Oliver Stone Set To Milk 9/11 Cow For As Long As He Can
10/16/2006 3:30:00 PM
Fresh off his critical renaissance with the acclaimed-if-somewhat-underperforming World Trade Center, Oliver Stone looks like he might tackle Jawbreaker next. And no, you only wish it was a remake of that ghastly Rose McGowan teen movie from a few years back. This will actually be an adaptation of the memoir by Gary Berntsen, the CIA agent who coordinated the CIA and special ops during the invasion of Afghanistan.
Here’s Stone’s take: "This will be partly about the ground war in Afghanistan, among other things…Gary [Berntsen] might be a defender of the administration, but he certainly had very clear criticisms of bureaucratic snafus in Afghanistan…It has the potential to be very exciting. There's a lot of action and a thriller element that we're still trying to bring out…I'm not looking to make a political movie, but it always seems to come down to that with me."
But here’s the thing: The script for Jawbreaker is currently being written – or, more accurately, re-written, by Cyrus Nowrasteh, who is also credited with that controversial, allegedly Clinton-bashing Path to 9/11 TV movie from a few weeks back. Which of course has plenty of people wondering: Will Stone, who has spoken in the past of wanting to make a no-nonsense procedural film about the War on Terror, bring a more critical eye to the possibly-right-wing leanings of his screenwriter and source book? Or has Stone gone back to his old right-wing ways himself? (The director used to be pretty outspoken about his conservatism in the 70s.) Or, just maybe, combining a right-wing writer and a left-wing director is the only way to get a balanced, non-partisan film made about the War on Terror.
Darn. Where’s John Frankenheimer when we really need him?
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Forgotten Films: REIGN OF TERROR (aka THE BLACK BOOK) (dir. Anthony Mann, 1949)
10/16/2006 1:00:00 PM
Anthony Mann was one of the more popular directors of the 1950s and 60s – thanks especially to the series of amazing, dark Westerns he made starring Jimmy Stewart, starting with Winchester 73 in 1950 – and he has a good critical rep today. (Go here for a concise, valuable overview of his career.) However, Reign of Terror, one of his greatest films, has wallowed in obscurity for years -- perhaps because it is the kind of unclassifiable oddity that gives many viewers pause.
Mann’s early career took off thanks to a series of low-budget film noirs, many of them made with the great cinematographer John Alton. Reign of Terror was another of these collaborations – but along with being a noir, it’s also a period piece, an insanely stylized adventure set amid the chaos of the French Revolution. As such, it’s a bizarre hybrid: An over-the-top gangster movie where the chief baddie is Maximilien Robespierre, and where the plot is basically a hard-boiled re-imagining of his downfall.
The film begins in medias res, with an ominous narrator introducing us to the key players in the Terror (“Maximilien Robespierre -- a fanatic with powdered wig and twisted mind!”), setting the stage for the plot: “In 48 hours, France becomes a dictatorship. 48 hours. Unless…” The story is a fictional one, featuring Robert Cummings as Charles D’Aubigny, sent by the exiled Marquis de Lafayette to go undercover in Paris, posing as a bloodthirsty prosecutor to gain Robespierre’s (Richard Basehart) confidence. D’Aubigny does so, and is soon entursted by the chief villain to search for his “black book” -- an elongated enemies list which, if it fell into the wrong hands, could lead to revolt. Robespierre admits that he needs the fear the book’s existence breeds to rule: As long as people aren’t sure whether their names are in it or not, they will go out of their way to display their loyalty. Along the way, D’Aubigny also has to contend with Robespierre’s chief of secret police, Fouche (the great character actor Arnold Moss), who seems to be out for his own good, even as he pretends to do his boss’s bidding.
Obviously, it’s no coincidence that Reign of Terror (whose British release title was The Black Book) was released two years after the first Hollywood blacklist was instituted in 1947. But to see it as a well-thought-out political allegory would be wrong: Concern over the blacklist and Cold War unease were influences on film noir in general. True, by presenting a specific political situation, Reign of Terror might make for a more direct comparison. But make no mistake about it, despite its historical genre, this film is a noir, a true genre picture – it’s got an antihero ping-ponging between loyalties to various mob factions, a visual aesthetic full of deep shadows, stark lighting, and distorted lenses, not to mention a narrative steeped in paranoia and a femme fatale whose icy demeanor betrays a good soul (Arlene Dahl, aka Lorenzo Lamas’s mom). It’s even got some great, twisted gangster dialogue. (Robespierre to Fouche: “I don’t know whether to promote you or denounce you.” Fouche: “Where in all Paris would you find anybody as disloyal, unscrupulous, scheming, treacherous, cunning, or deceitful as I? Oh, you’d have to do some tall looking, Max.” Robespierre: “Don’t call me Max!”)
