Ace in the Hole

Billy Wilder is brutal.  Absolutely brutal.  An evil genius?  Oh yeah.  I’ve been on a Wilder kick lately.  It started last month after a reviewing of one of my favorite films ‘The Apartment’, and it ended with ‘Ace in the Hole’.  Wilder has a cruel and cynical eye when it comes to humanity and it never comes so apparent, as with ‘Ace in the Hole’, made shortly after the award winning ‘The Lost Weekend’ - and before the Hollywood baiting of dead dreams turned nightmares of Sunset Boulevard, it is - a cornerstone work in the Wilder oeuvre.  A dark and brutal cornerstone.  No wonder Bergman was Wilder’s biggest fan.

Vanya on 42nd Street (1994)

Louis Malle last film, is perhaps one of his more interesting turns in cinema.  Having come off a ‘big Hollywood’ production of ‘Damaged’, and thoroughly hating the experience, Malle turned to Andre Gregory and his players (including Julianne Moore) who had been working on a rehearsal of Vanya for for years - yes - years.  This is kinda fascinating, as all the players discussed the positive impact the experience has had on their acting, and how they brought everything into the roles they were playing at the time.  At the end of the project, Gregory had them perform the play in front of loved ones - - in an abandoned theatre in NYC.  Street clothes.  No stage props beyond a table and chairs, and no nuances of the past, only a crumbling old building.  It was the perfect aesthetic choice to discuss the crumbling decay of Vanya and his family.  Malle film is almost cine verities as he captures the roles perfectly.  You find yourself lost in the words and the actions, rather than the sumptuous settings, and indeed - when you do hear contemporary sounds - such as the traffic - or when Wallace Shawn drinks from a ‘I Love NYC” cup, you realise that this experiment and experience could only originate in New York.

All That Heaven Allows (1955)

Douglas Sirk second and more successful attempt in seducing the women’s picture from the hands of Hollywood schlock, and reinventing it with clever subtleties, is highlighted in ‘55’s ‘A That Heaven Allows’.  Sirk previous attempt ‘A Magnificent Obsession (as written by the odious Lloyd C Douglas, a preacher turned Hollywood script bro - yes, its as bad as that) - whereas the plot of Magnificent Obsession is pure camp at its best (and would go on into influencing John Waters)  (seriously its too be seen, to be believed), the follow up - ‘A That Heaven Allows’, contains a lighter technicolor touch (Rock Hudson doesn’t unintentionally kill, blind, or maim Jane Wyman in this one).  Sirk explores the conformity of sexuality within 1950s America - when Wyman, an older lady, falls for Rock Hudson, a younger gardener, and through their affair, shocks and defines the sexual morals of a small town.  Wyman, a widower, has the best cutting lines, when her daughter tells her about relief in that they don’t wall up the widows of today, like they do in Ancient Egypt - Wyman responds ‘Don’t they?’.  It’s a film bursting with unconcerned lust and sexuality, with clever asides at societal loneliness and the damaging effects of television and neurotic middle class children with an emphasis on bohemianism and Freud as America’s answer.  ‘A That Heaven Allows’ - is charming as it is cutting.  Rock Hudson, openly gay in his private life, plays a virile young woodcutter’, an effect that Sirk must have been bemused by, as he slowly morphed him into housewife’s choice.

The Thin Red Line (1998)

Malick’s first foray into film making after a near twenty year absence, shows an almost magical hand at what he directs.  The Thin Red Line is an end statement on war movies in America, and indeed - when in comparison to other films such, as Saving Private Ryan, or Platoon, it shines through, encapuslating, the best of the first half of Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket, or what you could imagine Charles Laughton would have handled Mailer’s Naked and the Dead, if his own film debut didn’t bomb.  The Thin Red Line, is a geogerous tome on war.  Ostensibly lead by Witt, it is philosophical, but not leaden - instead - the wonderment of life is seen through the fear of each character’s eyes, as they all prepare for battle, letting silent thoughts come to life through narration, Malick makes The Thin Red Line, less about World War 2, and more about the beauty and cruelty of life as it faces extremes.  It isn’t a film, but a redemptive poem.

The production is interesting.  Lured out from reclusivity by two producers, Malick story of The Thin Red Line is best brought out by Days of Hell an intriguing look at the post and pre productions.

