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| Ebertfest Blog: Entry 4--Around the World in 14 Hours |
by Peter Sobczynski
In which your faithful scribe takes a cinematic journey from the American South to the Far East.
Although each year’s Ebertfest offers up an eclectic array of films from all over the world that seem to have nothing in common besides the fact that they are loved and admired by the host, there are certain filmmaking styles that are always being explored year after year. The festivities famously kick off with an epic-sized film along the lines of “Lawrence of Arabia” or “Hamlet” and conclude with a musical designed to send attendees out into the streets of Urbana with a song in their heart (and possibly more, in the case of last year’s “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls”). However, there are subtler subgenres that have become Ebertfest favorites over the years and the third day of the festival was dedicated to them as viewers were treated to a low-budget indie by a debuting filmmaker that hasn’t even had a chance to get out into the marketplace to be overlooked yet (“Charlotte Sometimes,” “Kwik Stop” and “Me and You and Everyone We Know” were past examples), a silent classic with a live musical accompaniment (a slot that has seen such famous films as “Metropolis,” “Nosferatu” and “The Phantom of the Opera”), a film made by and about people in the heartland of America who are often overlooked or marginalized in most filmmaking circles (including such favorites as “George Washington” and “Come Early Morning”) and one of those trippy visionary experiences that can’t help but divide audiences between those who are convinced that they have seen a masterpiece and those who are left scratching their heads and wondering what the hell they have been watching. (Such past entries as “Songs from the Second Floor” and “Stroszek” are probably still inspiring debates among longtime attendees.)
The day of screenings kicked of with “Shotgun Stories,” a fascinating rural drama from first-time writer-director Jeff Nichols about the deadly tensions that develop between two sets of half-brothers in a small Arkansas town after the death of their common father. We discover that the man in question was a former drinker and carouser who married one woman and fathered three sons, only to abandon them in order to give up with wicked ways and begin a more peaceful and prosperous life with a new wife and four more sons. Raised by their mother to feel nothing but hate for their father and his new family, the three forsaken sons--Son (Michael Shannon), Boy (Douglas Ligon) and Kid (Barlow Jacobs)--unexpectedly arrive at the funeral and Son gives a speech informing the attendees about the kind of man that the guest of honor really was from his perspective. As I hope to write more about the film when it does get a general release, I am not going to say much more about what happens except to state that this speech kicks off a sad and violent feud between the two groups that does not unfold quite as one might expect. After the screening, Nichols appeared on stage to discuss the film and its production. Among other things, he informed viewers that he attended film school in North Carolina at the same time as acclaimed filmmaker and friend David Gordon Green (“George Washington” and the current “Snow Angels”) and Green would influence “Shotgun Stories” both in aesthetic matters (inspired by a similar decision by Green in the production of “George Washington,” Nichols sank nearly all of the production money into cameras and film stock in order to ensure a memorable visual style) as well as practical ones (after seeing a rough version of the film, Green signed on as a producer in order to bring in a little more money and attention) and that even though he wrote the part of Son specifically for Michael Shannon (whom you may recall from such films as “World Trade Center” and “Bug”), the two never actually met until five days before shooting. Nichols also admitted that pretty much the only films that he currently owns on DVD are “Badlands,” “The Hustler,” “The Quiet Man” and “The Outsiders”--intriguingly enough, one can find the influence of all four of those films in his creation.
The silent movie, usually featuring accompaniment from the Alloy Orchestra, a three-piece group that uses synthesizers and various percussion devices (I seem to recall once seeing a bedpan among their instruments) to conjure up amazingly detailed soundscapes to match the equally astonishing visuals being projected behind them. This year, their film selection was 1927’s “Underworld,” a work by the great Josef von Sternberg (only his fourth film) that pretty much single-handedly kicked off the gangster movie genre. Set in an unnamed city that looks like what Chicago in the Roaring 20’s might have looked like if filtered through the eyes of German Expressionism. The story is simple enough--amidst the various power struggles in a town dominated by organized crime (every person that we see appears to be a criminal of one kind or another), a romantic triangle develops between gangland kingpin Bull Weed (George Bancroft), a man not a million miles removed from Al Capone, Rolls Royce (Clive Brook), a reformed drunk whom Bull takes under his wing and turns into his incredibly loyal and dedicated right-hand man and Feathers (Evelyn Brent), the sexy dame who is the moll of the former but who finds herself falling helplessly in love with the latter. Things come to a head when Bull becomes suspicious that something is going on between Rolls Royce and Feathers and when he is sentenced to death for murdering a rival, his rage over stories of their alleged dalliances inspire him to break out of prison and confront them in the most violent way possible. What happens next is something that I wouldn’t dream of spoiling excepting to mention that the whole final segment of the film is one of the most elaborate and visually kinetic set-pieces of the entire silent era. In the post-film dissection featuring historian Kristin Thompson, film critic Michael Philips and the Alloy Orchestra, the film’s influence on the genre as a whole was discussed as well as certain elements that would turn up in other, equally famous movies--some obvious (there are many echoes between “Underworld” and “Scarface,” including screenwriter Ben Hecht who, according to legend, so hated what von Sternberg did to his script that he wanted his name off of it until it became a huge box-office hit that won Hecht his first Oscar) and some not-so-obvious (it has been rumored that Howard Hawks helped contribute to the script as well and certain elements seen here--a drunk trying to reform, a showdown over money thrown in a spittoon and a sexy dame named Feathers--would crop up again in Hawks’ 1959 masterpiece “Rio Bravo”).
