National Museum Bahrain

Winged Victory of the Gulf (c) Agassiz

Outdoor Sculpture Garden

National Museum of Bahrain

Manama, Bahrain

 

    The Gulf States exhibit a brilliant almost gardenlike culture (oasis would be too predictable) notable for the graceful lines and the natural hues that seem to pervade all aspects of life from the music to the clothing to the buildings to the artwork.  The seas of unending sand, giant dunes and dust-storms unify their curves and dominate the landscape as the wind from the Arabian Desert merges the slowly creeping dunes and the lazy, if persistent, repetitive action of the slow Gulf waves. 

    The Outdoor Sculpture Garden at the National Museum of Bahrain in Manama, most effectively demonstrates this principle. 

    The second quiet strength of this art collection is that it is entirely indigenous -- these are not the works of Matisse and Rembrandt purchased at foreign auctions with unlimited oil revenues, but rather the quiet, assertive voice of an emerging art culture.

The Python (c) Agassiz

    I need to confess that I have two pieces that are by far my favourites which I have nicknamed Victory of the Gulf and the Python which to me represents the giant serpent Python that was once thought to encircle the globe of the ancient Greeks -- the snake that Hercules amazed the world by lifting so many negligible feet off the ground.  The resemblence of this Python to an oil pipeline is probably not a coincidence to be dismissed.

Mennonite Cinema

Devil's Playground (DVD, 2002) ****
Lucy Walker, Director, Stick Figure Productions, USA

    On the ten year anniversary of Devil’s Playground, aka Rumspringa, I endeavoured to see this Amish-oriented documentary for the first time.  As a Mennonite, I had formerly avoided this film and its marketing imagery as probably catering to the larger American media appetite for scandal, questionable morality and iconoclastism.  I was greatly surprised to find a film that was straightforward, respectful without being overly romantic and that one that dealt with very real issues while allowing the characters to speak for themselves.  Part of the strength of the film comes from the self-confessions of the directors and production team that they had experienced difficulty finding an angle or even an “in” for the making of what had begun as a rather undefined documentary project on Amish teens.  Rather, the team comprised of Lucy Walker, Steven Cantor, Pax Wassermann and Daniel Kern was forced to discover the topic while filming and to allow the characters to emerge of their own accord.  No agenda, positive or negative – was possible in that the team had little control over the subject matter.  According to the production commentary, the project evolved more like a news story than a scripted documentary.

    Devil’s Playground offers two strengths to Anabaptists.  First, it is a greatly informative look into the very real lives of Amish teens and the concept of rumspringa.  Though the Conservative Amish are often careful to separate themselves from their Mennonite and Mennonite-Amish cousins, there is much in this story that is shared between the more liberal and more conservative branches of this culture – even more so as you go back one and two generations for the Mennonites.  Secondly, for those who are able to read the “bonnet code,” an informed Anabaptist will see Mennonite and Amish film footage juxtaposed against each other to form a seamless celebration of a common ethnic and religious heritage.

Greta Garbo

Queen Christina (1933) 

USA, Rouben Moulian, Director
Starring:  Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Ian Keith, Lewis Stone

One of histories most enigmatic ruling monarchs, and subjected to intense speculation as to her interior motives, psyche, and love life already in the 17th Century, Sweden's Queen Kristina, daughter of Reformation-era warrior, King Gustavus Adolphus, and sponsor to Descartes, broke almost every cultural and religious taboo her contemporaries could throw at her.  Garbo manages to capture both Kristina's sexual ambiguity (she was raised as a "boy", crowned as a "king", trained as a warrior, and rumoured to be bisexual) and her independence of character.  Rarely noted, Elizabeth Young manages to keep up with Garba in Young's portrayal of Kristina as a child, effectively delivering the lines that set the course for the entire film.
     I would recommend the film itself solely on the strength of the cinematography.  One cannot but help falling in love with the country Kristina leads.  Equally impressive are the costumes -- in line with such great epics as Eisenstein's Ivan IV (1944), and Kapur's Elizabeth (1998).  While reviewers often criticize Queen Christina's lack of historicity, the story line seems comfortably in line with the many varied alternative histories the real Kristina left behind her.
    That Garbo could portray such a strong woman who could and would fall in love with lesser men, while preserving her dignity and Kristina's focus on her kingdom, is one of the film's greatest strengths.  Garbo plays off her real-time once-love interest, Gilbert, to generate one of film's great love stories.  Unlike so many female portrayals in such passionate romances, Garbo ends Queen Christina as a single woman who dares to chart her own way in life. 

