SCREENING LOG - 11/06/2006-11/12/2006

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The Magic Blade (1976, Chor Yuen)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075329/
It's official, Chor Yuen is my favorite director of the 1970s. INTIMATE CONFESSIONS OF A CHINESE COURTESAN, HOUSE OF THE 72 TENANTS, KILLER CLANS, CLANS OF INTRIGUE and now this -- the man must have been doing barrels of coke and if so the films bear it out. Only Louis Feuillade can compete with Chor Yuen's whirlwind introduction of character after character, entering and exiting from all dimensions of the frame, such that it starts to resemble one of those psychedelic visions of a thousand buddhas manifested in an awesomely infinite regalia. Anyway the nominal plot is about a swordsman out to retrieve a Chinese McGuffin before it gets in the wrong hands, and several double crossings and plot twists later all hell has pretty much gone to a handbasket -- indeed the role reversals and betrayals cause as much whiplash as the dazzling fight scenes. In this regard Chor Yuen gets at the infinite unknowability of humankind, with specifically Chinese social contexts -- there are enough onion layers to each character to deep fry rings at Burger King for a year. Priceless dialogue: "You are supposed to be paralyzed - I hit the nerve center between your brow." "I've practiced for 20 years to move the nerve center behind my brow for just this occasion."
YES (#1 for 1976)

Pick 3 Vol IX:
Viva Las Vegas (1964, George Sidney)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058725/
Light, fun and vibrant star vehicle for the King, who performs the lively title track, as well as a mean Ray Charles cover and a lot of crap. Ann Margaret's physique isn't particularly exceptional, but man when she starts shimmying all bets are off -- her pelvis is more of a health hazard than Elvis'.
yes

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006, Larry Charles) second viewing
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0443453/
Held up to scrutiny, was about as funny the second time around, and in many respects less disturbing. This time I was more focused on figuring out how much was staged and how much was improvised; the difficulty in parsing this out is part of the film's brillance of design, I think. I have co-workers who thought this was all unstaged documentary, and others who refused to believe that no one was an actor. I don't think I'll need to see it a third time though, Borat fatigue has started to set in. I really wish I could put my thoughts together better on this one. It's more or less the comedic equivalent of a hydrogen bomb -- it levels all standards of taste, hitting you hard in the medulla. No one is safe. And that's why I take issue with those who think it is primarly against Southern rednecks, or against Kazakhstanis or backwards third-world people, or women or Jews. It's all a series of provocations rigged to trigger our subcutaneous prejudices, lying dormant for the most part but just waiting to be set off. Still I can't help but be disturbed by the dilemma of sorting through that the anarchy of responses to this film, from abject disgust to laudatory bigotry and all points in between. But maybe in this regard its intractability merits comparison with the likes of Bunuel or Vigo. Somehow I can't embrace it totally, but I can't deny that no other film has stuck in my mind more this year in trying to come to terms with it.
yes (upgraded to #16 for 2006 between BAMAKO and FROM THE JOURNALS OF KNUD RASMUSSEN)

Pick 3 Vol. XII
They Drive by Night (1940, Raoul Walsh)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033149/
This movie really picked up for me in the middle, when the film does a dramatic shift in focus from George Raft exploiting his brother to pursue his own ambitions, to being exploited himself by his boss' wife, a lovelorn and ultimately ruthless Ida Lupino. It had me thinking of David Lynch's LOST HIGHWAY, and how it had a similar reconfiguration of the protagonist, having him cross a threshhold of desirability and success, the two stories are opposite sides of the same coin. For this reason I find this to be a fascinating film. But the melodramatic resolution was way too much for me, and what they do to Ida Lupino's character is a travesty.
yes (#8 for 1940 between THE GREAT DICTATOR and DANCE, GIRL, DANCE)

Pick 3 Vol. XI
The Pride of the Yankees (1942, Sam Wood)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035211/
I'm surprised I wasn't bored by this film because it really was a perfunctory hagiography of a fallen sports hero. Cooper and Wright are likeable enough to keep things going, but really I was surprised how little insight the film seemed to have towards its main subject, other than the Parade magazine treatment.
mixed

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