Category Archives: 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Black Orpheus (Orfeo Negro)
Directed by Marcel Camus
Written by Marcel Camus and Jacques Viot from a play by Vinicius de Moraes
1959/Brazil/France/Italy
Dispat Films/Gemma/Tupan Films
First viewing/Netflix rental
#360 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] [last lines] Young Girl: [to Zeca] Play a song for me, please. Come on.[/box]

With music, color, and carnival who needs acting?

The story is loosely based on the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.  In legend, Orpheus, the son of the god Apollo and the muse of music Calliope, fell in love with the beautiful mortal Euridyce.  They married but she died shortly thereafter.  Touched by Orpheus’ sorrowful playing on his lyre, Zeus allowed Orpheus to seek his wife in Hades.  She would be allowed to follow him back to the land of the living on the condition that Orpheus not look at her until she returned to the light.  Orpheus could not resist temptation at the last minute and Euridyce vanished.  He was reunited with her only in the underworld.

The film takes place in the favelas above Rio de Janeiro and in its streets at Carnival. Orfeo, the leader of one of the carnival groups, plays the guitar and sings so beautifully that he is said to cause the sun to rise.  Mira, his girlfriend, as managed to cajole him into taking out a marriage license.  But when Orfeo spots Euridyce, a naive girl from the country who is escaping a man who was trying to kill her, it is love at first sight.  They enjoy a beautiful romance and carnival together but Euridyce is constantly in danger from a man in a skeleton costume.

Rio gets my vote for the most scenically beautiful city on the face of this Earth and the film is jam-packed with vistas taken from the slums overlooking its harbor.  It is a riot of color as well, emanating from daily life, carnival and Candomble ritual .  The music is a fantastic blend of sambas and bossa nova.  The acting is stiff and the characters are superficial but it hardly detracts from the pleasure of being in Brazil for a couple of hours. Recommended.

Black Orpheus won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

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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.

Why I love Ozu and this movie in a nutshell – HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

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Ride Lonesome
Directed by Budd Boetticher
Written by Burt Kennedy
1959/USA
Columbia Pictures Corporation/Ranown Pictures Corp.
First viewing/Netflix rental
#359 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Sam Boone: There are some things a man just can’t ride around.[/box]

I have really enjoyed working my way through the Budd Boetticher-Randolph Scott Westerns.  This one didn’t disappoint.

As the movie begins, Ben Brigade (Scott) captures Billy John, a man with a price on his head and a hanging in his future.  He is taken prisoner but warns that his brother Frank (Lee Van Cleef) will free him and kill Brigade before they reach their destination.

On the way, Sam Boone (Pernell Roberts) and his sidekick Whit (James Coburn in his film debut) catch up to the pair.  Sam wants Billy John because there is also a promise of amnesty to the man who brings him in.  Brigade has no intention of giving his captive up but allows Sam and Whit to tag along.  They may come in handy if Frank appears. Completing the party is Mrs. Carrie Lane, who has recently been widowed by some Indians.

This is another in the line of Randolph Scott’s righteous, strong, silent loners.  This one is bent on vengeance as well.  Boetticher always keeps his Westerns very tight and his imagery striking.  He may err a little on the side of too much economy this time as I felt the very end wasn’t well prepared for in terms of character development.  Recommended to any Western lover.

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Shadows
Directed by John Cassavettes
Written by John Cassavettes
1959/USA
Lion International
First viewing/FilmStruck
#363 of 1001 Films You Must See Before You Die

[box] Tony: I need the key for 042!

David: You can’t get it, Elaine’s not in.

Rupert: Where is she?

David: She’s dealing with the raccoons, man.[/box]

John Cassavettes keeps it real in his debut film.  His later films would be more polished but the emotions remain just as raw.

The film focuses on twenty-something siblings, two brothers and a sister, who are struggling to find their way in life.  The two brothers are jazz musicians and their little sister seems to be at loose ends.  We concentrate on a few days of their lives in New York City.  These are filled with parties and fights, some verbal and some physical.

The film was based on an actor’s workshop improvisation in which a white swinger seduces the sister only to discover that she is both black and a virgin.  For me, the highlights of the film were the seduction scene, the minutes after consummation of the conquest, and the sister’s date with a black man thereafter.  All seemed as messy as real life and as moving.

This shows what can happen when a filmmaker ditches both the Hayes Code and Hollywood conventions.  The improvisational nature of the film was part of its charm and freshness but also means some of the acting seems a bit stilted and forced as the actors search for words.  Later films would refine the improvisational technique and employ more experienced actors.  Recommended.

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Rio Bravo
Directed by Howard Hawks
Written by Jules Furthman and Leigh Brackett from a short story B.H. McCampbell
1959/USA
Warner Bros./Armada Productions
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
#365 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Pat Wheeler: A game-legged old man and a drunk. That’s all you got?

