Nightmare Alley: the two versions

Nightmare Alley, Guillermo del Toro’s new film, is a noir that pays tribute to the 1947 novel of the same name by William Lindsay Gresham. It has an all star cast in Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, and Rooney Mara. I’d been anticipating this film and was lucky to discover that the original Nightmare Alley, Edmund Goulding’s 1947 film starring Tyrone Power, was available on the Criterion Channel. I watched that film first and then saw the current release yesterday. How do the two

compare? Del Toro’s film is lush, stylistic, moody and very atmospheric, brilliantly so.  Goulding’s version is sparer if I can use that term. Both films are set among seedy carnivals and ethically compromised carnies. But Goulding’s film is straightforward with a story that grips from the first scene. Del Toro’s may be “prettier” in its gruesomeness, but the storyline goes missing from time to time; several times I found my mind wandering. Bradley Cooper as lead Stanton Carlisle has the perfect brooding profile but in an effort at authenticity his voice is garbled at times, and it can be all effect and lacking substance. In the 1947 version we can understand everything Power as Carlisle says, and he indeed says more so we can better follow the plot. Meanwhile, in the new version, Willem Defoe is typically nefariously great as barker Clem Hoately. But as much as I like Toni Collette, I preferred Joan Blondell as Zeena Krumbein in the 1947 film. Maybe it’s just “dames” from that period but her physical fulsomeness matched her off the cuff demeanor as a show performer and plausible Carlisle romantic interest. The other problem with the current film is Blanchett. I can’t believe I’m saying this since I’m a huge fan of the multi-talented Blanchett but here she disappoints. Perhaps it’s the script. When Carlisle falls in love with this big city psychologist and the two become thicker than thieves, there’s a near final scene where Blanchett as Lilith Ritter is forced to deliver one or two-word answers that seem so formulated they’re almost laughable to hear. Perhaps if I hadn’t seen the 1947 movie I’d be more impressed with del Toro’s version. After all, the movie is searingly atmospheric and richly depicts a mid-20th century netherworld beloved of noir addicts. One of Canada’s top film critics was so duly impressed. But the current version, while brilliantly executed in terms of sets, costumes and even score, is just too contrived and even pretentious, especially after seeing the leaner but more straightforward and ultimately gripping late Forties flick. 

Windsor a market "we can count on" for Asian films

It took almost a week but Cineplex did respond to my request for an interview about Asian films screening locally (see post Nov. 18). And they set me up with their VP of Film Buying Robert Cousins, no less. Here's the gist of the interview as per my article appearing in companion website, www.WindsorOntarioNews.com.  

You’ve heard of Bollywood. Now there’s Pollywood – the world of Punjabi cinema - and playing at Cineplex’s Silver City cinemas. In fact, Punjabi films have been screening there for several years as part of the theatre chain’s expanding showcase of Asian films. Besides Punjabi there are of course Bollywood, or Hindi language films, as well as Chinese movies. Why has Windsor been selected to screen such a wide variety of films from Asia? “In a lot of Canada it comes down to just regional immigration,” Robert Cousins, Cineplex’s VP of Film Buying, says. “Hindi for years has been the main language of our South Asian business. But Punjabi in Canada is the predominant other language.” Originally, South Asian films booked in Windsor came from US distributors whose advertising in Detroit “was bleeding over into Windsor and who said, ‘why don’t we take a date in Windsor.’ ” Attendance in the succeeding years “has been good,” Cousins adds. “Windsor has been one of those markets that we can count on when we open up a big film.” In terms of general attendance Asian films, like those of Hollywood, vary in appeal “title by title,” he says. “Big titles do extremely well.” The market is “very star-driven” and themes are important. “For the longest time we used to do extremely well with romances, and then there were more action movies,” Cousins says. And titles just don’t last a week. “We treat our South Asian business like we treat out Hollywood business, as long as the public comes to watch it, it plays.” And the films can be watched by the non-Asian community since they all come with English sub-titles. In fact, some non-Asians have discovered this cinema. “They went to one and they realize these are full blown productions,” Cousins says. As well, there are movie styles “that we in North America don’t do anymore.” Melodrama, for instance. “Whether they be Chinese or Indian or other markets heightened emotion – heightened melodrama – is still a big part of the market.” In Windsor Silver City is exclusively the place to watch Asian films. “You want to make sure you can park the films in that theatre” so the audience realizes that’s the place to go to see them.....Recent titles have been romantic comedies Paani Ch Madhaani and Honsla Rakh. And coming this week are Warning and Antim: The Final Truth.

