Life and the Movies

Flying Leathernecks

2006-02-05T18:11:00.000-08:00

John Wayne and Robert Ryan lead the cast of this solid, very human WWII drama. You might think that Nicholas Ray would be out of his element with a patriotic war movie, yet the man knows how to direct a movie, and he even makes perhaps the best use of stock footage in any war film of the era. Wayne is the tough nosed new commander of a Naval air squadron and Ryan is the more sensitive XO who the men respect. In some of the latter scenes, Wayne seems strangely out of place in Ray's boldly iconoclastic vision of Americana, yet the film as a whole works well and wisely focuses the drama on the two leads rather than on mindless propaganda or any superficial social statements.

The Best Films of 2005...

2006-01-23T18:45:00.000-08:00

2005 was a good year for movies, especially if you knew where to look. There were some surprising discoveries and some surprising disappointments. A number of very good directors made mediocre films and there were some remarkably assured debuts. 2005 has seen primarily two critical darlings, Brokeback Mountain and A History of Violence -- both generally well made and both rather overrated (particularly the cult which has arisen around Brokeback).
I know it was a good year because I have had difficulty reducing my list down to the traditional top 10, therefore I prefer a top 25.

So here it goes...

25. A History of Violence
David Cronenberg's latest is his most conventional and impersonal to date. Yet there is something sly about his willingness to indulge the film's violence thereby exciting bloodlust from the audience, only to later implicate the audience, filmdom, and even himself as he reveals the effects and damage of violence. It's not nearly as good as many think it is, because it's not nearly as good as it thinks it is, but it does have ideas worth expressing.

24. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
The latest film about everyone's favorite boy wizard is the best and most imaginative yet in the series. Mike Newell provides visual wit and manages to wonderfully integrate the visual effects with the story. The film introduces some interesting metaphors for growing up as its young cast continues to develop both physically and emotionally. It's also the most morally grounded of the series as Harry is confronted with various tests of character.

23. Land of the Dead
Never content with a mere zombie film, George Romero makes his undead world a biting satire of capitalism with Dennis Hopper at the top of his corporate punching bag. Romero has always been a director whose ideas (however trivial they may be) outweigh his talent as a filmmaker, though this may be his most polished film. He remains, however, the master of horror-as-metaphor.

22. Crash
Paul Haggis' racially themed film has two or three of the best scenes from any movie this year, yet I can't get over the feeling that he must have the impression that every person in Los Angeles is a racist and has nothing to talk about except for that which relates to racial issues. Nevertheless, he manages to get some strong performances from his ensemble cast, particularly the often underrated, Matt Dillon, and he gets his point across however bluntly and even clumsily at times.

21. The Exorcism of Emily Rose
Probably the best exorcism film since Friedkin's, director Scott Derrickson manages to effectively blend horror movie scares, with an aesthetic flair (thanks to Tom Stern's wonderful cinematography) and leaves the audience asking themselves what they believe about the existence of the supernatural/demons/God. Unfortunately, at times, his horror movie sensibilities undercut the seriousness of his spiritual inquest.

20. Land of Plenty
Wim Wender's post-9/11 journey of spiritual renewal is a passionate and well-meaning film for today and now. It has an immediacy that may be irrelevant a few years from now, but one can't ignore its current significance. Even if the brief political ramblings are a bit heavy handed, one has to admire his humanism and his love for the characters.

19. Serenity
Joss Whedon's pop sci-fi adventure is certainly one of the most purely enjoyable films of the year. He fills it to the brim with wit, humor, action, and general rascaliness. I'm not the first to claim that Nathan Fillion may have what it takes to claim the mantle held by Harrison Ford for oh so many years.

18. The Holy Girl
This film plays out like a minor miracle in its exploration of teenage sexual awakening combined with spiritual fervor. Lucrecia Martel is a unique visual stylist with slightly offset compositions that encourage the viewer to see her film from an entirely different perspective. Maria Alche has a wonderful and understated naturalness to her performance as Amalia, the film's young heroin.

17. Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
George Lucas concludes his epic saga with a bang. Though not without its flaws, it manages to humanize Darth Vader and provides a reasonable motivation for his transition to the Dark Side. Lucas also manages to show that the man who is most responsible for modern special effects is also their chief manipulator. One of the best entries into what is almost certainly the cinema's most accomplished mythology.

16. Last Days
Silently following a drugged out, fading rock star through a lot of non-action straight to the grave might sound both pointless and depressing. Yet with Gus Van Sant's characteristic long, fluid takes, it becomes a haunting meditation of a lost and fractured soul.

15. Melinda and Melinda
Woody Allen, in even his most banal films (this is not one), makes me smile because we have grown so accustomed to his mannerism that you can almost anticipate the joke before it comes. Though Allen was not in this film, his humor was. Here we look at the same story told from two different perspectives: the comic and the tragic. Neither one seems to be the full truth, but when combined, you might get something close to life.

14. Pride & Prejudice
Joe Wright turns in a remarkably assured debut film with this Jane Austen adaptation. It's one of the best "costume films" in recent memory. He gleans excellent performances from his cast, particularly Keira Knightley who is charming as Elizabeth Bennet. He wisely manages to avoid many of the romantic comedy cliche's, and proves a formidably visual stylist through his orchestrations of the ball sequences and his use of the English countryside.

13. King Kong
Peter Jackson may well have tapped into the imagination of this generation. Bold and excessive, Kong throws in the kitchen sink to create in the audience a sense of childlike joy and awe. Whether its a giant ape fighting three T-Rex's or a second rate vaudeville performer doing a dance routine for a giant ape, Jackson finds the action and the emotion. Andy Serkis' work is a revelation.

12. Howl's Moving Castle
Hayao Miyazaki is one of the most consistently overlooked great directors working today, perhaps because he is an animator. Yet even while this may not be one of his towering successes, it is still perhaps the most fantastic and imaginative film of the year. He creates an entire world within his film and a protagonist whose goodness rubs off on everyone around her. Unlike most family friendly animations, he doesn't provide "good guys" and "bad guys", but complex characters with motivations and capable of change.

(tie) 11. The White Diamond
This Werner Herzog documentary finds an eccentric aeronautics engineer who is determined to build a small airship that will fly over the rainforrests of Guyana. His vigor is motivated as a kind of penance for his guilt over the death of a friend and colleague years earlier. As with his best films, Herzog takes that magnificent man and his flying machine, and creates spiritual metaphor for transcending the earthly realm.

(tie) 11. Grizzly Man
Another Herzog documentary, this time about bear activist, Timothy Treadwell whose annual foray's into the Alaskan wilderness led to his being eaten by one of the bears. The combination of Treadwell's video tape footage with Herzog's often contradictory narration, at times creates an almost magical effect. The conflicting worldviews presented engages the intellect, and in some of the quieter moments, Herzog points out how mystical it is to capture the wind blowing.

10. Match Point
Woody Allen's latest film is almost certainly one of the darkest films of his career. It is a film about luck, chance, randomness, and the meaninglessness of life. As Martin Landau in Crimes and Misdemeanors is able to get away with murder because God does not exist (or, at least he believes God does not exist), Jonathan Rhys-Meyers is able to go and do likewise. Wheras in the former, though probably the superior film, exists in a cold, sterile world where God does seem mysteriously absent, for Match Point, in which later scenes takes on elements of Greek tragedy, the meticulousness of Allen's direction undercuts his assertion that the world is governed by chance. As Allen himself is deified in orchestrating the events of his film, therefore they cannot be by chance or luck, so might God's presence be in this world. To see a film is to see a filmmaker, to see a world is to see a worldmaker. Though there may be no justice in this life, with a little luck, there might be in the next.

9. Turtles Can Fly
An equally beautiful and devastating film from Iraq focusing on a group of orphans in a Kurdish refugee camp just before the U.S. invastion of Iraq. It's about the will to survive under extremely harsh circumstances. Its cast of children (many deformed by shrapnel or land mines) are wonderful to watch with their resilience and even contentment.

8. Cache'
Michael Haneke challenges our notions of the nature of film and perception, all while confronting issues of guilt and revenge. We all have our dirty, little secrets, and his bourgeois, Parisian family is no different. Yet as soon as they beginning receiving anonymous video tapes of their everyday activities and they know that they are secretly being watched, they suddenly begin thinking about that one thing that they don't want anyone to find out about. Conflicts erupt and Haneke is almost stubbornly oblique in his refusal to give answers to what it all means.

7. Broken Flowers
Bill Murray is an aging Don Juan looking on his life with nothing to show for it. He receives a letter from an old flame telling him he as a teenage son. He then takes off on a kind of spiritual journey, visiting old girlfriends and evaluating his life through his various romances. This is Jim Jarmusch's finest film to date, mostly because his characters stop talking and begin reflecting.

6. The New World
Just because this may be Terrence Malick's worst film, doesn't mean that it's not still wonderful. Here he tackles the settling of Jamestown and the relationship between John Smith and Pocahontas with his typical poetic naturalism. The opening scene is almost painfully beautiful, and no director perhaps ever has had as profound an appreciation for nature and natural settings. His camera observes and captures with a magical poignancy.

5. Junebug
In yet another startling debut, Phil Morrison captures real, normal people. As red state/blue state tensions flare in our world, he focuses on the humanity and eccentricities of his characters. The film solves nothing, but it does honestly portray a part of America that has rarely seen so truthful and loving a depiction. I may well shed tears if Amy Adams doesn't receive and Academy Award nomination for her infectiously enthusiastic performance.

4. Millions
Danny Boyle continues to prove to be a formidable talent of world cinema with his most light-hearted and family friendly film yet. Here we see the poignancy of having what Jesus called "the faith of a child" as a boy with an encyclopedic knowledge of Catholic saints is tested when he receives a "gift from God" in the form of a duffle bag filled with cast. To be cliche, this film is heart-warming, funny, and very human.

3. Munich
Steven Spielberg has made one of the best films of his career in this impassioned dramatization of Middle Eastern politics and the cycle of revenge/violence. In the aftermath of 1972 Munich massacre, Israel reacts the only way they can... by retaliating. Yet, while they may be justified, Spielberg reminds us that by acting when we act like the terrorists, we become them and only perpetuate the problem. It's messy, complex, and his first film in a long time that follows through with the core of its convictions. The final montage brilliantly places the events of the film into startling context.

2. Saraband
Though Ingmar Bergman's final film will never be remembered as one of his finest, it just goes to show that even a mediocre Bergman film is better than almost anything anyone else has to offer. Here his 40+ year relationship with actors Liv Ullman and Erland Josephsson concludes as their silent chemistry is almost palpable. This examination of a broken family, which is an indirect sequel to his Scenes From a Marriage, is penetrating and often painful, yet the final moments in which Ullman speaks directly to the camera as a tear rolls down her cheek has the kind of quiet poignancy that a master like Bergman can finally say goodbye with.

and...

1. 2046
Not only is this the best film of the year, but it may also be Wong Kar-Wai's best film, which also means that it is probably the best film to ever come out of Hong Kong. It is a haunting meditation on lost love, memory, and the inability to escape one's past. Christopher Doyle once again proves why he may be the best cinematographer in the world today with his lush imagery. And in one single moment, when she realizes that she is in love with Tony Leung's playboy-like character, the beautiful Ziyi Zhang outacts every other great performance of this year. Wong's combination of images, music, and voice over allows this to become one of those rare films which begins to take on a life of its own in the viewers head, even as the film is still playing. Wonderful.

Honorable Mentions:

Bad News Bears - Richard Linklater's remake is easily the funniest and best comedy of the year and Billy Bob Thornton is in top form as the boozing coach.

Batman Begins - Christopher Nolan directs one of the best superhero/comic book movies ever. Christian Bale is the complex and human Dark Knight. Though the actions scenes seem strangely out of place in film which does so much to create compelling characters.

Kings and Queen - Half comedy and half tragedy, this French film follows two characters with different demons to overcome and numerous emotional ambiguities along the way.

Nobody Knows - One of the most original coming-of-age stories in recent memories follows four abandoned Japanese children who must learn to take care of themselves.

Oliver Twist - Though disappointing considering how much I love Roman Polanski, it is neverthess a very satisfying Dickens adaptation.

Eros - Three short films one by Wong Kar-Wai, one by Steven Soderbergh, and one by the nearly 100-year-old Michelangelo Antonioni all about eroticism. Though Antonioni's may be painfully inscrutable, as Andrew Sarris put it, "...at this point, I can be content that he knows more about what it means than I do."

Or (Mon Tresor) - An Israeli film which sits and observes as a beautiful teenage girl begins to accept the only path left for her (presumably because of a flawed society) as she attempts to protect her aging, prostitute mother.

Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist - Though Paul Schrader's film may be the most theologically challenging horror film since Ferrara's The Addiction, it is painfully marred by an almost aesthetic indifference.

Red Eye - Though a very conventional thriller, it also represents the consummation of Wes Craven's career in which his heroin retains her humanity by refusing to become the killer at the end.

Kontroll - Hangarian film which journey's through one man's personal hell as represented by the Budapest subways system.

Unfortunately, this list isn't as authoritative as I might like it to be because I haven't yet seen all of the noteworthy films that I was interested in, therefore, as I watch more films from this year, I may periodically update this list.

The following are films that I have yet to see:

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
Good Night and Good Luck
Capote
March of the Penguins
Nine Lives
The Weather Man
The World
Cafe Lumiere
Paradise Now
The Weeping Meadow
Wheel of Time
The Best of Youth
Pulse

The White Diamond

2006-01-22T11:39:00.000-08:00

Once again, Werner Herzog takes an eccentric subject for what could be a conventional documentary -- in this case a passionate aeronautics engineer -- and turns it into a spiritual journey about overcoming guilt and transcending the earthly realm into the unkown... literally. Graham Dorrington is determined to build one of the smallest air ships ever constructed and fly it over the dense, unexplored rainforrests of Guyana. One of the natives, named Mark Anthony Yhap, who provides some of the more humbly profound observations throughout the film, describes the craft as looking like a "white diamond". As in his recent Grizzly Man, Herzog also provides some useful voice over narration which complements his film. The aerial footage is majestic.

Funny Ha Ha

2006-01-21T12:33:00.000-08:00

Director Andrew Bujalski would seem to be the logical successor to Richard Linklater (Slacker era) with his use of pseudo-naturalistic dialogue and his (as some have claimed) Cassavetes-like insistence on "reality" and capturing the ordinary of everyday life and people. He is neither as articulate or philosophical as Linklater, nor does he have the artists eye and ear of Cassavetes (but then again, who does?). His characters are almost embarassingly non-confrontational, seem very unsure of themselves, never saying what they think until prodded into a corner, and constantly apologizing for creating awkward moments. It's actually very interesting, and though I know exactly what Bujalski was trying to accomplish, I can't say that I've ever met people who talk the way these characters do as consistently as they do. The ulta low budget, black and white, 16mm photography has a look similar to the films of Larry Fessenden. Bujalski seems to have an interesting idea with an eye and ear worth developing, but he doesn't quite pull this film up to where it could be.

3-Iron

2006-01-20T12:23:00.000-08:00

This Korean import is an odd little film. First we meet a strange young man who breaks into the homes of people who are away and indulges himself for a night or two. Then, rather than stealing anything, he replaces and cleans everything he used, fixes broken objects in the house, and tidies up for the absent owners. He then moves along. One of the houses he breaks into is home to an equally silent young house wife who has been battered by her jerk of a husband. The two run off together on a silent journey (neither of the two leads says a word to each other in the entire film). While reaching for the sublime, this film becomes ridiculous. There are some truly funny scenes, that I am not convinced were entirely intentional, such as when the male protagonist uses the titular golf club to hit a ball which flys through the windshield of a car, killing a woman (trust me, the scene ends up much funnier than it sounds). It just goes to show than in an era of sound films, one cannot develop a convincing relationship by visuals alone. Speech, however minimal it may be, is a necessary part of reality and therefore, cinema.

Syriana

2006-01-19T13:24:00.000-08:00

Stephen Gaghan's fascinatingly complex political thriller takes us through the labyrinthine world of oil politics in the Middle East. The focus is corruption -- not of any one person or political party, but of everyone. In this sense, the film is a success -- its complexities and the mystery of discovering how everyone and everything relates is compelling. The ensemble cast also helps to provide recognizable faces to the numerous characters that come and go. The problem is that we never get to stay with any of the character long enough to really get to know them or discover any of their true motivations. The performances, however, are good enough to almost make you forget that the characters are fairly shallow, and the story is compelling enough to almost make you forget that you never really learn anything.

The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981)

2006-01-18T14:34:00.000-08:00

Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange star in this disappointing remake from James M. Cain's classic, hard-boiled novel. The imposing level of talent both in front of and behind the camera make it all the more disappointing (directed by Bob Rafelson, written by David Mamet, photographed by Sven Nykvist). It certainly captures the seedy, crime novel atmosphere with an animalistic passion unlike any other film I've ever seen, but despite it all, it just isn't very compelling. See the original John Garfield/Lana Turner version instead, or better yet, the unoffical early Luchino Visconti version, Ossessione.

