Pillow Talk (1959, Michael Gordon) - Screening Notes

"It's so nice to meet a man you feel you can trust.."

Synopsis

Ladies man Brad (Rock Hudson) and career woman Jan (Doris Day) fall out over his excessive use of their shared phone line. Brad's best buddy Jonathon (Tony Randall) confides in him about his infatuation with the attractive interior decorator who redesigned his office and mentions how she is having trouble with a neighbour. Figuring out Jan is the lady in question Brad pretends to be a country boy from Texas and sets out to seduce her.

              •••••

The Doris Day/Rock Hudson partnership is one of cinema's most iconic pairings. Day was already famous for musicals like Calamity Jane (53, David Butler), but the success of Pillow Talk turned her into Hollywood's biggest female star. Hudson had worked his way through the studio system  but as a leading man he seemed bland and wooden in genre films. However he made a huge impression as a dramatic actor proving himself to be more than a 6'4 hunk in a series of films for director Douglas Sirk (Magnificent Obsession, All That Heaven Allows, Written on the Wind, The Tarnished Angels). Dismissed somewhat patronisingly on their release as being merely 'women's pictures' they are now recognised as classics and Hudson's performances show a remarkable depth of feeling. New to comedy and wracked with doubts about his ability to be funny Hudson was lost until Pillow Talk director Gordon told him to play it as seriously as if he were acting in a tragedy. It probably helped having gifted comic actors like Tony Randall and Thelma Ritter around him though.

Producer Ross Hunter was an influential figure in the making of Pillow Talk. The findings of the recently published Kinsey reports (1948, 53) signalled the changing mores of American society. Hunter was fed up adhering to the Hay's Code, a censorious set of rules which had been in place since 1930 and aimed to protect public morality. Pillow Talk may seem tame by modern standards but screenwriters Stanley Shapiro and Maurice Richlin push the envelope with suggestive dialogue. Michael Gordon also uses a split screen technique (see picture left) so Jan and Brad appear to be in the same bathtub or bed which in 1959 would still contravene the Hay's Code.

Pillow Talk was so popular Day/Hudson/Randall reteamed again for two other films - Lover Come Back (61, Delbert Mann) and Send Me No Flowers (64, Norman Jewison). What seemed progressive in 1959 dated in the 60's as younger audiences turned away from the popular entertainment their parents liked. By the early 70's all three leads were working primarily in television. Tony Randall had a huge hit with the long-running TV version of The Odd Couple. Hudson starred in McMillan and Wife and made his last onscreen appearance in 1985 as a regular on Dynasty, essentially a trashy but fun distillation of the kind of melodramas he made back in the 50's. Sadly Hudson is best known these days for being the most high profile victim of the AIDS virus. Doris Day starred in her own comedy show until 1973 but retired from public life afterwards. In 2011 she made a comeback of sorts by releasing a new album entitled 'My Heart.' 

Skyfall Station Screening Notes

Can't say I cared much for Skyfall but clearly I seem to be in the minority. Anyway here's the programme notes for the latest screening at The Station. 

Skyfall (2012, Sam Mendes)

"Sometimes the old ways are the best."

Having successfully rebooted the Bond franchise with Casino Royale (2006, dir. Martin Campbell) producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson found making a worthy follow-up problematic. A strike enforced by the Writers Guild of America meant Quantum of Solace started filming without a finished screenplay. The resulting movie naturally enough seems rushed but despite the low-key approach and its perceived failure Quantum of Solace remains one of the more interesting Bond films. Not many big-budget action movies are concerned thematically with the effects of grieving.

Still it wasn't what audiences wanted after the confident approach of Casino Royale. Worse was to come for Eon Productions when their partners MGM filed for bankruptcy. There were worrying echoes of the prolonged absence from the screens after 1989's Licence to Kill (John Glen) when a series of legal wrangles shut down the franchise for six years and led to the cancellation of a proposed third Timothy Dalton film titled 'The Property of a Lady.' For a few months it seemed like Daniel Craig might share the same fate as his predecessor until Sony stepped in and signed a deal to co-finance and distribute all future Bond films.


Eon have brought together an impressive group of A-List talent. Director Sam Mendes won an Oscar for American Beauty (1999) and previously worked with Daniel Craig on the gangster movie Road to Perdition (2004). Cinematographer Roger Deakins (The Assassination of Jesse James) is widely regarded as being one of the greatest in his field. Spanish actor Javier Bardem is an impressive bad guy sporting a haircut that’s every bit as weird as his barnet in No Country for Old Men (2008, Joel & Ethan Coen). The plot is relatively straightforward. Bond must battle to save his surrogate Queen M (Judi Dench) from a vengeful former agent while Intelligence Chief Mallory (Ralph Fiennes) tries to enforce her retirement.

Skyfall feels like a new beginning once again reinstating classic elements from the Bond franchise including Q (Ben Wishaw) and the Walther PPK, but also reinventing the past. Danny Boyle opened the Olympics in style with a short film showing James Bond escorting a certain VIP to the opening ceremony. Mendes continues this celebratory theme for the franchise’s 50^th anniversary year and affirms James Bond’s place as a British cultural icon even going as far to emphasise his Anglo-Scottish roots. Time will tell if Skyfall deserves a place alongside the great Bond films but for now it is the right film at the right moment.  

Seven Psychopaths (2012, Martin McDonagh)

Courtesy of CBS films

"Bet you wish you had your gun now."

On the surface Seven Psychopaths appears to be a knockabout comedy featuring a bunch of guys pointing guns at each other and talking bollocks. McDonagh's screenplay is essentially an exercise in navel-gazing and overall the film is a mess. Yet Seven Psychopaths works because Martin McDonagh has something to say about loss. Any comparisons to Quentin Tarantino are dismissed in an opening sequence showing two overly talkative hitmen (Boardwalk Empire stars Michael Pitt and Michael Stuhlbarg) too busy conversing to notice one of McDonagh's anarchic psychos casually walking up behind them with a gun in each hand.

