The Movie Book (Big Ideas Simply Explained)

ANGELS AND MONSTERS 249

What else to watch: In Which We Serve (1942) ■ The Cruel Sea (1953) ■ Above Us the Waves (1955) ■ The Enemy Below
(1957) ■ Sink the Bismarck! (1960) ■ The Hunt for Red October (1990) ■ Crimson Tide (1995) ■ Lebanon (2009)

Nerves become strained as the
mechanics desperately try to figure out
a way of refloating the U-boat before it
becomes crushed by depth pressure.

made war thrilling. Not all critics inside a real U-boat (on dry land), popping of rivets as the boat dives
agreed with Buchheim. Audiences which could be tilted to 45 degrees to a dangerously low depth. Second
came out of the movie drained to simulate a sudden dive. Two is the cinematography of Jost
physically and emotionally. techniques contribute to the Vacano. Despite the cramped space,
Petersen’s movie does not depend heightened realism. The first is Vacano used a handheld camera to
on thrilling action sequences, an innovative use of sound. When create a sense of intimacy, training
though there are those. Rather, it destroyers are circling above the himself to run through narrow
oscillates between tense moments U-boat, all we hear in the silence spaces and over bulkheads. The
of danger and the tedium of weeks are the sonar pings ringing off the effect he created has influenced
of fruitless hunting, in which the hull, or the ferrous groaning and a whole generation of movies. ■
relationships between crew
members becomes fraught. The
movie’s grip is in its psychology
rather than in its action sequences.
As its tagline said, it is “A journey
to the edge of the mind.”

Putting us in the boat
Das Boot’s power stems from the
director’s determination to attain
realism. He makes viewers
understand what it was like
to be in a wartime submarine,
attempting desperate repairs,
running out of oxygen and time.
The movie was shot almost entirely

Wolfgang Petersen Director

Wolfgang Petersen is Germany’s the prestige to direct Hollywood
leading director of action movies. thrillers such as In the Line
Born in Emden, Germany, in 1941, of Fire with Clint Eastwood,
he studied theater in Berlin and Outbreak (1995) with Dustin
Hamburg, before enrolling in the Hoffman, and the hugely
Berlin Film and Television popular Air Force One with
Academy, after which he was Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman,
making movies for television. In and Glenn Close.
1974, he directed his first feature,
the thriller One of the Other of Us, Key movies
and then in 1977 the controversial
Die Konsequenz, a movie about 1981 Das Boot
gay love. But he made his name 1993 In the Line of Fire
with Das Boot, which gave him 1997 Air Force One

I’VE SEEN

THINGS

YOU PEOPLE WOULDN’T

BELIEVE

BLADE RUNNER / 1982



252 BLADE RUNNER N ear the end of Blade As poignant as any sci-fi film
Runner, Roy Batty (Rutger I know… a film noir that
IN CONTEXT Hauer), a fugitive at large bleeds over into tragedy.
in a near-future Los Angeles, David Thomson
GENRE delivers his last words to an ex-cop
Science fiction, thriller called Deckard (Harrison Ford). “I’ve Have You Seen…?, 2008
seen things you people wouldn’t
DIRECTOR believe,” he says softly. “Attack Lang’s Metropolis (1927) to the
Ridley Scott ships on fire off the shoulder of mysterious black obelisk that
Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in bookends Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A
WRITERS the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. Space Odyssey (1968). While Blade
Hampton Fancher, David All those moments will be lost in Runner also shimmers with visual
Webb Peoples (screenplay); time, like tears in rain. Time to die.” poetry, it is Batty’s lament, a few
Philip K. Dick (novel, Do lines of semi-improvised dialogue,
Androids Dream of The speech strikes at a moral that truly cements the movie’s
Electric Sheep?) dilemma, because Roy Batty place in movie history. The words
isn’t human—he’s a “replicant,” articulate a question that hangs
STARS an android bioengineered by over Scott’s enigmatic masterpiece:
Harrison Ford, Rutger industrial scientists at the what does it mean to be human?
Hauer, Sean Young, all-powerful Tyrell Corporation.
Daryl Hannah Replicants are supposed to be Blade Runner is set in 2019, a
machines, yet Batty’s desire to live long way off to the audiences who
BEFORE and questioning nature prove that first lined up to see it in 1982.
1979 Ridley Scott’s first foray he has consciousness. For Deckard, At the time of its release, the movie
into the future is the science- a specially trained detective (blade presented a new kind of future, a
fiction horror Alien. runner) whose job it is to hunt down weird fusion of familiar elements:
and liquidate rogue replicants, this corporate buildings the size and
AFTER realization is particularly relevant. shape of Babylonian ziggurats; the
2006 Philip K. Dick’s novel If Batty can feel sorrow and longing,
A Scanner Darkly, about a then how is he any different from
future in the grip of an all-out his creators?
war on drugs, is adapted as
a partially animated thriller. A hanging question
Science-fiction cinema is often
2012 Ridley Scott returns memorable for its unforgettable
to science fiction with visual images, from the robotic
Prometheus, a prequel to Maria sparking into life in Fritz
the Alien franchise.

Minute by minute 00:31 01:02 01:44
Rachael visits Rachael shoots Leon After a chase across
00:07 Deckard at his to save Deckard. Back the rooftops, Batty saves
Leon shoots the blade apartment. He at Deckard’s apartment, Deckard from falling. Batty
runner Holden, who has tells her about her they make love. then sits down and dies.
been testing him to see memories to show her
if he is a replicant. that she’s a replicant.

00:00 00:15 00:30 00:45 01:00 01:15 01:30 02:00

00:17 00:50 01:22 01:52
Deckard tests Rachael Deckard tracks down Sebastian helps Batty As Deckard and Rachael
and discovers that she is a Zhora to a bar where she get an audience with leave his apartment, he picks
replicant. Tyrell tells him performs with a snake. Tyrell. Batty asks Tyrell up an origami unicorn. Does
that she does not know He chases her and for more life, but is told Gaff know his dreams? Does
what she is. shoots her dead. that it is not possible. that make him a replicant?

ANGELS AND MONSTERS 253

What else to watch: Metropolis (1927, pp.32–33) ■ 2001: A Space Odyssey
(1968, pp.192–93) ■ Brazil (1985, p.340) ■ Ghost in the Shell (1995) ■ Gattaca (1997)

Genetic designer J. F. Sebastian In Blade Runner, the future is Ridley Scott Director
(William Sanderson, left) helps Pris a place in which humans and
(Daryl Hannah) to reach Tyrell. He machines have become all but Ridley Scott is a British
has a premature-aging disease that indistinguishable. Robotics, voice- director, born in 1937, whose
makes replicants sympathetic to him. activated computer systems, bionic movies combine cool visual
implants, artificial intelligence, and style with dynamic storytelling
teeming night markets like those genetic programming are part of and crowd-pleasing Hollywood
of Tokyo in the 1980s; the mean the culture, and all controlled by chutzpah. His debut feature,
streets of postwar pulp detective faceless corporate mega-entities. The Duellists, was swiftly
fiction; the crumbling architecture In this dehumanized age, people followed by science-fiction
of 19th-century Los Angeles. The are forced to take a polygraph-like horror Alien and the futuristic
flying cars offer viewers a futuristic exam (the “Voight-Kampff test”) dystopia Blade Runner, two
glimpse, but they are piloted by to prove that they are human. classics of modern cinema.
militaristic beat cops—symbols Through the 1980s, Scott
of fear rather than progress. The replicants are the ultimate established himself as a
product of this bleakly mechanized hard-working filmmaker, but it
Dystopian vision human society. They look and act was not until the 1991 mold-
For moviegoers more used to like people, but they are not people. breaking female road-movie
the escapism of Star Wars (1977), They have limited lifespans—four Thelma & Louise that he came
Scott’s vision of a mashed-up years in Batty’s case—and are bred close to matching the success
near-future is disorienting. In its “off-world,” forbidden to visit Earth. of his science-fiction double
depiction of people’s relationship Deckard believes these unfortunate act. A decade later he hit big
with new technologies, the movie creatures are nothing more than once more, going back in time
retains its power to unnerve. automatons—until he falls in love with the Roman epic Gladiator.
with Rachael during his hunt for ❯❯ In 2001, Scott directed the war
movie, Black Hawk Down,
It’s not an easy thing to meet based on a US raid on
your maker. Mogadishu. He returned to
science fiction in 2012 with the
Roy Batty / Blade Runner Alien prequel Prometheus.

Key movies

1977 The Duellists
1979 Alien
1982 Blade Runner
1991 Thelma & Louise
2000 Gladiator

254 BLADE RUNNER

Batty pulls Deckard to safety
before sitting down and ending the
chase. He knows that his time is
nearly over, and finally gives up
the urge to carry on.

Batty and his three associates, who truth as he interrogates her. He also says Batty as he dangles the
have come to Earth in search of senses something else, a gnawing battered Deckard from a rooftop.
answers. Rachael (Sean Young) is fear that his own memories could “That’s what it is to be a slave.”
a Tyrell employee who, unusually, also be an illusion. Is Deckard a Batty and his fellow replicants are
doesn’t know she’s a replicant—she replicant too? How would he know? staging a revolution, forcing their
can remember growing up. Deckard makers to see them as possessors
tells her those memories are fake, Human identity crisis of souls in need of liberation. They
copied from her creator’s niece, but Blade Runner is a portrait of humanity have been labeled inhuman, called
he cannot banish his own nagging in the throes of an identity crisis, “skin jobs” by Police Chief Bryant
doubts: Rachael, like Batty, like all but Scott’s movie is also concerned (M. Emmet Walsh). They are
replicants, is a living being, and with inhumanity. “Quite an “retired” rather than killed, and
Deckard senses the stirring of this experience to live in fear, isn’t it?” society treats them accordingly.

Blade Runner is prescient—
it foresees a world immersed in
technology, an urban sprawl in
which humans adopt machines
as extensions of themselves. As
its vision of tomorrow edges nearer,
the movie’s questions grow more
insistent. How long will it be before
our own inventions begin to think,
question, and feel like us? How will
we respond to their awakening?
When they refer to us bitterly as
“you people,” will we be able to look
them in the eye—or will we be too
afraid of seeing our own reflection? ■

Is Deckard a replicant?

Many Blade Runner fans speculate that Deckard is a replicant. Replicant
There are a number of possible clues. • Deckard’s eyes glow orange (as replicants’ do)
in a few scenes.
Human
• Replicants are illegal on Earth; why would • Rachael asks Deckard if he has taken the
Tyrell allow Deckard to operate independently, Voight-Kampff test; he doesn’t answer.
and why would police employ a replicant?
• When Roy—a replicant—saves Deckard
• Deckard doesn’t respond to the origami from falling off the roof, he shouts “Kinship!”
unicorn that Gaff leaves outside his room
and its implication that he is a replicant. • Deckard dreams of a unicorn; blade runner Gaff
places an origami unicorn outside his room, hinting
• Philip K. Dick’s original book explicitly
states that Deckard is human. that Deckard’s memories are implanted.

• Ford endorses this view. • Scott states that Deckard is a replicant.

ANGELS AND MONSTERS 255

The movie was
first released with a
voice-over by Deckard
explaining the plot,
and an upbeat ending.
In 2007, a “final cut”
was released with
both removed on
Scott’s request.

