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Daily Archives: November 25, 2016

Verboten!

Posted on November 25, 2016 | 2 comments

Verboten!
Directed by Samuel Fuller
Written by Samuel Fuller
1959/USA
Globe Enterprises
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] Helmuth Strasser: Polystyrene Verboten![/box]

Here we have a gonzo vision of the American Occupation in Germany as only Samuel Fuller could have imagined it.

In the closing days of WWII, American Sgt. David Brent is wounded and trapped in some rubble. He is rescued and nursed back to health by pretty Helga Schiller. After the surrender, fraternization and many other things are “verboten” to the American occupying forces. So David gets a discharge and is employed as a civilian by the American Military Government. He and Helga marry.

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It turns out that this part of Germany is infested by unrepentant Nazis. Helga’s friend Bruno leads a guerrilla movement called the Werewolves that is bent on creating hatred and chaos and forcing the exit of the Americans. David is eventually uncertain of where the now-pregnant Helga’s loyalties lie.

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This is Fuller at his most lurid. It is by far the most anti-German of the post-War films I have seen. Studio Hollywood was mostly on a mission of reconstruction at the time. The acting is not great but it is not boring for one instant!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqawwouPF8o

Clip

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Posted in 1959

Floating Weeds (1959)

Posted on November 25, 2016 | 2 comments

Floating Weeds
Directed by Yasujiro Ozu
Written by Yasujiro Ozu and Kogo Noda
1959/Japan
Daiei Studios
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
#366 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] If a farmer fills his barn with grain, he gets mice. If he leaves it empty, he gets actors. Walter Scott[/box]

I could have picked 100 stills for my blog and I still would have images left to choose from. I love Ozu and this film.

A cut-rate troupe of Kabuki actors arrive in a small Japanese town. Komajuro, the manager and leading man, hopes the show will run for a year there. His principal reason is to get reacquainted with the son, Kiyoshi, he left behind after an affair when he played there about 20 years before. Kiyoshi knows Komajuro only as his uncle. Things begin promisingly.

Then Komajuro’s mistress and fellow actor Sumiko (Machiko Kyo) becomes suspicious of all the visits her man is making to his “patron”. When she finds out the truth, she hatches a plot to disgrace the son in the eyes of his father. Her idea is to send out a young actress to seduce Kiyoshi. Between the failure of the plan and the failure of the show, relations are strained as the troupe leaves town.

All of Ozu’s films center on the Japanese family and its dissolution. In this case, we have two “families”, the father and son and the kabuki troupe. The film is richly atmospheric, redolent of the seaside in summer and the smell of the greasepaint. There is much humor and bigger emotions than in many of Ozu’s other films. The use of color and composition is exquisite. This is a remake of Ozu’s 1934 silent film which is also well worth seeing. Highly recommended.