Traitement de choc (1973)

Second viewing; first viewed on November 28, 1997.

English title: Shock Treatment.

A woman approaching her 40s checks into a clinic which offers an expensive treatment which claims to stop aging. There are some fishy occurrences at the clinic, and she starts poking around in search of any clues of wrongdoing.

Although the premise is somewhat smart, and its critique of capitalism is spot on, the film is flawed on account of an excessively conventional and excitement-free narrative. Also, what's with all the nudity?

Rating: 50 (down from 65)

Futureworld (1976)

The theme park of Westworld is reformed, expanded and reopened. Several world leaders are invited to spend one day there, as  well as some journalists, among whom is one that received a tip that something very fishy is or will be happening there.

This has some good ideas, but turns out to be not so good. Probably its biggest problem is that the development is too linear and predictable, with little tension or excitement. But the film suffers from another problem: its premise is no longer frightening to some, perhaps most, people. Well, imagine world leaders being replaced by robots at the service of a big corporation! How horrible, except isn't that what they are already? And that corporation is doing it to save the world from itself, it says. That's not frightening either. If they are not being sincere, we fall into the case that I just commented upon. If they are being sincere, well, that's nothing to fear, is it? If they had accomplished that in 1976, global warming would have been stopped by now, and that Swedish girl would not have had her childhood taken away from her. Wouldn't that have been nice?

Rating: 41

Sans toit ni loi (1985)

English title: Vagabond
English translation of the French title: Without Roof or Law

The dead body of a young drifting woman is found in a ditch. The film then flashes back a few months and then follows her up until her death. She wanders aimlessly through the countryside taking odd jobs and sleeping in empty houses or in a camping tent. She meets with assorted characters, occasionally settling somewhere, only to depart after a short period.

To be frank, as I started watching this film it didn't look very promising, and even began to annoy me a little. To begin with, the notion of a young female drifter without any goal in life is very implausible, and the reasons for that are not very hard to discern. But I decided to suspend my disbelief. Perhaps the purpose of the movie was precisely that: to imagine an unusual character living an unusual life. And it actually got better, or, more accurately said, it felt better when I took that more broad-minded stance toward it. It is a very simply, almost crudely staged movie. I decided to overlook that too. All in all, one might say that its originality consists in not making the main character a victim, at least not in a traditional sense. She does not come across as a particularly endearing person either. She is nothing special, but her unique condition makes her the object of the projection of the people she encounters; she is like an empty vessel into which everyone pours their frustrations. The film may be seen as a parable of sorts, a parable without a discernible moral. The ending, though simply a return to the beginning, is oddly disturbing; the strange sequence that precedes it maybe the source of that emotional effect.

Rating: 55

Flic ou voyou (1979)

English title: Cop or Hood.

An eccentric internal affairs agent investigates the murder of a corrupt cop, and gets involved in the feud between two mobsters.

Endlessly tedious criminal thriller with a comic undertone. The only thing that made it bearable was the good work of some of the supporting actors (notably Balmer).

Rating: 28

Kasaba (1997)

English title: The Small Town.

While this is generally considered to be based on an original screenplay, excerpts ('alintilar' is the word that appears in the final credits) from Anton Chekhov were used in the film's dialogue; from what I deduced from some websites, they are from The Cherry Orchard (written in 1903), but I could not verify that.

A family consisting of three generations of men and women live in a small town. An old man who recollects his time in the war; his wife; his son who went abroad to study but returned without having really made something of his life; his wife; his orphaned nephew who can't hold a job and dreams of going abroad; a boy and a girl, children of the younger couple. The film consists of several sequences in town and in the neighboring woods: a classroom where the girl studies; a cemetery where she and her brother go to pick plums; a funfair; and the film's pièce-de-résistance: a picnic in the woods where they talk about nothing and everything.

Occasionally interesting, not badly filmed, a little disjointed overall.

Rating: 43

Joyeuses Pâques (1984)

English title: Happy Easter

A married man cheats on his wife on every occasion he can. Things go awry when he takes a young woman to his house when his wife is away on a trip. Said trip is aborted and she comes back to catch her husband and his guest in the house. He tells her she is his daughter from a previous marriage.

This is based on a farce written for the stage; although that is not stated in the credits, it is discernible at a few heavily dialogued stretches. Equally discernible are the frantic attempts at disguising it with car wrecks and chases which have little to do with the main plot. The whole thing eventually becomes mildly amusing for the very absurdity of it all.

Rating: 37

A Trezentos Quilômetros por Hora (1971)

Lalo is a humble mechanic who works in a garage whose owner is a famous auto racer. Lalo has a crush on his boss's girl. He and another mechanic surreptitiously borrow cars belonging to the garage's clients to practice racing -- he as pilot and his colleague as his coach.

Inane sports drama where every frame is ridiculous -- excepting perhaps some racing sequences which are competently made considering the poor standards of Brazilian cinema. The love drama is particularly atrocious, and the protagonist's love object is probably the most revolting female character in all of cinema's history.

Rating: 20

M/Other (1999)

This is about a couple who faces a crisis triggered by the presence of the husband's 8-year-old son from a previous marriage in their house after the boy's mother suffers an accident and has to stay in the hospital for a period.

Drama about trivial matters of conjugal life. The filmmaker presumably deems it more important to affect naturalism than to tell an interesting story. What I find odd is that most of the people who went nuts about this film were neither married nor had kids. How can they tell anything in it rings true? Anyway, it's definitely on the boring side.

Rating: 33

Ôdishon (1999)

English title: Audition

A widower decides to remarry. A friend of his who is a film producer suggests that they use an audition for a new movie as a way for him to select his new wife. The widower's choice falls upon one of the candidates, a young woman with a sad story about her past. She turns out to be something quite different from what he expects.

This film made quite a splash among horror fans around the time it was released. Although I can understand the reason of its popularity among that kind of cinephile, I was myself underwhelmed by it. I guess it could not be denied that it is extremely gruesome in parts, and I strongly advise easily impressionable people against watching it; even somewhat callous viewers should beware, as it has scenes  of a physically repulsive and/or unsettling nature. But in the end of the day, what killed the film for me was the basic psychological inconsistency of the female character; also, some plot points had less than crystalline clarity. The female protagonist comes across simultaneously as a sadist and as an aggrieved woman. This was the first confusing point: although having that dual character is perhaps not an a priori impossibility for a real person, it was not a wise dramatic decision to make her so, because it makes it harder for the viewer to understand her. The event or events that trigger her fury are insignificant, and the film seems to mine that fact for a sort of dark humor. But if her anger is against all men, those insignificant events would not trigger anything, because she would just pick the first man who fell into her trap. It is also she who disappears without a trace at a certain point of their relationship; he, on the contrary, looks for her; thus, she had no plausible reason to feel mistreated or abandoned by him. These inconsistencies may suggest to some that she is just plain crazy, but the fact is that madness is not random; it must have some kind of inner logic. From all that it becomes clear that the only concern of the filmmaker is to produce a nightmare with as much shock value as he can achieve. Instead of just dismissing an incoherent mess of a film, viewers saw in it what they wished; thus, it was variously called "feminist" and "misogynistic", for example.

Rating: 30

Le guignolo (1980)

Upon getting out of jail, a confidence man embarks on a luxury cruise pretending to be an oriental potentate. He gets involved  with a confidence woman who wants to play a trick upon a rich man. A second adventure concerns a briefcase handed to him by a passenger in a plane; unbeknownst to our hero, it contains a microfilm with the description of a new kind of fuel.

Comedy with some mild action, some nudity, a hero who is intended to look amoral and charming, and an excessive amount of plotlines and subplots. Mostly unengaging and unfunny.

Rating: 32

La moutarde me monte au nez (1974)

English titles: I'm Losing My Temper; Lucky Pierre.

A math teacher gets involved in a series of troubles which bring him to the house of a movie star. He spends the night with her and becomes famous overnight, which only adds to his troubles.

Modern slapstick with a solid first half and a so-so second one.

Rating: 51

Pouic-Pouic (1963)

English title: Squeak-squeak.

"Léonard Monestier has made his fortune trading on the stock exchange. His eccentric wife Cynthia almost bankrupts him by selling some of his shares to buy an oil concession in South America. Convinced that the concession is a fake, Monestier decides to sell it on to a friend of the family, the naive millionaire Antoine Brévin. Antoine wants to marry his daughter, Patricia. However, Patricia has a different opinion on the matter. She manages to persuade the car delivery guy, Simon Guilbaud, to pretend to be her husband. Unaware of this development, Monestier invites Antoine to his house in order to get him to agree to buy the oil concession. After the invitation to Antoine, the butler Charles informs Monestier of the rushed marriage of Patricia. To prove that the concession is genuine, Monestier hires his son-in-law Simon to pretend to be his son, Paul, who is currently in South America. At this point, the real Paul turns up, with a Latin showgirl, Palma. Monestier has to resort to..." -- Written by Lara Cain (IMDB)

Entertaining farce. Admittedly, it loses a little steam in the second half, but not enough as to make it unwatchable.

Rating: 51

Julius Caesar (1970)

Based on the play by William Shakespeare, "believed to have been written in 1599" (Wikipedia), the main source for which "is Thomas North's translation of Plutarch's Lives" (Wikipedia).

Rome, 44 BC. Julius Caesar returns victorious from battle, and may become Emperor. A group of Senators wants to prevent that, and plot to kill him.

This is the second filmed version of this play that I watch. I liked the previous one, of 1953, slightly better, but cannot state the reason why. This one felt a little lethargic, for some reason that I cannot fathom either. It is an easy watch, though, as the plot and dialogue are interesting, and there is no technical flaw in the filming that I could spot.

