LA REGOLA DEL SILENZIO - THE COMPANY YOU KEEP: DOPO 'LEONI PER AGNELLI' E 'THE CONSPIRATOR' ROBERT REDFORD (QUI CON SHIA LABEOUF, TERRENCE HOWARD, STANLEY TUCCI, CHRIS COOPER, SUSAN SARANDON E NICK NOLTE) ABBRACCIA UN'ALTRA STORIA AMERICANA DI AMPIO RESPIRO SUL SACRIFICIO, L'ESTASI DELLA GIOVINEZZA E LA TENSIONE TRA IDEALI POLITICI E LEALTA' FAMIGLIARI, PER UNA VIVIDA IMMAGINE DELLA VITA DI VETERANI, IDEOLOGI, CRIMINALI E PROFITTATORI
RECENSIONE ITALIANA IN ANTEPRIMA e PREVIEW in ENGLISH by LESLIE FELPERIN (www.variety.com) - Dalla 69. Mostra Internazionale d’Arte Cinematografica (Lido di Venezia, 29 agosto – 8 settembre 2012) - Dal 20 DICEMBRE
(The Company You Keep; USA 2012; Thriller; 125'; Produz.: Wildwood Enterprises/Voltage Pictures/Kingsgate Films/Brightlight Pictures/TCYK North Productions; Distribuz.: 01 Distribution)
Jim Grant è un avvocato e un padre vedovo che cresce la figlia nei sobborghi di Albany, New York. Questa tranquilla esistenza viene sconvolta quando Sharon Solarz, una donna anch'essa dalla vita apparentemente tranquilla, viene arrestata dall'FBI, con l'accusa di avere ucciso trent'anni prima una guardia giurata durante una rapina in banca, e in tale crimine egli stesso sembra essere coinvolto quando un giovane reporter, Ben Shepard, svela la sua vera identità , ossia Nick Sloan, quella di un pacifista radicale che negli anni Settanta manifestava contro la Guerra del Vietnam, risultando ancora ricercato per quell'omicidio.
Si riaprono vecchie ferite e Grant riallaccia i contatti con alcuni membri del suo gruppo, i Weather Underground. Shepard comincia a capire che in quell'uomo c'è qualcosa di misterioso.
Con l'FBI alle calcagna, Shepard scopre gli sconvolgenti segreti che Grant ha custodito negli ultimi trent'anni: è stata Mimi Lurie, la donna che ha amato da giovane, a commettere l'omicidio della guardia giurata, e ora cerca di convincerla a consegnarsi alle autorità , per scagionarlo e permettergli di vivere la sua vita con sua figlia. Quando i due si ritroveranno faccia a faccia nella Upper Peninsula del Michigan, metteranno a nudo le loro identità e le loro idee.
Short Storyline:
A thriller centered on a former Weather Underground activist who goes on the run from a journalist who has discovered his identity.
When Jason Sinai, one of the last Vietnam-era fugitives still wanted on murder charges for a robbery gone wrong in 1974, encounters a young newspaper reporter in search of a story, he must abandon years of safe underground life for the dangerous life of the road -- traveling across American and deep into his past. Set against the rise and fall of the radical anti-war group the Weather Underground, "The Company You Keep" is a sweeping American saga about sacrifice, the ecstatic righteousness of youth, and the tension between political ideals and family loyalties. It is a vidid re-creation of lives lived underground -- of battle-scarred veterans, ideologues, profiteers, criminals and bystanders.
Storyline (1):
A widowed single father, Jim Grant (Robert Redford), is a former Weather Underground militant wanted for a Michigan bank robbery and the murder of the bank's security guard (an off-duty police officer) in the 1970s. He has been in hiding from the FBI for over thirty years, becoming an attorney in Albany, New York. When Sharon Solarz (Susan Sarandon), another former Weather Underground member, is arrested, an ambitious young reporter, Ben Shepard (Shia LaBeouf), is assigned to the story. Ben's ex-girlfriend, Diana (Anna Kendrick), is an FBI agent. He presses her for information about the case. She tells him that Sharon came to town to visit Billy Cusimano (Stephen Root), an old hippie who runs an organic grocery. Billy, a friend and client of Jim's, tells Jim about the arrest; Billy is surprised that Jim doesn't want to take Sharon's case. Billy lets this information slip out when Ben questions him. Ben pursues Jim and tries to question him, but Jim tells him to get lost.
