What classics did you see last week ? (29 Mar - 04 Apr 2020)

Thanks again, tele.

Strangers In The Night / Anthony Mann (1944). Republic Pictures. Cinematography by Reggie Lanning. Johnny Meadows (William Terry), a WWII soldier, invalided out, goes to a small California town to meet Rosemary Blake with whom he had been exchanging letters after seeing her name and address in a book he picked up at the Red Cross. On his way there, he meets the local doctor, Leslie Ross (Virginia Gray) returning from a conference. He doesn’t react with amazement or horror at meeting a woman doctor like she has become used to from other people. When he arrives at Cliff House, Rosemary’s home, he meets her mother (Helene Thimig) and Mrs. Blake’s nervous, flighty companion/maid Ivey (Edith Barrett). Rosemary is gone but will be home in a few days, he is told. But days pass and Rosemary still doesn’t appear. What secrets does Cliff House hold? This was Anthony Mann’s fifth feature to direct and he is already fully engaged with film noir cinematography and tropes, including a foreboding staircase. As an actor, William Terry is an upright all-American hero type. Virginia Gray had a long career in supporting roles and leads in B-movies. Edith Barrett was married to Vincent Price from 1938-1948. Footnote: the movie has nothing to do with the Frank Sinatra song of the same title which would not be written for another 22 years.




The Brighton Strangler / Max Nosseck (1945). RKO Radio Pictures. Cinematography by J. Roy Hunt. Reginald Parker (John Loder) is the star of a hit West End thriller but when German bombers appear over London and hit the theater district, he is knocked unconscious. He wakes up dazed and believing he is Edward Grey, his character in the play. As Grey, he follows the plot of the play and goes to Brighton to take his revenge on the mayor and chief of police. This is a fairly light but also suspenseful tale that is also a little sad if you realize that the victims Parker leaves in his wake, those dead and those alive but grieving – and Parker himself - are all innocent people. The supporting cast includes June Duprez, Miles Mander, and Ian Wolfe, who often played English but was born in Canton, Illinois and raised in the United States. Thanks to teleadm and hitchcockthelegend for this recommendation.




Leave Her To Heaven / John M. Stahl (1945). Twentieth-Century-Fox. Cinematography by Leon Shamroy (4-time Oscar winner (with 14 other nominations), including this film). The ghost of Hamlet’s father tells his son to take revenge on his stepfather, but as to his mother, “Leave her to heaven.” Best Selling novelist Richard Harland (Cornel Wilde) meets and is captivated by Ellen Berent (Gene Tierney). Ellen comes on to him aggressively and announces without consulting him that they are going to be married, even though she is already engaged to upcoming politician Russell Quinton (Vincent Price). Quinton disappears from the film until close to the end but Price has a powerful return to the story. This film is all about Ellen, a controlling sociopath who slowly disintegrates. It is Gene Tierney’s greatest performance and she makes the most of it. The Technicolor is vivid and striking and sometimes garish. In the early going, Tierney’s red lips reminded me of those red wax lips you used to be able to buy for Halloween. Cornel Wilde even drives a purple automobile. But generally speaking, the unreality of the color is a positive factor. The movie starts out looking sort of Douglas Sirk-ish, that is, a lush romantic drama. This impression is reinforced by the underscore which has a symphonic sweep, going for a “Gone With The Wind” vibe, by 9-time Oscar winner (with 36 other nominations) Alfred Newman. The build to the revelation of Ellen’s real personality (or lack of it) is slow and deliberate but the payoff is worth the wait at near two hours. I’ll not get into the question of whether a film noir can be in color. I’ll just say that this is the genuine article for the femme fatale and for its portrayal of the hidden evil in a family. With Jeanne Crain as Ellen’s adopted sister, the good-girl contrast, and Darryl Hickman as Richard’s disabled brother who figures in the film’s most shocking scene. Chill Wills, Ray Collins, Reed Hadley, and Gene Lockhart are among the supporting cast. See this if you haven’t yet.




