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 More hidden treasures |
OTHER
VOICES, OTHER FILMS |
The Talk of
the Town (George Stevens, 1942).
One of my all-time favorite 40s films that nobody's heard of. It's a fun
story with a serious twist, a tale of two men at opposite ends of the
social scale, both vying for the charms of Jean Arthur, who, dammit, I
love and always will. One man is an accused arsonist, the other a lawyer
about to be named to the Supreme Court. As the two men slowly change each
other's perspectives on life and justice, poor Jean has to make a choice.
Who will she pick? The question is made nearly impossible because the
accused arsonist is Cary Grant, and the lawyer is Ronald Colman. Agggggh!
Whose bright idea was it to outlaw bigamy, anyway?-- Bonnie Lee Howard |
| Dave
Vermillion The Mudlark (Jean Negulesco, 1950) None But the Lonely Heart (Clifford Odets, 1944) I Was a Male War Bride (Howard Hawks, 1949) The Little Match Girl (Jean Renoir & Jean Tédesco, 1928) The Gunfighter (Henry King, 1950) |
Shari
L. Rosenblum One From the Heart (Francis Ford Coppola, 1982) Days of Being Wild (Wong Kar-Wai, 1991) Libertarias (Vicente Aranda, 1996) The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino, 1978) Peeping Tom (Michael Powell, 1960) |
Fred
Erickson Sunday (Jonathan Nossiter, 1997) End of the Road (Aram Avakian, 1970) Veruschka (Franco Rubartelli, 1971) Next Stop, Greenwich Village (Paul Mazursky, 1976) Your Three Minutes Are Up (Douglas Schwartz, 1973) |
| Sasha
Stone Walking and Talking (Nicole Holofcener, 1996) The Good Mother (Leonard Nimoy, 1988) Schizopolis (Steven Soderbergh, 1996) The King of Comedy (Martin Scorsese, 1983) The Big Lebowski (Joel Coen, 1998) |
Greg
Sorenson Battle Royale (Kinji Fukasaku, 2000) Kiki's Delivery Service (Hayao Miyazaki, 1989) Pennies from Heaven (Herbert Ross, 1981) Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (Frank Tashlin, 1957) Wing Chun (Yuen Woo-Ping, 1994) |
Lovell
Mahan-Moutaw The Daytrippers (Greg Mottola, 1996) The Frighteners (Peter Jackson, 1996) Live Nude Girls (Julianna Lavin, 1995) Rocket Gibraltar (Daniel Petrie, 1998) Teddy at the Throttle (Clarence C. Badger, 1917) |
The Hanging
Garden (Thom Fitzgerald, 1997).
A young gay man returns home for his sister's wedding. He has changed
since his family last saw him, or perhaps everything else has. The writing
and characters in this Canadian indie feature are superb, but it's the
tone of the film that most impressed me. The projection of fantastic thought
into this very realistic character study is so effective, I don't understand
why we don't see more of it. (I'm being a bit vague, so as not to spoil
things; but think Fellini's 8 1/2 and you might get the idea.)
Anyway, Léolo would form a great double-bill. Perfect, in fact.
If you watch them together, please invite me over. -- Dave Vermillion |
| Richard
Doyle The American Friend (Wim Wenders, 1977) Cockfighter (Monte Hellman, 1974) Greetings (Brian De Palma, 1968) How to Get Ahead in Advertising (Bruce Robinson, 1989) Santa Sangre (Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1989) |
Devin
Rambo A Pure Formality (Giuseppe Tornatore, 1994) Unstrung Heroes (Diane Keaton, 1995) Vanya on 42nd Street (Louis Malle, 1994) Moonlighting (Jerzy Skolimowski, 1982) Men Don't Leave (Paul Brickman, 1990) |
Moné
Peterson Comanche Station (Budd Boetticher, 1960) Django (Sergio Corbucci, 1966) Love Me Tonight (Rouben Mamoulian, 1932) The Private Affairs of Bel Ami (Albert Lewin, 1946) Sven Klang's Combo (Stellan Olsen, 1976) |
Deathwatch (Bertrand
Tavernier, 1980).A movie twenty years ahead of its time, about the ultimate "reality" TV show. Romy Schneider is dying. She accepts a big check from TV producer Harry Dean Stanton to film her final days, then runs off. So Harry sends Harvey Keitel to film her surreptitiously. A great film that hasn't been available on video in ages, but is on the coming attractions slate at Anchor Bay. -- Lisa Larkin |
Four Daughters
(Michael Curtiz, 1938).
This film is remembered today for John Garfield's debut, but what I admire
about it is its sharp sense of place (Lenore Coffee and Julius Epstein
have created the ultimate small American town) and its sensitive handling
of the story of four sisters working through their emotional lives and
places in the world. It's not a movie one would seek out for showy cinematic
technique, but there is much here to delight women's studies scholars,
as well as folks who need a day home in their jammies with a big bowl
of popcorn.-- Nancy Loe |
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 Other voices, other films |
©2002 CineScene
Dennis Potter, best known in America for Pennies from Heaven
and The Singing Detective, wrote this little fantasia about the
woman who, as a child, was the inspiration for Lewis Carroll's Alice.