Spooked by the investigation, Jim takes his 11-year-old daughter, Isabel (Jackie Evancho), and drives to a bus station at the Canadian border; there, he buys bus tickets to Toronto. He tells Izzy that they are taking a vacation. A neighbor has filed a missing persons report. Ben tells the FBI about the report and that a middle-aged man matching Jim’s description bought bus tickets to Toronto. Ben has also found out that Mimi Lurie (Julie Christie), an accomplice in the Michigan bank robbery, was last seen in Canada. A private investigator tells Ben that Jim had no Social Security number prior to 1978. Ben tells the FBI to check Jim's fingerprints against Nicholas Sloan, another fugitive from the robbery.
Meanwhile, Jim and Izzy arrive at a New York City bus station. They go sight-seeing and check into a fancy hotel. The manhunt for Jim is now national news. Jim tells Izzy that she must stay with her aunt and uncle for awhile. He slips out of the hotel, passing the room key to his brother, Daniel Sloan (Chris Cooper). FBI agents, including Diana's boss Cornelius (Terrence Howard), chase Jim, who ducks into the subway. Since Ben's information was helpful, Cornelius allows him to interview Sharon. She reveals that Nick and Mimi had a love affair long ago.
In California, Mimi imports marijuana into the U.S. aboard a fancy yacht. Mac McLeod (Sam Elliott), Mimi's boss in the drug trade, notes the manhunt and wonders whether Mimi is thinking about turning herself in; she denies it and says that she'd rather go back into hiding. Meanwhile, Jim has dyed his hair and gone to Milwaukee. He finds Donal (Nick Nolte), his old best friend. He hopes Donal can help him find Mimi. Ben begins to feel that Jim's actions make no sense for a guilty man. He flies to Michigan to investigate the original crime. He meets with ex-cop Henry Osborne (Brendan Gleeson), who was the first person to investigate the robbery. Osborne refuses to talk in front of his wife Marianne and daughter Rebecca (Brit Marling).
Donal tells Jim to see college professor Jed Lewis (Richard Jenkins). Meanwhile, Ben's investigation leads him back to Osborne. He tries to grill Osborne about his connection to Mimi's father, with whom Osborne served in Vietnam. He also flirts with Osborne's daughter Rebecca and begins to fall for her. Jim finds Jed, who refuses to help him, until Jim mentions that Mimi is his only hope of getting his daughter back. Jed uses his connections with their old radical friends to reach Mac and then Mimi, who is on a boat in the Great Lakes. Mimi hesitates but finally calls Jed, agreeing to meet with Jim. Ben discovers a photo of Osborne and Mimi's father at Linder Pond. He further finds that the property used to be owned by a company called Linder-Lurie. Ben realizes that Nick Sloan and Mimi were not directly responsible for the Bank robbery; Sharon and another associate were the only ones in the bank. If Mimi comes forward, she can alibi Jim.
Jim and Mimi meet in a secluded cabin and rekindle old passions. Jim wants Mimi to turn herself in, but she refuses, based on her political convictions. Jim tells her that life has changed; he doesn’t want to leave Izzy behind and repeat an old mistake. Mimi reveals that she saw their own daughter in Ann Arbor, and that she is a beautiful young woman now. Meanwhile, Rebecca calls Ben, telling her that Osborne has news relating to the fact that Rebecca was adopted. Ben immediately understands that she must be Mimi and Nick's daughter; based on the timing of Rebecca's birth, Jim must be innocent.
Mimi goes to run to Canada. Ben finds Jim and says that he knows the truth, but Jim says that Ben has ruined his life, and he leaves. Cornelius and Osborne catch Jim. Meanwhile, Mimi turns her boat around and returns to the U.S. She gives herself up; Jim is freed from jail and reunites with Izzy.
Storyline (2):
Widowed single father Jim Grant is a former Weather Underground militant wanted for a 1980 Michigan bank robbery and murder of a security guard. Hiding from the FBI for over thirty years, he works as a defense attorney near Albany, New York. When Sharon Solarz, another former Weather Underground member, is arrested by the FBI in 2011, ambitious reporter Ben Shepard seizes the opportunity to break a national story. Ben presses his ex-girlfriend, Diana, an FBI agent, for information about the case. She suggests he find Billy Cusimano, an old hippie friend of Sharon's. Disappointed that Jim refuses to take Sharon's case, Billy mentions this to Ben.
