Monthly Archives: November 2019

Mouchette
Directed by Robert Bresson
Written by Robert Bresson from a novel by Georges Bernanos
1967/France
Argos Films/Parc Film
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] “There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.” ― Mahatma Gandhi[/box]

Sparse dialogue and beautiful images accompany the sad life of a poverty-stricken, victimized, teenage outcast.

Mouchette lives in abject poverty in the French countryside with her dying mother, alcoholic father, and an underfed howling infant.  She is the target of much scorn from her schoolmates and others.  She takes revenge by throwing mud on their clean clothes and possessions.  She has become so hardened that she cannot recognize gestures of kindness when she sees them.

One night she is stuck in the woods in the rain.  She observes a drunken poacher, Arsene, fighting with a drunken gameskeeper.  Arsene, who quite possibly has murdered the gameskeeper, takes her to a shack to dry out and then back to his cabin.  Things continue to go downhill from there.

The message of this film, if any, appears to be “life’s a bitch and then you die”.  You can’t help feeling some sympathy for Mouchette although she is a very unpleasant person with a gigantic chip on her shoulder.  This is Bresson, so the film is gorgeous to look at.  I won’t be looking at it again.

For some reason, Bresson allowed Jean-Luc Godard to “direct” this trailer which misses the whole tone of his film.

The Night of the Generals
Directed by Anatole Litvak
Written by Joseph Kessel and Paul Dehn from a novel by Hans Helmut Kirst
1967/UK/France
Horizon Pictures/Filmsonor
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Inspector Morand: But, murder is the occupation of Generals.

Major Grau: Then let us say what is admirable on the large scale is monstrous on the small. Since we must give medals to mass murderers, why not give justice to the small… entrepreneur.[/box]

Solid WWII thriller benefits from a cast of great actors.

The story starts in 1942 Warsaw where Major Grau (Omar Sharif) begins his investigation of the brutal sex murder of a Polish prostitute/German agent.  The only clue comes from a terrified witness who glimpsed the red stripe on the trousers of a German army officer leaving her flat. That red stripe signifies a general.  The three suspects are Generals Tanz (Peter O’Toole), Kahlenberge (Donald Pleasance) and General von Seidlitz-Gabler (Charles Gray).  Grau is frustrated at every turn.  At the same time, we are introduced to Corporal Hartmann (Tom Courtney) who comes from the Russian front begging for a desk job, which he gets. Hartmann begins a romance with von Seidlitz-Gabler’s rebellious daughter.

Time marches on and all these characters wind up in Occupied Paris.  Two of the Generals are involved in the plot to assassinate Hitler.  Grau seeks help from Police Inspector Morand who is also in the French resistance.  Hartmann is assigned to squire General Tanz around town.  Another murder occurs.  The story then jumps twenty years and Grau is still on the case. With Christopher Plummer in a small role as Field Marshall Rommel.

You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to guess the culprit in the first half hour.  Yet Litvak and his brilliant cast kept me engaged throughout.  It’s not necessarily something I will seek out again but it’s an entertaining way to spend a couple of hours.

Dance of the Vampires (AKA The Fearless Vampire Hunters or Pardon Me, But You’ve Got Your Teeth in My Neck)
Directed by Roman Polanski
Written by Gerard Brach and Roman Polanski
1967/UK
Cadre Films/Filmways Pictures
First viewing/Netflix rental
They Shoot Zombies Don’t They?

[box] It’s easy to direct while acting – there’s one less person to argue with. – Roman Polanski[/box]

It’s hard to make a funny horror film.  Polanski doesn’t quite succeed here.

Bat researcher Professor Abronsius (Jack McCowan) and his timid, bumbling assistant Alfred (Polanski) stop at an inn they hope is on the route to a vampire  There Alfred becomes smitten with barmaid Sarah Shagal (Sharon Tate), who is then abducted by a hideous hunchback.  They track him to the castle of Count von Krolock (Ferdy Main).

The Professor and Alfred have many horrifying adventures, which culminate in a ball for the Count and his victims.  Can Sarah be saved?

Well, I was neither scared nor really amused by this film.  It looks handsome enough though and there are a some jump cuts to get the blood racing for a few seconds.  The weakest of Polanski’s films if you ask me, which of course you didn’t.

The movie is, however, MUCH better than the American trailer!