My Udo My Udo What Have Ye Done

JA from MNPP here. Have you read this phenomenally odd and delightful interview with the actor Udo Kier at The AV Club? Odd and delightful are the two words I'd always use whenever mentioning Mr. Kier, but he really brings it this time around.

Over at MNPP  I picked out my fifteen favorite quotes from the interview, but I'm so oddly delighted in this chat's wake I've got to just keep on thinking about Udo, and what better way to do that then to mercilessly pick apart the work he's done over the years with a completely frivolous list. He's worked so much in such a vast array of projects that there are dozens of his performances that I've missed (I don't know how this is possible but it appears I've never seen any of the films he's done with Fassbinder, for example), but out of the many I have seen here are my five favorite performances of his.

5 Favorites



Lee Meyers, My Son My Son What Have Ye Done - I don't think it's often that Udo gets picked to play a straight man to somebody else's nuttery, but when stacked up against a way out there Michael Shannon it's not only possible, it's enthralling.

NSFW image after the jump

Read more »

Interview: The Return of Kirsten Dunst (A Very Good Thing)

at the NYC premiere
of All Good Things.

It might sound silly to say, but seeing her in the flesh is something of a shock. Kirsten Dunst has been in the movies for many years, and she's made such indelible mark in them, whether as a child vampire, an unknowable teen dream, a disciplined cheerleader, a superhero's better half and so on; one half expects her to flicker when one meets her,as if she's being projected still. But there she was earlier this month at a New York City luncheon honoring her heartbreaking work in All Good Things. Her image did not fade or dissolve but remained steady in medium shot. She ate, she sipped, she walked around the room talking with reporters, friends and peers.

There was, however, a close-up. We shook hands and exchanged a few pleasantries. Then she was whisked off, not by a sharp edit, jump cut or a quick pan, but by her people taking her to the next reporter. Imagine it!

I remind her of the busy luncheon a few days later over the phone. She's already thousands of miles away.  This time, she's a disembodied voice which is surprisingly more familiar, like a movie image. "You were so in demand," I say, reminding her of the crowd and well-wishers.

"You know...," she says, and I do having been there, "A lot of babies to kiss. A lot of hands to shake."

Katie (Kirsten) fixes her husband's bow tie in All Good Things.

It's good to hear the smile in her voice and remember her amiable presence in the room that day. Especially considering the sadness that lingers from her fine work in All Good Things. People have won Oscar nominations for giving much less to their films than she does here, in one of her finest performances. She starts out sunny and delightful, the girlish woman we sort of recognize from numerous other films but she's soon torn apart by her husband's (Ryan Gosling) dark almost alien soul.  The film is based on a true story, the unsolved mystery of the disappearance of Katie Marks (Kirsten), the bride of the heir to a wealthy New York family.  I've followed her career enthusiastically for many years, once even referring to her as "the future of the movies" but naturally we start with the present and the subject at hand.

It's not the first time she's played a real life character but how did she tackle someone who isn't easy to research, someone who went missing? Here Kirsten cedes most of the credit to her director, who knew the case inside and out.

Kirsten: Everything that we knew about [Katie] is in the script. She's not a public figure. Yes, she's a real person but not someone that we know her mannerisms. It was really about making her feel like a whole person that was unravelling, as he was in a way, someone with her own strong motives so it wouldn't just be The Victim of this crime.

Doomed Love

Nathaniel: You have to have the full range of their romance.

Kirsten: That was so important. You have to believe these people were completely in love with each other in order for her to stay and to excuse the behavior.

Nathaniel: Did anything change a lot from filming to the finished movie?  You're acting piecemeal and the movie takes place over a really long span. Did anything surprise you about the finished product?

Kirsten: With every movie you kind of never know how exactly it's going to come together. I had an idea but obviously I wasn't there for the last half of the movie. [She pauses briefly, considering] ...I only saw Ryan in drag once on the set so I wasn't sure how all that was going to come together.

While we were working we played things very differently; we improvised a lot. The scene where he asked me to marry him was very different in the script. We got to play around a lot which was exciting. But you never know what it's going to end up being.

Nathaniel: I thought it was interesting that this movie  opened so close to Blue Valentine, another unravelling Ryan Gosling marriage, and then I remembered that you've worked with Michelle Williams before on Dick. Hollywood is a small world.

