Liens secrets

I'm a long-time fan of Jim Thompson, and I very much enjoyed THIS WORLD, THEN THE FIREWORKS, a flawed but gritty little project which manages to capture Thompson's hard-edged stylistic virtuosity quite nicely. Regardless, I wouldn't open-handedly recommend it to anyone who's not a foaming-at-the-mouth noir fanatic, as the film's tone of pervasive hopelessness will likely prove unappealing to many. As well, much of the violence is purblindly direct and quite potent.

The lurid tale at hand concerns a dejected Chicago news reporter returning to the rustic environs of his youth(and to the sister he once loved in a rather unwholesome way), and finding that the passing of years has reduced the town to a squalid ragdump, rife with sordid lives and ubiquitary misery. Relentlessly dark and subtly sardonic ultra-noir, with even the most likable characters suppressing some degree of unscrupulous shadiness. Not a joyful diversion, but effective, and surprisingly sincere in its illustration of the source material.

6/10...recommended.

Gorgeous people doing grisly things. Family values...IS he sleeping with his sister? Will he kill his girl friend? Remember when slips were risque? Savor the flavor of the fifties. Big flashy cars. Good girls going to Tijuana for bad reasons. Tough women who really need a man to protect them. Bring your nostalgia and your sense of humor. Let the spell begin.

Come on, Billy Zane is amazing in this film. If for anything, it's worth watching to see his performance. I watched this film after standing at a Bright Eyes concert for hours, I was tired but just let it go on because it kept my attention, STOOD WITH ME, much more than many modern day pop. films do. It really is a tribute to Film-Noir more than anything. The angles and shots at times remind me of Hitchcock, but mostly it stays within the bounds of Noir. It's like the director watched A & E and Nick at Night forever. If you watched Film-Noir you know the plot isn't always explained with your hand held like many films are for nowadays people. Film Noir was slick and cool. It's not a perfect film but it's a damn good one! Worth a watch, don't judge this film by its cover, actually don't even look at the cover at all. The cover sucks, its worthless, the film itself, is great.

Billy Zane is perfect as the sociopathic Marty, and his voice-over narration IS the Jim Thompson novella. This World is simultaniously an overblown parody and a loving homage to not only Thompson, but fifties hardboiled thrillers in general. Gritty touches of realism mix with a nostalgiac 50s pastiche and stylized performances and camera work. Sure to be over the heads of most modern viewers (see above review) but if you love film noir, and especially the pulp novels that helped spawn it, this film is beautiful, hillarious, and genuinely misanthropic. All the performances are very accurate to the way the characters acted in the novella. Shot like a combination of a moving Edward Hopper painting and an Italian Giallo thriller. HIGHLY recommended!

There are a lot of plot holes and implausibilities in this one, but overall I thought it was worth a look because Sheryl Lee gives a great performance that is full of emotion, conflict, and sensuality. Gina Gershon does a nice job too, and the small-town 1950's atmosphere is nicely done. The odd tension between the siblings is overplayed and some of the character's actions don't seem very credible to me, but still an interesting film as a one-off when better options aren't around.