Man on Fire (2004)

Without getting too excited about him, I am happy to admit that Denzel Washington is a fine actor who manages to take on sufficiently different roles to keep his appearances of interest.  However I am not sure I can buy him as a trained government killer.  Now retired and with a booze problem, he is taken on by a rich Mexican family as a bodyguard for their daughter -- the precocious Dakota Fanning yet again.  Despite his trying to keep an emotional distance from his young charge, he warms to her and then goes 100% beserk when she is kidnapped and believed killed.  The balance of the movie (and it is a long one) has him seeking out those responsible and dealing with them with ultra-violence.  By the end he probably feels redeemed and can now face whatever he must, but it's a bloody slog for the viewer.

The Door in the Floor (2004)

I have some trouble with the author John Irving.  I loved his first novel "The World According to Garp" and thought the film version was pretty good too, but I have never been able to finish another of his books.  Moreover his prose does not easily translate to film; the one recent exception is "Simon Birch" which is only a loose adaptation of "A Prayer for Owen Meany".  The film above is apparently based on the first chapters only of another novel called "A Widow for one Year" which naturally I haven't read, but I suspect that it lacks the richness of the full story, and on reflection it's a pretty nasty tale.  The great underrated Jeff Bridges plays a children's author and illustrator facing writer's block and he and his wife, Kim Basinger, are mourning the loss of two teenaged sons.  They have a new daughter played by Dakota Fanning's young sister (very well too), but she does not make up their loss, particularly for the wife.  Into this comes a 16-year old assistant to Bridges whom Basinger promptly seduces and it is implied that he was only hired because of his resemblance to one of the dead sons (does this make their relationship incest?).  Meanwhile Bridges is involved with Mimi Rogers (a brave role on her part since it involves brazen nudity -- and she is no longer young) and draws lewd sketches of her.  This unhappy household finally resolves its problems in unsatisfactory ways for all of them, and I wonder how one is meant to take the last shot of Bridges literally disappearing into a door in the floor of his squash court, especially since this concept forms an integral part of one of his spooky kiddies' tales.  An interesting but disturbing feature that could never have had any hope of being a crowd-pleaser.

The Vanishing Corporal (1962)

Because I said I would, here's the last Renoir review -- his next to last film I think.  In it he re-visits the theme of one of his greatest films, La Grande Illusion, by setting the action in a prisoner of war camp -- but here it is during WW2, not the Great War.  And it's a second-rate, not Great movie.  The main trouble is Renoir's uncertain tone; he can't seem to make up his mind if he is making a comedy a la Wilder's fabulous "Stalag 17" or a serious treatment of men separated from their families, though it tends to veer to the former.  Again he is blessed with one standout performance in his protagonist, Jean-Pierre Cassel (father of Vincent) who plays the eponymous corporal who keeps trying to escape; however in this instance, a number of the supporting actors do a good job as well.  It is, however, only competently made and patchy in its appeal.

In answer to the comment asking where I get copies of some of the old films I view, most of them came off TV over a period of 25 years or so and a lot of them are still in Beta format.  Where there has been no DVD, VHS or re-showing, I am gradually transcribing those that I can to disc.  And good fun it is seeing some of them again.  

The Terminal (2004)

I saw the last of the Renoirs this afternoon, but will hold that review for another time, since the films I've seen in the season have been something of a disappointment.  I got home just in time to view the above on the box as I needed some mindless entertainment.  Well, mindless it certainly was, but entertaining is another story.  Despite the pedigree combination of director Spielberg and leading man Hanks, it was a somewhat sloppy and leisurely telling of a man without a country stuck at Kennedy Airport for nine months (based on the real-life story of an Iranian in Paris).  I can do without actors adopting funny accents even if they are meant to be from a mythical mid-European country, since we all know that it is Tom Hanks up there on the screen.  Stanley Tucci had the unenviable role of the big bad authority figure stopping Hanks from leaving the airport and Catherine Zeta Jones was a pseudo love interest.  There were a few amusing touches, largely from an Indian cleaner, and a feel-good ending, but it took two hours to get there.  I'm afraid it will go down as one of Mr. Spielberg's lesser efforts.  The best thing about it was the colossal set that was built since they couldn't shoot the damn thing at Kennedy, but you would never realise that it was all make-believe.  However, that's hardly a recommendation to see the movie.

