Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Ran, Don't Walk to See This Film

People have wrote books and made films about the incredible Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, my personal favorite director, considered by many to be one of the greatest film directors of all time. I don't want to take too much time talking about Kurosawa's career in general, but I would like to quote Francis Ford Coppola who I think said it best when summing up why Kurosawa is so respected. "One thing that distinguishes [him] is that he didn't make one masterpiece or two masterpieces. He made, you know, eight masterpieces." He is certainly right in that regard. I have seen 15 films by Kurosawa and my opinions of them have ranged from Amazed to "This is the greatest film I have ever seen in my life." His films had direct influences on directors like George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, Ingmar Bergman and many more. He has 6 films in The Book (not enough, in my opinion), and so many of his films are well regarded and considered influential to this day. However, among his impressive cannon, there are 4 films which are not only considered masterpieces, but are regarded as competing for the title of Kurosawa's best film, and thus potentially for the title of Best Film of All Time. There is his breakthrough film for the Western world Rashomon (1950). There was his contemporary humanist masterpiece Ikiru (1952). There is his samurai epic Seven Samurai (1954, and this film and Ikiru are tied for my pick as best film of all time). Finally, decades later, there is this epic Shakespeare inspired war film Ran (1985).

In making this films, Kurosawa was inspired by two main sources, William Shakespeare's King Lear and the ancient Japanese story of the Three Arrows. However, in typical Kurosawa fashion, he merely uses these sources as a jumping off point, radically changing the stories and settings to fit his personal vision. Taking the story of a king who wants to hand power to his three children, two of whom are false and bad children, and what tragedies occur because of his actions, he moves the story to Japan, makes it about a warlord and changes the daughters to sons. He references the Three Arrows story only to prove that it is false: you can, in fact, destroy three arrows that are bundled together. Most importantly, unlike Shakespeare, his gives the Great Lord of his story a history, so that rather than being a victim of fate and two unfaithful children, he is a man who has earned his fate through his violent actions, which made his children violent backstabbers and turned everyone around him (nearly) into power-and-revenge-seeking monsters.

No wonder your kids hate you, you make them color coordinate their outfits!

While this film covers many themes (fate, violence, the gods' role in human events, nihilism, death, revenge, loyalty, sanity/reality, etc.) the main story follows one Lord Hidetora, a man who spilled blood and committed countless atrocities all his life trying to gain complete control of the lands around him. Now, at age 75, at the height of his power, he wants to pass power to his sons, so that he can live his remaining life in peace. However, as his son Saburo and vassal Tango try to show him, he has lived in and perpetuated a world of violence and betrayal, and cannot expect his sons to be better than him or to live in peace after all the violence he perpetrated. However, being proud, he bans his youngest son and loyal vassal simply for telling the truth. This will quickly lead him down the path of destruction as his greedy, power-hungry sons, his psychotic revenge-minded daughter-in-law and disloyal advisers turn on him and completely, utterly destroy him.

This is Hidetora's "Before" picture. Wait until you see what he looks like only a few days later.

Kurosawa had ideas for this film long before it was made, and he originally wrote the role of Hidetora for actor Toshiro Mifune, and it shows. By the time it was made it was too late to have Kurosawa regulars like Mifune or Takashi Shimura in it. However, the performance in this film, far from being lacking, are some of the best in film history. Tatsuya Nakadai as Hidetora, inspired by Noh acting, does an absolutely incredible job. At the start of the film, he is so fierce and intimidating. As the horrors that he has unleashed through his pride bear down on him, his strength breaks down (the scene in which he moves from anger at his second son's rejection into stumbling due to his shock and pain is great). Finally, he breaks down into madness, perfectly played every time. His scenes as a mad man could so easily have been overacted and silly. Instead they are haunting, seeing how far this man has fallen is truly a spirit-shaking experience. And why wouldn't he fall into madness? His own sons not only try to strip him of every privilege or sense of pride that he has, his advisers betray him and both his sons set fire to his castle, slaughtering all his entourage, including his concubines!

I feel bad for him, son. He's got 99 problems. But at least now his bitches ain't one.

This leads to the greatest scene in the film, the one of epic scale that made this film the most expensive Japanese production up to that point (along with the climactic battle at the end). The combined forces of his two sons assault the few men he has in his castle, trying to kill him (and an adviser of his second son kills his first son so he can seize power). What is so great is that instead of filling the soundtrack with sound of battle, the sound almost completely cuts out for this, with the hauntingly minimalist score by Toru Takemitsu gets brought to the foreground. At the end of all the horror, the stunned Hidetora tries to commit Seppuku, but cannot, so far has he fallen into madness. In a fantastic shot, he slowly descends the stone staircase of his burning castle, both armies making way for this madman so that he may wander the plains aimlessly. His son even feels regret at seeing his father fallen so far and lets him leave, but he has chosen his path and moves to solidify power. The only reason Hidetora even survives or achieve moments of clarity is because the three people still loyal to him (Saburo, Tango, and his Fool Kyoami) try to help him.

