1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die-PART 2

Trainspotting Danny Boyle, 1996 G.B. (Channel Four, Figment, PolyGram, The team behind the 1994 British cult hit Shallow Grave—producer 1996 Noel Gay) 94m Color Producer Andrew Andrew Macdonald, writer John Hodge, director Danny Boyle, and star Ewan McGregor—reunited for this punchy, grim look at the Edinburgh Macdonald Screenplay John Hodge, drug scene, based on offbeat writer Irvine Welsh’s controversial novel. from novel by Irvine Welsh Music Johann Sebastian Bach, Georges Bizet, Brian Eno, McGregor stars as Mark “Rent Boy” Renton, an addict with a collection of misfit pals: casual dealer Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller); Spud Iggy Pop Photography Brian Tufano (Ewen Bremner), a character who is destined to be one of life’s losers; Cast Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, and Begbie (Robert Carlyle in a scary standout performance), a violent Jonny Lee Miller, Kevin McKidd, Robert psycho who picks fights with anyone and everyone. Carlyle, Kelly Macdonald, Peter Mullan, James Cosmo, Eileen Nicholas, Susan Boyle uses a clever cinematic imagination to bring these losers’ lives Vidler, Pauline Lynch, Shirley Henderson, onto the screen, from the showstopping opening moment as Renton Stuart McQuarrie, Irvine Welsh, Dale Winton runs down the street, to his infamous “Choose life” speech narrated as he is pursued for yet another petty crime committed to pay for his Oscar nomination John Hodge habit. Drug abuse here isn’t depicted as a glamorous option—Renton’s (screenplay) horrific hallucinations include a dive into possibly the most disgusting toilet in Scotland in an attempt to retrieve lost narcotics, and the “People think it’s all unforgettable images of a dead baby that haunt him when he is trying about misery and to detox. desperation and death At the time of its release, some critics of the film complained that . . . but what they forget although Trainspotting doesn’t glamorize drugs, it also doesn’t pass any moral judgments on its drug-addicted characters. But Boyle and is the pleasure of it.” Hodge’s refusal to take a moral stance is in fact one of the movie’s many attributes—we are not there to judge Renton and his pals; we are just there to watch as, in a bleakly humorous fashion, their lives fizzle away to nothing. A fascinating, highly charged, and brilliantly played movie, Trainspotting is rightly regarded as one of the best British films of the 1990s. It features some of the country’s most startling young talent: Carlyle, McGregor, writer Hodge, and director Boyle (who went on to work with McGregor again two years later in the interesting but uneven A Life Less Ordinary). JB Renton (Ewan McGregor) i The toilet-diving scene is a reference to Thomas Pynchon’s postmodern novel Gravity’s Rainbow (1973).

Fargo Joel Coen, 1996 1996 U.S. / G.B. (Gramercy, PolyGram, Working One specialty of sibling partners Joel and Ethan Coen is twisting time- Title) 98m Color Producer Ethan Coen honored Hollywood genres into flamboyant, contemporary delights. The Screenplay Joel Coen and Ethan Coen foremost filmmakers to emerge from America in the 1980s, their best films still look great, and the devilishly clever Fargo is among their very Photography Roger Deakins Music Carter best. It’s a wicked tale that provokes gasps of admiration and shock along Burwell Cast William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi, with belly laughs. Embezzlement, abduction, deceit, misunderstanding, Frances McDormand, Peter Stormare, Kristin and murder are all in the frame, as is another regular feature of the Coenesque experience—a crime that gets totally out of control. Rudrüd, Harve Presnell, Tony Denman, Gary Houston, Sally Wingert, Kurt Schweickhardt, Fargo takes place in North Dakota, where oppressed car salesman Jerry Lundergaard (William H. Macy in the anxious performance that Larissa Kokernot, Melissa Peterman, Steve lifted him from ever-useful character actor to eagerly sought character Reevis, Warren Keith, Steve Edelman, Sharon actor) arranges a meeting with the two ex-cons he hires to abduct his wife. But most of the film, impishly introduced as a true story in the first Anderson Oscars Ethan Coen, Joel Coen of its macabre deceptions, is set in the austere, snowy landscapes of the (screenplay), Frances McDormand (actress) Coens’s native Minnesota (where the exaggerated regional dialect amusingly employed in hilariously banal chitchat is a flat, singsong relic Oscar nominations Ethan Coen (best of the area’s Scandinavian immigrant pioneers, and at absurd odds with picture), Joel Coen (director), William H. the heinous goings-on). Macy (actor in support role), Roger Deakins (photography), Ethan Coen, Joel Coen The desperately in debt Lundergaard cuts a supposedly simple, “no (editing) Cannes Film Festival Joel Coen rough stuff” deal. His wife’s ransom is to be paid by her rich, bullying father (Harve Presnell) and split between hubby and his hired thugs, with (director, Golden Palm nomination) the woman going free none the wiser. Only things go horribly and grotesquely awry in the hands of the psychopath (Peter Stormare’s “Deakins’s darkly Grimsrud) with a craving for pancakes, and the agitated bungler (“funny delicious shots create a lookin’ little fella” Steve Buscemi’s Showalter) who can’t control him or beautiful wintry collage events. Enter Frances McDormand (Mrs. Joel Coen), absolutely fantastic as the very pregnant, comically ordinary but sharp small-town police that turns the prosaic chief, Marge Gunderson. Resolutely conducting her first triple homicide into cinematic poetry.” investigation with unhurried waddle and droll aplomb, Marge is easily the most engaging character ever conceived by the Coens (along with, Peter Stack, later, Jeff Bridge’s “The Dude” Lebowski). SF Chronicle, 1996 The Coens’s witty expertise results in a quirky, bizarre tragicomedy i that manages to be wildly funny and violently distressing by neatly The (false) “Based on a true story” accomplished turns, the essential innocence and simplicity of some characters contrasted effectively with the depravity of others. Hapless disclaimer was added to help criminals and victims are there not to be empathized with but to be viewers suspend disbelief. cruelly toyed with for our wincing pleasure. That cold, malevolent streak that has recurred in much of their work is what prompted one detractor famously to dub them “arty nuisances.” But it does not diminish their flagrant talent to dazzle, bemuse, and amuse. Against its icy visuals, Fargo contains some of their warmest work, full of signature Coen brothers set pieces and running jokes but also the surprisingly redemptive comfort of straightforward decency. McDormand and the Coens’s screenplay won Oscars for breaking the mold in a unique case of murder. AE 850



Iran / France (MK2, Sanaye Dasti) 75m Color Gabbeh Mohsen Makhmalbaf, 1996 Language Farsi Producer Khalil Daroudchi, Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s Gabbeh is an overwhelmingly gorgeous film. Khalil Mahmoudi Screenplay Mohsen From its first bold strokes—when a young woman (Shaghayeh Djodat) Makhmalbaf Photography Mahmoud Kalari seems to spring to life from a figure in a Persian carpet—the colors, sounds, and rapid associative editing are entrancing. But Gabbeh is Music Hossein Alizadeh Cast Abbas Sayah, much more than another exotic exercise in the vein of, say, Il Postino Shaghayeh Djodat, Hossein Moharami, (1994). The mournful story of deferred love that fills the film offers a profound humanist panorama of love and longing, birth and death, Rogheih Moharami, Parvaneh Ghalandari nature and culture, magic and loss. i These days, every film with a few red-tinted sunset shots is lazily The film takes its title from a type of labeled “poetic.” Gabbeh, however, is an authentic expression of the “cinema of poetry.” Every word, sight, sound, gesture, and color comes carpet woven by the Ghashghai to resonate metaphorically with something else: The gesture of an nomads of southwest Iran. animal resembles the motions of carpet makers; rapidly flowing water is like a field of grass sent dancing by the wind. Within the context of burgeoning Western appreciation of the Iranian New Wave, Gabbeh has been faulted in comparison with the Neorealist films of Abbas Kiarostami, such as Through the Olive Trees (1994), but Gabbeh shows a hushed, patient, timeless aspect of Makhmalbaf’s prodigious talent. The breathtaking style he adopts here fuses folk and modernist elements in a way that refuses any absolute distinction between them. This is a film that has a limpidity and directness that are truly sublime, a movie that makes its way straight into the soul. AM 852

France / Portugal (CNC, Gémini, La Sept, Trois vies & une seule mort Raoul Ruiz, 1996 Le Groupement National des Cinémas de Recherche, Canal+ Madragoa) Three Lives and Only One Death 123m Eastmancolor Language French Perhaps the most accessible movie of the Chilean-born Raul Ruiz (who Producer Paulo Branco Screenplay Pascal has more than a hundred titles to his credit), Three Lives and Only One Bonitzer, Raoul Ruiz Photography Laurent Death provides a sunny showcase for the charismatic talents of the late Marcello Mastroianni, who plays four separate roles, and stands as a Machuel Music Jorge Arriagada testament to the filmmaker’s imaginative postsurrealist talents as a yarn Cast Marcello Mastroianni, Anna Galiena, spinner and a weaver of magical images and ideas. Marisa Paredes, Melvil Poupaud, Chiara Mixing together ideas borrowed liberally and freely from stories by Mastroianni, Arielle Dombasle, Féodor Nathaniel Hawthorne and Isak Dinesen with whimsical notions that Atkine, Jean-Yves Gautier, Jacques Pieiller, could belong to no one but Ruiz (such as the tale of a millionaire who willingly and successfully turns himself into a beggar), Three Lives and Pierre Bellemare, Smaïn, Lou Castel, Only One Death is a French comedy with a Paris setting, which often Roland Topor, Jacques Delpi, Jean Badin resembles a kind of euphoric free fall through the works and fancies of Cannes Film Festival Raoul Ruiz (Golden a writer like Jorge Luis Borges. Among the spirited cast members are Mastroianni’s daughter Chiara, and Melvil Poupaud (who played in Ruiz’s Palm nomination) 1983 film City of Pirates). JRos 1996 Australia (Australian Film Finance Shine Scott Hicks, 1996 Corporation, Film Victoria, South Australian David Helfgott (Geoffrey Rush) is a gifted pianist. But his promising talent Feature Film Company) 105m Color as a concert pianist never reached the heights experts—his father Producer Jane Scott Screenplay Scott included—expected of him. This film, by Australian director Scott Hicks, Hicks, Jan Sardi Photography Geoffrey a former TV documentary maker, shows why, allowing Helfgott’s story to unfold in a tragic way. Simpson Music David Hirschfelder Cast Geoffrey Rush, Justin Braine, Sonia Like a slow-motion car accident, it is sometimes almost too painful Todd, Chris Haywood, Alex Rafalowicz, to watch. As a young boy, Helgott (played as a youth by Alex Rafalowicz) Gordon Poole, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Nicholas was cited as possibly the best pianist of his generation and the next big Bell, Danielle Cox, Rebecca Gooden, Marta thing in classic piano. This talent, however, wilted under the Kaczmarek, John Cousins, Noah Taylor, Paul overwhelming pressure and presence of his father (played by Armin Linkson, Randall Berger Oscar Geoffrey Rush Mueller-Stahl). He’s a man who lost his parents in the gas chambers and who certainly loves his son—but does not have a clue how to understand (best actor in a leading role) Oscar or manage his talent. It is the father’s mistakes about his son that nominations Armin Mueller-Stahl (best ultimately destroy the boy’s burgeoning career. actor in a supporting role), Scott Hicks (best director), Pip Karmel (best film editing), Mentally fragile, Helfgott’s prodigious skill at the piano surfaces only David Hirschfelder best music, original at the rarest times. Shine, for all its sadness, contains some of the most dramatic score), Jane Scott (best picture), lustrous cinematic moments in memory, if only through juxtaposition with its bleaker instances. Based on a true story, this intense drama Jan Sardi, Scott Hicks (best writing, disturbingly reinforces the idea that suffering might just be the key for screenplay written directly for the screen) some artistic geniuses. Putting that cliché aside, however, Shine is an elegiac, nonjudgmental look at a true-life tormented prodigy who fought his own demons and finds redemption despite crippling emotional and mental odds. Much of the soundtrack features music by the real David Helfgott. John Gielgud appears as his London-based teacher. KK 853

Scream Wes Craven, 1996 1996 U.S. (Dimension, Woods) 111m Color In 1996, Wes Craven—director of such modern horror classics as The Hills Producer Cathy Konrad, Cary Have Eyes (1978) and A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)—shocked everyone who thought his career was over by initiating one of the most Woods Screenplay Kevin Williamson popular and successful horror series of all time. Scream, featuring a bevy Photography Mark Irwin Music Marco of talented young actors (including Drew Barrymore, Neve Campbell, Skeet Ulrich, David Arquette, Rose McGowan, and Jamie Kennedy), took Beltrami Cast David Arquette, Neve the United States by storm, bringing in over $103 million at the box Campbell, Courteney Cox, Skeet Ulrich, Rose office and kicking off a new wave of hip and reflexive slasher movies. McGowan, Matthew Lillard, Jamie Kennedy, Urban Legend (1998), I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), and of course Scream 2 (1997), Scream 3 (2000), and the stalker parody Scary W. Earl Brown, Drew Barrymore, Joseph Movie (2000) all owe much of their success to Craven’s original. Whipp, Lawrence Hecht, Roger L. Jackson, Scream’s intense ten-minute prologue is among the most talked- David Booth, Liev Schreiber, Carla Hatley about horror scenes in recent memory. An anonymous caller threatens the lives of high school cutie Casey Becker (Barrymore) and her boyfriend “It’s so sad. Her mom and unless she can answer such questions as “Who was the killer in Friday the dad found her hanging 13th?” Like everyone else in Scream, Casey has seen most of the classic from a tree limb, her slasher movies: Halloween (1978), Prom Night (1980), and so on. But only insides on the outside.” the most hard-core horror fans have a chance to live here and even that’s not always enough. The main story concerns the efforts of virginal Tatum (Rose McGowan) heroine Sidney Prescott (Campbell) to survive the attacks of a slasher film fanatic with a ghost mask and a very sharp knife. Only the timely help of dirt-seeking news reporter Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) is enough to save Sidney, who is shocked to discover that her enemy is really a pair of close male friends (including her sometimes boyfriend) who seem to get off on the fact that they kill without reason. Among the reasons for Scream’s outstanding success is an often hilarious script (written by Kevin Williamson, who would go on to create the hit teen TV show Dawson’s Creek), the numerous jokey references to earlier horror movies, and Craven’s expert direction, which manages to frighten audiences even while they’re laughing. SJS i Marco Beltrami has written the scores for seven of Wes Craven’s films since this first collaboration. 854

France / G.B. (Channel Four, CiBy 2000, Thin Secrets & Lies Mike Leigh, 1996 Man) 142m Metrocolor Producer Simon Secrets & Lies, Mike Leigh’s gripping, multifaceted comedy-drama, Channing-Williams Screenplay Mike Leigh winner of the grand prize at Cannes in 1996, may well be his most Photography Dick Pope Music Andrew accessible and optimistic film. This possibly helps to explain why it remains the most celebrated work of a writer-director for stage and Dickson Cast Timothy Spall, Phyllis Logan, screen who is often best known for his anger and merciless skewering Brenda Blethyn, Claire Rushbrook, Marianne of class differences in Thatcherite and post-Thatcher England. Jean-Baptiste, Elizabeth Berrington, Michele Austin, Lee Ross, Lesley Manville, Ron Cook, Hortense, a young black optometrist (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), Emma Amos, Brian Bovell, Trevor Laird, Claire seeks out her white biological mother (Brenda Blethyn), a factory worker who put her up for adoption at birth. As the two become Perkins, Elias Perkins McCook Oscar acquainted, tensions build between the mother and another nominations Simon Channing-Williams illegitimate daughter (Claire Rushbrook), between the mother and her (best picture), Mike Leigh (director), Mike younger brother (Timothy Spall), and between him and his wife (Phyllis Leigh (screenplay), Brenda Blethyn (actress), Logan), everything leading to a ferocious climax. Marianne Jean-Baptiste (actress in support The dense, Ibsen-like plotting of family revelations in Secrets & Lies is role) Cannes Film Festival Mike Leigh dramatically satisfying in broad terms, though it leaves a few details (Golden Palm, prize of the ecumenical jury), unaccounted for. But the acting is so strong—with Spall a particular standout—that you’re carried along as if by a tidal wave. JRos Brenda Blethyn (actress) i As with all of Mike Leigh’s projects, most of the script was improvised. 855

