MANDERLAY: LARS UNCHAINED...

I'm a little embarrassed to say this, but I was pretty intrigued by Manderlay when I was younger. I never thought it was a great film but I remember thinking there was something interesting about it in all of it's heavy-handedness, but not so much anymore...

I used to take Lars Von Trier way more seriously than I think I was supposed to. But now that I've read enough books on the man, kept up with his antics over the years and have re-watched everything he's done over & over, I honestly get that he's trying to be a button-pushing provocateur over everything else (Dancer In The Dark, Breaking The Waves, parts of Melancholia and the final moments of The Idiots being the exceptions) and for whatever reason; I dig that about him. It's in my newfound understanding of Von Trier that I've come to respect him and enjoy his work even more. I just wish more people shared my way of thinking about him. Anyone who STILL gets frustrated over a Lars Von Trier movie in 2014 deserves the aneurysm that they're giving themselves when they get all worked up at the sound of his name. It's like people who saw Terrence Malick's To The Wonder and took the time to write super long scathing reviews of the film or go on verbal rants about how stupid, weird & artsy it is. I personally love Malick's latest work but I can understand if someone were to not like it or brush it aside. But some people's reaction to that film were as if it was his debut and they had no idea that Tree Of Life, The New World & The Thin Red Line existed (sorry, I refuse to believe anyone stumbled upon To The Wonder without knowing about Tree Of Life. You knew what you were getting in to). It's the same thing with Von Trier's recent work. Sure, it's understandable that something like Antichrist would cause the stir that it did given certain scenes and how women are presented in it. But at the same time, were those frustrated critics & cinephiles that were familiar with his work unaware of the abuse that Nicole Kidman & Emily Watson took in the last half of Breaking The Waves & Dogville, respectively? What about Bjork's body just dangling from the noose at the end of Dancer In The Dark? Was it really that shocking to see how Von Trier handled his female character in Antichrist based on his previous two decades of work? To be honest, LvT haters make me like him even more. I liken him to that of a heel wrestler. He's essentially a troll. But what's so strange is that he's a talented troll. When it comes to the technical aspects of filmmaking (which is important no matter how you look at it), having an understanding of the language of cinema and getting excellent performances out of his actors (Emily Watson in Breaking The Waves, Bjork in Dancer In The Dark, Charlotte Gainsbourg in Antichrist, etc); I'll put Lars up against your favorite filmmaker any day of the week from Alfonso Cuaron to Christopher Nolan (yeah, I said it).

As you can see I have no problem defending LvT as a filmmaker but unfortunately Manderlay is something I can't get behind no matter how many nuggets of truth or social commentary it contains.

Top row: Confederate States Of America / Cache
Bottom: Django Unchained / 12 Years A Slave

Because of recent films like Django Unchained, 12 Years A Slave & elements of The Butler, slavery & racism has suddenly become a hot topic in cinema again. But this is an echo of 2005 when the subject of racial guilt became a minor deal within indie/art house cinema all of a sudden. You had Cache (one of the greatest modern films ever made), Confederate States Of America (one of the most eye-rolling, almost unnecessary films ever made) and Manderlay, which is somewhere in the middle of those two films although it treads closer to Confederate States Of America. Cache is a film about everything from racism being swept under the rug in Europe to chickens coming home to roost while Confederate States Of America (produced by Spike Lee) is a sort of hybrid mockumentary/fiction story about a modern day America had the confederacy won the civil war. Two out of those three films dealt with slavery (Manderlay & Confederate States) and all three were about racism, guilt and atrocities committed against people of color (I can’t exactly group the Algerian characters from Cache in with the African American characters from Manderlay & Confederate States Of America, but they’re all descendants from Africa in some shape or form so, close enough…). Strangely enough, both Manderlay & Confederate States Of America played at the IFC Center around the same time if I'm not mistaken...

I’ve eluded to my extremely uncomfortable experience watching Manderlay at IFC in previous entries, but allow me to explain in full now that we're actually talking about it...

As I sat watching this in a theater made up of mostly white people, I found myself becoming more & more uncomfortable as everyone around me chuckled & laughed out loud at scenes I honestly didn’t find to be funny as a black person. Not only was I uncomfortable, but I found myself almost embarrassed for a lot of the white audience members because a lot of their laughter was clearly their way of dealing with the discomfort they felt while watching Manderlay. Don’t get me wrong, there are some legitimate humorous moments in the film, but overall there was WAY too much laughter about something having to do with slavery. 

