In this installment: (6) Ace in the Hole, (7) Audition, (8) Babel, (9) Basic Instinct, and (10) Belle de jour.
6. Ace in the Hole (1951)
Billy Wilder with Kirk Douglas.
This is one of the nastiest movies I have ever seen - although the acting by Kirk Douglas as Chuck Tatum is superb and the message is more relevant than ever. Kirk Douglas plays a cynical, disgraced reporter who will stop at nothing to regain his job at a major newspaper - even if he has to use some creativity to manufacture the news. The movie also shows how a gullible public can be manipulated by the press (and social media, I might add).When a local man becomes trapped in a cliff collapse while collecting ancient Indian artifacts, Tatum senses a golden opportunity to manipulate the rescue effort for publicity. He convinces the unscrupulous local sheriff to give him exclusive access to the victim in exchange for a story that will guarantee the sheriff's re-election. Although the victim could be reached in about 12 hours, Tatum convinces the contractor to drill from above instead, which will take a week and keep the news rolling for Tatum. As disaster tourists flock to the site, turning it into one big carnival, even the victim's wife (eager to leave her husband and his struggling shop and restaurant in the middle of nowhere) goes along with Tatum's plan because it finally brings in money. The site is flooded with gawkers willing to pay an entrance fee to enter the site and buy souvenirs. Of course, it all ends in disaster, because this is a true film noir.
Unfortunately for Wilder, the film was also a disaster at the box office and even critics hated it. It is only in recent decades that opinion has changed and Ace in the Hole has come to be seen as the great artistic film that it is, dealing with some unpopular truths. The film is a scathing attack by the European-born Wilder on American superficiality, the turning of everything into a "business", and the one-sided interest in sleazy "human interest" tabloid stories (something that still goes on, day after day, on all the TV networks). Stories whose staying power is manufactured
Unfortunately for Wilder, the movie was also a disaster at the box office, and even critics hated it. Only in recent decades has the tide turned, and Ace in the Hole has come to be seen as the great artistic film that it is, and one that deals with some unpopular truths. The film is a scathing attack by the European-born Wilder on American superficiality, the turning of everything into a "business", and the one-sided interest in sleazy "human interest" tabloid stories (something that still goes on, day after day, on all the TV networks). Stories whose staying power is manufactured and stretched as long as possible simply because they are scary, scandalous, or sordid, and fill the airspace until the next bad story comes along. There is a lot of talk about "fake news" in the U.S., but of course this is the real fake news. And today it is not only served up by the networks, but also by Facebook, Twitter and other social media.
7. Audition(1999)
Takashi Miike, with Eihi Shiina and Ryo Ishibashi. Based on the novel by Ryu Murakami.
This visceral shocker about a middle-aged widower in search of the perfect, obedient, traditional wife serves as a reality check on patriarchy and male chauvinism (and Western men who, based on a cross-cultural misunderstanding, believe that Japanese women, who are less verbally aggressive than women from some other cultures, are all just obedient little wives).
The movie begins as a romantic drama in which a middle-aged widower (Ryo Ishibashi), with the help of a film producer friend, holds a mock audition to find a new, young wife. Through this act of deception, he thinks he has found his ideal partner in Asami, a beautiful former ballet dancer dressed in white, who seems to be the ultimate, traditional type of wife - stylish and polite. But behind her calm exterior lies a world of fear and terror, as the middle-aged lover discovers too late. The autobiographical details of his potential bride don't add up, and he learns that people in her life have a habit of disappearing. The moment of truth for the viewer comes when Asami, who has been waiting for his call for several days in an apparently bare apartment containing only a large canvas bag, smiles coldly as the bag suddenly convulses violently and swings across the floor. The final descent into a grotesque nightmare is absolutely stomach-churning - especially the ending is painful to watch.
Japanese director Takashi Miike's film critiques the power imbalance that allows men to "audition" beautiful young women in search of a fantasy combination of strength and servitude. Because Aoyama is ultimately a rather sympathetic character, the sadistic revenge that Asami takes is all the more difficult to stomach, but Aoyama's own complicity must be acknowledged.
This movie also shows that Japanese women are not the obedient little housewives that Western cultural fantasy and Japanese male expectations make them out to be. That Japanese women are "submissive" or "obedient" is a fiction created by the fact that they are less verbally aggressive than women from many other cultures, as is Japanese culture in general. But in their hearts, they know exactly what they want and how to get it. Of course, it would be silly to draw another comparison with the character of Asami in the movie, but it may be the necessary jolt to help us change our conservative view of Japanese women.
[Based on my article on Cult films]
8. Babel (2006)
Alejandro
Gonzalez Iñárritu, with Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Gael García Bernal,
Koji Yakusho, Adriana Barraza and Rinko Kikuchi.
A film that emphasizes the interconnectedness of our ever-shrinking world ("When a butterfly flaps its wings in China...") and the need for mutual understanding. In the movie, Morocco, America, Mexico and Japan are connected by the thoughtless act of a child.
