Big Magilla wrote:
I haven't tackled The Devil All the Time yet. The last thing I attempted to watch before The Boys in the Band was Enola Holmes, a godawful mess with an unbearable central performance and a total waste of usually very good actors in support.
I've never seen a film in which the breaking of the fourth wall was as intolerable. One minute she's talking to the audience, the next minute the actors in the scene with her, then the audience again, then back to the actors and repeat, repeat, repeat.
I decided to give Enola Holmes a miss. I was tempted but thought better of it and your condemnation of the film shows I made the right decision.
I really don't think you would make it through The Devil All the Time - a candidate for one of the very worst films of the year. I've liked Antonio Campos previous films but this is a disaster of major proportions. The only notable aspect of the film is that Netflix allowed him to film it on 35MM which is a nice change for digital which is rarely no match for film. Still I'd been interested in a what you thought about it.
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
Big Magilla wrote:
I watched the new version last night, one of the few recent Netflix additions I was able to get all the way through without being bored out of my skull.
Film wise Netflix makes such a huge amount of garbage and they are putting up their prices from next month. Have you attempted The Devil All the Time Magilla? That is an endurance test if.
I found the remake of The Boys in the Band totally unnecessary - what was the point when there is already a perfectly good version made in the era that it is set that no re-make can possibly surpass.
But Netflix are so so fucked. I've been making my way through the Youssef Chahine films that they acquired and would not have even been aware Netflix were showing if a friend hadn't alerted me to them. What is also annoying is that Netflix doesn't even have a decent algorithm set up to direct to 'product' like Amazon. Apparently, they are only interested in prompting specific films/series regardless of what ones viewing habits are. I have to go through a search every weeks when I watch a Chahine film when it properly encoded system would have them first on my recommended viewing list. I even had to jump through hoops to find The Boys in the Band.
I have to go through those same hoops which are very annoying. I find it easier to maneuver through the obstacles on my computer even though it's easier on my eyes to watch on TV.
I haven't tackled The Devil All the Time yet. The last thing I attempted to watch before The Boys in the Band was Enola Holmes, a godawful mess with an unbearable central performance and a total waste of usually very good actors in support.
I've never seen a film in which the breaking of the fourth wall was as intolerable. One minute she's talking to the audience, the next minute the actors in the scene with her, then the audience again, then back to the actors and repeat, repeat, repeat.
Big Magilla wrote:
I watched the new version last night, one of the few recent Netflix additions I was able to get all the way through without being bored out of my skull.
Film wise Netflix makes such a huge amount of garbage and they are putting up their prices from next month. Have you attempted The Devil All the Time Magilla? That is an endurance test if.
I found the remake of The Boys in the Band totally unnecessary - what was the point when there is already a perfectly good version made in the era that it is set that no re-make can possibly surpass.
But Netflix are so so fucked. I've been making my way through the Youssef Chahine films that they acquired and would not have even been aware Netflix were showing if a friend hadn't alerted me to them. What is also annoying is that Netflix doesn't even have a decent algorithm set up to direct to 'product' like Amazon. Apparently, they are only interested in prompting specific films/series regardless of what ones viewing habits are. I have to go through a search every weeks when I watch a Chahine film when it properly encoded system would have them first on my recommended viewing list. I even had to jump through hoops to find The Boys in the Band.
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
I preferred the cast in the new version. And I thought it was a better looking production overall compared to the original which looked tacky. Yes, Quinto is jarring but then so was Leonard Frey in the role of Harold. Otherwise both films very similar since the remake was almost an exact copy.
Reza wrote:
The Boys in the Band (William Friedkin, 1970) 6/10
The Boys in the Band (Joe Mantello, 2020) 8/10
Matt Crowley's hit 1968 Off-Broadway play was first filmed in 1970 and then years later revived to great acclaim on its 50th anniversary on Broadway in 2018. This screen remake has the entire cast from the Broadway revival reprise their roles. A group of gay friends gather at the New York City apartment of Michael (Jim Parsons) to celebrate the birthday of their morose, ageing friend Harold (Zachary Quinto). They are later joined by the host's married college friend and a young cowboy stud who is a gift for the birthday boy. As the evening wears on and the host gets drunk he turns on his married friend who has insulted one of the guests and goads him into coming out of the closet. What starts out as a humourous evening full of laughter suddenly turns nasty as every guest ends up revealing hidden skeletons. Ground breaking play was the first to openly present gay characters and treat them with sensitivity. Through the bittersweet but often hilarious dialogue and the intentionally self homophobic and low esteemed characters the play brought to the masses a frank look at gay relationships. The entire cast is superb with Zachary Quinto playing Harold with a jarringly mannered affectation gleefully passing thorny quips at his friends as they all disolve, one by one, into quivering hysteria. The constantly swooping camera manages to make the cramped apartment set seem vast.
These ratings are upside down.
I watched the new version last night, one of the few recent Netflix additions I was able to get all the way through without being bored out of my skull.
Friedkin's version used the cast of the 1968 Off-Broadway phenomenon featuring faultless performances by the entire cast, especially those of Kenneth Nelson as Michael, Leonard Frey as Harold, and Cliff Gorman as Emory. The new version was conceived as a tribute to the original with the actors saying the same lines but without as much conviction in some cases.
I thought Matt Bomer in Frederick Combs' old role and Tuc Watkins in Laurence Luckinbill's old role came off as well as their predecessors, and Robin de Jesus came close to Cliff Gorman as Emory as anyone could expect, but Jim Parsons and Zachary Quinto left me totally cold.
Parsons started out OK but lost me early on with his Bette Davis imitation which was nothing like Bette Davis. It wasn't even Lee Grant imitating Shelley Winters imitating Davis. It was such a bad line reading that it took me a minute to realize what he was supposed to be doing. Quinto's mouthing of Leonard Frey's lines failed to register the bile that Frey brought to them. Both Nelson and Frey, who lived through the pre-Stonewall era, seethed with rage from every pore. Parsons and Quinto seemed to be just be playing games.
I also missed Tammy Grimes' apartment in which the original was filmed.
Play It Again, Sam (Herbert Ross, 1972) 6/10
The Boys in the Band (William Friedkin, 1970) 6/10
Fortunat (Alex Joffé, 1960) 6/10
Two great stars from the opposite spectrum come together and create great chemistry. During the German occupation of France a posh bourgeois woman (Michèle Morgan) and her two children are in great danger when her husband, working for the Resistance, is captured by the Nazis. Trapped on the wrong side of the Demarcation line, they are provided an escape route by an old school teacher (Gaby Morlay). She gets a simple minded drunk poacher (Bourvil) to take them across the river into the French-controlled Zone to wait out the War. Posing as a couple the two gradually find themselves growing close as they befriend a jewish family living next door. A film about hope and love in the midst of a terrible war raging around two lonely people.
