This was the first Japanese movie in CinemaScope, I saw it in a cinema in the 1980s and love it. It is also my favorite Kurosawa film, second only to "Ikiru". I even place "The Hidden Fortress" above "Seven Samurai". But somehow its significance has been reduced: many persons only think of "Fortress" as an influence on "Star Wars", when it is one of Kurosawa's most inspired movies. If it were for that post-pop reference, I can add a connection to "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad" if only for the moment when Sinbad and Parisa escape from Sokura's hideaway, jumping above an abyss using a vine, as Luke and the Princess do in one scene of the first film. In any case, this is a fine Kurosawa film.
Reviews
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Capernaum
(2018)
Nadine Labaki's third film
6 May 2024
I acquired a copy of "Capharnaüm" many months ago in a beautiful Spanish edition on DVD, but, for unknown reasons, I did not watch it, even knowing that its creator, Lebanese director and actress Nadine Labaki makes films about interesting topics. I like her two previous features, «Caramel» and «And Now Where Are we Going?»
In her third film, Labaki tells from a brave point of view, without fear of showing exacerbated emotions, the very dramatic story of Zain, a 12-year-old (?) boy, arrested and deprived of liberty, who ends up taking his parents to court for bringing him into the world. Little Zain doesn't even know his age because his parents never bothered to register him, they didn't educate him and used him as a slave.
«Capharnaüm» is more audacious than the previous Labaki films, by daring to describe a real situation (that of children victims of integral abuse) with an unlikely dramaturgical formula. She describes a violent and dehumanized situation, in a non-dramatic way to audiences inclined to melodramas in the soap opera style.
That is to say: what the film describes is real and plausible, but the dialogues and attitudes of the characters are more akin to the perspective of highbrow literature and discourse, than to the way "the people" usually express, especially Zain, who in court exposes his case with an elegant speech that an illiterate kid would never give.
Perhaps that is why the best character of all are an Ethiopian woman called Rahil, with limited knowledge of Arabic, and her son Yonas, the baby who has no lines. He only has to be himself, and turns into a beautiful and endearing character. All this said «Capharnaüm» deserves two hours of your free time. See it.
In her third film, Labaki tells from a brave point of view, without fear of showing exacerbated emotions, the very dramatic story of Zain, a 12-year-old (?) boy, arrested and deprived of liberty, who ends up taking his parents to court for bringing him into the world. Little Zain doesn't even know his age because his parents never bothered to register him, they didn't educate him and used him as a slave.
«Capharnaüm» is more audacious than the previous Labaki films, by daring to describe a real situation (that of children victims of integral abuse) with an unlikely dramaturgical formula. She describes a violent and dehumanized situation, in a non-dramatic way to audiences inclined to melodramas in the soap opera style.
That is to say: what the film describes is real and plausible, but the dialogues and attitudes of the characters are more akin to the perspective of highbrow literature and discourse, than to the way "the people" usually express, especially Zain, who in court exposes his case with an elegant speech that an illiterate kid would never give.
Perhaps that is why the best character of all are an Ethiopian woman called Rahil, with limited knowledge of Arabic, and her son Yonas, the baby who has no lines. He only has to be himself, and turns into a beautiful and endearing character. All this said «Capharnaüm» deserves two hours of your free time. See it.
Scales
(2019)
Maidens of the Sea
6 May 2024
Despite dramaturgical gaps that, in the final third of Shahad Ameen's opera prima, make the final scenes that lead us to its open conclusion somewhat incomprehensible, «Maidens of the Sea» is a work of extraordinary beauty and imponderable effect on the spectator who is willing to contemplate cultural manifestations alien to Western cosmogony.
«Maidens of the Sea» tells how on an island in the Arabian Sea each family must sacrifice a daughter to the mermaids in order to break the drought and preserve life. But it is enough that the tradition breaks with the case of the pre-adolescent Hayat (Hajjar), to call into question the conventions that violate the right to life. With her case, a vicious immolation circuit is revealed, and the right of a woman to govern her body and find her essence is strengthened, regardless of social designs.
I suppose that to fully appreciate the story, we would have to learn more of Muslim societies, but if we could not investigate them, it would be enough to open up to cultures other than the one we know, without measuring them according to ours. Thus, we could appreciate Ameen's film as the exposure of a situation in which women bear the brunt. This is enough for me, even if it does not tell me what happened when Hayat and the adolescent fishermen plunged into the sea and tragedy stroke.
Fortunately, the film's short duration compensates for its observational aesthetic, which provokes an impatient reaction with its long shots and contemplative tempo. In my case, the film reminded me of the relativity of the impressions of time and space, by recalling Jorge Sanjinés' film "The Clandestine Nation", which, seems eternal to mestizo eyes, but not to the gaze of the Aymara community.
A worthy film, which took many years to come to fruition, it reveals a new filmmaker worth following.
«Maidens of the Sea» tells how on an island in the Arabian Sea each family must sacrifice a daughter to the mermaids in order to break the drought and preserve life. But it is enough that the tradition breaks with the case of the pre-adolescent Hayat (Hajjar), to call into question the conventions that violate the right to life. With her case, a vicious immolation circuit is revealed, and the right of a woman to govern her body and find her essence is strengthened, regardless of social designs.
I suppose that to fully appreciate the story, we would have to learn more of Muslim societies, but if we could not investigate them, it would be enough to open up to cultures other than the one we know, without measuring them according to ours. Thus, we could appreciate Ameen's film as the exposure of a situation in which women bear the brunt. This is enough for me, even if it does not tell me what happened when Hayat and the adolescent fishermen plunged into the sea and tragedy stroke.
Fortunately, the film's short duration compensates for its observational aesthetic, which provokes an impatient reaction with its long shots and contemplative tempo. In my case, the film reminded me of the relativity of the impressions of time and space, by recalling Jorge Sanjinés' film "The Clandestine Nation", which, seems eternal to mestizo eyes, but not to the gaze of the Aymara community.
A worthy film, which took many years to come to fruition, it reveals a new filmmaker worth following.
