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"There was theatre (Griffith), poetry (Murnau), painting (Rossellini), dance (Eisenstein), music (Renoir). Henceforward there is cinema. And the cinema is Nicholas Ray."
– Jean-Luc Godard –
This is a passage from Jean-Luc Godard's commentary of Nicholas Ray's 1957 film “Bitter Victory".
However, if we say that mixing theater, poetry, painting, dance, music is enough to make a “Cinema,” I think there is something different. Then the question must be asked, what is “Cinema”? In the experience of watching “Bitter Victory” in the darkness of a movie theater, the question must be asked, what is it that brings joy to the audience? When we watch “Bitter Victory,” there is no catharsis, no poetry, no pictorial aesthetics, no sensuality in the music, no pleasure in the dance, but it is a bitter and unforgettable “Film Experience” that will remain in our memories forever, even though it never makes us feel good. If one wants to affirm such a film, there is no other way than to say, "This is a Cinema". There are often times when this is the case. Jean-Luc Godard is a very good bluffer, so this is also his first-class aphorism, but I still think he accurately captures something of Nicholas Ray's films.
Even so, I have the feeling that no other filmmaker has made American films that are so far from being invigorating as Nicholas Ray, and every time I see them, I never want to see them again. I have always had the impression that Nicholas Ray's films leave me in a bad mood when I finish watching them. People who have an opinion about movies, like those who have read “Lectures on Hollywood Film History: For a History of Shadows” by Shigehiko Hasumi (Chikuma Shobo), “B-Grade Noir: The Masters of Hollywood's Turning Point” by Hiroaki Yoshida (Sakuhin-sha), “Red Purge Hollywood: The Blacklist Who Challenged the Red Scare Regime” by Haruhiko Kamijima (Sakuhin-sha)will probably say, “No, all American 50s auteurs do that,” but I still find Nicholas Ray's films to be very extreme. Very nasty characters smile with nasty expressions in the dark, but half of their faces are obscured by shadows, or a large shadow spreads across the wall behind them.
For example, this is in color, but the shadow behind James Mason in this shot from the 1956 film “Bigger Than Life”.
Or a scene like this one, in which the detectives' faces are blackened by shadows in the 1949 film "Knock On Any Door".
In “Bitter Victory,” Curd Jürgens, in order to avoid being revealed as a timid person in the military, does not inform Richard Burton, the archaeologist accompanying him, when he realizes that he is about to be stung by a scorpion, and ends up leaving him in the desert. If anyone can watch this film and find it exhilarating, I would love to meet and talk with you.
Or the 1954 film "Johnny Guitar", a truly bizarre Western. Mercedes McCambridge, jealous that Joan Crawford has lost the man she loves, persuades the men of the town to hang Joan Crawford, but they fail. Eventually, Mercedes McCambridge and the men of the city track down where Joan Crawford has escaped to and hunt her down, but the men ultimately do not help in the duel between the women, and Mercedes McCambridge is defeated and dies.
Johnny Guitar, the drifter guitar player of the film's title, is played by Sterling Hayden, who is actually a famous gunfighter, but he doesn't play much of a role in the film. No, there is a scene in which he shoots and kills Ernest Borgnine, but even then, Ernest Borgnine tumbling down a precipice is more memorable.
In general, a precipice is a very Nicholas Ray-like space. Take, for example, this shot from “The Story Of Jesse James,” produced in 1957, the same year as "Bitter Victory".
Let's return to “Johnny Guitar,” in which the always competent Ward Bond, in John Ford's film, is really pathetic and ultimately useless as he dutifully follows Mercedes McCambridge around.
Or the man who plays the father of the murdered child in 1951's “On Dangerous Ground,” who is so obsessed with revenge that, positionally, the film's audience could be forgiven for viewing it with sympathy, but his attitude toward the blind Ida Lupino is just too much and too disgusting.
I think Ward Bond must be hated by Nicholas Ray.
Returning to “Johnny Guitar” a third time, the scene where the skirt of Joan Crawford, a famous actress of the past, in a white dress catches fire and Sterling Hayden rushes to put it out is so bizarre that it is hard to understand what the sequence was prepared for.
Joan Crawford made her debut during the Silent film era, but the first peak in her long career as a major actress came in 1932, after Talkie. In that year, she enjoyed great success with three starring roles in Edmund Goulding's "Grand Hotel", Clarence Brown's "Letty Lynton", and Lewis Milestone's "Rain". The white dress of this great actress catches fire and bursts into flames, which Sterling Hayden hurriedly extinguishes, and then she begins to take off her dress, and then she is in her underwear. I don't know whether such a scene was necessary or not.
