the unbelievable truth ( film )
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the unbelievable truth proved a promising feature - film debut for writer - director hal hartley, who was dubbed
the godard of long island
by critics with more sense of humor than of substance. in the vein of jim jarmusch' s stranger than paradise and the work of david lynch, the unbelievable truth searches for the unexpected, bizarre, and magical essence... read more
year it played sundance: 1990, with a lineup that also included “ house party, ” “ longtime companion, ” “ cinema paradiso ” and “ the unbelievable truth ” (featured above) .
review: the unbelievable truth proved a promising feature - film debut for writer - director hal hartley, who was dubbed
the godard of long island
by critics with more sense of humor than of substance. in the vein of jim jarmusch' s stranger than paradise and the wor… (more )
i fought half that long, and twice as intensely, with harvey weinstein when he bought the unbelievable truth. he wanted more nudity. i stood my ground, and handed back his cheque. then he really freaked out. he told me he' d bury my film, that no one would ever see it. but you know what? i admire him. the studio on no such thing was uncaring and incompetent. but harvey really wanted the unbelievable truth to be a success. whether his ideas served it in the best way is debatable, but the love of film was there .
key features: typical of hartley, the 17 - minute piece “years later: the unbelievable truth and its consequences” is like a meta - featurette, built around interviews with hartley, the late shelly, burke, and future favorites martin donovan and thomas jay ryan .
nevertheless, the unbelievable truth was the beginning of something more lasting, both in terms of hartley’s career as a doggedly independent filmmaker, and in a quirky sensibility that others would co - opt, badly. though it was a rough draft for many strong films hartley would produce in the early - to - mid ’90s— trust, simple men, surviving desire, amateur, flirt, et al. — the unbelievable truth was still like nothing else at the time, an offbeat relationship study with dialogue pitched somewhere between jim jarmusch deadpan and the rhythms of a samuel beckett play .
and its japanese theatrical release, crown international pictures acquired the rights to distribute the film theatrically in the united states in 1962. the american cut of the film, called
the unbelievable truth deconstructs a classic story of teenage rebellion, with burke cast as the dangerous james dean type, and shelly as the girl whose attraction to him arises from a general impulse to defy what’s expected of her. for his part, burke is amusingly honest about his crimes—he admits to killing a man after trying to apologize for killing the man’s daughter two years earlier—but like all the characters in the film, his first impression isn’t the same as the last. hartley explored similar themes of marginalization and, well, trust better in his 1991 follow - up, trust, but the unbelievable truth tapped into a mood of disaffection that was creeping through the culture. watching it 20 years later feels like time travel .
the unbelievable truth
is a movie for film buffs. those who wander in off the street are likely to be confused, since it seems to be so unsprung and without purpose. what hartley is doing, however, is writing a film essay on conventions and cliches and middle - american movie characters. he establishes them as completely ordinary, and then he lets them wander off into the byways of their destinies. what makes the film fun is the deadpan, tongue - in - cheek humor that undermines the seemingly sincere dramatic scenes .
fox news ,
' she lies!': mom of benghazi victim blasts hillary for not telling the truth ,
oct. 22, 2015
unbelievable truth take their name from the cult hal hartley film.' the film is naturally askew,' says drummer nigel powell, 26.' similarly, we' re not desperately trying to be different, but have just ended up at a tangent.' this is what makes their music so convincing. by combining satisfyingly complex lyrics with brooding guitar and rich strings, they convey grand, epic emotions with a delicacy that most british bands struggle to attain .
the american version of the film, varan, the unbelievable, is widely disliked and infamous among fans. it is often accused of ruining the entire film and copying the strategy used in godzilla, king of the monsters! , but executing it much less effectively. all of the changes, from varan' s roar to the added plotline about an american officer, are heavily criticized .
almost two decades ago, hal hartley came across shelly' s picture by serendipity. he was casting his first film, the unbelievable truth, which had a budget of just $ 75, 000, and someone else in his office, who was trying to cast a music video, held up shelly' s head shot.' what about her?' he said, and the rest is movie history .
when hal hartley’s feature debut the unbelievable truth was released in 1990, it proved a minor revelation. for a generation of college - aged young people raised on john hughes movies—generation x, basically—hartley immediately became the new arbiter of cool, with adrienne shelly as his alternate - universe molly ringwald, an eccentric object of desire whose motives were tantalizingly mysterious. given its impact at the time, it’s remarkable that the 20th - anniversary edition of the unbelievable truth is self - distributed, but then again, maybe hartley was just the filmmaker of the moment, and that moment has passed. if he were a rock band, he could expect an audience composed entirely of 40 - year - olds at the reunion show .
