'Wrestler' takes top honors at Venice
Aronofsky film pins down festival's Golden Lion
By NICK VIVARELLI from Variety
VENICE -- Darren Aronofksy's drama "The Wrestler," starring Mickey Rourke as Randy (the Ram) Robinson, a washed out pro-wrestler in comeback mode -- both on and off the screen, it turns out -- has pinned down the Venice Film Festival's Golden Lion, providing the Lido with a grand finale.
"I think the reason people are reacting to this film is that there is a great talent revealing his soul," said Aronofsky.
"Darren Aronofsky came here a couple of years ago and fell on his ass," Rourke recounted in the Lido's packed Sala Grande theatre, referring to the helmer's "The Fountain," which premiered in Venice in 2006 and subsequently flopped.
"I am glad he had the balls to come back,” Rourke added.
The Silver Lion for best director went to Russia's Aleksey German Jr. for Kazakhstan-set "Paper Soldier," centering around the Soviet space program in the 1960s.
The Coppa Volpi for best actor went to Italy's Silvio Orlando for his role in Pupi Avati’s "Il Papa di Giovanna." The best actress nod was scooped by Dominique Blanc for "L'Autre" by Gallic auteurs Patrick Mario Bernard and Pierre Trividic.
PRIZES OF THE 65TH VENICE FILM FESTIVAL
INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION JURY
GOLDEN LION "The Wrestler,” (Darren Aronofsky, US)
SILVER LION “Paper Soldier” (Aleksey German Jr., Russia)
GRAND JURY PRIZE "Teza," (Haile Gerima, Ethiopia-Germany-France)
ACTOR Silvio Orlando (“Il Papa di Giovanna,” Italy)
ACTRESS Dominique Blanc ("L’Autre," France)
BEST SCREENPLAY Haile Gerima (“Teza,” Ethiopia-Germany-France)
TECHNICAL CONTRIBUTION (Cinematography) Alisher Khamidhodjev, Maxim Drozdov (“Paper Soldier,” Russia)
MARCELLO MASTROIANNI PRIZE FOR YOUNG PERFORMER Jennifer Lawrence (“The Burning Plain,” US)
SPECIAL LION FOR BODY OF WORK Werner Schroeter (Germany)
OTHER JURIES
LUIGI DE LAURENTIIS LION OF THE FUTURE “Pranzo di Ferragosto,” (Gianni Di Gregorio, Italy)
VENICE HORIZONS “Melancholia” (Lav Diaz, Philippines)
VENICE HORIZONS DUCUMENTARY “Below Sea Level,” (Aleksey Fedortchenko, Russia)
VENICE HORIZONS SPECIAL MENTION “Un Lac,” (Philippe Grandrieux, France)
VENICE HORIZONS SECOND SPECIAL MENTION “Women,” (Huang Wenhai, China-Switzerland)
Label Europa Cinemas – Venice Days 2008 Prize ““Machan,” (Uberto Pasolini, Sri Lanka-Germany-Italy)
FIPRESCI (INTL. CRITIC'S ASSN) COMPETITION PRIZE "Gabbla” (“Inland”) (Tariq Teguia, Algeria)
FIPRESCI HORIZONS AND CRITICS’ WEEK PRIZE “Goodbye Solo” (Ramin Bahrani, US)
SHORTS
Corto Cortissimo Prize “Tierra Y Pan,” (Carlos Armella, Mexico)
Corto Cortissimo Special Mention “The Dinner,” (Karchi Perlmann, Hungary)
UIP Prize for Best European Short “The Altruists,” Koen Dejaegher (Belgium)
Venice Film Festival Line-Up
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Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea
A Toho Co. release of a Studio Ghibli, Nippon Television Network, Dentsu, Hakuhodo DYMP, Walt Disney Home Entertainment, Mitsubishi, Toho presentation of a Studio Ghibli production. Produced by Toshio Suzuki. Executive producer, Koji Hoshino. Directed, written by Hayao Miyazaki.
Voices: Tomoko Yamaguchi, Kazushige Nagashima, Yuki Amami, George Tokoro, Yuria Nara, Hiroki Doi.
Hayao Miyazaki’s latest animated epic, "Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea," unfolds with a magic limpidity, teeming with imaginative transports that owe nothing to CGI. Effortlessly shuttling between sea, land and sky, this "Little Mermaid"-ish tale dives deep into the collective unconscious of Japan’s island culture, imagining a transparency between natural elements that promises salvation and apocalypse in equal measure. Though targeted at tots, "Ponyo" may appeal most to jaded adults thirsty for wondrous beauty and unpackaged innocence. Pic is the first local production since Miyazaki’s "Howl’s Moving Castle" (2004) to pass ¥10 billion ($93.2 million) at home.
Widely perceived as a positive manifestation of the "second childhood" of its 67-year-old visionary director, pic marks a stylistic U-turn from the rendered literalism of the fantasy components in "Howl’s Moving Castle." Pic frequently partakes of simpler, sparer setups, and more distilled, abstract compositions, with foreshortened perspectives and whimsically freewheeling character designs that imply the direct influence of children’s drawing.
Miyazaki’s underwater specimens decidedly defy scientific categorization. Perky Ponyo (voiced by Yuria Nara), a fish with a little face and red dress, lives beneath the sea with her red-haired, ecologically anxious father and hundreds of much tinier, red-dressed sisters. Curious about the surface world, she hitches a ride atop one of many floating jellyfish (using a smaller, more diaphanous jellyfish as a windshield dome).
