Based on the novel by Vassilis Vassilikos, which was in turn based on true events which took place in Greece in the sixties.
A politician is killed by members of a rightwing organization, by orders of the government. An incorruptible attorney general achieves the conviction of the guilty persons, but a military coup reverses the charges.
Second viewing. Quite ludicrous in style, with very corny soundtrack and repetition of shots (for instance, of a telephone ringing) in varying angles for enhancement of effect. Whenever the murdered politician's wife is in scene, sentimental melodrama takes over, even though it has little or no bearing on the plot. One of the assassins is depicted in his homosexual pursuits in a caricatural manner, at one point jumping for joy as in a slapstick comedy (again, little or nothing to do with the political plot). All the lines are uttered with hysterical emphasis and rapidity. The net result is, nevertheless, enjoyable and even thrilling occasionally. The crowd scenes are very well staged. The film's politics is not openly "leftist", but a contrarian voice might argue that unilateral disarmament at that point in history would be dangerous. When the opposition deputy asserts that he is against all bombs, American or Russian, one could argue that it is empty rhetoric, since it would have no practical effect on Russian ones.
Rating: 61 (unchanged)
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Monday, September 12, 2011
Le doux amour des hommes (2002)
English title: Man's Gentle Love.
Based on the novel "Penses-tu réussir" ("Do You Think You Will Succeed?", perhaps), by Jean de Tinan.
A young man leads a life of free sex and open relationships. He reencounters his first love by chance one day, she is now married and with a child. He starts to worry he is becoming incapable of having deep feelings (in his words near the end of the movie, "emotionally impotent"). He starts an intense relationship with a drug addict woman.
Distinctly anachronistic tale of youth's aimlessness and emptiness. Based on a late nineteenth-century novel, it tries to mimic the romantic zeitgeist in present times. This has been done before, for example in Rent. I do not see the point. Does the filmmaker mean times do not really change? Anyway, the result is quite forgettable.
Rating: 35
Based on the novel "Penses-tu réussir" ("Do You Think You Will Succeed?", perhaps), by Jean de Tinan.
A young man leads a life of free sex and open relationships. He reencounters his first love by chance one day, she is now married and with a child. He starts to worry he is becoming incapable of having deep feelings (in his words near the end of the movie, "emotionally impotent"). He starts an intense relationship with a drug addict woman.
Distinctly anachronistic tale of youth's aimlessness and emptiness. Based on a late nineteenth-century novel, it tries to mimic the romantic zeitgeist in present times. This has been done before, for example in Rent. I do not see the point. Does the filmmaker mean times do not really change? Anyway, the result is quite forgettable.
Rating: 35
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Bam gua nat (2008)
English title: Night and Day.
A Korean man, spending some time in Paris because of problems with the law in his country, makes the acquaintance of two women. He covets the younger one and is coveted by the other.
IMDb classifies this as "drama", which is hard to accept. The film's absurdities force one to view it as comedy. To begin with, the protagonist describes himself as a painter, but his interests, conversation, and even his activities while in France are hardly artistic. Prejudiced though that may sound, I will say that even his manners are not those of people of an artistic background. His alleged paintings are a joke (he paints clouds, in a very uncreative way). The plot consists of his straits in a foreign country, and the pursuit of his sexual needs regardless of an unpromising future for any lasting relationship, given his present situation and also that he is married. The entirety of the film consists of observing this simpleton wandering about; the second-in-importance character is a young "egoist" whom he leads into an arguably unfortunate condition, and the moral here might be said to be: egoism is abominable, but one can't have enough of it. Upon his return to Korea, he resumes a life that is peaceful on the surface, but is haunted by weird dreams. The film does not care to tell us how he manages to make a living out of painting clouds; in fact there is a lot the film does not tell us, and if it does not tell us it is because it does not know it, or rather there is nothing to know.
Rating: 40
A Korean man, spending some time in Paris because of problems with the law in his country, makes the acquaintance of two women. He covets the younger one and is coveted by the other.
IMDb classifies this as "drama", which is hard to accept. The film's absurdities force one to view it as comedy. To begin with, the protagonist describes himself as a painter, but his interests, conversation, and even his activities while in France are hardly artistic. Prejudiced though that may sound, I will say that even his manners are not those of people of an artistic background. His alleged paintings are a joke (he paints clouds, in a very uncreative way). The plot consists of his straits in a foreign country, and the pursuit of his sexual needs regardless of an unpromising future for any lasting relationship, given his present situation and also that he is married. The entirety of the film consists of observing this simpleton wandering about; the second-in-importance character is a young "egoist" whom he leads into an arguably unfortunate condition, and the moral here might be said to be: egoism is abominable, but one can't have enough of it. Upon his return to Korea, he resumes a life that is peaceful on the surface, but is haunted by weird dreams. The film does not care to tell us how he manages to make a living out of painting clouds; in fact there is a lot the film does not tell us, and if it does not tell us it is because it does not know it, or rather there is nothing to know.
Rating: 40
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Esther Kahn (2000)
Based on a short story by Arthur Symons.
The story of a working class girl who strives to become an actress and succeeds, despite her somewhat listless temperament.
I saw it in a dubbed-in-Portuguese copy, which makes this assessment somewhat provisional. I did not achieve a perfect understanding of the meaning of this film, in its totality. Is it a social story, a depiction of Britain's working class? Is it a depiction of British Jews? Is it a statement about the acting profession? The probable answer I am bound to hear is that it is all that, and what is the problem? Well, I am not sure there is a problem from that angle, although the movie, as it is, feels all over the place. Also, the dialogue and acting style of part of the cast did not strike me as agreeing with the period; it screamed anachronism, and God knows whether I am well equipped to issue an opinion on that regard. Lastly, there is something which never works for me in films about personal growth. You see the "steps" the character takes and you are led to accept they represent stages in his or her development. I'd much rather see a film about visible things, visible behavior, visible actions, visible forces. Something which I believe for myself, without being told to. All that being said, I admit that the narrative, although lengthy, has sufficient interest and stylistic coherence to assert the film's watchability.
Rating: 55
The story of a working class girl who strives to become an actress and succeeds, despite her somewhat listless temperament.
I saw it in a dubbed-in-Portuguese copy, which makes this assessment somewhat provisional. I did not achieve a perfect understanding of the meaning of this film, in its totality. Is it a social story, a depiction of Britain's working class? Is it a depiction of British Jews? Is it a statement about the acting profession? The probable answer I am bound to hear is that it is all that, and what is the problem? Well, I am not sure there is a problem from that angle, although the movie, as it is, feels all over the place. Also, the dialogue and acting style of part of the cast did not strike me as agreeing with the period; it screamed anachronism, and God knows whether I am well equipped to issue an opinion on that regard. Lastly, there is something which never works for me in films about personal growth. You see the "steps" the character takes and you are led to accept they represent stages in his or her development. I'd much rather see a film about visible things, visible behavior, visible actions, visible forces. Something which I believe for myself, without being told to. All that being said, I admit that the narrative, although lengthy, has sufficient interest and stylistic coherence to assert the film's watchability.
Rating: 55
Tuesday, September 06, 2011
Amorosa Soledad (2008)
English Title: Lovely Loneliness.
Young Soledad "wants to be alone" after her rocker boyfriend dumped her. She works at a decoration shop with a homosexual male couple (it seems all three are co-owners). She is a hypochondriac, and already a familiar face at the local hospital. A new guy becomes interested in her, an architect of very good manners. She is initially reluctant to commit to a new relationship.
Very correctly made, albeit a little dull, little character study which benefits from a phenomenal leading performance (her radiant smile at the end is practically worth the price of admission, or the pay-TV fee, depending on which is your case).
Two notes on the English title: "amorosa" means "loving", or "who has love to give", and not "lovely". And, although "Soledad" is both the name of the protagonist and the Spanish word for "loneliness", I think they should not have translated it.
Rating: 51
Young Soledad "wants to be alone" after her rocker boyfriend dumped her. She works at a decoration shop with a homosexual male couple (it seems all three are co-owners). She is a hypochondriac, and already a familiar face at the local hospital. A new guy becomes interested in her, an architect of very good manners. She is initially reluctant to commit to a new relationship.
Very correctly made, albeit a little dull, little character study which benefits from a phenomenal leading performance (her radiant smile at the end is practically worth the price of admission, or the pay-TV fee, depending on which is your case).
Two notes on the English title: "amorosa" means "loving", or "who has love to give", and not "lovely". And, although "Soledad" is both the name of the protagonist and the Spanish word for "loneliness", I think they should not have translated it.
Rating: 51
Voy a explotar (2008)
English title: I'm Gonna Explode.
Two teens elope... to the boy's house's rooftops!
There aren't really rebels without causes, although they might not know what they are. The girl seems to think she is looking for one. As for the boy, is he angry because his mother died and his father may be guilty, or does he just want to get laid and boozed? These ambiguities permeate this moderately dull movie, giving it a degree of psychological verisimilitude.
Rating: 53
Two teens elope... to the boy's house's rooftops!
There aren't really rebels without causes, although they might not know what they are. The girl seems to think she is looking for one. As for the boy, is he angry because his mother died and his father may be guilty, or does he just want to get laid and boozed? These ambiguities permeate this moderately dull movie, giving it a degree of psychological verisimilitude.
Rating: 53
Monday, September 05, 2011
Mafia! (1998)
Also known as: Jane Austen's Mafia!
An Italian-American boy belonging to a mafia family is chosen for leading the family, and tells us the story of his Sicilian father.
Parody of mafia films like The Godfather, Casino, etc. Other films of the nineties such as Jurassic Park are sent up too. My assessment is: not bad, not very good. Some laughs are possible.
Rating: 42
An Italian-American boy belonging to a mafia family is chosen for leading the family, and tells us the story of his Sicilian father.
Parody of mafia films like The Godfather, Casino, etc. Other films of the nineties such as Jurassic Park are sent up too. My assessment is: not bad, not very good. Some laughs are possible.
Rating: 42
Sunday, September 04, 2011
Lethal Weapon 4 (1998)
Riggs and/or Murtaugh in this one are up against slave trading from China, money counterfeiting, babies, homosexual panic, big explosions, to marry or not to marry, a madman with a flamethrower who doesn't really have anything to do with anything, Leo the comic relief, a rabbi as a stand-in, fighting inside a mobile home with plastic walls in a freeway, kung fu, a dentist's laughing gas, confiding in moments of extreme action or danger (a cliché), etc.
Really shallow action film. Openly self-parodic (rather than just tongue-in-cheek), which makes for inevitable awkwardness at the inevitable dramatic moments.
Rating: 49
Really shallow action film. Openly self-parodic (rather than just tongue-in-cheek), which makes for inevitable awkwardness at the inevitable dramatic moments.
Rating: 49
Gomorra (2008)
Several stories related to the Neapolitan mafia.
Not very good. Of course, there is an exposé aspect to it and that is fine. As a movie, one has to seriously consider whether it presents cinematic virtues and to what extent. Even if one keeps to plot-related aspects, it warrants serious doubts about verisimilitude, psychological and otherwise, and the use of clichés, etc, etc.
Rating: 39.
Not very good. Of course, there is an exposé aspect to it and that is fine. As a movie, one has to seriously consider whether it presents cinematic virtues and to what extent. Even if one keeps to plot-related aspects, it warrants serious doubts about verisimilitude, psychological and otherwise, and the use of clichés, etc, etc.
Rating: 39.
Thursday, September 01, 2011
The Wackness (2008)
A drug-dealing teenager is best friends with his shrink, who is also his client. Said teenager is in love with said shrink's stepdaughter.
This is a blend of coming-of-age story and satire. The satire has to do with the idolization of black culture on the one hand, and middle-age immaturity on the other (and shrinks in general, I guess). No character is really likeable, although the protagonist comes off as a kind of victim of sorts. His shrink tops at laughability, with advices such as: "Try to make love to a black woman [while in college]. I never had the chance." The film would gain by paying more attention to the plausibility item. It's not very remarkable in other aspects as well.
Rating: 38
This is a blend of coming-of-age story and satire. The satire has to do with the idolization of black culture on the one hand, and middle-age immaturity on the other (and shrinks in general, I guess). No character is really likeable, although the protagonist comes off as a kind of victim of sorts. His shrink tops at laughability, with advices such as: "Try to make love to a black woman [while in college]. I never had the chance." The film would gain by paying more attention to the plausibility item. It's not very remarkable in other aspects as well.
Rating: 38
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Alvarez Kelly (1966)
During the American Civil War, a man who provides cattle for the North is kidnapped by a Southern general and forced to steal that cattle.
An epic story, eventful and entertaining. In my opinion, films such as this one prove that the western did not decay as a genre in the 60s. The number of productions was smaller, but they were mostly good ones.
Rating: 58
An epic story, eventful and entertaining. In my opinion, films such as this one prove that the western did not decay as a genre in the 60s. The number of productions was smaller, but they were mostly good ones.
