Oscar's Cinema Journal 2005

Not even great film scholars like Jones and Rosenbaum, or even Barthes and Bazin, are beyond scrutiny and criticism. There are no sacred cows, so to speak. It's apparent by his hurling insults ("his idiocy") that our colleague from Buffalo has exhausted his ability to debate the comparison between Clean and Sansho. I refuse to demean myself and degrade the forum by reciprocating. I'd rather tell you about the movies I watched yesterday :)

Sunday June 19th

Metro Lumiere (France, 2004) on region#3 dvd
One hour documentary directed by Harold Manning about Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien and Cafe Lumiere, a film tribute to Yasujiro Ozu commissioned by Shichiku Studios. The doc starts in Taipei with a brief discussion of Hou's filmography and its rootedness in Taiwanese history. Then, we are transported to Tokyo; shots from the city's train system are interspersed with interviews of Hou and his DP Lee Pingbin. They discuss their preparation for the project, the process of creating a fiction that pays homage to Ozu, and the experience of working with a crew of mixed nationality. Lee contrasts the diverging work ethics by referring to Hou as "Maoist" and the Japanese methods as "Neo-Confucian". I like how scenes from Cafe Lumiere were compared with scenes from Ozu's films, particularly Late Spring and Equinox Flower. Hou jokes that there are so many scenes at train stations and shots from metro trains that the film should have been called "Metro Lumiere", hence the doc's title.

The Killers (USA, 1964) on dvd
Ostensibly a remake of Robert Siodmark's The Killers (1946), which I watched last week, but director Don Siegel changed everything except the premise of a man not resisting or fleeing when two hired killers come to gun him down. Whereas Siodmark's film is a noir that's fairly faithful to Ernest Hemingway's source novel, Siegel's color film pumps up the action and crafts a narrative from the point of view of the hired guns. Not a single line of dialogue comes from Hemingway's book, according to Siegel. The Killers features Ronald Reagan's last perf and his first as an outright villain. Lee Marvin managed to stay sober long enough to complete the shoot, but barely, according to Siegel's journal. Angie Dickinson is the femme fatale. Don Siegel's The Killers was originally intended as the first feature made to be broadcasted on television, but it was deemed too violent and released in theatres instead. Both versions are fine, but I prefer Siodmark's for its noir styling, its sense of doom, and its literate script.

Apparently, our colleague from Miami has forgotten the words "Just ignore the silly reference" and his attempt to "stop the presses." It's quite sad really.

Monday June 20th

I'll split today's entry into two separate posts, one per film.
The Ladies Man (USA, 1961) on dvd
The second movie produced, directed, co-written and starring Jerry Lewis is an essay on the state of masculinity; a comedic, pre-feminism one, of course.

Lewis plays Herbert (pervert?), who witnesses his sweetheart making out with another on college graduation day. Lewis frames the kissing couple so that their heads are cut off. The betrayed Herbert vows to avoid women and remain a bachelor, regressing to a pre-teen stage of female aversion. He accepts a job as a jack-of-all-trades at a large manor run by two older matrons. Unbeknown to him, the manor is a residence for single women. And what a place it is! It took nine months to build the 4-story, plush dollhouse set, with fourth walls removed to allow for amazingly fluid dolly shots. The set design and the miking-for-sound used were considered quite innovative at the time. When he first sees the women, Hebert's panic attack is such that Lewis "splits" into four look-alike doubles as he runs frantically. Somehow Herbert is coaxed to stick it out after he finds out he will come into daily contact with 30 female archetypes and one "baby", a roaring, unidentified creature used to explore our token male's fear of fatherhood.
Lewis' films are characteristically fresh in their willingness to digress, to stop narrative thrust temporarily. There's a scene in which Herbert dances a tango with tough guy George Raft, and a loving, musical homage to Paris, for instance. Lamentably, there's also a completely superfluous flashback to the betrayal scene that adds nothing to the film. Towards the end, Herbert dares to enter the "forbidden room", which turns out to be a large all-white bedroom set where a black-clad woman in whiteface hangs from the ceiling. Herbert experiences obvious anxiety when the silent woman dances provocatively, whip in hand, before laying in bed invitingly.

I know folks who would never agree to watch a Jerry Lewis movie and I can provide quotes calling The Ladies Man a masterpiece. One thing I know for sure: the discussion cannot be limited to whether he makes you laugh or not. Even at his most slapstick or clownish, Lewis was experimenting with form and providing commentary on social issues.
Paramount has done an excellent job digitalizing Lewis's films. This dvd release is exemplary, and priced to buy.

So now you will be able to understand that eternal question, what do the French see in Jerry Lewis movies? And this already is the beginning of an answer for me.

Well, I've been hearing for decades about how the French love Lewis, but I've never read or heard any first-person accounts or figures comparing box office tallies in America and France. I am simply assuming there's some truth to it. It's also hard to find reviews written during the 60s, considered the classic Lewis decade, when The Nutty Professor and The Ladies Man. Dave Kehr wrote about the former "one of the most intense investigations of self ever put on film, a technically impeccable work of inspired megalomania". My take on Lewis is far from definite. I know he makes me laugh and I'm increasingly aware that his films are very personal and that, at least the ones released in the 60s were quite innovative. I have a lot to learn about his work. I look forward to the upcoming book on Lewis by Boston-based critic Chris Fujiwara. You can find his essay on Lewis here: http://www.sensesofcinema.com/conten.../03/Lewis.html
I also know that Americans my age and younger prefer Woody Allen even though few have actually seen Lewis's films. That was my own position back in the 70s and 80s, but in the past 15 years or so my take on Allen has depreciated quite a bit while Lewis's filmography keeps growing in stature. I'm not ready to call Lewis a genius like Chaplin, Keaton or Tati, but I don't rule it out either.

Melo (France, 1986) on PAL dvd (French)
An abbreviation of melodrama, derived from the Greek "melos" for music and the French "drame" for drama. Not the common usage: a sensational piece that appeals violently to one's emotions. Melo was directed by Alain Resnais (Last Year at Marienbad, Hiroshima Mon Amour), my favorite living French director. Melo is set in 1926 Paris, a faithful but condensed adaptation of a play written by Henry Bernstein (1876-1953), a highly successful author who called Melo "the most complete expression of my thought and sensibility". A romantic triangle involving neurotic classical musicians: Pierre (Pierre Arditi), his wife Romaine (Sabine Azema), and their mutual friend Marcel (Andre Dussollier). Lurking around to pick up the pieces, Romaine's cousin Christiane (Fanny Ardant). I have never encountered fictional characters more complex and fascinating. Every aspects of Melo, from the dialogue and its delivery, the gestures and body language of the performers, the music they play to and with each other, to the camera angles and movements, the lighting, and the art direction, express character traits and comment on the nature of the relationships between the principals. These are flawed, ambivalent beings that inspire extreme empathy and curiosity. During the first of back-to-back home viewings, I resisted using the pause button to use the bathroom. I didn't want to interrupt my visit to Melo's world. A thoroughly engaging, easily accesible, rarefied environment. Melo is perfect.

I don't think it's a question of box office tallies for Jerry Lewis in France but old critical admiration, probably in Cahiers du Cinéma in the Fifties. I think it's an additional factor in any assessment
of Jerry Lewis that he taught filmmaking for many years. So he may have had an influence that way. How can you compare Woody Allen? That's apples and oranges for sure. I think Allen has spread himself too thin by a wide margin, and except for his brilliant early films, his style has always seemed rather derivative
and it never had much of a link with classic early comedy like Lewis' does. But he too has his admirers in France I suppose.

It's partly just that the French care more passionately about film than Americans do, hence they appreciate Jerry Lewis as an artist.If I'm not mistaken the best and most complete or at least the most lavish book on Buster Keaton is by a Frenchman. I read it in the early Eighties but unfortunately I don't have a copy and forget the name.

Resnais' Mélo: In my review of Clean I noted that the French paper Le Monde called the film "un grand mélo, version rock." I'm sorry to say I have not seen this film of Resnais'. Congratulations on not hitting the pause button to go to the bathroom. Don't break the mood.

