Diane

Diane, starring Mary Kay Place.

Director: Kent Jones
Country: USA
Year: 2018
Duration: 1.35
Languages: English / no subtitles
Category: Gems of New Cinema, Kent Jones
    In the presence of Kent Jones and Carisa Kelly hosted by Milja Mikkola.
    DCP viewed at Midnight Sun Film Festival (MSFF), Lapinsuu, Sodankylä, 14 June 2019.

IFC Films: "For Diane (Mary Kay Place), everyone else comes first. Generous but with little patience for self-pity, she spends her days checking in on sick friends, volunteering at her local soup kitchen, and trying valiantly to save her troubled, drug-addicted adult son (Jake Lacy) from himself. But beneath her relentless routine of self-sacrifice, Diane is fighting a desperate internal battle, haunted by a past she can’t forget and which threatens to tear her increasingly chaotic world apart. Built around an extraordinary, fearless performance from Mary Kay Place, the narrative debut from Kent Jones is a profound, beautifully human portrait of a woman rifling through the wreckage of her life in search of redemption."

Timo Malmi (MSFF): "The term ”adult film” fits perfectly with Kent Jones’s fictional directorial debut: Diane represents mature and honest storytelling about aging people and their way of living on the countryside, in today’s west Massachusetts in the U.S. East Coast."

"”They don’t make these kinds anymore” – these people who are dealing with every day real problems – but the tone in the film isn’t miserable and grey but rather warm, even humouristic under the surface. Diane is a film about women. Mary Kay Place is playing Diane, a woman in her 70s, a widower who is close to her actual age. Diane’s days go by taking care of others; be it her aunt Ina or Ina’s aggressive mother Mary, her best friend Bobbie or her dying but still sane cousin Donna – or her unemployed, drug addict son Brian. Or the poor at the soup kitchen."

"Solidarity can be found among friends and relatives, but the ultimate question is if Diane can become the subject of her own life. The feel of autumn and early winter builds up in the few week time span, while the episodes of driving a car with versatile music in the background set a pace to the ongoing events. Gradually Diane’s secret from the past starts to reveal itself, which perhaps gives her some peace in the rather puzzling ending." (TM)

AA: Kent Jones's fiction feature debut film is a soshimin-eiga, a tender meditation on old age and death as faced by the retired widow Diane.

In the beginning the film seems quite ordinary, bordering on the naturalistic. But although Diane is an anti-drama, there are fundamental turning-points that completely change our perception of the characters and their lives.

Like in Paul Schrader's First Reformed, religion is central. Diane's son Brian is so deeply addicted to drugs that Diane (and we) expect a terminal turn. Instead, Brian is saved thanks to a religious conversion. Brian has been protesting against Diane's attemps to get him back to rehab. Now it's Brian's turn to hector at Diane, aggressively trying to convert her to his fanatic line of faith. His is no religion of love; instead, his stance is not far from hate.

Diane is not a fanatic. She is religious in an unobtrusive but profoundly committed way. She expresses faith in action, via good deeds for everybody in her family, among friends, and for unknowns in her voluntary activity at a meal kitchen for the homeless. This is the best kind of goodness that is its own reward.

But a profound melancholy resides in Diane, an unresolved trauma of guilt is bothering her. She gets so drunk that she has to be asked to leave a bar, and she cannot get home without help. A surprising confession sets things in motion.

Jones departs from his sober realistic mode in a remarkable hallucination / dream / flashback sequence in which Diane lives through a traumatic sidestep whose after-effects have never left her.

The subtle music score / soundtrack / soundscape is an organic part of the whole. Jeremiah Bornfield's variations are mixed with motifs from John Cage, Steve Reich and Chick Corea. Bob Dylan and Leon Russell make appearances on the soundtrack.

Wyatt Garfield's cinematography is based on a defiantly melancholy palette of autumn turning to winter. German words such as Trauerarbeit and Winterreise are evoked by the soundscape and the imagery.

With no bright warm colour and no moments of pure joy and laughter Diane shows respect towards audiences who prefer truths without sugarcoating.

Diane is a special film. Starting with the ordinary it progresses towards the extraordinary, displaying a unique approach to transcendence.

The digital presentation does justice to the demanding visual concept with subtle shades of gray and brown.


DIANE
Ohjaaja: Kent Jones
Maa: Yhdysvallat
Vuosi: 2018
Kesto: 1.35
Kielet: englanti / ei tekstitystä
Alkup. nimi: Diane
Kategoria: Kent Jones, Uuden elokuvan helmet

Termi ”aikuiselokuva” osuu täydellisesti Kent Jonesin ensimmäiseen fiktio-ohjaukseen: Diane on kypsää, kosiskelematonta kertomaa ikääntyvistä ihmisistä ja heidän oloistaan nykypäivän itäisen Amerikan maaseudun pikkukaupungissa, Länsi-Massachusettsissa. ”Tällaisia ei enää tehdä” – näillä ihmisillä riittää arkisia, todellisia ongelmia, mutta sävy ei silti ole ikävystyttävän harmaa, elokuvan yleisvire on sittenkin lämmin, pinnan alla humoristinenkin.

Diane on naisten elokuva. Yli seitsenkymppinen Mary Kay Place näyttelee lähes ikäistään leskirouva Dianea, jonka päivät kuluvat muista huolehtimisessa, oli sitten kyseessä hänen tätinsä Ina tai tämän aggressiivinen äiti Mary, paras ystävänsä Bobbie tai kuolemaa tekevä mutta selväjärkinen serkkunsa Donna – tai hänen työtön, huumeaddiktoitunut poikansa Brian. Tai soppatykkijonon köyhät.

Ystävien ja sukulaisten seurasta solidaarisuutta kuitenkin löytyy; kyse on ehkä lopulta vain siitä, voiko Diane tulla oman elämänsä subjektiksi. Syystalvinen tunnelma tihenee parin viikon kuluessa, monipuolisen musiikin säestämien autolla-ajojaksojen rytmittäessä tapahtumia, ja vähitellen aukenee Dianen menneisyyden salaisuus, josta hän kenties saa hieman arvoituksellisessa lopussa rauhan. (TM)