Wednesday 22 December 2010

Jean Rollin

Filmmaker
(1938 – 2010)

Behind the scenes on Le frisson des vampires, 1971:

The French film director Jean Rollin, who passed-away on December 15th at the age of 72, was more than just a director of "erotic vampire-fiction"; to many, he was one of most remarkable image-makers in the history of film. Though the titles of his work - with their allusions to violence, fear, death and sexuality - might suggest images of a kind of sleazy, excessive 'grindhouse' cinema, as typified by a film like The Last House on the Left (1972), the general tone of Rollin's work was often far more contemplative, elegiac and surreal. His work - explorations of the fantastique, if anything - present the viewer with a unique, hermetic, fully realised universe, full of codes and symbols that appear and reappear, as if every film offers the spectator a new piece of a vast and never-ending puzzle.

This notion of a grand, unravelling mystery, linked by characters, themes and locations, was of course one of the most interesting facets of Rollin's work; a sense of each film becoming a continuation of a reoccurring dream that the audience can only attempt to grasp or comprehend, but that lingers long in the mind of a collective audience through the sheer, imaginative, transportive power of the pictures on-screen.

Rollin's films are defined by frame after frame of these extraordinary compositions; where each shot, each framed moment or movement manages to conjure the spirit of something powerful enough to reach beyond the mere conventions of narrative or plot; where the images suggest a story, and the reappearance of certain objects or actors or narrative facilitators create a traceable line that runs back-and-forth throughout the director's career.

In Rollin's work, the countryside, the city, the beach, châteaux, cemeteries and the psychiatric hospital hold clues to this endless conundrum; the greater story that exists and develops from one picture to the next. His characters, often gorgeous young women who stumble, Alice-like, into these picturesque, sometimes gothic, sometimes exotic landscapes full of magic and mystery, encounter strange rituals, acts, ceremonies and occurrences that, on some very basic level, work as metaphorical presentations of the art of 'the fantastique'

Here we can see the similarities to other filmmakers of Rollin's generation, who dabbled with the near-supernatural forces of this ancient form of storytelling, albeit, without ever fully surrendering to it. Like the work of Jacques Rivette for example, there is the shared sense of the city as an infernal labyrinth; an endless maze of inter-connected backstreets and alleyways that lead his characters between mysteries and events. His 'vampires', named as much in reference to Feuillade as to Bram Stoker, are enigmatic, decadent and often withdrawn. Like the films of Alain Robbe-Grillet, Rollin's work is full of erotic displays, fantasies, dreams and desires, but is also intelligent, creative, poetic and unique.

The image of the beach, consistent throughout Rollin's career, has been the location for some of his most extraordinary moments. From the youthful explorations of Les amours jaunes (1958) to the evocative visions of his masterpiece The Iron Rose (La Rose de Fer, 1972), this beach, recognisable to anyone who has seen more than one of the director's incredible films, presents an ideal; a vision of somewhere beyond the here and now, or representative even of some emotional or psychological state.

If the form of his work seems, from the surface at least, to be nothing more than pure exploitation, the power of his images, the command of his stories and the experiences of these particular characters nonetheless define Jean Rollin, not just as a legitimate auteur, but as one of the most fascinating French filmmakers of his generation. Even his pornographic movies, produced under a variety of obvious pseudonyms and often made for purely financial reasons, are filled with his usual arcane symbols, masks, role-playing games, and an eye for the unconventional.

The recurring scenarios, of escapees, corruptible innocents and seductive forces weave in and out of these stories, creating a system of figurative strings that lead the audience from his earliest short-features, right the way through to his most recent picture. In this sense, Rollin's cinema is every bit as individual, personal and identifiable as that of Godard's or Garrel's. In these films, Jean Rollin transformed the lurid or the sordid into something beyond words; an elegy for something; innocence perhaps, or a certain kind of dream-state that can only be presented through the smoke and mirrors magic-act of the cinema itself.


All images taken from Jeremy Richey's superior Rollin resource Fascination: The Jean Rollin Experience:

Monday 13 December 2010

The Horse Soldiers

The Horse Soldiers directed by John Ford, 1959:

Any analysis of the work should probably begin with an image that succinctly establishes what the film is primarily about. On this occasion, it is an image of eight men in cavalry uniform devising plans around a table. The two leads are set-apart from their associates by subtle differences in costume: John Wayne's Colonel John Marlowe with his red neckerchief; William Holden's Major Henry Kendall in his clean, white coat. Already, Ford and his costume designer Frank Beetson are establishing these characters through their identifiable professions; Marlowe, a man of combat, Kendall, a man of medicine. The two characters are positioned on opposite sides of the table; one seated, one standing; one with hat, one without. Although these men are essentially on the same side, fighting for the same cause, their position from one another within the frame suggests their obvious differences in both ideology and approach.

