Flawed Men and the Women Who Loved Them

I saw two films in December at the Landmark Embarcadero which portrayed deeply flawed men who achieved greatness in their respective fields.

Hyde Park on Hudson starring Bill Murray & Laura Linney; directed by Roger Michell; (2012) - Official Website
Hitchcock starring Anthony Hopkins & Helen Mirren; directed by Sacha Gervasi; (2012) - Official Website

Hyde Park on Hudson tells the story of Franklin D. Roosevelt (Bill Murray) and his relationship with Margaret Suckley (Laura Linney).  Suckley was FDR's sixth cousin and mistress.  What was it with FDR and his cousins?  Eleanor Roosevelt was his fifth cousin, once removed.  Suckley was FDR's companion and lover for over a decade.  If the film is to be believed, their relationship was on open secret known to the press, the White House staffers, Eleanor Roosevelt and others.

Much of the film takes place in June 1939 when King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom visited FDR's country estate in Hyde Park, NY.  FDR, of course, is park of Hyde Park Roosevelts whereas Teddie Roosevelt and Eleanor are descended from the Oyster Point Roosevelts.  King George VI is the monarch portrayed by Colin Firth in The King's Speech.

King George's visit was an attempt to shore up American support for the coming war with Nazi Germany.  The war wouldn't officially start until September 1939 but the imminence of the war was apparent to all observers.  Hyde Park on Hudson portrays FDR as cavalier about the issue.  FDR seems to be sizing up King George as if to determine if the King is worthy of his support.  The King's willingness to be photographed eating a hot dog is the pivotal moment in Anglo-American relations if Hyde Park on Hudson is accurate.

FDR is often considered one of the greatest American presidents but Murray portrays him as henpecked and in need of feminine comfort in order to discharge his responsibilities.  FDR's private secretary, Marguerite LeHand (Elizabeth Marvel), acts as gatekeeper, procurer and sometime mistress.  Eleanor Roosevelt does not turn a blind eye towards her husband's dalliances.  She actually forms friendships with LeHand & Suckley.  It's implied that her sexuality at this point in their marriage is exclusively sapphic.  She views LeHand & Suckley's ministrations as beneficial to her marriage and country.  Suckley is caught unaware of the full extent on LeHand's services to the president.

There are times when I laughed at the incredulity of some of the situations.  Just before King George's bite heard around the world, FDR insists Suckley join the First Couple & the Royal Couple at the head picnic table as act of contrition.  You see, the evening before Suckley had caught FDR cheating on her with LeHand.  Technically, he was cheating on his wife with LeHand but I guess he was cheating on Suckley, once removed.

I forgot to mention the most powerful woman in FDR's life - his 83 year old mother, Sara.  In the film, FDR spends considerable time juggling the demands of his wife, cousin, secretary and mother while probing the British sovereign's haughtiness with paintings, alcohol and food.  It all seems ridiculous if you think about it for long but the film is amusing.  Murray doesn't quite do an impression of FDR.  He loses himself in the role which is more than he usually does.  Murray's character always seem to have certain similarity but in Hyde Park he completely subsumes himself in the persona of FDR.

The supporting actresses keep the film moving nicely.  I've been a fan of Laura Linney's I saw her as Dede in Tale of the City (it's already been 20 years since that miniseries aired).  Marvel's LeHand is the juiciest character in the film.  Suckley is a shy and withdrawn whereas as LeHand is self-assured; more so than one would expect from a private secretary...unless she was intimate with her boss.  Olivia Williams as Eleanor, Elizabeth Wilson as Sara Roosevelt & Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth are memorable.  Colman plays Elizabeth as bitchy & uptight.  Fortunately for Western civilization, her husband ate that hot dog over her objections or we would all be speaking German now.

If you don't take Hyde Park on Hudson too seriously (i.e. recognize it as a comedy), it's an entertaining film.