A couple of Golden Oldies

As a special treat (I deserve it!) I watched two of my favourite films this afternoon and will share my happiness with you.  The first of these was "The Sun Shines Bright" from 1953, a little-known John Ford beauty.  It is a remake of one of his Will Rogers movies from the 1930s and he always said that it was his own favourite amongst his films.  I would be hard-pressed to choose one champion from the Ford features that I love, but this movie is certainly among them.  It's a small tale of a series of incidents in the daily life of Judge Priest in a small Southern town, and as played by the lovely character actor Charles Winninger it is positively irresistible, despite the jarring Negro stereotypes on view.  If you don't know who Stepin Fetchit was, it is probably just as well.  Anyhow, I defy any viewer to stay dry-eyed during the last fifteen minutes or so.  Ford is a master of emotion and I find myself more moved watching his films than I do with any other director.

The second movie was "Ruggles of Red Gap" from 1935 which has the advantage of starring one of my all-time favourite screen actors, Charles Laughton.  He is out of fashion nowadays and not as well-known as he deserves, but along with Spencer Tracy, he was one of the most consummate actors to grace movies, never ever less than immensely watchable even in some of his late rubbishy roles.  Here he plays a gentleman's gentleman who is gambled away by his employer in Paris and taken to a hick American Western town by the social-climbing wife of a rough-and-ready Yank.  He finds ultimately that America really is the "Land of the Free" and the home of opportunity (at least it was back then!).  To watch him reciting the Gettysberg Address to the patrons of a rough saloon is an unforgettable experience.   Bliss!! 

Le Testament du docteur Cordelier (1961)

This is the penultimate film that I've booked for the Renoir season and it is something of a historical landmark, being the first joint production in France between a cinema company and television.  It actually begins in a TV studio with an introduction by the director himself (kind of like Hitchcock, but not so good!)  The story is a riff on the Jekyll and Hyde theme, with mad Dr. Cordelier attempting to isolate his soul but instead unleashing his evil counterpart.  Now I have seen all the classic US versions of this tale (Barrymore, March, Tracy) and they all include a transformation scene from good to evil and/or back again.  This has been omitted here, but the actor playing Cordelier and his alter ego, Opale, (Jean-Louis Barrault) was positively brilliant; you could well believe that they were two completely different people -- as did the rest of the cast.  Barrault was a barn-storming actor of his day, appearing in a number of classic films, but maybe something of a ham at times (think of him as the French Laurence Olivier -- and my apologies to anyone who worships the latter), but I can not fault his performance here.  Unfortunately he was surrounded by a number of actors who seemed in need of acting lessons and who were well over the top for no good reason; at least there was a rationale for Barrault's histrionics.

La Kermesse Heroique (1935)

Also known as "Carnival in Flanders", this French film by the Belgian director Jacques Feyder has been on my "must see" list for yonks.  I had tickets for a showing at the NFT about a year and a half ago, but a family emergency prevented my going.  Anyhow now I have a wonderfully crisp copy of this black and white masterpiece on DVD and for once it was worth the wait.  Set in the early 17th Century, the citizens of a Flemish village are preparing for Carnival when word reaches them that the Spanish army is about to descend upon them.  Scaring his councillors with graphically illustrated tales of rape and pillage, the Mayor decides that if he plays dead the army might respect the town's mourning and move on.  No such luck.  But with their cowardly menfolk in hiding, the village women work out their own methods for dealing with the handsome Spaniards.

It's truly a good-natured farce and the re-creation of the townscape and costumes of the period is brilliant.  All of the cast are superb, but Louis Jouvet who I wrote about recently in my review of Renoir's "Lower Depths" is particularly memorable as a venal monk acting as chaplain to the Spanish Duke.  I understand this film about appeasement fell out of favour when the area was invaded by less pleasant forces a few years later, but we can watch it now and enjoy every ribald moment.

