THE FILMS OF NICOLAS WINDING REFN: PUSHER III: I'M THE ANGEL OF DEATH (2005)

Fans of the Pusher trilogy are especially fond of Milo (Zlatko Buric), the Copenhagen-based drug boss who hunted Frank (Kim Bodnia) in the first film and appeared briefly in the second installment (in a subplot involving secondary character "Kurt the Cunt").  In Pusher III: I'm the Angel of Death, a much older-looking Milo takes center stage for his turn in the spotlight.  Of course, following suit with the treatment of the other antiheroes populating Nicolas Winding Refn's trilogy, the film catches up with Milo on a day where everything he touches falls apart.

As the film opens, Milo is attending a narcotics anonymous meeting.  When it's his turn to share, he glosses over his addiction, preferring to share his stress about plans for his daughter Milena's (Marinela Dekic) 25th birthday party.  After leaving the meeting, we see that Milo's still involved in the drug trade, although he's got a bit of a supply problem at the moment; a much younger set of traffickers are forcing him to accept their terms on a bad deal.  It's not long until the situation spirals out of his control, setting him up for both a relapse and an über-violent solution to his problems.

Refn is more in control of his craft here than in any other chapter in the trilogy.  Take, for instance, the moment where Milo's craving for junk returns; it's accompanied by the most frightening conveyance of addiction I've ever seen onscreen, telegraphed entirely by a sound cue and tight cutting.  Buric is frighteningly good as Milo here, affable at one moment, psychotic in the next.  It's his show and he makes the most of it, delivering a full-bodied portrait of the type of man it takes to succeed at a high level in the underground drug trade.

A warning: the film contains a level of gore in its third act that borders on the cutting-edge makeup and practical special effects that Tom Savini pioneered in 70s and 80s horror classics like George Romero's Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead.  It's extremely repulsive but doesn't diminish the knockout performance by Buric one bit.  It only makes him more frightening.

Pusher III: I'm the Angel of Death will screen at the NW Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium (in the Portland Art Museum) on March 10th at 9pm & March 11th at 7pm.  The film is part of the retrospective series, Driven: The Films of Nicolas Winding Refn.

Related links:
The Films of Nicolas Winding Refn: Pusher
The Films of Nicolas Winding Refn: Pusher II: With Blood on My Hands 
The Films of Nicolas Winding Refn: Fear X 
The Films of Nicolas Winding Refn: Drive




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THE FILMS OF NICOLAS WINDING REFN: PUSHER II: WITH BLOOD ON MY HANDS (2004)

Arriving some eight years after Pusher, Nicolas Winding Refn revisits the dour environs of Copenhagen for the second film in his trilogy, Pusher II: With Blood on My Hands.  For this installment, he picks up with Tonny (Mads Mikkelsen); the former best friend of Frank (our protagonist from the first film), just as he's being released from prison.

Looking quite a bit more dim than he did in Pusher (anyone who has seen that film knows the reason), Tonny heads straight to see his father, Smeden (Leif Sylvester), hoping to work for him in order to pay off an outstanding debt owed to a former cellmate.  His father's reception of him is, let's just say, less than ecstatic, but he begrudgingly allows him to take part in the family's car theft business.

Pusher II doesn't have Tonny actively dealing drugs like the other leads in the series, although he does help his friend Kurt (Kurt Nielsen) in an ill-advised deal with Milo (the great Zlatko Buric, revisiting his role from the first film).  There still is quite a lot of drug abuse in the film.  Tonny uses cocaine and other substances liberally throughout it, as do his friends and the mother of his infant son; a child that Tonny denies siring.

Exploiting those layers, Refn has his troubled character struggling against assuming a parental role at the same time that he's dealing with his own father's disapproval.  To further exacerbate his daddy issues, Tonny has a much younger stepbrother and a best friend that Smeden favors over him.

The nice thing about this trilogy of films is that you can drop in on any of them without needing to see the other films in the series.  Having said that, the manner in which the supporting characters of one film morph into the focus of a subsequent chapter only adds incentive to watch them in sequence.

But, if you can only catch one of the three, the second feature is the one to see.  Mikkelsen portrays Tonny here as an injured animal, woefully damaged but not beyond redemption, albeit redemption of a most compromised order.  In this second swing at setting a story in his version of Copenhagen, Refn aims to tell a far more nuanced and universally applicable narrative; the second time's absolutely the charm.

Pusher II: With Blood on My Hands will screen at the NW Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium (in the Portland Art Museum) on March 9th at 9pm & March 10th at 7pm.  The film is part of the retrospective series, Driven: The Films of Nicolas Winding Refn.

Related links:  
The Films of Nicolas Winding Refn: Pusher
The Films of Nicolas Winding Refn: Pusher III: I'm the Angel of Death 
 The Films of Nicolas Winding Refn: Fear X
The Films of Nicolas Winding Refn: Drive


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THE FILMS OF NICOLAS WINDING REFN: PUSHER (1996)

Fifteen years before Nicholas Winding Refn thrilled audiences with the genre-inspired hit Drive, he kicked off his career with Pusher; the first entry in an eventual triptych focused on the misfortunes of street-level drug dealers in Copenhagen.  Looking at the Pusher trilogy now, it's possible to trace Refn's rapid advancement as he learned the tools of his trade, accumulating the distinctive flourishes (especially those based in lighting, cutting and camera placement) that characterize his work to this day.

