8/6/2019 A Voir a Lire Review From First Paris Press Screening

1/4

Road to nowhere Lacritique

Dure : 2h 01mn

Monte Hellman, the outsider of American cinema is finally back with this Pirandellian film noir with the

sweetness of a dizzying dream.

The argument: A young director falls in a criminal case during the shooting of his new film ...

Our review: Monte Hellman is an outsider of Americancinema whose work has influenced many young filmmakers. His filmography, scanty, includes at least three cu

films: the westerns Ride In The Whirlwind and The Shooting, both shot in 1965, and the road movie Two-LanBlacktop (1971). If he was always very active, especially producing Reservoir Dogs, preparing Buffalo 66 bef

giving it up to Vincent Gallo, or teaching at the California Institute of the Arts, he has not made films since Iguin 1988, and Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out! (1989 - unreleased in theaters), with the exceptio

a short film (Stanley's Girlfriend in 2006).

The release of Road to Nowhere, presented at the recent Venice Film Festival (Special Golden Lion for overall

8/6/2019 A Voir a Lire Review From First Paris Press Screening

2/4

work), is a real event that will be good news for moviegoers, even if they are likely to be a little taken aback bymovie that seems a priori very far from the filmmaker's previous movies.

This is certainly not because of an apparent slow pace, clearly stated at the outset by a scene of several minutesshowing a young woman drying her nails on a bed, which will surprise. This has always been an element of

Hellman's style, as well as the charm of Road to Nowhere, the particular excitement it brings, due in large part the sense of real time action, such as the time it takes to strip a corpse in a tunnel.

The whole film is bathed in a sort of semi-lethargy out of which come disturbing flashes of lacerating violence(two plane crashes, some scenes of unexpected actions) whose effect is particularly strong, and for which nothi

seems to prepare us.)

Some may refuse to allow themselves to get lost in the intricacies of the screenplay by Steven Gaydos,

deliberately deconstructed and Pirandellian. It is true that we often ask about the status of what we see (Is this

true or is it part of the film in the movie?) And in the end, I am not sure I understood everything. But this

indecision is a decisive factor in the success of most film noir classics and here, as in the best specimens of itskind, the clarity of the staging adds to the problems experienced by the viewer.

Road to Nowhere, which is also a great documentary about the film world, derives its strength from the balancebetween its film noir intrigue and its profound subject: the question of casting. This is a central concern ofHellman who told his players: Your job is not to become the character, the character must become you.

And the cast is just perfect here: the heiress Laura, Gilda, and of course the Madeleine / Judy in Vertigo, doublethe figure of Laurel / Velma (who plays whom?), is in line with injured birds that cause the hero to fall and is

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here embodied in an ideal actress, Shannyn Sossamon (She has the gene of film noir, rightly says Hellman).Waylon Payne (Bruno) and Cliff De Young (also in a double role) are really great, just like Tygh Runyan as a

young filmmaker trying to hide his nave vanity in an excessive kindness and enthusiasm. (The video sessionsin his hotel room are invaluable, echoing the plot, with excerpts from The Lady Eve, The Spirit of the Beehive

and The Seventh Seal, invariably described as the world's greatest film).

If not totally free of weaknesses (the Italian part looks like a postcard), Road to Nowhere quickly exceeds its

theoretical premises and a little self-reflexivity (Drop that weapon! shout the police at the director with his eye

on the viewfinder of his camera) to immerse us in the sweet giddiness of a daydream.

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Note that March 25 Capricci puts out a book of interviews with Monte Hellman entitled Sympathy for theDevil. We will return.

Claude Rieffe