Thank God for French cinema. A lot of my favourite films of recent times seems to be European and French in particular.

The Piano Teacher, despite sweeping the major awards at Cannes last year, seems to have divided audiences from what I've been reading today in reviews on the net. Personally, I found it strangely compelling despite the subject matter, and however implausible some of the narrative may have seemed to some (i.e a lot of reviewers), I thought that the quality of the acting transcended that and made the film totally believable. I can't speak highly enough of Huppert. She is such a class act.

The director Michael Hanake is obviously an interesting guy - the only other film of his that I've seen was Funny Games, another confronting film (though I HATED the twist towards the end of that film). I think he and I might get along OK.

I'd love to hear what other people think about this film (especially the ending).Hopefully a few of you have seen it.

David

1 : Watching the Godfather movies again.

"Maybe it seems intellectual to you because you were educated with a banana and an innertube."

A friend of mine lent this to me about a thousand years ago and I just got around to watching it a couple days back. Being a comedy written by Steve Martin that my friend had eagerly talked about, I was expecting a funny light comedy that I would continue to enjoy watching whenever it showed up again on TV, something along the lines of BOWFINGER. I like Steve Martin a lot, so I thought this would be a good movie.

How wrong I was....this is a WONDERFUL movie. Steve Martin plays a fairly successful, if inconsequential, weather man for a news station in L.A. who appears to be happy in what appears to be a great life but, as he says narrating the film, "I was deeply unhappy, but I didn't know it because I was so happy all the time." One night he pulls off the highway to the side of the road in front of an electronic freeway sign that tells him his life is about to change. It's just one of the many little quirks in this gem that I loved from beginning to end. The drama and the zany comedy match perfectly, every performer is top class, and I really loved the photography by Andrew Dunn.

Peter Melnick's score is electronic and barely noticeable. The more striking uses of music come from other sources, particularly Charles Trenet's song "La Mer" in the opening sequence (which apparently parodies LA DOLCE VITA in some way, though as I haven't seen it I can't say how) and a surprisingly excellent use of a couple lesser-known Enya songs.

I really, really loved this movie. I looked up Mick Jackson to see what else he had done. Looks like his last theatrical film was the competent but silly throw-away disaster movie VOLCANO, and he also did THE BODYGUARD and CHATTAHOOCHEE. So I guess this film's heart and voice really belong to Steve Martin. I still have nothing but respect and admiration for him, despite the repulsive BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE. L.A. STORY has easily become my favorite of his films already....it's really, really, really good.

One note about the DVD though....it's awful! I've seen quite a few transfers of mid-70's films that looked far sharper, and on top of that the director's commentary the box promises is nowhere to be found. I don't know whether this movie was successful or not (it came out the same year Martin also starred in FATHER OF THE BRIDE, so it's definitely been terribly overshadowed since then) but I really, really hope a special edition is put out at some time in the future. This movie desparately deserves as deluxe a treatment as possible.

Fellini didn't make that many films that revolved almost entirely on sex. He made two, and along with “Casanova" is “The City of Women." What “City of Women” has that “Casanova” did not, however, is a beautiful child-like view of things that really makes Fellini’s movies fun in the first place. It also has Marcello Mastroianni (one of my favorite actors) and gorgeous surreal cinematography by Giuseppe Rotunno.

“City of Women” begins, appropriately enough, with a train going into a tunnel. Marcello Mastroianni is Snaporez, an aging man riding on a train to some unamed place. He begins to flirt with the woman who is sitting across from him and follows her into the bathroom. As he reveals his lustful feelings, the train suddenly stops and she gets out. He runs after her and ends up at a hotel that appears to be hosting a feminist convention, a REALLY exaggerated and completely insane feminist convention. He soon discovers the entire land he is in is populated with women. Snaporaz is both frightened and in awe of the variety of women that surround him, and he keeps thinking that his ideal may be among them. Throughout the film the women are clearly in total control of this world, and I interpret this film as a womanizer’s nightmare.

