Something of a holiday from Holiday viewing

I did say upfront that there was little to tempt me over the holiday period, and my daily average has been well down since I last wrote nine days ago,  This is not to say that Pretty Pink saw no movies (for who would believe that?), but there wasn't a lot to write home about.  Here, such as they may be, are the highlights (to use the word very loosely):

Battlecreek Brawl (1981): Jackie Chan is usually good value, and I had only previously seen this early attempt to break into the US market in a German dub.  Well this was not the movie to do it, but Jackie's action prowess is always an amusing watch.  Which is more than can be said of his appearance in "Cannonball Run" (1981) where he was lost in a large eclectic cast.  I don't quite know how I managed never to have seen this one before, but it was appallingly awful.  Needless to say, it made a wagonload of money back then, so there's no accounting for taste.

When the Levees Broke (2006):  I have seen this Spike Lee documentary on the aftermath of Hurricaine Katrina described as his "masterpiece", but I don't agree.  Running over five hours, this polemic would have the viewer believe that the slow response of the Federal government to the tragedy was triggered by the fact that many of the victims were poor and black.  Spike, baby, we get the message and don't need to have our noses rubbed into the mess; shorter might have been more effective -- that's what editing rooms are for.

The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992): A seasonal viewing for the young 'uns with an able Michael Caine as Scrooge supported by the usual Muppet suspects.  Mind you singing is not his forte and for my money Alastair Sim is the one true Scrooge, but still good, colourful fun.

Aeon Flux (2005): Don't expect me to tell you much about this Sci Fi nonsense.  However I will ask why Oscar-winning actresses next feel obliged to try something completely different, pace Halle Berry in the abysmal "Catwoman" and Charlize Theron here as a futuristic assassin.  She did however look very tasty in the skimpy costumes!

Oliver Twist (2005): This is director Roman Polanski's take on the classic tale, but he brought little new to the table.  Competently mounted but relatively slow and pedestrian in is execution, wanting to make a movie that his children could watch seems insufficient reason for obtaining the funding.  Stick with the classic black and white David Lean version or even the musical.

Santa Baby (2006): Some seasonal fluff unleashed on cable television with Santa's daughter (Jenny McCarthy) as a high-flying executive having to fill in for the old man when he has a heart attack.  Some people have a weird idea of suitable holiday fare!

Transporter 2 (2005) and Doom (2005):  Designed as vehicles for their action stars, neither of these are likely to remain in the memory.  The former was slightly preferable as Jason Statham reprised his role from the earlier (unlikely) hit; at least he plays a rounded anti-hero and the action pyrotechnics divert.  In contrast, The Rock, in a film too obviously derived from yet another video game, may turn bad as the sergeant in charge of containing a zombie infestastion at a remote scientific outpost, but he still has only the one reactive expression  -- glaring straight at the camera -- the same one he uses when he is the good guy.

Maybe the time has come to make a New Year's resolution to watch less dross, which means watching fewer movies -- but realistically, probably not.  Anyhow I close for now with best wishes to all for a peaceful, happy and healthy 2007.

Fantastic Voyage (1966)

This will probably be my last chance to post any comments before the holiday deluge and I also want to take this opportunity to send my best wishes for the season to any and all readers.  Since this is the time of year when there are largely repeats on the box (I covered the not-so-many good premieres below), I thought I'd have another look at an old perennial favourite.  This is the one where a diplomat has been shot and his life can only be saved by miniaturizing a medical team and their submarine in order to inject them into his bloodstream on a journey to the clot in his brain.  Once one accepts the preposterous premise, the film is good fun, even if some of the special effects are a little primitive; however, on balance, they are colourfully well-done and give a good indication of what it might be like to cruise through the human body.  The crew consists of Stephen Boyd (a woodentop of his day), Raquel Welch in one of her non-sexpot roles as the assistant to doctor Arthur Kennedy, Donald Pleasence in his usual hysterical mode as another doctor, and William Redfield as the navigator.  The boffins on the ground are Edmund O'Brien and Arthur O'Connell who lend gravitas to the proceedings.  Of course nothing goes according to plan and the team must overcome various problems including having a fifth columnist on board who wants the mission to fail.  It is quite satisfying to watch him being gobbled up by a huge white cell!

Talking about strange deaths, I forgot to write when I reviewed "Frostbite" below that this is the first time I have ever seen a vampire staked to death by a garden gnome through the heart.  Ho, ho, ho, folks.

 

Carandiru (2003)

If you thought "City of God" was a strong, worthwhile film, then here is another Brazilian movie for your consideration.  Directed by veteran legend Hector Babenco, it is a prison film based on a book by a doctor who worked at the prison in the '80s to try to educate the inmates about AIDS.  Now there have been numerous prison movies over the years of varying quality, but this one ranks among the very best -- realistic, painful, yet in its way, full of hope.  Carandiru was a notorious gaol near Sao Paolo with over 7000 prisoners in a building meant for half that number.  Babenco not only gives us an idea of the awful conditions in which they lived, but also fleshes out their backstories in a way that we begin to care about these people, however villainous they may have been.  The beginning of the end was a notorious prison riot which could have been quickly settled by the thoughtful warden, but politicians stuck their noses into the situation and innumerable prisoners died needlessly.  Eventually the prison was demolished but not before leaving a web of tragedy and redemption as seen through the doctor's eyes.

Fun with Dick and Jane (2005)

The original film of this title was a mid-70s flick co-starring George Segal and Jane Fonda as the hard-up rich couple who take to larceny to fund their life style when hubby loses his job.  The film was pleasant enough, as the two leads shared excellent screen comedy, but if ever a movie was screaming for a remake or an updating, this was not the one.  So just why Jim Carrey, who also produced the film, decided that this would be the perfect vehicle for his talents is quite frankly beyond me.  He is an actor who was amusing enough when he first came to one's notice in "The Mask" and "Dumb and Dumber", but his subsequent roles have been a little hard to take in anything but small dollops.  Here he is paired with Tea Leoni as his wife and partner in crime.  Now, she is someone who I really liked in her early television roles and someone for whom I still have a soft spot, but her subsequent movie roles have not really worked to her advantage.  This film too will do little for her career.  The slapstick plot really made me cringe and even the supposed feel-good ending where Carrey brings big baddie Alex Baldwin his comeuppance and achieves justice for all of Baldwin's erstwhile employees didn't sit that well, keeping in mind the crimes that the hapless couple had perpetrated before this frankly stupid denouement.

The Conversation (1974)

This movie is considered one of the seminal films of the 1970s, but although I had seen it previously, I never really "got" it before my most recent viewing.  Gene Hackman is definitely the whole show and carries the movie as the surveillance expert who makes the mistake of getting involved with the objects of his team's snooping, a young couple played by Frederic Forrest and Cindy Williams.  He begins to fear for their safety after an earlier incident back in his New York days left several innocent dead.  The film is redolent with Hackman's paranoia and the terrific plot twist results in a powerful and truly frightening conclusion.  Francis Ford Coppola wrote, produced and directed the film and in its way it is every bit as good as his Godfather movies, albeit on a much smaller scale.  It is also rather amusing to see Harrison Ford in a minor role which makes one wonder how he actually managed to have the amazing career that has followed.

Flags of our Fathers (2006)

 One of these days I suppose that Martin Scorsese will get the Oscar that everyone thinks he deserves, but I really now believe that Clint Eastwood is the greater director with the more interesting body of work.  I attended a preview of the above film today and the audience seemed so moved by its brilliance that virtually no one stood up or tried to walk out during the end credits; that is unusual nowadays.  I've written previously that war movies are my least favourite film genre, but Eastwood has created a war movie here with no false heroics and no attempts at personal glory.  The fighting men portrayed are doing the best they can, not just for their country but for each other in their attempt to survive.

The story is inspired by the famous photograph of six men raising the American flag during the battle for Iwo Jima.  The top brass decide to use the three survivors as patriotic propaganda tools to raise cash for the war effort in Stateside bond drives.  The first man is a vain opportunist who saw virtually no action and who is certainly no hero.  The second is a sailor played by Ryan Phillippe with surprising maturity, leaving far behind his usual lightweight persona.  The third is a Puma Indian called Ira Hayes, brilliantly played by Native America actor Adam Beach, who hates being used and who wants to return to the Front.  One has seen Ira Hayes' tragic story before in the 1961 movie "The Outsider" where the role was taken, believe it or not, by Tony Curtis -- but fair dos, he did a super job.  I have no idea if Beach will get an Oscar nod for his performance, but goodness knows his moving turn deserves one.

Eastwood films the battle scenes in muted colours which adds to the realistic feel of the true horrors of war.  Even when the three heroes are getting folk to buy bonds at fancy receptions, their memories keep returning to the grim battlefield and the true heroes who have fallen there.  Eastwood has also composed the moving musical score for this film; talk about Renaissance Men!  Finally, he has finished a companion piece for this film called "Letters from Iwo Jima" which will not be released here until Febrary but which is already winning kudos in the States.  That picture will tell the Iwo Jima story from the Japanese point of view; I can't see Scorsese doing something so strikingly original.

Frostbite (2006)

By rights I should have seen this Swedish film at FrightFest a few months back, but it was one of their late-night showings (past my bedtime!).  So I finally caught up with it some four months later and apart from the fact that I can now say that I have seen the one and only Swedish vampire flick ever produced in that country, I can't say a great deal more.  A hospital lab technician and her daughter move to the North which is still in the throes of Arctic night and fall in with a nest of vampires.  Well at least the chief doctor has been one since a World War II experience and has been hiding out with a child vampire for the past sixty years studying how to perfect his species and take over the world -- as one does.  Unfortunately one of his medical students steals the controlling blood pills and they find their way to a teenage rave as the drug of choice with the expected bloody results.  Poorly paced and something of a riff on vampire legends -- I never knew that afflicted people had dogs address them! -- the movie was played more for laughs than for chills, and on this level, it was a pleasant enough diversion -- but I doubt that other horrormeisters need fear the competition here. 

