339 - Under the Volcano, United States, 1984. Dir. John Huston.

Tuesday, December 5, 2017

339 - Under the Volcano, United States, 1984.  Dir. John Huston.

God answers prayers.

Geoffrey Firmin prays for his wife to return.

His wife returns.

He cannot believe his eyes.  It is too good to be true.

It is true.

Cuernavaca.

The Day of the Dead.

Geoffrey Firmin is the British Consul.

Well, he was the British Consul.  Now he is a drunk.

He is beyond a drunk.  He is more than a drunk.  He is a man who breathes drink.  It may have been years since he has experienced a sober moment.

He hides bottles throughout the house.  And grounds.  He chases chasers with more chasers.

Yvonne stands by him.

Hugh Firmin, his brother, his half brother, stands by him.

Geoffrey does seem to have some bad memories of Yvonne and Hugh together in the past.  And that does seem to get in the way of his love life with her now.  But they are still his family

The three of them take a bus ride together.  To Tomalin.  A bullfight.  Hugh himself fights!  Yvonne appeals to Geoffrey to leave Mexico and go away with her.  Move to the northeast.  Maine.  Or Canada.  He is drawn in.  Yes.

Then Hugh returns.  No.  He cannot get those memories out of his head.  He stumbles away for awhile.

How will this end?

Will Yvonne get through to him?  Will he return to her?  Will she go back to Hugh?  Or will some other thing happen?

All things happen in one day.

A day in the life of Geoffrey Firmin.

A film about human remorse.  And soul searching.

Firmin is played by Albert Finney, who launched his career playing a drunk.  With his second film.  In the British New Wave film Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960).  Twenty-four years before.

You may know him as Julia Roberts' boss in Erin Brokovich (2000), but has done so much more.  Including working with John Huston two years before this film, as Daddy Warbucks in Annie (1982).

Yvonne is played by the legendary Jacqueline Bisset.  We first saw Jacqueline Bisset on Saturday, May 6, 2017 in the great Francois Truffaut film Dy for Night (1973).  http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/05/126-day-for-night-1973-france-dir.html

Here she is eleven years later somehow looking as young and alive as ever.

In the beginning of the film, Firmin walks through a cinema lobby.  Inside they are playing the film Las Manos de Orlac.  This title translates to The Hands of Orlac.  However, it is not the 1924 Austrian silent film directed by Robert Wiene and starring Conrad Veidt (known as Major Heinrich Strasser in Casablanca (1942)).

It is the 1935 American remake directed by Karl Freund, starring Peter Lorre (Ugarte in Casablanca), Colin Clive as Stephen Orlac, and Frances Drake.  It was called Mad Love in America.

The films are about a world renown pianist who loses his hands in an accident and receives a double hand transplant.  His new hands come from the body of a murderer, and they still possess the former owner's nature.  Therefore, Orlac now kills people.  However, he does so against his will.  His heart remains good, but his heart cannot control his hands.

The cinema owner mentions the film to Geoffrey at the entrance to the screening room.  In doing so he unwittingly draws attention the protagonist, who has a good heart beset by an alcoholic thirst.

Note that the female lead in both version of the Orlac story is named Yvonne, as is our female lead here.

Peter Lorre's character Gogol expresses an appeal that may underscore Geoffrey's.

Why are you afraid of me?
I love you.  I love you.