Sundance Review: "A Walk in the Woods"

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Reviews

Published on Friday, 23 January 2015 22:22

Written by Matt Oakes

Robert Redford's adaptation of Bill Bryson's popular 1998 memoir A Walk In the Woods is an unremarkable journey with a short sprinkling of low-key chuckles and a heaving dose of schmaltzy sentiment. As Redford's travel companion, co-star Nick Nolte manages to give this low-percolating buddy comedy/road-movie-on-foot at least some minor footing, but its not enough to balance the overwrought equilibrium. Mining the material for all its geriatric sitcom worth, director Ken Kwapis' internal clock ticks with the fervor of a retiree, as he fails to charge the material with any sense of driving momentum. As much as Nolte's character drags his feet, it's Kwapis who lags most. For a film all about the journey forward, that presents a major problem.

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John Huston Retrospective at Film Society

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Reviews

Published on Monday, 12 January 2015 11:04

Written by Jack Angstreich

An oasis for serious cinephiles this season was the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Let There Be Light, a near-complete retrospective of the films directed by the maverick John Huston, mostly screened in good 35-millimeter prints shown on the impressive screen of the Walter Reade Theater, and including all of his features as well as some films by other directors which he acted in or influenced. The series ran from December 19th to January 11th. Below I note some of the highlights of the series screened in 35-millimeter at the Walter Reade.

Atypical for Huston was the interesting and rarely screened drama partly about racial injustice, In This Our Life, like almost all of Huston's works an adaptation, in this case from a novel by the eminent writer Ellen Glasgow, and starring Bette Davis, a luminous Olivia de Havilland, George Brent and Charles Coburn, as well as featuring a Max Steiner score. It was shown in what appeared to be a newly struck print.

Also very rarely screened in 35-millimeter is the beautiful Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, one of the director's finest works, about the romantic feelings of a marooned Marine in the Pacific for a nun during World War II. Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr, in the lead roles, were never better. Exquisitely photographed in color by Oswald Morris and scored by Georges Auric, it was presented in an outstanding print.

Another rarity was the unusual drama about conservation, The Roots of Heaven, adapted from a novel by the distinguished Romain Gary, who co-authored the screenplay with the esteemed travel writer, Patrick Leigh-Fermor. The film stars Trevor Howard, in a characteristically superb performance, alongside an excellent supporting cast including Errol Flynn, Juliette Gréco, Eddie Albert, Orson Welles, Paul Lukas and Herbert Lom. The Roots of Heaven was again elegantly photographed in color by Morris and features a score by another esteemed composer, Malcolm Arnold. It was screened in a fine print.

Also quite scarce is one of Huston's lesser works, the intermittently entertaining The List of Adrian Messenger, a murder mystery with a lighter tone. The eccentric cast is headed enjoyably by George C. Scott and Kirk Douglas, with assistance from Dana Wynter, Clive Brook, Gladys Cooper, Herbert Marshall, and Huston himself, along with bizarre cameos by Tony Curtis, Burt Lancaster, Robert Mitchum and Frank Sinatra. The film was photographed in monochrome by the superb Joe MacDonald and scored by the extraordinary Jerry Goldsmith; it was shown in a good print.

Reflections in a Golden Eye, an exercise in Southern Gothic adapted from a novel by Carson McCullers, is, by contrast, one of the director's strongest works. Dazzlingly shot by Aldo Tonti in an unusual color process, the film's high-powered cast is dominated by a quartet of leads with its members delivering some of their best performances: Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor, Brian Keith and Julie Harris (also notable is the debut of a gorgeous Robert Forster as the object of lust for Brando's tormented character). Scored by the significant Japanese composer, Toshiro Mayuzumi, the film was projected in an excellent print.

Reflections was shortly followed by the unexpectedly delightful, seldom screened period romp, Sinful Davey, handsomely photographed in color by Freddie Young and Edward Scaife, featuring abundantly pleasurable work from an impressive cast including John Hurt, Pamela Franklin, Robert Morley, Donal McCann, among others; it was presented in a very good print.

