The 1970s is perhaps the most dynamic, groundbreaking and eclectic decade for cinema. The collapse of the studio system in America in the sixties opened the doors for individual voices to be heard. The time of the auteur had arrived. There were mavericks like John Cassavettes in America and the French New Wave (Godard and Truffaut), who were already furrowing their own path in the sixties with groundbreaking films like Shadows (1959), Breathless (1960) and Jules et Jim (1962). European cinema never suffered artistically under the yoke of a stifling studio system which resulted in film movements like Italian neo-realism, films shot on location often with non-professional actors and depicting the struggles and plight of working class people.
The American actor and director John Cassavettes was watching closely what was happening in film across the Atlantic. He was fascinated and thrilled by the freedom and originality in European cinema. As an actor, he played the husband in Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and featured in The Dirty Dozen (1967). He would use the funds raised through these acting jobs to finance his own films, which he wrote and directed. He mimicked the cinema verite style of the Europeans and essentially forged a new American independent style of cinema which laid the foundations for directors like Scorcese, Robert Altman and Hal Ashby in the 1970s. Why is this relevant to The Holdovers, a film made last year?
The film is set over the Christmas period in 1970, but it could just as easily be a movie which was made in the same year. Payne even went so far as to display 1970s versions of the Focus Features and Miramax logos at the beginning of the film. The cinematographer Eigil Bryld opted to shoot the film digitally but with an Arri Alexa with Panavision H series lenses which created the vintage look of the film. There is a grain to the film on screen which seems quintessentially 70s. The film’s location of New England helped proceedings as the director noted that ‘change comes slowly to New England.
The premise of the film is quite simple. Paul Giamatti plays Paul Hunham, a slightly bitter and world weary teacher of History who is tasked with staying in the boarding school over the holiday period to supervise students who could not go back home for various reasons (hence the film title). One of the students, Angus Tully, played by debutant Dominic Sessa, is a troubled young man who is left in the school by his mother who is spending Christmas with her new husband played by Tate Donovan. He is not happy. The school cook Mary Lamb, played by Da’Vine Joy Randolph is also staying over and is still grieving the loss of her young son in Vietnam, an ex student of the school and of Hunham.
Paul Hunham: I guess I thought I could make a difference. I mean, I used to think I could prepare them for the world even a little. Provide standards and grounding like Dr. Greene always drilled into us. But, uh, the world doesn't make sense anymore. I mean, it's on fire. The rich don't give a shit. Poor kids are cannon fodder. Integrity is a punch line. Trust is just a name on a bank.
All three characters are forced together to deal with each other’s idiosyncrasies and foibles. This not groundbreaking in a plot sense but it is all executed so beautifully and with such heart, that the film succeeds where so many others fail. Giamatti plays a role which was made for him. His previous film with director Payne, Sideways (2004), saw him play a wine buff with very specific views on the grape varietal Merlot as well as his best friend’s romantic entanglements. In The Holdovers we see this pedantry ramped up to 11, but we also gradually see the lowering of the mask ultimately revealing the reasons behind why his life has ended up where it has. A similar character arc occurs with the young Tully character.
There are some achingly poignant moments in the film which are genuinely moving. It reminds you of the power of strong story-telling. The capacity for film to facilitate the viewer to empathise with characters completely different to themselves is only matched by great works of literature or music. Randolph plays the mother of the fallen Vietnam soldier with great tenderness and strength. You grieve with her as you see the torment she is going through. The film does not feel heavy though. It evokes an atmosphere of nostalgia, like a grainy memory of a Christmas gone-by that stays with you and, when recollected, makes your heart yearn to be back there again. We often are unaware which moments in our present will do this to us in the future, but there are rare moments that exist where we do know. We know that this fragment of time will stay with us. We know that it will be etched into our souls. The Holdovers achieves a similar feat. It will stay with you long after the final credits roll and you wipe away the tears from your eyes.