Second viewing; first viewed in 1982, or, at the earliest, December 1981.
Arthur is a millionaire who leads a life of carelessness. He has never worked, and has a drinking habit. His father threatens to disinherit him unless he marries a certain woman. One day Arthur meets a shoplifter and falls in love with her.
Slightly overrated comedy which derives most of its hilarity from the central character's jokes. The plot is negligible and in fact severely absurd at some points. I mean, in real life they make you marry the ugly one and you fall in love with the pretty one, right?
Rating: 54 (down from 58)
Tuesday, July 12, 2016
Sunday, July 10, 2016
Vaghe stelle dell'orsa (1965)
Second viewing; first viewed between the beginning of 1983 and the end of 1986.
English titles: Sandra; Sandra of the Thousand Delights; Vague Stars of the Bear.
This is about a recently wed woman who visits the house where she grew up. Her emotionally-charged family history resurfaces, shattering her stability and threatening her marriage. The pivot of the turmoil is her past relationship with her brother, in a context of Nazi persecution of the Jews.
I suspect some might find this film objectionable, especially in the face of its own diretor (and co-writer)'s own commentary about it (read it here in Italian and here in Portuguese). What I mean is that there are two kinds of ambiguity in this film. One is intrinsic to human nature and thus cannot be dissolved; it has to do with inner feelings and complex motivations. Another is the ambiguity which derives from the filmmaker's decision of not revealing certain aspects of the story; Sandra's stepfather has either sent her father to death or hasn't, so there is no middle ground here. The director seems to elude this distinction when he talks about ambiguity. Apart from that question, there are some enjoyable things to be found in the movie, although, as usual for me, that enjoyability is not dissociated from a sense of hilarity. The lyrical atmosphere does not survive intact the melodramatic plot; the latter, in turn, has a hard time coping with a female protagonist whose actions might be construed in the end as somewhat cynical.
Rating: 56 (down from 70)
English titles: Sandra; Sandra of the Thousand Delights; Vague Stars of the Bear.
This is about a recently wed woman who visits the house where she grew up. Her emotionally-charged family history resurfaces, shattering her stability and threatening her marriage. The pivot of the turmoil is her past relationship with her brother, in a context of Nazi persecution of the Jews.
I suspect some might find this film objectionable, especially in the face of its own diretor (and co-writer)'s own commentary about it (read it here in Italian and here in Portuguese). What I mean is that there are two kinds of ambiguity in this film. One is intrinsic to human nature and thus cannot be dissolved; it has to do with inner feelings and complex motivations. Another is the ambiguity which derives from the filmmaker's decision of not revealing certain aspects of the story; Sandra's stepfather has either sent her father to death or hasn't, so there is no middle ground here. The director seems to elude this distinction when he talks about ambiguity. Apart from that question, there are some enjoyable things to be found in the movie, although, as usual for me, that enjoyability is not dissociated from a sense of hilarity. The lyrical atmosphere does not survive intact the melodramatic plot; the latter, in turn, has a hard time coping with a female protagonist whose actions might be construed in the end as somewhat cynical.
Rating: 56 (down from 70)
Thursday, July 07, 2016
A grande feira (1961)
Set in the city of Salvador, Bahia, several characters' stories play out against the backdrop of the imminent expulsion of the merchant people at an outdoor market from the harbor area they occupy and which is coveted by big business. Prominent among the characters is a high society woman neglected by her husband; she gets her kicks slumming in the seedy nightclubs by the harbor. She eventually falls in love with a sailor from Sweden.
Moderately amusing melodrama with (mostly fake) social undertones. The dialogue is often ridiculous, but that is part of the amusement. It is quite photogenic in the external sequences, showing Salvador's coastline in glorious black-and-white. It has a certain importance in the history of Brazilian cinema, mainly, I guess, because of its realist style and its location shooting.
Rating: 35
Moderately amusing melodrama with (mostly fake) social undertones. The dialogue is often ridiculous, but that is part of the amusement. It is quite photogenic in the external sequences, showing Salvador's coastline in glorious black-and-white. It has a certain importance in the history of Brazilian cinema, mainly, I guess, because of its realist style and its location shooting.
Rating: 35
Saturday, July 02, 2016
Labyrinth (1986)
A teenage girl is upset because she has to look after her baby brother, and is accidentally responsible for his being kidnapped by the ruler of a fantastical kingdom; she then magically travels to the realm of that fantastical character in the attempt to rescue her kidnapped brother.
Lots of artistry went into the making of this film, but somehow the end result was sorely vapid, and the worst is that the villain is quite ridiculous, and so are his songs.
Rating: 30
Lots of artistry went into the making of this film, but somehow the end result was sorely vapid, and the worst is that the villain is quite ridiculous, and so are his songs.
Rating: 30
Monday, June 27, 2016
Deus e o Diabo na terra do sol (1964)
Third viewing, probably; last previous viewing: March 28, 1990; I have probably first viewed it between 1983 and 1986.
U.S. title (release): Black God, White Devil.
U.S. title (literal translation): God and the Devil in the Land of the Sun.
A poor cowhand kills his employer and then seeks refuge first among a sect of fanatics, then among an outlaw rural gang.
A study of the social situation in the arid lands of Northeastern Brazil. Often praised for being formally innovative, it is actually rather conventionally staged as a theater play with outdoor settings, filmed with a freer than usual camera. The diretor (and/or perhaps the cinematographer) has a keen eye for striking compositions, especially in the first half of the movie, which lend it a certain aestheticist flavor. The slowness of it all has certainly exasperated numerous viewers, but it is part of a coherent style. There is a thematic intersection with Vereda da Salvação, released in the following year, and a superior film if my assessment was correct at the time I viewed it.
Rating: 58 (unchanged)
U.S. title (release): Black God, White Devil.
U.S. title (literal translation): God and the Devil in the Land of the Sun.
A poor cowhand kills his employer and then seeks refuge first among a sect of fanatics, then among an outlaw rural gang.
A study of the social situation in the arid lands of Northeastern Brazil. Often praised for being formally innovative, it is actually rather conventionally staged as a theater play with outdoor settings, filmed with a freer than usual camera. The diretor (and/or perhaps the cinematographer) has a keen eye for striking compositions, especially in the first half of the movie, which lend it a certain aestheticist flavor. The slowness of it all has certainly exasperated numerous viewers, but it is part of a coherent style. There is a thematic intersection with Vereda da Salvação, released in the following year, and a superior film if my assessment was correct at the time I viewed it.
Rating: 58 (unchanged)
Thursday, June 16, 2016
Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (and Don't Come Back!!) (1980)
Some members of the Peanuts gang go to Europe on a student exchange program. Their destination is France, but they pass through England. Patty and Marcy stay with a farmer boy, and Charlie and Linus (plus the dog and the bird) are to stay in a castle but initially don't find anyone home. It turns out that the castle's owner is a misanthrope. There is a mystery surrounding Charlie's invitation, which is unfolded gradually.
I didn't exactly rave over this movie, although it was adequate for a relaxing time. The actual mystery plot is not devoid of ingenuity, too. My favorite moment was probably the sequence at school when Patty sits next to Charlie. Also, I was somewhat struck by the character of Linus, who seems to combine mature intellectual characteristics and immature emotional ones. Go figure. Anyway, I confess to having had a hard time figuring out what some of the characters said (fortunately I had a Portuguese audio track to help me), because the dubbers seemed to be real kids, and some of them seemed to be real francophones speaking English with an accent. Here is a fine review on the occasion of the DVD release (but I watched it on cable TV).
Rating: 44
I didn't exactly rave over this movie, although it was adequate for a relaxing time. The actual mystery plot is not devoid of ingenuity, too. My favorite moment was probably the sequence at school when Patty sits next to Charlie. Also, I was somewhat struck by the character of Linus, who seems to combine mature intellectual characteristics and immature emotional ones. Go figure. Anyway, I confess to having had a hard time figuring out what some of the characters said (fortunately I had a Portuguese audio track to help me), because the dubbers seemed to be real kids, and some of them seemed to be real francophones speaking English with an accent. Here is a fine review on the occasion of the DVD release (but I watched it on cable TV).
Rating: 44
Sunday, June 12, 2016
L'enfer (1994)
Second viewing; first viewed on October 18, 1994.
English title: Hell
Based on a 1964 screenplay by Henri-Georges Clouzot and José-André Lacour (and possibly Jean Ferry, who is credited on the 1964 IMDB entry but not on the 1994 one).
A French hotelier suspects his wife of cheating on him with one of the hotel guests. He becomes progressively controlling towards her.
Not as bad as it seemed on my first viewing. Perhaps the timing factor is one possible detractor: in 1994 the situations do not seem as socially plausible as they would have thirty years earlier. Films about conjugal unfaithfulness always seem to me as they are touching upon something deeply philosophical about the nature of reality and such issues. On a more down-to-Earth note, why didn't the guy hire a detective (one might ask)? It is interesting to notice the different takes of this and two other fiction works dealing with male jealousy. Othello depicts a faithful wife and a mad(dened) husband. Intrigue, combined with racial difference, are factors. Dom Casmurro depicts a husband acting reasonably upon reasonable suspicion. The modern critique of him stems from pathologizing male jealousy in itself. It is entirely a matter of ideology. L'enfer depicts a husband whose madness is triggered by reasonable suspicion. Anyway, it is a finely built narrative, finely filmed too, and finely acted.
Rating: 60 (up from 49)
English title: Hell
Based on a 1964 screenplay by Henri-Georges Clouzot and José-André Lacour (and possibly Jean Ferry, who is credited on the 1964 IMDB entry but not on the 1994 one).
A French hotelier suspects his wife of cheating on him with one of the hotel guests. He becomes progressively controlling towards her.
Not as bad as it seemed on my first viewing. Perhaps the timing factor is one possible detractor: in 1994 the situations do not seem as socially plausible as they would have thirty years earlier. Films about conjugal unfaithfulness always seem to me as they are touching upon something deeply philosophical about the nature of reality and such issues. On a more down-to-Earth note, why didn't the guy hire a detective (one might ask)? It is interesting to notice the different takes of this and two other fiction works dealing with male jealousy. Othello depicts a faithful wife and a mad(dened) husband. Intrigue, combined with racial difference, are factors. Dom Casmurro depicts a husband acting reasonably upon reasonable suspicion. The modern critique of him stems from pathologizing male jealousy in itself. It is entirely a matter of ideology. L'enfer depicts a husband whose madness is triggered by reasonable suspicion. Anyway, it is a finely built narrative, finely filmed too, and finely acted.
Rating: 60 (up from 49)
Friday, June 03, 2016
Summer Rental (1985)
An air traffic controller is on the verge of a burn-out, and is sent on mandatory vacation with his family. He goes to the beach, where he befriends a sea captain turned restaurateur. He suffers more than his share of vacation disasters, but in the end everything turns just fine.
The humor is invariably lame, and I only got some satisfaction from the fine cinematography and the overall niceness that is a characteristic of vacation movies.
Rating: 30
The humor is invariably lame, and I only got some satisfaction from the fine cinematography and the overall niceness that is a characteristic of vacation movies.
Rating: 30
Wednesday, June 01, 2016
The Imitation Game (2014)
A fictionalized account of the life of Alan Turing, who worked for the allies during World War 2 trying to decrypt German messages.
I normally wouldn't watch a film this bad, but in this case I followed the usual routine with biopics: after viewing it due to an interest on its subject matter, I went to the goofs section on IMDB and learned a little bit about it.
Rating: 20
I normally wouldn't watch a film this bad, but in this case I followed the usual routine with biopics: after viewing it due to an interest on its subject matter, I went to the goofs section on IMDB and learned a little bit about it.
Rating: 20
Sunday, May 29, 2016
Lili Marleen (1981)
Second viewing; first viewed on November 13, 1988.
A fictional story inspired in some events of the life of German singer Lale Andersen.
Willie is a German cabaret singer living in Switzerland, where she meets and has a relationship with a Jewish member of the anti-Nazi resistance. She is, through a backstabbing maneuver of her lover's father, deported from Switzerland. The lovers then take separate paths: she becomes a National idol in Nazi Germany while her lover continues his resistance work in Switzerland. Their encounters become increasingly risky and rare.
This is not as bad as it seemed on my first viewing. The cinematography is good, and the film is well produced and flashy in an attractive way. The script is indeed weak, and frankly the whole thing took a slightly self-parodic air as it advanced towards the punchline-like ending. As some reviewers noticed, the plot mirrors the lyrics of the title song, which is played incessantly during the film. This is essentially a melodrama about lovers torn apart, and only marginally about the social responsibility of the artist, a theme which is better explored in Mephisto, released a few months later.
Rating: 31 (up from 25)
A fictional story inspired in some events of the life of German singer Lale Andersen.
Willie is a German cabaret singer living in Switzerland, where she meets and has a relationship with a Jewish member of the anti-Nazi resistance. She is, through a backstabbing maneuver of her lover's father, deported from Switzerland. The lovers then take separate paths: she becomes a National idol in Nazi Germany while her lover continues his resistance work in Switzerland. Their encounters become increasingly risky and rare.
This is not as bad as it seemed on my first viewing. The cinematography is good, and the film is well produced and flashy in an attractive way. The script is indeed weak, and frankly the whole thing took a slightly self-parodic air as it advanced towards the punchline-like ending. As some reviewers noticed, the plot mirrors the lyrics of the title song, which is played incessantly during the film. This is essentially a melodrama about lovers torn apart, and only marginally about the social responsibility of the artist, a theme which is better explored in Mephisto, released a few months later.
Rating: 31 (up from 25)
Saturday, May 28, 2016
Arara vermelha (1957)
At a mining community in Brazil, a hired miner tries to steal a diamond and is caught. The police chief is in serious financial trouble and decides to steal the rock himself, and flee with his pregnant wife to a big city. He takes the original thief as his guide through the region's rivers and wild country. Another woman blackmails the police chief into taking her with them as well. They are chased by the mine's owner and a man of partial indigenous origin whom he uses as a guide.
Simple-minded yet watchable adventure. It is technically well made, but I can't assess the cinematography properly since the copy I saw was of inferior quality -- it was dark and plagued with interlacing. Ethnographical documentary footage depicting indigenous people is edited into the film to give the illusion of a seamless narrative at some points.
Rating: 33
Simple-minded yet watchable adventure. It is technically well made, but I can't assess the cinematography properly since the copy I saw was of inferior quality -- it was dark and plagued with interlacing. Ethnographical documentary footage depicting indigenous people is edited into the film to give the illusion of a seamless narrative at some points.
Rating: 33
Saturday, May 21, 2016
Ganga bruta (1933)
A man kills his wife on his wedding night for "finding out" she was not a virgin. He is sent to a small town to work on a huge engineering project in the hopes of forgetting his "disillusionment". He feels attracted towards his host's fiancée, who retributes.
Partly silent with subtitles, partly spoken.
Interesting if imperfect drama. The premise is very promising: a man who feels cuckolded becomes subsequently the agent of another's cuckoldry. The film could be summed up as a study on masculinity in its purest state. The filming technique is far from flawless, but overall it is effective (I especially liked the brawling sequences). One problem for me was that it never transcended a mere realistic framework in which it clearly challenged credibility. For one thing, the main character is an educated man and thus is supposed to have more of a civilized veneer than he is shown to have. The ending is a bit of a stretch, too.
Rating: 58
Partly silent with subtitles, partly spoken.
Interesting if imperfect drama. The premise is very promising: a man who feels cuckolded becomes subsequently the agent of another's cuckoldry. The film could be summed up as a study on masculinity in its purest state. The filming technique is far from flawless, but overall it is effective (I especially liked the brawling sequences). One problem for me was that it never transcended a mere realistic framework in which it clearly challenged credibility. For one thing, the main character is an educated man and thus is supposed to have more of a civilized veneer than he is shown to have. The ending is a bit of a stretch, too.
Rating: 58
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
Mulher (1931)
Love life of a woman of humble origins. Most of the movie dwells on her relationship and cohabitation with a middle-class writer.
A surprise. Although some parts of the movie are lost, there is enough here to satisfy lovers of good cinema. Not only it is rare to see a Brazilian movie this good, there aren't many films as well directed from any part of the globe. The film makes favors to no one: both poor and rich are depicted with all their faults and problems. The script may lack some plot elaboration at some points (which is anyway hard to assess given the incompleteness of the extant print), but this is easily forgiveable in face of the film's abundant qualities. Some sequences stand out: the protagonist doing the laundry outdoors while she is watched by strangers; the sequence at the tennis club, and many others.
Silent with intertitles, and a soundtrack of famous romantic short pieces.
Rating: 73
A surprise. Although some parts of the movie are lost, there is enough here to satisfy lovers of good cinema. Not only it is rare to see a Brazilian movie this good, there aren't many films as well directed from any part of the globe. The film makes favors to no one: both poor and rich are depicted with all their faults and problems. The script may lack some plot elaboration at some points (which is anyway hard to assess given the incompleteness of the extant print), but this is easily forgiveable in face of the film's abundant qualities. Some sequences stand out: the protagonist doing the laundry outdoors while she is watched by strangers; the sequence at the tennis club, and many others.
