London Film Festival: Inside Llewyn Davis

 

 

Last night I attended the premiere of Inside Llewyn Davis which is the latest movie to be directed by the acclaimed Coen Brothers. The movie won the Grand Prix award at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. While I was walking along the red carpet, to enter the venue, I was lucky enough to pass both John Goodman and Carey Mulligan on the red carpet. Mulligan I must say is stunning in person. I was about five feet away from her when suddenly it felt like a million paparazzi begun taking her snapshot. Honestly that flash really does blind you; I don’t know how these celebrities cope with it. Anyway I entered the venue and took my seat on the front row, which I have for the past five days. I swear Clare Stewart who introduces all the premieres must be wondering who in hell I am by now. Also I must point out they play the exact same two trailers before each of these movies – a BFI London Film Festival and Gothic season at the BFI. I swear I literally know them both off by heart which isn’t surprising considering this was the seventh time I’ve watched them. I’ll give you a quick break down, it’s just a combination of clips from the different movies premiering at the festival with Scarlett Johansson saying “Do you like movies?” from Don Jon followed by Tom Hanks “I won’t disappoint you” from Saving Mr. Banks in which Carey Mulligan replies “Obviously” from Inside Llewyn Davis and it ends with George Clooney “Terrific isn’t it” from Gravity. Clare Stewart then welcomed the Coen Brothers onto the stage as they introduced each cast member individually. John Goodman came out first to a thunderous applause, in which he ended up walking straight past the Coen Brothers and standing on the wrong side of the stage. Next was Carey Mulligan, who went to join John Goodman but once she stood next to him, Goodman decided to move to the other side of the stage in the correct position in a playful manner. It was a funny moment, Carey Mulligan was giggling about it. Lastly Oscar Isaac was introduced onto the stage. Clare Stewart informed the audience a Q and A session would take place after the movie before mentioning this was the Mayor’s Gala, these premieres all have individual names I should mention. Clare said that while this was the Mayor’s Gala, Boris Johnson wasn’t in attendance tonight, which caused some laughter from the audience. Typical Boris! Instead Boris left us a short video clip. I won’t be talking you through the clip; it was tough enough sitting through it.

 

 

I haven’t seen as much of the Coen Brother’s work as perhaps I’d have liked too, I’ve seen Fargo, The Big Lebowski, No Country for Old Men and their last feature film which was a remake of the 1969 movie True Grit. I really should watch more of their earlier stuff. But Inside Llewyn Davis tells the story of Llewyn Davis a struggling folk singer navigating his way through the Greenwich Village music scene of the early sixties in an attempt to establish himself as a solo artist after the recent death of his singing partner Mike. Lleywn played by Drive’s Oscar Isaac is clearly talented; the opening shot of Lleywn covering Dave Van Ronk’s “Hang Me, Oh Hang Me” at The Gaslight Café demonstrates Lleywn’s potential and perhaps symbolises Lleywn’s emotion at this stage in his journey. It should be noted Dave Van Ronk is the real-life inspiration behind the character of Lleywn Davis. Lleywn is informed a man wearing a suit wishes to see him outside, but it turns out to be an assault from an unknown assailant. While Lleywn lays literally in the gutter, we flash back a week earlier in which the film’s narrative begins telling the story leading up to the event. The audience are introduced to Lleywn awakening on the Gorfein’s sofa. Lleywn lives out of a single bag, carries his guitar and looks for the next sofa to crash on. A great shot is shown of Lleywn admiring the Gorfein’s vinyl collection; I wish I had a vinyl collection like that. Lleywn pulls out a vinyl of his former duo partnership Tiplin and Davis symbolising Lleywn’s former success. A humours moment and theme for the rest of the movie occurs when Lleywn is exiting the Gorfein’s household in which their ginger tabby cat squeezes through the door just as Lleywn locks it. The cat whose name I won’t reveal becomes Lleywn’s new reasonability which is ironic as Lleywn just about copes looking after himself. A beautiful shot of Lleywn’s new feline friend staring at his own reflection on the subway may have been one of my favourite shots from the movie. Lleywn’s odyssey begins in which he encounters friends and strangers along the way including the aggressive Jean played by Carey Mulligan, who Lleywn has unexpectedly got pregnant. “Everything you touch turns to shit” which is Jean’s analyse of Lleywn. Justin Timberlake plays Jean’s husband Jim who manages to get Lleywn involved in a recording gig for a studio record along with army solider Troy played by Stark Sands. The trio’s rendition of “Please Mr. Kennedy” is hilarious; Lleywn doesn’t believe the record will be a hit, so decides to be paid up front without royalties, showing not only how desperate Lleywn is for money but also how determined he is to make it as a solo artist. Lleywn hitches a ride to Chicago with jazzman Roland Turner played by John Goodman and his valet Johnny Five played by Garrett Hedlund in an attempt to seek out Bud Grossman played by F. Murray Abraham to discuss whether he received his solo record “Inside Llewyn Davis”. While the film has an impressive supporting cast they each are limited to minimal screen time, only Carey Mulligan might make it past the ten minute mark. The film’s driving force is without doubt Oscar Isaac who successfully portrays the tough struggle along with the disappointing failure of an artist looking for his break inside the industry. It’s a tough industry to break into, I know myself. The Coen Brothers have successfully created a movie which deploys artistic frustration against the gloomy grey back drop of New York along with an insight into some wonderful folk music which I’m sure will stay in your head long after the end credits have rolled. You may even be tempted to purchase the album itself.

