Unique Producer of Cronenberg, Roeg and Wenders Treasures is Enigmatically Profiled
DIRECTED BY MARK COUSINS/2021
DVD STREET DATE: OCTOBER 10, 2023/COHEN MEDIA GROUP
Mark Cousins has carved out quite a niche for himself as the foremost philosophical cineaste to ever insert himself into all of his work. Wispy and subjective rather than blunt and authoritative, it’s admittedly best not to come to a Cousins documentary insistent on The Facts. What you do get, however, is so much more powerful.
Cousins, with words and tone, draws you into his experience, his wonder, his undying motion picture obsession. We experience this as well within his film writing, particularly his vast 2004 tome, The Story of Film. In this, he’s taken up the non-vacated mantle of film scholar and author David Thomson. But Cousins also has a camera. Hence his also-vast 900-minute fifteen-part docuseries, The Story of Film: An Odyssey (2011). But that is a different review….
This review is devoted to a handsome feature-length one-off documentary by Cousins, 2021’s The Storms of Jeremy Thomas. The film joins Florence Strauss’ eight-hour eight-part series The Last Tycoons (Le temps des nababs; 2019) in its focus on the film producer- in this case, a film producer. Jeremy Thomas, however, is not merely a film producer, although he very much is one. As described by Cousins, the British-born Thomas is also a prince, petrol-head, bohemian, rebel, and a survivor. The Storms of Jeremy Thomas tells his story in six parts, with assistance from willing participants Debra Winger and Tilda Swinton:
I. Cars
II. Sex
III. Politics
IV. Death
V. Cannes
VI. Endings
We’re told that Thomas has produced or even occasionally directed sixty-eight films. At least, that’s the number at the time of the production of The Storms of Jeremy Thomas, circa 2018. Clips of said films are woven cleverly and/or intuitively. Besides the usual lower third text identifying the title, year, and director, there’s also the number. The number of Thomas’ production. Stephen Frears The Hit is No. 7. David Cronenberg’s Crash is No. 17. Richard Shepherd’s Dom Hemingway is No. 53. He and Cousins spend most of Part I (“Cars”) driving to the Cannes Film Festival. There, Thomas’ latest, Takashi Miike’s First Love, will debut.
With the trademark Mark Cousins trance in great effect, we learn about exactly why Thomas defies the dollar-addled norm of your standard powerful producer. Thomas, having ushered such risky greats as Roeg’s Bad Timing, Ôshima’s Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, and Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor into the world with great success, remains a wandering spirit of sorts. For the latter, he won an Academy Award. For this, Cousins’ dubbing of the affluently raised Thomas as “a prince” naturally leads to allusions of netting gold.
His father was a director, having helmed the silly Dirk Bogarde “Doctor” films. His uncle was a director of popular broad British comedies including but not limited to the “Carry On” series. While young Jeremy couldn’t help but follow them into the business, he forsook laughter in favor of cinematic challengers. Brain Benders. Alternatives. Provocations. Thomas doesn’t just enable such films, he encourages them. These are the kind of films that Hollywood is terrified of, but ultimately embolden film culture. Without the rarified talent and drive of someone like Thomas, it doesn’t happen.
Tilda Swinton says Thomas is a pirate, someone who shores up the seas to keep things fresh. She remains grateful to him for allowing her and her creative cohorts the necessary freedom they thrive upon. “Freakiness… is one of the weapons I can use as an entertainer,” she says. Cousins, meanwhile, talks of Thomas as wandering “the movie forest”, wielding “the pickaxe to the soul”, and keeper of “the secret box.” Looking at the aged, unexpressive, and slightly frumpy outer appearance of Thomas, a mythical old-world prince scarcely comes to mind. Yet, we believe it.
In the time since this documentary hit, Thomas’ storm has quietly persisted. Among the bounty are Matteo Garrone’s Pinocchio (2019), Jerzy Skolimowski’s EO (2022), Wim Wenders’ Anselm (2023), and Vigo Mortensen’s The Dead Don’t Hurt (2023). Also, Cohen Media has made The Storms of Jeremy Thomas available via physical media- albeit merely DVD. The film clips that punctuate the Thomas story tend to be visual feasts that truly benefit from high definition, which DVD is incapable of. That said, Cousins’ documentary looks plenty good considering, and it’s far better to have this film available in standard definition than not at all. There are no bonus features on the disc.
Cousins loves his enrichingly associative quotes, and this film is full of ‘em. In one particularly inspired digression, he throws out this one from Gene Hackman’s character, prospector Jack McCann in Roeg’s 1983 effort, Eureka, which is also one of Thomas’ earliest productions: “I search for the gold and I search for the gold and I search for the gold and I found it.” While Eureka was not that Eureka moment, The Last Emperor a few years later certainly was. The Storms of Jeremy Thomas demonstrates that like it’s subject, Mark Cousins isn’t afraid to dig deep to find all that legitimately glitters.
