Pop Culture OCD: February 2010

Throughout history it is apparent that the people who get to make the rules are the ones with the bigger weapons. The entire continents of Africa, South and North America were conquered simply because Western civilization developed guns and gunpowder before the aboriginal peoples of the New World. And even now, with an annual budget of $708 billion for defense, the United States rules because it has the "guns". Its this situation and state of humanity that director John Sayles starts out from in this film. Instead of sticking to the grittiness of reality, Sayles opts for a more magic realist mode which is appropriate for the picture's setting in an unnamed Central American country.

Doctor Humberto Fuentes is an aging man, physician to members of his country's military echelons and father to adult children who seem to grate on his last nerve. Dr. Fuentes holds a group of med students he mentored up as his true children, proud that they helped him form a program to administer medicine to the native people living in the jungles and hills of his country. This dream is shattered when he witnesses one doctor in the city, working as a fence for illegal goods. He questions the man who tells him to visit another student doctor in a rural village to understand why it has come to this. Dr. Fuentes embarks on journey that takes him from remote outpost to remote outpost and introduces him to a cast of characters who represent ideas and icons much larger than themselves.

The film is a spiritual successor to many great myths, the Wizard of Oz, and the writing of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The people that make up Fuentes traveling band by the end of the film are all slightly larger than life. As the term "magic realism" implies they exhibit that larger nature yet are still individual characters with very distinctive personalities. One of the most interesting characters is Padre Portillo, a priest who has a death warrant from the military on his head for the suspicion of collaborating with rebel guerrillas. Portillo refers to himself a "a ghost", believing that the moment he had to abandon the village where he was stationed, and in effect abandon the Church, he was no longer alive or dead.

Much like Lone Star and Matewan, Men With Guns allows John Sayles to examine the concept of hierarchies. In all these films, the authority only retains their power through harsh, absurd violence. The victims of this violence often have no understanding of the method behind, and they frankly don't care. All they know is that a gun barrel is pointed at them and they simply don't want to die. Sayles is asking us if we follow the strictures of society because we truly believe in them or because we fear the guns. Dr. Fuentes is representative of the upper class, he practices philanthropy and simply assumes his good works filter down to the people at the bottom of the social ladder. Instead, his journey reveals to him that the very power structure he has had unblinking faith in burns villages down to "protect" the very people who live in them.

Next: Casa de los babys

Robert Altman: Chorus of Voices Part Four

1993 - 2006

Short Cuts (1993)
Starring Andie McDowell, Bruce Davidson, Jack Lemmon, Julianne Moore, Matthew Modine, Fred Ward, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Chris Penn, Lili Taylor, Robert Downey Jr, Madeline Stowe, Tim Robbins, Lily Tomlin, Tom Waits, Frances McDormand, Peter Gallagher, Lyle Lovett, Huey Lewis, Buck Henry

Combining one of my favorite directors (Altman) and one of my favorite writers (Raymond Carver) has got to result in a film I love, right? Right! Short Cuts is the sort of fragmented, mish mash and series of sour notes I love Altman for. Influenced by the jazz music of his hometown Kansas City, the director takes a cleaver to Carver's best short stories and tells them in interwoven pieces. Moments are found where a minor character in one story can be the major character in another. Altman is at home with Carver's ambiguity and sudden endings as well. There is a little resolution here and it reminds me of some of Altman's best naturalist films in the 1970s. Life simply just is in the end, without rhyme or reason. Our paths cross with others, some times that causes an event to occur and some times it doesn't matter one bit that we met them. Certain moments could be played for cheap sentimentality, but the snark of Altman refuses to let that happen.

Gosford Park (2001)

Starring Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, Kristin Scott Thomas, Bob Balaban, Ryan Phillippe, Stephen Fry, Clive Owen, Helen Mirren, Emily Watson, Alan Bates, Richard E. Grant

Robert Altman never met a genre he couldn't twist into knots. Here he takes on the British murder mystery and turns it into an upstairs/downstairs look at social class, which becomes less and less about the murder and more about the divides between us. Even the two detectives who respond the country manor when a body shows up are mirroring the social gap. Thompson (Fry) is quite at home with the gentlemen of the house, while Dexter is down to the task at hand of finding clues and uncovering the murderer. One of the most impressive facts about Gosford Park is that Altman was 76 when it was filmed, and not showing the sense that his was flagging in his commitment to his craft at all.

A Prairie Home Companion (2006)

Starring Woody Harrelson, Garrison Keillor, Kevin Kline, Lindsay Lohan, Virginia Madsen, John C. Reilly, Maya Rudolph, Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin

This was to be the final entry into Altman's career. Garrison Keillor and the director collaborated in developing a film based on Keillor's popular NPR variety show. The film features the real life performers on the weekly radio series alongside actors portraying fictional members of the troupe. On the night of the performance when the film takes place, a woman arrives claiming to be the Angel of Death. Her presence is muted for most of the film but Altman makes sure we know she is there until she plays her role at the end of the picture. This is assuredly not his best picture, but it is still a decent film from a master filmmaker. During filming, Altman would request help from P.T. Anderson as the elder man was suffering from some health problems. It is more than a little appropriate that Anderson would take part; his films Boogie Nights and Magnolia are the spiritual children of Altman's huge ensemble pictures.

He never made a film he didn't want to make. There were times when studios propositioned him with a concept or a script, but if he agreed it was going to be on his terms and no one else's. Just like fellow auteur Stanley Kubrick, Altman never received an Academy Award for directing. Though he did receive a lifetime achievement award months before he passed away. He was intensely close to his family, especially his children. His son Mike was involved in writing music for MASH at the age of 14 and worked alongside his dad for decades. There is a little chance we will see another director as singularly bullheaded as Robert Altman AND able to get his pictures made on the studio's money. And we will be the poorer for it.

Four Altman Films You Have To See!

