Translated material
Not "Tenant"
New film by Roman Polanski at the Berlin Film Festival
If literally, then “Ghost Writer”, and if in meaning, then “Literary Negro” - this is how the title of Roman Polanski’s new thriller The Ghostwriter is translated into Russian. But it’s probably better to say it literally, especially since the presence of Roman Polanski himself was ghostly. The film was included in competition, the premiere took place, Ewan McGregor and Pierce Brosnan held a press conference, and Roman Polanski is still under house arrest in Switzerland, awaiting a decision on extradition to the United States. It was from there that he supervised the editing and tinting period. It's hard to say how this whole story affected the film as a whole, but at least the audience had an extra reason to laugh. When in one scene the lawyers convince the British prime minister not to leave the United States under any circumstances, since he faces prosecution in Europe, the audience bursts into knowing laughter.Polanski's new thriller is based on an English bestseller, which in turn is based on real life. The story of the British prime minister recruited by the CIA clearly hints at Tony Blair. This, no doubt, will ensure the film's success with left-wing European audiences, but don't expect the trademark suspense that Polanski demonstrated in The Tenant or Furious. After all, when the thriller reveals that a British statesman spent his entire career making decisions in the best interests of the United States, it's more yawning than thrilling.
But the 76-year-old director is still fluent in his profession. The truly old-fashioned Hitchcockian atmosphere, combined with unexpected humorous microgags, turns the film into good entertainment for movie lovers. In any case, the scene in which the prime minister furiously destroys a mobile phone, and a security guard following him in the shadow carefully picks up the fragments, will tell more about the life of the highest echelons of power than descriptions of political intrigues and the machinations of overseas intelligence.
The second classic in the competition at the Berlinale, which opened last Thursday, was Martin Scorsese, who presented his fourth film with Leonardo DiCaprio. “Shutter Island” is also a thriller, also a film adaptation, and also far from the best creation of its creator. It's an homage to the old B-movies, shot on a scale that Don Siegel or Sam Fuller could never afford. The action takes place in the early 50s. This is the golden age of “noir” and the premonition of a hot war. And in the prison psychiatric hospital on a secluded island, something strange is going on, and if the sheriff played by DiCaprio does not solve the riddle, it seems he will not get out of the island.
Enduring Scorsese's operatic, narcissistic direction for two hours is no easy feat. Instead of the brutal energy of cheap “noirs” of the 50s, we are presented with some kind of effete visions of Ludwig of Bavaria. But the solution did not disappoint and partially justified the operatic props of the protracted first part. Of course, I won’t tell you about it, but believe me, it deserves to take a place on the T-shirt with spoilers, beloved by advanced film fans (there is a list of clues to your favorite films with unexpected endings - like “the criminal is lame” or “and Bruce Willis is actually actually dead").
It seems that this year's Berlinale program has been put together more successfully than before. There are no fewer bad and average films, but even the not-best films by big directors, shown at the beginning of the festival, give cause for conversation and reflection. And this week we will be waiting for a really good movie, which the organizers traditionally save for last.