Film clips: Loving to be back in the theatre

It’s one of those things that just bugs you, or me anyway. Watching the trailer to Kenneth Branagh’s new film Belfast, a semi-autobiographical film set during “The Troubles” between Catholics and Protestants in Belfast 1968, the soundtrack blares out the song Everlasting Love. Huh? That song wasn’t on the playlist in 1969. I know, I lived through the year and as a teen was fully aware of the conflict in Northern Ireland. That song was released in 1967. Either Branagh simply loves the song despite the historical inaccuracy or there was a two-year delay in songs from America reaching the British Isles!……I must say I have thoroughly enjoyed a return to bricks and mortar movie theatres. I really didn’t know I’d enjoy the experience as much as I have given the 18 months of lockdown-induced movie streaming at home. Now I’ve seen three films at Cineplex Odeon theatres and among other things love the cinema’s newish deeply comfortable recliner seats. In fact I can’t wait until the next film I want to see, C’mon C’mon (Mike Mills) starring the searing Joaquin Phoenix, opens (maybe this weekend?)…..I have to scratch my head as to why corporate public relations departments do as they do, or don’t. For the past week I have been trying to reach Cineplex’s media team for an interview or at least written comments about the theatre chain’s seeming new screening of ethnic films, in this case two Punjabi features, at its Devonshire cinemas. These are Paani Ch Madhaani and Honsla Rakh. You’d think a PR department would jump at the chance to give more publicity to this new programming for a fast-growing ethnic community. But no. And as I’ve learned from years as a journalist there is often no rhyme or reason why PR departments act as they do…..My most recent Hollywood discovery: watching the 1967 film Up the Down Staircase (Robert Mulligan 1967) on TCM and captivated by lead character Sandy Dennis’s (photo above) performance as novice teacher Sylvia Barrett in a tough NYC high school. A year earlier she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in Mike Nichols’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Everyone should watch this extraordinary movie featuring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.) So, I had to look her up and was surprised to learn of her unconventionality.  She never married and disdained the idea of children. “I never, ever wanted children. It would have been like having an elephant." She also lived with jazz musician Gerry Mulligan and had a curious life as a cat lady, rescuing stray ones “from the bowels of Grand Central Terminal,” according to Wikipedia. At the time of her death in 1992 she was living with more than 20 cats…..And tonight, I can’t wait to watch Mel Brooks’s 1977 High Anxiety, which he directs, and stars!

Bond, yes, Soho horror, no

I want to write this review without describing in any way shape or form the plot of the new James Bond movie, No Time to Die (director, Cary Joji Fukunaga). So, let’s see. The film achieves all the glamour, elan and sophistication of past Bond films - no argument there. Exotic locations – check. Sexy glamorous women – of course. And at least one “shaken not stirred” martini in the mix. Thrills and spills – yes. Bond the Houdini of the spy world? There are numerous scenes. Bond’s trusty Aston Martin is also firing – literally – on all cylinders. Is the plot fantastical and coherent? Yes, and yes, unlike some other 007 flicks. Standout performances? Daniel Craig as Bond is again exemplary embodying the iconic character; too bad this is his last film. Ben Whishaw as nerdy computer genius Q was a bit of a hoot. That subtle humor which undermines any of the characters’ seriousness? Jolly good. Is the movie’s theme song perfect in the 007 genre mode? Yes, and sung by Billie Eilish, a virtual tie with Adele’s in Skyfall (Sam Mendes, 2012). Clocking in at almost three hours, does No Time to Die keep your interest? Well, yes. So, yes, I would give this a three and a half out of five stars, possibly closer to four. Any downsides? The villains could have been more brutally evil; Rami Malek as the dastardly in chief had a blunted edge. There could have been just a little more smooching in said exotic locales. I would have loved to have seen Judi Dench as M. (Ralph Fiennes, who’s good, has the demeanor of the classic aged male spy chief of numerous British films). Léa Seydoux as MI6 psychiatrist Madeleine Swann and Bond’s main squeeze struck me as just a little young and inexperienced for such an operative. I can’t say this is the best Bond film I’ve seen (and I think I’ve seen them all). But it scores among the best for suspense, elegance, coherence and thrills and spills. So, what are you waiting for? Go see it.

