Film essays from the front line, part one. The seventh annual Viennale film festival, 19-31 October, Vienna, Austria
Vienna loves art. Movies, plays, operas, symphonies, street buskers, djs, rock bands - all flourish under the generous subsidies of a grateful state. Museums - there are more than 300 in Vienna alone - crowd the landscape with great works of art, sculpture and video installations. Each year the city plays host to an international film festival, one of the lesser ones, it must be said, called the Viennale. http://www.viennale.at/english/index.shtml.
It was with great anticipation that I arrived in Vienna on October 6, the day tickets went on sale. As I contemplated the website, and tried to fill my quota of 10 tickets to qualify for the discount, I was a bit stretched on choices. Beyond "Control," the Joy Division biopic, and the other obvious "name" films ("No Country for Old Men," "Import/Export," "Persepolis," "Blade Runner, the Final Cut," "Paranoid Park"). After some quick web searches, I ran into this film called "Loren Cass." After skimming some news stories and a glowing review from Variety (http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117933901.html), "a starkly radical film of uncompromising importance that could very well bring peace in our time..." and such similar drivel, I added it to my list. Director Chris Fuller's debut film, okay, shot with amateur actors, on location, natural sound and lighting, check, the
guy who helped realize "Clerks" came in to help make it happen, okay.
Could be good, right?
Oh, brother.
On the one hand, I want to give Ian Jehle a hug (didn't he come out of St. Petersburg, Florida, where the film is set?); on the other hand, I believe this is a documentary shot on the set of Michael Garrett's life. Regardless, I bet that any day from either of their lives would be whole lot more entertaining than this piece of cinematic offal.
The film begs to be described as the Variety reviewer did - as high art. It seems like a photo essay on the despair of poor, urban and sub-urban American youth-life, almost Chris Marker-esque in its spareness and stark beauty. Juxtaposing with the beauty is the unbelievable ugliness of the characters - stupid, pointless people with empty lives and an inner despair so deep it's etched on the inside of their bones, spelled out in their dna - L-O-S-E-R - instead of TAGC. Voice-overs - some fascinating, some completely terrifying drug-fueled babble - along with interstitial footage of the St. Petersburg race riots of 1996 add to the feeling of dislocation, art montage, and despair.
The film sort-of follows the travails of a slutty diner waitress, Nicole, and the boys whose lives she impacts, including (I kid you
not), the Fight Kid, the Suicide Kid, the Punk Kid, the Fit Kid, Jason and Cale. She's doing the Fight Kid, and then Jason attacks the Fight Kid's car, and then she brings her car to Cale's auto shop, they go on a date, drunkenness, fights (including some unbelievably brutal beatings that look fairly real) and lots of long, static shots follow. Punk Kid goes through some dumpsters, looking for food, in an entirely pointless movie-aside. After an hour, I understood the movie poster much better - that's not the film's characters - that's the audience with their guns in the mouths.
I spent probably half of the film waiting for the filmmaker to deftly weave this into something more - an essay on life and choices, or, the possibility of escape, or the impossibility of escape, or...well, something. Anything. Instead, as the move ground on, I got the feeling that the director didn't really have anything to say. So, instead of a bleak, Floridian film-version of a Diane Arbus photo spread, you get a sort of a cross between Dazed and Confused and Elephant, only without the wit of the former or the near-pornographic anticipatory dread of the latter. A film that is, rather than filled with portent-laden dread, simply dreadful, instead.
AVOID.
God loves a cheerful giver.
So basically you're telling everyone to avoid me? Thanks.
michael, nothing i say can influence that. besides, look at the poster and stills from the film. see a resemblance? if the mirror fits, or shoe, or whatever.
I do believe that Michael Garrett has had an impact on Cale and his auto shop right here in DC.
Life truly does imitate art.
Oh, I get it.
I'm the "stark beauty" and everyone else is juxtaposed against me - "stupid, pointless people with empty lives and an inner despair so deep it’s etched on the inside of their bones"
No wonder I'm so bitter.
variety is to movies what pitchfork is to music....
"Sure to be deemed commercially toxic, the pic deserves a brave distrib that knows how to work the angles. Major fest berths are a lock."
1) it was certainly toxic.
2) major fest berths are a lock? seriously. if this is the best festival film out there then i will be the one with a gun in my mouth.
worst.film.ever. at least it was laughably bad, although i do wish i could have those 2 hours of my life back.
oh, fuck - i forgot to mention - how did i miss recounting the bit where they show the footage of that pennsylvania politician shooting himself in the head? you might be asking, hm, what does that have to do with the rest of the film? i was asking myself that too. i guess they thought that without putting up a gigantic sign that reads:
WE ARE VACUOUS PURVEYORS OF FUCKING MINDLESS FILTH PASSING IT OFF AS ART
this was the next best way of illustrating the self-same point.
I HATE THIS MOVIE! ARRRRRRGH! and the main chick does like four guys and you never even get to see her ma-jumbies! DAMN IT!
i find it very sad (ironic?) that the chick would agree to be in this piece of shit film, agree to full-on make-out with several very disgusting looking guys (note: she never made out with the one that kinda looks like michael), and yet apparently have a clause in her contract that says she refuses to show her tits? i mean, really....
"WE ARE VACUOUS PURVEYORS OF FUCKING MINDLESS FILTH"
Ah, now I get why it reminds you of me.
William,
I am the sound effects designer, Foley artist, sound editor, supervisor and mixer for the film Loren Cass.
Although I have my private thoughts about Loren Cass...
your review however mentioned that the sound was "natural." And I take that as a compliment. Since I rebuilt the entire sound, scene by scene, from absolute scratch! Only about 8% of the backgrounds, walking, movement, props and sound effects in Loren Cass were recreated from scratch. The only scenes not 100% rebuilt was the truck bed scene w/guitar, one restaurant scene and the grocery cart scene. The rest of the film was completely rebuilt, sound by sound... prop by prop. The entire film was Foley and sound design... and the fact that you thought it was natural is the highest compliment/review I could recieve. Thank You - Gary Boggess www.boggessmusicandsound.com
TYPO IN PREVIOUS POST!!
William,
I am the sound effects designer, Foley artist, sound editor, supervisor and mixer for the film Loren Cass.
Although I have my private thoughts about Loren Cass…
your review however mentioned that the sound was “natural.” And I take that as a compliment. Since I rebuilt the entire sound, scene by scene, from absolute scratch! Only about 8% of the backgrounds, walking, movement, props and sound effects in Loren Cass were NATURAL/ORIGINAL... 92% of the soundtrack was recreated from scratch. The only scenes not 100% rebuilt was the truck bed scene w/guitar, one restaurant scene and the grocery cart scene. The rest of the film was completely rebuilt, sound by sound… prop by prop. The entire film was Foley and sound design… and the fact that you thought it was natural is the highest compliment/review I could recieve. Thank You - Gary Boggess www.boggessmusicandsound.com
December 1, 2007 at 11:18 pm
i should clarify that the sound editing and effects are truly astounding. the fights sound like they are actual, bone-crushing, terrifying fights. the dialog sounds like you are in the room, the diner, the street, etc., listening to it exactly. and, unlike, say, a dogma feature, the "reality" of it is heightened by whatever techniques gary used. to me, it was just the content of the writing and the acting that left me cold. but, as an experience, as a sound and imagery collage, it's extraordinary, numbing and eventually, horrible. that's no disrespect to the technical achievements therein.