Marty (Colin Farrell) is a blocked screenwriter whose technique of using alcohol for inspiration isn't working. He has a title - Seven Psychopaths and a vague idea about a Vietnamese man taking vengeance on Americans for the My Lai massacre in 1968. Best friend Billy (Sam Rockwell) wants to help and puts an ad in the trades looking for killers to share their stories with Marty leading them to an unusual encounter with Zachariah (Tom Waits), an eccentric who carries around a white rabbit and claims to have been part of a couple who hunted down and killed other serial killers. Billy also has a sideline in dog-napping with his partner Hans (Christopher Walken) but when they kidnap the beloved pet of gangster Charlie Costello (Woody Harrelson) all hell breaks loose.

The characters are as self-aware as those in Wes Scream (1996) with an abundance of knowledge about how movies work, but the narrative also deals with the art of storytelling, not just in screenplays but in urban legends, or fairy tales. The film has plenty of depth but its much vaunted humour is only intermittently funny with most of the laughs coming from Waits who longs for a reunion with his former lover and partner in crime.  The white rabbit renders him with a touch of the Mad Hatter. Zachariah may well be a harmless lunatic telling tall tales or a lunatic who really does kill people. Walken is great too delivering the kind of graceful, haunted menace we haven’t seen from him since Abel Ferrara’s masterpiece The Funeral (1996).

The movie is driven by two opposing viewpoints - Marty’s pacifism and Billy’s insistence that genre rules must be obeyed. So while Marty wants to chill out in the desert and talk about things Billy wants the showdown you would expect an action film to deliver. Ideally Marty would prefer to not write about violence at all and his developing interest in Buddhist philosophy undercuts the action, particularly in relation to the acceptance of death. Recurrent throughout the film is the theme of passive resistance, of refusing to accept threats often to the bewilderment of the aggressor. “But I have a gun…!” responds Zeljko Ivanek’s mobster when Hans refuses to surrender.

Though it shares with Charlie Kaufman and Spike Jonze’s Adaptation (2002) a self-reflexive approach to narrative the film it recalls most is Mike Hodges underrated Pulp (1972), a thriller also about a writer which deconstructs male machismo and leaves its faux hard-boiled protagonist wiser and sadder at its end. McDonagh has been playing about with genre tropes since his early days in the theatre and in his short film Six Shooter (2005) and feature debut In Bruges (2008) but maybe it's time he embraced the message of his latest movie and put those guns away.

Anna Karenina (2012, Joe Wright) - Station Screening Notes

"All the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow."

                                         Leo Tolstoy,  Anna Karenina 

Anna Karenina (Keira Knightley) scandalises Russian society by embarking on a tempestuous affair with handsome young cavalry officer Count Vronsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) thus putting her husband Karenin's (Jude Law) political ambitions in jeopardy. Director Joe Wright and screenwriter Tom Stoppard's formally daring approach to Tolstoy's novel sets the action within an elaborately constructed theatre. By refusing to place events in real locations Wright adds a phantasmagorical touch as if these characters exist out-with their own time replaying events from the past. It is a bold conceit but one that never diverts from the power of Tolstoy's story or the very fine performances from Knightley and in particular Jude Law. 

Director Profile - Joe Wright

British director Joe Wright started his career directing dramas for the BBC, most notably Charles II: The Power and the Passion (2003). This led to him being chosen to direct Pride and Prejudice (2005) for Working Title Films with Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen (both of whom appear in Anna Karenina). Another literary adaptation followed with Ian McEwan's Atonement (2007) again with Knightley. The Soloist (2009) based on the true story of a musician who develops schizophrenia and ends up homeless didn't receive the acclaim of Wright's earlier films but it is an affecting work with great performance from Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr. Hanna (2009) is an odd mixture of action movie and fairytale starring Eric Bana and Saoirse Ronan as father and daughter assassins. 

Tolstoy on Film

Tolstoy has been well served by film. Greta Garbo made an impression in a 1935 version of Anna Karenina (dir. Clarence Brown). Russian actor-director Sergei Bonderchuk's 1967 take on War and Peace is eight hours long but still quicker than reading the book. Robert Bresson's final film L' Argent (1983) is a masterly reworking of the Tolstoy short story 'The Forged Coupon.' Italian brothers Paolo and Vittorio Taviani made a typically spare and elegant adaptation of Tolstoy's 'Father Serguis.' With Ivansxtc (2001) Bernard Rose relocates 'The Life and Death of Ivan Ilyich' to contemporary Los Angeles as a Hollywood agent faces up to his own mortality.

Anna Karenina

Screenplay by Tom Stoppard (based on the novel by Leo Tolstoy)

Directed by Joe Wright

Running time 2 hours 10 mins

Rust and Bone (2012, Jacques Audiard)

Rust and Bone seems designed to polarise opinions. A melodramatic poetic realist romance about the odd courtship between a mixed martial arts fighter and a former killer whale trainer with no legs, the film is meshed together from two short stories by the Canadian writer Craig Davidson and they don't quite fit together but it works nonetheless. Rust and Bone is an atypical movie from Jacques Audiard, usually a director of crime thrillers such as The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005) and the recent highly acclaimed A Prophet (2009). This is more like a fairytale, with its relatively simplistic storyline layered with depth but it retains Audiard's compassion for outsiders.

Ali (Matthias Schoenaerts) is a single dad from Belgium who comes to the coast to live with his sister. While working the door at a nightclub he stops Stephanie (Marion Cotillard) from being beaten by a customer and drives her home. Neither thinks much of the other until they get back to her apartment. Ali is impressed when he sees the photos of Stephanie training Orcas. Likewise Ali's contempt for her overbearing boyfriend when he tries to order him about pleases Stephanie. It is doubtful they would meet again were it not for her accident. No longer (or so she thinks) able to do the things she loves she phones Ali presumably because he once showed her kindness. 

