A Most Wanted Man.

One of Philip Seymour Hoffman's last roles as Gunther Backmann

This adaptation by Andrew Bovell of a John le Carre’s 2008 post 9/11 novel of the same name is one of Philip Seymour’s Hoffman’s last films and just goes to prove how much we will miss this great actor. Hoffman plays Gunter Bachmann the hard drinking, heavy smoking head of a German anti terrorist team based in Hamburg which is charged with developing sources within the Islamic community to assist with counter intelligence work. Tension’s run high after the World Trade Centre attack so when the half Chechen, half Russian 26 year old Issa Karpov turns up at Hamburg airport looking a little worse for wear not only is Bachmann interested in the young man but also is the head of Hamburg intelligence Dieter Mohr (Rainer Bock) and the CIA in the form of Agent Martha Sullivan (Robin Wright).  Karpov claims to be in Germany to collect an inheritance worth tens of millions of euro’s left to him by his father and kept in a safe deposit box under the watchful eye of the Head of Bank Tommy Brue (Willem Dafoe). The only person that seems to believe Karpov is the human rights lawyer Annabel Richter (Rachel McAdams).

Annabel Richter with Issa Karpov.

A Most wanted Man (2013) is a contemporary tale of intrigue one in which the modern intelligence agencies are shown to be completely paranoid about any one that even slightly resembles what they assume to be Jihadist and therefore by default a terrorist.  This was my final film of the 2014 EIFF and I was tired and found the film a little to long so I will not be too judgemental and just comment that the acting was as you would expect from such a good cast very good and Anton Corbijn’s (Control 2007, The American 2010) direction and Benoit Delhomme (Lawless 2012) cinematography brought the story to life. A movie I'd like to see again. 

Out of the Furnace.

Some filmgoers will argue that to much attention is given to the soundtrack, with some commending the idea that music in a film is not required but I would put forward an argument that it depends on the movie. For example would Tarantino's Pulp Fiction (1994) be such a great film without a soundtrack, would Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) be quite so haunting and obviously I could go on. Well get to the point I can hear you saying - ok. Scott Coopers follow up film to the award winning Crazy Heart (2009) has a soundtrack that really compliments what we see on the screen. Even without the Pearl Jam track Release that plays over both the opening and closing credits, it's Dickon Hinchliffe’s score that really underpins the gritty and grim atmosphere in an already atmospheric film, Hinchliffe was a founder of Tindersticks who were credited with six soundtracks for French director Claire Denis including 35 rhums (2008) and White Material (2010). Out of the Furnace (2013) runs the gauntlet of emotions in a film that harps back to the great tradition of tough American movies.  A cross fertilisation between the inbred inhabitants of Winters Bone (2009), the belligerent spirit of The Fighter (2010) and the bleak steelworks setting's and blue collar approach of Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter (1978) is where I see this movie drawing its influences.

 

Russell Baze.

Co-written by Cooper, the movie is set in Braddock, Pittsburgh in 2008. Basically it's the story of two brothers Russell and Rodney Baze. Russell is a hardworking man who cares deeply for his family, girlfriend Lena Taylor, his dying father and of course his troubled brother. Russell works at the local steel mill while his brother is in the army, deployed to Iran four times which has done nothing to improve his state of mind. While on leave he has run up gambling debts with the local crime boss John Petty and has to resort to bare- knuckle fighting in an attempt to pay this off. This in turn leads to his involvement with Harlan DeGroat an evil drug addicted psychopath who gets off on extreme violence. Meanwhile the hard working Russell is sent to prison for a drink driving accident. When he is released the close confines of his world have crumpled, his father is dead, Rodney is throwing fights and Lena has left him for the local cop and is now pregnant.       

 

Rodney Baze.

Be warned this is a violent film right from the opening scene in the drive in movie, up to its gripping climax. Cooper even describes it as ‘an examination of the nature of violence in a society where men solve their own problems'. Certainly an interesting concept and it may sound a familiar story with its Cane and Abel complex reworked, i.e. the good and bad side of the same coin, but don't be fooled this is a brilliantly made movie with a story that never allows the viewer to look away from the screen. DOP Masanobu Takayanagi cinematography captures a vanishing way of life with its deep sense of Americana and the economic decline of industrial America and it's effect on the population of once thriving community but still managing to find beauty in what has essentially become a depressing place. 

       

Harlan DeGroat.

                                                                                                                                           

The director has been quoted as saying that it was important for the film's credibility that it was shoot on location in the town of Braddock and he was proved right. He is obviously a man who has a clear vision of what he wanted from the films strong cast. Even the smaller parts are taken by some very experienced actors including Sam Shepard as Uncle 'Red' Baze and Forest Whitaker as Police Officer Wesley Barnes both of whom make a great job of there minimal time on screen. Willem Defoe plays John Petty a manipulating villain with a sympathetic streak with Woody Harrelson in award winning form as Harlan DeGroat a vicious man who admits to having a problem with everyone! The only female lead is Zoe Saldana as the Russell/Wesley love interest, Saldana will be seen later this year as Nina Simone in the biopic of her life. That just leaves our two main leads, Casey Affleck plays the war veteran Rodney Baze with just the right amount of calculated tension and Christian Bale, riveting as Russell, in what is probably one of his best performances - certainly worthy of consideration for an Award at next years Academy Awards.  It’s not often that I watch a movie twice within a few days!

