The Moon is Down (1943)

During the Second World War, the Hollywood studios produced a number of morale-boosting movies and this is one of the most moving of the "resistance" sub genre.  I also really like "This Land is Mine" of the same year, but that was more of a prestige production, directed by Jean Renoir in exile and with a heavy-hitting cast, led by the superlative Charles Laughton as a coward forced to take a stand.  The film here has rather less exalted credentials, although based on a John Steinbeck novel from the previous year, but it states its case with great aplomb.

A Norwegian village has been taken over by the Nazis because of its strategic coal mine, with the inhabitants unable to put up any meaningful initial resistance.  However this starts a silent war between the resentful townspeople and their invaders.  The two sides are embodied by the ever-so civilized commander, played by Sir Cedric Hardwicke, and the simple yet clever mayor, played by Henry Travers (everyone's favourite angel Clarence from "It's a Wonderful Life").  They maintain a surface politeness, but each knows that the other side will never completely give in.  As acts of sabotage increase and as the Germans retaliate with more and more executions, even the lives of Travers and the town doctor, Lee J. Cobb, are insufficient motivation for their friends to stop their resistance -- and both are prepared to die for what they know will be an ultimate victory.  Part of the film's strength is that most of the actors are little-known, but the belief in their humanity and goodness is visible in each anonymous face.  When they raise their voices as one in a patriotic song, you can tell (through your tears, if you are like me) that they will prevail. 

Ping problem!!! In spades!
Tags: The Moon is Down, Henry Travers, Cedric Hardwicke, come back soon

A Christmas Carol (1938)

This tale has been filmed so many times -- and opinion seems to vary wildly as to who is the definitive Scrooge -- but this is, as far as I know, the first talkie version -- an A-list production by a major Hollywood studio with something of a B-list cast.  Before I go any further I shall stake my claim that Alastair Sim in 1951's "Scrooge" (just to confuse matters, called "A Christmas Carol" in the States) nails the role perfectly, with the right combination of humbug eventually morphing to humanity.  I know that some people feel that George C. Scott in the 1984 production is superior (no way, Jose) and goodness knows there have been all manner of riffs on the subject since -- female Scrooge, black Scrooge, black female Scrooge, musical Scrooge, ad nauseum.

This early black and white production is hardly faithful to the novel with various minor changes, but it is still a totally satisfying endeavour.  Scrooge is played here by character actor Reginal Owen, a frequent face in dozens of 30s movies, but almost never as a lead.  His lean and stooping frame is perfect for the part and he certainly makes a brave effort.  Gene Lockhart in the role of Bob Cratchitt is far too plump to be believable, but he too seems to welcome a meatier role.  The rest of the cast is relatively minor, although there are early parts for Leo G. Carroll as Marley's Ghost and a very young Ann Rutherford also puts in an appearance.  While this movie will never supplant the 1951 version in my affections, it is a totally acceptable contribution to one's Christmas viewing.  Owen's conversion may appear far too abrupt, but the viewer is still left with the necessary seasonal glow.

Ping again!
Tags: A Christmas Carol, Alastair Sim, Reginald Owen, disappearance

The Devil Wears Prada (2006)

Since I had previously read the novel of the same name on which this film was based -- typically disposable light reading -- I didn't come to this movie with particularly great expectations.  The book was written by an erstwhile lackey of  Vogue's fashionista Anna Wintour and the author's venom managed to leak over each page;  her story is of an ambitious and talented young graduate (based of course on herself), who forsees a brilliant intellectual future, having to subject herself to the whims of an autocratic editor of a high-fashion magazine -- the relevant roles taken here by Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep. Now just about any non-anorexic young actress could have played the Hathaway role and I guess she did a reasonable job of the serious soul being seduced by the surface glamour and the demands of the job.  What in fact saved the movie from being totally pedestrian was the casting of Streep, who makes the editor a far less one-dimensional monster than the same character in the book.  As I have written previously, perhaps I am softening with the years; while Streep used to annoy the hell out of me with her "actorly" skills, I now find that I am able to admire her total immersion into a part.  One could read her "monster" here as a woman whose determination hid a core intelligence and a masked, yet tangible, vulnerability.

Some praise is also due to Stanley Tucci playing the magazine's fashion director and Hathaway's quasi-mentor who dominated his every scene with his sly humour.  Also, Emily Blunt in her first major American role as Streep's hungry (in every sense) first assistant did a great job in projecting her neediness and determination.  With all these interesting characters, it's a pity in a way that it was Hathaway's about which we were meant to care most.

