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Inglourious Basterds
Inherit the Wind
Innocents aux mains sales
Io sono l'amore
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Inglourious Basterds 2009 Quentin Tarantino 3.5 Christoph Waltz as slimily polite and worldly SS Jew-hunting officer, who turns out to be opportunistic; Brad Pitt sometimes entertaining when he is spitting out his Tennessee drawl as chief of the Basterds; Melanie Laurent often forgettable as large-nosed Jewish woman who owns a movie theater in Paris; Diane Kruger as Bridget von Hammersmark, an Allied agent (or is she?) behind German lines; Daniel Brühl as innocently charming, often barely believable German war hero; Sylvester Groth entertaining as outrageous Joseph Goebbels parody; Martin Wuttke as extremely ugly, over-the-top Hitler; Mike Myers unrecognizable as British general; Rod Taylor even more unrecognizable as degenerate-looking Winston Churchill. Extremely entertaining film ostensibly about Jews taking revenge on Germans and Nazis in World War II France. Divided into five chapters that are narratively connected, but the film can be appreciated more as a series of exercises in filmmaking, parody of Hollywood conventions, spectacle, baroque, extreme violence (the viewer if treated to several graphic scalpings), over-the-top acting, etc. The intersecting assassination plots that dominate the second half of the film are pretty ludicrous (Laurent proposes to burn her own theater down with all Nazi dignitaries present; British agents with help from the Basterds plan to blow it up with explosives attached to their legs like terrorists), but they provide lots of opportunity for cliff-hanging suspense, and it is fun to see Hitler, Goebbels and Göring consumed in the final Götterdämmerug. The film plays with the revenge motif: the Basterds are sent into German-occupied territory not just to kill the Germans, but to maim them and make them suffer, just as the German treated the rest of Europe, in particular the Jews. The first scene is memorable: set in as pristine French countryside, we watch with increasing unease as the ever polite and worldly Waltz in his conversation with a wary French farmer gradually closes in his Jewish victims hidden below the house’s floorboards. Another nicely executed Tarantinesque scene is the tavern scene, in which a threatening and veiled conversation with an SS officer (played with creepy persistence by August Diehl) has the audience squirming in its seats; the scene segues into a Mexican Standoff with three revolvers pointed at the testicles of two characters, and a final shootout in which the only survivor is Kruger. Conversations are always interesting, but they are sometimes long-winded and having a hard time getting to the point (we all know what Waltz is after; why do we have to wait so long?). The film is too long for the plot that carries it – a good war melodrama on the same subject should come in way under two hours; but we are never bored since there is so much entertaining stuff, interesting music (Morricone in the first scene), scandal, laughs, violence, etc. to keep us involved. The film has a tighter narrative thread than ‘Pulp Fiction’, but like its predecessor it may be appreciated more for its parts than for the whole.


Inherit the Wind 1960 Stanley Kramer 4.0 Spencer Tracy, Fredric March, Gene Kelly, Claude Akins. Title is from Proverbs: “He that troubleth his own house will inherit the wind, and the fool shall be servant to the wise….” Fictionalized, dramatized account of the famous Scopes trial in Tennessee in 1925. Terrific, crisp bland and white photography, camera moving when needed to record facial expressions, show events and reactions in courtroom, etc. A veritable slugfest of acting. Great example of liberal-oriented issues films made in the 1950s. The only false note is Kelly, who is mannered, overacting, and always looks as if he should break into dance. Spencer Tracy is grave and weighty and delivers big emotional, professional punch, although he sometimes looks like he is enjoying breaking the china a bit much; his powerful delivery is however usually effective, especially in scene when he breaks down