John T. Chance: That’s WHAT I got.[/box]

Howard Hawks liked this story so much he remade it only seven years later as El Dorado. This original is still the best.

John T. Chance is sheriff of a Texas town in the Old West.  The citizenry is menaced by the Burdette brothers and their gang.  Finally Joe Burdette (Claude Akins), the meaner of the brothers, commits cold-blooded murder in front of Chance and is locked in jail.  The gang is still at large and Chance knows that brother Nathan will go to any lengths to free Joe.  He can rely only on his friends Dude (Dean Martin), who has elected to go into alcohol withdrawal especially for the occasion, and Stumpy (Walter Brennan), a gimpy old man.

Chance’s friend Pat Wheeler (Ward Bond) suggests he needs more help but Chance wants only pros.  The only real prospect is Colorado (Ricky Nelson), a young hot shot.  Colorado isn’t interested though, at least not until the gang kills his mentor.  On the margins of the central drama, a lady gambler named ‘Feathers’ (Angie Dickinson) is falling for our hero.

According to the commentary, this was Hawks and Wayne’s response to High Noon, which the co-conservatives felt was “phony”.  To their minds no sheriff worth his salt would spend his time begging for help from amateur citizens.  The Feathers-Chance relationship has a lot in common with Hawks’s To Have and Have Not.

This is not the world’s most innovative Western but it is entertaining throughout its almost 2 1/2 hour running time.  Dickinson is a lot of fun to watch.

Rio Bravo was Ward Bond’s final feature film.  He continued to star on TV’s “The Wagon Master”.

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North by Northwest
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Written by Ernest Lehman
1959/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
#355 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Man at Prairie Crossing: That’s funny, that plane’s dustin’ crops where there ain’t no crops.[/box]

I defy anyone to watch this movie and not be thoroughly entertained.

Ad man Roger Thornhill’s (Cary Grant) problems begin innocently enough.  He is lunching in the New York Plaza when he decides to send a telegram to his mother.  Unfortunately, he calls an attendant over immediately after George Kaplan is paged.  George Kaplan happens to be a secret agent and Roger’s life is immediately in grave danger.  He is kidnapped by a couple of thugs and brought to a country estate.  There he meets a cultivated yet sinister gentleman who is later revealed to be Philip Van Damme (James Mason).

Roger’s demise is promptly ordered but he miraculously escapes only to promptly become wanted for killing a man.

Roger escapes that predicament by train, hounded now by both the bad guys and the police.  There a beautiful blonde by the name of Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint) introduces herself, seduces him and offers her assistance.  Her “assistance” is a two-edged sword as the chase continues.  With Martin Landau as a henchman and Leo G. Carroll as a spy.

Here’s another one that just never gets old.  It is Hitchcock’s best on the “wrong man” theme – a perfect mixture of suspense, action, laughs and romance.  The dialogue sparkle, the performances are all spot on and there is no doubt this was put together and shot by a Master.  Highly recommended.

I always confuse the bizarre seduction sequence on the train with Janet Leigh seducing Frank Sinatra under similar circumstances in The Manchurian Candidate.  The difference is that this one comes to make sense later in the film.

North by Northwest was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Writing,  Story and Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color; and Best Film Editing.

Nifty fan trailer

Some Like It Hot
Directed by Billy Wilder
Written by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond
1959/USA
Ashton Productions/The Mirisch Productions
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
#354 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Sugar: Real diamonds! They must be worth their weight in gold![/box]

I have this movie practically memorized and it still seems like the first time every time. That’s my definition of a classic.

It is Roaring Twenties Chicago.  Joe (Tony Curtis) and Jerry (Jack Lemmon) are buddies and play bass and sax respectively for jazz bands.  The speakeasy where they are working is raided, leaving them dead broke.  The only work being offered at the time is with an all-girl band.  When they inadvertently witness the St. Valentine’s Day massacre, this option begins to look very good.  The bad guys are on their trail and a three-week stint in Florida seems like just the ticket.  So the boys dress up as Josephine (Curtis) and Daphne (Lemmon).  When the guys get a look at the band’s singer, Sugar Kane (Marilyn Monroe), they feel like they have been dropped into a pot of honey.

The movie follows the guys’ comic romances as both attempt to woo Sugar amid the continued threat of the gangsters.  Daphne finds love, or at least security, from an unexpected source.  With George Raft as the head of the mob and Joe E. Brown as a dirty old millionaire,

Okay, so what makes this a perfect movie?  Well, there are no dead spots in two hours of running time.  The one-liners come so fast and furious that if you don’t find one gag funny there is one seconds later that you surely will.  The leads are fabulous. The men manage to carry off the drag while still seeming masculine and Monroe is as luscious as a ripe peach.  Lemmon was an inspired clown and got robbed at Oscar time.  Curtis manages to combine romance, sex appeal, and fun in one package.  I unreservedly love and recommend this movie.