The English Patient Anthony Minghella, 1996 1996 U.S. (J&M, Miramax, Tiger Moth) 160m Color Anthony Minghella’s epic adaptation of Michael Ondaatje’s Booker Language English / German Producer Saul Prize–winning novel owned Oscar night, winning nine Academy Awards in the most sweeping victory since the 1987 film The Last Emperor. It was Zaentz Screenplay Anthony Minghella, particularly remarkable for a film that the writer-director had almost from novel by Michael Ondaatje despaired of making. Having been “intoxicated” by the poetic book, he spent over three years restructuring it, greatly expanding the doomed Photography John Seale Music Gabriel love story at its heart. The independent producer Saul Zaentz (One Flew Yared Cast Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Over the Cuckoo’s Nest [1975], Amadeus [1984]) originally found backing Willem Dafoe, Kristin Scott Thomas, Naveen from 20th Century Fox. But disagreements, such as casting Kristin Scott Andrews, Colin Firth, Julian Wadham, Jürgen Thomas rather than an American actress, culminated in the studio pulling out. Production was halted before Miramax stepped in with the finance. Prochnow, Kevin Whately, Clive Merrison, Nino Castelnuovo, Hichem Rostom, Peter A severely burned and disfigured pilot (Ralph Fiennes) is found in the Rühring, Geordie Johnson, Torri Higginson wreckage of his biplane in North Africa near the end of World War II. Oscars Saul Zaentz (best picture), Anthony Apparently amnesiac, unidentified but presumed to be English, he is Minghella (director), Juliette Binoche (actress dying and in the care of French-Canadian nurse Hana (Juliette Binoche). Taking refuge in a devastated Italian monastery, they are joined by in support role), Stuart Craig, Stephanie Willem Dafoe’s vengeful Canadian torture victim and two bomb disposal McMillan (art direction), John Seale experts for intimate explorations of memory, loss, and healing. The mystery patient—revealed as Hungarian Count Laszlo Almásy—recalls (photography), Ann Roth (costume), Walter his past gradually between the late 1930s and 1945, in Tuscany, Cairo, Murch (editing), Gabriel Yared (music), Walter and the Sahara Desert. Almásy’s love affair with the married Katharine Murch, Mark Berger, David Parker, Christopher Clifton (Kristin Scott Thomas) unfolds with tragic consequences. Newman (sound) Oscar nominations The film has two strong elements to captivate. The story is convoluted Anthony Minghella (screenplay), Ralph but classically, passionately romantic. And the production is meticulously Fiennes (actor), Kristin Scott Thomas (actress) artful, repeatedly likened to the style of David Lean, from dreamlike aerial Berlin International Film Festival Juliette sequences and a dramatic sandstorm to sensuous love scenes and Binoche (Silver Bear), Anthony Minghella enchanting effects—cave paintings examined by torchlight, church frescoes illuminated by a flare. The English Patient’s scale, its majesty on (Golden Bear nomination) big screens, and its sense of importance demanded recognition for its artistic and technical achievements. AE “Every night I cut out my heart. But in the morning it was full again.” Almásy (Ralph Fiennes) i Fiennes’s burn makeup took five hours each day to apply and used an eleven piece foam prosthetic. 856

Lone Star John Sayles, 1996 U.S. (Castle Rock, Columbia, Rio Dulce) John Sayles’s wise and witty study of interconnected lives down by the 1996 135m Color Producer R. Paul Miller, Texan border with Mexico is about crossing lines, digging up the past, learning lessons, and moving on. It proffers a garrulous gallery of Maggie Renzi Screenplay John Sayles characters, all somehow connected with or investigated by Rio County Photography Stuart Dryburgh Sheriff Sam Deeds (Chris Cooper) after a skeleton is discovered in the desert just outside of town. Deeds privately reckons it may have Music Mason Daring Cast Stephen something to do with the ongoing battle his late dad (Matthew Mendillo, Stephen J. Lang, Chris Cooper, McConaughey)—for years a local hero—had with a notoriously corrupt Elizabeth Peña, Oni Faida Lampley, Eleese and racist lawman (Kris Kristofferson) several decades previously. What Lester, Joe Stevens, Gonzalo Castillo, Richard happened way back then? And how has it affected the present town, Coca, Clifton James, Tony Frank, Miriam with its uneasy mix of whites, Hispanics, and blacks all keen to rewrite history as well as claim the future? How does the personal affect the Colon, Kris Kristofferson, Jeff Monahan, political, and vice versa? Matthew McConaughey Oscar nomination On the surface, Lone Star might be seen as a cross between a John Sayles (screenplay) detective story and a modern Western, but it’s more pertinently the kind of kaleidoscopic survey of a society in the process of change at which “Buddy Deeds said a Sayles has been excelling for years—ever since Matewan (1987) and City thing, he damn well of Hope (1991), in fact. Here, however, for the first time he adds flashbacks backed it up. Never be (sometimes as private memories, sometimes as shared experience) to another one like him.” include time as an extra ingredient in a heady brew already made up of class, money, sex, friendship, family, and race. Inevitably, given the border setting, the last figures heavily in terms of fear, hatred, desire, immigration, job prospects, and prejudice; mercifully, Sayles never sermonizes, but simply shows us how things function (or not, as the case may be). The dialogue is witty and colorful but naturalistic, the performances are excellent throughout, the use of music is characteristically sly and expressive, and Stuart Dryburgh’s camera work eloquently conveys the various allegiances and divisions in the community on view. And watch out for that quietly subversive (albeit eminently justifiable) ending—forget the Alamo, indeed! GA Fenton (Tony Frank) i Lone Star is regarded as director John Sayles’s masterpiece. His screenplay won an Oscar nomination.

Breaking the Waves Lars von Trier, 1996 1996 Denmark / Sweden / France / Netherlands / Before issuing a manifesto that urged subscribing to a dogma, Danish Norway (Argus, Canal+, CoBo, Det Danske, filmmaker Lars von Trier made a film about the ambiguous horrors of Eurimages, European Script Fund, Finnish living by dogma. Set in remote Scotland in the 1970s, Breaking the Waves Film Foundation, La Sept, Liberator, Lucky leaves behind the slickly designed, highly wrought artifice of the often Red, Media Investment Club, Nederlands monochrome magical worlds of earlier von Trier productions (The Fonds voor de Film, Nordic Film & TV Fund, Element of Crime [1984], Europa [1991]) to experiment with the edgy, Northern Lights, Norwegian Film Institute, hand-held, rough-around-the-edges look typical of his The Idiots (1998) October, Philippe Bobor, SVT Drama, and Dogme95 pictures by other directors (such as Thomas Vinterberg’s Swedish Film Institute, TV1000 AB, Icelandic Festen [1998] and Joren Kragh-Jacobsen’s Mifune [1999]). However, this Film Corporation, Trust Film Svenska, VPRO is by no means a dogma or dogmatic film, as scenes are set with TV, Villealfa, YLE, Zentropa, ZDF, Arte) 159m computer-augmented haunted landscapes and deeply unfashionable Eastmancolor Director Lars von Trier 1970s pop music selections. Producer Peter Aalbæk Jensen, Vibeke Windeløv Screenplay Lars von Trier, Peter Von Trier was obsessed as a child with a fairy tale called Golden Heart, Asmussen Photography Robby Müller about a good little girl who gives away so much that she uses herself Music Joachim Holbek Cast Emily Watson, up—though his copy was missing a crucial happy ending. Breaking the Stellan Skarsgård, Katrin Cartlidge, Jean- Waves is the first of a trilogy, followed by The Idiots (1998) and Dancer in the Dark (2000), extrapolating from this theme. Here, the heroine is Bess Marc Barr, Adrian Rawlins, Jonathan Hackett, (Emily Watson), a withdrawn, almost childish young woman raised in an Sandra Voe, Udo Kier, Mikkel Gaup, Roef austere, religious community in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides. She begins Ragas, Phil McCall, Robert Robertson, to emerge from her shell when she impulsively marries Jan (Stellan Skarsgård), a Swede who works on an oil rig in the North Sea, but her Desmond Reilly, Sarah Gudgeon, Finlay Welsh new life is fractured when Jan is crippled by an industrial accident. Oscar nomination Emily Watson (actress) Replacing her cold religion with extreme love, Bess takes a peculiar path Cannes Film Festival Lars von Trier (grand to sainthood and martyrdom, discovering that she can reach the prize of the jury, Golden Palm nomination) bedridden Jan only by recounting to him tales of sexual adventures, which leads her to comic, tragic, and ultimately fatal encounters. “I don’t make love with them, I make love Ostracized as a whore by village elders who routinely stand over the with Jan and I save him graves of women and curse them to hell for causing the fall of man, Bess is drawn out to sea to a boat captained by a Satanic Udo Kier, but the from dying.” final moments of the film present her post humous influence as genuinely miraculous. The plot takes a difficult but rewarding path, and it might shade into gimmickry were it not for a startlingly real, affecting, and strange central performance from Watson. KN Bess (Emily Watson) i Helena Bonham Carter was originally lined up to play Bess, but she pulled out just before shooting started. 858

Independence Day Roland Emmerich, 1996 U.S. (Fox, Centropolis) Special effects movies don’t get much bigger than Independence Day, a 145m Color Producer Dean Devlin sci-fi bonanza that oozes American patriotism from every frame. Jeff Screenplay Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich Goldblum is the satellite whizz who picks up a transmission from outer Photography Karl Walter Lindenlaub space that seems to be counting down to zero. He heads off to Music David Arnold Cast Bill Pullman, Washington D.C. to warn the president, played by Bill Pullman (a very Mary McDonnell, Mae Whitman, Jeff Clintonesque leader, with Mary McDonnell his Hillary-like wife) that Goldblum, Judd Hirsch, Will Smith, Vivica A. spaceships appearing all over the planet may not be filled with fuzzy and Fox, Ross Bagley, Margaret Colin, Robert friendly E.T.s, but are actually hostile aliens planning to devastate Earth. Loggia, James Rebhorn, Randy Quaid, James Duval, Lisa Jakub, Giuseppe Andrews Director Roland Emmerich and producer Dean Devlin pack their Oscar Volker Engel, Douglas Smith, Clay movie with humorous actors—Will Smith, Robert Loggia, Judd Hirsch, Pinney, Joe Viskocil (special visual effects) Harvey Fierstein—playing the action with tongue planted firmly in cheek, Oscar nomination Chris Carpenter, Bill W. though the real star here is not any of the actors, but the brilliant special Benton, Bob Beemer, Jeff Wexler (sound) effects. From alien spaceships reminiscent of cult television series V, to the attacks on Earth (almost too realistic), we watch in horror as once great landmarks—the Empire State Building and the White House—are 1997 reduced to piles of smoking rubble. All in all, a great example of what edgy fun a sci-fi extravaganza can be. JB The Ice Storm Ang Lee, 1997 U.S. (Canal+ Droits Audiovisuels, Novelist Rick Moody captured the mood of the 1970s with The Ice Storm, Fox Searchlight, Good Machine) 112m a mesmerizing tale of two suburban families in emotional free fall. Technicolor Producer Ted Hope, Ang Lee, Making a film of the book in 1997, Taiwanese director Ang Lee elicited deftly controlled performances from a stellar ensemble cast of Kevin James Schamus Screenplay James Kline, Joan Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Christina Ricci, Elijah Wood, Adam Schamus, from novel by Rick Moody Hann-Byrd, and Tobey Maguire. The limited plot of a story of tragedies, both small and large, is less told than felt, through the staging of a series Photography Frederick Elmes of moody and atmospheric scenes. Music Mychael Danna Cast Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Henry Czerny, Adam Hann-Byrd, Set in New Canaan, Connecticut, 1973, a suburban satellite of New David Krumholtz, Tobey Maguire, Christina York City—finally getting what the city has had for some time, a sense of being ill at ease—neighboring families the Hoods and the Carvers Ricci, Jamey Sheridan, Elijah Wood, lead almost identical lives. The adults drink and smoke too much and Sigourney Weaver, Kate Burton, William talk about porn films or Watergate. Benjamin Hood (Kline) conducts a Cain, Michael Cumpsty, Maia Danziger, dispassionate affair with Janey Carver (Weaver, wearing the wild clothing Michael Egerman Cannes Film Festival of a 1970s suburban seductress), while Hood’s wife (Allen, her hair in a controlled, precise bob), suspecting as much, is unable to coerce an James Schamus (screenplay), Ang Lee admission of truth from her husband. Meanwhile, their children (Ricci, (Golden Palm nomination) Hann-Byrd, and Wood) experiment with sex and booze in a detached manner. Paul Hood (Maguire), the film’s most vibrant character, is a young man who makes sense of his family in terms of the Fantastic Four, a group of dysfunctional comic superheros. The weather, a deus ex machina so disliked by certain script theorists, works as another mysterious and deadly force the two couples can only handle after it has struck. KK 859

Hana-Bi Takeshi Kitano, 1997 U.S. (Office Kitano, TV Tokyo, Hana-Bi is a long way from Takeshi Kitano’s police drama directorial Bandai Visual Company) 103m Color debut, Violent Cop (1989). Kitano, simultaneously channelling Jean- Producer Masayuki Mori, Yasushi Tsuge, Pierre Melville and Buster Keaton, plays Nishi, a cop who left the force Takio Yoshida Screenplay Takeshi Kitano after an incident in which one colleague was killed, another paralyzed, Photography Hideo Yamamoto Music Joe and the culprit ruthlessly executed by his own hand. His wife—his life— Hisaishi Cast Takeshi Kitano, Kayoko is dying, so he concocts a plan to rob a bank (witnessed on CCTV, in one Kishimoto, Ren Oshugi, Makoto Ashikawa, of the director’s most brilliantly realized comedy moments) in order to Susumu Terajima, Tetsu Watanabe, Hakuryu, ensure a safe future for his colleague’s widow and to whisk his wife off Yasuei Yakushiji, Tarô Itsumi, Kan’ichi Yajima, on a second honeymoon. Yûko Daike, Hitoshi Nishizawa Venice Film Festival Takeshi Kitano (Golden Lion) The tone is key to Hana-Bi. It is tough, but it is a film with violence in it, rather than a violent film. The brutal scenes with gangsters are 1997 contrasted with playful snapshots of the couple’s journey around Japan and the paralyzed cop’s tentative first steps as a painter, before the film’s heartbreaking dénouement. The result is Kitano’s finest work, satisfying both as a genre piece and in bringing together such disparate narrative strands. Kitano’s subsequent films have equalled only parts of this sum, and Hana-Bi looks more like the end of a creatively fruitful period than a beginning of a new phase. But such a blaze of glory must always offer hope of a return. IHS U.S. (New Line Cinema) 155m Color Boogie Nights Paul Thomas Anderson, 1997 Producer Paul Thomas Anderson, Lloyd Levin Screenplay Paul Thomas Anderson In Boogie Nights’s vast canvas of life in the porn industry, Paul Thomas Photography Robert Elswit Music Ernst Anderson’s debt to 1970s American cinema—particularly the work Toch Cast Mark Wahlberg, Burt Reynolds, of Robert Altman—is all too clear. However, the sheer scale of his Julianne Moore, John C. Reilly, Heather sophomore feature is an astonishing achievement. Graham, William H. Macy, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Philip Baker Hall, Don Cheadle, Mark Wahlberg plays Eddie Adams, whose good looks, easygoing Alfred Molina, Nina Hartley, Robert Ridgely attitude, and impressive appendage find him transformed into rising Oscar nominations Burt Reynolds (actor), porn star Dirk Diggler. Under the tutelage of filmmaking supremo Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds) and co-star Amber Waves (Julianne Moore), Dirk Julianne Moore (actress), Paul Thomas attempts to raise the quality of the product he is appearing in but is soon Anderson (original screenplay) consumed by drug abuse and undermined by the demands of an ever- changing business. Like Altman’s best work, Anderson’s film features a strong ensemble cast. Hitherto known as a rap star and underwear model, Wahlberg was a revelation in the lead role, ably supported by John C. Reilly’s co-star, Moore’s moving turn as a mother whose work threatens her maternity rights, Heather Graham as the fun-loving roller girl, and a scene-stealing performance by Reynolds. If the film’s narrative sweep occasionally overextends itself, or Anderson’s penchant for complex set-ups is a little too self-reflexive, there is no denying the ambition of the young filmmaker. IHS 860

U.S. (Monarchy, Regency, Warner Bros.) L.A. Confidential Curtis Hanson, 1997 138m Technicolor Producer Curtis Hanson, Arnon Milchan, Michael G. Set in 1950s Los Angeles, a festering swamp of corrupt cops dallying with freshly minted mobsters and fledgling tabloids, Curtis Hanson’s smart Nathanson Screenplay Brian Helgeland, and soulful movie trims James Ellroy’s heavily plotted pulp best seller to Curtis Hanson, from novel by James Ellroy its emotional heart. Hanson’s pacing is exquisite, his casting impish Photography Dante Spinotti Music Jerry and inspired, as he traces the morally ambiguous alliance between three radically incompatible cops roped together in a multiple-murder Goldsmith Cast Kevin Spacey, Russell investigation. Kevin Spacey cooks as a celebrity cop refusing to snitch Crowe, Guy Pearce, James Cromwell, Kim on his mates. Russell Crowe is ardent and thuggish as a crusading policeman vying with uptight career cop Guy Pearce for the affections Basinger, Danny DeVito Oscars Brian of a classy hooker, played by Kim Basinger (a career-making performance Helgeland, Curtis Hanson (screenplay), she subsequently failed to top). Kim Basinger (actress in support role) Dressed in the sumptuous chocolate browns of warm film noir, L.A. Oscar nominations Arnon Milchan, Curtis Confidential is hot, funny, and sorrowful. Though it teases brash 1950s optimism with glum 1930s cynicism and tars both with the brush of the Hanson, Michael G. Nathanson (best knowing 1990s, the film is also wildly romantic—perhaps the last great picture), Curtis Hanson (director), Jeannine mounting of American film noir’s feverish chase for and destruction of dreams. Dicks and dames collide in a grandiose lament for the loss of true Claudia Oppewall, Jay Hart (art direction), love, moral courage, and, while we’re at it, hope in our civic culture. ET Dante Spinotti (photography), Peter Honess (editing), Jerry Goldsmith (music) Cannes Film Festival Curtis Hanson (Golden Palm nomination) i Kevin Spacey was told to loosely base his character on Dean Martin. 861

