LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN (Max Ophuls) viewed 4-23-03 on video
Grade A- 1948
Ophuls direction is not as sinuous here as his European films (Lola Montes and Earrings of Madame de) but just as lyrical and romantic. The film is almost unrelentingly pensive and bitterly sad, but it is hard not to get caught up in the film’s tone because Ophuls has made the film with so much care. The film is both a tearjerker and a woman’s picture but feels encapsulated with the beauty of a poem or dream - like the other Max Ophuls films I’ve seen.
STOREFRONT HITCHCOCK (Jonathan Demme) viewed 4-23-03 on dvd
Grade B 1998
I have become a big Robyn Hitchcock film in the past month and was excited to see this concert film directed by Jonathan Demme (who directed my favorite concert film Stop Making Sense). This film is more like a cross between that film and Demme’s monologue film Swimming to Cambodia, as Hitchcock sings and between songs delivers some very weird monologues (fairly spontaneously). Demme does wonders with minimal props to deal with: the film is basically just Hitchcock playing his songs for an audience we don’t see (a la Stop Making Sense) in front of a large window facing a busy street. The film is never boring and Hitchcock’s music is always offbeat and wonderful.
PITFALL (Andre de Toth) viewed 4-23-03 on video
Grade A- 1948
This film stilted and challenged my expectations at every turn, basically I assumed that the film was going to settle into more familiar film noir territory (with femme fatale and more nightmarish turns). The film never does settle down for the obvious, instead the plot unfolds more realistically and the characters stay true to themselves. If the film were made ten years later or earlier it would be a melodrama, but in this crucial period of film noir it slips into the genre and refuses to follow the obvious trends.
THE GOOD THIEF (Neil Jordan) viewed 4-24-03 in theater
Grade A- 2003
One of the most purely enjoyable movies I have seen in the past few months, eerily like it had been shaped to be pleasurable in ever possible way to me. It’s a remake of Jean Pierre-Melville’s classic Bob le Flambeur and is even more watchable (although saying that might ruin any possible movie snob credentials I have). Nike Nolte is ideally cast as the worn down junky, but Jordan also beautifully casts every other role with interesting actors: Tchéky Karyo often is cast as the Euro badguy (you’ve seen him before – trust me) and he is able to bring great stability to the role of Bob’s antagonist, Saïd Taghmaoui (so good in La Haine 8 years ago) is a original choice as the thief who looks up to Bob, director/actors Mark and Michael Polish as twins and Nino Kukhanidze is the lead female and she is new to me and made a great impression here in a largely disposable role. Jordan also stylizes the film borrowing techniques from all-time cool films – most notably the smearing of Wong Kar-Wai’s Chungking Express and playful freeze-frames to cap scenes and frequent jump cuts to create a poppy rhythm. The film is very entertaining and funny, and has such an intelligent script that it is good enough that it doesn’t have to call attention to the best lines of dialogue (Theo’s favorite line: “Remember the 80s?” “No” is completely thrown away). I look forward to another viewing and did even as I was watching the film.
I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG (Mervyn LeRoy) viewed 4-24-03 on video
Grade B+ 1932
A muckraking film about the injustice of the prison chain gang system is still very engaging and a precursor to the post-war film noir of the 1940s. The film makes its points about the dehumanization of men early – crosscutting the men being chained together to the horses being similarly chained. However, I think the film would have been more interesting if the filmmakers had not stacked the cards in Muni’s favor: putting him in jail as an innocent man, since even guilty prisoners deserve decent human rights, right?
HOUSE OF USHER (Roger Corman) viewed 4-25-03 on dvd
Grade B+ 1960
THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM (Roger Corman) viewed 4-26-03 on dvd
Grade B 1961
I watched these films on back-to-back nights and was impressed by the same elements in both. Both films are very effective at creating a tense mood and general feeling of dreamy unreality. That said, I shot myself in the foot watching the films back-to-back since The Pit and the Pendulum is largely repeats along the lines of Usher: using the same story setup - a man arrives at a house and stays in the company of (possibly) insane Price, who is haunted by the sins of the past, and using the same location. Corman seems uneasy using the widescreen format in both films, but occasionally summons a striking composition: I like Corman on screen right and a painting on screen left. On the whole, I found Usher more convincing and entertaining than Pit – although Pit has Price fainting and crying which is startlingly funny and the amazing Steele.