From this single screen-capture and the information that it conveys we are being informed, subtly, that this is a film about conflict.

Although essentially a War Film in the Hollywood tradition, the conflict in The Horse Soldiers (1959) is not exclusive to the Civil War backdrop that is seen throughout. Rather, it is in the relationship between these two characters - where one personifies the old and the other personifies the new - and in their dalliances with the beautiful landowner Miss Hannah Hunter of Greenbriar (Constance Towers). Like the majority of Ford's films, specifically his westerns, it is in this conflict between the old and the new that the narrative is fully developed; defining not only the dramatic motivations of the script by John Lee Mahin and Martin Rackin - or even the historical re-enactments of Harold Sinclair's original novel - but in a way, every thought and decision that these characters make and the effect that these decisions have on this world, as it is presented.

The Horse Soldiers is, to a large extent, about a changing world as illustrated by its emphasis on the cross-country journey and how the landscape becomes a signifier to the unspoken emotional connotations apparent in the plot. These themes are central to several of Ford's earlier films, such as the towering masterpiece The Grapes of Wrath (1940), in which the family of characters travel from town to town, city to city; effectively looking for work, but only finding the wounded heart and soul of a country beaten by depression. In that film, the projections of ghost-towns or the wounded, sunken faces of what essentially could be described as the living dead, flicker, apparition-like, on the windscreen of the Joad family wagon, convey the literal desperation and depression of these people looking for a world that no longer exists.


The Grapes of Wrath directed by John Ford, 1940:

Likewise, the nostalgic reminisces of How Green Was my Valley (1941) and The Quiet Man (1952) show worlds that exist in the memory of their respective narrators brought into violent conflict with the actual, tangible reality of these places and the inevitability of time. There, as well as here, the intentional, bold-strokes of iconography, from the waving of the Confederate flag to the casting of Wayne himself, seem deliberate attempts to express, in the most direct and appropriate way, the vaguest remnants of historical context and the actual machinations of this world, put on screen, vividly by Ford, in a full-colour, 1.66:1 presentation, to make the best of those seemingly never-ending shots of extras - each dressed in authentic cavalry uniform - cutting a path between the two distinct halves of the horizon, or, more literally in fact, cutting the country in two.


The Horse Soldiers directed by John Ford, 1959:

In The Horse Soldiers, the river, which is shown in the background of several travelling sequences, becomes shorthand for this great divide; from the north and south to divisions of class, race, gender, and (lastly), the two central characters. America, like many places in the world, is a divided country; divided politically as well as culturally, between both the immigrant and indigenous populations. Ford's film communicates this rift visually, through the actual presentation of the landscape, with its dirt-roads and rivers, and through the purely metaphorical; from a pencil-lined direction on a badly folded map, to the long, stretching shadow of a window frame over the hanging, atlas-like wall plan during a discussion between both parties.


The Horse Soldiers directed by John Ford, 1959:

With this in mind, the last act of the film - where the destruction of the bridge illustrates the continual inability for the two sides to meet in the middle - offers one of the most interesting visual metaphors in the entire film. The conflict, both personal and political, traps these characters in their own blinkered perspective, regardless of whether or not their actual opinions on the matter have changed, for better or worse. It is the kind of ending where the closing image, of the woman looking out into the uncertain future, the country disappearing into the horizon, the inevitability of a raging battle that Ford denies us the spectacle of, suggests an almost stoic heroism reminiscent of the iconic final image of Ford's own film The Searchers (1956). However, it also suggests some element of tragedy; the endlessness of war as a machine that moves across the landscape, devouring everything. It is also, in a sense, a deliberate none-ending; these characters may have reached a kind of conclusion, but the journey, and the war itself, still continues.

Through this, we can recognise the thread of identity and the sense of personal responsibility woven througout. The idea of taking characters conditioned into thinking in a specific way - into expecting the world to conform to a certain standard built largely on class, ranking and reputation - and then seeing those beliefs shattered before their very eyes when confronted by the very real consequences of the war itself. That final image, which speaks, on one level, to a certain kind of romantic optimism, as Hannah Hunter is framed - as only John Ford could frame a shot - waving the soldiers off into battle, also carries a certain sense of disillusionment. These young men, heroic into battle, will no doubt return, if lucky, as battered and bruised as the dead-on-their-feet volunteers of the even more restlessly critical Drums Along the Mohawk (1939).