Ben tries to question Jim, but Jim is evasive. Spooked by the federal investigation, Jim flees with his 11-year-old daughter Isabel. Ben discovers that Mimi Lurie, a participant in the Michigan bank robbery, was last seen in Canada and that Jim had no Social Security number before 1979. He digs up Jim Grant's California death certificate. Ben concludes that Jim is really Nick Sloan, another former Weatherman, and writes an article about it, creating a sensation and accelerating the FBI's interest.
Jim and Isabel arrive in New York City and check into a hotel. The manhunt for Jim/Nick is now national news. While Isabel is sleeping, Jim hides the room key in the hotel lobby with legal papers giving his brother, Daniel Sloan, guardianship of Isabel. Daniel retrieves them and Isabel. FBI agents track Daniel to the hotel and nearly catch Jim there, but Jim creates a diversion and escapes. FBI agents spot Daniel leaving with Isabel and stop them. Sharon refuses to provide any information to the FBI but agrees to talk to Ben. Unrepentant about her radical activism in the Underground, she reveals that Nick and Mimi had a love affair long ago. Ben questions Daniel.
Jim goes to Milwaukee to see Donal, his old best friend, who discourages him from seeking Mimi but suggests he contact former SDS member, history professor Jed Lewis. Jed opposed using violence, resenting the Underground for endangering nonviolent counterparts. Learning that Jim has a young daughter, he uses his old connections to track down Mimi. Mimi imports marijuana into the U.S. as part of an operation in Big Sur, California, run by Mac McLeod, Mimi's boyfriend. Jim reaches Mac, who says that Mimi went "inland". Jim knows where she is.
Ben realizes that Jim is not acting like a guilty man. Defying his boss, he goes to Michigan to investigate the original crime. He meets retired cop Henry Osborne, the first person who investigated the robbery. Osborne refuses to talk in front of his adopted daughter Rebecca; Ben senses he is hiding something important. Ben finds that Osborne had strong connections to Mimi's family before the robbery. He learns of the Linder-Lurie company property on the Michigan upper peninsula near Canada. Osborne acknowledges that if Mimi were to come forward with information that Jim was not present at the robbery (although Jim's car was used), Jim would be cleared of all charges.
Jim meets Mimi in a secluded cabin on the Linder-Lurie property. She is still passionate about the goals of the Weathermen, but Jim argues that life has changed. He asks Mimi to turn herself in and confirm his alibi for his daughter's sake. He doesn't want to leave Isabel behind and repeat the mistake that he and Mimi made 30 years earlier by giving up their daughter. Mimi tells him their daughter is living in Ann Arbor. Ben realizes that Jim was searching for Mimi and that Rebecca is their daughter. He advises Rebecca to speak to her father.
The next morning, Mimi flees the cabin to sail to Canada just as Ben arrives. He reveals that he knows the truth about Rebecca and Osborne; Jim says that Ben must decide whether or not to keep the secret. Jim leaves the cabin so that the FBI will chase him instead of Mimi and is arrested. Rebecca learns the circumstances of her adoption. Mimi returns to give herself up. Jim is freed and reunites with Isabel. Ben decides not to expose Osborne's actions of 30 years before and to protect Rebecca's identity.
Commento critico (a cura di PATRIZIA FERRETTI)
SULLA SCACCHIERA REDFORDIANA LA 'COMPAGNIA' DI APPARTENENZA DI UN PASSATO STORICO INGOMBRANTE E PROBLEMATICO E QUELLA DI UN PRESENTE CHE TROVA MODULAZIONI DI FREQUENZA ALTRE PER COLTIVARE, AVENDONE SEMPRE MASSIMA CURA, LO STESSO IDEALE. UN CLASSICO BRANO DI 'PSICOANALISI' IN CELLULOIDE SULL'ONDA DEL GENERE 'SPY STORY' AUTORIALE, APPUNTATA SU INDIVIDUI (I PROTAGONISTI DI UN CAST STELLARE) CHE HANNO CAVALCATO UN DIFFICILE E CONTROVERSO CAPITOLO DI STORIA AMERICANA
Alle volte può essere un omicidio su commissione a mettere in fuga qualcuno - Il fuggitivo di Andrew Davis - altre può trattarsi di fantasmi del passato che tornano prepotentemente a rivendicare il conto in sospeso rimasto da pagare: Le miserables di Victor Hugo fa da apripista al The Company You Keep di e con Robert Redford. In entrambi i casi scatta la linea pilota della caccia all'uomo, ma chi conosce solo un pò Robert Redford sa che il suo cinema, dietro e davanti
e nero (aderenti ad eventi afferenti alla fine degli anni Sessanta inizi Settanta) alternati al colore (trent'anni più tardi), posti in apertura di The Company You Keep, non fanno che confermarlo ma per la verità si tratta di uno sguardo, di un tocco di stile, che Redford estende a ben più ampio spettro e che lo pone sul parallelo binario di Alan J, Pakula, in particolare con Tutti gli uomini del Presidente. Una cronaca che non si fa mancare d'altra parte tutto il glamour emotivo che le serve per dare alla complessità delle argomentazioni anche socio-politiche, mai disgiunte dalla specificità della dimensione umana altrettanto complessa e profonda, quel tocco di levità sospesa che nulla toglie alla incisività che merita il peso reale delle cose.
