Mata Hari (1931)

As a biopic of the infamous World War I spy forget about historical exactitude;  for a romanticized look at the legend and some indication as to why Greta Garbo remains an icon, sit back and enjoy the mush on display here. The MGM version of history has it that the deadly spy sacrificed everything for the love of Ramon Novarro's Russian aviator.  I'd watched him in the silent "The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg" a few days ago and thought then how incredibly shallow he seemed.  Pitched against Garbo, although some six years older, he seems so immature and puppyish that the viewer can only sit back in disbelief.

As for Garbo, the story has it that when she arrived in Hollywood, she was made to slim down to conform with U.S. standards of glamour.  Seeing her here with her slightly flat chest and boyish hips, she still looks ever so womanly in comparison with today's size zero standards.  However, she is postively gorgeous and one can see just how much the camera loved her.  Fortunately her dance sequence is mercifully brief or we would wonder just what it was about Mata Hari that made men her slaves and ready to face the firing squad, but as Garbo struts about for her Russian paramour, Lionel Barrymore before he was confined to wheelchair roles, and her spymaster, normally benevolent Lewis Stone, she is magnetic.  OK this is hokum of the first order, but so lovingly done.  

Please reappear...
Tags: Greta Garbo, Mata Hari, Ramon Novarro, technorati repairs

Lease of Life (1954)

I do not consider my role as a blogging film buff to post a review for every contemporary blockbuster or would-be blockbuster, but to alternate the occasional reaction to some current movies with re-visits to the classics, leavened with the obscurities that I seek out.  (On this score, I should really be writing about the recently viewed "Phantom", a Murnau German silent from 1922 -- the contemporary Variety review panned it mercilessly, but I found it quite interesting in a weird sort of way).  However, today I want to say a few words about the above largely-forgotten British film.

The first surprise is that it was produced by Ealing Film Studio which today is mainly associated with classic British comedies and the second is that the screenplay is by thriller writer Eric Ambler.  The surprise here is that this movie is neither a comedy nor a thriller, but a sincere look at village life through the eyes of the local vicar who has just been advised that he has but a short while to live.  He uses this time to re-evaluate his view of religion, preaching that it should be a question of free choice within the general guidelines; this results in his being portrayed as a dangerous radical by the sensation-seeking press.  However, neither this storyline nor the one involving his talented pianist daughter who has won a scholarship and who is wondering how to finance the necessary London stay to accept it is the main point of watching this film.  The saving grace for what could have been a totally forgettable outing comes in the form of the lead player, Robert Donat, who brings the goodness and decency of the main character to vivid life.

When one thinks about the best English actors of the 30s and 40s, one remembers Ronald Colman, Cary Grant, David Niven, and my own favourite Charles Laughton, however all of these "went Hollywood" to leave their mark.  Donat had the briefest of sojourns in California before deciding this was not the life for him and his subsequent outings in American-financed films were actually shot in Britain -- amongst these such classics as the original "39 Steps" and "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" for which Donat took the best actor Oscar in the magical movie year of 1939.  Equally at home on the stage, Donat made only twenty films before dying of chronic asthma at the early age of 53.  This was his penultimate film and a poignantreminder of a shining talent too rarely preserved for us. 

Technorati: please repair
Tags: Robert Donat, Lease of Life, problem

EXTE -- hair extensions (2007)

Please remind me not to return to Japan in the immediate future.  We know now from recent J-horror movies that it is unsafe to watch videos or TV or to use a cell phone and that one must avoid wells and water, but now we are asked to fear the above beauty-parlour products as well!  The story runs that weirdie morgue attendant Ren Osugi has been stripping corpses of their luxuriant hair, but when he finds one whose hair continues to grow after death (and more copiously than you would believe), he steals the body for his home hair extension factory.  The trouble is that the corpse in question is so angry at the indignities done to her before her death (stealing organs and one of her eyes) that her hair is expressing her murderous rage and goes on a rampage whenever let loose.  This includes the unlucky wearers having hair grow across their eyeballs and on their tongue, before strangling others by its sheer volume.  I tell you, the Japanese lady sitting to my right had her eyes behind her hands for much of the film.  Truly a hair-raising experience!

Another trifle from my London Film Festival viewing was a French confection called "I always Wanted to be a Gangster" (2006) which tells five occasionally intersecting stories of would-be criminals and has-been hard men.  It was all terribly good-natured, amusing, and surreal, and was certainly a little different from your run-of-the-mill crime movie, especially since no major crimes actually took place amongst our feckless protagonists.