Joyland
(2022)
No joy in the land
6 May 2024
Originally censored in Pakistan, «Joyland» is a moving drama about the status of women in a Muslim society that allows them a few freedoms that they do not have in similar places where extreme sexist laws created by men are credited to Allah. It was banned because of the transgender character of Biba who has a lot of screen time and, according to the Ministry of Information and Communication argued, violates Pakistani standards of "decency and morality". However, the moralists focused their eyes on the flashiest aspects of the movie, and ignored its more dramatic content, which subtly emphasizes the condition of the women in the film.
«Joyland» tells the story of a family unit, dominated by the patriarchal figure of the grandfather. Together with him live his two sons, their wives, and children. Saleem, the older, is employed and Nucchi is a housewife, while young Haider (Junejo) is unemployed, and his wife Mumtaz (Farooq) has a job. Following an imposition by the patriarch, Mumtaz is forced to resign, and Haider gets a job at a lubricious theater with variety shows for men, as part of the dance troupe of transgender Biba (Khan), who stages musical numbers that emphasize female eroticism.
Haider is not a prototype of a Pakistani macho, but a vulnerable and sensitive man, who ends up involved with Biba, although the film never defines the limits of their intimacy. At the same time, Haider neglects his relationship with Mumtaz, who is not only pregnant, but is now reacting to other men she finds attractive. The drama that follows is the heart of the story, where the figure of Mumtaz is key.
The edition sometimes makes use of dramatic sensationalism, by contrasting Biba's showbiz life with Mumtaz's domestic routine, such as Haider's intimate moments with one or the other, or the cut from a lively wedding of a secondary transgender character, to the two wives hanging clothes on the roof of the building where they live. However, in a global sense, «Joyland» is a film that shows lives with few choices or alternatives in a sector of the world that, like many others, is subject to religious fundamentalism.
«Joyland» tells the story of a family unit, dominated by the patriarchal figure of the grandfather. Together with him live his two sons, their wives, and children. Saleem, the older, is employed and Nucchi is a housewife, while young Haider (Junejo) is unemployed, and his wife Mumtaz (Farooq) has a job. Following an imposition by the patriarch, Mumtaz is forced to resign, and Haider gets a job at a lubricious theater with variety shows for men, as part of the dance troupe of transgender Biba (Khan), who stages musical numbers that emphasize female eroticism.
Haider is not a prototype of a Pakistani macho, but a vulnerable and sensitive man, who ends up involved with Biba, although the film never defines the limits of their intimacy. At the same time, Haider neglects his relationship with Mumtaz, who is not only pregnant, but is now reacting to other men she finds attractive. The drama that follows is the heart of the story, where the figure of Mumtaz is key.
The edition sometimes makes use of dramatic sensationalism, by contrasting Biba's showbiz life with Mumtaz's domestic routine, such as Haider's intimate moments with one or the other, or the cut from a lively wedding of a secondary transgender character, to the two wives hanging clothes on the roof of the building where they live. However, in a global sense, «Joyland» is a film that shows lives with few choices or alternatives in a sector of the world that, like many others, is subject to religious fundamentalism.
Alexander Nevsky
(1938)
Uncle Iosif Wants You!
6 May 2024
"Aleksandr Nevski" is as much propaganda as "How the West Was Won" or "Top Gun". And that is a big compliment to both American films. Never as low, pedestrian or vociferous as some propaganda films are... this reminder of how the Russian people had defeated the Teutons, was a useful piece of Soviet political advertisement during World War II. It has little holes during the long battle sequence that make it drag a bit, but otherwise "Aleksandr Nevski" is a sumptuous, magnificent (propaganda, as many felt impelled to tag it) film, with an robust performance by Nikolai Cherkasov in the title role and a classic score by Sergei Prokofiev.
Zombi Child
(2019)
ZombiFrench
6 May 2024
The zombie film has come a long way and has returned to the beginning: from the movies about slaves who worked in cane fields, it went through all kinds of cannibal gore and splatter, to finally go back to its origins, such as "Atlantique", a return to social issues, telling the story of modern young slaves in Africa. This other attempt remained halfway. For a good while, I thought, "This may be the one that would set the record straight". I also found it interesting, for its respectful description of a (fascistoid) school of privileged girls in Paris, and of the girls themselves, as pleasant, intelligent and normal beings. A few scenes, such as the insubstantial class about the French revolution, were distracting from the main subject. But the "main subject", which seemed to be the encounter of two cultures in the 21st century, based on the story of a real zombie (that of the Haitian Clairvius Narcisse, who claimed while being alive that he had been a victim of zombification), seen through the eyes of Narcisse's granddaughter, a girl who survived the 2010 earthquake in Haiti... that is not, in fact, the "main subject." The "main subject" is about a girl who is desperate to meet up with her lover Pablo to make love until she is dry, but the girl disguises her tickle with cheesy declarations of love as in the worst romance novel, which we have to listen to every time Narcisse's story advances a little, because it is she who will take us to the "scène de rigueur" of cheap supernatural horror, which, as in "The Serpent and the Rainbow", almost erases all good intentions, a collapse rounded off with a song by Rogers & Hammerstein. Anyway ... that's a shame, but maybe it is asking too much from Bertrand Bonello...
P. S. In the case of Craven's "The Serpent and the Rainbow", we knew the horror fest would happen in any moment, so although it weakens the movie a bit, it was a typical horror movie "a la Craven", and a very good one.
P. S. In the case of Craven's "The Serpent and the Rainbow", we knew the horror fest would happen in any moment, so although it weakens the movie a bit, it was a typical horror movie "a la Craven", and a very good one.
Cold War
(2018)
Beautiful, intelligent, poetic film
6 May 2024
Wonderful motion picture... when I began watching it, I felt grateful of seeing something different, and thought a couple of times "Europeans have many fascinating stories to tell, beyond the Roman empire, Napoleon, Queen Victoria or the Holocaust", as public officers travel across Poland, recollecting popular songs and creating a sing and dance program of Polish folk music.
But then it turned into a delirious love story, a tragic one indeed, with many twists and locations, moving the story in blocks of drama in several European cities, always in a passionate tone. The politics of Cold War are always present, the story being told against the pressures of the ideological battle, the somber spaces of control, the dark characters.
A beautiful, intelligent, poetic film, indeed.
