What Classics Did You See Last Week? (19 to 25 June 2017)

I'm not sure the poster artist understood the point was that this was 3D in scope ratio, in color, underwater. (THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON had done b&w 3D underwater earlier).

And stars Joanne Dru.

-Bill

1st view -

The Salvation (2014) Violent revenge western is pretty good. 7/10
The Light Between Oceans (2016) Surprisingly involving. 8/10
Inferno (2016) These Dan Brown adaptations get dumber and dumber. 5/10
Moana (2016) Overlong. 5/10
Jason Bourne (2016) I'm fond of spy thrillers but the rapid fire editing and shaky-cam literally gave me a headache. Really. 5/10

Revisits -

I, Robot (2004) Will Smith is hard to take. 6/10
Gattaca (1997) Much better than I remembered. 8/10
Seven Days in May (1964) 9/10
Man of La Mancha (1972) Has a poor reputation but I like it. 7/10

Invisible Stripes / Lloyd Bacon (1939). More unknown Bogart! While Humphrey Bogart was feeling like he was moving up his studio’s (Warner) estimation while George Raft was sinking, he found himself fourth billed in this crime drama (shot entirely on sound stages and back lot) behind Raft, Jane Bryan, and twenty-one year old William Holden in just his second credited film. Raft plays Cliff Taylor who is serving a sentence in Sing Sing for an unspecified crime, presumably theft or robbery. He is slated to be released on parole on the same day as his friend Chuck Martin (Bogart). Cliff makes it clear that he wants to go straight, marry the girl waiting for him, and make an honest living. Martin laughs at him and says come see me if times get tough. At home, Cliff is greeted by his mother (Flora Robson, six months younger than Raft), kid brother Tim (Holden) and Tim’s girlfriend Peggy (Bryan). Cliff is determined that brother Tim will not follow in his criminal footsteps, but when Cliff is unable to find work because of his parolee status and Tim looses his own job, he turns to his old pal Chuck Martin to raise the funds for Tim to start his own auto repair business. This film is almost a Social Issues movie instead of gangsters and crime even though it ends with One Last Job and a chase and shoot-‘em-up. George Raft has been described as a “stiff” actor; this was never more obvious than watching him in comparison to Bogart’s lively, animated characterization and Holden’s Method-y anger and angst. The always reliable Lloyd Bacon keeps the story going at a rapid clip.

Guadalcanal Diary / Lewis Seiler (1943). The battle for the small island of Guadalcanal (and two other islands) in the Solomon Islands northeast of Australia in late 1942 and early 1943 was a significant victory for the U.S. as it effectively stopped southern Japanese expansion and prevented the invasion of Australia. Given the usual Hollywood flag waving war propaganda, what we see seems more factual than usual in these films. Reed Hadley, with his deep trans-Atlantic radio announcer voice, plays a war correspondent who narrates his dispatches back home. Dates and specific places of battles are given by Hadley in a semi-documentary style. We follow one Marine company from their transport, through the landing, their holding action, and final drive of the enemy off the island. There is the usual Stagecoach/Grand Hotel mixture of different people: the guy from Brooklyn (William Bendix, ‘natch), a Jewish guy, a naïve kid, the tough but tender sergeant, well, you know the drill. What makes this film stand out is how it shows the Marines going from eager fighters wanting to get into combat through a stage of doubt and fear and then to hardened veterans. One thing that may turn modern viewers off is that GD, more, I think, than any other war time film I have seen, delivers the harshest and most frequent racist epithets and stereotypes. Viewers will have to cope with dialog like: “Hey Hook? How do you feel about killing... people?” “Well, it's kill or be killed, ain't it? Besides, those ain't people.” Preston Foster plays Father Donnelly; also in the cast of Marines are Lloyd Nolan, Richard Conte, Anthony Quinn, Richard Jaeckel, and Lionel Stander.

Elle / Paul Verhoeven (2016). The movie opens mid-rape. Michèle is being assaulted by a man in black with a black ski mask. He slugs her a couple of times in the face before leaving. Strangely, she doesn’t tell anyone but on her own tries to find the rapist’s identity. When she does, she becomes his lover, indulging her rape fantasies. Michèle is played by Isabelle Huppert who gives a deep internal performance as you might expect of her; the film itself is an ugly piece of work as you might expect from Verhoeven.

Frantz / François Ozon (2016). “Freely adapted” (as the credits go) of a 1932 film, “Broken Lullaby” (directed by Ernst Lubitsch). In the months following the end of WWI, when feelings were still running high between citizens of Germany and France, a former French soldier Adrien (Pierre Niney) comes to Germany to lay flowers on the grave of a fallen German soldier, the title person, Frantz Hoffmeister. Frantz’s fiancé Anna (Paula Beer) finds him. He tells her and Frantz’s grieving parents of the two men’s friendship in Paris before the war – but he is holding back more than one secret. The first three-quarters of this film seem on their way to being one of the year’s best, but there follows a long, frustrating sequences when Anna goes to Paris looking for Adrien and we see her walk and walk and walk through Paris streets. This sequence seemed interminable. All the shots of her walking almost made me angry. Stop showing us her walking! Almost ruined the whole movie for me.

Japanese director Yūzō Kawashima died in 1963 he was only 45 years old. Kawashima's  directing career spanned 19 years beginning in 1944, a prolific output, 46 films. He excelled with psychological melodrama and dark satire, portraying the tensions and complexities of relationships within the shifting confines of cultural & social traditions. His beautifully crafted films are penetrating, multi faceted human dramas, compelling and profoundly enriching cinematic art.  
Among the highlights of my past week, three of the master directors works, all are Highly Recommended...

Shitoyakana kedamono  The Graceful Brute (1962) Outstanding outrageous satire  10/10



Fûsen, The Balloon (1956)  10/10  "Like a balloon that freely drifts with the wind, our lives are carried by the currents of time"   only 12 votes at IMDb !

 
Gan no tera , Temple Of The Wild Geese (1962)  10/10  Spellbinding Drama
Based on an autobiographical novel by Tsutomu Mizukami, Gan no tera , which won the Naoki Prize in 1961

The Scarface Mob (1959)  Phil Karlson,   movie length feature  from parts I & 2 The Untouchables TV series

The Franchise Affair (1951) UK  B film, some good acting from Michael Denison but overall suffers from a preposterous plot premise...

No comment.

I'll go with only the first time viewings

Classic (1896-1979)
Perfect Understanding (1933)
My Name is Julia Ross (1945)
Indiscretion of an American Wife (1953)
Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
All Fall Down (1962)
Zorba the Greek (1964)
Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967)
The Dirty Dozen (1967)
Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell (1969)
Kotch (1971)

Modern (1980-2017)
The Importance of Being Earnest (2002)
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
The Aviator (2004)
The Eagle Huntress (2016)
The Sense of an Ending (2017)