[more on All Good Things, Eternal Sunshine, and her favorite films after the jump]

Read more »

Live Blog: The Hollywood Reporter Actress Roundtable 2010

The actual hour-long Hollywood Reporter video of the six actresses who grace their cover: Annette Bening, Nicole Kidman, Amy Adams, Hilary Swank, Natalie Portman and Helena Bonham-Carter. Here's how it breaks down if you don't have a full hour to watch (video at bottom of post). Unfortunately you can't "scroll" so the time stamps are useless as I type away.

0:01 Helena talks about first day-i-tis. Never thinks she can do it. I can't act!
1:30 Amy talks about being unemployed and feeling sorry for herself (interesting bit... both sad and funny) and the long time period where she considered giving up. But now that she's successful, what doesn't she like about her career?

Amy: I feel very vulnerable. I don't like it at all. You're very subject to other people's opinions. You know when it doesn't go well. 

Hilary: We know when it doesn't go well. We don't need to be beat over the head with it.

Oopsie!

5:00 Swank talks about trying and even if you fail, always try your hardest. Ah platitudes! I didn't get enough of 'em on election night.
6:48 Annette is asked about her input into making The Kids Are All Right more of a comedy than it originally started as...

Annette: I just didn't want it to be earnest. But she's (Lisa Cholodenko) also kind of too generous when she talks about me and my contributions.

9:00 Helena interrupts to talk about the vibrator scene (but says she hasn't seen the movie).
10:30 Hilary complains that she can't find good comedies. Uhnnh, you're not a comic actress. We're 10 minutes in and Nicole has said NOTHING. I need Nicki. But she was like this at the Margot at the Wedding press conference I attended, too. She is kind of robotic until directly addressed. I say that with the utmost love but it's like she's a robot until the movie camera is on or the press cameras are off. It's... odd.
12:00 Natalie Portman calls the Black Swan screenplay "a blueprint." and reveals that she and Darren Aronofsky have been planning to make the movie for the past 9 years (!) and credits Nicole with the following great career advice...

Read more »

Seventeen Years, Several Inches

.

JA from MNPP here, with a fun factoid for y'all: Seventeen years ago on this day Lorena Bobbitt took matters into her own hands... and by "matters" I mean "her husband's penis" and by "her own hands" I mean "her own hands holding a carving knife." The rest is infamous tabloid history - the throwing of the severed member out a car window, the trial, the adult film Frankenpenis... sordid, so very sordid.

But an anniversary is a time to celebrate, not to judge, so here in its dubious honor are my five favorite castration scenes - favorite is such a relative term here, by the way - from films since the Bobbitt incident happened in 1993. (Actually strangely enough all these films are from the past 5 years.) Enjoy, with or without your hands protecting your nethers (I recommend with).


Sin City - Hartigan (Bruce Willis) literally rips The Yellow Bastard (Nick Stahl)'s yellow bastard-stick off with his bare hands. Manliness!


Hard Candy - Pretty people like Ellen Page and Patrick Wilson should not partake in antics as confoundedly cruel as this exercise proves. Just be pretty, people! A peck of pickled peckers Ellen Page has picked.


Hostel: Part II - The sequel that everybody loves to hate to the original film that everybody loves to hate basically ends its female-sided saga with an explicit castration gag. You know what they say - make 'em leave the theater with a laugh! Ha ha ugh.


Teeth - It's true! Vagina dentata! Vagina dentata! Vagina dentata! (Sidenote: the wonderful character actor Josh Pais, seen there above about to utter those memorable lines, just had a birthday on Monday! Everybody wish him a long healthy manhood.)


Antichrist - A little something for the ladies! Lars Von Trier's always got a little something for the ladies. If by "something" I mean "everything awful ever thought, captured so prettily," and obviously I mean just that. Heady times...
.

"Lars von Trier" for Denmark

Denmark Introduces Harrowing New Tourism Ads Directed By Lars Von Trier

completely sick but funny, too.

Gee-ni-us (Casting).

Jose here.

There's a rumor circling the web and European media stating that Penélope Cruz has been cast in Lars von Trier's new film Melancholia.

If this is true then the Oscar winning actress will be battling some heavy personal issues while Lars destroys our planet.
The film will center on the impending collision of Earth with planet Melancholia (the man doesn't even try to conceal how much he loves Tarkovsky does he?).

When the movie was announced last October, the only thing Lars told people to expect were "no more happy endings".
Lars isn't really a filmmaker who cares what others think of him but I wonder how will Cruz fare out in all of this.

