'New Orleans, Mon Amour' - DVD Review

All regions, Cinetic DVD-R (DVD on demand; USA).

Written by Katya Apekina, directed by Michael Almereyda.
With: C. Eccleston, E. Moss.

Once again we have a DVD that took its time. NOMA was filmed in 2006, first shown at SXSW festival in 2008, and, after being slowly introduced on VOD, cable and online, in the US, it is finally available to, in theory, everyone.

Of course it's a DVD-R, what might be called 'my neighbour cooked it for me'. While front cover is simple, but representative (pictured), I wish they left the back blank. What we have now, is a blurb with truly bizarre punctuation, an aborted attempt at credits, and only the self promo for Cinetic looks fine. Enhancing the indie experience, the DVD appears as 'EdithsMovie' on computer (I guess that's the producer, Edith Leblanc). If it's the same as with 'Doctor Who Magazine', I'd like 'ChristophersMovie' edition next time, thanks...

Having seen the VOD version on iTunes, I was surprised by a rather different look of the film on the DVD - now it's brighter. Unfortunately the DVD version has many compression artefacts, the main problem being aliasing and some macroblocking.

Still, as neighbour produced DVD's go, this one is fine, especially as packaging is not really of much importance. This is a unique possibility to watch a film that seemed to be doomed never to see the light of the day. Nonetheless, while I'm horribly grateful for this opportunity, I don't think I'm the only one wishing Mr. Almereyda hadn't lost faith in his creation. This is a highly original, unorthodox film that deserves better, and I can only hope that there will come a day when we'll see a proper DVD with director's cut.

/Alex
2009-12-03

Made-to-order DVDs available via amazon.de (Europe) or amazon.com (USA)

Christopher Eccleston as dr. Henry:

'New Orleans, Mon Amour' @ Crate E15

Main NOMA post.

'New Orleans, Mon Amour' - Alex's Review

Reading synopses since 'New Orleans, Mon Amour' was first shown at a festival I wasn't prepared for what I actually saw. At all. And in my disarmed state I must say, the film has, without doubt, fascinated me with its take-it-or-leave-it logic and imagery.

Don't expect broad gestures on a par with the Katrina disaster, this feature knows better than attempt to tell the definite story. It trusts the setting, the post-hurricane cubistic hallucination posing as a city, and the local people to be able to speak for themselves. And the pseudo-documentary style (including grit on the lens), first thing you register, is just a decoy. This is not a Katrina film, but a drama about two people, Henry (Chris Eccleston) and Hyde (Elisabeth Moss), set in New Orleans.

So it shouldn't be surprising that neither of them is a standard-issue victim or hero or any other typical role you'd like to ascribe them. Henry is a surgeon, well-off, without much to worry about. By far not the worst affected. And yet he is, broken as good and proper as if he lost everyone and everything. His is the world of nostalgia and small-time anguish. Is it perverse to be this self-absorbed in the context of multitudinous human tragedies? Trying to restore his own personal life, he dislodged himself from the present, main problem being, when you're building on the voided past, there's nowhere to anchor.

In a more cynical moment you might call it a usual mid-life crisis, but it's not your statistical and safe reality. It doesn't do to be sane. He drugs himself to be able to carry on, but the suppressants aren't programmable, aren't everlasting. He knows very well what he's supposed to be, to want and to stand for, but it's not sourced in his mind, in it theory and praxis run parallel. And his vague attempt to will himself to stay afloat, to care is automatic and moribund, and finally just an ingrown - schooled, maybe - habit. The look in his eyes you will remember: alternating between wry disbelief, a kind of languid horror and serenity beyond despair.

NOMA undoubtedly excels in showing the world as it is seen by the main characters, the world of absence, displacement, and, in Henry's case, the world that's leaving him. 'You can be involved', mocks the sign. Why, where, with whom? Whose blood is it and who passes him the scalpel? It's indeed calmest in the centre of the storm, but the rage around is unrecognisable and unknowable and destructive negation negates itself into sublime emptiness.