Austria (Wega) 108m Color Funny Games Michael Haneke, 1997 Language German / French Producer Veit In this brutal and provocative “home invasion” movie—a subgenre Heiduschka Screenplay Michael Haneke traceable as far back as D.W. Griffith and familiar today from such films Photography Jürgen Jürges Music Georg as A Clockwork Orange (1971) and Panic Room (2002)—Michael Haneke Friedrich Händel, Pietro Mascagni, Wolfgang pushes viewers to the limit, forcing us to contemplate the senselessness of random violence, as well as our seemingly ceaseless fascination with Amadeus Mozart Cast Susanne Lothar, watching it on-screen. Ulrich Mühe, Arno Frisch, Frank Giering, A well-to-do family of three go on vacation to their lakeside cottage. Stefan Clapczynski, Doris Kunstmann, Shortly after their arrival, a chubby, clean-cut young man (Frank Giering) Christoph Bantzer, Wolfgang Glück, knocks on the door, politely asking to borrow an egg. He is quickly joined by a thinner and more refined companion (Arno Frisch). Initially fooled Susanne Meneghel, Monika Zallinger by the young men’s polished appearance and their claim to be friends Cannes Film Festival Michael Haneke of the neighboring family, wife Anna (Susanne Lothar) allows them into the house. Once inside, however, the boys proceed to disable the (Golden Palm nomination) husband (Ulrich Mühe), force Anna to strip, and shoot the couple’s young son (Stefan Clapczynski). i In 2008 Haneke directed a shot-for- While the sadistic teens play not-so-funny games with their victims— all of whom end up dead by the end—the director plays games with his shot English-language remake of audience: At one point, after Anna manages to kill one of her captors, the film, starring Naomi Watts. Haneke interrupts the diegesis, allowing the boy’s friend to “rewind” the film, thereby saving his partner in crime. There is no happy ending here, only troubling questions and the inevitability of future mayhem. SJS 862

Spain / France / Italy (Escorpión, Abre los ojos Alejandro Amenábar, 1997 Alain Sarde, Lucky Red, Sogetel) 117m Color Language Spanish Open Your Eyes Producer Fernando Bovaira, José Luis Cuerda Screenplay Alejandro Amenábar, Alejandro Amenábar’s Open Your Eyes may be best known as the Spanish Mateo Gil Photography Hans Burman film Cameron Crowe remade with Tom Cruise as Vanilla Sky (2001), but Music Alejandro Amenábar, Mariano Marín it deserves to be seen for the true original it is. Intrigued with cryogenics Cast Eduardo Noriega, Penélope Cruz, Chete and virtual reality, Amenábar has said he intended to make a “realistic” Lera, Fele Martínez, Najwa Nimri, Gérard science-fiction movie out of mere “camera angles” instead of mind- Barray, Jorge de Juan, Miguel Palenzuela, blowing special effects. But Open Your Eyes transcends such easy Pedro Miguel Martínez, Ion Gabella, Joserra classification unless viewed as a precursor to such films as eXistenZ Cadiñanos, Tristán Ulloa, Pepe Navarro, Jaro, (1999), The Matrix (1999), Fight Club (1999), The Sixth Sense (1999), Walter Prieto Berlin International Film Memento (2000), and Mulholland Drive (2001)—dark films that peel away Festival Alejandro Amenábar (C.I.C.A.E. in layers, present identity as performance or virtual experience, question Award, Panorama honorable mention) the nature of time and reality, and must be seen at least twice. The film opens as narcissistic, well-off César (Eduardo Noriega) ditches 1997 his latest one-night stand, meets his “dream girl”Sophia (Penélope Cruz), and betrays his best friend the night before he awakens, after a hideously disfiguring automobile accident, in a psychiatric prison, accused of murder. There, he projects a present and future out of remnants of his past life and previously viewed films. Breaking down, he becomes unable to distinguish life from dream—that is, until the labyrinthine series of twists and revelations leading to the conclusion, in which the “reality” of everything that has gone before is chillingly undermined. LB The Sweet Hereafter Atom Egoyan, 1997 Canada (Alliance, Canadian Film and Video Truly the exception to the rule when it comes to literary adaptations, The Production Tax Credit, Ego Gort, Harold Sweet Hereafter handles author Russell Banks’s novel so intelligently that Greenberg Fund, TMN, Téléfilm Canada) even Banks has conceded the film improves on the book. Toning down 112m Color Producer Atom Egoyan, his trademark diced-up time lines and fascination with multimedia, Camelia Frieberg Screenplay Atom director Atom Egoyan creates a stunningly direct, almost fablelike Egoyan, from novel by Russell Banks exploration of loss. In fact, Egoyan brilliantly incorporates the Pied Piper of Hamlin into his film, eventually lending the wrenching events a Photography Paul Sarossy Music Mychael reflective and somber thematic unity. Danna, Sarah Polley Cast Ian Holm, Caerthan Banks, Sarah Polley, Tom When a school bus crashes and sinks below the ice, killing most of its young passengers, the residents of a small town must find ways to deal McCamus, Gabrielle Rose, Alberta Watson, with issues of grief, exacerbated by the presence of an outsider lawyer Maury Chaykin, Stephanie Morgenstern, (Ian Holm) who believes only the assignation of blame can alleviate the town’s feelings of collective guilt. Egoyan reveals the tragedy itself only Kirsten Kieferle Oscar nominations Atom in bits and pieces, and as the events of that day grow clearer and clearer, Egoyan (director), Atom Egoyan (screenplay) so does the director’s depiction of the heartbreaking accident. As Holm’s drive for financial and emotional reward draws to a close, the testimony Cannes Film Festival Atom Egoyan of one survivor (Sarah Polley) becomes more and more integral to (FIPRESCI award, grand prize of the jury, his case, but he soon learns that in the face of unthinkable despair, sometimes honesty comes second to reconciliation. JKl prize of the ecumenical jury, Golden Palm nomination) 863

Titanic James Cameron, 1997 1997 U.S. (Fox, Lightstorm, Paramount) 194m The story behind director James Cameron’s labor of love is almost more Color Producer James Cameron, Jon dramatic than the tale that unfolds on screen. With a reported budget Landau Screenplay James Cameron of over $200 million, even before its release Titanic was given the dubious Photography Russell Carpenter honor of being the most expensive production of all time. Much of the Music James Horner Cast Leonardo cost went to a six-month shoot in Mexico involving a 775-foot replica of the famous boat, which sank when it hit an iceberg back in 1912. It was DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Kathy a shoot dogged with problems—including delays to filming when the Bates, Bill Paxton, Gloria Stuart, Frances cast and crew were poisoned by PCP-laced food in Nova Scotia. Rumors Fisher, Bernard Hill, Jonathan Hyde, David that Cameron was a crazed perfectionist emerged. His attention to detail Warner, Victor Garber, Danny Nucci, Lewis included hiring the original companies that provided the real Titanic’s Abernathy, Suzy Amis, Nicholas Cascone furnishings as supervisors so that every chandelier and plate was a Oscars James Cameron, Jon Landau (best perfect replica. Following the film’s stupendous box-office success (more picture), James Cameron (director), Peter than $1 billion worldwide) and the most Academy Awards (eleven) since Lamont, Michael Ford (art direction), Russell Ben-Hur (1959), however, he was rechristened a genius, and is now Carpenter (photography), Deborah Lynn deservedly considered one of the most successful directors of all time. Scott (costume), Tom Bellfort, Christopher Boyes (special sound effects), Robert Legato, Cameron’s vision is half Poseidon Adventure (1972) and half Love Boat, Mark A. Lasoff, Thomas L. Fisher, Michael as both romance and deep-sea disaster are explored in equal measure. Kanfer (special visual effects), Conrad Buff, Kate Winslet stars as Rose, the young socialite who is to marry dastardly James Cameron, Richard A. Harris (editing), Cal (Billy Zane) but falls for steerage passenger Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) James Horner (music), James Horner, Will just before the world’s most famous ship plunges into its watery grave. Their forbidden romance gives the movie its heart. Cameron piles on the Jennings (song), Gary Rydstrom, Tom special effects to truly convey the terror that is to come, forcing his actors Johnson, Gary Summers, Mark Ulano to spend days in freezing cold water filming the scary scenes when (sound) Oscar nominations Kate Winslet the supposedly “unsinkable” ship begins to sink and then horrifically (actress), Gloria Stuart (actress in support splits in half. role), Tina Earnshaw, Greg Cannom, A blockbuster if ever there was one, Titanic made DiCaprio a superstar Simon Thompson (makeup) and teen heartthrob. The film boasts one of the biggest-selling soundtracks of all time—a number one hit for Celine Dion with the theme “My Heart Will Go On.” In terms of production size and sheer epic scale, Titanic remains one of the most impressive films of all time. JB “I’m the king of the world!” Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) i Her role in Titanic made Gloria Stuart the oldest person ever nominated for an Oscar. She was eighty-seven. 864

France / Iran (Abbas Kiarostami, CiBy 2000) Ta’m e guilass Abbas Kiarostami, 1997 95m Color Language Farsi Producer Abbas Taste of Cherry Kiarostami Screenplay Abbas Kiarostami Photography Homayun Payvar A middle-aged man (Homayon Ershadi) who is contemplating suicide drives around the outskirts of Tehran, trying to find someone who will Cast Homayon Ershadi, Abdolrahman bury him if he succeeds and retrieve him if he fails. This minimalist Bagheri, Afshin Khorshid Bakhtiari, Safar Ali feature by Abbas Kiarostami never explains why the man wants to end his life, and is even inconclusive about whether or not he succeeds. Yet Moradi, Mir Hossein Noori Cannes Film every moment carries great poignancy and philosophical weight. Festival Abbas Kiarostami (Golden Palm, Taste of Cherry entrusts much of its meaning to the audience. Like tied with The Eel) many of Kiarostami’s films, it is centered on the simultaneously private and public experience of a character in a car giving rides to others. And i just as watching a movie in a theater combines private responses with Despite jointly winning the Golden public reactions, this is a film that speaks to both of these situations. Palm at the 1997 Cannes Film Working without a script, Kiarostami filmed his nonprofessional Festival, Taste of Cherry divided critics. actors separately from either the driver’s or passenger’s seat, provoking their lines as if interviewing them. Thus the subject of isolation that lies at the heart of Taste of Cherry is integral to the way it was filmed. Kiarostami is a master at filming landscapes and building parable-like narratives whose missing pieces solicit the viewer’s active imagination. This even extends to the film’s surprisingly cheerful, self-referential coda: An epilogue centered on camaraderie that follows this story about profound isolation radiates with wonder and euphoria. JRos 865

Saving Private Ryan Steven Spielberg, 1998 1998 U.S. (Amblin, DreamWorks, From his very first works, Steven Spielberg displayed an almost Mark Gordon, Mutual, Paramount) preternatural gift for filmmaking—specifically the machinations of 170m Technicolor Language English / suspense and special effects, a skill that movie audiences responded to Czech / French / German Producer Ian in droves. But the massive success of such early films as Jaws (1975) and Bryce, Mark Gordon, Gary Levinsohn, Steven Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)—which helped congeal the Spielberg Screenplay Robert Rodat blockbuster mentality of modern Hollywood—in some ways hurt Photography Janusz Kaminski Music John Spielberg’s reputation. Craving respect, he knew his movies would always Williams Cast Tom Hanks, Edward Burns, be dismissed as merely popular entertainment and technical exercises. Tom Sizemore, Matt Damon, Jeremy Davies, Adam Goldberg, Barry Pepper, Giovanni Spielberg nonetheless tried to broaden his range with such mature Ribisi, Vin Diesel, Ted Danson, Max Martini, experiments as The Color Purple (1985) and Empire of the Sun (1987), but Dylan Bruno, Joerg Stadler, Paul Giamatti, it wasn’t until the harrowing Holocaust film Schindler’s List (1993) that he Dennis Farina Oscars Steven Spielberg finally made a movie that satisfied both the critics and the public. With (director), Janusz Kaminski (photography), the exception of his two thrill-ride Jurassic Park (1993, 1997) films, Gary Rydstrom, Richard Hymns (special Spielberg has remained more or less in serious mode ever since. sound effects), Michael Kahn (editing), Gary Rydstrom, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson, Ron Saving Private Ryan introduced something new to the director’s Judkins (sound) Oscar nominations Steven vocabulary: visceral, violent intensity. Spielberg had dealt with violence Spielberg, Ian Bryce, Mark Gordon, Gary before, of course, but typically it was either cartoonish or carefully Levinsohn (best picture), Robert Rodat moderated (and then milked) as a dramatic beat punctuating moments (screenplay), Tom Hanks (actor), Thomas E. of maximum horror. The opening battle sequence of Saving Private Ryan, Sanders, Lisa Dean (art direction), Lois however, is absolutely relentless. No sooner have American boats landed Burwell, Conor O’Sullivan, Daniel C. on the beaches of Normandy than young men are mowed down by Striepeke (makeup), John Williams (music) incessant bursts of machine-gun fire, the bullets piercing their useless helmets with a sickening “ping.” And it doesn’t stop there. Soldiers are “I could have made . . . blown to bits. Body parts fly through the air and litter the ground. The sea a very safe picture . . . turns a squeamish blood red. The camera lurches wildly, the desaturated But my intention was to film stock the color of death. The “new” Spielberg takes no prisoners. resensitize the audience.” Admittedly, the Spielberg of old can’t always resist falling back on Steven Spielberg, 2004 unabashed sentimentality. A pair of flimsy bookends start and end the film on purely manipulative notes, and Spielberg encourages his i composer of choice John Williams to indulge in his worst heartstring- tugging tendencies. More uncomfortably, the same techniques Spielberg The Omaha Beach scene cost uses to depict the horrors of the war in his truly awe-inspiring opening $11 million to shoot and involved battle scene he later enlists to propel the more traditional good-versus- evil conflict of the conclusion. around 1,000 extras. But the familiar good guy/bad guy dichotomy actually twists the antiwar message into something more challenging. War is hell, Spielberg acknowledges, except when you’re winning, since victory is ultimately what accords the right to dictate the rules of morality. Saving Private Ryan contains just enough darkness lurking in the fog of war to stave off accusations that it supports blind patriotism. Looking over thousands of graves, a soldier asks of his wife,“Was I a good man?”That’s an ambiguous way of asking not just “Was it worth it?” but “Was it justified?”These are questions that no doubt haunt all those left standing when the shooting stops, surveying the death and destruction around them. JKl 866



1998 Germany (Bavaria Film, German Lola Rennt Tom Tykwer, 1998 Independents, WDR, X-Filme, Arte) 81m Color Language German Producer Stefan Run Lola Run Arndt Screenplay Tom Tykwer A visually inventive, kinetically exciting movie, Tom Tykwer’s Run Lola Photography Frank Griebe Music Reinhold Run is an exercise in surprises, beginning right from the opening credits where a crowd scene turns into an aerial shot in which the assembled Heil, Johnny Klimek, Franka Potente, Tom people spell out the movie’s title. Tykwer Cast Franka Potente, Moritz Bleibtreu, Herbert Knaup, Nina Petri, The plot itself is simple—young, shockingly flame-haired Lola (Franka Potente) receives a telephone call from her boyfriend Manni Armin Rohde, Joachim Król, Ludger Pistor, (Moritz Bleibtreu). Manni explains that he was supposed to deliver Suzanne von Borsody, Sebastian Schipper, 100,000 deutsche marks to a gangster, but he left the bag containing the loot on the subway. He has twenty minutes to find the money Julia Lindig, Lars Rudolph, Andreas Petri, before the bad guys kill him, so his plan is to rob a bank—Lola’s is to Klaus Müller, Utz Krause, Beate Finckh find the money some other way, and the film follows her high-speed adventure to save Manni as the minutes tick away. Venice Film Festival Tom Tykwer (Golden Lion nomination) It’s the way young German director Tykwer shows us Lola’s mission that is different and inventive. Her twenty-minute story is told three “Run Lola Run could very different times, each subtly different in a manner that delivers three well be the punchiest different outcomes. Twyker uses animation, camera tricks, color and piece of concept art to black-and-white film, music video effects, and instant replays to tell each adventure as Lola runs, Manni runs, and the film becomes a ever hit the silver screen, human obstacle course they both have to carefully maneuver in order a shock-dose of German to survive. existential cinema Potente, who would go on to appear alongside Matt Damon in the you can ride.” Hollywood blockbuster The Bourne Identity (2002), provides a striking cinematic image as she runs down the movie’s various streets and Ed Gonzalez, avenues, arms pumping and distinctive red hair flying, but she also Slant Magazine, 2003 delivers a warm, more in-depth performance in scenes such as one between Lola and her wealthy father (Herbert Knaup), whom she visits asking for money only to learn that he plans to leave her mother and marry his mistress. Run Lola Run is an interesting, unusual filmmaking experiment that has humor, breathless excitement, and tremendous energy, all tightly packaged into an MTV-generation movie by the fresh talent of its writer-director. JB i The narration at the beginning is spoken by Hans Paetsch, Germany’s most popular fairy tale narrator. 868

