Oscar's Cinema Journal 2005

Friday Sep. 30th

For a Fistful of Dollars (Italy, 1964) at Florida Intern. U.
Plenty of new releases but I couldn't pass on a public screening of the first collaboration between director Sergio Leone and composer Ernio Morricone. It brought fame to Clint Eastwood, Leone's fourth choice for principal role. Not the first spaghetti western, just the first to receive international distribution. For a Fistful of Dollars represents a giant leap in the realistic depiction of violence in movies. It's unbelievably sadistic compared to anything released up to that point, with three torture scenes and gleeful laughter accompanying every kill, except for Eastwood, who's implacably cool throghout. The plot was lifted off Kurosawa's Yojimbo. Leone was taking the first steps towards a very personal style that gained him a large following, particularly among the young.

3rd Quarter Report

During the months of July, August and September, I watched a total of 162 films, more than the 144 of the first quarter and 134 of the second. The reason is that 35 of them are shorts. I've been making a point to dedicate more time to short films which I've always neglected. I've seen some amazing ones this year, including Vigo's A Propos de Nice, Man Ray's L' Etoile de Mer, the Iranian The House is Black, and others recently released as compilations on dvd.
Of the 127 features I watched, 38 were theatrical screenings, 22 were broadcast on TV (most on Turner Classics Movies) and the rest on video.
I'm looking forward to the last quarter. There's are several events of interest in the city including a Chilean series, an Italian series, a traveling Third World festival (I think it's called Global Initiative), and the Fort Lauderdale Film Festival (not a great fest but there's always something to discover that's not likely to get distribution).

Sat October 1st

Tim Burton's Corpse Bride at AMC CocoWalk

Magnificent Obsession (USA, 1954) on TCM
Lamentable how the term melodrama has become synonymous with "mawkish tearjerker" because the genre has produced a ton of outstanding pictures. Douglas Sirk (All That Heaven Allows, Tarnished Angels) became a master director of melodramas during the 1950s.
Magnificent Obsession concerns the transformation of a callous rich man (Rock Hudson) into a person of high moral values through the magic of true love and the desire to make amends. If this sounds corny to you, do stay away. Sirk's attention to color, composition, production design and the nuances of performance are readily apparent.

Sun October 2nd

Viridiana (Spain, 1961) on TCM
Luis Bunuel returned to his native Spain after many years working in Mexico and brought along Silvia Pinal. He cast the blonde Mexican as the titular would-be nun. Before taking her final vows, Viridiana is encouraged by her superiors to visit the uncle who's financed her education since her parents died. They've never actually met. Her uncle Don Jaime (Fernando Rey) is struck by how much she resembles her aunt, who died in her wedding dress on honeymoon night 30 years ago. His obsession with the corpse bride is beyond belief. At his insistence, our heroine agrees hesitantly to wear the white dress. Don Jaime, aided by his complaint maid, drugs her. The next morning, to keep her from returning to the convent as scheduled, he tells Viridiana that he raped her. Don Jaime reconsiders and tells her the truth, that he was able to resist temptation. Upon arriving at the convent, Viridiana receives the news that Don Jaime hung himself in despair. She returns to live in her uncle's large estate, turning it into a shelter for the homeless, against the wishes of her machista cousin Jorge who's come to visit with a lover in tow. The second part of the film concerns Jorge's attempts to seduce both the maid and Viridiana, and the latter's futile efforts to civilize the whores, beggars, drunks, thiefs and tramps who now live in the decaying estate.
Viridiana is a great movie. A harrowing, comedic, grotesque, and yes, surrealist yarn hiding a powerful political allegory. Immediately upon release, the dictatorial Spanish government caught on, burning any prints they could find, but not before a couple had made their way to Paris.

Mon Oct 3rd
Grizzly Man (2005) at Regal SoBe

Tue Oct 4th

The Village (USA, 2004) dvd
I would not complain about the ponderous, humorless, shopworn horror-flick cliches if there was more substance to the social parable behind the whole project. Mr. Shyamalan is a victim of his own commercial success. Who is going to tell him to stop wasting his filmmaking skills on his own subpar scripts? Nobody! Not as long as the films make money. This one gets real silly towards the end, when I could no longer give Shyamalan the benefit of the doubt, and I could no longer suspend disbelief. The Village took two hours to accomplish what any episode of "The Twilight Zone" achieved in less than 30 minutes.

Wed Oct 5th

Oliver! (UK, 1968) vhs
I was 7 years old when I watched Oliver! for the first time. Other than animated films like Dumbo and Pinocchio, it was the first movie to totally blow me away. It received 11 Oscar noms and won five: Best Film, Best Director for Carol Reed (The third Man, Odd Man Out), Best Art Direction, Best Music and Best Sound. Oliver! is the screen adaptation of a musical by Lionel Bart, who penned amazing songs like "You've Got To Pick a Pocket or Two" and "Reviewing the Situation". The cast is uniformly excellent: Ron Moody (Fagin), Mark Lester (Oliver), Jack Wild (The Artful Dodger), and Oliver Reed (Bill Sikes).
My kids also love Oliver!, especially Dylan (12), who wanted to watch it again before taking on Polanski's new version. Polanski has to contend with the memories many filmgoers have of Carol Reed's Oscar winning version. How can I not be prejudiced against the actors in Polanski's film when the cast of Oliver! inhabited their roles with such verve and aplomb. Who'd want to play Bill Sikes after watching Oliver Reed's performance?
Oliver! is not everything Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist can be, but it's genuinely sad, joyous, tragic, romantic and scary. I wonder if Polanski can find an angle not covered by David Lean's earnest version and Reed's wonderful musical version of the great novel.

