A criminal murders his lover for her "betrayal" (which will be explained in the course of the film). He is chased by the police. After taking a bullet wound, he takes refuge in the steeple of a church. There, he recollects his life of crimes, the most memorable events of which are his kidnapping of a journalist and a robbery attempt at a football stadium.
Mediocre criminal drama. The narrative is fluent, but that is the best I can say about this movie, which has a clichéd plot with some rather implausible details. The leading performance is not bad. A more detailed analysis (and a somewhat more generous assessment) may be found here (in Portuguese).
Rating: 31
Wednesday, January 30, 2019
Monday, January 28, 2019
Vassa (1983)
Based on the play Vassa Zheleznova, by Maxim Gorky, written in 1910 (first version) and 1935 (second version).
The titular character is a woman who is the de facto head of a bourgeois family in 1910s Russia. Her husband is about to be implicated in a charge of abuse of minors. In a later episode, she receives the visit of her daughter-in-law, who is involved with revolutionary activities and wants to take her son abroad. But Vassa doesn't want to part with her grandson.
Compelling character study which might be taken also as a study of bourgeois decadence. The text is strong, the mise-en-scène is impeccable, and the cast is terrific. I am sorry that I don't have any further insightful observations to add, but perhaps Janet Maslin's review, though a little too stern in my opinion, might help my interested readers.
Rating: 69
The titular character is a woman who is the de facto head of a bourgeois family in 1910s Russia. Her husband is about to be implicated in a charge of abuse of minors. In a later episode, she receives the visit of her daughter-in-law, who is involved with revolutionary activities and wants to take her son abroad. But Vassa doesn't want to part with her grandson.
Compelling character study which might be taken also as a study of bourgeois decadence. The text is strong, the mise-en-scène is impeccable, and the cast is terrific. I am sorry that I don't have any further insightful observations to add, but perhaps Janet Maslin's review, though a little too stern in my opinion, might help my interested readers.
Rating: 69
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
É de chuá! (1958)
Two guys need money to buy costumes for their Samba School (Escola de Samba), without which they will not be able to join the Carnival parade. Through the girlfriend of one of them, they hear about a woman who has spent a large sum of money on a Carnival costume. They decide to go over to her house and ask her for a donation. To their misfortune, said woman is really the wife of a thief and swindler who is throwing a jewel exhibition party as a set-up for stealing the jewelry after the show. The Samba School duo manage to enter the thief's house just before the jewel show. One of them mistakes the jewels for candies and ends up swallowing a valuable diamond.
Routine musical comedy with lots of musical numbers, none of them especially noteworthy. The comedy plot revolves mostly around the problem of making the protagonist expel the jewel he has swallowed. It's all very simple-minded and predictable.
Rating: 31
Routine musical comedy with lots of musical numbers, none of them especially noteworthy. The comedy plot revolves mostly around the problem of making the protagonist expel the jewel he has swallowed. It's all very simple-minded and predictable.
Rating: 31
Sunday, January 13, 2019
Boris Godunov (1986)
Based on the closet play Boris Godunov, also known as A Dramatic Tale, The Comedy of the Distress of the Muscovite State, of Tsar Boris, and of Grishka Otrepyev, by Alexander Pushkin, written in 1825, and first published in 1831.
Boris Godunov is regent of Russia, and after Ivan's son Feodor dies he ascends to the throne. There is a suspicion that Boris murdered Ivan's younger son Dmitry. Boris's rule is placed under threat when an escaped monk says he is the surviving Dmitry, and claims the throne for himself.
Lazy theatrical adaptation, a uniformly dull film which nevertheless exhibits very beautiful interiors from churches and palaces, and some exteriors which are also impressive. The false Dmitry is as much a protagonist as Boris, something which the shortened title simply ignores. I watched it on a very poorly subtitled copy, which means my assesment could be slightly more approving under better conditions.
