Chorlton Film Institute is a version of a Guerilla Cinema group aimed at making arthouse film accessible in and around Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester.
Next Film
Thursday 15th Oct 2009. Doors open 8:00pm, films starts 8:30pm
Frost/Nixon (15) running time 122 mins
Richard Nixon's reputation was in part created by television through broadcasts of the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings in the 1940s. His bacon was saved in 1952 when, facing disgrace over the exposure of a slush fund, his grotesquely sentimental TV Checkers speech put him back on the presidential ticket as Eisenhower's running mate. The debates with Kennedy lost him the 1960 election. In 1977, he was finally sunk when David Frost, in the course of four 90-minute TV interviews, led him into saying on Watergate that "when the President does it, that means that it is not illegal" (a disreputable statement now in every reputable dictionary of quotations) and apologising for his actions.
The circumstances surrounding this conversation are the subject of Peter Morgan's stage play Frost/Nixon and the film version which he's adapted for Ron Howard to direct, with Michael Sheen and Frank Langella reprising their astonishing performances as the interviewer and interviewee.
Frost/Nixon is a riveting film, sharper, more intense than the play. It brings to mind such forensic triumphs of dramatic literature as Portia bringing down Shylock with guile and subtlety in The Merchant of Venice, Barney Greenwald reducing Commander Queeg to a gibbering mess in The Caine Mutiny and the gentle liberal Henry Fonda destroying Lee J Cobb to get his "not-guilty" vote in 12 Angry Men.
The stakes on both sides are high. Nixon is in semi-disgrace in California, in need of money and vindication through his autobiography and a big TV deal negotiated by the creepy literary agent Irving "Swifty" Lazar (another lovely performance by Toby Jones). Frost has fame and money but seeks respect as a heavyweight. He wants to stop people regarding him as a talk-show host, greeting him with his catch phrase "Hello, good evening, and welcome", and is keen to dispel the prospect of his epitaph being Kitty Muggeridge's cutting remark that "he rose without trace".
These two ambitious men, one harmful, the other harmless, are not particularly likable, much less so (in this film at least) than those around them. The loyal, discreet US Marine officer Jack Brennan (Kevin Bacon), a Vietnam veteran, is a Kent figure deserving of a better Lear. Frost's three key advisers appear to have a probity their employer lacks.
From Britain, Frost has brought John Birt (Matthew Macfadyen), a figure altogether more human than he was to be as the BBC's director general and Tony Blair's blue-sky thinker. In the States, Birt recruits the experienced TV producer Bob Zelnick (Oliver Platt), and the radical academic James Reston Jr (Sam Rockwell), son of one of America's most distinguished journalists, as researcher. The Americans are witty, incisive, deeply serious; in one marvellous scene, Zelnick stands in for Nixon as they test various scenarios.
But the confrontations between Nixon and Frost are the core of the film, first a warm-up meeting, then the taping sessions and finally a coda when Frost has crossed the Rubicon, leaving Nixon struggling in deep water with no lifeline in sight. Each actor has his subject's mannerisms and body language to a T, so we get the essence of the men rather than impersonations. Nixon, full of confidence, seeks to undermine Frost, using what Zelnick refers to as "mind games", though I doubt if the term was used in those pre-laptop and cellphone, long-hair and sideburns, broad-lapel, bell-bottom days. Tricky Dicky suggests Frost's Italian shoes are effeminate, asks if he's been "fornicating" over the weekend, greets him as "the Grand Inquisitor" and so on. Frost copes with it and gradually gains in confidence and possibly in character. Perhaps he's trying to impress the sceptical Zelnick and Reston, who think his deceptively gentle approach is getting nowhere. But maybe it's because he does develop a sense of moral mission.
There are some revealing moments along the way: the former naval officer Nixon doing his morning exercises to Richard Rodgers's theme music from the TV series Victory at Sea; Frost leaving his hardworking advisers at the Beverly Hills Hotel as he goes off to the black-tie premiere of The Slipper and the Rose, his latest film production. The film's most haunting sequence is Peter Morgan's invention, a phone conversation between Frost and Nixon in which the drunken ex-president suggests they're both motivated by a sense of being patronised, lower-middle-class outsiders. This is like the dubious meeting between Mary, Queen of Scots and Elizabeth in Schiller's Mary Stuart or Gordon and the Mahdi in Khartoum. When later Nixon can't remember it, one wonders for a second whether it was something going on in Frost's mind.
Philip French Observer Jan 2009
WINTER SEASON 2009/2010 DATES- FILMS TO FOLLOW !!!!
Nov 19th 2009 Elegy (in assocaition with Chorlton Book Festival)
Dec 17th 2009 ***CHRISTMAS SPECIAL ****Hitchcock's The Lodger - silent film with live soundtrack
Jan 21st 2010 Looking for Eric
Feb 18th 2010 Let the right one in
Previous Films at CFI
The CFI has no membership criteria - just turn up and pay on the night. This is not a profit-making venture. We are aiming simply to cover the cost of the film hire (via Film Distributors FILMBANK), the hire of the Audio & Visual equipment (from Chorlton-based company Hollowsphere), the rental of the Church & the cost of the flyers, designed and printed by Holden and Sons and UK Print.
Adrian at Hollowsphere has invested in some new Mackie C300z loudspeakers, due for test at the Persopolis screening. This will hopefully increase the vocal clarity of the future films. (Please let me have any feedback .....Adrian)
We've thoughtfully put all of the Film dates for your diaries which you can sync with your iCal and gCal and also link to the RSS feeds.
Now there will be no excuse for fogetting!
Just seen it at CFI? - Post a review of this or any other film
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.