everybody lies. for richard ramsay, a lawyer defending an uncooperative murder suspect in the whole truth, this is the only truth. it drives the legal strategy he walks us through, in impassive voiceover narration, in what might have been a tantalizing whodunit about the less - than - gleaming gears of justice but is instead a curiously uninvolving exercise in procedure .
mr. hartley and his director of photography, michael spiller, have made a film that is visually and verbally much richer than its low budget. though'' the unbelievable truth'' ends with some incredible twists and revelations, it has all the offbeat appeal of its strange characters.'' you' re in love with that homicidal auto mechanic!'' audry' s old boyfriend yells. she has obviously made the right choice .
his latest picture, fay grim, is a heartening reminder of everything that audiences treasured about the poised, crisp little roundelays that made his name - the unbelievable truth (1989), trust (1990) and simple men (1992). these films possess the muted zaniness of a gary larson cartoon, and the crackling banter that betrays hartley' s love of preston sturges .
set in 1988, the film seems behind the curve in its emphasis on the way wall street rules american culture. when josh returns home from prison, he enters a subway at wall street; audry has a giant poster of a dollar bill over her bed; the boyfriend she rejects at the start of the film wears a yuppie' s signature yellow necktie. and she stops reading the newspapers and thinking about the apocalypse when she starts making big bucks as a fashion model. throughout'' the unbelievable truth,'' mr. hartley pushes this theme of crass commerce too hard .
with the headline: review / film; applying 1950' s cool to the 80' s .
what the retellings share is an indifference to the truth, a puzzling eagernesses to exchange unbelievable facts for mundane and simplified melodramatic plot. for example, much of the text appears to be a streamlined version of a story about colonel sander’s plot to kidnap his daughter, found on a urltoken, and attributed to a los angeles times syndicated article — that oddly doesn’t appear in the paper’s online archive .
we can’t put rubio’s statement on the truth - o - meter. but here, we’ll lay out the case for and against his allegation against clinton and let readers come to their own conclusion .
she lies. very simple. she is not telling the truth ,
smith said during an interview with fox’s megyn kelly in 2015, when kelly brought up the question of whether clinton mentioned the video .
the director has clashed with a film critic about his representation of the welfare state in i, daniel blake .
, and the company' s last black - and - white kaiju film. it was released to
zachary tavlin, in “bodies, space, and theatre in the unbelievable truth (and its american precursors) ” makes a less convincing argument for how hartley’s first film, the unbelievable truth (1989), owes as much to john cassavetes’ faces (1968) and robert altman’s california split (1974) as it does to the films of bresson and godard. whereas, jennifer o’meara contributes a very fresh take on hartley in “parker posey as hal hartley’s ‘captive actress. ’” o’meara follows the trajectory of hartley and actress posey’s collaborations from the 1993 short flirt to hartley’s most recent film, ned rifle (2014), a total of nine films the two have made together. she locates the allure of posey in her voice, likening it to the face of anna karina in godard’s films. whereas godard fetishized karina’s face, hartley fetishizes posey’s voice (155). o’meara is the only female critic in this collection and it makes me wish there were more – and / or a queer perspective. hartley’s films are so concerned with gender roles, sexuality, and performance; it would have been great to read a more diverse group of viewpoints .
two beautiful, somber - faced people dressed entirely in black, audry and josh are a perfect match, the weirdest but most sensible characters in hal hartley' s droll, lucid black comedy,'' the unbelievable truth.'' this is the kind of small - scale independent movie with a familiar story behind it. the film was written, directed, edited and co - produced by mr. hartley, whose relatives took out bank loans and let him use their suburban houses on long island as sets during the 11 1 / 2 days it took to shoot most of the movie .
a dryly humanistic and funny feature debut by hal hartley. the first film i' ve seen by him, i must watch more. adrienne shelly was lovely in it rip. a sweet and wonderful film .
this film is not currently playing on mubi but 30 other great films are. see what’s now showing
steven rybin is assistant professor of film studies in the english department at minnesota state university, mankato. he is the author of
( blake’s friend katie is sanctioned in the film), making them feel as if they are working to targets .
in hal hartley' s first feature film, the unbelievable truth, josh (robert john burke), a criminal who has just been released from prison, returns home to lindenhurst, long island. there he' s hired as a mechanic by vic hugo (christopher cooke), the owner of a local garage. through a mutual interest in george washington, josh falls in love with vic' s daughter, audry (adrienne shelly). however, their romance proves to be difficult due to audry' s possessive ex - boyfriend and the mystery surrounding josh' s past .
