We watched Cartouche (1962) because we enjoyed Fanfan la Tulipe so much. Since it stars Jean-Paul Belmondo, we felt like we would be in good hands.
Belmondo plays a devil-may-care thief and pickpocket in 18th-century Paris. He works a loyal boy companion and turns all of his loot over to Malichot, king of thieves. But Malichot gets too greedy, so Belmondo fights him and escapes. Like Fanfan, his escape route is through the army. Once there, he makes some friends and robs the general of the gold for the payroll, as the thief called Cartouche.
Hiding out in an inn. they find Claudia Cardinale as Venus, a free spirit being held captive, and Belmondo frees her. This merry band go on a spree, robbing nobles and giving (some) to the poor. As he gets more famous, he heads back to Paris to challenge Malichot - and soon he's king of the thieves.
He spends time with Cardinale alone in the countryside, but has his sites set on an aristocratic married woman, Odile Versois. Venus is jealous, but fiercely defends Cartouche's right to romance any woman he wants. But he should not have left Malichot alive. He rats Belmondo out to the police, who set a trap for him.
He escapes, but Cardinale dies to save him, which leads to a very downbeat ending: He vows to avenge her, even though he expects it to lead him to the gallows. "And may we get there swiftly."
Wow. After all the gaiety and happy violence, this really put a damper on our mood. It wasn't just sad, but mean - and highlighted how mean some of the rest of the movie was.
Tuesday, April 28, 2020
Monday, April 27, 2020
Stubid
Let me give you the basics of Stuber (2019): Kumail Nanjiani is an eager but wimpy Uber driver named Stu. Dave Bautista is a ferocious cop who has had Lasik - so he hires Kumail to drive him around. Hijinks ensue.
Is that it? Pretty much, except the bad guy Bautista is chasing is Iko Uwais. He's a pretty cool villain, but I didn't see as much fancy fighting as you might expect. Actually, the action in this movie is maybe better than it had to be. The comedy, maybe not. There were a few cute scenes where Nanjiani uses his modern skills to help out defeat the bad guys. For instance, instead of physically torturing a captured baddie, he threatens to post embarrassing tweets from his phone. But there just weren't enough of them.
I did like the scene where Nanjiani bonds with a male stripper about his love life. But there is a very similar scene in Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay. I don't know if this is an homage or a swipe, or just parallel writing, but I think H&K did it better.
Full disclosure: The Blu-ray disc Netflix sent got stuck around chapter marker 13, and wouldn't start playing again until marker 22. And we just watched it that way. We figure we got the general idea. Maybe we missed something important, but I doubt it.
Not that we hated this. Loved Bautista and the action-comedy stuff. We like Nanjiani, but his character has been done a lot, maybe to death. Hope to see these guys in something better.
Is that it? Pretty much, except the bad guy Bautista is chasing is Iko Uwais. He's a pretty cool villain, but I didn't see as much fancy fighting as you might expect. Actually, the action in this movie is maybe better than it had to be. The comedy, maybe not. There were a few cute scenes where Nanjiani uses his modern skills to help out defeat the bad guys. For instance, instead of physically torturing a captured baddie, he threatens to post embarrassing tweets from his phone. But there just weren't enough of them.
I did like the scene where Nanjiani bonds with a male stripper about his love life. But there is a very similar scene in Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay. I don't know if this is an homage or a swipe, or just parallel writing, but I think H&K did it better.
Full disclosure: The Blu-ray disc Netflix sent got stuck around chapter marker 13, and wouldn't start playing again until marker 22. And we just watched it that way. We figure we got the general idea. Maybe we missed something important, but I doubt it.
Not that we hated this. Loved Bautista and the action-comedy stuff. We like Nanjiani, but his character has been done a lot, maybe to death. Hope to see these guys in something better.
Thursday, April 23, 2020
Language is a Virus
I heard about Pontypool (2008) from the Projection Booth podcast, where they did over three hours on it. It looked intriguing, but not the kind of thing you’d see on Netflix. So when it showed up, I put it to the top of our queue.
It takes place in the small Canadian town of Pontypool. We see Stephen McHattie heading to work in an early morning blizzard. He is listening to himself on the radio, ruminating, in a Ken-Nordine FM-smooth style, on the name “Pontypool”. At a light, a woman runs up and pounds on his window, repeats something incomprehensible and disappears.
At the radio station, in the basement of an old civic building of some sort, he meets his young tech, Georgina Reilly, who gives him a bottle of whisky for his coffee. He goes on the air and continues ruminating, free associating, in his “take no prisoners” style. From his craggy face and cowboy hat, I think they might be suggesting Don Imus. When the station manager, Lisa Houle, gets in, she wants him to cut out the blather and do some school closings. That “take no prisoners” style is apparently what got him fired from the bigger station he was last at.
When they go to the traffic copter, they get some odd news: some kind of mob has formed outside a doctor’s office. As the traffic guy watches, the mob breaks through the wall of the office. His reporting gets more and more panicked, until they have to cut him off. They try to get some more info, but there is nothing on the wires, the police don’t know anything, and callers are sort of babbling and getting disconnected.
The traffic chopper guy calls back from a hiding place - turns out there is no chopper, he just parks on a hill to watch the traffic. Now he is being hunted by a violent, mindless mob, all repeating nonsense phrases. Before too long the mob has broken into the station and trapped them in the sound booth. And the cause of this epidemic of violence seems to be language itself. That’s very unlucky for a DJ.
This movie was clearly made on a tight budget, but makes a virtue of it. For a long time, I thought there would never be more than the three main characters, and that they’d never leave the station. Maybe it was all a hoax, even, or mass hysteria or a folie a trios. But it isn’t - it’s real and fatal. There’s some graphic gore as well as psychological tension. I’ll leave out the ending, which is a bit surreal, but there is a possible sequel.
Actually, two sequels. The movie is based on a book, Pontypool Changes Everything. Sequels Changes and Everything are either planned, or imagined by writer Tony Burgess and director Bruce McDonald.
It takes place in the small Canadian town of Pontypool. We see Stephen McHattie heading to work in an early morning blizzard. He is listening to himself on the radio, ruminating, in a Ken-Nordine FM-smooth style, on the name “Pontypool”. At a light, a woman runs up and pounds on his window, repeats something incomprehensible and disappears.
At the radio station, in the basement of an old civic building of some sort, he meets his young tech, Georgina Reilly, who gives him a bottle of whisky for his coffee. He goes on the air and continues ruminating, free associating, in his “take no prisoners” style. From his craggy face and cowboy hat, I think they might be suggesting Don Imus. When the station manager, Lisa Houle, gets in, she wants him to cut out the blather and do some school closings. That “take no prisoners” style is apparently what got him fired from the bigger station he was last at.
When they go to the traffic copter, they get some odd news: some kind of mob has formed outside a doctor’s office. As the traffic guy watches, the mob breaks through the wall of the office. His reporting gets more and more panicked, until they have to cut him off. They try to get some more info, but there is nothing on the wires, the police don’t know anything, and callers are sort of babbling and getting disconnected.
The traffic chopper guy calls back from a hiding place - turns out there is no chopper, he just parks on a hill to watch the traffic. Now he is being hunted by a violent, mindless mob, all repeating nonsense phrases. Before too long the mob has broken into the station and trapped them in the sound booth. And the cause of this epidemic of violence seems to be language itself. That’s very unlucky for a DJ.
This movie was clearly made on a tight budget, but makes a virtue of it. For a long time, I thought there would never be more than the three main characters, and that they’d never leave the station. Maybe it was all a hoax, even, or mass hysteria or a folie a trios. But it isn’t - it’s real and fatal. There’s some graphic gore as well as psychological tension. I’ll leave out the ending, which is a bit surreal, but there is a possible sequel.
Actually, two sequels. The movie is based on a book, Pontypool Changes Everything. Sequels Changes and Everything are either planned, or imagined by writer Tony Burgess and director Bruce McDonald.
Wednesday, April 22, 2020
Hawkeye and Scarlet Witch on the Rez
I’m a fan of action movies like Wind River (2017), but Ms. Spenser is not, particularly. But she spent some time on an Indian reservation in Montana, and was open to watching this. It was also pretty far down on our queue, but Netflix just skipped a bunch of movies and sent it anyway. Well, times are funny.
It opens with a young woman running barefoot through the snow, while a poem is recited in voice over. Finally, she falls in the snow and lies still. We cut to Jeremy Renner, a Fish and Wildlife officer, hunting wolves. Then he goes to his ex-wife’s (Julia Jones) place to pick up their boy and take him to see his grandfather, an Indian who tells Renner he has seen lion tracks. When Renner goes to track the lion, he finds the body of the woman in the snow.
