Zoe Heran in Celine Schiamma's superlative French drama "Tomboy"
by Sam Juliano
Turkey Day is nearly upon us, with the bells on Santa’s sleigh just a stone’s throw away. As the movie season winds down, weekly releases have multiplied and studios are poised to take full advantage of the holiday prestige season that culminates with the year-end awards. Football fans (except for followers of the Penn State Nittany Lions) are immersed in their team’s fortunes, as the season reaches the most crucial juncture. Both the opera and the theatre season are heating up too, while the music venue in Manhattan has reached the most attractive stretch of the coming lineups.
While the fleeting chords and notes of the musical countdown are now but a glorious memory, they will be forever enconsed in the vast Wonders in the Dark archives for an eternity of fruitful reference. Thoughts of how to proceed with the comedy countdown have taken hold with a number of the likely participants, even while the site will offer up some surprises during the five month interim before the planned April laughter launch.
With Lucille and a few of the kids on board for some of this past week’s ventures I can positively and unequivocably that I experienced what must be considered the greatest artistic week of 2011. Though the exceedingly high ratings speak for themselves, the week yielded a remarkable blend of top-flight opera, some of cinema’s greatest all-time masterworks, a documentary landmark and a few of the best contemporary films this year. It is no surprise that such a week unfolded in November, however, and it’s a great way to usher in the prestige season.
I witnessed the following films in theatres:
Tomboy **** 1/2 (Late Wednesday night) Film Forum
The Descendants **** 1/2 (Saturday night) Union Square Cinemas
Margin Call *** (Sunday afternoon) Montclair Claridge Cinemas
Forest of Bliss (1986) **** 1/2 (Early Wednesday night) Film Forum
Sons of Shiva (1985) *** (Early Wednesday night) Film Forum
The Crowd (1928) ***** (Monday night with piano accomp.) Film Forum
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) ***** (Friday) Film Forum
The Immortals ** (Sunday night) Edgewater multiplex
The Metropolitan Opera’s production of Phillip Glass’ SATYAGRAHA, which was broadcast on Saturday afternoon to worldwide markets shows the venerated minimalist as a hero for both the progressives and traditionalists. This breathtaking, awe-inspiring opera about Gandhi’s flight for the civil rights of the Indian minority in South Africa from 1893 to 1914, disavows conventions, narrative and even subtitles (the latter at Glass’ insistence, as the sanskrit follows a chanting pattern that really leaves interpretation up to the listener) Some might argue that it is cruelty to ask male chorus members to sing monotone repetitions of “ha ha ha ha” for nearly ten minutes at the outset of Act II (the scene where Gandhi is stoned by the crowd) but against all odds the scene is one of the most musically mesmerizing in the entire opera. No less so is the final act, when Richard Croft, playing Gandhi achieves a kind of musical epiphany in the final unforgettable extended aria. The Met staging is as creative as any other production in years.
King Vidor’s silent THE CROWD (1928) is one of the greatest of all American films, and seeing this tear-inducer with Steve Sterner’s piano accompaniment on Monday as the first entry in the MGM silent series which will run every Monday until February, was a joy to behold. Young Sammy loved it too, which made me smile. The early crane shot that settles on the window of an office building and glides to a single desk is one of the cinema’s greatest sequences, and the final reel, when Boardman refuses to abandon a jobless Murray is one of the most deep-moving in the movies. Sterner’s music was sublime and perfect attuned to the material.
Winston Churchill didn’t care much for COLONEL BLIMP, as he felt of course it was unpatriotic with the friendship between a Brit and a German, but it has rightly become a masterpiece that many think is the greatest film ever made in Britain. This vivid story of a life, memory and loss is a Powell & Pressberger treasure,hat was introduced by Martin Scorsese, who spoke for 15 minutes at the podium. We sat in the third row and enjoyed the director’s anecdotes of the film, Powell, Shoonmaker and his ritual of watching it twice a year, and how it was a huge hit in the USA, well before getting the recognition it deserved in the U.K.
Alexander Payne’s THE DESCENDANTS, is a winner on so many counts that I’d be better off just writing a review at some point. Great Hawaii setting and atmosphere are featured in a tragic story with some comic twists, a stupendous best-career-performance-from-George-Clooney at the center, a smart screenplay with some memorable sequences, and a mis en scene I have no problem believeing, not for a second. Payne’s framing is exquisite, and we have a career-making turn from the young actress who plays Clooney’s oldest daughter.
Then there’s the French TOMBOY which seems to hit all the right notes, as it displays empathetic parents who see their young daughter “re-invent” herself after a movie, convinving her peers that she’s a boy named Mikael. The ruse works for awhile, but it masks the real coming of age story here, that crosses more barriers that most of its kind. Great performance by Zoe Heran, and superlative and controled direction by Celine Schiamma.
Robert Gardner’s distinguished documentary set along the Ganges in India (FOREST OF BLISS) shows all the raw images and behavior during every day life among the natives there. It’s an unforgettable anthropological statement, and it is considered by many to be Gardner’s masterpiece. Less effective was the short SONS OF SHIVA, though like the longer film it often left you spellbound with the riveting almost shocking images.
MARGIN CALL is tense and well-grounded, but it seems the humanizing of the traders undercuts the main message of the film.
George Clooney in Alexander Payne's masterful "The Descendants"
Links have been updated:
After his towering contributions to the musical countdown in every capacity the gifted R.D. Finch offers up his own musical list at The Movie Projector: http://themovieprojector.blogspot.com/2011/11/my-favorite-musicals.html
Judy Geater at Movie Classics has penned a new entry in her seminal Wellman series: 1932’s “Love is a Rachet.” As always is a marvelous piece: http://movieclassics.wordpress.com/2011/11/19/love-is-a-racket-william-a-wellman-1932/
John Greco returns from a short respite to post a superlative essay on Lost in America at Twenty Four Frames: http://twentyfourframes.wordpress.com/2011/11/18/lost-in-america-1985-albert-brooks/
Laurie Buchanan, reaching a blogging milestone at Speaking From The Heart, has announced a resumption of a series covered earlier in the year, promising even deeper examination. Her new post it titled “Zodiacally Speaking”: http://holessence.wordpress.com/2011/11/17/zodiacally-speaking/
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
Jon Warner has authored a brilliant essay of Michelangelo Antonioni’s “Red Desert” at Films Worth Watching: http://filmsworthwatching.blogspot.com/2011/11/red-desert-1964-directed-by.html
Marilyn Ferdinand has penned an extraordinary review of Lars Von Trier’s “Melancholia” at Ferdy-on-Films: http://www.ferdyonfilms.com/?p=12190
And Pat Perry has followed suit with an equally stupendous piece of her own on the film at Doodad Kind of Town: http://doodadkindoftown.blogspot.com/2011/10/melancholia-two-sisters-wedding-and-end.html
Jaime Grijalba, greatly valued friend and colleague, has posted a trailer for the new “Girl With the Dragon Tatoo” movie at Exodus: 8:2: http://exodus8-2.blogspot.com/2011/11/noticias-de-girl-with-dragon-tattoo.html
Murderous Ink, in Tokyo examines 1920’s cinema ia a brilliant new post titled “Going Berserk” at Vermillion and One Nights: http://vermillionandonenights.blogspot.com/2011/11/going-berserk.html
At Patricia’s Wisdom, our friend and proctor of the same name has penned her first film review, and it’s a terric one on the HBO gem “Temple Grandin”: http://patriciaswisdom.com/2011/11/temple-grandin-a-movie-review/
At Scribbles and Ramblings Sachin Gandhi has penned a thought-provoking comparative essays on three recent works of Greek cinema, including the highly-regarded “Dogtooth”: http://likhna.blogspot.com/2011/11/greece-by-way-of-lanthimos-tsangari.html
Tony d’Ambra is leading up at FilmsNoir.net with a terrific screen-cap display of 1940’s “Angels Over Broadway”: http://filmsnoir.net/film_noir/film-noir-origins-angels-over-broadway-1940.html
At the always-spectacular Creativepotager’s blog, artist Terrill Welch asks “I Wonder What She Wants?” and then offers up some stunning photos: http://creativepotager.wordpress.com/2011/11/18/i-wonder-what-she-wants/
Writer extraordinaire Samuel Wilson, in a category tabbed as “Bad Movie Alert” considers a 1979 movie by Bart LaRue called “Satanwar” as a prime entry in his superb essay at Mondo 70: http://mondo70.blogspot.com/2011/11/bad-movie-alert-satanwar-1979.html
The gifted and always brilliant Jason Bellamy takes a fascinating and perceptive look at “J Edgar” that in some measure differs from the majority stand. It’s at The Cooler: http://coolercinema.blogspot.com/2011/11/solid-weight-j-edgar.html
Jeffrey Goodman, filmmaker, blogger, statesman and discerning cineaste, maintains The Last Lullaby, an altar for the scrutizing movie goer and those following latest developments on his latest project: http://cahierspositif.blogspot.com/