Rating: 46

Policarpo Quaresma, Herói do Brasil (1997)

Release title in Canada: The Patriot

Based on the novel Triste Fim de Policarpo Quaresma, by Lima Barreto, published in serial form in 1911, and as a book in 1915.

The titular character is a civil servant who gains a reputation as an eccentric for his extreme nationalism. He faces a series of vicissitudes as a consequence of that obsession.

Lacklustre comedy, based on a book I have not read, and from which, based on summaries available on the internet, it departs on several instances. The theme of the movie is the possibility of Progress in a backward environment; it shows how one individual's good intentions are often misguided, or doomed, or both. This theme is probably taken from the source novel, but it is not satisfyingly developed for the screen. The competent work of most of its actors gives the movie a modicum of watchability.

Rating: 30

Le sauvage (1975)

U.S. titles: Lovers Like Us; The Savage.
U.K. title: Call Me Savage.

A woman runs away from her husband on the very night of her wedding. She is helped by a man who lives in a deserted island. He gets stuck with the woman.

Vapid comedy whose basic situation -- a man who wants to get rid of a woman and eventually falls in love with her -- has been used in countless films, many of which better than this one. As a mindless entertainment it isn't completely ineffective: it is short and filled with action.

Rating: 33

L'avare (1980)

English titles: The Miser; Grandiose Delusions.

Based on the play by Molière, first performed in 1668, and in turn "loosely based on the Latin comedy Aulularia by Plautus, from which many incidents and scraps of dialogue are borrowed, as well as from contemporary Italian farces" (Wikipedia). On the sources of L'avare, see also this article by Moritz Levi.

Harpagon, a widower with a son and a daughter, wants to marry a young woman. The problem is that his son is also in love with her and she with him. His daughter in turn wants to marry Harpagon's butler. Harpagon has a chest full of coins buried in his back yard.

This is a faithful adaptation of the play, very well done. For those who enjoy this sort of antique it must be a treat. One of the big problems for me is that there is a blatant contradiction in the main character's psyche. He wants to marry out of love, which contradicts his whole characterization as a miser. Well, anyway, that's the way they wrote plays in those far gone days, without much psychologizing. The French Wikipedia page on this film is impressively extensive. One learns, for example, that one line from the play which was suppressed in the film was: « Comment diable ! quel Juif, quel Arabe est-ce là ? » (said by Cléante), and that it is often absent in modern theatrical performances as well. One reads also that one of the critiques made to the film is that the amorous side of the main character was not given any attention by the main actor. But that was not given any attention by the playwright either! My take is quite the opposite: as subtlety was never a forte of that actor, he is perfect for this kind of play and role. But justice be done: his original contribution to the adaptation, both sequences featuring an offerings collector for the Church, the last of which ends the film, are pure genius.

Rating: 50

Faites sauter la banque! (1964)

U.S. title: Let's Rob the Bank

A man loses all his money after a bad investment made on advice of a crooked banker. He decides to avenge himself and get his money back by robbing the bank. As he lives next door to it, he engages his whole family to dig a tunnel connecting his house (and commerce establishment) to the bank.

Interesting comedy. The humor and plot are of an elementary kind, but it's all reasonably well done, so it works.

Rating: 51

Black Spurs (1965)

After Santee becomes a bounty hunter, his girl abandons him. He makes a deal with a crooked businessman who wants the railroad to pass through his city instead of a neighboring one. It consists in bringing women and gambling, and thus lawlessness, to that neighboring city, which would make it unsuitable in the eyes of the government for being the site of the railroad passage. It so happens that Santee's former girlfriend now lives in that city and is married to the local sheriff.

B-Western. Though cheap and unsophisticated, it is, as most Westerns, easily watchable.

Rating: 32

Fort Utah (1956)

Western. A former gunfighter, an Indian agent, and a caravan leader join efforts against renegade soldiers who mutineered and took over a fort, killing all the other soldiers in it. Those renegades have also stirred up revolt amongst the Indians, who want the renegade leader dead.

B-Western, with a very compact narrative. Not exactly thrilling or original, yet not entirely uninteresting either; the plot is propelled forward by a stream of challenges, conflicts and dilemmas faced by the protagonists; there is a considerable amount of fistfighting and gunfighting, and even some romancing.

Rating: 35

Stranger at My Door (1956)

A bank robber on the run is forced, on account of his horse's injured leg, to take refuge at a preacher's farm. Said preacher, who is married to a younger wife and has a son from a previous marriage, becomes dead set on converting his outlaw guest.

B-Western which has garnered some late respect and deals with the theme of redemption, one that is always popular among critics and cinephiles. It has a fair amount of well-staged action sequences, and a plot which does what it can to explore all its potential dramaticity, in this case availing itself of an apparently untameable horse as a metaphor for the bandit. To be blunt, the script's dramatic solutions are of the facile kind, occasionally venturing into the absurd. Even though I am naturally averse to religious propaganda, I tried in earnest to approach this film with an open mind, but it didn't fare as well in my assessment as it did in some other people's. Slightly above average for its budget range is the most I can concede to it.

Rating: 38

La mort en ce jardin (1956)

(Poorly translated) U.S. title: Death in the Garden.

At a South American village, miners revolt after the government seizes their mining grounds. An old man is wrongly accused of being the leader of the revolt; he was planning to go back to France with his mute daughter and a local prostitute to whom he proposes marriage. A stranger in town sleeps with said prostitute and in the next morning is accused of a robbery. When government reinforcement troops arrive to town, the four of them, plus a missionary priest, board a riverboat and flee the village. They take refuge in the Amazon jungle, trying to find their way to the Brazilian border. With the shortage of food, and the difficulties in orientation, their survival is seriously jeopardized.

Pulpish adventure with a few memorable sequences which, if not conceived by the director, fit his notorious style nicely, such as: the teasing of a mute girl by stepping on her boot laces; a snake devoured by ants; a prostitute in a gala dress in the middle of the jungle; etc. Also, he seems to have a predilection for eye hurt. The premise is dated: freedom for miners is frowned upon nowadays by environmentalists. It is an eventful enough story as to avoid dullness, but there is little in it of real originality or consequence. The cinematography, on the other hand, is breathtaking, especially as seen on a (presumably) restored high definition copy.

Rating: 45

Os Três Cangaceiros (1961)

A village in Northeastern Brazil is repeatedly raided by a gang of bandits (of the kind known as cangaceiro) who rob the local establishments and kidnap young women. Two of the villagers are rivals for the love of a woman, and when she is kidnapped they, plus a third one, disguise themselves as bandits and infiltrate the gang.

After the success of O Cangaceiro, a fad of similar films happened in Brazil, and it was inevitable that comedies too were made. This one has a very simple-minded type of humor and a predictable plot who borrows on Seven Samurai (and its American version The Magnificent Seven), The Three Musketeers and The Lone Ranger. There is nothing really to recommend it, unless you have an interest in Brazilian cinema and Brazilian comics, or want some really mindless entertainment.

Rating: 31

Gigot (1962)

Gigot, a mute who is the butt of everybody's jokes and pranks in his neighborhood, one day meets a homeless woman and her 6-year-old daughter and gives them shelter. The child and Gigot take a liking to each other. The mother is a bit of a slut.

This is not a consistently enjoyable film, but through its ups and downs it is still an interesting one. A personal project of its main actor, it is not a realistic portrayal of poverty, and is designed as to give ample room to his comic and dramatic abilities. The script follows a very predictable sentimental line. The choice of a Parisian setting and musical score seems to be designed for dramatic purposes, taking into account a certain image of France that has consolidated abroad through countless works of fiction. One detail that puzzled me was that Gigot, unlike most people who do not speak in real life, does not seem to have hearing problems (he is spoken to normally and seems to understand it; he also dances to the exact tempo of gramophone music). Despite that, many reviews and sites describe him as a "deaf mute".

Rating: 50

O Libertino (1973)

A distinguished member of society is on a crusade against immorality and pornography. He and a few ladies who share his concerns have founded an organization for that purpose; they regularly meet. Through those ladies, he receives alarming news: a building he owns, and collects rent from, is not the school for young women it purports to be, but rather a brothel.

The main character and the basic structure of the plot are the same as in O Puritano da Rua Augusta, from eight years earlier, which has been updated and adapted for the needs of sexploitation. O Libertino manages to be even worse than its predecessor; perhaps part of the blame is to be laid on the cuts it allegedly suffered from censors, but it's hard to imagine a much better movie could be made by simply adding stuff to the dismal present remains of it. I am trying to watch every movie made by Victor Lima, and so far this is his worst. His main virtue, that of a nice flow of the narrative, is here also, but it counts for little in such an uninspired and predictable script.

Rating: 21

Arizona Bushwhackers (1968)

The historical premise is that, during the American Civil War, Southern military prisoners were offered freedom in exchange for serving in places outside the zone of conflict, which in this case were located in the American West. Here, one such prisoner is assigned the mission of bringing law and order to a small town ruled by the local casino owner. Being of Southern origin, he is received with hostility by the majority of the town.

B-Western with very little going for it. The plot has a surprise around midfilm -- which I will not reveal, even though it is in every plot summary for the film available in the internet -- which stirs things a little, but still cannot lift the film above its basic dullness. The biggest attraction here is the cast, which boasts good actors in a decaying phase of their careers.

Rating: 31

The Savage (1952)

Tale of a white man who is raised by a Sioux tribe after his parents are killed in a Crow attack. His sense of loyalty and identity is repeatedly put into test when conflict arises between the Sioux and the Whites.

The main character here goes through a series of ordeals which place him in an awkward role that is a blend of double agent and diplomat. The whole drama is laid out as a case of bad apples on each side. None of that has the minimal connection to plausible situations: reality is much simpler, or much more complicated, depending on the angle from which you look. Still, it works as a sort cerebral exercise of problem solving, not too boring and not too exciting either.

