playtime, zabriskie point, osama bin laden, terrorism and modernism
Fasci-Nation
us laugh and don't care how they go about it. in contrast, beauty and
joy are essential to tati's mooie. the movie wants to feel joy more
than merely laugh. it's more a symphony of jokes than dr. demento song.
take stuff like simpsons, southpark, howard stern, kevin smith, etc.
they will all make you laugh but also queasy for have taken the bait.
much of it's vulgur, ugly, stupid, infantile, and retarded. it's easy
to make people laugh. we laugh at three stooges. we laugh at a big fat
ass fartin'. laughter simply as laughter is a beerbelly belch. it's
a smirking derision of the world.
but, playtime isn't simply about derisive or mocking laughter. indeed,
i don't recall going haha during the mooie. but, it makes the viewer
experience joy, happiness, amused sense of absurdity, even a kind of
sadness as all fun things must end.
it revels in the wonders of modernity, of technology, of freedom. but,
it also finds much contradiction, absurdity, weirdness, shallowness,
artificiality, and superficiality in the modern world. the world is
clean, efficient, and antiseptic. but, humans are humans with all their
quirks, and the modern drama will never unfold exactly as intended or
rehearsed--just as no group tour always goes as planned. but, the show
must go on. and, even in this modern world where humans have become
economic units, there is room and necessity for individuality and
poetry, music and musing.
playtime isn't your usual comedy. the world isn't simply a stage for
gags but worthy of being examined--on a micro and macro scale--for its
myriad meanings and contradictions; only then do we understand the
nature of man's relation to his environment, man's ideals in relation
to reality, man's intentions in relation to his results. this can be
the stuff of tragedy but also comedy. and, in playtime, comedy takes
place in every inch of the frame. the world it presents is the main
character.
tati was like the inspecter clouzot in an architectural sense. the
joke has seeped out of his body and permeated into the surroundings.
and, there is more a sense of marvel and fascination than mock and
derision. tati doesn't just wanna laugh at the world. he wants to
observe and understand. playtime is like a cross between chaplin and
antonioni.
we don't really laugh but we feel joy at tati's vision of and
fascination with the modern world. it is comic in spirit than in
sensation. tati doesn't wanna cheaply poke fun at people or society.
rather, he approaches both with curiosity and sympathy as with
amusement and mischief. the chemistry of all these elements creates a
sense of sophisticated and subtle befuddlement. it's has both the
quality of a common man puzzled by modern art and an intellectual
confused by mass art. tati walked on the tightrope between both.
the strange and funny thing about the modern world is it makes everyone
a foreigner in his own enviroment despite the universalizing intentions
of technology. in one sense, all modern men all over the world are
cloned from the same ideal. yet, because modern technology is so
specialized and fragmented, it's as though we are all speaking
different body languages. the movement of legs of a particular
individual makes no sense unless you understand the nature of the
technology he is enslaved to.
zabriskie point by antonioni was made a year after and shares similiar
themes. it too is about the sterilizing and consumerizing aspect of
capitalist modernity. yet, if tati's sensibility is one of curious
enchantment and amused skepticism, antonioni's is one of ruthless
anger, bitterness, and apocalpytic nihilism. in playtime, the order
breaks down at the jazz lounge but the fun goes on. it's not the end of
the world. even in functional or mechanical disorder there is
'spiritual' or human order. and even in technological order, there is
buzzing human vitality. the human element is always present despite
the glass and steel modernity, and there is always an instinct for
order even in moments of looming chaos. man is a ball batted around
between the two modes of reality.
in zabriskie point, it's either one or the other. there is rotten
modernity or hope for revolution and renewal. one must go in a
twilight struggle. while modernist, zabriskie point is anti-modern
capitalist, which is problermatic since modernity is inconceivable
without the rise of the bourgeoisie and their capitalist order. made
in 69, antonioni seemed to have been skeptical of the classical marxist
idea of revolution. so, what he envisions at the end is akin to
godard's nihilist vision in 'weekend'. the destruction of everything
and a start from scratch. the hippie maoist guerilla starchild noble
savage radical. well, we got something like that with the year zero
program of the khmer rouge. great!
anyway, some have commented on the strange alliance between the far
left and the radical islamicists. some call this islamic movement
islamo-fascism, but it's actually more like islamo-marxism. it is a
universalist and internationalist war waged against and for all
mankind. fascism tends to be insular and particularist. it's about one
people, one culture, one nation... though hitler tried to expand the
boundaries of his empire. hitler still wasn't trying to convert others
to aryanism. aryanism was something one was born with. yet, islamicism
is an ideal of the spirit. it tries to win over converts. osama
wouldn't mind having followers and converts even in the US.
and, the problem of islamo-marxism is its view of the enemy is akin to
our view of terrorism. we comment that this war against terrorism isn't
just about us fighting one country or two. it's a worldwide phenomenon.
but, islamo-marxists see the world the same way. they are not just
fighting one nation or two. it's not just the US or UK. they are
fighting this phenomenon called modernity. they are fighting it
whereever it is: middle east, africa, asia, europe, US, in the
'corrupted' or 'contaminated' souls of individuals. it is a war for
souls as well as for lands. and, they have a strong following because
the soul of america seems to be mtv, hollywood, gangsta rap,
eliminidate, and howard stern. it's about freedom as decaying rot, not
about noble enterprise as symbolized once by the likes of john wayne,
bogart, heston, and such.
america cannot win the culture war with the rest of the world except in
box office receipts. people around the world will flock to hollywood
movies for fun and thrills but they will walk away holding america in
greater contempt. we go to amusement parks for fun, not to absorb
values or find a formula for society.
similarly, white people watch chris rock and david chappelle because
they are laughriot coon shows, not because white folks like black
people or wanna integrate with them. american pop culture has turned
america into the coon show to the rest of the world. most of the world
watch american movies and tv not in admiration but in laughing
derision. americans are soooo gross, like black comedians are to white
suburban folks.
to understand islamo-marxism, we must see zabriskie point. at the end,
the radicalized ho' imagines blowing up the mansion of the capitalist,
then consumer items, then capitalism itself. this was the hope of mao,
godard, red brigade, and the may 68 generation. to blow it all up.
and, islamo-marxists entertained the same fantasies. whenever they saw
the skycrapers of modernity, whether in US or Asia or even middle east,
they imagined them being blown up--out of hatred, out of envy, out of
self-shame of being allured and tempted, etc.
and, they finally realized their goals on 9/11. it was 'zabriskie
point' and godar'd's 'weekend' realized, translated from mere fantasy
and wishful thinking to a done deal.
puritans and radicals always wanted to slay the temtpress whore and
burn her at the stake.
how humane tati was. how insane antonioni was, at least with zabriskie
point. but, zabriskie point is still a great and important movie in
expressing and documenting an certain pathological anxiety with
modernity and capitalism. it may be sick but it is sick in a great
way, like triumph of the will and battleship potemkin. it is art, and
sometimes art is dangerous.