Huston's next film, A Walk with Love and Death is an interesting, if not entirely successful, romance set in medieval times featuring an unusually convincing recreation of the period — as noted by one of the director's most eloquent defenders, Positif critic Jean-Pierre Coursodon — this work's most remarkable facet. The cast includes Anjelica Huston —in her first starring role — opposite Assi Dayan, with support from Anthony Higgins, Michael Gough, and the director himself. The evocative score is by the magnificent George Delerue.

Huston's next film, the baroque Cold War thriller The Kremlin Letter, is one of his most gratifying and underrated productions. Patrick O'Neal, in a thoughtful performance, leads an astounding cast including Bibi Andersson, Richard Boone, Nigel Green, Dean Jagger, Lila Kedrova, Micheál MacLiammóir, Barbara Parkins, George Sanders, Raf Vallone, Max von Sydow, Orson Welles and Niall MacGinnis; it too was screened in a very good print.

Huston followed this with one of his most enduring achievements, the pessimistic boxing film Fat City, adapted by Leonard Gardner from his respected novel. Memorably photographed in color by the brilliant Conrad Hall, the superior cast includes Stacy Keach in the lead role, alongside Jeff Bridges, Susan Tyrrell, Candy Clark and Nicholas Colasanto. It was screened in another very good print.

Finally, another rarity was the director's engaging espionage film, The Mackintosh Man, again shot by Morris and featuring a score by Maurice Jarre. Paul Newman confidently heads a wonderful cast including Dominique Sanda, James Mason, Harry Andrews, Ian Bannen, Michael Hordern, and Jenny Runacre, among others. Regrettably, the print was merely adequate but this was a worthwhile experience nonetheless.

Film Society Spotlights Ruben Ostlund

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Reviews

Published on Friday, 09 January 2015 20:46

Written by Jack Angstreich

From January 14th to the 22nd, 2015 the Film Society of Lincoln Center will be hosting the retrospective, In Case of No Emergency: The Films of Ruben Östlund, a welcome survey of the work of one of the most promising contemporary filmmakers.

 

A couple of years ago, at the New York Film Festival’s press screening of the director’s astonishing second feature, Play — about three Swedish boys that are menaced by a group of what appear to be African and Arab youths — I had the impression within the first few minutes that I was encountering the work of a potential master, and by the film’s end this intuition was satisfyingly confirmed. I am pleased to report that Play amply rewards a second viewing, its absorbing intricacies resounding with even greater resonance.

 

in Play, Östlund profitably emulates the example of the great Michael Haneke who has exploited the long take to disturbing, if powerful effect; here, the director’s style is more systematic, rigorously eschewing cutting within scenes, thus achieving a mesmerizing, Bazinian ambiguity, along with a remarkable fusion of form and content. In narrative structure and rhythm, Östlund doesn’t attempt to reproduce the forward momentum found in some Haneke films, preferring a more episodic, Rosselinian trajectory. Shot in a winter with overcast skies, the filmmaker deploys the digital format here impressively, while drawing uniformly strong work from his non-professional cast. Play screens at least once per day throughout the retrospective, in a one-week exclusive run.

 

Some precedents for what is special about Play can be found in the director’s previous Involuntary (a mini-portrait of contemporary Sweden which resists summary for its multiple narrative strands), such as its evident fascination with the discomfort engendered by violations of moral norms and breaches of etiquette as well as its formally strict, sequence-shot style and non-classical narrative. The film too is characterized by Östlund’s consistently fierce observational intelligence as well as his bracing confidence with actors. The one weakness here is the use of digital, which is not technically adequate to the filmmaker’s vision. Involuntary plays at least once a day, every day, for the duration of the retrospective, in a one-week exclusive run.

 

Force Majeure, one of the better reviewed films of last year, about a family at an Alpine ski resort dealing with the consequences of an avalanche, doesn’t quite sustain the same force as Play, although it certainly is a notable work. Stylistically, this is admirably controlled — Östlund’s sometimes unconventional framing is especially fine — but freer in technique than the previous film, while still departing from a classical approach to storytelling. Force Majeure is distinctive for mining a vein of humor and displaying a lighter touch than was clearly evident in Play. The director’s work here with actors is, again, exemplary, as is his command of the digital medium. Force Majeure will screen seven times, giving New Yorkers a second chance to either encounter or revisit this unusual film.