2006 Repertory

[oscar jubis]

This thread is the equivalent of the journal I kept last year. This year, I will only write about selected older movies. Thus, it's not a journal but a repository for a few movies that impressed me particularly. A storehouse for movies I discovered this year, some of which I had seen before and not fully appreciated. I decided against placing this thread under DVD Releases because a few titles are not available in that format (I will point them out). I decided against placing them under Classic Film because the designation is too arbitrary. Not all these are "classics" but every title is now a personal favorite I would like to remember and recommend. Getting you to rent a film or post a comment about it would be special. I already have over 20 films to briefly note, so there'll be many opportunities for you to jump in.

[oscar jubis]

THE GREAT DICTATOR (Charlie Chaplin/USA/1940)

America was still neutral towards the war in Europe in 1940. Jack Warner, the powerful producer, was still hiding his political views behind period adventures like The Sea Hawk. Chaplin's political opinions were not disguised as subtext. He plays both a Jewish barber and dictator Adenoid Hynkel in this biting satire of fascism. Comedy and pathos mingle harmoniously here. Perhaps Chaplin's most touching act of solidarity towards the Jews was not making The Great Dictator but how he let stand false and widespread rumours that he was Jewish.

[oscar jubis]

THE THIEF OF BAGDAD (Korda-Powell-Berger/UK/1940)

The best film ever made based on Scheherazade's "Arabian Nights" tales was producer Alexander Korda's dream project. Most scenes in this wildly entertaining fantasy were directed by either Ludwig Berger or the great Michael Powell, but the visionary auteur was the Hungarian-born producer. Dethroned Prince Ahmad (Conrad Veidt) regains power thanks to a young vagabond (Sabu), a genie, a flying horse, and a magic carpet. Winner of Oscars for Art Direction, Cinematography, and Special Effects. Regarding the technicolor process used, the New York Times read: "no motion picture to date has been so richly and eloquently hued".

[oscar jubis]

COLD WATER (Olivier Assayas/France/1994)

Part of a commissioned series of films inspired or based on the experiences of each director as a 16 year old, which include Claire Denis' US Go Home and Andre Techine's Wild Reeds. Assayas' film is set on the outskirts of Paris in 1972. Gilles and Christine (Virginie Ledoyen's breakthrough performance) are troubled children-of-divorce. Their acting-out gets Gilles expelled from school and Christine relegated to a psychiatric facility. She escapes and reunites with Gilles at an abandoned chateau in the woods, where a huge party takes place. Gilles proposes they run away together but Christine doubts Gilles is sufficiently strong and resourceful. Assayas glides his new Super 16 mm over the proceedings with smooth assurance, as he conveys the dislocation, desperation and efervescence of youth. Assayas, the master matchmaker of arresting image and pop tune, features Roxy Music's "Virginia Plain", Leonard Cohen's "Avalanche" and Nico's "Janitor of Lunacy" here, among other more popular titles. The ending is both understated and devastating.

*Cold Water got great reviews when it played at the selective New York Film Festival. It was never released commercially in the USA. The French finally released it on dvd last year but without subtitles. The Sundance Channel shows it periodically.

[oscar jubis]

AMERICAN DREAM (Barbara Kopple/USA/1991)

The Hormel meat-packing company declared 1984 profits at $29 million when it offered a new contract to its Austin, Minn. workers. It would cut both their hourly wage and benefits by about 30%. Not long after president Reagan fired all the striking air traffic controllers, the meatpackers of local P-9 went on strike. The repercussions of that decision is the subject of this absorbing and instructive film by veteran documentarian Barbara Kopple.The plot thickens when the local union decides to go against the recommendations of the Washington-based parent union and acts independently. The story is too complex and multi-faceted to be adequately told within the confines of network TV programs. American Dream depicts the breakdown of key aspects of the American tradition of collective bargaining. It's riveting drama and essential viewing.

*American Dream won every award slated for documentaries, including the Oscar. It was made at a time when even notorious docs received extremely limited runs at only a handful of large markets.We should feel lucky that the film is available on dvd since many of the best docs of the 90s have never been released on any home video format (The Farm: Angola,USA, Complaints of a Dutiful Daughter, Public Housing, Vietnam: Long Time Coming and many others).

[oscar jubis]

20th CENTURY (Howard Hawks/USA/1934)

The career of egomaniac Broadway producer Oscar Jaffe takes a slide after Lily, his star actress, tires of his antics and heeds the call of Hollywood. A few years later, Oscar and Lily are both passengers on the titular train. He vows to do anything to re-sign his temperamental, former star. John Barrymore and Carole Lombard were at the top of their game in this hilarious screwball farce based on a brilliant Hecht/MacArthur play. Howard Hawks was the most versatile director in the history of cinema; he made masterpieces in just about every movie genre. 20th Century is as memorable as the better-known comedies that followed, such as His Girl Friday and Bringing Up Baby.

-"Is Oscar on this train? You'd better tell me."
-"Right in there. The Little Corporal is returning from another Moscow, his head bloodied but still unbowed."

[oscar jubis]

CASQUE D'OR (Jacques Becker/France/1952)

This tale of doomed romance is based on a Parisian underworld incident that took place in 1898 (during "la belle epoque"). The title translates to "golden helmet", the nickname of the protagonist, a blonde gangster's moll named Marie. Francois Truffaut wrote: "Becker works outside all styles, and we shall place him therefore at the opposite pole from the major tendencies of cinema. His best film is Casque D'Or, which has unfortunately never been understood in France_ a rapid, tragic, powerful film, every instant filled with strength and intelligence. Simone Signoret and Serge Reggiani had their best roles ever in it, even if the French public was cool to this paradoxical coupling, so beautiful precisely because of its contrasts: a little man and a large woman, the little alley cat made of nothing but nerves, and the gorgeous carnivorous plant who doesn't turn her nose up at any morsel".

[oscar jubis]

SEVEN MEN FROM NOW (Budd Boetticher/USA/1957)

One of the highly praised but relatively obscure cycle of westerns made by Budd Boetticher in collaboration with writer Burt Kennedy and Randolph Scott. The latter plays an ex-sheriff trailing the men who murdered his wife during a robbery. This fast-paced, color western paved the way for Leone and Peckinpah. French critic Andre Bazin called it "one of the most intelligent westerns but also the least intellectual". Indeed, masterfully staged action sequences predominate over dialogue, yet somehow there's nuance and shading to the characterizations. Lee Marvin is particularly effective as Scott's old nemesis.

Boetticher, an orphan adopted into a wealthy family he despised, was a very colorful character who had a most interesting life. Fresh out of Ohio State, he moved to Mexico and became a professional matador. This man's man suffered from a number of illnesses, incarceration, and commitment to an insane asylum. He always bounced back though. Boetticher was particularly attracted and suited to the western and film-noir genres. The release of Seven Men From Now on dvd (good transfer,worthy extra features) is reason to rejoice.

[oscar jubis]

MOLOKH (Aleksandr Sokurov/Russia-Germany/1999)

The first of Sokurov's quartet of films about 20th century dictators (Taurus, about the last days of Lenin, and The Sun, about Emperor Hirohito, were released subsequently) won the Best Screenplay award at the Cannes Film Festival. It's a day-in-the-life of Hitler from the vantage point of his beloved Eva Braun. Molokh is set at the Kelsteinhaus, his alpine retreat, during the spring of 1942. The dictator arrives accompanied by members of his inner circle to the fog-shrouded castle. There's a bodoir scene in which Eva's behavior alternates from mocking and demanding to fawning and obsequious. Attention to trivia and seemingly banal moments help demystify the Hitler persona. A dinner scene illustrates the animosity between Goebbels and Martin Bormann and their reverence towards their leader. A conversation between Hitler and a priest who visits to advocate leniency towards clergy is thought-provoking. Sokurov's visual feasts can only be properly appreciated in a theatre but I'm glad I can pop this disc into the player whenever I want.

[oscar jubis]

THE PERSONALS (Kuo-fu Chen/Taiwan/1998)

This rather obscure film had a most limited release stateside three years after its Taipei premiere. The title makes it sound like a romantic comedy but it's a curious blend of ethnography and drama. Du, a 30 year-old eye doctor quits her job to dedicate herself full-time to finding a mate. Hundreds of men respond to her newspaper ad and we witness several of their encounters with the attractive Du at a tearoom. She lets the conversations run beyond the point where she knows a candidate is not suitable, perhaps out of genuine curiosity. As a cross-section of Taiwanese men parade in front of our eyes, we gradually get to know her, if initially only through her reactions. Later the film incorporates voice-over of Du leaving messages for an absent, former boyfriend. These provide a rationale for Du's tactics and the building blocks for a devastating and powerful final act. Rene Liu won a number of festival awards for her mesmerizing performance.