Rating: 58
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Melancholia (2011)
Two sisters. The first one suffers from depression and is getting married in the first part of the movie. The second one suffers from anxiety, which in the second part of the movie is made worse by news of the impending passage of a planet near Earth.
Trier has a good idea for each and every movie he has ever made, and manages to blow it in each and every one of them (I haven't seen The Kingdom or Epidemic, so count them out of that statement; it's probably well to count Europa out too, just in case). Succinctly put, the big idea here is to explore melancholy (or depression, as it is called nowadays) as a transcendental concept, which lives inside of Justine, and which Claire manages to keep outside her, only to see it embodied as a gigantic celestial body spelling doom. Justine is naturally immune to it, in psychological terms, which is what counts. Like its predecessor Antichrist, it seems to mark a bergmanesque phase in Trier's career (Melancholia has points of contact with Persona, perhaps). But, unlike in Bergman's films, here it all turns into poor cinema. And for (Anti)christ's sake, someone buy this guy a tripod.
Rating: 39
Trier has a good idea for each and every movie he has ever made, and manages to blow it in each and every one of them (I haven't seen The Kingdom or Epidemic, so count them out of that statement; it's probably well to count Europa out too, just in case). Succinctly put, the big idea here is to explore melancholy (or depression, as it is called nowadays) as a transcendental concept, which lives inside of Justine, and which Claire manages to keep outside her, only to see it embodied as a gigantic celestial body spelling doom. Justine is naturally immune to it, in psychological terms, which is what counts. Like its predecessor Antichrist, it seems to mark a bergmanesque phase in Trier's career (Melancholia has points of contact with Persona, perhaps). But, unlike in Bergman's films, here it all turns into poor cinema. And for (Anti)christ's sake, someone buy this guy a tripod.
Rating: 39
Wag the Dog (1997)
A president is accused of sexual molestation near reelection time. A man is called in to solve the situation, and stages a war to cover the sex story.
More or less a one-joke movie. For a better film on a similar theme see Capricorn One (1978).
Rating: 50
More or less a one-joke movie. For a better film on a similar theme see Capricorn One (1978).
Rating: 50
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Eid milad Laila (2008)
English title: Laila's Birthday.
A day in the life of a taxi driver (who is a former judge) in Palestine.
Watchable.
Rating: 39
A day in the life of a taxi driver (who is a former judge) in Palestine.
Watchable.
Rating: 39
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Blazing Saddles (1974)
A crooked government official wants to drive the people of Rock Ridge out of town and buy all the land there, because the railroad will pass there increasing the value of the land.
Second viewing. It begins as a ferocious satire of the U.S. of 100 years ago. Whether and how that reverberates to present-day U.S. is anybody's guess. The rest of it is sheer ludicity.
Rating: 63 (unchanged)
Second viewing. It begins as a ferocious satire of the U.S. of 100 years ago. Whether and how that reverberates to present-day U.S. is anybody's guess. The rest of it is sheer ludicity.
Rating: 63 (unchanged)
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Willard (2003)
Based on a novel by Stephen Gilbert.
A lonely man is abused by his boss and by his mother. He develops a form of communication with the rats in his house, one of whom becomes his best friend.
Interesting horror story, with Freudian connotations.
Rating: 57
A lonely man is abused by his boss and by his mother. He develops a form of communication with the rats in his house, one of whom becomes his best friend.
Interesting horror story, with Freudian connotations.
Rating: 57
Monday, August 15, 2011
Mimi wo sumaseba (1995)
English title: Whisper of the Heart.
A girl of about 13 is a voracious reader. She wanders about the suburbs, following a cat. She is intrigued by a mysterious boy who reads all the books she loans from the library before her. The awakening of love. Familial interactions. School.
Animation. Quite agreeable chronicle of early adolescence. The visuals are impressively realistic.
Rating: 59
A girl of about 13 is a voracious reader. She wanders about the suburbs, following a cat. She is intrigued by a mysterious boy who reads all the books she loans from the library before her. The awakening of love. Familial interactions. School.
Animation. Quite agreeable chronicle of early adolescence. The visuals are impressively realistic.
Rating: 59
Friday, August 12, 2011
The Tree of Life (2011)
The story of a child, his difficult relationship with his father, also his relationship with his mother and two younger brothers. There are several non-narrative stretches which seem to tell the story of life on Earth.
Though fatally hampered by its new-age-ish kitsch style, the narrative-oriented stretches have some dramatic density to them which is, to some extent, genuine. The plot is structured upon three biblical myths: Job, Cain and Abel, and Isaac's sacrifice. The first one is ostensive, through explicit quotations, the second one permeates the story in a more implicit manner, the third one is very subtle and may not be there at all, according to the adopted interpretive viewing stance. Pitt's resemblance to Dean may be a nod towards East of Eden, a better film on a similar theme.
Rating: 40
Though fatally hampered by its new-age-ish kitsch style, the narrative-oriented stretches have some dramatic density to them which is, to some extent, genuine. The plot is structured upon three biblical myths: Job, Cain and Abel, and Isaac's sacrifice. The first one is ostensive, through explicit quotations, the second one permeates the story in a more implicit manner, the third one is very subtle and may not be there at all, according to the adopted interpretive viewing stance. Pitt's resemblance to Dean may be a nod towards East of Eden, a better film on a similar theme.
Rating: 40
Monday, August 01, 2011
The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996)
A Mathematics professor places an ad looking for a girlfriend and meets a Literature professor. They establish a sexless relationship, according to his theories. But she isn't all that comfortable with the situation.
I found this film quite incompreehensible, in human terms. Which does not mean that on some abstract level it cannot be endured (on account of the cinematography, mainly). I suspect it's all a joke around the fact that Barbra is actually quite gorgeous. And also around the other fact that one cannot make a theme out of the manipulation of people by movies when one is a character in a movie: the purported critique becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Rating: 26
I found this film quite incompreehensible, in human terms. Which does not mean that on some abstract level it cannot be endured (on account of the cinematography, mainly). I suspect it's all a joke around the fact that Barbra is actually quite gorgeous. And also around the other fact that one cannot make a theme out of the manipulation of people by movies when one is a character in a movie: the purported critique becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Rating: 26
Black Caesar (1973)
The rise and fall of a black criminal, from childhood to adult age.
Crime melodrama of crude craftsmanship.
Rating: 38
Crime melodrama of crude craftsmanship.
Rating: 38
Sunday, July 31, 2011
The Deep (1977)
A couple vacationing in Bermuda find some objects while scuba diving. One of the objects is an ampule which arouses the interest of a local drug dealer. They hire an experienced diver to guide them in a new visit to the site.
Perfectly anodyne adventure, filled with thrills of a predictable nature. It is expertly filmed, though.
Rating: 40
Perfectly anodyne adventure, filled with thrills of a predictable nature. It is expertly filmed, though.
Rating: 40
Thursday, July 28, 2011
My Blue Heaven (1990/I)
An ex-mafioso decides to testify against his former colleagues and is put under government protection in a small town. He becomes a sort of mentor to his FBI custodian.
A naive comedy which oscillates between mildly funny and mildly annoying. Certain reverberations are felt in Find Me Guilty (2006).
Rating: 38
A naive comedy which oscillates between mildly funny and mildly annoying. Certain reverberations are felt in Find Me Guilty (2006).
Rating: 38
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Pasqualino Settebellezze (1975)
English title: Seven Beauties.
The life story of an Italian man living in the Mussolini years. He kills his sister's pimp and fiancé, feigns madness, goes to war, deserts, is made a prisoner by the Germans.
A poor film, in every aspect but the acting. A sort of portrait, I think, of the "common man" of Italy, with his political ignorance, his sexist worldview, and, perhaps most basic of them all, his survival instinct. The mise-en-scene is at times awkward, the tone is highly caricatural, not my idea of fun, really.
Rating: 35
The life story of an Italian man living in the Mussolini years. He kills his sister's pimp and fiancé, feigns madness, goes to war, deserts, is made a prisoner by the Germans.
A poor film, in every aspect but the acting. A sort of portrait, I think, of the "common man" of Italy, with his political ignorance, his sexist worldview, and, perhaps most basic of them all, his survival instinct. The mise-en-scene is at times awkward, the tone is highly caricatural, not my idea of fun, really.
Rating: 35
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Tango & Cash (1989)
Two cops operating in Los Angeles are very different in style: one dresses slickly and is a kind of wealthy dilettante, and the other dresses very casually and is more of a working class type. The two happen to be on to the same drug case and are set up by the drug dealer who is behind the criminal operations. They end up doing time in the same prison.
Low-brow cop action drama, which has a minimal amount of entertaining value.
Rating: 33
Low-brow cop action drama, which has a minimal amount of entertaining value.
Rating: 33
Friday, July 22, 2011
Ernest Goes to Jail (1990)
Ernest is a janitor in a bank. He is summoned for jury duty. The defendant's boss is a prison inmate and Ernest's dead ringer. A switch is planned.
Both screenplay and direction are moderately competent. The Ernest persona is here explored to a certain amount of comicity.
Rating: 38
Both screenplay and direction are moderately competent. The Ernest persona is here explored to a certain amount of comicity.
Rating: 38
I Love You Phillip Morris (2009)
The life story of a man. He marries, joins the police force, finds out he is adopted, divorces, becomes a fulltime homosexual, quits the force, resorts to fraud for increasing his income, goes to prison, finds a new lover, etc.
A good film made of comical proceedings which weave a dramatic story. The paradox of the con man is that he chooses to be an outsider in order to be within the system (cf. Catch Me If You Can).
Rating: 60
A good film made of comical proceedings which weave a dramatic story. The paradox of the con man is that he chooses to be an outsider in order to be within the system (cf. Catch Me If You Can).
Rating: 60
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Los Borgia (2006)
English title: The Borgias.
Historical drama about the notorious family of the Renaissance consisting of Pope Alexander VI and his children, the most remarkable of whom was Cesar, who intended to be the first king of Italy.
Dreadful compilation of a miniseries. Do not waste your time with this chopped-up monster. As for the complete miniseries, I wouldn't count on it being much better, based on this sample.
Rating: 11
Historical drama about the notorious family of the Renaissance consisting of Pope Alexander VI and his children, the most remarkable of whom was Cesar, who intended to be the first king of Italy.
Dreadful compilation of a miniseries. Do not waste your time with this chopped-up monster. As for the complete miniseries, I wouldn't count on it being much better, based on this sample.
Rating: 11
Jade (1995)
The gruesome murder of a millionaire has as main suspect a psychologist who apparently leads a hidden sexual life.
Second viewing of this not very attractive thriller. It is competently made, though.
Rating: 41 (up from 40)
Second viewing of this not very attractive thriller. It is competently made, though.
Rating: 41 (up from 40)
Spanglish (2004)
A Mexican woman with a small daughter is hired as housemaid to a dysfunctional family.
Insipid dramedy, which I saw for the second time.
Rating: 30 (up from 15)
Insipid dramedy, which I saw for the second time.
Rating: 30 (up from 15)
Water (2005/I)
In 30's (I think) India, a child is considered a widow whose promised husband dies. She is obliged to perpetual chastity and is sent to a house where widows live.
Conventional drama about the retrograde customs of India.
Rating: 30
Conventional drama about the retrograde customs of India.
Rating: 30
El ángel exterminador (1962)
English title: The Exterminating Angel.
A group of people gathering for a dinner is not able to leave the house, for no reason at all.
Second viewing. Interesting venture into absurdity. The style is a cross between Twilight Zone-ish and Buñuel-ish. I don't see the point of the elements apparently unrelated to the central situation, such as the bear, and the film's title.
Rating: 63
A group of people gathering for a dinner is not able to leave the house, for no reason at all.
Second viewing. Interesting venture into absurdity. The style is a cross between Twilight Zone-ish and Buñuel-ish. I don't see the point of the elements apparently unrelated to the central situation, such as the bear, and the film's title.
Rating: 63
Tangshan dadizhen (2010)
English title: Aftershock.
A Chinese child is separated from her family after an Earthquake.
Melodrama without much interest. It is well-made, though.
Rating: 33
A Chinese child is separated from her family after an Earthquake.
Melodrama without much interest. It is well-made, though.
Rating: 33
Tuesday, July 05, 2011
Extract (2009)
The owner of an extract (that's the name of a drink made of the juice of a fruit) manufacturing company hires a male prostitute to have sex with his wife, so that he may be guilt-free when pursuing extramarital affairs. His love target is a dangerous woman though.
Entertaining comedy; I laughed several times through it. And it provides a snapshot about the current situation of capitalism in the U.S..
Rating: 61
Entertaining comedy; I laughed several times through it. And it provides a snapshot about the current situation of capitalism in the U.S..
Rating: 61
Saturday, July 02, 2011
Ernest Goes to Camp (1987)
A summer camp janitor aspires to be camp counselor. A mining company wants to buy the property.
Extremely low-brow comedy. One might compare its view of native americans with that of They Died with Their Boots On, and see they don't differ much.