The Matador (2005)

I attended a preview of this film which goes on general release next week and can recommend it as an entirely enjoyable 90 minutes.  Post-Bond this is rather a more successful effort from Pierce Brosnan, since neither "After the Sunset" or "Laws of Attraction" was much cop.  In it he plays a "facilitator", otherwise known as an assassin, who represents the flipside of James Bond -- he's scruffy, he's foul-mothed and despite all the sex, he's lonely.  In between flitting around the world on assignment, he meets Greg Kinnear's everyman husband in Mexico where the latter is hoping to clinch a business deal to save his financial life and his very happy marriage.  Kinnear is attracted to the exotic side of Brosnan's life but balks when his assistance is asked.  Some months later after a botched kill, Brosnan appears at his door -- his life is threatened and he sees Kinnear as his only friend.  One is aware that Brosnan's stories might embroider the truth, so where the film goes from there does present the viewer with a hugely satisfying conclusion along with several surprises.

Shark Tale (2004)

I finally got around to viewing this one as I think of myself as a (very) minor animation buff and like to see what the world of U.S. digital animation is now producing.  The film, however, despite all the technical advances is not really one for posterity.  Winking in a knowing kind of way at the adults in the audience and laden with product placement, this is the story of a small fish in a very big ocean who claims notoriety for being a "sharkslayer"; he's a fraud until he realises that he will lose the girl-fish of his dreams and makes a clean breast of his deceptions.  As one would expect from Dreamworks, the animation was well realised, but they just are not Pixar when it comes to giving the movie a human heart.  What they thought they would accomplish by using celebrity voices (Will Smith, Robert DeNiro, Jack Black, Renee Zellweger, Angelina Jolie and even Martin Scorsese -- no doubt he thought it would be fun) is anyone's guess, as they do detract from the overall enjoyment.  However, the film is still better than many, but just not up among the very best.

Birth (2004)

Nicole Kidman should seriously re-evaluate her career choices (she should also think about putting on some weight).  If she keeps on choosing roles like this one or her recent so-called comic ones, people may begin to wonder what all the fuss is about when she's not wearing a prosthetic nose.  It's not that she is a bad straight actress, but no acting chops could have saved the pretty high-powered cast appearing in this idiocy.  It concerns a woman widowed ten years previously who is about to re-marry when a 10-year-old boy appears claiming to be her late husband.  Kidman comes to believe him and possibly they both should have been placed in therapy, especially since the lad eventually realises that he can't be her husband since he in fact loves her.  (Don't get me started on the logic of this one).  In the meantime we get the creepy image of their bathing together.  Ugh!!!

Almost Peaceful (2002)

This French film was unusual in its subject matter and quietly effective without producing any major twists in the action.  It concerns a group of Jews immediately after World War Two after they have emerged from hiding or the camps.  The story is set in a tailoring shop where the proprietor tries to find work for his colleagues even during lean periods to help them to readjust to civilian life.  This is a little more difficult than it may seem as the Nazis might be gone but their sympathizers still remain.  It's a very gentle tale as the various members of the cast look for love, validation of their existence, and the need to hope for the future without dishonouring the past.

The Tit and the Moon (1984)

It is difficult to summarise this movie which followed after "Jamon Jamon" and "Golden Balls" for the consistently interesting Catalan director Bigas Luna.  Yes, the "tit" of the title does refer to a breast which the young lead wants for his own after he jealously sees his mother nursing his new (and hated) baby brother.  The breast he hones in on belongs to French dancer and entertainer Mathilda May who is touring Spain with her fart-into-fire husband.  However he is not the only local who covets her; a slightly older lad is also besotted and spends his nights singing Flamenco outside her trailer.  The film  is concerned also with the local sport of human pyramid-building and whether our hero will find the "balls" to climb to the top as the pinnacle without knocking the whole lot into a heap.  This can only begin to give you the flavour of this rather charming and unusual concoction.

The Holy Girl (2004)

Sight and Sound have just published a list of the best films released in Britain in 2005 according to their resident critics and this Argentinian movie came in at joint second.  I must be missing something since I found the film very tedious.  It concerns a teenaged girl who with her classmates in their religious education classes are told to find their "vocation".  She decides that hers is to save the soul of a middle-aged doctor who has a nasty habit of touching up young girls and who is attending a conference at the hotel where she lives with her divorced mother, who incidentally is attracted to the (married) doctor.  The girl's attempt to establish contact with him puts the fear of whatsit into him and he tries to keep his distance,  And while we are left to draw our own conclusions as to the outcome, it is pretty clear that she is about to ruin his reputation and life.  The film is thought to be insightful into the mind of a religion-obsessed teenager as she copes with this and her own budding sexuality, but I found the exposition muddled and a little on the fey side.