256

I CAN’T FIGURE OUT IF
YOU’RE A DETECTIVE
OR A PERVERT

BLUE VELVET / 1986

IN CONTEXT R ich, haunting and Jeffrey (Kyle MacLachlan) finds
subversive, Blue Velvet himself trapped in Dorothy’s closet
GENRE is the story of a college when Frank arrives. He must look
Thriller, mystery student drawn into the seamy on helpless at what unfolds.
underside of his hometown after he
DIRECTOR finds a severed human ear in a field. his later masterpiece, Mulholland
David Lynch Dr. Instead it follows the structure
Since his extraordinary 1977 of an old-fashioned film noir, as
WRITER debut with Eraserhead, David the curious but strait-laced young
David Lynch Lynch has become a genre unto student Jeffrey (Kyle MacLachlan)
himself, a master of combining the falls for the wholesome Sandy
STARS shocking, the comic, and the (Laura Dern), but is also attracted
Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella surreal in what feel like visions to the nightclub singer Dorothy
Rossellini, Dennis Hopper, straight from the subconscious— (Isabella Rossellini), who is trapped
Laura Dern cinematic dreams (or nightmares). in an abusive relationship with the
If anything, Blue Velvet is one of psychopathic villain Frank (Dennis
BEFORE his more straightforward movies, Hopper). This dynamic is clearly
1957 Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear without the complex structure of
Window explores the nature
of voyeurism as a wheelchair-
bound photographer spies
on his neighbors.

1977 Lynch’s debut feature
Eraserhead is a surreal horror
shot in black and white.

AFTER
1980 The Elephant Man is
Lynch’s sensitive real-life
drama about a disfigured man.

2001 Mulholland Dr. is Lynch’s
neo-noir LA mystery about an
aspiring actress.

ANGELS AND MONSTERS 257

What else to watch: Peeping Tom (1960, p.334) ■ Eraserhead (1977, p.338) ■
Lost Highway (1997) ■ Mulholland Dr. (2001, p.342) ■ Inland Empire (2006)

a throwback to the noir era, although innocence is as much of a lie as David Lynch Director
Lynch adds a very modern take on the seemingly perfect front yard
sexual deviancy and voyeurism. from the prologue. David Lynch was born in 1946
The repulsion we feel in witnessing in Missoula, Montana, a small
Frank’s perversions is amplified by Blue Velvet approaches horror in town not dissimilar to those
Lynch’s fondness for noir tropes, so a new way. Its depravity derives not featured in his movies. His
that the audience is made to feel from guns and gore, but from sex debut feature, Eraserhead,
that he is corrupting something used as a vehicle for the worst was a cult success that took
familiar to them all. aspects of humanity. The hero, him to Hollywood, where he
Jeffrey, is seen hiding in a closet, directed The Elephant Man
The horror beneath a voyeur peeping at Dorothy. Frank and Dune. The latter was a
One of Lynch’s favorite stylistic is threatening physically, but his flop, but he reestablished
themes is the artificiality of postwar sado-masochism is what makes his career with the critical
Americana and the darkness that him terrifying. This key moment, success of Blue Velvet and
lies beneath it. The opening scene placing us in the closet with Jeffrey the surreal TV series Twin
pans through an idealized suburban as he watches Frank rape Dorothy,
yard, with neat, white picket fences is one of cinema’s Peaks. He has since
and blooming flowers, the owner most unsettling followed a singular
of which suffers a stroke while examinations path, creating
watering his plants. The family pet of sexual movies that
rushes to drink the water from the deviancy, as could only ever
discarded hose, while the shot pans well as being have been made
deeper into the grass to reveal a the moment by him.
colony of ants foraging relentlessly. when Lynch
The surface world is a veneer of perfected his Key movies
happiness, below which there exists distinctive themes,
baseness, struggle, and violence. tones, and 1977 Eraserhead
darkness. ■ 1986 Blue Velvet
This theme is 1990 Wild at Heart
continued in the 2001 Mulholland Dr.
director’s use of 2006 Inland Empire
music. From Bobby
Vinton’s Blue Velvet in the title
track to Roy Orbison’s In Dreams,
Lynch hijacks innocent songs of
romantic longing and juxtaposes
them with Frank’s broken sexuality,
going so far as to have him quote
the lyrics while he beats up Jeffrey.
It’s almost as if the music’s

You’ve got about The blue velvet of the
one second to title is a robe that Frank
live buddy! forces Dorothy to wear as
he rapes her. Typically for
Frank Booth / Blue Velvet Lynch, a beautiful thing
is used for a corrupt end.

258

WHY AM I ME,
AND WHY NOT YOU?

WINGS OF DESIRE / 1987

IN CONTEXT I nspired by the visionary story of an angel, tired of his
poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke immortal life of care, who falls in
GENRE and scripted by the playwright love with a circus trapeze artist—
New German Cinema Peter Handke, Wim Wenders’ and of another, played by Peter
Wings of Desire (Der Himmel über Falk, who has already found
DIRECTOR Berlin) is both a moving allegory contentment by crossing over.
Wim Wenders of Berlin—just two years before the
fall of the Wall—and a poignant The angels Damiel (Bruno Ganz) and
WRITERS study of the need for love and what Cassiel (Otto Sander) are an invisible
Wim Wenders, Peter it means to be human. It is the presence in people’s lives.
Handke, Richard Reitinger

STARS
Bruno Ganz, Solveig
Dommartin, Otto Sander,
Curt Bois, Peter Falk

BEFORE
1953 Yasujiro Ozu’s Tokyo
Story shows everyday life as a
struggle of quiet desperation.

1972 Andrei Tarkovsky
meditates on existence
with Solaris, a slow-paced
science-fiction movie.

AFTER
1993 Wenders’ sequel to Wings
of Desire is Faraway, So Close!

ANGELS AND MONSTERS 259

What else to watch: La Belle et la Bête (1946, pp.84–85) ■ It’s a Wonderful Life (1946, pp.88–93) ■ Andrei Rublev (1966) ■
Alice in the Cities (1974) ■ The American Friend (1977) ■ The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979)

Film is a very, very
powerful medium. It can
either confirm the idea that
things are wonderful the way
they are, or it can reinforce
the conception that things

can be changed.
Wim Wenders

Watching from on high and dreams, almost as if they were The movie
At the beginning of the movie two listening to snatches from different poster shows
angels, Damiel (Bruno Ganz) and radio stations while turning the the angel Damiel
Cassiel (Otto Sander), gaze down dial—parents worried about their perched high above
at the city of Berlin from on high, son, the memories of a Holocaust Berlin at the top of
gliding through the air or poised victim. The angels may sometimes the Victory Statue.
atop the city’s great monuments. be sensed, but only children can The movie’s
They are there to listen and actually see them. sweeping shots
observe, as they have done since give an angel’s-eye
long before the city was built. view of the city.
Their role is to give people hope,
or the intuition that they are not Why am I here?
alone. However, they are unable At the start of the movie is a
to intervene directly—and they poem, written by Handke, which
are unable to experience anything explains why. “When the child
physically themselves. was a child, it didn’t know it was
a child. Everything was full of life,
The movie unfolds at a and all life was one.” Later in the
measured pace. It is patient, like movie, the poem continues, “When
the angels themselves as they the child was a child, it was the
listen in on human thoughts, fears, time of the following questions:
Why am I me and why not you?
To draw all the demons of the earth Why am I here and why not there?”
from passers-by and to chase them out
into the world. To be a savage. The angels, who know the
answers to these questions, are
Marion / Wings of Desire somehow bereft. They might know
and see everything as they gaze ❯❯

260 WINGS OF DESIRE

Physical and metaphysical themes
of duality are explored within the
movie. Self-reflective and alone,
Marion is the earthly equivalent
of the angel Damiel.

is the right decision, because Peter
Falk, an angel who crossed over
long ago, is a living testament of
contentment. In crossing over, he
has not lost his spiritual side but
reunites the spiritual with the
material, the child with the adult.
He can still sense the presence of
the angels, saying “I can’t see you,
but I know you’re here.”

down from on high—as the movie captures the pleasure in everyday Finish vs spontaneity
shows with its dizzying aerial experiments with identity that are The parts of Damiel and Cassiel
shots. But they feel nothing of the beyond the angels. were scripted by Peter Handke,
simple sensual pleasures of being since Wenders felt the angels
human, the joy in the mundane— Separations should speak in elevated language,
a division shown cinematically Wings of Desire is about dualities but Peter Falk’s part is almost
by shooting every scene with and separations. Set in a city entirely improvised. Falk plays a
the angels in black and white. divided artificially by the Berlin version of himself, an American
In an improvised scene, Peter Wall, the spiritual is actor who is in Berlin to make
Falk tries on various hats with a separated from a movie about its Nazi past.
costume director, a simple act that the sensual, The children in the streets
as the heavenly call him “Columbo,”
The film is like music from the mundane, after the
or a landscape: It clears men from women, adults from
children. Above all, the movie is TV detective in the
a space in my mind, about how we are all separated series that had made Falk
and in that space I can from each other, and a deep sense a famous screen presence.
of loneliness runs through it.
consider questions. At one point, Wenders noticed
Roger Ebert When the angel Damiel begins Falk making sketches of extras.
to fall for the beautiful but lonely He decided to incorporate this into
Chicago Sun-Times, 1998 trapeze artist Marion (Solveig the movie, and had Falk improvise
Dommartin), we sense that they a voice-over, which gains resonance
should be together. The process is from its roughness: “These people
slow, and in the end Damiel must are extras, extra people,” says
finally choose whether or not to Falk. “Extras are so patient.”
give up his immortal status in The contrast between the refined,
order to experience a physical rehearsed script of the angels
love for this woman. The viewer and the rough spontaneity and
is encouraged to believe that this mundanity of the scenes with Falk
represents the two halves of human
life that need to come together.

ANGELS AND MONSTERS 261

Marion is a trapeze artist at a
failing circus. She lives in a trailer,
and leads a lonely existence dancing
on her own and wandering the streets
of Berlin.

Wenders dedicated his movie meditations full of spiritual Wim Wenders
to three “filmmaking angels,” yearning. Rainer Maria Rilke once Director
directors whose work inspired wrote that “Physical pleasure…
him. The first is Yasujiro Ozu, is a great unending experience, Born in Düsseldorf, Germany,
who showed how to depict the which is given us, a knowing of in 1945, Wim Wenders is
quiet desperation of the mundane. the world, the fullness and the known for his lush, lyrical
The second, François Truffaut, glory of all knowing.” Falk’s joy in filmmaking. He studied
the simple experience of tasting medicine and philosophy at
demonstrated how to film the coffee is spiritual and drives home university before dropping
reality of children as a profound the idea that to have experience at out to become a painter.
experience. The third, Andrei all is a wonder of being alive. ■ However, cinema became his
Tarkovsky, created slow-paced focus and he enrolled in the
University of Television and
The whole place is full of those who Film Munich (HFF). Wenders
are dreaming the same dream. soon became one of the
leading lights of the New
Cassiel / Wings of Desire German Cinema movement.
The director first came to
prominence with his feature
The Goalkeeper’s Fear of the
Penalty Kick, based on a novel
by Peter Handke. The English-
language Paris, Texas, with
a screenplay by Sam Shepard,
brought him international
fame. He has also made
documentaries, the most
successful of which was
Buena Vista Social Club, about
a group of aging musicians in
Havana, Cuba.