Swept up by a dredging net, along with the detritus of civilization (everything from bathtubs to oil sludge), Ponyo is rescued by 5-year-old Sosuke (Hiroki Doi), who resides on a cliff above the ocean and promises to protect her always.
Eventually, Ponyo’s sorcerer father manages to recapture his wayward offspring. But Ponyo, both a willful child and an ungovernable force of nature, soon escapes again, in the process upsetting the Earth’s ecological balance.
Accidently unleashing her father’s magic elixir, Ponyo triggers a tour de force orchestration of swirling elements that transform her wee helpful little sisters into huge fish that overrun the sea in a vast tsunami. Ponyo triumphantly rises atop the mounting waves to near-Wagnerian strains, oblivious to the total devastation she has wrought.
If Sosuke serves as the template for the perfect child (with his boat-captain father often away and his dashingly imagined daredevil mother given to impulse, he assumes responsibility for everyone), Ponyo is definitely a handful. Miyazaki has crafted no demure little mermaid, and no soft dissolves accompany her awkward transitions to human form: The legs she first sprouts are chicken-like appendages, and her occasional headlong dives involve swift regressions to amoeba-like formlessness.
Miyazaki has inadvertently dished up yet another challenge to the universe of hand-drawn toons: Even more so than his previous outings, the film confounds traditional notions of anthropomorphism, dwelling especially on the transformative properties of water.
Far more upbeat than much of Miyazaki’s oeuvre, limned in bright pastel colors where even destruction is golden, "Ponyo" possesses an almost demonic childish energy and a delight in form stronger than reason or narrative. Even Armageddon, as loosed by Ponyo and imagined by Miyazaki, is a wondrous place where half-armored prehistoric fish glide alongside their more evolved cousins, submerged trees form mysterious swamplands and a "ship graveyard" of foundering vessels appears in the distance, like a fairyland of lights stretched out upon the water.
(Color); editor, Takeshi Seyama; music, Joe Hisaishi; animation supervisor, Katsuya Kondo; background, Noboro Yoshida; color designer, Michiyo Yasuda; digital imaging, Atsushi Okui; sound, Shuji Inoue. Reviewed at Venice Film Festival (competing), Aug. 30, 2008. Running time: 101 MIN.
A Toho Co. release of a Studio Ghibli, Nippon Television Network, Dentsu, Hakuhodo DYMP, Walt Disney Home Entertainment, Mitsubishi, Toho presentation of a Studio Ghibli production. Produced by Toshio Suzuki. Executive producer, Koji Hoshino. Directed, written by Hayao Miyazaki.
Voices: Tomoko Yamaguchi, Kazushige Nagashima, Yuki Amami, George Tokoro, Yuria Nara, Hiroki Doi.
Hayao Miyazaki’s latest animated epic, "Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea," unfolds with a magic limpidity, teeming with imaginative transports that owe nothing to CGI. Effortlessly shuttling between sea, land and sky, this "Little Mermaid"-ish tale dives deep into the collective unconscious of Japan’s island culture, imagining a transparency between natural elements that promises salvation and apocalypse in equal measure. Though targeted at tots, "Ponyo" may appeal most to jaded adults thirsty for wondrous beauty and unpackaged innocence. Pic is the first local production since Miyazaki’s "Howl’s Moving Castle" (2004) to pass ¥10 billion ($93.2 million) at home.
Widely perceived as a positive manifestation of the "second childhood" of its 67-year-old visionary director, pic marks a stylistic U-turn from the rendered literalism of the fantasy components in "Howl’s Moving Castle." Pic frequently partakes of simpler, sparer setups, and more distilled, abstract compositions, with foreshortened perspectives and whimsically freewheeling character designs that imply the direct influence of children’s drawing.
Miyazaki’s underwater specimens decidedly defy scientific categorization. Perky Ponyo (voiced by Yuria Nara), a fish with a little face and red dress, lives beneath the sea with her red-haired, ecologically anxious father and hundreds of much tinier, red-dressed sisters. Curious about the surface world, she hitches a ride atop one of many floating jellyfish (using a smaller, more diaphanous jellyfish as a windshield dome).
Swept up by a dredging net, along with the detritus of civilization (everything from bathtubs to oil sludge), Ponyo is rescued by 5-year-old Sosuke (Hiroki Doi), who resides on a cliff above the ocean and promises to protect her always.
Eventually, Ponyo’s sorcerer father manages to recapture his wayward offspring. But Ponyo, both a willful child and an ungovernable force of nature, soon escapes again, in the process upsetting the Earth’s ecological balance.
Accidently unleashing her father’s magic elixir, Ponyo triggers a tour de force orchestration of swirling elements that transform her wee helpful little sisters into huge fish that overrun the sea in a vast tsunami. Ponyo triumphantly rises atop the mounting waves to near-Wagnerian strains, oblivious to the total devastation she has wrought.
If Sosuke serves as the template for the perfect child (with his boat-captain father often away and his dashingly imagined daredevil mother given to impulse, he assumes responsibility for everyone), Ponyo is definitely a handful. Miyazaki has crafted no demure little mermaid, and no soft dissolves accompany her awkward transitions to human form: The legs she first sprouts are chicken-like appendages, and her occasional headlong dives involve swift regressions to amoeba-like formlessness.