Rating: 40
Boris Godunov is regent of Russia, and after Ivan's son Feodor dies he ascends to the throne. There is a suspicion that Boris murdered Ivan's younger son Dmitry. Boris's rule is placed under threat when an escaped monk says he is the surviving Dmitry, and claims the throne for himself.
Lazy theatrical adaptation, a uniformly dull film which nevertheless exhibits very beautiful interiors from churches and palaces, and some exteriors which are also impressive. The false Dmitry is as much a protagonist as Boris, something which the shortened title simply ignores. I watched it on a very poorly subtitled copy, which means my assesment could be slightly more approving under better conditions.
Rating: 40
Monday, January 07, 2019
Samba em Brasília (1960)
Teresa, a young woman who is poor and lives at a shanty town, starts working as a cook at an upper-class residence. She suffers sexual harassment from the owner of the house; his son Ricardo also makes advances towards her, although he has an informal engagement to another woman. Teresa is rehearsing to be the standard bearer for the Samba School (Escola de Samba) of her community, but as she begins mingling with her bosses and their milieu, she gradually begins to disconnect from her former social environment. Ricardo starts courting her seriously, and then she has to choose between him and her other suitor from her community.
The cinematography on this is quite impressive, which makes the viewing experience relatively painless. The film is poor, even for Brazilian comedy standards of that era. The supreme aberration one has to withstand is the casting of European-descended and middle-class-mannered Eliana as a very poor woman living in a miserable neighborhood who performs at a Samba School and gives lessons on macumba to the lady of the house at which she works. The dramatic axis of the movie is a trivial examination of social rising, which here is based on looks and also on wits. The film's title bears no relation to the plot, and is only made less absurd by an equally out-of-the-blue musical number with motifs from the then newly inaugurated Brazilian capital.
Rating: 31
The cinematography on this is quite impressive, which makes the viewing experience relatively painless. The film is poor, even for Brazilian comedy standards of that era. The supreme aberration one has to withstand is the casting of European-descended and middle-class-mannered Eliana as a very poor woman living in a miserable neighborhood who performs at a Samba School and gives lessons on macumba to the lady of the house at which she works. The dramatic axis of the movie is a trivial examination of social rising, which here is based on looks and also on wits. The film's title bears no relation to the plot, and is only made less absurd by an equally out-of-the-blue musical number with motifs from the then newly inaugurated Brazilian capital.
Rating: 31
Saturday, January 05, 2019
Persona (1966)
Second viewing; previously viewed between 1983 and 1986.
A film with several interesting ideas and some gripping sequences. The theme of switching personalities was repeated in Performance, which was made around 1968. The theme of a vampiric relationship between two women was frequent in the 60s and later. Mulholland Dr. was avowedly inspired by this film. Other films by Lynch seem to have also been influenced by themes in Persona. Ambiguous feelings towards babies is a theme of Eraserhead; the metamorphosis into someone else as an escape from an intolerable condition is present in Lost Highway. Having characters stand for a philosphical or psychological entity is an idea which goes back to Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (perhaps further back, but I don't know). In 1972, there was the Brazilian film As Deusas which applied that concept (probably under the influence of this very movie). Unfortunately, Persona is sorely lacking in conceptual coherence and dramatic consistence. That was a time when freedom became a sort of motto and moral imperative for well-regarded filmmakers. Reason became a sort of bête noire for them. Most of them returned to it soon after, though. Persona is still an admired film, but I suspect its reputation will gradually adjust to its real worth.
Rating: 51 (down from 67)
Wednesday, January 02, 2019
David and Bathsheba (1951)
Second viewing; previously viewed on August 28, 1999.
A king covets the wife of one of his generals. The king takes her as a lover, and she becomes pregnant of him. He tries to arrange things for it to look like the child's father is the woman's husband. When that proves unfeasible he sends the general to a deadly military mission.
