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A Fool There Was
Foolish Wives
For Your Consideration
Forbidden Planet
Foreign Correspondent
Four Months, three Weeks, and Two Days
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Flirting 1991 John Duigan (Australia) 3.0 Noah Taylor as Danny, Thandie Newton as Uganda girl attending the school across the lake, Nicole Kidman as Nicola, the seemingly priggish snobby girl who finally however expresses an interest in sex. Coming of age comedy about life in a boy’s prep school in rural Australia and the girl’s boarding school across the lake. Focuses on the exploits of Danny, a nonconformist who reads Sartre and Camus (and Marx in the film’s postscript), is the butt of a lot of jokes by cruel classmates (this is high school, after all), and then develops a searching, eventually sexual relationship with the also non-conformist, half African girl played by the beautiful Newton. Fairly standard adventures -- caning by the sadistic teacher (Jeff Truman), Danny’s challenging the school jock to a boxing match and getting the shit kicked out of him, a debate between the two schools that unexpectedly leads to bonding between the two principals because of their nonconformist presentations, Danny rowing across the lake to visit Thandie, the two of them running away to a motel, having sex and then being caught and humiliated by the teacher authorities. Fair amount of emphasis on sexual discovery – Danny’s ejaculation with his clothes on, the two in bed, etc. Tone is the kids are wiser than their elders give them credit for – they are searching, learning in the process, and growing up. Seems to be focused on the insular, backward nature of Australian society – the sexual revolution has come (it seems about 20 years after it came to the USA) and the adults better recognize it; also the insularity and white snobbishness of Australia is challenged by the African student, and the kids are supposed to have learned something by the tragedy of Thandie’s father far from the shores of Australia. Film grates at times because of the know-it-all tone of Danny’s statements and of Thandie’s attitude.


The Fog of War 2004 Errol Morris 4.0 A tall, fit-looking 85-year-old Robert McNamara with thin dark hair and still wearing his trademark glasses being interviewed by Errol Morris. Outstanding film documentary recording Robert McNamara’s experiences from his birth, college at Stanford, serving under Curtis LeMay in the Air Force in the Pacific in World War II, where he brought his Harvard-imparted statistical method to bear on maximizing the efficiency of the bombing raids against Japan in 1945 (he agrees with LeMay that they both would have stood trial for war crimes if the USA had lost the war), his innovations at Ford Motor Company in the 1950s where he seems to have been most proud of introducing safety features into Ford cars, and the focusing on his experiences as Defense Secretary – the Cuban missile crisis and of course his contribution to the Vietnam War. McNamara looks old, but he is fit, clear, definitive, informative, concise, sometimes eloquent as when he warns about nuclear war, sometimes emotional as when he recalls choosing the grave site in Arlington Cemetery for John Kennedy; for some reason Morris films him up close a lot revealing his rather rickety lower bridgework. He is bent on drawing the lessons from his long experience, which are presented to the viewer as 11 lessons, about four of which are memorable and useful. The film begins with a harrowing account of the Cuban Missile Crisis: McNamara asserts that we missed nuclear annihilation through a combination of luck (American leaders had only the vaguest notions of what was happening in Cuba) and “empathy with the enemy”, i.e. knowing how to deal with the insecure Khrushchev; he emphasizes on several occasions that during the Cold War and unlike the past, generals could not afford to make mistakes since it could easily have led to complete destruction of the developed countries of the world. He is reticent about his responsibility for the Vietnam War, indicating that he was the loyal subordinate serving a president elected by the people of the USA. He and Kennedy essentially decided in 1963 to withdraw most of the American military advisers from South Vietnam, but the accession of Johnson changed that. The attack against the USS Maddox in August 1964 was probably genuine. On several occasions he proposed to Johnson – sometimes formally in writing – that the USA wind down the war or begin a withdrawal; Johnson always refused, saying that no further countries in Southeast Asia would fall to the Communists; his relationship with Johnson gradually worsened until he was fired (he thinks) in early 1968. The style of the documentary is riveting: as usual, there is no narrator; the only voice aside from McNamara’s is Morris’ callow one occasionally asking a question; when McNamara is recalling a particular period, Morris adds fabulous archive footage, one of the more memorable shots being of Curtis LeMay standing before a map in 1945; Philip Glass’ score, sounding like virtually any other he has written, adds urgency and a sense of nervousness. An enlightening documentary that draws the viewer into its heart.


