NYLON - February 2009 - (Page 116) EDITED BY LUKE CRISELL hunger For his first feature film, Brit Steve McQueen turns his attention y ,p to Bobby Sands, played here by Michael Fassbender, the infamous ldi h di IRA soldier who died in 1981 during a prison hunger strike while incarcerated in “The Maze.” Given his choice in subject matter, it might be odd to report that McQueen isn’t interested in politics. Instead, he’s interested in the dreadful privation and extraordinary determination of men condemned. With Hunger, he wants us to see, smell, and ultimately feel what their incarceration was like, and there’s both good and bad news: He pulls it off. This is a solemn and harrowing experience. The film, built in three parts, is constructed almost like a poem. We get to know a guard by the state of his hands; a note folded to the size of a pill is passed in a kiss; tobacco is smoked in the thin pages torn from a Bible; a corner of a cell is turned into a compost heap, alive with maggots. One part of Hunger passes nearly in silence. Another is choked with words: In a miraculous single shot spanning 20 minutes, Sands and his priest discuss the planned hunger strike. It’s a superb feat of writing, acting, and directing—not just revealing, but exploring the hatred and divisions that lie behind the troubles. It’s the heart of the film and a detailed declaration of Sands’s commitment to his cause. Sixty-five days later he was dead. MIKE HARVKEY tom tykwer Ten years after Run Lola Run, director Tom Tykwer returns to thriller territory with The International, a tale of political intrigue starring Naomi Watts and Clive Owen. Mike Harvkey caught up with the filmmaker, who’s currently in Nairobi, by phone. IN 2003, YOU SAID THE ECONOMIC SYSTEM WAS “SET TO IMPLODE.” NOW YOU’VE MADE A FILM ABOUT A SECRETIVE INTERNATIONAL BANK. [Laughs] I forgot about that! I started to work on The International in 2003. When I joined the project, it was set in the ’70s and was about a real bank that had a big scandal. We ultimately decided that this was much more relevant today than in a historical context. I said to Eric Singer, “While you were writing, history overtook us.” YOUR LAST FILM, PERFUME, WAS YOUR LARGEST PRODUCTION, YET THE INTERNATIONAL SEEMS EVEN MORE AMBITIOUS. The challenge was to make a convincing thriller based on events that are believable in our modern world. I was determined to make a fi lm you could compare to the thrillers of the ’70s. That was an era when genre films were deeply connected with people’s perception of their present time. We were determined to bring back that energy, but to connect it to the most relevant villain of international conspiracy today: the global economy. EXOTIC LOCATIONS ARE A STAPLE OF THE GENRE. HOW DID YOU COME ABOUT CHOOSING YOURS? The plot guided us. But I also wanted to show cities that were an interesting meeting point of different cultures. Architecturally, the film starts very modern, with Berlin and the cities of “the new Europe.” Then it goes backwards, eventually ending in Istanbul. For us, New York didn’t represent the new world, but one that’s falling apart. YES, IT LOOKS LIKE YOU WRECKED THE GUGGENHEIM! We built it on a stage. It was a technological nightmare! We had to pre-visualize to know which lenses were safe, how far we could move the camera. There are few places in this world that I know better now than the inside of the Guggenheim! Though the art department was always complaining— they said it took 16 years to build the real thing and we’ve only got six weeks! interview: cherry y blosso blossoms After a sudden tragedy occurs while on vacation in Berlin, Rudi (Elmar Wepper) is compelled to visit Japan, a country that his wife, Trudi (Hannelore Elsner), has always loved. Specifically, she loves Butoh, a form of contemporary dance that bares no resemblance to traditional Japanese dance at all, and which her husband has never appreciated. Telling a story about love and loss without becoming entrenched in the subjects, German director Doris Dörrie makes effective use of descriptive imagery and the constant appearances of cherry blossoms—an unspoken character— which bloom for about 10 days before suddenly wilting. Hitherto mundane lives are transformed in Cherry Blossoms through the art of Butoh dancing, while young characters learn to appreciate the memories of the elderly when once it had all seemed too late. CHRISTINE BORGES two lovers Recovering from a broken engagement, living at his parents’ apartment in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, and working at the family-owned laundromat, Leonard (Joaquin Phoenix) blunders through his stagnant existence with little joy in Two Lovers. After a series of failed suicide attempts, Leonard is invigorated by encounters with Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow), a prepossessing yet troubled woman who moves into his building. Leonard is smitten from first contact, but Michelle, self-involved and entangled with a married lawyer, responds only with patronizing affection. Meanwhile, Leonard continues to casually date Sandra (Vinessa Shaw), a nice Jewish girl who is the daughter of his parents’ potential business partners. Doting and beautiful, Sandra would be a far more suitable partner for Leonard, but he of course remains fixated with Michelle. Two Lovers invokes the eternal conflict of the sober mind versus the impassioned heart. With a protagonist who must grapple between his instincts, family duties, and desire, it is reminiscent of films from the ’50s. Phoenix, in his last role before “retirement,” develops a nuanced persona for Leonard— simultaneously goofy, haunted, and above all, eager to love. This is an insightful meditation on the complicated interplay between love and reason. And, compared to films with more grandiose agendas, the focus of Two Lovers—simple, human relations—is refreshing, even while the film’s tendency toward cliché is sometimes ineffectual. MAI LYNN MILLER NGUYEN tom tykwer illustration by esra røise
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