If sad movies always make you cry, then artistic films should at the very least always make you think.
Better is if they make you think and feel at the same time.
It’s all good.
Even if you are not sure what you are thinking about or if it’s what the writer or producer wanted you to think about and quite possibly you just don’t know what to think about regarding what you just saw.
You do however know how you felt as you watched it.
You couldn’t take your eyes off of it.
At least with the incredibly talented legendary singer Sue Thompson, she is very direct in how sad movies made her feel in her classic ballad, Sad Movies (Always Make Me Cry). Please listen in.
He said he had to work so I went to the show alone
They turned down the lights and turned the projector on
And just as the news of the world started to begin
I saw my darlin’ and my best friend walk in
Though I was sittin’ there they didn’t see
And so they sat right down in front of me
When he kissed her lips I almost died
And in the middle of the color cartoon I started to cry.
Most music fans remember Ms. Thompson from what those of us who were born in the South would consider her cross over hit titled Norman.
That was an incredible smash pop hit as well but for us, it was her under the radar hits that came across as more artistic but very direct in their message that made you feel the singer’s pain.
Here is another powerful Sue Thompson song that you may have missed. We sure didn’t. If there was any song that could make you cry if you were ever stood up for the prom is her hit, What’s Wrong Bill? While it lasts, here is the link on YouTube. It is so sad and moving.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0Z8cNkoXFc
Okay. Very good. So we know what Sue felt because many of us have felt that too, especially during our teen years.
As we turn back to our feelings when watching artistic films, that we may not understand, we certainly know how we feel.
Writer-Director David Lynch’s now classic, Mulholland Drive certainly confused but mesmerized movie goers when they first saw it. It was one of those films that spawned endless discussions about what point it was trying to make, especially certain sequences that could be reality or interpreted as a dream.
Mulholland Drive is a 2001 neo-noir mystery film written and directed by David Lynch and starring Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, Justin Theroux, Ann Miller, and Robert Forster.
It tells the story of an aspiring actress named Betty Elms (Watts), newly arrived in Los Angeles, who meets and befriends an amnesiac woman (Harring) recovering from a car accident. The story follows several other vignettes and characters, including a Hollywood film director (Theroux).
Originally conceived as a television pilot, a large portion of the film was shot in 1999 with Lynch’s plan to keep it open-ended for a potential series.
After viewing Lynch’s version, however, television executives rejected it. Lynch then provided an ending to the project, making it a feature film. The half-pilot, half-feature result, along with Lynch’s characteristic style, has left the general meaning of the film’s events open to interpretation.
Here is the important part.
Mr. Lynch has declined to offer an explanation of his intentions for the narrative, leaving audiences, critics, and cast members to speculate on what transpires.
We sure did. Speculate and pontificate.
And that’s okay. Has been a lot of fun. Makes us feel smart.
In fact that is a major part of the fun.
What was more important was how it made us feel as we watched it thus prompting us to view it over and over until we thought that we understood at least most of it. This female lead driven film seemed to have it all. Great acting, writing, elegance, eroticism, mystery and tension.
All of this brings us to another female lead driven film that was mesmerizing to watch but extremely hard to understand, which is a good thing.
Marie Mireille Enos is an American actress who early in her career appeared variously as a guest star on such television shows as Sex and the City and The Education of Max Bickford among others.
We especially loved her in both of the successful television series The Catch and the eerily haunting The Killing. Ms. Enos’ breakout role in the latter, an AMC crime drama is what many feel launched her to stardom.
So when we were scanning the movie landscape we came across an artistic gem titled Never Here.
Never Here is an American thriller film directed and written by Camille Thoman. The film stars Mireille Enos. It premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival on June 18, 2017 and will be distributed by Vertical Entertainment. It marked the final film role for iconic actor Sam Shepard.
Here is the storyline.
Disturbing events lead an artist who photographs strangers to suspect that someone out there is watching her. Boundaries blur between real and imaginary, crime and art, the watcher and the watched. Her projects lead her on journeys following new subjects in order to understand who each is by what each person does and possesses. With or without their permission she voyeuristically captures their lives in photographs and objects, exhibiting her findings as a celebration despite some of her targets believing it more akin to an annoying invasion of privacy.
From our view it started out as a typical crime thriller but along the way began to take us down pathways unclear, not well defined, yet captivating.
Let’s make something clear. Artistic movies are very risky. They tend not to do well at the box office and unless they develop legs and become cult classics, they die a quick unceremonious death, buried with paint brushes and Expresso.
This in part is why major Hollywood studios, well-known for their test audience predictable and very boring plot lines designed strictly for profit, stay away from the unpredictable artistic endeavors.
Coming to the rescue was the Sundance Film Festival.
Their early origins are shared at sundance.org, “Founded by Robert Redford, Sundance Institute is a nonprofit organization that actively advances the work of independent storytellers in film and theatre.”
There was a time in the early days of the Sundance Film festival where Independent films tended to get a second life because of their artistic uniqueness and a willingness to tackle uncomfortable discussions that mainstream movie houses didn’t want to.
That was wonderful.
The problem was that over time, they became so successful that they too began to become formulaic in the pursuit of profit so the tag Independent Film didn’t mean as much anymore and they certainly became less artistic.
To propel a risky movie, one of the most vital ingredients is a strong female lead. That is what Mireille Enos brings to the table.
We feel her confusion as she tries to traverse the twists and turns of the story she finds herself trapped in. What parts are real and what experiences are in the head of a woman slowing going mad?
Movie Reviewer Dennis Harvey shares at variety.com, “Though it drifts off into the ozone at the end, for most of its running time, “Never Here” is a low-key but effective psychological thriller which flirts with that looming issue of the social-media age: privacy, and the invasion thereof.
Starring Mireille Enos in an impressive lead turn, and notable for providing the late Sam Shepard a substantial final role, this first narrative feature for editor and Brit stage thesp turned writer-director Camille Thoman is accomplished enough to suggest it won’t be her last.”
We agree.
For us, when we watch films, we want to feel something, even if we can’t pinpoint what that something is.
We want to feel something other than being influenced and manipulated for profit, even if it is a mutual trade in blockbuster escapism. That experience can be like eating sugary cereal. It may taste good once in a while but in the long term, artistically speaking, it is just no good for you.
Female lead driven artistic movies can be so much about how the film makes us feel.
Even if they are sad, painful and always make us cry, confusing though they may be, when done well, at least they make us feel something.
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Opening photo Vertical Entertainment photo credit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulholland_Drive_(film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mireille_Enos
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2039412/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Never_Here
http://www.sundance.org/festivals/sundance-film-festival
https://thefilmstage.com/reviews/review-never-here-is-a-reality-blurring-suspense-thriller/
https://variety.com/2017/film/reviews/never-here-review-1202595042/