Kontroll

2006-01-16T12:42:00.000-08:00

Kontroll is a Dante-esque (or perhaps Kafkaesque) journey through one man's hell, symbolized by the subterranean corridors of the Budapest subway system (which I have traveled through). The entire film takes place in this underground world, and Bulcsu, the main character seems to be living down there. It is hinted that he was once a successful architect, a vocation which he has since abandoned (for unknown reasons), to become a subway controller -- a person who checks for passengers tickets. He and his motley crew play for dark humor as they fluctuate between harassing and being harassed by passengers. In their off time, they play deadly games of running through the tunnels trying to make it to the next platform before they are run over by the train behind them. Meanwhile a hooded figure (not dissimilar from the red cloaked dwarf of Don't Look Now) roams the corridors pushing people off of the platform to their deaths. The films allegory seems to be all to obvious or a bit too confused, nevertheless, as a debut film from Nimrod Antal, it seems he may be a director worth following in the future.

High Tension

2006-01-14T15:58:00.000-08:00

A few things become immediately apparent after watching Alexandre Aja's French slasher flick: (1) while certainly a very violent film it is not as gory as I was expecting (which may say more about me than the film itself), (2) Aja is a competent and even slyly effective craftsman of terror, and (3) twist endings have become far too stylish. In fact, the utterly ridiculous ending of this film ruins an otherwise solid slasher film. The film's dyke-ish heroine, Alex, is unusually resourceful for a horror film lead, as crafty, in fact, as the brutish killer whose face is always concealed in shadow cast by his fedora. Aja's direction is often so efficient in its rising tension, that one may be quick to forget just how little actaully happens in the film. The entire film feels like a silent (there is very little dialogue), slow build up which is occasionally broken up by some brutal and cathartic death scenes. But damn that ending. Who the hell comes up with this stuff and thinks that it will ever work?

Turtles Can Fly

2006-01-14T11:01:00.000-08:00

This heartbreaking film is the first made in Iraq since the fall of Saddam. It takes place in a Kurdish refugee camp near the Iraq-Turkey border and primarily focuses on the large number of orphans at the camp. The leader of these children, and in fact the entire village really, is a resourcefull 13ish-year-old named Satellite who gained his position thanks to his ability to install antennas and satellite dishes for the village elders to watch the news about the upcoming U.S. invasion of Iraq. He also speaks English and can translate for them. The children spend much of their time disarming land mines around the area which has left many of them without arms, legs, or hands. An armless, clairvoyant boy and his beautiful young sister arrive in the village, they have with them a blind baby which is presumed to be their younger brother. It is later revealed that it is the result of the girl's rape by and Iraqi soldier. She hates her child and what he represents. It's a devastating, yet beautiful film about life and survival in unimaginable circumstances. Director Bahman Ghobadi gets some wonderful performances out of his non-professional cast of children, and he gives us a behind the scenes look at the lives of orphans in a behinds the scenes world. Like Born Into Brothels, these are the children without a voice (who probably don't even realize the gravity of their own situations), and without a future, yet somehow many of them still manage to endure and survive.

Kings and Queen

2006-01-12T19:43:00.000-08:00

Director Arnaud Desplechin weaves together a complex array of emotions in this personality drama. It centers around two primary characters, Nora, a single mother about to be remarried whose father is on his death bed, and Ismael, her ex-lover (we come to discover) and a slightly neurotic violinist who is accidentally put away in a mental institution. Desplechin juxtaposes the comic and the tragic elements of life with an almost theatrical understanding of the terms. The scenes with Nora are high drama and inevitably tragic, whereas the Ismael's institution antics are decidedly comic. Of course the two intertwine as the paths of the two characters meet again. There is a confession scene in which the dying father tells his daughter what he really thinks that borders on Bergmanesque, and a wonderful scene in which Ismael takes Nora's son through an art gallery and explains his ideas about life. It's a complex film, much of which, no doubt, I probably missed, yet a stirring example of life's emotional ambiguities and our ever changing perceptions of them.

The Holy Girl

2006-01-11T20:02:00.000-08:00

Lucrecia Martel's pseudo-religious Argentinian drama seems in some ways to be a small miracle. With an almost Bressonian sense of casting and a slightly off-kilter sense of image framing, she unfolds her story of a 14-year-old girls sexual awakening (without any actual sex) intertwined with her Catholic ferver. She lives in a hotel owned by her mother. The hotel is hosting a medical convention. One afternoon she joins a crowd in watching live music, one of the doctor's stands uncomfortably close behind her, close enough to make pelvic contact for a few moments before scurrying off. After this encounter, she devotes herself to saving his soul. Maria Alche, who plays the girl, has a beautiful inscrutability about her, as does Martel's narrative. At times it is subtle and understated to a fault, one can quickly begins to lose focus of what's going on. Yet her visual sense and the mood she creates actually manage to carry the film whether you're following it or not. Jim Hoberman says that it is "characterized by agnostic irony," which is probably true, yet it still feels like a minor miracle.

Nobody Knows

2006-01-10T15:01:00.000-08:00

This Japanese familial drama centers around four siblings, headed by 12-year-old Akira. Their mother is a sympathetic, though immature twit who seems scarcely more capable than her two oldest children, she just happens to have the advantage (or disadvantage) of age. She makes all but Akira stay in the house at all times. She works, maybe, and they don't go to school. One day she leaves on a trip, gives them some money and returns a few weeks later, just after the money has run out. Later she leaves again, and when she will return, I suppose nobody knows, because she doesn't. The children learn to take care of themselves, despite the fact that the water, gas, and electricity has been turned off. It's a coming of age story featuring some magnificent performances from the mostly prepubescent cast. Watching Akira try to hold things together as they gradually grow more and more desperate, is a heartbreaking sight. Director, Hirokazu Koreeda doesn't pull at the heart-strings, because he recognizes the potency of the material. He keeps it straightforward and un-manipulative. Events unfold slowly and naturally, leaving one with a sense of everyday life in an unusual situation.

5x2: Five Times Two

2006-01-09T19:56:00.000-08:00

After the undwhelming debacle of Swimming Pool, I decided to give French director, Francois Ozon another chance with this marital drama. The gimmick of the film is that it tells of the marriage Marion and Gilles from end to beginning. It takes five significant events in their relationship -- first love, the wedding night, birth of their child, a dinner party, and divorce -- and begins the film with the divorce and ends the film with the moment they first fall in love. It's an intriguing premise filled with possibilities, yet as far as I can see, Ozon fails to utilize any of them. The idea alone, the development of their relationship, and the understated execution of it all is worthy of making this a good film, but its lack of insight into the characters or the idea of marriage, keep this from becoming a better film. Perhaps it is the fact that prior to their initial encounter, both Marion and Gilles were either recovering from or on the downard slopes of previous relationships, and the fact that they seem to need to be in relationships in their often selfish quests to make themselves "happy" that dooms them from the start, leaving the postcard perfect final image to be a bittersweet heralding of failure.

The Steamroller and the Violin

2006-01-07T17:14:00.000-08:00

This is worth watching if for no other reason than to see Andrei Tarkovsky's thesis film from film school. It's a 45 minute look at the life of young boy who plays the violin and the friendship he strikes with a steamroller operator. Perhaps the film is commenting on the relationship between artist and worker in Soviet Russia. Actually, there is little that distinguishes this as a Tarkovsky film, he is clearly developing his ideas and style, yet there is an unmistakably Russian lyricism to the images and tone of the film.

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

2006-01-06T14:51:00.000-08:00

Pedro Almodovar's first major international success is not his best film, but it may be his most light-hearted and funny. There are a number of women, a lot of misunderstandings, a terrorist subplot, and wackiness ensues. It also has a young Antonio Banderas. It's only slightly surreal and not nearly as strange as some of his more recent films, but neither does it has the subtlty or depth of a film like Talk to Her. It does work well as a farce, however, filled with Spanish 80's clothes and all.

Five Fingers of Death

2006-01-05T13:47:00.000-08:00

Considered to be the original, classic kung fu movie, and according to Quentin Tarantino, one of the ten best films ever made. That may be overstating it, but it does have the joy and thrills of a low-budget, genre trash film, bad dubbing and all. Actually, the dubbing isn't that bad. The film has plenty of fighting (which is why you're watching it in the first place), and something of a plot to justify all of the fighting. To watch this film is to come to a better understanding of such recent films as Tarantino's own Kill Bill (he steals a music cue from this film), and Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle. If you find yourself drawn to this kind of film (you know who you are), then you won't be let down.

Grizzly Man

2006-01-03T21:39:00.000-08:00

Timothy Treadwell must have been a complex human being. Werner Herzog's documentary combines some of the footage that Treadwell shot over the 13 summers he spent living with grizzly bears in Alaska (before they ate him), with various interviews with people who knew him. Like many Herzog protagonists, Treadwell seemed to be a lonely man with an obsession for something that's a little bit ridiculous, in this case protecting the bears by living with them, but unlike the characters of Aguirre or Fitzcarraldo, Treadwell was real -- the self-appointed protector of nature. It's a fascinating film, not the least of which being Treadwell's footage, which at times, Herzog correctly points out, has some unusually poetic moments. What elevates this film, however, is Herzog's ongoing narration, which often finds itself contradicting and debating Treadwell's oft stated beliefs. Herzog avoids discussing what could amount to being the politics of the situations, and instead focuses on the aesthetics of Treadwell's "filmmaking" and their respective philosphies of life and nature. In his review, Michael Atkinson makes a perceptive observation: "Regarding the bears as deus ex machina within Treadwell's bizarre saga, Herzog asserts again one of modern moviedom's wisest, plainest humanistic sensibilities, sympathetic to man's never ending war with the planet but aware that the struggle will always draw ambiguous blood. Treadwell is simply another lost foot soldier, killed in the ongoing collision between human obsession and untamed reality. " A wonderful documentary.

Munich

2006-01-02T18:40:00.000-08:00

For over a decade now, Steven Spielberg has been trying to prove to the world that he's grown up by making more adult themed, "important" films. Except one problem, he hadn't, at least not until now. With Munich, he finally has the courage to hold true to the core of his convictions and not water them down with sentimentality and cheap emotional manipulation. This film deals with a secret Israeli squad assigned to track down and assassinate the 11 Palestinians responsible for kidnapping and murdering the Israeli athletes at 1972 Olympics in Munich. The film is an international thriller (I feel like paying a travel agent after watching it), and thrilling it is. But more importantly, it is about the moral ambiguities of returning violence for violence. It neither condones nor condemns the actions (of either side), merely presents them and asks the audience to decide what they believe. There are no easy answers and the film offers none. It is, however, incredibly fair. There are some wonderfully executed scenes including the opening scene at the Olympics, a scene at a French villa where Eric Bana (the leader of the squad) converses with a French contact, and the climactic montage juxtaposing the death of the Israeli athletes with a morally confused Eric Bana making love to his wife -- the juxtaposition of life and death, a bit heavy-handed perhaps, but effective. While the films deals with the complexities of the situations in the Middle East, much has been made of its current relevance in America. Actually, I think that the questions this film poses are relevant as much in peace time as in war, and for any nation. Though I suppose it is no coincidence that the film concludes on an image of New York City with the Twin Towers in the background. This is the best American film of the year.

My Neighbor Totoro

2006-01-01T21:29:00.000-08:00

If in describing the films of Hayao Miyazaki I consistently repeat myself, it is because all of his films have left me with an inexplicable kind of joy. Even though each of his films are distinct and different, they all make me feel the same. For what it's worth, My Neighbor Totoro may be my favorite yet of his films. It is utterly delightful, and no one captures the expressions of a child like the animation of Miyazaki. In this film, two young girls move to the country with their father as their mother is sick in the hospital. In the nearby woods, the girls meet a Totoro. Now, I'm still not entirely sure what a Totoro is (a forrest sprite, is the closest I've come), all I know is that if I were a child, I would want to find a Totoro in the forrest. The film is filled with magic and awe and imagination, and is probably one of the best of its kind.

Mother Kusters Goes to Heaven

2006-01-01T16:40:00.000-08:00

This film constitutes perhaps Fassbinder's most politically coherent film. Mother Kusters is an aging housewife who receives news that her husband for many years has just murdered his boss at the factory and then killed himself. The film seems to be about a couple of things: the way that various organizations attempt to explain these kinds of actions through their jobs (the media claims that he was tyrant at home -- a violent man waiting to snap; the communists claim that he was a heroic revolutionary fighting back at those would seek to exploit him after years of capitalist oppression), and the way that people and organizations opportunistically use tragedies to further their own ends. Mother Kusters is a slightly naive woman (like many Fassbinder protagonists) who, at first, merely wants to clear her husbands name. The media hounds them, her daughter uses the publicity to start a second rate singing career, a reporter uses it to write a sensationalistic story, the communist party uses it promote their agenda and bring Mother Kusters into the party. Fassbinder, it seems, is clearly fighting explotiation from all sides. It's one of his best, and in some ways, one of his saddest films.

Best Films of 2005...

2005-12-30T21:44:00.000-08:00

...not just yet. I intend to post a list of my favorite films of this year sometime around the end of January, but before Academy Award nominations are announced. In the meantime I have a lot of films to catch up with before I can feel authoritative.

Memoirs of a Geisha

2005-12-30T21:29:00.000-08:00

This seems to be one of those films which feels flawless, but isn't very good. Flawless in the sense that everything from direction, to cinematography, music, and performances are all good, yet it doesn't all add up. It's about the life of a geisha in WWII era Japan, and the rigorous life and dedication is requires. I honestly can't put my finger on where it is that this movie goes wrong, but I know it does. The luminous Ziyi Zhang plays the titular geisha, and her smile alone could carry a film, as it almost does this one, but not make it great. Of all the actors, however, Gong Li once again proves herself to be probably the world's most formidable actress, and now in two different languages. Her character, and the film itself, at times feel like an indirect sequel to Zhang Yimou's Raise the Red Lantern, also starring Gong. This film, however, is beautiful but lifeless, even though the talented cast desperately want to bring it to life. Rob Marshall is at least a competent director, but not yet good enough to elevate what may only be an average story into a good film.

The Card Player

2005-12-30T12:57:00.000-08:00

Dario Argento's latest film is probably his most well crafted film in 20+ years and probably the most solid pure thriller of the year. It concerns an unseen psychopath who challenges the Roman police to games of video poker for the lives of women he/she has kidnapped. The chief detectives on the trail are a female Italian officer and an Irish cop from the embassy. Argento has some nice set pieces, including a trek through an underground tunnel, and he even lets loose with some of the bold visuals that helped to make Suspiria his masterpiece. Despite some graphic views of mangled corpses, the gore quotient is rather low in comparisson to many of his other films. It's solid, but not great Argento.

The Gospel of John

2005-12-29T11:48:00.000-08:00

This three hour, faithful adaptation of the life of Christ as described in the book of John was somewhat overshadowed in the wake of the phenomenon of The Passion of the Christ. Comparing the two is difficult, because for me, they are equals. Gibson's film strives to be a work of art, and in my opinion fails. Phillip Saville's film has no lofty artistic ambitions, but is content with being an ultra-faithful (every word from the book, including the narration as read by Christopher Plummer, is spoken from the Good News Bible) treatment of the Biblical text, and succeeds at just that. He proves to be a capable director in the way he manages to keep even the lengthy passages of narration from being dull or "preachy". His film seems content with allowing the power of the story and text to carry the film, without sprucing anything up in either the script or by adding any unnecessary directoral flair. This is not a great film, but is significantly better than one might imagine (better than I imagined, anyway). Its strength and it weakness is its devotion to every single word which makes for some awkward moments contrasting the consistent narration with the dialogue of the characters. Pasolini's The Gospel According to St. Matthew is a much better example of a similar idea. Nevertheless, this is a worthy entry into the canon of films about the life of Christ.

The Flowers of St. Francis

2005-12-28T17:22:00.000-08:00

This is a wonderful little film by Roberto Rossellini which, in its Italian neo-realist style, manages to be as simple and sublime as its subject. It's been said that only one who is willing to risk the ridiculous has a shot at the sublime, and Francis and his monk are a little bit ridiculous. Apparently the Italian subtitle of the film is "God's jester," and in their childlike simplicity, one comes to understand what this means. The film is broken up into a number of vignettes, some of which don't even focus on Francis, but on his monks, particularly the comically naive Brother Ginepro, and Giovanni, an old man who has an equally simple faith. There is a beautiful segment in which Francis sees a leper walking down the road and runs up the man and hugs him. Francis is the wisest and most mature of his monks, dedicated to fully living a life in service to God. Rossellini's direction is utterly inobtrusive, content with merely capturing the quiet moments between his non-actors (all of the monks were played by real life Franciscan monks). It's a very human film, filled with love, simplicity, faithfulness, and humor.

