Some Call It a Pastime: The Films I See

Hotel Atlântico (2009)

2012-01-30T19:26:00.000-08:00

An actor takes some time away from work, wandering aimlessly from city to city. He encounters some people and gets into serious trouble.

A more or less inconsequential exercise in the bizarre or absurd or surreal, consisting of a series of sections each of which a transfiguration of a classical movie. Thus you have "The Morning After" in the episode with the woman on the bus, then "The Most Dangerous Game" with the psycho and his buddy, then "The Beguiled" in the small town, and then it all switches to a more lyrical tone in the last act, and you have "Midnight Cowboy". What is extraordinary is how, in a country where bad acting is the norm, the filmmaker has managed to assemble a set of absolutely correct performances.

Rating: 52

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

2012-01-29T13:27:00.000-08:00

A journalist, aided by a hacker punkette, investigates, at the request of a millionaire, the disappearance of a girl a long time ago.

Quite silly and boring.

Rating: 15

J. Edgar (2011)

2012-01-28T12:42:00.000-08:00

Momma's boy is spurred by her into becoming a big police chief. He modernizes libraries, then the police. Rejected by a girl at work, he turns to boys. His strange perversion is having meals with one of them. He wiretaps people in power. He becomes too powerful. His mother makes a speech, then dies. After his death, the girl who rejected him burns all his "private files".

A film consisting in alternating a man's old age with his own account of his youth. My opinion of it should be inferrable from the synopsis above, but, to spell it out, I frankly do not get what the precise point is, and the dialogue and dramatics follow recent standards of inverisimilitude and enigmatic patterns of behavior and emotionalism.

Rating: 28

The Descendants (2011)

2012-01-27T12:00:00.000-08:00

A rich lawyer and landowner in Hawaii is legally pushed to selling his lands. Meanwhile, his wife is in a coma after a jet-skiing accident. He finds out she was having an affair. All that and he has two daughters to look after, whom he hasn't payed much attention to in the past.

An absurdly bad movie, almost totally devoid of storytelling interest and human understanding. The only bearable moments are when good old Beau Bridges brings his unfailing acting charisma to the screen (and, well, his part is well-written, which accounts for the "almost" above).

Rating: 25

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

2012-01-19T16:59:00.000-08:00

Our hero investigates a certain maharaja's theft of a sacred stone and some children.

Second viewing. It is a parody of ancient Hollywood trash and, to a certain extent, of Raiders of the Lost Ark. The fact that the franchise continued afterwards, and went back to a more serious tone, is interesting but not surprising.

Rating: 50 (unchanged)

Aquarela do Brasil (1942)

2012-01-19T07:10:00.000-08:00

A short cartoon in which an American humanoid duck named Donald Duck meets a Brazilian humanoid parrot named José Carioca. The latter shows the wonders of his country to the former. The narrative is situated at one remove from the spectator, as the latter views a hand with a paintbrush draw the images on the screen. The levels of diegesis are deliberately confused, e.g., the water or a river is used as ink by the painter.

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

2012-01-16T16:36:00.000-08:00

In 1936, a U.S. archeologist looks for the Biblical covenant ark which is supposed to have extraordinary powers. The Nazis are looking for it too.

This is my second or third viewing. I am a little amazed that I used to admire this film. It is not extraordinary in any way. It is competently directed, but its screenplay leaves a lot to be desired. And what does the climactic scene (where, in order to survive, Jones and his girlfriend avoid looking at the ark's visual projections) tell us about the film's stance toward itself?

Rating: 52 (down from 75).

Tati (1973)

2012-01-14T20:22:00.000-08:00

Based on the short story "Tati, a Garota" ("Tati, the Girl"), by Aníbal M. Machado.

Manuela and her daughter Tatiana (Tati for short) move from her humble house to an apartment. Manuela is unmarried, and Tati is an impossible kid. Manuela works as a seamstress and Tati makes friends in their neighborhood. Manuela finds it hard to make ends meet and, to complicate things further, is pregnant again. A boat captain becomes attached to the two.

Not very good. It has obvious deficiencies of mise-en-scene, and is plagued by often inadequate vocal utterances. Carvana is miscast as a boat captain. The fact that the movie is almost invariably attributed an erroneous title in Brazilian film dictionaries is a dead giveaway that practically no one in that country has watched this movie.

Rating: 31

The Next Three Days (2010)

2012-01-14T12:12:00.000-08:00

Based on the French film Pour elle (2008).

A man does everything he can to clear his wife of a murder conviction, and after all devices are exhausted he decides to break her out of prison.

A well-designed thrilling machine. The psychological angle was not disregarded.

Rating: 53

Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

2012-01-13T21:48:00.000-08:00

Based on the novella "Dream Story" (Traumnovelle), by Arthur Schnitzler.

A New York doctor goes through some strange nocturnal adventures after his wife tells him about a sexual fantasy of hers.

Second viewing. It is a well-made movie, and a thoroughly enjoyable one, but the simple fact that it is based on a 1920s literary work makes the situations a little anachronistic. A few of the directorial choices are odd, to say the least, like 'Marion''s eye-rolling, but mostly the director has an intelligent way of handling the story and the characters.

Rating: 64 (unchanged)

Oscar (1967)

2012-01-11T23:10:00.000-08:00

A rich businessman is awakened one morning by the visit of an employee of his. He is there for an important communication. And a series of subsequent revelations, twists and confusions ensue.

A well-designed farce, well directed, well acted, with De Funès at his hysterical best.

Rating: 60

Goodbye, New York (1985)

2012-01-10T16:01:00.000-08:00

A woman leaves her husband and New York for a trip to Paris, but she falls asleep and ends up in Israel instead.

I could not find any review by professional critics. Dale Thomajan, a critic who worked for Film Comment, puts it among his Top Ten of 1985. There are a few user reviews on IMDb, some of which praise it highly and the rest pan it. Most of these reviews got the film entirely wrong: it's not a journey of personal growth, it is not Israeli propaganda, it is not Arab bashing. I see it as a comedy where things keep happening unexpectedly, and comicity or amusement is extracted from it. To be honest, I found it neither exciting nor boring. But I plan on seeing more stuff from this director. And I plan on seeing Goodbye, New York again, because I am not so good at getting film dialogue in English without subtitles.

Rating: 50

Houve uma Vez Dois Verões (2002)

2012-01-09T18:15:00.001-08:00

English title: Two Summers.

Two teenage boys vacationing on a beach town are after sexual or romantic adventures. One of them gets involved with a con woman and thief.

Interesting as a concept, it has a sense of style which at times comes out all right, and other times does not. Too much rock in the soundtrack is a problem. Anyway, love and money are the themes, or rather, the conjunction of both is the theme.

Rating: 50

Edward Scissorhands (1990)

2012-01-07T19:44:00.000-08:00

A man-made man-like creature is found in an abandoned castle. He has scissors for hands.

Second viewing. I took issue with it on the first one. I found it enjoyable this time, but its setup is better than its development, which in turn is better than its finale. Thematically it echoes Frankenstein (obviously) and Of Mice and Men (perhaps not so obviously).

Rating: 60 (up from 49)

Me and Orson Welles (2008)

2012-01-06T07:48:00.000-08:00

A teenage boy gets a small part in Welles' directed play "Julius Caesar" in 1937. Welles is an arrogant dictator.

This is a very formulaic coming-of-age story, with nothing to say about artists big or small except old clichés.

Rating: 33

Militia (2000)

2012-01-01T14:00:00.000-08:00

Government agents bomb a community which advocates free use of fire weapons. Their leader goes to jail and is later offered parole in exchange for helping a special agent to infiltrate the newly formed community which developed after the massacre and is planning a terrorist attack.

