Anton Corbijn
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Filmography
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The Passenger (1975)
Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni
influenced The American (2010)
Themes Visuals
So far, so kind-of familiar, and don't think the filmmakers don't know it; Clooney, who's one of the film's producers, has cited this picture as an homage to works he hasn't, to the best of my knowledge, explicitly named, but one would have to conclude they include the likes of "Le Samourai," not to mention Wenders ' " The American Friend ," Antonioni 's " The Passenger ," and so on.
If "The American" isn't a masterpiece like "Once Upon A Time," and Michelangelo Antonioni's "The Passenger" -- the film it more obviously pays homage to -- it's still a cool, minimalist thriller that features gorgeous camera work by Corbijn and a strong, understated performance by Clooney.
Corbijn’s chilly, high-angled style favorably evokes Michelangelo Antonioni’s The Passenger, as well as that hazy 1960s period when out-of-fashion movie stars found themselves cast in stylized European films in order to shore up the international box office.
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Directed by Sergio Leone
influenced The American (2010)
Characters
In a scene about midway through "The American," George Clooney's character is sitting in a bar where Sergio Leone's masterful "Once Upon A Time In the West" is playing on TV.
And any movie in which rustic afternoon barflies can be found watching Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West can't be all bad.
(The brief glimpse of Henry Fonda in Once Upon a Time in the West is far from random.)
You think you can escape history”…snap!), which contrast to the annoying scene in which Once Upon a Time in the West plays on a bar TV.
Jack is just a drone, and a pretty uninteresting one at that. Henry Fonda managed to reverse the polarity on his likeability with his bad guy guise in Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West.
Like Henry Fonda playing the villain in Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West, a pivotal scene of which we see being shown on television in The American, the against-type casting makes the character that little more chilling and untrustworthy since they are so far removed from how we normally regard them.
The Day of the Jackal (1973)
Directed by Fred Zinnemann
influenced The American (2010)
Plot Visuals Characters
With its focus on the fascinating minutiae of carrying out an assassination, The American partly resembles the fine 1973 thriller The Day Of The Jackal, about an attempt on Charles de Gaulle’s life, though it’s much sparer, and completely apolitical.
His contact sends him a mysterious client (Thekla Reuten), who asks him to manufacture a lightweight weapon not unlike the one in Frederick Forsyth's "The Day of the Jackal."
But we don't see it here, for Corbijn, unfortunately, has absolutely no idea how to build suspense, sustain a story or tighten the tension around the filmgoer's throat the way Fred Zinneman did so superbly in The Day of the Jackal (1973), the style and feel of which this picture so desperately wants to emulate.
That's a promising moment ? it suggests that Clooney is playing the sort of sociopathic hitman one remembers from films like The Day of the Jackal (1973).
Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
Directed by Kathryn Bigelow
influenced A Most Wanted Man (2014)
Themes Characters
We’ve already seen several movies which depict the post-9/11 anti-terrorism intelligence landscape, most notably in the Oscar-winning Zero Dark Thirty, but almost all of these films have been from an American viewpoint; lots of dealings and spying still go on in Europe by Europeans, in a style still a bit reminiscent of Cold War espionage, but with a decidedly more insidious air.
Like Zero Dark Thirty (2012), this movie is always about the intelligence behind such attacks and the brilliant but undervalued officers who are trying to find clues, information and suspects who could lead to terrorist networks.
Not unlike Jessica Chastain's steely-eyed CIA operative in "Zero Dark Thirty," Hoffman enlivens the plight of an operative consumed by the high stakes work to the point of delirium.
Like Zero Dark Thirty , A Most Wanted Man understands national security as the purview of workaholics, men and women who have sacrificed personal lives for the sake of their duties.
For every good-to-great film about the post-9/11 world—Zero Dark Thirty, let’s say—there’s a whole passel of pedantic crap (Redacted, Lions for Lambs, and The Green Zone).