Again Stephen Russell-Gebbett expands the boundaries of blog posts by offering up some cogent ideas as what makes a film work in a tremendous piece titled “Film and Musicality: The Importance of Tempo, Rhythm, Length and Timing” at Checking On My Sausages: http://checkingonmysausages.blogspot.com/2011/11/film-and-musicality-importance-of-tempo.html
At The Schleicher Spin David issues a blanket dismissal of the latest Clint Eastwood feature, tellingly titling his essay “J Edgar Snoozer”: http://theschleicherspin.com/2011/11/16/j-edgar-snoozer/
At Cinemascope Shubajit Laheri has penned a terrific capsule of Martin Scorsese’s Oscar winning “The Departed”: http://cliched-monologues.blogspot.com/2011/11/departed-2006.html
Craig Kennedy’s latest post at Living in Cinema offers up a clip from Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo” which opens nationwide on Wednesday: http://livingincinema.com/2011/11/20/martin-scorseses-hugo/
At This Island Rod, Roderick Heath stays teh course with another stupendous review, this one on 1971’s “When Eight Bells Toll: http://thisislandrod.blogspot.com/2011/11/when-eight-bells-toll-1971.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
Jason Marshall explains why he feels that “Anonymous” is the worst film he has seen in 2011 thus far at Movies Over Matter: http://moviesovermatter.com/2011/11/10/why-anonymous-is-the-worst-movie-ive-seen-in-2011-so-far/
At Petrified Fountain of Thought Stephen Morton offers up three terrific capsules on “50/50”, “Moneyball” and “Ides of March”: http://petrifiedfountainofthought.blogspot.com/2011/11/recent-movies-5050-moneyball-ides-of.html
Srikanth (Just Another Film Buff) has again summoned up his extraordinary scholarly skills to frame a volume he has the highesr regard for. It is “Camera Lucida” and the essay is up at The Seventh Art: http://theseventhart.info/2011/11/19/book-nook-camera-lucida/
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
Tony Dayoub at Cinema Viewfinder offers up an interview with the Self-Styled Siren: http://www.cinemaviewfinder.com/2011/11/gone-to-earth-conversation-with-self.html
Hokahey has penned an impressive review of “The Immortals” at Little Worlds: http://hokahey-littleworlds.blogspot.com/2011/11/immortal-imagery-immortals.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 Reluctant Bloger Jeff Stroud has offered up some stunning beautiful images in a post titled “Autumn Leaves”: http://jeffstroud.wordpress.com/
Roger Livesay in 1943's "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp"
James Murray and Eleanor Boardman in THE CROWD, King Vidor's silent masterpiece
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Writers/Founders
Wonders in the Dark 
Thanks for the amazing effort here, Sam. Really a rich weekend for you, I see. I can’t wait to see THE CROWD. I’ve been planning to see the film for such a long time.
I saw Polanski’s CARNAGE this week. Enjoyed it a lot, although far from any of his best works. But it’s lovely to see 4 great performers having a great time there.
Cheers!
Thanks very much for that Srikanth!
Yes, THE CROWD is one to check out at first available opportunity. A seminal work in cinema history, it deepens with every repeat viewing.
Thanks for the report on CARNAGE, which I haven’t seen yet.
Yes, from my end this was really a banner week.
Sam, thanks so much for the incredible mention.
I was so happy to read about your week. It’s encouraging to hear about the strong films coming down the pike and of course inspiring to hear about some of the great cinephile events currently on offer in New York. That Pressburger screening with Scorsese must have been unusually special (and I completely share your fondness for the film).
This week, I took in just a few things, two later Rossellini works, BLAISE PASCAL and DOV’E LA LIBERTA, and then I also finally caught up with TAKE SHELTER. Although I can’t say I really had a favorite in the group, I was really happy to see them all. Question for you, do you have any idea what Michael Shannon’s final line is in TAKE SHELTER? I tried for the life of me to find the awswer online but was unsure whether he said, “It’s happening”, “It happened”, or something else altogether.
Here’s to another awesome week and a wonderful T-day. Thanks so much, Sam, for all that you do!
Jeffrey—
As always the kind and enthusiastic words are deeply appreciated! November is surely the one month of the year where high quality is the norm and expectations are rarely violated. Having the Scorsese event with COLONEL BLIMP and the silent presentation with THE CROWD really made this week as special as any I’ve experienced in a very long time. I’ve long known too of your personal adoration for THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP. (the MGM silent series, offered on Monday nights, will of course resume tonight with BEN-HUR, again with piano accompaniment)
Jeffrey, I thought he said “it happened” to be honest, and it would make sense taken into the narrative context. I know some people who were disappointed with that ending, claiming in effect that the film was all ready to “start” at that point. I do not share that conclusion, though I respect and understand it. The film was almost unbearably tense and riveting for a good 45 minutes before the finale.
The Rossellinis you saw are always engaging of course.
Have agreat week my friend, and hope you make continued progress!
Sam,
Thanks again for the shout out! THE CROWD is one of the great silent works of cinema, actually let me clarify that and say one of the great works of cinema silent or sound. Have seen it a few times including at MOMA, if I remember correctly, many years ago on the big screen. My wife and I are just back from a week in New Mexico visiting some old favorite spots and some new ones. Great time but it is always good to be back home. Have been reading the new biography on Pauline Kael, a well balanced look exposing both her good and bad traits as a critic and as a person. Only seen two films over the past couple of weeks but both were very good and am leaning toward writing about them sometime in the near future.
Fingers (****1/2) James Toback first and best directorial effort has Harvey Keitel caught between two worlds, that of an artist with aspirations of playing Carnegie Hall, and loyalty to his father, a small time bookie who he does some muscle work for. An almost forgotten film from the 70’s that deserves to be better known.
Island of Lost Souls (****) Fantastic early horror film based on H.G. Wells story. Photographically eerie with a superb and creepy performance from Charles Laughton.
John—
Indeed THE CROWD is precisely that! I’d have to count it among my favorite films of all-time, and this past Monday’s experience has enhanced that conviction a few times over. Boardman and Murray are heart-breaking, and few films convey the life’s experience with such aching humanity. Mr. Sterner deserves kudos for his moving piano work. The showings you saw at MOMA of course stand alone.
John, I found myself leafing through and reading some of the review chapters in Kael’s new volume last week while visiting a local Barnes & Noble on the occasion of the store’s bi-annual 50% off Criterion DVD and blu-ray sale. Dennis and some of the kids were eith me. I will buy it soon for sure. I found myself shaking my head vigorously while reading her takedown of WEST SIDE STORY (God did she miss the boat there!) But that’s Pauline. I reference and quote her constantly, even while disagreeing with her on many of her views and final judgement. I do well know too about her bad traits as a person, which includes her mean-spirited treatment of Penelope Gilliatt, and her infernal critics wars with Sarris, Kauffmann and MacDonald.
I completely agree with you on ISLAND OF LOST SOULS, which of course was just released on a stunning Criterion blu-ray that I just acquired. It is creepy for sure, and the incomparable Charles Laughton is at the top of his game.
I agree with you that FINGERS is sadly forgotten, as you well delineate in that great capsule appraisal.
Hope you took some breathtaking shots in New Mexico, and thanks as always my very good friend!
Interesting to hear, Sam, that you enjoyed The Descendants so much. No doubt we’ll discuss it more at a later date.
This weekend I caught up with Contagion (in 2D) and enjoyed it as a step or two up from conventional disaster films of the past. Nothing great, but it kept my attention and entertained me.
The Woody Allen doc on PBS, part 1 Sunday (part 2 Monday) is worth catching.
Pierre—
The overwhelmingly positive critical response to THE DESCENDANTS in conjunction with it’s strong front-runner status for the upcoming Oscar race (where many are saying it will be almost impossible to beat) will have a number of people either looking to take it down or playing the “I like this, I don’t like that” game, to rain on the parade of those who are rightfully celebrating the film’s masterful blend of humor and heartbreak, and one of the year’s finest screenplays. Alexander Payne is a major directorial talent, with two of his films among the best American films of the past dozen years or so (SIDEWAYS and ELECTION) and I thought the former was a far better film than the one that won the big prize (Eastwood’s MILLION DOLLAR BABY) so I’m figuring it has a number of factors working in his favor this year. But the main one remains that THE DESCENDANTS is such an excellent film. But you have enlightened me many times my friend, and I greatly look ahead to your response!