Food, Inc. 2008 Robert Kenner 3.0 Well-known muckraking documentary on the "industrial food system" now gaining increasing currency in the USA. Essentially the day of the small and medium independent farmer is over, and ever since MacDonalds put on the screws for lower costs (1960s? when they firerd their carhops), big-scale efficiency has been the name of the game. The program cites some convincing statistics to indicate concentration, and then interviews a number of individuals to prove its point. The woman whose sons was killed by salmonella poisoning testifies on her grief (heart-wrenching) and recounts how her efforts to have Congress pass a law giving the FDA the power to shut down offending businesses have been blocked by lobbyists. Individual meat growers are interviewed to show how the major meat packers force them to follow their efficiencies; if they don't, they are dropped, harassed, and they often are run out of business; since cattle waiting to be slaughtered stand for days on end in their own feces and urine, one wonders about the impact on the health of the consumer; incidentally, the author throws in several sequences in which animals to be slaughtered are mistreated cruelly. Soy bean growers tell us how the success that Monsanto had in patenting their modified gene (due perhaps to the likes of Justice Clarence Thomas; it makes their plants immune to Roundup) have forced almost all soy bean farmers in the USA to knuckle under to the company. They are no longer allowed to save seed for the following year's crop; if they do, they are sued by Monsanto, and even if Monsanto loses in court, the little guy is ruined by legal costs. Long segment on corn cultivation: since all grains in the USA are heavily subsidized by the Feds, grain merchants are able to deliver their product to food processors at exceedingly cheap prices, which in turn enables the marketing of cheap, calorie-rich foods responsible for much of the obesity and other chronic ill health in the country; one Mexican family testifies that they are forced to feed fast food to their children since it is so much cheaper than buying vegetables(carrots and vegetables are really that expensive?)! The program has a surprisingly positive attitude toward Walmart, following extensively their decision to market milk free of artificial additives and to sell organic yogurt; the Walmart spokesperson says that in doing so they are just following the wishes of their consumers. The program finishes with a praise of natural, organic foods, and pleads with the consumer to vote three times a day by eating healthy foods and giving the farmers of America the opportunity to go back to their roots and produce good food that will improve the well-being of Americans. One suspects a little bias in the presentation and choosing interviewees who agree with the author's position. Nevertheless, eye-opening and sometimes eloquent.


A Fool There Was 1915 Silent Frank Powell 2.5 Theda Bara, Edward Jose. The debut vamp film of Theda Bara, based on Kipling poem, “The Vampire.” Jose is wealthy lawyer destined for even high things, when he is seduced by scheming, cunning, ruthless Vamp Bara; he goes to seed drinking himself into insensibility, abandoning all his professional duties and his family, and completely subjecting himself to his mistress; he cannot return to his former life, and finally dies. Bara is outrageously campy in her home wrecking role – dark hair (Bara was naturally blond), pale with heavy dark makeup, proud, pitiless, money hungry, mocking in her harem clothes, gold lamé and feathers, not an ounce of softness, mercy or pity in her -- the ultimate femme fatale. Seduction is constantly intercut with pictures of suffering wife who is not going to abandon her husband under any circumstances, little dramas in the sunlit home (all of Jose and Bara’s scenes are very dark), and scenes of his little girl playing innocently, praying piously for the return of her Pop, etc. Climax in successive visits of wife, who is trumped and humiliated by Bara, and then of the child, who must look on in horror as her father collapses begging on the shoulders of his mistress, who remains hard and pitiless and reveling in her power over her lover and over his wife. No nudity and no sex, barely even a kiss until the end. Tone is very sentimental – comparing the corruption of Schuyler’s life with the innocence, fidelity and happiness of family life, and showing the wages of sin – degradation and death; but of course we may enjoy the scandal and titillation until the end.


