Boxoffice-September.1997

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FESTIVAL REVIEWS
CANNES
A, B, C... MANHATTAN ^^^1/2
Starring Lucy Knight and Erin Norris.
Directed by Amir Naderi. Written by Ben
Edlund and Jessica Gholke with Maryam
Dalan, Tracy McMillan and Amir Naderi.
Produced by Amir Naderi and William
Rexerll. No stateside distributor set. Drama.
Not yet rated. Running time: 90 min.
Iranian-bom director Amir Naderi lias set
this film in the Lower East Side of Manhattan,
where he now resides; its title comes
from Avenues A, B and C. Its central characters
are three young woman who share an
apartment. Colleen (Lucy Knight) is a single
mother and photographer. Kacey (Erin
Norris) has lost both her boyfriend and
girlfriend, but is most concerned with retrieving
her pet dog. Kate (Sara Paul) is an
aspiring musician who has come to New
York to escape a troubled relationship.
"A, B, C... Manhattan" is most successful
in establishing a vivid atmosphere of life on
the edge. Naderi, who also edits, combines
long takes with tight spaces to emphasize
the constricted feeling of the characters and
their lack of options. Not much happens in
the thin screenplay, co-written by Naderi.
For a large part of the film, people are
"making time" in a neighborhood bar. The
characters are dominated by the movie's
setting, although Knight does convey
Colleen's pain as she realizes she may have
to give up her daughter. Ed Scheia
THE BROTHER icicir
Starring Serguei Bodorov, Viktor
Soukhoroukov and Svetlana Pismitchenko.
Directed and written by Alexei
Balabanov. Produced by STW Film Co.
No stateside distributor set. Drama. Russian-language;
English subtitles. Not yet
rated. Running time: 99 min.
"The Brother" ("Brat") is set in contemporary
Russia, but both the story and style
of the film have outside influences. Danila
(Serguei Bodorov) returns home after serving
two years in the army. Bored by smalltown
life, Danila decides to visit his older
brother, who has a prosperous life in St.
Petersburg. The brother has never given the
details of how he's made his fortune, and
Danila discovers that his brother (Viktor
Soukhoroukov) is a contract killer for one
of the city's mob factions.
Danila encounters the worst effects of
Westernization. The mean streets of post-
Soviet Union St. Petersburg are full of violence
and drugs. He saves an old man from
an extortionist and steals a gun. Urban Russian
life is also dominated by American
culture in less dangerous ways: Danila is
constantly trying to find the latest CD of his
favorite rock band and eventually attends
one of their concerts.
Putting his military training to good use,
Danila becomes a member of his brother's
mob and is assigned to kill a rival gangster.
He successfully carries out his assignment
but ends up running for his life, although
along the way he does find time for romance
with both a pretty trolley conductor (Svetlana
Pismitchenko) and a drug addict.
"The Brother" has the gritty look typical
of Soviet films. But, like the events
and details of the story, the style is influenced
by American films. It's very fastpaced,
with some last-minute escapes
from danger. Bodorov, who played the
young recruit in "Prisoner of the Mountains,"
again has a strong screen presence.
In the end, the film is engrossing, but it
doesn't take the time to go beneath the
surface of its characterizations. And
there's enough violence and gunfire for a
Hollywood summer movie. EdScheid
THE BRAVE ^^1/2
Starring Johnny Depp, Marlon Brando,
Marshall Bell, Elpidia Carrillo and Clarence
Williams III. Directed by Johnny
Depp. Written by Johnny Depp, D.P. Depp
and Paul McCudden. Produced by
Charles Evans Jr. and Carroll Kemp. No
stateside distributor set. Drama. Not yet
rated. Running time: 123 min.
As if the story of a man selling himself to
a snuff production to help support his family
weren't gruesome enough, a horrific
murder/suicide involving the film's original
director has long kept the "The Brave"
atop Hollywood's "least wanted" list. Had
a star of Johnny Depp's stature not entered
the picture, it's likely the project would
have remained stalled, and rightfully so.