Cornell Wilde’s purple car is a 1941 Ford Super De Luxe Convertible Coupe



Personal Affair / Anthony Pelissier (1953). Two Cities Films. Cinematography by Reginald H. Wyer. Stephen Barlow (Leo Genn) is a Latin teacher in an exclusive private school in a town outside of London. In his class is Barbara Vining (Glynis Johns) who is heavily crushing on him. When he leaves school to meet his wife Kay (Gene Tierney), Barbara follows him at a distance. After Barbara comes to his house for tutoring she doesn’t return home. Stephen had left his house for a walk shortly after Barbara. The police start to question the relationship between teacher and pupil, Barbara’s father becomes hostile toward Stephen, and rumors fly around town – rumors so pervasive that Kay starts to believe them. Maybe we in the viewing audience start to believe them, too. I had never noticed before how much Leo Genn looks and sounds like James Mason. At 30-years-old, Glynis Johns is clearly not 17 but she always had a youthful appearance and could project a kind of innocence of first love that make her seem younger. Gene Tierney suffered from manic depression and during the period of this film she was having other emotional problems which, ironically, may have helped her performance as the jealous and tormented Kay.







Another streaming possibility for the time you are safe (not “stuck”) at home. The Metropolitan Opera is providing a full live opera production available everyday for 23 hours from 7:30p.m. to 6:30p.m. the next day (NYC time). All of the productions were former Saturday matinees that were live streamed to theaters in the past few years. This Tuesday I got my first look at John Adam’s “Nixon in China.” Starting tonight (Saturday the 4th) will be Verdi’s Macbeth which I will definitely catch and on Sunday into Monday, Bellini’s Norma, a must. Next week’s line up has just been put up as of this writing. Enjoy.

www.metopera.org/user-information/nightly-met-opera-streams/

Oh that one is fun - a Eurotrash VERTIGO (albeit not as good as Jess Franco's VENUS IN FURS from same era) I have it under the even more "come hither" title of PERVERSION STORY - a stylish giallo about assumed identities with a plot twist that has Jean Sorel getting his Susan Hayward moment as he faces the gas chamber!  SOREL WANTS TO LIVE!!! Marisa Mell and Elsa Martinelli make up an attractive trio of principals.

I have a 9hr 10 minute cut on 5 discs I paid a silly amount of money for about a decade ago. imdb says it 10hr original but sometimes TV stuff running time includes adverts....... No commercials here though .... I saw it originally on UK TV debut circa 1987/88. 

“The Ten Commandments” Distributed by Paramount Pictures, 219 Minutes, Rated G, Released November 08, 1956:

The movie is about as subtle as a sledgehammer and contains scenes and images so blatantly overproduced and larger-than-life that even during its original release in late 1956 they were more well-suited to the melodrama of the early silent film screen. But you just can’t say the movie isn’t effective and impactful, or deny its heart and soul. And even with a running time of nearly four hours it’s never, ever dull or boring, or allows the viewer’s attention to wander.

In fact, after being screened on American television every year since 1973 as an Eastertime staple, ”The Ten Commandments” has likely been seen by more people, over more generations, than can be counted. Originally released at the beginning of the holiday season in 1956, director Cecil B. DeMille’s mammoth epic religious drama, despite being quite possibly the most bombastic and audacious motion picture ever produced, is likely also one of the most inspiring...and without a doubt among the most entertaining.

The story of Moses, the onetime Prince of Egypt and heir to the throne of the pharaohs who discovers his Hebraic heritage and elects to follow a destiny of faith rather than a path of power and wealth, was filmed largely on authentic Biblical locations in Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula, and was for a time the most expensive motion picture even produced...with a budget of only $13 million in 1954 US dollars. By comparison, the latest “Avengers” opus cost some $356 million, and never left Atlanta.

