DINER (1982), BUFFALO '66 (1998)

Bacon, Rourke, Daly and Stern enjoy lunch
...or is it breakfast? in Diner

Diner is Barry Levinson's autobiographical film about being a young adult in Baltimore in late 1959. The film features the guys in the film hanging out in the local diner (hence the title) and how they are dealing with various degrees of success facing adulthood, responsibility and even (gasp!) marriage. The film has always been a favorite of mine and is smartly written by Levinson and boasts distinctive and interesting characterizations. Reminiscent of American Graffiti a decade before it, Diner had a cast of unknowns that were to come to prominence in upcoming years: Mickey Rourke, Daniel Stern, Tim Daly, Kevin Bacon, Steve Guttenberg, Paul Reiser and Ellen Barkin.

Johnny Unitas leads the 1959 Baltimore Colts

to another title

Are you ready for some football? Diner's Eddie (Guttenberg) is so obsessed with the Baltimore Colts, that he makes his fiancee pass a football quiz before he agrees to marry her. We see mostly his buddies as she is taking the test waiting to see if she makes the grade as if they are waiting for her to deliver a baby in one of the film's funniest scenes. The Colts were on their way to a second straight NFL championship in 1959, defeating the Giants in the title game 31-16.

Up for anything Layla (Ricci) poses
with the morose Billy (Gallo) in Buffalo '66

Writer/Director/Star Vincent Gallo's indy film Buffalo '66 rates most highly on my personal "quirky film meter." Gallo plays Billy, who right after serving a lengthy prison sentence recruits a girl named Layla (Christina Ricci) he picks up to pose as his wife to mollify his parents (Ben Gazzara and Angelica Huston). Recruits might not be the right word as kidnaps may be a more appropriate term. Of course, she seems oddly willing to go along with the not particularly likable Billy's scheme. We then get to see Billy's strange family dynamic, learn why the innocent Billy went to jail, witness gambling addiction and its subsequent consequences, observe a most off-beat romance between the two leads and of course, get a heavy dose of football obsession. The off-beat supporting cast also includes: Jan-Michael Vincent, Rosanna Arquette and Mickey Rourke (of Diner).

Quarterback Jack Kemp leads the '66 Buffalo Bills

Are you ready for some football? The title of this film is based on Billy being born during the Buffalo Bills championship AFL season of 1966, causing his fanatical football fan mother to miss the championship game, which she reminds him of at every opportunity. In reality, the Bills actually won the title games in 1964 and 1965 and lost the '66 title game 31-7 to the Kansas City Chiefs, depriving them of an opportunity to play in the first Super Bowl. So it goes.

THE EXILES (1961), HOOP DREAMS (1994)

Yvonne Williams going grocery shopping 

in The Exiles

I knew next to nothing about The Exiles, a seventy-two minute film about Indians/Native Americans in late 1950's Los Angeles when I popped the Criterion disc into the DVD player. In fact, going into my viewing I thought it was a documentary!

What we do have in this drama is the Native American/Indian people in this very small neighborhood doing various normal things in a snapshot of one night. We have a lady (Yvonne) who does the mundane grocery shopping or going to see a movie and dreams of a better life. We see several characters going out for drinks, including the jerky guy (Tommy), the guy who just sort of observes (Homer) and doesn't really react to much other than to go with the flow, and a large group that goes to a secluded place for a "49 Party", a type of traditional Native-American dance, which they do on a hill overlooking Los Angeles. Interesting for the historical value and time, movie commentator Sean Alexie (Smoke Signals, Who jokingly called it Native American Graffiti) points out that it was the first time in any film where you get to see a group of Native Americans doing something as mundane as buying gas! The film uses voice over narration and may have the feel of a Cassavetes film of the period to some, which Alexie points out.

The cinematography of the movie is very nice for something so low budget (maybe because of it?) and the final shot of the movie (below) is memorable.

Side note: They caught up to Yvonne Williams years later and she said she had never seen The Exiles, her only screen appearance.