Now I remember: the book about Keaton is Le regard de Buster Keaton, the Look of Buster Keaton, by Robert Benayoun, 1982, and the original French edition I read is selling in this country for $150 now http://www.tomfolio.com/bookdetailsfg.asp?b=10502&m=521

I tried to get a small San Francisco publisher which seemed to be rather generously funded at the time to translate and issue it but no dice.

St. Martins press published a translation in 1984; it's cited in a Senses of Cinema article on Keaton. And that will cost you $85 today.

It's perhaps indicative of the neglect of Jerry Lewis, auteur, by the American critical establishment that none of Kael's three books about 60s films mentions him. A book I have that compiles essays from 1950s Cahiers issues also doesn't mention him but I am convinced that, when Lewis turned to directing in the 60s, the venerable mag played plenty of attention.
The Keaton book you mention looks fantastic. I learned a lot about Keaton from a doc shown every so often on TCM. I have his The General on my home viewing "schedule" for summer or fall.

Tuesday June 21st

I have seen The Battle orf Algiers at the theatre several times, including last year's re-release. So today I watched two documentaries about the film and its director found on disc 2 of the Criterion edition of the film.
Gillo Pontecorvo: The Dictatorship of Truth (1992)
Gilberto Pontecorvo was an apolitical middle class Italian Jew who developed a political conciousness during travel to Paris to participate in tennis tournaments in the 30s. Upon his return to his native Italy, he joined the anti-fascist resistance. After the war, he cultivated an interest in photography and realized later cinema was a perfect conduit for his political activism. Pontecorvo refers to his approach as "the dictatorship of truth". This doc is narrated by Arab-American literary critic Ed Said and includes interviews with many of his collaborators. It concentrates on his four major features: Kapo (one of the first fiction films about the holocaust), Battle of Algiers, Queimada (about a slave rebellion in the Caribbean), and Ogro (1979), his little seen last feature, about a terrorist attack perpetrated by ETA during the Franco dictatorship in Spain.
Dictatorship of Truth examines the multiple reasons why Pontecorvo directed only shorts and commercials after '79. Pontecorvo states that the public is less interested in political themes, that producers are less inclined to finance the films he wants to make, that producers insists on casting actors that often don't "look the part", and that he is highly indecisive and too much of a perfectionist (he seems to regret having rejected certain projects offered to him). Two projects that came closest to being realized: one on the 1980 murder of Archbishop Romero in El Salvador, and a film on the Palestinian resistance to Israel's occupation.

Marxist Poetry (2004)
This doc packs a great deal of information in 38 minutes duration. All about the pre-production, making of, and reception to Battle of Algiers. The title is a reference to Pauline Kael's comment that "GP is the most dangerous type of Marxist, a Marxist poet". Extremely informative short includes an interview with Algerian activist Saadi Yacef whose journal was the genesis of the film.

I thought that by the early Sixties the high regard in which Jerry Lewis was held in France was already a subject of jokes here. I wonder, then, where that came from, if he isn't even mentioned in Cahiers du Cinéma in the Fifties. I suppose maybe my chronology is just a bit off. The mysteries of Jerry Lewis's reputation are a topic worth an article by somebody in Sense of Cinema or somewhere like that, hopefully somebody with not too pompous a style.

Sounds like great material on Pontecorvo. Never heard the late Edward Said referred to as "Ed" before, but then, I didn't know him. In speeches and writing he seemed a rather formal man. Whether you liked him or not, he was the great articulate voice of the Palestinians in this country, and now that he's gone, there's nobody to replace him. His sweeping book about western cultural co-opting of the East, Orientalism, has had a wide influence, or at least I'd assume so.

As you can probably see from catalogue descriptions, what makes Robert Benayoun's book Le regard de Buster Keaton/The Look of Buster Keaton remarkable is that it's not only a lavishly illustrated coffee-table book but a thorough, interesting, even profound text.

No disrespect to Edward Said intended; never had the pleasure myself...

Wed. June 22nd

A Talking Picture (Portugal, 2003) on dvd
It's likely that, if this film directed by 96 year old Manoel de Oliveira played at a theatre near you during its very limited Dec. 2004 release, it had a short run. The dvd has been available for two months. Heed my advice: rent it now! Stop reading this entry and watch it ASAP. Not that I'd reveal what Rosenbaum called "the Bunuelian stinger in its tail".
A girl of about 8 named Maria Joana travels, accompanied by her historian mother, from Lisbon to Bombay to meet her father. The trip will afford Rosa the opportunity to witness the sites she always talks about in her lectures, as the ship will make stops in France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, etc. Think of it as a Homeric reversal; instead of Odysseus traveling west to return to his wife and child, a wife and child travel east to meet the father. Three prominent women board the ship in its first three stops: entrepeneur Delphine (Catherine Deneuve), model Francesca (stefania Sandrelli) and singer/actress Helen (Irene Papas). Making the introductions is the man-in-charge, an American of course, played by John Malkovich. You're probably getting the idea that, even though the characters behave realistically, they are also representative, perhaps even symbolic. If you are familiar to the events that led to the Trojan War, you'll see that the "little game of denouncing ourselves" played by the Cap. and the three women echoes Paris' fateful choice among Hera, Aphrodite and Athena.
A Talking Picture is little Maria Joana's film, and like many of us, she knows little about history. We have a great teacher along, Rosa, who through conversations with locals and Maria Joana brings forth the long legacy of violent conflict between East and West, and more specifically, between Islam and Christianity. That's the central conflict within the narrative. A most compelling, ancient and contemporary struggle.
But even those who care little about history can enjoy this magnificent picture, if only as an expertly shot travelogue through some of the wonderful sites in the world: St. Sophia Cathedral in Istanbul, the Acropolis in Greece, the ruins of Pompeii, the Great Pyramids of Gyza, among others. After two viewings, I'm ready to make some changes on my list of favorites of 2004.

It doesn't sound very appealing to me -- static shots, stilted relationships, lectures on history and culture, people babbling in unmatched tongues, travelogues of places one's already been -- and I don't know about Malkovitch (sometimes I love him and sometimes I hate him) but it would probably be fun to see Irene Pappas, Catherine Deneuve, and Stefania Sandrinelli in the same picture. Your description would be helpful for any viewer -- symbolism, literary allusions -- but I still don't quite get why you like it so much. In your enthusiasm, you may have overlooked explaining what you think makes it so good.

I haven't come across words like "lectures" and "static" in a few reviews of Un Filme Falado that I've read. The coments you paraphrase probably come from a reviewer from my "must avoid" list. The film brings forth very timely and provocative commentary on contemporary issues, although I'd agree that one learns quite a bit about certain historical events, and how history and legend are intertwined. This is presented colloquially via conversations involving Rosa and a variety of characters, including her daughter, not in the form of dry lectures.
You seem unusually predisposed against the film. Given our three year "track record", I'd bet that you're likely to find that a film I love is worth 92 minutes of your time. Watch it, mon ami!

Thursday June 23rd

Buongiorno, Notte (Italy, 2003) on PAL dvd (UK)
http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/show...1431#post11431

Same Rage, Same Spring (Italy, 2003)
This documentary directed by Stefano Incerti tries to cover too much material for its 66 minutes. It's a biography of Marco Bellocchio, a survey of his major themes (Family, Catholicism, Leftist politics) with too-brief clips of many films he's directed, a history of politics of the left in Italy since WWII, and a bit about the making of Buongiorno, Notte. None of these topics gets its due treatment. For instance, there's absolutely no discussion about how Notte mixes fact and fiction, or the process of adaptation from novel to film.

I was just trying to prod you into presenting a more complete review of the film that would explain its value more than just describe its contents. My phrases were not from reviewers, though I admit I consulted the Voice review by Dennis Lim which was quite admiring and didn't use these phrases; they were just my extrapolations from his and your descriptions. As you know I enormously respect and admire your dedication to the movies and find much in common with you as a person, but we can't always like the same film. However of course if I come across this one, I'll rent it.

