Movies nobody I talk to has ever heard of, volume 2

Since somebody went 4/5 on my last list of obscure movies, here are a few more (and I know you must have seen Serenity, Nobo):

The Big Blue

Possibly the best movie ever made about holding your breath, The Big Blue is loosely based on the life of free diver Jacques Mayoll and his friendship and rivalry with Enzo Molinari, the first to go below 100m without any breathing equipment, leapfrogging each other's records while doctors warned that at the depths they were aiming for they were passing the limits of the human body. Jean-Marc Barr's childlike portrayal of Mayoll is like a dolphin out of water, fascinated by but unable to fathom the human beings around him. I instantly became a huge fan of Jean Reno after I saw him in his role as Enzo, the grand and boisterous son of Italy around whom the world of free diving revolves (and an affectionate send-up of Italians by a French actor and director). The last scene the two have together is a practical test for the full range of human emotion, if your SO can't squeeze out a single frosted tear they may be a sociopath... run before they put on Huey Lewis and the News.

There are two versions of this film available, the director's cut and the chopped down American release that cuts out an hour and in so doing makes an entirely different movie. The implication and emotional tone of the ending is strikingly different with the scenes missing from the American release, which goes even farther in tacking on a cloyingly happy dolphin montage, to the point where the entire genre of the film goes from tragedy to romance. I enjoyed both, but the happy ending of the American edit would probably seem cloying after seeing what the director intended, and Luc Besson's reaction to it was reportedly “They ruined my movie.” Make of that what you will, but I enjoyed both versions.

Gods and Monsters

I have raved endlessly about this film to any and all who would listen, because I think it's a remarkably underrated film that should stand out as a highlight in several careers. It's a largely imagined account of the last days of James Whale, the director who created some of the most iconic images in film: Frankenstein's monster and the bride of Frankenstein. There are three brilliant movies permanently linked in my mind as the children of Whale's original 1931 film Frankenstein, all works of art that expand on it in spectacular and subtle form: Bride of Frankenstein for it's visual craft and for the fascinating subtext in every gesture, Young Frankenstein because it's quite possibly the funniest film ever made (and is certainly the pinnacle of Mel Brooks' lofty career), and Gods and Monsters. The dramatic tragedy punctuated by mystery and wit is enough to make it a brilliant and tragically underrated film, as is Sir Ian McKellen living it up playing Whale as alternately elder statesman of film and winking, crumbling queen, an old man in his last days confronted with a man to whom he cannot seem to lie, and layer by layer the lies from which he constructs his facade and his dignity are all stripped away. What makes it a bit special is the way all the characters are based on Whale's cast from Bride of Frankenstein: Whale is Dr. Pretorius (McKellen), his housekeeper is Igor (Vanessa Redgrave), his brooding, flat-topped gardener is the Monster (Brendan Fraser), and his ex-boyfriend channels Colin Clive's closet-case Dr. Frankenstein from Bride, to name a few. After Gods and Monsters, I couldn't watch Bride of Frankenstein with out bursting out laughing at almost every pleading look Colin Clive gives the rest of the cast while Ernest Thesiger plays his mad scientist buddy as a screaming queen giving jealous glares to Frankenstein's naïve wife, and they sneak off to the laboratory for unnatural acts of procreation.

The Dreamers

This may not actually be so underrated, but I still like it. It's the last film (so far) by Bernardo Bertolucci, director of such films as The Last Tango in Paris and Il Conformista, and other movies I've never gotten around to watching. The film is about three students in Paris in 1968 amidst rioting and piles of garbage in the street, a pair of French siblings whose relationship is so close as to be incestuous, and an American kid who becomes absorbed into their circle as they camp out in their parents' empty flat over the summer. The independence and presence of an outsider changes the dynamic between the two siblings, who have never faced certain consequences of their adolescence and growing sexual desire, where no matter how many layers of art and film and pretension they pile on to themselves, they are being painfully forced by biology to confront the question of whether they will continue to grow up or remain where they are. For all three, the images they have of themselves and of each other begin to come apart as they find there is no way to put all three pieces together, the American pacifist who dreams of Paris as an intellectual refuge and these beautiful French children as stimulating lovers, the sister who has one man too many, and the brother who finds himself reaching farther out into the world than his companions can handle. But really, the only reason I saw it is because Eva Green is naked for like half this movie. It's fairly adventurous in what it presents sexually, so if you don't want to see a buck naked Eva Green digging for Michael Pitt's half-erect manroot, consider yourself warned, but I still enjoyed it.

