No.

63 JAN/FEB ’ 16 £6

TRUTH & MOVIES

63

9 771745 916048
 ACT I
Arranged by Fred Ballinger
A Simple Song
A SIMPLE SONG

Youth

You say

that emotions are overrated.

But that’s bullshit.

Emotions are all we’ve got.

 Youth
Directed by PAOLO SORRENTINO
Starring MICHAEL CAINE, HARVEY KEITEL, RACHEL WEISZ
Released 29 JANUARY

A legend of British cinema teams with Italy’s master of screen

sensuality to tell a sparkling tale of nostalgia and sorrow.

e tend to think of the ageing process as one of ofers a more satisfactory explanation, the full weight of which isn’t felt

W perpetual decline. The body grows weak, the mind

tires, memories fade. Accepting our own mortality
is one of the hardest realisations we face as human
beings, yet the reality is that only a few of us will reach
the point where “natural causes” – that most curious and vague of medical
euphemisms – becomes a viable cause of death. We fear what we cannot
control and believe the best we can hope for is a quick and painless exit.
until the closing stages of this extraordinary, life-airming film.

This is Sorrentino’s second English-language feature after 2011’s This

Must Be the Place, and while its meandering, idiosyncratic qualities
ostensibly place it in the same stall as that David Byrne fanboy folly, Youth
is an altogether more enriching character study. A good deal of the plaudits
must go to Caine, who at 82 puts in one of the most daring, distinguished
But what matters more: the manner in which you go, or making sure you’re performances of his career. That heartfelt confession to the Queen’s
at peace with the world when your time is up? hapless messenger aside, this is a role that requires emotional intelligence
without overstatement. Ballinger feels so lived-in that you begin to
In Youth, writer/director Paolo Sorrentino’s operatic ode to old age, wonder whether Caine invested anything of himself in the part – at one
we’re reminded that regardless of how many milestones someone passes, point it’s revealed that Ballinger previously refused a knighthood; in real
respect can take a lifetime to earn and a second to lose. Fred Ballinger life Caine has publicly stated that he is not fussed whether people refer to
(Michael Caine) may have some way to go before he can expect to him as “Sir”. Caine can still deliver a stirring monologue when he needs
receive a letter from the Queen, but here, on his annual retreat to the to, but there’s nothing here quite so ostentatious as his ‘some men just
Swiss Alps, a diferent kind of Royal message becomes the catalyst for a want to watch the world burn’ speech from The Dark Knight. (Christopher
cathartic cleansing of the soul. Ballinger is a British composer famed for Nolan could learn a thing or two from the way Sorrentino structures his
his ‘Simple Songs’, which he is cordially invited – with great insistence script to play to the veteran actor’s various strengths.) Ballinger may have
from Her Majesty’s toadying emissary (Alex Macqueen) – to conduct at a oicially retired, but in truth he never stopped conducting – whether he’s
birthday concert for Prince Philip in London. He graciously declines citing wiping his nose with a handkerchief or rhythmically scrunching a sweet
“personal reasons”, which seems like a convenient excuse from someone wrapper between his fingers. Instinctive gestures tell us more about his
whose fire has apparently gone out. Later, after being pressed by the character than dialogue ever could, and Caine masters these mannerisms
emissary during a second fruitless visit, a now visibly irritated Ballinger with all the craft and guile of a true maestro.

08 LEAD REVIEW
 Sorrentino has a decent track record when it comes to working with
seasoned leads, of course, having helped Toni Servillo find his sweet spot
in 2013’s The Great Beauty. Like that La Dolce Vita-lite satiric drama,
Youth is a meditation on life, love and loss as told through the mournful

“We’re always happy eyes of a somewhat selfish, somewhat senile protagonist. Yet while the
sense of unfulfillment alicting Servillo’s elderly Roman socialite is born

to be in Ballinger’s out of a general yearning for the past, the onset of Ballinger’s apathy is
intrinsically linked to a ghost from his present. It’s telling that when
the time to confront it finally arrives, the overwhelming feeling towards
company without ever him is one of compassion. Herein lies Sorrentino’s greatest trick: we’re
always happy to be in Ballinger’s company without ever truly caring
truly caring about his about his struggles with grief and guilt. Until suddenly we do, and it’s
utterly heartbreaking.
struggles with grief Ballinger isn’t the only one putting up a front. The remoteness and
and guilt. Until tranquility offered by this idyllic Alpine setting attracts an unusual
array of celebrities. But while Paul Dano’s cred-hungry Hollywood
suddenly we do, and actor, Jimmy Tree, an obese South American football icon and Miss
Universe are each either trying to escape the limelight or else figuring

it’s heartbreaking.” out how they can get more of it, the thing that Ballinger is searching
for is less tangible. For best friend Mick Boyle (Harvey Keitel), it’s not
a case of what he’s hiding from but what he hopes to find. Mick is a
renowned director who’s past his prime but doesn’t know it (or maybe
he’s simply in denial). The script for his next and possibly final film –
which he prematurely refers to as his “testament” – is almost finished

010 LEAD REVIEW

but lacks an ending, so he and four budding screenwriters have booked whose respective genius continues to cast a long shadow, yet crucially the
into the luxury spa resort, willing inspiration to strike. So far it’s proven overriding theme is one of male inadequacy.
frustratingly elusive. In one scene while out taking in the spectacular
mountain scenery, Mick uses a tourist telescope to illustrate the Caine and Keitel’s winning chemistry occasionally threatens to turn Youth
difference between how close the future seems in youth compared to into The Fred and Mick Show, but Sorrentino always manages to find a
how distant the past appears with age. Sorrentino’s use of symbolism way to underpin their geriatric banter (bodily dysfunction is an especially
ranges from absurd to inelegant, but this crystallising moment is popular topic of conversation) with something more profound. With their
perhaps the most eloquent expression of the film’s emotional power. flaws laid bare, the two men slowly come around to the idea that it’s never
too late to start making up for past mistakes. This is a film that doesn’t
claim to have all the answers to life’s biggest questions but, as with all great
works of art, one that leaves plenty open to interpretation. And much like
life itself, what you get out of it ultimately depends on what you’re willing
to bring to it. ADAM WOODWARD
Then there’s Ballinger’s daughter and personal assistant, Lena (Rachel
Weisz), who’s used to solving other people’s problems but is plunged into
a crisis of her own after being cruelly dumped by her fiancée (who also ANTICIPATION.
happens to be Mick’s son). When Lena’s father attempts to console her by We tend to run hot and cold on Paolo Sorrentino, but
extending an olive branch of empathy, she unleashes a ferocious expletive- this one has bags of promise.
ridden tirade. He never really knew her mother, Lena claims, and thus
can’t even begin to understand everything she’s going through now. ANTICIPATION.
An even more cutting rejection occurs late on when Mick is visited by his A joyous, gently moving experience anchored
former muse, the notorious diva Brenda Morel (Jane Fonda, dressed to by a fearless central turn from Michael Caine.
the nines in a riotously funny cameo). He’s been trying to convince her
to star in his film knowing he won’t get funding without her, but she’s not IN RETROSPECT.
about to do an old friend any favours. Both women owe a debt to the men A simple song.

LEAD REVIEW 011

 ACT II
Arranged by Fred Ballinger
A Simple Song
 ACT II

Feature Contents

14-19 - EVERY BLOODY THING

Michael Caine reminisces to LWLies about 50 years of industry memories
and a lifetime of family values.

20-23 - THE PUPPET MASTER

Youth director, Paolo Sorrentino, is happier pulling the strings than performing.
Sophie Monks Kaufman faced the mysterious maestro.

25-42 - SWAN SONGS

We pay tribute to 50 final films, starting with Chantal Akerman’s No Home Movie
and ending with to Edward Yang’s Yi-Yi.

34-35 - INTERMISSION
Peter Labuza offers speculative reviews of five swan songs derailed
by the death of their directors.
 I N TE RV I EW BY SO PHIE M O NKS KAUF M A N

ILLUSTRATION BY OLIVER STAFFORD

LWLies speaks with a youthful Sir Michael Caine.

ichael Caine is propelled by such perky charm that He refers to women as “it” and, miraculously, remains adorable. He
everything he says – in public life or within character reached America in the same decade, starring opposite Shirley
– seems peachy. It often isn’t as simple as that, but MacLaine, who personally sought him out for a role in Ronald
such is the power of his unique persona. His voice is immediately Neame’s Gambit.
recognisable, a blend of cockney chancer and man of the It’s been a full 50 years of A-game work in Hollywood and back
world. Film-wise, he has starred in the great and the good, the home in the UK, across serious drama, slapstick comedies, genre films
bad and the awful, albeit without ever personally delivering a and arthouse gems. He has worked as favours for pals, for the high-life
duff performance. Caine is a consummate professional whose and for the love of acting. Caine enjoys telling movie star anecdotes.
attention to craft began when, at aged 14, he took out a book on The span of his career means there’s gold at his fingertips on the likes
acting technique by the Russian actor Vsevolod Pudovkin from of John Wayne, Jack Lemon, Cary Grant and Bette Davis. He has
the Southwark Public Library. “Film acting is re-acting, not acting” worked for with Brian De Palma, Woody Allen, John Huston, Joseph
and “never blink before the camera” are self-taught lessons still L Mankewicz and Alfonso Cuarón. Christopher Nolan basically won’t
evident in his performances today. make a film without him. He is comically alive to the sweeteners
Caine has been through a lot, on and off screen. He is open to the of location and famously agreed to act in Jaws: The Revenge after
point of pride about his upbringing among the poor, working classes seeing on the first page of its script the words, “Fade in: Hawaii”.
of south London. He was part of the evacuations during World This shoot meant he was unable to accept his Best Supporting Actor
War Two, and in 1952, national service took him to Korea for two Oscar for Hannah and Her Sisters, in which he is sublime – adding
years. From there, it was full steam ahead into the world of acting. heavyweight pathos to Woody Allen’s flyaway New York.
His eyes were always on the movies as he slogged away in Paolo Sorrentino’s Youth adds another rich role to the canon.
theatre and then in television, absorbing advice from colleagues Caine plays Fred Ballinger, an elderly, retired composer who now
and mentors at every opportunity. His first film role finally came in resides in a luxury Swiss resort. Here he shoots the breeze with
1964 with Cy Endfield’s Zulu. his director friend, Mick (Harvey Keitel), and rings in the changes
“His name is Michael Caine and no one will forget his name: that come with age. It becomes apparent from the arrival of his
Michael Caine. He walks straight into sensational stardom in The daughter, Lena (Rachel Weisz), that Fred has not always been a
Ipcress File, as he gets right under the skin of the brash, cocky, wry- loving father. Caine makes him a success and a failure, a comic
humoured Harry Palmer.” So announces a clipped voice in the 1965 presence with tragic burdens. When LWLies met with Caine
trailer for Sidney J Furie’s 1965 film The Ipcress File, propaganda after Youth’s premiere at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, he
which would prove to be prophetic. In 1966 along came Alfie and the was willing to talk about his family, his friends, his memories…
essence of Caine’s ability to make the camera love him as a rogue. every bloody thing.

014 T h e Yo u t h Iss u e
 LWLIES: DO YOU HAVE TO STAVE OFF THE MEMORY LOSS THAT CAN COME WITH HAVE YOU EVER HAD THE FEELING THAT YOU NEGLECTED YOUR CHILDREN
AGEING? Caine: No. I spent 60 years remembering dialogue. What BECAUSE OF YOUR CAREER, LIKE FRED DOES?  No, they used to come on
happens is, as I get older, I don’t forget it but it takes me 10 times location with me if it was good. Everybody always travelled with me
longer to learn the bloody thing, that’s where the mental thing goes. everywhere: the whole family. For instance, I’m going to do a movie
I used to look at the script to go “okay”. They’d give me a page of in New York in August and I’m not staying in a hotel room. I’ve got a
dialogue and say, “We shoot it in 20 minutes.” They give me a page house with a swimming pool and a tennis court. The grandchildren,
now and I say, “We’ll shoot this next week.” their nannies, everyone is coming. I travel with the whole bloody lot.
   
FRED AND MICK TALK ABOUT WISHING THAT THEY COULD REMEMBER SPECIFIC DO YOU DOTE ON THE GRANDKIDS NOW? Oh, the grandkids, don’t get me
EVENTS IN MORE DETAIL. CAN YOU RELATE? No. I have a memory like a started on them. I’ll bore the pants off you for six hours. I had two
computer. I remember every bloody thing. Oh, it’s dreadful. I have a daughters, and my first grandchild was a boy and he looks exactly
memory so full of stuff that I wish I could get the garbage guy to come like me only better looking. I didn’t know the other two were coming,
round and clear some out. the twins. They were later. But this boy became my son and, to this
  day, is my son in my mind. I’m one of his fathers. He’s got two fathers.
WHEN DID YOU FIRST KNOW YOU HAD A GOOD MEMORY? Always. But We were watching a cartoon together one day and a commercial for
my best friend died of dementia. What’s it called – not dementia – Batman came on, one of my movies. I’m standing there with Batman,
Alzheimer’s. It’s like watching someone walk away to the horizon very and he looked at me. He didn’t know I’m an actor. He was about four.
slowly. It takes them three years to get out of sight and then they’re He said: “Do you know Batman?” I said, “Yeah, he’s a friend of mine.”
gone. I remember going round his house. I came in and he didn’t And he told everybody. He stood up at school in the class and said,
know who I was for the first time, the very first time. He was my tailor “My pa’s a friend of Batman’s.”
actually. His name was Doug Hayward.
THERE’S BEEN A LOT OF CARICATURES OF YOU, LIKE THE DORK KNIGHT. It’s
HOW DID IT AFFECT YOU? I started looking up books which tell you what a compliment. People say to me: “Do you get annoyed at people
to eat. You know you get all of those pills? I’m a bit too old for them. stopping you in the street?“ I say, “Not as annoyed as I’d get if they
I’m 82. I think, “You’re so old dementia says, ‘Forget it.’” didn’t stop me in the street.”

FRED AND MICK’S FRIENDSHIP IS ROOTED IN ONLY SAYING NICE THINGS TO EACH HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUTH? This film is about life. It’s funny, it’s
OTHER. IS THAT ALSO YOUR CONCEPT OF FRIENDSHIP? Oh yeah, I’ve never sad, it’s everything. It’s not a comedy, it’s not a drama, it’s not a satire.
said anything nasty to my closest friends. I have 11 closest friends. I It’s not a musical, but there’s a lot of music in it. It’s Paolo, that’s what
was sitting someplace very lonely on location in Africa, and I thought, it is, Paolo’s view of things and I love it.
“I wish my friends were here,” and then I counted them. I have 11. I
have about eight now. Three are dead. But none of them have I ever WHAT SENSE DO YOU MAKE OF THE OUTRAGE OF THE ACTRESS (JANE
had a row with. We never say things like, “You’re great and you’re FONDA) TOWARDS THE DIRECTOR (HARVEY KEITEL)? I was trying to figure
fantastic but you know what’s wrong with you?” We never say that. out who she was based on. I think it might have been Bette Davis
Nothing’s wrong with you. Nothing. or, I’ll tell you who: Joan Crawford. I never knew Joan Crawford but
  I knew Bette Davis. Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy were friends
ARE ANY OF THEM PEOPLE WE MIGHT KNOW? One of my closest friends of mine from New York theatre. One night I was in New York on my
is a composer called Leslie Bricusse. He wrote ‘What Kind of Fool own, publicising a movie, and they said, “Come out to dinner with us.”
Am I?’ [from Stop the World – I Want to Get Off] He wrote millions I said yes. They said, “We’ve got you a date.” I said, “Okay. Who is it?” It
of songs. He’s one of my closest friends and we’ve never said a bad was Bette Davis. We had a great evening together. I was about 40, she
word. We’ve known each other 52 years. was about 75. At the end of the evening she says to me: “I am going
home alone in a taxi.” Just in case I was gonna make the first move.
YOU SEEM TO BE VERY LOYAL. YOU USED TO BE THE WOMANISER WHO WAS
PLAYING ALFIE, AND YOU’VE HAD A MARRIAGE OF NEARLY – WHAT IS IT? – 50 HOW WAS SHOOTING THE SCENE WITH MISS UNIVERSE? Well that was
YEARS? 46. awkward because the water wasn’t there. That’s CGI – that was put
in later. The platform that you see is their platform that they use.
WHAT’S THE SECRET BEHIND THAT? KEEPING OLD FRIENDSHIPS AND KEEPING That’s the way you get across the square when it floods. But the
YOUR VERY BEST FRIEND, YOUR WIFE? All of my friends got married. We most awkward thing for me was when I got to the other end I had
were all chasing girls when we were young and then we all got married to drown. I had to drown with no water and everyone’s going “What
at about the same time. We all married very happily, and none of us the hell?” I’m doing this standing on the platform that’s in St Mark’s
ever got divorced. Oh, wait, I got divorced. I got married when I was Square. I was very happy when I saw the movie because I’d never
20 and divorced when I was 22, which is usually what happens if you seen it with the water and the lights and everything. I thought it was
get married when you’re 20. fabulous the way it looked.

BUT IF YOU’RE A MOVIE STAR, THERE ARE THE OPPORTUNITIES. Yes, I know BUT MISS UNIVERSE WASN’T A SPECIAL EFFECT? No, oh blimey no. She’s not
that. But the first thing I did was I married the most beautiful is she? She’s incredible. Beautiful. Something reminded me of fast
woman I’d ever seen in my life. I still mean that. And we always go on prejudice. I loved the girl, I thought she was a smashing girl. She did the
location together. Location is the tricky part, because some actors nude scene and everything. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. I thought,
say location doesn’t count, in their marriage. Everywhere counts in ‘She’s wonderful.’ Then she had this long scene, screaming and lots
my marriage. of dialogue. And I thought, ‘Oh shoot we’re gonna be here all night.

016 T h e Yo u t h Iss u e
 She’s gonna screw this up.’ She did it in two takes. You see, what’s DO YOU THINK THERE IS A CONFLICT BETWEEN YOUTH AND OLD AGE? IN
great about her is she can really act this girl. And she’s a lovely girl. YOUR 2009 FILM, HARRY BROWN, THERE WAS A MORAL CONFLICT BETWEEN
THE OLD AND THE NEW GENERATION. I shot Harry Brown where I come
WHAT WAS IT LIKE DOING A NUDE SCENE WITH HARVEY KEITEL? We kept our from. I could see where my house used to be. We were bombed
clothes on. We don’t want to upset anyone. Nobody told us about out in the war and then they made these pre-fabricated houses
her. Paolo didn’t tell us. We were just sitting there in the pool. He with asbestos. We used to live in those. Which, funnily enough,
said we’re just sitting there relaxing and then someone will come in was a lot better: we had a bathroom, hot water running, everything.
the pool – a pretty girl’s gonna come in the pool. He didn’t tell us she And they pulled it down and put new flats in, council flats. I was
was nude. We thought the pretty girl was gonna come in a bathing working there with these guys. One thing that had changed about
costume, you know, and we’re gonna be like dirty old men standing it was racially. When I grew up everyone was white. Now it’s 50-
there. That’s why you’ve got the stunned look on their faces. 50 black and white there. But they’re all the same, and they’re
  all tough. What had changed was drugs. We used to get drunk
and have a fight. Now it’s drugs and they’ve got knives and pistols.
“You get an There’s a lot of money in it. I used to sit down with these gangster
guys, gangs, really scary people; but not me because I am them, so

Academy Award, it’s there was no reason for me to be afraid – and every time I sat down
with a new lot they’d say, “First question: How did you get out of

for a performance.
here Michael?” I felt so sorry for them.
 
HOW DID YOU GET OUT? I went in the army. Prince Harry has just said
You get a knighthood, something that I agree with: bring back national service. In England
we served in the army for two years. And I did it. And you don’t have
it’s for a life.” to do two years like we did, and you don’t have to go kill anyone
like we did. Just six months of army training and discipline. Then
you come out feeling that you deserve to live here because you’ve
WHICH ACTOR HAS MOST INFLUENCED YOU AND WHY? Humphrey Bogart trained to defend this place, should someone come. It’s a thing of
and Marlon Brando. Humphrey, because he could talk like an loyalty and I think it would be very important. When I came out I
ordinary human being. I know he was supposed to be a tough guy, was one of the last lot to do national service in 1953. I watched the
but there was a reality to Bogart which a lot of others didn’t have. younger generation and they changed. The generation that made the
And Brando because he was such an incredible actor. He wasn’t just ’60s were the ones who’d been in the army. The ones who made the
standing there, he would do all sorts of things. I found out that he ’70s were the ones who went into the drugs.
couldn’t remember his bloody lines. He used to have them on the  
wall everywhere. I wish I could’ve done that. I met one actor who said YOUR CHARACTER IN YOUTH DOESN’T SEEM TO GIVE A SHIT ABOUT WHAT
that Brando typed his lines on his forehead. I thought, “It’s a good THE QUEEN ASKS OR DEMANDS. WHAT ARE YOUR FEELINGS ABOUT BEING
job I wasn’t an actor then, he wouldn’t have got away with that on KNIGHTED? I was very proud. I love the monarchy. I think they’re
my forehead.” great and they’re a massive tourist attraction, too. If we didn’t have a
monarchy I think we’d have about a quarter of the tourists.
BOGART AND BRANDO WERE FROM MODEST BACKGROUNDS, WHICH WAS  
POSSIBLE FOR AMERICAN ACTORS EARLIER THAN IN THE UK. DO YOU THINK YOU BUT FOR YOU PERSONALLY? You get an Academy Award, it’s for a
WERE PART OF A WORKING-CLASS BREAKTHROUGH THERE? Yeah, I was one performance. You get a knighthood, it’s for a life.
of the first ones, but that’s not conceited because I didn’t do it, the  
writers did it. I was very fortunate to become an actor, when the CARY GRANT ONCE SAID: TO BE FAMILIAR WITH AUDIENCES IS THE MOST
writers came along. For instance, the British screenwriters never IMPORTANT THING. AND IT’S BEEN WRITTEN THAT YOU FOLLOWED THAT KIND
wrote war stories about private soldiers. Only Americans wrote war OF ADVICE. Yeah well he was familiar. He was in the circus when he was
stories about private soldiers. They didn’t write about officers, the seven or eight. I was very close friends with Cary Grant. I was doing
British wrote about officers. They wrote about the middle-class all a movie in Bristol, south of England, and I came out of my hotel suite
the time, until John [Osborne] came along and wrote ‘Look Back one morning and there’s Cary Grant walking towards me. I didn’t
in Anger’, which was the first time there had been a working class know what to say because I was a big fan. I was like a young girl with
person in the lead. And Noël Coward wrote one too. Then there Elvis Presley. I said, ‘You’re Cary Grant?’ He said, ‘I know.’ So I tried to
was a play called ‘The Long and the Short and the Tall’, which – in think of a more sensible question. I said, ‘What are you doing here?’
the theatre I’m talking about – made Peter O’Toole a star. He gave a He said, ‘My mother lives in the suite next door to you.’ His mother
fabulous performance in that play. I was his understudy and I took was sick. Instead of putting her in a hospital, he put her in a luxury
over when he went to do Lawrence of Arabia. And that was the first suite in a hotel with nurses and everything. It wasn’t like a hospital.
play ever about private soldiers. She could get everything in: food, order room service. We became
friends after that.    
HAS PRODUCTION BEGUN ON GOING IN STYLE WITH ALAN ARKIN AND MORGAN    
FREEMAN YET? I started that on 3 August in New York. Alan Arkin, IS THERE A FILM IN YOUR CAREER THAT YOU WOULD HOLD NEAR AND DEAR,
Morgan Freeman and me are three old guys. The bank forecloses LIKE FRED DOES FOR ‘SIMPLE SONGS’ IN YOUTH? I suppose the film I hold
on the mortgage on our flat and we can’t pay it. So we rob the bank. dearest is The Ipcress File. Because of the first time I ever went over
And that’s it. The three of us rob the bank. the title

018 T h e Yo u t h Iss u e
020 T h e Yo u t h Iss u e
 WORDS BY SOPHIE MONKS KAUFMAN

ILLUSTRATION BY LAURÈNE BOGLIO

The lauded director of Youth

proves to be an enigmatic puzzle box of
contradictions and hidden defences.

021
 ’m in a philosophical mood but I don’t through the wrong end of a telescope. What used to loom large
know if I’m up to it – so I just hope not to is now distant and indefinable. This sensibility is so palpable in his
disappoint you.” film it must lead to a rich vein of enquiry, right? Movies are time
capsules, defiantly preserving memories that would otherwise
Paolo Sorrentino is sitting on a hard erode away. Is this one of his motives for making films? His face
sofa on the second floor of a Parisian shows no flicker of expression. He swerves to lighter ground:
restaurant. He glances forward warily “Filmmaking is like prolonging the pleasure of playing that I had
while smoking a cigar. Downstairs, a fluffy when I was a child, but when I was a child I played with puppets and
tabby cat is stretched out in the ladies bathroom. Sorrentino and now I play with actors.”
the feline share the same relaxed posture, and the ability to deflect
advances at lightning speed should a person reach out with too I wonder if he thinks I am an idiot poser for attributing deep-soul
much familiarity. motives to game playing, and give him the opportunity to correct
my logic. He doesn’t take it and also doesn’t say much by way
This distance is surprising given the mood conjured by Youth. of acknowledgement. He is a man who seems to listen without
There’s an existential lightness to the director’s seventh feature recognising the core of what has been said. He is a man who seems
that suggests a soul in search of release. That said, previous films to speak for a long time without revealing too much of himself.
The Great Beauty and Il Divo depict men who look down on life
from ivory towers, letting wealth insulate them from involvement “When I mention the fact that film is a game that you play, I don’t
with others. The Great Beauty’s Jep Gambardella, a world-weary intend to minimise the importance of the issues that it deals with.
ageing playboy poetically observing Roman high life, is not unlike Memory is one of the main themes of the film and to me is very
the neatly dressed, sharp-eyed man who is both here and not here. important itself. Michael Caine suffers a lot because he is afraid
His physical presence adds a frisson to the room, but the inner that his memory will vanish – it has more to do with the relationship
workings of his mind remain a mystery. that he has with his daughter than anything else.”

A slew of abstract jump-off points have been prepared by this fan, Sorrentino’s game seems to be to talk around personal
eager to discuss life, the universe and everything with a man who connections to his work, cutting himself out of the picture as he
creates moving cinema by marrying visual spectacle with weary pushes the film to the fore. It’s a strategy that’s working. He sits,
melancholy. I inform Sorrentino of this desired line of questioning. puffing on his cigar, communicating with easy detachment. Future
His face betrays no emotion as, through a translator, he delivers the interviewers, take note: questions may be best rewarded if they
warning about potential disappointment. focus on the technical craft of image-making. There are enough
breathtaking and surreal visual flourishes in Youth to inform a
Youth is all about the wistful fact that memories are lost with time. dozen interviews. But it’s too late. Here we are, in a room that
Retired composer, Fred (Michael Caine) and practising director, is momentarily deafened as several cars continuously honk their
Mick (Harvey Keitel), talk about looking back at their lives as if horns outside the restaurant.

022 T h e Yo u t h Iss u e
I make a joke that the translator loyally repeats in Italian. Sorrentino still lavishly daubed across his world. This perspective must come
makes eye contact and smiles. Maybe there’s hope for us? He from the man before me. Finally, there is a hint of a complicated
is not allowing himself stroked, but he hasn’t run away to hide spirit: “This idea of freedom… If your idea of life is to be young at
under the sofa. I dive in with what feels like another painfully all ages and not give into the idea of, ‘I can no longer do this,’ it
transparent, ‘Please reveal yourself to me!’ question. Fred is in his depends on the perception that you have of yourself and of your
eighties while Paolo is in his forties. In building Fred’s world, did freedom of movement. Of course, if you’re 95 you won’t be able to
he imagine what type of an old man he will eventually become? play soccer but you would have, in your mind, the freedom of that
His response is a sidestep, though a slightly more forthcoming one. particular game, or when you played it, and that spirit is still with
you. And that keeps you young. This is the main idea that prevents
me from getting depressed at time passing.”

