Romancefest 2014: The Lovers on the Bridge

Let’s return to France for Leos Carax’s 1991 film THE LOVERS ON THE BRIDGE.

I remember reading Ebert’s review when the film finally saw release in the US about a decade after it was produced. So, going into the movie, I remembered thinking the review was interesting and that I’d be happy to finally see the movie.

Reading the review again, I see it is riddled with red flags. It’s not a negative review, but it does give an accurate idea of what you’re getting into. I had forgotten that, over the years.

In any case, THE LOVERS ON THE BRIDGE stars Juliette Binoche and Denis Lavant as homeless lovers who live on Paris’ oldest bridge, the Pont Neuf. She’s an artist who has given up on life because she is going blind. He’s an alcoholic who supports himself by street-performing as a fire-breather.

It all sounds quaint and quirky and everything, and it kind of is, in pretty little bursts, but taken as a whole, the movie is a big sprawling overblown mess.

Ebert’s review says Carax was inspired in part by L’ATALANTE, and I can definitely see that in the movie (especially in the closing sequence involving a barge). This comparison gives me a useful way to figure out what put me off about the movie, though. In L’ATALANTE you’ve got your quirky characters being cute and fussy and all that kind of stuff but it’s against a pretty realistic, gritty background.

Here, you’ve got movie-star beautiful Juliette Binoche pretending to be homeless while looking perfect, against a back drop that’s supposed to be the streets, but is a fairly beautiful representation of Paris. Yes, I realize bad stuff happens in pretty places to pretty people, I’m just saying this movie wants it both ways – to be about the fringe in a mainstream way, I guess, where the world is real enough to have homeless people in it but not real enough to have any circumstances for anything our lead characters do.

Romancefest 2014: The Paper Chase

Back to America for James Bridges’ 1973 film THE PAPER CHASE.

Timothy Bottoms stars as a Harvard Law School student who unknowingly falls in love with the daughter (Lindsay Wagner) of a legendarily tough professor (John Houseman).

This is an interesting pick for a love story because the actual love story between Bottoms and Wagner isn’t that great. But, it’s not supposed to be. The point of the movie is that Bottoms’ obsession with Houseman eclipses his romantic relationship to the point where he has to choose one over the other.

The relationship between student and professor, however, is much more interesting, as is the observational stuff about what it’s like to be in a tough law school. It’s not often you see a movie so thoroughly examine what it takes to be a really good student.

This is a tough movie to evaluate, because our main character, the ambitious student played by Bottoms, is not all that likable and neither is Houseman’s professor. On one hand that’s refreshing, because who says every movie has to be a touchy feely examination of characters we love? On the other hand, it makes the flick a tough watch.

It starts out interestingly enough as the premise is set up but then kind of seems to meander and lose its way towards the end. Still, you can see why Houseman won a best supporting actor Oscar.

Romancefest 2014: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

Let’s move on to Italy for Vittorio De Sica’s 1963 film, YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW, winner of that year’s foreign language Academy Award.

This is a comedy anthology featuring 3 stories each starring Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni.

The first story has Loren and Mastroianni as a poor couple behind in their bills. Loren’s threatened with jail time but the couple discovers a loop hole in which a pregnant woman can’t be arrested, and neither can a woman within 6 months of having a child. So, the couple conspires to keep Loren pregnant as long as possible.

The second, and shortest, of the stories has Loren as a rich, married socialite on a road trip with her extra-marital lover, Mastroianni. The more stuff they wreck into, the more they question their relationship.

The third and final store has Loren as a prostitute who draws the attention of her young neighbor, a student on his way to becoming a priest. She runs afoul of his grandparents when he threatens to leave the priesthood to be with her. Meanwhile, Mastroianni is on hand as her neurotic and horny client.

I liked the first and last stories better than the middle one, but one thing I liked about all of them was how they made it clear that these characters live within communities. These stories all played out in public, with lover’s quarrels and relationship ups and downs took place in front of an audience of bystanders and neighbors. It gives the movie a warm sense of community and kind of makes you want to go live in the various locations.

Of course the other great thing about each segment is the performances from Loren and Mastroianni, both effortlessly shifting from one story to the next without losing sight of the humor of their situations.

Romancefest 2014: Weekend

Now we travel to the UK for Andrew Haigh’s 2011 film, WEEKEND. I remember seeing this trailered at Cinema 21 several times, but never got around to checking it out until now.

WEEKEND is an intimate examination of a potential one-night stand that turns into a passionate and deep (if brief) love affair between two young men. It stars Tom Cullen and Chris New as the couple, and they carry most of the movie because most of the movie is just conversations between the two of them.

These are both great but very different performances. Cullen’s character is withdrawn, shy and introverted, an “out” gay man who remains as “in” as possible, with mostly hetero friends. New, on the other hand, is an edgy, brash, artistic type who is very “in your face” about his sexuality.

They meet at a club for a pickup, but find themselves connecting the next morning as New interviews Cullen for an art project. They end up hanging out later in the day and connecting even more, until New reveals this is his last night in town and he’s about to leave for the states for a 2-year art course.