I must say I pretty much agree with your reaction on CONTAGION. It wasn’t “great” as you note, but still interesting and a unique effort in its director’s filmography.
I need to catch up with that Woodman documentary, and look forward at some point for some elaboration from you.
Have a great week my excellent friend. Many thanks as always.
Yes Sideways was definitely (IMO) the best American film of 2004 Sam. The only other one I could think of that I really liked that year was Collateral (which was clearly inferior). Payne mixed just the right ingredients of comedy, drama, and heartbreak for sure. I’m hoping I could enter the positive parade on The Descendants as well!!!
Eternal Sunshine is also worth mentioning in 2004.
Yes absolutely Maurizio!
My own Ten Best list of 2004 was led by:
1) Dogville
2) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
3) Sideways
SIDEWAYS was my favorite of the Oscar nominees, which of course did not include my #1 and #2.
Oi, Juliano….NO!!!! Remember, we’ve moved on. Dogville is 2003. Get with the programme!
Look, when I made my annual list it was 2004, when it first appeared in USA theatres. I haven’t the time or interest in your nitpicking. The last thing I need to waste time with in my life is what teh actual time of release is for any given time. I am far more concerned with its artistry or lack thereof.
DOGVILLE was my #1 film of 2004, thank you very much. As it was for USA critics, who don’t take orders from Allan Fish.
Sam, as you know from my comments elsewhere, your opinion of The Descendants is a little higher than mine. I look forward to our debating this over the phone! I don’t think it will be overly contentious, as there are many things to appreciate about the film. Tonight I watched The Sweet Smell of Success and Red River — both for the first time in my life. I realize they are much different films from The Descendants, but both of them have screenplays that resonate more consistently than this year’s Oscar frontrunner. I think Payne’s film — sort of a collective exhale — comes at the right time, however. We will discuss for sure!
Ah lord…I just finished my last exam for the year and I am weary, let me rest. But once that’s done…more writing about films!
BTW Sam if you’re interested there’s a new piece on King Lear up at English One-O-Worst.
Rod—
Congrats on getting over that hurdle! You have earned a rest for sure, but what with the continuing presense at two (I mean three) blogs, you never seem to fully negotiate some down time.
Am I interested? God yes, yes, yes! And I know Judy and others will be as well. I love KING LEAR and have seen a number of productions of it over the years. Sitting down to read your ever-superlative analytical consideration of it is essential ine very sense. And I am thrille dthat you have expanded the literature at ENGLISH-ONE-O-WORST. I’ll be over there ASAP. Thanks as always my very good friend, and good luck with the exam results (though you don’t need it. Ha!)
Sam, what a coincidence that you saw “Colonel Blimp” last week. I can only envy your seeing it in a real theater and with an introduction by Scorsese to boot. I just finished reading Michael Powell’s autobiography (he’s a great writer as well as a brilliant filmmaker) and rewatched the Criterion DVD of “Colonel Blimp” at home last week. I’d place “A Matter of Life and Death” and “The Red Shoes” above it myself, but it is certainly one of the very best Powell-Pressburger movies. It was Emeric Pressburger’s favorite of all their films. Powell does indeed write that Churchill hated the idea of the movie and did everything he could to discourage them from making it. Laurence Olivier was desperate to play the lead, but the War Dept. obstructed the film by refusing to release him from active duty to make it. Then Wendy Hiller, who was supposed to play the female lead, got pregnant. Powell impulsively told reporters Roger Livesey would be playing the lead (he’d been looking for a good role for Livesey for several years), and almost as impulsively replaced Hiller with Deborah Kerr. It’s a great movie, a model of how to tell a sprawling story compactly. But I did find that the occasional speechifying about the need to fight the Nazis with their own tactics dated the movie a bit. It also made me a little uncomfortable, although I know this was certainly the view of Churchill at the time and the film was made just as the war was beginning to turn around for the British. It’s playing on TCM next Saturday.
RD—-
A coincidence indeed! Geez, I’d love to read that Powell autobiography myself, and maybe can set my sites on the Christmas break. Yes, I know he is a great writer too, and his commentary on the Criterion DVD and blu rays with scorsese is a treasure that was managed shortly before his passing. So you read this volume and re-watched the Criterion DVD of BLIMP? That is remarkable timing with the NYC event, though I know you have been involving with the book for a few weeks before. Your embellishments/enrichments/enlightenments on Powell and BLIMP are just what the doctor ordered for this thread and I thank you exceedingly for each and every one! I also know from reading your stellar essays at THE MOVIE PROJECTOR for several years, that you are a passionate fan of P & P. Yeah it is tough choosing one over the others with their work, and until this past week I was thinking BLACK NARCISSUS was my absolute favorite with BLIMP, MATTER and RED SHOES close, but now I am thinking BLIMP by a hair. The beauty is that we love them all and can interchange any on any given day of the week. Your posing of MATTEr and RED SHOES at the top is sound enough, that’s for sure! I love both of those films dearly as well. Being an opera fan, I’d also mention THE TALES OF HOFFMAN, and who wouldn’t broach THE THIEF OF BAGDAD at some point?
I hadn’t realized that BLIMP was Pressburger’s absolute favorite film; thanks so much for mentioning that too. All your discussion of Churchill, the War Dept., Olivier and Wendy Hiller is great stuff–I just read it a second time–and how fortuitous to have you here responding having read the volume. Much, much appreciated my very good friend! And hope a number of people here take advantage of that TCM showing, which I am sure will have some added percs. I am tempted to go to the Film Forum a second time this coming week. I was that overwhelmed.
BLIMP is Allan’s #1 British film of all-time.
A very busy week for you even by your own standards, Sam – glad to hear it was so rewarding. I’ve only seen a couple of films, the highlight for me being the Wellman pre-code ‘Love Is a Racket’, starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr as a gossip columnist, which is wonderfully entertaining – thanks for the kind plug for my review!
The other film I saw was Stanley Donen’s ‘Charade’ from 1963, with Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant – I’d seen this many years ago but didn’t remember much about it. I enjoyed it and the Paris scenes look gorgeous, but I felt it suffers by comparison with Hitchcock’s similarly themed movies.
I’m also still reading James Kaplan’s book on Frank Sinatra’s early career (‘Frank: The Making of a Legend’) which is very interesting when the author sticks to the facts as far as he knows them, but frustrating when he starts imagining how people might have felt on particular occasions – you can tell he is a novelist! I’ve also been listening to some early Sinatra recordings with big bands – magical. Anyway, thanks again, Sam, and hope everyone has a good week.
Judy—
It was a big week in every sense of the word for sure. I must read your review of LOVE IS A RACKET today! Thrilled you continue to add to the Wellman series, which is one of the most accomplished and longest-running cinema series on-line!
I completely agree with you on CHARADE. Beautiful to look at, but nothing of much depth.
Yeah regarding the Sinatra volume, the speculative aspects are useless, though as you say when the author sticks to facts it could well be a riveting read. i’ve had much Sinatra around me in my youth, and have long realized his importance in the musical culture (and culture, period) I have my favorite songs and albums and movie performances, and some others I can set aside. But as always, when you take on a subject you really do so lock, stock, and barrel.
Hvae a great week, and many thanks my very good friend!
PS, fantastic still from ‘The Crowd’ and glad to hear it was such a great experience seeing it with the piano accompaniment!
Judy–
If you were visiting here stateside I would have escorted you there! I know well of your long-time veneration of this film from reviews and discussions at MOVIE CLASSICS. I know you penned a great piece on it too.
Hey Sam. I have been AWOL after moving house, and as life slowly gets back to normal, I have managed three movies of late.
The Mouthpiece (1932) a pre-coder with Warren William as a shyster city lawyer redeemed by a wholesome country girl is dated but William delivers as always a beguiling performance. The charm of Lubitch’s The Love Parade never dates and the iridescent charm of Jeannette MacDonald is as seductive and fresh as the day her scenes were filmed. Oh to be marooned on a desert island with her… The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (2009) is a visually compelling doco which tells us little we do not already know, and while we don’t really get to really comprehend Ellsberg the man, it is a timely reminder that even democratic governments cannot be trusted.
Apropos The Wizard of Oz, my local paper carried the LA Times obit for one of the last surviving Munchkins, Karl Slover, who died this month at the age of 93. He was paid $50 a week for his four roles, but in an interview he revealed Toto the dog was paid more!
Tony—
You’ve surely had a hectic time over the past weeks with your re-location, and I don’t envy you on that count, though I also am happy to know you are enjoying some new equipment, which will give you and your lovely family many hours of pleasure well into the future. It is more than understandable that you have taken a break at FILMSNOIR.NET under the circumstances, and that’s an understatement!