Children of Men

I raved about this movie before but nobody took this as inspiration to go see it. In fact I've only ever met one other person who's admitted to seeing this movie, but she said it should have won an Oscar for best picture, squeaking past The Departed. I wouldn't go that far, but this is a case of a good movie turned into something special by its cinematography. The entire film is shot in extremely long takes with extensive movement through real locations, where for instance the camera follows Clive Owen through houses until he finds a spot to eavesdrop on an ongoing conversation, and this makes it one of the most engrossing films I've ever seen. In the opening, we follow Clive Owen for a few minutes out of a coffee shop and into the street where he adds a little eye-opener from a flask, and this makes it feel so real when the shop explodes in the next instant. The last movie I saw that was this grounded was Dead Man's Shoes, also seen by nobody. Michael Caine seems to have a ball as an aging hemp-clad hipster, Julianne Moore is effervescent as a terrorist cell leader, Chiwetel Ejiofor hits another near perfect mark as a fanatical nemesis, and it's just a generally all-round incredibly well-executed film. The theme of this film uses the premise of no children being born for eighteen years and the resultant breakdown of society as a metaphor for a declining Western culture that talks of nothing but death and immigrants, and it puts a chilling face on the future in the manner reminiscent of Blade Runner's polluted, filthy neon cage.

Serenity

I don't think you get to be a nerd without seeing Serenity. That may or may not be an appealing distinction, unless you're the self-described “nerd-slut” I was dancing with at the Wittemaus-Dragonlady wedding last week after my uncoordinated dancing style that requires a stiff vodka tonic in my hand scared away all the straight girls... but I digress. Serenity is the brilliant farewell to Joss Whedon's “Firefly”, killed before its time after being pre-empted for baseball almost every night of it's run on network TV. It does what so many of these types of properties fail to do: it finds a story to tell that shows a men and a women changed by their experiences, in a story big enough to justify breaking out of the small screen, telling the tale of Captain Malcolm Reynolds finding the human heart has an undeniable craving for something greater than ourselves, and uncovering the dirty little secret of a society that delivers piece and love only at the point of a sword. The series combines two stories and four genres: Mal's post-civil war western and River's noir spy thriller and sets them both amongst stars circled by ravenous degenerate zombie pirates for a touch of horror, in this half-Blade Runner, half-Unforgiven Chinese American neon punk western. Plus Summer Glau's ballet-trained martial arts showdown is a thing of beauty, as Joss Whedon said, “She told me she could wrap her leg backwards around a pillar and kick somebody in the head so we built her one.” I know it sounds ridiculous, but it is an amazing mix of grand adventure, human drama, politics and espionage, and above all some really laugh out loud visual humor. This film will probably stand as the best work of almost all the people who were part of making it, even if it takes a long time to be properly appreciated. I was hooked by the title card alone, the lonely cello playing over the name Serenity painted on Mal's ship, given all it that represents in the context of this film, and that shot as she hits the atmosphere and fires her engines with the flames firing past the cockpit where Nathan Fillion stands in this grand Captain's pose... I think it just took me back to watching “Albator” on Belgian TV as a kid (Albator was the coolest space pirate ever). If that sounds confusing and terrible, let me give one mainstream description: Firefly/Serenity was described as Star Wars if it had been about Han Solo instead of Luke Skywalker.

Anything with Christian Bale in it

Despite a long string of commercial failures, Christian Bale finally cracked the US market in Batman Begins, resurrecting the role George Clooney left for dead, in the best Batman film since 1966. Before that, and after, he's had a smattering of captivating performances in some intriguing films and some horrible misfires, none of which seem to have been viewed by anybody. Previously the only identification I could offer anyone was “he's the guy from American Psycho”, which was a great performance with a judicious use of the moonwalk, because his mainstream projects sank without a trace. I'm not going to tell anybody to rush out and see the movie where he and Matthew McConaughey are fighting dragons or that tragically forgettable remake of Shaft, but there is some interesting stuff mixed in, like some fine nude bathing work with Emily Watson in Metroland and frolicking naked in a fountain with Ewan MacGregor in Velvet Goldmine, if you're into that sort of thing. And I'll defend both Metroland and Velvet Goldmine as interesting, and The New World as absolutely beautiful if somewhat impenetrably dull. Equilibrium was the quintessential Christian Bale project that apparently played for a week with no advertising so nobody knew it existed until it came out on video, but it's a surprisingly well executed attempt to mix George Orwell and the Matrix, with martial arts, prozac, and more wide-eyed Emily Watson. I'll defend Batman Begins as the best superhero movie I've ever seen, crammed with brilliant British and Irish actors (and a couple from Holland and America thrown in for equal opportunity) and Christopher Nolan, Michael Caine, and Christian Bale got back together to do The Prestige, which I found to be tragically underrated and a hell of a lot of fun, beginning at the end then moving back to the beginning through two men reading each other's diaries in a relentless quest to penetrate each other's misdirection and illusion. Despite repeated jealous suggestions by ex-girlfriends that my enthrallment with Mr. Bale had reached entirely unnatural levels, I have yet to see all of his work, but I still say he's tragically underrated. I still think his scenes in American Psycho with Reese Witherspoon, where he's this dour, evil presence and she's all bubbly and unable to register that he's confessing to being a serial killer are grimly hilarious, and enough reason to make me go see the remake of 3:10 to Yuma.

