Diane and Short Takes on The Invisibles

Moody “Mother Teresa” and the Meticulous Miracle-Workers

(not the name of a long-lost ‘60s psychedelic band … I hope)

Reviews by Ken Burke

                 

                                  Diane (Kent Jones)   Unrated

“Executive Summary” (no spoilers): Diane is an aging-but-still-middle-aged-woman who gives of herself so constantly to her drug-addict son, her dying cousin, the needy at the soup kitchen where she volunteers she has little conception of her own needs except she frequently lashes out in anger at those whose actions frustrate her or don’t live up to her self-imposed-standards of human responses.  As simple as that sounds, it’s the effective basis of an understated-yet-resonantly-emotional-film probing deeply, effectively into the human condition, but to get into the most impactful plot details in this exploration of extended-family-dynamics in a cold (we see snow much of the time; Diane's mood's pretty frosty also) New England setting would be violating my no spoilers pledge for this section of the posting, so either read on below at your own narrative peril or seek out this subtly-powerful-film if you can find it in its current limited-release-collection of theaters.  Even if Mary Kay Place, in the titular role, doesn’t land a Best Actress Oscar nomination in 2020 (those voters tend to have faulty memories where previous-spring-releases are concerned, except for anomalies such as Annie Hall [Woody Allen, 1977], Fargo [Ethan and Joel Coen, 1996], Get Out [Jordan Peele, 2017; review in our May 11, 2017 posting]) she certainly gives us reason here to believe she deserves such, so at the very least put this title on a video queue for later watching of a worthwhile approach to cinematic-fiction-drawn-from-life-observation by a director well-versed in the world of various human activities due to many years of making documentaries, functioning as a film critic, plus deciding if "you're in, you're out" as a NY Film Festival programmer.

Here’s the trailer:  (Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge it; activate that same button on the full screen’s lower right or your “esc” keyboard key to return to normal size.)

If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but as this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film—or want to save some bucks—to help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters like this: 

⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.

What Happens: Diane (Mary Kay Place), who's pushing the boundaries of middle age in her unnamed (to my awareness) Massachusetts town (the state wasn’t obvious either, but there were clues to figure it out), is constantly concerned about her drug-addict (seems to need another dose of intervention) son, Brian (Jack Lacy); her cousin, Donna (Deirdre O’Connell), dying in the hospital from pancreatic cancer; the clients at her local soup kitchen where she volunteers with close friend Bobbie (Andrea Martin), telling off another helper who’s trying to be too tight-fisted with the free food, even as Bobbie tries to convince Diane she needs to disengage a bit from all this trauma, find some peace for herself.  Instead, she’s further busy fixing food for friend Carol Rymanowski (Marcia Haufrecht) whose husband, Al (Ray Iannicelli), has a bum hip; doing laundry for Brian because he’s barely doing anything to care for himself despite having gone through rehab; butting heads a bit with her mother, Mary (Estelle Parsons), over the same basic concerns Bonnie has for Diane, especially the endless, frustrated energy and worry she pours into Brian who seems to treat all of her involvement in his life as just another excuse to fire up some anger toward her (with druggie-girlfriend Carla [Gabriella Rhodeen] often hovering in the background).  There are nice slow-motion-shots of Mom and son in his messy dwelling, visually reinforcing the haze his perceptions have to navigate, including his oddball proclamation at one point he wants to give birth (I had a roommate at a summer academic conference once who had the same obsession as he was in the midst of a psychotic breakdown that week—you can imagine the kind of off-the-wall-conversations we had in the evenings before the event organizers brought in some help for him—so I initially thought Brian’s problems might be more in realm of brain-imbalance-psychosis than drugs, but I suppose that all blends together at some point anyway).  About the only relief we get in the early scenes is what seems to be a usual gathering of Diane’s extended family in somebody’s kitchen when Mary tells the story (for the umpteenth time, according to Diane) about how an encyclopedia salesman came to her door years ago peddling his product; she told him he could come inside and wait for her husband to get home, but after a few hours of no-show he finally asked when the man might return, to which Mary replied (something like) “Well, he’s been gone for 7 years, but you just never know!”