Thu. October 6th

Tomorrow We Move (France, 2004) dvd
The latest from writer/director Chantal Ackerman (La Captive, Jeanne Dielman, Night and Day) went straight to video. Perhaps a so-called "critic's film", given that the ratings from IMdb users are very low and all reviews from critics I found on the web are decidedly positive. Charlotte (Sylvie Testud) is a writer of erotic pulp. When her father dies, her ditzy mom (Aurore Clement), a piano teacher, moves into her apartment. Soon thereafter, they decide they need a bigger place and put the apartment for sale while looking for a suitable replacement. In the process, they come into contact with a variety of people who seem to develop instant familiarity, even intimacy with the efervescent duo. The film is full of music, witty farce, and screwball situations. The tone is reminiscent of Resnais operetta-like Not on the Lips. Maybe there's not enough appreciation out there for this type of inspired goofiness but I couldn't resist its good-natured charm. Cast includes Natacha Regnier, Lucas Belvaux and Elsa Zilberstein (who was absolutely breathtaking in the otherwise forgettable Modigliani).

Friday Oct 7th

The Global Film Initiative is an organization which "promotes cross-cultural understanding through cinema by supporting and presenting acclaimed films from Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East". Every year, as many as 10 films overlooked by distributors in the US are compiled into a traveling film series titled GLOBAL LENS. At the end of each touring year, the films are made available commercially through a partnership with First Run Features, either theatrically or for home video release. Basically, it's very likely you'll have a chance to watch these films I'll be reviewing even if GLOBAL LENS doesn't come to your city in 2005.
The film I watched today is called:

Buffalo Boy (Vietnam, 2004) at Tower Theatre

The debut film of director Minh Nguyen-Vo, who was in attendance and happens to have a Ph. D. in Physics from UCLA. Buffalo Boy is set in 1940 in a rural area of South Vietnam that's heavily flooded for half the year. This is where 15 year old Kim lives with his parents, and a pair of water buffaloes that make farming possible. During rainy season, the animals need to taken to higher ground for pasture. It's Kim first expedition alone, because his aged father is sick. It's a perilous ordeal. Kim will run into a herdsman who knows things about his father's past he never imagined; there are conflicts with rival herdsmen, friendships forged on the trail, and the allure of the different lifestyle found inland. The film comes to include a variety of well-sketched characters but Buffalo Boy remains focused on Kim's trials and tribulations.
Minh Nguyen-Vo successfully tackles the multiple challenges presented by shooting a period film under such environmental conditions, using non-actors, and with a limited budget. The production had to be interrupted several times due to illness and equipment failure, he explained. Buffalo Boy is an excellent coming-of-age film that transports the viewer to a remote corner of the world and provides access to a distinct, vanishing culture and people. Buffalo Boy won the top prize in the New Director's competition at the Chicago International Film Festival.

Eros (Hong Kong/USA/Italy, 2004) on import dvd
The Hand: The first of three shorts that comprise this omnibus film was written and directed by Wong Kar Wai and it's the reason why Eros is essential viewing. It's set in 1960s Hong Kong, during the waning years of what was known as "courtesan culture". It tracks with amazing economy several years in the relationship between a "courtesan" (Gong Li) and the young tailor's apprentice who falls in love with her. The cinematographer is WKW's frequent collaborator Christopher Doyle, so the visuals are splendid and evocative. But it's the powerful story of how the relationship between the principals mutates over the course of time what will have you salivating for WKW's next film_apparently, either a sequel to The Hand or a rethinking of it.
Equilibrium, written and directed by Steven Soderbergh, is the second part of Eros. It's set in the US in the 1950s. Equilibrium concerns a publicity man who seeks help from a psychoanalyst to interpret a recurring dream. (Spoilers) It's clever how it turns out the session with the shrink is a dream itself, just don't ask me what the point is because I don't have an answer.
The Dangerous Thread of Things was directed by the master Michelangelo Antonioni. Beautiful shots of gorgeous people and architecture, but it's as shallow as softcore porn.

Sat Oct 8th

Today and Tomorrow (Argentina, 2004) Global Lens Festival
Besides the USA and France, obviously, perhaps no country in the world is producing as many quality films right now as Argentina. The reason talented Argentine directors, actors and film crews have been able to make films is the financing from Europe, most coming from Spain. It's a wonderful partnership. I'll be making a list of the films from Argentina I've liked this year, with links to reviews, in an upcoming post.
Today and Tomorrow is the debut feature from writer/director Alejandro Chomski. It boils down to 24 hours in the life of a Paula, a 25 year old waitress and theatrical actress who's having financial problems. As the film opens, she's leaving her modest apartment to work at the cafeteria when she notices an employee from the gas company cutting her service. She hops on her scooter and we witness her frantic effforts to get the 40 pesos to pay the bill. She gets to work late and gets fired for repeated tardiness. Chomski and DP Bill Nieto (El Bonaerense, Rolling Family) deploy the camera in the style used by the Dardenne Brothers. Paula is also behind in her rent payments. She attempts to borrow money from friends and from her father, who tries to get her to commit to a "sensible" plan to secure her future, one that doesn't include acting in experimental theatre productions. Paula storms out, thinking she has other options. but things don't work out and the manager threatens eviction. The desperate Carla descends into prostitution with the help of a friend from high school. She aims to approach it as an actress playing a part, a role she can quickly abandon without it affecting the person she is underneath the disguise. Easier said than done.
Today and Tomorrow is entirely dependent on the acting skills of Antonella Costa and she is magnificent in a performance reminiscent of Emilie Duquene's tour-de-force in Rosetta. Ms. Costa never falters during the 90 minutes the camera follows Carla. Her nuanced portrayal is what holds the film together during brief patches that are perhaps overly familiar and predictable. I look forward with great interest to new films from Antonella Costa and director Alejandro Chomski.

Sat Oct 8th (cont.)

