Monthly Archives: February 2016

The Mad Masters (Les maîtres fou)
Directed by Jean Rouch
Les Films de la Pleiade
First viewing/YouTube

[box] Personally, I am violently opposed to film crews…. The ethnologist alone, in my mind, is the one who knows when, where, and how to film, i.e. to do the production. Finally, and this is doubtless the decisive argument, the ethnologist should spend quite a long time in the field before undertaking the least bit of film making. This period of reflection, of learning, of mutual understanding might be extremely long, but such a stay is incompatible with the schedules and salaries of a team of technicians. — Jean Rouch[/box]

The best thing about this documentary is that it lasts only 25 minutes.  I found it very distressing.

Documentary filmmaker Jean Rouch takes his camera to Accra, Ghana where we see Africans laboring in the busy city to support “colonial oppression”.  Some of these men gather every day at noon.  On the weekends they transition from modern workers to become Haukas.

The men have constructed their version of the white colonial world with a makeshift governor’s palace and idol of the governor.  The ritual consists of going into a frenzied trance in which their bodies are occupied by caricature versions of the colonial powers such as the governor, a doctor, his wife etc.  During the trance, the men foam at the mouth and stagger around.  They begin to mutilate themselves.  The high point is the sacrifice and consumption of a dog.  Yuck.

I am nothing if not a completist and I found this 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die film on YouTube.  I wish I had died before I saw it.  When I watch things like this I can’t help suspecting that the filmmaker is somehow egging the subjects on. I’m also not quite sure about the political construct Rouch has overlaid the film with.

All That Heaven Allows
Directed by Douglas Sirk
Written by Peg Fenwick; story by Edna L. Lee and Harry Lee
1955/USA
Universal International
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
#314 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Kay Scott: Personally, I’ve never subscribed to that old Egyptian custom….of walling up the widow alive in the funeral chambers of her dead husband along with his other possessions. The theory being that she was a possession too. She was supposed to journey into dead with him. The community saw to it. Of course it doesn’t happen anymore.

Cary Scott: Doesn’t it? [/box]

Douglas Sirk’s critique of 50’s middle-class morality features eye-popping visual storytelling.

Cary Scott (Jane Wyman) is in early middle age, a widow, and the mother of two young adult children who no longer live at home.  Since her husband’s death, her life has been restricted to country club functions and the tepid courtship of a stolid older man who is always complaining about his aiilments.  She puts on a brave face but you can tell her life is just about killing her.  She confides in her best friend Sara (Agnes Moorehead) who does not seem to understand.

One day, as Sara has stood up Cary for a lunch date, hunky younger gardener Ron Kirby (Rock Hudson) materializes to take her friend’s place.  They immediately hit it off and eventually Ron asks Cary out to his place in the woods to see the trees he is growing. After a few minutes of hesitation, she agrees.  She is soon impressed and a bit frightened by Ron’s Waldenesque unconventional way of life.  Before too long they are in love and Ron asks her to marry him.  She waveringly accepts.

Cary is unprepared for the scandalized reaction of the country club set and, more particularly, her own children.  People object to Ron for both his age and his social standing.  There is a veiled assumption that Ron is after Cary’s money and some murmuring that the relationship must have pre-dated the death of Cary’s husband.  Will Cary have the backbone to go to the altar?

On this viewing of the film, what hit me hardest was Sirk’s barely hidden challenge to the assumption that there is something wrong and even “bad” about a woman of a certain age having sexual needs or desires.  Cary’s old escort is not a threat in this regard.  And by the end of the film even Ron has been rendered “safe”.  The irony is palpable.

The color scheme is vivid and underscores the film’s themes.  Cary is in greys throughout except during the country club scene where she wears a red-dress and becomes the unwilling target of a drunken married lech.  The composition reveals the claustrophobia of Cary’s existence.  The TV set sequence is just brilliant and really does not require words.  The years have provided the film with a feminist subtext that belies its sudsy exterior.  All That Heaven Allows is melodrama for sure but I feel less teary than angry when I watch it.  Recommended.

Trailer

Marty
Directed by Delbert Mann
Written by Paddy Chayevsky
1955/USA
Hecht-Lancaster Productions
Repeat viewing/Netflix rentaL
#291 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Marty Pilletti: Listen Angie, I been looking for a girl every Saturday night of my life. I’m 34 years old. I’m just tired of looking, that’s all. I like to find a girl. Everybody’s always telling me get married, get married, get married. Don’t you think I wanna get married? I wanna get married. Everybody drives me crazy.[/box]

The ending makes me cry every time.

