Geum.ru

Gsc films e-m the Eagle

Вид материалаДокументы

Содержание


Life of Brian
The Life of Emile Zola
The Lincoln Lawyer
The Lineup
Little Children
The Little Foxes
Little Miss Sunshine
Подобный материал:
1   ...   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33

Life is Sweet 1991 Mike Leigh (Britain) 3.5 Jim Broadbent, Timothy Spall, Rather more cheerful Mike Leigh treatment of lower middle class English life. A few days in the life of Andrew, Wendy and their two daughters. Takes place in row house in Middlesex (whole movie is shot on location); most takes place in cramped interiors. Lower class English accents are very difficult to follow, except with the girls. A lot of problems - daughter Nicola is bulimic and does kinky sex (bondage and smearing self with chocolate) with her boyfriend when parents and twin sister are out of the house; father dislikes his job as sort of sous-chef and he dreams of owning his own snack wagon business; friend Tim Spall’s dream is to open his own restaurant, but when he does with Wendy’s help, not a single customer shows up. Wendy is the optimist; she is always cracking jokes (and her husband willingly joins in), and while Nicola is whining and complaining, she keeps at it dusting her little figurines. All seems to be going poorly (even Dad has broken his leg at work and is in pain), when Mom and Nicola have a heart-to-heart. Nicola is miserable, but Wendy explains to her that she cannot just “give up hope;” Timothy has not, Dad has not (every time she looks at his rusted snack wagon she cringingly recognizes that he still holds to his dream), and twin sis has a dream of going to America. With difficulty, Nicola begins to come around. After having semi-confessional talk with sister, film ends with an extended silence, suggesting the possibility of change. Poetic and exact in its modest and unassuming way. As usual, big emotional payoff when mother and daughter finally get around to speaking their minds. Good Leigh magic.


Life of Brian 1979 Terry Jones (Britain) 4.0 Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, et al. Continuation of ‘Holy Grail’ madness in satire of Holy Land, Romans, Middle Eastern Revolutionaries, Christian story. Brian is born the same time as Jesus; apparently not the Messiah, but mistaken for one, and then tried and crucified by Romans, ending film with famous musical number “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.” Sets, Roman military costumes, and locations (Tunisia) are very vivid and real, which makes for intense comedy when Python troop gets geared up. Objects of humor. Schoolboy stuff: Brian is corrected by centurion Cleese when scribbling ungrammatical anti-Roman graffiti, and Cleese makes him write slogan 100 times; the People’s Front of Judea denounces Romans among selves, but makes exceptions for roads, aqueducts, viticulture, law and order, etc.; classic gay-bashing scenes when Pilate and his boyfriend Biggus Dickus lisp and slur like gays, and soldiers laugh despite desperately trying to suppress it (like school kids in a church), and later the Jewish crowd in square double up in laughter when hearing the boys’ accents. Jews in Roman times – they are bizarre, excitable and unpredictable, much to befuddlement of their Roman rulers; they also participate enthusiastically in barbaric customs like stoning people (Cleese). Roman brutality is satirized (Pilate orders “throw him to the floor!”) and the bloody brutality of the gladiatorial contests in the Jerusalem Colosseum, whose floor is strewn with severed limbs, etc.; Roman are insulted when victims insist that crucifixion is not painful. The blind infighting of Mideastern revolutionary groups: they won’t speak to one another; when two happen upon each other in attack against Roman palace, they fight among selves rather than against Romans; they don’t know how to hide themselves when their house is being searched by Roman soldiers. Much on the tendency of Cleese’s People’s Front of Judea to talk, debate and pass resolutions rather than to take action; finale is when a delegation arrives in front of Brian’s cross and reads a statement expressing their appreciation of his sacrifice. Ultimate absurdity is the appearance of a suicide squad of about ten in front of Brian’s cross, and they commit hara-kiri. Also some slams on Christians: Brian and others preach in parables, etc., but are not firebrands, but extremely boring; “’Blessed be the peacemakers’ is mistaken for ‘Blessed be the cheesemakers;’” crowd of Jews follows Brian devotedly and undertake all sorts of weird cults – holding up his sandals, his gourd, proclaiming the miracle of the juniper bush; most outrageous is when they become enthusiastic upon catching a glimpse of Brian’s penis. Ends perfectly with Idle and chorus’ rendition of “Always look on the bright side of life.”


