L’Avventura (1960)

L’Avventura (1960)by Michelangelo Antonioni is a beautifully composed film; dreamlike is how I’d describe it. A group of upper-class eurotrash take their yacht out for a spin around the Greek isles. They stop to explore one of the small islands and after a quarrel with her detached lover one of the young girls goes missing. They never find the her. Her lover (the male) and her friend (female, maybe also her lover) continue looking for the girl, following clues and mysterious sightings, at first hating each other, then falling for each other, and at last revealing to each other their true identities, which of course, leaves their relationship a scruffy dog in an alley stealing food and dodging kicks.I could go on with some analysis of this movie, but it’s so beautifully filmed and the characters so dynamic that I’ll leave it open for discussion later.

Hard Candy (2005)

Hard Candy is a movie you won’t soon forget. Ellen Page, probably best known to the general public for her role as Kitty Pryde in 2006’s, X-Men: The Last Stand, plays a not-so-innocent 14-year-old girl whose fascination with older men met in online chat rooms leads to some nearly unbearable scenes. The film was ultra low-budget. It only cost 1 million to make, but you’ll never notice because the actor’s performances are so compelling and director, David Slade was meticulous in setting up the shots for maximum impact. The result is a very lush framework for the tense scenes to play out in.

Slade has another film in the works, a vampire movie titled, 30 Days of Night (scheduled for a 2007 release). Starring Josh Harnett. I’m not a big fan of Harnett, he was good in Lucky Number Slevin (2006), but horrible in The Black Dahlia (2006). I’ll probably wait to see this film on DVD…

Jonestown: The Life & Death of the People’s Temple (2006)

Jonestown: The Life & Death of the People’s Temple (2006) was a strange film to watch. I was 5-years-old when news of the mass suicide in Guyana hit the States. Of course, I wasn’t really aware of what was going on then, but as I grew older the tragedy stuck in my memory as a kind of curiosity never explored. Well, this film quelled my curiosity.

More than anything else, Jonestown was an exercise in faith. A similar instance occurred with David Koresh and the Branch Davidians in Waco, TX and the Heaven’s Gate people in California. What’s disturbing to me is the level of control the leaders have over their followers. Like the effect Muslim extremists have on their disciples who are coerced into carrying out suicide bombings. Scary shit, my man.

The Devil & Daniel Webster (1941) and The Devil & Daniel Johnston (2005)

The Devil & Daniel Webster (1941) and The Devil & Daniel Johnston (2005) are very different movies, though the titles are similar. I haven’t read up on why the Daniel Johnston film was titled as such. Johnston is a savant musician, brilliant with music but virtually incapable of taking care of himself. Daniel Webster was a political reformer, farmers advocate and lawyer who, in the film, successfully argues for a man’s soul that has been signed over to the Devil. The actor who plays Daniel Webster has a slight resemblance to Daniel Johnston and the relationship could be made that perhaps Daniel Johston gained his musical prowess through a deal with the Devil, trading his “soul” or sanity for musical ability (a la Robert Johnson, etc.). But why bother trying to explain such things? Had I not known there was an earlier film with such a similar name, I would have assumed The Devil & Daniel Johnston was titled in reference to the common myth of musicians selling their souls to the Devil. I’ve wasted much time on this subject and so will cease…

Of the 2 films, I preferred the Daniel Webster story. Though I haven’t read notes regarding restoration and transfer, Criterion has once again delivered an excellent product (of course, I got this film from the Cuyahoga Library System). The black and white footage is crisp and eerie, befitting this tale of greed and its consequences. The actors, unfamiliar to me, delivered interesting performances within the archetypes of their characters. The film is a moral tale within the context of pre-industrial America. Daniel Webster, an actual historic figure, is inserted into the tale to give it an original twist.

The Machinist (2004)

The Machinist (2004) starring an impossibly thin Christian Bale must be seen for Bale’s staggering weight loss. Bale dieted down to 120 lbs. appearing like a walking skeleton (as the writer of the original story had described the character). This takes starving artist to new territories. I won’t go into the story here, but this is a dark film among the likes of Memento.

I actually saw this film a few weeks ago, just remembered it!

Take the Money and Run (1969) & Matchpoint (2005)

I can’t remember what tipped me off to Woody Allen’s Take the Money and Run (1969). Allen plays a completely incompetent small time crook and would be bank robber. He meets a girl (Janet Margolin) while trying to lift her purse, they begin a love affair, have a kid and to make ends meet Allen’s character resumes the life of crime. It was a fun movie.

Matchpoint (2005), directed by Woody Allen, has none of the slapstick antics of Take the Money and Run. The location is London, a retired pro tennis player gets work as a trainer at a ritzy country club. He charms his clients and quickly finds himself seriously involved with a wealthy British family: best friends and tennis mates with the son and lover to the daughter. Enter Scarlett Johannsen: fiance to the son and object of desire to all who behold her. Tennis pro marries the rich daughter and quickly rises to prominence in father-in-laws business, but resumes an affair with Johannsen after she and the son split-up to disastrous consequences. The story is predictable, but the characters are winsome, the dialogue crisp and the plot tragic. Not the standard Hollywood shite.

Collecting fame…

I got a link from Yahoo! to Paul Schmelzer’s “signature” blog, “Signifier, signed…“. Unlike the average deranged fan who collects the autographs of celebrities, Schmelzer collects signatures of his own name penned by celebrities. Judging by picture on the site, Schmelzer sends a kind of form letter out and awaits the responses. If it wasn’t tongue-in-cheek humor and a little venom for the cult of celebrity, I’d think this guy was psycho. Maybe he is…he’s a former editor of Adbusters.

Black Orpheus (1959)

I wasn’t really sure what to expect with Criterion’s, Black Orpheus: was it a documentary of Carnival in Rio or was it a story? It’s actually a bit of both, the film is propelled by both the action and unfolding of the plot and the stunning photography. Each scene of the photography begs for it’s own feature. The filmmakers knew where to shoot and managed to capture complex and vivid imagery in nearly every shot. The story gets it’s bones from Orpheus and Eurydice of classical mythology. Got it from Cuy. Cty. Library.

Heaven Can Wait (1943)

I am very happy to have found Criterion’s Heaven Can Wait at the Cuyahoga County Library System. The movie is excellent, Don Ameche is excellent, playing his role at several ages as is Charles Coburn who plays “Grandpa”. Don Ameche’s character dies and ends up at the gates of Hell. While introducing himself to the Devil, a chance encounter with another soul destined for the pits piques the Devil’s intereset in Ameche’s story a recounting of his philanderous life follows. The writing is very good in this film as are the actor’s performances.

I have to add that one of the extras on this disc is a Bill Moyer interview with screenwriter Samson Raphaelson, longtime collaborator with Ernst Lubitsch. Raphaelson was a larger than life character that exuded energy and passion. As I mentioned above, Heaven Can Wait was very well written. I am impressed enough to seek out another Lubitsch/Raphaelson collaboration, Trouble in Paradise.

I hear Design for Living (1933), directed by Lubitsch is also good (though not written by Raphaelson).

March of the Penguins (2005)

March of the Penguins was actually a good movie. I wasn’t really that surprised though, having heard before the film’s theatrical release a bit about the filmmakers and the stunning footage they captured. The film is somewhat Disney-fied (though not a Disney movie), but the cuteness is balanced by the harsh reality that the penguins endure. The extras on the DVD are insightful and informative, shedding light on the process of filming a documentary in Antarctica.