by Sam Juliano
Those planning to submit a ballot for the Top 50 science-fiction film countdown still have eight (8) days left to do so. So far a very impressive sixteen people have handed in their votes in a polling that started off with a distinct measure of indifference. When voting closes Angelo A. D’Arminio Jr. will tabulate ahead of the process of sorting out writing assignments. A late june launching is anticipated at Wonders in the Dark.
Warm, though not scorching weather has settled in on the east Coast as some await all the various late June activities that define the ending of school years and for some impending retirements. This week also marks the conclusion of the presidential election primary process, where it is a given that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will be squaring off in the November election. I did see this coming quite a while back even while some experts set the odds at 3%. My own vote on tuesday in the New Jersey Democratic primary will be cast for Bernie Sanders.
This past week was a busy one on the domestic one for Lucille and I though movie-wise we only saw a single new release in theaters -on Saturday with Broadway Bob- on the same weekend where all my kids made good on passes to the annual Randall’s Island music concert. Again the pace with at-home film viewings was a torrid one though.
The Witness **** (Saturday night) IFC Film Center
at home:
Tour/Detour/Deux Enfants (French; Godard; 1977) 1 to 7 **** to **** 1/2
Banka (Elegy of the North) (Japanese; Gosho; 1957) *****
The Final Accord (German; Sirk; 1936) ****
Singing Lovebirds (Japanese; Machino; 1939) ****
The Yellow Crow (Japanese; Gosho; 1957) **** 1/2
Key Largo (USA; Huston; 1948) **** 1/2
THE WITNESS is a mostly riveting documentary about the murder in 1964 of New Yorker Kitty Genovese. The fact that over 20 people heard her screams and did nothing to stop her killer in two phases of the attack has fascinated the public for decades. It has obsessed her brother Bill, who was so devastated he joined the marines where he lost both legs. Bill makes his way around in his wheelchair to talk with those who lived in the Kew Gardens building and the closest vicinity where the murder was committed. Mr. Genovese appeared at the IFC Film Center for the after-film Q & A.
Glad to hear your vacation’s coming up, Sam, and that you and Lucille will have a few weeks of taking it easier. Or will you use the time to see 450 movies and write mouthwatering reviews of them all? 🙂
Hahahaha John! Well, with the science-fiction countdown now imminent, I can pretty much be sure I’ll be occupied in large measure, though I hope somewhat less than for previous countdowns. Going with a Top 50 should help towards getting everything sorted out. Have a great week my friend!
End of school year is definitely just around the corner isn’t it? With the cooler weather and late spring here on Prince Edward Island it doesn’t fell like time yet. This is the last few days that we will have the rental car so plans are in place for how best to use the time around the island. Then I shall be packing up painting sketches and gear for shipping back to the west coast. Even though we won’t be home for a bit yet due to family visits in Toronto and Windsor I am starting to get anxious for a large canvas in the home studio to continue the work I have started here in fast sketches. Soon. All the best of the week ahead Sam!
Terrill, thank you so much for that wonderful report from that island paradise. I can well understand you wanting to get back after all the traveling you have done, though I know you have been artistically inspired! Enjoy those family visits to Toronto and Windsor before you do get back to Mayne Island. Have a great week my friend!
Sam — You may not have darkened the door of an actual movie theater, but you still tore up the movie-watching turf in your own home. I have to say that I’m intrigued by THE WITNESS documentary. It boggles the mind how not a single, solitary person responded to the cries of a woman being murdered.
Laurie, THE WITNESS was quite an excellent documentary, and like you I continue to find those circumstances unconscionable. it is remarkable how the victim’s youngest brother has carried the torch after all those years, even without both legs he lost in Vietnam. Thank you my friend.
Hi, Sam –
I see you are enjoying quite a lot of Japanese films lately. Any review coming soon?
I’ve been researching on history of Japanese music and films lately. It is such a complex subject, but fascinating.
MI
Murderous Ink, my friend, I do want to write a few reviews on the Japanese film marathon I have been enjoying over the past weeks indeed! I’ve been tied up, and just haven’t been able to negotiate anything, but hopefully soon. There are some great films well worth discussing. The subject of Japanese film music fascinates me greatly. Many thanks!
