Wild Side

I watched the Director's Cut of this movie premiered August '99, together with clips of the trash that the studio released. The studio movie is trash - completely and utterly and doesn't even aspire to be anything better. The editing is flat and the performances look like rehearsals. The Director's Cut (pieced together by the Editor after the Director's suicide) is an outstanding piece of cinema. Not a frame wasted. The opening sequence shocks you into an awareness that this movie will be very different to anything you've seen before. Chris Walken gives one of the best performances of his career. This is exciting, original cinema that riveted my attention in every moment of its two hour authorised version. The script sparkles with wit and dry, unpretentious humour and you never quite know what is going to happen next. A sexy, stylish thriller that makes you laugh and also appreciate the beauty inside every villain. The tenacity and integrity of the Editor and Scriptwriter that saw it through to completion is a monument to the industry.

I remember reading a review of this in one of those phone book sized movie guides you can get at a book store. They gave it their lowest rating, saying that it looked like it was all improvised in a series of motel room and apartments.

Yea, I can kind of see it.

Anyways, Wild Side is an OK noir film of sorts about a bank worker by day, high class prostitute by night (Heche) who gets involved with a crime boss (Walken) and his sexy girlfriend (Chen). Heche and Chen end up falling in love, and concoct a plan of sorts to get away.

The film probably would have faded away if it wasn't for the scorcher of a love scene between Heche and Chen. With an agonizingly erotic set up (a long dinner date between the two, followed by a first kiss in the womens bathroom), the actual love scene is allowed to play out nice and slow, in a big bedroom with the summer light and breeze blowing in. Seriously guys (and girls, I guess) this is everything you could want in a scene like this.

I wish I could say the movie around it was memorable enough to live up to that kind of glory, but it really doesn't. I'm sure Donald Cammell was a great director, and it's probably real sad that the film was chopped up before he could finish it to it's satisfaction. But I've got a feeling that whatever state this movie was supposed to in, it would have turned out the same.

Eroticism aside, the lesbian scene is asthetically like a breath of fresh air. It's bright, and wide open in the way it plays out across the screen. Compared to that, the rest of the movie really does play too dark; It really is kind of like sitting with your legs crossed on the floor in the corners of dark apartments while listening to other people talk. Dreary, in other words.

By the way, check out the Canadian video cover for this one compared to the static "3 portraits" cover we got in America. A classic example of how just how puritanical our culture can be sometimes.

Intriguing, eye-opening thriller this, featuring an outrageous, insane and over-the-top performance from Christopher Walken even compared to his usual crazed output. Essentially a romance between the two leading ladies, Walken is the central figure and catalyst of all events as his loopy as hell gangster feller messes around with some women, is picked on by some dodgy coppers, and generally acts like a total loon. Joan Chen and Anne Heche are good as, respectively, his longtime girl and partner in crime, and his newest conquest and hobby, both putting in subtly sensual and remarkably sympathetic performances, and Steven Bauer is impressive (in the first role I've really noticed him in since Scarface) as the totally twisted, corrupt undercover cop on Walken's back, but this is really all Walken's show, as he chomps at the scenery with massive gusto. The atmosphere is dark and warm and a little steamy, there's plenty of expensive looking whisky about the place and people leading lives on the edge of sanity; the tragic Cammell's last film is a dark, intense, often inspired and occasionally hilarious gaze into the wilder side of sexuality and empowerment. Definitely one to watch with an open mind.

Curiously, I continued to watch this...as unlike many flicks around these days, it was quite unpredictable. Okay. It has a few flaws, like Mister Walken's sometimes way out overacting, but this may have been down to the director's untimely death after the project was taken out of his control. Anne Heche, who everyone condemned a few years ago for riding on the coat-tails of her former love Ellen Degeneres, turns out to be quite an accomplished actress (check her out in One Kill), and is believable as a woman torn in many directions. It's also very easy to see why Walken's character would fall for her. Ryuchi Sakamoto's haunting music recorded nearly five years after the movie was shot, adds to the surreal atmosphere of some scenes, even though they can seem a little far fetched.

Film Four has done a fine job restoring the movie, it's a shame though that the BBC's excellent documentary, Donald Cammell: The Ultimate Performance, isn't included on the DVD.

Ok, so it's a trashy soft-porn B-flick. I still like it. I got my first eyeful of Anne Heche (full frontal and backal--thx, Dilbert) plus more of Joan Chen, a fave since Twin Peaks. What more could you want? Walken gets a little weird...surprised? Isn't that why we love/hate him so? And Steven Bauer sure can play a jerk, the big hunky galoot. I've liked him since "Thief of Hearts."

The soundtrack is a bonus with a lush groove to it. I'd love to see the director's cut which sounds much more divine than the somewhat annoying cable version, but until then I'll have my finger poised confidently over my remote's FF button so I can get to the good stuff. Btw, Anne's performance reminds me of a young Bette Davis with her nervous fidgeting and self-conscious sashaying. Anyone else see it besides me? Just curious...maybe <grin>.