CineMata's Movie Madness
  • Homepage
  • Guest Reviews
    • Rhapsody in August
  • Cine's Closeup
    • The Pale Blue Eye
    • The Munsters 2022
    • Hello, My Name is Doris
    • In Praise of Family
    • Venom 2
    • Ophelia
    • Mank
    • Macbeth 2015
  • Pioneering Feministas
    • Tar: Are You Being Gaslighted?
    • Janet Green: Tapping into the Dark Side
    • Women Make Film
    • Alice Guy-Blache
    • Auteur Directors
  • Star Spot
    • Juanita Moore
    • Raisin in the Sun 3
    • Cine's Walk of Fame Tour
  • The Woman's Voice
    • Blonde 2022
    • Women Warriors
    • The Divine Order
    • Twilight: A Primal Call for Patriarchal Dominance
    • The Fierce Women of Summer
    • Martha Fiennes' ONEGIN
    • The Dressmaker
    • Sofia Coppola and The Silent Woman
    • Thelma and Louise
    • Bridesmaids 2011
    • Mildred Pierce HBO
    • Dragonwyck
    • Cousin Bette
    • Stage Beauty
  • About Cine
  • Top Ten Faves
    • 'Tis the Season for Murder
    • 12 Days of Cinematic Christmas 2020
    • The Best Film Experiences of 2017
    • Female Villains to Die For
    • 10 Remakes to Remember
    • We Heart the Bad Boys
    • 12 Days of Cinematic Christmas 2014
    • Most Memorable Moms
    • Cult Film Faves
  • Contact Cine
  • Hollywood Notables
    • Fiona Shaw
    • Viola Davis
    • Elizabeth Banks
    • Shia LaBeouf
  • Rave Reviews
    • Best of Netflix 2017
    • Mayhem
    • Dave Made a Maze
    • Lavender
    • Hail Caesar!
    • Spy
    • Gravity
    • Inception 2010
    • Black Swan 2010
    • Flight
    • Moonrise Kingdom
    • Lincoln
    • Looper
    • Lawless
  • Telegenic Static
    • Wednesday
    • Cine's 2018/19 Seasonal Faves
    • The Highwaymen
    • Cine's New Year Resolution: Watch More Netflix!
    • TCM : A Class Act
    • Best of TV * 2017
    • Female Detectives on TV
    • Neo-Renaissance TV: Feud & Big Little Lies
    • True Detective Navigates Noirland
    • Texas Rising
    • 2014/2015 TV Season Highlights
    • 2013-2014 TV Favorites
  • British Film & TV
    • The Banshees of Inisherin
    • Doc Martin
    • Song of the Swan
    • Death in Paradise
    • Miss Scarlet and the Duke
    • The Stranger
    • Sanditon
    • Collateral
    • Handsome Devil
    • Love & Friendship
    • Victorian Slum House
    • 45 Years
    • Anonymous
    • Appropriate Adult
    • Sherlock Holmes: Many Faces
    • Philomena
    • British Feminista TV
    • Brassed Off
  • The Golden Age
    • Gone with the Wind
    • Cleopatra 1934
    • Elizabeth Taylor: The Passing of an Icon
  • Who You Callin' Crazy?!
    • Cine's Walk of Fame Tour
    • Count Bela: Nosferatu & Vampyr
    • Post Awards with Ida Lupino
    • The Duke: Cowboys/Aliens vs WWZ
    • Liberace Dishes
    • Elizabeth Taylor Visits Cine
  • Noir Greats
    • Nightmare Alley
    • The Big Heat
    • Femme Fatales: Crime is My Career
    • Femme Fatales: Honey, I'm Home!
    • Crime of Passion
    • The Loves of Carmen
    • The Many Faces of Noir
    • In Order of Disappearance
    • Boss - 2011/12 series
    • Pepe le Moko 1937
    • Mystery Street 1950
    • The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
    • The Barefoot Contessa: A Noir Bridge to Nowhere
    • They Won't Believe Me
    • Dan Duryea Nails Noir
    • What Is Film Noir?
    • They Drive By Night
  • Commentaries
    • Award Season 2019 Redux
    • #OscarsSoTarnished
    • Orson Welles Independent Film Tribute
    • Oscar 2016: The Politics of Segregation
    • Hollywood Director's Club: For Men Only
    • Poliwood and the Hollywood Blacklist
    • Cine Mata's 2015 Picks and Pans
    • The Unbearable Whiteness of Emmy Hosting
    • Oscar's Dodge
  • Drive-By Reviews
    • Dark Phoenix