The Lusty Men (USA, 1952)
Three decades of home video releases and there are still excellent movies that have never been released on any format. I'm not referring to foreign films or independents, I'm talking about great Hollywood films from major directors, such as The Lusty Men from director Nicholas Ray (In a Lonely Place, Bitter Victory, King of Kings, Born to be Bad).
The Lusty Men is a gripping drama that takes place in the world of rodeo competitions. Robert Mitchum plays a veteran rodeo man who's broken one too many ribs to continue on the circuit. He retires and returns to the farm in the Texas panhandle where he grew up. He befriends Wes and Louise Merritt (Arthur Kennedy and Susan Hayward) and gets a farm job. Unbeknown to Louise, Wes dreams of fame and fortune as a rodeo man. Mitchum shows him the ropes and Wes has some success in a local meet. The once steady and stable Wes becomes blinded by ambition and the thrills of competition, as Mitchum and Louise draw closer emotionally. There are many subplots involving other death-defying rodeo men and their wives but The Lusty Men remains focused on the triangle established from the beginning. Magnificent cinematography by Lee Garmes, the Oscar-winning DP for Joseph von Sternberg and other notable directors. My gratitude to Turner Classic Movies for making it possible to watch this movie and many others not otherwise available.

Sunday October 9th

Uniform (China, 2003) Global Lens at Tower Theatre
This low-budget, independent feature was awarded prizes at the Rotterdam and Vancouver film festivals. It's the directing debut of writer Diao Yinan, who co-authored the hit film Shower. Uniform takes place in his native city of Xi'an. Wang, recently laid off from factory work, helps at her mother's small laundry shop. He attempts to deliver a policeman's uniform but learns the cop has left town. There's a sudden downpour and his clothes are soaked, so he puts on the cop's shirt. Gradually he realizes he gets respect from others and recognizes the potential benefits of impersonating a police officer. He gains enough confidence to woo a pretty girl who works at a music shop. Wang extorts bribes from motorists to take the girl out and pay for his ailing father's hospital bills. A motorist makes a complaint and an actual officer launches a search. Meanwhile, we learn that his girl also has a secret of her own.
Uniform was shot in Digital Video and has the immediacy and freshness of other DV films without the typical jittery, wobbly camera movements. It provides a look into Chinese daily life few films have offered, and the performances are naturalistic and unaffected. It's unusual given Diao Yinan's background that the film is better shot and directed than written. There are poblems with narrative clarity involving a subplot as Wang visits the factory where he used to work. There's labor unrest, a theft, and some thugs roughing Wang up because they think he is someone else, but it's all muddled into incomprehension. Moreover, the girl's character seems underwritten, particularly regarding what motivates her behaviors. These flaws do not detract from my overall positive impression of a film that offers a unique perspective and a window into a China rarely seen in commercial films.

Sun Oct 9th (cont.)

The Unknown (USA, 1927) on TCM
Tod Browning made many silents before his two sound masterpieces: Freaks and The Devil Doll, and his very good Dracula. The Unknown is one of a couple of his silents that's still available for our viewing pleasure, albeit not in complete form. A few minutes of the original have been lost, which accounts for narrative ellisions during the first reel. What remains (about 50 minutes) is a powerful, and weird story. A very young Joan Crawford is Nanon, the daughter of the owner of a Spanish one-ring circus. Nanon has an innate aversion to being touched by men. She's coveted by a strong man and Alonzo (Lon Chaney), an armless knife thrower willing to go to bizarre extremes to get her. Alonzo is assisted by a dwarf named Cojo, who faithfully guards Alonzo's secrets. Browning uses a technique called "gauze" that renders images as if viewed through a mesh, to great pictorial effect. I liked The Unknown more than I expected. Now I wish I had rented the dvd to watch it again while listening to the commentary track. Chaney is excellent, as usual.

Mon Oct 10th

Nada+ aka Nothing More (Cuba, 2001) dvd

A hodgepodge of a movie, mixing multiple disparate styles and tones, anchored by a clear protagonist: Carla. She's a postal worker ambivalently awaiting a visa to join her parents in Miami. Meanwhile, she entertains herself by opening and reading letters. One day, Carla spills coffee on one, then rewrites it mimicking the sender's handwriting. The amateur poet can't help to embellish the text. It turns into a routine, with good outcomes for sender and recipient, for Carla is a most talented scribe. But there's a new postmaster who hates her and suspects foul play, and someone willing to spy for her. There's also a cute letter carrier who warms up to Carla and tries to help her.

Co-writer/director Juan Carlos Cremata filmed in B&W, adding bright color to selected objects. Several characters here, like the evil postmaster, her cross-eyed spy, and Carla's pesky neighbor are vaudevillian caricatures. This is most definitely as planned, as there are scenes that are pure slapstick, even some that bear unmistakable comic-book influences.This material is interspersed with lyrical, even sublime moments of intense beauty involving the beneficiaries of Carla's poetic prose. Cremata brings forth a variety of devices_slow-motion, slurred time, unusual camera movements, time-lapsed photography, eye-of-God and upside-down shooting angles... you name it, anything goes.To say the tone is inconsistent and uneven is quite an understatement, but you'll never be bored and Carla is a likable, three-dimensional character who grounds the film and helps sustain one's interest.

Monday Oct 10th (cont.)

Hollow City (Angola, 2004) Global Lens at Tower Theatre
The simple fact that Hollow City was written and directed by an African woman (Maria Joao Ganga) is, by itself, reason to rejoice. Her film won a Special Jury Prize at the Paris Film Festival and continues to tour the festival circuit. N'Dala is one of several orphaned children transported to the capital city of Luanda from provinces ravaged by the Civil War. Upon arrival, the 11 year old runs away and journeys through the city. N'Dala meets an old fisherman who feeds him and gives him shelter. The next day he meets Ze, a 13 year old school boy rehearsing the role of a wandering boy, not unlike N'Dala, for a school play. Ze is good to N'Dala and means well, but he introduces the boy to the world of vice and crime that surrounds him. Meanwhile, a Portuguese nun who brought N'Dala to the city searches frantically for him. Hollow City chronicles N'Dala's voyage of discovery while providing a snapshot of daily life in Angola immediately after the war. This nicely observed film takes a low-key approach to narrative until, during the final 5 to 10 minutes, it succumbs to the perception that film audiences demand a dramatic climax.