[oscar jubis]

MOTHER (Mikio Naruse/Japan/1952)

First film directed by Naruse I ever watch. I'm not alone. Of the great Japanese masters, Mikio Naruse (1905-1969) remains the one who received the least exposure outside his native country. Naruse was reticent, shy and prolific. But only two of his films were ever available in the US (vhs versions of A Woman Ascends the Stairs and Late Chrysanthemums released over 20 years ago). Like Mizoguchi's, Naruse's films provide a milieu viewed through the eyes of women, but his protagonists consider suffering and hardship a normal aspect of living, thus becoming less tragic than Mizoguchi's wronged heroines. Naruse specialized in the genre called "shomin geki" or family dramas depicting the living conditions of the lower-class, as opposed to Ozu's solidly middle-class family units.

MOTHER's central protagonist is a wife and mother of four during the tough post-war years. She's played by the wonderful Kinuyo Tanaka (the potter's wife in Ugetsu and, years later, Japan's first woman director) but the narrator and audience surrogate is her observant and cheerful teenage daughter. Despite the presence of illness and death in the plot, it's not surprising that Naruse called MOTHER his "happiest" film. Besides the presence of the youthful and optimistic narrator, there are several instances of humor and amusing vignettes seamlessly incorporated into the narrative. As for the effect the film had one me, perhaps Akira Kurosawa described it most accurately: "a flow of shots that looks calm and ordinary at first glance, reveals itself to be like a deep river with a quiet surface disguising a fast-raging current underneath".

[Chris Knipp]

I think there was a Naruse series at the Pacific Film Archive (PFA) not too long ago. I should go to the PFA more often and if you lived around here I'm sure you'd draw me into going. It's a bit of a drive but not really far.

[Chris Knipp]

This seems to have become another one of your private sites--one I've neglected to check. Since it's more in the order of a personal log book, I'm not sure you aim on stimulating any discussion but I'll be glad to discuss anything with you if you take a stand on anything. This is, after all, a movie discussion website. Not really giving very much in the way of critical evaluations of technique or content of the films makes your entries not particularly stimulating, but I'll do my best when I can.

I have commented on Molokh elsewhere here (on the site) I believe, on the now moribund "Last Film I've Seen" thread--you may be right that to "pop" it into your machine from time to time would provide a "visual feast" but the fact remains that it is a stultifyingly boring film, without the intense human focus of The Sun that makes the latter so moving. In my comment on IMDb--you may want to see other comments there for reactions of ordinary viewers--http://imdb.com/title/tt0199777/usercomments -- I called it a "snazzy snooze-fest."

I also watched Casque d'Or recently via Netflix. Simone Signoret is magnificent (I have the sensation of having said this before) in it and Reggiani is, well, "interesting," but there's not much chemistry and I found the film, despite the clarity and precision of its mise-en-scène, rather dated and uninvolving--no doubt one any fan of French cinema would have to watch, though, so it fits on this thread.

Thanks for the background on Boetticher and the movie and the DVD sound like a find for Western fans.

Kopple's American Dream tells an extremely important story in the history of the US labor movement.

I didn't k now that Cold Water and Wild Reeds were commissioned works about sixteen-year-olds. Wild Reeds is a kdy work by Téchiné, one of his best. Cold Water clearly would be one to see but I guess I can't see it.

Thief of Baghdad -- great Hollywood vintage costume stuff -- love it. But -- not much offered for discussion here in your entries as written, otherwise.

[oscar jubis]

Indeed, the PFA showed an abbreviated version of the 34-film Naruse retrospective that played at Film Forum last fall. A similar Borzage retro is playing now at PFA, followed by seven Mizoguchis. It's the type of place I'd visit frequently if I lived in the Bay Area. Most of the films involved are hard to view outside institutions like PFA. I viewed this Naruse on a dvd imported from Spain. My "budget cinephile" dilemma is whether to buy expensive, beat-up vhs copies of A Woman Ascends the Stairs and Late Chrysanthemums or patiently wait for dvd releases or retro screenings that may never come. On the one hand, I am barely able to keep up with what's becoming available on dvd. On the other hand, none of it was directed by the great Mikio Naruse.

[oscar jubis]

Originally posted by Chris Knipp
I'll be glad to discuss anything with you if you take a stand on anything.

Thanks. A pleasure as usual. As the opening post states, these are all films I (re)discovered this year that impress me particularly. Inclusion means I consider the film very good, if not a "classic" or "masterpiece". Few if any of these have flaws that I consider in any way significant. Posts are written as to provide, as succintly as possible, a brief description, reasons why I like the film particularly, and a bit of context. Sufficient, I would think, as a starting point for any potential discussion (you know I appreciate and respond to any query or dissenting point of view).

I have commented on Molokh elsewhere here--you may be right that to "pop" it into your machine from time to time would provide a "visual feast" but the fact remains that it is a stultifyingly boring film, without the intense human focus of The Sun

I know The Sun is a must-see. I hope it's shown as part of the Fort Lauderdale FF so I can watch it properly in a theatre. Otherwise, I plan to buy it on import dvd (the Hong Kong version can be had quite cheaply).

It could very well be better than Molokh as you imply. But I found the latter fascinating and engaging. The opening scenes of Ms. Braun entertaining herself while awaiting the arrival of Hitler from Berlin are highly athmospheric. The rest of the film consists of three long scenes I found highly stimulating in content and presentation: Hitler and Braun alone in their bedroom, a visit to the dictator from a priest, and a dinner scene. All three demistify and reveal facets of the infamous subject (and those closest to him) not accessible through any other film.

I also watched Casque d'Or recently. Simone Signoret is magnificent in it and Reggiani is, well, "interesting," but there's not much chemistry and I found the film, despite the clarity and precision of its mise-en-scène, rather dated and uninvolving[--no doubt one any fan of French cinema would have to watch, though, so it fits on this thread.

Well, it fits on this thread because I liked it a lot and I hadn't seen it in over twenty years. Truffaut wrote that the French public was "cool to this paradoxical coupling" upon theatrical release, so you're not alone by saying "not much chemistry". They're certainly an odd couple, I'll grant you that. It's a period film made half a century ago, but that's not why you find the film "rather dated", right? Casque d'Or is closer to "classic" or "masterpiece" than most films I've included in this repertory thread. If I may, "uninvolving" is a term more indicative of one's level of interest in the film's themes/characters, and quite valid as that, than indicative of any flaws in the film itself.

Thanks for the background on Boetticher and the movie and the DVD sound like a find for Western fans.

Boetticher is currently being (re)discovered by film buffs, as is Frank Borzage. He was a "Sam Fuller type" who released consistently good Westerns and noirs during the 1950s. Apparently, other titles in his filmography are scheduled for release on dvd.

I didn't know that Cold Water and Wild Reeds were commissioned works about sixteen-year-olds. Wild Reeds is a kdy work by Téchiné, one of his best. Cold Water clearly would be one to see but I guess I can't see it.

If I understand your predilections, Cold Water is one you'd certainly enjoy. I like it as much as Wild Reeds. Perhaps it's one of those dvds you'd want to purchase when in Paris.

Thief of Baghdad -- great Hollywood vintage costume stuff -- love it.

Tabuno has written before to ask why we usually privilege the director over other crew members like writers and producers. This is one film in which the producer, Alexander Korda, is definitely the auteur, more so than anyone else.

[Chris Knipp]

Few if any of these have flaws that I consider in any way significant. Posts are written as to provide, as succintly as possible, a brief description, reasons why I like the film particularly, and a bit of context. Sufficient, I would think, as a starting point for any potential discussion (you know I appreciate and respond to any query or dissenting point of view). Of course I know the latter and appreciate it. Not seeing any flaws could give one less to discuss, however, I'm afraid; likewise with giving only "a brief description." It's only when you open up a bit that you give another viewer/reader something to chew on or respond to. And as I implied, this is a forum website, for dicussion; just reading your log of viewings isn't interesting or in keeping with the site. Granted, many of us post longer reviews of movies, usually new ones, and don't get much response from those either. Nonetheless you may be providing somebody with some useful information, though the more the list is just random in its order the less that's likely to happen.

I don't think most viewers would buy the evaluaton of Molokh as "engaging" and "highly stimulating." The pace is leaden and the plot almost nonexistent. It's worth looking at all Sokurov's recent efforts to see the stylistic elements. I personally liked Father and Son, though one could be pretty critical of it. For me it all comes together in The Sun.

I don't quite buy that my calling Casque d'Or "uninvolving" says more about me than about the film, but maybe it's too operatic for me; I'm not an opera fan. Here you are calling Molokh "engaging" and "highly stimulating," so your pulse seems to go up awfully easily. I feel stimulated when I see Signoret with her beauty and energy on the screen, but I don't feel the romance is developed very well. I was expecting more crime and more love.

