🍿105: About Dry Grasses
This week, an epic tale of bitterness and an even more epic fact about Stuart Little 🐭
“I was jealous of other men in her design department. I became convinced that she was going to leave me for one of them. Then she left me for one of them.”
~ High Fidelity, 2000
Unsung heroes…
I got a lovely message from an Italian colleague earlier this week, who said that last week’s Fact about Phil Collins’s Tarzan soundtrack made her think back to being six years old, and being confused as to why some of the songs sounded “a bit weird” without being about to put her finger on why (until she found out a few years later).
She said that even though you can definitely tell that Collins isn’t an Italian singer, his foreign accent added a special touch and made the soundtrack stand out from other Disney films. She’s right of course, though the other reason that Tarzan stood out at the time is that it’s not a traditional musical with singing and dancing characters.
In fact, hiring Collins to create the score was Disney testing the waters in moving away from its “showtime” formula. It’s actually the first film since The Rescuers Down Under to not contain any musical elements, as well as their first non-musical film since Bambi to only have songs in the background.
Anyway, I thought this was such a lovely message that I wanted to share it, and I’d love to know if any other readers, for whom English isn’t their first language, had a similar experience… if so, please let us know in the comments!
What’s Popping
Josh O’Connor could be in the runnings to star alongside Emily Blunt in Steven Spielberg’s upcoming UFO movie. Read more.
Jimmy Kimmel and John Mulaney turn down hosting the Oscars. Read more.
Matt Damon teases the possibility of a sequel to his 1998 poker drama, Rounders. Read more.
And finally, Princess Leia’s famous gold bikini (which Carrie Fisher hated) fetches $175,000 at auction. Read more.
Coming Soon
His Three Daughters
UK: 20 September // USA: 20 September
From writer-director Azazel Jacobs (French Exit, The Lovers) comes the story of three estranged sisters who converge in a New York apartment to care for their ailing father and try to mend their own broken relationship.
Greedy People
UK: 23 August // USA: 23 August
Rookie cop Will (Himesh Patel) and his rogue partner Terry (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) upend their small island town when they accidentally discover one million dollars at a crime scene (of their own making).
Fact of the Week
Love it or hate it, the family film Stuart Little had a surprising cameo that only a handful of people would have recognised. One such person is Gergely Barki, an art historian and researcher at the Hungarian National Gallery, who, when watching the film with his daughter in 2009, spotted the long-lost painting Sleeping Lady with Black Vase by Róbert Berény.
The painting had been lost for nearly 100 years by that point, and Barki only recognised it from a 1928 black-and-white photograph of an art exhibition in which it was featured.
So how did this long-lost work of art end up in Stuart Little? Well, it was sold at a charity auction for $40 to an art collector who later sold it to an antiques shop in Pasadena, California for $400. A few years later, a set designer stumbled across it and bought it for $500 on behalf of Sony.
That same set designer bought it from Sony, hung it in her house, and then invited Barki to the US to confirm its authenticity. The set designer then sold it to an art collector, who put it up for auction in 2014 where it fetched $285,700 — all thanks to Stuart Little.
Here’s the painting:
Review: About Dry Grasses
Star Rating:
4 (out of 5)
Where to Watch:
USA: Only in select cinemas
UK: Only in select cinemas
Runtime:
3hr 17m
Director:
Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Blurb:
Samet (Deniz Celiloglu), a teacher, hopes to be transferred to Istanbul after four years of mandatory service in a remote village, but is accused of inappropriate contact by two students. After losing hope, a colleague offers him new perspectives on life.
The Review:
With a complete lack of music (save for some of the final scenes), About Dry Grasses is neither funny nor sad, the setting is desolate and the characters unextraordinary. And yet, through the sheer quality of the script (co-written by Akin Aksu, Ebru Ceylan and director Nuri Bilge Ceylan) and its dialogue, this three-and-half-hour film is incredibly captivating.
Of course, as so much of this film relies on conversations, the cast deserve a good deal of credit too, particularly Deniz Celiloglu who plays Semet and Merve Dizdar (who plays Nuray, the object of both Semet and his friend’s desire.
One particular scene pits Semet and Nuray against each other in a fast-paced debate about politics, activism and what it means to contribute to the world. It’s hard to keep up, as both defend their opposing philosophies and, by extension, themselves. Conversations such as these is where the real drama lies, each one becoming the central focus of the scene and the most memorable moments in the film.
Rather than being a typical back and forth between two people, many of these scenes feature conversations between three people or more. It’s a fairly uncommon trait in both film and TV, but it brings dynamic energy to each scene that raises the tension and adds to its authenticity.
What’s also unfamiliar is to see the cruelty and vindictiveness of men not from the perspective of those receiving it, but from a male protagonist at the root of the issue. It doesn’t glorify Semet or his behaviour, it doesn’t even justify it, but it does make you dislike him. It’s unusual to follow a character that you despise so closely (he’s in every scene), while exploring men’s abuse of power
While you’ll likely end up not caring for Semet at all, he remains a source of intrigue. Languished with bitterness and jealousy, he’s manipulative and at times cruel. His only motive seems to be that he thinks he’s better than everyone around him, and therefore deserves better. It’s pitiful really, and you spend a lot of time hoping he’ll get his comeuppance.
If you’re looking for a film that looks to show the best of humanity, this isn’t it — but it’s well worth watching.
Scroll down to see what’s in the next issue.
If you liked About Dry Gasses…
The Peasants
2023 | UK: Apple TV+ (£3.49) // USA: Apple TV+ ($5.99)
While About Dry Grasses reminded me a lot of the dry comedy-drama Limbo, partly for its desolate setting and stranded protagonist, but that lacks the gravity of this week’s feature film. So, instead, I’d recommend watching Poland’s official entry to this year’s Oscars: The Peasants.
Hand painted by more than 100 artists, The Peasants tells the story of Jagna (Kamila Urzedowska), a young woman determined to forge her own path in a late 19th century Polish village - a hotbed of gossip and on-going feuds, held together, rich and poor, by adherence to colourful traditions and deep-rooted patriarchy.
Next Week:
Didi
UK: 2 August // USA: 26 July | Watch the Trailer
WHAT A FACT!!! 🐁