Much as I hate to admit it, I think Ayn Rand was onto something with her ‘romantic realism’ concept. Not in that it’s a worthwhile artistic approach, but in that she gave name to a concept that carries over across wildly different authors. Lenin in October is a classic entry in socialist realism, an artistic movement associated with the Soviet Union; art that presented reality in a way conducive to propaganda. Beautiful, funny, intelligent people serving the communist cause. Obviously, Lenin is at the center of this; the movie presents him as self-sacrificing, eager to please, and prone to barking orders – only the last of which matches my understanding of the historical record, but which is part of the movie trying to sell one particular idea.
What fascinates me in particular is how deeply this film is embedded in procedure; by solidifying the morality of the film – with characters representing either good or evil with no change or ambiguity – the film is forced to create interest by showing how they do what they do. This is what matches up a lot of ‘romantic realist’ fiction I’ve seen; NCIS and Law & Order in particular are, as we all know, procedurals, using real-life processes (heightened for dramatic effect) to sell their ideas.
This ends up tying into the beauty of the film. Whatever I may say about the tediousness of the story – and to be honest, I find it pretty tedious – the visuals used to create it are spectacular (this is where it tops the NCISs and Ayn Rands of the rest of the ‘genre’). Late in the movie, it builds very Akira Kurosawa-like visuals of dozens of extras moving together, all looking in the same direction, all reacting at once; I think my favourite cinematic moment in the film is during a prep for the revolution, with one man standing in the middle of a huge crowd, and politely asking them not to yell when he makes his announcement.
But even before that, they work to make visuals even of people talking compelling. I must admit, the corny acting helps here; I could have easily watched this film without subtitles and still been able to follow what was happening. My taste is always for not knowing what’s going to happen next, and this film does everything but that to be compelling; I don’t know how well it worked as propaganda at the time – did audiences generally roll their eyes the way I do at current-day propaganda? – but I do concede it’s very watchable.
About the writer
Tristan J. Nankervis
Tristan J Nankervis (aka Drunk Napoleon) has been a writer, pop culture critic, dishwasher, standup comedian, waiter, potato cake factory worker, gamer, TV worker, and various other things. You can find him in Hobart, Tasmania.
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Year of the Month
A man's attitude goes some ways to the way his [movie interpretation] will be. Is that somethin' you might agree with?
Department of
Conversation
What did we watch?
Happy Endings, Season Two, Episode Nine, “Grinches Be Crazy”
“Those vacation friends that we’ll be closer to than you guys.”
“I’d rather be surprised by a disappointment than happy with what I expected. It’s why I never ask if a pool is heated.”
“Since tonight the first night of chchchcHanukka, we have your chchchchchHanukka gift.”
“While I do appreciate you using the appropriate pronunciation, I grant you permission to use the more common ‘Hanukka’.”
“And while we’re at it, you don’t have to open every conversation with my dad with ‘Can I axe you a question?’.”
“Please don’t say ‘vaykaykay’, okaykay?”
“Admit it! it’s an empty gesture, like an e-card or a formal apology after an anti-semetic rant.”
“I think discovering that drawer is what made her feel uncomfortable.”
“I’m gonna go call my sister and tell them you are good people!”
“… What?”
“At least channel the spirit of someone putting in the tiniest amount of effort in anything ever.”
“I haven’t heard him laugh like that in a long time.”
“Yeah, well, he should get out more.”
“My mom’s car just got stolen, so if I want anything, it would be to forgive the guy who took it.”
“Well you’re getting a bike.”
“This is the only store in Chicago that sells the porn I like! Bloody Guys. It’s British guys. Covered in blood.”
“Lady? I’m thirty. That’s basically my early twenties.”
Great gag where Max and Penny are talking while the mugger does his work in the background.
“I should be spending the money in making bigger my cans.”
“Thanks for leaving us with that visual!”
“How am I supposed to tell a woman she can’t make bigger her cans?”
“Why are you running like that?”
“It’s how I run?”
“I cannot believe Max is a better person than you.”
“I’m a Jew, this is a hate crime!”
“You are as careless with your morals as you are with your underpants!”
Beach party Christmas is a normal Christmas in Australia.
“Perfect Helvetica!”
Coyote vs. Acme – The negative here is that I don’t really like the mix of 3D and 2D animation here to create the characters – it’s too smooth and the designs have no wrinkles, no textures, which isn’t helped when you see the older cartoons on screen. The positives are…well, it’s a good movie! Tons of funny visuals and violent comedy gags from people who clearly adore Looney Tunes, with characters named Avery and Maltese, and bringing in Dr. Peter Lorre and pre-Chuck Jones Daffy Duck* among others. What won me over was Coyote vs. Acme having a real point of view, that there is nobility in Wile E. Coyote’s determination to chase the Roadrunner, his creativity and hard work, even if he will never catch him. Acme is a corporation who need to endlessly grow and win or they are nothing; Coyote is happy to live in a cave and perform this simple, truly endless task. “One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”
*Because showbiz striver Daffy is not as funny to me as whackjob Daffy.
Simpsons, “Homer’s Phobia” – Showed it to a friend. “Dad, why’d you bring me to a gay steel mill?” of course got the biggest laugh. John Waters really fits into the Simpsons universe and I can’t say that of every celebrity who came on the show.
Miracle Mile – rewatching After Hours last week made me keen to revisit some of the other films I place in the same category (which I guess is somewhere between “one crazy night” and “dates that go wrong”). This one is quite tonally different – I guess it’s more of a romantic thriller rather than a dark comedy? But they definitely feel of a piece to me. And much like After Hours, a second viewing only increased my appreciation. It’s not a perfect film, the FX towards the end are pretty creaky, but the gearshift from dreamy romance to apocalyptic dread is quite something, it builds the tension brilliantly and the Tangerine Dream score is superb. Great movie.
