Change Your Image
MikeF-6
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Shakespeare: The Legacy (2016)
Not Rubbish
Contrary to the review above titled "rubbish," there is zero documentary evidence, not one word, rumor, or whisper that William Shakespeare did not write the plays and poems. Alternately, there is an abundance of documentation showing that not only was Will Shakespeare of Stratford the author but that it should never at any time have been in doubt.
Anyway, on to the short documentary. It is very well done, superficial but nothing much in it to quibble about except what had to be left out due to the 42-minute run time. The commentators from the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust add authority to the presentation but some speculations that may be good guesses are stated as a fact. Nettles was a good choice and has the right voice as narrator.
Mission: Impossible: The Seal (1967)
Rusty Rules
A really fun episode and one of the most remembered to this day. It seems impossible that a cat, however well trained, was used but then, "impossible" is in the show's name. Besides, was Rusty on a catwalk? I have always contended M:I was a straight faced comedy and all the improbable gadgets and disguises were meant to smiled at and enjoyed on the level of pure fantasy. One of my all-time favorite series.
The Good Place: Jeremy Bearimy (2018)
LOL
I was thinking as Season 2 went into Season 3 that although the show was as compulsively watchable as before, the instances of outright laughter became fewer as the story darkened. "Jeremy Bearimy" is a throw-back to 1st Season fall over laughing. Chidi's meltdown is maybe the funniest thing I have ever seen in any television series. A really remarkable episode.
Ten to sen (1958)
Excellent Japanese Police Procedural
Seicho Matsumoto (1909-1992) was a very prolific Japanese novelist, best known in English for his mystery and detective stories of which "Point And Lines" is one of his best. This film is an excellent transcription of the book, which I read in translation back in the 1970s. At the time I couldn't find any other of his books available in English. In a provincial town on the seacoast south of Tokyo, a young couple is found dead in an embrace on a rocky beach. They have both swallowed poison and died together. It looks like an obvious double suicide but an older detective thinks something is wrong with the place and the method of death. A young hot shot detective (Hiroshi Minami) comes down from Tokyo to help. After looking into the couple's backgrounds he come to suspect that a rich business man, Yasuda (Isao Yamagata), is somehow behind the deaths but at the time the couple died Yasuda was 8 hours away in the opposite direction from Tokyo on the northern island of Hokkaido. The young detective is determined to break the alibi but faces long odds. More than one surprise awaits him. The great character actor and Kurosawa regular Takashi Shimura plays the supportive chief of police.
Madonna of the Desert (1948)
Noir and Religion
The first title card says that this is a production of The Hollywood Television Service, but it was not a made-for, well, not exactly. Not at this date. The Hollywood Television Service was a unit of Republic Pictures whose job was to produce theatrical films of just under one hour in length ("Madonna" runs 59:46) and to edit existing programmers, especially westerns, down to that length to accommodate the growing TV market which had left networks and local stations desperate for content. That said, "Madonna Of The Desert" is an interesting, well acted, and sometimes even moving story of crime, redemption, and sentimental religion. Criminal con-man Nick Julian (Sheldon Leonard) reads a magazine story about a small statue of the Madonna owned by a California farmer (Don Castle) in a remote town. The article also reports that some believe it to date back to the middle ages and be very valuable. Nick enlists a sometimes partner in crime, a tough as nails dame named Monica Dale (Lynne Roberts), to seduce the farmer and switch out the stature for a plaster fake. Monica is well on her way to succeeding when she experiences what looks like a miracle from the Madonna. Slowly, she begins to question her way of life, but Nick is waiting nearby and expects results. Also featuring Don "Red" Berry as a rival thief. You will not have wasted your time by watching this.
The Man Is Armed (1956)
Worth seeking out
Directed by Franklin Adreon (1956). Republic Pictures. Cinematography by Bud Thackery. Johnny Morrison (Dane Clark) is just out of San Quentin after serving a year. He goes to confront Mitch who he believes double-crossed him. They fight, then Mitch falls to his death. Fleeing to his former employer Hackett (William Tallman, Perry Mason 1950s TV series), Hackett cheerfully confesses that it was he who framed Johnny to test his mettle. Hackett has a heist planned that will set them both up for life. With a suspicious police detective (Barton MacLane) looking into Mitch's death, Johnny has little choice but to go along. Naturally, things go wrong and there are betrayals. We root for Johnny, that he and his love (May Wynn) will finally succeed - but will film noir convention let that happen? The movie is virtually unknown but well worth your time.
