Last Woman on Earth (1960)

 The planet suffers a sudden temporary shortage of oxygen which kills most people. Three Americans (a dishonest businessman, his wife, and his lawyer) are scuba diving in Puerto Rico during the incident and survive. They now must plan for their livelihood and living arrangements.

This cheap love triangle drama with a "science"-fiction premise does not have much to offer in terms of excitement or ideas, but flows passably well through dialogue and some scenic location sequences. The shorter version in color is the real thing; the black and white version has two additional sequences which do not really add much and were apparently shot later, given that the actress has a different appearance (she seems to have dyed her hair or something).

Rating: 34

Permanent Vacation (1980)

 A young jobless man wanders from place to place in New York City. He visits his girlfriend, then his mother who is in a psychiatric institution, then goes to a movie theater but just stays in the lobby, then steals a car and sells it, then boards a ship to Paris.

This movie's protagonist is often explaining himself. He is also very implausible as a character, because among other things his source of livelihood is not very clear. He is not rich, as may be inferred by his opportunistic car theft. Yet, he doesn't seem to be a habitual criminal, because that would somehow make him less of a "permanent vacationer"; after all, crime is a profession too. The musical score is well done, but not much else in this movie is. I wish I could say better things about it, but unfortunately cannot.

Rating: 28

Battlestar Galactica: miniseries (2003) & Season One (2004-2005)

 Based on the 1978-1979 TV show of the same title.

Human-created cyborgs lead a devastating attack on humans, killing most of them; the few survivors escape on spaceships in search of a new planet. But the cyborgs have the ability to mimic the human appearance and have infiltrated the crew of the escaping fleet.

I didn't like this show much, and am not watching the remainder of it. While its subject matter (AI takeover) is interesting, the dramatics here is far less interesting. If I had to point out a positive aspect of it, however, I'd say that the producers did succeed in gathering an attractive collection of female characters, spanning all profiles (sexy femme fatale, rebellious tomboy, tender-hearted with a dangerous psychological ambivalence, middle-aged sage, middle-aged slut).

King Kong (1933)

 Fourth viewing, probably; previously viewed on December 11, 2014; once or twice between 1983 and 1986 (if once, then there may have been another viewing on an earlier date).

A movie producer-director takes his cast and crew on a sea voyage to an uncharted island where he intends to shoot a picture featuring a gigantic ape. They end up not making that film, but instead bring the ape to America. The ape can't resist a blonde, and that spells his downfall.

This film has been a recurrent source of entertainment for me, but his charms have faded somewhat along the years. It's a triumph of technique, and its simple plot has some grandiose connotations, but coolly considered it's basically just an exceptionally well made adventure movie for kids (maybe I'm getting old?). To be fair, it is also a self-referential story about the disadvantages of location shooting: the film within the film, as planned, is roughly the same storywise as the film we watch, but completely antagonic as a filmmaking procedure. Thus, King Kong extracts its poesy from the human need for adventure and realism, but expresses this poesy by resorting to artifice and deceit. That's sort of fascinating in itself.

Here's my earlier review from 2014.

Rating: 59 (down from 69)

The Emperor Jones (1933)

 A black man kills another in a fight and is sentenced to a labor camp. He escapes and boards a ship, taking refuge in a small island. After some time in the island, he overthrows the local ruler and takes his place. After some more time the people get tired of his tyranny and prepare to overthrow him in turn. He flees the palace, intending to leave the country. He must cross a dense forest in his way to the port.

This cinematic adaptation of a one-act play considerably expands it. I didn't like the play much (based on a reading), but I found the movie reasonably enjoyable and mostly well done. I can't find much to say about it, though, as its characters and situations are built in a quite straightforward and explicit manner.

Rating: 51

It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

Third viewing; previously viewed on December 15, 1990 and May 9, 2013.

George is on the brink of suicide and is helped by an angel who gives him a new perspective on his life. The core of his problems is the greed of a banker who wants to take over George's small town.