Tuesday Oct 11th

Amo Tu Cama Rica (Spain, 1992) Import dvd
This romantic comedy co-written and directed by Emilio Martinez Lazaro (The Worst Years of Our Lives) played with its Spanish title at the '92 Miami Film Festival. It means "I Love Your Delicious Bed", which implies something more raunchy than what it is. It became a cult hit among Spanish youth because it's an accurate depiction of 20-somethings in Madrid circa 1990. Amo Tu Cama Rica was a breakout film for Ariadna Gil, who'd soon become known worldwide thanks to Belle Epoque. Here she plays a young veterinarian whose beauty, charm, and lack of inhibitions make her quite the boy-magnet. Gil is cast opposite Pere Ponce, as a not too handsome or successful guy who's smitten at first sight. Amo Tu Cama Rica traces the on and off relationship between them and effortlessly finds the humor in realistic situations. Cast includes a young Javier Bardem and other recognizable faces, but it's Ariadna Gil who carries this movie. Thumbs up to the Spanish company who put this out on dvd for including English subs. Thumbs down for "formatting" the film rather than using the original aspect ratio.

Tuesday Oct 11th (cont.)

The Seventh Day (Spain, 2004) Import dvd

His third film, The Hunt, was voted best Spanish film of all time by the Spanish Critics Association. He's won more awards at Cannes and Berlin than compatriots Luis Bunuel and Pedro Almodovar. He is Carlos Saura (Cria, Goya in Bordeaux), arguably Spain's greatest director. The Seventh Day is the 36th feature from the highly prolific Saura, whose filmography receives scant distribution stateside. It's based on a real event, the Sunday massacre at the village of Puerto Hurraco in 1992. What brought it on was a provincial feud between the Jimenez and Fuentes families, whose farms had common, poorly defined borders. As fictionalized in The Seventh Day, land was a minor factor in their mutual hatred. It all started with Luciana Jimenez being seduced then spurned by her Fuentes fiancee, who payed by being stabbed to death by Jeronimo Jimenez. Jeronimo was sentenced to 30 years and Luciana slowly descends into madness, and violence begets violence.

Most of the action is set in the early 90s, from the perspective of 15 year old Isabel Fuentes, as she tries, with the help of her boyfriend, to dig into three decades of family history kept secret by her parents. The excellent cast includes veterans Juan Diego, Victoria Abril, Jose Luis Gomez and Eulalia Ramon, and newcomer Yohana Cobo as Isabel. The Seventh Day exhibits high production values under the command of a filmmaker of prodigious gifts. However, as in the incident at Columbine High School, the explosion of violence is directed at a whole community. Consequently, it's a pity that the script by Ray Loriga (Almodovar's Live Flesh) fails to clarify and explore how the whole town came to ostracize one family and embrace the other.

Wed Oct 12th

Thumbsucker (USA, 2005) at AMC CocoWalk

Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia (Mexico/USA, 1974) dvd
Director Sam Peckinpah earned the nickname "Bloody Sam" for his graphic use of violence, but it limits and distorts his legacy. For starters, Peckinpah made some very "gentle" movies, including Ride the High Country, Junior Bonner and Ballad of Cable Hogue. Most importantly, the fascination with the violence in his films obscures the fact that even his bloodiest pictures include significant moments that can only be characterized as lyrical or poetic. Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia is most definitely one of his violent ones (The Wild Bunch, Straw Dogs) and it's my favorite Peckinpah film.
Warren Oates plays Benny, a small time piano player making a living in a seedy club in a small town in Mexico. Benny decides to try to improve his fortunes when he learns that a tyrannical millionaire is offering a million for physical proof of the death of the man responsible for his daughter's pregnancy. He happens to be a former lover of his soulful girlfriend (Isela Vega), a cabaret singer he intends to marry. Oates and Vega are sensational. The oddyssey takes them around remote areas of Northern Mexico. Peckinpah captures the country with great fidelity and attention to detail, but the movie is centered on the characters, in their dreams, regrets and fears. It's a brutal and lovely film.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by oscar jubis
Sat Sep 24th
Oseam (South Korea, 2003) dvd
Animated, loose adaptation of buddhist fable based on a novel by Chae-bong Jeong. A sentimental tale about an orphan "Dennis-the-Menace-type" and his blind sister who take shelter in a monastery. A plot contrivance or two result in the boy ending up alone on a mountain-top retreat where he attains nirvana. Animation is fine but not spectacular.

---

But the art direction and choreography is great!
;)

Quote:

---

Originally posted by oscar jubis
Friday Oct 7th

Eros (Hong Kong/USA/Italy, 2004) on import dvd
Equilibrium, written and directed by Steven Soderbergh, is the second part of Eros. It's set in the US in the 1950s. Equilibrium concerns a publicity man who seeks help from a psychoanalyst to interpret a recurring dream. (Spoilers) It's clever how it turns out the session with the shrink is a dream itself, just don't ask me what the point is because I don't have an answer.

---

ha ha ha ... i agree ...
read my review here
http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/show...highlight=eros

so, i am eager to know why some well known critics in United States like this segment instead of WKW's ... a surf of the web would indicate so ...

Thanks for your replies, hengcs.

*Oseam is not a bad movie but it most definitely suffers in the comparison with the best animated films of the decade. These are, in my opinion:
Spirited Away (Miyazaki)
Millennium Actress (Satoshi Kon)
My Beautiful Girl, Mari (Seong-Kang Lee)
Howl's Moving Castle (Miyazaki)
Innocence: Ghost in the Shell 2 (Mamoru Oshii)
The Triplets of Belleville (Sylvain Chomet)

*I actually found that most "well-known critics in the USA" agree with you and I: Wong's segment is the best. These include Ebert, Rosenbaum (he actually likes Soderbergh's the least), and critics from The Village Voice, Washington Post, SF Chronicle, Boston Phoenix, Seattle Post and others. I only found one notable critic who prefers Soderbergh's and that is Christian Science Monitor's David Sterrit.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by oscar jubis
*I actually found that most "well-known critics in the USA" agree with you and I: Wong's segment is the best. These include Ebert, Rosenbaum (he actually likes Soderbergh's the least), and critics from The Village Voice, Washington Post, SF Chronicle, Boston Phoenix, Seattle Post and others. I only found one notable critic who prefers Soderbergh's and that is Christian Science Monitor's David Sterrit.

