1936: Sabotage

Not to be confused with Saboteur, the Hitchcock film about foreign agents violenty disturbing public life in London shares with other Hitchcock movies of that time a certain patchyness and technical shortcomings, but is somehow delivered with more charm to make for an entertaining bit of viewing, though it certainly is not a masterpiece. (7)

1972: Deliverance

When four friends go on a rafting trip, senseless violence finally strikes after a somewhat tedious 25 minutes or so, and after that things get ugly. Not badly executed overall, but I don't really need a film to tell me that civilization is only skin deep and you're never really save; after all, I do pick up a paper from time to time. (6)

1980: Altered States

A brilliant scientist tries to find the essence of the self using unusual methods, which turns out to be a bad idea. The longer it goes on, the harder it gets to take it seriously. (5)

2009: Logorama

The Oscar-nominated short, packed with as many corporate logos as would fit into a quarter of an hour, isn't just visually attractive in a brightly-coloured, in-your-face way, but also a nicely structured police-and-thieves story. Just overlook the sixth-graders style social criticizm. (7)

1984: Body Double

Brian de Palma's take on Rear Window has 1980s: Decade of Bad Taste written all over it and even features Frankie Goes To Hollywood performing "Relax". Interestingly, de Palma uses the kind of dramatic scene that most writers would have put at the end or maybe the beginning of a script as a turning point right in the middle; rather neat. Even so, not his strongest bit of work, especially in visual terms. (7)

2006: Inside Man

This is a Spike Lee movie? Seems like one of those "one for the studio" things. Anyway, this walk down the well-trodden bank robbery path had an ending I found somewhat puzzling, but I found it more regrettable that it didn't seem to want to add anything to the genre. Like, the characters could have recited Whitman once in a while. Or something. I don't know. All in all, no bad entertainment, though. (6.5)

1963: Tengoku to jigoku (High and Low)

About two thirds of Kurosawa's contemporary kidnapping movie show the police trying to catch the perp, as us police people put it, so why is it better than your average TV crime film? A few points:

• The screenplay does leave some questions, but it is structured more interestingly than your average script; in particular, it has well-placed turning points that aren't just there because the textbook says you need them.
• Looks better: It's set in early 1960s Tokyo rather than, say, late 2000s Bremen.
• Looks better: It's in black and white.
• Looks better: It has a director with a sense for visual stuff. This is a thing that baffles me: Much of made-for-TV stuff seems to be by directors and cameramen who don't care how things look. Lack of time and money can't explain all of it.

That list certainly isn't exhaustive. All in all, 7.5.

2009: Up in the Air

George Clooney, radiating his usual charisma, plays a not very realistic outplacement specialist whose passion for living on plaes, in airports and hotels is threatened when a college graduate (the very funny Anna Kendrick) is hired by his firm and suggests that hencetoforth all firing is done via video conferences. After a pacey first hour, the film turns into a standard RomCom between, roughly, minutes 60 and 90, only to redeem itself in the end. Those 30 minutes make the film poorer than it could have been, but, on the upside, much of it is set inside airports and planes, which I just happen to like. A classic 7.

2000: Proof of Life

Meg Ryan is the wife of a man who gets kidnapped in a Southern American country, Russel Crowe is the professional who knows how to handle these things. Will they develop a liking for each other? - Seems like the kind of film made by capable people who swore to each other to work hard enough to deliver a product that's professionally made and is nothing to be ashamed of, but no harder! (5.5)

2009: Moon

Debutant Duncan Jones's film about an employee of an energy company who discovers he is not the only person on his lunar base after all has often been compared to 2001 because it has a talking computer in it but is actually more akin to The Shining as it exploits the setting of a large, sparsely populated building to eerie effect. The film's devoid of weaknesses, but doesn't manage to cross the threshold to greatness either. (7) Given that I blame the regrettable fact of so few films that are set in space coming out on their production being expensive, maybe the best thing about this one is that it was made for only five million dollars, but is entirely convincing in terms of special effects. Let's hope this makes some of the money men rethink their views on funding this kind of film.

