Shakespeare’s ‘Richard III’ at BAM with Kevin Spacey, The Turin Horse, The Miner’s Hymns, Stage Musical ‘Tokio Confidential’, The Patsy, and William Wellmann Festival at Film Forum

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Shakespeare’s ‘Richard III’ at BAM with Kevin Spacey, The Turin Horse, The Miner’s Hymns, Stage Musical ‘Tokio Confidential’, The Patsy, and William Wellmann Festival at Film Forum

February 13, 2012 by wondersinthedark

Kevin Spacey as deformed King Richard in Shakespeare's 'Richard III' at Brooklyn Academy of Music's Harvey Theatre

Fred Kelemen's stunning windswept cinematography in Bela Tarr's masterpiece 'The Turin Horse'

by Sam Juliano

I don’t want to jinx anything, but I’ll modestly acknowledge the unseasonably mild weather we’ve been having in the Northeast as we approach mid-February and a hint of the Spring. The Oscar season is in full florish, and there will be a site interview published a week from tomorrow, courtesy of Jason Giampietro who filmed a lengthy discussion between Dennis Polifroni and Yours Truly that started on the banks of the Hudson River in New Jersey and continued in the nearby Boulevard Diner.

The Giants enjoyed their Manhattan ‘Canyon of Heroes’ parade and victory rally at Met-Life Stadium in East Rutherford, and area football fans were in exceeding bliss. At Wonders in the Dark, it’s business as usual with Peter Lenihan working his John Ford magic and Jamie Uhler, Bob Clark and Allan Fish (with his wildly-popular year-by-year voting countdown) doing some great work over the past days. Dee Dee also featured a superlative recent poem from Tony d’Ambra with a noir theme, and she also posted an engaging piece on the various versions of The Maltese Falcon.

Early plans are beginning now to formulate for the upcoming ‘Best Comedy Films of All-Time” countdown that will tentatively go with 70 films (as the musical countdown did) and will showcase a host of writers from Wonders and other blogs proctored by longtime friends. At this point it is thought that the final week of April or the first week of May would be a probable launch date.

Lucille and I (with Sammy and Danny in tow for a few films and Broadway Bob for the two plays) had a very busy week on the beat over the past seven days, taking in the final Monday of the MGM Silent Film Festival, two of the first three offerings in the William Wellmann retrospective, and two stage plays that included the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s highly-praised Richard III with Kevin Spacey appearing at the deformed King in an imaginative production. We also saw the highly “unremarkable” off-Broadway musical Tokio Confidential at a 16th Street underground theatre. I saw two new openings, including the first masterpiece of 2012, Bela Tarr’s THE TURIN HORSE and a fantastic British documentary, THE MINER’S HYMNS. On movie screens we saw:

The Patsy 1928 **** 1/2 (Monday night) Film Forum

Wings 1927 ***** (Friday night) Wellmann at Film Forum

The High and the Mighty *** (Sunday afternoon) Wellmann at Film Forum

The Turin Horse ***** (Sunday night) Elinor Bunin Monroe Theatre

The Miner’s Hymn **** 1/2 (Sunday night) Film Forum

THE PATSY was the second silent in a row to sell out the Film Forum, and both as the series came to a close. The delightful King Vidor/Marion Davies comedy, teams star and director in a genre that was rare for both, and it’s surely one of the ‘talkiest’ silents with a preponderance of tital cards. WINGS, the first-ever Best Picture winner was presented in specdtacular fashion with a HD print that features the new blu-ray restoration. The extraordinarily eloquent William Wellman Jr. (now 75, and author of a new book on the film) dazzled the audience with a delightful introduction and fascinating anecdotes of his early life growing up and of visits to his home of celebrities like Gary Cooper. He spoke of the stunts employed in the film, and of his father’s propensity for bizarre humor. He cited the ‘bubbles’ sequence in WINGS as a prime example. Wellmann Jr. also provided some wonderful anecdotes before the Saturday afternoon screening of THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY, which he declared his father’s most successful film commercially. Artistically, however, I consider the film a lesser Wellmann. The coming week will be Wellmann Heaven, with a Monday through Sunday schedule that will include 15 films. My tentative plans are to be there for every single one of those.

I watched Bela Tarr’s THE TURIN HORSE on Sunday evening at 8:30 P.M. at the Elinor Bunin Monroe theatre in Lincoln Center. Although I had seen it back in December on a bootleg, nothing can match the state-of-the-art presentation and the big screen, and the result in a sure masterpiece of the cinema, a stunning rebuff of everyday life, and the seeming coming of Armegeddon, negotiated by Tarr’s mesmerizing long takes and the stunning windswept cinematography by Fred Kelemen in black and white, and a haunting minimalist score by Tarr alumni Mihaly Vig. The attention to the various details including the imposing head shots of the aging horse, the eating by hand of boiled potatoes and the slow evaporation of well water paints a picture of death and decay that visually parallels Tarkovsky, but as always shows the Hungarian filmmaker in a league of his own. In the earlier stages of 2012 this is unquestionably the best film of the year.

The final of three stage productions in the trans Atlantic “Bridge Project” at BAM’s intimate Harvey Theatre the Shakespeare work about the deformed power-crazed king, RICHARD III is fueled by a remarkable performance by Kevin Spacey who adds another chapter to his continuing study of blood-thirsty psychopaths after screen portrayals in The Usual Suspects and Seven. Spacey was commanding in his venomous performance and the reasonably imaginative staging by Oscar-winning film director Sam Mendes includes a banquet of the dead, an ominiscient avenging angel, black-and-white newsreel footage and color video simulcasts. At the start the most-identifiable “Now” is draped over the stage to lead-in the famous opening “Now it the winter of our discontent” monologue, and ‘My kingdom for a horse’ in the second act is compellingly executed. The production ran three-and-one-half-hours, but in most ways it was unforgettable.

THE MINER’S HYMNS is a piercing elegiac score by Islandic composer Johann Johannssonmightil assists the vision of Broitish documentarian Bill Morrisson , who examines a way of life long since gone by combining present-day footage of the lands that once were colleries, and the impressionistic footage of the people and places that inhabited the working class hamlets that once defined a different culture. THE MINER’S is a mesmerizing documentary.

As far as the derivative musical TOKIO CONFIDENTIAL, seen on Saturday night at the Atlantic Theatre, the less said the better. The music attempted to sound Puccinian, but was underdevelped and the drama was lame and incoherent. The production speaks volumes for the watered down quality of musical theatre these days, especially in off-Broadway theatres. Shame.

Most blogosphere updates are included:

Judy Geater takes her study of versatile American director William Wellman further with a superlative review of the 1939 rarity “The Light That Failed” at Movie Classics:
http://movieclassics.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/the-light-that-failed-william-a-wellman-1939/

Ed Howard has written a masterpiece on a masterpiece with his new review of Bela Tarr’s “Satantango” at Only the Cinema:
http://seul-le-cinema.blogspot.com/2012/02/s.html

Jon Warner takes a minority position on “The Artist” but his defense is brilliantly posed at Films Worth Watching:
http://filmsworthwatching.blogspot.com/2012/02/artist-5-thoughts.html

Tony d’Ambra poses some fascinating questions in his intriguing new post on the BBC’s celebrated 1999 “Shooting the Past” at FilmsNoir.net:
http://filmsnoir.net/film_noir/shooting-the-past-bbc-tv-1999-inside-the-frame.html

John Greco has written a superlative essay on Arthur Miller’s “The Americanization of Emily” at Twenty Four Frames:
http://twentyfourframes.wordpress.com/2012/02/10/the-americanization-of-emily-1964-arthur-hiller/

Jaime Grijalba celebrates some upcoming worldwide love for Chilean cinema at Exodus 8:2 in a new treatment of the Robinson Crusoe story that has even attracted the attention of Disney:
http://exodus8-2.blogspot.com/2012/02/cine-chileno-del-2012-2-selkirk-el.html

Terrill Welch’s new oil painting posted at the Creativepotager’s blog, titled “Orcas in Evening” is a spectacularly beautiful canvas:
http://creativepotager.wordpress.com/2012/02/04/orcas-in-evening-original-painting-by-terrill-welch/

Samuel Wilson likens 1974′s “The Arena” as a “touch of exploitative genius” in a buffo essay on the rarity at Mondo 70:
http://mondo70.blogspot.com/2012/02/arena-1974.html

R.D. Finch at The Movie Projector gives Joseph Losey’s “The Criminal” definitive treatment:
http://themovieprojector.blogspot.com/2012/02/criminal-1960.html

Marilyn Ferdinand has penned a magnificent review of the 2011 Indian film “Corrode” at Ferdy-on-Films:
http://www.ferdyonfilms.com/?p=13084

Roderick Heath also raises the tone at Ferdy-on-Films with a spectacular review of Vincente Minelli’s “Home From the Hill:
http://www.ferdyonfilms.com/?p=13105

Peter Lenihan’s latest installment of “Key Films” at The Long Voyage Home includes stupendous capsules on pre-code treasures:
http://thelongvoyagehome.blogspot.com/2012/02/key-films-12feb12.html

Pat Perry takes a candid and insightful look at “The Iron Lady” and Meryl Streep’s performance in her new multi post at Doodad Kind of Town:
http://doodadkindoftown.blogspot.com/2012/02/on-big-screen-and-home-screen-capsule.html

Laurie Buchanan’s latest engaging post at Speaking from the Heart, “Only Your Hairdresser Knows for Sure” is surely food for thought:
http://holessence.wordpress.com/2012/02/07/only-your-hairdresser-knows-for-sure/

“Explore the Dancing Image: Top Posts” is leading the way at Joel Bocko’s rich treasure trove at The Dancing Image:
http://thedancingimage.blogspot.com/2011/12/explore-dancing-image-top-posts.html

Shubhajit has penned one of his greatest capsule reviews ever on one of the cinema’s supreme achievements, Ozu’s “Tokyo Story” at Cinemascope:
http://cliched-monologues.blogspot.com/2012/02/tokyo-story-1953.html

Dee Dee has posted a wonderfully informative and engaging piece on the origin of lobby cards at Darkness Into Light:
http://noirishcity.blogspot.com/2011/11/holding-auctiontaking-look-at-eleven.html

Patricia at Patricia’s Wisdom offers up some beautiful ‘love’ poems and asks for personal favorites from her readers:
http://patriciaswisdom.com/2012/02/reading-poems-of-love/comment-page-1/#comment-24429

At The Schleicher Spin our very good friend David writes a glowing appraisal of the Iranian “A Separation”:
http://theschleicherspin.com/2012/02/06/a-separation-white-lies-and-blood-money/

Filmmaker Jeffrey Goodman at The Late Lullaby has posted a stupendous round-up of the best cinematic experiences he’s enjoyed in 2011:
http://cahierspositif.blogspot.com/2012/01/my-top-10-or-so-films-for-2011.html

At Satyamshot, Kaleem Hasan has posted some striking images from “The Avengers”:
http://satyamshot.wordpress.com/2012/02/12/images-from-the-avengers/

Craig Kennedy at Living in Cinema has posted his ever-popular “Watercooler”:
http://livingincinema.com/2012/02/12/tired-of-waiting-for-you/

The ever-creative Stephen Russell-Gebbett features movie “helicopters” at his latest post at Checking on my Sausages:
http://checkingonmysausages.blogspot.com/2012/01/helicopters.html

J.D. at Radiator Heaven offers up a superb essay on “Titan A.E.”:
http://rheaven.blogspot.com/2012/02/titan-ae.html

Anu at The Confidential Report has checked in with a fabulous Ten Best list that fully warrants everyone’s attention:
http://theconfidentialreport.wordpress.com/2012/01/09/top-ten-of-2011

Just Another Film Buff (Srikanth) has posted another stupendous capsule review, this time on Sengelese director Djibril Diop Mambety’s “The Little Girl Who Sold the Sun” at The Seventh Art:
http://theseventhart.info/2012/02/12/ellipsis-56/

Murderous Ink, in Tokyo examines ‘Nuclear Noir’ in a brilliant new post at Vermillion and One Nights:
http://vermillionandonenights.blogspot.com/2011/12/nuclear-noir.html

Hokahey insightfully writes about ‘Chronicle’ and the ideas of his high school drama club at Little Worlds:
http://hokahey-littleworlds.blogspot.com/2012/02/chronicle-and-serendipity.html

Jason Marshall has penned an excellent takedown of Spielberg’s “War Horse” at Movies Over Matter:
http://moviesovermatter.com/2012/01/10/you-can-lead-a-horse-to-war-spielbergs-war-horse/

At Scribbles and Ramblings Sachin Gandhi features an engaging film itinerary engagingly seen in the light of football groupings:
http://likhna.blogspot.com/2012/01/2012-african-cup-of-nations-film.html

Roderick Heath at This Island Rod takes an exhaustive look at the new “The Thing.” Typically is a master class essay:
http://thisislandrod.blogspot.com/2012/02/thing-2011.html

Tony Dayoub has posted an excellent feature on the ‘Top 15 Films of 2011′ at Cinema Viewfinder:
http://rheaven.blogspot.com/2012/02/titan-ae.html

At The Cooler, Jason Bellamy celebrates his fourth anniversary:
http://coolercinema.blogspot.com/2012/02/celebrating-4-years-of-fun-and-games.html

Adam Zanzie at Icebox Movies has authored a marvelous essay on “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”:
http://www.iceboxmovies.blogspot.com/2012/01/on-torture-and-revenge-in-girl-with.html

Michael Harford, the erstwhile ‘Coffee Messiah’ offers up an engaging video about the beverage’s worldwide popularity:
http://coffeemessiah.blogspot.com/2011/11/coffee-break.html

Troy Olson announces plans to commence with his Robert Bresson project at Elusive as Robert Denby:
http://troyolson.blogspot.com/2011/11/argh.html

At Petrified Fountain of Thought Stephen Morton has penned a masterful takedown of “Melancholia”
http://www.petrifiedfountainofthought.blogspot.com/2012/01/review-melancholia.html

Drew McIntosh is a real scholar and good skate, as he just gave away a blu-ray of Tarkovsky’s “The Sacrifice” at The Blue Vial:
http://thebluevial.blogspot.com/2012/01/take-two-tarkovsky-blu-ray-giveaway.html

Kevin Olson offers up a postscript to his recent Horror Blogothon at Hugo Stigliz Makes Movies:
http://kolson-kevinsblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/italian-horror-blogathon-postscript.html

Dave Van Poppel is gearing for some updates at Visions of Non Fiction, but presently is still leading up with his very fine review of “Project Nim”:
http://visionsofnonfiction.blogspot.com/2011/08/project-nim.html

At The Man From Porlock Craig explores the work of the great S. Ray with a splendid review of “Pather Panchali”:
http://themanfromporlock.blogspot.com/2012/01/iu-cinema-experiences-pather-panchali.html

Jeopardy Girl has some great plans in 2013 with a vist to the U.K. in the cards. She talks about it at The Continuing Saga of Jeopardy Girl:
http://jeopardygirl.wordpress.com/2012/01/23/pickmeup/

Posted in Uncategorized | 142 Comments

142 Responses

on February 13, 2012 at 6:15 am | Reply Maurizio Roca

Based on your understandable criteria Sam, I’ll take Once Upon A Time In Anatolia over The Turin Horse for 2012 by a full one star margin lol. For me, Ceylan channels Tarkovsky to a greater degree and achieves better overall results (though the Tarr is certainly commendable). What I saw this week….

