Michael Collins

Liam Neeson as Michael Collins

Neil Jordan's Michael Collins, from 1996, is a good biopic of the Irish revolutionary leader. Jordan's script wisely condenses his film by limiting the time frame, beginning in 1916 with the Easter Rising and concluding with Collins' assassination in 1922. The machinations of the IRA in waging a guerrilla and, some would say, terroristic war against the British are presented in a crisp, but detailed fashion. The recreation of historical events, such as Bloody Sunday and the Croke Park Massacre, is impressive. Collins was the de facto Irish military commander of the war, its Trotsky if you will, while Eamon de Valera was its political chief. The film does a good job of detailing the rivalry between the two men and its subsequent effect upon Irish history. Of course, given its title, it is not a surprise that the film tilts its favor towards Collins and away from de Valera. Alan Rickman's anal retentive performance as de Valera perhaps makes him more diabolical than he actually was. With a couple of exceptions, though, the film is largely accurate in its presentation of history.

Liam Neeson was a good pick to perform the larger than life persona of Collins. A large slab of a man, he physically dominates the movie, even the crowd scenes. The film is at its shakiest in its portrayal of the love triangle of Collins, Harry Boland and Kitty Kiernan, Collins' eventual fiancé. Aidan Quinn is quite good as Boland giving the character the quiet yearning that is his trademark. It seems that Quinn fell from grace with the Hollywood Gods at some point, he has not had any plum roles in A pictures in the 21st Century, and it is hard to say why. He has a nice rapport with Neeson here. Unfortunately, Quinn and Neeson's chemistry is much better than Neeson's with Julia Roberts who plays Kitty. Roberts is by no means dreadful, simply miscast. When we first see Roberts, trying to sing the wonderful Irish ballad "She Moved Through the Fair", one can't help but think that any capable Irish or UK actress, say Kelly Macdonald, would have been a better fit.

Jordan goes back to "She Moved Through the Fair" at the conclusion of Michael Collins. The song plays as shots of Kitty trying on dresses for a wedding that will never occur are contrasted with that of Collins meeting his demise. The gist of the song, tragic lovers reuniting in the afterlife, mirrors the plot well and works visually: the dress turning into a funeral shroud. However, the emotional juice has never been evident between Roberts and Neeson and this robs the moment of any chance of greatness. It does place the film firmly within Jordan's corpus where star-crossed outsiders romantically love in vain. The theme of his best films: Byzantium, Breakfast on Pluto, The End of the Affair, The Crying Game and Mona Lisa. 

Has Anybody Seen My Gal

Gigi Perreau and Charles Coburn cut the rug in Has Anybody Seen My Gal

Douglas Sirk's Has Anybody Seen My Gal, from 1952, is more fun than a copy of Captain Billy's Whiz Bang. A celebration of 1920s Americana, there lurks beneath its glittering surface (as in most Sirk films) a denunciation of American materialism and intolerance. Yet, the film also functions superbly as light entertainment. I think it is the bee's knees and the cat's pajamas.

Rock Hudson and Piper Laurie, rising newcomers at Universal Pictures, are the nominal stars of the film, but Charles Coburn is the film's cynosure and chief asset. A millionaire without an heir, Coburn tracks down the family of a lost love and becomes their anonymous benefactor. He moves to the Vermont town where they live and ingratiates himself with the family in order to surmise if their newfound wealth has changed them. Coburn's beloved's granddaughter (Laurie) is going steady with soda jerk Hudson, but her family's newfound fortune causes them to pooh pooh the impoverished suitor. Coburn helps steer the couple through troubled waters towards a happy ending. The mysterious benefactor who helps unite star-crossed lovers was a familiar trope of Victorian literature and spawned many variations in Hollywood; particularly George Arliss' starring vehicles in the twenties and thirties. 

With five or so small scale musical numbers, Has Anybody Seen My Gal often feels like a poor man's Singin' in the Rain. Yet, there are a few Sirkian moments that even that splendid musical does not approach. Especially one in which Laurie's character and her younger sister watch a Christmas snowfall through a picture window. Laurie's character has had a quarrel with her lover and, in contrast to her sister's holiday joy, throws herself on her bed for a good cry. The shot anticipates the use of a picture window at Rock Hudson's cabin in All That Heaven Allows. In both cases, nature's peaceful splendor is contrasted with a character's inner turmoil.

Yet, one does not have to have even heard of Douglas Sirk to appreciate this joyous film. Coburn's performance is one of his most entertaining and ebullient. The signifiers of the roaring twenties, speakeasies, raccoon coats and flappers doing the Charleston, are all in evidence. The sparkling Technicolor surfaces of the film belie its message that all that glitters is not gold. As with Sirk's later Universal melodramas starring Hudson, the luxe recreation of American life masks a cautionary theme. Film buffs will relish the memorable cameo by James Dean as a demanding soda fountain customer. Has Anybody Seen My Gal is a film for all but the most intransigent cynic. 

James Dean

Playground

Sister and Brother in Playground

Laura Wandel's Playground, the Belgian entry for this year's Oscars, is a drama about elementary school bullying. The almost universal praise for the film seems to me a response to its message rather than its aesthetic merit. Critics have praised the film for its harrowing realism and its sensitivity, but I found the film to be manipulative, boring, and overwrought.

The Belgian title of the film is Un Monde (A World) which gives a better sense of Wandel's intent. The world of the film is a self contained one which Wandel reinforces by keeping a tight frame around his pint sized heroine. The protagonist, Nora, is entering first grade at an elementary school her brother already attends with much trepidation. Wandel ably portrays Nora's first day jitters and her subsequent feelings of frustration and helplessness when she witnesses her brother being bullied. However, the film soon becomes overladen with intimations of racism, classism and sexism. Wandel wants to show how the sins of the parents are visited upon their children, but, by doing so, she makes her schoolchildren resemble surly adolescents. I was grateful the film was only 72 minutes long.