Rating: 13
Extremely low-brow comedy. One might compare its view of native americans with that of They Died with Their Boots On, and see they don't differ much.
Rating: 13
Thursday, June 30, 2011
They Died with Their Boots On (1941)
A fiction very loosely based on the life of General Custer. First West Point, then the Civil War, then the Indian War and his defeat at Little Bighorn.
The West Point section has some interest and is entertaining; the rest of the film didn't really work for me as it seemed to be just a series of concoctions with the purpose of hiding the (for Hollywood standards) ugly truth.
Rating: 41
The West Point section has some interest and is entertaining; the rest of the film didn't really work for me as it seemed to be just a series of concoctions with the purpose of hiding the (for Hollywood standards) ugly truth.
Rating: 41
Monday, June 27, 2011
True Grit (2010)
A fourteen-year-old girl hires a bounty hunter to capture her father's murderer.
The Coens have by now proven that they can do any kind of picture. I wouldn't know the purpose of that, but I guess it would be for them to say, if it would be for anybody. Anyway there is nothing to drive a narrative like a good hunt. If there are killings in it (and you can bet there will be, in this kind of cinema) so much the better. Is there any evidence that there has ever been, in the whole history of the U.S.A., any real-life case of adults (let alone a child of 14) going to such trouble to bring "closure" (they like this word) to their lives? What does this all mean? Fiction here does not enact reality. Do they hope that reality will enact fiction? Or does this bring a higher sense of moral to the nation?
Rating: 65
The Coens have by now proven that they can do any kind of picture. I wouldn't know the purpose of that, but I guess it would be for them to say, if it would be for anybody. Anyway there is nothing to drive a narrative like a good hunt. If there are killings in it (and you can bet there will be, in this kind of cinema) so much the better. Is there any evidence that there has ever been, in the whole history of the U.S.A., any real-life case of adults (let alone a child of 14) going to such trouble to bring "closure" (they like this word) to their lives? What does this all mean? Fiction here does not enact reality. Do they hope that reality will enact fiction? Or does this bring a higher sense of moral to the nation?
Rating: 65
Thursday, June 23, 2011
L'amour à mort (1984)
English title: Love Unto Death.
A man is given as dead and resurrects after his girlfriend summons him back.
A film in two parts; they don't have much in common except the characters, apparently, and the death-related theme. It feels like an essay, or like a melodrama which was stripped of emotional excess. The film is thematically similar to La chambre verte (both had Jean Gruault as screenwriter), and to Portrait of Jennie.
Rating: 51
A man is given as dead and resurrects after his girlfriend summons him back.
A film in two parts; they don't have much in common except the characters, apparently, and the death-related theme. It feels like an essay, or like a melodrama which was stripped of emotional excess. The film is thematically similar to La chambre verte (both had Jean Gruault as screenwriter), and to Portrait of Jennie.
Rating: 51
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Victim (1961)
A respected lawyer gets involved in a blackmail case on account of his homosexual past.
This appears to be a much respected movie, a sort of heroic manifesto against the British anti-sodomy law, which, the lady in TV informs us after the movie, lasted another 6 years counting from the film's release (and this hardly speaks for the film's efficacy). Some viewers admit it is "dated", an obvious fact, but what few will admit is that it is outright absurd, and would be ignored if it weren't for its worthy cause. The premise is absurd (a blackmailer targeting the poorer end of a relationship, and the latter going to extremes to oblige him because of his devotion to a man with whom he hardly had anything going, and about whom he (absurdly) kept a news clips album); the investigation carried out by the lawyer is also absurd. Not to mention a fact which is rather common in "groundbreaking" films, namely that they are not all that groundbreaking and contain a lot of hypocrisy in the depiction of characters, especially in this case the protagonist (a struggling ex-homosexual who is moved by his would-be lover's quite implausible suicide).
Rating: 32
This appears to be a much respected movie, a sort of heroic manifesto against the British anti-sodomy law, which, the lady in TV informs us after the movie, lasted another 6 years counting from the film's release (and this hardly speaks for the film's efficacy). Some viewers admit it is "dated", an obvious fact, but what few will admit is that it is outright absurd, and would be ignored if it weren't for its worthy cause. The premise is absurd (a blackmailer targeting the poorer end of a relationship, and the latter going to extremes to oblige him because of his devotion to a man with whom he hardly had anything going, and about whom he (absurdly) kept a news clips album); the investigation carried out by the lawyer is also absurd. Not to mention a fact which is rather common in "groundbreaking" films, namely that they are not all that groundbreaking and contain a lot of hypocrisy in the depiction of characters, especially in this case the protagonist (a struggling ex-homosexual who is moved by his would-be lover's quite implausible suicide).
Rating: 32
Monday, June 20, 2011
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)
An inventor buys an old car and fixes it, at the request of his two children. The rich daughter of a sweets maker is the romantic interest. They all go on an imagined journey in which the jalopy acquires new powers, such as flying and floating, and is coveted by an evil monarch.
Musical fantasy with excellent cast and excellent production design, but still a bit insipid on the whole. Certain narrative ruses are worth mentioning. One, the inventor is at a carnival and takes part in a music and dance number. This could be taken as following the specific conventions of musicals in which actors sing and dance even though their characters are not necessarily singers or dancers; here, however, we have a musical number which is part of the realistic context (a carnival), and furthermore the inventor uses the money received for his performance to buy the title car. Two, the core of the film's action is actually a story told by the inventor; the fantastic elements are present in this story-within-a-story only.
Rating: 50
Musical fantasy with excellent cast and excellent production design, but still a bit insipid on the whole. Certain narrative ruses are worth mentioning. One, the inventor is at a carnival and takes part in a music and dance number. This could be taken as following the specific conventions of musicals in which actors sing and dance even though their characters are not necessarily singers or dancers; here, however, we have a musical number which is part of the realistic context (a carnival), and furthermore the inventor uses the money received for his performance to buy the title car. Two, the core of the film's action is actually a story told by the inventor; the fantastic elements are present in this story-within-a-story only.
Rating: 50
Sunday, June 19, 2011
The Hindenburg (1975)
The famous disaster of the Hindenburg zeppelin in 1937 is fictionally explained. The film consists of this and also the several characters who are more or less suspect.
Extremely baloney, extremely well-made fictionalization of a true incident. Entertaining yet childish.
Rating: 51
Extremely baloney, extremely well-made fictionalization of a true incident. Entertaining yet childish.
Rating: 51
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Crioulo doido (1971)
The economic ascension of a black man in Brazil. The story begins in 1964, when he is a modest tailor. He marries a white woman. He later abandons the tailor profession and becomes a rancher.
Extremely low-budget comedy with a very personal style. Upon first viewing it strikes me as uneven; it is clear however that the director shows talent, which he would confirm in later films.
Rating: 50
Extremely low-budget comedy with a very personal style. Upon first viewing it strikes me as uneven; it is clear however that the director shows talent, which he would confirm in later films.
Rating: 50
Friday, June 17, 2011
The Landlord (1970)
A rich 29-year-old man who still lives with his parents buys a tenement house and starts interacting with his tenants.
Mildly amusing comedy which displays excellent technique. The a priori satirical framework consists of depicting the rich as prejudiced and insensitive and the poor as warm-hearted and rude. It is not a coincidence that the only two exceptions are the central romantic couple. A depiction of the fascination that the poor exert upon the rich, and thus the specular image of Brideshead Revisited.
Rating: 54
Mildly amusing comedy which displays excellent technique. The a priori satirical framework consists of depicting the rich as prejudiced and insensitive and the poor as warm-hearted and rude. It is not a coincidence that the only two exceptions are the central romantic couple. A depiction of the fascination that the poor exert upon the rich, and thus the specular image of Brideshead Revisited.
Rating: 54
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Brideshead Revisited (2008)
Charles Ryder is a freshman at Oxford. He makes friends with the aristocratic Sebastian Flyte, who invites him to his family's estate, called Brideshead. There he meets Sebastian's sister, towards whom he feels attracted. The Flytes are very Catholic. Sebastian has a crush on Charles, and is an alcoholic.
Having seen the miniseries, I have to confess that this film, although lacking the leisurely pace, is in certain crucial aspects an improvement over the miniseries. In particular, here, Sebastian is a more understandable character; in the miniseries I couldn't make sense of his actions and feelings (perhaps this is my fault...). In a smaller degree, I'd say the same about Charles. And the film version makes it easier to understand all the characters' behavioral dynamics. The central theme is the fascination that the rich exert upon the poor. There is also the motif of upper-class 20th century Catholicism.
Rating: 56
Having seen the miniseries, I have to confess that this film, although lacking the leisurely pace, is in certain crucial aspects an improvement over the miniseries. In particular, here, Sebastian is a more understandable character; in the miniseries I couldn't make sense of his actions and feelings (perhaps this is my fault...). In a smaller degree, I'd say the same about Charles. And the film version makes it easier to understand all the characters' behavioral dynamics. The central theme is the fascination that the rich exert upon the poor. There is also the motif of upper-class 20th century Catholicism.
Rating: 56
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
The Devil at 4 O'Clock (1961)
A plane stops at a Pacific island to drop a priest. It also carries three convicts in it, who must therefore stay overnight on the island. They are recruited next morning by the old priest (who is being replaced by the newcoming one) to work on a lepers clinic. Everything goes fine (well, not really) until the local volcano starts erupting.
Religious propaganda which is anachronistic even for the time of its release. Despite its ideological content, the film is watchable, and may be read as an allegory for sexual repression (the scene where the old priest nearly chokes a convict to death may be said to anticipate the eruption). The film is also an early example of the trend which postulates that new terms revoke the negative connotations of old ones (here, Hansen's disease replacing leprosy), an aspect which is perhaps metaphorically represented in the new priest replacing the old one.
Rating: 39
Religious propaganda which is anachronistic even for the time of its release. Despite its ideological content, the film is watchable, and may be read as an allegory for sexual repression (the scene where the old priest nearly chokes a convict to death may be said to anticipate the eruption). The film is also an early example of the trend which postulates that new terms revoke the negative connotations of old ones (here, Hansen's disease replacing leprosy), an aspect which is perhaps metaphorically represented in the new priest replacing the old one.
Rating: 39
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Any Which Way You Can (1980)
A professional fist fighter wants to retire, changes his mind after an irrefusable offer, is convinced by his close friends to change his mind again, but the fight promoters are gangsters who won't accept his backing down. He makes friends with his rival.
I found this sequel (to a film I remember nothing of) tedious from start to finish. I think the film is ultimately about itself, and film producers' incapacity of refraining to make an extra buck with a sequel that adds nothing to the original and will mostly hurt their artistic integrity (or what there is of it). Only this is not how it is shown in its fictional construction; in it greed is given a make-over to look as guts.
Rating: 11
I found this sequel (to a film I remember nothing of) tedious from start to finish. I think the film is ultimately about itself, and film producers' incapacity of refraining to make an extra buck with a sequel that adds nothing to the original and will mostly hurt their artistic integrity (or what there is of it). Only this is not how it is shown in its fictional construction; in it greed is given a make-over to look as guts.
Rating: 11
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Haunted Honeymoon (1986)
A man who is suffering from attacks of fear travels to a gothic mansion belonging to his aunt. He, his fiancee, and several of his relatives gather there for the weekend.
I detested this when I first saw it (and probably fell asleep at the cinema). It didn't improve much on second viewing. It is just an uninspired comedy which, while not unpleasant, lacks in cleverness. Christopher Mulrooney has the name of Walter Goodman of The New York Times wrong.
Rating: 34 (up from 15)
I detested this when I first saw it (and probably fell asleep at the cinema). It didn't improve much on second viewing. It is just an uninspired comedy which, while not unpleasant, lacks in cleverness. Christopher Mulrooney has the name of Walter Goodman of The New York Times wrong.
Rating: 34 (up from 15)
Friday, June 10, 2011
The Bells of St. Mary's (1945)
Father O'Malley is appointed director of a boarding school. His ideas sometimes clash with those of the Mother Superior (is that how they call her?). The great concern of the latter is the impending threat of losing the building to a businessman.
Whereas Going My Way could be dismissed as a religious propaganda film, The Bells of St. Mary's may be similarly dismissed, and preferrably avoided, as a sequel to a religious propaganda film. The ultimate calling of every sequel is to indulge in absurdity; while it is true that a few of them fail to heed that calling, this film heeds it enthusiastically.
Rating: 25
Whereas Going My Way could be dismissed as a religious propaganda film, The Bells of St. Mary's may be similarly dismissed, and preferrably avoided, as a sequel to a religious propaganda film. The ultimate calling of every sequel is to indulge in absurdity; while it is true that a few of them fail to heed that calling, this film heeds it enthusiastically.
Rating: 25
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Edge of Darkness (2010)
A policeman investigates the murder of his daughter and uncovers a conspiracy involving a corporation which manufactures nuclear products.
A really mediocre film; I only watched it out of a lack of other options in a specific occasion. Remake of a TV miniseries which, to be frank, I think is overrated.
