Suspicion (1941)

The Hitchcock season continues with this movie that was nominated for a best picture oscar.  It didn't win but the female lead, Joan Fontaine, did win best actress.  Of course the best thing in the film is Cary Grant who wasn't even nominated. He only had two nominations throughout his very long career and never won -- but then neither did Hitchcock!

Hollywood rumour has it that he really was meant to be a villain in this film but Hitch knew that the audience would never accept this -- and I can't think of any of his roles where he was anything other than likeable however mean, sarcastic or threatening as he might appear.  The man was a genuine screen star and anyone who says that he only ever played himself missed the nuances. Yes there is a Cary Grant persona but he played it like a virtuoso. No one could really believe that he would actually try to kill sweet insipid Ms Fontaine.

 

Young Adam (2003)

This film has had a lot of press because of its uninhibited sex scenes and indeed Ewan McGregor manages to get his tackle out with every female character.  But the film is not about sex; it is about empty lives where sex is only a surrogate for living beyond the drab immediacy. 

Presented in a non-linear fashion we gradually learn the backstory of the woman fished out of the canal at the film's start  and this turns into a senseless tragedy -- not only because of her accidental death but also because another set of lives will be ruined as a result.  McGregor (who is called Joe, not Adam) is in a position to put this right, but he is not man enough to do so.  Perhaps because he must live with this sin, his character becomes young Adam.  (My ears may have been deceiving me with the strong Scottish accents, but I am sure I heard someone call him that at the very end of the movie).

Shadow of a Doubt (1942)

Continuing my mini-Hitchcock season we have this film which the great man himself placed among his favourites.  While not as showy as some of his films and without any memorable set pieces, it is still a beautifully acted slice of Americana with something very ugly lurking just beneath the surface.  The conflict is between the two Charlies -- Uncle Charlie as played by Joseph Cotton and his niece Charlie, Teresa Wright, who gradually realises that there is a monster behind the mask; both are superb as is the small-town setting.  I could have done without her squeaky younger siblings but there is a nice bit of light relief in the interplay between her father (Henry Travers, Clarence the angel from "It's a Wonderful Life") and a very young Hume Cronyn playing a nerdy neighbour as they play at devising the best ways to murder each other. 

The Man in the Mirror (2004)

This television movie purports to be the Michael Jackson story and having seen it over the period while the jury is out after his recent trial, it feels even more deeply creepy.  The movie's message is that he is just a great big child at heart and wouldn't hurt a fly.  I don't think I want to know.

Jumanji (1995)

I hadn't seen this movie for a while and thought it might be worth another look.  Wrong!  It's hard to believe that this was made two years after "Jurassic Park" since the CGI effects that were so stupendous in that film just look phony in this one.  In fact the whole purpose of the movie seems to be to unleash a run of CGI animals none of which even look like real animals and to marvel at the mayhem they cause.

Robin Williams as the child who returns after 26 years and who must finish the game to undo the damage is not as objectionable as he has become in later years -- just about tolerable.  And Kirsten Dunst was rather sweet in an early role.

Shock aka Beyond the Door II (1977)

The last film by another great Italian horror specialist, Mario Bava, whose output has been far less consistent than Argento's.  He was capable of great style, for example in his early film "The Mask of Satan", but perhaps he worked too broadly or too quickly or in too many genres.  This dubbed idiocy which is a cross between an "Exorcist" rip-off and a gesture to "Hamlet" (why did you kill my father?) features Daria Nicolodi (also to be seen in "Inferno" below) as the troubled and threatened mother.  There are a few good scares -- see her attacked by the furniture!! -- but these are few and far between.  And if I had a creepy son like hers I might have nightmares as well.

Inferno (1978)

One thing is certain about the great Italian horror maestro Dario Argento, you can always count on his style if not his substance -- his films are great to look at but could do with a logic transplant. "Inferno" follows "Suspiria" as the second part of a proposed trilogy (the third has never been made) about possessed buildings in three different cities (here supposedly New York -- as shot in a roman studio) that house the three mothers or the three gates to hell or somesuch.  Lots of deaths and artistic gore but don't for goodness sake ask whodunnit.

