Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005)

The rest of my weekend viewing either left me cold (The Day After Tomorrow) -- literally, since it was about America freezing over -- or put me to sleep (The Notebook), although I usually like watching James Garner, so we'll give those a miss.  Instead let me tell you about the above movie which is the third in the Korean director's (Park Chan-Wook) revenge trilogy which started with "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance" and continued with "Oldboy" -- both immensely interesting films.  This one was a little more subdued, although it had its share of violence, but was beautifully filmed, exquisitely scored and forcefully acted.  The heroine has just been released from jail after serving 13 years (from the age of nineteen) for a child murder which she did not commit.  She appears to have an angelic nature but nurtures revenge against the man who put her there and made her lose her young daughter.  The movie focuses both on her years in prison together with the backstories of some of her cellmates and her plan for vengeance in the days after her release. How she tracts him down, unearths his other crimes and gets others to partake in the bloody finale is the gist of the tale, but it is also full of many other nice touches which don't necessarily further the action but which add to the richness of the scene.

Fraulein Else (1928)

I'm taking a break from the Film Festival this weekend to play a little "catch-up" with the rest of my life -- which of course does include watching the odd film or two.  It was my first viewing of the above which again was recently restored, but despite a slim story based on a Arthur Schnitzler tale it was so much livelier than the other German silent that I viewed yesterday evening (and reviewed below).  Part of this was due to an engaging orchestral score but most of it was down to the playing of the lead role by Elisabeth Bergner who was a big stage star in Germany at the time.  She and her husband (the director here) moved to Britain in the thirties, presumably to escape from Hitler, and she had a brief starry career.  In this movie she has gone to St Moritz with her friends, but receives a wire from her mother that papa is in deep financial trouble; she is asked to approach a "friend" of the family who is some kind of dirty old man.  He makes it clear that he might help in exchange for her revealing her body (or more).  She can't bring herself to this and evolves a plan which ends in her death and completely mortifies the potential financial saviour; how this would help dear papa is a very moot point.

The Chronicles of the Grey House (1925)

I was dead keen to see this German silent, not only because it had never been shown before in Britain, but also since this was the world premiere of the restored copy.  Yes, I admit, I am a completist when it comes to movies.  However it was something of a lumpen affair, despite the occasional nice architectural framing.  It was the story of two brothers fighting over an inheritance which the natural heir had jeopardized by marrying the daughter of a servant.  Big shame!  She was played by Lil Dagover -- a well-known name from silent days, but a fairly stolid presence.  It was only in the last reel where her spirit appeared to protect the son she had died giving birth to that there was much in the way of excitement.  Otherwise the completely static camera work added to the pedestrian plod.

The King (2005)

The blurb in the Festival programme made this film sound a whole lot better than it was.  It is a collaboration between the British documentarian who made the very weird "Wisconsin Death Trip" and an established Hollywood screenwriter, and stars Gael Garcia Bernal in his first English-language role -- but all, I thought, to little avail.  William Hurt is a born-again pastor in Texas who is faced with Garcia Bernal claiming to be the son of a long-past relationship.  It is not 100% definite that the latter is telling the whole truth since he swiftly impregnates the young lass who may be his stepsister and also murders her brother who may or may not be his stepbrother.  When the hypocritical Hurt acknowledges the young man as his son, things take a turn for the worse (and yes, they can get worse).  Unfortunately the ending was left wide open which was less a case of "viewer, make up your own mind" than unsatisfactory storytelling.

Lemming (2005)

I wasn't expecting too much from this French film, but found it interesting and not a little bit disturbing.  Like the previous movie of its German-born director, Dominik Moll, "Harry, He's Here to Help", unexpected events conspire to bring unforseen threats to the most placid existences.  Charlotte Gainsbourg and her husband have a loving relationship until they meet up with his boss and the latter's bitter wife, played by Charlotte Rampling. Concurrent with this, they have discovered the titular lemming in the S-bend of their kitchen sink.  What takes place thereafter is the stuff of nightmares and possession.  One can't look for logic as the film plays itself out, but one can be terrified by the characters' apparent loss of control over their actions.  My only criticism is that it was all a little too leisurely and would have benefitted by a tighter running time. 

