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SCREENING LOG
-9/13-9/19, 2004
Back to 2004 Index
Rebecca (1940, Alfred Hitchcock) second viewing
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032976/
Realized this time, among many other observations, how much
CITIZEN KANE borrowed from this film's style for a good number
of its sections. Also realized how much this movie is a brilliant
exegesis on the theme of control, both within the story and
the making of the movie itself (Selznick vs. Hitchcock, Olivier
vs. Fontaine). Critics say the movie isn't one of Hitch's
best because he doesn't express himself as freely as in his
later (and earlier) films, but I think this is exactly what
makes the film invaluable in understanding Hitchcock -- I
think the struggle for creative control with Selznick in their
co-productions really affected his thinking and treatment
of the subject, such that control (over oneself, over others)
becomes arguably THE central theme in all his subsequent work.
YES YES (and an extra YES for the Criterion DVD, one of the
very best DVD packages I've ever encountered. The screen tests
of Fontaine vs. Vivien Leigh, Margaret Sullavan and Anne Baxter
really put me in the producer/director's seat in evaluating
the inherent qualities of an actor and their suitability to
a role.) #1 for 1940
Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism (2004, Robert
Greenwald)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418038/
This doc builds a strong if not irrefutable case that Fox
News is a propaganda puppet for a right-leaning media tycoon,
with a distortion of facts that has altered how people have
understood significant national events over the last four
years. But instead of delving deeper into issues of why audiences
watch Fox News in the first place, the evolving role of news
media as entertaiment, or how the issue of corporate influence
on the media goes far beyond Fox News, the film keeps hammering
the same note for over an hour. It definitely has important
things to say but it's manner of saying them isn't really
any more intelligent or broad-minded as its object of criticism.
mixed
Henry V (1944, Laurence Olivier) second viewing
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036910/
Realized this time how much the film owes to ALEXANDER NEVSKY.
Bruce Eder's commentary on the Criterion DVD is comprehensive
and illuminating -- he is clearly partial to the film and
gives arguments putting the criticism of the film as propaganda
into reasonable perspective. yes (#6 for 1944 between LIFEBOAT
and LAURA)
The Company (2003, Robert Altman)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0335013/
This film kind of cements my evolving misgivings with Altman.
This film, in some respects, should have epitomized Altman's
aesthetic, at least the Altman aesthetic that his fans assume
to be true: the American master who is most talented at capturing
the naturalness of human life without an overarching storyline,
allowing for several things to happen at once. This chronicle
of a season with the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago is supposed
to be a deeply observant slice of life, but the observations
aren't terribly deep, just superficial observations on the
life of dancers interlaced with generous but indiscriminate
helpings of actual dance performances. The DVD commentary
by Altman and Campbell show how much Altman wanted to convey
the experience of these dancers and yet failed to really get
inside their world -- it's all seen from the outside. Nullified
by his fuzzy reverence for his subjects, Altman's characteristic
piquancy and sarcasm for once don't play a prominent role,
and one realizes how little Altman has to say when he's not
compelled to poke holes in people. mixed
Aar Paar (1954, Guru Dutt)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046673/
Sort of following the Raj Kapoor model of social consciousness
musicals, this early effort by Dutt is much less heavy than
his more famous PYAASA and KAGAAZ KE PHOOL. He stars as an
ex-con trying to make a living as a garage mechanic, but can't
help wooing his boss' daughter, while a gangland moll tries
to seduce him back to a life of crime. Like Kapoor's AWAARA,
the film seems heavily influenced by Hollywood film noir and
Dickensian realism, though the music contributes heavily to
the film, especially in distilling the emotional states of
the characters throughout the story. It's an entertaining
and well-crafted romp; it that may not be as deeply personal
as Dutt's later films, but at least here we actually get to
see him smile! yes (#9 for 1954 between ON THE WATERFRONT
and BOOT POLISH)
The Grapes of Wrath (1940, John Ford) second viewing
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032551/
A key film in driving a wedge between the Addison de Witts
and the howard.schumanns of the world, in determining the
merits of social humanist movies that convey their message
with unapologetic simplicity and sentimentality. Much of it
does seem square and obvious, but at the same time there are
definite traces of John Ford trying earnestly to break through
the material and make it his own, with annoying failures and
brilliant successes. Henry Fonda, the epitome of what's good
and bad about the film, initially seems miscast as someone
too prim and well-spoken to pass for a volatile ex-con, but
he lends the character all the scrubbed-up dignity Ford is
trying to milk out of his Dust Bowl archetypes. When Ford
isn't putting them on a pedestal and tries to salt them over
with some "down-to-earth" mannerisms (John Carradine's overcooked
preacher, Charley Grapewin's yammering Grandpa), the results
can be gratingly loutish and vaudevillian (this is a problem
I've had with Ford's treatment of actors that I've never quite
resolved for myself), and yet Ford manages moments of searing
lyricism as only he knows how (the way a middle-aged woman
quietly picks which mementos to keep and which to throw in
the fire as she packs for her cross-country journey). The
film's narrative is very much in line with the ideas of pioneering
and the drama of establishing a new society found throughout
his Westerns. yes (#4 for 1940 between HIS GIRL FRIDAY and
THE GREAT DICTATOR)
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