Graham Greene, the chief of the Tribal Police, needs to wait for the FBI to come and deal with the death, and Elizabeth Olsen shows up, fresh from the Las Vegas office in a light jacket. So cagey tracker Renner and novice Olsen will have to track down the murderer of this young woman. For Renner, it’s personal. His own daughter died in a similar manner, which is probably why he is divorced.
Director Taylor Sheridan made this movie based on several unsolved deaths of young women on reservations. Because of jurisdictional issues, most are barely investigated. Federal crimes on reservation land have to be investigated by the feds, who aren’t that motivated, and tribal police are understaffed and funded. The Wind River reservation, as portrayed here by Utah, is cold, beautiful, poor and deadly. The people seem to live pretty grim lives, even leaving murders aside.
The ending is violent, thought maybe a bit pat. Somewhere early on, someone says something like, “This case just solves itself.” And it pretty much does. But it takes a lot of killing to close the case. This is probably not a great date night movie.
It opens with a young woman running barefoot through the snow, while a poem is recited in voice over. Finally, she falls in the snow and lies still. We cut to Jeremy Renner, a Fish and Wildlife officer, hunting wolves. Then he goes to his ex-wife’s (Julia Jones) place to pick up their boy and take him to see his grandfather, an Indian who tells Renner he has seen lion tracks. When Renner goes to track the lion, he finds the body of the woman in the snow.
Graham Greene, the chief of the Tribal Police, needs to wait for the FBI to come and deal with the death, and Elizabeth Olsen shows up, fresh from the Las Vegas office in a light jacket. So cagey tracker Renner and novice Olsen will have to track down the murderer of this young woman. For Renner, it’s personal. His own daughter died in a similar manner, which is probably why he is divorced.
Director Taylor Sheridan made this movie based on several unsolved deaths of young women on reservations. Because of jurisdictional issues, most are barely investigated. Federal crimes on reservation land have to be investigated by the feds, who aren’t that motivated, and tribal police are understaffed and funded. The Wind River reservation, as portrayed here by Utah, is cold, beautiful, poor and deadly. The people seem to live pretty grim lives, even leaving murders aside.
The ending is violent, thought maybe a bit pat. Somewhere early on, someone says something like, “This case just solves itself.” And it pretty much does. But it takes a lot of killing to close the case. This is probably not a great date night movie.
Tuesday, April 21, 2020
Down a Hall, Darkly
Although Ms. Spenser wasn't too pleased with the last movie we saw, Down a Dark Hall (2018) was just what she was looking for. It's an atmospheric ghost story with a creepy old house.
AnnaSophia Robb stars as a rebellious high-school girl in trouble for fighting and arson. She denies that she started the fires, but nobody pays attention. An invitation to attend Blackwood School for the Gifted and Disturbed is her only option. The school turns out to be a secluded mansion. Her mother and step-father drop her off, telling her that she can call if it gets weird. She replies, "It already is weird." She ain't seen nothing yet.
It turns out that there are only five students, all troublemakers, especially the formidable Victoria Moroles. Headmistress Uma Thurman explains to them that she believes that they can achieve amazing things under her guidance. The lessons she gives include painting, poetry, math, and for Robb, piano.
Although she has never played, she is soon composing masterpieces. The same for her fellow students: they each have discovered an amazing talent that just takes ahold of them - almost as if they were possessed.
OK, SPOILER. Thurman's plan was to have each child possessed by the ghost of a dead genius. For example, one kid is possessed by the ghost of a 19th-c. landscape painter, possibly Hudson River School. There was a hint that Thurman was selling the paintings as undiscovered masterpieces. But she might have just been into reviving dead geniuses.
Robb is now seeing lots of ghosts, and not all of them are dead geniuses. At least one is a scarred man with an eye-patch who might be a pirate? OK, I'm not sure about him. And I'll skip the rest of the story and just say that it ends like Ready or Not.
This isn't that great a movie, but it is just what we wanted. The acting is good, characters are engaging, the premise is good, but most of all, the atmosphere is sumptuously creepy. And the horror never becomes gruesome or gristly. Just a pleasant chill.
AnnaSophia Robb stars as a rebellious high-school girl in trouble for fighting and arson. She denies that she started the fires, but nobody pays attention. An invitation to attend Blackwood School for the Gifted and Disturbed is her only option. The school turns out to be a secluded mansion. Her mother and step-father drop her off, telling her that she can call if it gets weird. She replies, "It already is weird." She ain't seen nothing yet.
It turns out that there are only five students, all troublemakers, especially the formidable Victoria Moroles. Headmistress Uma Thurman explains to them that she believes that they can achieve amazing things under her guidance. The lessons she gives include painting, poetry, math, and for Robb, piano.
Although she has never played, she is soon composing masterpieces. The same for her fellow students: they each have discovered an amazing talent that just takes ahold of them - almost as if they were possessed.
OK, SPOILER. Thurman's plan was to have each child possessed by the ghost of a dead genius. For example, one kid is possessed by the ghost of a 19th-c. landscape painter, possibly Hudson River School. There was a hint that Thurman was selling the paintings as undiscovered masterpieces. But she might have just been into reviving dead geniuses.
Robb is now seeing lots of ghosts, and not all of them are dead geniuses. At least one is a scarred man with an eye-patch who might be a pirate? OK, I'm not sure about him. And I'll skip the rest of the story and just say that it ends like Ready or Not.
This isn't that great a movie, but it is just what we wanted. The acting is good, characters are engaging, the premise is good, but most of all, the atmosphere is sumptuously creepy. And the horror never becomes gruesome or gristly. Just a pleasant chill.
Monday, April 20, 2020
Nu Blood
I've mentioned that Ms. Spenser wants to see more horror movies on the queue. I haven't mentioned that she's a fan of Korn. So when I heard that The Queen of the Damned (2002) featured music written by JD of Korn, of course I queud it right up - with the understanding that it would not be very good.
Based on the second and third books in the Anne Rice's Lestat stories, this is somewhat of a sequel to Interview with the Vampire, but Tom Cruise does not return in the lead role - nor did Neil Jordan return to direct. Because Warner Bros. option on the books was running out, they rushed this movie out with Stuart Townsend as Lestat, and Michael Rymer directing.
Townsend as Lestat has been sleeping in his tomb for centuries since the last movie, until one day he hears music, a new sound, like nothing he's heard in all that time asleep: Nu Metal. So he wakes up and heads to his old New Orleans mansion, where a band has been squatting. He tells them right off that he's a vampire and their new lead singer. That seems to be his plan: he'll tell everyone he's a vamp, and become the world's greatest rock star. It works.
I think there is the idea that this may bring some of the older, scarier vampires out of hiding, especially Marius (Vincent Perez), who turned him long ago. I'm not sure why he wants this - lonely? Planning some sort of revenge? It isn't clear. What is clear is that all this activity awakens the oldest, original vamp, played by Aaliya (who died between filming and release).
Aaliyah is the best thing about this movie (if you don't care for nu metal). She is gorgeous, slinky, and very scary. Too bad she's only in it for a few minutes.
It all ends in a big concert in Death Valley (get it?). Then there's a big fight between Lestat, the other vamps and a secret vampire hunting organization, who are secretly really horny for vampires. Aaliyah gets put down by one of those made-up rules of vampire lore someone mentions in the second act. And Lestat lives to be undead another day - I mean night. There will be no sequels.
Ms. Spenser kind of liked the music, but wanted more JD. It turns out he was playing a scalper, and we didn't even notice him.
Based on the second and third books in the Anne Rice's Lestat stories, this is somewhat of a sequel to Interview with the Vampire, but Tom Cruise does not return in the lead role - nor did Neil Jordan return to direct. Because Warner Bros. option on the books was running out, they rushed this movie out with Stuart Townsend as Lestat, and Michael Rymer directing.
Townsend as Lestat has been sleeping in his tomb for centuries since the last movie, until one day he hears music, a new sound, like nothing he's heard in all that time asleep: Nu Metal. So he wakes up and heads to his old New Orleans mansion, where a band has been squatting. He tells them right off that he's a vampire and their new lead singer. That seems to be his plan: he'll tell everyone he's a vamp, and become the world's greatest rock star. It works.
I think there is the idea that this may bring some of the older, scarier vampires out of hiding, especially Marius (Vincent Perez), who turned him long ago. I'm not sure why he wants this - lonely? Planning some sort of revenge? It isn't clear. What is clear is that all this activity awakens the oldest, original vamp, played by Aaliya (who died between filming and release).
