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1941 - US
Director
John Cromwell
Starring
Frances Dee, Fredric March, Margaret Sullavan, Glenn Ford
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Film Comment lovingly reviewed this forgotten treasure this month, so I had extraordinarily high expectations. For a studio-system war melodrama, this does have many high points: gorgeous play with shadow and light, emotionally resonant gestures of romance and humanity, brilliantly choreographed ‘chase scenes’ in several varieties. But in exact proportion to all this, there is cheesy dialogue, poor plot development and absurd cultural stereotypes galore, all excessive even by 1941 Hollywood standards. I’m sad to report I found it so maddeningly uneven when so much of it is very special.
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71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance
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[71 Fragmente einer Chronologie des Zufalls]
1994 - Austria
Director
Michael Haneke
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It’s been interesting working backward to Haneke’s earlier films. This one is a sort of missing link between Code Unknown’s presentation, Seventh Continent’s interpretation of real-life events, and the unifying themes in all his films of the terrorism of self and other, cause & effect, unbridgeable distance, &c…
This film takes a while to warm up, and in the first hour many of the bits seem irrelevant and mystifying, though few are for a moment dull. A rewatch would provide more sense to them but certainly not a precise, meaningful “chronology.” This is Haneke’s intent and strongest suit, of course: the viewer pieces together what s/he will.
Fragments is not quite equal to its masterfully absorbing cousins, but it’s a tremendous document of life in late 1993, juxtaposing catastrophic and tragic world events (which in nightly news broadcasts become repetitive, intoned stock stories half-heard and not comprehended) with the latest tabloid headlines and the lives of ordinary people affected by one localized, random event.
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2002 - France
Director
Olivier Dahan
Starring
Isabelle Huppert, Pascal Greggory
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Why review when no one but the Huppert fanatic would think of watching it? Because it is just that maddeningly bad. Things that are annoying on their own are intolerable in combination: 1) stupid shakycam and lookit my fancy editing!; 2) poorly motivated characters who say random nonsense for the sake of making a revealing statement, eg “To argue you have to know somone. We don’t know each other.” ugh, shut up; 3) cloying sentimental redemption stories — I can’t take that bs anymore. Maybe also 4): I’m glad I didn’t see this right after Gabrielle, but Pascal Greggory is still creepy.
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[Chung Hing sam lam]
1994 - Hong Kong
Director
Wong Kar-Wai
Starring
Tony Leung, Brigitte Lin, Faye Wong, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Valerie Chow
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My guess is the DVD is kind of crappy. Color’s very washed out, and I love WKW for his use of color. Confused Plus Tarantino’s name is in a bigger font all over the packaging. Ugh. Reissue, please. (So the film may deserve the bump up to the next rating.)
Anyway what a captivating little romance. So many dear moments: I’m not going to get over Tony Leung talking to his soap, dish rag, and stuffed animals any time soon. There’s some visual flashiness that didn’t work for me 100% of the time. But essentially I loved the storyline, and everything is skillfully tied together.
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[Jungfrukällan]
1960 - Sweden
Director
Ingmar Bergman
Starring
Max Von Sydow, Gunnel Lindlom
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(This one’s spoiler-heavy.)
Although the rape and revenge scenes are tame by today’s standards, I found them deeply disturbing because of the raw emotion and blind innocence Bergman imbued in them. The ending is kind of a maddeningly simple pro-Christian argument, but a) I think it’s interesting that Tore is disinterested in religion, perhaps is even a quiet atheist through most of the film (he doesn’t consider it for a moment when Ingeri says she literally willed the rape and murder to happen), and then his brutal revenge brings him back to God — sick, very interesting: the girl’s “sacrifice” so her parents could learn valuable lessons; b) whatever, it’s the Middle Ages anyway. Anyway, exquisite, powerful film. One of Bergman’s best, and certainly my favorite before he changed focus with the ‘trilogy.’
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The Spirit of the Beehive
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[El Espíritu de la colmena]
1973 - Spain
Director
Victor Erice
Starring
Ana Torrent
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Beautiful, moody, haunting film which captures the wonder and its staggering loss not only in childhood, as we watch the story unfold through Ana’s eyes, but also that of her parents, whose grown-up heartaches resonate as deeply. And what eyes! I’ve rarely been put so completely and magnetically into a character’s place thanks to Ana Torrent’s eyes. Best child performance ever…? She continues to haunt me.
