kweejibo stories, December, 2012: Clean : Director Olivier Assayas, 2004 France with Maggie Cheung, Nick Nolte, Tricky, Jeanne Balibar, Beatrice Dalle, Dave Roback film review and culture-pop-culture

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One of the best things about this film is that one can see Maggie Cheung, Jeanne Balibar and Beatrice Dalle, in the space of a few minutes... It almost makes it worthwhile to have to see Nick Nolte, even though, this time he is blessedly understated.

I appreciate the effort of Director Olivier Assayas to make any tribute to music of the late 80's and 90's... the particular rock of Pixies and P.J.Harvey, the evolution of rap hip hop trip hop pop and the fusion of all to rock with Tricky and Massive Attack and others to make a list that reaches long. Countless times, have I seen the attestations of young ones on YouTube ... "there is nothing new that can even take the place" of songs from those listed above...

I believe it takes a certain amount of courage, and perhaps a bit of foolhardiness for a director to tackle musical genres that may or may not be familiar to him. Music scenes at the beginning of the film are written a bit roughly. Emily Wang, Cheung's character, seems plunked down into this music scene or that... At one moment, Emily refers to Tricky as "a big star", with no references to what movement he comes from. And odd, considering that music is supposed to be her life. One has the impression that the writer did not know what else to say... Tricky is presented briefly at the end of one of his concerts. Tricky is known, among many things, for the many dark textured layers of music which works in everything from Public Enemy to David Cassidy, Ponderosa with its Indian music samples, Together Now with Neneh Cherry, for his covers with Martina Topley-Bird of Black Coffee and Judas (by Depeche Mode), Karmacoma with Massive Attack...

Emily Wang eventually goes on to perform her own Mazzy Star-style songs, and is produced by the same band's producer. Mazzy Star can be classified a bit as alternative rock; they existed from 1990 till 1996, and are back together recently in 2009. Mazzy Star's composer/producer/guitarist, Dave Roback, and Dean of Dean&Britta, wrote Emily's songs for the film.

I saw this film when it was released in 2004, and in my snobbishness, made some comment about how "isn't that style of heroin-feel music...and isn't the day of Mazzy Star, and Tricky, well, like...over?" This regrettable reaction is due to my own subversion in the culture of commercial success and the latest trends that began five minutes ago... The fact that both music personalities experienced an overwhelming commercial success in the 1990's, should not eclipse the ongoing creativity that keeps the faith to this day with new albums and performances by these same artists or the struggle and cosmic fortune that permitted their debut albums in the first place...

I saw Tricky in concert in 1998; i heard him played in my store on Haight Street hundreds of times from 1995 through 2000. I saw Mazzy Star briefly in a club in New York in 1993. Hope Sandoval sang a few lines and then, abruptly left the stage, and did not return.

It is difficult for those who know her in former roles to resist the notion of watching Cheung as the druggie girlfriend of an upcoming rock star, a wanna be musician herself and former cable channel VJ.

She struggles to survive after the drug overdose of her partner, imprisonment for heroin possession, as well as her drug issue, and hardest of all, the difficulties of living like a regular person, working as a waitress after having a more privileged existence. Her motivation is largely her small son, who has been living with his grandparents.

These later scenes which present her struggle hold up better to the light. As she tries to find a regular job, Assayas demonstrates with a skill how some of those who have never achieved even a moment of fame can be cruel with those who are on the way down from those heights...

The sense of forgiveness and redemption is embodied by Nick Nolte's character, Albrecht, as Emily's father-in-law who has custody of her child. Albrecht knows that the little boy has no other relatives, and that he and his wife are too elderly to play parents for too long. He does not try to force Emily to take some job too drab for her, but encourages her dreams and her opportunity to work with a music producer.

Both Cheung and Balibar have appeared before in Olivier Assayas films; Maggie Cheung is the former wife of Assayas. This was his last collaboration with Ms. Cheung. She is the first Asian actress to win the "Best Actress Award" at the Cannes Film Festival for her role in Clean, where she speaks Cantonese, English and French fluently. She came from Shanghai, but grew up in mostly in both Hong Kong and England. Cheung, like many Hong Kong people, have the interesting advantage of speaking English and Mandarin, her fourth language.

Maggie Cheung made more than sixty films before she appeared in Clean, most of them modern Hong Kong films as well as costumed dramas. She became known as a "serious actress" in her first film with Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai, As Tears Go By.

Cheung is better known in the western world for being presented in stunning costume, from cat-suited cat burglar in Assayas' 1996 Irma Vep, to Hong Kong 1960's era mandarin collar dresses of Wong Kar-wai's In the Mood For Love or traditional Chinese full-length garb in Zhang Yimou's artsy and extremely color-coordinated martial arts epic Hero.

Jeanne Balibar appeared in Assayas' 1998 film, Early August, Late September (Fin août, début septembre). In Clean, she has a small role, as a deceptive and neurotic entertainment industry personality Irene Paolini, prone to relationship dramas in the workplace, who strings along Emily, the Cheung character, for a job that never appears. Balibar's character, only appears in two scenes but demonstrates a unique and ineffable presence. In a quick glance, she manages to portray a kind of false winsome modesty in speaking to fans, a falseness which is noticeably not evident to those who do not know her...

Beatrice Dalle, who is most notable for her first film, Betty Blue (37º2 le matin), by Jean-Jacques Beineix, from 1986. She also has a small role in Clean as a very non-judgmental friend who gives Emily a place to live in her home. She is also a music producer, with no mention of what kind of music that might be... Dalle became a cult figure almost over night in her starring role in Betty Blue, her first film.