For any of you following my LFF viewing on Technorati, the entry I posted on October 20th covering "Eastern Promises" and Takeshi Kitano's "Glory to the Filmmaker" has disappeared completely after being indexed (and to add insult to injury none of my tags are working).  So if you want to see what should have been listed, please go through to my blog.

Tags: J-horror, murderous hair, would-be gangsters

Lust, Caution (2007) vs. Blind Husbands (1919)

The Taiwanese-born, American-based director Ang Lee has shown great versatility since his first small-scale Chinese-American dramas, turning his hand to heritage, U.S. suburbia, western, martial arts, super-hero, and gay themes, with generally great critical acclaim.  He has, however, had his failures, particularly with his version of "The Hulk".  Here with "Lust, Caution" he is attempting to add an erotic tale to his palette, and while I am sure this film will be generally admired, I think this is another misjudged movie.

Set in Shanghai during the Japanese occupation during World War II, Wei Tang is a regular at the mah jong table of Joan Chen (again), the wife of arch collaborator Tony Leung.  Flash back to Hong Kong four years before where Wei Tang is the youngest member of a university drama group who fancy themselves as revolutionaries and who decide that she should seduce Leung so that they can assassinate him.  However first she must lose her virginity to one of their number so that she can successfully pose as an experienced married woman.  However before she can establish any sexual relationship with Leung, he is posted back to the Mainland, and their plan is only resurrected some three years later.  This takes up the first half of a very long and meandering movie; the second half, when they eventually reconnect consists of some very graphic sexual encounters -- semi-porn for the art-house set -- all of which ends badly for at least one of them.  While nicely filmed and beautifully set, the relationship which starts with a violent rape is never totally believable and the movie does seem to go on forever.

In the opposite corner I give you another London Film Festival goodie -- a rediscovered print of Erich von Stroheim's 1919 melodrama before it was cut to ribbons for its subsequent release five years later. Widely known as "the man you love to hate", von Stroheim was an undisciplined yet imaginative director, constantly battling with the studios to get his grandiose visions on the screen; as an actor (and he appears in a number of his own silents -- to say nothing of his subsequent roles in others' talkies), he is unforgettable.  In this movie he is in his favourite role as a seducer -- all comic military costume, monocle and duelling scar -- trying to have it away with the ignored wife of an American doctor on holiday in the Tyrol.  The doctor is the blind husband in much the same way that Joan Chen was the blind wife in Ang Lee's tale, but fortunately we are spared any graphic sex in the earlier film.  Instead we can be delighted by von Stroheim's silly wooing of the wife, the serving wench, the village lass, and anything else in skirts.  And of course he gets his comeuppance.

Guess which movie I thought was more fun! 

Tags: Lust Caution, Ang Lee, Blind Husbands, Erich von Stroheim

Two more Chinese films

As mentioned two entries below, FilmFour recently screened five contemporary Chinese films -- in the middle of the night, since the strange schedulers there seem to think that film buffs will only accept Hollywood pap as the choice for peak-time viewing (wrong, wrong, wrong).  So it behooves me to make a few comments on the remaining two, now that I have finally watched them:

Sunflower (2005): This was probably the more watchable film, and it was so well-meaning, that it is a little petulant to criticise it.  It's the story of a village family between 1967 when their son is born and 1997 and beyond when he is a young man about to finally welcome his own child -- two abortions later!  The father was a promising artist, but after spending six years in a labour camp where his hands were deliberately smashed, he can only express his artistic needs by driving his son to practice his drawing at the expense of other childhood pleasure.  That the son does become a talented painter is only the bare frame on which the director shows how the fabric of Chinese life has changed over the thirty year period and how people's values have changed with it.  The film holds additional interest for the Western viewer with the casting of Joan Chen as his mother; although Chinese-born she is best-known to us for her roles in English-language movies and TV.

The World (2004): This one was a pretty hard slog, although it started off well.  Tao works as a dancer at a pretty crappy theme park in the Beijing suburbs where world landmarks are built in reduced scale so that locals can "See the world without ever leaving Beijing" as its slogan has it.  Unfortunately this is something of a metaphor for the fact that most Chinese folk never will see the  real world.   We follow Tao and her security-guard boyfriend through a number of undeveloped situations in drab rooms, and soon come to realise that theirs will be a dead-end existence, quite literally if my understanding of the ending is correct.  With numerous other sketchy characters and some pointless animated interludes, it was hard to stay awake for the very long running time.

