| From New York Film Festival: The Middle East |
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The Darjeeling Limitedwritten and directed by Wes Anderson  From left: Jason Schwartzman as Jack, Adrien Brody as Peter and Owen Wilson as Francis in "The Darjeeling Limited" Instead of the businessman, Wes is following Francis (Owen Wilson), Peter (Adrien Brody) and Jack (Jason Schwartzman), three brothers who are on a spiritual quest. Exactly what this is for isn't explained for most of the film, but these are not exactly people, these are cartoon characters in human drag, and they act like it. They argue, they have magic props, and Jack gets stewardess Rita (Amara Karan) in the sack. They also fight with the Chief Steward (Waris Ahluwalia), and Francis' flunky, Brendan (Wally Wolodarsky). There's a flashback which makes little sense, and numerous references to a short Anderson and Schwartzman made with Natalie Portman a few years before, which of course, was only shown at selected film festivals with this film, but is not going to be in general release. Anderson's films are mostly tableaus, with the characters posing rather than actually acting. He does this in every film, and it is annoying as hell. (Granted, this is one of his better ones; "The Life Aquatic" was horrible). Anjelica Huston has a short part as the boy's mother and Ms. Portman has a two second cameo with Bill Murray. What a waste of such talent. Persepoliswritten and directed by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud  Marjane explaining to a guardian of the revolution that she lives right near where a bomb fell and that he needs to let her by in "Persepolis" For the rest of the world, this is old hat—especially in France, where "band desinee" albums have been a major part of adult literature for decades. It is in the French tradition where Marjane Satrapi's graphic memoir of her childhood and adolescence in Iran belongs. The two volumes of "Persepolis" became best sellers on both sides of the Atlantic, and Satrapi became a literary heroine of sorts, bringing out the truth of what it was like to live in Iran during the Revolution and afterwards. And since it was originally a comic, the idea that it would be translated to the screen as an animated cartoon made quite a bit of sense. Apparently, the production was entirely hand-drawn, including the inking and painting of cels, something that might not be done again on such a scale in the age of computers. It works quite well. Marjane (voiced by Chiara Mastrtoianni) first appears as an adult, where she's hanging out at the Paris airport considering whether to go home to Iran or not. At this point the film is in color, but when it turns into a flashback, and the child Marjane (Gabrielle Lopes) is hanging out with her friends in Teheran at the end of the Shah's regime, the film becomes the black and white of the comic book. Redactedwritten and directed by Brian De Palma  Mike Figueroa as Sgt. Vazques in "Redacted" Had this been almost any other country, De Palma would probably be in jail. God Bless the USA. What De Palma has done is what is called a "mockumentary;" a fictional film done in a documentary style, and is very loosely based on what might be an actual rape of an Iraqi girl sometime in 2006. Starting with the HD video diary of PFC Angel Salazar (Izzy Diaz) [he wants to get into film school], we're introduced to his platoon, Corporal Gabe Blix (Kel O'Neill), who spends his time reading John O'Hara's "Appointment in Samarra"; a guy named Lawyer McCoy (Rob Devaney), who has a conscience [GASP!]; and a couple of racist morons: B.B. Rush (Daniel Stewart Sherman) and Reno Flake (Patrick Carroll). Their leader, Master Sgt. James Sweet (Ty Jones), is the only thing keeping them in line, us yankee scum being barbarians and all. Their mission is to guard the check points, which means that they have to shoot lots of innocent people. [Did you know that in the last 24 months 2,000 Iraqis were killed at checkpoints and only 60 proven to be insurgents?] So between the shenanigans on Salazar's tape, and a pseudo-French documentary utilizing an inappropriate rendition of Handel's "Sarabande," we are blasted with the full propaganda message again and again. Our boys blast away at a car containing a pregnant woman and her brother, and when word gets out, they go and arrest some of the relations. Not only that, but Rush and Flake decide to go and rape one of the women in the house. Things go from bad to worse for our boys, and, as the racist stereotypes they are, they get what's coming to them. The film ends with photos of the carnage in Iraq, just to get the point across that the viewer is guilty of supporting a fascist regime. Who, on a Friday evening or Saturday afternoon would, in his or her right mind, go and see this thing? On the one hand, De Palma is a consummate professional. It's clear he knows what he's doing, but the acting is only mediocre, and the documentary style plays against the film, which really doesn't have much of a plot and characters we don't give a flying fuck about. Old Brian has jumped the shark. At least he went out with a bang.
© Eric Lurio 2007
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