Miyazaki has inadvertently dished up yet another challenge to the universe of hand-drawn toons: Even more so than his previous outings, the film confounds traditional notions of anthropomorphism, dwelling especially on the transformative properties of water.
Far more upbeat than much of Miyazaki’s oeuvre, limned in bright pastel colors where even destruction is golden, "Ponyo" possesses an almost demonic childish energy and a delight in form stronger than reason or narrative. Even Armageddon, as loosed by Ponyo and imagined by Miyazaki, is a wondrous place where half-armored prehistoric fish glide alongside their more evolved cousins, submerged trees form mysterious swamplands and a "ship graveyard" of foundering vessels appears in the distance, like a fairyland of lights stretched out upon the water.
(Color); editor, Takeshi Seyama; music, Joe Hisaishi; animation supervisor, Katsuya Kondo; background, Noboro Yoshida; color designer, Michiyo Yasuda; digital imaging, Atsushi Okui; sound, Shuji Inoue. Reviewed at Venice Film Festival (competing), Aug. 30, 2008. Running time: 101 MIN.
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
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Precious Doll
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No point starting a thread for each film, particularly when reviews are as lukewarm as these:
The Burning Plan from Variety
A 2929 Prods. presentation, in association with Costa Films, of a Parkes/MacDonald production. (International sales: 2929 Intl., Los Angeles.) Produced by Walter Parkes, Laurie MacDonald. Executive producers, Todd Wagner, Mark Cuban, Marc Butan, Charlize Theron, Alisa Tager, Ray Angelic. Co-producers, Beth Kono, Eduardo Costantini Jr., Mike Upton.
Sylvia - Charlize Theron
Gina - Kim Basinger
Nick Martinez - Joaquim de Almeida
John - John Corbett
Laura - Robin Tunney
Robert - Brett Cullen
Santiago Martinez - Danny Pino
Carlos - Jose Maria Yazpik
Mariana - Jennifer Lawrence
Young Santiago - J.D. Pardo
Maria - Tessa Ia
Ana - Rachel Ticotin
By DEREK ELLEY
Many of the weaknesses and few of the strengths of Guillermo Arriaga as a scripter are evident in his directing debut, "The Burning Plain." Multicharacter head-scratcher, yo-yoing between New Mexico and Oregon, and back and forth in time, doesn't finally reveal much beneath the emperor's clothes to repay viewers' concentration during the first half. Despite an OK-to-good cast led by Charlize Theron and Kim Basinger, plus a handsome tech package, this remains an elaborate writing exercise with few emotional hooks. Upscale auds, drawn by Arriaga's name, may be curious.
Sometimes, with the right direction, Arriaga's spaghetti structures can work just fine ("The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada"); at other times, notably in his trilogy with fellow Mexican Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu ("Amores perros," "21 Grams," "Babel"), the results can be hit-or-miss. There's nothing endemically wrong with the script of "The Burning Plain" that less literal helming couldn't have layered with some genuine feeling.
First 45 minutes toy with the viewer as various storylines are set up. A trailer explodes in the New Mexico desert, and two lovers are toast: Mexican-American Nick Martinez (Portuguese vet Joaquim de Almeida) and Gina (Basinger), a white mother of four. To make matters worse, Nick's teen son, Santiago (J.D. Pardo), catches the eye of Gina's eldest daughter, Mariana (Jennifer Lawrence), at his dad's funeral, where Gina's husband, Robert (Brett Cullen), has come to berate the family for his wife's death.
By this time, film has already been busily cross-cutting with a seemingly unconnected story, where the elegant but uptight Sylvia (Theron) runs a swish eatery on a wave-bruised cliffhead near Portland, Ore. We know she has a secret to hide because she smokes, has businesslike sex with various men and is being followed around by a mysterious man named Carlos (Jose Maria Yazpik). In one of pic's least convincing scenes, she automatically tries to seduce him as well.
Back in New Mexico, the grown Santiago (Danny Pino), now with a 12-year-old daughter, Maria (Tessa Ia), is working as a crop duster with his pal, the selfsame Carlos; Gina and Nick, sneaking away for covert liaisons, have aroused the suspicions of their teenage kids; and young Santiago and Mariana are embarking on a relationship that could have major repercussions for everyone. Huh?
Despite the almost complete absence of visual signposts, it's clear after a reel or so that the picture is constructed on two completely separate time levels, a generation apart. (Craig Wood's editing is as smooth in this respect as is possible.)
The connection between the Oregon and New Mexico strands is clarified not so much by a Big Reveal but through a final confirmation, at the 80-minute mark, of small clues planted earlier. This works fine dramatically, except the movie drags on for another 15 minutes as various characters laboriously find closure on their guilt.
The audience is required to invest so much time in sorting out the early part of the picture -- and to keep pace with Arriaga's cleverness -- that when, at the midway point, there's breathing space to become engaged with the characters, the awful truth dawns that there's little to become engaged with.
Arriaga moves his protags around at the convenience of the screenplay rather than their own, and their emotional lives and dialogue are of a very cliche nature. One exception is the Santiago-Mariana strand – which, largely due to an eye-catching performance by 17-year-old Lawrence, plumbs fresher depths, marbled with perversity, than most of the adults' stories. But the screenplay still doesn't make out a convincing case for her later actions.
Performances are as good as the script allows. Theron (also one of 11 producers) looks elegant and withdrawn without bringing much real emotion to the table; Basinger is only slightly better as an average mom looking for something beyond family life. Adult male roles are largely cutouts, apart from Yazpik's gentle Carlos.