It's a Wonderful World (1939)

If I tell you that this film stars James Stewart and if you look at the title quickly, you might think I am about to review "It's a Wonderful Life" which is one of the all-time great American movies and one of my and a lot of other people's favourites.  This is a horse of a different colour, as they say, but still an amusing example of the screwball genre.  Its credentials are impeccable: written by Ben Hecht and Herman J. Mankiewicz, directed by W.S. Van Dyke.  It's the story of fearless private eye Stewart who attempts to prevent his client being falsely convicted of murder and who is sentenced to jail on a trumped-up charge.  En route to pokey he escapes and aided by a scatty poetess, he eventually proves his and his client's innocence.  So why isn't this picture better known?  Well for a start Stewart's co-star here is Claudette Colbert, who has proved herself an able comedienne in other movies, but with whom he has virtually no chemistry.  (Very parenthetically, it always strikes me that her head is far too big for her body!)  Secondly the supporting cast while able only includes Guy Kibbee as the sort of character actor guaranteed to enliven his scenes, while the remainder -- mainly playing dumb cops -- are definitely second-tier.  Yet it is always a pleasure seeing the young Stewart and his turn as a misogynistic, money-grabber is an amusing alternative to his usual persona.

The United States of Leland (2003)

I was curious to see this film which was made in 2003, but not released I think until 2004, since I had read so many conflicting reviews -- ranging from drab and depressing to brilliant.  Of course it was something in the middle, worth a watch for the depth of the acting by a very able cast, but ultimately the polar opposite of a feel-good movie.  Told in a non-linear fashion casually moving back and forth from the past to the present with disturbing frequency, it tells of a 15-year old boy played by Ryan Gosling, from a broken family and distressed by being dumped by his love interest (Jena Malone), who is arrested for murdering her sweet mentally-handicapped young brother.  A teacher at Juvenile Hall played by the always professional Don Cheadle senses the makings of a best-selling book and tries to shed light on Gosling's motives which are never made particularly clear.  He begins to feel close to the articulate youth and perhaps really wishes to help him despite the fact that an act, however evil, can never be satisfactorily undone.  The cast is fleshed out by Kevin Spacey and Lena Olin as his strange and estranged parents, Martin Donovan as the murdered boy's father, Michelle Williams as another daughter of his family, and Chris Klein as her boyfriend who is living with them after his own mother's death.   Despite the high standard of acting from all of the cast, it was more than a little difficult to accept the then 23-year old Gosling and the then 24-year old Klein as believable juveniles, which -- as it happens -- was essential for the film's sad, sad outcome.  

Films on TV this Christmas

Being angry is hardly a good start, but of the films premiering this year, there is hardly anything that I have not already seen.  Probably it's just as well, since with a houseful of company, my viewing hours will be numbered anyhow, although it would be nice to be able to look forward to something that I really, really want to see when the debris clears.  So my recommendations are for less obsessive viewers and I shall concentrate on the premiere showings, although an unfortunate number of these are not worth your time and chances are that you have already seen the better ones at the cinema or on DVD.

Starting with terrestrial TV, my picks would be "Calendar Girls" (BBC on the 24th), "Monsters Inc." (BBC on the 25th), "Pirates of the Caribbean" (BBC on the 26th), the devastating Brazilian movie "City of God" (Channel 4 on the 27th), the best of the lot: "Spirited Away" (BBC2 on the 30th), and the clever "Adaptation" (Channel 5 on the 31st).  Also-ran choices would include "Holes" (BBC on the 28th) -- an offbeat children's tale, "Mrs. Henderson Presents" (BBC on the 29th) -- worth seeing for the Dench/Hoskins interplay, and if you would like to see what all the fuss is about "High School Musical" (BBC on the 29th).  If you're looking for older films that haven't been shown umpteen times in  recent years, you will look in vain, although it is worth noting that the B-series of Falcon movies can be found on BBC2 in the late, late hours daily.

The choice on satellite is even more limited, since Sky seem to think that all their new customers will be happy with the same selection they have been showing all year and that they can be fobbed off with limited premieres.  The best of these are "The Chronicles of Narnia" on Christmas Day, "Tim Burton's Corpse Bride" on New Years Eve, and the Peter Jackson "King Kong" on New Year's Day.   The best things in the Sky schedules can in fact be found on Cinema 1 and Cinema 2 this coming weekend (16-18 Dec.) when they are showing a selection of Harold Lloyd shorts and features, all worth seeking out.  Further afield, keep on eye on the Discovery Channel which has scheduled a number of showings for the recently-released Herzog documentary "Grizzly Man".  You are better served finding classic movies on satellite if you check out the schedules on Sky Cinema, TCM, and to a lesser extent FilmFour.  The best Christmas classic showing is the original "Miracle on 34th Street" (Sky Cinema on the 24th) and worth 90 minutes of anyone's time to put you in the Christmas mood.

For once the schedules are light on compilation programmes this year; last year we were inundated with them.  But one of the few things I am looking forward to is the AFI's "100 Years, 100 Cheers" on Channel 4 on Christmas Eve.

Have a merry one everybody and if you would like my opinion on anything else that is showing (film-wise that is), please feel free to e-mail me.  

Passion of Mind (2000)

It has taken some six years for this Demi Moore film to find its way to television.  It sank without much trace on its release and was the beginning of the end for her as a major screen presence, but it is not really as bad as you might think or as stupid as the storyline appears.  Basically Moore plays two parallel roles: a young American widow with two children living in France and a single publishing executive in New York.  Each life only appears in the dreams of the other character and, while we assume that Moore is not a nutcase, we can only guess which is her real life.  Into each scenario comes a potential love interest -- Stellan Skarsgard in France, William Fichtner in New York -- but only one of them can really exist!  The viewer is not left with these paradoxes and a feasible solution is presented.  The fact that this answer wipes out the more appealing characters is, I suppose, unfortunate.  An interesting premise, reasonably well-acted, but with the overall feel of a made-for-television movie (which it wasn't).

Tomorrow, if I can make the time, I shall let you have my recommendations for films worth watching on UK television over Christmas.  But I warn you now, it is fairly thin pickings.

Deja Vu (2006)

I saw director Tony Scott's previous effort "Domino" recently and hated it so much that I couldn't be bothered reviewing it.  That supposedly true story  starring Keira Knightley as a bounty hunter was so flashily put together that it came across as all flash and no substance.  I therefore had no high hopes for the preview of his latest release, but it was a truly nifty thriller, despite some very dubious premises.  Denzel Washington is the government ATF agent assisting the FBI team investigating the terrorist assault on a New Orleans ferry which killed over 500 men, women and children.  They have developed a technique of studying live surveillance footage some four days in arrears and we get involved in accepting that time travel is not only possible, but that the future can in fact be changed.  This is where this Jerry Bruckheimer action extravaganza gets a little intellectually unlikely, but the movie is none the worse for such impertinences.  It's one thing to fall in love with a dead woman; it is quite another to prevent her death after having attended her funeral!  All very entertaining and professionally handled, just don't try to work out the logic of it all.

Surviving Christmas (2004)

Oh they do keep churning them out -- those seasonal movies intended to instil a feel-good holiday spirit; and the harder they try, the less they seem to work.  In this one, obnoxious millionaire Ben Affleck tries to buy himself a family Christmas by returning to his childhood home and bribing the current occupants to play Mommy and Daddy in exchange for a great wad of cash.  The reluctant role-players are Catherine O'Hara and James Gandolfini who are expected to provide all the Christmas experiences he never actually had as a child, including a grandfather figure call Doo-dah.  Cue for general nausea in the viewer!  Along with their computer-porn obsessed teenaged son and visiting, sceptical older daughter played by Christine Applegate, he manages to just about ruin both their holiday and that of his would-be girlfriend and in-laws -- all of course before the expected, but 100% unlikely, happy ending.  The critics hated this picture, primarily for Ben Affleck.  I do not agree that he is the great Woodentop that people make out; I just think he is a reasonably able actor who has made some spectacularly bad role choices.  (I will be most curious to see his latest picture "Hollywoodland" for which he actually got a best actor nod in Cannes).  But back to this film: the real problem was that none of the cast were overly adept at playing comedy here, despite O'Hara and Applegate having suitable credentials.  Fortunately there were the occasional felicities which at least prevented my switching off in total disgust.

Los Debutantes (2003)

I can't say that I've seen many Chilean movies, at least not knowingly, and this look at the seedy underworld in Santiago was not likely to make me seek out others.  I gather that it took the director some seven years to complete, which may account for its rather fragmented composition.  Two brothers leave their small town for the big city on the death of their parents, with the elder taking on the father role for his 17-year old sibling, including trying to get him to shed his virginity, unsuccessfully we are led to believe.  Both of them become involved with a sexy stripper who is also the squeeze of a local crime boss for whom the elder works.  The younger has a besotted but relatively innocent relationship with her, but she in turn has no qualms at seducing his brother while Mr. Big is away on business.  This three-way relationship with the girl is told and retold from various points of view without particularly revealing anything new in the telling.  Mind you, watching her party piece act dressed  in a bikini made only of whipped cream is something that one doesn't see every day.  Or want to!

