Tattoo Promises

Eastern Promises (2007) is David Cronenberg's latest film, a sophisticated and shocking treatment of London-based Russian mafia. While generally received as an excellent film with a solid screenplay and direction, it is the deep symbolism that it delves into that takes into a level far above most of its crime-drama peers. In particular, Eastern Promises draws us into the world of the tattoo and the complex meaning it can have both a mark of stigma and pride. As one of the major sources for the development of this film, "Mark of Cain"(2000) documents the Russian tradition of tattoos that originate in jail, their relatively strict symbolism and their function as markers of an individual's criminal history, ethnicity and ofcourse identity.  In one of the most memorable scenes of the film, Luzhin (played by Viggo Mortensen) is put under the filmic spotlight in which the tattoo inquisition 'reads' his history on his body. His incorporation into the Vory v Zakone must be the largest sacrifice - he must give himself wholly and in doing so receive the tattoo of the group on his chest and knees.


Ultimately the meaning of the tattoo is inextricably linked to Cronenberg's evolving concern with violence, whether it is ever truly justified but also whether it can ever really be erased from the individual or collective memory. In other words, it is the violent acts that we commit and we experience that remain permanently tattooed onto our psyche and write the history of who we are both as people and as nations. Similarly, the film in all its graphic excess actually features no gun violence - it is with the raping, injecting, stabbing and hacking of victims that Cronenberg creates that extremely intimate link between the victim and perpetrator of the violence - people inscribe their victims like the tattoo artist inscribes bodies.

Eastern Promises certainly has tattooed itself in my brain, and is one for the filmic canon....

Eva, Wong Kar Wai, Galliano & the best perfume in the world

Here's one to dispel the myths! Art can definitely be found in advertising.... The stunning Eva starts in this WKW directed ditty for Midnight Poison: A New Cinderella is Born.

A cool jazz journey to the gallows

A brief mention of the most incredible film-music collaborations of all time. Miles Davis' improvisations on Elevator to the Gallows (Ascenseur pour l'echafaud; Louis Malle, 1957) single handedly bring the unforgettable chilled cerebral loneliness of this classic new-wave film. His music somehow manages to be simultaneously intimate and distant, heartfelt and aloof - so much so that long after you have forgotten the plot, you will remember Jeanne Moreau's detached and desolate walk through the cold night lights of Paris.