There is a fairly obvious comparison between the Orcas and Ali. Ali is a childlike brute in need of a firm hand. Though Schoenaerts suggests there is a lot going on under this guy's skin Ali is incapable of expressing himself except through violence. Though his disregard for other people's feelings is often destructive it helps his relationship with Stephanie. He has no inhibitions, it does not even register that asking this woman who recently lost her legs if she wants to go for a swim might be a tad insensitive. Yet this brusque approach is entirely what Stephanie needs to draw her out of her isolation and the two form a strong bond with her even acting as the interim manager for his street brawls.

Cotillard has spent the last few years playing girlfriend roles in Hollywood films, albeit for prestige directors like Michael Mann and Christopher Nolan. These films tested Cotillard about as much as playing the eye candy in the Luc Besson produced Taxi movies, but here you can see why Audiard had no interest in making this film without her. In her best work (La Vie en Rose, Little White Lies) Cotillard is ferocious and she makes Stephanie's journey back to some semblance of her former self entirely believable whether rediscovering the joys of being in water or glassing a man in a nightclub when he is foolish enough to patronise her. 

Stéphane Fontaine's cinematography contrast the brightness of the world outside with the darkness of the interiors. The music is perfectly chosen from Katy Perry's 'Fireworks' to Bruce Springsteen's 'State Trooper' during a stylised street brawl. There are moments here of sublime beauty not least when Cotillard summons a whale up against the glass and makes it perform on a return visit to the marine-land.

Though Audiard is unashamedly manipulative the film's ending seems incongruous and tacked on. No sport is more melodramatic than boxing so quite why Audiard shies away from showing any in the film's latter stages seems a shame. Perhaps he felt this would detract from Ali's transformation into a fully rounded human being or make Rust and Bone feel like too much of a genre film but essentially what he has made is a dreamier version of Rocky, poor dumb brute improves himself by learning how to have a proper relationship with a woman. 

North by Northwest - Station Screening

North by Northwest (1959, Alfred Hitchcock)

Introduced by Allan Hunter

“Goodbye Mr Thornhill, wherever you are.”

  A man wrongly accused of committing a serious crime and struggling to prove his innocence is a recurring figure in the films of Alfred Hitchcock. Suave advertising executive Roger O. Thornhill (Cary Grant) raises his hand at the wrong moment in a restaurant and is mistaken for a spy named George Kaplan. Thornhill is then pursued across the country by foreign spies and the police who believe him to be a murderer. Worse still, his mother wants him home for dinner. Thornhill hooks up with a stranger on a train, the achingly lovely Eve (Eva Marie Saint) and the two try to prove his innocence but can she be trusted? Everybody involved in the production brings their A-game. Ernest Lehman’s witty screenplay plays around with notions of identity and truth as well as being daringly suggestive for the times. Bernard Hermann’s score mixes suspense with romanticism. Hitchcock’s stunning use of set-pieces and spectacular locations lays down the template for the modern action movie blockbuster. For a film in which deception features so strongly there is nothing fake about Grant’s effortless charm or his onscreen chemistry with Marie Saint. North by Northwest is an action thriller with plenty of depth.

Allan Hunter

Film journalist for the Daily Express and Screen Daily, Allan Hunter is also the co-director of the Glasgow Film Festival, an event growing in stature every year. In 2010 Mr Hunter oversaw a retrospective of Cary Grant’s career at the GFF. An admirer of Grant’s work, Mr Hunter will introduce tonight’s screening and afterwards talk about the film.

Cast

Cary Grant – Roger O. Thornhill

Eva Marie Saint – Eve Kendall

James Mason – Philip Vanda

Jessie Reynolds – Clara Thornhill

Leo G. Carroll – The Professor

Martin Landau – Leonard

Screenplay by Ernest Lehman

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Running time 2 hrs 16 mins

The Angel's Share (2012, Ken Loach) - Station Screening Notes

Only wrote a brief introduction for this screening as a guest speaker was due to make an appearance. If you'd told me when The Station started screening movies that one night there would have been a full house laughing uproariously at a Ken Loach movie I would have thought you were mental. 

‘malt whisky epitomises the inherent dichotomy of the Scottish psyche – at once passionate and rational, romantic and ironic, mystical and sceptical, heroic and craven, full of laughter and despair.’

Charles Maclean, Malt Whisky (1998)

 Scottish cinema can generally be divided into two categories – gritty urban dramas (Trainspotting, Neds) or charming escapism (Local Hero). Ken Loach’s The Angel’s Share manages to cover both territories with this tale of a young tearaway who finds redemption through a developing interest in Malt whisky. Robbie (Paul Brannigan) is a bright lad but never far away from trouble. Unable to extricate himself from a long-time feud with a local gang and hated by his pregnant girlfriend’s family he is running out of chances until kindly community services leader Harry (John Henshaw) takes him under his wing and introduces him to the pleasures of malt whisky. Loach and Glaswegian writer Paul Laverty have collaborated on fourteen other films several of which have been set in Scotland including Carla’s Song (1994), My Name is Joe (98), and Ae Fond Kiss (2004). Always sympathetic to the plight of the underprivileged their work together particularly when dealing with Scots working class life has a great deal of humour present. The Angel’s Share is one of Loach’s warmest films, avoiding his tendency for didacticism but still managing to pass social commentary while being extremely entertaining. 

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen - Screening Notes

Photo by Laurie Sparham courtesy of Yemen Distributions, BBC, & the BFI

Film screenings at The Station Restaurant began again tonight with Lasse Hallstrom's Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. The facilities have been upgraded to surround-sound by The Station's partners at Film Mobile Scotland. Here are my programme notes. They are fairly perfunctory. While I liked Salmon Fishing in the Yemen fine enough it strikes me as another example of a popular and smart bestseller being distilled into a conventional British rom-com. Still it does have a certain charm and Kristin Scott Thomas is always fun in upper-class bitch mode. 