Rating: 37

The Seagull (2018)

Based on the play by Anton Chekhov, written in 1895 and first produced in 1896.

Told in a circular fashion, it starts as a group of people gather at a country estate around a dying man: his sister (an actress), her son (a writer), her lover (also a writer), the estate manager, his wife, their daughter, her husband (a schoolteacher), a medical doctor, a young actress who used to live in the estate's vicinity. After a brief prologue, there is a long flashback with the same characters at the estate years earlier; the fim then returns to the present time for a conclusion. The plot is basically  thus: the young girl who wants to be an actress falls in love with the old actress's lover; the old actress's son, who is the young woman's boyfriend, is heartbroken; the manager's daughter loves the old actress's son, and is loved by the schoolteacher.

I have never seen or read the play, or do not remember. One can tell this is an adaptation from a play, but it is sufficiently well written and well directed as to work as a film on its own. I thought at times it is a bit overscored, especially at the beginning. The actors are passable. I found it a bit elliptic, and I don't know how much of the play's dialogue was excised, but perhaps in a movie the flowing of the narrative is more important. To be honest, it did not impress me as one could expect from the play's fame. But it is a coherent story, with coherent characters, and overall it is quite watchable. The seagull thing was quite incomprehensible though.

Rating: 55

The Patsy (1964)

I thought I hadn't seen this movie, but while watching it I had a palpable sense of déjà vu, so it is likely I have seen it before. Anyway, it must have been before 1983.

A famous comedian dies and his staff gather together at a hotel to decide what to do about their careers. They spot a natural comicity in the hotel's bellboy and decide to manufacture a replacement out of him for the deceased actor.

An uneven, unsatisfactory comedy. As someone nicknamed Anne_Sharp has remarked on the User Reviews section at IMDB, this is a variation on The Girl Can't Help It. A few set-pieces are fine, for example the one at the singing teacher's, but they are rather the exception. Maybe kids could like it, as the humor and the plot are kept at a very simple level, and there is a tendency to sentimentality, which gradually seeps in as the film advances. When the main character is being clumsy, he gets some laughs. When he is being unfunny, he does not. It is relatively easy to make clumsiness funny, but it is very hard, perhaps impossible, to make unfunniness funny.

Rating: 44

Gun Battle at Monterey (1957)

Two robbers are hiding from the law after a robbery. One of them shoots the other and runs away with the money. It turns out, though, that, contrary to what the shooter thought, his partner was not killed. He is looked after by a young woman and, after he is well again, goes after his doublecrosser, who now is the boss at a small town.

This Western's basic plot idea is that of a man pretending to be his lookalike, but there is an ingenious twist to it which I will not reveal here. The ending is moralistic and might displease viewers who are more on the cynical (they would prefer the term 'realist') side. This is a very cheaply made film, and a very unpretentious one, but it is watchable.

Rating: 36

Bugles in the Afternoon (1952)

"After violently attacking a fellow officer Lt. Edward Garnett, cavalry Captain Kern Shafter is court martialled. Later, he rejoins the army with Custer's regiment at Fort Lincoln, Dakota, becoming a sergeant, where he runs into his old foe." (IMDB)

This is reasonably well-done, with a fine color cinematography and adequate performances, but the storyline holds no surprises for the spectator, a fact which detracts from its entertainment value. Although at times one could mistake this for an A-grade Western, its overall cheapness is visible in the fact that they edited footage from an old black-and-white movie into it for a few battle scenes. Perhaps cheapness also accounts for its shortness; I would have preferred that it included an early part that depicted the situations which led to Shafter attacking Garnett. As it is, we have to take the aggressor's word for what happened. And, even so, I do not quite understand what exactly Garnett did that would earn him such violent attack.

Rating: 39

Fancy Pants (1950)

A theatrical company is hired to impersonate some aristocrats by a young man trying to woo a young woman and impress her family. Said family especially likes the butler and hires him (not knowing he is really an actor), taking him to live with them in an American Western town. There is further confusion as the people in that town think the 'butler' is really an English aristocrat, and thus his employers decide to go along with it and make him impersonate an aristocrat. The story goes around and the President of the U.S. himself decides to visit that family. The 'aristocrat' proposes a fox hunt.

This has to be one of the unfunniest movies of all times, which is probably why Americans like it so much. The humor is so overdone, and the main character is so devoid of consistency, that one suspects this was all done with the purpose of achieving a new low in comicity. On the other hand, the production values are extremely high, and the actors are extremely competent. The contrast between these assets and the poorness of the script produces a sense of waste and absurdity which paradoxically may arouse a perverse curiosity in the viewer.

Rating: 31

Wide Sargasso Sea (1993)

Based on the novel by Jean Rhys, first published in 1966.

An impoverished young girl who inherited a large property in Jamaica accepts an arranged marriage with an Englishman. After a harmonious beginning, their relationship sours due to a series of incidents and his maladaptation to the tropics.

Poor film which seems just a piling up of colonial and postcolonial clichés in a very rushed up and summarized manner, and lacking in anything that could engage the viewer into caring the least bit about the characters and what they are going through. I suspect the sufficient condition to be met by older movies for being shown in cable TV is whether they have a present-day star in a bit part.

Rating: 30

Crazy - Um Dia Muito Louco (1981)

A guy kills his housemate and during his attempts to bury his body is repeatedly disturbed by visitors. The visitors consist of a bit actress, a Bible saleswoman (both of whom are responding to an ad about a room to let), a neighbor who wants to borrow a camera, and a policeman who wants to speak with the deceased man.

Half-baked attempt at black humor. There is a noticeable slant toward sexploitation, albeit with more plot structure than is usual for Brazilian films of that kind. A quote by Shelley ("Death is here and death is there, Death is busy everywhere, All around, within, beneath, Above is death - and we are death.") puts a morbid finish to this film and also to this director's career. Perhaps he knew he would die soon after he finished it.

Rating: 30

I quattro dell'Ave Maria (1968)

English title: Ace High

Version watched: 122 minutes, dubbed in English

Two guys who extort some money from a banker are in turn robbed by the guy who had been betrayed by the same banker years ago. They team up, and with a high wire acrobat, to rob a crooked casino.

Above-average Italian Western, with an ellaborate plot and competent craftsmanship. There is always the matter of cultural authenticity, in a film which is characterized by compounded fakeness: it emulates other, and better, Italian Westerns, which in turn emulate a cinematic tradition which, in its original, American form was never too fond of historical accuracy to begin with. The fakeness here begins with the title's Catholic reference, whereas the American West was predominantly Protestant. The style of the humor is of a silliness that became a matter of style in numerous films of this genre. All those things I once found very annoying, less so nowadays. However, I am not exactly amused by them, even now. Let's say I am vaguely intrigued, and leave it at that. It is said that this film is the second part of a trilogy, whose final installment I reviewed here.

Rating: 39

From Hell to Texas (1958)

A man, acting in self defense, causes the death of a rich rancher's son, who rounds up his other sons and personnel to exact revenge. The man is on his way to meet his estranged father. There is a long chase, during which the rancher's men take the worst, even though the man they are after is averse to killing on a matter of principle.

Although well filmed, and filled with enough incident as to entertain, if only barely, this is a film that has little to offer in terms of substance, except for a very ridiculous premise which leaves the viewer suspicious of some hidden mockery. It is not clear who might be the target of that mockery, but possible candidates would be the Christian religion, or perhaps the cinematic tradition of separating the world into heroes and villains and ascribing a much gentler nature to the former, which does not prevent them from winning every time.

Rating: 36

Johnny Reno (1966)

A U.S. marshal is riding across a desert and is shot at by two guys. He kills one of them and arrests the other. It so happens that those two guys were wanted for killing a Native American, and the townsfolks want to lynch him, which the marshal will not allow, of course. During his stay at that town, he will uncover some dirty secrets behind that lynching fury.

The premise of this has a very bad guy who runs a small town and wants to commit an injustice against two drifters, in order to cover up a crime he committed. But there are further layers to this: the crime was motivated by racism (that evilest of all evil things). The details of the premise are not well thought out. The impression I get is that, in a time when society was being bombarded with liberal ideology, filmmakers got away more easily with some of the outrageously implausible assumptions behind the events in this movie.

Rating: 26

Alegria de Viver (1958)

Musical comedy. A guy who works for a big company is held in high esteem by his boss, who wants him to marry his daughter. But the guy has a double life: at night he runs a nightclub for young people. His boss's daughter, who is in town on vacation from boarding school, has no intention of fulfilling his father's plans, and thus she sends her disagreeable cousin passing off as her to meet our hero.

Earlier fluff from the same director of Rio, Verão & Amor. Whereas that film depicted the "British invasion" in Brazilian music and customs, Alegria de Viver's plot is set against the backdrop of American rock-and-roll's colonization of Brazil's young hearts and minds. One joke stands out from the rest of the movie: a girl fakes a suicide attempt and plots to have her friend come over to her house. When said friend is shown several cans of poison and a a dozen bottles of lysol that her fake suicidal friend had in store, she comments: "Poor Silvia. She wanted to die disinfected!"

Rating: 31

Denver & Rio Grande (1952)

Two teams are building different railroads in 19th century America. One of them is completely lacking in ethical principles and tries to lay tracks on the other team's assigned area; this leads to a continuing conflict in which one of them tries to sabotage the work of the other.

The plot is a slightly monotonous succession of ploys from the bad guys against the good guys. If you do not believe that capitalism is an evil system, this film might make you change your mind. If the federal government were in charge of building railroads in the U.S., none of the troubles the plot depicts would be possible. There is also an implausible female spy who, despite being extremely indiscreet and an obvious informant for the enemy, gets to remain in her job as a secretary for the whole film. In the end, the filmmakers were apparently so embarassed that they did not even have the gaul to make the hero kiss her.