In his first film, Refn relays the tale of Frank (Kim Bodnia), a bottom-rung dealer who owes money to Milo (Zlatko Buric), a local drug lord who's just as likely to call you his friend as he is to order his muscle to go to work on you.  Despite having delayed payment on a prior loan, Frank convinces Milo to front him a large amount of heroin, certain that he's on the verge of a lucrative sale to an old acquaintance from his prison days.  The police intervene before Frank can make the exchange, leaving him in the lurch--without the dope or the money--and hopelessly in debt to Milo.

Pusher is a gritty, downward spiral of a tale, captured in a visual style that reminds one of a television police procedural; Morten Søborg's handheld camerawork seems unafraid of swooping into dark corners where dark ambiance is sometimes favored over fine image detail.  This run-and-gun shooting strategy places Frank and his accomplice Tonny (Mads Mikkelsen) in a dismal world filled with obstacles; the largest barrier to success being their own stupidity.

That last detail is worth hammering home: these are not the brightest or most likeable of characters, although Refn never foregrounds such judgments.  Frank and Tonny's conversations may reflect a post-Pulp Fiction, criminals-are-everyday-people-too aesthetic, but the dialogue never crackles with the confidence and panache displayed by Tarantino's iconic thugs.  It's not because Refn couldn't necessarily pen such dialogue but, rather, because his characters aren't intended to be read as closet intellectuals.  They're misogynistic, boorish and unpleasantly base fellows through and through.

Pusher is essentially a neo-noir where the set of circumstances visited upon Frank feel earned, rather than the result of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  After spending the first half of the film watching Frank make awful choices, there's a righteous thrill in seeing him being dealt the consequences.  The film tells the tale of one man's ruination.  And Refn invites us to smugly watch as Frank's life story goes south.

Pusher will screen at the NW Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium (in the Portland Art Museum) on March 8 & 9th at 7pm.  The film is part of the retrospective series, Driven: The Films of Nicolas Winding Refn.

Related links:
The Films of Nicolas Winding Refn: Pusher II: With Blood on My Hands
The Films of Nicolas Winding Refn: Pusher III: I'm the Angel of Death  
The Films of Nicolas Winding Refn: Fear X 
The Films of Nicolas Winding Refn: Drive 

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1 QUICK FIX #TWO: UNE NUIT SUR LE MONT CHAUVE (A NIGHT ON BALD MOUNTAIN)

Back in the late 90s, I caught a glimpse of a fascinating old animation while flipping channels in my cramped, one bedroom apartment in Berkeley, California.  The short film was being aired on the local public access channel during a classical music show, due to its use of Mussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain" as its score.  It possessed the look of ancient film stock mixed with a technique I'd never seen before; a shadow-filled, fluidly morphing style that, while crude at times, pointed to the stuff of nightmares more effectively than the realistically rendered animation of the now.  Basically, it rocked my world for a few minutes...and then it was over.

Because I'd come in halfway through the film, all I had to go on were the two names I'd quickly jotted from the credits: Alexander Alexeieff and Claire Parker.  Keep in mind, this was before YouTube or Wikipedia existed and, though IMDb was around, film information on the web was often incomplete and untrustworthy.  Still, I was able to glean a few details from a web search: the short was named Une nuit sur le mont chauve (A Night on Bald Mountain), the animators were married and the mesmerizing technique devised by them was called pinscreen animation; a form of stop-animation that uses a far more complex version of those pin art toys you might remember from childhood.

Almost seven years later, the Unseen Cinema box set was released and I had the chance to see Alexeieff and Parker's work for the second time.  It's still mindbogglingly effective in its overall singularity; I've had the chance to see other films by them but, while those were quite impressive, Une nuit sur le mont chauve seems to be the crown jewel of their career together.

So let's get on with it: here is Alexander Alexeieff and Claire Parker's 1933 masterpiece Une nuit sur le mont chauve:

Related links:
1 QUICK FIX #ONE: POWERS OF TEN
1 QUICK FIX #THREE: ORGANISM
1 QUICK FIX #FOUR: THE GREAT ECSTASY OF WOODCARVER STEINER


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KILL LIST: Where the Domestic Meets the Horrific

You ever get entangled in a situation, thinking it's one thing when really it's an altogether different ball of wax?  That's kind of the experience of watching Kill List.   Director Ben Wheatley (Down Terrace) keeps switching up the narrative terrain upon which his characters travel, keeping us on our feet, guessing as to where exactly his drama/thriller/horror-hybrid of a genre film will land.  

At first, we appear to have a domestic drama akin to Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.  But as we move into the second act, Wheatley has placed two of his characters in the role of contract hit men.  And then, finally...no, I wouldn't dare spoil what happens in the astonishing, game-changing third act.  My advice is to actively resist foreknowledge of where Kill List heads in its final third.  Go in blind, I tell thee.

