THE INHERITANCE

I’ll be the first to admit that I sometimes feel intimidated to write about certain specific movies that I consider to be great. These occurrences are few and far between (as they should be), but sometimes a film is so good there’s almost nothing to say outside of recommending it to as many people as possible. You can only gush about a movie so much until it starts to sound cringey. In this current age of Letterboxd/film twitter movie comedians, it’s sometimes difficult to tell if someone genuinely loves a movie or if they’re just being hyperbolic to try and get laughs & attention. If a movie is truly great I don’t think there should be any memefication involved. Ephraim Asili’s The Inheritance is one of those movies. For the last 4-1/2 I’ve been singing it’s praises on podcasts and all forms of social media, but I haven’t put down any substantial words (this movie was at the top of my best of 2020 list a few years ago). The story of The Inheritance may sound like it was made for a very niche audience within a subgenre of people, but I honestly believe it can be “appreciated” by anyone. The basic story of a group of pan-Africanists in west Philadelphia that set out to make their own isolated collective/community away from the rest of the world sounds very niche and specific. But this movie tackles/touches on/circles around issues like white supremacy, separatism, gun ownership/gun control, the creation of art, activism, the deconstruction of traditional education, and more (a big part of this film’s identity is connected to the Move bombing that took place in Philadelphia four decades ago). Everyone from disingenuous Fox News-watching “conservatives” to pretentious surface-level twitter liberals that would call the police on the same Black folks they claim to care about can find something important to hold on to in The Inheritance (anyone notice how a lot of today’s so-called MAGA folks and certain sectors of modern-day pro Black folks have a lot more in common than they care to admit?)

Strangely enough, the one audience that might take issue with this movie is the growing cult of Foundational Black Americans that believe in delineation between Black Americans and Africans & Caribbean (I don’t want to get too much in to FBAs but if you’ve ever wanted to go down a very strange internet rabbit hole – look in to them). This movie is truly pan-Africanist and doesn’t promote delineation between Black people. 

If you’re just a film enthusiast then you might appreciate all the homages and visual callbacks to folks Ousmane Sembene & Jean Luc Godard...

Stylistically, the film is deeply influenced by Jean-Luc Godard’s La Chinoise (1967). When I first got around to watching the film in grad school, I was floored - Ephraim Asili, Artforum

La Chinoise / The Inheritance

La Chinoise / The Inheritance

I first encountered Sembène in film school and was struck by his powerful critique of Senegalese society - Ephraim Asili, criterion

Black Girl /
The Inheritance

Asili also namedrops Dreyer & Bresson as sources of inspiration but those are more spiritual rather than visual…

One Big influence was Robert Bresson, who was influenced by the minimal set design of Carl Theodore Dreyer films. I would ask myself ‘what connotes a kitchen, or a living room' and leave the design there – Ephraim Asili, Bomb Magazine

Ordet /
Pickpocket /
The Inheritance

Ivan Dixon's The Spook Who Sat By The Door was another source on inspiration on Ephraim Asili (a Spook poster can be seen in the background of The Inheritance). 

 

 I’m using terms & phrases like “appreciate” or “find something to hold on to” rather than “enjoy” because I genuinely don’t think this was made to be “enjoyed” in the traditional sense. This isn’t a traditional movie. A big part of what makes The Inheritance so unique is that it’s almost uncategorizable. On one hand it’s very serious and sometimes traumatic. But other times the movie is incredibly lighthearted, sweet and funny. It also doesn’t really fit in to a specific category or genre. It’s a hybrid scripted narrative/documentary that plays with reality & fiction.