I love the road she's taking recently: Woody Allen, an Oscar, an Almodóvar film, a musical and now von Trier-her choices are very Nicole Kidman if you ask me-and might just continue to establish her presence as one of our greatest actresses.

Until the news are confirmed, or denied, we can drool (in my case), complain or speculate about how Pe and Lars will do together. Do you think she'll be as good as Emily, Bjork, Bryce, Charlotte and Nicole?

Favorite 100 Movies of the Decade (#50-31)

the list #100-76, #75-51, #50-31, #30-16 and #15-1.

Awards for 2009 begin tomorrow or thereabouts.

So much cinema to love. Love it hard...

50 La Mala Educación dir. Pedro Almodóvar (2004)
Pedro's dizzying, carnal "fag noir" is one of a kind.

49 You Can Count On Me dir. Kenneth Lonergan (2000)
You know how wonderful it can be to hear a film's title worked into the dialogue? Turns out it's even better when the title warmly permeates the entire film and (just barely) goes unsaid.

48 Sideways dir. Alexander Payne (2004)
Eventually it will shake off the "overrated" tag that compromised its full bodied flavor. It's still one of the best comedies of the decade. Rrawwwr.

47 25th Hour dir. Spike Lee (2002)
Like The Painted Veil, its throwaway release in crowded December assured it wouldn't be noticed in its time. Hopefully the audience is still coming around to Lee's best film outside of Do The Right Thing (1989). This bitter drama, all past mistakes and future penance, needed time to breathe its city air, dance in its silvery dress and scream at itself in the mirror until it had to face facts.


46 Raising Victor Vargas dir. Peter Sollett (2003)
One of the most tender, well observed coming of age dramas I've ever seen. I consider it a major mark against the world that more people haven't seen it. And I'm still rooting for Victor Razuk to become a big star.

45 Idioterne (The Idiots) dir. Lars von Trier (1998, released in 2000)
Rude, tasteless, sad, funny, pornographic... and kinda brilliant. Dogme 95 may have been a short-lived cinematic manifesto but you could feel its reverberations in the cinema for years afterwards.

44 Reprise dir. Joachim Trier (2006, released in 2008)
A completely cinematic tale of two young literary friends, drifting apart while finding or losing their footing. Trier joins the frustrating list of exciting new auteurs on this top 100 who haven't directed a second film. He must.

43 Spider-Man (2002) & Spider-Man 2 (2004) dir. Sam Raimi
We're pretending that Spider-Man 3 doesn't exist. Which is good policy. The other two are pure popcorn pleasure. Spider-Man does the origin story better than any superhero film ever has, smartly using it as both puberty parallel and coming of age melodrama and #2 is one of those rare sequels that doesn't try to overstuff ... unless you mean with pleasure in which case, doubly so.


42 4 Luni, 3 Saptamâni si 2 Zile (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days) dir. Cristian Mungiu (2007)
This 80s-set Romanian drama about an unwanted pregnancy is relentless. But once you're on its desperate wavelength, a tense and revealing portrait of friendship, economic desperation, and life under Communism emerges.

41 The Hours dir. Stephen Daldry (2002)
An intimate birthday party thrown for actressexuals everywhere and in any time period. The actresses even make the cake and fetch the flowers themselves.

40 Mean Girls dir. Mark Waters (2004)
39 Bring It On dir. Peyton Reed (2000)
The twin titans of teen comedy in the Aughts. Never mind that their eventual imitators were dreck (especially the cheerleaders. Put those DVD spinoffs down. Mercy killing!) these films are so fetch. Eminently rewatchable, hilarious, smartly written, well directed and exuberantly performed... with spirit fingers! Who can even choose a favorite moment from either of them. I'd start listing them but then I'd never get to the next eight movies.

38 The Incredibles dir. Brad Bird (2004)
I could type a hundred words but one will do: bliss.

words are useless. Gobble-gobble-gobble-gobble-gobble! Too much of it, darling, too much!

37 The Royal Tenenbaums dir. Wes Anderson (2001)
Truth: It breaks my heart to think of this movie. And it also makes me guffaw. Both in equal measure. I don't care how many times Wes Anderson repeats himself as long as we have this movie, his masterpiece (according to me). And, besides, more directors should have a strong enough visual aesthetic that we can bitch about them repeating themselves. Do you know what I mean?