Sometimes one's very enthusiasm gets in the way of recommending a movie to others, since to convince people one needs a cool head. Since you said right away "Just rent it!" it was clear that you were in that importunate mode, which sad to say can have a negative effect. I had a friend who did that all the time. She would practically order her friends to read a certain book. Sometimes she might even send out copies. After a while I stopped taking her seriously. Her importunate approach was annoying. She did nothing to recommend a book by insisting that one had to read it. Why? ONe must describe the book or the film in a way that is so appealing that other people want to read or see it and feel they are discovering its merits for themselves not as a result of badgering.

Sorry the Bellocchio doc isn't up to snuff. I liked Buongiorno, notte quite a lot and might enjoy a good discussion of it.

*Most critics showed admiration towards Un Filme Falado and most films directed by Manoel de Oliveira. He has a new one out called The Fifth Empire. I hope we get a chance to watch it soon. I liked Falado at least as much as any of the ten or so of Oliveira I've had the pleasure of watching. I think I've demonstrated I have a "cool head" and a discriminating eye, to the point of seeming dry and neutral. I can't help but feel very enthusiastic in my support of Falado, although I recognize it's not for everyone.
*I posted on some films I watched at the 9th Brazilian Film Festival in previous entries, including the short The Chess of Colors which was picked as Best Short by the audience, and the feature The Owner of the Story, which was picked as Best Film by both the audience and critics. The jury selected that film's star Marieta Severo as Best Actress but gave the Best Film award to Time Doesn't Stop, a biopic of Cazuza, a pop star who died of AIDS at the age of 32. If you read my comments regarding The Owner of the Story, you know I liked it very much and still do but, ironically, I've come to realize since my post that the film is more than a bit predictable because the protagonist's husband is too close to ideal for her to seriously consider divorcing him. The film needs a bit more of an "edge" to truly shine.

Friday June 24th

The Tunnel (Germany, 2001) at the Cosford Cinema
Widescreen but made-for-TV feature directed with great skill by Roland Richter is finally being released theatrically in the US after winning a number of audience awards at film festivals. A proven crowd-pleaser, also evidenced by the fact that 80% of IMdb voters rate it "8" or higher. It's a story about the most remarkable of all the attemped escapes via tunnel from communist East Germany. The most prominent characters include swimming champion Harry Melchior, who spent four years in jail prior to his escape to the west and dreams of liberating his sister; engineer Mathis who managed to escape but left behind his pregnant wife, and a plucky girl named Lotte who wants to help her boyfriend escape. The Tunnel is a triumph of old-fashioned storytelling, a movie-movie full of suspense and intrigue which finds a perfect balance between the logistics of secretely building a long tunnel into East Germany and the human angle involving a large number of personalities. The Tunnel could have been made two decades ago, there's nothing ground-breaking about its technique or its approach to the subject. But it's very exciting and moving and feels shorter than its 157 minutes. I know of at least two similarly themed movies, the made-for-TV Berlin Tunnel 21 and Robert Siodmark's Escape from East Berlin, but I haven't seen them.

It's All True (USA, 1993) on dvd
Two-part documentary. The first 33 minutes relate the story of the making of a documentary on Latin America directed by Orson Welles and commissioned by the US government as part of the anti-Nazi "Good Neighbor Policy", and the unmaking of it by the new cast of execs at RKO studios, who pulled the plug on the project, and the dictatorial government of President Vargas. Welles was supposed to make an amiable, touristy doc on the Carnival and he shot plenty of Carnival footage but found that the roots of the samba where in the favelas, amongst its poor, mostly black, voodoo-practicing inhabitants. He also turned his attention towards political activism on the part of fishermen from the Northeast and more specifically, four fishermen's 1000-mile journey by raft from their village to Rio to dramatize their plight. The second part of It's All True is called Four Men On a Raft, a recreation of that journey. The footage of this segment was found complete in a warehouse, missing only Welles's planned narration. Directors Richard Wilson, Myron Meisel and Bill Krohn wisely opted to eschew narration and add a musical score heavy on Brazilian drumming to the silent footage. The images filmed by Welles are characteristically gorgeous in terms of composition and camera angles; the footage has been restored to pristine form. He has documented the daily life of the jangadeiros, their extreme courage and dignity, and the perilous nature of the navigation feat that won them the admiration of all Brazilians.

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*Most critics showed admiration towards Un Filme Falado and most films directed by Manoel de Oliveira.

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I can see that the film did do well critically. I can't argue with you about Um filme falado when I haven't even seen it. I only said that it doesn't sound as if I'd like it. It sounds dry, and Rosenbaum, whom you quote, says that though it has a Bunuelean stinger in its tale, it seems naive and archaic at first. And that's all he says about it. Your suggestion that I may have to see ten of his films to get to the point of appreciating this one is also off-putting, don't you think? Rosenbaum -- I listen to him -- says of the 20 films Oliviera has made since he turned 70 "some of them [are] masterpieces and some just mannerist curiosities." Am I expected to watch those too?

I don't want to be a party-pooper, only to show that even films that you are wildly enthusiastic about are not guaranteed to appeal to me, no matter how much I admire your taste. I notice that recently when Rosenbaum said a film was "worthless," he explained that he meant for him. He found Mr. and Mrs. Smith was "worthless." But it wasn't "worthless" for me. It was "worth seeing," or "had a redeeming facet." Anyway most of the way through it was fun. Isn't it terrible that given a choice, I might opt for Mr. and Mrs. Smith rather than "Um filme falado"? But such is undoubtedly the case. Unless I were with you, in which case I might get talked into seeing the Portuguese geezer's film. I notice the IMDb viewers' comments are distinctly mixed, and many very negative. I think it looks like you may have gone a bit overboard on this one, and a lot of people even in the film buff communitity might not go with you, despite the "generally favorable" reviws (MetaCritic: 75% critics; 7.5 viewers). I will definitely reserve judgment. If I can find it, I'll watch it, but I have to admit to being very sceptical.

My website reviews still down; hopefully to be restored next week.

Good luck restoring your website, CK. Don't get how you figure I'm suggesting you "may have to see ten of his films to get to the point of appreciating" Um Filme Falado. To clarify, I've seen a bunch and liked them and none is better than Falado. I'll add to that: I am a huge fan of his Abraham's Valley, also starring Leonor Silveira, and found Falado easier to "access" and perhaps more relevant (though not necessaily "better" than the newer picture). I'd be the first to recognize these are subjective opinions and that it'd be entirely possible for you to hate the shit out of it. I wouldn't bet on that though.
My quote of Rosenbaum is limited strictly to the wonderful way he describes the ending, which says nothing about whether he liked it or not. I couldn't find a better way to characterize the ending without "spoiling" it.
My decision not to watch Smith is entirely based on my hating every second of its trailer. Slick, sarcastic and bombastic.

Saturday June 25th

My Summer of Love (UK, 2004) at Regal SoBe

Pawel Pawlikowski tossed out the subplots from the novel by Helen Cross to focus on the intense friendship between two girls in West Yorkshire, Scotland. We first witness Mona (Natalie Press) wandering around the countryside on an engine-less Honda bike and having a joyless fling with a married man. She's restless, bored and lonely. Mona lives with her ex-con brother Phil above their late mother's pub. He's come out of jail "born-again", with plans to turn the pub into a meeting hall for evangelicals and make a believer out of Mona. She's a lot more interested in Tamsin (Emily Blunt), a brunette home from boarding school for the summer. Both girls are isolated and grieving the death of a close relative, but that's where the simmilarities end. Unlike Mona, Tamsin is rich, sophisticated, cultured, and deceitful.

My Summer of Love has a naturalistic look, with its shallow focus and somewhat grainy film stock. The camera moves hesitantly, at one point peering reticently behind rocks when the girls share a kiss. It reminded me of the films of Lynn Ramsey. Content-wise, the film is strongly reminiscent of Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures in its ability to allow the viewer entry into the self-contained, hermetic universe created by Mona and Tamsin. It's a fascinating place to visit. Pawlikowski, Press and Blunt have created depictions of female adolescence full of whimsy, mystery and menace.