Manderlay is ultimately a failure but at the same time, there is still a reason I bought the DVD at full price and end up talking about it from time to time at length with equal minded friends. I even devoted some time to write about it on here when I could be writing about something else...

Shot in the same stage play style as its predecessor; Dogville, Manderlay is the kind of film where if you were to stumble upon it in the middle, you’d find yourself asking; “whoa, what am I watching here?”

Black face in Manderlay

Lars touches on the (tired) taboo's of interracial relationships in Manderlay

Strange Fruit.

Going back to my troll comment from earlier; the whole motivation behind Lars Von Trier making his Grace/America Trilogy, made up of Dogville, Manderlay and a not yet made third part, was to be just that - a troll. He just wanted to challenge/annoy Americans after the criticism he faced for Dancer In The Dark. In Dogville he criticized the immigration system in America (no matter how much he denies this) while Manderlay is about race issues concerning black people in America.

In Manderlay, we pick up with the Grace character following the events of Dogville. This time around Bryce Dallas Howard takes up the role of Grace instead of Nicole Kidman (John Hurt does return as the film's narrator). Set in the early 1930's, Grace travels with her mobster father (played by Willem Dafoe this time instead of James Caan) and his henchmen through the deep south. In their travels they eventually come across a plantation ("Manderlay") that still practices slavery decades after it's been abolished in America. Apparently this was a deep backwoods southern region where they somehow kept the news of slavery being abolished a secret. Sounds a little far-fetched, I know. But I can let that go. It makes for an interesting story. Grace, along with her father’s henchmen, takes it upon herself to free the slaves but given their institutionalized mindset, they can’t function as free people. Against her father’s wishes, Grace stays back in an effort to help the freed slaves and of course by the end of the film she incidentally becomes the new defacto "master" which is the exact opposite of what she was trying to do in the first place. It's also revealed at the end of the film that one of the elder slaves (played by Danny Glover) is a bit more sinister than what we thought. It's kind of a shame Glover wasted such a good performance on this overall mess of a film. 

Manderlay is a paradox because Grace is self-righteous & obnoxious, yet so is the overall message of this film. Von Trier tries to criticize the Grace character in all of her self-righteousness & know-it-allism in her mission to help the slaves not realizing that Grace is actually a mirror of Von Trier himself in making Manderlay. Lars points his finger at America and criticizes the racism that exists in this country (which it certainly does exist) but he has yet to even step foot on American soil. I'm not saying that he can't have an opinion on racism in America (or even make a movie about it) but for him to go as far as he did with Manderlay without ever witnessing it firsthand is a little strange to me. How could this be truly authentic? Plus, Von Trier is pretty much trying to go out of his way to blame all white people for the plight of black people in America and its SOOO much more complicated than how he presents it. He simplifies such a complex issue (racism) to the point where it becomes insulting. In the final moments of Manderlay, one of the slaves, played by Claire Denis regular; Isaach De Bankole, practically looks in to the camera and says to Grace; "YOU made us this way." I have two major problems with that. One, it's as if Debankole is speaking for all black people (myself included) as if we're one like-minded group of people who all think the same and blame the same. My other issue with that statement is, like I said earlier, it's the biggest oversimplification of what's probably the most complex issue in the world, yet Von Trier manages to whittle it down into a single phrase.

Recently a good friend of mine (Mtume Gant of the site; Alter Eye) offered an interesting perspective on Haneke's Cache which I actually feel applies more to Manderlay. On the subject of Cache, a film we don't exactly see eye-to-eye on, he felt that at the end of the day Cache was about racism & people of color, but it was made by white people and for white people only. I understand that take on it, but in my opinion, Cache is the only kind of film Michael Haneke could make. Had he made that kind of film from the perspective of the Algerian characters in Cache, I feel it would have been out of line & out of place. Cache is told from the perspective of a white European male because Haneke himself is a white European male. If you're going to make an authentic film about racism, it's potentially dangerous to take on the perspective of a black person when you've never walked in their shoes (not saying it can't be done, but it is risky). Even the few parts of Manderlay where Von Trier is on point with his social commentary, I can’t help but feel like it isn’t his place to say anything given he’s spent ZERO time around African Americans outside of a movie shoot and has yet to step foot in a highly populated black area in America. And to add an extra layer to things, Manderlay is the kind of film where mostly white intellectuals will talk about this among themselves without knowing or wanting to know a black person’s opinion on it.