I have yet to see the Ellsberg documentary, though I am eager to do so, always riveted by that kind of political intrigue and uncovering of various deceits. I am thrilled to read of your glowing assessment of that William pre-code starrer THE MOUTHPIECE, which I saw recently at the Film Forum. Agreed that William is a natural and elevates this one greatly. LOVE PARADE was teh favorite Lubitsch musical during the countdown, and no wonder. It is timeless and I agree with every word you sau about Jeanette MacDonald, who is truly a treasure.
Thanks so much for mentioning the passing of munchkin Karl Slover on this thread. i did know of it, but didn’t move to send out e mails. As I stated in my countdown review of THE WIZARD OF OZ, the passing of the munchkins has always made national/worldwide news, and now we are apparently left with only three (Margaret Pellegrini, Jerry Marren and Ruth Duccini, all of whom are now in their 90’s).
Thanks again my excellent friend, and I wish you all the best in your new abode!
PISSED-PISSED-PISSED-PISSED-P I S S E D!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was all set up and looking forward to the PBS AMERICAN MASTERS two-part documentary on WOODY ALLEN last night. The documentary was hailed by every television newspaper reviewer as the TV documentary to beat this year (most reviewers called Scorsese’s Doc on George Harrison baby shit in comparison) and…
WHAM!
The cable went out and didn’t come back on till two hours after the first part had finished. The second part airs tonight and I’ll definately tune in… However, seeing the second half without the first is like sex without really great foreplay (Allens great line about sex: “Sex is a beautiful experience between two people… But, between FIVE it’s FANTASTIC!!!”-LOLOLOL) and I’m pining and jonesing to see the first installment. I understand the first part looked at his early life and was dotted with legendary stand-up footage of the Woodman wowing them in the east village clubs and in Vegas and also saw Allen come out of his shell in interviews where he talks extensively about his work on SHOW OF SHOWS with Sid Caesar, Allan Funt on CANDID CAMERA and his guest appearances (where he split the sides of his audiences) on THE TONIGHT SHOW (with Carson) and the famous DICK CAVETT SHOW (Cavett supposedly stated that Woody Allen was his favorite guest EVER).
Comes as no surprise that the documentary was hailed as Robert Weide (producer and co-writer of CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM) was behind it and signed on as director…
Gonna check I-TUNES to see if the first part is available but will shout out to anyone here that may have recorded it and comitted it to DVD for a copy.
HELP!!!!!!!
I’m dying to see this!!!!!!
If worse comes to worst, you can purchase the DVD, which, according to the commercial that aired during the telecast, is now available for about $25.
Don’t know if you have access to OnDemand, but the Woody Allen documentary is available there as well. You definitely want to get your hands on it – it is a masterful, definitive portrait of Allen and benefits from his full participation.
(Condolences on the badly timed cable outage – been there! A few years back, my cable went out precisely one minute before the tense, cliffhanging end of the SIX FEET UNDER season finale. It took me 30 minutes to get through to Comcast – the lines were so overloaded with people complaining.)
Dennis—
I am surprised your cable went down, but in light of everything you said subsequently I can’t blamed you being “pissed.” Ha! Subsequent comments by others here have made it clear that the Allen documentary is essential.. Pierre is talking DVD, while Pat mentions ON DEMAND, so either way would be acceptable. You have me interested too. Thanks as alway smy great friend!
SCHMULEE-Do NOT fear. I looked into it and all is well.
I caught Part one of what is, in my opinion, an ESSENTIAL documentary on the American Masters website not too long after I read the comments of Pierre and Pat. I also ordered TWO copies of the documentary on DVD for both you and me as it will make a great supplement for our Woody Allen movie DVD’s. As you know, Woody Allen does not promote his films, do interviews or sit down for commentary tracks for Criterion (They released a gorgeous print of ANNIE HALL on Laserdisc but, alas, no DVD or Blu Ray-and the Laserdisc was sans any supplementary material), so this probing and comprehensive documentary by Robert Weide is essential for anyone interested in Woody Allens work or just interested in the great directors…
I’ll letcha know when the DVD’s arrive!!!!
Thanks Pat and Pierre, you two saved me from burning down the house in pissed off aggrevation!!!!!
Glad to hear you’ve sorted this out Dennis. I do look forward to the Allen documentary!
I’ve been hearing that The Descendants is the favorite to take home the Best Picture Oscar. From what I’ve read (including your glowing report) it seems to have what it takes. Payne’s Sideways is one of my favorite films of the new millenium.
That was quite an event you attended with Scorsese introducing The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. But so was watching The Crowd with the pianist. I can see why you felt this was a special week.
So The Immortals was forgettable then? You posted the rating, but no explanation. But I know you saw it late.
Shocked that the Giants fell to the Eagles in that important game.
That was a very depressing loss Frank. And their remaining schedule is no walk through the park.
Frank–
I fully stand with you on SIDEWAYS, which was the critical darling of 2004. It does indeed appear that THE DESCENDANTS is the front-runner. The down side for the film as a result of this perception is that many bloggers will now play the devil’s advocate game and find every flaw they can muster in retaliation for what they perceive as having the film’s greatness forced down their throat. I’ve always found that game as most unenlightening, to put it mildly.
True of course what you say about THE CROWD and BLIMP.
The imoortals was often startling to look at, but the story/narrative arc was so sketchy that it invited a strong strain of tedium. I had much more sympathy for the director’s THE FALL, but will admit this omne did have at least a few splendid set pieces. But there’s too much out there now to waste time with this.
Thanks as always my great friend. Have a wonderful week.
As far as the Giants, well, they are unpredictable. They beat the Patriots, then fell to a great 49ers team, then to the underachieving Eagles. At 6-4, the coming weeks will tell the story, as they are tied for first presently.
Great to see such a positive rating for The Descendants Sam. I’ve been waiting impatiently to catch Payne’s followup to Sideways for a long seven years now. That film was brilliant and this new one looks to be equally so, based on all the reviews I’ve been reading. I plan on finding out definitively this week. Will make note of Tomboy and see that as well. What I watched these past seven days…
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows ***
The Help *1/2
James Ellroy: American Dog **
The first two I caught on the way too and back from St. Lucia on JetBlue. Potter might get a slightly higher rating if seen on a proper big screen instead of a little TV one. Maybe an extra star truth be told. I did find it somewhat formulaic and predictable (in a summer blockbuster way) to rate it as high as both you and Allan have. The Help is best left unmentioned since you can probably guess my problems with it. The brief Ellroy doc (which I saw sunday night) basically hashed up the same content as his Feast Of Death and is completely unessential. I also have the 2011 Jane Eyre at home ready to be watched. Will get to that at some point this week.
Maurizio—
I’ll thrilled to hear you are a fan of Alexander Payne, and that you have been been eyeing this release for some time. In view of your high regard for his previous films, I’d say it’s likely you will connect with this one too, but I can’t be sure to make a certain prediction. There are a few out there who are so-so with it, while admitting that loved SIDEWAYS and ELECTION. But it appears we might have our Oscar winner here, not to mention the chance of some critics’ awards.
I hope you had a great time in St. Lucia -I’m sure you did in fact- and hope to discuss the movie season at it’s most exciting time of the year. I know exactly the problems you have with THE HELP, and fully respect them. I like the film, but it is nowhere near any discussion sizing up the best films of the year. Yes I like POTTER more -but so did just about everybody else- but understand that severe restriction with such a film on a small screen. But in view of teh other issues you have, it is likely that a half star more would be the most. As far as the James Ellro documentary, I never saw it, but your observations are not motivating to rectify that any time soon. Ha!
Welcome back my excellent friend! We’ll be talking soon!
My love for Payne is primarily due to Sideways which I consider the best comedy drama of the last decade. Election is pretty good as well, but I absolutely dislike About Schmidt. I found that Nicholson vehicle to possess too much of that toxic Todd Solondz vibe. Looking down on every character and making light of their plight leads to insincere cinema for me. Most of the reviews for The Descendants has me thinking it will be closer to what I enjoy about Payne’s work.
I felt that way about Election as well – both it and About Schmidt made me laugh, but left a bad taste in my mouth. There worldview was also rather blinkered and airless. I thought Sideways was his best film, perhaps because the two characters seemed less like the writer & director smugly slumming with common folks, and more like them making fun of themselves – or their own type anyway. And looking at the Santa Ynez valley for 2 hours doesn’t hurt either, of course!
Yeah Joel, Election does bother me to a lesser extent as well. I find it more palpable then About Schmidt though. Neither holds a candle to Sideways overall. There is a sincerity on display in that one that dwarfs those earlier films.