Shooting around Las Cruces, N.M., veteran d.p. Robert Elswit creates striking, sun-blasted vistas of sorghum fields, deserts and mountains, while fellow lenser John Toll's wintry Portland segs provide welcome relief with grays, blacks and blues.
Directed, written by Guillermo Arriaga. Camera (color), Robert Elswit; additional camera, John Toll; editor, Craig Wood; music, Omar Rodriguez Lopez, Hans Zimmer; music supervisors, Dana Sano, Annette Fradera; production designer, Dan Leigh; art director, Naython Vane; costume designer, Cindy Evans; sound (Dolby Digital/DTS Digital/SDDS), Lori Dovi, Jon Taylor, Christian P. Minkler; sound designers, Scott Wolf, Karen Vassar; assistant director, Phil Hardage; casting, Debra Zane. Reviewed at Venice Film Festival (competing), Aug. 29, 2008. (Also in Toronto Film Festival -- Special Presentations.) Running time: 106 MIN.
(English, Spanish dialogue)
Burn After Reading
A Focus Features release, presented in association with StudioCanal and Relativity Media, of a Working Title production. Produced by Joel Coen, Ethan Coen. Executive producers, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Robert Graf. Directed, written by Joel Coen, Ethan Coen.
Harry Pfarrer - George Clooney
Linda Litzke - Frances McDormand
Osborne Cox - John Malkovich
Katie Cox - Tilda Swinton
Chad Feldheimer - Brad Pitt
Ted - Richard Jenkins
Sandy Pfarrer - Elizabeth Marvel
CIA Officer - David Rasche
CIA Superior - JK Simmons
Cosmetic Surgeon - Jeffrey DeMunn
By TODD MCCARTHY
After their triumphant dramatic success with “No Country for Old Men,” the Coen brothers revert to sophomoric snarky mode in “Burn After Reading.” A dark goofball comedy about assorted doofuses in Washington, D.C., only some of whom work for the government, the short, snappy picture tries to mate sex farce with a satire of a paranoid political thriller, with arch and ungainly results. Major star names might stoke some mild B.O. heat with older upscale viewers upon U.S. release Sept. 12, but no one should expect this reunion of George Clooney and Brad Pitt to remotely resemble an “Ocean’s” film commercially.
A seriously talented cast has been asked to act like cartoon characters in this tale of desperation, mutual suspicion and vigorous musical beds, all in the name of laughs that only sporadically ensue. Everything here, from the thesps’ heavy mugging to the uncustomarily overbearing score by Carter Burwell and the artificially augmented vulgarities in the dialogue, has been dialed up to an almost grotesquely exaggerated extent, making for a film that feels misjudged from the opening scene and thereafter only occasionally hits the right note.
Ironically, said curtain-raiser shows the CIA actually getting something right. Career analyst Osborne Cox (John Malkovich) is shoved out, and his subsequent obscene tantrum demonstrates he has all the decorum and self-control of a 5-year-old. Lying to his wife, Katie (Tilda Swinton), that he quit, Osborne sets about writing an explosive memoir, while no-nonsense Katie now seriously begins considering leaving her unhinged husband for her happy-go-lucky lover Harry (Clooney), a federal marshal none too committed to wife Sandy (Elizabeth Marvel).
In an utterly unrelated orbit of D.C. life, desperately middle-aged Linda (Frances McDormand) is pissed that the insurance company for the fitness center where she works won’t cover the extensive plastic surgery she urgently wants done. So antic and frantic you wonder if anesthesia would ever work on her, she suddenly steps into merde with gym trainer Chad (Pitt), who’s even more hyperactive than she is, when the latter finds a disc they think is loaded with ultra-classified information.
With frosted blond hair, and appearing so dense he may as well have his low-double-digit IQ pasted to his forehead, Pitt’s Chad is what passes for a riot here. Film’s funniest scene may be that in which Chad, having traced the disc to Osborne, phones the latter in the middle of the night to initiate the blackmail scheme that will net Linda the coin she needs to transform her bod. Pitt slices the ham very thick indeed, but uniquely emerges as endearing in doing so.
Coincidentally, Internet dater Linda starts shagging Harry, who, amusingly, likes to go for long runs after sex, and just past the one-hour mark, one major character gets blown away in an accident, a development that’s supposed to be funny as well as startling.
The Coens’ script, which feels immature but was evidently written around the same time as that for “No Country,” is just too fundamentally silly, without the grounding of a serious substructure that would make the sudden turn to violence catch the viewer up short. Nothing about the project’s execution inspires the feeling that this was ever intended as anything more than a lark, which would be fine if it were a good one. As it is, audience teeth-grinding sets in early and never lets up.
Incidental niceties crop up, to be sure. The Coens’ economy of storytelling is in evidence, as is their unerring visual sense, this time in league with cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki; a low-angle shot of Harry, knife in hand, lingers especially. The date montages are cute, and the facial reactions of JK Simmons, playing a CIA boss more dedicated to avoiding fuss and bother than to getting to the bottom of things, are once again priceless. But on any more substantive level, “Burn After Reading” is a flame-out.
