2007 Repertory: Oldies but Goodies

Rosenbaum was about right when calling HCW ('78) charming, likable, but not very profound. Not worth revisiting for you perhaps, as you're not inclined to like this type of fantastic premise. I've enjoyed my two viewings but I prefer May's three other 70s movies.

May and Nichols were indeed a great team, but she was equally great, most of the time, when working alone and with others.

I have no problem with Stiller when the script and direction are good.

Ishtar was interesting; more interesting to my sensibility than "safer", more conventional and, perhaps, "better" comedies.

Stiller has been in one or two good movies I guess, but his appetite for junk is off-putting. His record as a writer and a director may be better than as an actor.

I'm not sure what you're referring to with Elaine May. Her record has been somewhat limited and she doesn't seem to have done anything during the laqst seven years or so. Mike Nichols has done some very significant work as a director even recently.

It's true that May hasn't done anything since her well regarded performance in Small Time Crooks and that her filmography is limited. But Mikey and Nicky, which is entirely hers, is a better film than anything Nichols has ever done. And her A New Leaf is as good as The Graduate or Carnal Knowledge or anything Nichols directed.

Those are large claims, my friend. I would have to see that to say.

I hate to enter the fracas but that is an awful boast, Oscar. Better than the Graduate? I like Elaine May. I would say Elaine is a brilliant writer. I watched them on the Sullivan Show years ago (the team of Nichols and May). But Mike Nichols directed "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" "Silkwood" "Catch 22" "Angels in America" "The Graduate" "Primary Colors" etc. That Mike Nichols? Are you saying that Elaine May is better than that Mike Nichols? I'm confused. If so, what is your proof?

What I'm saying is very specific and clear, dear sirs.
I think Mikey and Nicky is better than any of those good Nichols films you listed and A New Leaf is just as good as them. No proof, just my opinion, and of course I've seen them all. I don't know if that makes May "better" than Nichols because he made more good movies than she did. But none of them is as great as May's masterpiece.

I just watched "Working Girl" and rediscovered what makes this rather dated "eighties" flick still relevant despite the hair. It has great heart. Don't get me wrong, Oscar. You are a great wit, intelligent, and I really think this should be in the guilty pleasures post (plus you've been very supportive to me).

So whose to say Elaine May isn't great? Not me.

Thanks for the very kind words, cinemabon. I appreciate Mr. Nichols as a director who specializes in adapting texts by others to the screen. He is uniformly good. I think of Working Girl as a modern-day fairy tale in which Melanie Griffiths realizes her full potential as an actress with her characteristic charm and grace.

Ms. May has always been recognized as a great talent ( at least during the 70s). Time magazine called A New Leaf one of the funniest, most startling comedies of the decade. Dave Kehr referred to Mikey and Nicky as "one of the most innovative, engaging and insightful films" of the 70s. These are films she wrote, directed and edited. They show a unique vision of the world and human relationships. Her take on male friendship (M & N) is extremely sharp, realistic and nuanced. It's perhaps not a film "for the masses" though, as it doesn't conform to the average viewer's conception of escapist entertainment. And it probably lacks the polish of slick Hollywood product, which I actually appreciate.

ANNA AND THE WOLVES (Spain/1973)

After appearing in Dr. Zhivago, Geraldine Chaplin stayed in Europe, and visited Madrid. He met director Carlos Saura and decided to stay. Ms. Chaplin became Saura's lover and muse. She appeard in every film he made between 1967 and 1979. As great as Saura's more recent musical films and biographical essays are, I am particularly fond of the dramas he made in collaboration with Ms. Chaplin. Most of these could reasonably be labeled political allegories. Ms. Chaplin has referred to Saura during the era prior to Franco's death as an "intellectual contorsionist", in that he had to find ways to critique Spanish institutions while being subjected to strict state censorship.