Tags: The Devil Wears Prada, Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci, Emily Blunt

Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (2005)

I knew that this German film had been Oscar-nominated (without winning) and  that it was about a student resistance group in Germany during the middle years of World War II, but I was not prepared for the gut-wrenching experience it was as it traced the last six days in the life of a young woman.  Sophie Scholl, vividly brought to life by actress Julia Jentsch, and her brother were members of a group called the White Rose who aimed to foster anti-war sentiments in the hope that this would bring a quicker end to the slaughter.  When they are caught distributing their manifesto at their University, their struggle came to an abrupt end with their arrest, interrogation, kangaroo-court trial, and execution, all within a few days.  The claustrophobic atmosphere was nearly overwhelming. 

At first Sophie denied all involvement in an attempt to protect her brother, but when she was shown his signed confession, she proudly acknowledged what she had done and what she believed, without further implicating any of her friends.  At her so-called trial where she had hoped her beliefs would be heard by the public, the courtroom was filled with Nazi officers and the pompous judge in no way allowed a fair hearing.  She could only counter with the words that he might soon be standing in the same dock.  When convicted, she expected the usual 99 days before the sentence was carried out, but she, her brother, and a married friend with a young family were rushed into a hurried and undignified execution.  What was most moving about this reconstruction of a real-life heroine's attempt to make the world a better place was the clear indication that here was a young woman who really loved life and who deserved so much more.  The scene as she feels the sunlight on her face for the last time as she is dragged to her hasty end was unbearably moving.

Tags: Sophie Scholl, Julia Jentsch

Simon Says (2006)

I watched an interesting documentary a few days ago titled "Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film" which took a semi-serious approach to this horror sub-genre starting with the original "Halloween" and "Friday the 13th" and tracing its development throughout the 80s when every conceivable holiday was milked for an excuse to slaughter more promiscuous teens.  Slasher movies are still very much with us and even the recidivist "Scream" did not kill them off.  Mind you, they haven't improved too much over the years, and the only appeal to a dyed-in-the-wool horror buff like myself is for new and innovative ways of killing to be introduced,  This would possibly explain the popularity of the (progressingly worse) "Saw" series.

The only other thing that can delight me nowadays is having a truly iconic actor in the boogeyman role, which is what one has here with creepy Crispin Glover.  He plays redneck twins who have slaughtered their parents (and eventually the one kills the other) who get their kicks from the usual wheeze of disposing of nubile young ladies, muscular young men, and all potheads.  Glover has been such a noticeable actor since he came to the fore playing Michael J. Fox's dad in the first "Back to the Future" film (he is actually three years younger). In subsequent movies his parts may not have been large, except in the icky remake of "Willard", but his is a face you remember with shivers.  This particular movie is no great shakes with its disposable cast, but it is a somewhat affectionate throwback to earlier movies and does have some inventive deaths by flying pickaxes!  It also proves the convention that a true boogeyman is indestructable when the nominal 'heroine' does not quite manage to kill him and is saved for an amusing coda at the film's end (which I won't reveal here).

So, am I praising this movie?  Not really, but it has its moments and anything featuring Glover is bound to please a horror fan, even if he is probably so far over the top here as could be.  I do love the fact that his full birth name is Crispin Hellion Glover.

Tags: Simon Says, slasher movies, Crispin Glover

East is East (1999)

If there is anything more annoying than having a catchy tune constantly running through one's head, it is hearing such a tune and not having any idea whatsoever what it is or why one knows it.  Recently there was a TV series called 'British Film Forever' and there was one clip from the above movie; the minute I heard the snippet of melody behind the scene, I thought "Oh yes!", but didn't know why.  After plaguing me for weeks, the only answer was to watch the movie again.  To put my mind at rest and to preserve my own sanity, I shall record here that the tune was "The Banner Man" by Blue Mink which forms the background music to the opening titles and very funny first scene.  However I still don't know why I recognized it.