Silent with intertitles, and a soundtrack of famous romantic short pieces.
Rating: 73
Monday, May 09, 2016
Mon oncle d'Amérique (1980)
Third viewing; first viewing was on June 15, 1987, and second one on May 1, 1989.
English title: My American Uncle.
Three characters whose lives cross paths at some points, and whose actions provide an illustration for a behavioral scientist's theories.
This has all the airs of a pretentious movie. If one takes seriously its pretention of exemplifying the expounded theories, it fails. The fictional sections are either flimsily related to the theoretical narration, or -- and that is perhaps even worse -- are very trivial depictions. The non-fictional exposition is basically correct, at least from what I read in the science press; the exception to that is the ascribing of psychological causes for some diseases such as cancer and cardiac diseases. This is just false, according to recent scientific research; immunity is apparently influenced by a person's mood, but not to the extent which the scientist in the film implies. I couldn't help construing this film as something quite different from what its appearances showed. Its overall structure and the abundance of ridiculous details make the case that this is just a joint parody of the inanity of soap operas and of the sort of sacrality which is ascribed to scientists by laypersons. The film's ending reveals as a central theme the will to change the world by acting on people's minds; it is a recurrent theme in the "mad scientist" genre, and very much in evidence in the mindset dating from the 60s to the present day. Viewed from that angle, the film is not totally negligible, although it might be considered, judging from its length, as a joke on its audience as well.
Rating: 40 (down from 49)
English title: My American Uncle.
Three characters whose lives cross paths at some points, and whose actions provide an illustration for a behavioral scientist's theories.
This has all the airs of a pretentious movie. If one takes seriously its pretention of exemplifying the expounded theories, it fails. The fictional sections are either flimsily related to the theoretical narration, or -- and that is perhaps even worse -- are very trivial depictions. The non-fictional exposition is basically correct, at least from what I read in the science press; the exception to that is the ascribing of psychological causes for some diseases such as cancer and cardiac diseases. This is just false, according to recent scientific research; immunity is apparently influenced by a person's mood, but not to the extent which the scientist in the film implies. I couldn't help construing this film as something quite different from what its appearances showed. Its overall structure and the abundance of ridiculous details make the case that this is just a joint parody of the inanity of soap operas and of the sort of sacrality which is ascribed to scientists by laypersons. The film's ending reveals as a central theme the will to change the world by acting on people's minds; it is a recurrent theme in the "mad scientist" genre, and very much in evidence in the mindset dating from the 60s to the present day. Viewed from that angle, the film is not totally negligible, although it might be considered, judging from its length, as a joke on its audience as well.
Rating: 40 (down from 49)
Saturday, April 30, 2016
Betty (1992)
Second viewing; first viewed on March 21, 1998.
Based on the novel by Georges Simenon (1st ed., 1961).
A young woman with sexual and alcoholic compulsions is taken under the wing of an older woman who first encounters her in a bar. A series of flashbacks to the former's life sheds some light into the roots of her situation and behavior.
Interesting psychoanalytic drama, which at a couple of moments may ellicit a reaction of hilarity in response to the situations it engenders. It is a masterfully executed film, given more spark by two splendid leading performances. The text itself has insightful psychological and sociological elements which perhaps should have cohered into a more substantial plot.
Rating: 68 (unchanged)
Based on the novel by Georges Simenon (1st ed., 1961).
A young woman with sexual and alcoholic compulsions is taken under the wing of an older woman who first encounters her in a bar. A series of flashbacks to the former's life sheds some light into the roots of her situation and behavior.
Interesting psychoanalytic drama, which at a couple of moments may ellicit a reaction of hilarity in response to the situations it engenders. It is a masterfully executed film, given more spark by two splendid leading performances. The text itself has insightful psychological and sociological elements which perhaps should have cohered into a more substantial plot.
Rating: 68 (unchanged)
Wednesday, April 27, 2016
Recordações da casa amarela (1989)
U.S. title: Recollections of the Yellow House
A tenant at a boarding house is obsessed with the owner's daughter. He leads a colorless life, without money and with health problems. He gets involved with a prostitute. He eventually loses his sanity.
An examination of poverty and everything that accompanies it. The main character at one point defines himself as "a leftist intellectual". It is a pointed joke, for, if he really were that, he would probably be leading a much more comfortable life than he is. Like its protagonist, the film is a very poor production, but, unlike him, transcends that lack of means with artistic imagination. There are some interesting reviews of this film, here and, for those who read Portuguese, here and here.
Rating: 65
A tenant at a boarding house is obsessed with the owner's daughter. He leads a colorless life, without money and with health problems. He gets involved with a prostitute. He eventually loses his sanity.
An examination of poverty and everything that accompanies it. The main character at one point defines himself as "a leftist intellectual". It is a pointed joke, for, if he really were that, he would probably be leading a much more comfortable life than he is. Like its protagonist, the film is a very poor production, but, unlike him, transcends that lack of means with artistic imagination. There are some interesting reviews of this film, here and, for those who read Portuguese, here and here.
Rating: 65
Sunday, April 24, 2016
Remorques (1941)
U.S. title: Stormy Waters.
Drama about the life of tugboat workers. The protagonist is a boat's captain. He is torn between his wife and a woman he meets while on a rescue job.
Drama about moral choices regarding love versus marriage. Lots of maritime action scenes add to the entertainment value. The tribulations of working seafolks are honestly depicted. Not an outstanding film, but the imagery is occasionally stunning. The special effects are good by the standards of that time, but the conspicuously gigantic water drops in the storm scenes may put modern audiences off.
Rating: 51
Drama about the life of tugboat workers. The protagonist is a boat's captain. He is torn between his wife and a woman he meets while on a rescue job.
Drama about moral choices regarding love versus marriage. Lots of maritime action scenes add to the entertainment value. The tribulations of working seafolks are honestly depicted. Not an outstanding film, but the imagery is occasionally stunning. The special effects are good by the standards of that time, but the conspicuously gigantic water drops in the storm scenes may put modern audiences off.
Rating: 51
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Pièges (1939)
English titles: Personal Column; Snares
A series of disappearances of young women who have answered personal ads is being investigated. A friend of one of the victims decides to help the police by anwering the ads herself.
Almost like three consecutive films in one, this is a mildly interesting mystery story about a type of character which would become immensely popular a few decades later: the serial killer. Some plot details, including the ending, are very unsatisfactory, but it's a watchable film. I have noticed that, no matter the genre, whenever Chevalier is in a movie, he has to sing. Bizarre...
Rating: 51
A series of disappearances of young women who have answered personal ads is being investigated. A friend of one of the victims decides to help the police by anwering the ads herself.
Almost like three consecutive films in one, this is a mildly interesting mystery story about a type of character which would become immensely popular a few decades later: the serial killer. Some plot details, including the ending, are very unsatisfactory, but it's a watchable film. I have noticed that, no matter the genre, whenever Chevalier is in a movie, he has to sing. Bizarre...
Rating: 51
L'année des méduses (1984)
Second viewing; first viewed on March 30, 2016
Former blog post:
[quote]
English title: Year of the Jellyfish
At a beach in the South of France, mother and 18-year-old daughter are spending some time. The mother gets involved with a younger man. The daughter has a wild sexual behavior and some psychological issues.
A lot of gorgeous women flaunting their breasts most of the time, and occasionally all her bodies. Total amorality. The young govern the old. It is well directed and flows nicely, despite the thinness and reticency of the plot. I knew there was a flashback somewhere because the daughter is sixteen in some scenes and eighteen in others, but I couldn't discern the exact point when real time transitions to flashback and vice-versa. Reportedly there is a novel that could shed light on some of those doubts.
Rating: 51
[end quote]
Now I understand the film better. It's not as reticent as I supposed. Young Chris's fixation on Romain, which goes way back -- before his involvement with her mother -- is an important plot point which I probably overlooked on my first viewing. For finer psychological points, there is always the novel, which I still haven't read.
Rating: 52 (up from 51)
Former blog post:
[quote]
English title: Year of the Jellyfish
At a beach in the South of France, mother and 18-year-old daughter are spending some time. The mother gets involved with a younger man. The daughter has a wild sexual behavior and some psychological issues.
A lot of gorgeous women flaunting their breasts most of the time, and occasionally all her bodies. Total amorality. The young govern the old. It is well directed and flows nicely, despite the thinness and reticency of the plot. I knew there was a flashback somewhere because the daughter is sixteen in some scenes and eighteen in others, but I couldn't discern the exact point when real time transitions to flashback and vice-versa. Reportedly there is a novel that could shed light on some of those doubts.
Rating: 51
[end quote]
Now I understand the film better. It's not as reticent as I supposed. Young Chris's fixation on Romain, which goes way back -- before his involvement with her mother -- is an important plot point which I probably overlooked on my first viewing. For finer psychological points, there is always the novel, which I still haven't read.
Rating: 52 (up from 51)
Sunday, April 10, 2016
Outpost in Morocco (1949)
A Foreign Legion captain falls in love with a Moroccan emir's daughter; her father leads a revolt against the French.
Colonialist adventure, with a negligible plot, and nice, if somewhat darkened, visuals, both outdoors and indoors. It was shot on location and in America; Moroccan scenes with the main cast are superimposed upon a background image.
Rating: 37
Colonialist adventure, with a negligible plot, and nice, if somewhat darkened, visuals, both outdoors and indoors. It was shot on location and in America; Moroccan scenes with the main cast are superimposed upon a background image.
Rating: 37
Saturday, April 09, 2016
Klondike Annie (1936)
A Chinese restaurant owner's mistress who is being kept as a prisoner flees, and boards a merchant ship bound to Alaska. The ship's captain falls in love with her. A missionary woman comes aboard and befriends her.
Although horribly cut by censors, this is an interesting film on the benefits and dangers of being a sexual object. The film is also prophetic regarding showbusiness Christianity. Today's audiences may find chubby West an unsuitable choice for the title role, but she wrote it, and so was entitled to it. Somehow. TV Guide has a good review.
Rating: 51
Although horribly cut by censors, this is an interesting film on the benefits and dangers of being a sexual object. The film is also prophetic regarding showbusiness Christianity. Today's audiences may find chubby West an unsuitable choice for the title role, but she wrote it, and so was entitled to it. Somehow. TV Guide has a good review.
Rating: 51
Wednesday, March 30, 2016
L'année des méduses (1984)
English title: Year of the Jellyfish
At a beach in the South of France, mother and 18-year-old daughter are spending some time. The mother gets involved with a younger man. The daughter has a wild sexual behavior and some psychological issues.
A lot of gorgeous women flaunting their breasts most of the time, and occasionally all her bodies. Total amorality. The young govern the old. It is well directed and flows nicely, despite the thinness and reticency of the plot. I knew there was a flashback somewhere because the daughter is sixteen in some scenes and eighteen in others, but I couldn't discern the exact point when real time transitions to flashback and vice-versa. Reportedly there is a novel that could shed light on some of those doubts.
Rating: 51
Update: rewatched on April 13, 2016. There is a new blog entry on that date.
At a beach in the South of France, mother and 18-year-old daughter are spending some time. The mother gets involved with a younger man. The daughter has a wild sexual behavior and some psychological issues.
A lot of gorgeous women flaunting their breasts most of the time, and occasionally all her bodies. Total amorality. The young govern the old. It is well directed and flows nicely, despite the thinness and reticency of the plot. I knew there was a flashback somewhere because the daughter is sixteen in some scenes and eighteen in others, but I couldn't discern the exact point when real time transitions to flashback and vice-versa. Reportedly there is a novel that could shed light on some of those doubts.
Rating: 51
Update: rewatched on April 13, 2016. There is a new blog entry on that date.
Saturday, March 26, 2016
Avec le sourire (1936)
American title: With a Smile.
A man arrives penniless in Paris. He meets a young woman who is a dancer at a nightclub, and manages to get employed there. Step by step, he climbs to the top of the social ladder, using his sense of opportunity, his lack of scruples, and his smile.
There isn't much to say about this film which isn't already in its dialogue. In a strictly moral sense, it is refreshing: it doesn't stray from objectivity for one second. You could call it a perfectly amoral film, or, if you do not like this terminology, you may call it an essay in social Darwinism. Even though it may look unique in that sense, I suspect it was not far from the standards of film writing in the 30s. Although I do not know a lot of that period's filmography, one needs only think of Hollywood's pre-code period for an approximate parallel. In America, however, the frankness was mostly sexual (and ended in 1934 with the strict enforcement of the Hays code), whereas in this film it is predominantly economical. Anyway, both in France and in America, films became more moralistic in later years. It was only in the late fifties that a certain spirit of boldness was to resume, but I doubt it would ever have the same free spirit again. For example, to pick a movie with a similar theme as this one, Room at the Top (1959) is a good movie, but is not without a certain implicit moralism, if memory serves me right.
Rating: 64
A man arrives penniless in Paris. He meets a young woman who is a dancer at a nightclub, and manages to get employed there. Step by step, he climbs to the top of the social ladder, using his sense of opportunity, his lack of scruples, and his smile.
There isn't much to say about this film which isn't already in its dialogue. In a strictly moral sense, it is refreshing: it doesn't stray from objectivity for one second. You could call it a perfectly amoral film, or, if you do not like this terminology, you may call it an essay in social Darwinism. Even though it may look unique in that sense, I suspect it was not far from the standards of film writing in the 30s. Although I do not know a lot of that period's filmography, one needs only think of Hollywood's pre-code period for an approximate parallel. In America, however, the frankness was mostly sexual (and ended in 1934 with the strict enforcement of the Hays code), whereas in this film it is predominantly economical. Anyway, both in France and in America, films became more moralistic in later years. It was only in the late fifties that a certain spirit of boldness was to resume, but I doubt it would ever have the same free spirit again. For example, to pick a movie with a similar theme as this one, Room at the Top (1959) is a good movie, but is not without a certain implicit moralism, if memory serves me right.
Rating: 64
Thursday, March 24, 2016
The Big Land (1957)
After the American Civil War, some Southerner cattle ranchers drive their cattle North to sell it. One of them befriends a drunken architect who has a businessman friend; they make a deal with said businessman, involving the building of a railroad. There are some rivals who do not like it.
Fairly routine yet watchable western.
Rating: 35
Fairly routine yet watchable western.
Rating: 35
Wednesday, March 23, 2016
Quem matou Anabela? (1956)
A police inspector is summoned to a boarding house to investigate a murder. A corpse, found at a dam, is said to belong to one of the boarding house's inmates, a struggling actress. The boarding house's owner, the inmates, and the actress's fiancé, are interviewed by the police inspector. He is surprised by many conflicting confessions.
Mystery drama with satirical elements. The plot does not make much sense, but there are a few touches of formal playfulness which are refreshing.
Rating: 34
Mystery drama with satirical elements. The plot does not make much sense, but there are a few touches of formal playfulness which are refreshing.
Rating: 34
Tuesday, March 22, 2016
Diary of a Mad Housewife (1970)
Woman married to a sarcastic, egocentric, shallow, ungrateful, and exploitative husband takes a lover who doesn't treat her much better.
Drama based on a novel which, judging from the movie, was clearly written by a woman with a deep-seated hatred of men. There is no attempt to situate these people culturally; they celebrate Christmas but there is not a hint of any religious convictions or social roots. As an abstract exercise on conjugal sadomasochism, it is not bad, and is even sort of funny.
Rating: 51
Drama based on a novel which, judging from the movie, was clearly written by a woman with a deep-seated hatred of men. There is no attempt to situate these people culturally; they celebrate Christmas but there is not a hint of any religious convictions or social roots. As an abstract exercise on conjugal sadomasochism, it is not bad, and is even sort of funny.
Rating: 51
Monday, March 21, 2016
Ma pomme (1950)
American title: Just Me.
A treasure is found at a construction site, with a will attached to it. After a search, the inheritors are found. The will establishes that one particular line of the bequeather's descendancy is to be empowered with the decision concerning the transmission of the inheritance. This man happens to be a tramp who thinks money brings mostly problems. He is initially inclined towards not accepting the inheritance, to the consternation of the other inheritors, who would thus be also deprived of it. However, when a new inheritor is found, he changes his mind.
Weakly scripted musical comedy with some interesting philosophical points, which are poorly explored.
Rating: 31
A treasure is found at a construction site, with a will attached to it. After a search, the inheritors are found. The will establishes that one particular line of the bequeather's descendancy is to be empowered with the decision concerning the transmission of the inheritance. This man happens to be a tramp who thinks money brings mostly problems. He is initially inclined towards not accepting the inheritance, to the consternation of the other inheritors, who would thus be also deprived of it. However, when a new inheritor is found, he changes his mind.
Weakly scripted musical comedy with some interesting philosophical points, which are poorly explored.