36 Birth dir. Jonathan Glazer (2004)
"You're a little liar, aren't you?"

35 Hatuna Meuhert (Late Marriage) dir. Dover Koshashvili (2001, released in 2002)
Like Vargas a bit earlier in the list, this movie became a cause for me: get people to see it! So I really should thank the person that drove me to it: Mike D'Angelo whose Time Out New York review had me rushing to it on opening weekend. Incidentally that's the same opening weekend when Attack of the Clones was making $80 million dollars. Late Marriage made $31,ooo in the same time frame but the return on investment, emotionally and cinematically speaking, was roughly 80 million times better (for me). Not that an Israeli drama about traditional family-sanctioned marriages, a stubborn bachelor, and his erotic affair with a divorcée is all that directly comparable to a movie about two callow (super)powerful teenagers embroiled in an intergalactic war but my point is this: I wish more people would support tiny foreign films when they're great. It's not actually that hard to find out which ones are (it's called "the internet") even if it is still something of a pain to find them (at least there's festival direct programs, dvd and whatnot). I long for those days I never experienced in the 1960s when Americans actually cared about them.

It's something of an Oscar past time for people to bitch about great films being snubbed in the Best Foreign Film Oscar category but this one is barely ever mentioned even though it's better than all the nominees of its year. Nevertheless that annual bitching is justified: there's 9 more foreign language films coming in the top 30 and only 1 of them won the naked gold man.

34 Gosford Park dir. Robert Altman (2001)
God how I miss Robert Altman, the world's best tour guide of crowded rooms.

33 Erin Brockovich dir. Steven Soderbergh (2000)
If only this film, which feels lifted straight from the Classic Hollywood school of dazzlingly executed star vehicles, had proved more influential than its best picture competitors: Traffic (the "hyper link film needs a sabbatical) and Gladiator (so many action films trying to ape it! Stop. You're not Gladiator!); because star vehicles will never leave us. Since they're an enduring staple of cinema, why can't they make them this well all the time?

32 Once dir. John Carney (2007)
How many films take you this close to the fire of creation? And how many films are smart enough to pull away with a bittersweet farewell, just when you think you couldn't possibly love them more.

31 Hedwig and the Angry Inch dir. John Cameron Mitchell (2001)
Though it's rarely discussed in stories about the rebirth of the musical (the story of this film decade?), it ought to be. Two vivid auteurist deconstructions (Dancer in the Dark & Moulin Rouge!) beat it to the theaters. Then Hedwig tore it up, tossing his/her wig around with wild rock n roll abandon, essentially shaking all the remaining cobwebs off the lond dead genre. Chicago dazzles (though it missed this list) but it owes its Oscars to the films preceding it. They cleared the way.

continue on to #30-16


50 best male perfs | 50 best female perfs
back to full blog

*

Decade in Review: 2004 Top Ten

Moving on to 2004. What follows is my original top ten list, based on films released in NYC in 2004. If I have anything new to say that'll be in red after the original text.

Top Ten Runners Up (in descending order): Aviator, Hero, House of Flying Daggers, Mean Girls, Maria Full of Grace, The Five Obstructions, Collateral, Goodbye Lenin!, Birth and Closer Yes, I'm absolutely horrified by the rankings now. Nothing about that ranking feels right now. I am most ashamed that Birth was only at number [cough] 19 in its year. In my self-flattering memory I "almost" put it in the top ten despite the then brutal reviews. I was ahead of my time! Oh well... at least I did actually name it the #1 most underappreciated film of the year. At the time I said...

Jonathan Glazer made a significant splash four years ago when his brilliantly acted heist film Sexy Beast debuted to much acclaim and some arthouse success. That film's success was attributed largely to its magnetic star Ben Kingsley. Glazer's sophomore effort is also built around a brilliant performance, Nicole Kidman's this time. The reaction has been decidedly different. It's far closer to hate than love. Birth is a confounding and unsettling movie and it's meant to be. Nevermind that it's on many worst lists. It's worth seeing because Glazer is going to be an important filmmaker. Despite an ending that feels like a fumble, there is much in Birth that's superbly handled, haunting, daring, and evocative. Stay tuned to Glazer's career.

That big career I was hoping for hasn't materialized (there's still no Birth follow-up) but the film has aged beautifully. But I still love everything on my top ten list so I don't know where exactly I'd put it now... or Mean Girls, which I've watched more than any of the films in the top ten list since. All of a sudden the dawning realization. Might 2004 be the best year of this decade rather than 2001?