On a completely different subject since it is hardly worth its own review, if you ever wondered what happened the the sweet little boy who played Oliver in the British musical, he is now a director (Mark Lester) who makes incredibly crappy movies, the most recent of which is "Pterodactyl" (2005) which I have just has the misfortune of watching.  Bring back the prehistoric birds and let them turn the cast list into an abattoir.

The Golden Coach (1953)

To complement the Renoir season at the National Film Theatre, FilmFour have been playing two of his later and lesser known films; I'd seen them both before, but thought they deserved another look.  This one was by far the more enjoyable.  It has a multinational cast and felt dubbed, but in fact Renoir shot English, French and Italian versions; this obviously was the former (as is the one they are showing at the NFT).  It tells of a travelling Commedia dell'Arte troupe playing to the natives in a backwater South American town and captures the comraderie of the artists, even when they are down on their luck.  It focuses on their lead Columbine, played by Anna Magnani, and the three suitors she attracts.  She is a fine actress and has a strong go at this role, but she is frankly some twenty years too old for the part.  The best part of the movie is the absolutely glorious colour photography.

Against this we have "The River" (1951) which is famous for being one of the most beautiful colour films ever, but you would never know it from the print FilmFour showed which looked like a washed out old rag.  I was furious.  I assume the print which has just been re-released and which has been attracting largely positive reviews is in better condition.  The film itself is a loving look at an English family's life in India as recalled by the writer some years later, but the action is more than slow and much of the acting leaves a great deal to be desired too.  All in all a disappointment.

Ladies in Lavender (2004)

Rather a strange choice for the first film to be written and directed by the actor Charles Dance is this fairly slim tale of two elderly sisters living on the Cornish coast in the period up to the outbreak of World War Two and how they find a Polish seaman washed up on their beach.  The saving grace is that the sisters are played by Judi Dench and Maggie Smith.  Now Dench might be the one who is nominated for awards non-stop nowadays, but if I had to make the choice, I would choose to watch Smith until the cows come home.  She's a quirky screen presence who achieves more with the odd look or sneer than lesser actors do with their entire body.  It turns out that their find whom they nurse back to health and whom, one suspects, Dench in particular would like to keep forever, is a gifted violinist and he is lured away at the chance of furthering this career.  All perfectly pleasant and watchable, but like I said at the outset, a rather odd choice from Mr. Dance.

Chose Secretes/Secret Things (2002)

This French film is like a distaff version of "In the Company of Men".  In that earlier film two male executives decide to entice a likely female to fall in love with them, just so they can then turn around and dump her -- it's supposedly just a game to them (although there are several twists which make it an interesting movie).  In this French flick, a sacked exotic dancer hooks up with a somewhat inexperienced young woman.  They live together and the former teaches her disciple how to use sex to enslave men and gain the upper hand in any relationship.  They insinuate themselves into a large company and do whatever is necessary to land the ultimate prize - the young boss and heir apparent.  However he has sexual agendas of his own including an incestuous relationship with his sister and the final fate of the main characters is not one that could have been guessed in advance.  Frankly, I found this film singularly unappealing and the lashings of sex did little to disguise the nasty undertones.

A Blonde in Love (1965)

Also known as "Loves of a Blonde", this was Milos Forman's penultimate film before leaving Czechoslovakia for the States.  He's directed relatively few movies but all of them are of interest; this one and his last Czech film, "The Fireman's Ball" are very highly rated probably because they were so unexpected in the strict communist regime of the day.  The fact that Forman was even able to get away with making them possibly accounts for a large part of their reputations.  This one tells of a young girl working in a shoe factory in a dead-end hick town.  At a dance where the management has imported some soldiers to try to keep her and the other young workers happy (the fact that the soldiers are middle-aged and kind of ugly didn't register with the bosses), she is attracted by the piano player who sweet-talks her into bed.  Swearing his devotion, he is aghast when she follows him to Prague where he lives with his parents.  The latter are appalled by her boldness and tell their son off accordingly -- and it is amusing that bourgeois prejudices survive so strongly in a supposedly totalitarian society.  She returns to her work but is unable to admit to her workmates that her dreams of love are hollow.