Camera (Deluxe color), Emmanuel Lubezki; editor, Roderick Jaynes; music, Carter Burwell; production designer, Jess Gonchor; art director, David Swayze; set decorator, Nancy Haigh; costume designer, Mary Zophres; sound (Dolby Digital/SDDS/DTS), Peter Kurland; supervising sound editor, Skip Lievsay; re-recording mixers, Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff; associate producer, David Diliberto; assistant director, Elizabeth Magruder; casting, Ellen Chenoweth. Reviewed at Aidikoff screening room, Beverly Hills, Aug. 26, 2008. (In Venice Film Festival -- opener; Toronto Film Festival -- Gala Premieres; San Sebastian Film Festival -- Zabaltegi-Pearls.) MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 95 MIN.
The Burning Plan from Variety
A 2929 Prods. presentation, in association with Costa Films, of a Parkes/MacDonald production. (International sales: 2929 Intl., Los Angeles.) Produced by Walter Parkes, Laurie MacDonald. Executive producers, Todd Wagner, Mark Cuban, Marc Butan, Charlize Theron, Alisa Tager, Ray Angelic. Co-producers, Beth Kono, Eduardo Costantini Jr., Mike Upton.
Sylvia - Charlize Theron
Gina - Kim Basinger
Nick Martinez - Joaquim de Almeida
John - John Corbett
Laura - Robin Tunney
Robert - Brett Cullen
Santiago Martinez - Danny Pino
Carlos - Jose Maria Yazpik
Mariana - Jennifer Lawrence
Young Santiago - J.D. Pardo
Maria - Tessa Ia
Ana - Rachel Ticotin
By DEREK ELLEY
Many of the weaknesses and few of the strengths of Guillermo Arriaga as a scripter are evident in his directing debut, "The Burning Plain." Multicharacter head-scratcher, yo-yoing between New Mexico and Oregon, and back and forth in time, doesn't finally reveal much beneath the emperor's clothes to repay viewers' concentration during the first half. Despite an OK-to-good cast led by Charlize Theron and Kim Basinger, plus a handsome tech package, this remains an elaborate writing exercise with few emotional hooks. Upscale auds, drawn by Arriaga's name, may be curious.
Sometimes, with the right direction, Arriaga's spaghetti structures can work just fine ("The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada"); at other times, notably in his trilogy with fellow Mexican Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu ("Amores perros," "21 Grams," "Babel"), the results can be hit-or-miss. There's nothing endemically wrong with the script of "The Burning Plain" that less literal helming couldn't have layered with some genuine feeling.
First 45 minutes toy with the viewer as various storylines are set up. A trailer explodes in the New Mexico desert, and two lovers are toast: Mexican-American Nick Martinez (Portuguese vet Joaquim de Almeida) and Gina (Basinger), a white mother of four. To make matters worse, Nick's teen son, Santiago (J.D. Pardo), catches the eye of Gina's eldest daughter, Mariana (Jennifer Lawrence), at his dad's funeral, where Gina's husband, Robert (Brett Cullen), has come to berate the family for his wife's death.
By this time, film has already been busily cross-cutting with a seemingly unconnected story, where the elegant but uptight Sylvia (Theron) runs a swish eatery on a wave-bruised cliffhead near Portland, Ore. We know she has a secret to hide because she smokes, has businesslike sex with various men and is being followed around by a mysterious man named Carlos (Jose Maria Yazpik). In one of pic's least convincing scenes, she automatically tries to seduce him as well.
Back in New Mexico, the grown Santiago (Danny Pino), now with a 12-year-old daughter, Maria (Tessa Ia), is working as a crop duster with his pal, the selfsame Carlos; Gina and Nick, sneaking away for covert liaisons, have aroused the suspicions of their teenage kids; and young Santiago and Mariana are embarking on a relationship that could have major repercussions for everyone. Huh?
Despite the almost complete absence of visual signposts, it's clear after a reel or so that the picture is constructed on two completely separate time levels, a generation apart. (Craig Wood's editing is as smooth in this respect as is possible.)
The connection between the Oregon and New Mexico strands is clarified not so much by a Big Reveal but through a final confirmation, at the 80-minute mark, of small clues planted earlier. This works fine dramatically, except the movie drags on for another 15 minutes as various characters laboriously find closure on their guilt.
The audience is required to invest so much time in sorting out the early part of the picture -- and to keep pace with Arriaga's cleverness -- that when, at the midway point, there's breathing space to become engaged with the characters, the awful truth dawns that there's little to become engaged with.
Arriaga moves his protags around at the convenience of the screenplay rather than their own, and their emotional lives and dialogue are of a very cliche nature. One exception is the Santiago-Mariana strand – which, largely due to an eye-catching performance by 17-year-old Lawrence, plumbs fresher depths, marbled with perversity, than most of the adults' stories. But the screenplay still doesn't make out a convincing case for her later actions.
Performances are as good as the script allows. Theron (also one of 11 producers) looks elegant and withdrawn without bringing much real emotion to the table; Basinger is only slightly better as an average mom looking for something beyond family life. Adult male roles are largely cutouts, apart from Yazpik's gentle Carlos.
Shooting around Las Cruces, N.M., veteran d.p. Robert Elswit creates striking, sun-blasted vistas of sorghum fields, deserts and mountains, while fellow lenser John Toll's wintry Portland segs provide welcome relief with grays, blacks and blues.
