JULIET OF THE SPIRITS (1965, ITALY), SPIRITS OF THE DEAD (1969, ITALY)

Juliet of the Spirits

"Mr. Fellini is not trying to resolve a mystery. he is trying primarily to give you an exciting experience on the screen, generated by a bold conglomeration of visual an aural stimuli. And that he does, with becoming accretions of humor and poignancy."-Bosley Crowther, New York Times, November 4, 1965.

Ah, Fellini. He's either brilliant and awe inspiring or confusing and mind numbing. Fellini's Juliet of the Spirits has a simple basic plot of a middle-aged married woman's (frequent Fellini muse Guilietta Masina) suspicion that her husband might be having an affair. She experiences a search for incriminating facts and embraces new dimensions of self-awareness through dreams, mediums, psychics, witchcraft, mysticism and a more traditional private detective. I really have to be in the right mood to watch a Fellini film and maybe my mind wasn't totally engaged. However, I did appreciate the "bold conglomeration of visual and aural stimuli" upon reflection.

Spirits of the Dead

"Toby Dammit" the first Fellini film to be seen since Juliet of the Spirits is marvelous: a short movie but a major one. I would have never thought Fellini and Poe had much in common, but the Italian director has assimilated his source material in such a way that it has become a kind of postscript to "La Dolce Vita," the picture of an exhausted once beautiful person handing his soul over to the devil."-Vincent Canby, New York Times, September 4, 1969,

Spirits of the Dead features three short films loosely based on stories by Edgar Allen Poe. The first two films, from Roger Vadim and Louis Malle, set a pretty ethereal mood for the storytelling with differing degrees of success. Then we come to the Fellini portion (Toby Dammit) and it is nothing in tone like the other two. The film reminds me a bit of 8 1/2, with an actor replacing the director as the main character.. We also get the smorgasbord of Fellini characters that we have become accustomed to in the just mentioned Juliet of the Spirits and his subsequent Satyricon.

I don't know if I'll ever visit Mr. Fellini again, but I appreciate his original way of telling a story and his creativity. I can't say I get where he's going all the time, but I don't think I'm supposed to.

Federico Fellini (1920-1993)
Guilietta Masina (1921-1994)
Married from 1943-1993 (his death)

MURMUR OF THE HEART (1971, FRANCE), AU REVOIR LES ENFANTS (1987, FRANCE)

Clara Chevalier (Lea Massari) teaches 

her son  Laurent (Benoit Ferroux)

some questionable lessons in Murmur of the Heart

I have a set of volumes of reviews from the New York Times Film Reviews (Movie Nerd alert!) from 1913-1988. Louis Malle's Murmur of the Heart (Le Souffle au Coueur) is the only film I've found indexed within the volumes as having three separate reviews in one year! The reviews range from enthusiastic (Vincent Canby) to not-so-great (Roger Greenspun). The main issue brought up is the scene where this coming of age story of a 15-year-old boy in early 50's France has an incestuous encounter with his mother late in the film.

The protagonist in this film likes Jazz, politics and the idea of his older brothers taking him to a brothel. The movie is well done and I like the fact that our hero is an intellectual, but found it to be lacking in charm or have much in the way of likable characters. It left me a little deflated to tell you the truth. The incest scene certainly didn't help, though it was about as tastefully done as such a scene can be.

Bonnet (Ralphael Fejto) and Julien (Gaspard Manesse)
eye an uncertain futhre in Au Revoir Les Enfants

Just when I was thinking Malle's French films were overrated, I watched Au Revoir Les Enfants (Goodbye, Children) as a follow-up to Murmur of the Heart. This is also a coming of age story set in a French boarding school during World War II. Many of the problems of youth are explored here, but done so within the context of Nazi occupation. Julien, a rather pampered boy and Bonnet, who hides the fact that he is Jewish as long as he can are the two main characters here. I think this film is very moving and gives us what I think is an authentic view of adolescence, even one exacerbated by the cold realities of war.

