Une partie de plaisir (1975)

English titles: Pleasure Party; A Piece of Pleasure

Philippe lives with his wife Esther and their little daughter in a country estate. Philippe confesses his past infidelities to Esther and tells her that it would be OK if she had extramarital affairs too. During one of their house parties, Esther goes to bed with Habib, whom Philippe dislikes. Philippe is OK with that, but when Esther starts leading a double life, Philippe gets annoyed.

An investigation of the new conjugal mores and their psychological effects on modern men and women. I couldn't decide whether it is reactionary -- Philippe's dream of civilized liberalism is shattered -- or progressivist -- masculine power is incompatible with progress, and thus would have to be suppressed. However one looks at it, it's a strong movie, with smart dialogue and a fairly tense story progression. The two main parts are played by the screenwriter and his ex-wife, an arrangement which gives the movie an extraordinary sense of verisimilitude. This is a work of imagination which drew on autobiographical events. The physically violent parts are inventions, I suppose. Although it's fairly grim, I highly recommend this film.

Rating: 79

Un rincón para querernos (1965)

A honeymooning couple finds it difficult to enjoy a moment alone. First they are crowded with other people in the train, then, in Pamplona during the San Fermín festival, they can't find a room, and must "enjoy" the tumultuous festivities in town.

In equal parts comedy and tourist-sploitation, this is an agreeable throwback to simpler times, though animal lovers will perhaps frown upon the depiction of the famous running of the bulls, and political fanatics will doubt that everyone could be that happy during a dictatorship. A segment of Manicomio (1954), which I have reviewed recently, depicted a similar situation as the one seen here during the train ride.

Rating: 55

A navalha na carne (1970)

English title: Razor in the Flesh

The tense interaction between a pimp and a prostitute because of some stolen money gets tenser when they bring into their room the homosexual janitor who stole it.

The interesting text based on a play is the strong suit of this drama, which also boasts some interesting cinematic ideas such as the initial silent half-hour, and good performances by the trio of actors. A low point are the sex sequences, which were badly filmed due probably to fear of the Brazilian censorship, but became a problem anyway, delaying the film's opening by a few months.

Rating: 50

Le Gendarme et les gendarmettes (1982)

 U.S. titles: The Gendarme and the Gendarmettes; The Troops & Troop-ettes

The St. Tropez policemen move to a new office, and get a computer to aid in their work. Their team is expanded to include four female officers, who unfortunately are kidnapped as part of a scheme which poses a great threat to the nation.

In a certain way this is the worst film of the franchise, because the amount of cringeworthy humor is simply intolerable in itself. But interspersed with those awful sequences are some passable action ones, and one which is actually very good: a nun goes on a driving rampage and her car disintegrates in the process. The previous film in the series didn't get as annoying as this one is at times, but it was also more monotonous.

Rating: 34

Bara no sôretsu (1969)

 English title: Funeral Parade of Roses

Loosely based on the play Oedipus Rex, by Sophocles, first published around 429 B.C.

Eddie, an effeminate man who works entertaining customers at a homosexual bar vies for the position of "madam", which is occupied by the bar owner's current lover. Eddie has a troubled family past which will bear tragic consequences for his future. A parallel plot centers on the (fictional) actor playing Eddie as he performs his work and interacts with his friends.

While this film's critical status is in part due to its use of pop art techniques, which can be a little annoying at times, and its fame probably stems significantly from its (once) controversial subject matter, it's only fair to say that its narrative bits are quite competently staged, especially in its ability to elicit convincing performances from its actors.

Rating: 50

Link to an online copy (I watched it on TV though): Funeral Parade Of Roses : Toshio Matsumoto : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Manicomio (1954)

 English title: Asylum

Based on the short stories The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether (1845), by Edgar Allan Poe, La mona de imitación (1923), by Ramón Gómez de la Serna, Putanitsa (tr. 'Confusion') (1897), or its variation Oshibka (tr. 'Mistake') (1900), by Aleksandr Kuprin, and Mysl (tr. 'Thought') (1902), by Leonid Andreyev.