Rating: 38
A really mediocre film; I only watched it out of a lack of other options in a specific occasion. Remake of a TV miniseries which, to be frank, I think is overrated.
Rating: 38
Thursday, May 19, 2011
The Bad Lieutenant - Port of Call: New Orleans (2009)
A cop with chronic back pain becomes addicted to drugs, and from then on his life and career spirals down into a cesspool of corruption and violence.
Although the information is absent from the film credits, this is a remake of a 1992 Abel Ferrara film called simply "Bad Lieutenant". That film may be considered to be a bit of an oddity in its director's filmography, being as it was the product of an unusual collaboration between him and three actors turned screenwriters; the origin of the film's concept is to be credited, if I am not mistaken, to a late actress and writer named Zoë Tamerlis, also known as Zoë Lund. Ferrara's "Bad Lieutenant" was an account of the Christian religion as a monster bred out of irrationality: a religion of despair masquerading as one of hope. This remake is a stylistic variation on the earlier film which somehow reflects the spirits of our times. All the Christian elements were removed from it, a decision which defused all the philosophical content from the story and left it floating in the void, so to speak. Well, considering that this very de-christianization may be thought of as the necessary aftermath of an earlier crisis of which the earlier "Bad Lieutenant" precisely is an instance, the remake is both a natural outcome and a tautology. It is also a tautology in what regards its main actor's screen persona, evoking such similar predecessors as "Vampire's Kiss" and "Leaving Las Vegas". In a less intelectual apprehension, though, the film has something going for it, in terms of a certain ability to conjure up some humor from the situations it explores.
Rating: 53
Although the information is absent from the film credits, this is a remake of a 1992 Abel Ferrara film called simply "Bad Lieutenant". That film may be considered to be a bit of an oddity in its director's filmography, being as it was the product of an unusual collaboration between him and three actors turned screenwriters; the origin of the film's concept is to be credited, if I am not mistaken, to a late actress and writer named Zoë Tamerlis, also known as Zoë Lund. Ferrara's "Bad Lieutenant" was an account of the Christian religion as a monster bred out of irrationality: a religion of despair masquerading as one of hope. This remake is a stylistic variation on the earlier film which somehow reflects the spirits of our times. All the Christian elements were removed from it, a decision which defused all the philosophical content from the story and left it floating in the void, so to speak. Well, considering that this very de-christianization may be thought of as the necessary aftermath of an earlier crisis of which the earlier "Bad Lieutenant" precisely is an instance, the remake is both a natural outcome and a tautology. It is also a tautology in what regards its main actor's screen persona, evoking such similar predecessors as "Vampire's Kiss" and "Leaving Las Vegas". In a less intelectual apprehension, though, the film has something going for it, in terms of a certain ability to conjure up some humor from the situations it explores.
Rating: 53
Sunday, May 01, 2011
How Do You Know (2010)
Lisa, a baseball player who has been cut from the team, has a relationship with Matty, who is also a player and can't adjust to monogamy. She meets George, an executive who is in serious legal trouble.
Although the general lines of this follow the romantic comedy paradigm, with an underlying praise to weddings and babies, it has a few interesting things in its construction and in several individual sequences which make for a pleasant viewing. The three main characters exemplify distinct attitudes regarding one's own interests: Lisa has a hard time seeing where her interests lie, George, after a history of confusion, suddenly has a clear idea about his, and Matty simply doesn't need to care about the issue at all.
Rating: 51
Although the general lines of this follow the romantic comedy paradigm, with an underlying praise to weddings and babies, it has a few interesting things in its construction and in several individual sequences which make for a pleasant viewing. The three main characters exemplify distinct attitudes regarding one's own interests: Lisa has a hard time seeing where her interests lie, George, after a history of confusion, suddenly has a clear idea about his, and Matty simply doesn't need to care about the issue at all.
Rating: 51
Monday, April 25, 2011
Wolf (1994)
A book editor is bitten by a wolf and becomes a werewolf. Concurrently to that, he is facing professional and conjugal problems.
The main reason to watch this film is its excellent score. Aside from that, it is a moderately interesting drama about Art versus Capitalism, developed in terms of a blend between The Wolf Man and La belle et la bête.
Rating: 52
The main reason to watch this film is its excellent score. Aside from that, it is a moderately interesting drama about Art versus Capitalism, developed in terms of a blend between The Wolf Man and La belle et la bête.
Rating: 52
Friday, April 22, 2011
The Big Sky (1952)
A group of hunters go up the Missouri river challenging the monopoly of a fur company. They have a Native American woman with them as hostage who will help them to sell their furs to her Native American friends.
It seems I did not like this as much as everybody else did. To concentrate on the good things, the film is reasonably entertaining and well acted. It is also visually pleasant (although I saw it in an awful TCM copy, mutilated to boot). It's essentially just a juvenile adventure movie, though.
Rating: 53
It seems I did not like this as much as everybody else did. To concentrate on the good things, the film is reasonably entertaining and well acted. It is also visually pleasant (although I saw it in an awful TCM copy, mutilated to boot). It's essentially just a juvenile adventure movie, though.
Rating: 53
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Love Affair (1994)
Sports commentator meets singer/musician/decorator on a plane. Plane makes an emergency landing and they board the same ship. Both are engaged to somebody else. They vow to meet three months later.
A second remake. The film's plot is clever, but could only appear right in 1939, when the first version came out. The second version (1957, I think) already seemed stale, but had the color novelty as a justification. This third version is an altogether mad enterprise. The first section is perhaps the better part of the film and has a light comedic tone. The middle section with the aunt tries hard to "update" the material, making said aunt speak in candid terms (a "fuck" is uttered) about monogamy and its alternative. The remainder of the film does not offer anything new, and is therefore a complete bore.
Rating: 31
A second remake. The film's plot is clever, but could only appear right in 1939, when the first version came out. The second version (1957, I think) already seemed stale, but had the color novelty as a justification. This third version is an altogether mad enterprise. The first section is perhaps the better part of the film and has a light comedic tone. The middle section with the aunt tries hard to "update" the material, making said aunt speak in candid terms (a "fuck" is uttered) about monogamy and its alternative. The remainder of the film does not offer anything new, and is therefore a complete bore.
Rating: 31
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Forced Vengeance (1982)
A casino employee avenges the murder of the casino owner, ordered by a mobster whose buying offer was refused.
I guess some people go for its marginal comicity (which some of these people will claim is not marginal at all). Others will only be fully awake at the fighting sections. Being human, I am not totally insensitive to either of those aspects. But I am not very enthusiastic about them.
Rating: 31
I guess some people go for its marginal comicity (which some of these people will claim is not marginal at all). Others will only be fully awake at the fighting sections. Being human, I am not totally insensitive to either of those aspects. But I am not very enthusiastic about them.
Rating: 31
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
The Three Stooges: third batch
Back to the Woods (1937)
Pardon My Scotch (1935)
Oil's Well That Ends Well (1958)
The Three Troubledoers (1946)
Fuelin' Around (1949)
Hugs and Mugs (1950)
I Can Hardly Wait (1943)
Cash and Carry (1937)
Pardon My Scotch (1935)
Oil's Well That Ends Well (1958)
The Three Troubledoers (1946)
Fuelin' Around (1949)
Hugs and Mugs (1950)
I Can Hardly Wait (1943)
Cash and Carry (1937)
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Alice's Restaurant (1969)
It chronicles the lives of a group of friends. Arlo is a musician. Ray and Alice buy an old church and open a restaurant in it. There is another guy who has psychological scars from the time he was in the Vietnam war. And Arlo's father is in New York, with a serious illness. They throw a huge lunch on Thanksgiving day. Arlo is drafted to serve in Vietnam, but will he pass the selection exams?
This is best seen as a chronicle of an era, I think, or the end of an era. The dullness in it is a consequence of its realism. And this realism, up to a point, transforms the dullness into emotional empathy. A mise-en-scene highlight is a wedding ceremony which is marvelously staged, with some awesome scenes of odd-looking characters. Reinforcing what I had said, the main character here is not Arlo, it's the late sixties in the U.S.. But even with great effort I don't see a great movie here.
Rating: 50
This is best seen as a chronicle of an era, I think, or the end of an era. The dullness in it is a consequence of its realism. And this realism, up to a point, transforms the dullness into emotional empathy. A mise-en-scene highlight is a wedding ceremony which is marvelously staged, with some awesome scenes of odd-looking characters. Reinforcing what I had said, the main character here is not Arlo, it's the late sixties in the U.S.. But even with great effort I don't see a great movie here.
Rating: 50
Funny Girl (1968)
Musical biography of someone named Fanny Brice. After watching the movie, I know almost as little of that real-life person as I did before watching the movie. Consulting the wikipedia article as I write this, I see that the film has nothing to do with reality, so I feel better.
The first half-hour or so of this is kind of cute, and definitely watchable. After that, the film proceeds to be a mediocre romantic story with very little distinctive features. The central dramatic point seems to be that Fanny feels ugly. A theme such as this is a very tough nut to crack, meaning that it would take a lot of talent and honesty to turn it into a good movie. This is not the case here and the musical numbers are mediocre too, with a few exceptions.
Rating: 31
The first half-hour or so of this is kind of cute, and definitely watchable. After that, the film proceeds to be a mediocre romantic story with very little distinctive features. The central dramatic point seems to be that Fanny feels ugly. A theme such as this is a very tough nut to crack, meaning that it would take a lot of talent and honesty to turn it into a good movie. This is not the case here and the musical numbers are mediocre too, with a few exceptions.
Rating: 31
Monday, March 28, 2011
Invictus (2009)
After the end of apartheid in South Africa, the newly elected president gives a lot of thought to the rugby world cup.
This is just unbelievably bad.
Rating: 1 (just because of the professionalism of the performers, otherwise it would be zero)
This is just unbelievably bad.
Rating: 1 (just because of the professionalism of the performers, otherwise it would be zero)
Sunday, March 27, 2011
The Three Stooges: second batch
.. including the following shorts:
Hula-La-La (1951) [actually a cut version of only 7 minutes of length]
Uncivil Warriors (1935)
Grips, Grunts and Groans (1937)
So far all the shorts I have (re)seen are good.
Hula-La-La (1951) [actually a cut version of only 7 minutes of length]
Uncivil Warriors (1935)
Grips, Grunts and Groans (1937)
So far all the shorts I have (re)seen are good.
Mononoke-hime (1997)
English title: Princess Mononoke.
An iron foundry plant situated in a forest area faces the opposition of the forest spirits.
This fantasy animation has a few marginal qualities, of which the most prominent one is the depiction of the characters in the foundry. Also, the design of the forest creatures is imaginative. As for the idea of "nature's revenge", it's a good one in principle. The film, however, becomes progressively dehumanized as it goes along. I found it engaging at first, but was bored at the end.
Rating: 45
An iron foundry plant situated in a forest area faces the opposition of the forest spirits.
This fantasy animation has a few marginal qualities, of which the most prominent one is the depiction of the characters in the foundry. Also, the design of the forest creatures is imaginative. As for the idea of "nature's revenge", it's a good one in principle. The film, however, becomes progressively dehumanized as it goes along. I found it engaging at first, but was bored at the end.
Rating: 45
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Hour of the Gun (1967)
The film begins with the gunfight at the OK corral. Wyatt Earp goes to trial and is acquitted. Then begins a treacherous war that Ike Clanton wages on Earp. Their rivalry is founded on Clanton's opposition (and Earp's support) to a law that gives Easterners 'free range' or something of the sort. Earp's friend 'Doc' Holliday stands by him all the way through.
Austere Western about the difficulties of abiding the law in times of lawlessness. It's also about friendship and the loyalty it entails.
Rating: 53
Austere Western about the difficulties of abiding the law in times of lawlessness. It's also about friendship and the loyalty it entails.
Rating: 53
Friday, March 25, 2011
La vie est un roman (1983)
Three narrative lines are intertwined. In 1917, a man conducts an experiment in a castle with the goal of imbuing his guests with a new mindframe. Sixty five years later an education symposium is held at the same castle, now turned into a school. The third narrative line is a fairy tale which may or may not be the product of some children's imaginations.
A second viewing of this film serves to refresh my memory. The film has beauty and intelligence, but I am not sure it could not profit from a more elaborate musical section. Its points are hammered down onto the viewer, through repetitious lyrics and suchlike devices.
Rating: 66 (unchanged)
A second viewing of this film serves to refresh my memory. The film has beauty and intelligence, but I am not sure it could not profit from a more elaborate musical section. Its points are hammered down onto the viewer, through repetitious lyrics and suchlike devices.
Rating: 66 (unchanged)
Thursday, March 24, 2011
The Three Stooges: first batch
Saw the following shorts:
Pals and Gals (1954)
Termites of 1938 (1938)
Three Loan Wolves (1946)
Hokus Pokus (1949)
A Pain in the Pullman (1936)
Gents Without Cents (1944)
When it comes to the Stooges, I can't say what I have or haven't seen when I was a kid. I certainly am seeing them with the original audio for the first time.