Così nei suoi film troveremo sempre una sceneggiatura in grado di reggere un piano edificato in cemento armato così come di planare leggera verso la meta prefissata,
richiamano dunque solo alla memoria di chi sa e ricorda o se ne tracciano i primi rudimenti per una conoscenza di base i rigurgiti di una lotta per la Causa condotta sulle sponde di poli estremisti tra gli oppositori alla guerra (l'epoca è quella che si riallaccia al Vietnam), quelli che hanno dovuto fare i conti con il loro 'deragliamenti', gravi 'errori' qui psicanalizzati tra la consapevolezza di aver sbagliato modi e misure, rimpianti, nostalgie, delusioni, autoassoluzioni o condanne, complete o parziali, da dove occhieggiano i motori di spinta, le reali intenzioni che, se non altro, aiutano a proiettare uno sguardo più o meno obiettivo, più o meno 'super partes', su un particolare capitolo di storia, su particolari percorsi di vita personale. I trascorsi di un passato che hanno ora peso e misura sottilmente differenziati per ognuno dei protagonisti ma che obbliga Grant/Sloan /Redford a tornare trent'anni più tardi sul
sentiero di una fuga non programmata.
E per le riflessioni personali a voce alta, quelle che, sia pure con riluttanza, alla fine arriveranno, Redford si garantisce la precisione di parole dirette come proiettili, quelle in grado di arrivare sicure a destinazione nei tempi calibrati al secondo. Redford è diventato ben presto un Maestro di sincronizzazione degli elementi che campeggiano la sua porzione in celluloide e nulla è per caso: se per The Company You Keep, tratto dal romanzo di Neil Gordon per l'adattamento sul grande schermo di Lem Dobbs, Robert Redford ha scelto un cast stellare come questo, potete essere certi che ognuno di loro ha un ottimo motivo per stare là . Così, oltre al tranquillo avvocato e padre single che Redford ha ritagliato per se stesso con Jim Grant, al giovane cronista determinato a far luce sul passato di quest'ultimo e a Mimi Lurie (Julie Christie), la donna indissolubilmente legata
al passato di Grant così come in grado di determinarne il futuro, oltre al nuovo compagno di Mimi Lurie Mac McLeod (Sam Elliot), al professore di storia Jed Lewis (Richard Jenkins), al leale Donal (Nick Nolte) e alla casalinga Sharon Solarz, il cui arresto mette in moto la storia (iconica Susan Sarandon nell'intervista in carcere), tra le pedine di questa novella scacchiera redfordiana, spiccano poi il fratello di Grant/Nick Sloan/Redford, Daniel Sloan (Chris Cooper), il capo della polizia in pensione Henry Osborne (Brendan Gleeson), la giovane agente dell'FBI Diana (Anna Kendrick), il caporedattore del giovane cronista Ben/Labeouf interpretato da Stanley Tucci e il veterano agente dell'FBI Cornelius (Terrence Howard), la figlia di Grant Isabel-Izzy (Jackie Evancho) e di Osborne (Brit Marling). Tutte pedine indispensabili a rendere speciale questa storia di spionaggio apparentemente come tante, in un certo qual modo, vagamente 'nostalgica' che torna attuale sull'onda lunga della storia che si
ripete ma non senza dimenticare di lasciare in eredità importanti lezioni. Se a qualcuno non fosse arrivato il messaggio trasmesso in seno all'intervista in carcere rilasciata da Sharon/Sarandon al cronista Ben/LaBeouf a seguito della sua cattura 30 anni dopo la consumazione dei fatti, dal canto suo Robert Redford sottoscrive in altro modo, tramite il suo personaggio, distinguendo tra la 'compagnia' cui apparteneva in passato e a quale ha deciso di appartenere oggi.
