1999: The Limey

This variant of the man seeks revenge story suffers from a bad case of The "Blimey Mate" Problem, complete with Cockney Rhyming Slang; indeed it's a pretty unsophisticated script all around. Director Steven Soderbergh perhaps should have gotten an Oscar for making it into a visually interesting, reasonably entertaining film. (6.5)

1964: Seance on a Wet Afternoon

The film about professional psychic talking her beta husband into kidnapping so they don't have to be middle class anymore and then offering her services as a medium to the kidnappee's parents suffers a little from a heavy-handed exposition but is otherwise good all around. (7)

1968: The Producers

In order to defraud investors, a Broadway producer and his accountant devise a scheme to produce a flop. They think they've found the right script when they come across Springtime for Hitler, but of course it turns out to be a huge success. - Much too slapsticky for my taste, but even so, the tightly scripted movie provides reasonably good entertainment. (6.5)

1969: L'armée des ombres (Army of Shadows)

When Inglourious Basterds came out, some people complained that it was not what they had expected from a film advertised as depicting the work of freedom fighters behind enemy lines: No training scenes, no raids on barracks, wtf? It is possible that Tarantino's deviations from the genre standards were inspired by L'armée des ombres, Jean-Pierre Melville's 1969 flop about the French resistance. Thinking back to the plot, it seems a strange movie indeed: Never do we see the freedom fighters take any effective action against the Germans, and one comes away from the film with the feeling that had the resistance never existed, this would not have made much of a difference. Instead, what is chronicled are the internal workings of the group; much time is given to the killing of resistance members who gave away the names of comrades. 145 minutes long, it is deliberately paced (many people will find this movie boring), and its subdued mood is underlined by Pierre L'Homme's excellent, excellent cinematography, which might best be described as a technicolor version of the work Robert Elswit did for Michael Clayton, and which nicely contrasts with Eric de Marsan's very good, somewhat saccharine music. A minor masterpiece which teaches the lesson that even if you're fighting on the side of the good guys, you may end up doing ugly things. (8)

The Best of June 2010

1. Vivre sa vie: Film en douze tableaux (1962) - 7.5
   
2. Kumonosu-jô (1957) - 7
3. Alphaville, une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution (1965) - 7
   

Films Not Finished June 2010

If...., Themroc

1965: Alphaville, une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution

Godard's take on the Lemmy Caution character is a science fiction film in which the agent comes to Alphaville, the place where logic rules. Lemmy meets a woman, and you can guess the rest. Though a lot is made of the fact that Godard didn't build any sets but rather filmed the most modern-looking parts of Paris he could find, but given that the film is set in the mid-1970s (if I interpret the dialogue correctly), this seems fair enough. The film's not a masterpiece by any stretch, but charmingly quaint. Recommended for fans of b/w shadow-/lightplay. (7)

1954: Thursday's Children

Not only is Lindsay Anderson's documentary about a school for deaf children boring, it also has voice-over narration that alternates between the usual third-person view and taking the (inauthentic) voice of the children ("We are deaf."). Bonus: Contains the remarkable assertion that if you don't have words, you cannot think. (4)

1935: Mutiny on the Bounty

Solid but unexceptional narration of the well-known story. I've previously seen the 1962 version with Marlon Brando, and filming the South Seas in black and white somehow seems wrong. (6)

1960: Charlotte et son Jules

Upon the return of his ex-girlfriend into his flat, a young man starts a ten-minute monologue until the film comes to a predictable "surprise" ending. Pointless twelve-minute early Godard. (4)

1962: Vivre sa vie: Film en douze tableaux (My Life to Live)

Nana, who can't make it in film despite having featured in an Eddie Constantine picture (injoke!), is short of money, and we witness her quick descent into prostitution and worse, driven by Michel Legrand's memorable theme music. Godard's unusual use of the camera both in terms of movement and framing, remindful of La passion de Jeanne d'Arc (which we see Nana watching), is the main feature that sets this film apart, although for my taste in one scene it is woefully overdone. (7.5)

1959: Charlotte et Véronique, ou Tous les garçons s'appellent Patrick (All the Boys Are Called Patrick)