Aaliyah is the best thing about this movie (if you don't care for nu metal). She is gorgeous, slinky, and very scary. Too bad she's only in it for a few minutes.
It all ends in a big concert in Death Valley (get it?). Then there's a big fight between Lestat, the other vamps and a secret vampire hunting organization, who are secretly really horny for vampires. Aaliyah gets put down by one of those made-up rules of vampire lore someone mentions in the second act. And Lestat lives to be undead another day - I mean night. There will be no sequels.
Ms. Spenser kind of liked the music, but wanted more JD. It turns out he was playing a scalper, and we didn't even notice him.
Sunday, April 19, 2020
Film Quiz - the Wormer Turns!
Film Quiz! All reviews will be on hold until we wrestle this to the ground. It's a massive undertaking, run by that mean dean, Dean Wormer, with 50+ questions.
I think the subtext of a lot of these questions is the current virus situation. But I'm not concentratiing on that. I'd like to dedicate this to the dean's queen, Ms. Wormer, somewhere at a spa, thinking about cucumbers...
1) You’re on a desert island (and you sort of are)—What three discs do you select out of your own collection to keep if you had to get rid of all the rest?
Ans: Three Marx Bros. discs. Hopefully with multiple movies per disc.
2) Giuletta Masina or Jeanne Moreau?
Ans: Moreau may be the better actor, and a formidable woman, but Masina’s vulnerability makes her irresistible to me.
3) Second-favorite Roger Corman movie.
Ans: Ms. Spenser says “all of them are #1”. I had a hard time too. Only counting films he directed, The Fast and the Furious, with Bucket of Blood first.
4) The most memorable place you ever saw a movie. This could be a film projected on a big screen or seen in some other fashion—the important thing is what makes it memorable.
Ans: It’s kind of a cheat, because I barely remember it, but my grandmother took me to some kind of church or community presentation of some old movies at a barn in Vermont or New Hampshire. I think it was Laurel and Hardy, and maybe Jerry Lewis.
5) Marcello Mastroianni or Vittorio Gassman?
Ans: I’ve only seen Gassman in Big Trouble on Madonna Street, so Marcello. (Loved him in Intervista.)
6) Second-favorite Kelly Reichardt movie.
Ans: Haven’t even seen one.
7) In the matter of taste, is there a film or director that, if your partner in a relationship (wife/husband/lover/best friend) disagreed violently with your assessment of it, might cause a serious rift in that relationship?
Ans: Probably, but it hasn’t come up. I don’t think it’s a matter of a particular film or artist, just someone hating screwball comedies, or loving torture porn - those kind of things might cause a problem.
8) The last movie you saw in a theater/on physical media/via streaming (list one each).
Ans: Theater: Haven’t been in years, even before the shutdown. Physical: Blu-ray of Wind River, which was good, but a little intense (blog post to come). Streaming: Some black and white bagatelle on Amazon Prime, Woman in the Shadows.
9) Name a movie that you just couldn’t face watching right now.
Ans: There are tons. Ms. Spenser wants to watch The Babadook, but I can’t face it right now - and probably never will.
10) Jane Greer or Ava Gardner?
Ans: Jane Greer has a certain intelligence that made me love her in The Big Steal. Ava just had her glamor.
11)Edmond O’Brien or Van Heflin?
Ans: O’Brien, for his dark brooding good looks.
12) Second favorite Yasujiro Ozu movie.
Ans: You know, I went to check and the closest we’ve gotten is Osaka Monogatari, which wasn’t even directed by Ozu - It was Yoshimura and Mizoguchi. Pass.
13) Name a proposed American remake of an international film that would, if actually undertaken, surely court or inevitably result in disaster.
Ans: It would probably be impossible to do a good American remake of Seven Samurai.
14) What’s a favorite film that you consider genuinely subversive, for whatever reason?
Ans: The Last Jedi. The message that rash, brave, bold adventuring might turn out to be pointless, and slow, steady cunning behind the scenes might be what’s needed is pretty subversive, especially if the scheme is being carried out by women.
15) Name the movie score you couldn’t live without.
Ans: I am currently living without any, so, none.
16) Mary-Louise Weller or Martha Smith?
Ans: Couldn’t pick either out of a lineup.
17) Peter Riegert or Bruce McGill?
Ans: I’m going with Peter Riegert, because we’re planning to watch Local Hero soon.
18) Last Tango in Paris—yes or no?
Ans: No, too rape-y. Also, I don’t think I’ve ever liked Brando in anything.
19) Second-favorite Akira Kurosawa movie.
Ans: Ms. Spenser says, “Ran, all the rest are first”. I’d say Dersu Uzala, all the rest are first.
20) Who would host the imaginary DVD commentary you would most want to hear right now, and what would the movie be?
Ans: If I can choose anyone for anything, I’d probably choose something fantastic - like Alexander the Great’s commentary on Alexander. In the realm of the possible, maybe Joe Dante (quite a raconteur) doing The Howling, or something.
21) Favorite movie snack.
Ans: Since we always watch at home, a bowl of ice cream with a shot of rum.
22) Second-favorite Planet of the Apes film (from the original cycle).
Ans: Haven’t seen any. Should we?
23) Least-favorite Martin Scorsese movie.
Ans: I’ve only seen the remake of Cape Fear, which was pretty ridiculous, and half of Taxi Driver, which was tedious. It’s a toss-up.
I do like his music docs.
24) Name a movie you feel doesn’t deserve its current reputation, for better or worse.
Ans: I could suck up to the site’s host and say 1941, but that’s too easy. How about: I think the 2004/2007 Fantastic Four movies were good - OK, Jessica Alba was an odd choice for Sue Storm, and there were villain problems. But they were maybe the closest thing to faithful adaptations of a comic book that we’ve seen.
25) Best movie of 1970. (Fifty years ago!)
Ans: Based on a list of 1970s movies (American), I see some good candidates: There’s Gimme Shelter and Woodstock (wasn’t Martin Scorsese a cameraman for that?). I’m a big fan of Kelly’s Heroes, but I’ll go with Little Big Man. I saw it in Helsinki on vacation when it was first released.
26) Name a movie you think is practically begging for a Broadway adaptation (I used this question in the last quiz, but I’m repeating it because I never answered the quiz myself and I think I have a pretty good answer)
Ans: I guess I’ll re-use my answer but get more specific: Frozen.
27) Louise Brooks or Clara Bow?
Ans: Louise Brooks for Pandora’s Box. What a vamp. Bow was a little more cutesy.
28) Second-favorite Pier Paolo Pasolini movie.
Ans: Have seen none. Was just considering Teorema, and thinking, nope, probably not. I just can’t face it right now.
29) Name three movies you loved in your early years that you feel most influenced your adult cinematic tastes .
Ans: This is a tough one. Most of my deep cinema tastes come from college, where a great film society introduced me to French New Wave, American screwball, some silent, some Italian, the classics and so on. But I don’t think that counts as my “early” years. So:
30) Name a movie you love that you think few others do.
Ans: Oops. I used my choice up on Q24. OK, I also liked the Ben Affleck Daredevil, and it’s semi-spinoff, Elektra.
31) Name a movie you despise that you think most others love.
Ans: Oops. I used up my choice on Q23. But I think I’ll stick with Taxi Driver.
32) The Human Centipede—yes or no?
Ans: Oh, no. No, no, no.
33) Anya Taylor-Joy or Olivia Cooke?
Ans: I’ll go with Taylor-Joy, since I liked The Witch better than Ready Player One. Still haven’t seen Emma.
34) Johnny Flynn or Timothée Chalamet?
Ans: I don’t think I’ve seen either in anything, really. But Chalamet is going to be Paul Maud’dib, so him.
35) Second-favorite Dorothy Arzner movie.
Ans: Christopher Strong, after The Last of Mrs. Cheney, which I saw when I was missing Ms. Spenser.
36) Name a movie you haven’t seen in over 20 years that you would drop everything to watch right now.
Ans: The last time I saw Jacques Tati’s Playtime, I was in a hotel at a conference, and it was on TV. Some friends called me to come to the bar for drinks and I guess I went - reluctantly. Haven’t seen it since. Waiting to see the Criterion for under $20, then I’ll own it.
37) Name your favorite stylistic filmmaking cliché, and one you wouldn’t mind seeing disappear forever.
Ans: Favorite is the improbable happy ending, like in Murnau's Last Laugh. Can’t help it, I like to go out on a happy note, even if it’s false. Least fave is the one where the guy and the girl wind up romantically involved, regardless of chemistry or sense. Especially if she’s only in the movie to be a romantic object.
