tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57030763464343447432024-02-23T21:02:53.886-05:00Films Worth WatchingJonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10656287096270976604noreply@blogger.comBlogger174125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5703076346434344743.post-69191430264119007372017-07-29T06:00:00.000-04:002017-07-29T06:00:10.723-04:00My So-Called Life (1994-95) <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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(This review appears at <a href="https://wondersinthedark.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Wonders in the Dark</a> on their Top 80 Television Series of all time countdown at #49)<br />
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<em>“It just seems like you agree to have a certain personality or something..... for no reason......just to make things easier for everyone. But when you think about it.....how do you even know it’s you?”</em><br />
- Angela Chase<br />
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It’s hard to overstate the impact of <em>My So-Called Life </em>and the long shelf-life it has had, considering it only had one truncated season. No other show has ever captured the daily angst and passions of teenage life with as much honesty and intensity as this one. It is both a time-capsule piece and a progressive, universal kind of work. Had it played on premium cable, no doubt it would have survived long past its initial year. It has thus inspired an obsessive cult following since its initial run with strongly devoted followers and critics often labeling it as one of the <a href="http://ew.com/gallery/25-greatest-cult-tv-shows-ever/8-my-so-called-life" rel="noopener" target="_blank">10 greatest cult shows</a> of all time and/or the <a href="https://www.bustle.com/articles/109562-the-15-best-teen-shows-of-all-time-because-without-them-growing-up-would-have-been" rel="noopener" target="_blank">greatest teen drama</a> in all of television. It inspired a whole generation of fans that have continued to keep the show alive and relevant through (indulge me here) the creation of <a href="https://www.wired.com/2015/04/binge-guide-my-so-called-life/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">binge-watching guides,</a> <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/morganshanahan/did-the-boiler-room-episode-of-my-so-called-life-cause-your?utm_term=.wulG9Oo98#.mbbV0PA0y" rel="noopener" target="_blank">revelatory sexual awakening GIFs</a>, <a href="https://www.bustle.com/articles/5540-7-fashion-lessons-from-my-so-called-life" rel="noopener" target="_blank">fashion tributes,</a> <a href="http://www.vulture.com/2014/09/angela-chase-my-so-called-life-wardrobe.html" rel="noopener" target="_blank">fashion analysis with the costume designer</a>- including an <a href="http://www.vulture.com/2014/09/angela-chase-my-so-called-life-wardrobe/slideshow/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">outfit-by-outfit breakdown</a> of everything Angela wore during the show, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dear-Angela-Remembering-So-Called-Television/dp/0739116924" rel="noopener" target="_blank">a book of critical analysis and essays</a>, <a href="http://hazlitt.net/feature/everybody-hurts-soundtrack-my-so-called-life" rel="noopener" target="_blank">a breakdown of the show’s use of music</a>, <a href="http://www.much.com/what-we-think-a-my-so-called-life-reunion-would-look-like/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">fantasy reunions,</a> <a href="http://en.mediamass.net/culture/my-so-called-life/reunion.html" rel="noopener" target="_blank">rumors of reunions</a>, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/07/my-so-called-life-reunion_n_3405818.html" rel="noopener" target="_blank">actual reunions</a>, <a href="http://www.vulture.com/2014/09/winnie-holzman-my-so-called-life-finale-chat.html" rel="noopener" target="_blank">continued discussions with Winnie Holzman (writer)</a>, and <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/07/what-i-learned-from-rewatching-my-so-called-life-as-an-adult/492005/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">re-watch analysis as an adult,</a> among many other things. There is simply no end to the insatiable passion the show has inspired and continues to inspire.<br />
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Much of the appeal of the show is credited to the solid acting by the entire cast and the excellent writing by Winnie Holzman, who was tapped to write by executive producers Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick (<em>Thirtysomething</em>). Airing only 19 of an originally intended 22 episode season, the show aired on ABC from August 25<sup>th</sup>, 1994 to January 26<sup>th</sup>, 1995. Amazingly, before airing the final episode, Claire Danes had already won the Best Actress Golden Globe Award for Television Drama! Following the 19<sup>th</sup> episode, the series went into purgatory for a few months as ABC tried to determine what to do with it due to its low ratings and allegedly it was during this time that Claire Danes began to have doubts about continuing on as well. I didn’t catch it during its initial run, but like many others I caught onto it during MTV’s re-airings, which started on April 10<sup>th</sup>, 1995, even before the show was officially cancelled. It was a unique scenario for a show after its first year. During this time, there was also a significant fan campaign push to try to save the show. One can begin to understand the scenario more clearly by watching <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzZRFr6oZG8" rel="noopener" target="_blank">this clip</a> from MTV News which aired in April 1995….<br />
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It was during this run on MTV that I became aware of the show and began religiously watching and recording each episode on VHS. I continued to watch and rewatch and rewatch them. It felt like I was part of something special. I wasn’t the only one. From 1995 through the rest of the 90’s, <em>My So-Called Life</em> was one of MTV’s most watched programs where it built a following based on its relatable themes, characters, and sharp writing. <em>MSCL</em> was progressive in its portrayal of teens, handling disaffection, learning disabilities, sex and sexual identity, drugs/alcohol with respect and empathy. It also didn't use these topics as "special episodes" the way other shows traditionally did but instead weaved them throughout the narrative. Additionally, the show’s intentions and attitude towards the first openly gay teenage character on television was further proof of the show’s warmth and generosity. At the time, it also felt like the only show where the conversations between the characters sounded just like the conversations I would have in real life, with a heavy inclusion of filler talk (“like” is used often) lending a relaxed and natural tone to the show. (I honestly can't think of another show that has ever done that, so if anyone else can, I'd like to hear about it.) Its young stars like Claire Danes and Jared Leto soon entered into film careers which further solidified the interest and clamor for syndication and subsequent releases on video and DVD. Founded in 1997, <a href="https://www.mscl.com/">https://www.mscl.com/</a> became the go-to place on the net for fans to collaborate, share information and passion on the show. It’s still the place to go for a plethora of details and minutia, including full transcripts of each episode.<br />
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My So-Called Life is mainly set at the fictional Liberty High School near Pittsburgh, PA and follows a group of students but also contains plot lines involving Angela’s parents and a few teachers. It tackles many of the usual topics of life as a teen but does so with sobering conviction and intense feeling: young love, friendships, drugs and alcohol, sex, parents. It’s amazing how perfectly The Pilot episode lays out the themes. (Winnie Holzman said “<em>It was kind of magical, that pilot. I remember people like the sound person, or the grip, or the makeup artist, turning to me and just being really touched by a scene that had just shot. People were really responding to it intensely</em>.”) Right from the beginning, The Pilot sets up all of the key characters and the key elements: Angela’s search for identity and all-consuming obsession with Jordan Catalano; Brian’s yearning for Angela; Angela and Sharon’s fractured friendship; Rayanne’s drinking problems; Graham and Patty’s fractured marriage and parenting challenges; Ricky’s search for comfort and home. Throughout the season, Angela and Jordan’s on-again/off-again relationship rides a roller coaster, from passionate love to intense betrayal. All of the supporting characters have their own revolving dramas, but the show maintains a sparkling, clear trajectory throughout. Here are the cast of characters and their general synopsis:<br />
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<strong>Angela Chase (Claire Danes)</strong>– Our lead character and heart and soul of the show. She is a 15 year-old who lives with her parents and younger sister Danielle. She is finding her identity, searching for independence, and is obsessed with Jordan Catalano, a fellow student who was held back a few years. She’s at a key time in her life where she is coming to grips with the disappointments and realities of life while building key friendships and coming into her own voice. Most of the episodes contain a narration by Angela Chase. Her commentary is a significant appeal to the show. These narrated gems from just the pilot episode give pointed insights into Angela’s character:<br />
<em>“I cannot bring myself to eat a well-balanced meal in front of my mother. It just means too much to her.”</em><br />
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<em> </em><em>“Lately I can’t even look at my mother without wanting to stab her. Repeatedly.”</em><br />
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<em> </em><em>“My parents keep asking how school was. It’s like asking “how was that drive-by shooting?””</em><br />
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<em> </em><em>“My dad and I used to be pretty tight. The sad truth is….my breasts have come between us.”</em><br />
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(<a href="http://www.elle.com/culture/movies-tv/a40594/my-so-called-life-cast-interviews/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">This link to an oral history of the show</a> has an absolute treasure-trove of quotes from the cast and crew on character and plot details including this gem on Angela’s character from Hair Stylist Candy Walken – “<em>When I interviewed for the show, Ed Zwick said, "Our lead actress, who's 13 and will turn 14 during the pilot, will bleach her hair platinum blonde in the first episode. How are you going to deal with that?" And I said, "I wouldn't. That color is going to age her, it's going to harden her. And it's not believable. Bleaching your hair platinum blonde is not something you can do in your bathroom. You're going to get all kinds of weird colors if you try to do it yourself. It will [also] destroy this poor child's hair and change the texture, and it will not be an easy thing to remedy if the pilot doesn't go." So Winnie says, "What would you do then?" And I said, "I would do bright red</em>.")<br />
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<strong>Graham (Tom Irwin) and Patty Chase (Bess Armstrong) </strong>– Angela’s parents who both work in Patty’s family printing company. Graham works for Patty at the company, even though he wants to be a chef and start a restaurant. Patty is challenged by Angela’s rebellion and also by Graham’s potential cheating. There are signs of fracture in their relationship but the love for their children is paramount.<br />
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<strong>Rayanne Graf (A.J. Langer)</strong>– A bundle of energy, Rayanne is the school bad-girl. She lives with her mother and struggles with self-destructive behaviors involving drugs, alcohol and sex. She is Angela’s new best friend and is very close friends with Rickie who is nearly always with her.<br />
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<strong>Brian Krakow (Devon Gummersall)</strong> – Angela’s neighbor friend and fellow student is the brains of the school but is socially inept. He’s hopelessly in love with Angela and can’t bring himself to let her know it. He’s artistic, awkward, uptight, and painfully jealous of Jordan and Angela’s relationship. Brian gets to narrate one episode entitled “Life of Brian”.<br />
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<strong>Rickie Vasquez (Wilson Cruz)</strong> – Rayanne’s best friend and soon to be Angela’s close friend as they turn into a group of “Three Musketeers”, continually having conversations about love and life together in the girls bathroom. Ricky is gay and lives with his aunt and uncle until later in the series when Ricky is abused and winds up homeless.<br />
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<strong>Sharon Cherski (Devon Odessa)</strong> – Angela’s former best friend with whom she has a strong shared history. Their relationship is filled with friction due to Angela spending more time with Rayanne. Sharon is pretty, is involved, and tends to toe-the-line at school and in her life, but as the season goes on she begins to adapt and change<br />
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<strong>Jordan Catalano (Jared Leto) </strong>– He’s incredibly handsome, has a poor school record, and he’s in a band with his friend Tino called Frozen Embryos. He's every parent's worst nightmare but he’s Angela’s love interest and soon enters into an angst-filled relationship with her that forms the backbone of the show’s storyline.(To display the show’s lasting reach, recently those born between 1977-1983 have been dubbed <a href="http://www.avclub.com/article/old-millennials-re-brand-more-palatable-xennials-257643" rel="noopener" target="_blank">“Xennials” </a>, AKA <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/life/culturebox/2011/10/generation_catalano_the_generation_stuck_between_gen_x_and_the_m.html" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Generation Catalano.</a>)<br />
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<strong>Danielle Chase (Lisa Wilhoit)</strong> – Angela’s little sister is almost constantly ignored yet forms a comparative counterpoint to Angela’s complications. She is a relatively minor character, yet does get to narrate one episode entitled “Weekend.”<br />
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<strong>Tino </strong>– Much mentioned but never seen Tino “appears” in almost every show due to the fact that people are always bringing him up, as in “Tino’s going to pick us up” or “Tino can get us in”. He’s mostly Jordan and Rayanne’s friend and is the lead singer of Frozen Embryos.<br />
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As a way of analyzing the show and providing context I’ve collected several effective short clips to provide examples of the greatness of the show as I think dissecting small scenes can be really insightful. I provide short commentary with each link.<br />
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Episode 12 - Self-Esteem: This clip displays the absolute perfection of the voice-over and how Angela’s internal thoughts connect to her outward behavior. There’s this perfect moment where Claire Danes sort of rolls her eyes away in disgust in the most subtle way while she lies on the couch. I know I’ve had times in my life where Sunday nights felt like the most depressing moment of the week.<br />
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Episode 5 - The Zit: This scene shows an almost unbearable level of conflict between Patty and Angela. The way that Angela reluctantly comes to what’s really on her mind feels incredibly authentic. Also, the way Claire Danes turns her back to the camera and her mother when she comes to the most emphatic moment of the discussion makes it all the more impactful.<br />
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Episode 5 - The Zit: This is a very charming and personal favorite moment of interaction between Jordan and Brian as they are discussing Kafka’s Metamorphosis and the homework related to it. It’s also a good example of the humorous undercurrent of the show as Jordan and Brian just do not speak the same language. Additionally, there is beautiful interplay in the scene as Rickie, Sharon, and Rayanne all enter into the conversation at different times. This is one of Jared Leto’s best and most subtle moments of the series.<br />
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Episode 7 - Why Jordan Can't Read: I think this is a really strong scene for Angela and Jordan as they begin to learn more about each other in ways they aren’t expecting. Angela’s stammering explanation of her letter is a sly, comedic take from Claire Danes. Jordan’s nervous way of acknowledging his reading disability and then coyly moving on afterward are really strong moments for Jared Leto.<br />
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Episode 1 - The Pilot: A classic moment from the pilot as Angela, Rayanne and Rickie are discussing what they want another person to say romantically right before you would “do it”. Also, this is one of the best moments showing the chemistry between these three characters as they wait for Tino to arrive at the club.<br />
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Episode 3 - Guns and Gossip: Another scene that displays how important the internal monologue and the voice-over is important to the show. It’s also a really moving scene because of how conflicted Angela and Jordan are and how they struggle to communicate effectively. Claire Danes can switch her emotions on a dime and the way she looks away from Jordan when she is about to cry shows a great actress at work here.<br />
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Episode 17 - Betrayal: This is a beautiful moment where Angela is truly happy and jubilant and it occurs during a period when Angela and Jordan are on the outs. Another example of the show’s use of music to good effect with the Violent Femmes "Blister in the Sun" playing and Angela rocking out and lip syncing along. Claire Danes easily gives the biggest smile of the entire series as she rolls over in bed.<br />
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Episode 7 - Why Jordan Can't Read: Brian and Angela interacting over the topic of Jordan while playing catch. Brian’s questions are embarrassingly obvious as he tries to probe into Angela’s psyche on the topic of love. Angela hurls the ball at Brian when he asks a question she doesn’t want to be asked and I love the way Devon Gummersall says “Why Not?” as if he can’t help himself and he adds in a pause just before he says it.<br />
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Episode 12 - Self Esteem: Many people consider “the Hallway Scene” to be the best scene in the entire series. It’s important to note as you watch this scene that this is a moment in Jordan and Angela’s relationship where Jordan has been trying to keep their relationship a private one and Angela has become very frustrated by his unwillingness to acknowledge it in public. This is the moment when he crosses the hallway in front of her friends to show his intentions to everyone. Brian’s angst on the sidelines presents it’s own drama. Buffalo Tom’s “Late at Night” gets put to great use during this scene. The entire thing has perfect editing and says so much even though there isn’t much dialogue. I love the way Brian looks over his shoulder at Jordan and also the way that Angela looks away from Jordan as he approaches.<br />