Nightwatch (1994)

Not the new Russian franchise that I wrote about last summer nor the pretty feeble Hollywood remake with Ewan McGregor, but the original Danish film on which the latter was based.  Like the remake of "The Vanishing", the Hollywood job was perpetrated by the original director and it's a mystery how the first film could be so good and the second so poor.  But that's by the by when the reviewing "Nattevagten" to use its Danish name.  It's the story of a student who takes a night watchman's job in a morgue and who gets involved with a series of prostitute murders.  The movie is extremely creepy at times, but there is a leavening of humour which balances the procedings.  This European take on the serial killer genre works well on its own terms, but it's no real surprise that it could never successfully translate back.  The tale is helped by a group of well-rounded characters including our hero's best friend and their girlfriends.  Having seen the film before, the identity of the killer could not come as a shock the second time, but first time round it was a zinger. 

A Bittersweet Life (2005)

Without a doubt the most vibrant cinema on offer to us nowadays hails from Korea, or perhaps we are just fortunate that the cream of their crop reaches these shores.  Here's another one which is hard to describe and which like so many others centers on revenge.  I don't know what the Koreans call their organised crime syndicates comparable to the Japanese Yakuza, but this was a tale of a young enforcer incurring the wrath of his Godfather (for want of a better word) after having served him unquestioningly for some seven years. The hero is an incredibly beautiful man, cool and collected, very reminiscent of the young Alain Delon.  When he is dealt with violently he doesn't understand why, but he can only retaliate in kind; and, my god, the director even makes the violence a thing of beauty here.  Again we have lashings of rain to create an atmosphere; the rain also helps wash away the buckets of blood that are shed for probably no good reason other than a warped sense of honour.  Stylishly directed and presented, one doesn't have to like the characters to involve oneself in their vendetta and wonder at their singlemindedness.

The Reflecting Skin (1990)

What a very strange film from the same stable as the equally weird "Passion of Darkly Noon".  It was the debut feature of writer-director Philip Ridley who is possibly better known as an artist.  A British production, it was filmed in Canada but set in the stark cornfields of the US mid-west in the 50's, and starred Viggo Mortensen in an early role and Lindsay Duncan as an intense and scary widow.  However the real star of the picture is the youngster who plays Viggo's 12-year old brother through whose eyes the action unfolds.  The movie is a hymn to death and deals with the fears and fantasies of the young.  The lad is convinced that Lindsay is a vampire and feels obliged to save his brother from her; Viggo is in fact getting weaker and paler but probably through radiation poisoning from working at A-bomb test sites.  All of the boy's friends have been abducted and sodomised for which his father is blamed (which he deals with by setting himself alight).  No happy ending can follow and none does.  This is certainly not a film for everyone, but it is a very effective and moving experience for those who can take it.

Stroszek (1977)

Some people should never appear in more than one film (you might argue that some people should never appear in any film! -- and I could name a few).  That is a case in point here with Bruno S., an ex-mental patient and streetsinger, who was unforgettable in "The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser" where he was playing some sort of idiot savant.  However he really can not carry a film on his own as Herzog asks him to do in this German road movie.  Just released from prison he joins up with a battered prostitute and an eccentric elderly man who decide to seek a better and richer life in America where the old guy has relatives.  They end up in rural, dreary Wisconsin of all places and fail to find the American dream,  Getting themselves into a financial mess with smiling bank managers, she runs off, the old man gets arrested for armed robbery, and Bruno drives off until his van gives up and we are left in a somewhat frenetic end scene involving dancing chickens!  It was probably intended as some sort of indictment of materialism, but only worked in very small measures.  Herzog was far more productive with good old nutty Klaus Kinski.