The Woman In Black ***
Ressurrect Dead: The Mystery Of The Toynbee Tiles ****1/2
Baader Meinhof Complex ***
Monsieur Hire ****

Another Wonders countdown is certainly welcoming news. Can’t wait to see that whole project unfold in the near future.
- on February 13, 2012 at 3:47 pm | Reply Sam Juliano
  
  Ha Maurizio!
  
  As you know I will not in any way disparage ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA, which is a very great film and one of my favorites at this early juncture in 2012. I must say that I do consider THE TURIN HORSE marginally greater, but both seem destined to land in the Winner’s Circle next December. Interesting that you feel that Ceylan ‘channels Tarkovsky to a greater degree.’ While I can’t say I agree with that, I do feel his specter does loom in the work of both. And while I know we have beaten the release year thing to death at the site and on e mail chains, I’ll say here that the reason why neither TURIN HORSE HORSE nor ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA did not appear on virtually any ten-best list this past December (and there were hundreds stateside) is that the critics are playing the same game I am. Guaranteed both will be seen ten months from now. Down the road of course when decade lists are done and when general categorizations are made both films will be regarded as 2011, as well they should be. But for total conformity with the critical establishment, and for uniformly gaging the best films of a year, I do stand by the method agreed upon by the USA critics.
  
  Needless to say some venerated bloggers like Srikanth (Just Another Film Buff), Anu and Drew among others have emplyed teh method you favor, which is fair enough. The SLANT people for the most part use my method.
  
  I liked MONSIEUR HIRE too and would replicate that same star rating. In addition I wouldn’t go anhy higher than you either with BAADER, which I had issues with. You may have seen my three-star rating already for THE WOMAN IN BLACK, so that makes us three-for-three with the grades. Alas I have not seen RESURRECT DEAD, but am most intrigued by that remarkable regard.
  
  Yes, the comedy countdown will again bring a hectic level of activity back to the site. Many thanks my friend!
on February 13, 2012 at 8:06 am | Reply Peter Lenihan

I saw five newish films this week, in order of preference–

Wuthering Heights (Arnold)
The Innkeepers (West)
J. Edgar (Eastwood)
The Artist (Havaz…)
Kill List (Wheatley)

Wuthering Heights is pretty magnificent, I’m a bit infatuated with it right now and can’t write too soberly on the film, but definitely see it when it hits New York. On the other end of the spectrum, I thought both The Artist and Kill List were pretty insufferable for very different reasons. I don’t think the appropriation of Vertigo is defensible at all, though, and I find it kind of unsettling how many people have given Havaz… a pass for it. Like he’s gonna win an Oscar, so it’s alright.

Older films I watched this week, again in vaguely preferential order–

The Sun Shines Bright (Ford)
Nostalghia (Tarkovsky)
The Strawberry Blonde (Walsh)
Little Women (Cukor)
Une femme douce (Bresson)
Dragonwyck (Mankiewicz)
The Divine Comedy (Oliveira)
The Conformist (Bertolucci)
Man Wanted (Dieterle)
- on February 13, 2012 at 4:17 pm | Reply Sam Juliano
  
  Peter—
  
  Obviously you had a banner week here and made good on the time opportunities you were afforded. I’ve seen some of the stellar capsules at THE LONG VOYAGE HOME, so I was aware of some of these, but 14 films is remarkable. Starting off with the ‘older’ films you saw, I am not surprised you tookj another look at THE SUN SHINES BRIGHT, a film you magnificently brought into focus again this past week at the site. I won’t get into it anymore unless a discussion emanates from all this, but I do think Bertolucci’s THE CONFORMIST is a masterpiece and his greatest film, and there is much more than just color negotiation in that mix. I saw that Bresson just two weeks ago at the Film Forum and have high regard for it, even if not in a league with the director’s masterpieces. (Jamie Uhler saw it too at the Siskel Center in Chicago and he sees it as a masterpiece. Fair enough.) I would love to see that Oliveira. Tarkovsky, Walsh, Cukor and Mankiewitz are all accomplished works of course.
  
  As you may have noticed (LOL!) I am also giving a pass to Hazanavicius for his use of the VERTIGO theme. First off he has exceedingly good taste to choose it, and it’s simply a continuation of our artistic culture, where one artist takes from another. What I have tried to say to my good friend Jon Warner is that the film’s naysayers are the ones who keep bringing up the use of that theme, but among that fraternity nothing is said about Ludovic Bource’s sublime piano score, which is by all barometers of measurement one of the finest in recent years. I’ve now seen the film four times, and I dare say I not only give Hazanavicius a pass for taking from the cinema’s greatest composer, but I roundly applaud him for it. To Joel above: it simply wasn’t long enough! Ha! As far as the Oscar comment, those people are nothing more than copy-cats. On both sides of the Atlantic starting with Cannes and proceeding through endless hourdes of critics’ groups, THE ARTIST is being proclaimed over and over and over as the best film of 2011. Is it an Oscar film? Probably. But it’s apparently everybody’s film, and the Oscar is nothing more than after-the-party confirmation.
  
  I do definitely agree with you that KILL LIST was insufferable, and I’d venturte to guess that we agree on some of the reasons too. But I know there are fans for it, and a few are at the site here. Can’t wait to see WUTHERING HEIGHTS and to read what you thought of THE INNKEEPERS.
  
  Have another great week my friend. Many thanks!
on February 13, 2012 at 8:48 am | Reply wondersinthedark

The Conformist under The Sun Shines Bright and Dragonwyck. Whoa!

I donb’t have too mjuch trouble with using the Herrmann in The Artist, it’s not unique to borow film music from one film on another; The Deer Hunter for one, The Gosepl According to St Matthew used parts of Prokofiev’s Nevsky score and Casino used Delerue’s theme for Le Mépris.
- on February 13, 2012 at 8:56 am | Reply MovieMan0283
  
  Problem with the Vertigo use in The Artist is that it went on and on. A hint would have sufficed, but instead of adapting the score to the film they laid it out over the whole sequence. To be honest, it felt like the filmmakers used it as a temp track and then though, “This sounds great! Leave it!” instead of attuning it to the scene itself. At times it fit what was happening on the screen, at others it didn’t – no wonder, since it obviously was not written to fit the scene and I doubt it was planned while shooting. Cutting to the music can only go so far when the footage demands a certain style and the music is composed beforehand, imo.
- on February 13, 2012 at 9:03 am | Reply MovieMan0283
  
  What was the sampled score in The Deer Hunter?
- on February 13, 2012 at 9:51 am | Reply Peter Lenihan
  
  The whole Conformist thing isn’t at all meant as the provocation it might comes across as–I absolutely think The Sun Shines Bright is a great movie; Dragonwyck isn’t, both its strengths and flaws are pretty obvious, but I had a great deal of fun with it. But I’ve been trying to revisit a lot of canonized films I didn’t really get the first time around–like a lot of Bertolucci The Conformist left me pretty cold in the past, and I was really hoping I’d see what so many others do this time around, but I just don’t. It’s gorgeous of course, but beyond the director’s often fascinating employments of color I don’t understand the appeal, or even what Bertolucci is up to in it.
  - on February 13, 2012 at 6:43 pm mark s.
    
    Peter –
    I’ve always had ambivalent feelings about ‘The Conformist’ — I love it, I hate it, I’m not sure about it and so on. There’s a lot of aesthetic posturing going on and it’s a very ‘free’ adaptation of the Moravia novel, but any film that features Dominique Sanda and Stefania Sandrelli in prominent roles…well, it’s hard to tear your eyes away from that much beauty. I wish the film had ended with the climactic assassination of the professor and his wife, and Clerici paralyzed in the back seat of the car, because the film’s garish coda is a fizzle that makes psychological mincemeat of everything that’s gone before.
- on February 13, 2012 at 2:55 pm | Reply Jon
  
  Using the Vertigo score was an awful idea. It doesn’t work at all and is very distracting for me. I was completely taken out of the film and could not focus. I had no idea it would be so bludgeoning.
  - on February 13, 2012 at 4:28 pm Maurizio Roca
    
    The whole film is an exercise in superficial befuddlement Jon. I honestly thought the movie was playing tricks on me at the theater with the score (like maybe I was senile and it wasn’t Vertigo, but the music to some silent De Mille that I wasn’t aware of). Then I stopped and wondered why a film that is supposed to be a homage to silent films is recalling one made in 1958 instead?!?!? In the end I just came to the conclusion that cheap/gimmicky films sometimes have no shame in these matters.
  - on February 13, 2012 at 5:13 pm Sam Juliano
    
    LOL!!!! You never stop. Too bad most serious cineastes aren’t listening. But at least there are a few bloggers to agree with you since, most critics and moviegoers are in love with the film.
    
    What does the use of a single composition in a 105 minute film (maybe five minutes?) have to do with homaging a 1958 film, I’d like to know? To these eyes the film was an obvious homage to the 1920′s, not 1958.
    
    But this is the modus operandi of THE ARTIST hater. Distort facts and hurl insults for being out in the cold. The ‘cheap, gimmicky’ argument has been played out now, and has been duly rejected.
    
    It all comes down to taste, taste, taste, taste, not to ‘imagined’ artistic shortcomings.
    
    At least I will say that the one good thing that has come of all this is that you and Jon Warner are finally agreeing on something!
    
    LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  - on February 13, 2012 at 5:27 pm Maurizio Roca
    
    Yes me and Jon are finally agreeing on something. And we are not alone in our blogging circles. I have refrained from thrashing The Artist for quite some time now. Its just that as more bloggers see the film, they seem to be echoing the same reservations… and I welcome them into the fold with a warm imaginary hug and some encouraging words of approval.
    
    “most ctitics and movie goers are in love with the film.”
    
    The film has only had limited release. Most movie goers have not actually seen the movie to be in love with it lol. Hence why even some serious movie loving bloggers we associate with have only just recently watched it (since they do not live in our perfect NY/NJ location) and commented.
  - on February 13, 2012 at 6:12 pm Samuel Wilson
    
    Imagine a pianist in a local theater who didn’t receive the official score for The Artist and had to put a score together on his own in that strange meta-realm where silent films are still being made to comment on the coming of sound. The musician, plying his trade in the alternate 2012, might well pull in Vertigo for the relevant part of the film. There’s no hiding the fact that Artist is a gimmick film and in some sense superficial. At most it’s a “meta” movie and Vertigo is part of its meta-ness. But it succeeds at what it’s doing more completely, perhaps, than any other 2011 release. That doesn’t mean everyone has to like the kind of film it is, but the same rule applies to everyone else’s favorites.
  - on February 13, 2012 at 6:27 pm Sam Juliano
    
    Maurizio, the vast majority of quality-conscious filmgoers have already seen THE ARTIST based on relative attendance figues at art houuses and places where this kind of film is likely to flourish. The absence of a wide release has more to do with the fact that this kind of distinguished film would certainly not work for those wanting action, color and talking, and it’s those prosepctively indifferent moviegoers who have not watched the film. It has been viewed by the lion’s share of it’s target audience, and it has resonated gloriously.
    
    As far as remaining silent on the film for the most part, you are right, and I salute you for that. Still, I can handle your problems and we are always extremely civil in these interchanges.
    
    Samuel, as always your inspired and measured assessment here brings so much to the table.
  - on February 13, 2012 at 7:12 pm Jon
    
    @ Maurizio- Yes we do agree. The Artist to me never quite engaged me. It tries to do a lot of things, but doesn’t do anything particularly well. The drama has been played out in other films and I knew exactly where it was going. The love affair is given 1/3 of the film. The motivation of the lead character was muddled. I was thinking to myself also of the visual storytelling and there were other films this year, not silent ones, that told their stories better through visuals. I’m thinking of especially The Tree of Life, which essentially tells it’s story through visuals and music. It doesn’t really “need” the dialogue and yet the visual storytelling feels essential. I thought The Artist to be missing that aura. It felt like a “sound” film turned on mute as far as the visual storytelling aspect. I just watched The Last Laugh this past week and was reminded of how visual storytelling should work and I was compelled by the mastery there.
  - on February 13, 2012 at 7:25 pm Sam Juliano
    
    Jon, I will say that the love affair is the heart and soul of the film, as it is with so many screen classics, and the film should at least get 1/3 of the narrative if not more. I have also noticed that a number of the negative-on-THE ARTIST bloggers are bringing in the great silent film classics (you bring THE LAST LAUGH in here) to diminish THE ARTIST or point to it’s comparative deficiencies. As William Wellman Jr. so eloquently posed in a burst of effusive praise over the weekend at the Film Forum after a screening of WINGS, the allure of the silent film will always find a place in the modern-day artist. In quoring Mary Pickford, Wellman said “Pickford suggested that the talkies should have come first and then the silents. Wellman was utterly delighted that a film of THE ARTIST’s exceeding quality was now holding the banner for the form in the present day.
  - on February 14, 2012 at 2:26 am Jon
    
    @ Sam- Are you saying that it’s incorrect to be comparing this film to other Silent Film classics? Essentially many people are screaming silent film masterpiece when they see The Artist so I therefore start comparing. As for the love story, it worked it bits and pieces, but like I said I wanted more. It got short shrift in terms of running time for me.
  - on February 16, 2012 at 7:01 pm Sam Juliano
    
    Jon, it is not wrong to compare them, but almost 90 years have passed to make any connection more than just a curiosity. The rules have changed, and there are sensibilities at play in the film that are far more modern, which the film’s deceit upholds the form of the earlier period. THE ARTIST is really a hybrid, and as such it really brings out the best of both worlds.
- on February 13, 2012 at 4:21 pm | Reply Sam Juliano
  
  Well, I completely agree with Allan here, and do feel that the only viewers who have a problem with Bource’s use of Hermann are those who don’t care much for THE ARTIST in the first place. Whether it was “long” or not seems less important to me than whether it was impressively used and transcribed. I say it was on both counts and subsequently point to the rest of the score, which was fantastic.
  
  Here’s a toast to Hazanavicius and Bource for their good taste.
  