10 Bad Education (Pedro Almodovar)Pedro's films have a way of growing stronger on repeat views. You become more attuned to their beautifully executed imagery and storytelling structures. Even if you resist they eventually win you over (though I've yet to succumb to Matador). So, on principle, I knew better than to leave this twisty 'fag-noir' out of my list, even if I loved the also-rans just as much.

Bad Education has many immediate virtues; Gael Garcia Bernal's carnality and triple-whammy star turn, and the expected visual thrills and chills. Curiously though, this fascinating noir also has one virtue that seems to be playing a double role as vice; the layers of stories that are actually all one story. Therein, at least at this writing, lies my tiny seed of discontent and the film's 10th place rank (low for a Pedro). I'm not sure that Bad Education's many superb threads weave expertly into one superlative garment. I loved the stories. I understand them as one story. But I waited for the grand emotional fusion which never quite came. The disparate threads are tightly knit in my head but not my heart.

09 I ♥ Huckabees (David O Russell)
A comedy of chaotic singularity. It's been a long time since we've seen rapid-fire sophisticated verbal joking alongside manic slapstick. It's been an even longer time since the last "existential detective comedy" (Wait --was there a last one?)

If the cultural zeitgeist in 2004 had been all about playful soul-searching rather than blindly choosing sides, Huckabees may have hit big. The film's climax, a scene between two existential detectives (Hoffman & Tomlin) and corporate climber Brad Stand (Jude Law) is formed around the question "How am I not myself?" This inquiry is first posed as a throwaway. Brad's more defensive than curious. He's annoyed that the detectives have questioned his basic internal honesty. He exasperatedly asks "How am I not myself?" as if swatting them away. (What a silly thing to question!) But the detectives begin to repeat the inquiry aloud, spinning it around their own tongues to taste its true meaning. The comedy often emerges from the way they engage and disengage from conversations becoming distracted by their own curiousity. They are both service providers and true believers. But laughs are not the only purpose of this movie. The sequence darkens. Going about his day Brad moves from exasperation to self-loathing to fear, the question haunting him all the while. It takes on a mantra feeling by the end. It's a good question to answer, if you're up for it.

Like Mean Girls this is ridiculously rewatchable. I adore it and I still wish there could be a movie serial that ran before all features following the further exploits of Bernard and Vivian, existential detectives. In fact I wish they could interrupt every bad movie and start "investigating" the director, actors or screenwriter's issues. Why are you making this movie?

08 Dogville (Lars von Trier)
Prologue) In which we are stunned by brilliant staging and an impressive huge cast.
Chapter 1) In which Grace (Nicole Kidman) arrives and Tom (Paul Bettany) the

obvious director-surrogate in this parable gives a 'moral lecture' and is immediately chastized by the narrator for "lashing out somewhat haphazardly in all directions."
Chapter 2-5) "Happy Times" -The cast interacts lovingly...
Chapter 6,7) until their love is exposed as shallow self-interest and their "true face" emerges and the film becomes totally shattering.
Chapter 8,9) In which the director (Von Trier) lashes out somewhat haphazardly in all directions and the film ends.

Dogville is harrowing, excruciating in its inevitability, and unforgettable. While colder than the 'Golden Heart trilogy' (Breaking the Waves, The Idiots, Dancer in the Dark) which raised Von Trier's profile to an icon of divisiveness, Dogville is equally potent. Understandably misread as an Anti-American screed, it's closer to a condemnation of the entire human race. This town is "...not far from here."

07 The Incredibles (Brad Bird)
I saw The Incredibles three times within the month of its opening. And every time something else opened the following month that only looked half-appealing I thought to myself. "Now, self, you can always go and see The Incredibles again!" This great superhero film may be written off as comfort food, but it's not without nutritious value. I've never considered re-watchability to be the strongest indicator of quality but it counts as an obvious plus. The film's cheerful but serious inventiveness becomes more obvious upon repeat viewings.

Brad Bird, who also directed the last American 2-D animation classic The Iron Giant, deserves all the kudos he gets for this special toon. He also wrote the jam-packed, funny and relevant screenplay. He's not the first auteur to work in animation, but he's the genre's greatest superhero behind the scenes in quite some time. He may only be voicing Edna Mode ("I never look back! It distracts me from the 'now'.") but to me he's Mr. Incredible.