Hey, don't worry about your castle Hisetora. Real Estate is a buyer's market right now! Castles like that have gone down from 2 million yen to only about 700,000!

But Hidetora is no innocent man undeserving of his fate. We learn throughout this film the horrible things he has done. He speaks to the wife of his second son, Lady Sue, a devout Buddhist who acts as a reminder of his evil past. He cannot bear to see Sue smile despite the fact that he always like to go see her. This is because he betrayed her parents, murdered them, and burned down their castle in order to seize power. The kindly Sue, devout as she is, cannot bring herself to hate him, despite his evil deeds. Not so for her brother, who he blinded as a young boy, and now lives as a blind hermit on the plains. When the now mad and fallen Hidetora is taken to his house for help, their reunion is far from welcoming. Greatest of all however in terms of acting is the performance of Mieko Harade, who plays Lady Kaede, wife of his eldest son, who has backstory similar to Lady Sue. Her outlook could not be more different from hers however. She has devoted her entire life's purpose to getting revenge on Hidetora and his house, and when he cedes power to her husband, she sees her opportunity. She prods her husband into demanding more and more power from his father as a sign of his power, leading him to be forced out of the house and unwolcome at his other son's home. When her husband is slain, she nearly murders his brother. Instead, she seduces him, conquering his mind and body so fully that he is willing to behead his current wife (Lady Sue) for her. He even leads his men to a ruinous attack on their neighbors at her prodding. Her performance is stunning, perhaps the best I have ever seen by an actress. She slinks across the screen like a snake, her ever move and word is filled with either quiet fury or psychotic rage. Her character is similar to the wife in Kurosawa's earlier film Throne of Blood, also based on a Shakespeare play. However, while that character wanted personal power, this woman only wants revenge. Also, her character adds a level of sensuality and actual physical threat unseen in the other character. One of the films best scenes is when Kaede confronts the second son, pulls out a blade and slices his throat forcing him to admit his guilt in killing her husband, then seduces him by licking the wounds she has created and having sex with him. By the end of the scenes, she totally owns him, body and soul. The character is so devious and yet attractive, it has rarely been rivaled in film. 

That's some kinky foreplay right there.

The third masterful performance comes somewhat surprisingly from what is essentially the comic relief character of the film, Kyoami. He is based on the Fool from King Lear, but here is given a distinctly Japanese feel here. The character is played by transvestite actor Shinnosuke Inehata. He does a great job of being both funny and at times very sad. Like fools throughout history, he is the only one who can really speak the truth in ever instance, because his role as a jester allows him to do so without being shunned (though he often gets in trouble for going to far). This allows him to poke fun at all of the proud characters and point out the falsehoods of their ideals and ideas. His joking also adds nihilistic philosophical depth to many scenes, especially when he interacts with Hidetora. The scene where he puts a crown of grass and flowers at his now mad master, disgusted at his fall, is incredibly poignant. Or, for example, look at this exchange of dialogue:
Hidetora- I am lost.
Kyoami- Such is always the condition of Man.
Hidetora- I think I have been here before.
Kyoami- Man is constantly traveling the same path. If you don't like it, jump!
Hidetora- [Jumps off a cliff].
Here we have both comedy at the expense of the mad lord and philosophy. Yet other scenes, like when he almost leave Hideotra only to be drawn back at the sound of him talking in his sleep, show that he has real love and loyalty for Hidetora. This makes their scenes together emotional and always great to watch.
"What do you think that cloud looks like?"

At the end of the story nearly everyone dies. This is Kurosawa's message: the gods weep at the horrors we commit, they cannot help us, we are alone and lost in this cruel word. Several scenes present this message, but the two best are as follows. Firstly, at one point Kyoami states, "Man is born crying. He cries and cries, and when he has cried enough, he dies." Pretty dark huh? That's nothing. The final shot is of the blind brother of Sue (who has been murdered by Kaede at this point) stumbling towards a cliff, nearly falling, and dropping his scroll of The Buddha in the process. The point of this scene? It is Kurosawa's metaphor for humanity. We are all blind men, about to stumble off of a cliff into nothingness, waiting for someone or something that will never come, as the gods abandon us to our fate. Wow.

