Starting off this years Toronto International film festival (for me, at least) was Lars Von Trier's latest; 'Melancholia'. After watching the film and then sleeping on it for a night i realized that i actually do like it (something i wasn't sure of on Thursday when the credits rolled). My favorite thing about 'Melancholia' is that this may be the first film Von Trier has directed since 'Dancer In The Dark' (11 years ago) that wasn't made strictly to piss people off or to push buttons. With 'Dogville' (2003) he set out to piss off Americans. In Manderlay (2005) he set out to piss off white Americans (and ended up pissing them off as well as black people). 'The Boss Of It All' (2007) felt like we'd all been "had" and 'Antichrist' (2009) pissed just about EVERYONE off.
In 'Melancholia', the story of 2 sisters (Kirsten Dunst & Charlotte Gainsbourg) trying to mend their relationship with each other and battle depression before the "end of the world" (a planet known as "melancholia" is headed towards earth to destroy it), it seemed like Von Trier simply set out to make a great film. And for the most part he did. Von Trier didn't go too deep in to Dunst & Gainsbourg's history as sisters or why Dunst is so depressed and unstable, but in the opening wedding sequence when we're introduced to their family (specifically their mother played by Charlotte Rampling) we see why they have so many issues. Through out the film the sisters' roles with each other switch. In the first half, Dunst becomes depressed to the point where she can barely move and its her older sister (Gainsbourg) taking care of her. But by the end of the film, fear takes over Gainsbourg (due to planet earth's inevitable destruction) and its Dunst who takes control.
'Melancholia' DID have a few problems (that some of you may not even find as troublesome as i did).
Lars throws his depression all in our faces (mainly through Kirsten Dunst's character) to the point where we almost cant take it anymore. Its SO drab and depressing at times (although Udo Kier's presences is a great comic relief). When you look at it one way, i guess Von Trier succeeded (i mean, the title of the film IS 'Melancholia'). Its a movie about the end of the world. But the problem is that not everyone wants to sit through a film that's SO depressing and draining. So beware. Also, some of you may find parts of the film a bit boring.
But if you hang in their until the end, everything pays off. In my opinion, the ending of 'Melancholia' is one of the top 3 things Lars Von Trier has ever done. Along with the final sequence, the opening of 'Melancholia' (featuring some very memorable images) and Charlotte Rampling's speech during the wedding were some of my favorite scenes.
Von Trier's last 2 films have a lot more visual effects then his other stuff. In 'Antichrist' we had the talking fox and the ghostly faceless women walking up the hill towards Willem Dafoe at the end. In 'Melancholia' there's even more visual effects.
the planet "melancholia"
the planet "melancholia" next to the moon
scene from the opening sequence where tree branches cling to Dunst
another scene from the opening sequence
Normally Von Trier will throw in a reference to Tarkovsky or Bergman. But in 'Melancholia' it looks like he's referencing shots from his OWN work (specifically 'Antichrist'). Some scenes and shots look identical. There's a scene in 'Melancholia' when Dunst looks directly in to the camera as dead birds are falling from the sky. That shot is directly out of a scene in 'Antichrist' when Willem Dafoe looks in to the camera as acorns fall down in front of him in slow motion. Even the title cards in both films look alike...
Antichrist Opening Credits
Melancholia Opening Credits
Dafoe in 'Antichrist'
similar shot Dunst in 'Melancholia'
'Antichrist'
similar shot in 'Melancholia'
Outside of Lars's controversial statement at Cannes this year, there was a lot of hype about Kirsten Dunst's award winning performance. I was sceptical, but i have to give her credit now that I've seen it. I seriously thought she was way too fragile to work with a guy like Lars but she did a great job. Other standout performance came from Charlotte Gainsbourg, Charlotte Rampling and surprisingly...Keefer Sutherland (especially during the first half).
Lars Von Trier continues to be more and more destructive with each film. Blowing up a train full of people in 'Europa' wasn't enough for him, so he moved on to murdering an entire village of people in 'Dogville'. Apparently that wasn't enough either, so now he wants to blow earth up. In a way, 'Antichrist' feels like an unofficial prequel to 'Melancholia'. Its almost like the talking fox in 'Antichrist' was warning us of things to come when he delivered the famous line: "chaos reigns". Both films have a bleak outlook on life with depressed characters struggling to find meaning.
It looks like Terrance Malick started the movie year off with a film about creation and Von Trier is gonna end it with a film about total destruction.