38) Your favorite appearance by a real-life politician in a feature film, either fictional or a fictionalized account of a real event.
Ans: Not counting Ronald Reagan (and Schwartzenegger, Sonny Bono, George Murphy, and all the other entertainers turned politicians), I can’t actually think of one.
39) Is film criticism dead?
Ans: I don’t know but film blogs seem to be in the doldrums. This site is about the last one still kicking.
40) Elizabeth Patterson or Marjorie Main?
Ans: Pretty tough to beat Ms. Main.
41) Arch Hall Jr. or Timothy Carey?
Ans: Watch out for snakes!
42) Name the film you think best fulfills the label “road movie.”
Ans: The Long Dumb Road. Not really - I’d go with the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
43) Horror film that, for whatever reason, made you feel most uncomfortable?
Ans: Hereditary. The decapitation scene, and especially the way the kid dealt with it (didn’t deal with it).
44) Least-favorite (directed by) Clint Eastwood movie.
Ans: It’s a toss-up between Bridges of Madison County and Absolute Power, neither of which I have seen. I’ll say Power, because this is where it became clear that his politics were nuts.
45) Second-favorite James Bond villain.
Ans: Maybe Largo, maybe Blofeld. But Rosa Klebb is my #1.
46) Best adaptation of a novel or other form that had been thought to be unfilmable.
Ans: People always say Gravity’s Rainbow would be unfilmable, but one of the Andersons did a pretty good job on Inherent Vice.
47) Michelle Dockery or Merritt Wever?
Ans: Don’t think I’ve seen either.
48) Jason Bateman or Ewan McGregor?
Ans: Don’t think I’ve actually seen anything with Bateman, but I’ve enjoyed McGregor in several movies (just saw Dr. Sleep). I don’t hold Obi-wan against him.
49) Second-favorite Roman Polanski movie.
Ans: I’ll say Chinatown. Fave is (surprise) The Ninth Gate, mostly because we're fans of the novel it’s based on, The Club Dumas.
50) What’s the movie you wish you could watch with a grandparent right now? And, of course, why?
Ans: I never watched a lot of movies with my grandfather. Although he was a big joker, I think he might enjoy a Budd Boetticher western. And I would be grateful to spend sometime with him again.
It occurs to me that I watched The Fountainhead on TV with my other grandparents after watching the Chicago Democratic Convention riots on the news. Strange days.
51) Oliver Stone two-fer: Natural Born Killers and/or JFK—yes or no?
Ans: Probably not. NBK for violence, JFK for nuttiness.
52) Name the actor whose likeness you would proudly wear as a rubber latex Halloween mask.
Ans: Is this a trick question? Like I’m supposed to say Mike Meyers when I really should say William Shatner?
53) Your favorite cinematographer, and her/his greatest achievement.
Ans: I want to say Vilmos Szigmond and Crazy Mixed Up Creatures..., but it would be wrong. James Wong Howe, for Seconds.
54) Best book about the nitty-gritty making of a movie.
Ans: I don’t think I’ve read one. The closest I’ve gotten is a few of the George Baxt mysteries (The Mae West Murder Case) but these are more about the personalities, less about the movies.
55) If you needed to laugh right now, what would be your go-to movie comedy?
Ans: The Marx Bros. movie that I’ve watched least recently (stealing my answer to Q1). I think that’s Night at the Opera, but I’d even watch Night in Casablanca.
I think the subtext of a lot of these questions is the current virus situation. But I'm not concentratiing on that. I'd like to dedicate this to the dean's queen, Ms. Wormer, somewhere at a spa, thinking about cucumbers...
1) You’re on a desert island (and you sort of are)—What three discs do you select out of your own collection to keep if you had to get rid of all the rest?
Ans: Three Marx Bros. discs. Hopefully with multiple movies per disc.
2) Giuletta Masina or Jeanne Moreau?
Ans: Moreau may be the better actor, and a formidable woman, but Masina’s vulnerability makes her irresistible to me.
3) Second-favorite Roger Corman movie.
Ans: Ms. Spenser says “all of them are #1”. I had a hard time too. Only counting films he directed, The Fast and the Furious, with Bucket of Blood first.
4) The most memorable place you ever saw a movie. This could be a film projected on a big screen or seen in some other fashion—the important thing is what makes it memorable.
Ans: It’s kind of a cheat, because I barely remember it, but my grandmother took me to some kind of church or community presentation of some old movies at a barn in Vermont or New Hampshire. I think it was Laurel and Hardy, and maybe Jerry Lewis.
5) Marcello Mastroianni or Vittorio Gassman?
Ans: I’ve only seen Gassman in Big Trouble on Madonna Street, so Marcello. (Loved him in Intervista.)
6) Second-favorite Kelly Reichardt movie.
Ans: Haven’t even seen one.
7) In the matter of taste, is there a film or director that, if your partner in a relationship (wife/husband/lover/best friend) disagreed violently with your assessment of it, might cause a serious rift in that relationship?
Ans: Probably, but it hasn’t come up. I don’t think it’s a matter of a particular film or artist, just someone hating screwball comedies, or loving torture porn - those kind of things might cause a problem.
8) The last movie you saw in a theater/on physical media/via streaming (list one each).
Ans: Theater: Haven’t been in years, even before the shutdown. Physical: Blu-ray of Wind River, which was good, but a little intense (blog post to come). Streaming: Some black and white bagatelle on Amazon Prime, Woman in the Shadows.
9) Name a movie that you just couldn’t face watching right now.
Ans: There are tons. Ms. Spenser wants to watch The Babadook, but I can’t face it right now - and probably never will.
10) Jane Greer or Ava Gardner?
Ans: Jane Greer has a certain intelligence that made me love her in The Big Steal. Ava just had her glamor.
11)Edmond O’Brien or Van Heflin?
Ans: O’Brien, for his dark brooding good looks.
12) Second favorite Yasujiro Ozu movie.
Ans: You know, I went to check and the closest we’ve gotten is Osaka Monogatari, which wasn’t even directed by Ozu - It was Yoshimura and Mizoguchi. Pass.
13) Name a proposed American remake of an international film that would, if actually undertaken, surely court or inevitably result in disaster.
Ans: It would probably be impossible to do a good American remake of Seven Samurai.
14) What’s a favorite film that you consider genuinely subversive, for whatever reason?
Ans: The Last Jedi. The message that rash, brave, bold adventuring might turn out to be pointless, and slow, steady cunning behind the scenes might be what’s needed is pretty subversive, especially if the scheme is being carried out by women.
15) Name the movie score you couldn’t live without.
Ans: I am currently living without any, so, none.
16) Mary-Louise Weller or Martha Smith?
Ans: Couldn’t pick either out of a lineup.
17) Peter Riegert or Bruce McGill?
Ans: I’m going with Peter Riegert, because we’re planning to watch Local Hero soon.
18) Last Tango in Paris—yes or no?
Ans: No, too rape-y. Also, I don’t think I’ve ever liked Brando in anything.
19) Second-favorite Akira Kurosawa movie.
Ans: Ms. Spenser says, “Ran, all the rest are first”. I’d say Dersu Uzala, all the rest are first.
20) Who would host the imaginary DVD commentary you would most want to hear right now, and what would the movie be?
Ans: If I can choose anyone for anything, I’d probably choose something fantastic - like Alexander the Great’s commentary on Alexander. In the realm of the possible, maybe Joe Dante (quite a raconteur) doing The Howling, or something.
21) Favorite movie snack.
Ans: Since we always watch at home, a bowl of ice cream with a shot of rum.
22) Second-favorite Planet of the Apes film (from the original cycle).
Ans: Haven’t seen any. Should we?
23) Least-favorite Martin Scorsese movie.
Ans: I’ve only seen the remake of Cape Fear, which was pretty ridiculous, and half of Taxi Driver, which was tedious. It’s a toss-up.
I do like his music docs.
24) Name a movie you feel doesn’t deserve its current reputation, for better or worse.
Ans: I could suck up to the site’s host and say 1941, but that’s too easy. How about: I think the 2004/2007 Fantastic Four movies were good - OK, Jessica Alba was an odd choice for Sue Storm, and there were villain problems. But they were maybe the closest thing to faithful adaptations of a comic book that we’ve seen.
25) Best movie of 1970. (Fifty years ago!)
Ans: Based on a list of 1970s movies (American), I see some good candidates: There’s Gimme Shelter and Woodstock (wasn’t Martin Scorsese a cameraman for that?). I’m a big fan of Kelly’s Heroes, but I’ll go with Little Big Man. I saw it in Helsinki on vacation when it was first released.