Very cheap actioner with lots of scenes from other films used as stock footage. The screenplay is implausible and the film is very poor.

Rating: 13

Live Wire (1992)

2011-12-31T13:28:00.000-08:00

A bomb-defusing expert working for the FBI is in a case involving terrorist attacks where the detonating device is nowhere to be found (it's actually a liquid which, if ingested, will blow up). Concurrently to that, his wife has left him for a senator.

Entertaining thriller the plot of which has several inconsistencies and fuzzy spots and is structured according to age-old patterns. It won't add much to the viewer's spiritual advancement.

Rating: 43

César et Rosalie (1972)

2011-12-31T04:51:00.000-08:00

English title: César and Rosalie.

Rosalie is married to César, who is an expansive guy and older than she. When young David, with whom she had a love affair years ago, returns to Paris, her old feelings revive.

The theme of one woman and two men seems to be a French favorite (cf. Jules et Jim). The reverse was also tackled (Le bonheur, haven't seen it). But whereas those were sixties movies with a libertarian flair, César et Rosalie is very much a seventies film, that is, a plead to reason, so to speak. I will not speak ill of it, it is a well-written psychological study. A bit on the banal side, I'd say. Sami Frey is an earlier version of Willem Dafoe. Sort of.

Rating: 59

The Assignment (1997)

2011-12-30T12:47:00.000-08:00

A Naval officer is a lookalike of a feared terrorist. He is proposed the task of impersonating said terrorist. The plan is having the Soviets believe said terrorist has betrayed them.

Awful thriller, with a screenplay which follows a very clichéd path. A formal quibble: practically every other sequence begins with a plongée, for some reason; it is very unsettling.

Rating: 13

Miramar (1997)

2011-12-28T10:25:00.000-08:00

The first act concerns a family composed of man, wife and son. The second act concerns the son who aspires to be a filmmaker.

The first act has a decent level of articulation. The second act is mostly uninspired (pretensely) modernistic shit, with a couple of interesting verbal utterances.

Rating: 35

Anatomy of a Murder (1959)

2011-12-27T11:54:00.001-08:00

A semi-retired lawyer decides to act for the defense of a military who killed a bar owner who allegedly raped the military's wife.

This is my second viewing of this film, and I can safely say (although it has been a long time since I watched it for the first time) that I didn't understand it the first time. I will not make a deep analysis here because this film is an established classic and I am sure analyses abound by better men than me. I will only make a few remarks, mostly for myself.
Reading the "hated it" section of the IMDB user comments, I notice that some people had the same problems I had upon my first viewing. This film is not like most other courtroom movies. There is no hero in it. It is not going for the viewer's empathy. It is a movie about Justice as an institution, and it implicitly says two things about it: one, that it is not perfect; two, that, even with its imperfections, it is a necessary institution. On a deeper level perhaps, the movie is an analysis of strategy, conveying the insight, perhaps above all others, that one way to win a case that seems lost in advance is to use your adversary's perfidy against him. We see the prosecution try to, so to speak, kill a fly with an atom bom, and it blows in their face. To close, a few words on the movie's title. In the past, I was a bit aggravated at what seemed to me a completely inappropriate title. I took it to mean that the film was intended as the "anatomy" of a murder, and of course I was disappointed. However, there is no evidence that the title refers to the movie. It seems to fit better as a reference to the trial itself. And then it is necessarily an ironic title, since it is quite evident that this would be a very poor and inconclusive anatomy. This irony seems quite in place when directed against an event within the movie, as opposed to against the movie itself.

Rating: 79 (up from 50)

Barão Olavo, o Horrível (1970)

2011-12-25T18:09:00.000-08:00

A barely narrative collage of scenes involving the title character, who is fond of corpses, two young women who live with him and are sexually involved with each other, another woman who seems to be the Baron's wife, and two men who seem to be religious preachers or priests.

I guess alienation can produce the kind of cinema displayed here. It oscillates between pastiche (of a very primitive type) and pornography (of a very shy type) and performatic ludicity (of a very uninspired type). Almost completely unfunny.

Rating: 5

Silent Rage (1982)

2011-12-25T12:52:00.000-08:00

A psychopath kills some people and is locked in an institution where they give him an experimental drug. It makes him nearly indestructible, for the excitement of an unethical scientist. The monster escapes, and a tough sheriff gives him pursuit.

A cheap rip-off of The Terminal Man (1974), not badly directed.

Rating: 31

Smokey and the Bandit II (1980)

2011-12-24T13:58:00.000-08:00

A man known as The Bandit and his fellow trucker are hired to transport a mysterious package from Miami to Dallas by a governor candidate. The package in question turns out to be an elephant that is supposed to be delivered to the Republican Party in Dallas (the elephant, so I hear, is the symbol of said party).

Pretty tepid sequel, with some wit in the dialogue and a bunch of reasonable action sequences.

Rating: 32

Stroker Ace (1983)

2011-12-24T10:07:00.000-08:00

A stock car racer has some problems with his sponsor, a fried chicken restaurant chain owner.

Low-brow humor and car races. And, if you will, a reflection on how difficult it is to have a "pure" human endeavor, not only sportsmanlike as is the case depicted in the movie but any other you can think of, under capitalism.

Rating: 31

Murphy's Law (1986)

2011-12-23T11:19:00.000-08:00

A cop is framed for the murder of his ex-wife by a recently released woman whom he had arrested ten years before. He manages to escape and takes a young car thief woman along with him in his quest to find out who framed him.

It fulfills basic entertainment criteria, namely a plot that has a lot of action and light humor. The idea of an ex-con who seeks revenge on policemen and judges is something I see often on films but I do not know of any similar real-life cases. Not a very memorable movie.

Rating: 40

O Homem que Copiava (2003)

2011-12-22T17:06:00.000-08:00

This is my second viewing.

On Monday, May 22, 2006, I posted the following on this blog:

-quote-
O Homem que Copiava (2003)
English Title: The Man Who Copied.
Synopsis: A guy that works as a photocopier operator is in search of a way to
improve his humble condition.
Appraisal: This is a painful film to watch. I really couldn't bring myself to
care about any of the characters. The storytelling is flooded by voiceover,
which means the filmmaker either can't say what he wants through the action and
dialogue, or that he considers the viewers to be morons that need constant
explaining. The script is fairly convoluted, but to no avail: it all amounts to
an elaborate piece of crap with zero empathy. The performances are pretty
decent, which is a feat considering the material the actors had to work with.
Give yourself a break.
Rating: 26
-unquote-

I stick with my previous opinion and rating. This film's flimsy moral justification rests on plot contrivances. Aesthetically and morally, it is antithetical to L'argent (1983).

Visage (2009)

2011-12-21T02:09:00.000-08:00

English title: Face.

A Taiwanese filmmaker is making a film which is set in the Louvre. The shooting is filled with problems.

The above plot is just hinted at in the movie, as there is no real coherent plot. It is a sort of postmodern 8 1/2, with touches of La nuit américaine, and at least one visual quoting of Il deserto rosso. However, references to old movies and bizarre camera angles do not a film make.

Rating: 0

Tamara Drewe (2010)

2011-12-20T11:38:00.001-08:00

A young newspaper columnist moves to the English countryside when she inherits a farm house. She gets romantically involved with three men: a drummer of a famous pop band, a middle-aged married writer, and a farm worker who had been her flame in their teens.

Amusing little comedy, based on a graphic novel which in turn was loosely based on Thomas Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd. The little rural town where it is set is a writers' refuge, and the film satirizes writers of all kinds.

