The
seminal 1950’s beat classic ‘ON THE ROAD’ has been adapted for the screen by
Jose Rivera and directed by Brazilian Walter Salles (motorcycle diaries),
executive produced by Francis Ford Coppola. Starring British born Sam Riley
(Control), Kristen Stewart (Twilight saga, The Runaways), Garrett Hedlund
(Tron) and Kirsten Dunst (Melancholia) Tom Sturridge (The Boat That Rocked).
In
the first completed adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s ‘On the road’. It has long
been said the book was inspired by a rambling thousand-word letter from close
friend Neal Cassady (author of The first third). Based on a sort of truth
turned examination into the creative process, Kerouac made notes as he went on his
expansive road trip, turning his notes into spontaneous prose and unconscious
streams of thought which played out like a John Coltrane jazz improvisation. He
wrote the novel in three weeks (almost as long as one Coltranes' tracks) typing
continuously onto a 120ft sheet of paper it was this process of working that
became synonymous with Kerouac’s work. And a blue print for a generation of
artists from poets to filmmakers the work of John Cassavetes being a prime
example of beat movie making.
The seeking out and filming of derelict buildings has been an interest of mine for some time, some are of historical relevance and some are just of visual interest. The building I filmed in Frankfurter Berlin was a derelict institution from the 1930's. The sound design was created to give the viewer a sense of isolation.
The
Ryan Gosling and Nicolas Winding Refn bromance continues unabated by the DRIVE Oscar
snubs, they crack on with their next ultra dark thriller ONLY GOD
FORGIVES.
Here’s
a quick breakdown to wet your appetite Julian (Ryan Gosling) runs a Thai boxing
club in Bangkok, where he escaped to ten years earlier after killing a cop. The
club is a front a very organised drug operation, even though he has the respect
of the underworld he feels empty a shell of the man he once was.
So
when his brother murders a prostitute and a retired cop Chang (also known as
the Angel of Vengeance) exacts his own kind of vengeance by allowing the father
of the dead prostitute to kill her killer after which he then restores order by chopping
off the fathers’ hand. So when Julian’s mother Jenna (Kristin Scott Thomas) the
matriarchal figure of the criminal dynasty orders him to find his brothers
killer his obsessions turn into soul searching and the search for spiritual
release so Julian challenges Chang to a boxing match which Chang goes onto win.
And there sets the stage for a brutal trail of vengeance by a furious mother.
Will Julian find redemption or will mummy get revenge? Remember there are
no happy endings in a neo-noir thriller just closure some times.
Starring:
woody Harrelson, Sigourney Weaver, Ned Beatty, Ice Cube, Robin Wright, Cynthia
Nixon, Anne Heche.
Set
in 1999 in the Rampart division of the Los Angeles police department, Rampart centres around veteran police officer David Brown who is caught on camera
brutally beating a suspect. This act of brutality sets in motion the
professional and emotional downward spiral of David Brown and in light of the
current department corruption scandals combined with his past sins, his struggle to pull
himself from swamp of his own creation seems immense even his nickname has the
stench of corruption DATE RAPE DAVE.
Brown
attempts to conceal his work life from his family life soon start to unravel. Which in its self is a
usual living arrangement between himself and his two ex-wife’s’ who happen to
be sisters (Ann Hech and Cynthia Nixon) and his two daughters. Internalizing
his growing paranoia, anguish and fear of the on coming tidal wave of excrement
about hit the fan he turns to aging mentor Hartshorne (Ned Beatty) who
regularly dispensing him bad advice while relieving him of his cash which he is hemorrhaging at rapid rate, in his
search for escapism he turns to drugs, alcohol and random sexual encounters,
and its on one of his many cruising expedition he meets Linda Fentress (Robin
Wright) the lawyer sent to entrap him, Joan Confrey (Sigourney Weaver) sits and
waits holding the rope as his life starts to spin out of control and the rope
starts to tightens Browns grip starts to loosen. Woody Harrelson portal of
David Brown an aggressive chauvinist misanthrope exhibiting sexist, homophobic
and racist tendencies somewhat clashes with his attraction to black women and
his sometime hedonistic outings’ and the emotional support he gains from his
gay daughter. Brown is an un-sympathetic and brutal character on the surface
but thanks to Ellroy’s writing he leaves an open window into the complexity of Browns so even
though you hate what he represents you may find yourself sympathising with his
predicament.