Wish I could have half the praise for the other film I caught at a double bill at the Devonshire Cineplex Odeon, Last Night in Soho (Edgar Wright). Alas, it was disappointing and didn’t work. The best thing about the film was its premise, set in London at the height of Carnaby Street and the Swinging Sixties. But credit where due – the period re-creations were very realistic. The soundtrack of course was great and is the best thing about the film. But I can hear those songs anytime. The problem is the film’s theme itself, psychological horror. Eloise ‘Ellie’ (Thomasin McKenzie) moves to London to study fashion design. She becomes obsessed with the city harking back to all the 1960s music she listened to growing up, exemplified by her grand mum’s (Rita Tushingham) era. There are some great special effects creating the ghosts and vampire-like creatures looking startling like the paintings of British artist Francis Bacon. And there is a feminist sub-theme about men as predators. But the horror falls flat. This would have been a better film, sorry, without the horror. It could have been a whimsical travel back in time to Sixties London – an amazing era - such as Woody Allen created in Midnight in Paris (2011). Nevertheless, it was great to see 1960's film grand dame Rita Tushingham after all these years. As it was the last film of the late great Diana Rigg, forever one of my all-time favorites and a youth heart throb as Emma Peel in the original TV series The Avengers. But, seriously, don’t go waste your money and time.

Two lauded directors' most recent charms

I had long been in anticipation of Wes Anderson’s latest, The French Dispatch, since before the pandemic. I finally saw it last week at a Cineplex, the first mainstream theatre I’d been in since the pandemic began. As all things Wes Anderson, The French Dispatch is highly idiosyncratic, whimsical, ironic and slightly absurd and with a cast of dozens including a great array of well-known contemporary actors. It’s based on Anderson’s love of The New Yorker magazine. And the magazine in the film is called The French Dispatch. The characters are based on famed New Yorker editors and writers. Bill Murray plays an editor based on New Yorker co-founder Harold Ross, Owen Wilson on New Yorker travel writer Joseph Mitchell, Jeffrey Wright on James Baldwin and A. J. Liebling. Among the cast are such stars as Liev Schreiber, Edward Norton, Willem Dafoe, Saoirse Ronan, Elisabeth Moss, Frances McDormand, Timothée Chalamet, Jason Schwartzman and Anjelica Huston. From here the film departs. It’s set in France not New York City. And it’s framed around the apparent demise of this writer- writer’s magazine, though the movie insists on calling it a newspaper. The staff must dredge up articles which best represent The French Dispatch’s past glories. And so, Anderson takes us through four separate vignettes – videos taking us inside the articles, if you will - all set in the French town of Ennui (translates as boredom; get it?) And here is where Anderson and his co-writers including Jason Schwartzman have a field day. Every post-war French movie cliché is on display. From down at the heels working class neighborhoods with their butchers and bakeries, to beret-wearing tough guys and classic Citroens to tarty backstreet hookers. This is the real humor of the film. The stories themselves are hugely intricate, sometimes confusing and at times listless. But what Anderson has brought to their production is magnificent, with elaborate sets, costumes merged with cartoons, and a great score by Alexandre Desplat, one of the most prolific movie composers around (The Shape of Water, The King’s Speech). So, while there’s a lot to cinematic marvels to gaze at and plenty of laughs at these mocked clichés, you’re basically left with the feeling, “Okay, good on Wes, give him an E for effort.”