Marty (Ernest Borgnine) is a good-natured butcher who still lives with his mother into his thirties.  All his many brothers and sisters are married.  His mother is forever nagging him to meet a girl and his man friends always want him to join them in their sexual escapades. The problem that he is not particularly good-looking and is awkward around women.  His life has made him a “professor of pain”.

Then one night, he goes to a local dance hall and rescues a Clara (Betsy Blair), an equally shy girl who has been dumped by her blind date.  Marty finds he can talk up a storm around her and enjoys her company.

However, as soon as he thinks he has found his match, his mother and man friends start getting very nervous.  And poor Marty does not have much of a record of standing up for himself.

A lot of this film is almost painful for me. People are certainly cruel.  I am so glad not to be out there in the dating world!  However, I love the movie any way for the performances and for the human story.  Borgnine reveals depths he did not show often before or after this picture.  Recommended.

Marty won Academy Awards in the categories of Best Picture; Best Actor; Best Director; and Best Writing, Screenplay.  It was nominated in the categories of Best Supporting Actor (Mantell); Best Supporting Actress (Blair); Best Cinematography, Black-and-White; and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black and White.

Trailer

Pather Panchali
Directed by Satyajit Ray
Written by Satyajit Ray from a novel by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay
1955/India
Government of West Bengal
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
#297 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Durga: We’ll go see the train when I’m better, all right? We’ll get there early and have a good look. You want to?[/box]

Satyajit Ray makes poverty human, beautiful, and sad.

This is the story of several years in the life of a Brahmin family in the ancestral village of the father.  Father is a dreamer and would be playwright.  He turns down jobs because it would be unseemly to agree too quickly even though the family home is about ready to fall down.  Mother struggles mightily to make ends meet and loses her temper frequently.  The daughter Durga is a bit of a dreamer herself, a trial to her mother, and a petty thief.  She mostly steals fruit to give to her ancient Auntie, who lives with them.  Apu, the son, is born about a third of the way into the movie.  He is evidently his family’s great joy and hope.  They send him to school in the village when he is old enough.

Circumstances finally persuade the father to go in search of work.  He says he will be back in a few days but is gone for months.  Mother watches the rice storage hit bottom and then has to face tragedy alone.

First, this is an exquisitely beautiful film.  The outdoor shots and closeups are simply stunning.  There are whole scenes that have etched themselves into my memory permanently – among them the trek to see the train and the monsoon sequence.  The story is rich in the details of family life.  Ray, a complete beginner, got excellent performances out of his amateur actors.  Finally, I could listen to the Ravi Shankar score for days.  This is one of my very favorite films and highly recommended.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnm7QP1JXgY

Clip – the monsoon arrives – the Blu-ray restoration of this is a big improvement

TCM intro by Ben Mankiewicz

The Ladykillers
Directed by Alexander Mackendrick
Written by William Rose
1955/UK
The Rank Organization/Ealing Studios
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
#290 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Mrs. Louisa Wilberforce: Simply try for one hour to behave like gentlemen.[/box]

One of Ealing Studio’s last comedies is among its very best.

Professor Marcus (Alec Guinness) has an intricate and  fool-proof plan for an an armored car robbery.  He gathers together a gang to accomplish this.  Part of his plan is to use an unsuspecting little old lady to carry the loot away.  He thinks he has found one in Mrs. Wilberforce (Katie Johnson).  He takes a room for rent in her house and meets with the gang in the guise of a chamber quintet.  These people are some of the most unlikely looking musicians ever, but Mrs. Wilberforce grows to like them and to love the music coming out of the room (via a gramaphone).

The robbery itself goes brilliantly but runs into some glitches when Mrs. Wilberforce is on her way back to the house.  There are many more mishaps to come.  With Herbert Lom and Peter Sellers as gang members.

This is a hilarious twist on the classic heist plot that builds to a crescendo of pitch-black comedy.  I love the way that the robbers are reduced to acting like little boys by the end.  It has seemed fresh every time I have seen it.  In some ways, it even gets funnier when you know what is about to happen.  Guinness is really great as is everyone else.  Highly recommended.

This was remade under the same title by the Coen Brothers in 2004.  I can’t imagine that it came close to topping this.

The Ladykillers was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing, Best Screenplay – Original.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwTBKuRzYd4

Trailer