Hungry like the wolf

Finally, I sit down with THE WOLF OF WALL STREET and am immediately sucked in and blown away. It must be Scorsese's best in decades - taking one back to the era of TAXI DRIVER, NEW YORK NEW YORK, RAGING BULL and GOODFELLAS. For some odd reason I still have not seen CASINO, didn't like CAPE FEAR, didn't think THE DEPARTED was that wonderful and have not (yet) seen SHUTTER ISLAND, and I enjoyed THE AVIATOR much more recently than when I saw it on release. Then there's GANGS OF NEW YORK ..... the dvd has been sitting on the shelf for years. But we love Marty's MY VOYAGE TO ITALY on what Italian cinema means to him, and his music documentaries. Its great that he is as busy as ever, in his early 70s, with several projects on the go. He must be THE premier American director of his generation. 

So, THE WOLF ..... Martin Scorsese directs this true story of New York stockbroker Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio). From the Amerian dream to corporate greed, Belfort goes from penny stocks and righteousness to IPQs and a life of corruption in the late 80s - earning him the title of "The Wolf of Wall Street". Money. Power. Women. Drugs. Temptations were for the taking and the threat of authority were irrelevant. For Jordan and his wolf pack, more was never enough.

So sayeth the blurb. Well, it plays like GOODFELLAS on acid as excess is piled on excess, the drug taking is industrial quality. We watch dazed and amazed and amused, like the scene where Jordan tries to get to his car and drive home while smashed on quaaludes, then of course nemesis is reached as the FBI start to close in ..... DiCaprio is sensational, aided by Jonah Hill, the shlub who becomes his right-hand man. Other standouts are Joanna Lumley as his wife's aunt, Jean Dujardin as the Swiss banker, Rob Reiner, Kyle Chandler, Matthew McConnaughy in a standout cameo, and more, more. Margot Robbie is just right too as Naomi, the trophy wife. That yacht ride in the storm is a zinger too ... there's practically 1,000 reviews of it on IMDB, raging from idolatory to rage about it, but love it or hate it its an American Epic. Its certainly a vast panorama of the greed and corruption which has unfolded since those heady 80s. On the negative side, it seems enamored with the alleged life story of a sociopathic, sleazeball swindler, and there is no character development - they start off sleazy and crass disgusting creeps and stay that way.

An alternative take is that its a very cleverly disguised narrative tale AS TOLD BY a con-man to us the audience. Jordan Belfort keeps embellishing his story with whores, drugs, orgies, huge mansions, enormous yachts with helipads, exploding airplanes, etc., because that is what will impress his audience. Somebody else said it was "a 3-hour fantasy concocted by a piggish frat boy on speed."

It is a stunning production, scripted by Terence Winter from Belfort's book; with a huge cast, and edited as usual by Thelma Schoonmaker, costumes by Sandy Powell - Leonardo is dressed by Armani, Marty's pal from The Band (THE LAST WALTZ) Robbie Robertson is 'executive music producer' and what a dazzler the soundtrack is with snatches of blues and rock classics by the likes of Howlin' Wolf (how appropriate) and John Lee Hooker. The three hours whiz by .... I think I want to see it again next week. Its a standout movie in a year of many standouts. 
Next we will be moving on to DALLAS BUYERS CLUB and THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL, as well as discovering whats INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS ....but first more fun and games with Schrader's CAT PEOPLE and Anita Ekberg's KILLER NUN, John Water's SERIAL MOM  and Faye's BEVERLY HILLS MADAM! Does Trash get any better ... ?

Les Infideles: The Players

Oscar winning star Jean Dujardin (The Artist) and Gilles Lellouche (Tell No One) star in a hilarious comedy exploring the triumphs and failures of male infidelity in all its deperate, absurd and wildly funny forms. From a sales conference hotel in the suburbs to a smart sex addiction clinic, from a swish Parisian nightclub to the glitzy meat market of Las Vegas, they launch themselves into the age old pursuit. Every time worn excuses are proferred; every trick in the book is played. The quest to get laid is on .....

Well thats what the blurb says. Dujardin is markedly less charming here in these 7 crass short films about male infidelity. The most notable vignettes involve an excruciating sales weekend where his obnoxious would-be cheater pursues every woman in the hotel, and a married couple being "honest" about their affairs in the best segment (which is the only one directed by a woman). Its not a patch of any of Woody Allen's sex comedies, in fact in the main, this French portmanteau is a deeply unfunny, vaguely misogynistic mess.  
THE ARTIST's Michel  Hazanavicious is one of the directors here as is Jean Dujardin himself. We get to see quite a lot of Jean and his pal as they have sex all over the place including finally with each other as of course despite all the womanising that is what they really want ... the end coda is rather amusing as they set up their new gay life.

