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)

THE UP SERIES (1964-2019, GREAT BRITAIN)

Given me a child when he is seven and I will give you the man.-Jesuit proverb

The featured players of the Up series

at different life stages

In 1964, Granada television in Britain chose fourteen seven-year-old subjects for a television special about what it was like to be that age. This original film was directed by Paul Diamond and was originally supposed to be a one and off special. The subjects of the film were chosen by a young researcher named Michael Apted, who saw the potential for something really special here. Apted took over as director of the project and filmed the children again at age fourteen in 1970. He then filmed all the subjects in the film every seven years (all that would participate) all the way until 63 Up in 2019.

I had heard about this series over the years, but never watched it. We got the 56 Up! DVD at the library a couple of years ago, but really wanted to see the films from the beginning. In recent weeks, I noticed Britbox had all the episodes and my wife and I decided to plunge in and watch them.

I don't binge watch shows often, but The Up Series is definitely one I'd recommend going that route with. I feel like I just met these seven-year-old kids a couple of weeks ago and watching a show a night, they quickly are all reaching retirement age. It acts like an only slightly less speedy Picture of Dorian Gray with the featured kids.

We see the participants make schooling decisions, marriage decisions, career decisions and family decisions. Through the episodes, the extended family of the participants become players in this drama as well. Other participants keep their family out of it entirely. We also see past shows cleverly edited into each new show to give the viewer perspective.

One of the elements in the choosing of the original subjects is class. You have the prep school boys, seemingly born with silver spoons in their mouth and poorer East End kids that have to struggle for everything. The truth is of course much more complicated than that.

Here are the subjects for the film:

John, Andrew and Charles on the couch

in 14 Up

The Three Prep School Boys on the Couch

John Brisby, one of the upper class kids, was seemingly on the path to being a barrister from age seven. He likes to point out in later episodes that he had to struggle a lot more than what is portrayed in the earlier films.

Andrew Brackfield was one of the funniest of the seven year old kids, going on about he read The Financial Times on a daily basis. He later became a solicitor, but seems to spend a lot of time in his garden as the years go on. He appears to have one of the happier marriages and families in the film.

Charles Furneaux is the third of the Prep School boys. Charles didn't participate in any films after 21 Up, despite later becoming a documentary filmmaker himself!

Jackie, Lynn and Sue on the slide at age seven

The Three Working Class Girls on the Couch

Jackie Bassett is one of the three girls in the film that are usually filmed together. Her life has had her ups and downs with marriages, kids, work and health. She often seems to have a love/hate relationship with director Apted. I find her one of the most interesting subjects in the film.

Lynn Johnson was one of Jackie's friends who definitely had her ups and downs. She married young and had a family early, but kept her marriage together throughout her life. I certainly like the fact that she worked at libraries and a bookmobile for many years. She had many health issues over the years which she talks about in many episodes. She died in 2013 at the age of 57.

Sue Davis is the third of the three girls filmed together in episode one. She had her ups and downs with marriage and divorce over the years. She also had a potential singing career that she points out she was never able to follow through with. In later years, she is seen as being happily engaged to the same man for 21 years!

The Charity Boarding School Classmates

Symon Basterfield was the only participant of mixed race in this film. He worked at various jobs over the years which the viewer gets to experience vicariously (There's Symon on the fork lift again!). He married and had five kids only to divorce. His second wife was a strong presence in 49 Up and 56 Up.

Paul Kliegerman was also one of the funniest of the kids at seven. The clip that they show about his fear of marriage because his wife might serve him greens makes me laugh every time they show it. In actuality, Paul has had the same wife since 21 Up, and we see many of their travels through the outback and raising of their family over the years. One of the most likable participants in the film, we see Paul reunited with his classmate Symon in 49 Up (or was that 42 Up?)

The entire group together at 21 Up

The Academics

Bruce Balden may be the person I identify the most with in the film. Always concerned about social issues and injustice early on, he becomes a teacher in the inner city and in Bangla Desh for awhile. It didn't seem like he would ever get married, but did in 35 Up in a ceremony conducted by fellow Up participant Neil Hughes.

Nick Hitchon started out on a farm and went to boarding school before going to Oxford and eventually becoming a professor specializing in Nuclear Fusion at the University of Wisconsin. Nick's first marriage is documented in 28 Up, but that didn't last and seems happy with his second wife in later episodes. 

I just want to promote me band!