---

I can't recall now,
but Roeper was one of them ...

If only he could elaborate more
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/click/...=3&rid=1379243

It's Roeper anyway so it doesn't matter.

Thu Oct 13th

A History of Violence (USA, 2005) at Regal SoBe

El Delantal de Lili aka Lili's Apron (Argentina, 2004) Tower Theatre
Ramon gets laid off from his job as a restaurant chef, and can't seem to find anything that would allow him to make mortgage payments. His attractive, loving wife Lili tries to sell containers and other articles with little success. It becomes increasingly obvious she's mentally ill and deteriorating, so she agrees to spend some time with relatives in the provinces. The desperate Ramon ends up pretending to be Lili, and applying for a job as a live-in maid. He gets the job thanks to his cooking. The transformation is reasonably believable.
It's to Galperin's credit that for over one hour his film works to perfection, wild premise included. I can't forget to mention the absolutely stunning performances by Paula Ituriza and Luis Ziembrowski in the principal roles. Lili's Apron falls apart in the final 10 or 15 minutes when Galperin piles up the overwrought and fanciful plot twists. In Q&A after the screening, Galperin gave evidence he knows this by anticipating the audience's reactions and questions. It's a love story he stated, and as long as you believe the depth of feeling between Ramon and Lili, then I'm satisfied. I would ask, then why burden the love-story-in-time-of-crisis with incongruous, cheap-thriller elements? It would be an over-reaction to say the resolution ruins the film, but it does bring it down a couple of notches.

Fri Oct 14th

Fuse (Bosnia-Herzegovina, 2003) Global Lens at Tower Theater.
With the possible exception of Whisky, this film directed by Pjer Zalica was the best shown at the 2005 Global Lens. Fuse is set in Tesanj, a Bosnian town close to the Serbian border, two years after the civil war officially ended. Corruption and hatred are palpable and most townfolk are engaged in one type of illegal activity or another. Somehow, Tesanj becomes part of President Clinton's itinerary through the region; the town stands to benefit in the form of infrastructure improvements and investment opportunities. This would require hiding the vice and corruption from a visiting international team, and cooperation among enemies to organize activities. Fuse is a drama with strong satiric tones. Among the principals: Zaim, the former police chief who spends his days talking to the ghost of his deceased son and drinking; Zaim's other son is a firefighter whose girlfriend returned from exile in Germany and stepped on a mine; there's Velija, a smuggler/pimp/dealer of illegal substances, and his sensitive and sweet accomplice Pic. They are in cahoots with police chief Mugdin, whose border connections come in handy. The encounters between these characters and uptight international overseers are hilarious but there's plenty of pathos and poignance amid the laughs.
As the visit approaches, a children's choir learns "House of the Rising Sun", whores try on uniforms and learn show tunes, American flags are made, Bosnian and Serbian fire departments merge temporarily, and an artist paints a portrait of Clinton. But, will it be possible to hide entrenched traditions of crime, corruption and ethnic conflict?

Sat Oct 15th

Beyond the Rocks (USA, 1922) at Cosford Cinema
This film directed by Sam Wood is being billed as a "long-lost classic". Well, it certainly qualifies as long-lost. Lost for about 80 years as a matter of fact. It's been found and restored by the Nederlands Filmmuseum, shown in April in Holland, and given its American premiere at the NYFF ten days ago. A classic it is not, if you think of classic as synonymous with masterpiece. Beyond the Rocks is an entertaining romance/adventure, a globe-trotting narrative shot in Hollywood that unites for the first and last time the two most glamorous silent-movie stars: Rudolph Valentino (The "Latin Lover" who came from Italy and died at age 31) and Gloria Swanson (modern buffs are familiar with her Norma Desmond in Sunset Blvd.). Swanson plays a Dorset girl who marries an old millionaire to help her broke papa and Valentino is the young baron she truly loves. The new music score by Dutch composer Henny Vrienten is outstanding. The traditionalist in me is forced to admit that the ambient sounds added to the soundtrack are an enhancement. Did I just say that? Beyond the Rocks will play a few American festivals and museum screenings before a dvd release in 2006.

Vampyr (France, 1932) on TCM
Now, this is a classic, a masterpiece I've seen before and will see again.Vampyr was shot at an abandoned, decaying castle in the outskirts of Paris by Dutch master Carl Theodor Dreyer. The prevailing mood is one of dread and obsession, conjured via Rudolph Mate's avant-garde photography, understated performances by Julian West and Henriette Gerard (as the vampire), and Dreyer's slow but insistent pans. One of my favorite scenes in the history of cinema is shot from the point of view of a corpse inside a coffin with a window, during a funereal procession. Few films of the time utilized sound in such expressionistic, purposeful manner. Vampyr is of of those special films that affect me at a subconscious level.

This was shown as part of the NYFilm Festival and I mentioned it in my opening roundup :

Quote:

---

Wood's previously lost silent Beyond the Rocks isn't a great movie, but it's amazing to see Valentino and Swanson together in a big budget Hollywood production of the silent era.

---

I compltely agree with you, that it's not a "masterpiece" in any way shape or form.

Reportedly, neither Swanson nor Valentino, who were friends, liked the film very much. Yet Swanson, in her "Swanson on Swanson" memoirs, lamented the fact that Beyond the Rock was irretrievably lost.

Sun Oct 16th

The Ninth Day (Germany, 2004) at Cosford Theatre

Werner Herzog's recent Grizzly Man and this latest film from Volker Schlondorff speaks well for the vitality and longevity of the directors that, almost 40 years ago, originated the German New Wave_one wonders what Fassbinder would be releasing if he were alive, I have yet to catch Wim Wenders' Land of Plenty.
The Ninth Day also belongs to a category of films about the Holocaust; the grave subject has inspired a large number of remarkable films by European, Israeli and American directors, both documentary and fictionalized narratives. Like Costa Gavras' Amen, Schlondorff's film examines the role of the Catholic Church during the war years, when Jews were subjected to extreme discrimination and persecution, and eventually, mass annihilation.

