Flickers in Time

The Elephant God (Joi Baba Felunath)
Directed by Satyajit Ray
Written by Satyajit Ray
1979/India
IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube

“Excellent!” I cried. “Elementary,” said he.” ―
Arthur Conan Doyle, The Complete Sherlock Holmes

This engaging film is the second and last of the films Satyajit Ray made about the detective Feluda, a sort of modern Indian Sherlock Holmes.  The appearance of Hindu god Ganesh, the god of overcoming and new beginnings made this timely viewing for me.

Feluda goes on holiday to the holy city of Benares together with his cousin and irritating comic relief sdekick. But once they get there, the trio find it is to be a busman’s holicay. A priceless gold and gem-incrusted figurine of the elephant god Ganesh has been stolen in the household of another friend. Feluda agrees to locate the thief and the object for a price. Many complications are to follow before the film reaches its very satisfying conclusion.

I love Ray and this movie is thoroughly enjoyable. It has wit, action, beautiful scenery, and humanity included in a detective story with plenty of twists and turns. Highly recommended.

Mansfield Park
Directed by Patricia Rozema
Written by Patricia Rozema from a novel by Jane Austin
1999/UK
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Edmund Bertram: There are as many forms of love as there are moments in time.

The late 1990s was prime time for Jane Austen adaptations. Here is an interesting one.

The Ward family had three beautiful daughters. The most beautiful of all, a complete airhead, married into the nobility becoming Lady Charles Bertram, another married a clergyman who received the parsonage on the Bertram estate and became a confirmed meddler known as Mrs. Norris. The final daughter married a sailor of low character named Price for love and produced nine children. Our heroine Fanny Price (Frances O’Connor) is the eldest of these.

Childless busybody Mrs. Norris suggests that Fanny be taken off the Prices’ hands and raised to be a gentlewoman. She grows up with the four Bertram children but is always treated as an inferior. The only one of her cousins with any sense or brains is Edmund. Fanny develops feelings for him but knows this is hopeless.

Into this milieu come dastardly scoundrels Mary and Henry Crawford, who attempt to seduce and corrupt Edmund and Fanny respectively. With Harold Pinter as Sir Thomas Bertram.

This adaptation strays fairly far afield from the novel. Here, Fanny is an aspiring writer, an obvious stand in for Jane Austen, and has quite the witty tongue unlike the humble and priggish character in the novel. The lighter tone here actually improved Austin’s most moralistic novel at least for me. I found this version much better than the 2007 TV movie.

The Great Santini
Directed by Lewis John Carlino
Written by Lewis John Carlino from a novel by Pat Conroy
1979/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Bull Meechum: I am Santini, the Great Santini.
Bull Meechum: I come from behind the moon, out of the dark, unannounced.
Bull Meechum: Watch out!

Robert Duvall plays the title character, a career Marine fighter pilot whose real name is Bull Meechum. He’s an alcoholic , loves mean jokes, and treats his family as if he is the drill sergeant and they are a bunch of grunts. He has a hot temper and can lash out with violence. His family is simultaneously proud of Bull’s accomplishments and both terrified and resentful of his many outbursts.

This is also the coming-of-age story of the family’s eldest son Ben (Michael O’Keefe). Being the first born male enormous expectations are placed on him. Can he stand up to his father and carve his own place in the world?

This is one of Robert Duvall’s greatest performances, enough to warrant a watch all by itself. I watched it last on original release and I still remembered vividly where Duvall taunts Michael O’Keefe by bouncing a basketball off his head. The whole thing is a very well-done and powerful dissection of the dysfunctional family.

Town Bloody Hall
Directed by Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker
1979/US
IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube

I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat.” Rebecca West

Normal Mailer does battle in a debate with four founding mothers of the women’s liberation movement and a hostile crowd. A good time is had by all. This film was released in 1979 but the debate it captures took place in 1971 during the heady first days of women’s liberation. Some of the rhetoric is pretty out there.

Mailer’s opponents were authors Germaine Greer, Jill Johnston and Doris Lessing, and President of the National Organization of Women Jacqueline Ceballos.

For all the heat and harsh words used at times in the conversation there were plenty of wit and laughter too. Norman Mailer held his own pretty well.