Why does it seem that most of the best movies of 1987 were accidents?
Though the Hollywood production machinery seems to be functioning more smoothly than it has since the end of the studio era-turning out an extremely high number of films while achieving record-breaking grosses-the most expressive and innovative films seem to have slipped in from outside the system.
There is no longer much room for personal work within the mainstream, as there was when Hollywood was humming along at its industrial height in the
`30s and `40s. The new-style studios-mainly financing and distribution outfits, rather than real filmmaking facilities-may have reached new levels of efficiency and profitability, but at the cost of a bland standardization of product that threatens to extinguish the industry`s creative energy. There were a lot of competent commercial entertainments out there, but very few films that opened new territory-that suggested the movies might have a future. The best, most hopeful films this year were made by outsiders-by directors, such as Stanley Kubrick and John Boorman, who had the clout and integrity to see their projects through the debilitating maze of the money-raising process, or by independent production companies, whose smaller-scale economics allowed them to back such distinctive visions as Joseph Ruben`s ”The Stepfather,” Jonathan Demme`s ”Swimming to Cambodia” and Kathryn Bigelow`s ”Near Dark.”
But these few triumphs were not enough to erase a general sense of waste and retreat. So 1987 will be remembered for its year-long spectacle, from Arthur Penn with February`s ”Dead of Winter” to Bernardo Bertolucci with the current ”Last Emperor,” of many gifted filmmakers choosing to work below the level of their talent, deliberately reining in their abilities in order to produce safe, conservative commercial projects. None of them can or should be blamed-it`s always better to be in the game than to sit on the sidelines-but it doesn`t speak well of the industry or the audience that such tremendous resources should go untapped.
A 10-best list is a game of another, thankfully much less serious kind: A chance for reviewers to line up their personal priorities, and for readers to react with theirs. It`s also a time to revive some forgotten titles-movies that never quite found their audiences, or were overlooked in the critical frenzy surrounding more-publicized films. Home video will give many of these titles a second chance. If you don`t know them, they`re worth checking out.
1. ”Hope and Glory” (directed by John Boorman): The Christmas release of Steven Spielberg`s ”Empire of the Sun”-also about a boy`s experience of World War II-only enhances the accomplishments of Boorman`s British production, which covers a wider emotional territory without bombast or false sentimentality. A veteran filmmaker (at the forefront of his craft since 1965), Boorman brilliantly weaves the authenticity of a semi-autobiographical narration with the subtle stylization-of space, rhythm and color-of a master formalist. The film does suffer from third act problems (chiefly, a disappointingly conventional performance by Ian Bannen), but repeat viewings minimize its light flaws while deepening its gracefully offered insights.
2. ”The Stepfather” (Joseph Ruben): Though produced and distributed independently (and, as it turned out, almost clandestinely), Ruben`s powerful thriller embodies the highest qualities of classical studio filmmaking: It functions dazzlingly well as a popular entertainment while making no compromises as a personal work of great style and substance. Terry O`Quinn is unforgettable as a man driven mad by the unattainable ideal of the perfect American family, but it`s the inconspicuous virtuosity of Ruben`s direction that makes this one a low-budget classic.
3. ”Swimming to Cambodia” (Jonathan Demme): Spalding Gray`s rich and wildly funny monologue, mainly about his experiences as an actor in ”The Killing Fields” but blessed with an infinite digressiveness, is an impressive piece of performance art all by itself, but Demme`s film adaptation makes it an impressive piece of cinema. The quality of a director`s regard-his particular way of looking at people and things-is a decisive but difficult-to- define factor in the success of a film; Demme`s rapt attentiveness to Gray`s face and voice, however, makes the concept perfectly clear-here is a director who watches with passion.
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4. ”Full Metal Jacket” (Stanley Kubrick): Cold and precise, filled with elaborate formal devices and energy-sapping symmetries, Kubrick`s film was Vietnam viewed from Mars-war seen not as a human tragedy, but as an abstract play of lines and forces. Not an easy film to warm to, and perhaps a deliberately unreadable one, it was nevertheless an imposing object-the product of an artist following his eccentric vision to some ultimate point of no return.
5. ”Therese” (Alain Cavalier): Another highly formal film-with its elliptical narrative played out against a background of abstract sets-Cavalier`s French production described a young woman`s relentless drive toward sainthood, conflating spirituality and sheer stubbornness. In his interviews, Cavalier said that he had tried to combine the influences of France`s two greatest filmmakers-the openness of Jean Renoir with the concentration of Robert Bresson-and in ”Therese” `s blend of the frankly comic and the transcendently austere, he has largely succeeded.
6. ”Street Smart” (Jerry Schatzberg): A leading figure in the adventurous `70s (”Panic in Needle Park,” ”Scarecrow”), Schatzberg was one of the first and most unfortunate victims of the oppressive `80s
(”Misunderstood,” ”No Small Affair”). ”Street Smart,” though, put him back on top of his game: An elegant, expertly proportioned urban thriller about a magazine reporter who fabricates a story about a Times Square pimp, it featured a daring performance by Christopher Reeve (as the writer) and a brilliant one by Morgan Freeman (as his subject). Hacking through ethical thickets, Schatzberg rediscovered his fine moral intelligence and excellent eye for the American cityscape.