Key movies

1972 The Goalkeeper’s Fear
of the Penalty Kick
1984 Paris, Texas
1987 Wings of Desire
1999 Buena Vista Social Club

262

I THOUGHT THIS
ONLY HAPPENED
IN THE MOVIES

WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS
BREAKDOWN / 1988

IN CONTEXT W omen on the Verge of the 1940s. It looks to the past, but
a Nervous Breakdown the movie’s comedy is also thrillingly
GENRE (Mujeres al borde de un contemporary. Post-Franco Madrid
Comedy drama ataque de nervios) is the story of is the perfect setting for its manic
Pepa (Carmen Maura), a Spanish farce, with Almódovar whipping up
DIRECTOR actress who dubs the voices of US subplots involving Arab terrorists,
Pedro Almodóvar movies with her faithless boyfriend, dance-crazy cab drivers, and soup
Iván (Fernando Guillén). Their spiked with sleeping pills. Yet the
WRITER relationship is not so much a love boisterous stuff is shot through with
Pedro Almodóvar story as a door-slamming farce. the director’s
trademark sense
STARS Panic attack of humanity.■
Carmen Maura, Antonio It’s perhaps appropriate that the
Banderas, Julieta Serrano, meaning of the movie’s title
María Barranco gets lost in translation. The
ataques de nervios of the
BEFORE Spanish title refers to a
1980 Almodóvar makes panic attack, a state of
his ultra low-budget, playfully breathlessness that
outrageous debut with Pepi, director Pedro Almodóvar
Luci, Bom, and Other Girls sustains at a madcap pace
Like Mom. inspired by the Hollywood
“screwball” comedies of
AFTER
1999 All About My Mother, At Pepa’s
one of Almodóvar’s best, brings apartment, a
all his themes to the boil. suicidal Candela
(María Barranco)
2002 Almodóvar’s Talk to is distracted by
Her is a controversial, highly Carlos (Antonio
charged romantic thriller Banderas).
about two men caring for
two women, both of whom What else to watch: Matador (1986) ■ Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1989) ■
are in a coma. High Heels (1991) ■ Live Flesh (1997) ■ Volver (2006) ■ The Skin I Live In (2011)

ANGELS AND MONSTERS 263

BEING HAPPY ISN’T
ALL THAT GREAT

SEX, LIES, AND VIDEOTAPE / 1989

IN CONTEXT G raham (James Spader), MacDowell) is married to Graham’s
the protagonist of Sex, old friend John (Peter Gallagher),
GENRE Lies, and Videotape, is who is cheating on her with her
Independent drama young, handsome, intelligent— sister. Ann and John no longer
and impotent. He achieves sexual make love, and Ann thinks sex
DIRECTOR satisfaction only when watching is overrated. At first horrified by
Steven Soderbergh videos he has made of female Graham’s unusual predilections,
acquaintances talking about about which he is disarmingly
WRITER their sexual fantasies. Ann (Andie open, Ann soon opens herself up
Steven Soderbergh on camera—and in the process
discovers that she is not quite
STARS who she thought she was.
James Spader, Andie
MacDowell, Peter Gallagher, The movie launched the career
Laura San Giacomo of director Steven Soderbergh,
who would go on to become one
BEFORE of the most unpredictable talents
1974 John Cassavetes’ A in American movies. Just as
Woman Under the Influence significantly, it was vital in kindling
is financed by the director a new wave of US independent
mortgaging his house; it wins cinema. After his movie won the
him an Oscar nomination.
Palme d’Or, Soderbergh’s success
AFTER helped lay the ground for creators
1991 Richard Linklater’s like Spike Lee, Richard Linklater,
Slacker is a freewheeling and Quentin Tarantino, who work
amble through Austin, Texas, outside the studio system. ■
that receives acclaim amid
renewed interest in new young Written in a week and made
American filmmakers. on a small budget, Sex, Lies, and
Videotape nonetheless managed
1998 Soderbergh has a to achieve box-office success.
mainstream hit with Out of
Sight, starring George Clooney. What else to watch: Do the Right Thing (1989, p.264) ■ Slacker (1991) ■
Reservoir Dogs (1992, p.340) ■ Safe (1995) ■ In the Company of Men (1997)

264

TODAY’S TEMPERATURE’S
GONNA RISE UP OVER
100 DEGREES

DO THE RIGHT THING / 1989

IN CONTEXT F ew movies capture the unease. The story is set in New
drama of city life as York, in the diverse Brooklyn
GENRE successfully as Spike Lee’s neighborhood of Bedford-
Drama Do the Right Thing. The story is Stuyvesant, where racial tension is
driven by outrage at racial never far beneath the surface. As
DIRECTOR discrimination, but the movie the temperature rises, the veneer of
Spike Lee conveys its message with sizzling civility begins to crack, and a
energy and a refusal to offer any montage of characters is shown
WRITER easy solutions. From the first scene, delivering a stream of racial abuse
Spike Lee in which a radio DJ announces the direct to camera, each face wild
heat wave that engulfs his listeners, with hatred.
STARS the physical discomfort of the
Spike Lee, Danny Aiello, characters is a metaphor for social Mookie, played by Lee himself,
Ossie Davis, John Turturro works as a pizza delivery man for
Do the Right Thing doesn’t ask Sal (Danny Aiello). Previously seen
BEFORE its audiences to choose sides; as a tolerant man, Sal unleashes his
1965 In The Hill, directed by it is scrupulously fair to both own verbal tirade when black youths
Sidney Lumet, racial tensions sides, in a story where it is our stage a protest after an argument
rise among soldiers in the society itself that is not fair. over why his restaurant only displays
intense heat of Libya’s desert. pictures of Italian-Americans, when
Roger Ebert most of his customers are black. As
1986 She’s Gotta Have It is tempers fray, the protest escalates
Lee’s comedy about a Brooklyn into violence. By the time the police
girl juggling three suitors. arrive, the whole neighborhood is
threatening to boil over into chaos.
AFTER
1992 Lee makes Malcolm X, Do the Right Thing is a movie
a critically acclaimed biopic of brimming with life but shot through
the radical civil rights activist. with ambivalence. Even in a
racially diverse community, it is
2006 Inside Man is Lee’s saying, there is a worrying limit to
hugely successful movie anyone’s tolerance. ■
about a Wall Street bank heist,
starring Denzel Washington. What else to watch: The Cardinal (1963) ■ Jungle Fever (1991) ■
Malcolm X (1992) ■ 25th Hour (2002) ■ Inside Man (2006) ■ Selma (2014)

ANGELS AND MONSTERS 265

SHE HAS THE FACE OF
BUDDHA AND THE HEART
OF A SCORPION

RAISE THE RED LANTERN / 1991

IN CONTEXT W ith its portrayal of the its admirers as a feminist parable,
traditional formalities of director Zhang Yimou insists it was
GENRE the past, Raise the Red neither. His use of the color red is
Historical drama Lantern initially seems more archaic perhaps best seen as a metaphor for
than it really is: it is set in the 1920s, the constraining effects of Chinese
DIRECTOR in the warlord era before China’s Communism after the crackdown
Zhang Yimou Civil War of 1927. Songlian (Gong Li) that followed the Tiananmen
is a penniless teenage girl who Square protests of 1989.
WRITERS becomes the fourth concubine
Ni Zhen (screenplay); of Master Chen. Rivals, the four Fading hopes
Su Tong (novel) women live in an uneasy truce, but Betrayed by her rivals and a jealous
Songlian soon learns that she is the maid, Songlian goes mad. She swaps
STARS target of a secret conspiracy. her elaborate robes for her white
Gong Li, He Saifei, Cao school blouse, oblivious to the red
Cuifen, Jingwu Ma Although the movie was initially lanterns that are lit to show whom
seen by its critics as a tourist-board the master chooses each night. ■
BEFORE version of Chinese history and by
1984 Zhang Yimou is the
cinematographer for Chen The red
Kaige’s historical drama lanterns
Yellow Earth. symbolize each
concubine’s
1987 Red Sorghum, Zhang’s desperate hope
debut, wins the top prize at that the Master
the 1988 Berlin Film Festival. will favor her
over the others.
1990 Zhang’s rural drama Ju
Dou is China’s first nomination What else to watch: One and Eight (1983) ■ Yellow Earth (1984) ■
for an Academy Award for Best The Old Well (1986) ■ Red Sorghum (1987) ■ Ju Dou (1990)
Foreign Language film.

AFTER
2002 Zhang’s wuxia martial
arts epic, Hero, is a global hit.

SMALL
WORLD

1992–PRESENT



268 INTRODUCTION

Quentin Tarantino’s Danish directors David Lynch continues to
debut feature, the Lars von Trier and
stylish thriller Thomas Vinterberg take explore nonlinear Ang Lee brings wuxia
Reservoir Dogs, an artistic “vow of
chastity” with their narratives in Lost to an international
announces a confident Dogme 95 manifesto.
new talent. Highway; Curtis Hanson audience with

conjures up the spirit of film Crouching Tiger,

noir with LA Confidential. Hidden Dragon.

1992 1995 1997 2000
1994 1996 1998 2002

With a story by Quentin Joel and Ethan Coen Vinterberg’s Contemporary
Tarantino, Oliver Stone find warmth in a tale first Dogme movie, gang life is vividly
shocks and challenges of icy violence with portrayed in City of
audiences with the Festen, is shot God, while Gangs
Fargo, while David using a handheld of New York depicts
violence of Natural Cronenberg provokes digital camera. 19th-century crime.
Born Killers. audiences with Crash.

A s this book nears the When people ask me if I wuxia but purpose made by its
end of its broad sweep of went to film school, I tell them Taiwanese-American director Ang
movie history, the time Lee to be accessible to audiences
has come to introduce Quentin “no, I went to films.” across the world. From Brazil,
Tarantino. By the early 1990s, a Quentin Tarantino Fernando Meirelles’s City of God
century of movies was available to applied the stylistic swagger of
filmmakers to pay homage to and norm for movie lovers to celebrate Martin Scorsese to a story set in
to repurpose. Tarantino—a movie the movies of Southeast Asia, the favelas of Rio.
obsessive who filled his movies Turkey, India, and Latin America.
with endless nudges and nods to Cultures clashed, to glorious effect: Digital revolution
that past—was a controversial Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon A less heralded revolution also
figure from the moment the world was a martial arts extravaganza stirred in the last days of the 20th
saw his debut Reservoir Dogs. But steeped in the Chinese tradition of century. Since the dawn of cinema,
no one could question the filmmakers had been just that:
excitement he generated. film was not just the name of the
art form, it was what physically
Beyond Hollywood went into cameras and projectors.
From the 1990s onward, Hollywood In 1998, the Danish family drama
was increasingly one part of a Festen, filmed according to the
bigger story. The curious audience rules of the Dogme 95 manifesto,
was looking far afield, and rather became the first high-profile movie
than the occasional box-office to be shot on digital video, then
breakout, it was becoming the mostly used in cheap home

Peter Jackson completes Guillermo del Toro The Hurt Locker wins SMALL WORLD 269
his blockbuster Lord of mixes fantasy with director Kathryn
gritty realism in his Bigelow an Oscar; Jackson’s The Hobbit:
the Rings trilogy; Danny Boyle adds a An Unexpected
Tarantino continues to Spanish drama
show stylish invention Pan’s Labyrinth. touch of Bollywood Journey is the first
with Kill Bill: Volume 1. style to Slumdog commercial feature
Millionaire. movie to be shot at a
high frame rate of
48 frames per second.