U.S. (American Empirical, Touchstone) Rushmore Wes Anderson, 1998 93m Color Producer Barry Mendel, Paul Schiff Screenplay Wes Anderson, Owen When director Wes Anderson and cowriter Owen Wilson carved a new Wilson Photography Robert D. Yeoman niche with the 1996 film Bottle Rocket, it single-handedly revived the Music Mark Mothersbaugh Cast Jason then-exhausted realm of low-budget independent American comedies. Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Olivia Williams, Their second entry in this genre, the adorably miserable Rushmore, takes Seymour Cassel, Brian Cox, Mason Gamble, another look at the losers and oddballs they so adore. Sara Tanaka, Stephen McCole, Connie Max Fischer (played by Jason Schwartzman, the son of Talia Shire Nielsen, Luke Wilson, Dipak Pallana, Andrew and nephew to Francis Ford Coppola) is a bespectacled, intellectual Wilson, Marietta Marich, Ronnie McCawley, geek. As a scholarship student at Rushmore Academy he is profoundly unpopular. Verging on flunking out, he manages to be president of Keith McCawley virtually every extracurricular activity there is on campus. Doomed by his social skills, he nevertheless falls for a beautiful teacher (Olivia Williams) and finds a mentor in wealthy if depressed Herman J. Blume 1998 (Bill Murray). This slow, turn-of-the-screwball comedy is Murray’s finest dramatic hour, allowing him at last to be profound, wounded, and funny, all at the same time. And the soundtrack of mostly 1960s rock music gives Rushmore a sense of being somewhere other than in its obviously contemporary setting. KK Denmark (DR, Nimbus Film, SVT Drama) Festen Thomas Vinterberg, 1998 105m Color Language Danish / The Celebration German / English Producer Birgitte Hald Screenplay Thomas Vinterberg, Mogens On balance, Dogme95—a Danish film manifesto that calls for location Rukov Photography Anthony Dod Mantle shooting, handheld cameras, direct sound, and an avoidance of special Music Lars Bo Jensen Cast Ulrich Thomsen, effects—probably has more significance as a highly successful publicity stunt than as an ideological breakthrough, judging especially from the Henning Moritzen, Thomas Bo Larsen, first two features that emerged under its ground rules, Lars von Trier’s Paprika Steen, Birthe Neumann, Trine The Idiots (1998) and Thomas Vinterberg’s The Celebration. Both films, Dyrholm, Helle Dolleris, Therese Glahn, Klaus in fact, are apparent acts of rebellion and daring that are virtually Bondam, Bjarne Henriksen, Gbatokai defined by their middle-class assumptions and dogged apoliticism. Dakinah, Lasse Lunderskov, Lars Brygmann, Vinterberg’s work, which is even more conventional in inspiration than von Trier’s—think Ibsen, Strindberg, Bergman—is genuinely explosive Lene Laub Oksen, Linda Laursen and powerfully executed. Cannes Film Festival Thomas Vinterberg Shot with the smallest and lightest digital video camera then (jury prize, tied with La Classe de neige, available, The Celebration chronicles the acrimonious and violent family Golden Palm nomination) battles that ensue at a country manor house where the sixtieth birthday of the family patriarch is being observed, not long after the eldest son’s twin sister has committed suicide. The extreme forms of aggressive behavior that emerge from the onset and Vinterberg’s jagged style of cross-cutting disguise the fact that this is basically a very well written, acted, and directed piece of psychodrama rather than the revolutionary experiment it was proclaimed to be. But the sheer dramatic power derived from the gradual unveiling of family secrets eventually and justifiably wins one over. JRos 869

Buffalo 66 Vincent Gallo, 1998 U.S. (CFP, Lions Gate, Muse) 110m Color Actor Vincent Gallo (Palookaville [1995], The Funeral [1996]) wrote, Producer Chris Hanley Screenplay Vincent directed, and stars in this independent comic drama, which he has described as his masterpiece—an arrogant statement, perhaps, but one Gallo, Alison Bagnall Photography Lance that’s not too far from the truth. He plays Billy, a sleazy ex-con who Acord Music Vincent Gallo Cast Vincent kidnaps a feisty young girl (Christina Ricci, in tight skirt and fairy-tale Gallo, Christina Ricci, Ben Gazzara, Mickey slippers) and gets her to pretend she’s his loving wife on a visit to his wacked-out parents (Anjelica Huston and Ben Gazzara), who are unaware Rourke, Rosanna Arquette, Jan-Michael he’s been away in jail. Billy has told them his absence was because he Vincent, Anjelica Huston, Kevin Pollak, Alex was working as an undercover operative for the government. Karras, John Sansone, Manny Fried, John Wonderfully quirky stuff, this low-budget bizarre romance boasts Rummel, Bob Wahl, Penny Wolfgang, suitably eccentric performances from the four leads (Gazzara as Gallo’s Anthony Mydcarz pervy dad deserves a special mention, while Huston is a hoot as his football-obsessed wife), and some neat cameos from Mickey Rourke, 1998 Jan-Michael Vincent, and Rosanna Arquette. Gallo, meanwhile, multitasks superbly (he even wrote the film’s music and used his parents’ Buffalo home as the main location), delivering an ironic look at relationships and disillusionment with a variety of visual styles and images. JB Japan (Kadokawa Shoten, Omega) Ring Hideo Nakata, 1998 96m BW / Color Language Japanese Producer Shinya Kawai, Takenori Sento, It’s a deceptively simple premise for a ghost story: A cursed videotape is Takashige Ichise Screenplay Hiroshi being circulated. Anyone who watches it will die seven days afterward. Takahashi, from the novel Ringu by Kôji When TV reporter Reiko Asakawa (Nanako Matsushima) discovers that Suzuki Photography Junichirô Hayashi her niece is one of the victims of the videotape, she sets out to find it. When she watches it, the mysterious images convince her the curse is Music Kenji Kawai Cast Nanako true, and she asks her ex-husband Ryuji Takayama (Hiroyuki Sanada) for Matsushima, Miki Nakatani, Hiroyuki Sanada, help. They have seven days to decipher the images on the video and find a way to break the curse, especially after their four-year-old son Yuko Takeuchi, Hitomi Sato, Yoichi Numata, watches it as well. Yutaka Matsushige, Katsumi Muramatsu, Director Hideo Nakata achieves a steady sense of mounting disquiet Rikiya Otaka, Masako, Daisuke Ban, Kiyoshi thoughout the film as Reiko and Ryuji try to unravel the mystery of the Risho, Yuurei Yanagi, Yôko Ôshima, videotape’s images. What they find is a decades-old tragedy involving Kiriko Shimizu the death of a girl with unusual psychic abilities. There are no cheap shock effects here. Instead, Nakata relies on sound and atmosphere to suggest the presence of the unquiet dead hovering over the living, poised to strike. In movies, the popularity of genres comes in cycles. A particular genre becomes relevant when it captures the anxieties and preoccupations of the times. Ring singlehandedly revived the horror genre for the end of the twentieth century, spawning two sequels, a prequel, a Korean remake, and an overcooked but hugely successful Hollywood remake (directed by Gore Verbinski), not to mention influencing dozens of horror films from all over the world. AT 870

U.S. (Good Machine, Killer) 134m Color Happiness Todd Solondz, 1998 Language English / Russian Producer Ted Hope, Christine Vachon Screenplay Todd Few filmmakers can invoke so many varied emotional responses— laughter, disgust, sympathy, just to name a few—from their audiences Solondz Photography Maryse Alberti as contemporary American independent filmmaker Todd Solondz does Music Robbie Kondor Cast Jane Adams, Jon with his highly controversial Happiness. There is no way to concisely sum Lovitz, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Dylan Baker, up the happenings of this film, which involves a first-rate ensemble cast including audacious performances by Dylan Baker, Philip Seymour Lara Flynn Boyle, Justin Elvin, Cynthia Hoffman, Ben Gazzara, Lara Flynn Boyle, Camryn Manheim, and Jon Stevenson, Lila Glantzman-Leib, Gerry Lovitz. Suffice it to say that Happiness is about relationships—all of Becker, Rufus Read, Louise Lasser, Ben them painfully flawed—and takes us into territory few filmmakers dare (or want) to brave. One of the picture’s most memorable scenes depicts Gazzara, Camryn Manheim, Arthur J. a father answering, in utterly frank and matter-of-fact terms, questions Nascarella, Molly Shannon Cannes Film from his young son about his acts of pederasty. Festival Todd Solondz (FIPRESCI award— Happiness is perhaps best described as an indictment of the modern parallel sections) American family and suburban living (both on- and offscreen), suggesting that perversion lurks around every corner, inside every i family’s four walls. Solondz, who is evolving into a postmodern and more Director Todd Solondz has a cameo disturbed Woody Allen, has taken this perhaps exaggerated notion as in the film as the doorman in Allen, his cinematic credo; he succeeds, in part, because he refuses to allow his flawed characters to spin off into the realm of one-dimensionality. MO Helen, and Kristina’s building. 871

The Thin Red Line Terrence Malick, 1998 1998 Canada / U.S. (Fox 2000, Geisler-Roberdeau, After making the highly acclaimed and influential Badlands (1973) and Phoenix) 170m Color Producer Robert Days of Heaven (1978), Terrence Malick did something unheard of for a prominent director—he vanished without a trace. Rumors abounded: Michael Geisler, Grant Hill, John Roberdeau Malick was living life as a recluse in some remote locale. Or maybe he Screenplay Terrence Malick, from novel was hiking across Texas, bird watching. Wherever he disappeared to, by James Jones Photography John Toll word of his late 1990s return to filmmaking came just as suddenly. Details of Malick’s new project were closely guarded and sketchy at best, Music Hans Zimmer Cast Sean Penn, Adrien but two things were clear—it was an adaptation of James Jones’s World Brody, James Caviezel, Ben Chaplin, George War II novel The Thin Red Line, and it reportedly featured a massive cast Clooney, John Cusack, Woody Harrelson, of several prominent actors and promising newcomers alike. Elias Koteas, Jared Leto, Dash Mihok, Tim Blake Nelson, Nick Nolte, John C. Reilly, Larry Both rumors proved correct, but the film still surprised many as Romano, John Savage Oscar nominations unexpected. Especially coming after Steven Spielberg’s own World Robert Michael Geisler, John Roberdeau, War II drama Saving Private Ryan (1998), Malick’s The Thin Red Line Grant Hill (best picture), Terrence Malick seemed particularly cerebral. The two films couldn’t have been more (director), Terrence Malick (screenplay), John different, and the reactions they provoked reflected those discrepancies. Toll (photography), Billy Weber, Leslie Jones, Audiences left visceral Saving Private Ryan shaken to the core. Audiences Saar Klein (editing), Hans Zimmer (music), left the more philosophical The Thin Red Line scratching their heads. Andy Nelson, Anna Behlmer, Paul Brincat (sound) Berlin International Film Festival Yet there’s no question which film leaves the stronger impression. Terrence Malick (Golden Bear, third place The Thin Red Line addresses the madness of war from a distinctly reader jury of the Berliner Morgenpost), theoretical, even theological vantage. War, the film seems to say, is John Toll (honorable mention) more than just a conflict between two groups of men. War is depicted in The Thin Red Line as an affront to nature, and in turn an affront to “What difference do God himself. you think you can Malick’s film delves into the collective consciousness of the troops make, one man in all as it struggles to reconcile the fragility of life with the recklessness of this madness?” their behavior. Daringly, The Thin Red Line flits from soldier to soldier, getting into their heads and amplifying their thoughts as part of an First Sgt. Edward Welsh ongoing internal dialogue, but otherwise retaining a sense of anonymity (Sean Penn) among the soldiers. i The men are highly aware of the exotic world around them and in particular its beauty: When the film begins, one soldier (Jim Caviezel) has Gary Oldman, Martin Sheen, and gone AWOL, living a life of simplicity and innocence among a South Mickey Rourke all filmed scenes that Pacific tribe until his Eden-like existence is disrupted. Even as the soldiers slink through the forest, Malick can’t resist training his camera on the were left out of the final cut. colorful wildlife around them, or capturing the light streaming through the leaves of the towering trees. It’s as if God and all of his creatures are watching this strange species at work destroying all that is good in the world, and wondering what free will hath wrought. Several performances do stick out in the film—Elias Koteas’s sensitive Captain; Nick Nolte’s callous, career-minded colonel; Sean Penn’s cynical Sergeant—but Malick keeps the narrative elliptical. The Thin Red Line has no real beginning or end, and although it is punctuated by dramatic beats and thrilling battle scenes, they serve as interruptions of no less a profound meditation than Malick’s quest for the meaning of life. JKl 872



1999 U.S. (Blair Witch, Haxan) 86m BW / Color The Blair Witch Project Producer Robin Cowie, Gregg Hale Daniel Myrick & Eduardo Sánchez, 1999 Screenplay Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sánchez Photography Neal Fredericks Music Tony “In October of 1994, three student filmmakers disappeared in the woods Cora Cast Heather Donahue, Joshua near Burkittsville, Maryland while shooting a documentary… A year Leonard, Michael C. Williams, Bob Griffin, later their footage was found.” Thus begins this shoestring-budgeted Jim King, Sandra Sánchez, Ed Swanson, horror“mockumentary,”which parlayed innovative online marketing and Patricia DeCou, Mark Mason, Jackie Hallex incredible word-of-mouth into more than $140 million in the United States alone—making it the most profitable U.S. independent film of all Cannes Film Festival Daniel Myrick, Eduardo time (a record that stood until 2007’s Paranormal Activity). Sánchez (Award of the Youth foreign film) Led by aspiring director Heather Donahue, the three students make “I think The Blair their way to Burkittsville (née Blair), Maryland, to shoot footage for a Witch Project is documentary about a local legend, the Blair Witch. Rumor has it this an exceptionally mysterious figure has haunted the nearby Black Hills forest since the well-conceived and eighteenth century and is responsible for a number of heinous murders. well-made film.” After conducting interviews with locals, Heather, Mike, and Josh hike into the forest to gather additional footage. None of them experienced Roger Corman, producer campers, they get lost, and their cheery demeanor deteriorates into and director, 2000 an increasingly volatile mixture of fear, blame, frustration, and panic. Ominous signs begin to appear, including piles of stones carefully i positioned outside their tent and wooden effigies hanging in the trees. Daniel Myrick described Cloverfield Then Josh silently disappears. In the film’s harrowing finale, Michael and (2008) as “very much in the spirit of Heather stumble across a decrepit house. Hoping to find Josh, they enter; what they discover is a nightmare. Through her camcorder, we see what the Blair Witch” and “very ballsy.” Heather sees: first darkness and ruins and children’s handprints on the walls; then, after someone or something knocks her unconscious, just a blank ceiling, which lasts until the tape—and the film itself—runs out. Despite criticisms of the sometimes slow pace and nausea-inducing handheld camera work, The Blair Witch Project clearly succeeds in its use of documentary techniques as a means of instilling terror in viewers. Myrick and Sánchez’s unique production method has itself become the stuff of legend: The actors were responsible for shooting the entire film themselves (over the course of eight consecutive days and nights), had to carry their own equipment, and improvised almost all of their lines. Several times a day, the directors wrote notes to each actor, sealing them in tubes for their eyes only. By achieving such a high degree of realism, Myrick and Sánchez took their product a step beyond earlier horror films with mockumentary aspirations, such as Wes Craven’s The Last House on the Left (1972) and Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974). Exploiting some of our most basic fears—the dark, the unknown, strange sounds—The Blair Witch Project elicits intense emotions. Some of the most terrifying moments occur when all we are able to see is a black/blank screen—what our imagination conjures up is far more frightening than anything the most sophisticated special effects or makeup can produce. It is to their credit that those involved in the making of this film were well aware of this often ignored fact. SJS 874

Being John Malkovich Spike Jonze, 1999 U.S. (Gramercy, Propaganda, Single Cell) Acclaimed music video director turned filmmaker Spike Jonze (whose 1999 112m Technicolor Producer Steve Golin, previous works included Fatboy Slim’s “Weapon Of Choice” and the Beastie Boys’“Sabotage”) turned one of the oddest concepts for a movie Vincent Landay, Sandy Stern, Michael into one of the most inventive Hollywood films of the 1990s. “I had this Stipe Screenplay Charlie Kaufman idea that someone finds a portal into someone’s head,” writer Charlie Kaufman explained at a Bafta lecture in 2011, “and I had another idea… Photography Lance Acord Music Carter about someone having an affair with a co-worker. And neither one was Burwell Cast John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, going anywhere, so I just decided to combine them.” Ned Bellamy, Eric Weinstein, Madison Lanc, Craig Schwartz (John Cusack) is a disheveled puppeteer scraping a Octavia Spencer, Mary Kay Place, Orson living with his dark (and, to children, quite traumatic) street puppet Bean, Catherine Keener, K.K. Dodds, Reginald shows. His wife Lotte (an almost unrecognizable Cameron Diaz) spends what little they have on raising the menagerie of animals she has living C. Hayes, Byrne Piven, Judith Wetzell, John in their small home. To earn extra cash, Craig takes a job as a filing clerk Malkovich, Kevin Carroll Oscar nominations in a strange company on floor 7½ of a Manhattan office building. How an office could exist between the seventh and eighth floors is a movie Spike Jonze (director), Charlie Kaufman in itself, but it is a door Craig discovers hidden behind a filing cabinet (screenplay), Catherine Keener (actress in that sets this film’s quirky events in motion. When Craig crawls through it, he discovers it is actually some sort of portal that sends him hurtling support role) into the brain of actor John Malkovich (playing himself here). Craig experiences the things Malkovich does for just fifteen minutes before “I wrote Being John being expelled abruptly onto the side of the New Jersey Turnpike. Malkovich before I even Kaufman weaves an intricate plot around this idea, beginning when knew who Spike Jonze Craig lets colleague Maxine (Catherine Keener) in on his discovery and was. He just happened she convinces him to charge people to try this demented ride. Jonze dazzles at every turn as he tells this smart, subversive, darkly comic tale, to be the person who and the cast—Cusack and Diaz especially—beautifully translate his could get it made and skewed vision to the screen. Of course, Being John Malkovich wouldn’t have worked without the eponymous actor, who parodies his image wanted to make it.” brilliantly, especially in a scene when he tries the portal himself and ends up in a restaurant populated by Mr. Malkoviches. “It never occurred to me that anyone would actually be goofy enough to make that movie,” the actor recalled. “But of course I hadn’t met Spike Jonze then.” JB Charlie Kaufman, 2008 i Malkovich initially offered to direct the film if Kaufman made someone else its subject. Kaufman refused.

