|
THE BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN
*****
USSR
It's becoming increasingly fashionable to pick apart the sacred cows of
cinema (and for things like Lord of the Rings and The Shawshank Redemption
to ransack the space formerly reserved for the likes of Intolerance and
L'Atalante on greatest film polls). And the day draws nearer that
Eisenstein's tour de force reconstruction of the stunted 1905 Kronstadt
revolution will be stripped off what Pauline Kael termed its "unholy
eminence". And admittedly the earlier sections are a tad choppy and
repetitive. And there is only anthropological value to its
slant on recent history and its cartoon message.
But be wary of anyone who'll tell you there's nothing more to
this dinosaur than the [still incomparably harrowing] Odessa Steps
sequence. They probably haven't seen the rest. So they wouldn't know about
the startling, epic fervour of the sailors' uprising or the dreaminess of
the mist encroaching the ports of Odessa or the sheer bewildering
awesomeness of the fleet reunion that closes Eisenstein's masterpiece.
dir/ed: Sergei Eisenstein
wr: Sergei Eisenstein, Nina Agadzganova-Shutko
ph: Edouard Tissé, V. Popov
cast: Alexander Antonov, Vladimir Barski, Grigori Aleksandrov,
Mikhail Goronorov, Levchenko, Repnikova, Marusov
CHESS FEVER
***
USSR
The rare example of a Soviet comedy, this one revolves around the Russians'
obsession with chess and how it threatens to destroy a potential marriage.
Amusing, if unmemorable.
dir: Nikolai Shpikovsky,
Vsevolod Pudovkin
cast: Vladimir Fogel, Anna Zemtsova
THE GOLD RUSH
*****
USA
In maybe his most famous outing, Chaplin's Tramp is pitted against the
thugs and blizzards of the Klondike gold rush. He's pursued by a bear, he
morphs into a man-sized chicken, dangles off a snowy precipice, feasts on
a pair of boots and performs the dance of the rolls. When Chaplin commits
to these setpieces, so does every joint and muscle on his face, limbs and
torso. It isn't only his inventiveness but also his zest and unflappable
conviction that makes him freshly endearing upon countless repeat
viewings.
wr/dir: Charles Chaplin
cast: Charles Chaplin, Mack Swain, Georgia Hale, Tom
Murray, Betty Morrissey, Kay Desleys, Joan Lowell, Malcolm Waite
THE JOYLESS STREET
***½
Germany
Poor people suffer in Vienna after World War I.
This was the movie that ensured Garbo's ticket to L.A. And it's not
hard to see why. Her acting isn't particularly well judged - none of the
acting is - but purely to look at, she is ravishing. The film itself is a
routine melodrama with a heavy handed social conscience and too many plot
lines that often get very confusing. But under the supervision of the same Pabst
that soon after went on to direct The Love of Jeanne Ney,
it does boast several
flashes of inspired direction.
dir: G. W. Pabst
cast: Asta Nielsen, Werner Krauss, Greta Garbo, Valeska Gert,
Agnes Esterhazy
|
LADY WINDERMERE'S FAN
****
USA
A disreputed London woman threatens to reveal herself as the mother of a
popular young sociality, who believes her dead.
The concept of adapting an Oscar Wilde play into a silent film remains
a confounding one, and the a full two hours shouldn't necessarily have
been devoted to this plot, but in Ernst Lubitsch's capable hands, the
picture is far from
lacking in wit and elegance.
dir: Ernst Lubitsch
wr: Julien Josephson
ph: Charles Van Enger
ad: Harold Grieve, Edgar G. Ulmer
cast: Ronald Colman, May McAvoy, Bert Lytell, Irene Rich, Edward
Martindel, Helen Dunbar
THE LOST WORLD
***
USA
Yes, the effects are crude and cartoonish. And yes, the story is just
barely stitched together to showcase an exotic jungle with dinosaurs, a
menacing ape-man, a volcano eruption, a dinosaur's rampage down the
streets of London and a completely redundant romantic subplot (at one
point, a title card reads "What difference does it make where we are
Paula - so long as we are - together"). It's all good primitive fun,
and valuable at least in that it serves to highlight the impressive
technical - and storytelling - advancement of "King Kong" (1933).
dir: Harry O. Hoyt
cast: Bessie Love, Lewis Stone, Wallace Beery, Lloyd Hughes,
Arthur Hoyt, Bull Montana
MASTER OF THE HOUSE
**½
Denmark
An abusive, ungrateful husband gets his comeuppance.
Reportedly this is what encouraged the French to hire Dreyer for a Joan
of Arc biopic. The acting is nicely restrained and the lesson progressive,
but the plot doesn't justify a feature length.
dir: Carl Theodor Dreyer
cast: Johannes Meyer, Astrid Holm, Mathilde Nielsen, Karin
Nellemose, Clara Schønfeld
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA
****½
SEVEN CHANCES
****
USA
A financial broker on the verge of bankruptcy stands to inherit seven
million dollars if he marries by 7pm.
Buster Keaton turns a creaky premise into a delightful vehicle for
himself. He ends up getting chased across town by a horde of past-their-prime,
would-be brides. An unrecognizable Jean Arthur has a cameo as a
switchboard operator.
dir: Buster Keaton
cast: Buster Keaton, T. Roy Barnes, Snitz Edwards, Ruth Dwyer,
Frances Raymond
VARIETY
**½
Germany
When this circus love triangle
melodrama premiered in the US, reviewers raved about the artistry of its
cinematography and encouraged Hollywood to pay attention. In surviving
prints the lensing appears rather pedestrian by Karl Freund's usual standards, but the acrobatics are inventively staged, relieving the
story's tedium.
dir: E. A. Dupont
ph: Karl Freund
cast: Emil Jannings, Lya de Putti, Warwick Ward, Maly Delschaft
|