Interiors (Woody Allen, 1978) 10/10
After a string of very funny light comedies capped by the Oscar winning "Annie Hall", Woody Allen came up with this stark and very bleak drama. Clearly an homage to his idol, Ingmar Bergman, the film with it's series of opening static shots as the camera views the interior of a beach cottage - a look at a sofa placed against a window, a quick shot of pottery on the fireplace and a look at the dining room through half-open french doors - is reminiscent of the films of the great Swedish director. Although in truth the drama that follows evokes plays by Eugene O'Neill with flashes of Anton Chekov. The film works brilliantly due to the choices made by Allen - a small cast of 8, sparse production design with everything in a muted colour palette and most especially the brilliant lighting by Gordon Willis who keeps depressed and isolated characters in shadows while upbeat characters are brightly lit. Using light in this dramatic way the film highlights every mood that a character is feeling. The film's pivotal character is an interior designer (Geraldine Page), a perfectionist with strongly critical views, whose carefully laid out life suddenly falls to pieces when her husband of many years (E. G. Marshall), a wealthy lawyer, calmly announces at the dining table that he wants a trial separation and later in the story introduces a vivacious divorcée (Maureen Stapleton) he's met on a cruise whom he wants to marry. The couple have three grown-up daughters - a successful poet (Diane Keaton) married to an alcoholic would-be writer (Richard Jordan), an aimless neurotic (Mary Beth Hurt) living with a congenial filmmaker (Sam Waterston) and a pretty but vapid actress (Kristin Griffith). The news of the parents' separation, divorce and father's remarriage effects the daughters but devastates their mother who first remains in denial and then attempts suicide. Page, in the role first offered to Ingrid Bergman - who ironically had to turn down the offer because she was about to shoot her first film with Ingmar Bergman - gives a remarkable performance. There is a stunning stillness about her character which Allen drew out of the actress after many arguments as Page always had a tendency to be very mannered - the scenes of her silently fiddling with a painting on the wall, fidgeting with a vase on a table and insisting on placing a particular chair in a spot where it blends into the overall colour scheme (all pale blues, beige and whites) are beautifully performed by the star. Allen does allow her a scene of hysteria inside a church which is also performed with great subtlety as she first loses control, knocking down candles, but quickly composes herself as she runs down the aisle. In complete contrast to her is the second wife - loud, happy, friendly, slightly vulgar and dressed in dramatic reds and black. Stapleton sharply stands out not only amongst the overall colour scheme of the entire film but as an antidote to all the other repressed and morose characters. Check out her red camisole during the dramatic scene on the beach as she vividly stands out in contrast to the pale yellow sand and the grey crashing waves. Though every other character is fragile, they all revolve around mother Geraldine Page, the least stable of an unstable clan. This is the only film amongst Allen's other dramas without a single joke. It is played dead serious, and hence is incredibly jarring, which is exactly what makes it one of his most affecting films. Allen was nominated for an Academy Award for his direction and screenplay as were Page and Stapleton for their superb contrasting performances. The film is a masterpiece and a must-see.
Killers of Kilimanjaro (Richard Thorpe, 1959) 5/10
Typical film in the African-safari genre, this B-film has wonderful widescreen photography by Ted Moore. Otherwise its a standard adventure film more or less on the lines of "King Solomon's Mines" as a group takes a trip deep into the African wilds led by an engineer (Robert Taylor) who is building a railway track. Along on the trip are his assistant (Anthony Newley) - the comic relief - the lone white woman (Anne Aubrey) in search of her missing father and fiancé and a young stowaway (John Dimech - who would play the boy Peter O'Toole shoots in "Lawrence of Arabia"). The boy happens to be the son of the local slave trader (Grégoire Aslan) who puts obstacles in the way of the group. Colourful location scenery with obligatory shots of assorted animals along with an ageing but still robust Robert Taylor make this a pleasant way to spend 90 minutes even though it's all very familiar.
Curse of the Golden Flower (Zhang Yimou, 2006) 8/10
As in all of Yimou's epic films its the spectacular imagery that stays with you - the stunning cinematography and the detailed production design and costumes (nominated for an Academy Award), with its swirl of dramatic colours - the vibrant reds, yellows, blues and greens. Bloodshed is very much part of every plot as savage violence shatters royal families very much like in the tragedies of Shakepeare's plays. This intense family melodrama, set in the Imperial court of the Tang dynasty in ancient China, plays like grand opera. The beautiful Empress (Gong Li), who has been having an affair with her step son, is slowly being poisoned by the all-knowing Emperor (Chow Yun-Fat). Her own two sons by him are loyal to her. Meanwhile the Prince is in love with the court physician's daughter and plans to run away with her. When he rejects the further sexual advances of the Empress a chain of events is set in motion by her which also involves the physician's wife who holds a terrible secret from the Emperor's past. The resulting palace intrigue ends in a stupendous battle leading to fratricide and filicide. As in all such films the martial arts action set pieces come off rudimentary but still manage to maintain a sense of awe as the graceful balletic movements by the soldiers appear hypnotic. Most Western critics found the film to be an over-the-top soap opera hiding inside a veneer of colour and spectacle. It is all that and more and perfectly in keeping with the kind of entertainment public in the East looks for. Quiet drama one can always find within the privacy of one's own home. At the cinema the audience looks for wild entertainment. And Yimou knows just how to provide it.
The Boys in the Band (Joe Mantello, 2020) 8/10
Matt Crowley's hit 1968 Off-Broadway play was first filmed in 1970 and then years later revived to great acclaim on its 50th anniversary on Broadway in 2018. This screen remake has the entire cast from the Broadway revival reprise their roles. A group of gay friends gather at the New York City apartment of Michael (Jim Parsons) to celebrate the birthday of their morose, ageing friend Harold (Zachary Quinto). They are later joined by the host's married college friend and a young cowboy stud who is a gift for the birthday boy. As the evening wears on and the host gets drunk he turns on his married friend who has insulted one of the guests and goads him into coming out of the closet. What starts out as a humourous evening full of laughter suddenly turns nasty as every guest ends up revealing hidden skeletons. Ground breaking play was the first to openly present gay characters and treat them with sensitivity. Through the bittersweet but often hilarious dialogue and the intentionally self homophobic and low esteemed characters the play brought to the masses a frank look at gay relationships. The entire cast is superb with Zachary Quinto playing Harold with a jarringly mannered affectation gleefully passing thorny quips at his friends as they all disolve, one by one, into quivering hysteria. The constantly swooping camera manages to make the cramped apartment set seem vast.
An itinerant rural worker (Peter Finch) finds his unfaithful wife (Elizabeth Sellars) in bed with her lover (George Rose), beats him up, takes his young daughter (Dana Wilson) and goes back travailling the outback on the lookout for jobs. Heartwarming story as the two bond and meet an assortment of people from his past - a loveable drunken lug (Niall MacGinnis), a woman (Rosemary Harris) he had an affair with, her angry father (Russell Napier) and a jovial couple (Sidney James & Tessie O'Shea) who take them in when the child falls sick. The child is the "shiralee", an Irish or Aboriginal word meaning "swag", or metaphorically, a "burden." The plot turns sentimental and melodramatic when the child has an accident and his wife tries to gain custody of the daughter. Finch is superb as the wild and furiously independent swagman and is matched by feisty Dana Wilson who stands by her father through thick and thin. Memorable film was shot on location in the outbacks of New South Wales.
Blackbird (Roger Michell, 2020) 6/10
A family gathering centered around the upcoming planned death of a matriarch (Susan Sarandon) makes for a rather morbid and predictable drama. Variations of this plot have come before as long-simmering family toxicity rises to the surface causing consternation and hilarity. A woman, suffering from ALS, plans to end her life on the weekend she has asked her close family members to gather by her side. Her husband (Sam Neill), quietly grieving, is a doctor. The older uptight daughter (Kate Winslet), stuck in a dull marriage to a nerd (Rainn Wilson), is judgemental and controlling. The younger "troubled" daughter (Mia Wasikowska), upset at the upcoming proceeding, arrives late with her lesbian lover harbouring secrets of her own. Both sisters have been perpetually at war with each other and never see eye to eye. Also invited is the dying woman's oldest friend (Lindsay Duncan) whose presence is silently resented by the older daughter. As the weekend progresses prickly issues surface causing emotional outbursts resulting in yet more skeletons crawling out of the woodwork. Remake of Billie August's Danish film "Silent Night" is manipulative as it wrings tears and laughter in equal measure. The entire cast works beautifully together - though it is a bit of a stretch to accept Winslet as the dowdy daughter - with Sarandon sublime as the warm brave woman who insists on handling her life her own way. The highlight of the film is the magnificent house this maudlin drama plays out in. The beach front property is supposed to be in Connecticut but is actually located in Chichester, England. With its honey-toned natural lighting adding to the general fakeness of the whole enterprise the film still manages to score points even though it smells of stale deja vu.