Unless you’re already familiar with the picture or have seen it at least once, “The Ten Commandments” is nearly impossible to imagine or describe. Containing some of the most jaw-dropping special effects sequences ever produced--including one single shot which even more than sixty years later seems almost miraculous in its staging and impact--”The Ten Commandments” is actually a remake, or at least a partial remake, of the director’s own 1923 silent film epic of the same title (in the 1923 version, the life of Moses provided the basis for only half of a two-part picture).

Considered an entertainingly egotistical film tycoon by some and a shrewd and arrogant vulgarian by others, Cecil B. DeMille was at the time of his 1956 production the most consistently successful filmmaker in Hollywood. “The greatest art in the world is the art of storytelling,” DeMille said, often adding, “The public is always right.” And he gave the public what it wanted. Beginning his filmmaking career during the days of silent cinema with the squalid western “The Squaw Man” in 1914, by the time of “The Ten Commandments” DeMille had directed some 69 features--52 of them silent pictures, before 1929.

“The Ten Commandments” was DeMille’s final film as a director...and the production itself very nearly killed him. A notoriously harsh taskmaster with his production crew--many of whom worked with him consistently over the years through the course of several movies--DeMille while directing the picture’s Exodus scene from atop a scaffold suffered a massive heart attack...but despite doctor’s orders was back on the set three days later, megaphone in hand. The filmmaker considered “The Ten Commandments” his greatest achievement--a mission, a ministry, and a journey of faith. And he chose his cast well.

During the sixty-plus years since the original theatrical release of “The Ten Commandments” (the picture was re-released to theaters in 1966, 1972, and 1989, each time becoming a hit all over again) the larger-than-life performance of actor Charlton Heston as Moses has become a lightning rod for humor, parody, imitation, and caricature. Still, not one solitary critic or comic has ever claimed the performance is overripe, or suggested Heston was anything less than richly effective in the role.

The Biblical Moses the Lawgiver is a towering historical figure, one who transcends boundaries of belief and differences of faith, and whose actions despite having occurred some 3500 years ago have repercussions and relevance to this day. The most important prophet in Judaism, Moses is also celebrated in Christianity, Islam, the Baha’i Faith, and a number of other Abrahamic religions, and is embraced in cultures the world over as a genuinely pivotal figure of global culture--truly difficult sandals for a performer to fill.

In a movie which depicts the story of Moses quite literally from his birth until his death, in “The Ten Commandments” Heston inhabits the character from his reign as a Prince of Egypt, through his exile to the desert and return to Egypt as the long-promised savior of the enslaved Israelites, his guidance of the Nation of Israel across the Red Sea and through the wilderness, his ascent onto Mount Horeb to receive the Ten Commandments from the Hand of God himself, and his leadership of the Hebrews into the Promised Land--in other words, throughout the narratives of the Biblical Books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

One of the truly great voices in modern entertainment history--Orson Welles, James Earl Jones, and possibly Morgan Freeman are others--Charlton Heston is likely the solitary performer of his generation who could’ve effectively and persuasively fulfilled the role of Moses. Even towering figures such as John Wayne, Marlon Brando, Sidney Poitier, Sean Connery, or Paul Newman would’ve run a risk of self-parody or ridicule (Burt Lancaster performed the role to some acclaim a generation later, but in a vastly different interpretation of the story). The role of Moses in DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments” might just as easily have been a career-ending performance as a career-enhancing one.

Given his first important motion picture role in DeMille’s Academy Award-winning all-star circus spectacular “The Greatest Show on Earth” in 1952, the central performance of the then-unknown Heston in that picture as the harried but sympathetic circus manager (among a cast which included Betty Hutton, Cornel Wilde, Dorothy Lamour, Gloria Grahame, James Stewart, and a host of actual circus performers and personalities) was so richly authentic that many audience members believed Heston was the real deal--an actual Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circuit boss hired for the production.

