Stand With Tavernier!
"Few films have evoked the atmosphere of the Bayou State as strongly as Bertrand Tavernier's In the Electric Mist," writes L.A. Weekly critic Scott Foundas, calling it "a movie that doesn't seem to have been filmed so much as distilled, on a creaking porch beset by mosquitos and summer heat, with the rumble of a gathering storm in the distance.
"Adapted from the novel by James Lee Burke, the film stars Tommy Lee Jones as Burke's popular detective character, Dave Robichaux, here investigating the murder of one Cherry LeBlanc, a 'fatally beautiful' 19-year-old prostitute whose mutilated corpse washes up on shore in the film's opening scene. Not long after that, another body -- this one belonging to a lynched black man dead and gone some 40 years -- surfaces deep in the swamp, loosed by Hurricane Katrina's churning tide.
"Since it was first announced, In the Electric Mist has sounded like an ideal project for Tavernier. But it's become entangled in post-production disagreements between Tavernier and the film's American producer, Michael Fitzgerald (The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada). And now two different versions of the movie emerged -- an 'international' cut prepared by Tavernier, which screened at the Berlin Film Festival and will be released in most countries around the world, and an 'American' cut supervised by Fitzgerald that runs 15 minutes shorter and will go directly to DVD in the U.S. next month.
"In comparing the two edits, Variety critic Leslie Felperin deemed the American version 'brisker but less coherent' with 'tacky summing up and [an] ooh!-spooky last shot mini-twist that makes [it] play like a made-for-TV movie."
"Having seen only Tavernier's version, I can say that it's unfortunate American audiences may never get a chance to experience this superior detective yarn on the big screen, in the form its director intended. Unfortunate, but by no means surprising. Indeed, where the default Hollywood position would have been to strip-mine Burke's source material for its narrative chassis while junking all its atmospheric touches, tertiary supporting characters and curlicue digressions, Tavernier (working from a script credited to the husband-and-wife team of Jerzy Kromolowski and Mary Olson-Kromolowski) does exactly the opposite.
"Much like Burke himself on the page, he plays up the bass at the expense of the melody, showing markedly less interest in the identity of the killer(s) than in a long and winding history of Southern injustice that stretches from Jim Crow to George W. Bush. Long ago, Robichaux says in the lyrical voice-over that opens the film, people placed heavy stones on the graves of the dead so as to weigh down the souls of the departed. But in Burke and Tavernier's world, every time a storm blows through, those stones become displaced, and restless spirits take to wandering the bayou."
May I say something? In addition to the mauling of Tavernier's European version, there's also the ridiculous mauling of the original title of Burke's book -- In The Electric Mist with Confederate Dead. How could anyone chop off those last three words? That's like cutting down the title of Hemingway's Across The River and Into The Trees and changing it to Across The River. The loyal, the devout and the worshipful are surrounded by cattle.
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on February 12, 2009 at 5:56 PM
comment #1
fattyhadaparty
says ...
Worked on the American version of ELECTRIC MIST a couple of months ago and I completely agree with Leslie Felperin's overall assessment.
Feels like a lot of character development and atmosphere was jettisoned in favor of a more linear plot. Unfortunately, the atmosphere IS the plot in ELECTRIC MIST, and what remains feels like a TV movie cast with A-list actors. However, in either version, you still get another great Tommy Lee Jones performance; one, I might add, that he could have done in his sleep, but instead, gives his all.
Posted by fattyhadaparty
at February 12, 2009 6:34 PM
comment #2
buckzollo
says ...
Worth mentioning is that Tommy Lee Jones is inhabiting the Dave Robicheaux character previously played by Alec Baldwin in Heaven's Prisoners.
Posted by buckzollo
at February 12, 2009 6:38 PM
comment #3
bmcintire
says ...
The trailer looks good-but-not-great, though the role does seem tailor-made for TLJ. And lopping off the second half of the title not only robs it of it poetry, but its purpose. As it is, it sounds like a bad '80s sci-fi title.
Posted by bmcintire
at February 12, 2009 6:59 PM
comment #4
BurmaShave
says ...
This has been online for quite awhile, it's okay, Tommy is very good. Sarsgaard was sort of sleepwalking though. I thought it could have been a really good role for him.