Uzak (Distant) (2002)

Some directors are so minimalist and slow, that watching their well-thought of films is something that I find painful.  In particular I am thinking of the Hungarian director Bela Tarr whose downbeat films are also exceptionally long and the Taiwanese director Ming-Liang Tsai whose films affect me like Chinese water torture.  Add to these two the name of Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan who is responsible for this film.  Perhaps I am really missing something, but the draggy story of the unemployed country cousin coming to the big city to look for work and staying with his older and now successful cousin was without a great deal of development or interest.  Yes, they are a mismatched pair and family loyalties fall victim ultimately to the disgust of having an unwelcome visitor.  Their individual stories are only sketchily filled out and neither is particularly "grabby".  Apparently the younger actor died in a car crash shortly after the film was finished and was posthumously awarded best actor jointly with his co-star at Cannes in 2003.  I was not really aware of any "acting" going on, and please don't tell me that this is the true sign of good acting.  It was all too boring for that.

Our America (2002)

It is something of a burden to feel obliged to watch any and all films that I do not know and that pass my way, but this made-for-cable dramatized version of a true story was vaguely interesting, albeit extremely "worthy" -- there's that word again!  A white producer at a Chicago radio station chooses two black teenaged friends from the ghetto to tape a documentary on their day-to-day life; this controversially becomes a talking point among certain bleeding hearts who claim that the boys are being "used" by the white establishment, who are only interested in the downside of life in the projects.   However, ultimately their accurate portrayal wins numerous awards.  They next seek to expose the facts behind a horrible local murder, where two ten year-olds are tried for throwing a five-year old from a 14th floor window.   The boys reckoned it was all a terrible accident.  This dramatization was, I supposed, meant to embody a sense of hope insofar as the two youths are now journalists; however that in no way compensates for the deadbeat future and early deaths of many of their contemporaries which was depicted.

Must Love Dogs (2005)

In complete contrast to the well-made but deeply disturbing Amin film I saw yesterday morning, this piece of disposable fluff made a welcome change.  It helps that Diane Lane and John Cusack are two of the more appealing potential leads for a movie (unless one is a teenager); their search for new partners after messy divorces could have only one happy outcome here after overcoming various obstacles.  While I would have preferred a slightly sharper script, it was nice to view a movie that admitted that there is life after forty.  The picture was blessed with an attractive supporting cast, with the possible exception of Dermot Mulroney as Cusack's love rival, and the doggies were also good value.  Sometimes an unmessage-laden subject and a complete lack of special effects is just what the doctor ordered to ensure a good night's sleep.

The Last King of Scotland (2006)

This movie kicked off this year's London Film Festival but, much as I like the actor Forest Whitaker, I didn't go to see it before this preview showing.  And he was absolutely stupendous playing Idi Amin, although I would be pleasantly surprised if this showcase resulted in an Oscar nomination for him.  He really became a believable monster Amin, but he was if anything too good, and it was therefore too unpleasant a characterization to win many hearts.  In fact nearly none of the characters on display were particularly likeable, so although one could admire director and documentarian Kevin Macdonald's first feature film, it was not really a movie that one could warm to.  The real focus of the story was Amin's (fictional) Scottish doctor, played by James McAvoy who is this month's 'next big thing'; running away from the prospect of being a family doctor at home with his doctor dad, he lands up in Uganda where he is flattered by Amin's attentions and manages to turn a blind eye to reality, until it is nearly to late to save his soul.  The two hour length did not drag, but one was left with something of a bitter taste by this onslaught of uncomfortable facts and behaviour. I should mention that there was a small role towards the start for a now nearly unrecognizable Gillian Anderson; while it was good to see her back on the screen, this section added little to the tale, except to reinforce what a callow prat the McAvoy character was.

The Farmer's Wife (1928)

It's not every day that I get to view an unknown Hitchcock, so on that level this British silent was something of a treat.  There is little to link this bucolic comedy with the director who came to be known as the Master of Suspense, other than his even then evident artistic eye and his playful nature.  The story concerns a prosperous farmer whose wife has died and who decides it is time for him to wed again.  His faithful and let it be said very attractive housekeeper is the obvious choice, but apparently not obvious enough to the poor dolt.  Instead he presents himself to four highly unsuitable local females, thinking that they will jump at the opportunity, only to find himself spurned for various reasons -- they are either too independent or too afraid of sex or consider themselves too young for him.  Of course the viewer knows where this will lead, but it takes the farmer the course of the movie to find out.  In the meantime we join him in his amusing quest with the local gentry and bumpkins.  The version I saw ran 97 minutes, but I understand that a 127 minute print exists; I can't for the life of me guess how they could expand this already-thin story. 

School of the Holy Beast (1974)

This was the last of the four films selected from the NFT's "Wild Japan" season and after viewing it, I asked myself whatever possessed me to choose it.  Well the answer is to be found in the season's programme which overhyped this film as one of the most outrageous in cinema history and "way beyond wild".   The more accurate description I can report to you comes from the film notes which describes it as 'the mother superior of all Nipponese nudie nun extravaganzas'!  Yes, you are reading that correctly; I now know that softcore Catholic nun movies were a busy subgenre of Japanese exploitation films in the '70s.  Our heroine spends her last day before entering a convent where 'women aren't women' drinking and clubbing and going to bed with a pick-up.  Ostensibly she is out to find the truth of her mother's death at her birth 18 years earlier, but not before she discovers that the convent is a hotbed of lesbianism, self-flagellation, sexual explotation by a Rasputin-like priest, and countless topess shots of the nuns.  Some of the imagery is amazing, such as our heroine being punished by being trussed up with long brambles and being beaten by bouquets of roses, but the overall story as she seeks justice for the harm done to her mother, who was also a nun, is completely over the top.  OK, the gory retribution paid by the worst culprits is satisfying, but this is the sort of film that one hates oneself for even seeming to enjoy watching. 

Vivement Dimance! (1983)

This French film known by its English titles as "Finally Sunday" or "Confidentially Yours" was director Francois Truffaut's last shout, and not really a high point of his illustrious career.  Presumably conceived as a pastiche homage to the film noir genre, it is even shot in black and white with no great distinction.  Jean-Louis Trintignant plays an estate agent suspected of the murder of his wife's lover, the first of a run of murders which the cops would like to lay at his door, but it is pretty clear from get-go that he is not our killer.  It is down to his recently fired secretary-cum-Girl-Friday, sparklingly played by Fanny Ardant to track down the real culprit (whose identity is hardly a big surprise).  Trintignant is so laid-back and feeble in this role that one wonders at his casting, despite his long history with Truffaut; Ardant, however, just about makes the movie watchable.  It is all, in the end, extremely silly and uninvolving, and hardly the Hitchcock tribute that some critics read into it. 

The Man (2005)

I had no great expectations for this film since Samuel L. Jackson tends to play the Samuel L. Jackson persona in every film and Eugene Levy seems to get less amusing with each movie.  I was therefore pleasantly surprised by what mindless fun it was -- and at roughly 80 minutes, it never overstayed its welcome.  Jackson plays a free-wheeling special agent out to avenge his partner's murder by finding a cache of stolen guns and Levy is the dental equipment salesman who is mistaken as the potential buyer by the (English) baddies.  Their chemistry together is surprising good as Levy moves from being Mr. Joe Schmo to being a take-charge character, while Jackson shows a broader string to his bow.  OK, it wasn't consistently hilarious by any means and did have its share of violence, but as an amusing if unmemorable outing, I have to give it high marks.

The Holy Mountain (1926)

This is not the Jodorowsky cult pic of the same title, but a German silent which has its own place in cinema history.  Back in the late 20s/early 30s, the Germans thrilled to a series of mountain-climbing movies of which this is one of the first.  While it would be notable in itself for the spectacular photography, its real claim to treasured-status is as an early starring role for Leni Riefenstahl, later known as the "Fuhrer's Filmmaker", infamous for her Nuremburg and Olympics documentaries -- both brilliant in their perverseness.  Here she plays a dancer who is loved by two mountain-climbing friends;  when the elder believes (incorrectly) that she is dallying with the younger, the pair go off on an impossible climb in inclement weather.   The mountains have a mystical meaning here as some sort of metaphor for friendship and loyalty which adds to the weird but dated feel of the story.  Incidentally Riefenstahl, who is no beauty, dances only slightly more appealingly than a pregnant hippopotamus (or maybe that's being just a little bit unkind) and we are treated to an inordinate number of her performances.

War of the Worlds (2005)

Last year's big summer blockbuster provides ample evidence of director Spielberg's technique, but is emotionally a busted flush.  The special effects of aliens and their tripods attacking the world and destroying our population to provide fodder for their own food crop is spectacular and terrifying, but the human element is unfortunately vested in Tom Cruise's deadbeat Dad, whose two children have been left with him for the nonce by his divorced wife, now remarried and pregnant and off to visit family.  While Cruise no doubt views himself as a heroic figure in today's cinema, he spends most of the movie on the run -- scared to death as most of us would be -- and only somewhat belatedly eager to protect his kids.  His ultimate survival, ignoring his having become a murderer in the process, and the final reuniting of the complete family defies belief -- but he is Tom Cruise after all.  While, in a way, it is nifty to observe the action effectively through one pair of eyes, this technique does drag things down to a crawl at times and I for one craved the broader picture.  Despite the elements of the tale now being familiar to us from countless other "invasion" flicks, this is only the second film version of Wells' book.  The first was back in 1953 and is fondly remembered 'though, truth to tell, it is a little primitive by modern standards.  The leads of that film, Gene Barry and Ann Robinson, have a small cameo in this one as a footnote to movie history.

