Films of 2023:Q2

Before getting into my film list, a few comments:

1. I strongly recommend Michael Powell’s autobiography. Highly entertaining. I also recommend the book “Alone”, by Norman Douglas. Why isn’t this guy more famous?

2. I did a podcast with Russell Hogg and Jasper Sharp. I was a bit disappointed with my own remarks, as I hadn’t seen some of the films for quite a while and my memory is increasingly shaky. Jasper Sharp is an expert on Japanese films, and his comments were especially interesting.

3. I visited the very impressive Bahai temple in Evanston. I’m not religious, but the Bahai religion appeals to me more than most others.

4. I visited the Huntington Gardens near Pasadena. Highly recommended—much improved over when I visited 30 years ago.

5. I finally got around to reading The Marble Faun. The second addition is slightly inferior to the first, as it adds a 5 page conclusion to tie up some loose ends. Hawthorne caved in to the pressure of readers who abhor ambiguity. I liked it even more than The Scarlet Letter, which is generally regarded as the better novel. Perhaps this reflects the fact that literary critics are more interested in people and I am more interested in places.

2023:Q2 films

Newer Films:

Asteroid City  (US)  3.7  Like all Wes Anderson films it’s full of delightful images, including an homage to Cindy Sherman.  Even this sort of sub-par Anderson is better than almost anything else coming out of Hollywood these days.  Actually filmed in Spain.  Takes place in September 1955, the month I was born. 

The Velvet Queen  (France/Tibet)  3.7  When viewed in the right frame of mind, this nature documentary is a near masterpiece.  Be aware, however, that the pace is extremely slow. 

The Innocent  (France, CC)  3.6  It’s basically one of those one joke comedies, but the joke is nicely played out.

Kubrick by Kubrick  (France)  3.5  A viewer of 2001 might assume that Kubrick was opposed to AI.  Not so.  He was so pessimistic about human intelligence that he believed that, “man’s survival depends on the ultra intelligent machine.”

Past Lives  (US/Korea)  3.4  An intelligent film with appealing characters.  I just wish it had a bit more cinematic creativity.  I felt I’d seen it all before.

Godland  (Denmark/Iceland, CC)  3.4  The first third has some stunning scenes of Iceland’s landscape.

Living  (UK)  3.3  Handsome remake of Ikiru, done in a very traditional British style.  Not surprisingly, it falls well short of Kurosawa’s version.  Heartwarming—but a bit too heavy handed.

Suzume  (Japan)  3.0   Maybe I need to stop looking for the next Miyazaki.  This film lacks originality, but does reflect Japanese anxieties about a falling population and the threat of earthquakes.

Air  (US)  2.9  Pleasant exercise in 1984 nostalgia.  Strictly paint by numbers—not an ounce of originality.  Michael Jordan’s aura can cover up a lot of faults.

Older films:

A Matter of Life and Death  (UK, 1946, CC)  3.9  What a pleasure to see this masterpiece (fully restored) on the big screen.  The second time around I already knew the basic plot, and was transfixed by the technical brilliance of Powell and Pressburger’s filmmaking.  I’ve always regarded Black Narcissus as my favorite Powell film, but this is just as good.

The film was censored when it showed in America, as puritanical viewers were offended by an innocent scene depicting a naked little shepherd boy playing a flute.  Americans have such dirty minds!

The Seventh Seal  (Sweden, 1957, CC)  3.9  The Middle Ages as imagined by Swedes in 1957.  Today we’d make a grungier version.  But this was far ahead of almost anything Hollywood would have been capable of doing.  Otherwise, not much to say about this classic; the highest rated film that I’d never gotten around to seeing.  A masterpiece in almost every respect.  Even if you don’t care for the philosophical musings, the acting, dialogue and cinematography are all outstanding.  Hard to believe that Max von Sydow was only 27.  His portrayal of a much older man is even more impressive than Welles in Citizen Kane. 

Modern directors are presumably just as talented, but working in the shadow of film’s Golden Age.  I presume that’s why they don’t make them like this any more.

On the Waterfront  (US, 1954, CC)  3.8  First time I’d seen the film in 50 years (when it was screened in a high school social studies class!)  Right off the bat I found Lenny Bernstein’s music to be annoying, and the drama is too melodramatic in places.  But Brando’s acting is so good it carries the film.  People recall the heavy dramatic scenes, but he does equally well doing sly and subtle facial expressions. The screenplay has some nice touches.  The famous “coulda been a contender” has the ring of truth, whereas “coulda been the champion” would have sounded like empty bombast. (That’s not to say it was even close to deserving its best picture award, as Rear Window and The Seven Samurai came out the same year.)