2003 2006 2008 2012

2003 2007 2011 2013

Park Chan-wook’s Paul Thomas Anderson Turkish director Nuri In Gravity, Alfonso
innovative and violent tells a tale of oil and Bilge Ceylan’s Once Upon Cuarón uses the latest
thriller Oldboy brings greed in his historical a Time in Anatolia charts computer technology
South Korean cinema epic There Will to produce a visually
Be Blood. the grim duties of a
to an international homicide team. stunning 3D space
audience. adventure.

camcorders. Nothing would be the jagged energy of its special the children of a German village in
the same again. In the short term, effects ideal for a story about the 1913, used digital technology to
filmmakers now had cameras so Iraq War. More significant, perhaps, erase stray signs of modern life.
small and light they could move was that its director, Kathryn
through scenes with boundless Bigelow, became the first woman In the blockbuster Gravity, on
agility. For some (among them to win an Oscar as Best Director. the other hand, nothing was what it
Tarantino), the loss of film was seemed; its outer space adventure
an ongoing tragedy. For others, Computer effects had mostly been filmed with a lone
digital put filmmaking in the For much of the course of this Sandra Bullock locked for months
hands of people who could never book, “special effects” were the into a “cage” in front of a green
have afforded to get their ideas on preserve of a certain kind of screen, “space” to be added later.
screen otherwise—and made the movie: big-budget spectaculars,
riches of movie history accessible the sons (and daughters) of Yet Georges Méliès would surely
to anyone with a memory stick. King Kong and animator Ray have smiled at finding we were
Harryhausen. By now, movies of still thrilling ourselves with trips
The digital revolution not only all kinds were being made in to the stars. While it was firmly
transformed the way movies were front of computers. German earthbound, he would have
shot, it also changed how they were director Michael Haneke’s admired Boyhood too: shot for a
seen, as noiseless digital projection hypnotically austere filmmaking few days every year for 12 years
replaced the time-honored whir could hardly have been further to map one child’s journey through
of 35 mm. from the additive-packed summer life, it sounded like a gimmick.
blockbuster; yet The White Ribbon, In fact, it reminded you, with
Other barriers were also falling. his tale of strange goings-on among enormous power, what it was to
The Hurt Locker was a movie that, be human. What better emblem
in 2008, felt impossibly modern— for the movies could there be? ■

THE TRUTH

IS YOU’RE THE WEAK. AND I’M

THE TYRANNY OF

EVIL MEN

PULP FICTION / 1994



272 PULP FICTION I n the early 1990s, a movie Pulp Fiction, which kept up the
fanatic and video-store clerk verbal zing of its predecessor
IN CONTEXT named Quentin Tarantino, but also introduced a dazzlingly
originally from Knoxville, Tennessee, inventive structure and A-list
GENRE had a seismic impact on American Hollywood stars.
Crime, thriller movies. Although the likes of
Richard Linklater and Spike Lee Tarantino’s profane, freewheeling
DIRECTOR had brought exciting new ideas style was like an adrenaline shot to
Quentin Tarantino to American cinema, it had been a the heart—a motif that would appear
long time since it had felt dangerous. in Pulp Fiction. Part of what made
WRITERS Tarantino relocated to Southern him such a novelty was his approach
Quentin Tarantino, Roger California, and his debut as the to genre. Just as Reservoir Dogs had
Avary (story); Quentin director of Reservoir Dogs felt very reimagined the heist movie, so Pulp
Tarantino (script) dangerous indeed—a foul-mouthed, Fiction took the conventions of the
blood-soaked crime story that was B-movie—a gangland killing, a
STARS also incredibly funny. Two years boxer taking a dive, and a hitman
John Travolta, Samuel L. later, Tarantino followed up with in search of redemption—and
Jackson, Uma Thurman, repurposed them in new, brilliantly
Bruce Willis knowing ways. The result has the
stylistic charge of a genre movie
BEFORE while remaining a genuinely original
1955 Noir thriller Kiss Me and innovative movie experience.
Deadly features a glowing
suitcase that’s thought to have Structural shift
inspired the one in Pulp Fiction. One of the iconic elements of Pulp
Fiction is its use of nonlinear
AFTER storytelling. By fracturing the
1997 Similarly to Pulp Fiction, narrative, Tarantino does not allow
Tarantino’s Jackie Brown the audience to settle into the
weaves together a large cast traditional rhythms of watching ❯❯
and many plot elements.
Vincent Vega (John Travolta) pairs
2003 Revenge romp Kill Bill up with Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) at
sees Tarantino elevating Uma Jack Rabbit Slim’s for some comically
Thurman to a blood-soaked clichéd dance moves.
starring role.
00:54 01:43 02:13
Minute by minute Returning to her Butch escapes from Jules and Vincent
house after the night the dungeon, but goes arrive at the diner for
00:20 out with Vincent, Mia back with a sword to some breakfast. Jules
On a job for Marsellus accidentally overdoses free Marsellus. He then discusses his miracle
Wallace, Jules and Vincent on Vincent’s heroin. He takes off on Zed’s bike. and announces that he
shoot some men who have takes her to his dealer is quitting the business.
taken a suitcase belonging for an adrenaline shot.
to Marsellus.

00:00 00:30 01:00 01:30 02:00 02:34

00:24 01:29 02:01 02:22
At Marsellus’s club, Butch returns to his The Wolf is called to Pumpkin takes
Butch agrees to take a fall. apartment to look for his clean up the mess after Jules’s wallet and
As he is leaving, Vincent watch. He finds a gun and Vincent accidentally asks about the case.
and Jules arrive dressed in shoots Vincent as Vincent shoots Marvin while Jules allows Pumpkin
T-shirts and shorts. comes out of the bathroom. Marvin is in the to leave with the wallet
backseat of the car with but without the case.
Vincent and Jules.

SMALL WORLD 273

What else to watch: Kiss Me Deadly (1955, p.134) ■ Shoot the Piano Player (1960) ■ Band of Outsiders (1964) ■
Blood Simple (1984, p.339) ■ Reservoir Dogs (1992, p.340) ■ True Romance (1993) ■ Jackie Brown (1997) ■ Go (1999)

This iconic
poster for
Pulp Fiction
apes the covers
of the trashy
crime novels
from which it
draws its title,
right down to
the 10-cent
price tag and
much-thumbed
appearance.

274 PULP FICTION

a crime thriller. Instead of a story Nobody’s gonna hurt anybody. We’re
with an identifiable beginning, gonna be like three little Fonzies here.
middle, and end, the movie features And what’s Fonzie like?
a segmented structure in which
three self-contained stories are told Jules / Pulp Fiction
out of sync with one another. The
director is careful to ensure that in the plot of all three stories, for deliberately avoids projecting his
each segment feels like part of one example, and key protagonists from own sense of right and wrong onto
world, so he connects the stories one story show up for walk-on parts his characters. The most telling
through the supporting characters: in other plotlines. Vincent Vega instance of this is found in one of
gangland kingpin Marsellus (John Travolta), who spends much the movie’s earlier sequences, in
Wallace is featured prominently of the first hour as a lead character, which Vincent and Jules make their
recedes into a supporting role as first appearance. The audience first
Prelude to the movie progresses—he shows up lays eyes on them as they have a
“The Gold for a brief (and unfortunate) cameo low-key conversation about fast
Watch” 1 in “The Gold Watch” storyline food, during which they appear to
featuring washed-up boxer Butch be charismatic, likeable characters
Prelude to Coolidge (Bruce Willis), then plays who are fun to hang out with.
“Vincent Vega second fiddle to his partner Jules However, they are professional
and Mia Wallace” Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) in the killers on their way to a hit, and
final segment, as the latter following their conversation they are
“The Bonnie experiences a spiritual awakening. shown doing something monstrous,
Situation” something that would traditionally
The result of this disassembled be considered evil. This framing of
Prologue The Diner structure is that Pulp Fiction isn’t their characters forces viewers to
about any one character or story, accept Pulp Fiction’s nonjudgmental
Epilogue The Diner but instead is almost a mood piece,
designed to evoke the feel of Los
“Vincent Vega Angeles and the slick but seedy
and Mia Wallace” characters who live there. At the
end of each segment, the story’s
Prelude to momentum comes to a halt and the
“The Gold movie reboots in another place,
Watch” 2 with other people, at an
indeterminate point in time.
“The Gold Watch”
Amoral morality
Pulp Fiction’s nonlinear narrative Crime thrillers are not known for
starts in the middle. When its chapters stories about morally upstanding
are arranged chronologically, does the individuals doing good, yet as well
story seem less open-ended? as having clearly
identifiable heroes and
villains, most of them
have a distinct idea of
what is right and
wrong, even if that
doesn’t always comply
with the letter of the
law. In Pulp Fiction,
however, Tarantino

stance and conditions them for the You get intoxicated by it… SMALL WORLD 275
best way to appreciate the movie, high on the rediscovery
which is simply to submit and go Quentin Tarantino
along for the ride. of how pleasurable a movie Director
can be. I’m not sure I’ve ever
Pulp Fiction, in all its obscene encountered a filmmaker who Quentin Tarantino was born
glory, is perhaps one of the best in Knoxville, Tennessee, in
examples in movies of how combined discipline and 1963. After dropping out of
originality and daring will win out. control with sheer wild-ass joy high school at 15 to pursue an
There were a lot of obstacles the way that Tarantino does. acting career, he was diverted
between the critical establishment into writing scripts by a
and the movie, from its language to Owen Gleiberman meeting with producer
its violence to its subject matter Lawrence Bender. His first
(indeed, it was famously and Entertainment Weekly, 1994 movie, Reservoir Dogs, gained
controversially beaten to the 1995 him international acclaim, and
Best Picture Oscar by Steven you’re looking for a fresh and his follow-up, Pulp Fiction,
Spielberg’s far more conventional engrossing take on the well-trodden won the Palme d’Or as well
Forrest Gump), yet its enduring territory of the criminal underworld, as earning him the Oscar for
popularity shows that it functions Best Original Screenplay.
perfectly as a showcase for you can’t do much better than Tarantino has since made
Tarantino’s talent as a filmmaker, Pulp Fiction. ■ movies in a variety of genres,
with the broken structure allowing from revenge thrillers in the
for singular moments of directorial Kill Bill series to war movies
flair to become prominent instead with Inglourious Basterds
of being lost as part of the whole. If (2009) and Westerns with
Django Unchained. His movies
continue to do well with both
critics and audiences.

Key movies

1992 Reservoir Dogs
1994 Pulp Fiction
2003 Kill Bill: Volume 1
2012 Django Unchained

Although he is being held at
gunpoint, Pumpkin (Tim Roth) is
about to witness a truly unusual
moment of enlightenment as Jules
vows to change his ways.

276

I FEEL SOMETHING
IMPORTANT IS HAPPENING
AROUND ME. AND IT
SCARES ME

THREE COLORS: RED / 1994

IN CONTEXT T hree Colors: Red is the former judge, Joseph Kern (Jean-
final part of Krzysztof Louis Trintignant). Valentine and
GENRE Kieslowski’s trilogy based Kern form a strange rapport, such
Drama on the three colors of the French that, had they not missed each
flag: red, white, and blue. Each other by a mere 40 years, they
DIRECTOR movie explores one of the three may have fallen in love.
Krzysztof Kieslowski ideals of the French Revolution:
liberty in Blue (1993), equality in Reclusive observer
WRITERS White (1994), and, in Red, fraternity. Kern has resigned from his career.
Krzysztof Kieslowski, Red is the warmest, most Tired of passing judgement, he
Krzysztof Piesiewicz sympathetic of the three movies, now simply wants to be an
featuring an affecting performance observer. He
STARS by Irène Jacob as Valentine. watches life
Irène Jacob, Jean-Louis
Trintignant Set in Geneva, Switzerland, the
movie, shot through with symbolic
BEFORE red, tells what at first seem to
1987 In Blind Chance, be stories of separate lives, until
Kieslowski explores the deeper connections emerge. The
influence of chance and choice central story is of a young
in three alternate stories about model, Valentine, who
a man catching a train. accidentally runs over a
dog with her car. She
1991 Kieslowski teams up takes the dog to its
with Irène Jacob for the first owner, a reclusive
time with The Double Life
of Veronique. Valentine (Irène
Jacob) discovers
AFTER that the dog
2002 Kieslowski’s last she injured is
screenplay, Heaven, is directed pregnant. Kern
by Tom Twyker and stars Cate gives the dog
Blanchett. It had been written to her when
as the first in a new trilogy. she returns it
to him.