Showdown (1963)
Western Noir
Audie Murphy was reportedly furious when he learned that "Showdown" would be in black and white for budget reasons. But the b&w seems appropriate for this western because Murphy's character is the perfect film noir hero. He usually played a gunfighter with a troubled past, a lawman, or a combination of the two but here he is Chris Foster, an ordinary cow puncher who just wants to collect his pay and celebrate with his pal Bert Pickett (Charles Drake). Because of Bert's drunken misbehavior, he and Chris have to go to "jail" which in the little New Mexico town means a post in the middle of the street with chains bolted to it and an iron collar for the prisoners. It is a very visually arresting (if you will pardon the expression) image. Also chained to the post is the notorious outlaw Lavalle (Harold J. Stone) and his gang which includes Foray (L.Q. Jones) and Caslon (Skip Homeier). When Lavalle and friends escape, Chris and Bert have to go with him putting them on the run from the law. From there, Chris tries to keep himself and his friend alive - not to mention clear their names - as they attempt to buy their way out with some bonds stolen from an express office. There is even, if not a femme fatale, a cynical dame who could help the two men out of their trouble but is unable to trust what Chris tells her. Now, if that's not a noir plot, I don't know what is. Noir, noir on the range. Not one of Audie's best, neither one of his worst (so far I haven't found a "worst"). But as always, Audie Murphy is a charismatic lead actor. The cinematographer is Ellis W. Carter. Location shooting was done at Lone Pine, California which is a good match for the film's setting in New Mexico, especially in the desert views.
Chicago Deadline (1949)
Forgotten Noir
Ace reporter Ed Adams (Alan Ladd) is at a skid row hotel on an assignment when a woman is found dead of natural causes in another room. Ed views the body and concludes that there is a story behind the death of this woman. Ed also pockets the woman's personal notebook of phone numbers. Her name had been Rosita Jean d'Ur (Donna Reed, seen in flashback) but anybody that Ed calls or sees to ask about Rosita, he is forcefully told by each that they never heard of her. What's up? Was she evil? Her brother (Arthur Kennedy) insists she wasn't. Was evil done to her? Ed needs to find. Getting thrown out of people's houses and beaten up by the local gangster's thugs only make him more determined. Also with June Havoc, Barry Kroeger, Shepherd Strudwick, and Dave Willock. The print I saw was pretty bad. The video probably came from a VHS recording off local TV. My first clue was when the logo for "KHGT TV 26 Honolulu" appeared for a few seconds in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. This is a little seen film but at the time was nominated for an Edgar Award as Best Motion Picture by the Mystery Writers Of America.
Assigned to Danger (1948)
Sincere acting goes a long way
Assigned To Danger / Budd Boetticher (1948). Eagle-Lion Films. Eagle-Lion Films was a British company owned by financier J. Arthur Rank. In 1945, Poverty Row company PRC had a sleeper hit in "The Enchanted Forest" a fantasy film in color that, at 84 minutes, was a standard feature film, rather than the usual programmer of 55 to 75 minutes that PRC put out (run times short to allow a double feature). That was when the managers at PRC thought they could do better so decided to let themselves be absorbed into the U.K. Eagle-Lion, a little more upscale, and ditched the PRC brand. By 1948, however, Eagle-Lion was still producing the same kind of studio bound double feature films ("Assigned To Danger" is 66 minutes long) that PRC was known for. It's not a bad little film. All the actors a competent and take the proceedings seriously. After a botched robbery which got the leader seriously wounded, the hold-up men take refuge in a remote resort hotel in the mountains. Meanwhile, insurance investigator Dan Sullivan (Gene Raymond, "The Locket") gets wind of a gang connection at the resort and drives up there. He takes an immediate liking to the hotel's owner Bonnie (Noreen Nash) but she encourages him not to stay, saying she has sold the property and is closing up, but she rents him a room for one night. That is when the band on the run shows up. Due to a misunderstanding, the desperate robbers believe Dan to be a doctor. They demand that Dan fix up the wounded man but will kill him if the man dies. Also with Gene Evans (The Steel Helmet, The Bravados) in his second credited role. There is a whiff of The Petrified Forest about this picture as well as the same year's Key Largo.
