Saturday, February 1, 2025

THE INHERITANCE



I’ll be the first to admit that I sometimes feel intimidated to write about certain specific movies that I consider to be great. These occurrences are few and far between (as they should be), but sometimes a film is so good there’s almost nothing to say outside of recommending it to as many people as possible. You can only gush about a movie so much until it starts to sound cringey. In this current age of Letterboxd/film twitter movie comedians, it’s sometimes difficult to tell if someone genuinely loves a movie or if they’re just being hyperbolic to try and get laughs & attention. If a movie is truly great I don’t think there should be any memefication involved. Ephraim Asili’s The Inheritance is one of those movies. For the last 4-1/2 I’ve been singing it’s praises on podcasts and all forms of social media, but I haven’t put down any substantial words (this movie was at the top of my best of 2020 list a few years ago). The story of The Inheritance may sound like it was made for a very niche audience within a subgenre of people, but I honestly believe it can be “appreciated” by anyone. The basic story of a group of pan-Africanists in west Philadelphia that set out to make their own isolated collective/community away from the rest of the world sounds very niche and specific. But this movie tackles/touches on/circles around issues like white supremacy, separatism, gun ownership/gun control, the creation of art, activism, the deconstruction of traditional education, and more (a big part of this film’s identity is connected to the Move bombing that took place in Philadelphia four decades ago). Everyone from disingenuous Fox News-watching “conservatives” to pretentious surface-level twitter liberals that would call the police on the same Black folks they claim to care about can find something important to hold on to in The Inheritance (anyone notice how a lot of today’s so-called MAGA folks and certain sectors of modern-day pro Black folks have a lot more in common than they care to admit?)
Strangely enough, the one audience that might take issue with this movie is the growing cult of Foundational Black Americans that believe in delineation between Black Americans and Africans & Caribbean (I don’t want to get too much in to FBAs but if you’ve ever wanted to go down a very strange internet rabbit hole – look in to them). This movie is truly pan-Africanist and doesn’t promote delineation between Black people. 

If you’re just a film enthusiast then you might appreciate all the homages and visual callbacks to folks Ousmane Sembene & Jean Luc Godard...


Stylistically, the film is deeply influenced by Jean-Luc Godard’s La Chinoise (1967). When I first got around to watching the film in grad school, I was floored - Ephraim Asili, Artforum
La Chinoise / The Inheritance

La Chinoise / The Inheritance


I first encountered Sembène in film school and was struck by his powerful critique of Senegalese society - Ephraim Asili, criterion
Black Girl /
The Inheritance


Asili also namedrops Dreyer & Bresson as sources of inspiration but those are more spiritual rather than visual…

One Big influence was Robert Bresson, who was influenced by the minimal set design of Carl Theodore Dreyer films. I would ask myself ‘what connotes a kitchen, or a living room' and leave the design there – Ephraim Asili, Bomb Magazine
Ordet /
Pickpocket /
The Inheritance

Ivan Dixon's The Spook Who Sat By The Door was another source on inspiration on Ephraim Asili (a Spook poster can be seen in the background of The Inheritance). 


 


 I’m using terms & phrases like “appreciate” or “find something to hold on to” rather than “enjoy” because I genuinely don’t think this was made to be “enjoyed” in the traditional sense. This isn’t a traditional movie. A big part of what makes The Inheritance so unique is that it’s almost uncategorizable. On one hand it’s very serious and sometimes traumatic. But other times the movie is incredibly lighthearted, sweet and funny. It also doesn’t really fit in to a specific category or genre. It’s a hybrid scripted narrative/documentary that plays with reality & fiction.


There’s a nice-sized audience of Black film enthusiasts that claim to want something “different” and/or “challenging” that isn’t some remix of Jordan Peele’s Get Out. Well – here it is (hopefully you'll see that this movie can also serve as a gateway to so many different lanes & avenues of cinephilia). The inheritance can be streamed on Apple TV, Amazon Prime and Grasshopper films. It isn’t 1999. Folks can’t keep using the excuse that a movie didn’t come to their city or small town. Thanks to streaming (and even file/torrent sharing), independent/”art house” films are now easier than ever to see. Instead of complaining on twitter about how there are too many slave movies, you could do some very basic surface level exploration and find a world of Black cinema that might cater to your needs. 

Monday, January 20, 2025

THE SCHOOL OF DAVID LYNCH: GUY MADDIN *UPDATED*


Eraserhead / 
Keyhole

I knew David Lynch got me - Guy Maddin, gapersblock.com


Now that David Lynch has passed, his legacy and influence are being assessed and/or reassessed by everyone. There’s lots of lists, thinkpieces and threads on the idea of “Lynchian” and what movies fall under that category. Personally - I think it’s time to retire the Lynchian term (if you read my blog regularly then you know I’ve been pushing this for years). The term is almost always misused and it cheapens his legacy. Anything slightly “weird” gets called “Lynchian”. David Lynch never owned “weird”. He was a certainly a master and crafting weird and surreal scenes but he didn’t have a patent on weird or surreal. As a fan of Lynch’s movies beyond surface-level nonsense like “oh man his movies are so cRaZy”, the last thing I want is his work being used as an a reference point for stuff like Under The Silver Lake, Jacob’s Ladder & Memento. Those are not a representation of David Lynch. It’s like when a movie has a tense shot of a doorknob slowly turning and it gets called “hitchcockian”.