Rating: 31
Sunday, March 20, 2016
A família Lero-Lero (1953)
Second viewing; first viewed on November 15, 1992
Based on the play by Raimundo Magalhães Jr., first performed in 1941
A civil servant is constantly mistreated by his wife and leeched upon by his two sons and daughter who dream of impossible careers instead of settling down on modest yet reliable jobs. At work things are no better: he is a poorly paid civil servant who endures terrible working conditions. One day he decides to get away from it all.
Comedy which satirizes the Brazilian lower middle class and the infernal public service which was (and, in at least some aspects, still is) typical of that country. It is above-average for Brazilian standards in comicity and technical accomplishment. Its main actor, by his physical traits and demeanor, looks remarkably Japanese.
Rating: 56 (unchanged)
Based on the play by Raimundo Magalhães Jr., first performed in 1941
A civil servant is constantly mistreated by his wife and leeched upon by his two sons and daughter who dream of impossible careers instead of settling down on modest yet reliable jobs. At work things are no better: he is a poorly paid civil servant who endures terrible working conditions. One day he decides to get away from it all.
Comedy which satirizes the Brazilian lower middle class and the infernal public service which was (and, in at least some aspects, still is) typical of that country. It is above-average for Brazilian standards in comicity and technical accomplishment. Its main actor, by his physical traits and demeanor, looks remarkably Japanese.
Rating: 56 (unchanged)
Saturday, March 19, 2016
Le roi (1949)
Based on the play by Gaston Arman de Caillavet, Robert de Flers, and Émile Arène, first performed in 1908.
A foreign monarch is visiting France and gets pastry in the face thrown by a woman who happens to be the wife of a congressman. His party colleagues approach the politician and suggest ways to neutralize the embarrassing incident, which involve hunting and -- profiting from the monarch's philandering proclivities -- women.
Well-made comedy which sheds some light on the curious phenomenon of cuckolds in high places.
Rating: 52
A foreign monarch is visiting France and gets pastry in the face thrown by a woman who happens to be the wife of a congressman. His party colleagues approach the politician and suggest ways to neutralize the embarrassing incident, which involve hunting and -- profiting from the monarch's philandering proclivities -- women.
Well-made comedy which sheds some light on the curious phenomenon of cuckolds in high places.
Rating: 52
Wednesday, March 02, 2016
Mr. Turner (2014)
Biopic about an English painter. He never marries and is something of a maverick and a curmudgeon.
Big disappointment from a diretor who had been consistently good up to this point. To be accurate, Vera Drake had an absurd plot, but scene by scene it was interesting. Not so this one, which has a plausible story (inevitable since it is a real one) but hardly any interesting scene. If you are curious of how Turner humped the maid from behind, or are particularly excited about absolutely trivial dialogue, this is for you. On the plus side, this is a photogenic film, even for digital which is a step backwards in film history. P.S. I am anxious for the DVD extras which will no doubt include Turner in the john, Turner's daughter's death in childbirth, the maid getting undressed in the dermatologist's office, and an extended version of the sequence where Turner discusses the evils of slavery with the traumatized slave merchant.
Rating: 40
Big disappointment from a diretor who had been consistently good up to this point. To be accurate, Vera Drake had an absurd plot, but scene by scene it was interesting. Not so this one, which has a plausible story (inevitable since it is a real one) but hardly any interesting scene. If you are curious of how Turner humped the maid from behind, or are particularly excited about absolutely trivial dialogue, this is for you. On the plus side, this is a photogenic film, even for digital which is a step backwards in film history. P.S. I am anxious for the DVD extras which will no doubt include Turner in the john, Turner's daughter's death in childbirth, the maid getting undressed in the dermatologist's office, and an extended version of the sequence where Turner discusses the evils of slavery with the traumatized slave merchant.
Rating: 40
Sunday, February 28, 2016
Matou a família e foi ao cinema (1969)
Second viewing; first viewed on March 3, 1999
English title: Killed the Family and Went to the Movies
Several stories with a common theme of domestic violence. The central story is about two young middle-class women who are alone in a secluded mansion and talk about married life.
I still like the way this film plays with fragmentation and self-reference, and the use of the same actors in different but related roles; also, the use of songs in the soundtrack is daring and effective. I don't know if the film can be interpreted in one single way, but the Power theme seems to pervade all stories, and the underlying assumption seems to be foucauldian: the private sphere is subject to mechanisms of oppression which are analogous to the ones in the public sphere. I don't know why I couldn't relate in the same positive way with other films by this director. Perhaps it is a matter of giving them a second chance.
Rating: 72 (down from 86)
English title: Killed the Family and Went to the Movies
Several stories with a common theme of domestic violence. The central story is about two young middle-class women who are alone in a secluded mansion and talk about married life.
I still like the way this film plays with fragmentation and self-reference, and the use of the same actors in different but related roles; also, the use of songs in the soundtrack is daring and effective. I don't know if the film can be interpreted in one single way, but the Power theme seems to pervade all stories, and the underlying assumption seems to be foucauldian: the private sphere is subject to mechanisms of oppression which are analogous to the ones in the public sphere. I don't know why I couldn't relate in the same positive way with other films by this director. Perhaps it is a matter of giving them a second chance.
Rating: 72 (down from 86)
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Babettes gæstebud (1987)
Second viewing; first viewed on June 4, 1989
English title: Babette's Feast
Based on a short story by Karen Dinesen, first published in 1958
Two sisters living in a remote fishing village are discouraged from marrying by their possessive father. In their elder years, they take a French refugee woman as a servant.
On Wikipedia, it says that its diretor changed the setting from that of the story so it would not look too 'touristy'. I find that funny, because this is a film which I appreciated mostly as an aesthetical succession of images. There is hardly any imagination in the mise-en-scène, and the text itself I found somewhat poor, relying as it does on clichés about both Nordic people and French ones. Reportedly, this is Jorge Bergoglio's favorite movie. It figures that the Court Jester of the Catholic Church should choose a Protestant movie as his personal pick. It also makes sense that a film which celebrates the pleasures of the flesh, albeit not the sexual ones, should find resonance in someone who is forced into perpetual celibacy by his own faith. He probably was also moved by the film's refugees-as-vibrancy message. In Brazil, this film was a great success amid the middle class, probably because it is a womanly film.
Rating: 50 (down from 59)
English title: Babette's Feast
Based on a short story by Karen Dinesen, first published in 1958
Two sisters living in a remote fishing village are discouraged from marrying by their possessive father. In their elder years, they take a French refugee woman as a servant.
On Wikipedia, it says that its diretor changed the setting from that of the story so it would not look too 'touristy'. I find that funny, because this is a film which I appreciated mostly as an aesthetical succession of images. There is hardly any imagination in the mise-en-scène, and the text itself I found somewhat poor, relying as it does on clichés about both Nordic people and French ones. Reportedly, this is Jorge Bergoglio's favorite movie. It figures that the Court Jester of the Catholic Church should choose a Protestant movie as his personal pick. It also makes sense that a film which celebrates the pleasures of the flesh, albeit not the sexual ones, should find resonance in someone who is forced into perpetual celibacy by his own faith. He probably was also moved by the film's refugees-as-vibrancy message. In Brazil, this film was a great success amid the middle class, probably because it is a womanly film.
Rating: 50 (down from 59)
Sunday, February 21, 2016
Die Legende von Paul und Paula (1973)
English title: The Legend of Paul and Paula
A working-class girl who has had a disastrous first relationship with a man falls in love with another who is already married, albeit unhappily so. They start seeing each other, but, despite their mutual affection, his lack of commitment poses problems.
Boring love story, allegedly Angela Kazmierczak's favorite movie. Some online reviews would have you think it is a very subversive film, but that is very far from being the truth; its characters, overall mood, and the reception it had bring to mind those verses from a Talking Heads song: "We don't want freedom. We don't want justice. We just want someone to love." It is my impression that, even for its time and place, the film's discourse is far from contestatory. For our time and place, it just reinforces the very conformist discourse of individualism which has been prevalent in our liberal society all through the duration of the closed regimes of Eastern Europe. The fact of the matter is that there really wasn't much of a difference between the two sides of the Cold War. The side that lost was seduced by images of a Paradise which was really a Hell which they are now experiencing, some of them under the fabulous leader mentioned in the beginning of this review.
Rating: 20
A working-class girl who has had a disastrous first relationship with a man falls in love with another who is already married, albeit unhappily so. They start seeing each other, but, despite their mutual affection, his lack of commitment poses problems.
Boring love story, allegedly Angela Kazmierczak's favorite movie. Some online reviews would have you think it is a very subversive film, but that is very far from being the truth; its characters, overall mood, and the reception it had bring to mind those verses from a Talking Heads song: "We don't want freedom. We don't want justice. We just want someone to love." It is my impression that, even for its time and place, the film's discourse is far from contestatory. For our time and place, it just reinforces the very conformist discourse of individualism which has been prevalent in our liberal society all through the duration of the closed regimes of Eastern Europe. The fact of the matter is that there really wasn't much of a difference between the two sides of the Cold War. The side that lost was seduced by images of a Paradise which was really a Hell which they are now experiencing, some of them under the fabulous leader mentioned in the beginning of this review.
Rating: 20
Memórias de um gigolô (1970)
English title: Memoirs of a Gigolo
Adventures of a man who spends his adolescence in a whorehouse, and falls in love with one of the girls, who has a relationship with a pimp.
Picaresque comedy with a very childish script. The author is of Italian stock, and I think it shows in the film's style, to which the diretor, born in that jolly peninsula, may have contributed. It is not badly filmed. The actors suit their respective roles fine, and perform professionally. The cinematography has nice colors and some of the locations are really photogenic. This is the kind of stuff that pleased audiences in the seventies in Brazil. They are probably just as undemanding today, but the films themselves have become quite unbearable, unlike this one, which has the bare minimum of goods to keep one from walking away.
Rating: 31
Adventures of a man who spends his adolescence in a whorehouse, and falls in love with one of the girls, who has a relationship with a pimp.
Picaresque comedy with a very childish script. The author is of Italian stock, and I think it shows in the film's style, to which the diretor, born in that jolly peninsula, may have contributed. It is not badly filmed. The actors suit their respective roles fine, and perform professionally. The cinematography has nice colors and some of the locations are really photogenic. This is the kind of stuff that pleased audiences in the seventies in Brazil. They are probably just as undemanding today, but the films themselves have become quite unbearable, unlike this one, which has the bare minimum of goods to keep one from walking away.
Rating: 31
Monday, February 15, 2016
O Ibraim do subúrbio (1976)
Film in two segments: "Roy, o gargalhador profissional", about a professional cackler, and "O Ibraim do subúrbio", about a poor tailor who lives in a fantasy world of wealth and social celebrity.
I wouldn't recommend this film, because the scripts of both segments leave a lot to be desired. But for gleaners like me, there may be some value in its commentary about the plight of the poor folks who work hard and at times don't even have a place to work. The phenomenon which Marx named 'false consciousness' is explored on the second segment. The first one, which shows a grimmer reality of struggle and borderline despair, is seasoned with cruel irony. One doesn't see much of this mood in films made in Europe or the U.S., probably because the people there do not experience this neglect by the powers that be. Even in Brazil, there are few filmmakers today who are into exposing social wounds. But the wounds are still there.
Rating: 31
I wouldn't recommend this film, because the scripts of both segments leave a lot to be desired. But for gleaners like me, there may be some value in its commentary about the plight of the poor folks who work hard and at times don't even have a place to work. The phenomenon which Marx named 'false consciousness' is explored on the second segment. The first one, which shows a grimmer reality of struggle and borderline despair, is seasoned with cruel irony. One doesn't see much of this mood in films made in Europe or the U.S., probably because the people there do not experience this neglect by the powers that be. Even in Brazil, there are few filmmakers today who are into exposing social wounds. But the wounds are still there.
Rating: 31
Monday, February 08, 2016
A Compadecida (1969)
English title: Our Lady of Compassion.
Based on the play O Auto da Compadecida, by Ariano Suassuna, written in 1955 and first staged in 1956.
Two small-town bakery employees, one a trickster and the other his simple-minded sidekick, go through several incidents as a gang of bandits raid the town in a murdering frenzy.
Botched theatrical adaptation, with no sense of narrative and poorly designed cinematic sequences. It has a lot of competent artists working in it, as cenographer, cinematographer, etc., and that shows, but a good crew a good film does not make; it takes a good screenplay and a competent diretor, both of which seem to be missing here. The storyline could be divided into two sections, the first of which is a picaresque sequence of events, and the second of which invokes the supernatural to convey a socially-updated re-reading of Christianity, with a preachy undertone to it. The Internet Movie Database hilariously merges two people into a single entity under the name George Jonas. One is this film's diretor, who was a Hungarian-born man established in Brazil in the celluloid processing business and later as a producer of TV advertising. The other is his much more famous namesake, who was also Hungarian-born but established himself in Canada as a journalist.
Some internet links about the Brazilian guy: on his book of memoirs and on his death.
Rating: 32
Based on the play O Auto da Compadecida, by Ariano Suassuna, written in 1955 and first staged in 1956.
Two small-town bakery employees, one a trickster and the other his simple-minded sidekick, go through several incidents as a gang of bandits raid the town in a murdering frenzy.
Botched theatrical adaptation, with no sense of narrative and poorly designed cinematic sequences. It has a lot of competent artists working in it, as cenographer, cinematographer, etc., and that shows, but a good crew a good film does not make; it takes a good screenplay and a competent diretor, both of which seem to be missing here. The storyline could be divided into two sections, the first of which is a picaresque sequence of events, and the second of which invokes the supernatural to convey a socially-updated re-reading of Christianity, with a preachy undertone to it. The Internet Movie Database hilariously merges two people into a single entity under the name George Jonas. One is this film's diretor, who was a Hungarian-born man established in Brazil in the celluloid processing business and later as a producer of TV advertising. The other is his much more famous namesake, who was also Hungarian-born but established himself in Canada as a journalist.
Some internet links about the Brazilian guy: on his book of memoirs and on his death.
Rating: 32
Monday, February 01, 2016
White Dog (1982)
Second viewing; first viewed on October 31, 1997.
Based on the story (or, according to some sources, on the novel) by Romain Gary, first published in 1970.
A young actress finds a stray dog and adopts it. After some time, she finds out it has been trained to attack blacks.
As I watched this, it increasingly puzzled me that I was so overwhelmed by it on my first viewing. Unfortunately, I have no way of getting back for a few instants to my previous self so I can understand what it was that blew me away then. I can more or less hypothesize that it had to do with the careful building up of suspense and atmosphere, attributes which so many critics have pointed out, and I still now acknowledge. Sadly, I suspect it also had to do with allegorical interpretations which critics also came up with, and to which I no longer subscribe. Although the storyline has the potential elements for that, they are too vaguely sketched (e.g., one cannot really know why the dog behaves in the specific way it does in the end, or what this could mean allegorically). But this is not why I cooled down about it; the fact is, this is only a slightly above average suspenser, with some dullness in the midsection, and a problematic plot weakness relating to the dog trainer's poorly explained motivation to persist in his course of action. However, if you are dead set on making this into a parable of sorts, I think you may view it as a moral tale about the dangers of doggedness.
Rating: 66 (down from 84)
Based on the story (or, according to some sources, on the novel) by Romain Gary, first published in 1970.
A young actress finds a stray dog and adopts it. After some time, she finds out it has been trained to attack blacks.
As I watched this, it increasingly puzzled me that I was so overwhelmed by it on my first viewing. Unfortunately, I have no way of getting back for a few instants to my previous self so I can understand what it was that blew me away then. I can more or less hypothesize that it had to do with the careful building up of suspense and atmosphere, attributes which so many critics have pointed out, and I still now acknowledge. Sadly, I suspect it also had to do with allegorical interpretations which critics also came up with, and to which I no longer subscribe. Although the storyline has the potential elements for that, they are too vaguely sketched (e.g., one cannot really know why the dog behaves in the specific way it does in the end, or what this could mean allegorically). But this is not why I cooled down about it; the fact is, this is only a slightly above average suspenser, with some dullness in the midsection, and a problematic plot weakness relating to the dog trainer's poorly explained motivation to persist in his course of action. However, if you are dead set on making this into a parable of sorts, I think you may view it as a moral tale about the dangers of doggedness.
Rating: 66 (down from 84)
Thursday, January 28, 2016
Night Passage (1957)
A man is employed by the railroad to prevent a payroll robbery.
I watched it last Saturday. It's not very good, and I didn't find the prospect of writing this review too compelling, so I kept postponing it. It's a very overplotted movie, and overcrowded with characters. It is sort of entertaining in a way, but everything seems quite irrelevant and improbable and very pulp-fiction-ish.
Saw it in pan-and-scan.
Rating: 37
I watched it last Saturday. It's not very good, and I didn't find the prospect of writing this review too compelling, so I kept postponing it. It's a very overplotted movie, and overcrowded with characters. It is sort of entertaining in a way, but everything seems quite irrelevant and improbable and very pulp-fiction-ish.
Saw it in pan-and-scan.
Rating: 37
Thursday, January 21, 2016
Quem sabe... sabe! (1956)
Alternatively punctuated title: Quem Sabe, Sabe!
