Nation On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown: The Almodovar Curse

Leonard Pierce — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:15:00 GMT

Pedro Almodóvar is one of the most critically acclaimed directors of his generation. The shelf-haired auteur has produced film after film of stylish visuals, off-kilter humor, sexual frankness and emotional depth. He's one of the few filmmakers on the international scene whose very name is enough to open a movie and make it profitable. And he's managed to put his homeland of Spain on the cinematic map like no other filmmaker since Buñuel -- and without spending half his life in Mexico and France, to boot. By almost any reckoning, any country would consider him a godsend to their film industry.

So why do more and more people in the world of Spanish film keep talking about something called "the curse of Almodóvar"?

In the Guardian this week, Paul Julian Smith examines the ironic circumstance of how Pedro Almodóvar has so captured the national attention -- and so thoroughly become synonymous with Spanish filmmaking -- that he's crowded out room in the filmic imagination for any of the other hundred or so films to emerge from the Iberian peninsula in a typical year. He also takes a look at this year's Spanish Film Festival in London, which aims to change that. One of the fundamental clevages in Spanish cinema, he notes, is between nationalism, which wants to see charming, quaint stories of local color and deep authenticity, and internationalism, which strives to tell universal stories that would appeal to moviegoers from Hong Kong to Tallahassee. The former (typefied by La Soledad, the story of how a single mother copes with the recent terror attacks in Barcelona) keep a tradition of Spanish filmmaking alive, but can they appeal to the ever-more-important foreign markets? The latter (exemplified by King of the Hill, a tight thriller featuring a young man menaced by enigmatic snipers) may bring in foreign interest and foreign dollars, but what makes them uniquely Spanish? Until those questions are answered, Spain may have to continue coping with the curse of Almodóvar.

That Guy!: Stephen Root

Leonard Pierce — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 19:30:00 GMT

Okay, that's enough of the artsy-fartsy European creeps. Let's get back to America! And they don't come much American-er than Big Steve Root, one of the most prolific character actors in the business today. For a guy whose first film role featured him unseen in a toilet (although, considering the movie was Crocodile Dundee II, maybe it's just as well), Stephen Root has a rather highbrow acting background: for years prior to the kick-off of a remarkably rich film and television career, he was a respected member of the National Shakespeare Company. His first major recognition as an actor came when he portrayed the flighty, meddling billionaire Jimmy James as part of the high-powered cast of NewsRadio, and even with dozens of film roles to his credit, he's probably best-known -- and best-paid -- for that role and his voice-over work on King of the Hill, where he plays, among other roles, the hapless Bill Dauterive. A number of directors have enjoyed his work enough to make him a regular member of their repertory companies, particularly Mike Judge, Kevin Smith, and the Coen Brothers; Root's ability to play extremely eccentric roles while never giving the same characterization twice makes him especially sought-after by directors who specialize in character roles, and Root admitted in a recent interview that being killed by the Coens (as he, or at least his character, is in No Country for Old Men) has been the high point of his career to date. Having just celebrated his 56th birthday, Root -- who, to be perfectly honest, looks like he's been playing a 56-year-old for the lion's share of his career -- no doubt has plenty of years ahead of him both on the big screen, playing his specialty of suit-wearing middlemen who have something extremely wrong with them, and in voice-over, where he's proven to have exceptional talent. And with most of his comedic work for television widely available on DVD, a case can be made for Stephen Root as the preeminent comic character actor of the 1990s.

Where to see Stephen Root at his best:

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER (1992)

There are two kinds of Buffy fans in the world: those who liked the movie and wondered why the subsequent TV show took itself so damn seriously, and those who hated the movie and look at it as an embarrassing shell from whence the brilliant television series emerged. Unfortunately for those of us in the former camp, Joss Whedon -- who created both -- is in the latter camp and all but disowns the movie. But one thing cannot be disputed: the series would have been much improved if Whedon had seen fit to include Stephen Root as the rambling, hilariously clueless Principal Gary Murray, who made the end credits of the film so enjoyable.

OFFICE SPACE (1999)

Outside of NewsRadio and King of the Hill, Office Space forms the third jewel in Stephen Root's crown of 1990s comedy dominance. No performance of his is more memorable, more purely distilled, more quintessentially Root -- in fact, Mike Judge built the entire movie around Root's performance from a series of animated shorts he did years earlier for MTV. While there's plenty to love about this subversive take on the deadening grind of white-collar work, nothing holds the movie together like a single red stapler, and no character is more central to the plot, from beginning to end, than the psychotically ineffectual Milton Waddams. An all-time great comic role.

O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU? (2000)

We hate to keep bringing up members of the Coen Brothers Touring Company in this space, but what can we tell you? The boys know a good character actor when they see one. Stephen Root, in his first film with the Coens, has a small but unforgettable role: edging away from comedy and into (literal) tragedy, playing a variant on Tiresius as the recording studio operator and radio station man who first discovers the hidden genius of the Soggy Bottom Boys. Although Root has some funny lines in his scenes, it's his nearly-wordless performance in responding in a transport of bliss to "Man of Constant Sorrow" that is so astounding here.

The Screengrab : king of the hill

Nation On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown: The Almodovar Curse

That Guy!: Stephen Root