Olivier Assayas 3: Jordan, Kieslowski, _Rendezvous_, _Alice and Martin_
sept...@millenicom.com
but it seems working definition of art is that which
brings out the extraordinary in the quotidian, reveals
the mystery in the mundane. The artist steals fire
from the gods, turns lead into gold. Viewed that way,
Olivier Assayas is a deeply perverse filmmaker whose
slacker-chic ethos insists on anti-alchemy. Take Maggie
Cheung playing herself in _Irma Vep_. She is portrayed
as the straight gal and generic genre actress in the
midst of lesbian wardrobe hands, flaky technicians,
and crazy directors. In real life this cannot be
further from the truth. Maggie Cheung is truly
extraordinary, the best and possibly most decorated
female Chinese dramatic thespian of her generation,
whose resume already included Wong's first three films
and Kwan's _The Actress_ at that point. She also has
a reputation of being something of a diva -- and why
shouldn't she be, having been hounded by Hong Kong's
relentless paparazi half her life. In _Clean_ she is
all but forgettable as an ex-drug addict and mediocre
techno singer. When she won best actress at Cannes,
I assume it was really for her unrewarded performance
in _In the Mood for Love_ the last time around.
Similarly, Assayas repeatedly vulgarizes semi-precious
art objects in his films with price tags, robbing them
of mystery and emotional content. The painting the dead
writer leaves his teenage girlfriend in _Late August,
Early September_ is only memorable for its monetary worth.
Recently, in _Summer Hours_, when the old servant takes
the fish-vase, mistaking it as worthless (i.e., ridding
its of societal value), it is transformed into a medieval
amulet, its deep sense of personal history instantly
restored. Not bad, but look at what Neil Jordan (the
absolute past master of prop in the heroic nineties)
manages to do with cheap sunglasses and key chains in
_Mona Lisa_ and _The Miracle_! Passed from one person
to the next, objects and bits of dialog become the
miraculous media for intermingling of identities, create
a profound sense of interconnectedness. The set of
keys Lorraine Pilkington's character steals to set
animals free from the circus truly opens the pandora
box! _The Miracle_ is my absolute favorite Jordan film.
Its teenage protagonists, wise beyond their years,
use art (story telling) to elevate, transform, make
universal their formative experience in the small Irish
sea-side town; the self-knowledge that emerges from this
work makes them more mature and less self-centered even
as it forces them to confront their primal emotions.
("Yes, I'm jealous. Very jealous.") This neglected
masterpiece is overdue for a Criterion treatment.
And speaking of the heroic nineties, don't forget that
Irene Jacob won Best Actress at Cannes for _The Double
Life of Veronique_ for essentially playing opposite bits
of shoestrings, a crystal ball, and two marionettes!
(And opposite director Kieslowski too, off-screen,
inches from her face.) The blue mobile and reflections
in the coffee cup in _Blue_ are certainly memorable and
have influenced an entire generation of indie film-makers
(including Karen Moncrieff and many others), but the
production design of _Three Colors: Red_ is undoubtedly
the greatest within the trilogy. Jean-Louie Tritignant
plays Prospero, so his mansion is littered with talismans,
but Irene Jacob's apartment also has a wonderful lived-in
feel that underscores the miraculous grace of her youth;
it helps make her Tritignant's worthy adversary. I took
detailed notes of the production design during the
Kieslowski retrospective 3 years ago. Hopefully I can
pull myself together soon and write these up. It will
be hard and draining. I have yet to recover from his
death, which has left such a gaping hole in cinema.
Not to be too harsh on Assayas, who is almost harmless
compared to terrorists like Michael Hanacke. I wouldn't
so bothered by him if he doesn't get praised to the sky
for not tripping over his shoelace all the time. Tastes
differ, but I have a hard time seeing how he is considered
superior to his contemporaries like Denis, Jacquot,
Chereau, Tavernier, Jeunet, Brisseau, even Claude Miller.
But enough of all this. This post is supposed to contrast
Techine and Assayas through the prism of their two
collaborations, _Rendezvous_ and _Alice and Martin_. I
was specifically asked to compare these two "inconsistent"
filmmakers. I'm not sure that Techine's films vary greatly
in merit, not counting his early ones. I just rewatched
the early _Baracco_, which has amazingly elegant camera
work and lighting. Unfortunately these technical elements
unduely constrain the actors. Gerald Depardieu and Isabel
Adjani are among the most feral and uninhabited of performers,
and they are liked caged animals here yearning for the
wilderness. In his later films, probably starting from
_Hotel America_ (1980), sensuous open spaces and free-wheeling
camera motion has become almost a Techine trademark.