But then it turned into a delirious love story, a tragic one indeed, with many twists and locations, moving the story in blocks of drama in several European cities, always in a passionate tone. The politics of Cold War are always present, the story being told against the pressures of the ideological battle, the somber spaces of control, the dark characters.
A beautiful, intelligent, poetic film, indeed.
You Won't Be Alone
(2022)
A Masterpiece
6 May 2024
In honor of simplicity, the film «You Won't Be Alone» is a "cinéma fantastique" drama of the horror genre. However, due to the components of the story, the images, and its details, it seems like something that I would call ethnographic terror. There is even something symphonic about it, bordering on poetry.
It follows an unhappy girl through vicissitudes in search of her true self and the ways in which her nature manifests, until the unavoidable final confrontation in her survival journey: her other option is death.
Nevena has been born in a Macedonian community. One fateful morning an entity known as the Wolf-Eateress (later identified as Old Maid Maria), a victim of a centuries-old crime in that place, appears next to Nevena's cradle. Willing to drink the baby's blood in revenge, she gives in to the pleas of the little girl's mother and makes a deal to let her live and have her for herself until she turns 16. She leaves, but not before ripping out Nevena's tongue and leaving her speechless.
At the agreed age, the Wolf-Eateress punctually appears, takes Nevena with her, marks her with a sign of sorcery and, when the teenager rebels against her abuse, they go their separate ways and so starts Nevena's own journey towards a freedom that evades her and that will possibly never come: along the way she will transform into several beings, while the Wolf-Eateress constantly shows up to thwart Nevena's attempts to live a normal existence.
Shot in Serbia and spoken in Macedonian, the film defies generic labels and combines Costumbrismo, horror and eroticism, plus allusions to possible local legends. The drama feeds on commonplaces of witchcraft tales, but at the same time it breaks them and creates its own legend. Zero goat, zero inverted pentagram, and other clichés. The Wolf-Eateress is a being capable of training in black magic with graphic and violent resources; maybe she wants to learn to be a mother, maybe she wants contact with a person or any emotion besides hate, but she does not know those feelings. In her quest for revenge, the Wolf-Eateress finds such contact in Nevena, but she herself pushes the young woman to become her decisive opposite. Or in the wildest dramatic sense, nobody not even herself knows what her final purpose is.
«You Won't Be Alone» is the first feature by Macedonian-born director Goran Stolevski, who emigrated at 12 to Australia, where he lives. The film moves to the rhythm of the seasons, with subtlety and tranquility. In fact, in an interview Stolevski confided that he did not find a Macedonian legend to serve as a reference, but he was strongly attracted to the fate of the cyclical agrarian societies that he visited and in the one where he filmed in Serbia, settlements on the verge of extinction, with populations under 65 years of age. According to Stolevski, terror is not a theme that identifies him. His interest is the drama of human relations, and this tendency is evident in «You Won't Be Alone», in which what most defines the work is the evolution of Nevena and her interactions with her nemesis, nature and the peasants.
In short, a great film. Weird, repellent, but intelligent and visually beautiful. Recommended.
It follows an unhappy girl through vicissitudes in search of her true self and the ways in which her nature manifests, until the unavoidable final confrontation in her survival journey: her other option is death.
Nevena has been born in a Macedonian community. One fateful morning an entity known as the Wolf-Eateress (later identified as Old Maid Maria), a victim of a centuries-old crime in that place, appears next to Nevena's cradle. Willing to drink the baby's blood in revenge, she gives in to the pleas of the little girl's mother and makes a deal to let her live and have her for herself until she turns 16. She leaves, but not before ripping out Nevena's tongue and leaving her speechless.
At the agreed age, the Wolf-Eateress punctually appears, takes Nevena with her, marks her with a sign of sorcery and, when the teenager rebels against her abuse, they go their separate ways and so starts Nevena's own journey towards a freedom that evades her and that will possibly never come: along the way she will transform into several beings, while the Wolf-Eateress constantly shows up to thwart Nevena's attempts to live a normal existence.
Shot in Serbia and spoken in Macedonian, the film defies generic labels and combines Costumbrismo, horror and eroticism, plus allusions to possible local legends. The drama feeds on commonplaces of witchcraft tales, but at the same time it breaks them and creates its own legend. Zero goat, zero inverted pentagram, and other clichés. The Wolf-Eateress is a being capable of training in black magic with graphic and violent resources; maybe she wants to learn to be a mother, maybe she wants contact with a person or any emotion besides hate, but she does not know those feelings. In her quest for revenge, the Wolf-Eateress finds such contact in Nevena, but she herself pushes the young woman to become her decisive opposite. Or in the wildest dramatic sense, nobody not even herself knows what her final purpose is.
«You Won't Be Alone» is the first feature by Macedonian-born director Goran Stolevski, who emigrated at 12 to Australia, where he lives. The film moves to the rhythm of the seasons, with subtlety and tranquility. In fact, in an interview Stolevski confided that he did not find a Macedonian legend to serve as a reference, but he was strongly attracted to the fate of the cyclical agrarian societies that he visited and in the one where he filmed in Serbia, settlements on the verge of extinction, with populations under 65 years of age. According to Stolevski, terror is not a theme that identifies him. His interest is the drama of human relations, and this tendency is evident in «You Won't Be Alone», in which what most defines the work is the evolution of Nevena and her interactions with her nemesis, nature and the peasants.
In short, a great film. Weird, repellent, but intelligent and visually beautiful. Recommended.
Yesterday's Enemy
(1959)
Second Movie in Val Guest's War Diptych
6 May 2024
Val Guest was one of the most prominent directors to work for Hammer Films, only surpassed by Terence Fisher, although his visionary and most outstanding work, «The Day the Earth Caught Fire», was made outside that production company.
It was Guest who, with his international hit «The Quatermass Xperiment» (1955), pointed Hammer on the profitable path of "cinéma fantastique". However, apart from this film and its sequel «Quatermass 2», Guest did not return to horror, not even when he made «The Abominable Snowman», a good drama that he kept on a more philosophical and mystical plane, away from frights.
Before finding a more viable breakthrough to mainstream cinema with «Expresso Bongo» (1959), produced by his own company, Guest made for Hammer psychological dramas, thrillers and the the war diptych consisting of «The Camp on Blood Island» (1958) and «Yesterday's Enemy» (1959), a kind of war claim made to Japan through cinema.
