SEXY BEAST - Jonathan Glazer

Dienstag 21.10.2014
20:30 Uhr
vorgestellt von Sebastian Markt

USA 2001 96 min., Regie: Jonathan Glazer / Drehbuch: Louis Mellis, David Scinto / Produktion: Jeremy Thomas / Musik: Roque Baños / Kamera: Ivan Bird / Schnitt: John Scott, Sam Sneade / Besetzung: Ray Winstone, Ben Kingsley, Ian McShane, Amanda Redman, James Fox, Cavan Kendall, Julianne White

"Glazer, who started his career directing TV commercials and music videos (MTV banned his video for U.N.K.L.E.'s Rabbit in Your Headlights, featuring Denis Lavant as an unfortunate pedestrian in a tunnel), has a distinctive compositional style. He often isolates an actor in the extreme foreground or background of a shot, and he knows how to cut together odd-angled images so that they have kinetic impact. The movie itself is something of a sexy beast; it lures you in with a 10-minute opening sequence that's sensuous and funny. There's Gal basking beside his pool, his fleshy body all sweaty, the white mat on which he's lying reflecting so much light you want to grab your sunglasses. On the soundtrack, reggae gives way to rumba mixed with a throbbing techno bass. Gal stands up, has a little chat with the pool boy, and just when it seems like the plot will never kick in—and maybe that's OK—a huge boulder tumbles down the steep hill behind his house, flies over Gal's head, missing him by inches, and lands in the pool. The boulder—a reminder that that you can't expect bliss to remain unbroken—foreshadows Don's arrival.
What distinguishes Sexy Beast from the recent rash of British gangster films is Glazer's investment in character and performance. The film is exuberantly styled, but not for the sake of style itself. Rather, the lush color and off-kilter framing make you more aware of the characters' responses to the world they inhabit; they let you understand that Gal is on the side of life and Don is on the side of death."

[Amy Taubin: Barbarians at the Gate, The Village Voice, 12/06/2001]

BIRTH - Jonathan Glazer

Dienstag 14.10.2014
20:30 Uhr
vorgestellt von Christian Weber

USA 2004, 96 min., Regie: Jonathan Glazer, Drehbuch: Jean-Claude Carrière, Jonathan Glazer, Milo Addica, Kamera: Harris Savides, Music: Alexandre Desplat, Montage: Sam Sneade, Claus Wehlisch, Produktion: Lizie Gower, Nick Morris, Jean-Louis Piel, DarstellerInnen: Nicole Kidman, Cameron Bright, Danny Huston, Lauren Bacall, Anne Heche, Peter Stormare

»How can a picture made so recently be lost or forgotten? Maybe it's because few critics understood Birth when it came out – so I find many people who haven't seen it or even heard of it! It's the story of Anna, whose husband dies, jogging in the snow in Central park. For 10 years she mourns and then she agrees to marry again. But at the engagement party a boy appears, and tells her he is her husband. Anna laughs, but the boy is serious, and gradually the occult idea breaks down her sanity or security. I won't say more about the story, or what the film means, but as directed by Jonathan Glazer (he made Sexy Beast – which you may have seen), this is a mysterious and haunting study of emotional insecurity. Nicole Kidman is Anna, and if you have ever doubted her, this is the film to see. For a few years I have been doing all I can to get everyone to see Birth. Try it – you will see, and you won't believe anyone got away with making a film like this.«

[David Thomson: The Films That Time Forgot. The Guardian, 19/08/2010]