Badlands (1973)

With Malick’s Tree of Life hitting the UK theatres, Bad Vibes thought it time to discuss his debut ‘Badlands’.  Terrence Mallick’s “Badlands” (1973) is one of the most powerful and finely made films to have resulted from the Hollywood pre-Spielberg renaissance. It is a dreamlike, languid journey from a dead-end town to forests and deserts. There are few other films that capture the condition of the outsider in America with more sensitivity and intelligence. Although the story is that of ‘50s serial killer couple, Charles Starkweather and Carol Fugates, the murders depicted are curiously unmoving and seem like incidental, unfortunate accidents during Kit (Martin Sheen) and Holly’s (Sissy Spacek) strange journey into spaces each emptier than the last.

Ms 45 (1981)

ust watched Ms 45.  Incredible.  So bizarre, how - on release - this
was a critical and commercial bomb.  Could kinda see it, marketing and
done up as ‘exploitation’, it was sent out into the world for a ‘meh’
response, and yet - the subtext of Ms 45 - is important.  I remember
reading an essay with regards to the feminism of ‘I Spit On Your
Grave’, and how - instead of exploitative trash, the film was a
feminist manifesto.  I had to disagree - the film was violent and
horrible, and yet - Ms 45 could easily be read as a militant feminist
movie.  The main character is raped twice (!) on the same day, and
goes on a rampage revenge killing spree against any male who shows the
slightest degree of sexuality towards her.  It feels like an update of
Bergman’s The Virgin Spring, yet set across the aesthetic of Ferrera’s
New York.  The film carries itself on Zoe Lund - who you could say
was Ferrera’s ingenue.  Lund was the archetype of the NYC downtown
artist in the 80s; the utter personification of the downtown NYC
artist (which no longer exists).  Ms 45 could be seen as the sister
film to Driller Killer, in both - he captures the utter gritty soul of
New York, in all its violent glory.  End scene of Lund dispatching of
party goer’s whilst dressed in a nun’s costume pays tribute to the
Catholic obsession of Ferrera’s cohort, Nicolas St John (where is he
now) and was sadly and clumsily ripped off for Robert Rodriguez’s
Machete (remember Lilo in a nun’s costume, shooting people, yeah - I
tried to forget as well).  Again - the true star of the flick is Lund,
whose mute face said more ... and expressed more ... than any words.

Zodiac (2007)

I’m not a fan of David Fincher.  I find his movies to be a product of emperor’s new cloths and lacking in any real gripping story, narrative, or characteristics.  His movies are ADD addled, MTV for the intellectual set, a sorta Mann-lite.  So why write about a movie you don’t particularly like?  The score.  Fincher’s only stroke of genius was getting in David Shire (who was out of retirement) to do the score for the Zodiac.  And man - the score is classic genius.  If you don’t know Shire - you’ve probably heard him - Composer David Shire provided inspiration with The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, The Conversation, and All the Presidents Men - uptight, funky and paranoid scores that have become staples for DJs.  Shire’s score elevates an ‘ok’ movie into a fantastic tight thriller luminescent of cinema classics Vertigo, Dirty Harry, etc - and takes Jake Gylelnhalll’s dim witted lead performance and underlines it with a real sense of obsession and paranoia.  Zodiac is a perfect example of why a score is important.  And why a score can either make or break a movie’s sense of timing and sense of self.

Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

It’s kinda funny but just read ‘Eyes Wide Open’ by Frederic Raphael; a recounting of the time spent writing the screenplay for Stanley Kubrick’s last film.  It was an interesting look at the process, as Raphael feels in control in the beginning, laying down the criticism of the source material (based on Arthur Schnitzler’s 1926 novella Dream Story).  Raphael is openly contemptuous of the source material (and lay down its faults in the beginning chapter) - completely unaware that Kubrick has been trying to bring the story into life for the past twenty years.  As the process continues, it becomes obvious that Raphael falls into the hands of Kubrick, until after many drafts, the final version is Kubrick’s vision.  What a vision!  Updating the story for present day, both Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise, both excel in their roles.  On Saturday afternoon, before re watching Eyes Wide Shut, I pulled out Douglas Sirk’s ‘All That Heaven Allows’‘ - a beautiful technicolor treat from ‘55, and important for subtly underscoring the sexual politics that a woman must go through (in All That Heaven Allows - Jane Wyman must remain demur and unattached in her widowed life, and when falling for a younger man instantly becomes the pariah of her community).  The comparison between All That Heaven Allows and Eyes Wide Shut is valid.  And stunning.  Forty five years later, Kubrick is exploring the ideas of a woman as a sexual beast, and how the very idea that a woman is beyond a maternal creature wanting stability and comfort is abhorrent.  In Eyes Wide Shut, when Alice Hartford (Nicole Kidman) confesses her sexual fantasies to Tom Cruise, it inspires him to set out on a sexual journey, and one that never completes, as it is - he remains - almost fearful of women - with this new found knowledge.  In discussing this with a friend, she remarked, that Tom Cruise is almost a passive homosexual (in the film - not real lifes everyone) - as wanders through his sexual journeys of non completion (and indeed Kubrick may have highlighted this when Cruise is attacked by College kid and insulted with homophobic slurs (as opposed to the Jewish slurs in the source novel).  Does Kubrick have an answer to the sexual politics?

