Our May Sunday Corner With Lee Liberman -- THE ASSASSINATION OF GIANNI VERSACE: American Crime Story

This 9-part FX series (which follows the celebrity of The People vs OJ Simpson of 2/2016) has considerable depth despite initially not comparing favorably with the starry OJ saga, the first in the American Crime Story series produced by Brad Simpson and executive produced by Ryan Murphy, both of whom helmed Glee. It ended up winning an Emmy for best limited series, beating Picasso, Patrick Melrose, and Godless (my favorite) among others. Now on Netflix (the OJ story is too), the Versace case probes issues that merit attention: the role of ‘nurture’ in causing mental illness and the comparatively secretive (except in major cities) gay world of the 1990’s.

Versace, at the height of his fame, was murdered on July 15, 1997, age 50, at the door of his palatial South Beach, FL, villa by Andrew Cunanan, then 27 (Darren Criss, below), who killed himself 8 days later to prevent being taken by police.

The malignant narcissism of this young killer screams for notice in 2019, his mental disorder being flagrant in the person of Donald Trump, whose own version of compulsive lying, self-aggrandizing, and denial of reality is as toxic and and likely more murderous (if not one-on-one with a gun) than Cunanan’s. (Below, Darren Criss, l, Andrew Cunanan high school photo, r.)

The series title deceives in that The Assassination of Gianni Versace is not a biopic of the designer; it is Andrew Cunanan’s story ending in five murders during a several-month killing spree. Screenwriter Tom Rob Smith (London Spy) used journalist Maureen Orth’s 1999 book, Vulgar Favors, about Cunanan, as a source. Smith, however, used the life and career of Versace to contrast the youth of the two men, providing the viewer with a thought-provoking scenario that works harder than just the seedy tale of a narcissistic desperado. The screen story makes the implicit case here for ‘nurture’ or ‘environment’ as a main ingredient in the failure of one life versus the success of another.

Here were Versace (Edgar Ramirez, immediately above) and Cunanan (behind him), two gay men with wildly different trajectories, both having had to accommodate before homosexuality gained the degree of equality and acceptance that exists today. Versace was helped through youthful bullying by his dress-maker mother who affirmed his talents, supported, and taught him the value of hard work. As an adult we meet him in a committed relationship, and although HIV positive from the random-sex the partners engaged in with others, Versace was nevertheless imbued with the joy of his own creative process and enormous success. (Below, left, Ricky Martin, playing Antonio D’Amico, shown at right, Versace’s partner for 11 years).

In contrast, Andrew, with a genius IQ, the most promising of his siblings, was adulated and spoiled beyond common sense by his parents; they filled him with outlandish dreams of his own perfection until he became unable to tolerate rejection or failure — he was an exhibitionist and prolific liar by his teens (below, Cunanan, r., Criss, l). In the last year of his life he began to lose it — the world was not adoring him, the man he loved was afraid of him, and others saw through his lies. “Andrew was beaten by things other people overcame” said Smith —“it became a very interesting counterpoint” portrayed on screen with contrasting views of their childhoods.

Born to an unhappily married Filipino father (Jon Jon Briones) and pious Italian-American mother (Joanna Adler), it was Andrew, the youngest of four, awarded the master-bedroom of the family home in San Diego, sent to an exclusive private high school, and indulged with a sports car.

His father, Modesto, was a fabulist, seeing in Andrew the genius he attributed to himself, the child who would bring him glory. He succeeded as a stock-broker until he failed, having robbed clients and avoided arrest by fleeing to Manila, abandoning wife and children and leaving them destitute. Andrew’s disastrous visit to Modesto must have been a turning point in dealing with life-as-it-is. Seeing his father’s degraded circumstance in Manila (below) in contrast to the pretense of success in the states, worsened Andrew’s downward spiral in an already peripatetic life; he grew needier, more manipulative, and directionless. Obsessed with fame, he supported himself as a prostitute/drug dealer in which he courted older gay men who bought him the appearance of wealth he craved, the success Modesto falsely role-modeled.

If there are diagnoses for Modesto or his wife’s mental status in some doctor’s file, they do not figure in this telling; Andrew’s parents are shown having raised a pampered prince, unfit for life’s vagaries. And as he reckoned with the contradiction between his sense of entitlement and the cards life was dealing, he began to murder.