SMALL WORLD 277

What else to watch: Ashes and Diamonds (1958, pp. 146–47) ■ We Have to Kill
This Love (1972) ■ Europa, Europa (1990) ■ The Double Life of Veronique (1991)

from his windows and eavesdrops Kern (Jean-Louis Trintignant) Krzysztof Kieslowski
on his neighbors’ telephone reevaluates his life after meeting Director
conversations. It eventually Valentine. But before he can give her
transpires that one of those on the advice he thinks she needs, he Polish director Krzysztof
whom he eavesdrops is a young must first do the right thing himself. Kieslowski is renowned for
judge, Auguste—Valentine’s his moving meditations on
neighbor whom she’s never met. Underpinning the movie is a concern the human spirit. He was born
In an uncanny echo of Kern’s own with the fraternity of human souls in Warsaw in 1941. His father
past, Auguste is being betrayed across time and gender. Those suffered from TB, so his
by his weather-girl partner Karin. bonds can easily be lost to false childhood was nomadic,
connections—like the phone lines as the family moved around
Kern convinces Valentine to that seem to link Valentine and her sanatoriums. At 16 he tried
try to mend her relationship with lover and that Kern eavesdrops on, training as a fireman, then
her boyfriend in England. She and like the windows through as a theater technician,
takes his advice, but fate has which the judge spies, which give before finally enrolling at the
the illusion of contact but make real Lódz film school. He made
different plans, bringing connection impossible. Only once documentaries in the 1960s
together the glass is shattered can a real which were skilled in getting
Valentine and bond, a real physical connection across subversive messages
her neighbor. between people, be restored. that the authorities would
miss. His first major hit movie,
Yet the two main characters The Double Life of Veronique,
manage to relate to one another explored human emotion
in a way that enriches the lives of through the lives of two
both of them, and this clear truth identical women, one Polish
adds a warm feeling to the movie’s and the other French. He
enigmatic ending. There is no then followed with his lauded
obvious sense or clear message to Three Colors trilogy before
be absorbed as the closing credits surprisingly announcing his
roll by, merely an impressionistic retirement. He died suddenly
reflection on the lives we have been in 1996, at just 54.
eavesdropping on for a brief time. ■
Key movies

1988 A Short Film about Killing
1989 Decalogue
1991 The Double Life
of Veronique
1994 Three Colors: Red

278

GET BUSY LIVING
OR GET BUSY DYING

THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION / 1994

IN CONTEXT A movie that The movie’s
deals with initially low
GENRE the triumph returns at
Drama of the human spirit the box office
over adversity has a were rapidly
DIRECTOR delicate line to tread. offset by
Frank Darabont Misjudge the balance seven Oscar
between dignity and nominations
WRITERS suffering and the
Frank Darabont triumph will either feel and lasting
(screenplay); Stephen hollow or not worth the popularity
King (short story) ordeal, for protagonist with the
and audience alike. public.
STARS
Tim Robbins, Morgan In The Shawshank 1947, Andy is a sensitive, thoughtful
Freeman, Bob Gunton Redemption, with its man. His strength is not physical;
story of a man who is it derives from his belief in the
BEFORE sentenced to life in a individual’s inviolate right to justice
1979 Escape from Alcatraz prison run by a corrupt warden, and humane treatment, which allows
tells the true story of a director Frank Darabont achieves him to maintain his integrity even
breakout from prison. the perfect balance. The movie when his situation seems hopeless.
emphasizes humanity over
1983 The Woman in the Room brutality, and it has become one Although Andy is trapped in a
is Darabont’s first movie, also of the most popular movies ever system that seeks to crush him and
based on a Stephen King story. made about the power of self-belief. institutionalize him, the audience
has the impression that he is freer
AFTER Unconventional prisoner than many of those at liberty. He
1995 Tim Robbins directs In its lead character, Andy Dufresne never loses hope that life can get
Dead Man Walking, the (Tim Robbins), the movie subverts better, whether he is campaigning
story of a man on death row. the tough-guy protagonist of for an improved prison library or
previous prison dramas such as cutting a deal with one of the most
1999 Darabont films King’s Cool Hand Luke (1967) or Escape brutal guards to get his fellow
The Green Mile, another prison from Alcatraz (1979). A former jailbirds a beer after a day’s labor.
drama, set in the 1930s. banker who is convicted of
murdering his wife and her lover in

SMALL WORLD 279

What else to watch: Cool Hand Luke (1967) ■ Midnight Express (1978) ■ Escape from Alcatraz (1979) ■ The Shining
(1980, p.339) ■ Sleepers (1996) ■ The Green Mile (1999) ■ The Majestic (2001) ■ The Mist (2007) ■ A Prophet (2009)

It is this hope that impels Andy Frank Darabont Director
to turn the tables on the brutal
Warden Norton (Bob Gunton), who The child of short story. This brought him
exploits Andy’s bookkeeping skills Hungarian worldwide acclaim and an Oscar
in order to launder money. Each immigrants, nomination. He directed more
night, Andy chips away at his cell Frank Darabont adaptations of King’s work in
wall in order to carry out an escape was born in The Green Mile and The Mist,
that is 20 years in the making. His 1959 in a refugee camp in before working on TV horror
determination also inspires his Montbéliard, France, and moved series The Walking Dead
friend Red (Morgan Freeman) with his family to the US as between 2010 and 2011.
to find his own redemption. an infant. He began his career
with various jobs on movie sets, Key movies
Paying the price including as production assistant
In contrast, fellow inmate Brooks on the horror movie Hell Night 1994 The Shawshank
Hatlen (James Whitmore) is so (1981). His first full feature was Redemption
dependent on the certainties of The Shawshank Redemption, an 1999 The Green Mile
prison life that he dreads his adaptation of a Stephen King 2007 The Mist
release. When Brooks is let out
on parole in 1954, he is shown what makes Andy’s Fellow lifer Red (Morgan
attempting to cross a road, shocked fortitude so miraculous. Freeman) is drawn by the
by the speed of traffic, overwhelmed The Shawshank steely determination of
in an enormous world. Brooks is Redemption suggests that Andy (Tim Robbins) not
neither weak nor cowardly, but he it is possible for a person to be broken. Red’s slow,
does not know how to cope. to hold on to their self- measured voice-over
worth even in the very as the movie’s
Time in prison direst of circumstances, and narrator adds to its
can change to maintain their humanity somber dignity.
people, often even in the face of the most
for the worse, inhumane treatment. ■
and this is

280

TO INFINITY
AND BEYOND!

TOY STORY / 1995

© Disney·Pixar T oy Story is a landmark appeal derives from its highly
movie: it was the first full- original characters and its plot—a
IN CONTEXT length film to use entirely simple yet heart-warming buddy
computer-generated imagery (CGI) story with plenty of excellent gags.
GENRE instead of traditional hand-drawn
Animation, adventure animation. Pixar, the new studio From the outset, Pixar set out
behind the movie, convinced movie- to be modern, and chose not to
DIRECTOR goers of CGI’s possibilities without seek inspiration in fairy tales and
John Lasseter relying solely on its technological legends—the staples of Disney
novelty. Indeed, much of the movie’s animated movies. In fact, the central
WRITERS conflict in Toy Story is about old
John Lasseter, Pete versus new. A boy, Andy, discards
Docter, Andrew Stanton, his favorite toy, Woody, a cowboy
Joe Ranft (original story); of the Old West, when given a Buzz
Joss Whedon, Andrew Lightyear, a futuristic space-ranger
Stanton, Joel Cohen, Alec toy. Critics have suggested that
Sokolow (screenplay) Woody’s difficulty in accepting
the new toy, with its gadgets and
STARS laser, and his grouchy attitude
Tom Hanks, Tim Allen mirror audience fears about CGI
excess replacing much-loved classic
BEFORE animation. The film shows Woody
1991 Disney’s Beauty and can coexist with Buzz. There
the Beast uses some CGI. is a place for nostalgia alongside
progress, particularly when it comes
AFTER in a package as good as Toy Story. ■
1998 CGI moves on in A Bug’s
Life, Lasseter’s ant colony tale. Woody watches enviously as
Buzz Lightyear wows the toys. Buzz
1999 Toy Story 2, the first fully has no idea that he is a child’s toy—
digital film, is another big hit. one of the jokes that drives the plot.

2007 Ratatouille combines © Disney·Pixar
CGI with a daring, original plot.
What else to watch: Monsters, Inc. (2001) ■ The Incredibles (2004) ■
2012 Lasseter produces a 3D Toy Story 2 (1999) ■ Ratatouille (2007) ■ WALL·E (2008) ■ Toy Story 3 (2010)
version of Beauty and the Beast.

SMALL WORLD 281

IT’S NOT HOW YOU
FALL THAT MATTERS.
IT’S HOW YOU LAND

LA HAINE / 1995

IN CONTEXT M athieu Kassovitz’s La All the kids around
Haine (Hate) is a movie the world have the same
GENRE driven by the anger of problems—in London, New
Drama three young men from a riot-scarred
housing project in the banlieues York, Paris, wherever.
DIRECTOR (high-rise, poor suburbs) of Paris. It Mathieu Kassovitz
Mathieu Kassovitz won Kassovitz the award for Best
Director at Cannes, yet its violence Bickle in Martin Scorsese’s movie
WRITER and its criticism of the police made Taxi Driver, is determined to take
Mathieu Kassovitz it hugely controversial. revenge on the police. But as Vinz
realizes that he is no killer, the three
STARS The three men are all sons of are drawn into a spiral of violence
Vincent Cassel, Hubert immigrants—Vinz (Vincent Cassel) involving police and racist thugs.
Koundé, Saïd Taghmaoui is Jewish, Hubert (Hubert Koundé)
is black, Saïd (Saïd Taghmaoui) is The stark black-and-white
BEFORE Arab—and the anger in the movie photography, filmed mostly in the
1993 Café au Lait, Kassovitz’s is fueled by the marginalization banlieues, and the intensity of the
first movie, is influenced by of minorities. The trigger for the acting, particularly from Cassel, give
Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It. action is a bavure (slipup) by the movie rawness and realism. Few
the police, who beat Abdel, one movies have captured the divide
AFTER of the trio’s friends, into a coma. between the haves and have-nots
2001 As an actor, Kassovitz quite so uncompromisingly. ■
stars in the hugely successful A spiral of violence
comedy Amélie. Such bavures were disturbingly
common in France at the time, and
2011 Rebellion, a thriller set Kassovitz says he started writing
in French New Caledonia, is a the movie on April 6, 1993, the day
critical success for Kassovitz, a young man from Zaire, Makome
with some of the anger that M’Bowole, was shot dead in police
fueled La Haine. custody. In the movie, Vinz, who
models himself on vigilante Travis
2014 In Girlhood, French
director Céline Sciamma tells What else to watch: The 400 Blows (1959, pp.150–55) ■ Do the Right Thing
another drama of the banlieues, (1989, p.264) ■ Amélie (2001, pp.298–99) ■ City of God (2002, pp.304–09)
from a girl’s perspective.