There's no doubt, this is a perfect vacuum. The misplaced monologue, the misaligned dialogue are typical of the film, there's plenty of spoken and unspoken thoughts, and the way they're strung together reminds of tuning into one radio station after another, these words never really reach you. If you look at the two main characters, they're capable of talking together, but what about when they're with other people?

While it's Hyde, who says she had been proclaimed suspiciously nonchalant, Henry, who only remarks that he's distracted, has it much worse than that. All the people around him, going through their own personal hell, they're nothing but random words in between static. But what would you do if you were him in his world? You're shown what happens when you go by clichés and theories, no matter whether you abhor or ignore them (and - even if you're tempted - this is why you can't really dismiss the film as merely one).

There's also the constant contrast between the ever persevering cultural, spiritual life (great music throughout the film) and the equally indomitable, still dead up town - but it's old news, luckily eclipsed by the emergence of washed out sleeper agents, Hyde and Henry. As much as they're aliens to the natives of the devastated suburbs, they're aliens to their backgrounds as well, Hyde's - fellow volunteers, a living oxymoron of socially aware and educated anarchism, and Henry's - dowry in form of upper caste surviving from the heyday of American Dream, segregated from the frustrated and cynical of the post-industrial age.

Henry's story is basically that of surrender. Hyde's - of progress. She's changed in the six years they managed to stay apart, she's constructive, yet she's still half his age; her feelings are more expressed, and she's liable to fall to pieces again. She is weaker because of her new strength and as such she is in control. Henry is both too strong and too weak, too strong for her to resist him, too weak to ditch the crutches of standards. That might come, but so far he's prone to descending to childish riot and escapism, make-believe world that unexpectedly hurts to smash. So he readily accepts this chance to give in instead and welcomes the curve downwards.

There's no independent escape route for either of them, still, it's not necessarily a tragedy starting to happen; it depends on whether they'll manage to find the balance, inside themselves, between themselves, whether Henry will acknowledge that Hyde did change. It took me some time to realise that there are positive outlooks still available, somewhere.

It is not the goal of the film to belittle those who suffered during the storm or those who help; selfless or not, sane or not. Neither is it to show the two main characters as monsters. Its goal, I think, and a daring gesture, is to show the no man's land of Henry and Hyde's.

So, to conclude, in many regards NOMA is brilliant. The fragmentation, the abruptness, the truthfulness - not because of sharper focus, but because of multiple options available. Add the hunch that this is the best Eccleston has done since 2002, of big screen features. When the end titles ambushed me, I was perfectly adapted to the not quite breathable atmosphere and ready for much more.

2009-10-21

'New Orleans, Mon Amour' - Chiclit's Review

I am not sure 'New Orleans, Mon Amour' starring Christopher Eccleston and Elisabeth Moss is the most brilliant movie I have ever seen, but it is certainly interesting, thought provoking, and will stay with you even as the credits unexpectedly roll.

It is set a year after Katrina in the still-recovering city of New Orleans. Eccleston's character is a doctor, in the process of rebuilding his life and remarrying his ex wife, but who while attempting to volunteer runs into a former lover, played by Elisabeth Moss. She is in town to do relief work tearing down hurricane damaged homes and cleaning up.

The film's title is an homage to a highly regarded post-war French New Wave film 'Hiroshima, Mon Amour' which makes use of the technique of combining flashback-driven drama with documentary style interviews of unidentified survivors. Initially in the trailer and in early festival reviews of this indie film Eccleston's character was apparently named Dr Jekyll and Moss's character was Hyde. That affectation has been dropped in the version available on iTunes and the character is referred to as Henry or Doctor Henry. I don't know if the original intent of that was just whimsy or if it was meant to represent the fact that each of the main characters had two sides - the one they showed to others - and the one they had while in the relationship, but there is significant duality on display - indeed that may be the major theme of the film: old/young, recovering from Katrina/not recovered, and the rich/poor.

