Film Pairings – To Die For and A Kiss Before Dying, Dillon Times Two

As I’ve mentioned too many times before, much of my youth was spent or misspent in the darkened auditorium of downtown Indianapolis movie palaces. My brother and I could catch a an early matinee double feature, then brave the blinding Saturday afternoon sunlight, walk a couple of blocks and take in another double feature. Usually the theater would show one major film, often in color. The second would be a low-budget affair with less famous actors and actresses. That’s how I feel about this pairing.  One is a nearly perfect dark comedy about murder.  The other takes itself quite seriously. Though I liked them both – I’m easy to please – if you have high standards, doing off might not be the worst thing you can do, though the film improves toward the end.

Kidman & Phoenix

Murderous comedies don’t come any better than To Die For. Nicole Kidman plays a beautiful ambitious, marginally bright woman who would do anything to achieve fame.  She marries a handsome young man (Matt Dillon). He turns out to be a major roadblock on her road to stardom. She plots his death. The film is shot in a mock-documentary style that in the hands of others might be disastrous, but with Buck Henry writing the screenplay and Gus Van Sant directing, To Die For is to die for.  Joaquin Phoenix joins the superb cast as Kidman’s lovesick puppet. Casey Affleck is a young tough. The film, based on the book by Joyce Maynard, was released in 1995.

Matt  Dillon

Whereas Kidman’s surprisingly good performance was honored with a couple of awards for playing the shallow narcissus, Sean Young had the dubious honor of picking up two Razzies, one for worst actress and another for worst supporting actress for her performances as twins in A Kiss Before Dying. A reminder:  This is the second feature. You may drift off before they roll the credits.  However this turns out to be mostly worthwhile, largely due to Matt Dillon’s solid portrayal of a man’s obsession to succeed by hook, crook or murder. This is the second film based on Ira Levin’s book of the same name. The earlier (1956) version starred Robert Wagner and Joanne Woodward. This one (1991) was directed by James Dearden, who also wrote the screenplay. The story had a Hitchcock-like sensibility, but played out even more mechanically than those by the master. There are some clever twists and it’s a pleasure to watch the young Dillon at work after his turn in Drugstore Cowboy, and especially after watching him as a more mature character in To Die For.

A white wine, bubbly or not might be an appropriate accompaniment to the first film. Step it up for the second. Or a latte followed by an espresso.

Film Pairing — The Once And Future Noir

Blade Runner ranked first on a list of top nine crime films I posted here earlier. If I were to redo the list I might have to make room for Inception. 

While it doesn’t have the wonderful noir moodiness of Blade Runner, Inception is exceptional.  Someone described it as a heist movie.  That works for me.  A team of criminals with specialized talents go about the delicate process of stealing information from the brain of one person in order to implant that idea into the brain of a person who will believe is his own.  We travel not in the outside world but in the world of dreams and dreams within dreams.  The laws of reality, as they often do in my dreams anyway, are suspended.

Directed by Christopher Nolan, the film’s protagonist, played by Leonardo DeCaprio, is a deeply flawed dream traveler who brings with him a team of experts to carry out the heist.  Among the other actors are Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ken Watanabe, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard, Cilian Murphy and Tom Berenger.  Michael Caine makes a brief appearance.  As you might expect from Nolan, though, the real star are the special effects — dazzling in their imagination and convincing in their execution.  Oddly enough and unlike say, Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, there remains a cold genuine connection to reality after all.  The images may be oddly placed and even fold into themselves, but it is not truly as fantastic as dreams or nightmares might be. No matter which dream we are witnessing, these are familiar worlds.  Not that there is anything wrong with that.

Blade Runner is a masterpiece.  I have no authority to say so.  It is simply my opinion.  The world created in this film is recognizable in the sense that we understand such things as modes of transportation, the concept of robots designed to be human-like, and characters who are cops and robbers.  However, the characters are more broadly and colorfully imagined — more exotic and unpredictable without being absurd.  These are people we can come to believe exist, which is important because some of them are “replicants,” who are not considered human, have no feelings, aren’t, in some minds, alive. But is this true? The simple plot belies the implications, historically and currently, of those who view others as unlike them, perhaps even less than human.  Other races or ethnicities.  Undocumented immigrants.  People of another class or in a different circumstance.  It’s a simple, but powerful story.

Based, many say “loosely,” on Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Ridley Scott has a world that is both different and relatable.  Harrison Ford is at his best.  Rutger Hauer and Sean Young are perfectly cast and give the performances of their careers. 

These two films offer a night of challenge.  Inception, particularly, demands that you pay attention.  If you get up for a second glass of Pernod, put the DVD on “pause.”  For a different reason, you won’t want to miss a moment of Blade Runner.  Each frame is a work of art.  Both films will make you think, imagine, question. 

I suggested Pernod as an accompaniment to the night of films because of its near hallucinogenic quality.  Whatever you choose, it should loosen you up a bit.  It’s not a night for Scotch or Martinis.