My Current Director Obsession: Eugene Green

I was introduced to the works of Eugene Green through a secret underground society, which may be a severe exaggeration. Eugene Green, an American-born, French filmmaker, has managed to strip down film to its barest elements of plot and photography, in the process bringing out maximal levels of emotion. His films, made on miniscule budgets, shun special effects, stylized costumes and other such excessive elements, placing all focus on beautiful cinematography, realistic performances and some of the most beautiful music ever placed on film. Green has made seven films between 2001 and 2009. Unfortunately, I have only been able to view two of his films so far, but I am already hooked.

Le Pont des Arts

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0410466/

Le Pont des Arts tells a very simple love story between two university students on their way to receiving their master’s degrees in subjects that they do not care about, so that they may begin living. Adrien Michaux’s Pascale, for example, is writing a paper on Andre Breton’s materialist transcendentalism, which he admits he know nothing about. This relatable sense of ennui is carried along throughout the rest of the film, with almost-expressionless performances, simple, static shots and many cross-cut conversations in close-up. This sense of futility, which is especially relatable to the modern university graduate, is only occasionally broken for extended musical scenes, where Natacha Regnier’s beautiful voice makes us all forget that we have no hope and that life is ticking away while we are trying to begin living. This film also contains outstanding performances from Dardenne veterans Olivier Gourmet and Jeremie Renier. This film is a great introduction to the simple beauty of Green’s filmic style. It is, however, his previous film which first caught my eye and made me believe that there was still unexplored territory in cinema.

Le Monde Vivant

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0364526/

Le Monde Vivant is a film without equals. The film tells the story of a brave knight and his trusty lion who fight to free a princess from an evil ogre. Of course, with Green’s low-budget aesthetics, the knight wears jeans and a shirt with no armour, the lion is a dog and the ogre is a guy in a suit, taking the film back to the days of the creature feature. These small touches are certainly played for laughs, but what makes this film so perplexing is the fact that it somehow avoids devolving into farce. While the film is clearly very different from the Arthurian films of the past or the present CGI-fest, dragon films, it still somehow works. The heroics are there, the sense of adventure is still visible and the viewer still gets dragged in, hoping that the guy in jeans kills the rubber-suit-wearing fellow and spills his fake blood on the ground. Mixed with Green’s signature style and beautiful cinematography, this is a film that defies all odds and…works. This film, with its childish wonder (after all, is it not simply a game of make-believe?), may make you believe in fairy tales, but it will certainly make you believe that brilliant works can be created with small budgets.

Thoughts on Blue Jasmine

The following may contain spoilers to Blue Jasmine, as well as several Mike Leigh films.

            Woody Allen has seemed like a relic of the past for a little over a decade. Once upon a time, he was one of the greatest directors working in the cinematic medium. However, his career got to a point where he was making films that were either terrible (Cassandra’s Dream) or good enough (Midnight in Paris). The genius behind Zelig, Love & Death and Bananas seemed all but gone, seemingly unable to create a film that did not look like an inferior reiteration of a previous film. This is what I thought for a long, long time.

I am officially taking it back. The genius is still within Woody Allen and it has come out in the form of the surprisingly dark Blue Jasmine. I will admit that I expected something awful as soon as the credits began to roll. Allen’s trademark opening credits, white Windsor font on a black background, began rolling, immediately inviting me to write off the film as quickly as possible. However, the first scene dissuaded such fears, with Cate Blanchett telling an old woman a series of very personal stories, in a scene that is hilarious, but somehow…off. This is the miracle of Blue Jasmine, the film is so bipolar, with its rapid transitions between comedy and tragedy, that the viewer is unable to truly feel anything before the next emotion is tossed out. For example, the film includes a rather violent scene depicting domestic abuse. This scene is instantly followed by a funny scene where Blanchett looks for her cell phone. It is quite amusing watching an audience go from a gasp to a laugh, when they are so emotionally confused that they do not know whether laughing is an appropriate response. This bipolarity also finds its way into the technical aspects of the film. Near the beginning, I was struck by how “badly” edited the film was. One scene is suddenly cut, with no consideration given to music or pacing, to go back in time or to another location. In short, the film seemed to have terribly visible editing (for an example of visible editing, check out Norman Jewison’s otherwise brilliant …And Justice for All). However, it slowly became clear that this was an indication of both this bipolarity and Blanchett’s inability to stay in one state of mind for too long, occasionally bringing the past back with her, talking to people in the flashbacks far too late. The cinematography of the film is also heavily complicit in its insanity, but that is better left to be seen rather than described.

            I will also admit that the main reason that I was excited to see this film was because of Sally Hawkins’ involvement. Ever since Happy-Go-Lucky, I have been in love with Sally Hawkins and her unique acting style. I have also been looking forward to hearing her speak with a Brooklyn accent! I am also a big fan of Cate Blanchett, but other than these two women, I was worried about the other people involved with the film. I also take back all of my doubt, because everyone in this film gave an incredible performance. Some of that is to be expected (Hawkins, Blanchett, Louis C.K. (who I had never been a fan of before this film)). There was one person who really surprised me, though: Andrew Dice Clay. My familiarity with Clay has been limited to his homophobic, misogynistic stand-up persona and his blowing up in television interviews. I was not aware that Clay had the ability to show emotion. Well, he does! The thing that makes that scene, near the end of the film, all the more shocking is that Clay plays someone like his stand-up persona for the majority of the film.

            Finally, I would just like to point out a clear influence on this film. Allen took a lot of cues, whether intentionally or unintentionally, from Mike Leigh. There are some superficial elements on the surface, everything from the presence of Leigh muse, Sally Hawkins, to the constant presence of alcohol. These are, of course, not limited to the films of Leigh. The truly Leigh-esque elements begin with the in-depth study of mental illness. Allen has never really been obsessed with mental illness, occasionally making whimsical tales out of events that may be seen as mental illnesses (Zelig being a prime example). The film’s apathetic lack of focus in its look at Jasmine’s illness (possibly schizotypal personality disorder) is very similar to Leigh’s handling of Nicola’s anorexia in Life is Sweet or Johnny’s schizophrenia in Naked. All three films give us a clear look at mental illness, while refusing to bring it front and centre, keeping it in the shadows. Similarly, Blue Jasmine’s ending is very much a Leigh ending. A Mike Leigh ending, which can always force tears from even the most hardened individual, usually consists of a heavily faulty character giving up on ever living a normal life, running away from help, giving up everything and accepting a life of banishment from society. Johnny runs away from the women who want to offer him help. Career Girls ends with the separation of two friends with the express knowledge of what happened to their third roommate. Happy-Go-Lucky and Another Year end with a realization of reality, whether the reality of the world around you or one’s own reality. Even Bleak Moments ends with this scene. Blue Jasmine, similarly, ends at the point where Jasmine has sunk as low as is humanly possible. She loses everything, leaves the house, goes to a park and talks to herself. At this point, she cannot even keep another individual as a captive audience member (when she was more affluent, she could keep an audience; by the end, she is just another mentally-ill, homeless woman). This should not, however, take anything away from Allen. This film is an entirely different direction from any Allen film I have ever seen. Woody Allen has created something magnificent.

On another note, I am currently four films away from finishing Billy Wilder’s filmography. After that, perhaps it is time to tackle the remains of Woody Allen’s filmography, which totals…30 films.