Raat Akeli Hai (Honey Trehan, 2020) 5/10
On the eve of his marriage to a much younger woman an old man is found shot and bludgeoned to death. A wily small-town cop (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) discovers a house full of depraved suspects amongst the family members. Incest, paedophilia, murder, abortion, kidnapping, extramarital sex are just some of the issues the cop has to sift through to find the murderer. Whodunit takes on the mantle of Agatha Christie's "Hercule Poirot" with the cop gathering all the suspects in one room at the end before announcing the complicated manoeuvres that led to the killing. Siddiqui is great fun to watch as the fearless and relentless cop even though the plot seems rather contrived.
The Age of Innocence (Martin Scorsese, 1993) 9/10
Exquisitely produced adaptation of Edith Wharton's novel about old and rigid New York society during the gilded age. Scorsese touches on his favorite city once again but this time he sees a very different aspect of it - a world of wealth where people's polished lives are controlled by tightly held rigid rules even though underneath runs a silent streak of machinations. Wharton's vivid description of how the rich lived is brought to the screen with impeccable detail as the camera of Michael Ballhaus glides like a snake through oppulent drawing rooms filled with lovely period furniture, glancing along the way at delicate crystal ornaments on display around the rooms, perfect crockery and cutlery laid out on dining tables - Dante Ferretti's production design along with Gabriella Pescucci's Oscar winning costumes are beyond exemplary as they help to create a world that no longer exists. An eclectic cast of character actors - Alec McCowen, Geraldine Chaplin, Richard E. Grant, the outstanding Miriam Margolyes, Mary Beth Hurt, Stuart Wilson, Michael Gough, Siân Phillips, Alexis Smith, Jonathan Pryce and Robert Sean Leonard (narration by Joanne Woodward) - play the assorted family members who gravitate around the three main protagonists forming the tragic social love triangle. Newland Archer (Daniel Day-Lewis), a promising young lawyer and heir to one of the prominent families, is engaged to the highly sheltered and beautiful May Welland (Winona Ryder) which is considered in society to be the perfect match. Into their lives arrives her cousin the Countess Olenska (Michelle Pfeiffer) who has left her husband after a scandal and who continues to flout the rules of society with her european sensibility and forward ways. Archer falls in love with her and has to decide if he should live in a passionless marriage with a woman who fits into society versus living with the woman whom he loves but who is deemed an outcast by society. This sense of loss, sadness, resignation, repressed longing and spiritual suffering is presented by Scorsese with elegant authority.
2 States (Abhishek Varman, 2014) 6/10
Overlong but fun film about the trials and tribulations of marrying someone outside the comfort of your own "community" (a clash between Tamil & Punjabi). The obvious comedic and heartache elements aside, the film is a success due to the extraordinary chemistry of the two young stars - Arjun Kapoor and especially Alia Bhatt who is the most natural actress to emerge on the Bollywood scene in a long while. Her smile lights up the screen exactly how decades ago the great Madhuri Dixit managed to charm audiences. I'm glad to see that her last film, Highway, was not a fluke and she has the makings of a great star. Also worth a mention is the great South Indian star, Revathy, who has a marvelous moment in the spotlight as she sings in front of an audience. A wonderful rom-com. But yes, it goes on too long.
La donna più bella del mondo/ The World's Most Beautiful Woman (Robert Z. Leonard, 1956) 6/10
Lollobrigida sings opera and she has a fantastic voice. Fluffy screen biography - Mario Monicelli was one of the script writers - of Italian soprano, Lina Cavalieri (Gina Lollobrigida), and her rags to riches story from an orphan working the music halls to the toast of the opera world in Paris, Rome and New York. Along the way she falls in love with the Russian Prince Alexander Bariatinsky (Vittorio Gassman) who is not given permission by the Tsar to marry her. The crooked end of the love triangle is jealous Doria (Robert Alda), her tutor, who relentlessly pursues her, even resorting to murder. The film's highlight is a duel sequence between the leading lady and another singer. Superb production values and cinematography by Mario Bava. And the film's title perfectly fits the ravishing leading lady dressed to her teeth in gowns designed by Vittorio Nina Novarese.
The Lady and the Highwayman (John Hough, 1988) 6/10
Old fashioned romantic adventure, based on Barbara Cartland's book "Cupid Rides Pillion", is a rip-roaring boddice ripper from the old-school Gainsborough films of the 1940s. Swashbuckling tale of romance, betrayal and jealousy is set in England during the Restoration of King Charles II (Michael York). His jealous mistress (Emma Samms) sets the plot in motion when she views a young lady (Lysette Anthony) at court and suspects that she is making a play for the King. However, the young lady, instead, loves the mysterious highwayman (Hugh Grant) who rescued her from the lecherous man (Ian Bannen) she was forced to marry. The intrigues come fast and furious as the two lovers find themselves condemned to die in the Tower of London. An incredible cast of British character actors support the young leads - Claire Bloom, Oliver Reed - hamming it up as the dastardly villain, Sir John Mills, Bernard Miles, Christopher Cazenove, Robert Morley, Gareth Hunt. Lavishly produced by Lord Lew Grade with the use of actual castles for sets thus giving the film an exotic flavour.
Vie privée / A Very Private Affair (Louis Malle, 1962) 8/10
Malle perfectly captures the trauma and boredom of a star trapped in the limelight as paparazzi hound her private life into oblivion. The main character could be any number of stars who experienced fame and lived to regret it but with Brigitte Bardot playing the part the story takes on a very personal look at the private and public life of a star. She was then the world's most famous sex symbol, having taken over the mantle from Marilyn Monroe, and faced not only much adulation but also hatred as the press and public fêted her and also called her a whore. The screenplay - autobiographical in nature with regards to some incidents and details - charts the rise to stardom of a young woman (Brigitte Bardot) - from budding ballerina to a full fledged movie star - and her attempts to escape from the stalking mobs of fans. An Italian opera director (Marcello Mastroianni), her friend's former husband, attempts to shield her from the ravages of fame. Malle uses saturated colours as Henri Decae's dazzling cinematography lovingly captures not only Bardot in all her glory but the visual splendors of Lake Geneva, Paris and Spoleto. The only thing amiss in the production is the shocking lack of chemistry between the two sex symbols - Bardot & Mastroianni. The stars did not get along on set and the film got mostly bad reviews. Watching it today, 58 years on, the film remains spot-on as it scathingly reveals the downside of celebrity which through the years we have witnessed many famous people go that route - while Burton and Taylor enjoyed the relentless attention, it took on a tragic overtone for Princess Diana. The film creates echoes of both.
