I haven’t seen The Departed, and probably won’t till it opens (I’m banned from screenings of Warner Bros. movies), but I have been researching the film in depth. Here’s the why and how of it.

Why? Well, for one thing, it is the new fucking Martin Scorsese film, man, and that should be cause for celebration among all film students. And it is Scorsese where we like him best, in the mean streets among the thugs and victims of urban crime. Just as we all prefer Woody Allen’s earlier, funny movies, most of us merely tolerate Scorsese’s forays into Tibetan mysticism, Catholic mythology, and music history. Even better, The Departed is an American adaptation of a Hong Kong film that is masterly in its own right.

The how of it, in lieu of yet seeing the film, is to watch the trailer a hundred times, see the HBO making of, and read all the articles and interviews connected with The Departed. I haven’t caught up with the Jack Nicholson interview in Rolling Stone yet, but I’ve read just about everything else, in magazines ranging from Entertainment Weekly to American Cinematographer.

More important, I’ve see the three films in the Infernal Affairs trilogy. I’d wanted to see them before the first one became a Scorsese remake project, but, you know, time is short and new films keep coming in the door. But this weekend I made the effort, and walked up the street to my neighborhood video shop, Movie Madness, rented the DVDs and then viewed the three films in a row. The second two films in the series were probably not strictly necessary, as I gather that Scorsese and his screenwriter William Monahan, concentrate on the first film, but you never know, and in any case, Infernal Affairs 2 is hailed as a good prequel, and some viewers think that the Godfather 2-ey Infernal Affairs 3 is the best of the lot.

They are indeed three terrific films, and if you haven’t seen them, at least do yourself the favor of seeing the first film, perhaps after seeing Scorsese’s version.

Released in 2002, Infernal Affairs is written by Alan (Siu Fai) Mak and Felix Chong, and directed by Andrew Lau (Wai-Keung) and Mak, with Lau also pulling co-DP duties, although Christopher Doyle did the prep work on the film and shot part of it. And it’s not what you think. Viewers used to John Woo’s nonstop visual pyrotechnics and its influence on most HK films thereafter might be justified in assuming that Infernal Affairs is in that tradition, but it isn’t. IF is a scrupulously realistic crime drama. There are only one or two shoot outs, and they are conducted in a plausible fashion. Most of the film concentrates on the psychology of its protagonists, and confines its suspense to This is the kind of film wherein silence on the other end of a telephone line looms larger in IF‘s fearsome universe than bullets.

Have you ever seen a film that actually made you jealous? That was my reaction to Infernal Affairs. The premise is so clever, and has so much potential, surely almost all of it realized in the trilogy, that I sat there squirming in envy. But the film’s success is not based soley on the cleverness of the premise. Director Lau explores the mirror positions of his characters with cunning and wisdom. It’s the kind of film you think about for days afterwards, mentally revisiting the nuances and implications.

Scorsese’s film sounds like an accurate account of the source. Stills from the film, the trailer, and a few early reviews suggest that key scenes from the HK version make their way into the new one. The broken cast, the meeting in the movie theater, the Our esteemed leader Kevin Smith, in his review of the film on Ebert’s show last night, even revealed that one of the best scenes in the HK version, when the two moles make their first contact via cel phones, has become one of the best scene sin Scorsese’s adaptation.

I’ve also been reading Black Mass: The True Story of the Unholy Alliance Between the FBI and the Irish Mob, by reporters Dick Lehr and Gerard O’Neill, their 2000 account of Boston crime king Whitey Bulger and his links to the FBI, as preparation for the film’s milieu. But that task has turned into a pleasure rather than prep work. It’s a great book of true crime, but I’m coming to realize that, although the movie is set in Boston, Jack Nicholson’s Frank Costello has only tangential connections to Bulger and his case. No for a cinematic recreation of Bulger and his environs one must turn to the Showtime series The Brotherhood.

The rash of promotional magazine articles has also filled in some details about this most anticipated of movies. Among them is the American Cinematographer interview with DP Michael Ballhaus. It’s a weird interview because Bauhaus admits to abhorring violence, and only consents to doing Scorsese’s films because, vaguely, “the way he plays those scenes tells you something about the characters.” Ballhaus is one of the few collaborators who will admit to having seen the source film (Scorsese and the screenwriter say they have avoided it) — and I wish he hadn’t. Everything he says about Infernal Affairs is wrong. Ballhaus says he enjoyed Lau’s movie, but adds that ” Infernal Affairs is a very fast-moving and stylish picture, but it has a very different style than The Departed. Marty’s version is much more character-driven, whereas the Chinese version [sic; it’s not a ‘version,’ it is the actual movie, of which ‘Marty’s’ is the version], while very good, doesn’t have the same depth. It was good for me to see Internal Affairs because it helped me learn what to do and not to do in our film. The original is lit very darkly in places and is rather mysterious, which is sometimes good. However, it’s occasionally a bit difficult to see the characters, and ti’s also primarily action-driven. Ours also has a lot of action, but we took a more American approach to the material.” To paraphrase Peter Gallagher in the great Malice, all due respect, Mr. Ballhaus, but knock it off. Everything you say is wrong. Infernal Affairs is well lit. If there are parts of the film so dark you can’t see the characters I’d like to know where they are. Does he mean the movie theater scene? And what does he mean by “mysterious”? What does that mean? On the subject of action, the reverse of what Ballhaus says is true. Infernal Affairs is character driven, not action driven. That is perfectly obvious. I suspect he saw Hard-Boiled and thought it was Infernal Affairs. How condescending of Ballhaus to say that viewing the source taught him what not to do. And what is this more “American” approach to the material”? What does that mean? Based on what American films in general do lately I would guess it means drain it of all interest and importance. It’s American movies that can’t develop characters of late, and it is HK films that have out-Hollywooded Hollywood when it comes to coherent, suspenseful, and amusing action. Infernal Affairs also showed that HK films have greater, not lesser, depth of character in their films. What a string of ridiculous, inaccurate, embarrassing, condescending, self-serving, and ignorant statements.

The interview with Scorsese in Entertainment Weekly also bothered me. Scorsese seemed disengaged. When reminded that he is using the Rolling Stones’s “Gimmee Shelter” yet again to kick off a film, lamely replied that, “I guess I’m repeating myself.”

But now that I think about it, the last several of Scorsese’s films have felt off, bloated New Hollywood films with good parts but an overall empty feel, even when the film is a lifelong dream project like Gangs of New York. Some of Scorsese’s best films are ones he’s had to be talked into doing, like Raging Bull. Does he not want to make films? Is he ambivalent these days? And why are his most recent films so much less like a “Scorsese film”? Is it the collaboration with DiCaprio? Is it the influence of the Weinsteins? Is Scorsese simply changing? Or am I not able to keep up with his work? Is it possible that Scorsese only has one great truly personal film in him, and he did it already, back in 1973, with all the rest the work of a metteur en scene?

I am hoping that all these doubts, questions, and fears will be put to rest with The Departed.

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