Pals and Gals (1954)
Termites of 1938 (1938)
Three Loan Wolves (1946)
Hokus Pokus (1949)
A Pain in the Pullman (1936)
Gents Without Cents (1944)
When it comes to the Stooges, I can't say what I have or haven't seen when I was a kid. I certainly am seeing them with the original audio for the first time.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Panic Room (2002)
Some robbers break into a house and the house dwellers get into the "panic room" - an inviolable room designed for just such an occasion.
This is, on the whole, not a bad movie. Several people have complained about plot holes, and some of them make valid points. Most of these impossibilities are functional in the proposed diegesis. One of them is certainly not. It was pointed out at a user review on IMDB. Here it goes, word by word:
-beginning of quote-
A major flaw!, 11 March 2003
Author: delm from Vancouver
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Plse note: spoilers below! I would have considered this movie to be a mediocre to fair thriller if not for one major flaw which ruined the whole movie for me. This flaw was the injection scene. Anyone who knows anything about diabetes knows that when someone is suffering from low blood sugar and verging on going into a coma the last thing you would do is inject them with insulin (which would just cause them to go into a coma that much faster and very likely kill them). Even if the syringe contained a sugar solution the film-makers should have known that to be the least bit effective this would have to have been injected directly into the blood stream not into stomach tissue. Not only is it insulting to diabetics everywhere that the film-makers couldn't even be bothered to get the facts right about this deadly disease, but this depiction could conceivably result in a tragedy. Anyone using this scene as a basic for trying to help someone who is suffering from low blood sugar could end up killing them. Other minor flaws with the movie: how could Forest Whitaker's character have know what Jodie Foster's character was doing when she was trying to ignite the gas, how likely is it that Jodie Foster's character would know how to reconnect the phone, pushing a light sofa in front of the door is not terribly effective in blocking the door which is made clear when Jodie Foster's character had no problem later in the movie in getting the front door open, etc., etc., etc. Very poorly thought out and executed. Shame on you guys.
--end of quote--
This is my second viewing of this movie. My previous rating was 35. I would gladly raise it a bit, but not after reading what this guy wrote (the medical facts of which, believe it or not, I knew, but was deceived by the movie all the same).
Rating: 35 (unchanged)
This is, on the whole, not a bad movie. Several people have complained about plot holes, and some of them make valid points. Most of these impossibilities are functional in the proposed diegesis. One of them is certainly not. It was pointed out at a user review on IMDB. Here it goes, word by word:
-beginning of quote-
A major flaw!, 11 March 2003
Author: delm from Vancouver
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Plse note: spoilers below! I would have considered this movie to be a mediocre to fair thriller if not for one major flaw which ruined the whole movie for me. This flaw was the injection scene. Anyone who knows anything about diabetes knows that when someone is suffering from low blood sugar and verging on going into a coma the last thing you would do is inject them with insulin (which would just cause them to go into a coma that much faster and very likely kill them). Even if the syringe contained a sugar solution the film-makers should have known that to be the least bit effective this would have to have been injected directly into the blood stream not into stomach tissue. Not only is it insulting to diabetics everywhere that the film-makers couldn't even be bothered to get the facts right about this deadly disease, but this depiction could conceivably result in a tragedy. Anyone using this scene as a basic for trying to help someone who is suffering from low blood sugar could end up killing them. Other minor flaws with the movie: how could Forest Whitaker's character have know what Jodie Foster's character was doing when she was trying to ignite the gas, how likely is it that Jodie Foster's character would know how to reconnect the phone, pushing a light sofa in front of the door is not terribly effective in blocking the door which is made clear when Jodie Foster's character had no problem later in the movie in getting the front door open, etc., etc., etc. Very poorly thought out and executed. Shame on you guys.
--end of quote--
This is my second viewing of this movie. My previous rating was 35. I would gladly raise it a bit, but not after reading what this guy wrote (the medical facts of which, believe it or not, I knew, but was deceived by the movie all the same).
Rating: 35 (unchanged)
Friday, March 18, 2011
Umi wa miteita (2002)
English title: The Sea Is Watching.
Correct translation of the Japanese title: The Sea Was Watching.
Life in a brothel in old Japan. One of the prostitutes falls in love repeatedly. Another has an affair with a man who exploits her; she is courted by an older man.
Touching chamber drama about the difficult sentimental lives of prostitutes. The screenplay quite seamlessly joins and adapts two stories by Shugoro Yamamoto, who also provided source material for Red Beard, Dodesukaden, and Sanjuro.
Rating: 61
Correct translation of the Japanese title: The Sea Was Watching.
Life in a brothel in old Japan. One of the prostitutes falls in love repeatedly. Another has an affair with a man who exploits her; she is courted by an older man.
Touching chamber drama about the difficult sentimental lives of prostitutes. The screenplay quite seamlessly joins and adapts two stories by Shugoro Yamamoto, who also provided source material for Red Beard, Dodesukaden, and Sanjuro.
Rating: 61
Paris, je t'aime (2006)
A series of very small films, each set in a different part of Paris.
Most segments were nice. The film fails to embody its title. Paris does not come across as particularly lovable, or, for that matter, even particular. Maybe the idea was "Paris, I love you, despite...", except it doesn't especially succeed at that either.
Rating: 50
Most segments were nice. The film fails to embody its title. Paris does not come across as particularly lovable, or, for that matter, even particular. Maybe the idea was "Paris, I love you, despite...", except it doesn't especially succeed at that either.
Rating: 50
Saturday, March 12, 2011
The King's Speech (2010)
This is about a man with a stammer problem and all the royal affairs which lead him into kinghood, and then all the problems that his stammering causes him in his kingly duties. And, most of all perhaps, about the therapy he goes through.
I can't give a perfectly sure opinion about the cinematography of this film. What I saw was a horribly darkened, bluish thing, which for all I know may have been caused by a projection problem. My country is not very serious in what concerns the quality of services that the citizen pays for, so this is the sort of thing we are used to expect now and then. Now for the other aspects of the film. I would have watched it anyway, because the theme of stammering is a favorite of mine, and may in a broad sense be said to be the only theme I actually care about, aside from the one of laterality, which is related to it, and is covered in a very fleeting way by the movie. Other than that, it is an obviously silly production, not to be taken seriously either in the historical sense (read the wikipedia article and check out its "minor" historical inaccuracies) or as a dramatization of a medical problem and its therapy, or as anything else one might want to construe it to be. As a side note mostly to myself, I point out that the choice of the Hamlet soliloquy at one of the therapeutic sessions is thematically interesting, since it links stammering to indecision. Some other references (Othello, Richard III) are perhaps farther removed from the theme, but all three Shakespearean characters deal with some sort of personal inadequacy.
Rating: 48
I can't give a perfectly sure opinion about the cinematography of this film. What I saw was a horribly darkened, bluish thing, which for all I know may have been caused by a projection problem. My country is not very serious in what concerns the quality of services that the citizen pays for, so this is the sort of thing we are used to expect now and then. Now for the other aspects of the film. I would have watched it anyway, because the theme of stammering is a favorite of mine, and may in a broad sense be said to be the only theme I actually care about, aside from the one of laterality, which is related to it, and is covered in a very fleeting way by the movie. Other than that, it is an obviously silly production, not to be taken seriously either in the historical sense (read the wikipedia article and check out its "minor" historical inaccuracies) or as a dramatization of a medical problem and its therapy, or as anything else one might want to construe it to be. As a side note mostly to myself, I point out that the choice of the Hamlet soliloquy at one of the therapeutic sessions is thematically interesting, since it links stammering to indecision. Some other references (Othello, Richard III) are perhaps farther removed from the theme, but all three Shakespearean characters deal with some sort of personal inadequacy.
Rating: 48
Wednesday, March 09, 2011
Iron Eagle (1986)
A teenager rescues his father who was taken prisoner in a Middle East country when he flew in a contentious zone.
Ludicrous yet dull. Or vice-versa.
Rating: 35
Ludicrous yet dull. Or vice-versa.
Rating: 35
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)
A road show takes its customers on a psychedelic ride of sorts. One day they rescue a man from death and he accompanies them. Also, the owner must fill a contractual obligation with the devil.
Not much to say. The plot is weak. The film is all about the eye-candy sequences.
Rating: 20
Not much to say. The plot is weak. The film is all about the eye-candy sequences.
Rating: 20
Tuesday, March 08, 2011
Mary and Max (2009)
A lonely 8-year-old girl living in Australia picks a random name out of a New York phone book and writes to him. He happens to be a 44-year-old man who lives alone and can't relate to anybody.
A grim yet amusing film, with a remarkable visual design.
Rating: 69
A grim yet amusing film, with a remarkable visual design.
Rating: 69
Disgrace (2008)
In South Africa, a professor gets involved with a student. He is forced to resign and goes to live with his daughter in a dangerous country place.
An intelligent movie about a man who has to move from an unreal world (the University) to a real one. The film is mostly well done and it is hard to name one responsible for its merits. Both direction and screenplay seem very competent to me, and I haven't read the Coetzee novel, so I can't really say how good it is. This is probably a happy confluence (hope this word exists) of talents.
Rating: 75 (so far the best 2008 movie I have seen).
An intelligent movie about a man who has to move from an unreal world (the University) to a real one. The film is mostly well done and it is hard to name one responsible for its merits. Both direction and screenplay seem very competent to me, and I haven't read the Coetzee novel, so I can't really say how good it is. This is probably a happy confluence (hope this word exists) of talents.
Rating: 75 (so far the best 2008 movie I have seen).
Rosemary & Thyme: In a Monastery Garden (2006) (TV)
In this episode, the duo is hired to reform the garden of a monastery for a visit of the queen. The monastery is ridden with corruption and a series of crimes occur.
This is one of the nicest TV series ever.
This is one of the nicest TV series ever.
Man on the Flying Trapeze (1935)
The comic misadventures of an alcoholic man who has a dull job and is henpecked by his wife. He wants to see the wrestling match one afternoon and gets in a lot of trouble on the way.
A masterpiece of humor. This is pure Fields, he rules the entire film.
It is critic Dale Thomajan's 10th favorite movie of 1935.
Rating: 75 (5th entry on my favorites list of 1935)
A masterpiece of humor. This is pure Fields, he rules the entire film.
It is critic Dale Thomajan's 10th favorite movie of 1935.
Rating: 75 (5th entry on my favorites list of 1935)
Thursday, March 03, 2011
Ruggles of Red Gap (1935)
An Englishman gambles his own personal valet on a poker game against an American millionaire and loses. The poor chap is made to travel to the U.S. with his new owners, sorry, I mean employers.
I think one can't help to make a distinction between the first half-hour and the remainder of this film. That initial part of it is very remarkable in its comicity; that comicity is not sustained, not in the same intensity anyway, afterwards. We, as viewers, are left in the following situation: if we find the situation of a servant being treated as something he is not - something of a higher value in the social order - comical, we are, in a way, being complicitous in the kind of prejudice and social organization which the film purports to denounce. Therefore, we are forced to take the film seriously, only allowing ourselves to find certain accessory elements comical. (The preceding considerations only give the directions for an analysis which should be developed further.)
This is the 7th entry in critic Dale Thomajan's top ten list for 1935.
Rating: 56
I think one can't help to make a distinction between the first half-hour and the remainder of this film. That initial part of it is very remarkable in its comicity; that comicity is not sustained, not in the same intensity anyway, afterwards. We, as viewers, are left in the following situation: if we find the situation of a servant being treated as something he is not - something of a higher value in the social order - comical, we are, in a way, being complicitous in the kind of prejudice and social organization which the film purports to denounce. Therefore, we are forced to take the film seriously, only allowing ourselves to find certain accessory elements comical. (The preceding considerations only give the directions for an analysis which should be developed further.)
This is the 7th entry in critic Dale Thomajan's top ten list for 1935.
Rating: 56
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Grey Owl (1999)
Based on the real story of a man who lived in the Canadian wilderness as a hunter, then became an ecological activist. The time is the 1930's.
The story per se is my idea of fascinating, and I think I would watch a much worse film just to get acquainted with these facts. But an objective assessment of the film itself leads to only moderate praise. The romantic element is hipertrophied and not done in the most convincing manner, in my opinion. The lead performance is quite satisfactory, on the other hand. And there are several moments of good cinema in it, especially near the end.
Saw it dubbed in Portuguese.
Rating: 55
The story per se is my idea of fascinating, and I think I would watch a much worse film just to get acquainted with these facts. But an objective assessment of the film itself leads to only moderate praise. The romantic element is hipertrophied and not done in the most convincing manner, in my opinion. The lead performance is quite satisfactory, on the other hand. And there are several moments of good cinema in it, especially near the end.
Saw it dubbed in Portuguese.
Rating: 55
Monday, February 21, 2011
Annie Oakley (1935)
Biography of a country girl who was an extremely sharp shooter, and became a show woman in Buffalo Bill's Wild West traveling show. There is a romantic entanglement with a fellow shooter.