That's a good response. I won't bug you any more about Um Filme Falado. If I find it I'll watch it.

Especially when we love a movie we want to dec lare it absolutely great, for everyone, no exceptions. I think if we know something about film as you certainlyl do and write astute descriptions and evaluations of them as you certainly do, we aren't just giving an opinion that's no better than the guy who goes to a movie because it's showing when he gets to the cineplex and two days later can't remember what it was called. But nonetheless we can never determine another person's reaction.

I agree, we can never predict how anyone will react to any movie. BTW, I'm wondering if you've written anything about Buongiorno, Notte. You seem to have liked it more than I did. I'd enjoy reading your take on it.

Sunday June 26th

To Have and Have Not (USA, 1944) on dvd
This movie is an obvious response to the success of Casablanca and at least one critic, Dave Kehr, thinks it's a better movie. Both star Bogie as an smart-alecky, self-serving American keeping his nobility and generosity hidden while ecking a living in an exotic, Vichy-controlled location. The plots of both films have him taking risks to help Free-France activists escape. Both spend a great deal of screen time in a musical bars where a well-known pianist commands attention. Both films show Bogie involved romantically, the 19 year-old Lauren Bacall in her screen debut is Ingrid Bergman's match. Both films include lines of dialogue that heve become legendary ("You know how to whistle, don't you? Just put your lips together and blow" wrote Faulkner for Bacall). To Have and Have Not was directed by Howard Hawks, a great director who excelled in several movie genres and inarguably a better director than Casablanca's Michael Curtiz. But I'll take Casablanca over To Have and Have Not. Two reasons having to do mostly with plot: To Have doesn't have a Victor Laszlo, an admirable, handsome rival for Bogie. There's never any doubt he and Bacall will end up happy together. I prefer Casablanca's bittersweet resolution. Oh, and Bogie and Bacall "never had Paris" (though in real life they reportedly had many years of marital bliss).

The Patsy (USA, 1928) on TCM
Marion Davies's notorious lover William Randolph Hearst forced her into signing and acting in stuffy costume dramas, but King Vidor recognized her talents were exclusively comedic. Vidor cast her in romantic comedies like Show People and The Patsy in which Davies displays her considerable charm and talent for mimicry and pantomime. She is delightful here as a vivacious girl in love with her spoiled sister's boyfriend who has to contend with a domineering, nagging mom who disapproves of her.

Good comparison of To Have and Have Not and Casablanca.

No, I haven't gotten around to writing anything at all so far on Buongiorno, notte. It's complicated to write about, given the Italian political history of the Red Brigades and Aldo Moro, which people here wouldn't remember much about. I found a good summary of the events online here:
http://www.uwgb.edu/galta/333/moro.htm
I saw it without subtitles, and it isn't showing here, so I passed on it. But I did enjoy it for its special feel, its intimacy, etc. Sorry you didn't like it. I haven't written anything about Wong Kar Wai's 2046 either, another film I saw only on DVD, but I will do that one I expect when it comes out in this country, which I saw is not too far off now.

My website movie reviews are supposed to get restored some time today.

Originally posted by Chris Knipp
No, I haven't gotten around to writing anything at all so far on Buongiorno, notte. Sorry you didn't like it.
I liked it. What I wrote is: "you seem to have liked it more than I did" because I remember you wrote elsewhere that you liked it "a lot". I posted my specific comments on the film's thread and provided a link to it. See above.

Monday June 27

Howl's Moving Castle (Japan, 2004) at Sunset Place Regal
Watched the dubbed version, can't wait to watch it again in original Japanese. http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/show...1483#post11483

Five Easy Pieces (USA, 1970) on dvd
Bob Rafelson's film starring Jack Nicholson was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Original Screenplay at the Oscars but it lost them all to Patton. The New York Film Critics Circle weren't so foolish. Basically a remarkable character study intimately attuned to its time and place. Nicholson's Robert Eroica Duprea is a man who has turned his back on his upper crust relatives and his past as a classical pianist and transformed himself into an oil rig worker with a decidedly working class lifestyle. Almost by accident, he learns his father's had two stokes and decides to visit for the first time in three years. No matter where he is or who he chooses to be, Duprea's sense of isolation and alienation is ever present. Amazing performances by Nicholson and Karen Black as his sweet and clingy girlfriend. Ace cinematography by Laszlo Kovacs. See it often.

I have pretty much decided not to see Howl's Living Castle. The person I go to movies with most often doesn't want to see it. Another friend invited me tonight, but I passed. Japanese friends have said it's not Miyazaki at his best, that it may be done by his workshop more than by him, and that the story's silly. I didn't even like the previous one that was supposed to be so great. So, not for me.

Okay, let me go over what you wrote about Buongiorno, notte.

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The film barely makes this clear, as a matter of fact, there is scant exposition of the political context and little analysis beyond laying bare the naivette of the Brigadistas, their almost psychotic break from political/social reality.

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This seems to me the wrong approach. First of all, the film is not judgmental; it just dramatizes the kidnapping of Aldo Moro from the inside. You seem to be expecting a lot of analysis or exposition, which simply isn't there. It doesn't seek to "lay bare" anything but to take us into an extraordinary experience all Italy witnessed from the outside, but this time from the inside. It's a bit like if we were to see September 11th presented entirely from the point of view of the 13 or so men who hijacked the planes. My feeling when I saw this movie was that it was very sensitive and original in its approach, but that it wouldn't work well in this country. Surely many Italians might hate it, but they would know the background and not require exposition of events that at least anyone over forty would have an incestuous familiarity with.

Otherwise, since you say this is "An extremely good drama, well devised, constructed and edited," there's not much to disagree with except that you find it comes up short, despite this glowing set of adjectives. You and trevor seem both to have used the rather dry phrase "good drama" but trevoer calls it "the best modern Italian film I've seen for quite a while." You are displeased at the various extraneous, perhaps confusing, background clips; are unmoved by the loud rock music with many especially Italians have praised and which I would consider essential to the dreamlike intensity of the experience the movie takes us into; and you didn't like the Pope's "hissy fit." I'm not sure whether this is because you don't think popes have hissy fits or because this particular hissy fit didn't seem believable to you here. I would grant you that this is not a perfect movie and not every moment is equally convincing or even integral; but: see below.

I can only say that the experience that the movie provides seems to me an extremely original and absorbing one, and I gave myself up to it, not expecting necessarily to understand anything but rather just to feel things, to be absorbed into an experience. In that way Buongiorno, notte is quite remarkable. As an exposition of either the whole Aldo Moro incident, of the Red Brigades, or of what you call the "psychotic break", i.e., the usual hysteria of entremists confined in an insane situation of their own devising, I don't think it works, except maybe later, in retrospect, not on first viewing. What it does and does in an unusual degree and in a quite original style is take us into another world outside our own imagination or understanding.

I guess this means you liked it but I liked it more; I don't know. I only like it more by not applying the rational methods you have applied. I simply suspended them. It's an arbitrary gesture on my part, but seemed quite appropriate for this movie.

Five Easy Pieces is one of the early Seventies movies that holds up really, really well as a classic, and it shows you what Jack Nicholson had as an actor before he became wild Jack, the comedy king. It was also produced by the only guy I knew from college who went on to do something significant in Hollywood, Richard Wechsler. We were in the same fraternity and he knew he was destined to go into films and he was someone special, from the first moment I met him.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Chris Knipp
I have pretty much decided not to see Howl's Living Castle. I didn't even like the previous one that was supposed to be so great. So, not for me.

Makes sense. Actually, I'll venture to say that if you didn't like Spirited Away, perhaps you should steer clear of anime in general.