The first was a box office success that consolidated the distribution of Hammer products through the American company Columbia Pictures; which addressed, 13 years after the end of World War II, the mistreatment received by British prisoners of war in a Japanese prison, located in the fictional Blood Island, part of the former British colony in Malaysia. By then Columbia was preparing the release of a movie with a similar theme, «The Bridge on the River Kwai» by David Lean, which garnered attention and awards, but this did not prevent the Hammer production from being a hit, despite devastating criticism. The movie was bolstered by the best-selling novelization of the script by John Manchip White and Guest.
For «Yesterday's Enemy», the production hired Korean-American actor Philip Ahn for the role of the Japanese officer; and sent the casting people to Chinese restaurants, where they managed to recruit waiters who didn't even speak English. Released the following year, it was not a resounding success like its predecessor, but today it is considered the more powerful war drama. Actor Stanley Baker would say it was one of the best films of his career, alongside classics he starred in, such as Cy Endfield's «Zulu» and Joseph Losey's «Accident.»
Based on a television script released a year earlier, «Yesterday's Enemy» tells the story of a platoon crossing the jungle in Burma, in an attempt to escape from Japanese troops. Baker is the officer who stops at nothing to achieve the goal of bringing alive the military under his command to headquarters: obstacles are the order of the day.
Peter R. Newman's script has a theatrical structure and was, in fact, later turned into a three-act play. Some dialogue scenes are long and, nevertheless, effective, thanks to the fact that they are directly inspired by what Newman saw, heard and lived in Burma as a soldier, and for being Guest's right hand when directing the "mise-en-caméra".
These two small, low-budget and effective films, in addition to the remarkable films that I knew and mentioned at the beginning of these notes, have increased the esteem that I already had for Val Guest's work.
It was Guest who, with his international hit «The Quatermass Xperiment» (1955), pointed Hammer on the profitable path of "cinéma fantastique". However, apart from this film and its sequel «Quatermass 2», Guest did not return to horror, not even when he made «The Abominable Snowman», a good drama that he kept on a more philosophical and mystical plane, away from frights.
Before finding a more viable breakthrough to mainstream cinema with «Expresso Bongo» (1959), produced by his own company, Guest made for Hammer psychological dramas, thrillers and the the war diptych consisting of «The Camp on Blood Island» (1958) and «Yesterday's Enemy» (1959), a kind of war claim made to Japan through cinema.
The first was a box office success that consolidated the distribution of Hammer products through the American company Columbia Pictures; which addressed, 13 years after the end of World War II, the mistreatment received by British prisoners of war in a Japanese prison, located in the fictional Blood Island, part of the former British colony in Malaysia. By then Columbia was preparing the release of a movie with a similar theme, «The Bridge on the River Kwai» by David Lean, which garnered attention and awards, but this did not prevent the Hammer production from being a hit, despite devastating criticism. The movie was bolstered by the best-selling novelization of the script by John Manchip White and Guest.
For «Yesterday's Enemy», the production hired Korean-American actor Philip Ahn for the role of the Japanese officer; and sent the casting people to Chinese restaurants, where they managed to recruit waiters who didn't even speak English. Released the following year, it was not a resounding success like its predecessor, but today it is considered the more powerful war drama. Actor Stanley Baker would say it was one of the best films of his career, alongside classics he starred in, such as Cy Endfield's «Zulu» and Joseph Losey's «Accident.»
Based on a television script released a year earlier, «Yesterday's Enemy» tells the story of a platoon crossing the jungle in Burma, in an attempt to escape from Japanese troops. Baker is the officer who stops at nothing to achieve the goal of bringing alive the military under his command to headquarters: obstacles are the order of the day.
Peter R. Newman's script has a theatrical structure and was, in fact, later turned into a three-act play. Some dialogue scenes are long and, nevertheless, effective, thanks to the fact that they are directly inspired by what Newman saw, heard and lived in Burma as a soldier, and for being Guest's right hand when directing the "mise-en-caméra".
These two small, low-budget and effective films, in addition to the remarkable films that I knew and mentioned at the beginning of these notes, have increased the esteem that I already had for Val Guest's work.
Where the Boys Are
(1960)
Changing Times
6 May 2024
This movie is no masterpiece, but it certainly belongs to a breakthrough moment in American film. Starting a new decade (that eventually would be called "the swinging Sixties") Henry Levin's cult movie follows the concerns with love, sex, and marriage among the young American women, seen a year before in "A Summer Place" or "Gidget" (both released in 1959).
"Where the Boys Are" opens with a classroom controversy about sex, between a young female student (Dolores Hart) and her old lady professor (Amy Douglass). As the story progresses, two girls (Hart and Paula Prentiss) opt for courtship and perhaps marriage, the traditional route expected of them, which Prentiss never questions but reaffirms it. A third young woman (Yvette Mimieux) has a sexual adventure and is "punished" for it, while a short girl of Italian descent, who sings and provides comic relief (Connie Francis), takes a more open and liberal path, in the company of the weird musician who courts her.
The cards were laid on the table - the representation of sex and its different options needed a change in American film. Comedies and dramas would follow one after another, around the same thing: the liberation of bodies and minds, in both Los Angeles movies and independent films made away from the big industry, more daring, breaking the repressive regulations of the Hays Code.
It is interesting to note the personal and professional paths that the four actresses followed: Hart became a nun; and Francis was pushed as the star of a handful of insipid musicals, which she resisted, conscious of her ethnic roots and social origin in a poor section of New York. Despite the sensuality of her role, Mimieux only became a pretty prop in many dramas and comedies, without redemption. Only Paula Prentiss (who had been forced to marry by MGM, so her boyfriend actor Richard Benjamin could joined her in promotional travels) was willing to break the mold and executed a striptease that was cut in the final edition of "What's New Pussycat". I guess the pressure was strong, for she had a nervous breakdown that kept her out of movies for five years.
So that's where the girls were.