Rating: 32

Rio, Verão & Amor (1966)

The romantic and musical adventures of a bunch of youths who live in Rio de Janeiro. Paulo pretends he is a millionaire and an executive (he is a chauffeur and a struggling bossa nova composer) to impress beautiful and upper-class Gabriela. Gabriela's friend Lolita is in love with Maurício, who sings in a rock-and-roll band and does not care about Lolita. Paulo's brother Pedro is a lifeguard who is getting engaged to Margarida, a working class girl who lives in a boarding house for young women under the strict surveillance of the owner Augusta. Both Gabriela and Maurício's respective fathers are executives in a big company (they do not say what their line of business is, or I did not pay attention) which is promoting a musical competition between bossa nova and rock-and-roll songs. Amidst all that, there is a French woman who is very despondent and tries suicide several times.

The script is sheer fluff, but the color cinematography and the locations in Rio give the film a very attractive look; some shots are really breathtaking.

Rating: 31

In Old Oklahoma (1943)

Reissue title: War of the Wildcats

The IMDB plot summary is correct and I transcribe it here: "Cowboy Dan Somers and oilman Jim "Hunk" Gardner compete for oil lease rights on Indian land in Oklahoma, as well as for the favors of schoolteacher Cathy Allen." Written by Jim Beaver, email: jumblejim at prodigy dot net

This is a routine Western, though admittedly it is a little above average for Republic. The plot is beyond predictable, but it entertains nevertheless, though only mildly. Intrigue, fistfights, romance, a competition between good guy and bad guy, where neither is on the extreme of each category, and there you have it. The best thing of the movie is something which is not really there as an actualization, only as a potentiality: it is a certain quality of open-endedness, of infinite progression and infinite oscillation. The slightly abrupt ending suggests that the fight is not really over; ditto the inner fight that the leading female character experiences, which would make her switch male partners on and on indefinitely.

Rating: 39

The Last Command (1955)

Drama around the characters and events of the Texas Revolution, prominently Jim Bowie. He initially does not support the revolutionaries, but as he acquaints himself with the situation under president Santa Anna, he changes his mind. There is a romantic subplot with a young woman who is in love with him, and a young man who is in love with that young woman.

Watchable historical Western. The romantic subplot is annoying and unnecessary. There is a noticeable slant towards the American side, which makes it, rigorously speaking, a propaganda piece. A first look at the events may leave one puzzled with the insistence of making it a matter of Democracy vs. Despotism instead of Americans vs. Mexicans. On behalf of the movie, one might argue that the characters themselves may have believed that notion, perhaps out of self-deceit.

Rating: 47

Tonka (1958)

A young Sioux captures a horse and trains him. A fellow tribesman with a penchant for cruelty claims the horse for himself. Concurrently to that, a great confrontation between Sioux and Whites gathers steam.

Juvenile Western. As usual in this kind of production, violence is toned down. They couldn't purge it altogether, though, as the Little Big Horn battle is essential to the storyline. The film tries to depict both Whites and Endogenous Americans as essentially good intentioned as a whole with a few bad apples amongst them. The idea of centering a story about a human conflict on a horse is interesting; it steers the movie into a resolution which is preposterous from a historical angle, yet not entirely unsatisfactory from a dramatic one.

Rating: 45

Red Garters (1954)

A newcomer arrives in a town in the Old West with the purpose of finding and killing the man who killed his brother. He falls in love with a beautiful young woman.

A musical comedy with Western setting and themes. It's a creative movie in its concept, and it is technically very well made, but the screenplay doesn't live up to its aspirations and the end result is a bit on the dull side.

Rating: 40

Distant Drums (1951)

An Army outfit sets out to destroy a fort where guns are being sold to the Seminole. The soldiers are chased and must enter the dangerous Everglades in order to escape the ferocious natives.

Mediocre adventure, a Western in style, although it is not set in the American West. The location shooting gives a certain amount of distinction to this film which its script alone would not be able to provide. It is faster paced than usual for the Western genre, at least in the first half. The second half slows down a little bit.

Rating: 36

O Dono da Bola (1961)

A simpleton enters a TV competition show in the hope of helping a girl he is in love with, whose father is on the verge of losing his house. The girl, however, becomes attracted to a womanizing TV producer.

A comic depiction of the early days of TV in Brazil. The humor is of an elementary kind, suitable only for undemanding viewers.

Rating: 32

Stir Crazy (1980)

Second viewing; previously viewed in 1981, or in the vicinity of that year.

Two friends from New York, one an actor and the other a writer, decide to go to Hollywood to try their luck. On the way they are framed for a bank robbery and sentenced to a long prison term. They plan an escape.

Occasionally funny, and overall watchable, comedy with good performances from the leading duo.

Rating: 45 (unchanged)

Quem Roubou Meu Samba (1959)

A composer gets in trouble after selling his song to various recording companies. There is also a private investigator who is in a relationship with a nurse.

Musical comedy which is slightly above average for Brazilian films of that genre and period, with some funny comic sketches and passable songs. The plot is also kind of interesting, with its themes of exploitation of artists by company owners, and of memory and forgetfulness. It is generally pointed out that this film borrows from Rio, Zona Norte, released in 1957. I have my doubts, though. Quem Roubou Meu Samba is based on a nightclub "show" from 1953, and the author of that work apparently provided the plot for the film. So, it is not clear who borrowed from whom.

Rating: 40

Smith! (1969)

A rancher gets involved with a Native American who is suspected of murdering a man. He also has to worry about his ranch.

Superficially, this has all the elements of a harmless family movie about inter-ethnic relations, with a positive attitude towards it. Underneath that appearance, there is a very problematic message: it implies that minorities who have been "oppressed" in the past, however distant that past is, are free to go about committing crimes. Every crime they commit would actually be an act of self defense. Well, this is obviously crazy (no society may thrive based on that principle), but it is a notion that is still present is the discourse of many leftwing activists today. In the film, this is heavily disguised by many diversions. To begin with, the individual in question is implied to be innocent, and have really acted in self defense. But that is irrelevant to his acquittal. What counts is a speech by an elderly Native American which conveys precisely the abovementioned leftwing message. Anyway, if one is willing to forgive this very evil concept, the film is watchable, though by a narrow margin.

Rating: 33

Os Cosmonautas (1962)

An incompetent vacuum cleaner salesman gets tangled with Brazil's (fictitious) space project. There is also a thief who wants to rob the space center's money vault, and an extraterrestrial female who appears and disappears at will and wants to learn how to kiss.

Sci fi spoof. The writer/director is the proficuous Victor Lima, a guarantee of mediocrity, yet also of minimal watchability. Golias is the comic here. He would always play the same type, a clumsy rustic, and abused of grimaces. No musical numbers in this one. Most of the space film clichés are revisited, including a very naïve political message of peace and good will.

Rating: 31

Spaceballs (1987)

Second viewing; first viewed on February 3, 1988.

Planet Spaceball has used up all its air and thus faces extinction. Its king plans to steal all the air from planet Druidia. He orders Spaceball's military commander Lord Helmet to kidnap the "druish" princess, who has fled her own wedding on a spaceship, accompanied by her robot escort. The king of Druidia sets up a reward for the rescue of his daughter. The challenge is taken up by a courageous space pilot and his half-man half-dog assistant.

Not as awful as I thought on my first viewing. The humor is crude, and at times the proceedings get a bit boring, but overall the film is watchable and occasionally funny. Science fiction parodies or satires are not something new. In 1971, there was a German film name Der große Verhau which was mostly a critique of 2001. In 1974, there was Dark Star, which was also more or less aimed at that 1968 movie. I do not remember much from those movies, but I think they are all part of a phenomenon which I characterize as a certain rivalry between the epic and the comic genres. The comic genre is a parasitic genre, in a way. The more it sends up the epic genre, the more it becomes dependent on it for its very existence. The epic genre may take two paths in reaction to this: either it cultivates a haughty aloofness and thus becomes, with time, its own parody, or it incorporates humor elements into its fabric. Parodies also come in two kinds. In the first one, there is a certain affectivity toward the object of its humor In the second kind, there is only the impetus of destruction. Young Frankenstein is an example of the former. Spaceballs definitely belongs to the latter.

Rating: 33 (up from 18)

Only the Valiant (1951)

A New Mexico region is constantly attacked by the Apache. In a confrontation the Apache leader is captured, but that further provokes their anger, and a Fort is expected to be attacked any minute. Reinforcements are sent for, but in the meantime there must be a way to delay the Apache attack. An officer rounds up a group of misfit soldiers, all of whom but one hate him, and sets up a suicidal watch at the passage.

Entertaining Western, well written, well shot, well directed, well edited and well acted. The script is geared more towards suspense and drama than realism of any kind, and is structured as a classical whodunit, with the difference that in this case it is really a wholldoit.

Rating: 58

Week-End in Havana (1941)

A woman is on a cruise to the Caribbean and her ship gets stuck in a coral reef in Florida. The travel company wants her to sign a waiver saying she will not sue them. She refuses. The company offers her a trip by air to Havana in exchange for her signature. She says she will sign only if she enjoys the trip. A company agent follows her with the mission of seeing that she has a good time. In Havana she gets involved with a Latin lover.

Banal comedy with somewhat extravagant musical numbers. On account of the decent production values, and the fast succession of events, the film is relatively painless to watch. But there is very little to see here, except for two or three brief moments of mild hilarity.

Rating: 31

Le bonheur (1965)

English title: Happiness

François and Thérèse are married and have two lovely children. They are a happy young couple. He works as a carpenter under his uncle. When François meets Émilie at the post office where she works, they feel a mutual attraction and start having an affair.