Peter Davies was a Liverpudlian youth who in 21 Up said some negative things about the Thatcher Administration which he got some criticism for and decided not to participate in the series again until 56 Up to promote his folk band!

This is pointless and silly!

Suzy Lusk had a most interesting evolution on the show. She went from being one of the rich kids in the beginning to being from a broken home and deciding the project was "pointless and silly" by the age of 14. At 21, she was an angry chain-smoking young lady who would never want to have kids and was mad at the world. By 28, she married someone who seemed to change her worldview for the better and has appeared to have a happy life (with kids!).

Tony Walker at 7 Up and 56 Up

The breakout stars

Tony Walker-"I want to be a jockey when I grow up. I want to be a jockey when I grow up!" I always quote Tony's seven-year-old aspirations to my wife before we start a new episode. Tony is one of the lower East Side kids who did indeed become a jockey for awhile before becoming a taxi driver among other things. The fast talking Tony seems to be one of those people who can probably get away with a lot just by talking his way out of things. Married at 28, his wife was featured in all the subsequent episodes and they are not afraid to speak openly about the highs and lows of their relationship.

Neil Hughes at 56 Up and 7 Up

Neil Hughes was the Liverpool youth who had aspirations, yet never seemed to find his way. He was often depicted throughout the run of the show as homeless or suffering from a form of mental illness-yet always finding a way to survive. He later became a local councilman and even a preacher (performing the marriage ceremony for Bruce Balden).

I think for the most part the participants haven been shown in a positive light. I mean there aren't any villains in this piece (Maybe Charles, only because he wouldn't participate after 21 Up) and I hope the lives of all of them continue to improve through 63 Up, 70 Up, 77 Up...

THE OSCAR (1966)

What better way to get into the mood for tonight's Academy Awards presentation than watching the 1966 film The Oscar? Okay, there may have been better ways to tell you the truth, but this is the path I have chosen! I knew the reputation of this film was not a good one ever since I had my old copy of The Golden Turkey Awards where Tony Bennett was given the Golden Turkey for Worst Performance by a Popular Singer performance in a movie. More on him in a minute.

The plot of the movie involves a (for lack of a better word) asshole named Frankie Fain (played by Stephen Boyd) who tries to make ends meet in strip clubs and such with his girl (Jill St. John) and loyal sidekick Hymie (Tony Bennett). At one point, they get taken in on a trumped up prostitution charge which they eventually get out of, but Frankie's girl breaks up with him and Frankie heads out on his own.

Frankie gets involved with a fashion designer named Kay (Elke Sommer) and is discovered to really have some star appeal by a talent scout (Eleanor Parker). Yadda yadda yadda, Frankie becomes a big movie star, but never seems to quit being a prick. His career takes a downward turn until he nabs an elusive Oscar nomination. He plants a story in the paper (with the help of an unsavory detective played by Ernest Borgnine) about the old prostitution rap. You see, people will think one of the other nominees planted that story and Frankie will get the sympathy vote, right? That Best Actor Oscar will put Frankie's career back on the right track...if he wins....

It's Oscar night. The Best names are read out. And the winner is....Frank...

As the name is read, Frankie stands up before presenter Merle Oberon finishes reading out the name...Sinatra! The real Frank Sinatra is actually there to pick up the Best Actor Oscar he never won in real life as the picture ends with a stunned Frankie Fain unconvincingly trying to put on a brave face. For all the flaws in the film, I did like this gotcha ending very much.

But let's face it, The Oscar is basically a soap opera in the Sidney Sheldon/Jacqueline Susann school with extremely broad performances and a pretty over-the-top rags to riches story. I would say it doesn't date well, but it was pretty much panned in 1966, too.

Stephen Boyd tries to reason with

Tony Bennett in The Oscar

Unpacking the Oscars from The Oscar:

Surprisingly, the film itself was nominated for two Oscars: Best Production design (losing out to Fantastic Voyage, which also starred Stephen Boyd) and Best Costume Design (Losing out to A Man for All Seasons). Edith Head was the costume designer for The Oscar and also appears as herself in the movie. Edith won eight Oscars in her career, including five in the six years between 1950-1955.

Stephen Boyd was never nominated for an Oscar, not even for his most famous performance as Massala in Ben-Hur.