Rating: 70

Câncer (1972)

2011-12-20T07:08:00.000-08:00

A series of variations on a basic configuration of three main characters, a black thief-beggar, a white thief, and a white actress.

The film's author has summarized well what it is about: violence, moral and physical. It is not particularly insightful or deep, and at times not even very articulate. But it succeeds moderately in conveying its theme, and the improvisational aesthetics produces occasional good results. The film, at the very least, works as a snapshot of an especially difficult period in Brazilian history, with many social and political issues.

Rating: 40

Barbe bleue (2009)

2011-12-19T20:15:00.000-08:00

English title: Bluebeard.

Two sisters are living in misery after their father dies. A rich nobleman seeks a wife. Most are afraid of him because of his appearance and because his former wives have died.

This is an unimaginative and a little idiotic retelling of a fairy tale. A poor excuse to put actors into old costumes.

Rating: 20

Cidadão Boilesen (2009)

2011-12-18T18:02:00.000-08:00

Documentary. The subject is a Danish-born man who moved to Brazil and was a high executive during the military dictatorship in the 60s and early 70s. He was very proactive in the financing of the repression to groups of resistance against the regime. He was murdered by one these groups in 1971 (hope the date is correct).

Interesting documentary about the connection of capital and a rightwing regime. The psychological angle is also tackled (sadism is mentioned). It is superficial both in the political and the psychological angle. There is a tangential thematic affinity to Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma. One of the interviewees bears a physical and ideological resemblance to Richard Nixon.

Bonanza: A Real Nice, Friendly Little Town (1966) (TV)

2011-12-18T12:19:00.000-08:00

Little Joe is hit by a bullet (a ricochet, not a serious wound) fired by a man who was trying to steal a Ponderosa horse. Hoss is deputized and goes after the thief.

This is a lighter-in-tone episode, finely scripted. Vaughn Taylor is almost preternaturally resemblant of John Hurt in this.

La donation (2009)

2011-12-17T16:32:00.000-08:00

English title: The Legacy.

A medical doctor responds to a job offer at a remote Canadian region; she must fill in for the old general clinician during some time off that he is taking, and after that decide whether she will take the position permanently.

A scene in the movie describes it more than anything I could say. The new doctor is shown a landscape of mostly grass and finds it beautiful; her interlocutor replies that some find it austere. Analogously, I found the film austere; this is not a bad thing, and this is not a bad movie, but to say it is beautiful would require a taste different than mine.

Rating: 52

The Garden of Earthly Delights (2004)

2011-12-17T06:38:00.000-08:00

A man films his relationship with a terminally ill woman.

Just boring. Some parts of it bear some similarities with The Pillow Book (1996), another negligible film.

Rating: 20

Hængbok (2007)

2011-12-16T16:08:00.000-08:00

English title: Happiness.

A man develops cirrhosis of the liver because of too much drinking and goes to a sanatorium. There he meets a young woman who has a lung problem.

The story is believable but a little tedious; the character of the ex-girlfriend is badly developed and unconvincing.

Rating: 37

Carrie (1976)

2011-12-15T15:03:00.001-08:00

A telekinetic girl is abused by her colleagues and by her fanatic mother. A colleague arranges for her to have a prom date, but a plan is underway to undermine Carrie's moment of happiness.

A strong film, which warrants some textual analysis (formal analyses exist, and excellent ones, so I will just abstain from going in that direction). I will attempt a very brief sketch of some analytical points. Irony is present in at least two central plot points. Irony: Carrie's mother is mad, but her predictions are confirmed, in a way which is a little more than simple self-fulfilling prophecy. Irony: the attempt to help Carrie ends up by causing her death as well as many others. The film is generally thought of as being cruel, but that is perhaps an undecidable claim. It is not certain that the film responds in a complete way to the social phenomenon of high school as it exists in the U.S. As most Hollywood, it covers the scope of drama at an individual level. The construal of the final tragedy as an indictment of American society is not easily arguable. There is a vague hint of a critique of the ideology that conditions Carrie's shift from obscurantist isolation to conformist integration; perhaps her tragedy is that she was never given a third choice. A second layer of drama concerns the character of Sue; there is a very able play with spectator's reaction by keeping her inner motivations ambiguous until very late in the movie. The pathos inherent in her situation derives from the ultimate insufficiency of "love thy neighbor" as a motto; Christianism in its primitive form is critiqued for its want of a broader knowledge of the complexities of the world.

Rating: 74 (second viewing; former rating was 66)

Hwioribaram (2009)

2011-12-14T14:03:00.001-08:00

English title: Eighteen.

A teenager takes his girlfriend to the beach and neither's parents are communicated. A crisis ensues and they are not allowed to see each other until they enter college.

An interesting, intelligent, realistic film, which sometimes abuses of commonplace images and ideas.

Rating: 57

Les portes de la nuit (1946)

2011-12-14T05:52:00.001-08:00

English title: Gates of the Night.

Post-Liberation Paris. A man who has survived torture by the Nazis is visited by his wartime buddy who thought he was dead. In that same apartment building lives a former collaborator and his son, and also a poor street merchant and his big family.

The only thing this film should be remembered for is its lighting, the dramatic effect of which was pointed out in "The Cinema as Art" (by Ralph Stephenson and Jean R. Debrix). Otherwise, it is "poetic realism" (a misguided denomination if there ever was one) gone awry, and no doubt best viewed with an eye for involuntary comedy. Say, for comical enhancement, one imagines the parts played by lookalikes: Montand would be replaced by Benigni, Vilar by Englund in full 'Freddy Kruger' attire, Carette by Celestino just as he looked like in O Ébrio, and so on as your imagination should dictate. Should one take the film seriously, one would have a hard time coping with the sordid manipulation of characters' fates in order for them to fit the one-sided moral standard assumed by the film, which makes a cartoon villain out of a Gestapo informer and a hero out of a Stalinist conspirator. The demands posed by this fictional framework go as far as making the 'heroes' abstain from denouncing the Gestapo informer "so as not to be his equals". Really, one cannot get more laughable than that.

Rating: 31

Zhantai (2000)

2011-12-13T16:44:00.001-08:00

English title: Platform.

The lives of several members of a troupe of performers in China, as the country shifts from strict communism to privatization and capitalism.

The idea behind this film is similar, if memory serves me right, and this is a highly problematic assumption as a rule, to that of Bye Bye Brazil. Namely, to document, so to speak, the changes a country experiences, from the vantage points of the lives of traveling players. Normally I favor drama and action, two elements which are absent from Platform, or satire and humor, which are absent from it as well; that being said, the film worked pretty well for me. It hits the right note of realism almost invariably, and conveys the right amount of sadness which China, or certain aspects of it anyway, somehow have come to embody.

Rating: 67

Puss in Boots (2011)

2011-12-13T13:20:00.000-08:00

I will provide no synopsis for this movie.

It seems that at least one person got this right, a IMDb user who has the identifying username darklillyflower. I quote her:

*beginning of quote*
It's the first cartoon I've seen where a character (Humpty) KILLS HIMSELF. In an effort to redeem his past screw-ups. And, as the icing on the cake, gets transformed into gold and is flown up to the skies.

Also, Puss has no conscience problems whatsoever to KIDNAP A CHILD (a baby goose) from her home, only because she could make everyone he likes rich. He IS an animal who talks, why didn't he wonder if the goose also had a conscience?

Plus, he is only considering giving up the goose to her mother only AFTER the mum threatens to destroy an entire city.

Is this a kids' movie or an advocate to soldiering?
*end of quote*

I do not have anything to add to that.