  And yes, Allan’s references there are quite telling.
  - on February 13, 2012 at 6:09 pm MovieMan0283
    
    Not quite so. I was fine with The Artist for the most part. It seemed rather slight (I wish the story had been less routine, given the energy, effort, and skill that went into the style, but I’m ok with style outstripping story in certain circumstances), but I enjoyed it, smiled throughout, appreciated much of the cleverness. The scene in the actor’s room (where he gives the actress a mole) was excellent. I even applauded the Vertigo use initially – it’s my favorite American film, and I love homages. But then it kept going and overstayed its welcome.
    
    One thing I unapologetically consider myself a bit of a connoisseur on is the use of pre-existing music in movies. I have a very sharp instinct for how well it works (based on both observation and practice). Hermann’s score is one of the most intense and brooding in film history and it complements Hitchcock’s intense and brooding film perfectly. No doubt the fact that it was a suicide scene made The Artist filmmakers feel it would fit this film perfectly too.
    
    But – as you no doubt recognize (being a major fan of Hermann yourself) – the score fluctuates. The suicide scene is very long; parts of it are more intense than others and the music just keeps going and going, off on its own trip not in relation to the footage. Here’s the thing: editors and directors will often place a piece of prewritten music over footage and be astonished at how well it works (I’ve seen this happen myself before – it really can be amazing). It seems a “miracle” and pleased with the “miracle” they get carried away, and don’t do enough to tighten it up and make it fit the music even better.
    
    Googling the matter it seems my hunch is correct. Hazanavicius DID use it as a temp track, went with the composer’s score and didn’t like it as much, and returned to the Hermann. No doubt at times he cut it with the music, but when you use that large of a slice of a preexisting score it is never going to match 3-5 minutes of film (or longer, I’m not sure how long the suicide was). There are going to be moments where the music builds or dissipates that just don’t coincide with what’s happening onscreen. I found that to be the case here. An example of welcome enthusiasm not subjecting itself to enough necessary discipline, which ends up heightening and distilling the enthusiasm if employed correctly.
  - on February 13, 2012 at 6:12 pm MovieMan0283
    
    To elucidate, I felt the beginning of the score sample worked, and the finale went went well. The whole long middle seemed stretched-out and very distracting.
  - on February 13, 2012 at 6:23 pm Sam Juliano
    
    OK Joel, fair enough I’m OK with what you say here, and am relieved to hear that you apparently like the film much more than I supposed with my original comment.
    
    There are actually many bloggers who visit this site who have confessed they loved teh film too. More even than those who do not. Allan himself told me on the phone earlier this week that he liked the film quite a bit too, thinking at this point it would earn at least 4 of 5 with him. The point I have tried to make with Maurizio is that is the Herrmann issue was so disconcerting why did it basically add up to so little with the legions of people who love the film? I must say however, that I really had no issue with it’s use, and I am among the most fervent Herrmann fans out there. I thought it was smart filmmaking.
  - on February 13, 2012 at 6:37 pm MovieMan0283
    
    Not sure what I would root for this year for Best Picture. I haven’t seen Hugo Midnight in Paris, or War Horse yet (ironic as these 3 are probably my favorites directors of the bunch), but due to screeners available at my house, I’ve seen The Help (which pretty much confirmed what I thought beforehand – we won’t get into that, haha), The Descendents (which I enjoyed although perhaps as a travel ad more than a drama, haha), Tree of Life (which I wasn’t as keen on as some others, but would probably get my vote by default), The Artist (which as stated, I enjoyed but found rather slight), Moneyball (often engrossing but not BP material), and The Iron Lady (ok, that’s not a BP nominee but I just wanted the opportunity to say it was terrible!). Wait, there’s only 9 nominees? Why??
    
    Anyway, as with last year, I will not be watching for the same reasons as before. I will only watch the Oscars on TV again when one of two things happens: they restore the Honorary Awards to the broadcast, or I am in the NY/NJ region and have a chance to attend Sam’s Oscar party and see the madness in action!
  - on February 13, 2012 at 6:38 pm MovieMan0283
    
    I will say if Melancholia was nominated, it would probably get my vote. If docs were eligible, Cave of Forgotten Dreams might trump it. And if foreign miniseries docs made the cut, Story of Film would win, hands down.
    
    To be honest, this plus the previous post pretty much covers every single 2011 film I’ve seen, haha. It was not a very theatrically busy year for me…
  - on February 13, 2012 at 6:39 pm MovieMan0283
    
    (Plus, I didn’t even see most of those movies in theaters!)
  - on February 13, 2012 at 6:43 pm MovieMan0283
    
    P.S. Did not see EL/IC either. Not sure how keen I am on rectifying that.
  - on February 13, 2012 at 6:50 pm MovieMan0283
    
    Actually, strike that, I did see one other 2011 film last night: Super 8. My take was that Abrams goofed by paying tribute to the sentimental Spielberg films and the monsters-and-action Spielberg films within the same movie, which made the attempts at emotion fall flat and the violent action sequences seem coarse and cynical. The early Super-8 movie sequences are fun (reminded me of my childhood, though let’s face it, no kids’ amateur movies have as much production value as those kids’ did) but as the movie moves along it falls too much into the 00s style of filmmaking. Did you read Armond White’s review of it? God knows he’s a crank, but I thought his observations were pretty sound.
- on February 13, 2012 at 5:20 pm | Reply Peter
  
  The Vertigo sequence is one of the film’s best. I’d say the use of Herrmann was actually inspired.
  - on February 16, 2012 at 7:02 pm Sam Juliano
    
    Completely agreed Peter, lock, stock and barrel.
on February 13, 2012 at 8:49 am | Reply wondersinthedark

First masterpiece of 2012, The Turin Horse. Come on, Sam, I have to laugh at that when you first saw it like all normal people in 2011.
- on February 13, 2012 at 3:59 pm | Reply Sam Juliano
  
  Well, this is a very rare case (and I am sure on reflection you will agree) where I actually did see a film months before (and technically during a different year to boot) seeing it on it’s proper USA release in theatres. Considering the state-of-art presentation which in every sense maximized this film’s artistry, this is an instance where I am grateful for the theatrical opening and the chance to see what is ultimately a supreme masterpiece in this luminous 35 mm print. I don’t think there is any question that this will be among the very best films of 2012 come next December.
on February 13, 2012 at 10:53 am | Reply John Greco

Sam ,
Thanks again for the shout out. Looks like you may need to bring a cot over to the FILM FORUM this week! The Wellman festival should be a blast. I was looking at the schedule the other day and there are quite a few I would love to see on the big screen. Enjoy.

Well, Rollo, one of my cats, had a big day on Saturday when he was entered into a local photography contest ( Pet charity event) and won the 3rd place award. His head is so big now, you can’t even talk to him. (LOL). Below is a link of his award winning picture.

http://www.johngrecophotography.com/blog/?p=676

Here are the films of the week…

Safe House (***) Routine formulistic thriller about a rouge CIA agent gone bad. Denzel Washington plays it low key and cool. He and Ryan Reynolds are entertaining enough but you have seen it all before.

Gloria (****1/2) Former gun moll helps a young Puerto Rican kid whose family is killed when the father, an accountant for the mob, was going to squeal to the police. Gena Rowlands is excellent as the former mistress/whore of a big time hood. The young kid is a bit to “grown up” to be believable but Rowlands, a good soundtrack from Bill Conti and some nice camera work from Cassavetes who captures the seedy feel of 1980′s New York make this a treat.

The Firemen’s Ball (****) Funny satire of good intentions where everything from stolen raffle prizes to a group of shy, reluctant girls forced to enter a beauty contest create havoc. A nice combination of slapstick and poignancy from this early Milos Forman.

A Slight Case of Murder (***1/2) Comic made for TV crime film based on a short novel by Donald Westlake about a film critic who accidently kills his lover and attempts to cover it up which only leads blackmail, more murder and a investigating police officer interested in getting his screenplay produced. Nice performances from William H. Macy and John Cromwell.

100 Rifles (***) Standard 1960′s western with former football great Jim Brown displaying his limited acting talent and Raquel Welch displaying her abundant natural physical talent.

When a Stranger Calls (**) Another crazed psychopath escapes from a mental institution and stalks the same woman, in this case Carol Kane, he did some seven years earlier. Yawn…
- on February 13, 2012 at 9:00 pm | Reply Sam Juliano
  
  John—
  
  Yes, more than one have suggested either I check in to a hotel or find a corner in the place to retire to! Ha! This is all Judy’s fault of course!
  
  Just kidding. It will be quite a run and I hope I can stay focused for the spate of double features that are being offered just about every night.
  
  Congratulations to you and to Rollo for that buffo showing! I will investigate that report shortly on the link you provide. (Just checked it! What a terrific photo! Love the hat!) I like what you say about Rollo having a big head now after the win! LOL!
  
  Anyway a nice haul of films there for you this week! I’d say I’m at 4 for GLORIA, which she superbly frame here. I’d go a half star more on A SLIGHT CASE OF MURDER which I thought quite a bit of fun, and FIREMAN’S BALL is a near-masterpiece, even if on balance I give a slight edge to LOVES OF A BLONDE another celebrated early Forman.
  
  ‘Yawn’ indeed for WHEN A STRANGER CALLS (right-on with that rating) and pretty much concur too with 100 RIFLES.
  
  Haven’t seen SAFE HOUSE, but was expecting what you say here.
  
  Thanks again for the spectacular wrap, congrats again, and have a terrific week my great friend!
  - on February 14, 2012 at 1:24 pm John Greco
    
    Sam,
    
    Have not seen LOVES OF A BLONDE but will have to search it out. As for A SLIGHT CASE OF MURDER, I kept hedging on whether to got with ***1/2 or **** and am still not sure. I do like the film quite a bit.
  - on February 14, 2012 at 4:38 pm Sam Juliano
    
    I hear ya John. The rating system can often be difficult to navigate.
- on February 14, 2012 at 12:02 pm | Reply dennis
  
  JON-I saw GLKORIA too on TCM this past weekend as part of the 31 DAYS OF OSCAR series. I thought the kid in the film was dead on and his “I AM THE MAN” moment towards Rowlands in the face of his tortured confusion of who he now is after suffering the confusing tragedy was heart-rending.
  
  I’d go a half a grade higher than SAM on this very well-received Cassavettes main-streamer (it was his most commercially successful film) and you can see why Scorsese found much of his inspiration in his work. Watching this film reminded me of what a great capturer of “real” New York Cassavetes was. As for the nitty-gritty of GLORIA, the film is well plotted and scripted by the director, effectively and intensely edited, well scored (never intrusive and deeply emotional in this department) and an acting triumph for just about every performer in the film.
  
  Rowlands is simply astounding and her performance was rightly hailed when the film was released. Her “no-nonsense” demeanor is brilliantly balanced by this internal-to-external melting that slowly shows itself in every scene with the kid and little things, like the way she crosses her legs and lights a cigarette in the saloon as she orders a beer and refuses to look back for the child, reinvigorated my interest in her as one of my very favorite actresses. She, like Ellen Burstyn and Diane Keaton (in her dramatic roles), has a way of digging into every nuance of the character that they make it seem like they are no longer acting and just taking every situation like it was really a day in the life of the character. I am always overwhelmed by how Rowlands BECOMES who she’s playing and this performance slides perfectly beside her other great turn in Woody Allen’s ANOTHER WOMAN and her masterpiece A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE (a performance that still leaves my stomach in knots every time I see it, she’s VOLCANIC in that one, also directed by her husband)…
  
  One of the forgotten gems, a real diamond in the rough, GLORIA is a film I forgot was so compelling. I hung on every moment while watching it the other night. The moment she chides the Peurto Rican assassin in the subway station, gun pointed in his face, about “letting a woman beat you” is a tour-de-force moment in her career as an actress, Cassavetes as one of the best American directors and in all of modern NOIR…
  - on February 14, 2012 at 1:33 pm John Greco
    
    Dennis,
    
    I agree with you on Bill Conti’s music “never intrusive and deeply emotional in this department. Cassavetes captures New York of the 80′s perfectly, the grit and deterioration. I may have been too harsh on the young kid’s performance, the more I think about it (think I may write something on the film) the more I am impressed with it. The boy grew up in a harsh environment, just lost his parents and is as you say is understandable “confused.”
    
    I loved Rowlands performance, a tough broad who knows the score and is not afraid to go fist to fist with anyone. I love the way she shot her first victim without any hesitation whatsoever.
    
    I have not seen A WOMAN UNDER THE UNINFLUENCE but will have to check it out. GLORIA is a film that really needs more attention that it gets!
  - on February 14, 2012 at 1:34 pm John Greco
    
    Sorry for the misspelling of Cassavetes A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE.
  - on February 14, 2012 at 2:25 pm Maurizio Roca
    
    Gloria is my second or third favorite Cassavetes after The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie and Shadows. You should check those films out as well Dennis (if you haven’t seen them yet). I appreciate these kinds of 70s-80′s cinematic forays into a gritty New York that no longer exists. A great time capsule for a place slowly gentrified within an inch of its life.
  - on February 14, 2012 at 3:47 pm Sam Juliano
    
    For me it’s FACES as his greatest film, closely followed by the long neglected MINNIE AND MOSCOWITZ, though I do like the ones you mention here.
    
    Dennis has indeed seen all of these and is most assuredly a fan.
  - on February 14, 2012 at 4:43 pm Sam Juliano
    
    And some beautiful insights there Maurizio! I must agree with you.
  - on February 14, 2012 at 4:58 pm dennis
    
    With Cassavetes it’s definately a tough call. Cinematically, if we think of “traditional” cinema, then GLORIA is the closest he ever got to perfection. It’s a studio film with the feel of an intense independent. Matter of fact is, Cassavetes needed GLORIA as he was always in dire needs of funds for the kinds of pictures he really wanted to do. GLORIA was his most mainstream film and his biggest financial success. The grittiness and the sincerity of the performances still keeps the film in his “improv” mode, but it’s the closest thing we’ll ever see to a “Hollywood” film from him.
    
    Cassavetes was a major influence on Scorsese and was the one that pushed Marty in the right direction (into MEAN STREETS)after he called Scorsese’s BOXCAR BERTHA a “bucket of shit” to his face
    
    Yes, I have seen all of his films and SAM will attest that I am a huge fan and have studied the mans work microscopically. I fell in love with Cassavetes as an actor (ironically enough, it was his very intense turn in Mazursky’s TEMPEST that made me look into him when I was a kid) and found his directorial work from there. FACES, SHADOWS, CHINESE BOOKIE, OPENING NIGHT, MINNIE AND MOSKOWITZ and HUSBANDS are all interesting and deeply personal films for the director…
    
    However, the one that stays with me and never goes away is the one-two punch of A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE. There is a starkness to that film that boarders uncomfortably on eaves-dropping, like your peeping into someones window and listening to there deepest secrets without them knowing you are there, and I have never been able to shake it since I first saw it on BRAVO back in the late 80′s. GENA ROWLANDS performance in that film was so realistic and original that the intensity of it left me feeling like I had been gang raped. It’s a torturous turn, perfect in its truth, and one that will leave any viewers stomach in knots by the time the credits roll. Combining that performance with the ever-roaming camera work and Cassavetes eye for detail and I have to say it’s probably my favorite of all his films. John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands were perfect compliments to each other.
    