Foolish Wives 1921 Erich von Stroheim 4.0 Erich von Stroheim, Maude George, Mae Busch. Amazing early silent feature produced by Carl Laemmle; first movie to cost more than $1 million, thanks to EVS’ financial profligacy. Print is very poor, even hard to see, especially toward the end; apparently a lot of footage is missing. Wonderful atmosphere evoking Monte Carlo, the gambling, gay social life, the soldiers hanging around, etc. EVS pulls out all the punches as actor, and is usually effective and moving as the virtually conscienceless Old World crook. Very advanced film technique: EVS is an effortless visual storyteller with interesting and effective close-ups, expressive editing; titles are both dialogue, and poetic interludes evoking the values and the life of the place. Theme is meeting of morally corrupt old Europe, especially the corrupt Russian aristocracy, and the naïve and often clueless Americans, who are more or less sitting ducks. EVS obviously has no affection for the old upper classes, who stoop to corrupt practices (promiscuous seduction, escroquerie, etc.) in order to survive. Reminds you a little of Henry James, but without the affection for the European upper classes. The evil pay in the end – EVS murdered after raping (?) a mentally retarded girl, and his two accomplices arrested. One supposes the married couple will restore their relationship and move on, but certain ambiguity at the end.


For Your Consideration 2006 Christopher Guest 3.5 The usual line-up of Guest players – Guest as the rather distracted director of the film being made; Catherine O’Hara in a bigger role as an experienced but extremely insecure actress who thinks she is up for an Academy Award; Fred Willard in his usual hilarious bit as ‘ET’ type TV talking head with a modified Mohawk and one corny, offensive wisecrack after another (“Oh, that French movie. Drives me crazy with the writing on the screen.”); Parker Posey in her usual hysterical role as a young actress whose head is turned by buzz that she might also get an AA nomination; Ricky Gervais hilarious as the president – “suit” – of Sunfish Classics who puts pressure on the writers (one of whom is Bob Balaban) to “tone down the Jewishness” so the film will sell (“The title change would be great!” “I’m a gentile and I don’t say ‘Hey, come and look at my foreskin!’”)(The title of the movie gets changed from ‘Home for Purim’ to ‘Home for Thanksgiving’); Eugene Levy, also with an outrageous hairdo, is an incompetent agent who specializes in getting commercials for his clients and who is always covering up his ineffectiveness. For once, there are too many characters – Guest barely walks past the camera several times; the two writers are underdeveloped, and the incomparable Levy would have savored more exposure (the movie is only 80 minutes long). A send-up of movie-making in Hollywood (the company, Sunfish Classics, is making an independent movie); it is not the usual mockumentary approach, but a narrative of the making of the movie punctuated by a lot of viciously satirical excerpts from celebrity-type Hollywood TV shows such a ‘ET’ and ‘The Tonight Show’. ‘Purim’ is an outrageously sentimental Southern drama about Catherine as the Jewish mother who is dying of consumption (?) during the family Purim celebration; the daughter has returned with a lesbian lover and of course she has a painful discussion with her mother in her bed; all players have fake Southern accents reminiscent of Bette Davis in ‘Little Foxes’, which O’Hara is watching on TV at the beginning. But most of the attention is on the publicity campaign being ratcheted up including Posey being interviewed by smartass, potty mouth disc jockeys, rap dancing with a black music host, etc. O’Hara gets a lot of laughs when she dresses up with major make-up and screaming décolletage for the publicity campaign. Willard’s great scene – he goes out to interview the three losers after they are not nominated: Posey is caught in a diner, the actor playing the father is already back to making commercials, and Willard catches O’Hara drunk in front of her house throwing liquor bottles into the trash. At the end the actors have returned to stand-up nightclub acts (Posey’s ‘No Penis Intended’), working in commercials (“hula balls”), or teaching acting. Very funny if not quite up to the dramatic standards of ‘Best in Show’.


