Dahl’s latest ‘seduction’
With Last Seduction director Dahl takes noir from cable to big
screen
By Mike Horowitz
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
John Dahl’s second feature film, Red Rock West, was released on
video nationally and he hoped no one would watch it.
The director’s third feature film, Last Seduction, played on
HBO, and he prayed no one would see it.
He seems to be making a habit out of crossing his fingers and
wishing for low viewership. But no masochistic career moves or
reverse psychology are behind his desires, he simply wants his
movies to get their due on the big screen.
In a town where films traditionally journey from theatrical
release to video and finally trickle down to cable, Dahl is
somewhat of an anomaly. His meagerly budgeted film noir works its
way up due to persistence and quality.
Last Seduction, coming out Wednesday and screening at Melnitz
tonight, had its rights sold to HBO before he could send it to
festivals to test its acceptance. Due to the critical splash that
Red Rock West made at the beginning of the year, he feared the new
picture would be reviewed for television. In that case, it would
never get press even if it could make it to the theatres.
"We were going, ‘geez, I hope nobody notices or watches,’" says
Dahl, before being sure not to step on cable’s toes. "HBO’s a great
thing; they make a lot of their own projects; they make a lot of
their own films, and a lot of their stuff is really terrific."
But HBO did miss a good thing when they quietly slipped
Seduction on and off the air, After a contractual six-week
blackout, October films grabbed the theatrical rights to his
film.
"It’s not a bad thing to be released on HBO," he acknowledges,
"but it’s always nice to be released in a movie theatre."
On Wednesday, he will get his wish. Not that he’s stressing out
over it. It takes him two guesses to remember the release date.
That’s because Dahl has always been more concerned with working
again and filming a new film, than worrying about his last movie’s
medium. It’s tough to pull him away from his new screenplay
revision he’s working on now, but he sits down with The Bruin at
the Hamlet Gardens to discuss his three films and his
characters.
"An executive at a studio gave me Last Seduction," says Dahl,
"and said ‘maybe this would be something you’d be interested in.’"
The screenplay by Steve Barancik deals with a classic femme fatale
stealing from and screwing over men in New York. "I read it and I
couldn’t tell first of all whether it was really funny or really
stupid," says Dahl, smiling. "In fact, I remember giving it to my
brother and he said ‘it’s either really good or really bad.’ It
could go either way. I think that’s kind of the mark of good
material."
Seduction walks the same high wire act as Dahl’s acclaimed Red
Rock West, a picture he wrote with his brother. The two films do a
remarkable job presenting quick plot twists and calculated
knives-in-the-back in a way that never seems gimmicked or staged.
"With Red Rock," says Dahl, "we were concerned that this could be a
really absurdly stupid series of dumb coincidences that the
audiences says ‘forget this!’"
Red Rock begins its tightly-wound ball in intrigue when a
disgruntled Nic Cage sits down at a bar to enjoy a cheap cup of
coffee. The bartender strolls up and mistakes him for a hitman from
Texas. "You’re here for the job aren’t you?" the bartender (J.T.
Walsh) asks.
Cage looks up at him without denying the proposition. Big
mistake.
The main character in Seduction, Bridget Gregory (Linda
Fiorentino) is much less sympathetic. She begins the film robbing
and leaving her husband and repentance is out of the question. "The
fun thing about her is that she’s the exact same character in the
beginning of the movie as she is in the end," jokes Dahl. "Her arc
goes from worse to awful. Normally you have to somehow redeem with
a story, like her child needed an eye operation or something like
that, and everything is okay. No, she’s just rotten."
Of course, this one dimensional take on Bridget’s character has
gotten Dahl a little flak from audiences. "We just screened the
movie at the Mill Valley film festival," he says, "and there was
this woman walking out of the movie saying ‘God, that’s so
misogynist!’"
"I wonder, ‘is it misogynistic because we make all the men in
this film so terrific?’ They’re all idiots!" laughs Dahl. "Yes,
there is one bad woman, but there are three or four bad guys."
Seduction is hardly a movie about good samaritans, regardless of
gender. Bridget’s husband Clay (Bill Pullman) is a drug dealer, her
lover (Peter Berg) is a small-town moron, and they’re the ones you
feel for. Yet Dahl finds the accusation gives him food for thought.
"At the same time I can understand her perspective," he nods.
Tonight at Melnitz, viewers will get a chance to decide for
themselves. They can debate the portrayal of her character, but
it’s tough to refute the fun of Dahl’s film noir.
And no matter what, Last Seduction is finally headed for the big
screen.
FILM: Last Seduction. Screens at Melnitz Theater tonight at 7:30
p.m. Free tickets starting at 11 a.m. or at 6:30 p.m. before the
screening. Info: (310) 825-2345.