This is what happens when Hollywood takes a biblical story and lays a coating of 20th-century ideology on it. The Bible story is basically about abuse of power. The movie has that angle too, but it makes David's relationship with Bathsheba a romantic one (in the sense with which the 20th century has endowed the word "romantic"). Anyway, both in the movie and in the Bible there is ample tolerance for the murderous behavior of kings. Not to mention that war itself derives from an abuse of power. But it would be too much to ask from a 1950s Hollywood movie to go that far. On a more down-to-earth note, a problem with this movie is that it suffers from too much padding with elements extraneous from the main plot, such as the protagonist's life history and poetic inclinations. But it's a watchable movie; the acting, in particular, is quite good, and so are the production values.
Rating: 54 (down from 60)
A king covets the wife of one of his generals. The king takes her as a lover, and she becomes pregnant of him. He tries to arrange things for it to look like the child's father is the woman's husband. When that proves unfeasible he sends the general to a deadly military mission.
This is what happens when Hollywood takes a biblical story and lays a coating of 20th-century ideology on it. The Bible story is basically about abuse of power. The movie has that angle too, but it makes David's relationship with Bathsheba a romantic one (in the sense with which the 20th century has endowed the word "romantic"). Anyway, both in the movie and in the Bible there is ample tolerance for the murderous behavior of kings. Not to mention that war itself derives from an abuse of power. But it would be too much to ask from a 1950s Hollywood movie to go that far. On a more down-to-earth note, a problem with this movie is that it suffers from too much padding with elements extraneous from the main plot, such as the protagonist's life history and poetic inclinations. But it's a watchable movie; the acting, in particular, is quite good, and so are the production values.
Rating: 54 (down from 60)
Sunday, December 30, 2018
Biutiful (2010)
A man finds he only has a few months to live. He is separated from his wife and takes care of their two children. He works supervising the illegal work of illegal immigrants. He reunites with his wife for a while.
Not a very interesting film. It seems to believe that conveying intense emotion is enough to grab a viewer's attention. The plot has some interesting elements, but apparently there was not the will to make them into an exciting whole. Too many subplots lead nowhere and the main plot (whatever you think it is) doesn't lead anywhere very interesting either. Anyway I gathered from the movie that immigrants are not only good but necessary, because without them who will take care of our children when we die?
Rating: 37
Not a very interesting film. It seems to believe that conveying intense emotion is enough to grab a viewer's attention. The plot has some interesting elements, but apparently there was not the will to make them into an exciting whole. Too many subplots lead nowhere and the main plot (whatever you think it is) doesn't lead anywhere very interesting either. Anyway I gathered from the movie that immigrants are not only good but necessary, because without them who will take care of our children when we die?
Rating: 37
Thursday, December 27, 2018
The Pelican Brief (1993)
Second viewing; first viewing with original audio; previously viewed, dubbed in Portuguese, on August 15, 2001.
Two Supreme Court justices are executed. A law student does some research work on who might want to get rid of two men who diverged in almost every issue; she comes up with a suspect. She writes a brief detailing how she came to that suspect. After that brief reaches powerful hands, people around her start to die and she must run for her life.
This is a reasonably well-made thriller, but only in a purely mechanical sense. In what regards the plot, the whole thing is very flawed in an essential way. After the law student has divulged her theory to the press, she is no longer a worthwhile target, so the notion that the bad guys would chase her relentlessly and indefinitely is ludicrous. In fact, even before that, they couldn't know who else knew about her findings, or even would come to the same conclusions as her on their own. After all, she used only public information on her research. It is true that, in midfilm, she does come into possession of some relevant material items, but she only gets to that position because she was being chased, so a misconception somehow made the plot become more plausible. But, if you can get past that, the film does move along in an agreeable pace, and many individual sequences are entertaining. The more, say, personal, or emotional, aspect of the characters is a weak spot of the movie, and does not come across as credible. Also, there is a bizarre product placement in action here, where the product is the main actress. Through compliments from at least one other character in the movie, the filmmakers seem to want the audience to believe she is a stunning beauty. By what one reads in the press from that period, and even later, it seems to have worked.