    And, I don’t care if anyone lambasts me for my next comment…
    
    GENA ROWLANDS performance that year was robbed of the Oscar.
    
    Of course, too, Cassavetes was also one of the stars of my FAVORITE horror film of all time: ROSEMARY’S BABY…
  - on February 14, 2012 at 6:49 pm John Greco
    
    Dennis,
    
    Don’t you think A CHILD IS WAITING would qaulify as his most mainstream film? Released by UA, written by Abby Mann, produced by Stanley Kramer and starring Burt Lancaster and Judy Garland. Comparitively speaking GLORIA was at least a bit more out of the mainstream.
  - on February 14, 2012 at 7:39 pm mark s.
    
    Dennis –
    If you like Cassavetes as an actor, try scaring up a copy of Elaine May’s disgracefully neglected ‘Nicky & Mikey’. The ending will leave you in a state of shock.
  - on February 14, 2012 at 7:40 pm mark s.
    
    Whoops — It’s ‘Mikey and Nicky’.
  - on February 14, 2012 at 10:05 pm Sam Juliano
    
    Interesting Mark. I’ve never seen that Elaine May feature.
  - on February 15, 2012 at 6:36 pm mark s.
    
    Sam, I can’t find ‘Mikey & Nicky’ anywhere. I used to have a VHS copy, but that’s long gone. Part of what’s so striking about this raw, corrosive, harrowing and testosterone-fueled film is that it was directed by a woman — Elaine May, best known for comedy. But there’s nothing funny about ‘Mikey & Nicky’, a work that catapulted May into the front ranks of female directors, right up there with Riefenstahl, Akerman and Bigelow IMHO.
    And I agree with Dennis. Rowlands was robbed of prizes for her performance in ‘A Woman Under the Influence’.
  - on February 16, 2012 at 12:08 pm dennis
    
    MARK S.-Oh, I have seen MIKEY AND NICKY. It’s a forgotten gem for sure. However, considering the subject, the fact that it’s an extremely adult film released in a time when most movie goers were applauding the escapades of Indiana Jones and only hit the “art” house circuit, the film has fallen into obscurity. BRAVO and HBO had the rights to show it back in the mid eighties (at least they did here on the east coast) and that’s where I originally soaked it up. I would kill for that VHS tape I had of it back then, today…
  - on February 16, 2012 at 4:15 pm Jamie
    
    I have an .avi file of MIKEY AND NICKY and can make a playable dvd from it. It’ll rasterize it a bit in the stretching, but it’s better then nothing. Just say the word…
on February 13, 2012 at 11:25 am | Reply Jeffrey Goodman

Sam, thanks so much for the wonderful mention.

I’m already excited knowing that you have a big week of Wellman ahead of you. I can’t wait to read more about it in next week’s wrap.

This week was pretty slow for me. I only saw Nicholas Ray’s BITTER VICTORY and Stuart Rosenberg’s POCKET MONEY. I was happy to see them both, but the Ray affected me a little more. I found it one of the clearest expressions of Ray’s pet themes and also thought Burton’s performance and the score were of special note.

Thanks so much, Sam, for all that you do. Here’s to an excellent week!
- on February 13, 2012 at 7:02 pm | Reply Sam Juliano
  
  Jeffrey—
  
  This will be a daunting week for sure, but as it comes ahead of a full week off for winter break (February 20-24) I would be too stressed. Tonight though is hairy with a triple feature including the silent with piano accompaniment that starts it off at 6:30 P.M. The remainder of the week offers double features every evening. The restorted print of YELLOW SKY (paired with THE OX-BOW INCIDENT) and the Tuesday double of A STAR IS BORN and NOTHING SACRED are definitely highlights.
  
  I also much prefer Ray’s BITTER VICTORY over that Rosenberg title, but then again like you I am always attuned to his brilliant cinema. The rather unconventional score for the film by Maurice Leroux was indeed of very special note. Burton as ever was wonderful.
  
  Thanks so much as always for the incomparable support and very kind words my friend! Have agreat week!
on February 13, 2012 at 11:50 am | Reply dennis

Sam-I watched the BAFTA’S on TV last night.

While the momentum for THE ARTIST is in full swing now (it took Original Screenplay, Director, Actor and PICTURE), Meryl Streep nailed the BEST ACTRESS trophy…

I’d say we have a full scale war between her and Davis now for the Oscar as it seems the two of them are, virtually, neck to neck…

C’mon MERYL!!!!!!!!
- on February 13, 2012 at 5:47 pm | Reply Sam Juliano
  
  This is yet another example of how THE ARTIST is clicking with so many all over the place. The film’s detractors will continue to deride it as an ‘Oscar’ film till the end of time, when in fact it sowed it’s seeds well before that.
  
  A little New York Film Critics Circle Best Picture anyone? Or how about the London Film Critics Circle Best Picture? Boston or Washiongton in the same fashion? Surely the severe flaws some claim it have would have mitigated against it’s appeal? This is the first time in many years that the same film is resonating with the movie going establishment. It’s inevitable and understandable in one sense why some bloggers have now taken up the rear with such an overwhelming concensus at hand.
  
  Yep, Dennis, agree it’s neck and neck at this point between Davis and Streep for the Oscar. Even the predection sites are hedging.
  
  Thanks as always! Talk to you later.
  - on February 13, 2012 at 6:13 pm MovieMan0283
    
    I think we’ve found another Far From Heaven for you, Sam . I want to see the video from Jersey Oscar Night if something else wins!
  - on February 13, 2012 at 6:42 pm Sam Juliano
    
    Here are the BAFTA (British Academy Awards) results as per Dennis’ report:
    
    •Film: The Artist
    •Director: Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
    •Original Screenplay: The Artist, Michel Hazanavicius
    •Adapted Screenplay: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Bridget O’Connor and Peter Straughan
    
    •British Film: Tinker Tailor Solder Spy
    •Actress: Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady
    •Actor: Jean Dujardin, The Artist
    •Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer, Beginners
    •Supporting Actress: Octavia Spencer, The Help
    •Outstanding Debut by a British Writer/Director/Producer: Tyrannosaur, Paddy Considine
    •Film Not In The English Language: The Skin I Live In
    •Orange Rising Star Award (voted for by the public): Adam Deacon
    •Documentary: Senna
    •Production Design: Hugo
    •Animation: Rango, Gore Verbinski
    •Costume Design: The Artist, Mark Bridges
    •Makeup and Hair: The Iron Lady, Marese Langan
    •Cinematography: The Artist, Guillaume Schiffman
    •Sound: Hugo
    •Editing: Senna
    •Special Visual Effects: Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2
    •Original Music: The Artist, Ludovic Bource
    •Short Film: Pitch Black Heist
    •Short Animated Film: A Morning Stroll
    •Outstanding Contribution to British Cinema: John Hurt
    •The BAFTA Fellowship: Martin Scorsese
  - on February 13, 2012 at 6:46 pm Sam Juliano
    
    Another FAR FROM HEAVEN Joel???
    
    God, now i’M DOOMED!! LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    
    Actually, TREE OF LIFE is my favorite film of the year, but THE ARTIST is practically even with it, and yes I’ll try and be my usual animated self on oscar night, even though my enthusiasm for the show has pretty much evaporated. Translation: I have reluctantly come to see the entire charade for what it is, a realization everyone else here has known far longer than me! Ha!
    
    from “Lost Horizon” (1937) Why do I believe? Because I WANT to believe.
  - on February 13, 2012 at 7:29 pm MovieMan0283
    
    Ha, I just saw Lost Horizon for the first time recently. I must say (spoilers), I was ready to accept that the old man & all the rest was a charade when the young Russian women exposed them. Turns out I was too cynical!
  - on February 14, 2012 at 12:24 pm dennis
    
    Yup, crazy to think that Streep has, basically, grabbed every prize for her turn in THE IRON LADY but could lose the Oscar on the account of the SAG loss to Viola Davis. Christ, it’s so un-balanced and unfair it makes you wanna gouge out the eyes of the SAG commitee…
    
    In my humble opinion, Davis wasn’t even worthy of the Oscar nomination let alone becoming one of the front runners. I’d have easily sacrificed Davis to get Kirsten Dunst (MELANCHOLIA) or the even better Tilda Swinton (WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN) the nod…
    
    Streep TOWERS above the nominees in this category… Simple fact (though I have a soft spot for the infinately sexy turn by Rooney Mara)…
    
    YES YES, THE ARTIST is coming in like a fucking freight train out of control…
    
    WHOO-WHOO-CHUG-CHUG!!!!!!!!
    
    George Clooney and Brad Pitt should just stay home as DeJardin is landsliding the best actor category (although I feel for Gary Oldman, who was totally deserving of the nomination and would have loved to see him prevail after all the great turns he’s given us in a great career of great performances)…
    
    I’m praying for an upset in BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS and hoping that Bernice Beijo (did I spell that right?) sideswipes Octavia Spencer for the win. Only Janet McTeer was equal to Beijo in this rather lackluster category…
    
    and…
    
    Oh, well, fuck it, just watch our upcoming video if you really wanna see me and Sam get all worked up over this shit….
  - on February 14, 2012 at 12:30 pm dennis
    
    ANOTHER FAR FROM HEAVEN!?!?!?!?!?!?
    
    Please, Joel, DON”T SAY THAT!!!!!
    
    You have no idea what that intimates.
    
    That was EXTREME SAMMY and a year of fawning so disgusting that most of us in his company were issued barf-bags due to his sickening display.
    
    When the nominations were read that year (without FAR FROM HEAVEN nominated in the BEST PICTURE category) all of his children were put on “TV watch” to keep him from sticking his foot through the TV screen.
    
    And don’t even get me started about how he was playing the score from that film so loud on his car stereo everywhere he went that you thought it was a float from the Gay Pride Festival in NYC….
    
    Simply put, and Lucille will back me up 100%, he was unbearable to be with for those few months back then…
    
    LOL!!!!! ROTF!!!!!!!!
on February 13, 2012 at 12:06 pm | Reply Judy

A great week for you, Sam – that Richard III with Spacey sounds excellent, and it must have been really something to see ‘Wings’ on the big screen with Wellman Jr introducing it. Look forward to hearing more about the Wellman festival – I agree that ‘The High and the Mighty’ is one of his lesser films, although John Wayne is very good in it, staying so understated while some of the airline passengers go over the top! Thanks very much for the plug for my blog.

We had the BAFTAs here on TV last night and as I expect you have heard ‘The Artist’ won a lot of prizes – there was also a fellowship awarded to Martin Scorsese, and he gave a nice speech where he said how thrilled he was to have an award which had gone to Powell and Pressburger in the past.

I haven’t seen much this week – I did see ‘War Horse’ at the cinema but must number myself among the naysayers on that one, I’m afraid, Sam. I do think it has its moments, especially the long tracking shots of the soldiers, but a lot of it just didn’t ring true to me, from the first auction and ploughing scene onwards. I suspect I might like it more on stage, though.

At home I saw a great Wellman film, a strange arthouse Western, ‘The Track of the Cat’ – not sure if that is included in your festival but I definitely think it is one of his best, with a great performance by Robert Mitchum. I’m now reading the book by Walter van Tilburg Clark and enjoying it so far. I also saw a very minor John Wayne Western, ‘The Fighting Kentuckian’, which turned up on TV – just about the only things this one has going for it is that Oliver Hardy makes an interesting sidekick, and, on a shallow note, Wayne looks very handsome in a Davy Crockett hat! Just a shame about the hopeless script and the fact that the leading lady can’t act… apparently she was the girlfriend of the studio boss!
- on February 13, 2012 at 8:46 pm | Reply Sam Juliano
  
  Judy—
  
  The RICHARD III production was a fine one for sure, and Spacey’s talents are rarely better employed. I am looking to you as my muse during the Wellman Festival, as the truth is that YOU should be there way before me. Problem is that little matter of geography I know. But as you have reviewed the lion’s share of this 40 plus schedule at MOVIE CLASSICS I am going in with more knowledge than I would have. But be rest assured you have seen not only nearly every film in the festival but a number of others through your sources that are not being offered, including the film that now leads up at your site. As I mentioned to Ed, I am very excited about TRACK OF THE CAT, scheduled for a week from Friday, and will certainly have a report. I am impressed to hear that you consider it one of Wellman’s best. So that was one of two instances then where Wellman adapted the work of Walter Van Tilberg Clark, with the other being the classic OX-BOW INCIDENT, which is screening with YELLOW SKY on Saturday. HIGH AND THE MIGHTY does admittedly feature a very fine performance by John Wayne and some stunning set pieces but yeah overall as you note, not one of Wellman’s finest hours. Love that polite takedown of THE FIGHTING KENTUCKIAN, which is dead-on about the non-acting of the leading lady (and her connections! Ha!) and that John Wayne hat!
  
  Great to hear Scorsese spoke at the BAFTA’s and I did indeed see that sweep for THE ARTIST. Even Guillaume Schiffman won for his ravishing cinematography.
  
  I fully understand the reaction to WAR HORSE Judy, and know others who share your disappointment with it. Yes I’m a fan and I tended to be foregiving of some of the questionable decisions, but the emotions got me there. I do agree that you might appreciate teh stage version far more.
  
  Anyway, I will be thrilled to share notes with you on the Wellman, (the book Wellman Jr. was promoting on WINGS (which is authored) seems very interesting based on my skimming of Alan Hardy’s copy, but it seemed pricey at $32. Perhaps a better number can be managed on amazon) and I’ll have a full report on the screenings. Thanks as always for the superlative wrap my excellent friend!
  - on February 18, 2012 at 7:53 am Judy
    
    Sam, I’m intrigued to hear that ‘The Man I Love’ is so good – will be interested to hear more about it! Must say I am a big fan of ‘The Purchase Price’ – Stanwyck is wonderful in it and I really like George Brent playing against type as the waifish country boy – the black comedy wedding scene where he sniffs all the time is very memorable. I also like ‘Night Nurse’ a lot, especially the first half before the melodrama starts. Must have been quite an epic evening seeing all three.
- on February 14, 2012 at 2:52 am | Reply Pierre de Plume
  
  Judy, I enjoyed War Horse but understand your reservations. The film has a contrived quality that’s difficult to reconcile to any reality I’ve ever known. Giving in to the notion that it’s a children’s tale, laced with sentiment and coincidence, makes it easier to digest.
  
