Distant Relatives: The Entertainer and The Wrestler

Robert here, with my series Distant Relatives, where we look at two films, (one classic, one modern) related through a common theme and ask what their similarities and differences can tell us about the evolution of cinema. 

Angry Old Men 

As a society we have such a strange relationship with celebrities.  We admire them and we despise them.  We love when they fail, embarrassing humiliation and then we promise to celebrate their comeback.   For the person who has actually attained fame, there's a good chance that that fame will come to an end before they do.  At some point society won't have a place for them anymore.  Filmmakers seem naturally attracted to the stories of these people since their world, for good or bad, is eternally rooted in the hype of fame.

Tony Richardson's The Entertainer and Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler are two outside-of-Hollywood films with two very outside-of-Hollywood subjects.  Archie Rice of the somewhat-forgotten (or at least under-loved) The Entertainer is an old music hall performer, a song and dance man in a world where rock and roll is the only song and dance anyone seems to care about any more.  His audience is small and unenthusiastic.  Randy the Ram's audience is enthusiastic.  He's got small crowds cheering for him every week as he makes the rounds of the local underground wrestling scene.  The audience cheers for blood and bruises.  They cheer for Randy out of nostalgia for a time when Randy had full arenas packed just to see him entertain.

See the Resurrection

Two men trying desperately to hold onto a time when they mattered, growing old, living paycheck to paycheck or not even.  At the start Randy seems to have a better deal.  He's at least part of a community (though most of his fellow underground wrestlers are young guys trying to get where he once was), he has a haunt in the local strip club and a tenuous connection with fellow over-the-hill dancer Cassidy.  Living in a trailer park isn't preferred but he plays with the local kids and he has people who cheer for him.  Archie Rice does not.  And while he can often be found throwing one or many back among laughing cohorts, it's an attempt to recapture the good old days and numb the present ones.  They are not really his friends.  Both men are estranged from their families with particular attention payed to their relationships with their daughters.  Archie's is sympathetic but disappointed.  Randy's is jaded.  The father/daughter relationship is often plastered with "daddy's little girl" cliches.  Maybe we're meant to think that here, or maybe not.  Certainly we're given a glimpse into what could be.

Naturally there's a comeback opportunity that is not to be.  It seems unfair to breeze over the big chance for these men but it's a foregone conclusion that it can never be.  The entertainment industry demands change or death and these men, so desperate to matter again, aren't evolving but trying to pull their worlds back into the past with them.  Then again, the evolution that the world demands of these men is far from ideal.  Archie's best prospects are in Canada where he has an opportunity to run a hotel.  For Randy it's the deli counter of his local grocer, waiting on grumpy, particular seniors.  It's no surprise that Randy chooses to put his health at risk to fulfill his comeback, just as Archie stakes his financial future and risk of prison time on his.  The choice that these men have really isn't a choice at all.

We Had Faces Then

There is one woman whose shadow looms large over these two men.  She is the patron saint of washed up performers, or perhaps since we're talking in terms of relatives, their mother.  Norma Desmond is the original doomed performer though she's a villain; as time goes on, these characters get more and more tuned to our sympathies.  Desmond is such a villain that her film needs a hero.  Archie Rice isn't a villain but he's quite hurtful to those who love him.  He's given up trying.  Randy the Ram too screws up and often, but we get the sense that he's trying, he just can't overcome his own nature.

Randy's likability and the severity of his ultimate fate presents us with the biggest emotional blow of any of these characters.  Perhaps as time goes on, these kinds of stories must get more painful to make us take notice.  Or perhaps writer Robert Siegel has noticed how fatalistic celebrity culture has become.  All three films inhabited by these characters end with a death.  Perhaps it's the death of hype, or old Hollywood or British reign (as has been speculated in the case of The Entertainer).  Either way, the past dies.  And so does the roar of the crowd.

LFF 2010: Northern Lights, Black Swans

Dave from Victim of the Time, reporting from the 54th BFI London Film Festival.

We're winding down now. Today's gala screening, the sparky, perceptive The Kids Are All Right, is old news on American shores, so it's a good thing that I've taken so long to ponder over today's films. Today's theme might be... don't expect too much. You'll only get hurt.

Darren Aronofsky’s films consume. They consume the characters, slowly more obsessed with a singular goal or self-destructive impulse, but they consume the audience too. His last film, The Wrestler, was, despite its emotional intensity, less stylistically immersive than is typical of him. We are, in more ways than one, back to ‘normal’ with Black Swan, which simply can’t resist overpowering you with the contrasting black and white thematics of Swan Lake. Any other colour scheme would seem nonsensical, but Aronofsky doesn’t merely prescribe to the ballet’s bald imagery. The whole film seems to mimic the necessarily overdramatic, telegraphed stylisation of the whole artform; the escalating nightmarishness of Nina’s (Natalie Portman) fixations are pitched to the rafters, defiantly relishing the kind of flourishes of red and flashes of madness that Powell & Pressburger would be proud of.

