Boogie Nights

"Boogie Nights" is a film full of life, and of the past twenty years in movie making, very few have come close to its raw youthful energy. When I say it's full of life, I mean it never stops moving, there is always something going on, it doesn't slow down. It's long at over two and a half hours, but it doesn't overstay its welcome, it feels lean and never overstuffed. There is a vitality in it that only comes from a hungry young filmmaker who has something to say, and something to prove. Much of it is derivative, but in a sense that it feels inspired rather than ripped off; in that way it's its own original masterpiece.

"Boogie Nights" is a film about dreamers, and a surrogate family that is its own support group; the difference here is that the family is made up of people from the porn industry. It tells the story of a rising young porn actor named Eddie Adams(Mark Wahlberg). Eddie has a rather large endowment which makes him special at least to adult film director Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds)who sees him one night working in a nightclub. Jack soon brings Eddie home with him where he becomes part of the porn initiated, and pretty soon he even changes his name permanently to the more appropriate Dirk Digglier. Soon we meet more members of what will become Dirk's extended family; among them are Reed (John C. Reilly) another working adult film actor who will act as Dirk's sidekick, Amber (Julianne Moore)a woman who loses her son in a custody battle and thus mothers Dirk when she can, Rollergirl (Heather Graham) a young girl who never finished high school and gets her name by never taking her roller skates off even while having sex, and Buck(Don Cheadle), an adult film actor who has a dream of one day owning his own electronics store.

The story begins in 1977, when porn could still be shown in movie theatres, and was shot in film rather than video tape. It starts almost innocently with Dirk a young naive upstart with big dreams of success, there's a footloose and fancy free introduction to this world he is inhabiting; this is established by the almost ongoing music by the film's soundtrack and the long camera tracking shots which float through the whole party vibe interacting with all the characters. There isn't much depravity or perverseness going on that we would usually associate with the porn industry, although we do get the sense that it's all there in the background and that would more come into the play with the film's darker second half. But this whole beginning plays like one big party, which one could imagine it was back in the 70s. The characters are ones with big creative aspirations; Jack for one wants to someday direct a film that isn't just about people having sex, but having a story people stay to see because of the characters and the story. You could sense a budding wannabe auteur in Jack that could be seen in other Hollywood filmmakers who try desperately to put their own signature on a genre film. Dirk and Reed even collaborate with Jack on a series of films they make up where they play a couple of hard boiled cops in one the films hilarious send ups of porn films.

But soon the ending of the glitz and glamour is at hand and is foreshadowed with a brilliant set piece feature Jack's assistant director Little Bill (William H. Macy). We are introduced to Little Bill early on in the beginning as a man who is married to a porn actress (real life porn actress Nina Hartley) who constantly embarrasses him publicly by having sex with randam strangers. On the night of ringing in 1980, Little Bill has enough and pulling a gun on his wife and her lover killing them both, after which killing himself in the process.

The reprecussions come swiftly afterwards as Jack's producer Colonel James (Robert Ridgely)is arrested for child pornography, soon Jack must jump onto a new producer (Phillip Baker Hall) who wants him to make cheaper movies on video. Dirk in the meantime becomes jealous that Jack is replacing him with a new kid and in a coke fueled rage runs out on him.

The second half of the film shows these characters split apart and suffering when they aren't together, Amber is shown in a custody hearing with her ex-husband, but her reputation doesn't help matters; we see her outside the courthouse crying, and Moore cuts right to the core in this scene. Jack ends up beating a young guy almost to death after he insults both him and Rollergirl in the back of a limo. Dirk becomes desperate for money and prostitutes himself; he is picked up one night by a man in a truck.

But harmony does come in the end with these characters as they come back to the people who love them and who care about them, and that's what I found the film to be about, finding those people who don't judge you and support you no matter who you are. If you think of it that way, "Boogie Nights" is a very old fashioned film about finding acceptance. The characters do seem try to turn there life around in the end, and you left with hope for all of them.

The film was directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, who was a young virtuoso back then. This was only his second feature, and like Dirk in his film, you could sense a rising star behind the camera. As he does with his follow-up film "Magnolia", Anderson owes a lot to the filmmakers who came before him, namely Robert Altman who's ensemble pieces was an obvious inspiration, and Martin Scorsese who moved his camera with just as much freedom and energy; in fact it's hard not to think of the film's opening shot and not of Scorsese's copacobana scene in "Goodfellas" which this film tries to out do multiple times.But I don't fault Anderson for showing off a bit, it's part of the film's charm, it's not fully original, at times it seems like a throwback to the innovative character driven American films of the seventies, but it also has its own original point of view. Anderson creates these wonderful eccentric types that he obviously loved when he decided to write them. Not much fun is being made of them at their expense, and when it does happen, we are reminded that these are human beings with dreams that are a bit on the deluded side, who are we to judge? Who can say they've never had dreams?