Although it doesn't stray from biopic conventions, Stevens is remarkable for his perfect attention to details. Oakley's life per se I don't find particularly interesting, but the Wild West show as a phenomenon is interesting. Also interesting is the fame cycle, in each individual case and in each era. Cody's point of attraction was his real-life past. Thus, he became a famous star because he had done noteworthy exploits which had already bestowed him an amount of fame. The same goes for Sitting Bull. On the other hand, the contrast between Oakley's special talent and her former obscurity was a kind of point of attraction. The logic behind this film, however, is different: it awakens interest because these people were famous show stars of the past. It is show business feeding show business. In recent times, the Buffalo Bill phenomenon is reversed: people assume real life positions because of a show business career (for example, see some actors who become politicians).
Critic Dale Thomajan's number 5 of his 1935's top ten movies.
Rating: 61
Although it doesn't stray from biopic conventions, Stevens is remarkable for his perfect attention to details. Oakley's life per se I don't find particularly interesting, but the Wild West show as a phenomenon is interesting. Also interesting is the fame cycle, in each individual case and in each era. Cody's point of attraction was his real-life past. Thus, he became a famous star because he had done noteworthy exploits which had already bestowed him an amount of fame. The same goes for Sitting Bull. On the other hand, the contrast between Oakley's special talent and her former obscurity was a kind of point of attraction. The logic behind this film, however, is different: it awakens interest because these people were famous show stars of the past. It is show business feeding show business. In recent times, the Buffalo Bill phenomenon is reversed: people assume real life positions because of a show business career (for example, see some actors who become politicians).
Critic Dale Thomajan's number 5 of his 1935's top ten movies.
Rating: 61
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
A fox gets in trouble when he returns to his life of stealing.
This is a film with serious identity problems, even though it displays artfulness and humor on occasion. Several screenplay elements have a distinctly ad hoc feeling. The writers have used family themes as counterpoint to the action sequences, yet the joining of the two strands seems forced. It's a real mystery to me why someone would be willing to make a comedy with adult situations using anthropomorphic animals. Maybe the filmmaker enjoys creating problems to himself all the time which cannot be satisfactorily solved (such as, what human characteristics should these characters have and what specifically animal ones?). The film had a favorable reception, it seems. It seems that people like what is quirky, even though it's for quirkiness' sake alone. Anyway, in a capitalist environment who can tell a stupid move from a smart one? Mr. Anderson's self-consciousness, conspicuous in the replacement of cursing words by the word 'cussing', exemplifies the above dilemma in a dismal way.
Rating: 44
This is a film with serious identity problems, even though it displays artfulness and humor on occasion. Several screenplay elements have a distinctly ad hoc feeling. The writers have used family themes as counterpoint to the action sequences, yet the joining of the two strands seems forced. It's a real mystery to me why someone would be willing to make a comedy with adult situations using anthropomorphic animals. Maybe the filmmaker enjoys creating problems to himself all the time which cannot be satisfactorily solved (such as, what human characteristics should these characters have and what specifically animal ones?). The film had a favorable reception, it seems. It seems that people like what is quirky, even though it's for quirkiness' sake alone. Anyway, in a capitalist environment who can tell a stupid move from a smart one? Mr. Anderson's self-consciousness, conspicuous in the replacement of cursing words by the word 'cussing', exemplifies the above dilemma in a dismal way.
Rating: 44
Sylvia Scarlett (1935)
Father and daughter living in France move to England after the former commits embezzlement. She disguises herself as a man in order to impose more respect from people (I hope memory serves me right here). In their new country they get mixed up with a con man and smuggler, and the three become traveling showmen. They meet a rich artist and his friends.
A very unconventional film. More than one reviewer describes it as "ahead of its time", yet there are picaresque elements in it which date back to the sixteenth century. It's easy to see why it flopped, too, since its plot is slightly absurdist and wanders from comic events to tragic ones without noticeable change of register. The key plot element turns out be to the romantic afflictions of the heroine, but this is not your typical romantic comedy, by any means. Hepburn suits the part, and is made to look like Parker Lewis Can't Lose's title character.
This is critic Dale Thomajan's fifth entry on his 1935 top ten list.
Rating: 83 (third entry on my favorites list for 1935)
A very unconventional film. More than one reviewer describes it as "ahead of its time", yet there are picaresque elements in it which date back to the sixteenth century. It's easy to see why it flopped, too, since its plot is slightly absurdist and wanders from comic events to tragic ones without noticeable change of register. The key plot element turns out be to the romantic afflictions of the heroine, but this is not your typical romantic comedy, by any means. Hepburn suits the part, and is made to look like Parker Lewis Can't Lose's title character.
This is critic Dale Thomajan's fifth entry on his 1935 top ten list.
Rating: 83 (third entry on my favorites list for 1935)
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Os inquilinos (2009)
English title: The Tenants.
A working class family's routine is disturbed by the arrival of three new tenants next door. There is a growing suspicion that they lead a criminal life. The tenants are imposed on the house's owner, an elderly man, by his ex-wife, who shares ownership of the house.
A film with an interesting plotline and which is harmed, but perhaps not completely ruined, by silly psychological and sociological characterizations on several occasions. The film seems to want to make a statement about what he expects from his main character, and which the latter cannot fulfill. In interviews the director claims nonpartisanship and absence of manicheism, in very contradictory terms. The film is a variation on Straw Dogs, examining the alternative to that film's development. It is based on a short story which can be read online (in Portuguese).
Rating:46
A working class family's routine is disturbed by the arrival of three new tenants next door. There is a growing suspicion that they lead a criminal life. The tenants are imposed on the house's owner, an elderly man, by his ex-wife, who shares ownership of the house.
A film with an interesting plotline and which is harmed, but perhaps not completely ruined, by silly psychological and sociological characterizations on several occasions. The film seems to want to make a statement about what he expects from his main character, and which the latter cannot fulfill. In interviews the director claims nonpartisanship and absence of manicheism, in very contradictory terms. The film is a variation on Straw Dogs, examining the alternative to that film's development. It is based on a short story which can be read online (in Portuguese).
Rating:46
Thursday, February 10, 2011
High Anxiety (1977)
A new director arrives at a psychiatric institute, after his predecessor dies in mysterious circumstances.
A spoof on Hitchcock movies. This is my second viewing. Although I found it better than on my previous viewing, I am still not impressed. Maybe a third viewing will make me embrace it fully. I see it as a film which takes no chances; it does what you expect from it, with little in the way of surprise.
Rating: 40 (up from 28)
A spoof on Hitchcock movies. This is my second viewing. Although I found it better than on my previous viewing, I am still not impressed. Maybe a third viewing will make me embrace it fully. I see it as a film which takes no chances; it does what you expect from it, with little in the way of surprise.
Rating: 40 (up from 28)
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
The Devil Is a Woman (1935)
Instead of giving the plot summary for this film, I shall give the plot summary for the novel on which it was based, "The Woman and the Puppet", by Pierre Louÿs, published in 1898. It is taken ipsis litteris from the site CritiquesLibres:
-beginning of quote-
la femme et le pantin de Pierre Louÿs
Catégorie(s) : Littérature => Francophone
critiqué par Hiram33, le 30 septembre 2006 (Bicêtre, Inscrit le 31 juillet 2006, 41 ans)
La note:
Moyenne des notes : (basée sur 3 avis)
Cote pondérée : (17 276ème position).
Visites : 1 099 (depuis Novembre 2007)
Duel de pervers
Au cours du carnaval de Séville, un jeune Français André Stévenol tombe amoureux d'une jeune espagnole inconnue. Il lui déclare sa flamme lui envoyant un oeuf sur lequel il a eu le temps d'écrire "Quiero". A grand peine, il suit la trace de la belle et se présente au domicile de celle-ci. Il se fait éconduire par le domestique mais un commerçant voisin lui donne le nom de la Sévillane : Conception Perez. Rentré chez lui, il reçoit un mot de la belle lui proposant un rendez-vous. Les heures qui séparent André de sa rencontre galante le taraudent, il décide de se ballader et croise une ancienne connaissance, Mateo Diaz. Diaz lui demande de soulager son angoisse et apprenant qu'il est éperdu d'une certaine Concha, il est pris d'effroi, ne serait-ce pas Concha Perez ? La femme qu'il a connue et qui a causé ses pires tourements ? Oui, c'est bien elle. Alors commence le récit de Mateo. Il va tenter de convaincre son ami de ne pas venir au rendez-vous. L'Espagnol a rencontré la belle dans un train, il a été séduit par sa beauté et par son chant qui accompagnait avec ironie la danse d'une gitane. Puis plus rien jusqu'au hasard des retrouvailles. Là, démarre un crescendo où l'ancien Don Juan jette son dévolu sur Concha. Alors qu'il s'est servi des femmes comme d'objets sexuels c'est lui qui se transforme en pantin dans les mains de la belle Sévillane. Elle va le manipuler, lui laisser croire qu'elle l'aime. L'embrasser, et même entrer dans son lit mais munie d'une "cuirasse" de tissu empêchant les ébas. Humilié, insulté, Mateo en redemande pourtant et il cède à tous les caprices de Concha. Elle disparait de sa vie pour réapparaître et lui, se laisse encore prendre au piège. Elle dit être restée vierge pour lui, n'avoir aimé que lui et Matéo d'y croire naïvement. La belle est danseuse dans un cabaret se qui excite la jalousie du Don Juan jusqu'au paroxysme quand il s'aperçoit que Concha danse nue devant les "Inglès", il le découvre par hasard. Mais Concha réussit une fois encore à le convaincre qu'elle est toujours sans amant. L'humiliation atteint son apogée quand Concha repousse Mateo devant la grille de son appartement et appelle un homme qu'elle embrasse devant le "pantin". Il aura sa revanche en frappant Concha comme pour vider sa colère emmagasinée pendant des mois. Mais, comble de l'ironie, c'est Concha qui en redemande, avouant qu'elle l'a toujours aimé et que s'il elle a tout fait pour le rendre jaloux c'est pour qu'il la batte car elle aime se faire frapper. Mateo obtient ce qu'il a toujours recherché, Concha devient sa maîtresse mais elle l'oblige par tous les moyens à céder à la violence et aux coups. Elle torture psychologiquement Mateo en lui interdisant tout contact avec une femme, toute sortie au théâtre et tout lecture alors qu'elle ne se gêne pas pour le tromper. Elle va jusqu'à le provoquer lui écrivant pour lui donner rendez-vous là où elle se trouve avec son amant, espérant qu'il arivera au moment de l'étreinte. Un duel entre les deux rivaux s'en suit. Résolue à sortir de cet enfer, Mateo fuit à Tanger puis en Italie. La fin du récit du "pantin" aurait dû convaincre le jeune Français d'éviter la manipulatrice mais il n'en est rien. Et comble de la déchéance Mateo lui-même cherche à retrouver la belle...
Pierre Louÿs sert dans ce roman les amateurs de sensulalité mais c'est surtout un récit psychologique. Si Mateo est manipulé et Concha manipulatrice, le couple est égal dans la perversion. Il s'instaure une relation sado-maso physique et psychologique. Personne n'est vraiment coupable et victime, le jeu est partagé par les deux amants qui semblent y trouver un plaisir malsain. Ce roman a inspiré Julien Duvivier pour un film avec Brigitte Bardot et Von Stenberg [sic] pour un film avec Marlène Dietrich.
-end of quote-
The difference between the above and the film's plot is that the masochistic inclinations of 'Concha' are eliminated in the film. I would venture the opinion that this modification - and otherwise it seems to be a faithful rendering - makes the film an improvement over the novel. The dynamics of the relationship is purer in the film, in the sense that it is closer to a Masochian relationship. That is, the woman plays a purely sadistic part and the man a purely masochistic one. The novel, when it "justifies" Concha's behavior, seems - although this is just guessing without having read it in its integrality - to add a melodramatic element which fortunately the filmmakers chose not to include. The film is splendid, a visual dazzlement graced by a literate screenplay.
This is critic Dale Thomajan's fourth entry in his 1935 top ten list.
Rating: 95 (first in my list of favorites for 1935)
-beginning of quote-
la femme et le pantin de Pierre Louÿs
Catégorie(s) : Littérature => Francophone
critiqué par Hiram33, le 30 septembre 2006 (Bicêtre, Inscrit le 31 juillet 2006, 41 ans)
La note:
Moyenne des notes : (basée sur 3 avis)
Cote pondérée : (17 276ème position).