A man goes to visit his fiancée at the madhouse where she works as a psychiatrist. He encounters several persons there who tell curious stories about mental patients. Each story is developed in flashback: a man whose wife one day starts repeating everything he says; a woman who feigns madness on a train in order to better enjoy her honeymoon; a man who feigns madness so as not to be punished for a crime he is planning to commit.

Collection of stories about mad people framed by Poe's story. The joining of stories with different styles and moods into one coherent whole has been passably achieved; the film doesn't aim for subtlety or depth, but the mise-en-scène is serviceable, and the result is curious and entertaining.

Rating: 51

Links to all but one of the short stories (one may use the machine translation button to convert the ones in Russian to one's preferred language):

Александр Куприн: Путаница (kuprin-lit.ru)

Александр Куприн: Ошибка (Вариант рассказа "Путаница") (kuprin-lit.ru)

A Dilemma - Wikisource, the free online library

The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether - Wikisource, the free online library

Le Gendarme et les extra-terrestres (1979)

 English title: The Gendarme and the Extra-Terrestrials

St. Tropez is visited by extra-terrestrials who take on the appearance of existing humans. One of the gendarmes see a flying saucer and the others do not believe him. Then another one sees it. Meanwhile they meet alien impostors who sound hollow and drink oil.

A weak installment with a few funny sequences. The reckless driver nun is back. The same joke of mistaking alien copies for their human counterparts is repeated ad nauseam.

Rating: 34

Le Gendarme en balade (1970)

 English title: The Troops on Vacation

The Saint-Tropez gendarmes are forced into retirement. They have a hard time adapting to an idle life. When they hear that one of their squad is in a mental hospital with amnesia, they set out to rescue him. Later, they must stop a bunch of kids who plan to launch a nuclear missile.

This fourth installment of the Gendarme franchise deals with the problems of retirement in middle age. The humor is very bland and aimed at a very undemanding public. However, the general idea of a bunch of (not very) old guys looking for something to do and clinging to old times has a certain pathos to it.

Rating: 34

A infidelidade ao alcance de todos (1972)

 Two segments: (1) The Tuba ("A tuba"). In a small town, an attractive woman does not get the attention she deserves from her husband, who is focused on his tuba playing in the municipal band. She is approached by the town mayor, who has an unusual proposition for her. (2) The Shag ("A transa"). During a new year's eve party, a bunch of couples engage in adulterous affairs.

Though devoid of any higher artistic ambition, this sex comedy does not hit rock bottom either. The acting is passable, and the script, adapted from a popular Brazilian play, while hardly brilliant, works as a vehicle for some mildly interesting sequences. The segments are different in tone, the first one slightly surreal and the second one more sprightly.

Rating: 36

O ébrio (1946)

 English title: The Drunkard

(spoilers) A ruined farmer's son is helped by a priest who gives him lodging. He enrolls at a singing contest and wins first prize. With the money, he manages to finish medical school. He operates on a little girl who couldn't walk, and she then can walk again. He marries a nurse, but she is deceived by one of his relatives who convinces her to run away with him. The protagonist then becomes a wanderer and a drunkard. A final encounter with her provides a sort of closure to their story.

Inspired by a song by the leading actor, this is, with the exception of one sequence, one of the worst films ever made, so ridiculous it defies belief, and poorly acted by nearly everyone in its cast. The one sequence which arguably stands above the overall inanity is -- predictably -- the one featuring the title song -- it's practically impossible not to be moved by it, even though what comes before and after it is an appalling collection of absurdities. All that being said, anyone with an interest in popular culture will probably have a curiosity to watch it, especially since it has been very competently restored in the late 1990s.

