Silent Sundays: The Perils of Pauline: The Floating Coffin (1914)

In the final chapter of The Perils of Pauline serial entitled The Floating Coffin, Pauline Marvin (Pearl White) and her fiancé Harry are traveling on his new yacht. He also has a motorboat. Pauline has him show her how to work the mechanisms for the small boat.

            After some pleading Harry finally gives in and lets Pauline drive the motorboat for herself. She takes along her dog Rusty for the ride. The motorboat stops working and begins to take on water. Pauline manages to get herself and the dog onto an old boat.

            Not far off in the distance is a naval fleet. They are going to be using the boat that Pauline and Rusty are on for their target practice. The fleet shoots at the boat and puts enough holes in it to start sinking it. Pauline is frantic she tries desperately to get the naval fleet’s attention. She manages to find a pen and piece of paper and writes a note saying she is on board the old ship. Pauline gives the note to Rusty who she has swim to the battleships.

            The crew of one of the ships sees the dog swimming towards them. They take a small rowboat out to the dog. The crew sees the note and the captain calls a cease fire. The crew and the dog get to Pauline in the nick of time.

            Someone on the yacht has wised up to Koerner’s evil doings trying to get rid of Pauline for her money. The man punches Koerner and throws him overboard. Koerner eventually drowns.

            When Pauline comes back she embraces Harry and tells him she has finally had enough of having adventures and wants to marry him at last.

            For the past nine weeks I have thoroughly enjoyed watching The Perils of Pauline. Some of them were exciting and thrilling and some were just alright. Pauline Marvin is a great character. I liked how she went on all these adventures, planned or unplanned, and did so with such bravery and fun. My favorite aspect of all these episodes is that they were filmed in Fort Lee, New Jersey. Fort Lee was the original movie town. All the major studios started there. Over the summer I completed my internship as a museum registrar at the Fort Lee Museum working for the Fort Lee Film Commission. I found so many incredible movie artifacts from the early film industry and learned so much about it. The Fort Lee Film Commission are big fans of The Perils of Pauline and even use a behind the scenes photograph from one of the films as their logo.

            The Perils of Pauline is a must see for classic film fans. They are fun, innocent, and entertaining given the time period they were made in.  I can only hope that these films, if seen by more viewers, especially women, will inspire writers in some way to write strong, adventurous female characters. 

Monuments Men (2014)

“You can wipe out an entire generation, you can burn their homes to the ground and somehow they'll still find their way back. But if you destroy their history, you destroy their achievements and it's as if they never existed. That's what Hitler wants and that's exactly what we are fighting for.”

            I believe as Americans we do not value culture as much as other countries do. There is Americana in the form of certain objects such as cars, surf boards, and Palisades Amusement Park, but there is no truly great symbol of American culture in art and architecture. Yes, we have the Statue of Liberty but she was actually made by a Frenchman. The Smithsonian Institute proudly displays American achievements. But ask yourself this, what or who can most clearly define our culture in terms of art, technology, and architecture in this museum? If war were to ever, God forbid, come to American like it did in Europe during the World Wars what would be most valuable to us Americans that an invading army could plunder and we would miss that part of our culture?

            Art in its various forms carries a nation’s identity. Art history teaches more social history than we here in America could ever hope to learn in classrooms growing up.  Art carries the pride of nations. It also carries emotional bonds. Have you ever stood in front of a painting by an artist from your country and felt a sense of pride and emotional attachment? It is one of the most thrilling senses to feel. I well up with pride whenever I see works by John Singer Sargent, John F. Peto, Winslow Homer, and Frank Lloyd Wright. To think Americans could create such incredible works of art is amazing because the world is always focused on European art. For me if works by these artists were to be plundered and destroyed a part of me would be missing.

            Imagine living in a European country during World War II and everything your country holds dear art wise is taken by a mad foreigner. Almost your entire cultural identity has been stolen because some lunatic believes your people are inferior and should not be in the hands of who he sees as barbarians. Imagine how that would make you feel having someone not from your own country, your own culture, coming in and taking your people’s precious objects because he deems you as inferior. Think about this scenario and how you feel if America were stripped of its cultural objects.