Directed, written by Guillermo Arriaga. Camera (color), Robert Elswit; additional camera, John Toll; editor, Craig Wood; music, Omar Rodriguez Lopez, Hans Zimmer; music supervisors, Dana Sano, Annette Fradera; production designer, Dan Leigh; art director, Naython Vane; costume designer, Cindy Evans; sound (Dolby Digital/DTS Digital/SDDS), Lori Dovi, Jon Taylor, Christian P. Minkler; sound designers, Scott Wolf, Karen Vassar; assistant director, Phil Hardage; casting, Debra Zane. Reviewed at Venice Film Festival (competing), Aug. 29, 2008. (Also in Toronto Film Festival -- Special Presentations.) Running time: 106 MIN.
(English, Spanish dialogue)
Burn After Reading
A Focus Features release, presented in association with StudioCanal and Relativity Media, of a Working Title production. Produced by Joel Coen, Ethan Coen. Executive producers, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Robert Graf. Directed, written by Joel Coen, Ethan Coen.
Harry Pfarrer - George Clooney
Linda Litzke - Frances McDormand
Osborne Cox - John Malkovich
Katie Cox - Tilda Swinton
Chad Feldheimer - Brad Pitt
Ted - Richard Jenkins
Sandy Pfarrer - Elizabeth Marvel
CIA Officer - David Rasche
CIA Superior - JK Simmons
Cosmetic Surgeon - Jeffrey DeMunn
By TODD MCCARTHY
After their triumphant dramatic success with “No Country for Old Men,” the Coen brothers revert to sophomoric snarky mode in “Burn After Reading.” A dark goofball comedy about assorted doofuses in Washington, D.C., only some of whom work for the government, the short, snappy picture tries to mate sex farce with a satire of a paranoid political thriller, with arch and ungainly results. Major star names might stoke some mild B.O. heat with older upscale viewers upon U.S. release Sept. 12, but no one should expect this reunion of George Clooney and Brad Pitt to remotely resemble an “Ocean’s” film commercially.
A seriously talented cast has been asked to act like cartoon characters in this tale of desperation, mutual suspicion and vigorous musical beds, all in the name of laughs that only sporadically ensue. Everything here, from the thesps’ heavy mugging to the uncustomarily overbearing score by Carter Burwell and the artificially augmented vulgarities in the dialogue, has been dialed up to an almost grotesquely exaggerated extent, making for a film that feels misjudged from the opening scene and thereafter only occasionally hits the right note.
Ironically, said curtain-raiser shows the CIA actually getting something right. Career analyst Osborne Cox (John Malkovich) is shoved out, and his subsequent obscene tantrum demonstrates he has all the decorum and self-control of a 5-year-old. Lying to his wife, Katie (Tilda Swinton), that he quit, Osborne sets about writing an explosive memoir, while no-nonsense Katie now seriously begins considering leaving her unhinged husband for her happy-go-lucky lover Harry (Clooney), a federal marshal none too committed to wife Sandy (Elizabeth Marvel).
In an utterly unrelated orbit of D.C. life, desperately middle-aged Linda (Frances McDormand) is pissed that the insurance company for the fitness center where she works won’t cover the extensive plastic surgery she urgently wants done. So antic and frantic you wonder if anesthesia would ever work on her, she suddenly steps into merde with gym trainer Chad (Pitt), who’s even more hyperactive than she is, when the latter finds a disc they think is loaded with ultra-classified information.
With frosted blond hair, and appearing so dense he may as well have his low-double-digit IQ pasted to his forehead, Pitt’s Chad is what passes for a riot here. Film’s funniest scene may be that in which Chad, having traced the disc to Osborne, phones the latter in the middle of the night to initiate the blackmail scheme that will net Linda the coin she needs to transform her bod. Pitt slices the ham very thick indeed, but uniquely emerges as endearing in doing so.
Coincidentally, Internet dater Linda starts shagging Harry, who, amusingly, likes to go for long runs after sex, and just past the one-hour mark, one major character gets blown away in an accident, a development that’s supposed to be funny as well as startling.
The Coens’ script, which feels immature but was evidently written around the same time as that for “No Country,” is just too fundamentally silly, without the grounding of a serious substructure that would make the sudden turn to violence catch the viewer up short. Nothing about the project’s execution inspires the feeling that this was ever intended as anything more than a lark, which would be fine if it were a good one. As it is, audience teeth-grinding sets in early and never lets up.
Incidental niceties crop up, to be sure. The Coens’ economy of storytelling is in evidence, as is their unerring visual sense, this time in league with cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki; a low-angle shot of Harry, knife in hand, lingers especially. The date montages are cute, and the facial reactions of JK Simmons, playing a CIA boss more dedicated to avoiding fuss and bother than to getting to the bottom of things, are once again priceless. But on any more substantive level, “Burn After Reading” is a flame-out.
Camera (Deluxe color), Emmanuel Lubezki; editor, Roderick Jaynes; music, Carter Burwell; production designer, Jess Gonchor; art director, David Swayze; set decorator, Nancy Haigh; costume designer, Mary Zophres; sound (Dolby Digital/SDDS/DTS), Peter Kurland; supervising sound editor, Skip Lievsay; re-recording mixers, Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff; associate producer, David Diliberto; assistant director, Elizabeth Magruder; casting, Ellen Chenoweth. Reviewed at Aidikoff screening room, Beverly Hills, Aug. 26, 2008. (In Venice Film Festival -- opener; Toronto Film Festival -- Gala Premieres; San Sebastian Film Festival -- Zabaltegi-Pearls.) MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 95 MIN.