1) 3 Women

2) The Long Goodbye

3) Secret Honor

4) Short Cuts

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Robert Altman: Chorus of Voices Part Three

1980s, 1990 - 1992

Popeye (1980)

Starring Robin Williams, Shelly Duvall, Ray Walston, Paul Dooley

This film is a perfect example of what happened when Altman was tapped to do a studio project. At the end of the day, Altman got the movie he wanted and the studio lost. It was his bullheadedness that made such a thing possible. The studio wanted a film based on the Popeye cartoons, with Popeye wolfing down spinach mixed with Hollywood style musicals. Altman said no and based the film on the original Popeye comic strip where the character was born. The original Popeye had no taste for spinach and the series of populated with all sorts of odd characters. Altman agreed to make it musical but hired singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson, famous for his incredibly quirky music and infamous for his alcoholism. Altman also had a crew build the city of Sweethaven over the course of seven months and both cast and crew actually lived in the set where the film was made. Popeye was met with a terrible reception; most critics and most audiences hated it. Even though I am a big Altman fan, I understand why they hated it. Altman doesn't like following traditionally narratives and character arcs and if that's what you expect when you go to see a film it can be frustrating. Needless to say, Altman never really did a studio developed picture like this again.

Secret Honor (1984)

Starring Phillip Baker Hall

In a major depature, Altman sold his studio, Lion's Gate and became a film professor at the University of Michigan. It was only a short tenure, but while he was there he and his class filmed what is basically a one-man play about Richard Nixon. The setting of the film is contemporary (1980s) with Nixon in his home office late a night recording his memoirs. Playing into stories of his paranoia, he has a display of closed circuit monitors in front of him, helping keep an eye on his home. The film consists of Nixon rambling on about events in his presidency, his contempt of JFK; Kissinger; and Eisenhower, and about the vast conspiracy at work against him. As Nixon drinks and rambles, his monologues trail off into the mutterings of a mad man. This madness is the focal point of the film, with the cinematography and score accentuating it. While not remembered as a major achievement in Altman's career, it is one of the most unique of his films.

Vincent & Theo (1990)

Starring Tim Roth, Paul Rhys

Altman came out of a lull in the 1980s swinging. The 1990s became his renaissance which would lead to finally get major recognition from his peers in the 2000s. It began here with a biopic of the painter Vincent van Gogh and his brother, Theo. Theo was an art dealer who encouraged Vincent's madness somewhat because he saw the great work it produced. The film focuses mostly on Theo and his guilt at living a life of such wealth and prominence in the community while his brother falls further into dementia. Their family has a history of mental illness and as the brother's parallel lives continue, Theo begins to show signs himself. There are few films that capture painting better than this one. The modernist score highlights the dissonance in Vincent's mind as he's effected by medicines and failed relationships. The final sequences of the film almost raise into the horror category.

The Player (1992)

Starring Tim Robbins, Fred Ward, Whoopi Goldberg, Peter Gallagher, Vincent D'Onofrio, Dean Stockwell, Sydney Pollack, Lyle Lovett

Altman returned to prominence with this film which skewers the self-involved and self-interested motivation of Hollywood executives. Based on the novel by Michael Tolkin, follows producer Griffin Mill (Robbins) finds his job deciding which scripts get made into films threatened when a young hot shot 20th Century Fox exec (Gallagher) shows up. At the same time, Mill is receiving threatening postcards and learns they are from a screenwriter whose work he has rejected. Mill and the screenwriter meet up, a scuffle ensues, and Mill accidentally kills the man. From there things go downhill, with starstruck detectives visiting the lot and Mill's girlfriend becoming increasingly suspicious about what he's been up to. The Player is definitely a dark comedy and afforded Altman the opportunity to poke fun at a lot of the absurdity he encountered in the studio world. The opening sequence is a 8 minute, one take shot of the camera following one pair of execs then switching to another as they discuss scripts, all of which are real and include a sequel to Casablanca. The film also includes over 60 cameos of actors and actresses as themselves.

Next: 1993 - 2006

Friday, February 26, 2010

Film 2010 #36 - The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner

The Loneliness of the Long Distance (1962, dir. Tony Richardson)

Starring Tom Courtenay, Michael Redgrave

Film across the world was undergoing a transformation in the early 1960s. It began with the French New Wave movement of directors like Godard and Truffat and spread across Europe. Eventually, it hit England and corresponded with the coming of age of the first group of post-war children. The films produced in this period are referred to as the Angry Young Men, as they focused on teenagers and men in their 20s for whom the drudgery of blue collar life, that their parents so readily accepted, was considered a living death sentence.

This particular film focuses on the life of a Nottingham youth named Colin Smith (Courtenay). The picture opens with Colin being transported with a group of other juvenile delinquents to Ruxton Towers Reformatory. At the same time, the administration of the facility learns a nearby public school (in the States it would be a private school) wants to have their boys compete against Ruxton's in a track and field event. The governor of the school (Redgrave) eyes Colin with the potential to win the long distance race after a tryout and begins loosening the restraints on the boy to ensure he will feel dedicated to Ruxton when the day of the race arrives.

Throughout the film we're given glimpses of what led Colin down this path. At Ruxton, he is a humorless and dour young man, but in his life before he possesses a yearning to escape the factory life of Nottingham that kills his father. It becomes apparent that all Colin has been given in life are a series of expectations to live up to. His father's former employer expects Colin will come work for them. Colin's mother expects him to get a job once his father dies. The authorities figures in his town expect him to fall into a life of crime. The pressure of these expectations slowly grows inside Colin in both the flashbacks and during his time training for the race.

The most wonderful moments of the film come when the Governor allows Colin to run outside the gates of Ruxton. As soon as Colin is past the gates a soundtrack of period jazz music kicks in and the camera becomes very loose and documentarian in how it captures the runner. These moments of joy when Colin is by himself, simply running till he can't breathe are played against his confrontations with fellow boys at the reformatory and regular sessions with the nervous and ineffective counselor. The loneliness mentioned in the title ends up playing both a joyous and bittersweet role. The film has two endings in effect, the one where Colin is "victorious" and then a sort of epilogue which causes us to question the cost of that victory.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Film 2010 #35 - Shutter Island

Shutter Island (2010, dir. Martin Scorsese)
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams, Max von Sydow, Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson, Jackie Earle Haley, Elias Koteas

My immediate reaction after seeing the first trailer for Shutter Island was that it would be interesting to see Scorsese tackle a film with horror elements. After thinking about this for a little while longer, I realized he already had in Taxi Driver, a film I think of as an urban horror picture more than anything else. Upon further contemplation, I realized we found similarly paranoid protagonists in many Scorsese pictures: The King of Comedy, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, and of course, The Aviator. This is why Shutter Island, while stylistically a departure for the directing legend, is thematically at home in his body of work.