The Sixth Sense M. Night Shyamalan, 1999 1999 U.S. (Hollywood, Spyglass, Kennedy/ M. Night Shyamalan, aged just twenty-nine and making only his third Marshall) 107m Technicolor film, virtually reinvented the thriller with a love story/chiller infamous for its final twist. “Most movies that you see now come out of modern Language English / Spanish / Latin novels,” its star, Bruce Willis, told Reader’s Digest. “Some bestseller book Producer Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall, immediately gets turned into a film, or you see films that are remakes of old films, or remakes of TV shows from the ’60s. What Night does Barry Mendel Screenplay M. Night that makes him completely unique is he makes the stuff up out of his Shyamalan Photography Tak Fujimoto head… He is—and I don’t use this word very often—a genius.” Music James Newton Howard Cast Bruce Willis, Haley Joel Osment, Toni Collette, A year after being shot by a former patient, psychologist Malcolm Olivia Williams, Trevor Morgan, Donnie Crowe (Bruce Willis) attempts to understand a troubled boy, Cole Wahlberg, Peter Anthony Tambakis, Jeffrey (Haley Joel Osment). Cole, it seems, can see dead people: ghosts of Zubernis, Bruce Norris, Glenn Fitzgerald, those who left matters unresolved before their deaths and who visit Greg Wood, Mischa Barton, Angelica Torn, the boy searching for resolution. Meanwhile, Malcolm’s own life is in disarray, his loving marriage to wife Anna (Olivia Williams) now distant Lisa Summerour, Firdous Bamji Oscar and cold. nomination Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall, Barry Mendel (best picture), M. A ghost story of the highest order, The Sixth Sense works on many Night Shyamalan (director), M. Night levels. The spooks are there as Cole is visited by tormented apparitions, but this is more emotional drama than scary suspense film, focusing on Shyamalan (screenplay), Haley Joel the relationships between boy and psychologist, Malcolm and his wife, Osment (actor in support role), Toni and Cole and his mother (Toni Collette). Osment is a terrific discovery in Collette (actress in support role), Andrew a role that, had it been played too cute, would have wrecked the entire film, and Collette delivers the right amount of confusion and love for Mondshein (editing) her unusual son. Willis, however, is the true revelation, giving a whispered, understated performance that is the heart of the film. “Even when we were done, we still didn’t quite But it is Shyamalan who deserves the most praise. His clever use of know whether or not we muted colors and subtle hints of what is to come—the temperature were going to be able to dropping when a ghost is present, the use of the color red—and the twist in the tale are so neat that you want to reappraise the film rather fool the audience.” than be annoyed that you have been led down a completely different path than the one you thought you were on. A modern, emotionally complex classic that is as achingly poignant as it is chillingly tense. JB Bruce Willis, 2002 i Shyamalan initially shelved the idea when he heard about plans to make another ghost movie: Casper (1995). 876

Three Kings David O. Russell, 1999 U.S. (Atlas, Coast Ridge, Junger Witt, Three Kings is a millennium-capping antiwar film that employed what Village Roadshow, Warner Bros.) 114m were then state-of-the-art tools (fast edits, dizzying camera work, color Technicolor Language English / Arabic schemes that pop off the screen) and combined them with a helping of old-fashioned, M*A*S*H-style politics. Producer Paul Junger Witt, Edward McDonnell Screenplay John Ridley, David Writer-director David O. Russell tells the tale of the first Gulf War O. Russell Photography Newton Thomas (1991) through the eyes of three American soldiers whose ignorance, greed, and naïveté is slowly wiped away as they are dragged deeper into Sigel Music Carter Burwell Cast George the political and cultural trappings behind the war, forced to humanize Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Ice Cube, Spike their enemies and demystify their own country and military. In the process, the audience is exposed to a version of the war that the media Jonze, Cliff Curtis, Nora Dunn, Jamie was once reluctant to report—the deaths of innocents, the corruption Kennedy, Saïd Taghmaoui, Mykelti and posturing of military officials, and the co-option of“objective”media (spiritedly represented here by Nora Dunn) to spin the story. Williamson, Holt McCallany, Judy Greer, Christopher Lohr, Jon Sklaroff, Liz Stauber, It’s heady, even dense, stuff made accessible and urgent through a snappy script, relentlessly energetic pacing, dazzling visuals, and taut Marsha Horan acting from the leads (George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Ice Cube, and Spike Jonze). An assured juggling of genre and tone shifts—it’s part war story, part heist thriller, and wholly an antiwar creed—the film should 1999 fall apart at the seams but doesn’t strike a single false note. EH U.S. (Ghoulardi, New Line) 188m Color Magnolia Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999 Director Paul Thomas Anderson “As we move through life, we should try to do good.” In a sprawling story Producer Paul Thomas Anderson, JoAnne of family—and the betrayal, secrets, heartaches, and disappointments Sellar Screenplay Paul Thomas Anderson within—writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson jumps back and forth Photography Robert Elswit Music Jon Brion between a sleazy, misogynistic television huckster (Tom Cruise); a lonely child prodigy (Jeremy Blackman); an elderly, dying misanthrope (Jason Cast John C. Reilly, Tom Cruise, Julianne Robards) and his trophy wife (Julianne Moore); a boozing, drug-addled Moore, Philip Baker Hall, Jeremy Blackman, young woman (Melora Walters); a popular, dying quiz-show host (Philip Philip Seymour Hoffman, William H. Macy, Baker Hall); and a bumbling, lonely, big-hearted cop (John C. Reilly). The coincidences and twists of fate that link them drive this epic film. Melora Walters, Jason Robards, Melinda Dillon, Michael Bowen, Ricky Jay, Felicity Filled with biblical allusions, Magnolia makes no secret of grappling with weighty issues—the meaning of life, the nature of evil, the terms Huffman, April Grace, Pat Healy of human connection. “I thought it would be really interesting,” the Oscar nominations Paul Thomas Anderson director told the Guardian, “to put this epic spin on topics that don’t necessarily get the epic treatment, which is usually reserved for war (screenplay), Tom Cruise (actor in support movies or political topics.” What makes this work so well is Anderson’s role), Aimee Mann (song) Berlin ability to portray these themes by focusing on the minute details of his characters’ bruised lives. Frogs fall mysteriously from the sky and people International Film Festival Paul Thomas fall apart. The whole while, Anderson maintains an unwavering empathy Anderson (Golden Bear, reader jury of the with his broken characters, humanizing the villains while siding with the victimized and misunderstood. Magnolia seethes with anger and pain, Berliner Morgenpost) while staggering toward hope and something like redemption. EH 877

Fight Club David Fincher, 1999 U.S. (Art Linson, Fox 2000, Regency, Taurus) “The first rule about Fight Club is that you don’t talk about Fight Club. 139m Color Producer Ross Grayson Bell, The second rule about Fight Club is that you don’t talk about Fight Club.” Ceán Chaffin, Art Linson Screenplay Jim Based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk, David Fincher’s film stakes out Uhls, from novel by Chuck Palahniuk manly territory in 1999’s most intriguing and angry, yet witty cinematic fantasy. Fight Club is as morally challenging as it is visually memorable. Photography Jeff Cronenweth Music Dust In a quote that a gleeful Fincher blew up and stuck on his office wall, Brothers Cast Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, British Evening Standard film critic Alexander Walker complained, “The Helena Bonham Carter, Meat Loaf, Zach movie is not only anti-capitalist but anti-society and, indeed, anti-God.” Grenier, Richmond Arquette, David Andrews, Edward Norton plays the mild-mannered narrator who, tortured by George Maguire, Eugenie Bondurant, his empty office life, goes to group therapy just to feel something. At one of these meetings, he meets and falls for Marla (Helena Bonham Carter), Christina Cabot, Sydney Colston, Rachel then hooks up with the dangerously wild Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt). Tyler Singer, Christie Cronenweth, Tim De Zarn, convinces Norton that his life can be better lived by learning how to fight. Soon enough, their antics attract other men, giving them all Ezra Buzzington Oscar nomination Ren something their ordinary lives are lacking—a sort of dirty, aggressive Klyce, Richard Hymns (special sound effects) dignity, which is eventually reorganized into a virtual terrorist cell. 1999 With astonishing camera and special effects work, Fight Club moves at rocket-like pace. The result is an exciting, distressingly inspiring movie that makes even the strangest event seem normal, including Meat Loaf as a cancer patient with enormous mammary glands. KK Ôdishon Takashi Miike, 1999 Audition Japan / South Korea (AFDF, After Hideo Nakata’s Ringu (1998) proved that contemporary Japanese Creators Company Connection, Omega horror was a force to be reckoned with, Audition effectively reworked the Project) 115m Color Language Japanese genre by masking its true intentions behind a wall of melodrama. “The directors whose films scare me the most,” explained director Takashi Producer Satoshi Fukushima, Akemi Miike,“are the ones who carefully hide the aggression in the background Suyama Screenplay Daisuke Tengan and don’t show it directly.” The film’s terrifying third act duly had many Photography Hideo Yamamoto Music Kôji audience members hiding their eyes—if not running from the theater. Endô Cast Ryo Ishibashi, Eihi Shiina, Tetsu Sawaki , Jun Kunimura, Renji Ishibashi, Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi), the lonely, middle-aged owner of Miyuki Matsuda, Toshie Negishi, Ren Osugi, a video production company, worries about finding the right woman to Shigeru Saiki, Ken Mitsuishi, Yuriko Hirooka, replace his adolescent son’s mother, who died seven years ago. A friend Fumiyo Kohinata, Misato Nakamura, Yuuto suggests auditioning actresses for a fake role in a made-up project so that he can review possible candidates for the role of new girlfriend. The Arima, Ayaka Izumi last girl to audition is the beautiful and enigmatic Asami (Eihi Shiina). Aoyama is instantly attracted to her and they start dating. Initially, she proves as dutiful as she is beautiful, and Aoyoma proposes marriage to her during a romantic weekend away at a picturesque seaside resort. However, Asami vanishes and Audition abruptly shifts from romantic drama to violent thriller. Sex is frequently depicted as a weapon as Asami’s disturbing past and monstrous personality are revealed. SJS 878

U.S. (DreamWorks SKG, Jinks/Cohen) American Beauty Sam Mendes, 1999 122m Color Producer Bruce Cohen, If Blue Velvet (1986) peeked behind the curtains of suburbia, American Dan Jinks Screenplay Alan Ball Beauty yanked them away from the windows. “This is my neighborhood, Photography Conrad L. Hall Music Thomas this is my street, this is my life,” says Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) in voice-over at the start of the film. “I’m forty-two years old. In less than a Newman Cast Kevin Spacey, Annette year, I’ll be dead. Of course I don’t know that yet. In a way, I’m dead Bening, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, Mena already.”Like Joe Gillis in Sunset Boulevard (1950), Lester and the audience Suvari, Peter Gallagher, Allison Janney, Chris know his fate from the beginning, but that is just one part of his story. Cooper, Scott Bakula, Sam Robards, Barry Del Sherman, Ara Celi, John Cho, Fort Atkinson, American Beauty is a bleak comedy about what life is really like for Sue Casey Oscars Bruce Cohen, Dan Jinks those supposedly living the American dream—people who don’t lack (best picture), Sam Mendes (director), Alan for anything material but who are unhappy, unfulfilled, and dissatisfied. Ball (screenplay), Kevin Spacey (actor), Mainly, this is Lester’s story, and with Spacey in the role it is a fascinating one—that is, on the surface, a tale of midlife crisis as he tries to rediscover Conrad L. Hall (photography) the freedom he has lost in the face of marital and parental responsibility. Oscar nominations Annette Bening Forced to accompany his wife to a basketball game to watch his (actress), Tariq Anwar (editing), cheerleader daughter perform, he is transfixed by the Lolita-esque Thomas Newman (music) Angela (Mena Suvari). He is soon having erotic visions (most memorably, her naked but for a cover of red rose petals) that lead him to completely i change his life in the hope that he will be able to seduce her. Before American Beauty, Suvari acted Written by Alan Ball—who went on to create the acclaimed HBO in a movie called Great Falls. It was television series Six Feet Under—this is a funny, sad, wistful, and even released as American Pie (1999). hopeful movie that never goes quite where you think it will. JB 879

Beau Travail Claire Denis, 1999 1999 France (La Sept-Arte, SM, Tanaïs) 92m Claire Denis is one of the world’s most audacious, talented directors, and Color Language French Producer Patrick Beau Travail may well be her crowning glory. Based on Herman Melville’s Grandperret Screenplay Claire Denis, Jean- novella Billy Budd, the film is set in the rugged outback of Africa, where Pol Fargeau, from the novella Billy Budd by the French Foreign Legion—men of every race and hue—undergo rigorous training. The stark desert, with its endless stretch of sand and Herman Melville Photography Agnès jagged rocks beneath a rolling blue sky, provides a breathtaking canvas Godard Music Charles Henri de Pierrefeu, for Denis, who captures the rituals of exercise, marching, showering, and Eran Zur Cast Denis Lavant, Michel Subor, bonding with a poet’s eye. In her carefully constructed scenes, everyday routines are transformed into gracefully choreographed dances. But Grégoire Colin, Richard Courcet, Nicolas while this ode to masculinity and male beauty is unfolding, the jealousy Duvauchelle, Adiatou Massudi, Mickael of a military official, Sergeant Galoup (Denis Lavant), toward one of his Ravovski, Dan Herzberg, Giuseppe Molino, underlings, Sentain (Gregoire Colin), builds toward a tragic ending. Gianfranco Poddighe, Marc Veh, Thong Duy Nguyen, Jean-Yves Vivet, Bernardo Montet, Galoup narrates the tale in voice-over. The homoeroticism of the Dimitri Tsiapkinis Berlin International Film military experience is neither forced nor shied away from, and doesn’t Festival Claire Denis (reader jury of the really qualify Beau Travail as an example of queer cinema, as both fans and detractors of the film declared upon its release. Denis’s interests are Berliner Zeitung—special mention) broader than that. In brief but powerful strokes, she raises questions about the relationships of whites to blacks, especially in former European “What you’re seeing is a colonies. Connections between gender and racial politics are made in realistic depiction . . . the scenes where the men go into town on leave and mingle with local women. But the film remains steadfastly ambiguous, never taking any French legionnaires in specific stance on these issues. Most importantly, Denis, with minimal the desert do train under dialogue and with a primary focus on hypnotic visuals that fill the screen in long takes, captures the beauty of ritual and repetition—as well as the the sun half-naked.” power of monotony to break spirit. In terms of sheer beauty alone, Beau Travail pays off frame for frame, whether it’s the sight of the men in formation performing calisthenics, or the happy accident of Denis capturing a ray of sun as it’s refracted in the window of a moving train—or, finally, the disgraced officer, dancing beneath a spinning disco ball. Denis tells her stories through images rather than through dialogue and plot, with a gift for color, lighting, and composition that is unsurpassed. EH Claire Denis, 2011 i Not allowed into the Foreign Legion, Denis instead had to observe their training in the desert at a distance. 880