 After this lengthy set-up (usefully-thorough, not tedious; the entire film’s only 95 min. but seems considerably longer, meant as a compliment because we become psychologically invested so we’re more emotionally drawn in, assuming we’ve encountered even more than we actually have), the plot’s middle events continue in similar directions: Diane’s frequently visiting Donna in the hospital; Bonnie’s still trying to convince Diane to chill out (which she does one night in a local bar, drinking margaritas, dancing by herself to favorite jukebox tunes, finally being so out of it she has to call some of those relatives to come take her to one of their homes so she can sleep it off on the couch); Brian’s uncooperative but then disappears completely driving Diane further to the brink of insanity as she’s a constant mix of tension and exhaustion yet continues to push forward in these same routines, making it feel more like self-imposed-penance than a true willingness to share herself with others for a mutual sense of satisfaction.  One visual constant through all of this is the use of numerous point-of-view-shots from Diane’s perspective looking through her windshield as she drives all over the area (along with a few views looking directly at her) to interact with those people I’ve mentioned plus many others not necessary to enumerate (without being sarcastic, after seeing all of this traveling-documentation I had a good sense I could easily find my way around this place—wherever it is—if I suddenly get transported to it).  Despite the spatial clarity of this story, though, the temporal progression’s not as clear as it may initially seem to be as we move through time fairly rapidly, the constant snow on the ground tricking us into thinking we’re still in the opening Christmas season when in fact we’re now closer to Easter.  Then events really start to interact, possibly throwing us off as to what’s the primary focus of the plot as Diane and Donna bicker in the hospital room (seems Diane stole a boyfriend from her years ago); Donna dies but Diane can’t stay with the family to mourn because Brian calls, wants to meet her at a diner to explain how he had to go off by himself to run his own type of rehab; later, Diane’s last aunt, Ina (Phyllis Somerville), dies, but the funeral we’re attending shockingly turns out to be for Bobbie.  Next, we find Diane at a Pentecostal service where she’s just observing the various Holy Spirit “visitations” around her, then she’s having dinner with newly-religious-Brian (along with his wife [!], Diana [Mary Fuller], and their friend) where Brian’s trying to convince Mom to join their congregation (whatever it is), leading to another angry-family-dispute, this one initiated by Diane, spilling out her pent-up-anger over all she denied herself in favor of caretaking her wayward son, calling him "selfish" before she storms away.

 ⇒Time continues to move on in a rapid fashion as Diane seems to be even further isolated from (or now not able to be with) those whom she cared about, even Tom (Charles Weldon) at the soup kitchen who helps mop up something she spilled, drawing an angry rebuke from Diane to which he replies with a story about how an aunt of his wrapped herself in shame, stifling her life, so we’re maybe not as surprised as we might have been earlier to see a guy in Diane’s home shooting her up with heroin, leading to a montage of rapidly-seen/seemingly-random hallucinations.  Some further time later (hard to tell at this point), Brian comes to visit one night, indicates everything’s not so rosy with his wife, apologizes for his past actions, with the conversation allowing us to realize Diane continues to carry guilt for the affair she had years ago with a guy named Jess (she still thinks about him in journal entries she’s started to make for herself, trying to understand her needs in the process) which apparently broke up her marriage, leaving Brian angry at her for years.  As events continue to roll along at an even quicker pace (mirroring how time seems to fly by more rapidly the older we get—true, at least in my case and late-60s-to-mid-70s-friends of mine) we observe Mary having problems with dementia, then dying, Diane noticeably older, with an abrupt ending to all that’s gone before.  (Leaving us with a sense of suddenly jumping years ahead from most of what we’ve previously seen, like at the end of The Godfather Part III [Francis Ford Coppola, 1990] when, after Michael Corleone [Al Pacino] suffers his life’s most excruciating horror as daughter Mary [Sofia Coppola] is gunned down in an assassination attempt on him, the scene shifts forward to where elderly Michael [still in Sicily, the land of his ancestors] just falls over dead one day from old age.)⇐