Filling all these parts in this expansive world is a virtual who's who of indie actors at the time. Along with Moore, Macy, Cheadle, and Reilly, we also get Phillip Seymour Hoffman as a gay sound man who's secretly in love with Dirk, Thomas Jane as a drug dealer, and Luis Guzman as a nightclub owner who wants more than anything to be in one of Jack's films. Everyone of these guys would be a main stay in both indie and mainstream movies later on.

Wahlberg for his part was mostly known as an underwear model and occasional rapper, this film would make him a star. I remember early reviews of his performance complaining that he came off rather whiny, but if you watch it again, Wahlberg has rarely ever made such an open and honest portrayal since. His character comes off as more shallow in parts than whiny, which is what he's supposed to be. Wahlberg has since become known for his buff tough guy roles, but here is much smaller in stature with a real vulnerability insecurity that gets hidden by arrogance. In the film's best scene (one of the best scenes filmed in the past 20 years) when Dirk and his friends are held up in the house of a drug dealer (Alfred Molina), there is a moment the camera holds on Walhberg's face where we see the moment of clarity come when he realizes how far down he's gone; it's the kind of thing I don't think Wahlberg has been asked to do since, but there is such a wide range of feeling and emotion, it's where the audience and the character are on the same page, he needs to get the hell out of there.

I've seen "Boogie Nights" several times now, it's the kind of film that works on you so well on a visceral level. It's exciting and alive. Paul Thomas Anderson has lately gone on to a different aesthetic that feels more bleak and less freewheling with "There Will be Blood" and "The Master". There is much to admire in those films, and structurally "Boogie Nights" is probably more flawed I feel more excitement when watching it. The film is brimming with the type of passion you can only get from a young filmmaker. It's one of the films of the 90s people will always remember. I cling to the story of a surrogate family that helps you out and doesn't judge you, it's a rather optimistic message for a band of misfits.

If you look at the final scene in the film, it works as a visual reminder of the last scene in Scorsese's "Raging Bull, something I think was deliberate on Anderson's part. Both films have the main character looking into a mirror reciting lines from a movie; Dirk's lines come from his latest porn film that he's about to shoot a scene for, he's prepping himself for the scene, and in the end we see he reveals his real "talent" to us as a way to psych himself up. In "Raging Bull" we have De Niro reciting lines from what is sure to be a much better film "On the Waterfront" then shadow boxers in the mirror to psych himself up. Anderson might've been going for a comparison between these two men, both dreamers with ambition, both damaged by their own vices, but despite their flaws and setbacks they are looking for what most people do from the world, acceptance

La Ronde

One of the most erotic scenes I have ever seen comes from "La Ronde", it's where French chambermaid Simone Simon seduces her young employer. Let's be clear, there is no sex in this scene, but there is the anticipation of it; whatever happens afterwards is implied by the closing of a window, and then the window re-opening in the next scene to suggest that they just had sex. Maybe it's just that in this scene I wish I was that young man, and being alone in the house with a sexy siren like Simone Simon as a french chambermaid with only one thing on our minds. I'm sure french chambermaids exist in real life, but it was probably the movies that made the idea of them so erotic. Perhaps I've said too much, suffice it to say "La Ronde" has invented a french chambermaid sexual fantasy for me, and for the record, I don't find anything wrong with that.

"La Ronde" is a film about sex, but it's also a film about love and passion, all three things go hand in hand. It's an all star movie that takes place in different vignettes; following each character from one lover to another. There is a master of ceremonies in the whole film, a raconteur as played by German actor Anton Walbrook. Walbrook plays not only the narrator, but he also seems to be in control of all the character's destiny. We see him operate a merry go-round that spins around as the characters interact, making love, talking about love, or participating in some kind of flirtation. The action takes place in Vienna in 1900; the past, or as Walbrook puts it "when the future seemed more certain". The film begins with a prostitute (Simone Signoret) and it will end with her as the film comes full circle like the merry go-round Walbrook operates. The Prostitute has a brief encounter with a soldier (Serge Regianni), the soldier seeks out a maid (Simon), the maid then seeks out the young man Alfred (Daniel Gelin), the young man then has an affair with an older married woman (Danielle Darrieux) and so on, and so on...

Each vignette deals with the subject of love and sex, sometimes it's playful, sometimes it's profound, but they all air a certain amount of poignancy and philosophy. One of the best scenes comes from a married couple they are both lying in separate beds. This scene comes about half way through the film and is probably the one time we don't imagine this couple doing it. The husband is middle aged, and rather average looking, he is concentrated on something else rather than his wife, we can see why she has chosen to have an affair with a younger man. However the scene turns into a conversation between the two. The man seems to recognize the woman has been unfaithful, yet he doesn't seem upset (of course we will be seeing him carry on an affair with a younger woman in the very next scene). In fact despite both of their infidelity, we find that there seems to be a kind of love there if not at all sexual, but more a deep respect. The scene closes with husband and wife holding hands, it is perhaps the most honest scene in the film.

