The Spanish Prisoner

Whenever I’m watching a biopic, what’s usually uppermost in my mind is the question of how much of what I’m watching is bullshit. In the case of Princess Kaiulani, it was clear that it was almost entirely bullshit. Jan Kounen’s Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky, based on a novel by Chris Greenhalgh (who also wrote the screenplay), seems to have at least some bullshit in it, though how much I’m not sure.

The film starts out promisingly, with a depiction of the disastrous premiere of Stravinsky’s ballet, The Rite of Spring in 1913, at which the police had to be called in to prevent a full-scale riot. (The filmmakers recreate Nijinsky’s controversial choreography.) The film then jumps to the year 1920. Coco Chanel (Anna Mouglalis) is introduced to Stravinsky (Mads Mikkelsen) at a party. She invites him and his family to stay at her villa outside Paris. Stravinsky, who is living in straitened financial circumstances at the time, can’t afford to say no. Shortly after he and his family move in, he begins having an affair with Chanel. Eventually she demands that he leave his wife, Catherine (Elena Morozova). Stravinsky waffles. Finally Catherine, who has learned of the affair, decides the issue by leaving with her children. However, Chanel rejects Stravinsky at this point, apparently because she’s disenchanted with his indecisiveness. She nevertheless provides the funding for a new performance of The Rite of Spring.

The idea behind this movie apparently is that the love affair between Chanel and Stravinsky inspired them both to new levels of creativity. I didn’t really get this impression from the film, however, because Stravinsky mostly just revises The Rite of Spring. (Though Chanel does invent Chanel No. 5, which is something, at least.) I found it hard to become emotionally engaged with this film. Chanel comes across as cold and Stravinsky as self-absorbed. Perhaps they were like that in real life, but this doesn’t make for a compelling romantic film. I think I would have liked this picture better if it had shown more about the Parisian music scene of the time, instead of being so focused on the alleged romance between the title characters. Still the opening scene alone is almost worth the price of admission.

Hollywood doesn’t have a good track record when it comes to films about gays. The contrived and unconvincing Brokeback Mountain was considered a breakthrough. Now we have another contrived and unconvincing film, The Kids Are All Right, which has also been a subject of critical praise.

Jules (Julianne Moore) and Nic (Annette Bening) are a lesbian couple who have each had a child from an anonymous sperm donor. Their children, Joni (Mia Wasikowska) and Laser (Josh Hutcherson), are now teenagers. When Joni turns eighteen, Laser persuades her to get in contact with their biological father. He turns out to be Paul (Mark Ruffalo), a charming and somewhat raffish character. Joni and Laser take an immediate liking to him. Through them he eventually meets Jules and Nic. Jules has just started a landscaping business, and Paul hires her to work on his yard. They begin to have an affair. Obviously this is a situation fraught with all sorts of possiblities, but the film veers into melodrama when Nic finds out about their relationship. In the film’s climatic scene, Nic righteously tells Paul that he is an “interloper” in their family – a silly thing to say, since it was her family that first approached Paul.

So, this film ends up being a cautionary tale about the need to defend the lesbian nuclear family against home-wreaking sperm donors. In attempting to depict a lesbian family, the film reverts to a tired Hollywood formula.

Another thing that bothered me about this film is that in one scene Jules fires an employee whom she suspects of knowing about her affair with Paul. She later justifies this by claiming that he was a drug addict. The film treats this sleazy behavior as a minor character flaw. This only makes the film’s melodrama even more distasteful.

Winter’s Bone, which was written and directed by Debra Granik, based on a novel by Daniel Woodrell, is set in the Ozark mountains in southern Missouri. It tells the story of a seventeen-year-old girl, Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence), whose father is a crystal meth maker. Because her father is not around much of the time, she has to take of her mentally ill mother and her younger brother and sister. The sheriff tells her that her father has put up her family’s farm as bond for an upcoming court appearance. If he fails to show, they will lose their farm. Ree sets out to find her father to make sure that he goes to court. However, her questions about her father’s whereabouts are greeted with hostility from almost everyone she meets. She gradually come to the conclusion that her father has been murdered.

There are no good guys vs. bad guys in this film. Almost everyone Ree meets is either directly or indirectly involved in the meth business. The local law enforcement proves to be corrupt. Ree shows no interest in finding justice for her father; she only wants to save her family’s farm.

Winter’s Bone is about the difficult choices individuals have to make to survive in a society that has become thoroughly corrupt. Although a bleak film, it shows a deep sympathy for its characters. I was impressed by the acting, which I found thoroughly convincing.

Highly recommended.