Cast in “The Ten Commandments” when director DeMille perceived in Heston a strong resemblance to Michelangelo’s sculpture of Moses in Rome’s Church of San Pietro (according to movie lore, the director first offered the part to the young evangelist Billy Graham, who politely declined), the actor performs the role with seeming effortlessness and even relish, displaying a smirk and a swagger uncharacteristic of a player so young and inexperienced. Heston’s career as an actor was informed by the role of Moses, but never overwhelmed by it--the actor earned an Academy Award some three years later, for the title role in 1959’s “Ben-Hur.”

Standing eye-to-eye and toe-to-toe against Heston’s Moses through most of the picture is Russian-American actor Yul Brynner as Egyptian pharaoh and Moses’ adoptive brother Rameses II. Possessed of a steely demeanor and exotic dark looks, seemingly incapable of subtlety or nuance, Brynner’s performance style was likely more appropriate to the stage--the actor’s signature role was as Siamese King Mongkut in the original Broadway production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical “The King and I,” which Brynner played some 4625 times, winning the Academy Award for the 1956 movie version (Brynner shaved his head for the Mongkut role, and his bald pate became a kind of professional calling card).

Brynner’s oversized performance in DeMille’s picture, however, is perfectly modulated to the oversized production values of the director’s epic vision--the actor’s perpetual scowl, humorless demeanor, and effortless sinister treachery are richly effective without ever becoming overwrought...despite a tendency to enter a scene, strike a statuesque pose, and announce a line of dialogue as if he’s issuing a divine proclamation. Cast in “The Ten Commandments” after DeMille attended a Broadway performance of “The King and I,” the role of Rameses was Brynner’s second film appearance--although filmed afterward, “The King and I” was released a few months earlier.

The third corner of the romantic triangle which forms the primary subplot of “The Ten Commandments” is actress Anne Baxter as the scheming and manipulative but lovesick Egyptian Princess Nefertiri, who swoons over the virile Prince Moses but is coveted by his half-brother and rival Rameses. Having at the time recently completed her signature motion picture role as the title character in the critically-acclaimed 1951 backstage drama “All About Eve,” Baxter was surprised by the summons from Cecil DeMille for the Nefertiri role in “The Ten Commandments.”

In 1974, Baxter remembered, “(DeMille’s) office at Paramount was bursting with books, props, rolls of linen. He acted out my part and I kept nodding, and I walked out with the part.” Of the filming, the actress recalled, “The soundstage sets were magnificent. DeMille knew (the picture) was corny--that’s what he wanted, what he loved. I loved slinking around--really, this was silent film acting, but with dialogue. No shading was permitted. ‘Louder! Better!’ That’s what (DeMille) roared at everybody.”

The stellar supporting cast of “The Ten Commandments” includes such 1950s lumenaries as Edward G. Robinson, Yvonne DeCarlo, Debra Paget, John Derek, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Nina Foch, Martha Scott, Judith Anderson, Vincent Price, and John Carradine. Look fast for future stars Michael “Touch” Connors, Clint Walker, Robert Vaughn, and Woody Strode. Future Tijuana Brass trumpeter Herb Alpert can be seen in a small role...as a drummer. Former silent film icon H.B. Warner, who played Jesus in DeMille’s 1927 film “The King of Kings,” has a small part as the elderly man taken into the litter of Bithiah during the Exodus. And that’s Fraser Heston, the star’s baby son, as the infant Moses.

In a movie seasoned throughout with startling optical effects, the film’s depiction of the parting of the Red Sea as the Hebrews flee Rameses’ chariot-borne army is without question the most famous and effective special effect ever produced--so effective that even if the viewer knows, or thinks he knows, how the shot was accomplished (dumping 350,000 gallons of gelatin-enhanced water into an enormous retaining pool from both sides, framing the shot with matte paintings, and running the film backward, in slow-motion), it’s still nearly heart-stopping in its impact and intensity.

