Cloud Atlas: A blurb about the movie

Courtesy WB

        Having finished reading the book a couple of weeks ago, I can safely say that I think I liked the movie better.  I had some real problems with the book which I outlined in my previous blurb. I really had no idea what to expect, and I'd seen a trailer for the movie at the theater before I'd read the book.
        That said, the movie wasn't great. I mean, I was relieved that it wasn't bad. The Wachowskis took a lot of liberties with the stories and edited them in such a way that they made more sense than the book did. For example, they hammered on the Sonmi-451 connection in the Zachry and Meronym story. In the book the idea that Sonmi-451 became a Goddess was much more subtle and understood. To hear Meronym explain to Zachry that Sonmi-451 was a real person was somehow jarring, but necessary.
        By the same token, the editing was sometimes brutal. At one point in the Luisa Ray story she appears to be walking down an urban Californian street for no apparent reason, somehow in contact with her protector when 1970's cars start smashing into each other like in the movie Bullet. 
         Coincidentally, my favorite story in the movie is the same as my favorite story in the book, 'The Ghastly Ordeal Of Timothy Cavendish'. Jim Broadbent's portrayal of Cavendish was spot on. Cavendish wasn't the sharpest publisher in the clearing house, if you get my drift. He was an opportunist and silly, but he didn't deserve to be treated by his brother as he was. He was the ultimate underdog and we were rooting for him all the way. As an aside, Mr. Meeks(Robert Fyfe) said, 'I know, I know,' exactly the way I heard it in my head when I read the book, and this scene itself is worth the price of the rental. 
     In true Wachowski fashion (aka The Matrix) some of the best scenes were in the An Orison Of Sonmi-451 story. Deep down inside, I think this is the story they really wanted to tell but they couldn't buy the rights separate from the rest. 
     The trailer I saw at the theater made this much more of a Tom Hanks vehicle and that was a mistake. The moguls seem to have realized this and tried to fix that in the trailer below. If anything, Halle Barry played much more of a pivotal role in the stories of Half Lives: The First Luisa Ray Mystery, and  Sloosha's crossin And Evrythin After. In my opinion, Halle carried this movie. She gave us the link to An Orison Of Sonmi-451, and Letters From Zedelghem.



    

          One brilliant idea was to use the same actor in different roles in the movie.  This may seem like a spoiler, but at no point in the book is it even implied that any of these people moved on in some karmic fashion to another life. The only true thing in the movie is that the comet birthmark moves from person to person, and this is what requires the leap of faith.
    
     If you haven't read the book, I still recommend the movie. The editing at the end is very brisk, however if you pay attention you'll still get it.


Resource Links:
Lost Archives Cafe: Cloud Atlas, A blurb about the book

IMDB:Cloud Atlas 

Cloud Atlas: A blurb about the book

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell


     As I a writer, I understand what it is like to have several short stories filed away at the back of the closet. There is sometimes the urge to tie those short stories together with a few hooks, and a piece of thread and form a novel. This urge should be avoided at all costs, even by a writer as talented as David Mitchell.
     Let me just say that Cloud Atlas is a collection of wonderful short stories. Each one has a unique voice. They are from different genres, and written in different styles which makes each one distinct and memorable, so that when the stories are broken up and interspersed one among the other, the reader is still able to travel from one time to another without becoming too confused. I say 'too' confused, because it is a little confusing trying to figure out exactly what it is that connects one story to another. Is it the birthmark? Is it the music, or the orison? Is it the clouds themselves? It would be better if the connection was intrinsic to the plot of each story, instead it seems like a mash up of coincidences and gimmicks.
     One of my favorite things about Mitchell's stories is that they move forward in time, via a car chase, or by boat, or even on foot. At some point in time they vicariously intersect. One character knew another, or one heard the other one's music, or one saw the other one's hologram, or one read the diary of another. Whenever we get bogged down in allegorical wish wash we somehow manage to plow forward.
     My least favorite story was An Orison Of Sonmi-451. The prose was regurgitated, like a voice over that would not shut up. It strikes me as a treatment for a screenplay. To be honest, they could have made a cool sci-fi movie out of this story alone, but no they had to get greedy. My favorite story was The Ghastly Ordeal Of Timothy Cavendish. It was written in a pithy, dishy voice that made me want to hear more. I can't even remember what connection it had to the other stories and I don't care. Maybe this is why I liked it.
     I love reading short stories. I think they are an art form unto themselves. Unfortunately, my gut tells me that somewhere a publisher told Mitchell that they couldn't publish it this way, and could he possibly turn it into a novel? People used to read short stories in magazines and now magazines are all side bars. I wish David Mitchell could have found a proper home for each of these excellent stories.
     The most annoying thing about the movie tie-in version is that the last few pages are an essay by Mitchell called Based On The Novel By. Just When I think I have a few more pages of the story to read, boom, it abruptly ends and I'm subjected to this giggly name dropping story about how the novel was turned into a movie. It's the most pretentious thing I've read in a long, long time
     I haven't seen the movie, and don't know how I'd be able to sit through it now that I've read the book because all I will be thinking is , how did they make a movie out of this beautiful mess?