This fantastic drama is generally viewed as a sentimental parable about self-sacrifice and the value of the individual, but there is another side to it which is equally important and perhaps more interesting, namely the dramatization of the perennial debate between free-marketeers and keynesians (or to a certain extent socialists). This aspect of the movie hasn't aged much, and one can see this issue being still being debated on books and on the opinion pages of newspapers. There is one detail, however, which somewhat obfuscates that economics issue: the State is complete absent from the movie's dramatic equation; that places all the burden on private actors. At no point in the movie its protagonist, or anyone else, considers running for office or otherwise engaging State institutions. While this allows for the specific dramatics here to develop, it's also the source of its more implausible elements. Further considerations about this movie may be read on my 2013 review. Perhaps I should add that the notion that bankers are lonely and frustrated creatures is another deeply flawed notion which has no counterpart in the real world.

Rating: 63 (unchanged)

 

The Next Voice You Hear... (1950)

 People start hearing someone on the radio claiming he's God. He delivers edifying speeches, always at the same hour, during one week. No one seems to be able to identify who is speaking and how he managed to transmit his voice on the radio. The plot centers on a suburban family (father, mother, son) expecting a second child. Familial conflicts and work frustration occupy the mind of the father.

This film may look as the most preposterous piece of silliness ever to fill a screen, but at least it shows some degree of self-consciousness when it has one character remark: "People silly enough to believe in God are silly enough to believe God's talking on the radio". But, just like the voice on the radio, this character comes and goes without explanation; I mean, officially he is still there, has the same name, and the same job as boss in the factory; but his ideas vanish late in the movie and he is suddenly a gentle person who's best friends with the protagonist's son and provides a refuge for the boy when he is disgusted with his father; also, he now replies a "God bless you" in kind. I'd say a film is problematic -- or I am -- when the two characters I find most interesting are the supposed villains, namely, the protagonist's old friend he meets in a bar and a woman in that bar. Paradoxically enough, it is an easy-to-watch movie which may be watched with an eye for involuntary comedy.

Rating: 38

Meet John Doe (1941)

 Second viewing; previously viewed (probably in a dubbed copy) between 1983 and 1986.

A newspaper columnist writes a suicide note which she attributes to a character she makes up and publishes it as if it were real. Thousands are moved by it and the newspaper's new owner convinces her to go on with the lie, even hiring a real person to pass off as the note's author. This John Doe becomes the object of a national following. People believe the things he says, though he only reads out loud what the columnist wrote for him; furthermore, the newspaper's owner has his own personal political goals in mind.

This is tremendously confusing from an ideological standpoint, which makes for a somewhat frustrating yet curiously fascinating viewing experience. Is this an anarchist manifesto? At some point it looks like the "movement" is making government superfluous. On the other hand, the "people" don't seem to have much craving for autonomy, and their cohesion disappears when their leader is revealed to be not exactly what he said he was. Also, there is a sinister streak here that seems to demonize an attempt to build a third party with some relevance in the United States. The funder of the movement, an oil magnate, is revealed to have fascist tendencies. But did he have to be that way? Why couldn't he be a normal guy with legitimate political aspirations? Is it the fact that he was a liar what makes him bad? But the "good" guys were liars too, and the film gives them a chance to come clean and redeem themselves. Why doesn't the magnate have the same chance in the script? On the other hand, I don't deny that this film is really entertaing, perhaps even in a kind of oneirical manner.

Rating: 63 (down from 67)

Aventuras com Tio Maneco (1971)

English title: Journey to an Unknown World

Maneco, an adventurer, takes his nephews to visit the boys' grandfather. Upon arriving at their destination they find no trace of him and spot a flying saucer with two extraterrestrial beings who tell them that the old man was  kidnapped by a robot from their planet. The robot is trying to locate a flower which it has the mission to destroy. Said flower has the power to liberate the alien people from the dominion of intelligent machines. Maneco and the children go into the jungle in search of the missing grandfather and the flower.

