Pynchon

"Eastern Promises".




Flashback to the late 1980's. At that time yer Pynch had very clear ideas as to who he felt were the two most interesting film Directors' in the world.

(Who were they, Pynch? Tell us. We beseech you!)

Ah... Glad you asked. The two most interesting film Directors' in the world, by the end of the 1980's, were David Lynch and David Cronenberg. Early on both were lumped in with the genre of what I would call 'Body Horror'. Both managed to escape that label and have made good, sometimes great, films since. It is interesting comparing how their careers have progressed.

David Lynch has become more and more wilfully obscure and art house ("Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me", "Lost Highway", "Mulholland Drive"), culminating with (the pretty unwatchable actually) "Inland Empire". It is almost as if he had decided to consciously reject the mainstream audience.

David Cronenberg, especially within the last 10 years or so, has turned to making increasingly mainstream films, with a peculiarly Cronenbergian bent. ("eXistenZ", "Spider", "A History Of Violence".) By now he might have been even further along the path of the mainstream if his proposed version of "Basic Instinct: Risk Addiction" had been made. (I read that he quit due to creative differences with star Sharon Stone. She wanted Benjamin Bratt to co-star as the psychiatrist, Cronenberg wanted Bruce Greenwood. Maybe it was all down to who Sharon wanted to knob her in the finished film. Interesting to note that neither actor was in the version that was eventually made.) Cronenberg's latest film is "Eastern Promises".

Sad to say it, "Eastern Promises" is somewhat of a disappointment.

Good performances (Viggo Mortensen, Vincent Cassel and Armin Mueller-Stahl were particularly good), and an astonishingly vicious, brutal and disturbing set piece in a Turkish bath aside, "Eastern Promises" is too slow, too ponderous and, yes it has to be said, too dull. Not at all like a Cronenberg film. Cronenberg's films may sometimes be off centre, but they are never dull. "Eastern Promises" is also nowhere near as good as "A History Of Violence" because I didn't give a damn about any of the characters, and that is a crying shame.

So, onto the next one Mr. Cronenberg. I am still interested in what you are going to do next. I still love you.

Labels: Movies