The Ninth Day is based on the diary of Jean Bernard, the priest from Luxembourg who was interned at Dachau and became Bishop years after the war ended. There are many brief, powerful scenes of Henri Kremer (as Bernard is called here) at a special barracks in Dachau that are totally factual. Yet, the focus of the film is based largely on conjecture, on what could have happened to the priest during a period of nine days in which there are no diary entries. These imagined events are totally realistic though, and they create a most engaging, lucid moral and religious debate. Briefly, Kremer is given a 9 day leave because the Nazis think he can influence the Bishop to be more accomodating towards the Nazis. It's Kremer's long history of impeccable morals and courageous resistance to Nazi "racial laws" that make him potentially influential. Kremer refuses, but they increase the pressure by threatening to kill all Luxembourg priests at Dachau and members of his family. Significant characters include Kremer's pregnant sister, the Bishop's secretary (who believes appeasement is the best policy) and most importantly, Gebhardt, an SS officer trying to reconcile Catholic and Nazi doctrine. Gebhardt, who once attended seminary and hated a brief assignment at a concentration camp, is threatened with permanent assignment to such a place if he can't get the Kremer to cooperate and the Bishop to stop active resistance.

Kremer is played by Ulrich Matthes, the unusual-looking actor who impersonated Joseph Goebbels in the 2005 release Downfall. It's a bravura performance I won't soon forget. The Ninth Day is a Must-See.

NOt sure I'd consider it a must-see, since I've largely forgotten it, perhaps because the material, the milieu, the period, is so much worked over. There was a good review of this in The New Yorker by David Denby quite some time ago and then was when I saw it when it was briefly in the Bay Area. "Matthes may be predestined to play the same kind of role over and over—in his case, a fanatic burning with anguish and intellectual fire." I do think it is good, a commendable effort, and the actor Ulrich Matthes is indeed excellent and striking looking. The New Yorker had a drawing of him. I take your point about Schlondorff continuing to be a contender. But why shouldn't he be? He's younger than I am. I liked his Death of a Salesman, and his Un amour de Swann. Eric Rohmer is 85, and still making movies all the time, and scoring with them consistently too.

*What's easier said than done is not "being a contender" at 60-something, but doing so consistently for four decades. My favorite Schlondoff films are probably Young Torless, Lost Honor of Katarina Blum and The Tin Drum. I haven't seen them for years though. Maybe I like The Ninth Day just as much. The two you mention are good films also, indeed I don't know any Schlondorff film that wasn't worth-watching.

*Denby writes: "Some of his movies have been didactic and heavy-footed, but not The Ninth Day. This film is powerful, concise, fully sustained. In movies, the concentration camps have been dramatized so often that further representation of them threatens to becor kitsch, but Schlondorff, rapidly sets up the world of labor, brutality and death without resorting to cliche. He has a new subject: the sufferings of anti-Nazi Catholic clergy."

What Denby fails to mention is that besides the suffering of Catholic clergy, the film also delves deeply into the collaboration and appeasement of the clergy towards the Nazis, and explores a topic of special interest to me: to render explicit the delusional thinking and rationalization that goes on in the minds of people who consider themselves deeply religious while participating in horrific acts against other human beings. This is certainly NOT "worked over" material.

Mon Oct 17th

Wise Girl (USA, 1937) on TCM
Pleasant trifle about a heiress who goes undercover in bohemian Greenwich Village to "dig dirt" on her brother-in-law, a simpatico painter who has custody of her dead sister's precocious daughters. Of course they fall in love. It's Ray Milland and Miriam Hopkins in roles commonly assigned, in better films, to Jimmy Stewart and Kate Hepburn. Personally I didn't miss Stewart, which speaks volumes about Milland's range (you've probably seen him in Dial M for Murder). As for Hopkins, maybe this is not the right role for her. In case it needs to be said, director Leigh Jason is no Capra or LaCava.

Tuesday Oct 18th

Tan De Repente aka Suddenly (Argentina, 2002) dvd

Debut feature from young Diego Lerman, a reworking of his short La Prueba (Proof), partly based on the novel of the same title by Cesar Aira.Tan de Repente is almost impossible to discuss without mentioning Jim Jarmusch's Stranger Than Paradise. Both are b&w road movies involving a trio of characters who visit the old aunt of one of them.

Marcia is a lonely and fat 20-something. She commutes to the small lingerie shop where she works. Her co-worker reads a horoscope that promises "the road unknown". Marcia goes to yoga class, dials a number then hangs up, strolls down Buenos Aires streets. Two short-haired girls appear to spy on Marcia, then accost her. They introduce themselves as Lenin and Mao, who wants to fuck Marcia but objects to being called a lesbian. Mao is insistent but Marcia resists. Until Lenin pulls out a switchblade. Marcia becomes increasingly compliant and genuinely curious. Mao offers proof of her "love" by hijacking a taxi and driving it to the sea. It'd be Marcia's first view of the ocean. No force or coercion is required any longer for Marcia to tag along. They eventually end up in Rosario, where Lenin has an aunt. They track her down and end up spending a couple of days there. The aunt's two boarders, a severe teacher and a shy biology student, develop sudden familiarity, even intimacy, with the three girls. Breakups and new alliances ensue. And someone will pass on, oh so suddenly.

What I found remarkable about the film was the impression that's being put together on the fly, without chart or blueprint. And given that, how its characters' transformations and realignments, over the course of a long weekend, manage to seem natural and organic. There are a few missteps, moments that register as false. One in particular I found jarring: Under false pretenses (a blowjob that never materializes), the girls get a ride from a trucker. As they ride in the middle of the night, the truck runs over a man who dies in Marcia's arms.Not a word is exchanged about this. The man seems to have inexplicably parachuted onto the highway! Seems I say because it's hard to tell with complete certainty given the available light, which brings up the film's significant technical problem. Perhaps because of the very low budget, Tan de Repente was shot exclusively using existing sources of light. It is consistently dark and murky, not like the purposeful, high-contrast lighting of classic noir and Val Newton horror. The film is simply and consistently dim and underlit.

