation” is the rarest film describing life behind the Church walls without any propaganda or sentimentalism, that opens to the viewers the problems similar to what exists in the heart of every human being feeling of being torn between his/her ideals and the fallen world.
In “Time Regained” (1999), based on Marcel Proust’s novel, Ruiz analyzes how the writer unconsciously uses art as a devise to overcome the fear of death and to accept human mortality and gives chance to the readers (becoming viewers) to follow his path. A special attention Ruiz dedicates to the analysis of a paradoxical meaning of homosexual desire in exceptional aristocratic characters (Baron de Charlus and Robert de Saint-Loup) and to how people from the top stratum of social hierarchy finally couldn’t avoid paying the high price for a common disaster of war. Human memory in the film mediates between visual beauty of the world and the meaning of life.
In “Klimt” (2006) Ruiz criticizes the “romantic” concept of the “great artist giving a sublimated battle to the evil profit makes and the state bureaucrats”. The recognized geniuses – Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele are depicted as irresistible delirious narcissists (despite their exceptional talent as painters) individualistically taking to themselves the task of confronting the “evil prose of life” through their creativity. Ruiz emphasizes the connection of Klimt’s sensibility (that is of the painter par excellence) with scientific style of understanding reality, and through this – the absence of antagonism between art and science, beauty and rationality.
In Memoriam: Raul Ruiz – 1941- August 19, 2011
In “On Top of the Wale” (1982) Ruiz studies the relations between (descriptive) anthropology and the ancient (and modern) archetypes of human beliefs – the difficulties anthropologists feel while trying to understand our ancestors’ behavior, the people of today or their own personal sensibilities. According to the film, anthropological and linguistic anthropology’s research is near meaningless if not to simultaneously analyze the irrational connection between people’s behavioral or verbal self-expression and the structures of their belief systems. In Ruiz’ resourceful thinking (expressed in, sometimes, shocking visual images) the modern scientific enterprise is just another case of collective delirium the main character-a scientist investigates among the indigenes of Patagonia. In several intense and unforgettable scenes Ruiz shows the Immaculate Conception as a psychological complex behaviorally activated and acted out.
In “Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting” (1979) Ruiz depicts an elaborate analysis of series of paintings (by the leading character – a sophisticated and dedicated scholar of art) leading the viewers to the conclusion of the existence of a hidden psychological archetype that motivates the adult males of the ruling social stratum in various cultures. This archetype makes them fixated with a latent animosity on young males and male adolescents. According to the film, the mystery of omnipresence and popularity of wars is basically determined by this psychological nucleus of intergenerational relations – by an unconscious irrational hate adult males feel towards the future generations. The film analyzes the reasons for this hate.
In “The Suspended Vocation” (1978) Ruiz concentrates on the fight, inside the different denominations of Christian Church, between the exceptional priests occupied with the precious uniqueness of Christ’s humanistic message and the bureaucratic Church hierarchy that transforms this message into an (abstract) dogma to worship Christ’s Godly wisdom but not to try to realize it in real life. This position of mighty impostors inside the Church establishment made Christianity a typical religious system of power and control. ”The Suspended Vocation” is the rarest film describing life behind the Church walls without any propaganda or sentimentalism, that opens to the viewers the problems similar to what exists in the heart of every human being feeling of being torn between his/her ideals and the fallen world.
In “Time Regained” (1999), based on Marcel Proust’s novel, Ruiz analyzes how the writer unconsciously uses art as a devise to overcome the fear of death and to accept human mortality and gives chance to the readers (becoming viewers) to follow his path. A special attention Ruiz dedicates to the analysis of a paradoxical meaning of homosexual desire in exceptional aristocratic characters (Baron de Charlus and Robert de Saint-Loup) and to how people from the top stratum of social hierarchy finally couldn’t avoid paying the high price for a common disaster of war. Human memory in the film mediates between visual beauty of the world and the meaning of life.
