| IN MEMORIAM : MANNY FARBER : 1917-2008 |
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| Saturday, 30 August 2008 | |
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http://daily.greencine.com/archives/006525.html ROUTINE PLEASURES [10/10] "A motion picture studio is the biggest train set a boy ever had." Orson Welles Pleasures, in abundance - but Routine? Hardly. This is an unclassifiable delight of a film which, for the sake of convenience, we may perhaps label a "documentary" {in Vienna, Gorin introduced it as a 'Rhizome Network' dealing with 'high' and 'low' culture on equal terms, a film about "about"}. Sometime Jean-Luc Godard collaborator Jean-Pierre Gorin - who narrates throughout and occasionally appears on screen - had been living in the USA for several years {"this is a neverland - infinity!"} by the time he made Routine Pleasures, and had already made one American film, the puckishly playful Poto and Cabengo (1979). For his followup, as he explains in the film, he wanted to show {"a small sing-song to my Americanization"} the intello French friends and colleagues he'd left behind in Paris exactly what it was that was occupying him out in the cultural 'wastelands' of California {"this American landscape I'd decided to stay in"}. His method {"the deadly logic of my own pleasure"} is one he compares with drawing an X on a treasure map: location established via the intersection of two lines. 'Line one' is his friendship with seminal film-critic - and acclaimed painter - Manny Farber {"termite-tapeworm-fungus-moss-art"}. This relationship is explored via an intimate examination of one of Farber's crowded canvases, which depicts his work-desk and features representations of all manner of Americana {"things American"}, much of it directly referring to his own biography and to the movies which have informed it. {"With Farber, you were always in the thick of things."} 'Line two', which takes up the bulk of Routine Pleasures, is Gorin's involvement {1983-1986} with a group of model-railway enthusiasts {"the railway people"} who {since 1958} pursue their activity every evening in a hangar-like building {"a gerry-built space-ship "} on a coastal amusement-park {"Pacific Beach and Western"}. These men {"a tale of permanence to tell"} are absorbed in their hobby to the point of obsession. And in terms of recent American narrative cinema, these men - led by a bigger-than-life 8mm-filmmaker {"minimalist epics"} known as 'Corky' {"a name that ties a knot under a personality"} could be described as the living intersection of Zodiac and The Station Agent (with which Routine Pleasures would make a knockout, epic triple-bill... with Who Is Bozo Texino? an unscheduled fourth segment. But Gorin is no mouche sur le mur: he becomes drawn {"how far could one go in pursuit of the true detail?"} into the railwaymen's private world {"a small-scale epic : America on a budget and in a shoebox"} to the extent that he eventually becomes an honorary member of the group {"work and play got strangely confused"} and even - in the form of a model of his car {"before I could yell 'voodoo!"} a part of their miniaturised, stylised scale-representation of an American landscape {"I was told he was under a hill"}. All the while, Gorin is ceasessly analysing {"the obsession had become so private there was always something else to discover"} his preconceptions, his sensibility, and methods {"to dream the film"} in making the movie - deconstructing his own personality and his own processes {"what was I after?"}, if you like {"no job too small"}. And whereas in the wrong hands this could all be a recipe for offputtingly arch - perhaps even patronising - cleverness, Gorin's tone (jaunty {"had I come to witness the last stand of the American handyman?"}, quizzical {"play hide-and-seek with Americana"}, self-deprecating) ensures that instead Routine Pleasures is admirably inclusive, accessible and stimulating. The lightness of his approach {"I'm feeling more in tune with their dream-machine"}, we quickly realise {"look past the flourishes of its plot"}, hides a very keen intellect, one which is here applied {"dig in"} to a fascinating and complex choice of subject-matter. Among recent cinema's masterpieces - and Routine Pleasures, for all its apparent, unassuming 'smallness' {"go after the small stuff, not the right stuff"}, fully merits that overused superlative - it's hard to think of an example that's funnier, wiser or, sad to say, so little-known. {"Remembrance of Things Past - but these aren't your things, and this isn't your past "} Neil Young 5th/6th/11th November, 2007 Routine Pleasures : [10/10] : Jean-Pierre GORIN : US 1986 : 79.5m (timed) : seen 28th Oct 2007, Vienna - Austrian Filmmuseum (Essayistische Kino programme) http://www.jigsawlounge.co.uk/film/content/view/698/1/ |
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