After dinner, the evening started of with “The Real Dirt on Farmer John,” a documentary by Taggart Siegel that chronicles the ups and downs of the life of John Peterson, a man whose struggles to keep his family farm going were hampered by obstacles both expected (crop difficulties and bank foreclosures) and unexpected (Peterson’s hippie lifestyle and flamboyant manner arouses the suspicion of his neighbors, who are convinced that he is either a drug dealer or a Satanist) until he finally found success when his farm is revitalized as an organic concern that is run as a collective in which shareholders help to work the land and share in the proceeds. As I mentioned in my original preview piece on this year’s festival, I am not exactly the biggest fan of the film--it veers a little too much into hagiography for my taste and I often got the sense that Peterson was playing up his quirkiness for Siegel’s camera to the point where it became distracting. However, I also mentioned that I suspected that it would be the kind of crowd-pleaser that would go over like gangbusters with the Ebertfest crowd and that certainly proved to be the case. They were even more excited when Peterson and Siegel (who came in all the way from New Zealand) got up on stage to talk about the film and organic farming. By the end of the talk, they had the crowd eating out of their hand and when they asked how many people in the audience might be interested in taking part in a farm collective like the one depicted in the film, nearly every hand in the place shot up.
The day of screenings came to an end with one of this year’s best selections, “Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters,” Paul Schrader’s extraordinary not-quite-a-biopic that examined the life and art (not that there was much difference between the two) of controversial Japanese author Yukio Mishima by showing us black-and-white depictions of his childhood, visually flamboyant representations of key scenes from three of his best-known works (“Temple of the Golden Pavilion,” “Kyoko’s House” and “Runaway Horses”) and a cinema-verite look at the last day of his life, in which the hardcore nationalist, aided by four members of the private army that he formed in order to pledge fealty to the emperor, invaded a military base, held the general in charge hostage, addressed the troops regarding their lack of devotion and then committed a public ritual suicide by disemboweling himself while an aide beheaded him. Although one of the most formally beautiful films I’ve ever seen (the contributions of cinematographer John Bailey, production designer Eiko Ishioka and composer Philip Glass are especially stunning), “Mishima” is a difficult film to absorb (even Schrader himself referred to it as “goddamned peculiar” during his discussion) and having it come at the end of a long day of screenings might not have been the best idea--I suspect that more than a few viewers may have found themselves drifting in and out as it progressed--but for those who stuck with it to the end, they were rewarded with the kind of once-in-a-lifetime filmgoing experience that Ebertfest is all about. (Besides, those who did drift out on it can fill in the blanks in June when Criterion releases a special edition of the film on DVD). Afterwards, Schrader and Ishioka appeared on stage for an especially informative and free-wheeling talk that kicked off with Schrader referring to Christianity as “a blood cult” and went on from there. Among the surprising revelations in that conversation was that, wanting to do a further exploration on the notion of suicidal glory on a grand public scale that he previously delved into with his screenplay for “Taxi Driver,” Schrader first contemplated doing a biopic on Hank Williams until problems with music rights caused him to change his focus from the American South to the Far East. He also explained the Byzantine nature of the financing of the film--needing $5 million to make the movie, Schrader got half of it from Warner Brothers, who only put up the money to get a favor from co-producer George Lucas, and half from a couple of Japanese companies who, thanks to the protestations of Mishima’s widow just before the film’s release, continue to deny to this very day that they had anything to do with it. (To this day, in fact, the film has never been officially seen in Japan.) In other words, according to Schrader, “Mishima” was “a film financed by no one and seen by no one.”
Today’s lineup of films starts off with “Hulk,” Ang Lee’s controversial adaptation of the Marvel comic book character that took what could have been just another effects-laden craptacular and instead transformed it into a surprisingly soulful work that was perhaps the most fascinating auteur-driven popcorn film to come along since Robert Altman’s “Popeye.” This is followed by “The Band’s Visit,” a charming comedy-drama about a group of Egyptian police officers who are members of a band inadvertently wind up in a remote Israeli town and get to know the locals. Then there is “Housekeeping,” the brilliant and haunting 1987 drama from Bill Forsyth about the relationship between two young girls and the eccentric aunt (Christine Lahti) who winds up raising them. The evening concludes with “The Cell,” the twisted and visually flamboyant mind-bender in which Jennifer Lopez plays a therapist who literally enters the mind of a depraved serial killer and finds that she may be trapped in his horrifying visions forever.
Previous Entries In The Ebertfest Blog
EBERTFEST 2008: ROMANCE, CIGARETTES AND THE HULK? YES, I'M DELIRIOUS!
DAY 1--WAIT, I'M DOING A BLOG?
DAY 2--SPALL & SEWELL ARE AWAKE!
DAY 3--ANOTHER PREDICTABLY UNPREDICTABLE DAY
link directly to this feature at http://hollywoodbitchslap.com/feature.php?feature=2469
originally posted: 04/26/08 10:18:55
last updated: 04/27/08 11:51:01
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