The action of the film centers around Jay (Neil Maskell), a family man whose long-term unemployment (due to mysterious circumstances on a job gone wrong in Kiev) has led to marital strife with his wife Shel (MyAnna Buring).  It doesn't help matters much that his old military buddy Gal (Michael Smiley) has mentioned the possibility of a job for Jay to Shel before bringing it up with him.  All of which causes Jay and Shel to make like Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton over dinner with Gal and his girlfriend Fiona (Emma Fryer).

Next thing you know, Fiona's in the bathroom, carving an obscure symbol into the back of Jay and Shel's bathroom mirror; the first of many clues offered up by Wheatley that things are not what they seem.  The observation is only reinforced as the film moves away from the domestic to tell the story of what happens after Jay accepts the job with Gal.  Guess what, it isn't pretty.

Be prepared for a graphically violent exploration of the tendencies that drove Jay away from the workplace, as well as what makes him uniquely suited for the kind of work that he and Gal do.  Along the way, Wheatley offers up some fairly strong hints that Jay's proclivity for the work springs from a less than healthy mind.  Even Gal, whose attitude towards the work they do suggests the ho-hum aura of a door-to-door salesman rather than that of a hit man, seems to recoil in horror when faced with Jay's chilling embrace of whatever it takes to get the job done.

Like I hinted above, where the film heads from there is best discovered as it plays out across the screen.  Kill List is one of the few films that I've seen in recent years that contains a final act that effectively redefines what came before it.  Wheatley's film isn't flawless; there are times when the numerous breadcrumbs pointing to the denouement feel overstated, and the second act feels a bit soft at times (even as some of the more grisly sequences of violence play out), but the chilling payoff at the end elevates the film beyond the stuff of mere exploitation and into the realm of WTF?!

Kill List had its Portland premiere last month during the Portland International Film Festival's PIFF After Dark late night screening series.  It begins its regular run at the Hollywood Theatre on Friday, March 2nd.  Showtimes and advanced tickets are available here. 

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Breaking News: Guest Director at POWFest 2012 is...

The good folks at POWFest (Portland Oregon Women's Film Festival) have hosted many a great visiting director in past years; one of my favorite memories of attending the fest is linked to Allison Anders' (Mi Vida Loca, Border Radio) appearance at a screening of Gas Food Lodging.  Other past guests of note have included Gillian Armstrong (My Brilliant Career, Little Women), Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker, Point Break) and Irene Taylor Brodsky (Here and Now).

Well, this year's guest-of-honor is none other than Amy Heckerling (Clueless, National Lampoon's European Vacation).  Her 1982 comedy classic Fast Times at Ridgemont High had already been announced to play the festival on Friday, March 9th at 9:15 at the Hollywood Theatre, so I'm assuming that more than a few fingers were crossed concerning the possibility of her being present during the weekend.

Better hurry up and grab a ticket, as they're bound to go pretty fast!

Related links:

POWFest 2012 is nearly upon us

POWFest 2012: Opening night is all about the local talent 

POWFest 2012: The Silent Truth & Sisters in Arms 

POWFest 2012: Ei Voor Later (Eggs for Later) & Angel for Hire

POWFest 2012: 10,000 Trees, An Ordinary Life & Marion Stoddart: The Work of 1000  

POWFest 2012: The 90th Minute, Nerves of Steel: A Year With the Portland Ballet & The Eighth Parallel 

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POWFest 2012 is nearly upon us!!!

POWFest (Portland Oregon Women's Film Festival) invades the historic Hollywood Theatre once again this year, showcasing the work of women directors ranging from the local to the global.  Like the attractive graphic above states, the festival's 5th anniversary edition will run from Thursday, March 8th until Sunday, March 11th, packing a remarkable 80+ short and feature length films into the four-day schedule.

Things kick off on Thurs. 8th at 7pm with a series of locally-produced short films, "including Stella's Flight, a 'dramedy' about a woman trapped in a life that even her dog finds boring, written and directed by OPB Livewire host Courtenay Hameister."

From there, it's opening night parties, a two-day financing workshop for filmmakers (co-sponsored by the OMPA),  favorite films from the past (Amy Heckerling's Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Nora Ephron's Sleepless in Seattle and Oscar-winner Barbara Kopple's Shut Up & Sing will all screen during the fest) and a large dose of new narrative and non-fiction content from both emerging and seasoned film directors.

The entire schedule is available for access here.  Festival passes can be acquired at this link and tickets for individual shows can be purchased here.

Keep an eye on this blog for upcoming posts highlighting some of the films at POWFest 2012.  In the meantime, here's a handful of trailers from the upcoming festival:

Related links:

Breaking News: Guest Director at POWFest 2012 is...

POWFest 2012: Opening night is all about the local talent

POWFest 2012: The Silent Truth & Sisters in Arms  

POWFest 2012: Ei Voor Later (Eggs for Later) & Angel for Hire 

POWFest 2012: 10,000 Trees, An Ordinary Life & Marion Stoddart: The Work of 1000 

POWFest 2012: The 90th Minute, Nerves of Steel: A Year With the Portland Ballet & The Eighth Parallel 

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