City of Women (1980)

This was my second viewing of the Federico Fellini surrealist fantasy and I'm no clearer now as to how I can explain it in a few sentences.  I suspect that it is either one of those films where the choice is to go with the flow or to hit the "off" button since it is certainly self-indulgent, patchy and overlong.  However being a sucker for all things felliniesque, I fall into the first category.

There is no real story and the framing device is the old hoary "it was only a dream" ploy, but the film is like one long dream-cum-nightmare as Fellini's alter ego, Marcello Mastroianni, finds himself in one sequence after another with monstrous and murderous women -- feminists one and all.  Man as the hunter has become man as the prey in this brave new world.

Respiro (2002)

I do worry sometimes why a film that has been widely-praised can leave me absolutely cold.  That is the case with this Italian picture which apparently won three awards in Cannes (I know not what). The story is set on a small and scenic fishing island near Sicily and the heroine played by Valeria Golino, a mother of three, is considered tetched because she swims naked in the sea and occasionally has a fit of the screaming habdabs; the villagers think she should go to Milan (why Milan?) for treatment.  After she disappears (with the connivance of her elder son) and is thought dead everyone feels rotten and they are overjoyed when she is found to be alive. Frankly I thought the whole village were a few sandwiches short of a picnic.

I have previously seen Ms. Golino in English-speaking roles and was never taken  with her as a talent, but my indifference to  this film is not really down to her. The whole exercise seemed a little pointless to me -- perhaps it was an attempt to recapture the realist films of the Italian post-WW2 period. 

Sin City (2005)

This journal is not the first place to look if you want reviews of current releases and blockbusters since I probably see about a dozen at the cinema in any one year; I do go to the pictures more often than this but mainly for art-house and repertory.  Most of my viewing is via tv, satellite or DVD.  However there is no denying that some movies (in fact maybe most movies) are best viewed initially at least on the big screen; Sin City falls into this category.

I am not a comic book buff so I am not familiar with the source material for this film, but the multi-talented Robert Rodriguez has undoubtedly remained true to the original and brought it to vibrant life (his co-director -- nominally I assume -- is the graphic comic's writer).  The film is absolutely amazing to look at in stylized black and white highlighted with splashes of colour -- lips, eyes, dresses and blood, although the latter can be white or yellow as well as red. And there is one heck of a lot of blood and violence and sexy women to turn on the presumably largely male audience -- but so what; it is well worth seeing regardless.  A large cast some of whom like Mickey Rourke are nearly unrecognizable under heavy make-up are more than up to the task of holding the viewer's attention during the three somehow interlocked tales.  And it is certainly one way to avoid type-casting for Mr. Frodo to play a mute cannibalistic killer!

L'Inferno (1911)

And now for something completely different as Monty Python might say.  This film was the first full-length Italian feature and had not been seen for 80 years before its 2004 restoration.  No original copy survived so this version was pieced together from film stock stored in the Library of Congress and the British Film Institute to achieve something approximating the original.  Since the sources are English-speaking the intertitles were also in English which certainly suited me.

And how was it?  Primitive in part but absolutely riveting as one joined Dante and Virgil on their journey through the circles of hell.  The effects were charming and imaginative and to the CGI-jaded eye very refreshing.

My only quibble was the new score by Tangerine Dream.  One doesn't know what the original score (if there was one) was like but I'm sure it didn't include high-voiced female vocals.  I'm fussy about my silent film music and I think this is a classic case of an instance where it would be better to mute the sound and to select something more appropriate to play in the background.

 

The City of Lost Children (1995)

This French film jointly directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro of "Delicatessen" fame is a visual feast nearly impossible to describe.  The basic storyline involves a grotesque old man (part of a family of a midget, six cloned sons and a brain that lives in a tank) who is unable to dream and who therefore steals children to purloin theirs.  The hero is Ron Perlman, the strange-looking American who has had the most eclectic international career; I have a lot of time for his bravery. The costumes are by Gaultier and both they and the art design are inspired; I shall always remember a troop of scary Santas descending on a poor toddler.  But forget my ravings, try to see it.  For subtitle-haters, it is also available in a dubbed version.

And by the way there is a scarifying pair of villainous Siamese-twin sisters sharing three legs between them.  They're not real but nothing in this film could be real other than the fantastic imaginations behind it.