I would think "film buffs" have always been "rediscovering" Boettecher ever since the 70's, or they sort of were then, when I went to some PFA event with Tom Luddy I think, and some expert who'd written a book on Boettecher. Sounded really cool, but I didn't pursue it, partly because since childhood I thought you were either a cops-n-robbers buy or a westerns guy and I was a cops-n-robbers guy, I knew that from the first movie I ever saw, like when I was about 8. Anyway good that more Boettecher titles are to be released on DVD, assuming DVD's last.

True Cold Water probably would appeal, and I am accumulating more titles to look for when I'm in Paris, though it will depend on what I can find in shops. For me it's all good, since a crap film in French can be fun for me, depending on the language.

Alexander Korda--yeah, definitely.but he is listed as the, or an, uncredited director of Thief of Baghdad, and he directed 63 movies. Liked The Jungle Book too, also with Sabu. Love Sabu, and would gladly wade through all his movies, probably. How sad that he died suddenly at 39! Korda and his brothers were huge in the British film industry and notable for some major productions with high production values. Maybe the Kordas paved the way for Merchant Ivory and Masterpiece Theater.

[oscar jubis]

Originally posted by Chris Knipp
I don't think most viewers would buy the evaluaton of Molokh as "engaging" and "highly stimulating."

I don't give the matter much consideration. I only speak for myself. The film exposes some fascinating angles regarding the nature of evil and, those interested in the historical figure will find fresh, thought-provoking material on the private Hitler. There are valid reasons why Molokh won Best Screenplay at Cannes '99.

The only way I know to measure what "most viewers would buy" is the IMdb ratings, which support your contention quoted above. It's rated 15th out of 17 Sokurov features, although it's ahead of 16th place Father and Son. Others: #2 The Sun, #4 Mother and Son, and #8 Russian Ark. Spiritual Voices, the poetic doc about Russian soldiers stationed in Afghanistan which is his longest at 5h.38min. and, by far, his most relaxed and uneventful (a bit too distented for my taste and still worth watching if you have the time) places rather high at #6!
Viewer Ratings for Sokurov Films (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0812546/filmorate)

I personally liked Father and Son, though one could be pretty critical of it.

I was: Father and Son (http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=8491#post8491)

I would think "film buffs" have always been "rediscovering" Boetticher ever since the 70's, or they sort of were then, when I went to some PFA event with Tom Luddy I think, and some expert who'd written a book on Boetticher.

I hadn't realized this. Makes sense, as some random Boetticher titles were released on vhs in the 80s. Paradoxically, this didn't include many of his best westerns.

I didn't pursue it, partly because since childhood I thought you were either a cops-n-robbers buy or a westerns guy and I was a cops-n-robbers guy, I knew that from the first movie I ever saw, like when I was about 8.

This type of strict preference for a type of movie over another is probably the norm yet totally foreign to me.

Anyway good that more Boettecher titles are to be released on DVD, assuming DVD's last.

His noir Behind Locked Doors, which presaged Fuller's Shock Corridor, is being reissued next month as part of a noir box. The Glenn Ford western Man From the Alamo, already out in Great Britain, will probably follow.

Alexander Korda--yeah, definitely.but he is listed as the, or an, uncredited director of Thief of Baghdad

Apparently there are scenes in the film directed by six people, including Alexander Korda and his brother.

Liked The Jungle Book too, also with Sabu. Love Sabu, and would gladly wade through all his movies, probably.

You would probably enjoy a couple he made in the late-30s: Elephant Boy and The Drum. But the best film that includes Sabu in the cast was Powell's gorgeous Black Narcissus. Dave Kehr called Sabu "the Shirley Temple of British imperialism" :)

[oscar jubis]

PETER IBBETSON (Henry Hathaway/1935/USA)

An utterly atypical film coming from Hollywood and from a director of limited skills who dabbled mostly in action/adventure pictures_The Lives of a Bengal Lancer is his most popular film.

Peter Ibbetson is an adaptation of a novel by George du Maurier. The first act or prologue presents the intensely affectionate relationship between an English boy and girl who live in the outskirts of Paris in the 1850s. When her mother dies, the boy's stern uncle changes his name to Peter and takes him to London. In the second chapter, Peter has grown into an emotionally dissatisfied, yearning architect played by Gary Cooper. The story progresses at a stately pace until Peter is assigned to design a building at the country manor of the Duke of Towers. Over the course of several weeks, Peter and the Duchess (Ann Harding) develop a special closeness, one that remains repressed until the jealous Duke brings it into the open. The brutal revelation brings about the discovery that they are each other's childhood sweetheart. The duchess promises fidelity to her husband but her love for Peter is too intense to control. The Duke attempts to shoot them but ends up killed accidentally, resulting in Peter's sentence of life imprisonment. Up to this point, Peter Ibbetson is reminiscent of a sophisticated but conventional Cukor/Selznick upper-class period piece.

Whereas typically a film would appeal to the viewer's emotions at this juncture and become a so-called weepie or melodrama, Peter Ibbetson turns to exalted mysticism and surrealist poetry. Separated for life, the would-be lovers meet in shared dreams whose vividness is greater than life's. The Duchess shows Peter how to leave the prison with her, escape to the outdoors, and return to the Paris of their childhood. Charles Lang's photography, until then sharp and elegant, now plays with shards of light streaming into dark spaces, variable and selective focus, and diffuse edges. The crisp editing of the early sequences disappears in favor of dreamy dissolves and long fade-to-blacks. "Who is to say what is real and what is not" she tells Peter, "we dream true". This film's death scenes, and what comes after, constitute the most idyllic presentation of the end of life-on-earth in the history of the medium.

It's no surprise to learn that Andre Breton, the writer/poet best known as the main founder of surrealism, called the film "a triumph of surrealist thought" and singled it out as "the only film besides L'Age d'Or (Bunuel's) to express the surrealist faith in l'amour fou". Bunuel himself listed Peter Ibbetson as one of the best ten films of all time. The film evidences what can happen when a studio disregards commercial considerations if required in order to adapt a literary source with integrity and artistry.

[Chris Knipp]

How did you learn about this rare item?

[oscar jubis]

Entirely by accident! I'm a big Ernst Lubitsch fan so I decided to have a Lubitsch retrospective at home. Not the ones I know by heart (Ninotchka, To Be or Not to Be, The Shop Around the Corner, Heaven Can Wait, Lady Windermere's Fan) but some less familiar titles like Eternal Love, The Marriage Circle, The Merry Jail, and Design for Living. The latter is included as part of a Gary Cooper box and the disc also includes Peter Ibbetson. So I said "might as well..." and the Hathaway picture turned out better than the quite-good Lubitsch one!

[Chris Knipp]

Serendipity.

[oscar jubis]

THE DARK CORNER (Henry Hathaway/1946/USA)

Hathaway again, with a movie more representative of his output. His best of several noirs, not a masterpiece but a solid film I enjoyed particularly because of four aspects:
1) Extremely well-written dialogue. Samples:
-"How I hate the dawn! The grass looks as if it had been left out all night".
-"The enjoyment of art is the only remaining ecstasy that is neither illegal nor immoral"
-To a client that remarks that a particular painting grows on you: "You make it sound like some kind of fungus".
2) Joe MacDonald's cinematography, particularly his effective use of shadows as leitmotiv: the shadow of a revolving fan over a corpse, the shadow of two lovers cast across a doorway into the next room, thus revealing their secret embrace, etc.
3) Waldo Lydecker as a villanous art dealer with a plan to have his younger wife's lover murdered. Deliciously urbane and sardonic, like the character Lydecker plays in Preminger's Laura.
4) Lucille Ball as few remember her. She's quite believable as the framed dick's sensual, loyal, tough and resourceful secretary.

[oscar jubis]

TRACK OF THE CAT (William Wellman/1954/USA)

William Wellman, one of those studio directors forced to make three films he didn't care about for every one he did, had dreamed of adapting Walter Van Tilburg Clark's novel since its publication in 1949 (Wellman had already adapted successfully Clark's The Oxbow Incident in 1943). Wellman's pal John Wayne decided to produce this frontier drama in 1954, following their hit The High and the Mighty. They hired A.I. Bezzerides (Kiss Me Deadly, They Drive By Night) to write the screenplay.

It's a saga about what we would presently call a "disfunctional" family, who own a ranch in the Rocky Mountains. Pa is a lecherous alcoholic, married to the cruel, Bible-quoting Ma (Beulah Bondi). Curt (Robert Mitchum) is the mean-spirited and ruthless middle son. Young Harold wants to start his own ranch and to marry the beautiful and fiesty Gwen, but allows Curt to dominate him. Arthur, the oldest, tries to avoid confrontation by burying his head in poetry books. Then there's Grace, a reluctant spinster who protests against Ma and Curt's power plays; and Joe Sam, a superstitious, Native American hired hand. The drama that takes place mostly indoors is reminiscent of a play written by Eugene O'Neill. Outdoors, a menace slays men and steer with allegorical abandon: a black panther, presumably that is, because it remains unseen throughout the movie.

