SCREENING LOG - 10/06-10/12, 2003

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From the New York Film Festival I watched MYSTIC RIVER, DOGVILLE and S21: THE KHMER ROUGE KILLING MACHINE. I also watched T-MEN, IN THIS WORLD, THE FUGITIVE (1947), BRUTE FORCE, LIFE ON A STRING and MAN ON THE TRACKS.

Mystic River (2003, Clint Eastwood)

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0327056/

Eastwood's deeply moody crime mystery, based on Dennis Lehane's novel, places three childhood friends -- Sean Penn, Tim Robbins and Kevin Bacon -- on uneasy terms following the brutal killing of Penn's oldest daughter. Robbins' character, who was kidnapped and abused as a child, becomes a suspect as circumstantial evidence points to his involvement -- throwing Bacon and Penn's characters into a maelstrom of conflicting feelings, guilt, loyalty, outrage and disbelief. Everyone among the dream cast, including supporting players Laurence Fishburne as Bacon's police partner, Marcia Gay Harden as Robbins' wife and Laura Linney as Penn's wife, seems to wander through the film in a state of shellshock -- it is Penn who singlehandedly provides the outlet of unbridled grief and anger that makes the film emotionally engaging, racking up half a dozen moments for his Oscar campaign reel in the process. But the real revelation is Tim Robbins' deeply disturbing portrayal of a grown-up victim of child abuse, forever condemned to fend off memories of his trauma. His masterful performance puts the viewer in a state of unease, feeling both sympathetic of his plight yet wary of the horrors this afflicted human being could be capable of doing. Overall the film isn't entirely successful at merging its police procedural twists and turns with its exploration of grief and retribution, but there are definitely some powerful moments throughout, and no punches are pulled in the end. #3 for 2003 IMDb releases, between CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS and PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN #13 for new releases seen in 2003, between RAISING VICTOR VARGAS and SPIDER

btw the opening night gala screening where I saw this is worth noting. All the attendees had to walk the red carpet to get into the theater, so my wife and friends and I all had our picture taken by indiscrimate paparazzi guessing that we might be stars! one of my friends, in her rush to meet us at the end of the carpet, almost bumped into Clint Eastwood as he was stepping out of his limo! As we walked down the red carpet I kept hearing "Oksana! Oksana!" -- I looked behind me and saw a model type woman getting the flashbulb treatment (anyone know who this is?) A few seconds later I started hearing "Roger! Roger!" I looked behind me again and this time I saw what looked like a middle-aged version of Roger Daltrey from The Who (but is he really that short???). It turned out that a remastered version of THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT, a 1979 doc about the Who, was getting screened the next day.

When we ascended the escalator who was there to greet us but Spike Lee, looking dapper in a mahogany suit with matching Kangol cap, fending off a young white admirer. As we entered security check, we were asked to step aside. Why? Because no less a babe than Naomi Watts was approaching wearing a sexy flapper outfit that showed major leggage!!! But then -- Naomi was asked by the guard to step aside. Why? Because SUSAN SARANDON was making her way past us -- ah the Hollywood pecking order! (Susan still looks great by the way -- not every 50+ year old can get away with showing cleavage!) But the very next evening I got a great look at Nicole Kidman in a black backless longsleeve, right before I saw what is the greatest movie I've seen so far this year.

Dogville (2003, Lars von Trier)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0276919/

The most stylistically audacious film of the year also happens to be the simplest: this three-hour tragedy is set entirely within a micro-sized Depression-era mountain mining town, depicted on screen as a chalkline blueprint mapped out on a near-barren soundstage -- you really have to see it to believe it. "Theatrical" would be an understatement in describing the trappings of this setting, and yet the world of this film is totally engrossing and believable -- von Trier concocts his own reality out of thin air, thanks in no small part to an amazing ensemble cast (Stellan Skarsgard, Chloe Sevigny, Siobhan Fallon, Philip Baker Hall, Ben Gazzara, Jeremy Davies, Patricia Clarkson, Blair Brown, Harriet Andersson and Lauren Bacall!) who, in line with the great performances von Trier elicits in all of his films, commit themselves totally to the logic of the world they inhabit -- and they really do inhabit it, each one wholly invested in their rigorous daily routine, each one visible almost all the time given that there are barely any walls and no doors whatsoever on stage -- which contributes to the pretense of privacy within each household. Into this humdrum hamlet wanders Nicole Kidman as a gangster's moll on the lam seeking shelter and finding it among the townsfolk -- but first she must earn their respect by helping each of them in various chores, which she does, perhaps too well, because she ends up being exploited in outrageous degrading ways that only an ingenious sicko like von Trier can conceive. Kidman's dignified, multi-faceted performance carries us through the various abuses inflicted upon her -- I don't think her persona has ever been utilized so richly, because her inherent frigidity complicates our impulse to sympathize with her as she's being mistreated. Which is exactly what von Trier is after, because just when this threatens to be a reprise of greatest-moments-in-misogyny a la BREAKING THE WAVES and DANCER IN THE DARK, von Trier hatches a stunning 11th hour twist to his martyred woman formula that turns the entire movie on its ear, a Biblical confrontation between St. Nicole vs. James Caan as God(father). The ending of this film is truly a stunner, if only because it gave occasion for one of the most horrific experiences I've ever had at a theater, as a packed audience cheered wildly during a mass-murder scene, right after hearing a passionate plea for mercy and justice. This stupefying moment only confirmed for me that von Trier is charting new cinematic waters that human beings have yet to find appropriate responses to. In sum, this is essential viewing. #1 for 2003 #1 for new releases seen in 2003

also, on the third day of the festival I caught:

