RAILROADED! (Anthony Mann) viewed 2-09-03 on dvd
Grade B+ 1947
Railroaded lacks the great moody photography that John Alton brought to Raw Deal and T-Men but this is still another very good film noir from Anthony Mann.
DAVID HOLZMAN’S DIARY (Jim McBride) viewed 2-09-03 on video
Grade B 1968
I didn’t realize that the film was a complete put-on until late into the film, and it didn’t really affect the way I viewed the film. It is a pretentious and often funny look at the life of someone who must capture everything on film. His girlfriend refuses to be taped and the film and Holzman’s life come apart as result. I find it weird that everyone who really loves film always ends up being a creep or a pervert, or at least becoming totally overwhelmed by their obsession (For example: Camera Buff, Peeping Tom, Leaud in Last Tango in Paris).
THE 49TH PARALLEL (Michael Powell) viewed 2-11-03 on dvd
Grade A- 1941
Propaganda films about German nazi troops trying to get to safety after their ship is blown up, and along the way meet many people who represent a tempting different lifestyle. The film is episodic with new characters showing up to surround the nazi’s every twenty minutes or so and very entertaining with each segment filled with great actors and surprises. Howard’s’ fistfight with the nazi and Anton Walbrook’s speech denouncing the nazis are obvious highlights in a very good film.
TALES OF HOFFMAN (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger) viewed 2-12-03 on laserdisc
Grade B 1951
Beautifully photographed in rich technicolor, and Powell and Pressburger do a very effective job of telling each story with new focused color palates (Prologue and epilogue in deep blue and red, first act in yellow, second in dark grays and oranges and third in light blue). Also spectacular in its use of images to tell the story, since the film is basically a silent film and uses the images expressionistically to relate the information to the audience. A great film technically, but somehow emotionally underwhelming and long-winded at over two-hours. The themes fit in nicely with The Archers’ other works (the story draws an interesting parallel to my favorite Life and Death Of Colonial Blimp) and a lot of the ballet numbers are reminiscent of the brilliant The Red Shoes but still something held me back. I will take another viewing sometime down the line and see if I can resolve my feelings for the film.
A CANTERBURY TALE (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger) viewed 2-13-03 on dvd
Grade B 1944
A Canterbury Tale is a pleasant trifle of a film but not much more than that, with very little narrative and no sense of narrative drive. Instead the film relies on charm and the considerable skill of the masterful storytelling abilities of The Archers to weave a web to hide how empty the plot really is. Not that I’m complaining about the lack of plot, because I didn’t mind at all when I was watching the film, which is probably closest to I Know Where I’m Going with the mysticism of the locale guiding the characters more than the plot. Just left me wanting when it was all over, like I had been taken in by the film and walked away nearly empty-handed.
THE WICKER MAN (Robin Hardy) viewed 2-13-03 on dvd (extended version – third viewing)
Grade A 1973
The extended version is probably the most ideal version available: giving the opening scenes of grounded reality of the Sergeant’s life and a minimum of character information before thrusting him into the weirdness on the Island (A later scene with Christopher Lee and two snails making love could have been left out of the film). Still the film looks better on every viewing, finding even seemingly insignificant details: the opening thank you and the music, more filled with nuance and cleverness. The surprise in the last act forces a complete reconstruction of the film’s motives: not a horror film but a satirical look at the absurdity of all religion from an outsider’s gaze. It is also very interesting how the film keeps the viewer off balance, giving bizarre musical number and brilliant little non-sequiturs to confuse the Sergeant and the viewer. One of the best horror films of the seventies and certainly one of the best horror/musical/comedies ever made.
WOMAN OF THE YEAR (George Stevens) viewed 2-14-03 on video
Grade C+ 1942
A C+ is actually too nice for this film which takes a radical misstep about half way through and never really recovers. Instead of being a comedy about the life of a professional woman, the film begins to resent her character and poke stabs at her while she’s helpless. The scenes with the adopted boy seemed especially heavy-handed. The final scene that tries to return to comedy with zany mishaps in the kitchen is such a disaster I felt sorry for the film, especially since it had started out genuinely charming and funny. Good chemistry between the actors and a very good first half almost make the film worth checking out, too bad it all fell apart.
SHOP AROUND THE CORNER (Ernst Lubitsch) viewed 2-15-03 on dvd (second viewing)
Grade A 1940
Just as charming and wonderful as I remembered it, and possibly the only romantic comedy that starts with its two characters hating each other and I actually believe it and find it a suitable obstacle for them to overcome. The comedy is brilliantly designed, building to comic climaxes like the work of a great architect making it obvious for the uninitiated to what the Lubitsch-touch refers. Perhaps the best romantic comedy ever made, finding room for human characters and scenes of sadness and bittersweet joy.
TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT (Howard Hawks) viewed 2-17-03 on video
Grade B+ 1944
Basically the Hawks reworking of Casablanca with Bogart reprising the role of a man in the midst of political warfare who doesn’t want to get involved but must because of his love for a woman. And what a woman. Bacalls first film with Bogart and she has that great line (“You know how to whistle, don’t you?”) and the ability to make everything she says sound double-sided and laced with sexual overtones. A pretty damn entertaining film all and all, with crackling lines of dialogue and a basically engaging storyline. Faulkner co-wrote the screenplay and it was based on a Ernest Hemingway book and that’s not a bad pedigree.
DROWNING BY NUMBERS (Peter Greenaway) viewed 2-17-03 on video
Grade B 1987
I guess I’m a Greenaway fan since I seem to like every one of his films (The Baby of Macon excepted) but something holds me back on every film he makes. With this film I was excited as the story set itself up: introducing the numbers and games and drownings but then it just kept going on without really covering any new ground with each number. In fact the film’s narrative plays like a skipping record, repeating the same ground. “Once you’ve gotten to a hundred you’ve seen everything” says the little girl at the beginning of the film describing the device used in the film of laying numbers (1-100) into the diegetics of the story as it progresses, but I felt that I had seen roughly everything at about sixty. That doesn’t mean the film isn’t entertaining (although some will find it torturous), with it’s droll humor and unabashed sex, just it goes a bit stale for the last third, until the fireworks come out in the last scenes.
COMANCHE STATION (Budd Boetticher) viewed 2-18-03 on video
Grade B+ 1960
Another very simple set-up: Scott finds kidnapped lady and must return her to her to her husband but others stand in the way, with interesting verbal show downs between Scott and the others who plan to double cross him and turn the lady in for a reward. Side conversations about practical living in the west really ground this film in a reality that’s rather uncommon with western films, making it ahead of its time. Echoes to The Tall T actually strengthen my opinion of that film (which I now yearn to see again) and make me ready to see more Randown Westerns (as soon as I can locate them).
THE BROOD (David Cronenberg) viewed 2-18-03 on video
Grade B- 1979
Another very personal film from Cronenberg with most of the themes he would continue to develop in his career. The film is probably closest to Cronenberg’s earlier film Shivers: with both showing illness being manifested physically and harming the characters of the film. In fact the alternate title on that film was “They Come From Within” which perfectly describes the basis for Cronenberg’s horror themes. The Brood is not as mature or moving a work as his masterpiece The Fly, but this film has many creepy moments and a great score from Howard Shore. Is it me, or are the killer midget things in this film very similar to the killer in Don’t Look Now?