Father Geek here with our first 3 reports from the BOSTON FILM FESTIVAL and its heavy duty opening night film THE GREY ZONE with Steve Buscemi, Harvey Keitel, David Arquette and Mira Sorvino. So with no more filler from me here's Paul Revere galloping in with the 1st look at the fest...
You get to go to China and Paul Revere here can't even get out of Boston to hit the Toronto Film Festival. Fortunately (though I don't know why), Boston has its own festival the same week (I wrote with a review of Brotherhood Of The Wolf from last year's festival). Hopefully, I'll be able to check in with updates every day.
THE GREY ZONE
I had trepeditions going into this film. Last year, the festival featured Edges Of The Lord, a film about the Holocaust produced by Millenium Films with some recognizable names, and it was one of the worst films I saw all year. So, when I saw the "Millenium Films" vanity card in front of Tim Blake Nelson's Holocaust drama featuring David Arquette, Steve Buscemi, Mira Sorvino, Harvey Keitel et al, I started to worry about history repeating itself.
The beginning didn't do a whole lot to allay my fears - the movie plays like a collection of scenes, as opposed to a cohesive story, in the early going. Nelson doesn't flinch from showing the atrocities and horrors of Auschwicz, but in the first half of the movie, bits of plot are just sprinkled in among scenes mostly intended to put the audience in the situation, not just of the camps, but of the prisoners who have made a Faustian bargain with their captors - they assist in running the camp in exchange for extra priveleges and a chance to live a little longer.
The second half picks up, though - Arquette's Hoffman finds a girl who somehow survives the gas, which forces the prisoners to confront their moral dilemma: They haven't killed anybody, themselves, personally, but the Nazis will notice any body not thrown into the furnace. So they must try to find a way to save this girl without damaging their other plans.
David Arquette is an unusual choice for the lead role, as the director readily acknowledged in the Q&A afterward, but it works - he does have, as Nelson said, a sense of sadness and shame about him that plays into the character. There's not a bad performance to be found, really, although Keitel's Nazi commander is more a necessary character than an interesting one. Special kudos to David Chandler, who shares a scene or two with Arquette that are very good indeed.
Probably the most unusual decision Nelson made was to have the bulk of the cast speak using their normal, North American accents despite playing Hungarian Jews (Keitel does affect a German accent). It's a logical decision - you're already "translating" the dialog into English, so why put further distance between the audience and the characters - but it is a break with convention. I think it worked, but there will be some for whom it won't.
Overall, a pretty decent movie, worth looking out for when it starts being released in October.
XX/XY
Now, here's a film that's really split into two halves; unfortunately, this time, the first half is the better one.
As the film starts, Sam (Maya Strange) and Thea (Kathleen Robertson) are students at Sarah Lawrence College, and Coles (Mark Ruffalo) is an animator who sees Sam on the subway and connects with her at a party that night. The movie quickly becomes "things that never happen to me" as they're involved in a three-way less than ten minutes into the film, but it does establish their characters quickly - Coles is laid back, taking life as it comes without much thought as to what comes next; Sam is likeable and energetic but not quite as adventurous as she thought; and Thea is impulsive, tending towards adventures that will blow up in her face. Throw in Thea's male fried Sid (Kel O'Neill), and you've got a situation that will be good for a while but will inevitably blow up in their faces - which happens, halfway through the movie.
The first half is breezy and fun, even though you know these are relationships that really can't last. Director Austin Chick has a knack for getting the movie to flow well, moving smoothly from scene to scene even as it takes place over the course of months.
And then the story flashes forward ten years, everyone meets up again, and it's just not much fun. One of the big reasons is that Thea, who during the first half of the movie was the richest character and, plot-wise, the wild card, is reduced to "buddy" status. She's still likable, but her change from disaster-waiting-to-happen to happily married confidant not only makes her less of an active participant in the story, but suggests a more interesting story happened off-screen. All the characters have new partners, but the new players are, of course, not as fleshed out as the other characters. This is especially damaging to Coles's girlfriend, Claire (Petra Wright), who just makes no impression as an individual.
And so it grinds on to the end, with a couple amusing moments, but not delivering on the promise of the first half. Too bad, because the even split between two time periods is a clever idea and the cast is very appealing.
(Due out February '03 from IFC Films)
Paul Revere
Father Geek back with another look at the Opening Night...
Hey guys, Bob the Intergalactic Bostonian Bum here with the first of several, hopefully, reports from the Boston film festival.
Opening night featured three films, 'XX/XY' with director Austin Chick and actor Mark Ruffalo in attendance, 'Searching for Paradise' with director Myra Paci and actor Chris North, and 'The Grey Zone' with director Tim Blake Nelson and actor Harvey Keitel. Being an indecisive one, I didn't get tickets in advance; instead I tried to make a decision while standing outside the theater waiting for my friend to show up. Of course, my initial selection ('XX/XY') was the only one of the three sold out. So, I went for Grey Zone.
Like one of last year's fest-openers 'L.I.E.,' 'The Grey Zone' is not a great film. At best it's a very good film, and at worst it’s thought provoking. Before I go on, let me give a spoiler warning, I’ll try to keep them to a minimum, however.
The film centers on the 12th Sonderkommando units in a Holocaust concentration camp. Sonderkommandos were units of Jews who, in exchange for privileges that were not given to other prisoners, would assist in leading other Jews into gas chambers and helping to dispose of the bodies afterwards. The units rarely lasted more than four months as the Nazis didn't want any news to survive with knowledge of what went on inside, so the units were generally disposed of and replaced by new units after a four month period. 'Grey Zone' tells the story of a unit on the verge of being executed that plan an uprising to destroy a crematorium before they are executed.
