STREAMING CINEMA
Ulrich Köhler’s Beginnings
Grasshopper Film streams 2002 debut of German director
BY STEVE ERICKSON
The closing of movie theaters under
COVID lockdown has forced us to look
to the past. A steady stream of fi lms
made before the pandemic are still
premiering on streaming services and VOD,
but eventually that will stop. Judging from the
viewing patterns I’ve observed on Letterboxd,
a website where people list, rate, and write reviews
of movies, the protests inspired by George
Floyd’s death have ticked off a great interest in
fi lms by and about African Americans.
Americans’ viewing patterns used to be guided
by the fl ow of Hollywood releases. The media
took their cues from it. Usually, one “important”
fi lm took up almost all the oxygen, and it was
➤ BUNGALOW, continued on p.29
Bill and Turner Ross: Closing Time
The end of Vegas’ Roaring 20s, America, and the movies
BY STEVE ERICKSON
Bill and Turner Ross’
“Bloody Nose, Empty
Pockets” portrays a special
going-out-of-business
sale: an extended bender on
the last night of a Las Vegas dive
called Roaring 20s. The reference
in the bar’s name to Raoul Walsh’s
1939 gangster fi lm cues us in on
the bar’s old-fashioned nature.
(While it’s a real establishment
using that name, “Bloody Nose,
Empty Pockets” was actually shot
in New Orleans.) With this fi lm,
the Ross brothers take a step toward
the improvised fi ctions with
non-professional actors that Jean
Rouch made in France and Africa
in the ‘60s. A range of infl uences
are at play here: John Cassavetes,
Charles Bukowski, Eugene O’Neill’s
play “The Iceman Cometh,” even
the sitcom “Cheers.”
“Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets”
assembled a cast that’s diverse in
age, gender, race, and other backgrounds.
It begins in the morning
of the Roaring 20s’ fi nal day, as
Lennie Burmeister, Trine Dyrholm, and David Strieso in Ulrich Köhler’s 2002 debut feature fi lm “Bungalow.”
It’s closing night at the Roaring 20s in Bill and Turner Ross’ “Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets,” which begins
streaming on July 10 through Film at Lincoln Center Virtual Cinema.
the bartenders talk casually with a
few regulars. As the day turns into
night, the bar gets increasingly
crowded. The cast really got drunk
over a three-day shoot, which centered
on an 18-hour simulation of
the bar’s rush into oblivion. Lighting
enhances the claustrophobia,
UTOPIA
as most of the fi lm takes place under
an artifi cial glow. A brief montage
of security-cam footage is a
refreshing break.
Directors as different as Cassavetes
and Hong Sang-soo have
used alcohol — especially when
consumed in the quantities that
GRASSHOPPER FILM
these characters do — as a truth
serum. The Weeknd, who turns
up on this fi lm’s soundtrack, sang
“When I’m fucked up, that’s the
real me.” But there’s no danger
or chaos in “Bloody Nose, Empty
Pockets.” The fi lm creates its own
drift, as the handheld camera’s focus
shifts from one person to another,
or even takes in the bar’s TV.
But it keeps returning carefully to
a set of themes. (Could it possibly
be a coincidence that the TV’s
showing a movie about the sinking
of the Titanic?)
“Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets”
is quite conscious of hitting its
marks, like an actor improvising
their movements before returning
to a chalk outline on the set. The
fi lm goes back and forth between
the freedom of its camera movements
and performances and its
unmistakable air of contrivance,
never resolving these contradictions.
So what are this fi lm’s major preoccupations?
It keeps bringing up
➤ ROARING 20S, continued on p.35
July 16 - July 29, 2 28 020 | GayCityNews.com
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