ivans xtc.
When Tolstoy wrote The Death of Ivan Ilyich he was grappling with the big questions: religion, life and death. Ivan Ilyich is a bureaucrat in the Russian court system whose entire existence revolves around career, social standing and appearance. Being a creature of the industrial age, he has discarded religious philosophy. His approaching death and the prospect of eternal silence, however, terrifies him. His final illness is made all the worse by the cold, uncaring attitude of his family and friends and the realization that this is exactly the same way he would have behaved. Shaken, Ivan is forced to ask himself: Did my life mean anything? Was it pointless? Is there anything after death?
ivans xtc. is a film adaptation of the story. Instead of 19th-century Russia, however, the scene is late-20th-century Hollywood where director Bernard Rose brilliantly converts Tolstoy's tale into a caustic view of the movie industry. Los Angeles may be far removed from the world of Czarist Russia, but the story's tragic depiction of the frailty of human dignity is equally haunting in this version of the novella.
The film, shot using high-resolution digital video and handheld cameras, has a documentary feel and begins with dawn breaking over Los Angeles as the voice of a dying man gasps "I tried to find an image, but I couldn't find a worthwhile thing." Immediately, we enter the nasty world that the man, an agent named Ivan Beckman (Danny Huston), has departed. Learning of his death, his colleagues first respond with vile gossip — unaware of the cancer in Ivan's lung, they assume he overdosed — followed by damage limitation. High-powered clients need to be placated, and the potentially lucrative film deal Ivan has just brokered must be saved at all costs.
The remainder of the film deals with Ivan Beckman's last few days on earth, and how he spends them. A charming, talented reptile, Ivan is impossible to dislike. OK, he (ab)uses people and drugs but so does every one else in his reptilian world. Huston, son of legendary film-maker John Huston, gives an amazing performance: he's the epitome of animal energy when he's having group sex and snorting coke, and he's heartbreaking when faced with the dying of the light. This is one of the most original and impressive films of recent years. Thanks to Thomas Bourke for the tip and thanks, too, to the Rainy Day wife for locating the video.
Diarist of the day: Lord Byron, 9 January 1821"The lapse of ages changes all things — time —language —the earth — the bounds of the sea — the stars of the sky, and every thing 'about, round, and underneath' man, except man himself, who has always been and will always be, an unlucky rascal. The infinite variety of lives conduct but to death, and the infinity of wishes lead but to disappointment. All the discoveries which have yet been made have multiplied little but existence."
