SWANKHIPSTER'S FAVE FLIX!

Though sporting avery bloated actor/director Orson Welles, this fantastic film (considered by many to be the last true “film noir” movie to be made)is laden with all of the trappings of a classic film noir piece with Welles’ strange and twisted angles and non-conservative directorial style.

ABOUTTOUCH OF EVIL

A stunning portrait of corruption and abuse of power, Touch of Evil gives Orson Welles a broad remit to flourish his directorial genius. Opening with an unseen man setting the timer on an explosive device, the clock starts ticking down as soon as he stashes it in the boot of a fancy-looking car. Immediately afterwards, a well-heeled businessman motors off with his cheap-looking girlfriend. Through the tawdry streets they roll, until the camera smoothly picks up their passing by Mexican lawman Ramon “Mike” Vargas (Charlton Heston) and his new wife Susan (Janet Leigh). As the newly-weds cross over the border, into the US, they catch up and overtake the automobile. Just a few steps more and the car explodes in a ball of flame, casting harsh shadows. Unfortunately this is an international incident since the bomb was set in Mexico and detonated in America.
Forced to deviate from his honeymoon plans, Vargas decides to hang around for the local cops and send Susan back to their hotel (now that their romantic stroll is ruined). In the flickering light the DA and a few officers turn up, but they’re all waiting for the renowned detective Hank Quinlan (Orson Welles). When he finally arrives from his ranch, with his side-kick Pete Menzies (Joseph Calleia), he rolls heavily from his seat and lumbers towards the wreck. Casting a jaundiced eye over the wreckage, Quinlan he knows, by intuition, that this is the result of dynamite. Marcia Linnekar (Joanna Moore) arrives to identify the remains of her father but Quinlan seems disinterested, dismissing her (with a tail). Finally turning to his fellow officers, after appraising and disregarding Vargas, Quinlan’s twitching nose takes them onto the Mexican side.

Meanwhile, Susan has been waylaid on the way to the hotel by smooth-looking Pancho (Valentin De Vargas), one of the Grandi boys. Allowing herself to be led to greasy crime-boss “Uncle Joe” Grandi (Akim Tamiroff), puts on a brave face. Since his brother is being investigated by Vargas, he wants him to lay off – a request which cuts no ice with Susan. Her husband hasn’t got much time to think about this development though because Quinlan is hot on the trail of a suspect and Vargas wants to be present. The hunch concerns Manelo Sanchez (Victor Millan), a poor Mexican worker who became involved with Marcia, severely upsetting her father. Thus Sanchez had the motive, which is enough for Quinlan. However the discovery of some damning evidence by Pete seals the case, but disturbs Vargas. He is certain that Quinlan is framing Sanchez, though he’ll have to gather some solid proof if he is to prove this (which means leaving Susan alone).

The aspect of Touch of Evil which immediately grabs the attention is the virtuoso and deservedly famous opening tracking shot. This unbroken sequence, stretching for several breath-taking minutes, both sets the scene and introduces the main characters. The tension is finally eased by cutting away just after the explosion, establishing a fluidity of motion which remains for the entire film. This technical brilliance, flaunted so early, is a driving force, opening the door to extensive range of camera angles and superb editing. Links between separate scenes are established with connecting motifs, such as doors opening or a shared musical theme. When combined with the advanced level of spatial choreography (so that every position and movement latches together into a cogent whole), the result is an extraordinary piece of film-making.

Since the underlying story is also strong, dealing with a number of double-edged themes, it never feels as though Welles is showing off. The idea of conflict between good and evil is central but this is expanded to cover the US-Mexico divide, the moralist-pragmatist conundrum and more. Quinlan exudes the stench of corruption from every pore of his distended, heaving carcass, yet his fellow officers are in awe of him and his reputation. He drags evil-doers to justice and, frankly, they don’t care how he does it; the ends justify the means. The twist is that his outlook has been poisoned since the brutal murder of his wife, decades ago. The constant pain fuels a personal vendetta. This is, of course, no excuse, but it does partly explain the prejudice of Quinlan. Besides, both Vargas and Quinlan have reputations to protect and when it comes down to a one-on-one duel, both are willing to get their hands dirty.