Rating: 20

Tout est pardonné (2007)

2011-12-11T17:57:00.000-08:00

English title: All Is Forgiven.

Couple with 6-year-old girl child separates because of problems related to the man's drug habit. Eleven years later the girl's father reunites with his daughter.

Watchable drama of family matters.

Rating: 40

Wesh wesh, qu'est-ce qui se passe? (2001)

2011-12-10T18:16:00.001-08:00

Kamel returns illegally to France after having been extradited to Algeria (the events of this film occur after the ones in Bled Number One (2006)). He witnesses the problems which afflict the Arab community in France.

Like Bled Number One, a well-directed low budget film, which nevertheless suffers from a poor script. The subject matter of the film is devoid of surprises: police violence, small-time drug trafficking, inter-ethnicity relationships, etc.

Rating: 34

Crashing (2007)

2011-12-09T15:45:00.000-08:00

A writer in crisis is dumped by his wife. Two beautiful women majoring in Creative Writing invite him to stay with them and, though he initially declines, he finishes by accepting the invitation.

Silly exploration of the theme of literary creation.

Rating: 33

Vibrator (2003)

2011-12-09T07:55:00.000-08:00

A young woman, while in a convenience store, sees a guy and feels attracted to him. He invites her to hop in his truck and away they go.

A 31-year-old woman with an adolescent's mind. The only reason I can think of for not having an adolescent as this story's protagonist is that it was easier to get it done with an older actress. Because this is a teenage story. And not very interesting at that.

Rating: 30

Japón (2002)

2011-12-08T18:56:00.000-08:00

*SPOILERS*

A man travels to a remote mountain village in order to kill himself. He first gives himself some time in the village before the intended final act. He stays at the house of an elderly woman.

The kind of film which tells more about the artist than about his subject (whatever the latter may be). People have wondered about the title, and it appears there is an explanation by the filmmaker himself, that it refers to the rising sun and its metaphorical meaning (as in "the sun also rises", title of a Hemingway novel). This makes sense, as this is, apart from its aesthetics, the conventional story of a suicidal man who has a change of heart after getting in contact with a more elemental reality. It's open to discussion whether this change really happens, and whether it happens before or after the final tragedy. Anyway, there is another dimension to the experience of the film which is dictated by its whimsical aesthetics, and here I would like to point out the possible relevance of the fact that the main character is a painter and is shown to possess a book about Picasso. There are several elements which point to cubism in this film's aesthetics. To consider the parallel between Picasso's use of deformation in depicting women and the unusual eroticism depicted in the movie might be indicted by some as prejudicial, but I personally do not see how it can be avoided. Also, if cubism is thought of as a series of recombinations, one can think of this as a recombination of several structural patterns found in other movies (Ikiru (To Live), Narayama Bushiko (Ballad of Narayama)) so as to render them nearly unrecognizable. But none of this leads to a satisfactory work of art. The film is poorly conceived and aesthetically self-indulgent.

Rating: 29

Animal Kingdom (2010)

2011-12-08T04:22:00.000-08:00

A boy loses his mother and goes to live with his grandmother and uncles, who are into crime.

Really well-made (except for the cinematography for which I did not care much) and really badly written. It would be tedious to list the implausibilities and incongruencies, behavioral and otherwise, of this movie, so one is advised to go to the "Hated It" section on IMDb's user comments.

Rating: 50

Une vieille maîtresse (2007)

2011-12-07T12:52:00.001-08:00

Based on the novel by Barbey d'Aurevilly (1st ed. 1851).

English title: The Last Mistress
English translation of the French title: An Old Mistress

A man who has had a 10-year-long relationship is about to get married to another woman. He vows to abandon his former lover but she is not letting go of him easily.

I was a little bored, but it is reasonably well made and the storyline is not devoid of interest. This is the only time I have seen cigar chain-smoking in a movie (or out of one, for that matter), and by a woman, to boot.

Rating: 51

Bonanza: A Knight to Remember (1964) (TV)

2011-12-07T06:12:00.000-08:00

Adam is riding back in a stagecoach after having concluded a business deal when the stagecoach is attacked by thieves. After they knock the driver unconscious, a man dressed as a medieval knight appears and scares them off. Adam is surprised by the sheriff's deputy at the side of the unconscious driver and the open safe, and is accused of trying to rob the stagecoach.

Part of the premise is exactly Don Quijote. Also, it is an ingenious tale whose bottom line is that being the sole witness of madness makes you mad as well.

Bonanza: The Legacy (1963) (TV)

2011-12-06T20:47:00.000-08:00

A poacher is detected in the Ponderosa by Ben and Little Joe. Ben wants to go after him alone. When he doesn't return home (because he has been shot by the poacher, one of three men who have just been released from Huntsville prison), Ben's sons go after the ex-convicts with vengeance on their minds. In the meantime, a passing merchant helps Ben and the two discuss what Ben's sons might do.

Gorori no koto (2008)

2011-12-06T05:57:00.000-08:00

English title: All Around Us.

Depiction of several years in the life of a couple. Husband and wife's professional day-to-day, their interactions as a couple, their relatives, etc.

Rather conventional as a drama. The structure is sprawling, showing aspects of these characters' lives which lead nowhere plotwise - for instance, the courtroom scenes. But I guess this is what gives meaning to the film's title. The general tone is soothing, not unlike a soap-opera. The mise-en-scene is carefully done, like a symphony really.

Rating: 40

Una semana solos (2007)

2011-12-03T20:10:00.000-08:00

English title: A Week Alone.

A group of children and adolescents during school break are without their parents at home. María, 14, is sort of "the person in charge", plus the maid. They all live in a rich condo. When the maid's brother is allowed to stay with them during that period, some discomfort is generated.

A very well-made film which has a sociological agenda which may work well for some and less so for others. Apparently the film's theme is put forward in the words of the song that little Sofía sings: "Invisible: I am invisible to you". They establish an inevitable reference to the social barrier which makes the lower classes invisible to the higher ones, and, why not, to other barriers as well. I myself tried not to question too much the plausibility of the characters' actions (particularly in the last act) and observe the stream of interactions with which the filmmaker built her fictional world. It is not without interest to compare certain aspects of this film's social fiction with certain aspects of the social fiction in Spanglish, and see that fiction admits wildly varying world configurations. As for so-called reality, each viewer will have her own experiences and ideological constraints.

Rating: 57

Stellet Licht (2007)

2011-12-02T19:22:00.001-08:00

English title: Silent Light.

In a Mexican Mennonite community, a married man has an extraconjugal affair with a woman also in that community.

This is simply bad.

Rating: 12

Tian bian yi duo yun (2005)

2011-12-01T16:18:00.000-08:00

English title: The Wayward Cloud.

In Taiwan, a drought obliges people to ingest large amounts of watermelon (or so I figured out). A young woman encounters her ex-boyfriend, who is now an actor in sex films.

The musical numbers are kind of cute. Otherwise this is not articulate enough to deserve comment.

Rating: 2

Sangre (2005)

2011-11-29T17:54:00.000-08:00

A man works as a doorman at a government building. He is married to a younger woman who works at a fast food restaurant. He is very submissive in his marriage. One day his daughter from a previous relationship comes looking for him.

Obviously a work of genius, founded on a rigorous hyper-realism throughout, except for one brief moment near the end where the fantastic irrupts and then retreats, against the protagonist's expectations. The acting in this movie is first rate; do not believe the opinions to the contrary.

Rating: 78

Bled Number One (2006)

2011-11-29T11:22:00.000-08:00

English title: Back Home.

Note about the original title: 'bled' is a French word meaning 'small village'.

