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cin-e-rama: triptych format (three cameras, three projectors) employing a high, wide, deeply curved, three-panel screen, yielding a panorama that extended nearly to the limits of peripheral vision; introduced in 1952.
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The Ideal Burger of Memory
FRED: Maybe you can clarify something for me. Since I've been, you know, waiting for the fleet to show up, I've read a lot, and-- TED: Really? FRED: And one of the things that keeps popping up is this about "subtext." Plays, novels, songs--they all have a "subtext," which I take to mean a hidden message or import of some kind. So subtext we know. But what do you call the message or meaning that's right there on the surface, completely open and obvious? They never talk about that. What do you call what's above the subtext? TED: The text. FRED: OK, that's right, but they never talk about that. In the above excerpt, Fred's common-sense point is right on the money: people have become so used to looking for hidden meanings in art that they often forget to look at what is staring them in the face. But we miss the tongue-in-cheek nature of this dialogue if we forget that this scene occurs in a movie in which the main characters spend an inordinate amount of time analyzing the subtexts of their lives. In the quotation above, Fred is not really advocating a discussion of text--he's just realizing that he's so lost in subtext that he doesn't know which noun the prefix sub- modifies. In fact, the very fabric of Barcelona is subtext. Whit Stillman's film treats its subject matter like a water bug treats the surface of a pond: it moves slightly above, rather than through, its element.
Released in 1994, Barcelona is a well thought-out and moving satire about two young American men looking for love while living in Spain at the end of the Cold War. Stillman, who wrote, directed, and produced the film, has a unique talent for finding earnest lyricism where one wouldn't expect it to be found: in the lives of rich, smart, snobby, conservative prep-school boys.
When Ted (Taylor Nichols), a corporate salesman for a Chicago firm, is paid an unexpected visit by his cousin Fred, a Lieutenant j.g. in the U.S. Navy, Ted asks his cousin how long he's planning to stay. Before Fred can answer, Ted reminds his cousin of Dr. Johnson's remark that "Guests, like fish, begin to stink on the third day." Fred retorts, "I think you'll find that I stink on the first day."
That exchange sets the tone for Fred's stay, as the two cousins quickly rediscover old rivalries and rekindle old arguments. Ted, the goody-goody of the pair, scored perfect 800's on his SATs and went to an Ivy League school. Fred, the rebel, bombed the SATs (he claims that a girl sitting in front of him distracted him by playing with her brassiere during the test), went to a small school, dropped out, and joined the ROTC. The two cousins fight about everything from their intelligence to a kayak that Fred once borrowed (or stole) to the beautiful Spanish girls whose attention they vie for. But despite their hositilities, they care for each other, and their relationship is an intriguing study of the line between friendship and family.
The movie looks very good--I enjoyed its carefully crafted texture. The lingering shots of Barcelona's landmarks, suffused with golden light, are particularly noteworthy. The lighting, music, and cinematography are all subtle but impressive.
The movie deals intensely with the relationship of the United States to "third world" countries. Fred, a nationalist who is an advance man for the Sixth Fleet, insists on wearing his formal blue uniform despite terrorist bombings of American companies and military outposts. His lack of tact brings tensions to a boil. In a key scene, however, it is Ted who offends his Spanish hosts (though Fred does add a definitive punch to the insult). While at a picnic, Ted tries to explain and defend U.S. foreign policy to a group of radical leftist Spaniards. He fails miserably:
TED: Maybe you'd like an analogy. Well, take... take these ants. In the U.S. view, a small group, or cadre, of fierce red ants have taken power and are oppressing the black ant majority. Now the stated U.S. policy is to aid those black ants opposing the red ants in hopes of restoring democracy, and to impede the red ants from assisting their red ant comrades in neighboring ant colonies. RAMON: That is clearly the most disgusting description of U.S. policy I have ever heard. The Third World is just a lot of ants to you. JURGEN: Those are people dying, not ants. TED: No, I... I don't think you understand. I was reducing everything to ant scale, the... the U.S. included. An ant White House, an ant CIA, an ant Congress, an ant Pentagon . . . RAMON: Secret ant landing strips, illegally established on foreign soil. Throughout the movie, similar verbal skirmishes lead the main characters to reflect upon the nature of American identity. At one point, Ted remarks that hamburgers in foreign countries always taste bad. It is a well-known fact, he continues, that Americans love burgers, so people in other countries think that Americans are gross and stupid. But those foreigners have no idea how delicious a burger can be. Americans crave not the shabby foreign imitations, he concludes, but rather "the ideal burger of memory."
You have to admire a movie that has such a fine grasp of the subtleties of culture. Rating (1-5): 4.5
Barcelona (1994) |