This film feels quite absurd. Some of it is a very realistic depiction of a working class ambiance. In other parts, characters behave is a way which is very implausible and incompatible with the social surroundings so meticulously built up for them. The film's title makes it clear that it wants to discuss an abstract concept. For that, it would have been more suited to have this story set in an intellectual milieu. It would have been a different movie, to be sure, and probably a more successful one.

Rating: 34

The Fighting Kentuckian (1949)

In 1818, a member of the Kentucky militiamen, named John Breen, returning home from the War of 1812 between the U.S.A. and England, falls in love with a young woman, named Fleurette, from a community of French exiles who were former members of Napoleon's army. He decides to stay at that city and court her. There are multiple problems he must face, though. Fleurette is engaged, against her will, to be married to a local boss. To complicate things, there is a plot to swindle the French landowners out of their land.

As many commenters have pointed out, this is a heavily plotted film, with many side characters. As the film is not long, there is no time to develop and explain the many details of the plot. Also, as IMDB commenter JamesHitchcock has remarked, there are many historical inaccuracies:

*begin quote*
 One of Willie's most prized possessions is a top hat which he says has been in his family for three generations. As top hats had only been invented some 20 years before the date when this film is set this seems unlikely. When playing chess with Breen, Willie takes three of his opponent's pieces in one move- something legal in draughts, but not in chess. In the final battle the French charge into battle on horseback with all guns blazing. This might have been possible in a Western set some sixty or seventy years later, but not in one set in 1818. The early nineteenth century cavalryman fought with sword and lance- before the invention of the revolver and repeating rifle single-shot firearms would have been little use to him. Little attention has been paid to period accuracy as far as costumes are concerned; some of Fleurette's dresses recall the Civil War era, some fifty years after the date of this film.
*end quote*

I am not sure whether it stems from the abovementioned problems, but the film just doesn't generate enough empathy or excitement. It goes by indifferently and I do not recommend it except for die-hard fans of the two stars who play, respectively, the leading part and his sidekick.

Rating: 35

That Darn Cat! (1965)

Two men rob a bank, kidnap the bank teller and hole up in an apartment. A cat belonging to a teenage girl who lives in that area barges into the hoodlums' lair and is used by their hostage to send a signal to the outside world. The cat's owner contacts the FBI who sends one of their agents to monitor the cat for a possible lead; he works at first with a team of agents and later alone.

Entertaining comedy which makes fun of criminal investigations, and also of several other things, which are embodied by the plethora of characters which inhabit the movie: a mother-fixated young man; her girlfriend whose main concern seems to be his carpooling services; an air-headed surfer teenager who is dating the female protagonist; an old busybody; her husband who is annoyed by her meddlesomeness; and two cold-hearted but, luckily for their victims, not very competent thieves. The script is ably structured and sufficiently funny within the constraints generally imposed in the 60s on mainstream movies intended for younger audiences.

Rating: 58

Overland Stage Raiders (1938)

Gold which is transported by bus from a mining town is recurrently being robbed. Three friends join a plane pilot and start an air transport company. The robbers try to make their business fail.

Mediocre Western with a fast pace and short length.

Rating: 32

Yours, Mine and Ours (1968)

Second viewing; previously viewed on January 13, 1995 (I missed the beginning of the film on that occasion).

A widower with eight children meets a widow with ten. They decide to get married.

This is loosely based on a real-life story, but it's so predictable and tame, not to mention psychologically primitive, that I think a documentary would have been more exciting. Anyway, it is well directed and the two main actors are quite charismatic, which means it can be withstood in a relatively painless way.

Rating: 32 (up from 25)

Once Upon a Time in America (1984)

Third viewing; previously viewed on October-November, 1984 and on April 24, 2014.

Story of some New York gangsters from childhood into old age who ride the Prohibition wave and then take separate ways.

Here's my April 24, 2014 review, as published on this blog:

* begin quote*
Based on the novel The Hoods, by Herschel Goldberg (as Harry Grey), first
published in 1952.

The story of four friends growing up in New York City during the 1920s, then
becoming gangsters during Prohibition. Another section set in the 1960s is
interspersed with the earlier time frame.

An imperfect film, but a strong one. The tone is clearly pulpish, and very
Italian in style. Maybe it has to do with a taste for the grotesque, which seems
to be alien to Anglo-Saxon sensibilities. It is hard for me to make a strictly
rational sense of the movie in all its details. I think the basic point is how
when you are a child there is a purity of emotion that gets screwed in a
thousand ways as you grow old. A psychoanalytical interpretation wouldn't be too
off, 'Max' perhaps being a pure Id version of 'Noodles', a la Jekyll and Hyde. I
misinterpreted the ending on both viewings, and even the IMDb FAQ gets it wrong,
in my opinion (the 'contract on Noodles' hypothesis seems very far-fetched).
After I read a statement from a Leone interview I think I got it right (it is
supposed to be a murder, not a suicide). But this is not clear on the screen, so
I suppose anyone may think what he pleases.
*end quote*

I don't know what I meant by 'imperfect'. I guess I simply wouldn't put it on these terms nowadays. I would also replace pulpish with juvenile. Leone was incapable of an adult sensibility, and acknowledged that at one occasion. Some people compare this with The Godfather and I think the films bear comparison, but there is a difference, which to some may appear subtle: The Godfather glamourized crime, whereas Once Upon a Time in America sentimentalizes it. I don't have much to say about it without further thought (which probably will not happen), but a curious angle is the leitmotif of faking death. As children, it was done as a prank, and in adulthood it gets done for real, so to speak. Another recurring motif is a motor vehicle on the street as a means of concealing something on the other side. First, there is Max on his moving carriage which conceals a petty theft and near the end there is the garbage truck which conceals the fate of the same Max.

Rating: 71 (unchanged)

The Professor and the Madman (2019)

In this drama inspired by real events, the inmate of an insane asylum becomes one of the main contributors to the Oxford English Dictionary, then being carried out under the supervision of an outsider to the academic world.

Painfully bad writing makes this a real chore to sit through. The real life story of the titular 'madman' was a really shocking series of events, which, if filmed with a minimum degree of faithfulness, would probably be anything but boring. The film has destroyed that possibility through a paradoxical combination of an excess of decorum (which all but eliminated the sexual component from the surgeon's early life and later delusions) and a lack of it (by imagining a preposterous romantic angle in the relationship between him and his victim's widow). As for the side of the 'professor' (who by the way never was one), its plot development relies on infantile conspiratorial clichés about envious or greedy academics who try to destroy the linguist's work.

Rating: 25

O Rei do Movimento (1955)

A clumsy mailman who writes songs in his spare time and is six months late in his rent payment gets an odd job as a magician's assistant for one night. It so happens that said magician is the leader of a gang of jewelry robbers, who is nicknamed the Masked One by the newspapers. Also coincidentally, our mailman is delivering a letter at the exact time and place of a robbery by the Masked One. He is grabbed by the hoodlums and tied up. They leave him in a sort of warehouse, from which he escapes. After a series of chases and fights, the bad guys are unmasked (in one case, literally) and the mailman receives a large reward.

Mediocre comedy with some musical numbers. The main actor was trained as a circus acrobat. His character's girlfriend is played by a famous chorus girl at the time. This seems to be her only film. The film possesses a great deal of movement (perhaps this is what is meant by its title). Among the musical numbers, the most attractive one is Valsa de uma Cidade, which shows several beautiful landscapes of Rio de Janeiro.

Rating: 31

The Apple Dumpling Gang (1975)

A gambler accepts to receive a package for an acquaintance, and to his surprise said package is comprised of three orphaned kids. He cares for them as he struggles to pass the burden on to someone else; when the kids find a gold nugget, many candidates to foster parents appear, but there are also some who will prefer to get the nugget through a short cut.

Negligible Western comedy which may be indifferently watched by kids and their parents but is doubtful to leave a mark on either. I guess there is a market value to harmlessness, especially when the market veers towards harmfulness.

Rating: 34

Night Crossing (1982)

Second viewing; first viewed between 1983 and 1986.

Some people in East Germany in the late 1970s are very unhappy with life in that country. They plan to escape to West Germany in a balloon.

This is a simple story. There isn't much tension since we already know from the start how it will end, but that doesn't completely spoil the enjoyment of the film. It is reasonably entertaining, but fails to communicate to the viewer the initial anguish and eventual exhilaration felt by its characters.

Rating: 43 (up from 32)

The Comancheros (1961)

Second viewing; previously viewed between 1983 and 1986.

Paul kills a man in a duel and is subsequently charged for murder. He flees to another State but is captured by a man of the law. Both eventually team up to fight the titular gang who sells guns to fierce Native Americans.

Strange comedy in which the light tone contrasts in some parts (particularly the last one) with dramatic situations. The film is quite watchable and has an elegant plot structure, but leaves much to be desired in the aforementioned last part, which is when the two heroes are in the comancheros' hideout. Perhaps that part had the potential for a whole film's duration, as the complexity of the situation required more elaborate solutions than the ones which the film comes up with.

Rating: 54 (unchanged)

Hello Again (1987)

One year after her death, a woman is revived by an incantation enunciated by her sister. She faces some problems due to her peculiar condition.

Terrible comedy which should not be seen. When seen, the best one can do is to forget it. The amazingly awful script is like a Frankenstein monster made up of bits and pieces of other comedies very badly sewn together and without much rhyme or reason.

Rating: 12

Flame of Barbary Coast (1945)

The year is 1906. A cattle rancher from Montana visits the Barbary Coast -- the red light district in San Francisco -- where he intends to collect a debt. He meets a casino singer and falls in love with her. He gambles his collected money and loses. He goes back to Montana, but has plans to return to the Barbary Coast.