Lastly, the bizarre casting choices made for Touch of Evil show, in retrospect, a certain genius. Welles is perfect, dominating and beyond reproach, sometimes looming over the screen and sometimes shrunken like a doll. In opposition, Heston and Leigh are excellent as the disturbed newly-weds. However, special mentions must be made of Marlene Dietrich, the slewed gypsy fortune-teller Tanya, Dennis Weaver, the loopy motel clerk, Mercedes McCambridge, a butch gang member, and Zsa Zsa Gabor. This eclectic group of performers form the broad-sweep of this frontier town, a setting where the weird is commonplace and disparate cultures clash. All of this gives Touch of Evil a deliciously tangy flavour, a movie which is as much about cinema as it is a film noir. Given the unexpected opportunity to direct, Welles grabbed the opportunity and created a masterpiece (foxing the studio executives). As usual he messed up during the editing stage, by letting the film out of his hands, but now we have the chance to see his vision in all of its electrifying glory. Take it.

Jim Jarmusch is one of my favorite directors. I’ve discovered that most folks have a love-hate relationship with this man’s work – there are very few fence sitters on the topic.

The pacing of his movies, very purposeful with long and slow pans capturing his character’s mood along with the environment which surrounds them in a lovely way.

My all time best pick from this fella has to be the Johnny Depp, Mili Avital, Lance Henriksen, Michael Wincott, Robert Mitchum, Gabriel Byrne, John Hurt, Iggy Popp (and so on) film DEAD MAN. It’ a wonderful existential spin on a western.

ABOUTDEAD MAN

From an interview with Jarmusch on the movie…

Why black-and-white?

DEAD MAN was conceived as a black-and-white film from the very beginning. There are several reasons for this decision. The primary one is that the story is about a man who takes a journey which carries him further away from anything familiar. Color, particularly in landscapes, connects us with things due to our familiarity with their tonal values, and this would have undermined a basic element of the story.
Also because DEAD MAN is set in the 19th century, the absence of too much information (that provided by color) is a way of gaining some historical distance, again neutralizing a certain familiarity with specific objects and locations.
Another reason for black-and-white is that since the late 1950’s and early 60’s stories using the “western” genre seem to be filmed in the same dusty color palette over and over again. Whether in a film by Leone or Eastwood, or even a TV episode of BONANZA, the colors always seem the same to me. If these color values operate on a sub-or semi-conscious level for the audience, I would prefer that the black-and-white of DEAD MAN recalls the atmosphere of American films from the 40’s and early 50’s, or even the historical films of Kurosawa or Mizoguchi, than the overly familiar palette of more recent “westerns”.
Last but not the least, I wanted to work again in black-and-white with Robby Muller. Robby, as always, did amazing work photographing DEAD MAN, and working with the negative to include all possible gray tones while keeping the black and whites very strong, almost as though color film hadn’t been invented yet.

Why a western?

The “western” as a genre is very open to metaphor, and has deep roots in classical narrative forms. “Westerns” are most often stories involving journeys into unfamiliar territory, and they are also often shaped around very traditional themes, like retribution, redemption, or tragedy. The openness of the form, and its inseparable connection to “America” in the broadest sense, attracted me to it. I have to admit, though, that DEAD MAN is not a traditional “western” – the genre was really only used as a point of departure.

Why did you decide to make a film concerning death?

Death is life’s only certainty, and at the same time its greatest mystery. For Bill Blake, the journey of DEAD MAN represents life. For Nobody, the journey is a continuing ceremony whose purpose is to deliver Blake back to the spirit-level of the world. To him, Blake’s spirit has been misplaced and somehow returned to the physical realm. Nobody’s non-western perspective that life is an unending cycle is essential to the story of DEAD MAN.

Why William Blake, the poet?

William Blake was an English visionary poet, painter, printer and inventor. His work was revolutionary, and he was imprisoned for his ideas. I can’t honestly site a specific, concrete reason why he entered my script, except that while I was reading books by Native Americans on Native American thought, it struck me that many of Blake’s ideas and writings sounded as though they could have come from the soul of a Native American. This is particularly true of Blake’s PROVERBS FROM HELL which, along with other fragments of his poetry, are quoted by the character Nobody throughout the film.