And lets be clear – had a black person made this very exact same film, I still would have had problems with it…

I’m a little disappointed that Lars’ one & only film to date that tackles race head-on turned out to be this. He’s handled minor racial issues in the past (on & off camera) in a way that I’ve respected. The character that Catherine Deneuve plays in Dancer In The Dark was originally supposed to be a black woman but Lars decided to not add to another long list of black supporting, sidekick female characters so he made her white instead (as strange as that sounds, that’s how I personally prefer more filmmakers handle things instead of trying to please black audiences by throwing in an under-developed black character in an effort to make things “diverse”).
I always found it odd that the biggest controversy from the production of Manderlay was John C. Reilly walking off set in protest due to a donkey being killed for a particular scene. 

How were there no reports of racial tension or inner turmoil among the director and his mostly black cast given the subject matter & tone of Manderlay?
This almost feels like what a movie about slavery would be had it been produced by Vice Magazine. Manderlay also suffers from some of the same issues as Django Unchained - another film centered around slavery with a heavy tone of white guilt (conveyed mostly through the Dr. Schultz character) where the white characters are more interesting & complex than the black (MAIN) characters (Danny Glover's performance being the exception). I still place Manderlay above a film like Django but that’s almost like picking the lesser of the two evils. Although this movie is ultimately a failure/mess, I still think it should be seen by anyone with an interest in race issues or the films of Lars Von Trier.
I love Lars to death but I don't know if it’s possible to have something backfire in your face as bad as Manderlay did.

DEMONLOVER: AN UNDERSTANDABLY MISUNDERSTOOD MASTERPIECE

With a 48% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 5.7 on IMDB I realize its gonna be a challenge to spark your interest in this movie but just hear me out. Olivier Assayas is one of the most versatile directors working today. His ability to seamlessly jump from one genre to the next is pretty impressive. Before and after 'Demonlover' (an espionage erotic thriller), he made a period drama (Sentimental Destinies), a multicharacter relationship dramedy (Late August, Early September) and a drama about a heroine addicted mother trying to get her son back (Clean). And in 'Demonlover' he takes us in to the world of pornography (specifically animated and virtual reality/interactive pornography). I've always considered Olivier Assayas and Steven soderbegh to kinda be doppelgangers. They both have great range, have a steady flow of non-stop work and they both explore the same territory, genres and subject matter from time to time. Both directors made epic films about controversial political figures (Assayas' 'Carlos' and Sodernerghs 'Che'), action films centered around female leads (Assayas' 'Boarding Gate' and Soderbergh's 'Haywire'), they've both done the multicharacter thing ('Traffic' and 'Late August Early September') and both have explored the world of pornography. With Soderbergh, he cast porn actress Sasha grey as the lead in 'G.F.E.' (a film about an upscale call girl). In 'Demonlover' Assayas focused on internet porn. And just like in 'Irma Vep', he turned the cameras around and focused on what goes on behind the scenes in a film that's essentially about a power struggle between two corporations about who gets to distribute animated pornography to the world. I'm sure porn is a shady business full of sleazy scumbags and cokeheads (plenty of films over the years have already shown this), but who knew that the world of animated porn was SO cut throat. A world of kidnapping, double crossing, and even murder. I think that's why I love 'Demonlover' so much. Assasys didn't go the same route as 'Boogie Nights' or 'Hardcore'. Instead he dealt with porn in a similar unconventional fashion as his other new French extremity contemporary Bertrand Bonelllo (so i don't have to repeat myself, please read my review of bertrand's 'The Pornographer' as many of the points i make in that review on pornography in film apply to 'Demonlover' as well). The only difference between the two films is that the pornographer is more of a drama whereas demonlover is more of a thriller.