Godard shot this short a in the year before he did À bout de souffle, but, working from a script by Eric Rohmer, he naturally couldn't produce anything resembling a masterpiece. The story features a couple of female flatmates who go out one day to be chatted up seperately by the same guy, tell about it each other in the evenings, and guess what happens at the end. Exactly the same story, with genders reversed, was made into the excrutiating rap song "Die da" by Die Fantastischen Vier about forty years later, the lyrics having the decisive advantage that it's unclear until the end that the two friends are talking about the same person. Well. (5)

2009: Surrogates

The Bruce Willis flick about a future in which people mind-control human-looking robots that they send out into the streets so they (the humans) can safely stay at home is professionally done all around, but no Blade Runner (6.5).

1954: Viaggio in Italia

Strange: Throughout the film I kept thinking that the mediterranean light had been captured better in the films of Antonioni's ennui trilogy. Apart from that, competent film about a couple bitching at each other during a trip to Italy. Has Ingrid Bergman in it. (6.5)

1919: Broken Blossoms or, The Yellow Man and the Girl

Girl suffers under the thumb of her adoptive father who suffers from bad English ("I'll teach yer!") and anger management issues ("I'll teach yer!"). Girl falls in love with gentle Chinaman (played by a pretty Caucasian-looking Richard Barthelmess). Violence. - There's not a lot to say about D.W. Griffith's acclaimed silent melodrama except that it's not very good. (5.5)

1948: Germania anno zero (Germany, Year Zero)

Rosselini's neorealist classic about a boy in bombed-to-pieces postwar Berlin features lay performances from lay actors and more technical ineptness than you should expect from a 1948 picture. Historically important it may be, particularly good it's not. (5.5) Better films in the same mould are Ladri di biciclette and Rosselini's own Roma, città aperta.

1957: Kumonosu-jô (Throne of Blood)

Kurosawa's idea behind his version of Macbeth, the overriding aesthetic principle of which is scarceness, seems to be to make Ozu look like Busby Berkeley. (7) Just the right thing to watch after Sex and the City 2, and I've also got four Rosselinis lined up.

The Best of May 2010

1. The Kid (1921) - 8
2. Chelovek s kino-apparatom (1929) - 7.5
   
3. Le Trou (1960) - 7.5
4. La battaglia di Algeri (1966) - 7.5
   
5. Le Doulos (1962) - 7
   

Films Not Finished May 2010

Carlito's Way, Coeurs, Girlfriend Experience

2010: Sex and the City 2

I understand every bit of criticism in Roger Ebert's one-star review, but I can't say I hated the film. Yes, we made fun of it and it's certainly no Some Like It Hot, but at times I laughed with the movie and, never having seen an episode of Sex and the City, found it an interesting sociocultural experience overall. (unrated)

2009: Angels & Demons

With its high production values and general wham-bam-bam-ness, the film version of Dan Brown's thriller, about the hunt for kidnapped bishops in Rome, could be more fun if the viewer had to expand less energy on suspending disbelief. (6.5)

2009: Män som hatar kvinnor (Men Who Hate Women or The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo)

Like the Stig Larsson runaway bestseller it is based on, the film takes its time, clocking in at about 150 minutes, though this is by no means to its detriment. Good work all around. (7)

1998: Enemy of the State

The plot is a man on the run, the target audience is the not-too-bright, and it has a political message, too: this film has a lot going against it. (5)

2007: I'm Not There

Six actors playing six facets of Bob Dylan, with episodes from a variety of decades intercut with each other; in other words: this film makes a point of being nonlinear. In my view, it's taking that concept a bit far; despite knowing a bit about Dylan's life, I found it too fractured, but fully understand others disagreeing on that. Visually fine, good music (naturally), an abysmally bad performance by Ben Wishaw as one version of Dylan. (6.5)

2007: In the Valley of Elah

Despite asking us to sympathize with an ex-soldier who managed to raise his two sons into joining the army, the first three quarters of this film, about a father trying to find out who killed his son, work decently as a mystery, until the film starts to clumsily hurl its anti-war meassage at the audience. Possibly the most hideous last scene in movie history. (5)

1930: Sous les toits de Paris (Under the Roofs of Paris)

Clair's partially sound/partially silent romance wields lots of Old Paris charm (despite being obviously filmed in the studio), but it has extremely little plot for a ninety minute film and is accordingly slow. Not nearly as good as Le Million. (6)

