Hidden Treasures - Week of Dec. 24th
THE DEEP END (2001)
THE DEEP END, a thriller from co-writers/co-directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel, is the story of one woman’s struggle to maintain a normal existence under incredibly abnormal circumstances. Tilda Swinton stars as Margaret Hall, a mother doing her best to raise three children while her husband, a military aviator, is away for months at a time. But when her eldest son, Beau (Jonathan Tucker), gets mixed up with the wrong crowd, Margaret finds herself trying to raise $50,000 to pay off blackmailers and keep Beau out of jail. A convincing melodrama set within the seedy world of film noir, THE DEEP END is bolstered by a superior performance from Swinton, whose understated approach to the role brings the perfect balance to an engrossing and suspenseful film.
UNDER THE SAND (2000)
Francois Ozon’s UNDER THE SAND is a tense, troubling drama about a woman whose husband vanishes without a trace. English teacher Marie Drillon (Charlotte Rampling) spends a great deal of time trying to locate her husband, Jean (Bruno Cremer), who disappeared one day at the beach after telling Marie he was going for a swim. From the point of Jean’s disappearance, UNDER THE SAND becomes a fascinating mystery, one in which the audience remains as much in the dark as the lead character. Yet this mystery wouldn’t be nearly as interesting had it not been for Charlotte Rampling, who walks a fine line between maturity and repudiation in the role of the distressed wife. Despite the incredibly emotional situation her character is thrown into, Rampling shows her true professionalism by never once taking her performance over-the-top. While her Marie may be living in a dream-world, believing Jean will suddenly turn up one day safe and sound, she nonetheless remains in perfect control at all times, lending an air of sensibility to a situation that is seemingly beyond all hope.
DEMONLOVER (2002)
If you blinked, you missed Olivier Assayas’ DEMONLOVER, a film that slipped under the radar of the American movie-going public. Opening quietly in September of 2003 on 8 screens, DEMONLOVER pulled in a meager $39,000 before disappearing completely. To watch the movie is to realize how sad this box-office tally truly is. Packed with thrills and sexual energy, DEMONLOVER convincingly presents an absorbing correlation between big business and sexuality, where corporate takeovers are little more than the commercial world’s equivalent of physical rape. Knowing little about the film prior to viewing it, DEMONLOVER blind-sided me, quickly becoming yet another of those cinematic discoveries that make being a film fan so rewarding.
HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH (2001)
The brainchild of writer/director/star John Cameron Mitchell, HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH gives us the full history of Hedwig, a fictional female Rock star who began life as a young boy named Hansel in Communist East Berlin. We learn of Hedwig’s botched sex-change operation (which she used as the inspiration in naming her band the “Angry Inch”), her failed marriage to an American soldier (Maurice Dean Wint), and her whirlwind romance with a young protégé named Tommy (Michael Pitt), who would later steal her songs and make millions as a rock star. HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH is a wild, extravagant film that thumbs its nose at traditional ideologies as they relate to love, sex, masculinity, and even rock music. It shocks as it threatens conventionality, yet is constructed with such a fresh energy, and performed with such heart by John Cameron Mitchell, that it demands the undivided attention of even the most conservative minded audience members. With wry humor, a bit of pathos, and some great rock music, HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH will quickly melt away your inhibitions.
Kurt said
January 14 2008 @ 2:06 pm
Now that sir, is indeed a nice list of overlooked (well, Hedwig has it’s fans) flicks. I’ve actually seen them all, and I liked them all, particularly Demonlover - Olivier Assayas films don’t seem to get distributed in North American unless the film is mostly in English!
Have you seen his Irma Vep? It’s a good one.