The Girl from Monday (2004)

Hal Hartley hasn't done much of interest since 1998's "Henry Fool", so I was rather looking forward to seeing his latest effort.  While my companion thought it was good, I must confess that I was disappointed, perhaps because I am not over-keen on sci-fi as a genre.  More likely the reason is that it was shot on digital video which produced a hand-held shaky feel which I find hard to watch.  More important I thought that the storyline was fairly threadbare; the concept of a near future controlled by a huge corporation that gives consumer credits for sexual promiscuity and self-interest may be of some potential interest, but the way this played out was slack. Incidentally, Monday (where the girl was from) was an extraterrestrial planet.

The Blue Dahlia (1946)

This film has been considered a noir classic for the nearly sixty years since its release and garnered an Oscar nomination for its screenwriter, the great Raymond Chandler.  However if truth be told it has not held up all that well and is more competent than exciting.  Alan Ladd plays a war hero who returns with his two buddies to find that his wife has been unfaithful and has been responsible for the death of their son.  When she is found dead, he is the natural suspect although one knows he is innocent.  There are also two characters who might have been the guilty party, but one doesn't really believe this.  Therefore when the real killer is revealed, it is something of an anticlimax.  To some extent my main problem here is with Ladd.  He is an able and attractive actor elevated into a reasonable career by a pushy casting agent wife.  However he is so tiny that one must really suspend belief to see him beating up all the heavies (and don't remind me of Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan).  He was continuously paired with wee Veronica Lake, as he is here, to make him look taller.

Takeshis' (2005)

As I wrote yesterday I am a Takeshi Kitano fan and therefore probably better placed to enjoy his new film than a viewer who might be less familiar with his work.  I am hard-pressed to describe this simply, since it mixes fantasy with bits from previous films to form a kind of "Takeshi's Greatest Hits".  He plays himself in his Beat Takeshi persona as a Japanese icon of both violence and humour; he also plays (in his bleached Zatoichi hairdo) a convenience store clerk who dreams of success as an actor because of his resemblance. This all gets intertwined with characters from his other movies and presumably from his popular TV shows in Japan and includes traditional transvestite dancers, energetic tap-dancers and characters that  die but won't stay dead.  The would-be Kitano finds that increasing violence and bloody gun-play bring him nearer to the world of his hero, but the actor-director seems to be saying that all is illusion -- that none of this is real.  An amusing, fascinating and perplexing film. 

Beyond the Rocks (1922)

It would certainly not do to be rude about a recently discovered "lost" film; however I must confess that the above movie is more of a curiosity than a masterpiece.  Pieced together by the Netherlands Film Museum over the last few years, it was the only pairing of Gloria Swanson and Rudolph Valentino, so its restoration was greeted with approving cheers.  Miss Swanson was 23 at the time, but playing younger (and looking about 40); she has married an older, wealthy man to support her beloved father and spinster step-sisters.  She keeps being saved from disaster by the handsome lordling eschewed by Valentino and they fall in love.  Valentino was never really much of an actor, more just a smouldering presence, but he and Swanson have precious little chemistry. 

So, yes I am delighted that this film has been found, and I hope many other lost films will surface.  I just hope some of them will be better than this potboiler.

Blood and Bones (2004)

I am a big Takeshi Kitano fan but think I prefer the films in which he directs himself to those films where he acts for another director (a possible exception to this is "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence".)  Not that he isn't excellent in everything that he undertakes, but in this very very long Japanese saga, the length of the movie (it does cover a period of about sixty years) detracts from a remarkable performance.  Mind you it is pretty hard to enthuse about a character who is totally hateful -- misogynistic, misanthropic, selfish, and just downright mean -- yet you just can't take your eyes off his bullying.  The story follows his life from his arrival in Osaka from Korea as a hopeful young man through to his death in North Korea as a bitter old man.  Despite Koreans being outcasts to many Japanese, he prospered, but at the expense of all about him.  A great performance but anything but likeable.

On a slightly different tack raised by this film, the Japanese are very prudish about showing full frontal nudity in their movies and tend to block out anything remotely pubic by either pixelating the image or having bouncing white balls over the offending bits.  In a bath-house scene in this film the blocking was done with huge shifting black shadows which was more than a little distracting.  This attitude being the case, I wonder why the action could not just as well have taken place elsewhere or whether the actors could have sported discretely placed towels.