A clue now drops, pointing to why it’s so difficult to connect the

“When you count the man to the cadences of his work. I ask how he came to understand
a character who, for a long stretch of the film, is backing away
years, mathematics from his passions and his life. Sorrentino insists that it is purely
an exercise in craft. “If we were to create characters that are all
is always against us. like us because we only know ourselves so deeply as to be able
to portray them then there wouldn’t be any films, there wouldn’t

It’s against me and it’s be any novels. What we are asked to do is to try to understand
someone who is very far from us in terms of viewpoints.”

against everybody else.” It sounds plausible, but doesn’t every fictional character contain
the DNA of their creator, no matter how different the two seem?
Sorrentino’s attachment to his characters must take place at such a
personal level that he will not express it for fear of coming undone.
Had the question been, ‘How do you conceive of the ageing Intimately engaging was not his style, but it is mine. So to respond
process?’ this answer would have been on point: “I think of it in to his opener: this was disappointing because we passed each
terms of numbers, the years I have left, the years I’ve lived already, other without touching, like people lost in separate dreams. But it
so it’s more of an arithmetic, mathematical issue to me. The problem wasn’t disappointing because you learn as much about someone by
is that when you count the years, mathematics is always against us. what they won’t say as by what they will. Sorrentino is a man who
It’s against me and it’s against everybody else.” channels profound emotions into films and refuses to replicate the
experience in conversations with journalists. It makes sense. If the
Mathematics is one thing, but the beauty of Youth is that it shows language of cinema is the way you communicate, then the language
Fred, an elderly man, taking stock of the glory and absurdity that is of cinema is the way you communicate

023
 “ONE OF THE BEST
MOVIES OF THE DECADE” CHICAGO SUN-TIMES

HEYUGUYS EMPIRE EVENING STANDARD HEAT

“BRIE LARSON GIVES AN AWARDS-WORTHY PERFORMANCE” ELLE

“A ONE-OF-A-KIND, MUST-SEE EXPERIENCE”

NEW YORK POST

BASED ON THE
BEST-SELLING NOVEL

FROM ACCLAIMED DIRECTOR

LENNY ABRAHAMSON

ROOM
ROOM_MOVIE /ROOMTHEMOVIE
© E L E M E N T P I C T U R E S / R O O M P R O D U C T I O N S I N C /C H A N N E L F O U R T E L E V I S I O N C O R P O R AT I O N 2 01 5

IN CINEMAS JANUARY 15
 LITTLE WHITE LIES PRESENTS

AN ALPHABETIC INDEX
O F C I N E M A’ S M O S T M A R V E L L O U S
AND MEMORABLE FINAL MOVIES
—
W I T H I L L U S T R AT I O N S B Y

NICHOLAS JOHN FRITH

—

025
 INTRODUCTION
—

e take for granted that when we wake up of a

morning, art will be there for us to consume.
And, our favourite artists will be there, ready
and willing, to serve this unquenchable desire. But time is
a cruel mistress, and just as, say, a film director has to make
a first movie, he or she will also have to make a final movie.
Our cover film, Paolo Sorrentino’s Youth, is about a retired
conductor (played by Michael Caine) who is looking back
over his life and working out which loose ends need tying,
and which can remain forever frayed.

Little White Lies has decided to take 50 examples of

cinematic swan songs and explore them individually in
search of common themes and threads. On occasion,
a director will accept their mortality, creating a work
that translates into a grand statement on a life lived
and a corpus completed. Other times, we see reliable
filmmakers who treat creating art as a job – a way to pay
the bills – and they continued to carry this out until they
found themselves stiff in a box. There are also examples
where tragedy intervenes to stop a great artist in their
tracks, making what some may have seen as an exciting
new direction into a unpredicted exclamation of finality.
—

027
 — No.1 —
silent featurette, a woozy union of experience and perception
CHANTAL AKERMAN that asks us to devote no less attention to a glass rolling across a
restaurant floor than it does two lovers whose quarrelling is the only
N O H OM E MOV I E ( 2015)
ostensible human subject matter. What’s more important is that we
— look, hear and feel everything presented to us. The bizarre inner
It seems sad to have to kick things off by writing about Chantal logic of the film becomes clear in the closing moments as nearly
Akerman’s No Home Movie, not least because its swan song status identical nude women observe one another on an empty beach
was calcified so recently and so abruptly. The film was booed at its — which may, all told, be the most purely serene moment in the
press screening at the 2015 Locarno Film Festival, and opportunist director’s entire oeuvre. NICK NEWMAN
hacks later crassly speculated that this had a direct link to the
— No.4 —
director’s suicide two months later. Had those same hacks actually
watched the film, they would’ve seen an extraordinarily moving and
unguarded portrait of loneliness and existential bemusement as INGMAR BERGMAN
Akerman’s beloved mother deteriorates physically and mentally in
SA RABAND (2003)
front of her hand-held camera. As final movies go, this one seems
archetypal, drawing on her formative classics such as 1975’s portrait —
of enforced domesticity, Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, You can’t keep a good man down, and having announced that
1080 Bruxelles, and more directly from 1977’s magnificent News 1982’s Fanny and Alexander would be his final film, Ingmar
From Home, whose narration comprised of concerned letters from Bergman came back for one last (gentle, observant and
Akerman’s mother as the director plied her trade in New York City. meticulous) roll of the dice. 2004’s Saraband is an addendum
The opening long shot of a fragile tree being blown to breaking point to one of his great works – 1973’s Scenes From A Marriage. Yet
by strong winds says it all. DAVID JENKINS instead of diving straight back in to the sharp rhetorical parrying
of that film – in which Liv Ullmann’s Marianne and Erland
— No.2 —
Josephson’s Johan argue for the best part of five hours – the
stirring Saraband stages a reunion highlighting the hideous lives
ROBERT ALTMAN of offspring and kin and how our heroes may have failed as both
partners and parents. The film opens and closes on Ullmann
A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION (2006)
scanning a table of photographs and addressing the camera
— directly, and even though she was the emotional entry point in
Much like Alain Resnais’ Life Of Riley [see No. 40], a film which Scenes…, she professes to being lonely and unfulfilled despite
appears to acknowledge that its maker knows his time is almost up, her professional success. The film looks at Johan’s son from
Robert Altman’s A Prairie Home Companion is a cavalcade of pure, another marriage and his daughter, the former a widower and
downhome pleasure, but with a seriously bittersweet undertow. both musicians with an unhealthily close relationship. There’s
The film offers a fictional chronicle of Garrison Keillor’s famous, an abundance of psychologically meaty material here, and
long-running live radio broadcasts from which the film takes its Bergman, ever the light-fingered master, enhances it through
title – a broad mixture of teatime comic high-jinx, gather-round- making the film about how people interpret and deal with bonds
the-hearth anecdotes, folk songs and miscellaneous merriment. they perhaps don’t fully comprehend. DAVID JENKINS
The show we’re watching is actually the final broadcast, and
— No.5 —
the old theatre in which it takes place is set for demolition the
following morn. Convention would have it that some scheme needs
to be executed to save the building and, by extension, preserve LUIS BUÑUEL
this grand old American tradition, but no-one seems that fussed
T H AT O B S C U R E O B J EC T O F D E S I R E ( 1 9 7 7 )
about letting it slip away in the name of modernisation. Notable
for a superb supporting turn by Lindsay Lohan, plus the patented —
Altman dialogue, which overlaps with itself like gentle waves as the The final shot of Luis Buñuel’s final feature sees its two main
tide flows out. DAVID JENKINS characters randomly blown up by terrorists. But the way it is
shot (you only see a fiery mushroom cloud) you could construe
— No.3 —
this as the director gleefully detonating the entire planet as a
mischievous parting shot. A cine-rascal til the last, Buñuel’s That
MICHAELANGELO Obscure Object of Desire is perhaps a belated mission statement,
as many of the films within his exceptional canon focus on the idea
ANTONIONI of arrogant, entitled people being unable to fulfil simple desires.
Here, Fernando Rey’s wealthy flaneur Mathieu clasps his eyes on
THE DANGEROUS THREAD OF THINGS (2004)
lissom maid Conchita during a dinner party (played in alternate
— scenes by Carole Bouquet and Ángela Molina) and decides that
Michelangelo Antonioni may not have known that The Dangerous he must have her. Initial gentlemanly advances swiftly give way
Thread of Things, from the 2004 omnibus picture Eros, would to bald financial transactions, though Conchita will simply not let
be his final work. It’s a take on those plotless, “pretentious” films Mathieu into her sewn-on girdle. It’s a scalding tract on notions
about aimless rich people, and as a swan song, it fits the bill. At of social entitlement, machismo, pretension and those (men) who
91, the Italian titan was rendered incapable of speaking and partly are so overwhelmed by their own lofty status that they can’t see
paralysed by a stroke, but nevertheless produced this essentially the world falling apart around them. DAVID JENKINS

028 T h e Yo u t h Iss u e
 — No.6 —

CLAUDE CHABROL
BE L L A MY ( 2009)
—
Claude Chabrol almost made a film a year from 1958 until his death
in 2010. Given how extraordinarily prolific he was, his final picture
was never going to be a self-conscious swan song. And yet his death
inevitably enhances certain traits in his work, elevating a deceptively
simple policier to the state of elegy. The director considered Bellamy
to be like a novel that Georges Simenon never wrote, a film in which
Gérard Depardieu’s titular police inspector finds himself drawn into
a case while holidaying with his wife. Though Chabrol only made two
direct Simenon adaptations, the author’s spirit found its way into
so much of his work. By creating his own version of Chief Inspector
Maigret, Chabrol bridged the gap between Simenon’s world and
his own. The crime itself in Bellamy is almost a side note; as always,
Chabrol’s interest is in the hopes, fears and desires of his characters.
As the critic Armond White noted, genre was Chabrol’s MacGuffin. The
film concludes with lines by WH Auden which speak not only to the
events therein, but to Chabrol’s entire body of work: “There’s always
another story / There is more than meets the eye”. CRAIG WILLIAMS
— No.7 —

CHARLIE CHAPLIN
A CO U N T E S S F R OM H O N G KO N G ( 1 967 )
Connection, to florid confessional Portrait of Jason and on to her
— climactic documentary work, Ornette: Made In America, about free
Though hardly counted among Charlie Chaplin’s great works — jazz saxophonist and composer, Ornette Coleman. This film, which
when, indeed, it’s counted at all — A Countess from Hong Kong is innovates with form in the same way its subject did, is about the process
a far sharper sign-off than many think. In Countess, Chaplin himself of making music, but it’s also about how artists talk about themselves
has only a bit part, which is a little more than 1923’s A Woman of and create an image they present to the world. Clarke’s genial
Paris where the auteur-performer’s presence was entirely absent. presence is journalistic though she never hectors, managing to tease
Some folks would be hard pressed to see a Chaplin film as a Chaplin out personal, private and profound details from Coleman, including the
film when the man himself is not smack-dab in the frame. And in this intertwining of his convention-busting musical odyssey with the fact
case, it’s hard to blame them: wide-screen, colour, Marlon Brando in that he once physically attempted to suppress all erotic desire from
the lead — this is hardly the ingredients of a Chaplin classic. And yet, entering into body and mind. Clarke died in 1997, leaving behind a petit,
as critic Andrew Sarris claimed, it’s “the quintessence of everything ugly/beautiful body of work that we should cherish. DAVID JENKINS
[Chaplin] has ever felt.” This mournfully comic tale of an unhappy
— No.9 —
diplomat, his cold wife (Tippi Hedren) and a firecracker stowaway (a
never-better Sophia Loren) is one of deep longing, encapsulating a
clash between idealism and the cynical world of money and politics JACQUES DEMY
that threatens it. Career obsessions with class issues and the
THREE SEATS FOR THE 26TH ( 1 988)
language of gesture, plus a sheer mastery of form make A Countess
From Hong Kong one of his most deeply-felt films, the swan song —
of an old man who lived a life dashed with equal parts passion and The career of the late Jacques Demy can be sliced roughly down the
disappointment. ADAM COOK middle. Everything from 1961’s Lola to 1970’s Donkey Skin is great,
everything from 1972’s The Pied Piper to his final film, Three Seats for the
— No.8 —
26th, from 1988, is of variable quality. The stand-out in that shaky latter
period is 1982’s A Room In Town, though his of-its-time and hearteningly
SHIRLEY CLARKE sincere swan song, Three Seats…, does have much to recommend it.
The film is an electro-pop love letter to working class chanteur (and
O R NE T TE : MA D E IN A ME RICA ( 1985)
sometimes actor) Yves Montand, who has returned to his hometown
— of Marseilles to star in a gaudy musical extravaganza based on his
There’s a documentary profile of the late, very great director, artist, life. Though this might seem of marginal interest to those not up with
activist and champion of independent film, Shirley Clarke, in which Montand, Demy’s character becomes a personal surrogate, dredging up
the camera darts around a throw pillow conversation circle. Jacques and exploring themes from the director’s own classics – the melancholy
Rivette sits grinning as the star waxes poetic about her idiosyncratic rapture of French provincial living, fiery affairs extinguished by time and
project. This state of perceived comfort penetrated all of this distance, reunions with family and loved ones through happenstance,
unheralded director’s film work, from crackling drug fix drama The and the sheer joy of singing and dancing in public. DAVID JENKINS

029
 — No.10 —
of the morass of images – tried to tell the unvarnished truth about
CARL THEODOR DREYER an impoverished country in the midst of political and cultural
upheaval. While features such as Battleship Potemkin represent the
G E RTRU D ( 1964)
innovations of early cinema, ¡Que viva México! comes across as a
— film that could’ve been made in the 21st century. And that’s not a
It’s only after watching Carl Theodor Dreyer’s imperious and imposing comment on its subject, more an admission that it feels sprightly
oeuvre in its entirety that you see that the director’s project was one and modern. Some commentators have even pegged it as an early
of refinement. He came tantalisingly close to finding the primordial surrealist film. Pooh-poohed by some because Eisenstein’s footage
essence of pure cinema on many occasions, not least in films like was belatedly edited by one of his creative partners, Grigori
1955’s Ordet and 1928’s The Passion of Joan of Arc. However, it’s Alexandrov, and thus not “strictly” part of the director’s body of
his gently devastating parting shot, Gertrud, which stands as his work, it remains a fascinating and singular film, whatever its auterist
most breathtaking, nuanced and radical masterstroke. “A woman’s credentials may be. DAVID JENKINS
love and a man’s work are mortal enemies.” It’s a garish, off-hand
— No.12 —
sentiment which nevertheless colours the life of tormented society
dame, Gertrud (Nina Pens Rode), whose search for a form of pure
and selfless love goes tragically unfounded. Though theatrical in NORA EPHRON
its basic scene construction, Dreyer’s shattering masterpiece is
J ULIA AN D J ULIA (2009)
boldly cinematic in its composition and lightly expressionistic in its
performances. During long dialogues actors stare not at each other, —
but into some mysterious middle distance void, in a film about the Rom-com queen Nora Ephron directed just eight films, though she
impossibility of attaining strict gender equality in heterosexual wrote twice as many (The 2000 John Travolta flop Lucky Numbers
relationships and, thus, being unable to see eye to eye. The film was was the only one she directed but didn’t write herself.) Her last
loathed when it was originally released – dismissed as antiquated and film, 2009’s Julie and Julia, focused on the parallel careers of two
stuffy. It has, of course, since grown to be recognised one of modern women, sidelining the love stories on which she made her name.
cinema’s most emotionally bracing achievements. DAVID JENKINS Yet in many ways, this film is the most personal the writer-director
ever made. Firstly, it reunited her with long-time muse Meryl Streep
— No.11 —
with whom she collaborated as writer on Silkwood and Heartburn.
Secondly, it gave her the chance to pay cinematic homage to a
SERGEI EISENSTEIN subject she regularly wrote about in both newspapers and novels:
Food. Set against the backdrop of post 9/11 New York, it follows
¡ Q UE V I VA ME XICO ! ( 1979)
the gastronomic journeys of food blogger Julie Powell (Amy Adams)
— and her culinary inspiration, the celebrity chef Julia Child (Meryl
The godfather of the modern movie montage set fire to his own Streep) – both sous-chef their respective ways to self-actualisation.
playbook in this Mexican adventure which cinema lore dismissed While Julie and Julia perhaps doesn’t offer the same pleasures as
as a muffed-up folly. Though intended as a puff-piece quickie by Ephron’s classic romance films – sadly absent are the autumn leaves
the film’s local producers and paymasters, Eisenstein had other and Lubitsch-esque screwball patter – it does argue that women
ideas. He shot away to his heart’s content and – on the evidence amount to more than their love lives. SIMRAN HANS

030 T h e Yo u t h Iss u e
 — No.13 —

RAINER WERNER
for Cabaret). And then there’s Star 80, as close to overlooked as
a film representing one fifth of an Oscar-winning director’s output

FASSBINDER
can be. Delivering a tabloid-sleaze salacious story with extraordinary
compassion and insight, it tells of the tawdry murder of 1980
‘Playmate of the Year’ Dorothy Stratten (Mariel Hemingway) by her
Q U E RE L L E ( 1982)
estranged husband Paul Snider (Eric Roberts). The performances
— are outstanding: Roberts’ Snider is a volatile cocktail of fury and
There would have been a certain grim poetry had Veronika Voss been inadequacy, embodying the inchoate violence of a Travis Bickle and
the great Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s final film. It concerns a crumbling the hopeless famewhoreishness of a Rupert Pupkin (reportedly,
celebrity whose drug dependency expedites her tragic demise. But Fosse once circled The King of Comedy). And Hemingway is a
instead it was to be Querelle, made in 1982 from a beautifully lurid revelation, heartbreakingly evoking Stratten’s dawning self-worth
book by Jean Genet and released after the director’s death in June that wars with her misguided sense of gratitude, en route to an
of that year. With its snow-globe set design – a Brest port lined with almost unwatchably visceral climax. Fosse had plans to direct
phallic bollards – and a dreamy choral soundtrack by the director’s other films that never came to fruition, but Star 80 deserves to be
long-time musical collaborator, Peer Raben, the film stands alone reclaimed as an uncompromising example of his chilling, incisive
within the director’s oeuvre as a fantastical fairytale with gay romantic investigations into fame, image and destructive ego. JESSICA KIANG
trappings. It’s almost like a more brassily subversive Jean Cocteau
— No.16 —
movie. It’s possibly Fassbinder’s most invigoratingly visual film, one in

YILMAZ GÜNEY
which every fight, every act of aggression and flurry of naked passion
translates into a dance or mating ritual. Bodies glisten in the golden
sunsets, and Fassbinder uses every trick in the book (and some new
YOL ( 1982)
ones) to enter the mind of his murderous hero. DAVID JENKINS
—
— No.14 —
There’s never been another filmmaker like Yilmaz Güney.

JOHN FORD
On-screen the Kurdish-born firebrand specialised in moody
Brandoesque roles in the ’60s. He then wrote and directed his
own politicised neorealist movies, becoming an insurgent voice
7 WOME N ( 1966)
who was repeatedly imprisoned by military authorities throughout
— the following decade. Sentenced again for the murder of a state
Spoiler: the closing scene from John Ford’s 7 Women is one of the prosecutor, he continued writing scripts in prison (which were
greatest final sequence of any filmmaker’s career. The icy, life-hardened then shot clandestinely by his assistant Serif Gören), among them
protagonist DR Cartwright (a marvellously brash Anne Bancroft), is in Yol, the joint winner of the 1982 Cannes Palme d’Or. To date,
an impossible situation and held captive at a Christian mission. Having he’s the only prizewinner to turn up having escaped from jail,
handily picked apart the foundations of the mission’s residents, one allegedly pursued by Interpol. While in France he made one more
value at a time, she then sacrifices her life to save the people around film before dying suddenly of cancer, aged 57. Yol remains his
her. At odds with the seven women of the film’s title (she not counted testament. It’s no fist-pumping call to arms but a despairing picture
among them), the atheistic DR is brought in as a desperately needed of what he called ‘the moral debris left behind by feudalism and
doctor, and not long after her arrival, a company of Mongolian savages patriarchy’. Following various prisoners allowed home on leave,
take over. She offers herself as a concubine to their leader to spare the Güney shows us a Turkey gripped by army checkpoints, locked in
others, a great example of a lone Fordian outsider acting on behalf of a virtual civil war, yet choked just as much by its own repressive
the greater good. Ford spent a lifetime looking at how individuals find moral values and ingrained traditionalism. Complex, challenging
their place within society at large, and with 7 Women he arrives at a and magnificently authentic, it’s a film to leave us asking why none
troubling and powerful act of martyrdom, thus closing a rich oeuvre on of his work is readily available on DVD. TREVOR JOHNSTON
a note of devout existentialism — abruptly turning away from society
— No.17 —
or nation, and towards a relationship with one’s self and the universe.

HOWARD HAWKS
Like so many last films, this one concerns death — not ageing, but dying,
and by extension, how to live. Every moment is integral to its purpose,
communicating emotions and ideas with devastating aplomb. A swig of
RIO LOB O ( 19 70)
poison, the extinguishing of a light, the ignition of Ford’s most bluntly
philosophical proposition. The End. ADAM COOK —
Of their five collaborations, Rio Lobo remains the picture for
— No.15 —
which Howard Hawks and John “The Duke” Wayne are least likely

BOB FOSSE
to be remembered. And rightly so. Hawks’ indifference to his
material extends far beyond his complete abandonment of the film
immediately after shooting. He flew straight to Palm Springs and
STA R 80 ( 1983 )
played no part in its editing. The often wince-inducing, in-camera
— sloppiness feels a far cry from both the drum-tight rhythms of
Bob Fosse’s most substantial legacy is as a Broadway choreographer/ his ’30s and ’40s work, and the shaggy-dog looseness of his post-
director, but his five feature films suggest that theatre’s gain was Rio Bravo best. Hawks brought in writer Leigh Brackett for a third
cinema’s loss. His debut, Sweet Charity is strong, and Cabaret, Lenny (after El Dorado) reconfiguration of Rio Bravo’s jailhouse stand-
and All That Jazz are Best Director-nominated touchstones (he won off, but even the most ardent Hawksian would struggle to find

031
much of interest beyond the most rote variations on this theme.
The opening train heist is handsomely mounted, but more
often than not Rio Lobo feels like a half-hearted last stand; an
anachronistic fuck you to the young turks riding in on horseback
and motorcycle. John Wayne huffing, puffing and slapping women’s
arses remains a craggy monolith carved from unreconstructed oak,
but when Hawks famously said of The Wild Bunch, “I can kill four
men, take ’em to the morgue, and bury ’em before he gets one to
the ground in slow-motion,” few who agreed could be thinking of
Rio Lobo. MATT THRIFT
— No.18 —

ALFRED HITCHCOCK
FA M I LY P LOT ( 1976)
—
It’s incredible to think that Alfred Hitchcock’s directorial career
started before Buster Keaton’s The General and ended in the
year of Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver. He was a silent pioneer and
British maverick before developing into the signature stylist of his
Hollywood prime. By the second half of the ’60s, though, he’d clearly
peaked, and while 1972’s Frenzy marked a viciously provocative
return to London, by then young pups like Brian De Palma were
delivering better mock-Hitchcock than the old man might have
managed. Which is why the jaunty, decidedly urbane Family Plot
is such a surprise, a gentle caper entangling a fake spiritualist and
a fiendish diamond thief, its essentially comedic tone took Hitch
back to ’30s British larks like Young and Innocent or The Lady
Vanishes. True, the pace is certainly deliberate, yet the movie’s far
from old fashioned, since the cast bring a quintessentially ’70s New
Hollywood vibe to it. What with goofball vixen Karen Black in a
blonde wig, Bruce Dern doing full-on whimsical as an inquisitive
— No.20 —
cabbie, and William Devane suave yet scary as the volatile villain,
it’s a Hitchcock movie with a flavour like no other. Not a bad way for
the 77-year-old to bow out. TREVOR JOHNSTON JOHN HUSTON
— No.19 — THE DEAD ( 1987)
—
JOHN HUGHES Despite tackling a number of literary adaptations throughout his
career, John Huston certainly saved his toughest customer for
C UR LY SU E ( 1991)
last. His final film would be The Dead, taken from James Joyce’s
— collection of short fiction, ‘The Dubliners’. By this point in his life,
The cliché of the beloved director going out to seed, or losing his Huston considered himself an honorary Irishman having bought
way in the final furlongs of an otherwise star-spangled career, is all land and set up home at St Clerans outside Galway. One can feel
present and correct in the case of John Hughes’ Curly Sue. It’s a the affection for his adopted country coursing through the film. It’s
film that’s so sickeningly sentimental that not even prattling Chicago easy to see why Huston was tempted, given the sense of bittersweet
dough-boy Jim Belushi can help toughen it up. And yet, watching celebration and doomed masculinity found in the text. Yet Joyce
it now, there is a defensible husk at the core of this story of two remains a writer whose work remains resistant to screen adaptation,
noble transients. It’s about Belushi’s Bob and his frizzily-mopped and there’s little in Huston’s visual style that suggests previous
daughter, Sue (Alisan Porter), who makes up in mildly astringent success with such literary introspection. So it’s remarkable that a
barkeep patter what she lacks in formal education. Kelly Lynch’s film as often lumberingly flat-footed as The Dead – see the dance
basic bitch lawyer takes pity on these lovable hucksters, and the film sequence – should also find such lucid moments of poignancy and
transforms into an essay on class consciousness which questions grace, rendered all the more powerful by the fact they appear out of
whether there is any way to bridge the cultural and economic nowhere. Aided immeasurably by DoP Fred Murphy’s whiskey-dipped
chasms of ’90s America. There’s a sequence where the three go and glow, and wonderful performances from Anjelica Huston and Donal
see a Looney Tunes cartoon in the cinema (screening in 3D?), and Donnelly, it’s in quieter moments that The Dead soars more so than in
Hughes attempts to leaven the film’s violent overtones by synching the literalism of its overtly poetic finale. A small film of overwhelming
in comedy sound effects when characters are, say, run over, receive power, you can feels Huston’s kinship with Joyce’s closing passage:
a serious head injury, or are simply booted in the swingers. We know “Better to pass boldly into that other world in the full glory of some
how you feel, John… DAVID JENKINS passion than fade and wither dismally with age.” MATT THRIFT

0032 T hh ee Y
32 T Y oo uu tt hh II ss ss uu ee
 — No.21 —
grace with which Tatsuo Matsumura’s professor awaits the inevitable.
SATOSHI KON Flowing with all the properties of a final sigh, Kurosawa switches
out his muscular editing patterns for a series of fades to black, his
PA P RIKA ( 2006)
interior compositions more often appearing to echo the poise of his
— contemporary, Yasujiro Ozu than himself. An expressionistic final
The tragedy of Satoshi Kon’s sudden demise to pancreatic cancer is sequence can’t help but take on the sense of cinematic valediction
the feeling that as a filmmaker, he was only just warming up. That’s for one of its true master craftsmen. MATT THRIFT
not to say that titles already in the can such as 1997’s Hitchcockian
— No.24 —
J-Pop satire, Perfect Blue, or 2001’s exploration of Japan’s classic-
era leading ladies, Millennium Actress, weren’t brilliant in their own
right. It’s that Paprika seemed to anticipate and out-class Christopher JERRY LEWIS
Nolan’s Inception by some four years, and with it, Kon had passed
CRACKING UP ( 1983)
through the looking glass, had found a way to make a purely
experimental movie that carried the base emotional conventions of —
straight drama. The film is about a contraption used to enter into No, this 1983 Hollywood comedy doesn’t begin with Chevy, Eddie
the dreams of others with the aim of fixing psychological maladies. or Bill Murray making a pratfall accompanied to their star billing,
It gets into the wrong hands and all hell breaks loose. Kon’s handling but rather the words: “Jerry… Who Else?”. Despite America’s efforts
of this interior battle between good and evil sets fire to the rule to leave its clown laureate to the French, Jerry Lewis was back for
book then tosses the ashes into a canyon. The world and the movie one last directorial effort in which he stars as Warren Nefron, a klutz
business desperately need those whose ideas are unshackled from of apocalyptic proportions. In other words, a Jerry Lewis character.
the bounds of banal human experience – people who can dream Yet the predicament that separates Nefron from Lewis’ other
big and not stupid. Kon was one of the very best before he was screen nerds like The Nutty Professor’s Julius Kelp or Herbert H
snatched from us. DAVID JENKINS Heebert from The Ladies Man isn’t based on the need for attention
from a pretty girl – a motif that led to accusations of misogyny and
— No.22 —
narcissism throughout his career. What Nefron hilariously fails at
again and again through his klutziness is killing himself. Despite
STANLEY KUBRICK his inability to exit stage left as a performer and icon, Cracking
Up didn’t end up being a testament to his immortality, but rather
EY E S W I D E S H U T ( 1 9 9 9)
a bittersweet swan song. While the lack of a follow-up could be
— chalked up to Lewis’ poor health (he suffered a heart attack while in
Even Kubrick’s comedies are schematic and grandiose. His last post-production) or likelier, the film’s lack of commercial appeal (it
film was elegantly, mysteriously so. In stately Steadicam shots, went straight-to-cable in the United States), it’s fitting that his finale
Tom Cruise’s lucky, limited doctor wanders a backlot New York embodies his famed belief that there was no gap between comedy
that, with its Christmas lights and stilted interactions, is like a and tragedy. ETHAN VESTBY
waking dream. Haunted by wife Nicole Kidman’s confession of an
— No.25 —
emotional life beyond his understanding, he chases a conspiracy of
platonic shadows, whose Fellini-esque masked orgies offer tempting
flickers of authentic knowledge. Eyes Wide Shut is the culmination JOSEPH L MANKIEWICZ
of the late-90s run of brain-in-a-jar sci-fi flicks – Dark City, The
SLEUTH ( 19 72)
Thirteenth Floor, The Matrix, virtual realities hinted at by movie-
movie production design – crossed with Paul Bowles’s philosophy —
of death as transcendent truth: “Reach out, pierce the fine fabric of Despite a career that spanned four decades, which saw him
the sheltering sky, take repose.” Yet the film’s final moments are as win writing and directing Oscars two years running (for A Letter
touchingly earthy as any in Kubrick’s career. MARK ASCH From Three Wives and All About Eve) Joseph L Mankiewicz is
rarely mentioned in the same reverent tones as the Hitchcocks,
— No.23 —
Wilders and Fords of Hollywood’s classic era. The diversity of his
output and his unobtrusive visual style perhaps make him less
AKIRA KUROSAWA readily identifiable as an auteur (although Jean-Luc Godard’s first
published criticism was a laudatory 1950 overview of Mankiewicz’s
MA DA DAYO U ( 1993 )
career). But one recurring Mankiewicz trait is dialogue that often
— yields great performances. To that end, Sleuth is a fitting grace note.
It seems fitting that Madadayo would be Kurosawa’s final film, Based on Anthony Schaffer’s play, it’s about the cat-and-mouse
given its reflective nature. A gentle tale of a much-loved professor’s games between a wealthy mystery novelist (Laurence Olivier) and
autumn years, it’s a quietly profound work that eschews the his estranged wife’s callow lover (Michael Caine). It’s a tricksy,
filmmaker’s characteristic propulsive narratives for something more theatrical, not particularly “deep” film, and since its central gimmick
contemplative, its title (meaning, “Not yet!”) a battle cry taken from cannot work a second time (and not even a first time really, to a
scenes of lively birthday celebrations at which his students ask if he’s Caine-literate modern audience), it could feel stagy and somewhat
ready to die. It’s not the first of Kurosawa’s films to tackle questions disposable. But because of Mankiewicz’ particular talents, Sleuth is
of mortality, but neither does it frame its protagonist’s impending in fact highly rewatchable, as two crackling performances deliver
shuffle in explicitly sentimental terms like his earlier Ikiru. There are Schaffer’s witty,  baroque words with just the right amount of self-
no life lessons to be learned here, beyond the good humour and aware ham. JESSICA KIANG

033
 RIP

I N LOV I N G M E MO RY
GOD’S PRECIOUS GIFT

R O B E RT KING
R.I.P. WORDS BY
BRESSON
—
GENESIS
HU THE BAT TLE OF ON O
—

PETER LABUZA The French director Robert Bresson Kung Fu and the Western have
certainly made genre films in his time always shared ailiations, but it
— (Pickpocket; Lancelot Du Lac), but his took martial arts master King Hu
mooted epic involving the creation to truly demonstrate the oddity of
SOMETIMES, of the universe, Genesis, falls into a Hong Kong cinema with Hu’s 1997
MOVIE DIRECTORS category of its own. Avoiding digital Western The Battle of Ono. Set along
efects, Bresson relies on abstract a railroad, Chow Yun-Fat stars as
DIE BEFORE THEY flashes of light and a meticulous the leader of a group of immigrants
CAN REALISE melody of sounds to imagine Earth’s who take arms against their ruthless
first days. Adam (Jean-Pierre Leaud) overseers (Clint Eastwood and Paul
ALL OF THE and Eve (Catherine Deneuve) walk Newman) in a gun-meets-sword
solemnly through a Technicolor battle for freedom. Hu’s intense
C I NEMATI C DRAM S. painted garden with their many, spiritualism finds an ancillary in
WE OFFER astonishingly expressive animal co- Tony Leung’s patriotic speeches
stars (plus Jean-Luc Godard voicing about their rights to Americans
S P E C U L AT I V E the serpent). But while the film’s democracy, while the action unfolds
physical elements are astonishing, at a meticulously crafted pace,
REVIEWS OF THE the immense tragedy of the film’s swinging from highly energetic to
S WA N S O N G S T H AT ending – a 10 minute conversation slowly deliberate — resulting in
with an absent God – creates perhaps the best crossover genre film
NEVER WERE. cinematic, spiritual catharsis. maybe ever made.