The Life of Emile Zola 1937 William Dieterle (Warners) 3.5 Paul Muni as Emile Zola in beard and pince-nez fighting for truth and justice in the Dreyfus Affair, Joseph Schildkraut in smaller role as Captain Dreyfus (seen mostly on Devil’s Isle), Gale Sondergaard as the noble and long-suffering Lucie Dreyfus, Donald Crisp as the dynamic lawyer Labori. Effective Hollywood version of the Dreyfus Affair, that focuses on Emile Zola, presenting him as a noble man of conscience who sacrifices his much deserved retirement to crusade selflessly for the wrongly convicted Dreyfus and to struggle to restore truth, justice, reason and benevolence to the French character. Very balanced depiction, which, although not always historically accurate (e.g. it much simplifies the process of revision), gives an accurate impression of what it was all about – impassioned defense of the army, idealist politicians crusading for liberty and truth, political upheaval and near riots in the streets; names of most of the principals changed, although we keep Picquart, Henry, etc. Picquart presented as hero for truth inside the army, Esterhazy not nearly as seedy as he really was. All performances are good, although Muni’s AA role is a bit over-heated: he presents Zola as quirky, fussy, absent-minded, lovable, gesticulating, chin jutting out, a bit bug-eyed with lots of tricks in his rhetorical bag – seems that he rather overacts. Drama focuses on Zola’s trial, which is exciting, well-paced with compelling conflicts and speeches (from Crisp and Muni), and guilty verdict of Zola carries story through to the next phase of revision. 1937 movie emphasizes the cause of truth and justice and the essential nobility of France – probably the usual Hollywood pro-Allied slant. Excellent late 1930s Hollywood product.


Lifeboat 1944 Alfred Hitchcock 3.0 Tallulah Bankhead as spoiled society lady trapped on a life raft with a group of survivors after their boat was sunk by a German submarine in World War II; William Bendix lovable but sometimes dull as seaman who has his leg amputated; Walter Slezak restraining himself as German U-boat captain who also ends up in the life raft; John Hodiak as tattooed tough guy who hits it off with Bankhead; Henry Hull as wealthy industrialist; Hume Cronyn (Hitchcock pal) as British radio operator; Canada Lee as black steward, who is kept to the side during most of the film. Unusual Hitchcock film that takes place on one small set – a lifeboat – with a limited number of actors talking at great length against a process backdrop of the ocean. The film has virtually none of the thriller characteristic typical of Hitchcock. Typical of Hitchcock’s yen in the 1940s to make film experiments. Editing and cinematography are expressive and aggressive: a lot of cutting and also camera movement among the different players and tracking in as they exchange remarks. The process shots are excellent – they always seem realistic, and dramatic moments of an intense storm and the shelling and destruction of the German supply ship at the end are convincing and welcome after the talkfest. The screenplay is well written, focusing on the delineation of character, the contrasting of the social backgrounds of the characters, and the depiction of attitudes and conditions during World War II. In usually natural conversation (the exception being Bankhead’s wild cackling when she realizes that she has lost all her prized possessions [raincoat, bracelet, typewriter, etc.]), Americans and British of all persuasions must come together to ride out the emergency. The attitude of the film toward the Germans is somewhat ambiguous: on the one hand, Slezak and the German seaman who climbs into the lifeboat at the end show their viciousness and ruthlessness (Slezak pushes a defenseless Bendix over the side and the sailor draws a pistol), but on the other hand Slezak uses his physician’s skills to amputate Bendix’s leg to save his life and – for some reason – he rows the boat steadily in the middle of the ocean. The good guys can also be ruthless: when they become incensed with Slezak because he has hidden a compass and some drinking water from them, they gang up on him like a bunch of vigilantes and expel him from the boat to drown. The film is moderately patriotic, although it also focuses on the damage done to the home crowd – dismemberment, suicide, vigilante justice, etc. Bankhead is especially entertaining to watch, especially if the viewer is familiar with her life style and the fact that ‘Lifeboat’ was virtually her only good movie.