In 1955, Frank Sinatra (cameo in The Oscar) was nominated for Best Actor in The Man With the Golden Arm but lost out that year to Ernest Borgnine (the private investigator in The Oscar) for Marty. Sinatra's co-star in that film was Eleanor Parker (who played the talent scout in The Oscar). According to Sinatra's biography, he didn't take the loss well. Sinatra did win Best Supporting Actor in 1953 for From Here to Eternity.

It's also interesting that Peter Lawford has a small role here as a washed-up actor turned maitre'D a couple of years after he was kicked out of Sinatra's Rat Pack.

Other Oscar winners with small parts or cameos in the film include: Broderick Crawford, Ed Begley Sr., Walter Brennan and Joan Crawford.

Bob Hope appears as himself as the Oscar master of ceremonies.

Not surprisingly, Milton Berle's dramatic turn as Frankie's agent didn't get him an Oscar nod or many other dramatic roles in the future.

Columnist Hedda Hopper appears as herself. She passed away the year the film was released.

#TheOscarSoWhite: About the only person of color in the whole film is Jack Soo as Fain's servant. I did like Jack in the little he got to do here.

Harlan Ellison? I was shocked when I saw acerbic writer Harlan Ellison's name on the screenplay credits.

Harlan's quote about the film: "I knew my film career was over the night I saw The Oscar. I practically wept!"

Anthony Dominick Bennedetto: Tony Bennett is widely recognized as one of the great singers of the twentieth century. And I'm not here to rag on Tony Bennett's performance in The Oscar. He is obviously trying so hard in the emotional scenes at the end of the film! Trying so damn hard! A for effort...like I said, a legendary singer.

TOM JONES (1963, GREAT BRITAIN)

THE FINAL FOUR BEST PICTURE WINNERS

THAT I HAVE NEVER SEEN BEFORE

#2  Tom Jones

Susannah York and Albert Finney pitch woo

in Tom Jones

"Prepare yourself for what is surely one of the wildest, bawdiest and funniest comedies that a refreshingly agile filmmaker has ever brought to the screen."-Bosley Crowther, New York Times, October 8. 1963

"Tom Jones is a mess, sometimes called a romp, and a tribute as much as anything to the sudden new appetite for things English."-David Thomson, Have You Seen...?

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Yes, the bawdy romp that is Tom Jones seems to have its fans as well as its detractors. Interesting that I've never gotten around to seeing it before. In fact, I can hardly remember it ever being on TV over the years...at least not often. Seen now, it's an interesting transition British film when the country went from making serious early 60's English films such as Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (also starring Finney) to the Swingin' London films of the later 60's, such as Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment (starring David Warner of Tom Jones).

Tom Jones is a fun film especially for those who like period pieces, though the "bawdiness" of the film seems quite subdued by modern standards.

What's New Pussycat?: The Welsh singer Thomas Woodward was rechristened as "Tom Jones" after the success of the movie of the same name. I'm pretty sure more people in recent years are more familiar with the singer Tom Jones than the movie Tom Jones, let alone the original novel by Henry Fielding! But it's not unusual, I guess.

1963 Best Picture Nominees

Tom Jones

America, America

Cleopatra

How the West Was Won

Lilies of the Field

None of the Best Picture Nominees for this year made the 1001 book.

In his Alternative Oscar book, Danny Peary awarded no Academy Award winner for 1963. The only year he gave it to no winner. (Though 8 1/2, Hud and The Great Escape seem like potentially worthy choices to me.)

Tony Richardson won the Best Director award for Tom Jones, beating out the formidable competition of Federico Fellini, Martin Ritt, Elia Kazan and Otto Preminger.

Tom Jones also won Best Adapted Screenplay for John Osborne and Best Adapted Musical Score by John Addison

Tom Jones had five Acting Nominations...none of whom won.

Albert Finney lost Best Actor to Sidney Potier of Lillies of the Field

Hugh Griffith lost Best Supporting Actor to Melvyn Douglas of Hud

Diane Cilento, Edith Evans and Joyce Redman all lost Best Supporting Actress to Margaret Rutherford in The V.I.P.'s

A Little Love for Susannah York, Please!: The five acting Oscar nominees for Tom Jones did not include leading lady Susannah York. She went on to have a very fine career in motion pictures, but never received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actess during her career.

Sometimes it Pays to Look Back in Anger: John Osborne was awarded the Best Screenplay Oscar for Tom Jones and had his play Luther win the Tony for Best Play the same year! The original West End production of Luther starred Albert Finney. The 1973 film version featured Hugh Griffith in a supporting role. Tom Jones director Tony Richardson also directed Luther on the stage.