034 T h e Yo u t h Iss u e
 DEAR DEPARTED

ANDREI IN LOVIN G MEMORY

I N SAC R E D M E MORY

TARKOVSKY JACQUES
OTTO
TATI
THE IDIOT
—

PREMINGER It seems only appropriate that

Russian master Andrei Tarkovsky
would end his career with a comedy,
BLO O D O N TH E W HE E L S CONFUSION
making his only German film after
— the fall of the Berlin Wall. His modern —
The first American film shot in retelling of Dostoevsky’s The Idiot It was only inevitable that after the
China, Otto Preminger’s period epic follows Prince Myshkin (an unknown geometric shapes of Playtime and
Blood on the Wheels had perhaps as Christoph Waltz), who has returned Trafic, Jacques Tati would literally
much efect on Chinese-American from an asylum somewhere in the turn his himself into a pattern of
relations as Nixon’s 1972 trade West and falls under the crafty squares. In Confusion, Tati is killed on
visit. Stacy Keach stars as Canadian persuasion of his distant cousin-in- television and then reborn through
doctor Norman Bethune who law Yepanchin, a former Stasi agent the medium, as two American TV
travels to China to aid the resistance played with zany bravado by Klaus engineers (Ron and Russel Mael
during World War Two. But the real Kinski. Myshkin understands little of of the band Sparks) redesign Paris
invention within the film are the Yepanchin’s scheme for a government through mapping new technology
intense flash-forwards the doctor takeover through marrying of his into its every corner, essentially
has, all involving Chairman Mao. young daughters, but Tarkovsky finds turning it into a real life social media
Mao portrays himself in lenghy bitter black humour as he captures the platform. While Tati saw the poetry
debate scenes which cover politics, poverty on the streets of the reunified inherent in regimented modern
science, religion, and more, with Berlin. His long take approach may society, it feels ironic that he views
Preminger’s camera constantly feel ill-suited to such material, but the computing world with utopic
readjusting the staging between each the film finds a balance between the freedom (think Daft Punk meets
switch-up of subject. The director almost screwball dialogue and the WALL-E), bursting the screen into
keeps a curiously even hand in terms harsh realism that plays out in the a dazzling show of audio-visual
of the film’s politics, punctuating the background, asking questions such as encounters into which he integrates
verbiage with battle sequences that where the artist fits into this new, not- some of the most sophisticated uses
rival any Vietnam film of the era. so-free state. of early digital efects.

035
 — No.26 —
culture, free love, surfing, sky diving, and a beachfront houses with poor
LEO MCCAREY foundations. It’s a very funny and flip film which miraculously manages
to sustain its wild sense of humour until the last. Even though Don’t
SATA N N EVE R SL E E P S ( 1962)
Make Waves was made in 1967, MacKendrick never made another film,
— instead accepting a cushy job at the famous Cal Arts institute as the
Having made a name as a maestro of film comedy, with the likes Dean of Film, and died in 1993 at the ripe old age of 91. DAVID JENKINS
of Marx brothers’ classic Duck Soup and The Awful Truth on his CV,
— No.28 —
Leo McCarey struck out big time in his twilight years with a string of
whimsical faith-based “comedies” which are almost wholly lacking in the
rapier sharp irony and visual exuberance of yore. In an interview with JEAN-PIERRE MELVILLE
Peter Bogdanovich, McCarey admitted to not only despising the three
UN FLIC ( 19 72)
stars of the awfully titled Satan Never Sleeps – William Holden, Clifton
Webb and France Nuyen – but the actual production of the film itself, —
bowing out five days before it was completed and leaving the tidy-up Not to second guess the sleuthing skills of our readers, but were you
to an assistant. The film’s staggeringly non-PC plotline would likely to watch Jean-Pierre Melville’s Un Flic shorn of all context, it’s unlikely
cause the internet to implode if something of its ilk released today, with that you’d guess it was the director’s final movie. There’s the sense that
Holden’s rugged Christian missionary holed up in revolutionary China he’s attempting to court a more mainstream audience, as it not only
to spread the good word, while his trouser chasing cook (Nuyen) is boasts two of France’s most beloved stars – Alain Delon and Catherine
raped by a Communist boot boy. The film is then about how Holden Deneuve – but Rambo’s Colonel Trautman himself, Richard Crenna,
and fellow priest Webb go about rehabilitating the Communist so he potentially in a bid to lure in American cinema-goers. The story of a
can raise the child that he forced upon his unwitting female prey. The team of crooks bungling a bank robbery and, later, a drug heist on a
final shot sees rapist and victim christening their child and laughing moving train, does that Melvillian thing of lightly romanticising the skill-
heartily [sound of skin crawling]. DAVID JENKINS sets of cads and robbers while celebrating the intricate and exotic
processes they develop to execute their schemes. In the film’s central
— No.27 —
set piece, Crenna is lowered onto a moving train from a helicopter, and
stealthily breaks into a compartment to nab two briefcases full of drugs.
ALEXANDER MACKENDRICK To bring this scene to the screen, Melville uses some sneaky illusions
of his own, bringing in a model train set, remote control helicopter and
D O N ’ T M A K E WAV E S ( 1967 )
smoke machine to offer an effect without shattering through budget
— constraints. In that sense, this is an impressionistic gangster film – a story
I remember going to see Don’t Make Waves at the London’s BFI of debonair crooks that’s been made by one. DAVID JENKINS
Southbank, the decision to head down more because I wanted to watch
— No.29 —
something, anything, than any great affinity with its director, Alexander
McKendrick. His “great” movies – The Ladykillers or Sweet Smell of
Success – never really did it for me, so the impulse to make a point of RUSS MEYER
catching Don’t Make Waves was mystifying to say the least. The film
BENEATH THE VALLEY OF THE ULTRA VIXENS ( 1979)
ended up being a major hoot, a riotous parody of flesh-parading west
coast surf pictures which can now be seen as an important forerunner —
to Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice. “Turn on! Stay loose! Make When it comes to cracking through the smiley façade of American
out!” read the poster tagline for a film which sees Tony Curtis’ New picket fenced suburbia to reveal violence, vice and transgression,
York journo forcibly dunked into the deep end of seafront hippy David Lynch is your go-to guy. However, roistering bosom man Russ

036 T h e Yo u t h Iss u e
 — No.32 —

MANOEL DE OLIVEIRA
Meyer used his final movie to assure that if you enter into any house
on any street in what he and screenwriter Roger Ebert refer to
as “Small town America”, you’ll be party to scenes that are hotter
GEB O AN D THE SHADOW (2012)
than a Mexican’s lunch. Junkyard dogs, religious radio announcers,
blue-eyed decathletes and horny, hairy clock punchers manage —
to find ways to slot aggressive sex into their daily routines. It’s an A friend’s remark that the economic crisis should compel him to
openly, barbarically lewd picture, but Meyer manages to transform make a film about poverty was the reported inspiration for Manoel
the material into a work which wouldn’t look out of place as a video de Oliveira’s final film, Gebo and the Shadow. It is worth mentioning,
installation at an art gallery. Every shot is intricately framed, and the however, that his very first film in 1931, Labor on the Douro River, was
exuberant editing patterns and detailed visual coverage suggest a look at industry and poverty in his hometown of Porto, Portugal. A
a man with a precise vision of what he wanted to achieve. At the silent short portrait of a town, Labor… could not be more different
climax of this breathless sex montage movie, Meyer himself appears, from Gebo, a feature-length, digitally shot, single-setting story with
realising that his entire crew has walked out on him. The randy four main characters and just nine in total. Gebo includes numerous
bulldog of big screen titilation bids a fond, personal farewell to his shots that run for 15 minutes and are lit without the excessive artificial
audience, as their eyeballs are harvested by the demon of cheap, lighting that shooting on film demands. It is no coincidence, then, that
tacky, mass-market VHS bongo. DAVID JENKINS light becomes the film’s central metaphor, with sunlight signalling the
isolated family’s entrance into a world of corruption. Eighty years did
— No.30 —
not stop the 103-year-old director from turning the specific properties

KENJI MIZOGUCHI
of new technology into his film’s defining virtues. Nothing suggests the
work of a master, like an exit so similar and yet so different to his
entrance almost a century earlier. FORREST CARDAMENIS
STRE E T O F SH A ME ( 1956)
— — No.33 —

MAX OPHÜLS
It’s rare that anyone would associate Kenji Mizoguchi’s films with
anything close to cheeriness, but even a familiarity with his dark work
wouldn’t prepare a viewer for his final film, Street of Shame. Moving
LO L A MO N T È S ( 1955)
away from the period settings of his best-known work and into the
modern world, Mizoguchi put his eye — an eye that, above all else, —
understands the visual significance of myth and iconography — on a Critic Andrew Sarris once declared, “Lola Montès is, in my unhumble
matter that few, even 60 years on, will directly confront: sex work, opinion, the greatest film of all time.” But upon its release it was
prostitutes, and the unfathomable pain that their lives can yield. critically maligned and for years only a heavily cut version was
The fusion of clean framing and editing with legitimate horrors make screened. Told through flashbacks, Lola Montès is a romance that
this film even more tragic in how they hint at what work might have focuses on the beats of regret. It’s about this fantastic woman who
followed. It’s one of the great dramas of postwar Japan, a film that can did fantastic things and fell in love with fantastic men, but lived to see
be turned over and debated even to this day. NICK NEWMAN it all fall apart. As one of the true great tragedies of the screen, the
film uses shrill audio and visual flourishes to raise Lola to the realm
— No.31 —
of mythology. Like Icarus, who flew too close to the sun, the camera

MIKIO NARUSE
itself does the impossible in charting Montes’ rise and fall. Ophüls’
work, which has always involved a moving and spinning camera, never
felt so magical and so effortless. While the film has a grand scope,
SCAT TERED CLOUDS ( 1967)
spanning many decades and crossing continents, its greatest appeal
— lies in its intimacy with Montes’ passion and solitude. JUSTINE SMITH
When we talk about the grand masters of postwar Japanese
— No.34 —
cinema, two names often arise: Yasujiro Ozu and Kenji Mizoguchi.

NAGISA OSHIMA
Thanks to DVDs and clandestine networks of online cinephiles,
Mikio Naruse is now a name that can be added to that extremely
refined list. Scattered Clouds (aka Two In The Shadow) is Naruse’s
GOHAT TO ( 19 9 9)
parting gesture, and there’s no doubt that it stands up as a film
which deserves a place alongside the likes of Ozu’s Tokyo Story —
or Mizoguchi’s Ugetsu Monogatari. It follows a theme the director The title translates as Taboo, prime territory for director Nagisa
often returned to: the idea of two people being in love with one Oshima until ill-health eventually ended his filmmaking career.
another, but never both at the same time. Mishima (Yûzû Kayama) Having deconstructed narrative as he dismantled Japanese social
accidentally runs over and kills a man who happens to be the fiance mores, Oshima brought hardcore sex into the arthouse mainstream
of Yôko Tsukasa’s Yumiko. He agrees to pay her financial support with Empire of the Senses and paired Charlotte Rampling with a
by way of an apology, and over time, an impossible love blossoms. frisky simian in Max, Mon Amour. Where could he go after all that?
However cordial and loving this man can be, will the association To some extent Gohatto revisits the homoeroticism in war which
with death ever escape him? Are people fated to be defined by marked 1982’s Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence, here framed within
their actions? And can we suppress those dark associations in the a historical drama about the pro-Shogun militia, the Shinsengumi.
name of love? Naruse’s diplomatic answer to this question is that The rigid discipline that is key to their operation is destabilised by
humans are beautiful and complex creatures, and to answer that the arrival of androgynous Ryûhei Matsuda, who stirs yearning
conundrum would be unlock the secret to life itself. DAVID JENKINS throughout the ranks, even in stoic lieutenant Takeshi Kitano.

037
 — No.37 —
Oshima teases with hints of conventional action choreography and
writhing physicality, yet his approach also matches the military’s NICOLAS RAY
controlling mindset by deliberately withholding key scenes and filling
LIGHTN IN G OVER WATER ( 198 0)
story ellipses with pared-down intertitles. This distancing effect
forces us to consider the story’s contemporary ideological relevance, —
most strikingly in the climactic slashing of a cherry tree suggesting For a director who spent much of his career exploring the concept of
that modern Japan’s rigid social consensus is at odds with its own crumbling manhood, this courageous kiss-off, which was co-directed by
unruly desire for beauty. Far from Oshima’s most ferocious offering, Wim Wenders, sees Nicolas Ray turning the camera on to himself. Riddled
yet its steely resolve is rewarding. TREVOR JOHNSTON with cancer, but never without a smouldering cigarillo between his lips,
the physically fragile legend muses artfully and obliquely on his career
— No.35 —
and his impending expiration, all the while playfully slipping between
reality and artifice, delirium and calm. The title refers to a film Ray wants
PIER PAOLO PASOLINI to make about a man who sails to China to find a cure for his mysterious
ailment. Shots and motifs are explained to Wenders, who attempts to
SA LO, O R TH E 1 2 0 DAYS O F SO D OM ( 1975)
recreate fragments in posthumous reverence to his friend and mentor.
— While Ray remains understandably cantankerous, dryly humorous and
One of the most controversial films ever made, Salo, or the 120 Days invigoratingly poetic through the film’s first half, his health starts to falter
of Sodom was Pier Paolo Pasolini’s critique of Italian fascism, and it as the film comes to its frenzied close, and the unmatchably sad final take
encapsulates his communist and anarchist views held throughout his is just a shot of Ray – with eye patch – monologuing incoherently before
career. Pasolini was murdered shortly after the film was completed, aggressively daring the cameraman to cut. DAVID JENKINS
with suspicions that he was targeted because of his politics. Based
— No.38 —
on a story by the Marquis de Sade, whose philosophy celebrated
hedonism, Pasolini associates the pursuit of pleasure with evil. If
absolute power corrupts absolutely, then upper classes, comfortable SATYAJIT RAY
in their material wealth, inevitably dehumanise and abuse those who
THE STRANGER ( 1991)
beneath them? Challenging audiences by featuring young victims
beaten, used as slaves and forced to eat their own faeces, Pasolini’s —
film dares us to look away. The rise of hedonism suggests that Satyajit Ray knew The Stranger was going to be his final film. Still
fascism is not a quirk of “evil” but is possibly ingrained in human suffering from the debilitating effects of a heart attack years earlier,
nature, or at the very least a symptom of capitalism. Evil in the film Ray wrote the screenplay in his sick bed and directed much of the
is a scapegoat, a way to explain away our responsibility. The horror production from inside an oxygen tent. Despite the knowledge of
of Salo is that it does not exist outside the realm of possibility — it his death being imminent, The Stranger is not presented as a grand
is a heightened reflection of the evils of which we are all capable. final statement; instead, Ray’s last work is an intimate and engaging
JUSTINE SMITH character-driven drama set almost entirely within the confines of a
single location. His story is a simple one that accumulates metaphorical
— No.36 —
weight. Utpal Dutt is the stranger of the title, a man who unexpectedly
turns up at the home of middle class couple Anila and Sudhindra
MAURICE PIALAT (Mamata Shankar and Dipankar Dey), claiming to be Anila’s uncle, a
long-forgotten character who left the family 35 years earlier to explore
LE GARÇ U ( 1995)
the world. As the sceptical family interrogates this interloper, he spins
— them a series of tales from his global travels, none of which make
Situated far from the working-class milieu of his first film, 1968’s clearer whether he is who he claims to be, or if he’s simply a very skilled
L’Enface Nue, Maurice Pialat’s final work stars his favourite actor, conman. In fact, it is those asking the questions who end up revealing
Monsieur Depardieu as (who else) Gerard, a charismatic, quasi- more of themselves through this process. Throughout The Stranger Ray
bourgeois with his attention divided between his 4-year-old son, observes his characters at close quarters, his camera moving around
Antoine, his ex-wife Sophie, and his various girlfriends. Life is further the family home with effortless grace. His ability to find humour and
complicated by his potential romantic adversary, Jeannot — Sophie’s pathos in every human interaction had not deserted him at this late
new partner. While on his occasional visits he may shower his son stage. The Stranger might be viewed as a minor work, far from the scale
with gifts and retain at least some form of connection with Sophie, of Ray’s masterpieces, but it is a rich and engrossing film about trust,
as someone settling into middle-age, Gerard’s tenuous relationships judgement, understanding and – fittingly for this great director – the
can’t help but make his happiness utterly uncertain. Yet even with all power of storytelling. PHIL CONCANNON
the required emotional turmoil, Pialat creates levity through bouts
— No.39 —
of movement, such as a dancehall sequence from his otherwise
appropriately downbeat biopic, Van Gogh, which sees a modern day
equivalent in a synchronised waltz scored to both Bjork’s ‘Human JEAN RENOIR
Behavior’ and, yes, Corona’s ‘The Rhythm of the Night’. Simpler, if
THE LIT TLE THEATRE OF J EAN REN OIR ( 19 70)
just as effective; Gerard taking his far-too-small son around on his
motorcycle, or Antoine in his new toy car noisily circling around his —
mother’s spacious apartment. These are, in pure Pialat fashion, the The Little Theatre of Jean Renoir gets barely a page of consideration
kind of brief snippets of time that only heighten the sting of the in the French director’s brilliant and eloquent memoir, ‘My Life and
eventual and far-too-abrupt cut to black. ETHAN VESTBY My Films’. When mentioning it he channels a certain frustration, as

038 T h e Yo u t h Iss u e
 light, its intentions perhaps more vivid than they were when its creator
still walked among us. The film openly inspects the links between life and
art. Artifice is emphasised at every turn through brash performances,
the stripped back, vibrantly-coloured sets, the use of “off-stage” space,
and even knowingly bad special effects in the form of a toy badger that’s
digging holes in the lawn. In bringing together members of his regular
repertory company – Hippolyte Girardot, André Dussollier and his
widow, Sabine Azéma – it becomes clear that George is a stand-in for the
director himself, a character whose unseen hand appears to be guiding
the lives – artistic and emotional – of all around him. DAVID JENKINS
— No.41 —

LENI RIEFENSTAHL
I M P R E S S I O N S O F T H E D E E P ( 2 0 02 )
—
To say the least, the final movie by one-time Nazi totem and cine-
ethnographer Leni Riefenstahl is extremely unexpected. In 2002
and at the age of 100, Riefenstahl addresses the camera as a
preface to her 45-minute documentary, Impressions of the Deep,
explaining that the film we’re about to see has no narration and that
the images are vivid enough to speak for themselves. The upshot of
a later-life fascination with Scuba diving and undersea exploration,
this Cousteau-like montage of exotic sea life swimming in and out
of pulsing coral shelves is simple, neat and pleasurable. It confirms
Riefenstahl’s promise as a maker of arresting images. Naturally, this
is a more superficial work than, say, Triumph of the Will, and it’s not
helped by Giorgio Moroder’s dire Muzak score in which he uses
synthesiser effects as commentary on the fish captured on camera
(example: when a fish whose skin resembles a decorative Japanese
garment, Moroder breaks out the koto sound effects). Riefenstahl
herself features in the final minutes, and the moving climactic shot
observes as she swims up to the surface, directly towards a white light
this trio of short moral tales (plus a midpoint sing-song) was made beaming down from above. She died the following year. DAVID JENKINS
for TV after, “seven years of unwilling inactivity”. Having set his own
— No.42 —
creative bar stratospherically high with classics like The Rules of
the Game, The Grand Illusion and The River, it’s hard to see this
climactic statement as more than a compendium of odds and ends. ERIC ROHMER
But the film was put together with the same verve and essential
THE ROMANCE OF ASTRÉE AND CÉLADON (2007 )
human compassion that characterised everything the great man put
his hand to. The second chapter is a bizarre techno-operetta, and —
the finale is a moderately successful colloquial farce. Though it’s The Romance of Astrée and Céladon is more of an epilogue to Eric
the surprising opening chapter that hits home the hardest, initially Rohmer’s career than a swan song. If we take Rohmer’s oeuvre as an
looking like a sentimental live-action Disney film about the fantasies extended conversation about the romantic lives of young people in
of homeless pensioners left in the snow for Christmas. Just as you modern France, then An Autumn Tale – his final contemporary-set
think they’re going to rise up out of their riverside hovel, they freeze picture - is the film that closes the cycle, with the three historical
to death, their belongings are stolen and the film ends. DAVID JENKINS films that followed serving as reflective afterwords. The Romance
of Astrée and Céladon still focuses on young love, but its central
— No.40 —
concern is the way we frame stories around it; the creative
mechanics behind the art of love. At its heart, the film shows how
ALAIN RESNAIS each era’s storytelling customs ultimately obscure the essence of
romance. Though Rohmer’s films were meandering and discursive,
L I F E O F RIL EY ( 2014)
they were often structured like age-old parables. This film slyly
— deconstructs this approach, with elaborate period clichés – fair
When Life of Riley premiered in competition at the 2014 Berlin Film maidens and Sapphic sirens – comically pronounced and exposing
Festival, even seasoned Resnais acolytes were left a little underwhelmed the artificiality of each generation’s storytelling devices. And yet it’s
by this self-consciously theatrical Alan Ayckbourn adaptation. It sees hard not to get swept up in the woozy mysticism of Rohmer’s fable.
a group of people rehearse a play while a close friend, George Riley, The director evidently surmised that, in constructing narratives
suffers from a fatal illness in the background. When the director passed around love, we enhance its mysterious power. Perhaps this is the
away barely a month later, the film was suddenly seen in a very different key to his entire body of work? CRAIG WILLIAMS

039
 — No.43 —

JOHN SCHLESINGER
those suppressed due to race, gender, disability or poverty. His values
lurked beneath seemingly idyllic, colourful, detailed worlds that bustled
with engrossing characters. Moolaadé is a fine swan song showcasing
T H E N E XT B E ST T H I N G ( 2 0 0 0)
everything that he did best. His radical and subtle writing is packaged
— within seemingly throwaway episodes which all carry critiques so sharp
John Schlesinger will perhaps be remembered as the guy who brought that they still have to power to draw blood. SOPHIE MONKS KAUFMAN
gay/camp iconography to mainstream Hollywood in his Oscar-hauling
— No.46 —
Midnight Cowboy from 1969. So it seems strange that he would check-

DOUGLAS SIRK
out with this tin eared, family-friendly take on modern metrosexual
coupling. Madonna stars as a yoga instructor who can’t find Mr Right,
even though she’s told on numerous occasions how pretty she is. Luckily,
IMITATION OF LIFE ( 1959)
her gay best friend, played by Rupert Everett, is on hand to dress up,
quaff Martinis and accidentally impregnate her. What should’ve been a —
progressive film about sexuality and parenting — a decade before the “Who wants to see the ugliness of life?” Hollywood producer Ross
beloved likes of Lisa Cholodenko’s The Kids Are All Right — turns into Hunter once said when reflecting on his career. “I gave the public what
a mawkish and confused trawl through relationship woes in which the they wanted – a chance to dream, to live vicariously, to see beautiful
characters all come across as self-serving, petty imbeciles. Since his women, jewels, gorgeous clothes, melodrama.” Hunter was a perfect
lightly radical formative years, Schlesinger made a pronounced move foil for Douglas Sirk, who could deliver all of the elegance that his
to more conventional fare during the final 25 years of his career, so this producer demanded but who also made films that subverted and
film which Robert Ebert evocatively described as being as “tired as a critiqued such opulence, adding some grit to the glamour. Sirk’s last film
junkyard horse” simply stayed the course. DAVID JENKINS was Imitation of Life, which is arguably his most damning indictment of
American values, depicting a selfish and prejudiced society in which
— No.44 —
people are obsessed with surfaces. While the film was conceived as a

TONY SCOTT
star vehicle for Lana Turner – seeking rehabilitation after the violent end
to her relationship with Johnny Stompanato – the real drama exists in
the relationship between two supporting characters, black maid Annie
U NSTO P PA BL E ( 2010)
(Juanita Moore) and her light-skinned daughter Sarah Jane (Susan
— Kohner). Pursuing a life that is off-limits to her, Sarah Jane passes as
Over his career’s last decade, highbrow contrarian critics recast Tony white and rejects her own mother, making this one of the most poignant
Scott’s style as avant-garde. They said his image editing shattered and incisive studies of race ever made by a major Hollywood studio.
point-of-view into a million little pieces. Déjà Vu, with its themes of Sirk was only in his early 60s when Imitation of Life was released but he
trauma and voyeurism, gave Scott a chance to make his style seem had long decided that this would be his last film. Health concerns were
personal and purposeful rather than glibly aggressive. But the a factor, but he also seemed aware that the era of the ‘women’s picture’
supersaturated mise-en-scène and violent montage of Unstoppable was coming to an end, and indeed the rise of soap operas on television
revels in chaos as much as the film’s gleefully engineered smash-ups. soon spelled the end for features like this. Sirk knew his time was up,
A film with an enormous carbon footprint, Unstoppable chases a and judging by his subsequent output, Ross Hunter probably should
runaway train through Pennsylvania, with news and rescue and second- have called it a day with this film too. PHIL CONCANNON
unit helicopters along for the ride; its brand of populism is delightfully
— No.47 —
butch, as each character’s grace under pressure correlates with his

JOSEF VON STERNBERG

body-fat percentage. How can I put this? Tony Scott films constantly
defied the gravity of death and Unstoppable is the final chapter in that
body of work. It’s the ultimate “escapism” — a definition given deeper
AN ATAHAN ( 1953)
shadings by Scott’s subsequent suicide. MARK ASCH
—
— No.45 —
Josef von Sternberg is known as something of an attention seeker,

OUSMANE SEMBÈNE
especially with regard to Marlene Dietrich. Dietrich’s star power is so great
and Sternberg’s scene-building is so visually complex that his innovations
with sound are often overlooked. For that reason, Anatahan, based on a
MO O L A A D É ( 2004)
true story of a Japanese platoon stranded on the eponymous volcanic
— island with a single woman for seven years during and after World War II,
Under Azure skies, African village life plays out: bartering with The is rarely mentioned among his most important works. Sternberg shoots
Mercenaire, bringing water bowls to guests, female genital mutilation Akemi Negishi without the infatuation and worship with which he shot
on girls so small and spindly that, topless, they could pass as boys. Dietrich, and his paper and aluminium sets take on a parodic tone as the
When four girls ask Collé for protection, she casts a spell of moolaadé ‘Queen Bee’ continues to cause the men, intentionally or not, to gradually
that prevents the knife-wielding salindana from coming within slicing pick one another off. Artifice and sounds, however, are key motifs, lost
distance. Director Ousmane Sembène also used a spell to ward off in the storm of the intentional but denigrated cookie-cutter images. The
sexist practice in his classic Xala from 1975, about a man unable to narration that speaks for and about the characters, forces a distance
perform sexually. His oppressive characters hide behind tradition, that the close-ups of Dietrich’s legs never allowed for. Several films and
which runs in stark contrast to the politically progressive filmmaker decades of doing one thing brilliantly bred expectations, but Sternberg
himself. From his 1966 debut feature Black Girl until this his ninth and deserves credit for inverting his style to recast his stance on male passion
final film, Sembène was a free thinker, and he dignified the plight of and a woman’s power. FORREST CARDAMENIS