If I had to choose a single word to describe these two movies, it would be "dour" and I think the reason I was so taken with "Devils on the Doorstep" is that it told its in fact serious story with a light touchand humour.  "Little Red Flowers" was also told with affection.  For my money these are the best ways to connect with a modern audience, rather than with the po-faced seriousness of the two above films. 

Tags: Chinese films, Sunflower, The World

Eastern Promises (2007)

Maybe now is the time to write something about the first two films seen at this year's London Film Festival.  I shall start with "Glory to the Filmmaker!" (2007) from ppp favourite Takeshi Kitano.  Unfortunately this was a major disappointment.  It's his first feature-length offering since the very peculiar "Takeshis" which I saw at the festival two years ago and which could only really appeal to his die-hard fans.  This one was more of the same, only more self-indulgent and I hope it does not mark the end of a brilliant career.  In the previous movie, he played himself and a doppelganger to send up his career; in this one his alter-ego is a blow-up doll in his image and neither of them betray any emotion.  The gist of the film is that while it may be time for him to try some new genres, the pastiche movies he envisions range here from bad to awful, with only the very occasional laugh.  I shall keep my fingers crossed for his film-making future, since previously anything he turned his hand to had a great deal to offer as great entertainment and imaginative cinema.

Now to the above movie from director David Cronenberg which was the kick-off film and probably one of his most commercial.  In a way this is something of a pity, since one of the things that differentiated Cronenberg was the quirkiness of his subject matter and his approach.  Despite the exoticism of having a film about the Russian Mafia in London, this movie was about as mainstream as any thoughtful modern film and despite its technical virtues, something of a potboiler.  After their brilliant cooperation on "A History of Violence",  I somehow expected something more from the director's second film outing with Viggo Mortensen; however while the actor is very able in his role as a gofer for Armin Mueller-Stahl's big boss, something just did not quite click.  I understand that Mortensen researched the role in some depth to play this very violent lead, but I came away feeling both exhausted and empty.

Maybe the idea of having a Danish-American, a German, and a Frenchman (Vincent Cassel as Stahl's psychotic son) playing three hard Russians just didn't really work.  Throw an Australian, Naomi Watts as a hospital midwife, into the mix and one was left with something of a dog's dinner accent-wise.  None of this is to say that I didn't like the film at all or that I didn't think it was a worthy effort from Cronenberg.  What I am trying to get across is that I was hoping for so much more.

Tags: Takeshi Kitano, Eastern Promises, David Cronenberg, Viggo Mortensen

Devils on the Doorstep (2000)

I probably should have mentioned earlier this week that the London Film Festival was imminent (it kicked off last night) and I have now seen the first two of the seven movies I have prebooked (a very conservative number for me).   I shall probably comment on these on my next entry, but for now I feel the need to review some of the recent Chinese movies that Film Four scheduled last week in the wee hours -- all of which I set and three of which I have now seen.

As I have said before I have gone off Film Four since it stopped being a subscription film channel and went commercial on Freeview -- my main complaint (apart from the annoyance of ads) being that they have shown very little that I have not viewed previously elsewhere and seem to be majoring in safe rather than adventurous programming.  So five new (to me) Chinese films was something of a treat.  The first that I viewed was "Little Red Flowers" (2006) which was a sweet but slight story of a five-year old rebel at a state nursery school shortly after the Revolution.  I suppose it was some sort of allegory about the futility of nonconformity in modern Chinese society and ultimately inconclusive.  The second film was the oldest of the five, "Beijing Bastards" from 1993.  I had heard of this one, but it was actually pretty weak in its story of rebel musicians imitating the ennui of Western bands; it could just as easily have been set in Berlin or Budapest.

However the above film was something of a surprise, especially since I do not usually like war films, although there are various movies that I do like which, as this one, take war as the setting for a story of human nature.  This one was set in Northern China in 1945 where the Japanese are the occupying enemy.  Two captured soldiers -- a fierce Japanese and a Chinese interpreter -- are dumped on a peasant village by an unknown captor, who says he will return for them in five days.  The five days stretch into six months and the hapless villagers having attempted to kill them (but quite unable to do so) find themselves nurturing their unwanted guests.  This section is actually quite humourous as the Jap wants to insult his captors and goad them into ending his life (so that he can die heroically), but the interpreter actually teaches him good and complimentary phrases to prolong their existence.  Eventually the prisoners (both now quite tame) and the villagers settle on a plan to return the captives to the Japanese troops and to benefit the village with supplies of grain.  However I had a nagging feeling that things would end in tears, and despite the amusing business before the denouement, that was unfortunately the case. 