The secret? Stagecraft. A brilliant showman as well as a premier filmmaker, DeMille’s buildup to the shot is so effective that by the time the scene actually arrives (at about three hours into the movie’s running time), the viewer is almost ready to explode from the suspense of the events taking place onscreen. The entire sequence is so filled with action and spectacle that the experience is almost overwhelming to the senses--even the imperfections of the matte photography work in the effect’s favor. By the time the shot arrives, all the viewer’s mind can genuinely comprehend is that it’s witnessing an event unnatural to physical possibility or the realm of earthly phenomena.

In fact, the parting of the Red Sea was also depicted in DeMille’s silent 1923 version of the picture...and was accomplished in precisely the same manner. The shot was more effective in the 1956 version because of the advances in the cinematic art--modern Technicolor, sound recording, the dimensions of the VistaVision screen--and not modifications or improvements to optical effects. The majestic musical score by Elmer Bernstein also adds immeasurably to the picture’s overall impact. Still, in the opinion of many viewers who’ve seen both versions of “The Ten Commandments,” the Pillar of Fire effect which directly precedes the parting of the Red Sea is actually more effective, and more realistic, in the silent version.

“The Ten Commandments” premiered at New York City’s Criterion Theater on November 08, 1956, with DeMille and most of the picture’s primary cast in attendance. During the days before wide release patterns for important new releases, the picture played in “roadshow” engagements--in a limited number of theaters in large cities, with reserved seating--until June of 1958, when the picture finally entered general release.

Despite its limited release, “The Ten Commandments” was the most successful motion picture of 1956, earning an unprecedented $10 million in box office receipts...from just 80 theaters. By the time the picture finished its theatrical run at the end of 1960, it had earned over $122 million in ticket sales and overtaken “Gone With the Wind” at the American box office as the most successful movie of all time. Over the years, “The Ten Commandments” is estimated to have sold some 262 million individual tickets, and remains among the most successful movies ever made.

Bosley Crowther, the influential (and hard-to-please) critic of The New York Times, wrote at the time of the picture’s premiere, “As Mr. DeMille presents this three-hour-and-thirty-nine-minute film, which is by far the largest and most expensive that he has ever made, it is a moving story of the spirit of freedom rising in a man under the divine inspiration of his Maker. And, as such, it strikes a ringing note today.”

Vivid storytelling at its very best, “The Ten Commandments” remains to this day a timeless classic of motion picture entertainment.  With scenes of oppression and some bloodshed, the picture is rated G by the Motion Picture Association of America.



“Midsommar” Distributed by A24 Pictures, 147 Minutes, Rated R, Released July 03, 2019:

Movie theaters should probably have offered prizes for patrons who made it to the end of “Midsommar” without walking out, complaining to management, or becoming nauseous during screenings. This is not an easy picture to watch--no matter a viewer’s film preferences or moral sensibilities, “Midsommar” has something to outrage, sicken, infuriate, or horrify virtually everyone.

In “Midsommar,” Dani and Christian are a young couple on the brink of a breakup--Christian is just waiting for a convenient time to deliver the news to Dani that he’s leaving. But when Dani loses virtually her entire family in a shocking act of murder/suicide committed by her psychologically troubled sister, Christian chooses to postpone the breakup until Dani begins to recover from the trauma.

A few weeks later, Dani inadvertently learns that Christian and a few friends, graduate students studying for advanced degrees in anthropology, are planning to travel to one’s remote ancestral commune in northern Sweden. The friends hope to attend a nine-day midsummer festival--a fertility ritual which occurs only in a 90-year cycle, literally a once-in-a-lifetime sociological event. In an attempt to bond with her increasingly remote mate, Dani leverages Christian into inviting her to come along on the trip.

Arriving at the idyllic foreign settlement, the group of Americans are at first welcomed cordially and accepted into the company of the locals. But as the days pass and the foreigners become assimilated into the commune’s customs, it becomes increasingly apparent that they’ve delivered themselves into the hands of a pagan cult, and are about to become indoctrinated into a prolonged religious ceremony embracing elements of ritual suicide, regulated incest, corporal mutilation, and human sacrifice. And that the troubled Dani is beginning to feel a curious sense of belonging.