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The scenes in Hitchcock are more believable because Alfred Hitchcock was such a larger than life character.  Documenting the making of Psycho, Hitchcock show how personally invested Hitchcock was in the film; both emotionally and financially.  The film is based on Stephen Rebello's Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho.  Psycho was based on Robert Bloch's Psycho with Norman Bates partially inspired by Ed Gein (aka The Plainfield Ghoul), a serial killer who tangential behaviors are numerous and ghoulish.

In Hitchcock, the Master of Suspense has hallucinations where he speaks with Gein during the production of Psycho.  Hitchcock really kicks into gear when we get see Anthony Hopkins do his Hitchcock imitation.  More closely matching Hitchcock's distinctive speech patterns than Murray in Hyde Park, Hopkins does seem to be doing more impersonation than interpretation.  With such an iconic personality, I don't know if Hopkins could have chosen a different route...although Murray.  However, these are two different films.  Whereas Hyde Park seems as though it would be better suited for serious drama, it strives for comedy.  Hitchcock with its flamboyant characters would be better suited to comedy but strives for drama.

The heart of Hitchcock is the relationship between Hitchcock & his wife, Alma Reville (Helen Mirren).  We see their power struggles within the marriage and their coping mechanisms.  Reville, Hitchcock's most trusted film advisor, scripted and edited all his films.  She chafed at having her own identity and considerable talents overlooked in favor of her husband, whom she help immensely.  Hitchcock had some peculiar interactions with his leading ladies.  Not necessarily sexual but sexualized, Hitchcock fell in love with his leading ladies and attempted to control them while Reville looked on, reining in his more bizarre behaviors but allowing him to fetishize his actresses to the creative benefit of his films (and detriment of their marriage).

Hitchcock is self-conscious of his weight and jealous of the men who pay attention to his wife.  Reville resents the attention her husband lavishes on his female actresses and suffers from low self-esteem in comparison to the ever younger and beautiful women being cast in his films.

Coming off the success of North by Northwest, Hitch is anxious to try something new and quickly champions Psycho despite the source material's macabre and outré elements.  Unwilling to find financing, Hitchcock mortgages his house.  From there we see him increasingly under pressure from the stress of the film production and the suspicion Reville is having an affair.  Along the way, Scarlett Johansson shows up as Janet Leigh.  I didn't think she looked or sounded much like Leigh but Johansson was sexy and magnetic like I remember Janet Leigh.  James D'Arcy as Anthony Perkins, has a smaller role in Hitchcock but captures Perkins/Bates much more accurately...at least, accurate with my expectation.  Hitch bullies and teases Perkins as he knows about his closeted sexuality.  Toni Collette as Hitchcock's assistant and Jessica Biel as Vera Miles have smaller but memorable roles.

Like the best Hitchcock films, Hitchcock has a cheeky sense of dark humor which serves it well.  I  enjoyed Hitchcock quite a lot.  It's not a great film but it is a thoroughly delightful one.

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Landmark Theaters have been running a "no cell phone" PSA before its screenings for a few month.  The spot feature Hitchcock admonishing the audience to not use cell phones.  The footage in the ad comes from Hitchcock.

Four More at Various Theaters

I have been posting non-stop for two weeks and I'm still not caught up...

I saw four films in late March which have little to do with each other but I'll post them together:

Delicacy starring Audrey Tautou & François Damiens; directed by David Foenkinos & Stéphane Foenkinos; French with subtitles; (2011)
Centaur starring & directed by J.P. Allen; (2011) - Official Website
Pretty Poison starring Anthony Perkins & Tuesday Weld; directed by Noel Black; (1968)
Remember My Name starring Anthony Perkins, Geraldine Chaplin & Berry Berenson; directed by Alan Rudolph; (1978)

I saw Delicacy at the Landmark Embarcadero, Centaur at the Landmark Lumiere and the other two were a double feature at the Castro.

