DIRECTOR’S CALL FOR ‘NIGHTMARE ALLEY’
TAKE IT FROM ME, GUILLERMO DEL TORO’S LATEST IS A HUGE ACCOMPLISHMENT AND DESERVES OUR UTMOST APPRECIATION
F E W W E E K S ago, I caught up with Guillermo del Toro’s “Nightmare Alley.” I was impressed and moved. I look forward to watching anything that Guillermo does, but this particular picture had a special power and resonance for me. ¶ Then I came to realize that people just weren’t coming out for it, which was distressing. Obviously, this past holiday season was a tricky moment to release any movie. But I also wonder if there has been a real appreciation of Guillermo’s accomplishment. ¶ I would bet that the term “noir” has appeared in most of the reviews and comments about “Nightmare Alley,” and with good reason. The characters are all haunted, many are doomed, and the film is based on a novel with the kind of wild labyrinthine plot that is a hallmark of film noir. On top of that, the novel was filmed once before, right after its publication in 1946, and the earlier version directed by Edmund Goulding has long
been considered a classic of the genre.
But the term “noir” has been used so often and in such a cheeky way that it seems more like a flavor than anything else, and it might just lead someone seeking information about the picture in the wrong direction. They might be expecting a noir “pastiche,” of which there have been many. That doesn’t even begin to do justice to Guillermo and Kim Morgan’s adaptation.
The majority of the picture takes place in the ’30s, and it seems to grow out of the bitterness and despair of the Depression: You can feel it in the images and in the body language of the actors. All the characters in this film are feeling real pain, a sense of spiritual desolation rooted in everyday life. This isn’t just a matter of “style” or “visuals,” exquisite as the film is. It’s a matter of Guillermo’s complete commitment to the material, to bringing his vision to life with his production designer, his costume designer, his DP and his amazing cast, led by Bradley Cooper and Cate Blanchett. They work together to create a dead-end universe from out of the American past, and they do it inside and out, through and through.
In that sense, the film is truer to the animating spirit of
film noir than the many “homages” that have been made over the years and are still being made now. Guillermo is certainly speaking from and to his own time, but he’s doing so in the idiom of a time gone by, and the urgency and despair of then overlaps with the urgency and despair of now in a way that’s quite disturbing. It’s like a warning bell.
Disturbing, but exhilarating at the same time. That’s what art can do.
COVID-19 has also been extremely tough on the cinema in general. It’s added timeconsuming protocols and extremely expensive insurance packages to the budgets of all films, big and small. It’s resulted in the closure of many theaters and a resistance to going back to the ones that are still open. And on top of everything else … Omicron.
If you decided to just file “Nightmare Alley” away under “noir” or some other category, I would urge you to take a second closer look. And if you decided to skip it altogether, for whatever reason, please reconsider. In essence, what I’m trying to say is that a filmmaker like Guillermo, who gives us pictures this lovingly and passionately crafted, doesn’t just our support: he
racking, but I respect it. I think it’s standard practice for them. I think Amy Winehouse recorded a Bond song that was never used. I would bet money they begged Adele to do it, and she said no.
Eilish: [Laughs] We met with [producer] Barbara [Broccoli] in Ireland. She sent the first bit of the script so that we knew the beginning. I’m sure everybody that was writing a song got that. At the time, we were just so excited she was interested at all.
So when we see you in the documentary creating the song, it’s your pitch?
Eilish: Yes, and it took awhile because, oh my God, did we have rules we felt like we had to follow in our minds. The main thing was, I really, really needed the melody to be strong. It’s got to be a powerful, melancholy feeling. I wanted the whole song to be good melodies. We would start to write and I’d immediately shoot it down, “Not good enough!”
O’Connell: This often happens with Billie and me, where we’re writing and we realize how we feel about something as the song is being written. And with James Bond, we knew exactly what we wanted to hit. I remember when Billie came up with, “I should have known I’d leave alone” as the first line, I thought that was so cool. Such a sad, James Bond thing to say. We were pumped.
Are you role-playing when you write?
Eilish: We wrote this song from James’ point of view of [love interest] Madeline, rethinking his entire life and trust in her. It was a great thing to write about. We’ve all felt betrayed, and I liked that it was higher stakes than, “She told on me, and I didn’t want her to.”
O’Connell: (exaggeratedly warbling) “She-e-e-e-e told on me…”
Eilish: [Laughs]
O’Connell: (still singing) “…I didn’t wa-a-a-a-ant her to …”
Eilish: Stop!
O’Connell: It was also very important for me to have the chorus have almost a double [meaning], “I’ve fallen for a lie.” He has fallen for a lie, but that line’s reinterpreted as the movie progressed. It wasn’t the lie he thought he fell for.
Also, on a practical level, you had a more amenable title to lyricize.
O’Connell: We didn’t have to put “Quantum of Solace” into a song, yes, but then Jack White and Alicia Keys didn’t even try to do that. I love [that theme song] more and more as I get older.
Billie, in the documentary, you express concern for how people will react to you belting. Have you had a change of heart about that kind of singing?
Eilish: Absolutely, thanks to “No Time to Die”! The thing people don’t realize is, when I started out, I had an undeveloped voice and range. I was 13! There are people that when they’re young have a very loud singing voice, and I had a quiet singing voice. And when you get older, you learn to sing in different dynamics. But when you’re a preteen, then teen, trying to figure out what you’re capable of, you stay in your comfort zone. Stepping out is important, but it’s really scary.
O’Connell: I think what’s stunning to me is that she’s just gotten better. She had an incredible voice at 13 years old, and everybody thought so. But I listen back to her recordings from then and I think, “Oh, what a young version of Billie’s now incredibly sophisticated instrument.”
Eilish: I could barely do runs! So thank you to Bond for getting me out of my comfort zone and exploring my voice, and realizing that I can sing a lot more than I think I can.
Revolution Could Not Be Televised)” “Writing With Fire”
Happily, there is nothing as wretched as last year’s winner, “My Octopus Teacher,” in this year’s lineup. Every one of these nominees has something to recommend it: the piercing intimacy of “Flee”; the startling observational rigor of “Ascension”; the inspiring shoe-leather grit of “Writing With Fire”; the through-the-rafters exuberance of “Summer of Soul.” My vote would go to “Attica,” Stanley Nelson’s methodical and monumental reconstruction of a 1971 prison uprising and the senseless, horrific display of state brutality that followed. It’s a searing work from one of the most vital and under-heralded of American nonfiction filmmakers.
Should win: “Attica”
Should’ve been nominated: “Procession”