There’s a nice-sized audience of Black film enthusiasts that claim to want something “different” and/or “challenging” that isn’t some remix of Jordan Peele’s Get Out. Well – here it is (hopefully you'll see that this movie can also serve as a gateway to so many different lanes & avenues of cinephilia). The inheritance can be streamed on Apple TV, Amazon Prime and Grasshopper films. It isn’t 1999. Folks can’t keep using the excuse that a movie didn’t come to their city or small town. Thanks to streaming (and even file/torrent sharing), independent/”art house” films are now easier than ever to see. Instead of complaining on twitter about how there are too many slave movies, you could do some very basic surface level exploration and find a world of Black cinema that might cater to your needs. 

L’EMPIRE

Bruno Dumont’s latest film is another example of a bored filmmaker throwing something against the wall and seeing what sticks. Everyone from Harmony Korine (Aggro Dr1ft) to Steven Soderbergh (Bubble) has made their “bored movie” where they don’t feel challenged and still want to do something “different” but you can tell their heart isn’t all the way in it (this is all just my own speculation). L’empire is certainly Bruno Dumont doing something random & unexpected but it (mostly) works because, in my opinion, his heart is in it. At least I think it is…
L’empire is Dumont’s take on Star Wars. Yes - Bruno Dumont’s latest feature is a very loose reimagining of George Lucas’ sci-fi franchise. In the film - two opposing space factions battle it out in a rural French town. And instead of 9 films, 2 side movies and multiple television shows - Dumont manages to tell his space story in under 2 hours with just one movie.

Putting the Star Wars stuff aside, L’empire still fits in with the rest of Bruno’s body of work no matter how out of left field it seems (random dry humor, boats, fishing, seaside towns, unconventional-looking non-professional actors, etc). The film also takes place in the same cinematic universe as the L’il Quinquin series (the detectives from Quinquin & Coincoin et les z'inhumains make an appearance).

Some reviews have described this as a full-on parody of Star Wars but I don’t think it’s that simple. There are certainly plenty scenes of lightsabers, spaceships & holographic messages that we’re supposed to smirk at and not take completely seriously. But there are other aspects of the film that are absolutely genuine and filled with beauty. Normally I hate cheesy taglines to try and describe a movie in an effort to go on the front of the Blu-Ray case, but L’empire is like Robert Bresson doing Empire Strikes back (after almost 30 years of filmmaking it appears Dumont will never shake the Bresson comparisons).

Lancelot Du Lac / The Empire Strikes Back / L'Empire

The strongest connection that L’empire has with the rest of Dumont’s films is the ongoing references to Jean Epstein. When you remove the (intentionally goofy) science fiction aspects, you’ve essentially got a modern day Jean Epstein film with sound.

Finis Terrae / L'Empire

he [Jean Epstein] took himself off one day to Brittany to film exclusively there, with Bretons. Film a region, whichever it is, and the door is opened to filming the whole world - Bruno Dumont, filmmaker magazine

Le Tempestaire / L'Empire

I am simply doing the same thing that Pharaon de Winter did by including in my film people from northeast France, as [Jean] Epstein also did - Bruno Dumont, Cineaction Issue 51, Feb. 2000

 Mor'vran / L'Empire

In L'OR DES MERS there is a non professional actress chosen by Epstein who is truly exceptional. She manages to express infinite emotion - Bruno Dumont, thehotcorn.com

L'or Des Mers / L'Empire

If you’ve been following my “reviews” of this year’s new releases you may have noticed the common tread of: “I like it but I wouldn’t recommend this to most people”. L’empire is no exception. The difference here is that you don’t just randomly watch a Bruno Dumont movie. This is a movie strictly for his hardcore fans. I’m also still not sure if Dumont was trying to make an unnecessarily mean-spirited cynical commentary on modern cinema or if he was truly being experimental and trying his hand at a new genre (I honestly hope not because making fun of Star Wars in 2024 as an arthouse filmmaker is very lazy & predictable). This excerpt from a recent interview in film comment does indicate that his intentions are genuine. But you never know with a filmmaker like Dumont…