In “Klimt” (2006) Ruiz criticizes the “romantic” concept of the “great artist giving a sublimated battle to the evil profit makes and the state bureaucrats”. The recognized geniuses – Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele are depicted as irresistible delirious narcissists (despite their exceptional talent as painters) individualistically taking to themselves the task of confronting the “evil prose of life” through their creativity. Ruiz emphasizes the connection of Klimt’s sensibility (that is of the painter par excellence) with scientific style of understanding reality, and through this – the absence of antagonism between art and science, beauty and rationality.
I’m from Chile, and I can really say that he is the finest filmmaker our country will ever have.
I still laugh when people said “we don’t understand your films”, and his response was always the same: “that’s because people needs subtitles to understand my films”
Just last night I was watching “Palomita Blanca” (‘White Dove’) on TV, one of his most iconic films.
The film was realised in 1973, just days before Pinochet’s military coup. Because of this situation, the film had to be released in 1992, almost 20 years later.
Rest in peace Maestro Raúl , your legacy will never be forgotten…
I’m from Chile, and I can really say that he is the finest filmmaker our country will ever have.
I still laugh when people said “we don’t understand your films”, and his response was always the same: “that’s because people needs subtitles to understand my films”
Just last night I was watching “Palomita Blanca” (‘White Dove’) on TV, one of his most iconic films.
The film was realised in 1973, just days before Pinochet’s military coup. Because of this situation, the film had to be released in 1992, almost 20 years later.
Rest in peace Maestro Raúl , your legacy will never be forgotten…
Just saw MoL this week. Beautiful film. This is shocking. It’s also my first of his films to see and look forward to catching up. Very sad.
Just saw MoL this week. Beautiful film. This is shocking. It’s also my first of his films to see and look forward to catching up. Very sad.
“The least neurotic of filmmakers”. http://www.jonathanrosenbaum.com/?p=22416
“The least neurotic of filmmakers”. http://www.jonathanrosenbaum.com/?p=22416
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF………………………………………………………………….
Just a great loss. Such an amazing filmmaker. He visited Brazil several times. I had the opportunity of watching and listening a bunch of times. And to see a good number of his incredible works. I guess it’s fair to say that the two movies that draw attention to him, was “L’hypothèse du tableau volé” (1978) and then “Three Crowns to the Sailor” (1982).
What fascinates me in Ruiz style is how deeply intellectual it his, but at the same time is full with the joyness, the playful taste of the knowledge, to activate the reasoning . Believe or not, Ruiz proves how much fun, transcendental pleasure, we could have with all that.
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF………………………………………………………………….
Just a great loss. Such an amazing filmmaker. He visited Brazil several times. I had the opportunity of watching and listening a bunch of times. And to see a good number of his incredible works. I guess it’s fair to say that the two movies that draw attention to him, was “L’hypothèse du tableau volé” (1978) and then “Three Crowns to the Sailor” (1982).
What fascinates me in Ruiz style is how deeply intellectual it his, but at the same time is full with the joyness, the playful taste of the knowledge, to activate the reasoning . Believe or not, Ruiz proves how much fun, transcendental pleasure, we could have with all that.
MYSTERIES OF LISBON is a mighty opus. A really great loss
MYSTERIES OF LISBON is a mighty opus. A really great loss
For Mysteries of Lisbon only he should be considered one of the greatest filmmakers of our time, although it’s simply the culmination of an immense, unfathomable work which includes more than 100 titles.
http://www.imitationlife.com/home/2011/8/19/raul-ruiz-1941-2011.html
For Mysteries of Lisbon only he should be considered one of the greatest filmmakers of our time, although it’s simply the culmination of an immense, unfathomable work which includes more than 100 titles.
http://www.imitationlife.com/home/2011/8/19/raul-ruiz-1941-2011.html
The Mysteries of Lisbon is the first Ruiz film I’ve ever seen — one of the finest movies of the year, and maybe the maestro’s magnum opus. Few directors leave us on the crest of a career peak like this.
The Mysteries of Lisbon is the first Ruiz film I’ve ever seen — one of the finest movies of the year, and maybe the maestro’s magnum opus. Few directors leave us on the crest of a career peak like this.