New York Times critic Vincent Canby also liked this one, saying it "remains utterly specific, which is why it's so moving without being sentimental. Though the action covers only a few weeks, it seems to cover a lifetime."

ATLANTIC CITY (1981), SCANNERS (1981)

1981

Burt Lancaster and Susan Sarandon
in Atlantic City

Atlantic City-During the time they were handing out Academy Awards for the films made in 1981, Henry Fonda was on his death bed and everyone knew that he was going to win a long overdue Best Actor Oscar. But another performance from that year by a veteran was probably just as good if not better. That was Burt Lancaster's funny and moving role as a small-time gangster whose stories about his past are more exciting than the rather sad reality. Burt in his twilight and Susan Sarandon just beginning to hit her movie star sride make a great team in this little but excellent film.

Scanners "Blowed him up, real good!"

Scanners-The first thing I think of when I think of this movie is the sketch on SCTV with John Candy and Joe Flaherty called Farm Film Celebrity Blow Up. That skit featured these two as yokels reviewing movies and especially loving movie where people blow up! Thier favorite movie was Scanners because people "blowed up real good!"

But despite being aware of the movie Scanners, I never got around to seeing it until now. Scanners are people with the psychic ability to force other people bodily harm and yes, occasionally blow up! The movie has pluses and minuses. The story about one of the scanners as a fish out of water chasing after something that is bigger than he is that he doesn't understand and must stop is good and is a plot that has been re-used in many a Hollywood thriller since. The special effects range from pretty good to a bit on the cheesy side, but I appreciated the pre-CGI special effects. There are some continuity errors such as a man's head exploding and the subsequent cut back to the table showing no blood! The leading actor, Stephen Lack is, well, have you ever heard of Stephen Lack in anything since? We have more success here with the supporting players. Patrick McGoohan (formerly of one of my favorite shows, The Prisoner) is the head of the organization that hires Lack. Best of all is Michael Ironside (I know him best from Total Recall) who began his seemingly endless number of portrayals of movie and TV heavies in Scanners.

Scanners is not in the 1001 movie book, but does have a cult following, as many of director David Cronenberg's movies do. It also got a video release by the usually higher brow Criterion Collection, which says something for it.

I mentioned Scanners didn't make have made the 1001 list,  and here are a few more films from 1981 that I’ve seen that didn’t quite make the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die cut.

1. Tarzan, the Ape Man
The infamous John and Bo Derek collaboration which was a lot more about Jane than Tarzan. The movie was panned mercilessly at the time, but was successful mostly because of Bo's nude swimming scenes and other topless scenes where she wrestled with an orangutan. At least I think it was an orangutan. I might be thinking of Every Which Way But Loose on that point.

Bo Derek and her leading man
in  Tarzan, the Ape Man

2. History of the World, Part II
Mel Brooks series of vignettes had its funny moments, but was the first one of his movies that I was largely indifferent about.

3. The Four Seasons
I saw this Alan Alda film being made when I was in high school during the spring in Atlanta. It was interesting to see that particular scene the following year on the screen set in the North during the fall. Overall, I do like The Four Seasons, but this may come with a bias towards movies that I saw as they were being filmed.

4. Under the Rainbow
Set during the making of the Wizard of Oz...the dwarfs are running wild in the streets...Chevy Chase and Carrie Fischer are trying to solve a crime or something...Well, that's about all I remember about that one.

5. American Pop
Ralph Bakshi's animated film depicting three generations of immigrants intertwined with popular music was pretty good. At least that's my memory of it, haven't seen in in thirty-two years. But that's my story and I'm sticking to it

6. All the Marbles
I kind of liked this movie with Peter Falk as a wrestling manager of a sexy female tag team. I saw one of the women, Vicki Frederick, on stage that same year in an Atlanta production of Damn Yankees. Maybe she's the reason I like this one. Actually, looking at her stills from the film-I'm definitely sure she's the reason I like this one.