the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans. it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
long also describes the film – which is an unforgiving drama about the cruelty of welfare bureaucracy – as “misery porn for smug londoners” .
the frequently unclothed lockhart, who’s better known as gay porn star brent corrigan, well fulfills the physical aspects of his role - - this is a film in which the underwear designer rightly gets a credit - - and moretti is disarmingly appealing as the hapless lover. but for all their strenuous efforts, the performers are not able to infuse truth with a single moment that feels remotely truthful .
and a year from now, where would the band like to be?' hopefully, success will happen, but not too quickly - i think it would be pretty destructive,' says yorke. unbelievable truth are a refreshing antithesis to britpop. they don' t want overnight success, they don' t live in london, they' re not into drink and drugs, and they are painfully shy. but, best of all, they are definitely not the next oasis .
nominations, including best picture, best actress and best director. the film grossed an impressive $ 21 million as well .
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what is the purpose of all of this? to intrigue us with the oddness of ordinary life, i think. a movie like
the unbelievable truth
is second cousin to those melodramas douglas sirk made at universal in the 1950s (
magnificent obsession ,
there' s always tomorrow ,
written on the wind
), in which people who looked and spoke and dressed as pillars of the middle class - and who thought of themselves as completely typical - got involved in unspeakably complicated love triangles and shady business deals and crimes of weakness .
' seeing waitress at sundance was a really emotional experience,' says nancy utley, chief operating officer of fox searchlight, which entered a bidding war to distribute the film.' the typical format for the festival is that the director is introduced to say a few words before the film begins. it was painful from the beginning to see that there was no director to introduce the film, since adrienne had passed away. so the producer and adrienne' s husband andy talked about how it had been adrienne' s dream to have a film at sundance. it was very poignant.'
” on the back of its success. that film’s journey to the screen, however, would not be as straightforward, to put it mildly .
imagine if you were a fledgling pop star how tiresome it would be if you were constantly asked about your more famous brother. but andy yorke, 26, younger brother of thom yorke, doesn' t worry about being compared:' unbelievable truth are sufficiently different from radiohead,' says yorke.' there' s no way i' d try and compete as thom' s a genius.' so, perhaps surprisingly, the prospect of living in the shadow of thom' s fame has not deterred andy from starting his own band .
when modern navy scientists defy the unknown mysteries of the past, perpetuated by centuries of native belief, then nature strikes in all its vengeance in varan, the unbelievable! for generations, the legend was passed on. they said varan was there, deep in the still waters. they said ,
let varan sleep !
, but the navy commander would not heed their warning. he moved forward, ever searching, ever going deeper and deeper, until it was too late! varan rose from the depths slowly, unrelentingly, to wreak its vengeance on the civilization that wanted to know too much. tumultuous! terrifying! so awesome it will shock you to the core! varan, the unbelievable !
how was it received at the time? the film received no awards at sundance, though it eventually popped up at a number of festivals, earning a $ 3 million distribution deal from warner bros. pauline kael was a famous detractor, calling it “a piece of gonzo demagoguery. ” roger ebert existed on the other end of the spectrum, enthusiastically defending the film from attacks by discussing how moore’s use of a flexible timeline was more about the nature of storytelling on film .
a critic is free to tear into a film they didn’t enjoy. but the problem with long’s review is the problem with the way britain in general looks at the benefits system: disbelief .
hartley came to specialise in a genre all his own: it had the absurdist hallmarks of godard, the barren, stifling precision of bresson, yet it was invariably set in suburban long island, where hartley grew up. by coincidence, shelly grew up there too, and she became his anna karina - a doll - like fatalist on whom male characters could project their apocalyptic fantasies. the year after the unbelievable truth was released, hartley wrote trust, his best film, with shelly in mind. his directions were so minimalistic (' less, less, less: i don' t want to see anything on your face at all'), she later said that she sometimes wanted to kill him. but she absorbed his auteurism wholeheartedly .
in 1945, overseen by alfred hitchcock, a crack team of british film - makers went to germany to document the horror of the concentration camps. despite being hailed as a masterpiece, the film was never shown. now, in a documentary called night will fall, the full story of its creation and suppression is being told
varan is often considered by many kaiju fans to be one of toho' s weakest films. one common criticism from fans stems from the film' s story, claiming that it' s a generic monster movie story, while other toho kaiju and science - fiction films involved more complex and interesting stories. the film is still popular for introducing the monster varan, who has only appeared in a cameo appearance and several non - film media since .
hartley was a beneficiary of that initial enthusiasm. his debut, the unbelievable truth, launched him as one of us cinema' s most intelligent film - makers. he claims not to have paid much attention to what everyone was saying about him .