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I don't think I've mentioned it but I have a serious crush on Audrey Tautou. Amélie was ok but as she has aged, she has acquired that je ne sais quoi - sexy, funny, appealing, genial, etc. I fully recognized it when I saw Beautiful Lies last fall. In Delicacy, she continues to establish her romantic comedy credentials as the successful businesswoman who begins a romance with a schlub. Schlub is a little harsh because Markus (François Damiens) isn't such a bad guy. He's not as successful or handsome as Nathalie's (Tautou) late husband but he's thoughtful and funny...and nearby when Nathalie emerges from her long but functional period of mourning. Much of their romance was attributed to fate as Nathalie seemed to kiss the first man she encountered. She later denied recalling the incident to Markus.

Delicacy is not a film to be dissected line by line to see what motivates the characters. Delicacy is fun, lightweight romantic comedy about finding love in unexpected places. Nathalie is finally ready to live a full life again and for whatever reason (and there are some), she chooses Markus. Markus is being paid attention to by a successful and attractive executive...who happens to be his boss. There is one joke where Nathalie chides Markus for making such a big deal of the kiss...like at an American company.

I found Delicacy to be delightful.

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J.P. Allen is not a name I was familiar with before seeing Centaur. When I saw his face, I immediately recognized him from his 2004 film Gambling which played at the 2006 SF Indiefest. That film was a character study of a mna with a gambling addiction. A little to wordy for my tastes. Good dialogue is welcomed, but Gambling was filled with long, elliptical monologues.

Allen's latest film is similar although the premise is a little more compelling. Allen plays an unnamed man who videotapes his thoughts as he plans to kill the man who killed his wife in a drunk driving accident and escaped legal punishment. As the film is structured, Allen speaks into the camera extensively but the dialogue is more literal than I recall in Gambling. There are some passages about flying with his pilot father and him and late wife on Lake Tahoe during a storm, but Centaur builds up suspense nicely towards its conclusion. The man has give himself 30 days to complete the task and is quite thorough in his preparation so suspense builds as each day passes in the video log.

I won't reveal the ending because I was little confused about it. That didn't change my tepid response to the film. Not bad, not great but something in between. Centaur was filmed in San Francisco so many of the locations were familiar. Allen has a silky voice which can be used to connote many emotions but in some ways I think he relies on it too much in his films.

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In Pretty Poison, Anthony Perkins plays a man fresh out of the psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane. Convicted of arson while a teenager which resulted in the death of his aunt, Dennis Pitts is released into society with instruction to contact his parole officer/psychiatrist regularly. Pitts immediately leaves town, ignore those instructions and gets a job a wood processing factory. Eyeing 17 year old Sue Ann (Tuesday Weld), Pitts scams her into thinking he is a spy! Or does he? Sue Ann proves to be more mature than her age and excels in manipulating Pitts. Two murders later and Pitts is taking the rap for Sue Ann's crimes.

Darkly humorous and highlighting Weld's sexiness, Pretty Poison reminded me of a Hitchcock film. It was very enjoyable with strong chemistry between Perkins and Weld.

I had seen Remember My Name at the Castro in May 2009 as part of its Women on the Verge series. I didn't realize that until the first scene which like the rest of the film, use blues music as the soundtrack. Geraldine Chaplin (Charlie's daughter) is an ex-con who begins to stalk her ex-husband (Perkins) and his wife (Berry Berenson, Perkins' wife at the time of filming and future 9/11 victim).

As the film progresses, the audience begins to see Chaplin's character go from initially mousy and strange to vindictive and strange. There is a scene where Chaplin is hiding in the house while Berenson is moving about unaware of her uninvited guest. It was a very tense scene. Chaplin really nailed the angry, scorned female character type. Jeff Goldbeck, Dennis Franz and Alfre Woodward have small roles. Remember My Name is nice piece of 1970s cinema. Modestly budgeted and shot on locations around LA, the film a distinctly 1970s look which dates it but gives the film a lot of its appeal as well.

The theme for the double feature seemed to be "Anthony Perkins is played for the fool by sexy women."