Musical comedy. A card reader operates in partnership with her brother, who gets information on her clients through their female servants.
Rather weak, but with a marginal value of cultural document. This is not one of the morally sounder films I have seen, what with its protagonists being a couple of crooks, and much of the cast of characters getting involved in shady deeds of one sort or another. As usual with immoral films, it purports to have a moral message, which in this case is that discrimination against chorus girls is bad. It seems to be a case of defending one's own backyard, since there is really no difference between the profession of the young actresses and that of the characters they play.
Rating: 31
Musical comedy. A card reader operates in partnership with her brother, who gets information on her clients through their female servants.
Rather weak, but with a marginal value of cultural document. This is not one of the morally sounder films I have seen, what with its protagonists being a couple of crooks, and much of the cast of characters getting involved in shady deeds of one sort or another. As usual with immoral films, it purports to have a moral message, which in this case is that discrimination against chorus girls is bad. It seems to be a case of defending one's own backyard, since there is really no difference between the profession of the young actresses and that of the characters they play.
Rating: 31
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
Bar Esperança (1983)
Second viewing; first viewed between the date of its Brazilian release and December, 1986.
U.S. title (according to IMDB): Bar Esperanza
It centers on a writer's decision of quitting his TV job and on his wife's decision of leaving him because of that. Other characters are the patrons of a bar where the couple regularly goes.
While it depicts Brazilian TV as a place where artists are slowly killed, or transformed into zombies, much like its mass of spectators, it follows the strictly TV-like template of sitcoms, which is another kind of artistic dead end. A shallow movie, with one or two interesting sequences (e.g., when the barfly pesters the protagonist into a fake duel), and fine camerawork.
Rating: 49 (down from 52)
U.S. title (according to IMDB): Bar Esperanza
It centers on a writer's decision of quitting his TV job and on his wife's decision of leaving him because of that. Other characters are the patrons of a bar where the couple regularly goes.
While it depicts Brazilian TV as a place where artists are slowly killed, or transformed into zombies, much like its mass of spectators, it follows the strictly TV-like template of sitcoms, which is another kind of artistic dead end. A shallow movie, with one or two interesting sequences (e.g., when the barfly pesters the protagonist into a fake duel), and fine camerawork.
Rating: 49 (down from 52)
Saturday, January 16, 2016
The Pigeon That Took Rome (1962)
World War II. Two Americans are assigned an espionage mission in Nazi-occupied Rome. They stay with an Italian family and must relay information to the Allies.
It is clear from the latest reviews here that love in film is an excellent dramatic vehicle to analyze a vast array of human endeavors and the psychological traits they entail. The love triangle is one of the structures that have been used to show how human conflict evolves and is resolved. There is no explicit love triangle here, or rather, one of the vertices has only a virtual existence, so to speak. One character will marry a woman who has been impregnated by an enemy soldier; his sergeant falls in love with her sister, who gives her sexual favors to German officers. This type of cuckoldry plays like an individual metonimy for the collective War phenomenon: every level of the fight consists of someone giving his life for the profit of someone else, who may be, according to the scope of analysis, a top ranking officer, the government, the capitalist establishment, etc. The messaging aspect of the plot adds another angle of correspondence: just as cuckoldry inserts noise into the communications system in which human semen is supposed to relay the biological message that propagates one's genetic characteristics, war communications are constantly subject to all kinds of interferences which may revert the outcome of the conflict. The film itself is part of a deeper level of miscommunication whose purpose is to conceal behind patriotic notions the identity of those who profit from all the killing and maiming -- one's real enemies, in short.
Rating: 39
It is clear from the latest reviews here that love in film is an excellent dramatic vehicle to analyze a vast array of human endeavors and the psychological traits they entail. The love triangle is one of the structures that have been used to show how human conflict evolves and is resolved. There is no explicit love triangle here, or rather, one of the vertices has only a virtual existence, so to speak. One character will marry a woman who has been impregnated by an enemy soldier; his sergeant falls in love with her sister, who gives her sexual favors to German officers. This type of cuckoldry plays like an individual metonimy for the collective War phenomenon: every level of the fight consists of someone giving his life for the profit of someone else, who may be, according to the scope of analysis, a top ranking officer, the government, the capitalist establishment, etc. The messaging aspect of the plot adds another angle of correspondence: just as cuckoldry inserts noise into the communications system in which human semen is supposed to relay the biological message that propagates one's genetic characteristics, war communications are constantly subject to all kinds of interferences which may revert the outcome of the conflict. The film itself is part of a deeper level of miscommunication whose purpose is to conceal behind patriotic notions the identity of those who profit from all the killing and maiming -- one's real enemies, in short.
Rating: 39
Thursday, January 14, 2016
Le combat dans l'île (1962)
English festival title: Fire and Ice
Proper English translation of the title: The Fight in the Island
A woman has a relationship with a rightwing militant, who is assigned to perform an assassination. After the act, the couple take refuge with a childhood friend who is a leftwing militant who prints political material and despises violent action.
An earlier exploration on the Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands theme, with a diferent take that eschews the economic angle. The film seems to be biased toward the Left, which seems to be comprised of peace-loving and family-oriented individuals, whereas the Right is violent and egotistical in personal relationships. That is obviously belied by a long view on History, although it may make sense in connection with that particular moment in France. Viewed as a political allegory, the implication seems to be that the Left is reluctantly, yet inevitably, drawn into Violence by the actions of Reactionaries.
Rating: 31
Proper English translation of the title: The Fight in the Island
A woman has a relationship with a rightwing militant, who is assigned to perform an assassination. After the act, the couple take refuge with a childhood friend who is a leftwing militant who prints political material and despises violent action.
An earlier exploration on the Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands theme, with a diferent take that eschews the economic angle. The film seems to be biased toward the Left, which seems to be comprised of peace-loving and family-oriented individuals, whereas the Right is violent and egotistical in personal relationships. That is obviously belied by a long view on History, although it may make sense in connection with that particular moment in France. Viewed as a political allegory, the implication seems to be that the Left is reluctantly, yet inevitably, drawn into Violence by the actions of Reactionaries.
Rating: 31
Dona Flor e seus dois maridos (1976)
Second viewing; first viewed on some indeterminate date before January 1987.
English title: Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands.
Based on the novel by Jorge Amado (1st ed., 1966), which has some plot elements borrowed from or simply coincidental with the 1941 play Blithe Spirit, by Noel Coward.
A young widow remarries but her new, methodic, husband can't ease her lust the way her late one, a gambler and a womanizer, did.
An allegory of Brazil, a land which, as the theme-song succinctly puts it, "can't be governed, now or ever". The actual comedy is precisely conceived in the typical Brazilianate style, which does not allow for high flights of sophistication but gets the message through. As the previously reviewed here O Homem dos Papagaios, fiscal irresponsibility plays an important part in the plot. Here, the twist consists in making the suffering wife the dramatic center, thus deepening the analysis carried out in that movie.
Rating: 58 (up from 57)
English title: Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands.
Based on the novel by Jorge Amado (1st ed., 1966), which has some plot elements borrowed from or simply coincidental with the 1941 play Blithe Spirit, by Noel Coward.
A young widow remarries but her new, methodic, husband can't ease her lust the way her late one, a gambler and a womanizer, did.
An allegory of Brazil, a land which, as the theme-song succinctly puts it, "can't be governed, now or ever". The actual comedy is precisely conceived in the typical Brazilianate style, which does not allow for high flights of sophistication but gets the message through. As the previously reviewed here O Homem dos Papagaios, fiscal irresponsibility plays an important part in the plot. Here, the twist consists in making the suffering wife the dramatic center, thus deepening the analysis carried out in that movie.
Rating: 58 (up from 57)
Sunday, January 10, 2016
O homem dos papagaios (1953)
Epaminondas is a man experiencing financial difficulties who crosses paths with a former schoolmate; the latter tries to help him by employing him as janitor in a vacant mansion. The people in the mansion's neighborhood get the idea that Epaminondas is the new owner and he takes advantage of the misunderstanding, with problematic consequences.
A reasonably well-made film, watchable but lacking in real creativity. The curious thing is the similarity in structure with Catch Me If You Can (2002). The film also works as an allegory for the present situation of the country in which it was made (in this case, however, the ending is, for the moment, just wishful thinking).
Rating: 40
A reasonably well-made film, watchable but lacking in real creativity. The curious thing is the similarity in structure with Catch Me If You Can (2002). The film also works as an allegory for the present situation of the country in which it was made (in this case, however, the ending is, for the moment, just wishful thinking).
Rating: 40
Friday, January 08, 2016
Chato's Land (1972)
Western. A half-breed kills a sheriff in self-defense, and some of the town's people form a posse to go after him.
While an entertaining film, it is a bit disgusting to see such intense White self-loathing. The times were of burgeoning liberalism, but Hollywood sometimes preferred to approach such candent themes as segregation and Vietnam by using a third party, in this case Native Americans. Truth be told, a few modern viewers think it was a bit early for such a clear-eyed consideration of that East Asian fiasco and credit the similarities to coincidence.
Rating: 51
While an entertaining film, it is a bit disgusting to see such intense White self-loathing. The times were of burgeoning liberalism, but Hollywood sometimes preferred to approach such candent themes as segregation and Vietnam by using a third party, in this case Native Americans. Truth be told, a few modern viewers think it was a bit early for such a clear-eyed consideration of that East Asian fiasco and credit the similarities to coincidence.
Rating: 51
Friday, December 25, 2015
An American Werewolf in London (1981)
Second viewing; first viewed between January, 1983 and December, 1986.
Two American guys are touring the English countryside when they are attacked by a werewolf. Their fates are different but equally ghastly.
I don't much see what the fuss is all about when it comes to this movie. It's moderately enjoyable but that's about all. If I can indulge in a bit of analysis, I would say that what strikes me as singular about it is that this is one of the forerunners of a new trend in what I would call evilless horror. Werewolf movies are ideally cut out for this kind of take because ever since the 40s they are somewhat unlike most horror movies in that the monster is also a victim. But this films takes it one step further by erasing all references to absolute evil as a source of the events; things just happen, and then it is an ethical problem of sorts for the afflicted protagonist. Vampires, on the other hand, were traditionally distinct from werewolves in that they were just pure evil, unworthy of sympathy -- well, until one day of course they were not.
Rating: 50 (down from 60)
Two American guys are touring the English countryside when they are attacked by a werewolf. Their fates are different but equally ghastly.
I don't much see what the fuss is all about when it comes to this movie. It's moderately enjoyable but that's about all. If I can indulge in a bit of analysis, I would say that what strikes me as singular about it is that this is one of the forerunners of a new trend in what I would call evilless horror. Werewolf movies are ideally cut out for this kind of take because ever since the 40s they are somewhat unlike most horror movies in that the monster is also a victim. But this films takes it one step further by erasing all references to absolute evil as a source of the events; things just happen, and then it is an ethical problem of sorts for the afflicted protagonist. Vampires, on the other hand, were traditionally distinct from werewolves in that they were just pure evil, unworthy of sympathy -- well, until one day of course they were not.
Rating: 50 (down from 60)
Thursday, December 24, 2015
Alexis Zorbas (1964)
Second viewing; first viewed on February 25, 1997.
English title: Zorba the Greek
An Englishman is traveling to Crete to take over a mine he has inherited. In the ship he meets a Greek old man who offers him his services.
Lately I don't know how to explain my feelings towards movies. It is certain that I deeply dislike most of them, and yet I enjoy them in a cynical, detached way. This is exactly what happened with this film. I basically despise anything that tells me to "enjoy life to the utmost" or that sort of thing. My response to that is: will I regret it if I don't? When?
Rating: 56 (down from 57)
English title: Zorba the Greek
An Englishman is traveling to Crete to take over a mine he has inherited. In the ship he meets a Greek old man who offers him his services.
Lately I don't know how to explain my feelings towards movies. It is certain that I deeply dislike most of them, and yet I enjoy them in a cynical, detached way. This is exactly what happened with this film. I basically despise anything that tells me to "enjoy life to the utmost" or that sort of thing. My response to that is: will I regret it if I don't? When?
Rating: 56 (down from 57)
Monday, December 14, 2015
My Man Godfrey (1936)
A rich young woman brings a homeless man to live with her family and persuades them to employ him as a butler.
The satire of rich people is purportedly the more serious aim of the film. The actual development of the plot has more silliness than seriousness, though. Neither the really serious bits nor the silly ones are devoid of amusement value, in my view. I think the crucial factor that makes the film work is its felicitous casting. The nice TV Guide review may be read here.
Rating: 55
The satire of rich people is purportedly the more serious aim of the film. The actual development of the plot has more silliness than seriousness, though. Neither the really serious bits nor the silly ones are devoid of amusement value, in my view. I think the crucial factor that makes the film work is its felicitous casting. The nice TV Guide review may be read here.
Rating: 55
Saturday, December 12, 2015
Hombre (1967)
Third viewing; previously viewed on August 16, 2002, and, before that, between January 1983 and December 1986.
Based on a novel which is itself a reworking of Stagecoach, also a novel adaptation, which in turn was a reworking of the short story Boule de suif, by Guy de Maupassant, first published in 1880.
A stagecoach with a motley assembly of passengers is held up. One of the passengers, a half-breed, saves the day.
Not as remarkable as I thought previously, but still an engaging, well-made Western, albeit with an unmistakeable undercurrent of white guilt-tripping. One of its themes, perhaps the main one, is how social prejudices crumble under situations of distress in which the social outcast's skills become an essential tool of survival for a group of people. The problem is that the situation here feels a little more contrived than the previous avatars of 1939 and 1880, and the main character is obviously only a conceptual entity devoid of psychological verisimilitude.
Rating: 64 (down from 82)
Based on a novel which is itself a reworking of Stagecoach, also a novel adaptation, which in turn was a reworking of the short story Boule de suif, by Guy de Maupassant, first published in 1880.
A stagecoach with a motley assembly of passengers is held up. One of the passengers, a half-breed, saves the day.
Not as remarkable as I thought previously, but still an engaging, well-made Western, albeit with an unmistakeable undercurrent of white guilt-tripping. One of its themes, perhaps the main one, is how social prejudices crumble under situations of distress in which the social outcast's skills become an essential tool of survival for a group of people. The problem is that the situation here feels a little more contrived than the previous avatars of 1939 and 1880, and the main character is obviously only a conceptual entity devoid of psychological verisimilitude.
Rating: 64 (down from 82)
Friday, December 11, 2015
Mary Poppins (1964)
Based on the novels Mary Poppins and Mary Poppins Comes Back, by P.L. Travers, first published in 1934 and 1935, respectively.
The Banks family's last nanny quit and they're looking for a new one to take care of their two kids. Mary Poppins applies. She has eccentric methods and habits, such as flying.
Agreeable musical fantasy. The mood is light, the songs are nice, the choreography is interesting. The plot and characters include airhead suffragettes and cold capitalism, but the problems they cause are eventually solved by sheer goodwill.
Rating: 64
The Banks family's last nanny quit and they're looking for a new one to take care of their two kids. Mary Poppins applies. She has eccentric methods and habits, such as flying.
Agreeable musical fantasy. The mood is light, the songs are nice, the choreography is interesting. The plot and characters include airhead suffragettes and cold capitalism, but the problems they cause are eventually solved by sheer goodwill.
Rating: 64
Thursday, December 10, 2015
Rooster Cogburn (1975)
Marshal Cogburn from True Grit is reinstated and assigned the task of capturing a gang who stole nitroglycerin. A middle-aged woman whose husband was killed by that gang joins him, along with a young Native American.
Not a disagreeable watch, but hardly a memorable one. There are some well-filmed action sequences, but the dialog's triteness may get cringeworthy at times. There may be even a subjective discomfort for viewers who liked the first movie a lot as I did, a feel of desecration or something of the sort.
Watched it in pan-and-scan.
Rating: 37
Not a disagreeable watch, but hardly a memorable one. There are some well-filmed action sequences, but the dialog's triteness may get cringeworthy at times. There may be even a subjective discomfort for viewers who liked the first movie a lot as I did, a feel of desecration or something of the sort.
Watched it in pan-and-scan.
Rating: 37
Monday, December 07, 2015
Midnight Run (1988)
Second viewing; first viewed on October 27, 1991
A bounty hunter is hired by a bail bonds company to find a man and bring him to Los Angeles to serve time. The bail jumper is an accountant who stole money from his mafioso employer and gave it to charity.
Consistently entertaining comedy, whose limitations nevertheless became more apparent on this second viewing. The interesting thing about it is how it performs a balancing act between multiple -- and at times colliding -- ethics: of resourcefulness, of integrity, of flexibility. This is not always convincingly resolved.
Rating: 69 (down from 86)
A bounty hunter is hired by a bail bonds company to find a man and bring him to Los Angeles to serve time. The bail jumper is an accountant who stole money from his mafioso employer and gave it to charity.