never underestimate the weirdness of being young and having people writing about you everywhere, whether they' re saying you' re a smart guy or an asshole. and i had plenty of both .
by the time flirt vanished without a trace, hartley had lost his position in the independent scene, a situation unaltered even by the compelling henry fool, which won the best screenplay prize at cannes. it has been an effort simply tracking down his subsequent films, such as his monster movie no such thing, which was recut by its producer, francis coppola .
the ballad of narayama
is a japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice, telling a story of startling cruelty. what a space it opens…
– which called the film a “povvo safari for middle - class do - gooders” – has led to loach and some audience members rowing with long online .
bernstein’s film never got the chance to be as revered as later holocaust documentaries, including lanzmann’s shoah, resnais’s night and fog, and ophüls’ the sorrow and the pity. as singer explains, an incomplete version was shown at the berlin film festival in 1984 and on pbs in the us in 1985 under the title memory of the camps. only recently did a team from the imperial war museum complete and digitise the picture .
singer tracked down and interviewed survivors who appeared in the original footage. among them was anita lasker - wallfisch, now 89, who recalled the day british troops arrived at belsen - bergen. “it was an unbelievable moment. suddenly, you hear english spoken. ‘you should remain calm. don’t leave the camp. help is one the way. ’ that sort of thing. ”
but it was around this time that most hartley fans lost interest. his four - feature hot streak, from the unbelievable truth to amateur (1994), came to an end. hartley wonders if his commercial falling - off was down to the independent scene being cramped by the same market forces that drive the studios .
early on, there was interest in the films, and a gratitude for some alternative to the dominant product ,
he reflects .
the distributors got desperate. they realised that any one of these little films could be a hit like jim jarmusch' s stranger than paradise. they ended up buying lots of things that didn' t do so well, and the hunger for a hit became overwhelming .
education appeared in a professional production of annie while still at high school. studied film production at boston university but dropped out after a year .
what’s it about: a ship fire and a mass murder leave behind one witness, fast - talking career criminal verbal kint (kevin spacey), who knows the truth about the discovered corpses and is gradually coerced into sharing the story of his accomplices (including gabriel byrne, benicio del toro, kevin pollack and stephen baldwin) with the dogged detective (chazz palminteri) on the case .
eventually, things take a violent turn, with caleb handcuffing jeremy to the bed and brutalizing him after learning about a hidden part of his life that spurs the film towards its surprise ending .
the film cost $ 1. 2 million to make and made $ 11 million back in theatrical release, so it yielded a decent return on investment. but it made a deeper impression in the
we included a couple of documentaries, but could also have gone for the excellent “ crumb, ” “ capturing the friedmans, ” oscar winners “ an inconvenient truth ” and “ the cove, ” or the seminal “ the times of harvey milk. ” money - spinners that we thought about adding in included “ four weddings and a funeral ” and “ saw, ” though they feel a bit like outliers in the sundance canon .
as gay - themed cinema goes, truth definitely veers towards the exploitative side. this psychological thriller presents a portrait of a relationship gone very, very wrong. but its hitchcockian aspirations are sabotaged by a tendency towards lurid melodrama that is more laughable than chilling. cult status at midnight screenings possibly looms if audiences can be persuaded to repeat chunks of the inane dialogue .
and even as it has showcased these talents, sundance has been symbiotically affected by many of them too, basking in the halo effect of its association with some of the most respected film professionals working today, even as the image of the ideal “sundance film” has changed over the years. so what we have here is not a list of the biggest films the festival has ever produced, nor even the best, but simply an eclectic selection of 25 films that we judge to be quintessentially “sundance, ” in that their fortunes were materially altered by their exposure at the festival, and they, in their turn, further defined our idea of what the sundance film festival is all about .
new york indie star adrienne shelly had everything to live for: her husband, young daughter, and a brilliant movie she' d just directed and starred in. why, then, would she hang herself in her shower? in fact, she was murdered. as the film, waitress, is released, we report on her tragic death - and the remarkable success of the film she left behind
clinton, for her part, flatly denies saying anything about the film in her one - on - one with the families. on dec. 30, 2015, new hampshire’s conway daily sun asked her about the allegation that she lied to the families .
hal hartley' s
the unbelievable truth
is another example of that strange mixture of melodrama and irony that david lynch has popularized with
twin peaks .
the approach involves inventing a real world of ordinary people, and then filling it with bizarre and mysterious events. something is being made fun of - but is it the reality, or the fantasy? the movie takes place in a small town on long island where a young woman named audry (adrienne shelly) restlessly confronts the end of her adolescence. her boyfriend is so earnest and sincere it' s hard to believe he believes himself. her father, who runs the local auto repair shop, loves her but has strong opinions about what is right and wrong for her. he is not pleased when audry gets a crush on an older man - a stranger, new in town, who has just hired on at the garage .