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004)

It is impossible to be negative about this movie which was something of a box office flop as the visuals were magnificent, even if they were completely a digital creation.  The director managed to create a believable world which never existed at about the time that WW2 should have been breaking out -- this was a parallel universe with the bleached look of 30s serials and an art deco sensibility. The story (such as it was) concerned attacks by a robot army and the attempt by a square-jawed aviator played by Jude Law and a feisty girl reporter played by Gwynneth Paltrow to save the world.  I'm not overly keen on either actor but they played well together and managed to look as if they could have been digital creations as well.  The third lead (at least she received equal billing) was Angelina Jolie in what was really a cameo role -- which she played with the most plummy English accent you could hope to hear (mildly hysterical).  It was the kind of movie that the viewer had to accept at face value -- forget about looking for sense or sensibility and just go with the amazing daydreams presented.

A couple of "lost" films from the 70s

I don't know whether I've mentioned it in detail but I have a "little list" -- "little" ha!, it goes on for several dozen typed pages -- of films that I've not seen that I would like to have a look at.  Well two of them bit the dust this weekend, but unfortunately neither was worth the wait.  The first of these was "Mastermind" made in 1969 but which sat on a shelf until 1976, and I now know why.  It was shot on location in Kyoto and stars Zero Mostel, so memorable from the first version of "The Producers", as a Charlie Chan type of detective, and he was no better in the role than other latter day attempts by Peter Sellers and Peter Ustinov.  I think it was meant to be a spoof of the genre plus an additional dig at Japanese samurai films but it fell flat on its face on all fronts.

The second film which also came out in 1976 was a television docudrama called "Helter Skelter" covering the Sharon Tate murders and the Charlie Manson trial.  I have known about this movie for years and actually watched the re-make about a year ago without ever having seen the original -- it has certainly never been on TV here.  However what may well have been a powerful depiction of a top news story all those years ago did not age well.  The only "name" in the cast was Steve Railsback (who? you ask) who did well in the Manson role, far better than Jeremy Davis in the second version.  One could just about understand how he exerted his charismatic influence over "the family" of susceptible young girls.

Somersault (2004)

This Australian film swept that country's version of the Oscars and its young lead, Abbie Cornish, was publicized in the press here as the greatest thing since sliced bread.  Well, maybe I'm missing something, but this slim tale of a teenager who runs away from home after her mother catches her trying to seduce her (the mother's) boyfriend was not overly involving.  She goes to a winter resort area where she thought she had a potential male friend, but when he doesn't want to know she procedes to use her sexual wiles to entice any male that will give her the time of day.  It is probably what would be called a "brave" performance from the young star, with abundant nudity, and she seems an able enough actress, but her failure to look after herself does not make much of a story.  All the talk about "a young Kidman" is frankly at this stage a lot of hooey.

It's catch-up time again

As I've written previously, I do not review everything that I watch -- much of the time because I have little I would wish to say about the various films.  But occasionally I feel I should let you know what else has been trying to divert me and in most instances why they have not succeeded:

The Heat's On (1943): Mae West's last movie for some thirty years and one of her worst.  Even 'though she was getting on at the time, the pic only comes alive when she is on screen and that is not hardly often enough.

The I Inside (2003): Possibly destined for cult status but not for me.  Ryan Phillippe copes with what is real and whether or not he is alive or dead.  Give me "Jacob's Ladder" any time.

Foreign Affair (1948): Even minor Billy Wilder is fine from my point of view and the ever-watchable Marlene Dietrich squaring off against uptight Jean Arthur in post-war Berlin is worth anyone's time.

Happy Go Lovely (1951): A very minor British Musical which brought David Niven back from Hollywood and also imported co-stars Vera-Lynn and Cesar Romero.  Pretty forgettable all round.

L'Eclisse (1962): Another exercise in alientation from Antonioni (see my comments on Il Deserto Rosso).  Even Monica Vitti looks bored in this one.

Turtles Can Fly (2004): Surprisingly a joint Iran-Iraq prodiuction about children and child refugees living on the Kurdish border.  Well done but not surprisingly extremely depressing.  I can get depressed without watching movies.

I Went Down (1997):  Chores for Mr. Big in the criminal world of Dublin.  I probably would have liked this more if I understood more than half of the dialogue.  Brendan Gleeson was the only cast member I knew and he was pretty good (I think).

Legend of the Suram Fortress (1984): A later film from the director of "Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors", but this time in Armenian.  I enjoyed watching it since again the visuals were fantastic, but I would need a better grasp of Armenian folklore to understand most of the action -- but this may or may not matter.

