The Party (2017)

THE PARTY              B+                  

Great Britain  (71 mi)  2017  ‘Scope  d:  Sally Potter             Official Facebook

Director Sally Potter’s commitment to bold experimentation has always been intriguing, to say the least, while not always successful, in her daring to find something uniquely different to offer, as her films aren’t for everyone, and tend to divide filmgoers.  That said, the trailer for this film seems wacky and hilarious, so expectations for a savagely offbeat satire seemed promising.  While her previous film, 2013 Top Ten List # 10 Ginger & Rosa, was set in the early 60’s, an era of budding idealism juxtaposed against end-of-the-world Cold War scenarios, this is firmly set in the anxiety-ridden fluctuating times of today, when Britain as we know it is undergoing some kind of midlife identity crisis, on the verge of disappearing altogether, becoming a scathing satire of the post-Brexit world (though surprisingly shot prior to the Brexit vote).  Reminiscent of Mike Leigh’s ABIGAIL’S PARTY (1977) and Ozon’s take on an unpublished Fassbinder play when he was only 19, WATER DROPS ON BURNING ROCKS (1999), both are scathing indictments of the world we live in today, where indifference and cynicism rule supreme, and while produced in different eras, they still maintain a sarcastic bite of laceratingly dark comedy mixed with a disturbing anguish.  While somewhat uneven and not nearly as successful as those earlier iconic works, they do provide a frame of reference for viewers, one of complete irreverence, becoming something of a parody of a parody, targeting the powerlessness of liberalism, suggesting the end is near, where this could just as easily be called LAST TANGO IN BRITAIN.  Every dysfunctional character seems to personify what Britain stands for today, or what it has become, like a mutant step-child, an embarrassment that is a part of us but we don’t want others to see.  Presumably a celebratory occasion, a group of old friends arrive in the London home of the newest Minister of Health, Janet (Kristin Scott Thomas), ever the idealist, appointed to a prestigious position in the opposition party and certainly a rare accomplishment from this group of educated elite.  Perhaps to set the mood, while Janet is thrilling herself on the phone in the kitchen with sweet talk from a secret lover, her husband Bill (Timothy Small) places himself directly in the center of the living room with a glass of wine, drinking heavily before any of the guests arrive, playing records while stuck in a catatonic stupor, looking disoriented while listening to the unmistakable sounds of Muddy Waters, Muddy Waters - Im a Man (Mannish Boy).mp4 - YouTube (3:55), as one by one the guests arrive.  Before the night is done, however, one of the guests will be lying on the floor like a corpse, a curious allegory for Britain’s gloomy fate, with fingers pointed and various people trying to resuscitate the seemingly lifeless body back to life, with the ultimate outcome shrouded in uncertainty and doubt. 

Promising a good time for all, this party rocks with disillusionment and open suspicion, resembling the downward spiral of Polanski’s Carnage (2011), becoming a free-for-all of resentment and accusations, like a modern day Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), cleverly written by Potter herself, with a first class cast that thrives in the theatrics of performance theater and soon turns upon each other, hurling plenty of hilarious one-liners, where the key is an effortless choreography of a world spinning out of control, perhaps responding thematically to an opening salvo, declaring “Democracy is over.”  First to arrive is her American best friend April, Patricia Clarkson, easily the best thing in the film, never more acerbic, a self-professed cynic and realist getting all the best lines (“I’m proud of you, even though I think democracy is finished!”), and new-age partner Gottfried, Bruno Ganz, an aromatherapist/healer (“Prick an aromatherapist and you’ll find a fascist,” she says), announcing they are splitting up, finding her husband indescribably boring.  Next to arrive is a constantly bickering lesbian couple, Martha (Cherry Jones), an academic professor specializing in domestic labor gender differentiation in American utopianism (perhaps spending too much time in women’s studies, suggests April), and her younger partner Jinny (Emily Mortimer), a TV Masterchef runner-up, who immediately announces she’s pregnant with three boys.  Last but not least is Tom (Cillian Murphy), a nervous financier who announces his wife Marianne, who helped run Janet’s campaign, will be arriving later, offering apologies, immediately locking himself in the bathroom to do lines of coke, a habit he repeats later, sweating profusely throughout, while also carrying a concealed gun, growing ever more nervous about it, eventually throwing it away in a garbage bin.  This weapon works its way throughout the storyline just by its mere possibility, as it takes the incendiary barbs one step further, adding a violent trace of inevitability.  When April pops the cork in the champagne bottle, it immediately shatters a window (“That almost never happens”), an ominous sign of things to come, where sinister comments about lost ideals and keeping up with post-post-feminism just keep coming, “Sisterhood is a very aging concept,” each seemingly disapproving of the other.  Among the biggest surprises is the superlative musical soundtrack heard throughout, ranging from the traditional jazz standards of Sidney Bechet, What Is This Thing Called Love? - Sidney Bechet - YouTube (3:53), to the modernism of Albert Ayler (Albert Ayler - Summertime - YouTube (8:47), including a stunningly downbeat John Coltrane, John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman - My One And Only Love - YouTube (4:58), to the rousing Cuban music of Ibrahim Ferrer, Ay, Candela - Ibrahim Ferrer - YouTube (3:23), all offering differing comments on the changing mood in the room, like a poetic Greek chorus, much as Potter did in her previous film. 

