ENHANCE

It's interesting that sometimes one viewing of a movie is more than enough, while other movies we strongly desire to see but never do. Still other movies we feel moved to watch multiple times. I recently saw The Conversation (dir. Francis Ford Coppola, 1974) again, a movie I thought was great the first time, but didn't expect to give it multiple viewings.

The movie follows a lonely, paranoid freelance eavesdropper (Gene Hackman) who is hired to record the conversation of an anonymous couple as they walk through a public space. He is to hand over the tapes and get his $15,000 without asking questions, but for some reason he decides to grow a conscience, something he's never had in 20 years as a leader in the industry. As he gets more curious, caring, and interested, he also gets way too close and way too paranoid.

What I found really intriguing about the film the second time through was the similarities I saw with Antonioni's Blow Up (Italy, 1966). Both films focus on a craft and a technology that isn't very common (at least not to the degree on display in the film), and concentrates on those who hone that craft. In The Conversation, the medium is audio tape, and Harry Caul has the proper equipment to know just enough to get involved. In Blow-Up, Thomas works with film -- still images -- and his curiosity keeps him manipulating that image just enough to get sucked in. Both protagonists become obsessed with their technologies, and with the ability to enhance their media with the materials they have, they begin to lose focus.

By now, this is a familiar trope. In every television show with any hint of Science or Technology, we get the "enhance" scene. On each of those shows, though, we assume (and take that assumption for granted) that we're focusing on the right thing. The characters "enhance" the image or the audio, they get the results, and, of course, it's the very key to unraveling the case. The first image points out just how ridiculous that notion is, but these films take the concept to the opposite end of the spectrum: if you continue to enhance, you run the risk of losing perspective.

At the risk of completely over-thinking it (as I'm allowed to do here), I've come up with two ways to read these thrillers. First, in addition to focusing on solitary (possibly obsessive) men in solitary, yet well-honed crafts, both films highlight the thriller-like, voyeuristic aspect of their capabilities as well. The folks on CSI use their tools to fight crime, but I suppose if Harry or Thomas are the stand-ins for you and me, they are the protagonists of cautionary tales about the possibility of getting in over one's head. We'd best leave that stuff up to the professionals who work in groups, the mainstream says. The second interpretation I've come up with is reading the films as part of a sub-genre of the "rise of the machines" concept. There's a danger in both films of knowing too much, and the tools Harry and Thomas have at their disposal were clearly what allowed them to gain that much knowledge. There's so much we couldn't possibly know without new technologies at our disposal, and like so many other stories, from Metropolis to 2001: A Space Odyssey, these films convey the dangerous and lesser-known side of human innovations.

Perhaps these messages are combined into one, big, American "let the PROFESSIONALS handle this OR ELSE" theme running through our popular culture. I'm not quite sure where to go with it, but I guess I have to admit that watching someone get a clearer view of something boring or blowing up an image of something that doesn't help your case at all doesn't really make for interesting (read: lucrative) movies or television... Well, now you've got me thinking about "The Wire"...


EDIT (1/29/11): SM was perusing the Wikipedia page for The Conversation, and he confirmed that Blow-Up actually heavily influenced Coppola while he was writing the script. At least I know I'm not just making this stuff up.

A Post for JK: The List Issue

Some people hate lists. Admittedly, as I peruse my Google Reader every morning, the Top 5s or Top 10s give off a faint waft of desperation, a thinly-veiled call for more traffic on a website before they go all out and post a video. We all have to admit, though, that the ploy works. People are interested in spite of themselves.

