SCREENING LOG - 10/06-10/12, 2003

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I watched DEMONLOVER, SHALL WE DANCE, TO BE AND TO HAVE, MR. WEST IN THE LAND OF THE BOLSHEVIKS, L.I.E., THE MAGDALENE SISTERS, RIO GRANDE, YOUNG AND INNOCENT, HUMANITY AND PAPER BALLOONS, GANGS OF NEW YORK, CROSSFIRE and THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR. In order of preference:

kerpan Japanese discovery of the month:

Humanity and Paper Balloons (1937, Sadao Yamanaka)

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0029314/

I watched this extremely rare Japanese gem on an unsubtitled VHS with only a written synopsis to guide me through the material, and so I couldn't follow the naunces of the dialogue, but visually and tonally there was more than enough to convince me of this film's greatness. The story involves a masterless samurai who becomes entangled in the shady dealings of the local gang as he tries to find suitable employment. This film more than holds its own against the best of Japan's "Big Three" and one can make plenty of thematic and stylistic associations with Kurosawa (the uneasy reality of violence in contemporary society), Mizoguchi (innocents chewed up and spit out by an exploitative social system) and Ozu (a digressive quality in the narration that delights in the nuances of everyday human interactions and small gestures and objects). One can also point to similarities with Western contemporaries in the rich panoply of human activity a la Renoir, the schematic designs of social hierarchies a la Lang, and the static classical compositions of Wyler -- with so many possible comparisons one can make to other filmmakers, what can one say but that this is a great film by a great filmmaker in his own right, whose unique artistry we'll never truly fathom, as Yamanaka was drafted and died on the Chinese front shortly after making this film, not even 30 years old. Looking at it today, it is surely a work of great brilliance, one of the most mature and fully realized works of the pre-WWII era, from Japan or any country. #2 for 1937 between STREET ANGEL and GRAND ILLUSION

'47 Fixer of the week:

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947, Joseph L. Mankiewicz)

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0039420/

A lovely and sensitive Gothic romance concerning a headstrong widow (Gene Tierney, my pick for most gorgeous woman of 1947) who starts a new life with her daughter on a seaside estate haunted by the ghost of a sea captain (Rex Harrison, who just isn't quite briny enough to convince me). The line readings are a bit stagey -- George Sanders is the only actor who seems truly natural here, though his character's presence ultimately exposes the soap opera mechanics that otherwise were sufficiently concealed by wonderful mood-striking cinematography and Bernard Herrmann's complex and haunting score. Altogether, this is a "woman's movie" in the best sense of the term, one that lends thoughtful and sympathetic attention to the painful decisions involved in one woman's quest for self-determination. #3 for 1947 between THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI and MONSIEUR VERDOUX

The Magdalene Sisters (2002, Peter Mullan)

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0318411/

This powerfully told examination of the infamous Magdalene laundries of Ireland, were convent girls were forced into life of slave labor, is emotionally overwhelming yet maintains an objective view over the three victim-protagonists it follows: a rape victim, an unwed teenage mother, and an orphan schoolgirl caught flirting with some boys -- all three are sent to Magdalene for their "sins" against the Catholic virginal ideal of girlhood. Mullan has a keen instinct for the outrage-inducing theatrical moment, yet what keeps this film well clear of opportunistic muckraking is a sharp eye for character detail and development, and what results is a compex study of how these girls struggle to maintain their sense of dignity while being constantly told that they are unrepentant whores. The film's only real misstep is with its cartoonish depiction of the lead sister of the convent, played by Geraldine McEwan as the Mother of all Evil Mother Superiors, who would hold her own in a deathmatch against Joan Crawford in Mommie Dearest. #8 for 2002 between MARION BRIDGE and TEN #8 for new releases seen in 2003, between MARION BRIDGE and TO BE AND TO HAVE

DFC-2 Complex film about children (and teacher) of the week

To Be and To Have (2002, Nicholas Philibert)

