An everyday perspective on today's art scene.

Art serves many purposes but increasingly, today’s public asks that it either inform or entertain an increasingly engaged yet generally unfamiliar general public. This is a simple guide for those seeking to work past intimidating gallery owners or over-eager docents and interns for a chance to approach these creative works on one’s own terms – if a show interests you, click on the link or Google the artist – they will be glad to assist you.

Text and Images are copyrighted by contributor(s).

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

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.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

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)