The hunting scene shot largely from a helicopter

 in Tom Jones

Tomorrow: The final Best Picture winner that I have never seen before!

JOE (1970), PUTNEY SWOPE (1969)

Peter Boyle as Joe

I've heard about the movie Joe for a long time. I knew it was about a bigot played by Peter Boyle, but the movie turned out to be a much different cinematic experience than I expected. We don't even get to meet Joe until about 30 minutes into the movie!

The plot starts with a young hippie chick named Melissa (Susan Sarandon) trying to get along with her druggie boyfriend. Unfortunately, she has a freak out and gets sent to the hospital. Her affluent father Bill Compton (Dennis Patrick) then goes to their pad when they aren't there to gather her belongs. The boyfriend comes home and provokes Compton who kills the young hippie in a rage.

The clearly upset Compton goes into a bar where we (finally) meet Joe (Peter Boyle), who has plenty to say negatively about blacks and gays. However, Joe has a special animosity towards those young hippie punks (Hey, boomers) who he thinks are destroying the moral fabric of society. The working class Joe and the upper class Compton form an unlikely friendship that leads them to unlikely places.

Joe is a very solid drama. Part of this can be attributed to the script by Haskell Wexler (Read the section of Bob Zmuda's book on Andy Kaufman for a look at how crazy Wexler was.) As I mentioned, the story did not go into predictable places and some may find parts of it dated or the ending a bit too much, but I still give it a thumbs up, especially for those who like films from the period.

Susan Sarandon in Joe

There's a new business model

in Putney Swope

Speaking of films of the period, how about Robert Downey Sr.'s film Putney Swope? Putney has a small cult following, but I had never seen it before today. The movie begins with one black board executive (named Putney Swope) at an advertising company becoming the CEO when the old CEO dies and the rest of the board votes Swope CEO because they all thought no body else would vote for him!

Swope cleans house and now the advertising firm is called Truth and Soul and big changes come about. The story is tongue and cheek and intentionally over-the-top. Some of the jokes don't land quite as solidly perhaps they were intended to, but there are a lot of truths that come out of this film. Truths about advertising, selling out, doing anything for money, pay inequality and getting rid of anyone who doesn't agree with you. We also have a midget president, an executive board that looks like members of The Black Panthers and some commercial ads that are often tasteless and usually pretty funny.

Glad to finally get these off my late 60's early 70's bucket list (Which I guess must be an unwritten supplement to the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die List).

The midget president in Putney Swope

SHOAH (1985), THE PAWNBROKER (1964), PASSENGER (1963, POLAND)

 Passenger

Passenger is Andrzej Munk's uncompleted film that begins with a lady on a passenger ship named Lisa who sees a another woman board. Lisa becomes distraught because of recognizing the other woman from a life that she thought she had put behind. This life was when Lisa was an SS officer and the other woman (named Marta) was a Jewish inmate of the camp.

The issue with Passenger as a viewing experience is that it was never completed. Munk died in a car accident during the filming and what we are left with is what was put together by filmmaker Witold Lesiewicz. I will say what we have is often compelling. We see mostly flashback sequences with Lisa as a harsh camp guard and are left with her rather undefined relationship with Marta. Lisa actually saves Marta from death on several occasions. The audience is left to wonder whether the reason for this  is just the latent humanity of Lisa or a possibly even a latent attraction? We don't really know the answer because the film was never completed. Many of the scenes from the ship are still pictures with voice-over narration. It's a shame the film was never finished, but the slightly under an hour remainder is worth a watch, if you don't mind being left with more questions than answers.

 Shoah

Claude Lanzman's documentary of the Holocaust called Shoah. on the other hand, took over a decade to complete and is over ten hours in length. The first thing that is striking about Shoah is that there is no archival footage used. What we have are interviews that take up the entirety of the film. It reminded me a little of the Marcel Ophlus films like The Sorrow and the Pity, though Ophlus's films had some archival footage to back his story up.

There are many interviews with survivors of the camps. We have the reminiscences of people from neighboring villages to where the camps were. There is a memorable interview with a barber who cut the hair of those about to be killed. We have a couple of academic scholars to attempt to add some clarity to what went on and why. Perhaps most frighteningly we have interviews with some of the villains from this tragedy, those that worked in the camp, ran the trains going to the camp and coordinated the liquidation as if they were running a business on a strict deadline.