It’s here! At last!
Sam, I just know you’re as stoked as I am over the Criterion release of Troell’s epic ‘The Emigrants’ and ‘The New Land.’ Even Olympian John Simon temporarily retracts his fangs, comparing these films to the work of Olmi (probably referring to the sublime “The Tree of Wooden Clogs’).
The shot of a young Ullmann sitting in a swing took my breath away the first time I saw it. She looks about 18, though she was in her early thirties when the film was made. Without camera trickery, it’s as if Ullmann willed herself to appear 15 years younger. I can’t think of another actress who could work this kind of magical transformation — maybe Vanessa Redgrave.
This film grows in stature. With repeated viewings Troell’s mighty epic becomes one of the great works of that masterpiece-studded era between 1950 and 1980 when masters like Bresson, Kurosawa, Truffaut, Antonioni, Bergman, Godard, Olmi, Fellini, Satyajit Ray, Chabrol, Rohmer, Rivette, Fassbinder, Coppola, Altman, Scorsese, Peckinpah, Kubrick, Lester, Cassavetes, Warhol (the list is staggering) were all at the peak of their creative powers. The only other period that comes close is the silent era 1915-1930 (Griffith, Eisenstein, Pudovkin, Dovzhenko (those Russians!), Chaplin, Keaton, Lang, Pabst, Murnau, Wiene (those Germans!).
But today we’re stuck in a depressingly fallow age of film. Right now Malick is the only director who consistently touches a deep chord in me. Most would disagree (Jaime Grijalba for whom I have great respect), but I think Tarantino is the great imposter, a pretender to the throne, a magpie pecking through the detritus of 1970’s pop culture. And I don’t find his prodigal use of the N-word the least bit amusing or helpful in our racially incendiary society. Anderson (Wes and P.T.) and the Coens are too uneven. Tarr works at a slow, sporadic pace, though ‘The Turin Horse’ may be the best film of the past decade, while Lynch and Edward Yang made the two greatest films of the early aughts (‘Mulholland Dr.’ and ‘Yi Yi: A One and a Two’).I also love ‘Frances Ha’ and ‘Boyhood’. But these are slim pickings in a 16-year stretch dominated by megafilms and sequelitis aimed at 12-year-old males. So if you’re feeling blue about the current state of the cinema (as I am), now at long last you can hunker down and watch Troell (director, photographer, editor), von Sydow and Ullmann create a stunning work of art.
Mark, thank you for these spectacular comments!! I share your affectionate regard for the Troell films, in fact like you I consider them among the supreme masterpieces of that period. I can remember them opening like it was yesterday in fact. I received a screening invitation from Wynn Lowenthal of Warner Brothers pictures as a courtesy of my position as the film critic of the Bergen Community College Monitor, This was how I saw THE NEW LAND, which I named the Best Film of 1973 in my round up at the newspaper. I remember I followed it up with the Cuban “Memories of Underdevelopment” at Number 2 of that year and Franco Zeffirelli’s “Brother Sun Sister Moon” at Number 3. I remember that Stanley Kauffmann was so smitten with the films that when he got to Liv Ullmann he stated he had to “gush.” Yes, John Simon is very hard to please! I own the blu rays and recently watched them again to renewed affection. They are truly emotionally overwhelming and I agree with you that they are works of art. Like you I adore THE TURIN HORSE. I am so thrilled at how much you revere these masterpieces!! Thank you my friend!
Sam, I just did my think for Bernie, though his chances in the Garden State are not so good. Would love to hear more about the movies you saw this past week.
I hear ya Peter. His run was an inspired one, but now the November lineup has been confirmed. I do hope to say more on the film, thank you my friend.
Hello Sam and everyone!