There, in the assumed emotional perspective of characters trapped in the events that exist between the titles of two other Ford movies, The Long Voyage Home (1940) and They Were Expendable (1945), John Martin Feeney makes his second film that dares to ask... What Price Glory?


What Price Glory directed by John Ford, 1952:


The Horse Soldiers directed by John Ford, 1959:

The subtlety of the film's politics or its subtext jarring against the very obvious iconography of its images and sound is characteristic of Ford's work in this particular genre. The look and feel of the film might seem, at times, to be celebratory, with its bold colours and beautiful compositions combined with the rousing performance and the typical, overwhelming presence of Wayne as an avatar for the real, undying spirit of a subsequently lost America. But there's an obvious level of satire in how Ford uses these elements, which one might almost go as far as to call 'ironic'. The contrasts and conflict between the two central characters, on the page, suggests the kind of macho one-upmanship or characteristic male bonding that many expect of a film from this particular era. Yet, in the presentation, and in the incorporation of these characters into a narrative about conflict, the disparities between the two create an additional commentary on the subject itself.

The doctor's profession is one that saves lives; the soldier's is one that ends them. Through this, Ford suggests elements of guilt, honour, responsibility and a questioning of the kind of misguided patriotism that leads a country to tear itself apart. This conflict, on a personal level, could also tie in with the general themes of self-analysis and reflection; those two memorable shots where characters catch their individual reflections in mirrors, says a great deal about how they, as individuals, view themselves within this world of civil war; implicating them to some extent through ignorance or sheer wrongheadedness, or forcing them to look deeper into the mindset of war and how this conflict has changed them, physically as well as psychologically.

In the first of these moments of reflection, Marlowe, distorted by the convexed shape of the glass, studies his features in the hallway mirror of Hannah Hunter's opulent southern mansion. The distortion reduces Marlowe considerably, pushing him back, further into the distance, while exaggerating the size of the door and the picture behind him. The mirror image literally reduces his stature, revealing a small man at odds with the immovable presence that we expect from Wayne and have previously seen in action. The second shot comes much later in the film, following the death of Hunter's chaperone Lukey (Althea Gibson). Here, Hunter is confronted by the face of a girl she no longer recognises. Literally transformed, she is now no longer the spoilt little rich girl waiting out the conflict back home, but someone else; someone debased by war and reminded of the ugliness of the thing by the cracked and filthy mirror she now finds herself in.

Such shots carry the same kind of sadness expressed in the unforgettable moment of self-reflection/recognition in Ford's aforementioned The Grapes of Wrath; in particular, the scene in which Ma Joad (Jane Darwell) studies her face reflected in a dusty windowpane and enjoys a brief moment of warm contentment brought on by a nostalgia almost immediately snuffed out by the crippling destitution and uncertainty of her all-too-painful existence.


The Grapes of Wrath directed by John Ford, 1940:


The Horse Soldiers directed by John Ford, 1959:

Ford's characters in The Horse Soldiers may not be dreaming of better times, or indeed, taking comfort in nostalgic reminisce, but they're being forced to ask important questions. Moral questions that may have previously never been explored, at least, by these particular characters, but now, when challenged by the perspectives of others and forced to see things from a different point of view, the actuality of their situation is changed considerably. This revelation, as the two male protagonists eventually begin to see the situation through the eyes of the other, is best illustrated by the scene in which Wayne's previously gung-ho, no-nonsense Marlowe tends the bedside of a fatally wounded young soldiers and sees, perhaps for the first time, where this level of patriotism has led him. The subsequent scene, in which the character explodes, emotionally, having been goaded somewhat by Hunter, is one of Wayne's greatest screen performances; as the confliction and the confusion of what he's feeling in relation to how he feels he should feel, is brilliantly communicated.


The Horse Soldiers directed by John Ford, 1959:

The tragedy here, hinted at throughout by Ford's clever framing of events, is that the war will continue, long after the closing credits, long after the Civil War and on, into the following centuries. The great divide - be it north or south, east and west - will continue to widen. The visible scars marked in the landscape - from marching soldiers, on horseback or otherwise - connect each generation, from World War II, to Vietnam, to the Falklands, to Iraq and Afghanistan. The propensity for the species to decimate itself is a torch, handed down from generation to generation; from the marching men on horseback that open the film, silhouetted, as if to imply anonymity (the uniform replacing the notion of the individual with the "unit"), to the overpowering sight of the young children, armed and in uniform, marching ever onward, into battle.