Not all scenes hit this amount of honesty, some are all out farcical such as the scene between the poet (Jean-Louis Barrault) and the actress (Isa Miranda). They begin having a fight over the lines the poet has written for a play starring the actress. Both are seen as very strong-willed individuals, hence the attraction, yet the scene plays rather quickly compared to the other scenes, we get the sense that the attraction is very fleeting and love doesn't always play into the equation.

"Ra Ronde" was directed by Max Ophuls who had a flair for creating wonderful superficial aesthetics, and this is no exception, his world is a fantasy world, we know it's make believe. Walbrook's character is more or less a fill in for Ophuls, he does the same thing a director does, he controls the characters, he lets you see what he wants you to see. In one particular funny and telling scene, Ophuls cuts to a scene with Walbrook editing film when the scene begins to get too racy.

Ophuls was also a master a camera movement, he actually influenced Stanley Kubrick who would pay homage to Ophuls in part with his long tracking shots in "Paths of Glory", and you could see the influence in full effect with "The Shining". In "Ra Ronde" Ophuls moves the camera beautifully, there is an exquisite shot of a couple dancing a waltz yet they are really on a platform that moves around for them as if they are floating (He would use this trick to even greater effect in his masterpiece "The Earrings of Madame de..."). They are dancing in front of a carousel as the camera moves with them, it's a wonderful romantic fluid movement that elates the viewer.

But let's not be shy and bring up the ongoing theme of this whole film, which is sex. The film isn't coy with the natural instincts of its characters, sometimes they do it out of love, sometimes out of boredom, but Ophuls makes it clear that it's something in all of us. Sex is something Hollywood rarely does well anymore, there is a great fear of eroticism in the movies today. As you can guess by the title, "Ra Ronde" was made in France but was mostly disregarded by critics as a superficial sex romp, but now it seems like a very liberating film, and it's also very sexy. The women in this film, particularly Simon, Signoret, and Darrieux were filmed beautifully like the stars they were. They were aloud to exhibit and exude sex, today's women seem to be restrained by comparison.

"La Ronde" has a lot in common with the best films by Lubitsch who was the master of showing sex on screen without really showing it. It's tantalizing, and teasing. It shows you exactly what you need to see and leaves the rest to your imagination. "La Ronde" shows that love and sex go hand in hand, it's within us to explore it and talk about it. Sex shouldn't be taboo, it's a topic that can be funny, sad, and profound, they bring up true human emotions, and as this film shows, it's something that can be very beautiful. Now about that French chambermaid....

A Hard Day's Night

I was never an official child of the sixties, but in my early years I would claim to be at least a spiritual one. I like to think I grew up with a superficial knowledge of sixties counter culture, which included listening to hippy laden pop music and psychedelic flower power movies. Little did I know as a young child that the decade also represented a tumultuous time that included an unjust war, political assassinations, and fear of nuclear annihilation. I learned that the sixties would represent more than just peace, love, and understanding, it was much more complex and grim; yet as I am reminded of harsh realities of the world, I thank God that once upon a time there was a band called The Beatles, and a film called "A Hard Day's Night".

"A Hard Day's Night" is an innocent film, it's light and breezy a hymn to a youthful time, and an era that has long gone by, and what a wonderful time it must've been. The Beatles were giants, they set the bar for every other band that came after them; they were brilliant, witty, and original,and they left us with a very nearly perfect catalog of music that helped define the decade. "

"A Hard Day's Night" was made during that early period of the band's career known as Beatlemania. Millions of young girls flocked to see them, crying, screaming, and fainting over them. The boys were thought to be a fad, people predicted they would disappear soon, so it was best to capitalize on them as much as possible. I wasn't born at the time, so I can't say for sure if The Beatles were overexposed, yet one just has to look at all the fuss that's being made to our current pop idols to see what it must've been for them. Yet, The Beatles were different, they probably surprised a large group of cynics who wrote them off too quickly, they were actually very intelligent and could produce pretty brilliant pop tune.
One just has to listen to the opening title song of the film as soon as George Harrison plays that famous first chord, don't be too surprised if you don't join in and start singing.

The film is an imaginary tale a day in the life of the world's most famous pop stars, they hide out in a train station to outrun a mob of girls, go out dancing, talk with press people, run around in a giant field, and get to a television studio in time to put on a concert, it's all in a day's work for the boys. Yet complications do arise, mostly due to Paul's mixer of a Grandfather (Wilifred Brambell) who has a habit of getting himself into trouble. Among the Grandfather's exploits is gallivanting around gambling at a casino, popping up from a prop floor during a television rehearsal of an Opera, and convincing Ringo to desert the band right before their big live broadcast.