"Where the Boys Are" opens with a classroom controversy about sex, between a young female student (Dolores Hart) and her old lady professor (Amy Douglass). As the story progresses, two girls (Hart and Paula Prentiss) opt for courtship and perhaps marriage, the traditional route expected of them, which Prentiss never questions but reaffirms it. A third young woman (Yvette Mimieux) has a sexual adventure and is "punished" for it, while a short girl of Italian descent, who sings and provides comic relief (Connie Francis), takes a more open and liberal path, in the company of the weird musician who courts her.
The cards were laid on the table - the representation of sex and its different options needed a change in American film. Comedies and dramas would follow one after another, around the same thing: the liberation of bodies and minds, in both Los Angeles movies and independent films made away from the big industry, more daring, breaking the repressive regulations of the Hays Code.
It is interesting to note the personal and professional paths that the four actresses followed: Hart became a nun; and Francis was pushed as the star of a handful of insipid musicals, which she resisted, conscious of her ethnic roots and social origin in a poor section of New York. Despite the sensuality of her role, Mimieux only became a pretty prop in many dramas and comedies, without redemption. Only Paula Prentiss (who had been forced to marry by MGM, so her boyfriend actor Richard Benjamin could joined her in promotional travels) was willing to break the mold and executed a striptease that was cut in the final edition of "What's New Pussycat". I guess the pressure was strong, for she had a nervous breakdown that kept her out of movies for five years.
So that's where the girls were.
What's Up, Doc?
(1972)
Bugs Bunny was never this zany
6 May 2024
A bona fide comedy classic by Peter Bogdanoviich starring Ryan O'Neal in his prime, this might be Barbra Streisand's best role ever: not only does she look like Bugs Bunny, but she is making cinema of her time, not filmed theater, and she handles her eccentric role to perfection. Inspired by Howard Hawks' "Bringing Up Baby", this is a screwball comedy full of errors, mistaken identities (of bags and bones), and an unstopable kook after a hunk with glasses who is in reality an "absent-minded professor". It also has Madeleine Kahn (a Bogdanovich favorite) in the cast, stealing every scene she is in. Don't miss it!
Visions of Ecstasy
(1989)
Kisses in the Abbey
5 May 2024
"Visions of Ecstasy" is a bad, boring, macho fantasy-interpretation of Santa Teresa de Ávila's acrobatics and passionate devotion, considering that the Spanish santa levitated every now and then, and was a good rider, going from town to town on horses, mules or holy brooms, to found new convents... Wingrove would have probably made something more interesting (and aerial and equestrian...) than this endless and lame lesbian scene, intercut with bland hetero action. Considering all the noise made when Scorsese made and released his adaptation of Kazantzakis' "The Last Temptation of Christ", the indifference and silence surrounding this one is suspicious...
Violeta Went to Heaven
(2011)
Violeta went much higher than this
5 May 2024
This film based on the life of the great Chilean singer, composer, folklorist and traditional music compiler Violeta Parra is not bad, but the script followed the pedestrian structure of formulaic biopics, when the subject was a very complex artist, with a strong personality. It more or less follows the dialectic of "inspiring incident->song", "inspiring incident->song" and so on... Francisca Gavilán is very good, but Andrés Wood did much better with less compromised projects as the remarkable «Machuca.» Unfortunately, he was dealing with a major figure of world culture, and the result was rather average.
Burning Ghost
(2019)
Fine first film
5 May 2024
Warning: Spoilers
To my list of contemporary films about kind ghosts, who go through life fulfilling tasks, loving and seeking meaning, I now add this fantasy melodrama, deliberately hyper-romantic with the music of Benoit de Villeneuve and Gaspar Claus, which won the prestigious Louis Delluc award for Best First Feature of French Cinema in 2019.
«Vif-argent» (mercury or quicksilver, literally) is the work of Stéphane Batut, an actor in a few movies, whose main activity in the French film industry has been as casting director, selecting casts for more than 60 features. For this film, he chose the boom operator Timothée Robart to play Juste, a 20-year-old boy who appears by a lake, unaware that he has died, and who, instead of being listed as dead by afterlife officer Kramarz, is sent here to accompany the recently deceased to their new "residence". But one day, in the subway, Agathe, a 30-year-old woman, sees him, then she follows him and finally assures him that she met him in Turkey ten years ago and that they had a romantic adventure, which they rekindle. When Juste falls in love, Kramarz informs him that his time on this plane is over and the young ghost resists.
Juste's main problem is his invisibility. Some people do not see him and, after a while, Agathe too, from a moment on in the plot, in which the story became a bit complicated for me without needing to be, with musical bursts that ended up breaking the hypnotic effect of the film had on me for more than an hour.
However, there is a lot of charm in this story, in the characters (Juste's naivete, the African couple of Alpha and Bailo, Agathe's Italian grandmother, the short, moving monologue of Juste's father) and in the locations (the Paris of emigrants, with peddler's tents in the streets, African turbans and robes) that keep interest alive. Good start for a directorial career, which can bear better fruits in the future.
«Vif-argent» (mercury or quicksilver, literally) is the work of Stéphane Batut, an actor in a few movies, whose main activity in the French film industry has been as casting director, selecting casts for more than 60 features. For this film, he chose the boom operator Timothée Robart to play Juste, a 20-year-old boy who appears by a lake, unaware that he has died, and who, instead of being listed as dead by afterlife officer Kramarz, is sent here to accompany the recently deceased to their new "residence". But one day, in the subway, Agathe, a 30-year-old woman, sees him, then she follows him and finally assures him that she met him in Turkey ten years ago and that they had a romantic adventure, which they rekindle. When Juste falls in love, Kramarz informs him that his time on this plane is over and the young ghost resists.
Juste's main problem is his invisibility. Some people do not see him and, after a while, Agathe too, from a moment on in the plot, in which the story became a bit complicated for me without needing to be, with musical bursts that ended up breaking the hypnotic effect of the film had on me for more than an hour.
However, there is a lot of charm in this story, in the characters (Juste's naivete, the African couple of Alpha and Bailo, Agathe's Italian grandmother, the short, moving monologue of Juste's father) and in the locations (the Paris of emigrants, with peddler's tents in the streets, African turbans and robes) that keep interest alive. Good start for a directorial career, which can bear better fruits in the future.
