| movie review: Naked |
| www.bflowriter.com |
The film was made in 1993. the director was Mike Leigh who also wrote the script. David Thewlis plays the lead.The film was a hit, or something of a hit, as much of a hit a film can be that takes its cue from Sartre who said: hell is other people. And David Thewlis who plays Johnny says: there is good in the world only because evil needs something to fuck over. But it won a bunch of awards and deservedly so. The script was a gem and David Thewlis was phenomenal. I recently watched it again—via Netflix streaming where else—and here are some thoughts if you have yet to see it. Johnny is the movie and as I say the performance by Thewlis is tremendous. He leaps from the screen. Its one of those rare films in which the perfect part finds the perfect actor to play it—the role of a lifetime—like DeNiro in Raging Bull, Brando in Streetcar, George C Scott in Patton. The character of Johnny can be described by something Oscar Levant, actor, pianist and wit said: There is a fine line between genius and insanity and I have erased that line. And also the words of Carmela Soprano, wife to Tony, visiting the shrink: He’ll fuck anything with a pulse. Johnny is a talent and his greatest talent is for getting on your nerves. Will Rogers never met a person he didnt like and Johnny never met a person he couldnt piss off. This leads to a certain amount of conflict. He likes conflict. It produces energy and relieves the boredom--at least for the moment. Johnnys gift is for talking. He has wit and a phenomenal amount of information of all kinds—useful and otherwise, percolating around inside his skull that he enjoys trotting out at a moments notice and its all delivered in a highly worked up state, dripping with irony, sarcasm or aggression or all three at once. Its a show. Hes a Hitler type—the rabble rousing bullshit artist type. The difference is: Hitler knew what he wanted. He was motivated. Johnny takes it one day— or one conversation—at a time. Johnny has his problems and they all derive from a common source: women. He is constantly crossing paths with these creatures that he can easily do without except when he needs to get laid—or borrow a few quid. The results are predictable. They meet, they have sex, they tangle. Its not pretty. There is something about Johnny—a deeply felt impulse to reward kindness with humiliation. Its his nature. The women: there are two, Louise and Sophie. Louise is the girlfriend—ex-girlfriend. Johnny is in flight from Manchester and the enraged brother of a girl he mishandled— you could put it that way—in an alley and he arrives on Louises doorstep in London. Louise isnt home but Sophie is so he fucks Sophie—a punkster and anorexic with low--make that zero--self esteem. They are at it on the couch when Louise arrives. Sophie: he’s a brilliant fucking geezer! Louise: what are you doing here? Johhnie. What are you doing here? L: I live here. J: It’s a shithole. L: Why don’t you leave? J: Why don’t you leave? L: I thought ya never wanted to see me again. J: I don’t want to see you again so will ya fuck off! L: You look like shit. J: I'm just trying to blend in with the surroundings. Etc, etc. Romance-wise this is the high point of the film. A few days pass with more of the same— screaming--and at some point Johnny packs it in and takes refuge in the street where more adventures occur of the same type—the going back and forth to arrive nowhere type. Archie Archie he meets in one of the great non- scenes in the history of film. Archie is 20 or therbouts, a psychopath. We know he is a psychopath because 1) he looks like one and 2) he acts like one. Here he comes hurtling himself down the street and doing something with his head, snapping it violently back and forth from side to side like being whacked by a giant invisible hand. It suggests a massive tic applying itself not to a facial muscle but the entire head including the neck. In other words someone you are well advised to cross the street to avoid but not Johnny because he is a fellow psychopath, or sociopath, close enough, so there exists a common ground for discourse. Archie, screaming: MAGGIE! Johnny: You all right chief? A: MAGGIE! J: Have you lost somebody? A: (heavy Scots accent similar to cockney, impenetrable): FUCKING (unintelligible)FUCK OFF YA FUCKING CUNT! Pause. A: GOT A FAG! J: Yeah A: Giz one. J: You’ve got a lovely way about you. Has anyone ever told you that? A: MAGGIE! J: Shes gone mate. Those days are over. A: (unintgelligible) YA (unintelligible) CUT YA FUCKING HEAD OFF! J: You from Scotland? A: Aye J: Whats it like up there? A: (unintelligible) FUCKING SHITE. J: I sent off for one of those Linguaphone courses—talk shite in a fortnight. Its going very well. I haven’t quite got the hang of the transitive verbs yet. A: WILL YA FUCKING SHUT IT! They go back and forth for a bit. It turns out Archie is on the lam, seems he put his dad in the hospital—smashed him in the nuts with a poker. Why says Johnny. A: BECAUSE (unintelligible) FUCKER FUCKING ASKED FOR IT! J: So, what, is he in a bad way? A:(unintelligible) fucking half fucking dead. MAGGIE! J: Hows your mother taking it? A: SHE FUCKING (unintelligible) OFF HER FUCKING NUT! Jeremy Mike Leigh has a gift to write about the scumbag male character and in the character of Jeremy he creates his masterpiece. Is Jeremy homosexual, heterosexual or bisexual? Its hard to say but either way of all the words you could use to describe him the kindest would be despicable. He makes Johnny look wholesome. Johnny is out wandering the streets when Jeremy appears at the flat. He lets himself in. He has a key. He is the landlord. He strips to his black bikini briefs to reveal the whitest of bodies and is lying there on the couch when Sophie enters who starts screaming. Sophie: Ya scared the living shit outta me! Who are ya? Jeremy: I’m Jeremy luv—who are you? S: Sophie. J: I like your tattoo. Did it hurt? S: Yeah. J: Good. Do you like fucking, Sophie? S: Do you like wanking? J: You have no tits Sophie. Have you ever been raped? S: No, have you? I wont describe the rest of the film—to give a blow by blow account because you get the idea and Naked isnt that kind of film—a linear type film. Its a sequence of non-scenes that could be shuffled about and rearranged in a number of ways. Its a brutal film with a handful of scenes you could do without watching. Louise is the only person in the film to resemble a normal human being and does her best to apply some rehab to Johnny but its a lost cause--the most lost of causes. She persists in it all because love is blind. I reccommend the film because its funny. There is humor, quite dark but humor nonetheless and dark humor is better than no humor at all. And this is Mike Leighs gift--to confuse the line between humor and despair. That is the mark of an artist. But yes its a brutal film so I will take some of the curse off by leaving you with 3 fragments of dialogue. 1) Louise and Sophie are having tea and Louise says: I don’t care about getting married but I wouldnt say no to a proper relationship. Sophie: Whats a proper relationship? Louise: When somebody talks to ya after they’ve bonked ya. 2) Johnny and Brian, security guard at an office building. Brian: Have you got nowhere to go then? Johnny: I’ve got an infinite number of fucking places to go. The problem is where you stay. You with me? B: Indeed. Yes. J: So listen Brian, what is it that goes on in this particular postmodernist gas chamber? B: Nothing. It's empty. J: So what is it that you're guarding then? B: Space. J: You’re guarding space? B: Yes J: That's stupid, isn't it, because someone could break in here and steal all the fucking space and you wouldn't know it had gone, would you? B: Good point. Johnny bumps into Maggie, Archies bird who has misplaced herself and they take a walk. Johnny says: did you know that wherever you are in London you’re only 30 feet from a rat? |
David Thewlis as Johnny