how was it received at the time? “pi” was a surprising $ 1 million purchase by artisan. most critics were impressed but guarded, and certainly circumspect when it came to the film’s box office potential: owen gleiberman claimed it looked “like the ultimate college masterpiece, ” while richard corliss preferred to discuss director aronofsky himself, claiming he was a “genuine experimenter. ” ultimately the film pulled in a little more than $ 3 million at the worldwide box office .
is it worth the hype? an unreserved yes. marsh stated he was attracted to the film because he viewed it as a heist movie, and that element of thrillerish excitement is certainly there. however the film is also a terrifically moving look at friendship and the toll that one man’s tunnel - visioned drive and talent can take on his relationships, as well as a portrait of a truly extraordinary, but not always likeable, man .
how was it received at the time? “blood simple” was the deserved grand prize winner at sundance, and the film earned the coens worldwide attention, grossing a little under $ 4 million—at the time strong numbers for an independent release. in his four - star review, roger ebert praised its economy, saying it is a film in which “everything that happens seems necessary. ” how big did it get? though not as oft - quoted or deeply beloved as some of the coens’ other films, “blood simple” is considered a touchstone of eighties independent cinema. it was also the debut of cinematographer barry sonnenfeld, who went on to essay the “ men in black ” films. the young lady in the lead is frances mcdormand in her first role: she later won an oscar for a coen brothers film, “ fargo. ” in the late nineties, the coens supervised a “director’s cut” that shortened the film by three minutes, allowing the picture’s reputation to grow. it’s also, as far as we know, the sole coens film to spawn a chinese - language remake (albeit a loose one): acclaimed filmmaker zhang yimou later tackled the material in his sumptuous comedy, “ a woman, a gun and a noodle shop. ”
part of the reasoning for that memo, singer argues, is that the british thought the germans needed to be nurtured as allies against the growing power of the soviet union. but were such compunctions realistic? would showing the film to postwar germany have been a propaganda reverse for the british, serving to alienate the germans and tip the emerging cold war in the soviets’ favour? singer doubts it .
scott weinberg is a film writer and critic who has written for outlets such as playboy, fearnet, nerdist, and many others. he tweets @ scotteweinberg but ignores mean people .
bertie himself is also romanticized. he is seen presciently raising the question of german aggression before the invasion of the sudetenland. edward waves off bertie’s warning, and, the next time we are instructed to focus on political questions, the king is heroically rallying his people to the battle against fascism. the film leaves out what happened in the intervening period .
in a critically and commercially disappointing year for the film industry, one of the few highlights has been the reception given to the king’s speech. the movie has been nominated for just about every existing award, and a bevy of oscar nominations are forthcoming. the period drama is also on its way to financial success .
into the gap left in 1945 by the suppression of bernstein’s film came another documentary, made by the great hollywood director and exiled austrian jew billy wilder. but wilder’s death mills was a hectoring piece of propaganda, keen to indict germans, while bernstein and crossman had attempted to make their film a warning to all of humanity. “bernstein’s was a work of art by comparison, ” says singer, “mainly because of crossman’s lyrical script. ”
many years later, steven spielberg chose lustig, by then a film - maker, to be a producer for schindler’s list. lustig has a theory about why british authorities suppressed bernstein’s film. “at this time, the brits had enough problems with the jews. ” by that, no doubt, he means that britain was dealing with zionists agitating for a jewish homeland in the british mandate of palestine – and seeing the full extent of jewish suffering would only inflame them .
in this lyrically offbeat fable, hartley, the most godardian of american indies, takes the audience to familiar - looking yet utterly strange places, like working class long island, where his bizarrely charming romance takes place; still his best film .
the film' s other unfortunate excess is christopher cooke' s overacting as audry' s father. he seems to yell and take a bite out of every line he has. but these flaws stand out because the rest of the film is so deft. mark bailey, as another of vic' s mechanics, creates a perfectly affable clod.'' so, why' dja kill pearl' s father?'' he asks josh one day while sitting around the garage .