Yeah I know Election is really popular and I can see why – it’s very witty and sharply made – but it reminds me of an especially snide student film. The comedy is Sideways is cerebral but also earthy.
Good morning, Sam!
Thanks so much for the link.
What a stupendous week of filmgoing! COLONEL BLIMP has been in my DVR queue for a while – I must get to it soon. Everything here sounds wonderful, and I’m hoping that perhaps Fathom has an encore broadcast of the Glass opera lined up, because I would love to see it.
Althought it wasn’t by design, I would up having a mini-Kirsten Dunst festival this week, watching ALL GOOD THINGS wtih friends on Friday night, and indulging in a repeat viewing of MARIE ANTOINETTE yesterday afternoon. I wonder if Dunst has been underrated till recently simply because she has such a warm, umcomplicated presence. She brings that to MELANCHOLIA as well, although she lets us see the struggle to keep that warm, accessible facade in place. These are half-baked musings at best, but let’s just say I’m freshly appreciative of here talents. We also saw IN TIME this weekend, an OK thriller that doesn’t do enough with the various themes and plot threads it introduces and only confirms my belief that Amanda Seyfried gets far too much work.
Pat—
I do hope you will get to COLONEL BLIMP soon. I know you love Powell and Pressberger’s other films, and I’m fairly certain this will be no different in a number of ways. As far as the Glass opera, I do believe that it will be encored like all the others within two weeks, usually on a Wednesday night. Again, I am thinking you will be ravished.
A Kirsten Dunst Festival? Sound slike a great idea to me! I liked MARIE ANTOINETTE better the second time, but my issues are not at all with this great young actress but with Sophia Coppola. But I’ll save that redundant rant for another day! You pose some telling observations there about Dunst’s approach and how she is perceived, and of course her work in MELANCHOLIA has no doubt silence her skeptics. But a great choice to revisit her other films. I’d even be tempted to include INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE and LITTLE WOMEN, but of course she’s come a long way subsequently. I haven’t seen IN TIME to this point.
Have a great week my excellent friend! Many thanks as always!
Sam, Blimp must have been a blast on a big screen with Scorsese introducing it. I’ve always found that the film proper is a bit of a comedown after that dynamic modern-day opening but it still looks great and Livesay, Walbrook and Kerr are outstanding. The local libraries used to have collections of David Low’s cartoons so I was familiar with the original Blimp, who was a far less sympathetic personality than his film incarnation, but artistic license vindicates the deviation.
For what it’s worth, the one time I got to teach a film history class I showed them The Crowd as an example of directorial auteurship indulged by the studio system and a peak of silent film style, so I appreciate your good fortune in seeing it big and introducing it to a younger generation.
Thanks to TCM and DVR I’m still on a pre-Code binge. I did a Marie Dressler double-feature for the blog, and since then have seen Blessed Event and Bombshell, which should count nearly as an overdose of Lee Tracy, William Keighley’s Babbitt, which may miss the point of the novel but still gives Guy Kibbee a good starring role, and Lubitsch’s Trouble in Paradise. I enjoyed that one a lot but it left me surprised at how much the vaunted “touch” could resemble a cartoon. On the foreign front I took in Hiroshi Inagaki’s Samurai Banners, which is current on the blog, Jean Rollin’s Iron Rose, which was typically atmospheric but more monotonous than most of his stuff, and Robert Hossein’s Cemetery Without Crosses, a relatively somber, character-driven spaghetti western but one I’m still mulling over prior to a verdict.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours and the American readers. The rest of you can enjoy the week, too.
Samuel—
It was a blast for sure to watch BLIMP in that spectacular new Technicolor print, and with Scorsese leading the charge at the podium. The director is a member of the Film Forum’s Board of Trustees, so he almost always complies with their requests, and I heard last night that the superlative print of the silent BEN-HUR is actually part of his personal collection. I hear what you are saying about the comedown after that celebrated opening,, but I have come to view the film now as a consumate work of art that isn’t maligned with any sub-par sequences. But I know that isn’t what you are saying there. Yep I agree that Kerr and Walbrook are wonderful, as is Roger Livesay among others. Wow, you’ve seen the cartoons, and have been able to make some comparison? Great! I’d love to get to those myself at some point.
You say here “For what it’s worth….” and then go on to mention that you taught a film history class and used THE CROWD!!!! It’s worth a tremendous amont in these parts my friend!!! That is truly fantastic in every sense and I can only say that I wished i were in that class myself!!! Your students were very lucky.
The Inagaki intrigues me especially, though everything you bring to the table there is most interesting. I know you have been on a pre-code binge, and I salute you that. As you know BOMBSHELL is part of the new Warner Archives Jean Harlowe set, along with six others. It’s essential, as Allan has noted. That’s a very interesting point you ake about the Lubitsch Touch as applicable to TROUBLE IN PARADISE.
A very Happy Thanksgiving to you Samuel, my very good friend!!
Thanks for the mention Sam. You had quite a
week mixed with so many artistic treats. Satyagraha was beamed live here in multiplexes as well and I had wanted to go but I couldn’t make it in the end.
Nice to hear such positive words about The Descendants which opens here this week. I managed to see Martha Marcy May Marlene last week and found it fascinating. There is a constant air of cold tension throughout the film which does not allow one to get comfortable at all. Even if things appear normal, it always felt like violence was just one step away. In this regard, I kept thinking of Haneke especially in the house break-in scenes. Since I anticipated the violence, I was not surprised to see that one stabbing.
Sachin—
You may have a second chance at SAYAGRAHA on the encore Wednesday that usually follows the initial presentation by two weeks, but I need to get confirmation on that. I suspect you will be ravished by this and recommend attending it if at all possible. I must say I was blown away. That’s an excellent point briningin in Haneke in discussing MARTHA MARCY, which you also frame here most persuasively. I’ll have to see it a second time as soon as the opportunity arises, as I’ve mentioned to others.
As always my excellent friend I greatly appreciate your thoughtful comment here!
Sam! Hey thanks for the wonderful mention. Sounds like you had a great week and The Crowd and Colonel Blimp in the same week! Both absolute masterpieces and to see them on the big screen would have been quite the treat. I am in the midst of my excursion and miraculously got 6 days off work due to some unforeseen schedule changes at the bakery. So, my coworker and I are on Holiday in the UK! We stopped in the Lake District for 2 days, then on to Edinburgh, St. Andrews (to see the Links!) and I’m now in the heart of the Cairngorms national park in Scotland. Tomorrow we’ll go see if we can find Nessie! We’ll hit Glasgow and then back down to Chester for work starting on Thanksgiving day. I want to wish you a very wonderful Thanksgiving. Enjoy! Or, Cheers as they say over here!
Jon—
To say that I am moved that you entered this comment while over on a trip to Blarney would be quite the understatement! The vists to the Lake District (Allan is not far from there!), Edinburgh, St. Andrews, and then Glasgow and Chester are to die for!!! And I might well die before seeing any of em! Ha! Really, that is the trip of a lifetime my friend, and I truly envy you. I know you will report back here or to your own place, and I’ll be there to hear all the ravishments. I wish you and your wife and daughters back here in the US a very Happy Thanksgiving!!!
Yes, BLIMP and THE CROWD in the same week was divine!
Have a great time my friend during your stupendous trip! Thanks as always, especially for this overseas report!
Ew, can’t wait to see ‘The Descendants’ (it opens here Wednesday). Payne’s ‘About Schmidt’ (and Nicholson) has always moved me deeply.
Well, Sam, do you want to arm-wrestle over ‘Melancholia’? Ha.
‘Melancholia’ — A cataleptic ‘Deep Impact’ for the art-house crowd, with thematic hints of ‘On the Beach,’ Stanley Kramer’s Cold War sermon on nuclear annihilation. Kirsten Dunst, channeling Lars von Trier, is clinically depressed and her unhappiness goes from sangfroid to schadenfreude as the celestial apocalypse approaches. “The Earth is evil. We don’t need to grieve for it,” she solemnly intones like an undergraduate nihilist in advanced sophomorics. Dunst/von Trier is so miserable, she wants everyone else to be miserable, too.
Inexplicably Dunst, who plays a sort of runaway bride mystic-cum-idiot savant (“I know things”; “We’re alone”; “678, there were 678 beans in the lottery jar, Rain Man”; “I see dead people” (whoops, wrong movie)) won the Best Actress prize at Cannes, beating out Jessica Chastain. And, no cattiness intended at all, dear, divine Charlotte Rampling should really consider going under the knife. Her ruined beauty seems to have affected her considerable talent, and in this film and in ‘Life During Wartime’ she’s like an embittered monster spitting abuse and venom. The other Charlotte (Gainsbourg), grave and vulnerable, gives the best performance by far in ‘Melancholia’. The weirdly eclectic cast also includes Alexander Skarsgard, Kiefer Sutherland, John Hurt and Udo Kier (Andy Warhol’s Dracula!!).