This movie was nominated for the Golden Palm in Cannes and did win the Jury Prize, but was subsequently suppressed by the Chinese government on the grounds that it presented the Japanese in too good a light and the Chinese in too poor a one.  Despite its length, it was very involving and for most of its running time, it was very good-humoured.  The dark turn at the end, however, only reinforces my wariness about war movies in general.  At heart, I'm a very peaceful soul!!! 

Tags: Chinese films, Devils on the Doorstep, war movies

Stage Door (1937)

I've already added this entry once, but it seems to have disappeared.  (Thank you AOL!)  I finally got around to seeing "The Departed" (2006) and may or may not return to it in due course.  Suffice to say for the moment that much to my surprise I preferred it to the Hong Kong original (less confusing) and that, along with other film buffs, I am pleased that Martin Scorsese finally received an Oscar for it.  It's just a shame that it is somewhat lesser Scorsese.

However since I normally gain most pleasure from revisiting semi-classic movies, I shall concentrate on the above charmer today.  Based on a stage play by Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman, it made so successful a transition to film that it was nominated for best picture and best director -- neither of which it won.  The nominal leads were powerhouse actresses Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers, but it was supporting player Andrea Leeds who received an Oscar nod.  She didn't win either and retired from movies in 1940, and both she and her strong performance are little-remembered today.

The action takes place at a theatrical boarding house for would-be actresses and the young hopefuls spend their days trying to see producers and indulging in good-natured bitching.  Amongst their number are early roles for Lucille Ball, Ann Miller, and Eve Arden and a latter-day role for character actress Constance Collier as a has-been ham and would-be coach.  Leeds plays a talented actress who attracted attention in a role a year earlier, but she has been unable to get any work subsequently.  Into the mix comes society heiress Hepburn who fancies being on the stage and she is in her youthful attractive and feisty mode.  The part that Leeds covets is given to newcomer Hepburn when her father anonymously bankrolls the production, in the hope that she will fail and return home.  And Hepburn is in fact bloody awful (good acting here) during rehearsals.  Leeds kills herself in despair on the opening night.

The blase and cold producer who carelessly toys with the young actresses and callously ignores their problems is played by Adolphe Menjou, an actor I can never quite take seriously since he looks like a character out of a French farce; his butler is played by the incomparable Franklin Pangborn, who always brings a smile to my lips with even the smallest roles.  Rogers also gives a strong performance as the wise-cracking chorine who begins an affair with Menjou, only to spite older diva Gail Patrick.  She did a far better job here than in some of her later so-called dramatic roles.

As an ensemble piece, this movie has a lot to offer.  It is not quite in the same category as "The Women" made two years on with its all female cast, but it is still exciting to find so many young and able actresses graced with a highly literate script.

Tags: Stage Door, Katharine Hepburn, Andrea Leeds, Adolphe Menjou, Ginger Rogers

Stage Door (1937)

I finally got around to viewing "The Departed" (2006) which I may or may not discuss again in due course.  Suffice to say for the moment that I actually preferred it to the Hong Kong original (less confusing) and that, like many film buffs, I am of course pleased that Martin Scorsese finally won an Oscar.  It's just a shame that this movie wasn't quite top-notch Scorsese to merit it.

However since I am usually at my happiest revisiting old movies, today's comments are reserved for the above semi-classic pic.  Based on a stage play by Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman, its transition to the screen was masterful and it was indeed nominated both for best picture and best director -- neither of which it won.  The nominal female leads in a large cast were Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers, but it was supporting player Anthea Leeds who was Oscar-nominated.  She didn't win and actually retired from films three years later and is probably little-remembered today for her brave performance.