282

I’M NOT SURE I AGREE
WITH YOU ONE HUNDRED
PERCENT ON YOUR POLICE
WORK THERE, LOU

FARGO / 1996

IN CONTEXT F argo is a tragic farce that Grimsrud (Peter Stormare) and
plays out at the slow, steady Showalter (Steve Buscemi) are a pair
GENRE pace of a glacier. It begins of hapless fools. Everything they do
Crime drama, comedy with a car salesman named Jerry sinks them deeper into trouble.
Lundegaard (William H. Macy), who
DIRECTORS desperately needs money to save Dakota, in the small towns of
Joel Coen, Ethan Coen himself from bankruptcy. Jerry Fargo and Brainerd, and on the
hires grizzled goons Showalter bleak highway that connects
WRITERS (Steve Buscemi) and Grimsrud them. During the course of the
Joel Coen, Ethan Coen (Peter Stormare) to kidnap his wife kidnapping, Grimsrud accidentally
(Kristin Rudrüd) and promises to kills a carful of people, and he and
STARS split the ransom with the pair once Showalter soon find that it is hard
William H. Macy, Frances the job is done. It’s a simple plan, to dispose of corpses in weather
McDormand, Steve but, as with most things in Jerry’s so cold that graves cannot be dug
Buscemi, Peter Stormare life, it goes horribly wrong. and flesh does not rot. Grimrud
hits on a novel solution to this
BEFORE Jerry’s crime plays out against problem in the movie’s audacious
1984 The Coens’ first feature, the blinding white wilderness of final act, but not before Brainerd’s
Blood Simple, is a film noir in winter in Minnesota and North
which ordinary folk are led to
destruction by their own greed.

AFTER
2013 Another winter’s tale,
the Coens’ Inside Llewyn Davis
is the tale of a down-on-his-
luck songwriter in New York.

2014 In David Zellner’s
Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter,
a Japanese woman goes
in search of treasure in
Minnesota after watching
Fargo, believing it to be real.

SMALL WORLD 283

What else to watch: Blood Simple (1984, p.339) ■ Miller’s Crossing (1990) ■ The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) ■
The Big Lebowksi (1998) ■ The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001) ■ True Grit (2010)

Joel and Ethan Coen Directors As filmmakers, the Coen brothers
are masters of balancing laughs
Joel and Ethan genres as a starting point, before and chills, and thanks to its
Coen have sprawling off in a direction of crime-thriller trappings and wintry
made more than their own and crafting an off- landscape, Fargo is one of their
20 acclaimed kilter, funny-scary atmosphere chilliest works. The tone is set in
movies. After their first, the that is entirely their own. the opening shot, when the camera
sleek thriller Blood Simple, they peers at a car—Jerry’s—threading
surprised admirers with Raising Key movies its way through the blizzard. A
Arizona, a romantic black doom-laden musical score starts
comedy, and have confounded 1984 Blood Simple up, and this doesn’t feel like a
expectations ever since, fusing 1991 Barton Fink comedy: from the outset there
darkness with laughs. The Coens 1996 Fargo are hints of horror.
often use other movies and 2007 No Country for Old Men
Marge is the heart of the story.
police find his victims by the side accent that suggests she’s a bit of Her pregnancy is a symbol of
of the road. The chief of police a bumpkin. But Marge is clearly hope in the white wasteland of
is Marge Gunderson (Frances on the ball. Carefully, she traces double-crossing and butchery.
McDormand), perhaps the only the trail of disasters back to Jerry, Although she is never in any real
heavily pregnant detective in who’s not coping well with the danger, there is a lingering dread
the history of cinema. pressure. Macy’s study in stress that she will be overcome by the
(visible in the close-up far left) movie’s violence. But the Coen
Uncommon detective brothers manage to maintain their
Like everyone else in Brainerd is funny and upsetting, masterful balancing act amid the
and Fargo, Marge has a folksy and he turns the folksy carnage, the nihilism of the case
Scandinavian–American regional accent into forced to co-star with Marge’s
a rhythm of despair. deeply rooted decency. ■

Marge (Frances There’s more to life than
McDormand) inspects a little money, you know.
the body of a state Don’tcha know that?…
trooper. Her provincial I just don’t understand it.
manner belies a
sharp intelligence. Marge Gunderson / Fargo

284

WE’VE ALL LOST
OUR CHILDREN

THE SWEET HEREAFTER / 1997

IN CONTEXT M ost dramas build up to seek redress is a manifestation of
tragedy; few begin with the despair in his own life, as he
GENRE its aftermath. Canadian struggles to cope with losing his
Drama director Atom Egoyan’s movie deals own daughter to drug addiction.
with the fallout from two tragedies,
DIRECTOR weaving them together in a subtle Seeking closure
Atom Egoyan meditation on survivor’s guilt. Stevens meets his match in Nicole
(Sarah Polley), a 15-year-old who was
WRITERS In a town in British Columbia, on the bus but survived. Contrary to
Atom Egoyan (screenplay); 14 children have died when the bus his expectations, Nicole has no rage;
Russell Banks (novel) they were on slid into an icy lake. instead, she feels left behind, in a
Lawyer Mitchell Stevens (Ian ghost town shattered by grief. Her
STARS Holm) suspects negligence, and sabotaging of his case with a wholly
Ian Holm, Sarah Polley, tries to build a case against the unexpected deposition is the payoff
Caerthan Banks bus company and its driver, the to this beguiling movie. Why she
horrified and otherwise harmless does it is something for both
BEFORE Dolores (Gabrielle Rose). Stevens’ Stevens and the viewer to ponder. ■
1994 Exotica, a story set in a bid to persuade reluctant locals to
strip joint in Toronto, brings Nicole survives
international attention to Atom the accident but is
Egoyan’s work. left paralyzed. So
too, in a sense, is
AFTER the small town
2002 Ararat, Egoyan’s drama torn apart by the
about the Armenian genocide loss of the children
of 1915, wins critical acclaim who died that day.
but faces distribution problems
due to political pressure from What else to watch: Short Cuts (1993) ■ Exotica (1994) ■ Breaking the
Turkey, which denies genocide. Waves (1996) ■ Ararat (2002) ■ Mystic River (2003) ■ 21 Grams (2003)

2009 Chloe, an erotic thriller
staring Liam Neeson and
Julianne Moore, is Egoyan’s
biggest commercial hit.

SMALL WORLD 285

I MISS MY
FATHER

CENTRAL STATION / 1998

IN CONTEXT On its release in 1998, Walter her outraged friend, “He’ll be better
Salles’s breakout hit was off.” That Dora eventually finds her
GENRE immediately nominated conscience and puts things right is
Drama for the Best Foreign Language no surprise, but what stands out
Film Oscar. The story of an orphan is the naturalism and ease with
DIRECTOR looking for his father might sound which the story develops. When
Walter Salles like sentimental Hollywood fare, but Dora’s attempt to take the boy back
in Salles’s hands it is an often dark, to his father backfires, she gives up
WRITERS always clear-eyed look at big-city trying to outwit fate and simply
Marcos Bernstein, poverty, given added authenticity by plays her part: once a reluctant
João Emanuel Carneiro, the fact that its child star, Vinícius messenger, she makes sure this
Walter Salles de Oliveira, was making ends meet package gets to its destination. ■
as a shoe-shine boy in Rio de
STARS Janeiro when Salles spotted him.
Fernanda Montenegro,
Vinícius de Oliveira A journey This is not a heartwarming
Although it is a boy, Jesué (de movie about a woman trying
BEFORE Oliveira), who is lost, alone in Rio
1996 Terra Estrangeira after his mother dies in a road to help a pathetic orphan,
(Foreign Land) is Salles’s first accident, Central Station (Central but a hard-edged film about
notable movie, and it is shown do Brasil) isn’t so much the story a woman who thinks only
at more than 40 film festivals of his emotional journey as that of
around the world. Dora (Fernanda Montenegro), his of her own needs.
reluctant guardian. Dora works at Roger Ebert
AFTER the titular station, writing letters
2004 The Motorcycle Diaries, for illiterate people who trust her
about the life of the young to mail them—but few make it to
Che Guevara, brings Salles the mailbox, since Dora has no
another international success. conscience. When she sells Jesué to
an illegal adoption agency, she tells
2012 Salles’s On the Road,
a screen adaptation of Jack What else to watch: Foreign Land (1996) ■ City of God (2002, pp.304–09) ■
Kerouac’s iconic novel, is a Carandiru (2003) ■ Slumdog Millionaire (2008, pp.318–19)
commercial flop.

286

HERE’S TO THE
MAN WHO KILLED
MY SISTER

FESTEN / 1998

IN CONTEXT O n March 13, 1995, a group movement. Following Dogme
of Danish filmmakers rules, the movie takes place in one
GENRE came together to create setting, a family-run hotel hosting
Family drama an artistic manifesto. There were a patriarch’s 60th birthday dinner.
many rules in this document, but His three estranged children return
DIRECTOR the core idea behind the Dogme 95 for the occasion and dark secrets
Thomas Vinterberg movement was the removal of are exposed. The claustrophobia
artifice from cinema. Knocking away and intense realism of the filming
WRITERS creative crutches and devices, from style add to the pressure-cooker
Thomas Vinterberg, music to superficial dramatic tropes atmosphere gradually built up by
Mogens Rukov such as murder, the goal was to the proceedings.
purify movies, to tell stories that are
STARS focused entirely on the characters The speech
Ulrich Thomsen, and the moment they are in. Festen subverts social conventions,
Henning Moritzen, perhaps most tellingly in its use
Thomas Bo Larsen The first Dogme movie, Festen of a formal speech to expose the
(The Celebration), was Thomas truths under the veneer of familial
BEFORE Vinterberg’s contribution to the
1960 Jean-Luc Godard
brought a new and radical Thomas Vinterberg Director
filmmaking style to À bout
de souffle. Thomas Kristian Levring, and Søren
Vinterberg Kragh-Jacobsen. His movie
AFTER was born in Festen was the first, and most
1998 The second Dogme Copenhagen, successful, of the movement,
movie is Lars von Trier’s The Denmark, and was met with international
Idiots, about a group of friends in 1969. After graduating from acclaim, including winning the
who pretend to be disabled for the national film school of jury prize at Cannes.
their own amusement. Denmark in 1993, he made his
feature debut with The Biggest Key movies
1999 US director Harmony Heroes, a road movie that was
Korine makes the first non- met with acclaim in his native 1996 The Biggest Heroes
European Dogme movie, Julien Denmark. He later formed the 1998 Festen
Donkey-Boy. Dogme 95 movement with 2003 It’s All About Love
fellow directors Lars Von Trier, 2012 The Hunt

SMALL WORLD 287

What else to watch: The 400 Blows (1959, pp.150–55) ■ À bout de souffle (1960, pp.166–67) ■ Breaking the Waves (1996,
p.341) ■ The Idiots (1998) ■ Julien Donkey-Boy (1999) ■ The King is Alive (2000) ■ Dear Wendy (2004) ■ The Hunt (2012)

In removing artifice, Festen was Festen was one of the first
a self-consciously “little” movie, in the movies to use digital cameras,
tradition of the French New Wave. It and this gives it the feel of an
cost just over $1 million to make. uncompromising family video,
putting the viewer in the center of
family whose private conversations the emotional firestorm. In doing so,
have been full of lies for so long, it it makes the audience forget that it
makes sense that the structural is watching a “movie.” There are no
artifice of the speech becomes the musical cues to tell viewers when
place to find honesty. to be upset, no empowering scenes
of revenge. The movie presents the
Anarchy and order disintegration of a family with a
The Dogme 95 principle was a minimum of directorial comment,
much-needed stripping back of leaving the audience free to decide
frippery in the guise of punish what to feel, when to be horrified or
prank, ridding cinema of overly amazed. By affording the viewer
familiar trappings in order to get such trust, Festen leaves an
right to the soul of the piece. affecting emotional mark. ■

politeness. Traditional speeches are Don’t diss my family, get it?
often a contrived conversation that is
used to mask an agenda or keep the Michael / Festen
peace—it lends itself to dishonesty.
In Festen, however, it is where
characters are at their most honest.
Once they have tapped a wine glass
with a fork, they bare their souls.