Of course there are others who thrive on lists. This is my camp. There is so much information one can gather about yourself and others from a list-making session with friends. My favorite lists are those that smack of sharply personal preference, the ones that hint at an involved back-story or require an impassioned defense. I also enjoy the time capsule dimension of list-making; like Rob in High Fidelity (also, Rob's creator, Nick Hornby), I recognize the value of grooming one's lists and keeping them updated with one's current state of mind. They are always cumulative of your experiences until that point -- what you choose to remember and what you have since forgotten -- which is so interesting to think about: is the new roster a complete overhaul from the last? When did this element become a mainstay for nostalgia's sake as opposed to an earnest addition? Sometimes I like looking back on them to see what my limits were at the time or where I'd been. Sometimes it's a more tangible manifestation of my interests. I've encapsulated my current views below. There is no order to these rankings, and they are all subject to change, of course.

My top 5 books thus far (no order)
In the Heart of the Sea
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
East of Eden
The Once and Future King
Lord of the Flies
HM: A Farewell to Arms

Top 5 favorite authors
John Steinbeck
Jack Kerouac
Michael Chabon
J.D. Salinger
Doris Kearns Goodwin

My favorite movies of all time thus far (no order)
Pather Panchali (India, dir. Satyajit Ray, 1955)
The Passenger (Italy, dir. Michaelangelo Antonioni, 1975)
Apocalypse Now (USA, dir. Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)
Les Enfants du Paradis (France, dir. Marcel Carné, 1945)
Bringing Up Baby (USA, dir. Howard Hawks, 1938)
Breaking Away (USA, dir. Peter Yates, 1979)

Top 5 favorite cinematographers
Vittorio Storaro
Ellen Kuras
Haskell Wexler
Robert Elswit
Ernest Dickerson
HM: Subatra Mitra, Roger Deakins

Top 5 favorite bands of the 1990s (no order)
Alice in Chains
Soundgarden
Built to Spill
Beck
Radiohead
HM: The Sea and Cake, Stone Temple Pilots

Top 5 favorite contemporary bands
The National
OK Go
Vampire Weekend
The Black Keys
Spoon
HM: Animal Collective (but they haven't put out anything new since 2009, and I didn't like MPP nearly as much as anything they'd put out previously) and Wolf Parade

Top 5 favorite contemporary artists that aren't bands
Santigold
LCD Soundsystem
Jill Scott
Erykah Badu
Mayer Hawthorne

Top 10 favorite albums of all time
Graceland - Paul Simon
Kind of Blue - Miles Davis
A Love Supreme - John Coltrane
Kid A - Radiohead
The Band - The Band
Brothers and Sisters - Allman Brothers Band
Feels - Animal Collective
Rumours - Fleetwood Mac
Billy Breathes - Phish
Weezer (Blue) - Weezer
Note: there's no Beatles album here for fear that the debate would turn into a completely separate post. There's a Beatles album for whatever mood I'm in: looking for all killer, no filler pop? Rubber Soul. A crazy awesome wannabe concept album? Sgt. Pepper. A great transitional album into the world of weird? Revolver. The problem with these judging and ranking these albums for me is the trade off between albums of all 4-star songs, like Rubber Soul, or an album full of plenty of 5-star songs among a glut of 3-star songs. It's a long debate, and I don't want to get into it...yet.

Favorite opening tracks
All I Want - Joni Mitchell - Blue
The Boy in the Bubble - Paul Simon - Graceland
Airbag - Radiohead - OK Computer
Everything in Its Right Place - Radiohead - Kid A
The Song Remains the Same - Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy
The King of Carrot Flowers Pt 1. - Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Poppies - Marcy Playground - Marcy Playground
Angel - Massive Attack - Mezzanine
Taxman - Beatles - Revolver
Pt. 1: Acknowledgment - John Coltrane - A Love Supreme

Favorite closing tracks
Turn Into Something - Animal Collective - Feels
A Day in the Life - The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper
Sweet Lil Gal - Ryan Adams - Heartbreaker
Pt. 3: Pursuance/Pt. 4: Psalm - John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
Tomorrow Never Knows - The Beatles - Revolver

Top 5 favorite Beatles songs
Rain
Paperback Writer
It's All Too Much
Dear Prudence
Don't Let Me Down

Feel free to challenge me on any of these. What's on your favorites lists?