Porco Rosso

2005-12-26T14:27:00.000-08:00

The fact that I can call this the least of the films by Hayao Miyazaki that I have yet seen really means nothing because this is still a wonderful little film. It's a Japanese animated film that takes place in Italy sometime in between WWI and II. A seaplane pilot, for one reason or another, has been cursed and turned into a pig, now he's a mercenary for hire. Miyazaki seems to have a particular affection for pigs and flying, considering that in one way or another, they seem to figure prominently in most of his films. The only reason I call this the least of his film is that it seems to add up to the least -- it still manages to have his loveable, well-developed characters, beautiful animation, and his belief in the goodness of humanity, but it's not quite as "transcendent" as some of his better films. It's still perfectly enjoyable and the work of a real artist.

Pretty Persuasion

2005-12-26T13:07:00.000-08:00

What emerges from this almost satisfying mess of a film is the fact that Evan Rachel Wood is quickly becoming one of the best young actresses around. It attempts an Election- style satire of, well, just about everything, though is set in a Beverly Hills prep school -- the world of a 15-year-old puppet master. Her goal is to become an actress, so she convinces a couple of her friends to play along and accuse their English teacher of sexual harrassment, and while he does fantasize about his female students, he hasn't harrassed them. Unfortunately, despite some fairly funny moments, the films satire just doesn't hold together, and while Marcos Siega's direction seems unusually efficient and restrained for an ex-music video vet, it isn't particularly good. There is wasted potential in there somewhere.

The Devil Commands

2005-12-22T16:07:00.000-08:00

Boris Karloff stars in this eerie horror film as an honest scientist whose life is turned upside down after the death of his wife. He becomes obsessed with the idea of using science to communicate with the dead. Director Edward Dmytryk keeps the film filled with atmosphere. The opening shot of a creepy house in a rain storm, slowly pushing in, with a voice over playing, provides an excellent set up, and the rest of the movie, while never becoming a great pseudo-zombie film (such as I Walked With a Zombie), doesn't disappoint.

Brokeback Mountain

2005-12-22T10:10:00.000-08:00

As a conservative Christian I believe that homosexuality is a sin. Therefore, the fact that this film, perhaps admirably, attempts to portray it as "normal", may inherently lessen my admiration for it. However, that having been said, I will attempt to ignore that fact for the moment and describe its merits as a love story. Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist both get hired as sheep herders in Wyoming for a summer. During that time, they develop feelings for each other and spend the rest of their lives in secrecy, only on occasion able to rekindle their passion. After the summer, they both marry and have families -- loving families. But it becomes increasingly obvious who their hearts truly belong to. The first thing one might notice in Ang Lee's drama is the almost Fordian imagery juxtaposing the epic, well composed long shot of the landscape with close ups. Actually, as beautiful as many of these shots are, they become almost a parody of Ford because it seems to be attempting to bring out the archetypes of Western imagery, whereas Ford rarely worked with archetypes (maybe in his early days), he created and made the land an inescapable character of his films, a feat Brokeback Mountain never fully accomplishes. Heath Ledger as Ennis gives career defining performance because of what he doesn't say. Jake Gyllenhaal is somewhat less effective because his character is based on what he does say. To be honest, I found myself most moved by some of the secondary relationships, particularly the relationship between Ledger and Michelle Williams as his wife. She knows he is going behind her back, and moreover she knows that it is with a man. The straight people are not stereotyped, nor even particularly bigoted. I also found myself moved by the relationship between Ledger and his older daughter, particularly in later scenes. While I admire Lee as a director, I think that many of the strengths of the film belong to the performances and particularly the script by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, which manages to be human, subtle, and cinematically intelligent while avoiding many of the cliches that I was dreading going in. Roger Ebert observes the point that I was initially trying to put my finger on when he says, "The movie wisely never steps back to look at the larger picture, or deliver the 'message.' It is specifically the story of these men, this love. It stays in closeup. That's how Jack and Ennis see it. 'You know I ain't queer,' Ennis tells Jack after their first night together. 'Me, neither,' says Jack." It's a good film, probably one of the best of the year. It's a wise film that avoids being more morally troubling than it needs to be (considering the subject matter). And if you have an open mind and heart for star crossed love stories, this may be for you.

King Kong (2005)

2005-12-20T15:44:00.000-08:00

Peter Jackson's remake of the classic 1933 monster movie is quite a thrill ride and the best movie spectacle since, well, The Lord of the Rings. Once again he manages to create another world that is part 1930's New York and part prehistoric terror. Naomi Watts successfully fills the role made famous by Fay Wray, as an out of work, Depression-era vaudvillian whose path intersects with an ambitious and somewhat unethical movie director played for all it worth by Jack Black. His Carl Denham is somewhat more insanely driven than the Robert Armstrong version. The first hour is spent introducing characters and building up to Skull Island. Kong himself is an utterly convincing CGI creation. If I didn't know any better, I'd be writing Jackson and asking where he found a 25'' gorilla that could act. These sequences he fills with eye popping visuals and the kind of imagination that Andrew Adamson sorely lacked with his Chronicles of Narnia. Besides the Kong vs. 3 T-rex fight, one of my favorites scenes was watching Watts perform a vaudville routine for Kong, her captive audience. The most developed relationship in the film is between the two of them. Watts is more sympathetic to Kong's plight than was Wray. The third hour, of course, is a rampage through New York City leading up the Empire State Building. My complaint with the film is that it's too long. There are a few too many extended glances between Watts and Kong and there are a number of moments that go on a bit longer than they need to. But honestly, I didn't mind. I was captivated. It still doesn't quite equal the original (the ending still makes me cry every time I see it), and it certainly isn't as efficient a piece of filmmaking, but Peter Jackson proves to be the cinematic imagination of our generation.

Vernon, Florida

2005-12-19T10:49:00.000-08:00

Errol Morris' quirky, but short documentary seems like something of an homage to the wonderful and unusually eclectic people of small town America, particularly Vernon, Florida. His static camera allows the residents to recount various stories about their lives or hobbies. There's really not much more to it than that, but Morris obviously has an eye (and ear) for interesting subject matter, and this is the kind of film that reminds me that I could easily make a documentary like this.

Born Into Brothels

2005-12-18T15:55:00.000-08:00

Last years Oscar winner for best documentary is the heartbreaking account of a group of children raised in the brothels of Calcutta's red light district. As children, they are wide-eyed, imaginative, joyful, and strangely down to earth. Many of them fear they will end up as prostitutes like their parents. Zana Briskie, a photojournalist from New York, somehow finds her way into this godforsaken place, but everyone is suspicious and afraid of the cameras. She decides to live there for a few years to get to know the people and teach the children photography. She gives them each a camera, they take pictures and evaluate them. Suddenly, the power of artistc creation has inspired some of them. We follow the children and Briskie through their day to day life. The film avoids being exploitive (as some documentaries can be), it also manages to truthful, realistic, and inspirational, without being either sentimental or cynical. She helps to get some of them into boarding school and does everything in her power to give the children a chance to escape. With some, she succeeds, but the point is that its going to take more than one compassionate photojournalist with a few camera's to change the endless cycle of poverty and prostitution in Calcutta. This is one of the year's best and most moving films.

Elizabethtown

2005-12-17T20:14:00.000-08:00

Not Cameron Crowe's best film, but charming nonetheless. Much like last year's Garden State (I'm not sure which of the two is better), it concerns a young man's feeling dislocated and in desperate need of an emotional jump-start. Both return home after extended absences to a newly deceased parent and meet a quirky girl. This time it's Kirsten Dunst, as one of those lovely Crowe girlfriends (or not so girlfriend). His musical sense is in top form, and the film ends with an extended travel montage across the country as a kind of lyric to middle America. Orlando Bloom gives his most layered performance to date (or maybe it's just his most layered character), and it's Dunst's best work since The Virgin Suicides. Does it all hold together? Not perfectly, but it's a good film, that despite its flaws, makes me remember how much I love small, Southern towns.

1941

2005-12-17T15:36:00.000-08:00

This strangely underrated comedy from Steven Spielberg is neither a disaster nor even Spielberg's worst film (as one might be led to believe). It's 2 1/2 hours of comic anarchy that plays out like a combination of The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming and the what I imagine the cut pie fight scene from Dr. Strangelove might be like. Even when it's not funny, one can sense the joy and enthusiasm in the making of it. This is a fictional account of riots in Los Angeles when a Japanese submarine is spotted off of the California coast not long after Pearl Harbor. One of the most spectacular scenes is a prolonged airplane dogfight through the middle of downtown Hollywood, with a riot going on in the streets below. In fact, I have no idea how they pulled it off as convincingly as they did. The film must have had a significant budget. It's a strangely fun film with an all-star cast that's certainly worth watching at least once.

Palindromes

2005-12-15T20:04:00.000-08:00

It is difficult to not be engaged while watching a Todd Solondz film, because he has an uncanny way of never really letting the audience know what he's thinking. Perhaps he's throwing out various ideas, hoping that his viewers will be encouraged to think about them for themselves and make their own conclusions. Perhaps he is revealing the inherent complexities in issues that many of us consider "simple." Perhaps he genuinely has no opinion, because he either agrees with them all or disagrees with them all. Roger Ebert correctly points out, "Palindromes contains characters in favor of abortion and characters opposed to it, and finds fault with all of them. The film has no heroes without flaws and no villains without virtues, and that is true no matter who you think the heroes and villains are. To ambiguity it adds perplexity by providing us with a central character named Aviva, a girl of about 12 played by eight different actors, two of them adults, one a boy, one a 6-year-old girl. She is not always called Aviva." She desperately wants to become pregnant and have a child, so she recruits a neighbors son to help her out. When she becomes pregnant, her parents force her to have an abortion. She then takes off on a journey and meets an assortment of people, including a Christian family that shelters deformed children. Even they are as flawed as they are compassionate. I honestly don't know what Solondz thinks, but I appreciate the humanity and complexity that he allows all of his characters. Nothing and no one is black and white in this world, and I am left with a fundamental desire love people.

Martha

2005-12-14T22:56:00.000-08:00

One of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's best films. It's something of a dark comedy wrapped in the guise of a socio-political melodrama. This was the era in which Fassbinder's admiration for the social melodrama's of Douglas Sirk was most pronounced. It is about bourgeouis, marital opression. Martha, a young librarian, marries soon after the death of her father. The man she marries insists that she need not work if his income will sustain them. He is the kind of man who won't allow her to wear sunscreen, and after she become embarrassingly sunburned, gets turned on and begins to make violent love to her. He is the kind of man who, when he leaves for a few days on business, prefers she not leave the house, and instead leaves with her a book on civil engineering for her to read so that they can talk about his job. He is the kind of man who gets angry her musical preferences or when she makes a meal he doesn't like, though later patronizingly appologizes by pointing out that she "means well". His abuse is never overt, but clear. He is a sadist and she is a masochist. His abuse of her is as funny as it is psychologically hurtful, and Fassbinder balances his social commentary and his filmmaking gusto with assurance.

The Emotion of BAD LIEUTENANT

2005-12-14T22:33:00.000-08:00

The following is my final paper for my Philosophy of Film class:

Abel Ferrara’s Bad Lieutenant is one of the grittiest, most searing cinematic examples of a broken soul’s need for redemption. It is often vile and disgusting, because the lieutenant is an utterly immoral man. It is also one of the most bold and intensely Christian films that I have ever seen. Christian in theme and imagery, though its heart belongs in the streets of New York with the junkies and lowlife’s, also crying out for salvation. Upon second viewing, it is an even more rewarding experience as a film that clearly takes its moral and spiritual ideas seriously and offers them a potency rarely seen in modern film. In this paper I will attempt to describe and evaluate the way Ferrara utilizes emotion in his film, particularly those of horror, identification, and ultimately the sublime.

Harvey Keitel gives an uncompromisingly powerful performance as the unnamed lieutenant, a corrupt New York City cop. Roger Ebert points out that, "The movie does not give the lieutenant a name, because the human aspects of individual personality no longer matter at this stage; he is a bad cop, and those two words, expressing his moral state and leverage in society, say everything that is important about him." His self-destructive behavior leads him to indulge in all of the vices that he should be combating. He leaves drug dealers alone in exchange for their product, he steals money from the thieves that just robbed a convenience store, he drinks until he passes out, he completely ignores his family, and he perversely, verbally rapes two teenage girls driving without a license in exchange for not turning them in. Also, he’s a gambler, and right now New York is eagerly waiting on the results of the seven game playoff match between the New York Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers. The lieutenant is betting it all on the Dodgers with some dangerous bookies, but the Mets seem to be making a historic comeback. In the middle of all of this, a nun is brutally raped by a couple of young hoodlums. She knows who did, but refuses to turn them in because she has already forgiven them, "Those boys. Those raging, sad boys. They came to me as the needy do, and like many of the needy they were rude, and like all the needy they took. Like all the needy, they needed." He can’t conceive of this kind of forgiveness, because if they can be forgiven, can he? At the absolute end of his rope – the Dodgers have lost and he can’t pay, strung out on booze and cocaine, and desperately seeking redemption – he begins to hallucinate and sees a vision of Christ standing before him in the church. "He no longer knows for sure what the boundaries of reality are," Ebert says. "His temporary remedies – drugs and hookers – have stopped working. All that remains are self loathing, guilt, deep physical disquiet, and the hope of salvation." At first he curses Jesus in His perceived absence, and then begins to beg for forgiveness, leading him literally to the feet of Christ. Eventually he finds the two young rapists, and in an unusual act of grace, gives them $30,000 dollars that he was going to use to help pay his gambling debts, and puts them on a bus to leave. He sets them free. In Ferrara’s allegory, New York City is a metaphor for a fallen and sinful world. With his act of grace, the lieutenant frees the young sinners to start over again in a better place. At the end, in an unbroken, static wide shot we see him in his car parked in front of Madison Square Garden. A car drives up alongside his, a voice can be heard, "Hey, cop!" Shots are fired, and the car drives off. The lieutenant has paid for his sins, but he has also been redeemed and had a chance to offer redemption to others. Harvey Keitel commented about the role, "I wanted to play this part because I have a deep desire to know God. Knowing God isn’t just a matter of going to confession and praying. We also know God by confronting evil, and this character gave me the opportunity to descend into the most painful part of myself and learn about the dark places."

It is difficult to describe or even evaluate Bad Lieutenant in terms of "horror," because it is not a horror film. The lieutenant is neither a monster, nor supernatural, nor a serial killer (he is, however, a less likable character than the cannibal, Hannibal Lector). Yet, there is still something disturbing and even horrible about his actions. There is something frightening about a man like this representing justice in a civil society. Perhaps it is frightening in a way that many horror films cannot be, in that we may never truly fear a monster which we know does not exist, but we can fear a self-destructive man. Perhaps this could be what Cynthia Freeland describes as "realist horror," though she uses that term primarily in reference to serial killers in film. She says, "Yet realist horror is a prevalent and important subgenre of horror that deserves consideration. Psycho and Peeping Tom, both released in 1960, initiated a significant shift in the horror genre. They chillingly depicted ‘ordinary’ men who were unable to connect with the reality around them. Due to traumas of childhood and sexual repression, so the story went, they became slashers." The lieutenant is an "ordinary" man (not subhuman or supernatural) who, at times, seems unable to connect with the reality around him. There also seems to be in him, to some extent, an underlying sexual frustration explaining his various encounters with prostitutes which never seems to involve sex (impotence?), as well as his, as one writer puts it, "queerly celibate (i.e., masturbatory) encounter with the two young women that he stops and harasses." Freeland goes on to say, "In realist horror, male sexuality is a ticking time bomb, a natural force that must be released and will seek its outlet in violence if it is frustrated or repressed." While impotence may not be an outspoken motivation for his actions, it is a possibility or at least a factor that can’t be ignored. Perhaps the most overt reference to horror in the film comes from a line spoken by a prostitute played by Zoe Lund, the films’ co-writer:

Vampires are lucky, they can feed on others. We gotta eat away at ourselves. We gotta eat our legs to get the energy to walk. We gotta come, so we can go. We gotta suck ourselves off. We gotta eat away at ourselves until there’s nothing left but appetite. We give, and give, and give crazy. Because a gift that makes sense ain’t worth it. Jesus said seventy times seven. No one will ever understand why, why you did it. They’ll just forget about you tomorrow, but you gotta do it.

Perhaps in this line could be found the source for a future Ferrara film, The Addiction. The interesting thing here is that to Ferrara, horror is not to be found in a monster, or a murderer, or even a man, but in life itself. Life, perhaps, in a fallen world. The real horror is that of decay and man’s selfish nature – both curses of the Fall. So in a way, this is a horror film, or at least a film about that which is horrible.

