LAFF 2008: Day 4
Sunday was another good day at LAFF. I saw three documentaries and one narrative feature and they all ranged from good to great.
First up was Man on Wire, a superb and surprisingly moving documentary about Philippe Petit, a Frenchman, acrobat and mad dreamer who walked a tight-rope between the twin towers of Manhattan’s World Trade Center in 1974. Through newsreel footage, home movies, photographs, reenactments and modern day interviews with Petit and the band of accomplices who helped him string the wire between the two buildings, the story of how he pulled it off is told in compelling detail and it unfolds as suspensefully as a classic bank heist. As to why he did it, Petit will only respond enigmatically, “There is no why.” Yet, by the time the documentary is finished, you’ll know exactly why he did it, even if you can’t put it into words.
One clue is a single photograph snapped of Petit as he crossed the wire between towers eight times over the course of 45 minutes. As he stands on his wire 104 stories above the streets of Manhattan following months and months of careful planning, the camera captures him smiling serenely even at his moment of greatest danger. It’s a sublime moment that brings the entire documentary into sudden focus.
Petit is a poet of the physical; a performance artist whose art lies in the effect his stunts have on the amazed onlookers watching from the safety of the streets below. He’s a charmer with a knack for rallying people to his crazy schemes and he has just enough ego to believe he can pull those schemes off. He’s also totally animated in recounting the smallest detail of his stunt as though it happened yesterday. When you live on the edge as Petit does literally, life is burned into your memory like a photograph.
Finally, he’s a bit impish, reveling in doing something illegal, but not malicious or mean spirited. Though he behaves like a kind of thief, he isn’t interested in stealing anything. Instead, he wants to leave something behind. He wants to remind you that life itself is a tight-rope walk that cheats death; it’s a challenge that should be met head on and embraced. “If I die,” he says, “what a beautiful death. To die in exercise of your passion.” It’s an amazing true story that moves and entertains in equal measure. It’s an ode to the human capacity for adventure, creativity, ingenuity and mischief and it’s one of the best movies I’ve seen this year. (Summer Previews)
Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman is a solid documentary that doesn’t quite live up to its subject matter. Now 97 years old, Shulman is a Los Angeles based architectural photographer who was instrumental in recording the Southern California offshoot of the modernist architectural movement that prevailed in post-war Los Angeles. It’s a terrific subject, particularly for anyone interested in art, architecture, photography or Los Angeles, but it’s not entirely well served.
Narrated by Dustin Hoffman, the film is comprised of talking head interviews, conversations with Shulman himself and of course the photographs themselves. The big problem is that, although many photographs are shown, none of them are allowed to linger. The filmmakers seem so concerned about boring an impatient audience, you’re rarely given a chance to really examine and appreciate the work that helped make architects like Richard Neutra and Rudolf Schindler famous. Instead, a lot of screen time is given over to animations that are useful and nice looking, but seem to run counter to the simplicity and directness that modernism appeals to.
It’s a slick and nice looking documentary that informs and entertains while giving you a good sense of who Shulman is and why he’s important, but it’s regrettable that it couldn’t be a little more patient with the work that is so important to the man.
You can see a few samples of Shulman’s work from a 2005 Getty Center exhibition, including his most famous Case Study House #22, Los Angeles, 1960, Pierre Koenig, Architect, here. (Special Screenings)
Next up was Largo. It’s not really about LA’s intimate music club, but like the club itself, it’s about what happens on the stage before a small and respectful audience. Filmed in simple black and white with a bare minimum of edits and camera movements, Mark Flanagan and Andrew van Baal capture musicians from Fiona Apple to Aimee Mann and comics from Patton Oswalt to Sarah Silverman. Each performer is highlighted for one complete song or routine without title or introduction. It’s just one terrific performance after another and they all speak loudly for themselves.
I wondered at first how well the comedy would mix in with the music, but it’s perfect. It helps break up the routine and keep it from ever getting monotonous. Best of all, much of it is very funny.
Recommended to anyone whose ever been to Largo’s old location on Fairfax or to music fans in general. (Documentary Competition)
The fourth film of the day (technically the third chronologically) was the world premiere of the Sean Baker’s terrific Prince of Broadway. It tells the story of Lucky, a Ghanaian immigrant who works the streets of New York, hustling shoppers into the back rooms of businesses to purchase counterfeit purses, tennis shoes and clothing. He’s a fast talking and hard working character whose main concerns are his girlfriend, his savings and smoking a little pot with friends at the end of a long day. Life for Lucky is turned upside down, however, when an old girlfriend drops off the 2-year-old son he didn’t know existed and then disappears.