The script and the performances are very good. The narrative is highly engaging. Yet, what makes Track of the Cat special and unique is the cinematography by William Clothier, particularily the use of color. This Cinemascope film was shot in color film stock, but most of what we see is black and white! The wardrobe, the sets, and the props in the indoor scenes are black, white, and dark shades of blue, green, and brown. Outdoors, the white snow blankets the ground and the dark green of the pine trees looks black under overcast skies. Against this muted background, certain brightly colored props and garmets carry expressive and symbolic significance. Goes without saying, that mainstream audiences looking for conventional entertainment of the western/adventure variety didn't embrace the literary and experimentally arty Track of the Cat.

[oscar jubis]

EDVARD MUNCH (Peter Watkins/1974/Norway-UK)

I picture the man who created the iconic Expressionist painting "The Scream" in art heaven. He's clearly proud to be the subject of perhaps the best film ever made about the life and times of an artist. There he is, a bit coy about catching envious glances from his peers. Edvard Munch is a thorough, impecabbly researched, poli-faceted masterpiece. Labels such as "biopic" or "documentary" are insufficient to describe Peter Watkins' film, which premiered on Norwegian TV but was conceived as a theatrical feature.

Munch was born to a middle class family in 1863 but the film focuses on his his late teens and twenties, when Munch became an artist and frequented European intellectual circles populated by painters, philosophers, art critics and poets. Rather than follow a straight chronology, Watkins attempts to recreate an interior reality, in which significant events from the past impinge upon the present reality and the artistic process. Brief scenes from childhood, including Munch's memories of his mother and sister struggling in vain against the consumption that killed them, are interspersed with scenes of Munch at his studio and socializing in cafes. Few films depict so convincingly the fractured nature of memory. Watkins himself reads in voice-over Munch's letters and diary entries. Almost simultaneously, he provides commentary and clarifying information about several characters. At times, the narration provides historical context that's unrelated to the corresponding images, but enrich the experience by educating the viewer about the larger historical and cultural forces affecting the characters.

Watkins' narration and scenes in which the actors stare directly at the camera (thus breaking down the so-called fourth wall) make the viewer aware of the inherent subjectivity of attempting to convey what it was like to live in 19th century Europe and create revolutionary art. Perhaps Watkins' greatest achievement is that he's made a complex, intellectual film that is easy to watch and follow.

[oscar jubis]

THE SEVENTH CONTINENT (Michael Haneke/1989/Austria)

The first theatrical feature by the director of Code Unknown, Funny Games and Cache is finally available. It was recently released on dvd by Kino Video and includes an interview with the director. If you like Haneke's movies and you know you want to watch The Seventh Continent perhaps you shouldn't read further. It's impossible to give a sense of The Seventh Continent's uncompromising bleakness without revealing its resolution.

The Seventh Continent is divided in three parts, each consists of one day in the lives of a married couple and their school age daughter. The action takes place in 1987, 1988 and 1989. Most of what we observe are typical, routine activities for a middle class family in a Western country: getting ready for work and school, shopping, preparing meals, eating, commuting, watching TV, visiting relatives, getting the car washed, etc. Many of these scenes are shot in close-up to reinforce their everyday, universal quality, and separated by 5-second intervals in which the screen goes pitch black. Among them some scenes stand out: the girl pretends to go blind at school one day; when she gets home she denies it at first, then admits to it and gets a slap from mom. In another scene, the family drive past an serious accident site, and moments later, at the carwash, Mom bursts into tears. The Seventh Continent is based on newspaper reports about a young successful couple who poisoned their daughter and themselves to death for no apparent reason. Even more compelling is the fact that they destroyed everything that had any connection to them: photos, records, pets, clothing, appliances, furniture, the girl's drawings... A scene in which they methodically flush their money down the toilet caused the most walkouts at Cannes, according to Haneke. The fact that the movie presents no clear psychological explanation for their decision result in a devastating indictment of modern life itself, and a negation of middle class values. This couple didn't simply want to stop living, they wanted to destroy anything that might remind others that they ever lived. Films don't come any bleaker or angrier than Haneke's debut.

[Chris Knipp]

This is the most depressing movie I have ever seen.

[oscar jubis]

For various reasons, I regularly refrain from labeling a movie as "depressing". Movies typically don't depress me, to begin with, and the rare ones that do are not the same movies anyone else calls "depressing". So, from where I sit, the designation is quite arbitrary. Well, this time I am making an exception and agreeing with you. The Seventh Continent, which I like very much or I wouldn't be posting my comments on this particular thread, is the opposite of life-affirming; a film thoroughly devoid of humor and joie de vivre. It's designed, with masterful precision, to convey life as experienced from the perspective of the suicidal couple.

[Chris Knipp]

True indeed, "depressing" like "boring" is a subjective term and might not be very useful in critcism generally speaking; but there are a few cases where anyone can agree that the subject matter of a movie is truly depressing. I am prone to depression and a person like me has to be careful what they watch. To say a movie about a whole family that commits collective suicide isn't depressing would be impossible, absurd. I'd be hard put to come up with what positive value or life-affirming elements are to be found here. Consider the alternative. Is it life-affirming? Haneke is deliberately being difficult and provocative. This stance of his more recently has seemed to have a much more positive value. Cache is talking about responsibility. It's also stimulating and tantalizing in a subtle way. The Seventh Continent isn't melodramatic or sensational, but there's nothing subtle about it. And what positive value it has is hard to see. It's impressive for its relentlessness and for taking an audience somewhere they've never gone before. That's all. It emerges as distinctive in terms of the work that's come after. Haneke has evolved and is evolving.

When I say The Seventh Continent is the most depressing movie I've ever seen, it isn't hyperbole.

For a counter-example, take Kurosawa's Ikiru. It's about an aging man who learns he's going to die and in desperation flails aobut for what to do during the months that remain to him. But for me Ikiru is the most life-affirming movie I've ever seen, and it's my all-time favorite film.

Haneke seems to have been struggling to find humanistic values in the modern world, but in his search since this movie he has increasingly found things.

[oscar jubis]

THE SHANGHAI GESTURE (Josef von Sternberg/1942/USA)

Josef von Sternberg once apologized to the mayor of Marrakech for the "accidental resemblance" of some sets in his Morocco to actual Marrakech streets. More than any other filmmaker, he valued artifice over reality, aiming to create illusionary worlds that contained erotic fantasies and meditations on death and morality. One of his most characteristic pictures, perhaps his last hit, was this loose adaptation of a badly dated 20s play about a Chinese woman taking revenge on the Westerner who abandoned her and took their daughter away two decades prior. She is Mother Gin Sling (Ona Munson), a most flamboyant character who rules over the ultimate gambling den (which replicates the circular design of a roulette wheel). The breathtakingly beautiful Gene Tierney plays the pleasure-seeking Poppy, a tortured young woman who never met her mother. Sternberg deflects the play melodrama by shifting the focus away from the tragic trio onto a character of his own creation: Victor Mature's Omar. He is an ironic, sexually ambivalent, lover of Persian poetry who's loyal only to Gin Sling and to his own appetites. You can taste and smell the decadence in this highly atmospheric film full of murky emotions and motivations.

(I watched this film on dvd. The negative used for this transfer is in acceptable shape but it has not undergone digital restoration. The sound in particular would benefit greatly from such a procedure).

[Chris Knipp]

I suppose I should see this, but too bad it's not a better print and transfer.

[oscar jubis]

It's also one of those films with highly elaborate art direction and overstuffed images (streets teeming with people and vehicles, different concentric levels of gambling den) that can only be properly appreciated in a theatre. The bigger the screen the better but you'll know it is special under any viewing circumstances.

[cinemabon]

I've hot to hand it to you, Oscar. You've found some very obscure gems and made it worth reading your column to find out more about them.

[oscar jubis]

I'm glad you find the thread worth reading. Some of these titles are obscure and I feel they shouldn't be. All but two (Naruse's Mother and Assayas' Cold Water) are available on dvd at major rental outfits. My big hope is that my posting here will motivate someone to check them out. More film posts to come.

[oscar jubis]

CAMILLE (George Cukor/1936/USA)

La Dame Aux Camelias, a novel and play written by Alexander Dumas in 1852 has become a seminal love story. It has seen numerous incarnations as opera, play, film, even TV show. Verdi used it as the basis for his opera La Traviata; more recently, Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge injected pop songs into its basic plot. Irving Thalberg, the MGM producer, hired George Cukor to direct Greta Garbo as Marguerite Gautier. She is a witty and beautiful woman who makes a living in 1847 Paris by charming wealthy men out of their money. Then, Armand (Robert Taylor) slips into her opera box by mistake and Marguerite unexpectedly and most truly falls in love. She dares to dream of a pure and honest life with the simple and virtuous Armand but her past catches up with her. Armand's Father (Lionel Barrymore) convinces her she'd only ruin his career and family name. Marguerite leaves him, sacrificing her chance at true happiness, a change that won't come again because she is, secretly, dying of tuberculosis.