The Coen Brothers, Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan and John Goodman returned for a Q and A session. I didn’t take any notes so I’ll try my best to remember what was said. Clare Stewart asked each cast member about their casting process. Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan claimed it was just your regular audition process while John Goodman claimed he received an email from Ethan who asked whether he’d like to be a gas bag for a few days in which Goodman thought their usual gas bags had worked previously so it couldn’t hurt to do it again. John Goodman was quite hilarious with his responses. I’m not familiar with the term gas bag but apparently it means a person who makes many empty statements. Clare Stewart pushed John Goodman for how he developed his character, in which John Goodman responded it was all on the page. Also he created a small back story, which he doesn’t plan to share with anyone before laughing and saying “I really don’t know what to say”. Oscar Isaac spoke about how he had sung and played guitar for over twenty years, but when the rehearsals came and the guitar instructor showed him how to play the folk style music. The instructor quoted “Oscar had owned a guitar for twenty years, not played it”. Random question alert, someone asked Oscar Isaac what it was like working with the cat in which Isaac replied “Hell”. The Coen Brothers spoke about they had this image of Dave Van Ronk being beaten up in a back street alley for a number of years but never knew where to take the story until they decided to create the character of Llewyn. All the music was sung live on the set which is pretty impressive; Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan have better singing voices then many of the music artist workings in the industry today. Someone asked the Coen Brothers if there was an alternative ending for the movie in which they responded if there was an alternative ending, there would have to be an alternative beginning. Another question asked because regular collaborator Roger Deakins was busy filming Skyfall, how they felt working with Bruno Delbonnel. The Coens spoke how they had worked with Bruno Delbonnel before on their segment in Paris, je t’aime in which they raved about his contribution. I’ll admit the cinematography really did capture the mood of the movie. Lastly someone asked why their was such a long break in between True Girt and Inside Llewyn Davis after the Coen Brothers had regularly made movies every other year. The Coen Brothers spoke about how making a movie is hard work and takes it toll on you as a filmmaker. They don’t understand how Woody Allen manages to do it regularly, which I thought was a funny quote to end on. I apologise for the brief summary of the session, like I stated I didn’t take any notes so that was purely off memory.

So how do I believe Inside Llewyn Davis will do with the Academy? Well the Coen Brothers have earned thirty three nominations for their movies in the past winning six of them. Their biggest success came with No Country for Old Men which won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor for Javier Bardem, their only other two wins came from Fargo for Best Original Screenplay and Best Actress for Frances McDormand. While No Country for Old Men and True Grit earned eight and ten nominations respectively in recent years. I personally feel Inside Llewyn Davis will follow a similar route to A Serious Man which only scored two nominations. Overall the movie is quite low key and doesn’t posse the grand scale nature like some of the Coen’s other movies. Oscar Isaac is the only serious potential acting nominee but even he will struggle to earn a nomination in such a competitive year. The supporting cast’s roles are not big enough to warrant any kind of nomination. But the film might stand a chance of a nomination for Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Production Design and Best Costume Design. It may sneak in for Best Picture but I wouldn’t keep my hopes up.

Oscar Potential

Best Picture

Best Director, The Coen Brothers
Best Actor in a Leading Role, Oscar Isaac
Best Original Screenplay
Best Cinematography
Best Production Design
Best Costume Design