Antichrist

The 53-year-old Danish film director Lars von Trier has been accused of many things including being a self-publicist and a misogynist. Antichrist (2009) is his most sincerely tormented work to date, written as a means of conquering his state of mind while he was going through a period of severe depression and mental turmoil! He has a fixation with female victimhood that runs through the three films I am familiar with, Breaking the Waves (1996) Dancer in the Dark (2000) and Dogville (2003). Known for being provocative he stated to a press conference at this 2009 Cannes Film Festival  ‘I am the best film director in the world shifting the boundaries of the film making, but still keeping within, the cinematic tradition’

Touted by its publicists as one of the most controversial films since A Clockwork Orange (1971), This latest film from von Trier has been attacked on all sides because of the nastiness of certain scenes. Opinions about the merits and demerits of Antichrist vary a great deal amongst the critics. Certain critics including Bryan Appleyard from the Sunday Times have created the outcry that von Trier was looking for, ‘to stir jaded sensibilities through shock in an age stunned by screen violence’. Controversy to one side we must not dissuade auteur’s like von Trier or in fact Tarantino from making unique work that attracts argument, discussion and in some ways the way we look at things. As veteran producer Tony Garnett’s recent widely circulated comments on the BBC drama hierarchy stated, ‘If you want to make dramatic fiction for the screen, you must first strangle your creative impulses’

 

'She'

Antichrist is to be experienced rather than understood, it tells a story of two characters ‘He’ (Willem Dafoe) and ‘She’ (Charlotte Gainsbourg) who, following an unthinkable tragedy, try to find a new meaning in life and in their life together. ‘He’ is a therapist, ‘She’ a scholar with an unfinished thesis on witch-hunting through the ages. The setting is a forest, a mental landscape as well as a physical one described as ‘a Satan Church where chaos reigns’ The story is made up of a Prologue and an Epilogue, with four chapters in between entitled Grief, Pain, Despair and The Tree Beggars.

Charlotte Gainsbourg jumped at the chance to play ‘She’ von Trier admitted that she proved to be absolute miracle in the film, hardly having to coach her as she was so well prepared. This movie would have been a great challenge to any actress but Gainsbough claimed she had a lot of hang-ups as an performer, including not being able to cry on screen, but she has since stated that this film had liberated her. It also gained her the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival.

 

'He'

A truly beautiful film, Antichrist is well acted by both Gainsbourg and Dafoe although it is a film to be appreciated rather than enjoyed. The prologue is one of the most poetic and terrifyingly beautiful sections of film. Shot in slow motion black and white, a married couple make passionate love in the bathroom of their fourth floor apartment. Their wee son Nic opens the gate of his cot; see’s his parents as he passes the open bathroom door, climbs on to a table beside an open window knocking over three figurines marked Grief, Pain and Despair. Its snowing as he falls from the window to his death accompanied by his woollen rabbit. The complete scene is in silence except for the aria from Handel’s pastoral opera Rinaldo. Yes some of the scenes are graphic, yes the subject matter is very strong, yes the film is hard to watch at times, but I’m glad was given the chance to see this truly amazing film. Only time will tell if this is von Trier’s masterpiece.

As I said previously interestingly the film divided the critics with such varying comments as: The film will haunt both your days as well as your dreams. The most shocking movie ever shown at Cannes. A grotesque masterpiece, unconventional. Profoundly serious, very personal. Peerless imagery of startling beauty, one of the most beautiful looking films ever made. Needlessly graphic.  I’ll leave the last word to Kim Newman film critic ‘Von Trier’s self-conscious arrogance is calculated to split audiences into extremist factions, but Antichrist delivers enough beauty, terror and wonder to qualify as the strangest and most original horror movie of the year’

(This ramble was originally written in September 2009 but never published. Since then von Trier has made two further films in what he calls his  “Depression Trilogy” Melancholia in 2011 and now Nymph()maniac (2013) which I will publish tomorrow).   

The Hunter.

The Tasmanian Tiger.

Not to be confused with Rafi Pitts Iranian movie The Hunter (2010). Daniel Netteim’s 2011 film of the same name is Australian, shot entirely on location on the island of Tasmania and set in it’s rainforests and mountains.  Adapted by Alice Addison from a novel by Sleeping Beauty (2011) director Julia Leigh.

Martin David is a mercenary sent from Europe to the Tasmanian wilderness on a mission to hunt down the last Tasmanian tiger for a mysterious biotech company that wants to clone and sell the Tigers venom, which is said to stun its prey. Local guide Jack Mindy provides David with lodging approved by the biotech company at the run down house of Lucy Armstrong and her two children Sass and Bike. Her husband Jarrah, a zoologist, has been missing for months and Lucy is taking his disappearance very badly, spending her time in bed ‘out of it’ on barbiturates while her children run wild.  Although David’s mission is supposed to be a secret, even from the family, his suspicions are a roused when he finds that his traps and equipment have been sabotaged and suspects he is being followed while on his solitary journeys into the wilds.  Each time he returns from a trip he seems to get closer to Lucy and the kids, which is contradictory to his normal loner persona, making him question the ethics of his mission.  

The Hunter begins to question his mission when he finds himself getting closer to Bike and his family.

Willem Dafoe is every inch the hunter Martin David, a lone wolf with no apparent ties, no friends or family, with the film only hinting at his background but having all the hallmarks of a trained assassin.  Australian actress Frances O’Connor plays Lucy a lonely woman who wants closure before she can move on. Sam Neill is Jack Mindy a man who knows more than he admits.

Lucy begins to come alive again after her husband disappearance.  

The superb cinematography by Robert Humphreys enhances the beauty of the island situated south of the Australian continent. It’s a very deep movie that poses lots of ethical questions that are not necessary answered but strangely this only enhances the enjoyment of this unusually gripping film. One that explores what the director calls the ‘uneasy relationship that has always existed between man and nature.’

Tasmania.