Of late films such as Argo , Zero Dark Thirty and Skyfall have taken an intimate look at intelligence agencies and their agents.
Soon to be seen as Harry Osborn in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, followed by James Dean in Anton Corbijn’s Life, DeHaan is a compelling screen presence.
DeHaan, meanwhile, plays Dean as the more openly flirtatious of the two, a flashier generational companion to his louchely inspired Lucien Carr in 2013’s “Kill Your Darlings.”
But even as we are appreciating what is successful, starting with the impeccable work of Irons, Rampling and Schoenaerts, it's hard not to notice that the level of intensity, intelligence and involvement here does not reach the level of classic all-in spy movies like the Bourne films or Tomas Alfredson's "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" and Anton Corbijn's "A Most Wanted Man," both based on novels by the genre's master, John le Carré.
But where recent films like Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and A Most Wanted Man are absorbing, smartly crafted espionage dramas, Red Sparrow only manages to bring the same amount of intrigue in short bursts and does so without making any significant statements about the current political landscape, despite how deeply ingrained the Russian narrative is in today’s 24-hour news cycle.
You don’t need to have seen Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy or A Most Wanted Man, amongst recent films that may’ve served as inspiration to Lawrence, to know where this goes, which isn’t so much an unexpected direction, as just an expectedly unexpected direction.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
Directed by Tomas Alfredson
influenced A Most Wanted Man (2014)
Themes Plot Visuals
And both, as it turns out, feature prominently in Anton Corbijn 's " A Most Wanted Man ," the first big-screen adaptation of a John Le Carré novel since Tomas Alfredson's " Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy " in 2011, and a worthy spiritual successor to that tangled, tea-stained tale of world-weary espionage.
Chances are if you enjoyed Tomas Alfredson’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy , then this latest Le Carré adaptation will be right up your (grey filtered) street.
With the story based on a John le Carré novel, you'd be forgiven for expecting a twisty, labyrinthine thriller akin to Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
Le Carre’s work – most recently seen on the big screen in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, but which also includes films like The Constant Gardener, The Tailor of Panama, and all the way back to the 1965 classic The Spy Who Came In From The Cold – is notorious both for his dour look at the world of spying and his intricate, complex plots.
Shedding the clean lines of The American , Corbijn’s third feature echoes the murkier smoke-stained tones of Tomas Alfredson’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy , albeit with a photographer’s eye for striking, angular architectural detail.
Consciously or not, A Most Wanted Man evokes Chinatown as much as Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
A relative newcomer who has appeared in films as diverse as Hanna, A Most Wanted Man and Anonymous, it’s impossible to overstate just how glorious her performance as Alma proves to be.
He’s done that again here by working with Day-Lewis for the second time (after There Will Be Blood) and newcomers to the Anderson fold, Lesley Manville (Another Year) and Vicky Krieps (A Most Wanted Man).
The actress has been performing in films for the better part of a decade, making appearances in films such as Hanna and A Most Wanted Man.
Vicky Krieps (who is best known to Westerners in films like Hanna and A Most Wanted Man ) is absolutely brilliant as the multi-faceted Alma.
(She had a small role in the 2014 John Le Carré adaptation “A Most Wanted Man.”) Krieps not only keeps pace with Day-Lewis and Manville, but shows herself to be their equal in the constantly shifting power game in which Anderson has placed them.
Vicky Krieps (A Most Wanted Man) is a revelation as Alma, matching Day-Lewis at every turn in a performance bursting with intelligence and wit.
It got a clobbering from debris in 2014 in Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity, and it similarly takes a beating in the opening moments of Life.
El cineasta sueco, Daniel Espinosa ( Child 44 , 2015), construye pacientemente una atmósfera de realismo científico en Life: Vida inteligente (Life, 2017).
