November 2009 Archives
Moral Panic: Quadrophenia (1979)
Before I get into this week’s movie review, I also want to ask everyone’s opinion on something. My mom says I should be getting privacy education because of the internet. She is reading this book on reputation and the internet and says I should read it too because what I do, like having a blog, has an impact on applying for uni and getting jobs. I dont know what all the fuss is about, I think everyone has a right to free speech and they shouldn’t be apologising for it, what do you all think? Here’s the book.
Ok, so back to Quadrophenia. I just watched this movie and it’s wicked. It came out in 1979 and it’s based on the rock opera from 1973 by The Who that has the same name. If you are listening to the music in the movie and you wonder why it’s so literal (you would listen to the song and it would be EXACTLY what was happening onscreen) then that’s why. It’s because the music was at first written so it could stand alone and tell the story, then the film adds another piece to the puzzle by making it visual.
It’s set in Brighton in the 60s and it’s about this teenager named Jimmy Cooper who wants to feel like he’s someone. The way he decides to do that though, is by really buying into cliques and groups that are all laid out. The two big groups are the mods and the rockers. The mods dress sharp in suits and ride scooters and listen to music like Booker T. and the MG’s. Rockers wear leather and ride on motorcycles and listened to rock and roll like Elvis.
I don’t wanna be the same as everybody else. That’s why I’m a Mod, see? I mean, you gotta be somebody, ain’t ya, or you might as well jump in the sea and drown. — Jimmy Cooper
The movie follows Jimmy as he parties and chases a girl he likes (Steph) and goes to his job. Then, the kids all just get together and go to Brighton and trash it and they get into this massive fight on the beach with the Rockers. It’s funny though because thats the part of the movie where everything seems to be going right for Jimmy. He finally gets Steph and he finally feels like he belongs. Then, really fast it all goes wrong. He loses his girl to his best friend, he quits his job, crashes his scooter and and he gets kicked out of his house.
So then he goes back to Brighton to try and recapture that moment that meant so much to him and then he gets really upset because finally, cause he sees the coolest mod of all, Ace Face (played by Sting), just working as a bellhop carrying peoples bags in a hotel. So then Jimmy grabs Ace Face’s scooter and shoots off. Then he gets to the ocean and you just see him drive towards the edge of the cliff and then you see the scooter fall. I usually don’t give away the ending, but the movie is amazing even if you know what happens in the end.
So at the end, you dont know what happens to Jimmy. He could have thought of what he said earlier and just jumped in the sea and drowned cause he didnt feel like he belonged anymore after he lost everything including being a mod. Or maybe he wised up and got smart and just rejected the idea of the mods defining who he is so, he threw the scooter off a cliff as a symbolic act (that’s the one I want to believe).
There are lots of things that happen in the movie that are typical experiences you have when you’re a teenager, and I think that that’s why this movie still touches people since it came out in 1979. When you watch the movie you feel like Jimmy Cooper felt, and you kind of know where he’s coming from because even if its through just how you dress, the music you like and who you hang out with, we all want to be a part of something.
Plum
[images: wikipedia.com, quadrophenia.net]
La Boulangère de Monceau (1963)
This movie is called The Girl in the Monceau Bakery in English, and it’s directed by Eric Rohmer, and it’s a study in morality. It’s only 22 minutes long, but it’s a classic case of the girl who you want and the girl who’s easy to get. A lot of guys can definitely relate.
So this guy sees a woman every day on the street and he never talks to her, but he really fancies her. One day, he gets lucky and she bumps into him and they have to talk, and he asks her out and she says sure, but maybe another time. So then he doesnt see her for ages and ages and ages. He’s walking around hoping to find her and he comes to this little bakery (in Monceau) and he meets another girl who he kind of sort of likes, but not as much as the first one. The difference is, he can tell this second girl really likes him. So then he keeps going back to the bakery, and his dilemma is this: what does he do? Does he go for the girl who he can get really easily, or does he hold out for the chick he really likes but doesn’t know if he can get? It’s something guys have to deal with a lot, and I don’t think I should tell you exactly what he decides, but I will say that some men will be able to relate to his choice and others won’t. You’ll just have to see the movie for yourself.
Plum
[image: utoronto.ca]
Praise (1998)
I saw this film which is based in Australia. It’s another film that doesn’t really have a lot happening on the outside, but it has a lot happening on the inside of the characters. I’m really interested in those kinds of films at the moment.
There is a man named Gordon who lives in a kind of I guess tenement with all these people who don’t have much money. At the beginning of the film, he works as a gas station attendant, but he quits his job, so he isn’t really working throughout the film. He has asthma, but he smokes a lot, which tells you something about his personality and what he thinks of himself.
So he meets this woman named Cynthia and they start dating. She used to work at the gas station and she has eczema and she is a heavy drinker and smoker and she is addicted to sex and I think she has low self esteem too.
At first, they really got on. They date, and move in together, and then she gets pregnant and has to have an abortion, then they start fighting more and more, then he sees another girl he likes more, and then he wants her to leave, so she leaves him. That’s the whole plot of the movie.
What I like about the movie is that it really shows all the different emotions that they go through, and you can relate ( I can’t relate to everything but some of the stuff I could). Because you can relate to it you don’t need car chases or gunfights or explosions. I would recommend this movie because they seem dysfunctional but then you realise just how much like you and your friends and your family the characters are.
Plum
[image: rottentomatoes.com]