Shot in stark Black and White by Russian cinematographer Aleksei Rodionov, best known for shooting Elem Klimov’s remarkable Come and See (Idi i smotri) (1985), the movie is short but nasty, where each character is caught up in their own problems, immersed to the point of paralysis, or so it seems, everyone feeling betrayed, with little energy to spare for anyone else.  Gone are the younger days of youthful idealism and democracy in action, becoming instead a chamber drama of personal failures and indiscretions, showcasing their hidden secrets and lies, fueled by “chronic insincerity,” which seems to define the mindlessness of campaign rhetoric, led by April’s accusatory tones, laying into everyone with zingers, openly declaring war on anyone complicit with the status quo, who by the end is left to reassess the situation, surprisingly discovering that she and Gottfried are actually the best adjusted couple in the room.  This comes after a visibly distraught Bill rises from his stupor to announce he has a hopelessly terminal medical illness, where he had to go outside the National Health Service to get an appointment, a defiance of everything his wife had steadfastly worked and campaigned for, before dropping an even bigger bombshell, which may explain Tom’s fidgety behavior, announcing he’s leaving Janet, wanting to spend his final time with Tom’s wife, Marianne, confessing a yearlong affair (or perhaps two), suggesting the attention paid to him only emphasizes Janet’s woeful indifference, as he now understands what he’s been missing.  Janet’s initial recourse is to slap him hard in the face, recoiling in disbelief at what she’s done before doing it again, drawing blood.  As Janet bites down on her arm in disgust, wailing “I believe in truth and reconciliation,” an Iago-like April promotes the idea of exacting revenge, actually encouraging her to take matters into her own hands, as he’s got it coming.  Gottfried immediately jumps into the role of life coach and mediator, like some cult guru, supporting Bill while catty forces conspire against him, offering the advice, “You need to protect yourself from so much negative female energy,” becoming an openly defiant battle of the sexes.  In a momentary lull, Janet discovers the gun in the trash bin, raising the stakes, with ominous Hitchcockian implications.  Tom, however, is boiling over with coke residue, more enraged than ever at Bill, and cold cocks the man who’s stealing his wife, leaving him inert on the ground, like a corpse.  Not knowing if he’s dead or alive, he has immediate regrets and concerns, trying to cajole him back to the living, with little success.  Stuck in a neverland between the living and the dead, Bill seems to personify Britain’s current crisis, brought on by a toxic spell of unbridled masculinity.  Trying to find music for the occasion, to help resuscitate Bill’s broken spirits, Tom plays the first record he finds, Purcell- Dido and Aeneas~ 'When I am laid in earth' (Dido's Lament ... (3:50), a funereal song of great dramatic magnitude that may as well be an anthem for the dead.  The irony of these absurdly poor choices is not lost on the audience, as this film hilariously probes the underbelly of insanity that lies at the root of today’s modern conflict.  With Buñuelian wit and precision, and without offering any solutions, this film metaphorically sticks a fork into what’s left of the rotting corpse formerly known as Great Britain. 

Note

Of special interest, the actors and actresses in this film all got paid equally and are using this fact to promote equal pay for women in the film industry. 

2013 Top Ten List # 10 Ginger & Rosa

GINGER & ROSA                  A  
Great Britain  Denmark  Canada  Croatia  (90 mi)  2012  ‘Scope  d:  Sally Potter

Sally Potter sees the breakdown of moral order not only as an expected part of the human condition, but also equally problematic is the way humans obsess over the impact.  Any film that starts with the picture of an H-bomb explosion, followed by shots of an obliterated Hiroshima shortly afterwards in 1945, could hardly be considered subtle, and this film parallels the shattering aftereffects in an equally devastating portrait of human callousness and careless disregard.  By creating a story of two British mothers who were pregnant in the hospital at the time, she frames the original incident as having impact over the rest of their lives, and more importantly, their children’s lives.  While YES (2004) was an artist’s personal reaction to the 9/11 attacks, where she started writing the story the day after, this film is about growing up in the late 50’s and early 60’s when the world was dominated by the imminent threat of nuclear attack, culminating with the Berlin Crisis of 1961, the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, the closest the world has ever come to an all-out nuclear war.  As someone who grew up during this era, mainstream magazines featured photo essays displaying the ghastly effects of deformed thalidomide babies, with constant references to survivalist methods and building backyard bomb shelters, showing a concern about the rise of building nuclear reactors, especially after the SL-1 disaster of 1961, the only known fatal reactor accident in United States history, when a steam explosion killed three plant operators.  Both adults and children were constantly fed end-of-the-world images, where popular books of the era with post-apocalyptic themes were On the Beach (1959), Alas, Babylon (1960), and Fail Safe (1964), while Godzilla movies became all the rage in Japan, becoming one of the most recognizable symbols of Japanese popular culture, the only nation to suffer the effects of a nuclear bomb.  Perhaps the ultimate black comedy to grab the public’s attention was Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), a laceratingly dark comedy that satirizes the theory of mutually assured destruction, aka the doomsday device which leads to complete, utter and irrevocable annihilation.  In England, where this film takes place, the trauma from World War II remains, where recollections are still prominent of underground subway stations being used as air-raid shelters from The Blitz, prolonged nightly bombing attacks of London by Nazi Germany at the start of World War II, causing a sudden rise of built-in cellars afterwards in larger houses.  It took until the reign of Prime Minister Tony Blair (1997 – 2007) to pay off the reconstruction post-war debt to the United States, where a national program of shared sacrifice was the rule, so part of the character of the country is defined by the arduous challenge to rebuild their lives.  Anyone who has lived through this era realizes what a profound effect it had on all age groups, which is the setting for Potter’s film.    

