i am haunted by the eeriness of the three gorges dam of ‘still life’. as the water is set to rise to 156.3 meters and entire cities and villages are set to be submerged two people from across the country try to recover their families in the displacements that the pride f the nation has caused. these losses of homes and histories are ‘sacrifices’ that proud citizens have made for the country according to a blaring television on a ferry that crosses the river. the film lingers long and awestruck ruefully and often ironically at the spectacular scale of the demolitions of buildings, at the gigantic new infrastructures and at the resulting stories of large scale migration, alienation and displacement.
fassbinders ‘fox and his friends’ was terrific and incisive but pretty much a downer of a comedy. a naïve and trusting working class man who wins a lottery is cheated out of all he owns, including his faith by his bourgeois lover. fox believes he is stupid, wants all the things he is supposed to want by his french speaking, caviar eating lover who easily exploits this need. the exploitations within the relationship are relentless and brutal until the tragic end.
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