36 (2004)

The full title of this French film is 36 Quai des Orfevres which is the address of the Criminal Investigations Division in Paris, the equivalent of Scotland Yard, and it is one truly terrific policier.  Starring Daniel Auteuil and Gerard Depardieu as detectives and former friends who are both seeking the top job on the retirement of their immediate superior,  it has been implied that whichever of them captures the crims who have perpetrated a series of bloody security vehicle holdups over the last year will be the victor.  Auteuil is the rogue cop who with his faithful team will flirt with unethical methods to achieve his ends, whilst Depardieu who appears to work through the system is, if anything, even more unethical in his scheming.  When Auteuil has the villains within his grasp, Depardieu compromises the operation, which results in the death of a popular member of Auteuil's team.  To avoid allowing the latter to testify against him in the hearing to follow, Despardieu uncovers evidence which lands Auteuil in pokey for seven years and is even responsible for the death of Auteuil's wife, Valeria Golino, with whom he shares some past undisclosed history.  Depardieu achieves his goal in the short term, but eventually the past catches up in a totally unexpected but satisfying way.  Good stuff!

L'Auberge Espagnole (Pot Luck) 2002

People seem to think highly of this French euro-pudding of a film, but perhaps its pictures of student life rang more bells with them than they did with me.  Rising actor Romain Duris has had some good press of late, but he plays such a little shit in this film that his story left me cold.  Advised to spend a year studying in Spain to further his ambitions for a government post, he goes to lovely Barcelona, leaving behind his hippy mom and his long-term squeeze, Audrey Tatou.  We are shown the troubles he has finding somewhere suitable to live before ending up sharing with a mixed bunch of sexes, orientations, and nationalities.  (Much of the dialogue is per force in broken English, since the flatmates have varying fluency in Spanish and little knowledge of the other tongues).   He begins an affair with the lonely wife of a doctor who has been kind to him, while still stringing Tatou along, and generally embraces the carefree student life; apart some complaints about the lectures being in Catalan rather than Castilian, his school hours are just about irrelevant to the rather thin plot.  However on his return to France and the coveted job, he runs away from any such adult responsibility to embrace the "freedom" of a writer's life, one way of recreating his easygoing student days.  I felt like shouting "grow up".  The only thing in  favour of this movie from my point of view is that it ran 20 minutes shorter than it said on the DVD case! 

Malefique (2002)

The good folk who organise the FrightFests that I attend (although I must admit to missing their most recent all-nighter -- I'm getting past that sort of thing) have started their own DVD label to offer worthwhile movies which might not see the light of day elsewhere.  This French film, the first feature from director Eric Valette, is a worthy case in point and a movie that I am pleased to have discovered through their efforts.  It concerns four cellmates: a businessman shopped for fraud by his untrustworthy wife, an elderly literary type who has indeed killed his wife, a tough butch transvestite whose crime is not detailed, and a simpleton raised with pigs on a farm who has literally eaten his six-month old baby sister.  They discover a book hidden in the walls of their cell by a previous inmate who has somehow tapped black magic to effect an escape.  They try to understand its mysteries with unexpected results.  The idiot who attempts to eat the book is destroyed by it, as it seeks to protect itself; the other three after a visit by a mysterious new cellmate think they have discovered the secret, only to end up in a new and grimmer cell.  Ultimately they come to understand the book's real power which comes as something of a surprise to both the characters and the viewer.  Filmed on a small budget with actors unknown to me (all of whom were absolutely first-rate), this movie achieves its chills effectively.

In Memoriam:  R.I.P. Robert Altman.  Regular readers of this journal may recall that this director was a firm favourite of mine and that "Nashville" will always figure in my ever-changing top ten.  His influences on movie-making -- ensemble casts, overlapping stories and dialogue -- are indelible.  Yes, his output was madly inconsistent with some critical duds amongst the gems, but I never found any of his films uninteresting and the best of them will stand as his memorial, hopefully forever. 

Jigoku (1960)

This was my third visit to the Wild Japan season at the NFT and a more schizophrenic film I have yet to see.  Although recently released onto DVD in the States, this movie has long been regarded as a lost classic from director Nobuo Nakagawa, a horror specialist.  Unfortunately it is not quite the gem I was expecting, although not without interest.  The title translates as "Hell" and the movie falls into two related but discrete halves.  In the first part, a happily engaged student sees his life collapse under the influence of a mysterious colleague who involves him in a hit-and-run crime.  Then, by a series of unlikely coincidences and catastrophes, he and vitually every other of the numerous characters ends up dead.  The film now moves into its second half which recreates the Buddhist view of the eight circles of hell in gaudy colour and lurid images.  It takes the line that we are all sinners and even so-called innocents, which includes children who die before their parents and unborn babies, must suffer eternal damnation.  The schizophrenia stems from the rather draggy first half morphing into the phantasmagoric second half without blinking.

I don't know whether I'm getting fed up with blogging -- I certainly used to churn out more reviews per week -- or whether there seem to be a growing number of movies that I have no inclination to cover.  Some examples from the last few days: "Deuce Bigelow: European Gigolo" with the embarrassing Rob Schneider pushing the boundaries of good taste to bursting point and with respected Dutch actor Jeroen Krabbe slumming for a pay cheque.  Then there was"The Constant Gardener", about as worthy a film as you could hope to view about illegal drug tests in Africa, but one that seemed to be hitting the viewer over the head with its message.  I know Rachel Weisz won a best supporting Oscar for her role in this, but I was in no way inspired by or in awe of her performance.

Lord of War (2005)

However you slice it, I do believe that Nicolas Cage has been one very lucky actor.  Far from being a conventionally good-looking lead, he manages to attract starring roles.  I have nothing particularly negative to say about his skills as an actor, despite his occasional blatant miscasting (Captain Corelli springs to mind), but his acting chops do not strike me as being top of the class, just better than average.  So like I say, he has been lucky.  In this film he plays Yuri, the son of Ukrainian immigrants living in Brooklyn's Little Odessa, who early on gets seduced by the potential richness of the arms-dealing life -- and he is very good at it.  He does not attempt to justify the ends which his weapons provide nor does he try to adapt a holier-than-thou approach despite the violence he encounters; it's just business to him and a means of supporting his wife and son.  The moral antitheses are provided by his more sensitive brother, Jared Leto, and an interpol agent who is trying to nail him, played by a smug Ethan Hawke.  I suppose it could be said that Cage gives a powerful performance, but the really scary moral coda is that dealers like him are but a drop in the bucket; the main providers of arms to the world are the seven nations that sit on the UN Security Council!

Manderlay (2005)

I've really liked a number of mischievious Danish director Lars von Trier's works, but found myself struggling with "Dogville" (2003), the first part of a proposed American trilogy of which this movie is part two.  Well that film was a doddle in comparison, as huge chunks of "Manderlay" are ponderously unwatchable.  Despite this, the overall feeling at the end is that one has seen something worthwhile, despite ones reservations.  Part of the problem is that Bryce Dallas Howard, a very mumbly actress, has taken over from Nicole Kidman in the lead role and her papa is also now a different actor.  Yet much of the cast from the first movie appear in the second as completely different characters, which is also confusing.  The story concerns the heroine's blundering into a feudal situation at a Southern plantation where slavery is still the norm and trying in her do-goodish way to "free" the slaves.  That she only manages to create chaos is pure Von Trier.  The director has never visited the States and has been accused of blatant anti-Americanism in both films.  There is indeed much in this movie to upset the average American viewer, especially since the heroine lusts after their bodies, but there is also a strong case for blacks and the problems that they face.  I shudder to think what the third part of this trilogy will bring. 

Man Dancin' (2003) & The Business (2005)

I always force myself to watch British gangster flicks on the grounds that it is part of my continuing education, but since I seldom enjoy them, you might say that it is part of the penance that I pay for my obsession with movies.  These two, neither of which are outstanding, are a good case in point.  The first presented a oft-incurred problem with this genre: inpenetrable accents -- but at least I could rely on subtitles to follow the story set in Glasgow.  The lead was played by Alex Ferns, an actor from television, as a released-after-nine-years con who tries to withstand the temptations of his old gangster life, particularly hoping to move away after his probation to save his younger brother from the same easy option.  But Mr. Big (James Cosmo -- he always seems to play such roles) still considers him one of "his boys" and won't let go.  Ferns finds a kind of salvation, after rescuing several girls from prostitution, in the neighbourhood church's nativity play, which he rewrites to reflect local and modern politics.  Cosmo puts pressure on the tame detective who is on his payroll to teach Ferns a lesson, but his various efforts backfire (including killing off the one really likeable character) before the disastrous yet presumably uplifting finale. 

"The Business" was a far more conventional Britflick starring Danny Dyer as a would-be mobster who runs an errand to the Costa del Sol where he is taken up as a protege of the local big man, played interestingly enough by Tamer Hassan (whom I assume comes from an ethnic background).  The movie is set in the '80s and they are involved in drug-running, initially pot from Morocco but later cocaine from Columbia.  Dyer finds himself more and more seduced by the easy riches and available sex, until the whole gang comes a cropper by falling foul of the local mayor.  Dyer is by now totally immoral and works out a plan to extricate himself; the whole movie seems set up for the amusing but ultimately bad pun on his future during the end titles, where the fate of each main character is revealed.

By and large I probably prefered the first of these two because of its less usual storyline, but the second was probably the better-made film.  However I doubt that either movie made much impact at the UK box office and they would stand little chance of success elsewhere.  Yet people keep churning out films like these two -- where does the finance come from?  