041
 — No.48 —
territory for what would be his last picture, 1958’s Lafayette Escadrille.
SEIJUN SUZUKI There’s a surge of genuine emotion early on when Wellman follows
the fate of those youthful American idealists who died in droves for
PRINCESS RACCOON (2005)
the French cause. But elsewhere the film’s stymied by its low-rent cast
— and penny-pinching budget, with only a smidgin of flying action and
Seijun Suzuki’s films are unintelligible on a plot and, indeed, a shot- much turgid romance involving decorative yet wooden co-stars Tab
by-shot level. Basic continuity is scrapped as figures pose against Hunter and Etchika Choreau. Not the greatest send-off then, yet the
garish Pop backgrounds in sequences of modernist compositions sincerity of Wellman offering tribute to the sacrifices of his own great
seemingly cut to Ornette Coleman tracks. Against such anarchy, generation clearly stands for something. TREVOR JOHNSTON
there can be no diffidence: all attitudes are obsessive, all desires
— No.50 —
elemental. Princess Raccoon is then the perfect Suzuki love story.
Adapted from a Japanese folk tale, the object of affection is a shape-
shifting animal spirit. The film is a musical, made up of all-hands-on- EDWARD YANG
deck song-and-dance numbers and intimate pas de deux — when not
YI-YI (2000)
digressing into zany lowbrow comedy, or martial arts, which unfold
across soundstage kabuki sets, natural exteriors and green-screen —
scenic paintings. Most unmistakably, it’s a passionate, exuberant There is a rare type of film that, when you watch it, you can actually
work. Now 92, the director has made it clear that the film is his sense that it’s some sort of parting gesture. During its three-hour
career’s celebratory exclamation point. MARK ASCH running time, Edward Yang’s humanistic masterpiece Yi Yi (or, as it
was known in the UK, A One And A Two…) feels like the distillation of
— No.49 —
generations of accrued wisdom, a poetic collection of observations
on the struggles and beauty of life in urban Taipei. With its multi-
WILLIAM WELLMAN character ensemble and an enquiring point-of-view that feels like
a distinct presence watching over the actions, the film is anchored
L A FAY E T T E E S CA D R I L L E ( 1 95 8)
by the malaise-struck middle-class businessman, NJ, his teenage
— daughter Ting-Ting, and most movingly, by her kid brother Yang-Yang,
They called him ‘Wild Bill’ Wellman for good reason. Expelled from as they all navigate tricky daily terrain at different stages of life. Yang
his Massachusetts high school, he joined the French Foreign Legion generously presents each character’s perspective on its own terms
during World War One and at 21 had signed up for the Lafayette over the course of a single year, beginning with a wedding and ending
Flying Corps, racking up three recorded kills over the skies of Alsace with a funeral. Yang did not know this would be his final film — it was
Lorraine before being shot down himself. He lived to tell the tale, made seven years later that he lost a battle with cancer at the age of 59.
it to Hollywood and directed the first-ever Oscar-winner, 1927’s Wings, This huge loss for cinema is made a little easier to bear thanks to the
which still impresses for its hair-raising aerial combat sequences. After existence of this film, which has the power to teach, console, inspire,
career highlights including the Jimmy Cagney gangster classic The and even engage with life anew with its compassionate yet measured
Public Enemy and the original 1937 A Star is Born, he returned to WWI take on the human experience. ADAM COOK

042 T h e Yo u t h Iss u e
 ACT III
Arranged by Fred Ballinger
A Simple Song
 ACT III

Reviews Contents

4 6 - 47 – A N O M A L I S A
4 8 - 5 1 – I N T E RV I EW: C H A R L I E KAU F M A N A N D D U K E J O H N S ON
5 2 – J OY
54-55 – THE ASSASSIN
5 6 - 5 7 – I N T E RV I EW: H O U H S I AO - H S I E N
5 8 – L O ST I N KA R A STA N / B O L S H O I B A BY L O N
6 0 – JA N I S : L I TT L E G I R L B LU E
61 – ROOM
62 - 6 3 – I N T E RV I EW: B R I E L A R S O N
64 – LE MÉPRIS
65 – CREED
6 6 - 67 – T H E R E V E N A N T
6 8 – F E AT U R E : A L E JA N D R O G O N Z Á L EZ I Ñ Á R R I T U
7 0 – S P OT L I G H T
71 – RAMS
72 – CHRONIC
7 3 - I N T E RV I EW: G I N A CA R A N O
74 – T H E S U RV I VA L I ST / I N N O C E N C E O F M E M O R I E S
7 5 – G O O D N I G H T M OM M Y / PA RT I S A N
76 – A B I G G E R S P L A S H
7 7 – I N T E RV I EW: LUCA G UA DAG N I N O
7 8 – I N T H E H E A RT O F T H E S E A
80 – JEM AND THE HOLOGRAMS
81 – OUR BRAND IS CRISIS
82 – TRUMBO
8 3 – I N T E RV I EW: B RYA N C R A N STON
8 4 – A WA R
85 – FREEHELD
8 6 - 8 9– - H O M E E N T S U K & US
9 0 – J O U R N E YS : C P H : D OX
9 1 – J O U R N E YS : A E ST H ET I CA F I L M F E ST I VA L
92 – E X R E N T H E L L P R E S E N T S… J I N X E D !
 Anomalisa
gender politics have been widely discussed. overwhelmed by each drop of tenderness. If his
Directed by Yet there’s a narrative that is driven by a self- soul is trapped inside, hers spills out in torrents.
CHARLIE KAUFMAN, DUKE JOHNSON consciously wretched man which both eclipses Their liaison is awkward, touching and driven by
Starring and consumes this element of the film. The fact his persuasive neediness. Lisa submits at every
DAVID THEWLIS that the lead character cannot recognise the stage in a way that is not going to win Anomalisa
JENNIFER JASON LEIGH depth of others – women and men – is the whole any progressive representation awards, but
TOM NOONAN melancholic point of this film. still has the ring of truth. Some who have gone
Released Michael Stone (David Thewlis) is the loneliest without intimacy for a long time are just glad to
11 MARCH of all of Charlie Kaufman’s lonely men. White, replenish their stocks.
married and joyless, he has grey hair, middle- Duke Johnson is unlucky and lucky to
aged spread and no clear reason for living. Well- co-direct on his debut feature. He’s unlucky
meaning conversationalists only grate on his because the story is so patently Kaufman-esque
frazzled nerves. Thewlis’s raw Lancashire bark (he originally wrote it as a play under the pen
ANTICIPATION. hints at the desperate sufering beneath his auto- name Francis Frejoli) that the credit defaults
Obviously politeness. Michael can’t communicate with the to the more established artist. But he is lucky
people who pass through his life. Their inability because Anomalisa is a hell of a calling card,
to touch him and his inability to perceive them showing he can deliver a nuanced animation and
is telegraphed with a bold casting choice that fulfil an idiosyncratic vision. The most striking
constantly reinforces Michael’s plight while aspect of the puppets are their more-human-
ENJOYMENT. powering a source of hilarity on a par with the than-human eyes made from a combination of
Intricately, brilliantly, tragically solipsistic. ‘Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich’ scene in 3D printed irises, self-repairing silicon and clear
1999’s Being John Malkovich. resin. “Sadness was a word we used a lot when
The world that Kaufman has built with talking to everybody,” Johnson has said. This is
the invaluable expertise of co-director and apparent everywhere and particularly in the
animation whiz, Duke Johnson, is a new sub- leaden movements of Michael who drags himself
IN RETROSPECT. genre: social realist stop-motion puppetry. The onward like a man in danger of crumpling.
Commitment to mapping a specific type of costly joke is that years of painstaking work has Most of the drama takes place in the soothing
suffering is never less than absolute. gone into creating sets that are entirely banal. but anonymous Frejoli hotel. A steady stream
Rather than labouring in the name of fantastical, of absurd, perceptive jokes evince Kaufman’s
stylised spectacle like many a proud aesthete, capacity to entertain even while distilling the
urt Vonnegut’s 1963 novel ‘Cat’s Cradle’ is their eforts focus on recreating the architecture essence of alienation and the chimeric releases

K about the fictional religion of Bokonism.

In it, he invented a new vocabulary for
how we evaluate others. The most profound
of everyday life – like a mini version of the play
in Synecdoche, New York. Charlie Kaufman
values the intensity that comes from mirroring
that taunt its suferers. He is a sad clown. His
characters are puppets for solipsistic malaise.
Yet he is passionate about humour and the joke
thing you can say about a person is that they reality. Watching Anomalisa is like watching a count is high. From unsexy chat-up lines (“Would
belong to your “karass”. This, Vonnegut defines mind trying to escape its own tedious corridors, you like to get a drink, chat about phone system
as “a network or group of people who are searching for the sweet release of a meaningful innovation?”) to running gags best left unspoiled
somehow ailiated or linked spiritually.” Charlie voice next door. to the relish with which the minutiae of hotel life
Kaufman wrote Being John Malkovich and Michael is a guru. His book, ‘How Can I is milked for frustration, Anomalisa is as coloured
Adaptation., and directed Synecdoche, New York, Help You Help Them?’, has established him by external detail as it is fuelled by internal
and I am a member of his karass. We are linked as a god of the customer service scene. He has torment. The complexity of the ideas at play is
by name and an inward nature, and therefore flown to Cincinnati to address disciples. The intoxicating both emotionally and intellectually.
I naturally accept qualities in his latest film, arc is simple. He meets a woman called Lisa Kaufman is ahead of his character in delivering
Anomalisa, that might deter others. Since its (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and thinks that she has the antidote to self-absorption: meaningful
premiere at the Telluride Film Festival, the film’s changed his life. She is a paragon of insecurity communication. SOPHIE MONKS KAUFMAN

046 REVIEWS
REVIEWS 047
IN CONVERSATION... Interview by SOPHIE MONKS KAUFMAN I l l us t rat io n by RIIKKA SORMUNEN

Charlie Kaufman &

Duke Johnson
One of America’s most lauded screenwriters has teamed up
with a maestro of stop-motion animation. LWLies meets the
melancholic pair behind the heartbreaking Anomalisa.

harlie Kaufman writes elaborate worlds to express his

C
WHERE ARE THEY NOW - MICHAEL AND THE HOTEL ROOM AND EVERYTHING
tormented inner life. He sharpens despair into comedy and THAT YOU BUILT? DJ: Burbank, California.
finds hope in metaphysical inventions. He’s given us a portal
into John Malkovich’s body (Being John Malkovich), a screenwriter who CK: We had a marketing meeting with Paramount when they took the film.
becomes obsessed with his subject (Adaptation.) and a memory-erasing Duke brought in Michael and Lisa puppets – there’s a bunch of them – just
service for the broken-hearted (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). because they hadn’t seen them yet. They just stood there on the table and
Most ambitious in scope was his first bash at feature directing: 2008’s it was really sad, because you suddenly realise that they’re not alive. After
Synecdoche, New York explored the futility of the art-cannibalising- looking at them for so long moving in the movie, they’re just these puppets.
life cycle via a never-ending play conceived by Caden Cotard (Philip Beautiful puppets, but they’re puppets.
Seymour Hofman). Anomalisa is as intricately developed, but its story –
about a lovelorn and sexually frustrated customer service stooge – takes AT SOME POINT, WE’RE ALL GOING TO BE LIKE LITTLE LIFELESS PUPPETS
place within a micro, hand-built universe. Kaufman has teamed up with ANYWAY. CK: That’s true. That’s sad. That’s kind of brought me down
animation prodigy, Duke Johnson, to direct a kickstarter-funded film that you said that.
about lonely stop-motion puppets.
THE EYES JUMP OUT FROM ALL OF THE PUPPETS AS IF SILENTLY
LWLIES: WAS ANY OF THE WORLD OF ANOMALISA LIVE-ACTION OR WAS IT SCREAMING FOR HELP. HOW DO YOU BUILD AN EYE THAT LOOKS SO
ALL BUILT? Charlie Kaufman: Everything is built. Michael is the largest SENSITIVE AND REAL? CK: Explain how big they are.
puppet and he’s exactly a foot tall. So the sets are built in proportion to
him. You have little hotel room, little staircases, little hallways. DJ: Michael is 12 inches tall. His head is about an inch so you can imagine
how big his eye is within there. We looked at glass eyes because there are
Duke Johnson: Part of the reason we were able to do this for the budget some very intricate glass doll eyes but nothing that small. We ended up
that we did is because the general scope of the world is relatively small. 3D printing the core of the eye and the iris – every iris – is individually
Most of it takes place in a hotel room. We did have some expansive sets: the hand-painted by this guy with a monocle. Then it’s cast in this mould.
airport terminal, things like that. The white of the eye is a type of silicon that’s self-repairing. Then there’s
a layer of resin that goes over the top. You get depth like a real eye from
CK: The oice. the clear resin into the iris. The way that the animator moves it is they
have to stick a pin in the white of each eye and move it the thickness of a
DJ: It was like 30 feet. hair, and then they have to do the same thing with the other eye, because
they’re not connected. They have to match them one frame at a time
CK: Because we needed him to be really small. otherwise they look cross-eyed.

F E AT U R E 0 4 9
 THIS IS THE CORE OF THE CREATIVE DRIVE: YOU HAVE SOMETHING THAT
YOU REALLY WANT TO SAY BUT IT’S SO HARD TO FIND THE WAY THAT

“I remember how old I was DOESN’T SOUND STUPID. DJ: So many times you feel like something
doesn’t feel right. Then Charlie would be like, ‘Well, maybe this’ or ‘What
when I discovered theatre. about this?’ and I’d be like, ‘Ahh, that’s fucking brilliant. That’s it.’

I was in third grade. That IS IT IDEAS THAT CHARLIE WOULD HAVE OR IS IT JUST EXPRESSING THE
DJ: Being able to articulate. A lot of the time you can feel
really changed everything in IDEAS RIGHT?
something intuitively but being able to articulate what that is or even start

the trajectory of my life.” that conversation is a skill. Also, being open to other people’s ideas and being
able to draw out of people what their contributions are. As a filmmaker
there’s a sense of being an auteur and ‘everything must be mine’ but that’s
really not the best way. Filmmaking is an extremely collaborative process.
People come to you and they have their own ideas. Being able to stay true to
a vision but also take the best of what other people can contribute is a skill.

HOW DO YOU CREATE THE EFFECT OF THEM DRINKING THEIR LITTLE DID YOU THINK ABOUT WHAT YOUR FAVOURITE PART OF THE PROCESS
COCKTAILS? DJ: It’s a series of martini glasses, maybe 10 of them. There’s WAS? CK: I can’t really. I think my experience of this movie that I liked a
hard resin liquid in each one. They just swap it out for a diferent one and lot was the sense of perseverance that went into it. It was a really taxing and
it gets less and less and less. stressful process because we didn’t ever know if we were going to finish it.
Along the way there were just these moments of morsels – a puppet design
DID YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE PART OF MAKING THIS FILM? CK: You answer or a set design or a particular shot or a fragment of a shot that came in that
it first because I have to think. Unless you can’t and then we’ll both be was like, ‘Oh my god’. That keeps you going. And that we did this on our own
quiet for a minute. without any safety net and that it got done and it got done in a way that we
were both pleased with, like, in retrospect, that experience is my favourite
DJ: One of the greatest parts of the experience was working with one of my part of it, looking back and going, ‘Oh wow. We did this’ and ‘Good for us.’
heroes. I learnt a lot from working with Charlie about the creative process
in general. That was invaluable to me. IS IT LIKE A VERSION OF THAT DOROTHY PARKER QUOTE ‘I HATE WRITING.
I LOVE HAVING WRITTEN’? DO YOU HATE MOVIE-MAKING BUT LOVE
ARE THERE ANY SPECIFIC EXAMPLES OF WHAT YOU LEARNT? DJ: How HAVING MADE MOVIES? CK: No. Like I was saying, there are moments
to be brave when you’re being creative. Focusing on how to find truth in where it’s like, ‘Oh that’s so cool, that’s so cool.’ ‘Oh we did that.’ ‘Oh that
the moment and how to focus on the character’s experience. You have to works,’ but you still don’t know what the whole thing’s going to be. I feel
be able to communicate your ideas to people. Charlie’s very good at that. more like Dorothy Parker does in terms of writing. Writing is really hard
He’s very articulate. Okay, more coming to me. Being able to look at for me and I don’t enjoy it a lot. I don’t know if I love having written but
something and find what’s interesting about it. God, I’m not being very if I’ve got something done, it’s a relief. ‘I hate writing. Having written is a
articulate but it seems resonant to me. relief’, maybe is my quote.

0 5 0 F E AT U R E
WITH EACH OF THESE MORSEL MOMENTS, DID THEY ACCUMULATE IN my focus. It was weird because it was a school play and I had been forced
SIGNIFICANCE UNTIL AT A CERTAIN POINT YOU THOUGHT, ‘THIS IS GOING to be in other school plays and I hated it. I was really shy and I was really
TO COME TOGETHER HOW I WANT IT’? CK: No, because the pieces are terrified. I remember I was in a play in second grade where I had like two
so small. They spend so much time on a few seconds of film. It’s a lot like lines and I had to tie somebody up. I don’t remember what the play was
making a movie before you make it. You have to say, ‘This is how much we’re about but I remember I figured out that if I stood behind the person I was
shooting here.’ ‘We’re not doing five takes of it’ because it might take a month tying up when I said my line, no one would ever have to see me. That was
to shoot one shot. I don’t think I was sure until we started putting it together my plan and that’s what I did. But for some reason in third grade I did a
in post-production. Sometimes there’s a shot that you really aren’t happy play and I played a character that was really unlike me. I played a rooster
with and you’re focused on it. Then when you see it in context, whatever the in a hen house who was very blustery and cocky. I got laughs and it was
flaw in it that you saw doesn’t matter any more, but you don’t know that at like something changed. You know, the whole world changed and that’s
the time it’s like, ‘Oh my god is that going to be awful’ and then it isn’t. all I wanted to do.

DJ: Not to get too new-agey but there’s almost a sense of destiny that a film WAS IT THE FACT OF DOING SOMETHING SO OUT OF CHARACTER OR WAS
has, or a life of its own that it takes, where there are flaws within it but that IT GETTING A RESPONSE? CK: It was getting a response doing something
flaw somehow contributes to the overall experience of the film in a unique, out of character. It was getting to be somebody that I wasn’t and getting
specific meaningful way. There are things like that that are weird, that feel laughs. God knows what it really was because I was in third grade – were
magic... The magic of cinema! people really laughing or was it parents being nice? I don’t know. But to
me, at the time, it was like, ‘Holy cow. This is life-changing’ and it became
SO YOU JUST COME TO UTTERLY BELIEVE IN WHAT YOU’RE DOING? my focus for years. It was all I wanted to do.
DJ: What’s the alternative? The train has left and you’ve committed to
years of your life in this extremely diicult process. You have your doubts IS IT NOW THE SAME, SO WITH ANOMALISA, IS THE REWARD HEARING
and there are times when maybe you want to give up or something just PEOPLE SAY THAT THEY UNDERSTAND IT AND THEREFORE UNDERSTAND
seems too hard but there’s no choice. You have to just keep going towards SOME PART OF YOU? CK: It’s not as clear to me any more. It’s not as
this objective. That was my experience. immediate and direct as performing on stage. It’s removed but I certainly
do get some sort of something out of people responding. It feels more
IT SOUNDS LIKE IT WAS MORE STRESSFUL FOR YOU, CHARLIE. HOW DO serious now and not necessarily in a good way. When we did this as a play,
YOU MANAGE STRESS? CK: Depression. I don’t know if that’s managing it. it was like no money and we just put on a play, and it was for two nights and
no one got paid and it felt like high-school to me in the best way. I loved it.
HOW DO YOU MANAGE DEPRESSION? CK: I have a dogged attitude, which This is harder and longer. It’s not the same. I can’t get it back.
isn’t great but it’s all I got so I just try to keep going.
WHAT WILL BE YOUR NEW THING AFTER THIS? CK: What am I going to do
DJ: Do you think that making art... I have a question now. professionally, is that what you mean?

GO FOR IT. DJ: Do you think that making art, creating, expressing is a way I GUESS THAT’S WHAT I MEAN. ARE YOU GOING TO EXPLORE THESE
of treating depression? THEMES THAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT, OF THINGS GETTING WORSE?
CK: Things getting what?
CK: Maybe. Probably better than the alternative. I don’t know if it’s a
therapy thing for me but I haven’t tried not doing it so I don’t know the WORSE. OR FEELING HEAVIER. IT SOUNDED LIKE YOU’RE SAYING THAT
answer. But it’s what I do because, in addition to everything else, it’s how I THINGS ARE GETTING HEAVIER. CK: Yeah. I don’t know. You’re making me
make my living so I can’t really stop and I guess that’s good. rethink everything.

I PRODUCED A PANEL CALLED, ‘CAN CREATIVITY HELP TAME MENTAL I’M SORRY. CK: No, it’s cool. It’s good.
ILLNESS?’ CK: What was the conclusion?
WHAT’S IT LIKE TO HEAR YOUR CO-DIRECTOR TALKING LIKE THIS?
THE CONCLUDING THOUGHT WAS THAT EXPRESSING A THING CAN HELP DJ: Status quo.
YOU MANAGE IT, THE WAY IDENTIFYING A THING CAN HELP YOU MANAGE
IT, BUT IT DOESN’T TAKE CARE OF IT FOREVER. CK: I do think that there’s CK: I feel like we haven’t had this particular discussion yet, have we?
a value or a therapeutic value in putting something in the world that is Have I told you about the rooster?
truly you and having other people feel that it’s true to them. That makes
me feel less lonely. That’s not a strategy or anything but it’s a result that’s DJ: Not specifically about the rooster but about you performing in plays
good for me. as a kid and loving that. This is what the experience has been like –
conversations about everything. We do some work and then it digresses
HAS IT ALWAYS BEEN THE WAY YOU MANAGED OR WAS THERE A TIME into long conversations about art, history or opinions on things. Then it
WHEN YOU MANAGED IN A DIFFERENT WAY? CK: Managed depression? gets back on track and you do some work and that’s all part of the process.

YEAH. CK: I’ve always been in the theatre, or written, or made films since ARE YOU TWO PLANNING TO WORK TOGETHER AGAIN? DJ: We’ve talked
I was a kid. about it.

DO YOU REMEMBER HOW OLD YOU WERE WHEN YOU FIRST WROTE CK: We’d like to do another animated movie at some point. We both have
SOMETHING THAT MEANT SOMETHING TO YOU? CK: No, I remember other things we want to do individually as well. We’ll see. This was an
how old I was when I discovered theatre. I was in third grade. That really interesting experience for me. It whet my appetite to try other things with
changed everything in the trajectory of my life. It became my passion and it – try to explore it more as a form

F E AT U R E 0 51
 Joy
Directed by ew filmmaking careers display a creative Madsen) refuses to budge from her bedroom where
DAVID O RUSSELL
Starring
JENNIFER LAWRENCE
F transformation as drastic as that of David O
Russell’s. There was a smugness to his early
work coupled with his infamous on-set outbursts
she perpetually watches soap operas, and her loving
grandmother (Diane Ladd, the film’s narrator) is
always around the corner with a watchful eye.
ROBERT DE NIRO that led to him being rejected by both his industry Pivoting around various flashbacks and
BRADLEY COOPER and his audience. Whatever soul-searching took fantasy sequences, we see Joy as a gifted young
Released place between 2004’s I Heart Huckabees and girl, creating things, dreaming of a bright future.
1 JANUARY 2010’s The Fighter resulted in a dramatic shift in This is juxtaposed with a grim reality where she’s
Russell’s approach to cinema and, seemingly, to shown as being the epitome of untapped potential:
life itself. If there’s a single quality that underlines a young woman who married the wrong guy early
the director’s post-2010 output, it’s a sense of and was then burdened by her duties as a daughter
compassion. It guides every decision. The Fighter, and mother. “Time movies forward, time moves
Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle and now backward, time stands still,” our narrator says as
ANTICIPATION. Joy adopt a humanist outlook in which damaged, a scene between Joy and her best friend segues
Russell’s current streak has inconvenient characters and families are accepted into a flashback: we see the first night she met her
yielded varying results, but on their own terms, lovingly and delicately, as the husband, the wedding, the failed relationship, the
represents an exciting evolution. unlikely authors of their modest fates. divorce, and back again – all moments existing
The other development in Russell’s career is the fully, but tangled up in the memory.
stable of actors he now draws from. Joy is the third When Joy stumbles on a brilliant idea for a
successive collaboration in a row with Jennifer mop with a detachable head that wrings itself,
Lawrence, who was just 21 when she took on her she asks her family for a leap of faith, and her
ENJOYMENT. Oscar-winning role in Silver Linings. In spite of her father’s new partner (Isabella Rossellini) for a
You never know quite age, Lawrence has the uncanny ability to convey generous investment. The venture leads Joy on a
where you’re going, but it’s lived experience with her depictions of spiky rags to riches tale as she tries to stake her claim
always fun getting there. sullenness and wide-eyed charisma. This special in the world of commerce. From there the film
quality makes Joy her most ideal vessel yet. Russell moves unexpectedly and spontaneously towards
wrote the film with her in mind, re-working an her success, constantly reframing notions of life,
original script by Annie Mumolo. The title character loyalty and love. Russell and cinematographer
– based on Joy Mangano, the inventor of the Miracle Linus Sandgren have found a perfect harmony
IN RETROSPECT. Mop – is a divorced singleton and matriarch of an in their sensibilities, capturing Joy’s rocky path
If it’s more about the journey eccentric household in which her ex-husband with warmth and emotional vibrancy. Joy is a film
than the destination, then Joy is (Edgar Ramirez) and father (Robert De Niro) live about life’s defiance of expectations. It defies them
a smashing success. together in the basement, her mother (Virginia right back. ADAM COOK

052 REVIEWS
 The Assassin
Hou’s majestic formal play. (Plus: someone Hou originally planned to shoot The Assassin
Directed by almost gets buried alive.) in three-minute takes on a spring-wound
HOU HSIAO-HSIEN   There are two ways to enter The Assassin’s Bolex, but scrapped the idea because his
Starring world: you could look up the 9th century regular cinematographer, Mark Lee Ping
SHU QI short story upon which the film is based, or Bin, “is not a young man anymore” and
CHANG CHEN you could simply surrender to what’s playing found composing shots through the camera’s
TSUMABUKI SATOSHI out on the screen.  To keep your options viewfinder difficult.
Released open, I won’t offer any straightforward plot The tension in these fights is derived not
22 JANUARY summary (elsewhere, others have recited the from elaborate wirework, but from the poise
plot, there’s even a handy flowchart). More of the combatants involved in them. When not
than simply “spoiling” any plot twists, even brandishing her short, wavy dagger, Shu Qi
a rough understanding of the story will shape (who plays the titular assassin Nie Yinniang)
how the film washes over you. confidently approaches her opponents
ANTICIPATION. Hou takes his elliptical tendencies to without meeting their gaze, either looking
Adored by many when it screened in the extreme visually and narratively, with past them, as if they don’t exist, or looking
Cannes, but what do those guys know? brief, second-hand accounts sharing the down at them out of distain, or to anticipate
most straightforward deaths or power plays which way their feet will move. When pitted
(both familial and regal in nature). At other against another female assassin clad in a
moments, story points – which feel more like mauve coat and golden mask in a forest of
clues – are presented in chronological order birch trees, Nie’s movements alternately
ENJOYMENT. but without context, making them seem harmonise and contrast with the peaceful
A breathtaking work of art revolving incongruous. Except, of course, that they’re wilderness around them. She stumbles
around a haunting female lead. not: this is an ultra-lean narrative with many one moment after dodging an unexpected
strands, and any irrelevant moment, silent thrust, then she walks away unperturbed
or otherwise, has been cut away. Even the and victorious. The low-key scuffle is broken
discovery of a period faked with chicken blood up by a lengthy shot of the trees against the
turns out to be significant. Nothing exists only midday sky – from the perspective of neither
IN RETROSPECT. to “look pretty”, yet this is undoubtedly one character – which suggests a literal passage of
The texture is the story. of the most beautiful films you’ll see all year. time, but also something resembling a third-
  The level of precision is even more mind- person narration of either character’s feelings
boggling considering that the director shot in that particular moment.
here is no risk of overstating the nearly 500,000 feet of 35mm film for this   Given little dialogue, Shu perfectly captures

T alternating manic and woozy pleasure

of The Assassin. Like the lavish textiles
that help divide the rooms of its Tang Dynasty
90-minute work. Still,  the tautness of The
Assassin doesn’t come off as the achievement
of clever editing alone; there are dozens of
Nie’s moral and emotional ambiguity, taking
her far from the “unrepentant badass” mould
of most strong female characters. Without
courts, Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s wuxia  layers moments of languorous, low-angled shots, even turning the corners of her mouth, she
texture upon texture, masterfully obscuring such as one following the movements of torch- manages to express intense regret, loss, and
detail to create a one of a kind cinematic carrying palace servants that slowly drifts fury, sometimes all at once. Her mannerisms are
experience. Turning Western and Eastern downward towards some well water and lands no diferent from her fellow ladies of the court,
conventions of narrative structure and on an ominous effigy. Such moments are the yet she exudes an entirely diferent energy.
shot composition on their heads, it most advanced choreography you’ll see in this  Shu’s performance is the haunting centre
conjures feelings that won’t diminish with wuxia – per Hou’s request, the actors didn’t of the film – for Nie often seems like a ghost
repeated viewings. There’s still plenty of rehearse the fights beforehand, so these brief, reluctantly returned from the dead, silently
clanging swords, doubles, double-crosses, rapidly edited outbursts of energy preserve drifting through rooms. She dances against the
supernatural conspiracies, and feet pattering a feeling of spontaneity. Harking back to his abyss in what is Hou’s most enigmatic film yet.
across wooden roofs at night in the midst of 30 shots-only 1998 film, Flowers of Shanghai, VIOLET LUCCA

054 REVIEWS
REVIEWS 055
IN CONVERSATION... Interview by MATT THRIFT I l l us t rat io n by RIIKKA SORMUNEN

Hou Hsiao-Hsien
LWLies meets the Taiwanese master who makes gorgeous
movies and home-made Samurai swords.