A still from the creation scene in 'The Tree Of Life'
The Planet "Melancholia" headed for planet earth
'Another Earth'
Between 'The Tree Of Life', 'Another Earth' and 'Melancholia', planets seem to be the "in" thing in cinema this year.
OK, its been a long day. In addition to 'Melancholia', I also got a chance to see the new George Clooney political thriller 'The Ides Of March' (which you'll be reading about soon), Aki Kaurismaki's 'Le Havre' and Lynne Ramsay's 'We Need To Talk About Kevin'.
I'm going to the Toronto Film Festival this year with the fellas over at The Pink Smoke. Between September 8th-16th I'll be using cocaine in my coffee instead of equal (I got a lot of movies to see). Here's how i planned each day out...
DAY 1:
Thanks to 'Melancholia' I'm gonna miss the first 20 minutes or so of 'We Need To Talk About Kevin. Needless to say I'm not happy about this, but 'Melancholia' takes priority over just about anything at the festival. Sorry, Lynne Ramsay. I'll try not to make too much noise walking in to your film late. After a little break I'm gonna check out 'The Ides Of March' because its the only thing that looks interesting during that time.
*I was also able to get a separate ticket for Aki Kaurismaki's latest; 'Le Havre' @ 9:30pm
DAY 2:
This is gonna be a fun day. I get to see 'Drive' along with new films from Pedro Almodovar (The Skin I live In) and Bertrand Bonello (House Of Tolerance). I haven't read that many good reviews on 'House Of Tolerance', but just like the U.S. reviews on Bonello's other films (which i think are brilliant), I'm pretty sure most of these critics got it wrong again. Picking 'House Of Tolerance' was a tough decision as I'm not gonna be able to see 'The Artist' because they're playing at the same time. I don't know much about 'Take Shelter' but Michael Shannon can make just about any movie watchable. Even disappointing stuff like Herzog's 'My Son, My Son' and 'Shotgun Stories' (sorry, I didn't like that movie). I have no idea what 'Always Brando' is, but the description sounded good.
DAY 3:
NEW TODD SOLONDZ (Dark Horse), so needless to say I'm very excited about Saturday. As you can see, this is gonna be a busy-ass day. Andrea Arnold's new film (Wuthering Heights) is playing that day as well. I'm not all that excited about it (i never read the book), but she hasn't let me down yet (Red Road & Fish Tank) so I'll give this a shot. 'Carre Blanc' is getting a nice buzz and being compared to the work of Tarkovsky. The trailer for this film is GREAT, but I'm worried this is gonna be some 'Adjustment Bureau'-type shit. We'll see. And I picked '360' because I recognized the director Fernando Mierlles (City Of God & Constant Gardner).
DAY 4:
There's a strong chance I may not even wake up at 8:45am, so I might miss 'Rampart' (apparently Woody Harrelson is supposed to be great in this). However, If i do manage to wake up for it and its not good, I'm gonna be very pissed which isn't a good transition in to the next film; 'Damsels In Distress'. I am NOT a fan of Whit Stillman or mumblecore starlet; Greta Gerwig. But Alia Shawkat is in this so I have no choice. 'Twixt' is Francis Ford Coppola's new vampire film starring Val Kilmer. That just sounds like a disaster but I'm gonna give it a try. Then its 'Dark Girls', directed by Bill Duke. He's one of those night & day actor/directors like Tom Noonan. As an actor, Bill Duke has co-starred in stuff like 'Predator' and 'Commando', but as a director he's made films like 'Deep Cover' and 'A Rage In Harlem', so this should be interesting. It looks good but it also sounds like a downer which is why I'm watching 'Sleepless Night' afterwards. It looks like a fun/mindless action movie.
DAY 5:
A busy day full of movies i know nothing about. Steve Mcqueen & Michael Fassbinder delivered with 2008's 'Hunger', so I expect they'll do the same with 'Shame'. I don't know anything about 'Livid' except that it stars Beatrice Dalle and that's all i need.
DAY 6:
Another 6 movie day. I told myself I wasn't gonna watch the 'Descendants' because Alexander Payne is one of the MAIN culprits of Solondz-thievery. Sorry, but its true. But there's nothing else playing around that time that looks interesting, so whatever. I may not even wake up that early. I kinda want to see 'Moneyball', but 'Kill List' and 'Tyrannosaur' conflict with that. I'm a huge Paddy Considine fan so I'm very anxious to see what his directorial debut is gonna be like. But I'm having 2nd thoughts and I don't wanna be depressed by British kitchen sink realism, so I think I'm going with Moneyball. And because of Kill List, I'm gonna miss the first 10 minutes of Moneyball. Then I'm ending the day off with Werner Herzog's film that I wasn't even aware of. Nice Surprise.