Though ‘Melancholia’ ‘s anti-transcendence feels like a puny rebuff to ‘The Tree of Life,’ Malick’s fine film is effortlessly impervious to it. “Melancholia’ is visually stunning, but then what film isn’t nowadays?
A revisit to a classic —
‘La Chinoise’ – I think Ingmar Bergman has always fascinated Godard (sorry, Pauline — the short film-within-a-film parody of ‘The Silence’ in ‘Masculine Feminine’; Mirielle Darc’s erotic monologue in ‘Weekend,’ clearly suggested by Bibi Andersson’s even greater monologue in ‘Persona’) and ‘La Chinoise’ is no exception. Here I noticed for the first time that Godard had incorporated what sound like snippets of Lars Johan Werle’s music from ‘Persona’ into his film about a group of young Maoists in Paris. Funny how many who revere Godard’s radical popism usually disdain Bergman’s Lutheran grimness when Godard himself frequently pays homage to the Swede’s prodigious filmmaking prowess.
We’re told by Colin McCabe in his DVD introduction to ‘La Chinoise’ that the film’s politics are now badly dated, but that hardly matters to me because the film is really about the beauties and romantic follies of youth. Godard gives us so much to admire here: the intelligence, naivete and plasticity of the beautiful young faces of Leaud, Wiazemsky and Berto; Leaud’s ambulatory orations from Mao’s Little Red Book; the intertitles of Lichtenstein-like comic book art that pop like gunshots; Leaud doing the twist; Berto as a Vietnamese peasant wearing a lampshade for a hat; and Wiazemsky’s bungling of the assassination of a Soviet Minister of Culture, a high moment of deadpan comedy in Godard’s oeuvre.
‘La Chinoise’ almost feels like warm-up to Godard’s next film, the self-immolating ‘Weekend,’ the culmination of his great 60’s period and arguably the most audacious film Godard ever made.
I wanted to talk a little about Kael’s dishy new biography, but don’t have the time right now.
Just let me do a few barbell curls before we begin the arm wrestle, Sam.
Mark, we’re simpatico on La Chinoise – it’s one of Godard’s great Pop statements. I enjoyed it more watching it on my own than following up with a theatrical audience, where the disconnect was palpable (some films are “dated”, some are “of their time” – I’d say this is the latter, which is a great thing). I’ve read that he did like Bergman – and that his feelings were hurt when it turned out Bergman wasn’t so hot on him!
I just bought the Kael bio a few days ago – I hardly ever purchase big new hardcovers but this of course had to be an exception. Looking forward to it.
Mark—
I just now got over here for the arm-wrestling! Ha! I’m not sure I can make a knock out kind of argument for Dunst, except to say she is superb in capturing the attitude that Von Trier wanted, and it’s done with a delicate mix of cynicism and black humor, that effective mix that the director has successfully navigated in other films. As an actress she is most compelling in this role, and in this instance I must concur with the overwhelming strong reaction from critics who are praising her work here. But heck, you more than made me laugh with what you said there in another typically classic submission, and you are right to praise Gainsbourg and cite Rambling’s fall from physical grace! Do you remember her in ZARDOZ way back when with Sean Connery? You do make an interesting point about “visually stunning” films being all the rage nowadays, but Von Trier has composed some beautiful imagery in this film and in the opening sequence of ANTICHRIST. His use of Wagner here was inspired, and he seemed to nail the state of mind with some conscious or unconscious assistence from Tomas Vinterberg’s angst-ridden Danish familial drama “The Celebration” which can be recalled in the Dogme sequences. TREE OF LIFE is probably my #1 film of the year (with six weeks still to go) but MELANCHOLIA is Top 5.
I see Joel addressed the Godard, I’ll leave it be, but can’t wait to talk about the Kael volume my friend!!! Thanks for the spectacular comment here as usual!!!
Sam,
Thanks for the (too) kind mention. We here in Britain have nothing like Thanksgiving that we can call our own. I wish you and your family the best of health for these celebrations.
The Crowd is one of my favourite silent films. I still haven’t seen The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp though it appears now and again on television.
Stephen–
Every year Allan “reminds” me that Thanksgiving gets not an ounce of attention in the UK, and I always tell him back that this is as exclusively American as any tradition followed stateside. I think Allan does envy the time off we get though. Ha! Thanks very much for the well-wishes to the family.
I am not surprised you love THE CROWD, which I think is one of the greatest of all films.
Have a great week my friend! Many thanks!
I’ve heard excerpts from Glass’ “Einstein on the Beach” and I’ve heard his “Beauty and the Beast” in whole. Same for his addition to “Dracula” and his wonderful score for “The Hours”. I’m sure this opera was a major highlight for you this week, even with “The Crowd/:ife and Death of Colonel Blimp” and those promising new releases. I was tempted to see it, but couldn’t do it at that time. I am figuring there will be an encore.
Peter—
There is is no doubt that the Glass opera was a major highlight this week, and for the entire year in fact. You name some other Glass compositions I like quite a bit as well. The normal procedure for the Met is to offer an encore within two weeks, and always on a Wednesday night. So I’m thinking maybe Wednesday, November 29. If I get anything definite I’ll let you know. many thanks as always my friend!
Thanks for the consistent posting of my blog, Sam! I really have to get on posting new reviews. I will keep you updated for sure!
Thanks again!
Dave–
Thanks for stopping by! I well know how real life can make blogging a luxury that can’t always be afforded. You may find the approaching holiday season and the year-end awards as a inspiration to post. I’ll be watching as always. Hvae a great week my friend!
I will get to all the other responses either late tonight or tomorrow, as I am now leaving the house to attend the silent BEN-HUR presentation at the Film Forum with Lucille and the three boys.
The other staffers here will be lurking I’m sure.
Just finished watching Babes in Arms – a strange movie! The minstrel scene was rather cringeworthy, even by minstrel-scene standards but weirder still was the fact that the Mickey Rooney version of FDR doesn’t just walk – he dances! Also interesting that the depiction was, if not celebratory, at least not negative; I know Mayer was a Republican, but wasn’t Berkeley a Democrat? The whole thing makes me curious to find out more about Berkeley’s MGM work; knowing him as the subversive Warners virtuoso (although Dames is already a letdown after the ’33 trio) it’s a trip watching his sensibility interact with the homespun dynamic of Metro (which in itself is a bit of a trip for me, as I haven’t watched many Andy Hardy-type movies), and also knowledge of the outside world – with that closing number singing about “having no Fuhrer or Duce”, and the concerns about finding a job and the kids being out of work, interact with that Norman Rockwell-y picket fence setting. Also cool to see Judy Garland & Margaret Hamilton pair off in ANOTHER ’39 film (and their parts are pretty similar to that other one, which shall remain nameless) – though I don’t think they had many scenes together. All in all, I find it rather goofy and corny but fascinating. Too bad there weren’t any real showstoppers though.
Nameless eh, Joel? Now pray tell why would that be?
Love your thought-provoking questions/perceptions in a film that certainly could benefit for its more obvious surface conscription. That would certainly validate your views that the film is “goofy and corny, but fascinating.” I haven’t watched BABES IN ARMS in quite some time, and didn’t cast a vote for it during the musical countdown, but your usual insights have me very much interested in a revisit, and soon. It’s true there aren’t any showstoppers in this film.
Thanks again my great friend!
Hello Sam and everyone!!!!!!!
I AM ALIVE!
I’ve survived the ordeal of the shooting of the short film and everything’s fine, so that’s that. Thanks for featuring my blog once again in your precious and valuable blog roll, it’s always an honour.
What a great amazing week for you Sam! It’s filled with great ventures, so I’ll chime in a bit on them. I look forward to “The Descendants”, since it has good reviews, but I’ll see for myself when it comes available here. Then there are the classics, “The Crowd” and “Life and Death of Colonel Blimp”, which I haven’t seen and can’t wait to see them for the first time.
So, yeah, short film, that was my last week, not much else to say, we filmed, it was tiring, it was really really tiring, but at the end it was worth everything, and all the money we had to spend on it, which was a LOT.
Oh, I was given a great gift from a friend that went to Argentina, he brought me a book on vampire films from before 1980, so it was great and I read it in 2 days, so it was really great for me.
I have a tumblr now, for people who like that stuff, please tell me who you are so I can follow you back: http://evildeadites.tumblr.com/
So, my film seeing this week was low, but still:
– The Flat (1968, Jan Svankmajer) ****1/2 Great short film that mixes filmed segments and stop motion with real elements in a great form and with a great message underneath, being critical politically, but not in a blatant way as the other short by this animator that I had seen, and that I’m grateful about.