T
he Assassin, the latest work from Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao- the New German Cinema, the French New Wave... We were really influenced
Hsien, was a long time in the works, but the wait was worth it. by these New Cinema movements, which informed Boys from Fengkuei. That
Mournful, exacting and mysteriously moving, it sylistically slips scene was shot in Taipei – the interiors, I mean – and we asked the cinema to
right into his stunning body of work. Starting out in romantic melodramas play something. That was the film they had there that day.
in the early ’80s, by the end of that decade he was producing some of the
most innovative and acclaimed movies of the decade, including 1985’s A Time PEOPLE HAVE BEEN TALKING ABOUT THE ASSASSIN AS YOUR FIRST FIGHT
to Live, a Time to Die and 1989’s A City of Sadness. From there on in, Hou FILM, BUT THERE ARE NUMEROUS FIGHT SCENES THROUGHOUT YOUR
was in the business of making great movies, covering a swathe of eras, styles, FILMS, ESPECIALLY THE AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL ONES. There were a lot of
countries and genres. This one is his personal take on the martial arts movie. gangs where I grew up. At North Gate, there were the 24 Blue Eagles, and
at West Gate there was City Temple, which I belonged to. It was a tradition
LWLIES: WHAT DO YOU THINK IS THE HARDEST THING TO CAPTURE in that rural area in southern Taiwan, and rivalries had been developing
ON FILM? Hou: The hardest thing to capture is a true reflection of a for generations. My uncle and his friends would be part of one group, while
character’s feelings. That’s why I never rehearse. I just set the scene and the younger generation would be part of another. There was another gang
put the actors into an environment where they can act unconsciously, called 15 Wolves, and the biggest fight was between them and the 24 Blue
rather than practice and practice, or apply technique. That is not true. It’s Eagles, in the park at night. It was better to fight at night, under the cover
not real. Sometimes the actors can get there – to those feelings – in just one of darkness. We’d fight with home-made samurai swords, the eldest at
take, sometimes not, so I’ll shoot another scene. I won’t tell the actors if it’s the front with the biggest swords. Us younger ones would be at the back
good or not, I’ll just say ‘next scene.’ Then we’ll try it again another day, to with bricks, but we’d run to the front to throw them. You could see sparks
see if the feelings I want to capture are ready to come out then. coming of the swords when they’d fight. There were a lot of drug issues too,
especially among the younger generation. A lot of my friends died that way.
WHAT ARE THE QUALITIES YOU LOOK FOR IN AN ACTOR? With experience,
I can tell just through a conversation whether someone will make a good HOW DID YOU GET AWAY FROM THAT ENVIRONMENT? I didn’t graduate
actor or not. I first saw Shu Qi in a TV commercial and set up a meeting from high school, but I had to do my military service, which was compulsory.
with her agent. She was really young – early 20s – and the first thing she Those two years kept me away from the gangs, but when I came back, my
said to me was, ‘So, I know you’re a famous director, but…’ It was like she father, who worked in Kaohsiung county government sent me to the local
wanted to challenge me. I found that fascinating. She was really cool and police station to be disciplined. I ran away to Taipei the next day, where I
I wanted to work with her. On Millennium Mambo, I hardly spoke to her, started working on an assembly line and tried to pass my university exam,
I just put her in these situations to see how she’d react, what her instincts which I just about passed. So I was able to escape by going to art college.
were. I wanted her to show me her essence.
YOU’VE SPOKEN PREVIOUSLY OF YOUR INTEREST IN DOCUMENTING
DIDN’T YOU CONSIDER A CAREER AS AN ACTOR INITIALLY? I’d be too MASCULINITY IN CINEMA, AND YET SO MANY OF YOUR LATER FILMS –
self-conscious. I’d never make a good actor. You need to reflect character INCLUDING THE ASSASSIN – ARE FEMALE-CENTRIC. HOW DID THIS SHIFT
unconsciously, I’d be too self-aware. IN PERSPECTIVE COME ABOUT? I’d usually write a character based on the
specific qualities of the actor, which in later years I’ve found has come
YOU ALSO TALK ABOUT YOUR LOVE FOR SINGING IN OLIVIER ASSAYAS’ more easily with women, who have a stronger presence, like Shu Qi. I’d
DOCUMENTARY, HHH – UN PORTRAIT DE HOU HSIAO-HSIEN. THE FILM worked with Jack Gao for a long time, focussing on his masculine qualities.
FINISHES WITH QUITE A KARAOKE PERFORMANCE FROM YOU. I don’t The young boy in Boys from Fengkuei too, he was ferocious, and just like
think I’d make a great singer. I entered a singing competition at university, his character. Even though he’s from that background, he lacks the kind of
but nothing came out when I was on stage. I couldn’t make a sound, I was fascinating charm I find in female characters.
too self-conscious.
SO IF WE EVER FIND OURSELVES IN A SITUATION WHERE WE NEED A
YOU EXPLICITLY QUOTE OTHER FILMMAKERS IN A NUMBER OF YOUR HOME-MADE SAMURAI SWORD, WHAT’S YOUR ADVICE? When I needed
FILMS. IN 1983’S THE BOYS FROM FENGKUEI, YOU FEATURE A SCENE one, I’d go to one of the eight alleys near the temple where I grew up. There
FROM ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS. WAS VISCONTI A BIG INFLUENCE ON was an iron shop in one of them, owned by my friend’s father, so we’d look for
YOU THEN? I saw Rocco when it was first released. Boys from Fengkuei came a long piece of iron in the shape of a sword. Short ones were okay, long ones
out in the heyday of Taiwanese commercial cinema. Myself and Edward Yang were better. Unfortunately in Taiwan, there’s no tradition of making proper
would spend a lot of time during that period discussing Italian Neorealism, samurai swords, so we had to make them ourselves with what we found

F E AT U R E 0 57
 Lost in Karastan Bolshoi Babylon
Directed by BEN HOPKINS Directed by NICK READ, MARK FRANCHETTI
Starring MATTHEW MACFADYEN, MYANNA BURING, Starring SERGEI FILIN, MARIA ALEXANDROVA,
NOAH TAYLOR MARIA ALLASH
Released 22 JANUARY Released 8 JANUARY

en Hopkins is a funny one. He’s been quietly knocking together he Bolshoi Ballet is a byword for consummate artistry and a
B movies since the late ’90s, dancing in his own eccentric circle and
eluding anything that might be described as mainstream success. But his
T world leader in classical dance. Behind the red velvet curtain
is enough corruption, fierce rivalries and even violence to rival any
films are great – jocular and lyrical treatises on globalised economies and palace intrigue. A mere 500 metres from the Kremlin, we find the
cultures. Even though this madcap latest, Lost in Karastan, feels like his Bolshoi on the verge of meltdown in Nick Read and Mark Franchetti’s
largest scale project to date, there is little discernible attempt to make that documentary. A hint that all wasn’t well in paradise surfaced when
connection to a big, broad audience. The possibly autobiograpical film a masked man threw acid in artistic director Sergei Filin’s face. It
allows us into the loopy world of European film festivals, as the fictional emerged that the assailant was paid by a principle male dancer, angry at
backwater of Karastan announces one of their own and programmes a Filin for overlooking his girlfriend’s abilities, the incident was chalked
retrospective of work by pompous British short film director Emil Forester up as a case of revenge. Yet the investigation opened a window on a
(Matthew Macfadyen). When he arrives at the airport and has to hand murky and unstable world run by people who skirt that very thin line
over a cash bribe before he’s even oicially entered the country, the lay of between passionate artists and Bond villain-style megalomaniacs.
the land has been set. For the remainder of the film he pings around like a In Bolshoi Babylon, we don’t really learn any more than that.
gormless shill, eventually agreeing to make a film for the extremely corrupt It appears that becoming involved in the ballet at this level requires
but charismatic President Abashiliev (Richard van Weyden) which will star political discretion that some find uncomfortable. We meet
hack barbarian actor, Xan Butler (Noah Taylor). dancers thrilled to endure intense physical and psychological pain
Hopkins mocks the country’s freeform bureaucracy while just about to realise their childhood dreams. We see them smiling nervously
keeping the funny foreigner jokes in check. The film’s total lack of formal and hesitant to acknowledge the rot, lest they incur the ire of their
finesse is perhaps fitting of its ramshackle subject, though it’s occasionally shady masters. Between interviews there are sundry shots of dancers
a little too loose for its own good. That you have to question whether practicing tirelessly and some archive footage of past greats on stage.
Hopkins intends this shoddiness to be ironic is not good. It recalls Woody It’s interesting how the directors allow subjects to think that they are
Allen’s Stardust Memories in the way it mocks the paradoxical pretensions at the centre of the film, while in the edit, the testimonies are played
of a film director, who is on one hand archly dismissive of philistines, against one another as a way to emphasise the internal conflict. Maybe
but on the other would be happy to impart his wisdom if the price is it’s unfair to suggest the results would be similar were you to turn your
right. Hopkins also has a pop at gentile Brits out of their cultural depth, cameras on any commercial enterprise of this size, yet the conclusion
unwilling to immerse themselves in new communities and always thinking that crooked politics, wayward egos and a climate of fear are core to
about whether there’s someone back home available to feed the dog. the Bolshoi’s day-to-day activities hardly makes for breaking news.
DAVID JENKINS DAVID JENKINS

ANTICIPATION. ANTICIPATION. Is cinema going to bring down one

Always got time for a new Ben Hopkins film. of the world’s most beloved entertainment institutions?

ENJOYMENT. ENJOYMENT.
Just about hangs together on wacky charm. Not by a long shot.

IN RETROSPECT. IN RETROSPECT. Maybe more interesting as a behind-

See you in a few years Mr Hopkins! the-scenes exposé than it is a piece of hard journalism.

058 REVIEWS
 THE BEST FILM OF THE YEAR SIGHT & SOUND 2015 FILM POLL

“CAPTIVATES & ASTONISHES... “HEART-STOPPINGLY BEAUTIFUL...

THERE IS MAJESTY & MYSTERY IN THIS FILM” A MARTIAL ARTS SAGA LIKE NO OTHER”

++++
PETER BRADSHAW, THE GUARDIAN
+++++
ROBBIE COLLIN, THE TELEGR APH

O F F I C I A L E N T RY - TA I WA N
B E ST FO R E I G N L A N G UAG E F I L M
A C A D E M Y AWA R D S 2 0 1 6

I N C I N E M A S JA N UA RY 2 2

#THEASSASSIN STUDIOCANALUK
 Janis: Little Girl Blue
Directed by s a young girl, I heard my mother screaming The scene’s values help us understand the woman
AMY BERG
Starring
JANIS JOPLIN
A along to a tape recording of Janis Joplin’s
‘Piece of My Heart’. It was shocking
confirmation that a parent hadn’t consigned
who blossomed out of it. We are given a lively glimpse
of a time when Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco
was the centre of the once feted, now dated ideals
CAT POWER emotions to a neat filing cabinet labeled ‘The Past’. of mind-expanding drug-taking and free love. Drugs
SAM ANDREW I may as well have heard her having sex for all the and sex were not lasting enough for Joplin, and the
Released yearning those shrill notes revealed. From a child’s film’s steady momentum reflects this – freewheeling
5 FEBRUARY perspective it was pure embarrassment. energy is corralled by concrete events.
The pain of desire and the release of emoting We are introduced to Janis growing up as a social
was central to the singer Janis Joplin until she outsider in Port Arthur, Texas. Her pain at being
died from a heroin overdose at 27. Amy Berg’s bullied and desire for acceptance drove her ever
documentary portrait charts and contextualises her onward: to Austin to sing the blues, home again to
tumultuous time on earth while keeping the art of recover from meth addiction, to California to join
raw expression as a key note. Joplin’s own words are Big Brother and the Holding Company, then stardom
a trail of breadcrumbs in the form of letters home at the Monterey festival and relationships with
to middle-class Texan parents. Like a good girl, she musicians. Her heroin addiction is presented with a
kept them in the loop as she went from singing the non-judgmental sadness. Everyone knew she used.
ANTICIPATION. blues on the fringes to the heart of ’60s rock ’n’ roll. Everyone has a soulful theory as to why. We hear
Amy Berg on Janis Joplin with Chan Marshall (aka Cat Power) narrates extracts in about her shooting up while chatting with friends at
Alex Gibney producing. Just yes. her childlike southern tone. The words are earnest the Chelsea Hotel. (Leonard Cohen wrote a song for
and evoke a more innocent time when hippy terms her called ‘Chelsea Hotel’)
like ‘man’ and ‘groovy’ could be spoken without Music sourced from live performances, from on
inverted commas. the road and in recording sessions punctuates every
A tone of tenderness and respect is maintained biographical episode. Janis’ voice lasers through
ENJOYMENT. across interviews with family, friends, band members bullshit leaving only something quivering and naked
Archival riches on a real soul poet. and lovers. All knew of her insatiable need to be and real. The primal heart powering her singing
loved. It was a force that underpinned and loaded her erases time and puts me back in my childhood
career ambitions. A soft woman emerges. Her singing home listening to my mother screaming the blues.
voice may have sounded like a soul cut by sandpaper, Both women are now dead but the emotion behind
but her speaking voice was polite and gentle. Rolling the music will never die. Amy Berg is a bold director
IN RETROSPECT. Stone’s David Dalton described Janis as having: to recognise and channel intangible feelings of
Break another little piece of my “Almost a Huck Finn innocence. The absolute longing in this apt, tragic and inspiring documentary.
heart now, darling. woman-child ideal of the Haight.” SOPHIE MONKS KAUFMAN

060 REVIEWS
 Room
Directed by f a movie depicts a woman and her toddler son the trees, animals, buildings, everything. And while
LENNY ABRAHAMSON
Starring
BRIE LARSON
I held captive in a small, cramped room by a
repugnant male sex pervert, it’s only natural
to expect some kind of retribution take place.
Ma and Jack have settled into a routine of enforced
domesticity, they secretly hatch schemes to free
themselves. Even though there are breathless thriller
JACOB TREMBLAY In so often fulfilling that desire, cinema promotes elements in their attempts to break out, it’s only late
SEAN BRIDGERS a creed of cyclical violence. What’s good for the in the game that Room reveals that it is not a thriller,
Released goose is good for the gander. But it’s okay, because but a moving feminist tract which explores questions
15 JANUARY when the bad dude gets his inevitable comeuppance, of what it means to be a mother, what it means to give
objective justice has been served and we can skip love, and what it means to receive it.
from the cinema, punching the air and perhaps even The most heartbreaking thing about Room is
believing that real life ofers such natural fixes. Lenny how Ma is forced to bring up her son in the belief
Abrahamson’s Room follows this convention, but in a that he will never know the world outside. He has
sensitive and clever way, one which doesn’t allow the no concept of society, technology, architecture, and
viewer to vicariously enjoy the pain being inflicted on out of desperation she has to corrupt his learning
ANTICIPATION. a “bad” person by way of revenge. curve so to dampen his desire for escape. That she
Abrahamson’s previous, Frank, The film is about how some people are too then has to carefully undo all of this necessary
was more a daffy diversion than busy dealing with their own shit to be able to developmental meddling is possibly the source of
modern great. psychologically jolt themselves into a mindset which her subsequent depression.
has them baying for blood. That’s not to say that the Perhaps the film’s most impressive feat,
source of evil in the film isn’t punished, it’s just that however, is that it flips, back and forth, between
Abrahamson doesn’t give us the squalid satisfaction the perspectives of Ma and Jack. Abrahamson is
of witnessing it. It’s also a film which explores the not interested in the gimmick of presenting Jack’s
ENJOYMENT. complex dividing lines between grief and happiness. subjective perception of the world, but he does show
This is the Larson and Tremblay When awful tribulations come to their ecstatic end, Ma’s perspective of her son’s limited, distorted grasp
show. Both are stunning. we don’t just reset to zero and readjust to life as it was of this strange situation. Ma’s eventual sense of grief
before the war. isn’t fuelled by the violent specifics of the ordeal,
Brie Larson’s Ma is remarkably cheery and strong but the sense that her “fatherless” son has been
for a woman who has been snatched away from her irrevocably corrupted by what he has (and hasn’t)
cosy suburban life to exist as a sex slave in a shed. seen, or that she has somehow let him down. It’s an
IN RETROSPECT. Her son Jack (Jacob Tremblay) is her only companion incredibly moving and detailed work. By shunning
A film about the infinite in this horrific ordeal. Old Nick (Sean Bridgers) melodrama to focus on physical and emotional
complexity of a deceptively is the devil with the key code to the big metal door minutiae, it’s a film about the imperceptible struggles
simple situation. which cuts them of from the wider world, the wind, of getting through each dark day. DAVID JENKINS

REVIEWS 061
IN CONVERSATION... Interview by DAVID JENKINS I l l us t rat io n by RIIKKA SORMUNEN

Brie Larson
LWLies ask the brilliant star of Room
how to be a good mother in the movies.

LWLIES: IN ROOM THE ACTOR JACOB TREMBLAY PLAYS YOUR YOUNG SON hanging out with the adults, eating pizza and having a Moscow Mule, but
AND THE FILM IS ABOUT YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH ONE ANOTHER. HOW instead I somehow ended up getting roped into being the ringleader of
DID YOU GET ALONG WITH HIS REAL PARENTS? Larsson: His parents are eight small children. Within minutes, I’ve got a battle of the sexes hockey
so lovely and warm. They understood how important it was that Jacob felt game going. We’re screaming. We’re falling on the ground. A woman came
comfortable with me. They know him better than anybody. They knew what up to me and asked if I was local, if I was a babysitter, and could we hire you.
type of parameters to set that would not make it feel like an intimidating I ran into some friends at the pizza parlour and started talking to them, and
situation. It was going to be like, ‘Oh hey, there’s this girl you’re going to this little girl came up to me and started pulling on my shirt and I picked her
meet, we’re going to hang out with her a little bit and see what happens.’ up and they asked, ‘who’s this?!’ and I was like, ‘I have no idea.’

DO YOU REMEMBER YOUR FIRST MEETING? It was really casual. It was at a YOUR ROLE IN THE FILM SHORT TERM 12 IS ALSO QUITE MATERNAL,
pizza parlour with his parents and director Lenny [Abrahamson]. A few of the THOUGH IN A LESS LITERAL WAY. HAVE THERE BEEN ANY PREVIOUS PARTS
producers were there too. It was a big setting, so very much not just the two WHICH HAVE FELT LIKE TRIAL RUNS FOR THIS ONE? Short Term 12 was
of us. It gave the opportunity for us to share a few words, but the intention the first time I worked with kids. And I absolutely loved it. It’s why I knew I
was not focused on that. By the end of that evening, he invited me over to play could do Room because I will take any chance I can to make my job not about
Lego with him. And his mom was there, but she would wander in and out. She me, and make it about something else. The thing I struggle with the most is,
would say things like, ‘Jacob, you were saying before that you were curious to whatever I do, it’s always my face up on the screen. I want to be more of an
find out what Brie’s favourite animal is, so why don’t you ask her?’ And he’d Andy Serkis where you’re CGI’d into something else. My physical presence
ask me that. It allowed this sense that it was never this intimidating one-on- is there. Because I had met with these real foster kids for Short Term, I felt
one. It was safe. It was on his terms with his stuf and in his space. such a material, strong love, I really wanted to fight for them.

HOW CLOSE WERE YOU WHEN FILMING STARTED? As our three weeks of IS IT SAD WHEN A FILM ENDS AND YOU HAVE TO MOVE AWAY FROM THESE
rehearsals came to an end, we were so close by that point. We had spent so PEOPLE? For diferent reasons, I find one of the hard parts is not being able
much time together. We would do the routine you see at the beginning of to fix it. Every day on set, you’re working within the factors that are there,
the film every day in rehearsals. So we were hitting the point where he felt whatever’s available to you emotionally, and no matter what, you think,
comfortable jumping on me, grabbing me, letting me hold him. That’s a big ‘Well yesterday might have been bad, but I have the opportunity today
deal. That’s how it all came together at the beginning. On set, his parents to fix it.’ To hit the final day, it always reminds me where you’re watching
were always there, but once we’re shooting a scene, they wouldn’t keep those cooking shows where you have to cook an entrée in 20 minutes, and
coming over and reminding him of things. it’s all good during the 20 minutes, but as soon as the time’s up and you
have to take your hands away, suddenly you’re like, ‘Oooooh, I wish I could
DO YOU THINK IT WAS STRANGE FOR THEM TO SEE THEIR SON IN THIS redo that whole thing.’ The hard part is letting go of the process. Letting go
RELATIONSHIP WITH ANOTHER MOTHER? At first I was worried about it, of the opportunity to explore the process. Hope that you’ve given a good
because I’m not a mom. I’d always look to Christina – his mom – to ask, is enough range of colours for the editor to paint with.
this right? She became the best expert on that. She’d pick up on the simple
trials and tribulations of being a mother. The key moments are where BY TALKING ABOUT THIS MOVIE, DO YOU FIND YOU’RE LEARNING MORE
you’re exhausted, but you have to keep acting like it’s okay. ABOUT IT? Yeah, that’s the cool part. And that’s why I’m picky about what
it is I make. You want something that can exist beyond a single viewing
YOU’RE VERY CONVINCING AS A MOTHER. HOW DOES ONE LEARN TO BE A and is not just about one thing. You don’t want a film with a moral at the
GOOD MOTHER? I would be curious to know what other women have to say end. You want something bigger than that. You can take it, you can spend
about it, but from my own experience, something just clicks in when you hours talking about it, and when you do, it constantly changes. It resonates
start to care about someone, or something that isn’t yourself. One aspect personally in diferent ways with diferent people. And not to mention
of that from my life is the work that I do: it has always felt like an act of diferent countries – they pick up on diferent things. It’s nice that it’s a
service for me. It’s something that’s beyond me. The other aspect is that living, breathing conversation. They hard part about interviews like this
I’m an oldest grandkid, and I either lived with my cousins, or next door is trying hard to make it seem like everything made sense. That these
to them, while they were babies up until about 11 or 12. So I was always decisions were conscious. Because a lot of the time they aren’t. It’s just
the family babysitter. I think it’s just one of my superpowers that kids are creativity and intuition going in one direction. But as you talk, you get to
just attracted to me. At Telluride, we went to this pizza parlour as they had learn more about how your subconsious was working back then. You get to
air hockey and there were breaks between screenings. I was planning on see the larger picture of the movie

INTERVIEW 063
 Le Mépris (1963)
Directed by s that smile mocking, or tender?” asks Likewise, Godard, smarting from the lambasting of
JEAN-LUC GODARD
Starring
BRIGITTE BARDOT
“I bemused screenwriter Paul Javal (Michel
Piccoli) of his naked, newish wife Camille
(Brigitte Bardot), as the two pace their half-decorated,
his previous movie, Les Carabiniers, was determined,
in his own interpretation of classical film grammar, to
show he knew exactly where to place a movie camera.
JACK PALANCE newly acquired flat in Rome. They are conducting a To this end, he encouraged genius cameraman Raoul
MICHEL PICCOLI premature autopsy of their marriage in Jean-Luc Coutard to orchestrate with his ’Scope camera 
Released Godard’s multi-lingual French-Italian co-production (“suitable only for filming snakes and coins”) an
1 JANUARY Le Mépris. arresting series of sinuous, almost spirographic dances.
Godard’s sixth movie – as good a candidate as any These graceful glides and pans were a response to the
to be named the director’s masterpiece – itself poses imperious, opaque-eyed gods and meanders for the
a plenitude of such rhetorical questions, cruelly mere, foolish mortals. Known as the Godard favourite
connecting derisive darts and compassionate insights. amongst the non-Godardians, Le Mépris certainly is
The film is the director’s reworking of novelist Alberto one of the director’s more easily consumable works.
Moravia’s “nice, vulgar” tale of Paul and Camille’s A fine contribution to the genre of movies on moving-
tragicomic misfortunes during a Mediterranean making – on the death of cinema, and the possibility of
location film shoot of Homer’s ‘The Odyssey’. The its renewal – it also ofers accessible and meaningful
film-within-a-film has been classically re-imagined by musings on, amongst others, such matters as destiny
ANTICIPATION. director Fritz Lang (playing, very movingly, himself ) and freewill, empathy and self-interest, sensuousness
Is this Jean-Luc Godard’s and commercially bastardised by philistine producer and aestheticism, principle and pragmatism, the
greatest film? Jeremiah Prokosch (Hollywood hardman/villain natural and the industrial, the poetic and the prosaic
Jack Palance, hyperbolically, scarily, sociopathically and using comedy and tragedy to tell the stories of
entertaining). human lives.
An immense amount of of-screen activity is In short, it is a full and immensely satisfying
at work too: Bardot, in 1963 and at the height of her work, its tensions and teasing contradictions, moral,
ENJOYMENT. celebrity, had not been developing as an actress cinematic and intellectual, making it as exhilarating,
You know what? It just might be. under her husband, the producer-director Roger alive and modern a film as any. Georges Delerue’s
Vadim. Despite reported diiculties (alongside sublime score is crucial in uniting all the film’s
Godard weaving variations of his own internecine irreconcilables. The repeated motifs and melodies
relationship with wife Anna Karina into Bardot’s role themselves combine, as does the movie, the classical
and on-screen marriage), she delivers perhaps her and the modern, deepenening the meanings and the
IN RETROSPECT. finest performance, embodying her instinctive, life- mixed emotions of defiance and nostalgia that make
A knowing, tragic-comic aria for coerced character with a potent cocktail of sensual Le Mépris so very afecting and – a word Godard would
love and moviemaking. allure, fierce mystery and genuine pathos. be proud of – so very beautiful. WALLY HAMMOND

064 REVIEWS
 Creed
Directed by magine your life being played out in not just one that he can forge his own legend and escape the long
RYAN COOGLER
Starring
MICHAEL B JORDAN
I movie, but a whole series of films released over
decades, capturing every setback, every love, every
loss and every triumph.  French director François
shadow of the father he never met. Yes, the premise
is a little far-fetched, but the brooding, charismatic
Jordan sells it, and the actor’s stunningly chiselled
SYLVESTER STALLONE Trufaut did just that for his character,  Antoine physique says more than dialogue ever could about
TESSA THOMPSON Doinel, played by Jean-Pierre Leaud, in a cycle of films his character’s commitment to the cause. As the plot
Released between 1959 and 1979. During those years, audiences kicks in, Coogler doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel: as in
15 JANUARY saw this man grow up on the screen. American cinema many sports films, the protagonist undergoes crises of
has an equivalent. His name is Rocky Balboa. But faith on his journey toward spiritual nourishment. He
rather than witness boy blossoming into man, we’ve also falls for the beautiful girl next door, a tough-yet-
seen a doe-eyed, marble-mouthed lunkhead slug sensitive singer-songwriter played with wit and grace
his way into the popular consciousness via a string by Tessa Thompson.
of gruelling personal and professional struggles. It’s Lest Creed sound overly tender and ruminative for
fair to say that Rocky (Sylvester Stallone) – last seen a boxing flick, it also packs a serious punch, replete with
pacing the ring as a sexagenarian in Rocky Balboa crunching fight sequences captured by DoP Maryse
(2006) – has endured considerably more than 400 Alberti in a probing, prowling style. The staggering
blows on his journey. Time, then, for the old man to high point is a duel between Adonis and a local Philly
ANTICIPATION. enjoy some respite? fighter which unfolds in one unblinking, visceral take.
Coogler impressed with Fruitvale Creed answers the question with an absorbing (If there are digital edits, they are imperceptible.)
Station, but do we really need and electrifying series reboot conceived, directed And while there’s no flamboyant villain in the vein
another Rocky film? and co-written by Ryan Coogler, whose 2013 of Clubber Lang (Rocky III) or Ivan Drago (Rocky
debut Fruitvale Station – a docudrama about the IV), real-life pugilist Tony Bellew is understatedly
final day in the life of a young black father slain menacing as Adonis’ Scouse rival “Pretty” Ricky
by police – marked him out as a sensitive director Conlan. He’s tough, but never distracts us from the fact
with a warm, naturalistic style. Rather than totally that Adonis’ greatest fight is against himself.
ENJOYMENT. marginalise Rocky, Coogler ushers him into a At 133 minutes, Creed is flabbier than necessary: a
Tough, tender and exhilarating. dignified supporting role as mentor to a new star, subplot concerning Rocky’s fight with an illness, while
Adonis Johnson (Fruitvale’s Michael B Jordan), the touching in its own right, slackens the pace midway.
illegitimate son of his late rival Apollo Creed. However, Coogler pulls it around for a barnstorming
Adonis is a well-paid white-collar drone and final act and a moving, understated denouement.
part-time boxer who jacks in his sterile LA existence for Jordan – and this film – are both good enough for us to
IN RETROSPECT. the mean streets of Philadelphia. He aims to persuade hope that Adonis will be training up a new heir to the
Creed indeed. Rocky, now a restaurant manager, to train him so throne forty years from now. ASHLEY CLARK