It’s a fine balance, though, and the trappings of imitating such a florid style are easy to fall through even as it delivers vivid, scorching imagery. As a result, it often feels as though it’s in service of an increasingly flimsy set of dynamics. Nina is, physically speaking, a huge step forward for Portman, but as a character to inhabit, she’s reduced to an alarmingly simple ‘coming-of-age’ narrative: a realisation of sexuality, a rebellion, and a descent into madness that, since it is telegraphed right from the off, she is never defined apart from. Confusing, and possibly reductive, suggestions about sexuality (and particularly lesbianism) rear their head, and, coupled with the similarly basic friction between oppressive mother and stunted daughter, Black Swan leaves a slightly bitter taste in the mind at points from the sheer abundance of cliché.

If I sound like I’m being overwhelming negative, it’s merely because my expectations were far higher than any film deserves. The viscerality of the Black Swan experience is such that it’s not difficult to commend, and indeed recommend, and it doesn’t entirely deny Portman the chance to, er, spread her wings. But, ultimately, it feels like a step back for Aronofsky, a triumph of style over substance, and even if the style is slightly magnificent, it’s still a niggling disappointment. (B)

I spent a lot of time sitting watching Aurora, and most of it was spent trying to find the greatness in it. I knew it had to be there somewhere; after all, Cristi Puiu’s previous feature, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, was a majestic, darkly ironic masterstroke, so there had to be at least a hint of it here somewhere. Finally, as the film approached its end, the rather restless audience around me seemed to find some appeal, chuckling away at the film’s sudden change of tone, and I gave up. There is good in Aurora, but not only is it never great, the goodness is drowned. The film’s intriguing treatment of violence as an event barely more notable than an exchange of money or visiting your parents’ house seems to make sense of the extraordinary running time, but the slowness of the building character study never justifies this length. Puiu’s favouring of long shots, with diegetic sound covering dialogue, seem gratuitously inscrutable rather than fascinating, and though the closer shots are alert and responsive, the lethargy of the film is overwhelming. As the film gathers pace and events are felt a bit more keenly, Aurora seems headed to a meaningful apex, but it torpedoes itself with a finale of absurdity within its realist aesthetic, with the sardonic, humourous social commentary suddenly laid on so obviously it’s as if we’re being buried beneath it. As Puiu introduced the screening, he seemed to acknowledge the wearing length, but it seems he couldn’t resist. Depth, Cristi, doesn’t necessarily require length. (C)

It’s unlikely, no, that a film would name itself after something so intriguing and then barely engage with it? For the soap-opera dynamics of the half of Patagonia that actually takes place in Patagonia don’t have any need to be there at all, although I doubt they’d be much more engaging in California or Siberia than they are here. Rather curiously sheathed in half, with two plots that are cleanly unrelated, the film swerves between Patagonia and Wales without much rhyme or reason. There isn’t much sense of Patagonia as a place distinct from any of the rest of South America, except that the characters – two of whom are visitors – speak in Welsh. Showing the disconnect that should likely be the point of the film, the characters in Wales speak in Spanish, though this plot is played much more heavily for the cultural tension. As the soap-opera dynamics of infidelity and a tired coming-of-age plot crowd the film and Wales is inevitably depicted as a rosy, pastoral landscape, any deeper angles that have been vaguely suggested are shunted aside. The brief hints of something more specific that we are given make the film’s overall disinterest even more maddening – there are stories here being ignored, snubbed for ones that have probably been written during a deep sleep. (C-) [edited from full review]

Still left on the LFF docket are Sofia Coppola's Venice champion Somewhere, and closing night film 127 Hours, which Nathaniel just left word on. If you're so inclined, take a look at the screening log on my sidebar and let me know if there's any film you're just desperate to hear my thoughts on, and I'll slip it into my final post in a few days.

