Flickers in Time

A Man and a Woman (Un homme et une femme)
Directed by Claude Lalouch
Written by Pierre Uytterhoeven
1966/France
Les Films 13
Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant

Jean-Louis Duroc: Some Sundays start well and end badly. It’s hard to believe- It’s crazy to refuse happiness. If I had to go through this again, What would I do? Is there anything else I could do? To see her for months on end as a pal. What happens? You end up being pals, maybe. She wired, ‘I love you.’ Admit it boy, you just don’t understand women.

Always a treat to see true love develop between two beautiful people accompanied by a great soundtrack.

Anne Gautier (Anouk Aimee) is a script supervisor with a young daughter.  Jean-Louis Duroc (Jean-Louis Trintignant) is a race car driver with a young son.  Both have lost a spouse. Their children attend the same boarding school and are already friends..  One Sunday, Jean-Louis offers Anne a ride home from the school.  The two hit it off immediately.

Anne seems still to be in love with her dead husband.  Gradually and tentatively, the two try to get closer.

This grown-up romance is beautiful to look at and Francis Lai’s score is iconic.  Love the actors.  It left me with a warm feeling.

I kept wondering what the constant transitions between B&W and color symbolized.  Turns out Lalouch simply couldn’t afford to shoot the whole thing in color!

A Man and a Woman won Academy Awards for Best Foreign-Language Film and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen.  It was nominated in the categories Best Director, Best Original Score and Best Original Song.

The Projected Man 
Directed by Ian Curteis and John Croydon
Written by John Croydon and Peter Bryan; story by Frank Quatrocce
UK/1966
Compton Films
First viewing/YouTube

[box] Tagline: Born a Man…Turned Into a Living Laser Beam By Science’s Most Gruesome Experiment![/box]

This movie has a many things in common with The Fly (1958).  Quality is not among them.

Scientists are experimenting with transmitting matter through space by means of laser beams.  The process works well on inanimate objects but there are a few glitches in transmitting living things.  The sinister head of the institute is trying to halt the experiments, discredit the scientist, and secretly sell the research to an unseen figure.  Dr. Paul Steiner, chief scientist, decides he will prove his process works by transmitting himself his boss’s dining room.  This works just about as well as could be expected. We get a love triangle for good measure.

This one got the MST3K treatment and the riff track provides some laughs.  Unfortunately, the original is just tedious.

Billy the Kid Versus Dracula
Directed by William Beaudine
Written by Carl K. Hittleman
1966/USA
Circle Productions Inc.
First viewing/Amazon Prime

[box] William ‘Billy the Kid’ Bonney: What’s wrong with her, Doc? What are those marks on her neck?

Dr. Henrietta Hull: Well, if I didn’t know better, I’d say it was the work of a vampire.

William ‘Billy the Kid’ Bonney: Vampire?[/box]

I just had to watch the companion piece to Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter (1966).

Billy the Kid has gone straight.  His sweetheart Elizabeth is waiting for the arrival of her Uncle James, whom she has never met.  Unbeknownst to her, a vampire (John Carradine) has assumed the identity of her uncle and has settled on Elizabeth as his undead bride.  Billy must save the day.

John Carradine was like the Energizer Bunny – he just kept going and going.  Here he plays history’s least sexy vampire.  He’s by far the best part of the movie – not to say that he’s very good.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Directed by Richard Lester
Written by Melvin Frank and Michael Pertwee from the book to the Broadway musical and an ancient play by Titus Maccias Plautus
1966/USA
Melvin Frank Production
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Tragedy tomorrow/Comedy tonight! – lyrics by Stephen Sondheim[/box]

Add Stephen Sondheim’s songs to some of the greatest comic actors ever and a good time will be had by all.

The story is based on an actual Roman comedy.  Pseudolus (Zero Mostel), a crafty slave, plots to gain his freedom from young master Hero (Michael Crawford) by uniting him with Philia, a beautiful virgin courtesan under the protection of a brothel owned by Marcus Lycus (Phil Silvers).  Complications arise as Philia is already promised as the bride of a blowhard Roman officer.  In addition, Hero’s own father (Michael Hordern)) lusts after the girl himself.  Appearing at intervals is Erroneus (Buster Keaton) as an old man searching for his missing children.  With Jack Gilford as a supposed eunuch.

Nobody is going to accuse this musical of being the best ever made. but it is fun, the colors are bright, and the music is good.  It was a very welcome diversion from the epics and misery fests that have been clogging 1966 lately.

But even without all that, I could not possibly leave Buster Keaton’s last film unseen.  He died during post-production.  I feel sad to be continuing this journey without him.

Violence at Noon (Hakuchu no torima)
Directed by Nagasa Oshima
Written by Tsutomu Tomura from a novel by Taijun Takeda
1966/Japan
Sozosha
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] My hatred for Japanese cinema includes absolutely all of it. – Nagasa Oshima[/box]

Director Oshima’s favorite theme is the intersection of sex, violence and death.  Despite the buckets of style applied,  this is not a junction at which I want to spend much time.

The story moves back and forth between flashback and current time at regular intervals.  The film begins with the rape of a servant girl in a wealthy home and the subsequent rape and murder of her mistress.  The fits the MO of the “High Noon Killer” and the servant girl could certainly identify him if she wanted to.  Problem is she has a complicated past with the killer and his wife.  We then learn, in flashback, about the love quadrangle that set the events in motion.  It, too, features a rape.

I have discovered that Japanese films of this era love to portray rape as something that creates some kind of emotional bond between the rapist and the victim.  I’d love to know if anyone else sees that.  At any rate, I can appreciate the inventive compositions and cinematography without liking the movie much.

Young Törless (Der junge Törless)
Directed by Volker Schlöndorff
Written by Herbert Asmadi and Volker Schlöndorff from a novel by Robert Musil
1966/West Germany/France
Franz Seitz Filmproduktion/Nouvelles Editions de Films
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Thomas Törless: There’s no mystery there. Things just happen. Anything’s possible. There’s not an evil world and a good world. They exist together in the same world.[/box]

I knew going in that I did not want to watch a movie about torture at a boarding school and got exactly what I deserved.

Thomas Törless (Mathieu Carriere) is a cerebral young man who is the latest arrival at a German boarding school.  He is befriended by students Beineberg and Reiting.  Another student, Basini, steals money from one to pay a debt owed to another.  Instead of reporting the incident to school authorities, the boys devise their own punishment.  This comprises escalating forms of torture and humiliation.  Basini goes along in the mistaken belief that he will eventually be let alone.  Thomas passively looks on in a futile effort to understand human behavior.  With Barbara Steele as a prostitute.

If you are not as squeamish as I, there is an interesting analogy to Nazi Germany to explore here and lots of philosophical talk.

Couldn’t find anything with subtitles, so here’s this