DAY 7:
Alexander Sokurov's new film was a nice surprise. The stuff that I could find on youtube looked just as visually amazing and tarkovsky-esque as all his other work. For the rest of the day we're doing some repeats (assuming Dark Horse and Carre Blanc turn out to be good. If they aren't, I'm gonna re-plan this day out). And the more I think about it, I'm not gonna make that early 'Rampart' screening. Looks like i have a 2nd chance to see it.
DAY 8:
the last day is kinda "meh". I may spend the rest of the day looking for Alia Shawkat if she's still there
To kind of piggy back off of my recent 'Road To Nowhere' blog entry that made me the talk of Monte Hellman's facebook page for an entire day, I'm writing about a failed project from one of my all time favorite directors. As a true fan of David Lynch I'm willing to admit that his often forgotten about 2nd attempt at television (after the short yet extremely popular cultural phenomena known as Twin Peaks) was a failure. Such a failure that when i mention 'On The Air' to people, they look at me like I'm crazy. One of my friends was certain that i was making this show up until i showed him the actual VHS tape of 'On The Air' (one of my most prized possessions) as proof that it existed. Even some people who claim to be "REAL" David Lynch fans (which just about anyone who's seen eraserhead twice claims to be), don't even know about 'On The Air'. But after watching a few episodes you can kinda see why it didn't last. Only a hardcore David Lynch fan that's in denial can admit that this was good. Yet at the same time...i find myself watching an episode or 2 once a year.
This short lived television series that only lasted for 7 episodes on ABC, which David Lynch created, produced and directed (well, he directed episode one at least) was about a 1950's television studio that aired the live sitcom; 'The Lester Guy Show'. Every episode some wacky disaster behind the camera would happen while the show was airing, and the characters would spend the rest of the episode trying to rectify the situation in order to save the show. The main characters included...
"Lester Guy" - a has-been/egocentric actor and star of the "Lester Guy Show"
"Betty Hudson" - an incredibly stupid, yet sweet actress who becomes popular over night by accident. Lester Guy spends most of his time trying to sabotage her only to have it backfire in his face.
"Bud Budwaller" - the mean TV executive (actually Miguel Ferrer, an underrated character actor, did a really great job in a performance that was reminiscent of his more recognizable roles as the "unlikeable guy" in 'Robcop' and 'Twin Peaks').
"Vadja Gochktch" - director of the lester guy show that speaks his own language that no one can understand but his assistant "Ruth Trueworthy"
This show may not have been all that good, but it still had many of Lynch's signatures. It had a similar vibe to Twin Peaks. The show, taking place in the 1950's, continued Lynch's fascination with that era. And along with a few re-used actors from twin peaks, there were plenty of David Lynch "regulars" involved in the show on & off camera: Miguel Ferrer (twin peaks & fire walk with me), Mark Frost (twin peaks), Jack Fisk (the straight story, mulholland drive), Deepak Nayer (lost highway, fire walk with me).
Its kinda sad that my first blog entry on the films of one of my favorite directors is about one of his biggest failures. Twin Peaks may not have lasted very long, but it still holds its place in television history, has a cult following and spawned an underrated film that was nominated for best picture at Cannes. Even his other "failed" television attempt turned in to one of the greatest movies of the last decade (mulholland drive). 'On The Air' tried too hard to be satirical and slapstick and it just ended up falling flat. Sorry, David. I still love you though. If curiosity gets the best of you, a few episodes of On The Air are on youtube. But unless you LOVE David Lynch, chances are you wont dig it.
HOTEL ROOM
'Straight Story' aside, the 1990's were not kind to David Lynch. His name was still more than relevant and he was very active, but everything he did seemed to be tainted with some kind of negativity. Twin Peaks was cancelled after 2 seasons. The show lost its steam once Laura Palmer's killer was discovered mid-season. The whole mystique of the show was "Who Killed Laura Palmer?". Once that mystery was discovered there was no point to watch the show anymore. Sure the show featured many great characters, which is what Lynch tried to expand upon, but at the end of the day it was all about Laura Palmer. The Lynch won best picture at Cannes (wild at heart) but was boo'ed by the audience upon receiving the award. You just read about 'On The Air' and its cancellation after 7 episodes and the most popular criticism of his much hyped 'Lost Highway' was a negative one...