I link through all this... before you wake up... so I can be happier

to be linked again with you... ♫

Kenneth in the (212) Fun couples at the Emmys. I hadn't seen some of these photos. Cute!
Just Jared The new cast of Dancing with the Stars. I don't watch it but I do find it amusing in a meta way that Jennifer Grey of Dirty Dancing fame will compete.
/Film Dozens of new photos from The Social Network


popbytes I so wish I was in Venice right now for Black Swan.* (yes more on this later today) In a perverse way I hope that Darren Aronofsky does take that X-Men Origins: Wolverine sequel.
The Playlist I forgot to mention that someone finally gave primo scene-stealer Ari Graynor a lead role. That someone was David Gordon Green. I guess he's just smarter than other directors.
USA Today Lindsay Lohan talking to Vanity Fair. She claims she's still a "damn good actress." You always were Linds so prove it again. You can't keep resting on 1998-2004.
Pop Eater Sofía Vergara's boyfriend is in politics? Huh, who knew.
Movie|Line ewwww. the bedbug epidemic has reached Toronto. Will it hurt the Film Festival?

Late tonight... the next episode of Hit Me With Your Best Shot features A Face in the Crowd. Are you joining in?

Robyn doing Björk whilst Björk watches. No pressure or anything.



"Hyperballad" is such a goodie.

Burlinque

Behold: The Poster for Burlesque. I think the marketing department deserves kudos for managing to pay homage to both of their leading ladies simultaneously in a way that's flattering to both. Although the hot pink "they airbrushed my face" quality won't be a sale for everyone.

Linques
MTV Whoa! Darren Aronofsky originally conceived of Black Swan and The Wrestler as a single film. Now I'm even more intrigued.
Hollywood Crush Bradley Cooper and Ryan Reynolds as action co-stars? Media to swoon.
In Contention Isabella Rossellini to head Berlinale jury
Stale Popcorn Gypsy 83. I never hear anyone talking about this movie so I had to link up. Way too underseen for something so heartfelt.
MNPP Good morning. Hey, I love bookshelves, too. They scream "I am what I am."
Serious Film "Pulled from the Wreckage" Fine acting in terrible films
Cinematical freaks out over the amount of stunts in Mad Max: Fury Road
Awards Daily on the current cynicism and the Oscar race.
Movies Kick Ass picks his favorite Emmy dresses. Christina Hendricks was probably mine. But I'm a sucker for attention grabbing cleavage ... and lavender come to think of it... and redheads (come to keep thinking of it). Triple success.


Go Fug Yourself on Diana Agron's (Glee) Little Women look on the red carpet.
PopWrap first official image of Kristen Bell in Burlesque. They think she'll be the most quoted character.
Geekscape asks "What if The Expendables had an all female cast?" Answer: Nathaniel would've seen it twice already. (P.S. A female version is so not a bad idea.)

And finally The Awl asks a question that's really been haunting me lately "Why is American selfishness so widespread now?" It's been a disheartening summer -- lack of empathy everywhere. I think you can even see this in reviews of movie dramas. People just have no time or patience for other people's heartache.

OK that's too depressing to end with.

How about By Ken Levine's (who knows from television) Emmy recap:

You realize of course that you watch a lot more television than the people who made these decisions? If it weren't for screener DVD's, many Academy members would still be voting for HILL STREET BLUES.

Ha. Good one.The only reason they're lazier than Oscar voters is they can be. Movies tend to be, like, ineligible after their debut year.

YES, No, Maybe So: Black Swan

The gorgeous Black Swan trailer has arrived in glorious quicktime. But here it is in YouTube though, really, go watch it at Apple Trailers where you can blow it up big and be amaze-ed.



I can barely type from the shaking. I'd like to do a yes, no, maybe so but I am only yes. Or rather, a GOD YES.

Though I am not generally prone to visually vomiting out trailer screencaps, I make an exception today since I love the work of DP Matthew Libatique (still awaiting an Oscar nom. grrrrr) and the movie looks dark, dangerous and all around delicious. And I don't even like ballet!*

Here are twelve shots** in chronological order.

pretty princess ballerina all by her lonesome

Strained Natalie Portman, adult sized with a little girl voice.

Barbara f'in Hershey in a role that might be worthy of her?
I dare not hope.

ballerina so sad -- hey, what's that on my back?

Bitchy carefree sexy rival Mila Kunis. Boo! Hiss! Yum!?!

Ballerina Doubled = Self Loathing Metaphor???
These shots FREAK ME OUT.

Natalie watching her Star Wars performance on perma-loop.

A little 'me' time. Wait, isn't she getting plenty of me time by
seeing herself everywhere she goes? She'll go blind!

At this point I was totally scared for my/her life.

holy. shit.

Alternate Title: MUST SEE

Just...chills.

Especially once Natalie Portman's ballerina starts splintering. I can only pray that along with the disintegration of her psyche -- I assume that's why she's turning against herself, is it a self haunting? -- she lies to herself since Women Who Lie To Themselves™ is the greatest of film genres.