The film is not perfect by any means, but it’s still a bit of a treasure if you’re a Fellini fan who has explored most of his body of work, and yet are still starved for some Felliniesque fun. This film has that, and a lot of it. The greatest scene in the film is toward the end, where Snaporez crawls under a bed and comes out in a bright beautiful carnival. He rides down a stylized rollercoaster and mentally goes through some of his life’s most memorable sexual situations. This was a truly marvelous scene, with a beautiful carnival set, and above all, brilliant music by Luis Bacalov.

I mentioned Bacalov above. He scored this because Fellini's composer of choice Nino Rota died in 1979. I purchased this score about a month back and instantly fell in love with his immensely authentic Nino Rota-esque score...it quickly became one of my favorites. What was disappointing was that my two favorite cues on the album, which are extremely wonderful variations of his main theme, are not present in the film. The first cue not present in the film is (most surprisingly) the first cue on the album, which is basically the beautiful jazz theme performed in all of it’s glory (I assumed this was the Main Title, but I was wrong). The second cue is simply the best one on the album, which is a truly dreamy variation of that theme. With those two cues missing, the score’s thematic power doesn’t come off a fraction as strong in the film as it does on it’s own, but it's still wonderful work. One other problem was that there was an awful heavy metal-ish song playing during a scene when Mastroianni is taking a truly surreal ride with the crazy teenage girls through a wooded area that is unlike anything we know on Earth. When they turn their radio on, it should’ve been some wonderful circus jazz, this IS Fellini for Gods sake…but I suppose it was the producers’ fault, and I know Fellini had a few battles with them on this. Having the song there, though, almost ruined the scene...but the cinematography was so good and Mastroianni was so funny and the teenage girls were so strangely goofy that it was still a fine scene.

Overall, I have no idea who will like this film. Even Fellini fans seem to dislike it, and many more of his fans really hate it. I found it to be a lot of fun, but that's just me.

Dylan

But even though it would have looked fantastic in the larger theater, in the end it was still a wonderful experience. We were in a room filled to capacity with people who truly, deeply loved THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS. It occurred to me as I was watching it that I had never really been to a showing of a "cult" movie before...the most comparable experience in my life is when my parents brought me along for the opening day of STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY, which was huge when we saw it (I think this particular showing was attached to a convention). Also comparable, though somewhat less so, was the first midnight showing of THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING. This was the same sort of deal, albeit on a smaller scale since the theater was so little.

It was a great time altogether. The print they had acquired was in commendable shape, and you could just feel the love pouring out from the audience to the screen. It reminded me just how much film is meant to be a communal experience...it's a notion that's easy to forget when you see so many movies on your own.

THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS (1993)
Director: Henry Selick
Music (Score and Songs) & Lyrics: Danny Elfman
Screenplay: Caroline Thompson
Based on a story and characters by Tim Burton
Voices: Danny Elfman, Chris Sarandon, Catherine O'Hara

Eastenders - 4 nights a week (yes F-O-U-R...count'em) plus a Sunday afternoon omnibus, the lovely festive story coming up to Christmas is the rape of a major character.

Coronation Street - 4 nights a week...at least they do inject some warmth and humour into this eternally running show.

And then you have Emerdale (used to be called Emerdale Farm), Neighbors (every evening 5 nights a week), Home & Away (twice a day 5 nights a week), Hollyoaks, Family Affairs, Casualty, Holby City and The Bill. Oh, and Brookside finally bit the dust and went to telly heaven a couple of weeks back.

As you can see there are no where near enough soaps on telly!

The Lord Of The Rings : The Two Towers extended edition

A truly timeless classic, Graham, you'll never get bored with it, regardless of how many times you see it and to think, it was Sidney Lumet's VERY FIRST FILM as director and the great man is still around today contributing significantly to his profession!

Two reasons to see it:
1. Well choreographed fight sequences.
2. Ken Watanabe. (Our next Toshiro Mifune?) He delivered a passionate performance.

Overall, the movie was one big cliché. Been there and done that much better in Dances
With Wolves. That movie had its charm and pulse probably due to growing to know and
care about individual Native Americans. Except for Watanabe, we never really get to
know individual Samurai.