Camille was the great Greta Garbo 's favorite role; one in which she was allowed to channel her own persona and put her own stamp on a classic character. Camille is worth seeing for her unforgettable performance alone, but the high production values and Cukor's nimble direction make Camille one of the best melodramas of Golden Era Hollywood.

[Chris Knipp]

Surprised you had not seen this before.

[oscar jubis]

I watched a lot of old movies on late-night TV in the 70s and early 80s, shown with commercial breaks of course. It was so far from ideal viewing circumstances, and besides I was probably high on thc and maybe even doing chores or homework at the same time. Camille felt quite familiar at times, I think maybe it's one of those many films watched under those circumstances that I failed to properly appreciate at the time.

On the other hand, I know I have seen and became mesmerized by clips from the first film I posted on this thread, The Great Dictator, decades ago and promised myself I would soon watch it in its entirety. I never got to do that until 2006.

[Chris Knipp]

I take your point that viewing conditions are important, and televison with commercial breaks tends to cheapen and ruin films or at least make it hard to maintain one's concentration and sense of continuity. As a young teenager I saw Camille shown in the rose garden of the Baltimore Museum of Art in the summer, where they also used to have concerts. It was quite memorable. We did not have TV in our house. But I think I do know what THC is, though I don't use that as an excuse for not remembering. Usually I remember things I saw, even when high. One movie I remember very vividly seeing on television during the daytime at home as a graduate student when I was very high was Nicolas Ray's Bigger Than Life with James Mason. Since it is about the effects of drugs on the personality the experience of watching it while high on drugs became really intense., epiphany-like. Apparently this movie is a hard to-find-item nowadays--not on DVD or tape. I wonder if you have seen that? Amazing. It has some of the intensity of Sam Fuller's movies. I never did any academic work while high. If I had maybe I wouldn't have my degrees. I couldn't do homework and watch TV. I used to listen to the radio while doing my homework as a kid though. That's one of the main ways I first became acquainted with jazz and classical music. Also the Sunday broadcasts of the New York Philharmonic concerts which my grandmother tuned in to. She got the programs in the mail. You could subscribe and get them.

[Johann]

Chris indulging in the herbal tea?
Chris and chronic?
Chris packin' a bowl?
Chris and a chonger?

No...it can't be. You're makin' it up.

Kidding

I keed, I KEED!

[Chris Knipp]

It was. It is no more.

[oscar jubis]

Originally posted by Chris Knipp
One movie I remember very vividly seeing on television during the daytime at home as a graduate student when I was very high was Nicolas Ray's Bigger Than Life with James Mason. Since it is about the effects of drugs on the personality the experience of watching it while high on drugs became really intense., epiphany-like. Apparently this movie is a hard to-find-item nowadays--not on DVD or tape. I wonder if you have seen that? Amazing. It has some of the intensity of Sam Fuller's movies.

I've never said it before but, based on the Nick Ray films I've seen and the reviews I've found of the ones I haven't seen, he was the best American director between 1948 and 1958. I've actually seen Bigger than Life but I disregard the viewing because it's a Scope film by a director who knew how to use a canvas that long and I watched it "formatted to fit your TV screen" a long time ago. The print and the sound quality were likely poor. It's out on dvd in both Spain and France but I am convinced it's only a matter of time before it comes out here. Someone called it "the American Beauty of 50s cinema" which jives with my recollection of the film.

[Chris Knipp]

It's also a remarkable performance by James Mason. Up to then I didn't know he was that good. I just thought he played the suave English gentleman type. He was also good in Kubrick's Lolita, but that wasn't really as challenging a role for him. I hope Ray's films become available. Maybe they show them in special presentations in some rep houses? I don't know. This was just by chance that I saw Bigger than Life, but it was amazing.

We should note for the record that Bigger Than Life was 1956.

[oscar jubis]

I was surprised to learn Mason never won an Oscar or a Bafta. Then again he lost to Brando in On The Waterfront and O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia.

[Sano]

Now I'm surprised too. I always thaught Mason to be one of the most talented actors of his generation.

You started a great thread Oscar. I had lots of fun reading through it, and I'd like to see some of the films you mention.

Interesting that you've seen and appreciated the Taiwanese gem "The Personals". I also caught it on TV a couple of years ago and found it fascinating. I'd like to revisit it, butit's difficult to get hold of a copy.

[oscar jubis]

CHRONICLE OF ANNA MAGDALENA BACH (Jean-Marie Straub and Daniele Huillet/Germany-Italy/1968)

The European art film may have never come this close to being a non-movie—and to summoning the nascent force of cinema as a primal concentration of experience. Jean-Marie Straub and Daniéle Huillet's famous, hard-to-see meta-thing, their first feature, is now on DVD, and it's a living demonstration of less-as-more. Period-dressed performances of J.S. Bach's music—in their entireties—are interpolated against a handful of static dramatic exchanges and glimpses of Bach's manuscripts and publications. All of it is contextualized by narration spoken out of the eponymous diary. That's it: But the restrictive form of the film liberates rather than limits, and, as in the movies of Warhol, Snow, and Sokurov (among others), our demands for distractive progression are slapped down and we're given pure sensual intimacy instead. Marital love is not expressed but is inherent in every word and note; history is fastidiously resurrected, but only for its sounds. The net effect is not having seen a film but having lived a real moment, in the presence of monumental music. Is this a documentary, or a biopic, or something else we've never named?
(excerpt from Michael Atkinson's Village Voice review)

This whatsit took ten years to get made, mostly because of Straub's difficulty raising the money to make it. How to get anyone to give you close to a million dollars to make your first film when given film is unlike anything ever seen before? Some of the best Bach interpreters in Europe worked for half of their regular fee. Straub and his wife Daniele lived for a decade withour car, phone, and other conveniences to raise some of the money. They managed to get permission to shoot in the cathedrals and palaces where Johann Sebastian Bach actually played. The film is quite experiential, most of the pieces are observed from a single, static vantage point, usually a place offering a side view of the musicians, as one would if one was attending the performance. Whenever Straub decides to move the camera, the pan is slow and discrete but the effect is earth-shattering.

The dvd features a serviceable transfer of this 16mm black and white film. The dvd includes a making-of doc shot at the time of shooting, and some printed essays. My only unanswered question is why b&w stock if the aim is complete realism?

[Sano]

Wow, you sound like you've just seen your first film by Straub/Huillet :-) I liked the film very much when I saw it for the first time this year on a Japanese DVD and immediately wrote a review, (which i found difficult to compose, btw). Unfortunately this seems to be the only film by the couple that is being distributed at the moment. If you get a chance, you should try to see the masterful Kafka adaptation "Class Relations" from 1984, and another delight for your ears, "Othon" from 1969.

Btw, I don't think the aim is to achieve maximum realism at all. What they aim at is imho a purity of the experience that transcends everyday realism. They use abvious stylisation to achieve an effect that transcends the everyday life as usually experienced (especially in those oppresive times) to arrive at a deeper truth and understanding of the beauty of the music in which Bach (and his wife) obviously put everything they had emotionally as well as intellectually. To me, the film is also very political - like all of their work.

[oscar jubis]

Originally posted by Sano
You started a great thread Oscar. I had lots of fun reading through it, and I'd like to see some of the films you mention.

Thanks, Sano. Last year I had a thread in which I reviewed every film I watched. This year, I'm only reviewing the films I liked a lot that I had not seen before or had not properly appreciated. I'm convinced most would find these films at least worth checking out.

Interesting that you've seen and appreciated the Taiwanese gem "The Personals".

What's best about The Personals is the performance by Rene Liu, which garnered the actress four festival awards. The subsequent film by director Kuo-fu Chen, Double Vision, is something completely different. A mystery thriller starring Rene Liu, Tony Leung, and American actor David Morse playing an FBI agent. It's available here on dvd so I'll be watching it soon. Have you seen it?

[oscar jubis]

Originally posted by Sano
Wow, you sound like you've just seen your first film by Straub/Huillet :-) I liked the film very much when I saw it for the first time this year on a Japanese DVD and immediately wrote a review

I've seen a few Straub/Huillet films, probably not as many as you have. The best one I've seen is Not Reconciled. Here's a review of it I posted last year:

Not Reconciled or Only Violence Helps Where Violence Rules (Germany, 1965)

Marrieds Jean-Marie Straub and Daniele Huillet collaborated on this adaptation of Heinrich Boll's novel "Billiards at Half-Past Nine". It revolves around three generations of men from the Fahmel family and how each relates to a church, the Abbey of St. Joseph in Cologne. Heinrich Fahmel designs it in 1910, his son Robert blows it up as an act of sabotage, and Robert's son Joseph is entrusted with its reconstruction. The narrative incorporates several contemporaries of Robert both during the war years and in the present.
The underlying theme is (re)building vs. destruction. The theme's presence in the narrative is matched by a formalist strategy of exploding the plot into discrete, de-dramatized fragments from different time periods. The viewer is implicated in the job of restoring the timeline, to some extent, reconstructing the narrative. It helps that Not Reconciled is only 53 minutes long since the film requires one's full attention for maximum impact and legibility.