Rating: 42 (unchanged)
Two Supreme Court justices are executed. A law student does some research work on who might want to get rid of two men who diverged in almost every issue; she comes up with a suspect. She writes a brief detailing how she came to that suspect. After that brief reaches powerful hands, people around her start to die and she must run for her life.
This is a reasonably well-made thriller, but only in a purely mechanical sense. In what regards the plot, the whole thing is very flawed in an essential way. After the law student has divulged her theory to the press, she is no longer a worthwhile target, so the notion that the bad guys would chase her relentlessly and indefinitely is ludicrous. In fact, even before that, they couldn't know who else knew about her findings, or even would come to the same conclusions as her on their own. After all, she used only public information on her research. It is true that, in midfilm, she does come into possession of some relevant material items, but she only gets to that position because she was being chased, so a misconception somehow made the plot become more plausible. But, if you can get past that, the film does move along in an agreeable pace, and many individual sequences are entertaining. The more, say, personal, or emotional, aspect of the characters is a weak spot of the movie, and does not come across as credible. Also, there is a bizarre product placement in action here, where the product is the main actress. Through compliments from at least one other character in the movie, the filmmakers seem to want the audience to believe she is a stunning beauty. By what one reads in the press from that period, and even later, it seems to have worked.
Rating: 42 (unchanged)
Monday, December 24, 2018
Vai que é mole (1960)
Three friends and partners in crime are released from jail on the same day. One of them receives the news that a relative of his died and named him a guardian of her young son. The chief of their gang wants to use the boy as an assistant in their thieving operations. After one of the three criminals decides to give back to its owner (a chorus girl) a purse they stole from her, the TV station for which she works decides to put him and one of his partners (the boy's father) in a show about honest people. Of course the girl doesn't know that they stole her purse, and they don't tell her either.
Although the plot is weak, relying as it does on every cliché we are used to in Brazilian comedies of that period, the film acquits itself a little better than its similars. It's basically a film for kids, or for adults with a kid's mind, but within that limited scope it manages to develop situations that signal its awareness of the social injustice in Brazil, which was acute in 1960 and still is. The emphasis is on slapstick and the pace is kept in a fast mode, only letting up for the occasional musical number.
Rating: 33
Although the plot is weak, relying as it does on every cliché we are used to in Brazilian comedies of that period, the film acquits itself a little better than its similars. It's basically a film for kids, or for adults with a kid's mind, but within that limited scope it manages to develop situations that signal its awareness of the social injustice in Brazil, which was acute in 1960 and still is. The emphasis is on slapstick and the pace is kept in a fast mode, only letting up for the occasional musical number.
Rating: 33
Wednesday, December 19, 2018
Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)
A reconstruction of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, and the events which preceded it.
This is a well-made war drama. It must be said that the first section, so to speak, of the movie, which accounts for about two thirds of it, and which explains how a series of errors on the part of the Americans contributed to the Japanese success, is quite dull, although I wouldn't know how to improve upon it. The last section is considerably more exciting.
Rating: 51
This is a well-made war drama. It must be said that the first section, so to speak, of the movie, which accounts for about two thirds of it, and which explains how a series of errors on the part of the Americans contributed to the Japanese success, is quite dull, although I wouldn't know how to improve upon it. The last section is considerably more exciting.
Rating: 51
Thursday, December 13, 2018
Samson and Delilah (1949)
Second viewing; first viewed between 1983 (probably) and 1986.
The Hebrew Samson gets involved with a Philistine woman, and then with another. But the Philistines are after him for his violence, and they use the latter of those women to capture him.
This biblical tale is a fantasy on the situation of living as a conquered or oppressed people. Closeness to the ruling ethnicity is at once dangerous and alluring. Many women lived this same dilemma in the war which ended four years prior to this film's release, and the ones who fraternized with the German enemy were shamed and punished. In the case of this movie it is a male who does the reproachable fraternizing. The fantastic element is given by the outstanding individual power of the protagonist. As a visual spectacle I found this film to be quite agreeable. As storytelling goes it does not really stand out.
