March 6, 2009

Cinema file: a lush femme fatale thriller at Film Forum

NewYorkology film columnist Tim McGonagle was orphaned in a revival theater in Boston, Mass. in the mid-1970s. While other kids were outside playing tag, he was busy absorbing the films of Buster Keaton, Akira Kurosawa and the inappropriate-for-his-then-age, John Cassavettes. Currently he contributes to the “Noir of the Week” film website and maintains a blog of his own. Here are his picks of upcoming cinema offerings in New York City.

Daddy Issues
When Hamlet’s wrath was at its peak toward his traitorous mother Queen Gertrude, he was hell-bent upon revenge against her. The ghost of his father however warned him not to seek vengeance but instead, “leave her to heaven, and to those thorns that in her bosom lodge to prick and sting her.” Apt advice to heed for Richard Harland (Cornell Wilde) as he slowly learns his beautiful wife Ellen (Gene Tierney) is a virtuoso in matters of duplicity and has a heart like a vial filled with poison in director John M. Stahl’s Leave Her to Heaven (1945) playing at Film Forum today through Thursday.

The film has many of the road signs in a classic melodrama, yet it drives more like a Technicolor film noir. Wilde plays an affable, and perhaps naïve, writer who falls for Gene Tierney’s stunning beauty. But included in the comely package is a whole myriad of oedipal issues regarding her recently deceased father, who Wilde strongly resembles. Tierney’s character is both alluring and frighteningly possessive. Ellen Harland sees anything her husband Richard may call his own (his writing career, Wilde’s handicapped brother, their unborn baby) as obstacles standing in the way of her insatiable need to be the axis of his attention. Stahl ratchets up the tension at a perfect pace as we watch Ellen’s insidious and deadly manipulations decimate Richard’s life and those he cares about.

Visually Leave Her to Heaven is an amazing film as Stahl pulled out all the stops to make it one of the most lush looking femme fatale thrillers of all time. The sets, costumes and dreamy palate of colors used are wonderfully bright and saturated in juxtaposition to the extremely dark nightmare of a story that unfolds. The camerawork garnered cinematographer Leon Shamory an Academy Award for the film as well as Tierney and the art directors receiving Oscar nods for their work.

Back to the Coop
When contemplating the recent passing of the great Paul Newman, one can’t help but think of the numerous incredible performances he graced the silver screen with over his half-century of filmmaking; Hud, Cool Hand Luke, The Verdict, Hombre, The Hustler, The Color of Money and Slap Shot are just a few from a long impressive list. One role in particular that often gets overlooked is his portrayal of Chance Wayne in Sweet Bird of Youth (1962.)

Newman is again teamed up with director Richard Brooks and the source material of a Tennessee Williams play, as it apparently worked well for them a few years earlier in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. While some of the story may have been heavily sanitized for the 1962 audience, the essential Williams elements remain. The most crucial reasons to go see it on the big screen is the fantastic performances of Ed Begley, a young Rip Torn and especially Geraldine Page. Newman however keeps the film together as the misguided protagonist who at one time was the toast of his southern hometown of St. Cloud, Florida, returning as an unwanted and disgraced wash-up. Expertly rendering a deeply flawed character, Newman manages to elicit the perfect amount of emotional ambivalence from the audience to keep us fascinated and watching his every move.

Sweet Bird of Youth plays at Anthology Film Archives on March 7 and 14.

Imported Canadian Heebie Jeebies
Waverly Midnights at the IFC have David Cronenberg films galore for the next several weeks. Tonight gives us his incredible remake of The Fly (1986) that contains the greatest arm wrestling scene in film history, easily beating any in Sylvester Stallone’s 1987 picture depicting the world of competitive arm wrestling Over the Top, hands (or broken arms) down. There are more great titles of his to come with eXistenZ (1999), The Dead Zone (1983) and personal favorite Videodrome (1983) in which the exclamation “Long live the new flesh!” really should have been the catch-phrase of the 80‘s instead of “Where’s the beef?”

Image source: Film Forum

March 6, 2009 9:56 AM in Downtown, Sightsology

®Copyright 2004 - 2009, All Rights Reserved