Blue Valentine

Screen chemistry, that elusive and magical intangible quality that can never be scripted, where two performers connect as a whole.  It's that "it" thing that makes the cinema so electric, and when it happens, and it does very seldom, suddenly your engaged in a way that's hard to articulate...you feel what they feel, because it's so raw, and emotional and effortlessly real.  It's that quality that can make a good film a great one, or a mediocre one a good one.  Whatever "it" is, it happens in Blue Valentine, Derek Cianfrance's small, chamber piece of a love story, with its stars Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams.  The ebb and flow of the actorly precision that these two young, gifted performers have, is almost meaningless unless they flow together, and do they ever...it's a cinematic pairing that puts to shame nearly every romantic film (comedy or drama) in quite some time because the powerful rapport, the volcanic energy between the two budding stars.  There are moments when Gosling and Williams share the screen, that it feels akin to being transported to a bygone, possibly non-existent era where the stars were bigger, grander, and shared an electricity that sent you shivers.

The story is simple, the mood is far from-- we meet a young married couple, Dean and Cindy (Gosling and Williams), and they've been married now for a couple of years.  Together and separately, they've grown accustom to the daily routines; she's a nurse living out an unfulfilled passion of being a doctor, he's a house painter living the dream, being able to start drinking at 8:00 AM.  They have a small daughter named Frankie.  They're in a rut.  Being the more impulsive and romantic of the two, Dean assembles an over-night get-a-away to a themed sex motel to spruce up their love life, oblivious to the bigger problems at hand.  The night, inevitably is disastrous.

But the trigger to Blue Valentine is the way it flips back to where Dean and Cindy first meet.  Their younger selves are impulsive, romantic and optimistic, and it's positively contagious, seeing a love story envelop in front of us.  They meet cute, in a sort of indie-movie type of way, but it rings true because the performances are so sincere and accessible.  She's a bright college student, he's a working class moving man.  They go on on their first date, and Dean serenades Cindy to an Elvis medley of "You Always Hurt the One's You Love," while she does a little jig.  It's such an exciting moment because the camera is at it's least showy and keeps it all at contained long shot, leaving every awkward gesture, smile, and new found smitten-ness in full view.  The past informs the present, and while the older, and not exactly wiser Dean and Cindy are in the midst of a full-on Bergman-esque Scenes From a Marriage nightmare, there's that sparkle, and damned elusive chemistry thing between the two of them.  What feels so true and honest about the relationship in Blue Valentine, is the strongest sense that it started well before the movie did, and will end long after; their story isn't complete, and I suppose that's the point.

And while the raw honestly between Gosling and Williams may have unsettled the prudes at the Motion Picture Association of America, it's in that same vein that their utter go-for-broke commitment is reason Blue Valentine works as well as it does.  Gosling whose Method-intensity is matched by his matinee idol charisma and boyish looks, gives his most lived-in performance as a working class guy, honest and romantic, but volatile and slightly dim.  Williams, with her quiet, natural screen presence, has the trickier role as the pragmatic girl who knows and feels that this boy probably isn't ambitious enough for her liking.  Together they make a love story complete, true and whole.  A-

Blue Valentine Slapped with a NC-17

With a hearty boo to the puritanical folks at the MPAA, with great sadness it's been reported that one of this years most eagerly anticipated films, and potential awards contender has been slapped with the NC-17 rating of death.  Apparently a particularly blunt piece of sexuality between Blue Valentine's leads (Ryan Gosling & Michelle Williams) is the culprit; something of which I must admit sounds not at all offensive, but even more titillating (just saying both these actors are tremendously good looking, as well as talented.)  Sight unseen, I'm still annoyed by this call-- particularly as thoroughly and entertainingly researched in the 2006 documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated (2006, directed by Kirby Dick), that the MPAA typically signals these ratings on smaller films, often of sexual (but in fairness sometimes violent) nature-- my point I suppose is that aside from cinephiles and art house lovers, I sincerely doubt Blue Valentine in any way would appeal to kids in the first place.  It's a film that will likely art house theaters in major cities and not be the sort of breakout, must see sneak in film for children.

The distributor-- the clever ones at the Weinstein Company-- have a few options: they can re-submit the film in hopes of getting a R-rating, make the necessary edits to appease the covert operators at the MPAA, or decide to throw it all away and take a gamble and release the film unrated.  The NC-17, and in some respects the unrated stigma, while perhaps the most noble nod in protecting the artistry of the film, will cost The Weinstein Company.  Many theater chains and many media outlets will not play or advertise films with an NC-17 rating; so my money is on a trimmed down, hopefully not too sanitized version of the film that's received raves since Sundance this year.  It's the ultimate catch-22 in that the film needs marketing and potential awards to make any money, and it needs money and marketing to win awards contention.