Meteor (Ronald Neame, 1979) 2/10
One more in a long series of disaster films that graced the screens during the 1970s. This was also one of many that got hideous reviews but its no worse than many that came during the later decades. The formula remained the same. Hire an A-list cast and put them in the middle of a catastrophic event and root for the most ridiculous character to die in gruesome fashion. Here we have a 5-mile long meteor hurtling towards earth and the American and Russian governments join hands to destroy the giant boulder mid-air in space using missiles which had initially been placed by the two countries facing each other. An American scientist (Sean Connery), with a strong Scottish accent, and his Russian counterpart (Brian Keith) attempt to join hands to avert the disaster that threatens to obliterate mankind. Helping the two men converse is a translator (Natalie Wood) who is basically the female lead but with nothing much to do except look elegant even when covered from head to toe in slimy green mud. As the smaller meteor showers begin to hit earth we get to see Hong Kong drown in a huge tidal wave, a gigantic avalanche hits Europe and New York gets decimated by the first wave of the meteor shower - the World Trade Center Twin Towers are the first to implode in an eerie image of things to come. An eclectic supporting cast - Karl Malden, Martin Landau, Trevor Howard, Richard Dysart, Joseph Campanella - play assorted government officials while Henry Fonda, as the U.S. President, makes an impassioned speech. The surviving cast take shelter in a subway station below Manhattan but almost drown in a flood of flowing mud. The effects, which were nominated for an Academy Award, are shoddy beyond belief. Wood, who was of Russian origin, took on this thankless role because it was the first time in her career that she got to play a Russian speaking the language fluently on screen. Too bad she speaks english with an accent that sounds exactly like the spanish accent she put on years earlier in "West Side Story". Truly a disaster of a film.
The Swarm (Irwin Allen, 1978) 1/10
So much talent and all wasted in this turd of a film. America appears to be permanently jinxed if Hollywood is to be believed as yet once more disaster strikes courtesy of Irwin Allen. Killer African bees are on a rampage and out to get the crème de la crème of Hollywood stars playing assorted boring characters - a scientist (Michael Caine), a doctor (Katharine Ross), a General (Richard Widmark), a soldier (Bradford Dillman), a wheel-chair bound doctor (Henry Fonda) who fatally experiments with an antidote drug, a country bumpkin (Slim Pickens), a pregnant café waitress (Patty Duke), a sassy tv reporter (Lee Grant), an inventor of poison pellets (Richard Chamberlain), a nuclear power plant manager (José Ferrer) and a trio of geriatrics - a small-town mayor and drugstore owner (Fred MacMurray), a school superintendent (Olivia de Havilland) and a retiree (Ben Johnson) - involved in a love triangle. Ross gets stung and hallucinates, a nuclear power plant explodes, a runaway train crashes and falls down a mountain, assorted cars crash and blow up, a familiy at a picnic get stung to death and the bees attack helicopters making them crash. The silly denouement involves the discovery that the bees are attracted to the sound of an alarm siren as it resembles the mating sound of the Queen Bee. Needless to say the swarm is then lured towards the call of the siren, doused in oil and zapped with missiles over the Gulf of Mexico. Absurd and extremely tacky film inexplicably even
managed to get an Academy Award nomination for costume design. The production used 15-22 million bees and of the huge cast only screen legend Olivia de Havilland got stung. Absolute crap and one of the worst films of all time.
Lenz (1982) Alexandre Rockwell 3/10
The Pleasure of Being Robbed (2008) Josh Safdie 6/10
The Second Child (1979) Phillip Garrel 4/10
Alexander: Again and Forever (1989) Youssef Chahine 4/10
Sivas (2014) Kaan Müjdeci 5/10
The Artful Penetration of Barbara (1969) Tinto Brass 6/10
The Howl (1970) Tinto Brass 2/10
The Goddess of Fortune (2019) Ferzan Ozpetek 7/10
Deadly Sweet (1967) Tinto Brass 2/10
Repeat viewings
Toto the Hero (1991) Jaco Van Dormael 9/10
True Confessions (1981) Ulu Grosbard 7/10
Pat and Mike (1952) George Cukor 7/10
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
Mr Jones (Agnieszka Holland, 2019) 5/10
The Virtuous Sin (George Cukor & Louis J. Gasnier, 1930) 5/10
Rollover (Alan J. Pakulla, 1981) 4/10
Amnesia (Barbet Schroeder, 2015) 8/10
A Good Woman is Hard to Find (Abner Pastoll, 2019) 7/10
Gritty revenge thriller which starts off like a Ken Loach kitchen-sink drama. A young widow (Sarah Bolger), whose husband was murdered, lives an almost hand-to-mouth existence, with her two kids in a bleak Irish town. Her son has become mute after witnessing the stabbing of his father and the police are antipathic in their resolve to find the murderer. When out of the blue a drug dealer breaks into her house with a stash of stolen cocaine she decides to take the matter into her own hands which involves a large hammer and a chainsaw. Matters turn even more grim when the local mob boss turns up on her doorstep looking for the man who stole his drugs. Fast moving drama has a fantastic performance by Sarah Bolger as the sad and lonely woman who is absolutely sick of being treated like dirt - by police officers, a social worker, the drug dealer, even her own mother - who are constantly assessing her appearance and parenting skills with barely veiled disapproval. She snaps. But in a good way, discovering hidden courage within herself. Her priority is the safety of her children and she will do anything to protect them. The screenplay, with shades of extreme black humour, goes for the jugular as she calmly confronts the mob leading to not only blood-soaked mayhem but making this into a strong feminist fantasy.
Varian's War (Lionel Chetwynd, 2001) 5/10
The human interest story, revolving around the persecution of jews during the War, is one of the few genres that has been consistent on Hollywood's roll call of film projects. This is about one of only five Americans who actively helped jews escape the Nazi blight in Europe. Varian Fry (William Hurt), a journalist, ran a rescue network in Vichy France that helped approximately 2,000 to 4,000 anti-Nazi and Jewish refugees to escape Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. The film was criticized for its publicity machine calling Fry the "American Schindler". Fry made up a list of prominent intellectuals and artists and tried to get them out of Marseilles by using forged travel documents. Helping him was another American (Julia Ormond) and a forger (Alan Arkin). The artists he helps are Alma Mahler (Lynn Redgrave), Marc Chagall, his wife, Hannah Arendt and others. Since these are famous people, forged travel documents are not enough to save them, so Fry takes them over the Pyrenees into Spain. Plodding film plays havoc with actual events and is not helped by Hurt with his annoying stop-motion style of dialogue delivery and body movements which becomes a distraction.
Orca: The Killer Whale (Michael Anderson, 1977) 4/10
Absurd rehash of "Jaws" which mixes elements from "Moby Dick". When a fisherman (Richard Harris) kills a pregnant killer whale and the unborn calf, its mate seeks revenge and comes after him causing death and destruction. Typical film in the genre which revolves around various set-pieces involving the Orca destroying boats and houses, chomping on an old sailor (Keenan Wynn) and biting off the leg of a student (Bo Derek in one of her early roles). Adding glamour to the proceedings is Charlotte Rampling as a scientist pissed-off at Harris for starting the whole mess. She studies killer whales and is around to pontificate about the mammal's high intelligence versus the fisherman's stupidity. Will Sampson is around to throw in a few of his own ancient Native-American theories about the revengeful nature of a wronged Orca. A showdown takes place amongst icebergs in the province of Labrador with the whale systematically picking off every human on the fisherman's boat finally leaving him and the scientist to confront the animal. Both Harris and Rampling look uncomfortable going through the motions. Hope they got a hefty paycheck for their troubles. Like John Williams' iconic score signalling the appearance of the shark in "Jaws", there is an attempt by Ennio Morricone to create suspense via his jangling score each time the whale goes into attack mode. Silly but watchable film.