So What? After trying to be more inclusive of big-ticket-movies in recent postings, I’m back in the land of esoterica this week because the elusive-cinematic-butterflies I was lucky enough to be able to see/review for you were so much more attractive to me than hefty-box-office-options such as Little (Tina Gordon Chism; $18.5 million worldwide in its debut weekend) or Hellboy [2019] (Neil Marshall; $12 million domestically [U.S.-Canada] for its debut).  In the case of The Invisibles (see review below), that film itself turned out to be almost invisible itself given how few theaters it’s still being screened in while Diane, after 3 weeks in release, isn’t doing much better, currently playing in only 61 domestic venues, accounting for a miserly $185.4 thousand in gross sales during that time despite extremely solid critical support (Rotten Tomatoes has 93% positive reviews; Metacritic’s average score is 87%, the highest result of anything both they and I have reviewed so far of 2019 releases; more details on these sites can be found below in Related Links), with Mary Kay Place’s performance getting accolades that could be Oscar-nomination-worthy if Academy voters can strain their memories back to April when they start filling out ballots months from now (she’s in every scene, practically in every shot, so she should certainly be commended for carrying the film although she does get fine support from the rest of the cast, especially Lacy, Martin, and Parsons).  There’s nothing you’d call innovative, revelatory, or ingenious here, just a deep probe into the life of the sort of person we’d likely never even be aware of unless she's related to us or we had occasion to encounter her in some sort of group setting (such as the soup kitchen or church services—I’m still puzzled she’d be drawn to, much less satisfied with, the Pentecostalist “inhabitations by the Holy Spirit," given the rather hard-edged/no-nonsense approach she has to the rest of her life, but that just goes to show the complexity of this person whom we can’t fully know from our outside observations, just as no one is transparent from their public life and actions as there’s always much more beneath the surface which may never be revealed except to a chosen few, if at all).  My “maiden” aunt (who may have been lesbian based on some clues I picked up—whether she or anyone else ever knew it, not that it mattered, except possibly depriving her of a fuller life) was much like this, giving over most of her years to the care of her parents until they died, serving as a dedicated worker (for no compensation, I’ll wager) for her local church, having very little life for herself beyond being a political news junkie, collecting little ceramic dogs, keeping an upbeat disposition about as much of what went on around her as possible, then dying as the result of a stroke.  Diane had much more to address in her self-constructed-complex-life, but I recognized that private sense of unfulfilled-accomplishment (even though my aunt had a prestigious job within Texas state government) in this fictional protagonist, brought vividly to life by a marvelous Mary Kay.

Bottom Line Final Comments: Diane slowly grows on you (even when you’d like to shake the protagonist by the shoulders, join Bobbie in telling her to lighten up, find some resonant happiness in her own life instead of giving every waking hour, every ounce of energy to someone else, even those resisting her efforts while accepting her material contributions), helping you see this character has dark wounds in her past that could be the impetus for her around-the-clock-humanitarianism, still trying years later to purge herself of demons of her younger days (reasonable human failings none of us should have to agonize over, although how easy is it for any of us to fully purge those memories of long-ago-mistakes that felt so seductive back when we might have been overcome by inexperience, raging hormones, or indecision based on barely-understood-but-still-conflicting-values) continuing to take their toll on her and Brian, with his own deep-rooted-problems only exacerbating Diane’s nagging guilt which she often transposes into anger, shifting her internal blame onto others, providing some sense of psychic relief.  Still, Diane’s not constructed like an emotional sledgehammer, as you’d find in any number of Ingmar Bergman classics (or even Woody Allen’s serious films which often attempt to channel those internal modes of crisis so well explored in Bergman’s Persona [1966] or Allen’s Blue Jasmine [2013; review in our August 16, 2013 posting], representing marvelous examples of this type of inner-exploration from both elder-master and later-emerged-master); rather, it’s an incrementally-expanding-understanding of all the attempts, the difficulties, the impact of the difficulties upon the attempts of finding acceptable stability in one’s life, a culture-wide-aspiration which often eludes even those of us who think we’ve found strategies to handle the chaos within/around us, only to find challenges yet to be overcome.  Thus, I arrive at my usual wrap-up-tactic for a review, a Musical Metaphor to give us a final sense of consideration about what’s gone before; regarding Diane that choice would reasonably seem to be Paul Simon’s “Slip Slidin’ Away” (from his 1977 Greatest Hits, Etc. album) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC-ZaUDUiwc (a 2012 live performance, more bluesy than the original recording), which came to me easily when I remembered lyrics like these: “And I know a woman Became a wife These are the very words she uses to describe her life She said ‘A good day Ain’t got no end’ She said ‘A bad day’s when I lie in bed And think of things that might have been’ […] Believe we’re gliding down the highway When in fact we’re slip slidin’ away […] You know the nearer your destination The more you’re slip slidin’ away.”  The people Diane interacts actively with believe their lives are (at least in the process of coming) under control, but sometimes that’s more an illusion than we care to admit.

