AT HOME: A Different Cinema Experience
Turning off the news, and turning on a good foreign or indie film, feeds columnist Loraine Page's soul.
By Loraine Page
COLUMNIST
When Netflix fails me, when I can’t bear to watch the news anymore, I reach for a movie. My first picks will always be a foreign or indie film.
That's not to say I never watch mainstream, large budget movies. I do, and I have favorites that I can watch over and over.
Always (1989), with Richard Dreyfuss as an aerial firefighter, is with me, well, always. Another is Brooklyn (2015), in which beautiful Saoirse Ronan plays a young Irish immigrant.
But discovering a foreign or indie film that draws me intimately into a character's world? That, for me, is bliss.
Recently, I rented a Japanese film called Perfect Days (2023). I lost myself in the best possible way for two hours and four minutes.
Later, I googled the actor, whose portrayal of emotions in a character who spoke few words was outstanding. I wasn't the only one who thought so—he won the Cannes Film Festival Best Actor Award for this role.
The film brings you into the world of Hirayama, a solitary, middle-aged man who works six days a week cleaning public toilets in an upscale section of Tokyo. The toilets are housed in artful buildings, reflecting the unique ideas of creative architects who designed—for a real-life project—17 public bathrooms throughout Shibuya.
You find out quickly that Hirayama is not a poor soul relegated to cleaning bathrooms as his only option. It is his choice, as it is also his choice to be single—and solitary.
These choices allow him to have a free mind, open to exploring the joys in life—such as photography, gardening, reading, listening to good music.
The camera follows him from the moment he wakes up until the moment he puts his book down, turns off his lamp, and falls asleep.
The plot is non-existent, except for a few minor disturbances—a co-worker is lazy, his sister disapproves of his job choice—that dissolve quickly. He always returns to equanimity. He sense of joy in the small things of life are expressed on his face. You just know how he's feeling.
This movie left me inspired to not resent mundane tasks (washing dishes, ugh!), and to remember to take note of beautiful moments.
Ironically, my introduction to foreign films was very unlike this one. It was a fast-paced German movie called Run Lola Run (1998). I watched it at a friend's house around 2002 or so. I saw how you could experience another country on a TV screen.
Since Lola and her race across the city of Berlin, I've watched movies from Poland, Romania, Iran, Italy, France, Canada, England, Ireland, Japan, Egypt, India, Spain, Nigeria, Colombia, South Korea, Australia, and more.
It's the same deal with indie film—that in the genre of drama, you can choose a character-centric film.
Technically, an indie film is a non-mainstream film, and has a smaller budget than large movie production companies. But I don't choose indie films by the size of their budget. I choose them based on their essence.
But can I describe what exactly an indie film is? It's not from a foreign country. There's that. It's usually from the United States, but I think films from Canada can fit under the same indie umbrella.
I'll quote filmmaker Richard Linklater, who, when asked the same question at Sundance, said "I know it when I see it."
I can say this, when I think of ultra-talented actress Michelle Williams, I think of indie films. I loved her in Wendy and Lucy (2008), in which we follow her as she travels to Alaska to find work, her dog Lucy in tow.
She is also in the movie Blue Valentine (2010), with Ryan Gosling, and within which the two have this ukelele scene where she tap dances to his playing the instrument. I could watch that over and over. I have watched that over and over..
Another one of her movies I've seen multiple times is Take This Waltz (2011), which she stars in with Seth Rogen. They play a married couple whose relationship veers off course.
A movie with Sarah Polley, who went on to become a well known filmmaker, was my introduction to indie films. The film is called My Life Without Me (2003). It's a Canadian film but it fits the bill nicely as a true indie film—a specialty of Polley's. She stars in this, along with a young Mark Ruffalo, as a young wife and mother who finds out she is dying. But first she wants to experience a few things.
It's a beautiful movie.
But as writer and self-proclaimed film lover Dave Castle said, in an essay he wrote about indie cinema, "You won't find a traditional Hollywood ending here. You interpret the film in your own way."
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