The 13th Letter (1951)
Lazy, scene-for-scene remake of an essential film noir
I used to think of the Hollywood proclivity toward remaking foreign films in English to be a modern phenomenon until I encountered the 1951 remake of Fritz Lang's German classic "M" from 1939. Well, that comment segues nicely into the American remake of "Le Corbeau." "The 13th Letter" doesn't mention the French film as a source nor the historical incident from the 1920s it is based on but refers back only to the novel. It does pay some homage to its French origins. An opening title tells us that the new movie was filmed in its entirety at a "small French-Canadian community in the Province of Quebec." When I reviewed the Hollywood remake of Fritz Lang's "M" (released the same year as "The 13th Letter" but from different studios), I said that if you could, as much as possible, take the new film on its own merits then it had quite a bit to offer. I can't quite say the same for the Preminger effort. The director doesn't seem to be working too hard for a film that falls between "Where The Sidewalk Ends" and "Angel Face" in his filmography. The new film is not quite a shot-for-shot remake but is pretty much a scene-for-scene redo. The only substantial change is right at the end where a fairly long dialog passage goes to explaining the crimes in a lot more detail than Clouzot provided - but I liked the Clouzot approach better. The new young doctor is played by Michael Rennie who can't come close to showing the inner turmoil that Pierre Fresnay brought to his tormented physician. Linda Darnell is good enough as the landlord's flirty daughter if she isn't nearly as seductive and overtly sexual as the French would have it. The only real notable performance is by Charles Boyer who is quite brilliant as the elderly doctor with the young wife who the anonymous letters continually link to Rennie's character. Howard Koch wrote the screenplay. The cinematographer was Joseph LaShelle (Laura, The Apartment, Marty), so there was talent behind the camera. I can neither recommend or not recommend this picture. See it if curiosity leads you that way. It's not really a bad movie but not a very good one either.
Ride the Pink Horse (1947)
Classic noir
A classic example of film noir, this picture has been recently restored and issued on DVD and Blu-Ray after decades of neglect. A three-minute unbroken single take opens the film as Gagin (director Robert Montgomery, also starring) gets off a bus, moves a gun from his briefcase to under his coat, places an object in a bus terminal's locker then hides the key behind a wall map. He is in the desert town of San Pablo (a fictional version of Santa Fe, New Mexico). Gagin is mob muscle on a personal quest of vengeance against Mr. Hugo (Fred Clark). Hugo and his entourage have come to San Pablo for the annual festival celebration and are staying at a four-star hotel in town. Along the way, Gagin bonds with two of the local residents: Pilar (Wanda Hendrix, very very good) a Native American teen who preternaturally sees Something in Gagin and Pablo (Thomas Gomez, Oscar nominated, the first Latino actor to have that privilege) who admires Gagin for being able to hold his own during a night of heavy drinking. "Ride The Pink Horse" is a true jewel just getting its deserved praise. A dark hardboiled tale touched with a measure of the meaning of friendship and personal loyalty. The Latino and Native American populations are never demeaned. In fact, the final image is a very sensitive shot of Pilar. PERSONAL NOTE: "Ride The Pink Horse" was almost entirely shot on sound stages in Los Angeles, but is important to New Mexicans (like me) for a few short seconds of film taken during Fiesta week in Santa Fe during 1947 that include the large effigy called Zozobra who is burned the night before Fiesta begins and is supposed to send peoples' troubles up in smoke.
A Kiss Before Dying (1956)
It's Wagner and Leith
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Robert Wagner has built a solid resume as a male ingénue and action hero is such films as "Halls of Montezuma" (1951), "Titanic" (1954), and "Prince Valiant" (1954) before taking an extreme U-turn as the murdering sociopathic college student Bud Corliss in "A Kiss Before Dying." Corliss has decided to worm his way into the rich Kingship family by marrying the youngest daughter, Dorothy (Joanne Woodward). His plans are threatened when she gets pregnant and wants to elope out of the influence of her controlling father. Well, that's not going to make Bud rich, is it? He begins to plot ways of either ending the pregnancy or ending his girlfriend. Virginia Leith plays Ellen, Dorothy's older sister. Leith is a talented actress who, unfortunately, is usually remembered only as the mad-scientist's girlfriend whose live severed head ends up in a lab pan ("Jan in the pan") in the horror howler "The Brain That Wouldn't Die" (1962). Joanne Woodward is particularly bad in this, showing none of the potential she had. Her voice is high-pitched and grating. She does a lot of whining. I have to presume she was directed this way and had no say about it at this point in her career. Jeffrey Hunter is a police detective with a Thing for Ellen. Overall, a terrific thriller with a couple of real shocks that, had it not been shot in full (sometimes garish) color, might have been considered a top noir. The first "neo-noir," maybe? But let's not go there. The cinematographer was Lucian Ballard (The Killer Is Loose, Kubrick's The Killing, City of Fear, True Grit ('69) and The Wild Bunch).