I am fairly certain that identification is not the point of Bad Lieutenant. In fact, Ferrara and Keitel seem to have intentionally crafted the character so that the audience would not empathize with him. He is utterly void of redeeming qualities. Perhaps we are not meant to identify with him. Perhaps he is intended to be identified with Christ. Simon Taylor observes:

As his daughter receives her first Communion, the lieutenant does not receive the sacrament but discusses his betting. Again we have the conjunction of his bad behavior and a crucifix. Here, however, Ferrara frames him in the same way as he frames the Christ on the crucifix. Ferrara is going further than a simple conjunction of religious imagery and the lieutenant and begins to suggest an identification between the lieutenant and Christ. We can see this elsewhere in the film. He goes to the home of a young dealer to whom he has sold drugs in order to collect the money he is owed. There are a number of religious pictures in this apartment, including a picture of Jesus’ face woven into a sofa. The lieutenant sits on the sofa right over the face of Jesus, as it were, in his place. Just as Ferrara has the lieutenants body form the image of the cross (itself suggesting some identification with Christ), so the lieutenant boldly takes the place of Christ. This occurs in the church. He picks up the statue of the Madonna that the rapists knocked over and lies down next to it. There is something of the cross in this pose, but most of all it resembles a pieta.

As well as this identification between the lieutenant and Christ, we twice see Christ himself during the film. Christ is never fully present in the film, only seen as a vision. The Christ we see is stripped to the waste, wounded and bleeding. He is the Christ of the crucifix. This visionary appearance of Christ is a departure from the realism that characterizes the rest of the film, and is unique to Bad Lieutenant in the whole of Ferrara’s body of work. The first time we see Christ is as the nun is raped on the altar of a church. As we watch this crime, the film cuts between the rape and an image of Christ on the cross, screaming in agony. The suggestion is as if it were happening to Christ, or at the least that Christ shares her pain. It later transpires the boys used a cross to penetrate the nun. The lieutenant sees Christ in the same church, where he has gone to plead with the nun for the names of her assailants. She refuses, saying that she has already forgiven them. The nun then leaves him, silently, giving him her rosary. She quite literally hands her cross to the lieutenant. He then drops to the floor and howls. It is at this point that he sees Christ, just as we saw Christ during the rape. He curses Christ at first and throws the rosary he has been given. Finally he breaks down and begs for forgiveness, "What am I going to do? You’ve gotta say something. You want me to do everything. Where were you? Where the fuck were you? I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I’ve done so many bad things! I’m sorry. I tried to do... tried to do the right thing, but I’m weak. I’m too fucking weak. I need you to help me. Help me. Forgive me, forgive me. Forgive me, please. Forgive me, Father." As he crawls toward Christ and kisses his feet, we see that in fact it is an old woman that has entered the church. It is she who has stolen the chalice and gives him enough information to find the rapists. The vision of Christ thus leads to his most significant identification with Christ as he takes the place of Christ in forgiving and setting free the two rapists. This identification is compounded by the fact that this costs the lieutenant his life.

Ferrara goes out of his way to insure that we will not make the mistake of identifying with the lieutenant in the sense that we condone or support his actions, and in the process he reveals a profound truth. Christ can identify with us even when we cannot with each other. Christ who is fully God and fully human, can identify with the violated nun as he can with a bad lieutenant seeking forgiveness. Most of the identification techniques described by Taylor are as much juxtapositions as they are identifications. The similar framing, the woven image on the sofa, and the pieta are as much reminders of the omnipresence of Christ as anything else. Christ is identifying with lieutenant, but the lieutenant cannot yet be identified with Christ because the lieutenant has not been redeemed or passed over into the Sacred. It is only when he receives the forgiveness of Christ that the identification can be made complete and satisfactory. Only the changed lieutenant can make an adequate identification with Christ, because it is at that point where the lieutenant is not merely passively identified with Christ, but he actively identifies with Christ by demonstrating grace and mercy to sinners. The identification is complete and a two-way process, not just one.

When one thinks of the sublime moments in this history of cinema, perhaps one might conjure up images from The Passion of Joan of Arc, or from the works of Bresson, Bergman, and even Chaplin, but I imagine that one is not likely to immediately consider Abel Ferrara and Bad Lieutenant. Yet I might go so far as to say that scene in which the lieutenant encounters Christ is sublime, not merely because of the way that I "felt" while watching the scene, but because it seems to adhere to the definition of sublime. Cynthia Freeland claims:

To call an object "sublime" means, first and most centrally, that it calls forth a characteristic conflict between certain feelings of pain and pleasure – it evokes what Burke labeled "rapturous terror." On the one hand, the sublime prompts a painful feeling sometimes designated as terror, fear, or dread. But the sublime object does not cause merely pain or terror, but also "rapture": we find it exhilarating and exciting. Kant and Burke emphasized that so long as we are safe, the ineffable, great element before us in the awesome object evokes a certain intellectual pleasure of astonishment or elevation. Kant thought that this pleasure was tied to an awareness of features of our moral selves . . . A final feature of the sublime is that it prompts moral reflection.

It is painful to watch the completely broken cop rant about his need for forgiveness and help – at that moment, my heart goes out to him. If I am correct in describing this as a kind of horror movie, or a film about that which is horrible, then one might understand the feelings of terror. One is, in fact, likely to be fearful – to feel a "rapturous terror" – in the presence of Christ. I probably need not even argue that the moment of spiritual redemption and salvation is the most sublime of all experiences, and Ferrara captures that feeling when his character, who so clearly needs that redemption and renewal (as we all do), receives it. And by its very nature – the imagery of salvation, the church location, the presence of Christ, and the consistent religious iconography – the film prompts moral reflection. The lieutenant is awakened to the "awareness of features of [his] moral self." If the salvation imagery is not sufficient to constitute a sublime moment, then I don’t what is. Ferrara’s film is more overtly dark and viscerally intense than many of its sublime cinematic counterparts, but it is through great darkness that the victory of the light shines most brightly.

Bad Lieutenant is an experience of a film is set in the horrible darkness of the human soul, though manages to make an identification between the lieutenant and Christ himself, leading to a moment of sublime victory. It is a film that knows nothing of tameness and subtlety, belonging to that type of street-tough New York maverick filmmaking, comparable to the early works of Martin Scorsese. Its boldness is a result of the palpable, all-consuming passion of the filmmaker’s, primarily Abel Ferrara and Harvey Keitel. It is an admirably direct, no-holds-barred reminder of our need for salvation, and the necessity of grace in a fallen world.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

2005-12-13T20:09:00.000-08:00

Andrew Adamson's (mostly) live action retelling of the first in C.S. Lewis' Narnia book series is good, if not entirely successful. The story is about four English children circa-WWII that find themselves transported to another world via a large wardrobe in the house of an old professor (Lewis?). In Narnia they encounter the White Witch, an evil sorceress who has left Narnia in perpetual winter, and Aslan, the mighty lion/Christ-figure. They also find themselves at the brunt of an ancient prophecy which destines them to be rulers of the land. The problem is that films strengths and allegorical depth seem solely a result of Lewis' efficient storytelling, and have little to do with Adamson. Wheras the greatness of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films can be as much credited to Jackson as to Tolkien. Adamson lacks the imagination and vision of a great fantasy filmmaker, yet I applaud his wisdom in remaining faithful to Lewis' text, and not making what could have easily become an embarrassing film. It settles for being a faithful incarnation rather than a visionary interpretation -- a visual book rather than a movie.

The Ballad of Jack and Rose

2005-12-11T14:56:00.000-08:00

60's idealism finally dies in Rebecca Miller's latest film. It reminds us that our attempts to return to Eden and create a communal utopia here on earth, are doomed to fail, because the reality is that we live a fallen world. Daniel Day-Lewis gives an excellent performance as Jack, an aging ex-hippie tree-hugger dying of some disease and living alone on an old East coast commune with his 16 year old daughter, Rose. The two of them have an affectionate relationship, perhaps too affectionate, but that is not the point. Rose is maturing and Jack is beginning to realize that you can isolate yourself on an island, but you can't escape civilization, and you can't escape the evils of this world. It's a generally strong film that takes a downward turn somewhere in the middle when a melodramatic plot device is introduced. But I respect the fairness to which Miller offers to both Day-Lewis as environmentalist and Beau Bridges, the land developer (which could have easily turned into a useless "evil land developer and raper of the environment" role), but she realizes that their differences almost come down to a matter of taste. I slightly object to the way that Catherine Keener's character is more or less just used and discarded, though the inclusion of her and her two boy created some of the more interesting relational dynamics in the film. Also of note is Ellen Kuras' lovely camerawork that has an weightless, gliding quality to it.

Love is Colder Than Death

2005-12-10T20:05:00.000-08:00

Rainer Werner Fassbinder's first feature film is a joy of experimentation and an homage to his influences from the French New Wave, particularly Godard, though also to a lesser extent, Eric Rohmer. Despite the critical consensus of this being average-to-lesser Fassbinder, I found it to be one of his most enjoyable films. It's one of those pseudo-gangster films (like the early films of Godard and Truffaut), in which Fassbinder plays a pimp who refuses to get involved with the mob and ultimately leads to something of a bank robbery. It features his developing trademark camerawork, and the usual complex relational dynamics.

Jarhead

2005-12-09T20:45:00.000-08:00

Sam Mendes' Gulf War film isn't very good, despite some impressive production value. It concern a young Marine sniper sent over to the gulf, along with a lot of other soldiers, to sit around and sort of think about the meaning of life, or masturbate. Y'know, whatever works. Like his American Beauty, ultimately this film doesn't succeed because it comes across as too bitter for its own good. It lacks the solid foundation required for it indignation to be considered righteous. Nevertheless, it looks good, and when the oil wells are lit, cinematographer Roger Deakins gets to play around with some impressive image-making. Not to mention some generally solid performances, particularly from Peter Sarsgaard and Jamie Foxx. Though these soliders may recognize the iconic nature of films like Apocalypse Now and The Deer Hunter, the Gulf War has yet to create its defining film.

Grave of the Firefly's

2005-12-09T16:17:00.000-08:00

This is probably the most devastating and powerful war films since Elem Klimov's Come and See, except this is an animated film. Despite its PG rating and its child protagonists, this is certainly not Disney territory. It has the feeling of a deeply personal film from director Isao Takahata, a long time collaborator of Hayao Miyazaki. It takes place in Japan during WWII, focusing on a 14-ish year old boy and his 4-ish year old sister who have recently been orphaned during one of the bombing attacks. The boy even sees the bloodied, bandaged body of his mother before she dies and begins attracting maggots -- this is not "cutesy" animation, nor is it at all graphic and exploitive. It is a poetic, realist film played out with an unusual naturalism that just happens to be animated. Despite it all, he and his sister endure, first living with an aunt who doesn't particularly like them and can't really afford to keep them anyway (food is drastically rationed), and then on their own. The film has some moments of magical beauty (like the best of Miyazaki), such as when they chase the firefly's. Each frame seems to be drawn with such love and compassion, and the characters are brought to life with such subtlty and grace. Takahata's film has a profound love and understanding of humanity -- just watch the joy on the face of the little girl -- but he doesn't avoid the sometimes tragic aspects of our existence. What a beautiful, simple, tragic little film, that I can honestly call one of the most truly sad films I've ever seen.

Fox and His Friends

2005-12-08T22:04:00.000-08:00

Of course, the reality is, Fox has no friends. Rainer Werner Fassbinder himself stars as Fox, a naive, working class homosexual from Munich. He becomes lovers with a more sophisticated, bourgeois man, and then wins the lottery. Soon his lover is suggesting that Fox make an investment in his business. Fox is taken advantage of financially, emotionally, and sexually, and by the end he is penniless and abandoned. It's a downer of a film, but Fassbinder's highly artificial and controlled aesthetic doesn't allow his melodrama to become sentimental or artificial. We sit, we watch. While the film is firmly rooted in the homosexual community, the topic is not controversial sexual politcs, but how love, in a capitalist system, is used to exploit a naive worker. It is sad, and I image one of Fassbinder's more personal films (as if with a filmmaker like Fassbinder, one can even make that judgment).

An Examination of Three Westerns by John Ford

2005-12-08T15:50:00.000-08:00

The following essay is my final paper for a media integration class:

Not long after making Citizen Kane, Orson Welles was asked who his influences were on the film, to which he replied, "I studied the old masters. By that I mean, John Ford, John Ford, and John Ford." He is the most honored director in Hollywood history, winning six Academy Awards, two of which being for documentaries made during the second world war. He has also been called the most influential American filmmaker of the sound era, cited by other greats such as the above-mentioned Orson Welles, Akira Kurosawa, Sergio Leone, Clint Eastwood, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Peter Bogdanovich, Bernard Bertolucci, Francois Truffaut, and Jean-Luc Godard as a major or even primary influence on their work. One thing is certain, however, John Ford is one of the consummate artists that the medium has even seen, though he would even deny his own status as an artist. When asked to identify himself at a meeting of the director’s guild, Ford stood up and said, "My name is John Ford, and I make Westerns." A fascinating statement for the director of such Academy Award winning drama’s as, The Informer, The Grapes of Wrath, How Green Was My Valley, The Quiet Man, and war films such as They Were Expendable. But no matter how well rounded a filmmaker he may have been, and no matter what success he may have had in other genres, the truth is that John Ford will always be remembered as the director of many of the most enduring Westerns – that most American of film genres. In this paper, I intend to briefly examine John Ford the man, and more extensively John Ford the filmmaker, and the Western mythos that he is largely responsibly for creating in the films, Stagecoach, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and The Searchers.

John Ford was born Sean O’Feeney in Cape Elizabeth, Maine in 1894 to an Irish Catholic family (a fact that would later permeate his films). His older brother Francis, was the first to head off to Hollywood to become an actor where he would take on the stage name of Francis Ford. In 1914, the younger O’Feeney brother made his way to California where he got into pictures as a prop man, then as an actor, and eventually as a director of two-reeler Westerns. Eventually he would follow his brother’s example and change his name to John Ford. As a director in the silent era, Ford never managed to particularly distinguish himself. It wasn’t until the 1930's and the emergence of sound that Ford’s gifts began to show through and his distinctive style began to take hold. In 1935, he made The Informer, his first film to find a strong critical reception, as well as his first Oscar for best director. It wasn’t until 1939, however, that Ford’s reputation was cemented with the release of Drums Along the Mohawk, Young Mr. Lincoln, and perhaps most notably, Stagecoach. It was here where Ford cemented a partnership with a young John Wayne that would go on to span a quarter of a century, no less than fourteen films, and one of the most successful actor-director relationships in film history. In addition to Wayne, over the years Ford gathered together a troupe of actors that he would consistently work with such as Henry Fonda, John Carradine, Harry Carey, Ward Bond, Ken Curtis, Jane Darwell, Ben Johnson, Victor McLaglen, Mae Marsh, Mildred Natwick, John Qualen, Woody Strode, Tom Tyler, Patrick Wayne, and his brother, Francis Ford. Many of his most famous Westerns also became known for their distinctive setting, Monument Valley, Utah. In fact, Stagecoach, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and The Searchers, while all similar in that they are Westerns directed by John Ford, also bear the similarity of starring John Wayne and having been made in Monument Valley. It is through these distinct similarities that I will attempt to develop the progression of Ford’s West, and perhaps, of Ford himself.

Pauline Kael calls Stagecoach, "Perhaps the most likeable of all Westerns, and a Grand Hotel-on-wheels movie that has just about everything – adventure, romance, chivalry – and all of it very simple and traditional." Many consider it to be the first great Western from an era when Western’s were not considered respectable and were almost exclusively B-films. In fact it was Ford’s first Western since the silent era. Ford has often been referred to as a populist filmmaker, preferring the traditional values of the past to whatever alternatives their might be at present. He gathered a cast of formidable character actors as a group of social outcasts thrown together on a stagecoach and pitted against both society and a band of marauding Apaches. Claire Trevor is Dallas, the whore with the heart of gold; John Wayne, in his first major role, is the Ringo Kid, an outlaw; John Carradine is Hatfield, the gambler; and Thomas Mitchell, in an Oscar winning performance, is Doc Boone, a disreputable drunk of a doctor.