The premise brings U.S. Marshall Teddy Daniels (DiCaprio) to the Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane located on Shutter Island. Rachel Solando, a patient at the asylum has vanished so Daniels, and his new partner Chuck Aule (Ruffalo) have come to investigate. Daniels is introduced to the facilities by Dr. John Cawley (Kingsley) and eventually meets the head of the hospital, Dr. Naehring (Sydow), a German who brings back Daniels animosity for the Nazi atrocities he witnessed during World War II. This combined with strange nightmares about Daniels' late wife intensify his paranoia while on the Island and he begins to formulate what he believes is the real horror going on behind the scenes on Shutter Island.

What hits you first about this film is the score. The music was designed and chosen by long-time friend of Scorsese and former member of The Band, Robbie Robertson and he proves he has an ear for some powerful modernist compositions. There are elements of Bernard Hermann yet never played to the point of absurdity. Because of the strong musical elements they create a balance with the unscored moments. An encounter in a cave among the cliffs of the island goes unscored, despite there being revelations made there that would have received a crescendo of strings in an older picture. It's those choices of presence and absence that strike the right balance in the film.

At its core, this is simply a variation on the haunted house trope. What sets it apart from a B-movie are the very powerful artistic masterstrokes Scorsese uses. The dream/nightmare sequences Daniels experiences, whether they be in sleep or in the middle of the day, inform the audience with the clues the investigator fails to find in the conscious world. I was particularly intrigued by the cultural paranoias of the day that seeped into the fiber of the film. We have Daniels haunted by the sights of Jews frozen to death at Dachau and his unit subsequent expunging of the camp's guards in an era where PTSD was not something remotely thought about. In addition, characters mention the fears of atomic annihilation as a result of the Cold War, the idea of Nazi scientist-torturers being granted pardons for service to the US military, and brainwashing techniques of HUAC. This constant atmosphere of not-knowing and being watched makes Shutter a perfect companion piece to The Aviator.

Shutter Island may not end on the most satisfying of notes, but there really is no other way for it to end. Such a story can't deliver any true sense of justice and still remain true to its film noir and horror roots. From the first time we see Daniels, hunched over a toilet as the ferry rocks around him, it is apparent this character is in bad shape. An odyssey to an island of madness can never make such a condition better.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Robert Altman: Chorus of Voices Part Two

1975 - 1979

It could never be said that Robert Altman wasn't experimenting with his work. After using a very naturalistic style in the early 1970s, Altman decided to transition into a more abstract and more artificially stylistic mode. This period of his career marks one of his most influential works (Nashville), responsible for inspiring present day director P.T. Anderson in works like Boogie Nights and Magnolia.

Nashville (1975)

Starring Keith Carradine, Henry Gibson, Lily Tomlin, Ned Beatty, Karen Black, Shelly Duvall, Geraldine Chaplin, Scott Glenn, Jeff Goldblum, Elliot Gould, Julie Christie, Keenan Wynn, Ronee Blakely

Nashville was definitely Altman's most ambitious project to date and was planned as his commentary on the "rah rah" patriotic celebration of America's bicentennial going on at the time. The director choose to focus his film around the country music industry, a musical genre undergoing a renaissance at the time and representative of classic American values. The plot of the film is tremendously disjointed, even for an Altman picture. Every character's arc seems to intersect with every other character's.

There are some obvious analogues for a few of the characters (Henry Gibson plays a Conway Twitty type, Ronee Blakely plays a Loretta Lynn type) and other characters represent more general types of people you encounter, not just in the country music industry, but in all levels of the entertainment industry. Beyond that, Altman uses show business as a metaphor for the American dream and human condition in the country. The Haves (successful musical artists) live lives of parties and special events. Then you have people all along the steps below them simply trying to survive or fighting to become part of the upper echelon.

If you are familiar with Nashville (as I am, being that I live here) there are many familiar sights including the Exit/In and the Parthenon, where the film's big finale takes place. Altman had all the actors playing musicians write all their own songs and Robert Carradine's "I'm Easy" won the Oscar for Best Original Song. The performance of that particular song is one of the great highlights of the picture. Carradine plays a member of a folk-rock trio and is performing the song solo onstage at the Exit/In. In the audience are his married co-performer, a married gospel singer, a music reporter, and a groupie, all of whom believe the song is about them and their relationship with Carradine's character. Altman shoots this sequence skillfully by employing multiple cameras mounted all around the room and keeps them distanced from the actors. From offstage he can control the zooms of each camera to set up interesting juxtapositions of the women and their reactions. Lily Tomlin in particular is amazing in this scene.

3 Women (1977)

Starring Sissy Spacek, Shelly Duvall, Janice Rule

While The Long Goodbye is my favorite Altman film, this one is a close second and surely his most overlooked work. Everything that the audience has come to expect from an Altman film up to this point gets completely turned on its head. If they didn't include a director credit there is very little chance anyone would have guessed he was responsible for this work. While his other films are in line with a naturalistic view of the world, 3 Women takes a surrealistic look.

The plot focuses on Mildred (Spacek) and Pinky (Duvall), two young women who meet while working a physical therapy facility. Mildred convinces Pinky to let her move into the latter's apartment and things don't work out very well. Pinky is obsessed with being a perfect hostess and interior decorator despite her lack of any sense of refined style. Mildred is a naive country bumpkin who seems unable to keep Pinky from becoming infuriated with her. The third woman, Willie (Rule), is an intense and introverted muralist who creates images of strange lizard-human hybrids. Mildred is involved in an accident that serves to cause a shift on the axis of personalities in these women. Suddenly, roles change with no rhyme or reason and hierarchies are usurped. The rest of the film plays out in an increasingly otherworldly manner where it seems reality is being rewritten.