Der letzte Mann / The Last Laugh (F. W. Murnau, 1924) 10/10
Murnau's masterpiece is unique as it is one of the very few silent films with no intertitles. The film uses its spectacular imagery to tell the story with help from the production design by Edgar G. Ulmer, the expressionistic art direction by Robert Herlth & Walter Röhrig, the editing and the stunning lighting and camera movements of Karl Freund. At the center is the magnificent performance by Emil Jannings who uses his facial expressions and body movements to create the tragic central figure. A proud, ageing door attendant (Emil Jannings) of a posh hotel is suddenly demoted due to his frailty and assigned another job as a washroom attendant. Devastated at the turn of events he hides the fact from his friends and family but is discovered by a neighbour and soon faces scorn, ridicule and rejection by everyone. Classic film from the famous UFA studio in Berlin is a revealing look at German culture and identity. The film uses costume - the uniform worn by the door attendant - as a strong motif to explain its importance to the Germans. At the start Jannings is seen proudly wearing a resplendent doorman uniform with braids and huge shiny buttons which is not only his identity but also a means by which he is recognized and given respect. When he is later stripped of the uniform Jannings physically wilts in shame as his robust and vast body literally shrinks on screen. This typical German phenomena of the obsession with uniforms would soon take on a powerful and scary twist when the Nazis came to power. So much of their projection and strength lay in the power of their uniforms with the scarlet swastika on arm bands making a huge statement. The film's epilogue deviates from the natural course of how the story should have actually ended but was shot to show hope in a country still reeling under the effects of WWI. Tragically sad, profoundly affecting film is one the masterpieces of World Cinema and a must-see.
Herr Tartüff / Tartuffe (F. W. Murnau, 1925) 8/10
Molière's 17th-century play about the perils of hypocricy is given a fresh twist as a film-within-a-film. An old man, under the strong influence of his evil housekeeper, intends to disinherit his grandson. The young man disguises himself as an actor and coerces her into showing them a moving picture version of the play Tartuffe. The film within relates the story of a man (Werner Krauss) under the strong influence of Tartüff (Emil Jannings), a charlatan posing as a pious man, who has already robbed him of huge amounts of money. The man's wife (Lil Dagover) suspects him and tries to prove to her husband the evil man's intentions. The story has a fascinating subtext - that religion may implicate the act of seeing, where indoctrination blinds us from being able to see clearly the world around us. This is the problem when we put faith in something or somebody too willingly. And this remains all too relevent today as religion is often used as a means to brainwash people into submission. This is an inventive treatment of Moliere’s work, giving the age-old story a fresh look.
A Hazard of Hearts (John Hough, 1987) 5/10
Gothic intrigue, based on the boddice ripper by Barbara Cartland, is silly beyond belief, but the delightful cast are game and camp it up shamelessly. A compulsive gambler (Christopher Plummer) loses all, including his nubile daughter (Helena Bonham Carter), to an evil Lord (Edward Fox). With her honour in his hands at last greed gets the better of him and he loses her and the estate to young Lord Vulcan (Marcus Gilbert) on the gambling table. The young girl arrives at his house and is confronted by his bitchy mother (Diana Rigg) who is also a compulsive gambler running a secret smuggling operation on the side. It all ends with several dead bodies followed by a duel to the death between the hero and villain. It is all very dull and only made bearable by the superb cast also including Fiona Fullerton as another nubile lady vying for the hero's affections, Anna Massey and Eileen Atkins as maids and Stewart Granger as the hero's "dead" father who makes a sudden appearance. The film harks back to all the classic Gainsborough British productions of the 1940s which made huge stars of James Mason, Margaret Lockwood, Stewart Granger, Phyllis Calvert and Patricia Roc.
The Walker (Paul Schrader, 2007) 6/10
Schrader revisits his own "American Gigolo" in this tale about hypocricy and murder in the upper echelons of Washington D C. The "walker" of the title is a wealthy and flamboyant gay real-estate agent (Woody Harrelson) who is a popular escort to politicians' wives as he accompanies them to cultural events and social occasions which their husbands are too busy to attend. He is a good friend to a number of matrons (Lauren Bacall - who gets all the witty lines - Lily Tomlin, Marybeth Hurt) with whom he spends time gossiping and playing canasta. His close friend, the wife (Kristin Scott Thomas) of an important politician (Willem Dafoe), walks into her lover's house for a quick tryst and finds him stabbed to death. She asks her escort buddy to cover up for her in order to protect the career of her ambitious husband. He finds himself under investigation as the prime suspect in the murder case and all his once close friends start treating him like a pariah. Schrader's film is less about the murder and instead delves deep into the examination of the vipers operating in Washington society. The escort realizes how people he once trusted use and abuse each other. The vengeful, anti-liberal, homophobic administration pursues Carter and his young lover as they both try to find the murderer. This is a neat little mystery-thriller, superbly acted by a wonderful cast, in particular Harrelson with sly turns by both Ned Beatty and Liky Tomlin as another senator and his wife. The film is smartly designed and surprisingly filmed in London and the Isle of Mann which substitutes for the real Capitol - a few exterior shots of Washington are used to set the scene.
The 2nd (Brian Skiba, 2020) 1/10
Extremely stupid film that seems to have stitched together bits and pieces from different films in the terrorist genre. A Green Beret (Ryan Phllippe) is confronted by a group of terrorists when he goes to pick up his son from school. They are after the boy's girlfriend, the daughter of a Supreme Court judge who they plan to kidnap in order to force the judge's hand on a Second Amendment vote. Caspar Van Dien is the robot-like leader of the gang who he takes on through boring fight sequences. The screenplay appears to have been written by some amateur. Trashy film which should be avoided.
Shock and Awe (Rob Reiner, 2017) 6/10
The Bush Adminstration, trying for sometime to push out Saddam Hussain from Iraq, uses the 9/11 terrorist attacks as an excuse to invade Iraq citing the presence of weapons of mass destruction. The "theory" was to set up a Western-style democracy in the Middle East which would magically proliferate and wind up protecting Israel. Finding the whole idea prepostrous from the get-go are two journalists working for the American media company Knight Ridder's Washington Bureau. Both Warren Strobel (James Marsden) and Jonathan Landay (Woody Harrelson) are skeptical about the President's claim that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. They are backed by their editor, John Walcott (Rob Reiner), and also helped by Joe Galloway (Tommy Lee Jones), a correspondent, columnist and Military Affairs consultant for the Knight-Ridder chain of newspapers. As the American government goes into a war frenzy these journalists observe their reputable colleagues at other top tier newspapers mistakenly perpetuate falsehoods fed by the war machine led by Donald Rumsfeld. Straightforward account of the events, as they played out, is purposely presented like a documentary by Reiner so that the homegrown public "get it" and see what their government is capable of. A romantic sub-plot between Strobel and a neighbour (Jessica Biel) goes nowhere although Reiner uses her as a mouthpiece explaining Muslim history in a few words. The film starts with a young African-American soldier, in a wheel-chair, bluntly asking a commitee why the country went to war which resulted in his injury which took place literally within the first few hours of his arrival in Iraq. A flashback involving the journalists' investigation leads to the answer which eventually resulted in a million dead Iraqis and thousands of dead American soldiers. The deception eventually came out some years later with the journalists finally winning awards for their work. Reiner's film is a good account of how the majority of the American public gets conned by their government and which sadly continues to this day looking at the kind of President who has been elected to power today.