I
can’t leave this review without mentioning the cinematography of Bobby Bukoski
the tight claustrophobic camera angles the intense use of colour. A prime
example was his drug fuelled bender the vivid colour saturation the intoxicating lighting and ripping sound design layered with the visual intensity of the club
scene managed to translate his emotional state of mind to the audience and that
is what any great cinematographer should be able to do, not forgetting the amazing
editing skills Jay Rabinowitz.
No wonder Damon Albarn looked so haggard and drained at the Brits Awards, he was only working on yet another project this time with pump royalty Converse, collaborating on a set of limited edition Gorillaz Converse pumps and not one to do things by halves he's produced an epic thirteen minute track DO YA THANG along side LCD sound systems James Murphy and Andre 3000 to complement the trainers. Check out the making of the video and the video below.
Writers: Walter Lima
Jr., Glauber Rocha, and Paulo Gil Soares
Cast: Geraldo Del Rey
(Manuel) Yona Magalhaes (Rosa) Lidio Silva (Sebastian)
Country: Brazil
Release date: 1964
Aspect ratio: 4:3 PAL
Language: Portuguese
Shot in Sertao the arid north-eastern region of Brazil BLACK
GOD WHITE DEVIL tells the story of Manuel a poverty stricken cowhand hoping for
a miracle, his life takes a turn for the worst when he kills his corrupt an
abusive boss in a fit of rage.
His actions force him to flee his home after his boss’s
henchmen come after him. After his attempted capture goes horrible wrong including
the death of his mother he tells his wife “We have nothing to take but our
destiny” and so their journey begins.
As outlaws they
soon join up with self-proclaimed saint Sebastian who condones violence in the
name of god, and preached some very disturbing doctrines followed blindly by
his parishioners. Manuel soon becomes his lieutenant carrying out his every
whim in the vain hope he will one day be blessed when they reach their promised
land. A land only his wife believes dose not exist, her scepticism leads her to
be ostracized by the not just Sebastian’s followers but also by Manuel who is
compliant in the sacrifice of their baby son by Sebastian to rid Rosa of the
devil. This single act of infanticide then sets off chain events that lead
Manuel and his wife Rosa having to flee yet again when the assassin Corisco is hired
by a senior priest to assassinate Sebastian he accepts the job with a very
heavy heart, as he himself holds Sebastian in high esteem. But when Corisco
turns up to find this great man already dead he massacres the camp and turns
his attention to seeking out Manuel, pursuing him and his wife across the arid
deserts of Brazil. Not alone for long
they seek shelter in the arms of gang leader Antonio and his heavily depleted
gang. This is where the WHITE DEVIL in the title comes into play as Antonio
changes Manuel’s name to Satan. As he battles with his faith Manuel moves into
a life of crime as a member of Antonio’s gang who wages war on the wealthy
landowners viewing their crimes as part of the fight against the ruling classes
in the name of the oppressed, with Corisco in hot pursuit Manuel lives in
constant fear of capture.
As a visual experience the film takes its style from the
images of the Mexican Mural Movement the public arts movement from the1920’s
lead by Jose Orozco and Diego Rivera whose murals and paintings inspired by the
Russian socialist realism movement went on to document a generation. Glauber
Rocha use of these paintings as visual blueprints married with a washed out hand
held camera with its disjointed framing, experimental use of lighting,
extensive use of symbolism (the rotting horse carcass in the opening shots) the
most obvious use this visual prop was in the boulder scene where the messianic
preacher Sebastian has him carry a boulder up a hill, this scene is clearly
based on the Greek myth of Sisyphus who was condemned to a life of conducting
the meaningless task of pushing a boulder up a mountain then down again. Rocha
has taken the absurdity of the story and applied it to the question of belief and
what makes someone follow someone or something blindly with no real end in
sight just the repetitive act of pushing a metaphorical boulder up and down a
hill searching for meaning and clarity.
