Latest news with #JonathanDemme
Los Angeles Times
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
New Jonathan Demme biography spotlights director's clashes with powerful stars — and his humanity
Before he set his sights on Hollywood, Jonathan Demme studied to become a vet. Movies may have mesmerized him since childhood, but animals were his 'parallel obsession,' writes film journalist David M. Stewart in 'There's No Going Back,' an uneven biography of the Oscar-winning director of 'The Silence of the Lambs.' In the end, chemistry classes proved too hard, and only one animal sustained Demme's interest long enough: the Alligator, the University of Florida newspaper that let him contribute film reviews. A career as a veterinarian was abandoned in favor of the movies. Demme, who died in 2017, forged a career defined by films that centered voices from society's ever-shifting margins. He spotlighted women ('Swing Shift'), Black people ('Beloved') and HIV-positive gay men ('Philadelphia') in narratives that celebrated their trials through an empathetic camera lens. Interspersed among Hollywood projects were documentaries such as 'The Agronomist,' on Haiti's only independent radio station; 'Right to Return,' about Hurricane Katrina victims fighting to access their homes again; and 'Stop Making Sense.' Demme himself witnessed the difficulty those at society's fringes faced entering spaces men (often white) had claimed and refused to relinquish. His grandmother retold rose-tinted stories of building aircraft equipment during World War II before being forcibly relegated back to her domestic life. Growing up Miami's Overtown neighborhood, Demme saw how Black people created their own unique 'music and communal energy' during segregation, a culture he would repeatedly honor in his own films. After college, Demme landed a publicity job at United Artists. During a chance encounter chauffeuring François Truffaut around, the master auteur told the desperate factotum that he had an eye for directing. Demme insisted he wasn't interested in being a director, even after the French filmmaker inscribed his copy of 'Hitchcock.' 'Yes, you are,' was Truffaut's reply. Despite these early protests, Demme moved west to Hollywood, working for B-movie producer Roger Corman on films such as the 1971 bike picture 'Angels Hard as They Come' and the salacious 1973 prison escape story 'Black Mama White Mama' before he directed 'Caged Heat' with a feminist take on the women-in-prison film that embraced satire and progressive politics. Demme directed socially conscious projects during the 1970s, tackling the disenfranchised and forgotten through action and comedy tales. 'Crazy Mama,' about a housewife intent on exacting vengeance on the men who murdered her husband, highlighted Demme's desire to recognize women's ongoing struggles against a patriarchal world. 'Fighting Mad' and 'Citizens Band' (subsequently titled 'Handle with Care') touched on corporate greed, ecological destruction and finding human connection in small-town America. 'Melvin and Howard' won two Oscars and was nominated for a third. But in an experience that would unfortunately repeat itself, the Goldie Hawn-produced 'Swing Shift' was a deeply demoralizing project for Demme. He had wanted to make a 'feminist perspective of women during wartime,' writes Stewart, while Hawn had imagined the film as a sugary rom-com. The veto power Hawn had meant the entire ending was reshot, mostly sapping Demme's dream of its political message. A decade later, Demme would suffer similar strife on the set of 'Beloved,' quarreling with Oprah Winfrey over aspects of characterization in the supernatural slavery epic. ( Winfrey told Stewart that she was banned from viewing the dailies for a brief period.) But creative comfort was found, as Demme repeated over the years, in music. There was his Talking Heads concert film 'Stop Making Sense' and several Neil Young concert films; 'Something Wild,' a Melanie Griffith movie he made after 'Swing Shift,' prominently featured Jamaican singer Sister Carol and her cover of 'Wild Thing.' Still, it was his passion for female protagonists who were 'reliable in a world of lying men' that also fueled his output, if only partly dealt with in Stewart's shorthand approach. 'The Silence of the Lambs,' 'Rachel Getting Married' and 'Ricki and the Flash' each etched, in equal parts, the strength and vulnerability of a different women — battling the criminal justice system, besieged by addiction and estranged from family — who reject victimhood as an option. 'There's No Going Back' stresses it's not a definitive biography but an effort to 'understand Demme as a filmmaker.' If Stewart can be forgiven for the light detail on Demme's upbringing for this reason (only a few pages), he is less absolved for his inconsistent, often abridged, treatments of Demme's films and what messages to glean from a long view of the director. Patchy approaches — 'Rachel Getting Married' gets some dissection with minimal production detail, while 'The Silence of the Lambs' gets extensive production detail with no film analysis — doesn't help extract Demme's thematic throughlines as a filmmaker. To end the book with his passing and without any final remarks only compounds this problem. What does somewhat redeem 'There's No Going Back' is the detail given on Demme's lifelong activism. Starting first with the freedom of expression movement, Demme moved to documenting Haiti's transformation from a dictatorship to a democracy in several energized documentaries. If political connections aren't always made back to his dramatized films, appreciating how Demme championed voices from the likes of Haiti and in the aftermath of Katrina does at least highlight his lifelong advocacy of society's most forgotten — on- and off-screen. When Demme was a young boy, his mother told him to write about the movies he so ardently watched 'to uncover the secrets behind the magic.' It may be an unfortunate irony then that this same advice Stewart recounts proves largely absent in 'There's No Going Back.' While well-intended and admiring, the biography often proves facile, showing difficulty reckoning with Demme's oeuvre and its deeper political and cinematic lessons. The book has still set some of the groundwork for a future project that may more adeptly synthesize life with art. Smith is a books and culture writer.
