film #3

Barton Fink

This reminds me of the other Coen Brothers films I've seen (to be fair, I haven't seen many) particularly A Serious Man… compellingly enigmatic characters, a hint of warmth and coldness and strangeness in them that defies categorization. I particularly liked Charlie and his scenes with Barton were some of my favorites. Particularly their conversation when Barton is getting more and more animated about discussing his belief in art for the common man, while he keeps interrupting Charlie- "I could tell you stories"- blatantly missing the genuine stories of the common man right in front of him, too obsessed with his high, glorious rhetoric. (wow, just now it's hitting me that Charlie's stories were perhaps no more genuine- he seemed like the realest character in the film and yet he ultimately is the most blatantly, literally false of all.) Another thing I liked about that scene was the expression of Barton's passion- he seemed so frustratingly pent up, awkward, stunted- until that conversation, when he truly expressed the intensity of feeling for his art- the whole 'art of the common man' theme seemed very false and unrelatable, like it was just stuck in there to give this character something to suffer with.

Generally the characters were very well conveyed- I liked that fast, hostile, old Hollywood vibe, Geisler and Lipnick, the Detectives. The dapper Southern charm of Mayhew with a sense of darkness and devastation very thinly under the surface (gotta say- although well acted, I overall considered this character kindof weak and obvious- we get it, he drinks to escape).

I'm not sure if I truly liked Barton until the end of the film… for too long he just seemed stuck in a way that went beyond my ability to sympathize… instead of sharing or empathizing with his crushing anxiety and discomfort and stiltedness, I felt somewhat angry and exhausted watching it. There were times when I really liked him and times when the character got on my nerves. I think it's the result of my improv instincts, or maybe just a personal bias, but his writer's block annoyed me. MAKE SOMETHING HAPPEN DAMNIT! TAKE ACTION! When he finally started writing, the release of the tension was very satisfying as a viewer. I will say that it's a satisfying film to watch as a writer- I'm not much of a writer anyway, but something about experiencing the story puts me in the mood to create, to commit work to the page- not just because it's, for so long, a story of not writing- but the characters and the scenery are just engaging to the mind in a way I can't quite convey. That this story comes from a writer's perspective is, I would bet, one of the key reasons why this is Becky's favorite.

I liked the cinematography- so many long, slow, track shots… a nice quiet tension there. An interesting palette, a lot of grays and browns it seemed. The Hotel Earle- what an extraordinarily uncomfortable place. Desolate, sticky, eerie, sad. In a way it was very satisfying to watch it burn. To see all those constricting forces basically get destroyed… there's a relief in that. The contrast between the grotesque misery of the Hotel, and the glamour of the various other settings- certainly a noticeable and interesting element in the film. One random detail I liked was the contrast of Barton's writer's block with the quick, relentless typing of Geisler's secretary. Also I'll add that Audrey's fate genuinely shocked me- one hell of a twist, man. Charlie is an amazing character. Even after all of his villainy, he gets out of this movie as my clear favorite. He's a force of action and relief, there's a depth of humanity to him. He saves Barton, after all. (Then again, he gets him in it in the first place.)

I love the unresolved loose ends- the box, the parents, Charlie… There was an awkward meta level when Lipnick angrily lectures Barton about how people don't want to see a man wrestling with his soul, they wanna see action- I almost felt embarrassed, judged in a way, for feeling like that while watching. The last scene is so cool- the bird is an intriguing, strange touch. The whole film is a reflection on true vs false… to a certain extent, everything that happens is a lie, the characters are either duplicitous, or they're committed to shallow, sham opinions, and even in Barton's case he seems more interested in what he can say about the common man than what the common man can say for himself.

Ultimately this reminds me of A Serious Man because of the very experience of watching it- quirky, intriguing characters, a deep spiral of discomfort and misfortune that gets harder and harder to watch, almost bleak, and reaching the end with more of a feeling of relief than of satisfaction… but in retrospect, immediately interesting to think about and examine and discuss. More fun to study than to watch.