Rating: 53 (up from 48)
The Hebrew Samson gets involved with a Philistine woman, and then with another. But the Philistines are after him for his violence, and they use the latter of those women to capture him.
This biblical tale is a fantasy on the situation of living as a conquered or oppressed people. Closeness to the ruling ethnicity is at once dangerous and alluring. Many women lived this same dilemma in the war which ended four years prior to this film's release, and the ones who fraternized with the German enemy were shamed and punished. In the case of this movie it is a male who does the reproachable fraternizing. The fantastic element is given by the outstanding individual power of the protagonist. As a visual spectacle I found this film to be quite agreeable. As storytelling goes it does not really stand out.
Rating: 53 (up from 48)
Sunday, December 09, 2018
Zé do Periquito (1961)
*spoilers below*
Zé Nó works as a gardener at a high school. He is somewhat infatuated with a girl student named Carmen, and that becomes an object of derision by Mexerico ('Gossip'), one of the boy students. Mexerico suggests to Zé Nó that he quit his job and try to make a fortune at some other line of activity, so that he becomes attractive to Carmen. Zé Nó accepts his suggestion and travels to a small town where he tries to earn a living by playing the barrel organ on the street. One local homeless woman nicknamed Pelanca ('Fold of Skin') approaches him and proposes a partnership which she says will make them rich. Pelanca knows every dirty secret of each person in town, and she helps Zé Nó establish a street commerce of selling little pieces of paper containing 'clairvoyant' information about the 'present, past and future' of each person. The fraud is enhanced by making a parakeet more or less randomly choose with its beak each piece of paper from a pile inside a box. Soon everyone becomes aware of the evil behind the façade of respectability of their fellow citizens, and that leads to feuds and enmities. Zé Nó returns to his earlier town with a sack of money. He proposes to Carmen, whose father is in a terrible financial situation, and sees Carmen's marriage with Zé Nó as a way out of his troubles. Carmen likes Zé Nó but is not attracted towards him; thus, she does not at first feel inclined to accept the marriage proposal. At her father's insistence, however, she accepts it. At the wedding reception, Mexerico plays a prank on the newlyweds and their guests: his wedding gift package when opened releases little mice which spread across the ballroom. After the mice are gone, Mexerico offers Zé Nó another package which he says has talcum powder which will take away the smell left by the mice. But it is actually itching powder which makes all the guests scratch themselves. Zé Nó returns to the small town where he made his fortune to collect Pelanca. By this time, the townsfolk have turned their rage against Zé Nó for seeding strife among the people. When Zé Nó shows up there, they chase him and he must hide from them. He and Pelanca leave town as fast as they can. Zé Nó then employs Pelanca as a maid at his home. Some days later, Zé Nó invites his wife Carmen to go out to the beach with him, but she says she prefers to stay at home. Pelanca then talks to her and scolds her gently for not going out with Zé Nó. After a while, Carmen's former school friends appear at her house and ask her out to the beach, where they hold a 'surprise' for her. Carmen decides to go with them, with plans to join Zé Nó at the beach. Once there, however, another devilish scheme by Mexerico unfolds: they take Carmen on a motorboat ride and then dump her on a stationed boat inside which is her high school sweetheart. Carmen gets furious and jumps to the sea, but before she can do it Zé Nó, who is looking through his binoculars from the shore, spots her and her former boyfriend inside the boat. When he gets home, they fight and she returns to her parents' house. The school principal happens to be visiting there, and he convinces Carmen to make up with Zé Nó, if she really likes him, which she says she does. Zé Nó says he will donate to charity all the money he earned with the 'clairvoyant' tickets, and he will only take Carmen back if she does not mind being poor. She says she doesn't. Zé Nó goes back being a gardener at the same high school he worked at before.