Overall, Tan De Repente is an auspicious debut from a young director with obvious skills. It's finally available on dvd, almost two years after its USA theatrical release in 2003.

Wed Oct 19th

Proof (USA, 2005) at AMC CocoWalk

British director John Madden reunites with Gwyneth Paltrow, the star of his Shakespeare in Love, to bring to the screen David Auburn's Pulitzer and Tony award winner. Madden directed the West End production of "Proof", with Paltrow in the lead role. This adaptation is, according to critics who've seen the play, quite faithful yet slightly softened around the edges, in typical Miramax fashion.

Film opens a day after the death of Robert, a brilliant but mentally-ill mathematician (Anthony Hopkins). His daughter Catherine (Paltrow), who interrupted her college career to care for her father, is going over her father's things. The content of his notebooks might include something of scientific value, as it's established via flashbacks that his psychotic fog lifted during lucid periods. Hal (Jake Gyllenhaal), an assistant and math professor with a crush on Catherine, promises to help. Catherine's sister Claire (Hope Davis) arrives from NYC. This currency analyst is a shrill, hyper-normal woman whose smothering of Catherine belies condescension and a sense of superiority. Plot revolves around whether a notebook found contains a viable mathematical proof, and who is its author. Just how much of her father's genius and madness has Catherine inherited?

Proof is a good movie with outstanding performances from everyone. Paltrow and Davis particularly deserve some type of recognition for their work here.

Thu. Oct 20th

Cinema is a collaborative art, but when we single out a person as the author of a film, we usually think of its director. The french term "auteur" has been popular since Andre Bazin and others introduced it in the pages of Cahiers du Cinema in the 1950s. It's rare for somebody other than the director to receive credit as an auteur. Val Newton (1904-1951) was certainly a major creative force in the films he produced at RKO. Newton, who'd once been David O. Selznick's story editor, created a new kind of horror film during the 1940s. Nine excellent films that constitute a poetic brand of horror conjured out of minimal sets and literary ambience. The studio gave Newton total creative freedom with three conditions: budget shall not exceed $150,000, duration shall not exceed 75 minutes, and title shall be the result of the studio's test-marketing (invariably something lurid and not entirely appropriate to the content and style of the picture).

These movies are impeccably shot, and photographed in a style that anticipates film noir, with particular attention to texture (lots of shadows) and contrast. The content is characterized by the development of a sense of everyday reality before the creepy possibilities are introduced. Besides their obvious quality and the care that went into every aspect of production, a major reason Val Newton horror films have not dated is their reliance on suggestion and mood, rather than special effects that invariably become obsolete as new technologies are developed. Newton worked on all the scripts of the films he produced but refused to take any credit (the exceptions are Bedlam and The Body Snatcher, in which he was credited under the name Carlos Keith).

The Seventh Victim (USA, 1943) on TCM

Val Newton practically wrote the script of this masterpiece which appears to have been a major influence on Polanski's Rosemary's Baby. It was directed by Mark Robson, who had co-edited Citizen Kane with Robert Wise. It's about a teenage girl (Kim Hunter) who has to leave her boarding school because her older sister has failed to send tuition payments and can't be located. The girl travels to Greenwich Village to search for the mysterious missing woman. Before we get to a highly unconventional ending, The Seventh Victim broaches a character's death wish, familial and romantic love, the allure of art and anonymity, the sustaining power of friendship, and the influence of a cult. The Seventh Victim opens and closes with a fitting quote from John Donne's first "Holy Sonnet".

The Leopard Man (USA, 1943) on TCM

This classic was directed by a true auteur, Jacques Tourneur, and inspired by Cornell Woolrich's novel "Black Alibi". Extremely beautiful to regard, full of melancholia and dread, and remarkably evocative of a small town New Mexico although it was shot in the studio. After an escaped leopard is found dead, the nightime killings of women continue.

Fri Oct 21th

The series of films from Chile playing in town this weekend prompted my desire to compile a brief filmography of Chilean cinema, focused on the most recent movies to arrive from this South American country. Unlike Mexico and Argentina, Chile never had a strong tradition of quality filmmaking and it still lags behind them. The reasons are cultural, geopolitical and economic but I won't go into detail.
The two greatest narrative directors from Chile, Raul Ruiz and Alejandro Jorodowsky, left Chile in the late 60s/early 70s and became established abroad. The highly prolific, globe-trotting Ruiz, became so comfortable with his Parisian base he adopted the French spelling of his name (Raoul). Perhaps his best recent film is the Proust adaptation Time Regained. Jorodowsky has lived in Mexico since the late 60s where he created some amazing surrealist films including Fando y Lis.

So we've narrowed it down from Chilean directors to "films from Chile".
Patricio Guzman. A great director that has specialized in making political documentaries. Among his major works: The Battle of Chile, Chile: Obstinate Memory, The Pinochet Case and his recent Salvador Allende.
Valeria Sarmiento. Ruiz's editor and wife has returned to Chile to make Amanda Lopez O'Neill (outstanding film shown at the Miami Fest, would love to see it again) and Rosa La China.
Ricardo Llarain. Veteran director of the best Chilean fiction film in recent memory: The Frontier, a Berlin winner released on vhs in the UK but not here. Also Enthusiasm (1998).
Silvio Caiozzi. Veteran director has specialized in adaptations of novels by Chilean author Jose Donoso. Films include The Moon in the Mirror, Coronation (on dvd), and Cachimba (review upcoming).

