March 26, 1994

Festival Review: New Directors, New Films

Sex, Tornado Chasing, and Other Hazards of Life

By CARYN JAMES

A woman who walks into a tornado, a murderer who explains himself, and the nerdiest stepfather in the suburbs are the heroes of the three films joined under the rubric “Tall Tales.” The works have nothing much in common beyond black-and-white photography, a length more suited to sitcoms than arty films like these (a half-hour, give or take five minutes) and a slightly macabre view of human relationships. In quality, their dissimilarities are even more glaring.

The best is “The Coriolis Effect,” a fresh, self-assured film about sexual jealousy, dangerous living and the afterlife, with a nod to “The Wizard of Oz.” The tale begins with the sounds of a jazzy saxophone and of a couple making love, as it happens on their kitchen table. In the midst of this, with a tornado heading their way, Suzy (Corinne Bohrer) tells her boyfriend, Ray (Dana Ashbrook, from “Twin Peaks”), that she has slept with his best friend, Stanley (James Wilder).

Almost immediately Ray and Stanley are called to their unlikely jobs as tornado watchers. On the road, chasing the twister, Stanley says he feels bad about his fling with Suzy. “I was so busy thinking about you I didn’t even have any fun,” he tells Ray. The film takes a deft, fantastic turn when the men wander upon Ruby (Jennifer Rubin), a young woman who may have stepped out of Stanley’s dreams, and who insists she wants to walk into the tornado and beyond it to another world.

Mordantly funny and sharp, “The Coriolis Effect” was written and directed by Louis Venosta, a screenwriter whose credits include the Mel Gibson-Goldie Hawn movie “Bird on a Wire.” Despite some fussy camera movements, this is the only film of the three to create the sense of discovery that the New Directors/New Films series is all about.

THE CORIOLIS EFFECT

Written and directed by Louis Venosta; photography by Paul Holahan; edited by Luis Colina; music by Hal Lindes; production design, Michael Hartog and Bjarne Slettland; produced by Kathryn Arnold. Running time: 25 minutes. This film is not rated. Ray…Dana Ashbrook, Suzy…Corinne Bohrer, Stanley … James Wilder, Ruby … Jennifer Rubin.  Panhandle Slim … Quentin Tarantino.

MOVIE REVIEW : Two Amusing Looks at Love at Nuart

October 21, 1994 | KEVIN THOMAS | L.A. TIMES STAFF WRITER

German filmmaker Katja von Garnier’s effervescent, 55-minute “Makin’ Up” and Louis Venosta’s distinctive 35-minute “The Coriolis Effect” add up to an amusing commentary on the state of relations between men and women today. We most certainly are going to hear more from both Von Garnier and Venosta.

Von Garnier’s vignette, which won a student film Oscar, is a witty farce about what even the most attractive and vibrant young women have to put up with in the search for suitable men. Maischa (Nina Kronjager), a blond cartoonist, has pretty much retreated from the fray, drawing inspiration for her comic strip from the romantic exploits of her vivacious best friend, a tall brunette nurse nicknamed Frenzy (Katja Riemann, who recalls Geena Davis in her looks and infectious giddiness).

At the moment Frenzy has set her sites on the handsome Rene (Gideon Burkhard), who on their first date asks her to bring along a friend for his best pal Mark (Max Tidof). Pressed into going, Maischa realizes immediately that she and Max have literally crossed paths before–and not fortuitously.

Nothing that develops can be said to be unpredictable, but Von Garnier manages to make every turn seem fresh and wryly funny. She’s a sharp, stylish observer of the challenge modern women face in squaring away their freedom and independence with their attraction to the opposite sex and their longing for love. She has a sure way with both the camera and her cast, which sparkles under her direction.

The people of “The Coriolis Effect,” which was named the best short film at Venice this year, are not as sophisticated as those of “Makin’ Up,” but Venosta is every bit as assured a director as Von Garnier.

Ray (Dana Ashbrook) and Stanley (James Wilder) are best friends, U.S. Weather Service scientists working in the Texas Panhandle and specializing in chasing tornadoes. Just as Ray’s girlfriend (Corinne Bohrer) has admitted, in a burst of unwelcome honesty, that she’s slept with Stanley, a tornado starts brewing.

In his film debut, Venosta manages to make turbulent emotions and weather echo each other without lots of heavy-handed symbolism or rigid symmetry. As Ray and Stanley begin working out the crisis in their friendship, they encounter the alluring and mysterious Ruby (Jennifer Rubin, always a radiant presence) who’s a force of nature herself.

* MPAA rating: Unrated. Times guidelines: Neither film is heavy on sex or nudity, but both focus on adult themes and situations. 

‘The Coriolis Effect’

Dana Ashbrook: Ray
James Wilder: Stanley
Corinne Bohrer: Suzy
Jennifer Rubin: Ruby
Quentin Tarantino: Panhandle Slim

A Secondary Modern Motion Pictures production. Writer-director Louis Venosta. Producer Kathryn Arnold. Cinematographer Paul Holahan. Editor Luis Colina. Music Hal Lindes. Production designers Michael Hartog, Bjarne Slettland. Running time: 35 minutes.

* In limited release at the Nuart Theatre, 11272 Santa Monica Blvd., West Los Angeles, (310) 478-6379.