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0318202/ If there is a movie that is almost guaranteed to win your respect for the teaching profession, let alone make you want to be a teacher, this is it. This documentary follows a year in the life of French rural primary school teacher Georges Lopez and his one-room schoolhouse of children ranging in age from 5 to 13 -- and the footage Philibert gets with his single camera and three-person crew is blessed with a startling, almost surgical intimacy -- it captures schoolchildren in the same way WINGED MIGRATION catpures birds, and is just as attuned to nature, linking the children's progress over the course of the year to the changing of the seasons. Watching Lopez the teacher is like watching any kind of artist at work, the way he teaches class, actively coaxes answers from students, helps them to reflect on what they're learning, confers with parents and calmly mediates through any kind of conflict or disruption; almost everything he does is right, which may be too good to be true but is inspiring all the same. The film is slow (and I must confess I nodded off towards the end) but in that light it reflects not only the pace of life of rural school children but the teacher's virtues of patience and meticulous observation. And of course, the kids are adorable -- watching them learn and play in the safe confines of Lopez classroom, it feels like we're inhabiting a little piece of heaven -- though by the end, the inevitable feeling of closure, the teacher ready to retire, the older kids about to move on to a not-so-idyllic world outside, contribues a sense of sadness to the bliss. #10 for 2002 between TEN and SPELLBOUND #9 for new releases seen in 2003, between the THE MAGDALENE SISTERS and SPELLBOUND

zetes John Ford movie of the week

Rio Grande (1950, John Ford)

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0042895/

The concluding chapter of Ford's landmark "Cavalry Trilogy" is Ford at his most mysterious and elegiac -- I haven't seen a Ford movie filled with so much music -- as John Wayne's frontier colonel must contend not only with the Apaches but with his estranged wife (Maureen O'Hara) and their painful family scars suffered during the Civil War. Through Wayne and O'Hara's private interludes, Ford achieves an incredibly tender emotional longing, then juxtaposes it against scenes of brutal senseless violence between Indians and cavalrymen -- the contrast between the glories of domestic bliss and the brutal sacrifices made to preserve it have rarely been depicted by Ford with such disturbing, bothersome brilliance. While the story doesn't have the crisp, clean construction of FORT APACHE (which I still prefer over this), its erratic lyricism points to the deranged messiness of later Ford works such as THE SEARCHERS and DONOVAN'S REEF, and with reason: in all three films line between chaos and order, individual fulfillment vs. communal duty in the face of disaster, become increasingly irreconcilable and obscured. As with THE SEARCHERS, Ford compromises his journey into the shadows with a cheap happy ending, but the cheapnes only makes the pain of his dilemma more apparent. This film surfaced nearly two decades before the Vietnam War, yet it seems to prophesy the moral and social quagmire in which America would find itself. In addition to Wayne and O'Hara there is exceptional supporting work throughout the cast, esp. from Ben Johnson as a maverick subordinate. #6 for 1950 between SUNSET BOULEVARD and A PLACE IN THE SUN

Gangs of New York (2002, Martin Scorsese) second viewing

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0217505/

One of the most extravagant films ever made by a 13-year old boy's mentality. The way of looking at the world presented here seems to resemble that of a huckster tourguide in love with his own seductive spiel, flashing his witty cynical insights on America's bloody origins as if he were desperately trying to score with his audience. His interest in the dark origins of America and its continuing legacy of corruption, race and class oppression seems to appeal to him only insofar as he can get some bloody kicks out of it and blow everything up into larger than life moments. Everything is thrown in -- Scorsese's packed his entire life of movie buffdom into this epic, with references to nearly evry movie he's ever loved -- including his own -- stuffed into each scene, which makes it a filmmaker's paradise to pick out all the references -- this time for me I could see a strong connection to the Ford movies I've been watching latey, except that Scorsese seems to revel in all the social chaos that Ford's heroes combatted with great poignancy, a poignancy that is sorely lacking throughout the film, unless you happen to sympathize with racist psycopaths wielding butcher's knives. There's a gaping emptiness at the center of this white elephant, a sense that Scorsese, not unlike the case with TAXI DRIVER, doesn't really know what he wants to say about his topic and can only conclude by blowing everything to smithereens and hope that the viewer's experience is so overwhelming on a sensational level that they're convinced that some kind of profound statement on America is being made... and yet who can deny that there ARE some moments along the way that deserve to steal one's breath. Daniel Day Lewis' performance is magnificently intense, even though I find Scorsese's attitude towards him reprehensible. He has a telling moment where he attributes his longevity to his cunning empoyment of "the fearsome spectacle of violent acts", and that pretty much gives away Scorsese's hand in this movie -- let alone the majority of his career. Marty's definitely an exemplary practicioner of what I henceforth would like to call "Shock and Awe Cinema" -- a kind of visceral spectacle-driven filmmaking that I am growing increasingly tired of. #15 for 2002 between 25TH HOUR and UNKNOWN PLEASURES

