Monthly Archives: May 2021

Chinese Roulette (Chinesisches Roulette)
Directed by Ranier Werner Fassbinder
Written by Ranier Werner Fassbinder
West Germany/1976
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

“When you begin a journey of revenge, start by digging two graves: one for your enemy, and one for yourself.” ― Jodi Picoult

Fassbinder’s tale of infidelity and revenge is watchable but not on a par with his best work.

Ariane (Margit Carstensen) and Gerhard Christ are a wealthy couple with a crippled young teenage daughter named Angela, who is far from an angel.  Each tells the other they are going out of town for the weekend.  In reality, both intend to visit the Christ’s country mansion for some hanky panky with their lovers Irene Cartis (Anna Karina) and Kolbe (Ulli Lommel).  The mansion is tended to by the hard-as-nails cook Kast (Brigitte Mira) and her handyman son Gabriel Kast (Volker Spengler).  The awkward meeting of the illicit pairs occurs on their arrival.  But these are sophisticates who remain blasé about the whole thing.

When Angela learns of the plan she immediately gathers up all her dolls and sets out for the mansion herself accompanied by her mute governess Traunitz (Macha Meril).  She believes her parents’ infidelity started when she became crippled and has little use for either one of them. Angela tries and fails to seduce Gabriel and Gabriel fails to get Traunitz to agree to resumption of their previous tryst.

Angela suggests a game of Chinese Roulette after dinner.  The guests and staff are divided  into teams.  One team agrees on a person from the other team.  The other team needs to figure out who this is by asking questions such as “If the person were an animal, which animal would the person be?”  The questions and answers get increasingly probing and hurtful.  The evening does not end well.

I like Fassbinder and I liked this movie.  This is definitely not where I would start if recommending one of the director’s works though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZ4MoMvLt1c

Clip

Storm Boy
Directed by Henri Safran
Written by Sonia Borg from a novel by Colin Thiele
1976/Australia
IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube

Tom ‘Hide-Away Tom’ Kingsley: The radio will tell you you need this or that and a thousand other things. You’ll want more and more and you’ll end up chasing a lot of rubbish.

This is a beautifully shot family film about the love between a boy and his pelican.

Mike “Storm Boy” Kingsley (Greg Noble) lives with his reclusive fisherman father “Hide-Away Tom” near a wildlife refuge in South Australia.  Mike has never been to school at about age 10 and has been very little exposed to the outside world.  One day when he is taking a walk he observes hunters shooting and killing a number of white pelicans.  Later that day he meets aborigine Fingerbone (David Gulpilil) and finds with him three newly hatched orphan chicks.  These he takes home and raises.  They all grow to maturity and fly away.  The next year one, whom Mike names Mr. Percival, comes back. The two become closely bonded.

Mr. Percival turns out to be a bird of prodigious brain, especially for a pelican, and we get to witness his antics.  One of the most memorable parts of the film is when Fingerbone and Mr. Percival dance together.  Not only is Mr. Percival smart, he is also heroic.  But is he smart enough to outwit the annual visit of evil pelican hunters?

This movie has fabulous nature cinematography and good acting.  Unfortunately, I could only find it on YouTube and most of the dialogue was lost on me.  I think it was more the audio quality than the accents.  Recommended for bird lovers and as a wholesome film for the whole family.

Why in the world would anyone want to kill a pelican?  They can’t taste good with their fishy diet and I would imagine they are all muscle.  I love them so, especially the brown ones that soar over the California coast.

Logan’s Run
Directed by Michael Anderson
Written by David Zelag Goldman from a novel by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson
1976/US
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime

Box: Overwhelming, am I not?

This malthusian science-fiction film was supposed to be a blockbuster along the lines of Star Wars (1977).  Things didn’t work out as planned.

The year is 2274.  Mankind has depleted the planet of its natural resources.  The survivors of this environmental Armaggedon live in a domed city.  The inhabitants are all in their teens and 20’s and life is one round of sex, drugs, and rock and roll.  Each 30th birthday represents the Last Day of the celebrants.  People are named and dressed like their birth year cohort. Each day’s highlight is the Last Day celebration in which birthday heroes mount a Carousel that whips them around in the air and takes them somewhere above the ceiling.  The people believe that some people are terminated and others are “renewed”.  Unbelievers who flee their birthday party are known as “runners”.  They are chased down and terminated by “Sandmen”.  Our hero is Sandman Logan 5 (Michael York).

After demonstrating his effectiveness as a Sandman, Logan finds a mysterious ankh symbol.  He shows it to a computer which tells him that he must penetrate the Sanctuary where some runners have escaped and destroy it.  He is to do this in the guise of a runner.  Soon thereafter he meets Jessica 6 (Jenny Agutter) who is scantily clad throughout and they run together.  There is a romance going on at the same time.

Logan and Jessica meet up with an ice robot named Box who reveals part of the secret the two have been looking for.  Then somehow they get outside the domed city and meet up with an unnamed Old Man (Peter Ustinov) who has a bad memory and spends lots of his time reciting T.S. Eliot’s cat poems.  More stuff happens.

This was a big-budget film with state of the art special effects and did reasonably well at the box office.  I was definitely not wowed.  There is something kind of juvenile about the whole set up with its color coding etc.  The movie is not terrible but I don’t think it will last long in my memory.

Logan’s Run won a Special Achievement Oscar for its visual effects.  It was nominated in the categories of Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction – Set Decoration.