With scenes which exceed the impact of such controversial pictures as Ken Russell’s “The Devils” from 1971, Robin Hardy’s “The Wicker Man” in 1973, and even Wes Craven’s own “The Last House of the Left” from 1972, “Midsommar” becomes an extremely well-made and well-produced picture which relies on the viewer’s natural curiosity and respect for unfamiliar religious practices, along with a sympathy for the discomfort of strangers in a foreign land and the revulsion we feel for foreign customs outrageous to the sensibilities of western civilization.

Set in the land of the midnight sun, in contrast to other films in the horror genre, each scene in “Midsommar” is beautifully photographed in broad daylight--save for the opening American sequences and one brief nightmare segment, “Midsommar” contains no substantial nighttime scenes. There are few actual scares in the picture per se, but the sense of dread is palpable, and at times nearly overwhelming. And despite the graphic nature of the picture’s content, the images the filmmaker conjures in the viewer’s mind are infinitely worse. This is a movie which will haunt the viewer’s dreams for days.

Written and directed by Ari Aster, the journeyman American filmmaker responsible for 2018's surprise hit “Hereditary”--an unconventional and innovative horror film which itself earned more than its share of controversy--”Midsommar” is decidedly not for everyone. With echoes of Stanley Kubrick’s later pictures “The Shining” in 1980 and “Eyes Wide Shut” in 1999, this is a difficult, challenging picture, brilliant but often sickening, with scenes of shocking brutality, graphic carnage, and explicit nudity.

Along with another impressive performance from Florence Pugh, the critically-acclaimed British actress who appeared earlier in 2019 as WWE professional wrestler Paige in “Fighting with My Family” and earned an Academy Award nomination for her role as Amy in Greta Gerwig's version of "Little Women," “Midsommar” features supporting performances from an ensemble cast which includes standout turns from Jack Reynor, William Jackson Harper, Vilhelm Blomgren, Will Poulter, and Hampus Hallberg.

“Midsommar” earned impressive scores from the critics, including an approval rating of 81% from Rotten Tomatoes and 73% from Metacritic. Exit audiences polled by CinemaScore conversely assigned “Midsommar” a grade of C-plus. Distributor A24 Pictures expected to earn up to $10 million in revenues from the picture during the long July 04 opening weekend, and actually counted some $3 million in ticket sales by the end of the film’s opening day.

Actually filmed on locations near Budapest, Hungary, “Midsommar” is rated R for disturbing ritualistic violence and grisly images, strong sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use, and objectionable language. Proceed with extreme caution--this picture should probably have earned an NC-17 rating. Needless to say, “Midsommar” is not for the kiddies.



“Midsommar: The Director’s Cut” Distributed by A24 Films, Not Rated, 171 Minutes, Released August 30, 2019:

Anyone who’s ever enjoyed--or needed to unwillingly endure--a seemingly endless Swedish arthouse picture will undoubtedly find a jaundiced sense of amusement in the new 171-minute director’s cut of this past summer’s critically-acclaimed horror picture “Midsommar.”

Written and directed by filmmaker Ari Aster and originally released at 147 minutes, “Midsommar” earned only a little over $26 million in revenues during its original release, but elicited an unusually strong response from more discerning fans of horror pictures...which is especially noteworthy considering that the average horror picture rarely clocks in at longer than 90 minutes. In fact, many horror aficionados noted on social media venues that they’d be happy to sit through an even longer version of “Midsommar,” should one become available.

Although criticized during its original July release for its scenes of graphic violence and raw sexuality, it turns out that filmmaker Aster had actually trimmed some 22 minutes of footage from his original cut of “Midsommar” in order to avoid a dreaded NC-17 rating. The more restrictive NC-17 designation would theoretically have cut the picture’s revenues in half by prohibiting viewers under the age of 17 from attending screenings.