The Scarlet Hour (1956)
Noir goodness from a classic director
Revered director Michael Curtiz (The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Sea Wolf, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Casablanca) could tackle successfully just about any genre. In this late film of his (he also produced, the last of only five films where he got that credit), he brings home a typical noir plot (at least on the surface) of a love sick dupe of a man who gets dragged into a crime scheme by a manipulating femme fatale. But there is more going on than is immediately revealed. Pauline (Carol Ohmart) is unhappily married to real estate tycoon Ralph Nevins (James Gregory). She is carrying on a hot affair with her husband's top seller, "Marsh" Marshall (Tom Tryon). He is head-over-heels for her but Pauline wants a monetary cushion before leaving her husband. While necking in a car on a mountain road one night, the couple overhears some men plotting a jewel robbery at a nearby home of some rich people who are on vacation. Against Marsh's better judgment, he agrees to pull a hijack and rob the robbers. What could possibly go wrong? Well first, there is a jealous husband who is on their trail. And what about the secretary back at the office (Jody Lawrance) who seems to have a Thing for Marsh? What does she know? And who is the well-dressed gentleman who planned the robbery in the first place? Interesting script full of surprises from three credited writers including Frank Tashlin, better known as a director of comedy films. The only element I feel that could have been bettered are the lead players. This was the film debut of both Ohmart and Tyron. Ohmart attempts to put a little fire into her character even though she can't quite get there. Tryon, on the other hand, even though his career lasted into the 1970s based on his square-jawed classic leading man looks, was always a pretty dull actor. Supporting players Jody Lawrance, James Gregory, and Elaine Stritch show us how it should be done. Recommended late noir from the late output of an important classic film director.
The Las Vegas Story (1952)
Good cast, slack story line
A good cast is wasted on a slack story line from the Howard Hughes run RKO Studio. A high spending couple, Lloyd and Linda Rollins (Vincent Price and Jane Russell) are on their way to L.A. but Lloyd decides to stop in Las Vegas and do some gambling. Vegas is where Linda used to live and sing at the Last Chance Casino. Her old flame Dave Andrews (Victor Mature) is now a Lieutenant with the Clark County Sheriff's Department. He is still bitter for being dumped by Linda years ago. About half of the film's 88 minute run time is taken up by Linda having to deal with Lloyd's sudden gambling urge and memories of her time with Dave. A murder occurs at about 46 minutes in. The mystery is solved after only 15 minutes and the remainder of the time involves a drawn out car / helicopter chase and shoot-out. The extended action finale was something of a Hughes trademark. Also in the cast is Hoagy Carmichael, Brad Dexter, and Syd Saylor.
Caged Fury (1948)
Serviceable enough programmer running about an hour.
This is a circus thriller with romantic lion tamers, treacherous clowns, and a lot of beautiful animals being abused. The stars are young lovers Blaney and Kit (Richard Denning and Sheila Ryan) who develop a lion taming act together when star attraction Lola (Mary Beth Hughes) is killed by the ornery lion, Samson. What nobody knows is that Lola's death was engineered by the clown Smiley (Larry "Buster" Crabbe) to make way for the promotion of Kit who he loves. It is actually Buster Crabbe in a rare villain role who is the main attraction in the center ring. He is the actor with screen presence and charisma who holds the movie together through a lot of standard fist fights, fires, and car crashes. "Caged Fury" only has 26 votes and one user comment at the database so, if you see this you are among an elite few (sarcasm alert).
