Silent Is Golden
Three favorites screen this week
By Andy Klein
I will shamefully confess to feeling a twinge of jealousy a year or two ago when the American Cinematheque began its series Kevin Thomas’s
Favorites at the Aero. Of course, my distinguished colleague – known in journalism circles as The Hardest Working Man in the Critic Biz – has been at this game a bit longer than me and has seen probably twice as many films, from thrice the number of countries and four times the number of directors.
My pettiness is somewhat ameliorated these days, since the telepaths over at the refurbished Silent Movie Theatre mystically seem to anticipate my every request. (OK, you programmers think you’re so smart? What card am I thinking of?)
This week, they have at least three titles that would be perennials in my fantasy rep house. First up, on Saturday at 7:30 p.m., is Guy Maddin’s second feature, Archangel (subtitled A Tragedy of the Great War). Maddin has enjoyed increased popularity in recent years with Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary (2002) and Brand Upon the Brain! (2006), but his unique weirdness was already full-blown in this 1990 bit of comically incoherent surrealism. Set against a conflict that seems to be World War I, the plot has something to do with a Canadian soldier (Kyle McCulloch, whose strange career trajectory eventually led to a writing gig at South Park) falling in love with a nurse (Kathy Marykuca) he mistakes for his dead sweetheart. The nurse is married, but her husband (Ari Cohen) is a severe amnesiac, who repeatedly falls in love with her at first sight and rushes her off for a honeymoon over and over again: “It was the happiest day of his vague life,” reads more than one title card.
Equally insane is Takashi Miike’s 2003 Gozu, playing Sunday at 9:30 p.m. In the manner of certain Polanski mindfucks like The Tenant and Repulsion (though far less controlled), it mixes sheer creepiness and a certain goofiness in a perversely enjoyable way. The alternate title – Yakuza Horror Theater: Gozu – is a fair description. The opening sequence has a gangster named Ozaki (Sho Aikawa), during a meeting in a restaurant, informing his boss that the adorable chihuahua looking at them through the picture window is in fact a specially trained yakuza-killing dog. The entire gang looks on, appalled, as Ozaki stomps outside and brutally eliminates the threat. The boss decides that the obviously deranged Ozaki has to be killed, but that turns out to be a little harder than it sounds: After he expires, his body disappears, but then he seems to rematerialize as a mysterious young woman. Or something.
For a big Hollywood production, Richard Rush’s The Stunt Man (Tuesday at 8 p.m.) is completely off-the-wall. (Only the proximity of Archangel and Gozu make it seem even vaguely conventional.) In 1980, this daring, wildly entertaining American art film overcame studio indifference and/or interference and, thanks to critical support and campus audiences, became a cult hit. Steve Railsback plays a Vietnam vet on the lam, who takes refuge with a movie crew in San Diego. The film’s brilliant, manipulative director (Peter O’Toole) decides to put him to work as a stunt man.
Rush constantly blurs the line between reality and movie-set makebelieve, with the director taking on the role of God. The film skates dangerously close to artsy pretentiousness; what saves it is its goodnatured tone – what Pauline Kael perfectly characterized as “slapstick metaphysics.” Rush will be on hand for the show, along with a bunch of genuine stunt men, some of whom worked on the film.
Archangel. Directed by Guy Maddin. Screenplay by Guy Maddin and George Toles; story suggested by John B. Harvie. With Kyle McCulloch, Michael Gottli, Ari Cohen, and Kathy Marykuca.
Gozu. Directed by Takashi Miike. Written by Sakichi Sato. With Hideki Sone, Sho Aikawa, Kimika Yoshino, Shoei Hino, and Keiko Tomita.
The Stunt Man. Directed by Richard Rush. Screenplay by Lawrence B. Marcus; adaptation by Richard Rush; based on the novel by Paul Brodeur. With Peter O’Toole, Steve Railsback, Barbara Hershey, Allan Garfield, and Chuck Bail.
All at the Silent Movie Theatre; see Special Screenings for info.
Published: 01/23/2008
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