Kiddie adventure which alternates live action with animation. It was filmed in location in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso. There's little to remark about it except that it's one of the earliest films to tackle the theme of AI takeover. That aside, it's a poor production with little artistic merit. It spawned a TV series and three cinematic sequels, which leads me to believe that it must have done relatively well at the box office.

Rating: 28

The Opening of Misty Beethoven (1976)

Inspired by the play Pygmalion, by George Bernard Shaw, which premiered in 1913.

A prostitute is invited by a writer to take part in a contest which awards every year a woman considered remarkable for her sexual skill. She takes lessons from the writer in the love-making art as a preparation for her challenge.

This pornographic comedy is mostly a failure; it has a very low erotic charge, and as a comedy it is poor, even cringeworthy occasionally; a few witty dialogue lines and above average production values make it somewhat less unbearable than the usual product in this line.

Rating: 30

A Countess from Hong Kong (1967)

An American diplomat returning home on a ship finds the woman with whom he had spent an evening while in Hong Kong hiding in his apartment. She is a stowaway and wants to emigrate to America.

Romantic comedy in a style which is close to those screwball comedies of the 1930s -- not surprising, since the screenplay was written around that time. It's an agreeable film which flows nicely and even warrants some laughter, in spite of a few dissonant chords -- e.g. the valet's "wedding night" which tries to be funny but fails. When you think about it, this is a kind of Madame Butterfly without the racial issue, and thus minus the tragic element.

Rating: 58

The Marriage of Figaro (2019)

 Filmed performance of the opera Le nozze di Figaro, music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte, composed in 1786, based on the play La folle journée, ou le mariage de Figaro, by Pierre Beaumarchais, written in 1784. This performance occurred in November, 2018, in London, and was made available to stream in January, 2019. Since August, 2020 it is freely accessible.

The barber to a rich gentleman wants to marry one of his employer's house staff. Said gentleman wants to have the privilege of being the first to sleep with the bride. They devise a scheme to foil the (not so) gentleman's plans.

This is probably one of the most famous operas of all times, and I must confess to not having had such a great time with it. It simply was not intellectually stimulating to me, alas, what with all that plot full of coincidences and hackneyed devices. The music is considered great, but, again, I must confess that Mozart belongs to a period of relative musical simplicity which, while superficially agreeable, is not wholly satisfactory to me. The sets and costumes are gorgeous, and the staging was faithful to the original intent of the composer and writer, and to the period in which it is set. I wouldn't have it any other way. The singers were OK to my untrained ears.

Not rated, since this is not exactly a standard movie.

The Count (1916)

 Third viewing; previously viewed on: January 24, 1990; June 18, 1996.

A tailor finds a letter in a customer's jacket addressed to a woman who is giving a ball. He decides to attend the ball impersonating said customer. The tailor's former assistant, by a coincidence, happens to be at the premises.

Passable short comedy which has some inventive moments and also some formulaic slapstick bits. Curiously, this is not exactly a satire of rich people. It's more like a conflict between the petty bourgeoisie and the lumpenproletariat, here personified respectively by a tailor and a guy who was fired by him for being completely incompetent. Due to it happening in a party of rich people, they get some collateral damage from the abovementioned conflict, which somehow adds to the comicity. A funny review of it can be read here.

Rating: 47 (unchanged)

A Woman (1915)

Second viewing; previously viewed on March 3, 2006.

(*spoilers*) Several people are in a park during an afternoon: a womanizing husband, his wife, their adult daughter, a pretty pickpocket lady, a tramp, a policeman, two idlers. The tramp gets into trouble with all the males in that cohort; he then escorts the womanizer's wife and daughter to their home, and is invited to enter. When the husband and one of the park idlers arrive there, the tramp tries to fool them by disguising himself as a woman.