The film was shot from the mid 70's until the release of the film in 1985 and is an invaluable historical record of those that were there.

The Pawnbroker

Sidney Lumet's The Pawnbroker (1964) is a story based on the novel by Edward Lewis Wallant, about a man named Sol Nazerman (Rod Steiger) who lost his entire family to the holocaust and years later runs a pawn shop in New York City. Nazerman has an assistant named Jesus Ortiz who he is teaching the business. But there is no happiness in Sol's life. As he points out to Jesus, the only thing he respects now is money. It isn't out of greed he does this, but simply because there is nothing left of value to him to hold on to.

This is a pretty powerful film and one I'm surprised I haven't seen before now. There is much to see in the film as far as symbolism (The ultimate sacrifice of a character named Jesus, Sol's attempt to run his hand down on a spike as if being crucified himself etc.). It is also a worthy addition to the impressive career output of director Lumet and may also be Steiger's best performance.

I love the look of dramas from the sixties that were still filmed in black and white. The cinematographer of The Pawnbroker was Boris Kaufman, who also filmed On the Waterfront, as well as several other films for Lumet.

 Deaths-Head Revisited 1961

These movies made me think of The Twilight Zone episode Death's Head Revisited...which I myself revisited. It features a former SS guard named Lutze (played by Oscar Beregi) who goes back to visit the concentration camp where he brutally tortured and murdered people during the war only to now be haunted by the ghosts of prisoners past (led by Joseph Schildkraut). One of my favorite Twilight Zones and featuring one of the easily most despicable heavies from the series.

Tribunal 1999

I thought there was an episode of the classic Outer Limits episode about a concentration camp, but could only find an episode from the reboot of the Outler Limits from 1999 titled Tribunal. This episode has a modern day reporter finding a surviving war criminal from one of the camps. The reporter is aided by a time traveler which leads to some interesting plot twists and leads to the war criminal being executed by a younger version of himself!...

Shalom...

THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN (2019), THE INCREDIBLE JOURNEY (1963)

Dogs in movies...

I don't read a lot of fiction books about dogs, but The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein is one I had heard good things about and gave it a shot. It is a story from the point of view of a Golden Retriever named Enzo. Enzo is adopted as a puppy by a young race car driver named Denny and they go through much together through the years. This includes Denny's marriage, the birth of his daughter and later fight for custody with his in-laws. All through this, Enzo loves to watch Denny race, mostly on TV. The point of view of the book is from Enzo and is handled very well done by Stein.

In adapting this to film, we are obviously going to have a great deal of voice of narration. Enzo's voice is supplied here by Kevin Costner. I think it's about as well done as you can do with an adaptation of a novel that is from the dogs point of view. In other words, I got into Enzo's head enough to satisfy me. The last scene with the older Enzo riding around the track with Denny and saying how happy he is is......I...I definitely need a tissue here.

It's interesting that on Rotten Tomatoes the critics rating for this movie is 43% and the audience score is 96%! Underestimate dog loving movie goers at your own risk.

Enzo and Denny master

The Art of Racing in the Rain

In trying to find a good double-feature match for The Art of Racing in the Rain, I remembered a 1963 Disney movie called The Incredible Journey. 

I read the book first by Sheila Burnford. It's a pretty quick read. It's about a young Lab named Luath, an older Bull Terrier named Old Bodger and a Siamese Cat named Tao who embark on trip back to the home where their family is staying three-hundred miles away! They encounter many adventures along the way , including: altercations with bears, porcupines, Tao nearly drowning and some humans who don't take too kindly to these strange travelers. However, most of the humans they meet along the way are helpful to our travelers. If you can accept the rather far-fetched premise of them being all able to make it all that way, then it's a recommended book for younger readers...maybe some older ones too.

Old Bodger, Tao and Luath master the terrain

in The Incredible Journey

The film is a pretty faithful adaptation of the book with many of the action sequences well done. How did they get the cat to do that water scene? How did they get the animals to do most of what they did here? Anyway, when the incredible journey ends and the animals are reunited with their family one by one...I...I definitely need a tissue here.

The film is narrated by Rex Allen. Rex was a former cowboy star whose familiar voice was part of many a Disney movie I watched growing up (Charlie, The Lonesome Cougar, Charlotte's Web and The Hound That Thought He Was a Raccoon come to mind).