Shall We Dance (1937, Mark Sandrich)

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0029546/

Ponderous musical comedy burdened by a fairly unbelievable push-pull romantic plot with Astaire masquerading as a Russian ballerina, but whatever, it's an excuse for Astaire to try on some new balletic leaps, and sure enough it gets better as the dance numbers grow increasingly poignant and sublime. Edward Everett Horton as always lends capable support as the comic foil. Personally the allure of Ginger Rogers continues to elude me. In some respects, the Astaire-Rogers musicals are best seen as documentaries on the beauty of the human form in motion, as worthy of praise as Leni Riefenstahl's OLYMPIA. #9 for 1937 between THIS SPANISH EARTH and YOUNG AND INNOCENT

demonlover (2002, Olivier Assayas)

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0284034/

Contemporary French master Olivier Assayas returns to the hyperactive vibe of his masterpiece IRMA VEP with this chilling thriller about a cunning corporate spy who infiltrates a top importer of Japanese pornographic anime, only to be sucked irretrievably into a black hole of backstabbing intrigue. In terms of narrative warp and commentary on media, sex, corporations and virtual reality, it goes down the same rabbit holes as MULHOLLAND DR. and VIDEODROME; it's less pleasurable than the former though no less purposeful than the latter. There's a joyless quality to the proceedings, and I had problems sympathizing with any of the vacuous materialistic characters onscreen (though perhaps that's just a true reflection of what corporate life will do to a person): everyone in the film seems drained and unhappy, though the storyline pushes them relentlessly forward from one iteration of reality to another. A frustrating experience, but oddly alluring all the same.

Crossfire (1947, Edward Dmytryk)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039286/

Ground-breaking police procedural that tackled the issue of anti-Semitic hate crime -- though in the much more edgy original script by future director Richard Brooks the hate crime was against a homosexual. Dmytryk's direction is brisk and the black and white cinematography is lovely in the grand noir tradition, with expressionist distorted images used during a drunk scene. The film meanders somewhat from one character to another -- Robert Mitchum gets a few good scenes but doesn't get to truly shine -- similarly Gloria Grahame lends a spark midway through as a key witness, though she hasn't quite yet matured into the stunner of her IN A LONELY PLACE -- BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL heyday. The one true standout is Robert Ryan -- apparently so convincing as a hateful anti-semite that it ruined his career prospects for leading man work. #6 for 1947

The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks(1924, Lev Kuleshov)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0015167/

This slapstick propaganda comedy follows a YMCA director (a dead ringer for Harold Lloyd) visiting the Soviet Union who is tricked by a gang of counter-revolutionary hoodlums. The film's message is for the world to look past stereotypic perceptions of Communist Russia; meanwhile the film utilizes a stereotypical American cowboy who bumbles through the Soviet streets to great comic effect. An interesting historical curiosity that shows what Soviet film might have been like before Soviet montage took over. #12 for 1924 between THE IRON HORSE and HOT WATER

Young and Innocent (1937, Alfred Hitchcock)

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0029811/

This minor Hitchcock effort is a light cross country romp that seems to predate NORTH BY NORTHWEST, mixing love and danger in a fetching, delightful way. The ending seems a little too contrived, but the verve of Hitch's storytelling, this time hitched to a couple of charming young lovers on the run from the law, makes it a fun experience. #10 for 1937 between SHALL WE DANCE and THE GOOD EARTH

L.I.E. (2001, Michael Cuesta)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0242587/

Above-average indie about a boy's sexual coming of age amidst his negligent widowed father, his reckless hustler best friend, and an elderly patriarch who happens to be a closet pedophile. The film gets good about midway when it stops playing its sordid material for shock value and settles into a lovely character study between the boy and his would-be mentor/abuser, aided in a big way by Brian Cox's charismatic yet creepy performance as the old man. Paul Dano, who plays the boy, succeeds in preserving the film's emotional core throughout. As an aside, the audio commentaries by director Michael Cuesta and Cox on the New Yorker DVD were a big let-down -- their explanations for what they did was so disappointing that I had to shut them off lest they lessen my esteem for their on-screen achievement.

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