A Study in Terror (James Hill, 1965) 6/10
When the Whitechapel district in the East End of London is beset with a spate of murders, Sherlock Holmes (John Neville) is summoned to solve the mystery. Jack the Ripper is on a rampage gruesomely butchering prostitutes in the area. Holmes and the trusted Dr Watson (Donald Houston) find themselves confronted with the mystery of a Lord's missing son, his facially scarred wife (Adrienne Corri) and a number of suspects - a local doctor (Anthony Quayle), a black mailing tavern owner (Peter Carsten), the Lord's younger son (John Fraser) and his girlfriend (Judi Dench). Low budget but handsome production is an effective horror film with an usually wonderful cast including in smaller roles Barbara Windsor & Kay Walsh as a prostitutes, Cecil Parker as the Prime Minister, Robert Morley as Holmes' pompous brother Mycroft, Georgia Brown as a saloon singer and Frank Finlay as a police Inspector. Although based on the Conan Doyle characters this is an original story which was later remade as "Murder By Decree".
Unbelievable (Lisa Cholodenko, Michael Dinner & Susannah Grant, 2019) 8/10
The 2008–2011 Washington and Colorado serial rape cases is presented as a methodical police procedure alternating the events spread out across two states and during different time periods. In 2008 a young girl (Kaitlyn Dever) in Washington claims she is repeatedly raped by a man at knife-point who also photographed her. The police and her foster parents find certain inconsistencies in her report and she is coerced into recanting the rape saying she lied or imagined it. She is ostracised by her school mates and suffers mental anguish as visions of the rape keep playing in her mind. In 2011 a Colorado detective (Merritt Wever) investigating a rape case suspects it could be a serial rapist which is confirmed when another rape case being investigated by a second detective (Toni Collette) has many similar traits. Riveting thriller moves slowly but holds interest due to the remarkable performances by the three leads. Wever and Collette, playing vastly contrasting characters, are interesting to watch as they start off viewing each other with trepidation. As the case moves along and they decide to join hands they both find much to like in each others' working methods. Emmy nominated for Best Miniseries and for Collette's funny foul-mouthed performance.
Failure to Launch (Tom Dey, 2006) 5/10
It must have been a very boring Saturday because I actually found this fluffy rom-com amusing. Mom (Kathy Bates) and Dad (Terry Bradshaw) want their irresponsible 35-year old son (Matthew McConaughey) to get the hell out of their house. He is very comfortable at home as Mom does his laundry, feeds him and he gets to bring the girls he wants to dump into his bedroom for sex letting them know that his parents are in the room next door. Finally desperate they hire an intervensionist (Sarah Jessica Parker) who is an expert at weaning dependent bachelors out of their parents' home. Things don't quite go according to plan. McConaughey and Parker make a cute couple but most of the laughs come courtesy of the supporting cast led by the always reliable Bates. A pre-stardom Bradley Cooper and Justin Bartha are funny as his equally parent-dependent friends and Zoey Deschanel is ascerbic as her close friend who catches the eye of the nerdy Bartha. Silly premise is no different to the screwball comedies of the 1930s as the two stars here make a go of it.
He's Just Not That Into You (Ken Kwapis, 2009) 2/10
A fantastic cast flounders in this silly film based on a best selling self-help book for chicks. The book (and the film) purpots to explain (to women) the meaning of signals received from men after a first date, during a relationship or otherwise. Signals very obvious to men but extremely difficult for women to comprehend. The film offers a series of vignettes as it follows the lives of various men and women. Ginnifer Goodwin is the pathetic desperado waiting forever for a guy to call back when he clearly wants nothing to do with her after their one and only date. Jennifer Aniston has been in a live-in relationship with Ben Affleck for seven years and has spent the last five years wondering why he avoids the subject of marriage. Jennifer Connelly is married to Bradley Cooper who falls hard for Scarlett Johansson. Drew Barrymore wonders why she always discovers that the men she likes turn out to be gay. The women whine while the men evade. Almost like real life. Almost. Boring film.
Watchmen (Nicole Kassell, Stephen Williams, Steph Green, Andrij Parekh, David Semel & Frederick E.O. Toye, 2019) 6/10
Convoluted sequel to Alan Moore's graphic novels is strictly for fans while I found it a fascinating, but tough slog to sift through all the scientific mumbo jumbo in the story set in an alternative history - Nixon survived Watergate, Vietnam is the 51st State of the USA, an apocalypse involving a large jelly fish destroyed most of New York (and the world?) and in the present time Robert Redford (the actor?) is the United States President who
provides reparations to those affected by racial violence as white supremists attack the police force who are forced to don masks to keep their identities hidden. The story tackles race with enormously justified fury - the opening episode has a black cop killed viciously by a supremist which, along with many moments throughout, references a lot of actual past and present-day shit going on in the United States. Fighting on the side of the Tulsa police force is ex-cop Sister Night (Regina King) - born and raised in Saigon, married to Captain Manhattan (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) with (unexplained) three white children. Her grandfather (Jovan Adepo), a rookie black cop during the 1940s, dabbled on the side as Hooded Justice, a sort of black version of Superman, who enjoys a sexual relationship with blonde and blue-eyed Captain Metropolis. The character is played by a wheelchair-bound Louis Gossett Jr., in the scenes set during the present. It all gets incredibly surreal during the scenes involving an eccentric vigilante (Jeremy Irons) who lives like an aristocratic lord of a country manor and who likes to play gruesome games. Also around is his daughter (Hong Chau) conceived via artificial insemination. Don Johnson is a white cop with a secret life on the side who's lynching sets the plot in motion and brings the FBI to town led by the acerbic Jean Smart. The Emmys went beserk and nominated this for Best Limited Series, both Irons and King in the lead acting categories and Abdul-Mateen, Adepo, Gossett Jr., and Smart in the supporting acting categories, plus a bushel of technical nods. Interesting for sure but not the second coming as many critics hailed it.
Antigone (1992) Daniele Huillet & Jean-Marie Straub 4/10
Isadora's Children (2019) Damien Hanivel 2/10
Why Don't You Just Die! (2019) Kirill Sokolov 4/10
Amnesia (2015) Barbet Schroeder 4/10
Destiny (1997) Youssef Chahine 5/10
Wendy (2020) Penh Zeitlin 1/10
An American Pickle (2020) Brandon Trost 4/10
Les Nautes Solitues (1974) Philippe Garrel 2/20
The Devil All the Time (2020) Antonio Campos 1/10
Fiore (2016) Claudio Giovannesi 4/10
The Hands of Orlac (1945) Robert Wiene 5/10
Repeat viewings
Happy-Go-Lucky (2008) Mike Leigh 8/10
The Grey Fox (1982) Phillip Borsos 7/10
Meantime (1983) Mike Leigh 7/10
Secret Ceremony (1968) Joseph Losey 7/10
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
The Beautiful Person (2008) Christophe Honroe 4/10
House of Seven Belles (1979) Andy Milligan 5/10
Revisited (2009) Krzysztof Zanussi 2/10
Alexandria...Why? (1979) Youssef Chahine 6/10
Tehran: City of Love (2019) Ali Jaberansari 6/10
Hyenas (1992) Djibril Diop Mambety 7/10
Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020) Dean Parisot 4/10
Stop the Pounding Heart (2013) Roberto Minervini 1/10
Inversion (2016) Behnam Behzadi 5/10
Cuties (2020) Maïmouna Doucouré 5/10
My Friend Victoria (2014) Jean-Paul Civeyrac 4/10
Repeat viewings
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989) Stephen Herek 7/10
Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (1991) Peter Hewitt 6/10
The Last Wave (1977) Peter Weir 8/10
Knife in the Head (1978) Reinhard Hauff 8/10
Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills (1989) Paul Bartel 7/10
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
Reza wrote:The King and I: From the London Palladium (Gary Halvorson, 2018) 7/10
Rogers & Hammerstein's famous musical is filmed live on stage at the London Palladium and is a version of the Tony winning Broadway revival. Kelli O'Hara is strong-willed Anna, the British governess who arrives in Siam to teach the children of the King (Ken Watanabe). She initially clashes with the stubborn King but later their relationship changes as he begins to admire her feisty nature. Meanwhile she teaches the brood of kids and finds a friend in the King's first wife (Ruthie Ann Miles). The production has stunning costumes and of course the memorable score - "Hello Young Lovers", "A Puzzlement", "Getting to Know You", "We Kiss in a Shadow", "Something Wonderful", "I Have Dreamed" and the joyful highlight of "Shall We Dance" when Anna dances with the King. O'Hara is superb, has a marvelous singing voice and deservedly won a Tony award. Watanabe looks like he is having great fun and is also very good although he cannot quite erase the memory of Yul Brynner in his signature Tony and Oscar winning role. Both Watanabe and Ruthie Ann Miles were also nominated for Tony awards. This version preserves on film a memorable stage production.