REVIEWS 065
 The Revenant
Tom Hardy’s redneck mercenary, John essentially an extended reprise of the ‘Lemmon
Directed by Fitzgerald, Domhnall Gleeson’s easily cowed ludes’ scene in The Wolf of Wall Street.) 
ALEJANDRO GONZÁLEZ IÑÁRRITU expedition leader, Andrew Henry, and Will For everything he is forced to endure, it’s telling
Starring Poulter’s gutless greenhorn, Jim Bridger – are not that Glass’ journey ends the same way it began:
LEONARDO DICAPRIO sins against a higher power but against humanity. with both a bang and a whimper.
TOM HARDY Spirituality is explored to a superficial degree If The Revenant is Iñárritu’s ‘Heart of
DOMHNALL GLEESON here, but enough to establish a fundamental Darkness’, then Glass is Charles Marlow and
Released disconnect  between those who respect nature Kurtz rolled into one – fear and obsession by
15 JANUARY (and by extension humanity) and those seeking turns the watchwords of his literal voyage upriver
only to exploit it. One man appears to bridge this and his steady descent into madness. In this
gap: Glass. Via a series of Malickian flashbacks hostile environment, where subzero conditions
we learn that some years ago our intrepid guide pose as great a threat as any man or beast, Glass
had a son by an unnamed Pawnee woman. faces a succession of worst-case scenarios that
ANTICIPATION. While she is conspicuous through her absence, would make Bear Grylls baulk. But just as the life-
This is our kind of event movie. a now teenage Hawk (Forrest Goodluck) bears threatening physical injuries sustained during
severe facial scars which paint a tragic picture of that grizzly attack significantly impede  Glass,
the life he and his father have left behind. the psychological wounds inflicted by another
After  a fateful encounter with a  mother adversary strengthen his will to survive.
bear – a thrillingly choreographed scene that How much we invest in Glass’ story is
ENJOYMENT. rivals the cuticle-stripping tension of the game ultimately a question  of empathy. Because
Bold, beautiful and unrelentingly bleak. of Russian Roulette in The Deer Hunter – Glass while the grief associated with the loss of a
suddenly finds himself unable to protect his own loved one is something everyone can relate to
cub. What happens next sets him on a dangerous on some level, Glass’ irrepressible urge to exact
new course where salvation is eventually earned terrible vengeance on an equally flawed (but
not by  a show of faith but a small gesture of not necessarily inherently evil) individual is by
IN RETROSPECT. human kindness. no means a universal human trait. This white-
Iñárritu’s opus sears itself into your Unsurprisingly, absolution is not forthcoming knuckle old world epic is first and foremost a
subconscious with unflinching intent. in the backwoods of the civilised world. There is testament to technical artistry – take a bow
no sanctuary in prayer or proverb, no penance DoP Emmanuel Lubezki, production designer
and no  pathos. Only chaos and fury. As such, Jack Fisk, editor Stephen Mirrione, composer

T
wo acts of bloody retribution bookend despite the connotations of the film’s title, at no Ryûichi Sakamoto – that consciously  avoids
The Revenant: to the west, Pawnee point does Glass’ odyssey become tantamount to engaging  in the morality of revenge and is a
Indians lay siege to a camp of American a religious experience. Rather, his myth is spun better film for it. At 156 minutes, The Revenant
fur trappers, each true arrow carried by a chilling in the grand American tradition of Jesse James, is also an unavoidably gruelling spectacle that
tribal battle cry; to the east, two men lay prone on Jim Bowie and other timeless folk heroes – the very nearly buckles under the weight of its
the claret-stained snow following a brutal tussle, major diference being that Glass achieved only cinematic ambition.
their heavy groans and gritted teeth the only modest celebrity in his own lifetime. That said, although  the film’s  attempts to
discernible signs of life. What makes this particular legend so deconstruct the human condition often  feel
Alejandro González Iñárritu’s punishing enthralling is the visceral simplicity of the as cold and remote as its  frostbitten Great
frontier western, based in part on Michael storytelling (with the help of co-writer Mark L Plains setting, it does succeed in revealing
Punke’s 2002 account of the life of Hugh Smith, this is Iñárritu’s tightest screenplay to some basic  truths about  the healing process
Glass (played with grizzled gusto by Leonardo date). Glass is an enigma, yet the reason so little and how the deepest cuts don’t bleed.
DiCaprio), transports us to a time and place of his backstory is divulged is not because he has The Revenant may not land a decisive emotional
where everyone and everything is in a constant something to hide, but because his arc is one of blow, but the all-consuming nature of its chief
state of redemption. Crucially, though, the sins regression instead of transformation. (DiCaprio’s protagonist’s anguish makes this Iñárritu’s most
committed by Glass and his cohorts – namely astonishingly committed performance is singularly afecting work. ADAM WOODWARD

066 REVIEWS
REVIEWS 067
10 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT... Words by DAVID JENKINS I l l us t rat io n by RIIKKA SORMUNEN

Alejandro
González Iñárritu
As Mexico’s macho Oscar-hoarder wows the world
with The Revenant, LWLies assemble a list of curious
trivia on the man of the moment.

NO.1. Iñárritu’s first job as a fully-fledged NO.5. With his film Birdman being shot in a way NO.8. During its production, director Alfonso
writer and director was a Mexican TV movie that makes it look like a single take, comparisons Cuarón mentioned Amores Perros to his pal
entitled Detrás del Dinero [roughly translated to Alfred Hitchcock’s 1948 film Rope were Guillermo del Toro, who managed to see a rough
as “Cashback”] in 1995. The bleached colours, inevitable. Iñárritu told ‘Time’ magazine: “I cut of the film on tape while he was shooting
kinetic camera movements and rhythmic think [Rope] is a terrible film. I don’t like it. Blade II in Prague. He immediately called up
editing of his early features are all present in this I think it’s a very bad film of Hitchcock’s. It’s a Iñárritu and asked if he could help to complete
impressive first missive. very mediocre film. Obviously, he shot with that the editing, ofering to sleep on his sofa to do so.
intention and it didn’t work — because of the Iñárritu accepted the ofer.
NO.2. While location scouting for his debut film itself!”
feature Amores Perros, Iñárritu and his crew NO.9. The director shot a Nike advert-cum-short
were assaulted and robbed by a gang of teenage NO.6. Iñárritu is credited as Marimba player on film for the 2012 World Cup entitled Write the
boys outside the house in which the film’s Gustavo Santaolalla’s original music score for Future. Wayne Rooney was among its host of
visceral dog fight scenes were eventually shot, the director’s 2011 film Biutiful. He also lent his celebrity stars, and Iñárritu told ‘The Telegraph’
according to an interview with indiewire.com. services as co-producer on Santaolalla’s score in an interview that he thought the footballer
for 2003’s 21 Grams. was so natural in front of the camera that, when
NO.3. In order to achieve the specific visual his sporting career was over, then there would
grain and texture in Amores Perros, Iñárritu NO.7. A CD is said to exist of comedy sketches be roles for him in cinema.
showed his cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto performed by characters Iñárritu invented
a book of photography by urban demimonde during his time as a DJ for Mexico’s WFM, at one NO.10. As a way to release tension on the set
photographer documenter Nan Goldin. time the country’s most popular music station, of The Revenant, the outdoors epic that was
but now known as XEW-FM and operating as shot in Canada, the US and Argentina, actor
NO.4. Director John Cassavetes is a name a news and talk outlet. We’ve scourered the Tom Hardy and Iñárritu would engage in a
constantly mentioned by Iñárritu as one of archives in search of this mythical item, but it manly hug. Though as the actor explained in
his key formal influences. This can be seen in certainly doesn’t seem to be fore sale anywhere. an interview to ‘Entertainment Weekly’, those
the bruising emotional dynamics of a film like Iñárritu told the ‘New York Times’ that he liked hugs often saw the two men tumbling around
21 Grams, the handheld immediacy of Amores to mix popular rock acts like Led Zeppelin in the snow and trading a few friendly blows.
Perros, and the fact that Birdman is extremely and Pink Floyd (that latter of whom he has But the pair always remained friends: “He had
close in its theme and subject to the director’s admitted to being especially fond) with local the afability to me of the donkey from Shrek
extraordinary 1977 feature, Opening Night. Mexican bands. and I’m Shrek,” said Hardy

0 6 8 F E AT U R E
 Presents

# .
SWAN SONGS
Past and Future
Inspired by Paolo Sorrentino’s new feature, Youth, which concerns It’s a film which saw the lauded director of such features as Nosferatu
a man (Sir Michael Caine) looking back to past indiscretions, and and Faust ditching his patented expressionist style for something
forward to the abyss of death, we have given a special focus to the that was closer to documentary realism as he filmed the love lives
final movies made by iconic filmmakers. What do they tell us about of natives on the island of Bora Bora. Murnau died in a car accident
this artist? Do they exemplify a certain style or a particular recurring a week before his enchanting opus was set to open. For the event
theme in their work? Do they show these directors capping of their half of the Double, we will be screening something quite diferent:
career on an artistic high or an ignoble low? For this fourth Doubles John Hughes’ Curly Sue from 1991. The film follows the Chicago-
screening, we’re combining two films from diferent eras, diferent based meanderings of a hobo father-daugther unit played by James
cultures and diferent countries in a search for universal truth in this Belushi and Alisan Porter and documents the class struggle in the
matter. run-up to Christmas. Following the film, we’ll be hosting a panel
Streaming for 30 days on MUBI, we’d like to invite our readers discussion on the great swan songs of cinema and the final will and
to watch FW Murnau’s 1931 film, Tabu, a Story of the South Seas. testament of some of history’s most beloved filmmakers.

Curly Sue Tabu

John Hughes’ Curly Sue from 1991. FW Murnau’s 1931 film,
Screening + Panel Discussion a story of the South Seas.
Thursday 26 January, 7pm Screens on MUBI from 26 July
71a Gallery, 71a Leonard Street, London mubi.com

F OR ONE NIGH T ONLY F O R 3 0 DAYS O NLY

RSVP doubles4.splashthat.com
 Spotlight
Directed by o you really wanna hear this shit?’ a reaction, Brian d’Arcy James’s Matt Carroll finds
TOM MCCARTHY
Starring
MICHAEL KEATON
‘D sexual abuse survivor asks Mark Rufalo’s
reporter Mike Rezendes in writer/director
Tom McCarthy’s disciplined procedural drama
a group of paedophile priests hidden alarmingly
close to his house, and the well-connected Walter
‘Robby’ Robinson (Michael Keaton, the film’s
MARK RUFFALO Spotlight. The unspooling of hard-to-hear truths is at central presence) is forced to confront friends who
RACHEL MCADAMS the heart of this story about the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer have been professionally complicit in wrongdoing.
Released Prize-winning investigative team (called ‘Spotlight’) Their new editor Baron is a Jewish outsider in a Catholic
29 JANUARY who exposed child molestation by Catholic priests city whose bearish presence can’t hide his anxiety.
in the Boston Archdiocese, ultimately triggering a Spotlight resists histrionics, rejecting the thriller
worldwide scandal. tropes that would render events more conventionally
As events unfold, the film makes a compelling case cinematic. Cinematographer Masanobu Takayanagi’s
for old-school journalism and its methods. We are muted palette respectfully reflects the seriousness of
introduced to the paper’s team in July 2001, who are the story, the chilly, humdrum environs and the frosty
all lapsed Catholics and are asked by incoming editor reception that greets the paper’s investigation; while
Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber) to look into claims that a Howard Shore’s unobtrusive score creates a sense of
ANTICIPATION. Boston priest had abused over 80 children. a story gathering momentum and keeps things nail-
The subject matter may be grim, Although this is a 21st century story, the film is biting when they’re up against the clock. But there is
but the Oscar buzz gives it very much a paper trail of clippings, directories, letters no soaring climax or sweeping melodic gut-punches.
sparkle. and court-files. The team take notes and build trust as Such restraint demonstrates how the team’s
they scrutinise, probe and – most importantly – listen righteous anger is kept in check by their painstaking
to the victims. The eye for detail extends to the cast’s professionalism, and McCarthy and co-writer Josh
nuanced, exceptional performances: Rachel McAdams Singer hone in on the graft, skill and value of drawing
as Sacha Pfeifer channels pure sensitivity as she allows together a complex story from pieces that have been
ENJOYMENT. those who share their experiences to pour their pain scattered and concealed. If it’s a picture of journalism
Remarkable control, into her; Schreiber is movingly taciturn; Rufalo is at its most dogged and honourable then Spotlight
sensational storytelling. endearingly earnest and awkwardly insistent; while doesn’t disregard the paper’s own faults as it highlights
John Slattery as senior colleague Ben Bradlee Jr and a community’s failings, both institutional and
Stanley Tucci as the victim’s eccentric lawyer Mitchell domestic. While there are universal truths here, it also
Garabedian complete a remarkable ensemble. masterfully filters in the specific context – this big city’s
Refusing to be distracted by domestic subplots, small town mindset, the way it conspiratorially closes
IN RETROSPECT. Spotlight still manages to explore the personal ranks around the church. As Garabedian sadly notes:
An extraordinary paean to consequences of putting a cat amongst the pigeons. ‘If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to
journalistic endeavour. Pfeifer is worried about her devout grandmother’s abuse one.’ EMMA SIMMONDS

070 REVIEWS
 Rams
L
Directed by ike an oversized beige jumper with ’70s-style as expected), Rams spends far too long dawdling
GRÍMUR HÁKONARSON criss-cross patterns across the chest, Grímur when it comes to the matter of settling on its tone.
Starring Hákonarson’s Rams is a bit too woolly for its There are moments that stray dangerously close
SIGURÐUR SIGURJÓNSSON own good. When the film starts, it announces itself to humour, though it’s never really that funny.
THEODÓR JÚLÍUSSON as a dry comedy, introducing the prolonged sibling It sometimes looks like a soap opera in the vein of
CHARLOTTE BØVING rivalry between Gummi (Sigurður Sigurjónsson) BBC Radio’s The Archers, with lots of harumphing
Released and Kiddi (Theodór Júlíusson). The brothers live farmers whining about their sorry lot. But interest
5 FEBRUARY as neighbours, both with mighty, ruff-like beards in placing the brothers’ within the context of the
and both sheep farmers who have managed to wider community wanes until it ends up being
pass the last 40 years without uttering a word to used as a cheap plot device.
one another. Any trivial bureaucracy between the Or could this story of people suddenly losing
pair is tended to with the help of Kiddi’s note- the entire means of their wellbeing be a metaphor
delivering mutt and a comic approporation of for Iceland’s banking collapse? Maybe for the
barking noises. When they head on their trail bikes first half, but certainly not the second. There
to a local livestock competition, each with their are even hints that matters might boil over and
prize ram in tow, there’s the suggestion that the turn into a western-like thriller, with shotguns,
ANTICIPATION. film will be concerned with the quaint traditions spades and crowbars thrown into the mix.
It’s not that often we get to seen of Iceland’s rural farming community. A female But no, it’s not that either. So to quote The
an Icelandic film in cinemas. vet judges the rams, her modern methods painting Simpsons’ Moe Szyslak, “If you’re so sure what it
her as an outsider. Gummi loses to his brother and, ain’t, how about tellin’ us what it am.” Frankly,
sour in defeat, secretly breaks into Kiddi’s sheep there’s no obvious answer. Rams is all over the
shed to inspect the specimen that bested his prize shop, but maybe it’s to be commended for refusing
ram by a mere half mark. In doing so, he uncovers a to settle on a single emotional register. The one
ENJOYMENT. potential outbreak of scrapie, a rare and contagious thing that sticks in the craw, however, is that it
Solid moment to moment, but degenerative disorder found in sheep and goats. does lack a certain compassion for its characters,
never feels particularly cohesive. To preserve the future of Icelandic sheep farming, and while Hákonarson just about holds back from
all flocks must be obliterated. Yet instead of openly mocking the brothers’ poverty, he does
accepting this unfortunate turn of events as fate portray them as bumbling tyros out to satisfy their
dealing a particularly cruel hand, Kiddi blames his petty self-interests. The reason for the vendetta is
brother for this mess, turning to drink and making eventually revealed as being suitably banal, further
IN RETROSPECT. a habit of falling asleep in the snow. cementing the writer/director’s feeling that rural
Lots of stuff happens, but without Though it’s fairly obvious how the film is folk are childish and irrational and should be left
much charm or insight. going to play out (and, sadly, it plays out exactly to their own devices. DAVID JENKINS

REVIEWS 071
 Chronic
Directed by im Roth was the president of the Cannes through subtle body language rather than dialogue,
MICHEL FRANCO
Starring
TIM ROTH
T Un Certain Regard jury that awarded its top
prize to the film After Lucia in 2012. After the
ceremony he sought out its director Michel Franco to
keeps us hooked, wanting to know more. Franco’s
style is clinical and detached, but he achieves a
real sense of intimacy here, and as we watch David
RACHEL PICKUP tell him how much he admired his film. Chronic is the washing, clothing, lifting or simply being a companion
MICHAEL CRISTOFER result of that meeting. It’s Franco’s third feature and to his ailing patients, we get a very real sense of the
Released one of the most complex and interesting roles that the compassion and patience these duties require, not to
19 FEBRUARY frequently under-utilised Roth has tackled in recent mention the enormous emotional and physical strain
years. After Lucia was a ceaselessly bleak study of teen involved. At its best, Chronic is a remarkable portrait
bullying that felt cheaply sadistic and manipulative of the special relationship that exists between those
in its construction, but it also showed an impressive who are looking death in the face and the people
sense of craft and an uncompromising directorial responsible for making their final days as comfortable
vision. The presence of an Oscar-nominated actor as possible. Franco is helped enormously in this regard
in a first English-language film often suggests the by the three very diferent, but equally outstanding
softening of a foreign auteur’s approach to appeal to a contributions made by Rachel Pickup, Michael
ANTICIPATION. wider audience, but that’s far from the case here. Cristofer and Robin Bartlett as David’s patients.
Franco is a talented but raw Chronic follows David, a quiet and introspective The film’s frank approach to the realities of dying
director, this could go either way. caregiver, as he attends to a series of terminally ill marks it as a work of considerable maturity and
patients in Los Angeles. David is methodical and intelligence, even if it grows a little less compelling in
dedicated, and there is little doubt that he cares deeply the final third as David’s relationship with a woman
for the people he looks after. But does he care too much? dying of cancer starts to take a turn for the obvious.
When a complaint is made by the family of a stroke However, nothing can prepare you for the way Franco
ENJOYMENT. victim about David’s uncomfortably close relationship ends the film; a bewildering act of self-sabotage that
A difficult but sensitive and with him, Franco and Roth refuse to give us any clues is so misjudged and so jarringly out-of-step with
impressive piece of work... about where the truth lies. Is David a pervert? Is he what came before, it undermines all of the film’s
until it suddenly isn’t. just lonely? Has he been misjudged? The waters are good work up to that point, ensuring that the ending
muddied by his undeniably odd behaviour outside of will be the only thing dazed audience members
his patients’ homes, when he adopts aspects of their will be talking about as they leave the cinema. It’s
life stories for his own, and by the slow drip-feeding of a slap in the face for viewers who have invested in
dark revelations from his past. this story, and it’s a betrayal of these actors, whose
IN RETROSPECT. Franco’s willingness to push this sense painfully authentic work deserves to be the main
That ending leaves a of ambiguity is admirable and Roth’s quietly topic of discussion rather than a young director’s glib
nasty aftertaste. mesmerising performance, which is developed shock tactics. PHIL CONCANNON

072 REVIEWS
IN CONVERSATION... Interview by DAVID JENKINS I l l us t rat io n by RIIKKA SORMUNEN

Gina Carano
own, single superhero. You can ask someone that me and Ryan Reynolds have been working
what their favourite sport is and you can find on for the last five years.’ And that was two years
A one-time out a lot about them. I think the same goes for ago. And that was the Deadpool teaser. This is a
superheros. I’ve found that it’s the cooler people major passion project for Tim. Not only that, it’s
MMA champ that I am more drawn to. I like the people who his first directing project. He’s such a natural.
like Deadpool and Wolverine. It’s become one He didn’t try to be something that he wasn’t. If he
completes her of those things I ask people now. If someone didn’t know something, he had the right people
says Batman, if someone says Superman, well… around him to advise him. But when he got the
transition to the If the answer is Deadpool or Wolverine, they’ve momentum, he was unstoppable. And he’s just
big screen with clearly thought about it. I like the idea that
they’ve done something in their lives to make
the most abrasive, hilarious, sweet-hearted
person you’ve ever met. The most abrasive
Deadpool. them come to that conclusion. things come out of his mouth. If something’s not
working, he’ll just crack up and shout, ‘That was
SINCE YOU’VE MOVED INTO ACTING, DO YOU WATCH awful!’ But not in an aggressive way – he’s trying
THINGS WITH THE THOUGHT OF ONE DAY BEING IN to make it an open, fun environment.
ina Carano found fame as one of the Absolutely. It’s not that being in one of

G
THEM?
leading lights of the Mixed Martial these types of movies hadn’t crossed my mind, WHAT WERE THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN
Arts arena before meeting with Steven but I think I’m a little bit if a niggler. If you have MAKING A MOVIE LIKE HAYWIRE AND A GIANT
Soderbergh and accepting a leading role in his straight hair you want to have curly hair, and PRODUCTION LIKE DEADPOOL? They were
superb 2011 spy feature, Haywire. She is now vice versa. I have this really nice skill of making 100 per cent diferent. Like night and day. I
part of the latest Marvel behemoth, Deadpool, action look really real. When I throw a punch, I really did get so genuinely spoiled by Steven
playing the role of Angel Dust, who is a shady feel like people believe it. Of course, what I want Soderbergh. And also that was my first movie.
henchwoman prone to bouts of adrenalin- to do is a romantic comedy. Or a drama. That’s It’s that first experience that you can never really
fuelled violence. what I want. All the stuf I watch I think, ‘Oh replicate. It holds a special place in my heart. I
it would be awesome to tell this kind of story.’ was so vulnerable, and the people involved knew
LWLIES: DID YOU HAVE ANY GREAT LOVE FOR But I’m over here in action land where every that. And people like Channing Tatum, Ewan
MARVEL MOVIES BEFORE YOU CAME ABOARD actress in Hollywood seems like they want to be. McGregor and Michael Fassbender gathered
DEADPOOL? Carano: I must say, I wasn’t much around to help me. On top of that, it was just a
of a Marvel or DC movie watcher. I dunno… I saw DID YOU HAVE ANY CONTACT WITH THE GUYS beautiful experience. The way Steven shot those
Iron Man and I saw The Avengers. But I never WHO WROTE THE ORIGINAL STORIES? I didn’t. fight sequences, and the fact that these actors
watched them thinking I’d eventually be in one. I’ve known comic writer Rob Liefeld for a few were also up for making it feel real too… So it
I’ve since watched them all and have developed years as we wanted to make a movie of his was a really beautiful entry into this business.
a newfound appreciation of the whole Marvel ‘Avengelyne’ books. I actually took Avengelyne Coming to Deadpool, I’ve gained a little bit more
universe. I just love that there are these fictional to director Tim Miller, and he said, ‘Yeah, yeah, knowledge regarding what Hollywood is really all
characters that people are so passionate about. angels and demons, that’s cool but I’m kind of an about. The main similarities were that that the
You go to ComicCon, and you actually find atheist.’ He then took us into his little personal people involved in making Deadpool were also
people who dedicate their lives towards their theatre, and said, ‘Let me show you a little thing awesome. Just lots and lots of awesome people

INTERVIEW 073
 The Survivalist Innocence of Memories
Directed by STEPHEN FINGLETON Directed by GRANT GEE
Starring MARTIN MCCANN, MIA GOTH, Released 29 JANUARY
OLWEN FOUERE
Released 12 FEBRUARY

f we keep burning fossil fuels at the rate we’re going, the world will here’s a swooning romantic melodrama reminiscent of ’40s
I be transformed into a barren wasteland in which the survivors
will battle for supremacy with the tools that remain. No, not the first
T Hollywood nestled at the core of this atmospheric portrait of
contemporary Istanbul from director Grant Gee. Here, he collaborates
instalment of a new YA sci-fi franchise, but a taciturn art film by director with Turkey’s Nobel-prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk, adopting
Stephen Fingleton. Paranoia reigns in this bloodthirsty dystopia where his 2008 novel ‘The Museum of Innocence’ as a through-line for a
human contact is usually accompanied with extreme violence. film weaving together music, photography, TV chat show appearances
A lone survivor with swept-back hair played by Martin McCann and haunting Steadicam shots of the city at night. The museum
tends to his crop, fertilising the soil with a rotting human corpse. itself is an actual place that can be found on a more rarified version
Seldom without his rifle, this young man waits for people to pay him a of the local touist trail, and this grand undertaking acts as a real-
visit so he can dispatch them before they sully his rural idyll. One day an world accompaniment to the book’s sweeping love narrative. The
old woman (Olwen Fouere) and her daughter (Mia Goth), tip-toe down story offers a Turkish riff on ‘The Great Gatsby’, with the debonair
his garden path in search of bed and board. But who are they? Are they Kemal falling desperately for Füsun, his coquettish cousin from lesser
alone, or an advance party for a gang of hooded marauders? He’s right to stock. Following her demise in a car accident, he collects every object
think that they’re here to grab his patch, and treats them with caution. associated with her in any vague or tangential way, and brings them
With a script that you could probably fit on to a single cocktail togetherto build a shrine to a relationship that never was, and a person
napkin, Fingleton’s language is action not words. Why speak when a he never got to know with an intimacy.
fierce glare can do the talking? The claustrophobia of this depopulated Whereas this tragic tale is an attempt to show the complexity of
world is heightened by filming in close-ups, seldom allowing the viewer memory and the physical imprint human beings leave on the world,
to see beyond the narrow perspective of the hero. As a calling card Gee too tries to explore how the city itself is a repository of memories.
movie, it’s mightily impressive; dramatically lean, gripping where it Pamuk talks about how certain buildings can be associated with
needs to be, and a story told with satisfying economy. As robust as pleasant views, and when a new building is erected, obscuring that view,
it is, the film sorely lacks for originality, as this set-up is essentially the old buildings remain as monuments to that lost beauty. There are
co-opted from every zombie movie ever made. And while McCann is times where the film resembles a museum-style multimedia exhibit,
clearly consumed entirely by his character, he’s not a tremendously especially the shots of photographs projected over pages of text. But it’s
exciting companion to spend time with. But The Survivalist is a gleaming quite miraculous how the film draws you in to its subtle intrigue, and
golden ticket to Tinseltown, and it’ll be fascinating to see whether develops in surprising ways. If you haven’t read Pamuk’s novel, you’ll
Fingleton takes up the ofer or choses to plough his own Bible-black want to. If you have, this – like the museum – will add a vital extra layer
arthouse furrow. DAVID JENKINS to the experience. DAVID JENKINS

ANTICIPATION. ANTICIPATION.
Thumbs have been up on the festival circuit. Grant Gee’s Patience (After Sebald) was great.

ENJOYMENT. Impressive more than ENJOYMENT.

enjoyable. Extremely well put together. An eloquently made and thoughtful film.

IN RETROSPECT. Not quite the full article, but IN RETROSPECT. With this essay/documentary
enough to suggest its director has a bright future. hybrid form, Gee has struck gold.

074 REVIEWS
 Goodnight Mommy Partisan
Directed by SEVERIN FIALA, VERONIKA FRANZ Directed by ARIEL KLEIMAN
Starring SUSANNE WUEST, LUKAS SCHWARZ, Starring VINCENT CASSEL, JEREMY CHABRIEL,
ELIAS SCHWARZ FLORENCE MEZZARA
Released 12 FEBRUARY Released 8 JANUARY

ry as we might, we’ll never truly know who our parents are. t’s been far too long since Vincent Cassel has been in a great movie.
T This amazing, dismaying film by Severin Fiala and Veronika
Franz plays a child’s need for a nurturing parent against a mother’s
I Furthermore, it’s been far too long since Vincent Cassel has been
great in a bad movie. In Ariel Kleiman’s underwhelming Partisan, he’s
ability relate to, and empathise with, her ofspring. But what if these good, but not great as the charismatic Gregori, the Jim Jones-like leader
two impulses don’t quite meet in the middle? Identical twins Lukas of a curious sect in which he is the only adult male. To his cohorts he is
and Elias (played by Lukas and Elias Schwarz) have the run of the a benign dictator, personally nurturing children from birth, schooling
countryside, prancing, swimming, playing, exploring – doing all the them, feeding them and also turning them into gun-toting soldiers.
things that inquisitive pre-teen boys do. Then their mother returns Kleiman and co-writer Sarah Cyngler leave blanks to be filled in by the
home (a far-flung modernist stack which looks barely lived-in) with imagination, such as the political and economic situation outside of this
bandages covering her face. The fun and freedom are over, and a life of stone compound, whether Gregori is father to these children, and why
sedate contemplation begins as mother’s wounds heal. When the boys the kids are regularly sent out on dirtbikes to assassinate apparently
try to make their own entertainment, mother becomes unreasonably random local men.
abusive towards them. She slaps them, insults them and punishes them, The story is told from the perspective of Jeremy Chabriel’s
sometimes even filming it on her smart phone. Then the boys start to Alexander, a meek but devoted mini-mercenary who is starting to
believe that this woman, who doesn’t seem to have any knowledge of spot some of the philosophical inconsistencies in his leader’s cheerily
their relationship prior to this “accident”, might not be who she says she fascistic worldview. Despite seldom losing his temper or being drawn
is. Stylistically and thematically, this Austrian chiller is very much of a to violence, Gregori’s fastidious rule stops the deviants in their stride
piece with the work of countrymen Michael Haneke, Jessica Hausner with a simple punishment and reward system. It’s commendable the
and Ulrich Seidl (the latter has a story and production credit here). way that Kleiman quickly immerses the viewer into this world with just
Cold, clinical and shot with steely geometric precision, Fiala and a few simple, subtle strokes, but it’s almost as if he doesn’t know where
Franz’ film is also like the ultimate homage to Stanley Kubrick’s The to go from there. Chabriel makes for a bland, inexpressive lead – there’s
Shining, right down to the way the directors communicate an eerie sense just nothing behind those piercing light blue eyes to make us yearn for
of geography, placing the viewer inside this nightmare house along with him to succeed. Alexander’s slow realisation that he’s locked inside
the frenzied characters. And while the central mystery keeps the viewer a nightmare is triggered by a series of elaborately phoney situations,
tightly locked into the drama, you’re never entirely convinced that this while Gregori tries to keep his flock in line with tedious moral lessons
is a clear-cut case of evil mother versus angelic kids. It’s a belting horror which sorely lack credibility. There’s little interest in fleshing out any
film to kick of 2016, and it’s one whose imaginative scenes of extreme of the side players, their cynical, drone-like obedience only helping to
violence are absolutely not for the squeamish. DAVID JENKINS emphasise Alexander as our dullard hero. DAVID JENKINS

ANTICIPATION. ANTICIPATION.
Not a film that’s been on many people’s lips. Could this be the big return of Vincent Cassel?

