Eureka (1982)
In his introductory remarks presaging a rare screening of his little known 1982 film Eureka director Nicolas Roeg confessed that the film suffered from Bad Timing, released as it was during the inception of the capitalist resurgence led by Thatcher and Regan, and nervous producers shelved the film for half a decade. In recent times the film has undergone a modest re-appraisal, it’s resonance with classics such as Citizen Kane and the more recently successful There Will Be Blood are apparent in the motif of power drunk capitalist scions descending into a deadly mania, a lunacy that takes their family and friends down with them, resulting in a lonely death as absolute power corrupts absolutely – not exactly the most receptive ethos to transmit in the early eighties.
One element that Eureka has going for it is its refreshing cast – aggressive and grizzled Jack McCann (a snarling Gene Hackman) kills his colleague in a blizzard battered tundra, before braving the elements in a perilous journey to a frontier town. Jack it seems is a foolhardy explorer, a prospector in the early years of the 20th century whom will stop at nothing to seize great wealth and achieve his destiny. After a delirious moment when he stumbles across a concealed vein of precious gold out in the Alaskan wilderness the film snaps forward to the late thirties where Jack is now established as a fabulously wealthy entrepreneur on his own Caribbean island paradise, but all the wealth in the world cannot solve every obstacle in the pursuit of happiness. Jack’s daughter Tracy (Theresa Russell) has secretly married Claude Van Horne (Rutger Hauer in a pre Blade Runner performance), an upper class European whom Jack suspects is angling after a colossal inheritance. Jack’s wife Helen is a drunk whom has resigned herself to a lonely life with him, and more pressing matters of a more lethal nature are orbiting in the form of a duo of lecherous lawyers – Mayafowsky (Joe Pesci) and D’Amato (Mickey Rourke) whom are anxiously asking, then indignantly insisting that Jack invest in their plans for a majestic casino on the Island, a scheme that coalesces the forces of power and greed under a strange occultist enigma that seems to have saturated the ancient archipelago…
Shot through a hazy, gaudy azure filter the opening sequence has the aura of a Grimms fairy tale, it’s all slightly artificial with a fable like, dreamy quality – at least until an insane sapper blows his brains out all over a saloon wall in perhaps the films most inexplicable moment. Eureka then moves into more conventional territory as the family dynamics are explored, in quite a brutal performance from Hackman his Jack is a paranoid and haughty fiend who nonetheless remains tender with his beloved daughter. There are some remarkable scenes, a voodoo fuelled orgy in the middle of the film reminds one that this a Roeg film with that sense of the erotic and sex as a defining force of our species that infuses his films, like Herzog he also has a penchant for obsessed driven loners and beautiful, fragile landscapes. It was a good print apart from a metronome beat on certain reels which was a little distracting, however the inclusion of a couple of wider cinematic references kept me entertained – an assassin toying with a snow globe a la Citizen Kane, a discreet poster of Chaplin’s The Gold Rush flaring across the screen during a driving sequence – clearly the film-makers understood and appreciated the efforts of their ancestors.
So yes, I don’t know if you’d noticed but I’m on something of a Nicolas Roeg frenzy at the moment, following these three cinema visits I’ve also committed to a couple more reviews of a lovely sounding new Blu-Ray print of Don’t Look Now – a film I haven’t seen for a long time – and potentially a couple of peripheral films such as Track 29 and Puffball if I can find the time. This weekend I’m pleased to see that Battle Los Angeles has crept up on me – sneaky little cloaked alien bastards – although I’m not counting down the hours to its release I do hope its better than the pitiful attempt of resistance that was Skyline. According to filmjunk there are a fleet of invasion movies in hyperspace, I’ve already seen Paul and I’m afraid I didn’t laugh once – and I like Pegg and Frost. Apollo 18 looks like a classic case of bandwagon jumping which is a shame as that’s quite an interesting premise they’ve got going on, Super 8 however has my sensors in full alignment. Interesting timing of the world in turmoil and armed insurrection don’t you think?
At The Mountains Of Meekness
Jesus Fucking Christ – and people wonder why I dislike children. I thought that article I posted a while ago concerning the timidity of Hollywood and the current courting of the kiddie dollar was a little too cynical but this seems to happen with a depressing frequency these days. What does it take to make a mainstream film for adults? How about an Oscar nominated director? The producer of the TWO biggest films in history? An A list star?* An admittedly small but loyal fan base (I’m speaking of horror movies in general and Lovecraft, and I’m not even that big a fan of that Miskatonic racist)? Or a does a combination of all four STILL not convince the pathetic purse holders? All these remakes and ‘safe’ franchises are really beginning to grate – I am fucking sick to death of Superhero movies, I really am – that imminent Thor movie? Don’t care. Captain America? Don’t care. X-Men kindergarten? Really. Don’t. Care. Green fucking Lantern? Have you seen that trailer? It looks absolutely terrible and if most of the well-respected movie blogs of the States are to be believed (I know, I know) it generated laughter when it screened around Christmas time. Cinema is a broad church and there is a place for all this stuff, but let’s have some mainstream mayhem for people born during the Cold War as well please? Is that too much to ask?
Here’s an intelligent, terrific and lengthy article on the Del Toro dude, I was kind of saving it until Mountains was green-lit but here we are – beware though, there are SERIOUS SPOILERS for the film buried in the text, including his vision for the very last scene (which made me mouth a silent ‘Wow’ when I first read it) which may survive intact if another studio grows a pair and this actually gets picked up. And you all 3D haters out there? Go fuck a duck. Seriously. Yes, most 3D movies have been poor and whilst it had its shortcomings as a mainstream movie experience, as a spectacle which is unquestionably what Del Toro is aiming for then Avatar was a terrific piece of work, clichéd script and predictable plot n’ all – I doubt that Mountains would achieve much more. Whilst I’m in rant mode what about the fourteen, fifteen and sixteen years olds that are twatting about these days? Aren’t they gluing on false moustaches and developing deep voices to bewilder the age police at the cinema ticket booth? What are they doing – taking their dates to see a Shakespeare re-imagining with Garden Gnomes? Let me stress that – Fucking Garden Gnomes? As other observers have remarked that atrocity looks like a ‘joke’ film you’d see a poster for in a Will Ferrell picture. Is this what the world has come too? Jesus, when I was growing up it was a rite of passage to get through a triple bill of Cannibal Holocaust, The House By The Cemetery and Nightmares In A Damaged Brain – kids today eh? What a bunch of fucking pussies. The only silver lining today, cinematically speaking, is that I just got an invite to a press screening of this down in deepest Soho. I’ve never actually been in a ‘legendary’ Wardour Street screening hovel so that could be an adventure….
*Yeah, I know his star wattage has waned recently but he’s still one of the biggest draws out there. Plus seeing him in a film about insane cults might be funny…and most of this post is a joke. Mostly.
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