Tweet
Released by: Cinedigm Entertainment
Released on: March 1, 2016
Director: Anton Corbijn
Cast: Dane DeHaan, Robert Pattinson, Alessandra Mastronard, Joel Edgerton, Ben Kingsley
Year: 2015
Purchase From Amazon
The Movie:
In his fourth feature, Life (2015), Dutch director Anton Corbijn peels away the mythical overtones of James Dean's (Dane DeHaan) persona to deliver an intimate and sensitive portrait of the late actor across a two-week span. Rather than focus exclusively on the attributes that made Dean an iconic rebel (which the film does), Corbijn's picture examines several personal moments that reveal the young star at his most vulnerable. Corbijn also wisely eschews the conventional biopic by concentrating on Dean's rise to fame across a narrow period: between the completion of East of Eden and just prior to the filming of Rebel Without a Cause. The story chronicles one of the lesser-known aspects of Dean's life: i.e., his budding friendship with freelance photographer Dennis Stock (Robert Pattinson).
The movie's title carries a double entendre. On the one hand, it refers to the eponymous magazine that Stock delivered an illustrated photo essay to consisting of snapshots that he took of Dean. On the other hand, it also refers to the “life†(in a cinema verité sense) that Stock and Dean experienced in 1955. Life is two movies in one. The first half shows how the detached and publicity-shy Dean deals with press agents, film journalists, and studio moguls. Ben Kingsley plays Jack Warner as a no-nonsense businessman who expects Dean to follow his studio's credo slavishly as other young contract players did at Warner Bros. Warner could care less about Dean's personal affairs and family obligations. An intersecting story juxtaposing Dean's is Stock's uncertain identity as a professional photographer and his troubles with a frustrated ex-spouse and a young son.
The second movie that springs out of Life emerges when Dean confides to Stock about his mother on a train ride to Fairmount, Indiana. In a difficult and challenging role in which he delivers a multifaceted performance, DeHaan lays bare the hurt and maternal yearning he felt for a lost childhood. After he spends time on the Deans' family farm, Stock realizes through his newfound friend the missing void in his own life. The last hour or so works quite effectively as a family drama.
Pattinson demonstrates some of his range but the film ultimately belongs to DeHaan. In addition to capturing Dean's spontaneity and unassuming nature, DeHaan sees through his core personality to reveal hidden emotions. He often utters the lines of his famous character with a quiet soulfulness. It was a daunting task to portray an actor he idolized but DeHaan was completely up to the task. Rather than try to mimic Dean or try too hard to the point of overacting, DeHaan loses himself in the role and makes it his own.
Video/Audio/Extras:
In a DVD-only release, Cinedigm presents Life in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.40:1 with an accommodation for 16x9 playback on this dual-layered disc. The transfer looks sharp and the image exhibits a distinctive fifties look that nicely reproduces the film's sets and locales. Corbijn seems to have desaturated the colors so there is a cooler palette on display. There are few, if any, print defects or compression artifacts. The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack sounds crisp. Life is often dialogue-driven so much of the film is center/front heavy. Car and train noises are well dispersed across the surround channels. Owen Pallett's jazz-infused score makes excellent use of the speakers' bass. The period songs demonstrate good directionality. Unfortunately, Cinedigm only includes English captions (and not subtitles) which I was able to access on CyberLink PowerDVD but not on my Pioneer BDP-140.
Cinedigm only includes materials from its electronic press kit. We get Life's theatrical trailer (2:04) and interviews with director Anton Corbijn (4:11), as well as stars Robert Pattinson (4:42), Dane DeHaan (5:57), and Joel Edgerton (2:03). Although brief, the interviews are worth watching with DeHaan and Pattinson supplying good insights into their characters.
The Final Word:
Life did not receive much play in U.S. cinemas during its protracted theatrical run and definitely deserves a much wider audience. The movie's depiction of two young talented artists make it a very good bookend to Corbijn's Control (2007), which is about Joy Division's lead singer, Ian Curtis. Cinedigm delivers stellar image and sound but only a few extras. The movie comes highly recommended.
