Top 25 School, Boarding School and University set films on Monday Morning Diary (April 27)

by Sam Juliano

As we near the end of April there are more than encouraging signs.  The fearful death number has actually dropped from 342 to 106 from Saturday to Sunday here in New Jersey.  That is by far the most drastic change over a two-day period since this horror began, and while even one death is terrible the numbers in the Garden State are going in the right direction in a big way.  Otherwise we are largely hunkered in as usual aside from the grocery and medicine runs.  Wishing everyone continued love and safety!

With schools nationwide shut down indefinitely, I thought I’d put together a list of my Top 25 favorite films primarily set in boarding schools, grade schools and Universities. Anyone wishing to put together their own lists of any number up to 25 is encouraged to do so in the comments. Of course some of you will list a good number of my own canonical choices but may opt to add others to conform with your own taste. My numerical list is for a drama and to denote a slight preference but basically I love all the films on this list comparably.

1. Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939; UK)
2. Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975; Australia)
3. Au Revoir Les Enfants (1987; France)

4. Anne of Green Gables (1985; Canada)

5. Wild Reeds (1994; France)
6. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969; UK)
7. Zero for Conduct (1933; France)
8. A Separate Peace (1972; USA)
9. Indignation (2016; USA)
10. Les Diaboliques (1955; France)
11 Twenty-Four Eyes (Japan; 1954)
12. Young Torless (1966; Germany)
13. Election (1999; USA)
14. The Outcast (1962; Japan)
15. Child’s Play (1972; USA)
16. The Children’s Hour (1961; USA)
17. The History Boys (2006; UK)
18. If……(1968; UK)
19. Quand on a 17 ANS (France; 2016)
20. The Freshman (1925; USA)
21. Stolen Kisses (2016; France)
22. Dead Poets Society (1989; USA)
23. Tea and Sympathy (1956; USA)
24. Les Disparus de St. Agil (1938; France)
25. The Chocolate War (1988; USA)

Horse Feathers, Tom Brown’s School Days, If…….., Carrie (Di Palma), Elephant, The Chorus, To Sir With Love and The Browning Version barely missed the list.

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Brian De Palma’s The Bonfire of the Vanities

By J.D. Lafrance

“And I think if you look at the movie now, and you don’t know anything about the book, and you get it out of the time that it was released, I think you can see it in a whole different way.” – Brian De Palma, Empire magazine, December 2008

Has enough time passed that Brian De Palma’s adaptation of Tom Wolfe’s best-selling novel The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990) can be judged on its own merits? Has enough time passed that its critical and commercial failings don’t matter (if they ever did)? And has enough time passed that its troubled production history, as chronicled in Julie Salamon’s tell-all The Devil’s Candy: The Anatomy of a Hollywood Fiasco, no longer matters? Perhaps this is a case of going into a film without having read the source material being a good thing as it allows the film to be judged on its own merits.

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Everything Sustained on Monday Morning Diary (April 20)

by Sam Juliano

And the beat goes on as we move into late April, hoping daily for some reprieve, for some glimmer of hope to deliver us all from the fear that continues to creep up on us whenever we seem to be in a better mind-set.  All is status quo at our home at 7 Spruce Street in Fairview, New Jersey, a town that is part of virus ravaged Bergen County.  Heading out for groceries remains a stressful times as it is invariable for so many others, but we try to keep safe.  In any case, we are in some measure encouraged by the leveling off of significant figures in both New York and New Jersey but it would seem we still have a way to go before we can breathe easily.

This week Jim Clark published a terrific essay on Ingmar Bergman’s early-career Summer with Monika.  Thank you to all who have engaged by leaving comments and/or likes and wishing all to stay safe!

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INGMAR BERGMAN’S SUMMER WITH MONIKA “We’ll see the whole wide world!”

 © 2020 by James Clark

      Ingmar Bergman’s breakaway film, Summer Interlude (1951), introduces not only startlement amidst stick-in-the-mud proclivities; but one lone young man who heeds its uprising. He dies young, but his legacy is a diary, a diary that will almost certainly be lost within the purview of the action. But that action holds forth in Bergman’s enduring output, an output confined now to very few takers. However, it only takes one to make a breakaway in this world of ours.