Cast

Dr Alfred Jones – Ewan McGregor

Harriet – Emily Blunt

Patricia Maxwell – Kristin Scott Thomas

Sheik Muhammed – Amr Waked

Mary Jones – Rachel Stirling

Capt. Robert Mayers – Tom Mison

Written by Simon Beaufoy, based on the novel by Paul Torday

Directed by Lasse Hallstrom

Running time 1 hr 47 mins

Fisheries expert Dr. Alfred Jones (McGregor) is left bemused after being approached by Harriet (Blunt), the representative for an Arab sheik with a crazy plan to introduce salmon fishing in the Middle East. Initially sceptical Dr. Jones is pressured by the PM’s aide (Kristin Scott Thomas) into working on the project. Paul Torday’s acclaimed 2007 novel Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is satirical in tone and an attack on the political machinations of New Labour but still held a hopeful belief in the power of human beings to transform themselves and the world around them. This charming film adaptation adds a touch of the British rom-com archetype patented by Richard Curtis in which an awkward but loveable man falls for an easygoing beauty.

Profile – Lasse Hallstrom (1946-)

Lasse Hallstrom started out making music videos for Abba. Nearly all of the band’s promos were directed by Hallstrom so perhaps he learnt to master heartfelt sentimentality from working with the Swedish supergroup. Hallstrom’s films are invariably sweet natured dramas with an uplifting feel. After directing Abba: The Movie! In 1977 Hallstrom moved onto features and in 1985 won huge acclaim with a wickedly funny coming of age story My Life as a Dog. In the early 90’s Hallstrom made the move to America. The quirky and moving What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? (1993) stars Johnny Depp as a sensitive outsider in a small town trying to cope with his needy family. An adaptation of John Irvin’s novel The Cider House Rules (1998) picked up two Oscars and since then Hallstrom has specialised in intelligent star-studded productions. Chocolat (2000) and The Shipping News (2001) are both literary adaptations of works by Joanne Harris and E. Annie Prouix respectively. Casanova (2005) starred the late Heath Ledger as the legendary lover. The Hoax (2006) is a terrific drama about a true life million dollar con involving a fake biography of Howard Hughes. Hallstrom is currently working on an adaptation of Nicholas Sparks novel Safe Haven due out next year.

Been errant of late so here is a round up of what I've been watching on Blu-ray over the last month or so.

Fallen Angels (1995, Wong Kar-Wai)

Originally planned as the third segment of Chungking Express (1994) this feels more episodic and thrown together than the earlier film but it gets better with every viewing. A lonely hitman (Leon Lai) half-heartedly carries out contract killings while considering leaving the game, his fixer (Michelle Reis) has feelings for him, while a sweet but crazy mute (Takeshi Kaneshiro) breaks into businesses at night and takes them over. Fallen Angels works as a summation of themes developed through Kar-Wai's career at that point finding room even for the heroic bloodshed of his debut As Tears Go By (1987) in amongst the now familiar neon-lit yearning and romantic despair. The Blu-ray includes an entertaining interview with director of photography Chris Doyle which ends with the Heineken fuelled cinematographer lying face down on the bar.  

This Must Be the Place (2011, Paolo Sorrentino)

Sorrentino's English language debut is a genuine oddity. Sean Penn stars as a burnt out Robert Smith-type rock star who leads a reclusive life in Ireland until news of his father's imminent death sends him on a quest to  find a Nazi war criminal. Taking it's name from a Talking Heads song and featuring a beautifully filmed performance by the band This Must Be the Place plays like a Wim Wenders road movie with a sense of humour. Decent features as well with two versions of the film, the UK theatrical release and the original cut shown at Cannes. 

Barbarella (1968, Roger Vadim)

Never paid much attention to Vadim until I saw his haunting vampire movie Blood and Roses (1960) last year which made me reassess his work and my view of him as being nothing more than a French caricature who liked to shag his leading ladies. Barbarella is beautifully designed by Mario Garbuglia and has a distinctly pop art 60's sensibility which is always welcome. Jane Fonda is the perfect mixture of naivety and sex kitten in the leading role and Milo O' Shea is reliably dodgy. Sadly this Blu-ray is vanilla flavoured.

Outpost II: Black Sun (2012, Steve Barker)

Watchable sequel to Scottish production company Black Camel's entertaining Nazi/zombie flick Outpost (2009). This time around a Nazi-hunter (Catherine Steadman) finds herself at the Outpost and stumbling into an advancing battalion of Undead SS soldiers. Richard Coyle (Grabbers) co-stars as a expert in Nazi antiquities whose interest in her may be more than professional. While the first film trapped a group of tough mercenaries in the claustrophobic atmosphere of an abandoned bunker 'Black Sun' opens out the action which makes the limited budget more obvious but credit to director Barker and his team for making the best of it. There's a standard making of documentary on the Blu-ray and that's about it. Apparently there's a third Outpost movie due out next year though.

Walkabout (1971, Nic Roeg)

Interesting watching this after seeing Roeg and his screenwriter Allan Scott a few years ago at a Director's Cut event at the University of Aberdeen talking about working on Walkabout. The original screenplay was fourteen pages long and the studio made them pad it out to ease the concerns of the investors. Storywise the film is simple enough, a teenage girl (Jenny Agutter) and her younger brother are lost in the Outback after their father commits suicide. A kindly Aborigine (David Gulpilil) boy guides them and eventually falls in love with the girl though she rejects him. Yet Roeg uses imagery, editing, and subjective viewpoints to craft a story about the end of innocence, the emptiness of modern life, and perhaps of existence too. Universal have done great work on their centenary Blu-ray releases this year but sadly Walkabout didn't feature on their list.

The Night Porter (1974, Liliana Cavani)

"I have a reason for working at night..."