Children of Fortune (2000):  A made for television movie about a San Diego naval detective with his bolshy daughter in tow investigating a murder which takes him to a polygamous community.  A little different from run-of-the-mill TVMs but nothing enormously special to write home about.

Marquise (1997):  Afictional story set amongst real characters in 17th Century France with Sophie Marceau playing a dancer-cum-whore aspiring to be an actress and using her charms to entice Moliere and Racine.  Perfectly watchable and something of a romp.

Stander (2003): A telling of the exploits of Andre Stander a charismatic bank robber in South African played reasonably well by Thomas Jane who I have always assumed is American.  But not every life deserves a biopic.

Callas Forever (2002):  Fanny Ardant playing the diva just before her death as producer Jeremy Irons tries to engineer her come-back.  A bit on the yawn-making side although the music was fine.

Before Sunset (2004):  I was never taken with the first film "Before Sunrise" which also starred Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy some nine years ago, although in retrospect it was rather more cinematic than this unresolved and wordy mess.  Some people think it great, so perhaps I have no boogie!

Gosh, have I really seen all these movies apart from those reviewed below in the last week or so, maybe I should go out for some fresh air.  But I do -- honest, I do.

Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

Well, FilmFour have completed their Studio Ghibli season for the time being with two dubbed animes: Porco Rosso (1992) - a weird concoction about a rogue Italian Air Force pilot who has turned into a pig (!) and The Cat Returns (2002) - an amusing bit of whimsy about a girl who saves a cat from being killed in traffic and is rewarded by the King of the Cats by being betrothed to his Crown Prince (but not to worry as she is gradually being turned into a cat).  These two were in stark contrast to the film here reviewed which is set in Japan during the closing days of World War II.  A brother and his young sister are devastated when their mother is killed during bombing (and their father is off in the Navy probably never to return).  They scratch for survival by selling what they can, attempting to live off the land, hoping to appeal to the charity of strangers, and in extremis stealing.  They both starve to death -- this is not a spoiler since this is clear from the beginning.  So this is an ultimately downbeat film, but without being maudlin in any way.  Thank goodness it was shown in the original Japanese; I don't think I could have put up with celebrity voices.

Cellular (2004)

Much to my amazement since I was expecting absolutely nothing special, I found this film quite watchable.  A rather drawn-looking Kim Basinger (well, she is getting on) is kidnapped by rogue cops who want to pressure her husband to turn over some video footage which exposes their scams.  Fiddling with a smashed telephone, she manages to contact the cel of a feckless young man played by Chris Evans (no, not that one -- the American one) who becomes involved in saving her and her son who has also been snatched.  While the action was more than a little improbable there was enough going on to hold my attention and I was particularly taken with the career cop character played by William H. Macy who had been considered something of a plodder by his department but who could gird himself to action when push came to shove.

Enduring Love (2004)

I've not read the Ian McEwen novel on which this film was based but can't help thinking that the story probably worked better on the printed page than on the screen.  Daniel Craig and Samantha Morton's romantic picnic is interrupted by a ballooning accident in which a man is killed despite Craig and other bystanders attempting to help.  So far so good, but it is rather downhill from there.  Craig obsesses as to whether he could have done more and he is also being stalked by Rhys Ifans, one of the bystanders, who feels their experience has brought them together in an implicitly romantic way.  Ifans is great at playing goofy but I do not buy him as a psychopath.  Morton's role seems underwritten.  Craig emotes well enough (and parenthetically I do have real trouble picturing him as the next James Bond) but I just didn't get the measure of his character here.  A story that should have been involving just seemed very flat to this viewer and that can only be the fault of the script and/or director.

Shadows of our Forgotten Ancestors (1964)

Now back to one of Pretty Pink's obscurities, another film that I have been looking for.  This picture by a Russian Georgian director, but shot in Ukrainian, recreates a folk history from one hundred years earlier.  In episodic form it tells the story of star-crossed lovers where boy can never have girl and how this haunts him throughout his remaining life.  However the storyline is far less important that the cinematography which swirls richly into a bygone world -- truly a visual feast -- and the recreation of a long-lost way of life, particularly in contrast to Communist Russia of the 1960's.  The director went on to shoot "The Colour of Pomegranates" four years later, another miracle of colour and storytelling.