Logan (2017)
Bad Movie In Almost Every Regard
Four pluses: 1) I always enjoy Patrick Stewart in just about anything; 2) Ditto Richard E. Grant; 3) The young actress who plays the new mutant (Dafne Keen) does very well in a role in which she is entirely (until almost the end) mute; 4) Johnny Cash's "When The Man Comes Around" plays over the end credits. Other than that, this is a Bad Movie in almost every regard. There is nothing in it that we haven't seen a hundred times before. In the title role, Hugh Jackman channels Humphrey Bogart as the cynical loner who doesn't want to get involved, who "sticks his neck out for nobody," until he goes all-in for the good side (Casablanca, To Have and Have Not, Key Largo, The Harder They Fall). The action/fights are very repetitious: heads roll, arms roll, blades penetrate bodies. Worst of all: it is a Road Trip movie where mis-matched characters have to bond during a long automobile journey.
A few years ago, I decided I needed to see more multiplex fare so squirmed my way through "Captain America" and "Thor" before I said "No more comic book super heroes." But I watched "Logan" because a production team spent six weeks in the New Mexico desert about 4 miles from my house filming the scenes that feature the old factory with the downed water tower that appear in the film's first half hour. On a morning run, I even saw the battered limousine (if you have seen the movie you know what I am talking about) being transported on a flat bed truck on its way to the filming location. When the set was first constructed, it was covered in the paper and TV news flew over in a helicopter, but that ended coverage so, apparently, there were no Hugh Jackman or Patrick Stewart sightings in Albuquerque. So it is possible – nay, even probable - that everything they did for that month and a half was all for green screen projection and no movie stars ever saw the place in person.
Concerto: A Beethoven Journey (2015)
A spiritual experience
Norwegian concert pianist Leif Ove Andsnes likes to concentrate on one composer at a time. At one point, he decided that the five Beethoven Piano Concertos would be his next project. Partnering with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra based in Prague, he worked to develop a deeper understanding of the music. For four years he traveled the world playing the Beethoven Five in city after city. His recordings with the Mahler became critical successes as well as classical best-sellers. Documentarian Grabsky (the In Search Of series on great composers) followed him around from start to finish. The final film is narrated entirely by Andsnes who takes these works movement by movement and guides us through the musical dialog between soloist and orchestra. So many of Andsnes' insights into the music are really amazing but convincing when he plays the piano. He also talks about Beethoven's life when he was composing these works making the man more of a human than the usual picture we have of him as a grumpy, solitary, deaf old man who was hard to get along with. Of course, there is a lot of music in this film, wonderful, marvelous, genius level music. Andsnes makes a point late in the documentary then pinches the skin on his wrist and says, "Look, I have chills." I had to laugh myself because I had the goosebumps, too. Whether you have lived with this music all your life or never heard a note of it – or anyplace in between – you will be thrilled and chilled and enlightened. For me, anyway, this was a spiritual experience.
Wagner's Jews (2013)
A vital part of music and world history
Nineteenth century German composer Richard Wagner changed the face of western music forever. He was also one of most hateful people who ever lived. Super egotistical, selfish, a betrayer of friends, and all around a-hole, liar, and jerk. He wrote some truly despicable and vile anti-Semitic essays – spittle spewing rants - that crossed over into the delusional. Some 80 years or so later, these writings were adopted by Hitler and the Nazis and helped propel their ruthless death camps. Yet, Wagner had many rich supporters and admirers, many of them Jewish. He had Jewish musicians and conductors working for him, some who considered Wagner their mentor. Who were they? Why did they work for him or give him money? This documentary digs into the stories of Carl Tausig, a piano prodigy who was 16 when Wagner mentored him; Joseph Rubinstein, pianist and composer, and, most tragically, Herman Levy, a proud and accomplished conductor, the chief conductor of the Munich Orchestra, who was bullied and belittled by Wagner yet conducted the first performances of the Ring Cycle and Parsifal. This documentary delves into that history and brings in the contemporary debate of whether Wagner's music should be banned in Israel. The question constantly comes up: can we – should we – separate the person from the art that person creates. Wagner is the ultimate test of this question. I saw this 50-minute feature at the Jewish Film Festival in San Diego. At the end of the film there was a 20-minute Q&A with David Amos, conductor, lecturer, and music historian about the issues raised in the film. A very civil and reasonable discussion ensued. A powerful experience.