Local Hero

Because I haven't seen it in a while, I'll throw in an honorable mention for Local Hero, the tale of a Houston oil man called Mac (played by that one guy from Animal House who was on the Sopranos) who goes to Scotland to buy land for a refinery, treading lightly so as not to tip his hand and provoke the locals into protesting the destruction of their town. The locals also tread lightly so as not to seem to eager, because they can't wait to dump their property and cash in. Meanwhile this whole town is such a fascinating collection of strange characters that part of Mac wants to settle down and run the local inn. It's a quirky movie full of dry humor that amongst other things knows how to tell a running joke, and it's quite charming, with a beautiful soundtrack by Mark Knopfler, who for years played the theme from Local Hero to close all his concerts. And you don't eat a rabbit that has a name... or two names!

Addenda on movies

With Arthur et les Minimoys out in theatres, Wired did a story about the pop culture legacy of Luc Besson. It runs through a few of the actors and character archetypes he brought to our attention in his ten films (or really the ones that got released or remade in America). This makes a nice addition to my previous homage to Luc Besson.

I revisited my comments on Casino Royale from when it came out, and I realized multiple viewings did change my view of the film, especially the final third. Knowing what is really going on in Vesper's head, and why she's conflicted and alternates between warm and prickly, really made the romance between Bond and Vesper flow a lot better, and seem less of a typical Hollywood "Now that our lips have brushed I must have your babies" instantaneous romance. It really was a great film, and it definitely held up in the three times I saw it in five days Thanksgiving weekend.

I also finally caught the ridiculous, three and half hour extended using every available bit of footage cut of Apocalypse Now that Francis Ford Coppola released a couple years ago as Apocalypse Now Redux. It is a fantastic film, and most of the additional footage blends in very smoothly. The extended surfing mania of Robert Duvall is hilarious, and well worth checking out, especially Martin Sheen stealing his surfboard for spite... Charlie don't surf!

One thing that was jarring was the chronology felt different. I felt like the original edit had this progression where the farther they go up river, the psychology and mood of the whole group becomes increasingly neurotic, as they get deeper into the same darkness that swallowed up C0lonel Kurtz. Lance seemed like the yardstick as he starts putting on face paint and dropping acid in a combat zone, but in this edit he seems to descend into lunacy a long time before they get near Kurtz. The change in the timeline also changes the implied reason for Willard to complete his mission. The original edit implies that when Kurtz brings him Chef's head, Willard resolves any remaining ambivalence about Kurtz and kills him, which is continuous with his order to Chef to call in an air strike. The extended stay in the camp in the extended edit introduces new motivation, that Kurtz himself knows this is coming to an end. This is a fascinating symmetry with Duvall's Colonel Kilgore, who has the same anxiety that the war may end: both men see that it will end without accomplishment, and there will be a void left in both of them they can't fill.

There's only one segment that feels out of place, the French plantation, which may introduce some interesting material for the film, but comes so late that it seemed out of place with the mood I expected from that section of the film, based on seeing the original edit; it's too jarring to see Capt Willard sit down to a dining room table that far upriver. This may be something that requires more viewings and a fresh perspective, tying it back to the meal at the beginning of the film. Also surprising was that in this longer cut, there's still very little about the man sent before Willard, Capt Colby. There's something to the idea that Kurtz may have broken and converted Colby but eventually just releases Willard, showing the fight going out of Kurtz, so I would have expected a bit more of Colby beyond the initial look Willard gets of him. I still say it's a great movie, and an appropriate one to re-release in this way when America's fighting two more land wars in Asia. Three and a half hours but worth every minute.

The Films of Luc Besson

Apparently in his native France Luc Besson is referred to as an American director for making what come across as very Spielburgesque commercial films. Which makes it even funnier when they get chopped up or remade by American producers, like it's some sort of taunt to French critics: "You think that's American? WE'LL show you American!" Anyways, he has declared he will likely not direct any more films after Arthur et les Minimoys, his tenth, although he has written several others (including District B13). So since nobody asked, here's a look at his ten films, most of which I haven't seen.

