Category Archives: FilmStruck Binge

A Mighty Wind
Directed by Christopher Guest
Written by Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy
2003/USA
Castle Rock Entertainment
First viewing/FilmStruck

[box] Laurie Bohner: I learned to play the ukulele in one of my last films, “Not-So-Tiny Tim”.[/box]

Christopher Guest’s mocumentaries crack me up!

A music promoter who sparked the folk revival in the 60’s has died and his son decides to stage a tribute in memoriam.  So the groups are gathered from whatever supermarket openings they are now playing at.  The tribute concert prompts the performers to resurrect all the fights still unresolved from 40 years ago.

Well if you’ve seen any of these things you will know you are in for every outrageous situation it is possible to cram into the story.  In the meantime, the dialogue is priceless especially coming from Fred Willard (below).

The humor in these is right on my wavelength.  I can watch again and again and pick up a new gag hiding in the wings.  Give it a try. I can also recommend Guest’s Best in Show (2000)

War and Peace (Voyna i mir)
Directed by Sergei Bandarchuk
Written by Sergei Bandarchuk and Vasiliy Solovyov
1966/USA
Mosflim
Repeat viewing/FilmStruck

[box] “Everything I know, I know because of love.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace[/box]

This eight-hour, four-film epic is perhaps the most comprehensive version of Tolstoy’s great sprawling novel.  What it lacks in sophistication it makes up for in grandeur.

The novel is set during the Napoleon Wars, approx. 1805 to 1812.  The Rostovs are a very loving aristocratic family who live in Moscow.  Lively daughter Natalia/Natasha falls in love with Prince Andrei Bolkonsky after the death of his wife in childbirth.  She is very young and so the couple agree to wait a year before announcing their engagement.  Natasha is too immature for this arrangement and impulsively runs off with a cad.  She is rescued from disgrace but the marriage is off.

Pierre Bezukhov (Bandarchuk) is the illegitimate son of a wealthy Count.  Before he dies, the count recognizes his paternity, leaving Pierre one of the wealthiest men in Russia. Pierre is socially awkward and is easily exploited by a fickle beauty who wants him for his money.

Natasha serves a period of penance before the horrors of war coincidentally reunite her with Bolkonsky. She nurses him as he dies of a wound suffered during the battle of Borodino.  The fortunes of all decline as the French invade Moscow which has been strategically surrendered.

The Soviets surely understood Tolstoy and the tone and acting are impeccable.  The film reaches deep into the novel.  For example, Tolstoy does a sequence where he gets into the mind of a wolf being hunted.  This is captured in the film but is filmed in what I found to be an off-putting arty way.  The battle scenes are excellent but also sometimes subject to that self-consciously arty style that didn’t work for me.  Nonetheless recommended for lovers of the novel.

War and Peace won the 1968 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film.  It was nominated in the category of Best Art Direction-Set Decoration.

Clip

The Other Side of Hope (Toivon tuolla puolen)
Directed by Äki Kaurismäki
Written by Äki Kaurismäki
2017/Finland/Germany
Sputnik/Oy Bufo Ab/Zweites Deutsches Fernhesen
First viewing/FilmStruck

[box] Khaled: Listen. I fell in love with Finland.[/box]

Äki Kaurismäki’s “final film” is a fitting swan song combining pathos, humor and masterful use of the color blue.

Khaled’s home was destroyed by unknown forces in the Syrian city of Aleppo.  Since then he has been looking for a home in Europe.  After many setbacks, he arrives in Helsinki, Finland and finally officially applies for asylum.  But this is isn’t the only thing on his mind. He became separated from his sister en route and is anxiously searching for her.

Waldemar Wickstrom is a traveling salesman who wins big in a poker game and decides to buy a restaurant.  The restaurant comes with its disgruntled employees.  Waldemar finds Khaled homeless near a dumpster and gives him a job as a bus boy.

These oddballs eventually form a very eccentric but loving family as Khaled tries to stay one step ahead of the law.

This has been advertised as Kaurismäki’s final film.  I’m hoping that’s a bad joke.  He’s only 61 and keeps getting better!  Sometime I’m going to figure out how his actors manage to keep absolutely deadpan expressions while at the same time you know exactly what they are thinking.  This is another very beautiful, funny, and humane story.  If life were only like that for refugees.

Shadows in Paradise (Varjoja paratiisissa)
Directed by Äki Kaurismäki
Written by Äki Kaurismäki
1986/Finland
Villealfa Filmproduction Oy
First viewing/FilmStruck

[box] Co-worker: I’ve got a slogan already: “Reliable garbage disposal since 1986.”

Nikander: But that’s now.

Co-worker: That’s why it catches the eye.[/box]

I love the films of Äki Kaurismäki,  Here’s a pretty good early one.

Nikander (Kaurismäki regular Matti Pellonen) is a garbage collector.  Early on in the movie, his partner dies.  Nikander meets a down-and-outer and soon gets him a job as a replacement.  Ilona Rajamäki (the great Kati Outinen) is a rather despondent grocery clerk. Nikander begins a lackadaisical courtship which doesn’t get off to a great start when he takes her on a first date to a dingy bingo parlor.

After losing one job too many, Ilona decides on drastic action and Nikander helps her make a get away.

Kaurismäki specializes in working men and women, and especially the down-and-out.  His beautiful, skillful use of color, composition and music raise the often ridiculous situations to something rich and strange.  Think of Ozu crossed with Jim Jarmusch.  Helsinki, a city with which I have a long acquaintance and special affection, is captured from a quirky angle that makes it seem extra special.  This was the director’s third film.  I urge all movie lovers to try at least one of them.

Clips with extraneous music

Monterey Pop
Directed by D.A. Pennebaker
1968/USA
Leacock Pennebaker Productions
Repeat viewing/FilmStruck

[box] Female Fan #2: Like, you kind of have to wait for a new wave to come and then a whole new set of rock-n-roll bands comes along with it. [/box]

There were many pop music legends at the absolute peak of their careers in 1967.  This film documents some amazing performances they put in over three days at the Monterey Pop Festival.

The documentary features fantastic performances by The Mamas & the Papas, Canned Heat, Simon & Garfunkel, Hugh Masekela, Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Janis Joplin, Eric Burdon and the Animals, The Who, and Country Joe and the Fish.  They culminate on the Sunday with three absolutely phenomenal sets by Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix and Ravi Shankar.  The mind-blowingly great sitar music makes an interesting counterpoint to the other acts.  There is no narration whatever.

Obviously I love this movie.  The performances are sublime.  I also was very curious to see the audience.  This may have been the last pop/rock concert where people largely sat in their seats and listened politely to the music.  Pennebaker captures the atmosphere effectively.  Highly recommended to music fans.