S-21: The Khymer Rouge Killing Machine (2002, Rithy Pran)

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0368954/

This sober account of the operations of S-21, a death camp used by the Khmer Rouge in the late 70s to execute thousands of suspected enemies, doesn't do much to preface the conditions that led to this landmark in human horror, but it has moments of startling directness concerning not only the survivors as they revisit the site of their life's worst moments, but also the guards who tortured and slaughtered human beings on a daily basis. It really was a killing machine, as the guards, in their teens at the time, were rigorously trained to conduct their grim duties almost like automatons, as their chilling re-enactments make all too clear. As a clear-eyed account of the systematic dehumanizing effects of military training, it makes a worthy companion piece to FULL METAL JACKET. #18 for new releases seen in 2003, between PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN and WHALE RIDER

The rest, in order of preference:

Brute Force (1947, Jules Dassin)

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0039224/

Dassin's powerful study of prison life feels quite like a World War II POW movie made two years too late, so they had to keep it fresh by transplanting the action to the US and turning the would-be Nazi guard into a more general institutionalized sadist (Hume Cronyn, who underplays his part for maximum creepiness). Each of the inmates, led by a dashing Burt Lancaster already on his way to being a star, is given a flashback to give these inmates a deeper sense of humanity from their past lives (while also bringing some women into the story to broaden the audience -- yes I know how these studio heads think). The film really hits another level in its white-hot action climax; human outrage and desperation has rarely been filmed with such intensity. #5 for 1947 between MONSIEUR VERDOUX and BLACK NARCISSUS

T-Men (1947, Anthony Mann)

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0039881/

Before Anthony Mann went on to his glorious Western cycle with Jimmy Stewart, he was dealt this hack assignment about our fine boys in the Treasury Dept. as if doing community service. But he made the most of it, not only through brisk, clean storytelling and the incomparable noir camerawork of John Alton but also by digging into the psychological tensions of the undercover agent, the same tautly rendered mindgames that played so wonderfully in THE NAKED SPUR. #7 for 1947 between BLACK NARCISSUS and THE FUGITIVE

Man on the Tracks (1957, Andrzej Munk)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050282/

This IKIRU-like mystery about the motives of an aged train engineer who may have sabotaged a train signal before killing himself on the tracks is also an intriguing investigation of pre- and post-War Communist values. Though the story has an obvious agenda of social reconciliation to push, it never quite dissolves into preachiness. High marks go to Kazimierz Opalinski who plays the engineer in question with a mix of crotchety toughness and touching dignity. #11 for 1957 between WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION and 12 ANGRY MEN

The Fugitive (1947, John Ford, Emilio Fernandez)

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0039402/

Intriguing though not entirely successful adaptation of Graham Greene's novel THE POWER AND THE GLORY allows Ford to revisit the theme of Catholic redemption through sacrifice by an unlikely hero, as seen in THE INFORMER. This time it's Henry Fonda as a Latin American priest (the location is unspecified though the film boasts in its opening credits of being a successful co-production with Mexico) struggling to carry out his duties under a cruel Communist regime outlawing religious practices. Ford doesn't seem entirely familiar with his surroundings and decides to compensate by minimizing the dialogue and emphasizing the image, with mystical results, his little brown subjects shot (by Bunuel collaborator Gabriel Figueroa) in shimmering iconographic profiles, the kind you find, ironically, in Soviet cinema. In any event Ford manages several moments of arresting lyricism amidst the religious hokum, and at times the two go hand in hand. #8 for 1947 between THE FUGITIVE and CROSSFIRE

In This World (2002, Michael Winterbottom)

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0310154/

This frenetically-paced chronicle of two Afghan refugees' desperate flight across two continents towards asylum in Britain is an unlikely hybrid of third-world neo-realism and exoctic intercontinental adventure, as if UNESCO had produced an action movie, and I can't say it sat well with me. My main problem is that the events unfold at such a breakneck pace that hardly anything stayed with me as soon as I left the theater -- Winterbottom somehow manages to cram an arduous five-month odyssey into a brisk 90 minutes which plays like a highlight reel on ESPN Extreme Sports, complete with exciting mood music. Maybe this kind of pacing and the fleeting feeling of danger and horror it sporadically injects may be evocative enough to engage many viewers and get them to care about the plight of the dispossessed all over the world, which I am all for. But personally I felt it was a slickly rendered rush job, an abridged Cliff's Notes to The Life of a Refugee.

Life on a String (1991, Chen Kaige)

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0101440/

As much as I love Chen's breakthrough feature YELLOW EARTH, after seeing a few films by Sergei Parajanov I started to suspect if Chen had bit off the old Armenian, and this film only reinforces my suspicions. The film is about a blind musician and his blind apprentice awaiting the fulfillment of a prophecy that will restore their eyesight. Meanwhile the aprentice falls in love with a village girl, putting his musical interests at odds with his budding romance. Somehow little of this really captivated me, perhaps because the wild landscapes upon which all of this is set felt overfamiliar, a Fifth Generation cliche, just like the overtly mythic elements of the film that make it feel more abstract than meaningful. Chen took a decisively more commercially narrative approach in all of his subsequent features, for better (FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE) and worse (KILLING ME SOFTLY).

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