The Lincoln Lawyer 2011 Brad Furman 3.0 Matthew McConaughey charming, glad-handing, and conscience-stricken as criminal defense lawyer in Los Angeles; Marisa Tomei as more or less decorative ex-wife sharing custody of their daughter; Ryan Philippe as rich kid from Bel Air accused of brutal beating of pretty (of course) prostitute; William H. Macy as McConaughey’s colorful investigator; Josh Lucas as smart, hard-hitting D.A.; Frances Fisher as Philippe’s formidable wealthy mother who is used to getting her way. Entertaining courtroom-detective mystery centered around McConaughey’s razzle-dazzle courtroom performance and his tender conscience about never allowing an innocent man to end up behind bars (he has few conscience qualms about putting dangerous men back on the streets). The film presents vivid pictures of McConaughey’s lifestyle driving around in his chauffeured limousine among the riffraff of LA, which include a motorcycle gang that executes a much needed beating of his client toward the end of the film. The plot is very convoluted: McConaughey is hired by Philippe’s family to defend him from an attempted rape and assault charge; our hero dives in with enthusiasm, but with the help of Macy he discovers that his client is guilty as accused and that he had committed the murder of another prostitute for which another client is serving time in San Quentin; the rub is that McConaughey is supposedly bound by his legal duty to continue to defend his client against the assault charge, which is distasteful for him especially since someone murders Macy; he succeeds in getting Philippe off and then maneuvering to have him arrested for the previous murder; he also finds out that it was Philippe’s mother who killed Macy, and he guns her down (Wild West!) after she shoots and wounds him; and McConaughey’s tender conscience is satisfied in the end. The film is quite entertaining: McConaughey is engaging, there are plenty of colorful characters (Tomei is quite attractive, although she doesn’t have much to do with the story); the courtroom scenes are fun if superficial and legally inaccurate (all sorts of Perry-Mason-style speeches and reversals that no judge would countenance), and the plot is twisty and intriguing, if often incredible and mechanical, e.g., the police arrest Philippe at the end on what appears to be flimsy evidence. One has to wonder about a film in which the lawyer pulls off little cons to make a buck and impress his clients and who hires his thuggish friends to beat up his client with baseball bats (“hospital not morgue”). Well executed entertainment vehicle.


The Lineup 1958 Don Siegel 3.5 Raymond Bailey as the lead inspector; Emile Meyer as no-nonsense inspector assistant to Bailey; Eli Wallach as Dancer, the professional criminal called to San Francisco to make a drug delivery; Robert Keith, his partner who tries to keep the volatile Wallach from doing too much damage; Richard Jaeckel in smaller role as the Wheelman driving for Wallach and Keith. Good Don Siegel vehicle based on a TV show (the San Francisco version of Jack Webb’s LA ‘Dragnet’). Starts with a bang with a man grabbing a suitcase at the SF docks, the cab driver running over a policeman, and then crashing his car when he is shot by the dying policeman. The first part of the film is a police procedural as Bailey and Meyer figure out what is going on (drugs being smuggled into the country via unsuspecting tourists). The film then switches to the attempt of Keith, Wallach and Jaeckel to pick up other smuggled drugs in the City; Wallach encounters the mysterious ‘The Man’, and then they are tracked down on the unfinished Embarcadero Freeway (since torn down) after a very exciting, well filmed chase. Memorable is the clean, no-frills, functional direction of Siegel, who propels the film forward with great energy. Wallach is memorable as the psychotic Dancer, who has a sort of father-son relationship with Keith; he kills his pick-up contacts without compunction (one in a steam room scene with steam swirling thickly), and finally turns on Keith and shoots him in the back when they are cornered by the police. The views of 1958 San Francisco (the same year as Hitchcock shot ‘Vertigo’) are spectacular and picturesque, especially in the chase that runs from the Sutro Baths (since burned down), past the Golden Gate Bridge and the Palace of the Legion of Honor to the dramatic ending on the Embarcadero Freeway. Two deaths stick in the memory: the wheelchair-ridden The Man being pushed through a railing off a balcony to the ice-skating rink at the Sutro Baths, and Wallach falling down several freeway levels to his death at the end. Although often referred to as film noir, the film is a straight late-50s crime thriller (‘The Killing’ and ‘Dragnet’) – no chiaroscuro, no femme fatale, no overriding sense of doom, etc. Very entertaining movie with hard-driving action, great locations and memorable characters.