  Regarded by some as being merely an artier version of that most dubious of sub-genres, the Nazi sexploitation flick, The Night Porter still makes people uneasy. Yet it was made at a time when filmmakers were beginning to reflect on events leading up to the rise of the Nazi's to power and it has more in common with The Damned (1969), Luchino Visconti's operatic study of a prosperous German family falling apart as the Nazi's begin their rise to political power than trash like Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS (Don Edmonds, 1975). Dirk Bogarde and Charlotte Rampling both worked together on the Visconti film and with Bogarde also appearing in Rainer Werner Fassbinder's lovely ruin Despair (1978) The Night Porter forms part of an unofficial trilogy about the Third Reich. While The Damned and Despair are set before the war The Night Porter takes place in 1957 in a grim sunless Vienna where the past clearly still has a hold on people. 

  Former SS officer Max (Bogarde) works as the night porter in a hotel. Though he keeps a low profile lest his activities during the war are discovered Max likes it that way. Max wants solitude, to live like a "church mouse" as says at one point. Like Rick in Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942) Max is cynical, isolationist, but also a fixer for the inhabitants of his establishment. Max has subtly recreated his role in the camps as a man who can be relied on for discretion and getting things done. Max pimps a younger member of staff to an ageing opera singer, helps a former colleague who was a professional dancer before the war to perform ballet in private, and generally has the run of the place. Then his perfectly ordered existence is shattered when Lucia (Rampling) walks in. Now married to a successful composer she seems to have moved on with her life but Lucia recognises Max immediately. Though initially fearful, she begins to reminisce about her time in the camps where Max went from being her abuser to her self-appointed protector and her memories seem to excite her. 

  So is it Stockholm Syndrome recurring or genuine romantic feeling? Max and Lucia need each other but don't seem to understand why. Cavani knows people can behave in ways that are destructive and can long for oblivion. During a performance of Mozart's The Magic Flute conducted by Lucia's husband where Cavani cuts between the past and the present. Max is sitting a few rows behind her and both seem to be thinking in tandem. Lucia no longer wishes to leave Vienna but instead submits to Max though now she is older she is his equal, as capable of inflicting pain as taking it. Lucia's presence their puts them both in danger from a group of ex-Nazi's led by Hans (Gabrielle Ferzetti) who believes guilt is an aberration of the psyche and conducts mock trials so any evidence or witnesses of their past can be found and erased.

   The Night Porter then sounds like a romance and to a certain extent it is, albeit a bleak and destructive one which works as a study in guilt and corruption. The main charges levelled against The Night Porter are that it is exploitative. It kind of is but only in the way that any film which utilises history to tell a fictional story is exploiting human tragedy. The Night Porter is expressionistic in its use of lighting and has a lucid dream-like quality. Cavani is able to convey in cinematic terms ideas associated with German Romanticism; a movement which aimed for transcendence but ended up influencing the twisted idealism of National Socialism and its destructive attempts at purifying Europe. The Night Porter is about this ruin and Cavani offers a union which epitomises Goethe’s belief romanticism is a form of sickness.

The casting is perfect. Since Victim (1961, Basil Deardon) Bogarde’s default setting was playing men who struggle within themselves and he is powerful and moving here humanising a man we should really be repelled by. Rampling too is a haunting presence, strikingly beautiful, but oddly asexual, she looks like a doll that has come to life and would rather become a toy again. Rampling’s famous dance scene for the concentration guards is more akin to a surreal parody of a 20’s Berlin cabaret performance than the provocative tease the film's poster seems to promise.

There is a recurring theme in Cavani’s work of outsiders clashing with authority, of going their own way regardless of what harm they bring to themselves. Cavani’s early films focused on historical figures who defied the social conventions of their time in Francis of Assisi (1960) and Galileo (1968). I Cannibali (1970) turned the Greek tragedy ‘Antigone’ into a contemporary allegory about a police state. She has a better grasp of Patricia Highsmith’s amoral worldview than Anthony Minghella with her 2002 adaptation of Ripley’s Game. Her best films are ambiguous, haunting, and offer no easy answers. In The Night Porter even the Nazis, history’s ultimate freaks, cannot contemplate why Max and Lucia should want to be together.  

The Hunter (2011, Daniel Nettheim) - Review

“Must be very nice for you, not to need anyone”

I briefly thought novelist Julia Leigh invented the Thylacine aka Tasmanian Tiger. I'm from the other side of the planet so this oddly beautiful creature is completely new to me. Sadly the last of the species died in captivity in 1936. Though they resembled dogs they were actually marsupials and apparently timid around humans but white settlers hunted them to extinction due to erroneous fears they were a danger to livestock. There have been supposed sightings since but these are hearsay or come with the standard blurry footage which accompanies alleged sightings of the Loch Ness Monster or Bigfoot. The thylacine has become a myth and David Nettheim’s film uses it as the basis for a thriller which finds room for environmental concerns but never lectures the audience or takes the easy way out right down to its devastating finale.

Based on the 1999 novel by Julia Leigh there is a familiarity present in the genre aspects of the film but not in how they are executed. Anybody who saw Leigh’s own directorial debut Sleeping Beauty will know she likes ambiguity and protagonists whose behaviour is difficult to fathom. Willem Dafoe plays a mercenary who operates under the name Martin David. Hired by a pharmaceutical company to investigate a rumoured sighting of a thylacine Martin has been instructed to bring back skin and DNA samples before anybody else finds it. Posing as an academic researching the Tasmanian Devil Martin spends his time setting traps and tracking in the wilderness. The locals are suspicious of outsiders, most of them rely on the logging industry to make a living and their livelihoods threatened by the activities of environmental campaigners.

Though he would prefer to be alone Martin is forced to billet with a family. We know he will eventually let his guard drop and begin to care about them despite himself. The mother (Frances O’ Connor) is catatonic and lies doped up grieving for her husband Jarrah who has been missing for a year. The children, Sass (Morgana Davies) and Bike (Finn Woodlock) look after themselves though a neighbour Jack (Sam Neill) drops in occasionally. David reluctantly becomes a surrogate father whose presence in the house helps bring the family back together. Normally in films when hitmen begin to feel emotions it is the beginning of the end for them but Martin surprises himself by adapting to his new role. The boy in particular comes out of his shell and seems to have some knowledge about Jarrah’s work before he disappeared.

