Skip to main content

Martyrs Review - Part 2 (As a metaphor for today's society)

Last night, I discussed the terribly disturbing movie Martyrs and gave my impressions and differing opinion on Martyrs in terms of what happened and how we were to perceive it.  I did so, strictly from an aesthetic point of view.  Looking directly at what we viewed and how we it could be interpreted. I still feel strongly that in the end, the role of martyr was switched from the tortured body of Ana to the unflinching beliefs of Mademoiselle, but I think the movie was heavily laden with metaphors towards our current world.

The first movie that came to mind while viewing Martyrs, was Michael Haneke's Funny Games. Funny Games is nothing more than a home invasion turned into an ugly game with no happy ending and not so ironically, nothing funny about it.  You realize early on, this is not a Hollywood film and the ending will not resemble what you are used to.  What Haneke was put the viewer in control, in a sense.  He later stated that the entire movie was a metaphor for our desensitization towards violence.  During the movie, seemingly normal kids do awful things and we sit and watch and in one telling scene, when the good people are about to rise up and defend themselves, he has one of the bad characters grab a remote and rewind the film, changing the outcome with horrible results. 

Martyrs is much like this film in that it is a reflection of ourselves.  In the movie, the quest is to find the truth about life after death, but it's about more.  It's about us, plodding along in life, sitting through one horror after another, accepting it, while others gain insight and wealth.  In many ways, the movie is about government's power over people, wealth and capitalism.  The rich and powerful seek to use the poor and the weak to suffer for them.  We, the viewer sit back and endure this brutal movie.  In the beginning when Lucie escapes, we immediately feel a sense of relief, but why?  The movie has just begun and we know this is not the end.  That is the hardest part of the movie, when I look back.  Knowing that the opening scene is the only time she (us) is free.  The rest of the movie is of her or Ana being abused, tormented and controlled by forces outside of their abilities to halt or hinder.  In the end, yes, Ana might have won, but at what cost.  What cost was it to us as the viewer as we sit and let her suffer, as we sit and suffer while government sells us this dream. In the film it's transcendence, but it's as easily the white picket fence and the pretty home.

The end of the movie is open to interpretation, but we know that Lucie is dead (a victim), Ana is dead (a victim or martyr depending on your view) and Mademoiselle is dead (same as Ana).  We know that Ana didn't give in, she fought, but in the end all she gained was the satisfaction of crushing another life, but we know it will continue. "Keep Doubting," was the final line of the movie.  So the cycle will continue, with the haves enslaving and beating down the have nots.  They will use them to achieve their goals without ever having to do the hard work themselves.  In the end, we're all leaving here, alone, without anything other than our hope for something better.  Mademoiselle tells us that it's not the way to live....or is it Ana that tells is this. 

Aside from the surface story, I watched the credits with the awful sense that nothing will ever get better.  We're here to be slaves to a system, regardless of our wealth. In the end, we all will sadly enter a place of nothingness and our life's desire to achieve some state or status is nothing but us wasting the time we have on this earth. As the viewer, we're saddened by Ana's demise, but is it more her death or have we become Mademoiselle, desperately craving the answer that never comes, but in an inaudible whisper? We'll never know.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

White Privilege

This was a post I wrote on Facebook after surprisingly not seeing any moaning about the Documentary by Jose Antonio Vargas, titled White People Dayyum! I just scrolled my timeline and not a single white person got their feelings hurt by White People. I unfortunately haven't seen it, but the number of fake accounts that popped up on twitter, tells me it was a damn good show. Here's the thing. If someone of color aka non-white says "White Privilege," are you offended? If you said yes, then you are exhibiting white privilege. It has nothing to do with how hard you work or study, how you stayed out of trouble, because here's the thing, that is entirely the point. Somewhere out there, there are 100 Black, Spanish, Native American, Arab, Asian, who worked and studied as hard as you and never got in trouble, but they don't have what you "earned" or achieved. Stop looking at the one person you know who isn't white that achieved as your benchmark. Loo...

Quickie Review - Finding Vivian Maier

While I thoroughly enjoyed the film, especially the first 15-20 minutes, I was a little bothered by the way the film played out. The interviews with the clearly disturbed brother, sister and the mother, who obviously, was in for a cut, didn't need to be in the film. Then the woman who suggested abuse, yet seemed to have her life defined by Maier, as she tried to muster every ounce of emotion and fake guilt. Her friend, more than happy to be party of the charade. People who talk about abuse for the first time, usually don't do so on camera. The fact these scenes were so prominent, shows that they felt wronged that they were not rewarded. Maloof on the other hand, seems to disappear from the documentary during this part, almost hiding away from the fact, he went from complete praise, to even making money off of her, to destroying her personal legacy. He almost mentions the family of boys taking care of her rent, as an afterthought. Her burial spot, never shown, yet a video of her...

If You Listen To One Speech - Lana Wachowski

http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/videos/lana-wachowski-opens-up-about-difficult-past-and-attempted-suicide-20121024 Today I saw a link to a video for a speech by Lana Wachowski.  The last name rung a bell, but I could't put my finger on it. Lana, used to be Larry, one of the writer, director, producers of the Matrix trilogy, V for Vendetta and the upcoming Cloud Atlas.  Lana is transgendered and has "come out" as a woman.  She was being honored by the Human Rights Campaign. I didn't know what to expect when this broad woman with crazy hair and a raspy voice began to speak.  She began with the usual pleasantries and told of her hair dresser. She then tells of her desire to be a quiet person and how hard the success of the Matrix movies made this.  The first ten minutes is telling of how she's not quite ready to be this spokesperson.  Then she speaks about the new movie Cloud Atlas and reveals the heart of the movie and this speech. She states,"The resp...