Monthly Archives: February 2021

The Yakuza
Directed by SydneyPollack
Written by Paul Schrader, Robert Towne, and Lawrence Schrader
1974/Japan/US
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rent

There are three classes of men; lovers of wisdom, lovers of honor, and lovers of gain. — Plato

Robert Mitchum is miscast as an action hero in this guns vs. swords thriller.

Harry Kilmer (Robert Mitchum) spent many years in Japan after WWII.  He fell in love with war widow Eiko.  She mysteriously refused to marry him and he went back to the west where he found work as a police officer and then a private investigator.

Harry’s friend Tanner (Brian Keith) is an arms dealer.  He made the mistake of taking the Yakuza’s (Japanese organized crime) money and not coming through with the goods.   Now Tanner’s daughter has been kidnapped and he asks Harry for help.  On his return to Japan, Harry becomes reacquainted with Eiko and her brother Ken, a swords master .  It will be Harry and Ken against the entire Yakuza family.

The rest of the movie is made up of several sword fights and gun battles.  Harry also discovers a shocking secret and goes to drastic lengths to atone for his part in it.

I was disappointed by this after having enjoyed Mitchum in The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973) so much.  He’s not bad just miscast.  Otherwise I thought this was your standard thriller and one that I didn’t feel like got Japanese culture quite right.

The Cars That Ate Paris
Directed by Peter Weir
Written by Peter Weir, Keith Gow and Piers Davies
1974/Australia
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

Darryl: The other thing, is the patients. Now, most of the people here are accident victims. So, what you’ve got are your veggies.
Arthur Waldo: Veggies?
Darryl: Yeah, now these are people who’ve been in accidents that are so bad that their minds all get scrambled up like scrambled eggs. Right?
Arthur Waldo: Yeah.
Darryl: In any case, you got your full veggies. Well, I doubt if he’ll let you see them. I don’t think you’ll have much to do with them. And then there’s your half-veggies and your quarter-veggies.

How could I resist a movie with a title and director like this one?

Paris, New South Wales is an Australian  outback town occupied by hooligans and hypocrites.  The town’s income comes from arranging for car crashes and scavenging the car and victim.  One day, George and Arthur come through towing a huge caravan which hurtles off a cliff.  George, the driver, is killed in the accident while Arthur emerges relatively unscathed.  He reports having seen a light coming from the other direction before the crash.    For some reason, instead of eliminating this witness, the Mayor adopts him.

The remainder of the film carries forward the car crash theme.  Eventually the young gang members that cause the accidents decide to stop abiding by the establishment’s rules and all hell breaks loose.

I took a little break from more serious films and took a chance on this one.  Produced on a shoe string budget, the production is fairly effective.  It could have perhaps used some suspense and/or laughs.

Swept Away (Travolti da un insolito destino nell’azzurro mare d’agosto)
Directed by Lina Wertmüller
Written by Lina Wertmüller
1974/Italy
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental

… these directors who are so in love with success, no matter how great their talent, are ultimately disappointing. This is all part of the crisis. Now, when it comes to the better exponents of this kind of film, I admit I run to see them too. I adore the work of Lucas and Spielberg. I’m certainly not trying to minimize their talents, but I’d love to see what they could do when they aren’t leading us from reality. — Lina Wertmüller

This beautifully crafted and acted film serves as an indictment of the class system and as an odd, perverse love story.

Raffaela (Mariangela Melato), her husband and some friends are the epitome of beautiful people and are currently enjoying a break on their yacht on the Mediterranean.  Gennarino Caruncio (Giancarlo Giannini) is a member of the crew.  Raffaela has a loud mouth which she runs constantly with complaints about the servants and the lowet classes.  Gennarino hates and secretly lusts after Raffaela.

Everyone on board except Raffaela decides to explore the mainland.  Late that afternoon she wants to join them there and takes off with Gennarino in a rubber dinghy with a defective motor. When the motor breathes its last they are well and truly lost.  Fortunately, Raffaela eventually spies an island.

When the two arrive, Raffaela mistreats and insults Giannarino. The island is uninhabited.  The tables turn when it becomes obvious that Raffaela would starve to death without Giannarino.  She must work for her keep for the first time in her life. Then Giannarino begins humiliate her with the full force of his pent-up fury and lust.  I’ll stop here.

This is a beautiful, powerful film.  Giannini continues to amaze in a wide range of parts.  But be warned, there are a lot of brutal and intimate arguments, some nudity, and lots of sexy stuff, not all of which is consensual.  With that caveat, I recommend the film.

Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore 
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Written by Robert Getchell
1974/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime

Flo: What is it you want?
Alice: If I knew that, I wouldn’t be out here crying in the toilet, would I?

Martin Scorsese goes outside his comfort zone to give us a story about a woman looking for second chances.