  A few months back I saw The Track of the Cat on TCM. It was good. I seem to recall Robert Osborne commenting on the use of color in the film — or more accurately, the rarity of color.
- on February 14, 2012 at 4:41 pm | Reply Sam Juliano
  
  Great to hear another positive report on TRACK OF THE CAT, Pierre. I am really excited about that one!
- on February 14, 2012 at 10:18 pm | Reply Judy
  
  Sam, I agree the Wellman book on his father seems rather pricey – sadly it only seems to have been published in hardback. I have resisted it so far. I’m sure you will enjoy seeing his great Westerns among the offerings at the festival.
  
  Pierre, I agree with you that the lack of colour in ‘Track of the Cat’ is very interesting – it is said to have been made as a “black and white film in colour”, with only Mitchum’s red coat and another character’s yellow scarf breaking up the gloom. For anyone who is interested, Colin at the Riding the High Country blog wrote a fine review of the film a few weeks back which went into detail about this aspect:
  http://livius1.wordpress.com/2012/01/11/track-of-the-cat/
- on February 14, 2012 at 10:30 pm | Reply Sam Juliano
  
  I will check that out Judy! And I suppose I will eventually surrendar to Wellman Jr’s book. I will be leaving the house in ten minutes with Lucille to take in a Valentine’s Day double feature tonight of A STAR IS BORN and NOTHING SACRED, two films you afforded stellar written treatment to at MOVIE CLASSICS, and films I know you revere. Though I’ve seen both a number of times, the Techicolor prints for tonight are supposed to be lovely.
  
  Last night a bizarre thing happened, when the Film Forum announced that the wrong print of WOMAN TRAP was sent. They actually sent a film noir with the same title from 1936 directed by Robert Young and featuring Alim Tariroff among others. I stayed for it, but thought it poor.
  
  CHINATOWN NIGHTS was an intriguing Wellman rarity though as was YOU NEVER KNOW WOMEN with the piano accompaniment.
  - on February 14, 2012 at 10:37 pm Judy
    
    What a pain to have the wrong film, and also that it wasn’t a good one. If it had been a great film noir shown by mistake, I’m sure it would have been easier to take the change of programme! The rarities you did see must have been quite something, though, and I’m sure you and Lucille will enjoy that great double feature tonight.:)
  - on February 16, 2012 at 7:14 pm Sam Juliano
    
    Aye Judy, it was indeed a pain to watch that inferior non-Wellman feature that was sent on by accident. They have been having a number of mix-ups at the theatre as of late, none of which is really their fault. Yes, Lucille and I did see A STAR IS BORN and NOTHING SACRED on Tuesday night, and both were seen in glorious Technicolor prints. I love them both, but the former with Janet Gaynor breaking your heart in that celebrated final scene is simply one of my very favorite Wellmans of them all and among one of my personal favorites, period. Last night I saw (solo this time. Ha!) BUFFALO BILL and THE GREAT MAN’S LADY (two films I know you are well familiar with) both of which were fun, but neither one is particularly memorable in a general sense, and certainly minor Wellmans.
    
    Tonight (Thursday) it’s three for the price of one, all shorter Wellman features:
    
    The Purchase Price
    Night Nurse
    The Man I Love (Wellman’s first all-talkie)
    
    I had seen NIGHT NURSE only months back at the pre-code festival, but am figuring to see it again tonight.
    
    Tomorrow, it’s two films I know you highly regard:
    
    Wild Boys of the Road
    Heroes For Sale.
    
    I’ll be bringing the two oldest boys for those as well.
    
    And then a buffo weekend:
    
    Yellow Sky (Saturday)
    The Ox-Bow Incident (Saturday)
    Beau Geste (Sunday)
    The Call of the Wild (Sunday)
    
    For all four of those I am going with some friends as well.
  - on February 16, 2012 at 10:03 pm Judy
    
    OK Sam, I’ve just turned a nasty shade of green. I have seen all those you mention here except for the rare early talkie ‘The Man I Love’ (let’s hope that doesn’t turn out to be another film of the same name!), but would love to see them on the big screen. Apparently Wellman hated the cheesy ending of ‘Buffalo Bill’, but quoted it all the time – I do like the film on the whole, although that ending is very hard to take. The scene with Bill riding a wooden horse is heart-rending and sticks in my mind. I also like ‘The Great Man’s Lady’ which does feel rather like some of his pre-Codes, though Stanwyck’s make-up gets a bit much in the later scenes where she is supposed to be 104 or so. Anyway, sounds as if you are enjoying it all:)
  - on February 17, 2012 at 9:33 pm Sam Juliano
    
    Judy, THE MAN I LOVE was last night’s highlight! I’d go as far as to say it’s four stars of five, (I’ll have more to say soon) while NIGHT NURSE at 3 1/2 and THE PURCHASE BRIDE at 3 are fun to varying degrees.
  - on February 18, 2012 at 7:55 am Judy
    
    Sam, This comment just turned up in the wrong place, so I’ll try again – sorry, I obviously hit the wrong “reply” in trying to negotiate the thread!
    
    Sam, I’m intrigued to hear that ‘The Man I Love’ is so good – will be interested to hear more about it! Must say I am a big fan of ‘The Purchase Price’ – Stanwyck is wonderful in it and I really like George Brent playing against type as the waifish country boy – the black comedy wedding scene where he sniffs all the time is very memorable. I also like ‘Night Nurse’ a lot, especially the first half before the melodrama starts. Must have been quite an epic evening seeing all three.
  - on February 18, 2012 at 3:50 pm Sam Juliano
    
    Judy, I definitely will post a capsule on it, but I can say without any doubt this will be your cup of tea. I’d consider it one of the best dramas of the earliest period. Last night’s double feature of WILD BOYS OF THE ROAD and HEROES FOR SALE will surely rate as one of the best of the entire festival. But you’ve known that for quite some time.
on February 13, 2012 at 1:38 pm | Reply Ed Howard

Thanks for the link as always, Sam.

Judy is right on about Track of the Cat, a really fine and somewhat strange Western that I saw years ago and really made an impact on me. I strongly recall the contrast between the stagey melodrama in the interiors and the bracing, minimalist suspense in the snowbound exteriors. A very good film for sure.

I had a good weekend of movie-watching again, checking out Maurice Pialat’s Turkish Chronicles, M, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (a new favorite!) and Hitchcock’s Blackmail, along with a rewatch of Bamboozled for my new conversation with Jason.
- on February 13, 2012 at 7:17 pm | Reply Sam Juliano
  
  Ed—
  
  I must say that both you and Judy have me very excited about the experimental TRACK OF THE CAT, which is being shown as part of a double-feature on Friday, February 24th with an introduction by film historian and Brookyn College Film Professor Foster Hirsch. I will look forward to seeing that compelling contrast you paint there.
  
  http://www.filmforum.org/movies/more/track_of_the_cat_westward_the_women
  
  I am delighted that you now count THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG as a “new favorite” and look forward to the possibility that it will appear in your “Films That I Love” series at ONLY THE CINEMA. I have suspected you would connect with that one in a big way. As far as M, well I know that one will reward over and over again. I love Hitchcock’s 1929 BLACKMAIL, which I am assuming is the versdion you are noting here and think BAMBOOZLED is a fantastic subject to receive the Ed Howard-Jason Bellamy traetment on the Conversations! I need to see that Pialat!
  
  Thanks very much for the super wrap and have a great week!
- on February 14, 2012 at 10:22 pm | Reply Judy
  
  Great point about the contrast between the interiors and exteriors in ‘Track of the Cat’, Ed – I’ve been listening to the DVD commentary on the film today, which points out that in the interior scenes often the characters give speeches rather than having dialogue. By contrast, Mitchum has almost no words in most of those snowbound outdoor scenes.
on February 13, 2012 at 1:43 pm | Reply Jaime Grijalba

Hello Sam and everyone!
Thanks as always for featuring my blog, the latest entry may be in some interest to you and some other bloggers so I do say check it out if you can.
It’ll be nice to have another video tomorrow to show to my friends and say: look, here’s Sam Juliano, my friend from the US, and as always, the Oscar talk, even if this year isn’t that interesting, it’s quite needed in these grounds, at least to these eyes.
April-May for the Comedy Countdown? Gosh, I was aware that I was invited to it, I think, but for some reason I just didn’t get myself to fill the gaps I have in my classical comedy viewing, so maybe I’ll get to that soon enough. And I love Kevin Spacey, that picture makes me want to see all three and a half hours of it. (Here we are used to have plays run no longer than hour and a half, I guess we get tired easily).
Of the films you saw, you know I agree with The Turin Horse, it’s a haunting film, and I rate it ****1/2. On the rest, I wanna see Wings, one of those classics that are always mentioned.
Well, I had some developments on my end, besides being on vacations that is. I began working at my dad’s work as a file clerk of sorts, I have to digitalize all the data… not fun, but it’ll give me the money needed for the short film I’ll make when classes start in just a few weeks. And the other thing, from this thursday I’ll be out in a short vacation to the Lake Rapel for camping with my family. I’ll be back sunday, so I guess my movie watching will suffer. But by then, my first Oscar posts will be appearing at my blog, so people be ready!
My week, movie wise:
- Les amours jaunes (1958, Jean Rollin) ***1/2 Poetry, a dad, two kids, a beach… in some ways this feels similar to The Tree of Life, but the french poem elevates it a bit higher than the Malick effort. The appearence of the heavenly woman, similar to the Jessica Chastain character, gives it even more reasons for comparisons and parallels. Interesting first short film from this french director.
- Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011, Stephen Daldry) **1/2 The search for the screener is over, I saw the freaking film, and I couldn’t understand how bad it was. I mean, the kid is obnoxious and unlikeable, and he’s the freaking protagonists. All I could care of was the parts with Von Sydow, easily the best parts of the films, where we see some kind of advance in this freaking child and see him loosing some of his status quo over the rest.
- Hugo (2011, Martin Scorsese) ****1/2 I finally saw this, with my girlfriend, at the cinema, and she was entranced with the story of Gerges Melies, and when I told her that he actually existed she was even more interested, and that’s a blank check to enjoy silent film with her! Now, about the film, it is about movies and the act of seeing and a particular way of feeling how the work should work and how the destiny is written for everyone of us. It’s quite great in those moments.
- Les pays loin (1965, Jean Rollin) ***1/2 A short film about being in another country and feeling the comfort of finding another one to share the despair and the loneliness, but not much beyond that.
- Sherlock Jr. (1924, Buster Keaton) ****1/2 This was my favorite Buster Keaton in any way or form, and I was glad and entertained and estimulated with it. It’s quite genius in the stunt work as well as the acting, I liked seeing that goofy noble Keaton and how he ended up in the worst of situations, and the play with the movies was quite genius, as it works as a comment of the movie and the editing itself. Impressive.
- Sleepaway Camp (1983, Robert Hiltzik) *** Complete garbage, a formulaic and sometimes boring (due to the lack of killings more than anything) slasher that gets its fame (and deserved) because of the twist at the end, but I must say it is quite the twist, and the final image may be one of the most haunting things I’ve seen in my life, a gaping blood covered monster with a knife at its hand. Creepy.
- Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999, George Lucas) *** I wanted to see this, but I didn’t want to pay to do so, so I just won a ticket for the Avant Premiere and saw it. It’s still not good, but it’s never been awful for me. The 3D, for some reason, I found to be good, and even great at some parts in its layering of the planes in which it works, but then at other times it’s just dissapointing. Jar Jar Binks is still the worst thing ever.
- A Trip to the Moon (1902, Georges Méliès) ****1/2 One of my favorite science fiction films of all time, inventive and finally restored and complete. I saw the recently released short film, colorized and with music by Air (ugh, but ok). It’s good to finally be able to see the film as it was supposed to be, in its entirety. The colours and the movements of the characters are amazing, just great and I love the wizardry of the films of Mèliés. I actually saw this before the Scorsese film.
Have a good week everyone!
- on February 16, 2012 at 4:29 pm | Reply Sam Juliano
  
  Jaime—-
  
  My apologies to you for the late response (I am aware you made this submission on Monday) but I have had to juggle all my submissions here at teh site with the demands of the William Wellman Festival that I have been attending virtually every night. I actually have three shorter Wellmans (Night Nurse, The Purchase Bride and The Man I Love set to go for tonight) and will be leaving my home a short while after the school day ends. I usually hold your weekly submission till the end, as it’s always one that (gleefully) requires some added attention. This week is no different of course, as you have again rendered the consummate report of virtually every sense. You are truly one of the most treasured members of this community, and you’ve been a real joy to deal with. The failure to update your blog this week was a lamentable oversight, and it was done fully by accident. I see you have reviewed the Lucas 3D release, and I will be sure to investigate the piece and add my two cents ASAP.
  
  Thanks so much for uncovering the Oscar talk from Dennis and I , which surprisingly, was posted at AWARDS DAILY only hours after Jason Giampietro had downloaded it. We actually won’t be posting it until this coming Tuesday at WitD, so AD got the scoop by a full week. Of course a great honor, as that site is the most traveled movie place online, and one I have contributed to for years. And I sure your friends got a good laugh from that one. Ha!
  
  It was very unusual to have a stage play running that long, but it was basically uncut and RICHARD III is one of the Bard’s longest works. Yes, Spacey was at the top of his game, and was the prime reason for the string of swllouts at BAM. I was very impressed by the production, and wasn’t bothered myself by the length, which included one fifteen-minute introduction.
  
  Looking forward to your upcoming Oscar posts when you return from that vacation at Lake Rapel. Sounds fantastic! Have a great time. And nice to know that you have some employment lined up with your Dad! Hopefully that will help in more ways than one!
  
  Yes, you do admittedly need to see WINGS. I’ve known you have loved THE TURIN HORSE for some time now. Thrilled to hear that report from you and your girlfriend on HUGO!!! I’ve been waiting to hear a positive response from you for some time. Even some of the cynics who resist emotion at all costs and then attempt to artistically invalidate such works are having a hard time denying that this one has been embraced by just about everyone. It’s an unqualified triumph, and teh 3D usage is exceptional.
  
  Interesting that you liked the 3D in PHANTOM MENACE but still only went with the three-star rating. I’m inclined to agree with you though. I’ve seen some others by Rollins, but not the two you give reasonable grades for here. A TRUP TO THE MOON is understandably a carry over viewing from HUGO. Nice! Yeah I’d pass on SLEEPAWAY CAMP.
  