Dafoe’s hugely affecting turn matches his performance as another existential loner in Paul Schrader’s underrated Light Sleeper (1992). There are similarities with Joe Carnahan’s The Grey (2011) which also deals with an ageing protagonist pondering his own mortality while battling against the elements. Like The Hunter that film was also marketed as an action thriller which proved deceptive but no doubt persuaded people to watch it. Both these films are about impermanence and the inevitability of death, about the landscape enduring while people or in this case whole species come and go. There is more than a touch of Peter Weir style mysticism about The Hunter, of something intangible being expressed with a great deal of subtlety. Nettheim and cinematographer Robert Humphreys frame Dafoe against this extraordinary wilderness and it is hard not to think people shouldn’t be in places like this at all. 

EIFF 2012 Roundup

Being from out of town I only managed a few days at this year's festival. I wish I had been able to see Nicolas Provost's The Invader which I heard great things about but here's the pick of the movies I managed to catch while I was down there.

Killer Joe (William Friedkin)

Prior to his new film the opening the Edinburgh International Film Festival William Friedkin was at the Filmhouse for a special showing of his great crime thriller The French Connection (1971). Forty years later and Killer Joe feels like the work of a hotshot young director but that’s a backhanded compliment. It’s a dark and twisted tale channelling the same skewed Americana you find in the novels of Barry Gifford, part thriller part fairytale. Based on a play by Tracy Letts, who also provided the material for Friedkin’s earlier Bug (2006), Friedkin opens out the action so even with the dialogue heavy scenes it never seems stagey. Yet Killer Joe is all surface with not much underneath. Witty in its deconstruction of the effects of the economic crisis and an overlying moral decay at the heart of a society where monetary gain is placed above all else, the film’s main flaw is it simply does not give a damn about these people. It works effectively as post-feminist revisionist fairytale in which the female victim tames the big bad wolf but that was done better by Matthew Bright in his Freeway movies.

McConaughey’s much vaunted lead performance falls flat. I kept looking at McConaughey in his cowboy hat and couldn’t help wishing for the easy but menacing charm of Timothy Olyphant. Juno Temple however is remarkable as the otherwordly Dottie, a little girl lost with sharp teeth, at once innocent and yet far more dangerous than any of her dysfunctional family or the various killers and ne’er-do-wells who appear throughout the film. It says a lot about the MPAA that such a tame film has been denied a US release because of Friedkin’s refusal to bow to their demands for cuts. I’m guessing a close-up of Gina Gershon’s bush would be on the MPAA’S hit list but it is telling while both female leads go full frontal Matthew McConaughey’s genitals are discreetly hidden away. It's that kind of film, plenty of front but no balls

Grabbers (Jon Wright)

Possibly the best film I’ve seen in which a drunken Irishman kicks an alien to death, Grabbers was a pleasant surprise. Imagine an Irish Local Hero crossed with 80’s horror films like Tremors and Ghoulies and you have an idea of what to expect as a small island is invaded by squid like creatures with a taste for human blood. Richard Coyle (Pusher) is charming as the feckless Garda officer who is perked up by the arrival of an uptight colleague (Ruth Bradley) from the mainland. With a witty screenplay, impressive CGI, and a great supporting cast including Bronagh Gallagher (Pulp Fiction) Grabbers deserves to reach as wide an audience as possible.

Dragon (Peter Chan)

Highly entertaining martial arts film choreographed by star Donnie Yen with a great performance from Takeshi Kaneshiro as a troubled detective piecing together how a country bumpkin Liu Jin-xi (Yen) not only survives a confrontation with two ruthless killers but somehow leaves them both dead. Peter Chan’s film is an intriguing and thoughtful addition to the Wu Xia genre. A Chinese variation on David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence its plot grips as the audience is left wondering whether Jin-xi is who he claims to be or Xu Bia-jiu (Kaneshiro) is imagining things that aren’t there.

Shadow Dancer (James Marsh)

 This understated thriller is a throwback to the kind of films that British and Irish cinema regularly produced about the Troubles in the 80’s and early 90’s. Set in 1993 just before the peace process begins to take hold Shadow Dancer is based on a novel by former journalist Tom Bradby. Director James Marsh, better known for his documentary work, has an eye for detail and the film is certainly gripping. Single mother and IRA volunteer Collette (Andrea Riseborough) finds herself forced to tout for the British security forces by MI5 operative Mac (Clive Owen) but unforeseen events put her life in serious danger as IRA hardman Mulville (David Wilmot) starts asking questions. Shadow Dancer is well acted and interesting but there is nothing here we haven’t seen before in those earlier films which were contemporaneous and had an urgency about them that is missing here.

EIFF 2012 - Pusher (Luis Prieto)

"Frankie my friend, you owe me money."

Sadly not a Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009, Werner Herzog) style reworking with the premise of an earlier film turned into something strange and new, this flashy remake moves the action from Copenhagen to London and mimics the style and plot of Nicolas Winding Refn's debut Pusher (1996, ) but fails to capture its emotional intensity. Frank (Richard Coyle) botches a drug deal after getting lifted by the police while carrying gear borrowed from amiable gangster Milo (once again played by Zlatko Burić who appeared in all three of Refn’s Pusher movies). While comparisons are inevitable Luis Prieto’s film remains watchable enough thanks to a charismatic turn from former Coupling star Coyle cast against type and the strength of Refn’s narrative which still grips from the moment Frank finds himself in trouble. 

There is plenty of gangster movie posturing in Refn's movie but there was a sense these people had inner lives; that they existed outside the clichés of the genre. In one memorable sequence the towering Serbian enforcer Radovan (Slavko Labovic) spoke of his dream of retiring from a life of ripping out kneecaps and opening a restaurant. Most of the characters seemed trapped by their circumstances be it poverty or their involvement in crime. Moments of reflection are skimmed over in the remake. There is a hamfisted attempt at conveying the human cost of Frank’s trade with a harmless old shopkeeper being leaned on a little too heavily but when Prieto cuts to a close-up of a dog sadly observing the aftermath the effect is anything but subtle.