Chaplin is Anna, an American girl traveling through Europe. She gets a job as a nanny of three girls. She arrives at a country estate and meets the family. The focus of the film is Ana in relationship with the three brothers who live there. Juan is the father of the kids and married to a seemingly frigid and suicidal woman. He has a "head full of semen" says his brother Jose, as he typically and relentlessly attempts to seduce Anna. Jose is a domineering, short and bald man, obsessed with order and discipline; a collector of military uniforms. Fernando (the magnificent Fernando Fernan Gomez) is a reclusive type who has decided to lead the ascetic life of a monk within the confines of a nearby cavern. The characterization of the three men is psychologically detailed but each is clearly meant to represent societal vices and institutional malaise.

Anna and the Wolves was banned in Spain by the Franco regime for nine months. It's not one of several Saura films of the period to win major awards at the Berlinale (The Hunt, Faster,Faster, Peppermint Frappe) or Cannes (Cria, Cousin Angelica) but it deserves to be mentioned among them. Some might actually like it more than the award-winners because of its ideological clarity and a most devastating and unforgettable ending.

Thanks a lot. Did not know that about Geraldine Chaplin. Is this on US DVD? Netflix?

Did you know that Kubrick never missed a Carlos Saura film?
He loved every film he made.
source: Charlie Rose show with Christiane Kubrick, Jan Harlan & Martin Scorsese to promote the doc "A Life in Pictures"

Harlan says he never missed a Woody Allen or Scorsese film either. He explained how huge a cinephile Kubrick was- he watched everything he could get his hands on, and the bad films created a shame: "I hope I don't get caught watching this.."
Marty Scorsese was relieved to hear that. I guess he gets embarrased too when sitting in front of a shitty film.

Watch the 1 hour program on youtube. It's excellent.

*I didn't know Kubrick liked Saura's films so much but I'm not surprised at all. They even have a similar backgrounds, artistically speaking. They're both photographers-turned-filmmakers. Kubrick sold an unsolicited picture to Life magazine at age 16! Saura traveled around remore areas of Spain in his late teens/early 20s and published a book of the amazing photographs he took along the way.

*Chris, I should have specified I watched Anna and the Wolves on a Spanish dvd not available elsewhere. Unlike Peppermint Frappe, Mama Turns 100, and The Garden of Delights, Anna wasn't even released on vhs in the States. Same goes for Cousin Angelica, which I'll be viewing and reviewing soon. The dvd I recommend is the Criterion edition of Cria, still my fave Saura film, which includes an excellent biographical documentary about Saura.

Okay, I put Cria on my Netflix queue. They list it as Cria Cuervos.

Cria! is a Masterwork, an absolute must-see.
Please let us know what you think when you see it Chris.
I can't see how anyone wouldn't like it.

Saura captured something there.
I can't put my finger on it but he really captured something.
The song Porque te Vas- good God is that awesome.

Oh Ana Torrent
Angel Child

THE CHESS PLAYERS (India/1977)

Those familiar with Satyajit Ray only through his b&w, neorealist Apu Trilogy won't believe their eyes. Here's a lush, brightly colored, political satire set in 1856 that's been rarely seen, at least in the West. Ray, as is customary, scored the music, directed and wrote the script_based on a story by the legendary Munchi Premchand. The narrative alternates between two threads. One is a picaresque tale of two "landed gentry" who are obsessed with chess to the complete neglect of their wives. They are Mirza and Meer, and they are completely oblivious to the world around them. They live solely to satisfy their desires, in the city of Lucknow, located in Oudh, the only Indian province not under British management. The second thread concerns the maneuvers between Oudh's King Wajid and the Governor General seeking to void a decade-old treaty with Wajid and have him abdicate the throne. That the King is a poet and art lover provides a rationale for Ray to regale us brief poetry recitations and a gorgeous dance sequence. The Chess Players is a feast for the senses, with beautiful sets, costumes, and music throughout. It's also an engaging history lesson within a critique of politically-passive narcissism.

