Second viewing; first viewed between 1983 and 1986.
A teenage girl hires a Deputy Marshal who is famous for his efficiency and ruthlessness to hunt down her father's murderer.
Excellent western, with unforgettable characters and an almost non-stop brilliancy in the dialog. The concept of justice is very dear to Civilization, and resonates even deeper in the hearts of those of us who see the world crumbling down today through all forms of relativization and distortion of that concept.
Rating: 72 (up fom 55)
Sunday, November 29, 2015
Thursday, November 26, 2015
Network (1976)
Second viewing; first viewed before January 1987, and probably not earlier than January 1983.
A deranged TV news anchor is exploited by his employers with unpredictable consequences.
As some people have noticed, this derives in part from Meet John Doe. Most critics have lauded this film highly. A minority didn't like it, the most notable among them being Dale Thomajan ("Cinema as hysteria") and Pauline Kael (excerpts of hers and of others may be found on Wikipedia). Both its lovers and its haters make valid points, I think. This is a film with many good ideas which were poorly materialized. The fact is, the film is extremely odd in tone. The sense of humor is heavily satirical, yet the film's mood is predominantly that of a serious drama. Furthermore, there is the facile recourse to a mad central character, from whom anything may be expected, and whose behavior obeys neither the laws of logic nor the existing psychiatric classifications. I do not believe films like this have a significant influence on solving the ills they point to, some of which are imaginary anyway. Thus, at least they should try to please viewers, to achieve which a better thought-out script would be required. As it is, it stands dangerously close to its own object of critique.
Rating: 50 (down from 67)
A deranged TV news anchor is exploited by his employers with unpredictable consequences.
As some people have noticed, this derives in part from Meet John Doe. Most critics have lauded this film highly. A minority didn't like it, the most notable among them being Dale Thomajan ("Cinema as hysteria") and Pauline Kael (excerpts of hers and of others may be found on Wikipedia). Both its lovers and its haters make valid points, I think. This is a film with many good ideas which were poorly materialized. The fact is, the film is extremely odd in tone. The sense of humor is heavily satirical, yet the film's mood is predominantly that of a serious drama. Furthermore, there is the facile recourse to a mad central character, from whom anything may be expected, and whose behavior obeys neither the laws of logic nor the existing psychiatric classifications. I do not believe films like this have a significant influence on solving the ills they point to, some of which are imaginary anyway. Thus, at least they should try to please viewers, to achieve which a better thought-out script would be required. As it is, it stands dangerously close to its own object of critique.
Rating: 50 (down from 67)
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
Assassination (1987)
After a series of assassination attempts against the first lady, she and the head of security in charge of her go on a trip incognito. In the meantime the other security team members try to find out who is responsible for the attempts.
Routine thriller with some atypical plot elements.
Rating: 32
Routine thriller with some atypical plot elements.
Rating: 32
Sunday, November 22, 2015
Brutti, sporchi e cattivi (1976)
Second viewing; first viewed between 1983 and 1986.
English alternate titles: Down and Dirty; Ugly, Dirty and Bad.
The daily activities of a large family living under the same roof in a slum. The head of the family is a rude and avaricious man who has received a considerable sum of money from the State after having burned his own left eye with whitewash. He keeps the bundle of notes with him or hidden and lives in a perpetual state of fear of being robbed of it.
Nearly perfect black comedy describing urban life at its bottom layer. The principle of the movie is precisely this simplification, so to speak, of the constraints involved in human interactions. It is an old story: economic progress does not necessarily bring civilization; it's quite the contrary, actually, for those who live at the margins of the economy. I found the film less shocking than on my first watching, but on the other hand perhaps now I had a sharper eye for its artistic perfections.
Rating: 90 (down from 100)
English alternate titles: Down and Dirty; Ugly, Dirty and Bad.
The daily activities of a large family living under the same roof in a slum. The head of the family is a rude and avaricious man who has received a considerable sum of money from the State after having burned his own left eye with whitewash. He keeps the bundle of notes with him or hidden and lives in a perpetual state of fear of being robbed of it.
