Le paltoquet (1986)

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

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

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

Rating: 50

Le dossier noir (1955)

English title: Black Dossier 

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rating: 59

A super fêmea (1973)

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

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

Rating: 27

To Trap a Spy (1964)

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

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

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

Rating: 45

Murder! (1930)

Second viewing; previously viewed on October 17, 1992.

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

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

Rating: 50 (up from 17)

Speak Easily (1932)

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

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

Rating: 40

Death Wish 3 (1985)

 Second viewing; previously viewed on July 16, 2009

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

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

Rating: 34 (up from 31)

Dreams That Money Can Buy (1947)

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

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

Rating: 36

La torre de los siete jorobados (1944)

 English title: The Tower of the Seven Hunchbacks

A young man has visions of the ghost of an archeologist who helps him win at the roulette in exchange for doing him a favor. The young man gets acquainted with the dead man's niece, who is under the spell of a mysterious man.

This is a collection of tropes from fantastic novels and movies from the 19th and early 20h century and feels like an affectionate send-up of those works. The imagery is quite atmospheric, and overall the film is entertaining.

Rating: 51

Les grandes personnes (1961)

 English title: Time Out for Love

A young American woman spending some time in France nurses a woman through her recovery from a suicide attempt. A friendship is born between them, which is strained when the younger woman falls in love with her new friend's former lover.

Drama about the love-related troubles of some upper-class folks; actually there is only one guy and three women who revolve around him. The main dramatic point derives from men (as represented by this one guy) being passionate yet fickle and women being transported to amorous ecstasy only to have their feelings shattered subsequently. These women react somewhat differently to the experience. The two French women stand at the opposite ends of resilient cynicism and suicidal despondency, respectively; for the American it all eventually becomes part of the growing pains. This is an elegantly made film, with dialogue which seems a bit on the artificial side, and not infrequently a little enigmatic (though that's possibly only me).

Rating: 51

Las mujeres de mi general (1951)

English title: My General's Women 

Set in the Mexican Revolution, the film centers on a rebel general and his troubles with two women. Lupe, his "soldadera", marched alongside him in the battlefield until he takes over a town and establishes himself as the local chief. That town, coincidentally, is the place of residence of one of his former lovers, Carlota, who is now married to a wealthy man who is away on business.

This unusual film goes to such melodramatic extremes as to become a sort of satire. The two titular women, though in polar opposites of the spectrum as defined by the film's moral frame of reference, have a point in common in that they exist only for the purpose of fighting tooth and nail for their "general", who apparently is endowed with magnetic attraction powers of a supernatural order. The film goes in a crescendo of sexist display with such hilarious touches as having the protagonist leading the town's defense with his infant daughter under his arm, through to the delightfully heroic ending.

Rating: 43

King Lear (1982)

Based on the play by Shakespeare, in turn based on earlier works detailed in this Wikipedia page.

King Lear decides to divide his kingdom among his three daughters, but his daughter Cordelia falls short in her statement of devotion to him, and thus gets struck out of the inheritance. His other two daughters subsequently prove themselves very ungrateful and begin mistreating him. A subplot which intersects with that concerns the bastard son of a nobleman who plots against the latter's legitimate son.

This is a TV production with little cinematic value, yet with great actors and overall competently done. Based on its length I suppose it is one of the more complete movie adaptations of this play, though to be sure they did eliminate a few dialogue lines (and even an entire scene, if I remember correctly). The play itself is interesting, but frankly not among the best Shakespeare I know so far. And it has some problems. There is no doubt about whom we are supposed to think to be the good guys and the bad guys here, but the plot just seems to contradict that clear moral attribution. Because the supposedly good guys are in fact territorial aggressors, and the bad guys are the ones who are just defending their country. So, it's like we are manipulated into rooting for Hitler invading Poland, or something of the sort. Very weird. Maybe I am missing something, but I don't have a clue what it might be. Of course, rescuing old Lear and giving him shelter is a good thing, but it does not take a military invasion to do that. It's not like Goneril and Regan want to keep him. Even the terrible actions by the villains are a little more nuanced than one is led to believe. The original "fault" by the daughters is to cut down Lear's private entourage of one hundred men to a more modest size. This is perceived by Lear as the ultimate offense, but to be honest I think the daughters may have their reasons for not keeping a potential source of a coup within their premises. There is a book that raises other problems with the plot, named Macbeth, King Lear & Contemporary History, by Lilian Winstanley. I have read some excerpts where the author points out some apparent implausibilities, but I haven't read the whole book, which attempts to explain Shakespeare's choices historically. All that being said, the text of the play has enough entertaining bits, and it is surely admirable as a display of verbal creativity.

Rating: 50

Érase una vez... (1950)

 Based on the short story Cendrillon ou la petite pantoufle de verre, by Charles Perrault, published in the book Histoires ou contes du temps passé, in 1697. That short story was in turn based on earlier versions of the same tale. The whole known chronology is listed in this Wikipedia article, which is very comprehensive but unfortunately does not take notice of the present film version.

Cenicienta loses her mother at a young age and her father remarries. Her stepmother brings along her two daughters; when Cenicienta's father goes away on a trip they turn her into a house servant.

