Daily Archives: December 30, 2016

India: Matri Bhumi
Directed by Roberto Rossellini
Written by Roberto Rossellini, Sonali Senroy DasGupta, Feredoun Hoveyda and Vincenzo Talarico
1959/Italy/France
Aniene Film/Union Generale Cinematographique
First viewing/FilmStruck

Narrator: When faced with death, the general belief is that when a man dies, his life doesn’t end, because he’s reincarnated in another. But no one knows in whom. Therefore, all men are brothers.

An opportunity to see Rossellini’s rosy vision of India in the late 50’s.

The film shows various aspects of India, from cities like Bombay and Benares to villages in the jungles to construction on a massive dam site.  The film contains both documentary-style narration and narration by various “characters” of vignettes from daily life.

In Rossellini’s India there is no dire poverty, the various religions and castes get along beautifully, and an economic miracle is about ready to happen.  Despite the perhaps unwarranted optimism, there are many very enjoyable sequences.  I especially liked the one about the tender loving care given to working elephants and the one about a masterless monkey at a religious festival.

Clip (subtitles available by clicking on cc)

Al Capone
Directed by Richard Wilson
Written by Malvin Wald and Henry F. Greenberg
1959/USA
Allied Artists Pictures
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] You can get much farther with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone. — Al Capone [/box]

This is an OK and apparently fairly accurate bio-pic about the famous Chicago gangster.

The story follows Capone (Rod Steiger) from the time he arrives in Chicago from Brooklyn to work as a bouncer for gangster nightclub owner Johnny Torrio.  Torrio plans to make it big when Prohibition goes into affect with the assistance of his mentor, city political boss Big Jim Colosimo.  Colosimo and Capone share a taste for opera.  But when it comes time to turn booze running into big business, Capone sees that Colosimo no longer has a veto.  Torrio takes out “insurance” by making Capone his partner in running vice in the city’s South Side.

Capone also pursues and eventually wins the only woman he cannot buy.  She is the angry widow of a man she suspects Capone had murdered at the time of Colosimo’s killing.  The story is narrated by James Schaefler (James Gregory), the police officer who for many long years tries to defeat Capone and the Chicago mob.  With Martin Balsam as a corrupt newspaper reporter on Capone’s payroll.

This is quite a watchable film.  Steiger gives a powerful performance, mostly avoiding the hamminess that sometimes plagues his work.

Trailer