Director Darren Aronofsky has yet to make anything less than a must see. Even his weakest effort Pi, was a pretty stunning calling card. Though I suppose if I had to nitpick to try and smother excitement so it stays at normal levels rather than fanboy droolings, three things that are bugging me about this here Black Swan.

1. I already wish it were shot on celluloid and... (well perhaps it is but it doesn't look it to me exactly)
2. The nearest film I can think of as a reference point for girlie supernatural terror is Rosemary's Baby and the nearest reference point for girl who seems to be multiple girls at once is Mulholland Dr and few films are ever as good as either of those so... uh... good luck with the company you keep.
   
3. I hate that Barbara Hershey isn't named. She's a f**king Oscar nominee and she's f**king great in certain roles. I hope this is one of them.
   

*Isn't that weird. Because I love dance in general. But ballet. Something stops me from loving it.
** Can you believe I didn't screencap the lesbian makeout between Mila Kunis and Natalie? What's wrong with me.

We Can't Wait #2: BLACK SWAN

The team here with the penultimate We Can't Wait: Summer and Beyond entry.

Black Swan
Directed by: Darren Aronofsky
Starring: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Winona Ryder, Vincent Cassel, Barbara Hershey, Sebastian Stan

Aronofsky and Portman on set in NY

Synopsis: a Black Swan dons The Red Shoes... or: a New York-set psychological drama about a veteran ballerina Nina (Portman), who has just won the lead part in Swan Lake, and her fierce competition with new rival Lilly (Kunis) - but Nina goes into downward spiral: is Lilly real or just a figment of her imagination?

Brought to you by: Luke Skywalker's & Spock's moms, Meg Griffin, Gossip Boy Carter, Mickey Rourke's wrestling coach, and a feathered wave of expectation. Oh, and a variety of production folk.

Expected release date: late 2010 - or early 2011 (the gals practiced hard - it should be worth the wait)

Craig: The buzz on this one is fast heating up and will surely build further as more details surface. Although from Thursday's Cannes announcement it appears that it doesn't feature in this year's line-up, in-competition or otherwise (a low blow for Aronofsky after his success with The Wrestler?) - a decision that may well be roundly cheered/booed in equal measure by his hardcore devotees and vehement detractors respectively. I don't know, it always feels as if Aronofsky's films simply attract fierce comment just by the fact that it's him - he pushes people's buttons in extreme ways it seems. He's one of those came-to-prominence-in-the-early-'90s directors, like Tarantino, Fincher, Wes Anderson etc, that some folk seem to love to hate and hate to love. But each of his films, so far, has had a truly distinctive and widely changeable feel to them. But I'm guessing the bigger draw will be seeing Portman take another step on the road to more adult and complex roles, and her pairing up with Kunis. Ballet is shaping up to be the cinematic in-thing this year - who knew? Is it partly due to Cate Blanchett going all plié-happy for Benjamin Button last year? So guys, does Natalie and Mila doing a Pas de deux look like a career swan dive or time for take off? I'm hoping for Fight Club meets Suspiria...

Nathaniel: I can't even imagine Fight Club fused with Suspiria.

But I guess I love any film project by a big time visionary director that one can add a semi-colon and a 'girls gone wild' to. Black Swan: Girls Gone Wild. Yes? I actually don't mean that sarcastically, just psychologically. I love films about unravelling psyches and each of Aronofsky's films have been quite adept at conjuring vivid protagonists at the end of their ropes.

I actually don't want to know more about this one than I already do. I'm just dying to see how Aronofsky uses all of the actresses. Interesting cast.

Left: Portman Swanning about the set

Jason: Since I don't think David Gordon Green's remake of Suspiria is gonna happen - one remake of a movie I adore that seemed so insane as to seem can't-miss from inception - especially since it was supposed to star Portman and I can't see her doing back-to-back ballet films, I guess I'll just get my fix here. I really do like Natalie Portman, but more off-screen than on. I keep hoping she can channel what makes her seem like an interesting person in the real world that one would want to hang out with into a movie. This might not be the movie for that, exactly, but I root for her, is my point.

What this might be a movie for, I think, is... well, up in the air like a series of changements (That's apparently a type of jump in ballet! I looked it up. Consider this your lesson for the day, if it's new to you like it was for me). But whatever weirdness Aronofsky's got in store for us - and the weirder the film keeps sounding, the more excited I grow - I just know that I have loved every single frame of film that he's shot, and I will gobble each new one up insatiably.

Also, hot lesbian sex.

