I saw my first Olivier Assayas film just recently with the Blu-ray release of his 2008 feature Summer Hours, a great film worth the look and a welcome introduction to a director I obviously need to familiarize myself with further. One way to do that was to take in his five-and-a-half-hour three-part biopic Carlos at the Cannes Film Festival, where it screened Out of Competition as the first part made its French television debut the very same day. With such a lengthy running time it felt like a pretty large risk as I dedicated a chunk of time at a festival where time is a premium, but I’m glad I did even though this proved to be a good-not-great film that has a no frills, clinical approach to its lead subject, Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, or as you may know and/or remember him… Carlos the Jackal.
The idea of a film about a Marxist revolutionary instantly brings to mind Steven Soderbergh’s Che, which also debuted in long form at the Cannes Film Festival and a comparison is appropriate. Carlos feels a lot like Che in its straightforward, un-Hollywood approach. Assayas doesn’t concern himself with gunfights, violence and sex when it’s unnecessary. Decisions with the script were based on the story alone. Carlos isn’t sympathetic, nor does it pander to his protagonist or the audience. The film isn’t made to be easy to swallow, but for feature that runs over five hours it goes down relatively easily, but this isn’t to say it doesn’t have its share slower, more mundane moments.
Playing the role of Carlos is Edgar Ramirez who, coincidentally, also had a role in Che, but is probably best known in America as the assassin that gave Jason Bourne a pass in The Bourne Ultimatum. As such, Ramirez hasn’t really had a chance to shine in America and Carlos isn’t likely to aid him much with domestic audiences, but it may raise his profile as he turns in a dedicated performance of a man whose claim to be a revolutionary loses weight as he finds greater enjoyment in money, weapons and women.
Carlos is painted as a pathetic man who’s clouded his own vision and what he is truly fighting for. It’s easy to respect a man fighting for a cause, or “fighting for the oppressed people” as Carlos is prone to say throughout this feature, but words are one thing, it’s actions that count. Carlos’s actions can’t be justified as he heads toward in inevitable end in a film that seems to have exhausted every outlet of information and still throws up a disclaimer at the opening detailing what is fact and what should be looked at as fiction.
Beginning with his time working for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and their taking of oil ministers hostage at OPEC, things shift as the film moves along. Soon he’s become a hired gun and doesn’t seem to even realize it. He’s a mercenary for hire. His “services” go to the highest bidder, the country that will offer the most in terms of money and protection. First it’s Iraq then on to Syria, which is where the second film and first half of the third predominantly dwell.
Assayas’s film is far from perfect, which primarily comes as an effort to stick as close to the facts as it can. For that reason, general audiences will likely be turned off by this film, even though it is a much more appealing subject matter than even Soderbergh’s Che, which touted the story of a revolutionary whereas I saw Carlos as more of a story of a delusional psycho that thought he was a revolutionary but was merely a victim of his own headlines. Assayas is deliberate in hammering this point home and he does so to the minor disadvantage of the film.
The first two parts pretty much hum along, things are moving and the landscape is changing. We don’t really know much about Carlos at the outset, but his character is fleshed out over these first two parts to the point we know exactly who we are dealing with. The third part attempts to wrap things up. It seems Assayas and co-writer Dan Franck set out to tell a 20-year story and by the time they got to part three they realized the last ten years of that story weren’t nearly as eventful. The character was already established and all that was left was to wait for the fall and strangely enough the third part is the longest of the three so you have a while to wait.
Also, the musical choices for this thing are all wrong. I have no idea why Assayas felt the songs he chose to blast over some of his scenes were the way to go, but it was a miscalculation as they certainly don’t fit the story or aid the narrative.
It will be interesting to see how Assayas trims Carlos down for American theaters where IFC will release an expected 150-minute version as well as the three-part version in US theaters following the broadcast of the three-part miniseries on the Sundance Channel in October. To make the film perfect I don’t think it needs to be chopped down to 150 minutes, but a four hour cut would probably trim most of the fat and leave all the meat.
Assayas and team were aggressive and shot for the stars and did quite well. It’s not a stand out success, but it’s an enjoyable watch with some good performances and excellent direction.
Carlos played Out of Competition at the 63rd Cannes Film Festival.
