Red Desert makes for a strong case of requalifying
Antonioni’s ‘Alienation Trilogy’ as a
Tetralogy; it masterfully propounded the themes of alienation, ennui, shallow
relationships and existential crisis in a modern world, as did L’Avventura, La Notte and L’Eclisse,
and had his muse Monica Vitti in the lead – only that, unlike the three films
preceding it, it was not in B/W. The Italian maestro’s first foray into colour
filmmaking, it provided a harrowing portrait of “progress” – a bleak and
haunting look at how relentless industrialization and uncontrolled
technological growth might be accompanied with spiritual desolation and
widening of gaps between humans instead of bridging them. The beautiful and
enigmatic Giuliana (Vitti), wife of Ugo (Carlo Chionetti), the manager of a
generation plant, and mother of a kid son, is suffering from depression and
malaise, ignited by a car accident in the past, and subliminally exacerbated by
her ravaged surroundings. The devastation caused by the plant’s
unapologetically polluting nature, and the incessant strikes and conflicts
between the plant’s management and workers, formed a key juxtaposition to her
emotional estrangement, increasingly erratic nature, formation of irreparable marital
fissures, and her growing bond with dandy and emotionally impregnable British
engineer Corrado (Richard Harris), who’s come to recruit low-cost labour for a
project in South America. The dour, grimy and barren landscape, and the
monster-like plant’s belching smoke and poisonous detritus, was brilliantly
captured by the breathtaking colour photography, with its grainy images and
shallow depth of field.
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Genre: Drama/Psychological Drama/Marital Drama/Existential Drama
Language: Italian
Country: Italy
Preminger’s
superb romantic-noir Angel Face
provided a dark and discomfiting peek into Freudian jealousy, obsession and
sexual insecurity. And Jean Simmon’s Diane Tremayne ought to rank amongst the
most self-serving, duplicitous, alluring and brilliantly etched femme fatales
along the likes of such iconic characters as Ava Gardner’s Kitty Collins in The Killers, Jane Greer’s Kathie Moffat
in Out of the Past, Barbara
Stanwyck’s Phyllis Dietrichson in Double Indemnity and Mary Astor’s Brigid O’Shaughnessy in Maltese Falcon – so much so that she even managed to outshine a
top-notch Robert Mitchum. Frank Jessup (Mitchum) is a two-bit ambulance driver
in a relationship with the loving Mary (Mona Freeman); an untimely halt at the
house of the Tremaynes for a seemingly regular case of gas poisoning, however,
kick-starts his journey downhill. He makes the acquaintance of Diane, a sad,
beautiful and lonely 19-year old girl whose alluring looks mask a dangerous and
sociopathic core. She plans to get rid of her wealthy stepmother (Barbara
O’Neil), in order to be the sole companion of her novelist father (Herbert
Marshall), and teasingly engages the dour-faced and world-weary Frank to that
effect – and boy does he make him dance to her tunes even when he realizes he’s
being taken for a chump! Preminger marvelously alternated quieter moments with harsh
and brutal sequences, and laced the proceedings with cynical edge and fatalism.
And in Diane we have a thoroughly inscrutable and unpredictable damsel who just
doesn’t have a moral compass or conscience. The fine B/W photography and terrific
organ-based score formed the perfect foil to the film’s moodiness and bleak
atmosphere.
Director: Otto Preminger
Genre: Film Noir/Crime Drama/Psychological Drama/Romantic Noir
Language: English
Country: US
Love is Colder than Death can perhaps be described as American Noir and
Gangster genres meet French Nouvelle Vague sensibilities meet the mercurial Rainer
Werner Fassbinder’s idiosyncratic style. RWF’s assured debut feature, it
portrayed crime, violence, camaraderie, love and ménage à trois through a strange prism of pastiche, personal
statement and adventurous formalism. The film begins with Franz (Fassbinder), a
brutish and daredevil small-time pimp and hoodlum, being tortured by the
Syndicate to join their organization. Upon realizing the futility of their
exercise he’s allowed to leave, but Bruno (Ulli Lommel), a young sharp-shooting
gangster in the making, is engaged to follow him. What eventually follows is a
wicked and unpredictable tryst between the two outsiders and Franz’s alluring
and seductive prostitute girlfriend Joanna (Hanna Schygulla). They chat, make
bizarre plans, rob stores, kill people and make love in this restless and hyper-stylized
film stripped of conventional plot developments. Influences of early-Godard – Bande a Part in particular, and Melville’s Le Samourai were evident in this wacky concoction served by RWF,
with the deliberately theatrical set-pieces and an understated streak of sly fun
at the audience’s cost, making this a rather interesting piece of work by the prolific
New German Cinema icon. The fourth-wall was often breached, the narrative was
often interspersed with scenes that seemed out of place were, moments of
alienation were alternated with black humour, and genre symbols were both
evoked and discarded in this alternately off-putting and intriguing little
film. The sexual chemistry between the American noir prototype Franz, Alain
Delon look-a-like Bruno, and the sassy, promiscuous Joanna, was particularly
noteworthy.