While not exactly original, this short comedy is somewhat better than my excessively harsh previous review (linked above) assessed it to be. The park segment, while somewhat cliché, has its funny moments; the second part is just standard slapstick, though the main actor in drag is remarkable at his performance -- quite refined and miles away from crude caricature.

Rating: 46 (up from 34)

The Champion (1915)

Third viewing; previously viewed on January 28, 2006 and January 20, 2007.

 A homeless man employs himself as a sparring assistant to a boxer. Armed with a horseshoe in his glove, he knocks the boxer out and, viewed then as a promising fighter, accepts to challenge the world champion.

Somewhat below average comic short which lacks really inspired ideas but is reasonably well done. As I remarked in my first review (link above), it's mostly aimed at kids.

Rating: 44 (down from 62)

Tôkyô nagaremono (1966)

 English titles: Tokyo Drifter; The Man from Tokyo

A former gang member goes straight after his boss disbands their gang. He not only refuses a job with a rival gang but keeps getting in the way of their evil plans. After a while, he decides to leave Tokyo so as to stop causing trouble for himself and others, but his enemies send a hitman after him.

Both the Italians and the Japanese were heavily influenced by American culture (by a strange coincidence, both were in the losing side in World War 2), and their cultural industries are not all that dissimilar in that respect, except that Japan seemed to prefer the urban criminal genre, and Italy had a taste for Westerns. While very sloppily edited, and perhaps even occasionally sloppily filmed, and as a consequence excrutiatingly hard to make sense of at some points, this film shows a flair for uncanny imagery, and I guess that makes it watchable despite its flaws.

Rating: 35

The Face on the Barroom Floor (1914)

Third viewing; previously viewed on May 29, 1996 and January 6, 2006.

A bum walks into a bar and tells his story: he was once a painter who fell in love with a woman and she traded him for a man whose portrait he was painting.

This is a (purportedly) comic adaptation of a (then) famous poem. The main actor enlivens the piece, and that's the film's main attraction. But the film has some intelligent ideas, like making the man who stole the protagonist's loved one fat and middle-aged (and rich) instead of handsome and young. That, and the encounter in the park, are what one could call the reality touch.

Rating: 56 (down from 63)

Ambrose's First Falsehood (1914)

(*mild spoilers*) Ambrose is reluctantly taken by another man (a friend? a stranger?) in a car ride with two young women. They enter a cabaret where Ambrose gets involved with a performer, incurring the rage of the place's owner (the performer's husband?). Ambrose's companion had sent a note to Ambrose's wife saying he traveled on business; when the wife reads in the paper that there was a train wreck, she thinks Ambrose died.

Mildly entertaining short. Due to its antiquity, and multiple later uses of this same plotline, one could attach a certain historical importance to it.

Rating: 40

His Trysting Place (1914)

Title displayed on the card: His Trysting Places.

Second viewing (at least); latest previous viewing was on January 7, 2006.

A married man with an infant son goes out to buy a bottle for the child and inadvertently switches overcoats with another man. This causes a misunderstanding with his wife on a account of a letter which she finds in the overcoat's pocket.

Above average short comedy with many interesting individual sequences done with great ability (e.g., the initial kitchen sequence).

Rating: 56 (up from 54)

Saved by the Belle (1939)

 Series: The Three Stooges

Three American salesmen are selling their products in a Latin American country. They happen into a plot to overthrow the current dictator and are dragged into the middle of it.

Relentlessly inventive and funny short comedy, done to perfection.

Tassels in the Air (1938)

 Series: The Three Stooges

A housepainter is mistaken for a prestigious interior decorator and hired, along with his two bumbling assistants, to redecorate a house.

This funny short brims with ideas and is expertly directed.

Nertsery Rhymes (1933)

 Short. A man is pestered by his three sons into telling them bedtime stories.

This is a rather like a vaudeville act, I suppose. It reuses two musical numbers from other films. The comic bits are funny and the musical numbers are good. I watched this because it was the first screen appearance of a famous comic trio. More info: Wikipedia page.