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VENICE
2002
TWO
MOMENTS OF ECONOMICAL MIRACLE, GERMANY’S AND
US’S, REVISITED IN DORIS DÖRRIE’S
AND TODD HAYNE’S FILMS
The
tediousness of a German generation, post-fall of the
Berlin wall, heir of order and abundance, appears
in a film in the Venice competition, rather silly
and pathetic, but sincere. It’s “NAKED”
(photo 1), by Doris Dörrie, director who is still
in search for the world success achieved by “Men”
in 1985.
We
see three couples, not so young anymore, in crisis,
getting ready to attend a dinner party at the house
of the richest and most successful of the group. Couple
by couple, the film reveals an intimacy where happiness
is an illusion lost in time. As Dörrie says,
“we imagine that we can keep for ever the illusion
that we can have everything regardless of what goes
on around us”.
By
end of dinner they take on a challenge, respecting
the filmmaking and very European tradition of letting
the truth out when people are around the table. The
challenge is to prove that each of them really knows
his/her partner. Blindfolded and naked, they should
know one from the other only through touch. What is
a joke becomes a game and in games there are always
those who want to cheat and win the bet.
The
visual pretext of nudity begins to have other interpretations.
It is also true in a relationship of power and domination
that this exercise is in the humiliation of denuding
the weakest. Doris Dörrie ends up denuding the
insensibility of a whole German generation as conscious
in the world we live in, as they are unconscious and
selfish towards solutions. It’s not by chance
that in one of the sensual dialogues between couples,
the praise “you smell good like the rain forest,
like one of our tropical forests” escapes. The
consciousness for the salvation of tropical forests
turned into an erotic fetish. Nothing else.
FAR
FROM HEAVEN (photo 2), also in the competition, brings
Todd Haynes’ virtuosity. Just like in his previous
film “Velvet Goldmine”, it can already
be considered a serious candidate for the Oscar for
Best Costume. Similar to Doris Dörrie, he recreates
the wealthy and petty life of an economical miracle
generation. Only it is 1950, United States, in a segregative
countryside, against afro-Americans, women and homosexuals.
Precisely, the year is 1958 and the drama takes place
in Hartford, Connecticut. Inspired by Douglas Sirk’s
classics, Todd Haynes also says to be paying homage
to the German cinema of Werner Fassbinder.
Julianne
Moore, almost a reincarnation of Marylin Monroe on
the screen, plays the wife of an executive from the
newborn television industry, who catches her husband
(Dennis Quaid) in a homosexual affair. Her unhappiness
is compensated by the affection of her black gardener
(Dennis Haysbert). The slander explodes in the small
world of futilities they live in. “Far from
heaven” is indeed a long way from the paradise
imagined by the 50’s cinema. By recreating this
period with perfection, Haynes casts a new angle to
a sublime cinema that, with rare exceptions, overlooked
what was the real America.
Leon
Cakoff, from Venice, for the ‘Jornal
da Mostra’
(05/09/2002) Jornal da Mostra nº 141
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O tédio de uma geração alemã, pós-queda
do muro de Berlim, herdeira da ordem e da fartura, aparece em
um filme na competição de Veneza, meio bobo, meio
patético, mas sincero.
FAR
FROM HEAVEN , também na competição, tem o
virtuosismo de Todd Haynes. Como em seu filme anterior “Velvet
Goldmine”, já pode ser considerado um sério
candidato ao Oscar de melhor figurino. Como Doris Dörrie,
ele recria a vida abastada e mesquinha de uma geração
do milagre econômico. Só que dos Estados Unidos dos
anos 50, de um interior segregacionista, contra negros, mulheres
e homossexuais. Mais precisamente, o ano é o de 1958 e
o drama se passa em Hartford, Connecticut. Inspirado nos clássicos
de Douglas Sirk, Todd Haynes diz também estar prestando
uma homenagem ao cinema alemão de Werner Fassbinder. 
