Four film suggestions

Descriptions of four films that you might not have seen

Henry and June (1990)

 

Director: Philip Kaufman

 

Two years after the astounding film version of the Milan Kundera novel, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Kaufman directed another equally provocative film, Henry and June, based on the book of the same name by Anais Nin. Nin was responsible for the publication of Henry Miller’s novel Tropic of Cancer.

 

The movie concerns the relationship of Miller (Fred Ward), his wife June (Uma Thurman) and Nin (Maria de Madeiros).  Kevin Spacey (Richard Osborn) and Richard E. Grant (Hugh) also star. The atmosphere of Paris in 1931 is strongly evoked. Nin is drawn to the bohemian lifestyle of the Millers.

 

One of the most amazing features of this work is the strong resemblance between Thurman and the real June Miller and de Madeiros and the real Nin. It is shot in beautiful areas of France and Paris. The music consists of popular music of the time as well as music of French composers including Debussy, Ravel, Satie, Auric, Renoir and others.

 

It was the first film to be rated NC-17. 

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Lost Highway (1997)

 

Director: David Lynch

 

Starring Bill Pullman, Patricia Arquette, Robert Loggia, Robert Blake (Richard Pryor’s last film role).

 

Lynch is known as one of the most idiosyncratic film makers of the modern age. After the mysterious “Eraserhead” and the ground-breaking TV series “Twin Peaks”, “Dune”,  and “Blue Velvet”, came this movie. 

 

Consider its premise. You are introduced to a man and wife. He plays jazz saxophone in a combo at night. She is a quiet homebody who reads a lot. One day as she goes outside to retrieve the newspaper, she finds a manila envelope on the front steps. Bringing it inside, she and her husband discover a VHS tape.. They pop it in and see a video of a shot of their house’s exterior. Then it shuts off. He concludes it must have been made by a realtor. A few days later, another envelope appears. There is another VHS tape. This one begins in the same way, then cuts to a shot inside the living room. The camera maneuvers down the hallway, and we discover the couple asleep in their bed. Camera shuts off.  So begins one of the strangest film journeys you will ever make.

 

That’s all I have to say. See it! You’ll be hooked!

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Michael Clayton (2007)

 

Director:  Tony Gilroy

 

Michael Clayton (George Clooney) is a “fixer”. He is the “go-to guy” who uses his connections, influence, and his knowledge of legal loopholes for his clients' (often improprietous) benefit.  At the beginning, he seems to have a gambling problem, losing a bunch of money in a late-night poker game. He receives a call and must go to a wealthy client of his company to solve the problem of a hit-and-run.  When he is finished, he is driving aimlessly and pulls off the road to admire three horses who stand on top of a hill. When he arrives to look at them, his car mysteriously explodes.

 

Then we go back four days to see the entire story which involves corruption and the attempt of a large company to cover up its “sins” of producing a weed killer that it knows to be carcinogenic.  His long-time friend Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson) has disgraced himself at a deposition by acting deranged and stripping off his clothes. When Clayton investigates what happened, he begins to uncover the fact that U-North, the company his firm represents, has knowingly marketed a carcinogenic weed killer.  Karen Crowder (Tilda Swinton), general counsel for the company marketing the weed killer does her best to cover everything up before the coming merger of U-North and another company, by “eliminating” the problematic Arthur.

 

The movie is very unusual and suspenseful in the way it explores the depth of its characters whose stars include Sydney Pollack.

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Million $ Hotel (2000)

 

Wim Wenders is one of the greatest German film directors of the last 40 years. His masterpiece is “Wings of Desire” (re-made in a lame American version with Nicholas Cage). “Paris, Texas”, “Kings of the Road,” “Until the End of the World”, and “Buena Vista Social Club.”

 

Recently I watched a Wenders effort from 2000, and it is still quite haunting. “Million Dollar Hotel”

 

Right off, I’ll say that the film stars Mel Gibson. Some people will dismiss the film immediately because of his various social indiscretions. I’m of the opinion that no matter what a person does in their personal life, it has little to do with their work on screen.

 

Gibson plays Frank Skinner, an FBI agent who is sent to Los Angeles to investigate the apparent suicide of the son of a U.S. senator.

 

The son, known as “Izzy” to his friends, lives in the Million Dollar Hotel, an old residential building in downtown L.A.  All of the characters who also live there are derelicts of the world.  The actors include some greats: Jeremy Davies (Twister, Saving Private Ryan, Nell), Milla Jovovich (The Fifth Element, The Messenger), Bud Cort (Harold and Maude, The Number 23), Peter Stormare (Minority Report, Constantine), Amanda Plummer (The Fisher King, Pulp Fiction), Jimmy Smits (mainly TV, but a few of the Star Wars prequels), Tim Roth (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction)

 

All of these people play delightful and touching wackos.  It is unusual fare, and it’s a film that makes you think because it’s about the real world and is not a fantasy movie  where you can put up your feet and relax.  The script is hysterical at times.

 

Music is by Bono.