A University College Student Association Magazine
CULTURE
9
Important Opinions on Important Movies by Sam de Visser Some of you may remember that a very, very long time ago, I used to be part of ScreenCo (and actually co-founded it-not a flex). During that time, I had two very specific movies in mind that I wanted to use ScreenCo to show the UCU community: Who Killed Captain Alex?, which I’ll definitely be writing a column on at a later point in time, and Come and See (Elem Klimov, 1985). As someone who doesn’t like war movies, or hopelessly sad movies, I still think Come and See is one of the greatest and most important films ever made. And I think that’s all because it directly messes with something I consider essential to any good story: hope. Generally, stories need a little bit of hope. No matter how bleak a movie seems to be, we as viewers need to have something positive to hang onto, or we’re not going to keep watching. I also think it’s realistic for a movie to contain this spark of hope: human beings have this strange gift of being able to hang onto a little happiness even if there really shouldn’t be any. That might be why Come and See so completely devastated me: this is one of the only films that
I’ve seen that does not contain any hope, and it’s beyond effective. Come and See takes place in 1943 in Nazi-occupied Belarus and follows Florya, a thirteen-year old boy who happily joins the Soviet partisan army to fight the Germans. What follows is a never-ending nightmare, a two-anda-half-hour fever dream in which director Elem Klimov uses both hyperrealism (all the costumes worn were real, all the bullets shot were real) and surrealism (Nazis eating fresh lobster as a village burns in mid-Belarus, our protagonist almost drowning in impossibly thick mud) to get his point across. Florya is dragged from one hellish situation to another, with all hope constantly being ripped away from him. The film almost never detracts from Florya's perspective: there are many, many extreme close-ups of his facial expressions in this film, more and more haunting as his ghastly face processes more and more trauma. The few times the camera does detract from Florya, by nature we as viewers expect a shift in the mood:
why else would we move away from the horrors that our main character is witnessing if all we’re going to see is more horror? But even when the camera isn’t on Florya, there is terror, death and despair. There is an incredibly uncomfortable scene near the end of the film that is agonising to watch, as the camera refuses to move away from the horrific display that is unfolding in front of it - a scene that never seems to end. None of this sounds appealing in any way, I realise that. But Come and See is a film that is astonishingly dense in its storytelling, one of the most effective anti-war films ever made. It is a war movie after the war has already passed, painting a picture of an occupied landscape where scattered groups of Nazis wreak havoc, and eerily beautiful forests and fields house nothing but death. This is not a fun film to watch, but the story that is being told is important, and the lack of hope makes it all the more realistic. Come and See is a film in which you pity the survivors, not the dead. It will leave you utterly depressed, but also utterly impressed by the incredible power of what a camera can do.
Stan’s Sad Boi Songs :(
No More Women in Music! by Stanley Ward For my column this issue, I was at a bit of a loss with what to write about. I’m tired of the ‘What it’s like to be a Woman in music’ angle, as are many female musicians. Haim are even calling their upcoming third record ‘Women in Music Pt.III.’ It’s a reductive label, which arguably reduces the work of female musicians and lumps them all together based on their gender. Not to say that those who identify as women can’t write about their experience as women, as they absolutely can. It’s just that the mainstream music press often still sticks to this reductive, and frankly boring narrative, of asking female musicians what it’s like to be a woman in the music business instead of asking about their fucking art. However, Women’s month is important, and I still wanted my column to support the dismantling of the patriarchy, so I thought why not just ask some actual women to recommend some music that’s important to them. Enjoy. Vanessa Morgan - Gloria: In Excelsis Deo by Patti Smith Gloria is the first Patti song I ever heard as a young girl and subsequently made me feel like a kickass woman like herself. Gloria is a pretty blatantly sacrilegious fuck you in the form of a
three- cord song. Originally by Van Morrison, Patti made it good and christened herself the ‘Godmother of Punk Rock’ - what is not to love!? It’s either that or Typical Girls written by Viv Albertine as a part of the Slits, who’s my other hero. I’m a sucker for empowering female punk anthems. Noor Van Asseldonk Chen - Reality Check (feat. Akenya & Eryn Allen Kane) by Noname
is three-fold. First of all, the premise of the song is amazing. Isobel is born in a forest, when nature forged a deal to raise wonderful hell like her (like her). She is also very truly in love with herself, not in any kind of narcissistic way, but in a matter-of-fact and complete way. Secondly, the photoshoot by Andrea Giacobbe that accompanies this song is fantastic. I want all of us to take on this energy as much as we can this month. Lastly, the sound of the song itself is so weird, fun, and vibrant, a strange mix of trip-hop beats and a lavish orchestra that occasionally explodes. It really feels like a “fuck you” to indulge in.
It’s about uncertainty, opportunities, self-affirmation, and the production is what I imagine growing into yourself would sound like. Telefone is probably one of my favourite albums Aysu Amaha Öztürk - Wuthering of all time anyways, but Reality Check really Heights by Kate Bush stands out. Kate Bush, this crazy beautiful woman, Cara Mayer - Isobel by Björk released Wuthering Heights as her debut single. She became the first female artist to achieve a When I received Stan’s text, the question that UK number one with a self-written song and the sprang to mind was not which song to choose, song is about Wuthering Heights, the book by but which Björk song to choose. In rapid succes- Brontë. I hate that book but love this song, so sion, I vowed to absolutely not choose anything I would listen to it when I had to read the sickby Björk, so I could avoid my own inevitable ening book in English class. She is also fucking cliché. Unfortunately, here I am choosing one weird and I dig that. anyways. My choice is “Isobel”, and my reason