  Have a great week my friend. Thanks again for all you do in every sense!
on February 13, 2012 at 2:38 pm | Reply Laurie Buchanan

Sam – I’m sitting here enjoying a cuppa tea as I read your post and a sip nearly shot out my nose when you so-so-casually said: “…with a Monday through Sunday schedule that will include 15 films. My tentative plans are to be there for every single one of those.” Like it’s no big (gigantic) deal! You crack me up!

I would give one of my two front teeth to see Kevin Spacey on stage. Is there anything he can’t do? To me he’s like the male version of Meryl Streep — can transform and completely become ANYone, ANYtime, ANYwhere.
- on February 13, 2012 at 7:59 pm | Reply Sam Juliano
  
  Laurie—
  
  I should truly be seeking some serious professional attention before I am embark on this dubious venture!!! LOL!!! This is the problem with comprehensive festivals that offer some relatively obscure fare. You feel that if you miss out you may not get another chance. What I need to ask myself is “so what if I don’t get a second chance!” LOL. Seriously though, it is a huge investment, and I can only take it one day at a time to see if the general intent is negotiable. Lucille and I do have a Valentine’s Day date though tomorrow night with the 1937 A STAR IS BORN and NOTHING SACRED, which even she is looking forward to. Tonight I have three films consecutively, which is the most demanding night of the week.
  
  Kevin Spacey: “the male version of Meryl Streep”
  
  That sounds about right to me! I do admire his endurance during this run, as he’s on stage almost all the time as Richard for the marathon running time night after night, holding his own. He’s amazing for sure.
  
  Thanks as always my excellent friend. Have a great week!
on February 13, 2012 at 2:42 pm | Reply Pat

Sam -
Wow, what a week for you! A Giants victory parade, Kevin Spacey as Richard III in a Sam Mendes production, William Wellman silents on the big screen – that’s an amazing seven days of viewing pleasures right there!
Thanks for the link! I’d like to step up my posting frequency in the near future, but life keeps getting in the way…. HA! My resolve to get into the city on Saturdays for the Bresson retrospective keeps withering as I get to each weekend and realize how much “catch up” I have to do at home. (A trip into the city, by commuter train – given the weekend schedules – easily eats up 6-7 hours just to see one film at the Siskel.). So… into the Netflix queue go MOUCHETTE, AU HAZARD BALTHAZAAR and PICKPOCKET, maybe a few more.
Meanwhile, I did managet to catch CAMERAMAN: THE LIFE OF JACK CARDIFF which was fascinating, and reminded me that I need to watch the Criterion disc of BLACK NARCISSUS that I bought in the last half-price sale -very soon! We also saw THE WOMAN IN BLACK this weekend, which I think I’d have enjoyed more if we hadn’t seen it with a packed house of twitty teenagers who could not refrain from chattering, giggling and texting their friends for the entire running time of the film! That they actually settled down and seemed to WATCH the movie in its last half-hour or so, I think, speaks well of the film – but,even with the distractions, it seemed to me that it took forever for the story to really get under way.
Oh well. Have a great week, Sam!
- on February 13, 2012 at 8:16 pm | Reply Sam Juliano
  
  Pat—
  
  It certainly was a full week on the cultural and sports scene in the Metropolitan area, and though I could never get over there for that parade, it was fun to watch on reports. I had secured the Richard III tickets a few months ago through my friend Broadway Bob (who attended with Lucille and Alan Hardy) for a decent price all things considered ($60 apiece) as I wanted to make the final production in that theatre’s ‘Bridge Project’ which previously showcased Alan Rickman in Strindberg’s ‘The Creditors.’ which we also attended. It was probably the most spellbinding RICHARD III I’ve ever seen on stage. I’m thinking the Windy City may get a crack at this next. As far as the William Wellman silents, this coming week will really be teh cat’s meow with screenings each and every night through Sunday and well beyond in fact. But with Oscar night around teh corner, my services are needed to get this house in order! Ha! Lucky we are off from school next week.
  
  Pat, I never realized the traveling to Chicago was that difficult in time and distance. Geez, no wonder it’s hard to make some of these venues. I’m far closer to NYC, which is why I can pull it off. But the Bressons are intimate films and work just as well on gorgeous-looking DVDs. You certainly have teh right ones on the queue. I’d add COUNTRY PRIEST and L’ARGENT, assuming you already saw A MAN ESCAPED, which of course is essential.
  
  I loved the Jack Cardiff documentary too, especially for those indellible clips.
  
  Yes, you’ll definitely want to look at that Criterion DVD of BLACK NARCISSUS when you get the chance.
  
  I know that teenager situation only too well, and have also attended screenings with much of the same activities. That’s always a downer I know. As far as your general assessment I do agree for sure.
  
  Thanks for the terrific wrap, and hope the breaks go your way this week my friend!
  - on February 13, 2012 at 9:57 pm Pat
    
    Sam – the travelling to Chicago is not as dire as it sounds from that update. I’m a 45-50 minute train ride from downtown. However, commuter trains run less frequently on weekends (about once every two hours), plus the Siskel has only one showing of each film on Saturdays and Sundays, never starting earlier than 3 pm. To get to the Siskel for a 3:00 film that lasts 90 minutes or more, and then get back home, I have to take a 12:30 train to the city and return home on a train that leaves downtown at 6:30, gets me home around 7:30.
    Of course, I could “man up” (so to speak) and drive into the city, but I hate driving in downtown Chicago more than I can possibly admit, plus parking is expensive (no street parking near the Siskel.) So I guess it comes down to a combination of train schedules and suburbanite cowardice!
  - on February 16, 2012 at 5:17 pm Sam Juliano
    
    Oh God Pat,if I didn’t have “free” street parking in Manhattan there would be no way to pull off the multiple trips weekly. Garage parking is prohibitive. It’s bad enough that the cost from NJ to NY is now $9.50 plus gas, without figuring potential parking fees. But I fully understand what you are saying about the time factor with mass transit. That would make a modest trip a major event I know.
on February 13, 2012 at 2:53 pm | Reply Jon

Hi Sam,

Thanks for the superb mention and this will be the final week in which I’ll mention The Artist, at least until the Oscars. . I will move on from it. Very busy week last week for me with 18 hour days and loads of travel so ended up super tired by the weekend. My movie watching took a hit, but managed two very good films. Win Win was a very surprising feature from 2011 and I really enjoyed the acting and the script. I really had no idea where it was going for most of it and was rather touching. One of my favorites from last year. Also watched Lean’s Brief Encounter, one of the greatest tragic romance films of them all. That film just makes me ache. Wow. Sounds like The Turin Horse is tremendous and have already heard great things about it. I’m hoping to catch it once it’s on DVD so we’ll see how long that takes. Looking forward to seeing you and Dennis on the youtube video. That should be very fun. I’m hoping our Michelle Williams gets some love. Gotta defend her cause Dennis sure won’t!!!! Up this week is Drive again on Bluray, Broken Blossoms, Ben Hur (1925). Have a great week!
- on February 13, 2012 at 9:11 pm | Reply Sam Juliano
  
  Jon—
  
  I fully understand that after the expected Oscar win of THE ARTIST you will level one final barb. But it’s understandable. I would do much the same if I wasn’t a fan. But as I’ve stated before (unlike last year when THE KING’S SPEECH struck Oscar gold after all the critics checked in for THE SOCIAL NETWORK in their year-end awards) THE ARTIST is winning everything and anything that isn’t nailed down from all around the world. The Oscar is more of a confirmation. I am thrilled to hear of your affections for WIN WIN, a film I fear I have deserted, after praising it over and over during the year. Great acting and script for sure. Giamatti and young Alex Schaffer did superb work. It did indeed make a number of 2011 lists. As far as BRIEF ENCOUNTER, that’s one that blows you away every time. it’s as gorgeously crafted a film as has ever been made, and every new viewing is a renewal of sorts. Yes, I anticipate you will love THE TURIN HORSE, and hope that DVD release date is imminent. Dennis and I will be polluting the air a week from Tuesday! Yes, Den has been rough on Williams. My position is much closer to yours. DRIVE on blu is divine -I have it too- and some seminal silents lined up.
  
  Have a less hectic week my great friend, and we’ll be sharing notes soon. Many thanks as always!
  - on February 14, 2012 at 2:32 am Jon
    
    Haha Sam! Yeah I might have one more jab left in me . Yes Win Win was just all around tremendous. It’s the kind of film that tugs at you without having to try too hard. It’s just filled with people that seem real and that’s why it works so well.
on February 13, 2012 at 3:23 pm | Reply Marilyn

Hi Sam – Thanks, as always, for the shout-out and support on the blog. Continuing work responsibilities have kept my nose close to the grindstone and away from large-scale viewing and writing. Nonetheless, we managed a few films at home and out and about. UNTAMED, another in the Naruse/Takamine series, was wonderful, a real proto-feminist story I’d like to write up if time permits. We also took in the lengthy, but enthralling Fassbinder miniseries WORLD ON A WIRE, projected on the big screen. Truly a landmark for the week. I also saw the 1933 STATE FAIR, and think I prefer it to the 1945 extravaganza in many ways – watching the unplanned fight of two 1-ton Hampshire boars was really amazing and not something the very controlled films of today would have kept in the movie.
- on February 13, 2012 at 7:39 pm | Reply Sam Juliano
  
  Marilyn—
  
  While you admit to being busy at work over the past weeks, I’ve still noticed your output at FERDY-AT-FILMS has not diminished all that much, though yes Rod has picked up the slack. I really do have my fingers crossed for your prospective plans to review UNTAMED, as I’m a fan and would love to read that feminist take, which all things considered is most appropriate for that film and for Naruse’s cinema in general. The Fasbinder WORLD ON A WIRE is every bit as great as you assert here (IMO) and I envy that big-screen experience, which I don’t think has ever been opffered in these parts. There is a Criterion blu-ray coming in a few weeks, but not even that can approach the big screen for something that cries out for it more than anything else Fassbinder has done, even over BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ. I completely agree with you that the 1933 STATE FAIR on balance trumps the later one. You make some great points there methinks.
  
  Anyway thanks very much as always my very good friend, and here’s to a more relaxed week on the personal front!
  - on February 13, 2012 at 7:48 pm Marilyn
    
    You should be receiving an e-mail soon from VS Shaan with an offer to see CORRODE. Take him up on it.
  - on February 13, 2012 at 7:52 pm Sam Juliano
    
    Aye Marilyn, I did indeed receive that invitation from Shaan about an hour ago by email and accepted. I told him that I was targeting Saturday during the day, as this coming week at night is all Wellman. But after reading your review I really want to see it. Thanks for the heads up!
- on February 13, 2012 at 8:18 pm | Reply MovieMan0283
  
  A side note about World on a Wire (though I still think of it as “World on Wires” thanks to Allan!): I love that offbeat surf music score they play at the end of the parts. I ripped it from the dvd and put it on my iPod and it’s one of my two most-listened to tracks on there.
  - on February 13, 2012 at 8:19 pm MovieMan0283
    
    Also I prefer the title “World on Wires” because to my mind it has a double meaning: a world existing within the wires of the computer, but also “on wires” like a marionette.
  - on February 13, 2012 at 8:21 pm Sam Juliano
    
    Joel I agree on that title preference and the surf music score!
  - on February 16, 2012 at 4:55 pm Bob Clark
    
    I’ve come to the conclusion that the surf music is the best thing about that movie. I enjoyed it, but this is one case where I wish I’d simply seen it on TV (where it was meant to be seen) instead of on the big screen, where it just gave me a headache.
on February 13, 2012 at 5:22 pm | Reply Peter

I didn’t have the nerve to appear at the parade, even though I had plans to. I can understand why New Jerseyites feel the Giants should be toasted more on this side of the river. After all they only play here!

Turin Horse sounds great. Keep me informed with this if you remember.

I can see that Wellman seed taking hold. Good Luck.
- on February 13, 2012 at 5:30 pm | Reply Maurizio Roca
  
  Because they are called the New York Giants…
- on February 13, 2012 at 5:43 pm | Reply Sam Juliano
  
  Ha! I see both sides here. Seems even the Giants ownership hedges on this issue. I can see the ‘they play here’ argument as territorially valid, but can also cite the film’s history as the New York Giants as persuasive.
on February 13, 2012 at 5:29 pm | Reply Frank Gallo

Can’t wait to see that Oscar interview with Dennis, Sam. I bet you’ll be coming out swinging for “The Artist.” Should be a lot of fun.

That’s amazing you got to see the Spacey Richard III. Most of what I have read has been positive too. A daunting length to be sure, but you have to hand it to them for fidelity to the work.
- on February 13, 2012 at 7:42 pm | Reply Sam Juliano
  
  Frank—
  
  In retrospect I thought I came out a little too strongly for THE ARTIST and recall some subtle digs at some of my friends here who didn’t care for the film. My veiled sarcasm will be easily seen, but I am thinking they will forgive me, as they know I take no prisoners when it comes to this stuff. I need to get my head examined I know. Ha! Spacey was extraordinary, and lived up to all the hype, and for a three-and-one-half hour production it was mesmerizing. The staging was particular imaginative in the second half.
  
  Thanks as always my friend! Have a great week.
on February 13, 2012 at 6:24 pm | Reply Samuel Wilson

Slow week for me, Sam. Was mostly reading Michel Houellebecq’s new novel The Map and the Territory but did watch Forman’s Firemen’s Ball, a mildly misanthropic satire; Burt Kennedy’s The Good Guys and the Bad Guys, a reactionary comedy western with an overdone climactic chase scene; Kinji Fukasaku’s Violent Panic:The Big Crash, a hard-boiled crime yarn with an overdone climactic chase scene; Giulio Petroni’s A Sky Full of Stars For a Roof a spaghetti western that teases a change of pace or tone briefly before slipping into a predictable late comic mode; and Frank McDonald’s Broadway Hostess, a sub-Berkeleyan Warner Bros. B musical from the Code-enforcement days of 1935, interesting mainly for its attempt to ape the Berkeley manner without the multitudes of pulchritude. I’ll keep an eye out of Turin Horse but I doubt it’ll get up here. Pina arrives this weekend, however, and A Separation in early March, and I’m looking forward to both.
- on February 13, 2012 at 9:17 pm | Reply Sam Juliano
  
  Samuel–
  
  I never heard of that volume, but rather like the title and will do a bit of research momentarily. You are teh second person on this thread who watched FIREMAN’S BALL this past week (the other is John Greco) but your reaction seems a bit more muted. I can’t deny what you say there to frame it. Of the others I only saw the Burt Kennedy, which is pretty much forgettable as you note. I would like to see the Fukasaku, as I’ve seen other work by him. The B musical does sound very minor, the Ptroni a bit less so. I look forward to your responses to THE TURIN HORSE, PINA and A SEPARATION. Thanks as always my very good friend. have a great week!
  - on February 14, 2012 at 4:11 am Samuel Wilson
    
    Sam, I liked Firemen’s Ball well enough but I suppose it loses some of its edge out of historical context. I imagine the original response to it was along the lines of, “That’s not what I expect coming out of the Soviet Bloc!” but as that history fades I suppose its satire won’t seem so different from the rest of the world’s. Meanwhile, I’m feeling better about the Petroni western, which has a lot going for it visually along with a nice Morricone score and two winning performances from Giuliano Gemma and Mario Adorf – the latter is someone I appreciate more every time I encounter him.
on February 13, 2012 at 6:26 pm | Reply mark s.