The action takes place in a theatrical boarding house for young women, where hopefuls await their big break and spend their time bitching at life in a somewhat good-natured way.  It was fun to see early appearances from Ann Miller, Lucille Ball, and Eve Arden amongst them, as well as a late appearance from character actress Constance Collier as a washed-up ham turned coach.  Leeds plays an actress with one successful role behind her, who is unable to find more work, and when the role she covets is virtually given to Hepburn's newcomer, she gives up all hope.  Hepburn, looking remarkably fresh and feisty, plays an heiress with a yen for the stage and has only been given the part when her father anonymously backs the production in the hope that she will fail.  She is indeed pretty pathetic (good acting here) during the rehearsals.

The unthinking producer who holds so many fates in his careless hands is played by Adolphe Menjou, who I have some difficulty taking seriously with his French-farce looks, and his butler is played by the inimitable Franklin Pangborn who always leaves me smiling, even in the smallest of roles.  Rogers also gives a stellar performance as the wise-cracking chorine who rooms with Hepburn and who takes up with Menjou only to spite slightly older Gail Patrick; she is far better than she was in some of her later so-called "dramatic" roles.  While this film is not quite in the same class as "The Women" two years on (which had a completely all female cast), the ensemble playing of so many fresh-faced actresses is something of a treat here, aided by a more than literate script.

19 Oct: Don't ask me where this entry reappeared from -- it's been AWOL for some days now!!!

Tags: Stage Door, Katharine Hepburn, Andrea Leeds, Ginger Rogers, Adolphe Menjou

Stardust (2007)

I absolutely loved this film which doesn't mean that the rest of the world will -- I have in fact already seen some lacklustre reviews -- but I found it a magical fairy tale pitched squarely at adults.  Then again I also went into raptures over "MirrorMask" which was also based on a Neil Gaiman novel and that one hardly made a dent in the viewing public.  This film directed by Matthew Vaughn has had a lot more money thrown at it and is, if anything, a little overpowering in its fantasy vision, but that's not a bad thing.  Working with a largely British cast including little-known lead Charlie Cox, the budget has stretched to some Hollywood muscle amongst the cast which in this instance is all to the good.

Cox is in love with shallow village lass Sienna Miller who is set to accept a proposal from his rival and he promises to bring back a fallen star within seven days if she will wait.  The star in question is embodied in Claire Danes' strange-looking but striking form, and he is not the only one after her.  Hot in pursuit is ancient hag Michelle Pfeiffer (I never thought I could write that combination of words) who needs the heart of a star to regain her and her two crone sisters' youthful beauty.  Pfeiffer is obviously having a ball in a role that mocks her own stunning looks and the make-up is brilliantly conceived as her briefly fresh beauty begins to rapidly deteriorate.  Also on the hunt are the remaining sons of dying king Peter O'Toole; he had seven sons -- three already murdered by their siblings when the film begins -- and they all will do anything to sieze power and find the jewel which Danes now has.  As the sons are in turn dispatched, we are shown their slightly comic and grotesque spectral ghosts who act as a kind of Greek chorus to the action.

Best of all the Hollywood imports (much to my amazement) is Robert De Niro who plays the tough-as-nails captain of a pirate ship in the sky who has captured Danes and Cox.  It turns out that he is really a closet queen and his every appearance is a delight.  I was frankly afraid that he might hijack the movie with an over-the-top performance per his recent comic roles, but in fact he steals every scene in which he appears with his good-natured turn.  The same can not alas be said of Ricky Gervais who seems to be an obligatory presence at the moment.  Fortunately his role was brief and he is rapidly first silenced and then disposed of.  As I have written before I shall look forward to the time when we see no more of this pompous, self-important creature.

That apart I can not recommend this movie too highly, but if fantasy doesn't float your boat, it may not be the film for you.  However for a clever, uplifting, slightly dark, humourous two hours, more full of action than whimsy, this movie is a definite winner.

Tags: Stardust, Neil Gaiman, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert De Niro

A Song is Born (1948)

Nowadays unnecessary remakes of popular (and even minor) movies seem to be the norm -- for example, I fail to see what Denzel Washington can bring to the droll Walter Matthau role in "Pelham 123" -- but the concept is far from new.  The above film is a musical remake of 1941's "Ball of Fire" and both surprisingly were directed by Howard Hawks.

Granted Danny Kaye and Virginia Mayo are not Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck in the roles of the stuffy music professor and the showgirl who takes refuge in the house he shares with other fogeys compiling the ultimate music encyclopedia, but they are fine for this light-hearted riff on the original.  It seems that the professors have just discovered modern popular music and jazz, which allows for major roles for Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra, Louis Armstrong, Lionel Hampton, and other now largely forgotten musicians from the period.  We even have Benny Goodman heavily made-up to appear as one of the nerdish academics.  There is a lovely bit when his character watches one of the groups and asks where their music is written down; he is taken aback when told that even Benny Goodman didn't use sheet music! 