                

(still slip slidin’ toward true command of) SHORT TAKES 

(please note that spoilers also appear here)

                  

               The Invisibles (Claus Räfle, 2017)   Unrated

This is a fascinating documentary approach exploring the largely-unknown-attempt of some 7,000 Jews to remain hidden in Berlin during the WW II years rather than be sent to the concentration camps, focused on 4 of the roughly 1,500 survivors with their testimony from a few years ago illustrated by re-created footage as actors demonstrate the daily perils they all faced.

Here’s the trailer:

      Before reading any further, I’ll ask you to refer to the plot spoilers warning far above.

 At various times in the recent past I’ve voiced some snarky comments about the film industry’s ongoing trend of offering us a lot of product “based on fact,” wondering whether this is dictated more by audience-conditioning through the glut of cable-news/“reality” TV filling our daily air/cable-waves or by difficulties of screenwriters able to come up with enough intriguing original ideas (a glut of sequels and remakes also connect to this latter consideration).  However, as noted in my review of Green Book (Peter Farrelly, 2018; review in our November 29, 2018 posting; another note about this film farther below), I’m open to well-made-examples of such historically-grounded-narratives when they help me fill in my own gaps about something I’ve known little—or nothing—about.  The Invisibles is one such experience providing useful insight into the reality of 7,000 Jews hiding in Berlin 1941-1945, attempting to prevent deportation to the concentration camps first through such tactics as securing jobs in vital war-related industries (as seen in Schindler's List [Steven Spielberg, 1994], although set in Poland, not Berlin), soon thereafter using other strategies: falsified passports, living clandestinely in unknown places (the tactic made most famous by The Diary of Anne Frank [actual writings of this girl about her family’s lengthy hiding in Amsterdam, adapted into a play {Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, 1955}, then into a film {George Stevens, 1959}]), finding sympathizers unsupportive of Nazi policies, or even changing appearances to look more Aryan.  The Invisibles focuses on 4 of those roughly 1,500 survivors of this dangerous strategy, using interviews shot in 2009 of elderly Cioma Schönhaus, Hanni Lévy, Eugen Friede, and Ruth Arndt combined with a lot of dramatized footage of what they endured using actors (Cioma—Max Mauff, Hanni—Alice Dwyer, Eugen—Aaron Altaras, Ruth—Ruby O. Fee), along with fleeting documentary footage of general scenes of the times (city streets, etc.), to give as complete a picture as possible of this generally-little-known-situation.  However, while The Invisibles is an impactful revelation for me, reviewers as a whole—as I’ve recently taken to calling them, the Often Cranky Critics Universe—aren’t so impressed (RT offers 69% positive reviews, MC an average score of 60%; more details in Related Links), this comment from Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times being typical: “What results is neither fish nor fowl, but a disappointingly stilted hybrid that gathers momentum only to hit one roadblock after another. No sooner are we gripped by a character’s imminent capture than the action is paused for commentary.”   Nevertheless, Gary Goldstein of the Los Angeles Times has a response akin to my own: “More than 70 years after the Holocaust, there remain many uncommon or under-told stories of the era to be shared on film — and the docudrama 'The Invisibles' is the latest example. Although this movie’s unusual mix of first-person interviews, archival footage, voiceover narration and dramatic reenactments is a bit awkward, it still makes for a gripping, involving and affecting experience.”  (Maybe it’s just West Coast-critics-affinity, though.)