Rascal
(2020)
Very good drama
5 May 2024
«Rascal» could not be a more euphemistic title, considering what the film narrates. Before the eyes of a person passing by, the mysterious, seductive, and repellent Djé (Deladonchamps) is just an ex-convict, a smiling homeless man with a package of surprises, with mental resources that an interlocutor would not expect from him. But it is not my intention to reveal what Djé is really up to, because I would ruin the film for you.
At the end, I was surprised that the film is little mentioned on the internet, and that it has few awards. Apart from the fact that its release, scheduled as part of the official selection of the Cannes film festival in May 2020, was affected by the pandemic, I think that this indifference responds above all to the aesthetic treatment that director Peter Dourountzis gave to his first feature, based on his own script, which evades all dramaturgical resources with a whiff of psychology, in the style of a 19th century novel. He opted for a model that is closer to direct cinema, to anthropological cinema. Djé is defined neither by the opinions of others nor by his own reflections on his life, but through his actions and words in the present.
Descriptively, the film adds up incidents in Djé's life, after he is released from prison. The man arrives in Limoges and encounters bricklayers, sexual conquests and a graffiti artist who takes him to live with a community of misfits. Neither Djé nor anyone talk about the future or prospects. Events just happen and we do not know where the action is taking us, although director Dourountzis leaves us clues so that we can deduce the outcome. At the conclusion, there is nothing to explain, everything has been said.
In the center, the actor Pierre Deladonchamps dominates the film. There is no scene in which he is not involved. Deladonchamps has a way to project an unpleasant personality, with an almost gloomy expression, although it is sometimes illuminated by his smile. If in «Stranger by the Lake» he was a homosexual addicted to impersonal and fleeting sex, here he is a rabidly heterosexual guy, restrained, with the look of a snake.
A good film, with a different aesthetic and a dramaturgy free of emotional manipulations.
At the end, I was surprised that the film is little mentioned on the internet, and that it has few awards. Apart from the fact that its release, scheduled as part of the official selection of the Cannes film festival in May 2020, was affected by the pandemic, I think that this indifference responds above all to the aesthetic treatment that director Peter Dourountzis gave to his first feature, based on his own script, which evades all dramaturgical resources with a whiff of psychology, in the style of a 19th century novel. He opted for a model that is closer to direct cinema, to anthropological cinema. Djé is defined neither by the opinions of others nor by his own reflections on his life, but through his actions and words in the present.
Descriptively, the film adds up incidents in Djé's life, after he is released from prison. The man arrives in Limoges and encounters bricklayers, sexual conquests and a graffiti artist who takes him to live with a community of misfits. Neither Djé nor anyone talk about the future or prospects. Events just happen and we do not know where the action is taking us, although director Dourountzis leaves us clues so that we can deduce the outcome. At the conclusion, there is nothing to explain, everything has been said.
In the center, the actor Pierre Deladonchamps dominates the film. There is no scene in which he is not involved. Deladonchamps has a way to project an unpleasant personality, with an almost gloomy expression, although it is sometimes illuminated by his smile. If in «Stranger by the Lake» he was a homosexual addicted to impersonal and fleeting sex, here he is a rabidly heterosexual guy, restrained, with the look of a snake.
A good film, with a different aesthetic and a dramaturgy free of emotional manipulations.
The Bloody Vampire
(1962)
Bloody and funny
5 May 2024
Fine chiller, first film of a diptych, a bit damaged by a hurried conclusion, it remains open for the second movie, "La invasión de los vampiros" (The Invasion of the Vampires). Interesting (and somehow funny) for the domestic quarrels between the Count and his non-vampiric wife, who is his prisoner; by the presence of Argentinian actress Bertha Moss as "Frau Hildegarda", considering that same year she was a guest in Buñuel's "El ángel exterminador" (The Exterminating Angel); and an extended role for Lupe Carriles, a cult character actress with almost 200 film appearances. The weakest parts have Antonio Raxel reciting endless lines, and the worst include a bat with donkey ears. Don't miss it!
El vagabundo
(1953)
Tin Tan Meets Wolf Ruvinskis Again
5 May 2024
After an episodic first part in which a hungry vagabond (played by Tin Tan) tries to eat anything on Christmas Eve, the action really takes off when he ends up in a circus, where he is cajoled in order to save the business (owned by Marcelo Chávez) from an inminent foreclosure. As in "No me defiendas, compadre", it is funny to watch Tin Tan and wrestler (and friend) Wolf Ruvinskis in comedy routines. Some people consider "El vagabundo" among Tin Tan's best comedies, its direction being credited to Rogelio A. González (responsible for "The Skeleton of Mrs. Morales") and Gilberto Martínez Solares (director of the classic films of the comedian, as "El revoltoso", "Calabacitas tiernas", and "El rey del barrio").
Us
(II) (2019)
Bravo!
5 May 2024
Clever and frightening! Excellent film: from Jordan Peele's previous work "Get Out" to this one, he has taken a step of seven leagues in execution and in originality introducing a universal metaphor that scares everybody, when you are in front of an exact replica of yourself, although with differente intentions. It evokes the pure horror of similar situationas, as in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers". Besides, the poetic figure that supports the entire drama, of the rising of the oppressed in a horror film scheme, advances and closes brilliantly with a final wink. Very good characterization of Lupita Nyong'o in her role as the worker in red overalls. Bravo, señor Peele!
Land of Mine
(2015)
A Sand Too Bland
5 May 2024
I sat down to watch "Under the Sand" with high expectations: a story set in Denmark, at the end of World War II, in which a group of teenage German soldiers are forced to clear a Danish beach of the thousands of mines buried by the army Nazi. But I was disappointed because it began as a strong and tense drama (I had not covered my eyes in years!, but this film affected me so much that I could not see the scenes in which the young men risk their lives detecting the mines), and it suddenly turned into a "cake under the rain", with melodramatic dialogue and scenes, syrupy music, a dog to please the Disney-millennial crowd, screaming sergeants, arch-perverse villains, dirty and hungry but cute youngsters, and a whiny but happy "feel good" ending. It's a shame, because few movies treat German soldiers as human beings. Too bland for my taste.