, crown added newly - filmed footage of a western actor, myron healy, and made the plot focus on him. the film' s story was changed drastically, revolving around an american military officer overseeing a chemical test in a lake on an island. varan is never referred to by name in the film, only called
obaki ,
and his roar is completely changed. the scene of varan gliding from the cliff is removed, and close - up shots of varan' s claws are added .
how was it received at the time? while some critics found the air of stillman ’s milieu just too rarefied, most received the film warmly, especially its fearless wordiness, with roger ebert identifying it as “dialogue…in which the characters discuss ideas and feelings instead of simply marching through plot points as most hollywood characters do” and “a film about people covering their own insecurities with a facade of social ease. ” how big did it get? stillman’s debut followed what has now become a fairly well - trodden path for sundance breakouts: despite not picking up a distribution deal there immediately, the film rode its crest of sundance buzz to an academy award nomination (for screenplay) and an independent spirit award for best first feature, before new line picked it up the day before the director left for a triumphant run during cannes ‘ directors’ fortnight. in the years since, the film’s stature has only grown as it launched stillman’s uniquely ironic but warm, f. scott fitzgerald - style take on the foibles and flaws of the indolent, overeducated upper - classes .
in one piece of film, from majdanek concentration camp, we see huge bags containing human hair. collected from the murdered, it would have been carefully sorted and weighed. “nothing was wasted, ” says the narrator. “even teeth were taken out of their mouth. ” bernstein’s film then cuts to a large pile of spectacles. “if one man in 10 wears spectacles, ” we are asked, “how many does this heap represent? ”
the situation for disabled, sick or broke people claiming welfare is unbelievable in this country, which is perhaps why it’s so difficult for us – or for some watching loach’s portrayal of the cruel system – to believe it at all. at best, it’s because we would prefer to close our eyes to a system that we hope we never have to grapple with. at worst, it’s because we don’t believe people when they say they cannot work, and demonise them as “shirkers” or “scroungers” .
while most of ad - pt was closed down, the network abc was still active. in 1958, they had been collaborating with toho on a tv movie called varan, monster from the east. varan was originally planned to air on american television, but this fell through. toho set up a japanese theatrical release date, added new scenes, deleted old scenes, and cropped the video to be released in theaters. it was later released in the united states in 1962 under the title varan, the unbelievable. varan was a black - and - white film, since it was meant for tv, while toho had been making color kaiju films ever since rodan in 1956. 47 years later in 2005, toho and tokyo shock released varan on dvd in japan and the united states, including the unreleased television version in both releases .
what it’s about: derek cianfrance ’s heartbreaking film examines, through temporally juxtaposed editing, the relationship between cindy (michelle williams) and dean (ryan gosling) from their first encounter, through the blush of love, marriage and parenthood, right up to the relationship’s dissolution .
is it worth the hype? if ever a film risked being overshadowed by the hype, it’s this one. it’s a sweet, slight, charming but fairly insubstantial romance with some lovely music, but to hear some of the initial reactions, you’d think it was curing cancer. with a few years’ gap—even given the stage version—it probably holds up a bit better: hansard and irglova are immensely appealing leads, and there’s a swooning and tragic romanticism to the film that leaves a lump in the throat, even if it risks being pat in places .
how was it received at the time? after a very positive response at sundance and reviews that saw “ scrubs ” star braff repeatedly referred to as a “triple threat, ” the film landed a joint distribution deal between heavy hitters fox searchlight and miramax .
no matter. the film, which some have called a forgotten masterpiece of british documentary, was shelved for 70 years. bernstein died in 1993 and, according to singer, one of his regrets was not completing his holocaust documentary .
most people would point to the sixth sense as m. night shyamalan' s cleverest plot twist, but for my money that prize goes to the man' s masterpiece, unbreakable, and a wildly inventive finale that i simply didn' t see coming. bruce willis stars as a man who slowly begins to realize he has superhuman powers. he befriends a comic - book expert with a strange disease (his bones are very brittle), and eventually has to accept the truth. it certainly does seem that he' s a superhero who cannot be injured - - and that' s when he learns the truth about his new friend :
mr. glass
( samuel l. jackson) is actually an evil terrorist, as well as our reluctant hero' s newfound arch - nemesis. i can still remember that supremely satisfying little
click
that occurred inside my brain when this twist showed up and i finally saw the puzzle mr. shyamalan had constructed .
how was it received at the time? against perhaps not the most competitive lineup sundance has ever seen, “man on wire” really ruled the roost, picking up both the audience award and the grand jury prize for documentary, the first time a non - u. s. film managed that double. magnolia picked it up for u. s. release .
singer says he’s already had flak for including lustig’s theory. “why the film was scuppered is not very well documented, ” he says. “but branko may well have a point. ” singer points out that in 1945, the incoming labour government’s foreign secretary, ernest bevin, was anti - zionist and unsympathetic to the foundation of a jewish state. but he concedes there is no strong proof. “the only documentary evidence we have is a memo from the foreign office saying that screening such an ‘atrocity film’ would not be a good idea. ”
footage from his unfinished film, however, proved key to the prosecution of camp commandants at the nuremberg and lüneburg trials in 1945. anita lasker - wallfisch recalls testifying at lüneburg against, among others, bergen - belsen commandant josef kramer, known as “the beast of belsen”. her evidence was supported by film that contradicted the accused’s defence. “kramer had said he didn’t have the food to feed his prisoners and that was why they were in such a state. the footage destroyed that, ” says singer. kramer and other officers from bergen - belsen were hanged that year .