26) Name a movie you think is practically begging for a Broadway adaptation (I used this question in the last quiz, but I’m repeating it because I never answered the quiz myself and I think I have a pretty good answer)
Ans: I guess I’ll re-use my answer but get more specific: Frozen.
27) Louise Brooks or Clara Bow?
Ans: Louise Brooks for Pandora’s Box. What a vamp. Bow was a little more cutesy.
28) Second-favorite Pier Paolo Pasolini movie.
Ans: Have seen none. Was just considering Teorema, and thinking, nope, probably not. I just can’t face it right now.
29) Name three movies you loved in your early years that you feel most influenced your adult cinematic tastes .
Ans: This is a tough one. Most of my deep cinema tastes come from college, where a great film society introduced me to French New Wave, American screwball, some silent, some Italian, the classics and so on. But I don’t think that counts as my “early” years. So:
- Visit to a Small Planet: This was probably the movie I saw in the answer to Q4. Along with other Jerry Lewis, Abbott and Costello, Danny Kaye movies, this gave me my grounding in classic comedy.
- Help!/Hard Day’s Night: (Saw on a double bill, so I reference together.) Adding in the Lester movie that completely converted me, Three Musketeers, these gave my my love of modern comedy.
- 2001: This was my idea of a perfect SF movie for a long time, and most movies now reference it in some way. Our whole 4th grade (?) class went to the theater in Boston to see it. Runners-up: A double bill of Soylent Green and Westworld, seen at the drive-in with high-school buddies.
30) Name a movie you love that you think few others do.
Ans: Oops. I used my choice up on Q24. OK, I also liked the Ben Affleck Daredevil, and it’s semi-spinoff, Elektra.
31) Name a movie you despise that you think most others love.
Ans: Oops. I used up my choice on Q23. But I think I’ll stick with Taxi Driver.
32) The Human Centipede—yes or no?
Ans: Oh, no. No, no, no.
33) Anya Taylor-Joy or Olivia Cooke?
Ans: I’ll go with Taylor-Joy, since I liked The Witch better than Ready Player One. Still haven’t seen Emma.
34) Johnny Flynn or Timothée Chalamet?
Ans: I don’t think I’ve seen either in anything, really. But Chalamet is going to be Paul Maud’dib, so him.
35) Second-favorite Dorothy Arzner movie.
Ans: Christopher Strong, after The Last of Mrs. Cheney, which I saw when I was missing Ms. Spenser.
36) Name a movie you haven’t seen in over 20 years that you would drop everything to watch right now.
Ans: The last time I saw Jacques Tati’s Playtime, I was in a hotel at a conference, and it was on TV. Some friends called me to come to the bar for drinks and I guess I went - reluctantly. Haven’t seen it since. Waiting to see the Criterion for under $20, then I’ll own it.
37) Name your favorite stylistic filmmaking cliché, and one you wouldn’t mind seeing disappear forever.
Ans: Favorite is the improbable happy ending, like in Murnau's Last Laugh. Can’t help it, I like to go out on a happy note, even if it’s false. Least fave is the one where the guy and the girl wind up romantically involved, regardless of chemistry or sense. Especially if she’s only in the movie to be a romantic object.
38) Your favorite appearance by a real-life politician in a feature film, either fictional or a fictionalized account of a real event.
Ans: Not counting Ronald Reagan (and Schwartzenegger, Sonny Bono, George Murphy, and all the other entertainers turned politicians), I can’t actually think of one.
39) Is film criticism dead?
Ans: I don’t know but film blogs seem to be in the doldrums. This site is about the last one still kicking.
40) Elizabeth Patterson or Marjorie Main?
Ans: Pretty tough to beat Ms. Main.
41) Arch Hall Jr. or Timothy Carey?
Ans: Watch out for snakes!
42) Name the film you think best fulfills the label “road movie.”
Ans: The Long Dumb Road. Not really - I’d go with the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
43) Horror film that, for whatever reason, made you feel most uncomfortable?
Ans: Hereditary. The decapitation scene, and especially the way the kid dealt with it (didn’t deal with it).
44) Least-favorite (directed by) Clint Eastwood movie.
Ans: It’s a toss-up between Bridges of Madison County and Absolute Power, neither of which I have seen. I’ll say Power, because this is where it became clear that his politics were nuts.
45) Second-favorite James Bond villain.
Ans: Maybe Largo, maybe Blofeld. But Rosa Klebb is my #1.
46) Best adaptation of a novel or other form that had been thought to be unfilmable.
Ans: People always say Gravity’s Rainbow would be unfilmable, but one of the Andersons did a pretty good job on Inherent Vice.
47) Michelle Dockery or Merritt Wever?
Ans: Don’t think I’ve seen either.
48) Jason Bateman or Ewan McGregor?
Ans: Don’t think I’ve actually seen anything with Bateman, but I’ve enjoyed McGregor in several movies (just saw Dr. Sleep). I don’t hold Obi-wan against him.
49) Second-favorite Roman Polanski movie.
Ans: I’ll say Chinatown. Fave is (surprise) The Ninth Gate, mostly because we're fans of the novel it’s based on, The Club Dumas.
50) What’s the movie you wish you could watch with a grandparent right now? And, of course, why?
Ans: I never watched a lot of movies with my grandfather. Although he was a big joker, I think he might enjoy a Budd Boetticher western. And I would be grateful to spend sometime with him again.
It occurs to me that I watched The Fountainhead on TV with my other grandparents after watching the Chicago Democratic Convention riots on the news. Strange days.
51) Oliver Stone two-fer: Natural Born Killers and/or JFK—yes or no?
Ans: Probably not. NBK for violence, JFK for nuttiness.
52) Name the actor whose likeness you would proudly wear as a rubber latex Halloween mask.
Ans: Is this a trick question? Like I’m supposed to say Mike Meyers when I really should say William Shatner?
53) Your favorite cinematographer, and her/his greatest achievement.
Ans: I want to say Vilmos Szigmond and Crazy Mixed Up Creatures..., but it would be wrong. James Wong Howe, for Seconds.
54) Best book about the nitty-gritty making of a movie.
Ans: I don’t think I’ve read one. The closest I’ve gotten is a few of the George Baxt mysteries (The Mae West Murder Case) but these are more about the personalities, less about the movies.
55) If you needed to laugh right now, what would be your go-to movie comedy?
Ans: The Marx Bros. movie that I’ve watched least recently (stealing my answer to Q1). I think that’s Night at the Opera, but I’d even watch Night in Casablanca.
Monday, April 13, 2020
Dogs and Mad Dogs
Before my comments on Joe Cocker: Mad Dogs & Englishmen (1971), I want to say a few words about a movie I’ve wanted to see ever since I found out it existed: Renaldo and Clara.
In 1975/76, Bob Dylan had a film team (?) led by Sam Shepard film his Rolling Thunder Revue, and intersperse some of the concert footage with odd semi-improvised, semi-backstage scenes. Most of these are boring (the tour bus), creepy (a roadie picking up a couple of groupies, the whole crew going to a brothel), documentary (David Blue playing pinball and talking about the Greenwich Village folk scene, man-in-the-street interviews in Harlem about Rubin Carter) or all of the above. It sort of culminates in a short scene where Joan Baez walks into a crummy hotel room where Renaldo and Clara - Dylan and his wife Sara - are staying and try to steal Dylan away. Considering the real life situation amongst these three, it is at least in very poor taste.
The concert numbers are incredible, of course - Dylan had a hot band, some of his best material ever, and a bunch of friends, including Roger McGuinn of the Byrds, Mick Robson, and Ronnie Hawkins of the Hawks. But that only makes up about one hour of the four-hour edit (!) we acquired (probably a bootleg of a European TV presentation). I am enough of a Dylan fan to enjoy the whole thing, but Ms. Spenser found it to be revoltingly sleazy.
The next day, we watched Mad Dogs and Englishmen, and what a difference. Very similar - a big name musician on tour with a killer band, a mix of behind-the-scenes and concert footage. But it was all so wholesome! The band toured with mommas and babies and even a little terrier. Even the groupies seemed sweet, worried about the young girls who didn’t know what they were getting into.
The band was thrown together at the last minute, lead by Leon Russell on keys and guitar. They had a three piece horn section and something like twelve backup singers, cadged from Delaney and Bonnie, including Rita Coolidge. And this group cooked! Every song just came through 11 out of 10. Joe Cocker screams, cries, whispers, dances and plays eccentric air guitar through the whole thing. It was also fun to see Leon sort of running the show - directing the horns, trading licks with Ronson, sort of the way Dr. John did for Lightning in a Bottle. And when the camera was on him backstage, he slipped into the shadows, or turned his back, ever elusive.