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Genre: Crime Drama/Gangster/Post-Noir
Language: German
Country: Germany
Prince of the City, based on a true story, formed the middle
chapter of Lumet’s topical trilogy on ‘New York Police Corruption’, was separated
by nearly a decade on either side by Serpico
and Q & A. Though not as famous
as the former or as brutal as the latter, this was possibly the most ambitious of
the lot; and at a mammoth 167 minutes, it covered both width and depth while
still being highly engaging. Daniel (Treat Williams), a boisterous and seemingly
upright cop with the narcotics division, is approached by a federal prosecutor
(Norman Parker) to help the State weed out corruption from the forces. After
much persuasion and self-reflection on the degradation surrounding him, he agrees
to help provided he never has to rat on his partners. However, what follows
over the next couple of years, as dirt starts emerging and difficult choices
are made, could never have been gauged by him, as his close friends start getting
implicated, resulting in heartbreaks and turmoil, and he himself becomes a
suspect for the committee, not to mention a pariah among his buddies and a potential
target for assassination. Lumet, in his typically understated style,
marvelously captured the complex investigation process and the immense human
toll it took, not least of all on the protagonist. Williams, in a role that was
conceived for Al Pacino who turned it down on account of perceived similarities
with Serpico, gave an effective turn,
particularly in how the internal and external forces slowly wear him down. The
ensemble supporting cast, covering cops, mobsters, lawyers, politicians, etc.,
was top-notch, in this brooding, tense, deeply ambivalent, well photographed
and documentary-like film on the inherent ambiguities of such terms as
innocence and guilt.
Director: Sidney Lumet
Genre: Drama/Police Drama/Urban Drama/Ensemble Film
Language: English
Country: US
Q & A, which along with Serpico
and Prince of the City formed a
trilogy on New York police corruption, and based on real events, ranks among
Lumet’s most underrated works. Though not bereft of flaws, this provided a
tense and gripping account of how racial hatred and bigotry have permeated within
the force, and the easy acceptance of violence and realpolitik. The film begins
with veteran cop Lt. Mike Brennan (Nick Nolte) eliminating a small-time crook
in cold blood and then makes it look like self-defense. ADA Al Reilly (Timothy
Hutton), a rookie lawyer and former cop, is assigned this seemingly open-and-shut
case as Brennan is considered a hero within the department. Al, however, is not
the kind of person to take things on face value, and the more he digs into the
case and its murky details, the greater the stink it starts generating.
Consequently, he ends up having to deal with multiple foes in order to get to
the end – the psychotic and dangerous Brennan, a suave Puerto Rican drug dealer
(Armand Assante), and the increasingly hostile DA who wanted a quick closure,
while he gets assistance from a cynical and honest senior DA official (Lee
Richardson). Nolte gave a volcanic turn as the shrewd, nasty, unapologetically racist
and thoroughly unpredictable Brennan; the sheer vitriol that his character
spews on non-whites, transvestites and prostitutes, and his explosive nature,
made for disturbing but compelling viewing. Assante and Richardson were also good,
while Hutton, as the naïve but upright lawyer, was effective. The time spent on
Al’s liaison with his former flame, however, could have been cut short, and the
script could have been made tighter – but these were minor blemishes that can
be ignored.
Director: Sidney Lumet
Genre: Drama/Crime Drama/Police Drama/Urban Drama
Language: English
Country: US