Mean Girls (2004)

A bit of fluff that pushed Lindsay Lohan even further towards her current teen queen status.  She plays a 16-year old that was home-schooled by her folks when they lived in Africa but who goes to regular school for the first time when they return to the States.  She is an innocent in a lion's den but soon learns to differentiate between the nerds, the jocks, the weirdos and the "plastics" (the female in-crowd led by the self-serving Rachel McAdams).  When she takes up with the latter group she finds herself changing for the worse and tries to undermine the McAdams character and to steal her boyfriend.  While possibly marginally more sharply written than your average teen comedy, it was all still fairly formulaic stuff and naturally they are all far far better people by the end of the movie.

Imagining Argentina (2003)

I understand that this film was roundly booed when it was shown at Cannes and I certainly don't understand why.  Grant you it was a depressing subject, but one based on reality and it was reasonably well put together.  The setting is Buenos Aires in1976: Emma Thompson is a journalist and her husband, Antonio Banderas, runs a children's theatre group.  One afternoon the police come for her and she joins the "disappeared".  Banderas tries to find her through official channels, but no joy.  As he begins to involve himself with other relatives of the missing, he discovers he has psychic powers which enable him not just to visualise the tortures his wife is enduring but also to tell the others about their loved ones.  His theatre group becomes more political but he himself is not taken away -- his theatre associate and his teenaged daughter are (and neither survive the ordeal).  As a manifestation of sheer evil one must accept that the film paints an accurate picture of what was happening in Argentina at that time and what continues to occur even today in many other countries.  It was hardly a comfortable film to watch, but not one that should have been mocked even if one was pushed to believe Banderas' second sight.

Election (2005)

I expected this Hong Kong film to match other gangster films set there in action and excitement but it turned out to match a regular election in many ways - bribery, lying and the occasional honourable act.   A struggle for the chairmanship of a Society between Simon Yam and Tony Leung gives the latter the showier role to the extent that Yam's character is more defined by others' remarks than by his own actions.   An attempt to obtain the Baton of Leadership provides the only real action scenes in the film with much of it taken up with rather boring bargaining between different factions in the Society.   Once Yam has the undisputed leadership with Leung as a faithful lieutenant (in some ways the Blair/Brown situation), the mood darkens for what is a rather unexpected finale.   However, the few highlights did not offset the rest of a disappointing film which is only for fans of the two leads.                    

Michaelg

quo vadis, baby? (2005)

I went alone, alas, to see the first Italian film in this year's London Film Festival which was also a double first for the director - the first film of his with a female protagonist and the first made by him with HD digital recording rather than on film.   The lead is a private eye working for her father taking pictures of errant husbands and wives who receives a carton of videos from her sister's old boy friend who has had them for the 16 years since her suicide.   Reluctantly, our heroine starts watching them, the early ones of childhood together before the tapes are used as a diary of the sister's life as an aspiring actress in Rome.There is a definite noir (or giallo, rather) feel to what is really a family puzzle with strong performances from both sisters and the supporting male cast.   The use of video to tell the back story is well done as is the use of film extracts relevant to the story (the film's title is a quote from the Italian dubbingof 'Last Tango In Paris').   A worthy successor to the golden age of giallos.

Michaelg

London Film Festival - NOT Part One

Well I should have attended my first screenings yesterday but I was too ill to inflict myself on the world (or vice versa), so did the sensible thing and stayed in.  I will however be bringing you a guest reviewer to comment on what I missed.  Hopefully I'll be in shape to take up my heavy programme from Monday.  I used this enforced time at home to clear some of the backlog from my hard disk and some capsules follow:

Tupac - Resurrection (2003):  This documentary was culled from old footage and told, in his own words, of the violent life of the rapper who was shot dead in 1996. I must admit that it was well put together, even if the subject matter was not really to my taste.  The man had talent, but he courted controversy.

One for the Road (2003):  A Channel Four production which I guess few people have seen (and this does not surprise me).  It followed four men who had lost their driving licenses for being over the limit who had agreed to attend group therapy to minimise their penalties.  None of them were overly likeable and all of them continued to drink as if there was no tomorrow.  However it was nice to see Hywel Bennett back in a showy role as the rich one of the group.