– The Human Centipede (Full Sequence) (2011, Tom Six) *** Wow. I mean, this movie deserves those three stars, it really deserves them, I mean, the movie is vile, gross and nihilistic at the most extreme level you can think of, it’s nasty and it may not have any light inside of it, not even a glimpse of redemption or goodness, just desesperation and dread… and that isn’t worth at least three stars? I say yes.
– Meshes of the Afternoon (1943, Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid) ****1/2 Incredible american (kinda) neo surrealist short film that influences so many people until this day… I mean, it inspired me! Just look at the image of the mirror creature that goes around in the dream sequence. Highly conceptual and really great in its meaning.
– The Return to Reason (1923, Man Ray) **** Interesting experimental short film that really encapsulates the meaning of DADA, just random cuts of different things and the presence of a naked woman makes it even stranger and edgier, so yeah, great.
Thanks again Sam and may you have a great week!
Jaime, great news on the shoot – keep us updated on the progress of your filmmaking! Great you watched those last two in your round-up. Both are favorites of mine – and both filmmakers (though not both films) will be featured in next month’s Fixing a Hole, whose theme is the avant-garde.
If you haven’t seen it yet Jaime, watch Emak-Bakia by Man Ray. I consider it his best avant-garde short. Maya Deren and Germaine Dulac are my favorite female directors.
Thanks Joel!
I’ll watch it Maurizio!
Jaimie–
Hello my great, peerlessly hard-working friend! I had no doubt you would get through this in flying colors! As I stated on a previous thread, I would like very much to see the results of your efforts at some point! But congratulations to you my friend! I know how you passionately apply yourself to anything you take on.
Yes, seeing both BLIMP and THE CROWD in the same week on the big screen was special and fortuitous. Combined with the new releases (THE DESCENDANTS ande TOMBOY) and the Glass opera, it was a banner week, yes. I envy you for still having both BLIMP and THE CROWD ahead of you for first viewing. Thanks for including that “tumblr” information too. And that vampire book gift sounds terrific as well. I’ve had a lifelong infatuation with that subject, which was nurtured of course by the long run of DARK SHADOWS. But it goes much deeper than that.
I have always been meaning to watch more Swankmajer, and much appreciate your authoritative take on THE FLAT.
THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE is vile stuff for sure, but I guess we can agree there is some camp too. I love your “rationale” for awarding it three stars! Agree with what Joel said about the last two being most significant (MESHES and the Man Ray) Those are real classics of their kind!
Have a great week Jaimie, and try and relax just a little bit. As always, this was a grand submission!
Stumbled across something I thought I’d share – Sam in particular would probably appreciate.
My dad, for some reason, started receiving Hollywood Reporters in the mail. He never paid for a subscription, but they keep coming. They can be quite obnoxious, but in the latest issue there is an interview with Scorsese with a great passage, about him & his 12-year-old daughter:
“Their regular ritual has become Saturday afternoon movies that he screens for her and her friends. But how does he get a gaggle of girls to sit for serious cinema? ‘They don’t know,’ he says, pointing out conspiratorially that you have to do it casually. ‘If you start them that young, they think this is normal.’ He bursts into laughter and claps his hands, clearly aware that he’s foisting his own passion on them without remorse. ‘They’ll never know.’ He gleefully explains how he lured them in with classic Disney animated films that he borrowed from the studio, then hits them with the original The King and I, MGM musicals, Twilight Zone episodes and Westerns such as Stagecoach, My Darling Clementine and Shane. (And yes, she did watch Out of the Past with him one night on TCM while he gave commentary on the camera moves; her mother won’t let her watch Bambi.)”
Just the other night, I had a conversation with my friend, who is about to have a son in January, in which I joked that him and his wife were going to be up on kids’ television pretty soon. Oh no, he said, not cracking a smile, he’s going to watch what WE watched.
I often feel that if I had kids I’ll sequester them away in a media-free environment and then introduce them to silent films when they were 4 or so – which will be the height of visual sensation for them. Then, down the line, talkies and further developments through cinema history, so that they can see these movies the way original audiences did, except on a sped-up timetable. They will be my little guinea pigs – teased at school for not knowing the latest Disney Channel heroine, but true cinephiles. Oh how they’ll thank me. 🙂
Joel—
This is a wonderful, fabulous report here about Scorsese’s indoctrination of his young daughter’s movie watching. Wow, Scorsese has a 12 year-old daughter? He is 69 years old this past week.. Well, that girl couldn’t have had a more passionate movie lover as a father, that’s for sure. But I can connect to so much of that – The Twilight Zones, MGM musicals, The King and I, the classic Disney, the Westerns. All great for kids to be exposed to. I know that full well myself! Perhaps Scorsese’s attachment to his daughter and he rupbrining has brought that inner-child in him, that of course has always been the domain of Spielberg. He’s getting spectacular reviews for HUGO (based on the Caldecott Medal winner, “The Invention of Hugo Cabret”) and he’s doing some things now he’s ever done in his career to this point. Whether it’s a good thing or not, well, the proof will be in the pudding.
I was told last night by my good friend Alan Hardy at the Film Forum that teh print we watched of the silent “Ben-Hur” is a part of Scorsese’s personal collection. He’s on the Film Forum’s Board of Trustees.
Anyway this is really a tremendous comment Joel. Thanks for posting it!
Thanks a lot Sam for the kind mention. You sure had one hell of a week – 8 movies in the theatre – that’s some achievement!!!
As I’d mentioned in the comments section of your last Monday Morning Diary, I’m having the end-term exams of the 5th & penultimate trimester of my postgraduation this week – it started on Monday, and will get over this coming Saturday. So the last and this week would be slow for me in terms of movie viewing. I managed to watch just 2 movies last week – John Ford’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, and Marx Brothers’ Duck Soup. Needless to say, both are landmark movies. I wouldn’t be able to watch any movies this week, but hopefully from next week onwards I’ll be able to get back to my movie viewing mode of the old. Meanwhile, whenever I’m getting time, I’m watching the terrific Brit sitcom Yes Minister, and also trying to catch up on Dexter season 6.
By the way, have you changed the look of WitD, or is it that the site is appearing different on my browser?
Shubhajit—
Yes, this was a torrid week, and the eight movies don’t even include the four hour plus opera SATYAGRAHA, which I took on Saturday afternoon as part of the Met’s HD movie theatre broadcasts. It was composed by Phillip Glass. As the opera deals with Gandhi’s years in South Africa, I believe you would have a major interest in it.
Shubhajit, there has been no change in the look of WitD, at least not that I am aware of. It may just have been a temporary glitch with your browser, and I bet all is well now. I know this is a crucial time with you as far as school and exams, and of course this should be your primary if not sole focus. I wish you great success my friend, and would appreciate being informed of this achievement. This would be a great add on too in our upcoming interview post.
Yes, DUCK SOUP and LIBERT VALENCE are major classics, especdially the Marx Brothers film! I also like YES, MINISTER, which Allan turned me on to a few years ago, though I haven’t seen any of DEXTER.
Thanks again my very good friend, and best of luck!
Yes, SHubha, I managed to get Sam to watch a whole series of Yes Minister. You should check out the acidic modern equivalent, The Thick of It, which is arguably even better, and more frightening.
Well I love The Crowd and take the chance to see it in a theater whenever I can. It’s one of the few movies I will pay to see again and again.
But I have to say, of all the events you experienced over the past week, I am most intrigued by Satyagraha. It sounds like Phillip Glass has come up with another classic (though I would probably still appreciate subtitles). Maybe it will make its way to Los Angeles in the future.
Again, I haven’t made it to the movies the past week.. I did finally watch a movie you sent me, probably more than a year ago. The Tall Target was pretty good stuff. Though all the supposed twists were pretty obvious, I think it’s because I’m so aware of the conventions of this genre. But it ranks up there with other great railroad mysteries, like The Lady Vanishes and Murder on the Orient Express. It might be a year late, but thanks Sam!
Jason—
You can count me as a blood brother as far as THE CROWD is concerned. It actually comes into sharp focus when one thinks of creating a Top Ten Films of All-Time list, and surely its one of the treasures of the silent era. I agree too with that strategy to see it whenever the opportunity arises.
I’m so happy you point to SATYAGRAHA. It was one of those experiences that makes you happy to be alive, and it doesn’t really require that you love Glass’ music to react favorably. This was a true fusion of imaginative staging, expert singing and that mesmerizing score. I noticed that the MET audience (in person) were stunned ta the end, and they didn’t want to stop cheering. There is always an encore two weeks later, so figure on next Wednesday night. (November 29th)
Fully agree on everything you say there about THE TALL TARGET and very happy to hear you checked it out. Definitely an atmospheric and claustrophobic piece, one of the best train movies, and one of Anthony Mann’s most unheralded works.