Heart of Glass (Herz aus Glas)
Directed by Werner Herzog
Written by Werner Herzog based on a screenplay and scenario by Herbert Achternbusch
1976/West Germany
IMDb page
First viewing/Fandor Channel on Amazon Prime

[on hypnosis] Herz aus Glas, yes, I did that film with the entire cast under hypnosis. And so I taught Tim Roth how to do it [in Invincible (2001)] and the funny thing was that the cinematographer was looking through the eyepiece and sitting that close and all of a sudden started to weave, and I grabbed him by the hair while the scene was still running and softly shook him. So yes, if the audience will be willing, it can be hypnotized from the screen. And that was what I actually had planned to do in “Heart of Glass”; I actually had the idea that I would appear on screen myself, and explain that I was the director and the scenes were shot under hypnosis. I have actually shown films to audiences who were hypnotized, including for example Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes (1972). — Werner Herzog

Automoton acting and a crazy story meet breathtaking cinematography and a wonderful Popol Vuh score.

The setting is a village in 18th Century Bavaria.  The village is famous for its incomparable vivid ruby glass.  Then the master glassblower dies and takes the secret recipe for the glass with him.  The whole town basically goes nuts.

Concurrently, we get pronouncements from the local prophetic shepherd.  These do not bode well for the village or the planet.

Well, if I had known this one was famous for the actors all being hypnotized I might have given it a pass.  They did seem unusually unexpressive.  The plot is all over the place and it doesn’t reach any sort of resolution.  It felt much longer than its 94 minutes.

BUT This movie contains some of the most beautiful, painterly cinematography, reminiscent of Barry Lyndon (1975), you could wish for.  The score, by Herzog regular Popol Vuh (Florian Frick), is interesting as well. I love a lot of Herzog movies but this one was, on balance, not for me.

Squirm
Directed by Jeff Lieberman
Written by Jeff Lieberman
1976/US
IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube (MST3K version)
One of 1000 Great Horror Films on They Shoot Zombies, Don’t They

Mick: It was the worms.
Sheriff: Worms?
Geri Sanders: They bite!

Even with the riff track, I found this unlikely creature feature just plain dull.

In Fly City, Georgia, a storm blows down powerlines plunging the whole town into darkness and electrocuting millions of worms underground.  These mutate into carnivorous predators.  Our teenage heroes must convince the authorities of the danger.

This has the basic plot line of every 50’s creature feature.  What it lacks is a monster or giant creature.  Instead we get worms.  Ordinary earthworms morphing from prey to predator.  I’ve never been particularly scared by worms but I learned from this very movie that I find them disgusting so the the experience was not entirely without value.  Avoid.

Mikey and Nicky
Directed by Elaine May
Written by Elaine May
1976/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Criterion Channel

Mikey: I’m not gonna stand here at one o’clock in the morning and discuss what’s gonna happen to me when I die. I mean, that mishegoss I leave to the Catholics.
[he walks off]
Nicky: Aren’t you gonna die some day? Aren’t you gonna die some day? Aren’t you gonna die some day? I just wanna know, are you gonna die some day?

This character study/thriller is something unique from Elaine May and uses two great actors to their limits.

First, I think this is a movie that is best seen knowing as little as possible about the plot.  I will not spoil the ending but may be saying more than the viewer needs to know which is really nothing.

Anyway, Nicky (John Cassavetes) has many problems:  he has an exquisitely painful stomach ulcer that threatens to rupture; he looks to be at the height of the manic phase of a bipolar disorder; and he is terrified that people are out to kill him.  The paranoia is justified since Nicky has crossed a crime boss in some unforgiveable way and is on the run.  He is also sort of a jerk who thinks it is funny to humiliate people and fun to stir up trouble.

So Nicky calls his childhood friend Mikey (Peter Falk) for help.  Nicky can’t stay in one place for long so the two spending the night careening through Philadelphia and getting into one crazy jam after another.  The two also discuss old times and relearn hard truths.  With the always effective Ned Beatty.

I liked this even better on a second viewing.  I keep getting a feeling that there’s something that should be justly criticized but no I love it unreservedly.  I love Peter Falk and this complex portrayal is one of his very best performances.  The film has the Cassavetes improvisational feel.  I have no idea what he contributed other than some equally good acting.  It’s hard to explain but the dialogue is written in such a way that it could be hilarious if the subject matter weren’t so dark.  This is not an upbeat movie but I highly recommend it.

SPOILERS

No spoilers!

Marathon Man
Directed by John Schlesinger
Written by William Goldman from his novel
1976/US
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Christian Szell: Relief…. Discomfort. Now which of these I next apply? That decision is in your hands. So… take your time… and tell me… is it safe?

Sir Laurence Olivier is the shining light in this otherwise murky thriller.

Babe Levy (Dustin Hoffman) is a graduate history student and trains for the marathon in his off hours.  He has a brother Doc Levy (Roy Scheider) whom he believes is an oil company executive.  In fact, he is a secret agent who pursues Nazi war criminals.  He has used former concentration camp dentist Dr. Christian Szell (Olivier) as an informer on other fugitives on condition of immunity.

After Christian’s brother is killed in New York in a road rage accident with a Jew, Doc spirits him from South America to the U.S.   Doc immediately starts having potentially fatal encounters with various assassins.  After his demise, all these people begin to focus on Babe who knows absolutely nothing about the back story.

Babe receives the same kind of treatment meted out to his brother ending with dental torture by the good doctor himself.  The rest of the film pits the two against each other in other arenas as well.  With William De Vane as a government agent.

The plot is convoluted or maybe I should have been paying better attention.  Anyway it’s one of those movies that doesn’t let you in on the whole plot until the very end.  In this case, the ending wasn’t a surprise and the format didn’t really let you get invested in the characters.  That’s except for bad-guy Olivier.  He’s excellent throughout and especially during the iconic dental scene.

Laurence Olivier was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar.