Anybody seen "Cannibal Women of the Avocado Rainforest Jungle?"
(At least I *think* that's the title-- but it could be "Amazon
Women" or some other variant.) This is a film that was obviously
made by feminists (academics, I feel certain) for feminists.
It teems with a myriad details that anyone who isn't a feminist
just don't get. (& there are plenty that would probably slide
by feminists without at least graduate student experience.) I've
watched videos of it numerous times, always with other people.
A friend of mine who's a history professor shows it perhaps once
a year at an all-women party of mixed students & faculty. Every
time I see it I just howl-- & each viewing get more of the jokes.
(Of course it also helps if you've read Conrad's _Heart of Darkness_
or-- so I'm told-- seen _Lost Raiders of the Ark_ & _Apocalpyse
Now_ --neither of which I've seen.) I usually don't like slapstick-type
roll-in-the-aisles humor, but I love this movie. (Yeah, I'm the
kind of person men are always telling to "lighten up.") I suppose
its magic for me lies in its outrageous premise: that there are
two rival groups of militant feminists occupying a huge tract
of land ("jungle") in California that the CIA, the marines, &
every kind of corporate & government sabatour is powerless to
eliminate. (All the marines & CIA agents sent in get eaten--
with either clam dip or guacamole, depending on which feminist
faction captures them.) I must say that I've yet to meet a male
"fellow traveller" who appreciates this film. The ones I've seen
trying to watch it give up because they think it's boring & silly.
(Just the way I feel about most movies that are "comedies.")
Interesting to hear that I'm not the only person in existence
who enjoyed _Until the End of the World._ I got so much pleasure
from it that I saw it a second time less than a week after having
seen it the first time. Everyone I know who's seen this movie
thinks it's badly structured & boring. It does have an unwieldly
shape-- but my understanding of the film sees that as inevitable.
I didn't take any notes on my thoughts about it, but I do remember
talking at length (to whomever would listen) about the insights
I felt that film gave me into why the noir form cannot accommodate
"role-reversed" female protagonists. The unwieldly shape of the
film is the result of its opening with explicit cyber-type noir
& later shifting into end-of-the-world sf. I once had some idea
for why Wenders might have sutured two such incompatible forms
together into one, but it escapes me at this late date. My favorite
scene was the moment the EMP strikes, in the small airplane, when
the world goes silent & there's just the small, spiraling shadow
of the plane on the stark Australian outback below, & a beautiful
silence & light all around it, as though the world were holding
its breath...
Timmi Duchamp
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 25 2000 - 19:05:58 PDT