Les Femmes de l'ombre / Female Agents (Jean-Paul Salomé, 2008) 7/10
Old fashioned, exciting WWII drama has a whiff of a "Nancy Drew" adventure but scores points for showing a group of female espionage agents in a genre usually dominated by male heroics. The film is a tribute to the bravery of the Special Operations Executive (SOE), a secret British World War II organisation also known as "Churchill's Secret Army". Men and women were inducted to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in occupied Europe (and later, also in occupied Southeast Asia) against the Axis powers, and to aid local resistance movements. The screenplay follows a group of women led by a member of the French Resistance (Sophie Marceau) who escapes to Spain after her husband is shot, is rescued by the British and given a new assignment. A British agent/geologist, caught by the Nazis while surveying the Normandy beaches for the secret Allied landings, has to be rescued from the Nazi headquarters in Paris. Joining her on the mission are a commando group consisting of a cabaret dancer (Marie Gillain) expert in the art of seduction, an explosives expert (Déborah François), a cold-blooded killer and prostitute (Julie Depardieu), her brother (Julien Boisselier) and joining them in France is a jewish radio operator (Maya Sansa). The mission is partially successful as the team, at the last minute, are ordered to assassinate Colonel Heindrich (Moritz Bleibtreu) who has captured her brother and plans on taking him to meet Rommel as proof of the secret Allied landings. The film works because the protagonists are not simple caricatures but very real with conflicted motives and developing characters. Wartime Paris is beautifully recreated and the suspenseful action scenes are well staged with some truly uncomfortable and graphic torture sequences. Marceau is excellent as the steely-eyed sharpshooter and Bleibtreu is equally good as the cold blooded patriotic Nazi who also manages to show glimpses of tenderness. A thrilling "girl's own" adventure film.
The King and I: From the London Palladium (Gary Halvorson, 2018) 7/10
Rogers & Hammerstein's famous musical is filmed live on stage at the London Palladium and is a version of the Tony winning Broadway revival. Kelli O'Hara is strong-willed Anna, the British governess who arrives in Siam to teach the children of the King (Ken Watanabe). She initially clashes with the stubborn King but later their relationship changes as he begins to admire her feisty nature. Meanwhile she teaches the brood of kids and finds a friend in the King's first wife (Ruthie Ann Miles). The production has stunning costumes and of course the memorable score - "Hello Young Lovers", "A Puzzlement", "Getting to Know You", "We Kiss in a Shadow", "Something Wonderful", "I Have Dreamed" and the joyful highlight of "Shall We Dance" when Anna dances with the King. O'Hara is superb, has a marvelous singing voice and deservedly won a Tony award. Watanabe looks like he is having great fun and is also very good although he cannot quite erase the memory of Yul Brynner in his signature Tony and Oscar winning role. Both Watanabe and Ruthie Ann Miles were also nominated for Tony awards. This version preserves on film a memorable stage production.
Women of Valor (Buzz Kulik, 1986) 5/10
Highly fictionalized film about the Bataan death march during WWII in the Philippines. A group of captured nurses and American soldiers are made to walk by the invading Japanese to a prisoner-of-war camp where they were interned for three years and where many died. The story is related in fashback by a head nurse (Susan Sarandon) who lobbies an American Congressional subcommittee for awards of valor for many of the brave women who died at the camp. Shot on authentic locations the nurses go through harrowing experiences as they are mistreated, beaten and raped. Kristy McNichol, Alberta Watson and Valerie Mahaffey play other nurses who band together to try and survive. The screenplay is an amalgamation of actual events that happened to female prisoners and related by the ones who survived. Actually no nurse ever walked on a death march but the film purports to give tribute to the Army and Navy nurses who fell prisoners to the Japanese. The subject has been filmed many times before with "A Town Like Alice" in 1956 one of the best.
The Girl Rush (Robert Pirosh, 1955) 3/10
A gambler's daughter (Rosalind Russell) mistakenly believes she has a share in a Las Vegas casino which is in fact owned by a Latin lothario (Fernando Lamas). They both clash instantly leading to the inevitable finalé. Silly film was Russell's first musical and was probably made to cash in on her recent Tony winning performance in the Broadway musical "Wonderful Town". She is too old (at 48) in the role but sings, dances and acts with her usual gusto. The film is stolen by the supporting cast - Eddie Albert, Gloria DeHaven, James Gleason, and especially Marion Lorne as daffy "Aunt Clara" which she played years later as a different character but with the exact same befuddled persona in her Emmy winning role on tv in "Bewitched". Roz gets to wear elaborate Edith Head gowns as she clowns it up.
Mimi (Paul L. Stein, 1935) 3/10
A consumptive dance hall singer (Gertrude Lawrence) inspires a starving painter (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.). Tragic romance set in the Latin Quarter of Paris is a straight dramatic version of Puccini's "La Boheme" and gets a loud very theatrical production with the cast playing to the gallery. Operatic snatches from the opera are occasionally thrown in as background music although Lawrence gets to sing only one song. One of stage star Lawrence's rare film appearances is a rather dull drama despite authentic atmosphere.
The Ruling Voice (Rowland V. Lee, 1931) 4/10
A ruthless racketeer (Walter Huston) who has made his fortune through nefarious means is made to see sense when his daughter (Loretta Young) rejects him. He tries to change his ways but his partners won't let him. Stiff early talkie is a typical Warner Brothers production showing crime does not pay but ends up with death and destruction. Huston is very good and all his best scenes are opposite Doris Kenyon as the socialite he admires. Young, in an early role, continues to climb up the Hollywood ladder while the underrated David Manners is the rich boyfriend who stands by her when the going gets tough. Although the film's abrupt ending is jarring it still manages to tackle a tough issue, a staple in many films made by the studio during that period.
