The American Civil War has just ended. A former yankee colonel retires and decides to capture wild horses and sell them; he gets a good offer from Mexican emperor Maximilian and drives the herd to Mexico. A former Southern colonel travels with his family and army to Mexico where they expect to gather new strength. Both colonels meet.
Second viewing. A wildly unrealistic film, a retrospective dream of reconciliation(s), released in a time when the U.S. was similarly divided over the Vietnam War. Italo Calvino's novel The Cloven Viscount has a more abstract view of these matters.
Rating: 35 (unchanged)
Monday, February 27, 2012
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
The Love Bug (1968)
An automobile race pilot down on his career finds a car which appears to have a mind of its own.
This silly movie has some identities with the Wacky Races cartoon which came out three months before it; it also seems to have influenced a horror novel (and subsequent film version) named Christine. But before all those, in 1965, there was a TV series (which I have no recollection of having ever seen) called My Mother the Car. The Love Bug has a serious theme buried under the supernatural and romantic antics which make for its surface plot: people like to think they "made" something which is simply the product of technology.
Rating: 36
This silly movie has some identities with the Wacky Races cartoon which came out three months before it; it also seems to have influenced a horror novel (and subsequent film version) named Christine. But before all those, in 1965, there was a TV series (which I have no recollection of having ever seen) called My Mother the Car. The Love Bug has a serious theme buried under the supernatural and romantic antics which make for its surface plot: people like to think they "made" something which is simply the product of technology.
Rating: 36
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977)
An evil witch turns a prince into a baboon. A sea captain who is in love with the prince's sister helps getting the royal simian back into human shape.
Lazily written, lazily directed, a showcase for stop-motion animation sequences. Ridiculous in a marginally entertaining way.
Rating: 32
Lazily written, lazily directed, a showcase for stop-motion animation sequences. Ridiculous in a marginally entertaining way.
Rating: 32
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Gigi (1958)
Based on the novella by Colette (1st edition 1944).
Paris, beginning of the 20th century. A girl receives lessons in courtesanship from an aunt. A rich bachelor who is a friend of the family becomes her natural candidate for a first lover. This guy has an older friend who is also a bachelor and has collected many mistresses over the course of his past life.
The lyrics are mostly good and some are very good. The actors are all good, as far as I can remember. The screenplay is well constructed, within the constraints of sentimental musical drama. The spectacle side of it is attractive, even though the mise-en-scene is frequently simple.
Rating: 59 (this is one of a number of films which I have no record of having watched before, but probably have, at least a part of it anyway).
Paris, beginning of the 20th century. A girl receives lessons in courtesanship from an aunt. A rich bachelor who is a friend of the family becomes her natural candidate for a first lover. This guy has an older friend who is also a bachelor and has collected many mistresses over the course of his past life.
The lyrics are mostly good and some are very good. The actors are all good, as far as I can remember. The screenplay is well constructed, within the constraints of sentimental musical drama. The spectacle side of it is attractive, even though the mise-en-scene is frequently simple.
Rating: 59 (this is one of a number of films which I have no record of having watched before, but probably have, at least a part of it anyway).
Friday, February 10, 2012
The Barbarian and the Geisha (1958)
In the nineteenth century, the first consul of the U.S.A. in Japan is met with hostility and romances a geisha.
A perfectly mediocre film, about which I do not have anything of interest to say.
Rating: 38
A perfectly mediocre film, about which I do not have anything of interest to say.
Rating: 38
Tuesday, February 07, 2012
Kidnapped (1960)
Based on the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson (1st published in 1886).
Scotland, the eighteenth century. After his father dies, David leaves his native city. He carries a letter written by his father to the latter's brother, to be delivered by David. But this is only the starting point to a series of adventures.
Coming-of-age here means finding out about one's duality, and the world's, Robert Louis Stevenson's perpetual theme. What meaning can these ancient monarchical rivalries hold to present audiences? Probably none, but perhaps that is the point: structure is placed above meaning. Does the film work these ideas out satisfactorily? Alas, I did not think so.
Rating: 42
Scotland, the eighteenth century. After his father dies, David leaves his native city. He carries a letter written by his father to the latter's brother, to be delivered by David. But this is only the starting point to a series of adventures.
Coming-of-age here means finding out about one's duality, and the world's, Robert Louis Stevenson's perpetual theme. What meaning can these ancient monarchical rivalries hold to present audiences? Probably none, but perhaps that is the point: structure is placed above meaning. Does the film work these ideas out satisfactorily? Alas, I did not think so.
Rating: 42
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