Visites : 1 099 (depuis Novembre 2007)
Duel de pervers
Au cours du carnaval de Séville, un jeune Français André Stévenol tombe amoureux d'une jeune espagnole inconnue. Il lui déclare sa flamme lui envoyant un oeuf sur lequel il a eu le temps d'écrire "Quiero". A grand peine, il suit la trace de la belle et se présente au domicile de celle-ci. Il se fait éconduire par le domestique mais un commerçant voisin lui donne le nom de la Sévillane : Conception Perez. Rentré chez lui, il reçoit un mot de la belle lui proposant un rendez-vous. Les heures qui séparent André de sa rencontre galante le taraudent, il décide de se ballader et croise une ancienne connaissance, Mateo Diaz. Diaz lui demande de soulager son angoisse et apprenant qu'il est éperdu d'une certaine Concha, il est pris d'effroi, ne serait-ce pas Concha Perez ? La femme qu'il a connue et qui a causé ses pires tourements ? Oui, c'est bien elle. Alors commence le récit de Mateo. Il va tenter de convaincre son ami de ne pas venir au rendez-vous. L'Espagnol a rencontré la belle dans un train, il a été séduit par sa beauté et par son chant qui accompagnait avec ironie la danse d'une gitane. Puis plus rien jusqu'au hasard des retrouvailles. Là, démarre un crescendo où l'ancien Don Juan jette son dévolu sur Concha. Alors qu'il s'est servi des femmes comme d'objets sexuels c'est lui qui se transforme en pantin dans les mains de la belle Sévillane. Elle va le manipuler, lui laisser croire qu'elle l'aime. L'embrasser, et même entrer dans son lit mais munie d'une "cuirasse" de tissu empêchant les ébas. Humilié, insulté, Mateo en redemande pourtant et il cède à tous les caprices de Concha. Elle disparait de sa vie pour réapparaître et lui, se laisse encore prendre au piège. Elle dit être restée vierge pour lui, n'avoir aimé que lui et Matéo d'y croire naïvement. La belle est danseuse dans un cabaret se qui excite la jalousie du Don Juan jusqu'au paroxysme quand il s'aperçoit que Concha danse nue devant les "Inglès", il le découvre par hasard. Mais Concha réussit une fois encore à le convaincre qu'elle est toujours sans amant. L'humiliation atteint son apogée quand Concha repousse Mateo devant la grille de son appartement et appelle un homme qu'elle embrasse devant le "pantin". Il aura sa revanche en frappant Concha comme pour vider sa colère emmagasinée pendant des mois. Mais, comble de l'ironie, c'est Concha qui en redemande, avouant qu'elle l'a toujours aimé et que s'il elle a tout fait pour le rendre jaloux c'est pour qu'il la batte car elle aime se faire frapper. Mateo obtient ce qu'il a toujours recherché, Concha devient sa maîtresse mais elle l'oblige par tous les moyens à céder à la violence et aux coups. Elle torture psychologiquement Mateo en lui interdisant tout contact avec une femme, toute sortie au théâtre et tout lecture alors qu'elle ne se gêne pas pour le tromper. Elle va jusqu'à le provoquer lui écrivant pour lui donner rendez-vous là où elle se trouve avec son amant, espérant qu'il arivera au moment de l'étreinte. Un duel entre les deux rivaux s'en suit. Résolue à sortir de cet enfer, Mateo fuit à Tanger puis en Italie. La fin du récit du "pantin" aurait dû convaincre le jeune Français d'éviter la manipulatrice mais il n'en est rien. Et comble de la déchéance Mateo lui-même cherche à retrouver la belle...
Pierre Louÿs sert dans ce roman les amateurs de sensulalité mais c'est surtout un récit psychologique. Si Mateo est manipulé et Concha manipulatrice, le couple est égal dans la perversion. Il s'instaure une relation sado-maso physique et psychologique. Personne n'est vraiment coupable et victime, le jeu est partagé par les deux amants qui semblent y trouver un plaisir malsain. Ce roman a inspiré Julien Duvivier pour un film avec Brigitte Bardot et Von Stenberg [sic] pour un film avec Marlène Dietrich.
-end of quote-
The difference between the above and the film's plot is that the masochistic inclinations of 'Concha' are eliminated in the film. I would venture the opinion that this modification - and otherwise it seems to be a faithful rendering - makes the film an improvement over the novel. The dynamics of the relationship is purer in the film, in the sense that it is closer to a Masochian relationship. That is, the woman plays a purely sadistic part and the man a purely masochistic one. The novel, when it "justifies" Concha's behavior, seems - although this is just guessing without having read it in its integrality - to add a melodramatic element which fortunately the filmmakers chose not to include. The film is splendid, a visual dazzlement graced by a literate screenplay.
This is critic Dale Thomajan's fourth entry in his 1935 top ten list.
Rating: 95 (first in my list of favorites for 1935)
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
My Zinc Bed (2008) (TV)
This is my second viewing of this film. The summary I wrote exactly one year ago (a creepy coincidence) is good enough:
'A love triangle consisting of the owner of a business software company, his ex-alcoholic, ex-druggie wife, and a recovering alcoholic poet, who is hired by the businessman to do publicity work.'
I am sad, however, at how brutally dismissive I was back then. Here is what I wrote:
'The theme here is addiction and the role of support groups in recovery. The text possesses a modicum of refinement which keeps it watchable, although it is nothing particularly strong or memorable.'
In the first place, I should have remarked how very well directed it is. And after watching it for the second time I have to admit that it is stronger and more memorable than I supposed then. The plot is a bit of a dud, no doubt, and with a length of 1 hour 13 minutes it was unlikely to be otherwise. But for as long as it can it draws the viewer into it.
Rating: 53 (up from 39)
'A love triangle consisting of the owner of a business software company, his ex-alcoholic, ex-druggie wife, and a recovering alcoholic poet, who is hired by the businessman to do publicity work.'
I am sad, however, at how brutally dismissive I was back then. Here is what I wrote:
'The theme here is addiction and the role of support groups in recovery. The text possesses a modicum of refinement which keeps it watchable, although it is nothing particularly strong or memorable.'
In the first place, I should have remarked how very well directed it is. And after watching it for the second time I have to admit that it is stronger and more memorable than I supposed then. The plot is a bit of a dud, no doubt, and with a length of 1 hour 13 minutes it was unlikely to be otherwise. But for as long as it can it draws the viewer into it.
Rating: 53 (up from 39)
Sunday, February 06, 2011
Crossing Delancey (1988)
A bookstore worker has a crush on a novelist. Her grandmother, using the services of a matchmaker, fixes her up with a pickle merchant.
An important topic of discussion when it comes to films which deal with prejudice is the question of how in some of those films prejudice is constructed by the film itself, in order to be subsequently deconstructed by it. For example, Crossing Delancey only works if the viewer accepts that prejudice against a pickle merchant is something which naturally occurs in intellectual circles. One question is whether this assumption stems from social observation or from the same kind of prejudice it tries to fight. Another question is whether the film could not be guilty of the reverse prejudice, that is, prejudice against intellectuals as a class.
If one abandons the above line of analysis, and focuses on individual drama and issues such as loneliness and affective life, the film becomes simpler. Consider the title it received in Brazil: "Love at Second Sight". It's a good indication of how it is perceived, or maybe even of how it is supposed to be perceived. And yet I don't see any love between the bookstore worker and the pickle maker. No, love is probably too wild an assumption to be made based exclusively on what the film actually shows us. Accommodation is more like it. But who would watch a movie called "Accommodation at Second Sight"?
Summing my considerations up, this is a nice little film about accommodations, with little conscience of the social dimension of the drama it presents.
Rating: 51
An important topic of discussion when it comes to films which deal with prejudice is the question of how in some of those films prejudice is constructed by the film itself, in order to be subsequently deconstructed by it. For example, Crossing Delancey only works if the viewer accepts that prejudice against a pickle merchant is something which naturally occurs in intellectual circles. One question is whether this assumption stems from social observation or from the same kind of prejudice it tries to fight. Another question is whether the film could not be guilty of the reverse prejudice, that is, prejudice against intellectuals as a class.
If one abandons the above line of analysis, and focuses on individual drama and issues such as loneliness and affective life, the film becomes simpler. Consider the title it received in Brazil: "Love at Second Sight". It's a good indication of how it is perceived, or maybe even of how it is supposed to be perceived. And yet I don't see any love between the bookstore worker and the pickle maker. No, love is probably too wild an assumption to be made based exclusively on what the film actually shows us. Accommodation is more like it. But who would watch a movie called "Accommodation at Second Sight"?
Summing my considerations up, this is a nice little film about accommodations, with little conscience of the social dimension of the drama it presents.
Rating: 51
Black Swan (2010)
A ballerina is chosen for the leading role in Swan Lake, despite the fact (which no one seems to notice) that she is stark raving mad.
The plot summary above may be disputed by some who will argue the film to be a fantastic tale. Whatever way I look at it, its ideas seem sophomoric and a proof that any half-baked film-school weirdness is Oscar material in these our sad days.
At any rate the leading actress does a good job.
Rating: 37
The plot summary above may be disputed by some who will argue the film to be a fantastic tale. Whatever way I look at it, its ideas seem sophomoric and a proof that any half-baked film-school weirdness is Oscar material in these our sad days.
At any rate the leading actress does a good job.
Rating: 37
Saturday, February 05, 2011
Mr. Majestyk (1974)
A watermelon farmer is unjustly arrested, and gets in trouble with another inmate, a vicious gangster.
Second viewing. I mysteriously didn't like this on first viewing. The fact is that, in strictly formal terms, it is very carefully worked out from beginning to end. I am still not overenthusiastic about some plot details, though. For instance, why does the Kopas character get mixed up with the Renda character? And why is Renda willing to risk so much just to get revenge on Majestyk? Of course, without these choices of behavior there would be no film, or rather not this one anyway.
Rating: 55 (formerly 39)
Second viewing. I mysteriously didn't like this on first viewing. The fact is that, in strictly formal terms, it is very carefully worked out from beginning to end. I am still not overenthusiastic about some plot details, though. For instance, why does the Kopas character get mixed up with the Renda character? And why is Renda willing to risk so much just to get revenge on Majestyk? Of course, without these choices of behavior there would be no film, or rather not this one anyway.
Rating: 55 (formerly 39)
He Was Her Man (1934)
A thief rats on his partners and flees. One of them escapes and wants revenge. He travels to a fishing village with a woman who is engaged to a fisherman. The place looks like the perfect hideaway for him.
Mostly it's a good film. The final section is especially good. The characterization of the Portuguese family is not so good, especially in what concerns the accent. And they have an Italian name, for Christ's sake (Gardella). Cagney is sublime (I'm beginning to think that he always is). On the whole, an engaging story about the ironies of fate. Or, if one prefers, about nothing at all, and engaging all the same. Understanding the dialogue, once again, was a problem for me.
Critic Dale Thomajan's 10th entry on his 1934 top ten.
Rating: 56
Mostly it's a good film. The final section is especially good. The characterization of the Portuguese family is not so good, especially in what concerns the accent. And they have an Italian name, for Christ's sake (Gardella). Cagney is sublime (I'm beginning to think that he always is). On the whole, an engaging story about the ironies of fate. Or, if one prefers, about nothing at all, and engaging all the same. Understanding the dialogue, once again, was a problem for me.
Critic Dale Thomajan's 10th entry on his 1934 top ten.
Rating: 56
Wednesday, February 02, 2011
Death Proof (2007)
A deranged stunt man uses his car to kill young women.
I suspect that down deep it's a self-referential film that promotes second unit to first, using women as a metaphor for the transition from victim to empowered. This reminds one of what Guillermo Cabrera Infante, the renowned novelist who also wrote the screenplay of Vanishing Point, said in an interview:
What the spectator sees on the screen is the mirror image of my screenplay. Vanishing Point is my script as seen on the white mirror of the screen, in De Luxe color, at an aspect ratio of 1:85, running at twenty-four frames per second, in stereo sound—much more than I ever wrote or could write. That’s a movie. I just wrote the screenplay. Thanks to John Alonzo, a cinematographer of genius, my screenplay is now a piece of Americana, a cult film, and a very successful movie. I wrote a motion picture about a man with a problem in a car. My director made a movie about a man in a car with problems. Cars in the film are actors and the movie may be taken as a paean to cars or to death by car. By the way, I don’t drive.
According to Gore Vidal, another renowned novelist who wrote movies, the decline of the importance of screenwriters which happened in the late sixties coincides with the rise to eminence of cars and car chases, replacing human beings, on the big screen.
I guess one can't blame postmodernists for growing up in exciting times.
Rating: 40
I suspect that down deep it's a self-referential film that promotes second unit to first, using women as a metaphor for the transition from victim to empowered. This reminds one of what Guillermo Cabrera Infante, the renowned novelist who also wrote the screenplay of Vanishing Point, said in an interview:
What the spectator sees on the screen is the mirror image of my screenplay. Vanishing Point is my script as seen on the white mirror of the screen, in De Luxe color, at an aspect ratio of 1:85, running at twenty-four frames per second, in stereo sound—much more than I ever wrote or could write. That’s a movie. I just wrote the screenplay. Thanks to John Alonzo, a cinematographer of genius, my screenplay is now a piece of Americana, a cult film, and a very successful movie. I wrote a motion picture about a man with a problem in a car. My director made a movie about a man in a car with problems. Cars in the film are actors and the movie may be taken as a paean to cars or to death by car. By the way, I don’t drive.