The Blu-Ray contains a good commentary by screenwriter Diamond’s son and a screenwriting team that has drawn inspiration from the film.

Some Like It Hot won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design, Black and White.  It was nominated in the categories of Best Actor (Lemmon); Best Director; Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium; Best Cinematography, Black-and-White; and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black and White.

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Hiroshima mon amour
Directed by Alain Resnais
Written by Marguerite Duras
1959/France/Japan
Argos Films/Como Films/Daiei Studios/Pathe Entertainment
First viewing/Netflix rental
#358 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Elle: Like you, I have fought with all my might not to forget. Like you, I have forgotten.[/box]

Alain Resnais’ debut feature is an exquisite meditation on loss and memory.

The setting is 1958 Hiroshima.  The characters are known only as Elle (She) (Emanuelle Rivas) and Lui (He) (Eiji Okada).  She is in town to act in an international peace film.  She has a husband and children in Paris.  He has a wife on vacation.  They meet and enjoy a night of unexpected bliss.  He thinks he loves her and wants her to stay.

The intensity of their love and desire awakens long suppressed memories of her first love. During the war, the eighteen-year-old had a passionate romance with a German soldier in her hometown of Nevers.  As the war ended, he was killed and she was publicly shamed for consorting with the enemy.  The affair and the setting provide a catalyst for her to come to terms with her pain.

This movie is a visual and auditory feast.  The images and score have perhaps more impact than the words.

Yet it is also a thought-provoking.  Resnais was asked to make a film about Hiroshima but the tragedy was too big to grasp in mere celluloid.  Instead we focus on a personal tragedy.  Coupled with the setting, the story gets us closer to the grief and loss brought about by the bomb and more globally.  Rivas is fantastic, both as the modern woman and as the young girl in the many flashbacks.  Recommended.

Restoration trailer

Cairo Station (Bab el Hadid)
Directed by Youssef Chahine
Written by Mohamed Abu Youssef and Abdel Hai Adib
1958/Egypt
First viewing/YouTube
#349 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] “My fault, my failure, is not in the passions I have, but in my lack of control of them.” ― Jack Kerouac[/box]

I didn’t know what to expect but it was not a psycho killer plopped down into the middle of a comedy.

Qinawi is a poor cripple.  A kiosk owner took pity on him and hired him to hawk newspapers.  Qinawi’s infirmity has given an him a foot fetish and an obsession with beautiful girls.  Lately his obsession has fixated on Hanuma, a saucy girl who illegally peddles soft drinks.  She is engaged to a union organizer.

Hanuma rebuffs all of Qinawi’s many advances and marriage proposals.  Finally, he becomes unglued and hatches a plan to prevent anyone else from having her.

The first thing that struck me about this movie was its very odd tone.  It reminded me a lot of a Bollywood film with no singing and much more undress on the part of its ladies.  I was getting ready for an adventure/comedy but after a lot of lighthearted teasing and shenanigans, things get very, very dark.  I was not surprised to learn that this was banned in its native Egypt for twelve years.  I can’t say I was crazy about the film but I won’t forget it any time soon.

Fan (?) Trailer

The Defiant Ones
Directed by Stanley Kramer
Written by Nedrick Young and Harold Jacob Smith
1958/USA
Curtleigh Productions/Stanley Kramer Productions
Repeat viewing/My DVD collection
#345 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Law officier: How come they chained a white man to a black?

Sheriff Max Muller: The warden’s got a sense of humor.[/box]

Chained prisoners serve as a metaphor for race relations in the United States.  Fortunately, it’s a well-made, well-acted metaphor.

Prisoners are being transferred back to jail from their work on a chain gang.  The police van runs off the road, allowing Johnny ‘Joker’ Jackson (Tony Curtis) and Noah Cullen (Sidney Portier) to escape.  Problem is they are burdened by both their chains and racial animosity and distrust.  They will have to find a way to work together to reach freedom. Meanwhile, the local sheriff (Theodore Bickel) has problems controlling his team, many of whom would just as soon set the Dobermans on the convicts when and if they are found.

The story follows the adventures of the escapees as they slog through rough terrain.  Will their budding friendship and a little outside help save them?  With Cara Williams as a lonely single mother.

This could be obvious and just terrible in the wrong hands.  Fortunately, the writing is strong and the direction is taut.  Mostly, though, the film is carried by the outstanding performances of its leads.  Portier and Curtis make their characters much more than symbols of their races.  We are made to root for them while having a nagging suspicion that the Hayes Code will have its way in the end.

The Defiant Ones won the Academy Awards for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White.  It was nominated in the categories of Best Picture; Best Actor (Portier); Best Actor (Curtis); Best Supporting Actor (Bickel); Best Supporting Actress (Williams); Best Director; and Best Film Editing.

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