Little Caesar 1930 Mervyn Leroy 3.0 Edward G. Robinson as Rico, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. as his friend Joe who prefers dancing! Glenda Farrell as his true love girlfriend who dances with him, Sydney Blackmer looking young and handsome as the big crime boss in the city. The first of the Warners crime movies that introduces Robinson to the world. The film is early sound, amateurish and dated: the camerawork is unimaginative and clunky and the fade-outs at the end of scenes are usually anti-climactic, the dialogue is occasionally arresting, but usually stilted and hesitant, the acting is hard to watch with the exception of Robinson; Farrell and Fairbanks vie with one another for the awkward acting prize; the film even has a few title cards to tell us what is happening. Rico is ruthless, and except for his friend Joe, does not hesitate to kill his enemies, a good example being his man Tony whom he guns down on the steps of a church (Walsh seems to have copied this in his ‘Roaring Twenties’); he is very ambitious and jumps at the opportunity to move up the gangster food chain (you gotta “be somebody!”) – he even consider bumping off Big Boy toward the end; he is macho and will not take an insult and always talks tough; he considers dancing and hesitating to kill a friend to being “soft”; independent, he resents taking orders from anyone; he glares when he is threatened and sneers in his nasal voice; very materialistic, he likes cigars, snappy clothes and the latest in art deco interior decoration; everybody think he has “brains”, but he is careless and his fall is just as fast as his rise to fame and power. Some excitement is generated by the duel between Rico and Sergeant Flaherty (Irish of course), who toughs just as tough as the crooks; in the end the cops gun down Rico through a publicity sign (advertising the dance team of Fairbanks and Farrell) with a tommy gun, making one wonder what the difference is between the cops and the bad guys. The business of the crooks is a bit vague – they rob stores and banks, but there is no mention of Prohibition! Print is in decent condition, although picture and sound are both a bit weak. The film interests mostly film historians and those who want to see the beginnings of Edward G. Robinson.


Little Children 2006 Todd Field 3.5 Kate Winslet as suburban mom with an MA in literature who is unhappy with her masturbating husband (Gregg Edelman); Patrick Wilson as stay-at-home dad who has failed his bar exam several times and who falls for Winslet; Jennifer Connelly as knock-out documentary filmmaker and cold and bossy wife of Wilson; Jackie Earle Haley as little weirdo Ronnie who has just been released from prison for a sex offense and is now living with his mother; Noah Emmerich as “retired” policeman whose seething anger has him leading the persecution of Haley. Kind of slice-of-life film set in a green, peaceful New York suburb, where well-off people experience the Angst of prosperity – Winslet and Wilson end up screwing in the laundry room and the attic while the kids are taking their two-hour naps; Haley is very bizarre (he masturbates in a car while his first and only date looks on in despair) although with a deep-down sweet soul, and he cannot fit into the community; the mothers in the town are gossipy, pretty, and harsh, and all are horrified that a sex offender has been placed in their town and that he even comes to the immaculate public pool; Emmerich is angry, macho (he induces Wilson to join a take-no-prisoners touch football team composed of snarling cops), and ill-tempered. Film has a literary quality coming partly from the wise, pithy voice-over that comments the events like the omniscient narrator in a good short story; Winslet identifies with Mme. Bovary in a book club discussion. Film has no single narrative center, but oscillates between the saga of Wilson and Winslet, and the explosive combination of Emmerich and Haley. Intimations of salvation and epiphany at the end. An unseen hand seems to bring Wilson and Winslet to their senses after they decide to run away together: Wilson injures himself seriously when he (inexpicably) decides to skateboard jump with some local kids, and Winslet changes her mind when she encounters Ronnie in the park at night (audience is worried since he has a knife!); Winslet returns to her creep husband, one supposes, and Connelly shows up to support Wilson as he is wheeled into the emergency room. Meanwhile, Ronnie’s mother dies, and in despair he goes to the park with a kitchen knife and...castrates himself so that he can “be a good boy” as his mother instructed him; Emmerich, who in his attack has caused the death of Ronnie’s mother, discovers him and rushes him to the hospital in a fit of remorse and penance. Film reminiscent of soap operas, but ultimately it connects with truth in its exploration of the suburban middle classes. Expertly acted; every character is true and convincing.