This left us feeling uplifted and energized, while the Dylan made us feel like we needed a shower. Watch Renaldo and Clara if you are a completist (or maybe check out the <2-hour version that is mostly the concert parts) or just watch Mad Dogs for a good time.
In 1975/76, Bob Dylan had a film team (?) led by Sam Shepard film his Rolling Thunder Revue, and intersperse some of the concert footage with odd semi-improvised, semi-backstage scenes. Most of these are boring (the tour bus), creepy (a roadie picking up a couple of groupies, the whole crew going to a brothel), documentary (David Blue playing pinball and talking about the Greenwich Village folk scene, man-in-the-street interviews in Harlem about Rubin Carter) or all of the above. It sort of culminates in a short scene where Joan Baez walks into a crummy hotel room where Renaldo and Clara - Dylan and his wife Sara - are staying and try to steal Dylan away. Considering the real life situation amongst these three, it is at least in very poor taste.
The concert numbers are incredible, of course - Dylan had a hot band, some of his best material ever, and a bunch of friends, including Roger McGuinn of the Byrds, Mick Robson, and Ronnie Hawkins of the Hawks. But that only makes up about one hour of the four-hour edit (!) we acquired (probably a bootleg of a European TV presentation). I am enough of a Dylan fan to enjoy the whole thing, but Ms. Spenser found it to be revoltingly sleazy.
The next day, we watched Mad Dogs and Englishmen, and what a difference. Very similar - a big name musician on tour with a killer band, a mix of behind-the-scenes and concert footage. But it was all so wholesome! The band toured with mommas and babies and even a little terrier. Even the groupies seemed sweet, worried about the young girls who didn’t know what they were getting into.
The band was thrown together at the last minute, lead by Leon Russell on keys and guitar. They had a three piece horn section and something like twelve backup singers, cadged from Delaney and Bonnie, including Rita Coolidge. And this group cooked! Every song just came through 11 out of 10. Joe Cocker screams, cries, whispers, dances and plays eccentric air guitar through the whole thing. It was also fun to see Leon sort of running the show - directing the horns, trading licks with Ronson, sort of the way Dr. John did for Lightning in a Bottle. And when the camera was on him backstage, he slipped into the shadows, or turned his back, ever elusive.
This left us feeling uplifted and energized, while the Dylan made us feel like we needed a shower. Watch Renaldo and Clara if you are a completist (or maybe check out the <2-hour version that is mostly the concert parts) or just watch Mad Dogs for a good time.
Saturday, April 11, 2020
Yeah, Why?
When I queued up Why Didn't They Ask Evans? (1980), I didn’t realize that it was a full 3 hours long. It turns out this was a BBC TV special shown over three or four episodes, although we didn’t really notice the seams. Anyway, it was enough fun that we didn’t mind the length.
It’s an adaptation of an Agatha Christie tale, one of the first made for TV. It starts with young James Warwick golfing on the Welsh seacoast. He knocks his ball over a cliff, and finds at the bottom, a dying man. While his partner runs for help, he waits with the body and gets two clues: He finds the photo of a beautiful woman in the man’s pocket and hears the man say with his last breath “Why didn’t they ask Evans?” When another man comes along (Leigh Lawson), he asks him to take over the watch and runs to his father’s church to play organ for services. I only mention this because his father is Sir John Gielgud.
He meets up with a pal, a Lady with a title played by Francesca Annis. Little by little, the two begin to investigate the business. Warwick has a picnic by himself and almost dies from a large dose of morphia in his beer. And it turns out that the dead man had been drugged with morphia before he died. Lady Annis goes undercover, faking an accident to get invited to stay at Lawson’s Manor. And that turns out to be next door to a sanitarium - for drug addicts! And so on.
As sleuths, this pair aren’t bad, but Warwick is playing the classic twit, Bertie Wooster style. He even has a friend named Badger who has a stutter and a history of bad business ventures. Annis, on the other hand, is a “bright young thing”, one of the flighty, sophisticated upper-class party girls of the 1920’s. So there’s a light, bright, comic air to all this. Also, there’s drug addiction, forgery, abduction, suicide, and more murder, so it isn’t all beer and skittles.
And someone says the title of the show about every ten minutes. It turned out that it was right under their noses the entire time.
Turns out that the leads, Warwick and Annis, play another pair of Christie detectives in the BBC series Tommy and Tuppence. I have considered watching those, but I’m not sure they are quite exciting enough for me to try. We’ll see.
It’s an adaptation of an Agatha Christie tale, one of the first made for TV. It starts with young James Warwick golfing on the Welsh seacoast. He knocks his ball over a cliff, and finds at the bottom, a dying man. While his partner runs for help, he waits with the body and gets two clues: He finds the photo of a beautiful woman in the man’s pocket and hears the man say with his last breath “Why didn’t they ask Evans?” When another man comes along (Leigh Lawson), he asks him to take over the watch and runs to his father’s church to play organ for services. I only mention this because his father is Sir John Gielgud.
He meets up with a pal, a Lady with a title played by Francesca Annis. Little by little, the two begin to investigate the business. Warwick has a picnic by himself and almost dies from a large dose of morphia in his beer. And it turns out that the dead man had been drugged with morphia before he died. Lady Annis goes undercover, faking an accident to get invited to stay at Lawson’s Manor. And that turns out to be next door to a sanitarium - for drug addicts! And so on.
As sleuths, this pair aren’t bad, but Warwick is playing the classic twit, Bertie Wooster style. He even has a friend named Badger who has a stutter and a history of bad business ventures. Annis, on the other hand, is a “bright young thing”, one of the flighty, sophisticated upper-class party girls of the 1920’s. So there’s a light, bright, comic air to all this. Also, there’s drug addiction, forgery, abduction, suicide, and more murder, so it isn’t all beer and skittles.
And someone says the title of the show about every ten minutes. It turned out that it was right under their noses the entire time.
Turns out that the leads, Warwick and Annis, play another pair of Christie detectives in the BBC series Tommy and Tuppence. I have considered watching those, but I’m not sure they are quite exciting enough for me to try. We’ll see.
Thursday, April 9, 2020
Buckle My Swash!
I love a good swashbuckler - but they can be surprisingly hard to find. Just look at all the terrible pirate movies. Fanfan la Tulipe (1952), a classic French swashbuckler, is one of the good ones.
It starts with a sarcastic voice-over, explains that France was in the middle of a war that everyone was enjoying so much they kept it up for seven years. But as the dead soldiers began to outnumber the living, they had to start sending recruiters around the country. In one village, we meet young Fanfan, Gerard Philipe - caught in a haystack with a village girl. He playfully fights off the girl’s father and his pals, but is eventually overpowered. As they escort him to the church to marry the girl, a gypsy, Gina Lollabrigida, stops them to tell him his fortune. She says that he will be a great soldier and marry the King’s daughter. He is very taken with this prophecy and besides, enlisting will get him out of the marriage.
After he’s enlisted, he discovers that the “gypsy” is the recruiting sergeant’s daughter, and he’s not the first soldier who has fallen for her trick. But he is the kind of cocky guy that still believes that it is his destiny to marry the King’s daughter. And wouldn’t you know it, when he rushes to the rescue of a carriage beset by bandits, the passengers are the King’s daughter and Mme. Pompadour. Mme. Pompadour gives him a jeweled tulip brooch as a reward, and dubs him Fanfan le Tulip.
And so he goes along, flirting with Lollabrigida but planning to marry the princess. His army buddies are a fun crowd of character actors, including some billed as part of the Comedie Francais. There are fights and a duel, choreographed in the traditional swashbuckling manner. Fanfan has a way of doing something unmilitary, and defeating the enemy almost by accident.
But will he wind up with Lollabrigida or the King’s daughter? I won’t tell, but it does have a happy ending.
The charm of this movie is partly in the arch, droll writing, but mostly in Gerard Philipe’s boisterous character. Like Doug Fairbanks, he is always smiling, positive and energetic. Great fun.
It starts with a sarcastic voice-over, explains that France was in the middle of a war that everyone was enjoying so much they kept it up for seven years. But as the dead soldiers began to outnumber the living, they had to start sending recruiters around the country. In one village, we meet young Fanfan, Gerard Philipe - caught in a haystack with a village girl. He playfully fights off the girl’s father and his pals, but is eventually overpowered. As they escort him to the church to marry the girl, a gypsy, Gina Lollabrigida, stops them to tell him his fortune. She says that he will be a great soldier and marry the King’s daughter. He is very taken with this prophecy and besides, enlisting will get him out of the marriage.