Brambell nearly steals the show with every scene he's in, but the film's major asset is John, Paul, George, and Ringo; if anything this shows just how natural these boys were. The film fills the boys with lines of wit and dry british humour, but they add their own bit of whimsy themselves. Look how they handle themselves in the scene where they talk to the press, they add their own bit of satire to the situation. If you've seen footage of The Beatles at those early press conferences, you know they are every bit as funny and charming as they are in this film, so much so it's hard to believe that what they are saying is actually scripted yet it is.

The Academy award nominated script by Alun Owen takes great pains to trying to keep the dialogue as natural as possible, yet he also plays around with witty word play, and The Beatles (who were great wordsmith themselves if you've heard any of their songs) were up to the challenge.

Here's some examples of some of the great wit.

George: That's not your Grandfather

Paul: It is, you know.

George: But I've seen your Grandfather, he lives in your house.

Paul: Oh well that's my other Grandfather, but he's my Grandfather as well.

John: How do you reckon that one out.

Paul: Well everyone's entitled to two aren't they.


Reporter: What do you call that hairstyle?

Ringo: Arthur.


Reporter: Do you often see your father?

Paul: No actually, we're just good friends.


My favorite scene in the film probably comes when John encounters a woman in a hallway, she notices who he is it starts off like this.

Woman: Oh wait a minute, don't tell me who you are

John: No, I'm not

Woman: Oh you are.

John: I'm not

Woman: Oh you are, I know you are.

John: I'm not, no

The scene ends with her now convinced that he isn't who she thought he was, with John adding the punch line "She looks more like him than I do." Some how when I think of John Lennon, I think of him in this scene, it's funny, nonsensical, and ambiguous; if the scene were a pop song, Lennon could've written it.

Yes there are Beatles songs here and they are wall to wall great, Of course I wouldn't be the first one to place Lennon/McCartney songs alongside Cole Porter's or George Gershwins, they are enshrined forever in popular music. Along with the title tune, you also get "Can't by me love", "If I fell", "I should've known better", "I'm happy just to Dance with you", "Tell Me Why", and "She Loves you". Strangely enough none of the songs were nominated for an Oscar even though they were technically written for the film, instead the Oscar went to "Mary Poppins" for "Chim, chim chereee", a delightful clever song, but much more belonging to that classical era of musicals.

The film is a celebration of The Beatles as individuals, they have a sort of pleasant anarchy in a world that wishes to restrain them as pop idols who aren't meant to have fun. They have rules, schedules, and managers to answer to, but that doesn't stop them from doing what they wanna do. The Beatles to me never seemed to be conventional pop stars unlike ones you see today where their every move seems calculated and a way to keep them in the news and sell records. Lately there has been a souless trend of giving these recent pop sensations their own theatrical concert films all of which are in 3-D. Perhaps these films are harmless, meant to attract their fan demographic, but chances are we won't be talking about them in fifty years, the way we do with "A Hard Day's Night".

The film itself was directed by Richard Lester, mostly known at that time with directing British comedy group known as The Goons which featured Peter Sellers among others. Lester borrows from the French New Wave of jump cuts, and quick editing techniques, it adds to the youthful flare the film has. Lester was only working with a $500 000 budget and limited shooting time no doubt due to the band's hectic touring/recording schedule; to his credit, he makes a film that looks like it was shot on a weekend, that's meant as a compliment. It's not crisp or posh, it's fast, frenzied, and furious, it captures the time and the mania surrounding The Beatles in this era perfectly.

Lester would make another film with "The Beatles": "Help" a sometimes clever film that falters a little bit by giving the group an actual movie plot; "A Hard Day's Night" works better because they are able to show off their own natural charms better, and the black and white adds to the time capsule feel to it; remember this was a time when "The Beatles" would be on every black and white tv set in the world, if feels more authentic seeing them like that.

"A Hard Day's Night" was made in 1964, it was after the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Kennedy's assassination, coming up another Kennedy would be killed, as well as Martin Luthor King. The Beatles themselves would mature into more sophisticated songs and albums leaving a fantastic legacy of work. Hearts around the world were broken when the band ended rather bitterly, but we still have all that great music. For me, it's hard to belief that in a decade full of such strife and tragedy, The Beatles were able to explode the way they did. Their music meant freedom to so many, they captured our imaginations unlike anyone else, I listen to their music and it instills a purpose in me, like wanting to change the world, or at least make it a bit brighter. The Beatles couldn't have lasted forever, but let's just thank God they came at all.