Brady (Bryan) on the stand and when he is supposed to be the bully. March is even better as Brady, who has a big heart and who shows compassion in the beginning before he gets taken entirely with the joy of combat, is totally devoted to a literal belief in the Bible, has a terrific oratorical voice (even if the content is a bit smarmy), but who appears to be in bad health and whose performance is a bit over the hill; he loves to pose, and crack folksy witticisms at the expense of the opposition. Art direction is excellent and believable, especially in the courtroom scenes – we really believe we are there. The atmosphere is circus and carnival like, especially in the beginning, although the media frenzy is downplayed (radio is introduced by Jack Klugman in the last scene). Fundamentalist religion is handled roughly -- Claude Akins as fire and brimstone preacher who threatens people with hell and in the process alienating his own daughter. Townspeople are at first 100% against Drummond, but after his manipulations and the excesses of Brady, they sort of swing behind the teacher out of sympathy (and he is after all one of theirs). The script has the viewer choose moderation among the extremes of aggressive secular progress, and the obscurantism of Brady, and the nihilism/total cynicism of the Mencken figure played by Kelly; after being repeatedly characterized as Godless, Drummond says at the end that Brady reached too far to find his God (implying that Drummond believes in God who is around us at all times), and then condemns Mencken for his godless relationship-less cynicism. Harry Morgan is good and solid as judge who, although siding personally with Brady, strains to keep the proceedings fair, and then gives into political pressure and assessing a very small fine at the end of the trial. Conflicts are heightened by including fictional relationships – the preacher and his daughter are fighting over his intolerance and religious violence; she in love with the teacher, and she must in end choose her future husband over her father, whom she leaves. Think about including chapters 1, 10, 13, 15, 16 (29 minutes).


Innocents aux mains sales 1975 Claude Chabrol (France) 2.0 Rod Steiger pretty bloated and intense as “murdered” husband (it is very hard to imagine Romy Schneider moaning with pleasure when he makes love to her at the end of the film), Romy Schneider blank faced (with very large eye sockets) as his wife who plots with her lover to do away with him, Jean Rochefort as piquant defense lawyer who jokes a lot with his client and keeps her from being imprisoned. So-so whodunit thriller that specializes in plot twists – the police begin with a missing persons investigation, but we are led to believe that boyfriend and Schneider have murdered Steiger; then Steiger appears perfectly alive indicating that he has turned the tables on the lover (since he had known about their plot well before they tried to carry it out, he was ready for them); and then even boyfriend reappears from behind a door with a revolver in his hand, explaining that Steiger was too much a pussy to kill him like he had intended to. Film makes a stab at character individualization – Steiger impotent and then rediscovering his love for his wife (hence the hot sex!), and Schneider liking a young lover in the beginning, but beset by conscience qualms and returns to her husband at the end (although their reunion is ruined by his fatal heart attack). Set in St. Tropez, although film takers little advantage of cool location. Interior shots of palatial home are inexplicably ugly and claustrophobic. Acting is not impressive: Steiger blusters and suffers too much (and he is hard to look at); Schneider has a nice nude scene in the very beginning, but she remains stony-faced, marmoreal, impassive throughout the film; Rochefort is quirky and amusing and his repartee with the examining magistrate is fun to watch, but the attempt at Hitchcock-style humor with the two police inspectors – they are always eating and drinking while talking over the case – falls pretty flat. Not vintage Chabrol – too much emphasis on whodunit plot, doesn’t work well with English-speaking actors, not enough thematic depth.