My heart aches for the lives lost during World War II and it aches for the art that was stolen. It aches for the art that for years was removed from its home and it aches for those works that are still missing. You may be asking yourself why I feel so deeply for art. I am an art historian and I am currently working on my MA in Museum Registration. Art moves me and museums feed my passion for cultural intellect and knowledge. My classes have discussed countless times the plundering of art in Europe during World War II. In an article I had to read for a class the author wrote that Nazi looted art is one of the greatest unresolved issues of the War. Almost eighty years later Hitler is still creating problems.

Fortunately all art was not completely lost. Thanks to a group called The Monuments Men much of the valuable and well known works of art from Europe were found and returned. These dedicated men of the arts were not soldiers they did not sacrifice their lives as other men did. They saw the importance of saving culture. They knew that without culture there would be a great sense of loss to the people when war was but a distant memory.

The movie Monuments Men loosely follows the book of the same title. Of course, I have read the book and it was utterly fascinating. Instead of me giving a long winded summary that will most likely make no sense please visit The Monuments Men website to learn more.

The real Monuments Men. James Rorimer is behind the other men

The characters in the movie are based on the real life men and women in the book but they unfortunately, go by different names. The character of James Granger is based off James Rorimer. Like Rorimer, Granger is curator of Medieval Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. There was a young man named Harry Ettlinger from Germany who immigrated to Newark, New Jersey and signed up to fight against his mother country. He assisted in translating, naturally. The one character I was upset with the name change was Cate Blanchette’s Claire Simone. Claire is based off France’s hero Rose Valland. Valland single handedly saved France’s most important modern art works. She worked at Jeu de Paume where Gobbles and another Nazi would come and pick art they wanted for their own home, as if the museum was a store. Valland wrote down every detail about every painting that was stolen and where it was going. Valland is a hero to the French and to the world of art history. All the characters are forgettable because they are so one dimensional. There is so much missing to the movie characters. Their one dimensionality and what they are missing leave nothing for you to remember them by.

Rose Valland

I will say that for a movie the story was entertaining and it worked for the screen. There were several aspects that bothered me besides the name changes: the pace was way too fast the whole just jumped around and did not even give you time to really digest what was going on, there was a sort of love story going on with Granger and Claire that bothered me there was absolutely no need for that, Claire could have been a very interesting character instead she was boring and I hate to say typical, there was humor which is fine the drama needs to be broken up sometimes in dramas but it seemed more silly, there really was barely any explanation of what had been taken from France and barely went into the art itself…. Which I think was based on the aspect/issue of copyrights and reproduction which can be crazy expensive and tedious to get permission to do.

The Monuments Men as a movie was not too great. I believe it is a good way to gain interest in the actual organization and the actual men and women who saved art in Europe. I felt there was so much missing with the story along with the characters that it was almost hard to follow. There was a scene with Claire where I was left thinking what the hell is going on. It was a bit ridiculous.

 George Clooney had noble intentions with this film and I feel terrible that he fell short. I feel terrible that he could not create a better story. His character stressed how art is culturally important and what it would mean to the countries who were missing their culture but it was never explained what made these works so important to the countries and to the world of art. That is the most important part of the entire story. I will thank him for making people aware of this organization and of Nazi looted art.

I am not going to say to not see The Monuments Men. Do see it because you do not know if it will pique your interest into researching looted art during World War II and learning about actual Monuments Men, Fine Arts and Archives. I can only hope that you learn how important art history is and appreciate the culture you live because you never know if one day all the objects that give your nation’s identity will be taken away.

 

Eastern Promises (2007)

“So you've read the diary. How can you keep doing what you're doing?”

“I'm just a driver.”

            A young pregnant girl is brought into the hospital where Anna Ivanova (Naomi Watts) is a doctor. Unfortunately the girl dies but her baby daughter lives. Anna finds the girl’s diary among her few possessions she had on her. The girl’s name was Tatiana and she was fourteen years old. Tatiana’s body looks horrible with bruises and track marks and marks of neglect all over her. Anna is determined to find the girl’s family. The diary is written in Russian. At first Anna goes to her Russian uncle but he is hesitant to translate it. Anna found a card for a Russian restaurant in the diary so she takes it there and asks the owner if he knew the girl and if he could translate it for her.

