Adlocutio

It takes courage. Police forces there are not exactly known for being soft and having limits. Many people died and I won’t forget the footage of young men being beaten until they loose clinical consciousness and others beaten to death. Not to mention what probably is happening to those who are arrested.

The outcome is still somewhat unpredictable:
a) We don’t know what really happened during the elections;
b) I cannot understand from all the soundbytes if the majority of the iranian population would agree with new elections;
c) Considering the fraud existed (as the iranian authorities recognize) I still don’t know if the difference caused by that would be enough to change the victor of the elections. The iranians authoroties talk about 3.000.000 votes difference, not enough to give the victory to oposition. But then again, are these numbers accurate? Anyway, calling for new elections it’s a step any authority would only consider after proven fraud with major implications in the electoral outcome;
d) I also don’t know what role the international powers have in what is happening. I don’t know who funds the opposition party, I don’t know what makes a politician ask again and again this kind of self-sacrifice.

Anyhow, I fear for them in the years to come. I honour their bravery and their courage to stand up for their dreams regardless of what might happen to them physically. I hope nobody ever forgets them in Iran.

WARNING: the videos are live footage of an EXTREMELY graphic nature. Extreme violence is present. If you are under 18 years old you should not watch these videos.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=iranian+protesters&aq=f

Some weeks ago I watched Surveillance from Jennifer Lynch, a 2008 almost indefinable movie. I started feeling a bit suspicious when I saw the poster of the movie. Usually a good director would feel the hair of his neck lifted by the mention of having another director’s name on the poster, but this poster’s author didn’t flinch at having David Lynch’s name on it. Is daddy cheer-leading for his daughter? Oh, yes, most definitely!

Most comments and reviews I have seen fall into some types:

a) Yes, the movie is awfully violent, but it has the David Lynch touch so it’s wonderful;
b) The movie is too violent. Be aware!
c) The movie is too bad, don’t waste your money.

These are the hard lines, the gist of the things I have been hearing about this movie. Here’s what happened to me on the theatre:

I was feeling kind of sleepy when I went to see this movie and I must say I kept opening my mouth (from sleepiness) almost until the end of the movie. Major point of interest during most part of it was to see French Stewart playing such a role. You know, we’re kind of used to see him in more funny works. He did well. Nevertheless, I started feeling sorry for having payed the ticket. The use of the camera, the angles, the soundtrack, nothing made me change my mind.

The characters are not one bit believable from the start. They are very poorly developed in terms of script, and some of the behaviour is so stupid and unbelievable that one has the sense of watching some B-rating movie struggling to become something more.

Secondly: you don’t give away the story so soon. Right at the beginning the male false FBI agent asks to the police officer to take the photos away from the board. Yeah, pretty natural. Moreover, the Police officer finding it natural and taking the photos off the board? Even more natural and believable! Gee… After that in the interrogation room the false female FBI agent threatens a witness with sexual violence if she doesn’t behave. Very, very believable indeed. So, at the start of the movie the director kindly tells us those two are not who they seem. Thanks for spoiling it for us, okay?

After this two less than believable scenes we have a looooooooonnnng period of describing… almost nothing to be exact. How can you spend so many time describing “they went ahead on the road, the police patrol behaved illegally and like perfect jack-asses and then the murders that were on the same road killed almost everybody”? Booooring! In the middle of this, a police officer shoots a tire of a car at an incredible distance while the car was speeding!!! One of the caracthers cries: “supernatural!”. You bet! Considering 1mm deviation of that type of gun in the hand would be translated into a very wide angle on the destination of the bullet… yes, it would take a God or supernatural help to achieve that shot. Okay, so Jennifer and David are not exactly gun savy. What else?

Finnaly something overlaps my lack of sleep: when the editor/director thought it was about time to start moving the movie and making a development in the script, alas! It all went down the drain.

First, the little girl watches the police behaviour (physical and psychological violence charged with disturbed and sick sexual intensity) and feels nothing, acts like if all that was perfectly natural and even goes to the police officers (who had just forced a kiss on her mother) with all the confidence in the world to report something she saw on the road!!!! Jennifer Lynch doesn’t understand filming a lot but she understands children even less!

After that, the murders throw themselves at high speed inside a truck against cars parked on the way and they suffer no physical damage! Wow, dudette! The truck had airbags inside the cargo area! Fantastic! By the way, would that really be the way a murder would kill someone when he has a gun??? As believable as it can get! Then, one of the police officers kills his mate by mistake in a situation when I couldn’t see why a police officer would do that. Okay, he was the nervous type. Yeah, yeah.

At this point, the little girl understands the murders work as a team. After that in the police station she says to the male murder she knows who they are. However, she spent the entire time feeling close and friendly with the female false FBI agent who she knew was a murder!!!! Yeah, kids looooooove murders and feel real comfortable near them! And they smile at them, and they hug them! For crying out loud!

She then goes to say to the male false FBI agent that she knows who they are! Why??? WHYYYYY??? Why would a little girl do that? Where’s the self preservation instinct??? Amazingly the guy softens by this confession and sends the girl away to go and kill the other police officers in the immediate second.

Right at the end we get a positively needless violent murder scene with no purpose whatsoever.

Know what? This movie is violent alright: violently stupid and needless. A piece of advice to Jennifer and David Lynch: violence and sex have their place on a movie ONLY IF NECESSARY TO TELL THE STORY!!! And that doesn’t make it less necessary for the rest of the production to be good! If you don’t have a good, believable story, you don’t have nothing, okay? Get real, will you?