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December 31, 2002
In provocative "Stella Dallas" (1937) Barbara Stanwyck plays a young woman from a working class family who aspires to join the leisure class, marries a professional man, then doesn't fit in. (She wants to go out dancing the night she returns from the hospital after giving birth, to which hubby doesn't much cotton, nor does he like it much when she dances with other guys even after he says "we're leaving.") The film's largely about a mom-daughter relationship-- and how a girl gets caught between two worlds, that of mom (who seems to alternate between looking seriously stylish and outlandishly tacky, a weakness in the film) and that of her dad and his ultra-brushed country-clubbism (complete with servants). Despite many unexamined questions about class, "Stella Dallas" avoids some exaggeration and stereotype (Stella steadfastly sticks to her sarsaparilla instead of hitting the booze), contains some memorable scenes, and features fine acting by Stanwyck (and Alan Hale as realistically and revoltingly lascivious "Uncle Ed").
Satyajit Ray's "Aparajito" (a.k.a. "The Unvanquished", 1957), second in Ray's beautiful "Apu Trilogy", tells the story of a boy trained as a Hindu priest who leaves village life with his mother to go study in Calcutta. No car chases, shoot 'em ups, or sex scenes here. Instead, patiently, calmly, slowly, a story unfolds from such details as pigeons suddenly flying and the appearance of fireflies.
With music by Ravi Shankar.
Roger Ebert's review of the trilogy
Lina Wertmüller's "Seven Beauties" ("Pasqualino Settebellezze," 1976)-- a black comedy (of sorts) about fascism, rape, and murder-- features Giancarlo Giannini in the lead role as murderer, rapist, and concentration camp survivor. To what depths will humans descend? What is unacceptable? I've watched "Seven Beauties" four or five times over the years and wonder about the uncomfortable complex truths it shows -- and what self-described Wertmüller-phobes might have to say against it.
Here's one review from culturedose.com
Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine" examines the question of why the United States has so many shooting deaths even though Canada (for example) has more guns per capita, with a focus on shootings by children and teens. Along the way Moore interviews the maker of a so-called reality TV show about police, performer Marilyn Manson, National Rifle Association president Charlton Heston, and a bunch of Canadians who don't lock their doors. Unforgettable-- and disturbing.
Double feature: F. W. Murnau's "The Last Laugh" --the 1993 music-augmented video version of 1924 silent film "Der Letzte Mann"-- followed by Vittorio de Dica's "Umberto D" (1952): two stories about old men and humiliation. The former is a sort of grand guignol fairy tale, the latter a more nuanced look at one man's fall to poverty and his struggle to maintain dignity, but both are compelling -- and probably unforgettable.
Roger Ebert on "The Last Laugh" ... and Umberto D
Jean Renoir's "Grand Illusion" (1937) isn't so much a war movie as a skillfully made romance about men and social class. Precursor to "The Great Escape", "Stalag 17", "Seven Beauties", and countless lesser films, it still sets a high standard. After many years since I last watched this, I found its players --Erich Von Stroheim, Carette, Jean Gabin, et al -- still entirely engaging.
Here's Roger Ebert's review of the new print I've just seen.
"Project Grizzly" (1996) is a National Film Board of Canada documentary about a guy obsessed with building a suit of armor to protect himself from the grizzly bear he wants to encounter again. It's intriguing and not a little bit funny.
Here's a review from a Toronto Sun writer.
Michael Moore's "The Big One" (1997) follows the author on a tour to promote Downsize This!, a book about U.S. corporations making record profits who lay off workers and move plants overseas to be more "competitive." Besides schmoozing with book buyers and readers, Moore talks with people who just lost their jobs at the Centralia (IL) Payday candy bar plant, chats in a parking lot with bookstore workers in Des Moines who are organizing a union, and presents satirical awards and symbolic small-amount checks to corporate flacks along his route (including some tight-lipped people at Proctor-Gamble in Cincinnati).
It says something that this film was produced by BBC. While Moore is mordantly funny, his efforts to get Nike Corporation CEO Phil Knight to take action are sobering. As game is Knight may be in listening to Moore, all he eventually agrees to do is match Moore's donation of $10,000 to schools in Flint, Michigan.
"Elling" (2001) is a Norwegian film, set in contemporary Oslo, about two middle-aged men who've been wards of the state, as they attempt to live independently. For these two, everything outside their old routines provokes anxiety--telephones, doorbells, shopping, public bathrooms, neighbors. But as they dare to venture out in the world, wonderful things transpire.
The best film about poetry since "Il Postino".