*end of spoilers*
This is probably the weirdest of all Mazzaropi movies which I have seen. The insertion of musical numbers at the most unexpected moments makes it even more bizarre. Every character except the female protagonist 'Carmen' seems to be a scumbag in this movie; as the film approaches the end, however, the film struggles to twist things in such a way that evil is concentrated in one single character ('Mexerico'), making him a sort of dramatic scapegoat. I didn't find this movie funny, let alone dramatically moving. But it is eccentric enough to arouse one's curiosity.
Rating: 32
Saturday, December 08, 2018
Money from Home (1953)
Second viewing, at least; previously viewed on January 31, 1989, and possibly also earlier than that.
A gambler finds himself in debt to a gangster. The gangster tells the gambler that he must prevent a certain horse from entering a race. The gambler is forced to accept the mission. He passes his veterinarian cousin off as the hired jockey for the horse. Meanwhile they keep the real jockey, an alcoholic, locked up. But the gambler falls in love with the horse's owner.
This is not as bad as I thought upon my previous viewing. The most interesting section of the movie is the beginning, when some picturesque characters from the New York underworld are paraded. What follows is a formulaic comedy vehicle for the starring duo, but it has some funny moments and overall is not hard to watch.
Rating: 39 (up from 30)
A gambler finds himself in debt to a gangster. The gangster tells the gambler that he must prevent a certain horse from entering a race. The gambler is forced to accept the mission. He passes his veterinarian cousin off as the hired jockey for the horse. Meanwhile they keep the real jockey, an alcoholic, locked up. But the gambler falls in love with the horse's owner.
This is not as bad as I thought upon my previous viewing. The most interesting section of the movie is the beginning, when some picturesque characters from the New York underworld are paraded. What follows is a formulaic comedy vehicle for the starring duo, but it has some funny moments and overall is not hard to watch.
Rating: 39 (up from 30)
Monday, December 03, 2018
Return from Witch Mountain (1978)
Sequel to Escape to Witch Mountain (1975). The two ESP- and PK-endowed kids from outer space are having a vacation in town, and are spotted by a duo of crooks who kidnap the boy with the intention of exploiting his psychic gifts. The girl befriends a gang of truant boys who help her locate and rescue her brother.
Less than electrifying adventure for juvenile audiences. While not an unpleasant watch, the parade of SFX-enhanced paranormality is unable to lift the film off from the strictly routine fare ground. I was left with a question from the first film, namely, why must they use a flying saucer to move to and from Witch Mountain, but it remained unanswered. Also unmet by this film was my curiosity about their "community", which is never shown.
Rating: 40
Less than electrifying adventure for juvenile audiences. While not an unpleasant watch, the parade of SFX-enhanced paranormality is unable to lift the film off from the strictly routine fare ground. I was left with a question from the first film, namely, why must they use a flying saucer to move to and from Witch Mountain, but it remained unanswered. Also unmet by this film was my curiosity about their "community", which is never shown.
Rating: 40
Sunday, December 02, 2018
Toivon tuolla puolen (2017)
English title: The Other Side of Hope
The faithful translation of the title is reported by one IMDB user as being Beyond Hope. I cannot vouch for that. Google Translate gives it as I Hope Beyond That, which is somewhat different.
A Syrian refugee arrives in Helsinki. He applies for a staying permit, but is rejected. He escapes from his confinement just before his deportation and starts working at a restaurant whose new owner recently separated from his wife.
Bland fiction on the immigration topic which seems to be based more on propaganda than on the immediate reality of Europe. Its protagonist is conveniently without cultural particularities: he has abandoned his religion (though not faith per se), and has no political affiliation. On the other hand, Finland is depicted as having a xenophobia problem, at both governmental and street levels, an assumption which contradicts every personal and news-type report to my knowledge. As one comment on IMDB has implied, perhaps the writer-director's secret intention was to produce a warning against immigration to his country, and pose as a humane liberal while doing it.
Rating: 35
The faithful translation of the title is reported by one IMDB user as being Beyond Hope. I cannot vouch for that. Google Translate gives it as I Hope Beyond That, which is somewhat different.