MERRY-GO-ROUND (1923)
QUEEN KELLY (Finished in 1929, not released until 1932, and only in Europe)

Erich von Stroheim was, arguably, the best filmmaker working in Hollywood during the silent era. This Viennese Jew, who converted to Catholicism and assumed a bogus aristocratic background upon arriving in America, had a consistently epic vision. He was the prototype uncompromising iconoclast and tortured artiste. He aimed to create a monumental object d'art everytime. Greed and Foolish Wives are unquestionable masterpieces even though, like every film he directed, they no longer exist as originally intended by Stroheim. When he was allowed to complete a film, it was invariably mutilated and abbreviated by the producer. Other times, he was fired before completion (Merry-Go-Round) or the film had to be reconfigured because the money dried out (Queen Kelly). Every single film he directed provides evidence of genius and was, potentially, an enduring masterpiece (this is supported not only by the two masterpieces that remain, or the masterful parts in several other films, but also because the original scripts and shooting schedules of the would-be classics are available today for our scrutiny).

Stroheim was in constant conflict with "Hollywood" because of his extravagant spending, artistic grandeur, obsessive perfectionism and European sensibilities. His vision of cinema as an art form clashed with many a producer's shortsightedness and focus on "making a quick buck". On the other hand, there's no doubt that Stroheim would have managed to achieve more, would have been allowed to continue directing, if he had learned to be practical, disciplined and diplomatic.

What fascinates me most about Stroheim is probably his ability to combine the intimate and the epic. He knew precisely how to tell a love story, often an unconventional one, and to simultaneously turn the community or society (or in the case of Greed, humankind) into a major character. Among his major themes: the extremes of passion and its consequences, the irony of honor, and the contrast between old-world decadence and American naivete. There were many directors merely interested in shooting the actors playing their roles, and maintaining narrative clarity. Stroheim had the rare ability to convey the characters' interiority, what they were thinking and feeling, by means of expressive camera placement, crosscutting, parallel actions, setting, and symbolic objects.

Both Merry-Go-Round and Queen Kelly concern an engaged wealthy man who genuinely falls in love with an innocent commoner. Both also provide a comprehensive vision of life and society. Both are essential viewing if you like silent films. Merry-Go-Round is absolutely brilliant for the first half hour or so (directed by Stroheim) and intermittently brilliant from then on, depending on the extent to which Stroheim's replacement Rupert Julian adhered to Stroheim's script and directions. But not even Julian's inconsistent directing can negate the Merry-Go-Round's acute and ironic observations about the breakdown of the social structure in Vienna following WWII.

Queen Kelly is even better, and available in a version that consists only of Stroheim's footage (an ending commissioned by star Gloria Swanson and shot by Richard Boleslawsky has been removed and included as an extra on the dvd of the film). However, the film has, in my opinion, a significant flaw. Gloria Swanson was, at age 31, too old and sophisticated to play Patricia Kelly at the early stages of the plot, when she's an orphaned teenager living in a convent. Otherwise, it's an engaging, riventing story of innocence corrupted, and a dazzling display of ingenious filmmaking by Erich von Stroheim. Queen Kelly resembles, and had an obvious influence, on Sternberg-Dietrich collaborations like Shanghai Express and The Scarlet Empress.

Awesome Oscar.

Erich von Stroheim should never be forgotten.
I love all his films.
He aimed high everytime and almost always suceeded.
Please watch The Merry Widow if you haven't already-it's pure greatness.

It's odd isn't it, that the most commercially successful Stroheim movie is one of the most difficult to find. Apparently TCM has shown it before but there are no plans, as far as I know, for a home video release. I would absolutely love to see The Merry Widow. I have seen Ernst Lubitsch's sound version (1934).
Thanks for the tip. You probably watched it at the Cinematheque, right?

Stroheim relished playing 'himself' in "Sunset Boulevard" the stern director with the megaphone, eyes fixed on the actress as she casts a spell over the crew with her performance. However, the real Stroheim was quite the opposite of his on screen persona; an artisan with an expert eye for beauty. Very good, Oscar.

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Originally posted by oscar jubis
You probably watched it at the Cinematheque, right?

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No, I watched it at home in 2005, with a vhs tape from the Vancouver Public Library, and I haven't really seen it anywhere else..

Very informative discussion, thanks, Oscar. The Ray Chess Players review was also a new angle.

Thanks for the responses guys!

*On TCM, one can vote for any film to be released on dvd. I voted for The Merry Widow. My library doesn't have the film on vhs, but I will continue searching for a copy now that I know it exists.