Jose: I wasn't a fan of Aronofsky until The Wrestler, which technically didn't make me a fan but showed me he can be visionary without being full of himself (like he was in all his previous films). If he manages to be as visually inventive and emotionally smart as he was in that movie, we're in for something great here. Then again I will approach Black Swan with care because he might fall back into extreme self indulgence. But I'm sure it's not easy to spoil something with that cast (Hershey, Ryder and Cassel together sound orgasmic) and I'm dying to see Portman release her inner nut (even in Closer she was too restrained), I'm hoping she shows us that going insane while wearing a tutu is the most fun a girl can have with her clothes on.

Craig: Girls Gone Wild! Hot lesbian sex! This sounds like it could be Aronofsky's entry into the new wave of exploitation flicks. Forget Grindhouse - this is DanceHaus! (Something tells me Lady GaGa might dig this film). But if this turns out to be Haute tension in ballet shoes or Mulholland Dr. with LA's Hollywood of broken dreams changed for NY's ballet stage of high hopes then I'll be happy. Of course, I may have expectations for this that may well never materialise... and Jason, that'll be all-round bad news if Suspiria mark 2 doesn't get the go ahead. Ya wait for one bleak ballet-themed film to come along... could two at once be one too many?

I'm definitely angling for Aronofsky to return to the visual grittiness of Pi and Requiem for a Dream for this, more so than the golden-hued fantasyland of The Fountain. Aronofsky certainly seems to be delving into psychological and (hopefully) Gothic waters with his subject matter here, unless I'm reading the buzz all wrong, which may be the case. I mean, he's even cast a formidable quartet of raven-haired ladies in it.

Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky

Robert: Between this and The Kids are All Right, lesbians could be the theme for 2010. Hell, this could single-handedly save the movie industry. Forget 3D!

I admit that despite usually disliking overly bombastic films, I'm a maniacally proud Aronofsky fanboy. I'm glad that after the low key-ness of The Wrestler, people haven't forgotten that he's a real visual artist and I'm looking forward to whatever inventiveness he has in store for us with this one. Really, I'm giddy, especially after hearing one supposed insider describe it as "The Red Shoes meets Repulsion." (Suspiria meets Fight Club also good!) The aggressive lesbian ballerina sex is clearly what's gotten most of the attention so far and I'm not one to argue. I think if any other film were hyping up the girl-on-girl this much, I'd roll my eyes in annoyance. But in this case, whatever get's the asses in the seats and raises Mr. Aronofsky's profile. I'll be buying my ticket based on my love for Darren. The hot lesbian action will just be a bonus (though as I have 'Nam-like flashbacks to Requiem for a Dream, I wonder if we may be overestimating the eroticness of it all).

Dave: The Red Shoes instantly comes to my mind when thinking of deranged ballerinas; not that I want this to be a film they might as well have called 'The Black Shoes', I'm sure Aronofsky has something a bit different up his sleeves. (Not least the hot lesbian sex.) My mother is a ballet obsessive, so I grew up surrounded by images of ruffled tutus and pink ballet shoes round every corner. So to an extent I suppose I hope that Black Swan will unpack my childhood and reveal all the dirt and kinkiness I was too young to see. Swan Lake is the obvious reference point here, so I'm intrigued by just how strongly that story will work into what's hopefully a sea of psychological perversity.

The cast fascinates me. I look at it and it seems like such a strange collection of people; but I can see it working so, so gloriously. It seems like a cast that, for one reason or another, haven't really 'delivered' in a while, but Aronofsky showed last time around how he can boost any flagging career. Oh, and for giving Mila Kunis her first (hopefully) plum role - Darren, I salute you.

Craig: Clint Mansell is again doing the score for Aronofsky and apparently he's integrating some of the musical themes from Swan Lake into it. Music has always played a really integral part in Aronofsky's films and this has the possibility to make for their most intriguing collaboration yet. Imagine that cascading, ominous score for Requiem being woven into Swan Lake - it could be fierce...

So, who wants to see Portman pirouette into personality-shifting oblivion, or who wants to see her give Kunis the kiss-off?

"We Can't Wait: Summer and Beyond" complete series: The "orphan" picks Nathaniel (Burlesque), JA (Love and Other Drugs), Jose (You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger), Craig (What's Wrong With Virginia?), Robert (True Grit) and Dave (Brighton Rock); Team Film Experience Countdown #12 It's Kind of a Funny Story, #11 Sex & the City 2, #10 Scott Pilgrim vs the World, #9 Somewhere, #8 The Kids Are All Right, #7 The Illusionist, #6 Toy Story 3, #5 Inception, #4 Rabbit Hole, #3 Never Let Me Go, #2 Black Swan and #1 The Tree of Life.