 Räfle’s use of this extensive re-enactment-process might seem somewhat reminiscent of Warren Beatty’s approach in Reds (1981)—one of those uncommon situations where an actor turns helmsman, then wins a Best Director Oscar—except Beatty’s inserted interviews with various people ("witnesses") from the era of the 1917 Russian Revolution were coupled with historical fictionalizations of events from that time whereas scenes in The Invisibles (at least purport to) simply recreate actualities that couldn’t have been put on film in the times and places where they occurred.  While these events about our 4 principals (who [I think] didn’t know each other prior to the war nor interact much while attempting to stay under the radar in this sprawling metropolis, incorrectly claimed by the Nazi propaganda machine in June, 1943 to have been fully cleared of its former Jewish population) are all based on the similar need to “hide in plain sight” rather than be incarcerated (with little knowledge at the time of what their ultimate fates were intended to be), going into too much detail about their individual circumstances would just get unnecessarily lengthy so to summarize the strategies employed by them I’ll just note Cioma worked quietly with Franz Kaufman (Robert Hunger-Bühler) to forge passports/other documentation papers helping others conceal their true identities; Hanni changed her name, died her hair blonde, spent many days in movie theaters covered by the darkness, often walked the near-empty-streets at night to avoid chance encounters with anyone who might know her; Eugen took refuge with a German communist family, often wearing their son’s military uniform when he needed to be out in public; Ruth and a close friend pretended to be war widows, then were hired as servants by a Nazi officer (whom the director—in his interview in the second listing for this film in the Related Links section below—says knew these young women were Jews but needed maids for his household, couldn’t find appropriate Germans for the job, so he went along with their ruse).  Part of Cioma’s story also showed us a strategy males could use, claiming to be soldiers about to be called up so they needed a room for only a night or 2, shifting locations frequently before they could be properly registered into the telltale-tracking-system of practically everyone in Berlin.  But even that scam had a reverse effect on Eugen’s first hidden-community, as they were ousted from their safe house (from which they had dared not emerge, like Julian Assange in London’s Ecuadorian Embassy—until his recent removal) when Gentile Germans needed new lodgings after bombing raids damaged their previous dwellings.

 A more-insidious kind of removal could occur at any moment if any of these intra-city-refugees was identified by other Jews working as informers for the Gestapo, such as Stella Goldschlag (Laila Maria Witt) who does briefly encounter a couple of our protagonists whom she knows but they just keep walking as if they’re never seen her before (in Stella’s semi-defense, these people were forced into those heinous roles in self-preservation to keep themselves and/or their families from being shipped off to the camps).  While there’s little truly functioning as spoilers here that I could mention, I will note ⇒Cioma was actually captured toward the end of the war but was suddenly released, possibly due to the immanent fall of Berlin to the Allies (although those being held with him weren’t also sent out into the streets, so I’m not sure how he was so fortunate because his whole group could have just been shot on the spot).⇐  Well, that’s about all I can say regarding The Invisibles except I’m fortunate to have seen it at all given that after 12 weeks in release it’s now down to 10 domestic theaters, having taken in a scant $388.5 thousand in ticket sales.  If you’re interested in finding it I’m sure some form of video will likely be your only hope (assuming you’re OK either with German dialogue or reading subtitles), but to help pass the time while doing your search I’ll offer you the Musical Metaphor of “You Don’t Know Me” (title and concept suggested by Eddie Arnold, written by Cindy Walker in 1955), recorded by many, most successfully by Ray Charles (on his 1962 Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music album) presented here at https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=SeD5lGIOs8s, a live performance.  As with many of my Metaphors the song's original concept is about romance—in this case, unrequited love—but it still has some lyrics (and overall attitude) appropriate for this doc: “You give your hand to me And then you say ‘Hello’ And I can hardly speak My heart is beating so And anyone can tell You think you know me well Well, you don’t know me.”  However, given there are so many versions of this song to explore (along with there being 4 main protagonists in The Invisibles) I’ll give you 3 more—providing 1 each for our primary male and female character—sung so well by Willie Nelson, Nora Jones, and Cindy Walker herself.