Posted by BurmaShave
at February 12, 2009 7:09 PM
comment #5
bdboudreaux
says ...
Okay as a Louisiana cajun whose family is from the area portrayed I'm personally offended by the trailer. Yet another Louisiana set movie with a bunch of really bad accents, air boats, and oh look a plantation. Hmmm... I wonder if there's a scene where they run from the French Quarter to the swamps. Is there a scene at Mardi Gras. Has anyone seen that Simpsons spin-off episode, this looks like Skinner, P.I.. I had high hopes for a good cajun movie that would remind me of home but this looks like it'll just piss me off, which is a shame because the cast looks awesome. Jeez the accents are bad. Really, really, really, really bad.
Posted by bdboudreaux
at February 12, 2009 10:18 PM
comment #6
Daniel Tayag
says ...
The Taking of Pelham 123 trailer is now online.
Posted by Daniel Tayag
at February 12, 2009 11:26 PM
comment #7
Daniel Tayag
says ...
Shit, forgot to post the links
480p:
http://playlist.yahoo.com/makeplaylist.dll?sid=80081471&sdm=web&pt=rd
720p:
http://playlist.yahoo.com/makeplaylist.dll?sid=80081474&sdm=web&pt=rd
1080p:
http://playlist.yahoo.com/makeplaylist.dll?sid=80081476&sdm=web&pt=rd
Posted by Daniel Tayag
at February 12, 2009 11:27 PM
comment #8
maxfm
says ...
Why does stuff like this happen? Some enterprising distrib -- even a major -- could've marketed this sucker off the No Country for Old Men vibe and likely have made a profit -- with the original cut no doubt!
It would seem -- SEEM, I emphasize -- Jones, having worked with Fitzgerald before and with the clout he seemingly has, could've made that happen.
Posted by maxfm
at February 13, 2009 12:07 AM
comment #9
Gaydos
says ...
Thanks, Jeffrey! You've provided the perfect antidote to the tedium of awards season. I suggest a cruise through the Tavernier filmography and when you're done, learn French and read Tavernier's history of American cinema. Nothing will recharge your movie batteries more than this guy's passionate committment to cinema both as filmmaker and as fan. My fave: Coup de Torchon which annoyed me like hell when it came out but I've never stopped thinking about it. Round Midnight ain't chopped liver. Up in the pantheon of great films about jazz (or simply about music). And there's more, so much more.....
Posted by Gaydos
at February 13, 2009 12:10 AM
comment #10
nemo
says ...
bdboudreaux, do you have any suggestions for good Cajun movies?
I enjoyed The Big Easy, but hell, I'm from Chicago and even I can tell those are lousy Cajun accents.
Tavernier and Tommy Lee Jones sound like such a great combination for James Lee Burke. I'm up for this film, even if it's not all it could have been.
Posted by nemo
at February 13, 2009 12:20 AM
comment #11
maxfm
says ...
Well, after reading this -- http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/mar/27/1 -- maybe Jones wasn't as enthusiastic about the Tavernier cut either.
A bummer, all the way around...
Posted by maxfm
at February 13, 2009 12:23 AM
comment #12
lawnorder
says ...
It's happening more and more that the bigger stars are stepping all over their directors in post production. I bet Jones was the one unhappy with the cut and was channeling his dissatisfaction through the producer. Used to be, they turned up, did their job and, even if they disapproved of the finished film, they didn't throw their weight around like they do today - and part of that is the threat that they won't do publicity for a film, which is like the kiss of death for a film trying to get attention in the overcrowded marketplace. And, sadly or not so sadly, Tommy Lee Jones doesn't carry too much clout in the business anymore. He peaked right after "The Fugitive," but he's considered too old and too surly to carry a film anymore. Ageism is alive and well in this business at every level. Also, before the internet, one rarely heard about the problems on set or editing room squabbles, unless they were of the size of "Heaven's Gate." Now we know everything, even the slightest hiccup from day to day on a production. And 90 percent of it gets reported here in this column. I just think it takes away from the mystique of a picture and contributes to a less immersive viewing experience.
Posted by lawnorder
at February 13, 2009 2:02 AM