Monthly Archives: September 2018

Baby the Rain Must Fall (1962)

Posted on September 4, 2018 | Leave a comment

Baby the Rain Must Fall
Directed by Robert Mulligan
Written by Horton Foote from his play
1965/USA
Solar Productions/Park Place Production
First viewing/YouTube

Henry Thomas: [yelling a couple feet away from Miss Kates bedroom door] I’M NOT GOING TO QUIT MY MUSIC! YOU HEAR THAT OLD LADY?… I’m not going to quit MUSIC!

OK 60’s movie about a singer who is a real rebel without a cause.

Henry Thomas (Steve McQueen) is a singer/songwriter who performs at honkey tonks. As the movie begins, he is just back to work after being released from prison on parole from a stabbing conviction. His life is run by his abusive former caretaker who is convinced he is no good. She apparently has the power to send him back to prison if he does not do what she wants. She wants him to give up his music and go to vocational school to learn a useful trade.

Henry’s wife Georgette (Lee Remick) shows up with their six-year-old daughter for a reunion. Nobody is even aware of her existence. But somehow Henry and Georgette build a new life together. Henry’s temper is going to keep him in constant trouble, however.

This is quite OK. I like Lee Remick and she was the main reason to watch for me. McQueen is playing against type and it is not something he excels at. His singing is dubbed by someone with a very different vocal quality. It’s kind of a basic 60’s psycho drama about a guy who had a bad childhood.

Alphaville (1965)

Posted on September 3, 2018 | 8 comments

Alphaville (Alphaville, une etrange aventure de Lemmy Caution)
Directed by Jean-Luc Godard
Written by Jean-Luc Godard
1965/France/Italy
Andre Michelin Productions/Filmstudio/Chaumiane
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Alpha 60: Once we know the number one, we believe that we know the number two, because one plus one equals two. We forget that first we must know the meaning of plus.[/box]

Second viewing confirmed my opinion that Godard is just too full of himself for me.

The story takes place some time in the future in a city called Alphaville that is run by the Alpha 60 computer and logic. Alphaville looks exactly like the seedier side of 1965 Paris. Our hero secret agent Lemmy Caution (AKA Ivan Johnson) (Eddie Constantine) arrives from the Outlands (New York) on a mission to bring back Professor Leonard Nosferatu Von Braun, who controls the computer, dead or alive.

First he meets Von Braun’s daughter Natasha (Anna Karina) who has been assigned to accompany him on his travels through Alphaville. Then he meets with fellow secret agent Henri Dickson (Akim Tamiroff) who is on the verge of either suicide or murder.

Lemmy and Natasha fall in love – an emotion that is unknown and forbidden in Alphaville. The bulk of the movie is occupied by cool looking strangeness and pretentious philosophy.

Godard reminds me of a precocious teenager who thinks it is brilliant to just stuff every random idea that comes into his head, no matter how obvious or inane, into his movies. My readers are already sick of hearing about what I think about that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WKC0o53VKU

Restoration trailer

8 Comments

Posted in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, 1965

Morituri (1965)

Posted on September 2, 2018 | Leave a comment

Morituri
Directed by Bernhard Wicki
Written by Daniel Taradash from a novel by Werner Jorge Luddecke
1965/USA
Arcola Pictures/Colony Productions
First viewing/YouTube

[box] Robert Crain: I was blackmailed to the strains of Mozart.[/box]

With this title it could be an African safari movie. Instead, it’s a WWII thriller with excellent performances by a stellar cast and plenty of action.

“Robert Crain” (Marlon Brando) is a German ship’s engineer who is hiding out in India under a false British passport. Thoroughly apolitical, he just wants to sit out the war in peace. A British colonel (Trevor Howard) is on to his ruse and blackmails him to accomplish what looks like mission impossible. He is to board a German ship taking a precious cargo of rubber from Tokyo to France (!) and sabotage the ship so that it cannot be scuttled when it is captured by the American Navy.

Fate works in Crain’s favor. The ship’s commander Captain Muller (Yul Brynner) is in disgrace for losing his previous ship to a torpedo while drunk and this is used against him to force him to take a number of prisoners on board as crew. So when Crain boards the ship, Muller immediately assumes he is an SS agent. This gives Crain an unexpected entree to work his will on various members of the crew. There is also a remarkable number of Nazi-haters aboard. With Wally Cox in a nice supporting role as a morphine-addicted doctor.

The plot bears very little scrutiny. The confluence of events here really makes no sense at all. On the other hand, it gives Wicki a chance to do some effective action sequences and highlights a couple of excellent performances by Brando and Brynner. I thought it was 20-30 minutes too long.

Morituri was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Cinematography, Black-and-White and Best Costume Design, Black-and-White.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnNj-mAbQ6I

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1964)

Posted on September 1, 2018 | 2 comments

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (Tini zabutyck predkiv)
Directed by Sergei Parajanov
Written by Ivan Chendej and Sergei Parajanov from a novel by Mikhaylo Kotsyubinsky
1964/USSR
Dovzhenko Film Studios
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Our history begins before we are born. We represent the hereditary influences of our race, and our ancestors virtually live in us. James Nasmyth [/box]

Amazing cinematography and imagery of a totally alien (to me) culture highlight a one-of-a-kind film.

The story illustrates the ancient customs of the Hutsul people of Ukraine through the life of one man, Ivan. As a boy, his sole surviving brother loses his life protecting Ivan from a falling tree. At the funeral, evil Yurko kills Ivan’s father. Young Ivan meets Yurko’s daughter Marichka. Playmates become lovers but their Romeo and Juliet affair is ended by tragedy.

Ivan wanders grief-stricken and lost for quite some time but eventually marries the seductive Palagna. He is still in love with Marichka however and their union bears no children. In a bid to win Ivan completely, Palagna consults Yurko, who is a sorcreer. She begins an affair with him …

This movie is a complete visual and sonic feast. It is surreal yet hyper-detailed. One niggle is that the plot is more or less a vehicle for showing wedding, funeral, Christmas, church, etc. customs, folkdress, etc., etc. I thought it dragged by the end though it may be that I was just suffering sensory overload. Definitely a must-see however.