I can still recall when mob-controlled unions seemed like one of America’s biggest problem.  The film is a good reminder that the problems we worry about during one decade are replaced by others as time goes by. 

Come and See  (Russia, 1985, CC)  3.8  This film alternates between greatness and clumsiness.  It’s both hyperrealistic and surrealistic.  The horrors one sees are almost too much to take in.  Then at the end we are informed that this was just one Belorussian village out of 628 that were destroyed by the Nazis in a similar fashion.  That horror I cannot even comprehend.  And similar events occurred in Ukraine.  And in Poland.  And in China.  And in lots of other countries.  And WWII is just one of thousands of wars.  People just block all this out. It’s all too much to absorb.

Then I think about the modern and rich society that I live in, and how so many people are deeply depressed despite their good fortune.  In the end, I don’t believe we know much of anything about human happiness. It’s just too hard a topic—for me, for economists, for philosophers, for everyone.  As I get older, I become a radical agnostic on the subject of happiness.  What causes it?  Is utility a net positive or a net negative?  Do we even know how happy we are?

Easy Living  (US, 1937, CC)  3.7  Great fun.  But how could you go wrong when you start with the Platonic ideal of screwball comedy plots and have Preston Sturges write the screenplay?

Hanagatami  (Japan, 2017)  3.6  Ignore the numerical rating, as I don’t really know how to evaluate this interesting film.  The most generous interpretation is to view the striking color palate as a visual way of expressing the feeling of being young.  For the most part, I thought those experiments worked, hence the relatively high rating.  But this sort of experimental film should be relatively short, as we are not all that interested in the characters or the narrative.  But it’s quite long—way too long in my view.  And a bit repetitive.

I Knew Her Well  (Italy, 1965, CC)  3.6  Is there any more appealing setting than Italy in the 1960s?  Gorgeous black and white photography and glamorous faces makes Rome seem like the most delightful place in the universe.

The Naked Spur  (US, 1953, CC)  3.6  Technicolor Anthony Mann western with Jimmy Stewart, Robert Ryan and Janet Leigh.  These westerns remind me a bit of Asian art—lots of small variations around a common structure.

Yumeji  (Japan, 1991, CC)  3.5  This film is far from perfect, but it’s a feast for the eyes for lovers of Taisho era art and design.

Record of a Tenement Gentlemen  (Japan, 1947, CC)  3.5  Weird title—I presume something was lost in translation.  A charming movie, but it falls well short of the Ozu films that came a few years later.  It’s quite interesting to see Japan as it was in 1947.

Winchester 73  (US, 1950, CC)  3.5  Classic Anthony Mann/Jimmy Stewart western with a pretty impressive cast.  Some of the smaller roles are played by actors that would soon become well known.  Watch for a very young Tony Curtis, and Rock Hudson playing an Indian chief.  (The film is not exactly PC.)

Demonlover  (French, 2002, CC)  3.5  Like many French films, this seems highly intelligent, stylish, and skillfully directed, but somehow a bit empty inside.  Or does this reaction reflect a lack of sophistication in Anglo-Saxon viewers?  Given the subject matter, it’s rather surprising that this film doesn’t seem dated after 21 years.

A Tale of Springtime  (French, 1989, CC)  3.5  More than almost any other director, Eric Rohmer keeps making the same film.  There’s not much to criticize, but also not much to get excited about.

The Friends of Eddie Coyle  (US, 1973)  3.5  Has a much more authentic feel than the typical crime film. 

Dragnet Girl  (Japan, 1933, CC)  3.4  The camera work is surprisingly dynamic, almost baroque at times.  It’s quite a contrast with the calm, static approach Ozu uses in his postwar films.  Still it does have a few of the poetic visual images that I associate with his best work.  And you’ll rarely see a gangster film with so little action.

Get Carter   (UK, 1971)  3.4  There’s lot to enjoy here including the mod style of the early 1970s, British gangsters in Newcastle, and of course the ubiquitous Michael Caine.  The young Caine was the best version.