The underrated made for cable television 'Hotel Room' always seems to fall between the cracks and go unmentioned. Unlike 'On The Air', this short lived mini-series was great and it featured a few David Lynch regulars like Harry Dean Stanton, Alica Witt, Crispin Glover and Barry Gifford. The premise of the show was about a series of events that went down in the same new york city hotel room (room 603) at different time periods. The vibe of 'Hotel Room' still features Lynch's signature quirkiness and oddball sense of humor mixed with a slightly more serious tone. If you're a fan of Twin Peaks, 'Are You Afraid Of The Dark' and 'The Shining', chances are you'll enjoy 'Hotel Room'. Each episode featured new actors, with the maid and the bellboy being the only 2 recurring characters in all 3 episodes...
EPISODE 1: TRICKS
Moe (played by David Lynch regular Harry Dean Stanton) and his friend Lou take a hooker back to room 603 for a fun time, but things turn dark. Instead of jumping right away in to sex, the characters confess personal stories about themselves to one another. Eventually Lou starts to get weird & violent and scares the hooker away. Then Moe & Lou's friendship is put to the test. This is by far my favorite story of the 3. Its interesting that Lynch takes a pretty cliche story (2 guys take a hooker back to a hotel room and things get dark), yet he still manages to make it interesting.
EPISODE 2: GETTING RID OF ROBERT
A stuck up gold digger (Sasha) and her friends (one of whom is played by a pre-law & order Mariska Hartigay) sit around room 603 talking about whether or not she should marry her wealthy boyfriend Robert (Griffin Dunne). Things take a dark turn when Robert arrives. An argument ensues between him & Sasha, and after he calls her a cunt she hits him over the head with something and seriously injures him.
EPISODE 3: BLACKOUT
In this story, a married couple (played by Crispin Glover and Alica Witt) sit through a major power outage and as the story unfolds, we learn that the wife is mentally unstable due to the loss of their child a few years ago.
Nowadays more and more movie directors have switched over to television: Todd Haynes (mildred pierce), Spike Lee (directed the pilot for 'Shark'), Michael Mann (Luck), Martin Scorsese (boardwalk empire) and John Cameron Mitchell's upcoming HBO series.
'Tricks' is also available on youtube in 2 parts.
I just wanna give a quick thanks to Ted Hope (again) and Monte Hellman for all the traffic I've been getting on here lately. It's pretty cool that 2 important figures in film like Hope & Hellman would take the time out to give my little blog some shine.
lol wow, some of these comments were hilarious. I may dedicate a blog to some of my favorites next month. Oh and I'll take those 7 "likes" as compliments. Thanks for reading.
Even though I got some great feedback on my original "School Of Tarkovsky" blog entry, it looks like i missed a few really great comparisons. So I decided to make a sequel! Some of these are great (the silent light/nostalghia comparison), while some may seem like a stretch to you (taxi driver/the mirror).
Anyway, here's part 2...
Andrei Rublev (Tarkovsky)
The New World (Terrence Malick)
Nostalghia (Tarkovsky)
Silent Light (Carols Reygadas)
Highway scene from Solaris (Tarkovsky)
Carre Blanc (Jean-Baptiste Leonetti)
The Mirror (Tarkovsky)
The Tree Of Life (Malick)
The Mirror
The Tree Of Life
The Mirror
Taxi Driver (Scorsese)
Sacrifice (Tarkovsky)
True Stories (David Byrne)
Stalker (Tarkovsky)
The Intruder (Claire Denis)
If you've seen 'The Intruder' then I'm sure you're aware that its very Tarkovsky-esque (the landscapes, the surreal plot, the music, etc) with many similar shots from Stalker.
Some of Tarkovsky's influence still cant be conveyed through comparing images side by side. Some films just have that unique "feel" or atmosphere that screams out "Tarkovsky". Look at this first video, which is a sequence from Tarkovsky's 'Stalker' (1979), then look at the clips below it from Von Trier's 'Element Of Crime' (1984) & Alexander Sokurov's 'The Lonely Voice Of Man' (1987) and tell me the film making styles aren't similar. No real identical shots, but its clear these directors have studied Andrie Tarkovsky's work.
Next, look at this sequence from Tarkovsky's 'Nostaghia' (1982), and then look at the video clip from Von Trier's 'Image Relief' (1983) below.
