BFI LFF 2016 Preview - BLUE VELVET REVISITED

Peter Braatz' lyrical documentary is a must-watch for all fans of David Lynch's surreal, beautiful, disturbing work.  As a younger film-maker, Braatz served as an intern on the iconic 1980s movie, and shot lots of photos, behind the scenes videos and interviews. Now, thirty years later, he has assembled a collage of impressions of what it was like to work with and for Lynch and how the film came together. But this isn't a conventional linear documentary, with carefully composed and edited talking heads taking us from the films conceptions to final release.  Rather, in the manner of Lynch himself, the film is a kind of meditation and mood movie - carefully layering images and interviews and a beautiful sound-track to take us into the emotional world of the film.  

One of the things that jumped out at me was how calm the shoot seemed to be - the union of all members of cast and crew in this strange endeavour.  Lynch repeatedly claims that this is the happiest he has ever been on a shoot - going back to a low budget in exchange for artistic freedom.  There seems to be a spirit of trust on set - trust in David's genius and vision.  Even people who don't really like films - like actor Jack Nance - or don't believe Lynch is au courant - think the movie is going to be something special. Lynch himself, secure in the quality of each component, is quietly confidant too.  It's also pretty special just to sit back and watch the man at work - his immense attention to detail - personally adjusting and trimming a wig - and the way in which movie making feeds into his larger artistic life with sketches of the day's events. 

This movie is then, a wonderful indulgence for fans of Lynch - as creative in its approach as Lynch deserves, and a visual and aural delight. 

BLUE VELVET REVISITED has a running time of 86 minutes. Tickets are available for both screenings.

JOY

There's this thing David O Russell does where he captures the gonzo craziness of everyday family life in real families - where's the too much to do and not enough time, and a lot of love but also a lot of bickering and irrational emotional lashing out.  He somehow captures the too many loud voices and freewheeling chaos. He did this is SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK and does so again at the start of JOY, where we see Jennifer Lawrence's harassed single mom cut her fingers on a shard of glass as she mops up a spill and get the inspiration for the miracle mop.  The movie starts with such energy and such crazy larger-than-life characters that I was prepared to let myself get swept up on the wave of this most improbable biopic. I loved that Joy had an estranged latino husband (Edgar Ramirez) who still somehow had her best interests at heart. And that her feckless father (Robert de Niro) has a hardball rich widow girlfriend (a scene-stealing Isabella Rossellini) who didn't give Joy a dime without asking some tough questions.

But somewhere after the first half hour the movie descends into a pretty cheesy underdog story in which every set piece is predictable.  How did we somehow know that when Joy first appears on TV home sales network she's gonna bomb, or that she's gonna triumph when she realises that she needs to take off all the wardrobe and make-up and just be a housewife on TV?  And it's all too predictable that her family are gonna become jealous and try to rip Joy off or otherwise put her in a precarious situation.  And maybe that's the problem with the latter half of this film.  Joy is perfect.  She survives and survives and survives despite her feckless family and thieving manufacturers.  And at the end of the day it's her ever loyal ex-husband and best friend who stick by her, because why?  I just felt the movie kind of ran out of steam. Yes Joy is successful and saintly in helping other single moms find their dreams. But where's the resolution?  I also feel - and maybe this is unfair - that I've seen too much of Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper on screen together to the point that I found whatever manufactured sexual tension might have been between the two characters hard to stomach.  I feel that this small David O Russell repertory company needs to be disbanded for its own good.

JOY has a running time of 124 minutes and is rated PG-13. It is on global release in the USA, Greece, Israel, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, New Zealand, Egypt, France, the UAE, Bahrain, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Taiwan, South Africa, Austria, Estonia, Finland, the UK, Ireland and Latvia. It opens later in January in Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Australia, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Macedonia, the Netherlands, Portugal, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, the Ukraine, Bulgaria, Spain, Mexico, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, Turkey, Belgium, Argentina, Bosnia, Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, Venezuela, Brazil, Russia, Slovenia, India, Lithuania, Italy and Ecuador. It opens in February in Chile, Croatia, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and Kazakhstan; and in Indonesia in March.