Dodgeball-A True Underdog Story (2004)

Another day, another Ben Stiller movie, but I admit this one was something of a guilty pleasure, despite Stiller playing his usual nerdy role only this time with a tinge of obnoxiousness (but fair play, I'm pretty sure he chose to take the unsympathetic part here).  He plays a self-made muscle-bound gym owner trying to take over the "Average Joe" gym run by Vince Vaughn.  Vaughn and Christine Taylor (in real life Mrs. Stiller) and their lovable bunch of losers decide to raise the necessary cash by winning a dodgeball tournament even though most of them have never played this school game before and are a bunch of cack-handed weaklings.  Coached by the ferocious wheelchair-bound Rip Torn, they learn how to become winners and get the best of overbearing Stiller.  The film was full of chuckles, albeit some of them low indeed, and as the title has it, it's always great to see the underdogs come home.

Exorcist: The Beginning (2004)

Somewhere back in my archives last August you can find a review of a film I saw at FrightFest: "Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist".  That was the Paul Schrader film which the studio killed and never released to cinemas; instead they employed Renny Harlin to shoot a new film which they hoped would be more commercial and this was it!  Why they should approach a journeyman director to produce something stupendous is beyond me since "Dominion" was a beautifully crafted movie but just not gory enough for the powers that be; so they ended up with this potboiler which is full of cheap scares but totally devoid of logic and about as subtle as a sledgehammer.  Harlin obviously subscribes to the Italian view of horror: throw in flies and crawling maggots if you want to make the audience feel ill.  Anyhow I needed to view this one for comparative purposes but you can take bets that I won't be watching it again.

Leolo (1992)

I've known about this French-Canadian film for a long time but watching it has managed to elude me; I've previously seen most of it dubbed into German and while I was impressed with the images, I didn't have the foggiest idea what was going on.  It's not yet on DVD here but I did locate a pretty grotty VHS rental copy to satisfy me for the time being.  It's one of those movies that could alienate many viewers since it mixes scenes of surreal beauty with some very ugly action.  The story is told from the point of view of the younger son of an extremely dysfunctional family prone to congenital mental illness and living in the slums of Montreal.  He is convinced that he is really of Italian ancestry and that his mother was impregnated by an imported tomato (a scene once seen, never forgotten).  He is a gifted writer and in his imagination he can escape the ugly realities of his existence by seeing himself in the Sicilian valleys where he feels he belongs.  This film is so rich in what it offers the viewer -- I haven't begun to go into detail -- that it would reward multiple viewings.  Release the DVD now!!!

Our House (2003)

The American title of this film was "Duplex" which doesn't mean much in the UK but which is better since it means an apartment/flat on two floors which is what the yuppie couple here played by Ben Stiller and Drew Barrymore purchase -- except this comes with an old lady sitting tenant on the top floor who turns out to be the neighbour from Hell.  Stiller who is an OK comedian has been rather too much in evidence of late and small doses would suffice; Barrymore is a pleasant enough actress but without the talent of her family two generations back.  Anyhow this movie is definitely a comedy of embarrassment and the stars have no one but themselves to blame since they were both executive producers to director Danny De Vito.  All manner of physical and mental tortures are heaped upon them as they try to get rid of their tenant in more and more convoluted ways.  I'm not spoiling your viewing pleasure (dubious term in this context) by telling you that they have to give up in the end -- although there is one further twist which the wideawake viewer will see coming.

On a considerably more cultural and life-affirming level, I went to the Tate Modern yesterday to see the Henri Rousseau exhibition before it closes on Sunday.  My first love remains early Flemish painting, but I do like Rousseau for the naive primitive quality of his jungle scenes.  So why am I telling you this other than to let you know that I have more than one string to my bow?  Well, one of the exhibition rooms was an archive of prints, publications, etc. showing the Paris of Rousseau's day and on one wall they had two screens running in loops.  The first of these were documentary portraits of the time showing 'feeding time at the zoo' for example; but the second was showing three Pathe shorts which were hilarious of so-called big game hunters being chased by leopards and the like.  You see my film interest receives satisfaction in the most surprising places.