1929: Chelovek s kino-apparatom (The Man with a Movie Camera)

Dziga Vertov's silent experimental/documentary film about life in The Modern Russian City attempts to cover all central aspects of life - work and play, birth and death - and time and again puts the filmmakers themselves into the frame, perhaps in an attempt to alert the audience to the subjective nature of the seemingly objective medium, perhaps out of vanity. Despite an undeniable stylishness of the whole movie and quite a feeling for rhythm in particular, the film could still be somewhat boring with the wrong music, I guess, but Michael Nyman's 2002 soundtrack is not only cool music in and by itself, but fits perfectly with the pictures. (7.5)

1956: Bob le flambeur (Fever Heat)

Although lengthy at times, Melville's first crime movie - about an ex-gangster who becomes an ex-ex-gangster after having gambled away his money and plans on robbing the Deauville casino - is recommended overall, not least because of Isabelle Corey, playing the cheekiest Lolita in movie history. Cool shots of 1950s Pigalle, too. (7)

1967: Le samouraï (a.k.a. The Godson)

Melville's 1967 film about a killer who is chased by both the police and his clients, but, strangely, never seems to even think of leaving Paris, is wildly famous for its style. The cinematography is very nice indeed, but then, it's nothing spectacular, and the plot is a bit meagre. Overrated. (6.5)

1944: The Pearl of Death

Holmes (Rathbone) and Watson are looking for a precious pearl in this one. Other people want it too. There's a conflict for you! (6.5)

1924: Paris qui dort (At 3:25)

René Clair's half-hour silent about a group of people who are the only ones awake and moving in a Paris that has otherwise come to a standstill is a mixture of the charming and the lengthy. (6)

1922: Häxan

Benjamin Christensen's educational silent film which uses feature-type scenes to argue against the existence of witchs, witchcraft and the devil, isn't nearly as fucked up as I had hoped, though the writer-director in the role of the devil looks really very good. For stoners. (6)

1966: La battaglia di Algeri (The Battle of Algiers)

Not only is it fully warranted that this film's look is renowned for its proximity to the documentary style, but the first half or so merely recounts a series of terrorist attacks, complete with dates given and a narrator leading us through the events. After Colonel Mathieu arrives to lead the counterinsurgency, things get a little more conventional. Crisp and elegant, it's a very good film to look at throughout. (7.5)

1962: Le doulos (Doulos: The Finger Man)

Very stylish b/w pick by Jean-Pierre Melleville about two gangsters, featuring Jean-Paul Belmondo and a great unassuming long take. Bit confusing at times, but plot is overrated anyway. (7)

1944: The Scarlet Claw

Does the recent series of murders call for a supernatural explanation? The village's people say yes, Sherlock Holmes says no. Who will turn out to be right? (6.5)

1982: The King of Comedy

Set in contemporary New York, this Martin Scorsese-directed movie, stars Robert de Niro as a chronic loser who is driven to violence by his inability to adjust to the social world around him, but is ultimately not punished for it. - Yeah, it sounds like Taxi Driver, but the synopsis applies equally to The King of Comedy, which must be described as its companion piece, though in terms of aesthetics the latter film is not in the same league as the former. What's worse, while Taxi Driver makes the audience oscillate between a lack of comprehension of and pity with Travis Bickle, The King of Comedy invites scorn for the insufferable wannabe comedian Rupert Pupkin, thus forcing the audience to display one of their lesser characteristics: the tendency to look down on losers. (unrated)

1965: A Study in Terror

This account of Sherlock Holmes (John Neville) hunting Jack the Ripper (not invented by Doyle) either features a very strange approach to cinematography or the material has been subject to serious bleaching over the year. I got used to it after twenty minutes or so, however. Apart from that, a nice afternoon diversion. (6.5)

1960: Le trou (The Hole or The Night Watch)

Despite being in no hurry - among other things, there is a four-minute shot of people hammering away at a cell's floor - Jaques Becker's b/w film about a prison break feels quick, well-timed and disciplined, making it possibly the best in its genre. (7.5)

