_The Immigrant_
From
septimus_millenicom@q.com@21:1/5 to
All on Sun Jan 17 15:08:06 2016
James Gray's _The Immigrant_ certainly seems topical in a time when
refugees constitute the greatest crisis all over the world. In the
DVD commentary he discusses how personal the screenplay is to him,
inspired as it is by his immigrant grandparents' experience. The
film, unfortunately, shares the points-of-view of only one single
migrant (Marion Cotillard's Ewa) and her benefactor/pimp (Joaquin
Phoenix's Bruno). It is 1921 and the Polish Ewa and her sister
are marooned on Ellis Island. Bruno gets her out, but he turns out
to be more duplicitous and manipulative than he first appears.
It is a given that American studio films are mostly about power.
Hustlers, gangster bosses, cops, special force soldiers,
entrepreneurs, magicians -- mostly men -- scheming and bull-dozing
their way to what they want. Unfortunately, American indies are
now also excessively fascinated with the powerful rather than
the powerless, like the most immigrants are. The screenplay of
this film is really confused. If it had focused on Ewa it might
have been powerful and moving, but it makes Bruno the more complex
character, and his redemption becomes the big reveal and climax
of the film. It is like making Kevin Kline the central character
in _Sophie's Choice_ and having him usurp Meryl Streep. The
whole thing is so wrong-headed.
It doesn't help that Phoenix is stiff and his character is
thoroughly repellent. The fact that co-writer and director Gray
thinks so highly of this character's dramatic potential is
symptomatic of U.S. cinema. Marion Cotillard is certainly an
accomplished actress, but her work, here and elsewhere, seems
so studied and distant. At times she seems positively outside
her own body, watching herself perform, and she does not have
that extra gear that can set a scene on edge. She is an
exception among French actresses, who are generally so
spontaneous. I can't say I have ever seen a truly great
Cotillard performance (have to catch up with the Dardennes
film and _Macbeth_ though); even her Oscar-winning work
as Edith Piaf I find overrated. The sister character in
the film is hardly there at all, nor is life on Ellis Island.
Focusing on the immigrants in the plural would have made
much better films (like _The Golden Door_, with Charlotte
Gainsbourg, and _L'America_ too).
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)