A Syrian refugee arrives in Helsinki. He applies for a staying permit, but is rejected. He escapes from his confinement just before his deportation and starts working at a restaurant whose new owner recently separated from his wife.
Bland fiction on the immigration topic which seems to be based more on propaganda than on the immediate reality of Europe. Its protagonist is conveniently without cultural particularities: he has abandoned his religion (though not faith per se), and has no political affiliation. On the other hand, Finland is depicted as having a xenophobia problem, at both governmental and street levels, an assumption which contradicts every personal and news-type report to my knowledge. As one comment on IMDB has implied, perhaps the writer-director's secret intention was to produce a warning against immigration to his country, and pose as a humane liberal while doing it.
Rating: 35
Saturday, December 01, 2018
Escape to Witch Mountain (1975)
Second viewing; first viewed between 1983 and 1986
Two orphan kids endowed with telepathic and telekinetic powers are taken in custody by a man passing off as their uncle. This man works for a millionaire who wants to exploit the kids' powers for monetary gain. The kids escape and are helped by a solitary man driving a motor home.
Silly yet entertaining adventure for younger audiences. Although I always feel a little cheated by characters who use unrealistic powers to escape their predicaments, this film is so well made and moves at such an engaging pace that it is easy to overlook this aspect of it. There is not much to be said about the plot or the characters. This is, for better or worse, basically an action movie without further pretensions.
Rating: 57 (down from 63)
Two orphan kids endowed with telepathic and telekinetic powers are taken in custody by a man passing off as their uncle. This man works for a millionaire who wants to exploit the kids' powers for monetary gain. The kids escape and are helped by a solitary man driving a motor home.
Silly yet entertaining adventure for younger audiences. Although I always feel a little cheated by characters who use unrealistic powers to escape their predicaments, this film is so well made and moves at such an engaging pace that it is easy to overlook this aspect of it. There is not much to be said about the plot or the characters. This is, for better or worse, basically an action movie without further pretensions.
Rating: 57 (down from 63)
Comanche (1956)
The Comanche are raiding Mexican villages. The U.S. government has signed a treaty with the Mexican government by which the Comanche must be made to return to U.S. territory and stop their raids. An American emissary is assigned to meet with the Comanche chief and convince him to sign a treaty, but there is dissension amongst both White and Comanche.
B-Western with some long stretches of dialogue and a very conventional and predictable plot. Nestor Paiva does a very good Walter Brennan. The liberal-slanted plot portrays the Comanche in a favorable light, excepting a few bad apples amongst them. Their chief has enough good sense to admit they are better off making peace with the stronger White. Thus, the film's unstated assumption is that the pre-condition for a situation where diplomacy beats violence is a history of putting violence over diplomacy, without which Whites wouldn't be in a stronger position.
Rating: 32
B-Western with some long stretches of dialogue and a very conventional and predictable plot. Nestor Paiva does a very good Walter Brennan. The liberal-slanted plot portrays the Comanche in a favorable light, excepting a few bad apples amongst them. Their chief has enough good sense to admit they are better off making peace with the stronger White. Thus, the film's unstated assumption is that the pre-condition for a situation where diplomacy beats violence is a history of putting violence over diplomacy, without which Whites wouldn't be in a stronger position.
Rating: 32
Wednesday, November 28, 2018
Sabrina (1995)
Based on the play Sabrina Fair, by Samuel A. Taylor, first staged in 1953, and on the film adaptation which came out the following year.
Sabrina lives in the servants' quarters of a big mansion where her father works as a chauffeur. She has a crush on the boss's younger son David, who is a womanizer and a bon-vivant. The family business is run by David's older brother Linus. Sabrina's father's employer sends her to Paris to do an internship at a fashion magazine, all expenses paid. When she returns, some things have changed around the house, but she has changed as well.