I like Cruise, but he was miscast in this movie. The script was hackneyed, and the
characters were cartoon cut outs. The ending was Hollywoodized which means it was
bastardized in order to avoid any realism. Zimmer’s score pounded Thin Red Line and
Pearl Harbor during the last fight sequence in order to generate more emotional
manipulation. Instead of evoking genuine horror and achieving tragic proportions, the
ending just ticked me off. The audience needed to be respected instead of Rudyized.

Don’t forget to note the rehash of a scene from Cool Hand Luke. “Stay down, Luke.
Don’t get up. Admit you’re done.” ....as he keeps rising and gains the respect of the
prisoners. Poor Cruise had to keep rising from the mud.

WRITTEN ON THE WIND (USA 1956)

Directed by Douglas Sirk
Screenplay by George Zuckerman, from the novel by Robert Wilder
Photography by Russell Metty
Music by Frank Skinner

Main Cast: Robert Stack, Lauren Bacall, Rock Hudson, Dorothy Malone

I really liked this. If you dip into it, it looks for long stretches like a typical pink-tinged glossy soap, which it is up to a certain point. But seething beneath the surface there's an awful lot of pessimism and real despair in the portrayal of unhappiness in a world where those who have all have nothing at all. Some of it probably even seemed overblown in its day - the Freudean symbolism made me smirk, particularly when Robert Stack, after being informed that "there is a certain weakness there" (i.e. he has problems in the downstairs department) goes loopy when he sees a young boy "riding" a hobby-horse, but it doesn't take anything away from the overall power of the movie. And Stack is sensational, almost scary in his self-destruction.

The main reason I even knew of this film is because of Basil Poledouris' score and the exorbitant prices the CD sold for a few years back. It came up on pay tv so I thought I'd give it a look more out of curiosity than actually expecting it to be good. Generally I've enjoyed Melanie Griffiths' films from this era - I'm a big fan of Something Wild and Body Double especially.

Now that I've seen it, I have to say that it's pretty watchable and enjoyable on a certain level, despite some major drawbacks - mainly things that date it rather badly. Some of the dialogue is pretty dire, and the clothes and production design are occasionally horrible, but in spite of this you find yourself carried along for the ride. When you consider the ridiculous device that sets the entire plot in motion - the guy's robot Cherry 2000 wife shortcircuits as he's making love to it on the kitchen floor with the sink tap still running and overflowing onto them, so of course he's obsessed with replacing it as it's a perfect companion - well, you know this is not going to be anything to make you're head ache.

Still, I had some fun with it. I've now satisfied my curiosity about it, and Poledouris' score is pretty good, with a strong electronic influence - a couple of nice themes, particularly a subtle heroic one in the second half of the film, but I wouldn't have paid hundreds of $$ for it, that's for sure. It's a good listen - I don't think I've actually ever heard a Poledouris score that didn't possess at least some redeemable qualities. He's an unbelievably consistant performer.

"The course of true love gathers no moss."

Why are so many romantic comedies such dreck these days? Here's a witty, loveable film with great actors putting in great performances of great characters, filled to the brim with charm and snap. Here you have three film legends all playing off of each other, and the results are quite enjoyable. The high point is undoubtedly when a drunk Jimmy Stewart shows up at Cary Grant's house. Stewart is absolutely hysterical in this scene, and you can tell by the look on Cary Grant's face that he's doing all he can to keep from bursting into laughter.

I'm not sure this film necessarily deserves a place on a list like AFI's top 100...I haven't seen or read the play, but at any rate the adaptation is not very cinematic. It often feels like you're merely watching a filmed performance of the play. But it's still very enjoyable and well worth seeing, and miles ahead of most of the forgettable romantic comedies Hollywood turns out nowadays.

This is the first Japanese animated film I've seen that wasn't directed by Hayao Miyazaki, and I'm absolutely stunned. I was expecting a good drama, but I was completely unprepared for how seriously this film affected me. I'm not the least bit ashamed to admit that I was crying in non-stop, gushing waterfalls for the last ten or fifteen minutes.

The story takes place in Japan during World War 2. When their city is fire bombed by the Americans, Seita and his little sister Setsuko lose their mother (their father is a navy general, and thus not at home during the raid). They go to live in another city with a distant aunt, but their life there is strained. The aunt is annoyed by Seita's apparent laziness and unwillingness to help around the house or pull his weight, unable to see that he is preoccupied with trying to keep Setsuko safe and happy. They eventually depart, and Seita and Setsuko have to survive in war-torn Japan on their own.