*The film Sunset Blvd.'s Joe and Norma watch in a screening room is Queen Kelly. Stroheim had a long acting career. One of his favorite roles had to be the aristocratic Captain he plays in Renoir's Grand Illusion. He was fascinated with both the aristocracy and the military, more so because he couldn't join either in real life.

*More Rays and Sauras pending, maybe for early next year.

*Since we discussed Mike Nichols in this thread, it's perhaps appropriate to express what follows here. He's got a new adaptation coming out on Xmas. Lamentably it's George Crile's lighthearted and comedic take on our country's largest covert foreign policy operation. Crile's book was criticized as (perhaps inadvertent) hero worship. It views corrupt politicians in a very sympathetic light. The film makes it worse by casting everyman, Mr. Nice Guy Tom Hanks and America's Sweetheart Julia Roberts in the lead roles. I didn't know anything about this until after I disgustedly watched the trailer for the film and experienced the audience's warm reaction to it. The film (and book) is called Charlie Wilson's War.

THE CROWD (1928)

King Vidor, a director who made a smooth transition from silents to sound pictures, is often associated with films with epic scope. Prominent among them the silent The Big Parade and the talkies Duel in the Sun and The Fountainhead. On the other hand, The Crowd is the intimate story of an ambitious but ordinary man who travels to New York City to become a success. Vidor uses his signature rapidly rising and dropping crane shots to situate Johnny, the protagonist, among the masses of people in the streets and in a huge office in which he is one of hundreds of insurance clerks looking for advancement. Vidor uses low and high-angle framing to denote hierarchy, and achieves maximum realism by filming in real locations (Manhattan, Coney Island, Niagara Falls).

What's most remarkable about The Crowd is that it's a story of failure. A deeply poignant one. Johnny may be ambitious but he is not talented enough to deserve a raise. He doesn't get it, and he grows despondent, and his marriage to Mary (Eleanor Boardman) suffers because of it. Boardman and James Murray give outstanding performances. Murray in particular is pitifully perfect. Pitifully because his real life proved to be a tragically intensified version of his best role. In 1936, at the age of 35, he was fished out of the Hudson River after spending the last few years of his life as a bum and an alcoholic.

I read with interest your review and became curious about Murray. King Vidor so obsessed with Murray's death, he wrote a script called, "The Actor" which never went past development. The director tried several times but finally gave up on the project in 1979. One of my King Vidor favorites is "Man Without a Star," a Kirk Douglas vehicle, with a great cast. "Duel in the Sun" is probably his best film, though. Trivia: Nominated five times, he never won the coveted Oscar. To this day, "The Crowd" is considered a critical masterpiece. Irving Thalberg called James Murray, 'the finest natural actor I ever saw.' Like so many, he could not handle the pressures of fame. He found solace in alcohol and drank himself to an early death, some say possibly murdered when pushed into the Hudson River off a dock during a drunken stupor.

Richard and Linda Thompson's song "Did She Jump or Was She Pushed?" comes to mind. We'll never know. Thanks for the info, cinemabon.
You know, there's a wonderful scene in The Crowd in which Johnny is about to jump into the Hudson River. Johnny also gets drunk to deal with embarrassment and shame after his brothers-in-law pay a visit and humiliate him. I suppose there are more parallels between the role and the actor. I find it interesting that Murray failed to show up for his audition after Vidor offered him the part. Apparently, he was not a confident man. Maybe he didn't feel capable or deserving. Vidor apparently had to search for him and insist. I also read that Vidor tried to encourage Murray to shape up years after the release of The Crowd but, obviously, did not succeed.

Haven't seen The Crowd in about 8 years but your posts have refreshed my memory.
Didn't know about James Murray's fate.
Definitely puts a new light on the movie.

Once again, thanks for the great info.

I'm glad you've seen The Crowd. My other favorite is The Big Parade, mostly about a soldier's relationship with a French woman during WWI. Even when the material isn't good, King Vidor's direction transcends it. The tear-jerking of Stella Dallas, the camp of Beyond the Forest and the racism of Northwest Passage are somehow made tolerable under Vidor's supervision.