First was his friend, Jeffrey Trail (Finn Wittrock), a former U.S. naval officer, who was in recovery from the difficulties of being a gay officer in the service, the episode offering a deeply embarrassing look at don’t-ask-don’t-tell exigencies in the navy. Andrew’s former lover, architect David Madson, was next (below, Cody Fern). Madson was then achieving success as an architect and rejecting Andrew, but still easily manipulated by him. Madson was free to run but imprisoned in a no-escape Stockholm syndrome.

Then 72-year-old Lee Miglin (Mike Farrell), a Chicago property developer who paid Andrew for sex, was stabbed and throat slit after which Andrew stole his car (below with insert of Miglin). Next to last and most random, he shot a 45-year-old man in New Jersey for his red truck. Andrew then hid in plain sight in Miami for two months, stalking Versace whom he had once met, the most enviable target he had chosen to punish for his own failure; Versace was not just rich and famous but an artist. 

Andrew had eluded arrest thus far because of the relative secrecy of gay life in fly-over country. By the time Jeff Trail and David Madson were found in Minnesota and Miglin in Chicago, Andrew was long gone. Death of the beloved icon in Miami, however, focused the mind of law enforcement and Cunanan was found — dead.

The series begins with Versace’s murder and then unfolds in reverse order until the childhood influences on Versace and Cunanan come into focus as unsurprising ‘aha’s’ near the series conclusion. Criss, a product of Glee and half Filipino like Andrew, has blazed into stardom with this heavy-weight lead role, winning an Emmy and Golden Globe last year. Criss’s Andrew dazzles, charms, and mesmerizes his prey and us, his audience.

A few other actors were memorable: Australian Fern’s deer-in-the headlights affect as Cunanan’s lover-cum-victim, David Madson, stays with you, and Judith Light’s portrayal of Lee Miglin’s wife, for which she received an Emmy nomination. Marilyn Miglin never knew what hit her, that her marriage was not peaches-and-cream, or that her husband hid a secret sex life that would lead to his being bound with tape and stabbed to death. Marilyn was the oblivious, blond-helmeted business-woman who sweet-talked her own line of ‘pheromone’ perfumes on a TV home shopping network. Ms Light created Barbie doll’s perfect grand-mom in a perfect pink suit until Andrew Cunanan fowled the whole picture perfect.

On team Versace, Penélope Cruz does a compassionate, loving Donatella (below, top r). Some Spanish language undertones to the Italian-accented English of the Versace entourage were perceptible — never mind, one still followed with interest the glamorous but day-to-day ordinaries of the family business and relationships. But no hedging the obvious — this was multi-talented Darren Criss’s show, fulfilling every fantasy of success that his character dreamed of. He carries the entire star-filled tragedy like a dazzling quarterback. He is one to watch.

The above post was written by 

 our monthly correspondent, Lee Liberman

Emmanuelle Bercot's César-winning, nature-nurture coming-of-age drama, STANDING TALL

One of the things TrustMovies likes best about the films of actress/writer/director Emmanuelle Bercot -- Backstage, Student Services, (her episode of) The Players, On My Way and now STANDING TALL -- is how willing Ms Bercot is to simply jump in head first and start swimming until she reaches the other shore. She may not be the most artistic, stylish, realistic or brilliant of filmmakers, but her movies are always worth seeing because she gets the job done. She tackles her subjects honestly, draws excellent performances from her casts, and makes us think hard and consider the many possibilities implicit in the subject matter she chooses to film.

All this is true once again, perhaps even more so, in her latest work, which is all about how a young boy -- we first meet him as an (at least verbally) abused child of around five years old -- grows slowly, very slowly, into a somewhat autonomous young man. Ms Bercot (the filmmaker is shown at left) begins her movie with only dialog heard. When we see visuals, the camera stays out of facial range, as though we should not see the identity of these people because some their behavior regarding a child is so shocking. What we finally view is a little boy who's simply quiet or cowed into submission by a mother accusing him of being a full-out monster.

As with all French films about the law, crime and social services, the job of the "judge" will seem very different from what we have here in the USA. In that initial scene, as identity become clear, we see that the judge is played by French icon Catherine Deneuve, above, who understands her role here as someone who is both the law-giver and final decision-maker but who also acts as a kind of heavy-duty social worker, trying to help her charge into responsible adulthood.

This has long struck me as an interesting combination, one that might be healthily used here in the America, too. In any case, the next time we see the child, Malony -- played with flaring anger, sadness, dark humor and great neediness by newcomer (and César award-winner for this role), Rod Paradot  -- so prone to explosion and irresponsibility seems Malony that we, like many of the others around him, are often ready to give up.

