Tag: jonathan demme

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Top Fifty Films of the 80s — Number Fifteen

Dan Seeger

#15 — Melvin and Howard (Jonathan Demme, 1980) Part of the appeal of subscribing to auteur theory is the sense of extra connectedness to the directors with the strongest cinematic presence. It’s easy to feel like watching a film is akin to getting concerted insight into worldviews, spiritual philosophies and political preferences. The collected work becomes a backward version of a Rorschach test, with very specific material being transformed by the viewer into something nebulous enough to project suppositions onto. While I realize the inherent fallibility of such a view, I also can’t help but fall for it when it … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 80s — Number Fifteen

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Demme, Frears, Hooper, Lee, Wang

Dan Seeger

Swimming to Cambodia (Jonathan Demme, 1987). Jonathan Demme may not have been the best filmmaker of the nineteen-eighties, but I think there’s an argument to be made that he was the most interesting. This film is a good illustration of that point. It’s a film version of one of Spalding Gray’s monologues, a meandering but always focused act of storytelling that springs from his involvement in the film The Killing Fields. Gray’s approach was simplicity itself, sitting behind a small wooden table with his spiral notebook before him and little more than a couple of maps to help fill out … Continue reading Demme, Frears, Hooper, Lee, Wang

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Demme, Hitchcock, Ramis, Scott, Wyler

Dan Seeger

Roman Holiday (William Wyler, 1953). It would take some dedicated hunting through Hollywood history to find another star turn that justifies hanging an entire film upon it as much as the one at the center of this lovely wisp of a romantic comedy. It’s really all about Audrey Hepburn and her swoon-inducing performance as a pampered princess who steals away from her privileged, cloistered world to indulge in a burst of freedom across the streets of Rome. She’s utterly charming in a guileless way, but it’s the levels of personality that she injects into the performance that really sell the … Continue reading Demme, Hitchcock, Ramis, Scott, Wyler

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Demme, Gibney, Macdonald, Redford, Siegel

Dan Seeger

The Agronomist (Jonathan Demme, 2003). I greatly admire Demme’s commitment to interspersing documentaries and other non-fiction offerings throughout his filmography, but I also need to sadly concede that this is not a strong effort. The film examine the life and contentious career of Jean Dominique, who operated a Haitian radio station committed to bringing information to the citizenry and speaking truth to power, especially during times when the country was being crushed by oppressive regimes. It’s easy to root for him, but Demme’s approach is too sedate, too withdrawn. This impassive approach prevents the film from becoming anything beyond a … Continue reading Demme, Gibney, Macdonald, Redford, Siegel