            The restaurant owner Semyon is not a nice man. He part of a dangerous Russian mafia in London. His son Kirill runs around town doing whatever he pleases drinking all day and going to prostitutes. Kirill is driven around by another Russian named Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen). Nikolai acts as Kirill’s bodyguard as well making sure nothing bad happens to him and that he is kept out of serious trouble. Nikolai sees Anna come out of the restaurant and talks to her about the motorcycle she rides.

            Anna’s uncle eventually translates the diary and tells his niece that Tatiana had been in a bad situation and had been raped. She had been raped by Semyon who then, along with his son, repeatedly shot her up with heroine. Semyon has also read the diary. He orders Nikolai to take care of the uncle.

            There is more to the story but I do not want to give too much away.

            Eastern Promises was alright. My two youngest brothers love the movie. The youngest one is fifteen and he was watching the movie with one of his friends. I was heading downstairs to my dad’s office to work on some papers and I heard a voice that was very familiar. The Russian voiceover belonged to Tatiana Maslany. I knew she was attached to Eastern Promises. I thought she was actually in the movie but she was just a voiceover with a different girl playing the character of Tatiana at the beginning. It was cool to hear her voice especially because one of the characters she plays on Orphan Black is Ukrainian which to my ear sounds very close to Russian. I thought the story would be more interesting than it was and that there would be a little more action. There was one scene where Viggo Mortensen fights naked in a bathhouse and that was the only action scene. To me Eastern Promises was dull. I cannot see why my brothers love it so much and they have seen movies that are lot better than this story wise. 

Silent Sundays: The Perils of Pauline: The Serpent in the Flowers (1914)

“I can tell your fortune by the lines in your hands.”

            This episode of The Perils of Pauline has our heroine on two dangerous and thrilling adventures.

            Koerner still up to no good trying to get rid of Pauline Marvin (Pearl White) his young ward. He enlists the help of some local gypsies. The chief gypsy is happy to help. He has Koerner bring Pauline down to his camp to read her fortune. The chief reads her fortune himself and tells her that she will be going on a long trip. As he relays his fortune men come out of the woods behind him and Pauline and throw a blanket over her head. The men take her to their camp. A gypsy woman who is in love with the chief has heard about the woman and becomes jealous.

            Pauline tries to escape the camp but is immediately caught and brought back.

            Harry, Pauline’s fiancé is concerned that she has been gone for so long and begins to search for her. The gypsy woman flags him down and shows him where Pauline is being kept. Harry has a fight with the chief ending with the chief being badly hurt. The gypsy woman’s love for chief is strong and she is angry with Harry. She finds a snake in the woods, puts in a basket with some flowers over it, and brings it to Pauline’s house.

            As Pauline looks at the flowers in the basket, Harry notices something moving in it. He throws the basket on the floor and out slithers the snake. He manages to kill the snake before it can cause any damage.

            Unfazed by the snake Pauline is ready for another adventure. She hears about a steeple chase race and wants to buy a horse so she can enter. Koerner sees this as an excellent opportunity to try to have Pauline killed. He finds someone to poke the horse with a needle to make it go wild. Pauline is thrown off her horse during the race. She is hurt but she will recover.

            The Serpent in the Flowers was good. I liked the idea of there being two adventures but the second part with the horse race really did not make any sense. I read that some of the episodes of the American and French versions of The Perils of Pauline were once spliced together and I have a feeling that is what happened with this episode.

            Stay tuned for next week’s concluding episode of The Perils of Pauline.

Blue Jasmine (2013)

“Anxiety, nightmares and a nervous breakdown, there's only so many traumas a person can withstand until they take to the streets and start screaming.”