Code 11-14 (2003):  This made for television movie with a no-name cast was watchable, but extrememly stupid.  Our hero, an FBI man, was on the trail of a serial killer in Los Angeles; a man with the same M.O. is arrested in Australia and he goes to investigate.  However he insists on taking his wife and young son with him (I'm sure this is definitely FBI procedure!)  It is not the right perp and on the return flight a woman is killed and his family is terrorized -- talk about a phony set-up for the action.  Apart from anything else, it is clear as a bell who the real killer is despite the red herrings which only an idiotic viewer would grab. 

Red Lights (2004)

This French film while well-photographed and well-directed by Cedric Kahn, struck me as something of a cheat.  The story just didn't ring true, and after the event I wonder whether the viewer was really meant to accept the tale as presented; there were just too many loose ends that didn't mesh.  We have a rather plain and not too confident man with an attractive, high-flying lawyer wife.  One Friday afternoon they set off from Paris to collect their children from a summer camp near Bordeaux.  He has fortified himself with several drinks before starting and stops at two further bars for a top-up.  When he returns to his car he finds a note from his wife saying that she will take the train.  There follows a nightmarish journey as he tries to find his wife, during which he picks up an escaped criminal who tests his mettle as a man.  He eventually finds his wife in a hospital -- she has been attacked by his passenger earlier in the evening.  If in fact he has killed the escapee as we are led to believe,why do the local police not find supporting evidence? And why does it all end up as "happy families" when it is pretty clear that his wife can't really stand him? 

15 (2003)

Expanded from a 20-minute short, the Singapore director Royston Tan follows five l5-year old youths who are generally alienated from the society in which they live.  For want of a better word, they are hooligans and are apparently playing themselves.  While there is little for an adult Western viewer to empathize with, one must admire the bravura filmic style which mixes brilliant colour, animation, freeze frames and striking graphics.  The final credits confirm that we are being presented with dead-end lives but they are shown to us as a minor work of art.

Tightrope (1984)

A Clift Eastwood starrer that I've not seen for a while and I am now wondering what I ever saw in it in the first place.  He's a cop searching for a sexual serial killer but his own involvement in the underbelly of New Orleans is similarly unsavoury. He's also a single dad and his obsession with the case places his two daughters (one of whom is played by his real daughter -- a better actress as a child than she became as an adult) and his new love interest (Genevieve Bujold) in jeopardy.  The major problem with this film, sleaziness apart, is the blackness of the camera work; this, as mentioned previously is one of my bete noirs (no pun intended).  I just hate it when one is trying to discern the action on a virtually blank screen.  At least in Eastwood's favour it was not one of the movies he directed himself.

4 aka Chetyre (2004)

So I was taken to the ICA to see this well-reviewed Russian film and sat there for the full two hours plus (which felt a lot longer), and guess what folks, I have not the slightest idea what it was about or what I was meant to take from the experience.  It started well enough with the deserted streets of Moscow occupied only by wild dogs, soon to be disturbed by earth-moving machines.  It then moved to three strangers in an empty bar telling wild lies about their work and lives.  The rest of the movie followed them into their real worlds, concentrating particularly on the sole female.  We accompany her on an interminable train journey and a trek across some muddy fields as she goes to the funeral of an ex-girlfriend who lived among a community of crones who chewed bread from which she fashioned dolls' heads.  Yeah! The balance of the film focuses on the old ladies gorging on a dead pig and exposing their withered dugs.  By the time the film ended on a close-up of one of the crones crooning a folk song I was consumed by uncontrollable giggles.  I guess I'll never hack it as a serious film critic.

Remo Williams... (1985)

Subtitled "The Adventure Begins" in the States and "Unarmed and Dangerous" in the UK, this film is something of a curate's egg.  Fred Ward plays a policeman who is thought to have died; he is recruited reluctantly by a crime-fighting team, given a new face and a new identity.  He is also given extensive martial arts training by Joel Grey who is cast as an ancient Korean Sinanju master.  When Grey is on screen, you can't take your eyes off his performance which is amusing and smart.  However he's not continuously on view and one is faced with long stretches of Ward doing his action bit.  Not that he doesn't try hard and nearly succeed, but one keeps wondering when Grey will next appear with his stinging put-downs to lift this movie to something memorable.