According to Gore Vidal, another renowned novelist who wrote movies, the decline of the importance of screenwriters which happened in the late sixties coincides with the rise to eminence of cars and car chases, replacing human beings, on the big screen.
I guess one can't blame postmodernists for growing up in exciting times.
Rating: 40
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Romance (1988)
After the death of a leftist intellectual, a journalist investigates his life; meanwhile the dead man's wife tries to cope with her loss, and his male lover has to cope with AIDS.
A blend of naive political pamphlet, serious exposé, farce, free-form modernistic rambling, and self-indulgent semi-pornography. Not great cinema on any on those shapes it takes.
Rating: 41
A blend of naive political pamphlet, serious exposé, farce, free-form modernistic rambling, and self-indulgent semi-pornography. Not great cinema on any on those shapes it takes.
Rating: 41
Mandalay (1934)
In Rangoon, a Russian refugee is abandoned by her lover who sells her to a cabaret of which she is made the hostess by its owner.
The milieu is practically the same as in The White Countess, but storywise it has little in common with that film. It' hard to separate, in Mandalay, the genuinely honest depiction of human relatioships and emotions, from sensationalist melodrama. One could perhaps chance a generalization about pre-code cinema, saying that the freedom under which it was made entailed these two different outcomes: frankness and the abuse of cheap thrills. Mandalay's main feminine character starts out as someone we are willing to sympathize with, and ends as a monster and a martyr, improbable at both counts. There is a core of truth which persists throughout the film, though, sometimes belying the plot itself, and this makes it a marginally fascinating film.
(Number 9 in critic Dale Thomajan's top ten list for 1934.)
Rating: 58
The milieu is practically the same as in The White Countess, but storywise it has little in common with that film. It' hard to separate, in Mandalay, the genuinely honest depiction of human relatioships and emotions, from sensationalist melodrama. One could perhaps chance a generalization about pre-code cinema, saying that the freedom under which it was made entailed these two different outcomes: frankness and the abuse of cheap thrills. Mandalay's main feminine character starts out as someone we are willing to sympathize with, and ends as a monster and a martyr, improbable at both counts. There is a core of truth which persists throughout the film, though, sometimes belying the plot itself, and this makes it a marginally fascinating film.
(Number 9 in critic Dale Thomajan's top ten list for 1934.)
Rating: 58
Saturday, January 29, 2011
HealtH (1980)
The goings-on during a convention which will pick the president of HealtH organization.
A funny film which is usually not very consequential. It deals surprisingly little with health issues, and seems to be rather cynical about them.
Rating: 50
A funny film which is usually not very consequential. It deals surprisingly little with health issues, and seems to be rather cynical about them.
Rating: 50
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Baarìa (2009)
The story of a boy in Sicily, from the 1930's to the 1960's. When he grows up he becomes a communist politician.
It's the same kind of low-brow sentimentalism which is present in other films from this writer-director, only here somehow it's worse, more boring and triter.
Rating: 45
It's the same kind of low-brow sentimentalism which is present in other films from this writer-director, only here somehow it's worse, more boring and triter.
Rating: 45
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Death Wish V: The Face of Death (1994)
A gang uses a clothes company for money laundering purposes; the gang leader is the company owner's ex-husband and they have a daughter. The owner's boyfriend tries to defend both women against the bad guy.
Lousy story about crime and vigilantism. There isn't a single thread of realism in all this. I honestly don't see the point. If the purpose was to discuss the inefficacy of the justice system, the first thing required would be a minimum of plausibility.
Rating: 18
Lousy story about crime and vigilantism. There isn't a single thread of realism in all this. I honestly don't see the point. If the purpose was to discuss the inefficacy of the justice system, the first thing required would be a minimum of plausibility.
Rating: 18
A Christmas Carol (2009)
An old miser receives the visit of three ghosts who will make him see the error of his ways.
I have spent my entire life consuming cultural products and witnessing human discourse and behavior which were influenced by Dickens' tale, and never got around to reading it, or seeing a film adaptation of it. So it's just my luck that this is a faithful adaptation (at least that's what everyone who has read the short story says). The artistry here gets my OK; the imagery conveys a coherent set of ideas. Some things got stuck in my throat, though, and it seems that this is nearly always the case with me and films. So let's get them out of my system. Scrooge's profession is never explicitly dwelled upon, but it is inferred to be that of a moneylender. So, the first question is: why a moneylender? Is this an indictment of moneylending? I will have to answer my own question with a resounding 'no'. The story ends with Scrooge still a moneylender, but he is now deemed a reformed person merely by the changing of some habits. So, he is now a good moneylender, as opposed to the bad moneylender that he was. We are back to the original question: if not an indictment pure and simple, why must the character be a moneylender? I don't think the film can justify this choice of profession without making an admission of self-contradiction and hypocrisy. The subject is simply dodged. But this harms the film, as would be expected. Are we to believe that Scrooge's faults were simply related to not being attached to his family and not being a generous person? And what about his interest rates? Were they too high? And what is considered too high in the nineteenth century? Which leads us to another question: how relevant is all this to twenty-first century capitalism? Moneylenders are still a very profitable profession, except today they are called bankers. Among other things, they finance movies like this one. But I'm certainly straying off the scope of the movie, am I not? After all, how many bankers are moved by 'A Christmas Carol'? I guess not many. And what is the purpose of making a film about avarice to be watched by middle-class and working-class people? Is there a point somewhere to be made in these ramblings? I hope not.
Rating: 60
I have spent my entire life consuming cultural products and witnessing human discourse and behavior which were influenced by Dickens' tale, and never got around to reading it, or seeing a film adaptation of it. So it's just my luck that this is a faithful adaptation (at least that's what everyone who has read the short story says). The artistry here gets my OK; the imagery conveys a coherent set of ideas. Some things got stuck in my throat, though, and it seems that this is nearly always the case with me and films. So let's get them out of my system. Scrooge's profession is never explicitly dwelled upon, but it is inferred to be that of a moneylender. So, the first question is: why a moneylender? Is this an indictment of moneylending? I will have to answer my own question with a resounding 'no'. The story ends with Scrooge still a moneylender, but he is now deemed a reformed person merely by the changing of some habits. So, he is now a good moneylender, as opposed to the bad moneylender that he was. We are back to the original question: if not an indictment pure and simple, why must the character be a moneylender? I don't think the film can justify this choice of profession without making an admission of self-contradiction and hypocrisy. The subject is simply dodged. But this harms the film, as would be expected. Are we to believe that Scrooge's faults were simply related to not being attached to his family and not being a generous person? And what about his interest rates? Were they too high? And what is considered too high in the nineteenth century? Which leads us to another question: how relevant is all this to twenty-first century capitalism? Moneylenders are still a very profitable profession, except today they are called bankers. Among other things, they finance movies like this one. But I'm certainly straying off the scope of the movie, am I not? After all, how many bankers are moved by 'A Christmas Carol'? I guess not many. And what is the purpose of making a film about avarice to be watched by middle-class and working-class people? Is there a point somewhere to be made in these ramblings? I hope not.
Rating: 60
Monday, January 24, 2011
You're Telling Me! (1934)
An inventor meets a princess on a train, but, unlike everyone else, he doesn't know she is a princess. She decides to pay him a visit.
I didn't care much for the plot of this, it's one of those confusing social critiques where somehow the false nobility is extremely snob but the real nobility is not. This assumption is in itself a kind of snobbery, if you think about it. Anyway, the plot is substantially flexed (gee, what a word I came up with here) to make room to Fields' antics, which include, according to reports, the entire reproduction of his short film The Golf Specialist. And, because Fields' antics are funny, the film is funny. That much being said, I have to confess to not having understood much of the dialogue.
This is the 8th entry in critic Dale Thomajan's top ten list for 1934.
Rating: 54
I didn't care much for the plot of this, it's one of those confusing social critiques where somehow the false nobility is extremely snob but the real nobility is not. This assumption is in itself a kind of snobbery, if you think about it. Anyway, the plot is substantially flexed (gee, what a word I came up with here) to make room to Fields' antics, which include, according to reports, the entire reproduction of his short film The Golf Specialist. And, because Fields' antics are funny, the film is funny. That much being said, I have to confess to not having understood much of the dialogue.
This is the 8th entry in critic Dale Thomajan's top ten list for 1934.
Rating: 54
Sunday, January 23, 2011
The Tourist (2010)
The Interpol is after a guy who stole millions from a gangster. Their lead is the thief's girlfriend. A guy on a train is picked by said girl to distract the police.
Not very entertaining, and the premise is slightly absurd. It is watchable, I guess.
Rating: 45
Not very entertaining, and the premise is slightly absurd. It is watchable, I guess.
Rating: 45
A Kitten for Hitler (2007)
This is a short video released on the web. It's funny, sort of, but once you think about it, well, it's just not funny at all. Watch it at:
http://www.iainfisher.com/films/ken-russell-kitten-for-hitler.html
http://www.iainfisher.com/films/ken-russell-kitten-for-hitler.html
The Informant! (2009)
An executive reports his own company's price-fixing practices to the FBI and becomes a spy.
Interesting film. I don't see why people are calling it "unbelievable". Maybe I'm getting too old. Anyway it's a well-made and useful (and fairly entertaining) film. The performances are very, very good.
Rating: 62
Interesting film. I don't see why people are calling it "unbelievable". Maybe I'm getting too old. Anyway it's a well-made and useful (and fairly entertaining) film. The performances are very, very good.
Rating: 62
Friday, January 21, 2011
Six of a Kind (1934)
A couple intends to do a cross-country automobile trip during their vacation. The wife takes another couple in to ride with them in order to save expenses.
Very funny comedy. No comments come to my mind, it's a film to be watched and enjoyed for the numerous funny moments.
It's critic Dale Thomajan's number 7 of 1934.
Rating: 73 (9th of my 1934 favorites)
Very funny comedy. No comments come to my mind, it's a film to be watched and enjoyed for the numerous funny moments.
It's critic Dale Thomajan's number 7 of 1934.
Rating: 73 (9th of my 1934 favorites)
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
The Eiger Sanction (1975)
A retired assassin who is now an art teacher is summoned back into service. He is coaxed into assassinating the men who killed an agent. His task is made harder by the fact that he doesn't know who the second killer is; but he knows that he will be climbing a mountain with a team of climbers.
This is a spoof on spy thrillers, played absolutely straight. The result is weird beyond belief. This is my second viewing; I didn't perceive any humorous aspect in my first viewing. I think this kind of thing entails a long discussion. For instance, is the obvious homophobic content of the film to be taken as a satire on homophobia? Ditto on the topic of albinoes, ditto on sexism. To put it shortly, when is irony to be acknowledged in a work of art? And when is it justified?
Rating: 51 (up from 44)
This is a spoof on spy thrillers, played absolutely straight. The result is weird beyond belief. This is my second viewing; I didn't perceive any humorous aspect in my first viewing. I think this kind of thing entails a long discussion. For instance, is the obvious homophobic content of the film to be taken as a satire on homophobia? Ditto on the topic of albinoes, ditto on sexism. To put it shortly, when is irony to be acknowledged in a work of art? And when is it justified?
Rating: 51 (up from 44)
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Conspiracy Theory (1997)
A cab driver importunes a Justice Department attorney with his conspiracy theories. There are elements in their past lives which spell real danger for them though.
This is another movie which I view now for the second time and appears better than it did the first time. It is very well filmed, and that alone makes for a fine spectacle. The theme is resolved into a well-structured series of images, situations and plot elements which, while not exactly groundbreaking or deep, are interesting enough. Gore Vidal, the novelist and essayist, is perhaps the only one who expressed his displeasure with the present-day concept of conspiracy by stating that the powerful have no need to conspire, because, well, they have the power, exactly. This remark remains as a last attempt at clinging to the original concept of conspiracies. Now the word has become a paleonomy, that is, it has acquired a new meaning, which, in this case, refers to a plot devised by those who have power. This film is to a certain extent self-referential since narratives, at least conventional ones, are the product of a conspiracy (in the updated version of the word), in which the author "plots" (the word itself reveals the connection) the events, their unfolding and how they relate to one another.
Rating: 55 (up from 42)
This is another movie which I view now for the second time and appears better than it did the first time. It is very well filmed, and that alone makes for a fine spectacle. The theme is resolved into a well-structured series of images, situations and plot elements which, while not exactly groundbreaking or deep, are interesting enough. Gore Vidal, the novelist and essayist, is perhaps the only one who expressed his displeasure with the present-day concept of conspiracy by stating that the powerful have no need to conspire, because, well, they have the power, exactly. This remark remains as a last attempt at clinging to the original concept of conspiracies. Now the word has become a paleonomy, that is, it has acquired a new meaning, which, in this case, refers to a plot devised by those who have power. This film is to a certain extent self-referential since narratives, at least conventional ones, are the product of a conspiracy (in the updated version of the word), in which the author "plots" (the word itself reveals the connection) the events, their unfolding and how they relate to one another.
Rating: 55 (up from 42)
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