For more on Brad Bird, I suggest reading Robert's Directors of the Decade entry. I haven't seen this movie in too long. I'm totally watching it again as soon as this year's awards crush is over.

06 Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (Kim Ki Duk)
Gorgeously humane and intimately scaled, Spring... is the spiritual tonic that the cinemas most needed in this year of religious-fueled fury (The Passion) and human pettiness and ferocity (Dogville). Director Kim Ki Duk also moved from cruelty (see previous films) to peace and meditation here. spring, summer, fall, winter...and spring is structured with complete simplicity (the title is truthful), but what could have been a precious and obvious film is instead profoundly moving.

05 Before Sunset (Richard Linklater)
Making a sequel to a film as delicate and "moment in time"-ish as Before Sunrise seems like a fool's errand. But writer/director Linklater and his stars Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke are no fools. This re-meet is less cute (though still cuddly), deeper, and more resonant. It improbably improves the original, which is a pretty awesome trick. Celine and Jesse have aged well. Before Sunset's purity (it's told in real time) gives a beautiful ebb and flow to the chatty conversation and emotional reveals, and culminates in one of the great movie endings.



The last two movies just get to me. Man, do they get to me. Tears!

04 Sideways (Alexander Payne)
He's four for four now. Payne first made a mark in 1996 when Citizen Ruth won many cinephile hearts for its satirical know-how, poking fun (with gusto) at both sides in the eternal abortion rights battle. Next up came Election (my personal favorite) a hilarious high-school-as-macrocosm of politics movie. And finally, two years ago broader audiences finally discovered his work (with the help of a genuine legend Jack Nicholson) in About Schmidt. Apparently though, for a complete triumph with the sacred trinity of Audience|Critics|Oscar, the fourth time is the charm.


The current backlash-generated question is: Are critics wrong to have been so unanimous in declaring Sideways, a light angsty middle age buddy comedy, the best film of the year? Perhaps. Is that anything to hold against this funny, incisive, memorable, and superbly acted gem? Absolutely not. Drink up!

Though I still think the backlash was as suspect as it claimed the critical reaction was, I readily admit that I don't love this as much now. Before Sunset feels richer when it comes to romantic baggage and if the negatives of this and, say, Birth were on fire. I'd be trying to save Birth. You know? But it's a good movie. So there.

03 Vera Drake (Mike Leigh)
Leigh is most frequently thought of as an ensemble director. His now famous method of working involves months of rehearsal and improv with his team of actors before the movie has a real script and before any footage is shot. His films tend to have uniformly strong work from their entire teeming cast... even the bit roles are perfection. What is less often remarked upon is the way his film's are often built organically around one magical, lived-in and accomplished lead performance from a character actor. Add Imelda Staunton's Vera Drake to the list that includes Brenda Blethyn's teary Cynthia Purley (Secrets and Lies) and the great Jim Broadbent's towering, magnificent William Gilbert in Topsy Turvy.

I wish I had given Imelda Staunton my gold medal that year. I was too caught up in that silly Bening vs. Swank round two stuff. Argh! Done in by Oscar punditry and my own actressexual "issues".

02 Spider-Man 2 (Sam Raimi)
The first film in years to make me feel like a little kid again. Absolutely joyous from start to finish. My gratitude goes out to Tobey Macguire and Kirsten Dunst who continue to exhibit a rare chemistry. Kudos also to the team behind Doctor Octopus. Superheroes need a great rogues gallery and Doctor Octopus alone makes 2 a significant improvement on the original. I don't know if "there's a hero in all of us" but Sam Raimi is one in my book. He continues to show complete acceptance and love for that most maligned genre; the comic book film. This webslinging adventure is, quite simply, the greatest superhero movie ever. "Excelsior!"

01 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry)

When I first published my top ten list I never entered any text to explain my number one choice. For a movie that's at least partially about self-erasure, I suppose that's appropriate. The movie is utterly brilliant. Unlike Joel's memories, it will endure forever.