At the beginning of the film, Dallas and Doc Boone are being ousted from the town by the respectable society matrons known as "The Law and Order League." This scene is not dissimilar to a scene in D.W. Griffith’s masterpiece, Intolerance, where a group of respectable women barge in and take away the baby of Mae Marsh, an unwed and therefore unfit mother. Griffith, another notable populist filmmaker, shared a similar disdain for the kinds of social codes that would deny people basic human dignity. When faced with the alternative of taking the stagecoach through dangerous Apache territory or remaining an outcast in the town, Dallas stares at her accusers and says, "There are worse things than Apache’s," choosing instead to take the stage. The film is as much pro-army and pro-cavalry as it is pro-outcast and anti-civilization. Danny Peary points out that in Stagecoach, "civilization is not worthy of Ringo and Dallas, who leave town at the end as Doc Boone affirms that they were ‘saved from the blessings of civilization.’" It is interesting to note how, in a way, Ford attacks the notion of the conservative Right as typically against outcasts and minorities, in that Ford himself was traditionally rightward leaning and this film is firmly aligned with his outcast characters. Not to mention his casting of John Wayne, that most conservative of Hollywood actors, as the one character who inherently treats Trevor’s character with respect as a lady. The right-wing Ford would later go on to develop these ideas further in such staunchly pro-worker films as The Grapes of Wrath and How Green Was My Valley. But in the end, Stagecoach is a simple morality play in which basic human dignity ultimately eschews any political philosophies, and in which the Indians are not portrayed as stereotypes (in fact they hardly even get screen time) or as savages, but merely as the source of conflict which forces this group of people together. Steven Greydanus makes the points that, "Instead of rote good-guy/bad-guy conflict, Stagecoach emphasizes characterization, social commentary, and moral drama . . . and with the last outposts of civilization left behind, social roles and status lose meaning, and the outcasts are seen in a more sympathetic and nobler light than their ostensibly more respectable but judgmental and hypocritical companions." As the mild-mannered, Mr. Peacock says, "Let’s have a little Christian charity, one for the other." Well, I can drink to that.

Andrew Sarris describes Ford’s technique as "Double Image; alternating between close-ups of emotional intimacy and long shots of epic involvement, thus capturing both the twitches of life and the silhouettes of legend." This is an idea and technique that later directors such as Sergio Leone would go on to expand and develop in much more blatant ways. Also, this seems to be the film with which Ford establishes his use of traditional hymns and songs in place of the musical score to his film. Lindsay Anderson points out that, "Choosing for his theme ‘traditional sanctity and loveliness,’ Ford is, by Yeats’ definition, also one of the last Romantics. Nothing is more typical of his films than the traditional songs, the popular tunes and marches which accompany them: ‘Red River Valley,’ ‘Rally Round the Flag,’ ‘The Battle Hymn of the Republic’; revivalist hymns like [his personal favorite] ‘Shall We Gather at the River’ [which Sam Peckinpah would later pay homage to (some might say, subvert) in the opening scene to The Wild Bunch] and ‘Bringing in the Sheaves’; the Naval marches and bugle calls which echo through They Were Expendable – all in significant contrast to the pretentious symphonic scores by Steiner and Hageman for The Informer and The Fugitive. Heavily charged with emotion and nostalgic associations, this music carries us back to another, simpler world, of clear-cut judgements, of established and unquestioned value." Stagecoach establishes Ford’s mythos of the West through archetypes and characterization. As a result, we come to understand a certain type of person, but not a specific person. The characters of the film are not deeply developed because they need not be. They need only represent people.

This brings us to She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, the second part of what is known as Ford’s Cavalry trilogy which began with Fort Apache and would later conclude with Rio Grande. In many ways She Wore a Yellow Ribbon is the most Fordian of all his Westerns. All of his traditional themes are in place, it stars John Wayne in a tragically underrated performance (there are moments in this film where Wayne’s performance could easily stand amongst the great performances of American cinema), and Monument Valley which has never been more gracefully photographed, this time in Technicolor by cinematographer, Winton C. Hoch. Here, ten years after Stagecoach, Ford’s West is no longer populated by archetypes and representations, but by people – or a person, at least – in the form of Cavalry Captain Nathan Brittles. Brittles is an aging, fatherly figure, preparing for one final mission before retiring from the Army and surrendering his command to an inexperienced, younger officer. Amongst his Westerns, Capt. Brittles represents Ford’s most iconic hero. Lindsay Anderson describes the typical Ford hero as, " . . . all men of purpose, of principles unostentatiously but firmly held. Skillful and courageous in action, they combine their hardihood with a personal gentleness and moral grace; hesitant and tender in love, resolute against injustice. Owing the traditional reverences to God and to his fellow men, the Ford hero is the cinema’s most convincing representation of the righteous man." With this passage, Anderson is primarily referring to the Ford hero as played by Henry Fonda from films like, Young Mr. Lincoln, The Grapes of Wrath, and My Darling Clementine, but in this case, it could also be used to describe Wayne’s Captain Nathan Brittles. Anderson goes on to say, "With the collapse of its popular traditions, Western art has become increasingly sophisticated and eclectic. The popular themes are in general left to be exploited, and degraded, by the opportunists. Ford’s films, in this context, seem hardly to belong to our time at all. His art is not intellectual; his impulse is intuitive, not analytical. Unsophisticated and direct, his work can be enjoyed by anyone, regardless of cultural level, who has retained his sensitivity and subscribes to values primarily humane. He applies himself to traditional themes, and is happiest when his story is set in the settled society of another era." Today especially, this feels as a film of a time long past, but even in 1949, it was not so much contemporary as belonging to a forgotten era. Timeless, perhaps. In ten years, Ford’s West has developed from the misunderstood outcast of Stagecoach to the righteous hero of She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, from archetype to human being, from morality tale to heroic elegy, from black and white to color, yet both remain firmly planted in the past.

Finally, in 1956, less than ten years after She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, we come to The Searchers – possibly the greatest of all Westerns, and one of the shining achievements in American film. Roger Ebert reminds us of its influence when he points out that, "It inspired a plot line in George Lucas’ Star Wars. It’s at the center of Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, written by Paul Schrader, who used it again in his own, Hard Core. The hero in each of the Schrader screenplays is a loner driven to violence and madness by his mission to rescue a young white woman who has become the sexual prey of those seen as subhuman. Harry Dean Stanton’s search for Nastassja Kinski in Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas is a reworking of the Ford story. Even Ethan’s famous line, ‘That’ll be the day,’ inspired a song by Buddy Holly." It is a story of obsession, equal in intensity and complexity even to Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. Its quest focuses on the person of Ethan Edwards an openly racist, Indian-hating, ex-Confederate soldier who returns to the home of his brother just in time to put in a quick visit before they are slaughtered by a band of Comanche warriors. The Searchers and the character of Ethan Edwards provide the western genre with one of its darkest and most complex stories. John Wayne delivers the best performance of his career (it was reportedly his favorite role) as Edwards. Like the surprise of Henry Fonda’s villainous turn years later in Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West, Wayne also plays dramatically out of type as the film’s antihero whose motivations are downright villainous. In one scene, when their posse encounters a dead Indian, Ethan shoots out its eyes. For Ethan, the physical death of the Indian is not enough, he wants to ensure their spiritual death as well. Much has been made of the characters uncertainty. Not until the final scene is the audience certain of whether or not Ethan is going to rescue the niece he has spent the last five years searching for, or kill her. Steven Greydanus claims, "By far the most disturbingly racist aspect of Ethan’s vendetta is his cold judgment that Debbie (the niece) would be better off dead than living as a Comanche squaw. To some extent this might be seen in terms of outrage that Debbie should be sleeping with the murderer who killed her own family. Yet Ethan unambiguously goes beyond mere issues of loyalty and betrayal when he declares that, for a white girl like Debbie at least, ‘Livin’ with Comanches ain’t being alive.’ A deep hostility to the mixing of the races itself seems to be a basic part of Ethan’s complicated, ambiguous motives."

Once again, Lindsay Anderson returns to describing Ford’s technique as being, "characterized by its extreme simplicity. Seldom indulging in the sophistications of camera movement, his films proceed in a series of visual statements – as sparing in their use of natural sound as of dialogue." Notice the way Ford emphasizes a stylistic exception in the scene where Ethan and Marty visit a Cavalry camp in hopes that they might have picked up Debbie during one of the raids. They stand confronted with a handful of young girls who had been living with Comanche’s. As they are leaving, Ethan turns to look once more, Ford’s camera quickly pushes in on his face, bathed in the shadow of his hat, slits for eyes, and a glaring expression filled with hatred. It’s one of the most frighteningly powerful moments in the film.

Greydanus also points out, "In a genre that traditionally regarded its heroes as good almost by definition and Indians as one-dimensional adversaries, The Searchers broken new ground in casting no less than the Duke himself as a flawed protagonist . . . This challenge to the Western mythos is deepened by a scene in which the ever-reliable Cavalry attacks an Indian camp, brutally slaughtering even women and children in retribution for an Indian attack." He concludes by saying, "It’s a rare classic Western that invites viewers to ponder ambiguities rather than to cheer good guys against bad guys, and even to question its hero and the Western mythos itself." What happened to the Ford hero as "the cinema’s most convincing representation of the righteous man?" Ethan is certainly courageous and capable, and he is a man of principles however questionable they may be, but he is not a righteous man. What happened to the man of virtue and the unquestionable hero? "Gone is the simple black and white morality of the early days (Stagecoach)," claims Martin Scorsese. "Gone are the old-fashioned values of the seasoned Cavalry officer (She Wore a Yellow Ribbon). The same star, John Wayne. The same location, around Monument Valley. The same director, John Ford. But a different character, different attitudes, different conflicts, almost a different country. Ethan Edwards hunts down his niece, abducted and raised by the Indians after the massacre of her parents, because he believes she has been tarnished. Living with Comanches, he insists, is not being alive. Ethan Edwards is actually the most frightening character in the film. [After finally rescuing her] This is no happy ending, though. There is no home, no family waiting for Ethan. He is cursed, just as he cursed the dead Comanche. He is a drifter, doomed to wander between the winds." The final shot of the film, with Ethan standing the doorway, not able to enter civilization, is one of the finest images in American cinema. In Stagecoach, civilization was not worth of Ringo and Dallas. In The Searchers, Ethan is not worth of civilization.

The archetypal morality tale of Stagecoach becomes the ode to the righteous hero of She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, which finally becomes the embittered antihero of The Searchers. Through the decades, Ford’s West grows increasingly darker and more complex. The consummation of this trend is realized in the director’s final great western, 1962's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, once again starring John Wayne. In this film, however, though a return to the black and white photography of Stagecoach, Ford creates a mournful elegy to the death of the old West, and likewise, the Western itself. Here, the long arm of civilization is unavoidable, and soon there will no longer be any room for the larger than life heroes of men like Tom Doniphon, Nathan Brittles, The Ringo Kid, or even Ethan Edwards – the men of character who tamed the West. This is the mythology of John Ford, the cinema’s chronicler of American history, the teller of the tales of the old West and the folk stories of legends gone by from an era that is no more. The mythology of John Ford is perhaps best summed up with a line from one of his own films, "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."

The Upside of Anger

2005-12-08T12:27:00.000-08:00

Mike Bender's suburban drama about a boozing housewife whose husband supposedly just ran off with his secretary leaving her to take care of her four strong willed daughters has moments of grace and charm, but not enough to sustain the movie. Kevin Costner possibly turns in his best performance as the equally boozy ex-baseball star, next door neighbor who seizes the opportunity to become romantically entagled with the recently singled Joan Allen. His is the most interesting character in the movie. Allen plays a very bitter and angry woman. If there is an upside to anger, the movie claims, then it is in our ability to use it to learn, grow, and move on. Many critics have called the ending a cheat, though I think it elevates the film to a level that wouldn't otherwise deserve. Much of our own anger and bitterness is based on misconceptions, not having all the facts, and merely because sometimes we like being angry, but the ending reminds us that life isn't always like that. It's a good movie, but far from great.

Quatermass and the Pit (aka 5 Million Years to Earth)

2005-12-07T21:05:00.000-08:00

Ranks with The Devil Rides Out and The Horror of Dracula as one of Hammer Studio's best films. This, however, is a sci-fi film about a mysterious space craft unearthed in the London subways system (you just never know what you'll find down there). At first, prehistoric ape skulls are discovered, invigorating an ambitious scientist. The spaceship is revealed to be inhabited by dead, ancient insect Martians that, like the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey, are responsible for initiating the evolution of ape into man. Actually, the idea that our species is a result of telepathic, insectoid Martians could explain a great deal. Nevertheless, this is a strangely intelligent film that doesn't sell itself short. The climax involving a giant ghost insect hovering over the city is one of those images that will probably stick with you.

Katzelmacher

2005-12-06T16:05:00.000-08:00

This is probably Fassbinder's best early film. It's a spare, almost minimalist film about aimless youth centered around a group from an apartment building. They sit and stare with existential angst, and occasionally engage in meaningless sex. They sort of talk about politics, gossip about one another, discuss their relationships, and occasionally break out into jarring moments of domestic violence, though it's not a very wordy or action packed film. Actually, this description probably makes it sound rather dull, and in many was it is. Yet Fassbinder still manages to make it interesting. Apparently the title translates to "cock-master", which seems strangely appropriate, yet "Katzelmacher" just sounds so much cooler.

Castle in the Sky (aka Laputa)

2005-12-05T15:09:00.000-08:00

There is magic in every film yet that I have seen from Japanese master animator, Hayao Miyazaki. Probably better than any other filmmaker in the last 20 years, Miyazaki transports his audience to a completely new world filled with adventure and imagination. Though this may not be his absolutely most imaginative film, it is probably his funniest. He has an uncanny way of creating likeable, complex characters (usually children or teenagers), whose goodness influences everyone around them, including, in this case, a band of pirates, and often even the villains. This film finds a boy and a mysterious girl searching for the fabled floating city of Laputa. They are aided by the pirates and pursued by a group of shadey government agents whose intentions may not be pure. Miyazaki excels at the joy of possibilities such as flying, and his fantasy is crafted with such precision and a concern for moral character and the humanity of all of his characters.

Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist

2005-12-04T13:29:00.000-08:00

Paul Schrader's version of the prequel to William Friedkin's classic horror film is a movie that I find myself honestly wanting to like because it takes its idea's, particularly those in relation to the nature of God and evil, seriously. In fact, its focus is so centered on its ideas that one might have trouble even calling this a horror film. There are few elements that are distinctly "horror", and it's not particularly scarey -- even the exorcism itself is relegated as a minor climax in the final 15 minutes of the film. No, the film is more concerned with the testing of the faith of Father Merrin (Max von Sydow's character from the original film). The opening scene, perhaps the best in the film, pits the young priest in WWII era Holland against against a platoon of Nazi soldiers who ask him to chose a member of his congregation to be killed and made example of. Merrin refuses and the Nazi gets upset and next asks him to chose 10 people to be killed or else he will kill the entire congregation. I won't say what happens, but this event leaves Merrin to consider the nature of evil and whether God's grace has any place in a world that produces the likes of the Nazi's. Is evil a real force or is it man-made? Later Merrin finds himself at an African archeological site of a buried church and he has all but abandoned his faith. But as the evil that surrounds the chuch begins to brew, the native tribes and the stationed British soldiers become plagued and history begins to repeat itself. A sick, crippled boy slowly begins exhibiting signs of possession, but the more possessed he becomes, the more healthy and able-bodied he becomes, and Merrin must again confront the reality of God and evil. In terms of its spiritual ideas, this is probably the best horror film since Friedkin's. And while a respect Schrader's direction of the story by intentionally subverting the "goods" of the horror genre, it is ultimately too unspectacular to be a genuinely enjoyable movie experience. Even the cinematography by the great Vittorio Storaro is surprisingly bland. Stellan Skarsgard is good as Merrin, and Schrader remains one of the most religiously challenging filmmakers around, but ultimately this is a rewarding film, not a great one.

Kung Fu Hustle

2005-12-03T16:55:00.000-08:00

Stephen Chow's martial arts comedy is probably one of the most purely enjoyable films of this year. He revels in the implausibility of the situations, but fans of the genre are likely to walk away with more than a few strong laughs. Chow plays a pathetic street hustler who dreams of becoming a vile gangster -- a member of the dreaded Axe Gang -- but he's just no good at it. Some of the moments he gets humiliated provided some of the better comic moments in any film this year. There are various kung fu masters in the film, and just as soon as you think the film has settled on the greatest warrior, another shows up and leaves the lesser mortals in awe (or dead). It plays out purely for entertainment, and delivers. It doesn't have the poetry, beauty, depth of a film like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon but it does have the physical comedy and athleticism of a Jackie Chan or even a Buster Keaton, with a cartoonish bent.

It Came From Beneath the Sea

2005-12-01T17:40:00.000-08:00

This is an enjoyable monster movie from the 50's that pits a giant octopus (awakened from the depths of the ocean by atomic explosions) against a nuclear submarmine, fishing boats, the Oregon coast, and finally the city of San Francisco. Special effects guru, Ray Harryhausen animated the beast. It worth it just to see the octopus pull apart the Golden Gate Bridge. Science fiction, the atomic age, and monsters were all just made for each other.