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If I had to make a top 10 favorite TV characters list, Angela Chase would be my number 1 without a doubt if you haven’t caught on to that already. There is so much about her that I identify(-fied) with: personality and outlook on life, sense of humor, her search for authenticity and the real self. What's been a pleasant surprise on re-viewings though, has been how relatable the show is from the parent’s standpoint. As a teen, I never cared much for the scenes involving the parents but now that I have two girls of my own at home and have daily parenting responsibilities, I am as captivated by the parenting challenges and concerns almost as much as Angela’s storylines, proving to me the lasting depth and quality of the show. For everyone’s viewing pleasure, every episode is available for free streaming on <a href="http://abc.go.com/shows/my-so-called-life" rel="noopener" target="_blank">ABC online</a>. Despite the fact I would have loved to have seen more from these characters in further seasons, the show maintains it’s aura and freshness due to its having only one extremely satisfying season. It maintains a kind of perfection or something…… like, in my humble opinion.Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10656287096270976604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5703076346434344743.post-55602100154966229172017-05-23T06:00:00.000-04:002017-05-23T13:51:44.782-04:00Allan Fish Online Film Festival: Street Angel (1928) - Frank Borzage<div align="center" class="separator" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8a6GSANTaFZqG0Sv8ny7ygkAUsdV9b14d2ibIkIcyu0E7qv4pTD_4GBJYFI8kHQ6LCh5KoA_VPt8ziZGZyljUFnU5khmusE-DuGQppppMN6cKd6OcvwhWLSwaF7vYS4lMZ7o-bH3MyQ/s1600/Street3.jpg"><br /></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> (Re-posted with updates in honor of the <a href="https://wondersinthedark.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Allan Fish Online Film Festival</a>)</span></div>
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<i>”Everywhere….in every town….in every
street….we pass, unknowing, human souls made great through love and adversity.”<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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One of Allan Fish's greatest gifts was sharing his passion for films
long forgotten or never fully appreciated. In keeping with that theme, my
review highlights a film never before posted to <a href="https://wondersinthedark.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Wonders in the Dark</a>. Certainly not made
for cynical audiences, Borzage represents a style of filmmaking that has mostly
fallen out of favor. Here we have a director who pulls together themes of love
and hardship, complete with expressive use of atmosphere: streets, apartments,
rooftops filmed with scintillating panache. Then, throw all this together with
heavy doses of melodramatic plot twists that are simply too crazy to believe. Melodrama,
in the hands of Sirk or Fassbinder, tends to be something that modern audiences
have welcomed. Their use of color and symbolism adds a layer of
subversive commentary that Borzage lacks. But, Borzage excels at a certain kind
of irony-free, old-fashioned story-telling that to my mind is worth championing
for its propellant emotional energy.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Although<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>7<sup>th</sup><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Heaven</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>gets most of the attention, and<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Lucky Star</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>is a hidden gem,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Street Angel</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>is my favorite Borzage film and is a
romantic masterpiece of the highest order, provided you’re willing to suspend
disbelief. It is the story of Angela (Janet Gaynor), who in need of money
to purchase medicine for her mother attempts to prostitute herself on the
street. She winds up getting arrested for robbery and sentenced to a year in a
work house. She runs off before being imprisoned and escapes to find her
mother dead at home. She avoids the cops and runs off to join the circus, where
she meets a painter named Gino. They strike up an awkward friendship, but soon
bond and fall in love. Their blossoming love, and impending marriage is
threatened when the police find her again. She is taken to prison while Gino is
unaware. He thinks she is lost forever and things get really interesting when
she is released from prison a year later.<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Janet Gaynor won the first Academy Award for Best Actress for her
portrayals in three films:<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Sunrise</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>(1927),<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>7<sup>th</sup><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Heaven</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>(1927), and<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Street Angel</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>(1928). AMPAS first designed these
awards to be based upon an actor’s body of work for that entire year. Her
performances in the Borzage films are tops, and<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Street Angel</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>is the best of the three for me. She’s
simply magic here. <i>Sunrise</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> doesn’t
quite </span>capitalize on her sincere and varied emotional qualities as well
as the Borzage films, and in fact Borzage makes far greater use of her range
than Murnau’s film. She also has great chemistry with her leading man, Charles
Ferrell, whom she appeared with in a total of 12 films together! His
performance here is solid, and much more understated than in<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>7<sup>th</sup><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Heaven</i>. <span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Borzage’s use of wildly ridiculous melodramatic elements is to my
mind, highly entertaining and emotionally satisfying, and a significant draw to
his appeal. In the Borzage universe, the obstacles thrown in love’s way forces
one to sacrifice, make tough choices, and is a true test of how devoted one’s
love is. Love is not proven true until it perseveres beyond adversity, and this
is most apparent in <i>Street Angel</i>. His
emphasis on depth of field, layered set design, and shadowed lighting are also
impeccable.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Street Angel</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>includes some fantastic tracking shots
and pans, use of silhouette, and of particular note, there is an intensely
crafted scene among thick fog along the docks at the end of the film. This is a
memorable set-piece, filled with suspense and romantic desperation that then
culminates in a perversely emotional climax that finishes in a church. Although
I don’t know how Allan felt about this film (he doesn’t list it in his 5,000
important works so I suppose that says something), I hope viewers find ways to
appreciate this one. <span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">View here:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cj6nUVPecxU">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cj6nUVPecxU</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10656287096270976604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5703076346434344743.post-63076121016530833942017-05-03T14:50:00.002-04:002017-05-03T14:50:19.697-04:00Allan Fish Online Film Festival<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://wondersinthedark.wordpress.com/2017/05/02/allan-fish-online-film-festival-2017/" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOuDBSgE-I3-zphrRbCbP1TJVpm58hmqQbmhoCLT2FSlriN1yhycEHqWs_1rT2VmtmJhq4qq_yPQnrWHpAv_6qSXOoHojMUvClAhpIw2hSPfvmz_oPsQzJYjDDkNaKoS8-xAZdoOaE9g/s320/afoff_2017-web2.jpg" width="238" /></a></div>
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To honor the late Allan Fish, I will be participating in this online film festival. Looking forward to this experience where we can share access to all sorts of films available for viewing online, much as he did during his brief but brilliant life.Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10656287096270976604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5703076346434344743.post-78892290065891594562015-10-14T20:43:00.003-04:002015-10-14T20:43:40.294-04:00Kes (1969) - Directed by Ken Loach<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Billy Casper lives with his elder brother Jud and his mother. They live
in a small flat in a factory/mining town in Northern England. Both brothers
share the same bed. Billy goes about each day to school wearing the same
outfit, always looking rather worn and dirty. He cares not. When he’s not at
school, Billy can be seen wandering around town on his paper route, stealing
milk or meandering around the countryside with a stick, whacking away at brush
and weeds or doing a bit of birdwatching, or getting into a fight with his
brother. Though Billy seems to have a great deal of freedom to spend his time
as he pleases, his existence has a predestined endpoint based upon where he
lives and the family he has born into. In his world in Northern England, there
is little hope for a future full of possibilities. He’s expected to learn
little in school and indeed, nearly all of the adult figures in the film seem
to have it in for Billy. Without fighting against the grain, Billy is likely to
take a low paying job in the mines, just like his elder brother does or his
father may have done. We would know more about his father if he hadn’t left the
family. Billy lives in a world where nearly everyone expects the worst in him,
or even goes so far as to antagonize him to keep him down, especially the
school superintendent who seems determined to crush everyone’s spirits. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In the same way that some parents may try to steer their children to
more practical choices when they hear that they want to pursue a career as a
painter or English major instead of a lawyer or doctor. Billy also finds a most
‘impractical’ object of interest instead of prepping to pursue a more
appropriate career in a factory or mine: Training a kestrel. After seeing some
kestrels flying in a field, Billy pilfers a book on the subject of Falconry
from a local bookshop. Determined to pursue this quest, he rather quickly becomes
a master on the subject. Not only does Billy catch a kestrel, but he houses,
feeds, and trains it with such a respect for craft and expertise that he begins
to take on a sort of maturity of spirit through his relationship with the bird
he calls Kes. As time marches on, Billy splits his time between school and his
bird, with Kes being his clear favorite thing in the world. Billy finds a
certain peace and power shifted to him through his passion, ingenuity, and
initiative to train his bird, which in its own way is his act of social
defiance as he refuses to conform to the expectations of mediocrity and
humiliation set before him by parents, school principles (“Your’s is the
generation that never listens!” ), coaches and employment agencies. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">David Bradley’s performance as Billy goes down as one of the most naturalistic
in the realm of childhood roles. You never for once see him attempting to act. Ken
Loach of course supports this approach through the way he films, but you still
have to cast it correctly. Billy is so slight and grungy that he seems more
like a 10 year-old boy who rolls in the mud, rather than a 15 year-old boy on
the cusp of young adulthood. There are all those things he’s <i>supposed</i> to be thinking about at age 15,
like girls. But, Billy has a state of mind devoid of distractions like that. For
him, he sees no limitations yet, refuses to give in, and is determined to let
his interests carry him through the day without anyone stopping him. Despite the
fact that people believe Billy can’t read (“What's tha got this (book) for when
thou can't read?”), Billy clearly can read above the ability that is expected
of him. Billy’s voice-over while training the bird, as he repeats the lines
from the book regarding feeding and training, act both as a means of showing us
how intentional Billy is to follow the guidance in the book to the last detail,
but also to show us that he is internalizing it, mastering it and can clearly read
above and beyond what others think he can. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I would be remiss if I forgot to mention a particular vignette in the
film. There’s a funny and very detailed sequence during a physical education
session where the gym teacher gathers all the boys to play soccer for their
exercise for the day. The coach seems to live in some kind of absurd man-child
existence. It’s pretty hilarious when the coach says, “Alright we’re Manchester
United, who are you?” The teacher is playing harder than any of the boys and
makes it seem like it’s a life and death match, pushing the kids around,
calling penalties and generally wreaking havoc. To my mind, this sequence is
about as accurate a depiction of what it’s like to be a bunch of boys called
together to play a game on a field. Half the boys aren’t even paying attention
with two fat boys playing some kind of pat-a-cake game and Billy climbing on
the goalpost driving the teacher nuts. It’s a rather hilarious and truthful
sequence in all, inducing both laughs and cringes and is one of the highlights
of the film. Loach has a lot of fun with this sequence by displaying the score
of the game as if it’s a live broadcast on television.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Loach builds the film to its most moving sequence when Billy has to
relay a truthful story to the class. Everyone pressures him into talking about
his bird. He proceeds to explain to a rapt audience about how he trained his
bird Kes, how he feeds it, how he trained it to fly on the leash and then how
he got up the gumption to let Kes fly without a leash. It’s a riveting scene
and it’s mostly due to the way Billy comes to life when he talks about his
bird. It’s his time to shine. What is so defining about this scene is that it
is a window into the possibilities that may lie ahead for Billy. This display
of passion, leadership and expertise is a shock to those around him (even his
teacher) as it goes completely against what his “life’s calling” is supposed to
be. Even Billy’s teacher finally gives attention to him, coming to visit him
and his bird and witnessing what Billy and his bird can do. It’s the one moment
where an adult takes an interest in supporting Billy. Loach thus reminds us
through this of the importance of parents, teachers and mentors in the lives of
all children and how they can support the children in their lives. Yet, the end
of the film is a quick comedown as Billy’s life in Northern England isn’t going
to provide any easy pathways. His brother swiftly kills Kes to repay a bit of
mischief on Billy’s part. One couldn’t think of anything more cruel or
spirit-crushing to happen to Billy. He doesn’t let the bird stay in the
trash-can though, fishing him out of there to give him a proper burial. Despite
this grievous loss, there’s clearly been growth in Billy. Kes is a masterful,
realistic coming of age story, told with particular grace and sensitivity by
Ken Loach. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10656287096270976604noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5703076346434344743.post-43758059331087041412015-08-30T12:44:00.002-04:002015-08-30T12:44:33.891-04:00Boyhoood (2014) - Directed by Richard Linklater<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">When I recall my childhood, there is a remembrance of a certain feeling
I used to have a kid. I used to feel like the years dragged on and on and never
seemed to end. Christmas never came soon enough. Birthdays took too long to
come around again. Summer dragged on in a stream of endless days. Boredom often
creeped in and time seemed to go so slowly that I couldn’t stand it. I’m not
sure if that’s a common feeling that many of us had as children, but it’s
certainly something that came to my mind often. There was something that always
made me feel like I wished adulthood would come soon. But it seemed so far
away. Flash forward to my current existence at the age of 35. Months seem to
flash by in the blink of an eye. There is never enough time to do everything I
need to accomplish or want to accomplish. It seemed we were just getting our
two girls to be potty-trained and now BOTH of them will be getting on the bus
in September. It’s getting so I can hardly remember how my girls behaved and
acted when they were younger. At some point in time, our lives go from dragging
on slowly, to flashing in front of us so quickly that we can hardly keep up. I
can’t pinpoint when that changed for me, but it certainly has and I have no
doubt it may be many years again before time slows if it ever will. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Some might focus on the fact that Richard Linklater’s <i>Boyhood</i> is a story of a young boy and
his growth from small child to young manhood. With my current perspective as
parent, more so than child, the film plays more for me as an example of just
how quickly time passes, how fleeting our family units can be, how so much of
life becomes a blur, and especially from the parental perspective: how quickly
our children grow up. In this way, it simply, but devastatingly examines childhood as if we are loving relatives,
guardians or parents, viewing the story of Mason Evans through our own lens,
wherever we may be on that spectrum. For me it’s clear that Linklater, who was
the father of his 8 year-old daughter Lorelei whom he cast in this film in
2002, was influenced by his own childhood, but also by his own sense of
parenting a child. For many parents, every year that passes can be marked most
often by things their children are doing. <i>Boyhood</i>
can be viewed in nearly the same way and is the mode of reflection that
resonates most with me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">As it plays out for nearly 3 hours, we view in vignette form, a sequence
or two filmed using the same actors and actresses over the course of 12 years.
These sequences are magically edited and strung together so effortlessly, the
film almost never seems to skip a beat despite the length of the filming
process. Ellar Coltrane plays Mason from age 6 to age 18. Lorelei Linklater plays
his older sister Samantha; Patricia Arquette plays their mother Olivia; and
Ethan Hawke plays the father Mason Sr. It’s hard to describe any particular
sequence as being a standout as the film truly is greater than the sum of its
parts, with each successive scene (and therefore passage of real time) building
exponentially upon the previous. Most of the plot could be considered fairly
standard and straightforward stuff: parental separation, moving, remarriage,
divorce, girlfriends, drugs etc. What is most memorable is just how effortless
and weighty it all becomes with the impact of the aging of the actors and how
quickly the changes occur in front of us. To quote Ethan Hawke, the film is “a
little like time-lapse photography of a human being”. But considering it’s such
a conceptually-gimmicky premise, the film is superbly underplayed and
unassuming with a strong sense of humble honesty. Linklater lays out the film
for us and lets the aging actors do things to our minds that no other film
trickery could do. I recall hearing about the premise of this film at the time
of the release of <i>Before Sunset</i> back
in 2004 and thinking about how cool and amazing it would be if Linklater was
ever able to finish the film. However, I did have my doubts about being able to
execute such a lengthy project as <i>Boyhood</i>.
It is one of the more significant film achievements to have completed <i>Boyhood</i> as initially planned and have it
turn out as simple and edited together as if there was never a hitch. It’s
really a marvel of a film.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">And this now brings us back to real life and our own existence. It’s
hard not to feel like time is slipping away. You try to make time to slow down
and enjoy the moment as often as you can but there is a prevailing sense that
it’s all futile and time will slip away very quickly. Our memories will fade
and fail; our efforts will often go unnoticed and we’ll fail to appreciate the
things and people around us. I think Patricia Arquette’s monologue sequence at
the end of the film is something that leaves a strong impression upon me. She
says, “You know what I'm realizing? My life is just going to go. Like that.
