Demons Of Deception (1999) is the ninth film in The Adventures Of Young Indiana Jones series. It’s a film that is comprised of two forty-five minute episodes. The first episode was directed by Rene Manzor and written by Jonathan Hales while the second episode was helmed by Nicolas Roeg and written by Carrie Fisher and George Lucas. These maverick auteurs, Roeg and Manzor, work within the aesthetic idiom of Steven Spielberg which drives the series. What’s interesting is how such unique stylists still imbue this run of the mill work with their own personal flourishes.
Manzor’s episode takes place in the French trenches of WWI. In navigating the barren spaces and tight trenches Manzor utilizes his love of the tracking shot. Manzor’s camera glides down trenches and follows soldiers into the fray with his usual kineticism. Whenever there is action Manzor’s camera becomes liberated and the highly derivative plot gives way to a purer cinematic expression.
The scenes of action set at night are by far the best. The blue and violet hues that Manzor clearly loves so much become the dominant color scheme. Shafts of blue light cut through dark purple shadows as Indy (Sean Patrick Flanery) makes his dash through no man’s land on a secret mission. Suddenly Indy is occupying the same aesthetic space as the war games of 3615 code Père Noël (1989).
Roeg’s episode is, of course, all about sexual awakening. The sensual gaze of Roeg’s camera embraces the vaseline sheen of the candle light as Indy becomes entangled with the legendary Mata Hari (Domiziana Giordano). Roeg can’t resist the legacy of Mata Hari as he takes every opportunity for his camera to enshrine her visage as the ultimate fetish object. It’s a gaze that is subjectively Indy’s.
Roeg cross cuts past and present as Indy and Mata Hari make love, ostensibly condensing time à la Bad Timing (1980). For Roeg and Mata Hari sex begins with a glance and ends with death. Mata Hari’s death is crosscut in a similar fashion that condenses romantic disharmony with physical destruction. Of all the installments in the Indiana Jones franchise none is as overtly sexual as Roeg’s chapter.
As a whole though Demons Of Deception is hardly cohesive. Each episode feels very much self contained and any attempt to fuse the two halves only highlights their artistic and narrative differences. Each episode on its own is of value, but as a single unit, as a film, Demons Of Deception fails miserably.
Yet, it is an interesting failure. Roeg’s installment in particular suggests a freshness of direction for the Indiana Jones franchise to take. Arguably there’s more value to a mediocre or diluted film by Nicolas Roeg than a hit Indiana Jones movie. I’ll take Demons Of Deception over most of the Indiana Jones movies.
