You Can’t Go Home Again: The Ballard of Nicholas Ray

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A Lonely Place

 By Eleanor Colla

Nicholas Ray (1911-1979) was an American director who has been payed homage to within the works of Jean-Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut, Win Wenders, Martin Scorsese, and numerous others. And now, cinematheque takes its turn.

Known for traversing numerous genres, styles, themes and narratives, Ray payed great attention to the social and sociological concerns of post-war America. He was particularly concerned with the challenges facing the post-war youth; the new-found freedom of a generation who had not experienced war is present in many of his films. To open the three week retrospective is a Humphrey Bogart ‘Hollywood valentine’ double feature: In A Lonely Place (1950) and Knock On Any Door (1949)

In A Lonely Place has Bogart playing Dixon Steele, a scriptwriter accused of murdering a girl he brought home with him one evening; with the honourable intention of getting her to explain the plot of a book he is too tired to read. Although he is cleared by his neighbour Laurel (Gloria Grahame) and the two begin a relationship Laurel’s suspicious begins to overtake her romantic feelings. Steele’s unknown past of violent outbursts begins to come between them; all while trying to avoid the policeman (Frank Lovejoy) who refuses to leave Steele alone. A true film noir that comments on the pitfalls of success and the pressure to do even better.

Knock on any door

Knock On Any Door is another noir and with Bogart playing Andrew Morton, a lawyer who has risen up from the slums. Against the advice of his colleagues Morton takes up the case of Nick Romano (newcomer John Derek) who has been accused of murdering a policeman and is facing execution. Morton takes the angle that due to both emotional distress and having grown up in the slums, Romano is not as responsible for his actions as he is merely a killer by circumstance, not by nature. Filled with flashbacks, witty dialogue and courtroom drama, Ray’s third feature highlights personal causes and conflicts when it comes to crime and court.

Film Review: Sleeping Beauty (2011)

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By Mia Robinson 

Written and directed by Julia Leigh (a renowned Australian novelist) Sleeping Beauty is her first feature film attempt.  A technically flawless film, offering beautiful cinematography by Geoffrey Simpson – the content of the film, however, leaves much to be desired.

Lucy (Emily Browning) is a young university student struggling to make the rent. Between jobs as a waitress, working in an office, as a laboratory subject and with the occasional “party trick” on the side, she seems to scrape through.  Deciding to make better use of her “talent”, her “beauty” leads her into the hands of Clara (Rachael Blake), and she begins working as a lingerie waitress at private dinner parties.  This in turn leads to more “sinister” work, where she takes on the role, literally, of a “sleeping beauty”.  During these drug induced-sleeping sessions, she doesn’t know what happens other than that men pay to sleep with her whilst she is unconscious.  Curiosity gets the better of her and she endeavours to find out what happens whilst she is asleep.

We delve into this life of Lucy, a stoic, seemingly detached girl, however, we don’t find out much about her, nor about any of the other characters.  It seems she has a complicated relationship with her only friend Birdmann (Ewen Leslie), of which not much is revealed either.

This is a relatively slow, tiresome film, marketed as “sensuous” and even aspiring to scenes of eroticism.  Sure, it has nudity, however, scenes that threaten to be “sensuous” and “erotic” just pull short, instead presenting as a bit stifled and pretentious.  Any potential eroticism (something that often exists in the withheld, something that can be suggested but that can also left to the viewer’s imagination), is largely dispelled with the revelation and full exposure of the male clients’ fantasies.  Most of the characters present as sad, desperate and lonely, an exploration of which may have produced for a more interesting story.  Aside from the masterful cinematography, I left the theatre feeling cheated.

Sleeping Beauty is out through Paramount Pictures.  It opens at cinemas June 23rd.