Nearly perfect black comedy describing urban life at its bottom layer. The principle of the movie is precisely this simplification, so to speak, of the constraints involved in human interactions. It is an old story: economic progress does not necessarily bring civilization; it's quite the contrary, actually, for those who live at the margins of the economy. I found the film less shocking than on my first watching, but on the other hand perhaps now I had a sharper eye for its artistic perfections.
Rating: 90 (down from 100)
Saturday, November 21, 2015
Crônica da cidade amada (1965)
Second viewing; first viewed on April 23, 1990.
Omnibus with eleven segments adapted from short literary texts, with the aim of jointly providing a panoramic and humorous view of social, cultural and natural aspects of the city of Rio de Janeiro.
Quite well-made by Brazilian standards, and featuring interesting takes on Rio's quirks. It suffers a bit from not being able to fully translate the literary element to the cinematic one. While it is far from a masterpiece, it is just as far from being the painful nullity that I perceived it to be on my first viewing. What was painful, however, was the laterally cropped version that I saw on TV, which I hesitate to call "pan-and-scan" as it leaves characters out of the frame with an annoying frequency.
Note: all evidences point to IMDB being in error while assigning 1964 as the year of release.
Rating: 51 (up from 21)
Omnibus with eleven segments adapted from short literary texts, with the aim of jointly providing a panoramic and humorous view of social, cultural and natural aspects of the city of Rio de Janeiro.
Quite well-made by Brazilian standards, and featuring interesting takes on Rio's quirks. It suffers a bit from not being able to fully translate the literary element to the cinematic one. While it is far from a masterpiece, it is just as far from being the painful nullity that I perceived it to be on my first viewing. What was painful, however, was the laterally cropped version that I saw on TV, which I hesitate to call "pan-and-scan" as it leaves characters out of the frame with an annoying frequency.
Note: all evidences point to IMDB being in error while assigning 1964 as the year of release.
Rating: 51 (up from 21)
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Enemy of the State (1998)
Second viewing; first viewed (in dubbed form) on September 20, 2001.
The murder of a politician who won't vote for a bill who allows wiretapping of common citizens is accidentally filmed, and the recording ends up in possession of a lawyer who is then chased by the criminals.
Thrilling and topical fiction on the subject of State surveillance and control. I do not have more to say about it. Christopher Mulrooney has some well-written considerations about it which may be read here.
Rating: 62 (unchanged).
The murder of a politician who won't vote for a bill who allows wiretapping of common citizens is accidentally filmed, and the recording ends up in possession of a lawyer who is then chased by the criminals.
Thrilling and topical fiction on the subject of State surveillance and control. I do not have more to say about it. Christopher Mulrooney has some well-written considerations about it which may be read here.
Rating: 62 (unchanged).
Sunday, November 15, 2015
Thunderheart (1992)
Two FBI agents go into a Native-American reservation to solve a murder. They suspect an activist is the culprit. The younger agent, who is part Native-American, uncovers a plot of corruption encompassing an ecological crime.
From The Flaming Star to Thunderheart, mixed-race is synonymous to mixed-up when it involves Native-American ancestry. This, for reasons one may speculate about, seems to not apply to African-Americans, for whom apparently the 'one drop of blood' rule settles also the self-identity issue. Anyway, this is an eminently watchable thriller-cum-pamphlet and has stunning landscape as an additional charmer. Critics predominantly like subversive stuff, but some of them realize that leftist-liberal fiction tends to be the most formulaic, due to the imperative of delivering a message. Yet others have grown insensitive to anything other than social issues that affect people as atomized individuals (those issues being mostly of a sexual nature).
Rating: 50
From The Flaming Star to Thunderheart, mixed-race is synonymous to mixed-up when it involves Native-American ancestry. This, for reasons one may speculate about, seems to not apply to African-Americans, for whom apparently the 'one drop of blood' rule settles also the self-identity issue. Anyway, this is an eminently watchable thriller-cum-pamphlet and has stunning landscape as an additional charmer. Critics predominantly like subversive stuff, but some of them realize that leftist-liberal fiction tends to be the most formulaic, due to the imperative of delivering a message. Yet others have grown insensitive to anything other than social issues that affect people as atomized individuals (those issues being mostly of a sexual nature).
