Friday, June 18, 2021

THE UNSPEAKABLE ACT



The last thing I want to do is make a movie review all about myself. Especially when the movie has absolutely nothing to do with me (it's ok to get personal sometimes but I don't like when critics have to make everything solely about them). But - and I honestly say this without being vain - I think I'm the perfect audience for Dan Sallitt's The Unspeakable Act. The story about a decent-sized family that also involves a serious incestuous attachment between two of the siblings (“Jackie” & “Matthew”) is incredibly alien to someone with no siblings (me) from a small family (it was just me, my mother and my father). I can watch this movie without any personal attachments that might skew my opinion. 
I guess what I’m trying to say is if you have a sibling and you watch a deeply personal film like this, I just assume your mind automatically forces you to think of yourself and a sibling in the same scenario as Jackie & Matthew. Even momentarily. That’s just how the brain works. 
While I do think having a borderline obsessive attachment to anyone is unhealthy (especially a sibling) I don’t have that point of reference when it comes to a brother or a sister because I don’t have one which makes my, or any only child’s perspective on this film, a little more unique.
I’m also not saying that having a sibling makes this film-viewing experience “better” either. I just sometimes wonder how truly weird & fascinating siblings are to only children. 
A normal-seeming relationship between two siblings is fascinating enough (I've said this before on here when it comes to films about siblings). So a semi-deadpan story that explores incestuous feelings between a brother & sister without making it too “shocking” is even more fascinating.


This is hardly the first story to explore romantic intimacy between a brother and a sister. It’s a story as old as time. But what I will say about this film is that it’s the first semi-recent work in a while to tackle the subject matter in an almost “normalized” way. And that’s not a criticism. That’s a compliment. The subject matter is uncomfortable but it’s handled with care. I think this film is excellent. 
I enjoyed it when I first saw it almost 9 years ago, and after watching Sallitt’s excellent film; Fourteen (which also features Unspeakable Act star Tallie Medel), I have an even better understanding & appreciation for Sallitt’s work.
I don’t want to repeat myself too much. Most of my general thoughts about this movie have already been expressed in other reviews on films that are adjacent to The Unspeakable Act (see my sibling-related thoughts on everything from Nenette & Boni to Love Streams).


Discovering Sallitt’s influences played a major role in my newfound appreciation for The Unspeakable Act. Any time something modern is considered “deadpan” it draws an immediate comparison to the usual suspects like; Bresson, Jarmusch and Akerman. I’m guilty of that myself. 
Hell - I think an Akerman connection (which is probably unintentional) is fitting here. But that's just me and how my brain works...

Jeanne Dielman... / The Unspeakable Act

Jeanne Dielman... / The Unspeakable Act

Jeanne Dielman... / The Unspeakable Act


I did come across this old online correspondence (below) of Dan Sallitt recommending some of Akerman’s work. That could hold some subconscious weight, but even I know that when a filmmaker enjoys someone’s movies that doesn’t mean they’re going to try and copy them...




I came to learn that it was Eric Rohmer who really influenced Sallitt (although only mostly on a visual level)...

Christopher Small (Gorillafilmonline): I think as good a place to start as any would probably be Eric Rohmer and the Rohmer influence on The Unspeakable Act. He seems to be brought up a lot surrounding this film, partly because of the dedication after the closing credits and partly because the style we have come to associate with “Eric Rohmer” provides a good framework for appreciating many of the things you are doing in this film. Do you see yourself working in the Rohmer tradition particularly?

Dan Sallitt: Yeah, I do. Not in the kind of stories I tell, but in my way of composing, using sound, lighting, cutting. And when I first got interested in making movies, he legitimized long dialogue scenes for me. Somehow it was always him I used as a model, not the other directors I loved. I think Rohmer found the simplest and most elegant balance between the fictional and the documentary aspects of cinema: his style is a simple instrument designed to do one thing, to shift our attention back and forth from one aspect to the other.
I think dialogue functions for me a lot like the way it does for Rohmer: as a form of realism. The people in my films talk constantly, not because I have plenty to say to the audience, but because people talk a lot in life 



Sallitt goes on to further explain and distance himself from Rohmer to some degree (while the Rohmer influence is there on a visual level, The Unspeakable Act is still very much a Dan Sallitt film and no one else’s)…

I didn’t mean to force a comparison to Rohmer with that dedication. I did it because he had died recently and I wanted us to remember him. I guess I wound up guiding people’s response more than I’d intended - Dan Sallitt, Gorillafilmonline.com


These quotes & interview passages make perfect sense when you compare images from Rohmer’s work with Sallitt’s.

Note the similarity in the decor of both scenes, the camera movements and the movements of the actors between these two particular scenes:
A Good Marriage /
The Unspeakable Act

A Good Marriage /
The Unspeakable Act

A Good Marriage /
The Unspeakable Act

A Good Marriage /
The Unspeakable Act

A Good Marriage /
The Unspeakable Act


The Rohmer connection was further discussed with Sallitt when he appeared on our podcast last year (click here to listen).


Another thing that sets The Unspeakable Act apart from the (possible) influences (both conscious and subconscious), is that Sallitt’s films show a specific slice of modern American life (modern-day Brooklyn to be specific) that couldn’t really be found in the films of Akerman or Rohmer.

And I don’t mean to bring down other films in an effort to compliment another (I won’t get specific and name names), but it’s clear to me that films like The Unspeakable Act & Fourteen come from a mature perspective with well-mapped out & deceptively dense/powerful dialogue that can’t be found in certain contemporary American independent films that some critics have attached to Sallitt’s work in the past decade. Outside of just the incest & taboo feelings, Sallitt quietly explores the relationships between mothers & daughter, the relationships between women and their brother’s girlfriends and even the importance of therapy for some people. It's also very impressive to me how an older adult man like Sallitt can pull off successful stories about young women. 
The Unspeakable Act isn’t mumblecore or even post-mumblecore (looking back, I don’t even think people knew exactly what mumblecore even was). In fact, the only film that should truly be attached to The Unspeakable Act is Sallitt’s own follow-up; Fourteen, which, to me, takes place in the same cinematic universe (read my thoughts on Fourteen here).

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