MORVERN CALLER - OR WHAT TO DO WHEN YOUR LIFE CHANGES OVER NIGHT...

I have, up to a point, returned to my Film Studies roots. I have, through this method and that, had the opportunity to take a look back at important films and directors and watch some really interesting stuff I would not have normally initially chosen. Life being what it is, this means I am falling behind slightly on the new releases but oh well. I can’t be everywhere. And they will be released to DVD soon enough. I am aware that the day I day I will have a list as long as my arm of films to watch – it is categorically impossible to watch them all – but I like to try… I mean, what’s the point of life otherwise, right…

And this week I take a look at one of the most important British female directors knocking around, Lynne Ramsey. Morvern Caller was not a film I had heard of, but it was a bit before my immersion in cinema. In any case it seems to have wiped a fair bit of the slate clean between awards won at Cannes, San Sebastian and the British Independent Film Awards. Morvern Caller is strong and outspoken as films go, it doesn’t always make incredibly easy viewing but its honest description of raw emotion carries you through to the end.

One day around Christmas, supermarket shelf stocker Morvern Caller comes home to find her boyfriend, an aspiring writer, has committed suicide. He has a single request from her as far as earthly matters go and that is to have his newly finished novel published. Morvern, stunned, obliges, and uses the funds from it in her quest to come to terms with her own emotions and figure out what her next move will be now that her life has changed forever.

What I love about the film is that Morvern’s reactions to this clearly unexpected upheaval in her life are gloriously illogical. And it is precisely this “lack of logic” that makes the film so close to real life. All of a sudden everything in Morvern’s life is different. And yet the world goes on around her, most of the things she has known all her life, her friends, her job, relatives, they are all exactly how she left them except – and unbeknown to them – Morvern herself has literally changed overnight.  And now she has to rediscover how to approach them again. It is during this period of discovery that she will decide what she needs to do next…  

As far as we can tell Morvern is a pretty average girl. She doesn’t like her job and lives for the weekend, liking nothing more than getting high/drunk/both with her best friend Lana. Morvern’s first reactions seem pretty heartless, it would appear that for her it’s just business as usual. The thing is, both we and Morvern will quickly discover that this is affecting her a lot more than it would first seem…

We all have upheavals, pain, change and surprise developments in our lives. It could be, like Morvern, a death or something else that causes it but sometimes, one morning you just wake up and you know you are no longer the same person. The world around you may very well not understand, or indeed they may not have a cause to do so. This is especially true when coming to terms with the death of a loved one, we stare with disbelief at the world – untouched by our loss – carries on as normal and we wonder how we could ever have been a part of it and wonder if we can ever join it again… Yet we do. Sometimes we truly will never be the same again and sometimes the change is a lot subtler than we think it is…

Intense and hard to watch at times, Morvern Caller is definitely NOT what you need when you come back home tired from work and need something to uplift you. You will sympathise with Morvern, get frustrated with her and want to give her hug , sometimes all at once. Or maybe you will feel neither. The film is a truly extraordinary exploration of human emotion and one thing I can guarantee is that you will end up feeling something. Something you really do not want to miss.  

DEPARTURES

It is common to say of films “Oh, it made me laugh, it made me cry”. It’s a cliché, but we very rarely think how difficult it actually is to pull this off without one or the other looking cheesy. Don’t get me wrong, I had not thought much about this either, until I got round to watching Departures – the 2009 Best Foreign Film Oscar ® winner. You may have realized by now that Asian cinema has a special place in my heart. Departures is a perfect example of Asian (Japanese to be precise) grace and finesse.
So, meet Daigo Kobayashi. He is a cello player in a big orchestra in Tokyo. He is happily married to Mika – a web designer – in short things are kinda going ok for him. Until, quite out of the blue, the orchestra Daigo works for is disbanded. (pardon the pun) Daigo decides that this is the moment to make a fresh start. And by fresh I mean completely fresh, Daigo considers himself a mediocre musician. He decides to leave Tokyo for the small village in rural Japan where he was born and find “a proper job” there. Mika (who can basically work from anywhere) agrees to follow, so before long the Kobayashis have settled in the old house Daigo’s mother left him. All is well, far from missing the city country life seems to agree with the young couple – “even the rice tastes better” claims Mika cheerfully. And sure enough one morning over breakfast Daigo spies an ad for a job in the newspapers .From what he gathers it’s a tourism agency – the pay is good and no prior experience is necessary. What is better, Daigo’s luck is with him – he calls, is called for an interview and gets the job with mind numbing speed. It is only then that Daigo realizes there is some kind of mistake. This isn’t a tourism agency. It’s an undertakers. A traditional undertakers – they prepare the “departed” ceremonially before cremation. It is a job that is essential – but considered “unclean”. Daigo hesitates, but they need the money and the owner is a lonely old man. Daigo takes the job – but is “economical” with what he tells Mika (just in case). For Daigo, a journey has just begun. A journey of discovery – of himself, of his vocation and ultimately the true meaning of forgiveness…
Departures is a perfect example of the grace of Asian cinema. It is an emotional film – and I am talking true emotion here. Don’t forget that death is one of the lead actors – emotion and more specifically sadness comes with the territory. But this is no tear-jerker. It’s the Asian “stiff upper lip”. It’s normal people like you and me coping with loss in their own ways. Yet, in the same way that real life is rarely monochrome – neither is Departures. The film absolutely forces one to laugh – genuinely. Not “American Pie” style. It is, to all intents and purposes, a door that opens up on a slice of life that we in the West would never have discovered in any other way. Incidentally, this film was born from the lead actor Masahiro Motoki’s personal interest in the profession of encoffining. I can well see why. You would have to watch the film for that to make sense though.
A delicate masterpiece well worth enjoying…