Rating: 50
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
É fogo na roupa! (1952)
Spoilers herein. In a posh lakeside hotel, a Symposium of Wives for Conjugal Happiness is taking place. The hotel manager intends to hire a Polish pianist, aiming to please one of the guests, a French countess. An employee of the radio station where said pianist works manages to intercept the hotel manager's telephone call, and schemes to pass up his pianist friend as the famous one. The countess takes a liking to him, and so the fraud is successful. Meanwhile, some male guests place a hairdresser in drag as a spy in the Wives' Symposium meeting. There is also a plot by some Japanese men to steal the Countess' necklace.
Musical comedy which is sort of a Marx Brothers movie without the Marx Brothers. It is poor in every aspect, but I reckon there will be something for people who take an interest in Brazilian music and popular culture of the fifties.
Rating: 31
Musical comedy which is sort of a Marx Brothers movie without the Marx Brothers. It is poor in every aspect, but I reckon there will be something for people who take an interest in Brazilian music and popular culture of the fifties.
Rating: 31
Thursday, October 22, 2015
Double Indemnity (1944)
Second viewing; first viewed on January 23, 1991.
An insurance salesman gets involved with a client's wife, and, abetted by her, devises a plan to murder her husband and collect a large insurance sum.
Very good criminal drama. There is not much I can add to the existing critical output, of which the TV Guide review is a good sample. Christopher Mulrooney, as usual, offers a slightly offbeat angle. I would only like to point out that this, like so many films, and perhaps ultimately all of them, one way or another, is about blindness. In this particular case, it is not so much that the thing is hard to see, as that its possibility is emotionally inadmissible. It concerns two cases of excessive trust, one by a man toward a woman he loves, and the other by a man toward an employee he likes. The point may be that love or friendly affection are mental constructs, built on imaginary foundations. The film refrains from a radical endorsement of that position by having its characters (the woman and the employee) having second thoughts at some point in the development. Subsequent films in the noir school went all the way. A sociological analysis would map this worldview to the atomized condition of people in a capitalist environment and the reification of money as a necessary component of that condition .
Rating: 83 (down from 90)
An insurance salesman gets involved with a client's wife, and, abetted by her, devises a plan to murder her husband and collect a large insurance sum.
Very good criminal drama. There is not much I can add to the existing critical output, of which the TV Guide review is a good sample. Christopher Mulrooney, as usual, offers a slightly offbeat angle. I would only like to point out that this, like so many films, and perhaps ultimately all of them, one way or another, is about blindness. In this particular case, it is not so much that the thing is hard to see, as that its possibility is emotionally inadmissible. It concerns two cases of excessive trust, one by a man toward a woman he loves, and the other by a man toward an employee he likes. The point may be that love or friendly affection are mental constructs, built on imaginary foundations. The film refrains from a radical endorsement of that position by having its characters (the woman and the employee) having second thoughts at some point in the development. Subsequent films in the noir school went all the way. A sociological analysis would map this worldview to the atomized condition of people in a capitalist environment and the reification of money as a necessary component of that condition .
Rating: 83 (down from 90)
Monday, October 19, 2015
Monte Carlo (1930)
A woman runs off on her wedding day, heading to Monte Carlo. A nobleman who sees her in that resort is attracted to her, and pretends to be a hairdresser in order to get close to her.
Musical comedy which never gets below amusement level, but doesn't have a decent plot, nor remarkable music. The premise just does not make sense: why would any man conceive of such a lame seduction plan is beyond me. The situations to which this premise gives rise are not always that interesting either, or conducive to psychological clarity. There are some creative touches here and there, the songs are moderately funny, and so are the actors; there is a kind of self-confidence to the proceedings which somehow keeps the film afloat. I am not sure there is any kind of substantial statement on class relations, or anything else for that matter.
Rating: 52
Musical comedy which never gets below amusement level, but doesn't have a decent plot, nor remarkable music. The premise just does not make sense: why would any man conceive of such a lame seduction plan is beyond me. The situations to which this premise gives rise are not always that interesting either, or conducive to psychological clarity. There are some creative touches here and there, the songs are moderately funny, and so are the actors; there is a kind of self-confidence to the proceedings which somehow keeps the film afloat. I am not sure there is any kind of substantial statement on class relations, or anything else for that matter.