Well, be careful what you wish for: In response to the audience’s enthusiasm for the 147-minute version, Aster reinstated the deleted footage and re-released “Midsommar” in an unrated 171-minute version.

Is the new version better than the original cut? Well...yes and no.

In “Midsommar,” Dani and Christian are a young couple on the brink of a breakup--Christian is just waiting for a convenient time to deliver the news to Dani that he’s leaving. But when Dani loses virtually her entire family in a shocking act of murder/suicide committed by her psychologically troubled sister, Christian postpones the breakup until Dani begins to recover from the trauma.

A few months later, Dani inadvertently learns that Christian and a few friends, graduate students studying for advanced degrees in anthropology, are planning to travel to one’s remote ancestral commune in northern Sweden to attend a nine-day midsummer festival--a fertility ritual which occurs only in a 90-year cycle, literally a once-in-a-lifetime sociological event. In an attempt to bond with her increasingly remote mate, Dani leverages Christian into inviting her to come along on the trip.

Arriving at the idyllic foreign settlement, the group of Americans are welcomed cordially and accepted into the company of the locals. But as the days pass and the foreigners become acclimated to the commune’s customs, it becomes increasingly apparent that they’ve delivered themselves into the hands of a pagan cult, and are about to become indoctrinated into a prolonged religious ceremony embracing elements of ritual suicide and human sacrifice. Worse, the troubled Dani is beginning to feel a curious sense of belonging.

Filmmaker Aster acknowledges that he composed the screenplay for “Midsommar” as a sort of therapy while he was enduring the end of a romantic relationship of his own, so those viewers who perceived a sort of perversely mordant breakup subtext in the picture were not completely off the mark.

Reportedly the cultural rites depicted in the picture were exhaustively researched and have actual foundations in authenticity...although the controversial scene depicting “attestupa”--the ritual suicide among the elders of the Swedish cult--is now believed to have its roots in folklore instead of being a custom among ancient Nordic tribes.

Among Aster’s additions to the new, uncut version of “Midsommar” are a handful of clever touches and flourishes: Dani catches brief glimpses of her late family members among the congregation during cultural ceremonies, and finds at one point late in the picture that despite the obvious language barrier she’s suddenly able to communicate quite clearly with her Swedish hosts. If the details were present at all in the 147-minute version, they're amplified and augmented here.

Other changes are more cosmetic: Arguments between the characters are lengthened, providing more exposition and revealing more about the friction which exists between certain of the Americans. And Mark, the most abrasive of the Americans, is even more obnoxious in the Director’s Cut, although his ultimate fate is no less obscure.

One restored scene, directly following the “attestupa” and undoubtedly the sequence which placed “Midsommar” squarely in the crosshairs of the MPAA rating board, depicts the Swedish locals casting about for a child to sacrifice for the fertility of the earth and the success of future harvests. One young lad bravely volunteers on behalf of the village, but the commune’s elders decide the boy’s selflessness was enough--no actual sacrifice is needed. It was a fatuous addition to the picture, shocking only in context, and Aster was wise to delete it.

But the original version of “Midsommar” relied on the viewer’s natural curiosity for unfamiliar religious practices, along with the revulsion we sometimes feel for exotic customs outrageous to our own sensibilities and a sympathy for the strangers in a strange land. There were few actual scares in the picture per se, but a sense of apprehension and even dread was at times nearly overwhelming. And despite the graphic nature of some of the picture’s content, the images filmmaker Aster inspired in the viewer’s mind were infinitely worse.

The main problem with the longer director’s cut of “Midsommar” is that with the added footage, dialogue, and exposition, the filmmaker leaves relatively little to the viewer’s imagination--the worst of it is conveniently explained away. The movie’s impact has been softened, its punches pulled--in plain language, “Midsommar: The Director’s Cut” has been dumbed-down from its original version. Filmmaker Aster has removed from the picture the factor of the viewer’s own creative participation. And that was about 60% of the movie’s allure.