Thanks so much for your kind words on my posting last week. Here are the films that I saw last week:
– 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (2016, Michael Bay) *** The fact that someone might think of this as somewhat a-political is clearly trying to convince themselves of something else, either bigoted or whatever. It’s still a highly patriotic films, which makes it annoying, specially when it dumbly stumbles around with terms like “good guys” and “bad guys”, when referring to people that are being killed. Also, the fucking worst shot of the year is in this film: a group of muslims are praying and the frame decides to put before anything else a couple of AKs. Fucking atrocious. Yet, still, the colors and the action choreography is impressive and calm (unlike the one in the unknowable and almost unwatchable Transformers films).
– The Day Before the End (2016, Lav Diaz) **** Shakespeare in the park.
– Ant-Man (2015, Peyton Reed) **** Maybe I just can’t work in terms of abstractions, as what I’ve heard so much about how this film is just like every other Marvel or superhero movie out there. I think that for most of this it feels pretty original because it avoids the big spectacle besides the small miracle of shrinking. Sure, the ants-heavy special effects start to wear off and it feels more and more like a cartoon, but in the end you can feel the warmth in the characters more than in any other Marvel film out there (maybe outside of the Thor films with their frigid exterior but incredible warmth, yeah, I like those). Sure, towards the end it turns into something more formulaic, but you need your big showdown, and the fact that it takes place in one room is encouraging towards what Marvel might have in their hands with this character.
– Hitler’s Folly (2016, Bill Plympton) *** Sure, it’s not great, but…
a. it’s barely over an hour long.
b. it captures the style and the editing style of a conspiracy documentary uploaded to youtube perfectly.
c. it’s free in youtube.
d. it features the best gag of the year just by adding “Fan Art by Hitler” to some drawings of Snow White.
– Mouchette (1967, Robert Bresson) ***** What am I supposed to do to explain how this film had me with a heavy heart during most of its second half? That I lived every emotion that went through Mouchette and not because of the performance nor the weary happenstances that surrounded her, but because of how the camera decided to show her face and how the shots illuminated the moments, how the editing captured the precise insight, the exact angle… What can I do against Bresson but bow before his mastery? He is the owner of my tears, of my heavy heart and of everything that I think cinema is about.
– All About Lily Chou-Chou (2001, Shunji Iwai) ****1/2 For now, I’m just going to say that this movie explains why accusing people under the age of 18 of any crime is stupid.
– X-Men: Apocalypse (2016, Bryan Singer) **** Fulfills what is the most important: it’s fun. Sure, it can be a little long and you can feel how it all piles on and on, but for the story that this tells, I think that the approach couldn’t have possibly been better. It suffers a bit from trying to bridge between the old movies, the new movies, and the movies that’ll come, but sure that’s a given in The Way Things Are Now. But I was surprised by the level of the performances, by how seriously it was all built up, by the level of the visuals and special effects (and the makeup, jesus, the makeup here is amazing). A well made X-Men film, which, to me is like something that we’ve never had before, they’re either ‘ugh’ or ‘greatness’. This is ‘fine’.
That’s all, have a great week everyone!
Thanks so much for another stupendous comment Jaimie!! I am so thrilled at your stirring encapsulation of Bresson’s MOUCHETTE, which is one of the greatest of films. It is indeed a five star masterpiece. Not a big fan of X MEN, but you are certainly not alone. As to the others you impressively delineate, I haven’t yet seen any, but am intrigued by a few, especially the Lav Diaz! Have a great week my friend. many thanks!
I remember the Genovese murder and the aftermath. Looking forward to catching the doc.
Looking forward to comparing notes John. Thank you.
Sam, I have long been interested in the Kitty Genovese story and am eager to see The Witness. What an experience to have her brother there to present and discuss.
Very quiet here although I did finally manage to catch up with Before Midnight. I was actually fairly lukewarm on the first two films of Linklater’s trilogy but this one really affected me emotionally and seemed to capture some of that elusive magic of Rossellini’s Voyage to Italy.
Hopefully more to report very, very soon!
Jeffrey, the Kitty Genovese story is beyond heartbreaking, but it also points to the worst kind of indifference, that which could play an active role in someone’s murder. The documentary offered no conclusive answers, but it went a long way in illustrating this inexplicable mise en scene, that has baffled family and police for decades. Great to hear that Linklater’Rosselini connection my friend! Many thanks as always!