This series of milestones. Getting married. Having kids. Getting divorced. The
time that we thought you were dyslexic. When I taught you how to ride a bike.
Getting divorced... again. Getting my master’s degree. Finally getting the job
I wanted. Sending Samantha off to college. Sending you off to college. You know
what's next? Huh? It's my fucking funeral!” She ends by saying, “I just thought
there would be more.” As I read into that last line, it can be more of many
things: more time with our children, more to life, more time to enjoy the journey.
The more we mark time, the more we realize what has passed us by. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10656287096270976604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5703076346434344743.post-44923159589513048502015-02-08T09:42:00.000-05:002015-02-08T09:45:27.724-05:00Gone Girl: Insult to CinemaSo now I'm relegated to writing about films that arise deep dissatisfaction. Last year, 2014, continues to be the year of cinema that underwhelms and annoys. And in the case of <i>Gone Girl</i>, I would say we have found the biggest example of cinematic tripe disguised as critically praised masterpiece. From all corners (88% Rottentomatoes, 79% Metacritic), this film has gotten heaps of praise. In this day and age, that's not necessarily saying anything though. Today's critical establishment is made up of numerous self made critics, the likes of which can gain access to these sites through blogs or online "zines" without any actual significant time building up a reputation over the years. Heck even I could be one of them if I really wanted to. The years of Siskel and Ebert are so far behind us, it's almost comical with which we look to sites like RT or Metacritic to tell us that a film is great, due to the network of nobody's that make up the data set. But I guess I'm not surprised that it's a Fincher film that is drawing my ire. I find his cinema to be stilted, manipulative and misogynistic. <i>Gone Girl</i> continues his grand tradition. It is far and away the worst film of 2014 that I've seen, as it positions itself as some kind of intelligent, pulpy noir, but in actuality, is a manipulative, pretentious, misogynistic piece of trash.<br />
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One of my main issues with the film is the way that it shifts point of view to serve the needs of suspense and entertainment. The first hour carefully avoids telling us certain information in order to set up the final 90 minutes. We're not even privy to the Ben Affleck character's every move in order to build suspicion of his character, when in actuality, the story never follows through on this point of view, continually shifting to the Rosamund Pike character's voice over in flashbacks. These flashbacks near the beginning are deliberately manipulated to allow us to believe she's the innocent voice from the grave. But it's only the lack of information provided by the director that deliberately avoids telling us her true story until the entertainment requires the switch of tone in the second half. If it's one thing I can't stand, it's a director whose film only becomes entertainment through bait and switch. Literally, the suspense and structure of the entire film revolves around the director leading us on through avoidance of complete information. If you think back to shifting points of view in <i>Rashomon</i> (1950), one realizes it was done to speak to the audience about truth. Shifting points of view in <i>Gone Girl</i> are only utilized to keep us needlessly guessing. I literally cannot understand how the critical masses were foolish enough to allow themselves to be blindly entertained by such manipulative and self-serving cinema. Literally the first hour is pointless set-up to serve the needs of the switcheroo. As was put well by another review, this is a cinema of obfuscation.<br />
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This is not to mention the extreme misogynism of the film. Every female character in this film is either a fool, a gossip, an easy woman, or a psycho. The lying and cheating husband is positioned as practically a Saint in this film compared to all the women. The Detective Rhonda Boney character is shown to be slow to act and indeed paralyzed into inaction at the end even when she knows the truth. What about the gossipy women on the newscasts who appear petty and flighty? What about the sister who is so subserviently tied to her brother that she can't come up with anything to do but find ways to support him? What about the Andie Fitzgerald girl who gets naked for one scene, appearing like the uncaring, easy woman with nothing more to add? What about the "trailer trash" girl at the cabin? What about the "best friend" who unwittingly pees her way into a con? Last but not least, what about the Amy character, who is a complete psycho, who has gone so far off the grid that her manipulation and revenge tactics make her par with the devil? All of this makes the Ben Affleck character and the Tyler Perry characters look like the "sane" ones in a sea of crazy, idiotic women. <i>Gone Girl</i> is offensive and unintelligent in the worst way. All those critics that got fooled by it should have their responsibilities for film criticism removed.<br />
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<br />Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10656287096270976604noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5703076346434344743.post-39834112467693804062014-12-26T09:55:00.000-05:002014-12-27T21:39:33.597-05:00What happened to 2014?<div class="MsoNormal">
To think that anyone has missed my blogging over the last 6 months is probably no reason to begin writing again. There are always numerous blogs and sites to get opinions from. Mine is no more valid than anyone else's. However, I have missed writing about films. Perhaps the reason is that I have not had the urge to write about any of the films I've seen lately. I literally haven't been inspired to write about anything because I seemingly have seen very little that has been worth writing about. To date, I have not seen one film released in 2014 that is worthy of being deemed a masterpiece. By this time last year, I'd already seen Gravity, 12 Years a Slave, Before Midnight, To the Wonder, Wolf of Wall Street etc. In looking back at my 2013 list, I'm amazed at the number of magnificent films...</div>
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11. Fill the Void<o:p></o:p></div>
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10. Short Term 12<o:p></o:p></div>
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9. To the Wonder<o:p></o:p></div>
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8. The Wolf of Wall Street<o:p></o:p></div>
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7. Blue Jasmine<o:p></o:p></div>
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6. Prisoners<o:p></o:p></div>
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5. Laurence Anyways<o:p></o:p></div>
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4. The Act of Killing<o:p></o:p></div>
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3. Gravity<o:p></o:p></div>
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2. Before Midnight<o:p></o:p></div>
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1. 12 Years a Slave.<o:p></o:p></div>
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But getting back to the films released in 2014, I've been continually let-down. I’m a huge Wes Anderson fan, and there is a buddy of mine
who I watched The Grand Budapest Hotel with who is also a huge fan, and neither of us found it to be as
emotionally resonant as his 3 best works (Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, Moonrise Kingdom). Or there is Ida, which is being so highly praised in many places. It was very good, but didn't blow me away. Under the Skin was highly repetitive throughout its runtime. It had some inspired spots, but it didn't shine throughout. Interstellar was solid, as was Mr. Turner. I also really liked Enemy, and The Fault in Our Stars. But I still haven't seen a masterpiece. This is not a complete list, but a sampling of what I saw and what I thought.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p>Out of 4 stars....</o:p></div>
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Interstellar ***<o:p></o:p></div>
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The Fault in Our Stars ***</div>
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Mr. Turner (UK) ***<o:p></o:p></div>
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The Grand Budapest Hotel ***<o:p></o:p></div>
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Hateship, Loveship ***<br />
Ida ***<o:p></o:p></div>
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Calvary (UK) ***<o:p></o:p></div>
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Belle ***<o:p></o:p></div>
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Under the Skin (UK) ** 1/2<o:p></o:p></div>
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Snowpiercer * 1/2</div>
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Frank *</div>
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The Lego Movie **</div>
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The Theory of Everything **</div>
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Still Alice ***</div>
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The Double * 1/2</div>
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Enemy *** 1/2</div>
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Gloria ** 1/2</div>
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Blue Ruin ***</div>
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The Lunchbox *** 1/2</div>
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A Most Wanted Man ***</div>
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Chef ***</div>
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Tim's Vermeer ***</div>
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Joe ***</div>
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So I suppose at this point, the closest ones to being truly great were Enemy and The Lunchbox. But Enemy had a few spots that felt un-fleshed out, and The Lunchbox, though borderline a masterpiece, was a 2013 film in some circles. </div>
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Maybe I am losing touch with the cinematic medium this year. I just don’t see how I could have 11 films I adored last year, and none from this year. It’s so strange. This is probably having more to say about me than anything else I suppose. Part of this disappointment with finding great films has caused my blogging to dissipate, as I mentioned. I just haven’t been inspired to write about anything. This isn’t to say I didn’t like Budapest and Mr. Turner or Interstellar. I liked them all. But they weren’t full-on masterpieces to me. There are still many films to see....Boyhood, Birdman, Foxcatcher, etc. I'm hoping for a great film soon. </div>
Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10656287096270976604noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5703076346434344743.post-9044616091847549472014-09-28T20:00:00.000-04:002014-09-28T20:12:04.524-04:00La Belle et la Bete (Beauty and the Beast) (1946) - Directed by Jean Cocteau<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Few films brim with the kind of cinematic magic as Cocteau’s
La Belle et la Bete. For it’s entire 93 minutes, Cocteau implores us to view
the proceedings with childlike wonder and suspension of disbelief. His call to
order in the prologue asks us to indeed suspend our disbelief, but even more
than that, it’s a request to hearken to our recollection of fairy tales as
children and to adopt that sense of respect for the significance of
imagination. As children our first encounters with the concept of “falling in
love” involve fairy tales, and stories of princesses and princes. These
archetypal stories create a larger than life sense of grandeur and most often,
unrealistic portrayals of true love. Still, our early lives can be shaped in
this way. I’m often reminded of this when I watch films like The Little Mermaid
or Disney’s Beauty and the Beast with my daughters. Cocteau asks us to adopt
this sensitivity when watching his film. Therefore, Belle’s compassion is
unquestioned and The Beast’s good heart shines through and we know things will
work out in the end. This is no knock on the film. For although La Belle et la
Bete is a fairy tale with some predictability, the elements are plenty dark and
sinister enough to lend themselves well to the sense of imagination and
surrealism that Cocteau brought to his cinema. Thus, the sense of childlike
wonder we adopt while watching it is coupled with our adult awareness of
sensuality, carnality, and ambiguity, giving the film just enough of a
subversive angle to mess with our heads.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Belle lives with her father and two sisters, Adelaide and
Felicie, along with her scheming brother Ludovic and friend Avenant (Jean
Marais). Her father goes to settle some debts in a nearby town and on the way
home that night, stumbles upon a strange and sinister castle. This is no
ordinary place. Doors open and close on their own. Candles are held by movable
arms in the hallway. A lone hand pours him a glass of wine at a table. Faces
peer out from the mantle next to the fireplace. He spends the night there but
upon attempting to leave the next day, comes face to face with The Beast (also
Jean Marais), a talking, lion-like creature who stands upon his two feet. The
Beast sentences him to death, but provides him an out. If he gets one of his
daughters to come live with The Beast, the father's life will be spared. The
daughter who accepts this challenge, is Belle. Played by Josette Day, Belle is
a beautiful and slightly mature woman (Day was 32 at the time of filming) who
is keenly aware of the differences between herself and her sisters. They are
manipulative, catty, and superficial. Belle seems to have a piercing sense for
honesty and truth. Thus, her commitment to proceed to the castle attends a
noble kind of cause. She realizes she is called to this challenge. Upon
entering the castle, there exists one of the most gorgeous moments ever to grace
the screen. Against a black hallway and the outstretched candles, Belle runs
with her flowing cape in glorious slow motion through the corridor and up a
flight of stairs. Then she seems to float down a hallway where the curtains
blow in her path. These ethereal and otherworldly transportations heighten our
sense of magic and mystery. When she comes face to face with The Beast, it’s
almost HE that is more afraid than SHE. He can’t handle her looking into his
eyes and will only meet with her every evening at 7pm to ask her to be his
wife. Soon, she begins to see the good in his heart and the struggle within his
soul, and is drawn to him.<o:p></o:p></div>
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There are really interesting psychological moments in the
film which give keys to Belle's and The Beast's state of mind. There’s this
point where Belle is hiding in a corridor and The Beast comes to her door, his
hands smoking after he has killed some animal from hunting. He stops at her
door, perhaps because he wants to enter her chamber and ravish her. When he
finds the room empty, there is a sense of frustration on his face and then he
peers into the magic mirror only to find that she has spied his entrance into
her room. His pride is hurt. She gains the upper hand. Later, after another
time of killing and hunting, he comes to her door, smoke pouring from his body
and blood streaking his clothes. Again, the implication is that he is ready to
continue his “hunt” by entering her chambers. Yet she confronts him boldly at
the doorway, saying that his behavior is beneath him, sending him coldly away.
She will stand for nothing less than respect. He returns this respect to her
when he allows Belle to return home to see her father if she promises to
return. He tells her if she doesn’t return that he will die. Belle is given a
magic glove for transportation and a golden key to the Beast’s magical riches.
When Belle returns home she finds her father very ill. Her sisters become
jealous and steal the key from Belle, and then they set Ludovic and Avenant
into action to kill the beast. Belle is detained beyond the 7 days which the
Beast granted her, and when she returns, find the Beast near death from his
broken heart and spirit. At the close of the film, by miraculous magic (per
fairy tale lore), Ludovic and Avenant are foiled, the Beast is turned into a
prince, and Belle and the Prince fly off into the clouds.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Cocteau uses lots of whimsical touches to infuse his film
with the sense of the otherworldly. Many of the memorable touches involve
rewound film during key moments, like when Belle uses the magic glove and
appears in her house for the first time. Or there are quick editing effects,
like when a tear falls from Belle’s face and her father catches a diamond in
his hand. These creative illusions were one of Cocteau’s greatest strengths as
a director. The magnificent camera-work by Henri Alekan is awash in shadow,
deflected light, and flowing wardrobes. These effects upon the viewer often force
us to confront the unknown….into shadows and down corridors where we aren’t
sure what will happen. Jean Marais fares very well in the Beast costume. I’m
often surprised at how much feeling he is able to convey through his eyes. Day
is the perfect fairy tale heroine, both strong and feminine in her
determinations. At the close of the film, Cocteau infuses a sensible subversion
into our adult heads. The Beast is turned into the handsome prince, and right
away Belle isn’t quite sure she likes the idea. She isn’t ready to trust him
just yet and he looks like someone she knew once. She is disappointed and even
acknowledges it before succumbing to tradition and flying away with the prince,
which makes us wonder whether she would have been even happier with The Beast
as he was! I’m always intrigued by the fact that she was ready to “commit
herself” in love to the Beast. What that looks like in actuality isn’t so
important as the sentiment behind it. That she looked beneath the surface and
found his heart is the true act of love. She didn’t need the human likeness in
him to achieve this epiphany.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10656287096270976604noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5703076346434344743.post-92168639070426145332014-08-28T06:00:00.000-04:002014-08-28T06:00:01.895-04:007th Heaven (1927) - Directed by Frank Borzage<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">My Darling Chico,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">You have been away from me for nearly 2 years now at war. I
simply can't believe you've been away that long. It's also been so long since
I've heard from you. I miss you so much. We parted on our wedding day and I
relive those last moments together as if they exist outside of time. I wonder
how you are and pray to God that you will return home soon. I long for you to
hold me in your arms. So many moments of our short life together come flooding
back to me. I woke up on the street that day to you holding a violet over my
face to wake me up. Words can’t express how much I wanted you to take me in
your arms and carry me away to safety. I had hardly met you but quickly I knew
you were something special. You so selflessly gave of yourself to me, saving my
life, when even I didn’t think it worth saving. Claiming me as your wife to
keep me from going to jail..... I could tell you had a good heart right from
the start and I knew we were meant to be.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The moment we entered the building where you lived that
evening and we began ascending level by level up to your flat, my heart raced
with anticipation to when I’d arrive in your place. We just kept ascending as
if we’d go through the clouds. I wanted to go higher and higher and let the
world drift away and be only with you. If only you knew the joy that you
brought me as we entered into a new world together. You believed in life and
its possibilities and it made me so excited. That night I undressed in your
room and slipped into your bed while you were outside. I secretly wanted you to
be near me and hold me close and tender. I hoped you would come into bed with
me after you removed your pants and shirt. I peeked over the covers as you were
undressing and saw your bare chest and it made my body flush. I wanted your
body to lie next to mine and feel your skin against mine. I got up to peek
around the corner and you were just so cute and sweet to be lying on the
balcony. It was a rush of affection and joy through my body just to know that
you respected me that way even though I was desperate for your warmth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But now my dear I am beyond desperate. I haven’t seen you in
so long and I long to feel your hands caress my hair and cheek, to feel your
kiss on my lips, and to feel your body press against mine. Every moment I’m
away from you is so hard. Every minute that passes without you near me is
endless. I will simply die if you do not come back to me. Life cannot continue
on this way without you. I have shed so many tears for you that I feel all of
my tears have dried up and I am empty. Now my body aches and my eyes hurt every
time I think of you. The tears will simply not flow and I am overcome by a
black emptiness covering over me for which there is no respite.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">When I came to you on the balcony dressed in my wedding
dress I felt so glorious….and then you told me that you loved me for the first
time. I was so happy. You remember how happy I was? I was so happy! And then I
heard the sound of soldiers in the street. I didn’t want this to break us
apart, but I tried to be strong for the both of us. And then you picked me up
and kissed me and held me so close to you for so long and you were so strong
holding me and I whispered things in your ear. And I wanted you to take me to
bed right then and there. It was the most glorious and romantic moment of my
life to be in your embrace. When you told me you wanted to marry me at that
moment I was overcome with joy and feeling. I wanted us to be one, to be man
and woman for eternity. We placed the necklaces over each other and promised to
be true forever. I cherish that moment and the neckless hangs from my neck and
dangles between my breasts this very moment. Come back to me Chico. Please with
all your might come back to me my husband. You parted from me at 11am. And I
think of you as if you were touching me and talking to me every day at 11am and
I chant your name over and over and over again and speak to you out there
wherever you are. If only you could be here with me. I can’t bear to think of
where you are or what kind of danger you are in. I simply can’t begin to
believe how awful it must be for you and how much you must be longing to touch
me and be back here in our little heaven. I truly wish God’s angels to be
surrounding you and protecting you. Believe me when I tell you we are shoulder
to shoulder my love. I am working hard each day at the munitions factory.