Mamá cumple 100 años / Mama Turns 100 (Carlos Saura, 1979) 7/10
Saura brings back characters first seen in his scathing 1973 political satire "Ana y los lobos". In that film Ana (Geraldine Chaplin) goes to work as a nanny to three small girls in an upper class family ruled by a matriarch with three sons. All three men flirt with her, pursue her with aggression and at the end rape and murder her. In this sequel, which shifts its tone towards farce, Ana is alive and arrives with her husband at the same mansion to participate with the family the matriarch's upcoming birthday. The old woman (a superb Rafaela Aparicio) is turning 100, in good spirits, but mourning one dead son and another who has run off leaving his wife and three daughters. Her third eccentric son lives with her and is obsessed with trying to fly on a hang glider with an eye on getting into Ana's pants. The farce turns into a black comedy as the old woman is embezzled by her family, her sons plan on killing her for the inheritance and one of the young girls is in an incestuous relationship with her eccentric uncle. Meanwhile the old lady develops telepathy and asks the nanny for help who in turn is facing problems of her own as her husband is having an affair with her old ward (Amparo Muñoz) who has now grown up to be a stunning beauty. Saura also makes digs at the generation gap and impotence all the while maintaining a surreal mood throughout. This was the last collaboration between Saura and his off-screen companion Geraldine Chaplin. After 8 films together, all dealing in some way or another with the oppressive Franco regime, they called it quits on their relationship, both on and off camera, which came just a few years after Franco's death and the restoration of monarchy in the country. The film was nominated for an Academy Award in the Foreign Film category.
Schroeder, in this intriguing and very titillating film, takes us on a journey into a world of pleasure derived through pain. A petty thief (Gerard Depardieu) breaks into an apartment and discovers a neon-lit room full of surprises. The roof suddenly opens up, a steel ladder descends and down walks a woman (Bulle Ogier) wearing a short blonde wig, dressed in a tight leather outfit with thigh-high boots with 6-inch stiletto heels. She proceeds to a dark corner of the room and starts whipping a cowering tied-up naked man who moans with pleasure. This is the bewildered thief's introduction to the world of masochistic sex and to the hip dominatrix who, with an ultra-cool head, plays mistress to her slaves. She is a single mother and is in this business, by choice, to make money. Depardieu's character is used as a means to explain to the audience what this world is all about. The couple form a relationship and as he questions her about her "profession" we get to see what its all about as she includes him in a passive way during her encounters - she directs him to whip and fondle a naked woman while her husband, also tied-up, watches. Rich men and women, often leading very normal sex lives with their husbands, wives or partners, pay to get an extra sexual kick by being beaten, tortured and humiliated. Schroeder presents the sex acts in a very matter-of-fact way as if its any job. The sexual role-playing fantasies are oddly asexual with the emphasis more on a complex combination of submission and power. Clients are masked and tied up with leather belts or chains, are tortured with different instruments, bottoms are slapped and whipped, nipples are pierced, a penis is hammered down with a nail onto a plank of wood, a woman is made to go down on all fours and ridden like a horse. These scenes, while shocking, are nowhere as horrific as an episode at a butcher's where a horse is hit in the forehead with a blunt instrument and after it falls down in a dead faint is lifted upside down by chains and its throat slashed and a fountain of blood pours out with the still live animal wildly flaying its legs in agony. Now that's real pain and cruelty. To carry his sick "joke" even further Schroeder follows this brutal scene with a grinning Depardieu sitting at a table and eating horse steak. The relationship between the two starts deteriorating when he starts feeling jealous of a man she has business dealings with and he sees large amounts of cash changing hands. He assumes the man is her pimp and decides to confront him. The performances of both leads - Ogier is particularly mesmerizing - carry the film. Too bad Schroeder fumbles at the film's end which appears to be something out of J. G. Ballard's novel "Crash", the story about symphorophilia, which is specifically about car-crash sexual fetishism with protagonists becoming sexually aroused by staging and participating in real car-crashes. Fascinating film is a must-see.
The Caper of the Golden Bulls / Carnival of Thieves (Russell Rouse, 1967) 7/10
Jules Dassin's hit caper film "Topkapi" set the tone for a spate of similar adventure thrillers that came in its wake during the 1960s - Ronald Neame's "Gambit", William Wyler's "How to Steal a Million" and Peter Collinson's "The Italian Job" among many others. The films had a set formula - an international cast of stars, comic character actors, an exotic location and a tongue-in-cheek atmosphere. Sandwiched in between was this film about a bank robbery in the Spanish city of Pamplona with its famous running of the bulls during the San Fermín festival as its backdrop. A retired bank robber (Stephen Boyd) is coerced by his former Italian lover and partner (Giovanna Ralli) to undertake one more heist. Reluctantly he agrees after she blackmails him and soon all three of their old partners are in town to plan the perfect heist. Forcibly joining them is his current lover (Yvette Mimieux) who plans to keep an eye on him especially with the seductive Italian bombshell back in his life. Jaunty film makes up for its lack of originality by keeping things moving at a fast pace with the delightful cast having a ball. Boyd, while no Cary Grant, is suitably debonair and has his hands full with not only the complicated robbery but also creating sparks with both his leading ladies. Ralli, dressed in fancy Edith Head duds, is great fun as the clever sexpot trading barbs with Mimieux who holds her own during their funny showdowns. The equally delightful Vito Scotti, Walter Slezak and Clifton James play assorted characters aiding and abetting the robbers. Rollicking and amusingly inventive film is helped by superb on-location photography by Harold E. Stine and a lovely score by Vic Mizzy.
Mulan (Niki Caro, 2020) 8/10
If you cross a fairy tale with a Zhang Yimou film and give it a David Lean/Akira Kurosawa-like epic quality you get the latest Disney live-action remake of one of their animated classics. All the songs from the animated version are gone as is the wisecracking dragon (voiced by Eddie Murphy). Instead we get a witch and the mythical phoenix bird (a sign of peace and prosperity in Chinese culture). The main plot remains the same - Mulan (Yifei Liu), a free spirited young girl, dons male garb and enlists in the army. Since she has no brother she takes this step so that her aging father is spared getting killed in battle. She undertakes training with other young men while trying to hide her secret - there is a running joke about her body odour since she evades bathing with the other men. The enemy is led by Böri Khan (Jason Scott Lee), leader of a renegade group, who wants to attack the Imperial City and kill the Emperor (Jet Li). Helping him is a witch (Gong Li) who can transform into an eagle. In order to use her full god-given powers (chi), Mulan needs to expose her true self to her comrades (and to herself) which results in her banishment by the Commander (Donnie Yen) even though he knows that her bravery saved them all during a battle. When the Witch tries to seduce her over to the darkside she returns, warns her comrades and gets to lead the soldiers into battle. The film looks spectacular with epic set pieces and battle scenes with dazzling and vibrant shades of colour bathing all the New Zealand locations where the film was shot. Caro superbly stages all the battle scenes and is also adept at wringing laughs during the comedic moments as well as handling the dramatic moments. Pity the film cannot be seen on the large screen as it went straight to a streaming platform due to the Covid crisis although it plays quite well on the small screen as well. This is a wonderful production with outstanding sets and costumes, a strong female character and an important message about loyalty towards family. Not to be missed.
Relic (2020) Natalie Erika James 1/10
Padatik (1973) Mrinal Sen 6/10
Two Family Home (2000) Raymond De Felitta 4/10
Ek Din Achanak (1989) Mirnal Sen 7/10
A Whisker Away (2020) Jun'ichi Satô & Tomotaka Shibayama 5/10
Ava (2020) Tate Taylor 1/10
Le Révélateur (1968) Philippe Garrel 4/10
The Structure of Crystal (1969) Krzysztof Zanussi 6/10
Cheaters (1984) Barbet Schroeder 4/10
Ema (2019) Pablo Larrain 7/10
Antareen (1993) Mirnal Sen 5/10
I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020) Charlie Kaufman 4/10
News From Planet Mars (2016) Dominik Moll 6/10
The Kindness of Strangers (2019) Lone Scherfig 1/10
Repeat viewing
A Place in the Sun (1951) George Stevens 10/10
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
