jürgen fauth’s muckworld

Even a “minor” Truffaut is still a delight. Jean-Paul Belmondo plays the owner of a tobacco plantation on Reunion who places an ad for a bride… and Catherine Deneuve gets off the boat. But much like in 2001’s overlooked Birthday Girl, the mysterious stranger is no innocent. There’s murder, international intrigue, and a man so smitten with the young Deneuve he’s willing to throw his life away. What else do you need?

La Sirène du Mississippi. François Truffaut, 1969. ***

• Mississippi Mermaid at Wikipedia
• Mississippi Mermaid at Rotten Tomatoes: 88%
• Mississippi Mermaid at Amazon.com

The only excuse I have for sitting through this straight-to-DVD clunker is the presence of Sarah Polley, who Marcy will see in absolutely anything. Ryan Phillippe, Piper Perabo and Stephen Rea are in it too, so how bad could it be?

Bad enough for the credits to misspell the star’s name: after an accident that left him dead for two minutes, Simon Cable (Ryan Phillipe [sic]) wakes up in a hospital with a case of that lazy old mindfuck standby, amnesia. He finds out that he’s got a wife who doesn’t love him (Perabo) and a lover who seems to (Polley) — but then things change again, because like Vonnegut’s Billy Pilgrim, he’s become unstuck in time, too.

The script, based on a play by Michael Cooney, dispenses the pieces of the puzzle at random, and it takes all of five minutes to suspect that it’s going to end like An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. Still, we were willing to go along with it, but I’m here to report that while The I Inside just barely held our attention, it utterly failed to repay it. Which is a polite way of saying that it features the lamest WTF ending I’ve seen in a while. Avoid.

The I Inside. Roland Suso Richter, 2003. *

Starting out like a romantic comedy about a phobic shut-in and his sexy neighbor, this truly independent production soon turns into a taut, claustrophobic thriller. The debts to Something Wild, Shallow Grave, and Double Indemnity are obvious but never overwhelm the original vision co-directors Kerry Douglas Dye and Jordan Hoffman bring to their material. In the interest of full disclosure, I should probably mention that I’m friends with the filmmakers and appeared in their previous production — so I’ll refrain from giving Body/Antibody a rating. The film will be screening in competition at the Brooklyn International Film Festival this June. Body/Antibody features fine performances by Robert Gomes, Leslie Kendall, Frank Deal, and Deborah Gibson (!).

Body/Antibody. Kerry Douglas Dye and Jordan Hoffman, 2007. N/R

• Official Site for Body/Antibody
• More photos
  
• The trailer:
  

Civic Duty steals liberally from Falling Down, Rear Window, and Dog Day Afternoon to milk September 11 paranoia for a contrived, rickety potboiler. Peter Krause (Nate from Six Feet Under) plays Terry Allen, a laid-off accountant who becomes obsessed with a middle-eastern neighbor he suspects to be a terrorist (Khaled Abol Naga.) Allen’s unsupportive wife (Kari Matchett) ditches him at the first sign of trouble, and the FBI agent assigned to the case (Richard Schiff) is no help. Finally, Allen investigates at gun point, and, being an accountant and all, utters hardboiled lines like these: “The checks come to more than double of what your tuition is!” Production values are strictly TV movie of the week, and the ending would have made me angry–if I still cared. Marcy’s thoughts: “If you went crazy and took a hostage, I don’t think I’d turn you in.” Thanks, baby! Love you too. Civic Duty opens May 4.

Civic Duty. Jeff Renfroe, 2006. *

• Civic Duty on Rotten Tomatoes
• The trailer

I wish I’d seen this sooner because it’s old news now: Infernal Affairs is much better than Marty’s Oscar-winning remake, The Departed. There are about 49 reasons why this is so, but here are just two: it’s only half as long, and the Hong Kong waterfront is twice as dramatic as Boston’s.

Mou gaan dou. Wai Keung Lau and Siu Fai Mak, 2002. ***

• Rotten Tomatoes: 95%

The trailer:

Movies about The Money are always about Trust, too, and the unofficial theme song of the heist thriller is Bob Dylan’s Absolutely Sweet Marie:

Well, six white horses that you did promise
Were fin’lly delivered down to the penitentiary
But to live outside the law, you must be honest
I know you always say that you agree
But where are you tonight, sweet Marie?

The double-cross isn’t just a staple of the gangster film, it’s built into its DNA in a way that few screenwriters seem to be able to resist. Therefore, it’s a pleasure to see criminals who don’t screw each other over for the loot. For a movie that got attacked for its perceived cynicism, The Ice Harvest put a particularly nice spin on the problem, and Bound surprised us in this regard, too.

You see, trust becomes the central problem in the developing love affair between Gina Gershon and gangster moll Jennifer Tilly when mobster Joe Pantoliano steals a bunch of money, they steal it from him, somebody gets shot, and so forth. A tight, sexy, and violent chamber play, the first feature by the Wachowski brothers has enough clever moments and directorial flourishes to stay entertaining while it lasts. In the long run though, I don’t expect to remember much aside from what the poster rightfully promised: fetishistic images of women in black leather, all tied up.

Bound. Andy and Larry Wachowski, 1996. ***

• YouTube has several home-brewed music video remixes
• Movie Screen Shots has more movie screen shots

Atrocious. If we’d seen it in time, this movie would have been assured one of the top spots on the list of worst movies of 2006. It’s not just that Scarlett Johannson and Josh Hartnett are fatally miscast–nobody here is pulling off the 40s tough guy/dame thing. Hillary Swank does a mediocre Kate Hepburn impersonation, Aaron Eckhard flounders, and Scarlett certainly ain’t Lauren Bacall. It’s like watching Brick–or Bugsy Malone–except that nobody bothered to clue in the actors. The only scenes that aren’t flat-out laughable are the black-and-white bits with Mia Kirshner.

The Black Dahlia. Brian De Palma, 2006. *

• Rotten Tomatoes: 36%
• Matt Zoller Seitz finds plenty to admire

[tags]noir, thriller, murder, brian de palma, prostitution, cops, los angeles, film, 1 star, hillary swank, katherine hepburn, aaron eckhard, scarlett johannson, lauren bacall, josh hartnett, james ellroy, mia kirshner[/tags]

Marty’s Hearty Head Shot Show. Confident entertainment, especially if you like tough talk and cell phones.

The Departed. Martin Scorsese, 2006. **

[tags]film, 2 stars, thriller, cops, guns, murder, martin scorsese, leonardo dicaprio, matt damon, jack nicholson, mark wahlberg, martin sheen, vera farmiga[/tags]