Somehow it helps to pass the time and I think that if I work hard enough it
will bring you back to me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Oh my dearest Chico I must finish this letter as it is late
and tomorrow I must be at the munitions factory at dawn. Please write to me
Chico. I miss you so desperately and I am being strong for you but I need you
to return soon. I know that you will return to me and I believe with all my
heart that this day will come soon for us. And on that day when you return to me
oh how the glories of heaven will resound when we are rejoined. You must
believe Chico. You must believe that our Love will bring you through any and
all odds and nothing will keep us apart. Not even hell’s fury itself will be
allowed to touch you. Our love is pure and true and righteous and I just know
and believe that you will return. Please Chico….please return home soon.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I love you. I love you. I love you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Diane</span><o:p></o:p></div>
Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10656287096270976604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5703076346434344743.post-71284837348956471822014-07-14T06:00:00.000-04:002014-07-14T06:00:00.665-04:00The Quiet Man (1952) - Directed by John Ford<br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">There are few romantic films that are as beloved and
cherished as John Ford’s beautiful and heartwarming classic, The Quiet Man.
Intended for years as a pet project, Ford hand selected the story, the stars
and the setting of Ireland in order to bring together many elements that meant
a great deal to him. Ford’s Irish heritage, and that of Wayne and O’Hara,
turned the film into a sort cinematic expression of anthropology, extending the
elements of the plot beyond simple mechanics and enlivening the whole film with
a passionate and joyful sense of place, family, and tradition (all very
consistent with Ford’s career). These elements reached into the lives of those
making the film, and in turn, these personal connections become visible to the
audience. In a sense, this film is as much a love story between Ford and his
fondness for Ireland and for heritage, as much as anything else. But the fact
that the film is buoyed by intense chemistry from Wayne and O’Hara, many
romantic scenes, and a charming, sexually playful tone, it’s hard to top this
film for sheer enjoyment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Ford had read the short story by Maurice Walsh back in 1933
and had purchased the rights to the story but the film took years to take
shape. It’s a story of an Irish-born man named Sean Thornton who has been
living in America for much of his life, but who after giving up boxing on account
of a fatal bout he participated in, ends up desiring to return to his
birth-town of Inisfree to claim his family farm. Upon arriving in Ireland, he
finds that another man in town, Will Danaher (Victor McLaglen), wants the land
as well. Sean ends up gaining the rights to the farm, but earns an enemy in
Will Danaher at the same time. This wouldn’t be so bad, except that Sean
quickly has eyes for Will’s fiery sister, Mary Kate Danaher (Maureen O’Hara).
Sean soon finds himself in a familial battle of wits, as he pushes against
tradition in order to ask Mary Kate’s hand in marriage without consent from
Will. Through some trickery from the townsfolk, Sean is able to wed Mary Kate,
however Will holds back the dowry that is owed to her. Mary Kate then decides
that she’s going to withhold…..ahem…..the goods from Sean until she gets her
dowry back. Thus, the film then turns into a sly and farcical bit of romantic
shenanigan-ism as the marriage remains unconsummated and the tension between
Sean and Will grows. That is until the final showdown between Sean and Will to
decide the fate of the marriage and to recoup the fateful dowry.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Even getting this film off the ground took a bit of doing
for Ford. It took some time to get financing, and this finally came from Republic
Pictures, who needed Ford and Wayne to do a moneymaking picture prior to
filming in order to fund the cost of The Quiet Man. They embarked on making Rio
Grande, which isn’t just notable for its standing amongst Ford’s westerns and
the Cavalry Trilogy, but also because it paired up Wayne and O’Hara for the
first time. It’s plain to see in Rio Grande that the two were a match made in
cinematic heaven. It’s no wonder that Ford had eyed these two stars for The
Quiet Man as well. Ford had of course worked with Wayne often, and with O’Hara
years earlier in How Green Was My Valley. But Ford’s brilliant pairing of Wayne
and O’Hara makes The Quiet Man into the memorable romantic picture that it is.
Many have noted how Wayne and O’Hara make a great onscreen pair and it has to
do with each having an equalizing presence upon the other, meaning that it
never quite seems like one is overshadowing the other. Their chemistry together
in this film forces them to have a physical and demanding experience together,
whether swinging punches at each other, scrambling through creeks and over lush
countrysides, and then squaring off in the bedroom for the rights to the upper
hand. Their passionate quarreling is only rivaled by their passionate kisses.
On multiple occasions, this film has some memorable kissing scenes. Probably
the most iconic moment is when Sean enters his farm for the first time to find
someone has been tidying up, and there’s a windstorm blowing. He manages to
scare Mary Kate out of the house and as the door bursts open, she runs to
leave, whereby he swings her back through the open door, then pulls her to him
for a kiss. Spielberg’s use of this scene in E.T. made it extra iconic, but
there are other memorable moments as well, like when the two kiss in the rain
in the cemetery. It’s such a lovely quiet moment between the two of them with
wordless interplay as O’Hara pulls in close to Wayne, with his shirt soaking
wet. Then there’s the scene on the wedding night as Sean breaks down the door,
pulls Mary Kate’s hair back and kisses her in a rough moment of passion. And
that’s what makes Wayne and O’Hara such a striking match, as their physicality
and passion is believable. So much so, that we can imagine what might happen
were they to hop into bed. Indeed, the film has lots of fun, stalling out the
consummation of marriage as long as it can possibly go for comedic effect. Like
when Michaeleen Oge Flyn (Barry Fitzgerald) happens to stop by the house
bringing furniture and catches a glimpse of the broken bed after the first
night of marriage, saying, “impetuous”, quietly to himself. Little does he
realize what caused the broken bed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">With many exterior shots filmed in Ireland, the film has a
strong sense of place, and a beautiful, lush look to it. The wonderful cinematography
of Winton C. Hoch adds much to the film and the on-location shooting is
enlivened wih elegant framing. Victor Young’s score incorporates many elements
of Irish tunes, giving the film a bouncing and jovial quality. Ford’s cast of
familiar characters like McLaglen, Ward Bond, and Mildred Natwick add color and
warmth to their roles, and many other parts were given to locals in Ireland as
well as various bit parts to family members of Wayne, O’Hara and Ford. It’s
Wayne and O’Hara that make everything shine, though, and their performances are
some of the finest of their careers. A couple moments are noteworthy. Wayne has
just had a beer tossed on his face and says in a rather matter of fact tone,
“bar towel”. He wipes his face and then asks for the time. He’s told it’s half
past five, and then proceeds to punch McLaglen. He does all this with such
perfect tone that it confirms that Wayne’s sense of comedic timing was one of
his most underrated skills. My favorite moment of O’Hara’s is the moment when Wayne
comes to the door to come courting. She nervously comes talking to her brother
at the table to ask for permission to go out with him. Her tone of voice here,
and the way she is almost out of breath with anxiousness and nervousness seems
real. You can hear the sexual charge within her, as she’s desperate to go out
with Sean, but can hardly contain her nerves. Beautiful acting.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In the realm of cinematic pairings, the best ones are the
ones in which you can believe the two really have eyes for each other, or at
least create characters whom you believe really want each other. In the final
moments of the film, Wayne and O’Hara are seen happily waving at Rev. Playfair
from the edge of their farm. This moment to me is one of the brilliant examples
of what makes this film work. Watching closely, we witness O’Hara whisper
something into Sean’s ear. They’re both grinning and then she turns and begins
to jaunt back to the house, with Sean soon running and tumbling after. And in
my mind, there’s only one place where they could possibly be headed.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10656287096270976604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5703076346434344743.post-77850893600363300032014-07-10T20:19:00.002-04:002014-07-10T20:19:47.226-04:00TearsSmother me. Crush me. Destroy me. Do whatever you want with me. But let me have one thing. Let me be reborn......for just a moment.....as the tear running down your cheek. Let me be as close to you as this. Then let me fall away.<br />
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<br />Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10656287096270976604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5703076346434344743.post-26559740933899133592014-06-24T06:00:00.000-04:002014-06-24T06:00:01.478-04:00Man's Castle (1933) - Directed by Frank Borzage <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Although most of Frank Borzage’s best films finally saw release with the 2008 box set, <i>Man’s Castle</i> somehow didn’t make the cut. It’s a shame, as it’s his best film outside of his multiple silent masterpieces made with Janet Gaynor and Charles Ferrell. <i>Man’s Castle</i> again rekindles a kind of street-wise and jaded yet sentimental quality to the love stories he pioneered in the 1920’s, like <i>7th Heaven, Street Angel </i>and <i>Lucky Star</i>, and then continued into the 1930’s with his near masterpiece talkie, <i>Liliom</i>. Borzage is rarely written about these days, and if he is, it’s amongst the blogosphere almost exclusively, and even in that realm it’s hard to come by. Borzage, above any other director who’s ever lived, seemed to elevate romance into the spiritual realm, almost turning the transformative power of love into a religion, believing that if one is honest enough, kind enough, and loving enough, one can overcome just about any odds. No other director has ever conveyed with such unflinching, sincere regard, the belief that love can conquer all and inspire lovers to go beyond what they thought was imaginable.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In the case of <i>Man’s Castle</i>, we consider two souls, Bill (Spencer Tracy) and Trina (Loretta Young) as they sit on a park bench. He feeds the pigeons popcorn, while wearing a fancy suit. She eyes the popcorn with a hungry eye as she is obviously out of work, while he is seemingly rich and throwing food away. The content dabbles into typical pre-codisms, with Bill alluding to the fact that women shouldn’t be out of work (even in the depression) especially with the looks of a woman like Trina. Bill then takes her to dinner, where this film also sets up a sort of teacher/protege kind of relationship, a la, Pygmalion. Borzage brilliantly sets up the film positioning Bill as a rich man, until Bill reveals that his suit is a prop (an advertisement for a coffee house), and then brings Trina (Loretta Young) home to his shanty-town house, proving he's nearly as poor as she is and giving new definition to the term Man’s Castle. Touchingly, the film connects our two down-on-their-luck lovers ending their first evening together by skinny dipping in a river, equalizing their plight, stripping themselves bare and plunging into their relationship on equal terms. Amazingly, the film positions them as living together and joining into a sort of ragged union, rising above categorization because convenience doesn’t make time for such formalities. Their tender relationship is threatened when Trina becomes pregnant, forcing Bill to confront his sense of commitment to Trina and the life that he is aching to give her despite their hardships.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It’s hard to view this film with the right context under which it was meant to be seen. Most of us never experienced the Great Depression, and instead only understand it through the eyes of generations past, who’ve told tales to subsequent generations, or through books or movies. But honestly, it might be cinema that will most easily convey the Depression for future generations. Films like <i>Man’s Castle, My Man Godfrey, The Grapes of Wrath</i>…..these each convey a certain element of the times and a point of view that was, if not necessarily popular back then (it is reported that Man’s Castle did poorly at the box office), are great cultural examples of the time. For all the falsity that cinema often presents, these are the closest things to a living/breathing time capsule as we’ll ever have. Though Borzage can of course be accused of relying too much on sentiment regarding this topic (and indeed throughout his career), it is far too simplistic to label him as taking advantage of the situation. The fact is, many great directors honed their use of sentiment for great effect, including Chaplin, Ford, and Spielberg among others. What separates the good from the bad, is the sincerity of belief in the power of goodness and love at the heart of the sentiment. Borzage here utilizes the difficulties and trials of surviving during the Great Depression in order to reflect upon the resilience of romantic love and the courage to do the right thing under those circumstances. This scenario actually takes a genre that is sometimes stuck in the clouds and then blends in a kind of kitchen-sink realism that gives the film (and many of Borzage’s films) a superbly balanced romantic tone.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">One thing I’ve always had an issue with regarding certain pre-code films (this one notwithstanding) is an unenlightened, seemingly sexist view towards women. I don’t particularly take well to the attitude that Tracy’s character delivers to Young, what with the “Come here” and “Hey stupid” kind of lines he throws at her, even if it is in jest. I’m not even sure this attitude matches well with Tracy’s acting style per se. However, there’s an alternate reading to this in that Bill’s ultra-macho attitude is partly a distancing technique, perhaps so that he and/or she will refuse to connect too deeply to the other. Borzage inserts a slightly overstated subplot that doesn't quite resonate as Tracy begins seeing a floozy on the side. It's almost like he’s trying a little too hard to keep the upper hand to avoid getting hurt but it comes across as a bit far fetched. However, most of the film is filled with beautifully wrought romantic longing and touching scenes. There’s this beautiful moment when Bill and Trina attempt to sit down for dinner and the blaring train whistle nearby seems to pierce right into Bill’s brain, almost causing his façade to crack, as he knows he's not providing the right environment for Trina's needs. The film is also remarkably progressive when it comes to the co-habitating relationship, complete with sex, but sans marriage in all its pre-codi-ness. Starting in 1934, this film would never have seen the light of day due to these elements. In fact, the film was re-released in 1938 with the studio being forced to cut out 9 full minutes, which have not been fully recovered since. It’s a shame we have lost some of this footage, as it’s hard to simply get enough of Spencer Tracy and Loretta Young and their chemistry together onscreen, as they are lovely and tender and sincere as anything else you will see from this era.</span>Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10656287096270976604noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5703076346434344743.post-54895232030750417942014-06-19T07:00:00.000-04:002014-06-19T07:00:04.938-04:00Camille (1936) - Directed by George Cukor<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Greta Garbo is one of my favorite film figures and one of my very
favorite actresses. I once had this desire that if I could sit down to a meal
with anyone living or dead, I thought I wanted to dine with Garbo. I think I actually still do. I imagine that our conversation would probably strain a bit
between us, as I don't tend to be the most talkative person, and we would probably have more than a few awkward pauses. But I would still give anything to be able to see her and talk to her in person. Garbo became one of
the greatest screen actresses and one of the essential romantic leading ladies of all time.