As the film starts, a young Native American
man named Raphael (Depp) walks,
strolls and meanders his way through a
Southwestern wasteland for a meeting with
a mysterious, wheelchair-bound Mr. Mc-
Carthy (Marlon Brando). Down in the bowels
of some kind of abandoned factory,
McCarthy appears before him, rambles incoherently
for several minutes about a
"job," and then dismisses Raphael with a
hefty "down payment."
Subsequent scenes focus on Raphael's
relationship with wife and children, the abject
poverty in which they live, and the
friction created by his sudden and unexplained
increase in wealth. Eventually, it
becomes clear that this "job" involves sacrificing
his life, although the notion that this
is in the service of a snuff film is hinted at
only in the vaguest possible terms.
As an exercise in how a wafer-thin concept
can be stretched past the two-hour
mark, "The Brave" is a resounding success.
As an attempt at communicating a message
about Native American poverty, it's a disaster.
Shots of Depp walkmg, walking, walking,
walking and walking obliterate any
sense of pace or focus, instead serving only
to prolong transition time between a handful
of dialogue scenes that are neither interesting
nor enlightening.
As credited co-writer, director and .star,
it's hard to lay blame for the film's failure
on anyone but Depp, however harsh that
verdict might seem. With protracted, lingering
shots of himself in various states of
distress peppered throughout the film, it
would be easy to accuse Depp of narcissism
if not forthe fact that there's simply nothing
else in the film worth photographmg.
"The Brave" is still without an American
distributor and is likely to remain so until
its producers resign themselves to a lower
askmg price. At that time, the film will be
able to move on and promptly find itself
without an audience. Wade Major
EAST PALACE, WEST
PALACE •••1/2
Starring Si Han and Hu Jun. Directed
and produced by Zhang Yuan. Written by
Wang Xiaobo and Zhang Yuan. No stateside
distributor set. Drama. Mandarinlanguage;
English subtitles. Not yet rated.
Running time: 94 min.
What kind of 50th-anniversary Cannes
fest would it be if the Chinese failed to cause
a brouhaha? Thanks to bad-boy filmmaker
Zhang Yuan's gay-themed "East Palace,
West Palace," no one will ever know.
So furious were the powers within the
Chinese government with the film's inclusion
in Un Certain Regard that Zhang's
passport was confiscated and Zhang
Yimou's "Keep Cool" was pulled from the
competition. And yet, by comparison to the
fest s other gay-themed Chinese film
(Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-Wai's
"Happy Together"), "East Palace, West
Palace" seems downright prudish.
What distinguishes "East Palace, West
Palace" ultimately has less to do with its
politics than its dramatics. Arguably the
most compelling new Chinese film since
the rise of the Fifth Generation. Zhang's
mostly self-financed chamber piece is
something of a small miracle, a film that
makes an audacious frontal assault on traditional
Chinese sensibilities and taboos
even as it nevertheless clings steadfastly to
a meticulous aesthetic tradition.
Focusing almost exclusively on a nightlong
conversation between a Tianenmen
park police officer and a gay man he has
detained for lewd conduct, "East Palace,
West Palace" is structured as a mental
tango, a dance of wits wherein deep inhibitions
and hidden desires are methodically
laid bare. As the gay A-Lan, actor Si Han
creates a heart-rending portrait of a man
wholly at peace with his lifestyle, despite
the inevitability of persecution. Alternating
ambiguously between episodes of torment
and bliss, his "confession" unfolds like a
mystery novel, drawing policeman Shi
Xiaohua (Hu Jun) unwittingly into a carefully
crafted emotional trap.
Had the film succeeded on a purely psychological
level, it would be impressive
enough. But Zhang extends his attention to
detailto every aspect of the film's technical
execution as well, marking a giant step forward
from such earlier, rougher works as
the notorious "Beijing Bastards." Whether
or not Zhang will be allowed to continue
making films, or under what conditions that (
might happen, remains to be seen. Either
way. the mere existence of "East Palace,
West Palace" bodes well not just for the
future of Chinese filmmaking but for Chinese
society itself. Wade Mqjor
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