Forbidden Planet 1956 Fred Wilcox 3.0 Leslie Nielsen (!) as Skipper, Walter Pidgeon as Morbius, Anne Francis as Alta. Landmark 1950s sci-fi film that transcends the typical monster picture of the epic, although it has a good, though invisible, monster. Excellent print. Perhaps first A sci-fi film, MGM, in Cinemascope, with often impressive special effects – space ship miniatures moving through spectacular space close to the planet (impact on Kubrick?), well-designed spaceship interiors, machinery, and laboratories, a little Bauhaus 50s, but obviously high quality; the flying saucer is one of the few of the epoch that looks like it is really flying. Robby Robot is good-natured, benevolent servant robot programmed to have no emotions and to work at our beck and call; he simply obeys with the limitation that he cannot harm human beings; reminds one a little of HAL in ‘2001,’ except that he never turns against his masters, but remains supinely obedient (cannot harm even the Id of a human) as the life and limb of humans are threatened by the Id monster at the end. Acting is positively wooden and campy (Francis!), except perhaps Pidgeon, who enjoys thundering out wisdom and predictions; hilarious to see Leslie Nielsen in very early serious role (his character has no sense of humor!). Uniforms are Star Treky, smooth and unattractive. The weapons are the silly-looking ray guns of 50s pop culture. Some of the sets look too much like a Hollywood sound stage – the set in Morbius’ home and the one surrounding the landed spaceship look as if they were made from cutouts (but once he takes the officers into the underground Krel chambers, the design improves immensely). The direction is also clunky and wooden. What saves the movie are the ideas. After 20 years on Altair IV Morbius has taken on the intellectual and technological heritage of the Krels, except that he does not account for the continued existence of the primitive destructive Id that must have destroyed that civilization. Since he has the power of the Krels, he then uses that power to destroy the rest of the crew of the Belerophon (his pride or megalomania thus objectified into destructive monster), and then to attack Nielsen’s ships, this time because Alta has fallen in love with Nielsen, and the father (unconsciously?) wants to keep her for himself. The mid-1950s script however does not explicitly recognize this sexual rivalry. Thus final confrontation is between the forces of rationality and destruction, with the former winning when Morbius renounces the evil within him. He dies a noble death programming the planet and its dangerous secrets for nuclear destruction. Ends happily with crew, Nielsen, Alta, and Robby (who is now an enthusiastically obedient crew member) safely in the spaceship watching the distant explosion. Morbius and the suddenly more intelligent Skipper opt for slow progress for mankind so that we can grow into our knowledge and solve our problems responsibly; we will some day be “like God.” Film obviously warns us of the danger to our planet coming from ourselves (the Id) and from excessive dependence on technology. There is nothing apparently paranoid about it. The parallel to ‘The Tempest’ does not leap to the eye.


Foreign Correspondent 1940 Walter Wanger 4.0 Joel McRae, Laraine Day (her most prominent role), Herbert Marshall, Robert Benchley, George Saunders, Albert Basserman (as noble and much abused Dutch political leader who possesses the McGuffin), Edmund Gwenn (as a quirky assassin!). Print is first-rate. Outstanding light-hearted Hitchcock entertainment about Nazi espionage in Britain and Holland with heavily patriotic statement at the end urging the USA to build battleships to defend civilization! The whole cast seems perfect, despite Hitchcock’s opinion that McRae was too passive – script gives him a consistent personality that seems befuddled but that goes for the goal as soon as he is challenged (woo Day, find out who the assassin was, etc.). Day, who lights up the screen, is charming, dressed in impeccable fashions (favorite is the flower burst headdress and trim dark dress she wore at the Peace Society dinner); Marshall is the heavy who is betraying the peace movement, but he is sincerely attached to his daughter (he sacrifices himself at the end to save her when he is floating on the wing), and daughter explains to us that he may be misguided but he was being loyal to his own country (unspoken Germany). Script blends romance between McRae and Day, a geographically kinetic script like ’39 Steps’, ‘Saboteur,’ and ‘North by Northwest,’ danger (that we don’t take too seriously), a sense of humor throughout (Benchley in his self-written boozy, cynical character, Saunders a bit less cynical than usual), and a patriotic ring that urges Americans to admire (and rally to the defense of) Britain. Something of a return to director’s British movies: initially antagonistic relationship between guy and gal that soon melts, the trick of the missing kidnapped individual (‘Lady Vanishes’), the McGuffin whose exact nature no one cares about (all of them!), quirky little cameo characters that add humor (the Latvian gentleman with the Jack Benny smile, who is attached to the Peace Society, reminds us of Peter Lorre in ‘The Man Who Knew too Much’), etc. Most impressive are the set pieces, all of which show verve and imagination. The meeting of the Peace Society has seamlessly editing and moving camera, quirky characters, a mysterious occurrence, and the beginning of the romance between McRae and Day. The assassination scene in the public square in Amsterdam is first rate: enormous, highly detailed (!) 