Word: gangsters
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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This fall, the Brattle showcases Godard's visual masterpieces every Thursday night, offering up a feast of his experiments in spastic editing, hand-held shots, and stories about outsiders who pop up in each others' lives like secret figures in video games. The repertoire ranges from gangster spoof to existentialist poem. Breathless, Alphaville, Weekend, Contempt and Pierrot le Fou, among Godard's most famous films, are all featured, in addition to many of his lesser known works...
Last week's Thursday night session included Band of Outsiders. A gangster story with a twist, it tells the story of two con-men, Franz and Arthur, and their attempt to work over a young girl, Odile (played by the one and only Anna Karina). One of Godard's lesser known films, it nonetheless embodies the curious mix between word and image, humor and tragic romance, that is so very Godard. Characters are lonely but have no desire to connect to those around them. Awkwardness only occurs within familiar situations. Dialogue is impulsive and witty...
Father Louis, who once did time for refusing to answer grand jury questions about his connection to a reputed gangster named James Napoli, wheels his gaunt, empty-eyed brother into court, kisses him on the forehead, then takes a seat and hugs or kisses family members. There is almost as much kissing as there are nicknames. But once, when there was no seat, Father Louis stormed out of the courtroom and reamed a niece: "Where am I supposed to sit? This is a dumb family...
...main plot thread off which Altman works involves Blondie O'Hara (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a punchy, fast-talking gal looking to get her husband Johnny (Dermot Mulroney) back from a gangster, Seldom Seen (Harry Belafonte), whom he foolishly irked. Kidnapping Carolyn Stilton (Miranda Richardson), the doped-up wife of a prominent politician, arises as the logical solution: she hopes to force Mr. Stilton to sic the police on the gangster...
Instead, standout solo performances by Belafonte, Richardson and Leigh help carry the film individually. As a tough gangster boss acutely aware of the state of racial relations in America, Belafonte growls his threats and jokes with a relaxed self-assurance more frightening than any outright violence. Richardson is perfection, as the perpetually addled politician's wife: she gets by only when doped up, sucking her "nerve" medicine like a baby. She drifts in and out of lucidity, though gamely conversational at all times ("I find it fascinating that both of you have husbands named Johnny...