Spain / France (El Deseo, France 2, Todo sobre mi madre Pedro Almodóvar, 1999 1999 Renn, Vía Digital) 101m Eastmancolor Language Spanish / Catalan / English All About My Mother Producer Agustín Almodóvar, Michel Ruben Screenplay Pedro Almodóvar Pedro Almodóvar’s 1999 film opens on a handsome boy, Esteban (Eloy Photography Affonso Beato Music Alberto Azarín), who’s very close to his single mother, Manuela (Cecilia Roth). For Iglesias Cast Cecilia Roth, Marisa Paredes, a while (via sly references to Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams) it Candela Peña, Antonia San Juan, Penélope looks as though we’re about to see a thinly disguised gay autobiopic. In Cruz, Rosa María Sardà, Fernando Fernán a way we are, for although Esteban is killed off on his seventeenth Gómez, Fernando Guillén, Toni Cantó, Eloy birthday and the focus shifts to Manuela, All About My Mother—like many Azorín, Carlos Lozano, Manuel Morón, José Almodóvar films—constructs femininity through the irreverent, loving Luis Torrijo, Juan José Otegui, Carmen gaze of a gay man who grew up surrounded by adoring women on the Balagué Oscar Spain (best foreign language verge. Crazed with grief, Manuela travels to Barcelona and finds herself film) Cannes Film Festival Pedro Almodóvar playing den mother to a pregnant nun with AIDS (Penélope Cruz, in one (director, prize of the ecumenical jury, of the great Spanish roles she traded away to become a Hollywood pin- up), a beat-up transgendered prostitute (Antonia San Juan) who stage Golden Palm nomination) manages her every moment, and a lesbian actress (the great Marisa Paredes) who is playing Blanche Dubois in more ways than one. The plot, “I read about a bunch elaborately structured and layered with significance, is an excuse to of nuns who lived in throw together a bunch of throaty-voiced women (with or without their a house and worked own breasts) to talk dirty, booze, weep, and prop each other up. with transvestites and When a woman in an Almodóvar film cries, it’s a heaving, gasping, prostitutes and drug aristocratic happening. Still, in his court-jester way, Almodóvar is the most enthusiastic of social levelers. A nun can fall, a hooker can rise, and, addicts, trying to help though both may rail at their fates, their suffering lacks bitterness or rage. them to establish new Even the color scheme is egalitarian, and trash has its own beauty: The cars of johns trawling for hookers at night beneath a Barcelona bridge lives for themselves.” are bathed in the same moonlit loveliness as the city’s old buildings. Pedro Almodóvar, 2006 Toward the end, the prostitute steps on stage and, having itemized her many surgeries to an appalled audience of bourgeois theatergoers, i enchants them with her ad-libbed thoughts on what it takes to be real. “You are more authentic,” she says, “the more you resemble the things A stage version of the movie opened you’ve dreamed of.” For Almodóvar, nature is overrated, while acting— at London’s Old Vic theater in 2007, lying included—frees us to be our worst and best selves. This wonderfully with stars including Diana Rigg. seductive set piece summarizes the exuberantly humane credo that animates every movie he makes. All About My Mother contains scenes as candid and uproarious as any of the director’s early films, but sustains the quieter, sadder, and more reflective tone that began in 1995’s The Flower of My Secret, and continued in 2003’s lovely Talk to Her. As the movie closes, this alluring coven of women shakes out into fresh unions, cemented not only by Almodóvar’s elastic definition of womanhood, but by his conciliatory spirit—assuring us that though anatomy may not be destiny, the kindness of female strangers is irreducible. Given the pap that is too often most studios’ idea of a “women’s movie,” gay filmmakers like Almodóvar and Todd Haynes may be providing a last refuge for strong female roles, as well as for wholehearted melodrama in our hyper-ironic age. ET 881

The Matrix Andy Wachowski & Lana Wachowski, 1999 1999 U.S. (Groucho II, Silver, Village Roadshow) A sci-fi blockbuster that effectively fuses pop-philosophy with skillfully 136m Technicolor Producer Joel Silver choreographed action and state-of-the-art special effects, The Matrix Screenplay Andy Wachowski, Lana was conceived of, written, and directed by siblings Andy and Lana Wachowski Photography Bill Pope Wachowski. The former comic book writers threw just about everything into the mix, including The Wizard of Oz and The Wild Bunch, Alice in Music Paul Barker, Don Davis Cast Keanu Wonderland and Hard Target, Sleeping Beauty and The Bible. Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Keanu Reeves is a dutiful company man who doubles at night as a Moss, Hugo Weaving, Gloria Foster, Joe hacker named Neo. His skepticism concerning the true nature of reality Pantoliano, Marcus Chong, Julian Arahanga, is validated after a beautiful mystery woman, Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), Matt Doran, Belinda McClory, Anthony Ray introduces him to legendary Zen-hacker Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne). Accepting Morpheus’s invitation to take a mind-opening techno-drug Parker, Paul Goddard, Robert Taylor, David trip, Neo discovers that the world in which he previously “existed” is Aston, Marc Gray Oscars Zach Staenberg nothing but a computer-generated virtual reality program controlled by artificial-intelligence machines developed by mankind years before. It (editing), Dane A. Davis (special sound seems the machines, which require endless supplies of electrical current effects), John Gaeta, Janek Sirrs, Steve to survive, keep the entire human population—save for a smattering of Courtley, Jon Thum (special visual effects), rebels and one underground city—in a state of perpetual hallucination. Lying unconscious in automated incubators, humans are deceived into John T. Reitz, Gregg Rudloff, David E. believing that they are leading productive lives, while in reality vampire- Campbell, David Lee (sound) like computers siphon their precious mojo. Morpheus is certain Neo is the “One,”who, according to legend, will one day to save the human race “The Wachowskis really from eternal subjugation. Although initially dissuaded by a surprisingly are pushers, you know. domestic soothsayer (Gloria Foster), Neo manages to summon the fortitude necessary to defeat the artificial intelligence defense squad, Really! In their movie, with the help of John Woo-style martial arts ballet, Sam Peckinpah- they pushed each actor, inspired slow-motion gunfighting, and repeated self-affirmations. each technician to the What separates The Matrix from other virtual reality sci-fi fare are its extreme limit.” epic pretensions, apocalyptic overtones, and breathtaking visuals.“Bullet Time” super slo-mo photography, wire-enhanced gymnastics, and kung Keanu Reeves, 1999 fu fights choreographed by Yuen Woo-Ping (Fist of Legend [1994], Black Mask [1996]) all raised the bar for Hollywood action sequences. One of i the most fascinating things about the film is the manner in which it The Wachowskis wanted to shoot all negotiates between progressive messages of nonconformity and self- three of the Matrix movies together. realization, and the generic imperatives of Hollywood’s conservative “Totally crazy,” noted Keanu Reeves. studio system. As one critic wrote, “It’s cruel, really, to put tantalizing ideas on the table and then ask the audience to be satisfied with a shoot- out and a martial arts duel.”Others praised the Wachowskis for beginning their film with an extended fight scene starring Trinity, only to note her relegation to “Neo’s love interest” for the rest of the picture. Such mixed messages reappear as narrative. Considering that what remains of postwar planet Earth is a bleak, inhospitable “desert of the real,” and that the virtual world in which Neo grew up is not without advantages, it isn’t clear what the human resistance hopes to gain by its struggles. Clearly such quandaries were not a turnoff for viewers. SJS 882

France (Tamaris) 82m Color Les glaneurs et la glaneuse Agnès Varda, 2000 2000 Language French Photography Didier The Gleaners and I Doussin, Stéphane Krausz, Didier Rouget, Pascal Sautelet, Agnès Varda Digital technology has revolutionized filmmaking by making it more Screenplay Agnès Varda Music Agnès democratic and less expensive—the merits, fall-out from, and worthiness of that revolution can still be rigorously debated. What has so often been Bredel, Joanna Bruzdowicz, Richard lacking in digital movies, though, is any sense of beauty or style, any eye Klugman, Isabelle Olivier Cast Bodan for making movies. Even more, the “personal” films that have come out Litnanski, Agnès Varda, François Wertheimer of the digital revolution have often been sophomoric and self-indulgent. Leave it to the mother of the French New Wave, Agnès Varda, to show all “Agnès Varda of course is the upstarts how it should be done. a gleaner herself. She is gleaning the gleaners.” Unapologetically leftist in its politics, swerving from musings on life and mortality to the role of art in society, all while paying tribute to Roger Ebert, society’s outcasts, The Gleaners and I is all over the map. Yet Varda doesn’t Chicago Sun-Times, 2001 let the film get away from her; the viewer never feels anything other than that they’re in the passenger seat on an eye-opening journey that’s being navigated by a master. There’s a wonderful moment in the film in which Varda, picking overripe figs from a tree and eating them on the spot, launches a tirade about the greed of those who are both wealthy and selfish. Rather than spout threadbare Marxist theory, she simply observes, “They don’t want to be nice.” That raw truth resonates throughout the documentary, at the center of which are modern-day gleaners, people who salvage scraps after markets close, or pick through dumpsters to find food. Varda lets these marginalized people speak for themselves, and they eloquently address everything from world politics to personal tragedies, while the film shows that those two poles are not so far apart. Tough questions of social inequity are smoothly juxtaposed against the salvelike qualities of art, and the necessity of finding beauty where you live. The result is a protest film that’s part social critique, part travelogue, but always an unsentimental celebration of human resilience. Threaded throughout The Gleaners and I are Varda’s musings on her own mortality. Rather than being pitying or sentimental, though, those moments capsulize the film’s assertion that everyone who clears life’s hurdles is an artist of sorts. EH i Millet’s The Gleaners (1857) is famous for its sympathetic showing of the then lowest ranks of rural society.

2000 France / Hong Kong (Block 2, Fa yeung nin wa Wong Kar-wai, 2000 Jet Tone, Paradis) 98m BW / Color Language Cantonese / French / In the Mood for Love Mandarin / Spanish Producer Wong Kar-wai Screenplay Wong Kar-wai In the Mood for Love takes place during the 1960s in a tiny and tightly Photography Christopher Doyle, Pin Bing packed tenement house in Hong Kong, where two neighbors spend so Lee Music Mike Galasso, Shigeru much time in close proximity that it’s no wonder their lives ultimately Umebayashi Cast Maggie Cheung, Tony cross. Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung suspect that their respective Leung Chiu-Wai, Ping Lam Siu, Tung Cho spouses are having an affair, but they’re not sure if they should follow Cheung, Rebecca Pan, Lai Chen, Man-Lei suit with an affair of their own. Instead they meet for quiet meals and Chan, Kam-wah Koo, Roy Cheung, Chi-ang shy discussions, passing the time together as it dawns upon them that Chi, Hsien Yu, Po-chun Chow, Maggie maybe they really are meant for each other. Cheung Man-yuk, Paulyn Sun, Man-lei Wong Cannes Film Festival Tony Leung Chiu-wai However, director Wong, working as usual without a script, allows (actor), Christopher Doyle, Pin Bing Lee, the tale of infidelity to play out in an oddly reserved and unpredictable William Chang (grand technical prize), manner. Where the viewer might sense simmering romance, Wong sees Wong Kar-wai (Golden Palm nomination) sad resignation. The two potential lovers cling near one another like satellites, but they seem to understand that they may never be able to “Feelings can creep up share the same orbit. This is not unrequited love but resisted love, as just like that. I thought I Leung and Cheung struggle to stay apart even though they seem destined to be together. Wong choreographs this strange relationship was in control.” with the grace and rhythm of a waltz. Working with his usual director of photography Christopher Doyle, he tracks the couple in slow motion as they pass each other on the tiny staircases, fret about the weather on the shadowy streets, and cryptically act out the kind of arguments they might have were they actually lovers. Once again Wong also makes brilliant use of music, in this case a Nat King Cole instrumental cue that grows in mysterious power the more the theme is replicated. Each scene is luminous, spilling over with carefully researched but understated period details captured in a dreamlike haze by an eavesdropping camera. Cheung, clad in a series of beautiful cheong-san dresses, is stunning, the perfect counterpart to the handsome and tasteful Leung, so in many ways you are rooting for the two to end up together. That they do not end up together doesn’t come as a surprise, but the emotional power of their nonrelationship proves remarkably effective. JKl Chow Mo-wan (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai) i Maggie Cheung wears a different dress in each scene. She found the close-fitted style restrictive to wear. 884

G.B. / U.S. (DreamWorks SKG, Gladiator Ridley Scott, 2000 Scott Free, Universal) 155m Technicolor Producer David Franzoni, Branko Lustig, Hot off filming The Insider (1999), Russell Crowe lost forty pounds and built up his muscles to play thinking women’s sex object Maximus, the Douglas Wick Screenplay David Roman general turned gladiator, in Gladiator, Hollywood’s first true Franzoni, John Logan, William Nicholson Roman epic in over three decades. Photography John Mathieson Music Hans Exiled when his mentor, Caesar Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris), dies Zimmer Cast Russell Crowe, Joaquin and is succeeded by his power-hungry son, Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Oliver Reed, Richard Phoenix), Maximus, now in exile, trains as a gladiator and swears his Harris, Derek Jacobi, Djimon Hounsou, David revenge—understandable when you consider that Commodus not only kicked Maximus out of the bosom of Rome and tried to kill him, but also Schofield, John Shrapnel, Tomas Arana, had his family murdered. David Hemmings, Ralf Moeller, Spencer Treat As you would expect from director Ridley Scott, the movie is epic not Clark, Tommy Flanagan, Sven-Ole Thorsen only in scale but also in imagery, as the majesty that was Rome is Oscars David Franzoni, Branko Lustig, Douglas re-created superbly on screen (much praise is due here to Scott’s Wick (best picture), Russell Crowe (actor), Janty cinematographer, John Mathieson). But Scott doesn’t lose sight of the Yates (costume), John Nelson, Neil Corbould, human side of the story amid the computer trickery, brilliantly staged Tim Burke, Rob Harvey (special visual effects), battle sequences, and spectacular sets, delivering a fascinating, grisly, Scott Millan, Bob Beemer, Ken Weston (sound) and heroic tale. With skilled actors, most notably Crowe, a wonderfully preening Phoenix and, in his final role, Oliver Reed, who sadly died Oscar nominations Ridley Scott (director), during filming—his remaining scenes were generated using a stand-in David Franzoni, John Logan, William Nicholson and computer-enhanced filmwork. The film garnered five Oscars, including Best Actor in a Leading Role, for Russell Crowe. JB (screenplay), Joaquin Phoenix (actor in support role), Arthur Max, Crispian Sallis (art direction), John Mathieson (photography), Pietro Scalia (editing), Hans Zimmer (music) i To date, Gladiator has grossed $457,640,427 worldwide. 885

Kippur Amos Gitai, 2000 France / Israel (Agav Hafakot, Canal+, Since his debut in the early 1980s with a series of documentaries that MP, R&C, Telad, Tele Plus, Arte) 123m Color ran afoul of Israeli television, Amos Gitai has become known as Israel’s most provocative filmmaker. Despite his courage and good instincts, his Language Hebrew Producer Amos films can feel somewhat clumsy and inept at times—but not Kippur. In Gitai, Michel Propper, Laurent Truchot this haunting remembrance of things past, Gitai conjures up a shattering vision of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, in which he himself was seriously Screenplay Amos Gitai, Marie-Jose wounded. Two friends head for the Golan Heights to join up with their Sanselme Photography Renato Berta unit, but are deflected into a medical team that helicopters in to rescue Music Jan Garbarek Cast Liron Levo, Tomer the wounded. From the moment the reservists begin driving out of Russo, Uri Ran-Klausner, Yoram Hattab, Guy peacetime to the front lines, literally searching for the location of war, Amir, Juliano Mer, Ran Kauchinsky, Kobi Gitai edges us into ever more lunar landscapes where time, flesh, and the Livne, Liat Glick, Pini Mittleman, Meital Barda, very earth, are fatally susceptible to distortion and/or disintegration. Gidi Gov Cannes Film Festival Amos Gitai Kippur is less about a specific struggle than it is an evocation of the (Golden Palm nomination) hallucinatory state of war: confusion, shock, numbing fatigue, constant cacophony. There’s at least one sequence that is truly the stuff from 2000 which nightmares are made: A rescue team tries to carry away a seriously wounded soldier, only to have the body keep slipping off the stretcher. In one horrifying, gruesomely funny moment, Gitai makes us experience the impact of the war—personal and cosmic, realistic and surreal. RP Taiwan / Japan (Atom, Nemuru Otoko Yi yi Edward Yang, 2000 Seisaku Iinkai, Omega, Pony Canyon) 173m Color Language English / A One and a Two Hokkien / Mandarin Producer Shinya Edward Yang’s most accessible movie—and probably his best since A Kawai, Osamu Kunota, Naoko Tsukeda, Brighter Summer Day (1991)—this 2000 feature follows three generations Wei-yen Yu Screenplay Edward Yang of a contemporary Taipei family from a wedding to a funeral, and Photography Wei-han Yang Music Kai-li although it takes almost three hours to unfold, not a single moment Peng Cast Wu Nien-jen, Elaine Jin, Issey seems gratuitous. Ogata, Kelly Lee, Jonathan Chang, Chen Hsi- sheng, Ko Su-yun, Michael Tao, Hsiao Shu- Working once again with nonprofessional actors, Yang coaxes a shen, Adrian Lin, Pang Chang Yu, Tang standout performance from Wu Nien-jen—a substantial writer and Ru-yun, Hsu Shu-yuan, Tseng Hsin-yi, Yiwen director in his own right—as N.J., a middle-aged partner in a failing Chen Cannes Film Festival Edward Yang computer company who hopes to team up with a Japanese game designer, and who has a secret rendezvous in Tokyo with a woman (Ko (director, Golden Palm nomination) Su-yun) he jilted thirty years earlier. Other major characters in Yi Yi include the hero’s eight-year-old son (Jonathan Chang), teenage daughter (Kelly Lee), spiritually traumatized wife (Elaine Jin), comatose mother-in-law (Tang Ru-yun), and debt-ridden brother-in-law (Chen Hsi-sheng). The son—a comic and unsentimental marvel named Yang-Yang—becomes obsessed with photographing what people can’t see, like the backs of their heads, because to him it’s the half of reality that’s missed. He may come closest to being a mouthpiece for Yang, who seems to miss nothing as he interweaves shifting viewpoints and poignant emotional refrains, creating one of the richest family portraits in modern cinema. JRos 886