This film revolves around a problem it imposes on itself: how to make the girl leave her current lover for the protagonist. It ingeniously sets up situations of stress that reveal her current lover's shortcomings as a lover (which somehow are implied to be correlated with his shortcomings as a person); an earthquake which nearly makes her paralyzed is required to make her at last switch lovers. The film contrasts the moral integrity of the rural environment with the corruption of the urban one, but takes all its thrills from the latter, and none from the former. I guess this is dialectics in action, although some might prefer to call it hypocrisy. The film is competently written and realized, albeit within that clearly artificial frame.

Rating: 43

Marido de Mulher Boa (1960)

I have translated (with minor liberties) the film's press-release synopsis (available on this page).

"Anacleto and Frederico are partners in the firm Pardal and Pardal, a high fashion house. Anacleto is married to Arminda, a former theatrical actress, who has chosen him over Frederico. However, Anacleto remains a womanizer. The two partners buy from Giovanni a lottery ticket for taking part in a sweepstake's grand prize, and then Anacleto gives away fractions of his half to four women: Sueli, Marlene, Virgínia and Sofia, [in the hopes of winning their favors]. The longshot horse on which they have bet wins the race, luckily to Frederico, who intends to use the money to marry Sofia, and unluckily to Anacleto. He desperately tries to get back the "gasparinos" (pieces which comprised a lottery ticket) distributed among the abovementioned women, but Arminda, aware of his maneuver, anticipates him and gets back three of the ticket's pieces, leaving only Sueli's piece to be recovered -- but the latter had already shared it among her work mates. Once all confusion generated by the chase after the ticket's pieces is over, Arminda and Sofia return to their homes, after Anacleto vows to end his womanizing ways."

A slightly different synopsis is given on Wikipedia, and I have translated it also:

"Anacleto and Frederico are partners at Pardal & Pardal high fashion house. Both frequently quarrel because Anacleto married Arminda, to whom Frederico had been engaged. Furthermore, Anacleto is an incorrigible womanizer and, on account of both bearing the name Pardal, Frederico is constantly getting beat up by mistake by men who get angry at his partner's harassment on their wives. Anacleto buys a lottery ticket and distributes fractions of it among his "conquests": he gives one to humble employee Sueli, two to singer Sofia, and a few more to chorus girl Marlene and manicurist Virgínia. When the ticket wins the right to run for a sweepstake's grand prize, Arminda gets word of his misdeeds and, [aiming to give him a lesson], demands that Anacleto show him the ticket. Anacleto goes after the women to recover the ticket's fractions, not knowing that Arminda [follows him] to avoid that he gets them back."

Note: parts which I find doubtful or debatable I have placed between brackets []. In particular, I would like to point out that Arminda states that her real purpose is to learn from other women what she needs to make her desirable to Anacleto, rather than to just "give him a lesson".

This comedy has a few implausible points in its plot, in particular the sum of money which Arminda is willing to spend to recover the ticket fractions, but let's perhaps credit this to her possible innumeracy or to her obsession. Aside from that, it is another Brazilian comedy with the same kind of lowbrow humor which abounded in comedies of that era in Brazil. This one has a considerably smaller amount of musical numbers, and, perhaps as a consequence of that, the repetitiveness of the plot becomes rather tiresome around the last third or so of the movie.

Rating:32

Red River Range (1938)

Rustlers equipped with refrigerated trucks kill the cattle right after they have stolen it and transport it away so nobody can trace the animals. The folks at one small town ask for help from the government and three agents are sent over. One of them switches places en route with a friend of theirs, so that he can infiltrate the gang, who is operating from a dude ranch where the guests themselves unwittingly help the robbers as part of one of the ranch's leisure activities.

Routine B-Western with a plot which was apparently partly stolen from Public Cowboy #1 (1937) (I never watched it but was tipped off by IMDB commenter stevehaynie). The dialogue has some witty lines, which one or more devoted fans have inserted on the IMDB page's Quotes section. The funniest one is the last, which by today's standards might be considered a little sexist (but, mind you, two of the film's three writers were women). Aside from that, another noteworthy aspect of the film were the tandem identity covers as pointed out by one Stuart Galbraith IV in his review of the Blu Ray release:

"Tex has been identified by the rustlers, so Stony hatches an impressive triple-undercover-switcheroo: Tex will pretend to be Stony, while Stony works undercover, masquerading as an escaped outlaw named "Killer" Madigan, who in turn is hiding from the law as tenderfoot Jack Benson, a guest at a local dude ranch. Whew!"

Galbraith also quotes one character as saying (about the consequences of the rustling spree):

"Beef prices have hit rock-bottom!"

Contrarywise, IMDB commenter bkoganbing remarks:

"That in itself was an interesting aspect of this film, the inflation of meat prices as a result of cattle rustling. One never does think of the economic hurt, those rustlers cause."

So, which one is it: prices go up or prices go down? At least one character thinks it is the latter. I am no economist, but it seems, on a superficial analysis, that the shortage of beef would cause the prices to soar, not to "hit rock-bottom". On further thought, though, would there be any shortage? The rustlers' beef would end up being sold too, and, being of illegal origin, it is likely to be sold at smaller prices than the legitimate one; that in turn would reduce the latter's price. Of course, there is always the possibility that the stolen meat was going to be sold at another place with no trading connection with the region in which it was stolen.

Rating: 32

Depois Eu Conto (1956)

José, a gas station employee, passes off as a rich businessman from a traditional family in order to romance a socialite's daughter. His childhood girlfriend gets jealous. Her aunt sides with her and denounces him. That aunt is a wannabe singer who is made a mockery of in a performance at a posh nightclub. José finds comic potential in her and decides to open a nightclub at a favela (very poor community generally built in a hillside area) where she and other performers connected with popular culture would have their space.

Musical comedy which makes fun of socialites and social columnism. It's very dated, and the humor is unsophisticated, but the dialogue is vivacious and not wholly devoid of social observation.

Rating: 33

Nudista à Força (1966)

*spoilers below*
A decadent opera singer is giving a solo concert in São Paulo. Her henpecked husband is her accompanying pianist. After the concert, they head for the airport to catch a flight to Rio de Janeiro. At that time, a counterfeiter who happens to be an exact lookalike of the singer's husband is arriving from Argentina. The Interpol is after him, and he knows it. Instead of boarding the plane for Rio de Janeiro, where his contact would lead him to some absconded money printing plates, he wanders through São Paulo with the intention of misleading his chasers. However, one member of the police team mistakenly follows his lookalike to Rio de Janeiro. Aboard the plane, he befriends the opera singer's young daughter. Meanwhile, the counterfeiter gets hit by a car in a street of São Paulo, and is taken to the hospital, where he is put under permanent police surveillance. At the Rio de Janeiro airport, the singer's husband is mistaken for the criminal by the latter's associates (the leader of which is the criminal's girlfriend), is forcefully dragged into a car and taken to their hideout. At the hospital in São Paulo, the criminal escapes through the hospital's window. After some more incidents, all of them find themselves at a nudist club, which is where the printing plates are buried.
*end of spoilers*

Mediocre comedy whose only relatively noteworthy aspect is the presence of a well known (at the time) comedian at a dual role, one of which is played straight, and the other comically. His comical style strongly relied on his singular face and the grimaces he was able to produce. The writer and director is the prolific Victor Lima (1920-1981), who, according to IMDB, directed 37 movies, wrote (or co-wrote) 57, and apparently does not have a single photo of him appearing anywhere on the Internet. In 1966 alone, when this film was made, he made four movies (or had them released). This movie has a stronger stylistic kinship to the commercial French cinema of the time than to the American one.

Rating: 31

Copper Canyon (1950)

The action is set at a mining town, where a Southern ex-colonel has assumed a new identity and earns a living as a stage sharpshooter. The town is ruled by hoodlums who give Southern miners a hard time. The local smelter doesn't help either, refusing to smelt those Southern miners' ore -- he hates Southerners because his son was killed in the Civil War while fighting for the North. Thus, the Southern miners are forced to travel to another town in order to get their ore smelted. The road is full of dangers, though, what with the aforementioned hoodlums plottting to rob and even kill them sometimes. A group of Southerners approach the ex-colonel for help, but he refuses and does not even admit to his real identity. A lady gambler at the local saloon who is employed by the same man who has the sheriff and his deputies in his payroll wants to get rich but violence is not part of her agreement. She soon falls for the ex-colonel.

As is evident by the above synopsis, there are a lot of characters in this Western (and I didn't even mention the Lieutenant who is after the ex-colonel for the theft of Northern money). Everything is professionally done, but there is nothing memorable about it, and the plot has the convenient melodramatic accommodations which sacrifice plausibility for the sake of plot. It feels like a B-Western script grafted onto an A-production.

Rating: 47

Mulheres à Vista (1959)

A theatrical impresario tries to raise money for a show. He buys things in installments from shops and sells them on the street for payment upfront. He comes short of the amount he needs, though. He starts courting a rich widow who, it later turns out, owns the theater house and is willing to sponsor the show.

Musical comedy with lots of musical numbers (all of them rather bland and unmemorable) and a comicity mostly aimed at undemanding audiences. It may amuse one who is not looking for sophistication.

Rating: 32

Nueve reinas (2000)

English title: Nine Queens

Marcos is a veteran con artist whose partner is missing. He meets a younger con artist and takes him as a partner. The two try to deceive a rich foreigner into buying a forgery of a valuable set of stamps. The foreigner is leaving the country the next day.

Entertaining criminal drama with an engaging plot and fairly well defined characters. It never really transcends the superficial level of a nicely told story, though. Don't come looking for emotional depth or philosophical insight, or you will be disappointed. The following review from an IMDB user points out some plot weaknesses:

[begin quote]
A great film, but a Hollywood ending
msstone96822 January 2005
Warning: Spoilers
I find it hard to believe they could have gotten a plot that grandiose off the ground in a single day, what with all the other players who were in on it. I think they changed from an otherwise flawless plot to wit......