Not Reconciled is an indictment of Germany's collective psyche, which in the opinion of Straub and Huillet made the rise of Nazism possible. The film denounces how many who embraced Nazism wholeheartedly were able to assume positions of power during reconstruction. The thesis is that German society has failed to become reconciled with dangerous aspects of its psyche and legacy despite appearances to the contrary. Fassbinder advanced similar ideas on his BRD trilogy.


Btw, I don't think the aim is to achieve maximum realism at all.

The dvd released here by New Yorker Video includes a making-of doc, made for German television. In it, a young Jean-Marie explains his aim was to recreate history as realistically as possible by paying strict attention to period costumes, instrumentation, and settings. He explained that all the material used to tell the story of Johann Sebastian and Anna Magdalena are actual manuscripts, letters and, primarily, the writings of Anna Magdalena Bach. The only elements of stylization I noted were the use of black and white film stock and two times when the film cuts from interior spaces to shots of the horizon and the sea.

[Sano]

Haven't seen "Not reconciled" but your review makes it seem very interesting to me. Had forgotten that some of the controversy concerned Heinrich Böll's novel. A friend of mine is a huge fan of Böll - maybe I can point him to the movie :-)

What I wanted to say with my statement that their aim was not to achieve maximum "realism" with the film is a bit difficult to explain (my native tongue is also not english, if that serves as an excuse)...
Of course they tried to make everything look and sound as accurately as possible (including music costumes, architecture, as you already pointed out in your review), BUT the film has a lot of stylization to it. The constant moving "in" and "out" of the camera from a fixed point of view (like in "Barry Lyndon") the deliberate choice of long uncut sequences featuring usually only music and no dialogue, and the very particular choice of scenes and moments from the life of Bach and his wife.
While the couple is sometimes "realist" with what they are doing, how they do it, their style (and the movies as a whole), can imo not be described as realist at all.
But other films confirm this impression even more: various adaptations of plays, or the deliberate contrast of fiction and reality in "Class Relations" are an example.
I would even go so far as to say that Straub probably wouldn't use the term "realism" in the usual way, as his realism concerns something deeper that always includes more than "just" scientific reality.
That's why all of their films have a very spiritual "feeling" for me.

[Sano]

Didn't notice your first reply Oscar.


The subsequent film by director Kuo-fu Chen, Double Vision, is something completely different. A mystery thriller starring Rene Liu, Tony Leung, and American actor David Morse playing an FBI agent. It's available here on dvd so I'll be watching it soon. Have you seen it?

Yes, I picked it up two years ago in my local videostore because I remembered the name of the director. But the film is also stylistically a departure and more of a "mainstream" effort. Better than most mystery thrillers, it's still no David Lynch ;-)
Could fit quite well with the better J-Horror actually. It's always great watching david Morse, and I also like Tony Leung (this one as well as the other) so it was OK for me.
If you don't go in with great expectations you'll probably enjoy it.

[oscar jubis]

I will check it out then.

[oscar jubis]

THE DAY THE SUN TURNED COLD (Hong Kong/1994)

Although nominally a Hong Kong production, The Day the Sun Turned Cold is set in the same wintry northern China territory as The Story of Qiu Ju. Veteran mainland writer/producer/director Yim Ho's stylish conceit rests on 24-year-old factory worker Guan Jian, who seeks to bring city police evidence that his hard-working mom may have murdered his father 10 years earlier. At first, the chain-smoking captain he accosts figures the mild-mannered man to be either an over-imaginative reader of crime novels, or a man burdened by psycho-sexual conflict. Eventually he accompanies Guan to his frozen homeland to help unravel the mystery.

The picture unfolds with time-jumping self-assurance. It is particularly rich in ambiguity and psychological nuance, with young Guan's emotional alliances constantly shifting between his hard-working mother, his cruel-tempered schoolteacher father, and the handsome young woodsman who befriends him and falls for mama. Guan's betrayal of their affair has tragic consequences, and many layers of guilt and resentment serve to both suppress and revive his memories. By the time mom is formally charged, Guan's still not sure about his own motives.

This excellent rural crime drama is based on a true story. It won the Best Picture and Best Director prizes at the Tokyo International Film Festival. It was released exclusively on vhs. Used copies are easy to find and inexpensive. A dvd release would give the film deserved exposure.

[oscar jubis]

THE YOUNG ONE (USA-Mexico/1960)

A black clarinetist named Traver, fleeing for his life, arrives in a stolen boat at a game-preserve island off the Carolina coast. Miller (Zachary Scott), the game warden, kills a rabbit and brings it home to his shack. There he finds PeeWee, his alcoholic handyman, dead, and PeeWee's orphaned granddaughter Evie sniffling. They cursorily bury PeeWee in the backyard. Next morning, after Miller takes his boat into town, Evie encounters Traver while tending to the beehives. Ravenous, he takes honey from her but pays her $20 for one of Miller's shotguns and some canned goods. They establish a wary friendship, and after he accidentally causes a leak in his boat, she supplies him with tools to repair it. When Miller returns and discovers Traver with his things, he chases after Traver, tries to kill him and shoots holes in his boat.

Several more tense confrontations and power shifts between Traver and Miller follow, complicated by the presence of Evie; the object of Miller's growing lust and Traver's casual ally, she's innocent of sexuality and racism alike. Eventually Traver agrees to work for Miller in return for board until he repairs his boat. Miller allows Traver to sleep in PeeWee's shack and moves Evie to his shack, enabling Miller to consummate his lustful designs on her. The drama thickens the next day with the arrival of a Protestant preacher and Miller's boatman Jackson. They discover around the same time that Traver is fleeing from a rape charge and that Miller raped Evie the night before.

The complex moral and practical trade-offs that ensue are the heart of the movie. In fact, the film can be seen as a series of intricate transactions and exchanges. Bunuel refuses to condemn or exonerate anyone _the maestro commented in his autobiography My Last Sigh: “one of the problems [with it] was its anti-Manichean stance, which was an anomaly at the time, although today it's all the rage.” The film is a co-production of the US and Mexico, with a script credited to "H. B. Addis" and Bunuel. The former is the pseudonym of Hugo Butler, a talented blacklisted screenwriter who penned many of MGM's prestige pictures of the 30s and 40s, three for director Joseph Losey, and Jean Renoir's The Southerner. The cinematographer is the great Gabriel Figueroa, who shot most of Bunuel's best Mexican work and half of the classic films of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. The Young One is possibly the best movie in English never released on home video in the USA.

[Chris Knipp]

You don't identify the director until the third paragraph, which seems odd. When you do get to the circumstances and origins of the film, they seem interesting.

[oscar jubis]

Good point. When I wrote the piece I intended to include the auteur's name on the title. Then I forgot to do so. Some readers will be surprised to read "Bunuel" in the last paragraph because they don't know Bunuel made two movies in English. I also want to acknowledge there's a few other masterpieces in English never released on any home format. Welles' Chimes at Midnight among them.

Here's one of the few reviews of The Young One available:
The Young One (http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/film_review.asp?ID=1916)

And here's a brief review I wrote last year about Bunuel's other English-language film:

The Adventures of Robinson Robinson Crusoe (Mexico, 1952)

English-language feature by Luis Bunuel, shot in Manzanillo on the Mexican west coast, based of course on Daniel Dafoe's 18th century novel. A lamentably forgotten quantity until it was digitalized and restored on the occassion of its 50th anniversary. Now available on dvd for your pleasure and edification. Robinson Crusoe is a remarkable adventure film in gorgeously quaint PatheColor, faithful to Dafoe's prose_no attempt is made to obscure the fact that Crusoe was a slave trader who, not unlike the average 17th century European, regarded his racial and cultural superiority as a given. Irish actor Dan O'Herlihy got a deserved Oscar nomination from the Academy and Jaime Fernandez is very good as Friday. A couple of events provide Bunuel opprtunities to indulge his skills as a purveyor of surreal imagery, and of course, it's Friday who stumps Crusoe during a theological debate.
This is my third viewing of it since its release last fall. This time, at my son's insistence.

[Chris Knipp]

This adds perspective. I have seen The Chimes at Midnight (but not heard them), in Berkeley years ago, I think, though the memory is dim. Buñuel's Robinson Crusoe sounds so familiar, but I don't think I saw it. Jeffrey Anderson (Combustible Celluloid (http://www.combustiblecelluloid.com/classic/robcrusoe.shtml) ) says of Buñuel "He even attempted a couple of English-language films, as if he were sticking a toe in the waters of Hollywood. Fortunately for all of us, he quickly pulled it back out again." He has a rather good discussion of the Crusoe film, but hadn't seen the other.