The Man With A Shotgun  (Japan, 1961, CC)  3.3  Seijan Suzuki.  Testosterone!  Toxic masculinity!

Epidemic  (Denmark, 1987, CC)  3.3   It’s easy to see why this film was panned by critics—it’s something of a mess.  But I’d much rather watch a bad Lars von Trier film than a good film from a mediocre director.  Much more experimental than the other two films in the Europe trilogy, and most of the experiments don’t work.  But a few do.

The Passionate Friends   (UK, 1949, CC)  3.3  David Lean does a very nice job directing this romance, but the underlying story is too implausible to be believable.

Giants and Toys  (Japan, 1958)  3.3  As a satire of business (and the Americanization of Japanese culture) it’s far too silly to be taken seriously.  But it does have an infectious energy, largely due to the efforts of the lead actress.  The Technicolor images capture a moment in time when Japan was pivoting from the drab post war years (depicted in previous B&W films) to the soaring economic growth of the 1960s.

Infernal Affairs II  (HK, 2003, CC)  3.3  A prequel to the much better original Infernal Affairs.  The production is generally pretty high quality, but it’s marred by an excessively convoluted plot and some overly melodramatic music.

Center Stage  (HK, 1991, CC)  3.3  This quasi-documentary biopic about a Chinese silent movie star is an odd experiment, and it doesn’t really work.  So why the positive rating?  Maggie Cheung’s face.

Breakdown  (US, 1997)  3.2  This formulaic picture is a bit too predictable for my taste.  But Kurt Russell is better than I expected and the director does a nice job of keeping things from getting bogged down.

Detective Bureau 2-3: Go To Hell, Bastards!  (Japan, 1963, CC)  3.2   Strictly for Seijan Suzuki fans.  Great title.

The Great Silence  (Italy, 1968, CC)  3.2  A spaghetti western directed by someone other than Sergio Leone.  Now I realize that what I’d always thought of as Leone’s style is actually the style of spaghetti westerns more broadly.  Apparently, they made dozens of these films.

The Hitch-hiker  (US, 1953, CC)  3.1 This noir has no female characters, and yet was directed by Ida Lupino.  I wonder how this film impacted people’s willingness to pick up hitchhikers?

Election  (Hong Kong, 2005, CC)  3.0  It’s OK to have a complex plot that makes you work, and it’s OK to have an implausible film.  But it’s not OK to have both.  I just didn’t feel like making the effort to figure out who was who in all of the backstabbing.

Honor Among Thieves  (US, 1931, CC)  3.0  A very young Claudette Colbert in a pleasant romcom. 

Dream Lover  (US, 1994, CC)  2.9  It’s interesting comparing ordinary Hollywood films like this one with those made by talented directors.  This film is a typical example of the former—quite uneven, with some very nicely acted scenes and then some really clunky “dream sequences.”  Directing talent in Hollywood seems to be in very short supply.  Why is that?  Why is it so hard to make a good film?  A country with 330 million people must have hundreds of Hitchcocks.  Or is this what consumers want? 

Jade  (US, 1995, CC)  2.9  One of those 1990s “erotic thrillers” that has a silly plot, corny music and cringe-worthy sex scenes.  But at least it was directed by William Friedkin, who had a certain visual flair.  Oddly, the part of the film I found most interesting was the brief glimpses of paintings on the wall of the rich guy’s house.  Some really nice stuff by people like Jacob van Ruisdael and Balthus.  How do those exquisite paintings get into a film like this?

Color of Night  (US, 1994, CC)  2.7  This campy film is so bad that it almost works as a black comedy, but not quite.  To make that work you must go all in.  At times, the director seems to think the film can be taken seriously.

Criminal Passion  (US, 1994, CC)  2.6  Another of the seemingly endless unerotic “erotic thrillers” from 1994.  Hard to believe it was made by the same director as Desert Hearts.  So much for the auteur theory.

Margot at the Wedding  (US, 2007, CC)  2.5   Well, at least we are spared the wedding.  Otherwise, this is strictly for fans of family dysfunction porn.  Not sure why humans are so fascinated by a peep at the exposed id, not censored by politeness. 

Infernal Affairs III  (HK, 2003, CC)  2.0  A sad end to a promising trilogy.  I understand wanting to use Tony Leung, but he’s miscast in a very confused role.  The directors really needed some adult supervision.

Tags:

This entry was posted on July 03rd, 2023 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or Trackback from your own site.