All the Marbles Vicki Frederick is the brunette

7. Sharky's Machine
The more serious the film Burt Reynolds tried to make during his heyday, the less successful it seemed to be. I thought Sharky's Machine with Burt as an Atlanta cop was pretty good, but it seems audiences preferred the next one on the list...

8. Cannonball Run
Burt Reynolds and a bunch of celebrities go on a cross country race of some kind. Seems they ad-libbed a lot from what I remember. I also remember that I hated it. Have no desire to revisit it.

9. Looker
This Michael Crichton/Albert Finney movie about models dying under strange circumstances might warrant a second look. This is the problem when you comment on a movie that you haven't seen in over thirty years!

10. Caveman
Well, I thought this one was kind of funny. Probably the best starring role for Ringo Starr. And Barbara Bach looks pretty good as a cavewoman. Obviously, Ringo thought so in real life, too.

Mr. and Mrs. Richard Starkey
in Caveman

11. Tattoo
Any movie with Bruce Dern as a mentally-ill tattoo artist and Maud Adams in various states of undress has by definition got to have something going for it!

12. Private Lessons
During HBO's early days, a lot of cheesy R-rated fare showed up during the late night hours to titillate audiences. Some featured Sybil Danning or Marilyn Chambers. Private Lessons featured Emmanuelle star Sylvia Krystal as the teen boy's housekeeper/fantasy woman. 

13. My Bloody Valentine, Halloween II, Friday the 13th Part II, The Funhouse, Hell Night, Graduation Day, Blood Beach and Oliver Stone's The Hand!
1981 was the peak of the Hollywood slasher movie that started for the most part with John Carpenter's Halloween in 1978. I saw most of them, but to tell you the truth, they all seem to be running together at this point. 

14.  Student Bodies
I seem to be in the minority that thinks this parody of the slasher film is pretty funny. And who could forget Malvert the janitor?

15. Mommie Dearest
Despite all the horror movies that came out in 1981, Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford may have been the scariest image to emerge from that year.

Mommie Dearest

Goodbye, 1981. It's been fun!

MY DINNER WITH ANDRE (1981)

What can you say about My Dinner with Andre? I never saw it until about a year ago. I always knew it as the movie where two guys talk at dinner and…well, that ‘s pretty much it. Whether on The Simpsons, Mystery Science Theater or the My Dinner with Andre action figures from Waiting for Guffman, Andre has been an easy target to poke fun at.

The question is, is it good? Or is it pretentious? Or is it longwinded? Or is it interesting?
Yes, to all these questions.
What about Andre and Wally? Are they likable?
I found Andre to be a rather interesting guy to listen to…for awhile. He goes on for about half the move about his experiments in the Polish woods with a performing troop, eating sand in the cold Sahara desert with a Japanese Monk (We’ve all had that fantasy, haven’t we?), surrealist magazines from the 20’s apparently put together by psychics, among other stories.

When Andre’s tales begin to get a little long, the film wisely changes gears and the happy-go-lucky Andre seems to transform into a manic-depressive who compares himself to Albert Speer, compares ALL of us to zombies in a trance going through the motions of our daily life, and tells Wally how comfort separates us from reality. He even compares New York to a concentration camp where the residents are their own guards who won’t allow them to escape

Wally is a little more down to earth, but he too is the artistic type. At one point Wally tells Andre, “I really don’t know WHAT you’re talking about!”
If Wally has his theater reviews, electric blanket, cup of coffee without a roach in it and Charlton Heston autobiography, he’s happy.

I actually like this pair: Andre Gregory, the gregarious intellectual, and Wallace Shawn the whiny, but likeable playwright. I give the film and director Louis Malle credit for doing something different pretty successfully. And if you’re ever on Jeopardy and the answer comes up “Main course served to Andre and Wally during My Dinner with Andre, the question is “What is Quail.”

One more thing, this film is not actually one of the “1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die,” so I’m technically cheating with this entry. I do think something this original SHOULD be on the list. I’ll try to stick with the “1001” entry script, but it looks like I’m prone to an occasional deviation.