1946: Gilda

This noir take on the meange a trois trope, which contains Rita Hayworth's famous one-glove strip, is a very solid piece of work. (7)

1942: Saboteur

In this Hitcock wartime film, you'll be surprised to learn, a man is wrongly accused of being a saboteur. It's a little patchy and the showdown on the Statue of Liberty has more in terms of symbolism than in terms of spectacle. Not a bad film, but North by Northwest it is not. (6)

1950: In a Lonely Place

The main character is called Dixon Steele, but we never see him perform. He is, in fact, a screenwriter, and has a woman falling in love with him who thinks he's wrongly accused of killing a girl. The ending totally doesn't work, but the film makes up for it with generic 1950s b/w US film charm. (7)

1981: Eye of the Needle

The Second World War: Ruthless Nazi spy vs. upstanding, albeit inept, English Rose. Who clearly does too much crying for this to be called a feminist film, and the overly dramatic score is bordering on parody, but why not? (6)

Film Links #3

1. Danish tourism ads directed by Lars von Trier (pointer)

2. "The Greatest Long Tracking Shots in Cinema" and the "20 Greatest Extended Takes in Movie History"

3. Kubrick's Napoleon project

2003: Monster

When Charlize Theron's performance as Aileen Wurmos in Patty Jenkins' biopic about the multiple murderer is discussed, variants of the idea "daring to be ugly" are bandied about a lot. In fact, "daring to be ugly" is one of the most undaring things a good-looking actress can do, because, as the reaction to Theron's performance showed, even if you convincingly demonstrate the role is beyond your reach, soon it's going to rain accolades. Good filmmakers would get a lot out of this meaty topic even with a less than stellar cast, but writer-director Jenkins goes straight for made-for-TV aesthetics and concentrates the rest of her energy on making a political statement of the killer-as-victim variety. Having said all that, a turkey it's not. (5)

1992: Bad Lieutenant

Building your film around a cop that does all kinds of drugs, cheats and is generally devoid of morals is a bit of a cheap idea, the kind of thing that appeals to sixteen-year-olds, and at times the film is way too slow. On the upside: A perfectly cast leading man and the whole thing filmed with just the right amount of nittygrittyness. Summary: Tries to be Taxi Driver, isn't. (6)

Match

From Olly Moss's Films in Black and Red series. More minimalist poster designs here and here (last link NSFW in an abstract way).

1976: Obsession

Brian de Palma's film about a middle-aged man who meets a younger woman that is the spitting image of the man's late wife (who died in a car accident many years before) is often criticized as being merely derivative. But although de Palma's movie is clearly inspired by Hitchcock - he even got Bernard Herrman to compose the music - it tells a story that's quite distinct from the one in the 1958 masterpiece. Indeed one might argue that Vertigo's more important influence is stylistic, the beautiful score sometimes seeming to play endlessly to the painstaikingly composed frames depicting the man's, well, obsession with the young woman. An exercise in style that succeeds all the way. (8)

Roger Ebert sort of agrees.

1930: Der blaue Engel (The Blue Angel)

The film that made Marlene Dietrich Marlene Dietrich and chronicles the downfall of a well-respected man who falls in love with a disreputable woman suffers somewhat from the usual technical shortcomings of the day, including an uncinematic overall visual style as well as the fact that leading man Emil Jannings overplays his tragic role. (5.5)

1987: The Dead

Marred by its almost BBCish cinematography (one Fred Murphy's responsible), the film about a dinner party, if that's the right term, in early 20th century Dublin, managed to entertain me without exactly blowing my mind. My knowledge on the sociocultural context is pretty poor, though, so it's quite possible that I missed stuff. Favourite scene: The piano instrumental. Favourite character: The drunk. Pretty strong ending. (6)