10-acre set, the rain pouring down, the surprise assassination by the man with the revolver next to the camera, the flight of the assassin through the sea of umbrellas identified from a crane shot (later imitated by DePalma in ‘Bonfire of the Vanities’), etc. The windmill scene with its outstanding murky, dusty, decayed interior, the initial gimmick of McRae noticing that the windmill blades are reversing directions (a signal to the plane), unexpectedly stumbling upon the real Van Meer (surprise – who was assassinated?!). Less compelling and more standard perhaps is the suspense scene at the top of the Westminster Cathedral tower, where we wait for Gwenn to push McRae off to his death (but of course he steps aside and Gwenn takes his place). The best is the final sequence: the realistic detail of the interior of the Pan American Clipper cabin; the German warship shoots down the plane with anti-aircraft fire, whose explosions one can see through the plane windows; the panic of the passengers; the impact scene with water rushing into the cockpit without a cut; the mortal predicament of the passengers as the plane fills with water and begins to sink; their precarious situation on the remaining fragment of the wing with massive seas raging around them; Marshall’s sacrifice for his daughter and future son in law, of whom he approves; their rescue. On several occasions the camera peers through a window at the beginning of a scene and then enters the room through the pane (Hitchcock’s voyeur instinct). The script defends the intrepid initiatives of the press, and celebrates the Shirer Battle of Britain broadcasts in the last (probably tacked on at the last minute) scene. How is it possible to have more fun watching a movie?!


Four Months, three Weeks, and Two Days 2007 Cristian Mungiu (Romania) 3.5 Anamaria Marinca as college roommate of girl getting an illegal abortion in Romania in the 1980s; Laura Vasiliu as the extremely innocent and clueless 23-year-old seeking the abortion; Vlad Ivanov memorable as the insistent, focused abortionist. Memorable film about a young girl seeking an abortion in Caeusescu Romania. Film is a classic realist ethic – long-running scenes with no cuts (the one with the family of Anamaria’s boyfriend is the most memorable: 10 minutes?), extended sections on mundane activities such as getting dressed, chatting about various subjects at a birthday party, walking down a deserted street (true, it can evoke tension and an awareness of potential danger), lying in bed waiting for the abortion procedure to take effect, long, repetitive instructions about lying still and the possibility of hemorrhaging from the abortionist, etc. Characters are clearly and interestingly drawn – the maddeningly passive and whiny Vasiliu, her more proactive friend who has to make a number of sacrifices (tension with her boyfriend, having instant sex with the abortionist) to help Vasiliu secure the abortion, the matter-of-fact abortionist who seems competent but vaguely threatening. The picture drawn of Caeusescu Romania seems dead accurate – gray and featureless, decaying, unkempt high rise apartment buildings, surly bureaucrats working at the hotels, a general sense of oppression and fear, especially since abortion is punished severely at that time, etc. Film is gripping, since it effectively evokes tension associated with the abortion procedure – will they be caught by the authorities (but it turns out that the bureaucrats working at the hotel reception could not care less), will the abortion procedure that is performed in the hotel room lead to the death of the girl (especially since the abortionist speaks at length about the possibility of hemorrhaging), etc. True to its realist commitments, the film does not appear to have any definite point of view about abortion – it shows the grisly physical effects (the aborted fetus lying on the bathroom floor) and the emotional toll (at the end the girls are silent and promise never to talk about it); it also focuses on the price society pays for making abortion illegal – the sneaking around, exposing one’s life to a person with questionable qualifications, etc. A gripping, memorable film.