In his first speech, Christian
(Ulrich Thomsen), the eldest son
of the patriarch Helge (Henning
Moritzen), accuses his father of
committing a terrible crime against
his children years earlier, one that
ultimately led to his twin sister’s
death. In this moment, Christian
is fearless, yet a few moments later
his father speaks to him privately
and the mask returns—Christian
apologizes and recants. The party,
and the speeches, continue. For a

After making a terrible and very
public accusation against his father,
Christian (Ulrich Tomsen, center) is
forcibly ejected from the patriarch’s
birthday party by his younger brother
Michael (Thomas Bo Larsen, left).

288

EVERYONE’S FEAR
TAKES ON A LIFE OF
ITS OWN

RINGU / 1998

IN CONTEXT A s with many Nakata’s movie
Western inspired a new genre
GENRE horrors— of Japanese chillers,
Horror Poltergeist (1982) and several of which
The Blair Witch Project were remade by
DIRECTOR (1999), for example— Hollywood. In these
Hideo Nakata Hideo Nakata’s movie “J-horror” movies,
Ringu (The Ring) draws the terror is less
WRITER its shivers from folklore explicit, with less
Hiroshi Takahashi and legend: in this case
(screenplay); Kôji Suzuki an old samurai tale reliance on “jump
(novel) transferred to modern- scares” and more left
day urban Japan. The to the imagination.
STARS movie is based on Kôji
Nanako Matsushima, Suzuki’s hit 1991 novel tape lasts just
Hioyuki Sanada, Rikiya of the same name, a few seconds
Ôtaka, Yôichi Numata, which in turn was and contains
Miki Nakatani inspired by a well-known strange imagery
18th-century ghost story about of a circle of light, a woman
BEFORE a serving girl, Okiku, who is brushing her hair, a man with his
1996 Don’t Look Up, Nakata’s murdered by her lord. head covered, a pictogram seen in
first feature, is not a box-office a close-up of an eye—all played in
hit but gives him the critical Taking a key element from US the static crackle of a degraded,
prestige to direct Ringu. horror movies in which teenagers are much-watched video. After each
drawn to objects or places that are viewing of the tape, the viewer
AFTER taboo or forbidden, Ringu concerns receives a phone call saying they
1999 Nakata completes a videotape that is being passed will die in seven days. A week later
the story with Ringu 2. around provincial schools. The they are dead, their faces twisted
by some unimaginable terror.
2002 Nakata directs
Dark Water, which, like It’s not of this world. It’s Sadako’s
his previous two movies, fury. And she’s put a curse on us.
is remade by Hollywood.
Ryuji Takayama / Ringu

SMALL WORLD 289

What else to watch: Kwaidan (1964) ■ Poltergeist (1982) ■ Ghost Actress (1996) ■ Rasen (1998) ■ Kairo (2001) ■
Dark Water (2002) ■ One Missed Call (2003) ■ Ju-on: The Grudge (2004) ■ Pulse (2006) ■ It Follows (2014)

Reiko, a journalist, stares at the
static that marks the end of the deadly
videotape. Within moments, her phone
will ring and a mysterious voice will tell
her of her fate.

The teen-horror element initially time, the story winds back into backstory, and so the focus
seems to be a misdirect, since the past to uncover the terrible switches from the untimely deaths
Ringu quite quickly becomes a secrets that have begun to seep of teenagers to Reiko’s attempt to
detective yarn, with journalist into the present. right the injustice done to Sadako
Reiko (Nanako Matsushima) in the past and lift her curse. And
becoming interested in the case As with other Japanese horrors yet there are virtuoso moments of
after discovering that her niece is that Ringu later inspired, there is a goose-bump horror to come, and
one of the latest victims. Retracing prospect of redemption; although images that will haunt the viewer
the girl’s final steps, Reiko finds the she is clearly a malevolent spirit, long after watching this movie.
videotape and watches it. She then Sadako (and Okiku in the original Although Hollywood produced
has seven days to avert her own folktale) has a sympathetic a watchable remake in 2002, it
death—a race against time to could not inspire the same dread.
decipher the mysterious imagery
she has seen. By chance, Reiko’s The figure of Sadako became
teenage son watches the tape too, an instant icon and influenced
raising the stakes even higher. a whole genre. The imagery is
based on Japanese yurei ghosts:
Ghosts of the past she has a pale face and long,
With Reiko inching closer to solving matted hair, suggesting that her
the mystery, it almost seems as corpse received no burial rites
though Nakata is going to abandon (Japanese women were traditionally
the horror element altogether, as buried with their hair up, not
Reiko begins to piece together the down). In this, the movie explores
story of a famous psychic who lost the clash of ancient folktale and
her powers when her daughter, Japanese modernity, with the
Sadako (Rie Inô), was born. For a ghost’s terror hiding in something
as prosaic as a videotape. ■

Hideo Nakata Director

Born in rural in a new genre of Japanese
Okayama in horror—J-horror—in which
1961, Hideo female leads are stalked by
Nakata worked the ghosts of young girls. He
for seven years continued the formula with
as an assistant director before 2002’s Dark Water.
making his debut with the 1996
fantasy-horror Don’t Look Up (or Key movies
Ghost Actress). He secured his
reputation internationally with 1996 Don’t Look Up
Ringu, switching the gender of 1998 Ringu
the protagonist in the tale on 1999 Ringu 2
which it is based. Ringu ushered 2002 Dark Water

A SWORD

BY ITSELF

RULES NOTHING. IT ONLY

COMES ALIVE

IN SKILLED HANDS

CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON / 2000



292 CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON

IN CONTEXT M ovies including Sense Critics noted the way it seemed
and Sensibility (1995), to capture an idealized China,
GENRE The Ice Storm (1997), and a China of dreams. As Ang Lee
Wuxia (martial arts) Ride With the Devil (1999) propelled himself admitted, such a place
Ang Lee to the A-list of Hollywood never really existed. But the
DIRECTOR directors. So it was a brave move to combination of romance, balletic
Ang Lee make his next project a martial arts martial arts sequences, and poetic
movie set in ancient China with cinematography created a movie
WRITERS dialogue entirely in Mandarin that Western audiences engaged
Hui-Ling Wang, James Chinese. Yet Crouching Tiger, with. In China itself, however, the
Schamus, Tsai Kuo-Jung Hidden Dragon justified the risk. initial response to the movie was
(screenplay); Wang less positive, and an appreciation of
Dulu (story) The movie is based on a wuxia its merits was slow in coming.
novel (see box, below), written in
STARS the 1930s by Chinese author Wang Among the best-known wuxia
Chow Yun-fat, Michelle Dulu, the fourth title in his five-part in the West are the Once Upon a
Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi, Crane-Iron Series. In the US and in Time in China series, which are
Chang Chen Europe, the movie was an instant regarded as some of the best of
critical and commercial hit, and the genre. Many Chinese critics
BEFORE won the Oscar for best foreign film. viewed Ang Lee, despite his
1991 Once Upon a Time in Chinese roots, as a cultural tourist
China, starring Jet Li, starts a It’s a good exam— jumping on the wuxia bandwagon
craze for wuxia movies in Asia. how to tell a story and getting it wrong. The martial
with a global sense. arts sequences were tame, they
1993 Ang Lee’s The Wedding complained. There was too much
Banquet is Oscar-nominated Ang Lee talk and not enough action. In their
for Best Foreign Language film. opinion, Ang Lee was pandering
to Western audiences’ need for
AFTER emotional involvement.
2004 Zhang Yimou’s visually
stunning wuxia movie House Yet engaging the audiences
of Flying Daggers, also starring emotionally and psychologically is
Zhang Ziyi, is clearly aimed at precisely what Ang Lee intended.
Western audiences. He believed that the popular
martial arts movies had barely
begun to explore the true meaning

Wuxia movies

Wuxia stories are an old tradition 1960s that they became a
in China. The word wuxia means phenomenon in China. In the
chivalrous warrior, and first 1990s, Hong Kong filmmakers
emerged during the Ming Dynasty made the Once Upon a Time in
(1368–1644). Like the knights of China series, featuring the folk
European romances, wuxia hero Wong Fei-hung (played
combined a quest for personal by Jet Li, left).
perfection with skill in combat.
Ming and Qing rulers tried to Crouching Tiger, Hidden
suppress wuxia stories because Dragon changed the nature of
of their emphasis on social justice, wuxia in China, with movies
but they remained hugely popular. such as Zhang Yimou’s House
The first wuxia movies were made of Flying Daggers (2004) telling
in the 1920s, but it was in the a more psychological story than
the earlier action-led movies.

SMALL WORLD 293

What else to watch: Once Upon a Time in China (1991) ■ Drunken Master II (1994) ■ Sense and Sensibility (1995) ■
Hero (2002) ■ House of Flying Daggers (2004) ■ Brokeback Mountain (2005) ■ Lust, Caution (2007) ■ Life of Pi (2012)

Minute by minute 00:34 1:11 1:34
Li Mu Bai confronts Lo disrupts Jen’s wedding After dueling with Jen,
00:06 Jade Fox for poisoning his procession and urges her to Li Mu Bai throws Green
Shu Lien delivers the legendary master. Jade Fox kills the return with him to the Destiny over a waterfall.
sword Green Destiny to Sir Te policeman who has been desert. She runs away Jen Yu chases after it and
in Beijing. There she meets the tracking her. disguised as a boy. is saved by Jade Fox.
young Jen Yu, who is envious
of Shu Lien’s warrior lifestyle.

00:00 00:20 00:40 01:00 01:20 01:40 02:00

00:10 00:50 1:26 1:45
A masked thief steals Lo, a bandit, slips into Jen Jen rejects Shu Lien’s Wounded by one of
Green Destiny from Sir Te’s Yu’s bedroom. In flashback, we friendship and the pair Fox’s darts, Li Mu Bai
study, and is chased by see him raiding her baggage duel spectacularly. Shu Lien speaks his love for Shu
Shu Lien across the train in the desert, and the two wins, with a broken sword Lien. Jen asks Lo to
rooftops of Beijing. of them falling in love. held to Jen Yu’s throat. make a wish. She then
jumps off Mt. Wudang.
Jen Yu is a skilled martial artist.
After chasing Lo, a handsome bandit
who has stolen her comb, she finds
herself in his desert camp surrounded
by brigands, and takes every one of
them on in an acrobatic fight sequence.

of wuxia. To get to the heart of
its role in the Chinese psyche, he
felt he had to “use Freudian or
Western techniques to dissect
what… is hidden in a repressed
society—the sexual tension, the
prohibited feelings.” In other
words, he consciously used a
Western approach to filmmaking
to uncover a psychological
meaning behind the action.