FALLEN LEAVES

It’s almost as if Fallen Leaves was tailor-made for the type of Kaurismaki fan that’s been patiently waiting for him to leave behind the overtly political messages in his films and return to more personal, smaller-scale storytelling. I'm talking about anything after Lights In The Dusk. There’s nothing wrong with being a political filmmaker but I find it interesting that once Kaurismaki’s work became overtly political, they became less interesting. I say overtly because just about any Kaurismaki film is going to have some layer of social and/or political commentary (most of his characters are lower income or homeless with low-paying thankless jobs in some type of oppressed position). I just personally feel he works best when the social issues and politics serve as the backdrop instead of being the main story. In the case of Fallen Leaves, class, poverty and & abuse of power certainly play a role in the film. But at the end of the day this is a love story first. 

I like for artists to stay in the lane they’ve mastered rather than try something new and fail. That’s just me. Now…I don’t want anyone to make the same exact thing over and over but I do like when filmmakers do slightly different versions of the same and/or similar things they're great at. Again - that’s just me. And to be clear - Aki Kaurismaki will always be a voice for the voiceless. 

Fallen Leaves is a love story about a lonely working class woman and a homeless alcoholic. It feels like an updated version of both Shadows In Paradise and Match Factory Girl but with newer actors. His standard formula is there: a deadpan dramedy where boy meets girl, boy and girl hit it off, a conflict/tragic event happens and things eventually get sort of resolved. Aki Kaurismaki’s films aren’t for everyone but I could see this is a good entry-point for folks unfamiliar with his work (definitely check out Shadows In Paradise and Match Factory Girl if you enjoy Fallen Leaves).

It should be noted that this is one of Kaurismaki’s best looking films. The colors reminded me of a late period Ozu film which makes perfect sense considering how much of an Ozu fan he is…

If I go to lonely island with only one film it would still be Tokyo Story - Aki Kaurismaki, Film Quarterly

Tokyo Story / Fallen Leaves

There’s a lot of banal Ozu-esque imagery all throughout the film (factories, kitchens, teapots in the background, etc). This is quietly one of Kaurismaki's greatest homages to his Japanese idol...

I refuse to go to my grave until I have proved to myself that I’ll never reach your level, Mr. Ozu - Aki Kaurismaki, Talking With Ozu

Late Autumn / Fallen Leaves

The Only Son / Fallen Leaves

Fallen Leaves also has a lot of easter egg references to everyone from Bresson & Visconti to his good friend Jim Jarmusch (besides a scene where the two lead characters go and watch The Dead Don't Die, the minimal dialogue between the two love interests is reminiscent of the sparse dialogue in Jarmusch's Ghost Dog)...

 

Bresson

Visconti

Jarmusch

Film Quarterly: Which directors reign supreme in your pantheon of influences? 

Aki Kaurismaki: Robert Bresson

some Bresson-ian moments in Fallen Leaves...

Four Nights Of A Dreamer / Fallen Leaves

L'Argent / Fallen Leaves

L'Argent / Fallen Leaves

Une Femme Douce / Fallen Leaves

Now that we’ve got the old Kaurismaki back, I’d like for him to stay put and stay in his lane for as long as possible. I know that sounds incredibly stifling and selfish, but I’m an only child and sometimes we can get a little self-serving.

VISUAL HOMAGES IN GHOST DOG (GHOST DOG AT 25) *UPDATED*

Frankenstein / Ghost Dog

Ghost Dog is now 25 years old! Instead of writing some retrospective think-piece about how it’s a great film dealing with race relations between Black Americans & Italian Americans or how it’s a misunderstood meditative masterpiece, or how it’s one of Forest Whitaker’s greatest performances – I’ve decided to compile my personal favorite homages from the film. 