How great is this film? This is the kind of film Jesus would make (if he was a Japanese man in the 20th century). If Shakespeare had lived to see this film, he would have wept and thanked Kurosawa for improving upon King Lear and making something even greater from it. Few films have such high ambitions as this film and actually manage to achieve that epicness. This is a clear 10/10 Essential film.
















Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Fasten Your Seatbelts, It's Going To Be A Bumpy Review: All About Eve

In my short time writing reviews for this website I have already given 2 films a perfect 10. Seeing as the next film to be reviewed is one of Akira Kurosawa's greatest, it should be little surprise that I will give that one a ten as well. And I am going to give another tonight. That is why I love The Book. It has introduced me to so many films that I would not otherwise have watched that are some of the greatest works of art ever created. I give these films 10s not because I am easy to please, but because they do so much to please me. These films attain such perfection in their direction, stories and acting that they enrich my life in no uncertain terms. This film, All About Eve, is certainly a film which I will remember and return to with great joy all of my days.

This is one of the finest scripts ever written for a film. Dark, satirical and witty, it never makes a false move. Every line of dialog, every movement, every inflection of the voice, zings and pops with energy, intensity, and brilliance. The movie is completely full of itself. Every words spoken from long monologues to passing comments is filled with self importance, is begging us to pay close attention to how important and meaningful it all is. And yet the films works because it lives up to its pretension. We believe in the epicness of what is being said. Lives and souls are being fought for, examined, ridiculed, all through a darkly cynical eye, with moments of truth and humanity. This great film has an awful tagline, "It's all about women... and their men!," how generic. Though the film may be called All About Eve, it is really all about the theater and the world it creates. It is a world where actors and actresses are worshiped as gods and goddesses for bringing their great light and talent to the people. These demigods are propped up or torn down by directors, writers and critics, all of whom have fame, but none of whom are so loved as those on stage. For those in this business it creates a world of backstabbing and witty attacks, where the man your were having lunch with yesterday can be destroying your career the next. To stay alive in this world you must have cunning, you must build up defenses around yourself that eventually shield you from your own humanity and the love of others. Above all, to be loved and accepted, you must have talent and, perhaps, youth. Still, in spite all of this, the world of theater is a world of beauty, if only pretend beauty, where those of unique talent and personality can create things of true beauty and be rewarded, if only for a while, with the love of the people. This causes all those involved to love the theater, as seen in the scene where all the characters of note (except the maid and the fuming Margo) sit on the steps and contemplate why they love this corrupt world so.

Anyone seen and good movies lately?

Though I consider myself a film snob, I admit I have one great flaw as a film viewer: I do not often get excited over actresses in films. Oh, I have many many actors whom I love, and many performances by actresses that I love as well. But there are few actresses who really strike me, who make me think "wow I bet this movie will be great" when I hear that they are in it. Maybe the types of roles actors get appeal to me more, I don't know. What I do know is that there are maybe 3 actresses who really excite me. One is Meryl Streep, the greatest actress still out there working, if not the best of all time. Another is Audrey Hepburn, who is brilliant in everything she is in. Finally, there is Bette Davis, who plays the role of Margo Channing in this film. Her role is nothing short of brilliant. She play the role of an aging actress, filled with insecurities and world weariness, who loves her man deeply but allows her stage persona to take over her true self as a defense mechanism. I believe everything she says in the film. Her incredible strengths and her debilitating weaknesses are fully on display. Aided of course by a fantastic script rewritten specifically to fit Davis' style, her lines are perfect in the way in which they are almost never direct about how she is feeling and why, but how she wittily and acidly gets her point across by snidely venting her hatred through metaphors and veils. And of course, when she does become direct and honest, her words are all the more meaningful for it. Davis never outdid this performance (though she may have equaled it in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane) because she never had a character so theatrical and yet so human and real in her frailties and needs. This is one of the finest performances by an actress ever put to film.

 "Listen Honey, don't even think about challenging me for Best Actress. I was making films when you were still a sperm swimming around in your father's scrotum!"

And then there is Anne Baxter in the title role. Can you really call what she does in this film acting? It feels so real. I believe every word she says even when I know it is a lie. When she tells her sob story I nearly sob myself. When she goes starry eyed at the thought of being of stage and applauded I feel her need to be loved. When she tries to seduce Margo's husband I am filled with hate and yet respect for her cunning. And when she is finally brought down after all her clever planning by the even more clever Addison I can feel her world crumbling, hating her and yet somehow pitying her. Of course she is aided by a great script, but the way she is able to do such a complete character change, step by step throughout the film, with each step being believable, is amazing. I have never disagreed with a review in The Book more that when it says of the film, "its only flaw is Baxter, who seems to be nothing bu pure ambition in womanly form." Fuck you, Karen Krizanovich, you know nothing about this role, how complex and changing it was, and how Baxter had the talent to meet the challenge in every step. What a year for the Academy when picking awards for actresses! Not only did this film have 2 nominations for Supporting Actress, it had both Davis and Baxter for Actress, as well as Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard, perhaps the greatest performance by an actress ever. And who did they give it to? Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday. Idiots.

