Matt Porterfield’s Putty Hill opens Friday at the Charles. This intimate exploration of what we might call a no-collar Baltimore neighborhood, and the lives of family and friends orbiting in the aftermath of a banal tragedy, is the product of loving labor from a director who lives where he works. Great care was put into the casting of the local non-pro actors that populate this fusion of cinematic realism and formal pictorial treatment, painstaking planning and controlled improvisation.
Since the Create Baltimore event back in January, we’ve been mulling over the Waters/ Levinson/ Simon legacy in terms of Baltimore’s image to outsiders, and to the Made in Baltimore aesthetic. Putty Hill isn’t likely to change the impressions left by Homicide and The Wire, but presents a strong Made in Baltimore creative voice, and one we’re likely and hopeful to hear from again. As Mr. Porterfield told me a few weeks ago:
“I’d like to stay in Baltimore. I’d like to keep telling stories here. I have a much healthier creative life here than I did in New York. Film is a commodity, you do have to recognize that on some level, but it’s nice to be in a place where there isn’t a really strong industry prevalence: it’s hard enough to do battle with the economic forces. You need those connections in New York and L.A, but I think Baltimore is a great place to work.”
After Putty Hill on Friday, you can jump back 95 years on Saturday and see Griffith’s insane masterwork, Intolerance, at MICA’S Brown Center. The 1916 film will have a right-now component that makes it a must see: Anne Watts and Boister (www.boister.net) will perform a LIVE score in accompaniment to the sprawling film-fugue moral acid trip that is Intolerance. It’s all part of MICA’s “The Narcissism of Minor Differences” program of exhibits (open through March 13, but only one Intolerance!).
Intolerance (Love’s Struggle Through the Ages) was a budget record-breaker beyond even James Cameron proportions, at the time. (And this was back when labor was cheap, before all that pesky collective bargaining stuff.) The stupendous Babylon set constructed in Silver Lake still has jaw-dropping power. Some architectural details are mimicked in the big shopping mall/ theater complex on Hollywood Boulevard, the one that houses the Kodak Theater, present home of the Oscars.
Speaking of the Oscars, warm and fuzzy won out after all, so my top picks were so wrong! Still, The Social Network and David Fincher should have won. Natalie Portman is super, channeling Catherine Deneuve or whatever, but Annette Bening was better. Still, it was great seeing Portman play against Vincent Cassel.
Which brings me to my next recommendation: Vincent Cassel starring in the French two-parter, Mesrine: Killer Instinct, and Mesrine: Pubic Enemy #1. The two DVDS deliver over four hours of red-meat gangster fun, and in French! Director Jean-Francois Richet delivers with this 1950’s to 1970’s “true story” romp of a crime spree.
And while we’re on the subject of French bigger-than-life criminal mini-series, you must check out Carlos (2010). I was bed-ridden with a fever last week and was surprised to find Carlos was available for instant streaming on Netflix. I watched all 5 hours without stopping. (Do not settle for the lame-o 2:45 version that’s out there!) This is awesome history, and an awesome movie about terrorist Carlos the Jackal, starring Edgar Ramirez. Director Olivier Assayas sexes you up while penetrating the politics and personalities, crazy violence, idealism, and naivety of the ancient world (1970’s & ‘80’s), blending more languages and countries than a stack of National Geographics, while leaving the USA out of the picture, and all with great narrative clarity. Fantastic.
David Warfield