Tube (2003)

If we lived in a country that didn't turn its nose up at subtitled movies or if we could (God forbid) accept dubbed movies, I really believe that Korean cinema would be replacing Hollywood movies in our affections.  This first feature by director Baek Woon-Huk really outdoes the Hollywood product in its violence, professionalism and fancy visuals.  While he possibly took his cue from a film like "Speed" or his fearless single-handed cop hero from the "Die Hard" series, the director has turned out something quite exciting and different.  After an airport massacre, a rogue agent seeks revenge on his former masters and hijacks a modernistic subway train packed with high officials and innocent passengers.  Despite the high-tech control-room resources, only one lone cop can stop the train and save the day, despite some help from the young pickpocket who fancies him.  But unlike what we would expect from an American movie, his survival is far from a sure thing.

Hausu (House) (1977)

This was the second of the films I chose from the NFT's Wild Japan series and while I can certainly report that the movie was indeed wild, I would be hard-pressed to write that it was good as well.  In a plot familiar to us from (much later) Western films, a group of innocent schoolgirls go for a holiday at their friend's aunt's house in the countryside and are one by one devoured by the house.  The aunt is in fact dead and survives through her sexual frustration which eats virgins -- or something like that.  While the plot itself is slow to develop and not just a little confusing with some occasionally unrelated scenes, the presentation is what makes this movie unique.  This was the director Nobuhiko Obayashi's first film and I understand that he is something of a cult figure in his native country.  Made well before the availability of computer-generated effects, he employs a mixture of double exposures, cell animation, stop-motion animation, split screens, fast and slow motion -- you name it, it is part of his potpourri in achieving his spooky images, most notable of which is one of the girls being consumed by a grand piano.  Combined with dancing skeletons, twinkly-eyed malevolent cats, and an infectious tinkly score, this film is certainly one of a kind.  But I still can't write that it was good or even particularly scary. 

3-Iron (2004)

This was an absolutely amazing film and not at all what I expected from the little I knew about it in advance.  I have seen two of the Korean director Kim Ki-duk's earlier films "The Isle" and "Spring, Summer...", both unusual and beautifully filmed, but completely unlike this one.  The story concerns a young drifter who has a way of determining when houses or flats are likely to be unoccupied and who breaks in to live in these for a day or two, usually doing some small service like washing dirty laundry or mending broken clocks as an exchange.  At one mansion he is observed by a battered wife who eventually lets her presence be known.  When her abusive husband returns, our young hero deals with him with the golf club of the title and the lady leaves with him, joining him in his precarious way of life.  Eventually the police catch up with them -- he is thrown in gaol, she returns home.  But gaol is no prison for a free spirit and the young man keeps taunting his guards who threaten him with more and more and presumably fatal violence.  However his spirit returns to the places he has been before and ultimately to the home where he found true love.  Like Scorpion reviewed below, he has absolutely no dialogue and the wife speaks only once in the entire film, but so much is expressed between them in non-verbal ways.  The golf club motif returns, not only as a tool for violence by the husband as well, but as a skill which our hero thinks he can control, but which can backfire when least expected.   Very highly recommended. 

Unconditional Love (2002)

Occasionally it is brought home to me that I don't know as much about movies as I think I do, since I frankly had never even heard of this film, despite a cast boasting among others Kathy Bates, Rupert Everett, Jonathan Pryce, Dan Aykroyd, Lynn Redgrave, Julie Andrews, Barry Manilow, and a rather attractive female dwarf!  Perhaps it is because it never had a cinema release, eventually debuted on US Cable TV, and made its first UK appearance in a late night television slot.  But it was a hoot...   It is the sort of quirky film that would probably alienate many viewers, but the sort of high-flown nonsense that really amuses me.  Bates is a frumpy housewife whose husband leaves her to seek a more adventurous way of life, but it is she who has a number of adventures after she decides to travel to England for the funeral of her favourite (murdered) singer (Pryce).  There she meets his not-so secret gay lover (Everett) who returns with her to Chicago to hunt down "the crossbow murderer".  Assisted by her dwarf daughter-in-law, donning the red oilskin of the pyschotic killer from "Don't Look Now", their misadventures are hilarious.  Julie Andrews, playing herself, has two of the best bits of business in demonstrating how best to overcome a crisis (get everyone singing).  It probably is far from a great film given its cinematic failure, but it is certainly one to tickle the funnybone.   

Female Convict Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 (1972)

The National Film Theatre is currently running a series labelled 'Wild Japan: Outlaw Masters of Japanese Film' featuring a range of cult items from the 60s and 70s that prior to DVD have remained virtually unknown on these shores and which have never previously received theatrical showings.  I have booked for four of the series (I could easily have opted for more if I could have faced traipsing to and from the South Bank with more frequency) and the above film is the first of those that I will be covering over the coming weeks.

This one is in fact the second of four movies in the Female Convict Scorpion series based on an adult 'women in prison' manga of the time.  While I have not seen the first, this entry stands on its own feet and was spectacularly true to its comic book roots.  Our heroine, who was originally innocent when sent down, has been abused by the guards and warden of the prison where she has been kept in isolation underground.  Her quest is revenge and after a gang bang rape scene staged by the wicked warden, she escapes with six other prisoners.  The balance of the movie follows them as they plough through the surreal countryside, revealing their various crimes (all of which were engendered by men) and their attempt to stay free, without any inter-prisoner loyalty, against impossible odds.  The movie is exceptionally violent as men are made to suffer for their sins or indeed for just being men, but it is filmed with an impossible beauty and dreamy quality which is at times at odds with the sordid subject matter.  Our heroine Matsu, also called Scorpion, was played by Meiko Kaji in all four films; she is forceful and determined, but hard to read, and in the entire movie she had but two short lines of dialogue.

If the remaining three films succeed in sharing this one's energy and passion, I am in for a very rare treat.

 

The pick of the rest

I watch so many movies that never make it to these pages -- most of which probably weren't worth my time in the first place, but still I persevere.  I have seen several over the last few days which are worth commenting upon, if not in any depth:

Dracula (1979): I hadn't watched this one for a while and wanted to revisit Frank Langella's romantic take on the fangy count fresh from his Broadway triumph.   Gosh, he was pretty once upon a time but the movie was utter tosh.  Filmed in dismal greys with brilliant reds at the relevant heights of passion, it was a complete mishmash of accents and hammy acting -- and the worst culprit by far was good old Laurence Olivier in the Van Helsing role.  Parenthetically I saw Guy Maddin's "Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary" not that long ago which is a far more interesting take on the oft-filmed story.

Comancheros (1961):  Not vintage John Wayne by a long chalk but still good violent fun in the West.  Oddly enough it was director Michael Curtiz's last film and while he is remembered as a woman's director, he did a fine job with this mainly male cast.  Wayne's Texas Ranger is paired with gambler-on-the-run Stuart Whitman and there is a memorable bit part for Lee Marvin as a partially-scalped gunrunner (with one of the worse make-up jobs ever).  The stirring Elmer Bernstein score is another asset.

Love and Human Remains (1993):  I only knew the films which Canadian director Denys Arcand has made in French (and very accomplished they are too), so this English-language movie was new to me.  Like his other films it is an ensemble piece, here dealing with various aspects of love and sexuality -- straight or gay or kinky or mixed -- and it had much to say about how complicated our emotions can be.  The background serial killer story wasn't a complete red herring, but the film would have been just as successful without it. 

Cinderella Man (2005)

Although there have been some really terrific boxing movies over the years, I always surprise myself that I can like any of them, since the idea of two men beating each other to a pulp is not really my idea of entertainment.  This film by Ron Howard, a director who has always struck me as a very competent hack, is amazingly well done and involving.  In his second teaming with Russell Crowe -- an excellent actor but a hard-to-take personality, Howard tells the true story of James Braddock, a washed-up fighter who made an amazing comeback to take the heavyweight world title in the l930s.  The film has a lot in common with the racing movie "Seabiscuit" where an underdog proves an inspiration for the man in the street.  Set at the height of the Depression, Braddock could barely support his family and had lost his license to fight through various injuries and lacklustre performances.  His regeneration which started only as a much-needed moneymaking exercise was dramatically and movingly told.  I didn't think much of Renee Zellweger as the faithful wife frantic to keep her family together, but Paul Giamatti as Braddock's manager was absolutely superb, and, credit where it is due, Crowe was also great.  Yes, if you ask me objectively, I hate boxing movies, but this film joins the growing exceptions to that rule.

Breaking and Entering (2006)

This film was one of the gala showings at the recent Film Festival, but I caught up with it at a preview showing before its general release this week.  The ads scream that Jude Law gives the performance of his career, but don't you believe it; he comes across as vacuous and unsympathetic as usual.  He plays an architect working on the redevelopment of the Kings Cross area with swish offices in the area which act as a magnet for a bunch of Serbian thieves who keep stealing all his high-tech gear.  He is in a long-term relationship with half-Swedish Robin Wright Penn who won't marry him and who devotes most of her time to her difficult autistic 13-year daughter.  Staking out his office, he spots the young thief whose acrobatic skills afford entry for the gang, follows him home, and soon is involved emotionally and physically with the boy's Bosnian mother, played by Juliette Binoche.  While both female leads are very good indeed, Law does not really shine in their reflected light.  This was his third project with writer-director Anthony Minghella who must see something in him that I am missing; however I must also blame Minghella for the poor pacing and the rather contrived plot which attempts to provide some sort of redemption for all of the main characters and which totally stretches belief. 

The King and the Clown (2005)

This Korean historical piece was meant to be the first film viewed at the just- ended London Film Festival, but as noted elsewhere, the showing was cancelled.  Anyhow they did manage to obtain a print eventually, and I am more than pleased to have now seen it.  I don't quite agree with Michael that it was the best of the eight films we saw (not that I quite know which I would put in first place), but it was certainly magnificent in acting, colour, and composition.  I understand that it is the most successful movie ever with Korean audiences, which is a little surprising since a period film set at the start of the Sixteenth Century does not necessarily conjure up the notion of mass appeal.  But there you have it.