Interesting though to see a new episodic film like those Italian ones I like (GOLD OF NAPLES, BOCCACCIO 7O, LE BAMBOLE, LE FATE) - this one though without the Weinsteins behind it has already been and gone without causing a ripple, another THE ARTIST it is not. If you want to see Jean at his best though go for those crazy hilarious OSS 117 spoofs CAIRO NEST OF SPIES and LOST IN RIO which I enthused about recently.

The Artist ? OSS 117 ?

0SS 117 LOST IN RIO

I loved the idea of THE ARTIST, then I saw it .... Yes its amusing and has some charming moments, but I cannot understand how it is 2011's Best Picture or Dujardin Best Actor - Berenice Bejo was just as good - but that's the power of Harvey Weinstein ....

The plot of the film has a silent movie star meeting an extra at a premiere. Meeting again the next day on a set they are both smitten as they amusingly do take after take, but he's married. As her star rises, his begins to fall since he won't move from silents to sound films. However their lives remain intertwined.... I just was not blown away by all this, Valentin the silent star is hardly an 'Artist' if he stubbornly refuses to change from silent to sound films - he is not a great visionary but just churning out what looks adventure serials, so it is hardly a hommage to the silent films of the 1920s. We get elements from SINGING IN THE RAIN and A STAR IS BORN and even SUNSET BOULEVARD and a great CITIZEN KANE hommage ... it all looks beautiful though, and yes I adore Uggie, and Dujardin captures the swagger of that Douglas Fairbanks-type matinee idol perfectly.

The first half is a marvellous pastiche of Hollywood in the 20s and that black and white photography looks great. But there seems no real story arc as we move from 1927 and into 1932, when sound was really established so Valentin seems downright stupid (not to mention clueless and arrogant) by then not to see that sound is here to stay, and his character seems pigheadly stubborn as he does not even seem to realise how much Peppy loves him. So I found the second half as clichéd as the silent films it pays tribute to.

Bejo as Peppy Miller is entracing, and the song and dance sequences delightful, but apart from that .. and what on earth was Malcolm McDowell doing in just 2 shots as Peppy arrives for an audition? Presumably he was meant to have more to do?

On the strength of word of mouth about THE ARTIST I went ahead and ordered Michel Hazanavicius's two earlier films with Jean Dujardin, those OSS 177 spoofs: 2006's CAIRO, NEST OF SPIES and 2009's LOST IN RIO - hopefully that will be as good as that Belmondo favourite of mine THAT MAN FROM RIO, De Broca's 1964 charmer. Reviews to follow ....

I have now seen the OSS 117 films - how come they passed us by before? Were they hits in London at the time? The LOST IN RIO one is simply perfect - as amusing as THAT MAN FROM RIO as Dujardin arrives in 1967 Rio on the trail of some Nazis - his clueless, self-regarding agent is ideal, but no Bejo here alas.

Beachside frolics in RIO

He does however make a new friend at the beach after he is fed some LSD and gets into an orgy ...

Later they go to Brasilia and the locations are ideally used, with that climax at the giant statue of Christ the Redeemer overlooking Rio - Hitch would have loved it with the baddie danging from the statue ... and a nod to NORTH BY NORTHWEST too.

CAIRO, NEST OF SPIES

Lots of Dujardin's preening by the pool as the local beauties gasp, and he insults the Israelis, the Chinese, the Germans and his female sidekick whom he imagines is his secretary! Agent OSS 117 seems to have a secret gay side too, despite his homophobic comments, but then he insults everybody. This is delirious if low-brow fun and the Brazilian locations are marvellous too, I must share it with some friends shortly. There is surely also a nod to the original THE PINK PANTHER at the start set at Gstaad in Switzerland with that perfect 60s pastiche with lounge music and split screens.

The CAIRO NEST OF SPIES is also a perfect spoof, set in 1955 Cairo a decade after its 1945 prologue in black and white. Dujardin fits in to every period - just like 1920s Hollywood in THE ARTIST. In the CAIRO one he and Berenice Bejo are another perfect team, and it reminded me of that 1965 spy caper WHERE THE SPIES ARE where unsuspecting David Niven has to assist spies in Beirut and has to meet his secret agent contact at the airport - she turns out to be Francoise Dorleac (again, as in THAT MAN FROM RIO) (Francoise Dorleac label). We will now be looking forward to the next Dujardin epic here .... particularly after seeing those internet clips ...