Misfortunes of Imaginary Beings: 01/21/24

A blog formerly known as Bookishness / By Charles Matthews

"Dazzled by so many and such marvelous inventions, the people of Macondo ... became indignant over the living images that the prosperous merchant Bruno Crespi projected in the theater with the lion-head ticket windows, for a character who had died and was buried in one film and for whose misfortune tears had been shed would reappear alive and transformed into an Arab in the next one. The audience, who had paid two cents apiece to share the difficulties of the actors, would not tolerate that outlandish fraud and they broke up the seats. The mayor, at the urging of Bruno Crespi, explained in a proclamation that the cinema was a machine of illusions that did not merit the emotional outbursts of the audience. With that discouraging explanation many ... decided not to return to the movies, considering that they already had too many troubles of their own to weep over the acted-out misfortunes of imaginary beings."
--Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude

Sunday, January 21, 2024

Broken English (Zoe R. Cassavetes, 2007)

Gena Rowlands and Parker Posey in Broken English

Cast: Parker Posey, Melvil Poupaud, Drea de Matteo, Justin Theroux, Gena Rowlands, Peter Bogdanovich, Tim Guinee, Roy Thinnes, Dana Ivey, Bernadette Lafont, Thierry Hancisse. Screenplay: Zoe R. Cassavetes. Cinematography: John Pirozzi. Production design: Happy Massee. Film editing: Andrew Weisblum. Music: Scratch Massive.

The ending of Broken English is a direct copy, down to the dialogue, of the ending of Richard Linklater's Before Sunset (2004), a movie about a fractured relationship that finds a satisfactory resolution. This similarity can only be an homage, but it shows up the comparative lack of originality in Zoe R. Cassavetes' film. In fact, the copy is so blatant, and the plotline of Broken English is so familiar that I hope Cassavetes' intention was to parody romantic comedies, especially those about young women who have trouble finding satisfactory men. Unfortunately, the parody doesn't go far enough to relieve the sense I have of a movie gone flat. Parker Posey plays Nora Wilder, a young woman with a good job who is anxious about her future without a steady relationship with a man. She has a failed fling with an actor (Justin Theroux) that leaves her more in the dumps, but then she meets a lanky, easy-going Frenchman (Melvil Poupaud) who manages to overcome her anxieties and defense mechanisms. But then he returns to France, leaving his cell number with her. It's a fine cast: Posey displays her exceptional gift for edgy humor and Drea de Matteo fits nicely into the familiar role of the best friend and confidante. The invaluable Gena Rowlands rises above her role as the stereotypical mother who wants her to get married. And Poupaud, smoking like a chimney, is a steady foil for Nora's jitteryness. But by the time the movie gets Nora to Paris and the city casts its patented romantic spell over things, including a stereotypical older Frenchman (Thierry Hancisse) who imparts his worldly wisdom, we get the feeling we've seen it all before.