The Little Foxes 1941 William Wyler 4.0 Bette Davis, Teresa Wright (first movie), Herbert Marshall, Richard Carlson, Dan Duryea, Charles Dingle, Patricia Comminge. Near perfect movie; adaptation of Lillian Hellman’s play by Hellman. Stunning black and white photography by Gregg Toland – clear, crisp, expressive; deep focus often to stunning effect, e.g., close-up on Marshall’s face and Davis in background next to window as they exchange barbs. Smashing Hollywood set, all textures perfect, rain outside coming down in sheets, giving impression of perfection that is strength of studio set movies. Action centers on the curved staircase in hallway of Giddens home – camera looking up, camera looking down, harsh words, and Marshall at end collapsing on staircase as he tries to get to his bedroom for heart medicine that Regina (Davis) won’t fetch for him. All performances are first-rate; no sign of film being a star vehicle for Davis, but Wyler coordinates and elicits performances into almost perfect ensemble (perhaps detestable, contemptible Duryea is exception). Davis outstanding as cold, heartless, haughty, calculating bitch with alternating blank and dagger eyes, and insulting tongue. Giddens is the respectable family that has some honor; the good sense and integrity rubs from father to daughter Alexandra; Birdie (Comminge) is wonderful as the decent, addled and tragic wife of Oscar, who has a great confession scene when she drinks too much blackberry wine. Hubbards are almost a caricature of greed. The conflict, plotting and vicious backbiting are almost unparalleled in Hollywood movies! They want to make a killing setting up cotton mill with help of Chicago investors and exploiting cheap Southern labor to the maximum. Then they turn on one another: Regina tries to get the upper hand over her brothers, Oscar and Ben (played with droll ruthlessness by Charles Dingle); then, when Horace (Marshall) won’t provide money, the brothers turn on Regina and steal Horace’s bonds; Horace turns tables on Regina, but then Regina refuses to get his heart medicine when he is dying; Regina gets last word by threatening to expose the brothers’ theft and she ends up with 75% of the investment. She negotiates her deal ruthlessly just a few minutes after her husband’s death. Film has social conscience as good characters object to the capitalists’ (New South) exploitation of poor people, black and white. Several Black servant characters, who are good people, but sometimes of limited intelligence, happy and feckless. Ends on upbeat: Davis will go to Chicago, but Alexandra refuses to go with her, showing that she is the daughter of her father; she goes off with Carlson, and it is apparent that Davis is frightened at the prospect of loneliness despite her prospective wealth; last scene of her looking through window.


Little Miss Sunshine 2006 Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris 2.5 Greg Kinnear as the dad whose hopes rest on marketing his nine-step, motivational, get-rich scheme; Toni Collette as fairly normal and often exasperated mom who labors to hold the dysfunctional family together; Steve Carell thin and bearded as the suicidal brother (of Collette) who is the top Proust scholar in the USA; Alan Arkin as Grandpa -- he has been kicked out of his nursing home and carries around heroin in his ubiquitous fanny pack. Story about quirky family that takes a road trip from Albuquerque to LA in a barely functioning late-70s VW bus (yellow and white) so that the plumpish daughter can participate in a beauty contest! A lot of things happen on the road -- including Grandpa's death -- that cause members of the family to face into their life challenges. The film is somehow not as seductive as it should be. One tires of the gloomy antics of the depressed son (he refuses to talk for most of the film); one wonders why Olive (the little girl) is involved in beauty pageants to begin with -- she is not the type; the kidnapping of Grandpa's body from the hospital en route and piling it onto the back shelf of the bus to take it with them to Redondo Beach falls flat. The most amusing aspect (for a former owner of a '78 VW van) ss the disastrous performance of the VW bus. The most annoying aspect of the film is its murky attitude toward the American devotion to success: it is mocked in the beginning, especially through Kinnear's absurd motivational program; and by the end of the film it seems that everyone has given up their dreams -- the son no longer wants to be a jet pilot, Kinnear has to give up on his motivational program (its marketing has been a failure), Olive has to accept that she cannot compete in beauty contests, and of course Grandpa is dead. The beauty contest is pretty horrifying: little girls dressed up like faux sexy monsters; the parents over the top; the family mocking it mercilessly by disrupting the final talent presentation. It seems that the family has a better idea than the American dream of success, but it is not clear what it is. The final scene has them driving down the freeway back to Albuquerque with the camera holding the shot until the bus disappears on the horizon -- but whereto?