Gods of the Plague

2005-12-01T17:34:00.000-08:00

To be quite honest, I was never really quite sure what was happening in this film by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. It seems to be a pseudo-film noir involving crime, women, and the youth culture. Aesthetically, however, I found this to be one of his most purely interesting exercises. At times, the camera work, the portrayal of youth culture, the reinvention of genre, and the loose, free flowing style is positively Godardian, particularly his films of the early 60's. So, despite the fact I can't tell you what was happening, I was always intrigued and interested by how it was being shown.

They Were Expendable

2005-12-01T00:43:00.000-08:00

This is probably John Ford's best WWII film. It's a solid film that boasts Ford's assured direction, and a couple of strong performances from Robert Montgomery and John Wayne (who surprisingly received second billing, probably for the last time in his career). Despite its strengths it still can't match what still may be the finest WWII film of the era (and possibly of any era), Allan Dwan's The Sands of Iwo Jima. Montgomery and Wayne play a couple of PT boat captains in the Philippines, despite the fact that the Navy doesn't hold PT boats in high regard (thus the title). It's a solid, patriotic war film that never resorts to overt flag-waving or ham-handed inspirational speeches. Ford and co. know better and make the movie to prove it. There are some excellent and well-choreographed action sequences that had me scanning to see if they were faked, but as far as I can tell, they weren't. Donna Reed also has good, minor role.

Q the Winged Serpent

2005-11-30T13:56:00.000-08:00

This enjoyable b-grade monster movie sees a mythical, dragon-like Aztec god come to life in downtown Manhattan, picking off sunbathers from rooftops and building its nest at the top of the Chrysler building. Larry Cohen helms the film and delivers the goods: monsters, unusual settings, human sacrifices, bikini clad sunbathers, bad special effects, strangely good performances from David Carradine and Michael Moriarty. What more do you really need? It all adds up to a mostly satisfying movie of its kind.

Playtime

2005-11-28T15:37:00.000-08:00

Brilliant. Absolutely amazing. I don't even know where to start in describing Jacques Tati's masterpiece. There is no story, only incidents. There are no characters, only recognizable faces (one of which, of course, being Tati's M. Hulot). It's a truly visionary work with an aesthetic so rigorous as to be compared to Bresson or Antonioni, but on a larger, grander scale. There are a few major set-pieces -- an airport terminal, a building lobby/office complex/showroom floor, an apartment complex, and a restaurant. It is a world enclosed in glass and filled with comic mishaps of such subtlty and precision that its almost difficult to even call it a comedy, or put it in any genre for that matter. The production design is meticulous and extraordinary and Tati makes the best use of 70mm that I have ever seen. His compositions are almost exclusively wide shots which encompass an entire world of carefully crafted action, and his camera watches it all, as we recognize the complexities of his vision. Tati, and this film in particular, is difficult to explain (at least for me). His films must be experienced to be understood, and this is best experienced in its native format on the big screen, where the intricacies aren't hidden by a television screen.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

2005-11-28T13:47:00.000-08:00

The fourth outing of everybody's favorite boy wizard is the most imaginative and exciting of the series. Mike Newell manages to artistically reinvent the world of Hogwarts as Alfonso Cuaron did in the previous film. Newell is the first British director of a very British series, though I didn't notice this as being any more "British" than the previous films. The three leads continue to develop as actors, people, and characters nicely, in that these all seem to be metaphors for growing up anyway. This is the darkest entry yet, and the stakes are raised as Lord Valdemont makes his return, and the film ends up with a body count. Despite it's 2 1/2 hour length, it manages to jump from event to event, and for me anyway, left me wanting to see more. The story revolves around Harry's mysterious entry into the dangerous Tri-wizard Tournament which is a life or death contest usually reserved for older students. It's through this contest, however, that I believe Harry begins to develop morally. It's in his willingness to sacrafice the win to help others, or to not bend the rules for curiosity sake that makes this the most morally grounded of the series. Plus the darker nature, and more dangerous challenges provide a stronger, more mature conflict for him to face. That combined with Newell's visual flair, and some of the more imaginative digital wizardry in recent memory, make this the most imaginative, exciting and well-rounded of the series.

Peter and Paul

2005-11-26T20:09:00.000-08:00

A competent and generally straightforward made for T.V. retelling of what amounts to the book of Acts. Anthony Hopkins turns in a good, but not stellar performance as the apostle Paul -- the man who is more responsible than any other for shaping the last 2,000 years of Western civilization (except for, perhaps, Jesus himself). It certainly doesn't take any artistic risks, but neither does it short change its evangelistic message. The Biblical text is treated faithfully and honestly. I commend Hopkins and Robert Foxworth (Peter) for attempting (not always successfully) to bring humanity and piety to these two great followers of Christ, and even in their failures, I can respect the idea. This would be the perfect film to show to church groups or in various Bible classes, and is a story that is long overdue for a definitive big screen treatment.

Whity

2005-11-20T12:53:00.000-08:00

Leave it to Fassbinder to subvert the Western genre. It's a Western, set in America, but of course everyone speaks German. Whity is the mulatto slave of the perverse Nicholson family. The family almost gets as much joy from abusing him as they do from masochistically harming themselves. The grown children of the family patriarch all come to Whity and ask him to kill their father. One of the sons clearly has some sexual issues to work through. In fact, all of the main white characters in the film already look dead. They are made up in a grotesquely pale make up that looks like it would be more at home in a Romero film. This is easily the most subversive Western since Nicholas Ray's masterpiece, Johnny Guitar, but this isn't nearly as much fun, though it is certainly more psychologically probing. Just watch the way Fassbinder (and cinematographer, Michael Ballhaus') camera glides around the room from one character to another in the scene in which the father reads out his will. Like the best of his films, there are moments of almost delicious perversion, but he is unable to sustain the mood for the entire film.

Walk the Line

2005-11-19T15:57:00.000-08:00

Another conventional, but successful Hollywood biopic, this time about the iconic Johnny Cash. It's inevitable comparisson will be to last years overhyped, Ray, but I think this is the better film. Joaquin Phoenix is extraordinary as Cash -- a man who in the beginning is just trying to find his own voice and live down the death of his "better" brother and his relationship with his disappointed father, and by the end becomes a true music icon having marched through hell to reach paradise. Equally as extaordinary, however, is Reese Witherspoon as June Carter, the love of his life. I have often found Witherspoon to at time be impossibly cute, but here she provides strength, sensitivity, and a moral grounding to Johnny's life. Most of the film is dedicated to Cash's pursual of her and her numerous rejections, yet always remaining his most faithful friend. James Mangold's direction is conventional, yet steady. It seems at times he chooses to focus on unusual moments in Cash's life which manages to keep it interesting. It's a good film on it's own, but it's worth it just for the performances and the music.

Fear of Fear

2005-11-18T20:47:00.000-08:00

After watching a couple of duds from Fassbinder, this was a welcome, if not entirely successful relief. It focuses on a young, middle class housewife who seems to be losing her mind around the time she is to have her second child. Soon, her sanity begins to deteriorate as she finds herself becoming addicted to Valium and alcohol. The most troubling thing is that no one around seems to even notice. Her husband, and mother and sister (who live in the same apartment complex) are all too self-involved to even notice that she needs help (and even if they did, they probably wouldn't do anything but tell her to shape up). She is frightened -- crippled by fear. Fear of fear. This is vintage Fassbinder material, and he almost pulls it off. Unfortunately the idea of the film is better than the film itself. Still though, it could have been much, much worse.

Meet John Doe

2005-11-18T19:12:00.000-08:00

I have to admit that I was surprised to find this lesser known film to be Frank Capra's best, excluding of course, It's a Wonderful Life. Yeah, yeah, he's sentimental. That should be a given. However, unlike the overbearing and prechy Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and the ocassional misfires of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Capra finds the right balance between his sentiment and his pathos. Gary Cooper, in one of his best performances, once again is the everyman John Doe who, thanks to reporter Barbara Stanwyck (in one of her best performances), gets an outlet for the injustices of depression era society and becomes a spokesman for the common man. Except, he was hired, and everything he says was scripted (by Stanwyck), and the media mogul that he works for may have ulterior motivations for Cooper's national platform. Soon, though, his message turns from anger to hope and inspiration. It's actually fairly complex how it all works together, but I found it to be an unusually moving film. It's "love your neighbor" ethic never comes across as simplistic as it could have (and probably should have), and there's even a "we're the people" speech that tops the more famous example from The Grapes of Wrath. It may be the most Dickensian of all of Capra's films. I don't necessarily think that Capra was a great director, certainly not one of the greatest, but with this and It's a Wonderful Life, he made at least two great films.

It's Alive

2005-11-17T18:05:00.000-08:00

Lame horror film from Larry Cohen, which seems to have a fairly significan critical and cult following. This film picks up at about the point that a film like Rosemary's Baby ended -- with a woman giving birth to a hideously deformed demon child (allegedly thanks to an untested drug that the mother was on). Fresh out of the womb, the vampiric child runs, jumps, an utilizes logical thinking to butcher his way through the town and back to his proud, proud parents -- not bad for a little tyke. It's unscarey, and I found it to be overly ridiculous. Fortunately, Bernard Herrmann provides a solid score, but I'm not sure why he was working on this film in the first place.

Pioneers in Ingolstadt

2005-11-16T16:56:00.000-08:00

Apparently this was this was the film that put Rainer Werner Fassbinder on the map of international cinema, though his auteur status wouldn't be cemented until a little while later. Unfortunately, Fassbinder seems as bored with his own film as I did watching it. Perhaps because, unlike his other films, this was based on a play. A group of German soldiers (identified as Nazi's only by their uniforms) are building a bridge in Ingolstadt and most of the film is dedicated to their sexual exploits with a group of naive girls who have taken up prostitution. The idea seems to have potential, but Fassbinder doesn't find it in this film.

The Chumscrubber

2005-11-16T14:17:00.000-08:00

Yet another in a long line this year of independent films that can't seem to move beyond the term interesting. It's a suburband teenage drama that smells blatantly of Donnie Darko and American Beauty with an Altman-esque weaving of an ensemble all-star cast. The fact that it never manages to elevate itself to the place that it wants to be (and probably should be considering all of the talent involved) is disappointing. However, along with his performance in last year's Undertow, and now this, Jamie Bell is quickly becoming one of my favorite young actors around. He's good, and so is most of the cast, in fact, but they don't have much to work from except for some amusing and broadly drawn stereotypes of suburban America. There's drugs, weddings, kidnappings, vitamins, suicide, and a video game, but it all can't save the film.

Effi Briest

2005-11-16T00:17:00.000-08:00

Unconvincing, dull, uncharacteristic period piece from Fassbinder about a teenage girl who marries a wealthy older diplomat and then unwittingly succumbs us to the boredom that she endures. Not one of his finer moments.

The Squid and the Whale

2005-11-14T16:11:00.000-08:00

Noah Baumbach's film has me a bit torn. On the one hand it does an excellent job chronicling the effects of divorce and joint custody on children, but on the other hand it really left me with nothing. Jeff Daniels gives perhaps his best performance to date as the snobby, psuedo-intellectual, past-his-prime, literature professor father who divorces Laura Linney. Their two boys develop attachments to one of their parents -- the older boy to his father and the younger to his mother. Every party involved seems to be in the wrong in one way or another. It's one of those seemingly personal independent films that never transcends its few ideas or its story. The feels like the kind of film that should be much more than it really was.

Chinese Roulette

2005-11-12T13:58:00.000-08:00

Yet another Fassbinder film whose final third elevates this to the status of near-great and makes it a significantly better film than it was starting out to be. It plays out like a murder mystery, except no one dies -- at least not physically. A man and his mistress arrive at a country estate, where he finds his wife and her lover already there. Together, they have a precocious and even spiteful young, crippled daughter as well as a few servants. The first two-thirds of the film establishes their relationships to one another and their feelings towards each other which all leads up to a spectacular game of verbal torture called chinese roulette. I'm not going to try and explain the game, that you'll have to find out for yourself, but it's a suspenseful sequence that plays out in real time like the detective walking around the room examining all of the suspects and explaining how each of them had motive and opportunity until the final revelation. This seems like the kind of film that would be fun to make -- learn an interesting and insightful game and then build a movie around it. Works for me.

The Passenger

2005-11-11T14:25:00.000-08:00

Jack Nicholson stars in this "espionage thriller" from Michelangelo Antonioni. I place it in quotes because it's almost useless to describe an Antonioni film in terms of genre, because he only takes the barest traces of the genre and then proceeds to make his own film. It's by no means thrilling, nor is it boring. Nicholson is a reporter in Africa who, for one reason or another, switches identities with a dead man (perhaps in order to feel liberated). It turns out that the man he switched with is an international gun runner. Much of the films is a travelogue through Europe with Jack and Maria Schneider who gives a wonderful performance. Antonioni does more with photographic space -- negative space in particular -- than probably any other filmmaker. It feels empty, even with people in the frame, and speaks volumes about his construction of reality (see Blow Up). This film, however, is lesser Antonioni, with the exception of a bravura piece of camera work that composes the second to last shot of the film -- probably one of the most spectacular shots in the history of the medium, if I may be so bold. Antonioni is a true orginal and often difficult to understand, but then that could be because his films are often about alienation and the difficulty of understanding and the fragmentation of reality.

The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant

2005-11-09T19:01:00.000-08:00

A seemingly typical film from Rainer Werner Fassbinder featuring intense female pathology and only the barest traces of style (which in itself constitutes Fassbinder's own unique style). It all takes place in the home of Petra von Kant, a wealthy, arrogant fashion designer who soon falls in love with one of her models. Actually this would probably make an effective stage play in the vein of Tennessee Williams with its limited setting and only a few extended scenes. After winning the heart of her model, the girl becomes complacent and Petra becomes increasingly obsessive. This really shouldn't be a particularly good film, but it becomes one because Fassbinder along with his actors bring us so deeply into the skin of the characters, that it is difficult to no be impressed by the complexity and humanity he manages to create. The final few scenes earn an emotional potency as I came to understand the truth and meaning of the title.

No Direction Home: Bob Dylan

2005-11-09T00:18:00.000-08:00

Martin Scorsese's documentary covers the life of Bob Dylan from his youth through 1966. At nearly four hours in length, it has plenty of time to cover the highlights of his career and bring some insight into the man, but it never really does. There are some revealing and interesting interviews with other folk musicians of the time and even some with Dylan himself. He had already become a legend between the ages of 20 and 25. There is some great archival footage and of course great music, but walking away from it, I don't feel like I really know much more about Dylan than when I began, excepts for some biographical details, and the differing points of view from the other interviewees. Actually, this makes a good companion piece to D.A. Pennebaker's Dylan documentary, Don't Look Back in which Dylan comes across as immature and antagonistic, whereas in this film he comes across more human and rounded. He is proclaimed the voice of his generation, yet to him it was never about the message. I just wish this film would let us get to know him better.

Red Eye

2005-11-08T12:00:00.000-08:00

Wes Craven's latest turns out to be perhaps the tightest pure thriller of the year. It starts out one way, then takes a turn to become a mid-air mind game between Cillian Murphy and Rachel McAdams, and then becomes something of a larger scale story of espionage and political terror. Craft wise, the middle section is the most suspenseful and compelling, but its the ending segment that almost makes this a potentially great film, especially when seen in light of Craven's other work. The auteur theorist in me may be willing to elevate this to a higher level than it deserves because, in some ways, it is a consummation of Craven's career. So many of his best films deal with the dehumanizing effects of violence -- even when it is warrarted (ie. The Last House on the Left, The Hills Have Eyes, and Scream). Here, however, thanks to Murphy's charmingly sinister, antagonistic performance, and thanks to the nature of the genre, Craven builds up a blood lust in the audience that demands McAdam's kill her attacker. But he wisely deprives the audience of that satisfaction, instead allowing Murphy to be shot not by McAdams, but by Brian Cox who plays her father, and even then he only incapacitates the villain rather than resorting to a justified slaying. Craven finally allows his protagonists to retain their humanity and actually prove themselves morally superior to the villain.

Divine Comedy, Spirited Laughter

2005-11-07T15:06:00.000-08:00

Here is my paper in response to the recent City of Angels film festival:

I believe it was Mel Brooks who said that, "I cut my finger, that’s tragedy. A man walks
into an open sewer and dies, that’s comedy." Comedy is the inverting of our expectations. Comedy is tragedy plus time. Comedy is no one thing and everything, just so long as it’s funny. And just about everything can be made funny, when looked at from the right point of view. These are some of the things that I was reminded of at this year’s film festival. It’s good to be occasionally reminded of the power of comedy, because it has the potential to be the most subversive of film genres. One is more apt to let things slide if they are being made to laugh than if they are just being made to watch. So as Christians, we must ask ourselves, what makes us laugh? What makes God laugh (or does He laugh at all)? What are the Divine possibilities of comedy? After all, I suppose it’s important.

"Here’s the Treasury report, sir. I hope you’ll find it clear."
"Clear? Huh. Why a four-year-old child could understand this report." He turns to his secretary, "Run out and find me a four-year-old child, I can’t make head or tail of it."