For those of you who've seen 'Demonlover' you should know that this movie is a quite odd. On your first viewing you might find yourself asking; "what am i watching?". But you have to give it a few chances and after a while it'll grow on you. I mean,whats NOT to like about 'Demonlover'. It has everything: Porn, Espionage, Action and some of the prettiest actresses gathered together in one movie. It appeals to the arthouse crowd (which is pretty much director; Olivier Assayas' scene) and at the same time any fan of Quentin Tarrantino (or fans of his long list of copycats) would love this as well.  'Demonlover' is quite fast paced, has a great contemporary soundtrack (courtesy of Sonic Youth) and has a multinational ensemble cast (Connie Neilson, Chloe Sevigny, Charles Berling, Gina Gershon, etc). Even fans of 'The Social Network' would enjoy this film as a big part of 'Demonlover' is about an internet power struggle. In the film Connie Nielson plays a spy/secret agent ("Diane") hired by a failing anime porn company (Mangatronics) to get information and help take down their competition (The Volf Corporation as well as Demonlover.com). Eventually her cover is blown and the owners of Demonlover force her to perform in their interactive S&M site; "Hellfire Club" (an illegal site known for its violence and over the top hardcore scenes) as payback. And now, just like Asia argento in Assayas' 'Boarding Gate', our female lead character has her back against the wall and has to find a way out of a very tough spot. In the second half of the film the plot goes "bye-bye" which might (understandably) turn some people off. Even if you pay 100% attention to the 'Demonlover' its almost certain you're gonna get lost at some point.
Assayas does make a few social commentaries on pornography and its effect on society. The film's eerie ending involves an American teen somewhere in "anywhere USA" stealing his fathers credit card to purchase a membership to a porn website. 'Demonlover' also shows us desensitized we are to violence on television and in film as well. As i said in a previous write-up, 'Irma Vep', 'Demonlover' & 'Boarding Gate' (probably my three personal favorite films by Assayas) are all connected in some way. Certain elements of 'Irma Vep' (the hints at S&M and the behind the scenes aspect of the film) were used in 'Demonlover', and certain elements of 'Demonlover' (another film with hints of S&M about a female protagonist with her back against the wall) can be found in 'Boarding Gate'. If you're a fan of Assayas, chances are you're you'll dig this film very much but if you're not all that familiar with his work or don't like to be thrown off by movies then maybe this isn't for you.

For a film that deals with so much sleaziness and creepiness Olivier Assayas still manages to make a pretty sensual and sleek looking film full of sexy close ups, sensuous looks & intimate touches from all the actors. One of the subplots in 'Demonlover' involves Diane getting involved with one of her shady coworkers at Volf. There's also plenty shots of nudity and obviously clips of porn all through out the film...

Assayas also takes us in to the world of the "Hellfire Club" and shows us the sexual fantasies of its various interactive members (ranging from S&M to dress-up). Even the characters in the film are drawn to porn, which is another thing I like about this film. You'd make the silly assumption that once you start dealing with porn on a corporate level (like 'Demonlover' does) the people in the high positions like CEO's and executives look at porn as just a business and nothing more. But the characters in 'Demonlover' are fascinated by pornography just as much as the average curious human being. There's a great scene in the film where Charles Berling (who plays one of the executives at the Volf Corporation) sitting on his bed watching porn with a bored expression on his face with no hint of being aroused (which plays on the desensitization element i was talking about earlier).

Music is another important element to the film. In the advertising for 'Demonlover' it was made very clear that Sonic Youth (who's no stranger to composing music for film) did the soundtrack. Sonic Youth has a history with Assayas: Kim Gordon co-starred in 'Boarding Gate', he used their music in a key scene in 'Irma Vep' and Assayas also directed the documentary 'Noise' which heavily featured Sonic Youth. In fact, a documentary was made about the recording process of the soundtrack (which Assayas sat in on during the recording) that you can see on the 2nd disc of the special edition DVD. Just like Para One's score of 'Water Lilies' and Daft Punk's score of 'Irreversible', Assayas is one of quite a few modern french directors who sought out help from progressive rock and/or electronic musicians to work on their films for a non-traditional sounding score (in fact, fellow french director Leos Carax used Sonic Youth for the soundtrack to 'Pola X' as well). Sonic Youth's music really sets all the different moods that the film conveys and Assayas gave them freedom to experiment heavily (some of the songs on the soundtrack are made up of just feedback noise and random guitar sounds). The song; "Safe In Hell" is a definite standout.
I know this movie sounds like a mess (and it kinda is) but its a beautiful, fun, entertaining and sometimes arousing mess that should be seen at least once.

