The Black Dahlia
In 1981 the ‘Sunday Times’ described Brian De
Palma as “a superb cinematic talent unable to do more
than play doctor with his toy implements”. At the time
this was probably an accurate description of the American
director, who began in the satirical underground school, then
graduated to glossy shock/horror movies, usually in clever
imitation of somebody else’s style. But, back in the
1970’s and 80’s when De Palma came into prominence,
‘imitation’ was labeled ‘semiotic deconstruction
genre film-making’, and his work was taken very seriously
indeed. ‘Sisters’ and ‘Carrie’ were
both exercises in psychological horror. ‘Phantom of
the Paradise’ was a tatty schlock-musical. ‘Obsession’
a Hitchcock-like look at incest, while ‘Dressed To Kill’
and ‘Body Double’ proved to be his decisive Hitchcock
statements. ‘Blow Out’ was a bizarre tribute to
Michelangelo Antonioni’s immortal classic ‘Blow
Up’, then came the Mafioso trilogy, ‘Scarface’,
‘The Untouchables’ and ‘Carlito’s
Way’. All influenced by the work of Martin Scorsese
and Francis Ford Coppola. The list goes on and on, as De Palma
systematically explored a variety of cinema genres and the
work of a variety of directors. Sometimes the films met with
critical and public acclaim. Sometimes with total indifference.
But, De Palma labored on, and more recent works such as ‘Mission
To Mars’ and ‘Femme Fatale’ pay tribute
to the work of John Carpenter and Roman Polanski. Currently,
there is a revival in the genre of ‘film-noir’.
This is a French phrase meaning ‘dark film’. It
was probably first applied to the gloomy French melodramas
of the late 1930’s, but it soon came to be thought of
as applying chiefly to the American urban crime films of the
1940’s. ‘Film-noir’ is characterized by
a gritty, grainy atmosphere, and it places much emphasis on
convoluted plots, usually delivered in extensive ‘voice-overs’.
It is, then, with much interest and some trepidation, that
we find that Brian De Palma’s latest film, ‘The
Black Dahlia’, explores the myth of ‘film-noir’.
No-doubt, he regards this as the ultimate statement in this
genre. That remains to be seen. Working from a novel by James
Ellroy, De Palma creates a moody movie, set in the 1940’s,
which is concerned with a police investigation of a murdered
movie actress, while, simultaneously, the investigating officer
discovers corruption and a conspiracy running deep within
the Los Angeles police department. Much of this movie owes
an awful lot to Roman Polanski’s superb ‘film-noir’
classic, ‘Chinatown’. The references are blatant
and impossible to miss. This movie goes beyond ‘tribute’,
and becomes ‘theft’. Yet, the movie can be called
a triumph of ‘style’ over ‘substance’.
See the movie for yourself and come to your own conclusions.
I have already come to mine.
The Notorious Bettie Page
As a successful 1950’s magazine pin-up girl, the notorious
Bettie Page was an American sex icon who caused a Senate investigation
to be instigated due to her provocative bondage and S&M
photographs. Canadian director Mary Harron’s ‘low-keyed’
feminist movie, ‘The Notorious Bettie Page’, has
been created through her superb reconstruction of 1950’s
cinematic style, in which she seamlessly cuts, mixes and matches
‘original’ stock film with ‘new’ footage.
Harron also presents a challenging appraisal of hypocritical
American morals. However, the naïve interpretation of
Bettie’s character which Harron chooses to present,
suggesting that Bettie stumbled into this line of work in
complete innocence and was unaware of the implications of
the ‘sexy’ pin-up photos for which she posed,
pushes credibility to the limits. But, nonetheless, the ‘immature’
character that Harron implies is in keeping with a cinematic
‘anti-heroine’ of the 1950’s, who were always
portrayed as ‘nice’ girls fallen on difficult
times. Gretchen Mol is inspired as Bettie Page. Not only does
she look the part (she has obviously spent much time researching
Bettie’s personal mode and mannerisms), but she is also
able to make the gauche characterization of Bettie appear
totally believable. Gretchen manufactures a character that
we do care about, and that we do want to know more about,
long after the movie concludes. Together, Mary Harron and
Gretchen Mol have produced an extremely captivating movie.
A Scanner Darkly
Director Richard Linklater’s cinematic adaptation of
Philip K. Dick’s acclaimed novel, ‘A Scanner Darkly’,
must be one of the most visually exciting movies to hit the
screen since the spectacular ‘Sin City’. The story
is set vaguely in the future, and tells of an undercover narcotic
agent who is in search of the distributors of a highly addictive
designer drug called ‘Substance D’. But, as the
agent comes closer to the source, he finds himself being seduced
by the hallucinatory effects of the drug. What is extraordinary
about this film, however, is that it has been initially shot
as a movie, then, in post-production, it has been manipulated
into a computer-animated cartoon. The movie becomes a moving
‘graphic’ novel, entirely appropriate to its literary
source, for much of the visual meaning of the movie best finds
its expression in an animated manner. Funnily enough, Keanu
Reeves, Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson and Winona Ryder
have never performed better as animated cartoon characters.
All present slightly exaggerated performances in a stylized
method, knowing that their contributions will be transformed
into animation. Their exaggerated acting helps to emphasize
the cartoon, ‘popish’, quality of the movie. Unfortunately,
the predictability of the plot doesn’t quite go the
full distance, whereas the novelty of the animation never
fails to intrigue and please. Look for this movie in the children’s
animation section of your local DVD store, where it is probably
misplaced. The subject matter is hardly appropriate for curious
‘rug-rats’.
You, Me and Dupree
I always presumed that Hollywood was still capable of churning
out dull old-fashioned movies, and directors Anthony and Joe
Russo’s turgid romantic-comedy, ‘You, Me and Dupree’,
just goes to prove my point. When newly-wed couple Carl and
Molly are just getting started on married life, a permanent
house-guest, in the form of the perpetually ‘up’
best-friend Dupree, comes along to spoil their marriage bliss.
Dire action is required, like destroying every print of this
movie, to regain their happy equilibrium. Owen Wilson, Kate
Hudson, Matt Dillon and a weirdly ‘botoxed’ Michael
Douglas, merely go through the motions in this terminally
tedious movie.