Which tribe does Nobody come from, and what language does he speak?

The character of Nobody is of mixed blood – he is half Blood and half Blackfoot. These tribe s are considered “Plains Indians,” from the great plains of the northern and central parts of the western half of North America. Nobody, however, is an unusual character – he is also a linguist who, in the course of the story, speaks Blackfoot, Cree, Makah and English.

Was Neil Young’s music in your mind even during the shooting of the film?

I’ve been a fan of Neil Young for many years, and I was listening constantly to Neil and Crazy Horse while writing the script for DEAD MAN. During the shooting of the film (and all the traveling it involved), we were also listening to Neil’s music. Crazy horse even performed in Sedona, Arizona during our shooting period, and a large number of our crew attended the concert.
From the very start of the project there were hopes of Neil Young performing music for the film, but I was never very confident that this would actually happen. When Neil finally saw an early cut of DEAD MAN and then agreed to score the film, I was ecstatic. (I should attribute this also to the fact that Jay Rabinowitz, the editor, had cut some sequences of the film to instrumental sections of Neil’s existing songs as examples of how his music might work with the story).
Neil eventually played pump organ, detuned piano, and acoustic guitar, but the largest percentage of the music is from his electric guitar. |What he brought to the film lifts it to another level, intertwining the soul of the story with Neil’s musically emotional reaction to it – the guy reached down to some deep place inside him to create such strong music for our film.

IN COLD BLOOD, the Richard Brook’s directed film of Truman Capote’s novel of the same name remains today one of my favorite films of its genre.

For any who saw CAPOTE I alweays strongly suggest this movie and the novel as a must-read/see in tandem to it.

ABOUTIN COLD BLOOD

“Although it was released way back in 1967, IN COLD BLOOD still remains the benchmark by which all true-crime films are matched. Veteran writer/director Richard Brooks (ELMER GANTRY) adapted Truman Capote’s non-fiction book into a chilling docudrama that retains a disturbing power even today, thirty-five years later.

Robert Blake and Scott Wilson portray Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, two ex-cons who, on a tip from Hicock’s old cellmate Floyd Wells, broke into the Holcomb, Kansas home of Herbert Clutter, looking for a wall safe supposedly containing $10,000. But no safe was ever found, and the two men instead wound up killing Mr. Clutter, his wife, and their two children, getting away with only a radio, a pair of binoculars, and a lousy forty dollars. Two months on the run, including an aimless “vacation” in northern Mexico, ended in Las Vegas when cops caught them in a stolen car. But it eventually comes out, after merciless grilling by Kansas law enforcement officials, that these two men committed that heinous crime in Holcomb. Tried and convicted on four counts of murder, they stew in jail over a five-year period of appeals and denials until both are hanged to death on April 14, 1965.

Blake and Smith are absolutely chilling as the two dispassionate killers who show no remorse for what they’ve done but are concerned about getting caught. John Forsythe also does a good turn as Alvin Dewey, the chief detective investigating the crime, as does Gerald S. O’Laughlin as his assistant. In a tactic that is both faithful to Capote’s book and a good artistic gambit all around, Brooks does not show the murders at the beginning; instead, he shows the two killers pulling up to the Clutter house as the last light goes out, then cuts to the next morning and the horrifying discovery of the bodies. Only during the ride back to Kansas, when Blake is questioned by Forsythe and narrates the story, do we see the true horror of what happened that night. We don’t see that much blood being spilled in these scenes, but we don’t need to. The shotgun blasts and the horrified look on the Clutters’ faces as they know they are about to die are more than disturbing enough, so there is no need to resort to explicitly bloody slasher-film violence.

Brooks wisely filmed IN COLD BLOOD in stark black-and-white, and the results are excellent thanks to Conrad Hall’s expertise. The chilling jazz score by Quincy Jones is the capper. The end result is one of the most unsettling films of any kind ever made, devastating in its own low-key fashion. It is a 134-minute study of a crime that shook an entire state and indeed an entire nation, and should be seen, though viewer discretion is advised; the ‘R’ rating is there for a reason.”