Motherless Brooklyn (film)  

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Motherless Brooklyn is a 2019 American neo-noir crime film written, produced and directed by Edward Norton, based on the 1999 novel of the same name by Jonathan Lethem. Set in New York City in 1957, the film follows a private investigator with Tourette syndrome, who is determined to solve the murder of his mentor.

A passion project of Norton's ever since he read Lethem's novel in 1999, the film took nearly 20 years to go into production. Although the book is set in contemporary times, Norton felt the plot and dialogue lent themselves more to a noir setting — moving it to the 1950s, with many added plot points inspired by The Power Broker.

Although the novel takes place in a modern 1999 setting, Norton rewrote the story for the 1950s, because the "characters are written in a very 1950s hardboiled detective style ... and if we try to make a film about the '90s in Brooklyn with guys acting like '50s gumshoes, it will feel ironic." He also added the character Moses Randolph to the story, who is based on the New York City city planner, Robert Moses.


Plot

In 1950s New York City, Lionel Essrog works at a detective agency alongside Gilbert Coney, Danny Fantl, and Tony Vermonte. Their boss, Frank Minna, rescued them as children from an abusive orphanage. Nicknamed "Motherless Brooklyn" by Frank, Lionel has Tourette syndrome, often alienating him from people, but his photographic memory makes him a good detective.

Working a secret case, Frank asks Lionel and Gilbert to shadow him to a meeting. Lionel listens over the phone as Frank presents documents that threaten a business deal for William Lieberman, Lou, and their extremely large henchman. When Frank tries to negotiate a high price, the men force him to take them to the originals. Lionel and Gilbert follow in their car, arriving just as Frank is shot. They take him to the hospital, but Frank dies.

Frank's widow Julia leaves Tony in charge of the office. Lionel begins wearing Frank's hat and coat, and a matchbox in Frank's pocket leads Lionel to an African-American owned jazz bar in Harlem. He realizes that Frank's findings involve Laura Rose, who works for Gabby Horowitz fighting urban renewal; poor and minority neighborhoods are being bought out and demolished, forcing out their residents. Lionel goes to a public meeting where Moses Randolph, a commissioner of several development authorities, is accosted. Stealing a reporter's credentials, Lionel talks to Paul - who rages against Moses at the meeting.

Under the guise of reporting on the urban renewal story, Lionel gets to know Laura. She takes him to a club Frank was investigating, where her father Billy - assuming Lionel is one of Moses' men - has him beaten unconscious. Lionel is rescued by a trumpet player, and discovers that Paul is Moses' brother and an engineer. He realizes Lieberman is receiving kickbacks on many of the housing deals, and that the housing relocation programs are scams. Paul presents Moses with a huge renovation plan to improve the city.

Billy calls Lionel, apologizing for the attack and offering to meet with information. However, Lionel arrives to find Billy murdered - his death staged as a suicide. Staying the night with a distraught Laura at her house, Lionel admits his true identity and that he believes she is in danger. Finding photos of Paul meeting with Billy on his own, Lionel confronts Laura, who explains that her "Uncle" Paul is her real father. Paul denies this to Lionel, and explains that Frank and Billy planned to get more money out of Randolph's goons, against Paul's protests. He begs Lionel to find the evidence.

Lionel is brought to Moses, who invites him to join his team and stop snooping, with 24 hours to decide. Inside Frank's hat, Lionel finds the key to a Pennsylvania Station storage locker, containing a property deed and Laura's birth certificate, which reveals Moses is her father. Lionel gives the key to Paul and runs into Tony, who has been working surveillance for Randolph. Tony admits he has been sleeping with Julia, and tells Lionel to take Moses’ deal since Laura will soon be killed. Lionel races to save Laura, stopping her before she enters her apartment, and they flee. Laura knocks the large henchman off the fire escape, and Lou corners them with a gun but is hit in the with head with a trumpet by the trumpet player, who drives Laura out of town.

Lionel meets Moses, who reveals that he raped Laura's mother, one of his employees; Paul signed the birth certificate instead, but exposure of this secret threatened Moses. Lionel warns Moses to leave Laura alone or he will release the information. He informs Moses that Lieberman is on the take, and asks that when Moses has Lieberman killed, to tell him it is for Frank. Moses tells Lionel to tell Paul that his incredible plans for the city will proceed.

The next day, Moses denies Paul's plans out of spite, while Lionel mails the information to the reporter whose credentials he stole. Lionel drives to the property Frank left him in the deed, where Laura is waiting for him; as they sit together she begins to rub his back, in the manner Lionel previously explained in his narration that his mother would to help calm his frantic thinking.

Cast


Music

Norton e-mailed Radiohead singer Thom Yorke asking him to write a song for the film. 2 weeks later, Yorke emailed him a song, "Daily Battles". Yorke's Atoms for Peace bandmate Flea contributed bass and horns. Norton enlisted jazz musician Wynton Marsalis to rearrange the song as a ballad reminiscent of 1950s Miles Davis. Pianist Isaiah J. Thompson, bassist Russell Hall, saxophonist Jerry Weldon, and drummer Joe Farnsworth were recruited to complete Marsalis' version of the song. Both versions were used in the film, and were released on streaming services on August 21, 2019, and as a vinyl single on October 4, 2019.

Norton mentioned to composer Daniel Pemberton that he loved Vangelis' music for the film Chariots of Fire, "specifically because of its simple classical piano under this synth thing." Pemberton replied that the first equipment he has ever bought was the Yamaha CS-80 synthesizer, which was used by Vangelis for that film. He wrote the score for Motherless Brooklyn in less than 4 weeks and produced it in less than 2 weeks. He recoded it at Abbey Road Studios in 3 days.




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Motherless Brooklyn (film)" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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