October 23, 2005
I received an e-mail yesterday from a gentleman who came across and appreciated my review of Birth; since I've disabled comments at Reversing The Gaze, and since his response is very much worth reading, I thought I'd post it here:
"...I just wanted to add a couple of observations that might be even more helpful. First, in that marvelous long take of Anna's face, that's not a symphony she's listening to. She and her husband are at the opera, and they get to their seats just in time for the 1st Act Prologue to Wagner's 'Die Walküre.' We hear almost the entire Prologue during that shot. If it went on much longer, we would have heard the singing begin, as the exhausted Siegmund stumbles into the forest home of Hunding. This is important for two reasons: Siegmund's arrival at Hunding's home ends up breaking up the marriage of Hunding and his wife Sieglinde, as Sean almost does with Anna and Joseph's engagement in Birth. Second, Siegmund not only steals Sieglinde from Hunding, but beds her, even though she is his long lost sister—thus, a 'forbidden' love like Anna's love for a 10-year-old boy in Birth.
"Second, the scene in which Joseph interrupts a chamber concert to have it out with Sean and ends up spanking him is a direct quote from another Kubrick film, Barry Lyndon. So in Birth we have a virtual rhapsody on Kubrick themes, with direct reference to not only The Shining and Eyes Wide Shut but also A Clockwork Orange (a little), Barry Lyndon, and Lolita (forbidden love between tormented adult and precocious child). And one more: I kept asking myself, Why is this movie entitled Birth? It's not about a birth—though if Sean did turn out to be Sean, you could say that the premise of the film was that Anna's husband Sean entered the body of newborn baby Sean at the moment of his death, and so the film was about (re)Birth. But Sean turns out not to be Sean (though there's a good possibility in my mind that Sean IS Sean, after all, and he just knew about Sean and Anna, not about Sean's affair with Clara, because that was something the dead Sean regretted and wanted to leave dead). So except for the one shot of the newborn baby at the very beginning of the film, nothing more is said about birth of any kind. So whose 'birth' are we interested in? Maybe Anna's 'birth' into something new? Think 2001: A Space Odyssey.
"Brahms's First Symphony has frequently been referred to as 'Beethoven's Tenth' because of what Brahms got from Beethoven, and the new direction in which he took it. I think Glazer's Birth is Kubrick's 14th."
The esteem in which I hold Glazer's film has risen consistently and considerably in the year since it opened, and reading these comments on it only made me want to watch it again. Yen, do you still have my screener copy? For the time being, I'll just listen to Alexandre Desplat's divine score, which cycles through my iPod at least once a week.
Posted by David Lowery at October 23, 2005 03:09 AM
Comments
Not sure why I missed seeing Birth but I definitely will do so now.
David, just curious: have you written before about some of your favorite soundtracks?
I thought Mychael Danna's soundtrack for Where The Truth Lies was very interesting and Herrmann-esque. But unfortunately, the film itself didn't really work for me. I'm spending today writing a review of it.
Posted by: girish at October 23, 2005 08:10 AM
Hi David! I've read your review of BIRTH too and liked it quite a bit. Glazer's film is a masterpiece and I'm positive it will get recognized as such over time. The influence of the bearded genius is quite apparent in Glazer's collection of music promos and commercials available via the Director's Label. In many ways, I see Glazer as an emphatic Kubrick.
I think a lot of people had a hard time placing this film. They expected an occult thriller or some kind of romantic melodrama. BIRTH is neither, if you ask me. More than anything, it's a character study. And if it sometimes feels like an unsuccessful one, that's only because Anna spends the better part of the film trying to hide that character behind her graceful upperclass facade.
Just like the freaky mutant kids and monstrous mom in David Cronenberg's THE BROOD function as a metaphor for the damaging influence of unprocessed psychological trauma, I believe the young Sean embodies Anna's suppressed emotion and unfinished grief. "I'm OK," are Anna's first words in the film, spoken to her fiance right after a visit to her late husband's grave, holding back her tears with a smile. The young Sean then shows up to teach her she's anything BUT all right, and from then on, Anna's facade is crumbling.
I love the idea that Glazer mirrors Anna's emotional restraint in his direction. Not counting that stunning, emotionally pornographic three minute close-up on Nicole Kidman, of course, which reveals everything about her we need to know. If that isn't one of the most gorgeous shots in the history of cinema, shoot me.
Am I the only one to notice that perhaps the most important theme of BIRTH is quite similar to the theme of Glazer's (marvelous, although very different) SEXY BEAST? In order to leave your past behind, you've got to deal with your past...
Contrary to what some people have argued, the twist is not a Hollywood cop-out. It's not even a twist, because everything's still open to interpretation. I think this film even addresses the fact that we, as an audience, are conditioned to expect a twist, and finds a smart way to sidestep the whole issue. The given "explanation" takes nothing away of the story's mystery and only throws up more questions. How could the boy know where Anna's husband had died? Was he possessed after all, or did Anna will this occurence to be... or both?
Posted by: Peet at October 23, 2005 10:25 AM
Sorry, I meant "empathic Kubrick" instead of "emphatic Kubrick." I'm Dutch, forgive me...
Posted by: Peet at October 23, 2005 03:35 PM
No apologies necessary, Peet - your comments are equally fascinating. Thanks so much for sharing them. I love Glazer's videos (particularly those for Radiohead and Nick Cave), but you know, I never did see Sexy Beast. I'm gonna go add that to my Netflix queue right now...
Girish, I've a feeling you'll very much enjoy Birth - and it's soundtrack, as well. I'm in the process of writing my own review of Where The Truth Lies (I share your disappointment with it), and while I agree the score was great, I think Albert Iglesias paid an even more delectable homage to Herrmann last year, with his score to Almodovar's Bad Education (which, while completely different in subject matter, approaches that subject in precisely the same form and style as Egoyan's film, with much more grace).
And as for my favorite scores...well, there's a post waiting to be written! For now, I'll offer a sampling of two of my (perhaps less predictable) favorites: one is Trevor Jones' epic work for Michael Mann's Last Of The Mohicans, while, on the opposite end of the orchestral spectrum, I can't get enough of Danny Elfman's brilliant, Rota-inspired score for Pee Wee's Big Adventure.
Posted by: Ghostboy at October 23, 2005 04:06 PM