So it's about three whores and their mother?

I've said before--in all seriousness--that I used to love SEX AND THE CITY until I got to around the third season and finally realized that it wasn't meant to be a satire. Well, I've come up with an addendum with the following epiphany/theory:

SEX AND THE CITY is a Bret Easton Ellis story if you just replace cocaine with shoes.

I'm thinking of putting that line in THE HEFNER MONOLOGUES: HOW HEFNERIAN, but I've already been warned about my use of esoteric/geek references losing my audience. If only I had Dennis Miller in my audience, he'd laugh.

Movies: THE VISITOR, LOVE SONGS, and TOUCH OF EVIL

I've seen a handful of films over the past couple days. First was THE VISITOR, an indie by the writer/director of the Dinklage* classic THE STATION AGENT (which I've never seen). I knew absolutely nothing about THE VISITOR, making it one of those rare and wonderful cinematic experiences where I walk into a film with no idea who's in it or where's it's going to go. So just like the characters themselves, every unfolding moment is another surprise and you have no idea where things are going to go.

Of course, some films are so formulaic that you could figure it out, but what was extra refreshing about THE VISITOR was how it could have gone a whole number of ways in the hands of a lesser filmmaker, but the final result was... rather wonderful, really.

A major plus is the leading performance by character actor Richard Jenkins, most famous as the father from SIX FEET UNDER. It's always wonderful when character actors get their moments to shine, and makes me long for the days when we had shows like THE TWILIGHT ZONE where we could get all kinds of mini-showcases from such actors.

THE VISITOR is getting buzz as the sleeper indie of the year, so it'll be interesting to see what attention it gets. I've refrained from talking about the actual plot just because I wouldn't know how exactly to sum up the film without giving away its little surprises. I almost posted the trailer here, but it gives far too much away, and comes off looking more sentimental and touchy-feely than the actual film is, so just take my word for it.



Then with cisic and tompurdue, I saw LES CHANSONS D'AMOUR (LOVE SONGS), a French musical about a ménage à trois. The consensus was that the film was "so goddamn damn French, but in a good way."

Honestly, when it comes to most French films, that's the most for which I can hope. Also, the cast was crazy hot, so that was a plus. Stupid sexy French.



But I saved the best for last, and even though I knew it was an obvious classic, I still hadn't been prepared for what I was about to see.

After about ten years of dilly-dallying since the restored reissue back in 1998, I have finally, finally seen Orson Welles' TOUCH OF EVIL. I saw it about fourteen hours ago and I am still floored.

From the brilliant five-minute long single take opening, I knew I was in for something amazing:

After that, though, I started to have my doubts. First and foremost (and how many of you can guess what I'm gonna say?), Charlton Heston plays a Mexican. Let that sink in. Is it sunk? Yeah, well, I was worried it would sink the film, between the brownface make-up and Heston's trademark overwrought delivery.

But then I soon noticed that Heston wasn't the only one with odd delivery. Everyone seemed to speaking in some bizarre tone that was... over the top? Campy? Bizarre? Hard to nail down, although one theory that I liked is that Welles directed everyone to speak like him. In any case, that was another element that took some adjustment, especially the way they overlapped each other as if they were in an Altman film but with the naturalism replaced with a style that...

... then it hit me: this was a Coen Brothers film before there was ever a Coen Brothers.

And the more I watched TOUCH OF EVIL, the more its influence became apparent. The Coens must have been all over this, a true prototype for BLOOD SIMPLE and NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN. And Welles' own character, the infamous and grotesque Sheriff Hank Quinlan, has been a quietly powerful icon ever since, reflected in Ray Liotta's powerful Henry Oak from NARC and especially William Hootkins' Lieutenant Eckhart ("HEY ECKHART! THINK ABOUT THE FUTURE!") from Burton's BATMAN.

And oh lord, what a character Welles created in Quinlan. As if he wasn't corpulent enough, he threw on padding and prosthetics and played him as a character both towering and teetering, dripping with sweat and malice, spending the film becoming more reprehensible and vile as he slips from his past greatness deeper and deeper into corruption.

Check out this somewhat spoil-y scene for a perfect five-minute example of Welles' brilliance behind and in front of the camera:

But the thing that mainly floored me about this film was the final minute in which the "twist" of sorts is revealed, along with a pivotal insight into Quinlan's character and motivations. In an understated way, due largely to lack of explicitly show or discussed backstory, Quinlan is every bit the figure that Charles Foster Kane and Daniel Plainview are: driven men who are not evil but flawed, who eventually lose both their humanities and their souls along the way.

And yeah, Heston plays a Mexican. Heston's character was originally white, with a Mexican wife, but Welles switched it around, which was a frankly masterful movie story-wise, making Quinlan and Vargas living-but-complex symbols for America and Mexico. But that's a subject better film historians than I can and have discussed at length.

Like CITIZEN KANE, movie fans can watch this and thrill over seeing something that has influenced so many filmmakers over the years. But unlike (what many think of) CITIZEN KANE, TOUCH OF EVIL holds up as a goddamn brilliant film in its own right, one of the greatest and most unique film noirs ever made.

Or maybe not. Maybe just like KANE, many will see it and just shrug. After all, Welles made the film with the intent to "infuriate" his audience, but I can only imagine him truly succeeding with an audience that doesn't like to think. I'd be interested to know what others here would or do think about TOUCH OF EVIL. I will say this, though: this will be the first film in months that I'm actually gonna buy for my DVD library. After I watch the rented version again.





*Honestly, I didn't have much interest in seeing PRINCE CASPIAN until I hear that the good dwarf was Peter Dinklage and the bad dwarf was Warwick Davies. The visual of the Dink's ELF character getting into a fistfight with the Leprechaun has filled me with a surplus of glee.