Kamel is deported to Algiers, after having served a prison sentence in France (this film is a prequel to Wesh Wesh qu'est-ce qui se passe? (2001)). He tries to adapt to the customs in his new country. He befriends a woman who has returned to the village recently (or so I figured out); she had been away from her husband who wouldn't let her follow the singing profession. Also, he engages in the resistance of the local population against some violent Islamic fundamentalists.

There is much authenticity in the mise-en-scene, but the film is tedious and scarce on information about its characters.

Rating: 30

Sita Sings the Blues (2008)

2011-11-28T15:33:00.000-08:00

Musical animation telling the story contained in the Ramayana with American songs from the 20s. Rama is banished to a forest. He lives there with his wife Sita. Sita is kidnapped by another man. Rama rescues her but has doubts about whether she had sex with her kidnapper. She is submitted to "trial by fire". She passes. Rama's exile ends. Rama is the new king. Sita, now pregnant, is a suspect in the eyes of the people, so Rama decides to repudiate her and banish her to the forest. When Rama's twin sons are adolescents he encounters them and takes them with him. As for Sita, he proposes a new trial, but Sita commits suicide instead.

A frivolous pop rendering of an ancient myth.

Rating: 35

The Exploding Girl (2009)

2011-11-28T06:23:00.000-08:00

College girl invites best-friend in need of a place to stay to stay at her mom's house (where she is also staying) during school break. Meanwhile the girl's boyfriend is away in another city. Oh, and for what it's worth the girl is epileptic.

An exceedingly conventional premise developed with some attention to psychological detail in a film which is ultimately a case study on information theory. The unit of binary information in question would be "he/she likes me" versus "he/she likes me not".

Rating: 35

Le père de mes enfants (2009)

2011-11-27T20:24:00.000-08:00

English title: Father of My Children.

A producer sinks in debt, kills himself, his wife and children continue with their lives, his wife and earlier associates try to finish his unfinished projects.

Mildly interesting as a study of how independent cinema can go wrong. Mostly commonplace though.

Rating: 34

Primer (2004)

2011-11-27T16:11:00.000-08:00

A team of scientists accidentally invents a time machine. They use it to make money on the stock market.

This is a representative - and the probable nadir - of a type of film that reached unprecedented levels of popularity in the 00's and is commonly referred to as a "mindfuck". As for the comprehension of its plot, I will confess to having consulted some guides which are available on the internet. One thing is to discuss the genre's characteristics per se, foremost among them the conscious decision of making its plot as difficult to understand as possible. As it turns out, though, this film has problems of a different order, having to do with its banality and ultimate irrelevance, which are easily perceptible once one starts analyzing what it essentially is about and what its characters' concerns and attitudes actually are.

Rating: 11

Sulanga Enu Pinisa (2005)

2011-11-27T05:17:00.000-08:00

Title in English-Speaking Parts of the World: The Forsaken Land.
Title's possible translations: That which the Wind Dictates; Dictations that Come with the Wind. [according to Israel Vonseeger, in a comment on the "strictly film school" site].

A few persons living in a semi-barren region. Tanks and soldiers move through it, testifying to a civil war which seems to have happened recently (and apparently may resurge any minute). The film follows the events in these people's lives: the inner drama of a woman living with his married brother, the infidelities of the latter's wife, the wanderings of a kid who is befriended, in a dubiously insisting manner, by an elderly man, some seemingly haphazard acts of violence committed by the soldiers, etc.

The alienating style is comprised of a collection of filmic procedures which have been solidified in the 00's as a veritable school, baptized with the name of "contemporary contemplative cinema", and seems to be curiously prevalent among Asian filmmakers who received their cinema education in the West. Here, as in many (perhaps most) films of that school, what remains after one mentally discounts the style is a rather traditional set of filmic ideas and structures, and a proof of this fact is the surprisingly uniform content of the reviews. In any case, this is in the best of hypotheses a mildly interesting short or medium-length film, unreasonably stretched to count as a feature-length one.

Rating: 30

La face cachée de la lune (2003)

2011-11-26T13:35:00.000-08:00

English title: The Far Side of the Moon

The story of a man who is stuck professionally and emotionally. He has just lost his mother and his doctorate thesis has just been refused for the second time. His brother is a totally different guy and criticizes his lack of objectivity towards life.

The use of the lunar motif is not always meaningful. This story of a typical "loser" oscillates between predictable - he obviously is the sort who behaves inappropriately in bars and forgets to set his watch in a different country - and random - his brother gets stuck in an elevator. Well, no harm done, it is always nice to watch a little obscure movie now and then (I guess it is like watching the hidden face of the moon), and this one - as has been pointed out elsewhere - is meticulously well made.

Rating: 49

Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)

2011-11-25T11:03:00.001-08:00

This is the last posting which disrupts my strictly chronological logging of viewed films. This film, I saw it in 1988, and wrote its plot summary then.

A scientist finds in the Amazon the fossilized hand of a strange reptile. He decides to conduct an investigation with the goal of finding the remainder of the corresponding fossil. He encounters David and his girlfriend, a couple of ichthyologists who decide to accompany him. Along with them goes also Mark, an ambitious young man who is the head of the research institution for which they work. They begin research, which at first is infructuous. Through a conversation with the captain of the boat they are traveling on, they get word of the existence of the "Black Lagoon", where legends say there is a fish-man. They head towards there. Mark and David dive and spot the strange creature. Mark hits it with the harpoon, and David takes a photograph, which, once revealed, does not contain anything. The woman goes for a swim and the monster follows her, falling in love with her and grabbing at her foot. The monster climbs on the boat and kills one of the crew members. The captain suggests that they poison the lagoon water with a substance he uses for fishing. The monster invades the boat and is imprisoned. The older scientist keeps a watch over it, but is distracted, thus letting the monster escape, not without first seriously injuring the scientist. The team decides to leave, but the monster has blocked the exit of the boat with a log. They attempt to remove the log, but the monster hinders their efforts. David has the idea of filling the oxygen tubes with the poison used earlier and then spraying it on the monster in order to scare it away, which would enable them to remove the log. But Mark has not given up the idea of capturing the monster and dives too; the monster kills him. The log is removed, but the monster invades the boat and kidnaps the woman. There is a chase on the monster, in which he is hit by the boat crew's gunshots and dies.

High Noon (1952)

2011-11-24T12:38:00.000-08:00

Will Kane decides to get married and abandon the sheriff profession. However, on his wedding day, a bandit whom he had arrested and was released comes back to kill him, with the help of two other men. They are taking the noon train at a nearby town. Kane's wife wants him to leave, but he wants to confront the bandits. To that effect, he seeks help from the other citizens, but no one stands by his side. Consequently, he faces the bandits alone, helped only by his wife, who at the last moment decides to help him (at first she threatened to leave without him).
(Summary written in 1988; film seen then)

Broadcast News (1987)

2011-11-24T12:30:00.000-08:00

A summary written in 1988. (Don't worry, this will soon be over.)

The principal characters are a TV reporter whose ambition is to become an anchorman; a lady TV reporter; a newbie who can't write but whose good looks ensure him a fast rise. Aaron and Tom are the boys' names; Jane is the girl's. Jane falls for Tom, and is loved by Aaron. In the end, nobody gets nobody. Tom is revealed to be just a cynical manipulator, with no ethics or feelings.

He Walked by Night (1948)

2011-11-24T12:04:00.000-08:00

Plot summary written in 1988, now saved for posterity.