Hello, Sam and all Wonderers –
Speaking of Bela Tarr, I’m still trying to process the daunting ‘Satantango’, which reminds me of Beckett and passages from Faulkner and Nietzche’s famous warning to stare not too long into the abyss, or the abyss will stare back into thee (I’m paraphrasing, of course). A blood-freezing gaze into the void.
At a marathon 7 hours, Is ‘Satantango’ too long? Equality of stature aside, is ‘Ulysses’ too long? Or ‘In Search of Lost Time’? I think not. Five stars.

‘If….’ suffers in comparison to its lofty antecedent, Vigo’s legendary ‘Zero de Conduite’, and David Sherwin’s screenplay is problematically one-sided in favor of the sixties zeitgeist, but Lindsay Anderson’s direction is indisputably brilliant and almost every scene is an example of imagination crystallized into its most beautiful components. ‘If….’ is a poem and a repudiation of a poem, Kipling’s pro-authoritarian, imperialistic ‘If’. Malcolm McDowell makes an unforgettable entrance with his black muffler covering the lower half of his face and a newly grown mustache. Instantly you think of young Jean-Pierre Leaud with his black turtleneck in Truffaut’s ‘The 400 Blows’, another film about maltreated youth.
Deeply flawed, but wondrously “seen” by the hugely talented Anderson and co-genius Miroslav Ondricek, the film’s DP. Four stars.
‘Hobson’s Choice’ — Not quite up to the great Ealing comedies of the era, but darn close. Touches on British caste snobberies with a light, delicate hand, without caricature and therefore with some measure of unself-conscious truth-telling about the evolving roles of men and women in the British proletariat. Laughton needs no praise from me, but don’t let his bravura performance overshadow John Mills’ equally fine work. Four stars.

I’ll be back —
- on February 13, 2012 at 6:42 pm | Reply MovieMan0283
  
  Yes, that captures Satantango’s appeal marvelously. I think it’s a wonderful film, maddeningly wonderful (and wonderfully maddening).
  - on February 13, 2012 at 6:48 pm mark s.
    
    Though time-consuming, I’m in the middle of watching this again because I’ve never seen anything like it. I hope I don’t fall into the void, too.
  - on February 13, 2012 at 6:51 pm Sam Juliano
    
    I’ll certainly have more to say Mark, but just thought I would site the timeliness of our friend Ed Howard’s spectacular review of SATANTANGO just posted this morning at ONLY THE CINEMA:
    
    http://seul-le-cinema.blogspot.com/2012/02/s.html
  - on February 13, 2012 at 7:07 pm MovieMan0283
    
    Well, sometimes falling into the void is fun, haha…
  - on February 14, 2012 at 10:16 pm Sam Juliano
    
    Yes Mark, I agree that IF can’t hold a candle to ZERO, but you still frame it’s artistry here. MacDowell is fantastic, and yes we do recall Leaud from 400 BLOWS. I agree it’s still flaws and gets 4 of 5. ‘Poem’ is a nice way to put it. Yes, Sherwin’s screenplay is surely 60′s zeitgeist.
    
    Yep, HOBSON’S CHICE is subtle and Laughton and Mills are superlative. Of course, not in a league with films like KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS, LADY KILLERS, WHISKEY GALORE! or LAVENDER HILL MOB but still a major work.
    
    Touche on bring ULYSSES up for it’s length in sizing up the masterpiece SATANTANGO. Becket, Faulkner, Nietsche. You bet. And of course closer to home, Tarkovsky. Completely agree with you on the ultimate favorable assessment.
    
    Thanks as always my friend for the terrific response, and have a great week!
on February 14, 2012 at 2:58 am | Reply Pierre de Plume

I noticed that The Artist is being bandied about again. I have to say my first viewing left me somewhat cool to the film — I liked it but wasn’t captivated. I had a Peggy Lee moment (“Is that all there is?”) The use of the Hermann music irritated me as lacking in originality. Upon second viewing, I told myself beforehand to simply pay attention to the love story. And I did. What resonated for me the second time was the heightened sense of irony of knowing what’s coming. This left me — unashamedly — with a lump in the throat and occasional tear. So today – again – I went a third time and was captivated even more. It’s not the best of the year, but it holds a special place for me now. More than anything, I think, I appreciate Dujardin’s performance.
- on February 14, 2012 at 4:20 pm | Reply Sam Juliano
  
  Pierre—
  
  While dominating the world’s film critics, the inevitable backlash to THE ARTIST has manifested itself in the blogging community, where the contrarian position is always expressed. It’s always more enterprising to show the other side than to offer blanket approval. Aside from that I have detected (and correct me if you think I am wrong) that the film is exceedingly popular with the older and middle-age viewers, more than it is with the younger ones. This is a blanket statement that is not altogether true, but I feel a case can be made. The film’s sentimental allure would seemingly work with viewers who are more sentimental. That is not good nor bad, nor anything really, just a curious point of observation. The film did the same to me as it did with you, improving on each subsequent viewing. The key I agree is the resonance of the love story. I shed a few tears too at the big melodramatic moments like the one when Bejo visits Dujardin in the hospital. And I see where you are coming from as to the matter of anticipation. I have seen the film four times now, and I gleefully anticipate the scenes that move me. Ludovic Bource’s extraordinary score (unfairly tainted by those who prefer to talk about one small aspect) is in my opinion a key factor in the emotions hitting the mark, and the film leaves you with an afterglow weeks and weeks later. Is this the reaction that one should get from something that is “lightweight?” I think not. And without referring to the critics’ card as a ludicrous call for following the leader, I’ll just say that the reactions you and I have had has been shared by so many others, many who are obviously tasteful and ardent filmgoers.
  
  I couldn’t agree with you more on Dujardin’s captivating performance too.
  
  Thanks as always my friend! We will talk more on this soon!
  - on February 14, 2012 at 4:37 pm Maurizio Roca
    
    “While dominating the world’s film critics, the inevitable backlash to THE ARTIST has manifested itself in the blogging community, where the contrarian position is always expressed.”
    
    Total hogwash Sam lol. I have never had a desire to be contrarian at all. I just call them like I (personally) see them. The fact that everyone who dislikes The Artist mentions the same five or six bad elements is at least an indication that detractors have specific grips that are concrete enough to labor upon.
  - on February 14, 2012 at 10:20 pm Sam Juliano
    
    I speak in a general sense here Maurizio, rather than to you specifically. I don’t hold you to task for at least taking the time and interest to impressively elaborate on the issues. I can ask no more. There are others who I noticed who wrote as contrairans, and used easy dismissals almost as if they couldn’t quite put their argument together. The negative side has been well expressed by some for sure, just as the positive side has been applied with passion and exceeding appreciation.
on February 14, 2012 at 4:03 am | Reply Jack Marsh

Sam I can’t believe you didn’t commemorate the passing of Whitney Houston. She was a beloved singer and at the Grammy’s there were tributes to her all over the place. I know you’re not the biggest fan of that kind of music but I’m shocked that you didn’t mention her in the update. Remember when she was in the Protector and sang I Will Love You Forever, she should have been nominated for that role, she played happy and sad both very convincingly. I have loved her acting since she was in The Wiz. When she sang in the apartment during the snowstorm time stopped for me. I have never forgotten seeing that movie in the theater and now it’s a shame because both her and Michael Jackson are gone and they were loved by so many people and I don’t think there will be other singers who can touch their greatness. Is Dee Dee a big Whitney fan? Peace and Blessings
- on February 14, 2012 at 4:09 pm | Reply Sam Juliano
  
  Jack—
  
  I found it too painful and depressing to acknowledge. I rarely mention passings on the diary, because it is always leads to a distressing talk. If someone like you brings it up here, I will of course share the grief. Whitney’s passing really affected Lucille and the kids, and her videos have been playing in my house now, much as Michael Jackson’s were a few years back. It is true what you say about both here, and be rest assured Dee Dee is a fan as well.
  
  R.I.P.
  
  Many thanks as always my friend! Have a great week.
on February 14, 2012 at 5:06 am | Reply anubhavbist

It is so fantastic to see you appreciated Bill Morrison’s masterful Miners Hymn. It was on my top ten last year and it is further proof that Bill Morrison is one of the great living American filmmakers. Check out his other great films too, including his fantastic feature Decasia and his brilliant short Light is Calling (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cf9ah8IUVgw).
- on February 14, 2012 at 3:54 pm | Reply Sam Juliano
  
  Ah, Anu, our good friend Srikanth reminded me on Sunday that you had included it on your ten-best list. I did read your wonderful synopsis, but it somehow escaped my memory when I prepared my own reaction. Morrison is great indeed. I was tempted last night while at the Film Forum to purchase the soundtrack to MINER’S HYMNS by Johann Johansson, which I found ravishing. It’s $15 there, but I see that on amazon it’s only pennies cheaper. Thus, I will purchase it tonight while over there for A STAR IS BORN and NOTHING SACRED:
  
  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dpopular&field-keywords=miner%27s+hymns&x=15&y=27
  
  I will indeed check out that link you provide here my friend. Many thanks for starting the fire for this film!
on February 15, 2012 at 12:46 am | Reply Jason Marshall

I have been out of commission for several days with a rare illness. Don’t worry, I don’t have some exotic disease, it’s just that I don’t normally get sick more than once or twice a decade. Mother Nature is getting in the first of the 2010s earlier than I’d like, but whatever.

Before I got sick I did make it out to see some pictures, including the first two from 2012 I’ve seen so far. Unfortunately, neither were encouraging for a stellar movie year. Man on a Ledge was goofy and silly, but not in a fun way. And I wanted to like Red Tails because I agree with George Lucas’ assessment about Hollywood’s racism, but if he wants to get people into theaters to see them, he’s got to do better than this.

I also slipped into Extremely Cloudy and Incredibly Up Close and Personal. I walked out of the theater feeling dirty, but pleased I didn’t pay for it. I asked a friend of mine who had read the book if it had any more value than the movie, but she assures me the book is just as offensive.

Since it seems to be a recurring theme in this thread, I should also mention that I am another was saw The Firemen’s Ball this past week (thank you TCM – one of the only reasons I’m not cancelling my cable right now). I think I liked it even more than the other two. I was laughing pretty hard at the most pathetic beauty contest I’ve ever seen.
- on February 16, 2012 at 4:43 pm | Reply Sam Juliano
  
  Jason—
  
  Sorry to hear about this malady and hope things are much better as I write this. Yes, Mother Nature takes no prisoners.
  
  I have avoided RED TAILS and LEDGE and am not at all surprised at your dismissal of both. Definitely not the best way to launch 2012 in movies, but this is never a very good time of the year. It seems like a very popular thing to do as far as EXTREMELY LOUD goes is to juxtopose teh words in the title to reflect the overall (lack of) worth and mood one is in when leaving the theatre. I don’t think it is bad to that extent (it’s passable because of Horn and Von Sydow) but the Academy Award nomination for Best Picture was admittedly ludicrous, and I can’t at all blame you for feeling “dirty” after you left. Yes, at least you didn’t pay. Great to hear that glowing assessment of FIREMAN’S BALL, which I fully agree with you on.
  
  Again I hope you are feeling better, and will in time get a chance to get the ball rolling at the ever-stimulating MOVIES OVER MATTER.
  
  Have a much better week my friend and many thanks!
- on February 16, 2012 at 4:53 pm | Reply Bob Clark
  
  Jason, I saw “Red Tails” when it came out. And yeah, it could be better. The action is pretty much perfect, but everything else is bogged down by a whole lot of problems– the script aims for period corn, which is okay, but thinks that just means a fistful of cliches; Hemmingway’s a decent-ish director for the actors, but doesn’t inject the same kind of energy Lucas does even when his performers are wooden (the movie would’ve fared a bit better had he directed it himself from the ground up, instead of leasing it out to a TV director and taking over reshoots himsef); the tones are all over the map throughout the movie, partly because it’s trying to be every kind of WWII movie it can get its hands on but only alloting itself a 2 hour running time (the way it cribs from a genuine epic like “The Great Escape” makes that painfully clear).
  
  Most of all, however, there’s already a natural dramatic problem with these kinds of flyboy movies to begin with, as they don’t have the same kind of physical and dramatic momentum of other war subgenres– they’re not all trekking across the countryside, holding a single stronghold from the enemy, or sailing across the ocean blue. They get in their planes, fly off to daredevil missions, but then they go back to base and wait for the next one. That creates a lot of awkward inertia in the story, and it affects even the best examples of these kinds of movies. Aside from classic examples, Mamoru Oshii’s “The Sky Crawlers” was a perfect example of an otherwise great piece of dogfighting anime that still had to overcome the initial fatigue of the home base portions. I think this is one of the main reasons we don’t see a lot of aerial combat movies, besides the fact that they’re difficult to make for technical reasons. Unless you center it all in the air, for one big mission or whatnot, they tend to not be very interesting when you go back to the ground.
on February 15, 2012 at 7:01 am | Reply Shubhajit Lahiri

Thanks a lot Sam for the kind mention.

I haven’t watched too many films this past week. I’ve been relaxing & sleeping & hanging out with friends a lot, given that our 2-year course is on the verge of getting over. In fact, we’re having our last exams today – had one earlier in the morning, and the last one is going to be held in a couple of hours. I won’t be leaving for home immediately, as most of us will be sticking on here till the Farewell which will be held in a few of days.

Anyway, here’s what I managed to watch in the meantime – the inane black comedy Super, the mightily engaging Zinnemann thriller The Day of the Jackal (I’d quite liked the Forsythe book too), the two Batman films by Tim Burton which I revisited, viz. Batman & Batman Returns, the avante-garde Czech New Wave film Daisies, the brilliant last chapter of Wim Wenders’ “Road Movie” trilogy – Kings of the Road, and the lovely Eric Rohmer film A Tale of Winter.