 | | Anthony Mann |
But what makes Reign of Terror great isn’t necessarily how well it adheres to, or shakes up, various genre conventions. It is, quite simply, an incredibly well-put-together, gripping film -- a true showcase for the visual and narrative expertise that would serve Mann so well in his later career. The director could probably even give Hitchcock a run for his money in the realm of suspense: Witness the scene where our heroes’ escape is almost thwarted by an old man fumbling with a key at a locked gate. Or the scene where the black book is inadvertently left on a bed, on which Robespierre’s chief henchman then decides to take a nap.
Mann possessed a true gift for action, thanks in part to his eye for intense physicality. His films are full of brutality, but never of the casual kind: His camera comes in close to shots of physical violence, which serves to up the narrative ante and to heighten our involvement. (The amount of abuse Jimmy Stewart endures in his Mann Westerns more than justifies their revenge narratives.) When one of the villains gets shot in the mouth near the end of Reign of Terror, Mann makes sure it occurs in close-up, confronting us with the cruelty of a moment that should, by all pre-existing conventions, be a satisfying resolution. But by rubbing our noses in it, Mann complicates the issue somewhat. (He also does so by providing a brief appearance of a then-unknown Napoleon Bonaparte at the very end of the film, hinting at what was to come following Robespierre's fall.)
Reign of Terror is an obscure film, but it also happens to be public domain. You can buy an inexpensive, fairly cruddy looking DVD of it here. You can even watch a slightly cut version of it online, here.
Neither of them compares with watching a nice 35mm print of it in a theater, of course, an eventuality that actually does occur occasionally. (An Anthony Mann retro made the rounds in 2004. Film Noir retros also sometimes program the film.) Still, despite its availability, Reign of Terror deserves to be better known. If there's any justice in the world, one day it will be.
-- Bilge Ebiri
Previous Forgotten Films Columns:
- October 3, 2006 -- MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON (dir. Bob Rafelson, 1989)
- August 18, 2006 -- LUNA (dir. Bernardo Bertolucci, 1979)
- August 28, 2006 -- OUR MOTHER’S HOUSE (dir. Jack Clayton, 1967)
- August 14, 2006 -- THE CHOCOLATE WAR (dir. Keith Gordon, 1988)
- July 31, 2006 -- THE STRANGER (dir. Luchino Visconti, 1967)
- July 17, 2006 -- WALKER (dir. Alex Cox, 1987)
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Video of the Day: Perfume Trailer
10/16/2006 12:01:00 PM
I've driveled on in the past about how much I'm looking forward to Tom Tykwer's Perfume, and while the initial reviews were a bit mixed, the fact that the film is a huge hit in Europe is certainly encouraging.
Finally, though, we have a trailer. And it's pretty good. I think that's John Hurt on the soundtrack, too.
Please don't suck.
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What Doing Your Own Stunts Will Do To Your Memory
10/16/2006 11:00:00 AM
Jackie Chan says he doesn’t like the fact that Hollywood rules impede his stunt work, saying “There are so many safety and insurance rules to follow...It takes so much time.”
Maybe this is why. From the website of Jackie Chan’s book, I Am Jackie Chan.
“HEAD: Other than the brain hemorrhage I suffered on Armour of God, I've hit my head and injured it many times. I was actually knocked completely unconscious while working as a stuntman on Hand of Death...
“NOSE: You'd think that someone Up There had it in for me and my nose! It's bad enough that it's so big to begin with, but I've actually broken it at least three times--on The Young Master, Project A, and, most recently, Mr. Nice Guy.
“CHEEK: While making Supercop, I dislocated a cheekbone. I didn't even know you could do that...
“THROAT: During The Young Master, I was almost suffocated when I injured my throat...
“ARM: While I was shooting a fight scene in Snake in the Eagle's Shadow, my arm was accidentally slashed by a sword that should have had a blunted edge. Blood went everywhere, and I fell down screaming ... and the camera kept rolling! That's real pain you see in the movie!...