Twisted (2004)

Ashley Judd plays a cop with issues.  She's just been promoted to Detective Inspector which doesn't sit too well with the chauvinists in her department.  She also drinks too much and likes picking up men for rough sex.  And now the latter are turning up dead.  She just can't forget that her cop father killed himself and her mother some years before.  What we are meant to guess is whether she's the nutcase committing these crimes or whether it is her new partner, Andy Garcia, or whether her dad's ex-partner who raised her, Samuel L. Jackson has a hand in the dirty deeds.  The film is so poorly put together that you really won't care.

Alice (1988)

If you are unfamiliar with the films of the Czech director Jan Svankmajer, you are missing the work of one of the most original talents of our times.  To call him an animator is to minimise what he does since he mixes live action, stop-motion, and puppets to produce some of the most mind-blowing images around.  Apart from his short films (all miraculous), he has made a number of full-length movies of which this is one of the earliest.  His take on "Alice in Wonderland" bears little resemblance to any other version you may have seen; the elements are all there but presented in such a skewed fashion that it all seems new.  Alice doesn't go down a rabbit hole but is sucked through a desk drawer and her adventures continue apace.  Svankmajer is able to imbue everyday objects with a touch of menace and so captures a child's view of a parallel world.  It must be nice to be a genius!

Parents (1989)

The director of this oddity is Bob Balaban who is far better known as an actor ("Gosford Park", "A Mighty Wind") and his screen persona is totally out of whack with this little horror.  All is not well in our all-American family comprising Dad (Randy Quaid), Mom (Mary Beth Hurt), and a 10-year old boy in his debut role.  It seems that they move around a lot and eat large quantities of very rare meat of strange shapes and sizes which you wouldn't find at your local butcher shop.  For some reason this upsets Junior!  While an interesting concept to impose cannibalism on a pastel '50's environment (with a super songtrack of the period), it's not all that well-made.  The child actor is no Lukas Haas and his mumblings were hard to catch, even if his terror was clear enough.

Walking Tall (2004)

It is a well-accepted fact that Hollywood's lack of innovation can be measured by the number of re-makes and sequels produced.  Yes, there are some good films out there, but there is an awful lot of dross too.  It defeats me to explain why anyone would bother to re-make a movie that was nothing special in the first place (even if it did spawn its own sequels), but that is the case here.  The 1973 Joe Don Baker starrer of the same name has been moved from the deep South to the Pacific Northwest as a vehicle for The Rock.  He plays the returning vet determined to run for sheriff and to clean up the old home town -- which he does by smashing a lot of heads.  It's not that he is unwatchable as he does have a certain virile charm, but he is certainly not much of an actor; nor is Johnny Nashville who plays his sidekick.  The latter may have gathered some notoriety through his outlandish pranks, but that in no way qualifies him for acting kudos.  Frankly it's all something of an insult to any serious viewer.

The missing movies - Part Four

Hopefully this will be the end of the capsule reviews:

Toto the Hero (1991):  A Belgian film this one telling of a man who is convinced that he has been raised by the wrong set of parents and that this caused him to miss out on all of the good things in life, including his love for his sister who wasn't really his sister as far as he was concerned.  If this makes it sound like some sordid sex drama, it's definitely not.  Rather the film amusingly traces his resentment and his fantasies at various stages in his life -- as a boy, as a young man and as an old one; the irony comes at the end when he is mistaken for the man he always thought he was.

Chasing Liberty (2004):  Watchable but utterly forgettable story of the President's daughter looking for freedom and "lurve" on a European escape.  Mandy Moore, one of the more acceptable singers turned actress of the younger set, falls for an English photographer without knowing that he is really a secret service agent who is meant to be guarding her. 

Lady in White (1988):  An intriguing ghost story as a well-known writer looks back on the events of his childhood which changed him forever.  Lukas Haas (the Amish lad from "Witness") gives a terrific performance as a 10-year old locked in a school cloakroom after hours and how his experience leads to solving a series of child murders going back over ten years.  It mixes scares with warmer moments, especially in his relationship with his close-knit Italian-American family.  Seek it out if you can.