Ms Deneuve's judge does not, nor do a few of her helpers, including another César-winner for his role, Benoît Magimel (above). Against these two are set Paradot's mom, a long-time loser who has never taken the least responsibility for her own life or actions (played with proper ferocity by Sara Forestier, below). Of course the child wants his mother, rather than a foster home, so back and forth we (and the film) swing, as Malony goes from home to a kind of low-key reform school, to home again, prison, and so forth.

The journey is alternately hopeful and grueling, but it is never boring or unbelievable. What we finally achieve is an understanding of how incredibly difficult it is to nurture a child grow into an autonomous man without help from his immediate family. No matter how much the state may try -- and the workers we see here really do -- to call their job an uphill battle is putting it mildly.

While the ending is what one might call feel-good, Ms Bercot is too smart for merely that. We've seen so much slippage along the way that we know there will probably be more to come. And because the film takes in our current and very dismal economic times, this just adds to the problematic nature of the whole experience. Still, as they say: You gotta have hope.

From Cohen Media Group, in French with English subtitles, and running 119 minutes, Standing Tall opens this Friday in New York City at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema and in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Royal. For other currently scheduled playdates, simply click here.

Lorraine Levy's THE OTHER SON is an amazing, moving, vital & important film; Q&A with this talented filmmaker

So many movies these days are either hybrid documentaries that mix fact and fiction or narrative films based (sometimes very loosely) on "real-life events," that sitting in a theater and watching THE OTHER SON, the vitally important and moving (almost beyond belief) new film from Lorraine Levy (shown below) you sit spellbound, knowing that this movie must be based on fact. But I don't believe that it is. Instead it's the creation of some caring, intelligent, thoughtful artists looking to find a way into, and thus out of, one of the most intractable and seemingly insoluble situations in our world today, that of Israel in Palestine.

If you read other reviews of the film -- and I wish you would not, so that you come to this movie clean -- you'll be apprised of the central situation -- which is such a shock to all involved that it should also come as one to the audience so that we can experience things as do the characters. I'll just say that the movie involves two families, one Israeli, the other Palestinian, and what happens to rock both their worlds as they have know them for nearly 20 years.

This central idea is close to perfect in the manner in which it forces us to confront the Israel/Palestine situation. While this story could be set just about anywhere, placing it here, in this middle-east powder keg, is simply genius. It involves two mothers, two fathers, two sons and their siblings, and as it spins out, the tale takes in culture, faith, tradition and growth -- on both sides of the fence. The movie is particularly effective is showing us how the meaning of all these things can change -- in the blink of an eye. Not simply even-handed, this movie is deeply felt and beautifully performed.

Anyone (the New York reviewer for the end-of-magazine Agenda section, for instance) who judges this film "somewhat dramatically inert" must have slept through the movie. The very situation in which these two families find themselves is so fraught with drama -- each character's handling of the situation becomes a mini-drama unto itself -- that there is more dramatic tension here than in any ten movies you can name. That Levy and her estimable cast almost never allow things to go overboard is a mark of just how exceptional the movie is.

The Jewish family is portrayed by several fine actors: That stalwart of French cinema for over 25 years, Emmanuelle Devos plays mom (above, right); Pascal Elbé is dad (above, left) and Jules Sitruk (remember the French exchange student in Son of Rambow?), below, is one of the titular sons. Each is terrific, but the movie truly belongs to its moms -- as motherhood is examined in a way that few films have managed previously.

I am less familiar with the actors who play the Palestinian family, but they are every bit as good as those who play their Jewish counterparts: Areen Omari (mom, below, center, right), Khalifa Natour (dad, below at right), a simply gorgeous young man named Mehdi Dehbi (below, left) as the son, and in a pivotal role of his brother is another notable actor, Mahmud Shalaby, who was so striking earlier this year as the sexy singer in Free Men. (Shalaby is shown in the photo at bottom of this post.)

Ms Levy enables us to experience the fraught situation from all angles and from each character's perspective and in the process challenges our whole notion of identity. Her movie forces us, just as it does her characters, to rank humanity a tad higher than something so puny as the supposed will of Yaweh/Allah. Given what she tells us in the short interview below, I do wish that the filmmaker had ended her movie a bit differently. As it is, the finale is no deal-breaker, but the film did not need this little burst of melodrama that she gives it. Still, if The Other Son is not the best film  (and it's up there) so far this year, it is certainly among the most important.