Consistently entertaining comedy, whose limitations nevertheless became more apparent on this second viewing. The interesting thing about it is how it performs a balancing act between multiple -- and at times colliding -- ethics: of resourcefulness, of integrity, of flexibility. This is not always convincingly resolved.
Rating: 69 (down from 86)
Saturday, December 05, 2015
Swamp Water (1941)
Drama concerning a community in Georgia, near a swamp. A man encounters a fugitive hiding in the swamp area and establishes a business partnership with him.
This is one of those movies of which it is customary to say that Geography is the main character. Location shooting is the film's main asset. It tells a very melodramatic yet sufficiently entertaining story. The theme of miscarriage of justice is handled fairly; the death penalty is correctly seen as hazardous yet still profitable. Its risk of sacrificing good people is worth taking, since without it those people would still be harmed by bad people, and with it there is a good chance of getting rid of most of those bad people.
Rating: 54
This is one of those movies of which it is customary to say that Geography is the main character. Location shooting is the film's main asset. It tells a very melodramatic yet sufficiently entertaining story. The theme of miscarriage of justice is handled fairly; the death penalty is correctly seen as hazardous yet still profitable. Its risk of sacrificing good people is worth taking, since without it those people would still be harmed by bad people, and with it there is a good chance of getting rid of most of those bad people.
Rating: 54
Friday, December 04, 2015
The Lady Vanishes (1938)
Second viewing; first viewed on August 22, 1992
In a small Central European country several English people are at an inn waiting for the train which will take them back home. An elderly lady befriends a young woman and they sit together on the train. After a while the old lady disappears and all except the young woman claim to have no recollection of ever having seen her.
Intelligent mystery story with plenty of humor and a bit of suspense in the final section.
Rating: 73 (up from 50)
In a small Central European country several English people are at an inn waiting for the train which will take them back home. An elderly lady befriends a young woman and they sit together on the train. After a while the old lady disappears and all except the young woman claim to have no recollection of ever having seen her.
Intelligent mystery story with plenty of humor and a bit of suspense in the final section.
Rating: 73 (up from 50)
A grande cidade (1966)
Second viewing; first viewed on February 21, 1988
English title: The Big City
A young woman from poor Northeastern Brazil arrives in Rio de Janeiro in search of her fiancé who had left earlier and had promised to send for her but never did. In the big city she is befriended by a man who makes a living out of petty thefts and odd jobs. He finds her a place to live with a construction worker who is also a migrant from the Northeast. She learns that her fiancé is now a big criminal wanted by the police.
An examination of the plight of the migrant. Both imagery and dialog are strongly stylized away from realism, with moderately interesting results. A similarity in style with Italian Westerns is detectable in the form. The good camerawork and overall command of the technique is impressive for a Brazilian movie, but the script leaves something to be desired.
Rating: 51 (down from 60)
English title: The Big City
A young woman from poor Northeastern Brazil arrives in Rio de Janeiro in search of her fiancé who had left earlier and had promised to send for her but never did. In the big city she is befriended by a man who makes a living out of petty thefts and odd jobs. He finds her a place to live with a construction worker who is also a migrant from the Northeast. She learns that her fiancé is now a big criminal wanted by the police.
An examination of the plight of the migrant. Both imagery and dialog are strongly stylized away from realism, with moderately interesting results. A similarity in style with Italian Westerns is detectable in the form. The good camerawork and overall command of the technique is impressive for a Brazilian movie, but the script leaves something to be desired.
Rating: 51 (down from 60)
Tuesday, December 01, 2015
Mitt liv som hund (1985)
Second viewing; first viewed on February 18, 1989.
English title: My Life as a Dog
Ingemar is a Swedish boy whose father is allegedly away on business somewhere in South America. He has a brother with whom he is always fighting, and a mother who is a bookworm and has a serious debilitating illness. When the burden of raising two kids on her own becomes too much for her, the boys are sent each to a different relative. Ingemar gets to live with a very nice uncle and his wife, along with a couple of elders (the uncle's parents, perhaps). On his new hometown, he makes many new acquaintances, most notable among whom a tomboy who likes him and is good at soccer and boxing.
While I may have been too severe with this film on my first viewing, I still do not get exactly what is so special about it. The situations and characters are obviously conventional, even in their occasional attempted unconventionality. I had a less excrutiating time on this second viewing, and acknowledge that the film, within its limits, is well-made and well-acted. For those interested, it offers a glimpse at Nordic people's sense of humor and sense of pathos, or what they were like in the early 1980s anyway. Given that most of the Western world liked the film, one may conclude that there is a vast receptivity for this kind of humor and pathos outside its country of origin. As a final note, I was curious about the historical circumstances, if any, which the presence of a Greek family in a Swedish house was supposed to mirror.
Rating: 41 (up from 28)
English title: My Life as a Dog
Ingemar is a Swedish boy whose father is allegedly away on business somewhere in South America. He has a brother with whom he is always fighting, and a mother who is a bookworm and has a serious debilitating illness. When the burden of raising two kids on her own becomes too much for her, the boys are sent each to a different relative. Ingemar gets to live with a very nice uncle and his wife, along with a couple of elders (the uncle's parents, perhaps). On his new hometown, he makes many new acquaintances, most notable among whom a tomboy who likes him and is good at soccer and boxing.
While I may have been too severe with this film on my first viewing, I still do not get exactly what is so special about it. The situations and characters are obviously conventional, even in their occasional attempted unconventionality. I had a less excrutiating time on this second viewing, and acknowledge that the film, within its limits, is well-made and well-acted. For those interested, it offers a glimpse at Nordic people's sense of humor and sense of pathos, or what they were like in the early 1980s anyway. Given that most of the Western world liked the film, one may conclude that there is a vast receptivity for this kind of humor and pathos outside its country of origin. As a final note, I was curious about the historical circumstances, if any, which the presence of a Greek family in a Swedish house was supposed to mirror.
Rating: 41 (up from 28)
O canto da saudade (1952)
The action is set in a farm, and in its adjacent little town. The farm's foreman, named Juvenal, has a daughter, named Maria Fausta, who is loved by a farm employee named Galdino, who plays the accordion as a hobby. She, however, does not love him back and is having a secret affair with another man, named João do Carmo. When Juvenal finds out about his daughter's affair and forbids her from continuing with it, she disappears from the farm. A subplot has the farm's owner, "Colonel" Januário, running for town's mayor.
Not altogether uninteresting little drama with some musical interludes. At times the filmmaker lets himself be carried away from realism into the display of aesthetically appealing images. The acting is mostly amateurish, but the diretor keeps it serviceable; his own performance in one of the main roles, on the other hand, is good. The political subplot is a fine register of Brazil's political culture of the period.
Rating: 33
Not altogether uninteresting little drama with some musical interludes. At times the filmmaker lets himself be carried away from realism into the display of aesthetically appealing images. The acting is mostly amateurish, but the diretor keeps it serviceable; his own performance in one of the main roles, on the other hand, is good. The political subplot is a fine register of Brazil's political culture of the period.
Rating: 33
Sunday, November 29, 2015
True Grit (1969)
Second viewing; first viewed between 1983 and 1986.
A teenage girl hires a Deputy Marshal who is famous for his efficiency and ruthlessness to hunt down her father's murderer.
Excellent western, with unforgettable characters and an almost non-stop brilliancy in the dialog. The concept of justice is very dear to Civilization, and resonates even deeper in the hearts of those of us who see the world crumbling down today through all forms of relativization and distortion of that concept.
Rating: 72 (up fom 55)
A teenage girl hires a Deputy Marshal who is famous for his efficiency and ruthlessness to hunt down her father's murderer.
Excellent western, with unforgettable characters and an almost non-stop brilliancy in the dialog. The concept of justice is very dear to Civilization, and resonates even deeper in the hearts of those of us who see the world crumbling down today through all forms of relativization and distortion of that concept.
Rating: 72 (up fom 55)
Thursday, November 26, 2015
Network (1976)
Second viewing; first viewed before January 1987, and probably not earlier than January 1983.
A deranged TV news anchor is exploited by his employers with unpredictable consequences.
As some people have noticed, this derives in part from Meet John Doe. Most critics have lauded this film highly. A minority didn't like it, the most notable among them being Dale Thomajan ("Cinema as hysteria") and Pauline Kael (excerpts of hers and of others may be found on Wikipedia). Both its lovers and its haters make valid points, I think. This is a film with many good ideas which were poorly materialized. The fact is, the film is extremely odd in tone. The sense of humor is heavily satirical, yet the film's mood is predominantly that of a serious drama. Furthermore, there is the facile recourse to a mad central character, from whom anything may be expected, and whose behavior obeys neither the laws of logic nor the existing psychiatric classifications. I do not believe films like this have a significant influence on solving the ills they point to, some of which are imaginary anyway. Thus, at least they should try to please viewers, to achieve which a better thought-out script would be required. As it is, it stands dangerously close to its own object of critique.
Rating: 50 (down from 67)
A deranged TV news anchor is exploited by his employers with unpredictable consequences.
As some people have noticed, this derives in part from Meet John Doe. Most critics have lauded this film highly. A minority didn't like it, the most notable among them being Dale Thomajan ("Cinema as hysteria") and Pauline Kael (excerpts of hers and of others may be found on Wikipedia). Both its lovers and its haters make valid points, I think. This is a film with many good ideas which were poorly materialized. The fact is, the film is extremely odd in tone. The sense of humor is heavily satirical, yet the film's mood is predominantly that of a serious drama. Furthermore, there is the facile recourse to a mad central character, from whom anything may be expected, and whose behavior obeys neither the laws of logic nor the existing psychiatric classifications. I do not believe films like this have a significant influence on solving the ills they point to, some of which are imaginary anyway. Thus, at least they should try to please viewers, to achieve which a better thought-out script would be required. As it is, it stands dangerously close to its own object of critique.
Rating: 50 (down from 67)
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
Assassination (1987)
After a series of assassination attempts against the first lady, she and the head of security in charge of her go on a trip incognito. In the meantime the other security team members try to find out who is responsible for the attempts.
Routine thriller with some atypical plot elements.
Rating: 32
Routine thriller with some atypical plot elements.
Rating: 32
Sunday, November 22, 2015
Brutti, sporchi e cattivi (1976)
Second viewing; first viewed between 1983 and 1986.
English alternate titles: Down and Dirty; Ugly, Dirty and Bad.
The daily activities of a large family living under the same roof in a slum. The head of the family is a rude and avaricious man who has received a considerable sum of money from the State after having burned his own left eye with whitewash. He keeps the bundle of notes with him or hidden and lives in a perpetual state of fear of being robbed of it.
Nearly perfect black comedy describing urban life at its bottom layer. The principle of the movie is precisely this simplification, so to speak, of the constraints involved in human interactions. It is an old story: economic progress does not necessarily bring civilization; it's quite the contrary, actually, for those who live at the margins of the economy. I found the film less shocking than on my first watching, but on the other hand perhaps now I had a sharper eye for its artistic perfections.
Rating: 90 (down from 100)
English alternate titles: Down and Dirty; Ugly, Dirty and Bad.
The daily activities of a large family living under the same roof in a slum. The head of the family is a rude and avaricious man who has received a considerable sum of money from the State after having burned his own left eye with whitewash. He keeps the bundle of notes with him or hidden and lives in a perpetual state of fear of being robbed of it.
Nearly perfect black comedy describing urban life at its bottom layer. The principle of the movie is precisely this simplification, so to speak, of the constraints involved in human interactions. It is an old story: economic progress does not necessarily bring civilization; it's quite the contrary, actually, for those who live at the margins of the economy. I found the film less shocking than on my first watching, but on the other hand perhaps now I had a sharper eye for its artistic perfections.
Rating: 90 (down from 100)
Saturday, November 21, 2015
Crônica da cidade amada (1965)
Second viewing; first viewed on April 23, 1990.
Omnibus with eleven segments adapted from short literary texts, with the aim of jointly providing a panoramic and humorous view of social, cultural and natural aspects of the city of Rio de Janeiro.
Quite well-made by Brazilian standards, and featuring interesting takes on Rio's quirks. It suffers a bit from not being able to fully translate the literary element to the cinematic one. While it is far from a masterpiece, it is just as far from being the painful nullity that I perceived it to be on my first viewing. What was painful, however, was the laterally cropped version that I saw on TV, which I hesitate to call "pan-and-scan" as it leaves characters out of the frame with an annoying frequency.
Note: all evidences point to IMDB being in error while assigning 1964 as the year of release.
Rating: 51 (up from 21)
Omnibus with eleven segments adapted from short literary texts, with the aim of jointly providing a panoramic and humorous view of social, cultural and natural aspects of the city of Rio de Janeiro.
Quite well-made by Brazilian standards, and featuring interesting takes on Rio's quirks. It suffers a bit from not being able to fully translate the literary element to the cinematic one. While it is far from a masterpiece, it is just as far from being the painful nullity that I perceived it to be on my first viewing. What was painful, however, was the laterally cropped version that I saw on TV, which I hesitate to call "pan-and-scan" as it leaves characters out of the frame with an annoying frequency.
Note: all evidences point to IMDB being in error while assigning 1964 as the year of release.
Rating: 51 (up from 21)
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Enemy of the State (1998)
Second viewing; first viewed (in dubbed form) on September 20, 2001.
The murder of a politician who won't vote for a bill who allows wiretapping of common citizens is accidentally filmed, and the recording ends up in possession of a lawyer who is then chased by the criminals.
Thrilling and topical fiction on the subject of State surveillance and control. I do not have more to say about it. Christopher Mulrooney has some well-written considerations about it which may be read here.
Rating: 62 (unchanged).
The murder of a politician who won't vote for a bill who allows wiretapping of common citizens is accidentally filmed, and the recording ends up in possession of a lawyer who is then chased by the criminals.
Thrilling and topical fiction on the subject of State surveillance and control. I do not have more to say about it. Christopher Mulrooney has some well-written considerations about it which may be read here.
Rating: 62 (unchanged).
Sunday, November 15, 2015
Thunderheart (1992)
Two FBI agents go into a Native-American reservation to solve a murder. They suspect an activist is the culprit. The younger agent, who is part Native-American, uncovers a plot of corruption encompassing an ecological crime.
From The Flaming Star to Thunderheart, mixed-race is synonymous to mixed-up when it involves Native-American ancestry. This, for reasons one may speculate about, seems to not apply to African-Americans, for whom apparently the 'one drop of blood' rule settles also the self-identity issue. Anyway, this is an eminently watchable thriller-cum-pamphlet and has stunning landscape as an additional charmer. Critics predominantly like subversive stuff, but some of them realize that leftist-liberal fiction tends to be the most formulaic, due to the imperative of delivering a message. Yet others have grown insensitive to anything other than social issues that affect people as atomized individuals (those issues being mostly of a sexual nature).
Rating: 50
From The Flaming Star to Thunderheart, mixed-race is synonymous to mixed-up when it involves Native-American ancestry. This, for reasons one may speculate about, seems to not apply to African-Americans, for whom apparently the 'one drop of blood' rule settles also the self-identity issue. Anyway, this is an eminently watchable thriller-cum-pamphlet and has stunning landscape as an additional charmer. Critics predominantly like subversive stuff, but some of them realize that leftist-liberal fiction tends to be the most formulaic, due to the imperative of delivering a message. Yet others have grown insensitive to anything other than social issues that affect people as atomized individuals (those issues being mostly of a sexual nature).
Rating: 50
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
É fogo na roupa! (1952)
Spoilers herein. In a posh lakeside hotel, a Symposium of Wives for Conjugal Happiness is taking place. The hotel manager intends to hire a Polish pianist, aiming to please one of the guests, a French countess. An employee of the radio station where said pianist works manages to intercept the hotel manager's telephone call, and schemes to pass up his pianist friend as the famous one. The countess takes a liking to him, and so the fraud is successful. Meanwhile, some male guests place a hairdresser in drag as a spy in the Wives' Symposium meeting. There is also a plot by some Japanese men to steal the Countess' necklace.
Musical comedy which is sort of a Marx Brothers movie without the Marx Brothers. It is poor in every aspect, but I reckon there will be something for people who take an interest in Brazilian music and popular culture of the fifties.
Rating: 31
Musical comedy which is sort of a Marx Brothers movie without the Marx Brothers. It is poor in every aspect, but I reckon there will be something for people who take an interest in Brazilian music and popular culture of the fifties.
Rating: 31
Thursday, October 22, 2015
Double Indemnity (1944)
Second viewing; first viewed on January 23, 1991.
An insurance salesman gets involved with a client's wife, and, abetted by her, devises a plan to murder her husband and collect a large insurance sum.
Very good criminal drama. There is not much I can add to the existing critical output, of which the TV Guide review is a good sample. Christopher Mulrooney, as usual, offers a slightly offbeat angle. I would only like to point out that this, like so many films, and perhaps ultimately all of them, one way or another, is about blindness. In this particular case, it is not so much that the thing is hard to see, as that its possibility is emotionally inadmissible. It concerns two cases of excessive trust, one by a man toward a woman he loves, and the other by a man toward an employee he likes. The point may be that love or friendly affection are mental constructs, built on imaginary foundations. The film refrains from a radical endorsement of that position by having its characters (the woman and the employee) having second thoughts at some point in the development. Subsequent films in the noir school went all the way. A sociological analysis would map this worldview to the atomized condition of people in a capitalist environment and the reification of money as a necessary component of that condition .