ENJOYMENT. ENJOYMENT.
Builds and builds and builds in its intensity. Nah.

IN RETROSPECT. So many small details dropped IN RETROSPECT. There’s some decent technical
in that a second viewing is vital. stuff here, but the story’s a big ol’ bust.

REVIEWS 075
 A Bigger Splash
Directed by n an early scene of Luca Guadagnino’s A Bigger The late-period Rolling Stones are another
LUCA GUADAGNINO
Starring
TILDA SWINTON
I Splash, his follow-up to 2009’s I Am Love, dinner
companions admonish Harry (Ralph Fiennes)
over his choice of urinal – “Harry, that’s a grave!”.
fixation throughout. In a key scene, Harry breaks
into an impromptu dance to ‘Emotional Rescue’,
the record which marked the end of the band's
RALPH FIENNES “Yeah, well,” he quips, “Europe’s a grave!” Riing golden era. Guadagnino makes A Bigger Splash
MATTHIAS SCHOENAERTS on Jacques Deray’s 1969 film La Piscine, A Bigger feel like ‘Emotional Rescue’, with its high gloss and
Released Splash pursues this death-of-Europe narrative with louche millionaire swagger, before shifting into
12 FEBRUARY a level of bawdy panache that belies the seriousness the apocalyptic doom boogie of ‘Gimme Shelter’
lurking beneath its polished veneer. Casting aside (“A storm is threatening / my very life today”). The
Deray’s more brooding eroticism, the picture puts key to this transition is Penelope. With the camera
forward a friskier, more wanton vision of sexuality. lingering over her midrif, she is introduced as a
Imagine the self-obsessed bourgeois navel-gazing slinky, seductive presence, but it soon becomes clear
of Lawrence Kasdan’s The Big Chill distorted into that she, with her slyly deployed barbed comments,
a sun-kissed bacchanal. It’s a terrific picture; cool, is the savant of the group (eagle-eyed viewers will
ANTICIPATION. lascivious and hot as hell. note her revealing choice of reading material); the
I Am Love was a beautifully Tilda Swinton plays Marianne, a rock singer disrupter ushering in the storm.
decadent outlier on the rendered temporarily mute. She is holidaying in the The third act plot turn which blights La
art-house circuit in 2009. Italian countryside with her partner Paul (Matthias Piscine is beautifully handled in A Bigger Splash,
Schoenaerts), a quiet, burly photographer, still with the picture’s operatic structure, along with
reeling from a recent suicide attempt. Their sojourn Guadagnino’s irrepressible flair for high melodrama,
is interrupted by the unscheduled arrival of brash, amplifying the sensory impact. In the final act, the
flamboyant Harry, a former flame of Marianne, along tensions and resentments which were hitherto
ENJOYMENT. with his recently reacquainted teenage daughter, concealed by carnality bubble over. For much of
“A trumpets-of- Penelope (Dakota Johnson). A Byronic cad, Harry the film, we’re swept up in its intoxicating pre-
Jericho, white hot fuck.” – Fiennes at his peak – is a gabby, preening rake coital rush. But as darkness descends in the closing
who is clearly there to win back Marianne. In fact, moments, finer points come into greater focus,
the 19th century poet proves to be a surprisingly culminating in a morally ambivalent epitaph for
pervasive influence; not only does the setting recall the modern Romantics; the bohemian rock stars
Villa Diodati, the mansion on Lake Geneva where and their libertine pretenders. Which brings us full
IN RETROSPECT. Byron, fleeing from debt and rumour, holed up in circle to Lord Byron and the end of 19th century
A modern cinematic opera – the 1816, but, just as Byron was the last of the Romantics, Romanticism, dying in exile with its principal
sun-kissed bacchanal followed by Harry himself feels like the last of their modern day progenitors in Italy and Greece. Perhaps Harry is
the tempestuous comedown. iteration – a libertine from the age of the rock star. right – Europe is a grave. CRAIG WILLIAMS

076 REVIEWS
IN CONVERSATION... Interview by DAVID JENKINS I l l us t rat io n by RIIKKA SORMUNEN

Luca Guadagnino
with someone. He’s like Ryan O’Neal. There’s the surface? And that’s Hockney. For me that
something woody about him. In fact, Ryan O’Neal painting is one of the greatest masterpieces of
The Italian and Stanley Kubrick made Barry Lyndon together, the 20th century, because it has so much truth
and Kubrick used O’Neal the right way, for his to it and it demands the viewer to challenge
director of A Bigger woodiness. Delon, being so iconic, overcomes him or herself with so many questions: who is
the films he’s in. I don’t know. It’s probably a pure that diving into the water? What happened
Splash talks painting, matter of taste. Of course he was fantastic in before? What’s going to happen after? What is
Nouvelle Vague, the film by Jean-Luc Godard. the nature of the fall into the water? Who is in
Tilda Swinton the house? It’s beautiful. It’s a very hypnotic,
and channelling SPEAKING OF GODARD, A BIGGER SPLASH RECALLS
HIS FILM LE MÉPRIS QUITE A BIT.Going back to the
Hitchcockian painting.

Harpo Marx. whys and what hooked me into making this film,
I wondered: how do you represent desire and
DID IT STRIKE YOU THE FIRST TIME YOU SAW IT?
struck me, and it allowed me to understand what
It

a charade if you put yourself into the shoes of art is. I knew it was regarded as a great painting
the people who were contemporary to Jacques by an important man. And in its apparent
LWLIES: HIS MOVIE IS BASED ON MATERIAL Deray, but they were involved in a revolution? simplicity, it prompted me to ask myself why
THAT WAS MADE INTO A FILM CALLED LA How would Godard have approached this movie? A Bigger Splash is considered a masterpiece.
PISCINE IN 1969 BY JACQUES DERAY. WHAT I didn’t want to mock the style and form of those That led me to understand that an image is
IS YOUR RELATIONSHIP TO THAT FILM? people. But I wanted to know what the meaning layered. And there’s a lot there to carry.
Guadagnino: Such a negative opinion! That is of these images would’ve been to those people.
part of it I have foggy memories of seeing it on I very much thought of another Godard movie – TILDA SWINTON’S CHARACTER IN THE FILM
TV. It was summer. I was about 15. I’ve never Sympathy for the Devil. I thought a lot about one DOESN’T SPEAK, WHICH MAKES THIS EVEN
been particularly drawn in by Alain Delon. of the mentors of the nouvelle vague, Roberto MORE OF A VISUAL WORK. This was Tilda’s idea.
I was a very arrogant cinephile at that age. Rossellini and in particular his film Voyage to She said that she thought Harry (Ralph Fiennes)
I am still a cinephile, I hope now not an arrogant Italy, where you have a couple in crisis who can’t was this unleashed id force who spreads himself
one. From the arrogant cinephile standpoint, live together and they can’t live apart. I wanted to everywhere with words. I think that if Mariane
La Piscine was a bit of a boring trifle. I was make a Voyage To Italy for today. I’m not sure I couldn’t talk, then the inarticulacy could be a great
aware that when Jacques Deray was making reached that peak, but it’s a good guide. juxtaposition to his articulacy.
that film, other directors were making films
that were groundbreaking – they were political YOU’VE TALKED ABOUT THE DAVID HOCKNEY HER PERFORMANCE FEELS ROOTED IN SILENT
and committed to reality. All the new waves in PAINTING ‘A BIGGER SPLASH’ AND HOW IT CINEMA. When I saw her acting during the first
France, Germany, Italy, Brazil and America. WAS AN INSPIRATION. Everything that has to day of the shoot, and it was the scene in the
do with this generation of iconoclasts – from kitchen where she’s preparing a fish, I look at her
WAIT – WHY ARE YOU NOT DRAWN TO ALAIN art to film – was explored. So you have Godard through the camera and I thought she reminded
DELON? He was fantastic in the Visconti films, in and Rossellini. And of course, it’s a movie me of somebody. And suddenly it came to me:
particular Rocco and his Brothers. He just didn’t about a pool, so why not go back to the greatest Harpo Marx. She has the curly hair. and she was
click with me visually. I’m a voyeur, I need to click visual artist who produced that reflection on doing Harpo Marx

INTERVIEW 077
 In the Heart of the Sea
Directed by riginally scheduled for a March 2015 adherence to the “facts” of the matter.
RON HOWARD
Starring
CHRIS HEMSWORTH
O release before a last-minute promotion
into prime awards territory to fill
Warner Brothers’ festive season Hobbit-hole, it’s
Functional, practical, but winning few points for
style, Ron Howard has always been the cinematic
equivalent of a pair of catalogue-ordered khakis;
CILLIAN MURPHY about time Ron Howard finally got his Dick out. this Boxing Day release being a generous seasonal
BRENDAN GLEESON A year’s worth of advertising have insisted this gift for those mourning the lack of a Top Gear
Released isn’t Herman Melville’s ‘Moby Dick’, but rather Christmas Special. Rolling up his sleeves for some
26 DECEMBER an adaptation of Nathaniel Philbrick’s historical nautical hijinks – Whale! Shipwreck! Cannibalism!
bestseller; a telling of the true [*cough*] events – Howard shows off the fruits of a study period
that befell The Essex whaleship in 1820, the very clearly spent with the Harvard Ethnography Lab’s
same that would serve as inspiration for The excellent, 2012 sea life documentary, Leviathan.
Greatest Novel In The English Language. That he’s also been taking aesthetic advice from
Truth may be stranger than fiction (especially fellow member of the shirt-tucked-into-jeans club,
when you throw a vengeful, super-sentient whale into Tom Hooper, sadly redresses the balance.
the equation), but it can also be a lot less interesting, Luckily cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle
especially when you throw Ron Howard into the is on hand to stall the sinking ship, fittingly at his
equation. Most bizarre is that it’s a notion with which best when – quite literally – shooting a sinking
In the Heart of the Sea would appear to agree. Using ship. Yet there’s only so much Dod-Mantling one
Melville (Ben Whishaw) as part of a framing device can use to distract from an over-dependence on
ANTICIPATION. – he calls on a survivor played Brendan Gleeson to such poor SFX work, all the more telling when the
‘Moby Dick’ is incredible! recall the tale as research for his next book – the practical effects work a charm. The supporting
film goes out of its way to tell us that ‘Moby Dick’ is cast’s work aboard the reconstructed Essex hums
probably a better story than the one that will be told with a more convincing sense of business than
here. “You may not like what I have to say, but every the fatally miscast Chris Hemsworth, a cardboard
word will be true,” Gleeson says, as if veracity should archetype left to get his am-dram Crimson Tide
ENJOYMENT. trump enjoyment. “That’s it, you have your story!” he on with landlubbing superior, Benjamin Walker.
This isn’t based on ‘Moby Dick’. tells Melville later, “I think I’ll go with my version,” It doesn’t help that Howard struggles to find visual
Melville as much as replies. coherence in his action beats, and the less said
So what could have been a Werner Herzog- about the loss of bottle (cut to melting candle)
quoting battle of futility against the forces of when it comes to the cannibalism, the better.
nature, couched in myth but disguised in tentpole What remains is an opportunity for an intense,
IN RETROSPECT. blockbuster scale, becomes an episodic series Jaws-like thalassophobic nightmare, squandered.
Oh. of CGI-disasters with little shape beyond its MATT THRIFT

078 REVIEWS
 Jem and the Holograms
Directed by on M Chu’s Jem and the Holograms begins with communicates Jem and the Holograms’ core themes
JON M CHU
Starring
AUBREY PEEPLES
J a series of makeshift musical performances
and yearning video confessionals taken
from actual YouTube accounts. Together they
. Her ongoing monologue tries to debunk the myth
of female hysteria while confronting the doubt
inherent in honest artistic expression. The ghost
STEFANIE SCOTT form a mosaic of virtual expression that connects of her inventor father looms over the proceedings,
JULIETTE LEWIS the film’s ramshackle narrative with our collective namely in the form of an uncompleted robot named
Released identity crisis in the social media age. Blurred lines “Synergy” that eventually leads Jerrica and company
12 FEBRUARY 2016 are important to this neon-hued adaptation of the down a tangential path of self-discovery.
popular 1980s television cartoon, which depicts the If Chu can’t quite decide which genre or story to
rise and fall story of an overnight Internet sensation embrace – this version of Jem clumsily mixes rock
and her three bandmate sisters. opera, sci-fi and melodrama – he’s in brilliant control
Instead of fearing digital technology, the film of certain moments that merge new technology
embraces it wholeheartedly. During an early and classical Hollywood editing. During Jerrica’s
monologue to the camera, lead singer Jerrica initial online negotiation with Erica, Chu crosscuts
ANTICIPATION. (Aubrey Peeples) explains that the Internet is her to a YouTube video of duelling drummers. The
The director of Step Up 3D tackles “closest friend.” Yet her younger sister Kimber escalating battle of beats mirrors the one between
a much beloved ’80s cartoon. (Stefanie Scott) is the one who lives life virtually, the characters, producing a thrilling juxtaposition of
documenting every second of the day on Facebook, online entanglement.
Instagram, and the like. Long ago, the two were Yet Jem and the Holograms has too few of
adopted by their Aunt Baily (Molly Ringwald), who these highs, getting bogged down in meandering,
was already raising two foster daughters of her own, conventional plot points and dumb dialogue. Whereas
ENJOYMENT. Shana (Aurora Perrineau) and Aja (Haley Kiyoko). Chu’s Step Up 3D leaned heavily on the blissful
A highly flawed, occasionally Now teenagers, the sisters have diferent physicality of bodies in motion, his latest only hints
dumb, but fascinating blast of interests and attitudes but are still connected by a at the kinetic visuals in Jerrica’s digital playground.
neon, revisionist girl power, strong familial bond and sense of artistic freedom. For all its flaws (and there are many), the film
and social media wanderlust. This closeness is challenged after Jerrica records doesn’t deserve the vitriol lobbed at it by dismissive
a powerful performance as Jem, her alter ego who critics and angry fans. Chu’s weird, heartfelt vision has
becomes a mysterious pop culture phenomenon after a distinct perspective regarding online wanderlust and
the video goes viral. Hollywood comes calling in the understands the vibrancy of colour (a ferris wheel on
form of a tenacious and nasty pill of a music mogul the Santa Monica pier looks like a spaceship ready to
IN RETROSPECT. named Erica Raymond (Juliette Lewis), who woos lift of ). But most of all it appreciates the tenacious will
A heartfelt Hollywood oddity that the foursome with promises of fortune and fame. to be real in a world where everything is an illusion,
doesn’t deserve its “disaster” label. Jerrica’s self-aware voice-over narration no matter how ill-fated the pursuit. GLENN HEATH JR

080 REVIEWS
 Our Brand Is Crisis
Directed by he misery-sodden entertainment of Candy (Billy Bob Thornton), a balding bastard who
DAVID GORDON GREEN
Starring
SANDRA BULLOCK
T electioneering is a dismal metaphor for
Machiavellian, self-serving corruption in all
walks of life in David Gordon Green’s down-the-line
knows her tactics and is the only one able to respond
to them with any vim or vigour. The film is a series
of skirmishes in which the pair mete out tit-for-tat
BILLY BOB THORNTON political comedy, Our Brand Is Crisis. Even though violence with the hapless candidates (the “puppets”)
ANTHONY MACKIE it’s a film which professes to know all the angles, becoming the actual human targets. Bodine wins the
Released it’s maybe not delivering as radical a statement as trust of her employer Castillo (Joaquim de Almeida)
22 JANUARY its makers believe. The suggestion that corrupt, by reeling of a stream of inspirational quotes by
patriarchal, business-minded politicians cannot be Warren Beatty. It’s an interesting touch considering
cleaved from their ingrained beliefs in the name of the film resembles Beatty’s own Bulworth from 1998,
social democracy and compassion is cynicism 101. itself a liberal cine-brickbat (powered by hip-hop)
But this liberal trump card is laid over and over in aimed at the insidious corporate forces who have
a story whose guiding principle is that the process infiltrated the halls of power. Alas, there is no hip-hop
of ruling a nation is one that is naturally guided by in this film (or local equivalent).
contempt – justice and happiness are a mere myths, Though Bullock is surrounded by a large ensemble,
and the poor will always get the thin end of the wedge. the side players, among them Anthony Mackie, Anne
Sandra Bullock’s “Calamity” Jane Bodine is Dowd, Scoot McNairy and Zoe Kazan, don’t get
so-called because she has made a name for herself much of a look-in. It makes the film about her, and
ANTICIPATION. as a key propagator of dirty politics. She’s a slick fixer her feisty monologues and unpredictable behaviour
David Gordon Green has been on hired with the sole task of winning elections and make her a lovable if ethically tainted heroine.
a low-key roll of late. leaving the moralistic bullshit (and blacklash) for But this is not a film about political corruption, it’s a
someone else to deal with. That people might die at film charting Jane’s realisation that what she is doing
the hands of the tyrants she places into power is mere has far-reaching negative ramifications, and whether
bagatelle. She has her designer shades to deflect the revealing a newfound caring-sharing side would be too
grim realities of what she’s doing. little, too late. While she thinks she’s the puppeteer,
ENJOYMENT. We meet her after a period of personal healing, there are others above her who are pulling those
Plays to the peanut gallery. where she has left the rat race behind to make pottery strings. Set against Green’s recent work, it’s certainly
bowls in the mountains and recover from a course less interesting than his run of whimsical miniatures,
of EST for mild psychosis. There’s an election in La Prince Avalanche, Joe and Manglehorn. There’s
Paz, and the American-endorsed stooge is massively an anonymous, in-the-shadows feel to the way it’s
trailing in the polls. That’s meaningless, though. been shot, and while there’s a certain poetry to that
IN RETROSPECT. She’s brought back into the fold with the irresistible situation, it does mean that a certain profundity and
Too light, too silly. chance to take down one of her key political rivals, Pat artistry has been lost in the transition. DAVID JENKINS

REVIEWS 081
 Trumbo
Directed by ollywood in 1947 was, to paraphrase lacks the bite and snap of his subject’s own work, even
JAY ROACH
Starring
BRYAN CRANSTON
H Dickens, the best of times and the worst of
times. The American movie business was
deep into its golden age, production was bountiful
though it manages a reasonable approximation when
he serves up the vicious verbal exchanges between
some of Hollywood’s most powerful players.
HELEN MIRREN and cinema attendance was hitting record levels Trumbo paints a colourful if somewhat
MICHAEL STUHLBARG before television began to take its piece of the pie. caricatured picture of Tinseltown. Helen Mirren
Released Perhaps a victim of its success, the film industry plays gossip queen Hedda Hopper like a poisonous
5 FEBRUARY stumbled into the sights of the House Un-American panto dame, while John Wayne’s screen heroism is
Activities Committee’s quest to root out communists. turned on its head as he’s revealed as a behind-the-
Hollywood became a vipers’ nest, gripped by scenes bully. The don’t-give-a-shit attitude of Coen-
suspicion and home to an army of backstabbers. esque B-picture producers the King brothers – who
Director Jay Roach (maker of the Austin become Trumbo’s partners-in-crime – are hilariously
Powers trilogy and Meet the Parents) takes on this realised by John Goodman and Stephen Root.
subject with energetic irreverence. Adapted from Elsewhere, Christian Berkel’s portrayal of the bullish
a biography by Bruce Cook, he spins the story of Otto Preminger is similarly rib-tickling and Dean
Dalton Trumbo, the highest paid screenwriter in the O’Gorman makes a very convincing Kirk Douglas.
ANTICIPATION. business before his crashing fall from favour. A fully But, discounting Trumbo himself, Louis CK’s ailing
Finally, a big screen platform paid up member of the Communist Party, he was one writer Arlen Hird and Michael Stuhlbarg’s Edward G
for Bryan Cranston’s abundant of the Hollywood Ten, blacklisted for refusing to co- Robinson are the only other characters given any real
talent. operate with the committee’s witch hunts. Bryan depth, with the latter turning on his friends to save
Cranston plays Trumbo like a dog with a bone as we his flagging career.
meet a man of cheering rebelliousness and apparent Cranston justifies the film’s focus in commanding
irrepressibility. His ordeal will, nevertheless, bring style. His role showcases both an aptitude for comedy
him perilously close to his knees. and seasoned dramatic chops. We see Trumbo
ENJOYMENT. The bright, upbeat telling of this tale has a defiance transform from champagne socialist to courageous
Fast, funny, if a little flimsy. of its own, but whereas the more solemn approach of defender of free speech, and from ignominious
George Clooney’s Good Night, and Good Luck. focused inmate to obstinate workaholic as he claws back
on broadcast journalism’s tangle with McCarthyism his success, penning the screenplays for Roman
in the ’50s and was able to draw out the sadness of Holiday and Spartacus as his domestic idyll falters.
such persecutions, Roach seems more comfortable The actor’s sublime, multi-faceted performance is
IN RETROSPECT. with spiky comedy than, say, the agony of Trumbo’s the film’s heart and soul, and reason enough to see
With Cranston this good, all else imprisonment. And he rarely gets to grips with the this accessible, undeniably entertaining story behind
fades into the background. scale of the injustice. Plus John McNamara’s script a scandal. EMMA SIMMONDS

082 REVIEWS
IN CONVERSATION... Interview by ADAM WOODWARD I l l us t rat io n by RIIKKA SORMUNEN

Bryan Cranston
still fail. Movies are like soufflés – you can have all DO YOU THINK THERE'S ANY DANGER OF
the right ingredients but for some reason it turns SOMETHING LIKE THE HOLLYWOOD TEN BEING
The Trumbo star tells out terrible. It all comes down to the script, and REPEATED? Yes I think there is, which is why
I think we had a good one in this case. I think this film is a cautionary tale. For
of playing a political example, right now the NSA wants to be able
WHAT WAS THE MOST ILLUMINATING THING to have carte blanche on wire tapping people’s
dissident and having YOU DISCOVERED ABOUT DALTON TRUMBO phones and viewing their emails. Since 9/11 our
Just his world has changed and you have to accept that
a lot of time for WHEN RESEARCHING FOR THE ROLE?
nature. He was a contrarian who wrote letters there is a diferent threat. Conventional wars
Jeremy Corbyn. constantly, to the school board to the power
company... He was that guy. That thorn in the
are no more. It’s drones and it’s cyber warfare.
The message of Trumbo is that civil liberties
side of the establishment. And he was a leader, must not be ignored. If they are thrown aside
too, he helped to create unions and stood up suddenly you could find yourself in a situation
alton Trumbo was one of ten men sent to for the little guy. The American Communist like Nazi Germany. Now, I’m not saying that

D prison by an overreaching government

during the Communist witch hunt that
blighted Hollywood during the 1940 and ’50s.
Party was an ofshoot of a political party of the
working class, but he wasn’t a Communist, he
was a Socialist. He loved being rich, but he had
what happened to the Hollywood Ten is on a
par with what happened then, but there are
comparisons to be made.
Here Bryan Cranston, who plays the Roman compassion for the working class.
Holiday and Spartacus screenwriter in a new TRUMBO SAID THAT THERE WERE ONLY VICTIMS
biopic, ofers his take on that dark episode in IS IT EASIER TO INHABIT A NON-FICTIONAL IN THIS STORY. Well the irony is that the purpose
his industry’s history and explains why civil CHARACTER, ESPECIALLY ONE AS FLAMBOYANT of the House Un-American Activities Committee
liberties are precious. AS THIS? Diferent characters present diferent was to weed out Communist insurgency. They
challenges. The trick with non-fictional characters didn’t do that. The only thing they succeeded in
LWLIES: TRUMBO IS YOUR FIRST POST- is not to do an impersonation. He loved to was destroying lives.
BREAKING BAD LEAD ROLE. DOES IT FEEL LIKE pontificate and gesture, so that gave me a lot to
YOU'RE ENTERING THE NEXT CHAPTER OF YOUR work with. WE'RE NOT SURE HOW CLOSELY YOU FOLLOW UK
CAREER? Cranston: I find it reduces anxiety if POLITICS... Somewhat. I like that Corbyn guy.
you only focus on what you can control. I try not HE HAD SOME CURIOUS WORKING HABITS AS
to focus on the bigger picture too much. WELL, LIKE WORKING ON HIS TYPEWRITER FROM ... IT FEELS LIKE WE'RE BECOMING INCREASINGLY
HIS BATHTUB. DO YOU HAVE ANY SIMILARLY INTOLERANT OF OTHER PEOPLE'S POLITICAL
WERE YOU AT ALL MINDFUL OF OTHER FILMS PECULIAR WORKING HABITS? When I write or VIEWS. That’s exactly what’s been happening in
ABOUT THE HOLLYWOOD BLACKLIST, FOR read I like to listen to non-lyrical music, usually America. It’s almost as if it’s a sporting match, like
EXAMPLE GUILTY BY SUSPICION AND THE classical or jazz. But the typewriter thing was if the opposition has a good idea and implements
MAJESTIC? Not really, I certainly wasn’t wary actually quite pragmatic because he had a bad that idea, that means we lost. It’s a warped sense
because of those films. I'm a firm believer that a back from constantly being hunched over at his of politics. We can be on opposite sides of the
film has a chance to succeed only if that story is typewriter, and his doctor told him he needed to political class and do things that benefit each side.
really well done. Then we've got a chance. But it can soak his back. Hey presto, bathtub desk. We’ve lost sight of that, I think

INTERVIEW 083
 A War
Directed by s the title perhaps suggests, at some basic Somali warlords.
TOBIAS LINDHOLM
Starring
PILOU ASBAECK
A level all wars are the same. Men kill each
other, their wives suffer at home, children
cry. While this Afghan conflict drama unfolds,
Still, just when you think you’ve got a handle
on where the movie’s going, there’s a knock on
the door and everything changes. Unfair to say
TUVA NOVOTNY giving us a Danish POV on the perils of the frontline anything more than that, but the revised scenario
SOREN MALLING and the challenges of the Copenhagen home front, in which Asbaeck now finds himself causes him –
Released that sense of generic sameyness however, does and indeed the rest of us – to work back through
8 JANUARY rather kick in. And not to the film’s advantage all the decisions he’d made in the movie’s opening
either. salvos, particularly his dealing with an Afghan
The knuckle biting tension which writer- family who’d come to him for help after the Taliban
director Tobias Lindholm and his decency-exuding had spotted them in conversation with the Danish
leading man Pilou Asbaeck carefully built up contingent. Suddenly, the movie shifts up a couple
together in their previous Somali pirate thriller of gears, becoming more complex and involving and
ANTICIPATION. A Hijacking whipped up expectations that they’d taking us to places we never expected to go. There’s
The people who brought you deliver something pretty special here, yet it feels now a key role for the steely Malling, as Asbaeck’s
A Hijacking set the controls like a movie we’ve seen before. TV news coverage, canny guide through the moral minefield now
for the Afghan front line. vérité docs like Restrepo and even the potent surrounding him, and the full extent of Lindholm’s
British indie flick Kajaki have all served to render narrative agenda at last comes to light. As a
the lives of Western troops treading warily in filmmaker he’s terrific at rendering the fractious
fear of the Taliban fairly familiar on-screen textures of demanding personal experience, yet
territory. Lindholm’s persistent, observational he’s ultimately interested in the wider issues – here
ENJOYMENT. camera and his instinct for visual authenticity do laid out like concentric rings of responsibility, from
Surprisingly underwhelming as it keep it all watchably real, but as incoming fire, the individual, to the family unit, thence to the state
gets underway, but certainly clicks IED carnage and tricky negotiations with sceptical itself. What comes across is an apparent restlessness
into place in the second half. locals put compassionate Asbaeck’s command in Denmark about the standards of conduct
skills to the test, there’s not much here to rock us expected of their own personnel while the Taliban
on our heels. Meanwhile, back home with three conduct warfare on their own ruthless terms.
misbehaving kids, it’s understandable his other As the haunting final image leaves us to ponder,
half Tuva Novotny is looking pretty frayed, but it’s one thing to honour the courage of our military
IN RETROSPECT. her strivings are of a different order of intensity in no-win situations, but shouldn’t we also be
The movie’s telling overall design from the challenges faced by shipping company questioning the whys and wherefore of the political
impresses the more time you have exec Soren Malling in A Hijacking, making life- decisions which put them there in the first place?
to think about it. and-death decisions on the phone to trigger-happy TREVOR JOHNSTON