Her journey across the Atlantic to receive an honorary degree on the
centenary of Carroll's birth is counterpointed by flashbacks of her
as a young girl receiving possibly questionable attentions from Carroll.
In her flashbacks, we see that she still has powerful visions of the
inhabitants of Wonderland, brought to life here by Jim Henson's Creature
shop. The film is fun in a number of ways, especially in those scenes
with Peter Gallagher as a feisty reporter who badgers 
the 80-year-old Alice for her story. Alas, this is one of many Potter
works that might be called hidden treasures. Most of his prodigious
output is unavailable in the U.S.
A delightful animated short. Without giving too much away: a couple
plays Scrabble and gets into an argument, oblivious to the goings-on
outside. By no means a technical masterpiece, it never fails to make
me laugh a lot, despite my tape being almost worn out. 
Despite
a Best Actress Oscar for Olivia de Havilland and a place on the "woman's
melodrama" shelf of those with long enough movie memory, Liesen's barely
post-war film about some battles fought at home gets lost among the weepies
and dismissed at its surface. But don't let the tears or the tearjerking
fool you, To Each His Own is a most up to date and incisive study
of a woman who makes choices outside of society's strictures, not because
or in spite of society, but for herself as herself. During WWI, Jo (Josephine)
Norris spends the night with a pilot, becomes pregnant with his child,
contemplates abortion, opts against it for practical, not ethical considerations,
and then, with a miscalculation, maneuvers herself out of the right to
call the child her own. The plot reads as pure sudser, but is executed
head held high, with self-assurance standing in place of self-pity, and
fate sidestepped for the fortunes we make in its place. It's a story written
and conceived by men of a different era (Charles Brackett wrote the screenplay
and produced the film), but it's got a modern woman's soul - or perhaps,
more accurately, a human soul not falsely gendered. Our heroine acts
from within her situation, within the reality of women at that time, but
she is never judged, scorned, or punished for her missteps. To the extent
she defines herself as victim, the film - her own self-assessment - has
no pity for her. But to the extent she owns her choices, gracious and
self-possessed, her dreams have no limits. With patience and fortitude,
the film promises, society will grow up and change around her. Forthrightly
feminist avant la lettre, the film is conscious of constraints, but committed
to its movement forward: 
less resentful than resourceful, and more stalwart than strident, yet
angry and determined nonetheless. It is, for this, a thousand ways more
confident in its contemporary cutting edge than many current attempts
at similar goals. 
While Woody has all too often hidden behind the style of greater directors
like Bergman or Fellini, this film is definitely his best "serious" film,
that is, one that is not brightened with some comic relief. It is so very
insightful and startling in its examination of rivalries between friends,
siblings and spouses that it's hard, actually, to believe that Woody Allen
wrote it. It remains his greatest undiscovered work. Gena Rowlands plays
a professor who wakes up to the fact that her world is devoid of true
feeling. Gene Hackman is particularly effective as the passionate lover
she left behind (a regret she endures throughout her life). Allen seemed
ready to express what it feels like to suddenly realize that one's life
has been built on illusion and vanity - 
that
moment when you turn around after running for so long, look back at where
your footsteps have been, and at who you've sacrificed along the way.
There is hope, of course, as with most of Allen's films, that this woman
can turn around and try to repair some of the damage. Rowlands gave the
best performance of her career - but nobody paid any attention. See it.
A
dark, shocking, strangely humorous film about a young boy's escape from
reality. 12-year-old Leo (Maxime Collin) lives in a run-down Montreal
tenement with his abusive family in the 1950s. In his imagination he
is an expatriate Sicilian named Leolo. Stunning bursts of poetry are
juxtaposed with scenes that are brutal, vulgar, or obscene, A black
comedy about the tragedy of a sensitive soul in conflict with society
- it's one of the most unusual films ever made -- vulgar, audacious,
yet deeply compassionate. 
Brakhage is one of the great figures of the American avant-garde, and
this 5-minute work is a rare thing indeed - a film made without a camera.
This is as basic as it gets: two mylar strips and a hell of a lot of
moths. Mesmerizing and singular, it is quite something to watch it projected
and then get a chance to examine the actual film on the reel - truly
this is something that's impossible to do with video.
Eccentric Australian family fights back when fatcats try to force them
to move in order to make room for an airport. Sweet and hilarious and
weird and darling. This is the only dysfunctional family without a clue
about fashion that I wish would have me as a member. 