Under My Nails
(2012)
A Good Try
5 May 2024
It is a pity that the good intentions behind this drama are betrayed by formulaic solutions and melodramatic dialogue. I decided to watch it when I found out that my good friends Antonio Pantojas and Dolores Pedro had important roles -respectively, as Amalia, the homosexual uncle of the main character; and Perpetue, a Haitian descendant trapped in New York- but they also had to deal with a couple of scenes written rather clumsily.
It is also a pity because the story touches very realistic topics, as the abuse of women by their male partners, the frequent discrimination suffered by Haitians, the rather obssessive aim of some Dominican Republic persons of migrating to mainland USA (object of several films, as the drama "Un pasaje de ida" (A One-Way Ticket), and the comedies "Nueba Yol" and "Nueba Yol III: Bajo la nueva ley"), or even the role played by delinquents' mothers in their sons' behavior.
The film tells the story of a Puerto Rican woman whose mother apparently was killed by her father, and who gets into a dangerous relationship with a man who abuses of his wife. Finely photographed in New York and Puerto Rico, it is worth a look, but not the good film it could have been.
It is also a pity because the story touches very realistic topics, as the abuse of women by their male partners, the frequent discrimination suffered by Haitians, the rather obssessive aim of some Dominican Republic persons of migrating to mainland USA (object of several films, as the drama "Un pasaje de ida" (A One-Way Ticket), and the comedies "Nueba Yol" and "Nueba Yol III: Bajo la nueva ley"), or even the role played by delinquents' mothers in their sons' behavior.
The film tells the story of a Puerto Rican woman whose mother apparently was killed by her father, and who gets into a dangerous relationship with a man who abuses of his wife. Finely photographed in New York and Puerto Rico, it is worth a look, but not the good film it could have been.
Ulysses
(1954)
Put your 1954 hat on...
5 May 2024
And enjoy this adaptation of "The Odyssey", because if you watch it from a contemporary perspective, many things will not add up. But if you see it as if you had traveled in a time machine and were watching it in 1954, this version of Homer's epic poem in the key of domestic melodrama is splendid. I enjoyed it completely and, as in one of those emotional "movies of the week", I shed a couple of little tears when dad Ulysses reunites with son Telemaco, and even more when husband finally enters Penelope's bedchamber to claim his "marriage rights."
If you get too modern, then, the visual effects will seem artisanal (by the way, I had a lot of fun with Polyphemus as a giant with a sense of humor, who gets miserably drunk when he discovers wine, thanks to perfidious Ulysses) or Howard Rosson's camera will seem very static in some action scenes. But those are things that you will pass, surpassed by that passionate Greek thing, even in the hands of an international cast.
It is fantastic to see so many dear people gathered in a single film: the 'old gringo' Kirk Douglas in the role of a half-pedantic hero that he so assiduously played so well; the beautiful Miss Rome, Silvana Mangano, in dual roles, as Penelope and as Circe the witch; Mexican Anthony Quinn as Penelope's most evil suitor; two young Italians, the beautiful Rossana Podestà as Princess Nausicaa and Vittorio de Sica's "shoeshine", Franco Interlenghi, as Telemaco; the French "shameless old lady" Sylvie as Penelope's aide, the Italian giant Umberto Silvestri doubling, as Polifemo and as the fighter Krakos, etc.
The film was directed by Mario Camerini, classic filmmaker who began in silent movies, survived fascism and remained active until the 1970s. A sweet ride through the land of mermaids, cyclops and passionate peopl.
If you get too modern, then, the visual effects will seem artisanal (by the way, I had a lot of fun with Polyphemus as a giant with a sense of humor, who gets miserably drunk when he discovers wine, thanks to perfidious Ulysses) or Howard Rosson's camera will seem very static in some action scenes. But those are things that you will pass, surpassed by that passionate Greek thing, even in the hands of an international cast.
It is fantastic to see so many dear people gathered in a single film: the 'old gringo' Kirk Douglas in the role of a half-pedantic hero that he so assiduously played so well; the beautiful Miss Rome, Silvana Mangano, in dual roles, as Penelope and as Circe the witch; Mexican Anthony Quinn as Penelope's most evil suitor; two young Italians, the beautiful Rossana Podestà as Princess Nausicaa and Vittorio de Sica's "shoeshine", Franco Interlenghi, as Telemaco; the French "shameless old lady" Sylvie as Penelope's aide, the Italian giant Umberto Silvestri doubling, as Polifemo and as the fighter Krakos, etc.
The film was directed by Mario Camerini, classic filmmaker who began in silent movies, survived fascism and remained active until the 1970s. A sweet ride through the land of mermaids, cyclops and passionate peopl.
The Trouble with Being Born
(2020)
The Trouble with Pharisaism
5 May 2024
Very good film. While some persons are worried or scandalized for the implied sex relations between a man and one android with the features of a little girl in the first part of the movie, what made the stronger impact on me was the unethical ability of human beings to destroy real emotion through the dehumanization of technology and, if I give human value to the android, alas! ...what a terrible "fate" the little robot in this movie has.
On the other hand, we are talking about a construct, which makes it more absurd to talk about any sexual conduct we disapprove. Here we are dealing with a human being and a robot, so I think we should find new words to define the simulacrum of the human something that they do together, which weakens moralistic derision when one realizes that one of the components is a robot.
The first story was annoying to me, because of the character of the father who has not processed that her daughter disappeared ten years ago, but the second part comes to life with the appearance of an old lady who longs for her brother who died 60 years ago. In the end, the film balances its two stories by complementing one with the other. Good script, direction and acting by all.
P. S. Elli reminded me of Edith Scob in «Les yeux sans visage».
On the other hand, we are talking about a construct, which makes it more absurd to talk about any sexual conduct we disapprove. Here we are dealing with a human being and a robot, so I think we should find new words to define the simulacrum of the human something that they do together, which weakens moralistic derision when one realizes that one of the components is a robot.
The first story was annoying to me, because of the character of the father who has not processed that her daughter disappeared ten years ago, but the second part comes to life with the appearance of an old lady who longs for her brother who died 60 years ago. In the end, the film balances its two stories by complementing one with the other. Good script, direction and acting by all.
