I am not sure if I fell asleep during the film The Man from London by the Hungarian director Bela Tarr. The 135 minutes seemed to pass very quickly for a film that enjoyed dwelling on each scene. My fellow attendees seemed to be either mesmerized or bored by the events that were unfolding on the screen at the pace of a snail in treacle. The Man from London is based on a novel by George Simenon and tells the story of Maloin, a signalman who works in an overhead gantry in a port. Maloin witnesses a fight between two people over a suitcase full of British pounds. One character pushes the other into the water, suitcase and all. Amazingly the money is left in the sea until Maloin, waiting until the coast (literally) is clear, fishes the prize out of the water and walks to the inn clutching his newly acquired wealth. Although he is able to buy his newly unemployed daughter a handsome fur with some of the money, the rest of the cash only brings unhappiness to everyone concerned. Beautifully shot in grainy black-and-white, some of the camera angles are joltingly strange, initially concentrating on the back of the Maloin’s head for what seemed like half-an-hour. Others are incredibly imaginative such as the scene where a step on a ladder is in focus and then a stick held by Maloin, leaving his lair to get the suitcase, appears from the top of the screen. A further surprise was the fact that Tilda Swinton, playing Maloin’s wife, wasn’t speaking the Hungarian words that we heard on the soundtrack. Her lips weren’t synchronized with the sound. Strangely the title character called Brown and the famous police inspector, Morrison, seemed to speak fluent Hungarian although from London. There were few exchanges of dialogue and plenty of long, lingering shots, such as the time when Maloin forcibly removes his daughter from her employment, because he is bothered that her short skirt will bring the wrong kind of attention when she is cleaning the floor. This strange scene ends with a butcher smashing a piece of carcass with a cleaver, over and over again. If you like film noir with atmospheric shots of lamps in fog, mossy walls, and long alleyways populated by a small child kicking a football around, then this film is for you. Otherwise, I would recommend avoiding The Man from London.
The Man from London
Filed under: Music & Film, Opinion
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