Remaking a 50s movie without some plot modifications is very problematic, and this film suffers for it. Capitalism in the 90s was very different from Capitalism in the 50s. Marriage as a prerequisite for a business merger is a very rare occurrence, to say the least. To complicate things further, the romantic sensibility of the original film was already not exactly in tune with the ages. I do not remember the 1954 film all that well, so I checked for differences between the versions on the IMDB site. It seems the only relevant updating they did was to give the female characters a less subordinate position regarding their working status. But this is perfunctory considering that the main character is modeled after ancient fairy tale princesses and such. When you think about the film, it is hard not to notice that the most interesting character is, after all, Linus, not Sabrina. The film seems to want to demonstrate that it is unhealthy to devote one's life to work before one has sorted out a few essential aspects of one's personal life.
Rating: 32
Sabrina lives in the servants' quarters of a big mansion where her father works as a chauffeur. She has a crush on the boss's younger son David, who is a womanizer and a bon-vivant. The family business is run by David's older brother Linus. Sabrina's father's employer sends her to Paris to do an internship at a fashion magazine, all expenses paid. When she returns, some things have changed around the house, but she has changed as well.
Remaking a 50s movie without some plot modifications is very problematic, and this film suffers for it. Capitalism in the 90s was very different from Capitalism in the 50s. Marriage as a prerequisite for a business merger is a very rare occurrence, to say the least. To complicate things further, the romantic sensibility of the original film was already not exactly in tune with the ages. I do not remember the 1954 film all that well, so I checked for differences between the versions on the IMDB site. It seems the only relevant updating they did was to give the female characters a less subordinate position regarding their working status. But this is perfunctory considering that the main character is modeled after ancient fairy tale princesses and such. When you think about the film, it is hard not to notice that the most interesting character is, after all, Linus, not Sabrina. The film seems to want to demonstrate that it is unhealthy to devote one's life to work before one has sorted out a few essential aspects of one's personal life.
Rating: 32
Tuesday, November 27, 2018
Paris brûle-t-il? (1966)
English title: Is Paris Burning?
Dramatic reconstruction of the liberation of Paris. The Resistance is divided into several factions. The Allies initially intend to circumvent Paris, but are convinced to enter the city because the Nazis intend to destroy it in case of defeat.
This is a competent historical drama filled with impressive war action sequences, both staged and documental. Some people have complained that the plot is not easy to follow, but that is not true, although it helps to read the Wikipedia entry before watching the film. This film is ultimately a dramatization of a philosophical question: given the choice of saving a work of art and saving human lives, which is preferrable? In the film this question is a bit nuanced, since saving Art (which in the film is epitomized by the Louvre and Notre Dame cathedral) also implies saving the lives of Parisians; the question persists, however, because by circumventing Paris, while it meant sacrificing the art and the people of Paris, also meant putting a faster end to the war, and thus saving a greater number of lives. This is somewhat akin to the problem posed in The Doctor's Dilemma, a play by Shaw.
The version I saw was spoken in English, which meant all the non-anglophone actors were dubbed.
Rating: 60
Dramatic reconstruction of the liberation of Paris. The Resistance is divided into several factions. The Allies initially intend to circumvent Paris, but are convinced to enter the city because the Nazis intend to destroy it in case of defeat.
This is a competent historical drama filled with impressive war action sequences, both staged and documental. Some people have complained that the plot is not easy to follow, but that is not true, although it helps to read the Wikipedia entry before watching the film. This film is ultimately a dramatization of a philosophical question: given the choice of saving a work of art and saving human lives, which is preferrable? In the film this question is a bit nuanced, since saving Art (which in the film is epitomized by the Louvre and Notre Dame cathedral) also implies saving the lives of Parisians; the question persists, however, because by circumventing Paris, while it meant sacrificing the art and the people of Paris, also meant putting a faster end to the war, and thus saving a greater number of lives. This is somewhat akin to the problem posed in The Doctor's Dilemma, a play by Shaw.
The version I saw was spoken in English, which meant all the non-anglophone actors were dubbed.
Rating: 60
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