You could understand why Kim Bodnia’s Frank worked with Tonny (Mads Mikkelsen).  These two seemed like friends and Frank was a thug, smarter than Tonny but not by much. Coyle’s Frank is more intelligent and would surely figure Tony (Bronson Webb) for a liability long before he lands him in it.  While Coyle and Burić are effective the rest of the cast act like they are in an episode of The Bill. Agyness Deyn looks far too healthy for a woman who is supposed to be hooked on drugs and desperate to escape from her destructive lifestyle. Pusher 2012 is an interesting film to watch for long-time admirers of Refn, though a new entry in the series would have been preferable. The film is worth seeing however for Coyle, the impressive neon-tinged visuals by cinematographer Simon Dennis, and the score by Orbital. 

Casa de mi Padre (2011, Matt Piedmont)

"Mi nombre es Armando Alvarez"

Kris Kristofferson introduces Casa de mi Padre with a disclaimer which would sound like an apology for the entire film being in Spanish were it not for the man who played Sam Peckinpah’s Billy the Kid doing the talking. Instead Kristofferson’s gruff amiable delivery is more like a friendly warning, the kind Billy would make before he gunned somebody down. It is fitting because as funny as Case de mi Padre the film is also an entertaining Western put together by people who clearly have a lot of respect for the genre.

Writer Andrew Steele and director Matt Piedmont are both Saturday Night Live alumni and have worked on Ferrell’s Funny or Die website. Casa de mi Padre might seem more suited for a short sketch but you have to admire Ferrell and his posse for going all the way and making a film so defiantly out there that its best hope is finding a cult following on DVD. The Other Guys (2010, Adam McKay) worked for audiences because everybody knows the conventions of the buddy cop movie but Casa de mi Padre is Ferrell’s most esoteric film to date. Technically it may recall other retro homage’s like Machete (2010, Robert Rodriguez) or Black Dynamite (2009, Scott Sanders) with its deliberately scratchy look and dodgy editing, but Casa de mi Padre has a weirdness all of its own.

Dim bulb Armando Alvarez (Ferrell) lives and works on his father’s ranch herding cattle and hanging out with his ranchero buddies Esteban (Efren Ramirez) and Manuel (Adrian Martinez). Armando’s idyllic life is thrown into turmoil when his slick younger brother Raul (Diego Luna) returns home from the city with his beautiful girlfriend Sonia (Genesis Rodriguez). Being a male virgin more at home on the range than in the company of women it takes Armando a while to realise Sonia is the girl for him. Unbeknownst to his family favoured son Raul is a drug dealer determined to go up against the white suited leader of the local cartel (Gael Garcia Bernal) for control of the area’s narcotics trade and Armando finds himself caught in the crossfire.

Ferrell’s Spanish is impressive and delivered in deadpan while the subtitles give the impression of being put together by somebody who uses English as their second language. “I will beat you with both these hands.” Genesis Rodriguez is a real find, beautiful but capable of mixing it with the boys. Oddly enough both their performances are absolutely sincere which makes it even funnier. Mexican bromantics Bernal and Luna ham it up nicely with the latter delivering a hilarious speech about why it’s okay to sell drugs to Americans. As with The Other Guys there are social concerns present in the film but they never weigh down the narrative. Best of all is the Morricone influenced soundtrack with a belting Christina Aguilera opener and some inspired musical numbers including a terrific duet between Ferrell and Rodriguez over the final credits. 

The Red Shoes (1948, Michael Powell) - Screening Notes

“Time rushes by, love rushes by, life rushes by, but the red shoes dance on.”

Loosely based on a fairytale by Hans Christian Anderson, The Red Shoes is a lavish drama about a ballerina (Moira Shearer) torn between two men. Impresario Boris Lermontov (Anton Walbrook) demands she makes the most of her talent and gives everything up for her art including the affections of composer Julian Craster (Marcus Goring). Early on Lermontov asks her “why do you want to dance?” and she replies “why do you want to live?” Eventually she must make a choice between what she loves and whom she loves.

The work of writer/director team Emeric Pressburger and Michael Powell has proven influential over the years. You can see their hand in the work of Baz Luhrmann while the recent Black Swan (2010, Darren Aranofsky) owes much to The Red Shoes. Pressburger was a Hungarian émigré who moved to Berlin to work as a journalist before turning to screenwriting. After the Nazi’s rise to power Pressburger left Germany for England finding work in the film industry with Alexander Korda’s studio. Michael Powell worked prolifically in the 30’s providing quickly made features to meet the British film industry’s quota for home grown films. However The Edge of the World (37), loosely inspired by the evacuation of St. Kilda showed a developing style and an interest in mysticism.

Korda put Powell and Pressburger together on the war film The Spy in Black (39) and they became friends. Forming their own production called The Archers and working with total autonomy within the Rank Organisation they began to make highly distinctive and idiosyncratic films often in Technicolor, a process which saturates the frame with bright colours and would later become synonymous with the musical. During the 1940’s they created a series of classics, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (43), I Know Where I’m Going! (45), A Matter of Life and Death (46), and Black Narcissus (47).

Despite its success The Red Shoes went over budget bringing them into conflict with Rank who cut them loose. They returned to low-budget filmmaking for the underrated The Small Back Room (49), about a troubled bomb disposal expert, and then back to Technicolor for the opera Tales of Hoffman (51) but neither made much impact at the box-office. Their films became increasingly compromised by studio interference and they separated in 1957. Powell effectively destroyed his career with the haunting serial killer film Peeping Tom (1960) which caused outrage in Britain on its release. In the 60’s British cinema tended towards realism and Powell and Pressburger’s movies with their love of the fantastical, high emotions, and bright gaudy colours fell out of fashion.

A critical reappraisal of their work began in the 70’s when Martin Scorsese began to champion Michael Powell and cited The Red Shoes as being his favourite film. 