This animated version (with one live-action sequence) of the Cinderella story came out on the same year as the more famous Hollywood version; the most notable original feature of it are the protagonist's collection of friends who in a way play a similar role to the seven dwarfs in Snow White; in one notable sequence they disguise themselves as ghosts and try to scare Cinderella's enemies, chief among them the Italian master of ceremonies, another funny character this film invents. Another notable sequence has the stepsisters' carriage's horses going crazy after mistakenly being given a potion which was originally supposed to be given to the stepsisters. Among other things, they perform an interesting ballet. All in all, a well done and entertaining variation of the famous story.

Rating: 51

Minha namorada (1971)

 Maria is an adolescent girl. She has a boyfriend (Fernando) whom she knows since childhood and who is from a well-off family. She meets Pedro, who is from a different state and is in Rio on a scholarship. They fall in love with each other.

Purportedly realistic portrayal of the love-related afflictions and elations of early 1970s youth. The film leaves a lot to be desired in its character depiction, being more than a bit superficial. These young people seem to have nothing to say about anything. And on some occasions the camera adopts a bird's eye view and does not show us what they are saying, e.g., when Maria is breaking up with Fernando. That being said, it's a decent film compared with the average Brazilian productions of that period. And the young actors do a decent job considering they were completely inexperienced. Curiously for a film which advertised itself as "a young film for young people", upon its release its viewing was not allowed for people under 18.

Rating: 39

Abraham Lincoln (1930)

It recounts Lincoln's early life, presidency, and death.

Biographical drama; the main interest in this president's life stems of course from the American Civil War, which he started. He appears to have been a very unhappy man; maybe this moved him to abbreviate the lives of more than half a million others (and, if you think Freudian theory has any worth, his own). Anyway, the movie entertains sufficiently and the central performance is truly remarkable.

Rating: 52

Felices Pascuas (1954)

 A man thinks he has won the lottery but finds out that his wife exchanged his ticket for a raffle ticket whose prize is a living lamb, which she wins. Their children become attached to the animal and thus they don't have the nerve to kill it. The lamb is stolen and they search for it.

While this dramatic comedy isn't badly directed, and has nice production values, somehow the result is considerably dull; some of its comic ideas are just not funny, e.g. the vegetarian slaughterhouse worker, and some sequences border on incomprehensibility, e.g. the soldier's dream. Overall, a majorly flawed film. An important note: some sites say this film's international English title is Happy Easter. That title would be completely wrong! The story develops at Christmastime, and Felices Pascuas, at the time of the film's release, meant Merry Christmas. This article explains this in detail.

Rating:34

The Importance of Being Earnest (1952)

Based on the play by Oscar Wilde, first performed in 1895.

Ernest reveals to his city acquaintances that he is the guardian of a young woman who lives in the country. Things get complicated when a friend of his decides to visit said woman; the complication compounds when Ernest's fiancée decides to do the same; and the visits keep coming...

Entertaining comedy which satirizes Victorian melodramas. The screenplay puts most of its energy on the witty dialogue. The two young female characters seem to be utterly absurd, which may result funny at times, but is ultimately frustrating. Visually, the film is very attractive in terms of sets, costumes and even the country house garden's landscape in beautiful Technicolor. The one plot point which may shock modern audiences is the Victorian emphasis on lineage which posed a problem for the protagonist's marriage plans. It comes to nothing dramatically, of course, as the film does not seem interested in discussing controversial social issues.

Rating: 51

Um caipira em Bariloche (1973)

 An old man is convinced by his family to sell his ranch. It turns out the buyer is a crook who is in cahoots with the rancher's son-in-law.

A mix of drama and comedy. The main comic set-piece is set at a costume ball. The film explores the conjugal conflicts between the protagonist and his wife, and his regrets about selling the ranch and coming to live in the city; another comic interlude is set at a ski resort, with the protagonist trying to learn how to ski. The climax pits the protagonist and his friends against the two criminals who stole his ranch and who eventually get into conflict between themselves. Technically, the film has some flaws, looking as if it was made in a hurry. Overall, it's a pretty poor film, not really worth viewing except for completists of the comic star and nostalgics of 1970s Brazil.

Rating: 23

Thunder in the City (1937)

An American executive quits his job and moves to England. He makes contact with some ruined aristocrats, one of whom has an African mine he wants to sell. The American makes an offer on the mine against that of a local banker.

This film has a marginal interest for being a rare one whose main theme is business. The plot has two strands: a business-related one and a romance-related one. The business-related strand has a somewhat improbable premise which develops in a rather logical and a bit predictable manner; the romance-related strand has an acceptable premise which develops in a rather illogical and (given cinema's usual disregard for reality) quite predictable manner.

Rating: 37

The Window (1949)

 A boy witnesses a murder but his parents do not believe him, and neither does the police. He gets in real trouble when the murderers decide to kill him too.

Although a bit predictable and contrived, this is a fairly gripping suspense story from the same author of the similar Rear Window. The boy actor does an excellent job, and the rest of the cast is fairly good. 

Rating: 51