Buongiorno, notte. you say this is "An extremely good drama, well devised, constructed and edited,"

Trevor826 wrote that. Basically I recommend the film because of the depiction of the female brigadista's moral dilemma and Aldo Moro's coming to terms with the realization that he is going to be killed. Other than that, the idea the film reinforces repeatedly in several conversations between brigadistas is their naive expectation that most working-class Italians and practically all PCI (Italian Comm. Party) members would support the kidnapping of Moro which would force the government to release the political prisoners. One scene in particular dramatizes this, when the kidnappers are horrified by a TV broadcast of a huge PCI rally denouncing the kidnapping. Several scenes not taking place inside the apartment, and not included in the source novel "Il Prigioniero[/i], are the weakest, in my opinion of course, as is the sketchy characterization of Chiara's comrades.

Tuesday June 28th

Batman Begins at Sunset Place Regal
http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/show...1492#post11492

Europa '51 (Italy, 1952) on TCM
I became extremely interested in this film written and directed by Roberto Rossellini after watching several clips from it on Martin Scorsese's brilliant My Voyage to Italy. This doc is the best introduction to Italian Neo-realism one can imagine. A dubbed version of Europa '51 was shown last night on TCM. I know it's not the ideal version but it's the only one available and Ingrid Bergman dubs herself. Bergman, who was married at the time to Rossellini, plays an Italian American married to a corporate executive and mother to a spoiled, dependent 12 year old boy. Her frivolous bourgeoise existence is interrupted by her son's death, which causes her extreme guilt. After a period of depression, she draws closer to a communist cousin and becomes conscious of the suffering of others. She begins to devote all her energy, time and resources to help the poor, including drunks, prostitutes and petty thieves. After a while, her family including her husband, her priest and her doctor begin to think of her behavior as a sign of mental illness. This film is a must-see. I hope the original, Italian-language version becomes available on dvd someday.

The Diary of an Unknown Soldier (UK, 1959) on PAL dvd
The Forgotten Faces (UK, 1961)

Is there a filmmaker in the world that deserves to be called a "political director" more than 69 year old Peter Watkins? There's Pontecorvo of course, but he hasn't managed to make a film of any consequence since 1979, and that American institution called Frederick Wiseman. Watkins got his skills refined working as an assistant director on BBC documentaries and these early shorts show him to have reached artistic maturity quite rapidly. Watkins' specialty seems to be to make movies that look like cinema verite, they look like footage of actual events when they are in fact recreations of events using non-actors and unknown actors.
Unknown Soldier shows the experience of a British soldier in World War I, with particular attention to the myriad sensations experienced by the soldier, while providing a voice-over to give us access to his thoughts as he prepares for battle.
The Forgotten Faces are those of Hungarians of different types united by their desire to free themselves of Soviet oppression during the fall of 1956. 20,000 Hungarians died in the aftermath of a democratic revolution that succeeded for four days. The Forgotten Faces is particularly influenced by Eisenstein, in its use of quick-cut editing techniques and montages of facial close-ups.

*I do steer clear of anime in general. I got my fill of it in the late Eighties.

*I know I was getting your and trevor's comments on Buongiorno, notte confused a bit. In some ways they seemed to overlap, but you might disagree.

*I'm sorry you didn't respond to the movie as a whole. You seem to be isolating parts of it. Certainly in a full and detailed discussion one would have to do that. There are many issues to discuss. Ultimately one must be analytical. But in a brief discussion aimed at describing how one rates the movie, for me it should be primarily treated as a unified cinematic experience, not a rational one, but an emotional one, though also one which has Chiara as our intermediary, because she has doubts, so she is neither quite with us nor quite with the kidnappers. It is just the feeling of being there in that apartment, the feeling of Moro being just inside the room where he's held, the world being outside... That's where the film works for me, and for the film's ideal audience. And Maya Sansa is great. I'm sure you grant that.

I can't speak for you but I think the real reason the American critics are lukewarm about Buongiorno, notte is not any of the specific reasons they give but simply the fact that they don't bring enough emotional focus to a viewing of the work, because it's not about an event that they can relate to as the Italian audience can. That doesn't rule out individuals responding powerfully to it as I seem to do, but it does suggest as I have thought all along that this is not a movie that translates well for an American audience in particular.

It seems to me that despite the various specific points you have mentioned, such as the communist rally condemning the kidnapping and the moral doubt of Chiara, the overall approach of Bellocchio is to treat the kidnapping as an irrational event, not one that can be analyzed by the kidnapper. And since we are seeing it from their point of view, it cannot be analyzed by us either. This certainly gibes with the way the majority of Italians view the events, but it treats the brigadisti as if they are irrational, whereas from their point of view they had arguments for everything that they were doing. So paradoxically despite taking the brigadisti so seriously and getting deeply into their point of view, in a real sense Bellocchio regards them as crazy animals. He wants to have it both ways; hence his focus on Chiara as the central character. But this doesn't bother me; on the contrary it's why the movie works so well.

Anyway you seem to question the movie on many points whereas I tend to take it as it is, as a powerful experience. But if you break it down and analyze it, you aren't taking it that way, so it doesn't really work as well for you as it does for me.

That's quite fair. Looks like we both understand where our opinions converge and where our individual approaches differ. I'll assume you are right about American crits being "lukewarm" about it, as I have not read any reviews of Buongiorno. I like the picture enough to wish Wellspring Media, which owns the rights, releases it in US theatres.

Wed. June 29th

Punishment Park (USA, 1971) on PAL dvd (French)
Peter Watkins's most controversial faux-documentary is an American production, shot in California, and withdrawn from distribution after a four-day run at a small theatre in Manhattan. The Village Voice gave it a glowing review and Rolling Stone named it one of the Top 10 films of 1971. Mainstream press reviews called it "paranoid, leftist propaganda" or words to that effect, although often they recognized its technical brilliance. Punishment Park is closer to fiction than anything Watkins has done, but the style of it is pure documentary. My attempt to describe the plot:
There's massive protest following Nixon's bombing campaign on Cambodia. Nixon activates the McCorran Act authorizing the Feds to detain persons judged to be "a risk to national security". In a Californian desert, not far from tents where a civilian tribunal are passing sentence on Group 638, the members of Group 637 find themselves in a "punishment park". They've chosen to participate in a "game" as an alternative to confinement in a penitentiary. They've been promised liberty if they evade pursuing officers and reach an American flag posted 52 miles away across the mountains, within three days. Not long into the "game", the group splits into three factions depending on their different reactions to the ordeal.
Meanwhile, in the tribunal tent, Group 638 members endeavor in vain to argue their case for resisting the war in Vietnam.
The film that we watch is supposed to be shot by British and German TV crews who are being allowed by the government to cover these events. Every single second of Punishment Park feels like news footage, the acting is absolutely superb. Punishment Park may have felt like a relic if viewed last decade, but in 2005, it's as timely as it ever was. A vital, political horror film.

Purple Butterfly (China, 2003) on dvd.
Suzhou River, writer/director Lou Ye's last film, is a monumental achievement. I was conscious not to impose such high expectations on Purple Butterfly but I cannot help but feel disappointed by it. Butterfly is definitely worth watching for its cinematic daring and its depiction of Japan's occupation of China during the late 20s and 30s, but it disappoints as a narrative film. I admire Lou Ye's long athmospheric scenes and minimal use of dialogue. The problem is that the visuals often fail to carry the narrative, or take the place of dialogue. For the first, silent nine minutes, we know nothing about the young man and woman seen strolling together. At minute ten, we see Ziyi Zhang crying as a train leaves the station with the young man. She visits her brother and we learn her name is Cynthia and that the young man (Itami) is returning to Japan. How Itami feels about Cynthia, which figures prominently upon their reunification 9 years later, never registers. Then Cynthia's brother is killed by a pro-Japanese suicide bomber, and we are introduced to an entirely new mixed couple. But we still know nothing about Itami and little about Cynthia. The film eventually settles into a confrontation between Itami as head of Japanese intelligence and Cynthia as member of the resistance group Purple Butterfly in 1937 Shanghai, but the character of Itami remains too shrouded in mystery to care deeply about the resolution. By then though, we are sufficiently engaged by the plot (which eventually involves a number of characters on both sides) to make it watchable. Particularly so if you enjoy images for their own sake; most notably for me, scenes of couples observed up close by a camera that goes in and out of focus.

