By Susan Granger
Special to WestportNow
Actor Jesse Eisenberg (“Zombieland,” “The Social Network”) had a wonderful spring planned — with two new movies — neither of which ever made it to theaters.
In “Vivarium,” watch carefully as the introductory scene with the cuckoo birds shows how they trick other birds into raising their young. It’s a metaphor foreshadowing what’s about to unfold.
Thirty-something landscaper Tom (Eisenberg) and his schoolteacher girlfriend Gemma (Imogen Poots) are thinking about taking the next step in their lives by buying a home in suburbia. So they talk with a creepy real estate agent (Jonathan Aris).
Intrigued by a newly planned community called Yonder — boasting the ominous slogan: “You’re home. Forever.” — they decide to view one of the identical, prefabricated properties, which are arranged in looping, labyrinthine subdivisions, only to discover there’s no way out.
Without phone or internet, they’re obviously trapped in this eerie maze. So when groceries and medical supplies arrive, they settle into fully furnished starter home #9, trying to make the best of a sinister situation.
Then a parcel containing a baby boy appears with a note, informing them that — if they’ll raise this child — they’ll be released. The rapidly growing boy (Senan Jennings) is human in form but alien in his ghoulish ability to mimic his adoptive parents.
Working from a screenplay by Garret Shanley, Irish director Lorcan Finnegan fashions a cautionary, contemporary horror story, reminiscent of one of Rod Serling’s “Twilight Zone” episodes, only not as well written, particularly in the second act.
The title “Vivarium” is defined as “an enclosure, container or structure adapted or prepared for keeping animals under semi-natural conditions for observation or study or as pets.”
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Vivarium” is a cynical, surreal, suspenseful 6. Available to rent or buy on iTunes, Google Play, Vudu and other streaming platforms.
“Resistance” is a true story of Holocaust heroism, inspired by the exploits of French mime Marcel Marceau, when a group of Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts saved the lives of around 10,000 orphans whose parents were killed by the Nazis during World War II.
Before he became famous, Marcel Marceau worked with the French Jewish Resistance. Back in 1938, Marcel Mangel (Eisenberg) labored in his father’s Strasbourg butcher shop and had a crush on a girl named Emma (Clemence Poesy).
Emma has been working with Marcel’s older brother Alain (Felix Moati) and cousin George (Geza Rohrig) to find homes for 123 Jewish children, just rescued from Germany.
Temporarily sheltered in an improvised orphanage, the traumatized youngsters are enchanted by Marcel’s improvisational clowning and pantomimes as he tries to amuse them, even though Marcel describes himself as “not good with children.”
Then when northern France is occupied by the German army, they flee to Limoges in Vichy, placing the children with sympathetic families and Christian churches there — until they can make their way through the Alps to seek sanctuary in Switzerland.
German brutality is epitomized by sadistic SS Officer Klaus Barbie (Matthias Schweighofer), known as the Butcher of Lyon, who headed the French Gestapo, headquartered at the Hotel Terminus.
Eventually, Marcel Marceau is celebrated by General George S. Patton (Ed Harris) and he was awarded the Wallenberg Medal in 2001.
Working from a disjointed concept that’s reminiscent of Roberto Benigni’s Oscar-winning “Life Is Beautiful,” Venezuelan-Jewish writer/director Jonathan Jakubowicz (“Hands of Stone”) drew from research and interviews with Marceau’s first cousin, Georges Loinger, who revealed that Marceau was also an expert forger.
Although Jesse Eisenberg’s mother was professional clown, his French accent is shaky. Bella Ramsey (“Game of Thrones”) is most memorable as the orphan who opens the film.
On the Granger Gauge, “Resistance” is a courageous 6, emphasizing the importance of entertainment in trying times. Available on Amazon, Google Play, Apple TV and other streaming platforms.
When legendary filmmaker Orson Welles (“Citizen Kane,” “Touch of Evil”) died in 1985, he left an unfinished film, “The Other Side of the Wind,” which he’d worked on intermittently between 1970 and 1976. It’s been called the most famous movie that was never released.
The concept revolves around a 70th birthday celebration for a celebrated but notoriously hard-drinking, game-hunting filmmaker, macho Jake Hannaford (John Huston) and his complex relationship with an overeager young protégé, Brooks Otterlake (Peter Bogdanovich) — which mirrors Welles’ own bond with Bogdanovich.
Set at the sprawling desert home of actress Zarah Valenska (Lilli Palmer), it’s peppered with appearances by Mercedes McCambridge, Paul Stewart, Edmond O’Brien, Dennis Hopper, Paul Mazursky, Henry Jaglom and Claude Chabrol, plus a Pauline Kael-like film critic played by Susan Strasberg. The debauchery is punctuated by clips from Hannaford’s uncompleted comeback movie.
Co-written by Welles and his longtime lover, Croatian-born actress Oja Kodar, this satirically raunchy, politically incorrect movie-within-a-movie stars Ms. Kodar as a nude Native American woman — whom Hannaford calls “Pocahontas” — and hunky Robert Random; their sex-in-a-speeding-Mustang scene is among Welles’ most memorable.
Producers Frank Marshall and Filip Jan Rymsza raised funds to patch together and complete Welles’ work, sorting through more than 100 hours of footage stored in a Paris warehouse, wrapped and boxed into eight pallets and shipped to the Technicolor offices in Hollywood.
The result is an episodic hodgepodge of black-and-white footage, mixed with color, shot in various formats: 35 millimeter, 16 millimeter and Super 8 — set to Michel Legrand’s jazzy score
According to Marshall: “No one really knew if we had enough material to put together a movie that actually made any sense.”
Eventually, the narrative settles on a key line of dialogue, “Your guy’s a big, pink lobster,” revealing Hannaford’s tough-guy protagonist is hard on the outside, yet soft on the inside.
the Granger Gauge, “The Other Side of the Wind” is a salvaged 6, a chaotic, cinematic curiosity for avid film buffs, streaming on Netflix.
(Editor’s Note: Westport resident Susan Granger grew up in Hollywood, studied journalism with Pierre Salinger at Mills College, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in journalism. In addition to writing for newspapers and magazines, she has been on radio/television as an anchorwoman and movie/drama critic for many years. See her reviews at www.susangranger.com.)