The film loses none of its poignancy or power by telling you at the very beginning how the whole thing ends. It's a deeply, deeply moving story. What has struck me most about the Japanese animation I've watched so far are the painterly backgrounds, which here often look like watercolors, and this style's curious capacity for stillness. I noticed this in Miyazaki's PRINCESS MONONOKE, and here it's used to its greatest effect as seemingly simple shots and setups yield very powerful results. And while Japanese animation tends to be a bit more thrifty than the lavish animation we've become accustomed to over here, there are nonetheless some very beautiful animated moments, the most gorgeous being the wonderful firefly-hunting scene that eventually lends the film's title its meaning.

I can't recommend this film highly enough, especially if you need a good, sincere crying session. Perhaps I was especially moved because I have a younger sister roughly the same age apart from me as the siblings in the film, but I imagine anyone with a heart will be profoundly affected by it.

Kirk
NP - Waking Life (Glover Gill)

A lesser known, but decent Hitchcock film with Montgomery Clift as the priest who is suspected of a murder committed by the parish handyman. Karl Malden is the lead detective and Anne Baxter is Clift's childhood sweetheart, still in love with him, who gets dragged into the investigation after it is revealed that the victim, a lawyer, was blackmailing her and Clift after finding them together on his property, the morning after being caught in a terrible storm.

This films keeps you interested for all of its 90 minutes without ever being riveting, and there's never any real doubt as to how it will be resolved. Hitchcock doesn't have any astounding setpieces up his sleeve either, though Robert Burks cinematography is noteworthy with a lot of interesting lighting effects and ominous shots of church spires.

The film takes place in Quebec which is a bit of a novelty, so there's a mixture of various accents.

I have to say that Clift's performance seems a bit inhibited somehow; it's very low-key, and though it suits the character of the priest, you still long to see him emote a little more, even just a single smile or change of expression - he seems a little disinterested for a majority of the film.

Dimitri Tiomkin's score is a very classy contribution, heightening the drama magnificantly even when there's nothing really happening on screen - a couple of times Clift is just walking the streets lost in thought and the music overwhelms us as if something tumultuos is taking place. Perhaps Tiomkin overdoes it a little but it's just flat-out great music and I loved hearing it here for the first time. At the end of one of these walks, when Clift knows he's going to be arrested, he walks back into the church and the music swells into this brief hymnn-like conclusion to the cue. It lasts no more than 10 seconds, but it was haunting and affecting - one of many musical highlights. I'm embarressed to admit that out of hundreds of scores, I don't own a single Tiomkin disc - shameful I know. If this has been released in any form I'd love to own it.

Overall for the film 3/5

Directed by Francisco R. Gordillo
Screenplay by Jacinto Molina (actually Paul Naschy, with additional dialogue by "Rory Mullen", and, here's an interesting thing, a roster of English names as "correctores de estilo" - I think they failed)
Photography by Manuel Mateos
Music by Jose Ignacio Cuenca and Tonky de la Peña

Main Cast: Paul Naschy, Amparo Muñoz

Something like Paul Naschy's fourteenth appearance as tortured werewolf Waldemar Daninsky. In this one he's still suffering Larry Talbot-style, and is consoled by sympathetic nurse Mina Westenra (ha!). The twist here is that there are two murderers - the werewolf and a man with a claw-like weapon.

Y'know, I really must hand it to the film-makers for the respect shown towards the genre as late as 1996. LICANTROPO is handled completely straight, and in fact it's quite surprising to note that it's so recent, because it feels like an early 70s movie. The problem is it feels like a really really terrible one, like some cheapo effort from Mexico or the Philippines. The funny thing is, although it's apparently a 100% Spanish production, it seems to have been shot in English (watch those lip movements) then dubbed into Spanish. Whatever, the script is unspeakable in any language. The direction is dire too - if you're going to respect the genre by playing it straight, at least invest it with a bit of life - and Naschy's doleful presence is really no help at all under these circumstances. No great shakes visually either, though it was nice to see a good old-fashioned Lon Chaney Jr-type wolfman again, right down to the shirt buttoned up to the neck.