If God doesn’t laugh at the Marx brothers, then He doesn’t laugh at all. Duck Soup, in my humble opinion, laugh for laugh may be the funniest movie ever made, with the exception of Airplane!, of course. Comedy has always tended towards the anarchic, but the Marx’s take it to its logical end – utter chaos, and comic brilliance, where everything that can happen, does (and then some). The comedy of this film lies in slapstick and satire, however we’re often so overwhelmed by the level and quantity of the slapstick, that the satire is almost missed. Groucho endlessly throws out his puns and one-liners, Chico provides the foil to Groucho, and Harpo stands there innocently until he honks his horn, cuts off your tie, or places his leg in your hands. But beyond the sight gags and verbal wit, the film takes aim at governments, institutions, war, and politics all in under seventy minutes. Why is it important? Why is it funny? I think both questions can be answered in the fact that the film emphasizes human weaknesses and fallibilities such as our pride. It takes the craziness of the world we know and exaggerates it to comic proportions, creating a world that reflects our own, and one that we may even secretly think is our own. The Marx brothers have a way of inverting logical responses to situations which makes it funny. But it’s also funny because when we sit down and think about it, we realize that really they respond just the way that we do, but they take joy in exposing our irrationalities -- or even our humanness.

"...The other important joke for me is one that’s usually attributed to Groucho Marx, but I think it appears originally in Freud’s ‘Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious,’ and it goes like this. I’m paraphrasing, ‘I would never want to belong to any club that would have someone like me for a member.’ That’s the key joke of my adult life, in terms of my relationships with women."

Woody Allen is perhaps the most consistent and personal of American filmmakers. After a while, you just start laughing before the joke is even delivered, because you know it’s coming and it’s going to be funny. But unlike the Marx brothers, the comedy of Woody Allen has an edge of sadness. If the Marx brothers were low brow, then Woody Allen is high brow. Where the Marx brothers will be funny and raise your spirits for the day, Woody Allen might leave you down, though you’ll probably laugh a good deal on your way there. He is the disappointed atheist, and much of his humor comes in the face of an empty universe and the disappointments of relationships. He laughs, and we along with him, because it is better to laugh than to cry. He recognizes imperfections, his above all, and makes us laugh at them, while never allowing us to forget what they really are. His is the comedy of reality, or reality as he sees it. It’s funny, to be sure, but I don’t think God laughs during a Woody Allen movie. I think He cries, because Allen is so close to the truth, but just can’t grab onto it. I do, however, think that it is appropriate for us to laugh, because while we may recognize that he doesn’t have the whole story right, he does have a lot of it right, and he is unusually insightful into the human condition. Annie Hall in particular has a way of exposing truths about life and relationships that we all think, but rarely are able to express (need I mention Marshall McLuhan?). Like Chaplin, he has a way of blending pathos and comedy in just the right doses so that we recognize and experience the sad and the disappointments, but not at the expense of the joy and the humor.

The comedians of the silent era almost certainly had it tougher than comedians today because they had to rely exclusively on pantomime and physical comedy. In many ways, Buster Keaton may have been the real master of his form. In The General, as with his other films, he is able to maintain his stoic demeanor in the face of some amazing stunts. For Keaton, there was no cinematic trickery to his acrobatics. They are primarily filmed in long shots so that the audience can see that they’re real. But as he barrels from one absurd situation to another, we begin to recognize that physical comedy reminds us that we don’t have control of the outside world. As eager as we may be to hold onto things, sometimes we just can’t, and Keaton finds the humor of that reality. His film isn’t profound, but it is memorable and even life affirming, by pointing out the goodness despite the absurdity of the situations. Panelist Ron Austin pointed out that according to Plato, comedy is the gap between the real and the ideal, or if you prefer, between ourselves and God. It becomes funny when we start taking ourselves too seriously, and Buster Keaton never took himself too seriously. The comedy that will last and span the ages is not performed with bitterness or with a mean spirit, but with compassion and love for humanity. I think God can laugh with that.

"Boy would I like to see you give some old harpie the three in one!"
"Don’t be vulgar, Jane. Let us be crooked, but never common."

Of all the various forms of comedy, satire is probably the most critically respected, and Preston Sturges the finest satirist to make a film. The Lady Eve is a screwball comedy which comes with its conventions, but it is also a satire of relationships, stereotypes, and the American aristocracy. The film has been called a metaphor for the fall which is evident by the title, the opening credits, and the motif of snakes. Plato’s gap theory also comes into play here as Henry Fonda’s character is continuously searching for his "ideal" woman. The problem, Sturges points out, is that we are all only human – the bad one’s probably aren’t as bad as we think and the good ones not as good. There are no ideal people, only real ones. As Monica Ganas wrote in her essay of the film, "In this film, people can only become good people when they are forgiven for being bad people." Sounds like a pretty accurate view of the relationship between God and man. The comedy of Preston Sturges pokes fun at our phony "window dressings" and gets right to the heart of the matter. His delight is revealing the flaws of society, and we laugh all the harder because more often than not, we recognize that it’s true.

The world of Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro is the theatre of the absurd. The world of Delicatessen is a world exaggerated by fish eye lenses, quirky characters, unusual settings, and elaborate production design. It is a post-apocalyptic world that was described as a parody Inferno (Dante’s not Argento’s). In this surrealist dark comedy that’s part Bunuel and more than a little Terry Gilliam, the horror of the situation is offset by its sense of humor. The comedy of this film relieves what might otherwise be an unbearable existence. It’s probably not by accident that the hero of the film is a clown who has a way of bringing joy to a chaotic and deteriorating world. He is the optimist in a world seemingly without hope, reminding us that humor can keep us going in the darkest of times.

Over the course of the festival, a recurring theme maintains that laughter is a grace. Comedy, humor, and laughter may not only be a means to an end, but may be ends in themselves. There are many different types of comedy and many different uses for it. Through it all, I think that God does laugh, and even if He doesn’t, then I think we should. Comedy is about absurdity, joy, sorrow, flaws, faults, inconsistencies, and ultimately truth. We laugh because it’s funny and we laugh because it’s true. We are imperfect people in an imperfect world, and nothing reminds us of this more clearly and entertainingly than a good comedy. Comedy may indeed be Divine and the deepest laughter should be an outpouring of our spirit.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932)

2005-11-06T12:50:00.000-08:00

Granted, I haven't seen every adaptation of Robert Lewis Stevenson's classic horror story, but after watching Rouben Mamoulian's version, I am prepared to call this best. Frederic March plays the duel role of tormented good doctor, and his brutal counterpart. His Hyde is ape like in both appearance and even in action. He abuses and psychologically tortures a young barmaid in some of the more frightening and disturbing passages of the film. The film also has some strong and overt erotic undertones. Mamoulian was one of cinema's earliest innovators. The 1930's presented some of the most visually bland films in American history due to the advent of sound and the unwieldy size of the camera's. Mamoulian, however, refused to be bound by such limitations. His camera moves remarkably. There is some spectacular subjective camerwork involving Jekyll looking directly into a mirror and watching his own transformation into Hyde -- a remakable visual feat even today. A very unusual horror film, and one of the best of the era.

Pride and Prejudice (2005)

2005-11-04T23:21:00.000-08:00

This latest incarnation of the Jane Austen classic is one of the best and most enjoyable costume dramas/literary adaptations in recent years. Deborah Moggach's screenplay nicely condenses the novels events into a full two hours, that neither compromises the story nor overloads the running time. Director Joe Wright proves a good craftsman, bringing life and energy to familiar characters and familiar settings. He also seems to have a visual flare, particularly as demonstrated in the ballroom scenes with some extraordinarily well orchestrated camera work. Keira Knightley gives her strongest performance to date as Elizabeth Bennett, an excellent performance for that matter. Matthew MacFadyan brings a strong presence if not a wide range to the role of Mr. Darcy. Wright also manages to avoid the pratfalls and cliches of films of this type, by not devolving into sentimentality. He wisely keeps a restraint on the emotional material, allowing the audience to build sympathy for the character and flow with the story. Overall, a very satisfying and well-realized film.

Santa Sangre

2005-11-02T21:54:00.000-08:00

Alejandro Jodorowski's phantasmagorical film plays out like a mix of Psycho, Pulp Fiction, and Freaks as directed by both Fellini and Bunuel. What business a combination like that has of working, I'll never know, but this film does have a strange beauty to it in the way that it shows you things you've probably never seen before in a movie. I was particularly fond of the first half in which we see Fenix as a young boy growing up in the circus, son of the strong man and the trapeze lady. His father is secretly running off with the tatooed lady, whose daughter is a mute mime who is fond of Fenix. Much has been made of the scene in which after the elephant dies it is placed in an enormous coffin, paraded across town and then ceremoniously dropped into the junk yard where a group of starving peasants gather around, break through the coffin and cut up the elephant for food. His mother finds out about the fathers infidelity and throws acid on his crotch, in response, he cuts off both of her arms and then slits his own throat because of his immasculation. The second half takes place a number of years later and has these uber-Oedipal undertones as he effectively becomes the arms of his mother and lacks any will of his own, to the point that he begins murdering girls that he develops a sexual interest in at her command. All of this probably sounds incredibly strange, and it is. This is unusually bold filmmaking. The fact that it even works at all is a testament of Jodorowski's direction and vision. It's certainly not a film for all tastes, but it is by no means tasteless. This is a film that is similar to a dozen other films and utterly unlike anything that I have ever seen before, which is an accomplishment in and of itself.

Where the Truth Lies

2005-10-30T18:08:00.000-08:00

Yet another example this year of a good director making a mediocre film with a lot of promise. This time the director is Atom Egoyan and his pseudo film noir expose' of showbiz reality circa 1957 and 1972, centers around a comedy team not unlike Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. It has that trashy-elegant joy of revealing the seedy underbelly of Hollywood ala L.A. Confidential or Mulholland Drive, though is vastly inferior to either film. Egoyan's distinctive traits in this film are his distinct period recreations which reminded me of some scenes in his Felicia's Journey, also in his depiction of sexual interplay that's only slightly erotic and mostly a window into the characters. The plot centers around a murder mystery surrounding the duo and a young reporter searching for the truth and the tell-all sensationalism of anyone who will talk. The performances by the leads, Kevin Bacon, Colin Firth, and Alison Lohman are all strong, and each seems to fit the character. However, I was never compelled by the complex murder mystery on which the film hinges. It never managed to draw me in. I was never bored, but never involved. What keeps it going are the performances and Egoyan's atmospheric period recreations.

The Most Dangerous Game (1932)

2005-10-29T20:12:00.000-07:00

A near great suspense film from director Ernest B. Schoedsack and producer Merian C. Cooper, who would team up the next year to make the great King Kong. Actually, Kong seems to have virtually reproduced many of the shots in this film as well the same sets. Based on the classic short story, world famous hunter, Joel McCray is shipwrecked on a remote island inhabited by Count Zaroff and his Cossack servants. Zaroff too is a hunter, but of a different kind of animal -- human of course. As Zaroff, Leslie Banks, oozes half-British charm, half-sinister madman. Fay Wray is the damsel in distress as she would later be in King Kong. The film is well paced and often rather suspensful. It also features some impressive, expressionistic camerawork. It's a near great, classic film that prepares the way for the greatness of Kong.

Beware of a Holy Whore

2005-10-29T19:56:00.000-07:00

The title of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's film is telling because it is a film about filmmaking, and those behind the camera. Like Godard's Contempt and Truffaut's Day For Night, Fassbinder turns the camera on himself, and it becomes a film about Fassbinder making a film. Unfortunately, it is a lesser work than either Godard or Truffaut's film. He shows the conflicting personalities and utter confusion of a movie set, and even stars in the film as an assistant director type character. It seems to be a very personal film, I just wish it was better.

my final thoughts on Salo

2005-10-28T01:28:00.000-07:00

Many of the truths I found in the film seem self-evident, perhaps even embarrassingly so. Evil is bad. Compassion/love/mercy is good. Exploitation is wrong. Yet it is because these truths are self-evident that they are so profound. Many of the greatest truths are so obvious that we tend to miss or even ignore them. And it is because they are self-evident that we so often and so badly need to be reminded of them. If film is an art form and capable of revealing truth, then Salo is the purest reminder I know. But then again, I can only speak for myself.

Salo, or The 120 Days of Sodom

2005-10-27T17:28:00.000-07:00

Oh God, I beseech You, have mercy on us sinners. Everything that you've ever heard, feared, hoped, or thought about this film is true. It is utterly grotesque, completely appalling, mentally tortuous and an absolute masterpiece, a true work of art. Controversial Italian filmmaker, Pier Paolo Pasolini adapted the novel by the Marquis de Sade and sets it in fascist Italy where four dignitaries round up a group of virginal teenagers and lock them up in an elegant country villa, where for 120 days they inflict every conceivable form of degradation on their victims (and themselves). In between spats of orgies and rape, they discuss philosophy amongst themselves and conclude that it is better to be the torturer than the tortured, better master than servant, better victimizer than victim. But in order to be master, one must have victims, and those victims must live in order to be victimized. Much has been made (correctly so) of the endless perversions executed in this film including, rape, homosexuality, masturbation, drinking of urine, eating of feces, and more all in the name of sexual gratification for the fascist masters. The film has been criticized for desensitizing an audience to these atrocities, when in reality it serves to resensitize those who treat evil with a casual indifference (I might, sadly, place myself in this category). Part of the horror of the film (and brilliance) is not merely the actions performed, but in their casual execution by the masters. In other words the real horror is not the existence of evil, but the failure of anyone to acknowledge it as such. The victims are dehumanized to the point where in once scene they are all naked, and crawling around the floor on all fours with leashes around their necks, forced to bark like dogs and fight over scraps of food. It is in the exploitation of the victims where the political metaphor is made, in that the poor are exploited and victimized by the capitalist ruling classes (Pasolini was an avowed Marxist). While it's political message may be weak, I will forever be careful in how I treat others. No form of sexual fetish is left untured, but for most of the film the victims do not exist to be tortured so much as the indulge the perversions of the masters. It is not until the horrifying final scene in which all of hell's sadistic fury in unleashed on the victims. The best description of this film that I have read says that it is impossible to watch and essential that it exists. I will echo that, and take a controversial step forward by saying that in film history, this is one of the few films that I believe absolutely must exist. It reminds us of the realities and true atrocities of evil and the human capacity for evil -- how, apart from God, we a ruled by our lusts and desires. This is the one film, or work of art I should say, that even the most jaded film goer might find impossible to walk away from undisturbed. It is not exploitation, nor is it at all pornography. Its degradation is in service of an honorable statement. It is a powerfully humanist work of art. I might make a gross overgeneralization by going so far as to say that every Christian should see this film, though I will never recommend it. It is a masterpiece that I hope I need never again watch. I feel indebted to Pier Paolo Pasolini, that wretched Marxist, homosexual, atheist. Oh Lord, may I never sin again.

The Wicker Man

2005-10-26T16:42:00.000-07:00

You've gotta respect that honest hedonistic moralizing. Or maybe not. A straightlaced, religious police sergeant is sent to a mysterious Scottish island to investigate a missing girl. At first, the inhabitants seem like peaceful, solitary British folk, until he starts seeing people copulating outdoors in the middle of the night. As he begins uncovering the mysteries of the island, things start getting stranger and stranger until he finds himself in the middle of an ancient pagan rite involving flaunted sexuality and human sacrifices. This is a horror film that will no doubt defy any expectation one might have about the genre, beginning with the opening titles which has a Celtic folk song playing over it. And then there's Bond girl, Britt Eckland dancing naked through her room and singing another folk diddy. Best of all is Christopher Lee as the leader of the island cult. It manages to create a strange atmosphere where you start to give up trying to guess what's going to happen next. The ending is memorable, and once again unexpected. For a movie that's so indulgent, it seems to be strangely moralistic. Particularly for the first half, it's the kind of film that has you chuckling to yourself for its wreckless abandon while at the same time leaving you to constantly ask yourself what the hell is going on from one scene to the next. I guess I can say that I have strange respect for this film, yet I don't think it's any good.

Delicatessen

2005-10-26T01:10:00.000-07:00

The first film from Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro is something of a marvel of that macabre, surrealist, sub-Terry Gilliam farce. The delicatessen has a menu of human flesh thanks to the post-apocalyptic setting. It mostly takes place in a ramshackle apartment complex with an eccentric array of characters including the neighborhood butcher. One of the more inspired sequences involves the inhabitants of the complex all performing various tasks in rhthym with a couple's love making. It is often darkly funny, but it never achieves the level of sheer enjoyment that might come from the best of Terry Gilliam (whose style, Jeunet and Caro borrow liberally from). The climactic deluge of broken water mains is also memorable.