Rating: 83 (down from 90)
An insurance salesman gets involved with a client's wife, and, abetted by her, devises a plan to murder her husband and collect a large insurance sum.
Very good criminal drama. There is not much I can add to the existing critical output, of which the TV Guide review is a good sample. Christopher Mulrooney, as usual, offers a slightly offbeat angle. I would only like to point out that this, like so many films, and perhaps ultimately all of them, one way or another, is about blindness. In this particular case, it is not so much that the thing is hard to see, as that its possibility is emotionally inadmissible. It concerns two cases of excessive trust, one by a man toward a woman he loves, and the other by a man toward an employee he likes. The point may be that love or friendly affection are mental constructs, built on imaginary foundations. The film refrains from a radical endorsement of that position by having its characters (the woman and the employee) having second thoughts at some point in the development. Subsequent films in the noir school went all the way. A sociological analysis would map this worldview to the atomized condition of people in a capitalist environment and the reification of money as a necessary component of that condition .
Rating: 83 (down from 90)
Monday, October 19, 2015
Monte Carlo (1930)
A woman runs off on her wedding day, heading to Monte Carlo. A nobleman who sees her in that resort is attracted to her, and pretends to be a hairdresser in order to get close to her.
Musical comedy which never gets below amusement level, but doesn't have a decent plot, nor remarkable music. The premise just does not make sense: why would any man conceive of such a lame seduction plan is beyond me. The situations to which this premise gives rise are not always that interesting either, or conducive to psychological clarity. There are some creative touches here and there, the songs are moderately funny, and so are the actors; there is a kind of self-confidence to the proceedings which somehow keeps the film afloat. I am not sure there is any kind of substantial statement on class relations, or anything else for that matter.
Rating: 52
Musical comedy which never gets below amusement level, but doesn't have a decent plot, nor remarkable music. The premise just does not make sense: why would any man conceive of such a lame seduction plan is beyond me. The situations to which this premise gives rise are not always that interesting either, or conducive to psychological clarity. There are some creative touches here and there, the songs are moderately funny, and so are the actors; there is a kind of self-confidence to the proceedings which somehow keeps the film afloat. I am not sure there is any kind of substantial statement on class relations, or anything else for that matter.
Rating: 52
Saturday, October 17, 2015
13 Rue Madeleine (1947)
During World War II, the Allies had Intelligence agents working for them. We get to see their training, and then a mission whose goal is to destroy a German missile depot. There is a a complication in the form of a Nazi infiltrator among the spy candidates.
Although the plot is implausible both in the general lines and in some of its particulars, the film is entertaining and has a realistic tone. The most interesting philosophical point is probably the notion that agents must put aside all moral considerations which might pose an obstacle to the accomplishment of their mission. Viewed in times of peace, this is slightly subversive. Especially from the 60s onward, the concept of "peace" became very blurry. If the right's frontline was the military, the left's was the militancy. There was war on both fronts. That Morality as it was known would suffer a blow should surprise no one.
Rating: 51
Although the plot is implausible both in the general lines and in some of its particulars, the film is entertaining and has a realistic tone. The most interesting philosophical point is probably the notion that agents must put aside all moral considerations which might pose an obstacle to the accomplishment of their mission. Viewed in times of peace, this is slightly subversive. Especially from the 60s onward, the concept of "peace" became very blurry. If the right's frontline was the military, the left's was the militancy. There was war on both fronts. That Morality as it was known would suffer a blow should surprise no one.
Rating: 51
Friday, October 16, 2015
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)
Second viewing; first viewed between 1983 and 1986
A white woman introduces her black boyfriend to her parents, saying she intends to marry him.
In my review to The Defiant Ones, I said that this film is that film's logical consequence. It is also a disagreeable film on purely artistic grounds, with a very schematic and artificial plot premise and a resolution crowned by a grand sermon but with not a hint to psychological explanations. In short, it's pure and simple propaganda, albeit well-filmed and with a lovely cinematography.
Rating: 40 (down from 51)
A white woman introduces her black boyfriend to her parents, saying she intends to marry him.
In my review to The Defiant Ones, I said that this film is that film's logical consequence. It is also a disagreeable film on purely artistic grounds, with a very schematic and artificial plot premise and a resolution crowned by a grand sermon but with not a hint to psychological explanations. In short, it's pure and simple propaganda, albeit well-filmed and with a lovely cinematography.
Rating: 40 (down from 51)
Monday, October 12, 2015
Reds (1981)
Second viewing; first viewed in 1982.
The exploits of John Reed and Louise Bryant, writers and political activists in the first decade of the 20th century, who were eyewitnesses to the Russian Revolution.
Basically a romantic drama about a conventional, conservative relationship between a man and a woman. The comedic ingredient is the discourse surrounding it, full of pretensions to heterodoxy and free-love advocacy. The main couple split and make up repeatedly, much in the same way as in Modern Romance, released that same year, another work which exposes modernity's contradictions. One could consider Reds as a follow-up to Bananas, starring an Allen actress as a sign of acknowledgement. Unlike its predecessor, however, it is not based on a succession of jokes, but rather on a single, very long one in which the punchline is precisely the eventual realization that there isn't going to be one. The revolution itself is filmed in a curiously cursory way, literally as a walk in a square.
Rating: 52 (down from 68)
The exploits of John Reed and Louise Bryant, writers and political activists in the first decade of the 20th century, who were eyewitnesses to the Russian Revolution.
Basically a romantic drama about a conventional, conservative relationship between a man and a woman. The comedic ingredient is the discourse surrounding it, full of pretensions to heterodoxy and free-love advocacy. The main couple split and make up repeatedly, much in the same way as in Modern Romance, released that same year, another work which exposes modernity's contradictions. One could consider Reds as a follow-up to Bananas, starring an Allen actress as a sign of acknowledgement. Unlike its predecessor, however, it is not based on a succession of jokes, but rather on a single, very long one in which the punchline is precisely the eventual realization that there isn't going to be one. The revolution itself is filmed in a curiously cursory way, literally as a walk in a square.
Rating: 52 (down from 68)
Wednesday, October 07, 2015
Behind Enemy Lines (1986)
Alternate titles: P.O.W. the Escape (that's the title of the copy I watched); Attack Force 'Nam
A military detachment is assigned the task of rescuing American prisoners at a Vietnamese camp, just prior to the end of the hostilities. The mission faces a serious setback and its commander is made a prisoner at the same camp he had raided.
Action-packed yet basically absurd (like most of Cannon's films), this film's entertainment value lies precisely in those two qualities.
Rating: 36
A military detachment is assigned the task of rescuing American prisoners at a Vietnamese camp, just prior to the end of the hostilities. The mission faces a serious setback and its commander is made a prisoner at the same camp he had raided.
Action-packed yet basically absurd (like most of Cannon's films), this film's entertainment value lies precisely in those two qualities.
Rating: 36
Thursday, October 01, 2015
Simón del desierto (1965)
Second viewing; first viewed on August 16, 1997
English title: Simon of the Desert
About a man who lives on top of a pillar in the desert. The IMDB trivia section says: "The film's eponymous ascetic is based on the 5th-century Syrian saint Simeon Stylites. While this film takes obvious artistic license with the story, Simeon Stylites also famously perched on a pillar in the desert, reportedly for 37 consecutive years."
Intelligent deconstruction of the Catholic religion, or some parts of it anyway. I am not sure I have much interest in the Catholic religion, especially the aspects the film deals with. The film takes care of demonstrating, by its ending, why those aspects are irrevocably out-of-date. In a way, this is the film's own indictment and perhaps also its redemption.
Rating: 69 (unchanged)
English title: Simon of the Desert
About a man who lives on top of a pillar in the desert. The IMDB trivia section says: "The film's eponymous ascetic is based on the 5th-century Syrian saint Simeon Stylites. While this film takes obvious artistic license with the story, Simeon Stylites also famously perched on a pillar in the desert, reportedly for 37 consecutive years."
Intelligent deconstruction of the Catholic religion, or some parts of it anyway. I am not sure I have much interest in the Catholic religion, especially the aspects the film deals with. The film takes care of demonstrating, by its ending, why those aspects are irrevocably out-of-date. In a way, this is the film's own indictment and perhaps also its redemption.
Rating: 69 (unchanged)
Saturday, September 26, 2015
Viridiana (1961)
Second viewing; first viewed on March 24, 1990.
Loosely based on the novel Halma, by Benito Pérez Galdós, first published in 1895.
Viridiana, a nun, takes a few days off to visit her uncle, a landowner.
This film had a deep impact on me when I first saw it. Now seeing it for the second time, it still impresses me positively for its refined sense of humor and its uncondescending view of social issues. In a way, it is a perfect movie. It is especially topical in these days of Angela Merkel and barbarian invasions (the German Chancellor should be made to see Viridiana in the Clockwork Orange way). All that being said, I am a different person now, and I do not need to be educated on things I already know. That is why these days I prefer films which either teach something I do not already know (if that is possible) or are utterly devoid of a message (supposing there can be one).
Rating: 87 (down from 100)
Loosely based on the novel Halma, by Benito Pérez Galdós, first published in 1895.
Viridiana, a nun, takes a few days off to visit her uncle, a landowner.
This film had a deep impact on me when I first saw it. Now seeing it for the second time, it still impresses me positively for its refined sense of humor and its uncondescending view of social issues. In a way, it is a perfect movie. It is especially topical in these days of Angela Merkel and barbarian invasions (the German Chancellor should be made to see Viridiana in the Clockwork Orange way). All that being said, I am a different person now, and I do not need to be educated on things I already know. That is why these days I prefer films which either teach something I do not already know (if that is possible) or are utterly devoid of a message (supposing there can be one).
Rating: 87 (down from 100)
Thursday, September 24, 2015
Il futuro (2013)
English title: The Future
Based on the novel Una novelita lumpen, by Roberto Bolaño, first published in 2002.
Teenage orphaned brother and sister get mixed-up with two slightly older guys who move in with them. The guests have a plan to rob a recluse ex-actor with the help of the orphan girl's sex services to him.
Sordid story from which all disagreeable characteristics of sordidness were carefully removed. This is the rule now. But it is watchable, sort of, and the acting is terrific, even though the actor playing 'Maciste' just does not have the physique du rôle.
Rating: 50
Based on the novel Una novelita lumpen, by Roberto Bolaño, first published in 2002.
Teenage orphaned brother and sister get mixed-up with two slightly older guys who move in with them. The guests have a plan to rob a recluse ex-actor with the help of the orphan girl's sex services to him.
Sordid story from which all disagreeable characteristics of sordidness were carefully removed. This is the rule now. But it is watchable, sort of, and the acting is terrific, even though the actor playing 'Maciste' just does not have the physique du rôle.
Rating: 50
Alice in Wonderland (1951)
Possibly not my first viewing; many of the scenes were familiar to me, but I may have read a comic book version, so I really don't know. Anyway, if I saw it before, it was before 1983.
Based on the books Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871), by Lewis Carroll (b. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson).
A dreamy little girl, while being read to by her older sister, sees a white rabbit and follows it to and through an oneiric realm, full of quirky characters.
This refined work of art lovingly blends a very British character with a more flamboyant American spirit. I forward you to a fine review written by Christopher Mulrooney on the Walt Disney entry of his filmmaker encyclopedia.
Rating: 74
Based on the books Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871), by Lewis Carroll (b. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson).
A dreamy little girl, while being read to by her older sister, sees a white rabbit and follows it to and through an oneiric realm, full of quirky characters.
This refined work of art lovingly blends a very British character with a more flamboyant American spirit. I forward you to a fine review written by Christopher Mulrooney on the Walt Disney entry of his filmmaker encyclopedia.
Rating: 74
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Second viewing (I think); first viewed in 1978 (I think).
Strange electromagnetic interference affects household appliances. One man and one woman, in different places, are disturbed by weird mental images. They eventually get together for the adventure of their lifetimes. The Earth is being visited!
The subject of extraterrestrial intelligence is a conceptually interesting one. It is too bad that it gets such a poor treatment here. Barely anything insightful is produced, and it sucks as a mere thriller too. Some people have found its underlying worldview disturbing (Dale Thomajan calls it "psychologically unhealthy", two other guys say it is fascistic). I am not sure I agree one hundred per cent with either of those opinions, but I do find somewhat perplexing that the diretor years later directed a remake of War of the Worlds, an exact conceptual opposite to this film. It is a little like Bergoglio inviting Third World masses into Europe and the U.S.A., and when that produces the expected response and then some, expresses fears about anti-Vatican jihadi infiltrators amidst them.
Watched it in pan-and-scan.
Rating: 32 (unchanged)
Strange electromagnetic interference affects household appliances. One man and one woman, in different places, are disturbed by weird mental images. They eventually get together for the adventure of their lifetimes. The Earth is being visited!
The subject of extraterrestrial intelligence is a conceptually interesting one. It is too bad that it gets such a poor treatment here. Barely anything insightful is produced, and it sucks as a mere thriller too. Some people have found its underlying worldview disturbing (Dale Thomajan calls it "psychologically unhealthy", two other guys say it is fascistic). I am not sure I agree one hundred per cent with either of those opinions, but I do find somewhat perplexing that the diretor years later directed a remake of War of the Worlds, an exact conceptual opposite to this film. It is a little like Bergoglio inviting Third World masses into Europe and the U.S.A., and when that produces the expected response and then some, expresses fears about anti-Vatican jihadi infiltrators amidst them.
Watched it in pan-and-scan.
Rating: 32 (unchanged)
Saturday, September 19, 2015
Racing with the Moon (1984)
Second viewing; first viewed on July 31, 1994.
*mild spoiler ahead*
Two friends living in a small town are soon to be sent overseas to fight in World War II. One of them is rude, the other sensitive. The latter meets a girl whom he mistakenly takes for rich.
Formulaic and artificial drama. It is done with much professional competence, and thus becomes watchable. Not much more I can say, it is a polished product but has no soul.
Rating: 40 (down from 68)
*mild spoiler ahead*
Two friends living in a small town are soon to be sent overseas to fight in World War II. One of them is rude, the other sensitive. The latter meets a girl whom he mistakenly takes for rich.
Formulaic and artificial drama. It is done with much professional competence, and thus becomes watchable. Not much more I can say, it is a polished product but has no soul.
Rating: 40 (down from 68)
Monday, September 14, 2015
The Sting (1973)
Second viewing; first viewed between 1983 and 1986.
Based on the non-fiction book The Big Con, by David W. Maurer (1st ed. 1940).
A con man whose partner gets killed by their latest victim's gangster boss approaches an experienced con man in the hopes of acquiring expertise in his line of activity. They decide to con the abovementioned gangster in a fake horse betting scam.
The theme is survival as a constant deceit of impending death. Set in the depression era, it only shows explicit poverty in a couple of outdoor scenes. In the rest of the movie we witness the workings of a criminal underworld inhabited by greedy outlaws and callous underlings. The protagonist guides us through the perils of contravention, leading a life of constant persecution where quick wits are essential. There is a certain infantility to the proceedings, perhaps not unlike that of the Italian criminal and Western movies of around that time. The script's construction is a case of form mirroring content the culmination of which is the ending plot twist: the viewer's identification with the deceivers is compounded with the realization he has also been deceived.
Rating: 72 (down from 85)
Based on the non-fiction book The Big Con, by David W. Maurer (1st ed. 1940).
A con man whose partner gets killed by their latest victim's gangster boss approaches an experienced con man in the hopes of acquiring expertise in his line of activity. They decide to con the abovementioned gangster in a fake horse betting scam.
The theme is survival as a constant deceit of impending death. Set in the depression era, it only shows explicit poverty in a couple of outdoor scenes. In the rest of the movie we witness the workings of a criminal underworld inhabited by greedy outlaws and callous underlings. The protagonist guides us through the perils of contravention, leading a life of constant persecution where quick wits are essential. There is a certain infantility to the proceedings, perhaps not unlike that of the Italian criminal and Western movies of around that time. The script's construction is a case of form mirroring content the culmination of which is the ending plot twist: the viewer's identification with the deceivers is compounded with the realization he has also been deceived.
Rating: 72 (down from 85)
Wednesday, September 09, 2015
The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey (1988)
Second viewing; first viewed on September 9, 1990
Alternate spelling: The Navigator: A Mediaeval Odyssey
A group of people from a village in Northern England, during the Middle Ages, is scared of the Plague. Led by a boy, they hope to ward it off by placing a metal cross on the top of a big church. To get there, they follow a subterranean path which they are told will lead them to the far side of the Earth.
