TIFF 2012 REVIEW: PASSION
(France/Germany, 2012)
Cast: Rachel McAdams, Noomi Rapace, Paul Anderson, Karoline
Herfurth, Rainer Bock
Written by: Brian DePalma and Natalie Carter, based on a
screenplay by Alain Corneau
Directed by: Brian DePalma
Well, here we go again: another TIFF, another new Brian
DePalma film, another dashed hope that this could be the one to restore him to
former glory, back when, despite an indifferent--if not downright hostile,
critical base (excepting Pauline Kael)--he was an audacious, and wildly-inventive
purveyor of thrillers that have proven as timeless and influential as those of
the director he was regularly accused of pillaging: Alfred Hitchcock.
Even DePalma's less-personal stint as a
studio-director-for-hire found him highly energized and creative, evidenced by
the enduring power of "The Untouchables", "Casualties Of
War", "Carlito's Way", and of course, his remake of
"Scarface".
His last effort, the shot-on-video Iraq War drama
"Redacted", was a raw and confrontational work that suggested a new
direction as he approached his sixth decade as a filmmaker. But here, after a five-year wait, he's back
in his familiar milieu, brandishing his usual arsenal of once-clever and visual
flourishes, remaking a French film few thought was all that special the first
time around. To hear DePalma talk of reinforcing
"his brand" in interviews is a depressing thing indeed--how could
such a defiant and independent artist succumb to point form clichés from a
marketing Power Point presentation?
Pauline Kael defended DePalma for possessing "the
wickedest baroque sensibility at large in American movies." There's little evidence of that here, with
the film's soft 80's look, cheap-dream
sequences, and hackneyed notion of "kink" confined to garter belts
and "Eyes Wide Shut" masks.
Once a master of audience manipulation and so fearless to embrace all
the tools of cinema AS cinema, DePalma now doles out split screens and tracking
shots as if they were contractually obligation as part of his branding.
"Passion" does mark a welcome reunion with
composer Pino Donaggio, whose score, other than McAdams' teeth-and-claws
performance, is the liveliest thing in an otherwise shrill and hokey melodrama.
The best part of the film, a homemade jeans promo quickly
created by Rapace to dazzle her superiors and win a contract, is not a creation
of DePalma's, but tellingly, based on a real viral spot that was licensed for
the film.
Otherwise, "Passion" reveals little-of, steeped
with the same tossed-off, cynical boredom with the genre DePalma first revealed
in 1992's "Raising Cain", requiring that I endure the glowing cell
phone screens and increasing snorts of unintentional laughter around me...I
will admit that by act three I found myself cursing under my breath, not at my
fellow patrons, but at the notion that perhaps, they were right...
©Robert J. Lewis 2012