We are not privy to their whole back story, but the history of the characters' relationship is obviously dramatic, damage has been inflicted on both sides. The Moss character took piano lessons from Henry's wife, and was apparently so young when the affair started, that the couple used to pass themselves off as father and daughter. Hyde wrote a farewell letter that left Henry and his marriage broken, she accuses him of leaving her for dead, and reveals to another volunteer that she did time in a psychiatric hospital. When we meet them, it would seem both Henry and Hyde have moved on. When they are reunited they lose control - they are drawn to each other with lustful obsession.

This is not a Katrina film per se, but the backdrop of the damage and loss the city has suffered is never far from the surface. Henry was stranded with patients during the storm in difficult conditions but survived. As depicted in the film, people in New Orleans were profoundly affected by the events of Katrina. One year later, however, many were experiencing a life back to normal, living in undamaged areas, while for others it was as if the storm happened yesterday and their neighborhoods look like war zones. Henry and Hyde tried to pretend on the surface they were normal and recovering, and like parts of the city they both love, below the surface things are not back to normal with either of them.

I think the original script might have been longer and more complex than the barely 77 minute version I saw, but I enjoyed the directing, interesting use of damaged homes to frame certain shots, lighting and the use of color, both vivid and washed out - Alex and I were reminded of Alex Cox.

The acting performances are subtle - nuanced and naturalistic, in keeping with semi-documentary feel of the movie - things move on Lousiana time, languidly. Indeed the movie ends languidly. The characters are self medicating with copious amounts of alcohol and pills and thus it's a more laid back performance than one normally sees from Eccleston, and I enjoyed seeing him do something that is a bit different, ambitious. He and Moss have good chemistry in the film and their styles work well together. It's definitely worth seeing.



A couple of notes, my copy of the film from iTunes played a little rough, but I do have a computer with Vista.

Shortly before seeing this film I read a book called "Plenty Enough Suck to Go Around" the account of a young reporter and her musician boyfriend who rehabbed their home in New Orleans after Katrina and by their own admission went back too early - like a lot of people. Gives nice context to the film as it describes the odd juxtaposition of people and issues co existing in the months and year after the storm.

2009-10-18

'New Orleans, Mon Amour'

10 Mar 2008 (Austin SXSW Film Festival)
Film 
Dir. Michael Almereyda
Wr. Michael Almereyda, Katya Apekina, James Robison

Role: Dr. Henry.


Reviews: 
In-house reviews by Chiclit, by Alex

DVD
release info & review

Trailer --- Gallery --- IMDb

News (most recent first):

• Oct 11 The film is on iTunes USA. Now also available on Netflix. Oct 23 And Amazon VOD.
• According to Cinetic Film Buff, NOMA will be available via iTunes and Amazon VOD service in October.
• Interview with Michael Almereyda here (indiewire.com).

• More details on the release of CE's film from 2008. According to variety.com, New Orleans, Mon Amour:

  [...] will make its debut July 15 on Cable VOD via the new channel Cinetic Film Buff, followed by portals iTunes and Amazon VOD.

• May 5 2009 Re the 'expected status change in the first quarter of 2009' ifc.com reports:

  Cinetic Rights Management is set to raise the curtain on three films this summer that one can watch from the comfort of their computer [...] And July will see the online debut of Michael Almereyda's latest drama "New Orleans, Mon Amour," starring Christopher Eccleston as a philandering Dr. Jekyll, who plots a return to normalcy in post-Katrina New Orleans with thoughts of reuniting with his ex-wife when Hyde (Elisabeth Moss), the woman who ruined their marriage, reappears in town.


• Shown at:
• 10th, 12th March 2008, SXSW film festival;
• 12th October 2008, New Orleans Film Festival, evidence here, short inter with Michael Almereyda there;
• 2008 Torino Film Festival - film entry ("The movie is more about how the characters, and the city they live in, are divided. The storm is part of that, but not the real cause.")