Even if you have seen Altman's work and written him off, I strongly encourage you to watch this film. Altman revealed interviews that the plot was based on a dream he had and 20th Century Fox bought the film simply based on the reputation Altman has built up at this time. Pretty impressive and something we will probably never see again in the studio system. The director has confessed that he isn't sure what the ending of this film implies, but has developed theories of his own. Now, this might be frustrating to filmgoers that like clarity and closure, but for myself I find this refreshing. It makes the film truly feel like art because it is something that can be re-examined and reinterpreted over and over.

Quintet (1979)

Starring Paul Newman, Fernando Rey

The end of Altman's golden age in the 1970s came to end with a whimper. This subversive science fiction picture plays with some interesting ideas but seems to be even less cohesive than 3 Women, which was based on a much looser idea. The premise follows Essex (Newman) a whaler living in an Ice Age ravaged future. He and his bride make their way to a Northern facility where Essex's brother Francha lives. While Essex is out of the apartment, a mysterious man sets off a bomb that kills Francha, his family, and Essex's wife. Essex follows the man to a backroom where he discovers Francha was involved in a board game that is literally life or death. He becomes absorbed in the game and ends up in direct conflict with the top player, Grigor (Rey). The film is ultimately a let down and not one of Altman's best

The 1970s will always be remembered as Altman's best period of work, however he was still to make films just as strong as this period of work, but never again so prolific.

Up next: The 1980s and early 90s

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Hypothetical Film Festival #7 - Not Happy Endings

There are "crowd pleaser" films, meant to deliver an upbeat tone to the audience and make sure everyone leaves the theater smiling. And then there are films like the ones on this list. These movies are pretty bleak from the start and any one in the audience can tell things will not end up alright for the protagonist. But as "down" as their endings might be, they are worth watching and will stay with you for days.

A bout de souffle/Breathless (1960, dir. Jean-Luc Godard)

The film follow Michel, a young man modeling himself after the images of Hollywood gangsters he's grown up seeing. Michel shoots a policeman in Marseille and goes on the run to his American girlfriend, Patricia's flat in Paris. The plot is non-existent at this point and wanders aimlessly, following Michel and Patricia play house and wander the streets of Paris. Breathless is considered one of the films that birthed the French New Wave of the 1960s and was the first feature from Jean-Luc Godard with screenplay by Francois Truffat. Both men were major players on the film criticism scene who turned their cinephilia into a historic movement in film. As Breathless moves closer to its finale, it becomes more and more apparent that the aimless Michel will atone for his crimes in a tragic way.

12 Monkeys (1995, dir. Terry Gilliam)

Based on the heart-breaking French short film La Jetee (1962), 12 Monkeys is a schizophrenic and ever metamorphosizing film. James Cole is a criminal living in a future where humanity has been forced underground because of a super virus. A group of scientists offer Cole a pardon if he will travel back to 1996 where it is believed the virus was released by a terrorist organization known as the Army of the Twelve Monkeys. Once in the past, Cole is thrown into a mental asylum where he befriends a female doctor and meets fellow inmate Jeffery Goines. Goines is completely insane and Cole believes he is a key component of the viral outbreak. As Cole's consciousness leaps back and forth between past and present he is plagued by strange memories from his childhood. All of these elements begin to interweave until the ultimate tragedy of James Cole is revealed.

Dancer in the Dark (2000, dir. Lars von Trier)

Pretty much any von Trier film could be put on this list as he is a filmmaker not known for feel good flicks. This particular film is his reinvention of the musical film genre. The picture stars Bjork as Selma, a factory worker in the Pacific Northwest who struggles to raise her son while her vision is becoming increasingly worse. Selma's mode of escape from the pressures of life by pretending she her life is a musical. The film frames these two tones by filming the "real life" moments in a very loose documentarian style and the musical interludes being very tightly planned and storyboarded sequences. Selma is eventually forced to commit an act that put her in a terrible position and causes her to make a decision about who she will save. The final ten minutes of this film are an emotional hell; there is nothing gory about them, instead it is pure devastation on the viewer. I have literally never cried harder watching a film than the this one.

The Pledge (2001, dir. Sean Penn)

It begins with a man alone mumbling to himself and then travels back in time. Detective Jerry Black (Jack Nicholson) is retiring from the force but at the last minute is pulled into the murder of a little girl. Black swears on a the cross to the girl's mother that he will find whomever killed her and this begins his descent into madness. Black loses himself in the mountain, eventually buying a gas station and beginning a budding relationship with single mom Lori. Eventually, Black learns Lori's daughter is possibly being stalked by the killer and attempts to keep her safe no matter the cost. As the opening of the film foreshadows, Black ends up in a place of despair. The irony of the film is that justice is served, yet only the audience knows and Black is left to believe he has failed the woman he loves, the mother he pledged himself to, and the profession that defined him for most of his life.

The Mist (2007, dir. Frank Darabont)
My first suggestion is watch the Black and White version of the film on the DVD, as this is how Darabont intended the film to be released. The picture is based on a Stephen King novella and focuses on the customers of a grocery store who become trapped inside after a mysterious mist fills their small town. Out of the mist come horrific creatures, inspired by the writings of H.P. Lovecraft. I admit, when I first saw the film I was feeling very negative towards it. A lot of the character interactions feel like they come from the same Stephen King hackneyed toolbox. However, the last 20 minutes of the film completely turned my opinion around and presented an otherworld that is rich with details and glimpses of macabre things. The finale of the film serves as a metaphor for human reactions to tragedy and as a cautionary tale about never letting go of the hope that darkness can be overcome.

Funny Games (2008, dir. Michael Haneke)

A shot by shot remake of Haneke's 1997 Austrian film and, as with most of Haneke's work is meant to directly address the voyeuristic and sadistic nature of the audience. A happy family arrives at their lake house and soon after are met by two strange young men asking for help. The two young men are nicely dressed in tennis whites but it is obvious there is an unsettling air about them. The moment one of the young men breaks the husband's leg with golf club we know things are getting bad. Haneke fools us into believing this will follow the traditional revenge film with the villains winning for the majority of the film and then being overcome by the family. However, the moment one of the the young men steps outside the walls of the film's reality we know the rulebook has been thrown out and this will only end badly.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Film 2010 #34 - The Red Shoes

Since 2005 I have kept a list of every new film I have seen. With this film I have hit the 1000 mark. Before long, I'll probably be hitting 2000.