After watching Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person in the World at Montreal’s Festival du nouveau cinema, I thought the characters on the screen were an exact mirror of the audience – young, kind of hip, probably trying to find their ways in careers and life, maybe struggling in relationships, right down to their yoga sessions and environmental consciences. Trier hasn’t made a lot of films but he’s a bit of a cult director for his edgy subjects (addiction and suicide in Oslo, August 31^st (2011) and world strife and a female photojournalist in Louder Than Bombs (2015). I’ve seen all his films except his supernatural thriller Thelma (2017) and Worst Person is his most accomplished. Everything comes together in this story of Julie (Renate Reinsve) who, like much of the youngish audience, is trying to get her life together, walking a tightrope between loyalty to friends and lovers and what’s best for herself (hence the film’s guilt-implied title). The film's structure is at the heart of its appeal. Trier's telling of Julie's story in 12 chapters plus epilogue creates anticipation and pacing and we become truly absorbed in her sometimes wayward life. But the genius of the film is that what's depicted here isn't particularly extraordinary. In fact, the storyline isn’t so much different from most people’s lives (especially those in a Montreal film festival audience). But this true capturing of the utter commonplace is what makes the film so great.

Gaspar Noé's latest both moving and disappointing

France-based director Gaspar Noé has been a festival and fan favorite here at the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma in Montreal, which I’m attending. And Noé has been a favorite of mine. Last night I saw his two latest, Vortex, made earlier this year, and Lux Aeterna, made in 2019. Vortex is a major turn from his previous work. From his first film, I Stand Alone (1998) through Irreversible (2002), Enter the Void (2009) and Climax (2018), Noé’s oeuvre has been characterized by fantastic stories of the base instincts of human beings in nihilistic worlds fueled by psychological repression, drugs and exuberant partying (no doubt a reason he has such a cult following among certain film hipsters). I Stand Alone is a mesmerizing story of a horse meat butcher (Phillipe Nahon) who descends into human butchery as we follow his increasingly alienated internal monologue. Irreversible, told in reversed chronological order, is the story of a harrowing rape and revenge. Enter the Void is a literal out of body experience through the nightclub skies of Tokyo by an assassinated drug dealer.  Climax is an ensemble story of a group of dancers’ afterparty that goes terribly wrong. But Vortex is very different indeed. Calm, quiet and with a cast of mainly two people, it’s a reflection on aging and dementia.  Noé says the film was inspired by his own near fatal brain hemorrhage in 2019 when he realized how close to death he was, and by a visit to his aging father in Argentina. The two hours and 22-minute film follows an aging couple (Italian giallo film director Dario Argento and Françoise Lebrun) in very close surroundings as they go about what turns out to be their final days. Their cramped apartment is teeming with books, magazines, video cassettes, a testament to their previous careers as Paris intellectuals, he a cinema scholar and she a psychiatrist. But in a matter of weeks their lives decline precipitously as the “dream within a dream” - which the husband philosophically describes as life at the couple’s last normal dinner together - comes to an end. While a quiet picture light years removed from his previous hip hop and psychedelia inspired cinematography, Noé is still inventive enough, screening the ending credits, in reverse order, at the film’s beginning, and shooting the movie in split screen, as if telling the stories from the characters’ individual viewpoints. There’s nothing particularly special about the story itself and in this way it kind of disappoints. It’s one we’ve all heard of or seen, of the cruelty than can be a person’s very last years. But what is remarkable is the acting, so realistic you wonder if in fact these people really are going through these experiences and only Noé, enfant terrible that he is (or was), would capture it on film. Though even he wouldn’t stoop to that level of exploitation…...The

earlier film, Lux Aeterna (Aeterna in Latin meaning indestructible), clocks in at 52 minutes, and is kind of a novella and send up of the world of filmmaking, filled with feminist imagery and themes of strong women, witchcraft, Joan of Arc and burning at the stake. Starring Charlotte Gainsbourg it has more to do with a film like Climax, with an ensemble cast caught up in disorganization and turbulence during a B movie film shoot. Personal recriminations abound as the characters almost laughably try to assemble a scene of super models being burned on the pyre. But despite the unruliness and rancor the film, perhaps because of its brevity, lacks a completeness and is unsatisfying. Vortex, by comparison, is deeply satisfying though very disappointing for anyone expecting the exuberant mayhem that has characterized Noé’s past work.

