This World, Then the Fireworks

It was great. The opening scenes alone were brilliant. The children's interrupted birthday party. The voice-over about it all being funnier than Kozmic Kat. Rue McClanahan standing there laughing her head off, scarred by fragments of the dead man's skull. Dark and perverse. Gina Gershon and Billy Zane couldn't have been more perfectly cast as twins.

About the unpredictability of life, about how "nothing really happens for a reason, it just happens" (the film's first spoken words). About how nobody else matters if you found your one true love (even if this love happens to be your twin sister). About how the best people sometimes have to be the most morally bankrupt ones to get ahead in a depraved society. About smoking simply for the reason that it fills the air with atmosphere, infusing something into a void. An IMDb reviewer wrote a wonderful thing about Sheryl Lee in this film, allow me quote it. "Sheryl Lee gave a terrific performance as Lois, the sex crazed lady cop who becomes obsessed with Marty (Billy Zane). She was so desperately needy and shameless in her appetite for Marty that it seemed she couldn't live unless she was breathing the air he just exhaled." The same reviewer also wrote how unfitting Billy Zane is in the film because his moodiness was so "un-50's". I agree that it would be a rather untypical character for an old film noir but that's just one of the areas where it shows that 'This World, then the Fireworks' does its own thing, it doesn't merely try to emulate a classic film noir, the filmmakers know that, for example, they can be more frank in the depiction of sexuality and violence and they gladly use that opportunity. Rue McClanahan as the mother (known from Golden Girls) looks like an old, withered, crazy, washed up version of Marilyn Monroe, which seems all kinds of appropriate. Director Oblowitz says his main inspiration was Welles' 'Touch of Evil' which seems all kinds of appropriate as well. The French just love it (how else to explain that there are half a dozen French DVD releases of the film while there doesn't seem to be a single American one...although the French screwed up the beautiful title). Maybe the full-screen version (which has more information at the top and bottom but also cuts off quite a bit of the sides) actually works better but one way or the other it works, especially after the wild first third that introduces us not only to the characters but also to this world, the pace settles down with the slow, jazzy "The Thrill is Gone" setting the mood and the film starts molding the emotional core of its main characters while remaining unpredictable and varied.

source: This World, Then the Fireworks

this was one of the worst movies that i have seen in a long time. they should have shown rue mcclanahan more than they did because she stole every scene she was in and made it a little better. with more background and more info on this character the movie would have been better. she was the only character to really feel any compassion for in the whole movie.

It was great. The opening scenes alone were brilliant. The children's interrupted birthday party. The voice-over about it all being funnier than Kozmic Kat. Rue McClanahan standing there laughing her head off, scarred by fragments of the dead man's skull. Dark and perverse. Gina Gershon and Billy Zane couldn't have been more perfectly cast as twins

This movie has a consistent "comic book" style throughout, even though its story is dark, erotic and sadistically violent. Although the presentation may be something that would appeal to 12-year-old boys (revenge fantasies played out for real, escape from punishment, domination of parents), the world it depicts is an adults-only one, with its frequent bare breasts, sadomasochistic sex scenes, mangled flesh of torture victims, and religious rants. The over-the-top acting is not a result of an incapable cast, but a directorial choice, one based on the idea that any frame could serve as a silent film style "tableau". The movie's art production is nicely done (think of "The Phantom" or "The Shadow" crossed with "The Untouchables"), but it's easy to see why this film never found an audience.

The Fact that all characters are so obnoxious makes it an uncomfortable film. The dissection of each characters depravity is overwhelming in it's graphicness. But The Centre of The Film is The Protectiveness of The Male Sociopath for His Sibling I hope I can some day find The Jim Thompson Short Story but somehow I believe some story's only achieve Their True Identity when Turned into Film Billy Zane is Demonic. Sheryl Lee is Licentiously Seductive and not exactly Innocent!!! Gina Gershon The Ultimate Female Sub: For Billy Zane's Predatory Murderous Alpha Male. The Seduction of Lee by Zane is Startling in that it takes place in the The Middle of The Day in The Middle of A Busy Townscape. Violence is Commonplace and can erupt from almost nowhere Every One is Doomed and Upon A Roundabout of Damnation Welcome to The Underbelly of America.

Beautifully filmed with a hallmark noir smoky narrative by Billy Zane, who plays the main character, Marty Lakewood. All the characters in this movie, like this movie, are intriguing but so very flawed. But then, aren't we all? The cast was superb, Rue Mclanahan as a feeble mother whose life has outplayed her strength, Billy Zane as Marty Lakewood, a complex parasitic character driven, or being driven, by an ethos perhaps only he understands. Sheryl Lee was phenomenal as a character so desperately needy it blurs your vision, and Gina Gershon plays the twin sister to Marty Lakewood, and she is simultaneously vulnerable and calloused. I can't really tie this movie down with any certainty, but it lingered with me for days, and that is a hallmark of something good. There are some clunky scenes, some gorgeous scenes and there are beautiful diaphanous elements of human nature- there is a dim light within apathy and arrogance, a bond within self indulgence and narcissism- I think the movie is definitely worth checking out.

How in the world can you guys not like this film. I consider this film one of my top 10, mostly because the characterization of Billy Zane's character may be the best in any movie ever. This movies has almost everything you want: Original Awesome Characterization (especially with Zane's Character) Sufficiently well written and acted Maybe this movie isn't what the mainstream wants, but it is still an excellent flick.

I'm a long-time fan of Jim Thompson, and I very much enjoyed THIS WORLD, THEN THE FIREWORKS, a flawed but gritty little project which manages to capture Thompson's hard-edged stylistic virtuosity quite nicely. Regardless, I wouldn't open-handedly recommend it to anyone who's not a foaming-at-the-mouth noir fanatic, as the film's tone of pervasive hopelessness will likely prove unappealing to many. As well, much of the violence is purblindly direct and quite potent. The lurid tale at hand concerns a dejected Chicago news reporter returning to the rustic environs of his youth(and to the sister he once loved in a rather unwholesome way), and finding that the passing of years has reduced the town to a squalid ragdump, rife with sordid lives and ubiquitary misery. Relentlessly dark and subtly sardonic ultra-noir, with even the most likable characters suppressing some degree of unscrupulous shadiness. Not a joyful diversion, but effective, and surprisingly sincere in its illustration of the source material. 6/10...recommended.