Wednesday, March 26, 2008
A Wait In Bruges
In Bruges is an irreverent, funny, and well- executed film. Two hitmen hide out in this medieval Belgian city, which now by virtue of being a title character in a film is now known to the world overnight. The world of In Bruges is a world brought to you post Sopranos and post-Pulp fiction. Hitmen Ray and Ken (Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson) deal with the mundane and absurd, fishes out of water waiting for their next move in Bruges after a botched job.
Carol Reed's The Third Man is definitely an inspiration on In Bruges. The city is definitely a character in MdDonagh's film as Vienna is in Reed's. And the third hitman in the story, Harry, (Ralph Fiennes) is always referred to but isn't a physical presence in the film until the last reels as was the case with Welles' Harry Lime.
Throw away lines get re-linked later into references and subplot in only the way as they would in a well-crafted play. I mentioned after seeing In Bruges that the film was like a play and was not surprised that the writer-director Martin McDonagh is a kind of 38 year old David Mamet of Ireland. His IMDB biography lists his favorite music is Nirvana, The Sex Pistols and The Pogues and that "his greatest influences are not in theatre but film. He cites Martin Scorsese, David Lynch, Terrence Malick and Quentin Tarantino."
Martin McDonagh is also a first time feature director who has already one an Oscar. In a typical hyperlink investigation of the usual suspects, IMDB and Wikipedia, I found that the 2005 Academy Award for best live action short film. Six Shooter is included on the Magnolia collection of short Oscar winners which I had not watched yet, but did at my first available opportunity. Six Shooter mostly takes place on a train and also stars Brendan Gleeson as a very recent widower. What he encounters on that train home is a lot of the same edginess, absurdity, outrageous situations (with accents sometimes of blood and violence) and a kind of line of impropriety that would come from one who cites the likes of Lynch and Tarantino as his biggest influences. And it further solidifies the experience of In Bruges for me.
When one is operating in this territory, this time zone of questionable taste and to some degree barely recognizable mores and reality, (but very well crafted) the results will not be for everyone. Those who tend to visit the works of such artists know who they are. Admirers of the Coen brothers, will probably be down with McDonagh for instance. For others, who knows? A couple hours In Bruges with these characters and coincidences might be a trip worth taking.
posted by well-executed buffet at 9:37 PM
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