the opening of lucy shows scenes of cell division and prehistoric wildlife intercut with the eponymous heroine being forced into ferrying drugs. initially, it seems a little out of place, but more than an hour later besson ties it all things together .
i wanted to de - structure the storytelling, because i wanted the people to be ready at the end to believe something unbelievable ,
besson says .
if i was too straightforward, without cheetahs, without cells, without anything, it would be like a thriller and then the end would be weird. so i needed to prep the audience from the beginning, like' you have to be ready for everything.'
further intrigued, a larger expedition is then dispatched to the area. this time the investigation is funded by the film company
20th century mysteries solved
, an organization that seeks to uncover the truth behind the two deaths to report on it. staff of the firm yuriko shinjo and horiguchi lead the expedition along with kenji uozaki, a member of the scientific community. the expedition travels further inland and stumbles upon a village doing a ritualistic prayer to their mountain god. the priest of the village warns the travelers that their presence will make the monster angry. the warnings fall of deaf ears, though, and the problem escalates when ken, a young local boy, runs out of the village after his dog. the villagers are warned not pursue, as the priest explains that such action would anger the mountain god. kenji challenges the priest' s warning, asking if their beliefs are worth endangering the life of a child. the three members of the expedition then decide to take matters into their own hands and rescue the boy. the trio is separated, however, in the thick fog. kenji and horiguchi return to the village to rally the locals to help them, telling them their beliefs are little more than superstition. the villagers, minus the priest, agree, and head toward the lake to rescue ken. once there, ken, along with yuriko, are discovered. their reunion is cut short, though, by the monster varan rising from the kitami river. the villagers flee back to their homes, but varan gives chase. the aquatic monster enters the village, killing the priest who was guarding the entrance. the beast then proceeds to tear apart the huts inside. after the destruction, the monster retreats to his underwater lair .
how big did it get? the film brought in nearly $ 3 million domestically, which is hardly astounding, but it did go on to have a very successful dvd release. more important, though, was the film’s critical domination of that year’s conversation—it was all over most critics’ year - end lists and went on to scoop the academy award for best documentary and the equivalent at the independent spirit awards, along with the bafta for best british film. and though we set little store by rt ordinarily, it is remarkable that its rotten tomatoes review score is holding at an unheard - of 100% to this day. it also launched the more prolific period of james marsh’s career, allowing him to work more continually across narrative (“ red riding, ” “ shadow dancer ”) and documentary (“ project nim ”) ever since .
the film tells the story of king george vi (colin firth) and his battle with a speech impediment. bertie, as he was known, seeks the help of a speech therapist (played by geoffrey rush), and the two spend most of the film—differences in social status be damned—bonding. by the time the credits roll, bertie has conquered his stammer, and the british people are well on their way to vanquishing fascism—the latter, naturally, having been aided by the former, thanks to an inspiring royal address from buckingham palace after the german invasion of poland. this heartwarming tale plays out predictably and unsubtly— the king’s speech is one of those films that is not content to show us a friendship developing over two hours; no, the characters must also tell us how much the friendship means to them .
there are a few more true tidbits in the film for science buffs, though. like, for example, the fact that lucy is named after the skeleton of the australopithecus afarensis found in 1974 that is our most famous early human ancestor. wired got on the phone with besson to ask him about neuroscience and some of lucy' s other secrets .
so begins a british film about the holocaust that was abandoned and shelved for 70 years because it was deemed too politically sensitive. the smell came from the dead, their bodies burned or rotting; or from malnourished, often disease - ridden prisoners in the concentration camp of bergen - belsen, near all those thriving german farms .
charles woods, father of cia operative tyrone woods, told talk show host glenn beck on oct. 25, 2012, that clinton said to him ,
we will make sure that the person who made that film is arrested and prosecuted .
bernstein assembled a remarkable team, including the future labour cabinet minister richard crossman, who wrote the film’s lyrical script, and alfred hitchcock, who flew in from hollywood to advise bernstein on its structure. they set to work on a documentary entitled german concentration camps factual survey. as they worked, reels of film kept arriving, sent by british, american and soviet combat and newsreel cameramen from 11 camps, including auschwitz, buchenwald, dachau and bergen - belsen. as well as the dead, the footage showed starved survivors and human remains in ovens .