The debate over the MPAA is a lengthy one, but since the watchdog group works in such similar fashion it's always been a reliable punching bag.  Even after a scathing documentary, ridiculous scads of nasty articles and speculation, the group hasn't learned much, nor particularly changed their way of rating movies.  Sexualized films always will get the harder rating, far more so than graphically violent films.  If the sexuality in any way is same sex related, again, the stricter rating will likely prevail.  The whole thing makes me scream.  In the case of Blue Valentine, if it keeps it's NC-17 rating, the Oscar campaign is virtually over-- only one NC-17 rated film has received an Oscar nomination since the category introduced in 1990.  That would be Philip Kaufman's Henry & June, which was nominated for best cinematography.  Before that the rating was famously known as "X," and again famously in 1969, John Schlesinger's Midnight Cowboy became the one and only "X" rated film to win best picture; of course by today's standards, Midnight Cowboy likely would have been rated R-- strong R for sure.

A look back at the NC-17 rating:

Key movies that were theatrically released with the rating:

• Henry & June (1990), directed by Philip Kaufman
• Bad Lieutenant (1992), directed by Abel Ferrara
• Showgirls (1994), directed by Paul Verhoeven
• Crash (1996), directed by David Croenberg
• Bent (1997), directed by Sean Mathias
• Orgazmo (1998), directed by Trey Parker
• Baise-Moi (2001), directed by Virginie Despentes & Coralie
• The Dreamers (2004), directed by Bernardo Bertolucci
• 9 Songs (2004), directed by Michael Winterbottoom
• Bad Education (2004), directed by Pedro Almodovar
• A Dirty Shame (2004), directed by John Waters
• Lust, Caution (2007), directed by Ang Lee

The biggest box office winner of this group is Showgirls, with about $20.0 million in it's initial theatrical run; Henry & June is second with nearly $12 million.

However, not to fear if Blue Valentine is edited for an R-rated, it will be in fine company, including a few Oscar favorites:

• The Godfather: Part III (1990), directed by Francis Ford Coppola
• nominated for 7 Oscars, including Best Picture
• Basic Instinct (1992), directed by Paul Verhoeven
• nominated for 2 Oscars: Best Film Editing and Best Score
• Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), directed by Francis Ford Coppola
• won 3 Oscars: Costume Design, Sound Editing and Make-up
• Damage (1993); directed by Louis Malle
• nominated for Best Supporting Actress (Miranda Richardson)
• Pulp Fiction (1994), directed by Quentin Tarantino
• nominated for 7 Oscar; won Best Original Screenplay
• Casino (1995), directed by Martin Scorsese
• nominated for Best Actress (Sharon Stone)
• Boys Don't Cry (1999), directed by Kimberly Pierce
• won Best Actress (Hilary Swank); nominated for Best Supporting Actress (Chloe Sevigny)
• Monster's Ball (2001), directed by Marc Forster
• won Best Actress (Halle Berry)
• The Cooler (2003), directed by Wayne Kramer
• nominated for Best Supporting Actor (Alec Baldwin) 

Then again there is the ultra-cool club of films that gave the finger to the MPAA.  Most of which didn't really make money, but some are defiantly and beautifully there own things, that of which severe editing would take away from.  The films that surrendered there ratings in favor of an unrated release include:

• Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1999), directed by Pedro Almodovar
• Kids (1995), directed by Larry Clark
• Happiness (1998), directed by Todd Solondz
• Requiem For a Dream (2000), directed by Darren Aronofsky
• nominated for Best Actress (Ellen Burstyn)
• Y Tu Mama Tambien (2002), directed by Alfonso Cuaron
• nominated for Best Original Screenplay
• The Brown Bunny (2003), directed by Vincent Gallo
• Mysterious Skin (2004), directed by Greg Araki
• Shortbus (2006), directed by John Cameron Mitchell
• This Film Is Not Yet Rated (2006), directed by Kirby Dick
• Ironic, huh-- the avid indictment against their flawed and secretive system got snubbed with an NC-17 itself
• Antichrist (2009), directed by Lars von Trier

Blue Valentine

Trailer day continues with a beaut-- Blue Valentine, the new film starring Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams-- which comes with a great deal of hype from rapturous phrase from Sundance, Cannes and Toronto.  Knowing not terribly much about the film itself, I can say that this is perhaps my favorite trailer in quite sometime, for the simple fact that I'm intrigued and teased just enough to quench my thirst, yet I continue to know not that much about the movie: why must every trailer give the whole thing away anyway?  Yet enough is sensed that the actors deliver what one expects from actors this good.