The Red Shoes (1948, dir. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger)
Starring Anton Walbrook

This was a film long on my list of ones to see and said to have been an inspiration to directors like Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola. That's not to say its plot or screenplay is similar to their work, rather the way the directors utilize the camera and art direction to create a lush and amazing world. The story comes from the Hans Christian Andersen fable of a young girl who acquires a pair of magical red slippers that cause her to dance and, unable to stop, she begs an executioner to chop of her feet. He does and gives her a pair of wooden feet, yet she is haunted by the disembodied dancing feet.

Powell and Pressburger were a directorial pair in the United Kingdom, as well respected as Hitchcock or David Lean, yet their work has faded from the larger collective memory in the following years. For The Red Shoes, they took the Andersen fable and set it in contemporary (1940s) Europe. Boris Lermontov runs a prestigious ballet company and encounters two young up and coming artists: Victoria Page, a company ballerina and Julian Craster, a budding composer. Lermontov goes on to commission an adaptation of the The Red Shoes. Around the same time, the company's prima ballerina announces her engagement which infuriates Lermontov who immediately lets her know she is no longer a part of his works. To replace her, he promotes Victoria Page, and this is where the trouble begins.

Lermontov is dangerously obsessed with his ingenues. His original prima announcing her engagement turns him into a petty, spiteful man who takes glee in letting her go. As similar things begin to develop with Victoria, we see Lermontov's role as a metaphorical evil wizard take hold. He is jealous of any one who might break a dancer's devotion to his will alone.

The most spectacular piece of the film is the 17 minute long ballet sequence that comes smack dab in the middle. The first half of the film is about the three individual strands of Lermontov, Craster, and Victoria coming together and the second half is about how the lives of these three are eventually torn apart. And what ties it all up is a visually stunning abbreviation of The Red Shoes ballet that will cause the viewer to ask some questions. From the start of the sequence, it is apparent that this is simply a dress rehearsal, yet then it starts incorporating what might be seen as subconscious thoughts of Victoria (the villain of the ballet flashing into Craster and then Lermontov suddenly), as the sequence continues Victoria moves into impossible landscapes that could in no way actually be on stage. And finally, everything pulls back to reveal the actual performance on opening night. This one sequence both serves to expose subconscious ideas and transition our characters through time.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Weekend Trailer Roundup

Earthling (dir. Clay Liford) - A small budget film about a woman, Judith who is having complications with her pregnancy. Meanwhile, a crew of astronauts in orbit discover a strange object floating through space. A brown out is cause globally and upon waking Judith and others begin having strange visions and make a discovery about a very important truth.

The Anachronism (dir. Matthew Gordon) - this is a short film debuting on the web April 26th. Not much is known about it apart from the trailer. I love the look of this film and am very excited about getting to see it.

Bunny and the Bull (dir. Paul King) - Released in the U.K. last year, this is a film I desperately want to come to the states screen or DVD. From the minds behind the amazing British series The Mighty Boosh, this looks to have the same surreality but with a more serious tone. Plus it stars all my favorite British comedians.

A Town Called Panic (dir. Stéphane Aubier & Vincent Patar) - A completely insane French stop motion film that looks like it would be right up the alley of fans of Cartoon Network's Adult Swim line up. Like Gumby if Hunter S. Thompson had directed it.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Film 2010 #33 - The Imposters

The Imposters (1998, dir. Stanley Tucci)

Starring Stanley Tucci, Oliver Platt, Alfred Molina, Lily Taylor, Billy Connolly, Tony Shaloub, Campbell Scott, Allison Janney, Richard Jenkins, Isabella Rossellini, Steve Buscemi, Hope Davis, Michael Emerson

After seeing so many films in the last decade it is rare to come across one that literally makes me giddy and my enthusiasm for film completely and utterly refreshed. The Imposters did exactly this in the most wonderfully expected way. The film is a follow up to Big Night (my review here), this time around Tucci directs but brings all the same players from before plus some more. The love is very apparent here, just like in Big Night. These are people who love to making movies working on a movie they love. Something like that is contagious for the audience and its wonderful.

The premise is fairly simply starting out: Two brothers, Arthur and Maurice (Tucci and Platt respectively) are down on their luck actors in the 1930s who practice their craft by staging incidents at outdoor cafes and bakeries, and also try to steal some food while they are at it. Their nemesis is the blustery British thespian Sir Jeremy Burtom (Molina), whom they go to see perform an incredibly comical version of Hamlet. Later, they are caught by Burtom insulting the man and he convinces authorities that the two men threatened his life. Arthur and Maurice hide inside a wooden crate on the docks while police search and, when they wake up in the morning, find they've been loaded onto a luxury ocean liner.

The film is pure classical farce, with every character played to the extreme by the talented actors in the film. It's obvious these filmmakers know their cinematic history and tropes as we have a pair of con artists on board to scam rich socialites out of their fortunes, an exiled queen form a fictional nation, a young couple in love whose positions keep them from being together, and many many more classic types. What really catapults the film into another realm are the wonderful meta jokes sprinkled through out. Characters seems to almost be aware they are in a film. For example, during a Steadicam shot of the ship's ballroom meant to establish that all of our main characters were present, the exiled queen behaves as if she can see the camera, lets out an "ooh" and hides her face with her scarf. This is just one of the many little treats Tucci and his cast and crew give us. The best is one I won't give away but is an extremely clever cheat to push the plot forward.

Films like The Imposters are a rarity. Most comedies playing in the local theater are ones generated by studios and marketed to specific niches. The sad part is so many of these comedies, their screenwriters, actors, and directors seem to have a very low awareness of the roots of their craft. Tucci proves he's not just an actor and director, but also a true student of film who understand and appreciates how comedy has grown and where it came from.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Film 2010 #32 - Ragtime

Ragtime (1981, dir. Milos Forman)

Starring Elizabeth McGovern, Mary Steenburgen, Brad Dourif, James Cagney, Mandy Patinkin, Norman Mailer, Moses Gunn, Debbie Allen, Donald O'Conner, Howard Rollins Jr.

