I was watching the first movie by Mike Figgis, a British jazz-and-gangster-edged romance called Stormy Monday, and was pleasantly surprised when one of the leads, ordering lunch in a dinner (called Weegee, where the walls featured giant murals of that famous photographer's violent street images) asks for a beer with his steak. The waitress then does the proper thing and asks him what kind. He asks what they've got, and she provides a long list. "Guinness?" "No." "Okay, then a Bud."
And later, when this guy and the waitress are on a date at a bar, they actually find out what whiskeys are available before they order. All 'round refreshing in its realism.
I hadn't seen this movie in decades, and it was much better than I remembered, with lots of moody ambience, a smart script, and very sensitive performances (especially by a very naturalistic and cool-looking Sting, playing a club owner being pressured to sell out to an American political-wannabe/thug --a casually vile Tommy Lee Jones-- who's out to launder cash in Sting's city).
A couple of things struck me watching the film again: First, it pays homage to Get Carter, shooting at some of the same Newcastle-upon-Tyne locations. (I wouldn't have realized this, if I hadn't seen Get Carter just a few days ago.)
Second, Figgis was clearly inspired by some of the cinematography in Blade Runner, and lights/frames many of his interior shots in a way that seems like a nod to Ridley's eye (--and the reason it looks so good is that it was an early film shot by Roger Deakins!). Also, the film opens with shots of flaming gas towers like in the futuristic L.A. flyover scene at the beginning of Scott's film; and Stormy Monday's female lead, Melanie Griffith, is often dressed in clothing that is reminiscent of the outfits worn by Sean Young as Rachael. There's also an aftermath-to-a-fight scene set in an apartment that seems quite like the scene where Ford's Deckard is nursing his fight wounds in his flat --with a background score that is also almost exactly the same.
The last cool detail I noticed this time around was that the director, Mike Figgis, also did the film's music --which makes him a true rarity (along with people like Eastwood and Alejandro Amenábar).
This movie would have been outstanding, rather than just mostly good, if its centerpiece scene, a beating and shooting in the rain at the side of a freeway, had been better staged, with a more desperate aftermath. (The main problem, I think, was the decision to shoot so much of it in slow motion, which killed its intensity.)
Still, it's worth checking out.
Submitted March 12, 2019 at 10:48AM by ZorroMeansFox https://ift.tt/2Uw8Gz9