PIECES OF HER

cerebral writing on art, cinema and culture, Feature Essay 5 Minutes

TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME

If you edit the first forty minutes or so out of this often self-indulgent, choppy prologue to the iconic Twin Peaks universe, the storytelling has a haunting quality to it. It’s made chilling by its indictment of a community where the evils of sexual profligacy are bone-deep, ingrained in a suburban wasteland where mortal stakeholders ensure these mark every young person in town especially females.

Once FIRE WALK WITH ME enters its Washington small-town and focuses on Laura Palmer’s many hues of experience, we are rattled by a central motif of fear and terror that’s orchestrated by familial dysfunction, lust & male hegemony. Where middle-aged women are treated like discarded objects, teenage girls battle an internalised doom and find it difficult to hold on to innocence as a last straw.

Director David Lynch is wise enough to utilise the fantasy elements in the manner of a waking daydream especially as the cycle of profligacy seems to be controlled by an external network ala The Red Room.



Laura’s cry of shock as she witnesses a known figure outrage her sense of self, her vulnerability offset by this inexplicable association with substance abuse and carnal desires are designed as products of a society where there’s no space for innocence to preserve its remaining vestiges. That loss of innocence is lamented here, is invoked powerfully among best friends and allies and in the final moments.

Fantasy is a metaphor for the ghosts of social dysfunction in TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME. Lynch asks us to not flinch from that which afflicts and victimises humanity. The open secrets of a community pervade with greater force in the latter half. It’s even more suited to our present state.

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MADCHEN IN UNIFORM

Made during the epochal heyday of German Expressionism, this timeless yarn about a close-knit group of young females occupying the seemingly sanitised interiors of an intra-gender boarding school is worth watching.

First of all, its all-female crew in front of and behind the camera, traversing all possible age groups, is a major historical touchstone. Pivotally, in its own recourse through the period of its creation, MADCHEN IN UNIFORM is a slap in the face of patriarchy; it launches its gaze towards authority that further isolates budding individual complexities centred around sociological mores and sexuality while coming to terms with the very real sense of discovering a place of collective allyship to counter those negative markers sanctioned by culture.



I reserve my praise for the even-keeled approach meted out to its concerns here and the mix of joy, apprehension, mischief, wonder and censure it so skillfully universalises. This, to me, is a tribute to bonds formed outside often absent familial circles that uphold our sense of the self. Whether it’s the delightful staging of a play, a royal visit, whispers and pleasantries pervading dormitories, a young girl’s unraveling, the middle-aged teachers’ staunch adherence to conformity and gossip-mongering or the enigmatic and empathetic teacher’s place within this circle of life, we can all find echoes of our own childhoods here in the episodic scenario. It is also ably performed by its ensemble, once again universalising its see-sawing tone between melancholy and hope, tragic ostracisation and the ultimate joy of togetherness.

Innocence is a fragile thing. The nature of childhood is one with memories and a desire to break free from norms set in stone. MADCHEN IN UNIFORM upholds that spirit even in its somber closing moments.

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THE ETERNAL DAUGHTER

In Joanna Hogg’s THE ETERNAL DAUGHTER, the haunted house trope, the familial drama and interaction between a spare cast of personalities in an isolated location gain renewed traction. Its austere sense of time and place is to exhume memories of a place somebody once knew and doesn’t exactly recall in fondness. Its stark visual palette is borne not  by a technical tendency to symbolise emotions but by the feelings of exhaustion and camaraderie that can be found in a place outside the milling purview of human interaction.

Tilda Swinton, pulling double duty here and filmed in frames that cleverly use the conceit of left and right screen profiles, is brilliant as usual, managing to build an oasis of love and bottomless care between mother and daughter. But the bitter truths of mortality inform this screenplay. Even when the foggy spectre appears by the window to the titular daughter, it’s not for jump scares but for something that comes from the deeper wells of grief, in the vein of Henry James’ brand of horror subsisting in the mind borne by the tenuous nature of life.


The nature of borrowing from life-scripts for creative endeavours, the guilt invested in the same, the sense of history and generational anxiety and grappling with losing a loved one all build up scenes of humility among the pair here. That birthday dinner scene is heartbreaking for how it transforms our views about the real intersecting with the reel here while probing our capacity for love and remembrance.

As the unraveling of the dawn is captured patiently and the daughter’s car pulls away from this castle of memories, Ms. Hogg’s unlikely yet deeply humane tale echoes our timeless kinship with loved ones. It’s a most respectful labour of love and care.


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KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE

As Hayao Miyazaki enters the gloaming of his cinematic journey with the recent unraveling of THE BOY AND THE HERON, he leaves behind a legacy unlike any other in recent decades.

KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE, made in the 1980s, is another magical global import from Studio Ghibli. I instantly fell in love with its infectious joie de vivre, its perfectly paced scenario, its journey of discovery for the protagonist at the very onset of teenage and its view of the world as a place where kindness, wonder and granting chances to industrious young girls can make all the difference. It does all this without once launching a stereotypical deatribe against gender binaries.

Kiki is a girl, an individual, a newly-minted teenager and a citizen of the world. Her encounters with positive role-models give her the life-force that’s universally enriching for any one of us. I particularly loved her interactions with the free-spirited artist who shows her( and us) what it takes to let go of mental blocks by simply being self-assured and without persistently possessing the zeal to excel.  In essence, magical powers are Kiki’s mainstay. Or so she thinks. In the end, it’s all about how she finds her place in the world beyond her vocation.



Nobody can take our innate talents away. Life is curdled by factors not in our control. This beautifully resonant tale grips us as much by its innate joy as by its contemplative tone, both essential to teenage as it launches us headlong into the future.

Also a shout-out to Kiki’s chosen city which is a hybrid of Italian towns, San Francisco and every vibrant cultural centre of our world we identify with.

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NOTE: all the clips used here are courtesy YouTube.

Published by anawadhboyspanorama

I launch myself, with a searing, soaring passion for all domains verging on the writerly and creative with a beginner's appetite here and that's how I believe in adding meaning to each day. A lucky mascot of literature, cinema and culture, I come riding on spirited wings from the emblematic city of Lucknow where all those reside and thrive. My breeding ground and my mindscape all are committed to these three life forces. Cinema. Culture. Literature. But the biggest and all consuming parent to these is life that breeds them . There is the discovery that comes from expressing yourself, clear eyed and even mystical, when you come from a city like this. I am here to expand my worldviews, share my earliest inspirations and evolutions and go with the flow through the most accessible outlet there is : writing. Conventionally, my biography is that of a degree holder in English literature encompassing Undergraduate, Postgraduate and M Phil years and every possible experience of learning finer points of knowledge . I have already taken the plunge of creating a solid base for my works by publishing my poems and articles on the renowned worldwide community/ writing sanctuary Wattpad since 2015, a platform which is a miracle for anyone pursuing so much as a flash of wordplay and thoughts to spare. It has redefined my life and allows me to go strong. You can read my works there under the username MadMenWearingFedora / Prithvijeet. That is the springboard that catapulted me to a confident vocational revival. So here I am. Both originality and novelty are the key words to define this eternal student of life. So with the tip of the pen blessing my head and a new vigor, I welcome you all to my realm. AN AWADH BOY'S PANORAMA beckons.

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