Ahora, en unos años en los que el subgénero de aventuras espaciales parecía condenado a derivar hacia propuestas más serias y existencialistas –Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón, 2013), Interstellar (Christopher Nolan, 2013), La llegada (Denis Villeneuve, 2016)–, es de aplaudir que una propuesta moderadamente modesta (58 millones de dólares de presupuesto) como Life (2017) se libere de todo tipo de complejos y dobles lecturas para recuperar aquel espíritu de monster movie de toda la vida, aquella que no se andaba con rodeos a la hora de dejarnos claras sus prioridades, que no eran otras que la de hacernos vivir una terrorífica odisea espacial a costa de la criatura voraz que iba menguando la tripulación de la expedición espacial de turno.
Way back in Pretty Woman Julia Roberts showed how to successfully transition from prostitute to love interest while hired killers have been going downhill since John Cusack gave us Martin Blank in Grosse Pointe Blank .
Truthfully, Gray’s feature rather terrifically splits the difference between the high-momentum survival thrills of Gravity and Interstellar and artier, more ruminative sci-fi touchstones: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Solaris (1972) The Fountain (2006), Melancholia (2011), Arrival (2016), and Claire Denis’ recent, slippery contribution to that sub-genre, High Life .
Granted, the presence of one Mr. Clooney could make even the most mediocre material acceptable (cue: The American) but here, without Payne and without proper perspective, Faxon and Rash fall, and fall hard.
Emboldened by a sparkling soundtrack from songwriter-composers Benj Pasek & Justin Paul (2016's " La La Land "), a miraculous score from John Debney (2011's " No Strings Attached ") and Joseph Trapanese (2016's " Allegiant "), and lustrous lensing from cinematographer Seamus McGarvey (2017's " Life "), "The Greatest Showman" is glorious cinematic spectacle done exactly right.A quixotic marriage of image and sound, the picture taps, claps, belts and swings its way into a place of unfettered nirvana.
A poster for the latter has his face morphing with George Clooney's, and the comparison is apt; indeed "Drive" recalls two of Clooney's best and recent movies, "Michael Clayton" and "The American."
Gosling is remarkably poised and still in the middle of the film, a cipher who gradually reveals appetites and abilities without giving away a hint of his motives; the trick is to imply an inner life while fending off the impulse to reveal it, and he pulls it off more convincingly than, say, George Clooney did last year in “The American.”
But this isn’t The American; there will be no further analysis of the existential angst of the hired killer here.
It's often a bad sign when American actors attempt foreign accents when their imitations are automatically at odds with familiar faces (think Leonard DiCaprio in "Blood Diamond").
Ridley Scott’s improbably charming and engrossing The Martian , with Matt Damon in the title role, could have been called The American .
'Box office' girl Hazel (Samantha Morton, "Elizabeth: The Golden Age," "Control"), who has long carried a torch for Caden (and who, in fact, buys a literal house on fire), finally calls his attention to the fact that his family has been gone for over a year.
Sam Riley (“Control”) is perfectly cast as brooding zombie hunter Colonel Darcy, while Matt Smith (of “Doctor Who” fame) steals the show as a comedic, possibly closeted version of Parson Collins.
The darkly mangled premise turns out to be a decent fit for the dourness of iconic hunk Mr. Darcy (Sam Riley, the Joy Division biopic "Control").
Lovely Lily James (a refugee from Downton Abbey) and Sam Riley (yes, Ian Curtis in Control) are forced to spit out an excessive amount of dialogue, which, thanks to the breakneck pacing of the film, gives Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy’s love-hate romance the feeling of one of those commercials where two people talk at each other as quickly as possible about cell phone plans.
Riley (best known as the doomed Ian Curtis in Control) isn't your typical Mr. Darcy, in that he kind of reminded me of the adult Mordred from Excalibur , which now that I think about it isn't the highest of compliments.
The prologue introduces the famously stiff Mr Darcy (Sam Riley, Control) at a society gathering he has to strip to attend (albeit with an unfortunately leering gay joke).
He (Sam Riley of “Control” and “Maleficent”) is a veteran zombie killer who packs his own flies.