It's not hard to believe, considering she built her career upon films with such
romantic sounding names like: <i>The Temptress, Flesh and the Devil, Love, The
Kiss, Romance</i>. It's almost comical how often she was the leading romantic lady. A few of her greatest works, like Flesh and the Devil, paired her with John
Gilbert, someone whom she had great chemistry with. However, <i>Camille</i> is a film that is not only better, but contains a surprising amount of
electric chemistry between a slightly older Garbo and a young Robert Taylor. <i>Camille</i> also contains what is probably Garbo’s greatest acting. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Based on a novel and play by Alexandre Dumas (La Dame aux Camelias),
George Cukor’s film stars Garbo as Marguerite Gautier, who is known as Dame
Camille amongst her Parisian friends, as she attends parties and soirees.
Camille is funded by Baron de Varville (Henry Danielle) who is a rather sexless
and odd man, but is somehow obsessed with owning some stake in Camille’s life
of excess and parties. Camille, much to her own startling chagrin, finds
herself rather smitten by a handsome young fella named Armand (Taylor). He
courts her and attempts to spend as much time with her as possible, as she and
he slowly draw closer together, while Camille tries to keep their relationship
hidden from the Baron. Camille has nearly decided to give herself fully to
Armand, when his father (Lionel Barrymore) painfully suggests to Camille that
she give up Armand in order to keep his name from being associated with her
life of frivolity. In the meantime, she has also been suffering from
tuberculosis, which progressively weakens her. She tries to spurn her lover
Armand, but all to no avail…..he returns, with her on her deathbed, whereby she
musters up one final exultation of joy and pleasure of being held in his arms
right before her death in the tear-jerking finale.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Garbo notoriously was difficult to work with because she was terribly insecure
and uncomfortable with performing in front of too many people. This film,
though, allows for what is often essentially scenes just between her and
Taylor, which garner an arresting and electric amount of chemistry. I always
find Garbo most moving when she is in quiet moments by herself or with one
other actor. As I was scanning the film for screen shots, it struck me just how
often it’s just she and Taylor positioned onscreen facing each other in two
shot. Cukor rarely cuts in this film when they’re facing each other, which
continually gives us the feeling of intimacy and immediacy between them, whereby we can feel the romantic intensity. Garbo did
wonders when the camera was in close-up on her. She was perhaps the greatest actress of all time regarding
her work while the camera was in close. Pick any moment in the film when the
screen is on her face and you will notice a subtle array of movement of her
mouth, eyes and eyebrows, which gives you the impression that she is expressing
a great deal of emotion even though she isn’t necessarily conveying it
verbally. I think my favorite moment is when she’s lying on her bed, sick
and frail, and her maid Nanine tells her that Armand has come to see her. Garbo
presents this suddenly energized and tear-filled joy just through her eyes,
while she simultaneously maintains the frail and sickly exterior of her body.
It’s an impressive duality of emotion and physicality that Garbo pulls off in
that moment. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">One of the other interesting elements at play in this film is the fact
that Garbo was about 6 years older than Robert Taylor in this film. Gone was
the perfect face, unblemished and unwrinkled 10 years prior in <i>Flesh and the
Devil</i>, where her face almost had a full and youthful projection. In <i>Camille</i>,
she’s a bit thinner, more world weary, and there are lines here and there on her
face. Yet, somehow, pairing her opposite the younger Taylor gives life to their
relationship and the romance on display, with his vigor giving charge to her
experience. It’s hard to say how Garbo would have fared had she stayed in film.
Within 5 years of making this film, she would give up acting forever, and
amazingly disappear out of the public eye. So....... getting back to that meal with
Garbo, somehow I’m imagining that it’s not lunch or dinner, but breakfast we’re
eating. She and I are meeting at a small café somewhere and we both sit down.
She has sunglasses on and a warm hat and coat. She orders coffee and a scone. I
sit there fumbling and trying to lighten the mood and then I mention my favorite parts of
her movies. She says nothing behind the dark glasses and I'm pretty certain she's not hearing me. The waiter brings her the coffee and the scone and pretty soon after he leaves us, she takes off her sunglasses exposing her eyes, and seemingly her soul. She then leans over the table with a sort of uneasy expression on her face.
I’m dumbfounded, trembling, somewhat fearful and awe struck and can’t believe I’m looking Garbo in the eyes. Then she opens her mouth and she says, “Please go...... I want
to be alone.” I quietly walk out of the cafe. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10656287096270976604noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5703076346434344743.post-67845344803534270012014-06-10T06:00:00.000-04:002014-06-10T22:00:47.655-04:00The Wizard of Oz (1939) - Directed by Victor Fleming<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">One of the great joys over the last few years has been introducing my
children to some of the great, classic films that I have known and loved over
the years. Some of them are films that I didn’t see until I was an adult, but
figured they would really like them anyway, like <i>Bringing Up Baby</i> and <i>She Wore
a Yellow Ribbon</i>. Others are films that I have watched since I was young, like
<i>Shane, Star Wars, Duck Soup</i>, and now today, we watched <i>The Wizard of Oz
</i>together. It was their first time seeing the film in its entirety. I had given
thought to showing them the film a few years prior, but in discussions with my
spouse we had determined to wait. I actually remember being extremely scared of
the witch when I was a kid, and every year when the film came on, I seemingly
only remember watching until that part of the film when the Wicked Witch of the
West appears in Munchkinland for the first time, before I ran off to bed
deathly afraid of finishing the film. I was probably only 5 or 6 years old. My
daughters are now ages 6 and 4, so about a week ago, they started to beg to
watch it. We felt like it was the right time. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">My girls have of course known of this film for more than a few years,
and even at one point wanted to be Dorothy for Halloween without even having
seen the film. I would show them little Youtube clips from time to time, as I’m
a huge fan of the film, and of Judy Garland and my girls loved seeing her in
<i>Summer Stock</i> and in <i>Meet Me in St. Louis</i>. Garland’s appeal in the film, has not
waned a bit. Every time I watch <i>The Wizard of Oz</i>, I’m amazed at the range and
emotional depth of her performance, guiding the audience through this strange
land with the clarity and honesty of a seasoned actress despite her being 16
years of age at the time of casting. Garland was always sort of an old soul
though, and gives one of that all time great performances by any actress, and
it’s partly because of the innocence and transparity of her emotions. There’s
this little gesture she gives to Toto at the very end of the “Somewhere Over
the Rainbow” sequence where she leans over in a sort of weary moment of melancholy.
I don’t think I’d ever quite noticed the brief expression before this latest
viewing. There’s that pure and open graciousness as she says, “Very well thank
you,” to the Scarecrow. Or how about that moment when confronting the Wizard
when she brazenly says, “You outta be ash<i>amed</i>
of yourself!” It’s such a well-rounded performance and Garland’s approach was
so true to the actress that she would in fact become throughout the years. It’s
amazing how singular and effective is her style already at this young age. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">There were some funny things about the film that I picked up this time
seeing it. I maybe have seen the film 20 times or so in my lifetime, but it’s
amazing what slips past your eyes so often. Garland has a moment right after
she’s slapped the Cowardly Lion and he’s beginning to whimper where she nearly
breaks a smile and almost begins to laugh but is able to hold it in. Check it
out for yourself at about the 51 minute mark. Then there’s the part where the
Munchkins are running after Glinda in the bubble and one of them is that “kid”
with the horn hair from the lollipop guild. Well, the next shot shows him
behind Dorothy in a moment of poor continuity. Then amazingly, in the scene
when they are putting the cape and the crown on the Cowardly Lion and they’re
walking up the little green carpet up the stairs, Garland almost stumbles over the
edge of the carpet that curls over a bit after the others walk up before her. These
imperfections are quite endearing in that it reminds me that the films’ power
does not lie in its technical prowess nor in its filmmaking per se. One can count
multiple moments of script incontinuity for instance. But it’s a reminder that sincerity,
human nature, and talented actors can entertain as much as or even more-so than
any special effects laden blockbuster can. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Sitting down to watch the film with small children who have never seen
it before became an interesting experience in and of itself. I thoroughly
enjoyed watching the film for myself, but more so, enjoying watching their
reactions and answering their questions. Such as, “Is this movie in black and
white or color?” (“actually it’s both)…….“Which road of the yellow brick road
is the right way?” (“you know what, I’m not sure”)….. “Is the witch going to come back later?” (“Yes
she will definitely be back.) …… “Why is that horse turning colors” (“because
it’s the horse of a different color”). I also realized that they seemingly
needed a bit of assistance to understand what was happening, and why she could
get to this place called Oz and why Miss Gulch had turned into the witch. We
discussed that even though it felt real, it was a dream and that she was
imagining that Miss Gulch was a witch. Part of the intensity of the film
though, is that it feels so hyper-real. Once the film enters the dream state,
one is quickly absorbed into the world, and so thorough is this effect once the
film bursts into color. One almost forgets entirely that it IS a dream as it
feels so emotionally real and linear. Although we talked about the film being a
dream early on, my girls were so believing that Dorothy was going to
die that they began to get worried once the hour glass began to empty. Thus,
much of the film’s power is brought about because of its dual power to both
reassure us of what we know and to challenge us toward overcoming our fears. One of my favorite elements is in fact
the way that Dorothy, the heroine, leads the group. She’s not quite so meek as
she calls herself, as she is a leader of a rag-tag assemblage of “misfits”. I’m
occasionally surprised at how often my children become conscious of the fact
that they don’t “fit in” for whatever reason. This film reassures us that it’s
okay to be imperfect and to make mistakes…..and also to keep trying and to take
on the challenges that come our way. These are lessons that we all sometimes
need to be reminded of. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10656287096270976604noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5703076346434344743.post-65010102635789695062014-05-29T06:00:00.000-04:002014-05-29T22:04:10.172-04:00Once (2006) - Directed by John Carney<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKt4O7Txn8Jbu8lTGH6DSPDZX2-9UTZxVsSp9757tw3pJPcarl750aS8aUoeVZixi4ZMMK_H7ib0hJJVlNhmAk3yZPLDDvhvgpwBCceWXqqjyXY3frnrH0U0_mPjl1hJqL_bLscKnjyg/s1600/Once5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKt4O7Txn8Jbu8lTGH6DSPDZX2-9UTZxVsSp9757tw3pJPcarl750aS8aUoeVZixi4ZMMK_H7ib0hJJVlNhmAk3yZPLDDvhvgpwBCceWXqqjyXY3frnrH0U0_mPjl1hJqL_bLscKnjyg/s1600/Once5.jpg" height="352" width="640" /></a></div>
Note: This review is posted as part of the 101 Greatest Romance Films of All Time countdown occurring at <a href="http://wondersinthedark.wordpress.com/2014/05/29/93-once-2006-directed-by-john-carney/" target="_blank">Wonders in the Dark</a>, coming in at #93.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Once</i> is one of the defining romantic films of the new
millennium, and the most touching elements are the chemistry and song writing
skills of the two leads in the film. Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova had known
each other for years, performing together as a folk duo prior to any
involvement with this film. Hansard, as lead singer of The Frames, met Irglova
back in 2001 in the Czech Republic when her father had organized a music
festival, inviting The Frames to play there. Hansard, a veteran of the Irish
music scene for years, began supporting Irglova and her piano career. Hansard
and Irglova soon decided to join forces as a duo to write and record and play
live as The Swell Season, releasing their self-titled debut album in 2006. On
the album appears the seeds of Once, with the tracks Lies and Falling Slowly
seeing their initial release. It would be on the backs of these and other
songs, a real-life relationship unfolding, and the chemistry of hope and
promise that would spur on this film that is touching, romantic and bittersweet
and one of the best musicals of the modern era. It’s also a film that positions
romance not necessarily defined by sex or declaration, but by inspiration,
openness and friendship.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Irglova and Hansard were consulted by John Carney (former
bassist for The Frames) for a film about street musicians in Dublin.