084 REVIEWS
 Freeheld
Directed by In February 2014 actor Ellen Page gave a remains. The answer is very few. Screenwriter Ron
PETER SOLLETT
Starring
JULIANNE MOORE
I rousing, inspirational and moving coming out
speech at the inaugural Thrive conference.
She spoke of the “pervasive stereotypes about
Nyswaner delivers a stale, passionless script that
doesn’t dig deep enough into Hester and Andree’s
relationship; they meet at a volleyball game where
ELLEN PAGE masculinity and femininity that define how we are they eye one another up over the net, go on a
STEVE CARELL supposed to act, dress and speak” and how they, date where Hester whips out her pistol on a gang
Released “serve no one”. She also talked about the courage of lesbian-hating thugs and then they head for a
19 FEBRUARY it takes to stand up to these norms. So the appeal spot of fishing on the beach. A year later they’re
of this project based on a true story which also living together.
takes inspiration from an Academy Award winning The lifeless direction and frankly embarrassing
documentary by Cynthia Wade in which she gets to action sequences which add nothing to the story
play a gay woman fighting for the right to her dying other than repetitively attempting to remind the
partner’s pension is clear. Unfortunately, despite audience that Hester is as capable as any of the male
the refreshing representation of women, the Peter officers on the force drag badly. Nyswaner neglects
Sollett’s Freeheld fails to capture many convincing to forge an engaging story and ends up relaying
ANTICIPATION. or stirring moments and plays out like an average the facts in a mechanical manner. The romantic
Julianne Moore and Ellen Page in TV movie. Passable at best and condescending dynamic between Page and Moore is flimsy, with
a civil rights drama? Count us in. at worst, it’s a 50-shades-of-beige retelling of a Moore sharing more chemistry with Michael
galvanising moment in cultural history. Shannon who plays her work partner Dane Wells.
When Detective Laurel Hester (Julianne Then in marches Steve Carrell, draining away any
Moore) is informed she has stage four lung cancer small amount of poignance as activist and founder
she prepares for the worst to ensure her partner of Garden State Equality, Steven Goldstein.
ENJOYMENT. Stacie Andree (Page) is taken care of financially His performance smacks of falseness.
Another worthy issues movie when she passes away. But things don’t prove to be Once Hester’s cancer treatment starts and
just in time for Oscar season. that simple due to the straight, all-male New Jersey the case against the freeholders begins, things
Board of Chosen Freeholders in Ocean County, take a turn for the moving. The reality of Hester’s
New Jersey, who refuse to break with tradition and chemotherapy is tough to endure, with Moore
grant Laurel her dying wish. It’s a case that made turning in a restrained but affecting turn. But by
headlines with the board eventually setting a new this point, with hardly any investment in the thinly
IN RETROSPECT. precedent for gay-rights marriage. drawn lesbian characters, Nyswaner leaves it up to
Why does Michael Shannon With a documentary already explaining the Shannon’s everyman to rally the troops and whip
get the best written part in a facts behind the case, the question of what fresh up the film’s few inspirational if somewhat cheesy
lesbian drama? new ideas this dramatisation bring to the table moments. KATHERINE MCLAUGHLIN

REVIEWS 085
 Hana-Bi A New Leaf

Directed by 1 9 97 Directed by 1971

TAKESHI KITANO ELAINE MAY

Starring Released 11 JAN Starring Out Now

TAKESHI KITANO WALTER MATTHAU
KAYOKO KISHIMOTO ELAINE MAY
REN ÔSUGI Blu-ray JACK WESTON Blu-ray

T here was a point where Japanese filmmaker Takeshi Kitano seemed

like he was on the verge of gaining access into the highest echelons of
world auteur cinema, a name to be uttered alongside the modern greats.
I t’s nice that there’s no consensus as to which is the best Elaine May
movie. Having only been able to direct four feature films to date
(though she has been able to spread herself further and wider as a
Seeing his latest ofering at the 2015 London Film Festival – the pitiful, writer), there is admittedly not the biggest selection to chose from.
self-mocking OAP gangster comedy, Ryuzo and his Seven Henchmen – But there is enough material to confirm that she is a comedy director
only confirmed that the promise of future greatness has long dissipated. without equal, and that rare example of a person who makes funny films
This new film arrives deep into the director’s latter-day wilderness years, concerning the foibles of both sexes. Her debut feature is a modern
which began with wacky (but at least interesting) attempts to deconstruct screwball on a par with the classics, the tale of a despicable trust-fund
his own image, and then strayed on to more openly commercial terrain. jagof whose psychotic lust for money leaves him severely wanting in
The highlight of his creative salad days arrived with 1997’s Hana-Bi, the human compassion department. Walter Matthau is exemplary as the
translated in the US as “Fireworks”, and deserved winner of the Venice cantankerous playboy Henry Graham, in search of a wealthy dowager
Film Festival Golden Lion that year. This extraordinary film sees Kitano to fund his pampered lifestyle and whom he can murder when the time
himself – still physically on the mend following a serious motorcycle is right. Enter May herself as Henrietta Lowell, a botany professor who
accident which damaged the nerves in his face – playing a Keatonesque may be the most believably gawky character in the history of cinema. She
cop who, having witnessed the death of his partner, decides to re-route his is the essence of sincerity, and is blind to Henry’s callous schemes. Even
time into helping those close to him, including his cancer-stricken wife though he could crumple her in his claw, Henry tries to endear himself
with whom he engages in a near-silent relationship. Mixing the implacable to her, even agreeing to drink her favourite cocktail, Mogen-David extra-
tough guy bravado of Dirty Harry-era Clint Eastwood with melodrama heavy Malaga wine with soda water and lime juice. The title A New Leaf
and references to Akira Kurosawa’s “I’ve-wasted-my-life” classic, Ikiru, is explained as an oblique expression of love in the film’s beautiful final
Hana-Bi’s wistful acceptance of life’s unavoidable shittiness helps it scene, yet prior to that it’s a work loaded with insight into relationships,
remain one of the pinnacles of nineties cinema. Every shot is methodically human compatibility and the scourge of the idle rich. Like Henry, the
composed and timed, and the bluntly decisive editing is near Kubrickian in writing is of an altogether higher stock. This new Masters of Cinema
its cut-glass precision. Also of note is the fulsome, melodic score by Hayao Blu-ray arrives with a new video essay by the critic David Cairns and
Miyazaki’s regular composer, Joe Hisaishi, which makes for a surprisingly a booklet of new and vintage writing on the film. Here’s hoping May’s
perfect aural companion to the scenes of hushed contemplation whuch are The Heartbreak Kid, Mickey and Nicky and Ishtar aren’t too far behind.
peppered with moments of sudden and brutal violence. DAVID JENKINS DAVID JENKINS

086 REVIEWS
 The Friends of
Underground
Eddie Coyle

Directed by 1973 Directed by 1995

PETER YATES EMIR KUSTURICA

Starring Released 25 JAN Starring Released 22 FEB

ROBERT MITCHUM PREDRAG MANOJLOVIC
PETER BOYLE LAZAR RISTOVSKI
RICHARD JORDAN Blu-ray and DVD MIRJANA JOKOVIC Blu-ray

magine being comfortable with your status as a working class stif, aving gone dark since his awful documentary portrait of footballer
I having zero aspiration to rise up the economic ladder and achieve
some kind of greatness. In the world of organised crime, such thoughts
H Maradona in 2008, it’s probably a good time to check back in with
Serbian maverick Emir Kusturica, especially as he has a new film in the
are pertinent, as it goes without saying that the higher and quicker you oing. A one-time darling of the Cannes Film Festival and one of a precious
rise up the ladder, the harder and faster you fall from it. Peter Yates’ few to have scooped the main prize there on two separate occasions,
elegiac crime film, The Friends of Eddie Coyle, suggests that it’s actually Kusturica’s hyper-shrill party movies have fallen out of favour somewhat.
those who remain at the bottom who sufer the most. Actor Robert Yet mere minutes into his 1995 masterpiece, Underground, and you’re
Mitchum channels a lifetime of playing bruised loners, crestfallen reminded that the modern cinema landscape is far less fun without him,
tough guys and charismatic cads into the character of lovable Irish particularly as no-one is really making this type of madcap epic any more.
lug, Eddie ‘Fingers’ Coyle, a low level Boston gun-runner who’s been Belgrade 1941, and we’re dropped into a firestorm of male lust as pals
surviving on charm and good will alone. From the film’s opening scene Blacky (Lazar Ristovski) and Marko (Predrag Manojlovic) zoom through
where Coyle runs verbal rings around an upstart gun seller to get a town on horseback, trailed by a tavern brass band. Waking up the next day
good price for some knock-of merchandise, we can see that he’s a amid the ruins of their pleasure-seeking, a Nazi bombing raid turns much
man who knows all the angles, but he’s also a man out of time. He’s of the city to rubble which, little do they know, kick starts the 50-year
like a slick-talking classic movie crim displaced in the savage modern disintegration of Yugoslavia. A community is formed in a cellar as the world
jungle. Despite an old school savvy, it’s clear from early on in the above changes beyond recognition, with the violently cheerful Blacky
film that his small fry type is not long of this Earth. In between his and Marko forced to question their friendship as political alliances draw
sideline in huckstering, he frequents a dive bar and canoodles with them apart. Though fast and furious in the way it barrages the viewer with
his loving wife, but is forced to take matters into his own hands when information, the film keeps half-an-eye on the bawdy wisecrack and never
a potential stretch in prison lands on his lap. His only way out is trying succumbs to saccharine preaching about what remains an extremely sad
to ingratiate himself with a local cop looking to hook some big fish, but geopolitical situation. Kusturica’s knockabout style will not be to all tastes
Eddie knows that, in prison or outside, his time is up. It’s a mournful even though he’s very open about what this film is from the of. And yet
death song about the impossibility of salvation and absolution, made the real coup here is in the film’s final chapter, where the gales of music
all the more brilliant by Mitchum’s superlative central turn, like a and laughter finally stop, and a heartbreaking serenity takes over.
grizzly bear slowly succumbing to the pain of an arrow lodged in The director then gives us one of the most breathtaking final shots in all
its abdomen. DAVID JENKINS cinema. DAVID JENKINS

REVIEWS 087
 The American Friend The Brain That Wouldn’t Die

Directed by 1 97 7 Directed by 1962

WIM WENDERS JOSEPH GREEN

Starring Released 12 JAN Starring Out Now

DENNIS HOPPER JASON EVERS
BRUNO GANZ VIRGINIA LEITH
LISA KREUZER Blu-ray ANTHONY LA PENNA Blu-ray

s journalists understandably lavished hearty praise on Todd Haynes lacing regularly on lists of the worst films ever made, Joseph
A and his two leads, Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett, around the
release of Carol, mentions of the author upon whose book the film is based,
P Green’s comically flat-footed sci-fi/horror quickie from 1962,
The Brain That Wouldn’t Die, is very much worth a visit. It’s no lost
Patricia Highsmith, remained a little lower in the mix. You see, her novel classic whose radical message was muled amid laughable efects work
‘The Price of Salt’, about an inter-generational lesbian romance set in and a cod philosophical script that feels like it was hastily concocted by
’50s New York, was deemed atypical of her traditional focus on crime the on-set catering team. But there’s a misbegotten charm to this silly
and criminals. Yet watching Wim Wenders’ “straight” noir thriller The fable about maverick brain surgeon Dr Bill Cortner (Jason Evers) who
American Friend (based on Highsmith’s 1974 thriller ‘Ripley’s Game’) saves lives by turning his back on The Rules. Indeed, his questionable
while keeping Carol in mind, you can see that a subtle homoeroticism methods bring patients back from the cusp of death, but is it wrong to
bubbled through much of her work. At the time of production, Highsmith play God, as his colleague asks him after he performs another high-wire
was completely against the casting of Hollywood mad dog Dennis Hopper brain operation. Mayhem breaks loose when his leggy girlfriend (played
as wily career criminal Tom Ripley, and with his natural coarseness of by Virginia Leith) is decapitated in a car smash-up, and he decides to
character, it’s easy to see why. Yet she grew to love him, and maybe the cast his Hippocratic Oath into the wind and use experimental methods
sheer oddness of his presence opens out the text into something more to keep her brain alive. All he needs now is a hot bod on to which he
interesting and unwieldy than a cut-and-dried crime flick. It’s the story can sew the head. But in his haste, he neglected to predict that the side
of Ripley coercing Bruno Ganz’s Hamburg-based family man and picture efect of all his neurosurgical tampering would be that his gal would
framer to commit a series of murders when the latter discovers he has a develop telekinetic powers – not good when she’s also sufering from
life-threatening blood disorder. Though Wenders shoots for all-out tense some serious body image issues. The film looks and sounds like it was
thrills during a pair of astonishing assassination sequences (both set on a put together with string, sellotape and old toilet rolls, but that’s what
train), the film is more interesting when viewed as a gay love story. Though lifts it above the B-movie pack. One scene set in a strip club sees two
Ripley is an outwardly afable gent driven by ill deeds, Jonathan’s hang-dog go-go dancers descending into a fist fight, their near-inaudble dialogue
presence and his dedication to his family (who will receive payment when sounding like it has been over-dubbed in a wind tunnel. But it’s the
he dies) causes him to come out into the open and help this patsy to live shoddy production values that gives the film a surreal charm, a story
another day. The disc comes with new interviews with Ganz and Wenders, about flawed humans that’s been made by flawed humans. And every
and the film itself salutes the classic noir heyday with supporting turns time you see Leith’s severed head on a table with suction-cups attached
from legends Nicolas Ray and Samuel Fuller. DAVID JENKINS to it, you’ll laugh just that little bit harder. DAVID JENKINS

088 REVIEWS
 The Graduate The Southerner

Directed by 1 9 67 Directed by 1 9 45
MIKE NICHOLS JEAN RENOIR

Starring Released 23 FEB Starring Released 12 JAN

DUSTIN HOFFMAN ZACHARY SCOTT
ANNE BANCROFT BETTY FIELD
KATHARINE ROSS Blu-ray J CARROL NAISH Blu-ray

his critic is ashamed to admit that, despite having watched a fair here’s the feel of a religious parable to Jean Renoir’s The Southerner,
T few films in his time, Mike Nichols The Graduate had remained
long on the “not seen” pile. And yet, through years of cultural osmosis
T made in Hollywood with the director having fled from France because
of the occupation. Zachary Scott’s Sam Tucker is a paragon of goodness,
and references in TV shows and other films, it always felt like I had dirt poor but determined to make something of himself and provide for
seen it without actually seeing it. Finally sampling this new Blu-ray his family. When Sam’s old uncle, a life-long cotton picker, keels over in
edition of the beloved sixties sex comedy, the sad realisation arrived the heat of the fields, he advises him to get out while the getting’s good
that the film amounts to little more than the parodies that it went on to and start his own farm. And so Sam gathers up his kin and packs them
spawn. Dustin Hofman trials his Rain Man schtick as preppy nebbish into a rickety cabin, seeing only opportunity in the arid land around him.
Benjamin Braddock, fresh out of college and straight into the man- Sam does right by everyone, even his miserly neighbour whose acrimony
eating sights of friend of the family, Mrs Robinson (Anne Bancroft). is the result of years of bad fortune. Yet something is conspiring against
And what with his parents being braying dorks, what better act of his success. Something intangible. Fate? Nature? The destructive force of
rebellion than falling directly into this harridan’s sun-tanned arms? other people? God? Adapted from the novel ‘Hold Autumn in Your Hand’
The famous seduction scene that has become a mainstay of TV clip by George Sessions Perry, Renoir’s film is yet another of his scintillating
shows occurs earlier than expected, though still has the power to tickle explorations of what it means to be human and what it means to exist
in its magnificent awkwardness. But light humour eventually becomes among other humans. The director is seldom sidetracked by crude plotting
light disappointment when the film, which initially appears to be a or dramatic contrivance, always attempting to show the sensual pleasures
about a powerful female character trapped in her stifling middle class that come of simply existing. The busted old stove in the cabin stands in
existence, ends up being solely concerned with Benjamin’s soppy rite of as a metaphor for the stubborn continuation of life – even when disaster
passage. Never arty or brave enough to land as a serious exploration of strikes, smoke pufs from the chimney and the family huddle round it to
loved-up souls passing in the night, though never conventional enough keep warm. Even though the film depicts the diiculty of making a life for
to be pegged as a mainstream classic, it’s tough to know exactly who yourself from the fruits of the land, it certainly espouses doing so. At one
this odd odd film is for. With its deathly winsome Simon & Garfunkel point Sam’s pal Tim says that he can get him a job in a factory where he can
soundtrack, you might guess that it’s for greasy sensitive types who like earn seven dollars a day. They then jovially debate the nature of freedom
to hole themselves up in a bedroom and write meaningful poetry to the – does having money in your pocket which allows you to enter into the
girls they never speak to. Per usual Criterion Collection standards, this capitalist system make you free? Or does being able to chose not to enter
disc is packed to the rafters with cool extras, though. DAVID JENKINS into that system make you free? DAVID JENKINS

REVIEWS 089
JOURNEYS Wo rds by ADAM WOODWARD I l l us t rat io n by LAURÈNE BOGLIO

CPH: DOX

T
he variety of issues and voices presented at the Copenhagen Our top pick was Friedrich Moser’s essential docu-thriller, A Good
International Documentary Film Festival makes it one of the American, a chilling exposé of deceit and corruption at the highest level of
most exciting events on the film calendar. Such is the scope of the US government. Holding court is former intelligence agent Bill Binney,
programming, it’s also practically impossible to catch everything that’s whose story begins in the mid-’60s when the then rookie recruit was
on during the festival’s 10-day run (the programme itself is the size of a employed by the Army Security Agency. Binney is a numbers guy and,
phonebook). Thankfully, the quantity is generally matched by quality, as later revealed, a code-breaking rock star. When the NSA snapped him
making this a place for discovery. This year was no diferent, although up in the 1970s, Binney set to work on developing a highly sophisticated
there was no obvious stand-out in the form of a Citizenfour or The Look piece of surveillance technology that effectively became the world’s first
of Silence, which took the top prize here in 2014. The 2015 CPH: DOX automated metadata analysis service. If it sounds complicated, that’s
Award went to Robert Machoian and Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck’s God Bless the because it is. Binney clearly relishes explaining the finer nuances of his
Child, a charming film about being young, carefree and inquisitive. The ThinThread system, which was ultimately dismissed in favour of the
film takes us to suburban California, where a mother has “abandoned” comparatively costly and ineffective Trailblazer Project, but to Moser’s
her five kids, leaving 13-year-old Harper to play babysitter for the day. It’s credit the weight of the film’s subject is never undermined by Binney’s
a tender reality TV-style drama with a twist that’s well worth seeking out. obsessive jargoning.
One of the challenges facing the programmers is making the festival The shock claim here is that, had it been properly implemented,
as accessible and inclusive as possible while pushing documentary as ThinThread would have prevented 9/11. Given the discourse
an artform. Several films succeeded in that respect: Pablo Chavarría surrounding the NSA in this post-Snowden era, this might seem like
Gutiérrez’s The Letters, an immersive sensory portrait of a small an opportunistic bombshell drop, but Binney’s candid testimony is
Mexican province told via a series of letters from a convicted school damning in its rejection of mass surveillance based on bogus intelligence
teacher-cum-social activist to his teenage daughter; and Dryden and guesswork. He’s not a whistleblower in the traditional sense
Goodwin’s Unseen: The Lives of Looking, which attempts to make but rather – as the title suggests – an upstanding citizen who simply
sense of the world by exploring the work of three individuals – an eye wants to have his say. He’s not interested in having his moment in the
surgeon, a human rights lawyer and a geologist – and their relationship spotlight, he just happens to have a vital story to tell. The irony is that
to “vision”; and Ewan McNicol and Anna Sandilands’ Uncertain, about a had his government not betrayed him in such a contemptuous manner,
strange bunch of bayou dwellers caught between two states in America’s he might never have come forward. Because of Binney’s calm, level-
Deep South. However, conventional documentary journalism was again headed demeanour, Moser attempts to ratchet up the film’s emotional
CPH: DOX’s strong suit, with films like A Good American and The Fear intensity by cutting to archive newsreel of the Twin Towers falling. It’s
of 13 enhancing the festival’s reputation for unearthing budding Errol a little heavy-handed and frankly unnecessary – Binney’s evidence is
Morris types. compelling enough

0 9 0 F E AT U R E
JOURNEYS Wo rds by DAVID JENKINS I l l us t rat io n by LAURÈNE BOGLIO

Aesthetica Film Festival

T
he city of York plays host to one of the UK’s most respected Having had a few weeks to think about this, I can now take the
and wide-ranging short film festivals, run in association opportunity to answer that student with more, if not total clarity.
with Aesthetica magazine. Aside from sampling a variety of The question has to do with traditional notions of authority. When a
the films being programmed, I was asked to attend the festival as a critic become invisible, losing themselves in their prose, it allows the
delegate, to present a 45-minute talk on film criticism in the digital age. reader to focus clearly on the subject. But where this mode worked in
Not someone who is generally able to reel off this kind of insight from print publications in which, to become a critic, you have to be specially
memory, I carefully penned a speech which, through three very specific ordained by a bureaucratic order, it works less well online. At the start
examples, attempted to explore the cultural gamut of modern writing of the new millennium, a cloudburst of film critics entered onto “the
on film. If I’m being honest, the talk didn’t feel like it was successful. Or scene”, and with them came a vast deluge of critical copy. But to make
at least didn’t provoke an in-the-moment reaction I had hoped for. The sure your voice was heard above the melée, you had to bring personality
spaces left in the text for laughter and wonderment became moments into the mix. And with fewer overseers telling you how to write, you
of dead air. could do that and let the audience vote with their feet as to whether they
Thinking that it had been a bit of a bust, I sullenly opened up the liked it or not.
floor for questions, and within minutes I discovered that not only had The best film I saw at the Aesthetica Film Festival was called The
the audience been paying attention to what I was saying, they were Romance Class by director Stuart Elliott. It’s a short in which six women
completely engaged and intrigued by this somewhat marginal subject discuss the best and most believable way to end an old fashioned
matter. One young student who I could’ve sworn was rolling his eyes romance novel. They come together in a church hall, their ideas and egos
and cackling derisively as I was orating posed a fascinating question. immediately clashing. While five of the women ofer suggestions which
Some context first: I had espoused objectivity in criticism. That is, an channel their own, often bitter experiences with men, the final woman –
avoidance of levelling personal value judgements at a work of art. When a sheepish, homely type who struggles to have her voice heard above the
we say that an actor gives a good performance in a film, we’re talking rhubarbing – ofers a pearl of naked truth which comes out of nowhere.
about ourselves, not the actor. We leave it to the reader to guess what Instead of making the ending about herself, she suggests a simple scene
our definition of “good” is. At the same time, I also espoused writing which depicts what it is that creates and maintains a loving relationship,
with a personal imprint which draws on experience and allows the not her subjective experience of one. It’s a heartbreaking moment –
reader to know that a real person created these words. The student simple, tender and evocative of the idea that we should try to notice small,
asked whether this was a paradox. Could we channel our personality beautiful moments that speak of a wider truth, not just the things that
and remain objective at the same time? Transforming momentarily into make us happy. Just as I tried to express the idea of film critics being
a harried politician, I didn’t have a direct answer, instead talking around mindful of their relationship with the subject, director Stuart Elliott’s film
how this was an utopic ideal rather than a practical possibility. is a statement about the objective essence of great cinema

F E AT U R E 0 9 1
 PRESENTS Wo rds by ADAM LEE DAVIES

Jinxed!
- DIRECTED BY - - STARRING -

Bette Midler
Don Siegel Ken Wahl
Rip Torn

- TRAILERS - - CHERRYPICK -

Slender Betrayal, “Get me a wine bottle,

T h e Wo n d e rb re a d S t o r y, We’ ve a rubber chicken and
Got Your Dog, Charlie Brown! a tuning fork!”

- TAGLINE - - RELEASED -

‘America’s fa vourite tootsie is on a roll.’ 1982

on Siegel’s swan song, Jinxed!, can’t do right for doing wrong. Torn’s career, meanwhile, was bedevilled by on-set punch-ups,

D It is the celluloid actualisation of the joke about the Irishman

who walks into a bar holding a turd in his hand. “Look
what I nearly stepped in!” Raising Arizona crisscrossed with Double
drinky-drinky-ness and lawsuits – hat-trick! He was once famously
arrested – sloshed and armed to the teeth – having broken into his local
bank, defending his actions by saying that he thought it was his house.
Indemnity? Killer Joe taking a Weekend at Bernie’s? Paris, Texas shot in Here he looks to have taken the method route in a role that requires
the style of an especially nihilistic Road Runner cartoon? Jinxed! makes no more than ornery, juiced-up bastardry. Wahl had his own troubles.
a good case for all of them at once. But just like our hapless Irishman, all The perennially ‘accident prone’ actor – who once broke his neck falling
the good intentions in the world count for nought if all you end up with down the marble stairs at Rodney Dangerfield’s girlfriend’s house! –
is a handful of dog mess. hated Midler so much that he claimed their love scenes made him feel
Scripted by a Pulitzer Prize-winner (ooh!) and the writer of Michael he was, “cosying up to Hitler.”
Jackson’s Moonwalker: The Video Game (ahh…), Jinxed sets itself up as With all of this hard-luck congealing around the film, it perhaps
a warm ’n’ wacky celebration of smalltime trailer-park nobodies trying comes as no great surprise that Siegel had a massive heart attack during
to get ahead in life. Bette Midler stars as a big-hearted singer named, filming. The real puzzler is that he called in Sam Peckinpah, at the time
for some reason, Bonita Friml. Encased in eye-watering spandex, sci-fi ostracised for some rascally outburst or other, to help. Yet Peckinpah
sunglasses and enough make-up to choke a horse, Bonita waddles and put in such a sterling shift that he was offered the chance to direct what
wisecracks her way around the frayed edges of the Nevada lounge would be his own final fling, The Osterman Weekend. So the question
circuit like Lady Gaga’s mother – Ma Gaga, if you like – while her remains: how fucked is your movie when Sam ‘Mad Dog’ Peckinpah is
seersucker husband, Rip Torn, alternates between gambling, boozing its surest variable?
and threatening to “bust her a new baloney-hole!” But when he finds Midler remains immune the mounting hoodoo, but with Torn
he has some strange casino voodoo over blackjack dealer Ken Wahl written out of the plot and Wahl apparently refusing to work with her,
(a dead-eyed Huey Lewis mannequin), plots are laid, angles are played she spins-off on to an oblique, time-consuming backwater scavenger
and the film goes straight to hell. hunt in order to pad out the film’s contractually-obliged runtime.
Director Don Siegel was not only in ill-health when making Jinxed!, The final shots see her bellowing showtunes in a dilapidated Plutonium
but had recently been through an epic falling-out with former bezzie mine high in the Sierra Nevadas. Her bubble perm glistens amongst the
mate Clint Eastwood. The ramifications of crossing Clint are evident dusty shafts. No spell or enchantment can touch her. She sings of how
in how deep in Hollywood blackballs Siegel had sunk for him to be she is God’s great favourite and will never die. She has looked into the
accepting frothy bollocks like this. It’s almost a relief to say this would evil eye and it has blinked. She is hollow. She is golden. And she must
be his last film. dance. And sing. Sing really, really loud

092 REVIEWS
 Words, pictures, thanks... Mark Asch, Forrest Cardamenis, Ashley Clark, Phil Concannon, Adam Cook, Adam Lee Davies, Wally Hammond, Simran Hans,
Glenn Heath Jr, Nicholas John Frith, Jessica Kiang, Peter Labuza, Violet Lucca, Katherine McLaughlin, Nick Newman, Jaxon Northon, Emma Simmonds,
Justine Smith, Rikka Sormunen, Matt Thrift, Ethan Vestby, Craig William

Cover illustration by Jaxon Northon Distributed by COMAG Specialist ISSN 1745-9168

Published by The Church of London Tavistock Works The articles appearing within this publication reflect the
opinions and attitudes of their respective authors and
Publishing Tavistock Road, West Drayton,
not necessarily those of the publishers or editorial team.
Publisher Vince Medeiros Middlesex UB7 7QX ©tcolondon 2015 - LWLies is published six times a year.
71a Leonard Street, London EC2A 4QS [email protected] Made with paper from sustainable sources.
+44 (0) 207 7293675 - tcolondon.com
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 FROM LUCA GUADAGNINO THE DIRECTOR OF ‘I AM LOVE'

RALPH DAKOTA MATTHIAS TILDA

FIENNES JOHNSON SCHOENAERTS SWINTON

“A SIMMERING TALE “OUTSTANDING

OF SEXUAL INTRIGUE" PERFORMANCES”
++++
MARIE CLAIRE
++++
ANDREW PULVER, THE GUARDIAN

IN CINEMAS FEBRUARY 12
A-BIGGER-SPLASH.CO.UK #ABIGGERSPLASH
© 2015 STUDIOCANAL S.A. All Rights Reserved Artwork graphics Pierre-Marie