Rydell Sometimes Sensitive And Other Times Saccharine ‘Intersection’ Director’S Body Of Work Is Broad But Inconsistent

Despite the popular notion that a director is supposed to be in charge, filmmaking remains a collaborative art.

Let us count the ways:

There’s the art director, who designs the sets through which the actors move.

There’s the cinematographer, who decides how to achieve the necessary camera effects.

There’s the editor, who splices and slashes through thousands of feet of exposed film to achieve a final product.

There’s the producer, who can be everything from a mere monied partner to a virtual co-director.

There are the stars, of course, ranging from the merely photogenic to the truly talented.

And then there’s the director, who in the classic sense (John Ford, Howard Hawks, etc.) is the one who shapes everything according to a personal vision.

More commonly, though, he (and, more and more, she) is the consensus-builder, wielding several visions into a whole.

No wonder so many contemporary films end up a disaster. As in sports, a team is only as strong as its weakest link. And that’s particularly true when the weak link in question is giving everyone else orders.

Take Mark Rydell, for example, whose latest directorial effort (“Intersection,” see capsule review below) will open on video Wednesday. A veteran of stage and television acting, Rydell has directed several popular television and big-screen productions, from segments of the TV series “Gunsmoke” and “I Spy” to movies such as “Cinderella Liberty” and “On Golden Pond.”

But his work has been remarkably inconsistent, too. As a director, Rydell has imbued nearly every project with a melodramatic sense that tends to reflect human relations as an exercise in weepy frustration.

At his best, Rydell has presented those exercises with a touching authenticity.

Who can stand the thought of John Wayne dying in “The Cowboys” or of Bette Midler dying in “The Rose”? Who isn’t moved by James Caan’s struggle to understand the mixed feelings he has for Marsha Mason in “Cinderella Liberty” or those that Jane Fonda has for her elderly father Henry in “On Golden Pond”?

At his worst, however, the emotions that Rydell probes bear as much relation to genuine life experiences as a Barney sing-a-long.

The relationship between Caan and Midler in the overblown “For the Boys” is as dramatically forced as that between Richard Gere and Sharon Stone, Gere and Lolita Davidovich or Gere and himself in “Intersection.”

The failure may not be all his fault. As I’ve said, in the collaborative process called filmmaking everyone has a role. In both “For the Boys” and “Intersection” the problem starts with the script, continues with the acting and, in the end, isn’t solved at any step along the way by the direction.

Maybe another director could have done better. Then again, considering all the high-priced, egoheavy acting presence of both films, maybe no one would have succeeded.

That’s why we have such things as remakes.

But then, that’s a whole other column.

Mark Rydell, a filmography

As actor:

“Crime in the Streets” (1956)

“The Long Goodbye” (1973)

“Punchline” (1988)

“Havana” (1990)

As producer:

“The Man in the Moon” (1991)

As director:

“The Fox” (1968)

“The Reivers” (1969)

“The Cowboys” (1972, also producer)

“Cinderella Liberty” (1973, also producer)

“Harry and Walter Go to New York” (1976)

“The Rose” (1978)

“On Golden Pond” (1981)

“The River” (1984)

“For the Boys” (1991, executive producer)

“Intersection” (1994, also coproducer)

What’s new to view

The week’s releases (dates are tentative):

WEDNESDAY “Intersection” (Paramount), “My Girl 2” (Columbia TriStar), “Far Away, So Close” (Columbia TriStar), “Chasers” (Warner).

Far Away, So Close (Rating: **)

The movies of German director Wim Wenders force you to think. In films such as “Paris, Texas” and “Until the End of the World,” Wenders takes a lengthy look at modern existence, keying in on why we do the things we do, from falling in love to running the government of a world power. In his 1988 film “Wings of Desire,” Wenders added a bit of spirituality to his list of concerns, using angels as characters who love and nurture humans as if they were children. One, portrayed by Bruno Ganz, eventually becomes a human.

In this sequel to that film, we pick up Ganz’s character as he welcomes another angel (Otto Sander) into the ranks of humanity. But from there, Wenders takes us on a tiresome trip that includes encounters with such disparate characters as rocker Lou Reed, Russian ex-leader Mikhail Gorbachev and actor Peter Falk (reprising his role as himself). The result is overly long, unevenly constructed and, at times, unbearably preachy. Rated PG-13.

Intersection (Rating: *1/2)

The challenge for director Mark Rydell (“For the Boys”) here was enormous: to make an audience actually care about a wealthy architect (Richard Gere) and his struggle to choose between the woman he married (Sharon Stone) and the woman he loves (Lolita Davidovich). I mean, really, how tough can this guy’s life be? Pretty tough, actually, if you accept the notion that money can’t buy happiness. Unfortunately, Rydell fails to capture any real sense of sympathy for Gere’s character and, instead, expends his efforts on fancy flashbacks and various camera gimmicks.

Maybe he had no choice, what with the lack of acting ability displayed both by Gere and Davidovich. The surprise is Stone, who actually gives a bit of depth to her ice-princess wife. Rated R.