The refreshing thing is how the film avoids the familiar clichés and stereotypes. Though it’s unclear until the end whether or not the boy is really Lucky’s child, he does the right thing and tries to care for it the best he can, despite the damage it does to his lifestyle.
A movie like this stands on the performances and the whole cast delivers on a script that was largely written through improvisation. Prince Adu plays Lucky with great humor and a gruff kindness. This is not life as he imagined it, but he’s going to make the best of it and you can’t help but root for him. (Narrative Competition)
On tap for today are the SXSW entry Medicine for Melancholy and the iffy Sundance pick Choke starring Sam Rockwell and Kelly Macdonald. I’ve heard mixed reviews of the latter, but the combination of Rockwell and Macdonald is impossible for me to pass up.
Filed under: Film Festivals
Related Posts: - Paris Loves ‘Young@Heart’ in the Summer When it Sizzles
- Review: Man on Wire (2008) *****
- LAFF 2008: Day 3
- LAFF 2008: Day 10 - Part 1
- LAFF 2008: Day 10 - Part 2
Terrific correspondence yet again, Craig.
Prince of Broadway sounds interesting, as does Man on Wire.
I hope Choke is solid as Rockwell and Macdonald are two people I continue to have an eye on as well.
It was a good day. I regret having to work so much this morning and not having more time to dedicate to writing about it.
I think you have done a great job nonetheless Mr. Kennedy.
I really, really hope I see “Choke” next week, the trailer made me feel indifferent, but the book is fcuking great, so I remain hopeful. I’ll trust your judgment when you report back Craig.
“He wants to remind you that life itself is a tight-rope walk that cheats death; it’s a challenge that should be met head on and embraced. “If I die,” he says, “what a beautiful death. To die in exercise of your passion.” I like that.
Your referring to Lucky’s boy as “it” was interesting :-)
It’s an it, what can I say?
Also, Man on Wire is way better than I’ve described it. Seriously. Keep an eye out for it.
You made it sound damn good Craig.
Then imagine how awesome it really is!!
Seriously though, I was thinking “Meh, what’s the fuss over some dope showing off on a tight-rope?” but it was amazingly emotional and oddly inspiring.
But you conveyed exactly that reaction in the lines I cited above - the tight-rope as metaphor for life and the smile as he negotiated it a joyful expression of following ones passion.
Reminds me of how I approached Sean Penn’s Into the Wild last year, Craig. My general feeling going in was much like yours with Man on Wire: “Meh, some dumb-ass goes up to Alaska and dies of starvation. Who gives a shit?” I was deeply, anagogically touched by it, though, and subsequently read the book that inspired it and am still looking forward to seeing it again quite soon. In the case of Into the Wild, I still think McCandless should have been more thoughtful on so many different levels, but the film made his actions perhaps not reasonable but strangely understandable and emotionally moving as well.
Anyway, very much looking forward to Man on Wire.
I am not a fan of INTO THE WILD, Alexander, but I assure you I took my lumps last year at Awards Daily, where one respondant said that I “showed my true colors by praising DREAMGIRLS, and disparaging Mr. Penn’s opus.” LOL!!! But I respect your opinion greatly, Alexander, so I should look at this again at some point.
Craig, I am absolutelly THRILLED with your report on MAN ON WIRE!!! One of my favorite Caldecott Medal picture books that I often read to my classes is the deeply-moving THE MAN WHO WALKED BETWEEN THE TOWERS by Mordecai Gerstein, which chronicles the very material that is in that documentary you saw!!!! I must say that I was always fascinated with Petit’s acrobatics and affable defiance. His punishment for his death-defying acrobatics was community service as per Gerstein’s book. Your actual analysis of the film—” a poet of the physical” and so on is exemplary, as everyone else here has noted.
VISUAL ACOUSTICS sound interesting, but PRINCE OF BROADWAY really looks great.
It will be interesting to see just how many of these films eventually get released. Your responses seem to indicate that most will.
Not to be a kiss ass, but Craig, you really have a gift. If I ever end up thinking that it would be fun to run a newspaper, I’d hire you as the film critic in a heartbeat. Not only that, you’re a nice guy. Go figure! As you were :)
These all sound interesting and I’m very curious to here your review of Choke as well. Hopefully some of these will arrive in theaters here…otherwise my Netflix queue is going to be very full for next year.
