REVIEW: MAN TO MAN
Max Hoffmann
A film review by Max Hoffmann
Copyright 1993 Max Hoffmann
US Premiere at San Francisco Film Festival
Rating: 12 (on scale of 1->10)
England, 1992, 72 minutes video (from 16mm)
Director: John Maybury
Producer: James Mackay
Screenplay: Manfred Karge
Camera: Dominique Le Rigoleur
Editor: Maybury, Nigel Hadley
Cast: Tilda Swinton
Print: Basilisk Communications
IN A NUTSHELL: an extraordinary creation by Director John Maybury, with
a towering performance by the unstoppable Tilda Swinton. Based on a
true story of a woman who crossed the gender line and lived as a man in
Nazi Germany. The film offers an entrancing world of composite images,
the hypnotic canvas of Tilda Swinton's face, and an intense look into
the best and worst of human survival.
Imagine that it's 1930, and you're the first amongst your friends
to see THE BLUE ANGEL with Marlene Dietrich. Then you're told it may
not be shown again! That's the unthinkable situation for this
brilliant new offering from John Maybury. About 60 thousand pounds is
needed to transfer the film from video to 35mm, and a distributor must
be found. (Information on where to send your donations/inquiries at
end of review.) I spoke with the Director, and there are currently no
more scheduled viewings. If you want to see this film, dig, and dig
deep. As Aimee Semple McPherson said when passing her collection
plate, "I don't want to hear any of that metal sound; let's make it
paper, please."
ABOUT THE FILM: my description will fall short of matching the
film's genius, so keep an open mind. It is a tour d' force, one-woman
show, based on the true story of a woman who assumed her dead husband's
identity to avoid destitution. (This was not an isolated case, and in
other festival showings, the director has encountered evidence of about
a dozen similar cases.) From this vantage point comes a view of fear,
power and regret that is only possible when gender is hidden. Rather
than being a specific glimpse of Nazi Germany preserved in amber, the
film rises to a higher level, and is universal in scope and relevance.
This film is a visceral portrayal of exactly what it's like to
stifle who and what you really are. As such, the film's essence is
immediately recognizable to any gay who's suffocated in the closet, to
any woman who's hidden her talents to "get a man," or to any member of
the status quo who has stayed silent in the presence of outspoken
bigotry. It is a film that must be seen, and be seen by many.
The film is startlingly original. It neither sags nor looks
stagey, which is often the case for one-actor-stage-shows attempted on
film. Maybury (who's worked with the medium of video for thirteen
years) supports Swinton's performance with brilliant composite images
(drawn from newsreels of the time, contemporary footage of Berlin, and
the most compelling image imaginable, Tilda Swinton's amazing face).
Swinton portrays over a dozen characters, male and female, and with
chameleon-like subtlety. Whoever did hair, costume and makeup is
a genius.
The end result? The best of stage and screen art combined.
There are several soul-shattering, personal moments of revelation
that you'd normally associate only with the highest peaks of
world-class "live" theatre. It is when the film's acting/directing is
so brilliantly intense that you are stripped of every barrier ...
granted the vision to peer into the absolute essence of Swinton's
character. Yet this film still has the best "fluid" aspects of
cinema, and you never feel "trapped" in a filmed stage play.
Even if the camera work and directing were inept (which is far
from the case) this film would warrant a rave review, just for the
privilege of seeing Swinton's epic performance. There are moments,
like the one when the unmoving camera stays fixed on Swinton's slanted
face against a pillow that reach the summit of great film acting. It
compares with Emil Jannings dropping to his knees in THE LAST LAUGH's
washroom; Jean Louis-Berrault's achingly unrequited love for Arletty in
CHILDREN OF PARADISE; and the brief scene in WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA
WOOLF when Elizabeth Taylor (viewed through a screen door) drops all
her defenses and confesses her love and dependence for "George," ....
Director John Maybury has achieved the unthinkable by capturing
every nuance of Swinton's performance, while exercising deft skill in
either isolating her image in unforgettable black and white, or
enhancing it with a kaleidoscope of color composite shots.
The film is uncompromising, and "takes no prisoners" in its
relentless mission to stay true to intentions of the script. At times
it is difficult to watch, and it occasionally takes concentration for
an American audience to filter everything through Swinton's heavy
working class accent. The director's approach is deliberately
antagonistic, both sexually and politically. The choices made by
Swinton's character will alternately draw you closer to her, or
distance and repulse you. The ambiguity of gender is just one of many
levels the film offers for interpretation.
HISTORY: Maybury was given 160,000 pounds and a ten day shooting
schedule by the BBC. He had a minuscule three weeks to edit. This
will stun you when you see the fine instincts that went into the
composite shots, and the variety of ways Swinton is framed. Images are
often painfully original. Swinton assumes the gaunt features of a
concentration camp victim, while an inverted camera makes her appear to
be clinging from the ceiling, bat-like. In another image, splashed
with symbolic menstrual blood, she assumes the angular, almost
pre-natal positions common in Weimar abstract art. The final close-up
of her heavily socketed, aging face resembles the famous "optical
trick" image of the Gibson girl in front of a large vanity mirror--from
a distance it becomes a skull.
In the Q/A session, the director revealed that many of these
"archetypal" images were subconscious. He drew from a vast library of
techniques and images he's used before (enabling him to create a
masterpiece, and not a "low-budget" offering in just ten days).
The script was derived from a one woman play (starring Swinton, of
course) staged at the Edinburgh Festival in 1987. The original English
translation from the German was "plain text." All movement and staging
belongs to Maybury. This film was completed in 1992, before Swinton
did ORLANDO.
Unfortunately, the BBC transferred the 16mm original (which has
much more subtle lighting effects) to video, and televised it,
essentially killing the film's chances for distribution in the UK.
Hence the director is now in the unenviable position of seeking
funding to make a 35mm print and get distribution elsewhere. He has a
five- minute test of how luminous the film is, when transferred to 35mm.
My comparison to THE BLUE ANGEL is no exaggeration. This film,
if it is distributed, is destined to achieve such enduring appeal.
Financial support or inquiries for obtaining a print can be
directed to the producer:
James Mackay
BASILISK
31 Percy Street
London W1
(071) 580-7222 voice
(071) 631-0572 FAX
... be sure to tell them "Max sent me." (I want my name in the credits!)