So not all remakes are a bad thing, especially when a true re-interpretation.  Look at "The Philadelphia Story" and "High Society" as a good example.  And very, very occasionally later versions do actually manage to outshine the original.  While that is not quite the case here, especially since Kaye is given little opportunity for his trademark patter songs, Hawks did have a good go.

Tags: Remakes, Howard Hawks, Danny Kaye, Benny Goodman

London to Brighton (2006)

Although the number of movies that I manage to watch most days has not decreased, the ones that I actually want to write about seem to be diminishing -- a good case in point being my recent viewing of "Talledega Nights".  I just couldn't decide whether this Will Ferrell starrer (and I believe a big hit) was meant to be an unfunny comedy or an undramatic moral lesson, but either way it left me in a state of despair at modern tastes.

The above gritty British flick was well received at festival showings and won its writer-director Paul Andrew Williams a BAFTA award for most promising newcomer.  With its no-name cast he managed to structure a marginally involving tale of a scruffy whore on the run from her pimp with an 11-year old in tow.  By backflashes we were given the full story of how she was forced to recruit a runaway for an aging gangster paedophile and how the encounter turned to violence as her nobler instincts kicked in.  However I kept asking myself if this was the sort of story I really wanted to see.  One knows the world is full of ugliness, but that to me is not sufficient reason to celebrate it.  There were one or two interesting twists as Mr. Big's nasty son leant on the pimp and his sidekick to find the two females and how he planned to extract his revenge for the insult to the father that he quite obviously hated.  However, like life, there was no tidy ending for the surrogate mother-and-child.  The kid could possibly look forward to something more in the future, but the tart-with-a-heart seemed to believe that her only place was back on the streets.

As a slice of unsavoury underlife, it was probably reasonably well put together on a small budget and the two female leads were more than adequate for the job.  However whether a subteen actress should have been subjected to the nastiness of the story (thankfully not pictured at any length) is a very moot point.  And please don't remind me about Jodie Foster in "Taxi Driver"!

Tags: London to Brighton, paedophiles

Driftwood (1947)

This little-remembered B-movie from near 'Poverty Row' studio Republic Pictures picks itself up by its bootstraps because of the wealth of acting talent from a cast better-known for other roles.  It's the story of a little girl raised in the wilds who makes her way to town when her great-grandpappy (H.B. Warner, the chemist from "It's a Wonderful Life") dies.  En route she finds a lovely collie whose role becomes crucial to the story (not, I think, played by Lassie!).  She is found and initially looked after by Dean Jagger, still a romantic lead as such, best known for playing Brigham Young and an Oscar-winner for "Twelve O'Clock High".  He lives with his uncle Murph played by two-time Oscar winner, three-time nominee Walter Brennan, a reliable character actor from silent days to the mid-seventies.  His girl-friend is Ruth Warwick, best known as Kane's society wife in "Citizen Kane".  She in turn lives with her aunt Charlotte Greenwood, a long-legged eccentric dancer and Aunt Eller in "Oklahoma".  The self-centered town mayor who won't give the funds to build a local hospital for doctor Jagger is played by Jerome Cowan, the man whose son gives such crucial evidence in the Santa Claus trial in the original "Miracle on 34th Street".  We even have Margaret Hamilton in a small role, who as everyone would immediately recognize is Oz's Wicked Witch of the West.

The glue which holds all of these performances together is a remarkable turn from 8-year old Natalie Wood, who was always something of a heart-breaker as a child actress. She manages to bring together the would-be romances amongst the cast, avoid the orphanage by finding herself a ready-made family, and surviving a dire bout of Spotted Fever which is Dr. Jagger's area of expertise.  Naturally the wonder-dog is a key player in developing a suitable serum.  Yes, a true B-effort, but a hugely satisfying one on so many levels.

