What is it about those fabulous mid-fifties icons? The three whose names instantly come to mind—James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, and the young Elvis—are as idiosyncratic as can be, unique, sans pareil, but remain evanescent. Stars from the previous decade were glamorous, talented, and they had heft. We love Cary Grant, Gregory Peck, Bette Davis or Katherine Hepburn but we don’t feel sorry for them. But the three named above carry with them a fragility, a loneliness, an otherworldly lack of fulfillment that keeps them in our hearts and minds half a century later. Of course, around the bright lights of the three-star pantheon of the mid-fifties shone lesser individuals who, in their heyday, were as famous and as beloved, though relegated to obscurity by our short memories.
Babel (Inarritu; 2006) raises an interesting question about the relationship between a film and a filmmaker. Is it entirely a symbiotic one? How much Inarritu is in Babel, and vice-versa? Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu seems very much present in Babel's stories, taking a prominent position among the individuals who form this wide net of a cast. He lifts the veil draped over human suffering and lead us toward our redemption.
The first thirty minutes of Gaspar Noé's "Irreversible" had a background noise added which hovers around the 28 hz frequency. This type of frequency causes nausea, sickness and vertigo in humans; this might help explain the numerous walkouts on the festival circuit the year the film came out (2002; San Sebastian, Cannes)--though there were other reasons (fire extinguisher, anyone?). "Irreversible," which stars Vincent Cassel and Monica Bellucci caused debate, disagreements and managed at the same time to bring us deep into the moist recesses of France's libidinous culture (swapping and the like).
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