Actually it was no chore watching this movie again.  Set in the north of England in the early seventies, it is the story of a Pakistani immigrant (Om Puri) who has married an Englishwoman (Linda Bassett) -- although it is implied that he already has a wife back home -- and has seven children.  While Puri wants to indoctrinate his family in traditional ways, the kids are sufficiently westernized to want to make their own way of life and their mother just wants them to be happy.  The eldest son is already persona non grata by walking out at his arranged marriage (it turns out he is gay) and the next two sons want nothing to do with meeting their 'chosen brides' (and very ugly they were too); as Jimi Mistry says, "I ain't marrying a Paki".  In frustration Puri uses his fists against his wife and most obedient son who is protecting his brother, until an uneasy truce is reached.  If this makes the movie sound grim, it really isn't.  What we have mainly are various scenes of the family's inbuilt culture clash -- some of which are wickedly funny -- and a probably fairly realistic look at a whole new generation.

Tags: East is East, niggling tunes

Hannibal Rising (2007)

I refuse to argue whether Anthony Hopkins or Brian Cox made the better Hannibal Lector, but I have some respect for both interpretations and have been more or less a fan of the series since I first read the original novel.  In the last book there was some indication of Lector's backstory and this film develops it into a full and generally satisfying prequel.  Since it was written by the original author, Thomas Harris, one can't quibble too much that the picture is not faithful to his vision.  Generally the information we have had previously is fleshed out and we are led to understand how he became the "monster" that he did.  Surprisingly, the viewer is even left with some sympathy for his character, given the horrific unfolding of events.  Without giving away too much, one already knew that his sister had been eaten by starving soldiers during World War II; here we discover how the human part of him was destroyed at the same time and how he swore to take his revenge.  That this subsequently developed into a taste for human flesh is not at issue here.

If I have any quibbles with this movie, it is with the casting.  A relatively unknown (which is OK) French actor, Gaspard Ulliel, plays the teenaged Lector and a pretty convincing job he makes of it.  However there is no way on earth that he could have grown up to be either Hopkins or Cox for that matter.  I admit this may be  nit-picking.  The next problem I have is with the choice of Gong Li to play his uncle's widow in France, Lady Murasaki; not that she isn't a fine actress, but why in the world does her character have to be Japanese when she is Chinese.  (I know, the viewer is not supposed to notice such small discrepancies!)  However my final problem with the 'name' cast is finding Rhys Ifans as the big, bad, sadistic main villain; he carries too much baggage as a feckless, slightly goony creature to be the least bit believable here.  However, all that apart, I see no reason why this entry will not generally please Lector's fans.

Tags: Hannibal Rising, Hannibal Lector, Gaspard Ulliel, Gong Li, Rhys Ifans

Fay Grim (2006)

This was my final selection from the just-ended London Film Festival and I'm afraid I found it something of a parson's egg.  I used to be very keen on the films of indie director Hal Hartley with their smart deadpan dialogue and off-beat characters, but he has done very little of late and the last movie of his that I watched (at a previous LFF) "The Girl from Monday" was absolute twaddle.  I must admit here that I have not seen "No Such Thing" from 2001 which has joined those missing pictures under the floorboards.

Anyhow his last remarkable movie was "Henry Fool" back in 1997 and when I heard that he had re-united the main cast for a sequel, I was ready to welcome this with open arms.  Back are Thomas Jay Ryan as the enigmatic Henry Fool -- who may or may not be dead since he disappeared at the end of the earlier movie, Indie-Queen Parker Posey in the title role as his estranged wife, and James Urbaniak as her garbageman-cum-avant garde poet from Queens brother, Simon.  Joining the mix is CIA spook Jeff Goldblum.  For the first hour or so my reaction was "Hartley's back" as the sharp scripting, spot-on acting, and growingly absurd situations caught my fancy; however increasingly I felt that he had lost  both the plot and his way by a trying to be ever-so-clever and switching the storyline to one about terrorists.  It seems that Henry may have been a double or triple agent back in his earlier years and everyone is dead keen to get their hands on his notebooks which previously had been dismissed as hopeless literary drivel.

To make matters worse the characters were no longer consistent with their previous incarnations, and when Hartley set up the action for a possible third installment (in another nine years?) my reaction was 'God help us'.  However to give credit where credit is due, Posey was magnificent in the lead role and one can only hope that Hartley can tame his dubious instincts to give the viewer a contemporary political story and stick to the off-beat approach which has served him well in the past.  I can't even excuse this lapse by arguing that he was really presenting a tongue-in-cheek satire -- I just don't buy that.

P.S. (as 6 Nov): This post has disappeared from technorati -- UPDATE please!!!
Tags: Fay Grim, Hal Hartley, Parker Posey, technical problem

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