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 Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 3:34 am Post subject: _The Crying Game_ DVD; _The Inner Life of Martin Frost_ |
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In 1992, Neil Jordan's superbly written _The Crying Game_ made
something like 100 million at the box office. It was interesting to
look back at the DVD extras now and learn for the first time what
a struggle it was to make the film. It was a major comeback by
Jordan, after his abortive Hollywood period and the brilliant but
ignored _The Miracle_., and producer Stephen Woolley deserves
all the credit in the world for pushing the project through. I was
surprised at its failure in Europe -- rejected by Cannes and the
British public. Then Miramax (who backed _The Miracle_ too)
bought it and gave it a great advertisement campaign, and it went
on to make an amazing 60+ million in the U.S. _The Crying Game_
was well shot but it was the paradigm of a writer's film: unpected,
brilliant, filled with memorable characters and understated dialogs,
and does not draw attention to the writer himself/herself.
In 1995 _Smoke_, penned by the famed New York writer Paul
Auster, made almost 10 million dollars too. It is an example of
a writer's film should *not* be: self-conscious to the point of
being conceited about its dialog and supposedly interesting
characters (notably William Hurt standing in as the writer;
it was probably Hurt's most insufferable, phony performance).
I never like Wayne Wang as a director anyway, and his all-too-
obvious shot of a slow close-up to a writer's mouth is one of
the worst directorial decisions I've seen in cinema. But
as an independent film _Smoke_ was different from the new
breed indie that will drown the market. It is written by real
writers who have a bit of life experience, not by film-school
male graduates who have interchangeable adolescent hangups
and yearning about making movies. Perhaps in retrospect
one should pine for something more like Paul Auster's films.
Which brings us to his self-directed _Inner Life of Martin Frost_.
It is a delight if something of a light-weight, really two to three
short stories woven into a film. As ever Auster is concerned
with imprisonment and the mind of writer weaving fantasies
(no doubt the themes are related). But it is a much more relax,
rural film than the previous work made from his writing (also
_Lulu on the Bridge_, _The Music of Chance_, and _Blue in
the Face_). On the DVD, every segment opens with shots
of trees and leaves. The actors are also more naturalistic;
David Thewis as the writer surrogate brings some much needed
intensity and emotion to his role, because he actually has something
at stake -- his muse played by Irene Jacob. Jacob in her mature
years begin to channel Fanny Ardant more and more, and the
scene where she applies make-up is particularly lovingly shot
-- reminiscent of Cocteau heroines as well. The film does has
a fancifulness of Cocteau, if only in a light-hearted way. There
are manyfunny but touching scenes about Martin Frost figuring
out the rules of the muse business, and his effort to break the
rules and bring back the woman he loves from the powers that be.
Well, the discussions of philosophy, of Berkeley and Hume,
is reduced to puns and pronouciations. But as cinematic collection
of short stories, the film is truly charming. There is something
very English and structured about this story shot in Portugal.
The education of a failed muse (played by the
director's daughter) is interesting and imaginative as well; she
tries and fails to inspire the wannabe writer/plumber played by
Michael Imperiolli, and their scene together plays like _Waiting
for Godot_. By himself, however, the Imperiolli character is
insufferable and exhibits all the excesses and undisciplined
writings of _Smoke_. It is the only major annoyance in the
refreshing film. By the way, _The Inner Life of Martin Frost_
opens the New York Film Festival, and proceeds to make
about three thousand dollars in ticket sales. Such are the
changes in our times.
As usual, if the imdb happens to be correct -- happy birthday
to Irene Jacob! |
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