Requiem for a Dream Darren Aronofsky, 2000 U.S. (Artisan, Bandeira, Protozoa, Sibling, Darren Aronofsky’s follow-up to his acclaimed debut Pi (1998) is nothing 2000 Industry, Thousand Words Truth & Soul) short of remarkable. Requiem for a Dream follows four characters—Harry 102m Color Producer Eric Watson, Palmer Goldfarb (Jared Leto), his mother Sara (Ellen Burstyn), girlfriend Marion West Screenplay Hubert Selby Jr., Darren (Jennifer Connelly), and best friend Tyrone (Marlon Wayans)—through Aronofsky, from novel by Hubert Selby Jr. the nightmare world of drug addiction. Each has his or her own way of handling their addiction, and they all end up in different situations, but Photography Matthew Libatique these addictions are all caused by the same thing, the failure of the Music Clint Mansell Cast Ellen Burstyn, American dream. For Aronofsky, the dream is dead and his film is a nightmarish mourning for its victims. Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, Marlon Wayans, Christopher McDonald, Louise Visually, Requiem owes much to both Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting (1996) and the films of Spike Lee; but unlike Boyle, whose own drug Lasser, Marcia Jean Kurtz, Janet Sarno, movie included sequences of hallucinogenic subjectivity, Aronofsky Suzanne Shepherd, Joanne Gordon, resists grounding the audience in any kind of objective position. The entire film is shot within this drug-addled subjective tense. And from Charlotte Aronofsky, Mark Margolis, Michael Lee, Aronofsky takes a hyperkinetic visual sensibility used to represent Kaycheck, Jack O’Connell, Chas Mastin a Brooklyn state of mind, though Requiem makes thematic use of these elements, rather than just employing them for surface style. Oscar nomination Ellen Burstyn (actress) The acting is uniformly magnificent, with Leto, Connelly, and Wayans “Purple in the morning, giving surprisingly strong performances. But it is Ellen Burstyn’s role as blue in the afternoon, Harry’s diet-pill addicted mom that is nothing short of astonishing, and if one had to pick a single reason to see the film it would have to be for orange in the evening . . . this performance. Although nominated for a Best Actress Oscar, Burstyn There’s my three meals, lost to Julia Roberts (Erin Brockovich). No disrespect to either the film or Mr. Smartypants.” Ms. Roberts, but come on! Roberts’s performance was the best of her career, but the same can be said for Burstyn’s Sara—and that’s hardly a fair comparison. But missing from this discussion—and the real reason to see Requiem for a Dream, beyond its intelligent ideas, amazing use of narcotic subjectivity, meaningful stylistics, and magnificent performances—is the film’s remarkable balance of horror (the final sequences of drug madness are some of the scariest movie moments in recent years) and great Jewish comedy. Just imagine Woody Allen directing Naked Lunch. MK Sara Goldfarb (Ellen Burstyn) i Burstyn’s makeup included four different “necks,” two different “fat suits,” and nine different wigs.

Amores perros Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2000 2000 Mexico (Altavista, Zeta) 153m Color Quentin Tarantino had such a pronounced and immediate effect on Language Spanish Producer Alejandro American filmmakers that it was only a matter of time before his influence González Iñárritu Screenplay Guillermo stretched into other countries. Amores Perros—which translates roughly to “Love’s a Bitch”—shows that by 2000 the Tarantino model of stylish violence Arriaga Photography Rodrigo Prieto and jumbled narratives had made its way south of the U.S. border, to Mexico. Music Gustavo Santaolalla Cast Emilio Amores Perros marked the feature debut of Mexican director Alejandro Echevarría, Gael García Bernal, Goya Toledo, Gonzalez Iñárritu, and if the film ultimately offers nothing particularly Álvaro Guerrero, Vanessa Bauche, Jorge new, his vibrant filmmaking still manages to inject the somewhat familiar scenarios with energy, humor, intelligence, and warmth. Salinas, Marco Pérez, Rodrigo Murray, Humberto Busto, Gerardo Campbell, Rosa Shot as three interlocking stories whose central characters overlap at one key juncture, Amores Perros remains faithful to the canine theme María Bianchi, Dunia Saldívar, Adriana of its title, as each segment of the film features a dog (or dogs) in a Barraza, José Sefami, Lourdes Echevarría prominent role. In the first, a boy cheats with his brother’s wife while Cannes Film Festival Alejandro González entering his prized dog into grisly (and viscerally effective) fights, hoping Iñárritu (critics week grand prize, young to raise money so that he and his sister-in-law can run off together. In the second Edgar Allan Poe by way of Luis Buñuel segment, a vain, critics award, best feature) crippled supermodel loses her dog in the crawlspace beneath the floorboards of her apartment, and is tormented by the sounds of its “Iñárritu’s style contains incessant suffering as well as her inability to alleviate it. In the final elements of Tarantino, segment, a hit-man seeks redemption for the life he has led and Peckinpah, and others, recognition from his estranged family. but ultimately, the synthesis is all his own.” All three segments ironically illustrate man’s inhumanity to man via his treatment of animals, which incidentally fare so poorly in the film that Amores Perros infamously sports a prominent and preemptive disclaimer at its start noting that no animals were harmed during the making of the film. In fact, the frequent dog violence (and violence to dogs) is depicted so realistically that at times it does threaten to overwhelm the picture. But Iñárritu succeeds in delivering his message of bloody disloyalty, chilling dishonesty, and class disjunction with an abundance of style, revealing in the process a strong trust for the instincts of his actors as well as the intelligence of his audience. JKl James Berardnelli, Reelviews, 2012 i A disclaimer shown at the beginning of the film confirms that no animals were harmed in its production. 888

Memento Christopher Nolan, 2000 U.S. (Remember, Newmarket, Todd) 113m Based on his brother Jonathan’s story Memento Mori, British director 2000 BW / Color Producer Jennifer Todd, Christopher Nolan’s second feature is a near-perfect psychological puzzle. Known to movie buffs as “the film filmed backward,” this modern film Suzanne Todd Screenplay Christopher noir is told in stops and starts. Scenes appear in reverse chronological Nolan, Jonathan Nolan Photography Wally order then move forward again, presenting information that is useless Pfister Music David Julyan Cast Guy Pearce, until another parcel of the plot is supplied. An annoying gimmick in another director’s hands, Nolan makes the chronological scene shifting Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, Mark an effective way to unfold what is essentially a misguided murder Boone Junior, Russ Fega, Jorja Fox, Stephen mystery where the hero may or may not know that his facts are not “the Tobolowsky, Harriet Sansom Harris, Thomas facts.” Following a long tradition of memory loss within the film noir genre—Blue Dahlia (1945) and Suture (1993)—the main character’s Lennon, Callum Keith Rennie, Kimberly amnesia is yet another exciting factor within a film that has many. Campbell, Marianne Muellerleile, Larry Holden Oscar nominations Christopher Australian actor Guy Pearce stars as Leonard, a nervy and smug ex-insurance investigator. He wears nice suits and drives a nice car but Nolan, Jonathan Nolan (screenplay), stays in rundown motels, an indication of the self-imposed gumshoe he Dody Dorn (editing) has become. Suffering from a rare form of amnesia (a real condition called anterograde amnesia, the inability to make new memories), “I have to believe that Leonard keeps track of his actions through sticky notes and Polaroids, my actions still have tattooing his body with the more important “truths” of the matter. His one aim is to avenge the rape and murder of his wife, a near-impossible meaning, even if I can’t task considering he has the slenderest of leads and can’t remember remember them.” anything from the immediate past. The people around him, bedmate Natalie (Carrie-Anne Moss) or chirpy Teddy (Joe Pantoliano), could be friends or could be the killer—he has no idea. In virtually every scene, Pearce gives a compelling, nervy performance as the man who is haplessly fanatical about his mission yet so incapable of making the decisions he needs to make. How the threads of the story are unraveled and reorganized is an impressive feat of logic minding and script continuity. This technical ploy demands the audience’s vigilance yet, in true film noir form, doesn’t reward it. In the end, it is the way the tale is told that is memorable, not the story itself. KK Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce) i Anterograde amnesia can be caused by removing parts of the temporal lobe of the brain to treat epilepsy.

2000 U.S. / Hong Kong / China / Taiwan (Asia Wo hu cang long Ang Lee, 2000 Union, China Film, Columbia, EDKO, Good Machine, Sony, United China, Zoom Hunt) Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 120m Technicolor Language Mandarin Director Ang Lee has said that his intention with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Producer Hsu Li-kong, William Kong, Ang Dragon was quite simply to make the best martial arts movie possible, and the artistic success and popularity of the end result indicates he Lee Screenplay Wang Hui-ling, James achieved just that. Working from a script by his longtime collaborator Schamus, Kuo Jung Tsai, from book by Du Lu James Schamus, Lee convened a cast of Asian action superstars who also Wang Photography Peter Pau Music Jorge possessed the requisite acting skills to deliver the story. Calandrelli, Yong King, Tan Dun Cast Chow Lee also brought in famed fight choreographer Lee Wu-ping. Taking Yun-fat, Michelle Yeo, Ziyo Zhang, Chen inspiration from the physicality of the Chinese theater, Wu-ping ignores the laws of physics by hoisting the actors up on wires so that they may Chang, Sihung Lung, Cheng Pei-pei, Fa Zeng fight on treetops, skip across water like stones, run up walls, and often Li, Xian Gao, Yan Hai, De Ming Wang, Li Li-li, clash in midair. For Western audiences perhaps unaccustomed to these Su Ying Huang, Jin Ting Zhang, Rei Yang, Kai aerial ballets, the sight of an opening foot chase over the rooftops of a Li Oscars Taiwan (best foreign language village on a moonlit night proved immediately and irresistibly enticing. film), Timmy Yip (art direction), Peter Pau (photography), Tan Dun (music) Oscar Chow Yun-fat, Michelle Yeo, and relative newcomer Ziyo Zhang easily nominations William Kong, Hsu Li-kong, handle the supernatural physicality of their respective roles, but their Ang Lee (best picture), Ang Lee (director), acting never proves subservient to the impressive action scenes. In fact, Wang Hui-ling, James Schamus, Kuo Jung one reason Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon became such a sensation was Tsai (screenplay), Timmy Yip (costume), Tim its attention to plot and character development, two rarities even in the Squyres (editing), Jorge Calandrelli, Tan Dun, most ambitious martial arts films,. James Schamus (song) Chow Yun-fat plays a warrior in search of a stolen sword, the Green “For all the leaping Dragon. Aided in his quest by Yeo, a former love interest, he discovers action, it’s the film’s that the theft of the sword by Zhang Ziyo is connected to and clouded by longstanding issues of honor and revenge. For all the gravity-defying spirit that soars.” stunts and fitful bursts of violence, Lee keeps the focus firmly on the film’s three central characters, whose philosophies on the utility of Peter Travers, fighting and bloodshed have been shaped by their radically different Rolling Stone, 2000 experiences in life. i A strong feminist undercurrent also runs through the film, adding another layer of intelligence. The female characters fight for different The movie’s title is a quote from reasons, but most of them seem to be fighting for respect in a man’s Chinese mythology. It refers to world. The tiny Zhang, posing as a warrior, finds herself beset in a hiding your strength from others. bustling way station by several unsavory fighters. Lee plays the inevitable thrashing of these few dozen would-be assailants for laughs, like a hyperkinetic variation on the old bar fight. But part of Zhang’s passionate response seems to stem from simmering resentment, her understanding that were it known that she is female she would have been dismissed outright rather than respected (or feared) as a formidable opponent. Lee modulates each scene of the movie with a similar nuance and sensitivity. His fight sequences play like psychological confrontations as much as sword fights, the clash of innocence and experience, of peace and anger. Even so, Lee leaves as much room for levity as he does or visual poetry, achieving a rare balance of thrills, beauty, humor, and smarts. JKl 890



The Lord of the Rings Peter Jackson, 2001, 2002, & 2003 2001 The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) 178m Like J. R. R. Tolkien’s original three-volume book, Peter Jackson’s adaptation The Two Towers (2002) 179m of The Lord of the Rings is best seen as a single—albeit very long—work. Watched back-to-back, the trilogy flows together almost seamlessly, from The Return of The King (2003) 201m spectacular prologue to the suitably epic, record-setting closing credits. All three films U.S. / New Zealand But then, everything about this movie is record-setting, from how it (New Line CInema, WingNut Films, The Saul was made (all three films were shot over a single sixteen-month period), to the extent of its eventual, incredible success. To date it has earned Zaentz Company) Color Producer Peter more than any other trilogy, even besting the Star Wars movies. By some Jackson, Barrie M. Osborne, Fran Walsh, estimates, the series has earned at least as much again on DVD sales; Tim Sanders (only The Fellowship of the Ring) when you throw in merchandising, the GDP of Middle-Earth begins to Screenplay Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, rival that of actual countries. Remarkably, Jackson managed to astound Peter Jackson, Stephen Sinclair (only The not just the accountants but the critics as well. Each film topped scores of “best of” lists, and between them the three movies were nominated Two Towers), from novels by J. R. R. for a staggering thirty Academy Awards, and won seventeen. Tolkien Photography Andrew Lesnie Music Howard Shore Cast Elijah Wood, If you’ve seen the movies, it will come as no surprise that all three Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler, Viggo Mortensen, won Oscars for visual effects. They are filled with impressive beasts and Sean Astin, Cate Blanchett, John Rhys- battles, the scale of each escalating from movie to movie. Despite this, Davies, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, it is the tragic figure of Gollum that most captured audience imagination. Based on the motion-tracked performance and vocals of actor Andy Orlando Bloom, Hugo Weaving Serkis, the Gollum on-screen was totally computer-generated, yet still Oscars The Fellowship of the Ring 4 awards, totally believable as a real character. including Andrew Lesnie (cinematography), It is perhaps this that encapsulates Jackson’s greatest achievement: Howard Shore (music) The Two Towers to remember that spectacle and technical wizardry aren’t enough to Ethan Van der Ryn, Mike Hopkins (sound make a great movie. Even though The Lord of the Rings trilogy is filled with hobbits, elves, and wizards, the characters in his films are all very editing), Jim Rygiel, Joe Letteri, Randall human. Gollum has regrets, tries to be good, and teases the “fat hobbit” William Cook, Alex Funke (visual effects) Sam. The wizard Gandalf, played to perfection by Sir Ian McKellen, is The Return of the King Barrie M. Osborne, avuncular, even mischievous, yet always retains his undeniable power Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh (best picture), and authority. And the hobbits Frodo (a wide-eyed Elijah Wood) and Sam Peter Jackson (director), Fran Walsh, Philippa (Sean Astin) grow from brave but naive adventurers to true heroes. Boyens, Peter Jackson (screenplay), Jamie Selkirk (editing), Grant Major, Dan Hennah, Almost as memorable as the characters is the scenery. The trilogy was shot in Jackson’s native New Zealand, and little digital magic was required Alan Lee (art direction), Ngila Dickson, to create the stunning landscapes. One of the most memorable scenes Richard Taylor (costume design), Richard from the spectacle-laden final movie is the lighting of the beacons; Taylor, Peter King (makeup), Fran Walsh, as the music soars, the camera simply tracks from mountaintop to mountaintop as signal fires flare up against the sky, and it is stunning. Howard Shore, Annie Lennox (song), Christopher Boyes, Michael Semanick, It is remarkable that Jackson, with his scriptwriting partners Fran Michael Hedges, Hammond Peek (sound), Walsh and Phillippa Boyens, managed to wrestle a dense and unwieldy Jim Rygiel, Joe Letteri, Randall William Cook, mass of source material into a swift and engaging narrative. (Even more remarkable is the fact most hard-core fans of the book also loved the Alex Funke, (visual effects), Howard movie.) In a brief but dramatic prologue, we learn that long ago, the Shore (music) über-evil Sauron invested all his power into a ring, only to lose it in an epic battle against a coalition of elves and men. The ring eventually finds its way to the diminutive hobbit, Frodo Baggins. It is here that the story 892

