Last Days

[picolas]

Jung

[ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ]

Freud dabbled in dreams.

[Gamblour.]

In his dreams.

[The Perineum Falcon]

He wrote a book about it. for real.

[matt35mm]

Oh okay then.

[RegularKarate]

This film is rolling around in my head right now.  All I know right now is that I really liked it and the more I think about it, the more I like it.

Spoilers?

Kim Gordon is listed as "record executive", but I wonder if she was playing herself as she represented what might have been going through his head at the time.

I wonder a lot of things.. I'm gonig to need to buy this.

[The Red Vine]

I watched this movie last Tuesday. Terrific. Not up there with Gerry but better than Elephant. Michael Pitt was awesome. It's the kind of performance that sticks with you but doesn't get the awards it deserves.

[oakmanc234]

One of my faves of the year for sure. Best enjoyed in a half-awake, totally relaxed state. Cause if you watch this on a caffeine high or feelin' ansty, you'll be TORTURED.
And that bit where Kurt-oops, I mean Blake....belts out that mean guitar/drum solo in that long shot was one of the coolest things ever.
Oh and that shot at the end...that shot...scares me.

[Gold Trumpet]

Once again Van Sant goes for fake artistry. I didn't believe in the worth of Elephant, I am once again unconvinced by Last Days. His worth for me only descends. Last Days stands as one of the worst films of the year.

*spoilers*
First, the easy summation of the film: It's an orgy. It is the reminents of a film where the character got to a point and descended into an abyss. Last Days focuses on that long abyss that starts nowhere and exactly ends there. His vision is for purity in cinema. He tries to keep himself from perscribing to usual film language.

Thing is, he doesn't succeed. The beginning of the film is to articulate how lost Blake is. Wandering through the woods, he meanders and swims in a river only to get out and piss in the water. The telling part is that as he begins to piss, the film cuts away. That cut says the director wanted to get across what the meaning of his pissing in the lake means. To cut away right then is to leave the audience knowing that as the final action of the scene. It is superficial film language and worst, a superficial way of showing a man who has lost all self respect. Then there is when he walks into his house. Dishes are everywhere in the bathroom and naked bodies upstairs too strung out to get up. The clutter around his house is suppose to mean, again, his loss of reality and such. It presents character introspection almostly as crudely as an orgy does for deviation. Stanley Kauffmann and Dwight Mcdonald both scoffed at the idea of orgies for dramatic development by saying it sheds all insight to thought and speculation into the scene or character and allowed the most obvious and overblown idea of presenting the theme, usually deviation, to drip in. For Kurt Cobain, a notorious drug addict, presenting strung out nude bodies and a nearly destroyed house is the worst way to present him because its the most obvious way. It is so overblown it is a hammer to the skull just for what it means.

Then, correlation to what this film represents. It is really a tour through this man's last hours in the grimmest way. His walk to death is our only true vantage point. We witness the coming death as we were witness to someone painstakingly drawing a chalk out line for a dead body. As much as the film mostly succeeds for this task, I have to beg the question: what worth is there in it? As much as the film is a recreation of Cobain's death, there is little imagination or sense of creation in this film. Like I said before, it brings to the table the very obvious traits one would expect of such an ordeal. Then much of the film is the character walking from here to there. Michael Pitt has little to contribute besides no showers for a week. It seems to me that when a filmmaker dares to show as little as possible, we reward him with artistic mastery for throwing caution into the wind with a film that will definitely not make money.

Not done, more is to be said. One defense of this film is that a scene comes late that brings context to everything we see. I think it's impactful in the slimmest way, but if the road for Van Sant is purity in vision, that scene should be a warning flag. Compare to Michelangelo Antonioni's La Notte, a film that is the detail of one night for a couple, its been best described as watching a "personal experience". It details relentlessly this couple's happenings and goings without any nudge to dramatic convention. Blake's talk with this lady is very much a nudge to convention. It tries to shed light on a person who is beyond gone or even saving. More importantly, it satisfies many who are uncomfortable with a total experience film.