1974: Phantom of the Paradise

If you think Tommy was an over-the-top 1970s pop opera, I'd like to refer you to Brian de Palma's glamrock take on The Phantom of the Opera (with a bit of Faust thrown in for good measure), in which a young songwriter has his material robbed by an evil producer, is thrown into not just any prison, but - wait for it! - Sing Sing, tries revenge, in the process of which his face get mutilated by a vinyl press, so that he takes to wearing a silver mask, which goes nicely with his metal teeth (don't ask), before things start to get whacky. The film, which may have been influenced by the consumption of cocaine, would have been even better if, as I had anticipated, at one point giant, winged penises would have flown onto the screen. Maybe in a director's cut. (7.5)

1962: Le procès (The Trial)

As discussed at some lenght by Milan Kundera in his Testaments trahis, Kafka tells his dreamlike story in very clear, simple language, but Welles goes down the opposite route, and I agree with Kundera that that's not a good idea. My point is not that a film should try to be a faithful translation of the book it's based on. But while Kafka's beautiful language enhances what is otherwise a not so interesting story, from Welles we get a sackful of cheap tricks like tilted camera angles, long shadows and even longer hallways, making the film look like a black-and-white version of Brazil; and that, contrary to popular opinion, is not a good film. (5.5 for Le procès; I never finished Brazil)

1961: Une femme est une femme (A Woman Is a Woman)

If A bout de souffle was Godard's take on American gangster films, maybe Une femme est une femme may be seen as his version of lighthearted musicals in the style of An American in Paris. Loosely plotted, it deals with a woman who knows she wants a child but not from which of two men (who, naturally, are good friends - remember, this is a French film). Though it's clearly too much in love with its own quirkiness, it's a good movie overall because it's visually attractive (Early 1960s Paris! Technicolor! Competent individuals in charge!) and because some of its quirkiness is rather lovely - two of the comic scenes, combined running time about four seconds, are almost unforgettably super. (7)

2002: Whistle

Moon director Duncan Jones's half-hour film about a contract killer and his family is somewhat pointless, suffers from plot implausibilities and is otherwise o.k. (5)

1928: La passion de Jeanne d'Arc (The Passion of Joan of Arc)

If you like courtroom dramas but are looking for one that's somewhat different, try The Passion of Joan of Arc. It even has a plot twist towards the end!

I'm joking, of course, Carl Theodor von Dreyer's picture is nothing like Anatomy of a Murder, but it is indeed a drama set in a courtroom, rather than the war movie/biopic you might expect on the basis of the title. Joan says she's the daughter of god, the church officials try to extract from her a confession that she did her deeds under the influence of Satan. Try to find some middle ground between those two! I like to think that Dreyer, a Dane, chose this topic to stick it to his compatriots, who were already as obsessed with compromise in the 1920s as they are today.

But The Passion is one of the films in which the plot isn't all that important; the picture is a visual experience more than most. First, there is the face of Maria Falconetti, who plays Joan*:


More important, and harder to capture in screenshots, is Dreyer's style. As Roger Ebert explains:

There is a language of shooting and editing that we subconsciously expect at the movies. We assume that if two people are talking, the cuts will make it seem that they are looking at one another. We assume that if a judge is questioning a defendant, the camera placement and editing will make it clear where they stand in relation to one another. If we see three people in a room, we expect to be able to say how they are arranged and which is closest to the camera. Almost all such visual cues are missing from "The Passion of Joan of Arc." Instead Dreyer cuts the film into a series of startling images.

This can hardly be stressed enough: There are no establishing shots. When two people talk to each other, you never get one of those over-the-shoulder shots and you rarely see the two people in the same frame. What instead you get is a highly rhythmic sequence of different, though related pictures, supported by Richard Einhorn's Voices of Light, which must be one of the greatest scores ever written for film.** The effect is hard to describe, and the best (not very good) comparison I can come up with is Battleship Potemkin. Maybe the fact that they don't do it like this anymore has to do with the fact that it's too easy to move the camera. Don't get me wrong: I like a good tracking shot more than the next man, and indeed Dreyer includes some to great effect, but he never moves the camera just because he can.

If I had to sum it up, I'd say it's like 2001 with faces instead of spaceships. (9)

Not Natalie Portman

______
*Screenshots embedded from Matthw Dessem's essay on the film, which I strongly recommend for more insight than the present post delivers.