_Rendezvous_ is easy. The writing is credited to Techine
and Assayas, in that order, but there is almost nothing of
_Irma Vep_ or _Late August, Early September_ in it. The film
is operatic, drenched in emotions and saturated colors; it's
passion is heroic, larger than life. Juliette Binoche plays
Nina, an aspiring actress mired in walk-on roles and easy
virtues. She has a run-in with Lambert Wilson, an intense,
architypal actor/genius who survived a suicide pact (his
lover did not) and is deep into self-destruction and
pornography. He kills himself and his ghost haunts Nina
the rest of the way (did Stanley Kwan borrow all this for
_Rouge_?). His mentor (Tritignant) shows up and drafts Nina
for the role of Juliet despite her limitatons. What follows
is a 5-way searing emotional struggle between Nina,
Shakespeare's words, Tritignant, Wilson's ghost, and another
of Nina's pesky admirer. The film ends on her on the verge
of walking on stage for the first time. It is French and
enigmatic to the core, emotionally naked and uninhibited;
in fact may have been the first French film I ever saw, and
helps defined French cinema for me. Watching the DVD again
makes me want to read more Shakespeare. That's what cinema,
the grand uniter of the arts, is supposed to do. It also
reminds me that Binoche has always been a wonderfully
expressive actress but she could never run like a dancer.
Interesting that she recently went on a modern dance tour!
If this were an Assayas film of his slacker-chic era things
would probably be completely diferent. There will be no
rehearsal scenes, or the numerous instances showing Binoche
struggling with her craft. In fact the play would not have
been the populist _Romeo and Juliet_ at all, but something
obscure to flatter the insiders among the art-house crowd.
The bard's words would never have been read. Nina would
have been satisfied with being a mediocre actress, and she
would be buffeted by a quirky army of like-minded hipsters
The film would be wonderfully entertaining and it would have
no light or heat.
Instead, by the end of _Rendezvous_, Nina's pesky lover has
deserted her, Tritignant has excorcized Wilson's ghost, and
has himself taken off. She is all by herself with her utter
loneliness, terror, and determination to succeed, about to
face her audience, herself, the truth itself. The film ends
just as the curtain raises on Act 1. If that is a cliched
portrait of an artist as a loner it is because it is so true;
after all, Binoche herself rose from nowhere to a French icon
in essentially the same circumstances, with a debut in
_Rendezvous_!
_Alice and Martin_ makes for a more subtle comparison. I
finally relented and bought a region 2 DVD in Hong Kong,
despite the fact that my cheap all-region player doesn't work
well with the PAL format. (You can buy almost anything,
regions 0-9, in the ex-colony. The only DVD you won't find
is Lou Ye's _Summer Palace_ which dared to depict the
Tianenman massacre.) The screenplay is credited to Techine,
Gilles Taurand, "with the collaboration of" Assayas. The
opening is literary and reminscent of Techine's _Scene of
the Crime_, with the lead (Binoche again) not appearing until
20 minutes later. The rest of the writing feels very much
like Assayas'. Her character has been literally a second-string
all her life, a violinist with stage fright who gets by
playing at weddings and with a second rate string quartet.
Roommmate Mathieu Amalric plays an gay actor struggling to
get work and moonlights as a security-guard day job. The
two live in Assayas-style symbiotic codependence, alternating
as each other's figurative child, until Amalric's troubled
younger brother comes along and steals Binoche away. He
has a mental-breakdown and she goes in search of answers,
battling the privileged bourgeois matriarch and mayor-brother
of Amalric's all the way. The difference between her and
Assayas' characters is the personal and moral choices she
makes. Instead of cruising along in limbo, she commits
to waiting for the younger brother to recover (not to mention
to get out of prison). She will never become a star, but
despite her meager resources, her choice made her truly noble,
courageous, and yes, heroic. I've yet to see any of Assayas'
characters capable of doing that, even in _Summer Hours_.
Binoche's character in _Alice and Martin_ puts them all to
shame. It is getting to be November in Assayas' cinematic
age; about time someone in his film starts growing up.
sept...@millenicom.com
>
> _Alice and Martin_ makes for a more subtle comparison.
> despite her meager resources, her choice made her truly noble,
> courageous, and yes, heroic. I've yet to see any of Assayas'
> characters capable of doing that, even in _Summer Hours_.
> Binoche's character in _Alice and Martin_ puts them all to
> shame.
I forgot to mention one last thing ... even though _Alice and
Martin_ is not Techine's greatest film (everyone seems to agree
on that), I believe that Binoche's character is one of her best,
if not her very best, in her entire career, and perhaps it is
even one of the best female roles in recent years period.
jaimelecinema
The film VICTORIA directed & starring the unique Anna Karina and
produced by the Canadian producer Hejer Charf (www.hejercharf.com)
will be showing at Mill Valley Festival in California where Anna
Karina will be the guest of Honor and receive the Mill Valley Film
Festival Award. The Festival will show several of the Nouvelle Vague
films. Hejer Charf and Anna Karina are working on another project.
Anna karina is back for real!