ENTRANCED EARTH (1968, BRAZIL), THE OFFICIAL STORY (1985, ARGENTINA)

Everything's political they say. When you tell a story, you have overt politics in the foreground or maybe just the assumption of the way society should be so far in the background you wouldn't even know it was there.

Academic Edward Said stated that one of the most political writers of the 19th century was Jane Austen (of all people) just for that reason.

Entranced Earth

"To a degree, the failure of  Earth Entranced results from its unwillingness to accept the fictional logic of its melodramatic plot."-Roger Greenspun, New York Times, May 15, 1970

"Attacked with equal vitriol by both the Left and the Right, the film was neglected in favor of Rocha's rural epics. Yet seen today it seems not only Rocha's masterpiece, but also that of the new Latin American Cinema."-Richard Pena, 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

No escaping the politics of Entranced Earth and there are plenty of divergent opinions on it. Essentially, the plot involves a poet named Paulo, who at different times backs a Right Wing dictator and a Left Wing ideologue, both of whom eventually let Paulo down. Paulo then becomes a revolutionary. The plot is confusing much of the time. I don't know whether to give the film credit here for realism or be critical of it for making me scratch my head. It did make me think of how politics is usually convoluted...and not just in third world countries. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

The Official Story

"Beside The Official Story, most of the political movies of recent years seem tub thumbers and point pounders. Luis Puenzo's film is unwaveringly committed to human rights, yet it imposes no ideology or doctrine."-Walter Goodman, November 8, 1985, New York Times

The political situation is really magnified in human terms in The Official Story. Alicia is an Argentine teacher with a husband and an adopted daughter whom she loves dearly. Alicia is content in her life, but can't turn away when she learns some of the things that have been going on in her country over the last few years, including the circumstances in which she adopted her daughter. A powerful film that should challenge some of your beliefs no matter where you fall on the ideological spectrum.

AN ACTOR'S REVENGE (1963, JAPAN), THEATER OF BLOOD (1973)

The Kabuki actor (Kazuo Hasegawa) onstage in

An Actor's Revenge

An Actor's Revenge is Kom Ichicawa's film about a Kabuki actor named Yukitaro who as a youth had his parents led to suicide by three men. The film depicts his infiltration of these men's lives in later years with the intention of  extracting a little payback on them.  His plan is complicated by his feelings for one of the men's daughters, who in turn has fallen in love with Yukitaro. I tend to like these Japanese films with Kabuki actors: The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums, Ballad of Narayma, Late Spring among others. 

The character of Yamitaro is most interesting. He appears in feminine form onstage...and has the same persona offstage. This persona is what the daughter of one of the revenge targets falls in love with. She is originally just a vehicle for Yamitaro to help with his plan, but he does begin to have real feelings for her. But what exactly are the extent of these feelings? Whatever they are, they do complicate his plan. I do think their relationship is the heart of the film.

The world's a stage for Vincent Price

in Theater of Blood

I tried to think of another actor's revenge themed movie to team An Actor's Revenge with and the obvious choice for me is the 1973 film Theater of Blood featuring Vincent Price as a hammy Shakespearean actor named Edward Lionheart who takes revenge on his critics by killing them one by one by methods adapted directly from his Shakespearean roles.I first saw this on late night telly at my Aunt's house forty years ago! So a revisit was interesting.

There is a lot of good here. Price is appropriately over the top with his Shakespeare soliloquies and also the administering of his murders. For example, he gets one of his critics to kill his wife in a jealous rage like in Othello or tries to gauge out the eyes of another a la King Lear. The film also has the plus of a young Diana Rigg as his complicit daughter.

However, there are problems with the plot. Chief among them is the fact that there is a police investigation into the killings and they figure out that Lionheart is committing the murders and have the targeted critics under police surveillance. However, the police are so casual with watching the critics, they allow several of the critics to be murdered right under their noses! Oh, well. It's still a nice watch for Price fans. 