Great to know that you’re a mild winter & progressing towards spring at your side of the globe – must be a really conforting time! Also, loved your take on Turin Horse, which I too rated as a masterpiece at my site. And yeah, I’d be looking out for the conversation you had with Dennis Polifroni on the Oscars – I’m sure it’s going to be a mighty interesting read!
- on February 15, 2012 at 4:59 pm | Reply MovieMan0283
  
  Shubhajit, do you plan on reviewing Daisies? I saw that some of the others you mention had been written up on the site, but not this one yet. It’s one of my favorites.
  - on February 15, 2012 at 6:45 pm Shubhajit Lahiri
    
    Yes I’ll most certainly be reviewing it. I generally review films in the order in which I watch them (the same order in which I wrote the names of the films above). So, now that I’ve just posted my take on Batman Returns, the next movie up for review at my place would be Daisies
- on February 16, 2012 at 5:24 pm | Reply Sam Juliano
  
  Shubhajit—
  
  Great to hear you are winding down and soon with bea “free man” so to speak. You certainly have earned this reprieve,and I know you willbe back on the movie beat before long. You sawa good lot there still this past week,and like Joel, I will lookingforward to your assessment of DAISES at CINEMASCOPE. I’m no fan of SUPER 8 either, I dolove the Rohmer, DAISIES and JACKAL,the last to an extent and think that Wenders is quite nice. The Batmans aren’t my thing, but I recognize I’m in the minority on that count. And there are toomany fans in this house.Ha!
  
  Have a great week my friend. Many thanks as always!!!
on February 15, 2012 at 6:21 pm | Reply mark s.

Sam –
A film I finally got around to –
I think the biggest problem with Tarkovsky’s ‘Ivan’s Childhood’ (1962), besides the propensity to artiness***, is that one realizes well in advance that the story will end in tears. Tarkovsky’s intoxication with his camera yields some stunning imagery, but the denouement is a foregone conclusion. Ivan, this beautiful blond boy who has goodness and soul and childish heroism chiselled on every physical feature, doesn’t stand a chance against the Nazis (whom we never really see. Nice touch, the invisiblity of evil).
***Tarkovsky dropped these affectations four years later in ‘Andrei Rublev’ (1966), a film suppressed by the Soviet regime and drastically cut, but a significant work even in its truncated version. Has Criterion restored this? I suspect ‘Rublev’ is a masterpiece in its original form.

A revisit. TCM screened Costa-Gavras’ “Z” the other night, and it now looks streaked with melodramatics — nothing ruinous, just slightly inflated or padded and therefore slightly diminished. “Z” now feels too long, and though still excitingly directed and loaded with visceral wallop, I may have to take my high estimation down just a notch.

I’m still toiling away on ‘Au Hasard Balthazar, striving for originality, trying to find things in the film that don’t get mentioned — like, “Balthazar hee-haws, but he never pees or defecates; like all divine creatures he is free of sordid bodily functions”. One day a completed essay will appear.
Later, Sam
- on February 16, 2012 at 7:27 pm | Reply Sam Juliano
  
  Mark—
  
  There is no film in the Criterion arsenal more deserving of remaster than ANDREI RUBLEV. Consumers have been asking for another transfer for several years now and rightfully so. I must say in the end I still love IVAN’S CHILDHOOD, appreciate the non-linear flashback structure and am impressed by the high praise heaped on the film by Bergman, Kieslowski and Paradjanov, all of whom attest to its influence on some of their own work. I understand what you are saying about the predictibility of the outcome, but really there doesn’t seem to be any other way to go with it.
  
  Bergman said:
  
  “My discovery of Tarkovsky’s first film was like a miracle. Suddenly, I found myself standing at the door of a room the keys of which had, until then, never been given to me. It was a room I had always wanted to enter and where he was moving freely and fully at ease.”
  
  And Jean-Paul sartre said it was one of the most beautiful films he had ever seen. The fact that it is Tarkovsky’s most popular films worldwide might serve to undermine it’s artistry with some, but it remains, methinks a pinnacle in the master filmaker’s career.
  
  Agreed on Z.
  
  There is nothing I’d like to see more that an essay from you on BALTHAZAR!!
  
  Thanks again my friend.
  - on February 16, 2012 at 7:56 pm mark s.
    
    I had no idea that ‘Ivan’s Childhood’ received such heavy-hitting endorsements. I’ll probably watch it again, snap judgments are always risky and I’m no one-take Pauline Kael, I need to watch films more than once to sort out my responses. At first glimpse the film seemed one more demonstration of war-seen-through-the-eyes-of-a-child and innocence destroyed, with superior cinematography. Maybe that IS a superficial reading.
    Bergman’s tastes don’t always jive with mine — he had a total aversion to animals and no use for ‘Balthazar’. And he sneered at Bellocchio’s films for being too ‘homosexual’. I couldn’t agree less.
  - on February 16, 2012 at 8:16 pm Sam Juliano
    
    Bergamn can surely be an unreasonable critic. he used the profane assessment of Godard’s work as f_ ___ing shit, and he always trashed Fellini.
  - on February 16, 2012 at 9:39 pm Maurizio Roca
    
    I think every Tarkovsky film after Ivan’s Childhood is superior…
on February 16, 2012 at 2:32 am | Reply bobby J.

Hi Sam…..still haven’t seen ‘The Artist’ – always a problem when trying to watch with others. If they can’t do it tomorrow – I’m off to see by myself! Nice to see it winning Oscars – maybe Channel Four in the UK will show Brownlow’s ‘Hollywood’ now? As for the films I have seen in the last couple of weeks…..

The Ideas of March**
As superior political drama along the lines of ‘The Candidate’, good acting, directing and a general sense of purpose in it’s story- but all a shade narrow, with no real surprises, and unplumbed depths suggested. What you see is what you get, but not that something special extra to make ultra memorable.

Tree of Life**
I’ve been intrigued by this since I read your original review in the Monday Morning write-up. It was a strange experience looking back on it. It’s a mixture of the sublime and the ridiculous, of the profound and the shallow. The news of the death of the child and the flashbacks, with their steady-cam fuzzy lyrical remembrances of things past and sense of fractured memories fleetingly passing by, are brilliant. It’s ambitious, challenging, different, enthralling here, yet pretentiously ‘New Age’ – with that woeful segment and it’s nice Dinosaurs who don’t eat ready meat! And the ending is of the same ilk.

Warhorse
I thought that I’d find myself somewhere between your or Allan’s view of this. Alas, excited – sat myself down amid the dim lights and found myself appalled. Spielberg seemed to be aping and trying to top both John Ford and Stanley Kubrick. The early bits set an English countryside of the mind recall Ford’s ‘The Quiet Man’ for Ireland and ‘How Green Was My Valley’ for Wales’ but where Ford had a poetry about him, Spielberg has a clunky, crude style here. He then starts his first World War homages, the execution of deserters (off camera, hidden – in the director’s teddy-bear world view, by the passing panes of a windmill), a charge over no man’s land and the long tracking shots in the trenches. Sprinkled liberally all over are mushy sentiment and preposterously unlikely moments that destroy credence. A horse that last years on the front line (without looking at all half-starved), a blinded soldier who whistles and gets his horse back, an auction that gets him the horse, a feeble meeting of nations with two opposing soldiers helping each other. It’s like the soft final moment of ‘Schindler’s List’ where Spielberg goes all tears and is here spread liberally. A ghastly mess with the director at his most manipulative.

Little Women (1933)
Keburn is excellent in this early adaption of the story, but I found the story/novel all a bit twee and overly-sentimental tosh.

The Mystery of Edwin Drood
This was the second of the Christmas and New Year Dickens adaptions presented by the BBC, this time of the famous unfinshed last novel, but the way it is done here is lousy, convolutedly outlandish and silly.

The British Empire in Colour****
This is a 2002 documentary using colour footage from the turn of the century or so up to the 1960′s. The range of colour techniques used, their restoration and the choice of the footage is magnificently done and the effect is of being bathed in colour, so rousingly beautiful that it makes most colour films look anemic. Shimmering colour worthy of Powell/Pressburger/Cardiff is fused with a musical score that suggests a majestic poignancy, a bitter sweetness to the history of all Empires. And then to top it all off, words from the highest to the lowest, via diaries, letters, editorials give some shape the images. Some of the horrors remind one of Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’. There are no talking heads, it never loosens the spell. It is the television equivalent of a stunning and unputdownable coffee table book. Until some time when a deep 25 part Ken Burns style epic documentary comes along, this will have to do.

This one documentary made my month!
- on February 16, 2012 at 2:50 am | Reply MovieMan0283
  
  Bobby, great capsule on War Horse. It’s one I haven’t seen yet – I was not particularly interested after seeing the trailer (which at times looked more like a Spielberg parody than anything else) but the mixture of raves and takedowns has me intrigued. Oddly enough, your cogent critique makes me want to see it even more…I’m intrigued by films that stir up emotions and ideas, one way or another. Watching Schindler’s List recently, I found I was frustrated not just with that teary moment at the end which always gets noticed but even more by the whole last half-hour or so. Schindler ceases to become interesting when his motives become transparent; by this I don’t mean the motives for his “conversion” (which remain ambiguous) but rather his moment-to-moment motives (i.e. it becomes transparently clear that he is out to save Jews for altruistic reasons).
  
  As I recall from reading Schindler’s Ark, no one ever really understood Schindler or why he was doing what he was, and I don’t think his demeanor changed as dramatically as it does in the movie where he retains his former charm, but loses the ambiguous egotistical exercise of power that gives him his potent charisma for much of the movie. Ultimately, the movie’s major strength is its portrayal of Goethe – though he often likes to be coy (as you note with the windmill planks) when he lets down his guard, Spielberg can have a great understanding of the power of fear, anger, desperation, and viciousness. His mastery of emotions extends to all of them, but for some reason he usually sticks to the lighter side of the street – even in the darker movies (by contrast, what makes essentially positive films like E.T. or Close Encounters fascinating is that undertone of nightmare). The result is that both Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan have moments as dark or disturbing as anything in cinema – yet side by side with a sensibility that doesn’t really belong in the same movie. The upshot of this frustrating tendency is that the tension is intriguing – what hinders the movies also makes them fascinating.
- on February 16, 2012 at 2:51 am | Reply MovieMan0283
  
  Oh, and re: the color docs, I’ve been watching some VHS tapes with color footage of World War II lately. It’s not nearly as intricate as the documentary you’ve mentioned sounds to be (it’s just a History Channel program I received as a present back in the 90s) but there is still something fascinating and eye-opening about seeing periods with think of as being “black-and-white” in color. Especially for people like me, born long after color became the norm in media!
- on February 16, 2012 at 6:26 pm | Reply Sam Juliano
  
  Bobby—-
  
  Needless to say you and I are miles apart with WAR HORSE and TREE OF LIFE, but I am still thrilled to get your reactions up here on this thread. Although Spielberg’s movie did well critically there were a fair amount of haters and those who though the film manipulative with a capital M. I made my case back in December with a comprehensive review that as I recall you commented on, so I won’t rehash it here. This is your time to assess, not mine. I read every word, and applaud your candid admissions. My position on the film ultimately (beyond all the craftsmanship hyberbole) remains that if it is manipulation, please let me have much more of it! As to TREE OF LIFE I didn’t see the “ridiculous” and “shallow” elements that you did, but I know this film for all it’s exceeding veneration from so many, has caused that kind of artistic indignation, so I can’t dispute your take, which is highly respected. I like LITTLE WOMAN a but more, but fair enough. IDES OF MARCH does not hold up at all, agreed. I am struggling to remember that BBC EDWIN DROOD. I know I liked another version. I do need to see BRITISH EMPIRE for sure and appreciate the ever-thoughtful assessment.
  
  Great to see you at this thread as always my friend. Look forward to hearing your report on THE ARTIST!!! Many Thanks.
  - on February 16, 2012 at 7:31 pm mark s.
    
    Sam, I agree. Of course, ‘War Horse’ is manipulative; the question becomes, how much are you willing to surrender to the manipulation? Personally, in the case of, say, Spielberg’s ‘Close Encounters’ and ‘ET’, I’m very willing to let my tears flow shamelessly.
    And every cineaste worth his ink gives in cheerfully to the savagery of ‘Psycho’ just because the manipulation is so devilishly well done.
  - on February 16, 2012 at 7:37 pm Sam Juliano
    
    Indeed Mark, indeed. Great points!!!
    
    And how true what you say about PSYCHO which is a veritable master class of cinematic manipulation. Yet, a supreme masterpiece of the cinema.
  - on February 16, 2012 at 7:53 pm Jamie
    
    Yes all art manipulates, or is openly manipulative. What it manipulates you to do is the question. WAR HORSE wants you to be an inert, crying, slobbering lazy mass. Great art manipulates you to action on love, politics, etc or asks for an open dialogue exchange. Speilberg’s never been interested in a discussion with his audience though, and why would he? Those in the audience with half a brain would rather suck down beers then talk to him anyway.
  - on February 16, 2012 at 8:03 pm mark s.
    
    Haven’t got around to ‘War Horse’ yet, though the prospect leaves me feeling squeamish. I want to like it, but am afraid I won’t.
  - on February 16, 2012 at 8:13 pm Sam Juliano
    
    Jamie’s response is excellent as always, I would like to think that there is more profound level of manipulation in WAR HORSE than what is ultimately suggested here.
    
    The proof will be the pudding Mark. You may find yourself pleasantly surprised. Among others here the discerning Peter lenihan came in with a very positive reaction at THE LONG VOYAGE HOME. There is much taste at play here as well.
  - on February 16, 2012 at 8:23 pm Jamie
    
    It is taste, but that’s a bit of a cop out. Even if I liked WAR HORSE I can’t see anywhere in the film where it would ask you to do anything but nostalgically reminisce (oddly enough on a world that never existed) and then get teary-eyed. Even most of the positive reviews and takes on the film gleefully talk about how much they were reduced to tears by the film conclusion. How this is proactive or a worthwhile prodding from art is beyond me.
  - on February 16, 2012 at 9:30 pm Sam Juliano
    
    Well, as I stated on past threads, we each have our own sense of aesthetics. Whatever Spielberg was going for here, it worked for me. I can only judge something from that perspective. I understand it has nor (or may not) work for others and I respect that.
on March 24, 2012 at 4:20 am | Reply Pierre de Plume

Sam, I caught up with The Turin Horse this evening. Not knowing what to expect as I’d never before heard of the director or his films, I did benefit from the program notes provided by the museum where I saw the film as well as an introduction by the museum’s film curator, who cautioned the audience to “not be sophisticated” while watching the film.

The film’s length — combined with the repetitive action — demands much of the viewer despite the many fine components of the film. The opening sequence, of course, was stunning, as well as the camera work and use of sound. However, I grew quite weary of the same doleful music used throughout — but of course that pretty much speaks to the point, doesn’t it?
on March 24, 2012 at 4:21 am | Reply Pierre de Plume

Oh — and I forgot to add the YouTube parody I ran across: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6235pICmsk