1. Le Dernier Combat (1983)

This is one I've never gotten around to seeing, starring Jean Reno as a scarred survivor of a crumbling post-apocalyptic world in which humans have lost the ability to speak. It's a cheaply made, black and white, stark image of that world, expanding on an even cheaper black and white short film, which started the trend for Besson of casting Jean Reno in every movie he made for the next 12 years.

2. Subway (1985)

I love Subway, although I cannot explain why. Christophe Lambert, who was the mysterious Scotsman with an intermittent French accent in Highlander, gets to create another mysterious, unnervingly strange character here in Fred. This film is full of another Besson smirk, English names that sound ridiculous in French: this film's characters include Fred (Fhhhhred), Big Bill (Beeg Beeyill), and Batman et Robin (Botmon and Rhhhoa-Been). Fred is a strange character who crashes a high class party in a tuxedo and impulsively cracks a safe, then escapes into the Paris Metro where he hides out with the strange subculture that lives underground, including the Florist, the Drummer, and a roller-skating purse snatcher (The Roller), all pursued by the underground crime-fighting duo of Parisian cops nicknamed Batman and Robin, as well as the smitten wife of the man whose safe Fred has cracked. There's a non-conformist charm in all of these characters, who lie and steal and lurk in the tunnels underneath a thriving city.

3. The Big Blue

I don't care what anybody says, this is one of my favorite movies of all time, and at one time was my best trick to prove my romantic heart to vulnerable, cerebral girls. (Not that I was trying, it just seemed to happen that way... I've been assured I'm only non-maliciously manipulative.) This is based on the true story of Jacques Mayoll and Enzo Molinari, the first two free divers to go below 100 meters, at a time when conventional wisdom was that a diver's lungs would collapse under that pressure, and such a dive would be suicide without diving equipment. The rivalry between childhood friends Mayoll and Molinari that drove them so far below the surface, as well as Mayoll's uncanny affinity for dolphins and incompatibility with normal human relationships, made this an incredibly captivating film for me. As a friend put it, anybody who can make a movie about holding your breath interesting has some talent. The Big Blue has a noticeably happier American edit, which Besson apparently hated but I actually really enjoy, while the director's cut adds an hour that changes the entire meaning of a lot of the film, making it a lot deeper and more sorrowful, but incredibly moving. Seriously, you people who keep accusing me of not watching enough romantic films because I don't watch a lot of Drew Barrymore romcoms, watch this movie and then shut up.

4. Nikita

Also known for commercial reasons related to its release date as La Femme Nikita, this is possibly my favorite spy movie of all time. The absolutely bad-ass Nikita, excruciatingly sexy, impulsive, and incredibly dangerous, sets the standard for the Sydney Bristows of the world. She begins the story as a drug addict sentenced to death for the murder of a police officer in a poorly conceived robbery attempt, forcibly recruited to work for the French government as an assassin. What I love about Nikita is usually a woman in a spy film has to be some boring, unquestionable paragon, and Nikita is instead a person capable of the most horrific violence that the state found unfit to continue to live. She's not a hooker with a heart of gold either, and her traumatic emotional state prevents her from making normal emotional connections to other human beings, or from dropping right into a normal cover life. The gritty, need-to-know existence of a spy, her violent past, and the difficulty of opening up to somebody who loves her enough to suffer her strange behavior all combines into an impossible situation. This is all tied up in a wild ride full of gun battles, betrayal, emergency corpse disposal, and a brief but memorable appearance by Jean Reno as Victor, the Cleaner.

5. Leon

Like Nikita, this film got its title changed for an American release, to The Professional. This breaks up the symmetry between the two films, which are both about assassins. Inspired by Jean Reno's cameo as the cleaner in Nikita, this is a movie about what the ghostly, inhumanly efficient hit man does when he's off the clock. In the case of Leon, he goes home and drinks a big glass of milk before going to bed. Leon has no purpose, no real life, beyond the people who exploit his remarkable ability to kill, and no passion besides slipping off to showings of old black and white movies. When his neighbor's entire family is brutally murdered by a insane Mozart afficionado and drug lord played with considerable relish by Gary Oldman, Leon allows his neighbor's 12-year old daughter Mathilda sanctuary in his apartment (Nathalie Portman in her first and best acting job). The bond between Leon and Mathilda grows as she teaches him what she knows, how to read, and he teaches her about the world of contract killings. Nikita and Leon are a great pair of films, fascinating and resonant in their characters, but great rides because of the ridiculous and fun Luc Besson action movie style.