I know you love Eternal Sunshine, but what else made 2004 great for you? Oscar went crazy for Million Dollar Baby (I like it more now than I did back then), the public went crazy for Shrek 2 and The Passion of the Christ and The Bourne Supremacy. You?
*

Directors of the Decade: Lars von Trier

Robert here, continuing my series of the directors that shaped the past 10 years. I know I promised another Pixar guy last week and we’ll get to him soon. But since everyone just finished celebrating the ultimate American holiday, I thought I’d appropriately take a look at one of the country’s greatest cinematic cheerleaders. A man who has never been to America but makes so many films about it, it's obvious he really loves the place. Lars von Trier

Number of Films: Six (or Five and a half, considering a co-director credit)
Modern Masterpieces: Probably none. I feel like I’ve been overly generous with this term since I denied it to Scorsese back in entry #1. Still the film that comes closest is Dogville
Total Disasters: No total disasters but several partial ones.
Better than you remember: None. Actually all of Von Trier’s films this decade have been pretty accurately received.
Awards: Had four films shown at Cannes and won the Palme d’Or for Dancer in the Dark. And did you know Lars is an Oscar (and Golden Globe) nominee? That would be for co-writing Dancer in the Dark’s Best Original Song entry “I Have Seen it All”
Box Office: Dogville’s gross topped a million. Thank Nicole Kidman for her status.
Critical Consensus: Highest rated is The Five Obstructions. Highest rated non-documentary would be The Boss of it All (more on why this is weird later).
Favorite Actor: Udo Kier of course… you knew that.

Let’s talk about:
Mischief. Sure that seems like a bit of an understatement considering the fury and misery that Von Trier’s latest film is inspiring. But “mischief” I think is the perfect term. Von Trier considers himself a provocateur, an artist whose inspiration comes not from real life, love, poetry or truth but his desire to get under people’s skin. I don’t think Von Trier considers himself much more than a rascal. Take The Five Obstructions. One of his most telling films, simply because we get to see him on camera talking, explaining his thought process and motives. Each time director Jorgen Leth successfully meets Von Trier’s challenges, Lars reformulates his plan while openly admitting his goal of making Leth experience a real psychological disturbance, all the while laughing and smiling. Lars von Trier doesn’t really take himself too seriously but he makes films that are serious, brutal and intentionally offensive. As art, sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn’t.

Dancer in the Dark, his first film of the decade (not counting The Idiots which was finished and released in Europe in 99 but America in 00) is a good example of Lars’s inconsistency. In fact his entire “Sacred Heart Trilogy” demonstrates how Lars is a great technician, able to work well with actors (here Björk is fantastic) and evoke genuine emotional involvement from his audience. But the path he takes to provoke the audience isn’t always as successful. Lars’s “sacred heart” females must be so insistently innocent (almost unrealistically unwilling to defend themselves against adversity) to prove his point about society’s evils that this point gets lost in the mix. When his protagonists display less manufactured naïveté, such as Nicole Kidman’s Grace in Dogville, his movies fare much better. Kidman’s performance and a plot that turns up the shock and awe naturally combine to make Dogville Lars’s most successful film of this decade. Oh sure, critical reaction was mixed, but for Lars von Trier, critical acclaim will never equal great success, since critical acclaim requires making a lot of people happy.

Welcome to Dogville

This is why The Boss of it All, Lars’s most critically acclaimed film may, in fact, be his greatest failure. After the disastrous Manderlay, in which Lars hits us with so many racial offenses (including lazy and ignorant slaves, preachy white guilt, an interracial sex scene featuring a submissive white woman and aggressive black man, and yes, even blackface) and is so blatant in its attempt to offend that it can’t possibly succeed, it wouldn’t surprise me if Lars was absolutely spent. So with The Boss of it All he tried a different, non-thematic provocation. Automavision allowed a computer to decide what pans tilts and movements the camera would make. So was Lars suggesting that the director or the cinematographer was no longer necessary, that a computer could do just as good a job? No one seemed to care. The resulting film was a successful comedy and the process offended no one. Great reviews. Lars could not have been happy.

For the past half-year, Lars has been getting his revenge, torturing critics and audiences with Antichrist. It’s another well constructed, well acted film with content so determined to provoke it’s success can only be partial. But provoke it has, and stir discussion it has. Lars may not have a great piece of art on his hands but he’s certainly cemented his status as one of cinema’s greatest provocateurs. And that is noteworthy. In an age of torture-porn teen flicks, realty TV trash, instant internet hardcore, and non-stop phony political outrage it’s not easy to genuinely provoke people anymore. Von Trier isn’t always successful and his lack of consistency may preclude him from being among the greatest directors of the decade. But he’s successful enough to be one of the most important and interesting directors of the decade. He’s in tune with the zeitgeist… just enough to know how to poke it in the eye, with a wink and a smile.