Like cinemabon, I like Duel in the Sun very much (but less than the two above-mentioned silents). I haven't seen Man Without a Star yet, as well as too many other Vidor films. Next on my schedule: his first talkie, with an all-black cast. It's called Hallelujah and it's reputed to be quite good.

THE PRISONER OF SHARK ISLAND (1936)

The prisoner is Samuel Mudd, the southern doctor who provided medical treatment to John Wilkes Booth after the latter assassinated president Lincoln and briefly escaped capture. Then Booth was killed while resisting arrest and several men were charged with conspiracy, Mudd among them. He was sentenced to spend the rest of his life at a penal colony in one of the Dry Tortuga Islands, off the southern tip of Florida.

The Prisoner of Shark Island was one of the earliest and best collaborations between Fox's Darryl F. Zanuck and John Ford. The film's major theme is the miscarriage of justice perpetrated by the government to appease the angry population. There was no evidence that Booth was involved in a conspiracy (although, contrary to his testimony, he had met Booth on a previous occasion, a fact elided by Ford). The influence of German Expressionism, as practiced by the great F.W. Murnau particularly, is amply evident in Bert Glennon's glistening, low-key photography. TPOSI is a series of stunning set pieces_the assassination, Booth's tense stopover at Mudd's house, the trial, the unforgettable execution scene, Mudd's brilliantly-edited failed escape, and his fight against an epidemic on the island_held together by Ford's direction, its visual texture, and a very effective performance by Warner Baxter as Mudd. The film presents a rather complex vision of our country during Reconstruction, particularly in the arc of the relationship between Mudd and one of his former slaves.

So that's it. Year over. Another one bites the dust. And more repertory films are available than ever before. Only you cannot watch them in a theater with an audience of geeks like you (I mean me). You must watch them at home and, if there's no like-minded person around, alone. The repertory event of the year was the release of the early films of the best African-American director, Mr. Charles Burnett. It's been so hard to watch them that some critics are treating Killer of Sheep as if it was a new release, thus eligible for inclusion in Top 10 lists.

I had fun writing about some of the great oldies I watched in 2007, especially when the posts received replies. I wish I could write about several Kenji Mizoguchi masterpieces I finally was able to watch in 2007 but, since watching them required ability to read Spanish or French subtitles (or understand Mandarin) I decided it was not fair to post about The Crucified Lovers, A Woman of Rumor and others.

I would watch with teh French subtitles just fine.

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It's been so hard to watch them that some critics are treating Killer of Sheep as if it was a new release, thus eligible for inclusion in Top 10 lists.

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That was going on last year too when they kept listing Melville's Army of Shadows as one of the year's best. It's an easy way to be becuase people are always more indulgent of older movies. It's rare that TimeOut New York fails to give a revival six stars, while they are cruel on newer stuff. Of course Killer of Sheep is remarkable, but it probably was not greeted with much enthusiasm originally.

As opposed to voting for Oscar or Globe nominations, there are no rules critics (and fans) can follow when posting a list of films from a given year. I guess any film, no matter how old, which had its first commercial release in the given year would qualify. That's the case of Army of Shadows which was released in France in 1969 and never in the US until 2006. A couple of critics (and the main actor during an interview here in Miami) confirmed that Killer of Sheep had not only screenings at campuses and festivals but a bonafide commercial release in NY/LA in the 1980s. That disqualifies it from my list, based on my own criteria.

I will however list Burnett's second film, My Brother's Wedding which was never released commercially and, even if it was, became available in a brand new version for the first time in 2007. Apparently most critics have decided not to list Blade Runner aka Blade Runner: the Final Cut even though it is a brand new, never seen before version of the film. I will treat it as a new film, just as I regarded Apocalypse Now Redux as a new film because of the differences between this version and the one previously available.

You are right. People delight in making their own ornate rules, which get as complicated as some Medieval debate about angels on the head of a pin. I guess it's pretty hard to decide, but I would tend to prefer to keep the totally new releases in a list to themselves and give any others special mention elsewhere. But new films weren't necessarily completed in the release year. Look at the "structure" your man Hoberman imposed on his 2007 list:

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(Speaking of structure, my list is restricted to movies made over the last five years that had their first New York theatrical engagements in 2007.)

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