Geek Vibes Nation
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Vibes Nation
'Swimming To Cambodia' Blu-Ray Review - Jonathan Demme Captures An Electrifying Performance
Noted playwright, novelist and monologuist Spalding Gray spent eight weeks in Asia as an actor in Roland Joffé's Academy Award Winning historical drama The Killing Fields, chronicling the history of the Khmer Rouge regime. In his famed one man show, Swimming to Cambodia, Gray laid bare his experiences on set and contextualizes his anecdotes with the stark history of the region. Directed for the screen by Jonathan Demme (Stop Making Sense), rendering Gray's heartfelt, often very funny, monologue cinematic with the help of collaborators like cinematographer John Bailey (Mishima: A Life In Four Chapters), editor Carol Littleton (Beloved), and multidisciplinary artist Laurie Anderson, who is responsible for the film's evocative score. Cinématographe is proud to bring one of the great performance films, and an oft-overlooked entry in Jonathan Demme's career, to blu-ray for the first time in the world in a 2K new restoration from its original camera negative. For thoughts on Swimming to Cambodia, please check out my thoughts on No Streaming Required: Video Quality This new Blu-Ray debut from Cinématographe gives Swimming to Cambodia an AVC-encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1 derived from a 2K restoration from the 35mm Original Camera Negative. The fact that this title has been missing on the format for so long is unfortunate, so it is greatly appreciated that the label rectified the situation. This is a gorgeous transfer that all but eliminates any blemishes to the print including any white specks, tiny cuts or other potential blemishes. The transfer maintains impeccable film grain support throughout with nothing looking unnatural and no major instances of spiking. When you consider the age of the film and the source material, it is pleasing to see the footage looking so strong. There does not appear to be any issues with compression artifacts or any other such digital anomalies. The frame shows off some fine detail in the clothing of Gray and in some of the background elements of the stage. Colors present with a nice vividness that livens up the screen. This presentation does a stellar job of giving life to the performance. Audio Quality This Blu-Ray comes with a DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio mono track that captures every word spoken by Spalding Gray with the utmost clarity. These stories are balanced perfectly with the light amount of manufactured environmental effects. There is not much in the way of music featured in this movie, but anything that comes up has great clarity and fidelity. This track shows no signs of age-related wear and tear such as hissing, humming, or popping. Cinématographe delivered the goods with this remastered audio track. Optional English (SDH) subtitles are included for the feature film. Special Features The Limited Edition version of Swimming to Cambodia comes beautifully packaged in a hard outer slipcase that opens up to a MediaBook that includes a bound booklet featuring new essays by film critics Marya E. Gates, Chris Shields, Keith Uhlich and David M. Stewart, author of There's No Going Back: The Life and Work of Jonathan Demme, plus select archival photo reproductions. These essays delve into the film from multiple angles and provide a great analysis in a thoughtfully written style. The on-disc special features are as follows: Audio Commentary: Film critic Scout Tafoya provides a commentary track that in no way comments directly on the film as it plays and instead gives a thorough cradle-to-grave overview of the life of Spalding Gray. Interview with Director Jonathan Demme: A nearly 17-minute archival interview with the iconic filmmaker in which he discusses Spalding Gray, his reasons for wanting to direct the film, developing the style for the film, collaborating with Gray, opening up the subject, and more. Interview with Director of The Killing Fields Roland Joffé: A new 21-minute interview with the filmmaker who directed Gray in the film featured in Swimming to Cambodia in which he discusses The Killing Fields , how he got involved with the film, shooting in Thailand, pushing his performers, and more. Interview with Executive Producer Ira Deutchman: A new nearly 13-minute interview with the producer in which he discusses the murky role of a producing credit, working with Demme, the competition for the rights to film the production, distributing the film, and more. Interview with Producer Edward Saxon: A new nearly 14-minute interview with the associate producer in which he discusses his partnership with Jonathan Demme, his thoughts on Spalding Gray, and more. Pure Nonfiction Podcast: Two episodes of the podcast that interviews documentary filmmakers featuring conversations with Jonathan Demme. Jonathan Demme's Characters (1:04:20) Jonathan Demme and Renée Shafransky on Spalding Gray (29:08) Theatrical Trailer (0:50) Final Thoughts Swimming to Cambodia is not the first movie you consider when evaluating the career of Jonathan Demme, yet it stands as a strong example of his uncanny command over the camera. The impassioned performance from Spalding Gray is captivating in its own right, but it is how it is captured by Demme that gives it a degree of execution suitable for the big screen experience. Even if you have never seen The Killing Fields, this one-man show will stir something in you with the intrigue and wit of the stories. The art of storytelling has rarely been so deftly translated to screen. Cinématographe has provided a Blu-Ray that features a spectacular A/V presentation and a great assortment of supplemental features. Recommended Swimming to Cambodia is currently available to purchase on Blu-Ray. Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray. Disclaimer: Cinématographe has supplied a copy of this set free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.
