Aus dem Leben der Marionetten
Hulu is now dictating what movies I watch. Every week they bring about 4 films which expire after roughly 16 days. In fact, “Aus dem Leben der Marionetten” has already expired, that was one of the films last week. Most weeks there would be 1 or 2 films I would not be interested in, but that still leaves 2-3 movies per week for me to watch. Considering that I am expecting to watch about 150 films this year, I will either watch many more films this year – or cut down on my Hulu consumption.
Recently, “Come and See” was shown in some arthouse cinema in Philadelphia. Another movie I have completely forgotten about but want to see! I wish it didn’t fall right into my final, so I ended up not seeing it. One day, one day…
There are too many things to see. In statistical learning, there is the so-called exploration-exploitation problem. When you try to learn about the many choices you can make, you want to explore (i.e. try out the other options) but also exploit what you have (i.e. find out more by trying the options you already know about). Movies are similar. On the one hand, I want to see new things, and Hulu’s method of “You will watch this movie now, and the simple incentive is that tomorrow this free movie is not free anymore” is working miraculously well on me. I almost always watch a great movie, and discover gems like “I Vitelloni”, “Knife in the Water” and “Branded to Kill” which I never would have otherwise. On the other hand, I am totally neglecting my favorite genres – Korean cinema, silent films, nouvelle vague, screwball comedies, contemporary films. What to do?
“Aus dem Leben der Marionetten” is, without a doubt, another one of those movies which I am thankful for. I knew that Bergman made a million movies (ok not really but 60 probably comes close), and not all of them were masterpieces. Similarly to Woody Allen there are some lesser films, and some which are undeservedly so. In the case of this film, I don’t see why, for instance, Cries and Whispers is more popular. “Marionetten” is a strange film, and it is heavily focused on some clichés between men and women, but I think that the film works as a great counterpart to “Scenes from a Marriage”.
At first, I wasn’t so sure if I would like the film. The first scenes were strangely reminiscent of “Persona” – just an overly shocking entrance scene. Then, the film proceeded to being kind of lame and strange, very cold and almost inexplicable. I wasn’t sure how to deal with those characters who all were almost on the verge of craziness. Later on, when we got to learn more about this craziness, I came to like them. Peter comes off as a little creepy in his monologues, but in the dialogue and interaction with Katarina, I thought that both of them become very true. Unlike Johan and Marianne in “Scenes from a Marriage”, these two are both very strong-minded and show their disdain for each other openly. Yet at the same time, these fights also seem to be the proof that they are bound to each other in some sort of love. If love is too strong, it is at least a passionate attraction to each other, resulting in some sort of love-hatred.
In many aspects this is not a typical Bergman. It’s much more erotic and much less Biedermeier than most of his other films, and the slightly strange speech of the German actors makes the German language be the most indicative of how different this film really is. It is almost like seeing an entirely new Bergman, yet the connections to his other films are clear.
“Marionetten” is no “Wild Strawberries” and there is a little part in me who is disappointed that this film does not compare to “Scenes from a Marriage”, but especially for a Bergman fan, this film is absolutely worth a look.
Finally, whenever a break is coming up, there are things I want to do. This is yet again not really going to be a “true” break, but I will try to make it such as much as possible. This year’s summer plans include:
Finish ME’s outfit of the day posts- Set up an anime and TV series viewing plan on weekly basis
- Finish up anime in watching list and pick up 3 series which are on-hold
- Get up to date with Mad Men
- Watch all films on Shii’s 30 favorite movies list
- Watch all Oscar-nominated films (except War Horse)
- Watch at least 2 Woody Allen movies
- Watch the recent films from this posting
- Watch at least one more Godard, Truffaut, finish the rest of the Contes moraux
- Take at least one good photo per day
- Train “Roly Poly” at least once per day, and finish the next dance in the line-up (the one after that also has been decided, but it might take forever till I get to do it)
- Sew a simple piece of garment