1984: 1984

Michael Radford's rendering of Orwell's story has every frame shot in grey and blue and the production design seems to have been done on the assumption that dictators deliberately make their countries look depressing. It's a bit like having someone shout DYSTOPIA! at you for 100 minutes. (5)

1921: The Kid

Crisp, funny, touching and featuring a great score (composed in 1971) as well as that certain something it's hard to put one's finger on, The Kid, about The Tramp's adventures with his cute adoptive son, may well be the quintessential Chaplin film. (8)

2002: City by the Sea

Drug addict gets into trouble with the law, re: homicide. His father is a homicide detective. Conflict. - Set in a derelict Long Beach (more derelict than real Long Beach, according to Wikipedia), the film hardly uses the setting and generally suffers from its made-for-TV aesthetics. Someone like Cassavetes or Aronofsky might have made much more of this, one feels, have made much more of this. Still, not a bad film at all. (6.5)

1942: This Gun for Hire

Noirish crime drama about a nightclub singer/magician (Veronica Lake!), a hitman and, in the baddie roles, a bunch of ruthless capitalists. Very crisp. (7)

2007: The Golden Compass

Though it could have done with a bit of work on the screenplay to make the whole thing a little more stringent, compact, focused, and also to put a little more weight on expository elements, this fantasy film about a teenage girl fighting the prevailing totalitarian powers (not unremindful of religious organizations in general and the catholic church in particular), is engaging, clearly shows the audience where all the money went and, most importantly, has shitloads of talking animals in it, including what appears to be a ferret. A talking ferret, oh readers! Just the right thing for a rainy Sunday afternoon. (7)

2008: Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Woody Allen takes his usual spiel to Spain with this relationship comedy in which two American girls - one with a taste for the solid life, the other looking for passion, etc. - fall for a mediterranean Romeo with a violent ex wife. While the latter two roles are well filled by Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz respectively, Rebecca Hall and Scarlett Johansson do less than stellar jobs in the first two thirds of the title roles. (Barcelona, as far as I can tell, looks fine.) Tight screenplay, good ending, 7 points.

1997: Kiss the Girls

Filmed in the standard turn-of-the-century-American-suspense-film cinematography, this movie about a pervert kidnapper, a victim and a policeman reliably takes us from one plot point to another, but fails to make the audience care about the characters. (6)

2007: I Am Legend

After a supposed cure for cancer went all wrong, Will Smith appears to be the only human survivor who was not zombiefied. Being, in large part, responsible for the mess, he is trying to find a cure while staying alive in the face of zombie attacks. - Yeah, you could say it's all a bit disjointed in terms of plot and isn't really going anywhere, but the general athmosphere, driven by the excellent production design and cinematography, does enough for me to make this thoroughly enjoyable. (7)

1968: The Odd Couple

It's photographed a bit blandly, but apart from that there's absolutely nothing wrong with this always entertaining and occasionally funny Lemmon-Matthau vehicle. Extra super: the Pigeon sisters. (7)

This is another of the films I saw recently that are based on plays; they hardly ever do that anymore, do they? Instead, every other American film nowadays appears to be based on a comic. All in all, I think I prefer the former.

1981: Diva

In my memory, this film, which was released in Germany only in 1983, seems to be on constant reruns at the local arthouse throughout the mid and late 1980s, so it was always a noteworthy classic in my mind, a bit below Blade Runner perhaps. Funny I only saw the movie - about a postman chased by gangsters because they want his bootleg recording of a famous opera singer's performance - now. It turns out not to be so remarkable; I guess its popularity has a lot to do with its aesthetics, including a general stiltedness, looking very hip, very zeitgeist at the time. An interesting historical document. (6.5)

The Best of April 2010

1. La dolce vita (1960) - 8
   
2. Orfeu negro (1959) - 8
3. (500) Days of Summer (2009) - 7.5
4. Il mio viaggio in Italia (1999) - 7.5
   
5. Old Man Drinking a Glass of Beer (1898) - 7.5

Films Not Finished: April 2010

All the Real Girls, Following (looks like a debutante's no-budget film, probably because it is), I Heart Huckabees (writing a Charlie Kaufman screenplay isn't easy, especially if you're not Charlie Kaufman), Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, Zazie dans le metro (it only took two minutes and I wanted to give the little brat a good spanking talking to)