Rating: 25

Adultério à brasileira (1969)

 Worldwide English Title: Adultery Brazilian Style

Film in three segments. (1) O telhado ("The Roof") is about a factory worker who suspects his wife is cheating on him; (2) A assinatura ("The Signature") shows a day in the life of a couple in an open marriage; (3) A receita ("The Recipe") has a a womanizer husband and his frustrated wife who has a younger admirer.

To be honest, this film was surprisingly good at parts, and overall quite entertaining. The first episode featuring a working class couple is very good, a small masterpiece or nearly. The factory environment was very well captured in images, and the home life of the protagonist was equally well portrayed. And the leading performance was excellent. The other two episodes, while somewhat inferior, are not without merit. Number two is a curious take on upper class people which, while perhaps not totally convincing, reflected the spirit of the times and was well filmed. The last segment depicts a middle class couple and is possibly the one with the most appeal to audience tastes, showing more nudity and some vulgarity. It offers a glimpse into the later style of this director and into a whole new genre of which he would be one of the founders -- the pornochanchada; that being said, this is superior to those later films.

Rating: 51

The Plainsman (1966)

Remake of the homonymous 1936 film, which was based on "Wild Bill Hickok, the Prince of Pistoleers" by Frank J. Wilstach, first published in 1926.

War is brewing among the Cheyenne. Two guys and a tomboyish woman try to avoid the worst, but a bigoted officer does not believe in peace.

Bland Western using real-life characters in a fictional story. It's made with the usual American competence, but the only thing which caught my attention was Dillman's performance.

Rating: 35

Le paltoquet (1986)

 Based on the novel On a tué pendant l'escale, by Philippe du Puy de Clinchamps, under the pseudonym Franz-Rudolf Falk, first published in 1945.

A group of 4 friends gather in a bar to play bridge; they are referred to as The Doctor, The Professor, The Journalist, and The Honorable Merchant. The only other patron is a woman who lies in a hammock smoking. There is also the manager (a woman) and the waiter. The murder of a traveling salesman introduces a new character: the policeman. The doctor's gun is found near the cadaver, and so an investigation ensues.

Though based on a novel, this is more like a filmed play. The dialogue is riddled with wordplay and the scenery is very stylized. It is a sort of meta-whodunit, humorous and self-referential. The actors are all good, some are excellent. Overall, a film which is not exactly a landmark achievement, but interesting nonetheless.

Rating: 50

Le dossier noir (1955)

English title: Black Dossier 

A young judge is appointed to a position in a small town which is riddled with corruption. An ongoing case about a dog trainer who confesses the murder of some dogs he was working with appears to have deeper political implications. An investigator from Paris is summoned.

Well made criminal drama which offers an analysis of the justice system through dark satire. It has an intelligent conception and is well acted and entertaining throughout. One could criticize perhaps the somewhat abruptness of the ending, leaving some plot lines unresolved, but I think that's a minor problem. There isn't much information about the movie on the web, but there are some sources who point to a few real life events which allegedly inspired -- though very loosely -- this film's plot. One of those events is the Paule Guillou affair; the other is the Cannac affair. Here are some links about those affairs and/or about their respective connections with this movie:

Paule Guillou est-elle l'auteur du triple empoisonnement de Vendays ? (lemonde.fr)

Gironde : une préparatrice en pharmacie empoisonne toute une famille du Médoc en 1945 | Actu Bordeaux

Question CLVI, Pharmacie et cinéma - Persée (persee.fr)

"Le dossier noir" de la Résistance Carcassonnaise dans un film d'André Cayatte - Musique et patrimoine de Carcassonne (blogspirit.com)

Rating: 59

A super fêmea (1973)

 A male contraceptive pill is developed and is ready to be marketed. The manufacturer seeks a female model to advertise its product.

Sex comedy which is actually more weird than funny. The premise mocks feminism: women unite to demand that men share (or rather take over) the "burden" of contraception. The remainder of the film is an essay on the objectification of women, and an opportunity to marvel at how natural their bodies still were in the early 1970s. This voyeuristic pleasure was then (and is now even more) the greatest one provided by this film. At any rate, Brazilian cinema at that point in time hadn't reached its nadir of vulgarity yet, so the film is a few notches above unwatchability.