THE BROWN BUNNY: A BORING & MISUNDERSTOOD (almost) MASTERPIECE

I'll never argue with someone about whether or not Vincent Gallo's "controversial" 2nd feature; 'The Brown Bunny', is boring or not. It is. But there's plenty of great movies out there that are "boring". People just love to hate this movie. They don't hate 'The Brown Bunny' because its slow or boring or has minimal dialogue or...well, ok...maybe some do, and they have a point, but other people hate it because it was made by Vincent Gallo. And that's understandable considering some of the things he's said and done over the years. But lets not kid ourselves; had Gus Van Sant directed the SAME EXACT film it would have gotten so much praise its not even funny. You all know this is true. And that statement isn't THAT far fetched given his somewhat recent slowly paced works like 'Elephant', 'Last Days', 'Paranoid Park' and 'Gerry'...especially 'Gerry'. Or look at a movie like 'Two Lane Blacktop'. In NO WAY do I put 'The Brown Bunny' and 'Two Lane Blacktop' on the same status, but at some point you gotta ask yourself; "why do people love one movie but hate another movie that's kinda similar so much?" (read my recent review on Damsels In Distress for a similar revelation that I had with Whit Stillman's work).
Another reason why people dislike 'Brown Bunny' is because the last Vincent Gallo film they had to reference was 'Buffalo 66' (sorry but this movie is a modern day cult classic whether you like it or not). Rarely do I come across people who dislike 'Buffalo 66'. But upon the release of 'The Brown Bunny', all the die hard Buffalo 66 fans felt let down when they saw that Gallo's follow-up was NOTHING like his feature debut (outside of the grainy/vintage "feel" that both films have). But you cant expect a man to keep making the same thing over and over again, right?
'The Brown Bunny' falls into the same category as other misunderstood films about love & angst like; 'Trouble Every Day' (also starring Vincent Gallo) and 'Fear X' (Nicolas Winding Refn's forgotten about film which caused him to go bankrupt). But it became difficult for people to support or defend 'The Brown Bunny' when co-star; Chloe Sevigny made a statement about the film (specifically the infamous blow job scene at the end) saying:

When you see the film, it makes more sense. It's an art film. It should be playing in museums. It's like an Andy Warhol Movie

Sometimes its better to just say nothing. In my opinion, comparing a film to Andy Warhol's overrated work doesn't help your case at all.

In 'The Brown Bunny', Vincent Gallo (who also directed, wrote, edited & produced the film) stars as "Bud Clay"; a motorcycle racer (something Gallo use to do in real life) on a road trip to Los Angeles for his next race. This films draws some comparison to 'Two Lane Blacktop' because like James Taylor, Dennis Wilson & Warren Oates, Bud Clay doesn't seem to be in that much of a hurry to get to his destination. He makes various stops to seduce random women (one of which is played by former model Cheryl Tiegs), picks up a prostitute in Las Vegas (but doesnt do anything with her) and makes a stop at his ex-girlfriend's parents house. This is when we learn what the film is really about. In addition to going to L.A. for his next race, he's on a quest to try and find his ex-girlfriend (played Chloe Sevigny). After almost giving up his search, she tracks him down at his hotel and we learn what drove them apart a few years back. ***SPOILER ALERT*** (for those that actually care at this point) As it turns out, his ex died a few years ago from a drug overdoes (which also caused the death of their unborn baby) at a house party (while cheating on him with multiples men). The woman that we see who has tracked Bud Clay down in his hotel is actually a ghost. I completely understand if someone were to find that stupid or pretentious. I actually use to struggle with whether or not I even liked the idea of a ghost coming to visit our main character, but it doesn't bother me anymore.
As much as I actually enjoy this movie, I still have some criticisms. The biggest criticism is that the film could have been edited down. After a while you grow tired of endless shots of the highway or extra long unedited extra close shots of the side of Vincent Gallo's face. And depending on what mood I happen to be in, sometimes I feel like the film could have used more dialogue, maybe another character or maybe a little more development or back story on Sevigny's character.
As we all know, 'The Brown Bunny' drew a lot of attention due to the real blow job that Gallo gets on camera from Sevigny. But is it really that big of a deal? Lars Von Trier (The Idiots & Antichrist), Catherine Breillat (Anatomy Of Hell & Romance), Michael Winterbottom (9 Songs) and plenty of other directors have had real scenes of sexual intercourse, oral sex and ejaculation, yet its such a big problem when Vincent Gallo does it? I'm just saying, if you're gonna hate on something at least be consistent. I'm still trying to kick around in my head what exactly the blowjob scene meant (or if it actually meant anything at all). Was it his way of saying "fuck you" to the women who not only cheated on him but caused the death of their unborn baby? There's a myth floating around that the main reason Gallo cast Chloe Sevigny in the lead female role was because she was the girlfriend of Harmony Korine at the time (one of Vincent Gallo's many enemies), and he wanted to have her give him a blow job on the big screen as a kinda "fuck you" to Korine. If that was the case (and I say if because there's also stories about how Chloe Sevigny wasn't even the first actress considered for the part), then that's pretty low and he deserves all the hate he gets.
If you haven't actually seen 'The Brown Bunny', don't blindly take the opinion of people who hate the film just because. See it for yourself. You might actually like it (or certain aspects of it).

The Brown Bunny / Bande Annonce Canal+ from Vincent Staropoli on Vimeo.