Recent Viewing

Chi-hwa-seon [Painted Fire] 2002 - Fascinating historical biography of a 19th century Korean painter. I would classify this as one of the great depictions of the Soul of the Artist. Beautifully produced and lovely to see, with many landscape shots lovelier than any painting. I was very interested by the depiction of a culture in which there was only one form of painting, with specific rules and standards, and the main character's tormented drunken idealism in attempting to transcend those standards and himself while surrounded, and constantly offended by, people who were impressed by work he considered failures. Seeing the amazing ink paintings actually being created is wonderful. Any genuine Tormented Artist will relish this. 10/10

Lights in the Dusk (2006) Directed by Aki Kaurismaaki, whose genius seems to be taking a story that could be a classic Film Noir, in this case a dour night watchman framed by a gangster's moll for a jewel heist, and presenting it with a calm passionlessness that borders on stasis without ever being dull or uninteresting. Harsh rectilinear Finnish Modern environments are brought to life with intensity of color, creating luscious compositions. Expressionless, nearly immobile characters seem somehow to seethe with resentment. Another one for those with an artist's eye and a love for a good story. 8/10

Butley (1974) An American Film Theatre production of Alan Bates' outstanding performance. One of those exercises in creating the most dreadful character possible and letting him destroy himself. There ought to be a name for this genre, which would include The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, A Streetcar Named Desire (or any other Tennessee Williams story), and the under-appreciated Inserts (one of my secret favorites and not only because of Jessica Harper completely naked {which, if I had known about it at the time, I would have seen half a dozen times instead of Phantom of the Paradise}). There is always a certain satisfaction in seeing these fierce glib characters thinking that the behaviors which have alienated everyone who ever tried to love or even like them will somehow be their salvation. Makes me feel not so bad about myself. 8/10

Movies

Lundi matin [Monday Morning] 2002 - Directed by Otar Iosseliani, whose work most often causes people to draw comparisons with Tati for its mild deadpan humor and precise sight gags - though gag is a rather strong word for the calmly surreal juxtapositions that occur. A man gets off his bike to move a big square rock out of the path, just in time for another man to come along and sit down on it. That sort of thing. Less outright surrealism than his previous Farewell, Home Sweet Home!, this is a picaresque wandering meant to be slightly amusing. It is. 7/10

The Cheat (1931) Most of my experience of Tallulah Bankhead comes from the latter end of her career, as a Noted Personality with no real evidence of why she was noted. This is from the other end of her career, and having seen her in the pre-brassiere era wearing a sating evening gown in a cool lakeshore breeze I know a little about her that I didn't know before. It's a lurid melodrama ending with a courtroom scene - Bankhead's gambling on cards and the market put her in the power of an orientalist lothario, with startling results. I have yet to see the thing that makes me "get" what her deal was, but this was interesting to see. 6/10

It seems you can't get away with anything any more. I heard from Donald Sosin, the noted silent film composer whom I cursed below. He kindly let me know that, as I suspected, others assess his work less brutally. I acknowledge that my opinions are mine alone, and often result from meanderings down an obscure byway unknown to others. As an amateur of popular entertainments of bygone days I sometimes know more than is necessary for enjoyment. I not only recognize background music, but sometimes know the names of the composer and lyricist and the Broadway show it's from and who starred in the heavily rewritten film version. I could tell you that the snappy melody in the party scenes in both Merrily We Go To Hell and Hot Saturday is One Hour With You, from the Lubitsch film of the same name, Jeanette MacDonald's first movie. When I see recent period films, like the 2008 Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, I can tell that the soundtrack's scholarship is more from common knowledge or from period films of the '70s when it was sufficient for a hippie in a rented tux with his hair greased back to sing Baby Face through a megaphone - whereas I would try to determine what was actually played and popular IN BRITAIN at the time if they asked me to score a film set in Britain in that period. A friend of mine used to describe this sort of thing according to his pet peeve - Nazis with blowdried hair. This is all just my own bag, and Sosin's thing is his own bag and I acknowledge that for him it's groovy. I would like my few rare readers to know of his gentlemanliness.

Movies

Le Gitan [The Gypsy] (1975) What seems at first to be a standard crime/action story develops surprising depth and intriguing characters. Alain Delon is an armed robber who turns out to have ideals - he only robs the state to use the money to better the condition of his fellow Gypsies. Paul Meurisse, a classic hound-dog faced Frenchman, is an aging safecracker whose life seems tied to The Gypsy's by repeated coincidence. The secondary characters, and they are numerous, are all well-developed personalities, and everything becomes quite captivating. It's easy to forget that the terrible crimes they commit are actually a bad thing, because they are such compelling and magnetic people. Delon is not his usual golden boy here, and is truly charismatic. The settings of the gypsy camps and the sunburned streets of southern France are fascinating as well. I liked it a lot is what I am trying to say. 9/10

Murder at the Vanities (1934) Creaky backstage murder mystery. The show must go on even when people start dropping dead. Exorbitant near-nude spectacles onstage, interrupted by backstage antics by Victor McLaglen and Jack Oakie. European import Carl Brisson's manic grin and reedy voice are not very attractive - though he is extremely good in Hitchcock's outstanding 1927 silent film The Ring, which I recommend. The only real acting in the whole movie is the stirring explanatory monologue by Dorothy Stickney as the much-abused maid who saw it all, but with all those half-naked dolls who needs acting. 6/10

Recent Viewing

I have a huge stack of movies from the library I am trying to get watched.