I first became familiar with the story of Ragtime from the 1996 Broadway musical, script written by the talented Terrence McNally and based on the novel by E.L. Doctrow. The story (in all mediums) is an attempt to create a slice of life in America right before World War I broke out. Milos Forman was an interesting choice to helm this project; he doesn't really take on historical epics, instead when he does period pieces he chooses to focus on specific individuals and analyze them down to the grain. In Ragtime, we get broad painted strokes that only give us glimpses.

The interwoven plots contain a mix of fictional characters given vague names like Father, Mother, Younger Brother and historical figures like Booker T. Washington, Harry Houdini, and Evelyn Nesbit (the focal point of what was called the Scandal of the Century at the time). The novel and musical version contain even more historical figures including Henry Ford, J.P. Morgan, Admiral Peary, and Emma Goldman, but I assume they were cut for the sake of time.

In the core plot of the film an upper middle class family in New Rochelle, New York discovers an African-American infant crying in their garden. The police bring a young woman to their house who admits the child is hers and that the father abandoned them. Mother decides to take Sarah, the girl into their home against the wishes of Father. Eventually, piano player Coalhouse Walker, Jr. arrives on their doorstep revealed to be the father of the child and stating that now that he has a job he is willing to ready to provide for his family. However, tragedy occurs that sets the characters down a path where they witness a change in the entire world. Alongside this plot, Mother's Younger Brother falls in love with former dance hall girl Evelyn Nesbit and is played for a fool. There's also Tateh, a Jewish immigrant talented in making silhouettes who eventually makes it big as an early silent filmmaker.

The film presents the world of New York in 1917 with amazing accuracy. Clothing and vehicles and set dressing are spot on and anachronisms are non-existent. However, the broad nature of the film left me feeling indifferent about every character on screen. Every thing feels like it is played towards cliche rather than reality. Part of me feels that uber-producer Dino de Laurentiis played a part in the films broad, flat nature. It's an interesting film, most notable for the costume design and art direction, but definitely a weaker entry into Milos Forman's work.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Film 2010 #31 - The Constant Gardener

The Constant Gardener (2005, dir. Fernando Meirelles)
Starring Ralph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz, Danny Huston, Bill Nighy, Pete Postlethwaite

I am a huge fan of Meirelles' 2002 breakthrough film City of God and am a big supporter of the devastatingly panned Blindness (2007). For some reason, I felt trepidatious about this film since it came out. I think part of my worry was the fear of a "sophomore slump", meaning Meirelles was moving from an independent foreign flick to a Hollywood producer studio movie. A lot could go wrong. While The Constant Gardener isn't a disaster, it is definitely a weak film compared to Meirelles' other work.

The story follows Justin Quayle (Fiennes), a low level British diplomat stationed in Kenya. His activist journalist wife, Tessa (Weisz) has grown more and more distant from him while pursuing a story she is apprehensive to let Justin in on. Everything comes crashing down around his head when Tessa and her doctor friend are found murdered. The Kenyan government immediately spins it as bandits but Justin delves into Tessa's research to discover a larger and sinister conspiracy at work.

The highest achievement of this film is its editing. Until I really started consuming movies I completely glossed over the importance of editing. Once I did a little reading and self-education I began to see how editing can make or break a picture. In the case of The Constant Gardener without the incredibly tight and skilled cutting, this would have been another yawnfest film vying for Oscar attention. That's not a good thing. In the moments where editing can't work around the film's flaws it comes across an annoyingly didactic. While I agree with the weight of the subject matter, it is a failure because it doesn't get that message across in a very entertaining way.

There are some very noteworthy highlights though, in particular, the way Meirelles tells us the story of Justin and Tessa's relationship. Tessa is dead within the first five minutes of the film and, after a trip to the morgue, the film detours for a good 40 minutes with a series of fragmented moments from their lives and from the work Tessa was doing. The dark secret that Tessa uncovered is never explicitly revealed during this sequence but all the information that is important comes across. We know why someone like Justin would fall for Tessa and we question what it is she wanted out of him. On a totally different note, I was impressed that Weisz did a nude scene while full on pregnant, it felt very real and was used in way that showed Justin's deep care and tenderness for Tessa.

This will not be remembered as a highlight of Meirelles' career. For one of his films, it is a low point, but its light years better than most "issue" movies made by Hollywood.

Robert Altman: Chorus of Voices Part One

When I was five years old or younger, I remember going over to my Uncle Wallace's house around Christmas and everyone was sitting around watching the film version of Popeye. I have faint memories of recognizing a strangeness in that film even at such a young age. I don't have pieces of plot from back then, what is floating around in the mist of my young brain are the way the characters spoke. They mumbled and talked over each other. The language was what made it strange. I wouldn't realize until years later that this was how I met Mr. Robert Altman.

Robert Altman passed away in November of 2006, leaving behind one of the most prolific bodies of American film work. It's said a lot that certain filmmakers are uncompromising and eventually they take a film and follow the studio's demands, but Altman was a director who truly held fast to his ideas about cinema. There were films, that on reflection, he didn't feel was his best work, but he always made them how he felt they should be made. He was vocal about his political beliefs, which definitely didn't make him many fans, and he was very explicit with sexuality in films, but always in an honest, realistic way. It was that desire to capture fiction as close to reality as possible that makes many of his films somewhat uneasy to sit through.

With this four part essay, I plan on taking a look at his filmography and highlighting those signatures that make a film Altman-esque. In addition, I want to look at periods in his career where he veered dramatically from his traditional style and experimented with different modes of storytelling. I've seen 18 of his films but that still leaves many others I've yet to see. My hope is that you discover a film whose description intrigues you enough to seek it out.