Keane (2004)
An ugly beautiful film
Director Kerrigan has clearly done his homework. It sure looks to me, a person who believes that the Dardenne Brothers (Luc and Jean-Pierre), the French speaking Belgian film makers, are the most interesting filmmakers in the world today, that Kerrigan thinks so, too. He has got down proper the semi-documentary technique that the Belgian Brothers perfected in "La Promesse," "Rosetta," "Le Fils," and "L'Enfant." The camera follows the main character solely. We see that person, usually in close-up. The camera will occasionally swing away to show that person's point-of-view or to show who he is talking to, but the camera is mostly on the character's face or looking over the shoulder at where he/she is going. There is no musical soundtrack (even in the opening titles and closing credits) but there is a carefully prepared mix of city sounds and background noises. Luckily, Kerrigan has not just aped a technique, but has also tapped into the same kind of sympathetic, humanistic observation of behavior and optimism about the human race that the Dardennes bring to their stories.
William Keane is a part-time street person who suffers from schizophrenia. He haunts Grand Central Station trying to get passers-by to look at a picture of a little girl in a newspaper clipping. "Have you seen this girl?" People hurry away. He washes up in rest rooms. He sometimes sleeps outdoors, not noticing the rain. He imagines that kidnap scenarios are going on in the station. He frantically mutters to himself about the growing danger around him. He attacks a bystander, throwing a couple of punches before walking quickly away. Sometimes he has quiet periods when he will use a disability check to buy himself some shelter in a seedy extended stay hotel.
Like a certain Academy award winning crowd pleaser from a few years ago, "Keane" tackles the question, "Can a schizophrenic eventually be able to discern his own visions from reality even if he stills sees the visions?" However, "Keane" is about real person, as brought to life by the fine (but largely unrecognized) British actor, Damian Lewis. Anyone who has daily experience with street people can see the truth of Lewis' performance. My Lovely Wife has worked as a nurse's aide in a psych ward of a big city hospital also confirms the truthfulness of Lewis' work. What a marvelous difference from Ron Howard's tear-jerking mush and Russell Crowe's hammy, over-the-top performance of twitches and jerks! "Keane" slowly develops a story out of this man's circumstances that brings him to one crucial moment of decision and a powerful resolution in the final second of the film. I absolutely loved "Keane" and highly recommend it.
The Dish (2000)
It hurts to say "No."
In 1969, when Neil Armstrong was going to the moon to be the first human to set foot there, the radio telescope outside of the small village of Parkes in Australia was chosen to relay the television signal of the moon walk because it was the largest of its kind in the southern hemisphere. So here was a chance for the Little Guys to triumph. Now, nobody does lovable, quirky eccentrics like the Australian film industry and this film is filled to the brim with them. I really wanted to love this movie and the movie wanted me to love it. Alas, it was not to be. Syrupy music intrudes constantly. There are not really any surprises. The acting is mostly on a TV sit-com level. Everything seemed manufactured. It is a shame not to be able to recommend it.
The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes (1935)
The Real Sherlock Holmes
An excellent Holmes story that benefits greatly by going directly to the source (mainly Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Valley Of Fear") and not only sticking pretty much to the original plot but also using a lot of the great dialog that Doyle wrote for Holmes. The problem with translating Sherlock Holmes to the screen (or writing new Holmes stories in full-length novel form) is that Doyle's original creation was such a brilliant detective he solved most mysteries almost instantly. Therefore, the short story was the best medium in which to present his adventures. If a story has to be stretched out to novel or feature film length, some other means had to be found to fill out the time and pages. Thus, beginning with Basil Rathbone (or maybe even earlier with William Gillette's original play), Sherlock Holmes became an action hero rather than a thinker. Arthur Wotner's Holmes and the script of "Triumph" retains the original essence of "the best and wisest man I have ever known" and shows us that he can delight and thrill us even more by seeing him as he was intended to be seen.
Arven (2003)
Worth a look
A Danish modern that seems spare and bare bones when compared to other slick art house fare that is out there like "Vanity Fair" and "Bright Young Things." But it is just that lack of gloss that gives it its strength. The semi-Dogma style fits the story of a young man living in Sweden with his beautiful actress wife who gets called back to Denmark to run the family steel mill after his father's suicide. When he had been younger, he had almost died from the stress of working in the business. Now, with his relations and the workers depending on him, he slowly starts to shut down all of his systems in order to deal with the tough decisions he has to make. This is not a new theme, but Fly gives it new life with his astringent approach.