Knowing very well that his more than difficult interest will be fumbled in this world of ours, his career takes aim upon a myriad of filmic constructs, in hopes that a vector, somewhere, will be taken to heart. The film following Summer Interlude, namely, Summer with Monika (1953), bears several imprints from the earlier film. The helmsman’s fastidiousness undertakes, in this first of many couplings, a measure of variations playable within couples (human intent being a possible buttress of primal dynamic), at significant ease, where the women initially occupy considerable zeal for gusto, only to subside into hard and frivolous entities; while the men obliviously squander their affection and fail to show enough courage. For the sake of a more specific introduction of the method, let’s recall that the musical composition of Tchaikovsky’s ballet, Swan Lake, is frequently heard, in a theatre in, the first film, though not played with distinction. In the second film, two buskers—one playing an accordion, and the other playing a guitar—play a polka in a low-rent courtyard, and the verve, body language and love in the performance (unloved by the spectators) becomes a moment of magic. The diary of the first entry becoming a small matter along with the statements of “glitches” no one notices, Bergman counters, by way of the second film, on tap today, arguably the most optically dazzling parade of his whole evocative career, under the auspices of brilliant cameraman, Gunner Fischer. Here, before taking his stand within the full-scale sophisticated sagas that would define his hegemony, Bergman would unleash, again and again, breathtaking visions to hopefully gain recognition from the patrons that the questionable melodrama, on the surface, could dovetail with something they had failed to recognize and develop. (Perhaps this is the moment to dismiss the likes of Jean-Luc-Godard and his political cohorts, who disseminated the utter insanity that Summer with Monika involved a new and powerful revolution to sweep away antiquated societies.)

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Taking Few Risks on Monday Morning Diary (April 13)

by Sam Juliano

For quite some time moving forward routines will be sustained and indoor living will only be abbreviated for those much concerned about trips for groceries and medicine  Between hearing the daily reports, watching movies and classic television and reading our lives we have settled into a new norm, one seemingly destined to persist for moths moving forward.  It seems so surreal, but this is all an unconscionable reality’ one measured and contingent upon a fair amount of sacrifice.  My apologies for my slow response to comments.  I greatly appreciate them and will get to them very soon.  Thanks to Jim Clark, J.D. Lafrance and Marco Tremble for keeping the site relevant with their excellent reviews and essays.

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Hidalgo

By J.D. Lafrance

Filmmaker Joe Johnston is something of a curious anomaly in Hollywood. He got his start as a protégé of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, adopting their style of filmmaking once he became a director with Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989). He has since made retro adventure films his forte with the likes of The Rocketeer (1991) and Captain America: The First Avenger (2011). Yet, for some reason, despite several of his films performing well at the box office, Johnston has managed to avoid the plaudits of his mentors. He remains unknown to mainstream audiences and generally ignored by cinephiles as he lacks a flashy, distinctive style and personality. In 2004, he released Hidalgo, which chronicled legendary long distance rider Frank T. Hopkins and his horse and their participation in an annual 3,000 mile race in Arabia, 1891. Marred by claims that it took huge liberties with the actual historical figures and events it was based on, the film was snubbed by critics and barely made back its budget. It’s too bad as Hidalgo is a refreshing straight-forward action/adventure epic.

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Staying the Course on Monday Morning Diary (April 6)

by Sam Juliano

The same day-to-day fear and uncertainty has left so many of us while hunkered in concerned about the weekly grocery excursion, armed with masks and gloves.  I stopped listening to the news reports on CNN and other outlets days ago as we are seemingly now at the most critical juncture of the pandemic.  We’ve watched many films and we’ve read quite a bit to try and maintain some semblance of focus.  Of course the entire world is in the grip of the worst health crisis since 1918, so it is certain everyone in sound mind is taking all the proper precautions as we navigate through this challenge, one unprecedented in our lifetimes.  As always readers are encouraged to relate their own weekly activities and thoughts and we implore all to be safe and take as few risks as possible with only food and medicine worthy of opening your front door if your presently unemployed.  Love to all.

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