"Lukewarm" is only my impression without having read every review. A.O. Scott's review in the NYTimes seems typical. He praises Maya Sansa but is neutal otherwise:

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you may feel that the director is handling his volatile material with a bit too much delicacy. But the movie's atmosphere is a curious mixture of obliqueness and intensity.

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See also the quotes given from reviews http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/buon...te/?critic=all

I saw Purple Butterfly in New York last December and wrote a brief comment later. As you probably recall, when I posted this on the House of Flying Daggers thread on FilmWurld there was some discussion http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/show...=8486#post8486

*I agree with your comment that PB is "just as pretty to look at" as Suzhou River, but for me that's the sole favorable comparison between the "watchable" PB and the excellent Suzhou.
*I have now read Scott's review of Buongiorno. He describes the music as "lush, sometimes jarring" which definitely matches my reaction. Even more so, a comment from a Times reader who states he "found the magic realism of the ending inappropriate...". I am still baffled by the decision to show Moro walking free a second time. It's clear that the first time this scene is shown it turns out to be Chiara's dream. The second time felt like a cruel joke to me.

Thursday June 30th

Elena et les Hommes (France, 1956) on dvd
The third in Renoir's trilogy of period films in which a heroine is pursued by three suitors, a trilogy renamed "Stage and Spectacle" for release on dvd by Criterion. Elena and Her Men was released in the USA in 1957 in an edited version titled Paris Does Strange Things. The film is now considered one of Renoir's most daring because of its light treatment of a serious subject. The opening titles qualify Elena as a "musical fantasy", a comedia dell'arte in which Gral. Boulanger (thinly disguised as Rollan) attempts to conquer the heart of Polish princess Elena and take over the French government from the republicans. Basically, with the help of Royalists and Bonapartists, he wanted to establish a dictatorship. Many critics though this aspect of the plot was inappropriate for a musical comedy and dismissed the film. Not included among them was Jean Luc Godard, who went overboard by writing "Elena et les Hommes is the most intelligent film in the world". The main reason for the film, according to Renoir, was to create a comedy for Ingrid Bergman, whose career badly needed one at that stage. Her three suitors are Jean Richard, Mel Ferrer, and a mature Jean Gabin as Gral. Rollan. Renoir had by 1956 revealed himself to be a moralist in the broadest sense, illustrating a certain attitude towards life's problems. It had also become clear that he loved to experiment by juxtaposing genre, tone and subject in novel combinations. These impulses resulted in the creation of this fresh and delightful conclusion to the master's trilogy.

I hold no special brief for Purple Butterfly, as I'm sure you can see from my brief coverage of it. I wasn't even sure it merited a review at all. But things I see in New York often look just a little bit more interesting simply because I see them there surrounded by the New York energy. As I recall, it was a rainy night when I went over to the Quad Cinema for it, which nicely fit the film's mood.

I'll have to watch Buongiorno, notte again some time to consider your various criticisms, including the one about seeing Moro walking free a second time. I don't feel up to watching it right now. I thought that final scene fit in with the whole dreamlike feel of the film, but you may be right. Not every decision in the film is a wise one. I simply, as I keep saying, was carried up into the whole experience of it. As for the music, it is not jarring if you give yourself up to it. It is hypnotic and creates a strong mood. But that description of Scott's of the music -- "lush, sometimes jarring" -- reflects his general ambivalence about the whole thing. Good/no good: that's what he's telling us. He's willing to acknowledge that there is quality here. He doesn't say something rude and tasteless as Rex Reed's comment that it's as stale as week-old pasta, but he like you wasn't compltely caught up in it, so for every favorable thing he says, he adds a reservation.

*I try to apply my belief that film criticism is to some extent a matter of finding the right words to clearly convey entirely subjective, personal opinions, and that every opinion is valid. But comments like Reed's about a film like Buongiorno are a challenge to my tolerance. One wonders at times like these whether the writer actually likes movies enough to have his opinions published.

Second Quarter Report

Total Films: 134, including 6 silents and 11 shorts.

By Decade: 00s=66, 90s=11, 80s=6, 70s=8, 60s=16, 50s=10, 40s=8, 30s=3, 20s=6

By Language: English=55, French=19, Spanish=12, Others=48

Viewing Environment: Theatre=40, Video=83, Broadcast TV=11

*I decided against listing Faves of 2005 So Far. I am likely to watch several films of 2005 for a second time and I want to remain fully open to changing my mind about any given movie in either direction.

I'm afraid I was encouraging you to lose your sense of tolerence. It's true, Rex Reed's remark adds nothing to our discussion, but to call it "rude and tasteless" is a waste of breath on my part and overlooks the fact that it has a very real purpose in its own admittedly not very serious or polite context. Some critics may sound like they've lost patience with their work, but they may just be in search of quotable quotes and not averse to digging low to find them. A newspaper critic has got to grab the reader and he isn't going to keep him if he can't entertain. The Baltimore Sun critic Michael Sragow, who used to have the premier critic's spot out here and who does carefully crafted revival thumbnails for The New Yorker, is brutal sometimes in his writing for the Baltimore paper:

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Cinderella Man wants to be Seabiscuit on two legs, but lacks the guts and smarts and heart.

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and he delivers this on "War of the Worlds":

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Forget what Tom Cruise does outside his movies: What he does inside his movies is more than enough to wreck them. He hides booby traps of self-absorption within a bundle of energy.

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These are opening grabbers. He's not a subtle writer and sometimes he loses track of his point, but these pungent lines lead on to some valid observations. As for Rex Reed, I couldn't access the rest of his Bellocchio piece but he has always traded on bitch-slap cattyness. People read Reed for zinger put-downs like these openers of a review of "Bewitched":

Quote:

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Ron Howard’s rich, rewarding, critically embraced and artistically sound Cinderella Man, the best film of 2005 up to now, has turned into a box-office bummer, while Mr. and Mrs. Smith, a stupid, brain-dead movie for morons, has raked in the loot like a carnival barker promising free porno slides. . . .Garbage is everywhere, especially in the summer, and each week dumps more. Last week, we got the bloated, pretentious and incomprehensible Batman Begins. This week, we get another labored rehash of another lousy TV sitcom. Frankly, in my opinion, the public is getting what it deserves.

In a saner time, I wouldn’t be caught dead trapped in a theater seat staring at a piece of junk like Bewitched. But hey, this one’s got the names of people I respect and admire plastered all over it like pit stops on vaudeville trunks. When pros like Nicole Kidman, Shirley MacLaine and Michael Caine show up in a movie written and directed by somebody as savvy and lucid as Nora Ephron, attention must be paid. And then Bewitched crawls its way across the screen like road kill on its last gasp, and you begin to wonder why Hollywood has such a low suicide rate . . .

Bewitched was popular boob-tube escapism back in the days of Sputnik and Francis the Talking Mule. The only thing about that old ossified sitcom that doesn’t endanger the I.Q. is the enchanting way Elizabeth Montgomery caused havoc in the neighborhood just by twitching her nose. Nicole Kidman does the same thing, but after the first three twitches, the effect wears thin. Three thousand times more, and you’re checking the battery on your Timex.

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After the suave earnestness of Denby or the British wit of Lane in The New Yorker, the spicy rhythms of Rex Reed in the New York Observer feel like very much a guilty pleasure; one could enjoy slumming a bit in its pink pages. No need to assume Mr. Reed has lost enthusism for his work or for the movies. And this is not a sign of battle fatigue: he's always talked like this. If anything, he's just better at it. Reed's put-down of Buongiorno, notte may add nothing to our discussion of it, but it has its place on the pages New Yorkers wrap their dead fish in. Frankly, I couldn't stop quoting that. The man's a real entertainer. Let's not be too judgmental.

Of course there's a place for this type of writing about movies but I'm not interested in it.