M*A*S*H (1970)
Starring Donald Sutherland, Elliot Gould, Robert Duvall, Sally Kellerman, Tom Skerritt, Rene Auberjonois

If your familiarity with this concept comes purely from the long-running sitcom then you are in for a surprise with this film. The humor here is much less sitcom-oriented and a thinly veiled swipe at the madness of the Vietnam War, something Altman opposed strongly. The novel the film is based on was about the Korean War and the film makes certain to say it is set in that conflict, yet everything being said on screen is about Vietnam. The plot is a very loose series of episodes featuring Hawkeye, Duke, and Trapper John (Sutherland, Skerritt, and Gould respectively), a trio of doctors drafted into the war and helping tend to the devastation. Throughout the picture, Altman doesn't miss an opportunity to skewer authority, whether it be the daft commanding officer Col. Blake or the disturbingly religious Maj. Frank Burns (Duvall). What M*A*S*H is most noted for are the gruesome surgery scene where the humorous banter between doctors and nurses is played in contrast to the sounds of saw scraping through bone.

Brewster McCloud (1970)

Starring Bud Cort, Sally Kellerman, Shelly Duvall, Michael Murphy, Rene Auberjonois, Bert Remsen, Stacy Keach, Margaret Hamilton

Altman continues his subversive assault on authority, this time focusing his sights on the police. This film also introduces some playful elements that would pepper the director's early work and take more prominence in the 1980s. A framing device is used where Rene Auberjonois plays a bizarre birdlike professor telling the story of the reclusive and eccentric Houston youth Brewster McCloud (Cort). McCloud is feverishly working to build a pair of mechanical working wings a la Leonardo da Vinci. Simultaneously, a series of murders occurs around the city that all have an odd bird motif to them. Altman diverges at a few points and the story can be a little hard to follow, but overall a wonderful early picture. Be on the look out for Margaret Hamilton (The Wicked Witch of the West) in the opening credits.

McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)

Starring Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Rene Auberjonois, Shelly Duvall, Keith Carradine

This is widely considered the first of Altman's naturalist films. In these types of pictures he took a common film genre and instead of subverting, in what might be called an experimental fashion, Altman would try to present the genre as realistically a possible. McCabe & Mrs. Miller was Altman's spin on the Western and it is unlike any Western made up to that point. There is no glamor in this interpretation, everything is intentionally dirty and bleak. McCabe (Beatty) is an opportunist who arrives at a mining town in Washington and proceeds to open a brothel. Mrs. Miller (Christie), a successful madam arrives and negotiates a partnership with McCabe which leads to a very profitable enterprise and McCabe assuming leadership of the town. Eventually, a larger mining company comes in wanting to purchase the town and its businesses and a very atypical showdown occurs. The film also features a beautiful original soundtrack by Leonard Cohen.

The Long Goodbye (1973)

Starring Elliot Gould, Henry Gibson

This is most definitely my favorite Altman film from this period and possibly of his entire body of work. Elliot Gould plays iconic detective Phillip Marlowe (a role originally made famous by Humphrey Bogart). True to Altman's form, this is a total subversion of the detective genre. Marlowe is not the cool and collected direct gumshoe Hollywood cultivated in the 1930s and 40s. This Marlowe is a man who almost stumbles into the clues and leads for his case. This Marlowe is a smartass who intentionally taunts the cops at every turn. The soundtrack for the film was composed by John Williams and consists only of variations of a jazz tune title "The Long Goodbye". There is something so satisfying to me about how this picture plays out, most likely because it doesn't happen like every other mystery film. There's also a wonderful subplot involving Marlowe's finicky cat whose appetite plays a key role in how the detective ends up in the predicament of the film.

Thieves Like Us (1974)

Starring Keith Carradine, Bert Remsen, John Schuck, Shelley Duvall, Louise Fletcher, Tom Skerritt

Check out my thoughts on this film in my full review.

California Split (1974)

Starring Elliot Gould, George Segal

This was Altman's attempt to take on the gambling/poker genre. Two men (Gould and Segal) meet and immediately click over their love of gambling. Underneath it all, I believe the film is actually a love story between these two men. When they first meet sparks fly and they are caught up in the thrill of the risk. Gould's character becomes more and more immersed in their antics while Segal remains realistic about it all. Eventually, Gould's debt forces them to travel to Reno where Amarillo Slim appears as himself in a high stakes game. The film ends on a bittersweet note, not with a huge loss and lesson learned, but with the risk fading as they just keep winning. In another way, nothing changes except how they see their relationship. What used to be exciting is now dull and so its inevitable that things will end between them.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Weekend Trailer Roundup

Get Him to the Greek (dir.Nicholas Stoller) - Aldous Snow (Russell Brand) of Forgetting Sarah Marshall is back! He's booked to perform in L.A. and its up to a junior record executive (Jonah Hill) to get him there. Not the greatest premise but I thought Forgetting Sarah Marshall was great so I'm excited about this one.

Prodigal Sons (dir. Kimberly Reed) - Director Reed chronicles the story of her family, particularly her brothers whom she has grown estranged from as they grew older. What she discovers about her adopted bro is that he is a blood relation to Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth! Looks fascinating as hell!

Ajami (dir. Scandar Copti, Yaron Shani) - a look at inner city life in Tel Aviv. Since, 2001's docu Trembling Before G-d I have been very interested in the contemporary Israeli situation, in particular their daily life. As this film promises to show, Tel Aviv has much more in common with New York City than any holy site in the world.

Mutants (dir. David Morlet) - Not much more complicated description for this than: a French zombie movie. Have to say that alone makes me interested. Wondering if they have any interesting flourishes to add.

Zonad (dir. John Carney, Kiernan Carney) - An Irish comedy that looks to mine the same premise as the dismal K-Pax. This time around it looks like we will have a much more enjoyable film.

Lost for Words (dir. Sean Wainsteim) - A very intriguing looking film about two children becoming lost in the woods. Looks to have some literary or language elements to the conundrum the children get caught up in.

Hypothetical Film Festival #6 - Unusual Love Stories

In honor of Valentine's Day, I decided to compile a film festival of unusual love stories. Some of them are romantic, some of them are funny, and some of them are even deeply disturbing. Enjoy!