Four promising younger directors:
Andres Wood (Loco Fever, Football Stories, Machuca)
Ricardo Carrasco (Negocio Redondo aka A Sure Deal).
Orlando Lubbert (Taxi para 3 aka A Cab for Three)
Alex Bowen ( My Best Enemy)

Promedio Rojo aka Below Average (Chile, 2005) Cosford Cinema

Debut feature from director Nicolas Lopez, a huge fan of Robert Rodriguez and Kevin Smith who's directed rock-en-Espanol videos and programs for MTV Latino. The film is additionally titled:"Chronicles of Scholastic Survival". It's about a comics-drawing, high school nerd named Roberto Rodriguez (Ariel Levy) who falls in love with a girl who's just arrived from Spain. She only has eyes for the suave, "hot" jerk with a car. Lopez describes his flick as a "black romantic teen comedy with superpowers". What I saw was: Pretty in Pink meets Porky's with brief homages to Star Wars and superhero comics. The English title is fitting (below average). Crude, tiresome juvenilia.

For the first time after Hurricane Wilma devastated South Florida 9 days ago someone in my family has electricity. I'm posting from my brother's home, with a baby crying in the background, about the films I watched before the storm.

Saturday Oct 22

Cachimba (Chile, 2004) at Cosford Theatre

This is the fourth film that director Silvio Caiozzi (Coronation) has adapted from novels by Jose Donoso. Marcos (Pablo Schwarz) is a bank employee who convinces his old fashioned, full-figure girl to spend a weekend in the coastal town of Cartagena. During a casual stroll, they stumble upon a dilapidated house with a makeshift sign: Museo Larco. They discover that the caretaker, a drunk slob named Felipe (Julio Jung), inherited the paintings of a forgotten mid- 20th century artist of great renown. Marcos shares his discovery with arts organizations and the media in order to finance the restoration of the house and exhibit the paintings properly. Through deception and manipulation, commercial interests manage to appropriate the artist's legacy and toss Marcos and Felipe aside. Plot provides commentary regarding corporate power over individuals and the difficulties encountered by artists in Chile. It's a shame Cadiozzi wastes so much time in the ridiculous, trite aspects of the relationship between Felipe and his insecure, jealous girlfriend.

Saturday Oct 22 (cont.)

Ana and the Others (Argentina, 2003) dvd
Debut feature from yet another young and talented Argentine, writer/director Camila Murga.
A 20-something woman living in Buenos Aires returns to her riverfront hometown to sell her deceased parents' home and search for an old flame. The latter takes up most of the film's duration, although it's a leisurely search, as Ana renews old friendships and becomes reacquainted with once familiar surroundings. Comparisons to present-set Rohmer films are unavoidable_Summer comes to mind particularly_but gradually, in her interactions with a boy that serves as her guide, Murga channels Kiarostami. Whether or not this synthesis of influences results in a uniquely personal vision is debatable. Murga's debut is accomplished and recommended but, unlike first features by Lisandro Alonso and Lucrecia Martel, Ana and the Others feels like the work of a filmmaker yet to find her own style. It's greatest asset is its naturalness, betrayed only once, in a forced reference to the banking crisis affecting Argentina at the time. Camila Toker (Saturday) is quite good in the title role.

Sun October 23rd

The Eyes of the Mummy (Germany, 1918) on TCM

A young English painter sojourns to Egypt. He learns about a curse and an ancient site and becomes intrigued. There he discovers a beautiful damsel (Pola Negri) kept hostage by evil sorcerer Radu (Emil Jannings). He rescues her and leaves Radu injured. Radu survives and vows to get her back at any cost. I think this is the earliest film available from director Ernst Lubitsch, who like the legendary Emil Jannings, evolved into a supreme film artist both in Germany and the USA.

Thursday Oct 27

Hurricane Wilma likely caused me to miss two films on current release I wanted to watch: Serenity, and especially, Separate Lives. The theaters where these films were showing prior to the storm sustained significant damage; they're nowhere close to reopening. Separate Lives seems to have been largely ignored by audiences. One theatre opened today, on a limited basis. Suffice to say, going without movies for 4 days was unprecedented and painful.

Capote (USA, 2005) at Regal SoBe

Friday October 28th

MirrorMask (UK/USA, 2005) at Regal SoBe

A fantasy about the dreamlife of a young teen played by Stephanie Leonidas (Yes) whose parents own a small circus in Britain. First-time director Dave McKean and co-writer Neil Gaiman's combine computer-generated imagery, live action, drawings, photographic effects, puppetry (Jim Henson Co.) and imaginative costuming and set design to serve up a visual feast. MirrorMask is an otherworldly riff on a teen dealing with identity issues, her mother's illness and romantic longing. It's a PG-rated fairy tale in a style Peter Greenaway would approve. The gorgeous orchestrated score by one Iain Ballamy is critical to the overall effect.

Saturday October 29th

North Country (USA, 2005) at Regal SoBe

Well, if you go when the snowflakes storm,
When the rivers freeze and summer ends,
Please see if she's wearing a coat so warm
to keep her from the howlin' winds.

"Girl of the North Country" by Bob Dylan

Josey is a single mom who flees an abusive relationship and moves with her parents in Northern Minnesota. Encouraged by childhood friend Glory (Frances McDormand), Josey takes a job at the local iron mine despite Dad's disapproval. By court order the mine is forced to hire a few women but, as Josey soon learns, the women there are subjected to relentless abuse and hazing. Her good looks and decision to complain make Josey even more of a target.
North Country, directed by Niki Caro (Whale Rider), is loosely based on the nonfiction book "Class Action: The Landmark Case That Changed Sexual Harrassment Law". Courtroom scenes? Of course, but sprinkled in discrete, powerful bits throughout the film's duration. The bulk of North Country provides a detailed sketch of a working-class heartland community through the plight of the young mother's struggle for self-dependence and dignity. Theron is superb, but so is everyone else. The whole production earns the "prestige" label of a fall release meant to be remembered at awards-time. Yet the film suffers from one major flaw: thematic overkill. (Spoilers) Poor Josey is burdened not only with a violently abusive boyfriend, insensitive and distant father, and exclusively misogynist co-workers and superiors, but also a history of rape-by-highschool-teacher that comes to light during the court proceedings. It renders not a film about women subjected to sexual harrasment but a compendium of male hatred of women. North Country is engaging and affecting but too emphatic and tendentious to suit me.