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Pia Zadora: Heartbeat of Love?!

Mug shot courtesy Las Vegas Metropolitan Police

     Pia, Pia, Pia. What kind of a mess has she gone and gotten herself into this time?  The only reason I ask myself this question is because this whole sordid story reminds me of the first, and the last time I heard the name Pia Zadora...until now.  At first I thought to myself, where have I seen that face, where have I heard that name? I had to do some Googling, and Youtubing but I finally figured it out.
     It was 1989. The not so best of times, the not so worst of times. I was living in Washington DC and frequented a video bar called JR's for Sunday afternoon happy hour with friends. They used to serve one dollar vodka well drinks and I was partial to Cape Cods at the time. 
     I remember when Pia's video for Heartbeat Of Love came on the overhead video screen.  We were merciless. We were livid with moral indignation that she had ripped off Madonna's Express Yourself video. I mean, c'mon, one can only stand so many renditions of Metropolis.  One of my friends whispered in my ear, "She posed in Penthouse, you know." Somehow, this didn't surprise me.
     Today people are piqued because Lady Gaga's Born This Way sounds like Madonna's Express Yourself. Pffft. You people have no idea the lengths that we would go to in 1989 to have Madonna's back. Now the music wonks on the internet debate about which video was released first, and who produced it, and how much each one cost and blah, blah, blah, but let me tell you that perception is everything.
     All I really remember about Heartbeat Of Love now is that she walked around with a vague expression on her face with wet frazzled hair.  I couldn't remember the name of the song, or even what it sounded like. Believe me, I had to sit through some painful Pia Zadora videos, like the one with Jermaine Jackson, to finally figure out which one it was that I'd seen before.
     Here is the video to Heartbeat Of Love.

     And here is Madonna's Express Yourself video.

     Heartbeat of Love clunks and grinds along like some of those cogs in the machine need oiling. My favorite part of the song is the rap bridge that comes in about two thirds of the way through it. I had forgotten all about it. We hear this all the time on the radio today, kind of like Jennifer Lopez feat. Pit Bull. Back in the day it sounded strange, and juxtaposed.  They didn't know how to make rap flow with the fizzy electronic sound of eighties music.  Still, Pia should have given the rapper credit. And to whom is the creepy, goofy looking guy really giving the finger, Madonna perhaps?
   Express Yourself is like Art Deco in motion. The song empowers the Betty Boops of the world  to reach for more in life. Directed by David Fincher, it has a patina and glow about it that reminds one of actual cinema. (No, wait, maybe the patina and glow was me after too many Cape Cods at JR's.)
    Sadly, it was poor judgement in her professional, and personal life that brought Pia Zadora to this place. I'm not going to rehash the whole domestic dispute story here. All I can do is say that I feel the same way now about the situation as I did in 1989. Shame on you, Pia Zadora. Shame on you.

Resource links:
CNN 

Wikipedia: Express Yourself