ROGER AND ME (1989), HOTEL TERMINUS: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF KLAUS BARBIE (1988, FRANCE)

Evictions from Michael Moore's Roger and Me

"I'm just doing my job. Nothing personal."

Roger and Me was documentary filmmaker Michael Moore's first film. It depicts Moore's quixotic quest to interview GM president Roger Smith and get his reaction to the closing of the GM plant in Flint, Michigan. Moore is often criticized for creative editing to slant his point of view. Maybe...and he does put himself in the middle of his movies (quite a contrast to documentarians like Frederick Wiseman). However, he does let many people who you know disagree with Moore have their say and they more often than not put their foot in their mouths at best and come across as mostly lying assholes.

I say: Keep up the good work, Michael! And thanks for speaking for those who often have no one else to speak for them.

Michael Moore interviews the infamous

"Bunny skinning lady" in Roger and Me

 Klaus Barbie on trial
in Hotel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie

Marcel Ophuls is also a documentarian who doesn't mind putting himself in the middle of his film. He is probably best know for his film about the French Resistance The Sorrow and the Pity from 1972. Hotel Terminus is his 1988 film is about infamous Nazi war criminal, Klaus Barbie. Ophuls tried to talk to just about everyone still alive at the time who knew or had anything to do with Barbie. Some of the better moments in the film are watching some of the interviewees start to squirm when they are trying to defend themselves and Ophuls is not afraid to twist the knife when they are doing so. The whole film is a lot to take in (and quite lengthy) and is anything but casual viewing. Hotel Termimus is an admirable venture and serves as a pretty important historical document.

Klaus Barbie in handcuffs
in Hotel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie

THE SORROW AND THE PITY (1972)

ALL THIS AND WORLD WAR II MONTH

(Post 8 of 10)

The Sorrow and the Pity is a documentary about the French occupation by Germany during the war. It was filmed in 1969, which made it close enough to the events where you can still get some first person testimony from those who lived through it. It is often illuminating and has a most interesting cast of real life characters, including resistance fighters, regular French citizens who had to live under the Nazis and even some insights from some former Nazis!

This has been one that I've always thought I needed to see but never got around to until now. It is also the film within a film that Woody Allen sees multiple times throughout Annie Hall.

From the Soundtrack of All This and World War II

Status Quo had only one hit on the American charts, which was Pictures of Matchstick Men in 1967. A one-hit wonder, right? Wrong! They had over 60 charted hits in the UK, more than any other rock group.

Why didn't they make it bigger in the U. S.? What I've listened to them, I've liked. Go figure.

Staus Quo's rather groovy 1974 album cover

Getting Better

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPGpniZ6XR8

According to the album below, Frankie Laine was America's No. 1 song stylist at the point this album came out in the 50's. He may be best known for his recording of Rawhide, played every week on the long running show and in reruns ever after. He also showed his cheeky side by his spirited performance of the opening song to Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles. He brings this same humorous bravado to Maxwell's Silver Hammer on the All This and World War II soundtrack.

Maxwell's Silver Hammer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5eRE5CaINs

The Brothers Johnson brought their soulful stylings to a handful of hits in the 70's and 80's, the most well known to me is probably Stomp! from 1980. The Brothers bring their funk to Hey Jude on the soundtrack and later did their own version of The Beatles Come Together. And honestly, pictures don't get much funkier than the brother's picture sleeve below.

Hey Jude

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl1G2LY6zyQ