            Have you ever felt such profound guilt over something that happened in your life that when it creeps into your thoughts late at night it keeps you up? The guilt could be as small as remembering you said something stupid to someone years ago or it could have been something bad you did to someone. I hate those feelings of guilt. Having ADHD and also suffering from depression and anxiety fuels my feeling of guilt and even shame more than it does in others. Nervous breakdowns are terrible. If you have never had one imagine having your emotions spiral out of control and your head and body not being able to get a grip on anything. They are painful and frustrating and terrifying. My nervous breakdown was caused by depression and anxiety but at the time I had no idea that I was suffering from ADHD which was the main part of the problem. Thinking about all the years I have gone without being diagnosed with ADHD is one of the things that sometimes keep up night because I wonder what my life could have been like had I been medicated and worked harder. But, hey, there is nothing I can do now the pas is in the past and now I am working harder than ever to be a better person.

            Anyway, sorry for getting way too deep with this but it does have a point and has a bit to do with the story Woody Allen tells in his film Blue Jasmine.

            Jasmine French (Cate Blanchett) flew out to San Francisco from New York to live with her sister. She is starting her life over after her extremely wealthy husband went to jail for scheming people out of their money. Instead of facing what he did the husband killed himself. Jasmine has lived her life in outrageous privilege living in an apartment in Park Avenue, getting whatever designer jewelry her heart desired, traveling in her own private plane, attending and hosting rich people parties. Her sister Ginger on the other hand lives in a small apartment with her two kids and has the poorest choice in men.

            All of Jasmine’s belongings had to be sold. She has no money to speak of and needs a job. Through Ginger’s fiancé, Jasmine gets a job working as a secretary at a dentist’s office. She wants to go back to school but has no money and she has no idea how to use a computer. She works at the office during the day and goes to school at night. Her perfect plan falls apart when the dentist she works for sexually harasses her. Through a friend in her computer class, Jasmine is invited to party. At the party she meets a really nice guy named Dwight. He is kind and sweet and also very wealthy. Instead of telling Dwight the truth about who she was she lies and tells him she is single after her husband, a surgeon, died of a heart attack and she has no children and she is an interior decorator. Her life goes well for a little bit until she and Dwight come across Ginger’s ex-husband on the street. Jasmine’s husband schemed money out Ginger and left them broke. The ex-husband reveals all of Jasmine’s truths in front of Dwight. Dwight no longer wants to be with her. After this incident Jasmine’s life truly hits rock bottom.

            Throughout the movie, we are given flashbacks to Jasmine’s life in New York among the wealthy. From the beginning we see that Jasmine is suffering from some kind if mental disorder even before her breakdown. Before she left New York she had been picked up on the street for talking to herself and does occasionally in scenes especially after she has a flashback to a certain time in her past. In the end we see that everything Jasmine has gone through with her husband being arrested was her own doing.

            So, not the best summary but that is basically the story of Blue Jasmine. 

            Cate Blanchett was incredible. The woman absolutely deserved her Academy Award for Best Actress. From the moment the movie starts and we see Jasmine sitting in the plane just constantly talking she was great. You can see the wheel’s literally turning and turning in Jasmine head. You can see the mental agony and torture Jasmine suffers. Jasmine can be seen in two different ways: a white privileged woman who had a breakdown because she lost her luxurious lifestyle or you can look at her through the flashbacks and where she was at in the present that she had been suffering from mental issues before her husband’s arrest. I see her as the later. Jasmine was already suffering from mental illness before the arrest and her loss of everything. I felt terrible seeing her falter and suffer. She did want to make a better life for herself and she tried but that one little setback with the dentist pulled her down. I know exactly how that feels and when someone suffering from mental illness like depression suffers a setback like she did it is agonizing. Blanchett cannot get enough praise she was perfection from start to finish.

            Blue Jasmine is not happy much like several of Woody Allen’s other movies are. But with this he told a human story. When a person is suffering like Jasmine did it affects everyone around them. Allen’s writing and direction were spot on they both kind of leave you wanting more detail but it is up to you to fill in the gaps and stories. Blue Jasmine is upsetting, unsettling, and heartbreaking it is not typical. And as you can tell I can kind of relate to Jasmine French. Despite how I can relate, Blue Jasmine is a very good movie.