THE MAN WHO HAD HIS HAIR CUT SHORT (1965, BELGIUM), THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE (2001)

The Man Who Had His Hair Cut Short

Ah, the refreshing feel of a short haircut accentuated by a vibromassage device makes you feel nice and clean on the outside...even if you are having difficulty with what's going inside your head. At least that's how I interpret The Man Who Had His Hair Cut Short. Govert is a teacher who falls in love with a student. He misses his chance with her until years later...though not before witnessing an autopsy beforehand. He finally reunites with her...she loves him too! Or does she? He gets a gun and shoots her...she dies...or does she? He gets locked away and sees her on a newsreel. She isn't really dead. His mind can now focus on the family he neglected and left behind. I'm not really sure what is happening here, but that's okay. What is presented is compelling enough and definitely worthy of a repeated rinsing...I mean viewing. 

The Man Who Wasn't There

The patterns of a head of hair from the viewpoint of a barber. The patterns just seem to go on and on, don't they? This is the perspective of Ed Crane (Billy Bob Thornton), the barber who seems like an bit player in his own life. The Man Who Wasn't There is a modern day film noir filmed by The Coen Brothers in glorious black and white. Crane is in a loveless marriage, whose wife is having an affair with her boss. Crane knows about it and anonymously blackmails the boss to get money to invest in a get rich quick dry cleaning scheme. All does not go well. When I was thinking of a movie to team up with The Man Who Had His Hair Cut Short, this was the first one that came to mind. Only Crane doesn't just get a nice haircut like Govert, Crane has to give nice haircuts to others every day. It's the monotony of his life that leads to his desire for something more. Like Govert, things fall apart for Crane, who eventually finds himself murdering his boss, having his wife accused of the crime and eventually being charged with a different murder he didn't commit.

I'm glad I watched these two back to back. I wonder if I can get in for a trim at Supercuts tomorrow? 

Random barber images...

 Eddie Murphy as Clarence, the know-it-all barber

in Coming to America

Johnny Depp as Sweeny Todd, The Demon Barber

of Fleet Street

Howard McNear as Floyd the Barber

in The Andy Griffith Show

Alfalfa Switzer sings The Barber of Seville in

The Our Gang Follies of 1938

KEEPER OF PROMISES (1962, BRAZIL),THE COW (1969, IRAN)

Keeper of Promises

A man and his donkey...

A devout peasant named Ze makes a promise to Saint Barbara that he will drag a wooden cross to the altar of the church in a nearby town if his beloved donkey is saved. His donkey recovers and his trek with the cross to the church is where Keeper of Promises begins.

Along the road to the church (with his cross flung over his shoulder and accompanied by his reluctant wife) he is mocked by onlookers, but finally reaches his destination. However, the church is closed when he gets there and patiently waits for it to open. He can take the cross in and be done, right? Wrong! The priest of the church thinks the man's promise the work of devils and refuses to let him bring it in. Ze is determined and waits it out. It becomes a newsworthy event and the press slant gives Ze's quest a much more political tone than the reality of the situation dictates. Of course, at one point Ze says something to the effect, "I'm not a rebel, but I'm becoming one!" Meanwhile, his wife becomes involved with a local pimp.The Monsignor of the church tries to persuade the priest to reconsider his position as he is worried about the political fallout. The people of the town begin to side with the man and want him to be allowed to bring his cross inside. Everyone has an agenda, it seems.

I really like this little film. You get to see in stark terms how differently people interrupt the same event to coincide to their own viewpoint, yet the presentation never feels heavy handed. The press aspect of the film reminds me a bit of Billy Wilder's Ace in the Hole.

I'd like to thank TSorensen for his assistance in getting a copy of this film for me with English subtitles.

http://tsorensen1001.blogspot.com/ 

The Cow

A man and his cow...

Another simple villager named Hasan (this time from Iran) also has an attachment to an animal...his cow. He treats the cow like one would treat a beloved Cocker Spaniel. When he has to leave the village for a couple of days, the cow turns up dead. The close-knit people of the village are afraid what Hasan's reaction is going to be and decide to bury the cow and tell Hasan that the cow has run away. After he returns, Hasan does not believe for a second his cow would ever leave him this way. He suspects some local thieves may be behind this. As time goes on, Hasan has a breakdown and goes out to his barn and takes on the character traits of the cow. The villagers and Hasan's wife do what they can to try to help him, but he is too far gone and eventually comes to a sad end.

Despite the sad resolution, there are positives to be seen in The Cow. One is the coming together of a village to help one of their own. Was burying the cow and lying to Hasan the best choice? Maybe, maybe not. It doesn't seem like the result would have been much different for Hasan had they just told him the truth to begin with.

I also liked this film very much. Maybe I have a thing for small village morality tales?