A policeman on night patrol is brutally murdered while on duty one night, and his colleagues try to find the criminal. The first big clue comes when the criminal sells stolen electronic equipment. When he shows up to collect the money, the police tries to capture him, but fails. Several persons who had been robbed by the bandit help to make a composite sketch of his face. On account of the technique and the knowledge of police procedure displayed by the bandit, one policeman believes that he belongs or belonged to the police force. It is discovered that he belonged to the department of radio technicians of the police. It is discovered that he probably lives in Hollywood (here I am not completely sure). One of the policemen disguises as a milkman and begins an investigation in Hollywood. He obtains from one of the local dwellers the information of the house where the criminal supposedly lives. When he delivers milk at that house, the policeman breaks the milk bottle on purpose. The criminal goes outside to see who is there, and is recognized by the policeman, because of the similarity to the sketch. The policeman doesn't do anything immediately; he sends for the help of his colleagues in order to make the arrest. Even with his house surrounded, the criminal enters a sewer hole. Then a chase begins inside the sewer system, at the end of which the chased man is killed.

My Darling Clementine (1946)

2011-11-24T11:33:00.000-08:00

Another translation of a plot summary written in 1988.

Wyatt Earp and his three brothers Virgil, Morgan and James bring cattle through a plain and decide to stop near Tombstone. James stands guard while the others go to town. When they come back, James is dead and the cattle has disappeared. Wyatt accepts the position of sheriff of Tombstone, a town where who gives the orders is the ex-dentist "Doc" Holiday and where who owns the cattle are the Clantons. A young woman named Clementine arrives in town looking for Holiday. Holiday sends her away, and says that if she won't go, he will. Wyatt tells the girl to stay and Doc decides to leave. But Wyatt finds a crucifix which belonged to James with Chihuahua, the singer in the Tombstone saloon. She says she received it from Doc. Wyatt goes after Doc, catches up with him and brings him back to town. When they arrive to Chihuahua's bedroom, she is with Billy Clanton, who hides outside. Wyatt and Doc enter and Doc swears to never having seen the crucifix before. Chihuahua eventually confesses to having received it from Billy Clanton. The latter hears it and shoots through the window, hitting Chihuahua. Wyatt shoots at Clanton while this tries to escape, and hits him. Wyatt sends his brother Virgil after Clanton. When Virgil gets to the Clanton ranch, Billy is dead and his father kills Virgil. Meanwhile, Doc has to extract the bullet from Chihuahua. The Clantons bring Virgil's body to town and say they will be waiting for Wyatt at the O.K. corral. Chihuahua does not resist and dies. Doc joins Wyatt and Morgan and they all head to the O.K. corral to face the Clantons. There a shooting occurs and Doc dies, as well as all the Clantons except the father. Wyatt refuses to kill him. Clementine decides to teach in the Tombstone school. Wyatt and Morgan leave to tell their father about what happened; Wyatt tells Clementine he will be back.

Spellbound (1945)

2011-11-24T10:54:00.000-08:00

This blog takes a detour to register some plot summaries I wrote back in 1988, of films I watched that year. They were written in Portuguese, and I will be translating them to English.

*SPOILERS FOLLOW*

Constance Petersen is a psychoanalyst at a psychoanalysis institute. Its director is about to be replaced. The new director, Dr. Edwardes, arrives, except it is not him, but John Ballantyne, an impostor. Ballantyne suffers from amnesia. He flees. Petersen, who has fallen in love with him, goes after him. The real Dr. Edwardes is missing and Ballantyne, who was passing himself off as him, is suspected of having murdered him. But Petersen believes in his innocence and tries to cure him of his amnesia. The two hide in the house of an old professor of Constance's. Ballantyne goes skiing with Petersen and saves her from an accident. It is then that he remembers a childhood episode in which he accidentally provoked his brother's death. Then he recovers his memory and remembers that Dr. Edwardes died in a skiing accident. However, when the body is found, it is revealed that Edwardes was shot. Ballantyne is arrested. Petersen, guided by a dream of Ballantyne's, discovers that the real murderer was Dr. Murchison, the former director. Ballantyne is released.

Bonanza: Journey Remembered (1963) (TV)

2011-11-23T18:01:00.000-08:00

*SPOILERS BELOW*

Ben remembers - and the episode flashes back to - when he led a group of settlers who sold everything they had to start a new life in California. There were troubles in the way, with guides and with Apaches. Around this time he was married to Inger and had Adam from a previous marriage. Inger gives birth to Hoss and dies from an Apache arrow.

Bonanza: Twilight Town (1963) (TV)

2011-11-23T16:27:00.000-08:00

After being assaulted by a robber in the desert, Little Joe winds up in a ghost town and meets its ghost dwellers.

Bonanza: The Deadly Ones (1962) (TV)

2011-11-23T11:41:00.000-08:00

A group of Juárez followers takes the Ponderosa, wounding Little Joe in the process. Their plan is to rob a wagon full of gold sent out of Mexico by emperor Maximilian.

This episode has a psychoanalytic structure which was perceived by Christopher Mulrooney (if I understand him correctly). The structure is similar to Khouri's As Deusas, and, to a certain degree, also to Kubrick's The Shining. In all of them, the action emulates the workings of the human mind (according to a more or less Freudian model), and the characters are metaphorical incarnations of the constituents of the human psyche. Here, we have a general which stands for the Super-Ego, and two of his lieutenants which stand respectively for the Id and the Ego.

The Quick and the Dead (1995)

2011-11-22T14:49:00.000-08:00

Western. A town's big boss promotes a contest made up of duels. One of the contestants is a woman who has a vengeance agenda.

The screenplay's surreal premise is interesting. This surreality is maximum in the duel between the contest's promoter and his bastard son. Perhaps if the film had been reduced to half its length I would have liked it better. Some of the subplots (e.g. the girl who is seduced by a "dirty old man") don't add to the film. Last but not least among the problems which bothered me, I will mention the elegant looks of the protagonist: to begin with, there is no chance that a gunfighter would wear her hair loose, because it could block her eyesight for a moment, and that could mean her death.

Rating: 40

Bonanza: The Artist (1962) (TV)

2011-11-21T03:41:00.000-08:00

Ben makes the acquaintance of a man who lost his eyesight and who used to be a famous painter. Ben helps to restore his will to live.

Zee and Co. (1972)

2011-11-20T16:48:00.000-08:00

American title, according to IMDb: X, Y and Zee.
American title, as displayed in the movie: X Y & Zee.

A married architect meets a young widow at a party and decides to have a fling with her. The relationship gets serious but his wife won't let go.

Perfectly directed and perfectly cast, it is funny on occasion and consistently watchable throughout. The ending is, say, wicked. The ultimate conclusion one draws from the film is that deep down he doesn't really want to leave his wife, in spite of pledges of love to his lover. Seen from another angle, the central point seems to be the match of one strong person and two weak ones; the development and resolution (or lack thereof) is simply a natural consequence of this balance of forces. This is my second viewing; the rating is raised.

Rating: 51 (up from 43).

La fille seule (1995)

2011-11-19T19:06:00.000-08:00

English title: A Single Girl.

Valérie is pregnant of her boyfriend. She tells it to him on the same day she starts on her job as chambermaid in a hotel.

A film in two acts set in different times, each narrated in real time. It's a virtuosic feat, no doubt, which will please form-freaks. The film strays from strict psychological realism in a more noticeable way on some stretches of dialogue, but nothing so blatant as to be more than a matter of opinion. Written by two males, one of whom directed it, it conveys an image of a woman which some might call modern, and others might ask which parameters make her so, whether fictive or sociological.

Rating: 56

François Premier (1937)

2011-11-19T15:44:00.000-08:00

English title: Francis the First.