Outside of the obvious sources of inspiration like Le Samourai & Branded To Kill, Ghost Dog is full of references which is sort of Jim Jarmusch’s motto. Below are the visual similarities that stood out to me the most over the years…

Meditation On Violence / Ghost Dog

GHOST DOG is obviously heavily informed by LE SAMOURAI- Jim Jarmusch, louderthanwar.com

Le Samourai / Ghost Dog

Le Samourai / Ghost Dog

but there were other things as well: films by Suzuki - Jim Jarmusch, Filmmaker Magazine

Branded To Kill / Ghost Dog

Take Aim At The Police Van / Ghost Dog

Branded To Kill / Ghost Dog

Branded To Kill /
Ghost Dog

Branded To Kill /
Ghost Dog

Branded To Kill / Ghost Dog

Tokyo Drifter /
Ghost Dog

Tokyo Drifter /
Ghost Dog

Tokyo Drifter /
Ghost Dog

Tokyo Drifter /
Ghost Dog

I gave him [Forest Whitaker] Seven Samurai, Branded to Kill, by Suzuki Le Samurai and Le Deuxième Souffle by Melville - Jim Jarmusch,  Movie Maker Magazine

Le Deuxmieme Souffle / Ghost Dog

Le Deuxmieme Souffle / Ghost Dog

I did give Forest a lot of Kurosawa and other films to watch when he asked me ‘What inspired you’ - Jim Jarmusch, Movie Maker Magazine

Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo / Ghost Dog

Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island / Ghost Dog

Rashomon /
Ghost Dog

Seven Samurai / Ghost Dog

Yojimbo /
Ghost Dog

Sanjuro /
Ghost Dog

Rashomon /
Ghost Dog

Yojimbo /
Ghost Dog

Yojimbo /
Ghost Dog

Yojimbo /
Ghost Dog

Yojimbo /
Ghost Dog

Yojimbo / Ghost Dog

Ghost Dog uses guns in his work, but he treats them the way a samurai would have treated a sword - Jim Jarmusch, Filmmaker Magazine

Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman / Ghost Dog

Lonewolf and Cub: Baby Cart To Hades / Ghost Dog

Lonewolf and Cub: Baby Cart To Hades / Ghost Dog

Lonewolf and Cub: Baby Cart At The River Styx / Ghost Dog

Yojimbo /
Ghost Dog

Yojimbo /
Ghost Dog

Zatoichi /
Ghost Dog

Zatoichi /
Ghost Dog

Lady Snowblood / Ghost Dog

Sword Of Doom / Ghost Dog

Harakiri/ Ghost Dog

The Tale of Zatoichi Continues / Ghost Dog

The Tale of Zatoichi / Ghost Dog

The Tale of Zatoichi Continues / Ghost Dog

Zatoichi The Fugitive / Ghost Dog

Zatoichi The Fugitive / Ghost Dog

Zatoichi The Fugitive / Ghost Dog

Yojimbo / Ghost Dog

Films made by Ozu (or the works of any masters, for that matter) may drift in and out of fashion, but their stylistic strengths and particularities are not movable - Jim Jarmusch, Artforum.com

Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family / Ghost Dog

Early Summer / Ghost Dog

Early Summer / Ghost Dog

Early Summer / Ghost Dog

Early Summer / Ghost Dog

Equinox Flower / Ghost Dog

Good Morning / Ghost Dog

Days Of Youth / Ghost Dog

Equinox Flower / Ghost Dog

Dragnet Girl / Ghost Dog

In the trunk he [Henry Silva] had tapes of his work that he’d made. It wasn’t his classic films like The Manchurian Candidate or Viva Zapata. It was all stuff of him with Steven Segal & Chuck Norris - Jim Jarmusch, louderthanwar.com

Code Of Silence /
Ghost Dog

Code Of Silence /
Ghost Dog

In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination - Jim Jarmusch

Breathless /
Ghost Dog

At that time, I was also inspired by very formally pure films. Films by Carl Dreyer or Bresson - Jim Jarmusch, The Guardian

Pickpocket / Ghost Dog

Pickpocket / Ghost Dog

Pickpocket / Ghost Dog

A Man Escaped / Ghost Dog