April 23, 2003

One has to pause…

Sitting in a room in the dark and experiencing The Magdalene Sisters was something profound for me.  It is, indeed, a remarkable movie.  But as I sat there, my mind started to drift into thoughts about the fact that the movie existed at all. 

I felt some degree of shame.

When colleagues and friends grouse, “Why can’t they make movies like that in Hollywood?,” I am always quick to push such ideas aside.  For one thing, most people who seem drawn to that conversation have a specific list of the kinds films that they appreciate and want to support.  They may dream of more Mementos, while they blanch at Solaris.  They may get a kick out of Secretary, but cannot spare the emotional price of The Magdalene Sisters. 

I give no quarter to that kind of thinking.  It is a fact that I will be there for the next Scorsese film with all the openness and offering of love that I have brought to all his films, even if I did not love Gangs of New York and was repulsed by the Oscar circus.  I know the genius of Eyes Wide Shut and no number of naysayers can turn me cold on one of Kubrick’s minor works that is a masterpiece nonetheless.    And if you can’t understand the simple joy of Dude, Where’s My Car?, I can only feel sorry for you.

You see, that is the thing.  In an art form like painting, there is a real understanding that “what we like” and “what we know as important art” are not always the same.  But film, as a mass medium, does not get that respect and appreciation. 

The idea that movies should be put on a scoreboard or worse, rated on the most human level of black & white, thumbs up and thumbs down, is great for the water cooler and horrible for a real look at the art of filmmaking.  I have never begrudged the thumb format of Ebert & now Roeper.  Like other niches, it serves it purpose.  But while critics turned their nose up at the nature of television, more and more we seem to have reacted to the marketing machines not to working to present more complex ideas to our readers, but to simplify beyond brain damage. 

Only a fool would look at The Good Thief and X2: X-Men United through the same critical glasses.   They are as different, intentionally, as photo realistic painting and impressionism.  Legally Blonde 2 is not from the same filmic foundations as Election.  But more so, even in the ranks of obviously commercial product, Legally Blonde 2 is not working the same territory as Bad Boys 2.  Intensify the focus one more step… Bad Boys 2 is not from the same school as The Hulk.  Compare Bad Boys 2 and Charlie’s Angels 2… they are closer. 

When did we lost focus on the specific work of the filmmakers?  Michael Bay might make some bad movies, but when he cuts the absurd pretentiousness of Pearl Harbor and just gets his jollies making hotter and hotter action sequences, he is one of the best.  The reason he is not a Frankenheimer or a Fincher or even a Dick Donner, is because he doesn’t bring anything more than his skill as a visualist to the table.  But damn it, he deserves respect for what he does.

Why am I high on the possibility of The Hulk? Ang Lee is a strong director who cares about story as much as he does about style.  Show me the same trailer for The Hulk by Simon West and I am not so excited.  The X-Men franchise is a reflection of Bryan Singer as much as Gangs of New York is a reflection of Scorsese and Weinstein’s diverse objectives.  What keeps me open to Down With Love?  Peyton Reed. 

The parade of titles and marketing is relentless.  But every film still comes down to its makers and their strengths and weaknesses. 

Meanwhile, in a year in which the U.K. film industry is struggling for its life, the U.K. is delivering film after film that makes me ashamed -  not that major studios are not making similar movies, but that no one in America is making an organized effort to make these kinds of quality films.  I have to tip my hat to Miramax for making Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Fox for making Solaris and to all the companies who continue to fund the Coen Brothers.  But even at that, these pictures are big and brawny compared to movies like The Magdalene Sisters, The Good Thief, Dirty Pretty Things, 28 Days Later and In America.  Even Joel Schumacher went to Ireland with $17 million to make Veronica Guerin. 

Our indie universe, which has gotten healthier on the growth of Fox Searchlight under Peter Rice and the remarkable explosion on to the scene of Focus Features, is still a bit too big for its Sundance-grown britches.  I don’t mean to beat on Sundance, but it has become, first and foremost, a marketplace.  Unfortunately, it is virtually the only marketplace for this form.  Did Miramax pick up The Station Agent for love or money or ego?  American Splendor was so good that its makers kind of knew going into Sundance that it would get a theatrical pick-up.  But had that not been an option, keep in mind that the movie was financed by the guys who now run Focus Features.  It would have had a home. 

I don’t mean to be belittling the films at all.  My point is that the machine has lost sight of its own cogs.  The simple elegance that Peter Mullan brought to his work as a director in The Magdalene Sisters is alarming.  Here’s a guy who was clearly influenced by Ken Loach and Mike Figgis.  Yet, he has found his own clarity and made his movie, however painful the subject, more accessible than you would expect.  I felt the same way about Tim Roth’s work on The War Zone, a movie that does more, more quietly, than Irreversible can hope to… and I like and respect Irreversible a lot.

Even Mullan’s cameo in his own film, the biggest star in a film of little known actors, is just right.  Geraldine McEwan, who will be recognized by any fan of Brit Cinema, is the one “known” star of the film and gives a great performance.  (I just noticed that she and Olivier did a 1969 filmed version of Strindberg’s Dance of Death, currently running along with Sir Ian McKellan and What-A-Dame Helen Mirren.  I’d love to see that!)

But you don’t have to fall in love with some of the most severe dramas that don’t involve mass murder that you can find in order to get with my program.  You just have to open the door.

“I like it” or “I don’t like it” is a natural human response.  I do not object.  But as an industry, we must reach further.  Spielberg, Katzenberg and Geffen should put $100 million aside for Mike DeLuca and let him make anything he wants to for under $15 million.  Let him loose!  If it’s $10 million a film, so be it!  Someone should hand Christine Vachon $30 million to deliver five films this year. 

Miramax has become a major studio with a mini-major’s infrastructure.  Fine.  I don’t actually object.  But they now define their own category. 

Take smaller bites.  Chew your celluloid food longer.  Take a breath. 

I am reminded, as I often am, of Al Pacino’s David Mamet written speech in James Joley’s movie of Glengarry Glen Ross… what do you remember about the great affairs of your life?  It’s rarely the orgasm.  It’s the touch of her hand on the back of your neck.  It’s an odd moment in which your eyes meet.  It’s how you lay together afterwards. 

Life is complex.  The Magdalene Sisters is a small film in a small category that has so much power that it is as big as any Hollywood monster.  The idea of that brings tears to my eyes.  The Matrix is coming… but its tale of a world of sleeping humans who don’t even know they are asleep is supposed to be fiction.  Let’s make sure that it is. Embrace complexity at the movies as you do in the other arts.  There is no thumb.

READER OF THE DAY:  THE HUFFY ONE writes:  “Although the actual act of going to a film festival is just a stop shy of heaven, reading about them can be a disaster for film lovers outside the twenty or so core independent film cities in the country.  It brings up such bittersweet feelings to read about these films, knowing that many of them won't find distributors, and that several that do will wind up direct-to-video.  Although I might read that so-and-so's debut film is fantastic, how am I going to remember it to search for it by name (which will probably wind up changed) a year later when it shows up on Netflix?  I won't idle by it when doing the quarterly "can the selection be any worse" run to Blockbuster, since the only direct-to-video titles they carry must offer no plot and substantial violence and T&A (though just little enough so that it can avoid the "parental restricted viewing" tag).  Reading about festivals often starts to feel like somebody talking about their Aunt Ruby's kidney problems.  It feels damn futile.”

E ME:  Ouch.  How do you think that we can keep complexity alive?