Originally, Cillian Murphy was cast opposite Irglova, but pulled away from the
project, unable to commit to singing Hansard’s songs. Hansard was then pulled
in, creating an intimate opportunity for life, music, and film to overlap with
astounding honesty and commitment. It’s about a Guy (Hansard) who’s Irish and a
Girl who’s Czech (Irglova) who meet on the street when the Guy is playing songs
on the sidewalk. They start off a tentative relationship, where she learns he
repairs vacuums and she needs a vacuum fixed. The Girl and Guy begin to flirt
and end up meeting again because of the vacuum, and then walk into her favorite
music shop where she is allowed to play piano. He has his guitar and they both
decide to play a song together that he has written. “Falling Slowly” unfolds
before the camera as collaboration, mutual affection, and inspiration mesh in
the lyrics and the eyes of the musicians. He is healing from a past
relationship and she is living with her mother and daughter, while her husband
is back home in the Czech Republic. This new relationship is a cautious but
earnest dance of romantic yearning and companionship as they begin to play
music together and share ideas. The Guy has several songs he wants to record
and recruits The Girl and some other local musicians to rent out a studio for a
day, where songs are recorded in one long session, creating a document of
relationships, past and present. As the film ends, The Guy and The Girl part
ways, he heading off to London to retrieve his old flame, and she, equipped
with a new piano he buys her, is living again with her whole family, husband
included. It is a delicately played finale, using hope and reflection as
romantic climax.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">There is no kissing or real romance on display whatsoever in
this film, unless you count delicate eye contact, honesty, and friendship as
romantic. Surely there are countless “romances” that never fully materialize
for one reason or another in the fashion that most movies equate with the
definition. It could be argued that some of the most touching and devastating
romances in cinematic history, though, are defined by lovers not consummating
the relationship or who don’t stay together at the end. Once is in this vein,
but is even more restrained in its approach, almost to the point of emphasizing
these are “just friends”. Yes, friends who are attracted to each other, but
friends just the same. If the film achieves anything, it is all because of the
utterly real chemistry of the two leads as they portray this friendship. Around
the time of the making of the film, Irglova and Hansard became romantically
linked and then on for a period of a few years. Thus, the film contains real, unforced,
onscreen chemistry, like Bogie and Bacall or Hepburn and Tracy. But it is not
filtered through professional acting and instead reflects a kind of ragamuffin,
honesty. Due to their unfamiliarity with being filmed, Hansard and Irglova were
often filmed from afar as it made them more comfortable not being so close to
the camera. One can see examples of their lack of polished acting, yet it
almost works to the advantage in this cinema verite style of filmmaking, where
imperfections in acting are leveraged by the filmmaker for greater effect.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Maybe the best way to convey what works about this film, is
from a segment of an interview that Irglova did with The Huffington Post back
in 2011:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Huffington Post: Along with Glen Hansard, you received an
Academy Award for Best Song for the movie Once. Marketa, your on screen
chemistry was amazing. Though your music was beautiful and the plot was
special, I honestly think what drew people into that movie the most was the
beautiful depiction of your relationship.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Irglova: Oh, thank you. Once is a perfect example of
synchronicity and serendipity in life that happens when you're open. There are
so many parallels between the film and real life and the lives of John
Carney--the director and the screenwriter--and Glen and mine. The script was
written and my character was developed before John Carney even met me, and
there were so many similarities in terms of my life and the life of this woman
and how the two characters in the movie meet and how Glen and I met, so it was
this beautiful thing of the lines blurring in terms of what is real and what is
fiction. I think that's, in a way, the perfect way to it to be because sometimes
art imitates life and other times, life imitates art. It really walks this full
circle, in a way. Working with the director on the film was most inspiring in a
way that it was very much open. He recognized the friendship between Glen and
I, and that was a big reason why he cast us in the first place--because he saw
us play together in Dublin, and whatever chemistry we had together onstage was
the one he was looking for in his film. So, once he cast us, he kind of allowed
us to express the friendship that we naturally had and allowed for that to be
felt throughout the movie within the context of the characters that he had
written. So, I absolutely agree that there's something very authentic and
sincere about the love between the characters and the love that Glen and I have
for one another.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Through collaboration and honesty, both The Guy and The Girl
end up better people through the relationship. It is a film that defines
romantic epiphany not through sex, but through inspiration, with the lasting
document of this inspiration being the music they created together. Though they
don’t consummate this love, they “birth” music and achieve a different kind of
family unit together.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10656287096270976604noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5703076346434344743.post-19124939982601224572014-05-07T07:00:00.000-04:002014-05-07T09:19:05.179-04:00Touch of Evil (1958) - Directed by Orson Welles<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I’m not sure if it’s the saddest tale in all of Hollywood, but Orson
Welles’ fall from grace within the studio system surely left quite a large
stain upon cinematic history. As I’ve grown older, I've become more attuned to the
passing of time as both a marker of
progress and of what was left unaccomplished. In the case of Orson Welles, we
should actually count our lucky stars that we have what we have. There of
course is<i> Citizen Kane</i>, made at the outset of a career where he was a
wunderkind who quickly fell into a situation from which he never recovered,
having film after film taken from his controls. Most consider the lost passages
of <i>The Magnificent Ambersons </i>to have contained elements that may have made it
even greater than <i>Kane</i>. Then there’s all the messiness of the rest of his
career, loaded with unfinished films, bizarrely financed ones, the Shakespearean
adaptations, the “documentaries”, and of course <i>Touch of Evil</i>. There is something
just so gloriously cathartic and sad about an aging and paunchy cop in the
throes of his own demise, made terrifically humanistic by Welles’ portrayal in
this film. What makes it resonate even further, are the struggles that Welles
had to even get the film released as he envisioned, something he never saw
happen in his lifetime.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Welles’ <i>Touch of Evil </i>is one of the last examples of film noir from the
classic period. It stars Charlton Heston as Mike Vargas, a drug enforcement
official for the Mexican government, who
has just been married to Susie (Janet Leigh). They witness a car bomb explosion on
the U.S. – Mexico border and quickly, several investigators join the scene, including
police Captain Hank Quinlan (Welles). The investigation leads to a suspect
named Sanchez, who is interrogated in his apartment. 2 Sticks of dynamite are
found in Sanchez’s apartment, but Vargas suspects that Quinlan planted the
dynamite there to frame Sanchez. Vargas decides to look into Quinlan’s police
records and determines many of his cases involved evidence that the accused was
not aware of. Meanwhile, Susie ends up in some trouble of her own after she
begins staying at a small, rather vacant motel (<i>Psycho</i> anyone?), where she is
kidnapped and then used by Quinlan to try and ruin the name of Mike Vargas by
framing her for the murder of a thug named Grandi and with drug involvement. Vargas
is at the end of his wits when Quinlan’s assistant detective Pete Menzies
(Joseph Calleia) notifies Vargas that he found Quinlan’s cane at the scene of
the crime, thereby convincing Vargas that he was right all along, leading to
the fantastic conclusion where Vargas and Menzies attempt to bug Quinlan’s
conversation to incriminate himself in order to bring Quinlan to justice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">For all the convoluted-ness of the plot, it’s actually remarkable how
well the film holds together despite the raggedness and disjointed qualities.
Many key sequences of continuity were lost once Welles lost control of the
editing of the film for its theatrical release. His 58 page memo to Universal
Pictures detailed his wishes of what should be fixed in order to make the film
complete. It was reduced to 93 minutes from his original 112 minute cut for original release. In
1998, the film was restored, to the best approximation possible to Welles’
information found in his memo to the studio. However one looks at all the
different versions and incarnations of the film, what is so staggering is the
look and feel of the film. There is so much kinetic camerawork that was filmed
by Russell Metty with a few key tracking shots and shaky-cam shots giving a
vibrant sense of discombobulation. Also, Welles’s prototypical Dutch angle shots
and low angle shots predominate, along with low-lit scenes with deep amounts of
shadows pervading throughout. Welles’s vision of creating a world where wrong
outweighs right seems to reflect the bizarre and garish lighting and angles,
along with Mancini’s pulsing and often atonal score. There is an uneasy kind of
squeamishness to the whole film that is hard to look away from and is one of the
reasons why I love the film so much. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">What I love best though, is the performance by Welles himself, who here gives his greatest on screen performance. Welles was so often a vocal
actor in his earlier career. His voice inflections carry so much weight that it’s
hard to sometimes focus on the physical quality of his acting. Not so in <i>Touch
of Evil</i>, where the sheer physical size of his presence and his bulbous and
swollen face seem to be larger than life. The camera likes to over-emphasize
this at key moments, positioning Welles’ face in grotesque close-up at
sometimes odd angles. In fact, Welles seems to be relishing the opportunity to
undermine his own sense of stardom, tossing off the trappings of youth and
ambition and laying it all bare for the world to see, nearly deliberately
making himself repulsive. Welles captures and embodies a kind of sad-sack
persona in Hank Quinlan, a pathetic and previously confident man who is quickly
seeing the end of a long run at the top of the heap. How Welles makes Quinlan
such a compelling figure is a great feat of acting. Quinlan is such a
sleaze-ball, yet I’m torn between wanting him to see justice and also feeling
pity for the guy. Perhaps it’s because Welles toned down his vocal ticks and aggressive
confidence in this film, which forced him to stretch for effect and emotion in
other areas, like quietness and pensiveness and sadness and regret. It’s a
terrific performance and not something to be ignored. I don’t think <i>Touch of
Evil</i> is Welles's best film. That would be a hard argument to put forth. It’s just my
own personal favorite of his. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10656287096270976604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5703076346434344743.post-72950173053637079642014-04-16T18:00:00.000-04:002014-04-16T18:00:00.071-04:00Persona (1966) - Directed by Ingmar Bergman<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I’ve deliberately avoided reading much analysis about one of my favorite
films of all time. <i>Persona</i> stands as one of the canonical art
house films of its time, and you'll find (from what little I’ve read), that the film is usually
considered a kind of visceral and tonal response to the avant garde cinema of
the time…..Bergman’s “anything you can do I can do better” response to the
Antonionis, Godards, and Fellinis of European cinema. Of any reading I’ve done,
perhaps it was Roger Ebert’s Great Movies review that spoke to me best where he
comments that “Persona is a film we return to over the years, for the beauty of
its images and because we hope to understand its mysteries.” In my own life, I
tend to return to this film every couple years just for these reasons. But, in
a way, I’m not sure I ever truly hope to understand the film, even if it was possible to do so. Maybe it’s why I don’t read much analysis of the film. I want
it to remain a thought process for me, a bafflement but an emotionally grounded
bafflement at that. It is the constant hoping for understanding but the comfort
of not truly understanding that makes me return to it…. that and the
overwhelming beauty (and sometimes terror) of the images and the acting. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Bergman’s plot to <i>Persona</i>, on a literal level, is about a nurse named
Alma (Bibi Andersson) who is charged to care for a patient named Elisabet (Liv
Ullmann). Elisabet, a famous actress, has suddenly and without warning, decided
to become completely silent, refraining from all forms of verbal communication.
All indications are that she has a husband and a young child. Alma, based upon
the recommendations of the lead doctor, takes Elisabet to a secluded home near
the coast where healing and rest can take place. Over time,
the two women seem to bond, as Alma bears her soul to the silent Elisabet, conveying
past sins and regrets and a whole host of expressions. However, one day when
Alma is taking some mail to be delivered into town, she reads a letter that
Elisabet is writing to her husband, whereby Elisabet admits that Alma is an
interesting person to study. Alma becomes bitter and feels used by Elisabet. They
begin to clash, with confrontations becoming increasingly violent and
vitriolic. One day, the two women seem to have some kind of epiphany, where
they seem to become one individual. From then on, it's open to interpretation on what it all means. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The number of films that I would consider to be visually overwhelming, such
that the frame is filled with a kind of immersive attempt to convey an
obsession of intimacy to thus achieve a heightened emotional response. Only <i>The
Passion of Joan of Arc</i> and <i>The Double Life of Veronique </i>come to mind, in
addition to <i>Persona</i>. No more prevalent was this feeling than when I watched it
last night on the new Blu-Ray Criterion release. I was struck by just how much
of the film is shot in close-up, even extreme close-up. These large and
detailed images of the faces of the actresses, Bibi Andersson and Liv Ullman,
strike an intense awareness of intimacy for us, with a power appropriated to
the images by us as we are not used to being this close and intimate
with anyone in our lives….. except lovers or family members. If you are close
enough to see every pore on someone’s face for an extended period of time, it
is likely you are in some kind of close and intimate relationship. Indeed,
Bergman and master cinematographer Sven Nykvist achieve a kind of orgiastic and
sensual obsession with the human face. At the same time, there is
a duality of nature to these beautiful images, though, in that they appear almost
otherworldly, ghostly, horrific or even abstract. Thus, we are simultaneously drawn to and taken aback by the same images. One example of this occurs as both
women’s faces look into the camera as they embrace during the dream sequence at
night (ghostly), and then later in the film where their faces merge into 2
halves of a whole (horrific). I suppose the early sequence where the boy is
face to face with a large and blurry screen with alternating faces of the
actresses may also qualify here (abstract). He reaches out to touch the image in
a queasy, sickening kind of love caress. I’m not sure if I’m able to articulate
the intensity of feeling that the images of the faces convey, but there is
something so shocking and intense about being so close to these images.
You can show me a close-up of an animal or an object and I may respond mildly….but
show me a close-up of a face and there is suddenly an intimacy, or even a
voyeuristic projection from the audience into the images, especially if the
images are only viewed in one direction, with the audience being in the
position of anonymity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I don’t come to surmise exactly how the film ends or what it all means,
but there are moments where I believe I’ve got it all figured out. Moments of
mistaken identity, and duality of nature seem to lead to conclusions whereby
the women are two halves of the same self. I suppose this reading is enhanced
if you view the end of the film when Alma leaves the house all cleaned up and
boards the bus by herself, with no trace of Elisabet. I’ve felt on more than
one occasion that Alma is perhaps the physical and Elisabet the psychological
side of the same person and this would be my preferred interpretation. I suppose it’s also possible that they are
two separate individuals, but that Alma is developing some kind of
schizophrenic personality, or that they merge into one being, hence they arrive
as two, but leave as one. But does it
really matter? Part of the allure for me, as I mentioned before, is not
understanding it, but experiencing it. Even if someone were to explain the film
in totality, it would not add to the appeal for me. Bergman's masterpiece stands the
test of time because of the imagery and the performances, not the structure per se.
Liv Ullman’s near wordless performance in her first film strikes notes of
openness and compassion despite her silence. Bibi Andersson gives the
performance of her career here, and is likely one of the greatest of turns by
any actress. Her voice, her facial expressions and her changes in tone from
loving to hateful run the full gamut. Nykvist’s camera is the other star.
Probing and framing with impossible perfection, the natural light and
curvatures of the women’s faces in <i>Persona</i> is one of cinema’s greatest
expressions of beauty. And maybe that’s what the appeal of the film boils down
to. Nykvist is able to capture the beauty and texture of the faces while
Bergman is able to command and utilize the inherent intimacy of such imagery
for deep dramatic and emotional effect. That’s why the film is so powerful for
me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10656287096270976604noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5703076346434344743.post-12690399222420473802014-04-09T18:00:00.000-04:002014-04-09T20:44:06.343-04:00Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) - Directed by Michel Gondry<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">As I sit down to write this essay, I realize that I haven’t written a
thing in nearly 2 months. It is due to both a combination of not really being
enthused about any films I’ve seen in the last couple months and also from the
sheer burden of keeping up with life in all its vast responsibilities and
possibilities. On any given day, it’s amazing how many choices we can make and
how many different directions we can go in. It’s a wonder that most of us end
up each night in roughly the same place as the night before, probably sleeping
in the same bed, under the same roof. When you stop and think of the
complexities of life, it’s amazing how our brains have a vast ability to keep us,
for the most part, grounded. Some of us are faced with more challenges than
others. Some of us thrive on change and pressure more than others. But, for the
most part, there are routines that each of us follow, day in and day out.
Michel Gondry’s <i>Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind</i> is many things, but at it's core, it
somehow captures a certain quality about how our brains work, and the choices we make (both consciously and unconsciously), while also
remarkably capturing a vast humanist element at the same time. This coupling of a
structural analysis and a humanistic decomposition of our mind’s process yields
one of cinema’s most memorable attempts at capturing our existence. It’s also
one of the most beautiful and poignant attempts to show the duality of love
relationships….the beauty and tragedy of a life spent trying to preserve
ourselves yet also at times risking everything for love and acceptance.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Gondry’s masterful film concerns the current mindstate of Joel, played
with a relaxed and almost morose quality by Jim Carrey. At the beginning of the
film, we see what looks like the beginning of a relationship between he and a
woman named Clementine (Kate Winslet) who happen to meet in Montauk, NY on a
day when Joel has decided to ditch work on a random whim…..or maybe not so
random. This initial sequence sets up a poignancy after
we realize later that this isn’t the first time Joel and Clementine have met. It only FEELS like it to them. In the weeks and months prior, they were both in a
relationship together that was filled with lots of beautiful moments and many
ugly moments. It got to a point where both of them determined they wanted to
erase each other from their memories. Thus, they each hired a firm called
Lacuna to conduct such a procedure. Clementine has the erasing done first. When Joel
learns of it, he decides to join her in the process. This premise sets up the beautiful second half whereby the Lacuna crew (played by Mark
Ruffalo, Elijah Wood, Tom Wilkinson, and Kirsten Dunst), attempt to erase each
memory of the relationship from Joel’s mind. Meanwhile in Joel’s
subconscious, non-waking state, he attempts to preserve and salvage some
memory of Clementine as he realizes it would be far better to retain some of
the good memories along with the bad memories, rather than remove all memory of
their relationship altogether.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The recently deceased Alain Resnais surely must have seen commonalities
between his works and Gondry’s film. Being that the screenplay was written by Charlie
Kaufman, the film's look and feel is also as much his as Gondry’s, with Kaufman’s unique
perspectives of reality on display, which are in turn leveraging processes and techniques
that Resnais built back in the 1950’s and 60’s. Resnais was able to blend past and present into a commonality. He didn’t
allow for a separation of past and present. As he once stated, “The present and
the past coexist, but the past shouldn’t be in flashback.” It could be argued
that Resnais’s singular, distilled essence was to emphasize this point. Gondry
and Kaufman build upon this foundation, essentially turning the present and
past into a common experience, inseparable from each other, with present and
past intermingling to such a degree that there is no distinction. So often
during the film, we witness Jim Carrey’s current perspective embedded in a past
memory, such that he and Clementine exist in two states at the same time, or more simply put.....just a single state of being. In
what might be the best sequence in the film, Joel attempts to find a place in
his mind where he can hide the memory of
Clementine so far deep in his brain that the Lacuna company can’t find it. He
places himself and Clementine into a memory when he was 4 years old, hiding
under the kitchen table and witnessing the interaction of Clementine and his
mother, with Clementine taking the place of his mom’s friend. Clementine and
Joel are privy to the fact that they are attempting to hide from Lacuna at the
present time, while concurrently existing in an experience from 30 years
prior. Thus, the past and present become one experience for them.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">What makes the film so desperately romantic, is in fact the idea of a
relationship which has gone off track and the duality of wanting to remember
and wanting to forget at the same time. For Joel, what starts out as a
desire to forget everything, ends up as a fight to preserve at least some of
the good along with the bad. We can all recall relationships that either never
got off the ground or crashed and burned over time. This film asks, "would we rather maintain the memories, both the good with the bad, or
remove them entirely?" The poignancy of this question is posed in such a way
that the film emphasizes the sensitive beauty and tragedy of our memories.