I was greatly disappointed at my experience of viewing this film for the second time. Its story runs entirely (as far as I remember) by night, which makes for almost exclusively dark scenes. Furthermore, it is not directed for clarity. All this makes for an often rather enigmatic visual experience. The screenplay is not especially engaging either: the two concepts it plays with (medieval existential drama and time travel) seem arbitrarily pasted together and not given proper individual development. The film has been generally well received, and this must have an explanation; considering that I also gave it a good rating on my first viewing, I probably have this explanation within me somewhere, if only I could remember how I felt and what I thought 25 years ago. Speaking of which, I was quite spooked by the exact coincidence of the dates of my viewings, more so for it happening with a film as charged with mysticism as this.
Rating: 42 (down from 62)
Alternate spelling: The Navigator: A Mediaeval Odyssey
A group of people from a village in Northern England, during the Middle Ages, is scared of the Plague. Led by a boy, they hope to ward it off by placing a metal cross on the top of a big church. To get there, they follow a subterranean path which they are told will lead them to the far side of the Earth.
I was greatly disappointed at my experience of viewing this film for the second time. Its story runs entirely (as far as I remember) by night, which makes for almost exclusively dark scenes. Furthermore, it is not directed for clarity. All this makes for an often rather enigmatic visual experience. The screenplay is not especially engaging either: the two concepts it plays with (medieval existential drama and time travel) seem arbitrarily pasted together and not given proper individual development. The film has been generally well received, and this must have an explanation; considering that I also gave it a good rating on my first viewing, I probably have this explanation within me somewhere, if only I could remember how I felt and what I thought 25 years ago. Speaking of which, I was quite spooked by the exact coincidence of the dates of my viewings, more so for it happening with a film as charged with mysticism as this.
Rating: 42 (down from 62)
Saturday, September 05, 2015
Le choix des armes (1981)
Second viewing; first viewed between 1983 and 1986.
English title: Choice of Arms
Escaped convicts seek shelter in the house of one of the felons' ex-partner, who is now a respectable horse breeder and has a beautiful wife. The couple will have troubles due to this act of hospitality.
Intellectual thriller which explores questions of identity and personal history. World War II's shadow is personified in the former Resistance fighter who became a thief after the war, and later retired a wealthy man. His peaceful life is disturbed by a young criminal who becomes his enemy, yet whom he cannot help but identify with. The film presents a critical view of French society as a mire of police incompetence and class inequality. Dramatically, it fails to produce engaging situations and convincing characters.
Rating: 31 (up from 27)
English title: Choice of Arms
Escaped convicts seek shelter in the house of one of the felons' ex-partner, who is now a respectable horse breeder and has a beautiful wife. The couple will have troubles due to this act of hospitality.
Intellectual thriller which explores questions of identity and personal history. World War II's shadow is personified in the former Resistance fighter who became a thief after the war, and later retired a wealthy man. His peaceful life is disturbed by a young criminal who becomes his enemy, yet whom he cannot help but identify with. The film presents a critical view of French society as a mire of police incompetence and class inequality. Dramatically, it fails to produce engaging situations and convincing characters.
Rating: 31 (up from 27)
Friday, September 04, 2015
Rua sem sol (1954)
As the beginning credits are displayed, we see two agents of the law on their way to arrest someone. The suspect is Marta, a young woman accused of having murdered her lover, a drug dealer and nightclub owner. She is taken in custody and tells her entire life to the cops, which is displayed in a flashback. An orphan, she was adopted by a couple who later gave her, by natural means, a sister, who was born blind. Her foster parents died, first her mother, then her father, leaving the two daughters in financial straits. She supported herself and her blind sister by working as a seamstress at home. This soon became insufficient to make ends meet, and she switched to making jewels at a jewelry store. This still didn't bring her enough income, and one day law officers came into her house and assessed her household items, which were later taken as payment to hanging debts. When her sister injured herself during a fall and needed an x-ray, she, in a desperate act, stole a jewel from her place of work in the hopes of selling it. An expert's assessment, however, judged it to be a fake. Upon leaving the expert's office, she was approached by a man who had been watching her and threatened to turn her over to the police. Frightened, she accompanied the man into a restaurant and then into a nightclub, where he blackmailed her into becoming his lover. She seized the opportunity of his momentary absence to flee with the money he left her to pay the bill. Days later, her sister's exam results showed she had a serious injury which needed surgery. She returned to the nightclub of earlier and asked the owner for a job as a taxi dancer. The owner, taking an interest in her, gave her the job. She could thus pay for her sister's surgery. After some time, her boss proposed that they became lovers. She didn't immediately agree. Upon leaving the nightclub, she was seen by a longtime friend of the family, who was the only one who remained a close friend after her father died. He scolded her for her choice of work, making her promise she would quit. Meanwhile, at home, her sister was in a steady relationship with the doctor who helped her when she first became ill. He told Marta that she could see again if she underwent surgery in Europe. The next day Marta, despite her promise, returned to the nightclub and, without being seen, witnessed a quarrel between her boss and another man over money. The man left in a rage. As she was leaving her spot, her boss heard her and called her. He then made advances on her and she resisted. She grabbed his gun, shot, and then lost consciousness. When she came to, her boss was lying dead beside her. The flashback is interrupted at this point. Everything seems to incriminate her, but the police is more interested in arresting the dead man's accomplice than in jailing her. They submit a series of mugshots to her, and she recognizes the man she had seen quarreling with her boss. They arrest that man, and he confesses to not even having left the nightclub after the quarrel and having returned to see the nightclub owner a few moments later, only to find him and Marta lying unconscious. He shot his nemesis on the back of the neck and left (the police knew that he was killed by a shot in the back of the neck, so that exculpates Marta of the murder). Marta was found guilty only of theft. Her sister traveled to Italy where she got married to her fiancé and had an operation which made her able to see. Later they all went to Italy and lived happily ever after.
The plot combines realism and ridiculous tear-jerking melodrama. The execution is unprofessional at times (especially in the scenes not directed by the principal diretor). Some parts of it, on the other hand, are well directed and exude a realistic atmosphere, especially the scenes at the nightclub.
Rating: 32
The plot combines realism and ridiculous tear-jerking melodrama. The execution is unprofessional at times (especially in the scenes not directed by the principal diretor). Some parts of it, on the other hand, are well directed and exude a realistic atmosphere, especially the scenes at the nightclub.
Rating: 32
Monday, August 31, 2015
Hollywood Ending (2002)
A film diretor is hired by indication of his ex-wife, who is now engaged to the studio boss. He develops psychosomatic blindness and his agent convinces him to conceal it from the others and direct the film anyway.
The flow of jokes is steady, and there is no real pain in watching it. For the analytically inclined, there are curious aspects about it, especially as it relates to Allen's filmography. The first really odd thing that came to my attention, and apparently no one else's, is how this relates to Crimes and Misdemeanors. We have here characters or situations that appear to be derived from that movie's. Williams' character closely resembles Alda's character in that movie, Leoni's resembles Farrow's, and Allen's resembles Allen's. Adding to these parallels, both films have characters who go blind (Allen's here and Waterston's there). Both films are about the need to conceal something dangerous -- blindness in one case and graft in the other. Beyond these mysterious analogies, however, there is a more fundamental connection with Allen's entire oeuvre. There are multiple blindnesses on display in Hollywood Ending, besides the central character's. The need to conceal his predicament is itself another inducement of blindness; in other words, this is a ploy to make people blind to his blindness. But there is more. The film is a complicated scheme to divert the viewer's attention from its most glaring aspect: Allen is old and ugly. If you add to that his character's panoply of quirks, you would find it hard to accept that Leoni would ever have been drawn to him in the first place; the ostensive drama around her betrayal of him for a more attractive man only seems to try to conceal that fact. The same goes for his new girlfriend: she is a second impossible event which obfuscates the impossibility of the first one. Thus it seems that a recurrent subtheme of his other films has come to the foreground here: the embarrassment of being of no real attractiveness to the opposite sex. In this sense, what seems to be the film's conspicuous flaw, namely the miscasting of over-aged Allen in the main role, is actually the key to its decipherment. If the film's theme is blindness, how better to convey it than to induce blindness in the audience?
Rating: 55
The flow of jokes is steady, and there is no real pain in watching it. For the analytically inclined, there are curious aspects about it, especially as it relates to Allen's filmography. The first really odd thing that came to my attention, and apparently no one else's, is how this relates to Crimes and Misdemeanors. We have here characters or situations that appear to be derived from that movie's. Williams' character closely resembles Alda's character in that movie, Leoni's resembles Farrow's, and Allen's resembles Allen's. Adding to these parallels, both films have characters who go blind (Allen's here and Waterston's there). Both films are about the need to conceal something dangerous -- blindness in one case and graft in the other. Beyond these mysterious analogies, however, there is a more fundamental connection with Allen's entire oeuvre. There are multiple blindnesses on display in Hollywood Ending, besides the central character's. The need to conceal his predicament is itself another inducement of blindness; in other words, this is a ploy to make people blind to his blindness. But there is more. The film is a complicated scheme to divert the viewer's attention from its most glaring aspect: Allen is old and ugly. If you add to that his character's panoply of quirks, you would find it hard to accept that Leoni would ever have been drawn to him in the first place; the ostensive drama around her betrayal of him for a more attractive man only seems to try to conceal that fact. The same goes for his new girlfriend: she is a second impossible event which obfuscates the impossibility of the first one. Thus it seems that a recurrent subtheme of his other films has come to the foreground here: the embarrassment of being of no real attractiveness to the opposite sex. In this sense, what seems to be the film's conspicuous flaw, namely the miscasting of over-aged Allen in the main role, is actually the key to its decipherment. If the film's theme is blindness, how better to convey it than to induce blindness in the audience?
Rating: 55
Thursday, August 27, 2015
Unconquered (1947)
Second viewing; first viewed on June 21, 1998.
The film is set in 1763 during the so-called Pontiac's rebellion. An English woman has her death sentence commuted to indentured servitude in America. A weapons trader lusts after her and is opposed by a military who gradually becomes enamored of her.
Not very different in structure from the previous film in this blog. Here, too, we have the implausible notion of a man entangled in a terrible conflict who finds extra time to recurrently save a woman in peril. Again, the plot offers little insight into the mechanics of the conflict, choosing melodrama instead. As a spectacle it is not totally negligible. The film portrays Native Americans as primitive (they almost burn the heroine at a stake on the urging of a jealous woman) and treacherous, well beyond plausibility.
Rating: 38 (up from 30)
The film is set in 1763 during the so-called Pontiac's rebellion. An English woman has her death sentence commuted to indentured servitude in America. A weapons trader lusts after her and is opposed by a military who gradually becomes enamored of her.
Not very different in structure from the previous film in this blog. Here, too, we have the implausible notion of a man entangled in a terrible conflict who finds extra time to recurrently save a woman in peril. Again, the plot offers little insight into the mechanics of the conflict, choosing melodrama instead. As a spectacle it is not totally negligible. The film portrays Native Americans as primitive (they almost burn the heroine at a stake on the urging of a jealous woman) and treacherous, well beyond plausibility.
Rating: 38 (up from 30)
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Knight without Armour (1937)
Second viewing; first viewed on May 8, 1997.
U.S. title: Knight without Armor
Prior to the Russian Revolution, an English correspondent in Russia becomes a spy for England, and infiltrates a revolutionary group. He goes through several misadventures before and after the revolution and crosses paths with a Russian countess.
Well-made melodrama which does not have a remarkably interesting plot nor offers much insight into the inners of the turbulence in revolutionary Russia. Dietrich has one or two facial expressions which she uses in the course of the film.
Rating: 38 (up from 14)
U.S. title: Knight without Armor
Prior to the Russian Revolution, an English correspondent in Russia becomes a spy for England, and infiltrates a revolutionary group. He goes through several misadventures before and after the revolution and crosses paths with a Russian countess.
Well-made melodrama which does not have a remarkably interesting plot nor offers much insight into the inners of the turbulence in revolutionary Russia. Dietrich has one or two facial expressions which she uses in the course of the film.
Rating: 38 (up from 14)
Monday, August 24, 2015
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939)
Professor Moriarty plans the crime of the century, and has a plan to deceive Sherlock Holmes. His plan involves letters addressed to two different persons, one a certain society woman and the other the guardian of Britain's jewels.
Slightly amusing mystery story, filmed with fitfully dark atmosphere and naïve energy. Good reviews by Robert J. Maxwell and Ted Goranson may be found on IMDB -- browse the User Reviews filtered for 'prolific authors'.
Rating: 52
Slightly amusing mystery story, filmed with fitfully dark atmosphere and naïve energy. Good reviews by Robert J. Maxwell and Ted Goranson may be found on IMDB -- browse the User Reviews filtered for 'prolific authors'.
Rating: 52
Sunday, August 23, 2015
Love Is All There Is (1996)
During the staging of a school production of Romeo and Juliet, the two adolescent leads fall in love with each other. Their respective families, who are business rivals and from different social backgrounds, oppose the relationship.
If I hadn't been told, I wouldn't be able to tell this apart from a below average Woody Allen movie. Anyway, the premise from the original Shakespeare play -- family feud -- has been transformed into a merely economic and cultural problem, and even that seems utterly secondary to the plot. The main theme here is the parents' delusion that their kids somehow will act differently from how they -- the parents -- acted when they were their age, despite their genetic commonalities. Although this is potentially interesting, this film is a parade of vulgarity and uninspired scripting which is barely watchable only due to the somewhat competent acting and staging.
Rating: 30
If I hadn't been told, I wouldn't be able to tell this apart from a below average Woody Allen movie. Anyway, the premise from the original Shakespeare play -- family feud -- has been transformed into a merely economic and cultural problem, and even that seems utterly secondary to the plot. The main theme here is the parents' delusion that their kids somehow will act differently from how they -- the parents -- acted when they were their age, despite their genetic commonalities. Although this is potentially interesting, this film is a parade of vulgarity and uninspired scripting which is barely watchable only due to the somewhat competent acting and staging.
Rating: 30
Thursday, August 20, 2015
1941 (1979)
Second viewing; first viewed in 1980.
In 1941, after the Japanese attack in Hawaii, Californians are somewhat worried that they are the next target. A Japanese submarine is advancing towards the West Coast hoping to strike something "significant". The U.S. military forces mobilize against this as well as some misperceived threats. Adding to the confusion are several concurrent incidents: one officer tries to score with a secretary who will only get aroused while airborne; a dance contest sets the stage for some sexual rivalry between two young men; a tank is set at a coastal residence's front yard; a lone aviator sets about in a maniacal shooting spree; two shooters are placed on a ferris wheel.
This is a military satire that looks like it was written by a bunch of overexcited 15-year-olds, and yet is done with such conviction that it is hard to deny it some merit. Films needn't be elegant in concept, comedies needn't be funny; it is better when they are, but the important thing is that they have some distinctness about them. I couldn't laugh much with 1941; but I admit it has some degree of originality and a consistent style. That, and the fact that it wasn't morally offensive, was enough for me.
Rating: 50 (down from 55)
In 1941, after the Japanese attack in Hawaii, Californians are somewhat worried that they are the next target. A Japanese submarine is advancing towards the West Coast hoping to strike something "significant". The U.S. military forces mobilize against this as well as some misperceived threats. Adding to the confusion are several concurrent incidents: one officer tries to score with a secretary who will only get aroused while airborne; a dance contest sets the stage for some sexual rivalry between two young men; a tank is set at a coastal residence's front yard; a lone aviator sets about in a maniacal shooting spree; two shooters are placed on a ferris wheel.
This is a military satire that looks like it was written by a bunch of overexcited 15-year-olds, and yet is done with such conviction that it is hard to deny it some merit. Films needn't be elegant in concept, comedies needn't be funny; it is better when they are, but the important thing is that they have some distinctness about them. I couldn't laugh much with 1941; but I admit it has some degree of originality and a consistent style. That, and the fact that it wasn't morally offensive, was enough for me.
Rating: 50 (down from 55)
Sunday, August 16, 2015
Prince of Foxes (1949)
In 1500, Cesare Borgia wants to rule over the entire Italic peninsula; his favorite agent, one Andrea Orsini, is a man who conceals his humble origins and has artistic tendencies; Borgia assigns him with eliminating the sovereign of an independent City State, towards whose wife Orsini feels attracted.
The distinguishing feature of this production is the location shooting in Italy (San Gimignano, Siena, Florence, Rome, and Venice) and San Marino, which gives it a remarkably realistic as well as aesthetically pleasing look. Aside from that, it is the usual Hollywood fare, professionally done yet decidedly melodramatic in nature. As usual in Hollywood melodrama, characters, both central and supporting ones, act in less than plausible ways, which nevertheless are very convenient in regard to shaping the plot, and the dialog is not ashamed of anachronism, conspicuously so in a reference to romantic love. There is even a devoted mother of peasant origin who is played with adequate gusto by Katina Paxinou, but could just as well be done by Anna Magnani. Machiavelli's thought is summarized in the usual popular way as "the ends justifies the means". In short, it is entertaining and not too enlightening regarding History, but far from preposterous.
