Though I image Criterion is a bit reluctant to release my favorite Ronald Neame film, METEOR, or a Michael Bay style double disc release of THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE, they certainly aren't hesitant about releasing his films of, ugh, artistic merit. You know, the ones where as kids we got so damn bored we'd crawl under the theater seats and make fart noises. Well, I'll stand by my youthful proclamation that the not-as-yet-being-released-by-Criterion SCROOGE is a waste of time, though I will remove the "sucks monkey bung" comment, but now, now that I'm more sophisticated having secured a good paying job at Super Copies I feel that maybe the time is right for a reappraisal of Mr. Neame and his Criterion worthy classics HOPSCOTCH (available in August) and the one I just watched, THE HORSE'S MOUTH.
One thing I detest is the presentation of the artist as social outcast, paying the price for producing monumental works of brilliance through an inability to function in normal, polite society. This seems a rather childish "nah, nah, you may be cool but you're a fool" approach, rising out of some backwater notion that brilliance results in aloofness possibly as a way to make all us regular cretins feel more secure in our cretin-ness.
Well, THE HORSE'S MOUTH is all about a curmudgeonly artist who hasn't got the time for social graces and spends most of his waking hours scanning the horizon for a perfect wall to use as a canvas. Gulley Jimson (Alec Guinness, of some epic space opera, I forget the name) is the sort of two-bit loser that you'd kick in front of a bus if he weren't so damn talented (actual paintings by John Bratby). Always out for his own self-interest, he'd alienate his entire entourage if they weren't so damn fond of him in spite of his wicked, insensitive ways. As Jimson goes from scenario to scenario in this presentation of a late period in the life of an artist, the style goes from comedy, to drama, to pathos with the gears shifting so subtly one finds themselves laughing one minute and tearing up the next.
Earlier I mentioned my revulsion to the artist as outsider cliché, therefore one might be inclined, as I was initially, to think that a film like THE HORSE'S MOUTH would be likely to cause me irreparable mental anguish and much screaming at the screen. Well a film like THE HORSE'S MOUTH maybe, but it's a testament to Ronald Neame and Alec Guinness' (who also wrote the screenplay based on Joyce Cary's novel) talent and skill that this film is a marvelously realized dramatic comedy that functions as a de-mystifying essay on a lost man driven to extremes by an intense passion.
As a comedy, many contemporary viewers might find themselves at a loss, as the movie is quite droll. Most of the humor comes through Jimson's off-color comments to those around him. Fans of British humor will likely find the movie still up to snuff in the snicker department, though.
As a drama, the film is quite poignant. Alec Guinness is a man of remarkable skill and his Jimson is no caricature though he seems to be at first. In spite of his aloof behavior, he is a man who can realize the error of his own mistakes, though usually far too late. The moments where Jimson expresses his displeasure at his drive and his coming awareness of his own ability for destruction and possibly death are among the silver screen's most poignant.
Much has been made about the differences between Guinness' script in comparison to Cary's novel, but I haven't read that book so you may want to search the Web for yet another endless bickering session.
Criterion continues to amaze with their transfer of THE HORSE'S MOUTH. The movie, presented widescreen (1.66:1), looks incredible; the color dynamics are crisp and striking. Fans familiar with the VHS version will want to take that copy and smash it with a brick. Naturally the sound has been restored and Kenneth V. Jones' arrangement of Sergei Prokofieff's "Lieutenant Kije" sounds wonderful.
A supplemental video interview with Ronald Neame is a nice touch and fans will be delighted to hear the director wax nostalgic on THE HORSE'S MOUTH.
A delightful surprise awaits those who purchase or rent THE HORSE'S MOUTH. The disc includes D.A. Pennebaker's (DON'T LOOK BACK) short film "Daybreak Express," a delightful little montage piece documenting a discontinued L train path set to a wonderful Duke Ellington number. Visually stunning and eloquently shot, this is one short you'll find yourself returning to again and again. (By the way, it premiered at New York's Paris Theatre with the original run of THE HORSE'S MOUTH, so there is a connection.) Pennebaker is featured in a video interview where he talks about the making of "Daybreak Express" and how THE HORSE'S MOUTH's success became his as well.
LOGIN
REGISTER
RSS
HOME