[oscar jubis]

Not at all impressed with the Combustible Celluloid piece. I'm glad he gives Crusoe 3.5 out of 4 stars and calls it the "best Dafoe I've seen". Does the line you quote imply Bunuel would not have been able to continue making great movies in English, or in Hollywood? Bunuel proved capable of delivering masterpieces while working within several national cinemas.

To call Bunuel simply an "atheist" is reductive and simplistic. All Anderson had to do was read Bunuel's autobiography or watch Nazarin (Film of the Year award from the Intern. Catholic Cinema Office).

Anderson calls the Mexican films from the 50s "poorly financed", which gives the wrong impression that they have low production values. He writes "It wasn't until his 60s that he captured the world's attention with a series of Mexican and French-financed masterworks like Viridiana...". Actually, six of the 50s Mexican films played in competition at Cannes and they were critically acclaimed (three of them won awards: Nazarin, Los Olvidados and Ascent to Heaven). Morover, Viridiana (and Tristana also) was shot in Spain and financed mostly by a Spanish producer.

I understand though that Anderson is writing from an American perspective and Bunuel's Mexican films released in the 1950s got practically no distribution and no attention in the US. To this day, The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz, Nazarin, and others are available on dvd in England and not the USA (where at least 10% of the population are of Mexican descent). Go figure.

Anderson seems to have very superficial knowledge of a director he rightly calls "one of the 8 or 10 greatest directors of all time".

[Chris Knipp]

Sorry if Anderson did not hit the spot with you. I read it in great haste, just thought it might interest you. Maybe this shows there is a need for your voice.(Sometimes it is nice to know others are writing crap about one's interests--shows one's needed.) Or are there good books in English about Buñuel? You do note that England seems to appeciate Buñuel better than the US.

[oscar jubis]

I'm glad you provided the link to Anderson's review because it gives us an opportunity to discuss Bunuel. Actually, his comments specific to the Crusoe film are fine. But when writes about the man and his career, one gets the impression that he hasn't taken the time and effort to get to know someone he considers one of the top 8 or 10 greatest directors of all time". There are many good books about Bunuel in English, and many of his screenplays have been translated and published. He is a darling of film studies programs here and abroad, and with good reason. I'd go with "Bunuel" by John Baxter and his "My Last Sigh". Also, UC Berkeley has recently published "Luis Bunuel: New Readings". Perhaps the fact that many of his films are not available here on dvd but are available in the UK means he is better appreciated over there. It is safe to say that it's easier for the average film buff in the UK (and of course, France and Spain) to get a comprehensive view of Bunuel's career. Americans can compensate by importing some of the films not available here (the Hong Kong versions can be had cheaply and have good English subs). And we can be proud that the Criterion (US) editions of films like Viridiana and L'Age d'Or are definitive.

[Chris Knipp]

Good to know.

[oscar jubis]

LE SILENCE DE LA MER (France/1949)

Jean-Pierre Melville's first feature was independently produced, mostly self-financed. He had been denied a union card, and had neither a production permit nor the rights to the source material, a short story by Vencours. But nothing could keep the former Resistance fighter from making his film.

Werner, a German lieutenant, is stationed in France in 1941 and moves into the rural village cottage of an elderly, scholarly gentleman and his niece. They take a vow of silence toward the German intruder, sitting by the fireplace night after night when the officer returns from his duty. The well-mannered officer uses their silence to share his thoughts: his life story, the girl he almost married, his love of German music and French literature, and his belief that this occupation will benefit both countries. Werner admires the French couple's discipline and sense of dignity. His political naivete (in civilian life he is a musical composer) and underestimation of the evil government he represents, comes to light when he meets with friends who are in Paris to negotiate the political arrangement between the two countries. It is then that he is shocked into realizing the barbaric designs, namely to reduce the world to be submissive to a dominant Germany, to "rip the soul" out of each country it conquers. His more benevolent ideas are sneered at by his German friends. Fed up with this, but resigned to the fact that there is nothing he could do about it, he volunteers for duty in the war zone.

Most of the action occurs in the living room of the country cottage. There are two potent flashbacks to Werner commanding a tank in front of Chartres Cathedral and a pre-war rendezvous in the Bavarian woods with his girlfriend. There are two outdoor scenes in which the French man and his niece separately run into Werner, but manage to maintain their vow. Le Silence de la Mer is unique in that it contains no dialogue; Werner's monologues alternate with the Frenchman's voice-over narration while the characterization of the niece is built out of the precise observation of her body movements and gestures. The brilliant choreography of medium shots and perfectly timed close-ups evidence a first-time director who acquired a hand-cranked camera and a projector at the age of six.

Le Silence de la Mer is rich in meaning but austere in presentation, not unlike the films of Robert Bresson. Later in his career, Melville would say: "I sometimes read Melville is Bressonian...I'm sorry, but it's Bresson who has always been Melvillian". Jean Cocteau was among the few who watched Melville's debut upon release. He immediately proceeded to ask him to direct the screen adaptation of his play "Les Enfants Terribles". By the time he died in 1973, Melville had created an admirable body of work and had been recognized by many as "the father of the French New Wave".

[Chris Knipp]

Your description of this haunting film is detailed and informative. I've watched it carefully and studied its background a bit, read the story in French. It's equally mesmerizing and powerful in both forms. The story has a slow, cumulative power that's well captured in the film. Had forgotten the outdoor scenes of the film. The man and his niece's silence of course radiates hatred. You never know if they are at all won over by the German's well-meaning but naive good will; you tend to think not. Their silence, like the story, represents French resistence to German occupation. But the German is given a chance. The approach is subtle. When the German is shocked out of his delusions, it's shattering for us also. Appearing in 1941 clandestinely, Le Silence de la Mer was a daring and unusual story that took serious risks appearing even if only to a few select readers right during the early stages of the German occupation of France. For some time, I don't think the story was well-received--that it was too gentle in dealing with the Germans; I think Vercors may even have beenin some danger from both sides, but his identity was well-conceiled. How it was received and how it is meant to be literature of resistence somewhat baffles me still. But of course the Germans would not know about the German character's final realizations. I think some French readers, though now they may regard this as a beautiful work, thought it too soft on the Germans. But its moral comlexity is what gives it value to us.

You must be aware that the German speaks beautiful, correct French, but in the film, with a slight accent.

The author's name is Jean Bruller, pen name Vercors. He was a graphic artist, instrrumental in establishing an underground publishing house that eventually became Editions de Minuit, which later was the first to publish Samuel Becket and also Alain Robbe-Grillet, Claude Simon, Marguerite Duras and Robert Pinget.

It never occurred to me that this had any similarity to Bresson. It is an accomplished, if understated, work, but quite different from Melville's later noir classics, which include of course Bob le Flambeur, Le Samouraï, the recently revived Army of Shadows, Le Cercle Rougs, Un Flic....

I wonder why Cocteau got Melville to direct Les Enfants Terribles instead of directing it himself. I guess it wasn't material that was surrealistic enough for him to bother with.

Léon Morin, prêtre, starring Belmondo and Emanuelle Riva is another Meliville film that takes place in the occupation. I don't even remember it. Melville gave Alain Delon some of his best and most appropriate roles.

[oscar jubis]

Rich, delicious post, Chris. I have over a dozen films to post about in this thread. So I thought of doing brief paragraphs like your post for the London Film Festival. Now I'm glad I didn't cut corners when dealing with Melville's debut. I'm responding to your post in stages.

Originally posted by Chris Knipp
I wonder why Cocteau got Melville to direct Les Enfants Terribles instead of directing it himself. I guess it wasn't material that was surrealistic enough for him to bother with.

This excerpt from filmmaker and cineaste Richard Misek's essay on Cocteau is useful I think.

Cocteau was no Orson Welles. His avant-garde temperament fuelled his desire to rewrite the rules of film. But unlike his great contemporary, also a self-confessed amateur in the field of film, Cocteau did not have a strong enough vision to counter the aesthetic conventional wisdom of the time. Faced with the technical and logistical pressures of shooting a full-length film, he often found himself unsure of what to do with the camera. So he fell back on his crew and on the conventional film language of the time: eye-level camera, strict continuity editing and of course the 180º Rule. A disparity between his unconventional subject matter and his adherence to classical film language can be seen to varying degrees in all his films.

Les Enfants terribles was itself filmed in 1950 by Jean-Pierre Melville, in close collaboration with Cocteau. Melville had been making films since he was a child, and brought with him an instinctive understanding of film form. In contrast to Cocteau's modest camera movements, Melville utilised the full gamut of camera techniques at his disposal. He used long, elaborate dolly shots as well as handheld shots, long-lens close-ups and ultra-wide angle master shots. In his editing, he was not afraid to use ellipsis or to cross the line. And he finished the film with a crane shot so breathtakingly operatic that it immediately found its way into French film history.