Left unsaid I would rather be a ghost drifting by
Most earlier wuxia movies pitched your side as a condemned soul than
the viewer straight into the combat. enter heaven without you. Because of
However, Crouching Tiger, Hidden your love, I will never be a lonely spirit.
Dragon opens with a five-minute-
long dialogue between a noble Li Mu Bai / Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
swordsman, Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun-
fat) and a female warrior, Shu Lien
(Michelle Yeoh). The story is set in
the 18th century, during the Qing
Dynasty. Li Mu Bai has retired from
fighting and has joined a monastery
as a path to enlightenment, but
neither he nor Shu Lien can cast
aside their love for each other, or ❯❯

294 CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON

confess their feelings. Both are pei), the killer of his old master, Jen Yu rejects Shu Lien’s offer of
constrained by notions of honor. to be the culprit. Before he can friendship and the pair duel. Shu Lien
These unspoken desires heighten reveal his heart to Shu Lien, fights with every weapon available, but
the sexual tension between them. therefore, Li Mu Bai must recover each is destroyed in turn by Jen Yu
“Crouching tiger, hidden dragon” Green Destiny and avenge his wielding Green Destiny.
is a Chinese expression alluding master’s death.
to a situation full of danger. in a spectacular aerial chase, is in
Women warriors fact Jen Yu (Zhang Ziyi), a fiery
In Lee’s movie, chief among At this point in the narrative, it young noblewoman who has been
these dangers is suppressed sexual becomes clear that Lee is making secretly trained in brilliant but
desire. Just when Shu Lien and Li a second major departure from the uncontrolled combat skills by the
Mu Bai seem about to overcome wuxia movie tradition by putting villainous Jade Fox, also a woman.
propriety and declare their love, Li women to the fore. The sword thief,
Mu Bai’s sword, Green Destiny, is who is shown leaping away across Li Mu Bai’s ally and his two
stolen, and he suspects his elusive the rooftops of the Forbidden City adversaries are three strong women
archenemy, Jade Fox (Cheng Pei- who all have major roles in the plot
and the fighting. It is Li Mu Bai’s
Fighters have rules, too. Friendship, beloved Shu Lien who plays the
trust, integrity. Always keep your customary male part of sublime
promise. Without rules we wouldn’t swordsman with Zen-like emotional
survive long. control. Jen Yu and Jade Fox are
their out-of-control opponents.
Shu Lien / Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Jen Yu is in violent rebellion
against the social and chivalric
conventions Li Mu Bai and Shu

By Hollywood is only doing so SMALL WORLD 295
standards, the budget because he desires
for Ang Lee’s movie was her sexually. Ang Lee Director
small: $17 million.
Studio executives were Jade Fox was once Born in 1954 in Taiwan, Ang
taken aback when it a student of Li Mu Bai’s Lee graduated from the
grossed $128 million old master, but killed National Taiwan College of
in the US alone, and him when he tried to Arts before moving to the
nearly $215 million take sexual advantage US. His first critical success
internationally. of her. Her hostility as a came with The Wedding
character, and her fury Banquet, the first of several
Lien live by. She is and vengefulness, movies made with
contemptuous of could also be sexual in screenwriter James Schamus.
their self-discipline, origin. The entire story Lee returned to Taiwan to
or as she sees it, is driven by sexual make Eat Drink Man Woman
their self-repression. “Stop undercurrents. (1994), a critical and
talking like a monk,” she retorts, commercial success. His
when Li Mu Bai tries to advise her Fantastical fighting adaptation of Jane Austen’s
that the sword is a state of mind. In another departure from Sense and Sensibility (1995),
She has taken a lover, Lo (Chang genre tradition, the fighting with a screenplay by the
Chen), a bandit, with whom she is scenes are not so much staged movie’s star, Emma
sexually intimate, and defies her as choreographed, becoming Thompson, revealed his range.
family (unthinkable in China at that extraordinary aerial ballets. In The tragedy The Ice Storm
time) by escaping on her wedding the most stunning sequence, and the US Civil War drama
night from an arranged, respectable with Li Mu Bai fighting Jen Yu Ride with the Devil (1999)
marriage to a nobleman. amid swaying bamboos, the effect were followed by Crouching
was not achieved with computer Tiger, Hidden Dragon and The
Jen Yu acknowledges that trickery but with the actors flying Hulk (2003). He won an Oscar
Li Mu Bai’s martial skills are on wires. The result is enigmatic for Best Director with
greater than those of Jade Fox, rather than violent, capturing the Brokeback Mountain (2005),
and she wants him as her teacher. mystery and poetry of a mythical about the gay relationship
When he agrees, she says that he ancient China. ■ between two cowboys. A
second Oscar came in 2012
Major fight scenes with Life of Pi.

Jen Rooftop Key movies
night fight
Jade Fox 1993 The Wedding Banquet
appears 1997 The Ice Storm
Returning 2000 Crouching Tiger,
the sword Hidden Dragon
Teahouse 2012 Life of Pi
fight
Dueling
sisters
In the
bamboo forest
Rescuing Jen

Li Mu Bai

Shu Lien

Jade Fox

296

YOU DON’T
REMEMBER
YOUR NAME?

SPIRITED AWAY / 2001

IN CONTEXT T he animators at Tokyo’s film to win an Oscar. It was also a
Studio Ghibli—chief among masterpiece of its genre, a glorious
GENRE them cofounder Hayao flight of imagination based on the
Animation, fantasy Miyazaki—have been making wildly idea of “the magical doorway” found
inventive movies since 1986. With a in much children’s fiction. Children
DIRECTOR highly distinctive style of animation often see reality as something to be
Hayao Miyazaki influenced by the manga tradition of escaped from, and the genius of
Japanese comic books, Studio Ghibli Spirited Away is allowing the child
WRITER has expanded the tastes of in everyone to do just that.
Hayao Miyazaki audiences around the world.
After a long train journey, Chihiro
STARS Miyazaki’s Spirited Away brought and the mysterious No-Face (left) have
Rumi Hiiragi, Miyu Irino, Ghibli worldwide commercial tea with Zeniba, the twin sister of the
Mari Natsuki success, and also acclaim—it was greedy and controlling witch Yubaba.
the first foreign-language animation
BEFORE
1979 The Castle of Cagliostro,
the tale of a clever thief, is
Miyazaki’s first movie.

1984 Nausicaä of the Valley
of the Wind stars a pacifist
princess in a postapocalyptic
world; its success leads to the
creation of Studio Ghibli, home
to a string of animation hits.

1997 Princess Mononoke is
Miyazaki’s first movie to use
computer graphics.

AFTER
2013 The Wind Rises tells the
fictionalized life story of aircraft
designer Jiro Horikoshi.

SMALL WORLD 297

What else to watch: Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986) ■ Grave of the Fireflies (1988) ■ Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989) ■
Princess Mononoke (1997) ■ The Cat Returns (2002) ■ Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)

One subversive aspect of The bizarre town that Chihiro later reveal their caring side and
Spirited Away compared with wanders into is home to Japan’s humanity. Even No-Face, the quiet
Miyazaki’s other work and the legions of demons, spirits, and spirit who becomes the villain of the
fantasy genre as a whole is that gods, where humans are turned movie’s second act, is also portrayed
the fantasy realm presented here is into animals. Chihiro avoids the sympathetically, in his desire to
often anything but majestic. While spell, but her parents do not. connect with Chihiro and his
it does feature wondrous magic and attempts to give her gifts to win
supernatural creatures, the movie by the end of the movie, the her over. The boundless imagination
also focuses on the harrowing day- tyrannical Yubaba still holds that Miyazaki uses to create his
to-day existence of the protagonist, sway, and while Chihiro fantastical worlds is matched by
a 10-year-old girl called Chihiro, as manages to escape, many his endearing compassion for his
she is put to work in a bathhouse others are left behind. characters—their strengths and
run by the witch Yubaba. flaws, dreams and fears—and this
For all the movie’s sense of allows us to care about them as
Real fantasy wonder, it is this grounding in deeply as we marvel at them. ■
While the magical realms depicted reality, this refusal to whitewash
in children’s fiction are usually more the darker elements of life, that This visual wonder is
dangerous than our own, populated makes Spirited Away more the product of a fierce and
as they are by strange and terrible poignant than many other fearless imagination whose
monsters, they also come with a fantasy tales. It’s not about creations are unlike any
significant upside: the characters defeating evil and creating a
who wander into them will often be utopia, but instead about simply you’ve seen before.
given a chance to win the crown or surviving and finding moments Kenneth Turan
right some terrible wrong. In Spirited of happiness and compassion
Away, however, not much changes: wherever you can. Los Angeles Times, 2002

Everyone has a story
Spirited Away strives to portray its
characters in an evenhanded and
nuanced fashion. It often introduces
characters in quite a harsh light—
from the seemingly unsympathetic
coworker Rin to Zeniba, Yubaba’s
sister and fellow witch—only to

Hayao Miyazaki Director

Hayao Miyazaki 20 years later, with Princess
was born in Mononoke. Spirited Away, his
Tokyo in 1941; follow-up, won him an Oscar
he and his and was perhaps his best-
family were received movie. The Wind Rises,
evacuated to escape the US in 2013, was his last movie.
firebombing of Japanese cities.
Miyazaki got his first job in Key movies
animation in 1963, and made his
directorial debut in 1979 with 1997 Princess Mononoke
The Castle of Cagliostro. He rose 2001 Spirited Away
to worldwide prominence almost 2013 The Wind Rises

298

I LIKE TO LOOK
FOR THINGS NO-ONE
ELSE CATCHES

AMÉLIE / 2001

IN CONTEXT A fter enjoying In Amélie, Jeunet
critical success succeeded in finding a
GENRE in France, Jean- new take on the tired and
Romantic comedy Pierre Jeunet’s first much-derided romantic
venture into Hollywood comedy genre, using an
DIRECTOR was a troubled one. Hired ambitious pairing of style
Jean-Pierre Jeunet to direct the fourth movie and subject matter.
in the science-fiction Alien
WRITERS series, the project suffered a waitress meeting
Guillaume Laurant, production difficulties and the man she’s
Jean-Pierre Jeunet was released to mixed destined to fall in love with; in
reviews. Jeunet returned to France practice the movie is a tribute to a
STARS discouraged, and for his next movie virtuoso creativity and imagination.
Audrey Tautou, Mathieu concocted Amélie, a work in which Despite the smallness of the central
Kassovitz, Dominique Pinon every frame seems to celebrate a story, Jeunet uses techniques
freedom that had perhaps been usually reserved for action movies
BEFORE denied to him on his previous and epics. The far-reaching and
1991 Jeunet and Marc Caro’s project. Structurally, Amélie is a expansive script, the strong use of
Delicatessen is an inventive romantic comedy—the story of color, and the experimental editing
fantasy movie set in a
postapocalyptic France. Jean-Pierre Jeunet Director

1995 The baroque fairy tale Jean-Pierre follow-up, The City of Lost
The City of Lost Children gets Jeunet was Children, Jeunet was offered
Jeunet noticed by Hollywood. born in the Alien: Resurrection. After it
Loire region, performed poorly, he returned
AFTER France, in 1953. to France and directed Amélie,
2004 Jeunet teams up with He bought his first movie camera his most celebrated movie.
Tautou for the war drama at 17 when he studied animation
A Very Long Engagement. at Cinémation studios. His first Key movies
feature movie was Delicatessen,
2009 Micmacs is a comedy- which he codirected with Marc 1991 Delicatessen
satire by Jeunet about the Caro. Based on the commercial 1995 The City of Lost Children
arms industry. and critical success of their 2001 Amélie