3D

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Friday 30 October 2015

An Ode to Pervy Old Men (and the Problematic Female Stereotype in Cinema)

"Human beings really know how to be pathetic when they want to be," is one of the first lines we hear from Jane Fonda's Brenda, a glorious what-ever-happened-to-baby-Jane-type specimen of faded Hollywood femininity. However briefly present, she also happens to be the best thing about the film Youth, Paolo Sorrentino's first foray into the English language.

Many things that were fabulous about his previous film, La Grande Bellezza, are sorely missing from this somewhat underwhelming new work. Clearly referencing 8 1/2, Sorrentino has no problems with Fellini-esque excess, adding melodramatic pathos and lots and lots of visual affectations whenever he can. He does this knowingly, of which the above quote is proof, but not always with clear intention or a necessity to the scene. It nearly always seems to be a frivolous addition to the theme of lost youth and general decrepitude that appears to be present everywhere in the ultra-luxurious Swiss spa where the film is set.

A very problematic moment in the film is the hallucination scene experienced by Harvey Keitel's character featuring every cringeworthy type of female stereotype from cinematic history, from a barbarella-type scif-fi lady to an awful Marilyn-Monroe-like child-woman. It highlights the strange, distanced view on women in the film that is equally problematic in the presence of Miss Universe. Whether clothed or unclothed and apparently "much smarter than you thought," it is suggested that she is DEFINITELY not there for looks alone, despite being an object of pervy visual indulgence not long after. She becomes a cliché that is simply insulting to all womankind.

Which leads me to vomit-inducing Paul Dano, of whom I'm normally a fan, who plays the sycophant to both Michael Caine's and Keitel's character, and proclaims with great sincerity: "you're not a great women's director, you're a great director". His role is to stand by either's side and mildly smile when a joke is made or congratulate either man for being so incredibly successful and yet knowingly cynical about it. He is one of the most infuriating characters with no apparent function apart from being the recipient of one of the most unbelievable lines uttered in the film, by a young girl who supposedly likes one of his more unfamiliar works.

Again Dano's character highlights just how many of the surreal or just plain silly additions are mostly just there for their own sake and don't provide a real contribution to the story or character building. Another example of this is the forcibly 'creative' use of a candy wrapper, which is supposed to suggest musical creativity but mainly becomes highly irritating. It shows the film's very sketchy use of music, which, although sometimes used successfully, often fails completely by being incongruous or worse. Such as in the final scene where we finally hear the much talked about "Simple Songs" that turn out to be torture to listen to. The music, filled with schmaltz and sentimentality, suitably concludes a film that seems not to have very much to say but is desperate to make us feel emotional about it.

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