The American

George Clooney is one of the most recognisable faces in American cinema, with good reason; as director Anton Corbijn has said ‘he can say a lot without a script’ so it comes as no surprise that he was the first choice to play the only American character in this European style film ‘The American’.  It is a shame that Clooney’s magic touch, which has gained many award nominations in the past (Michael Clayton, Up In The Air), cannot give more ‘je ne sais quoi’ to this beautiful, but empty film.

The story is very basic with Clooney playing an unnamed gun mechanic who customises weapons for assassins until he is forced to hide after he becomes a target. He stays in Castel De Monte, working away on another assignment, whilst avoiding the locals, all except the prostitute Clara (Violante Placido); he first visits her out of loneliness, but then falls in love with her.  With such a basic plotline you hope that there are some extra story arcs, but this is not the case; the pace of the film drags out everything mentioned to happen over 103 minutes. When something unexpected does happen, Corbijin handles it with quick, precise expertise, which is a nice change from other Hollywood films where the guns battles and chase scenes last over 20 minutes. Saying that it would also have been nice for the action sequences to have had a bit more to them as they would have broken up the film’s laboured pace.

Consequently, without the distraction of too many action sequences, there is plenty of time for detailed characterisation, but Corbijn neglects to do this choosing instead to keep the character a mystery. We are not told anything about his past, so he is completely unrelatable and uninvolving. What is worse is that the protagonist is asking for forgiveness for his past, from both the audience and those around him, but he does nothing that can be considered redeeming. We are never really supporting him and because of this we lose interest in him and also the film.

With all this in mind there are some good things in this film that go some way to make up for the long rant above. Corbijn has used his photographic eye to create some absolutely beautiful shots; the countryside of Italy has never looked this idyllic. Using plenty of wide landscape footage and fantastic shots of the architecture creates a sense of openness and emptiness that reflects the loneliness of Clooney’s character. Both Clooney and his co-star Placido have a real chemistry that can be felt on screen. The sex scene is especially intense, with Clooney revealing more usual (this might be reason itself to see the film for some viewers) and there is tangible passion between the stars. When asked about that scene in a chat we had with him, director said that he tried to film ‘… it in a way that you feel sexuality rather than seeing it, which was important because a lot of sex scenes usually don’t feel sexual, you see everything, but it is not sexual.’

Corbijn also uses atmospheric techniques to great effect making many scenes, even ones with Clooney alone in a room, incredibly tense as he ‘can carry that [tension] and keep you interested, his body language was really good.’ We never know when someone will jump out to attack him and this keeps the audience wary of the silences. Although the music helps add to the tension, it is the silences that really make you sit up in your seat. Corbijn plays around with the sound very effectively, knowing exactly when to have a huge crescendo and when it is more appropriate to have nothing at all.

Saying all this the looks and the tension are not enough to hold ones interest throughout the entire film.  It is sad, but it seems that Corbijn hasn’t quite been able to get away from his photographic origins and create something that stood up to his last film ‘Control’. This will likely come as no surprise to him since he admitted to us ‘I know that I can’t top Control in the critical sense, the recognition was so immense it is just something you can’t aim for.’ What made  ‘Control’ was that Corbijn effectively balanced both aesthetics and story; sadly this time around he only seems to have concentrated on the former. Though it is highly doubtful this criticism will phase him since his philosophy is ‘If people hate the film I am sure for anyone that is hard to take because you work so long on the project… [but] you make a movie that you want to make and you have to let it go and see how people react.’

Degree- 3rd

A film that looks beautiful, but lacks any real substance,

characterisation or story telling.

 

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The American

Here is a film I just went to see yesterday. Nothing can be put up till closer to the release date, but here is something to get interested in.

The film is about an American (obviously), played by George Clooney, who makes guns on request from assassins. After becoming a target himself he goes to hide in a small Italian village until it all blows here. While he meets a variety of locals including a priest (Paolo Bonacelli) and a prostitute (Violante Placido). The is directer by photographer turned director Anton Corbijn and is out 26th November.