**Strictly speaking, Einhorn's composition is not a soundtrack written for, but rather an "opera/oratorio" "inspired by" the film. But given how well it fits the rhythm of the film, down to single cuts, it's a bit hard to believe this. My theory on this is that Einhorn wanted to compose a soundtrack for the film, but knew this wouldn't sit easily with authenticity fanatics who know that Dreyer disliked having his films accompanied by music, so he went down the "inspired by" route. This has the added advantage that pieces of "modern classical" music inspired by pretty much anything have a fair chance of actually being performed in concerts by orchestras, while soundracks don't. Pretty nifty!

The Best Films of the Noughties Series Continues...

... but not before Thursday, until which day I have lots of other, more important work to do. Hold your collective breath, o millions!

2009: Sherlock Holmes

The CGI/Action approach to Sherlock Holmes uses quite a few stock elements of this line of production and is conventional to the point of indulgence, but this it does really well; the comic partnership between Holmes and an invigorated and de-nerded Watson is a lot of fun with its sharp dialogue and after I'd seen the film I couldn't imagine anyone but the fabulous Robert Downey jr. in the role. Simple minds, simple pleasures, I guess. (7.5)

1980: The Fog

I like simplicity, but John Carpenter, based on my sample, takes things a little too far in this respect. But the idea of a deadly fog coming to getcha is nice and the film, set in a California coast town, has a good sense of place and features accomplished cinematography. Quite decent entertainment, all in all. (6.5)

2008: Der Baader Meinhof Komplex (The Baader Meinhof Complex)

Based on Stefan Aust's nonfiction book of the same name (sans grammar error), the chronicle of left-wing German terrorism is more historically accurate than your average film based on true events, but cramming all of it into a single feature-length film - the classic book adaptation mistake - does the movie no good. The same is true of hiring about every German film actor with a bit of a name. Moritz Bleibtreu tries his very best as Andreas Baader, but it's too much for him. On the upside, the mighty Bruno Ganz as the terrorists' opponent, BKA boss Horst Herold, is brilliant, which leads to him overshadowing the lot of the figures on the other side of the law - an intended effect? Anyway, for all its weaknesses, this is good mid-brow entertainment. (7)

1977: Mort d'un pourri (The Twisted Detective or Death of a Corrupt Man)

There are a lot of bad things you could say about this flick starring Alain Delon as a righteous man in possession of a file that proves the corruption of many leading politicians: The desperately modern production design (the Delon character owns a digital alarm clock!), making the film look more dated than most of its contemporaries; the female lead not only played by Ornella Muti - Ornella Muti! - but the director making sure her character has a strong preference for white tops, so you can see her nipples in most of her scenes; occasional run-of-the-mill trashiness and, most of all, the film's naive bad world view, complete with truth-to-power sermons. But I liked this film a lot, and not because it's so bad it's good. Rather, the - overall mild - trashiness punctuates what would otherwise have been a pretty decent action thriller to make it more interesting. (7.5)

Bad Publicity Move

(Pointer)

2007: Butterfly on a Wheel

This movie about a couple who find themselves at the mercy of the man who has kidnapped their daughter and uses the power differential to some effect could be a professionally done diversion, and for the most part it is, but the screenplay has a serious and totally unneccessary weakness; namely, as the story goes along and the two people we're supposed to like jump through various hoops, there continue to be vague allusions suggesting that maybe the two aren't all that wholesome - maybe the kidnapper has a point? A variant of what I've called the Werther problem: "A piece of fiction can't work if it depends on you caring about the main character and that character is unlikable." (5.5)

The Best of January 2010

The monthly list of the best films I've seen during that time, irrespective of how old they are.

1. L'année dernière à Marienbad (1961) - 8.5
2. 4 luni, 3 saptamâni si 2 zile (2007) - 8
3. The Red Shoes (1944) - 8
4. Michael Clayton (2007) - 7.5
   
5. To Be or Not to Be (1942) - 7.5
   

Films Not Finished: January 2010

Aparajito, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Get Carter, The Good Thief, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, Odd Man out, The Osterman Weekend, The Sweet Hereafter