P. S. Elli reminded me of Edith Scob in «Les yeux sans visage».
Las tres alegres comadres
(1952)
Happy Comadres
5 May 2024
First installment of a diptych, this is an average comedy in which three young women from Mexico City try to succeed in show business, but end up bribing older men. Most of the film depends on the musical numbers, but these are not very good, so what could have been a comedy full of laughs and good music is nothing more than a customary Mexican urban comedy, with so-so musical numbers, except for the tropical rhythms in which Amalia Aguilar exceeded. In the following movie, "Mis tres viudas alegres" (My Three Merry Widows), Lilia Prado (who plays here the boring girl with marriage at the top of her agenda) was replaced by Silvia "Viridiana" Pinal, who was funnier.
Trance
(I) (2013)
Shallow Trance
5 May 2024
While watching this convoluted concoction in search of dramatic resonance, I could not help thinking in one of John Cassavetes' sincere reflections on why he filmed what he filmed, but most of all I remembered my enthusiasm the night I saw Danny Boyle's «Shallow Grave,» back in 1994. In those days I worked as a film critic for a Panamanian newspaper. With the movie screens and markets controlled by transnational enterprises all over the world, the weekly film offer in Panamá was then and still is an impenetrable block of 98% of US mainstream productions, with the occasional European or Latin American production (independent US cinema has historically been out of our screens, due perhaps to the lack of strength of the small US companies that distribute these products).
By 1995 I left the paper, tired of having to consume and write about an almost exclusive diet of big, bad or ugly American films. Something like «Shallow Grave» was refreshing and welcome. It was followed by the admirable «Trainspottin» and Boyle seemed the bright prospect of a filmmaker with an auctorial touch. But then everything started to diverge and lose coherence... I have witnessed the "Bertolucci syndrome", as I call it, many times: very talented and even rule-breaking filmmakers who apparently seemed to have a career of original works ahead, who turned into purveyors of pedestrian entertainment, done with skill, big budgets, high production values, and little else. Of course, Bernardo Bertolucci had his flashes of brilliance every now and then, but nothing compares to his first four or five features.
In the case of Boyle, he made two remarkable early films (both written by John Hodge), but then both he and his screenwriter entered the "mainstream" of foreign cinema, writing about and filming anything, without that early original touch... It seems that the artistic nature of people like Cassavetes and Federico Fellini (who always made films in Italy) simply could not function outside of their own milieu, which they knew best. Not all filmmakers have the chameleon-like nature of Ang Lee - whose most commendable film (for me) is still «The Wedding Banquet,» for all the autobiographical touches it has. Of Boyle's later work I only gave a nod to his TV movie «Vacuuming Completely Nude in Paradise» and to «28 Days Later,» both for their intelligent description of lives on the edge. But I can easily pass for the rest, I would rather watch Lubitsch's «Bluebeard's Eight Wife» (which I did).
As for the pitiful «Trance», it is structurally clumsy, with too many flashbacks, too many explanations, and a too early revelation of who is the evilest of the three leading characters, almost striping the narrative of its suspense and strength. It is true that it deals with memory and the reconstruction of past events, but almost nothing seems credible or convincing. The only element that rang true for me and that I found interesting was the subject of woman abuse, but only as a cause, because the effects developed by Hodge are rather laughable... and those effects are the foundation of the whole film. On top of that, for a film dealing with TV football-consuming crooks, an unethical hypnotist and a clerk who cannot pay his bills, all related to the underworld, everything looks slick, bright, trendy, hipsterish, as Boyle previously did with misery in India and lonely agonies.
By 1995 I left the paper, tired of having to consume and write about an almost exclusive diet of big, bad or ugly American films. Something like «Shallow Grave» was refreshing and welcome. It was followed by the admirable «Trainspottin» and Boyle seemed the bright prospect of a filmmaker with an auctorial touch. But then everything started to diverge and lose coherence... I have witnessed the "Bertolucci syndrome", as I call it, many times: very talented and even rule-breaking filmmakers who apparently seemed to have a career of original works ahead, who turned into purveyors of pedestrian entertainment, done with skill, big budgets, high production values, and little else. Of course, Bernardo Bertolucci had his flashes of brilliance every now and then, but nothing compares to his first four or five features.
In the case of Boyle, he made two remarkable early films (both written by John Hodge), but then both he and his screenwriter entered the "mainstream" of foreign cinema, writing about and filming anything, without that early original touch... It seems that the artistic nature of people like Cassavetes and Federico Fellini (who always made films in Italy) simply could not function outside of their own milieu, which they knew best. Not all filmmakers have the chameleon-like nature of Ang Lee - whose most commendable film (for me) is still «The Wedding Banquet,» for all the autobiographical touches it has. Of Boyle's later work I only gave a nod to his TV movie «Vacuuming Completely Nude in Paradise» and to «28 Days Later,» both for their intelligent description of lives on the edge. But I can easily pass for the rest, I would rather watch Lubitsch's «Bluebeard's Eight Wife» (which I did).
As for the pitiful «Trance», it is structurally clumsy, with too many flashbacks, too many explanations, and a too early revelation of who is the evilest of the three leading characters, almost striping the narrative of its suspense and strength. It is true that it deals with memory and the reconstruction of past events, but almost nothing seems credible or convincing. The only element that rang true for me and that I found interesting was the subject of woman abuse, but only as a cause, because the effects developed by Hodge are rather laughable... and those effects are the foundation of the whole film. On top of that, for a film dealing with TV football-consuming crooks, an unethical hypnotist and a clerk who cannot pay his bills, all related to the underworld, everything looks slick, bright, trendy, hipsterish, as Boyle previously did with misery in India and lonely agonies.
To the Devil a Daughter
(1976)
A Tale of Satanists
5 May 2024
By 1976 Hammer was closing operations. This was the last horror movie the company produced until 2008. Originally offered to Don Sharp (who left unsatisfied with the screenplay), it was finally directed by Peter Sykes, with an impressive cast, including Christopher Lee, Nastassja Kinski, Richard Widmark, Denholm Elliott, and Honor Blackman. But the star here is cinematographer David Watkin. The multi-awarded director of photography of "Chariots of Fire", "The Three Musketeers", and "Out of Africa" does an amazing work, with lighting, angles, movements and framing that suggest something sinister is at stake. He and art director Don Picton made very good use of all exterior and interior locations, giving the film an elegant look to sustain this sordid tale of Devil-worshipping.
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