This idea is brought sharper into focus with the amazing folk
sound track with the folk singer acting as a narrator as he lyrically charts
the fortunes Manuel and Rosa and their journey to find their destiny. With the
stirring melodies of Bach the atmospheric sound design which detaches and
reattaches to the image, and on many occasions allowing sentences to just hang
in air. The beauty of this style is what feels like out of sequence sound
editing is in fact the abstract sound mixes and the magnification of the
ambient sound married with direct sound that gives the film a surrealist bend
that intensifies the spiritual elements of the film eluding to emotions that
couldn’t be reproduced in pictures. These creative touches became the staple
diet of what became know as CINEMA NOVO. A Brazilian filmmaking movement who
were heavily influenced by the Italian Neorealist cinema (which was also a
strong creative influence for the French New Wave film movement) lead by the
great Federico Fellini and Roberto Rossellini where religious humanism
communism and poetic realism feature heavily in their work. These themes make
regular appearances in the CINEMA NOVE films within a Brazilian and Portuguesa
context. Many of Glauber Rocha films deal with class conflict and social
inequality mixing none verbal representation with cultural symbolism, the
brooding man with the silent women looking on with a powerless sense of
frustration. Rocha’s follow up to BLACK GOD WHITE DEVIL was ANTONIO DAS MORTES in
1969 also known as THE DRAGON OF EVIL AGAINST THE WARRIOR SAINT. A continuation
of the historical tale of class conflict set against the arid backdrop of the
Brazilian Sertao in theatre of absurdities.
Brazilian film history is littered with these little gems, so get
digging you never know what you might find.
Directed by: Sean Durkin Starring: Elizabeth Olsen, Sarah Paulson, John Hawkes
This incredible first feature from writer/director Sean Durkin tells the story of Martha (Elizabeth Olsen) who's story begins at the end of her ordeal as we watch Martha escaping from what looks to be a rural commune, which as the story unfolds is revealed to be an oppressive cult where young girls are brought in and then enslaved by the male leaders limited to one meal a day and sexually abused on regular bases this regressive cult has damaged our protagonist to an irreconcilable degree in desperation she seeks shelter and hopefully protection from her sister Lucy (Sarah Paulson) and we the viewers are asked to piece the past together.
The beauty of this film is that it goes about telling this very horrific story in such a quiet an understated way, so rather than hitting you in the face with the horror of it slowly peels away at it layer by layer showing you the grooming process in a believable context answering those question that we all ask ourselves when we read about these said same cults. How could they have been so gullible? This disquieting feel runs through the film played out most convincingly between the two sisters. Lucy's vapid border line obsessive compulsive, self analytical preening and her emotionally stunted materialistic career obsessed husband Ted (Hugh Dancy) clashes with Martha's ideology developed over her time in the cult as she constantly references ex-cult members and her experiences at the cult as if it were some kind of crutch to help her cope with life out side the cult. As she struggles to integrate into the outside world and her new life with her sister the slow release of her abuse at the hands cult starts to manifest its self in her behavior and her moods become more erratic from lying on the bed as her sisters bed while her sister and partner copulated beneath the sheets through to bouts of incontinence, as the story reveals how she became complicate in the grooming process showing the hunted becomes the hunter the film cleverly calls Martha's victim status into question as she herself begins to seem unsure of what is real and what is imagined it calls into question the validity of her recollections.
Patrick (John Hawkes) the cult leader is cleverly underplayed to a powerfully convincing degree as an abuser he comes across as seducer mesmerizing while in the same breath terrifying, controlled and restricting but still coming across as freeing. By crafting Patrick in such away the director makes it impossible for you completely make up your mind about him as the subtle abuse is mixed with the (the changing of her name to Marcy May) overt acts of sexual abuse and by doing so making for a very ambiguous ending.
Summing up the director took a difficult subject and humanized it reframing from hysterics in favour of strong character studies.