Trust (1991): Another Hal Hartley film (his second) which stars Martin Donovan, his archetypal leading man, as an awkward and anti-social type who befriends a teenaged pregnant girl, whose father keeled over dead when he heard the news and whose mother reckons that she is therefore beholden to do her bidding forever.  There's not a great deal more to the story, but one keeps watching absorbed.

The Passion of Darkly Noon (1996): With a really super cast of Brendan Fraser, Ashley Judd, and Viggo Mortensen, it is surprising that this film is not better known.  Perhaps the fact that it is extremely weird in its details and violent in its development explains its anonymity.  The writer-director, Philip Ridley, also made the very strange "Reflecting Skin" (which again few people have seen).  Both of these have been shown on UK television, so there is hope that they will pop up again.

Back to normal soon says Pretty Pink Patty.

The missing movies - Part Three

And still they come:

Dangerous (1935):  Another Bette Davis flick and one for which she won an Oscar, although it is thought to have been as compensation for not winning the previous year.  In this film she plays a famous actress who has disappeared from the scene and found solace in drink.  The ever-suave Franchot Tone tries to reform her and re-launch her career at the expense of his own engagement, but as the title tells us she is dangerous to know.

A Piano for Mrs. Cimino (1982): While I was on a Bette Davis kick I thought I'd rewatch this television movie from late in her career (but before her stroke) and pretty depressing it was too.  Unfortunately it's probably more true to life than one would care to admit as stupid doctors, uncaring children and venal trustees deprive an elderly widow of both her dignity and financial stability.  That there is a sort of happy ending is not really compensation for what comes before.

Elf (2003):  This was a big hit for Will Ferrall who is all over the place nowadays, but just a little too frenetic for my taste.  (I did like him in "Melinda and Melinda" as a Woody Allen clone.)  In this one he is a human mistakenly taken to the North Pole by Santa as an infant and raised as an elf.  Nice conceit.  He goes to New York to find his real father (a reluctant James Caan, who was probably thinking 'what am I doing in this film?'), but can not forsake his elvish ways.  There are a few genuine chuckles and a feel-good ending, so I'll try to be generous.

The Secret of Roan Inish (1994):  An unusual film to come from the writer-director John Sayles who is best-known for his ensemble politically-charged dramas.  This is a charming tale set on the west coast of Ireland of a wee lass sent to live with her grandparents and the local myths of a lost child guarded by the seals and the seals that become human (selkies).  The seals and the seagulls are pretty terrific too.

Trespass (1992):  I quite like this Walter Hill action film of two greedy firemen searching for stolen treasures from a church robbery some years before.  They go to a purportedly deserted warehouse, but cross paths with a black gang that are there for other reasons, with disastrous results all round.  I would normally avoid a heavily black cast, but this group led by both Ice T and Ice Cube are more than OK.  Bill Forsyth as one of the two fireman is also just fine in the sort of role that he would reprise in "A Simple Plan".

I'll be back...

The missing movies - Part Two

And some more:

The Passenger (1975):  This is one of the three English-language films directed by Antonioni and stars Jack Nicholson as a reporter in Africa who takes on the identity of an acquaintance who has died.  The reason for this is never made clear but he has chosen the wrong man if he was hoping to escape from whatever.  It's one of those films that you either find brilliant or frustrating.  No prizes for guessing what I think.

Welcome to Mooseport (2004):  No doubt this was intended as a first starring vehicle for Ray Romano who is a BIG television star stateside, but unfortunately he lacks star power on the big screen.  He is pitted against Gene Hackman, an ex-President who has moved to his small town, as they both run for mayor.  The occasional smile, but by and large an embarrassment all 'round.

Riding the Bus with my Sister (2005):  Made for cable film where successful photographer Andie MacDowell finds herself lumbered with her mentally-challenged sister on their father's death.  As played by Rosie O'Donnell, the character is more than a little hard to watch as she goes right over the top in her interpretation.  Of course Andie does the right thing in the end, but it's not particularly heart-warming or believable.

The Hidden (1987):  Possibly not well-known but a nifty sci-fi/ horror number that I was pleased to see again.  Kyle Maclachlan (looking about fifteen years old) plays a cop from outer space come to earth to catch a space-baddie that can take over any body where it takes refuge, turning the host into a nearly unstoppable killer.  It moves from host to host (including a dog) creating 90 minutes of intriguing mayhem.  Michael Nouri is the LA cop who wonders what the hell is going on.