The Horse Soldiers directed by John Ford, 1959:

Here, the literal thin blue line that once again divides the landscape, splitting the cinematic image into two recognisable 'sides' (contra and pro) suggests the possibility of all future conflicts. These children become the next link in the chain, and their children, and their children's children, will likewise pick up this torch when called upon by their country to do the right-good thing.

What is perhaps most remarkable about Ford's film is its ability to present the gross futility of war while simultaneously suggesting, on one level at least, the necessity of it. However, by denying the audience the lengthy battle sequence that was initially scripted to end the film and choosing instead to close on a somewhat more enigmatic image that seems to suggest so much more than the potential bloodshed and cannon fire ever could, the notion of a commentary on war, or indeed, on conflict in general, is so much more profound. And this is what separates The Horse Soldiers from films like Platoon (1986) or Saving Private Ryan (1998), where the "horrors of war" can only be communicated by presenting the violence as something visceral or intense. However, in presenting this intensity through the medium of cinema, the conflict itself can only become exhilarating for the viewing audience, thus, destroying its intent.

By emphasising this moment of human endurance - with the conflict stretching out, beyond the horizon - these closing scenes from The Horse Soldiers suggests the effect that war has on the individual, as well as the country itself.


Platoon directed by Oliver Stone, 1986:


The Horse Soldiers, directed by John Ford, 1959:

Friday 10 September 2010

World of Glory

In discussing the brief snippet from the ever contentious Uwe Boll's no-doubt harrowing new film Auschwitz (2011) - particularly the way in which the sequence communicates the most regrettable atrocity associated with the holocaust - chiefly, human indifference - through the image of a Nazi guard listlessly marking time while the cries of the women and children call out from the torture of the gas chamber - I was reminded of this short 15 minute feature from the always brilliant Swedish filmmaker Roy Andersson.

World of Glory (Härlig är jorden, 1991) - which seems to take place in the present day, but nonetheless begins with a sequence deliberately intended to evoke the horrors of the Second World War - may be the greatest and most penetrating comment ever made on the issues of genocide, shame and collective guilt. Expressing its ideas through incredibly simple though never simplistic static tableaux - where the intention of scenes is to present the void-like moral decay form within the very soul of its ghostly central character (played by Klas-Gösta Olsson) - World of Glory grabs the viewer's attention from the very first frame; establishing a particular tone of disquieting, deadpan surrealism, before eventually leading us, scene by scene and minute by minute, through the painful empty life of this enigmatic central figure, in a way that seems to underline or exaggerate the absolute vacant misery of his pitiless existence.

In the unforgettable opening sequence, a group of officious, grey-suited spectators stand beside the rear of a monstrous diesel-fuelled truck, watching a huddled mass of naked women and children being loaded into the hold. The piercing cries of the smallest child, central to the frame, are shattering, as the small fat man to the left of frame kicks out at the boarding-ramp to hasten their ill-fated departure. As the heavy-metal doors are slammed shut, locked and bolted, muting but failing to drown out the horrible screams from within, one of the spectators, a thin man with a sinister moustache, turns to face the camera.

At this moment, as the large, industrial hose is led from the exhaust to the small vent at the back of the truck, the audience is being explicitly acknowledged - worse, implicated - in these events, but can only experience the unfolding massacre, hopeless and removed.


World of Glory directed by Roy Andersson, 1991:

From here, the film cuts to a scene in a hospital ward. The thin man, the same character who acknowledged our presence during the opening moments, introduces us to his near-comatose mother lying lifelessly in bed. "This is my mother..." he says, matter-of-factly; "I am very attached to her" From here, the film quickly establishes a rhythm, cutting from one vignette to the next as the man shares with us his mundane observations on everything from his job to his car to his bed and his family. Through these static sequences, Andersson is showing a character in an obvious state of denial; pretending to himself that these miniature moments that make up the fragments of his everyday routine are in some way 'meaningful.' That this life, which consists of work, or church, or family, is somehow a life well lived. We can assume from this (thought it isn't particularly clear) that Andersson is contrasting the drab tedium of this existence with the horror of the opening sequence. The character is, in a sense, in limbo; visibly damaged by the cold brutality of the film's first scene and yet desperate to convince himself that everything is still okay.