There are always, always, pathetic, despicable people in Nicholas Ray's films, and they are always nasty-eyed and frequently irritating. It's all very depressing, but no, Robert Mitchum in his 1952 film "The Lusty Men" may not have been so depressing.
I'll leave aside the question of whether or not these truly disgusting films are a product of the decline of Hollywood in the 1950s. Just for comparison, in 1957, Audrey Hepburn had two starring roles in Stanley Donen's “Funny Face” and Billy Wilder's “Love in the Afternoon,” and Marilyn Monroe starred in “The Prince and the Showgirl,” directed by Laurence Olivier. Grace Kelly is retired. Thanks to these women, some people make it sound as if that time was the heyday of Hollywood cinema and there were many fascinating films, but when I watch Nicholas Ray's films, I can't believe it.
Watching Robert Ryan's derisive look as a left-over detective in 1951's “On Dangerous Ground” is tiresome. But the trouble is that when I watch scenes like the one in which Robert Ryan holds a lighter flame close to her face to confirm Ida Lupino's blindness, I can't help but watch it again.
Or, even if I say that he has a derisive and disgusting expression on his face, it is also true that Nicholas Ray's films are devoid of the kind of subtle behavior frequently seen in major Japanese films today, such as showing close-ups that emphasize such an expression in a persistent manner. Just one gesture, such as smoking a cigarette, expresses a very low level of his humanity.
Nicholas Ray's “Night” is never an exhilarating experience. But if we are captivated by this “Night,” we will watch it again, even though we know we will probably feel bad again. Many people went to the movie theater, for example, to slip into his “Night” as it was titled in his debut 1948 film, “They Live by Night”. No, that was a wrong perception. The reason is that “RKO Pictures,” the company that produced “They Live by Night,” was bought out by Howard Hughes, and when that happened, it was shelved and was not released to the public for about three years. Well, it never even had a chance to enter people's memories. So, later people discovered “Night” in "They Live by Night".
Many would say that Nicholas Ray's “Night” was great in black and white, but not so much in color film. However, my first encounter with Nicholas Ray's films was with “Rebel Without a Cause,” so for me, Nicholas Ray's “Night” in color is also unforgettable.
For many people, the first Nicholas Ray film they ever saw may have been "Rebel Without a Cause". I was one of those people, and right after the first VHS video arrived at my home, there was a midnight showing of the film, and I recorded it. It was probably 1981, and I would have been in the 5th grade.
I recall that there was a bit of foreshadowing to this. When a sales representative from an electronics store came to deliver a National VHS VCR, he brought a tape of George Stevens' 1956 film “Giant” to check the playback. It was the last of James Dean's three starring films. The sales rep left the tape where it was and I immediately watched the 201-minute-long film. Jett Rink, the character played by Jimmy, leads a very successful life as an oil prospector. But in reality, he lived a life with no one to trust and nothing to gain. Well, he is supposed to get into a fistfight with Rock Hudson in a wine cellar, but he is too drunk to walk properly. He is told by Rock Hudson that he is not worth a beating. Jimmy, in such a miserable role, oddly captured my heart. Then, to my surprise, the week after I saw “Giant,” “Rebel Without a Cause” aired. I couldn't miss it.
As soon as I started watching it, I thought it was a strange film. A toy monkey is banging a cymbal on a garbage-strewn street, filmed with a camera positioned low to the ground, just above the road surface. Then Jimmy comes along and suddenly he is lying on his stomach on the road surface. Then the monkey stops moving. He holds the monkey in his hands, carefully wrapping it in his arms, and lays it down on the road, spreading a crumpled piece of paper over it as a comforter. There is another yellow or orange ribbon flower-like thing on the street, so he takes it and brings it toward the monkey's head to serve as a pillow. Then, he himself sleeps with the monkey. Then the siren of a police car sounds, and the screen overlaps with the façade of the police station, with the entranceway having two or three steps, and Jimmy is climbing up the steps, being held by policemen from both sides. Until then, I had never seen a shot like this with the camera positioned low to the ground. It looks as if Jimmy is being crushed by “Night” and folding his body into a small size, which is far from the excitement of the beginning of the movie.
Now, if you look at the head image, you see Natalie Wood on the far left in the red coat. So she is in the room. Marietta Canty as the maid is talking to Sal Mineo. Jimmy is on the far right of the screen. He is quite far back from Sal Mineo's position, but because of the oddly high seat height of the chair he is sitting in, Jimmy is higher than the other three. This is the police station where the three young men were taken into custody. I don't know why there would be such a chair in a police station. Before this shot, there is a scene in which Jimmy is screaming and imitating the siren of a police car, but something seems odd about it.