Friday July 1st

Tabu (USA, 1931)

The last film directed by F.W. Murnau is technically an American release because Paramount bought the distribution rights, but the film was independently financed, filmed on location in the South Pacific, and features non-actors. The film was initially a collaboration between the German master, who died in a car accident days before its premiere, and Robert Flaherty, who decided to withdraw. Tabu, which started as a simple depiction of the life of the Polynesians, somewhat on the order of Flaherty's Moana, was transformed into something grander when Murnau took over the reins. There was documentary coverage of South Seas life and customs (rituals, fishing, weaving, music and dance), there were vistas of lush palm forests and rolling surf, but merely as backgrounds to a mystical love story. The story of of Neri, a girl consecrated to the gods by the elders, and thus forbidden to love, or marry. But she already loves a sea diver so the holy man tells her he'll kill him unless she agrees to leave the island to prevent consummation of their love. The distraught diver swims after the holy man's schooner carrying Neri only, eventually and inevitably, to sink beneath the waves when exhausted. This time, religion triumphs over nature.
You'd think Tabu is the last silent masterpiece but Yasujiro Ozu had yet to release I Was Born but... and Chaplin's City Lights was still playing at theatres worldwide. Speaking of theatres, I wonder how many actually showed Tabu in completed form, without excising scenes of topless girls at work and play.

Princess Mononoke (Japan, 1997)

Having seen the original version twice during the 90s, I decided to watch the dubbed-into-English version with Dylan (12) today. Hayao Miyazaki's adventure epic constitutes the best animation of flora and fauna motifs in the history of the medium and the first opportunity most of his Americans fans had to watch a Miyazaki film at theatres. The story is set in 14th century Japan and involves gods, humans and animals in a monumental struggle for peaceful co-existence. Dylan loved it as much as Spirited Away. One thing I'd like to say in favor of dubbed animation, it most definitely grants one more time to look at the animation and the damage done to the artist's original conception seems minimal to me. Voices by Billy Crudup, B.B. Thornton, Minnie Driver, Claire Danes and, thankfully, no Billy Crystal shtick.

Sat. July 2nd

The Last Laugh (Germany, 1924)
The rotund, middle-aged porter at the Atlantic Hotel in Berlin loves his job. He gets to meet important people and wears a plush overcoat with shiny gold buttons. His neighbors show him respect and admiration. The porter lives with a niece who's busy preparing for her nuptials. On her wedding day, the porter is shocked and bewildered to find himself demoted to washroom attendant. He begs the manager to reconsider but to no avail. He can't bear to show up at his niece's wedding without his overcoat so he lingers after his shift is over and steals it. At the reception, he drinks to excess to drown his sorrow. Director Murnau depicts his gradual inebriation by means of camera movements, oblique shooting angles, and out-of-focus photography. The porter passes out on a chair and dreams a fantasy in which he's back at his job, effortlessly carrying luggage as if he had superhuman strength while guests applaud. They wake him up, he readies for work, and doesn't realize until he sees his replacement that he is no longer the porter at the Atlantic Hotel. At his new post, the miserable man looks much older. A series of scenes reveal how his secret is discovered and how the news spread through the neighborhood. The once-proud porter become a subject of derision and ridicule to his neighbors. Murnau and screenwriter Mayer, pressed by UFA executives to end the film on a happy note, insert the film's sole title card: "in real life this is where the story would end but..." and conjure up a way for the porter to get "the last laugh". A deeply-felt masterpiece with a performance for the ages by Emil Jannings.

Class Trip aka "La Classe de Neige" (France, 1998)
An effective psychological thriller directed by Claude Miller. Nicolas is an introverted, bed-wetting 12 year old. His father agrees to allow him to go to a ski camp as long as he drives him there. He won't allow him to go on the bus with the other kids, not after a recent school bus accident. In flashbacks, the father is seen telling Nicolas about all sorts of child abductions in which kids ended up raped, mutilated and/or killed. No surprise that Nic's dreams and imaginings are full of morbid imagery, including visions of his father getting killed in a bloody auto accident and a child being dismembered after falling in a machine to make sausage. The undersocialized Nicolas manages to befriend another boy named Hadkann who is fascinated with Nic's grisly tales. Then we learn that a boy has actually disappeared in the vicinity and the police are furiously investigating. When the boy is found dead, Nicolas and Hadkann believe they have information that can lead to the perpetrator. The entire film is told from the point of view of Nicolas, played with understatement and restraint by Clement Van Den Bergh. The narrative, which could easily have taken a detour towards the supernatural, remains grounded in psychology. The resolution is utterly predictable, which may disappoint, but the characterizations of both kids and adults are rich in detail. Class Trip won a Jury Prize (3rd place) at Cannes '98, tied with Vintenberg's The Celebration, which is a better movie. Given the high quality of other films in competition that didn't receive awards, Class Trip doesn't deserve the Jury Prize but it certainly merits a rental.

La Classe de neige--based on a book by Emmnuel Carrère which, for obvious reasons, has been extremely popular: it's simple, short, but extremely well done. Imagine a lighter and more subtle Stephen King. I read it in French -- no boast, since it's easy French (at least on the surface). Perhaps the award you want to take back in favor of the let-it-all-hang-out family dogme fest (The Celebration) is a nod to popular preferences. But as tabuno has been at such pains to argue, such preferences are not always invalid. You seem a bit dismissive here, and phrases you use, "No surprise," "undersocialized, "then we learn. . ." suggest a failure to identify. If you detacned -- is that a therapist's technique? -- that would neutralize or at least significantly dampen the psychological power of the piece for you, and hence lessen your sense of its value. I don't think one should let the conflicting politics of Cannes prize-giving color one's sense of a film -- or rob one of an emotionally strong experience even if it's not "art" with a capital "A." A French "Comment" writer on IMDb suggests in an interesting and enthusiastic description -- which includes a knowledgeable discussion of Miller's previous œuvre -- how strongly identifying might leave one almost shattered by this one (I haven't seen it). Maybe arsaib4 (or you?) can comment on Claude Miller's other work, which I can't remember seeing, though the name is so familiar I must know some of it.

Is this a new DVD? How did you happen to see it? As always I like to know the reasoning or conditions behind your many choices.

The Last Laugh: I have so often read about this, but never seen it, although I know it so well I feel as if I have. I can only imagine that you are going eventually to teach a course in film.

We learn from one another, don't we? Speaking of courses in film, I took one at UM and I remember my fellow students, even the ones not high on silents, really enjoying Murnau's Nosferatu and The Last Laugh. I'll be revisiting the former soon.

Claude Miller
63 year old Parisian has a reputation as a good "molder" of performances, and an economical storyteller with a particular interest in crime stories involving children and youth. Eleven theatrical features in order of release (video refers to region 1):
-The Best Way (1976) on dvd
-This Sweet Sickness on vhs, based on novel by Patricia Highsmith
-Garde a Vue not on video, based on John Wainwright's "Brainwash" about an investigation into the rape/murder of two girls. Cesar winner for Best Adapted Screenplay, Miller's single win out of 13 noms for various films. Remade in the US as Under Suspicion, starring Hackman and Freeman.
-Mortelle Randonne, on dvd, based on Marc Behm's "The Eye of the Beholder"
-L'effrontee, on dvd, winner of the Prix Louis Delluc
-The Little Thief, on vhs, winner of French Critics award.
-The Accompanist, on dvd, based on Nina Berberova's "L'Accompagnatrice"
-The Smile
-Class Trip, on dvd. A good film but not as good (IMO) as other films in competition at Cannes '98 that didn't win, such as Hou's Flowers of Shanghai, Zonka's The Dreamlife of Angels, Chereau's Those Who Love Me Can Take The Train, Boorman's The General, German's Khrustalyov, my Car!, Tsai's The Hole, etc.
-Alias Betty on dvd, based on Ruth Rendell's "The Tree of Hands"
-La Petite Lili on dvd, based on Chekhov's "The Seagull".

I've seen L'Effrontee, The Little Thief, The Accompanist, Class Trip and Alias Betty. My conclusion is that you can count on Miller, he is remarkably consistent. I personally recommend any of these five but would not call any one a "must-see".