Rating: 27

To Trap a Spy (1964)

 Cinematic adaptation of the first episode of the TV series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. ("The Vulcan Affair").

An American industrialist is actually working for an evil organization which is planning a murder which bears some connection with the visit to the U.S. of the leaders of an African country.

Espionage thriller with some mildly comic elements. There isn't really any relevant connection to serious issues here; intelligence does not work like this, and neither does the world. But, despite -- or perhaps because of -- that, it entertains passably.

Rating: 45

Murder! (1930)

Second viewing; previously viewed on October 17, 1992.

 A juror reluctantly endorses the guilty verdict in the case of an actress accused of murdering another member of her theatrical troupe. He then sets out to find out the real culprit.

This is a very well made film which employs an array of creative filming techniques to tell a story which, unfortunately, is not very interesting. Though the loose ends are carefully tied up in the end, there isn't really much plausibility to the premise of someone who will not provide information which would save her from being hanged, to mention just one of the more conspicuously far-fetched elements of the plot. Upon my first viewing I apparently only had eyes for the film's shortcomings.

Rating: 50 (up from 17)

Speak Easily (1932)

 A college professor with no social life gets a letter telling him that he has inherited a fortune. He quits his job and decides to finally live life. He gets involved with a theater troupe and ends up financially backing them. Of course there is also a girl.

This comedy about "broadening experiences" is not too hard to view, but is not exactly brilliant either. The comicity is somewhat strained, especially at its climactic later section. The idea of achieving better results in a show through accident than on purpose is seemingly an often revisited one. F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre gives some examples of this in his reasoned review of this film. An obscure Brazilian film which I reviewed on this blog is another example. Christopher Mulrooney cleverly remarked Speak Easily's connection with The Blue Angel.

Rating: 40

Death Wish 3 (1985)

 Second viewing; previously viewed on July 16, 2009

My previous synopsis is sufficiently good: "An aging man with a past as a vigilante resumes that role in a fight to dismantle the rule of a gang in a New York neighborhood."

I raised this film's rating a few notches, though I still find it rather nondescript and formulaic; perhaps one could point out as its distinctive feature the tendency to exaggerate the implausibilities which normally inhabit this genre. Watching this middle-aged protagonist perform a task which would be nearly impossible even for a man in his prime gives the film a definitely unreal feel. The apotheosis consisting in all interested parties (vigilante, police, population) joining forces against the criminals intensifies that feel to the verge of oneirism. Here's my previous assessment, wherein I foolishly took the trouble of pointing out one of the numerous implausibilities: "Rather dismal sequel, with practically nothing besides scenes of shootouts in a severely deficient plotline (one thing I could not understand is how the protagonist could buy heavy artillery at a mall whilst the police enforced a strict limitation on firearm possession). Balsam's stupendous performance in a small role is so contrasting with the film's inanity that it becomes a sort of aesthetical oddity." Of course dullness, not implausibility, is this film's main problem.

Rating: 34 (up from 31)

Dreams That Money Can Buy (1947)

Film in episodes built around the work ("drawings, objects and suggestions") of different visual artists. The narrative thread linking the episodes concerns a therapist who is capable of inducing preconceived dreams in his patients.

This cinematic vehicle for a number of painters and sculptors is curious for its novelty but the end result is unsatisfactory. Not all episodes really strive for oneirism: only the first and last ones ("Desire" and "Narcissus") do. The remainder ones are mostly exercises in animation or abstraction ("The Girl with the Prefabricated Heart"; "Discs"; "Circus"; "Ballet"); the live-action "Ruth, Roses and Revolvers" is quite unclassifiable, oscillating between surrealism and self-parody. None of them really impressed me much; the soundtrack by various composers is perhaps the most interesting thing in the movie.

Rating: 36