Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959)

Based on the books Darby O'Gill and the Good People (1st published as a series of stories in 1901 and 1902), and Ashes of Old Wishes and other Darby O'Gill Tales (1st published in 1926), by Herminie Templeton Kavanagh (born Herminie McGibney).

The plot revolves aroung an estate's caretaker who is being forcefully retired, his young daughter, and a man who has been hired as the new caretaker. There are also leprechauns who grant wishes.

This is a worthy film, which addresses important issues in a very entertaining fashion. The dominant theme is that of marrying a person from out of one's town. The underlying unspoken concern is that of inbreeding, which should be avoided. The local bachelors are depicted as either morally deficient or as weak. The ideal suitor comes from a big city, but the film makes clear the commonality of culture between him and the girl. This is the principle of the Nation State, which allows people of various places to mix, but with a very definite territorial delimitation. He is an outsider, but not a foreigner. There is also the question of the "little people", which hint strongly at an allegorical representation of Capitalism, what with pots of gold, and wish granting which is never realized. But this is a benign view of Capitalism, of which deception is a component, but destructiveness is not.

Rating: 63

Maigret et l'affaire Saint-Fiacre (1959)

Based on the novel 'L'affaire Saint-Fiacre' by Georges Simenon, first published in 1932.

An old woman dies of a provoked heart attack in a small town. Maigret, who happens to have been born and raised in that town, returns there to investigate the affair. He interviews the various persons associated with the deceased woman, amongst which are the local priest, the estate manager, the victim's secretary and lover, the victim's son, etc.

The story is absorbing, and the small town atmosphere is well captured. All details are very professionally carried out, except the ones concerning the plot resolution. Here, the rule that says that half-baked explanations are quite enough, given that viewers tend to overlook its flaws, applies. But an explanation that leaves unexplained things is no explanation at all. Anyway, it works, I guess.

Rating: 56

Short Cuts (1993)

Third viewing; previously viewed on April 20, 1994 and on June 1, 1995.

Several groups of characters in Los Angeles which inhabit different circles but whose trajectories intersect. A newscaster and his wife whose son is hit by a car. A doctor and his wife who have a conjugal crisis of sorts. A group of friends who go fishing. A womanizing cop and his wife. A phone sex worker who is married to a pool cleaner. A make up artist and his wife. A nightclub singer and her cellist daughter. A limo driver and his bartender wife.

It somehow failed to inspire the same amount of awe as it did in my previous viewings. I still like it, but for some reason I suspect in my previous viewings I was under some kind of spell which had little to do with the actual film qualities. The story about the injured kid may have drowned the other, less emotional segments somewhat, then. That didn't happen in this viewing, and what I got was a more balanced perception of the movie in its entirety. Its literariness stood out a little more flagrantly. I think this is more a situation-based film than a character-based one. There isn't an extreme concern about getting the psychology right. These are not necessarily real people. And the situations are more or less what most people expect from a city like Los Angeles. In those terms, it is a very good movie.

Rating: 75 (down from 97)