24th Hall of Fame

The Whisperers


Mrs Ross leads a lonely existence, one where she talks to the walls, her flat is cluttered and she spends her day shuffling back and forth to the assistance office and to the library to warm her feet. It is a solitary existence, a lonely one, but I wonder if she is truly lonely?
I ask that last question because she almost seems to prefer it that way. She’s unhappy when her husband is tracked down and forced to return to care for her, and her apartment has been cleaned and her old newspapers have been tossed. Miserable even.
She lives a life of neglect because she herself has been neglected. It isn’t until after she has been robbed that anyone has shown any care for her. Even then it almost seems like it is out of a sense of guilt.
The plot isn’t the focus here (though it does have a lot to say about ow we care for the elderly), really, but Mrs Ross herself. She’s portrayed with a sense of detachment by Dame Edith Evans, and magnificently so at that. Every close up of her craggy face conveys her situation perfectly.
And in the ending, where she finally returns to the life she has grown accustomed to, where she cracks a smile and asks her flat “Hello? Are you there?” She seems happier then she had been before.
Side note: After watching this film, I called my mom. Now excuse me as I wipe my eyes.

This reminds me of how often we see current videos and game shows where a lot of regular folk show an astonishing lack of knowledge about supposedly common things in our surroundings, which makes me think that it's not that farfetched to think that the same regular folk wouldn't be so knowledgeable about "space stuff", regardless of how "current" it might be.

But other than that, I think there's also an element of denial involved, which goes to the psychology of people in times of crisis. And like I've said in my reviews and replies here, I think that's one of the main themes of the film.

The details of the "catastroph(i)e(s)" is never mentioned or addressed, but that doesn't mean that some, or all of the passengers might have had some encounter with nature pre-catastrophe, which might trigger this sense of longing for a past long gone.

Fair enough.

All are valid points so I hope you don't get my replies as confrontational, but rather as just digging into the film and its themes and execution.

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I PM'd her and she indicated she was still in, just very busy currently.

Weird. They couldn't bother to tell me.

In a Glass Cage

If I say what I really want to say, it will cause a whole lot of problems. So I'm just going to say ditto to everything Raul wrote in his review.

I don't know why this was nominated, maybe to make a captive audience squirm? I like PahaK on a personal level but films like this are going to cause problems in HoFs. Like Raul said, had I known this film was in the HoF I might very well not have joined. Is that what we want to do with our noms make our fellow members nauseated and reduce participation until HoFs die out?

In a Glass Cage would've been perfect for an Extreme Cinema HoF. I sure in the hell ain't joining that, but there's enough MoFos who are interested in that stuff to make the HoF fun for them. That is if one calls seeing and hearing about children being tortured as fun.

So..... what did you thinking of the lighting?

You mean the bluish tint? The big gothic looking house and that blue tint, looked cool. I mean yeah the movie looked good (except the violent stuff), but in this case I could care less about that.

I was only kidding

That's cool.

I don't want to get into too much of an argument but I would hate to see more people bow out due to controversial nominations. And obviously this is one.

That's your opinion and I have no objection to that. I'd still like to ask why that was so much more extreme or disgusting than, for example, Schindler's List or The Skin I Live In? I just don't see the difference.

I like bleak movies and breaking taboos. I can understand if people don't want to see gore or porn (I don't nominate either, but wouldn't personally mind if someone does), but I find it odd if controversial topics alone would cause a mass exodus from these jolly competitions.

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Pedophilia.

As a topic? I don't remember people being upset by Jagten. And CR certainly wasn't upset by Pretty Baby so it must be something more specific.

Pretty Baby was close to the fine line for me, but not quite there. This was past it definitely for myself.

Jagten did not depict any pedophilia, only that the main character was accused of it. Big difference

I’d hate to see nominations be subjected to such rigorous criteria about what should or shouldn’t be allowed. While I did find Glass Cage disturbing, and outside the realm of good taste on occasion, it was merely done for shock value. *
I wouldn’t compare it to Schindler’s List, as that’s a ridiculous comparison to make and doesn’t hold up upon analysis, but it was a movie I don’t regret seeing.
I don’t shy away from any film, as I aim to challenge myself with each genre, nor certain subject matters, no matter how disturbing it may be.
It should be the same here.

I don't mind what anybody watches, but I mind what I watch. I'm also concerned about the health of HoFs as so far two people have said they might not have joined (me and Raul) and not everyone has seen In a Glass Cage yet. Others might have chose not to join after the reveal. I remember Siddon was upset about a couple of your noms and sounded like he had a real problem with that. Takoma said she didn't want to watch Polanski movies, I have no problem with Polanski movies but I would never nominate one knowing it might cause her to drop out. I think we all need to be more careful with what we nominate as we are in Mixed Company here and not everyone can take the same level of extreme films that others can.

You asked about Schindler's List or The Skin I Live In? The Skin I Lived In had some early scenes that creeped me out, but then the film softened it's tone and didn't bother me. Schindler's List doesn't bother me because we don't see or hear the worst Nazi tortures. That's the key difference between those films and your nom, graphic torture.

I want to say this again, I've gotten to know PahaK and I like him, he seems like a cool person. It's just that some of his noms are pretty extreme. Pahak, why not have an Extreme Cinema HoF? I'm sure Cricket, MovieGal and some others would join. That could be a win-win situation.

I guess it depends on what exactly is meant by depiction. Both films contain spoken descriptions (false in Jagten but still) of such acts. Other than that, In a Glass Cage isn't that much more graphical than Sleepers except the children getting murdered, obviously.