“BACK: I've had a lot of back injuries doing my movies, but the pole-slide scene in Police Story almost paralyzed me when I nearly broke the seventh and eighth vertebrae in my spine.
“PELVIS: Also during the pole-slide stunt, I dislocated my pelvis. I guess you're wondering just how many weird bones a person can dislocate. Sometimes it seems like I've dislocated them all...”
Read the whole list here.
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Morning Deal Report: Bill Murray Parties With Students, Scorsese Puts the Big Pics on Hold...
10/16/2006 10:00:00 AM
- You can show up with a lot of things to enliven a college party. But when you show up with Bill Murray, all bets are off.
- An Oxford student was suspended for secretly filming two other students having sex with his mobile phone. Let’s see…Shaky, cruddy-looking footage? Gratuitous sex? I think Cannes might have its next hit.
- Martin Scorsese says he’s done with big films for a while. (But he sees his next film, about 17th century Portuguese missionaries in Imperial Japan as “a small-scale, lower budget film.”)
- Simpsons writer Dan Greaney and partner Jeff Poliquin (Borat) have sold a script called Shy Guy to Universal Pictures, about “a shy, retiring bookbinder who resists his impulsive, hard-partying brother's efforts to blast him out of his shell.”
- Guy Maddin discusses his Top Ten Criterion Collection DVDs. Not surprisingly, most of them are black and white. (Hat tip: Green Cine Daily.)
- Isn’t it about time for another round of stories concerning on how computer technology will allow us to bring back dead movie stars to star alongside the likes of Orlando Bloom? Here we go again: “We could put Marilyn Monroe alongside Jack Nicholson, or Jack Black, or Jack White…If we want John Wayne to act alongside Angelina Jolie, we can do that.”
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More Videos of the Day: R.I.P. Gillo Pontecorvo
10/13/2006 5:00:00 PM
Just got word that the great Gillo Pontecorvo, director of the awesome Battle of Algiers and the even more awesome Burn!, has passed away. Algiers had gained some renewed notoriety of late, because it has proven almost embarrassingly prescient in the War on Terror. To see what I’m talking about, watch the clip above.
And an extra one, for the heavy-duty film geeks in the crowd. The final shot of Pontecorvo’s film Kapo is one that has been debated endlessly, especially by the French. Jacques Rivette deemed it and its maker “worthy of the most profound contempt.” Serge Daney, in a seminal piece (entitled, appropriately enough, “The Tracking Shot in Kapo”) echoed said contempt. Judge for yourself. (Be warned: This is the final scene of a movie you most likely haven’t seen. Proceed at your own risk.)
Regardless of what one may think of this scene, Pontecorvo was one of the greatest of filmmakers. He will be missed.
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Take Five: Political Comedies Completely Divorced From Reality
10/13/2006 4:00:00 PM
We're back, and we're honoring Robin Williams' Man of the Year with five movies it reminds us of. It's really a whole subgenre, these toothless "satires", but maybe reality is too grim. Hey, here's an idea for a political comedy... an enormous douchebag frat boy coke addict fuckup somehow gets to be president, and then some kind of national catastrophe makes people think he's the shit, for like five years! What? Why isn't anyone laughing?
Dave (1993)
After Ivan Reitman stopped specializing in making movies for Bill Murray to be funny in, he embarked on a decade long mission to make heartwarming films that were also completely idiotic, most of which featured Danny DeVito and Governor Schwarzenegger talking funny at each other or being pregnant. But right in the middle he made a charming little picture called Dave, about a presidential look alike taking over for the real president. President Bill Mitchell (Kevin Kline) has a stroke while visiting his mistress, and chief of staff Bob Alexander (Skeletor) brings in Dave Kovic (also Kline) to impersonate the commander in chief while he recovers. It's all a fiendish plot for Skeletor to gain control of the country until Kovic embraces his role as the president and goes onto convince the country that the pres is a real cutey now. Then he convinces the cabinet to completely re-arrange the budget to rescue a homeless kids' shelter. Then he fakes a stroke to go back to his real life while Vice President Ben Kingsley takes over. Probable!
Speechless (1994)
According to writer Robert King and director Ron Underwood, this romance with Michael Keaton and Geena Davis as warring speechwriters was not inspired by the across-the-aisle romance between James Carville and Mary Matalin, the respective political strategists for Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush in the 1992 election. And we can believe them -- mainly because, for all its alleged behind-the-scenes insight, this tepid comedy is more a feeble attempt to revive old-fashioned romance than an attempt to skewer the political status quo. Actually, the most haunting thing about it today is the hunky Christopher Reeve's appearance as Geena's absentee boyfriend.
