When I watched this 25 years ago I developed such a crush on Elina Lowensohn,
but I never followed it up with any of her other films. She sort of disappeared
from my viewing choices with her appearances in mainly small or foreign films
that my video rental stores never stocked. But seeing this again I felt the
same way about her - her Lulu hairstyle, eyes like dark impenetrable pools
of sadness, the crooked nose, the lipsticked Picasso mouth, the studied profiled
looks off into the distance, the Romanian accent is mesmerizing. And that
is with Isabelle Huppert in the same film and Huppert is rather amazing here
as well. Director Hal Hartley gives his actors a huge amount of room to simply
act freestyle and it is a pleasure to watch them think their performances
through.
For years I have been meaning to see more of his films that come as close
to auteur as you can make in these crass commercial times. He writes and
often produces the small quirky films he directs. I hope this is the impetus
I need because this is such a wonderful off-center film that touches on karma,
God, pornography, hired killers and empathy gone wrong with a wicked sense
of deadpan humor. The film thrives on dialogue - absurdist whimsical dialogue
that feels like it is from some other dimension and yet in its setting it
makes sense somehow. It spins around your head and you think I wish people
spoke like this in the real world. Uncluttered and to the point with no false
pretenses. The story of course is just as absurd and feels like a noir urban
fairy tale without a happy ending.
Thomas (Martin Donovan) comes out of unconsciousness on a cobble stone alley
in New York City bleeding from a head injury and no idea who he is or how
he got there. Memory wiped out. Man reborn. He wanders into a coffee shop
where Isabelle (Huppert) is trying to write a pornographic short story that
is eventually declined for not having any sex in it. Not surprising in that
she is a virgin just recently out of the nunnery looking for her purpose
in life. She takes Thomas home where she confesses that she is a nymphomaniac.
How can you be a nymphomaniac if you are a virgin. I am choosy, she replies.
She gives him pornographic magazines which he carries around with him and
reads on park benches. Huppert is such a good actress that when she talks
about how hungry she is I began to feel pangs of hunger and had to go munch
on something.
Enter into the picture Sofia (Elina) wandering around the city with no apparent
place to go. That is because she pushed Thomas out of her window and thinks
she killed him. It is slowly revealed through her that Thomas was not a nice
man and forced her into pornography and beat her. She thinks she has an opportunity
to blackmail Thomas's money men - big mistake - they want Thomas dead
and now Sofia too - not to mention Edward (Damian Young) who was Thomas's
accountant and knows too much. Two killers - ex-accountants who have been
promoted - come to kill them all and talk and act like mid-level salarymen
who need receipts for meals they have. They take two wires and fry Edward's
brains deranging him into a brilliant memorable performance.
Even 25 years later the film feels innovative, clever, smart and fresh -
offbeat and strange and yet poignant and funny at the same time. It lives
in its own small world.