The great critic-nice guy combo is rarer than gold dust.
Man on Wire sounds “ok”, though you know I generally avoid documentaries…
*stifles scream of anticipation*
Otherwise, Prince of Broadway has shot way up the list. Gimme now.
Back to documentaries, here’s where I call Surfwise the most surprisingly good movie I’ve seen all year. Even more of a shock than KFP. Blehblah, some family surfing, right? Not so much. I’m still in a bit of shock having just come out of the theater, but I think it’s all of a sudden among my year’s best.
Man on Wire sounds great. That still of him is amazing.
Terrific write-ups, Craig. Thanks for keeping us up to date. :-)
Not to be a kiss ass Dorothy, but you just made my day.
Damnit Daniel, are you trying to tell me Surfwise is yet another documentary I’m going to regret skipping? Maybe I should just start going out of my way to watch docs that I have absolutely no interest in…I can’t go wrong.
Prince of Broadway was a nice surprise. I guess it’s a drama but it was so frequently funny, I’d hate to categorize it like that. On the other hand, it’s not contived comedy funny either. Good stuff.
Thanks Alison. You can’t go wrong with Man on Wire. It was beautiful. Almost made me cry.
Sam, you should read To Reach the Clouds, it’s Petit’s book that was the basis for the film.
Joel, Choke is getting a limited release starting in September and Wire in July.
Alexander, Petit has a similar drive to McCandless, but he’s less serious….in a good way.
“If I ever end up thinking that it would be fun to run a newspaper…”
The Katherine Graham of The Blogington Post!
I can totally see that.
Citizen Kane allusion? trippy, Dorothy, because I’m having a parallel Kane quote toss volley in an email exchange just now.
Can I be Jedediah Leland?
Or maybe Jimmy Olsen.
Jiminy Cricket, I do love serendipity! Ryan, you do strike me as Jedediah (both the sober idealist and the hilarious but honest drunk with a way with words!); you get to choose which incarnation, of course :)
I structure my whole life around synchronicity and serendipity, Dorothy. Thanks for the cuddly Cottonelle compliment. I enjoy being photographed from floor-level low-angle too!
Ryan, isn’t that you on the tightrope?
Thanks for noticing, sartre.
I got cropped out of the photo.
I’m actually hanging off the tip of the pole.
Your collective wit is staggering. That’s what makes this place great.
Craig, I don’t know what to say. I calls ‘em like I sees ‘em, and I guess I happen to see most of ‘em. But this year is increasingly proving to be an anomaly. These documentaries (in no order - Encounters, American Teen, Up the Yangtze, BiggerStrongerFaster, Young@Heart, Blindsight, The Betrayal, Surfwise, and now, on your word, Man on Wire) are unusually excellent. The other common factor between them is that their promotional materials are completely misleading. Surfwise, for example, has virtually nothing to do with surfing. Blindsight is not about mountain climbing, and American Teen is not nearly as juvenile as its trailer suggests, at least not in my opinion.
Anyway, yeah, I’ll recommend Surfwise. Highly.
Man on a Wire sounds interesting — as someone with a fear of heights, I’ll no doubt be clutching my seat very firmly when I see it.
From what you know of my documentary habits Daniel, you have to admit that the fact I’ve seen 3 of the docs on your list (not counting MoW which may or may not end up on your list [I think it will]), I’m doing uncharacteristically well keeping up.
When I become the movie reviewer for Citizen Porker’s newspaper, I hope that means I don’t have to quit in disgust when she rewrites my pan of a movie her lover appeared in.
Pierre, I’d be curious to hear if your fear hightens (no pun intended) the impact of the film or lessens it.
I’d like to see Man on Wire….unfortunately, I have no idea how I could possibly get a hold of it.
As for Choke, I actually just stumbled across the book (this house is a repository for books read one summer, then forgotten until found again one or two or three years later, endlessly reread), I might read it again. I recall liking the parts about the choking and especially the sex-addiction, but finding the whole subplot with his mother (and the forced twist of a denouement, something Palahniuk, like that other guy with the weird last name, should really let go) rather boring. Oh well. Like you said, Craig: it has Rockwell and especially Kelly McDonald, so I’ll definitely see it.
I’m just writing up my capsule review of Choke right now Hedwig. Interesting that you say that because the movie focuses more on the mom subplot and the choking part felt a bit tacked on.