Just out., May 03, 2002, Page 41, Image 41

m ay 3. 2002
FILM
1 ' ^ he autobiographical works of English film­
maker Terence Davies (most recently
responsible for the excellent screen adap­
tation of Edith W hartons The House of
Mirth) are hypnotic, glorious visions from what
seems to he a literally photographic memory.
1988s Distant Voices, Still Lives and 1992 s
The Long Day Closes are very thinly veiled
accounts of his upbringing in 1950s Liverpool,
including the struggle to accept his homosexu­
ality. They’re also very much about his family,
particularly the former; the names change, but
the figures— a long-suffering mother, an abu­
sive father whose early death is an event the
films deal with equivocally, two sisters and the
omnipresent little brother who represents
Davies— remain fairly constant throughout.
The filmmaker is nostalgic to the point of
obsession, and it isn’t just the images that seem
like an old-fashioned sort of photographic por­
traiture; it’s in the structure, too. Sequences are
edited together like a photo album, with each
cut or fade the sensory equivalent of a page
they come, with an undeserved chip on his
shoulder almost as outsized as his wrong­
headed sense of entitlement. He lives with his
mother and avoids gainful employment by
abusing Iceland’s welfare system.
By night, Hlynur parties with friends and
has joyless sex with a girl he doesn’t like. (The
feeling’s reciprocated.) By day, he seeks elec­
tronic pom and avoids the girl as well as his
social worker.
Before long, though, the emptiness of
Hlynur’s alienated posturing— its underlying fear
and insecurity— become apparent, retrospectively
rendering almost forgivable the intolerability he
brings to the first part of the film. We then follow
along with some empathy as his mother, Berglind
(Hanna Mari Karlsdottir), introduces him to
Lola, a Spanish woman who teaches her flamen­
co class. (There’s a very unfortunate synth-
instrumental rendition of The Kinks’ “Lola.”)
Played by Victoria Abril (French Twist, Tie Me
Up! Tie Me Down!), Lola is a splash of carefree,
sexually vivacious Mediterranean sun in Hlynur’s
cold world. Things become complicated, however,
when he sleeps with her just before finding out
she is his mother’s lover. Soon, Lola announces
that she’s pregnant and that the baby will be
raised by her and Berglind (who is unaware her
new child will also be her grandchild).
T he situation is grueling but also good for
British beauty
The tragicomedy of family
in the world of Terence Davies
by
REVIEW
101 R
being turned. Davies lovingly sets
much of this to the music he remem­
bers, using any excuse for characters to
break into song— choral, Christmas
carols, “Auld Lang Syne,” pop tunes
sad and spry— signifying the beauty of
fondly remembered human expression.
Unlike the defiant, sexually celebra­
tory films of his peer Derek Jarman,
Davies’ early work is anguished and
almost singularly personal, exploring
the intersection of same-sex attraction, Catholi­
cism and family ties that cut and gag even as they
comfort. It’s interesting, then, that as Davies goes
farther hack into the years of his childhood, he
the window of his wid­
owed m other’s flat at the
shirtless construction
workers across the way,
enduring the taunting of
his schoolmates and
escaping to the movies—
a rapture expressed in an
ecstatically beautiful shot
in which moviegoers in
their rows of seats are
equated
to worshippers
A boy and his movies in The Long Day Closes;
in pews.
Terence Davies with Gillian Anderson on the
But even th e religion
set of The House of M irth (inset)
of cinem a has, for
Davies, its profoundly exquisite disappoint­
becomes more sympathet­
m ents. “W hy d o n ’t you go the pictures V' his
ic, more comprehending
m other asks, sensing his restless desponden­
of his family’s dysfunction
cy. “Because I’ve got no one to go w ith,” he
and his own sexuality.
says, and his guileless, shattering to n e of b it­
The Long Day Closes, the pinnacle of his
ter realization moves you to tears, restoring
autobiographical acuity, is his most touching
your faith in th e power o f the movies in
(and most gay) film. It finds his alter ego at a
spite of itself. J H
just-prepubescent age, gazing wistfully from
e y k j a v ik
he pieces of 10/ Reykjaiik don’t really begin
to fall into place until the middle. Until
then, this Icelandic import (opening
May 10 at Hollywood Theatre) seems nothing
more than yet another study of an unemployed,
trendily dressed, “hip” twentysomething— a
thin stereotype seen everywhere from Reality
Bites to dozens of television ads for sexy cars.
Indeed, our (anti)hero, Hlynur (Hilmir
Snaer Gudnason), is as aimless and resentful as
C hristopher M c Q u a in
£>c*iùuj, O u i ZaiinCf, O u i fcotutty O u i Zatincj, O u i Calutcj, O u i ZcUinCf, O u i ZalUtcj, O u i Colute}, O u i
Hlynur. A t last, he is forced to stop sneering
and deal with life, messy life: emotions, confu­
sion, complication.
Hlynur’s reaction to his m other’s lesbianism,
and the film’s attitude toward it, is nonchalant.
(Iceland’s enlightened sociocultural attitudes
follow its Scandinavian geography.)
Despite being deeply flawed by forced
whimsy and calculated quirkiness, 101 Reyk­
javik is a not-bad example of post-gay cinema.
Here, stigma-free queers collectedly go about
things with dignity and a minimum of anxiety,
while the heterosexual character must grapple
with his lifestyle choices and identity.
— Christopher McQuam J H
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