My newest discovery - Finland's Aki Kaurismäki

My newest discovery in the world of film is Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki. Now I’m hooked, having spent the weekend watching six of his films. Thanks again to the Criterion Channel for bringing this fabulous director to my attention. Kaurismäki, 64, has been making films since 1983. And he’s won plenty of awards including being nominated for best foreign film (The Man Without a Past) for the 2002 Oscars. Perhaps he’s best known for 1989’s Leningrad Cowboys Go America. Over the weekend I watched films from two of his famous trilogies and a later film. First, Kaurismäki’s films are characterized by basic plots, minimal sets, and dialogue. Often the same group of actors appear in each film. One might think this too humdrum, but the lack of dialogue and monotone character expressions draw us deeper into the characters' thinking and motives. The first film, from Kaurismäki’s Finland Trilogy, was Drifting Clouds (1996). Here, we’re introduced to what was once a fine dining restaurant in Helsinki losing its aged patrons and facing a money squeeze, resulting in closure. This displaces the staff and in particular our heroine Illona, the head waitress, played by Kati Outinen (photo), an outstanding actress and something of a Finnish cinema icon. Down and out, she applies for other jobs but can’t find one. She finally gets a job in a dive owned by a criminal, which is forced to close due to tax violations. Her apartment’s furniture is repossessed. Will things ever look up for our Illona? The next film was the aforementioned The Man Without a Past, which won the Cannes Grand Prix in 2002 but which I found the least interesting of the films. This time our hero is “M” (Markku Peltola) and Irma (the remarkable Kati Outinen again). M has been beaten up and can’t remember his past. Irma is a Salvation Army worker. But even her life is of empty purpose. Will the two be happy?  In the next film, Shadows in Paradise (1986), part of Kaurismäki’s Proletariat Trilogy, a much younger Outinen plays a grocery clerk, Illona, who also loses her job, the third time that year “through no fault of my own.” She falls in love with a garbageman, Neander (Matti Pellonpää). How often are garbagemen celebrated in movies? The next film in the trilogy is Ariel (1988). Again, we have working class people who, through no faults of their own, lose jobs or are the victims of powers they can’t control. Our hero Taisto (Turo Pajala) is jailed for defending himself after being attacked. He meets a single mom, Ermelo (Susanna Haavisto), a meter maid frustrated by her job. They both long for escape. The final film in the trilogy is The Match Factory Girl (1990). Here again is the wonderful Outinen as Iris who works in, well, a match factory (fascinating how matches are made). A homely young woman who can’t meet men, one night she’s picked up in a bar. The relationship has unforeseen consequences. The last film I watched was made almost 20 years later with an entirely different cast and theme. The Other Side of Hope (2017) tells of a Syrian immigrant’s escape to Finland, a “good” country. Yet Scandinavia is and isn’t what Khaled (Sherwan Haji) expected. I mentioned that all these films are characterized by minimalist plots and dialogue, the characters often expressionless and seeming to move through life in a glum almost mechanical state. Tragedy besets them yet there is redemption, another Kaurismäki trait. And despite the overall gloominess there is humor, often dark and turning up when you least expect it. Finally, in every film, there are nods to a pre-digital past with older style radios and jukeboxes, always jukeboxes. The soundtracks? Finnish pop with beautiful mournful lyrics. And blues, mainly blues. And the lyrics punctuate the characters’ traumas. In The Match Factory Girl, our loveless Iris contemplates her future to, “When you give everything only to find disappointment.”