6. The 5th Element

This is definitely a movie where I don't care what the rest of you all say, I love every frame of it. The futuristic New York with such own flamboyant and alien sense of style is great all by itself, an even more vertical Manhattan where Bruce Willis can order sushi from a guy on a blimp who pulls up to his window. The speculation on the evolution of fashion is amusing, showcased in Jean-Paul Gaultier's personal design of several hundred costumes for extras. Chris Tucker is perfect as the MTV VJ of the future, with several hundred years to become more ridiculous and self-absorbed, and this is also the film that began my infatuation with Mila Jovovich. Often I see comic-book movies that take the unique visual artistry of the comic and squash it into something much more drab and mundane that looks like any other movie, and this is in a way what they all should have been aiming for, a movie where everybody looks like they just stepped off the page
in bright colors and impossible outfits, especially Gary Oldman as a fantastically evil comic book villain. I thought Eric Serra's score for this film and Nikita were his best, especially the alien opera that no human singer could reproduce.

7. The Messenger

Er, I guess they can't all be perfect. I did like Mila Jovovich as Joan of Arc, if for no other reason than Jeanne's possibly schizophrenic, possibly divine dialogues with a phantasmal Dustin Hoffman. Appearing to Jeanne as amongst other things Jesus and the Devil, he questions her divine inspiration, and offers mundane explanations for every sign she receives from God. That element was at least interesting.

8-10. Angel-A, Arthur et les Minimoys, Atlantis

I have not seen these, so I'm going to be a complete fanboy and assume they're all great films. So there.

Banlieue 13, aka District B13

District B13 reminded me of an earlier era in American popcorn films, when they were immersed in the popular issues of their time. Night of the Living Dead, Dirty Harry, or even When a Stranger Calls, while by no means subtle political films, all tweak the wider emotional concerns of the society they were created to entertain. Now, the American films are all soulless copies of those earlier films, cashing in on the name without understanding anything about why these films captured anyone's attention. There are certain exceptions, Drew Barrymore seems to have known what she was doing when she promoted making the first Charlie's Angels film. But usually it's something like "Let's remake When a Stranger Calls, only instead of using a familiar suburban setting to play on everyday fears, let's put it in some billionaire's remote mountain aerie that will look cooler on-screen!"

Anyways, District B13 uses the rising tension of the banlieues as inspiration for a story set in Paris' grim future. Most of the point of the movie is to create opportunities for really cool fight scenes, gun battles, and open running stunts, not to delve deep into the social issues, but it does help that it's about something. The banlieues of this film are walled off as France has finally just given up on a segment of society, leaving them to a feudal existence under the thumb of criminal slum lords.

The opening action sequences feature David Belle, credited with creating the sport of Parkour, in a series of open running stunts escaping from drug-running thugs who control the banlieue. Belle is pretty impressive, moving through an urban landscape efficiently without regard to niceties like stairs or doorways. This sets an energetic tone in the same way Belle's friend Sebastien Foucan made Casino Royale instantly memorable with his free running stunts. (Exactly how free running diverges from Parkour remains a mystery to me.) Belle and Cyril Raffaelli are definitely entertaining in their various escapes, and in the severe beatings they dish out along the way.

The actual political comment of the film is over the attitude of its two protagonists. Leito (Belle) has given up on any faith in the society outside the banlieues or their values, and instead relies on his own fists, trying to protect the people in his building by force. Damien (Raffaelli) is a cop who believes in a grand, uplifting French society, and that he is responsible to see that everyone follows the law that makes that possible. The two of them must find a neutron bomb that has slipped into Banlieue 13 under mysterious circumstances. Leito cynically believes that this is no accident, and the bomb is intended to wipe out the undesirables of the Parisian underclass, while Damien believes such a thing is impossible, and just product of the hatred and paranoia of Leito's environment. Leito's chilling response, that 6 million were murdered for not having blond hair and blue eyes, so why think exterminating 2 million in Banlieue 13 is unimaginable, is the real sign that while this may be at heart a popcorn movie, it has wrapped its fluffy entertainment value around a kernel of something more serious . This film was also produced before last year's riots, making predictions that things were going to get a lot worse before the end.

I really enjoyed it, but I am a complete sucker for anything with Luc Besson's name on it. And to come full circle in this review, the only films associated with him I haven't enjoyed were the American attempts to remake his films, Taxi with Jimmy Fallon and Queen Latifah, and even worse, Point of No Return .