While this director has a career in experimental (and somewhat autobiographical) films, where her film YES (2004) was strangely written in iambic pentameter, this may be her most conventional and audience friendly effort, beautifully shot in ‘Scope by Robbie Ryan, where it’s primarily a character study that accentuates strong performances all around, one of the director’s strengths, in particular Elle Fanning (who was 13 when the film was shot) as Ginger and Alice Englert (Jane Campion’s daughter) as Rosa, both born on the same day in the same hospital seventeen years earlier.  Set in London in 1962, the film races through their earlier childhood where the two are seen spending all their time together and remain best friends for life.  Rosa never knew her father, having abandoned his child at birth, while Ginger’s parents have a rocky marriage, where her mother Natalie (Christina Hendricks) suspects her husband Roland (Alessandro Nivola) of sleeping around with younger women, usually with good reason, as he’s something of a libertarian, especially where his sexual interests are concerned.  Nonetheless the girls are intelligent, well educated, and highly individualistic, often giggly when they’re together, going through typical teenage stages like kissing and smoking together, also ironing (straightening) their hair, while also taking an active interest in various social causes, like the campaign for nuclear disarmament, also attending Ban the Bomb demonstrations, as this takes place during the era of the Cuban Missile crisis.  This social conscience developing so young pleases her father, as he is a pacifist activist and a former conscientious objector who spent time in jail for his beliefs, writing articles advocating that young men refuse to serve in the military, a thankless job that keeps him busy and away from home for lengthy spells.  Ginger somewhat idealizes her father, as he’s a man of ideas, and mostly locks horns with her mother, as she’s the one that has to keep an eye on her daughter, as Ginger and Rosa are mostly out on their own, keeping their own schedules, doing pretty much whatever they want.  Ginger expresses an interest in poetry and is seen reading constantly, hoping she might be a poet, while Rosa is less introverted, finding it easier to meet boys.       

What makes this film especially interesting is how effortlessly it sets up the youthful idealism as an extension of 50’s conformism, perhaps best expressed by the superbly inventive jazz music soundtrack that perfectly expresses a liberation of the spirit, a literal transformation in sound, beginning with Dave Brubeck’s Take Five - The Dave Brubeck Quartet (1959) (5:20), but also in short order Bird Gets The Worm / Charlie Parker The Savoy Recordings (2:38), Sidney Bechet - Petite fleur - JazzAndBluesExperience (3:19), Thelonious Monk - (I Don't Stand) A Ghost Of A Chance (With You) (4:22), and Miles Davis - Blue In Green (HQ) - YouTube (5:33), where this pair of friends is a perfect example of tolerance and open mindedness in an era when the women’s movement had not yet begun, and no one had yet heard of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.  They were flower children before the term was invented and attracted to worldwide peace movements before they were in vogue by the end of the decade.  Potter then turns the screws on their friendship, allowing reality to intervene, which is shockingly discomforting, becoming the dramatic thrust of the film, blossoming from their carefree youth into attractive young women vying for the attention of the same man, becoming more intensely serious and dramatically complex, evolving much like a stage play.  Rosa grows sick and tired of hearing Ginger continually talk about her Dad, having never had one, so she decides to do something about it just as Ginger declares her independence from her mother, blaming everything on her small-mindedness, moving in with her Dad.  But her day of liberation is jeopardized by her best friend, who suddenly takes a romantic interest in her father, exposing a free-thinking man of the 60’s for what he is, a sexual predator of young girls whose ego is stroked and vainly flattered by all the attention, disgustingly rationalizing his actions even as Ginger’s interior world is shattered and destroyed.  Interestingly, the mother she felt was the cause of all her teenage troubles ends up being her staunchest ally, but at seventeen, an age of awkwardness and emotional turmoil, life is never what it seems.  While Ginger’s attention was on nuclear fallout and the end of the world, her innocence is demolished into smithereens in a Cassavetes-like scene from A Woman Under the Influence (1974).  As an interior journey, the film turns extraordinarily bleak, especially the way secondary characters rarely seen in 60’s popular culture (a radical feminist and gay lovers) are used as a kind of Greek chorus to comment upon the moral abyss of the age, where complacency becomes a substitute for destroyed ideals.  With eloquence and poetry, the film ends on a grace note with Thelonious Monk playing Thelonious Monk -The man I love (5:20).