This is something you only learn after watching many of Nicholas Ray's films, but it is common in his films to show the different heights of standing or seated people in a single shot, and then develop a play of gazes by alternating between “Worm's-eye view,” which is a shot from the bottom up, and “Bird's-eye view,” which is a shot from the top down. Nicholas Ray was not the first filmmaker to do this, but he is very unique in that he was probably very consciously directing the play of the gaze in terms of height positioning. This may be one of the reasons that Nicholas Ray, despite his apparently stagnant, dreary, and dark films, leaves a strange impression of subtlety and freshness in his films, other than disgust.
Take, for example, this scene from “Knock on Any Door,” another film made by “RKO Pictures” in 1949, the same year after "They Live by Night". Notice the difference in the height of the positions of Humphrey Bogart and the black pianist.
Or note this shot from the 1958 film “Wind Across The Everglades”.
By the way, there is no denying that the reason why I still like “Rebel Without a Cause,” which, after all, does not give me any sense of exhilaration that I have seen a good movie, has to do with personal reasons that have nothing to do with "Cinema".
At the time, I was in the middle of bullying that lasted from the second to the sixth grade. I was punched, kicked, had my belongings broken, had graffiti written on the back of my shirt, water would come down from above if I went into the bathroom, and I was almost pushed down the stairs. It was such a daily routine that I even thought that the whole world was against me. My father, who had a hard time raising my older sister and I, arranged marriages. However, it was not easy to become a family with someone who had lived in a different environment. So, I felt like I had enemies inside and outside my home, and I even considered committing suicide.
Just as a toy monkey who had stopped playing cymbals was given a crumpled paper bedding by Jimmy, Sal Mineo was lent a red swing top by Jimmy. I remember being very attracted to such a sweet James Dean and Natalie Wood.
Maybe somewhere in the world, there is someone who can be my best friend or lover....
That was the strong impression I got from this movie.
At the same time, however, the ending leaves a strong impression, as Sal Mineo was shot and killed by the policemen, which is a very bad ending. This is also an event of “Night”. Sal Mineo is surrounded by policemen and tries to shoot in anger. The bullet in the gun was removed by Jimmy, but Sal Mineo didn't know it and tried to fire at the cops, only to be shot and killed by them. Jim Backus plays the father of James “Jim” Stark, played by James Dean, who says something to the effect of “I'll help you,” and regrets being a helpless father and vows to rebuild his family. At first glance, we are shown something akin to the reconciliation between father and son in "East of Eden".
But the cops are very clerical. Sal Mineo was carrying an unloaded gun, and the officers show no remorse for inadvertently shooting him dead. Jimmy is sitting on the street crying, but there is a policeman beckoning him with the intention of checking inside the building, and he runs in front of Jimmy, and then several policemen run behind Jimmy. In other words, the action is also filmed to show the “normalcy” of one dead boy.
I certainly thought that maybe there were people somewhere in the world who would be my best friends or lover, but at the same time, I also thought that those best friends and lover and I would live in separation from this world and eventually be cruelly killed by the world. No, I even think that might be what a best friend is. Eventually, the bullying was resolved in the sixth grade and the violence stopped, but I did not end up having many friends after that. I still hate to death places where many people gather to drink beer and eat grilled meat. On the other hand, I would like to be there for a good friend like Bunyo Kimura, who is making a dangerous film about a social issue that could kill him by someone if he is not careful, by doing whatever he can to promote it. I think James Dean's delicate gesture of covering a toy monkey with a crumpled paper as a comforter and lending Sal Mineo his red swing-top in “Night” of “Rebel Without a Cause” makes me feel that way.
So, I first became enamored with James Dean, and although it was too difficult for an elementary school student to even think about what kind of director Nicholas Ray was, I was drawn to Jimmy's gestures and the heavy “Night”. So, a while later, when I found out that Elia Kazan's 1955 film “East of Eden,” which I had never seen before, was to be screened at the Kyoto Women's University Festival, I went to Kyoto Women's University alone with a 500-yen bill depicting Tomomi Iwakura for the admission fee and watched it surrounded by female students, I was surrounded by female students. I cannot remember how I got the information about the screening as an elementary school student. I remember that screening very well, and I can assure you that it was a 16mm print.
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©Mitsuhiro Toda@Screenwriter Group Aquariusera
