Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo (1966)

 Second viewing; previously viewed on July 2, 1998.

English title: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The narrative, set during the American Civil War, follows three characters -- a paid assassin, a Mexican bandit, and a dishonest bounty hunter -- whose paths cross in their search of some hidden money in coins stolen from the Confederacy. They go through several adventures during that quest.

Entertaining albeit somewhat overlong picaresque Western. The plot is somewhat repetitive, but has some clever ideas, like the location of the gold being next to a bridge of military importance. It's very well filmed, featuring a wealth of great shots.

I've watched the 2h41 version, dubbed in English.

Rating: 63 (down from 78)

Les amants de Brasmort (1951)

 English title: The Lovers of Bras-Mort

Jean is a bargeman whose wooden barge is impounded due to safety risks. He suspects that the inspectors are in cahoots with a greedy bargeman who owns a metal barge. The latter's daughter falls in love with Jean, but her father wants her to marry a rich guy.

Mildly entertaining drama about coal transportation. The narrative is framed as bad rich guys versus good poor ones. It' a clearly artificial construction, since in reality what's at play here is simply the laws of capitalism. The poor guys, though made to appear more sympathetic, do not represent a political alternative or imply social progress. Their side is indeed characterized by unsafe navigation and archaic technology.

Rating: 51

Carnival of Souls (1962)

 Second viewing; previously viewed on December 14, 2005.

After being in a car accident in which everybody else in the car died, a young woman moves to another town and starts having what appears to be strange hallucinations.

This interesting film is said to be based on An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. Wikipedia lists several fantastic works with a similar premise, but not all of them share what I see as the main aspect common to both Bierce's story and this film, and which is also present in a non-fantastic story whose title makes that aspect explicit: La torture par l'espérance, by Villiers de l'Isle-Adam. In Carnival of Souls there is interference from "reality" all through the "dream". It's as if a disturbance in the universal mechanism caused two timelines to briefly interact. To use a quantum physics parallel, it's as if a fly (cf. The Fly) had entered Schrödinger's box and caused his cat to be both dead and alive after it is retrieved.

Rating: 57 (down from 63)

Bizalom (1980)

 English title: Confidence

During the Nazi invasion of Hungary, the wife of a Resistance member must go into hiding and live with another man, while posing as his wife.

Incompetent wartime drama with political and erotic ramifications. Apart from the poor dramatic construction, I couldn't for the life of me understand its premise. Why couldn't she join her husband? If her assigned "husband" was also a Resistance member, what would be the difference if she lived with her real husband?

Rating: 28

Monsieur La Souris (1942)

 English title: Midnight in Paris

A tramp finds a dead man inside a car. The car subsequently takes off. The tramp finds a wallet on the ground. The police investigates the disappearance of a banker. His dead body is found. The tramp discovers that the deceased led a double life.

Moderately interesting crime drama with comical touches; its plot features an improbable chance encounter, upon which much of the film is built on; according to the Wikipedia summary for the source novel, the screenwriter departed considerably from it. The main actor is excellent. (I suppose that the protagonist's nickname - Mr. Mouse -- stems from his main -- or sole -- diet item: a camembert cheese which he carries in his coat pocket.)

Apparently this film may be watched for free on the Web:

Monsieur La Souris - Full movie free streaming | TV5MONDE+

Rating: 53

Pollock (2000)

 Second viewing; previously viewed on July 22, 2002.

Based on the life of an American painter who struggled for recognition at first, and eventually achieved it, but was too psychologically unstable.

As biopics go, this is as good as it gets; it focuses on important events and aspects of the life, and has very good depictions of the artist at work.

All that said, in my opinion there was a spot that was badly edited (or badly filmed). Jackson is awake and observes Lee sleeping. Then there is an abrupt cut when we see him talking to Peggy. It takes a while to understand what has happened. Perhaps the director forgot to film some intermediary scenes and left the editor without much of a choice. 

Rating: 68 (up from 57)

Napló gyermekeimnek (1984)

 English title: Diary for My Children

In 1947, an orphan girl who had been living in the USSR returns to her native Hungary and goes to live with a woman who wants to adopt her. However, the girl does not get along with her prospective stepmother, who is a fanatic supporter of the Stalinist regime, the same one which killed the girl's father.

While perhaps not aesthetically remarkable, this film tells an important story about a regrettable historical episode, and it does it with honesty and clarity.

Rating: 51

La grande illusion (1937)

 Second viewing; previously viewed on December 1, 1988.

World War I. Two French officers end up in a German prison camp. They meet some compatriots there. They plan an escape. They are transferred to another camp. And so on.

This is not a bad film, but it is overrated. Those who don't mind being bombarded with good sentiments will have a good time, I suppose.

Rating: 62 (down from 65)

The Proud Rebel (1958)

In the aftermath of the American Civil War, a widower moves North in the hopes of finding a doctor who will operate on his mute son. In the mean time, he finds work in a spinster's ranch and helps her fight against her crooked sheep-raising neighbors.

Slightly ridiculous Western which nevertheless has some enjoyable moments. Its purported lesson is perhaps that, while sometimes you must put a price tag on things you thought you couldn't, what you get (or give) for free is in the end infinitely more valuable.

(I watched it in a bad pan-and-scan print, with poor definition and distorted colors.)

Rating: 40

Mysterious Island (1961)

Second viewing; previously viewed without the beginning and dubbed in Portuguese on January 27, 2001.

Loosely based on Jules Verne's novel.

A group of escaped prisoners and one guard board a balloon which takes them to an island, where they land; some time later, they are joined by two women who survived a shipwreck. On the island they encounter gigantic animals; they also meet a notorious scientist who is carrying out some experiments.

Entertaining and well-made science-fiction adventure with good special effects employing stop-motion animation.

Rating: 54 (down from 59)

Örökbefogadás (1975)

 Worldwide English title: Adoption

A working class woman who is not married wants to have a child. Her married lover refuses to assist her. Conveniently, she lives near an orphanage.

This film won first prize in the Berlin Festival, which seems invariably to award very heavy dramas with socially significant themes. This film fits that description to a tee, and might as well have been part of some national campaign designed for boosting adoption numbers in Hungary. It also holds a very feminine-centric point of view.

Rating: 38

Starship Troopers (1997)

 Second viewing; previously viewed on November 4, 1999.

Earth is attacked by gigantic bugs from another planet, and counterattacks.

Its ideological categorization is ultimately undecidable, despite its vague satirical airs. It does work pretty well as entertainment, though.

Rating: 60 (unchanged)

Mourir d'aimer... (1971)

 English title: To Die of Love

In 1960s France, a female teacher enters into a romance with one of her high school students. His parents don't approve of the relationship, and throw the book at the teacher (not literally, of course, that would be too cruel!).

While apparently it is fairly faithful to the real events which inspired it, there is at least one minor detail which, in my opinion, makes an important difference: in real life the student was 16, but the actor who plays him was 21 at the time of filming (the woman, on the other hand, was younger than the actress who plays her, for what it's worth). So, film viewers do not get the real picture, no matter how factually precise the film is. Aside from this, it is a clearly biased film, and, to be quite frank, a somewhat tedious viewing experience.

Rating: 40