Dateline: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Thought I would test this thing out with a quick video review:
LULU ON THE BRIDGE (1999).
Written and Directed by Paul Auster
Starring Harvey Keitel, Mira Sorvino, Willem Dafoe, Vanessa Redgrave, Mandy Patinkin
Well, for a first go, not necessarily a bad film.
The cast appears to be rounded up from the group of actors that Auster met when working as a screenwriter: Keitel from Smoke/Blue in the Face (also Lou Reed from the latter), Patinkin from The Music of Chance. Perhaps the others have appeared in other Auster-related films, or were networked.
The script appears to be a composite of some of Auster's favorite themes (forgive me my ignorance having only seen the two films above and read the 3 stories that comprise the New York Trilogy; I've posted here in the hope that some of you might comment more in depth about just what Auster is trying to get across). For example, there is an existential flavor with heaps of commentary on self and identity, the influence of the past on the present (including the contrasts between past memories of self and current view of self, the resonance of past transgressions for current emotion, etc.), and isolation/being locked away somewhere. The inability to understand/trust others' motives is contrasted with a feeling of connection with others (that is exposed as a sham and is wholly unbelievable in the film).
The plot. Keitel is an aging saxophonist in a jazz band who is shot one fateful night in NYC. After having a lung removed, he realizes he can't go back to his old career or his old self. He flounders around for a new identity, a new purpose in life. He stumbles across a dead man who has a napkin with a phone number on it and a little box with him--which Keitel promptly steals. The box is revealed to contain a little grey stone/hunk of concrete. This stone begins to glow and levitate in the dark. Keitel calls the phone number and gets in touch with Sorvino--who we know to be a waitress/aspiring actress. Keitel and her touch the glowing stone and make a connection, a bond that is supposed to transcend what we know and experience as human relations. They are instantly in love. Sorvino reads for the role of Lulu in an update of Pandora's Box, to be directed by Redgrave and produced by Patinkin. Keitel actually knows these two, through his ex-girlfriend, Gina Gershon, and helps Sorvino to get the part. They all go to Dublin to film the movie, leaving Keitel behind to tie up some loose ends and follow in 3 days. He is abducted by some hoods, locked in a dark room, and interviewed endlessly about his past by anthropologist Willem Dafoe. Keitel denies knowing anything about the stone, denies knowing Sorvino. Meanwhile, the filming of the movie goes on, but Sorvino is worried about Keitel. Time passes. Sorvino must make a decision about whether she wants to "let go" of Keitel. Keitel is being held hostage. This goes on. There is more but I'll let you find out (unless someone posts asking for the ending--which we really should discuss).
Auster's direction is lackluster. Some of the emotional moments are "cringe-worthy". The film fails to effectively set up its principal tensions because the relationship at the heart of the film is not believable. Ultimately, the film nullifies itself.
All told, a noble effort to make a literary work, bringing Auster's personal themes back to the big screen, but in the end, murky, undefined, perhaps unnecessary.
Posted by at January 22, 2001 06:20 PM