Given a choice between the 147-minute R-rated version of “Midsommar” or the 171-minute unrated “Director’s Cut,” go with the original. Even with no major nighttime scenes, the picture will scare the daylights out of you, and haunt your dreams later. The Director’s Cut is recommended mostly for those viewers who couldn’t afford a vacation this past summer, and seek the reassurance of watching somebody else’s foreign trip turn into a disaster.

Two films, both nominated for the Best Picture Oscar in their respective years, both dealing with a brief period in the seemingly ordinary, quiet life of a lonely woman. One is a film that I've seen several times over the years and I would enjoy seeing again; the other is one that I looked forward to seeing, but having gotten that chore out of the way, I never want to see again:

Rachel, Rachel (1968)--Paul Newman directed his wife, Joanne Woodward, in this quiet, melancholy look at one summer in the life of a lonely, depressed schoolteacher who feels that her life is going absolutely nowhere except possibly downhill at the age of 35. Feeling stuck in her existence living in her childhood home (above her deceased father's funeral home) and tending to her peevish mother, she longs for some other kind of life. Not a whole lot happens, yet the film never gets boring or depressing, but captures the title character's quiet introspection effectively. 

Roma (2018)--I should have known what I was in for when the opening credits ran about five minutes and consisted of a shot of a floor. For several minutes, the camera focused on a floor. When the reflection of a window appeared on the floor, and then a puddle of water, I got excited--finally something was happening! Unfortunately, the rest of the film didn't get much more momentum. The film moves along at a leaden pace, and it was shot as 
if someone set up a camera in their backyard to capture the neighbors across the street--many of the scenes with the family members are shot from a distance, giving the story a detached feeling throughout the movie. The scenes go on for minutes longer than they should, putting the viewer in danger of nodding off before any significant dialogue is exchanged. A lot of the "action" is provided by the camera panning back and forth and around over and over,
adding to the soporific quality of the scenes. As if all this weren't pretentious enough, it's shot in black and white, too (ooh, arty). There are a few heavy dramatic plot turns which are filmed with the same feeling of distance from the characters. One exception to this lack of close-ups is the weird martial arts dance performed by the idiot boyfriend of Cleo, the lead character; according to IMDb, the actress objected to being in the scene as he dances naked in front of her, so she wasn't present as the scene was shot. If she didn't have to be there, why did the audience have to be subjected to this pointless scene and be forced to watch his dangling sausage bouncing around?  A disappointment.

That Thing You Do! (1996)--I watched this again as a tribute to Adam Schlesinger, who passed away last week. Several of his songs appear on the soundtrack, including the title song, a catchy Beatlesque tune that sounds as if it could've been a genuine hit of 1964. Tom Hanks wrote and directed this breezy, enjoyable film about a small-town rock band and their brief time at the top. Tom Everett Scott is the drummer and the band's driving force, and he looks and acts eerily like a young Tom Hanks. There are a lot of appearances by Hanks' colleagues, friends and family members in the film. The look of 1964 America is captured beautifully--everything from downtown Erie, Pennsylvania, to the fashions of the time, to the Ray Conniff-y tune playing in the appliance store at the beginning of the movie (Hanks wrote that song) are very accurate. The story is familiar, but it's well-done and the performances are enjoyable.  The "director's cut" is the version to watch. A nice mid-'60s nostalgia piece.

And in between, a couple more seasons of the mid-'80s British sitcom 'Allo 'Allo! Of course it's silly, but these days silliness is necessary.
 

 

Terrific review of Mary Queen of Scots, Spike. It's a shame that MQoS turned out the way it did, (it got trashed in reviews) since in 2014 Josie Rourke did a superb take on Coriolanus for the NT (for some reason IMDb don't list her as director 



www.imdb.com/review/rw2955929/?ref_=tt_urv