Memories can stir such different reactions depending on what they are. But to erase them is a scary proposition, not just because of the
loss of recollection, but for the loss of experience and learning. What happens
at the end of the film, as Joel and Clementine realize the mistakes they made
in the past, they learn to overlook the pursuit of the safe approach and choose
the messiness of existence over sanitized love. They choose passion over
perfection. This is such a relatable and poignant conclusion, it can’t help but
conjure a hopeful, humanistic conveyance. Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet provide a grounded presence
throughout the film with their beautiful and varied performances. Winslet in
particular conveys alternate approaches, particularly as she exists post memory
loss, ending up in a temporary relationship with the Elijah Wood character, who
is attempting to duplicate Joel’s courtship of Clementine. She has this way of
appearing lost in a certain spatial plane that is neither here nor there.
Gondry’s willingness to lose the audience for periods of time is brazen in his
confidence in that he knows he will recover us later as things come together. I
must admit it was 10 years between viewings and it’s amazing how beautifully
the film comes together upon repeated viewing. Although there is
already a dated, low-tech vibe to the film (no cell phones, primitive computer
systems), the film hardly suffers from them, with the warmth of human contact taking center stage. Charlie Kaufman’s script is as loose and free as it is
deliciously pragmatic. Once you watch the film, it’s amazing how intricately
designed it is. No wonder he won the best Screenplay Oscar that year. What
stands out for me, are the beautiful sequences as Joel and Clementine race to
hide in Joel’s mind, attempting to preserve small semblances of their love and
experience together, learning from these experiences on how
to be better people and building a greater love and appreciation for each other. It
is one of cinema’s most truly lovely expressions of romantic love.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10656287096270976604noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5703076346434344743.post-30248635333611515782014-04-02T20:41:00.000-04:002014-04-05T21:48:18.805-04:00My Favorite films of 2013<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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There's no way I've seen all the films I need to in order to do full justice to this list. I still haven't seen <i>Like Someone in Love</i> and am still waiting for <i>Beyond the Hills</i> to get some kind of distribution. But at some point, you just need to put 2013 to bed. I think 2013 was a tremendous year for film. Probably the best year in the last decade. Last year I had a hard time filling out a top 10. This year, my 10 favorite films (actually 11) are all top notch, and there were a several others that I had a hard time leaving off my top 10, including (ahem), <i>Frozen</i>. Anyway, now that we're already 1/4 of the way through 2014, these are my favorite films of 2013. And now I can move on. (ratings are out of 4 stars)<br />
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1. 12 Years a Slave (2013) - McQueen ****<br />
- There was no more powerful film last year than this one. It even gained in stature for me after I read Northup's incredible memoir. I will not soon forget this one. McQueen's greatest feat was bringing the stone-cold emotional honesty of the memoir, whilst not selling out to sentiment.<br />
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2. Before Midnight (2013) - Linklater ****<br />
- Perhaps the best film of the trilogy, Linklater's labor of love with his stars Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke is another superb entry in what is turning into more of a lifelong relationship examined on film. As Celine and Jesse age, the entire trilogy continues to morph and shift as our perceptions of past and present perceptions of this couple changes.<br />
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3. Gravity (2013) - Cuaron ****<br />
- The funnest and most breathtaking experience I've had in a theater in about 8 years. And when I say breathtaking, I really mean it. I felt out of breath at the end of the film. It's a memorable leap forward for technological effects and the advance of cinema as experience. It's also a deeply felt humanistic tale and well acted by Bullock.<br />
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4. The Act of Killing (2012) - Oppenheimer ****<br />
- It's hard to completely fathom how this film got made. But Joshua Oppenheimer has made a documentary for the ages. Scorching, brazen, appalling, and unforgettable.<br />
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5. Laurence Anyways (2012) - Dolan ****<br />
- Mostly went unnoticed, this Canadian release from 2012 that played in the US last year is an unabashed love story with tinges of Kubrick and Fassbinder. It's loaded with style and although it has a long running time, it also has an epic and tragic leaning that I couldn't get enough of.<br />
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6. Prisoners (2013) - Villaneuve ****<br />
- My favorite procedural since <i>Silence of the Lambs</i> (and without sensationalizing the crime). Villaneuve's film is utterly creepy and gets under your skin. I had this film on the brain for weeks. Jackman and Gyllenhaal have never been better.<br />
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7. Blue Jasmine (2013) - Allen ****<br />
- Allen's best film since <i>Match Point</i>, nearly a decade a go. True, though the film is a tremendous vehicle for Cate Blanchett, it also contains a great deal of Shakespearean elements and class dynamics. Superbly acted by the ensemble and really an engaging film.<br />
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8. The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) - Scorsese *** 1/2<br />
- This was the most talked about film for awhile there, but when you boil it down to pure cinema and bravado, nothing could top it. Hard to believe that Scorsese still has this much energy, but his film made <i>American Hustle</i> look boring by comparison. Scorsese is remarkably successful portraying comedy as grand circus, with DiCaprio an excellent ring leader.<br />
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9. To the Wonder (2013) - Malick ****<br />
- Malick's darkest and most doubt-laden film was his most poorly received film yet, mainly due to the public's and critic's misreading of it. If <i>The Tree of Life </i>displays spiritual birth, then <i>To the Wonder</i> examines spiritual doubt. Once all is said and done, the film will likely settle nicely into Malick's canon. It just might take awhile. I found it to be gorgeous, romantic, and unsettling.<br />
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10. Short Term 12 (2013) - Cretton ****<br />
- At times the film begins to veer into tv movie territory, but reality and honesty are constantly setting things straight. Brie Larson as a social worker taking care of troubled teens is just amazing. It's as moving and honest as any film from last year.<br />
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11. Fill the Void (2012) - Burshtein *** 1/2<br />
- I'm making room for this one on my list. This is the one film that took me somewhere I felt I'd never seen before. Rama Burshtein brought me into the Hassidic Jewish world of arranged marriages and makes it feel simultaneously unique and common, building upon the kinds of societal and relational pressures common to the works of Jane Austen, but transporting them to a world rarely filmed.<br />
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<b>Honorable Mention:</b><br />
Afternoon Delight (2013) - Soloway ***<br />
The Attack (2012) - Doueiri *** 1/2<br />
Blue is the Warmest Color (2013) - Kechiche ***<br />
Captain Phillips (2013) - Greengrass ***<br />
Frances Ha (2012) - Baumbach ***<br />
Frozen (2013) - Buck, Lee *** 1/2<br />
The Kings of Summer (2013) - Vogt-Roberts ***<br />
Cutie and the Boxer (2013) - Heinzerling ***<br />
Mud (2013) - Nichols ***<br />
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<br />
<b>The rest of 2013: In alphabetical order....</b><br />
<br />
Ain't Them Bodies Saints (2013) - Lowrey **<br />
All is Lost (2013) - Chandor ** 1/2<br />
American Hustle (2013) - Russell **<br />
August: Osage County (2013) - Wells ***<br />
A Band Called Death (2012) - Covino ***<br />
Behind the Candelabra (2013) - Soderbergh **<br />
Blackfish (2013) - Cowperwaithe ***<br />
The Bling Ring (2013) - Coppola **<br />
Blue Caprice (2013) - Moors ***<br />
The Broken Circle Breakdown (2012) - Van Groeningen * 1/2<br />
The Butler (2013) - Daniels ***<br />
Computer Chess (2013) - Bujalski **<br />
The Conjuring (2013) - Wan **<br />
Dallas Buyer's Club (2013) - Vallee **<br />
Fruitvale Station (2013) - Coogler ***<br />
The Gatekeepers (2013) - Moreh ** 1/2<br />
Gatsby (2013) - Luhrman **<br />
Gimme the Loot (2012) - Leon ** 1/2<br />
Goodbye First Love (2012) - Hansen-Love **<br />
The Great Beauty (2013) - Sorrentino ***<br />
Hannah Arendt (2012) - Von Trotta ***<br />
Her (2013) - Jonze ***<br />
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013) - Lawrence ** 1/2<br />
The Hunt (2013) - Vinterberg **<br />
I'm So Excited (2013) - Almodovar * 1/2<br />
Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) - Coen **<br />
Leviathan (2012) - Castaing-Taylor * 1/2<br />
Mama (2013) - Muschietti ***<br />
Nebraska (2013) - Payne ***<br />
Night Across the Street (2012) - Ruiz ** 1/2<br />
No (2013) - Larrain ** 1/2<br />
Only God Forgives (2013) - Refn * 1/2<br />
Oz: The Great and Powerful (2013) - Raimi ***<br />
Pain and Gain (2013) - Bay **<br />
The Place Beyond the Pines (2013) - Cianfrance ***<br />
Post Tenabras Lux (2012) - Reygadas ** 1/2<br />
Prince Avalanche (2013) - Green **<br />
Renoir (2012) - Bourdos ** 1/2<br />
Rush (2013) - Howard * 1/2<br />
Saving Mr. Banks (2013) - Hancock ** 1/2<br />
Side Effects (2013) - Soderberg ** 1/2<br />
Something in the Air (2012) - Assayas **<br />
The Spectacular Now (2013) - Ponsoldt **<br />
Spring Breakers (2013) - Korine ***<br />
Stoker (2013) - Park **<br />
Stories We Tell (2013) - Polley ** 1/2<br />
Therese (2012) - Miller ** 1/2<br />
Touchy Feely (2013) - Shelton **<br />
Trance (2013) - Boyle **<br />
Upstream Color (2013) - Carruth ** 1/2<br />
The Way Way Back (2013) - Faxon/Rash ** 1/2<br />
The We and the I (2013) - Gondry ** 1/2<br />
What Maisie Knew (2013) - McGehee **<br />
The World's End (2013) - Wright ** 1/2<br />
You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet (2013) - ** 1/2<br />
<br />Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10656287096270976604noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5703076346434344743.post-9968644504117846762014-03-26T07:00:00.000-04:002014-03-26T07:00:02.965-04:00Waterloo Bridge (1931) - Directed by James Whale<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Though remade a couple of times since, the original film adaptation of
the play by the same name remains a definitive romantic film from the 1930’s. Made
at about the same time as many of Maurice Chevalier’s little escapist romances
and musicals, <i>Waterloo Bridge</i> plays as a sort of romantic pre-coder with a more
pessimistic core. It captures the same sorts of time-pressured romantic
entanglements that have been one of cinema’s greatest romantic interests: That
of two lovers or would-be lovers who do not have time on their side. There’s
also a fascinating emotional transparency on display and a rather inquisitive nature
to observe interaction and dialogue without intent to over-dramatize or
over-sensationalize the scenario, especially when considering the era in which it was made. Let’s
face it.... falling in love with a prostitute isn’t exactly something we’ve never
seen before. But it was never approached with the degree of subtlety and
lack of sentimentality than it was here in <i>Waterloo Bridge</i>.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><i>Waterloo Bridge</i> stars Mae Clarke as an American showgirl named Myra, living
in London, who is down on her luck and selling herself to soldiers to make ends
meet. One evening, she has a meet-cute with
a WWI American Soldier named Roy (Kent Douglass) on Waterloo Bridge during an
air raid. She portrays herself to him as a showgirl and not a prostitute. They
both return to her apartment where they spend the evening talking and getting
to know each other, whereupon Roy decides he wants to help her out by paying
her rent. She is insulted and nearly throws him out, but is already smitten and
attached to him so she apologizes. They begin a hot and cold relationship that
is threatened by Roy’s future return to the battle lines, and by Myra’s refusal to
tell him about her past, which keeps her from opening herself up to his marriage proposals. At one point, he goads her into spending some time with
his family at their large home where she feels threatened by her own conscience
as she still hasn’t confided to Roy. Myra continues to run and Roy continues to
pursue despite the challenges, bringing them to a tear-filled departure on Waterloo
Bridge as Roy must head to the battle lines. Unbeknownst to them, this moment will be the last time they ever see each
other. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">James Whale, he of <i>Frankenstein</i> fame, directs this pre-coder with a
large degree of restraint. There’s actually very little of the ubiquitous
cleavage and lingerie of the era and potential scenes of prostitution are few
and far between, with precious few minutes actually devoted to her professional
endeavors. So although the film is about a woman who is a prostitute, this
never becomes a preachy film about prostitution. Instead, most of the focus is
on the face to face interaction between Myra and Roy as they flirt and retreat,
plead and yearn, laugh and cry. Both Mae Clark and Kent Douglas give unaffected
and emotionally fragile performances. These are both two relatively
inexperienced, young actors whose insecurity onscreen translates into fragile
portrayals of individuals who are yearning for a connection but afraid of being
hurt and of hurting others, relegating their emotional states into something
resembling a paralyzed love, a yearning and an intention that lacks the blunt truth
to survive. Both Clark and Douglas have terrific chemistry together and
both look great onscreen. Each has this way of naturally hanging out and
feeling comfortable. They don't have to be speaking to be communicating. There is a strange,
beautiful, and poetic infusion of un-rushed sincerity to their scenes. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">What on paper feels very much like cliché is realized in such a way that
the emphasis is on character development and emotional context. Pressures of war and hunger drives each to
believe they are making decisions that
are in the best interest of the other. As the audience understands slightly
more than the characters do, there is a hushed and tragic suspense to this
romance that really never seems to get off the ground in proper fashion. Denial
though, is often more romantic than coupling itself, as examples from <i>Casablanca</i> to <i>Brief Encounter</i> remind us of that old question...... “Is it better
to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all?” Are the brief memories
of beauty that are coupled with deep pain to be preferred over nothingness and
numbness? This is a central question common to many a love story both in real life
and in the movies. As far as the romantic movies go, <i>Waterloo Bridge</i> is one of
the best. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10656287096270976604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5703076346434344743.post-47897581731173107712014-03-19T10:17:00.002-04:002014-03-19T10:19:06.811-04:00The Blogging Doldrums<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Maybe it's just me, but blogging this winter has become, oddly, a bit of a chore. I'm not sure whether it's been this horrendously long, cold, and snowy winter, a lack of quality film viewings, or some other random combination of things, but I've seemingly run out of films that I've been interested in writing about. I've still been watching tons of movies, but nothing has really caught my fancy in the last couple of months since most of the new films that I really liked, such as Wolf of Wall Street or 12 Years a Slave are now far in the rearview mirror. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Don't get me wrong; I still enjoy writing and blogging, but unless there is something I'm passionate about, it's hard to find time to write. I am looking forward to the upcoming Romance countdown at WiTD, and expect to submit several essays to that effort, but in the meantime, I will continue to only write about films that really drive a passion. </span>Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10656287096270976604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5703076346434344743.post-8861562410864227092014-03-12T18:00:00.000-04:002014-03-12T18:00:04.277-04:00The Bigamist (1953) - Directed by Ida Lupino<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Ida Lupino is one of the most fascinating figures in the history of
cinema, breaking ground in numerous ways as basically the only female director
working in Hollywood in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, she also wrote,
produced and starred in numerous films, including her 1953 masterpiece, <i>The
Bigamist</i>, in which she gives a brilliant performance. Her films, particularly this
one, defy societal conventions, and in fact Hollywood conventions as well,
dealing with themes and underlying issues in ways that are uniquely sensitive
to feminine/masculine identity and sexuality and in fact the
concept of marriage and career for both women and men. It’s hard to watch this
film in a complete vacuum and take it in as it would have been seen in 1953. In fact it’s
hard to turn off our understanding of the true second wave of feminism in the
1960s. But there are stepping stones created in this film and elements of feminism that
are incorporated into the script effectively. True, the film is rather
melodramatic, but it’s honest and sincerely told.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Edmund O’Brien gives a career best performance as Harry Graham, husband
of Eve (Joan Fontaine), who is unable to conceive children. So they pursue
the option of adopting a child after 8 years of marriage to each other. While
the adoption agency worker, Mr. Jordan (Edmund Gwynn) looks into the background
check process, he finds out many things about Harry…..in fact far more than he
wishes to find out. Harry is in fact a traveling salesman for refrigerators in
a business that is headed by his wife Eve, who quickly became a leading
saleswoman in the business after she pursued a sales career once she realized she couldn’t have children. She in fact is deemed a “career woman” by
her husband, and is actually better at her job than Harry is. Though their
apartment is in San Francisco, Harry travels often to Los Angeles for work.