A humble theater employee in a hypnotic trance is taken to the court of French king Francis the First where he must impersonate an unfaithful wife's brother in order to save her skin.

A case of oneiric time travel, where the historical characters resemble the subject's waking-life acquaintances (and he is aware of this fact). Its crude humor's mainstay is the protagonist's consultation of Larousse for future events; also, he knows all about England's Henry VIII because he "saw the movie". A great success at the time, according to some reports, and mentioned appreciatively by some film critics.

Rating: 18

The Deadly Affair (1966)

2011-11-17T10:29:00.000-08:00

Based on the novel "Call for the Dead", by John Le Carré.

An English civil servant is denounced as a spy and dies subsequently. The official verdict is suicide, but an intelligence officer resigns in order to further investigate the affair on his own (helped by a retired policeman).

A film that somehow extracts impure cinematic narrative fun out of dated thriller (and drama) conventions. James Mason is at his usual best. The odd bossa nova soundtrack adds to the flavor of the proceedings. There is not an ounce of realism in it, but it provides (as Christopher Mulrooney has pointed out, if I understand him correctly) a lucid commentary on the various forms that communism has taken on historically and the various illusions it has engendered.

Rating: 51

Cara a Cara (1967)

2011-11-15T17:05:00.001-08:00

A humble civil servant lives with his sick mother. He develops an unhealthy obsession towards a rich young woman and spies on her regularly. She is the daughter of a rightwing politician who conspires to arrest a leftwing agitator (or something along those lines).

It has a few qualities, for example it is reasonably successful in establishing a certain melancholic mood. Antero de Oliveira in this bears an extraordinary resemblance to Patrick Dewaere. The sequence emulating silent cinema is well done and pre-dates a similarly inspired one (if I am not mistaken) in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969). On the other hand, an oral sex sequence reminds one of a similar one (if I am not mistaken) in Les amants (1958).

Rating: 39

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1960)

2011-11-14T05:09:00.000-08:00

Based on the novel by Mark Twain (born Samuel Clemens) (1st ed. 1885).

Huck, a young boy, flees from home taking a slave with him. Huck is used by a duo of crooks in a fraud.

A nice film, well acted and funny. Some people complain that it is a bad adaptation of the novel. Well, a film is a film and a novel is a novel. Neville Brand in this film bears an extraordinary resemblance to Nick Nolte.

Rating: 63 (second viewing, first with original sound, rating unchanged)

O Gigante da América (1978)

2011-11-13T07:09:00.000-08:00

Loosely based on Dante's Comedy, it features a man's journey through hell, purgatory and heaven, even if the second is hard to distinguish. Hell is portrayed as a mental institution, heaven (or perhaps the trip to it) as a ship.

There is no coherent narrative. The style is based on non-sequitur, contrasting juxtaposition of visual and audio, grotesque presentation of sexual imagery, literary references, self-conscious theatricality, etc. The result is seldom inventive, sometimes comical, mostly dull.

Rating: 24

Slaves of New York (1989)

2011-11-12T16:04:00.000-08:00

Eleanor lives with Stash, who is a painter. She works as a copy editor in a newspaper and designs weird hats as a hobby. Marley is a painter too, but wants to found the Church of Christ Woman.

New York in the eighties. The artistic type and its various subtypes. Everyone is slightly nutty, which makes for some laugh-out-loud moments. An enjoyable film.

Rating: 61

Chelsea on the Rocks (2008)

2011-11-11T18:32:00.000-08:00

Documentary (with a few staged portions) about the Chelsea Hotel in New York, a favorite place of artists in its heyday.

Good documentary, a little boring on occasion. The specific environment of mild irresponsibility associated with artists is the dominant note. Also, towards the ending, a discussion of the changes that time and new frames of mind engender.

Rating: 51

Return to Paradise (1998)

2011-11-10T05:30:00.000-08:00

Remake of the French movie Force majeure (1989).

Three American youths spend vacation in an Asian country. Two of them return to America, and after two years are looked up by a lawyer who says the third of them was arrested for drug trafficking due to a blunder one of the other two committed; what's more, he was now facing a death sentence unless at least one of them returns to that Asian country and shares the guilt of drug possession.

Quite a powerful moral equation. The use of the name of a real country for this fictional work is problematic, though. Not only that country may be (and is, according to some sources) very different than the fictional one, but the fictional one comes off as a bit nonsensical, displaying on the one hand an extremely abundant offer of easy illegal drug on the streets and on the other an unsurpassed severity in its drug laws. But the film is otherwise an engaging study of individuals facing hard choices.

Rating: 59 (this is my second viewing, and the rating does not change)

Hans Staden (1999)

2011-11-09T17:00:00.000-08:00

In the 16th century a German man living in Brazil is captured by the native tupinambás and remains in captivity for about 10 months, being threatened with death by his cannibalistic captors during almost his entire stay.

A non-dramatic account. An infinitely beautiful story, in a film of only medium achievement. The final caption tells us that the tupinambás were drastically reduced in number a few years after Staden's release, due to a smallpox epidemic. Their remnants lasted another century or less, being eventually extinguished by a number of diseases brought by the Europeans and by war against the Portuguese and their allies.

Rating: 56

Revolución (2010)

2011-11-09T12:51:00.000-08:00

Ten short films from Mexico. The films display disparate themes and styles, having in common the reflection of present-day Mexican reality.

This film is a testimony to the vitality of Mexican cinema today, even if I am not the person most apt to say so. But it is evident from it that the country is in no shortage of talents. I was drawn to this film because of Dan Sallitt's endorsing of two of its segments, "El cura Nicolás colgado" (his favorite) and "Este es mi reino". I am prone to agreeing with these choices: these two are probably the best segments, but all the other ones except the last (I didn't get it and hate slo-mo as a rule) are fine and offer something interesting to watch. I think there may be also an interest in observing how this film is a triumph of intelligent filmmakers against unintelligent producers. I refer to the fact that the idea of making a film thematically related to Revolutions or to Mexican Revolution in particular was met either with disregard or with distrust by the individual writer-directors. In particular "Este es mi reino" is a celebration of conviviality not unlike La règle du jeu, and is the most explicit assertion of a scorn for the concept of revolution that seems to be shared with more or less intensity by this ensemble of filmmakers.

Rating: 69

Tabu (1982)

2011-11-08T17:05:00.000-08:00

In theory, this has as characters Oswald de Andrade (a Brazilian writer), Lamartine Babo (a Brazilian popular composer), and João do Rio (another Brazilian writer).

Actually, it does not seem to be about anything. It is only a series of puns, amateurish musical numbers, women in the nude or semi-nude, excerpts from Tabu: A Story of the South Seas (1931), excerpts from old sex movies, and undefinable noneventful sequences. The soundtrack includes samples of bizarre old Brazilian songs. As I do not like to finish without an appreciative comment, there is a certain amusement to be had in the sequences featuring an effete Francisco Alves (a Brazilian singer) walking in the company of Mário Reis (another Brazilian singer).

Rating: 12

The Man from Planet X (1951)

2011-11-08T06:27:00.000-08:00

A planet is on a route of approximation to Earth. A scientist establishes an observation point at an island, and is joined there by a journalist. They find a spaceship on the island.

Cheap sci-fi, with a reasonable screenplay within the constraints of an unreasonable subject matter.

Rating: 35

The Dark Half (1993)

2011-11-07T05:51:00.000-08:00

A writer achieves greater commercial success writing cheap novels under a pseudonym than writing serious novels under his real name. Somehow, his pseudonymous self acquires life and starts killing people.