After he’s enlisted, he discovers that the “gypsy” is the recruiting sergeant’s daughter, and he’s not the first soldier who has fallen for her trick. But he is the kind of cocky guy that still believes that it is his destiny to marry the King’s daughter. And wouldn’t you know it, when he rushes to the rescue of a carriage beset by bandits, the passengers are the King’s daughter and Mme. Pompadour. Mme. Pompadour gives him a jeweled tulip brooch as a reward, and dubs him Fanfan le Tulip.
And so he goes along, flirting with Lollabrigida but planning to marry the princess. His army buddies are a fun crowd of character actors, including some billed as part of the Comedie Francais. There are fights and a duel, choreographed in the traditional swashbuckling manner. Fanfan has a way of doing something unmilitary, and defeating the enemy almost by accident.
But will he wind up with Lollabrigida or the King’s daughter? I won’t tell, but it does have a happy ending.
The charm of this movie is partly in the arch, droll writing, but mostly in Gerard Philipe’s boisterous character. Like Doug Fairbanks, he is always smiling, positive and energetic. Great fun.
Tuesday, April 7, 2020
Babylon by the Bay
The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019) is a sweet drama about friendship, family, race and San Francisco. It’s far from our usual fare of action, horror and comedy, but I’m glad we watched it.
It stars Jimmie Fails as himself - a black man living in the Hunter’s Point area of San Francisco, a polluted neighborhood by the bay. He lives with his friend Jonathan Majors, in a tiny house with Majors’ father Danny Glover. Majors carries a notebook and spends his time sketching the people he sees and writing plays based on what he observes.
Fails’ family once lived in a classic San Francisco Painted Lady. Family history says his grandfather built it. Although an older white couple lives there now, Fails and Majors sneak into the yard when they are away and tidy up - taking care of the garden and touching up the paint. When the couple who live there break up and leave, the house will stand empty until its legal status is settled. Fails tries to buy it, but it will cost millions, and he has nothing. So he sneaks in, and starts just living there.
It ends when Majors puts on the play he has been writing, “The Last Black Man in San Francisco”, to an audience of family and neighbors.
That’s it, but far from all. Fails and Majors had tough lives, but aren’t tough. They know the guys who hang out on the corner talking trash and fighting, but they aren’t them. Fails is always polite, introducing himself to his neighbors when he starts squatting. He’s hard-working, doing chores on someone else’s house. Majors is well-dressed, sort of scholarly - like a figure out of the Harlem Renaissance. They have jobs, but no money - they mostly travel by bus or together on one skateboard.
The ins and outs of the city, their families and the people they meet are what this movie is about. The scenes with Majors jammed into a tiny couch with his dad watching D.O.A. on TV, while Fails is crammed on the floor, are touching and filled with meaning. It’s a life that maybe satisfies Majors, and maybe should satisfy Fails, but he needs something else, like his family house.
Maybe I don’t have to say that director Joe Talbot makes this movie looks incredible - with the city as a backdrop, it’s expected. It probably won’t be a surprise to find out he and Jimmy Fails were childhood friends, and have been making this movie almost all their lives. What will they do for an encore?
It stars Jimmie Fails as himself - a black man living in the Hunter’s Point area of San Francisco, a polluted neighborhood by the bay. He lives with his friend Jonathan Majors, in a tiny house with Majors’ father Danny Glover. Majors carries a notebook and spends his time sketching the people he sees and writing plays based on what he observes.
Fails’ family once lived in a classic San Francisco Painted Lady. Family history says his grandfather built it. Although an older white couple lives there now, Fails and Majors sneak into the yard when they are away and tidy up - taking care of the garden and touching up the paint. When the couple who live there break up and leave, the house will stand empty until its legal status is settled. Fails tries to buy it, but it will cost millions, and he has nothing. So he sneaks in, and starts just living there.
It ends when Majors puts on the play he has been writing, “The Last Black Man in San Francisco”, to an audience of family and neighbors.
That’s it, but far from all. Fails and Majors had tough lives, but aren’t tough. They know the guys who hang out on the corner talking trash and fighting, but they aren’t them. Fails is always polite, introducing himself to his neighbors when he starts squatting. He’s hard-working, doing chores on someone else’s house. Majors is well-dressed, sort of scholarly - like a figure out of the Harlem Renaissance. They have jobs, but no money - they mostly travel by bus or together on one skateboard.
The ins and outs of the city, their families and the people they meet are what this movie is about. The scenes with Majors jammed into a tiny couch with his dad watching D.O.A. on TV, while Fails is crammed on the floor, are touching and filled with meaning. It’s a life that maybe satisfies Majors, and maybe should satisfy Fails, but he needs something else, like his family house.
Maybe I don’t have to say that director Joe Talbot makes this movie looks incredible - with the city as a backdrop, it’s expected. It probably won’t be a surprise to find out he and Jimmy Fails were childhood friends, and have been making this movie almost all their lives. What will they do for an encore?
Monday, April 6, 2020
Greased Lightning
Lightning in a Bottle (2004) is a concert film, but what a concert. It chronicles the 2003 concert at Radio City that featured a lot of blues musicians and friends.
It starts with Angelique Kidjo singing an African folk tune, showing the roots of the blues. Mavis Staples singing See That My Grave is Kept clean. Then Honeyboy Williams - he talks about the first time he played, in 1920-something. Since Robert Johnson isn’t around anymore, Keb Mo sings Love in Vain. And on and on. Hubert Sumlin, Solomon Burke, the Nevilles, Macy Gray, India.Arie, Bonnie Raitt doing Elmore James, Buddy Guy doing Hendrix and lots more. The band included Dr John as a sort of band leader, and Gregg Allman on keys, although he wasn’t prominent.
There were a few stumbles - John Fogarty’s Midnight Special was nothing special. Chuck D tried to turn Howlin’ Wolf’s Boom Boom Boom into an anti-war song (No Boom Boom Boom) just wasn’t good, even if you like the politics. Steve Tyler and Joe Perry were actually pretty all right on King Bee. Ruth Brown with Natalie Cole and Mavis Staples singing about Men are Like Streetcars wasn’t great, but singing it to an onstage Bill Cosby was a little unsettling.
Of course, it ends with the King himself, B.B. King and his guitar Lucille.
The movie had a nice mix of songs and backstage patter - although I think I would have preferred more music. Of course, there are a lot of extras, but we didn’t watch them. Oh well.
If you’ve ever seen the battle of the bands scene from Blues Brothers 2000, then you can imagine a little bit what this movie is like. It’s like the cover of Sgt. Pepper, except all the cutouts are blues musicians, and they are all playing live.
————
Footnote: I know that Blues Brothers 2000 is a terrible movie. But that battle of the bands!
It starts with Angelique Kidjo singing an African folk tune, showing the roots of the blues. Mavis Staples singing See That My Grave is Kept clean. Then Honeyboy Williams - he talks about the first time he played, in 1920-something. Since Robert Johnson isn’t around anymore, Keb Mo sings Love in Vain. And on and on. Hubert Sumlin, Solomon Burke, the Nevilles, Macy Gray, India.Arie, Bonnie Raitt doing Elmore James, Buddy Guy doing Hendrix and lots more. The band included Dr John as a sort of band leader, and Gregg Allman on keys, although he wasn’t prominent.
There were a few stumbles - John Fogarty’s Midnight Special was nothing special. Chuck D tried to turn Howlin’ Wolf’s Boom Boom Boom into an anti-war song (No Boom Boom Boom) just wasn’t good, even if you like the politics. Steve Tyler and Joe Perry were actually pretty all right on King Bee. Ruth Brown with Natalie Cole and Mavis Staples singing about Men are Like Streetcars wasn’t great, but singing it to an onstage Bill Cosby was a little unsettling.
Of course, it ends with the King himself, B.B. King and his guitar Lucille.
The movie had a nice mix of songs and backstage patter - although I think I would have preferred more music. Of course, there are a lot of extras, but we didn’t watch them. Oh well.
If you’ve ever seen the battle of the bands scene from Blues Brothers 2000, then you can imagine a little bit what this movie is like. It’s like the cover of Sgt. Pepper, except all the cutouts are blues musicians, and they are all playing live.
————
Footnote: I know that Blues Brothers 2000 is a terrible movie. But that battle of the bands!
Sunday, April 5, 2020
Starkillers
We didn’t see Explorers (1985) because it’s a kids’ movie, and we didn’t even watch E.T. Also, I’m not sure about how it got released - the story seems to be that the studio took it away from Joe Dante before he’d finished special effects. I think he has disowned the movie, but we kind of liked it.