At the end of the film, the implication, that everything is not okay, is made clear, with Andersson's framing of this character, upright in his bedroom, his hands over his ears, while his wife lies asleep in bed. The guilt of what he has witnessed is simply too great to ignore, and the constant bleed of useless information or personal trivia can no longer distract him from the horrible cries that haunt his every waking moment. The film quite brilliantly asks the audience to question who is worse; those who pull the switches, or those who stand idly by and allow such things to happen.


World of Glory directed by Roy Andersson, 1991:

Tuesday 7 September 2010

Words Cannot Express

Initial reactions to the teaser-trailer for Uwe Boll's soon-to-be-released docu-drama film 'Auschwitz'

The single shot of the Nazi guard, slouched, bored and nonchalant against the gas chamber door, while the stripped-bare women and children beat on the walls within, might be the most profound and provocative image I've seen this year. In communicating the absolute horror of the death camps at their most basic and human - reinforcing Jean-Luc Godard's notion that the only way to successfully portray the Holocaust on film is to make a movie about the guard who spends all day complaining that the out-going carts are too heavy to push - this single image, depicting the most monstrous indifference, is far more successful than anything in Steven Spielberg's arguably manipulative (or at least disingenuous) Schindler's List (1993).

The subsequent shots of post-mortem tooth-pulling and child-cremation are unnecessary, but, like the more sensational elements of Stoic (2009) and Darfur (2009), illustrate the absolute commitment that Boll brings to these "personal-projects", and his always fascinating attempts to make movies that combine the Art-House with the Grind-House. In all truth, he might even be the most interesting filmmaker currently working in North America.


Auschwitz directed by Uwe Boll, 2011:

Wednesday 14 July 2010

Image Gallery: In a Lonely Place

Back in March of this year, the always-worth-a-look Checking on My Sausages put out an invitation for bloggers to submit a single frame in the hope of creating "a gallery of images [chosen by you] to stand for so much of what makes Cinema such a rich and exciting medium." Yesterday, The Dancing Image created a meme "for those who love pictures" intended to develop the original idea, urging fellow bloggers to "pick a theme" and select a collection of images that complement it. Only the Cinema was the first blog to respond, with writer Ed Howard choosing "Five Sensual Shots" assembled loosely around the theme of sensuality and sexuality: images that entice, provoke, and suggest. At the end of his post he offered an open invitation for anyone reading to get involved, and so, with that, here are my selections.

The general theme here complements a list I recently made on TheAuteurs MUBI, bringing together my favourite films that best capture the feelings of loneliness, longing and desperation. In my own words: A list of films that beautifully capture that feeling of an endless drift, towards nothing or oblivion; where journeys are made, both into the world and into oneself in an attempt to escape life and its various responsibilities. Where the loneliness of characters, or their own often restless attempts to make a connection with the people and places that thrive and flourish all around them, leads them into a greater adventure, or alternatively, into harm. These films evoke an overwhelming sense of solitude and isolation, either through the emptiness of a place, the spaces between people or the general desperation of late night ennui. However, they also reveal the more personal truths that are found in quiet contemplation, in the landscape, in memory, or in the thousands of little stories that exist in the spaces between everyday conversations.

At this point, I'm going to deliberately break the final rule of the meme by not selecting any other blogs to tag - simply because most blogs I read will most likely get tagged anyway - but nonetheless, I do hope that the images here suggest some of those particular feelings or immediate emotional responses, even without the benefit of context or clarification.


La notte directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, 1961:


The Passenger directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, 1975:


Kings of the Road directed by Wim Wenders, 1976:


Taxi Driver directed by Martin Scorsese, 1976:


In a Year with 13 Moons directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1978:


Radio On directed by Christopher Petit, 1979:


The State of Things directed by Wim Wenders, 1982:


Prénom Carmen directed by Jean-Luc Godard, 1983:


Nostalghia directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, 1983:


Boy Meets Girl directed by Leos Carax, 1984:


Paris, Texas directed by Wim Wenders, 1984:


Shadows in Paradise directed by Aki Kaurismäki, 1986:


September directed by Woody Allen, 1987:


The Match Factory Girl directed by Aki Kaurismäki, 1990:


Still Life directed by Jia Zhangke, 2006:


Colossal Youth directed by Pedro Costa, 2006:

Eve's Bayou

Eve's Bayou [Kasi Lemmons, 1997]: A tremendous feature debut from actor turned writer and director Kasi Lemmons. The mood here is slow a...