The story concerns two street performers -- an older man, Jang-sang. and his young and rather effeminate friend, Gong-gil.  When they leave the countryside to try their luck in Seoul after the troupe's manager tries to pimp the favours of the younger man, they join up with three lowly actors.  Surprisingly their new act which is a rather bawdy spoof on the new (and somewhat unstable) king and his mistress is a popular hit, but they are soon arrested for blasphemy.  In prison Jang-sang argues that they should not be punished for a show that the King has not seen and that they should be freed if they are able to make him laugh which of course they do.  Now under the King's protection they remain at the palace where they spoof the King's Council, advisors, and the old King's courtesans.  However the King is becoming more and more attached to pretty Gong-gil, much to his mistress' annoyance and to Jang-sang's distress, and is oblivious to the rumbles of rebellion afoot.  These bare bones only suggest the main theme of the film which is the deep affection, nay love, between the two lead characters, but a love which is never physically realised.  And while others try to drive a wedge between them in the most brutal way, this bond can not be destroyed. 

Lunacy (2005)

I have always been a big, big fan of the Czech animator/writer/director Jan Svankmajer ever since I first saw his version of the Alice in Wonderland story from 1988.  Subsequently I have sought out his short animations and have really been very taken with his full-length features "Faust", "Conspirators of Pleasure", and "Little Otik".  However, one unhappy result of this year's London Film Festival has been to put me off some of my favourites.  I have written below about Aki Kaurismaki and this latest feature from Svankmajer was so black and disturbing that I would need to think twice before wanting to view it again.  Perhaps as one grows older and this great talent is now 72, one grows more cynical and pessimistic about the world in which we live.  The film begins with a voiceover introduction from the director himself, explaining that we are about to view a horror film, inspired by the works of Edgar Allen Poe and the Marquis de Sade, and references to both, but particularly the latter are discernible throughout the film.  However this is not a horror film in the traditional sense, but rather a philosophical exposition of how the madness in our world can only be dealt with by brutal force.

The two main characters are a rather simple young man whose mother has just died in the insane asylum at Charenton and who has nightmares about being locked away himself and another more worldly man, referred to only as the Marquis.  While we appear to be in the modern world, the Marquis seems backdated to another period -- in his dress, his courtly manner on the surface, and the fact that he gets about in a horse-drawn carriage in the same time and space as buses and motorcars.  The gist of the tale is about the lunatics taking over the asylum until by the end we can no longer tell just who are the madmen and which, if any, of the characters are sane.  This is punctuated throughout by the most disturbing animations of fast-moving, encroaching meat and animal tongues that I have ever seen; it was seriously disturbing enough to turn one into a vegetarian.  I don't know quite what Svankmajer was saying here, except to suggest that we are all nothing more than meat to be ground up and spit out by the modern world.  But whatever, it was dead upsetting and depressing.    

Crash (2004)

I fully expected to hate this film but was more than pleasantly surprised by it.  There was a huge outcry when it won Best Picture at the last Oscars over "Brokeback Mountain" (which I have not yet seen) with accusations of homophobia and the like, but I think it was in fact probably a worthy winner.  Writer and first-time director Paul Haggis has created a mosaic of Los Angeles life with all facets of racial prejudice on display and has coaxed memorable performances from most of his large cast.  While possibly some of the situations were contrived for solely dramatic ends, this in no way detracted from the overall force of the film.  Standout performances from Matt Dillon, Thandie Newton, Don Cheadle, and Terrence Howard were particularly strong in contributing to the multi-layered story, and even a lightweight actor like Ryan Phillippe had something to add to the mix.  Only Brendan Fraser seemed somehow out of his depth.  It is not possible to outline the complex and inter-relating story lines here, but they were woven with brilliant dexterity making this a movie well worth seeing.  Some of the tale may be considered sad and depressing, but so too is real life occasionally.

For Your Consideration (2006)

A bit of light relief in the London Film Festival stakes with the latest movie from Christopher Guest.  Although I understand that he dislikes the term "mockumentary" which is normally applied to all of his earlier films, this one was really more of a conventionally-scripted comedy, rather than a largely improvised trifle, written with his usual co-writer, actor Eugene Levy.  However all of his ever-growing stock company of actors were on view in this not-so-affectionate take on Hollywood paranoia.  Two veteran but faded actors, played by Catherine O'Hara and Harry Shearer, are starring in an Indie period piece called "Home for Purim" with rising actors, played by Parker Posey and John Michael Higgins.  When a rumour of potential Oscar nominations reaches the cast, three of the four become monstrous media personalities in pursuit of that elusive goal.  "For Your Consideration" is the tag line normally used in Variety ads to promote award hopefuls.  Onto the scene comes one of the money men, played by Ricky Gervais (did Guest really need to add him to the cast?), suggesting that the film is "too Jewish".  It is finally released as "Home for Thanksgiving" without making the expected flash.  Whereas Guest's earlier work finds a certain sweetness in his obsessed characters, this film left something of a bitter taste.  Still it was sharply scripted with some cutting insider jokes and it is always good to welcome back most of Guest's friends and familiar faces.

Princess (2006)

In comparison to my previous entry, this London Film Festival choice by Danish director Anders Morgenthaler was a fascinating film, but one that is difficult to describe.  Combining anime-like storytelling with some unfocused live action, the Princess of the title was a porn star killed in a car crash, leaving her worldly-wise five-year daughter alone.  Her brother returns from his missionary work abroad to claim responsibility for the child, but they do not bond easily since he is far too uptight to understand the debauched life the girl has witnessed.  In addition he feels guilty for his sister's fate, since it was his videotaping her making love some years before that sealed her career choice.  He determines to rid the world of her legacy by destroying all of the porn films she has made and the men responsible for exploiting her. There is a lot of bloodshed and not quite the hoped-for resolution, but rather a poetic one that is in its own way satisfying.  Interestingly only the Princess is never depicted in cartoon form, perhaps because it was her real tragedy which created the story.  A truly original film and a truly unusual vision.

Lights in the Dusk (2006)

What a major disappointment!  My fourth London Film Festival choice was one of the most miserable, minimalist films I have ever watched.  The Finnish writer-director Aki Kaurismaki has always veered to the downbeat (it must be all those dark Northern nights), but he has hit rock bottom here.  Intended as the third part of a loose trilogy which focussed on unemployment ("Drifting Clouds) and homelessness ("The Man without a Past"), this film was meant to emphasise loneliness.  However where the previous two movies were leavened with humour and a large measure of love and hope, this one only offers the viewer the merest glimmer of a better tomorrow.  It's the sorry tale of an alienated night watchman who is deceived by a femme fatale into unwittingly allowing a major burglary on his watch for which only he receives any punishment.  He spends most of the film being beaten up and generally abused or ignored, and is unable to accept the friendship of an equally lonely, but plain, young woman.  I kept waiting for some kind of sweet revenge or redemption, but alas my wait was in vain. 

Nanny McPhee (2005)

This was nearly a good film.  All of the elements were there for a charming tale, but somehow the whole slightly misfired.  Widower Colin Firth has seven adorable but horrible kiddies who have sent every nanny fleeing in terror.  Onto the scene comes Emma Thompson (who also wrote the screenplay) as the hideous but magical eponymous nanny.  As she gradually reforms her charges, her ugliness -- literally warts and all -- begins to disappear; and when she knows that she is no longer needed, so does she.  So far, so good, but an embarrassing role for Angela Lansbury as great-aunt Moneybags in a stupid false nose, and some screechy parts for Imelda Staunton as the ex-army cook and Celia Imrie as a proposed bride for Firth detract horribly.  The scene where the kids try to scare off Imrie with worms and toads and various booby traps, causing Firth to fall all over her in perceived amorous mode is just not funny.  Still, the nice bright colours, a sweet performance from Kelly MacDonald as the gentrified scullery maid, and the on-balance appeal of the children all help to make this a pleasant family film -- just not a great one.

Black Book (2006)

Before he "went Hollywood", Netherlands-born director Paul Verhoeven made some remarkable films, mainly starring the young Rutger Hauer.  After making something of a splash Stateside, his career there seems to have petered out, largely through some misguided projects -- although I personally find "Showgirls" a guilty pleasure and also think "Starship Troopers" is a hoot.  Anyhow, after 20 years, he is now back in Holland where he started and has directed this well-made World War II saga.  Carice van Houten plays a Jewish singer still in hiding in 1944.  When the farm where she has been holed up is bombed, she joins other fugitives, including her parents and brother whom she has not seen for years, on a barge headed for freedom only to see all of them slaughtered by a Nazi patrol.  Suspecting a set-up, she joins the resistance under new identity and a new appearance and agrees to become the mistress of a gestapo officer to help the cause.  The actual story with its ins and outs is far more complicated, as one would expect from a 135-minute movie, but it is all very competently presented and even suspenseful.  Van Houten, who is on-screen non-stop, is magnetic and the balance of the cast excellent.  The film is something of a throwback to the director's earlier works, in particular "Soldier of Orange" from 1977, although Verhoeven can't resist the occasional unnecessary vulgarities and gratuitous nudity that marked his Hollywood years.  Still the movie is a definite return to form, albeit occasionally potboiler-ish, but on balance certainly recommendable.