La veuve Couderc [The Widow Couderc] (1971) In rural 1920s France, widow Simone Signoret hires drifter Alain Delon as farm labor. Things get complicated. Mature themes. Interesting period piece, great acting, but nothing to really go nuts over. 6/10

Minato no nihon musume [Japanese Girls at the Harbor] (1933) Directed by Hiroshi Shimizu. Silent melodrama once again marred by the tinny piano noodling of "noted silent-film composer" Donald Sosin, cursed be he. The film itself, once the irritating racket is shut off, is a bit primitive in execution, with a few stylistic tricks overplayed. Presentation is strangely anti-Japanese, with no distinctly Japanese locales or settings, and only the Fallen Woman dresses in kimono. More educational than entertaining. 4/10

Au coeur du mensonge [The Color of Lies] (1999) Another Claude Chabrol story of bad things happening in a small town. The interest is not so much in the events as in the characters and their responses to them. Fascinating French-faced women, and a neurotic artist you, Jeffrey Meyer, would surely understand. An excellent movie for grown-ups. 8/10

Merrily We Go To Hell (1932) Directed by Dorothy Arzner, a melodrama of the "modern marriage." Meaning alcoholism, adultery, and lots of forced gaiety to hide broken hearts. Pretty strong stuff, with great work by Frederic March and Sylvia Sydney. And man was that little gal built. Snazzy modern style sets and luscious gowns galore. 9/10

Recent Viewing

The Thing from Another World (1951) Set the standard for monster movies for years to come - all they did was make the monsters bigger. Always entertaining, and a rare opportunity to see Paul Frees. It was interesting to me that a shot of the reporter tumbling backward over a cot appeared in the trailer but not in the film. 9/10

Classe tous risques (1960) Lino Ventura and Belmondo in the story of a hard guy at the end of the line, mopping up ex-pals who let him down. Ventura is always great, and this was an unusually sympathetic picture of a man with his back to the wall, interesting but never really exciting or compelling. 6/10

Grey Gardens (1975) Donna seemed to like this a lot more than I did. If I had never seen screwballs jabbering away amid their squalor before I guess I would have gone gaga over it like everybody else has, but for the past decades that sort of thing is a penny a gross. Anybody with a camera who knows a kook, crank or nut can just point the damn thing at them and it's some kind of social document. Maybe at the time nobody had ever done that. Anyway, I sat through it, mostly thinking about what it must have smelled like. 3/10

Recent Viewing

Congorama (2006) Complex interwoven story of an unsuccessful Belgian inventor who learns he was adopted in infancy and goes to Canada to find his origins. Becomes more and more interesting from a slow start, until it finally shows you all the loose ends without tying them together in a big explanatory scene with lots of hugging and stuff. A little more footage of people walking as the cameraman jogs alongside and in front of them than I like, but there are far too many ideas and details to the story for me to start describing it. I ended up really enjoying it. 8/10

Hot Saturday (1932) Small-town girl, the forgotten jazz baby Nancy Carroll, becomes the object of gossip after spending a quiet evening evening with scandalous rich kid Cary Grant. Not a great movie but rather surprising at times. Big role for Grady Sutton who appears as comedy relief throughout. 5.5/10

Diaboliquemont votre [Diabolically yours] (1967) Alain Delon wakes up from a car crash with a sexy wife, a fabulous chateau, lots of money and new name, and doesn't remember any of it. His wife won't kiss him, his dog wants to kill him, and his doctor keeps giving him these pills. It's an absurdly complex scheme, of course. Jazzy and well-presented, but slow to develop. 5/10

La piscine [The Swimming Pool] (1969) Alain Delon and Romy Schneider are a beautiful bronzed couple at a villa in the Riviera. When an old friend and his teenage daughter appear, tensions arise. Adult situations, not like porno but like seriously mature. I forgot to drink my coffee. 8/10

I tried to watch the highly acclaimed animated feature Persepolis but there wasn't sufficient narrative flow to hold my interest. It was like a series of one-pagers. Technically excellent, but I have never cared much for the artist's work as comics and this seemed like it should have been left as such.