The Panic in Needle Park

2005-10-25T11:01:00.000-07:00

This mostly forgotten gem of the 1970's plays like Days of Wine and Roses with heroin addicts instead of alcoholics. Street hustler, Al Pacino meets college girl, Kitty Winn. He's a charming heroin addict, and she's not... yet. The crudity of Jerry Schatzberg's direction proves to be both naive at times and at other perfectly suiting the material with an unusual efficiency. For scenes involving elements of the story he will cut into the scene, have a character quickly speak a single line of pertinent dialogue, and then quickly cut to the next scene. He then dwells on the "inconsequential" scenes, such as those involving the process of separating and distributing the drug or the graphic scenes involving taking of the drugs (if you have an aversion to needles, this may not be the film for you). Of course, life goes downhill for our characters and you never know what they'll do next to satisfy their addiction. The streets scenes have that gritty, documentary feel -- in fact, I'm fairly certain that often the filmmakers would hide across the street, zoom in, and have the actors walk down the street with no one around even aware that a movie is being made, lending a kind of New Wave realism to the surroundings, the situations, and the performances. Pacino has always had incredible depth as an actor, but it's Kitty Winn who surprised me with her unimpressive, yet beautiful features and the kind of naturalness to her performance that almost breaks your heart. Like many films of the era, it manages to capture something real, yet still manages to escape true greatness.

Tartuffe (1926)

2005-10-24T11:01:00.000-07:00

Perhaps the most dull of F.W. Murnau's films is this adaptation of Moliere's play of the same name. When an aging miser decides to leave his fortune to his underhanded housekeeper, his grandson shows up in disguise and shows them a film version of the Moliere play. The play itself is about a similar situation and the grandson hopes to use his film to expose the housekeepers plot to his grandfather. The film within the film takes up most of the running time, and seems largely uninspired, at least compared to the grandeur of Faust or the passion of The Last Laugh. It is interesting, however, to watch as Murnau uses cinema and his images to literally expose the truth, perhaps this has something to say about his feelings towards art. But one does have to wonder why adapt a play for a silent film?

JLG/JLG

2005-10-23T11:31:00.000-07:00

This autobiographical, self-portrait of Godard by Godard is one of his most interesting, honest, and touching films of the last 25+ years. At just over an hour in length, it doesn't outstay it's welcome, as it is filmed exclusively in Godard's home in Switzerland. Much of the time we see him in shadow or silhouette as he reflects on his life, the nature of film/art, European history, and even some politics. Of course, one can't mistake this for a documentary, because Godard is as concerned as ever with aesthetics and the meaning of film which has always made his films a little bit difficult to classify. At one point he hires a blind editor to cut his film, which almost seems to be a statement about his films are instinctual rather than carefully planned and arranged. But amidst his compendium of ideas, a glimpse of humanity and a glimpse of Godard the man rather than Godard the radical filmmaker comes through, making this an unusally moving work. This would likely come across as unmoving, boring, and confusing to those unfamiliar with Godard or his work, but to understand his movies is to understand the man, which is what makes this a great film.

Shoeshine (1946)

2005-10-21T15:45:00.000-07:00

Vittorio De Sica's film was one of the first landmarks of what would become known as Italian neo-realism. The film takes the point of view of two street boys and best friends, Giuseppe and Pasquale. The two of them will do anything from shoeshining to black market deals to make enough money to buy a horse. When they finally do buy the horse and ride it together through town, one feels a brief moment of elation for the boys. But this is not a happy film. Soon they get implicated for one of their shadier deals and sent to a brutal, boys house of detention where they are separated in different cells. Every environment in which they find themselves from the streets to the prison are harsh and unforgiving. Ultimately, they find themselves betraying each other which leads to a tragic finale. As all neo-realist films are, it is first of all humane and socially conscious. The films focus is on the external factors of post war Italy that has led to the poverty, despair, and hopelessness of these two innocent boys. It's an excellent film, though I may still prefer Bunuel's similarly themed Los Olvidados. As can be expected, the filmmaking is spare and the actors non-professionals, leading to an authenticity almost never found in today's cinematic climate. And for his first major film, De Sica, who is usual the most sentimental of the neo-realists, finds an uncompromisingly tragic, though still lyrical tone for the film.

Once You're Born You Can No Longer Hide

2005-10-21T12:27:00.000-07:00

Marco Tullio Giordana's socially conscious Italian film is broken up into two distinct parts. The first begins as the story of ten-ish year old boy who is the son of loving and compassionate, well to do parents. Towards the beginning, he is confronted by a seemingly homeless man who mutters something to him in an African language. We witness the boys everyday life until he and his father rent a yacht to go sailing. The second part begins when the boy slips overboard one night while his father thinks he's tucked safely in bed. After drifting for awhile, he is rescued by a boat stuffed full of refugee's on their way to Italy and captained by a couple of mercenaries. Here is where the films heart takes over as we and the boy witness the plight of the refugee's. He befriends a brother and sister from Romania. Fortunately, Giordana allows for complexities within his compassion as a darker side is revealed on some of the characters. And eventually we even learn that those mysterious words spoken by the homeless man at the beginning actually translate to the title of the film. It's difficult to describe, and is no masterpiece, but it is directed by a steady hand and a big heart that doesn't overpower its brain.

Domino

2005-10-19T13:37:00.000-07:00

Tony Scott seems to have develped this kind of manic, everything-including-the-kitchen-sink, uber style that has a way of either attracting or repelling an audience (sometimes both at the same time), that is if it isn't sending them into seizures. That said, his latest film isn't bad -- it's not especially good, but what it does have in abundance is energy and interestingness (if that's a word). Much of that, I suspect, is thanks to Richard Kelly's script which takes more than a few liberties with the life of real bounty hunter, Domino Harvey, who by now you all know is the daughter of actor Laurence Harvey, who turned her back on a life of wealth to become and bounty hunter. Keira Knightley turns in a convincing, down and dirty performance as Domino, and somehow one never tires of seeing Mickey Rourke or Christopher Walken in a film. Kelly's script twists and turns in every direction, but never does it feel like he's cheating with it. To try and explain it would be futile, but there are some memorable bits including a wonderful scene that takes place on the Jerry Springer Show and a subplot involving the mob and the DMV! It's downfall occurs towards the end once Tom Waits shows up as a Messianic figure and parts of the film devolve into cheap, simple minded sermonizing. Tony Scott is a stylist first and foremost, not a speaker of important truths. Can I support this kind of filmmaking? Probably not. Can I appreciate or even occasionally enjoy it? Maybe so.

Nothing But a Man

2005-10-18T14:23:00.000-07:00

This little seen film is often regarded as one of the first honest portrayals of African American life in America. Made in 1964, it's an independent, understated, realist film -- it feels like life. Duff is a railroad hand in the South who falls in love and marries preachers daughter. It's not a film that offers easy solutions, in fact it's not even a film that points out problems (racially speaking, that is), it merely presents the lives of its few characters and the everyday struggles that they face, some of which are racial. Duff is a proud, stubborn man with a troubled family history, who equates his job with his masculinity. So when he loses his job for insinuating the idea of unionizing, he finds it difficult to get a new job which sends him into a kind of depression, because he is the man and must provide for his family. In it's own, understated way, the film presents the struggles of the family as a combination of personal and societal, which leads to a lovely, little conclusion. I consider this to be one of the best films of its kind because of its honesty and integrity, while not resorting to anger and simplistic, liberal solutions to problems which turn out to be more complex than one might at first notice.

How Awful About Allan

2005-10-16T23:14:00.000-07:00

The early 70's were the golden era of made-for-TV movies. Curtis Harrington directed this psychological thriller starring Anthony Perkins and Julie Harris. Perkins is partially blind after a house fire that took the life of his father, and has been recently released from an institution in the care of his sister. Soon, he begins thinking that someone is trying to kill him, or is it all in his head? The movie is brief, well paced, and features some bold visuals considering it's for television.

Faust (1926)

2005-10-16T14:05:00.000-07:00

F.W. Murnau has often been described as the visual poet of the silent era -- a title he richly deserves. And in this adaptation of the age old legend recorded by Goethe, he unleashes some of his boldest imagery. The opening seems similar to the book of Job where God and Satan are making a wager over the soul of an individual. The Satanic figure, Mephisto, releases a plague on a small village where Faust, an elderly, God-fearing alchemist resides. Mephisto offers Faust a trial run for evil powers, which quickly have Faust so seduced by power that he sells his soul for youth and power. He courts an innocent, young girl who also falls in love with him. The temptations and seductions of evil are demonstrated in broad strokes and with visual potency, leaving some scenes with an unusual power such as when Faust finally recognizes his error and throws himself into the flames that are consumming his love, and holds her. It would certainly have been interesting to see if Murnau's gifts could survive the transition to sound, had he not died around the time when the medium was changing.

A Perfect World

2005-10-15T14:01:00.000-07:00

This film may be for director/star Clint Eastwood, what Fearless was to Peter Weir -- the long forgotten masterpiece. Well, maybe it isn't quite a masterpiece, but it is a near great film that may in some ways surpass even the greatness of Eastwood's Unforgiven and Mystic River. And it is forgotten, at least I hadn't even heard of it until I decided to watch it. It concerns two men on opposite sides of the law: Kevin Costner is butch who has just escaped from prison and has taken to the roads of 1963 Texas. Clint Eastwood is the aging Texas Ranger on his trail. Now before you start thinking to yourself that you probably know where this film is going, let me assure you that you don't (unless of course you've seen it). Soon, Butch takes a hostage of sorts -- an 8 year old boy. He's not treated like a hostage, more like a partner and friend. The child is the father of the man, is the quote that I seem to have heard somewhere. Butch isn't a bad guy, nor is he simplified to the poor, misunderstood criminal. The boy isn't the cute, precocious movie kid, nor is he the comic foil to hardended criminal. Eastwood refuses to simplify his characters into stereotypes, he makes them human beings. Like many of his films, it is about violence, but it is not violent (most of the violence isn't even shown). Instead, what he does here is observes the violence from the perspective of the boy -- the fatherless boy who simultaneously admires and is frightened by the criminal. Perhaps better than in any of his other films (besides, perhaps, Unforgiven) there is a sense of pain and disappointment in the past that haunts both Costner and Eastwood's characters. It's not about winning or losing, or escaping the long arm of the law, it's about surviving and ensuring the next generation. Also of note is John Lee Hancock's screenplay which provides the depth of character and feeling that only an old hand like Eastwood could appropriately translate to the screen. It's a beautiful little film.

El (aka This Strange Passion)

2005-10-12T16:21:00.000-07:00

I find this to be one of Bunuel's more disappointing endeavors. Not that it's a bad film or even a bad idea, but it seems he made it at the wrong time in his life. It is about an aristocrat who becomes obsessed with a woman he sees in church. He seems level headed, and in fact everyone is convinced that he is normal, but he is a paranoiac. After he marries the woman, he quickly becomes suspicious of everyone. It all culminates in a wonderful scene in church where he thinks that the entire clergy and congregation are maniacally laughing at him. It's a haunting a surreal scene in the most Bunuelian sense of the word. However, this tale of obsession and sexual domination might well have been a masterpiece had he made this film 20 years later, when those became some of his signature themes. In 1952, though, this seems very out of place with the spare and poetic films that represent his period in Mexico. It's a film that he just wasn't ready for yet.

Point Blank

2005-10-11T12:29:00.000-07:00

Lee Marvin plays the quintessential anti-hero in this stylistic, cult gangster film. He's an ex-con looking for the man who betrayed him and demanding $93,000 from "the organization" that stole it from him, and nothing is going to get in his way. Director John Boorman throws out every trick in the book (at that time, anyway), reminding me of the kind of film Tony Scott might have made in 1967. Boorman is a bold director, and unlike many of his films, this time his stylistic excesses seem to perfectly compliment the film. Take for instance, the scene in which Marvin throws John Vernon off the side of a building naked, or when Angie Dickinson repeatedly hits Marvin and he doesn't even blink.

42 Best Films

2005-10-09T23:19:00.000-07:00

Thanks to The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy we all now know that "42" is the answer to the universe, so then what better number to group together the best films that I've seen. Well, I guess it's a combination of what I consider to be the best films and my favorites, with an emphasis on best. So, while a film like Raiders of the Lost Ark may be one of my favorite films of all time, it didn't quite make this list. It's a strange balance to strike, and one that will no doubt continue to shift back and forth in my mind as I see new movies and change my mind about old ones. Anyway, I thought that it would be worth posting just the same. So here you go...

1. Star Wars (George Lucas)
2. Gone With the Wind (Victor Fleming, George Cuckor, et al)
3. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick)
4. The Searchers (John Ford)
5. The Decalogue (Krzysztof Kieslowski)
6. Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock)
7. Cries and Whispers (Ingmar Bergman)
8. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Dreyer)
9. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola)
10. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles)
11. Au Hasard Balthazar (Robert Bresson)
12. Persona (Bergman)
13. Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese)
14. Ikiru (Akira Kurosawa)
15. Intolerance (D.W. Griffith)
16. The Mirror (Andrei Tarkovsky)
17. The Leopard (Luchino Visconti)
18. Masculin Feminin (Jean-Luc Godard)
19. The Three Colors Trilogy (Kieslowski)
20. A Woman Under the Influence (John Cassavetes)
21. Blow-Up (Michelangelo Antonioni)
22. Come and See (Elem Klimov)
23. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Steven Spielberg)
24. City Lights (Charles Chaplin)
25. Nazarin (Luis Bunuel)
26. Manhatten (Woody Allen)
27. Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone)
28. F For Fake (Welles)
29. Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders)
30. Rosemary's Baby (Roman Polanski)
31. The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut)
32. Mouchette (Bresson)
33. Winter Light (Bergman)
34. My Life to Live (Godard)
35. How Green Was My Valley (Ford)
36. The Sacrifice (Tarkovsky)
37. Taxi Driver (Scorsese)
38. Red River (Howard Hawks)
39. 8 1/2 (Federico Fellini)
40. Straw Dogs (Sam Peckinpah)
41. Nashville (Robert Altman)
42. The Up Series (Michael Apted)

42 Up

2005-10-09T22:18:00.000-07:00

The most recent of Michael Apted documentary series, though apparently 49 Up is in the process of completion for release this year (or next, perhaps in the U.S.). It's difficult to write about the individual entries to this series because it is, above all, a series, a continuation -- the most profound look into humanity and the cycle of life that cinema has yet attempted and accomplished. As an individual film, however, this is probably the weakest entry (whatever that means). Now in their 40's the subjects seem to have more perspective on life, especially since Apted has been kind enough to document it for them. Life goes on and people change, but not nearly as much as they stay the same.

The Mummy (1959)

2005-10-08T17:33:00.000-07:00

Hammer horror films have a charm that is distinctly their own. Even the worst of their films (that I've seen), have a quality that make them worth watching. Even if this isn't a great film, or even the greatest version of The Mummy, it is still compulsively watchable. Part of that could be due to the presence of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee who never get old. Part of it could be the lush use of widescreen and saturated Technicolor to a genre that was typically black and white. The story is familiar, and probably more inspirational to the recent Brendan Fraser version, than was the Universal film with Karloff. It's not a great film, especially while watching it, but it's one that lives on in my mind, and that's kind of fun.

Gloria

2005-10-07T14:18:00.000-07:00

Ever since I watched this, I've been trying to figure out what I think about this unusual John Cassavetes film. Unusual, because it's distinctly plot driven and because it contains one of those overly sentimental premises. Gena Rowlands plays a woman with a mysterious past, which we soon learn is her involvement in the mob, who takes in the eight-year-old son of a neighbor whose family just got eliminated by the mob. She's a tough talking dame who doesn't like kids and he's a tough Puerto Rican kid. It is also unusual because at time it verges into the territory of the action film, which I would have never envisioned from Cassavetes. The saving grace of the film is that despite his plot conventions, he still manages to allow the kind of visual and emotional freedom that makes the viewer think that they are peering into the lives of real people. I'm not sure what I think about the unorthodox casting choices of Rowlands as a gun totting mob mistress and John Adams as the boy. Part of it just feels wrong and another part of it feels like vintage Cassavetes. Any other director and the film would undoubtedly devolve into cheap sentimentalism, but while it doesn't fail in that regard, it can't succeed because ultimately Cassavetes just isn't a plot driven filmmaker.

Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?

2005-10-06T17:24:00.000-07:00

Once again director Curtis Harrington brings in Shelley Winters to play a crazed woman in this retelling of the story of Hansel and Gretel. She is the generous patron to an orphanage and during one of her annual Christmas party's takes a liking to a young girl and her brother, because the girl reminds her of her dead daughter. To be honest, even as she was supposed to be getting creepier and creepier, I maintained a healthy level of sympathy for the woman, despite the literal skeleton's in her closet. Mark Lester and Chloe Franks are almost angelic presences as the children, and they both turn in good peroformances.