Whiplash
It’s been 10 years since I saw “Three Colors: White”, so let me tell you the experience I made with the movie, bringing back some nostalgic memories of VHS recording. As it was typical for arthouse films, “White” was shown in the middle of the night so I recorded it to watch on the next day. Unfortunately I got the timing wrong and I was able to watch the movie up to the point where Karol Karol enters the prison building where his wife is staying. I had no idea how much more of the movie was left, and I really wanted to know how the movie ended. It was only awhile later that I got ahold of the entire film, only to realize that I missed merely a minute or so of the end, in which he walks in, sees her and she waves at him. That’s it. As you can see from my old posting (or rather, don’t read it), I had no idea what that ending was supposed to mean and until today I feel the dissatisfaction of that super open ending.
I can’t believe this happened to me again. We were on the flight back from Tokyo and the screens shut off 10 minutes before “Whiplash” ended. This time it took me less time to catch up on the end, but I couldn’t believe my eyes when I realized that what I missed was going to be 10 minutes of wanking followed by the main characters meaningfully looking at each other. Wow. I am fully in the camp of those who think the movie was amazing, and that the ending was crap. This rarely happens to me in movies (I did not think so of “White”, I was disappointed in the end but did not think it was bad) and I was especially shocked at how much I felt I was watching a different movie. To be honest, I have no idea what we are supposed to take from the film – are they trying to glorify or demonize this kind of abusive teacher-student relationship?
Ending aside, I was deeply impressed by the film which did not involve a single person I knew beforehand. Shii said he really liked the movie (I think he said so before he started dating a musician hehe), and so I chose the film without even knowing what it was about. Somewhere in my mind, I probably confused it with “Birdman” and thought it was a comedy, so you can imagine my utter surprise when I learned what the actual premise of the film was. I thought it was brilliant.
The internet seems pretty stuck on discussing how realistic the depiction of music and music schools are, but I think they are besides the point. I don’t care that the protagonist is a drummer or that he is in music school. The movie could be set in the ad business (think Peggy/Don), in middle management of a big company, or in academia with a young scientist/researcher and his advisor. The combination old mentor and young ambitious student is so, so old and so utterly human. Apart from Richard Linklater and his slacker companions, I think anybody who has ever had any desire to be ‘great’ will see themselves in this film, and that is where aforementioned brilliance lies.
Of course the whole film is also a huge hyperbola. Nobody breaks up with their girlfriend like this, but the way it is done, even if it’s unrealistic, was so utterly honest that I loved it. I think people are pathetic when they put something else before their loved ones, but in many instances I can see where they are coming from and most likely I would have done the same in their situation.
I am glad that Hollywood can still produce movies like “Whiplash” (and “The Lobster”) even if I didn’t like the end, and I am now even more curious about “Birdman”.
Yay, a Chocolate Parfait post in my RSS! :)
I was actually dragged to the film by a friend who wanted to see it at the Viennale 2 years ago, not knowing what it was about and leaving with such a lot of adrenalin. I do think that the drumming is an important part of the film, the noise, the hectic jazz rhythm, missing the rhythm, the pressure of being the beat of it all. All of this made me so nervous. At the same time I totally agree about the universality of the student/teacher relationship premise. And oh god, I also didn’t like the ending, haha.
Haha that makes sense! Well I am not saying that the drums don’t contribute to the film, it’s just that I think its lack of realism with regards to music geniuses doesn’t make the film any less valuable because it has so much humanity in it. I think it’s a little sad that you call it “universality of the student/teacher relationship” because I want to believe that most student/teacher relationships are not that messed up; I have had very few teachers like that, and I am actually quite grateful to a lot of my teachers, most of whom were quite respectful – much more so than I was towards them hahaha!
PS. You should watch “The Lobster” if you haven’t already!