* February 8, 2007. Check out this eye-opening behind-the-scenes report on the making of this independent film of mood, mystery, nature, and violent whimsy.It was in the teens, if that, tonight, when I hiked thru Harvard Square to get to the Brattle for a screening of DISAPPEARANCES. It had been a screwy day at work and even tho I was a couple minutes late for the show, I let myself miss a few more so that I could treat myself to some popcorn and lemonade. I needed it.
Coming in from the biting cold to the theater heat, my balcony seat, popcorn, and the great characters, performances, and atmosphere of the film made for a perfect fuzzy campfire story feel. I highly recommend checking this film out, particularly if you happen to be in the Square and looking for some soothing shelter from the winter chill. The film is a great crackling fire of a mood piece populated with unique characters. It's playing for two more nights. (with a break for SHINOBI on Wednesday and then followed on Friday by PRINCESS BRIDE!)
The film focuses on father, Quebec Bill Bonhomme, wonderfully, heartily played by Kris Kristofferson, and son, Wild Bill, in a family of notorious Vermont whiskey smugglers-turned-farmers. In the midst of a very harsh winter Quebec Bill returns to his smuggling ways, one last time, to make the money needed to save his cattle and farm, and decides to indoctrinate his son in the family business. At the same time, young Bill becomes curious about his Aunt's mystical and alternately puzzling and insightful stories about his heritage, and in particular, the disappearance his grandfather, Quebec Bill's father. This smuggling run, across the border and into the Canadian wilderness, proves to be a journey in time as well, a kind of ghost story, as Quebec Bill and Aunt Cordelia share with Wild Bill the hidden truths about their pasts, present, and even his future.
The pacing is a bit unusual in places, but not jarring, rather fitting, even, given the supernatural layer that Wild Bill's aunt paints over their family history. The characters who join the Goodman clan and face them as rivals are quirky and earthy, in a Coen Brothers team-up with David Lynch kind of way. Gary Farmer as wise anchor man Uncle Henry and William Sanderson (Larry, of Larry, Daryl, and Daryl) as the cynical ex-con "Ratty" round out the smuggling team.
"All human endeavors are illusory, but not all are futile..."That Aunt Cordelia, she be trippin!
Keep on keepin on~
2 comments:
Nice review. I like the "a perfect fuzzy campfire story feel". I saw this tonight and reviewed it on my blog.
Thanks, Liam!
I really do dig DISAPPEARANCES as a quirky folk tale, y'know? I think Aunt Cordelia says somewhere that "reality and illusion are interchangeable." That's pretty much the key to diggin the film, I think.
I like to fill in the blanks in stories that don't give you everything up front or in a typical lineary narrative form. My *SPOILERy* back-story explanation follows...
There's something supernatural, or maybe ultranatural, connected to nature, or the nature of Kingdom County, perhaps, in the Goodman (aka Bonhomme) bloodline. It's what enables Aunt Cordelia's visions and appearances. It's probably what made Quebec Bill such a great smuggler, and fiddler, even. Perverted, somehow, it's what turned Grandfather Bonhomme into a mad undying "wolverine." And it's young Wild Bill's heritage.
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