As you can guess from the summery, 'Grey Zone' is a heavy, difficult film to take. But it’s also an important story, and one that raises questions. It doesn't exonerate the Sonderkommando units, nor does it condemn them completely. It is, as the title suggests, a grey zone of human ethics in one of the most horrendous times in the 20th century.
Where the film falters, particularly in the first half, is its dialogue. In the beginning, when situations and characters are still being set up, the dialogue is almost too witty. The fact that the characters (and those who play Hungarian or polish characters talk with American accents) speak so perfectly makes it difficult to get involved in the story. It's not to say his dialogue is bad, it's just too stylized for this kind of film. That being said, once the plot moves in the film's second half, the dialogue begins to take a back seat and the films power kicks in.
The performances are universally excellent, but I have to give special mention to one actor I never thought I’d praise in my life -- David Arquette. This is the most serious work I’ve ever seen him do, and there's absolutely no sign of the annoying persona he seems to take in most of his dumb comedy/ 1-800-collect roles. Arquette has a pivotal speech in the last third of the film that is very necessary to the film's overall impact. If he delivered it even the slightest bit over the top, it would have killed the moment, but he nails it, and it really sends the film home.
I'm glad I saw 'The Grey Zone' (and not just because of Tim Blake Nelson's excellent Q&A session. He proved himself to be an articulate and interesting speaker, and one that brought some good insight to his work). I'm glad I saw 'The Grey Zone' because it's a film that examines a situation where there were no right answers, but nonetheless, at least shows why characters did what they did. It's not an easy film to watch, but it's an important story to be told. For that, I give Nelson credit. While this is not a perfect film, it's one where ultimately the flaws can be overlooked because of how it touches you, and forces you to look into yourself to wonder what you would have done in that situation.
BOB, the Intergalactic Bostonian Bum
Annnnnnd, Its ol' Father Geek back once more with yet another peak into the Boston Film Fest, this one from the NewsMonkey...
Last night I attended a screening of The Grey Zone which was the film to open the Boston Film Festival. Tim Blake Nelson, the director, and Harvey Keitel were both in attendance. Before the film screened, Nelson told the audience that there was really no way to introduce the movie because "it is what it is," then made sure to praise executive producer Avi Lerner without whom Nelson would not have been able to finance his film. In introducing Keitel, Nelson said that out of the four original cast members to sign onto the movie, Keitel was the only one to not be replaced during the filming. Keitel came out to cheers, then echoed Nelson's praise of Lerner as well as commenting that the movie really could not be introduced.
As the title cards inform the audience at the beginning of the film, The Grey Zone is the true story of the Sonderkommando in Aushwitz II. The Sonderkommando was made up of Jews who, in exchange for plentiful food and relatively comfortable bedding, led the newly arriving Jews into the gas chambers. The Sonderkommando were executed themselves after no more than four months. David Arquette, Daniel Benzali, and David Chandler play the Sonderkommando assigned to crematorium one, and Steve Buscemi plays another Sonderkommando assigned to crematorium three. The plot of the movie centers around a plot started in crematorium three to revolt against the Nazis and destroy the crematoriums.
Nelson's wife, Lisa Benavides, along with Mira Sorvino, are interment camp members marked by upside down pink triangles, whose forced work in a munitions factory allows them the opportunity to smuggle gunpowder to the crematorium workers. Buscemi must bribe the Nazi gauds to travel through the "grey zones" between the crematoriums to conspire with Benzali and Chandler. The work they are confronted with weights heavily on all the men, and while Benzali and Chandler wish only to destroy the crematoriums and end their lives with a sense of having done something, Buscemi and the other unseen members of crematorium three wish to wait until they have enough supplies to attempt an escape. When Sorvina and Benavides are discovered with powder, the clock begins to tick: will the two women submit to torture and tell the Nazis where the powder was heading, and will the revolt take place before this occurs?
By never attempting to reach beyond the moral implications of the true story of the Sonderkommando, and by frequently using hand held camera footage, the film manages to both have the feel of a historical documentary. The audience is able to feel revolted by what the Nazis did, and by what they were able to make the Jews do to each other, while avoiding inappropriate themes and tones (Seven Beauties, Life is Beautiful), and pretentious camera work (Schindler's List). Nelson is aware that the power of his story lies in the reality of history and is smart enough to trust his audience to understand his message.
This is not to say the film is without its flaws. The story of the captive women often falls too far to the rear of the audiences memory before being reintroduced, and while Keitel may be pitch perfect as the Nazi Commander Muhsfeldt, he is never able to match the intensity of the other actors he is paired with, especially when in conversation with Allan Corduner, a doctor who is treated better than most of the Nazi Officers due to his ability to do "research" for the Nazis.
Speaking in a Q and A session after the film, Nelson mentioned that in watching Arquette's comedies, there was always a profound sense of sadness and shame surrounding his characters. This is what motivated Nelson to bring Arquette into the film, and this is the finest Arquette has ever been (while that may not be saying much). Arquette's shame causes him to hang his head throughout most of the film, but twice when he is forced to confront his moral dilemma, the raw rage that escapes is bounds beyond what most would consider possible for him. It is Aquette who Nelson trusts to deliver the film's message: "None of us know what we are truly capable of."
The visuals presented by Nelson should haunt the audience forever; this is not an easy movie to watch. Nelson said he wished that his film would continue to be shown for future generations, and if audiences are as intelligent and courageous as Nelson trusts them to be, his wish will come true.
I AM NEWSMONKEY.