    • Nola Circus
    • Comfort
    • ATOMICA
    • Innuendo
    • My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2
    • Film Franchise Meltdown
    • The Woman in Black
    • Girls with Guns 3.0
    • Coriolanus
    • Lady Scarface 1941
  • International Films & TV
    • My Pandemic Marathon Diaries
    • The Twelve
    • Mr. Sunshine
    • The World of International Noir
    • Romance of Our Parents
    • The Grand Hotel Saga
    • Don't Be Bad
    • The Handmaiden
    • Caramel / Sukkar banat
    • Morning for the Osone Family 1946
    • Fritz Lang's M
    • La Bete Humaine
  • Political Rx
    • Rebellion
    • Women in the White House
    • The Ides of March
    • By The People: The Election of Barack Obama
  • Culture Centric Cinema
    • Horror Noire
    • Self Made
    • Little
    • Hidden Figures
    • Fences
    • #Whiterose: Identity, Secrecy & BD Wong
    • Imitation of Life 1934
    • Frazzled Hair Wars
    • Soul Men
  • Indie Films
    • Scotland, PA
    • Adrift in Soho
    • H4
    • Paint It Red
    • HAMLET in the Golden Vale
    • Trouble is My Business
    • The Browsing Effect
    • Indie Films 2018 >
      • Clara's Ghost
      • Cold War
      • To Dream
      • The New Romantic
      • Here and Now
      • Unlovable
      • The Landing
      • I CAN I WILL I DID
      • Choosing Signs
      • Iron Brothers
      • Across the River
      • Josephine Doe
      • Sunset
      • SUNSET: Interview
      • The Forgiven
      • Kill Order
      • Midnighters
      • Half Magic
      • Looking Glass
      • Entanglement
      • Crazy Famous
      • Stratton
      • As You Like It
      • Hunter
  • eau de cinematic clunker
    • Avatar 2: The Way of Water
    • The Irishman
    • Almost Friends
    • The Osiris Child
    • Bushwick
    • Pilgrimage
    • Fun Mom Dinner
    • Once Upon A Time in Venice
    • Aaron's Blood
    • Black Rose
    • Lucy 2014
    • Transcendence 2014
  • Book Reviews
    • Conversations with Ray Bradbury
    • A Woman's View
    • Dark Dames
    • Auntie Mame's Favorite Son: Patrick Dennis
    • I'm A Lebowski, You're A Lebowski
  • Documentary Picks & Pans
    • Black Ballerina
    • Leftover Women
    • Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind
    • Unrest
    • Be Natural
    • Farmsteaders
    • Bombshell : Hedy Lamarr
    • Jungle
    • Who the F**k is that Guy?
    • The Man in the Camo Jacket
    • Spirit Game: Pride of a Nation
    • Burlesque: Heart of the Glitter Tribe
    • Listen to Me Marlon
    • I Am Not Your Negro
    • The Girls in the Band
    • TCM's Trailblazing Women in Film
    • The Honor Diaries
    • Side By Side
    • American Masters : Salinger
    • The Story of Film
  • LGBTQ pov
    • Making Sweet Tea
    • Drag Queens & Trannies
    • Milk 2009
  • Silent Classics
    • Charles Epting: Silent Film Historian
    • Hollywood's Silent Film Grave Huntress
    • La Boheme 1926
    • The Blot 1921
    • Pandora's Box
    • Don Juan
  • Art House Flicks
    • Birth
    • I'm Not There
  • Kid's Korner
    • Pokemon Detective Pikachu
    • Hotel Transylvania 3 : Summer Vacation
    • The Incredibles 2
    • Sherlock Gnomes
    • Paddington 2
    • Lego Batman: A Super Hero in Crisis
    • SING: Cine's 2017 Oscar Pick
    • Summer Flicks 2016
    • Kung Fu Panda 3 / 2016
  • Cine's Friends
  • Hollywood Award Shows
    • Cine's Fantasy Golden Globes 2021
    • Oscar 2020
    • For Your Consideration 2018
    • For Your Consideration 2017
    • 50 Shades of Oscar 2016
    • 2016 Golden Globes
    • 2015 Emmys Redux
    • 2014 Oscars: Plantation Politics
    • 2014 Emmys : A Dash of Racism
    • 2013 Emmys : Hold the Mayo
  • Archives
Picture
Art House Flicks 


