Ace in the Hole
Billy Wilder (1951)
Of the many threads which came to constitute legendary film maker Billy Wilder's remarkable life, one of the earliest saw him working the newspaper racket in 1920's Berlin. The plucky young Austrian immigrant climbed his way up from the street corners to the tabloids before screenwriting eventually came on the cards. A decade later he arrives in America with $11 in his pocket and not a word of English, and almost two decades after that- having become one of Hollywood's biggest names- he brought that newsman knowledge to bear on this furious, stunning film.
Ace in the Hole stars Kirk Douglas as Chuck Tatum; an out of work journo who finds himself relegated to small-town Albuquerque as he looks for that one big story which will take him back to the top. He believes he's found it when a local man becomes trapped in a sacred Indian cave. Tatum immediately gets to work twisting the story; the poor man's wife; the sheriff and the townspeople to meet his every whim.
The production finds most people involved at the very top of their game- Kirk Douglas manages apathy and empathy in the lead role, striking matches off typewriters and rambling with glee; cinematographer Charles Lang makes chilling use of light, shadow and location; Wilder's script is as slick, lean and quotable as any in his career- but perhaps what's most startling about this film, for the time, is just what a livid piece of work it really is. Within days of breaking his story, Tatum transforms the two-bit town into a teeming cesspool of hubris, consumerism and greed. At one point the journo convinces the sheriff and contractor that in order to keep the story alive for a few more days they should drill in from the top instead of shoring up the walls inside. The doctor suggests that the entombed man can hack the stint but the incessant, throbbing noise begins to drive him mad.
Wilder had lost his mother and grandmother, most likely in Auschwitz although it's still unknown, just a few years before, so he knew a thing or two about the power of manipulation and the politics of The Mob. So as America basked in its post war bliss, Wilder allowed the nation's timeless vices of power, one-man-ambition and money take the form of a crushing, malevolent, indifferent drilling machine. The results are uncompromising, grim and surely one of the great metaphors of post-war American cinema.
Between 1944 and 1960, Billy Wilder wrote and directed what many consider to be 8 of the greatest films ever made. Ace in the Hole might just be the pick of the bunch.
Stalker
Andrei Tarkovsky (1979)
Andrei Tarkovsky's most revered film is a tricky, monolithic piece of science fiction which follows a professor, a writer and their Stalker guide as they set out into a mysterious, supernatural sector called The Zone. We're told that many believe it was the result of a meteorite falling on the USSR. It's said that a room exists in the space in which one's greatest desires come true. Our travelers ponder the implications of such a room as they slowly trek through the desolate wastes.
Tarkovsky made it his goal to elevate film to the levels of his fellow countrymen in the literary world and, although this writer has never dared delve into any of that, there is a sense of weighted Russian literature at work. The conversations are often fascinating but they also have a tendency to drag on. There's meat to be had, no doubt about it, but it just keeps slipping off the plate. Indeed, the film seems untouchable in art and film school circles, but perhaps all the rambling is best left there.
What does resonate, however, is the Russian's imagery. Tarkovsky is simply obsessed with water. Odd things always seem to be lurking within: a gun; a picture of Christ; then out of nowhere some carp float in. The walls, at times, even seem to resemble it and, at one cathartic indoor moment, it inexplicably begins to rain. The final scene alone will trouble you for days.
Demands multiple viewings; existential meanderings; scratched heads.
Perhaps the academics are right.
Moulin Rouge!
Baz Luhrmann (2001)
At the turn of the century we found one of modern cinema's most sensational directors at the height of his powers; all guns blazing. The third feature of Baz Luhrmann's career is an anarchic musical spectacular based within the titillating- and titular- Parisian cabaret.
Ewan McGregor stars as an ambitious, hopelessly romantic writer fresh off the boat, so to speak, in a dreamy 1900 version of Paris. He soon finds himself tasked with the job of penning a production for the infamous club; a play which will win the heart of the city's most glittering star (Nicole Kidman, channeling the greats to varying degrees of effect). The work is to be funded by a wealthy duke who wishes to take the lady's hand as well. Hearts can be located on sleeves; backs are liable to get stabbed; and there's a love song medley as art imitates art imitating life and so on...
Despite the gnawing feeling that you're watching a two hour long perfume ad, there is something quite remarkable about how immersive an experience Moulin Rouge! really is. Catherine Martin's sets are about as brash and OTT as you're likely to see and the film's Star (capitol S) inhabits them with the sort of grace and glamour which Hollywood hadn't seen in decades. In anyone else's hands this could very well have been a fairly dull affair, indeed, Luhrmann could have shot his grandiose spectacle as a sweeping, boring melodrama, but he doesn't.
In fact, he and cinematographer Donald McAlpine go completely bananas.
Camp, eccentric sound designs; quickfire, late 90's, handheld moves; suits, frills and fabric all over the shop; an audacious exclamation mark in the title. It might not be to everyone's taste- indeed this writer found it all a little sweet to swallow- but stick it out, all sorts of barns are stormed for the thunderous final act.
The Nirvana mash-up near the start might be difficult to forgive but then who knows; perhaps Cobain would have appreciated the sheer energy of this subversive Aussie maverick. For what little it's worth, I know I do.
