What we’ve been reading – July 9th:
- Daniel Plainview and Susan Sontag – There Will Be Camp.
Comparisons, consequences and ramifications of the final scene in There Will Be Blood via Susan Sontag's famous essay, Notes on Camp. - Interview with Director Werner Herzog – TIME
A great interview with Werner Herzog (includes audio!). - iPhone Apps For Movie Geeks | /Film
/Film highlights several good iPhone apps for movie fans, including ones for movie showtimes, IMDb and Netflix integration, and fun ones like a movie quote game.
I really like the Daniel Planview piece although question why camp would be employed in the final scene of There Will Be Blood. Matthew writes: “By infusing the proceedings with camp, Anderson defuses the possibility for tragedy”. I would agree about the theatricality of the film, and in particular, Danial Day Lewis’ performance, and it clearly does ‘dethrone the serious’ with its final coda, except the ‘serious’ never amounted to much in the first place. The author talks of Plainview ‘becoming’ a monster, but he doesn’t change, he is, and does not really follow the traditional arc of tragedy. Had there been a traditional arc I could accept the notion that camp was used to undercut it, but I still feel it is a film that isn’t really going anywhere and the ending is almost on par with what occurs on a meta level in Adaptation, undercut the notion of an ending with a self-reflexive conclusion. I don’t mind the technique, so long as it is in service of something meaningful, and with There Will Be Blood I don’t find anything meaningful… it never reached a peak to undercut, it just staggers about and dies.
gotta love the first question/statement in the Herzog interview:
“The first thing that jumped out at me in this book is how many times you almost die. I think maybe I lost count at five. There’s an airplane breaking apart on the runway; there’s an allergic reaction to a penicillin injection; there’s the time when your boat crashes in the rapids. You jump into the water at one point and barely miss some submerged pylons.”
Referring to his latest book Conquest of the Useless, which is Herzog’s famous journal of his time making Fritzcarraldo.
That’s just one movie! Read “Herzog on Herzog” for a more thorough list of unbelievable stories of near-death experiences with Herzog.
I read anything and everything having to do with Herzog. I’ve said time and time again that I think he’s the coolest, whackiest dude on the planet. I love his interviews.
Jonathan, Edward Copeland on Film has been running a series on Herzog all week. I’m not a huge fan (I saw Aguirre, the Wrath of God and was glad I did just to say I had, but I’m not sure I really liked it), so I haven’t read any of it, but though you might be interested. If you don’t already know about it, that is.
Driving through the Canadian Province of Quebec Yesterday, I saw a train stretching over a km long, and every cart (loaded with crushed stone or coal was stenciled with HERZOG in block type. I wish I had my camera handy and not driving so fast, it was a pretty cool image in an open stretch of country.
I’m not sure what the visual metaphor would have been there, but I’m sure I could have made something up.