The music is: soulful Gary Moore-type electric guitar wailings; amplified guitar effects for one of the (very modest) transformation scenes; synth spookiness for the mystery elements; and a sensitive Richard Clayderman-type piano piece for sympathetic Mina. Result - not good.

This is Dario Argento's most recently released film, and of a reasonably high quality, especially in the wake of his film prior to this - his abominable version of Phantom of the Opera. This film is a welcome return to the style and formula of his earlier 'giallo' films, which are just urban slasher/crime thrillers with brilliant, gory set-pieces/death scenes lumbered with boring, often silly dialogue and ridiculous plot contrivances in between. Basically you just watch these films in anticipation of seeing helpless victims - i.e screaming young women - die in creative and interesting ways. All the rest is just filler. Sounds a bit disturbed, but anyone like me who enjoys these types of films, when executed(!)skillfully enough, would probably be able to come up with another name for it. The same defense applies for watching a lot of early De Palma films - showy set pieces that give the film its main replay value.

Sleepless starts off well - a hooker stumbles out of a very creepy 'clients' room, accidentally picking up a folder with the details of the murders he's apparently committed and placing it amongst her things. She gets on a train, he calls her on her mobile, and magically appears on the train to kill her in graphic fashion and knock out the conductor (it seems they are the only 2 people on the entire train!) Still it's a well crafted set piece, a fine opener punctuated with great external shots of the train hurtling through the night. A train of death, to be sure!

The great Max Von Sydow plays a retired inspector called out of retirement to deal with this fresh slate of killings, modelled it seems on another batch committed 17 years prior. It's impossible to gauge how well he performs beyond a certain level because like most Argento films, he and the other actors are heavily dubbed, which can be very annoying and damn distracting more than anything else.

Overall I think Argento fans will really enjoy this - if you are of a mind to appreciate it, there are 3 or 4 VINTAGE death scenes which I won't spoil for anyone. But you get a bit of an itchy finger watching them - you feel the urge to immediately rewind and watch them in glorious slow motion (those fake dummy heads are pretty convincing if you don't look TOO long or intently at them!).

Victims lose everything in this film - their minds, their fingers, a couple of heads, many, many teeth and the potential to perform tender kisses ever again thanks to the strategic placement of an English horn!

As one of the cops notes at the end: "It's a bloodbath!"

Though not in the same league as earlier masterpieces like Profundo Rosso or Tenebre, at least Argento gets back on track somewhat in easily surpassing the almost-unwatchable mess of Phantom of the Opera. Good breezy not-so-clean fun.

3/5

David

John Woo's wartime drama about the use of Native American Indians as codetalkers is a reasonably entertaining film, though a little disappointing in some ways. I generally really like Nicolas Cage but his character here drags him down a bit. Basically he's a walking cliche - the physically and mentally scarred soldier who needs to return to battle, whatever the cost, to redeem himself (if he ever can) or exorcise the ghosts of his past. We've seen this guy many times before, often in cop movies as well as war movies. Their lives have no real purpose outside the 'job' it seems - it's what they were born to do.

The 2 main Native American actors were good- especially Cage's protege, and Woo's direction is efficient enough without any of the stylistic excesses of his earlier Hong Kong films, which is perhaps what this film may have needed an injection of to liven it up and set it apart from other films of this ilk.

James Horner provides a nice main theme which sticks in your head for a while. It seems more overused in the film than on the CD. His action music doesn't really register much in the film - for one, it's typically buried under the sounds of battle, but at the same time it drags you out of the movie in a way, reminding you how artificial some of combat is. The most impressive war films of recent times didn't require musical accompaniment - Saving Private Ryan, Thin Red Line(to a lesser extent) - and they are all the more effective and 'realistic' because of it.

In summary, I think this is a noble attempt to put a different slant on wartime experiences with a true but little-known element added. I think the film has definately got its heart in the right place. Cage and Christian Slater seem a little miscast - I never really bought them as soldiers - though that's purely down to my own subjective impressions.

