Death Watch (Bertrand Tavernier, 1980)

Romy Schneider is one of my screen goddesses if not THE goddess. So I was sure I've seen this flick before and didn't like it much because couldn't really remember much about it. So when IFI put on the restored version for three days over the weekend screenings and (of course) publicized it as "re-discovered" classics I couldn't stay away. Not that I buy any of that propaganda crap but it is such a rare occasion to see Romy on the big screen that it was just no question about going to see it. And besides it might be good, Tavernier certainly made some decent movies.

Now I'm surprised I didn't remember it but for all the wrong reasons. Its main idea about media exploitation and real time TV may be before its time but it is put together very naively. Maybe the problem is that director tries to tackle too many of "grand" issues instead of taking his time to tell story more slowly and maybe intimately. So we jump from one scene to another and from one genre to another and pretty soon everything becomes just a mess which is hard to follow.

The biggest flaw is cast which one would never expect from the names like Romy Schneider, Harvey Keitel, Harry Dean Stanton and Max von Sydow. They just don't function, maybe because of poor dialogs written in some artificial language nobody in the real word speaks. The "weakest link" without the doubt is Keitel who seems to be totally lost and has zero chemistry with Schneider. His (famous NYC character?) acting is totally over the top and it reaches its idiotic peak at the end. He is blind and while sitting at the table he keeps shaking his head like an cretin. Hilarious but also painful to watch.

It has few good things too. Like gloomy suburbs of Glasgow and landscapes of Scottish coasts are beautifully shot and music during latter is not bad at all. And check out the poster! Really fuckin cool right!?!

But I'll of course remember it for "my" Romy. This was one of her last movies and seeing her playing the role of terminally ill woman brings back even more feelings of melancholia and sadness. What a babe she was and what a shame she died so young.

4/10

Rampart (Oren Moverman, 2011)

I’ve seen the trailer few times in the cinema and on TV but didn’t think much of it. Looked like another rip-off of Ferrara’s Bad Lieutenant that set “corrupt violent cop” standard back in 1992 that is still too high for anyone to reach anytime soon. And after that Herzog’s piece of shit remake I didn’t have stomach to go through another one of these flicks. 

But then it got some positive reviews by Danny Leigh on BBC so I decided to check it out when it came out on DVD recently.

And – surprise, pleasant surprise – it is not bad at all. Woody Harrelson is brilliant (nothing new right?) and he did remind me of Harvey Keitel sometimes. Especially in shots when they were driving the cars isolated from the outer world and confined to their madness (Woody listening to the radio all the time and Harvey even shooting the damn thing). Similarities with Bad Lieutenant don’t end just here because Rampart too is almost entirely character driven. True, there is a story but it is not typical mystery/crime stuff and it never really takes off. There’s no need for it because our hero is doomed from the start and we all know it will turn badly for him. 

Dark and unsettling stuff about addictions and their inevitable consequences indeed. It’s good to know there are still people in Hollywood who make this kind of stuff. Also worth noting is that it is created extremely well and precise, I had the feeling that director knew exactly what he was aiming for. Was little surprised to learn that this is only Oren Moverman‘s second movie.

And of course “I am not a racist. Fact is, I hate all people equally.” has a good chance to go into history of notorious film quotes. I’m sure we’ll see T-shirts with it this summer.

8/10