The movie -- from Cohen Media Group and running 105 minutes -- opens this Friday, October 26, in New York City at Landmarks' Sunshine and Clearview's 1st and 62nd; in Queens at the Kew Gardens Cinema, in Brooklyn at the Brooklyn Heights Cinema, and in Westchester at the Jacob Burns Film Center and Clearview's Cinema 100.  Look for it in CT, NJ and Long Island, as well.  In the Los Angeles area, it will open this Friday at various Laemmle Theaters, and will then appear in the weeks to come across country at other Landmark Theaters.

****************

TrustMovies has not much time to spare these days, but when he sees a movie this good and this important, the chance to speak briefly with the filmmaker is too appealing to miss.  So he spoke with Lorraine Levy via phone and translator a couple of weeks back, and here's the transcript of the highlights from our conversation. Below, TM appears in boldface and Ms Levy, shown below with some of her cast members, in standard type.  (There may be some spoilers below, so why not see the movie first and read afterward?)

TrustMovies: First of all, let me say how impressed I was with your film. This idea of the film is one of the best I’ve ever seen in terms of coming at the Israel/Palestine dilemma. I thought when I first saw your movie that it must have been based on a real-life situation, but evidently it was not. It was simply thought up by you, the filmmaker…?

Lorraine Levy: No, this story is not based on any real-life situation, but it could have been. We have been able to find a lot of reports by people who were incorrectly returned to their parents during emergency evacuations during wartime. The number of testimonies available on this is growing, and there are people now who are convinced that they do have their true parents. So we decided to use this but make it more extreme: babies given over to mistaken parents: the Israeli child to Palestinians, and the reverse. I did this in order to explore what it means to be the other. To explore what is the quest for identity, and what is the path we have to take in order to overcome some prejudices.

After I saw your film, what I wanted most, and still want, is to have your movie seen all over the world, starting with the two places in which the film is located and where it means the most. Now, I am not stupid enough to imagine that it will change tons of minds, but it is bound to change some and will make some people stop and think, feel more deeply, and imagine what this might be like if the situation happened to them.

I am very touched by what you just said. This is something I really wanted to do with this film. I wanted so much that this film really touch people on that emotional level. I also want them to be able to extrapolate the situation into other areas. This is a situation that exists throughout out the world. Brothers ultimately are brothers. I have in mind the Martin Luther Kinbg “I have a dream” speech because I do believe that we are all brothers.

Because your film had its date of theatrical open delayed, and certain of us critic were not paying close enough attention, one capsule review appeared a few week ago that claimed that The Other Son, while it had an interesting premise, simply had no drama to it. This strikes me a ridiculous, because the very situation central to the film is so fraught with drama that this is really all you need, I think. Can you comment on this?

I believe you are right because this really is a paroxysm of drama. These are people who are suddenly overwhelmed. And, yes, the drama is in the situation itself. However, if what this critic was trying to say was that I did not treat the drama in a dramatic enough way, then he may have a point. I did not treat this in an overly dramatic way, I wanted to treat it in a way that offered more distance. Maybe with a little bit more reticence. In that way, I hoped to make it more real and perhaps less “dramatic.”

The casting here was particularly good. Emmanuelle Devos (above) is always wonderful, but it was Pascal Elbé (below) who did surprise me. I have seen him in action movies and comedies, but this is maybe the best role I’ve seen him tackle. I am less familiar with the actors who play the Palestinian family, but they were also fine. Did you rely on your casting director, or were these actors your idea? How did that work?

I actually used three casting directors; One in France, one in Israel, and one in Palestine. I knew very quickly, of course, for the French. I wanted Emmanuelle. I thought she really, for me, embodied what the character is. She was what I had in mind. I had already worked with Pascale Elbé, before in a comedy. I found that, as an actor, he had tremendous depth and a great deal of gravity. I wanted to give him a vehicle that would show this depth and gravity on screen. I have tremendous admiration for actors who can act "silence,” and he does this very well.

As far as the Palestinian actors, I did not know them, but through the casting director, I was able to discover some wonderful people. The actors who play the mother and father are very well-know stage actors, and it was a great thing for me to be able to work with them.

I hope this film, which I think may be the most important of the year, does well here-- and everywhere. And I want to thank you so much for making it. And I look forward to your next project.

I am very touched by what you say, because, when you are a filmmaker, you tend to be rather fragile because you have so many choices to make during the film-making process. I have learned that this film really does touch the heart of people all over the world, in Asia, South America, Scandinavia, Europe -- everywhere, so far. I think this is illustrative of the fact the film addresses questions we all share -- and must deal with.

Has the movie opened in Israel yet?

No, but it was selected for the Jerusalem Film Festival, and the screening went very well. The film was well received.

Our time is up, and so we thank Lorraine, 

and the very fine translator, for their time.