Rating: 52
Saturday, October 17, 2015
13 Rue Madeleine (1947)
During World War II, the Allies had Intelligence agents working for them. We get to see their training, and then a mission whose goal is to destroy a German missile depot. There is a a complication in the form of a Nazi infiltrator among the spy candidates.
Although the plot is implausible both in the general lines and in some of its particulars, the film is entertaining and has a realistic tone. The most interesting philosophical point is probably the notion that agents must put aside all moral considerations which might pose an obstacle to the accomplishment of their mission. Viewed in times of peace, this is slightly subversive. Especially from the 60s onward, the concept of "peace" became very blurry. If the right's frontline was the military, the left's was the militancy. There was war on both fronts. That Morality as it was known would suffer a blow should surprise no one.
Rating: 51
Although the plot is implausible both in the general lines and in some of its particulars, the film is entertaining and has a realistic tone. The most interesting philosophical point is probably the notion that agents must put aside all moral considerations which might pose an obstacle to the accomplishment of their mission. Viewed in times of peace, this is slightly subversive. Especially from the 60s onward, the concept of "peace" became very blurry. If the right's frontline was the military, the left's was the militancy. There was war on both fronts. That Morality as it was known would suffer a blow should surprise no one.
Rating: 51
Friday, October 16, 2015
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)
Second viewing; first viewed between 1983 and 1986
A white woman introduces her black boyfriend to her parents, saying she intends to marry him.
In my review to The Defiant Ones, I said that this film is that film's logical consequence. It is also a disagreeable film on purely artistic grounds, with a very schematic and artificial plot premise and a resolution crowned by a grand sermon but with not a hint to psychological explanations. In short, it's pure and simple propaganda, albeit well-filmed and with a lovely cinematography.
Rating: 40 (down from 51)
A white woman introduces her black boyfriend to her parents, saying she intends to marry him.
In my review to The Defiant Ones, I said that this film is that film's logical consequence. It is also a disagreeable film on purely artistic grounds, with a very schematic and artificial plot premise and a resolution crowned by a grand sermon but with not a hint to psychological explanations. In short, it's pure and simple propaganda, albeit well-filmed and with a lovely cinematography.
Rating: 40 (down from 51)
Monday, October 12, 2015
Reds (1981)
Second viewing; first viewed in 1982.
The exploits of John Reed and Louise Bryant, writers and political activists in the first decade of the 20th century, who were eyewitnesses to the Russian Revolution.
Basically a romantic drama about a conventional, conservative relationship between a man and a woman. The comedic ingredient is the discourse surrounding it, full of pretensions to heterodoxy and free-love advocacy. The main couple split and make up repeatedly, much in the same way as in Modern Romance, released that same year, another work which exposes modernity's contradictions. One could consider Reds as a follow-up to Bananas, starring an Allen actress as a sign of acknowledgement. Unlike its predecessor, however, it is not based on a succession of jokes, but rather on a single, very long one in which the punchline is precisely the eventual realization that there isn't going to be one. The revolution itself is filmed in a curiously cursory way, literally as a walk in a square.
Rating: 52 (down from 68)
The exploits of John Reed and Louise Bryant, writers and political activists in the first decade of the 20th century, who were eyewitnesses to the Russian Revolution.
Basically a romantic drama about a conventional, conservative relationship between a man and a woman. The comedic ingredient is the discourse surrounding it, full of pretensions to heterodoxy and free-love advocacy. The main couple split and make up repeatedly, much in the same way as in Modern Romance, released that same year, another work which exposes modernity's contradictions. One could consider Reds as a follow-up to Bananas, starring an Allen actress as a sign of acknowledgement. Unlike its predecessor, however, it is not based on a succession of jokes, but rather on a single, very long one in which the punchline is precisely the eventual realization that there isn't going to be one. The revolution itself is filmed in a curiously cursory way, literally as a walk in a square.
Rating: 52 (down from 68)
Wednesday, October 07, 2015
Behind Enemy Lines (1986)
Alternate titles: P.O.W. the Escape (that's the title of the copy I watched); Attack Force 'Nam
A military detachment is assigned the task of rescuing American prisoners at a Vietnamese camp, just prior to the end of the hostilities. The mission faces a serious setback and its commander is made a prisoner at the same camp he had raided.
