THE COOL WORLD (1963), KILLER OF SHEEP (1977)

The Cool World

The Cool World, Shirley Clarke's 1963 film about life in a gang on the streets of Harlem comes across so realistically at times that it has the feel of a documentary where we are following around the characters in the film and just observing whatever they do. It makes you feel that this is happening right in front of you and we are just voyeurs peeking into their tragic lives. The dialogue seems real...so real in fact that we miss a lot of it. But that's kind of the point, isn't it? The whole drama comes across as a giant jazz riff to me and due to the setting and portrayals of the film, that is also on point. No need for stylized Hollywood product here. 

Killer of Sheep

Charles Burnett's Killer of Sheep certainly isn't anything close to stylized Hollywood product either. The main character named Stan (Henry G. Sanders) has a thankless job working at a slaughterhouse in Watts. We see the events of his life unfold with his wife and kids, shady friends, the law and no easy paths to anything that he really wants.The film has no great tragedy to propel the plot. The tragedy is the futility and hopelessness of the lives of many of the characters. This is summed up for me in the scene where Stan and a friend struggle to carry down a motor down a flight of steps to load up in his truck to take it to resell. When he starts the truck, the motor falls off the back, breaking it. Kids playing in makeshift playgrounds where buildings are being put up (or torn down) seem to be the freest and happiest in this somber but moving movie.

MY NIGHT WITH MAUD (1969, FRANCE)

"You're very sexy Maud, but what I really want

to know is how you feel about existentialism."

My limited two movie experience with Eric Rohmer films (A Tale of Winter being the other one) leads me to believe Rohmer likes films about relationships. Pretty complex relationships. Felicie in A Tale of Winter has a long lost love that she still pines for despite having two present relationships that are semi-successful.

My Night With Maud also presents lead character Jean-Louis with a choice. He has spotted the girl he wants to marry, but ends up spending the night with Maud, the girlfriend of his Marxist pal, Vidal. By spending the night, I don't mean sex. Not exactly. Jean-Louis keeps his clothes on...but Maud's naked...I think. Vidal has gone. Meanwhile, after leaving Maud's place, Jean-Louis runs into the girl he wants to marry again. Her name is Francoise. They eventually do get married and have kids and run into Maud on the beach about five years later. It's interesting in Rohmer's films (I'm only going by the two) how the characters talk a great deal about literature and philosophy. I've never seen a movie with a romantic plot have the characters discuss Pascal's Wager in such detail! But I rather like that about these films. The dialogue doesn't do as much for plot as it does form character. I think they succeed in that way. However, not everyone agrees...

...One example for someone who disagrees be might  be Alan Sharpe, the screenwriter of the 1975 American film Night Moves. Night Moves is a quirky thriller with lots of twists (and not a lot of talk about French philosophers from what I remember). There is a scene in Night Moves, where Gene Hackman is talking to his ex-wife Susan Clark. He actually brings up Eric Rohmer films! But not in a good way. He says something to the effect that watching a Rohmer film is like watching paint dry. The Hackman character seems to want to emphasize this point so much that he even repeats how much he hates Rohmer! I'm attributing this line to Sharpe, but for all I know it was added in by director Arthur Penn or ad-libbed by Hackman himself.

Interestingly, both My Night with Maud and Night Moves have achieved a certain cult status...and my personal celluloid version of Pascal's wager is that I like both films....just in case I'm wrong about one of them.

Blaise Pascal

ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS (1960, ITALY), THREE BROTHERS (1981, ITALY), BEST OF YOUTH (2003, ITALY)

Renato Salvatori and Alain Delon 

in Rocco and His Brothers

Rocco and His Brothers is Luchino Visconti's contemporary drama about five brothers who move from poor Southern Italy to the North with their widowed mother and attempt to find some measure of success in life there. The movie is divided under five chapters, named for each of the brothers. The primary fraternal relationship of the story does seem to revolve around the hot-tempered second brother, Simone Parondi (Renato Salvatori) and the almost saintly third brother Rocco Parondi (Alain Delon). This is an epic and beautifully layered film that develops the relationships quite compellingly. It  is most deserving of being on a must-watch list and is quite gripping throughout its three hour running time.

Claudia Cardinale in Rocco and His Brothers

Claudia Cardinale Alert: Earlier in the life of this blog, I pointed out that Claudia Cardinale had appeared in many more "1001 movies" than her more famous contemporary, Sophia Loren. I actually missed that Claudia had a supporting role as the wife of the eldest brother in Rocco and His Brothers. I'll remember never to sell Claudia short again.