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
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Cinemanolis
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Mister Tee
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Venice Film Festival Line-Up:
In Competition
The Wrestler, dir. Darren Aronofsky (US)
The Burning Plain, dir. Guillermo Arriaga (US)
Il papa di Giovanna, dir. Pupi Avati (Italy)
BirdWatchers, dir. Marco Bechis (Italy)
L’Autre, dirs. Patrick Mario Bernard & Pierre Trividic (France)
The Hurt Locker, dir. Kathryn Bigelow (US)
Il seme della discordia, dir. Pappi Corsicato (Italy)
Rachel Getting Married, dir. Jonathan Demme (US)
Teza, dir. Haile Gerima (Ethiopia/Germany/France)
Paper Soldier (Bumaznyj Soldat), dir. Aleksey German Jr (Russia)
Sut, dir. Semih Kaplanoglu (Turkey/France/Germany)
Achilles And The Tortoise (Akires to kame), dir. Takeshi Kitano (Japan)
Ponyo On The Cliff By The Sea (Gake no ue no Ponyo), dir. Hayao Miyazaki (Japan)
Vegas: Based On A True Story, dir. Amir Naderi (US)
The Sky Crawlers, dir. Oshii Mamoru (Japan)
Un giorno perfetto, dir. Ferzan Ozpetek (Italy)
Jerichow, dir. Christian Petzold (Germany)
Inju, la Bete dans l’Ombre, dir. Barbet Schroeder (France)
Nuit de chien, dir. Werner Schroeter (France/Germany/Portugal)
Inland (Gabbla), dir. Tariq Teguia (Algeria/France)
Plastic City (Dangkou), dir. Yu Lik-wai (Brasil/China/Hong Kong/Japan)
Out Of Competition
Puccini e la fanciulla, dir. Paolo Benvenuti (Italy)
Yuppi Du, dir. Adriano Celantano (Italy)
Burn After Reading, dirs. Joel & Ethan Coen (US) [opening film]
35 Rhums, dir. Claire Denis (France/Spain)
Cry Me A River (Heshang aiqing), dir. Jia Zhangke (China/Spain/France) [short]
Shirin, dir. Abbas Kiarostami (Iran)
Tutto e musica (1963), dir. Domenico Modugno (Italy)
Vicino al Colosseo…c’e Monti, dir. Mario Monicelli (Italy) [short]
Do Visivel ao Invisivel, dir. Manoel de Oliveira (Brasil/Portugal) [short]
Orfeo 9 (1973), dir. Tito Schipa Jr (Italy)
Les Plages d’Agnes, dir. Agnes Varda (France)
Vinyan, dir. Fabrice du Welz (France/UK/Belgium)
Encarnacao do demonio, dir. Jose Mojica Marins (Brazil)
Volare (Nel blu dipinto di blu) (1959), dir. Piero Tellini (Italy)
Out Of Competition, Special Events
Bajo el Signo de las Sombras (1984), dir. Ferran Alberich (Spain)
Vida en Sombras (1947), dir. Lorenzo Llbobet Gracia (Spain)
Ketto Takadanobaba (1937), dirs. Masahiro Makino & Hiroshi Inagaki (Japan)
La rabbia (1963), dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini (Italy) [previously unreleased version]
In collaboration with Far East Film Festival of Udine
Monster X Strikes Back: Attack The G8 Summit! (Girara no gyakushu / Samitto kiki ippatsu), dir. Minoru Kawasaki (Japan)
Queens Of Langkasuka, dir Nonzee Nimibutr (Thailand)
Horizons
Goodbye Solo, dir. Ramin Bahrani (US)
A Erva do Rato, dirs. Julio Bressane & Rosa Dias (Brazil)
Parc, dir. Arnaud Des Pallieres (France)
Melancholia, dir. Lav Diaz (Phillipines)
Un lac, dir. Philippe Grandrieux (France)
Wild Field (Dikoe Pole), dir. Mikhail Kalatozishvili (Russia)
Il primo giorno d’inverno, dir. Mirko Locatelli (Italy)
Voy a explotar, dir. Gerardo Naranjo (Mexico)
Jay, dir. Francis Xavier Pasion (Philippines)
Pa-ra-da, dir. Marco Pontecorvo (Italy/France/Romania)
Zero Bridge, dir. Tariq Tapa (India/US)
Puisque nous sommes nes, dirs. Jean-Pierre Duret & Andrea Santana (France/Brazil) [documentary]
Women, dir. Huang Wenhai (China/Switzerland) [documentary]
In Paraguay, dir. Ross McElwee (US) [documentary]
Z32, dir. Avi Mograbi (Israel/France) [documentary]
Below Sea Level, dir. Gianfranco Rosi (Italy/US) [documentary]
Los Herederos, dir. Eugenio Polgovsky (Mexico) [documentary]
L’Exil et le royaume, dirs. Andrei Schtakleff & Jonathan Le Fourn (France) [documentary]
*two further Horizons titles will be announced later
Events Horizons [all documentaries]
Verso Est, dir. Laura Angiulli (Italy/Bosnia/Herzegovina)
ThyssenKrupp Blues, dirs. Pietro Balla & Monica Repetto (Italy)
La fabbrica dei tedeschi, dir. Mimmo Calopresti (Italy)
Soltanto un nome nei titoli di testa, dir. Daniele Di Biaso (Italy)