Inarritu has created a movie with three interlocking stories. A freak accident brings together people from different continents and cultures. Pitt and Blanchett play American tourists in Morocco. They are plunged into tragedy when Blanchett's character is hit by a stray bullet on a tour bus in the desert - two small Moroccan boys were just trying out a rifle recently bought by their father (a poor farmer who wanted the gun to shoot the wild animals decimating his herds), but now they are being hunted as terrorists.
In the U.S., the couple's Mexican nanny takes their children across the border for a family wedding when she cannot find a babysitter for the infants. When she returns to the U.S. with her Mexican nephew as her half-drunk driver, she is chased by the Border Patrol and gets lost in the desert.
Meanwhile, in Tokyo, a young deaf and mute Japanese schoolgirl, Chieko, is struggling to come to terms with her mother's suicide. Her businessman father (who was the original owner of the fatal rifle he gave to his local guide after a hunting trip in Morocco) is being questioned by the police, causing his daughter to become increasingly disturbed. The confused girl experiences such rage and frustration that she rips off her underwear and begins exposing herself to boys in a crowded restaurant. The father struggles to overcome the emotional distance that separates him from his daughter.
The movie can be harrowing at times when painful scenes are played too long. The director shot the movie like a documentary. At every turn, the barriers of language - but more importantly, the barriers of stereotypes and prejudice - lead to tragic results. Everyone tries to behave well, but is hampered by misconceptions or simply bad luck. Inarritu shows us that people, no matter where they come from, are trapped by circumstances, power relations, and cultural codes.
9. Basic Instinct (1992)
Paul Verhoeven with Sharon Stone, Michael Douglas and Jeanne Triplehorn.
This neo-noir thriller offers a chilling glimpse into the depths of the human soul.
A police detective investigating the brutal murder of a former rock star becomes embroiled in a torrid and intense relationship with the beautiful and mysterious prime suspect. Sharon Stone is the perfect femme fatale, both in the mental and sexual games she plays with her interrogators. She is an ice-blonde, bisexual mystery writer, and Verhoeven and screenwriter Joe Eszterhas keep the tension at a boiling point throughout, even during the love scenes, which have a violent edge. The movie's most infamous scene, a police interrogation in which Catherine makes drooling idiots of her middle-aged male captors by revealing that she is not wearing underwear when she crosses her legs, became an iconic shot. There is also a strong sense of doom as we see Michael Douglas mentally disintegrating and slowly approaching the flame of the dangerous seductress.
Such a mix of perverse sexuality and bloodshed was not uncommon in European thrillers such as those of Dario Argento, and Verhoeven had made one himself in his excellent Dutch film The Fourth Man. Basic Instinct is a great "neo-noir" thriller that warns us not to let strong emotions lead us astray - at least a modicum of clear and rational thinking is required (which seems increasingly difficult in today's world).
[Based on my article about Neo-noir films]
10. Belle de jour (1967)
Luis Bunuel with Catherine Deneuve, Jean Sorel and Michel Piccoli. Based on the 1928 novel Belle de jour by Joseph Kessel.
Belle de Jour is Catherine Deneuve at her classic best: beautiful, elegant, cold - and lustful. She plays an upper-class Parisian housewife, Séverine Serizy, whose porcelain perfection hides a fractured soul. We see this at the beginning of the movie, when her husband orders her to be tied up and whipped by two coachmen. Of course, this is not really happening, but just a perverse daydream - one of the many masochistic fantasies Séverine suffers from. Her husband Pierre is a diligent and kind-hearted surgeon, but the frigid Séverine is unable to feel any passion for him - even though she loves him dearly. And the spoiled lady has too much time on her hands...
To make her bondage fantasies more concrete, she begins to act them out by secretly spending her idle afternoons working in a boutique brothel. This, by the way, is what the movie's title refers to: "Belle de Jour" is a daylily (literally, "daylight beauty") that blooms only during the day, but the same French term can also refer to a prostitute whose trade is conducted during the day. So while Séverine remains chaste in her marriage, in the afternoons, from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., she satisfies the bizarre fetishes of the men who patronize Madame Anaïs's high-class brothel.
Her clients include a fat industrialist, a professor who dresses up in role-playing costumes and then abuses her, and a duke who likes to perform a funeral scene in a coffin. But she also meets a mean-looking young gangster (Pierre Clementi) whose cruelty and ugliness she rather likes, and then things go horribly wrong: he falls in love with her and follows her home... Séverine used to be completely bottled up, which is shown in Deneuve's excellent performance (how she stands, where she looks), but the longer she works as Belle de Jour, the more we see her warming up and becoming more confident. This makes it all the sadder when it all comes crashing down.
Deneuve is the ideal actress for this complex study of female psychology. Though the character she plays revels in debauched desires, she retains a cool, inscrutable dignity, dressed as she is in the most chic Yves Saint Laurent.
This is the best and most iconic movie Bunuel ever made. It won the Golden Lion at the 1967 Venice Film Festival.
[Based on my previous article]