Coriolanus (2011, Ralph Fiennes) - DVD Review

"Go Get you home you fragments."

Ralph Fiennes directorial debut sees him returning to a role he played on stage back in 2000. Together with Gladiator (Ridley Scott 2000) screenwriter John Logan, Fiennes has moved the action into a modern Balkans style war zone. Shakespeare’s play is one of his lesser known tragedies but its themes of public disaffection with the political process are certainly relevant to contemporary audiences. 

Coriolanus is a war hero whose refusal to play the political game leads to his downfall. Instead of being pragmatic and flattering the people Coriolanus is brutally honest with them. They hate him for it. You can see why Fiennes wanted to bring this play to the screen in an age where spin and public opinion now play a huge part in politics. The need to be seen to be doing and saying the right things nowadays is often more important than actually doing the right thing.

Fiennes worked with director of photography Barry Ackroyd on The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow 2008) and has brought him in here to lens similarly gritty action sequences. Coriolanus incorporates actual newsreel footage into its opening scenes and then uses extras to convey riot scenes and a dissenting populace. Unfortunately the Serbian locations recall the cheap and cheerless output of straight-to-DVD action stars like Jean Claude Van-Damme and Steven Seagal.

Fiennes is physically impressive as Coriolanus, looking every inch the warrior. Acting wise he is at his best in his quieter moments, but when he gets animated and carried away with his enunciating he sends spittle flying towards his co-stars. Vanessa Redgrave is formidable as his mother, but again this depends on how theatrical you like your acting. Surprisingly it is Gerard Butler who gives the best performance. Now it is quite possible Gerard Butler has never been in a theatre in his life, but that’s not a problem because here he brings movie star charisma and understatement to his role as Tullus Aufidius, deadly rival to Coriolanus.

Coriolanus will at least provide pupils studying Shakespeare at school a decent skive during English class, but it is a long way from the best Bard adaptations. Fiennes direction is workmanlike at best, though the approach taken to the play is intelligent. When Coriolanus is banished he swears revenge and seeks out Aufidius as an ally. These scenes of bromantic longing onscreen bring the film to life, but the rest is a chore.

Extras

Audio commentary with Ralph Fiennes and a making of documentary. 

Blu-Ray DVD Roundup - 'Chinatown,' 'Iron Sky,' 'A Room with a View'

Chinatown (1974, Roman Polanski)

The product of four brilliant individuals, screenwriter Robert Towne, producer Robert Evans, star Jack Nicholson, and director Roman Polanski, Chinatown bounces the auteur theory on its head. Jake Gittes (Nicholson) is a Private Investigator specialising in divorce cases who is duped into exposing an apparent affair between Hollis Mulwray, chief engineer of the local water company and a young woman. When the real Mrs Mulwray (Faye Dunaway) turns up armed with a lawyer Gittes realises he has been used and starts to do some real detective work. Much of the film is spent observing Gittes as he puts his case together, visits locations, and slowly pieces together the truth. It may borrow the form of the classic detective movie but Chinatown is so much more than a genre pastiche. Instead of a lost object being sought after as in The Maltese Falcon the city itself is up for grabs. Gittes is a tarnished knight in the Marlowe mould but more fallible.

Chinatown is not just one of the great American movies but one of the great movies about America. Towne based his screenplay on real-life double dealings in the city of Los Angeles and a conversation with a cop who worked Chinatown and described minimalist approach to law enforcement in a place where nobody was quite sure what was going on. Polanski brought in by Evans to direct and lured back to Los Angeles for the first time since Sharon Tate was murdered brings an embittered eye to the city. No director has ever been less interested in sentimentality or more aware that terrible things can happen to people than Polanski and he was right to insist the film should end as it does. Sad that while the US release has a wealth of extras including a commentary track by Towne and David Fincher the UK disk is vanilla flavoured. Paramount seems to be saying forget it Jake, its Chinatown. Or possibly just fuck you.

Iron Sky (2011, Timo Vuorensola)

Much more fun than expected Iron Sky mixes a killer premise with a campy satirical tone. In fact it reminded me a lot of the final season of the cult science fiction show LEXX (1997-2001) which hid its intelligence behind its outrageous storylines and weird humour. In 1945 Nazi’s went to the moon and have been there ever since just waiting for the opportunity to return and finish what they started. They have a new Fuhrer (Udo Kier) but their technology is hopefully outdated. Only when they capture a US astronaut/male model (Christopher Kirby) and realise his mobile phone is more powerful than their computer do they realise they have the power to return to Earth. Towering soldier Klaus Adler, played by Gottz Otto (Tomorrow Never Dies), is sent down to prepare for invasion. Tagging along for the ride are Renate (Julia Dietze) who has been indoctrinated to believe Nazism is peace-loving and The Great Dictator (1940, Charles Chaplin) is a short film about how nice Hitler was. It’s funny, takes a welcome aim at US self-interest, and for a low budget movie Iron Sky looks great. There are a few perfunctory extras and a digital download.

A Room with a View (1985, James Ivory)

It is unfashionable these days to admit you like a Merchant/Ivory film but A Room with a View is the team’s best work. Based on E.M. Forster’s novel, Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham-Carter) is the young Englishwoman whose passions are aroused by a holiday in Italy and an encounter with the handsome but odd George Emerson (Julian Sands). There’s a great performance from Daniel Day-Lewis as her pompous but ultimately sympathetic fiancé Cecil, who personally I always had more time for than the impulsive George. He might be a snob but at least he has a sense of humour. There’s a decent set of special features here. BBC Breakfast Time interviews with Simon Callow and a giggly Day-Lewis, an archive report on the film’s success in America also from Breakfast Time, and a report from ‘Film 96’ on the Merchant/Ivory pairing. There is also a rather dry tribute to E.M. Forster aired by the BBC after his death in 1970. It is interesting to watch Forster being talked about before his revelatory posthumous novel ‘Maurice’ was published a year later.