Title: One from the Heart Year: 1981Genre: Romance, Drama, MusicalCountry: USALanguage: English, GermanDirector: Francis Ford Coppola Screenwriters: Armyan Bernstein, Francis Ford CoppolaMusic: Tom WaitsCinematography: Ronald Víctor García, Vittorio Storaro Editors: Rudi Fehr, Anne Goursaud, Randy RobertsCast:Frederic ForrestTeri GarrRaúl JuliáNastassja KinskiLainie KazanHarry Dean StantonAllen GarfieldRebecca De MornayRating: 6.5/10
Title: After HoursYear: 1985Genre: Comedy, DramaCountry: USALanguage: EnglishDirector: Martin ScorseseScreenwriter: Joseph MinionMusic: Howard ShoreCinematography: Michael BallhausEditor: Thelma SchoonmakerCast:Griffin DunneRosanna ArquetteTeri GarrLinda FiorentinoJohn HeardCatherine O’HaraVerna BloomCheech MarinTommy ChongWill PattonRobert PlunketDick MillerClarence FelderBronson PinchotRocco SistoVictor ArgoMurray MostonRating: 7.9/10
R.I.P. Teri Garr (1944-2024), a straight-up American comedienne in the 70s and 80s. She was Oscar-nominated in Sydney Pollack’s TOOTSIE (1982) and had an unheralded and nearly unparalleled track record of starring in films made by American cinema titans like Mel Brooks, Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese, among others. For younger audience, perhaps, she is best remembered as the long lost mother of Phoebe Buffay in FRIENDS, a casting coup since who would be better to pass such ditzy kookiness down to an enormously amusing and sui generis Lisa Kudrow?
Coppola’s financial debacle ONE FROM THE HEART is an ultimate breakup-and-makeup experience, pairing Garr and Forrest as a couple who, after five years together, starts to respectively experiment new, almost ideal romances, only to realize that true love is never storybook perfect.
An 4th of July escapade in a Las Vegas built exclusively on the sound stage, ONE FROM THE HEART emulates the unabashed plasticity of Hollywood’s studio-bound, stage musicals in its heyday: the matte-painted sets, the hyper-expressive, startlingly unnatural lighting, staggering cinematographic sleight of hand with background/foreground superimposition. All contrives to create an unreal, over-saturated atmosphere to soften the bitter edges of the mundane discontent of a stale relationship and fantasize a dreamy encounter with a perfect partner.
It goes without saying Coppola’s film takes the side of Forrest’s Hank over Garr’s Frannie. Hank is the one who, right after gratifying his lust for a gorgeous German circus performer Leila (Kinski, a spellbinding acrobatic siren, degrading herself in a fairly humiliating and objectified role), comes to his senses and endeavors to win Frannie back . A man’s fling can be casually tossed out of the sky as it is his second nature, but for Frannie, her new adventure with Ray (Julia, effortlessly inhabiting a Latinx dreamboat bestowed with a pair of nimble feet) is more organic and perilous as she finally takes the plunge to pursue the life of her dreams, and for once, isn’t held back by rationality. There is more stakes in her decision and thanks to Garr’s frank self-examination of Frannie’s desire and regret, we audiences are well-disposed to root for her, while Forrest’s male-chauvinistic manners are quite a turn-off to meet one’s eye. We can believe Frannie and Ray’s fast attachment, but not for one split second, could we buy Leila’s attraction to a bozo like Hank, which is a flagrant wish fulfillment pandering to an unremarkable heterosexual man’s wildest fantasy, a move should be deemed below Coppola’s cachet. Even Stanton’s Moe, Hank’s sidekick, has a better chance to score with Kinski’s nymphet, which would be exceptionally corroborated in Wim Wenders’ pièce-de-résistance PARIS, TEXAS (1984).
Coppola’s incorrigible gender-bias is his feet of clay, which has been continuing its streak until his latest, gargantuan misfire MEGALOPOLIS (2024). However, the film’s best legacy is Tom Wait’s soundtrack, consists of several duets with Crystale Gayle, and the pair swooningly spells out Hank and Frannie’s inner thoughts in the infectiously engrossing jazz-infused atmospherics. One might even forgive the sappy, regressive ending that punctures all the expectancy of a woman embarks on a brand new journey with newfound courage and leaves her ill-sorted bedfellow behind, even just for the hell of it!
AFTER HOURS notably won Scorsese a Best Director citation in Cannes, it is also an anomaly among his oeuvres, a “situation film” set in one night. It is about a computer word processor Paul Hackett (Dunne). Having the hots for Marcy (Arquette, giving her absolute best even in an insensate state), a stranger he rubs shoulders with in a coffee shop after work, he decides to meet her in SoHo on the hoof, but this supposed romantic date turns out to be a series of mischances that incredibly keep him from going back to his apartment.
Joseph Minion’s script is a politic, yet hilarious portrayal of yuppie emasculation by the volatile nature of female sexuality. Paul is daunted in front of both Marcy’s (perhaps imaginary) burning scars and her messy private life, and her roommate Kiki’s aggressive kinkiness (Fiorentino stuns as a magnificent punk artist, who is mannish enough to unnerve the manhood of any member of the stronger sex). Garr’s Julie is an atypical damsel in distress with an explosive nerviness, O’Hara’s Gail is a loopy ballbreaker, and Bloom’s mature June is a force of suffocation and literally occludes him inside a statue. AFTER HOURS is not exactly misogynistic but gynophobic, betraying Scorsese’s own incapacity to fully understand women. Therefore the film is an honest yet playful confession of a male director’s own shortcomings. The irrationality and improbability of women’s behaviors and interiority is the eternal and mystifying pull and deterrent for the opposite sex.
As the leading man, Dunne makes a good fist of embodying a hapless pipsqueak shrouded in the increasingly noirish surroundings, navigating the labyrinthine happenstances with a blend of receding presence of mind and encroaching angst. His comedic bent is at its best with an intentionally unbalanced Garr, who can change her gear of emoting at a moment’s notice and no one seems to be unable to match her weirdness.
To recapitulate, ONE FROM THE HEART is Coppola’s feverish dream that runs away with his hubris-fostered caprices, especially following THE GODFATHER twofer and APOCALYPSE NOW, 1979, no one could be won over by the film’s wholesale artificiality and its story’s trite ideas. Meanwhile, AFTER HOURS conforms to the preconception of Scorsese’s versatility as a superlative helmer and his comprehensive vision in crafting a specific mood or situation, in this case, a black comedy. As for Ms. Garr, who is always an invigorating delight, whether she is a lead or a supporting character, her chops for drama are less tested but she surely can trip the light fantastic and be recognized as a prototype of the blonde ambition in the Tinseltown. Her presence will be sorely missed!
referential entries: Coppola’s MEGALOPOLIS (2024, 6.7/10), PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED (1986, 6.2/10); Scorsese’s THE KING OF COMEDY (1982, 7.9/10); Sydney Pollack’s TOOTSIE (1982, 8.0/10).