This movie was very quietly charming and very realistic. It’s rare to see such minute pieces of a relationship displayed on screen in a way you can identify with. The movie obviously gets props for examining the love lives of gay men in an original way and from an informed perspective, but it also deserves to be admired for simply approaching relationships, intimacy and vulnerability the same way.

In fact, it’s rare I’ve seen a movie examine a character like Cullen so closely. I guess the fear is if you examine an introverted person with subtlety that it’ll be boring. Instead, it was touching, charming and romantic.

Romancefest 2014: The Fabulous Baker Boys

Continuing with our Hollywood streak, we’ve got Steve Kloves’ THE FABULOUS BAKER BOYS, starring real-life brothers Jeff and Beau Bridges as big-screen brothers in a jazz piano duo. Finding their gigs ever fewer and farther between, the duo decides to become a trio and hires a singer in the sultry form of Michelle Pfeiffer.

Jeff’s the womanizing one with more innate talent. Beau’s the business-minded one who’s willing to do the dirty work, like deliver the hacky lines that get them through their shows each night. It’s clear from the beginning that the duo is ready to split, and Pfeiffer is just the final nail in the coffin, when her relationship with Jeff gets out of control.

Once again, there isn’t much here in the way of story that hasn’t been seen before, but it’s the way the story is told and the way these specific characters are observed that makes THE FABULOUS BAKER BOYS memorable. All three leads are great in their roles, and all three roles are multi-dimensional and surprising.

The other great thing the movie has going for it is its subtlety. No one is too much of any one thing. Jeff and Beau are both believable as humans before character types, and Pfeiffer is able to transform what might be relegated to a thankless role in another movie into a complex individual.

Part of this is thanks to the performances, the other part is thanks to the writing and direction by Kloves who went on to great success as the guy tasked with adapting all the HARRY POTTER books to the big screen, and somehow managing to make them all good. He also adapted THE WONDER BOYS, one of my all time favorites.

The movie is also beautifully shot by Michael Ballhaus on location in Seattle. I’ve never seen the city made to look so good and so moody. They really exploit a lot of great locations and scenery, giving the film a very unique look and feel.

All of this comes together in the most famous scene, which has Pfeiffer slinking seductively onto, off of and around Jeff Bridges' grand piano while she sings "Makin' Whoopie." It's so beautifully shot and perfectly performed, it wouldn't have even had to be sexy to be memorable. But it's sexy, anyway.

Romancefest 2014: The Notebook

Sticking with Hollywood for now, we move on to Nick Cassavettes' THE NOTEBOOK, which was hugely popular on release. At the time I worked at a video distributor and the movie’s sheer ubiquity kept me from taking an interest. Now, enough time has passed, that I’m able to give it a fresh look.

It’s easy to see why THE NOTEBOOK struck a chord – it’s a classic tearjerker. I don’t think it would resonate the way it does, though, without the central performances from Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams.

The movie starts as a summer romance between the young couple who are eventually torn apart by class differences, and then further torn apart by the advent of WW2. When they’re finally reunited, McAdams is engaged to marry a guy her parents approve of (James Marsden) and Gosling is still pining for her, having just restored a mansion in the hopes that she’d come spend her life with him there.

This story is framed by another story involving an older couple in an old folks’ home. James Garner plays a man who is reading the Gosling/McAdams love story to Gena Rowlands, who seems to be suffering from dementia or Alzheimers.

Spoiler alert: it’s the same couple!

I knew this going into the movie, and watching the movie I realized it was made fairly clear to the audience early on, as well. That surprised me because I thought part of the heartbreaking ending was the big reveal. But I guess not.

The ending is sad, especially as Rowlands floats in and out of knowing who Garner is. And, the romance leading up to it is moving, as well. Still, the stuff of the story itself is fairly thoroughly covered terrain and at times plays as if every cliché in the book was added up and put into one movie.

But, the performances save it! Particularly McAdams, who brings a goofy joy to her portrayel of the rich girl torn between worlds. Usually this kind of role is totally humorless, but McAdams plays it as real, and because of that, we see all the joy in it.

Romancefest 2014: You Only Live Once

Now, back to America for Fritz Lang’s YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE. I usually only stumble across the great Fritz Lang during Horrorfest, so it’s not to see him show up for Romancefest, as well.

This gangster flick stars Henry Fonda as an ex-con engaged to marry the public defender’s secretary (Sylvia Sidney). The would-be happy couple finds their dreams of domestic bliss interrupted when they realize how difficult it is for an ex-convict to assimilate back into society. After a series of misunderstandings, Fond finds himself back in prison, this time on death row. After a series of even more misunderstandings, Fonda escapes and soon the couple is on the run.

Like some of Lang’s earlier films, YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE is considered an early example of noir. This flick’s pretty brutal, and if you can get past the heavy-handed moralizing, it’s a pretty entertaining yarn.

In this flick you can see the genesis of several “criminal lovers on the run” flicks to come, like BONNIE & CLYDE, NATURAL BORN KILLERS and even WILD AT HEART from earlier this Romancefest.