Antonioni su Antonioni, dir. Carlo Di Carlo (Italy)
Venezia ‘68, dir. Antonello Sarno (Italy)
Valentino: The Last Emperor, dir. Matt Tyrnauer (US)
In Competition
The Wrestler, dir. Darren Aronofsky (US)
The Burning Plain, dir. Guillermo Arriaga (US)
Il papa di Giovanna, dir. Pupi Avati (Italy)
BirdWatchers, dir. Marco Bechis (Italy)
L’Autre, dirs. Patrick Mario Bernard & Pierre Trividic (France)
The Hurt Locker, dir. Kathryn Bigelow (US)
Il seme della discordia, dir. Pappi Corsicato (Italy)
Rachel Getting Married, dir. Jonathan Demme (US)
Teza, dir. Haile Gerima (Ethiopia/Germany/France)
Paper Soldier (Bumaznyj Soldat), dir. Aleksey German Jr (Russia)
Sut, dir. Semih Kaplanoglu (Turkey/France/Germany)
Achilles And The Tortoise (Akires to kame), dir. Takeshi Kitano (Japan)
Ponyo On The Cliff By The Sea (Gake no ue no Ponyo), dir. Hayao Miyazaki (Japan)
Vegas: Based On A True Story, dir. Amir Naderi (US)
The Sky Crawlers, dir. Oshii Mamoru (Japan)
Un giorno perfetto, dir. Ferzan Ozpetek (Italy)
Jerichow, dir. Christian Petzold (Germany)
Inju, la Bete dans l’Ombre, dir. Barbet Schroeder (France)
Nuit de chien, dir. Werner Schroeter (France/Germany/Portugal)
Inland (Gabbla), dir. Tariq Teguia (Algeria/France)
Plastic City (Dangkou), dir. Yu Lik-wai (Brasil/China/Hong Kong/Japan)
Out Of Competition
Puccini e la fanciulla, dir. Paolo Benvenuti (Italy)
Yuppi Du, dir. Adriano Celantano (Italy)
Burn After Reading, dirs. Joel & Ethan Coen (US) [opening film]
35 Rhums, dir. Claire Denis (France/Spain)
Cry Me A River (Heshang aiqing), dir. Jia Zhangke (China/Spain/France) [short]
Shirin, dir. Abbas Kiarostami (Iran)
Tutto e musica (1963), dir. Domenico Modugno (Italy)
Vicino al Colosseo…c’e Monti, dir. Mario Monicelli (Italy) [short]
Do Visivel ao Invisivel, dir. Manoel de Oliveira (Brasil/Portugal) [short]
Orfeo 9 (1973), dir. Tito Schipa Jr (Italy)
Les Plages d’Agnes, dir. Agnes Varda (France)
Vinyan, dir. Fabrice du Welz (France/UK/Belgium)
Encarnacao do demonio, dir. Jose Mojica Marins (Brazil)
Volare (Nel blu dipinto di blu) (1959), dir. Piero Tellini (Italy)
Out Of Competition, Special Events
Bajo el Signo de las Sombras (1984), dir. Ferran Alberich (Spain)
Vida en Sombras (1947), dir. Lorenzo Llbobet Gracia (Spain)
Ketto Takadanobaba (1937), dirs. Masahiro Makino & Hiroshi Inagaki (Japan)
La rabbia (1963), dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini (Italy) [previously unreleased version]
In collaboration with Far East Film Festival of Udine
Monster X Strikes Back: Attack The G8 Summit! (Girara no gyakushu / Samitto kiki ippatsu), dir. Minoru Kawasaki (Japan)
Queens Of Langkasuka, dir Nonzee Nimibutr (Thailand)
Horizons
Goodbye Solo, dir. Ramin Bahrani (US)
A Erva do Rato, dirs. Julio Bressane & Rosa Dias (Brazil)
Parc, dir. Arnaud Des Pallieres (France)
Melancholia, dir. Lav Diaz (Phillipines)
Un lac, dir. Philippe Grandrieux (France)
Wild Field (Dikoe Pole), dir. Mikhail Kalatozishvili (Russia)
Il primo giorno d’inverno, dir. Mirko Locatelli (Italy)
Voy a explotar, dir. Gerardo Naranjo (Mexico)
Jay, dir. Francis Xavier Pasion (Philippines)
Pa-ra-da, dir. Marco Pontecorvo (Italy/France/Romania)
Zero Bridge, dir. Tariq Tapa (India/US)
Puisque nous sommes nes, dirs. Jean-Pierre Duret & Andrea Santana (France/Brazil) [documentary]
Women, dir. Huang Wenhai (China/Switzerland) [documentary]
In Paraguay, dir. Ross McElwee (US) [documentary]
Z32, dir. Avi Mograbi (Israel/France) [documentary]
Below Sea Level, dir. Gianfranco Rosi (Italy/US) [documentary]
Los Herederos, dir. Eugenio Polgovsky (Mexico) [documentary]
L’Exil et le royaume, dirs. Andrei Schtakleff & Jonathan Le Fourn (France) [documentary]
*two further Horizons titles will be announced later
Events Horizons [all documentaries]
Verso Est, dir. Laura Angiulli (Italy/Bosnia/Herzegovina)
ThyssenKrupp Blues, dirs. Pietro Balla & Monica Repetto (Italy)
La fabbrica dei tedeschi, dir. Mimmo Calopresti (Italy)
Soltanto un nome nei titoli di testa, dir. Daniele Di Biaso (Italy)
Antonioni su Antonioni, dir. Carlo Di Carlo (Italy)
Venezia ‘68, dir. Antonello Sarno (Italy)
Valentino: The Last Emperor, dir. Matt Tyrnauer (US)