Friday, March 31, 2000

Adaptations of Banks' novels are memorable

"The Sweet Hereafter" and "Affliction" are films that aren't easy to watch. But after you've seen them, they're not easily forgotten.
   Both are based on novels by Russell Banks. Both deal with the relationships between troubled fathers and abused children. Both look at death and its effect on working-class families who've held too long to dark family secrets.
   "The Sweet Hereafter" (1997) was adapted for the screen and directed by Atom Egoyan. It looks at a small Canadian village whose residents are split apart in the aftermath of a school-bus accident in which many of the town's children have died.
   When a lawyer (Ian Holm) appears on the scene, encouraging the survivors and the victims' families to file lawsuits, he's stunned to find that many of the townspeople want nothing to do with him. At first they affirm their forgiveness of the bus driver and say they are ready to put the tragedy behind them. But one by one they begin to be seduced by the idea of big money as a way of easing their pain.
   The suits depend on the testimony of a survivor of the accident, a precocious nymphet (Oscar-nominee Sarah Polley) made paraplegic by the event. What she says in the deposition will change the lives of everyone involved.
   Much goes unsaid in "Sweet Hereafter," an evocative film full of strained silences and long, stark shots of the snowy landscape. The performances by Holm, Polley and Bruce Greenwood, as a grief-stricken father, complement each other to make it a powerful, if intensely depressing, ensemble piece.
   "Affliction" (1998) also takes place in the dead of winter, focusing on a family whose emotions are as frozen as the trees.
   Nick Nolte stars as a small-town New England cop haunted by an abusive past. When his friend takes a wealthy businessman on a hunting trip, and returns alone, Nolte is drawn into the investigation, which may or may not have been a politically motivated murder.
   He becomes obsessed by the case and the assassination scheme to which no one but him subscribes. Meanwhile, his own mother is found dead at home, leaving him to gather long-distance relatives for the funeral. Having to deal with his alcoholic father (Oscar-winner James Coburn) brings up especially ugly memories from the past.
   Directed and written by Paul Schrader, "Affliction" is a showcase for Nolte and Coburn, two towering actors who only in recent years have become comfortable with showing bare emotions onscreen. Supporting performances by Sissy Spacek and Mary Beth Hurt also are remarkable.
   Oddly, the film is told from the point of view of the cop's more successful brother (played in voiceover and briefly onscreen by Willem Dafoe), which gives it a detachment that weakens the narrative.
   Banks to speak in Corpus Christi
   Writer Russell Banks reads from his work and answers questions about the writer's craft at 7 p.m. Saturday at the South Texas Institute for the Arts, 1902 N. Shoreline. The event, sponsored by the Corpus Christi Literary Reading Series, costs $5 per ticket.
   Besides "Affliction" and "The Sweet Hereafter," Banks also wrote the novels "Cloudsplitter" (1998), "Rules of the Bone" (1995), "Continental Drift" (1985) and "The Book of Jamaica" (1980). He's also published collections of poetry and short stories, including "Trailerpark" and "The Relation of My Imprisonment."
   Banks currently teaches writing at Princeton University and has received awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts and many others.
   Now in his late 50s, Banks started out as a plumber in Concord, N.H., marrying and divorcing young and writing an early novel before heading to Florida. In the tradition of Kerouac, Banks did some time on the road and had a few scrapes with the law before finally settling down to write his New England-based novels. He is now married to poet Chase Twichell and is the father of four grown daughters.
   Banks' stories are clearly drawn from his own family history. His work has been compared to that of Richard Ford and Raymond Carver, writers who focused on the lives of men and the turmoil in blue-collar marriages.
   For more information about Banks' public reading, call 882-2272.
  
  
  

 
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