Have a great week my friend and many thanks!
Maybe at a push top 10 silent films of all time, old friend, but not actual top 10. A masterpiece for sure and Vidor’s greatest film, but there are limits.
Why are there limits? Limits to what? This is a very very great film, and it belongs with the greatest silent films ever made.
You yourself had it at No. 15 in a list of 100, so basically it is an issue here of numerical semantics, not to mention personal taste, which is this case is only a few notches apart!
This is one of the greatest of films by any barometer of measurement.
Yes, but you defy the laws of mathematics by trying to squash a couple of hundred into a top 10.
It is always almost impossible to come up with a Top 10 silent films, but I believe THE CROWD is on that short list.
Great to hear the favorable sentiments on The Descendants, a film I have been interested to see since Payne’s last one. Seven years I think. I’d also like to know if anyone has heard anything about The Artist, Hugo, A Dangerous Method or My Week with Marilyn?
Fred—
HUGO opens tomorrow and all the advance reviews have been praising it to high heaven. Sure the cynics will oppose the film for it’s world view alone (never mind it’s probable artistry, the excellent book it was based on, or Scorsese’s proven talent) the point is that it may actually stir the emotions, which the cynic will always scoff at. I will be there tomorrow with bells on with my entire contingent, and I am actually anticipating something special, especially because (as you know) I’ve assigned the book to the lower grade classes with much success, and have been promoting it regularly.
I am also hot-to-trot with Cronenberg”s A DANGEROUS METHOD and that silent homage, THE ARTIST, both of which I plan to see before the holiday weekend expires. MY WEEK WITH MARILYN is another I have under my radar. Boy this is an exciting time of year my friend? Thanks for reminding me here!
I’ve seen the Monroe film and enjoyed it. Not without its flaws, but the film’s basic focus, driven by the limited timeframe and narrative style of the source material, works. The script is intelligent, there’s some directorial flair, and the performances are good, especially the two leads (Williams, Redmayne). I won’t say more until you’ve seen it.
Well Pierre, you have sold me with that glowing appraisal. I hope to see it either Saturday or Sunday. Broadway Bob is really hot-to-trot with it!
ATTENTION!!!! Tree of Life adherents (or nay-sayers)
I have re-printed here a brilliant response by my New Zelandic friend “sartre”, who admits he is an athesist. Still he responded here to a comment I had made with his own brilliant spin on what he thinks Malick succeeds in doing.
“Bravo Sam, that was a truly wondrous piece of writing and analysis on ToL. Like Craig, I loved how you highlighted the importance of his use of music and how his structuring of the film is analogous to orchestral composition. I touched on my own sense of that when referring to his ‘poet’s and orchestral composer’s sensibility’ but you’ve beautifully and eloquently fully unpacked its importance. I too see the film as a companion piece to the The New World (and to The Thin Red Line). I’m curious as to whether his next projects will take a sufficiently different direction that we subsequently look back on these three films as a stylistic and thematic trilogy.
The Kubrick parallels are unavoidable during the sequence starting with the beginning of time. The only other film of recent times that had me thinking of Kubrick was There Will be Blood with its opening sequence and orchestral accompaniment. As is the case for Craig, Malick stimulates my mind and my heart. Kubrick could sometimes move me emotionally but it was my intellect he most appealed to. Malick’s films promote a deeply uplifting quality of emotion – a transcendence. For me that is a real spiritual connection. I don’t have faith but I can experience a sense of spirituality through intimate connection with loved ones, the glories of nature, and the evocations of art.
It’s saying something that Malick’s film is sufficiently inclusive to evoke transcendence for believers and nonbelievers alike. I think the ending allows for both satisfyingly secular and nonsecular interpretation.”
“Kubrick could sometimes move me emotionally but it was my intellect he most appealed to. Malick’s films promote a deeply uplifting quality of emotion – a transcendence.”
Yeah, that’s exactly what I think. Kubrick was a genius, but he was only sometimes actually deeply emotional (Paths of Glory, Barry Lyndon) and more often he focused on intellectual and visceral impacts, while Malick is much more delicate and powerfully emotional. At the same time, I think Malick is pretty cerebral and intellectually stimulating, too.
And yeah, There Will Be Blood=definitely influenced by Kubrick. But there have been many films who have obviously influenced by him, even if they’re not in the same league (Sunshine, The Fountain, Inception, etc.).
Great comment Stephen.
I am a huge film of THE FOUNTAIN (my favorite film of 2006) so at some point I’d welcome further discussion on it.
Sam, what’s an athesist? You making up words again, you scrabble cheat. Kerplotsch, Spilge, Spooglecream…
a typo of course. Ha!
Thanks for the mention, Sam, as always. Sounds like you had a great week. Mine was pretty quiet. I saw a few movies on DVD. I finally caught up with American Beauty, which was exciting and provocative but it was definitely flawed and I didn’t really trust it; its final message sounded good, but things seemed to get muddled on the way. I also saw John Ford’s The Sun Shines Bright, which after a slow start turned out to be excellent, mixing and matching a lot of elements from other Ford films, but nonetheless putting them together in a new and wonderful way. I tell you, I’m sure Ford must have some bad movies–he made *so many*–but I’ve seen 24 so far and I have yet to find one I genuinely disliked or thought was a failure. Probably my #1 director all-time.
He’s probably mine too Stephen, and you need to see Judge Priest if you haven’t already–although Ford is mixing and matching a lot of elements from different movies in The Sun Shines Bright, it’s Priest that he’s reworking most obviously.
I have seen Judge Priest, and I quite liked it. I liked The Sun Shines Bright better, though. It’s anti-racist message seemed much fuller and better done, with amore nuanced depiction of black characters since it didn’t rely so heavily on Stepin Fetchit. Would have been even better with Will Rogers, though.
Just wanted to thank you Stephen, for all the tremendous comments you made at the site today!
I love Ford too Stephen, and I am thrilled that Peter Lenihan (a longtime friend of this site and the biggest Ford fan out there) has chimed in here! THE SUN SHINES BRIGHT is top-rank for sure. I’d love to see a series on Ford at WitD at some point, as he is so prolific and he’s made as many masterpieces as any other director. Yeah, AMERICAN BEAUTY is problematic for many, though I can say I still like the film well enough. But I admit it is sometimes irritating. I saw you have a new piece up on 50/50 and other recent releases Stephen. I’ll definitely be over there!
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!
I hope all is well with you Peter in your new location around the globe. Happy Thanksgiving to you as well, though I know this year it has a different twist of sorts. Always a treat to have you stop in.
Sam, I’m a bit busy right now, but a Ford series at Wonders would be something I’d love to do, maybe with the start of the new year, if you’re interested. Throw me an email sometime if you want.
Peter I love love love the idea, and I must say that timely is dead-on as far as I am concerned! It fits right in.
I will be e mailing you over the weekend for sure about this! Thank You!
Happy Thanksgiving.
Thanks for a plug, Sam.
“The Descendent” seems, from all I can gather, a decent production. Yes, I would like your review!
“Crowd” and “Blimp” are two of my all-time favorite. When I saw “Blimp” for the first time, I was impressed with complex narrative, which is smoothly executed, and with great acting by all. It’s a bit sentimental but not overdone thanks to capable hands of Powell and Pressburger. “Crowd” is simply a masterpiece. It is quite a harsh look at ordinary people, maybe too relentless for audience looking for entertainment. It does not give you any excuse, and if you have right amount of imagination, you will realize it’s not about some jerk around the corner, but it’s about us. Little bits of all of us. Amazing is the fact that Vidor pull this off without being hypercritical or condescending. It is still a warm film.
I guess you are ready for holiday season. Slower on movie-going this week, perhaps?
MI
MI—-
It’s always a special treat to have you stop in my friend. I need to head over to your place ASAP and closely examine your newest posts. Apologies for lagging behind, but I am just now starting to get my act together after the musical countdown.
Yes, THE CROWD is indeed about “us,” that’s a brilliant observation! And I agree that it is a supreme masterpiece, one of the greatest of all films, period. Yes, it’s a warm film, and Vidor reaches teh heart without overt sentimentality or manipulative. Your superb observations about BLIMP are deeply-appreciated here as well. As always my gifted friend, you have impeccable taste.
Thanks as always!!!
Dee Dee:
Those were lovely sidebar acknowledgements to THANSGIVING and the WitD readers!!
Hope yours was the best one of all, my dear friend.