From a small girl, Alice (Ellen Burstyn) dreamed of being a singer.  As we flash forward 27 years, we find her acting as a housewife for her cold, verbally abusive husband and her smart-aleck 11-year-old Tommy (Alfred Lutter III).  When her husband suddenly dies, Alice and Tommy set off on a road trip to Monterey where Alice had some success singing at a hotel bar before her marriage.  They don’t have the money to finance the entire trip so they stop in Phoenix where Alice does find work as a singer for awhile.  Truth be told she is not an excellent singer.

Unfortunately, she also starts up a relationship with Ben (Harvey Keitel) who picks her up at the bar where she works.  On one fateful day, Ben’s wife shows up at Alice’s place and Ben goes utterly psycho, destroying the motel room and chasing his wife with a knife.  Alice and Tommy take off in the middle of the night.  Next stop Tuscon.

Alice is unable to find singing work and settles for work as a waitress in Mel and Ruby’s Diner.  She is still determined to get Tommy to Monterey by his twelfth birthday.  After a rocky start she forms a close relationship with sassy fellow waitress Flo (Diane Ladd). Soon hunky rancher divorcee David (Kris Kristofferson) attempts to woo her.  She is reluctant, so he starts to work on the son to get to her.  Will Alice’s dreams come true?  With Jodie Foster as Tommy’s street-smart friend.

This is not a flashy picture but it is full of heart and Burstyn’s performance was truly Oscar-worthy.  It was made at that strange juncture where women’s liberation was the thing but true romance still held sway in the movies.  Not a must-see but I enjoyed it a lot.

This has very little to do with the hit TV sit-com “Alice” other than the diner and the characters of the waitresses.

Ellen Burstyn won the Academy Award for Best Actress.  Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore was nominated in the categories of Best Supporting Actress (Ladd) and Best Writing, Original Screenplay.

Phantom of the Paradise
Directed by Brian De Palma
Written by Brian De Palma
1974/US
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime

The Phantom: “The party of the first part gives the party of the second part and his associates full power to do with him at their pleasure. To rule, to send, to fetch, or carry him or his, be it either body, soul, flesh, blood or goods.” What does that mean?
Swan: That’s a transportation clause.

This rock horror musical was definitely not for me.

Evil impresario Swan (Paul Williams) is getting ready to launch his ultimate rock palace, The Paradise.  Winslow (William Finley) is a nerdy composer who has been working on a rock cantata based on “Faust”.  He spots Phoenix (Jessica Harper) at an audition and decides she is the perfect singer for his music.  Swan steals Winslow’s music and has him beat up and framed for drug dealing.  Following his release from Sing Sing, Winslow has a freak accident that leaves him disfigured.  He becomes the Phantom that haunts the Paradise. Swan convinces him to sell his soul to the devil in exchange for allowing Phoenix to sing the music.

Swan double crosses him and hires a glitter rocker to sing the music but the Phantom scares him off and Phoenix is given the part.  Then Swan steals Phoenix.  We learn that 20 years earlier Swan sold his own soul to the devil in exchange for eternal youth.  If you have seen any version of “The Phantom of the Opera” you will have an idea of what happens next.

I thought this was a loud, stupid, chaotic movie.  The pretentious music couldn’t save it.  If anything about the trailer appeals to you, you will like it better than I did.

Paul Williams and George Aliceson Tipton were nominated for the Best Music, Scoring Original Song Score and/or Adaptation Oscar.

Lenny
Directed by Bob Fosse
Written by Julian Barry from his play
1974/US
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime

Lenny Bruce: Please! Don’t take away my words! They’re just words! l’m not hurting anybody!

Bob Fosse’s biopic about the lives of controversial comic Lenny Bruce and his stripper wife Honey is dark but compelling.

The movie is told through a series of interviews interspersed with flashbacks.  Lenny Bruce (Dustin Hoffman) got into comedy via his mother Sally Marr (Jan Miner) and started out doing a standard stand-up routine in the Catskills and in small clubs.  His act wasn’t very funny and eventually he was reduced to quipping about the girls between numbers in strip clubs.  There he met gorgeous, erotic stripper Honey (Valerie Perrine) and they became an item.  They married within the year, and he tried to stop her stripping by including her in his act.  She was good at stripping but apparently terrible at whatever she did in the double act.

The couple then moved to California where Bruce developed the improvisational no-holds-barred style he became famous for.  Unfortunately, people that the couple hung out with introduced them to hard drugs which would plague both of them for the remainder of his life.  Honey spent years in prison on various drug charges.  Eventually Bruce kidnapped their daughter Kitty and raised her with support from his mother.  Honey and Lenny had an off-again on-again relationship and retained a bond that lasted well beyond their divorce.