7. ”Near Dark” (Kathryn Bigelow): A genuine sleeper, this first solo effort by Bigelow revealed both a deep appreciation for American genre filmmaking and a lively talent for shaking it up-the film was a vampire western, in which powerfully filmed violence co-existed with brooding romanticism and acute social observation. Bigelow suggests a viable way out of the impasse of the `80s: If the industry is now haunted by the sense that the old forms have been exhausted, her montage technique points toward a revitalization through recombination.
8. ”Tampopo” (Juzo Itami): From Japan, a wild patchwork comedy ostensibly concerned with the quest for the perfect noodle; its deeper subjects are food, sex and, by implication, the warding off of human mortality. Itami`s engagingly open-ended direction links several levels of plot while taking every opportunity for casual regressions and off-handed asides. The Japanese cinema, dormant during that country`s economic boom, seems to be recharging with the approach of darker days.
9. ”House of Games” (David Mamet): In his first effort as a filmmaker, playwright Mamet worked to find a visual equivalent to his limpid, colloquial prose style, and succeeded with the spare images and deliberate rhythms of this psychological thriller in the form of an elaborate confidence game. It`s ironic that Mamet`s prestige as a playwright was enough to earn him the kind of creative control now largely denied to veteran directors, but Hollywood has always been impressed by the right kind of outsiders.
10. ”Roxanne” (Fred Schepisi): With ”Roxanne,” ”Broadcast News” and even the surprisingly warm-hearted ”Dragnet,” Hollywood seemed to be recovering its touch for romantic comedy. ”Roxanne,” the best of the lot, was a Steve Martin update of ”Cyrano de Bergerac” graced with a generous sense of character and an aerie-like atmosphere provided by director Schepisi`s lovely perceptions of a small mountain town.
MANY IMPORTANT FILMS GET OVERLOOKED BECAUSE THEY`RE UNDERPLAYED The Tribune`s 10-best rules require that a film play for one week in a commercial theater in order to qualify for the list. But in 1987, as always, a large number of the year`s most important films played shorter engagements-sometimes only a single public showing-at the Chicago area`s invaluable non-commercial movie venues.
The programs at the Film Center of the Art Institute, Facets Multimedia, Chicago Filmmakers and the Chicago International Film Festival combine to give Chicago one of the most vital and varied film scenes in the country-second, perhaps, only to New York.
Thanks to the efforts of the non-commercial groups, Chicago remains very much on the cutting edge of film culture, providing a year-round showcase for the latest developments in international, independent and experimental filmmaking. Those efforts seemed especially important this year, at a time when the city`s commercial art houses-the Biograph and the Fine Arts-have consistently backed away from presenting ”difficult” (meaning ”subtitled”) films in favor of bland British and Australian imports. Many of the movies on the list that follows would have played commercially in years past (a couple may still do so); all of them certainly deserve to be seen by a wider audience.
1. ”Melo” (directed by Alain Resnais; Film Festival): From the director of ”Hiroshima, Mon Amour,” a close adaptation of a 1920s stage melodrama that evolves into something more-a meditation on the passage of time as reflected in the shifting fashions of storytelling.
2. ”Dust in the Wind” (Hou Hsiao-hsien; Film Center): For his seemingly unplotted tales of children and adolescents, Taiwanese director Hou has developed a distinctive visual style built from long takes and deep focus-a magnetizing lyrical realism.
3. ”Bad Blood” (Leos Carax; Film Festival): Young (28) and restlessly inventive, French director Carax revived the stylistic grace of silent film for this enigmatic thriller about an AIDS-like disease.
4. ”Love on the Ground” (Jacques Rivette; Facets): Rivette, a veteran of the French New Wave, continued his exploration of film`s relationship to theater with a fanciful tale of an autobiographical play staged in the author`s home.
5. ”Mammame” (Raul Ruiz; Film Center): A dance film staged as a disturbing dream by Chilean exile Ruiz, currently Europe`s most inventive avant-garde figure.
6. ”Bell Diamond” (Jon Jost; Chicago Filmmakers-Facets): The most independent of American independents, Jost created this formally exquisite and politically pointed study of an alienated Vietnam vet against the background of a bankrupted mining town.
7. ”Police” (Maurice Pialat; Facets): Gerard Depardieu as an emotionally overwrought narcotics officer in a French cop movie taken in astounding directions by Pialat, this year`s Cannes Festival winner for
”Under Satan`s Sun.”
8. ”Peking Opera Blues” (Tsui Hark; Film Festival): The great tradition of colorful, action-packed popular entertainment lives on in Hong Kong, as exemplified in this superbly executed martial arts comedy.
9. ”Landscape Suicide” (James Benning; Chicago Filmmakers): Benning`s sober, concentrated experimental feature examined murder as a function of American geography.
10. ”A Portuguese Farewell” (Joao Botelho; Film Center): The extraordinary creative surge of the Portuguese cinema continued with Botelho`s spare, melancholy account of colonial warfare and personal loss.