It stars teenaged Ethan Hawkes, who dreams he is flying over a city/circuit board. He wakes up and calls his young genius friend River Phoenix over the walkie-talkie to give him the details. At school, Hawkes is bullied, and little but tough Jason Presson draws them off. They walk home together, and when Presson hears his father, a junk hauler, fighting with his girlfriend, they decide to go see Phoenix.
Phoenix lives in a sort of crazy house, with a bohemian earth-mother mother, scientist father, out of control siblings, and a basement lab. In this lab, he has made a circuit based on Hawkes’ dreams. It generates a bubble force field that crashes around the lab. They eventually figure out that they can sit inside the bubble and go anywhere at any speed. They build a ship in a junkyard based on a Tilt-a-Whirl car and go to the drive-in to catch the flying saucer creature feature.
It’s kind of a side plot, but somewhere around here, a police copter piloted by Dick Miller and Meshach Taylor spots them. At least it gives Dante a chance to use his lucky character actor Miller.
In the last act, we find out where these dreams come from - SPOILER - aliens. Two goofy looking blue aliens who tend to talk in TV cliches. Of course, they learned English from TV broadcasts. They get along pretty well with the kids - the femme one with the kissable lips and Marilyn Monroe affectations in particular seems to be going for Phoenix. I’ll skip the twist, but give you a hint - it was used on Star Trek: TOS.
I liked the first two acts with the kids more than the aliens. They were a little too goofy and obnoxious. The subplot about Hawke and the girl who he has a crush on (Amanda Peterson) isn’t that great, but that’s kind of what you have to expect.
It stars teenaged Ethan Hawkes, who dreams he is flying over a city/circuit board. He wakes up and calls his young genius friend River Phoenix over the walkie-talkie to give him the details. At school, Hawkes is bullied, and little but tough Jason Presson draws them off. They walk home together, and when Presson hears his father, a junk hauler, fighting with his girlfriend, they decide to go see Phoenix.
Phoenix lives in a sort of crazy house, with a bohemian earth-mother mother, scientist father, out of control siblings, and a basement lab. In this lab, he has made a circuit based on Hawkes’ dreams. It generates a bubble force field that crashes around the lab. They eventually figure out that they can sit inside the bubble and go anywhere at any speed. They build a ship in a junkyard based on a Tilt-a-Whirl car and go to the drive-in to catch the flying saucer creature feature.
It’s kind of a side plot, but somewhere around here, a police copter piloted by Dick Miller and Meshach Taylor spots them. At least it gives Dante a chance to use his lucky character actor Miller.
In the last act, we find out where these dreams come from - SPOILER - aliens. Two goofy looking blue aliens who tend to talk in TV cliches. Of course, they learned English from TV broadcasts. They get along pretty well with the kids - the femme one with the kissable lips and Marilyn Monroe affectations in particular seems to be going for Phoenix. I’ll skip the twist, but give you a hint - it was used on Star Trek: TOS.
I liked the first two acts with the kids more than the aliens. They were a little too goofy and obnoxious. The subplot about Hawke and the girl who he has a crush on (Amanda Peterson) isn’t that great, but that’s kind of what you have to expect.
Friday, April 3, 2020
It’s AntarCtica!
Ms Spenser put Where'd You Go, Bernadette (2019) in the queue on the advice of a high-powered Silicon Valley exec friend, who believed that it was a true story. She’s very smart but often wrong. But I can see how this would appeal to her, as it’s about the lives of the rich, brilliant and very mixed up.
Cate Blanchett is Bernadette. She lives with her husband, Billy Vrudup, a brilliant software engineer whose company was bought by Microsoft, and her daughter, Emma Nelson, who is about to graduate from a private grade school and go off to Choate. They live in a rundown mansion/ex-girl’s reformatory in Seattle. Bernadette hates to leave her house, hates her perky perfect neighbor Kristen Wiig, and pretty much everything except her daughter. Her daughter requests that the family take a trip to Antarctica over winter break, and Bernadette sort of freaks out about seasickness, the flight, and in general leaving home. But she agrees.
The movie has a bit of fun showing us who Bernadette is. She seems to spend most of the day dictating texts to her Indian “personal assistant” Manjula. She asks her to order fishing vests for the trip to Antarctica, but it’s part of a minutes-long rant about Seattle, traveling, shopping, and just everything.
We also see her walking through Seattle’s Rem Koolhaus designed library, and discover that she was a famous architect who sort of dropped out of site. This is nicely introduced by a fan coming up and gushing over her - which she reacts to by looking scared and edging away. Later, at lunch with her old colleague Laurence Fishburne, she gives another long rant about Seattle, life, the LA celebrity architect scene, Antarctica, and again, everything.
Eventually, her husband goes to a psychiatrist, and they stage an intervention. Manjula is involved, but I won’t spoil that part. It comes out that he plans to take their daughter to Antarctica while she is under observation. So she heads them off by heading down herself, thinking they’ve already left - and getting on the wrong ship. Well, she didn’t have Manjula helping with the tickets.
The last act takes place in Antarctica, with Bernadette falling in love with the beautiful extremes, and her family trying to catch up with her. I could tell she was coming back to life after being closed off for too long (as long as her daughter has been alive?), but assumed she would sort of forget about her family - because she is a brilliant but self-centered monster. Well, that isn’t quite what happened, but it kind of is.
So this is very much a Wypeepo Problems movie. Some of it is clearly comedy, of the not-that-funny variety. It is also very touching in places - Director Richard Linklater wanted to direct because of the mother-daughter relationship, and does it well. It helps that Emma Nelson is a great young actor, reminding me of the girls in Booksmart, which was the only “Coming Attraction” on this disk. But once again, I think Cate Blanchett is the best thing about this, and maybe the only thing that makes it a good movie. She handles Bernadette’s quirky intelligence and everyday madness in a way that makes an obnoxious and unpleasant character relatable and even lovable. She even has a real moment with Wiig.
But the worst thing about this movie was that everyone - even scientists working there - pronounce it “Antartica“. There are two C’s people!
Cate Blanchett is Bernadette. She lives with her husband, Billy Vrudup, a brilliant software engineer whose company was bought by Microsoft, and her daughter, Emma Nelson, who is about to graduate from a private grade school and go off to Choate. They live in a rundown mansion/ex-girl’s reformatory in Seattle. Bernadette hates to leave her house, hates her perky perfect neighbor Kristen Wiig, and pretty much everything except her daughter. Her daughter requests that the family take a trip to Antarctica over winter break, and Bernadette sort of freaks out about seasickness, the flight, and in general leaving home. But she agrees.
The movie has a bit of fun showing us who Bernadette is. She seems to spend most of the day dictating texts to her Indian “personal assistant” Manjula. She asks her to order fishing vests for the trip to Antarctica, but it’s part of a minutes-long rant about Seattle, traveling, shopping, and just everything.
We also see her walking through Seattle’s Rem Koolhaus designed library, and discover that she was a famous architect who sort of dropped out of site. This is nicely introduced by a fan coming up and gushing over her - which she reacts to by looking scared and edging away. Later, at lunch with her old colleague Laurence Fishburne, she gives another long rant about Seattle, life, the LA celebrity architect scene, Antarctica, and again, everything.
Eventually, her husband goes to a psychiatrist, and they stage an intervention. Manjula is involved, but I won’t spoil that part. It comes out that he plans to take their daughter to Antarctica while she is under observation. So she heads them off by heading down herself, thinking they’ve already left - and getting on the wrong ship. Well, she didn’t have Manjula helping with the tickets.
The last act takes place in Antarctica, with Bernadette falling in love with the beautiful extremes, and her family trying to catch up with her. I could tell she was coming back to life after being closed off for too long (as long as her daughter has been alive?), but assumed she would sort of forget about her family - because she is a brilliant but self-centered monster. Well, that isn’t quite what happened, but it kind of is.
So this is very much a Wypeepo Problems movie. Some of it is clearly comedy, of the not-that-funny variety. It is also very touching in places - Director Richard Linklater wanted to direct because of the mother-daughter relationship, and does it well. It helps that Emma Nelson is a great young actor, reminding me of the girls in Booksmart, which was the only “Coming Attraction” on this disk. But once again, I think Cate Blanchett is the best thing about this, and maybe the only thing that makes it a good movie. She handles Bernadette’s quirky intelligence and everyday madness in a way that makes an obnoxious and unpleasant character relatable and even lovable. She even has a real moment with Wiig.
But the worst thing about this movie was that everyone - even scientists working there - pronounce it “Antartica“. There are two C’s people!
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