The Contender (2000)
Why is it here? It's not even a comedy, you say? We beg to differ. This purportedly hard-hitting drama about a female vice presidential nominee (Joan Allen) who gets smeared by the Republican machine for having engaged in a sex orgy in college (don't get too excited - turns out it never actually happened) is so hilariously over-the-top it makes Aaron Sorkin look like Carl-Theodor Dreyer. You'd think that casting Gary Oldman as the chief Republican heavy would have been blunt enough, but they also make sure to give him a catastrophically receding hairline and feature him sitting in dimly-lit rooms listening to ominous classical music and eating bloody steaks. Oh, and Allen's final speech to Congress is a real howler -- a litany of liberal platitudes so shrill that it might make even the most militantly progressive viewers shrink in their seats.
Bulworth (1998)
The story of an aging Democrat firebrand looking to commit suicide after having betrayed all of his ideals sounds like it might just be interesting. Mildly insightful, portrait-of-a-man type stuff. Until you find out it's in the hands of Warren Beatty. Warren Beatty's version of that story has the aging Democrat get his groove back by having a nervous breakdown and compulsively freestyling to crusty white folk on the campaign trail and sleeping with Halle Berry, the woman he hired to assassinate himself. Bulworth is chock full of vacuous proselytizing on how to fix all that ails America's lowest economic class but the plot itself is so absurd as to be insulting. Halle Berry would sleep with Warren Beatty? What am I, stupid?
Forrest Gump (1994)
Oh, stop rolling your eyes at us. Forrest Gump is an easy target here, sure, but it's also the most flagrant offender. As for anyone about to say it's not a comedy, let's all agree that Gary Sinese playing Lieutenant Nubs is hilarious. Hanks' Gump does it all. He's a wholesome American hero who upholds family values at the exact same time as unwittingly championing complex social issues as civil rights and third wave feminism. He is an understanding lover when the AIDS epidemic hits home. He's a good soldier who also speaks his mind about the horrors of war. He's an entrepreneur, a rock star. He meets every single damned President from 1960 to 1985 and they all love him. Partisan politics mean nothing to Gump. But he also causes Watergate. That's right. Gump sees people with flashlights in one of the rooms at the hotel he just happens to be staying at on June 17, 1972 and sets in motion the biggest public reveal of governmental corruption in the history of the country. ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!
-- John Constantine and Bilge Ebiri
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Video of the Day 2: 2001 Meets Goodfellas
10/13/2006 1:00:00 PM
It’s old, sure, but this ingenious mash-up that re-imagines HAL 9000 as Joe Pesci from Goodfellas is still hilarious.
More importantly, it gives us a chance to point to Ajit Anthony Prem’s enormously valuable collation of various Scorsese-related clips (shorts, spoofs, trailers, interviews, etc.) over on this page here. A number of readers enjoyed our linking to The Big Shave the other day. Check out Ajit’s page for more.
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The Brits Discover No-Budget Filmmaking
10/13/2006 12:01:00 PM
"When former schoolmates Aschlin Ditta and Ed Blum sat in a north London pub devising a film that could be made for as little money as possible, they decided to set everything around the corner, on Hampstead Heath. One of the keys to making a successful film is having a script that can be brought to life on the resources available, and Ditta and Blum had no resources.
"They pulled it off, though. A year-and-a-half on from that pub meeting, Scenes of a Sexual Nature - written by Ditta and directed by Blum - premiered on Sunday as the closing film of London's Raindance film festival. A romantic comedy featuring 14 established British actors - including Ewan MacGregor, Catherine Tate, Sophie Okonedo, Gina McKee and Mark Strong - Scenes is probably the most star-studded home-grown movie of the year..."
- The Guardian reports on the beginnings of a new no-budget filmmaking movement in the UK.
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Video of the Day 1: Deliver Us From Evil Trailer
10/13/2006 11:00:00 AM
We’ve reported a couple of times on the MPAA’s decision to “red-band” the trailer for Amy Berg’s devastating documentary on child sexual abuse in the Church. Since the red-banding effectively limits the ability of the trailer to be screened, we figured we’d do our part to remedy the situation and let you see it here.
It opens today, by the way, in Boston, New York, and Los Angeles, and goes wider at the end of the month. Go here to find out where it’s playing.
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