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NEW DIRECTORS/NEW FILMS 1999 Send This Review to a Friend
Several worthy films we're likely to be hearing more about highlighted the 28th annual New Directors/New Films series presented jointly by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art. Audiences at MoMA were able to preview the latest discoveries that indicate some of what's happening in cinema worldwide.
I couldn't see everything, and as usual new wasn't synonymous with good, but there were enough strong films among those I did catch to make the series worthwhile. Most of the films on the program came from abroad, but one particularly worthy American discovery was Judy Berlin, an accomplished first feature written and directed by Eric Mendelsohn, who creates a special ambience in his Babylon, Long Island setting. His leading characters seem suspended in time and space as their lives reach crossroads.
The story occurs during an eclipse, which offers the opportunity for a dark, moody environment in a town that assumes an other-world-y aura. Mendlesohn is fortunate to have a superior cast, including Aaron Harnick as David Gold, who is back from a failure to achieve success in California, and Edie Falco as Judy Berlin, a former classmate who, against David's advice, has made up her mind to leave for Hollywood to strive for an acting career. David's parents, Alice and Arthur Gold, touchingly played by Madeline Kahn and bob Dishy, have a marriage that is emotionally in limbo, and Arthur's feelings are building up for Barbara Barrie as his teacher colleague at school. Bette Henritze eerily haunts the film as a pitiful but proud elderly woman with memory loss. Others in the cast include Carlin Glynn, Julie Kavner and Anne Meara. Mendelsohn exhibits remarkable control in adhering to the mood he creates and the end result is a thoroughly engrossing, very special work.
Yet another noteworthy home-grown film is Twin Falls Idaho, directed by Michael Polish. He and his identical twin brother Mark Polish play Siamese twins, Francis and Blake Falls, who face a crisis. Francis is ill and dying, but Blake has the potential to live if separation surgery works. Along comes Michele Hicks as Penny, who falls in love with Blake. The film is strongest in its first half, as the Polish brothers--Michael co-wrote the script--set a gallows humor tone. It's a nervy film, with a strange mood to match its strange subject matter. I couldn't help but be fascinated. As the plot develops, the film veers more toward soap opera and stumbles, yet the problem of brothers so close that the prospect of separation by death is more grim than the troubled life they have had to lead is made immediate and moving by the acting and direction.
I was also impressed by West Beirut, a French-Lebanese co-production set in 1975 during the Lebanon warfare and written directed by Ziad Doueiri. The story unfolds mostly from the viewpoint of teenagers trying to deal with life in the midst of division and destruction. There is considerable coming-of-age humor, including a visit to a brothel that bridges the Christian-Muslim chasm. "West Beirut" takes us into a specific time and place and creates a memorable portrait.
Another film that establishes a strong sense of place is Leaf on a Pillow, by director Garin Nugroho of Indonesia. Poverty in Jakarta looms oppressively in this story of woman who gets by as a street vendor and shelters a few of the children who live on the street and survive by their wits. Although rooted in this locale, the tender film is a poignant universal reminder of the toll poverty takes in other urban situations and is somewhat reminiscent of Italian neo-realism.
One film I don't care for is The Wounds, despite its timeliness. Set in Belgrade between 1991 and 1996, it focuses on two youths who become vicious criminals. The film, written and directed by Srdjan Dragojevic, is obviously meant to show the malaise of the situation in Serbia and reflect the many hatreds that exist. But the young punks are so thoroughly obnoxious that one can't work up sympathy for them or regret the end they are doomed to meet. Nor does the story work up much sympathy for Serbia. However, it is effectively filmed.
The French Sitcom, writer-director Francois Ozon's black comedy about a dysfunctional family, reminded me of the old degenerate family sex joke: "Sis, you're better than mother." "So father's been telling me." There's plenty of bizarre comedy in the family relationships and a few amusing twists and turns, which also involve the maid and other outsiders. So far so good. But the ending spoils it as Ozon opts for the supernatural to make a point, and the film is diverted by this silliness. Too bad, for there's perverse fun much of the way.
Orphans, written and directed by Peter Mullan, who as an actor is so good in Ken Loach's "My Name is Joe," offers another exercise in gallows humor. In Glasgow, three brothers and their handicapped sister mourn the death of their mother as she lies in her coffin awaiting her funeral. What happens to the various family members that night is fuel for eccentric comedy. Mullan sees humor in the most dire circumstances and twits the various characters and the penchant of some to solve problems with violence. Funniest is the brother with the strongest sense of obligation who is determined to see that mum gets a proper sendoff despite the lack of focus by the rest of the family.
Offhand I can't recall an another movie that deals enitrely with a seduction that we never get to witness. Such is the case with Thrane's Method, an intense film from Norway written and directed by Unni Straume. Bjorn Sundquist plays Thrane, a man who carefully plans the seduction of Mol, his beautiful married neighbor played by beautiful Petronella Barker. The twist here is that she also is planning to seduce him. Thrane is wary of becoming deeply involved once again, and when the crucial moment comes he hesitates. The entire film is a dance toward the bedroom, with lots of knowing maneuvers. But you may feel cheated by filmus interruptus. I didn't mind because "Thrane's Method" is so clever and well done.
Two other films left me unsatisfied. The German Run Lola Run, written and directed by Tom Tykwer, starts off promisingly with a barrage of technique and inventiveness--the use of fast cuts, music, action adding up to jangling intensity. Lola (Franka Potente) gets a frantic call from her boyfriend Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu), an underworld courier who implores her to come up with 100,000 marks within 20 minutes to replace money he left on a train. If he doesn't get the money to an appointed rendezvous, he says, his gangster boss will kill him.
Lola is off and running and the action is non-stop. But Tykwer outsmarts himself. After the film seems to end, he takes us again over Lola's frenzied route and shows us changed circumstances and a different ending. Fine. But then he pulls the same stunt again. It's too much and weakens the film.
A double ending tends to spoil Lovers of the Arctic Circle, a film from Spain written and directed by Julio Medem, who spins a love story complicated by fate. There's effective use of scenery, including in the Lapland climax, but filmmakers can outfox themselves by trying to be overly clever.
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