Picture
Birth   2004







by Paulette Reynolds
July 20, 2014*













Starring Nicole Kidman, Cameron Bright, Danny Houston, Ted Levine, Peter Stormare, Arliss Howard, Lauren Bacall, and Anne Heche.


Director:  Johnathan Glazer

Screenplay:  Jean-Claude Carrière / Milo Addica



Eleanor: "You know? I never really liked Sean."

Like the central character, Sean, in Jonathan Glazer’s Birth, this review straddles two worlds, that of the indie and the art house. An indie, by its definition, is somewhat of an odd-duck movie, giving us a glimpse of another world, far removed from the mainstream perspective. And Glazer's Birth, featuring a controversial bathtub scene between an adult female and 10 year-old boy, falls neatly into that category. It juxtaposes the two worlds of the upper class Manhattan realm and the working class milieu that often don't connect. And make no mistake, this film is all about connection - or disconnection - to be exact.

Birth is an odd title begging for a definition. Everything about the twin worlds of Anna (Nicole Kidman) and Sean (Cameron Bright) raise many more questions that can possibly be answered by anyone - both audience and character alike.

The spirit of Sean, Anna's deceased husband of ten years, appears to be momentarily reincarnated in a young boy of ten years, also named Sean. In a sentimental framework, there would be a neat little reason why Sean came back: Maybe to serve up a warning to Anna or maybe to exercise some effect in the temporal world before he drifted back into the ethereal realm. No matter, because in Birth, there is no rhyme or reason to this incredible supernatural occurrence. Nestled securely within their comfortable affluent cocoon, Anna and her family seem irritated by this sudden intrusion of an extraordinary event thrust into their comfortable assumptions about Life.

When I first viewed this curious film, I was acutely aware of how every character irritated me: The emotionally detached Anna and her counterpoint in the somnambulistic Sean. The patronizing attitudes of Anna's family towards Sean's mother and father, and their submissive responses in deference to Anna's bullying matriarch, Eleanor (Lauren Bacall). But let’s not forget the smug entitlement of Anna's fiancée, Joseph, (Danny Huston) escorting Anna around like a Cartier diamond, and the oddly defiant and selfish cheat, Clara (Anne Heche). No one comes out of this film as truly appealing – even Sean's youthful persona reveals that the former Sean was actually a thoroughly unlikable fellow. The Sean that Anna idolizes beyond all recognition was able to successfully cheat on Anna with Clara -- even to the point of giving her his wife’s unopened love letters, as a sign of where his real heart really lived. And everyone’s enabling attitude towards Anna’s refusal to let go of this illusion grated on my very last nerve.

This is a sure sign that an independent film has hit its mark. The characters and the plot are not fully developed, nor thoroughly explained, because one by-product of indies is that the audience is encouraged to interpret meaning and characterization independently. Sometimes it means that the viewer is supposed to fill in the blanks that a mainstream approach would happily color in. This can be an exhausting experience for mainstream audiences, which is why the independent film market appeals to a selective circle of devotees. Yet, that’s also the inherent assumption of the independent production - that we, the audience, must actively interact with the unfettered cinematic experience at our own risk. It may lead to rejection of a film or a wondrous “ah-ha!” moment, but we must follow it through to its conclusion.

Birth adroitly examines the grieving process, not so much over actual physical death, but having to continue through that grieving stage towards the acceptance that life must be lived once again. The uncomfortable sparseness of a musical score emphasizes that Anna has hermetically sealed herself off from all the feelings that might hamper the comfort zone that she refuses to leave behind. Just as she begins to accept that Sean is her long-lost husband and remap her life course to fit that world, the child Sean suddenly becomes himself again, running off to play like any 10 year old would, leaving behind a bewildered and shaken Anna, who must try to make sense of it all – again! Her hysterical outburst at the ocean's unruly edge, with her wedding party and new husband helplessly watching, announces that Anna's raw feelings, that she’s been striving to carefully constrain, are finally *birthed* - alive and kicking.

And yes – there is that bathtub scene. 

*This review first appeared in Outside Hollywood, September 2010.



COPYRIGHT 2012/2021. Paulette Reynolds.  All CineMata Movie Madness blog articles, reviews, faux interviews, commentary, and the Cine Mata character are under the sole ownership of Paulette Reynolds.  All intellectual and creative rights reserved.  
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.