An undistinguished but solid entertainment.

2.5/5

David

I saw this French film last night, from Catherine Breillat the director of the equally controversial Romance, and in all honesty, I still don't know what to make of it! Will definately need to sit down and give this another viewing in the near future.

My initial reaction is one of disappointment. I don't know what I was expecting really, but I was bored and a bit disinterested by much of this, and I was very impressed by Romance which I found compelling, if a little repellant (often the same thing, I sometimes find!!!). It tries to be arty in a low-key way, with lingering shots and bits of conversation and incidents that have no real purpose. None of the characters are in the least bit likeable. The two sisters seem to share a strange but real relationship which could hardly be said of the parents - obnoxious, self-centred and clueless (or just totally disinterested in ) their daughters.

I don't want to give anything away about this film - people should see it knowing as little as possible about it.

Anyone seen it? I'd love to know what other reactions to it have been.

The ending comes out of nowhere and is sure to divide audiences. It seems, in a seriously disturbed way, to fulfil the first-love wishes of the younger sister, the 'fat girl' of the title. On a trivial note, the older sister reminds me so much of Parker Posey. A much younger version of her, but the resemblance is uncanny.

The day after score 2/5

Best wishes for Christmas and happy viewing. Hoping to see many more great films next year.

David

Directed by Lewis Milestone
Screenplay by Maxwell Anderson, from the play by John Colton and Clemence Randolph based on a story by Somerset Maugham
Photography by Oliver T. Marsh
Music by Alfred Newman

Main Cast: Joan Crawford, Walter Huston, William Gargan, Beaulah Bondi, Matt Moore, Guy Kibbee, Walter Catlett

Snotty strumpet Sadie Thompson causes havoc amongst a ship-load of stranded passengers in Pago Pago, where a repressed missionary zealot wants to save her soul (and shag her).

Overshadowing the whole interesting project is Joan Crawford as Maugham's Sadie, looking like a grotesque drag queen. Just look at that mouth - the lips move all over the place, but the teeth are firmly gritted throughout. Then half-way in she transforms to comparative normality after her false redemption, before reverting Hyde-fashion (and in a vaguely risible manner) back to old slag-features again, which is her real liberation.

With its oppressive atmosphere of native drums amidst the rain, this put me in mind of Val Lewton at RKO, but RAIN never really rises to the heights of poetry. Interesting thematically though, with its spiky plot of sex and religion, and some striking camera movements (didn't Milestone invent that rapid sideways trolley shot?). The movie may be creaky and only semi-successful, but I think it's a valiant effort, and it possesses the charm of ancient Hollywood in bucketloads.

Directed by Paul Berger
Screenplay by Paul Berger
Photography by Kiko de la Rica
Music by Mastretta

Main Cast: Javier Cámara, Candela Peña

An encyclopedia company falls on hard times, and the salesmen are required to branch out - by making porno home-movies for the Scandinavian market.

Not as good as it sounds. It starts of reminiscent of the old British CARRY ON or CONFESSIONS OF series of films, though the sights are obviously set higher here. However, as a satire on both film-making and Franco's Spain it's far too toothless, and so instead of sparkling with wit and invention, the ideas soon peter out with the result that the movie barely registers by the end.

Still, Javier Cámara (star of Almodóvar's TALK TO HER) is amusingly deadpan as the door-to-door salesman with Bergmanesque delusions caught up the 8mm couplings.

Directed by Lewis Milestone
Screenplay by Lillian Hellman, from her book
Photography by James Wong Howe
Music by Aaron Copland

Main Cast: Anne Baxter, Dana Andrews, Walter Huston, Farley Granger, Jane Withers, Erich Von Stroheim

Incredibly cheery Russian peasants sing and dance and joke around until, one day in 1941, the Nazis invade.

Photographed in beautiful black and white by the great James Wong Howe, individual scenes in THE NORTH STAR have an immense amount of visual power (the first strafing of the village is impressively scary), but on the whole it looks today like a real folly, a rather obvious and somewhat embarrassing propoganda piece.

So, good patches, but mostly overwhelmingly hokey (and the first half hour, with all those songs and jollity, is almost too much to bear).