No Poem Is the Only Poem. No Story Is the Only Story. Celebrating Diversity Since 2015
If I were to describe my visceral reaction to Nocturnal Animals, the new Tom Ford, I’d say it was a series of peaking electric shocks followed by cardiac arrest, or as a looming tide of fear and dread which waxes until I’m forced to swallow it. Two or three times I considered leaving the theater, which in my case means I’m probably watching an exceptional film.
For those that find cliché an imposition on their patience, Elle directed by Paul Verhoeven is two-edged. Yes, the film seems to find some conventions of the thriller indispensable, like the loud, sudden noise that turns out to mean nothing. And is it a spoiler to say that a character shouldn’t go down into the basement? But the film is so ingenious otherwise, so original in its plot contortions and so fuck you I’ll show you anything I want in its bravery, that ‘must see’ rings out at you from the screen.
Question: Can a film delve into the topical yet timeless issues of free-will, social conformity, and malevolent authority, and still remain a fun, genuine entertainment? I answer in the affirmative and as Exhibit A give you Michael Almereyda’s Experimenter (2015).
It has often been a thorny issue in cinema – tackling the murky side of human nature and of course its darker episodes. At best, directors, writers and producers run the risk of being so compellingly accurate and explicit in their accounts of horrid histories that critics cry foul with accusations of turning tragedy into entertainment, or of abdicating responsibility to the audience or even using deeply emotive historical events to deliberately manipulate viewer emotions.
If you were a filmmaker with an ambition to a make an impact, you might reconsider whether you would be likely to do so with a remake. But A Bigger Splash, the latest offering from director Luca Guadagnino, (a retake more than remake of the 1969 Alain Delon classic, La Piscine), is nonetheless itself destined for the classic shelves of Italian cinema and will, in all probability, muscle its way eventually into the pantheon of notable world cinema.