Now that you mention them, I realize that I have seen The Accompanist and The LIttle Thief. I'd agree they aren't must-sees. Did you read the IMDb comment I referred to by dbdumonteil, and if so what did you think? In frequency this writer almost rivals you, though if you go on this way for another three years I guess you'll have more than his/her 1,500 entries.

I'd certainly agree The Flowers of Shanghai and The Dreamlife of Angels are stiff competition. I hadn't seen the former till recently, but Dreamlife of Angels was a terrific, touching movie that I saw when it was shown here and it would be hard to beat for that year. I guess you could say it's my kind of movie, whatever that means.

dbdumontiel's comment is interesting. He writes at length about his favorite Miller film, the debut The Best Way, which I haven't seen. He likes Class Trip more than any of Miller's since the debut. I don't think it's better than the others I've seen but it's certainly not worse, so it boils down to a matter of personal preference. Where I (and Cristi, who saw Class Trip with me) disagree is when he writes "Miller doesn't do what the audience expects". We found its resolution highly predictable, which doesn't diminish Class Trip's value as a psychologically sound, damaged kid's p.o.v. coming-of-age film.

Sunday July 3rd

Manito (USA, 2003) at Cosford Cinema
Low-budget indie, shot on DV, about a Latino family living in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan. Painting-contractor Junior is throwing a big bash for his younger brother Manito, who's graduating from H.S. with a scholarship to attend Syracuse U. This Spanglish feature from writer/director Eric Eason is particularly well-observed: Junior and partner debating the differences between Mexicans and Caribbean Latinos, his Grandpa selling garments out of a suitcase to some "putas", Manito and pals boasting about imaginary conquests, Junior using White-Out to update his insurance certificate, etc.
Coverage of the raucous bash with a handheld camera evidence Eason and crew's filmmaking skills_every frame contains something of interest to the viewer. On the other hand, Eason's tendency to occasionally tilt the camera 30 degrees off horizontal is mannered and serves no purpose.
American filmmakers don't seem interested in middle-class Latino characters but that's not a valid criticism of Eason or Manito. What's lamentable is the high percentage of movies about Latinos that revolve around drugs and guns. Eason can't resist the temptation and Manito becomes all too typical during its last act.

Va Savoir aka "Who Knows" (France, 2001) on dvd
Actress Camille returns to her native Paris with her Italian lover Ugo to stage Pirandello's "As You Desire Me", described here as a play about "rekindling relationships". Camille visits Pierre, an ex she hasn't seen for 3 years, and finds him working on an essay on Heidegger and married to ballet teacher Sonia. Ugo meets grad student Do while searching for a lost text by 18th century playwright Goldini. Do has a half-brother, Arthur, a grifter who's still interested in former lover and accomplice Sonia.
Voila! Six characters in search of...romantic stability? emotional grounding? Thay all are much more settled and satisfied occupationally, while ambiguity and ambivalence rule their hearts. Jacques Rivette's script is highly intertextual_the more familiar you are with Pirandello (and Heidegger), the richer the experience. But there's enough pointed repartee, droll comedy and accomplished acting to amuse and entertain most for 154 langurous minutes.

I also obviously found dbdumonteil's Class Trip Comment interesting. I liked its enthusiasm. He's clearly steeped in French films and has reviewed or commented briefly on a lot of them among his 1,500 postings. I wonder what his problem with capitalization, punctuation, and spacing is, or if this is just a French thing. I can't remember the ending of the book and haven't seen the film so can't comment on that aspect -- yet. Would like to see this, obviously.

I thought you had seen Manito and Va Savoir.

I saw Manito in NYC and reviewed it then (with spoilers galore). Lots of good material in Manito despite its grungy look, which I didn't like. It could have used some polish, and I didn't like the ending. But the people and the milieu are powerfully evoked and there's an authenticity that you just don't get in mainstream movies. You may find my comparison with Raising Victor Vargas annoying. But it was too much in my mind to avoid.

I'm surprised such a well informed and enthusiastic fan of Rivette as you are just now seeing Va Savoir, which was well publicized here when it came. I thought Va Savoir one of the year's best foreign films, as did arsaib4. Or did you see it back then and are just reviewing it as a DVD? I saw it first in a theater and then on video and I have a copy of it. I liked watching it and have watched it three or four times. I enjoy the Italian and the glossy French interiors, the posh library, etc. and the intelligent, if not extremely involving, subject matter. I have not reviewed it; I wasn't writing reviews as much back then, and I might find it hard to make sense of on the page. Another bar to reviewing him is that I have seen little of Rivette other than Paris nous appartient, Celine and Julie go boating, and La belle noiseuse -- though when you think of it, that's still a lot of hours since they're so long! His movies are a curious combination of lightness and excess. I think they, like the work of current French cinematic darling Arnaud Desplechin (whose fun but unruly Kings and Queen has been extravagantly admired in NYC lately), could have done with some ruthless editing. No doubt you strongly disagree. But we would agree that they're worth watching.

Yes, I saw Va Savoir back then at the theatre. It's a second viewing and the first time I post about it. I like every Rivette film I have seen but Va Savoir is no Celine et Julie.
First viewing of Manito. I agree with your review and I like how your more recent reviews contain less spoilers.

I was excessive with the spoilers on Manito, and have since been forced by readers to learn the meaning of the term. There are still some cases, of which Crash was a notable example, where it appears to be impossible to discuss a movie intelligently or intelligibly without talking about some of the "surprises" it offers. Quite often they aren't such "surprises" after all. An example of this is Mysterious Skin. The shared background of the two principals is telegraphed from the start to anyone who's paying attention. But in the case of Manito, you just don't have to know all I told, prior to viewing.

It might have been a good idea to have mentioned that this was your second viewing of Va Savoir, in keeping with this being your cinema journal, i.e., a date book in which you spell out chronologically your personal filmgoing/viewing activities. What makes Celine and Julie so much superior to Va Savoir, in your view? I'd just like to hear your explanation of how the two compare.

Celine and Julie Go Boating has been referred as the last Nouvelle Vague masterpiece. Not to slight Va Savoir, it's just that the older picture is such a daring, inspired, one-of-a-kind experience. It's been a few years seen I saw it. I miss it very much and I'm getting tired of waiting for a dvd release. Nightclub magician Celine and librarian Julie meet, exchange tall tales, move in together and, at times, swap identities. Then there a plot-within-the-plot titled "Phantom Ladies Over Paris". Celine and Julie access this narrative via visits to a dark, old house where they take turns taking care of a little girl. It's hard to convey from old memories how the film becomes increasingly resonant and significant. Other Rivette films seen in 2005:
-Marie et Julien
-Secret Defense
-Le Coup du Berger

Monday July 4th

To Be or Not To Be (USA, 1942) on dvd
A masterpiece from director Ernst Lubitsch set in Warsaw just before and during the Nazi occupation of Poland. Jack Benny and the incomparable Carole Lombard (her favorite role) as the Turas, a married couple who are lead actors in a theatrical company. A handsome pilot on the second row sends word that she wants to meet her. Mrs. Tura thinks it's harmless but doesn't want to make her husband jealous so she sends instructions to the pilot to come to her dressing room as Mr. Tura starts the famous Hamlet soliloquy, hence the movie's title. Hilarious complications ensue but, thirty minutes into the picture, Lubitsch spends a quarter hour developing an espionage subplot. The second half of To Be or Not to Be is the most exhilarating, clever and witty blend of sophisticated satire and espionage thriller. Neither the first nor the last time I'll be making its acquaintance. The cliche fits_they simply don't make 'em like this anymore.

Van God los aka Godforsaken (Netherlands, 2003)
Bought the dvd cheap on Ebay based on a couple of good e-media reviews, high IMdb ratings, and awards at third-tier Euro festivals. Box says "In the tradition of Natural Born Killers" but the plot derives mostly from Goodfellas and the van Venlo gang of thieves-turned-killers that terrified Holland during the mid-90s. Van God los is competently shot but adds nothing new to the tired genre. And the lead actor, who provides constant voice-over, is definitely no Ray Liotta. Box says "Running Time:95 minutes". I was not disappointed it ended at 82.