'the dark knight' . '32 short films about glenn gould'

in the history of batman films this is a new level of darkness. while the tim burton versions and their clever po-mo self referential repartee was playful and wicked, this reboot of the franchise broods more classically over classic batman themes- good within evil, the dark within the light, the complexity of moral choices. in between them batman films had degenerated into too clever by half camp with joel schumacher where george clooney wore a batsuit with nipples. its good, this new version. somehow the disconcerting seriousness seems like it addresses current paranoia and madness of the world- call centers and cell phones; terrorists and iraq. it is in the character of the joker more than the batman where the change is most apparent. jack nicholson was wicked and witty- an entertainer who dances to prince as he wreaks havoc on an art gallery. heath ledger's joker is anything but entertaining- his humour is vicious. his is a madness that threatens all notions of order – merely because order exists. it is arbitrary, violent and sadistic. his masochistic laughter gets more and more manic the more he is beaten. and this gotham city, for a change not bathed completely in darkness deserves it. although ledger amost eats up the whole film with his smeared lipstick and whitewashed face, christian bale as batman, or even aaron eckhart as the attorney gone (almost wrong) harvey dent are also great. the action is electrifying, the special effects fantastic and the plot, in spite of being full of so many subplots that it was difficult to figure out what exactly was going on, was scary as hell. i know i am partial to superhero films, but this was really really terrific.

mukul showed ’32 short films about glenn gould' for the film club yesterday and though the masterpiece theater idyllic childhood shots or the deification of its central protagonist to superhero maestro who cares more about nature than people was somewhat grating; the music was terrific and so were the parts in which the movie dwelled on the the nature of music and image. dance, animation, nature, speech, image, movement, stock markets, bodies in and as music, where my search for context or narrative in music was defeated by form until form became context or narrative.

coincidentally kabir came to college yesterday to talk about the event next thursday at ncpa regarding his films and spoke of film as sculpture. it is a seriousness about form for the sake of itself that i think will be good to reintroduce in the school to have some tension filled debate.