From the synopsis above, one pretty much can imagine how this film will be. Freud, Stevenson, lots of why's and how's that go unanswered throughout the movie, the rhetoric of fiction, the conventions of Hollywood storytelling. Thus, one got it pretty much figured out. Except there is The Birds too, and that was not expected, and that does not really make much difference.

Rating: 33

Agosto (1993) (TV)

2011-11-05T20:35:00.001-07:00

In August 1954, Brazil faces a political crisis. This miniseries imagines a crime story happening concurrently with the real events. The real events derive from the attempt on the life of opposition journalist Carlos Lacerda. The fictitious crime is the murder of a businessman during a homosexual encounter.

A second viewing of this miniseries has proven satisfactory, although my final appraisal is a bit less enthusiastic than my earliear one. Some imperfections are apparent, and the mise-en-scene at times seems a little static or unimaginative. Also, I do not know what to make of the fact that the protagonist takes such a long time to see who the obvious author of the crime he is investigating is.

Rating: 66 (down from 71)

Como Vai, Vai Bem? (1969)

2011-11-04T19:47:00.000-07:00

English title: How Are You? Well?

An omnibus film in eight episodes. Most of them feature the same two actors, and all of them feature at least one of them; in each of them, they come in a different make-up and costume, to suit the specific character of that episode. A summary of the episodes is given (in Portuguese) in the TV Brasil site, which showed the movie last August. I translate it below, with [...] for skipped text:
"In the first episode, Once Flamengo [...] two fanatical rooters for Flamengo get drunk after that team's defeat. In Woman in Sight [...] a voyeur spies, with binoculars, his neighbor's nudity. In Ten Years of Marriage [...] a lower-class suburb dweller kills his wife because of a chicken. In The Holy Girl of Encantado [...] a greedy father earns money out of his daughter's pretense to see Our Lady. In The Apartment [...] two sweethearts desperately try to satisfy their sexual urges. in The Little Canaries of N.S. das Dores [...] a priest attempts to collect contributions from his parishioners. In I Have to Win [...] a married man makes a living performing as a cross-dresser in a nightclub. Lastly, in The Great Day [...] a lower-class suburb dweller gets ready to sing as a contestant on the Chacrinha TV show."

Reasonably entertaining comical portrayal of lower-class Rio de Janeiro in the late sixties. The screenplay is collectively signed. The duo of leading actors were very popular in a TV show a few years after this film; I do not know whether they had paired earlier. The film's copy they showed in TV is in considerably bad shape.

Rating: 50

Boys (1996)

2011-11-04T01:13:00.000-07:00

Based on the short story "Twenty Minutes" by James Salter, published in the collection "Dusk and Other Stories" in 1988.

A high school student helps a young woman who has suffered a riding accident. Instead of taking her to a hospital, he takes her to his school dormitory. She happens to be wanted by the police.

Unconvincing and unengaging, yet not altogether unwatchable little drama.

Rating: 35

Farewell, My Lovely (1975)

2011-11-01T12:31:00.000-07:00

Based on a novel by Raymond Chandler, first published in 1940.

A private detective is hired to find the girlfriend of a man who has been recently released from jail.

This is at least, and probably, my second viewing. It is also, probably, my first viewing with original English audio.

A well-made if fairly conventional literary adaptation. I do not know for sure what exactly struck me as extraordinary about this film at my previous viewing.

Rating: 65 (down from 78)

Panj é asr (2003)

2011-10-31T08:00:00.001-07:00

English title: At Five in the Afternoon
In May 30, 2009, when I saw this film for the first time, I wrote in this blog:

"In occupied Afghanistan, there is a clash between women who want the end of
Taleban oppression, and the conservative men who cling to the rules set up by
that regime. An ambitious woman attends classes and wants to be the country's
president one day.

There isn't much to say about this film; it isn't very good. The first 15
minutes are fine, and then it's just not anymore. Camerawork is first rate
though, and one can sense the director's (or the cinematographer's, perhaps) eye
for composition."

The summary I wrote is fine, but could be better. I could mention, for example, that there is a surge of refugees that storm their village. And that her brother is missing and his wife has a baby that is dying of hunger.

The evaluation is pretty much the same after having seen it a second time (although perhaps one should not take my "the first 15 minutes" assessment too seriously). It is worth mentioning that one of the good scenes involves a girl who wears glasses. Her speech comes off as deeply heartfelt, and is a noteworthy achievement of realism. It is worth mentioning further that the film is about the sadness and hope and despair of women, and that it superposes a non-realistic, fablelike structure on realistic set-pieces. It does that, however, in a mostly tacky, repetitive and slow manner.

My rating does not change: 33

Occupe-toi d'Amélie! (1949)

2011-10-30T20:46:00.000-07:00

English titles: Keep an Eye on Amelia; Oh Amelia!

Based on a play by Georges Feydeau, first performed in 1908.

Amélie is a courtesan, supported by her lover, a military officer. She is to feign marriage to another man so the latter receives an inheritance. In the midst of all that, a foreign prince wants her as his mistress.

An amusing farce, creatively transposed to the cinema. The boundaries of the several levels of diegesis are deliberately blurred: the story we watch is seen as a play being performed in a theater, the spectators interfere with the action, etc.

Rating: 63

Taking Care of Business (1990)

2011-10-29T15:48:00.000-07:00

An escaped convict finds an executive's filofax and takes his place.

Slightly amusing comedy of mistaken identities. The most interesting part of the film is probably the one at the meeting with the Japanese businessman, wherein the film satirizes advertising of second-rate products.

Rating: 51

The Return of the Living Dead (1985)

2011-10-26T08:00:00.000-07:00

The dead come back to, uhn, animation, in Louisville, Kentucky.

This is my second viewing. While this is an entertaining film, it does not have a lot more than simple entertainment (for a special kind of audience, granted) to offer.

Rating: 50 (unchanged)

My One and Only (2009)

2011-10-23T18:32:00.000-07:00

The difficult adolescence of two boys whose mother leaves her unfaithful husband and travels from city to city in search of an advantageous new marriage.

A film with its share of bittersweet humor and psychological insight. The problem is that almost every time emotions are involved it becomes artificial and afraid of not following a standardized formula for ensuring the viewer's empathy (thus losing it, at least in my case).

Rating: 42

Crésus (1960)

2011-10-21T22:32:00.000-07:00

English title: Croesus.

A shepherd living at a mountain community finds a rocket case containing money bills. He does not know what to do with all the money.

Interesting low-key humor. Authentic locations. The film manages to instill some originality into somewhat predictable situations.

Rating: 52

A Tale of Two Cities (1935)

2011-10-21T06:57:00.000-07:00

Based on a novel by Charles Dickens, first published in 1859.

A complex story. A man spends 18 years in the Bastille without a trial (by order of a cruel aristocrat). He is freed and taken to England. The nephew of that cruel aristocrat falls in love with the old man's daughter. The main character in all this, however, is an assistant to a distinguished lawyer who is also an alcoholic. He helps acquitting an important character and become friends with the the young lady (and falls in love with her).

Melodramatic to the core. Well made. Watchable.

Rating: 51

O Homem do Pau-Brasil (1982)

2011-10-18T06:02:00.001-07:00

Based on the life and works of Oswald de Andrade, a Brazilian writer who was one of the main persons responsible for Brazil's Modern Art Week, in 1922, in the city of São Paulo. The film narrates his amorous adventures amidst discussions about art, politics, Brazilian identity, etc.

A film that appears to succeed at getting its subject through to the viewer. But I don't think it is a particularly interesting film, especially for those with no particular interest in Brazil and its beginning-of-the-century intellectuals. The acting style is very theatrical, as supposedly imposed by the filmmaker's concept of the movie.

Rating: 42