Don’t fear the reaper – watch movies

“Death is no different whined about than withstood” wrote Philip Larkin in his desolate poem Aubade. In other words, whether we live paralysed by fear or accept it, the grim reaper will get us one day.

For obvious reasons many prefer not to think too much about the subject at all and regard those who broach the D-word without good cause as morbid (“Can’t we talk about something more cheerful?”).

In movies the topic is widely viewed as box office poison. People go to the cinema to be entertained not to be reminded of their mortality.

This is why many will studiously avoid Michael Haneke’s ‘Amour’ like the plague. Haneke is known for turning a unflinching eye on ‘difficult’ subjects. In Funny Games we are forced to watch two sadistic psychopaths on a murderous mission, in Caché he exposes the guilty secrets that tear apart a well-heeled couple.

In ‘Amour’, the Austrian director presents the story of a woman who suffers a stroke which partially paralyses her and then another which takes away her ability to move or speak. Despite this trauma, it could be construed as a love story, hence the title, because of the way the stricken woman’s husband cares for her and tries to comfort her.

WHY CENSORSHIP SHOULD BE BANNED

In the 1970s, I recall listening to a radio interview with the ‘beat’ writer William S. Burroughs in which he was asked if he thought that censorship was ever warranted.

Obviously, this was a question that the author had more than a passing interest in since his uncompromising accounts of hard drug use and gay sex meant that his novels constantly fell foul of obscenity laws.

His answer to the question was a categorical ‘NO’. In his view, censorship was never justified.

At the time, I thought his was an overly extreme position. Surely there were some instances where censorship was needed to protect the public from words or images which, to use the words of the 1959 Obscene Publications Act, “tend to deprave or corrupt persons”.  Now, I am inclined to agree with Mr Burroughs.

PERSONA : DON’T WALK AWAY IN SILENCE

PERSONA directed by Ingmar Bergman (Sweden, 1966)

“Identity is a crisis, can’t you see?”  Poly Styrene of X-ray Spex hit the nail on the head when she sang this.

Ingmar Bergman’s classic movie covers the same territory in a more highbrow manner.

The rapid montage of images at the beginning – including an erect penis, a crucifixion, bodies in a morgue and a young boy in front of a huge screen – puts the ‘art’ into artifice and prepares us for the unexpected.

The burning film reel is an equally memorable finale for a movie which, since it can be interpreted in so many ways, is manna from heaven for movie buffs and film critics. It has rightly been voted as one of 50 best movies of all time in the BFI/Sight & Sound poll.