The Proposition

[alonewiththemoon]

It would be the glib and facile thing to say that The Proposition, screenplay by Nick Cave, could be summed up in its first audible line of dialogue:  "Come on you fuckers!", screamed by a man holed up in a whorehouse running into a rain of bullets.  But while that would in some ways not be inaccurate, it wouldn't do the movie justice.  It is a spectacularly violent movie; the closest comparison that springs to mind is Sin City, only without the cartoon gloss, just a thick coating of dust and flies and tangible heat.  But through dialogue and action, a rather familiar cast of Nick Cave characters ask what it means to be civilized, and what it means to let go of being civilized, where the line can be drawn between remaining in and out of human society, how social order is craved even among the sociopathic and what happens when different rules of social order collide.  I may say more on it tomorrow.  Right now, to be honest, I need a drink and playtime with my happy silly ferrets who are not bothered by these questions.

"Misanthropes?  So is that what we are then?"
"No, we're not misanthropes.  We're family!"

Comments

[damiel.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the review. I look forward to seeing it.

[ladytatiana.livejournal.com]

it was pretty fucking fantastic. i could hardly think afterward. dancing felt like such a sweet (and sweaty) release.

[frankensplean.livejournal.com]

Arthur Burns -- i mean Danny Huston -- was efficacious in an actorly sort of way. Not quite the same without his hair extensions though! He stated what i was thinking -- that Ray Winstone's performance was dazzling.
i saw you 'n Paisley heading out before the Q&A..

[alonewiththemoon]

I wish I could have stayed, but it had been a brutally long day already and I faced a 6am wakeup this morning :-( Did he say anything about Nick Cave?

[frankensplean.livejournal.com]

Yes! The most interesting thing to me, as an old but not quite worshipful fan of Nick, was Huston's description of him as a no-nonsense, 9-to-5 personality living a bourgeois existence in Brighton, England - but with that "been there" ex-addict gothic quality (more or less his words). :)
There were also the mundane artsy questions about how his script reflected his storytelling in songs and whatnot - stuff the audience could answer just as well as Huston..