"No, its not possible! How could they not give me the award! I'm a star! Nobody leaves a star! I was ready for my close-up! Oh, shit, I'm doing the wrong film..."

Though none of the deserving actresses won an Academy Award for this film (though Davis received an even more impressive acting awards at Cannes) at least the Academy honored the actors who deserved the most praise for the film. George Sanders is perfect as Addison the theater critic. He is smart, confident, in control, looking down on those around him with a cool and cynical eye, looking down upon them from on high, judging them, sometimes controlling them. Yet we can see that he loves this world he judges, he admits he could survive nowhere else, and there is an undercurrent of buried insecurity in his character. He is the first voice we hear in the film, and when he says "I am a critic, I am essential to the theater," he says it with such confidence, and yet there is a hint that, on some level, he is trying to convince himself of this fact as much as assure us. As he helps to guide the young Eve, build her career, hurt his "friends" to raise her higher, and makes sure that Eve stays his property, we see his control. Yet, when he slaps Even in a fantastic scene for laughing at him, we can see that he is as much an actor as those around him, acting cool and smart to convince himself of his own importance. His character is witty, funny, charming, sinister, and all around great.
 
Looks like Sanders is trying to cop a feel on Marilyn Monroe. Can you blame him?

Of course the other actors in the film are great. All of the roles by speaking characters are close to perfect. Literally, the only flaw I could find with the film is a scene where two characters are "walking down the street" clearly in front of a green screen, and I'm like, why couldn't they just film them walking down a street? Gary Merril as Margo's boyfriend, Hugh Marlowe as Llyod Richards and Gregory Ratoff as Max Fabian all turn in great performances. But at the end of the day, this is a film ruled almost exclusively by the actresses. Celeste Holm as Margo's best friend, who deliberately and yet somehow unwittingly advances the career of the conniving Eve every step of the way, even as Eve tries to steal her beloved husband, is lovely and loveable. Thelma Ritter is fantastic as the maid with attitude, and it is a shame that she does not show up in the film's second half. Hell, though she is only on screen briefly, the great and then unknown Marilyn Monroe gives a mesmerizing performance as the lightheaded but ladder climbing young actress under the wing of Addison. Every performance in this film is near flawless, a delight to watch.

"I may not be as pretty as you youngins, but I got one 'ting the audience loves: sass!"


I have read that many criticize the message of this films as being highly anti-feminist. The strong and independent Eve is seen as pure evil (Hell, she's named after the woman who committed the first sin!) and whenever Margo tries to be independent she is viewed as being hysterical. It is only when she submits to her man, putting aside her career for a marriage, that she becomes truly happy, a "real woman." I understand and see these arguments, yet I do not fully agree. Anyone could agree that Eve goes to far to achieve success, woman or not. Margo is talented and independent, and this is not entirely viewed as wrong. Yes, she is only truly happy when she embraces her relationship as her main goal and not her career. But isn't that the way of all people, man or woman? Can a career really replace the joy of a loving relationship? Lloyd the write is seen as becoming more and more miserable when he devotes himself to the mad passion of making the perfect play at the expense of his relationship to his wife. Bill is equally devoted to Margo as she is to him. And the two characters who devote themselves totally to their craft at the expense of real love, Addison and Eve, are both miserable in reality at the end. To me, the message of the film is that the theater has rewards for those willing to sacrifice, but when the curtain goes down, you are a person and not an actress or writer or what have you, and you have to find lasting happiness in the things that make everyone happy. Bill says to Addison that he doesn't believe those in theater are truly different at their core from other people, and I think we are meant to see him as being right.
 
I am not one to be swept up in this idea of the "Golden Age of Hollywood," that Hollywood was only truly glamorous, great and at their best in the late 30s, 40s, and early 50s. In fact, I thing the 70s are the best decade in film personally. However, this film makes me feel that grand illusion of glamorous Hollywood every second it is on. The actors and actresses are beautiful, classy, witty, wonderful. The script sings, the actors and actresses shine, the sets dazzle. This is a beloved film for a reason. I give it a perfect 10/10, Essential.