Now if you'll excuse me, my pet yak needs feeding.

BARREN LIVES (1963, BRAZIL), EL NORTE (1983, GREAT BRITAIN),

The family just keeps moving from one hardship

to another in Barren Lives

First hour and twenty minutes of Barren Lives: The story of this poor Brazilian family travelling around meeting hardship after hardship is one of the most depressing movies I've ever seen. Dad can't get any kind of work, gets ripped off and beaten by gamblers and law enforcement, Mom has to toil over and over again and is so despondent that she often wishes her life would just end to hope for a better one in the next one. The kids are always hungry, uncomfortable and unhappy. At least the beloved family dog, Balelia survives, right?

Last twenty minutes of Barren Lives: Hold my beer.

Balelia, poor poor Balelia

in Barren Lives

Enrique and Rosa try to get a leg up in America

in El Norte

Another travelling movie (Roger Ebert compared it to Grapes of Wrath) has a brother (Enrique) and sister (Rosa) escaping their war torn village in Guatemala to go north (The United States). They manage to get away and struggle to get to Mexico before finally winding up in Los Angeles. The journey isn't easy and it doesn't seem to get much better once they get there either. Problems with immigration, employment, prejudice, language and sickness plague them. A fine film, but you know this one isn't going to wind up happily ever after either.

The movie is broken down into three sections: The village, the journey through Mexico and coming to America.

The poetic final scene of El Norte

THE DEVILS (1971, GREAT BRITAIN), CARAVAGGIO (1986, GREAT BRITAIN)

Vanessa Redgrave as the physically challenged 

and emotionally complex nun

in The Devils

"The Devils is a see-through movie composed of a lot of clanking, silly, melodramatic effects that, like rib-tickling, exhaust you without providing particular pleasure, to say nothing of enlightenment."-Vincent Canby, The New York Times, July 17, 1971

"The Devils is an incredibly ambitious film, conceived not merely as a historical document by as a visionary work, a prophetic warning of the tenacity of ignorance and superstition."-Stpehn Farber, The New York Times, August 15, 1971

"Ken Russell's The Devils arrived in Venice tonight and encountered semi-censorship. It was show for the press and for an invited audience, but its public showing was canceled to avoid possible police intervention."-Thomas Quinn Curtiss, The New York Times, August 29, 1971

The three 1971 reviews of The Devils from the New York Times well illustrates three ways you can look at The Devils, Ken Russell's drama about a priest who runs a city in 17th century but continues to be thwarted by the governmental, religious and sexual politics of others. You can look at it as an over-the-top mess, which it is at times, depicting religious orgies and elaborated scenes of torture. You can look at is as a canny indictment of politics and religion and how an honest man is likely to become a victim of the treachery of others. You can also see why others might have objected to the content of the film, for the way it depicts sexuality and religion. I hadn't seen this film in thirty years and seeing it again, I can understand all points of view. It was at times way over the top to the point of wretched excess...yet, it had a valid story to tell that stays with me. Judge for yourself.

The film is based of Aldous Huxley's book, The Devils of Loudon.

Oliver Reed as the good priest

in The Devils

Carvaggio (Nigel Terry) and street tough (Sean Bean)

discuss their complex relationship

"Art becomes life becomes art as (Derek) Jarman breathes biological life into Caravaggio's greatest paintings while the artist reflects without any mercy on his own life split between the braying snobbery of the art world, and the exciting danger of a universe where violence and sex intersect."-Colin MacCabe, 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Caravggio is a pleasure to look at and its disjointedness is a way of seizing what Mr. Jarman apparently concieves to be the wild leaps of faith of Caravaggio's imagination."-Walter Goodman, The New York Times, August 29, 1986

The impressive set designer of The Devils was Derek Jarman, who soon began to make controversial movies of his own from the director's chair. Caravaggio is Jarman's film about aspects of the life of the famed painter (played by Nigel Terry) and it is a much less elaborate affair than The Devils. The story begins with Caravaggio on his death bed looking back on his life as a young street hustler through his time as a favored artist of the Catholic Church. He also has intrigues with a local ruffian named Ranuccio (Sean Bean) and his girlfriend Lena (Tilda Swinton).

You can take the facts presented in Jarman's film with a grain of salt. I'd recommend comparing them with the episode on Caravaggio of Simon Schama's BBC series The Power of Art. 

Silmon Schama's 
The Power of Art

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