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)

What is your favorite character in the film?  Newsweek once asked Bunuel, and he stated ‘the cockroaches’.  The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie is a masterpiece, almost impossible to dissect and Bunuel prefer to maintain his distance - when shooting a sex scene, one actress asked what it all meant, and he stated ‘Don’t worry, you’ll read all about my sexual allegories in Cahiers Du Cinema.  He had a winking fun, in what I call, the Parisian saga of his career.  The Discreet Charm ... what can you say about it?  Its ultimately a fantastic flick.  I’ve watched it hundreds of time, and each time it feels fresh and new.  It’s had a healthy impact on film makers -everyone from Charlie Kaufman through to Wes Anderson with his repeated motif of all the main characters walking and the use of noise (the use of noise masking crucial plot points - unlike the noise in On the Waterfront - which heigteneed drama, Bunuel’s noise hides ‘boring’ plot narrative, the viewers could easily guess).  Bunuel and co writer Carriere began life on the Discreet Charm, stuck on a repeated visual, that ends in violence - it wasn’t until their producer told him about a group of guests arriving for dinner - on the wrong day, that both had found thiier repeated motif, and indeed - all - are thwarted on appetites; physical hunger and sexual hunger throughout the film.  At the time of filming, Bunuel, still shaken by the use of surrealism as a manifesto for violence in the student riots of May ‘68, countered with a gentle surrealism, from the random gun shots taking out small wind up toys, and cockroaches spilling out of pianos.  The end shot is reminiscent of Bunuel’s own Virdinia - with the drunken hobos replacing the disciple at the last supper, except at the end of this, the supper is finally thwarted by terrorist and gun men seeking abstracted revenge.  To deny yourself Bunuel in your life, is to deny life itself.

The Landlord (1970)

The Landlord was Hal Ashby’s directorial debut. Investigating the racial tensions of the late 60s, it is a stunning and in depth look at the relationships between white and black cultures, and an eerie cognisant feel of white gentrification of ethnic neighbourhoods.  The cinematography is stunning, with the main lead, Beau Bridges (Elgar Enders) buying a tenement building in Harlem, and becoming ‘The Landlord’, a device which allows the exploration of the stories of the tenants, forming, a whole picture of racial tensions at the time.  Ashby makes a striking statement of addressing the tension, by the use of color - when visiting his parent’s home, it is pure white, the clothes, the rooms, the decor, and only when entering the neighbourhood of the slum that Ashby strikes out wit color.  Sadly, this debut has never been released commercially.  In fact, all of Hal Ashby’s legacy has been treated with utmost disrespect, with the movies such as ‘Second Hand Hearts’, nearly impossible to view (not on release, or even on the internets) and others, such as Eight Million Ways To Die, creeping up into public consumption by eager Ashby fans who have downloaded and uploaded the flick onto youtube.  Certainly with Criterion constantly buying back the rights for movies, they could circumvent the locked archives and release these flicks?

The Night of the Hunter (1955)

Classic.  When we first adding movies to the blog, the aim was to discover and share classic flicks.  What can you say about The Night of the Hunter that hasn’t been said before?  Rediscovered in the early 00s, the film developed into a life of its own.  Charles Laughton’s directorial debut is near perfection - and he brought with him James Agee and Stanley Kortez (The Magnificent Ambersons).  The film.  What can you say about it?  Robert Mitchum portrayal of Harry Powell is as sinister as you possibly can be, and the reason?  The character had humor, and wasn’t a strict B-movie grade villain.  The charisma and charm of Mitchum brought an eerie calm throughout his portrayal.  Previous to production, Laughton and Agee immersed themselves into the world of silent film and German expressionism and the results are truly profound, I can honestly state that I’ve never seen such a beautiful and other world-like scene as when the two children escape down the river.  The movie’s message and tone is almost parable to biblical expressions of good and evil.  Fascinatingly, Criterion has added the ‘rushes’ of Laughton as a second bonus disc and you can see how incredibly involved he was in the direction of the film (and refuting claims of Mitchum that he hated directing children).  Sadly, the film bombed at the box office and Laughton dropped out of the proposed project of Mailer’s Naked and the Dead.  This is truly a film classic.