The Gentleman - Character & Place
Thoughts On: The Gentleman (2019)
The boss of a sticky bush empire welcomes chaos the moment he tries to sell his business.
I have seen The Gentleman twice now. I said after I saw it last that I'd rather re-watch this than The Irishman - nine times out of ten. As brash a statement as that may be, I certainly find this manifestation of the gangster film far more appealing and appeasing than the latter. The Gentleman is a carefully pieced together puzzle of a narrative that pulls you into a world populated by larger-than-life characters and outlandish drama. It does an incredible amount in its sub-two hour run time. I re-entered The Gentleman thinking of its innumerable plot points and reversals, and as it started, I got slightly nervous; I thought, this could be long. But, only a few minutes into the film, I eased into things, and it felt far shorter than it did on the first viewing. This film screams by, smooth in tone and punctuated with brilliant moments of humour and violence - all of which are grounded in the exploration of world-as-character and characters-as-world. It is this interchangeability of personality and space-time makes this film so special, and it is one of the most magical capabilities of the gangster genre film. This is a genre built upon something of a morbid fascination and an overt embrace of the collective shadow. That is to say that gangster films are about anti-heroes and villains. They allow us to peep into dark worlds, engorge ourselves on the thought of vices and brutality and have fun whilst doing so. Scorsese, via Goodfellas and Wolf of Wall Street, is a master of this genre of film. But, The Gentleman, alongside other key Richie gangster films, comfortably sits in the same genre and on the same level as these behemoth classics. Scorsese did not return to this magic with The Irishman, not with the success that Richie did having returned from a hellish foray into Disney live-action remaking. And such was hinged upon this interchange of character and place. The Gentleman is a film whose setting has a character by virtue of its ability to produce so many varied subjects. It is a film that caricatures various Londoners and Brits, and uses their personalities to define and welcome us into a certain vision of Britain and London. Here is the interplay between subject and place. We are lost in character the moment we enter this film. Every element of the screen informs us of it. And such is the joy of this film; we are locked in a purely subjective space. Engaging aesthetics and narrative then become like having a great conversation in which the exchange of identity and personage is addictive and perception-warping. I do not know how to describe this phenomenon well, but the immersion into a purely subjective space is powerfully engrossing. I believe this is what happens in gossip shows, reality TV and personal vlogs. Cinema has a similar mechanism at its ready as these mediums do, but I believe it is something like The Gentleman that captures this with power and class. A tremendous film.
The boss of a sticky bush empire welcomes chaos the moment he tries to sell his business.
I have seen The Gentleman twice now. I said after I saw it last that I'd rather re-watch this than The Irishman - nine times out of ten. As brash a statement as that may be, I certainly find this manifestation of the gangster film far more appealing and appeasing than the latter. The Gentleman is a carefully pieced together puzzle of a narrative that pulls you into a world populated by larger-than-life characters and outlandish drama. It does an incredible amount in its sub-two hour run time. I re-entered The Gentleman thinking of its innumerable plot points and reversals, and as it started, I got slightly nervous; I thought, this could be long. But, only a few minutes into the film, I eased into things, and it felt far shorter than it did on the first viewing. This film screams by, smooth in tone and punctuated with brilliant moments of humour and violence - all of which are grounded in the exploration of world-as-character and characters-as-world. It is this interchangeability of personality and space-time makes this film so special, and it is one of the most magical capabilities of the gangster genre film. This is a genre built upon something of a morbid fascination and an overt embrace of the collective shadow. That is to say that gangster films are about anti-heroes and villains. They allow us to peep into dark worlds, engorge ourselves on the thought of vices and brutality and have fun whilst doing so. Scorsese, via Goodfellas and Wolf of Wall Street, is a master of this genre of film. But, The Gentleman, alongside other key Richie gangster films, comfortably sits in the same genre and on the same level as these behemoth classics. Scorsese did not return to this magic with The Irishman, not with the success that Richie did having returned from a hellish foray into Disney live-action remaking. And such was hinged upon this interchange of character and place. The Gentleman is a film whose setting has a character by virtue of its ability to produce so many varied subjects. It is a film that caricatures various Londoners and Brits, and uses their personalities to define and welcome us into a certain vision of Britain and London. Here is the interplay between subject and place. We are lost in character the moment we enter this film. Every element of the screen informs us of it. And such is the joy of this film; we are locked in a purely subjective space. Engaging aesthetics and narrative then become like having a great conversation in which the exchange of identity and personage is addictive and perception-warping. I do not know how to describe this phenomenon well, but the immersion into a purely subjective space is powerfully engrossing. I believe this is what happens in gossip shows, reality TV and personal vlogs. Cinema has a similar mechanism at its ready as these mediums do, but I believe it is something like The Gentleman that captures this with power and class. A tremendous film.