Action-packed yet basically absurd (like most of Cannon's films), this film's entertainment value lies precisely in those two qualities.
Rating: 36
A military detachment is assigned the task of rescuing American prisoners at a Vietnamese camp, just prior to the end of the hostilities. The mission faces a serious setback and its commander is made a prisoner at the same camp he had raided.
Action-packed yet basically absurd (like most of Cannon's films), this film's entertainment value lies precisely in those two qualities.
Rating: 36
Thursday, October 01, 2015
Simón del desierto (1965)
Second viewing; first viewed on August 16, 1997
English title: Simon of the Desert
About a man who lives on top of a pillar in the desert. The IMDB trivia section says: "The film's eponymous ascetic is based on the 5th-century Syrian saint Simeon Stylites. While this film takes obvious artistic license with the story, Simeon Stylites also famously perched on a pillar in the desert, reportedly for 37 consecutive years."
Intelligent deconstruction of the Catholic religion, or some parts of it anyway. I am not sure I have much interest in the Catholic religion, especially the aspects the film deals with. The film takes care of demonstrating, by its ending, why those aspects are irrevocably out-of-date. In a way, this is the film's own indictment and perhaps also its redemption.
Rating: 69 (unchanged)
English title: Simon of the Desert
About a man who lives on top of a pillar in the desert. The IMDB trivia section says: "The film's eponymous ascetic is based on the 5th-century Syrian saint Simeon Stylites. While this film takes obvious artistic license with the story, Simeon Stylites also famously perched on a pillar in the desert, reportedly for 37 consecutive years."
Intelligent deconstruction of the Catholic religion, or some parts of it anyway. I am not sure I have much interest in the Catholic religion, especially the aspects the film deals with. The film takes care of demonstrating, by its ending, why those aspects are irrevocably out-of-date. In a way, this is the film's own indictment and perhaps also its redemption.
Rating: 69 (unchanged)
Saturday, September 26, 2015
Viridiana (1961)
Second viewing; first viewed on March 24, 1990.
Loosely based on the novel Halma, by Benito Pérez Galdós, first published in 1895.
Viridiana, a nun, takes a few days off to visit her uncle, a landowner.
This film had a deep impact on me when I first saw it. Now seeing it for the second time, it still impresses me positively for its refined sense of humor and its uncondescending view of social issues. In a way, it is a perfect movie. It is especially topical in these days of Angela Merkel and barbarian invasions (the German Chancellor should be made to see Viridiana in the Clockwork Orange way). All that being said, I am a different person now, and I do not need to be educated on things I already know. That is why these days I prefer films which either teach something I do not already know (if that is possible) or are utterly devoid of a message (supposing there can be one).
Rating: 87 (down from 100)
Loosely based on the novel Halma, by Benito Pérez Galdós, first published in 1895.
Viridiana, a nun, takes a few days off to visit her uncle, a landowner.
This film had a deep impact on me when I first saw it. Now seeing it for the second time, it still impresses me positively for its refined sense of humor and its uncondescending view of social issues. In a way, it is a perfect movie. It is especially topical in these days of Angela Merkel and barbarian invasions (the German Chancellor should be made to see Viridiana in the Clockwork Orange way). All that being said, I am a different person now, and I do not need to be educated on things I already know. That is why these days I prefer films which either teach something I do not already know (if that is possible) or are utterly devoid of a message (supposing there can be one).
Rating: 87 (down from 100)
Thursday, September 24, 2015
Il futuro (2013)
English title: The Future
Based on the novel Una novelita lumpen, by Roberto Bolaño, first published in 2002.
Teenage orphaned brother and sister get mixed-up with two slightly older guys who move in with them. The guests have a plan to rob a recluse ex-actor with the help of the orphan girl's sex services to him.
Sordid story from which all disagreeable characteristics of sordidness were carefully removed. This is the rule now. But it is watchable, sort of, and the acting is terrific, even though the actor playing 'Maciste' just does not have the physique du rôle.