Then, well, that fucking end. Blake's death and gravitational walk up into heaven, so you can say. I thought of Von Trier's Breaking the Waves during that scene. A rough gritty film, it deals with the horrors of a newlywed wife going the limits for her husband when she doesn't know any better. But, it ends on a message from God through bells in the sky? Did the ending really have any semblance of tone or style with the rest of the film? I'll say Last Days feels better with its wink to God, but again, wrong. For a film that tries to to detail this life through his happenings, the detail of the story should be the core matter. Yet we get this ending that is supposebly grand thought but when all it really is a planted scene that has little to do with the rest of the film and offers even less thought. At best, it can be said to be a great looking shot. Its still film trickery. And for those bored with the film, a redemption because it looks cool and makes someone look back and wonder about the rest of the film even if there is very little to wonder about.

I'm not surprised Last Days is the beauty prize winner for the representative art house crowd on the board. This film is proof that structure and formal daring can win over many for just existing. The tragedy is that Van Sant is overly praised while The Dardenne Brothers continue to be under valued. They prove large realism in films can be made for purpose.

[mutinyco]

I had mixed feelings about Last Days.

But I must cringe at the comparison to the Dardennes. Having recently seen The Child...if they intend to continue making films like that they must simply cease making films. Amateurish and trite, it was like nails on a blackboard.

[Gold Trumpet]

I had mixed feelings about Last Days.

But I must cringe at the comparison to the Dardennes. Having recently seen The Child...if they intend to continue making films like that they must simply cease making films. Amateurish and trite, it was like nails on a blackboard.

I was almost let down by that responce. Surely Mutinyco would be the perfect person to rip into what I said. Makes me enthusiastic for a Dardenne's debate though.

[modage]

why?   mutinyco loved Gerry and Elephant and said they were some of the best of that year.

[MacGuffin]

What worked in Elephant, I felt didn't here with the running back the timelines. I wanted more time with Blake and less with his hanger-ons (although more Asia in her sexy glasses would have been nice). Like Gerry and Elephant, just watching the most mundane activities were fascinating and more so here since one couldn't help but wonder how Blake functioned daily being in the constant state he was in, as in just witnessing him make cereal. Unless you know the similarities to Kobain, you really have no idea what leads to Blake's death, in fact you see him come most alive in making and performing music that why would he leave that? Didn't hate it, just wanted... more.

and then i remebered michael pitts awful hey jope shit from the dreamers dvd...

Pitt's singing works in character, but there's another "awful" song included on the DVD for his band, Pagoda.

But the DVD does have a nice Behind The Scenes on how that long dolly shot was done. Guess they couldn't afford more dolly track so once the make-shift dolly rolled past one stretch, grips had to run it back and attach it to the end.

This makes no sense to me.  I'm unable to post my hatred for Last Days in the Van Sant forum, but able to post here?  Is this my computer or the new format?

If you're able to now, I'd like to read your take.

[Pastor Parsley]

I loved Last Days as well as Van Sant's previous two films.  I would also agree with Gold Trumpet on many of his points. I personally believe it succeeds and fails in many ways.

I'm still not sure why when a piece of art is to our tastes, we claim it succeeded and when it's not, it failed.  I'm guilty of this as well.  Is it the fault of the piece or the viewer?  In reality, it's always a combination of both.

Once again Van Sant goes for fake artistry.

I don't know what you mean by 'fake artistry'.  Are you telling me that some methods are artistic and others are not? 

The Dardenne Brothers' have certainly had their fair share of hits and misses.  Gold Trumpet:Which films do you believe have succeeded using the same aesthetic?

[Gold Trumpet]

Once again Van Sant goes for fake artistry.

I don't know what you mean by 'fake artistry'.  Are you telling me that some methods are artistic and others are not?

What I mean is that when people assume artistry in this film because of its refusal to plot and the usual film convention, it isn't always art.  There are too many films that try and just come off as imitative or lacking in any interesting purpose.

[The Dardenne Brothers' have certainly had their fair share of hits and misses.  Gold Trumpet:Which films do you believe have succeeded using the same aesthetic?

With L'Enfant still yet to be released in America, they have only made 3 films total. Hard to really say they've had many that were of both a success and not. But, I think they are the best embodiement of making films that evoke the personal experience and then have something to say. Rosetta is the one film of theirs I'd say isn't perfect. It's tonal dedication to following this character becomes stressful to watch, but the Dardennes achieved magnificence with their next film, "The Son"