Tags: Driftwood, Natalie Wood, actors

Requiem for a Vampire (1971)

I have seen many films by French director Jean Rollin over the years, but had not seen this one previously.  Never mind, his movies are much of a muchness -- seen one, seen them all -- or nearly.  A pretty confection of sex, tasteful nudity and vampires.  The interesting thing about Rollin is that he has an artist's eye and his films are beautiful to behold, the composition well thought out, despite the obviously miniscule budget, but they are absolute tosh and piffle.  In this one, the last vampire of his race knows that he is losing his powers, but briefly seeks to re-establish his realm by initiating two nubile young virgins into his dying community.  However one of them manages to lose her virginity before he can achieve this and, happy to at long last be free of blood-letting, he is sealed into his tomb bringing an end to his line.  Not that this stopped other vampires baring their teeth in subsequent Rollin movies.  Another day, another bite! 

Tags: Jean Rollin, vampires

La Antena (2007)

According to the brochure, the Raindance Film Festival (a spin-off from Sundance) is in its l5th year in the UK (news to me, since I don't recall hearing anything about it for more than a couple of years).  Anyhow we decided it was time we supported this celebration of independent cinema and chose two likely films from the many being screened.

The first of these was a Japanese film, "Uncle's Paradise" (2006), and positively, horrendously awful.  I hadn't realised that it was a so-called "pink" film which is not, as it might suggest, a gay movie, but rather a cheaply-made sex film, rather akin to Category III from Hong Kong, but without any semblance of production values.  The blurb ran that the young hero had to rescue his uncle from the clutches of Hell, but all we got was the tale of his randy uncle who did his best to control his insatiable sexual urges by chug-a-lugging vitamin drinks and a whole lot of very uninspired bonking.  I can't even say that it was fun!

However our second choice, the above film from Argentina, which translates as 'The Aerial' was an amazing experience, quite unlike anything I've ever seen.  Again the blurb was a little misleading as it suggested that this largely silent film was a homage to German Expressionism and Murnau; it in fact was more reminiscent of the rather weird output of the Canadian Guy Maddin, especially in its delicate use of black and white cinematogaphy.  The gist of the story is that a tyrant has robbed the inhabitants of a city of their voices and totally controls all words and images.  Communication is by text bubbles with the words incorporated into the layout of the composition; in a way it was a shame that we had the requisite subtitles under the picture which distracted from the visual impact of the design.  Only a beautiful (and faceless) singer is known to still have a voice, but so does her son who is literally eyeless; a sound engineer, his estranged wife, and their young daughter who befriends the lad attempt to broadcast sound before the population are robbed of their words as well.

I haven't really done justice to this remarkably-conceived film from director Esteban Sapir.  It is a fairy-tale, an allegory, a political statement, and a work of art all rolled into one. 

In closing I must briefly mention another recently viewed silent, "Finis Terrae" a French film from 1929.  This was a mock documentary of the sort produced by Robert Flaherty following the fortunes of some isolated fishermen on the Brittany coast (I think), but it was so beautifully photographed in the crispest black and white, with the magical eye of an experimental film-maker, that the banal story became something surreal.  Another treat!

Tags: Raindance, Pink Movies, La Antena, silent film

The Black Dahlia (2006)

This movie was a big disappointment on nearly all fronts.  I like films set in old Hollywood or environs and of recent vintage "L.A. Confidential" and even "Hollywoodland" (recently reviewed) were successful in conjuring up the period.  This so-called film noir by usually reliable director Brian De Palma, despite good production values and a decent cast, just did not hack it.  Based on the novel by James Ellroy of the still unsolved so-called 'black dahlia' murder, De Palma has decided to solve the mystery in his own convoluted and unconvincing way.

Part of the problem is having Josh Hartnett in the lead since, while a pretty face, he is ever so lightweight.  He finds himself trying to solve both the murder of a two-bit actress plus that of his own partner, an equally unbelievable Aaron Eckhart.  We're presented with a love triangle of Hartnett, Eckhart, and the fragrant Scarlett Johansson, a totally unnecessary lesbian spin on the events, and a secondary triangle of Hartnett, Johansson, and society dame Hilary Swank.  Neither of the actresses particularly excel in this movie, although we know that they are both able -- Swank has two Oscars for goodness sake!  We are also introduced to Shakespearian actress Fiona Shaw in the role of Swank's 'cokehead' mother, who is so over the top that she seems to have wandered in from a production of "Macbeth".  The pacing was poor as well; something of a pity, since the source material should have produced a cracking movie.

Tags: Black Dahlia, Brian de Palma, Scarlett Johannson, Hilary Swank, Fiona Shaw, Josh Hartnett