Simple Men (1992):  I love Hal Hartley films, but this is one of his weaker ones, although it has his usual quirky charm.  Two brothers go in search of their outlaw father who has been on the run for 23 years, but it's the people they meet en route that provide the interest and what fun there is can be found in the smaller moments.

The missing movies - Part one

OK let's do some brief capsules:

Written on the Wind (1956):  Brother and sister Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone are a dipso and a nympho.  He gives up the booze when he marries Lauren Bacall but starts again when he can't make a baby. Malone fancies Rock Hudson who fancies Bacall.  A lot of people reckon this film; I reckon it's a melodramatic mess.

Kontroll (2003): This Hungarian movie is about life underground on the subways of Budapest with characters who never emerge to the light.  These include crack teams chasing fare-dodgers, a phantom spray-cream attacker and a shover onto the tracks.  Very weird and not a little surreal.

Deception (1946): High camp melodrama with Bette Davis finding her lost love, cellist Paul Henreid after the war but failing to tell him that she is being kept by Claude Raines' composer.  If anything Raines upstages Davis -- and that takes some doing.

Mr. North (1988): A rather sweet movie based on a Thornton Wilder short story featuring Anthony Edwards as an ambitious young man changing the lives of those about him on Cape Cod in the 20's, not least by his electric touch.  Directed by Danny Huston (son of John), Robert Mitchum takes the role intended for his too-ill father.

Arachnophobia (1990): A grade Z storyline upgraded to A-class status by high production values and good performances.  I normally find it hard to watch creepy-crawly films, but this one is good fun if you don't hide behind your hands too often.

More to follow....

Why the silence?

My AOL connection packed up and I have been computerless for the last week.  As soon as I screw my head back on I will do some brief reviews covering the films I have been watching to compensate for this loss.  I really missed sharing my viewing with you all.

Hush...Hush Sweet Charlotte (1964)

A succulent slice of Grand Guignol conceived as a follow-up to the success of "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" and meant to reteam Bette Davis and Joan Crawford; when the latter cried off, her role was taken by the slightly younger Olivia de Havilland.  It begins nearly forty years earlier when Davis is involved with her married lover played by a surprisingly pretty, young Bruce Dern, who is brutally murdered.  Her father in this pre-credit sequence is played by Victor Buono (who was her would-be suitor in Baby Jane).  Flash forward to the house-bound Davis considered loco and guilty by all and being driven to breaking point by her cousin, De Havilland.  Add on a splendid cast which includes Joseph Cotton, Agnes Moorehead, Cecil Kellaway and Mary Astor, plus an early role for George Kennedy, and you have an enduring classic.  I love it.

Northfork (2003)

This film was a major disappointment.  I wanted so much to like it, but found it nearly incomprehensible and unmoving.  It's the story (on the surface) of a Montana town in the 50's that is about to be flooded and a bunch of po-faced men in black who must ensure that the inhabitants have all left -- even if they have nowhere to go.  Alongside this we have the fantasies of a dying child and the search by a group of angels for one of their number who is missing.  This might suggest something similar to "Wings of Desire", but the movie is not in the same league, and left this viewer indifferent.  The eerie landscape is rendered in shades of grey which creates an air of mystery over the minimal action.  Even the cast which includes some starry names come across as nearly anonymous and they all seem to whisper their lines.  Maybe I've lost my "boogie", but I need more substance to my fantasy.

A Bear Named Winnie (2004)

This Canadian TV Movie based on a true story is one that rachealcarol might like as it is an animal tale that manages to be heart-breaking and soppy at the same time.  During the run-up to World War I a Canadian Horse Division soldier buys a bear cub en route to his training ground which he names Winnie after his home town of Winnipeg.  The cub becomes something of a mascot to the young soldiers, but a thorn-in-the-side to the officers.  Attempts to abandon it in the wild come to nought and eventually the cub is smuggled with the troops to Salisbury Plain.  Finally knowing that the bear can not go with him to France, she is left at London Zoo for the duration.  The bear pines for her master but after saving a small girl who has fallen into her enclosure, her gentle nature is realised and she becomes a firm favourite of youngsters visiting the zoo. She also manages to raise some tears in the susceptible viewer.