With that being said…I compiled a collection of side-by-sides between David Lynch and someone I consider to be one of the better examples of one of his unofficial students; Guy Maddin. Much better words will be said on David Lynch by someone with a better than I. I just thought it would be nice to share some comparisons between one of my personal favorite filmmakers that found influence from another one of my personal filmmakers.


When I discovered that Lynch's first major short film was the same length as THE DEAD FATHER and was about his grandmother it just really seemed like he'd felt the same need - Guy Maddin, Fandor

Eraserhead /
The Dead Father


Maddin is hardly a household name so it’s understandable that he’s almost never brought up in the Lynchian conversation (even when Isabella Rossellini is/was a regular actor in the films of both directors). But he’s far more legitimately influenced by Lynch than people like Christopher Nolan or Ari Aster.
And to be clear - Guy Maddin’s films are not Lynchian. Certain specific moments in certain specific movies of his have definitely been inspired by Lynch (as you’ll see below), but that doesn’t make Maddin’s films Lynchian (not to split hairs here but isolated moments within a full film that may or may have not pulled from Lynch doesn’t equate Lynchian).

Eraserhead / Archangel 

When I first saw Lynch’s Eraserhead I realized in an instant that he made a movie about me - Guy Maddin, deadmediasociety.com


While most of these comparisons go back to Eraserhead, you’ll find a lot of interesting (sometimes) coincidental similarities between most of Lynch’s films (it should also be noted that some of these similarities, homages and reaches go beyond David Lynch to older filmmakers by people like Luis Bunuel & Fellini).


The Amputee /
The Saddest Music In The World


Eraserhead really hit me hard. I was really impressed. It was a big influence - Guy Maddin, Fandor


Eraserhead /
The Saddest Music In The World

it goes back to when I first saw ERASERHEAD - Guy Maddin, Criterion

Eraserhead / Send em To The 'Lectric Chair

Eraserhead /
Send em To The 'Lectric Chair

The Elephant Man /
Brand Upon The Brain

The Elephant Man /
Send em To The 'Lectric Chair

Blue Velvet / Brand Upon The Brain

Eraserhead /
The Heart Of The World

Eraserhead /
Careful

Eraserhead /
Careful

Eraserhead / Careful

Eraserhead / Careful

Eraserhead / Careful


Eraserhead / Cowards Bend The Knee

The Grandmother / Tales From The Gimli Hospital

The Grandmother / Tales From The Gimli Hospital

The Grandmother / Tales From The Gimli Hospital

Eraserhead / 
Careful

Blue Velvet / 
Careful

Eraserhead / Brand Upon The Brain

Eraserhead / Tales From The Gimli Hospital


Blue Velvet / Night Mayor

Eraserhead / Brand Upon The Brain

Wild At Heart / Coward Bend The Knee

Eraserhead / 
Brand Upon The Brain

Eraserhead / 
Brand Upon The Brain

Eraserhead /  The Saddest Music In The World

Dream #7 / Cowards Bend The Knee

Eraserhead / My Winnipeg

Blue Velvet / Cowards Bend The Knee

Eraserhead / Rumours

Blue Velvet / The Saddest Music In The World

Blue Velvet /
Keyhole

Eraserhead / The Heart Of The World

Eraserhead / Send em to the 'Lectric Chair

Inland Empire / The Forbidden Room

Eraserhead / Rumours

Wednesday, January 1, 2025

THE SCHOOL OF TARKOVSKY: ALEXANDER SOKUROV


Solaris / Maria

Tarkovsky’s work was rather a confirmation of my own vision - Alexander Sokurov, film comment

Stalker / The Second Circle


This post isn’t meant to reduce the relationship between Tarkovsky & Sokurov down to just a bunch of visual comparisons. They had a relationship that started as a mentor & mentee and slowly evolved to genuine friendship outside of just movies (Sokurov has dedicated books, films & essays to his late friend).

But, coincidental or not, some of the visuals between the two filmmakers are so striking that I couldn’t help myself and I compiled a bunch of side-by-sides that I thought were interesting…

The Mirror / Maria

Solaris / Mother and Son

The Mirror / The Lonely Voice of Man

The Mirror / The Lonely Voice Of Man

Andre Rublev /
Days Of Eclipse

The Mirror / Mother and Son

Solaris / Father and Son

The Mirror / Father and Son

The Mirror / The Lonely Voice of Man

Andre Rublev / 
Days Of Eclipse

Ivan’s Childhood / Days Of Eclipse

The Mirror / Taurus

The Mirror / Taurus

The Mirror / The Second Circle

The Mirror / The Second Circle

Nostalghia / Taurus

Starker / Whispering Pages

Nostalghia / Taurus

Nostalghia / Taurus

Stalker / Taurus

Stalker / Taurus

Nostalghia / Taurus

Solaris / Taurus

Nostalghia / Faust

Nostalghia / Faust

Nostalghia / Whispering Pages

Nostalghia / Whispering Pages

Nostalghia / Whispering Pages

Solaris / Elegy Of Voyage

The Mirror / The Lonely Voice Of Man

Sacrifice / Mother and Son

Solaris / Oriental Elegy
 




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