A fun night's end in the final shot of The Exiles

Arthur Agee in Hoop Dreams

Hoop Dreams I have seen before and was a well deserved Oscar winner for Best Documentary of 1994. We follow two black youths in Chicago city schools over their four high school years whose dreams revolve around getting a chance to play basketball and perhaps getting to a point where they can reach the pinnacle and turn pro like their hero, Isaiah Thomas. It's most interesting that director is able to follow these kids around during their entire high school career and see how they develop. We see William the strong star player, whose career has ups and downs mostly due to untimely injuries. We have the smaller Arthur Agee, who actually gets kicked out of one school due to grades, but eventually makes a mark in basketball at his next school. We see the highs and lows of their family life, friends, neighborhood, coaches and teammates. We also see quite a number of scenes with Academic Counselors! A long film, but well worth your time.

Side note: In Danny Peary's Alternate Oscar book, he rates Hoop Dreams as the Best Picture Winner for 1994. This year featured Pulp Fiction, Forrest Gump, The Shawshank Redemption and several other notable films, but Hoop Dreams was Peary's choice.

William Gates in Hoop Dreams

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."

DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1920), THE PENALTY (1920), THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (1920)

1920 Halloween Triple Feature!

John Barrymore and his great profile
as Dr. Jekyll

Today's super scary Halloween triple feature features films that were made about 100 years ago as I look at the old Gregorian calendar on the wall. Isn't that pretty scary in itself?

The first film is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, starring screen legend John Barrymore. The film is of course based on the 1886 Robert Lewis Stevenson book of the same name. Barrymore plays the good Dr. Jekyll who helps out the poor when he isn't doing experiments that may give him answers to questions that may be left unanswered. He is egged on by his future father-in-law to search for the dual nature of good and evil in man, and boy does he find it! He finds a potion that turns his saintly doctor Jekyll into the wicked Mr. Hyde. (Granted, Mr. Hyde might be more fun than Jekyll at the right type of party). Then the fun begins as Mr. Hyde causes havoc much to the consternation of his better half. You know this isn't going to end well.

The special effects aren't too bad, especially the shots of the difference between Dr. Jekyll's skilled doctor hand and the claws of Mr. Hyde. I also like Hyde's distorted looks, which are grotesque but clearly still human and quite the contrast to the actor known as "The Great Profile."

John Barrymore as the hideous Mr. Hyde!

Lon Chaney as Blizzard in The Penalty

The Penalty, directed by Wallace Worsley, is a melodramatic but involving tale of a boy who has the lower part of his legs removed by doctors he overhears saying afterward that the removal may not have been necessary. He grows up and takes the name Blizzard and becomes a bitter criminal mastermind who wants to get revenge on the man who took his legs.

The film ends with his blackmail of the doctor to give him legs, but the doc operates on his head instead. Blizzard's mind is now cleared of evils thoughts and he tries to do good, but is shot down by an associate, the ultimate paying of the penalty.

Blizzard is played by Lon Chaney, who was and is one of the most admired stars of the silent era. His ability to get into a role physically as well as mentally is renowned. The Man of 1,000 Faces uses his own face for The Penalty, it's his body that is the distortion here. For this role, he had his legs strapped as his knees sat in buckets to mimic being an amputee.

Chaney also starred in an adaptation of another

Gouverneur Morris story

called  Ace of Hearts  in 1921.

The unveiling of the somnambulist Cesare by

Caligari in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Warm...Rohrig...Weinmann...Weine

The alliteration of those names helped me to remember them all for my History of Film class I took in the 80's when we went over silent films, expressionism and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari in particular. But what are the importance of these names? Herman Warm designed the delightfully expressionistic sets for the movie. Rohrig and Weinmann painted these sets. And Robert Weine was the director of this tale of madness...exploitation...and SONAMBULISM!!

But the film offers more than it's unusual design. It is the forerunner of films that try to throw the viewer narrative curve balls. Is the story we think we are seeing, the real story? Is the narrator reliable? Is the one we see as evil, really good? Or is the narrator the only one who sees that he isn't good? What are the hints that what we are seeing isn't what we may think it is at first?

I think of Caligari when I see films like A Beautiful Mind, The Sixth Sense and most recently Shutter Island (I'm sure Martin Scorcese is a student of Caligari). Even if you've seen variations on the themes of Caligari done many times since, any student of film should see the original. 

And don't forget those names...Warm...Rohrig...Weinmann...Weine...Warm...Rohrig...Weinmann...Weine...I am calling you...I am your master...awaken for a moment from your dark night!

I had the privilege of re-watching Caligari this month at the local Crescent Theater featuring the live band The Invisible Czars playing along with the film. Great job, guys!

Happy Halloween!