One day an author named A. A. Milne visits the zoo with his young son...

Mill of the Stone Women (1960)

By the laws of Serendipity, the French actor who played Winnetou in the German Western reviewed below turns up as the romantic lead in this oddity which has been on my "must-see" list for ages.  It's an Italian production set in Holland with a mainly French and German cast and the restored copy I saw was in French with occasional lapses into English.  It's a cross between mad-scientist-must-save-dying-daughter and "House of Wax" but with gorgonized corpses.  It wasn't quite the horror classic I was expecting, but it was nicely filmed and had some memorable images which have now taken root in my cluttered brain.

Turk 182 (1985)

Not quite as good as I remember it, this urban warrior flick has a young Timothy Hutton seeking compensation for his injured fireman brother by a succession of more and more outrageous pranks, planned to shame the New York mayor who is seeking re-election.  His is a bloodless attack - mainly a series of outlandish graffiti (his handle is Turk 182.)  By the end, even the corrupt mayor is rooting for him as he captures the hearts of the citizens. The director was Bob Clark, best known for the infamous "Porky's", but don't hold that against him as he also directed "A Christmas Story" which is something of a classic.

In the Valley of Death (1968)

You all know about spaghetti westerns, but did you know that there are sauerkraut westerns too?  Germans apparently are intrigued by the romance of the Old West and this was the ninth and final film based on the writings of Karl May and filmed in what was Yugoslavia.  It stars an aging Lex Barker, long after his Hollywood glory days, as Old Shatterhand, accompanied by his trusty brave, Winnetou, played by a French actor (Pierre Brice).  What a combination!  So was it any good?  Not really, despite throwing in an attack by bees, a flogging, an escape through a valley crawling with snakes, and some comic relief in  the form of a botanist looking for a plant to be named after him. But it was certainly something different.

The London Film Festival

Tommytickla asks about the above and the answer is yes, yes, yes, if you can get to London between 20 October and 3 November.  As a member of the British Film Institute, I have priority booking and have requested nine sets of tickets (not cheap); if my energy levels don't collapse, I will probably try to see a few more films on standby.  Of course reviews will follow in due course.  Tickets are now on sale generally.

The secret to me is to choose those movies which are unlikely to have a popular release in the next few months; in fact some will never be released in the UK, except on DVD (if then).  Unlike other festivals, the LFF is not about prizes or commercial considerations, but tries to cull the best films from festivals earlier in the calendar.  I have been a regular for some years and it is the highlight of my autumn.  Have a go!

The Chronicles of Riddick (2004)

A few years back there was a pretty decent film called "Pitch Black" about a female space pilot crashing on a planet with three suns and some ferocious creatures; a little-known actor called Vin Diesel saved the day -- but that movie unleashed him upon us.  For my money he has not made a watchable film since and is so obsessed with his perceived macho charisma that he seems to think that his is the second coming.  This particular film which comes across as a vanity project suffers from the fault of many a sci-fi flick, it is full of pretentious twaddle, and while a purported sequel to the earlier film, one would never realise this; someone has spent a fortune on sets and special effects but one's main focus is meant to be the invincible Vin.  He surrounds himself with some decent actors who are more or less wasted, including unbelievably Dame Judi Dench, who could give him a few acting lessons.

There is one spectacular exploding head -- I'm a sucker for those!

Howl's Moving Castle (2004)

Another trip to the cinema but well worth the effort on this occasion, since the Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki is a bona fide genius -- and I don't use the word lightly.  Based on the children's book by a Welsh (!) writer, he has created a beautiful, painterly world of the imagination.  It's the story of a young girl transformed into an old crone and her love for the wizard Howl who has lost his heart (literally).  There is also a lovely bouncing scarecrow and an appealing Dougalish dog.  While perhaps just a smidgeon beneath his masterpiece ("Spirited Away"), this hand-drawn animation rivals the best of Disney's output and is so much more enchanting than even the best computer work.  It's nearly two hours long but I didn't struggle to read my watch in the dark to find out how the time was going, which for me is an indication of just how absorbing the film was.

Although I usually prefer to watch films in their original version, it was the English dub being shown and the voice talent (mainly British) was more than acceptable.