Rating: 50
Based on the novel Una novelita lumpen, by Roberto Bolaño, first published in 2002.
Teenage orphaned brother and sister get mixed-up with two slightly older guys who move in with them. The guests have a plan to rob a recluse ex-actor with the help of the orphan girl's sex services to him.
Sordid story from which all disagreeable characteristics of sordidness were carefully removed. This is the rule now. But it is watchable, sort of, and the acting is terrific, even though the actor playing 'Maciste' just does not have the physique du rôle.
Rating: 50
Alice in Wonderland (1951)
Possibly not my first viewing; many of the scenes were familiar to me, but I may have read a comic book version, so I really don't know. Anyway, if I saw it before, it was before 1983.
Based on the books Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871), by Lewis Carroll (b. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson).
A dreamy little girl, while being read to by her older sister, sees a white rabbit and follows it to and through an oneiric realm, full of quirky characters.
This refined work of art lovingly blends a very British character with a more flamboyant American spirit. I forward you to a fine review written by Christopher Mulrooney on the Walt Disney entry of his filmmaker encyclopedia.
Rating: 74
Based on the books Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871), by Lewis Carroll (b. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson).
A dreamy little girl, while being read to by her older sister, sees a white rabbit and follows it to and through an oneiric realm, full of quirky characters.
This refined work of art lovingly blends a very British character with a more flamboyant American spirit. I forward you to a fine review written by Christopher Mulrooney on the Walt Disney entry of his filmmaker encyclopedia.
Rating: 74
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Second viewing (I think); first viewed in 1978 (I think).
Strange electromagnetic interference affects household appliances. One man and one woman, in different places, are disturbed by weird mental images. They eventually get together for the adventure of their lifetimes. The Earth is being visited!
The subject of extraterrestrial intelligence is a conceptually interesting one. It is too bad that it gets such a poor treatment here. Barely anything insightful is produced, and it sucks as a mere thriller too. Some people have found its underlying worldview disturbing (Dale Thomajan calls it "psychologically unhealthy", two other guys say it is fascistic). I am not sure I agree one hundred per cent with either of those opinions, but I do find somewhat perplexing that the diretor years later directed a remake of War of the Worlds, an exact conceptual opposite to this film. It is a little like Bergoglio inviting Third World masses into Europe and the U.S.A., and when that produces the expected response and then some, expresses fears about anti-Vatican jihadi infiltrators amidst them.
Watched it in pan-and-scan.
Rating: 32 (unchanged)
Strange electromagnetic interference affects household appliances. One man and one woman, in different places, are disturbed by weird mental images. They eventually get together for the adventure of their lifetimes. The Earth is being visited!
The subject of extraterrestrial intelligence is a conceptually interesting one. It is too bad that it gets such a poor treatment here. Barely anything insightful is produced, and it sucks as a mere thriller too. Some people have found its underlying worldview disturbing (Dale Thomajan calls it "psychologically unhealthy", two other guys say it is fascistic). I am not sure I agree one hundred per cent with either of those opinions, but I do find somewhat perplexing that the diretor years later directed a remake of War of the Worlds, an exact conceptual opposite to this film. It is a little like Bergoglio inviting Third World masses into Europe and the U.S.A., and when that produces the expected response and then some, expresses fears about anti-Vatican jihadi infiltrators amidst them.
Watched it in pan-and-scan.
Rating: 32 (unchanged)
Saturday, September 19, 2015
Racing with the Moon (1984)
Second viewing; first viewed on July 31, 1994.
*mild spoiler ahead*
Two friends living in a small town are soon to be sent overseas to fight in World War II. One of them is rude, the other sensitive. The latter meets a girl whom he mistakenly takes for rich.
Formulaic and artificial drama. It is done with much professional competence, and thus becomes watchable. Not much more I can say, it is a polished product but has no soul.
Rating: 40 (down from 68)
*mild spoiler ahead*
Two friends living in a small town are soon to be sent overseas to fight in World War II. One of them is rude, the other sensitive. The latter meets a girl whom he mistakenly takes for rich.
Formulaic and artificial drama. It is done with much professional competence, and thus becomes watchable. Not much more I can say, it is a polished product but has no soul.
Rating: 40 (down from 68)
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