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[Ovoce stromu rajskych jime]
1969 - Czech Republic
Director
Vera Chytilová
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This is a crazy pastiche of visual techniques, ambient noises, and music: and yes, it is even crazier than Daisies. But it is far from senseless, evoking the horror and mystique of the Genesis story better — certainly more interestingly — than any text or film has ever done. Highly recommended to fans of experimental and Czech cinema.
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[Der Siebente Kontinent]
1989 - Austria
Director
Michael Haneke
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I don’t know if I should be surprised, but in his first feature Haneke has already found and refined his voice and style. And I don’t understand how Bresson can bore me while Haneke forces me to stare at a bowl of cereal for a full minute and I remain riveted, but it is so. This is every bit as powerful as his later films.
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Diary of a Country Priest
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[Journal d'un curé de campagne]
1951 - France
Director
Robert Bresson
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Bresson’s minimalism is certainly a worthwhile voice in cinema, but perhaps it’s time to finally admit it has nothing to say to me. The young country priest, with his temperamental stomach and dreamy eyes (so says everyone in the parish, from the schoolgirls to the atheist doctor), is perhaps the most dismal depressive in all of cinema… though so many in Bresson’s oeuvre would give him a run for his money. Then, given the acting technique, he is not even a convincing depressive. The film is a book adaptation and feels like it in every frame; if Bresson doesn’t want to add any visual interest to it, I’d rather read the book. Yes, something stands between me and Bresson: he cannot move me, though I respect him and thank him for the influence he’s had on other filmmakers. There is value in reducing film to its essential components and I suppose he does this effectively — superlatively. But do I get much pleasure out of watching such an exercise? Evidently, no.
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[Comment je me suis disputé... (ma vie sexuelle)]
1996 - France
Director
Arnaud Desplechin
Starring
Matthieu Amalric, Jeanne Balibar, Emanuelle Devos
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It’s like a cross between Rohmer’s wry portrait of people and Paris as they are and Allen’s sophisticated comedies about sex-obsessed intellectuals, infused with a unique youthful energy immediately recognizable as being from the mind of the slightly off-kilter guy who would go on to make Rois et reine. Epic length may actually suit Desplechin (the VHS release is split over two cassettes), or anyway, it is impossible for him to bore me. Focus is not its strong point, but it’s a great meandering, ultimately circuitous ride through the lives of several characters, who are just the sort of fucked-up I like.
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About TLC
Films: All reviewed | Favorites
Actors: Profiles | Favorites
Directors: Profiles | Favorites
All films by year
2008 Viewing log
The Woman Accused 1933, Paul Sloane
So Big! 1932, William A Wellman
The Awful Truth 1937, Leo McCarey
Conquest 1937, Clarence Brown
It’s Love I’m After 1937, Archie Mayo
The Mad Miss Manton 1938, Leigh Jason
Algiers 1938, John Cromwell
The Gay Divorcee 1934, Mark Sandrich
All This, & Heaven Too 1940, Anatole Litvak
Mannequin 1937, Frank Borzage
A short digression on Charles Boyer…
Yes, I am endeared. I am, in fact, ensorceled. His inhumanly arched eyebrows, his little winks and half-smiles, and that ability to at once maintain full control of his material while shining the spotlight on his costar: yes, that is talent; yes, this is love. And no, Cluny Brown, it’s not just the cocktails giving you that persian cat feeling… I think we both know too well it has a bit to do with Mr Charles Boyer. Rawr.
Pre-Code Hollywood
» The Woman Accused 1933 Paul Sloane
» So Big! 1932 William A Wellman
» Pre-Code Icons Gallery #1: Barbara Stanwyck
» A Month of Pre-Code Hollywood
Previous months
30s Cinema
Maestresses
The Lubitsch Race
In-transit romances
Nothing better suited to Hollywood romance than three weeks out of time, away from life, falling in love with a stranger, spending days idly and nights actively.
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House of Mirth & Movies
If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger...
Jump Cut
Mango Grove
Not Coming to a Theater Near You
The Pagan Agenda
Pop Matters
Rants & Musings
Reverse Shot
Self-Styled Siren
Senses of Cinema
Sight & Sound
TCM schedule
They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?
Through a Blog Darkly
       
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