1. In the original ending, Vidal was the one who was sold either real or fake stamps and had to pay by cashier's check due to the difficulty of arranging large amounts of cash in a single day. So Vidal was not in on it, but in fact the source of a lot more than Marcos's $200,000. I can get along with the notion of having to pay with a bank check and also that both Juan and Marcos probably keep all their assets in easily accessible cash, explaining how the sale could go ahead in a day. Sandler's sister was not in on it either -- and her scene was great either way.

2. That they probably had an ending in which both Juan and Marcos were planning to con each other out of the entire amount, but before receiving the cash, the bank had failed, thereby leaving them both in an unhappy ending that nevertheless had a twist -- that the con was real and successful, but they lost the money due to unforeseen circumstances.

The movie allowed me to suspend my disbelief right up to the ending - either one or the other was setting it up, but there remained the possibility that they were both having an extraordinary day and opportunity and just couldn't walk away in spite of all the red flags. But an unhappy ending is usually too somber for the people charged with trying to sell films to handle, so they probably re-wrote or re-shot the final scene, which encompasses almost all of the film's implausibilities, to wit....

+ about 10 people seem to be happy to share Marcos's measly $200,000 among themselves, as if this was a con not to make any money, but to "win one for the team."

+ Valeria is happy to share out most of the money she was suing Marcos for. If she was really appalled about being conned by her own brother out of the inheritance, would she then get involved with several experienced con-artists just to get him to lose her money to them?

+ Would they have been able in one day to fake a news article about a high-profile guy being deported in a high-profile way the next day? Or are we supposed to believe that someone was able to check into the hotel, impersonating Vidal all the way up to the moment he surrenders to the authorities? No, sorry, I think Vidal was originally a real buyer, not in on the con. I also don't think they originally had that "polvo" stuff about Marcos's sister (would you send your sister with the real stamps into his room and wait for your money all night? Not even if it was a legitimate sale and you were totally naive would you or anyone else do that, much less so a cynical con-man.)

The movie's got all the stuff you want to enjoy the ride: characters, slang dialog, action, Buenos Aires, right up to that last quarter hour: Cut off that ending, leave most of the supporting actors out of the main con, and put in another 10 min in which each of Juan and Marcos tries a last minute and unsuccessful scam on the other, only to soon find that they'll never cash the check, and you've got the original story.

But instead we got a really "cute" skin-grafted-on ending where the proper birthright is restored (literally), the "guy gets the girl" and viewers get a feel-good distinction between good and evil: the "good" con-artists restore cosmic harmony and triumph over the "evil" one who has crossed some kind of moral line and brought disrepute to their profession.

Another great idea crashes on the rocks of the banal ending.
[end quote]

I agree with all of msstone's considerations (here's the link to that review)

Rating: 60

Night of the Creeps (1986)

Second viewing; first viewing with the original audio; previously seen dubbed in Portuguese on May 18, 1996.

In 1959, a canister from outer space lands on Earth, releasing strange wormlike creatures. A college student swallows one of those creatures just before he is killed by a mad man. His body is cryogenically preserved until 1986, when it is unfrozen by another college student who was looking for a corpse as part of a task he had to perform in order to join a fraternity. The corpse turns into a zombie who ends up releasing the creatures again.

Feeble attempt at emulating 1950s and 1960s horror and sci-fi b-movies. It is neither an out-and-out parody nor a seriously scary horror film. It's not exactly painful to watch, but has little in the way of a really interesting take on older movies.

Rating: 35 (down from 45)

As Aventuras de Pedro Malasartes (1960)

Based on traditional Brazilian and Portuguese folk stories (possibly derived from even older stories from other places, dating as far back as the 13th century).

*spoilers below*
Pedro Malasartes is cheated out of his inheritance by his brothers, being left with only a goose and a saucepan. He decides to roam the world; he leaves his girlfriend behind, much to her chagrin. She goes after him. On the way he finds a series of homeless children which join him in his wanderings. He tricks a man into buying his saucepan by claiming it has the power of cooking without fire. Then, he approaches a house and spies through a window; he sees the owner's wife hide her brother inside a cabinet just before the arrival of her husband; she puts the meal which she had served her brother in a cabinet drawer. Outside by the window, her husband surprises Pedro, who asks for some food. The owner agrees and invites Pedro inside the house. Pedro claims his goose has the power of speech and also of making things and even people appear at certain places. The animal honks and Pedro says it is saying that there is food is in the cabinet's drawer; the animal honks again and conjures a man inside the cabinet. Pedro tricks the house owner into buying the goose. Pedro unsuccessfully tries to find an intern school that would accept the children; they all require payment, and he cannot afford it. After a while, both the man who bought the saucepan and the one who bought the goose realize they have been deceived and go after Pedro. They get together on the road, and are joined by Pedro's girlfriend; they succeed in capturing Pedro. After putting him in a cloth sack, they take him to a police station. Another man appears there to complain about Pedro. It is a farmer who had hired Pedro as a pig keeper. Pedro sold his pigs and deceived him by sticking the pig's tails, which he had cut, in the mud, and then telling the farmer that the pigs were buried there. (The events at that farm are not shown in the movie; I do not know if this is due to missing footage; I think not). Outside the police station, Pedro, inside the sack, keeps yelling: "I don't want to marry the king's daughter!". A man approaches and Pedro tricks him into switching places with him by making him assume he will now be the one who will marry the king's daughter. On the road again, and reunited with his bunch of kids, Pedro makes other two victims: he sells them a money tree (actually an ordinary one on which he had hung a few money bills of little value). Pedro is eventually arrested and put on trial. He sweet talks the jury into acquitting him. His accompanying children are placed in an orphanage. Pedro gets a job at the orphanage so he can be near his little friends, who grew very fond of him. He has to agree to marry his girlfriend, and promise never to deceive people again. Moments later, however, as he walks with one of the the orphanage's friars, Pedro draws his ear near a small hole in the ground. Through it, he claims, one could hear the mass said in Rome. Would the friar be interested in buying it?
*end of spoilers*

Although marred by the usual structure that was the main comedian's stock-in-trade -- abundant sentimentality, mediocre musical numbers, simple-minded humor -- the source material is interesting and authentically popular in origin.

Rating: 33

The Missouri Breaks (1976)

Second viewing; previously viewed between 1983 and 1986.

In late 19th century Montana, a rancher hires an assassin to take care of cattle and horse thieves. The romance between the leader of a gang of horse thieves -- who buys a ranch next door the aforementioned rancher -- and the latter's unmarried daughter is one of the subplots. The assassin's suspicion, and subsequent persecution, of the gang is another. An incursion into Canada by the other gang members, who want to steal horses from the Mounties, makes up the remainder of the stuff this film is made of.

Artistically made Western, with a completely unbelievable plot (an outlaw who chooses a risky place to live just for a silly revenge is something you will not see in real life) and a completely anachronistic romance. The outlaws are nice people here, the honest folks are disgusting, and the "justice system", in the person of the hired gun, is psychopathic.

Rating: 66 (unchanged)

That Night in Rio (1941)

A variety theater troupe from the U.S. is performing in Rio de Janeiro. The main actor does an impression of a local magnate, of whom he is a lookalike. Said magnate takes a loss at an investment he made; the problem is that he used money from his bank in the investment, and now he must get a loan to restore the money to the bank before the current account holders find out about it. While he is away, his two assistants must conceal his absence during a party and to that effect they hire the abovementioned American actor. The latter sees in it an opportunity to make some money and also to flirt with the magnate's wife. Meanwhile, the actor's jealous girlfriend, who happens to be Brazilian, manages to get invited to the party.

This is a several-times filmed play about lookalikes and the confusion they entail. The plot explores the progressive complexity of situations engendered by mistaken identities. All that is not without interest or entertainment value. The musical numbers are just so-so; they are poorly placed in the film, too, sometimes following one another without interruption, which gets a little monotonous.

Rating: 40

O Santo Milagroso (1966)

In a small town, the Catholic priest is worried about the competition from the Protestant pastor. The most notable of the recent defections to Protestantism is the local political leader, who converted after a quarrel with the Catholic bishop. To complicate matters further, the Church's sexton falls in love with the pastor's sister. One night the priest and the pastor are in the sacristy, where they, for the first time, are sitting together and playing chess. Someone knocks on the door: it's the sexton with the pastor's sister. The pastor, not wishing to be seen there, disguises himself as a covered saint (Lent is nearing its end, and it is the Catholic tradition to veil the saints' images). The priest lets them in, and tells them it is the image of Saint Francis under the cloth. The pastor sees an opportunity and speaks to the two youngsters as Saint Francis. He tells them that they should not pursue their romance because of their different faiths. The news of the "miracle" spreads through town.

Very naive comedy which shares some themes and one of the main actors with O Pagador de Promessas from a few years earlier. Curiously, both plays' authors went on to become telenovela (name given to Brazilian-made soap operas) writers. However, whereas that former movie was a Marxist drama, this is a comedy with no detectable leftist ideology.

Rating: 40

The Yellow Tomahawk (1954)

A scout serves as a messenger between the Cheyenne and the officer in charge of an Army outpost. Said officer, nicknamed by the Cheyenne as 'The Butcher', intends to build a fort in Cheyenne land, and the Cheyenne send him a warning that, should he carry on with his plan, all the people in his encampment will be massacred. He doesn't heed the advice, with predictable results.

Run-of-the-mill B-Western. The crux, so to speak, of the script is the thesis that a fierce animosity against a different race is an attempt to erase one's own connections with that race. I suppose the appearances of several known (and agreeable) faces in its supporting cast is the movie's major selling point. It was originally made in color, but for reasons unknown to me it was broadcast in black and white.