Insomnia 1997 Erik Skjoldbjaerg (Norway) 3.5 Stellan Skarsgard as Swedish police inspector with mixed record called to northern Norway to investigate the apparent sex murder of a high school girl; Sverre Ousdal as Erik Vik whom Stellan kills by mistake in early fog on the coast; Marie Bonnevie as local police inspector charged with investigating the murder of Vik – she senses that Stellan is hiding something. Dark, slow-paced psychological study in the form of a thriller about a policeman’s aberrant behavior and guilt. Key event is that Stellan decides not to accept blame for the death of his partner, but to blame it on the murderer they were seeking. The film is set in the season of the midnight sun above the Arctic Circle where light is always bright around you and it is difficult for Stellan to sleep mainly because of his guilt about the death of his friend; the sun is a metaphor for the eye of God and truth that makes it difficult for Stellan to be at peace with himself. The filmmaker also uses bleak landscapes and abandoned waterfront factories to suggest moral decay and desolation. Stellan goes from bad to worse, as he sexually molests a teenage girl that was a friend of the murdered girl, attempts to rape the receptionist of the hotel he is staying in, and plants incriminating evidence in the room of the victim's former boyfriend. The film suggests that sexual frustration is at the root of his misdeeds. Most interesting twist is the growing collaboration between Stellan and the murderer: for a while the two cooperate to clear each other of their murder/accidental shooting and blame it on the boyfriend; the viewer learns more about the sexual maladjustment of the murderer, who had decided to pass from the fantasy of writing about sex and murder to actually doing it, and about the elastic morality of Stellan, who is willing to resort to almost anything to stay in the clear. The collaboration unravels in the end when the two have a confrontation in an abandoned seaside factory, and Stellan passively watches the murderer drown after he has fallen through rotten floorboards into the ocean. In the end Bonnevie uncovers evidence that Stellan killed Vik, but she decides not to turn him in, although she lets it be known that she is aware of his moral corruption. Stellan leaves the North with an apparent success, but he – and we – know that he is seriously compromised. Although slow moving, the film holds one's attention because of its psychological complexity.


Insomnia 2002 Christopher Nolan 3.5 Al Pacino gaunt and exhausted as LA detective in trouble with Internal Affairs called to a small town in Alaska to help solve the murder of a teenager; Robin Williams under control but wierd as the murderer/author of detective novels; Hilary Swank as naive, bright-eyed local Alaskan detective; Martin Donovan as hapless sidekick of Pacino accompanying him to Alaska. American remake of 1997 Norwegian film; this time the remake is as good as, or better than, the original. This film plays with the same subjects: Pacino is in trouble from manipulating evidence in his previous job; he is a tough character devoted to his job but rough around the edges – he is sexually attracted to teenage girls, he has a hair-trigger temper, and he can't sleep at night (hence his chronic look of exhaustion); Pacino strikes up a kind of relationship with Williams, the perp, although it is ambiguous in this version whether he is playing him along for the arrest or really attracted to a like-minded individual. The American version is more plot-driven and less bathed in existential Angst: Donovan is a friend of Pacino, which makes Pacino’s anguished reaction at his death understandable; Pacino actually has a motive to kill Donovan, thus leaving the viewer in doubt as to what happened that fateful day in the fog; the US version adds an attractive young woman, who spends a good part of the film on camera with Pacino; Pacino's inability to sleep is more explicitly due to his bad conscience of having killed his partner rather than a negative existential bath; Pacino does not have sex with the teenage girl nor apparently with the hotel receptionist (?), but in professional style resists their interest in him and focuses on his job; the final confrontation between Pacino on the lake includes Swank, whose heroic actions add drama and excitement to the action; the film ends with Williams and Pacino shooting one another to death -- Williams falls in the water and we see him floating eerily face up in the transparent water, while Swank mourns over the body of Pacino. Whereas in the Norwegian film, the detective returns to Sweden chastened but with the challenges of his life continuing, the American one is brutally tragic and moving, even more so since the straight-arrow Swank forgives Pacino and offers to hide the evidence that he shot his partner. As this film was shot in the fog shrouded inlets and lakes of the Canadian Pacific coast, it is far more picturesque than the Norwegian film, although retaining the small-town, isolated feeling of the original. Pacino’s performance is aggressive and dramatic – lean, face lined with fatigue, tortured by his inner demons, and yet conscientious and often empathetic; his death was beautifully and movingly played. Both films are good; and they illustrate nicely the differing tendencies of European and American films.