Here's Carla Meyer's review in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Yvan Le Moin's "The Red Dwarf" (a.k.a. Le Nain Rouge, 1998) is never the film you think it might become. Shot in black-and-white (so the redness is an article of faith), it's superficially a tale of a dwarf who works for a law firm, seduces a countess, then joins a circus to be close to the girl who has eyes only for him. It doesn't all make logical sense but nonetheless makes an interesting stew of farce, murder, pedophilia, power, sex, and the imagination.
I think many people will revile this film, as did Steve Davis in the Austin Chronicle. It's been called unsettling and provocative, but indulgent... and compared unfavorably to Fellini.
Stephen Holden is fairer in his New York Times review.
"Kikujiro" (2000) is a snoozy road movie about a Japanese boy heading out to find his mother, accompanied by a gangster. It would've been better with about thirty minutes lopped from it.
Roger Ebert's review is fair (calling the pace "relaxed" and explaining why the film doesn't work so well).
Billy Wilder's "The Apartment" (1960) has been described (I can't remember by whom) as the saddest comedy ever, not a bad analysis (though its ending is not unhappy) of this tale of an accountant who lets his bosses use his bachelor pad for their trysts. Starring Jack Lemmon, a young Shirley MacLaine, and Fred MacMurray (as a smarmy CEO), this black-and-white film won an Academy Award for best picture.
Roger Ebert's review may tell you more than you want to know. (Don't read it if you don't want to learn crucial plot details.)
Zhang Yimou's "Not One Less" (1999) follows the travails of a 14-year-old girl hired as a substitute teacher for a contemporary Chinese village's elementary school and her journey to the nearest city to search for one of her students. It features lovely practical math scenes and cute kids, and maintains a certain subtleness despite a didactic ending (when we read statements about Chinese student attrition and poverty--and learn that most of the characters in the film are played by their real-life counterparts).
Based on August Strindberg's play, Alf Sjogren's "Miss Julie" (a.k.a. "Fröken Julie", 1959) is a Midsummer Night drama about a young aristocratic woman and her relationship with a servant who's been in love with her since he was a boy. It's a darker progenitor of Bergman's "Smiles of a Summer Night", nicely acted, beautifully photographed, and ahead of its time in filmic technique.
Max Von Sydow has a small role in this, his second film.
Alexander Payne's "Election" (1999), set in Omaha like "Citizen Ruth" (see below), is a humorous film portraying a campaign for high school class president. While it provided a few laughs, the film seemed more two-dimensional than "Citizen Ruth", maybe since more of its key roles were played by younger actors.
Calling Payne "a director whose satire is omnidirectional," Roger Ebert writes, "He doesn't choose an easy target and march on it. He stands in the middle of his story and attacks on all directions." Here's Roger Ebert's review
"The Horse's Mouth" (1958) is a British comedy starring Alec Guinness as outsider artist Gully Jimson. I came to this adaptation of from Joyce Cary's novel of the same title after reading (and not understanding) a comparison of Charles Bukowski to Gully Jimson. Now, after seeing the film, I'd say the analogy has merit.
"The Eel" (a.k.a. "Unagi"; 1998) features Koji Yakusho (the lead actor from "Shall We Dance" and the man in the white suit in "Tampopo") as an ex-prisoner who would rather talk to his pet eel than open up to the young woman who comes to work in his wharfside barber shop. But some things are outside his control...
"Torment" (a.k.a. "Hets"; 1944), directed by Alf Sjoberg, was Ingmar Bergman's first screenplay, a dark, compelling melodrama of a sadistic Latin teacher and two young people he afflicts. Filmed on location in Stockholm.
More about the film here.
Alexander Payne's "Citizen Ruth" is a satirical film about a pregnant drug addict used as a pawn by both anti-abortion and pro-choice activists. The gritty Omaha setting reminded me of Dubuque and I liked the acting by a cast that includes Laura Dern, Swoosie Kurtz, Mary Kay Place, and Burt Reynolds. Roger Ebert liked it.
Black humor pervades "Odd Obsession" (a.k.a. "Kagi" or "The Key"; 1959), Kon Ichikawa's adaptation of Junichiro Tanizaki's novel about a middle-aged husband who uses jealousy as an aphrodisiac and his wife who is having an affair with his doctor (who happens to be engaged to the couple's daughter). A curiosity piece with stylish cinematography and editing (the curiosity it piques is to read the book on which this is based).
"Central Station" (a.k.a. "Central do Brasil"; 1998) is a Brazilian road movie about a middle-aged woman who makes money writing letters for people and her relationship with an orphan boy. In its favor, the film isn't not overly sentimental, but it lacks something. (I know not what.)
Roger Ebert appreciated it more than I did.
Want more? Film reviews from early 2001 through May 11, 2002
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