Nino Rota musical alert: Composer Nino Rota is most famous to many of us for his Godfather score. I can hear occasional reminders of the music of that film in Rota's score for Rocco and His Brothers.

Phillipe Noiret (Raffaele) and Michele Placido (Nicola)

in Three Brothers

We are also dealing with three Italian siblilngs in Francesco Rosi's Three Brothers (I prefer the Italian title, Tre Fratelli). Unlike, Rocco and His Brothers, the storyline for Three Brothers begins with the death of the matriarch, not the patriarch of the family. The tre fratelli come to be there for their father. We have the older Raffaele, who is an important judge presiding over a terrorism case. The younger brother Nicola, is a militant factory worker coming off a divorce. The middle son is named Rocco (And ode to the earlier film perhaps?). Rocco is the most enigmatic of the three and runs a boy's correctional institute. The relationship between the three is the heart of the film. Raffaele is a reluctant public figure, in that his dealings with prosecuting certain criminal figures may be putting his life in danger. Nicola is the emotional one, who holds nothing back and often suffers in his personal relationships. Rocco is the most reserved of the three. Nicola grills Rocco at one point in the film as to why he never has seems to have a girlfriend, naturally implying that he may be homosexual. This is a strong family drama and I think it makes a pretty good double feature with Rocco and His Brothers...

Brothers Nicola (Luigi Lo Cascio) and Matteo (Alessio Boni) 

look after mental patient Giorgia (Jasmine Trinca)

...Check that...We're going to have to make that a triple feature! The Best of Youth is an Italian drama from 2003 that was originally made as a mini-series, but did have a theatrical release at the time in two parts. The six-plus hour running time is honestly the main reason I put this one off until now. The main focus of the story is...two brothers! The story begins in 1966 and runs all the way until 2003. This big story does not lend itself to a concise plot summary, but the story of Matteo, Nicholas, their family, friends, loves, a mentally ill woman, politics and coping with death justifies its running time and was well worth my time.

Matteo and Nicola with their shared love 

Mirella (Maya Sansa)

Da questo giorno in poi fino alla fine dei tempi, senza che ci si ricordi: noi pochi, noi pochi felici, siamo una...banda di fratelli.

-William Shakespeare

AMARCORD (1972, ITALY), 1900 (1976, ITALY), CINEMA PARADISO (1988. ITALY)

 Amarcord's resident tobacconist about to give an

awkward lesson in love

Lovesick Uncle Teo goes up a tree

to declare his needs (Voglio una donna!) to anyone who will listen

in Amarcord

The comical likeness of Mussolini in Amarcord

It has been thirty-four years since I last saw Fellini's Amarcord during a college course in film comedy before watching it today. I don't think of Fellini as a comedy filmmaker, though many of his other films certainly have funny moments. Amarcord is Fellini's nostalgic reminiscence of the Italian village where he grew up. Amarcord has many of Fellini's offbeat characters which he is know for and they are drawn out well. It's a lovely film with many comic highlights as well as some not-so-funny scenes of political oppression. I do have to admit the scene with the teenage boy and the ample-bosomed tobacconist is still my favorite. Crazy Uncle Teo is good for some laughs as well.

 Young Alfredo and Olmo tempt

fate in 1900

The adult Olmo and Alfredo in 1900

Olmo and Alfredo as grumpy old men

in 1900

Bernardo Bertolucci's 1900 is an epic story of growing up in twentieth century Italy seen through the eyes of two friends named Alfredo and Olmo, played by Robert De Niro and Gerard Depardieu. De Niro comes from the rich and influential family and Depardieu comes from the poor one. This multi-generational epic is a tale well told that has a lot to say about politics, changing of fortunes and loyalty. The version I watched was about four hours long, but the story was more than big enough to warrant the running time.

 Young Toto with his projectionist mentor Alfredo

 Teenage Toto falls in love with Elena

Older Toto reunited with Elena thirty years later

Cinema Paradiso is simply one of the most charming films ever made. A small boy named Toto in a small Sicilian town spends a lot of  his free time with Alfredo, the projectionist at the local movie theater. We also see Toto during his teen years when he is the Cinema projectionist and falls in love with a local girl named Elena. The final part has the grown up successful filmmaker Toto returning to his village thirty years later for Alfredo's funeral and concludes with his reuniting with Elena all those years later. The film works as nostalgia, a romance and as a film for anyone who has a love of cinema.