(from Prairie Swede 01 Oct 2010)

Swedish Film

Storm (2005) - SWE

Mans Marlind and Bjorn Stein, Directors.
Starring: Eric Ericson, Eva Rose and Jonas Karlsson

Billed in the United States as a horror flick, Storm is much closer to a postmodern morality tale -- a bit of the Odyssey meets the Glass Menagerie.  Despite not really understanding the United States’ marketing of this film, I found it well worth watching.  It has brief moments of social commentary -- such as when DD (Donny Davidsson) comments that marriage is just about joints -- joint bank accounts, joint tax returns and joint custody.
     The strength of the film, and spoiler alert -- the point is that the movie reflects the internal struggle of a young man, who due to a childhood trauma, failed to deal with the basic questions and issues one faces as a young person growing up and assuming his or her place in society.  In fact, tormented and pursued by angels and demons, DD seems to have the fate of the entire human race in his hands -- though possibly it is only his own sanity at stake.  Regardless, Storm presents an exciting and “action packed” tale of one young man’s journey into self acceptance and adult hood. 
    Noting that Storm is often compared to the Matrix -- I found the connection to be less direct, and felt that Storm is much more enjoyable with more focus on production talent and less emphasis on special effects.  I submit the scene where DD crashed the café frequented by the cab drivers.
    P.S. The sequel promises to be just as good -- DD has or has not come to grips with himself and his inner demons -- will DD also come to terms with society and deal with the fact that the police are still after him?


originally published on Prairie Swede 15 June, 2010

Dark Nights and Icelandic Souls

White Night Wedding (2008)

ICE, Baltasar Kormákur, Director
Starring: Johan Sigurdarson, Olafur Darri Olafsson, Hilmikr Snaer Gudnasson, Margaret Vilhjalmsdóttir, Laufy Eliasdóttir

    At risk of sounding overenthusiastic, Baltasar Kormákur’s White Night Wedding absolutely floored me.  Following on the footsteps of The Sea, White Night Wedding places Icelandic cinema firmly within the greater Scandinavian cultural tradition.  While you can easily sit back and enjoy this movie merely for its beautiful portrayal of an ever-inspiring landscape, and its singular Icelandic humor, Kormákur would seem to accomplish ever so much more – in fact, despite the film’s pedigreed relationship to Anton Chekov’s play, Ivanov,  I felt that the film could also be alternately titled “Adventures of Tesman,  Hedda Gabbler’s Forgotten Mate” after one of Henrik Ibsen’s most memorably forgettable characters.

    Reminiscent of Ingrid Bergman, Kormákur seems to take Soren Kierkegaard, the Nordic Philosopher, straight-on.  In fact, Kormákur does Bergman one better by allowing Kierkegaard to take his silly and illogical leap of faith, and to benefit by it.  Where Bergman often mired himself in Scandinavian tragic morosity, both Lasse Hallström, a fellow Scandinavian, and Kormákur have allowed their characters to relax, literally take the leap of faith, and hit a stable grounding wherein happiness or contentment can be found without a steep loss of personal direction or universal grounding.  Perhaps all is summed up best in a near-closing quote by Jon as professor, “The purpose of life isn’t death, even if that is the end result.  Just as love or happiness isn’t the purpose of life, as such…rather the quest.  The quest for love, the quest for happiness”.