like stephen frears’s film from 2006, the queen —which won helen mirren an oscar for her eponymous performance— the king’s speech is a testament to americans’ continuing fascination with the british royal family. but, unlike the queen, which was merely simplistic in its portrayal of the monarchy, the king’s speech is historically inaccurate, entirely misleading, and, in its own small way, morally dubious .
clever indy film - making at it' s best! !! this film jump started a genre. hal hartley' s masterpiece brims with clever dialogue and funny performances. adrianne shelley is a standout as audrey who is convinced that the world is soon to blow up. chris cooke should be getting a lot more work after his winning performance as vic hugo. he' s a delight to watch as his daughter audrey bargains with him on about going to college. and robert burke is great as the quiet josh, the returning man with a past. you catch something new every time with this film... like the funny way everyone fights in the movie (elaborate pushing matches). an original film and thoroughly enjoyable. great soundtrack too... under hal hartley' s alias of ned rifle. highly recommended... and definitely more than worth than 50¢ at your video rental and won' t put you to sleep if you like original, clever, landmark indy films like this one is .
is it worth the hype? the cautionary tale of “wunderkind” richard kelly ’s subsequent career aside, the film itself remains a fantastic mindfuck, a wonderfully enigmatic eerie - toned puzzle box featuring a role for gyllenhaal that more or less defined his twitchy, soulful intelligence. just avoid the director’s cut where possible and stick with the tighter and more confident theatrical version .
it takes a lot of guts to put the nature of your huge plot twist in the title of your film, but that' s precisely what david fincher did for his third feature. at the beginning of the dark misadventure that anchors the film, nicholas van orton (michael douglas) runs afoul of an elaborate role - playing
game
scam, finds himself running for his life, accidentally kills his brother, and tries to commit suicide - - only to discover that, yes, after all that, it was still just a game. just like it says in the title. kudos to the amusingly wacky screenplay for telling us the twist at the outset and then twisting and turning all over the place .
not only is this a brilliant piece of old - school haunted - house filmmaking, but alejandro amenabar' s work boasts a highly satisfying twist ending that feels like a natural progression of the plot - - not merely a surprising diversion. nicole kidman plays the exceedingly protective mother of two small children who seem to have a biological aversion to sunlight. after a while it becomes evident that the family' s wonderfully spooky mansion has been beset by unhappy spirits of some sort - - but once our heroine delves into the mystery, she learns that horrible truth: she and her children are the spirits !
how big did it get? the film’s international release the following year saw it recoup its budget, but it was really on dvd that it made its money ($ 10 million, reportedly). meanwhile its status as a cult film was growing, seeing it play extended midnight screening runs and gain in reputation to the point that kelly got to release a director’s cut in 2004, which no longer had the studio - mandated 2 - hour restriction. as a cultural artifact, the film also had a major impact, launching kelly to prodigy status (he was only 26 years old when he wrote and directed “donnie darko”), making a breakout leftfield star of jake gyllenhaal, and even seeing the world lose its shit for michael andrews ’ cover of tears for fears ’ “ mad world ” which became the spookily iconic centerpiece of its popular 80s - inflected soundtrack.
the unbelievable truth is a 1989 comedy-drama film written and directed by hal hartley , starring adrienne shelly ( in her first movie role ) and robert burke . it tells the story of audry , who dumps her high-school boyfriend and becomes a successful fashion model , but all along is in love with a mysterious man called josh , released after conviction for manslaughter . he after his experiences is uncomfortable with relationships , but learns that can not stay an observer of life and must fight to win her . the film was nominated for a grand jury prize in 1990 at the sundance film festival . 
the unbelievable truth is a 1989 comedy-drama film written and directed by hal hartley, starring adrienne shelly (in her first movie role) and robert burke. it tells the story of audry, who dumps her high-school boyfriend and becomes a successful fashion model, but all along is in love with a mysterious man called josh, released after conviction for manslaughter. he after his experiences is uncomfortable with relationships, but learns that cannot stay an observer of life and must fight to win her. the film was nominated for a grand jury prize in 1990 at the sundance film festival.
the unbelievable truth is a 1989 comedy-drama film written and directed by hal hartley, starring adrienne shelly (in her first movie role) and robert burke. it tells the story of audry, who dumps her high-school boyfriend and becomes a successful fashion model, but all along is in love with a mysterious man called josh, released after conviction for manslaughter. he after his experiences is uncomfortable with relationships, but learns that cannot stay an observer of life and must fight to win her. the film was nominated for a grand jury prize in 1990 at the sundance film festival.