Intermezzo 1939 Gregory Ratoff 2.5 Ingrid Bergman radiantly beautiful as young music teacher who falls unwittingly in love with Howard; Leslie Howard as handsome though somewhat callow Swedish concert violinist who finds himself drawn to Bergman despite his marriage; Edna Best as dowdy, colorless, patient and forgiving wife of Howard; Ann Todd as overacting, too eager-to-please adorable daughter of Howard and Best (about 10 and being groomed as the successor to Shirley Temple?). Typical love story with Bergman and Howard running off to Italy in an adulterous liaison after much hand-wringing and hesitation; Bergman never seems to have much fun (perhaps not advisable for an adulterer under the aegis of the new Code) and she is of course stricken with her bad conscience (she has broken up a marriage); when she and Howard return to Sweden, an unrelated tragedy almost strikes when his daughter is hit by a car, but she survives, and when Bergman cuts the tie, Howard is reunited with his waiting wife. The husband returns to his marriage in order to satisfy the Hays Code. Movie is quite conventional, set in an upscale middle-class home in Stockholm inhabited by the ideal American-looking couple. Howard is rather tepid as a lover; only Bergman lights up the screen with her glowing, sincere young face – she steals every scene she appears in, especially in her close-ups. Film is suffused with quiet symphonic music playing Scandinavian classics, especially Grieg. It has an impeccable finish (D.O Selznick’s specialty), and perhaps as a result it lacks vitality, vibrancy, and spontaneity; actors' lines often seem rehearsed and stilted. The film is interesting mainly to see Bergman’s first appearance in an American film and to study the work of Hollywood’s interior designers and set builders.


The Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1956 Don Siegel 4.0 Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter. Superior low budget, paranoid 50s sci fi about invasion of forces bent on replicating and replacing human beings. Big emphasis on the threat to our individuality, our emotions, our ability to be excited and enthusiastic, the experience of love, the enjoyment of beauty. The pod people who replace us look exactly like us but they are like robots/automatons. “They’re taking you over cell for cell, atom for atom. There is no pain. Suddenly, while you’re asleep, they’ll absorb your minds, your memories, and you’re reborn into an untroubled world.” They take over when you go to sleep and your guard is down. Under their regime, “There’s no need for love…Love, desire, ambition, faith. Without them, life is so simple, believe me.” There will be no emotion. Big question is – is this a critique of communism that turns us into political robots, subverting us from every side while our leaders bury their heads in the sand? Or are the authors addressing the forces of conformity in American society, and perhaps even criticizing the public’s craven acceptance of McCarthyism? Special effects play a minor role – only the major scene in the hothouse with the rapid development of the slimy pods into human replicas. Paranoid atmosphere; it takes place in a small town where everybody knows everybody and the town is cut off from the outside world; the atmosphere becomes especially intense in the latter scenes, when it is clear to our protagonist that everyone else in the town has already been transformed. Lots of chills and little shocks as the doctor and his girlfriend figure out what is going on, and then discover little by little that their friends and relatives have been turned into pod people. Ends with beloved Becky finally falling asleep (when the transformation takes place), and Doc has to flee, now entirely alone. Ends somewhat ambiguously with emergency room personnel in another town finally taking Doc seriously and calling the FBI and police, but not clear on whether the campaign to get them will be successful. The prologue and the ending were tacked on by the studio to play down the paranoia of the script; the film should have ended with the scene where Kevin McCarthy wanders in the freeway (dangerous!) shouting, “You’re next!” But this was apparently downbeat for the studio.