 In regard to Musical Metaphors, though, I can’t help thinking of Joni Mitchell’s "California" (on her 1971 Blue album) due to its opening lines of “Sitting in a park in Paris, France Reading the news and it sure looks bad” (I also relate to the “coming home” aspect, even if I—like Joni—wasn’t born in the Golden State); of course, she was talking about anti-Vietnam War protests in the U.S. back then while my reference is to the current tragedy in Paris (ironically, in Holy Week leading up to Easter Sunday) of the conflagration gutting large areas of famed Notre Dame Cathedral, a major cultural icon now badly damaged after having survived various debasements including the furies of the French Revolution, 2 World Wars.  I’m fortunate to have seen it whole back in 2010; hopefully, its restoration will serve as a healing act in a country now suffering from several areas of internal strife.  Further, in regard to a mention in my last posting concerning negative comparisons made about The Best of Enemies (Robin Bissell) and Green Book in terms of both these films focusing on the White perspective in their depictions of Black and White protagonists, I offered my personal response concerning what’s shown in … Enemies (dismissed by the OCCU even more so than The Invisibles); likewise, here’s a documented response contradicting some of the primary complaints against Green Book (noted in my earlier review), for your consideration if interested.  I bring this up only because, like with the tragic damage to Norte Dame, it reminds me how we can never assume anything (or anyone) we love (or hate), admire, think we understand, or have become comfortable with will necessarily endure because either fate, expanded knowledge, or shifting attitudes can always upend those comfort zones so we just have to be prepared to go with the flow, choppy as it may be (even when our beloved sports teams—such as my Golden State Warriors basketballers—suffer an unexpected, historic loss [After being ahead by 31 points!  I guess if you’re gonna crash you might as well make it loud.] to a supposedly-inferior-team, the Los Angeles Clippers, in the ongoing NBA playoffs, while losing an All-Star, DeMarcus Cousins, to a leg injury, but, as with Notre Dame, at least nobody’s dead), to regroup, rethink, rebuild if possible, just like those brave survivors in The Invisibles.  If rebooting’s not an option (remember, about 5,500 of those clandestine Jews didn’t make it to the end of WW II), then all we can do is accept the power of the inevitable, find some alternative to what can never be again, take whatever solace there may be in the remains around us as we search for new paths to stability.  As Neil Young might say (from his "My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)," [on the 1979 Rust Never Sleeps album]) to Diane, Cioma, Hanni, Eugen, and Ruth: “There’s more to the picture than meets the eye […] It’s better to burn out than to fade away.”  So, keep your own flames active—in a constructive manner, of course—until next we meet.

         

Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:

            

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Here’s more information about Diane:

http://www.ifcfilms.com/films/diane

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jZRgJ5PKhw (37:13 interview with writer-director Kent Jones and actor Jake Lacy [begins with the film’s trailer from the above review]) and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oe2jvnewvZ8 (2:03 interview with actor Mary Kay Place [also uses a good bit of that trailer—this is pretty flimsy but it’s about all I could find with her commenting on her role except for this lengthy podcast {24:33} with Mark Thompson, a talk show host now also with KGO AM radio in my local San Francisco area])

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/diane_2019

https://www.metacritic.com/movie/diane

Here’s more information about The Invisibles:

http://greenwichentertainment.com/film/the-invisibles/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gePK7AWkhPQ (22:15 interview with director Claus Räfle [audio quality's not that great])

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_invisibles_2019

https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-invisibles

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https://kenburke.academia.edu, which could really give you something to talk to me about.)

By the way, if you’re ever at The Hotel California knock on my door—but you know what the check out policy is so be prepared to stay for awhile. Ken

P.S.  Just to show that I haven’t fully flushed Texas out of my system here’s an alternative destination for you, Home in a Texas Bar, with Gary P. Nunn and Jerry Jeff Walker.  But wherever the rest of my body may be my heart’s always with my longtime-companion, lover, and wife, Nina Kindblad, so here’s our favorite shared song—Neil Young’s "Harvest Moon"

—from the performance we saw at the Desert Trip concerts in Indio, CA on October 15, 2016 (as a full moon was rising over the stadium) because “I’m still in love with you,” my dearest, a never-changing-reality even as the moon waxes and wanes over the months/years to come.

           

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