Secondo commento critico (a cura di LESLIE FELPERIN, www.variety.com)
"Old hippies never die, they just smell that way," bumperstickers used to say, but the dropouts largely come up smelling like roses in "The Company You Keep," Robert Redford's unabashedly heartfelt but competent tribute to 1960s idealism. Cannily casting eminent baby-boomer thesps -- including Julie Christie, who was a poster kid for the counterculture -- against young name actors like Shia LaBeouf, the pic attempts to bridge the generation gap with this story of a Weather Underground fugitive on the lam, played by Redford himself. Although more engaging than the helmer's last few films, "Company" won't spark riots at the box office.
A quick opening montage explains for the benefit of those under 40 what the Weather Underground was: a terrorist network committed to the violent overthrow of the U.S. government that broke away in the late 1960s from radical but pacifist org, Students for a Democratic Society. Skillfully faked fictional
footage woven in with real archival material recounts how several Weathermen went into hiding after killing a security guard during a bank robbery in Michigan.
In contempo upstate New York, housewife Sharon Solarz (Susan Sarandon), one of those involved in the ill-fated Michigan robbery, turns herself in to the FBI after nearly 30 years of living under a false identity. Ambitious young reporter Ben Shepard (LaBeouf) starts digging around the story, and turns up evidence that local nice-guy lawyer and recently widowed single parent Jim Grant (Redford) was also part of Solarz's cell back in the day. Old photos of Redford, sporting a Sundance Kid moustache, and Sarandon in her ingenue phase are cunningly photoshopped to make mugshots for Most Wanted posters, coyly evoking the thesps' glory days as pin-ups.
Deftly shaking off surveillance by FBI field officers (Terrence Howard, Anna Kendrick), Grant deposits his young daughter Isabel (Jacqueline Evancho)
with his brother Daniel (Chris Cooper) for safekeeping, and hits the road. His mission is to track down former g.f. Mimi (Christie), the cell's most passionate firebrand, who unlike Jim and nearly all the others never settled down and went straight. On hearing via the underground network that Jim's looking for her, she wistfully recalls to her current beau (Sam Elliott) that's she's walked away from six different lives over the years, an experience that's seemingly left her hardened and unsentimental.
While nostalgia is otherwise generally the order of the day here, it's not entirely filtered through rose-colored granny glasses, and the pic's colorful, almost-wastefully impressive cast limns a sociologically convincing rogue's gallery of reformed revolutionaries -- some turned organic farmer, like the one played by Stephen Root (refreshingly cast against usual nerdy type); or university professor (Richard Jenkins), putting Franz Fanon on the reading list; or small businessman, like
Nick Nolte's cleaned-up acid casualty. The last, a brief but memorable turn, harks pleasingly back to Nolte's blasted 'Nam vet in "Who'll Stop the Rain."
Even screenwriter Lem Dobbs, adapting Neil Gordon's novel here, has something of track record with this sort of material, having written Steven Soderbergh's "The Limey" (1999), another tale about '60s survivors haunted by its thesps' own filmographies. Like that film, all plot roads lead to a young woman whose honor must be defended, in this case Brit Marling's smart love-interest law student, who upstages LaBeouf.
"The Company You Keep" is nowhere near as formally audacious as Soderbergh's film, but in its stolid, old-fashioned way, it satisfies an appetite, especially among mature auds, for dialogue- and character-driven drama that gets into issues without getting too bogged down in verbiage (unlike Redford's recent "Lions for Lambs" or "The Conspirator").
There is something undeniably compelling, perhaps even romantic,
about America's '60s radicals and the compromises they did or didn't make, a subject underexplored in Hollywood cinema apart from honorable exceptions like Sidney Lumet's "Running on Empty" (1988) and a few others. The French, meanwhile, have almost completely monopolized radical chic nostalgia, as seen in another Venice fest entry, Olivier Assayas' "Something in the Air."
Perle di sceneggiatura
Jim Grant (ROBERT REDFORD): "I segreti sono una cosa pericolosa, Ben. Pensiamo tutti di volerli conoscere. Ma se ne hai mai avuto uno, allora saprai che significa non solo conoscere qualcosa su un’altra persona, ma anche scoprire qualcosa su noi stessi".
Bibliografia:
Nota: Si ringraziano 01 Distribution, Annarita Peritore e lo Studio Sottocorno
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