Twentynine Palms

One night i was up late watching TV, i checked to see what was on the sundance channel. Twentynine Palms was playing, i originally heard about this film in 2003 when it came out, it is a french film by Bruno Dumont (i later learned he is a french philosopher), i had originally heard about it because it was considered "extreme cinema" a genre that i often enjoy, and it was compared to many films i had previously enjoyed; such as "i stand alone", "man bites dog", "audition", "ichii the killer", park chan-wook's revenge trilogy, "trouble every day", and it was frequently compared to "brown bunny" since they both came out in 2003, were both road films, and had explicit sex.

When i turned to the channel it was in the last half hour of the 2 hour movie. The first scene i saw is shown with the first photo and i decided to take some photos of it because the screen was very digitally pixellated and it seemed interesting and ironic for some reason cause it was blurring the explicit real sex. The reason it was so digitally pixellated was discovered a few days later when a cable guy came to solve the problem and discovered that we had a total of 9 splitters on the single cable signal coming into the house, we only have 5 televisions, so he removed several of the splitters and the signal improved. i took the photos of the first pixellated scene then the couple in the film drove around a bit, i switched the channel but set the movie to record. A few days later i got around to fast forwarding through the movie to see what else happens in the film and found that the basic plot was the couple have sex, drive around Joshua Tree National Park, have more sex, then drive around some more, which made me glad i missed the first hour and a half. Then i got to the last 5 min. i then decided to take photos of the rest of the film, cause it will be better to see it rather then i just tell you about it, and i am trying to do more photographic series rather than just random photos of things.

Here is the plot summary of the film from imdb: David, an independent photographer, and Katia, an unemployed woman, leave Los Angeles, en route to the southern California desert, where they search a natural set to use as a backdrop for a magazine photo shoot. They find a motel in the town of Twentynine Palms and spend their days in their sport-utility vehicle, discovering the Joshua Tree Desert, and losing themselves on nameless roads and trails. Frantically making love all the time and almost everywhere, they regularly fight, then kiss and make up, with little else going on in their empty relationship and quite ordinary daily life--until something horrible and hideous brutally puts an end to their trip.

then they drive around, and not talk
they eventually stop, walk around, then katia drives for a bit
then they go back to the hotel,





the next day they drive around some more
a view out the window, they continue driving around all day, sometimes they stop and walk around but i never see David with a camera or take any pictures, apparently when he scouts out locations for his photo shoot he doesn't need to take pictures or notes he can just remember where he wants to come back too.
later that night they start fighting i am not sure about what,
then he chases her onto the street in front of their hotel,
and they have sex in the middle of the road.
the next day they are driving around again,
all of a sudden a white pickup truck rams their hummer from behind,
and force them off the road.
3 guys get out, and pull David and Katia from the truck.
one of them rips katia's clothes off
then he goes over to david and starts hitting him with a baseball bat
the assailant as he hits david with bat
katia struggling to get free
Katia being held and made to watch
after the guy stops hitting david in the head with the bat the other guy pulls down david's pants,
and starts raping him. Katia helplessly watches
David's pixellated face mid rape
David's non-pixellated face mid rape
the raper
the raper finishes,
the 3 guys leave,
and katia crawls over to david
they go back to their hotel and snuggle
the next morning
the first thing katia says to david
the second thing katia says to david,
and the last line of the film

katia walking back to their room with a pizza
katia sits down on the bed
David runs out of the bathroom, his hair is all cut off, with his face and scalp bleeding, he has a knife
he jumps on her, and begins stabbing her
over and over
he sits on her dead body
a police officer finds David's body in the desert
the end.

i then researched the film a bit to see what i missed in the first hour and a half, and to find out what david and katia could possibly have done to these 3 guys to make them want to rape david. To my surprise, nothing, they never met before that scene, the 3 guys are in no other scenes, and apparently these 3 guys just randomly ran david and katia off the rode, and raped him for no reason. So there you have it, now hopefully you don't have to put yourself through watching this, i hope this was a better way to see this film. Ohh and just so you know there are some spoilers in this post, so don't read if you still want to watch the film.

