SUNDANCE LONDON 2013 - Day 3 - RUNNING FROM CRAZY

RUNNING FROM CRAZY is a fearless film made by two fearless women: legendary documentarian Barbara Koppel and actress Mariel Hemingway. It's the deeply personal tale of Mariel trying to open up the unspoken memories of her family: a childhood lived in the shadow of alcoholism, violence, mental illness and, apparently, in a new revelation, child abuse. These illnesses and disfunctions have of course played themselves out over many generations of the Hemingway family, with the infamous author and Mariel's grandfather committing suicide in the house next to her childhood home. But there's something desperately touching in seeing the very real family trauma that lies behind the iconic image of the larger than life literary giant drinking himself into oblivion. There's also something deeply admirable in Mariel's courage in speaking so openly, often showing herself in a poor light, in order to give her daughters context and hope that there is a way out of this so -called genetic curse.

Koppel benefits from truly unlimited access to Mariel, lots of vintage footage of her sisters and parents, as well as contemporary interviews with Mariel's daughters and sister Muffet. I've rarely seen a subject so willing to be open and to let the documentarian shape the movie, even to the point of the shocking revelation of child abuse - one that I'd suspected watching the film and which seems to explain so much about the elder girls' obsession with their father. Her eldest sister Muffet is still alive but has spent her whole life in and out of institutions for some unspecified psychological problems. And Margot, was a supermodel who suffered substance abuse and eventually committed suicide. 

Koppel intercuts the linear tale of how these girls fared with contemporary footage of Mariel living her life with her new partner and her girls. The impact of her childhood is clearly seen, but we also see someone vital, and engaged, deeply loving toward her own girls and deeply involved in raising awareness about mental illness and suicide prevention. There's a marvellous and meaningful scene where we see Mariel really struggling to climb a rock, bare hands, and finally ascending. This documentary is a like achievement. Difficult, painful, but tremendously worthwhile. It deserves a wide audience.

RUNNING FROM CRAZY has a running time of 105 minutes. It played Sundance 2013 and does not yet have a commercial release date.

MANHATTAN - that rare thing, a truly, incontrovertibly 'great' movie

I am soft on MANHATTAN. It's one of my all-time favourite Woody Allen films (I've seen every one more than a couple of times) if not one of the best films of all time period. It's one of those rare films where you wouldn't change a single thing. One of those films that you name, alongside DR STRANGELOVE and AMADEUS, when you play the game, "which movie would you have wanted to direct?"

Why do I love MANHATTAN? First and foremost, the handsome cinematography. The movie is shot in black and white in proper anamorphic widescreen. Woody Allen and Gordon Willis (who also shot THE GODFATHER) reinvented the iconic imagery of Manhatten in wide-screen wide-angled shots, edited by Susan E Morse and choreographed to Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. The beauty, grandeur and energy of Manhattan is not just captured: it is re-defined on screen.

But MANHATTAN is no mawkish Richard-Curtis-like romanticised plastic image of a famous city. Rather, the radical and subversive message of MANHATTAN is that, while the city looks glamourous and the people in it are cosmpolitan, literary and sensitive to the arts, they are also amoral and narcissistic. The Woody Allen character is a 42 year old man who has been through an acrimonious divorce and feels bitter that the woman (Meryl Streep) who told him she was bisexual eventually left him for another woman. He then casually dates a 17 year old girl played by Mariel Hemingway, before jilting her for a self-involved writer played by Diane Keaton. Oh, did I mention that the Woody Allen character stole the Keaton character from his best friend, Yale, who was cheating on his wife with her, and then steals her back?!

In one sense, MANHATTAN is a deeply bleak film. Behind the glamour of MANHATTAN lies a pool of shallow, cultivated cynics. But while you're watching these unpleasant people doing unpleasant things to each other, you can't help but luxuriate in the wonderful conversation, the beautiful cinematography and the soundtrack full of Gershwin. And in the final scene, we are asked to still "have a little faith in people" - a whimsical note on which to end a movie that would be lost in later Woody Allen movies like CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS. For that reason, MANHATTAN will always be one of my favourite Woody Allen movies.

MANHATTAN was originally released in 1979. It is currently on limited re-release in the UK.

MANHATTAN is also my favourite case study for why the Academy Awards are never a good guide to great cinema, despite marketers splashing "Oscar winner" across everything. In 1980, KRAMER VERSUS KRAMER swept the board. For sure, this divorce drama starring Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep had its finger on the cultural pulse and was well acted, but that it should trump APOCALYPSE NOW?! Well, at least APOCALYPSE NOW was nominated. MANHATTAN was fobbed off with a few minor noms but it didn't get nom'ed from Best Film, Director or, shockingly enough, Cinematrography. One can only assume that the Academy was throwing its toys out of the pram in retaliation for Woody Allen not turning up when ANNIE HALL was nominated.