Nice of Milla to get Paul W. S. Anderson‘s permission to film first. (Looks like she’s got him wrapped appropriately.)
Redbelt: Written and Directed by David Mamet.
Fascinatingly succinct interview.
Synopsis: Mike Terry (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a jiu-jitsu practitioner and self-defense instructor, teaches his students the skills to persevere, both in unarmed combat and through difficulties in their lives. A series of circumstances brings Terry in contact with popular movie star, Chet Frank (Tim Allen), and a host of powerful people in the entertainment industry. Terry soon finds himself the victim of a con and, combined with a destitute financial situation, is pressed to enter the ring.
Synopsis: A jealous husband and his friends plot the kidnapping of his wife’s lover with the intention of restoring his wounded ego.
Dir. Malcolm Venville. UK. 2008. 91 mins.
Main cast: Ray Winstone, Tom Wilkinson, Ian McShane, John Hurt, Stephen Dillane, Joanne Whalley.
Since their debut on the staggeringly good “Sexy Beast,” writers Louis Mellis and David Scinto have been more or less absent from the film world — Mellis is one of half-a-dozen credited writers on the messy comic-book Western “Blueberry,” and they were developing sci-fi novel “Jennifer Government” for Steven Soderbergh, but nothing’s been produced. Nothing, that is, until “44 Inch Chest,” which sees the writers teaming with photographer and director Malcolm Venville, who, like “Sexy Beast” helmer Jonathan Glazer, comes from the world of commercials.
Like their earlier film, it’s got overtones of a gangster movie, but skirting around the edges of the genre — it’s clear that the characters are somewhat disreputable, but you’re never quite sure how, and it bears more resemblance to a Harold Pinter play than a Guy Ritchie movie. Colin Diamond (Ray Winstone) is a car dealer, who’s been left by his wife (Joanne Whalley) for a French waiter, and has imploded completely, shrivelling into a weeping wreck of a human being. His friends Archie (Tom Wilkinson), Meredith (Ian McShane), Mal (Stephen Dillane) and Peanut (John Hurt), in an effort to restore some pride to their cuckolded pal, help him kidnap his wife’s new lover, and take him to a dilapidated house, with the intention of killing him.
The opening is fantastic – a catatonic Winstone lying in his trashed living room, listening to Harry Nilsson‘s ‘Without You’ on repeat, and the first half-hour generally is very strong – like “Sexy Beast,” the dialogue is sharp and sweary, with almost certainly the most uses of the C-U-Next-Tuesday word in the history of cinema. The performances are generally terrific, although for the most part the actors are playing archetypes, rather than characters: John Hurt is vile and hilarious, but is basically channeling Harold Steptoe (the old man in the original UK version of “Sanford & Son“), while Ian McShane gives good value as a louche, homosexual gambler, but occasionally comes close to being a stereotype.
The honors probably go to Ray Winstone and Stephen Dillane – the former is astonishing, giving one of his best, and most atypical, performances, playing a man who, to all intents and purpose, has had his heart torn out. He’s a crumbled shell of a person, and we feel his pain, but we also get glimpses of why his wife would walk out on him. Dillane, a tremendous stage actor whose film work has rarely matched his abilities, with the possible exception of Michael Winterbottom‘s “Welcome to Sarajevo,” looks like he’s really enjoying himself, as the shiftiest of Winstone’s crew, and it shows – he walks away with several of the key scenes. But all the actors are strong, and we would watch these five guys read a German-language computer textbook quite happily.
The trouble is, after a strong opening, the script and direction don’t quite deserve them. It’s a very stagey piece of work, almost entirely set in one location, and that’s fine – plenty of films have managed to wring real drama out of that (“Lebanon,” set entirely inside a tank, is a good example — our review’s coming later in the week), but the script can’t keep the tension up – there’s a lengthy dream sequence which doesn’t really reveal any more about Winstone’s psyche than we already knew, and the story basically peters out, anticlimactically.
Perhaps because of this, Venville doesn’t seem to trust his actors enough to keep the story contained, and tries to open it out, but it never quite works – for instance, a lengthy digressive story told by McShane’s character about a knight on the town with a gambler (played by Steven Berkoff, apparently auditioning to play The Penguin in the next Batman movie) is fun, but adds nothing, and is totally ill-fitting with the tone of the film around it.
There’s plenty to like about the film, particularly when viewed as a kind of
examination of the middle-aged male psyche, and it’s beautifully shot and scored
(by regular David Lynch collaborator
Angelo Badalamenti). But the unevenness
of the film means it pales in comparison to its predecessor. But then, so do
most films, we suppose…
Mel Gibson has always been better known as a movie star and film director than as a Hollywood mogul. Yet he has been at the head of LA-based Icon Group with partner Bruce Davey since 1989. Today they announced the sale of the UK operations of their film and entertainment business to the US-based industrial group, Access Industries. The deal includes Icon’s international sales company, the distribution operation based in the UK, and the Majestic Films & Television library. (But not the LA operation Icon Productions, which Gibson still owns outright with Davey who relocated to Australia.) The UK business will continue to operate under the Icon name but former UK Film Council chairman Stewart Till will be appointed Icon UK’s new CEO as well as an equity holder in the business.
Commenting on the deal in a press statement, Stewart Till said: “This acquisition is a fantastic first step in our plans to build an international distribution network that will be operational in all the key major territories around the world, including Eastern Europe and Asia.”
Added Bruce Davey, Chairman, Icon Group “We’re very pleased to have done a deal with Stewart and Access and to know that the Icon brand will be in such experienced hands. We look forward to continuing a close relationship between the Icon UK and Australian businesses and keenly anticipate the company’s expansion plans into other territories.”
Icon UK and Icon Australia will continue to acquire territory distribution rights together. LA-based Icon Productions has also entered into a first-look deal with Icon UK. Icon Distribution’s upcoming UK slate includes Paranormal Activity, The Box, Nowhere Boy, The Road, Edge of Darkness (which stars Mel Gibson),Precious and A Single Man.
Unlike most other independent production companies, Icon internally funds most of its development and production costs, allowing it to retain creative control of its projects. Icon Productions films include “Hamlet,” “Forever Young”, “The Man Without a Face,” “Airborne,” “Maverick,” “Immortal Beloved,” the Academy Award winning “Braveheart,” “On Our Selection,” “Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina,” “187,” “FairyTale: A True Story,” “Payback,” “An Ideal Husband,” “Felicia’s Journey,” “What Women Want,” “We Were Soldiers,” “The Singing Detective,” “Paparazzi,” “The Passion Of The Christ,” “Seraphim Falls” and “Apocalypto.”
Access Industries is a U.S.-based privately held industrial group founded in 1986 by Len Blavatnik. Its holdings span three sectors: natural resources and chemicals; telecommunications and media; and real estate. Access Industries’ holdings in the media sector currently include majority stakes in Perform Group (the online sports broadcaster), TopUpTV (a UK-based digital terrestrial TV service provider) and Amedia (an entertainment TV content developer and producer in Russia) together with minority stakes in RGE Group (an Israeli TV production company) and Warner Music Group (one of the world’s leading recorded music labels and music publishers).
