True Grit (1969)

Second viewing; first viewed between 1983 and 1986.

A teenage girl hires a Deputy Marshal who is famous for his efficiency and ruthlessness to hunt down her father's murderer.

Excellent western, with unforgettable characters and an almost non-stop brilliancy in the dialog. The concept of justice is very dear to Civilization, and resonates even deeper in the hearts of those of us who see the world crumbling down today through all forms of relativization and distortion of that concept.

Rating: 72 (up fom 55)

Network (1976)

Second viewing; first viewed before January 1987, and probably not earlier than January 1983.

A deranged TV news anchor is exploited by his employers with unpredictable consequences.

As some people have noticed, this derives in part from Meet John Doe. Most critics have lauded this film highly. A minority didn't like it, the most notable among them being Dale Thomajan ("Cinema as hysteria") and Pauline Kael (excerpts of hers and of others may be found on Wikipedia). Both its lovers and its haters make valid points, I think. This is a film with many good ideas which were poorly materialized. The fact is, the film is extremely odd in tone. The sense of humor is heavily satirical, yet the film's mood is predominantly that of a serious drama. Furthermore, there is the facile recourse to a mad central character, from whom anything may be expected, and whose behavior obeys neither the laws of logic nor the existing psychiatric classifications. I do not believe films like this have a significant influence on solving the ills they point to, some of which are imaginary anyway. Thus, at least they should try to please viewers, to achieve which a better thought-out script would be required. As it is, it stands dangerously close to its own object of critique.

Rating: 50 (down from 67)

Assassination (1987)

After a series of assassination attempts against the first lady, she and the head of security in charge of her go on a trip incognito. In the meantime the other security team members try to find out who is responsible for the attempts.

Routine thriller with some atypical plot elements.

Rating: 32

Brutti, sporchi e cattivi (1976)

Second viewing; first viewed between 1983 and 1986.

English alternate titles: Down and Dirty; Ugly, Dirty and Bad.

The daily activities of a large family living under the same roof in a slum. The head of the family is a rude and avaricious man who has received a considerable sum of money from the State after having burned his own left eye with whitewash. He keeps the bundle of notes with him or hidden and lives in a perpetual state of fear of being robbed of it.

Nearly perfect black comedy describing urban life at its bottom layer. The principle of the movie is precisely this simplification, so to speak, of the constraints involved in human interactions. It is an old story: economic progress does not necessarily bring civilization; it's quite the contrary, actually, for those who live at the margins of the economy. I found the film less shocking than on my first watching, but on the other hand perhaps now I had a sharper eye for its artistic perfections.

Rating: 90 (down from 100)

Crônica da Cidade Amada (1965)

Second viewing; first viewed on April 23, 1990.

Omnibus with eleven segments adapted from short literary texts, with the aim of jointly providing a panoramic and humorous view of social, cultural and natural aspects of the city of Rio de Janeiro.

Quite well-made by Brazilian standards, and featuring interesting takes on Rio's quirks. It suffers a bit from not being able to fully translate the literary element to the cinematic one. While it is far from a masterpiece, it is just as far from being the painful nullity that I perceived it to be on my first viewing. What was painful, however, was the laterally cropped version that I saw on TV, which I hesitate to call "pan-and-scan" as it leaves characters out of the frame with an annoying frequency.

Note: all evidences point to IMDB being in error while assigning 1964 as the year of release.

Rating: 51 (up from 21)

Enemy of the State (1998)

Second viewing; first viewed (in dubbed form) on September 20, 2001.

The murder of a politician who won't vote for a bill who allows wiretapping of common citizens is accidentally filmed, and the recording ends up in possession of a lawyer who is then chased by the criminals.

Thrilling and topical fiction on the subject of State surveillance and control. I do not have more to say about it. Christopher Mulrooney has some well-written considerations about it which may be read here.

Rating: 62 (unchanged).

Thunderheart (1992)

Two FBI agents go into a Native-American reservation to solve a murder. They suspect an activist is the culprit. The younger agent, who is part Native-American, uncovers a plot of corruption encompassing an ecological crime.

From The Flaming Star to Thunderheart, mixed-race is synonymous to mixed-up when it involves Native-American ancestry. This, for reasons one may speculate about, seems to not apply to African-Americans, for whom apparently the 'one drop of blood' rule settles also the self-identity issue.  Anyway, this is an eminently watchable thriller-cum-pamphlet and has stunning landscape as an additional charmer. Critics predominantly like subversive stuff, but some of them realize that leftist-liberal fiction tends to be the most formulaic, due to the imperative of delivering a message. Yet others have grown insensitive to anything other than social issues that affect people as atomized individuals (those issues being mostly of a sexual nature).

Rating: 50

É Fogo na Roupa! (1952)

Spoilers herein. In a posh lakeside hotel, a Symposium of Wives for Conjugal Happiness is taking place. The hotel manager intends to hire a Polish pianist, aiming to please one of the guests, a French countess. An employee of the radio station where said pianist works manages to intercept the hotel manager's telephone call, and schemes to pass up his pianist friend as the famous one. The countess takes a liking to him, and so the fraud is successful. Meanwhile, some male guests place a hairdresser in drag as a spy in the Wives' Symposium meeting. There is also a plot by some Japanese men to steal the Countess' necklace.

Musical comedy which is sort of a Marx Brothers movie without the Marx Brothers. It is poor in every aspect, but I reckon there will be something for people who take an interest in Brazilian music and popular culture of the fifties.

Rating: 31