The Longest Yard (2005)

This vehicle for acquired taste Adam Sandler is a remake of the Burt Reynolds movie of the same name from 1974.  We can safely ignore the other recent remake called "The Mean Machine" starring that thespian great, Vinnie Jones.  All three films concern themselves with an ex-pro footballer, jailed for a minor offense, who is forced by the venal prison warden to form a football team to showcase against his crack team of prison officers.  Apart from the difficulty of picturing Sandler as any sort of football star, the film probably has enough funny bits to please both fans of Sandler and sports fans.  He gradually puts together a team of misfits who are attracted by the premise of being able to bash their sadistic guards.  When sidekick Chris Rock is murdered by the prison authorities, they try to frame Sandler to get him to make his team throw the big game.  You can guess which team wins in the end, and Sandler emerges as a better person, even with the threat of a longer prison sentence hanging over his head.  And it comes as no surprise that aging actor Reynolds has taken on a meaty role to prolong his now definitely defunct film career.  I think the word "mindless" best describes this farrago.

The High and the Mighty (1954)

This early cinerama film directed by William Wellman and starring John Wayne was one of the earliest airline disaster movies and is highly rated in retrospect by most critics.  I stress "in retrospect" since the film has not been available until recently on DVD (and was never on VHS) and according to records that I have been keeping since the early '80s, it has not been shown on terrestrial television either.  Therefore when Sky Cinema screened a copy a few days ago, I was delighted to catch up with this missing "treasure".

However sorry to say the film has dated very badly and the back stories of the 22 passengers on the flight from Honolulu to San Francisco (scheduled to take 12 hours and 16 minutes!) and the five crew members was not really involving stuff.  Wayne, as always, strides through the procedings as an over the hill pilot who has lost his family in a previous crash, goaded by the younger crew.  However, naturally when disaster threatens, it is the old warhorse who saves the day.  The cast is a watchable assortment of actors from the 40s and 50s, but of B ranking, who only make Wayne look all the more starry in comparison.  The most memorable part of the film is the Dmitri Tiomkin score and theme tune which won Oscars and which became so associated with Wayne that, I understand, the music was played at his funeral.  I'm pleased to have seen the film since it always worries me when mainstream productions remain unavailable for one reason or another, but having seen it, I won't be watching it again.

Taxidermia (2006)

Even the excesses of "A Zed and Two Noughts" below could not have prepared me for the body horror of my first London Film Festival screening.  I chose this movie since I was very taken with the Hungarian director, Gyorgy Palfi, and his first feature length film "Hukkle", a virtually silent effort with only ambient noise -- mainly hiccups -- and the hint of murder in an idyllic community.  This film is his sophomore effort and one that will undoubtedly gain cult status, but only among those cinema-goers with very strong stomachs.  The opening shot of a penis shooting out flames set the tone for the explicit sex, regurgitation, and mutilation to follow.  The film covers three generations of Hungarian men.  The first is a lowly soldier who after various hysterical attempts at masturbation manages to impregnate his superior's wife.  She gives birth to a baby with a pig's tail who grows up to be a competitive eater, a sport for which he craves Olympic status.  The scenes here of gross men stuffing their faces and then vomiting are frankly sick-making, albeit hilarious.  He and his equally obese wife produce a sickly child who grows up to be a taxidermist; that is he stuffs animals rather than himself with food.  However he craves his own form of recognition, which he achieves by turning his body into a work of art (in the Damien Hurst sense) which will stand forever as proof of the taxidermist's artistry.  Only the stout-hearted need apply...

A Zed and Two Noughts (1985)

I should by rights at the moment be sitting in the Odeon West End watching "The King and the Clown", the first of my London Film Festival selections, but when I got there I found that the screening had been cancelled.  Great, what a way to start the fortnight!  Grrr.  So I'll write instead about this earlyish Peter Greenaway film which I have seen before but which, together with "Drowning by Numbers", I have never quite reckoned sufficiently to consider owning a copy.  So I gave it another go yesterday evening and have not really revised my feelings.  The visuals are brilliant, if often disturbing, but the storyline is so off the wall that it takes a great deal of acceptance.  The film is also hampered by a rather mixed bunch of actors, in particular the French actress Andrea Ferreol in one of the main roles speaking fairly unintelligible English and for some reason Jim Davidson (cor blimey) as a zookeeper.

If you've never seen this movie, be advised that it touches on detached Siamese twins, amputations, and the graphic decaying of flesh.  Brothers Brian and Eric Deacon (not actually twins but growing more alike as the film progresses) take the lead as husbands mourning the death of their wives when the car in which they were being driven is wrecked by a falling swan.  As can happen from time to time!  They are involved with courtesan Frances Barber, the aforementioned frenchwoman who was driving the car, a mysterious double amputee German, and a woman in a red hat straight out of a Vermeer painting.  Much of the film is gorgeous to look at, but other images of rotting animals and snails crawling across bodies does take the edge off any lasting enjoyment.

Feet First (1930)

Silent comedian Harold Lloyd made an easy transistion to the talkies, even if these films do not consistently reach the heights of brilliance to be found in his earlier ones.  This one is a good case in point.  He plays his usual nebbish but eager to better himself at the shoe store where he works as a stock boy, especially after he meets the girl of his dreams.  He takes a six-month "personality" course and has worked his way up to salesman when he meets her again and believes her to be the daughter of a shoe magnate.  When they sail to the States (the movie opens in Honolulu) he finds himself as a stowaway on their liner and tries to maintain his pose as a "leather mogul" while avoiding capture by the ship's crew.  All of this is episodic with some great bits of business tucked into the so far predictable story line.  The real kicker is when he brags that he will get an important letter that the magnate has dictated to San Francisco before the ship docks and after hiding in a mailbag he is air-mailed ahead of the ship.  There then follows a hanging-on -the-facade-of-a-tall-office-building sequence, reminiscent of his famous "Safety First", which probably goes on a tad too long, but which includes some breathtaking stunts and duels with disaster.  For all its longeurs, still better entertainment than so many of our modern so-called comedies.

Zhou Yu's Train (2002)

I knew virtually nothing about this Chinese film in advance and I am not all that much the wiser having seen it.  It is unusual among the Chinese films that reach the West insofar as it is a fairly simple love story, albeit a confusing one.  Gong Li now past the first flush of beauty evident in her earlier films, but still a fine actress, plays a porcelain painter.  On a train journey she meets poet Tony Leung (not the Hong Kong superstar of the same name, but the one out of "The Lovers") and indeed begins a passionate romance with him which requires her to make the long train journey twice weekly to the far-off city where he lives.  On one of these trips she also meets a cheeky vet (who doubts her lover's existence), and when the poet's day job moves him to Tibet, she begins a tentative relationship with the vet as well.  On the train we periodically see another woman with different hair, but also played by Gong Li, whose role is something of a mystery.  The film addresses love, both genuine and imagined, longing, and quite possibly reality in an elliptical way, but I found it hard to get a grip on the themes.  The one thing that did leave a wonderful impression was the cinematographer's love affair with the changing scenery along the train's route.

Yes, it's been a year since the last London Film Festival which starts tomorrow night.  I have only pre-booked eight movies this year, mainly ones which are unlikely to get a wide cinema release, and I shall be reporting accordingly over the next fortnight.  If any of you are in the London area, there is still plenty of availability to indulge any curiosity you may have. 

Pride and Prejudice (2005)

There have been several very popular television versions of this story, so it is hard to remember that this is only the second big screen version, the first being the charming 1940 black and white classic (if you ignore the recent "Bride and Prejudice" which is nothing to do with things).  I was pleasantly surprised by the professionalism of this outing -- well conceived, well acted and nicely photographed.  I have not seen the Colin Firth in a wet shirt and breeches TV effort, so I can't make any comparisons, except to note that being longer, it was probably more inclusive and more faithful to the novel.   Keira Knightley comes into her own as the most sensible of the five unmarried Bennet sisters; it's the first time I really felt that she was a talent to watch.  Her Darcy, Matthew Macfadyen, was previously a television actor, but deserves to break out to bigger things.  All of the cast were enchanting, with the possible exception of Brenda Blethyn as the girls' hysterical mother, but special praise must be reserved for two of the smaller roles: Donald Sutherland as the girls' father and Judi Dench as Lady Catherine.  All in all, something to restore one's faith in British films and talent.

The Island (2005)

Michael Bay's first directorial outing without producer Jerry Bruckheimer is as much a flashy production as one has come to expect from the pair of them -- but this one is all flash, without much substance.  We meet our main protagonists Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson when they are living in a controlled environment, the remnants -- we are led to believe -- of a society devastated by war.  The only hope these people have is to someday go to The Island where a better life awaits them.  McGregor starts to question the status quo and when Johansson's name is drawn, he fears the worst and they escape to a very real outside world of which they knew nothing.  Turns out they are all clones, grown for their spare parts by their "sponsors" who hope to live forever.  So they start the search for their counterparts and McGregor meets the real McGregor (who obviously looks exactly the same but who has a stronger Scots accent).  The latter is horrified and says, "People who eat burgers don't want to meet the cow".  Quite!  Of course our heroes and all the other doomed clones revolt and live happily ever after.  If you can believe that, you can believe anything, but it is probably not worth thinking about -- just more disposable so-called entertainment.

Where Angels Fear to Tread (1991)

This DVD was given away by one of the Sundays a while back and I was convinced that I must have seen it previously, since it has certainly been shown on terrestrial television.  But I hadn't.  Based on E.M. Forster's first novel and with Helena Bonham Carter in the cast you can bet that it was yet another "Heritage" drama like so many of the Merchant-Ivory's (not that it was one of theirs), but it was not without interest.  Held together by a small but perfect cast which included Rupert Graves, Helen Mirren, and Judy Davis, a tragedy unravels as unthinking Edwardian characters unleash their various hang-ups on a romanticised Italian world.  Davis in particular is brilliant as the priggish spinster looking down her nose on any sort of joie de vivre who is responsible for the final disastrous turn of events.  As the first half of the film's title would have it: "Fools rush in".  My only criticism is that the movie peters out rather sharply and I half expected 'to be continued...' to pop up on the screen. 