Léon Morin, prêtre, starring Belmondo and Emanuelle Riva is another Meliville film that takes place in the occupation. I don't even remember it.

This is my review of the film:

Leon Morin, Priest (France, 1961) on PAL dvd
The second of Melville's trio of films set during the occupation of France was a critical and commercial hit. The protagonist is not J.P. Belmondo's Morin but Emmanuelle Riva's Barny, a bisexual widow and atheist with communist leanings. As the film opens, Barny has her half-Jewish daughter baptized and entrusted to two old ladies living in the country. We are introduced to Barny's mostly female co-workers, some of which are collaborating to some extent with the occupying Italian and German forces. Her Jewish supervisor changes his identity and emigrates and Barny feels attracted to the beautiful woman who takes his place. Fifteen minutes into the film, she meets Morin. The balance of the film concerns the relationship that develops between these disparate characters. Will Barny's curiosity about Christianity result in a conversion? Will their acquaintance turn into friendship or perhaps, erotic passion? Will Barny actively pursue her new boss? Melville's first cut of the film, based on Beatrix Beck's autobiographical novel, was over one hour longer than the film that premiered at the Venice FF. While the film evokes quite successfully this tragic period in French history, aspects of Leon Morin, Priest that concern political collaboration/resistance are sketchy in the final cut. For instance, there's a brief scene in which Barny helps to hide a Jewish boy. It seems to come out of nowhere, and then the incident is never broached again. Mellvile was very proud of Leon Morin, Priest, going as far as calling it "perfect". It's undoubtedly a major film from a major director, but I wish we could see the 3-hour cut of the film. There are some dramatic setups at the onset that are not fully developed, in order to focus almost exclusively on the very interesting relationship between Barny and Morin. A relationship explored in all its complexities and ambiguities.

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks. That explains why Melville's shooting of Les Enfants Terribles is more interesting than if Cocteau had done it. I still don't get Leon Morin Pretre, whose content sounds so lukewarm, or whether I've seen it. The role for Belmondo somewhat resembles his role in Two Women/La ciociara, perhaps, as contrasted with his usual rakish roles.

[oscar jubis]

Originally posted by Chris Knipp
The man and his niece's silence of course radiates hatred. You never know if they are at all won over by the German's well-meaning but naive good will; you tend to think not. Their silence, like the story, represents French resistence to German occupation.

No doubt it represents resistance to the Occupation. And no doubt that the man and his niece initially feel hatred toward Werner. They regard him simply as a representative of all things German, and all things Nazi. But they can't help, as he reveals himself to them over the course of several months, to begin regarding him as a more specific human being. One who does not embody the worst traits of his people and the Nazi leadership. When Werner returns from Paris after learning about the Final Solution and the leadership's plans for France, the man and his niece believe he truly feels pained and dejected by this. He is still the "invader" and their silence is maintained, but changes in the niece's gesture and demeanor are tangible (to her uncle and the spectator, not necessarily to Werner). She finally breaks her silence with a simple "adieu" after Werner decides to abdicate his high-status position and return to the trenches (a suicidal move?). This "adieu" is open to interpretation. I've read from two people who believe the girl has silently fallen in love with Werner, but I wouldn't go that far. I would conclude though that the man and his niece both view Werner, when he leaves, as a victim of his father's blind nationalism and his country's barbaric government.

[Chris Knipp]

My point was that since Le silence de la mer was a clandestinely published work of the resistence, we have to see the content of the narrative as being an act of resistence and a dramatization of such an act. The man and his neice choose to "send" the German officer "to Coventry," to give him the silent treatment, as an act of resistence. "Adieu" means we won't see you again, and his decision is clearly suicidal. To extrapolate what the French pair think or feel is otherwise somewhat futile, I think. You can speculate, but it's not in the story, or the film. Of course it would be too static if we could not watch for gestures or expressions; these little details keep the viewer on her toes. The whole thing is complex and ambiguous, though the fundamental movements of the action are unquestionable and clar.

[oscar jubis]

Originally posted by Chris Knipp
To extrapolate what the French pair think or feel is otherwise somewhat futile, I think. You can speculate, but it's not in the story, or the film.

I agree with everything you say. But part of the enjoyment I derived from the film was to observe closely and attentively to the gestures and movements of the niece, and listen to what her uncle says about her, and speculate indeed about what she thinks of Werner and how that changes over the course of the film. I also derived enjoyment from reading the different ways viewers interpret her behavior and her lone line of dialogue.

[Chris Knipp]

That may be true for you, but for me it's even more fascinating that the two are able to remain silent and essentially reveal no feelings whatever. This is the measure of their anger, that they utterly refuse to respond, no matter how much the German officer tempts them with his charm and understanding and flattery. Any movements they make to me are more signs of the effort this takes, rather than any revelation of specific feelings.

[oscar jubis]

Yes, they are able to remain silent and essentially reveal no feelings. To Werner that is. But the audience learns first-hand (from the Frenchman's voice-over narration) that his feelings towards Werner do change, and that he interprets what he sees in his niece as a change in attitude. If you watch Le Silence de la Mer again notice how the filmmakers themselves express that cinematically. Initially, Werner is harshly lit, with a high degree of contrast that makes him look sinister. After his return from Paris, the lighting used during his close-ups is more diffuse and even. There's also a change in camera angle, from low angle shots that make him look menacing to eye-level shots that regard him with neutrality. Add to that the way Edgar Bischoff's music score favors warmer tonalities towards the film's conclusion. This final refusal to hate while maintaining their dignity is what makes the film so special to me. I don't know how this differs from the short story.

[Chris Knipp]

Had forgotten that. Have not seen the movie in a while. I read the story by Vercors last year. I guess the movie adds those things. Good points. It is fascinating though, isn't it? The material is very subtle, really powerful stuff. I still think silence speaks more than words is the guiding principle.

[oscar jubis]

I started this thread in July, when I already had over a dozen films to discuss. I never got caught up. Anyway, here are the rest of the old films I watched in 2006 that I thought were special, including two each from my beloved Ozu and Naruse that were quite hard to find.

SALVATORE GIULIANO (1961)
This film about the Sicilian outlaw/hero is, arguably, the best one directed by the formidable Francesco Rosi. The flasback structure was quite novel upon release. Considered a major influence on Gillo Pontecorvo (The Battle of Algiers). Rosi won the Silver Bear at Berlin.

GILDA (1946)
In Buenos Aires,Glenn Ford goes to work for the casino owner married to his old flame. She's played by the magnificent Rita Hayworth, and yes, this is the movie where she sings "Put the Blame on Mame". The script is very witty, with plenty of pansexual innuendo that somehow managed to escape the censors.

PETULIA (1968)
Julie Christie's best performance, as a shallow, unhappily married socialite who starts a affair with a middle-aged, recently divorced surgeon.Richard Lester's quick-cut, fragmented style a perfect counterpart to the character's ambivalence and the shifting moral compass of the late 60s. The last film lensed by Nicholas Roeg, who went on to direct Performance, Walkabout, and Don't Look Now.

SMALL SOLDIERS (1998)
War toys run amok in suburban Ohio. A smart satire of pop culture and the culture of violence directed by Joe Dante. Many critics unfairly dismissed it, seemingly based on the ad campaign aimed at kids and toy tie-in marketing. Dante recently directed the most cathartic protest against the Iraq war put on film: Homecoming, an episode of Showtime's Masters of Horror series.

YESTERDAY GIRL (1966)
Highly ambigious and multi-faceted portrait of a young salesgirl and college student, apparently Jewish, having difficulty adjusting emotionally and finding her place in the world. Award-winning film was directed by the renowed author and filmmaker Alexander Kluge, considered the first film artist to deal with Germany's nazi past. Yesterday Girl uses avant garde techniques to enrich what is essentially a character study. Challenging and compelling stuff, based on Kluge's own book "Story of Anita G."

WILL SUCCESS SPOIL ROCK HUNTER? (Frank Tashlin/USA/1957)

SALESMAN (Albert and David Maysles/USA/1969)

THE 5000 FINGERS OF DR. T (Roy Rowland and Dr. Seuss/USA/1953)

THE DEVIL DOLL (Tod Browning/USA/1936)

HOUR OF THE STAR (Suzana Amaral/Brazil/1985)

PASSING FANCY (Yazujiro Ozu/Japan/1933)

BROTHERS AND SISTERS OF THE TODA FAMILY (Yazujiro Ozu/Japan/1941)

WHEN A WOMAN ASCENDS THE STAIRS (Mikio Naruse/Japan/1960)

LATE CHRYSANTEMUMS (Mikio Naruse/Japan/1954)