Doc Corner: 'Machines'

Rahul Jain’s Machines is definitely a case of quality over quantity. At only 70 minutes long, you would hope it is. This often medatative experience is a glimpse inside the little-seen world of the Indian textile industry, albeit one that never hides the grim realities. It makes stunning use of Rodrigo Trejo Villanueva’s camera, which captures images of striking colour explosions juxtaposed against the soot and the decay of a factory in India’s Gujarat region where workers stave off sleep across 12-hour shifts for $3 a day.

Machines’ title referring to both the steel and metal machines that hum and rattle throughout the confined factory as well as the human machines who operate them, working like wind-up toys performing the same robotic, repetitive movements over and over and over again. We see the detail that goes into producing the fabrics that clothe one billion people including the almost rhythmic process of production where colours are produced by hand and patterns are printed with uniform sameness. The eye can’t look away from an endlessly watchable parade of shots in which reels and ribbons of fabrics of all colours (including one stunning shot of a marigold fabric that is so divine I gasped) are spun out of elaborate contraptions that we might associate more with a printing press for a newspaper.

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Introducing: The Supporting Actresses of 1963

Don't freak out but the Smackdown returns in exactly one week after endless delays (if you'd like to vote, details are at the bottom of the post). This time we're looking at 1963 but before we introduce our panel, or start tinkering around with '63 hijinx, let's look at how 2 of the 5 nominated characters are introduced in their films. 

First up... a stone-faced nun eyeing Sidney Poitier's muscles...

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Blanchett as Lucille Ball is Finally A Go!

Chris here. Remember a few years back when we first got word that Cate Blanchett was itching to play legend Lucille Ball? Well, the film is now happening thanks to getting picked up by Amazon and set on the fast track.

Lucy And Desi will follow the twenty year marriage of the notoriously embattled couple over the start of their Desilu Productions and I Love Lucy. The script comes from Aaron Sorkin, so expect reems of snappy dialogue and perhaps some timely contextualization - just imagine the drama of Blanchett delivering Sorkinese. No word on a director yet but it wouldn't surprise if those reigns become Sorkin's as well, with his Jessica Chastain-led directorial Molly's Game coming this fall.

Just as exciting as the prospect of Blanchett making a redheaded return to the screen is who might also fill Desi Arnaz's shoes and the rest of the legendary ensemble. Amazon is looking to get major stars for the roles of Desi, Vivian Vance and William Frawley (Ethel and Fred of the show for the unfamiliar - which if you are, how dare you!). Thus far Javier Bardem is the only name being mentioned, but I'd wager he's not quite a fit. How would you cast the rest of the I Love Lucy quartet?

"I only need one of you to help me"

...please decide between yourselves."

Race in Lady Macbeth and The Beguiled: Not so black or white?

by Lynn Lee

Florence Pugh in Lady Macbeth / Nicole Kidman in The Beguiled

In a summer filled with movies by or starring women of exceptional talent, The Beguiled and Lady Macbeth make an especially fascinating cinematic pairing.  Both films center on mid-19th century women who appear trapped by their societies’ constricting gender norms.  In both, the women are confined to an isolated, often claustrophobic space, yet nature is a constantly beckoning presence that at once shapes and reflects their desires.  (Both even have plots that turn on poisonous wild mushrooms!)  And in both, the women up-end the patriarchal structure of their circumscribed universe without liberating themselves.  If anything, they reinforce that power structure even as they seize momentary control of it, leaving not a feeling of triumph but a somber queasiness.

For all these thematic similarities, the differences between the two films are even more striking...

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