“When you’re eighteen proper begins. Frodo agrees to destroy the ring, and so Sauron, once and years old and a photo for all. However, this can only be done by throwing it into the volcanic engraving apprentice heart of Mt. Doom, which lies deep in enemy territory. He sets off on his long and dangerous journey with a fellowship of concerned hobbits, you can’t possibly elves, dwarves, and men, including the wizard Gandalf and the mysterious imagine you’re going Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen). Betrayals, battles, and bloodshed ensue; the to be making The Lord fellowship ultimately splits, as Frodo and Sam (and eventually Gollum) of the Rings one day. make their way to the volcano by themselves, while the remainder I thought, wow, this will prepare to take on Sauron in a final Middle Earth–shattering showdown. make a great film, I can’t wait until somebody else Despite the vast canvas upon which Jackson was painting, at its heart makes it. I never ever his film is about people, their relationships, and the decisions they make. dreamt it would be me.” Friendship and self-sacrifice figure strongly, as does a sense of mortality; the final scenes make it clear that victory can be noble, and yet still come Peter Jackson, 2003 at too deep a personal cost. Tolkein spent time in the trenches during World War I, and it is hard not to draw parallels between his experiences i and the tone of melancholy that surrounds the trilogy’s conclusion. For many, the heart of the film lies not with a big action scene, but in a quiet The Return of the King won eleven moment when Gandalf comforts Frodo, who despairs that he was born Oscars—a tally equaled only by to see such terrible events. “So do all who live to see such times,” Gandalf says. “But that is not for us to decide. All we have to decide is what to do Ben Hur (1959) and Titanic (1997). with the time that is given to us.” It is moments like this that elevate Jackson’s film from movie blockbuster to genuine masterpiece. PH 893

2001 U.S. / Japan (Dentsu, Mitsubishi, NTV, Ghibli, Sen to chihiro no kamikakushi Tokuma Shoten, Touhoku Shinsha Walt Spirited Away Hayao Miyazaki, 2001 Disney) 125m Color Language Japanese Producer Toshio Suzuki Screenplay Hayao With every film that he makes, Hayao Miyazaki sets the standard for animated features ever higher. Yet he holds such a singular vision that Miyazaki Music Jô Hisaishi Cast Daveigh it’s hard to tell where to place him on the pantheon. He isn’t a throwback Chase, Rumi Hiiragi, Miyu Irino, Jason to the past, because no one in the past made movies quite like Miyazaki’s. And he certainly isn’t a precursor of things to come, because it’s hard to Marsden, Mari Natsuki, Suzanne Pleshette, imagine anybody but Miyazaki doing what he does. He is one of a kind, Michael Chiklis, Takashi Naitô, Lauren Holly, and as such, his films hold a special place in the heart of movie lovers. Yasuko Sawaguchi, Tatsuya Gashuin, John This is especially true in his native Japan, where each of his features Ratzenberger, Ryunosuke Kamiki, Tara exceeds the box office tally of its predecessor, with many of them Strong, Susan Egan Oscar Hayao Miyazaki eclipsing the take of even the most prominent Hollywood blockbusters. This is because Miyazaki creates fantastic worlds somehow free from (animation) Berlin International Film the cloying characters and patronizing tone of so many mainstream Festival Hayao Miyazaki (Golden Bear, animated features. Not surprisingly, his unfailingly intelligent films appeal to both children and adults, simple enough for the former to tied with Bloody Sunday) enjoy yet complex enough for the latter to appreciate on a different level. “It’s not me who makes The shy and nervous Chihiro (voiced by Daveigh Chase in the English- the film. The film makes language version) and her parents are on their way to their new home when they take a detour through a strange tunnel. When they emerge itself, and I have no on the other side, they discover a seemingly deserted town, but things choice but to follow.” aren’t what they seem. Chihiro’s parents gorge themselves on food and magically transform into a pair of pigs, and that’s when Chihiro realizes Hayao Miyazaki, 2002 they’re not alone. When night falls, the town becomes populated with spirits, and Chihiro must overcome her fears to rescue her parents and i find their way home. Guided by a more benevolent spirit named Haku Spirited Away was the first anime (Jason Marsden), Chihiro sneaks her way into the inner workings of the town, where she discovers a witch named Yubaba (Suzanne Pleshette) film to be nominated for—and who runs the spirit city like a booming business with an elaborate spa win—an Academy Award. resort as its main draw. It’s only by ingratiating herself to the enigmatic crone and her unpredictable cronies that Chihiro can hope to escape. Spirited Away is in many ways Miyazaki’s Alice in Wonderland. The writer-director’s hand-drawn scenes burst with energy and invention, and Miyazaki takes full advantage of the fantastical story to devise dozens of unique spirits and creatures that roam this world of utterly inscrutable rules and impenetrable logic. Giant babies throw destructive temper tantrums. Evil spirits offer gifts of gold as bait before devouring everything in sight. Characters change shapes (and sometimes personalities) with no warning—one appears alternately as a boy, a dragon, and a river spirit. Chihiro reacts to each of these creatures first with confusion, then with fear, and ultimately with courage. She soon realizes that she must master this strange world if she ever hopes to get home, and just as the spirits she encounters change her outlook on life, so does Chihiro affect the behavior of the spirits. She’s a stranger in a strange land whose denizens consider her the strangest of them all. JKl 894

No Man’s Land Danis Tanovic, 2001 Bosnia-Herzegovina / Slovenia / Italy / A warrior’s term associated with World War I, “no-man’s-land” connotes France / G.B. / Belgium (Casablanca, the uninhabitable kill zone between opposing forces. Danis Tanovic’s No Man’s Land complicates the term with an absurdist drama set in the Counihan Villiers, Eurimages, Fabrica, Fonds Balkans, designed around a “Mexican standoff.” Slovène, Man’s, Noé, Maj, Centre du Cinema It is 1993 and a relief platoon of Bosnian soldiers gets lost in the night et de l’Audiovisuel de la Communauté on its way to the front. Ambushed by a Serbian patrol, the group is Française de Belgique, Wallons) 98m Color decimated, save for two of its number. Chiki (Branko Djuric) suffers a Language Serbo-Croatian / English / French glancing bullet wound before finding the safety of trenches, and his Producer Marc Baschet, Frédérique Dumas- friend Cera (Filip Sovagovic) is knocked unconscious. Sent to survey the Zajdela, Cédomir Kolar Screenplay Danis trench, a Serbian veteran and his new partner Nino (Rene Bitorajac) set a mine beneath Cera’s body, just before Chiki kills the veteran. When Cera Tanovic Photography Walther van den wakes up, unable to move, the three are forced to cooperate to survive Ende Music Danis Tanovic Cast Branko because they’re equally cut off from both sides’rear guard and leadership. Djuric, Rene Bitorajac, Filip Sovagovic, Tanovic’s film is a riveting portrait of military purposes run amuck at Georges Siatidis, Serge-Henri Valcke, Sacha the very point of conflict. Chiki, Nino, and Cera bear the ravages of a much greater agenda, namely the combination of religious, political, Kremer, Alain Eloy, Mustafa Nadarevic, ethnic, but most of all, nationalist impulses. No Man’s Land is a bleak affair, Bogdan Diklic, Simon Callow, Kathrin indeed, but a meaningful cinematic experience can be found in its dark, Cartlidge, Tanja Ribic Oscar Bosnia (best dark comedy of errors wherein forthright patriots festoon one another on the symbolic bayonets of their rifles. GC-Q foreign language film) 2002 U.S. (Miramax Films, IEG, Alberto Grimaldi Gangs of New York Martin Scorsese, 2002 Productions) 167m Color Producer Alberto Grimaldi, Harvey Weinstein Screenplay Jay Opening on a set that might not look out of place on stage at the New York Met, Gangs of New York could have been an opera. Leonardo Cocks, Steven Zalian, Kenneth Lonergan DiCaprio is Amsterdam Vallon, vying to avenge his father, killed by lower Photography Michael Balhaus Manhattan’s now undisputed king, Bill Cutting (Daniel Day-Lewis). He earns the trust of Bill, who views him as a like-minded soul, until Bill finds Music Howard Shore Cast Leonardo out his real identity—thus paving the way for a fight to the death. DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, Cameron Diaz, Scorsese’s loose adaptation of Herbert Asbury’s 1929 account of the Brendan Gleeson, Henry Thomas, John C. low-lifes, criminals, and gangs in nineteenth-century New York makes Reilly, Jim Broadbent, Liam Neeson, Gary up in energy what it loses in subtlety. Compare it to the eloquence and Lewis, Stephen Graham, Eddie Marsan, Alec stateliness of the director’s 1993 adaptation of Edith Wharton’s The Age McCowen, David Hemmings, Cara Seymour, of Innocence: Though the stories are separated by mere decades, they don’t seem to occupy the same universe, let alone the same streets. Cian McCormack Oscar nominations Alberto Grimaldi, Harvey Weinstein (Picture), Day-Lewis dominates, chewing lines and scenery with gusto, while Martin Scorsese (director), Daniel Day-Lewis DiCaprio looks uneasy. Brendan Gleeson, Liam Neeson, Jim Broadbent, and John C. Reilly make the most of their roles, while Cameron Diaz (actor), Jay Cocks, Steven Zalian, Kenneth suffers in the only significant female role. Dante Ferretti’s designs are a Lonergan (original screenplay), Michael sight to behold. Michael Ballhaus’s cinematography is crisp. And Thelma Balhaus (cinematography), Thelma Schoonmaker’s editing carries us along at a fair pace, while Scorsese’s Schoonmaker (editing), Sandy Powell camera swoops and dives as it explores this barbaric world. It is a bold and ambitious film in an age when such enterprises are all too rare. IHS (costume design), Dante Ferretti, Frencesco Lo Schiavo (art direction-set decoration), Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen Jr. (original song), Tom Fleischman, Eugene Gearty, Ivan Sharrock (sound) 895

Russia (The Hermitage Bridge Russkiy kovcheg Aleksandr Sokurov, 2002 Studio) 99m Color Language Russian / Persian Producer Andrey Deryabin, Jens Russian Ark Meurer, Karsten Stöter Screenplay Russian Ark is a work of vaunting ambition. Set amid St. Petersburg’s Aleksandr Sokurov, Anatoli Nikiforov Hermitage Museum, the film offers an impressionistic portrait of the city’s Photography Tilman Büttner Music Sergei 300-year history. The narrator is a French nobleman played by Sergei Yevtushenko Cast Sergei Dontsov, Mariya Donstov, who guides us through the museum’s rooms and galleries, with Kuznetsova, Leonid Mozgovoy, Mikhail director Aleksandr Sokurov bringing to life fragments of St. Petersburg’s eventful past. Floating in and out of scenes involving Catherine the Great Piotrovsky and Tsar Nicholas I, and telling of the city’s terrible suffering during World War II, the film transforms into a phantasmogorical tour of Russian history. 2002 But what really makes this dreamy mix of allegory and politics so memorable is the director’s visual approach. Pushing the envelope of digital technology, the entire drama unravels in a single unbroken take. It was a huge challenge, requiring 2,000 extras (all in period costume) and unfolding across thirty galleries, hallways, and rooms. Technical problems interrupted the first two attempts, but Sokurov got the shot he wanted on his third take—just as well, as there wasn’t time for any more. The results are breathtaking: Sokurov’s fluid camerawork evokes the continuity and flow of history like no other film. The result is one of the great technical achievements of modern cinema. EL U.S. (Dog Eat Dog Films, Bowling for Columbine Michael Moore, 2002 Momentum Pictures) 120 mins Color Producer Michael Moore, Kathleen Glynn, The film that launched Michael Moore’s career internationally, as well Michael Donovan Screenplay Michael as winning him an Oscar, Bowling for Columbine also showed that Moore Photography Brian Danitz, Michael documentary filmmaking could be commercially successful. It placed McDonough Music Jeff Gibbs Cast Michael America’s predilection for gun ownership under the microscope, linking Moore, Charlton Heston, Dick Clark, Arthur it to the escalation of violence within the country. In particular, the Busch, Marilyn Manson, Matt Stone, Chris film focuses on the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, when two Rock Oscars Michael Moore, Michael students went on a murderous rampage before committing suicide. Donovan (documentary—features) Adopting a style that his critics argue removes him from any claim to Cannes Film Festival Michael Moore being a documentary filmmaker, Moore’s subjectivity is never masked. His moral crusade runs the gamut, from ambushing the National Rifle (55th Anniversary Prize) Association president Charlton Heston to visiting the headquarters of Kmart with survivors of the Columbine shooting, to demand a refund on the bullets that remain lodged in the victim’s bodies, which the two killers purchased from the store. Such actions saw results: Kmart would ultimately revise their sales policy for handgun ammunition. Although the goal of the film was to hold America accountable regarding its stance on gun ownership, the sentiment was lost on some because of Moore’s didactic approach. Nevertheless, it is impossible to deny the power of Bowling for Columbine’s thesis. Sadly, mass shootings since have shown that Moore’s film ultimately failed to do little more than send ripples across the surface of the American psyche. JT 896

Cidade de deus Fernando Meirelles & Kátia Lund, 2002 City of God Brazil / France (O2 Filmes, Video Filmes, There are films that capture the zeitgeist perfectly; there are films that Globo Filmes, Lereby Productions, Lumiere give a peek at, if not a warning of, the world to come. City of God does both with aplomb. With its dizzying pace, fast edits, handheld camera, Productions, Studio Canal, Wild Bunch) quick-shift changes in point of view, and obvious nods to Quentin 130m Color Language Portuguese Tarantino, the film is clearly rooted in both the tone and tempo of late twentieth/early twenty-first century American filmmaking. Producer Andrea Barata Ribeiro, Mauricio Andrade Ramos Screenplay Bráulio At its core, City of God is about the devolution of a Brazilian housing project that is tracked from its relatively idyllic 1960s beginnings to its Mantovani Photography César Charlone 1980s destination as a violent, poverty-ridden domain where each Music Ed Cortês, Antonio Pinto successive generation becomes less connected to the human traits of empathy, conscience, and hope. Based on a true story, City of God is Cast Matheus Nachtergaele, Seu Jorge, narrated by the teenage Buscape (Alexandre Rodrigues), whose gentle Alexandre Rodrigues, Leandro Firmino da disposition prevents him from becoming a gangster, but whose artistic bent leads him to become a celebrated photographer/documentarian Hora, Phellipe Haagensen, Jonathan of his surroundings. If there’s a lead in the ensemble of motley characters Haagensen, Douglas Silva, Roberta (the cast is composed of non-actors, real-life street kids) and intertwined storylines, it’s the hyper-violent Lil’ Ze (Leandro Firmino da Hora), whose Rodrigues, Alice Braga, Gero Camilo, Darlan propensity for violence and complete lack of remorse make him a Cunha Oscar nominations Fernando terrifying figure. It is the open-ended final minutes, in which a generation Meirelles (director), Bráulio Mantovani of almost feral homeless kids take over the projects, that makes the film’s (adapted screenplay) César Charlone point crystal clear: This is a horror movie of the first order. EH (cinematography), Daniel Rezende (editing) i The story was adapted from the 1997 novel City of God, written by Brazilian author Paulo Lins. 897

Spain (El Deseo S.A., Antena 3 Televisión, Hable con ella Pedro Almodóvar, 2002 Good Machine, Vía Digital) 112m BW / Color Talk to Her Language Spanish Producer Agustín Almodóvar Screenplay Pedro Almodóvar Talk to Her provides a counterpoint to the human warmth and emotional messiness of Pedro Almodóvar’s joyously cathartic previous film, All Photography Javier Aguirresarobe About My Mother (1999). Although it retains some of the Day-Glo Music Alberto Iglesias Cast Javier Cámara, appearances of the director’s earlier, more vibrant work, Talk to Her is his Darío Grandinetti, Leonor Watling, Rosario most controlled and sustained picture. It is also his most melancholy and disconcerting film, especially in its treatment—or “silencing”—of Flores, Mariola Fuentes, Geraldine Chaplin women. Whereas Almodóvar’s films generally embrace the untidiness Oscar Pedro Almodóvar (screenplay) of life and cinema, Talk to Her is elegant and even classical in its structure, Oscar nomination Pedro Almodóvar with various motifs connecting across it. (director) Most of Almodóvar’s previous films focus on female characters and i their complex interactions with each other and the world around them. The character of Benigno is based on Talk to Her concentrates on its male protagonists and their increasingly insular dialogues with the women “in” their lives—both of whom end up Pedro Almodóvar’s close friend, in comas. One of the most remarkable aspects of Almodóvar’s film is the actor-director Roberto Benigni. way in which he subtly manipulates and directs the audience, shifting emphasis away from the more disturbing connotations of the actions the picture represents. In what may be the boldest move in the director’s cinema, he “shows” a rape through a deft parody of a silent surrealist film called The Shrinking Lover. The most significant achievement of Talk to Her lies in the ways in which it plays with and challenges audience identification. It is a profound meditation on the way in which we talk to and through the people, objects, and texts that express our lives. AD 898