"Any movie with a poster like that has got to be good."
Balzac Theatre Paris, December 15th, 2012
I was heading to one of my favorite theatres in Paris on a cold and windswept night. In fact, amidst the flurries of rain, I almost felt I was at sea, or on a Scottish moor as I took shelter under the awning of a fast food restaurant on the Champs Elysses.
I must admit that I had heard nothing about this film, Tabu, nor of the director, Miguel Gomez. A friend had recommended that I see it. She was the kind of person that keeps up with the French cutural press often enough to know that there is an interesting Portugese film playing at the Balzac theatre in Paris. So I accepted her invitation, gladly. I love it when I have never heard of a film and people I know are saying wonderful things about it as I suffer from general media saturation. The days of me walking into a movie blind are few and far between. But I was also walking into the movie blind as there was rain in my face. I was soaked. The ticket lady looked at me funny. At first I thought she wasn't going to let me in. Other people also wanting to buy tickets were a lot dryer than I was.
When we settled into out seats, the owner was patrolling the seats in the theatre like a patient in an asylum. That's right. It's the Balzac theatre on a saturday night on the Champs Elysées and the owner of the establishment is wandering around asking everyone how they are, like we were all in an old folks home. He reminded me of the kind of adventurous Frenchman who if he were not doing this, would be running a sugar cane plantation. The seats are comfortable. Too comfortable. I feel like I could become one with their DNA. A program has been handed to me. It indicates that we are about to hear some experimental jazz performed by two pupils at the local music conservatory. I have seen a lot in the way of preamble to the modern cinema going experience (trailers, sexy ice cream commercials) but experimental noise jazz has yet to be a part of it.
"Why not?" I said to myself. I came for an experimental Portugese black and white film, why not also take in some unexpected experimental jazz? We welcomed the two young musicians with calm applause. Most of the cinema's patrons were of a generation that could only give calm applause. A lot of them were still fidgeting with their coats or trying to position their posteriors in the perfect spot. The whole ambience of the room changed when the first shrieks of the violin and saxophone filled the theatre. What started out as surprise and muted enthusiasm turned to polite tolerance. I liked what I was hearing. It reminded me of the scene in a movie when the serial killer is hiding the bodies but had accidentally been stimulated by drinking four red bulls.
At least it was cinematic.
After a final word from our owner about offering more in the way of cultural preludes before his film, the curtains finally drew back and the movie started point blank. And just like that, we were taken into the world of modern Portugese cinema which it turned out had a lot in common with sixties European cinema.
My first clue to the film Tabu's ambition should have been that the curtains never really opened all the way to present the film. This, it turned out, was perfectly natural as the film was shot on 16mm black and white and therefore it was presented in the 1:33 aspect ratio. A screen aspect ratio that is familiar to ancient film student graduates but a complete mystery to everyone else as to why they were only opening the curtains half way. I felt slightly smug in my knowledge.
"Tabu" is a story of a daughter and a maid who initially embark on a kind of domestic detective story to find out how cool their mother was on the eve of her funeral. They hear this story from an ex lover who reveals the extent of her hidden life. It turns out that her mother had to keep her affair with him a secret for fear of hurting her husband and breaking her family up. For some reason the maid factors into the beginning of this story heavily and I have no idea why. We spend the first half of the movie with the people who are going to hear the story rather than spending time with the lovers themselves which forms the best and the most rewarding part of the story.
There's also a murder at some point but this is a European film set in Africa so its actually no big deal.
It is certainly a uniquely visual movie filled with long shots of the African wilderness and a photographic vantage point that interestingly takes the side of the natives in the village who are bemused at the white people's bourgeois problems. The real charm of the film is this distance and the filmmaker really enforces this idea with his camerawork that reveals periphery voyeurs at the end of his shots like they were punchlines. But the movie is too long and has devoted too much time to characters at the beginning who I fear are too irrelevant. You end up caring a lot more for the atmosphere of this film than you do the central characters and this is always a bit of a problem. At the very least, it is the reason why perhaps it will remain a novelty.
Three and a half hours later, it was over and I felt simulataneously rewarded and punished. Rewarded by the uniqueness of the vision of Mr. Miguel Gomez, but punished by the film's length. In a way, the movie Tabu itself mirrored the experience of the Balzac theatre itself. There were things that were worthwhile but you had to wade through a lot of stuff to get to them. Much like life itself.
It had stopeed raining when we got out and we went and found the only eatery that was open off the Champs Elysées that was not pizza based or a million Qatar dollars a plate. We found an empty Chinese restaurant. The kind of place where the servers seem genuinely surprised that you have walked in. I sat down to a plate of fried rice and sweet and sour pork and I discussed the movie with my friend. I asked her if the Balzac theatre was always like that. I told her it had the feel of a classy cruise ship for the elderly. She told me that it was often the case but a lot of times they had lectures from cinema scholars and people who had high opinions of their opinions. I told her that sounded great to me. I told her how I was sick of insurance commercials at the movies. She told me they also had a bar and that I could just sit there at the theatre all day if I wanted to. That sounded good too. I couldn't remember the last time I really had distinct memories of going to a movie theatre. Forget 3D. Give me unexpected free jazz and the company of the quietly disgruntled.
I couldn't think of a better place to spend my twilight years, especially in the comfort of those chairs.
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