Atoll K (1951)
Doesn't live down to its bad rep
This was Laurel and Hardy's last film and, of all their features, the one with probably the worst reputation. I can give it the left-handed compliment of saying, "It is not as bad as you have heard it is." The boys are caught in a storm at sea but are saved when a submerged island rises up under their boat. Along with a few other misfits, they establish a cooperative society. Then, the outside world shows up, discovers uranium on the island and the rush is on. What is unique is the level of satire that is present in the movie's last third, even though it is genial rather than sharp. Laurel looks thin and old (he was, in fact, quite ill during filming), but gamely takes his pratfalls. There is plenty of the usual shtick between Stan and Ollie. I find it funny no matter how many times I've seen it so I laughed several times. For L&H fans.
Amen. (2002)
Amen, and Goodbye
In the mid 1960s, Ralph Hochhuth's play "The Deputy" hit Europe like lightning. Its story, about the attempt of two people to inform the early 1940s world about the Nazi death camps, accused Pope Pius XII of failing to speak out against the removal of Jews from Rome when his doing so might have saved thousands of lives. The drama sparked controversy and debate. When "The Deputy" arrived in the United States about 1965, the five act, four hour play had been cut to a more manageable two hour length, but didn't lose any of its punch. For this film, Costa-Gavras has based his screenplay on the full version. It follows two major characters. The first is Kurt Gerstein (a real life individual), an SS Officer, scientist, and Christian, who risks everything to get the word out about the camps. The second is a fictional character, Father Ricardo Fontana, whose aristocratic family has connections with the Vatican. He meets Gerstein and begins a personal crusade to get the Pope to denounce the killing of Jews. I can attest to the power this material has. It was my privilege to play Pope Pius in a college production (U.S. version) in 1966. The two final scenes Fontana's confrontation with the Pope and his encounter with the Auswitz doctor in the harrowing finale are enough to shake even the most complacent person to the core. Somehow, Costa-Gavras has managed to drain off every volt and watt of energy and left us with a lethargic, draggy melodrama that goes for the easy irony (rich diplomats feast on fancy foods while "regretting" the bad things that are happening in the world). This should be dynamite and the legendary director seems like the person who could light the fuse. Unfortunately, the explosion never comes.
Rosetta (1999)
No DVD release in the U.S.
This small Belgian film was the unexpected winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes during the year when David Cronenberg and his panel of contrarians ruled. Because other, more popular films ("All About My Mother," "L'Humanité," "The Straight Story") were passed over, "Rosetta" has received a reputation as an undeserved winner. I am here to proclaim it a great film and a worthy addition to anyone's Best list. I have not researched whether or not the director of "Rosetta" set out adhere to Dogma 93 principles, but many of them are present no movie makeup, natural light, natural locations, no soundtrack music, and hand held cameras. The camera follows one person the title character so that just about every shot is either of her or from her point of view. Rosetta lives with her alcoholic prostitute mother in a camping trailer at a run down campground called The Grand Canyon. She is in her late teens, doesn't have any friends (except one she meets during the course of the story) or even communicates much with other people, and is only interested in getting a regular job and living a normal life. In a remarkable episode, we see her in bed just before going to sleep. She is having a conversation with herself that goes, "You have a job. I have a job. You have a friend. I have a friend. You have a normal life. I have a normal life. Good night. Good night." Rosetta is played by Émilie Dequenne (who won Best Actress at Cannes). She is so good, so natural, so much *Rosetta* that, along with the photographic technique, she gives the material a documentary feel. One reviewer even called her a "non-actor" as if she were not a professional actress (this is her first movie role) and had been picked right out of that campground to play her own life. The film goes by quickly even as the plot unfolds slowly. We follow Rosetta as she travels her city by foot and bus looking for work, catching fish to eat from an urban river, and tentatively letting one other person into her routines. Sometimes character motivation may seem murky, but it is a thrill, later, when you realize what was really going on. If I remember correctly, there is only one brief dialog exchange near the end where one person explains plot points to another for the audience's benefit. The ending is a tender moment that may indicate a new stage in Rosetta growth. Highly recommended. A beautiful and deeply felt film.