Back to the movies

[chani]

It was rainy today, a perfect weather for movie time so I went to see Clooney's movie. I had papers to mark but I just couldn't. I've not been feeling well for a few days, I've even kept a basin not far away from my bed at night, because I suspected an upcoming gastro-enteritis, but so far I'm just feeling tired, queasy, over-emotional,  and a bit fevered. I'm sure there's a virus eating me within my body but it hasn't unveiled itself yet. Bastard! So since I couldn't fall asleep last night, I re-watched late reruns of Nip/Tuck on the cable. They've begun to show season 3 at last, but last night there was first the finale of s2 and then the first eppy of season 3. I watched both.

I knew that s2 finale was better than s3 's but the difference was really huge. The Joan Rivers eppy was so good, and I don't think I mentioned it before, they did play with the audience when Sean and Christian went to get infos about Ava's transgender surgery, using again the same actor who was Sofia the tranny, to play another transexual but this time it was a woman who had become a man! Seeing the two episodes in a row I couldn't help cringing at the s3 "new characters" who, as we know since the finale, are the solution of the Carver enigma. Compared to the Ava storyline and to Famke Jansen's acting, Kit and Quentin sucked.
Also I realized that the Momma Boone eppy main theme was about being paralyzed by fears, being stuck or trying to prevent others from moving. When Sean blamed Momma's husband, he was talking about himself, not wanting to sign the divorce papers, not wanting to let Julia move on. Of course Christian was stuck too.

Kuddos to Georges Clooney. Good Night and Good Luck is a pretty good movie. I highly recommend it. Black and White was a good choice, and I think that using archives footage instead of casting actors and recreating the interviews by McCarthy was a good idea, although it was a bit too long once or twice. The dead senator speaks for himself in Clooney's film so actually Clooney uses the same method as Ed Murrow did in the 50's ! I also appreciated the fact Clooney didn't cast himself in the lead role. He isn't even good looking or attractive or moving (Strathairn is the charismatic journalist, Ray Wise is the heartbreaking character and Robert Downey Jr is the cutie). Clooney is Fred Friendly a producer, a chef d'orchestre, but not the star, not even the creator actually (it's Murrow's ideas, Murrow's performance on screen, Murrow's battle), simply a craftsman who knows to keep in the background. It's so symbolical when he's crouching at Ed's feet, hidden from the camera. Good mise en abîme again!

All the cast is terrific, but David Strathairn is amazing, playing nervousness and strength as well. Brave enough and seemingly determined and brilliant in front of the camera, but not as tough and not as brave when the lights are off.

It isn't really a film about McCarthy or about threatened freedom or a left-wing movie serving an easy analogy between McCarthyism and Bushism although Murrow's advice to not mistake dissent for disloyalty could be used nowadays (there are similarities if you think of American people being called anti-American because they dare to criticize the current administration) as well as his quotation of Cassius when he analysed McCartyism (McCarthy only exploited fear but didn't make it). Of course Clooney si trying to make a point there. But the movie is more than that.

It is a film about television, made by a movie star who started as a tv star! I loved how we got to see the way a tv team worked, and what CBS was in 1953. It's a film about what tv news could be, what reporters could do, before television turned into mere entertainment, gloss or propaganda.

Things were different then, and at the same time things already began to be what they are nowadays. It was tv at its peak and the beginning of its downfall. So Clooney made an impressionist movie, he captured a fleeting moment in time in a mist of smoke. Because they all smoked a lot. Murrow was the cigarette man years before the one in The X-Files! The commercials praising Kent cigarettes made me smile. America has changed indeed...there was a lot of smoke but it means there was some spark too (and we know what a spark means in the Jossverse!) , and I bet that the lighter Friendly used to light Murrow's fag before his show began was kind of metaphorical.

Comments

[so-sharlemaine.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry you're not feeling well. When I feel something coming on like that I always wish it would just hurry up and manifest so I can start getting better already. Weather like that is good for staying cozied up inside and watching TV and DVDs. Maybe that's why I love rain and cold.

*hugs you, fluffs up your pillow, and lets you hold the remote control*

[frances-lievens.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, I had the same idea when watching the film last week. It isn't so much a film about politics, but a film about the politics of television. So many times Murrow fulminates against the mere entertainment of television. The film starts and ends with his speech in which he pleads for his style of journalism, for the integrity of television.

Loved the film too.

Take care, baby, and don't get ill!

*hugs you*