*^_^*

i regrettably haven't posted in a while, Sorry. Most of my time recently has been spent either with Jin, searching for a job, taking photographs but not editing any, finishing my christmas gift to myself, watching shitty TV, keeping up to date on news(whether it be national, international, local, or celebrity gossip, i love it all), or playing Fear multiplayer online(mostly CTF(capture the flag)). Unfortunately, Jin left today to go back to South Korea :( Rachel, Mark you were both right, i was wrong, i am definitely very melancholy and saddened that Jin has gone back to Korea. i thought or hoped or hypothesized that i wouldn't be that upset or saddened that Jin was leaving because i thought it would make it easier that i knew it was coming and i knew our time together was finite. i was wrong. While in some ways it is easier because there is no painful breakup and our relationship didn't end because one or both of us didn't want to be together any more, but it is also subsequently harder because we would still be together if it weren't for her moving back to Korea. Everything was going very well and we were still having a great time together and a lot of fun.

We were surprisingly similar in many ways, most importantly, our silly sense of humor and sarcasm(in my last post Jin was the one who left the post " i am a long time reader of your blog but i hate your photos especially the confused rusty picture."), our creativity(thankfully she didn't mind that i take a lot of pictures and she actually enjoyed taking a lot of pictures as well), our randomness(i greatly enjoy random thoughts that come out of nowhere, i often have weird random thoughts that don't fit in to the current topic or situation and Jin does as well, and it is nice and refreshing to be able to share and hear these type of thoughts), and our spontaneity( she actually wasn't spontaneous before we met but about 95% of dates had no initial plan, i would pick her up and we would figure out what to do once we got together).

Today, i planned to edit and post some of the many pictures i have of Jin and the time we spent together, but it quickly became too sad and upsetting so i will do that some day soon. i also have another post that i am working on but haven't finished yet, i was trying to think of a different type of post(i didn't want to simply do another post of photos, and yes i still have many many more photos from Europe to go through, i still have Prague, Munich, Zagreb, Dubrovnik, Rome, Nice, and Paris to go through) and came up with an idea but had to do more research to finish it properly, you'll see. Andy, you work in Iola, WoW, small world, who do you work for there? As far as the photo thing don't worry about choosing just one, you don't need to limit your choices, and it's been too long, we should talk more efficiently soon, but i don't have your number, what is it?

photos from 12/27 - 1/05

ridiculous shoes
ridiculous shoes and her man's
Pat Focusing
Bob Releasing
Mark Shooting
i liked the layers of pat and mark
Bob Shooting
Bob, Pat and Mark
last piece
tentacles
Pure joy
falling down
washer 1
washer 2my first load of laundry in over a year
rusty confused,
thinking why are you doing laundry,
mom always does that
refreshing sea breeze
discarded pumpkin that surprisingly hasn't rotted in 2 months
Rachel and Ryan's staircase
berries
pipe
pipes & shadows

Taco dip, tortilla chips, bloody mary, wheatables, port wine cheese spread, Asian salad, beer
new years ballon
happy new year
disco ball spun
on New Years Jin wanted to stop by the Newman Center(catholic church for students by UWM) New Years party, so we stopped by, laughed and giggled, felt awkward, and left. this was their cake
tree shot through my breath and fog
foggy afternoon
foggy dusk
puddle fog field
these next foggy shots are from a drive up to iola, wi.
the previous are at the lakefront around veteran's park
sheep herd
small town church nativity scene
we went to Iola to visit my half sister and her family, this is Garrettthis is Owen




Garrett wanted a picture that looked like he was boarding down the hill,
since i had so many of him falling down the hill,
i coaxed him to lean back a little bit and pull the board up like you are about to jump in the air
more! more! you have to pull the board up much higher, i coaxed
perfect, that moment right as he pulled it too high and he is falling backwards and realizes it. it may be mean but it's also hilarious, and
he's not angry, it's all in good fun, and photography
snowball
leafy green moss
fox hole, literally
christmas saplingaesthetically displeasing
Garrett didn't want to trespass, and his dad told him not to, but i convinced him it was ok to trespass if you don't do any damagelater on he felt very guilty and bad about trespassing
pouty
and tired of being photographed



Julia
She got some kids lipstick for christmas, she kept putting it on and her mom kept telling her to wipe it off after she put too much lipstick on
Julia, Owen, Lucas, Garrett
look at the camera