A rare British road movie. Peter Capaldi plays Gavin Bellini, a Scottish
illustrator of rather gruesome children's stories who is trying to find
work in London. Just as he is down to his last penny, he encounters
uncle Sal, the head of the family - a family that made a fortune producing
and selling ice cream. Sal tells Gavin that he's sold the business and
Gavin is due a share. The catch is that Gavin has to return to Scotland
for his father's birthday in order to receive the money. The bulk of
the story concerns Gavin's trip in a rather dilapidated Triumph called
"Crazy Horse," along with Yvonne, a hitch-hiker with a past. The humour
is sweet, good natured, often hilarious, and occasionally dark. The
characters are complex, even down to secondary and incidental roles
- they all seem to have a story behind them, even if we never find out
what it is. Yvonne, played by Elaine Collins, is the very un-Hollywood
love interest. She is not tall or blond or attractive in any conventional
way, and yet she is easy to fall in love with. Gavin is bitter and mean
and generally not very nice, yet Capaldi (who also wrote the script)
makes us care about him. A great little comedy, the like of which we
don't see very often. 
This gritty little film follows the exploits of a couple of boxers (Stacy
Keach and Jeff Bridges) - shiftless ham n' eggers trying to make a living
on the circuit. The fight sequences are every bit as realistic as those
in Raging Bull. Huston, once an amateur champion himself, clearly
knew a thing or two about the world he so vividly depicts in this forgotten
gem. 
It is very difficult to film Dostoevsky. For one thing, his philosophical
and religious concerns don't seem to translate well to the screen. This
French version of Crime and Punishment short-changes those aspects,
but what it captures like no other adaptation I've seen is the Dostoevskyan
atmosphere. The production design (the great Eugene Lourie) features city
streets and houses that look cramped, spooky, a bit off-kilter. The young
actor playing Raskolnikov (Pierre Blanchar) looks hungry and haunted;
the black-and white photography is great, the director (Pierre Chenal)
sustains a feeling of desperate, rat-like confinement that is very much
like the experience of reading that great novel. No, it doesn't plumb
the depths, but it manages to evoke some of the story's existential fright,
and I love the film's look and mood. 
Before MGM was in full swing with the technicolor musical, Fox was already
pumping them out regularly, often with the same cast, down to supporting
and bit players. This is one of my favorites. Two performers in love (Betty
Grable and John Payne) have a spat and go out with other people (Cesar
Romero and Carmen Miranda) to make each other jealous. Payne is smooth
and dependable here as always, and Grable hums along pleasantly, but it's
the supporting cast that really makes this one. Lanky Charlotte Greenwood
does her patented, nutty swing leg dance step, Romero is suave and crafty,
Edward Everett Horton steals every last bit of Payne's spotlight, but
it is Miranda who outshines them all, in this, my favorite of her screen
roles. Here she is Rosita Murphy, whom Payne has apparently hired as his
secretary while in a drunken stupor. The results are hilarious, and every
line she rolls out is a gem. I think because these Fox musicals were so
assembly-line produced, people tend to discount just how enjoyable they
are. That's a pity. I think this one captures the feel of the genre just
right, and I wish more people would watch it. 
Two hit men wonder why their prey (John Cassavetes) doesn't seem to
care if he lives or dies, and their curiosity puts them on the trail
of the woman he loved (Angie Dickinson) and her crime boss lover (Ronald
Reagan). I know it's blasphemy, but I like this version better than
the1946 one - not that it's very easy to recognize one as a remake of
the other. Lee Marvin is at his weary and cynical best, abetted by his
strange and fearsome partner, Clu Gulager. The story is actually of
less interest than the performances. Yes, Ronald Reagan plays a bad
guy, and with no irony intended I really wish he'd done more of this
sort of thing. He's quite good at it. 
The evil Synonamess Botch wants to give the whole world nightmares,
so he kidnaps the deliverers of dreams, the Figmen of the Imagination
(yes, they look like little figs) and sends out these huge vultures
carrying bad-dream bombs. ("You are setting forth on a great mission.
Some of you will not be coming back tonight ... I can deal with that.")
Great animation (something like South Park meets Monty Python),
some of it overlaid on live-action footage. A rare gem indeed.
The middle entry in Bergman's "faith" trilogy is usually overlooked
in favor of Through a Glass Darkly's spider-god, and The Silence's
lesbianism, while ironically being the most obviously related to the
subject of faith. The story concerns a disillusioned priest (Gunnar
Björnstrand) and his inability to cope with the needs of either
his parishioners or his personal intimates. The film plays out in near
real-time, and the painfully honest character interaction is some of
the most quietly brutal and intense of any Bergman film. ...and that's
saying something.
Belgian
actor Benoît Poelvoorde acquired international fame with his role
as a serial killer in Man Bites Dog. In this lesser known film
he tops that performance as Roger, a photographer working for an unimportant
local newspaper in the industrial wastelands of Wallonia. Cruel, stubborn,
and insensitive, Roger becomes obsessed with a contest in which anyone
who breaks a world record can win a car. He decides that his teenage
son Michel can easily break the world record for opening doors if he
just trains enough, but Michel is not interested. Poelvoorde's screen
presence is almost unsurpassed - he can switch from psycho to loving
father convincingly within the blink of an eye. Combine that with a
strong combination of humour and drama and beautiful black & white cinematography,
and you have a little known gem. -- Martijn ter Haar