Belle et Bête (1946, dir. Jean Cocteau)

If you enjoyed the world of Disney's Beauty and the Beast then you have this 1946 French film to thank for it. Disney's animators referenced this film in deciding what the Beast and his castle would look like. Cocteau was a poet, writer, and filmmaker who decided to adapt the original French folktale for the screen. There are some haunting images in this picture, in particular the hallways of arm-shaped candelabras that follow Belle as she first enters the castle. This film is the closest I've ever seen a fairy tale being captured on the screen. Composer Philip Glass was so moved by seeing the film that he composed a ballet based on it, and the Criterion edition allows you to watch with both the original score or Glass' music.

Harold and Maude (1971, dir. Hal Ashby)

Hal Ashby is one of two of my most favorite directors of the 1970s (the other being Robert Altman). This film cemented him as as an icon of the counter culture movement and served as the inspiration to many other filmmakers to come, in particular Wes Anderson. Ashby got folk singer Cat Stevens to write original songs for the film and they perfectly score the love story it tells. 18 year old Harold is a depressed aristocrat (sort of a prototype emo) who meets 80 year old Maude, a woman with more life than women 60 years her junior. Maude helps Harold to move beyond his forlorn nature and he falls in love with her. One of the best love stories ever told in film.

Brazil (1985, dir. Terry Gilliam)

Brazil is not just a film about two people in love, but also about being in love with dreams. Sam Lowry (played by the brilliant Jonathan Pryce) is a cog in the machine of a surreal variation on Orwell's Big Brother society. In his dreams he is an armored, winged hero fighting to save a damsel in distress. In reality the woman of his dreams is a mistrusting dump truck driver trying to find some justice in a corrupt system. When the two meet things hardly go well. But Sam learns to trust in his dreams, a decision that leads to a very bizarre and bittersweet ending for the couple.

The Crying Game (1990, dir. Neil Jordan)

One of THE most controversial films of its day because of the love story it tells. Fergus is a member of the IRA who is forced to interrogate someone his compatriots believe is working for the British government. The prisoner begs Fergus to visit his girlfriend in London, Dil. After the prisoner is killed, Fergus journies to meet Dil and what he learns about the woman is very shocking. Despite all the hub-bub made about the love story, its a very beautifully made film that has some interesting things to say about the British and Irish conflict in the U.K.

Audition (1999, dir. Takashi Miike)

Never thought Miike would end up on a list of love stories. This interesting picture is about Shigeharu, a widower whose friend encourages him to set up a fake movie audition for actress to find a date. Shigeharu meets Asami at the audition, a young soft-spoken woman who claims to have been on her way to a career as a dancer until an injury halted that. Shigeharu goes on one date with her and gets an odd feeling about the whole situation. As more and more is revealed about Asami the weirder things get, ending in one of the most intensely gruesome finales in film history. I remember being terrified simply from the trailer for this film.

Secretary (2002, dir. Steven Shainberg)

If you like your love stories BDSM-style, then this is the flick for you. Maggie Gyllenhaal stars as Lee, a young girl just released from a mental hospital and placed back in the midst of a horrendously dysfunctional family. Lee takes a job as a secretary at the law office of Edward Grey (James Spader) who she begins to develop feelings for. The two begin a dominant-submissive relationship that, while unlike traditional Hollywood romance, is filmed in a very beautiful way here. The thing to remember is that in such a relationships, the subtext is that the submissive is actually the one in control. Edward becomes ashamed of their actions and pushes Lee away and she decides to do whatever she can to convince Edward what they have is right.

Film 2010 #30 - The Secret of Kells

The Secret of Kells (2009, dir. Tomm Moore, Nora Twomey)

Starring Brendan Gleeson, Mick Lally

When the 2010 Oscar Nominations were announced I'm sure I wasn't the only one who wondered "What the hell is The Secret of Kells?" Well, it's an independently produced Irish film that played for a week in L.A. to qualify for the Academy Awards. The nomination will definitely garner attention for the film when it receives an expansion on American screens on March 12th, but is the picture deserving of the nom? A million times yes, and while Up will probably win because of its notoriety and box office, The Secret of Kells brings a style drastically different from the Disney formula that dominates American animation.

The story of The Secret of Kells is based in the history of Ireland circa 1006 A.D. The Vikings are massacring and raiding any village them come across in the hopes of amassing gold. The Abbey of Kells has become a sanctuary for many monks whose island homes have been burnt to the ground. Now, surrounded by the deep forest, they have gone back to creating gloriously intricate illuminated texts while the Abbot Cellach works to finish the wall before the Vikings arrive. Cellach's nephew, Brendan befriends Brother Aidan, the monk who has been working on the Book of Iona, believed to be the most beautiful illuminated manuscript ever made. Aidan enlists Brendan's help in gathering the supplies needed to finish the text by gathering inkberries for him in the forest. Brendan sneaks away, meeting the fairy Aisling, who introduces him to the wonders of the world outside the walls of the abbey.

The intricacies of the animated work in this film are astonishing. From the moment of the prologue, narrated by Aisling, there is no doubt that the love put into the picture is remarkable. The clever reasoning behind the level of detail is a direct nod to the craftsmanship put into illuminated manuscripts by monks. The same swirls, flourishes, and Celtic crosses seen in the texts can be found hidden amongst the gnarled roots of trees and clusters of leaves and flowers. The subtext here is that Brendan can only rise to the level of his hero, Aidan, by journeying beyond the walls of his limited experience. Someone like Aidan has been able to create such a beautiful piece of art because he has confronted his fears and conquered them.

While Brendan's story does follow closely to the accepted hero's journey archetype, there are many story beats that separate this film's plot from others. The unblinking look at violence at this period of time and this part of the world is very much there. When the Vikings rear their ugly heads it is apparent that they leave few alive in their wake. There is also tragedy of other sorts in the film's climactic sequence involving the unfinished abbey and its weak scaffolding. But the subtext throughout is telling us fear will be your end. Running frightened and unthinkingly at the sight of your fear leads you into destruction, but those characters who use their wits and remain calm are able to escape.

My own personal opinion is that the originality of content and artistic achievement of The Secret of Kells earns it the Best Animated Feature. However, the Academy Awards is usually more reflective of a mix between artistic elements and public awareness, meaning Up is the most likely candidate. Not to take away from Pixar, they would probably argue in favor of Kells as well, but I am excited for this film to reach a wider audience and gain more enthusiasm like mine.