While he was becoming an increasingly popular “hip” and counterculture comic, he was arrested several times for drug possession and a number of times for obscenity.  The arrests and convictions turned Bruce’s act into unfunny readings of his trial transcript and tirades against the system.  He died of an overdose in 1966 at the age of 40.

Since people have been talking and copulating, everybody has enjoyed a good dirty joke or two in private.  Lenny Bruce brought the jokes and naughty words on the stage.  He was made to suffer for it but made stand-up comedy what it is today.  Fosse creates a beautifully sleazy atmosphere in black and white and brought the best out of his actors.  I was especially impressed by Perrine’s tender, complex performance.  Worth seeing if the subject matter appeals.

Lenny was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Picture; Best Actor; Best Actress; Best Director; Best Writing, Screenplay Adapted From Other Material; and Best Cinematography.

Scenes from a Marriage (Scener ur ett äktenskap)
Directed by Ingmar Bergman
Written by Ingmar Bergman
1974/Sweden
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

Johan: I don’t posses much self-knowledge, and I know very little about reality, in spite of all the books I’ve read. But I believe that this catastrophe is the chance of a lifetime.

An accessible Bergman film that also goes deep into the human psyche.  I loved this.

Johan (Erland Josephson) is a psychological researcher.  His wife Marianne (Liv Ullmann) is a divorce attorney.  The couple have two little girls.  As the film begins, a journalist is interviewing the two for an article in a woman’s magazine.  They look to have the perfect marriage.

The article is published and is overflowing with praise for the couple.  Marianne and Johan host a dinner for their friends Katarina (Bibi Andersson) and Peter (Jan Malmsjo) to celebrate their 10th anniversary.  As the evening wears on Katarina and Peter get very drunk and engage in a vicious argument in front of their hosts.  After the dinner, we discover there is trouble in paradise also centering on Marianne’s lack of interest in sex.

Shortly after this, Johan arrives at the couple’s summer cottage a day early and announces that he has fallen in love with a 23-year-old and is departing with her for a six-month stay in Paris.  Marianne is devastated and begs him to stay. Johan vents all his complaints about their marriage before leaving.

The rest of the movie follows the next 10 years in the relationship of these people through divorce, disillusionment, affairs, and second marriages.  They meet and part and meet again, alternating sex for old-times sake with brutally frank arguments.

This film leaves you with a lot to think about and considering another viewing. The acting is needless to say impressive.  The script is amazing.  There is nothing fancy in the production design or camera work as the story was first made as a 5-hour mini-series for Swedish television.  I watched the 3-hour theatrical version and the time flew by.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kZ1PE-Kqm8

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The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner (Die große Ekstase des Bildschnitzers Steiner)
Directed by Werner Herzog
Written by Werner Herzog
1974/West Germany
IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube

I don’t have a fear of flying; I have a fear of crashing. — Billy Bob Thornton

Herzog’s documentary on ski jumping champion Walter Steiner is about so much more than the sport.

Champion Swiss ski-flyer/jumper Walter Steiner sculpts with wood in the off-season.  He loves the sensation of flying.  Fellow ski-jumpers talk about respect for the sport but he is cautious and admits to fear of crashing.  This is particularly acute because he flies so much farther than the others that if he jumps from the same height he is likely to overshoot the slope and die.

The documentary features many spectacular ski-jumps and crashes.  We also get deep into Steiner’s psychology and media, peer and other pressure for him to push his limits. The second half of the film is devoted to a match in Yugoslavia.  Herzog, who provides commentary on camera, creates as much suspense as you might get in a fiction film.

I love to watch the Winter Olympics and have always admired the grace and skill of ski-jumpers.  So this was a real treat.  The film was made for German TV and Herzog had access to state-of-the-art equipment to film the jumpers.  The movie looks beautiful, has a wonderful score by Popul Vuh, and I could listen to Herzog talk all day.  It’s only 45 minutes long.  Recommended.

The Phantom of Liberty (La fantôme de la liberté)
Directed by Luis Buñuel
Written by Luis Buñuel and Jean-Claude Carriere
1974/France
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

Foucauld: I’m sick of symmetry.

Buñuel’s follow-up to The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) continues in the comic vein.

The setting is Paris.  The film proceeds in a stream of consciousness manner without a unifying theme.  We get memorable scenes such as cigar-smoking monks, the peculiar disappearance of a little girl, a sniper and his trial, incest between aunt and nephew and brother and sister, dining room chairs that are toilets, random wild animals, etc. etc.  Food is viewed as shameful while there is much talk of excrement.  The huge cast is a who’s who of European stars of the day.

I enjoyed this but not so well as Buñuel’s prior film where we had basically the same cast throughout and (not) eating as a central theme.  Buñuel of course uses this opportunity to skewer religion, middle-class morality and customs, sex, government officials, etc. etc.

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