Rating: 57
The distinguishing feature of this production is the location shooting in Italy (San Gimignano, Siena, Florence, Rome, and Venice) and San Marino, which gives it a remarkably realistic as well as aesthetically pleasing look. Aside from that, it is the usual Hollywood fare, professionally done yet decidedly melodramatic in nature. As usual in Hollywood melodrama, characters, both central and supporting ones, act in less than plausible ways, which nevertheless are very convenient in regard to shaping the plot, and the dialog is not ashamed of anachronism, conspicuously so in a reference to romantic love. There is even a devoted mother of peasant origin who is played with adequate gusto by Katina Paxinou, but could just as well be done by Anna Magnani. Machiavelli's thought is summarized in the usual popular way as "the ends justifies the means". In short, it is entertaining and not too enlightening regarding History, but far from preposterous.
Rating: 57
Saturday, August 15, 2015
Flaming Star (1960)
The Kiowa have a new chief who has vowed to rid their land of all Whites. Sam Burton is married to a First-Peoples wife and has one son with her. He has also another son, from a previous marriage to a White woman. Their family faces difficult questions of identity which will translate in decisions of allegiance.
With the 60s a crucial era of transformations in America's inter-ethnic relations was being launched. Hollywood was a staunch promoter of the liberal agenda, and sometimes resorted to Westerns to convey its message in a safelier fashion. With integration, inevitably would come the problem of miscegenation, and its consequences. This film deals with some of these problems, and does it well, despite its political bias. The half-breed character exemplifies what happens to a society when races mix: allegiance to immediate family trumps allegiance to an ethnicity, thus atomizing a nation or community. There are some smart turns of the script which push the character into one side of his biological inheritance (in this case, the Kiowa), only to later restore him to his initial leanings toward his next of kin. An interesting film, and entertaining too.
Seen in pan-and-scan.
Rating: 55
With the 60s a crucial era of transformations in America's inter-ethnic relations was being launched. Hollywood was a staunch promoter of the liberal agenda, and sometimes resorted to Westerns to convey its message in a safelier fashion. With integration, inevitably would come the problem of miscegenation, and its consequences. This film deals with some of these problems, and does it well, despite its political bias. The half-breed character exemplifies what happens to a society when races mix: allegiance to immediate family trumps allegiance to an ethnicity, thus atomizing a nation or community. There are some smart turns of the script which push the character into one side of his biological inheritance (in this case, the Kiowa), only to later restore him to his initial leanings toward his next of kin. An interesting film, and entertaining too.
Seen in pan-and-scan.
Rating: 55
Thursday, August 13, 2015
Kaos (1984)
Second viewing; first viewed between 1984 and 1986.
Based on five stories by Luigi Pirandello collected in the series "Novelle per un anno" ("Short Stories for a Year"): "L'altro figlio" ("The Other Son", 1st pub. 1902), "Male di luna" ("Moonsickness", 1st pub. 1913), "La giara" ("The Jar", 1st pub. 1906), "Requiem aeternam dona eis, domine!" ("Eternal Rest Grant Unto Them, O Lord!", 1st pub. 1913), "Colloquii coi personaggi" ("Conversations with the Characters", 1st pub. 1915).
All stories are set in Sicily. (1) An aging woman is sad because her emigrated sons do not answer her letters; she has one son who stayed in Sicily, whom she cannot stand; (2) a man has a strange sickness about which his wife will only find out after the wedding; (3) a rich landowner buys a big jar to store his harvest of olives, but one morning he finds it broken; he hires a man to mend it; (4) a small community demands from the local baron a place for a cemetery; (5) a writer visits the place where he grew up and has a conversation with his dead mother; they recollect events in his childhood.
Admittedly, this is an honest depiction of Sicily at a certain time in the past. However, the episodes are not especially well written or well filmed. It is a mildly agreeable film.
Rating: 56 (down from 66)
Based on five stories by Luigi Pirandello collected in the series "Novelle per un anno" ("Short Stories for a Year"): "L'altro figlio" ("The Other Son", 1st pub. 1902), "Male di luna" ("Moonsickness", 1st pub. 1913), "La giara" ("The Jar", 1st pub. 1906), "Requiem aeternam dona eis, domine!" ("Eternal Rest Grant Unto Them, O Lord!", 1st pub. 1913), "Colloquii coi personaggi" ("Conversations with the Characters", 1st pub. 1915).
All stories are set in Sicily. (1) An aging woman is sad because her emigrated sons do not answer her letters; she has one son who stayed in Sicily, whom she cannot stand; (2) a man has a strange sickness about which his wife will only find out after the wedding; (3) a rich landowner buys a big jar to store his harvest of olives, but one morning he finds it broken; he hires a man to mend it; (4) a small community demands from the local baron a place for a cemetery; (5) a writer visits the place where he grew up and has a conversation with his dead mother; they recollect events in his childhood.
Admittedly, this is an honest depiction of Sicily at a certain time in the past. However, the episodes are not especially well written or well filmed. It is a mildly agreeable film.
Rating: 56 (down from 66)
Sunday, August 09, 2015
Le diable et les 10 commandements (1962)
English title: The Devil and the Ten Commandments
Seven episodes each of which purports to provide an ironical view of one or more of the ten commandments. (1) a handyman at a convent who has the habit of cursing reencounters his old school chum who is now a bishop visiting the convent; (2) two married women, one rich and the other poor, are mad about jewels; (3) a seminarist vows to avenge his sister's death which he attributes to the evil influence in her life of a pimp and drug dealer; (4) a man claiming to be God arrives at a small farm; (5) a medical student learns that his biological mother abandoned him as an infant and is now a famous actress; (6) a bank cashier is victim of a robbery on the last day at his job; (7) the handyman and the bishop from episode 1 are playing cards on a Sunday and recollecting their school adventures.
It is a pleasant watch, and occasionally makes some fine observations about the moral issues associated with the commandments. However, on average it is a bit bland and some of the stories just do not illustrate adequately the respective commandments. The only ones that do it satisfactorily, in my opinion, are numbers 1, 5, 6, and, combining several commandments, number 2. Number 3, although not bad in itself, has only a trivial relation with 'Thou shalt not kill'. Number 4 artificially inserts, as an element of connection with 'Thou shalt have no other gods before me', a pagan monument which has little relation with the main plot. In number 7, it is not clear that the characters are violating the commandment in question (but I am no expert in such judgments).
Two of the stories were adapted only a little time before to TV episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, namely, number 2 (Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat, uncredited) and number 6 (Profit-Sharing Plan, probably, here in a loose adaptation).
Rating: 50
Seven episodes each of which purports to provide an ironical view of one or more of the ten commandments. (1) a handyman at a convent who has the habit of cursing reencounters his old school chum who is now a bishop visiting the convent; (2) two married women, one rich and the other poor, are mad about jewels; (3) a seminarist vows to avenge his sister's death which he attributes to the evil influence in her life of a pimp and drug dealer; (4) a man claiming to be God arrives at a small farm; (5) a medical student learns that his biological mother abandoned him as an infant and is now a famous actress; (6) a bank cashier is victim of a robbery on the last day at his job; (7) the handyman and the bishop from episode 1 are playing cards on a Sunday and recollecting their school adventures.
It is a pleasant watch, and occasionally makes some fine observations about the moral issues associated with the commandments. However, on average it is a bit bland and some of the stories just do not illustrate adequately the respective commandments. The only ones that do it satisfactorily, in my opinion, are numbers 1, 5, 6, and, combining several commandments, number 2. Number 3, although not bad in itself, has only a trivial relation with 'Thou shalt not kill'. Number 4 artificially inserts, as an element of connection with 'Thou shalt have no other gods before me', a pagan monument which has little relation with the main plot. In number 7, it is not clear that the characters are violating the commandment in question (but I am no expert in such judgments).
Two of the stories were adapted only a little time before to TV episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, namely, number 2 (Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat, uncredited) and number 6 (Profit-Sharing Plan, probably, here in a loose adaptation).
Rating: 50
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)
Conclusion of the trilogy. Senator Palpatine is kidnapped, Padmé gets pregnant, Anakin is frustrated with his lack of recognition, etc.
Technically, this is distinct from the rest of the series. CGI technology had by then reached a mature stage, and the visuals are impressive. Narratively, I venture saying that we have here a definite epic style (whereas the first one was done predominantly as comedy and the second one predominantly as tragedy). The dialog remains resolutely at the same elementary level as in the previous installments. Overall, the film avoids rising above strict mediocrity, and yet it confirms my assessment of the trilogy as significant cultural articles, rather than merely the product of careful advertising hype, as the intellectual elite implied.
Rating: 50
Technically, this is distinct from the rest of the series. CGI technology had by then reached a mature stage, and the visuals are impressive. Narratively, I venture saying that we have here a definite epic style (whereas the first one was done predominantly as comedy and the second one predominantly as tragedy). The dialog remains resolutely at the same elementary level as in the previous installments. Overall, the film avoids rising above strict mediocrity, and yet it confirms my assessment of the trilogy as significant cultural articles, rather than merely the product of careful advertising hype, as the intellectual elite implied.
Rating: 50
Saturday, August 08, 2015
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)
There is an assassination attempt on Padmé, and Anakin is assigned to protect her. Meanwhile, Obi-Wan tries to get to its authors.
In terms of the tone employed, the first film in this trilogy was a comedy, whereas this second one approaches tragedy. Both films are mediocre, but even so seem to have been misunderstood by many, perhaps by most. I will try to explain things, but cannot do much about it, for reasons that are too complex to mention here. The Star Wars films are labeled by some as 'mere entertainment' or 'escapism', chiefly because of their postmodern aesthetics. And yet they deal with some of the gravest issues of our times, concerning geopolitics and things like that. It is not within my powers to discern what goes on inside the minds of film creators (or of anybody else, for that matter), but, consciously or unconsciously, Lucas has employed escapism aesthetics around the deep ideas he conveys in his films in such a way that nobody (or nobody that is said to matter, anyway) has managed to make sense of them. The fact is, many concepts with which the films toy are fast becoming taboo in civilized discussion. There is a tension in the writing that is only too revealing. For example, a character which, in the first film, was defined as a queen is, in this one, referred to as 'the youngest queen to be elected', and becomes a senator after her majestic term is over. How can anyone not find this ridiculous? There is ludicrousness of a more elementary order too, as when a decrepit leader reveals himself as an expert swordsman and, after the battle is over, all too casually fetches back his walking cane. Some guardians of the hegemonic order seem to have detected something wrong -- one David Walsh at a 'socialist' site, although too obtuse to fully penetrate the films' logic, or lack thereof, in his review of The Phantom Menace rabidly shoots in all directions just in case (among other things, he is alarmed about Anglo-Saxons in the leading roles). Anyway, I will not delve any deeper into these matters. For a superficial understanding of the two first episodes I recommend the reading of the IMDB FAQs, and a thread in that site's discussion board in which users earnestly explain why the plot does not make sense. Well, it probably doesn't -- unless hidden variables are considered, that is. I expect to be back soon with my review of the third one, and an assessment of the trilogy.
Rating: 50
In terms of the tone employed, the first film in this trilogy was a comedy, whereas this second one approaches tragedy. Both films are mediocre, but even so seem to have been misunderstood by many, perhaps by most. I will try to explain things, but cannot do much about it, for reasons that are too complex to mention here. The Star Wars films are labeled by some as 'mere entertainment' or 'escapism', chiefly because of their postmodern aesthetics. And yet they deal with some of the gravest issues of our times, concerning geopolitics and things like that. It is not within my powers to discern what goes on inside the minds of film creators (or of anybody else, for that matter), but, consciously or unconsciously, Lucas has employed escapism aesthetics around the deep ideas he conveys in his films in such a way that nobody (or nobody that is said to matter, anyway) has managed to make sense of them. The fact is, many concepts with which the films toy are fast becoming taboo in civilized discussion. There is a tension in the writing that is only too revealing. For example, a character which, in the first film, was defined as a queen is, in this one, referred to as 'the youngest queen to be elected', and becomes a senator after her majestic term is over. How can anyone not find this ridiculous? There is ludicrousness of a more elementary order too, as when a decrepit leader reveals himself as an expert swordsman and, after the battle is over, all too casually fetches back his walking cane. Some guardians of the hegemonic order seem to have detected something wrong -- one David Walsh at a 'socialist' site, although too obtuse to fully penetrate the films' logic, or lack thereof, in his review of The Phantom Menace rabidly shoots in all directions just in case (among other things, he is alarmed about Anglo-Saxons in the leading roles). Anyway, I will not delve any deeper into these matters. For a superficial understanding of the two first episodes I recommend the reading of the IMDB FAQs, and a thread in that site's discussion board in which users earnestly explain why the plot does not make sense. Well, it probably doesn't -- unless hidden variables are considered, that is. I expect to be back soon with my review of the third one, and an assessment of the trilogy.
Rating: 50
Thursday, August 06, 2015
A madona de cedro (1968)
Based on the 1957 novel by Antônio Calado.
A man who works as an artisan in Congonhas do Campo is contacted by a childhood friend who has connections with a shady art collector; the proposition is that the artisan should steal a religious sculpture from its church in exchange for a considerable sum of money.
Somewhat lacking in regard to script, it has nevertheless some interesting ideas and competent camerawork and cinematography, and also a good score. There is a striking similarity between some events in its plot and the main plot of O Pagador de Promessas (1962), which is based on a 1959 play by Dias Gomes. Both films have the same main actor, and the diretor of the 1962 film is an actor and producer in the 1968 film.
Rating: 40
A man who works as an artisan in Congonhas do Campo is contacted by a childhood friend who has connections with a shady art collector; the proposition is that the artisan should steal a religious sculpture from its church in exchange for a considerable sum of money.
Somewhat lacking in regard to script, it has nevertheless some interesting ideas and competent camerawork and cinematography, and also a good score. There is a striking similarity between some events in its plot and the main plot of O Pagador de Promessas (1962), which is based on a 1959 play by Dias Gomes. Both films have the same main actor, and the diretor of the 1962 film is an actor and producer in the 1968 film.
Rating: 40
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)
Second viewing. I first viewed it on September 26, 2006. On that occasion, I wrote in this blog:
[quote]
Synopsis: The Trade Federation establishes a blockade on planet Naboo. Two Jedi
knights are sent by the Senate of the Galactic Republic to try to settle the
conflict.
Appraisal: There is no denying the visual beauty of this film. The screenplay is
mediocre though. Things that rubbed me in the wrong way: an entire robot army is
controlled by one central device, without which it simply ceases to function
(you don't have to go to Engineering School to realize this is plain stupid, not
to mention hardly necessary technologically; on the other hand, it is very
convenient dramatically; see also my review for 'Reign of Fire'); on the other
hand, it becomes clear that the concept of descentralization is not alien to the
screenwriter, and he is willing to employ it as long as it is advantageous to
the 'good guys': a queen uses a double who (implausibly enough) is prepared to
speak for her when it is necessary, while she parades along as a maid (does no
one know what she looks like?).
[unquote]
Except for the misspelling of 'decentralization', I am very pleased with that text. Even though this is not a particularly remarkable film, one has to bear in mind that it was intended for a younger audience, and also that it is part of a greater set of films, and is better judged thus. I am planning on seeing the subsequent films in the cycle, and of course posting my considerations here.
Rating: 50 (down from 51)
[quote]
Synopsis: The Trade Federation establishes a blockade on planet Naboo. Two Jedi
knights are sent by the Senate of the Galactic Republic to try to settle the
conflict.
Appraisal: There is no denying the visual beauty of this film. The screenplay is
mediocre though. Things that rubbed me in the wrong way: an entire robot army is
controlled by one central device, without which it simply ceases to function
(you don't have to go to Engineering School to realize this is plain stupid, not
to mention hardly necessary technologically; on the other hand, it is very
convenient dramatically; see also my review for 'Reign of Fire'); on the other
hand, it becomes clear that the concept of descentralization is not alien to the
screenwriter, and he is willing to employ it as long as it is advantageous to
the 'good guys': a queen uses a double who (implausibly enough) is prepared to
speak for her when it is necessary, while she parades along as a maid (does no
one know what she looks like?).
[unquote]
Except for the misspelling of 'decentralization', I am very pleased with that text. Even though this is not a particularly remarkable film, one has to bear in mind that it was intended for a younger audience, and also that it is part of a greater set of films, and is better judged thus. I am planning on seeing the subsequent films in the cycle, and of course posting my considerations here.
Rating: 50 (down from 51)
Wednesday, August 05, 2015
La symphonie fantastique (1942)
English title: The Fantastic Symphony
Loosely fictionalized biography of 19th-century French composer Hector Berlioz.
Very conventional and taking many liberties with its real-life subject. Watchable nonetheless, thanks to the competent craftsmanship by everyone involved, and also to the high production values.
Rating: 31
Loosely fictionalized biography of 19th-century French composer Hector Berlioz.
Very conventional and taking many liberties with its real-life subject. Watchable nonetheless, thanks to the competent craftsmanship by everyone involved, and also to the high production values.
Rating: 31
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