Rick (2003)

Having been a little dismissive of the Hallmark Channel recently, I was surprised to find this oddity tucked away in its middle-of-the-night schedules and not even listed as a premiere; I'm not even convinced that it was a cable movie like most of their film offerings, since the strong language and sexual scenes are not the channel's usual bag.  However it was a very strange and provocative black comedy/drama, based on Verdi's Rigoletto in modern dress, written by the author of the Lemony Snicket books, and starring Bill Pullman as a completely unsympathetic company high-flyer who finds himself working for a man half his age.  All of the men in the tale are called names like Rick and Buck and Duke and Nick (words ending in a K are funny as Matthau might have said in "The Sunshine Boys") and each of them is obnoxious in their own special way.  When Pullman gets all snitty with interviewee Sandra Oh and later causes her to lose her cocktail waitress job, she puts a curse on his 'evil soul'.  All of a suddent taxis won't stop for him, he discovers that his nubile teenaged daughter is involved in on-line sex chat with his boss, and a plan to rid himself of the latter goes disastrously wrong.  All this with tinkly (and sometimes too loud) Christmas music in the background resulted in a surreal and disturbing film.  Not Hallmark's bag at all.

The DVD backlog

Now that Sky in its wisdom has decided that two or three new films a week is sufficient and Film4 is replaying its back catalogue for its new Freeview audience, most nights when I'm in there is little to watch on the box that I've not seen previously -- I have even seen all of the "new" Korean premieres on Film4 this month.  And there is a limit to the number of television movies shown on Hallmark and their sister channel that I can tolerate at any one time.  So most nights, we fall back on our DVD backlog -- which I hate to admit is quite substantial -- in the search for new thrills.  Poor, poor Patty!  Some evenings are more successful than others, and yesterday's was a typical mixture:

Rider on the Rain (1969):  We remembered seeing this on a transatlantic flight many moons ago, but could remember nothing about it other than that it was French-made and starred Charles Bronson (whose granite-like masculinity I like just fine).  It is also fairly well rated by the critics, so I was not prepared for the disappointment in store.  Firstly it was one of the worst prints I ever seen on a DVD transfer, nearly black and white when it wasn't meant to be.  Also I found Bronson's co-star Marlene Jobert something of a disappointment, especially since she was on screen nearly non-stop.  Part of the problem is that the film which was set in France was probably originally shot in French with a dubbed Bronson, which might or might not have been an improvement.  Bronson was as usual just dandy and there was even a small part for his beloved wife, Jill Ireland.  Mind you in the olden days they probably could get away with showing an in-flight film about a raped woman who murders her attacker -- not nowadays I bet.

Police Assassins/Yes Madam (1985):  This Hong Kong movie was a real mixed bag, but on balance more jolly than not.  Michelle Yeoh (billed early in her career as Michelle Khan) is now famous for her martial arts skills, but in this her third movie, she had to practice for months to try her hand (and feet) here for the first time.  She plays a cop searching for missing microfilm and paired with real-life champion fighter Cynthia Rothrock, who wasn't attractive enough for US movies but who made a big splash back then in Hong Kong.  The two of them really do kick some ass in flamboyant style by the film's end.  Unfortunately one also has to put up with some singularly low and unfunny Chinese humour by an array of familiar faces from Sammo Hung downwards during much of the exposition.  I was wondering why Yuen Biao wasn't fighting, until I worked out that the actor I thought was him was actually a ringer.  Even more weirdly prolific Hong Kong director Hark Tsui appears as one of the quasi-baddies -- he should stick with his day job. 

The Perfect Man (2005)

There's a thin line sometimes between stories that should have stayed as television movies and those that deserve to be blown up for the big screen; this film is fine for viewing at home and then forgetting, but to try to make something more meaningful out of this bit of fluff is hopeless, especially since two of the three leads -- Heather Locklear and Chris Noth -- are best known for their TV roles.  The third lead and presumably conceived as a vehicle for her is young Hilary Duff, one of the least offensive young comers.  Her mother moves her and her younger sister across the country on a regular basis every time that she is dumped by an unsuitable boyfriend.  When she lands up in Brooklyn (huh?) where there is the promise of a more stable life, Duff creates a fictitious beau to keep her mum happy and to forestall her relationship with a geeky baker.  This would-be lover is based on her friend's uncle (Noth) and initially Duff must keep him away from her mother to avoid being found-out; this includes some really dumb antics at the restaurant which he runs and at a wedding that he is catering.  In the end, mother and daughters learn the value of family, the strengths in being oneself, and of course the promise of real love all round.  Apart from there being no 'disease-of-the-week', perfect TV fare.

Le Combat dans l'Ile (1962)

Jean-Louis Trintignant is rapidly becoming something of a bete noir to me.  This busy French actor has appeared in dozens of films, some of them classics, but his vacantness is beginning to annoy me.  Having seen him recently in the pretentious "Trans-Europ Express", he was even less likeable in this political (not very thrilling) thriller.  He plays a right-wing conspirator framed by his mentor and on the run for a set-up, but unsuccessful, assassination attempt.  He is alienated from his wealthy family and from society at large, but his strained relationship with his wife, Romy Schneider, is really his only tenuous link with reality.  They take refuge with an old friend, Henri Serre, a socialist and pacifist.  When Trintignant tootles off to Buenos Aires to take revenge on his betrayer, Schneider and Serre begin a relationship which can only be resolved by Serre reluctantly adopting violence as well.  It may be something of a spoiler for me to write that by the end of the film I was rooting for Serre to "Kill the Bastard".

The Cold Light of Day (1995)

I've said before, but I'll say it again, I do wonder how certain films come to be made.  This one is a good case in point, since it is a remake in English by a Dutch director of an obscure German movie from 1958.  What makes it even weirder is that it is set somewhere in Eastern Europe, some time after the fall of Communism with a mainly English cast speaking in pukka tones.  Richard E. Grant plays a cop who has quit the force when his superior (in search of political glory) has framed a known offender for the murder of three young girls.  Grant wants to find the real killer in his own way, even if this in fact means placing a youngster and her mother in harm's way.  No suspense is involved since the viewer knows from about ten minutes in that the perp is Simon Cadell, a seemingly respected doctor (but one in the Patch Adams vein).  Yes, that Simon Cadell out of "Hi-de-hi" playing one very creepy paedophile, but thinking about it, his character was pretty creepy in the sitcom as well (in a different way).  He manages to ingratiate himself to Grant's young bait, but disaster is of course averted in the nick of time.  To add to the peculiarities of this film, the story is based on a fairly elderly Durrenmatt novel, written well before the end of the communist era; this updating adds nothing to the story itself.  So why did they bother?

Brain Damage (1988)

Many thanks to those of you who left birthday greetings, although thinking about it, I can't explain what made me announce this in the first place!  Sky last night had nothing new to help me celebrate, showing an interminable TV movie called "Category 7 - The End of the World" about severe weather conditions (unexplained) wreaking havoc on various landmarks and adding a totally unnecessary subplot about a religious fanatic planning the slaughter of the first-born.  Forget about it.

Instead I'll tell you about this weirdie which I rewatched a few days ago.  The second horror film from low-budget auteur Frank Henenlotter (who? you ask) who went on to make the Basket Case series and "Frankenhooker", it is really a lot of fun if you have no cultural hang-ups.  A puppet-like mobile spinal cord escapes from its elderly owners and ends up through the water system in an adjoining flat where it attaches itself to the neck of a young man.  In exchange for providing him with hallucinatory images, the boy's mobility allows the thingy to find new victims whose brains it can suck for sustenance.  What, you now ask, am I doing watching this sort of rubbish?  Well, it's all a matter of perspective and there are times when a dose of lowbrow amusement does set me up for more serious viewing.  So there!

Fantastic Four (2005)

Ho hum!  Another day, another set of super-heroes -- but don't expect me to remember these next week.  Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, and Michael Chiklis are exposed to radiation which affects their DNA (or something) and they can stretch, go invisible, become a fireball, or be a human Rocky (literally) respectively.  Big deal.  Neither terribly well done nor particularly interesting, I can see youngish men panting over the delectable Ms. Alba, but otherwise, forget it.  I now know -- yet again -- why I do not rely on current blockbusters for my entertainment, not that I suppose this one made much of an impact at the box office.  I don't suppose that this will prevent our being lumbered with a sequel in due course, more's the pity.

Princess Tam Tam (1935)

As you may have gathered by now, I will go out of my way to view rareties, hence my visit to the NFT to see this French flick starring the incredible Josephine Baker.  If ever a performer was in the right place at the right time, it was this Black American who was the toast of Paris in the 20s and 30s, mainly for her wild dance routines and her somewhat operatic voice.  However the films that she made, while they form a record of her singular talent -- such as it was -- come from Planet Weird.  In this one which was banned Stateside since it implies a multi-racial romance, she plays a Tunisian goatherd (would you believe) who is tutored by a vacationing author to make his feckless wife jealous.  The fact that Baker was 31 at the time with a sophisticate's make-up did not stop the film-makers here trying to portray her as some sort of street urchin.  This Pygmalian-like tale has its moments but as a showcase for Miss Baker, it leaves a great deal to be desired.  Since it was conceived and written by her husband of the time, she can't really blame anyone else for some of the idiocies inflicted upon her.  One has a long wait before seeing her dance routines, but there are compensations, particularly with an elaborately-staged production number that wouldn't have shamed Busby Berkeley (not that she was in this one).  I'm happy to have seen this film, but wouldn't break my neck to see another of her vehicles.