Malkovich as auteur speaking with his actors.
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Having reveled in John Malkovich’s splendid turn as a deranged former covert operative in director John Schwentke’s recent black comedy/action film Red, I was reminded of the actor’s directorial debut, 2002’s excellent The Dancer Upstairs.
Starring Javier Bardem and Laura Morante, the film features a love affair that unfolds amid political unrest and terrorist agitation in a fictive unnamed Latin American country resembling the Maoist insurgency of 1980s Peru.
The political overtones and unnerving violence enrich the heady human drama between Bardem’s Detective Agustin Rejas and Morante’s ballet teacher-cum-activist, Yolanda. Jose Luis Alcaine’s lush cinematography is juxtaposed by scenes of nobly motivated episodes of extreme bloodshed. All in all, it’s an underappreciated gem of a film that ought to have launched Malkovich as a serious auteur in his own right.
So few moviegoers took in this alternately lovely and disturbing picture that it has virtually disappeared from the annals of popular cinematic history. This is a shame, and anyone in the market for an elegiac and arresting drama would do well to seek it out and give it a shot.
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