Rating: 31

Down Argentine Way (1940)

An American woman meets the son of a horse rancher from Argentina during a horse show. She makes him an offer on one of his horses, but he refuses it. The whole matter has to do with a past rift between their respective fathers. The IMDB summary is wrong. The girl actually falls for the guy in America and goes to South America after him. Anyway, then another subplot takes over which has to do with the rancher's past vow to quit entering his horses in flat races after an accident killed one of them. The girl encourages the rancher's son to start training a horse for flat racing. This is hidden from the guy's father. Then they sign the horse in to a big race, and the rancher finds out about it.

Strictly scriptwise, this is atrocious. But, as critics have remarked, the Technicolor is gorgeous, and there are some interesting musical numbers (the best one is an anthological tap dancing sketch). How this came to be regarded as "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" is anyone's guess but mine.

Rating: 33

The Brass Legend (1956)

*detailed plot with possible spoilers*
A small town marshal plans to quit his job once his current term expires. His fiancée's kid brother spots a wanted criminal and tells the marshal about it, which then leads to the criminal's arrest. The kid's role in it is omitted by the marshal, for the sake of the kid's safety. The kid's father resents the omission and tells the local newspaper about the kid's role in the arrest. The kid becomes famous and there is an attempt on his life. The criminal escapes from prison before he goes to trial and sends word to the marshal that he wants a showdown between the two in a secluded place.
*end of possible spoilers*

B-Western without much to recommend it. The plot is reasonably coherent, although some have questioned the plausibility of some of the characters' behavior.

Rating: 32

Murder by Death (1976)

Second viewing; previously viewed between 1983 and 1986.

A millionaire invites several renowned detectives to a dinner in his mansion. He announces there is going to be a murder inside the house.

Mostly unfunny parody, with an uninspired script. There is a noticeable effort to capture the clichés of the whodunit genre (with a hardboiled detective thrown in for contrast), but it is all done in a rather mechanical manner.

Rating: 36 (down from 51)

The Broken Star (1956)

I could not write a better summary than IMDB has: "When a deputy marshal murders a henchman, steals the racketeer money he is holding, and claims self defense, the head marshal orders an investigation to find the truth." (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049031/)

Run-of-the-mill Western whose main attraction for me was to watch some actors whose face I didn't recognize. The good guys in this one keep doing stupid things so as to allow the film to achieve a commercially acceptable length.

Rating: 31

Na Corda Bamba (1957)

A piano tuner gets entangled in an intrigue between two rival exiles from a distant country concerning the possession of a jewel. He is led to steal the jewel by one of the parties in that dispute. The tuner's nephew, who lives with him, finds the jewel and makes a gift of it to a woman he likes. Troubles follow.

Musical comedy with a banal plot and unsophisticated comicity. The musical numbers are nice, displaying elaborate conception and coreographies.

Rating: 33

Sagarana - O Duelo (1973)

Based on the short story Duelo, by João Guimarães Rosa, submitted to a literary contest in 1938 and published, possibly after a rewrite, in 1946 in the collection Sagarana.

Turíbio, a killer for hire, returns home from a job one day to find his wife in bed with another man, an ex-military named Cassiano. Turíbio walks away without making himself noticed, and begins to plan for revenge. When he decides to act, however, he kills Cassiano's brother by mistake. It's Cassiano then who vows to take revenge on Turíbio, who flees. Their mutual chase goes on for several years.

This filmic transposition is mediocre, only making itself watchable through the intrinsic literary qualities of the original literary work, and  the competent performances of most of the actors. The plot bears similarities with Joseph Conrad's homonymous story.

Rating: 33

The Running Man (1987)

Second viewing; previously viewed on January 26,1991.

In 2017, the U.S. will be a totalitarian state. 'The Running Man' is a very popular TV game show which features prisoners who must fight killers for their lives. A former army pilot who had disobeyed orders, was imprisoned for it, and then escaped is recaptured and sent to fight in the titular game show.

Somewhat repetitive futuristic actioner which nevertheless is not completely without merit as a (to all accounts unheeded) political warning, nor completely without entertaining value.

Rating: 37 (unchanged)

Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

The biography of a famous pop singer and composer. His ethnic origins, first woman, rise to stardom, conflicts with his band, gradual abandonment of heterosexuality, solo career, drug abuse, sickness, death (implied).

Biopic which seems to put all its efforts into making a not exactly noteworthy life into a definitely dull one through watering down and downright falsification. All of the acting here is sufficiently good, but I can't refrain from saying that the real Mercury had a toughness about him that is not captured by the lead performance.

Rating: 40

La menace (1977)

Uncertain whether I have seen this before; if so, it was between 1983 and 1986.

English title: The Threat.

*spoilers below*
A manager in a trucking company who was in a relationship with his boss has a new girlfriend and intends to quit the company to start his own business. His ex will not accept their breakup. There is an incident between the two women which finishes with the ex committing suicide. The circumstances make it appear as though she was murdered. The male protagonist tries to conceal his girlfriend's involvement in the incident, but she has left traces of it which are easily found out by the police. She is arrested. He devises a complicated scheme to lead the police to believe that he was the real culprit -- in order to collect the dead woman's inheritance -- and has framed his girlfriend. The police falls for it. The woman is released. The man flees to Canada where he stages his own death and calls up his girlfriend, setting up to meet her in Melbourne. Things then go horribly wrong.
*end of spoilers*

The final section with the trucks is quite harrowing and well done. The film as a whole however is predominantly an exercise in sadism of a cerebral -- though not exactly plausible -- kind. I guess the whole enterprise is not wholly despicable as a lot of mental -- and supposedly physical -- effort went into it. Perhaps the hidden moral of it is that life's difficult situations arouse extraordinary powers in a person's brain which are normally dormant when they could be used to prevent those difficulties.

Rating: 40

Ariel (1988)

A miner loses his job when the mine at which he worked is closed. He decides to relocate to a big city. On the way he is robbed of all his money. In the big city, he gets a job, gets a girlfriend, and gets into trouble.

In one scene, we see the main character reading a comic book in jail. In another, it is his girlfriend's son who is reading one (this time the comics are recognizable as Falk's The Phantom). The mental level of all the characters, no matter their age, is thus revealed as the same, and it is only natural that the narrative style does not stray from a comic book's. There is nothing remotely challenging about Ariel. For a Brazilian local, there is a certain strangeness in the notion of social problems such as the ones depicted in this movie happening in a country such as Finland. In the end, the destination is Mexico and all I could think is that this time he better keep out of jail, because, after a stay in the Finnish penal system, he wouldn't enjoy much the Mexican one.

Rating: 40

Yentl (1983)

Second viewing; first viewing with original audio; first viewing of the extended cut; previously viewed, dubbed in Portuguese, on May 8, 2002.

Based on the short story Yentl, the Yeshiva Boy, by Isaac Bashevis Singer, first published in 1960, and on a play derived from it.

In 1904, a Jewish woman living in Estern Europe wants to study the Torah and other related texts, but Jewish law forbids women from doing it. After her father dies, she takes a man's identity and enters a yeshiva (a school for the study of traditional texts of Judaism).

I didn't find the experience of viewing this for the second time too unpleasant. It is not badly made, and, for the most part, is easy to follow and reasonably well written. The actors, too, perform well enough. The songs are solid, both in music and in lyrics. Still, I don't see what made me like the film as much as I did on my previous viewing. Its dramatic limitations are evident. What begins as a paean to intellectual curiosity shifts very quickly into one of those farces about crossdressing that have been so popular since the days of Shakespeare. Only one year before Yentl's release in theaters there was Tootsie, which has similar plot elements, but with the sexes interchanged. Unlike Tootsie, however, here one does not have the protagonist becoming a better human being through impersonating an opposite-sexed person. The point in common to all those works mentioned (and others such as Grande Sertão: Veredas, a novel by Guimarães Rosa) is the development of sexual attraction between two people one of which thinks they are of the same sex. Yentl, however, is not particularly exciting in its flow of dramatic or comic events. The ending is somewhat fraudulent, because I never knew the American branch of Judaism to be more liberal than its European counterparts. But then again, I'm no authority on the subject.

Rating: 50 (down from 68)

La sindrome di Stendhal (1996)

English title: The Stendhal Syndrome.

A police officer suffers from the titular disorder whereby an individual is prone to fainting or hallucinating under the effect of artworks. She is working on the case of a serial rapist turned serial killer and her investigation somehow gets entangled with her particular health condition.

I just couldn't find enjoyment in this. When one reads the premise, it looks full of potential, but that is misleading. Actually, that is one of the characteristics of the giallo genre: to coat a formulaic plot of policework and shocking violence with some extraneous 'arty' themes or environments. To be fair, it isn't an extremely bad movie and watching it is possible without great suffering. Let's just say that, should one make a movie out of one's filmviewing life, the experience of viewing this film will end up in the editing room floor.

Saw an English-dubbed version.

Rating: 30

The Woman (2011)

While hunting in the woods, a man spots a woman who appears to be living as a wild beast. He captures her and takes her to his cellar, where he keeps her as a captive, engaging his entire family in the process of taming her. Some unexpected events, however, lead to a crisis.

Interesting, if overly violent, familial horror drama. To be frank, all through my viewing I probably misunderstood some of the aspects of the plot and consequently the ideology of the movie. Some viewers seem to have suffered the same setback. Thus I mistook this film for a brutally feminist manifesto, but certain plot points introduce some nuances into it which put that interpretation into question. I will not enter into much detail here, as some readers might want to watch the movie with a fresh mind, and have a full enjoyment of all its surprises. Suffice it to say that a certain plot twist hints at an explanation (which of course is not a justification) for the behavior of the main male character, and that explanation involves his wife. I say 'hints' because the exact way things happened is not explicitly stated in the movie. Anyway, to sum my assessment up, this is a movie which starts out as an intelligent and intriguing drama and shifts into a shock-oriented horror movie in its latter half; that shift is not totally felicitous.

Rating: 60