Live Music – South Carolina punk weirdos Beer played on Friday night, the kind of band where the singer spends half the show trying to climb various parts of the venue. Not that bothered about listening to their records but they were a very fun live band. On Sunday I headed out of town for a matinee, the headline band was Drug Church who I wasn’t too familiar with but the opening band was Liquid Mike, a very melodic, fuzzy punk band from Marquette, Michigan (fictional home of Joe Pera!) and their album “Paul Bunyan’s Slingshot” is one of my favourites of recent times so I had to check it out. They were great, and packed a bunch of short songs into their set. I stuck around for Downward, a much gloomier kinda post-punk band who did their thing well but didn’t entirely win me over. And then I left a couple of songs into Drug Church because they weren’t really my thing at all, haha.
Seinfeld, S9 – “The Dealership” is the first episode that has taken the gang entirely out of the apartment for a while, and it’s a Puddy-heavy episode which was very welcome. His on-off relationship with Elaine continues to bring the goods, George getting irate with a vending machine was perfectly in character and Kramer’s test drive turning into Thelma & Louise was a lot of fun – good episode.
“The Reverse Peephole” was pretty good too, none of the individual plots in this one really make any sense at all but they’re consistently funny. Good use of Newman and more Puddy, I will never complain about this. Any consensus about the final season lacking quality is surely null and void due to the increased amount of Puddy.
The Tailor of Panama – Disgraced (and disgraceful) MI6 agent Pierce Brosnan is exiled to Panama, and decides he can take advantage of the titular tailor (Geoffrey Rush), who is well connected but also a failure and a fraud. The pieces are here for a good movie – a solid cast that also includes Jamie Lee Curtis as Rush’s American wife, herself well connected, John Boorman as director, on location filming, and a script based on the Le Carre novel and in fact co-written by him. But it never quite comes together. Le Carre set out to do his homage to Our Man in Havana but while Le Carre can be mordantly funny at times, I don’t think he is good at satire. (I actually lost interest in the book after a while.) Thee is also a bit of uncertainty as to how to handle the inherent cynicism here towards The US still lording it over Panama and the UK wanting to horn in. But the movie does look good, the lead actors (especially Curtis) are solid, and there are punches pulled about the US created and then un-created Noriega. (PS: the US, especially those on the right, still treat Panama like it belongs to us, so the movie is sadly still relevant.)
Elementary, “To Catch a Predator Predator” – A man making a hobby out of kidnapping and beating up child predators is murdered. The web is the usual sort of complex and mildly believable thing, involving among other ideas people who invest in big lawsuits to reap some of the profit, which is apparently real. But also, we see Sherlock conspiring with a cop in Indonesia (which does not have an extradition treaty with the US) to make sure an escaped predator is sent to jail on “drug” charges. Not what I expect, but Sherlock does have a dark side. Meanwhile Joan continues to help her new friend the ex-con (Nelsan Ellis, his name now in the opening credits), not knowing he might not be so reformed after all. I need to wait and see how this played out but so far it’s not very interesting. Also, we briefly see that Sherlock owns a deerstalker cap but are told he never wears it.
MST3K, “Girl in Gold Boots” – Not that long since I rewatched this, but the beauty of a bad movie of this sort is that you never remember seeing it before. Some good riffs and the stuff with Pearl trying to get her mad scientist accreditation is funny, but not one of the great installments.
Barney Miller, “Rain” / “Fish” – In the former, the rains are not in a mood to stop, and the decaying old station house seems to be coming to bits. Most of the gags are about that with just one arrest, a bad stand up comic with a Bicentennial themed set that only history experts might understand. In the latter, Fish is told he needs to go on restricted duty, just as a new man transfers in from a newly closed precinct: Arthur Dietrich. While Dietrich won’t show up again till the third season, he emeres almost fully formed, a bit weird, a bit young, very calm, and oddly funny. When he follows Fish to the latter’s apartment, he’s called on to scare of the boyfriend of Fish’s daughter, and his deep mature voice is a perfect and hysterical Gregory Peck impression. Though of course no one can steal scenes from Abe Vigoda.
What did we play?
Finished Master Key, and I thought it was a pretty excellent Zelda-adjacent treat with just enough puzzles. At one point I feared it was going to really go off the deep end into extremely obtuse puzzles, like a few other games I’ve gotten burned out on (Fez, Tunic, Blue Prince) but in the end I thought this one got it just right, there are a ton of secrets but the main game feels nicely contained and satisfying.
I don’t know if romantic realism is an accepted literary term, but I like it!! It encapsulates much of the Mid Century cinematic aesthetic across national boundaries, from American genre films to Various nationalist cinemas in Europe, Asia, and Africa. I personally feel that it is a more useful classification than neo-realism or socialist realism, as it more deftly describes the relationship between ideology, filmmaking technique and the fantasies of the audience. Check out MOTHER INDIA and CAIRO STATION for more florid, and emotionally compelling examples of this from outside of the Occidental canon. As an anecdote to LiO, hunt down Dziga Vertov’s 3 SONGS OF LENIN, which is a very lyrical, non-narrative remembrance of the Bolshevik leader.
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the tension between romanticism and reason in Ellroy’s Freddy Otash’s novels, and the themes of your Monday morning pieces have had a big influence on how to approach it. I’d love to have a clarification session someday.