Series these magnificent flops: “Twilight”, or the discreet charm of geriatrics

The summer series These magnificent flops revisit films of great filmmakers who, unlike turnips that have deserved their fate, were unjustly shunned.

In out of scope, a private detective begins the narration of a story which will prove rich in revelations and betrayals, with Los Angeles for the backdrop. We are in the middle of a black film. Except that the action did not take place in the years 1940-1950, but in 1998. What is more, Harry Ross, the “private” in question, is a septuagenarian who saw Neiger, as long as there is snow. Close to Jack and Catherine Ames, two former film stars, Harry is used to paying for them various little hassles. For example: flush out a singer master. Failure when it was released, Twilight (The magic hour) features Paul Newman, Gene Hackman and Susan Sarandon, all at the top of their art.

On the surface, the frame seems to be governed by all the codes and diktats of the traditional film Black. With the fundamental difference that the protagonists are significantly older than in a classic black. In this, Twilight is a bit of a geriatric rereading of the venerable genre.

Returning to the prologue during which the daughter of the Ames, Mel (Reese Witherspoon), draws unwittingly on Harry (Paul Newman; 1925-2008), Walter Shaw writes in a test written for films: “For his efforts, Harry receives a bullet in the thigh, that rumor among his ex-police officers transforms into a tragic loss of her penis. The idea that his friends think that Harry was castrated is a recurring joke, but there is something poignant in a joke on one of the most beautiful tombers in Hollywood, Paul Newman, emasculated in his old age. You could even say that Twilight specifically deals with this change in perception. No one is immune to aging, the loss of its utility and an endlessness in more immediate memories than the reality of the prison that has become its body. »»

You have to see Verna (Stégard Channing), an ex-flame and ex-college, trying without embarrassment Harry’s crotch in order to verify that said rumor is false. Verna, which corresponds to another archetype of the film Noir, is the “good girl”, antithesis of the femme fatale that represents Catherine (Susan Sarandon). Except that here, there is subversion, since Verna is not an ingenuous, but a tough cop full of bagout.

Moreover, to an empty -enjoyed intrigue, like obliges, is added a more melancholic than erotic “lover”. Indeed, we immediately understand that Harry, who lives above the garage of the souls, is secretly in love with Catherine, a character benefiting from a memorable entry into the scene.

While he is about to join Jack (Gene Hackman; 1930-2025), who dies from cancer upstairs of his villa, Harry goes through the swimming pool where Catherine bathes naked. When it comes out of the water and challenges it, Harry blushes and looks away. And Catherine to ask her if she saw her in such a film, and in such a film. After she agreed, Catherine concludes: “Harry, you have already seen everything there is to see. »»

In addition to the underlying humor, this scene establishes that Catherine is the only one capable of making her means lose her means of Harry. Above all, this passage signals a ludism, a “meta” side: this film feeds on cinema.

All -round intertextuality

Co -written by Richard Russo, winner of the pulitzer for his novel Empire Fallsand Robert Benton (1932-2025), screenwriter Bonnie and Clyde and screenwriter-director winner of three Oscar for Kramer vs Kramer (Kramer against Kramer) et Places in the Heart (The seasons of the heart), Twilight Go beyond the simple style exercise.

First, Paul Newman’s presence in the role of Harry Ross is in herself connoted. That is to say that she carries in her cinephilic wake the memory of another marking detective played by the star. “” Twilight presents itself as a detective film, and Newman is no stranger to the genre. He held the spotlight in two Lew Harper films: Harper [Détective privé ; 1966] and a suite, The Drowning Pool [La toile d’araignée ; 1975]both adapted from Ross Macdonald’s novels. […] Seen from a certain angle, the private unleashed of Twilight could be a furtive continuation of the character of Harper, “notes Walter Shaw in his test.

In an interview from 1998 to Venice MagazineBenton claims this intertextuality, noting that Twilight Also has many points in common with the film that Newman and shot him just before: Nobody’s Fool (An almost perfect man ; 1994).

“Harry received a ball in his leg, Sully Boite. In each film, the protagonist is in love with his friend’s wife. I think what led me to Twilightit is by aging, I started to think a lot about love and affection. It is very different from what I thought, infinitely more complex and more omnipresent. Love is not something that happens. Love is simply there, like air. Sometimes we pay attention to it, sometimes not. […] In this film, it is a question of a powerful feeling of affection that comes and goes between these people. This film also talks about the dangerousness of love. It’s a – and I hate use this pretentious word – meditation On love. The film also deals with the need to find its right place in the world. Harry found a home, but it’s not at home. »»

A few farewells

In fact, Harry may live in the souls, he is not part of the family. What Mel brings him, first with cruelty, then with a touching note of resignation: “What you do not understand, Harry is that Catherine and Jack live for each other. It is as if they held the first roles in the film of their life. You are only one figurative. Me too. »»

Precisely, Harry will eventually “understand” that Catherine and Jack are constantly representing and served her from the start, yes, a staging.

In this regard, Shaw continues in his essay: “Harry does not think that at his age, he can feel worse, neither compared to himself nor compared to the world. But the lesson that Twilight Teaches us is that it is wrong: you can always feel more bad. Knowledge, as in so many neonoirs, is the supreme monster. »»

Thus, as soon as Harry understands that he was used, manipulated, in particular through his Achilles heel, his old romantic background, he has no choice but to leave Jack and, above all, Catherine. This gives rise to two superb farewell scenes, where the mastery of Russo and Benton in terms of dialogue is at its height.

The realization of Benton is not to be outdone. Slow, measured camera movements, often using elements of vertical decorations that conceal or reveal someone or something, are in tune with a hero with an always sharp mind, but who no longer has his reflexes of yesteryear.

A more mature look

In an interview produced by print films, the editor of TwilightCarol Littleton (Body Heat / Fever to the body), note: “I think Robert saw this film as a farewell: a farewell not only to these characters, but also to these actors. It was also a more mature look at the film Noir. I find that Twilight has qualities not only interesting, but very moving. »»

It’s very fair, and even more true in the light of the recent deaths of Benton and Hackman.

Often, during the film, we think of the adage “So youth knew, so old age could”. In Twilightnot only Harry “knows”, but he “can” again. Less than in the past, and probably more for a very long time, but that’s already it. Not to mention that, again in a subversion of the clichés of the black, the protagonist is not condemned to a fatal spell during the outcome. So Harry goes to the sunset with Verna. In their turn to hold, for the time that the magic hour will last, the first roles of the film of their life.

The film Twilight is available in VSD on most platforms

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