Invictus 2009 Clint Eastwood 3.0 Morgan Freeman doing his best to be as friendly, courtly and relaxed as Nelson Mandela (but don’t expect a convincing South African accent); Matt Damon essentially with little personality, dutiful, focused and beefy (he gained a lot of weight!) as François, the captain of the Springboks, South Africa’s national almost all-white rugby team (his accent is more convincing); Marguerite Wheatley beautiful and sexy but with little to say as Damon’s South African girlfriend. Well-made, Hollywood-style film about Nelson Mandela’s successful attempt to use the 1995 Rugby World Rugby Cup as vehicle to unite white and black South Africans in a common patriotic endeavor. The famous ‘Invictus’ poem from Victorian England is used as an inspirational piece. Mandela’s challenge was daunting, since white and black are pitted against one another in the wake of Mandela’s election to the presidency in 1994: Damon’s father is constantly making cynical, racist remarks even in the presence of his black maid (Eastwood cuts to her when the dad makes the observations) and the black ANC radicals are trying their best to abolish the Springboks name and colors. Mandela is presented as a secular saint, who despite his suffering 27 years in prison at the hands of the Apartheid government, holds no grudges and makes it clear that he will do all that he can to ensure the loyalty of both black and white South Africans, even to the point of standing up against his black supporters when they want revenge against whites. He is optimistic, conscientious, determined, courtly with the ladies (he always has a compliment to his female assistants), although he does not pursue them; he is chagrined that he is separated from his wife (the infamous Winnie Mandela) and alienated from some of his children. The film does a nice job of showing the tension between the two ethnic groups; the halting union of whites and blacks in the president’s security detail show the difficulties but relative success of Mandela’s program (the blacks end up getting excited about the Springboks’ progress). The second half of the film is a ‘Rocky’-style sports triumph. In the beginning the Springboks are an embarrassing team in international play, but thanks to a challenging coach, the inspirational leadership of their captain, Francois, and the unflagging support of the president, they rise to a mighty finals confrontation in Cape Town with an intimidating team from Samoa. A well presented 20 minute coverage of the game yields a close 15-12 win for the South Africans and plenty of opportunity for the mostly white audience to savor the victory of reconciliation. The film’s point if of course facile: huge problems remain in South Africa to challenge the nation beyond the rugby victory. Well made Hollywood-style athletic triumph film with a political subtext.


Io sono l'amore 2009 Luca Guadagnino (Italy) 3.0 Tilda Swinton pulling out all the thespian stops as Russian-born matron of wealthy Milanese industrialist family; Flavio Parenti as her handsome, intelligent son; Antonia Biscaglia as gourmet cook in the family kitchen, good friend of Parenti, and eventually lover of Swinton; Pippo Delbono as Swinton's decent, competent, but apparently not romantic enough husband. Exquisitely photographed and acted 'Dynasty'-style soap opera set among the lives of a wealthy Milanese family. The narrative is steamy but often buried beneath thespian heroics of Swinton, who is a repressed powerhouse of emotions, and the aesthetically exquisite cinematography and editing. The film focuses on the declining fortunes of a traditional industrialist family (apparently exploited Jewish workers during the war) not able to resist the temptation to sell out to a seductive Mephistophelean American with a Taliban beard, who sings the praises of globalization and “moving to the next level.” More central is the focus on the outsider status of Swinton; it is always apparent, but it breaks into crisis when she find out that her daughter is a lesbian and she falls for the family cook, who is going to open a restaurant in the San Remo hills with Swinton's son; the crisis atmosphere culminates with the accidental death of Parenti, the extreme and desperate grieving of Swinton, and then her sudden departure, apparently to live happily ever after with Biscaglia since they are pictured after the beginning of the end credits in a cave. The film extends the 'amour fou' tradition of French films, whereby the lovers recklessly throw off the constraints and inhibitions of stuffy civilization, declare their lust for one another in the most inappropriate of circumstances (right after the death of Swinton's soni), and exile themselves to somewhere outside the city; thrown in also is a bit of D.H. Lawrence, with Biscaglia as the earthy male stud who satisfies his woman ecstatically, and rhapsodic shots of blooming flowers and buzzing insects as the couple make love in the meadow. No doubt that the cinematography is usually strikingly beautiful -- from the romantic, rutting riot of the coastal mountains and meadows to the carefully controlled sepia-toned and classically balanced shots of the interior of the cold, elegant palazzo, to the textbook demonstrations of the moving camera following a character down the steps, into the next room, and then back up the steps after a surreptitious kiss with his lover. The film has an episodic driving score from John Adams that includes ‘The Chairman Dances’. The cinematography and editing are often self-conscious and thus distracting the viewer from an appreciation of the characters and the narrative. Many interesting things in the film popping out at the viewer, but they aren't brought into a satisfying dramatic whole. Guadagnino needs to take a lesson from Truffaut or Woody Allen -- just make the film and let the characters and the narrative speak for themselves.