While alone there and feeling restless, lonely, and depressed, he meets Phyllis
(Ida Lupino) on a tour-bus ride. They strike up a friendship. Soon though,
Harry begins to crave her attention and affection and begins to feel
appreciated through her attentions. His wife Eve is often unresponsive to his feelings and
needs. When Eve has to fly to Florida to care for her ailing father, Harry has
significant time alone with Phyllis in L.A., where they have sex on his
birthday. Phyllis knows nothing of Harry’s personal life, and when Harry learns
that Phyllis is pregnant, his guilt and shame overcome him and he determines
that he will have to divorce Eve to care for Phyllis and the child, but he
doesn’t tell Phyllis this. Through circumstances beyond his control, he is
unable to tell Eve, and thus begins a scenario where he becomes married to two
women at the same time, leading a double life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Several key themes come to the fore in this film. One is the against-the-grain
characterization of Eve, by Joan Fontaine. Eve is a career woman, better at her
job than her husband, and who in fact we suspect makes more money than her
husband does. She is satisfied by her
work, and in fact pays little attention to her husband's emotional needs, even though she's not really that insensitive by nature....it's just that she is trusting and is rather "un-clingy". Harry is the disenchanted,
lovelorn husband, emasculated, flighty, depressed, emotional, and rather
unstable. In fact, their roles can be positioned as the opposite stereotypes of
male/female roles, particularly in traditional social and cinematic values. When
Harry wanders to Phyllis, we listen to his internal monologue as he explains
why he does what he does out of need to connect emotionally and spiritually to
another human as his needs have become unfulfilled by his wife. His sensitive and emotional
needs are quite a stark de-masculinization of male gender values, and particularly
enhanced by O’Brien’s effectiveness in the role. Joan Fontaine is fabulously believable
as the career woman, shunning her traditional duties of domestication and female
subservience. Ida Lupino is equally impressive as Phyllis, seeking
companionship but not demanding anything from Harry, pursuing HIM when in fact he
wants to break off the relationship and refrain from sex. Yet she's a good woman at heart and really is doing nothing wrong. Their sexual
encounter is subtly hinted at when he tells her “I have to return home tomorrow.”
She says, “Tomorrow is a long way off.” When her pregnancy is made known, it is of particular interest that she has made no intention of finding Harry to tell him and is ready to care for the child on her own as a single mother.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Lupino’s direction is often raw, and unpolished, but is remarkably
honest in its emotional clarity, providing moments for each character to be
deeply felt by the audience. Tendencies for melodramatic elements are keyed by
circumstances which aren’t just believable, they’re remarkably simple and
understandable. When the moment comes when Harry feels the need to confess to
Eve, we understand his lack of will when he realizes her father has passed
away. The bad timing continues, and he’s never quite able to tell her. It’s not
that we sympathize with him…it’s just that we understand HOW such a thing could
happen. His manipulation of the situation is enhanced by the circumstances
which allow for the deceit to continue. It’s a remarkably balanced script by
Collier Young, who was in fact married to Fontaine at the time, and was
previously married to Lupino, adding an interesting layer to the background of
this film. The love triangle of sorts is also fascinating in that we do believe
that Harry loves both women and the film ends on an appropriately ambiguous
note. True, though the film asks more questions than it answers (and probably
couldn’t go quite as far as a film made in the late 1960’s could go) regarding the
elements of gender reversal, the honest approach to female sexuality, career, motherhood, marriage, and the terrific love story at the core of the film make this film
a must see and a unique slice of the 1950’s for a pioneering woman in the field of cinema. Whether you like the film or not may depend on your sensitivity to melodrama..... but if Sirk, Fassbinder, and Almodovar can be praised for their melodramas, so can Lupino. If not, then it's a double standard that needs to be corrected.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10656287096270976604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5703076346434344743.post-30818044101411869602014-03-05T12:56:00.001-05:002014-03-05T12:56:53.568-05:00Alain Resnais<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The present and the past co-exist, but the past shouldn't be in flashback.<br />
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- Alain Resnais (1922 - 2014)<br />
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<br />Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10656287096270976604noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5703076346434344743.post-1021200278185972382014-02-26T07:00:00.000-05:002014-02-26T07:00:01.859-05:00Medium Cool (1969) - Directed by Haskell Wexler<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Many of the time-capsule films of the late 1960’s don’t play nearly as
well as they used to. Last time I watched <i>The Graduate</i> I found
it slightly more awkward and kitschy than I recall. Also, <i>Easy Rider</i> was a little bit too
in love with itself last time I saw it a couple years ago. Same goes for
Midnight Cowboy, which although wonderfully acted, is a bit self-conscious despite the fantastic acting. Each of these films I really like for the most part
and consider them to be fine American films from their era, but none of which I
would consider to have much of an impact upon me and my
understanding of cinema today outside of their historical perspective. I think their scope goes little beyond their
time-capsule quality as a window into the late 60’s. Haskell
Wexler’s <i>Medium Cool</i> is an exception to this rule, however. For some reason,
<i>Medium Cool</i> was not canonized the way that it should have been. There are small
circles, especially among critics, who have sung it’s praises, but I’m hoping the
recent Criterion release will shine more light on it. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Wexler wrote, directed, and photographed this masterful piece of 60’s
filmmaking that just might be the best American film of that decade to my eyes. In the
film, there are a few converging plots lines that are at first loosely framed
and then slowly begin to coalesce around the 1968 Democratic National
Convention in Chicago, where the riots took place between the Chicago Police
and demonstrators protesting the Vietnam War among other things. We follow a news photographer named John (Robert Forster) and his sound man, Gus (Peter
Bonerz) through Chicago on various outings as they film a car accident, and cover various stories. We also follow the exploits of a young boy,
named Harold (Harold Blankenship) and his single mother Eileen (Verna Bloom),
who are living in a small apartment. These stories cross when John catches
Harold near his car and chases him, thinking he’s trying to damage his car.
In the chase, Harold leaves behind a pet pigeon in a box with his home address
on it. John arrives at the home to return the pigeon, where he meets the boy
and his mother, with whom an initial attraction is made. They tentatively begin
a relationship, and just when things start heating up, Harold runs off into
Chicago on his own, and Eileen goes searching for him through the crowds and
rioters protesting in Chicago, while John is filming the coverage at the
convention. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Unique in its presentation, <i>Medium Cool</i> is an influential film with lots
going on. It is one of the most effective, and one of the first, to portray the
weaving of fiction and non-fiction within the same film. We have fictional
characters winding their way through actual events (The Convention, The Riots
etc.), with the lines between the film’s sense of fiction and reality continually blurred by the context within which it was shot. This blurring effect occurs even more so, by the
fact that Wexler photographs the film with a cinema verite style, making the
film feel like a documentary, even as he weaves pastorally beautiful sequences
together, particularly the flashback memories of Harold
and his father, making the film feel life-like and also cinematic at the same
time. This approach can also be seen over twenty years later in a film like Kiarostami’s
magnificent <i>Close-Up</i>, where he continually blurs the lines between reality and
truth and our perception of them. With most of the Wexler's film made in Chicago, it’s
also very much a slice-of-life in big city Chicago 1968, with lots of outdoor
sequences of the El Trains, the projects and ghettos, and also Grant Park etc.
Most of the film is particularly un-shy about topics of media distortion and
ethics, racism, women’s liberation, sexual liberation, war and violence,
political upheaval…..it all makes me feel like I understand what it was
like back in 1968, far more than those other films I mentioned above. <i>Medium
Cool</i> captures a tenseness and angst present in those times, with the memories
of assassinations and social/political unrest fresh in people’s hearts and
minds. I find there are element’s of
Wexler’s film that can also be seen in something like Lee’s <i>Do the Right Thing</i>,
where angst and tension is on high alert. It’s also a film that
speaks to us today, with the topic of media manipulation and the way we cover
national tragedies on our news stations that continue to be divisive. There’s a
particular sequence where John and Eileen are watching a news presentation on
the television, and John has a monologue reflecting how the nation has begun to
get used to national tragedy and we have a procedure for how the media covers these
events and how the nation reacts with almost premeditation
and desensitization. These statements feel just as relevant today as they would
have back then. The particular instances might differ….rather than
assassinations we have terrorism…..but the underlying commonalities are there. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Few photographers of his era were better than Wexler. This film is one
huge example of his talent, using a variety of camera techniques and framing
devices to capture the spirit that he was intending. In the film's final
centerpiece, the riot sequence is amazingly well captured, with Verna Bloom
wearing her bright yellow dress, standing out amidst the police and
demonstrators….the hand-held camera roving about capturing the chaos. It’s
almost hard to believe Wexler was able to pull this off as it’s so shockingly spontaneous. His sense of humor is also rather amusing, throwing in sly jokes
just to keep the film from getting too high-minded, like the overlapping sound
technique of using crowd noise during a sex scene among other visual and aural
gags throughout. Although it’s not really a film of memorable characters, the
ideas therein and the conceptual design really are the major assets. This is
often the focus of European films from the 1960’s, like those of Godard….where the politics and ideas relegate the human element to the background.
Stylistically, the film also belongs to a certain sense of the American New
Wave, along with works by Cassevetes, which to me are also playing extremely
well these days. As a lasting work of cinematic innovation, there are few
American films that are as striking and memorable as <i>Medium Cool</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10656287096270976604noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5703076346434344743.post-39856820497952047802014-02-19T06:00:00.000-05:002014-02-19T06:00:02.576-05:00The Last Wagon (1956) - Directed by Delmer Daves<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">As further confirmation that Delmer Daves was the western genre’s great
moralist director, we have this fascinating and pointed psychological western
to point to. <i>The Last Wagon</i>, along with others from Daves in this era, like
<i>Jubal</i> and <i>3:10 to Yuma</i>, make distinctive reference points to Biblical
allegories….each film examining the west as a sort of proving grounds for
faith, justice, and moral uprightness. Daves positions his characters in
situations that cause them to question their sense of right and wrong. These
temptations and conundrums are positioned against men of good mental and
spiritual fortitude in <i>Jubal</i> and <i>3:10 to Yuma</i>. But in <i>The Last Wagon</i>, our
protagonist is of questionable moral standards to begin with and even we the
audience aren’t quite sure what to make of our own judgements of him.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Daves co-scripted the film and helped create a fiendishly clever
psychological mess of a plot. Comanche Todd (Richard Widmark), named so because
he was raised mostly by Comanches, has been captured by Sheriff Harper as Todd
was wanted for the murder of Harper’s three brothers. After taking him captive,
Harper and Todd meet up with a wagon train, and Harper ties Todd to a wagon
wheel to keep him captive. Tempers flare when some of the wagon train members
begin to show care for Todd, while Harper wants none of that. During a fit of
confusion, Todd manages to kill Harper, leaving the wagon train to deal with
Todd themselves. A group of younger individuals from the train decide to go
skinny dipping during the night, Jenny (Felicia Farr) and her brother Billy
(Tommy Rettig), Jolie (who’s half Native American – played by Susan Kohner) and
her racist step-sister Valinda (Stephanie Griffin), and two other young men named Ridge (Nick Adams) and Clint (Ray Stricklyn). When they all arrive back at the
wagon train in the early morning, they find everyone has been slaughtered by
Apaches……except Todd. This positions all six of the young
survivors into a situation whereby their only hope of survival is to let the
seemingly “evil” Todd lead them across the dangerous territory to safety…….if
they can trust him.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I’m not sure Daves could have found a more perfect actor to play
Comanche Todd than Richard Widmark. Widmark was of course typecast a bit during
his days as morally corrupt and slimy, often playing bad guys or good guys gone
bad in numerous film noirs and westerns throughout his career. Widmark has a
fascinating ability, though, to rise above this sort of typecasting through his
impressive range. Here he’s believably tough, rugged, fatherly,
caring, daring, vengeful and just about any other adjective you could use to
describe his character. What works so well is that we are never
quite sure of what he’s capable of. His past exploits, as assumed by most of the
6 survivors, are seen in different lights. Jenny finds a rugged handsomeness and
danger in him that she is attracted to, and at one point even grimacing with
pleasure as Todd digs a knife into an Apache’s chest. Billy finds Todd to be a
father figure, learning from Todd’s teaching and mentoring while he is leading
them through the dessert. Valinda despises Todd completely, not trusting him
one bit and fearing for her safety, despite the fact that he saves her life
after she’s bitten by a rattler. Ridge and Clint can’t quite make up their
minds most of the time, as their own fears of inadequacy to care for the group
force them to follow Todd’s direction even though they don’t always like it.
Jolie finds a quiet camaraderie in Todd, as his sympathies and understanding of
racism she appreciates. Widmark is able to reflect back all of these qualities
that are needed in convincing fashion, and it’s one of his best and most
confident performances.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Many things are done to near perfection in this film: Wilfred Cline’s
terrific Scope cinematography, the excellent action sequences (love those
gunpowder explosions), the terrific supporting roles (especially Felicia Farr
as the sexually yearning Jenny….in fact Farr added fine performances to <i>Jubal</i>
and <i>3:10 to Yuma</i> as well), the self-aware script that doesn’t shy away from
topics of racism, fornication and spirituality. True though the plot is the
sort of thing that could be construed as cliché, the film elevates beyond the
usual through the continued Biblical reference points. On more than one
occasion, there’s mention of preaching and the Bible, with even mention of Todd’s
birth-father being a circuit preacher. This allows for an appropriation to Todd
as wandering prophet or savior to this group of 6 people. He preaches,
prophesies, and enacts lessons of survival and safety and protection to his
newfound family or “congregation” if you will. It’s almost like he’s Moses
leading the Israelites through the desert. At the end of the film, the
question of law versus justice comes into play, as Daves’s script allows for a
very pointed examination of judgement….both man’s and God’s. Our understanding
of Comanche Todd and everything we think he’s done gets turned upside down in
the finale, with God smiling down on him in reprieve based upon his lifesaving exploits, which although
on the surface seems wishy-washy, is
actually not dissimilar to the miraculous rain shower at the end of <i>3:10 to
Yuma</i> based on Van Heflin’s faithful service, or even Glenn Ford’s redemption
and survival at the end of <i>Jubal</i> by refraining from adultery. These endings are
all remarkably consistent and in line with Daves’s unique brand of psychological
western. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10656287096270976604noreply@blogger.com2