Category Archives: Film

Evil Does Not Exist (悪は存在しない)

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  • 悪は存在しない (Evil Does Not Exist)

9/11/24 (Wed)

Hamaguchi Ryusuke’s (Drive My Car) latest. Small-town folk deep in the Nagano countryside lead a hard-scrabble life in their beautiful natural setting, their basic needs met thanks to the wealth of resources in the area. The main character, a widowed father of a teenaged girl, spends his time chopping logs and gathering water, often so absorbed that he forgets to pick up his daughter from school. A company is eyeing the spot for a gramping site in order to take advantage of soon-to-expire pandemic subsidies. It employs a television talent agency to give a presentation to the local population in what it sees as a mere formality. However, the locals prove less pliant than anticipated. Continue reading →

Monsieur Klein

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  • Monsieur Klein

9/6/24 (Fri)

Joseph Losey’s 1976 film is another identity-challenging work reminiscent of his intriguing The Servant. A successful art dealer in Vichy Paris runs a thriving sideline buying up art on the cheap from Jewish collectors desperate for cash to escape the country. One day a Jewish newspaper arrives at his door addressed to him. Assuming that he’s been mistaken for someone with the same name, he goes to the police. It turns out that the other Klein is wanted by the police, and the art dealer’s efforts to convince them that he’s not the Jewish Klein only prompt suspicions that he’s trying to throw them off the track. This marks the beginning of a Kafkaesque spiral ending in a concentration camp.

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L’Eclisse

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  • L’Eclisse

8/28/24 (Wed)

Antonioni’s 1962 film was part of the Alain Delon series offered by Criterion following his death last week. It’s one of those “movies you must see before you die”, which usually puts me off, and I wasn’t planning to watch any more Antonioni works in particular after the enigmatic Blow-Up. Nevertheless, the Delon connection and the film’s critical reputation persuaded me to give it another try.

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La Piscine

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  • La Piscine

8/19/24 (Sun)

Criterion wasted no time in marking Alain Delon’s death the previous day with a special section of his most famous films­. I picked Jacques Deray’s 1969 iconic work in its original French, not knowing that he simultaneously filmed it with the actors speaking English. Watching part of the English version the next day, I was surprised that it’s edited somewhat differently to match the different takes and, less happily, has an inferior alternative ending to match prudish Anglo tastes. (There’s a brief scene early in the French film where the woman is talking on the phone to a Frenchman in English, which made me wonder if they mistakenly edited the wrong version into that space. But in the English version, she speaks German. I have no idea what that’s about.)

The story is secondary here. Continue reading →

The Barbarian Invasions

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  • The Barbarian Invasions

8/17/24 (Thurs)

I had thought Denys Arcand’s 2003 work was supposed to be a parody of the bumbling Canadian health care system, but that’s only partly true. It’s also a celebration of a hospitalized randy ex-professor who decides to take his life – and death – into his own hands. This is apparently a sequel to a popular film of 17 years earlier, and I’m sure that knowing those characters would have helped here. But it works perfectly fine as a stand-alone piece. The reviews are sharply divided, with a number of critics decrying it as a glib and cynical attempt to cash in on the older film, especially the soppy ending between the father and son. While I see their point, I’d prefer to enjoy it on its own terms.

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Blow-Up

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  • Blow-Up

8/7/24 (Wed)

I had heard of Antonioni’s 1967 Blow-Up and figured it was about time I got around to it. Its reputation precedes it, of course, and it’s supposed to have been highly influential in its nihilistic cool. It seems a movie made more for critics rather than audiences – it was a big commercial success back in its day, but I suspect that had more to do with the brouhaha over the boobs and pubic hair.

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The Great McGinty

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  • The Great McGinty

8/3/24 (Sat)

A goofy political satire of 1940 by Preston Sturges, who apparently sold his Oscar-winning script to Paramount for $10 in exchange for letting him direct. Its relative success paved the way for the great Sturges films to come.

The city’s sleazy Boss offers money to a bum named McGinty to vote for the incumbent mayor. When the brazen McG manages to vote 37 times, the Boss is impressed and hires him as a debt collector. McG’s ability to squeeze the money out of people with a mix of sweet talk and threats leads to further promotion to alderman, mayor and ultimately, after a marriage of convenience, to governor, but all under the sway of the big Boss. When the bum-cum-governor pushes things too far, he discovers that the system is bigger than he is.

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Alexandria…Why? (Iskanderija… lih?)

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  • Alexandria…Why? (Iskanderija… lih?)

8/26/24 (Sun)

Youssef Chahine attempts to make an Egyptian version of Amarcord to mixed results in this autobiographical 1979 film. Set in Alexandria during the war, the film portrays the determination of the teenaged Yahia, a stand-in for Chahine, to become a film actor and director. Continue reading →

Cairo Station (Bab el hadid)

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  • Cairo Station (Bab el hadid)

8/25/24 (Sat)

Egyptian director Youssef Chahine’s 1958 neorealist work is hailed as a landmark in Arabic cinema. The Arabic title translates to “The Iron Door”, but I think the English title is quite good given the dynamics of the setting with its raucous mix of rich and poor, the old guard and the new, and a number of overlapping stories among characters with their various aims. The story focuses on the poor workers scrambling to make a living in the station, though the poverty is less the point here than just background information. Amid the constant traffic of unknown people to unknown spots, they have formed something of a community offering mutual support.

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Street Without End (限りなき舗道)

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  • 限りなき舗道 (Street Without End)

8/31/24 (Sun)

Naruse’s 1934 drama, set in contemporary Tokyo, was his final silent film. Sugiko is a waitress in a pancake shop in Ginza. (Pancakes must have been the latest thing; patrons seem to have trouble figuring out what to do with the spot of butter on top.) She receives a marriage proposal from her poor but kind boyfriend, who is under pressure from his family to marry a girl arranged for him back home. Sugiko, pressed to make a decision, wanders carelessly into the path of a chauffer-driven car. That car belongs to Hiroshi, the handsome heir to an upper-class family, who takes her immediately to the hospital. Her boyfriend sees them together and, assuming she has rejected him, leaves town.

Hiroshi eventually falls in love with Sugiko and begs her to marry him in a romantic setting backed by Mt. Fuji. She is uncertain given the difference in their class, especially with the disparaging attitude of his mother and sister, who make no effort to hide their disdain. Still, the thought of a life of financial security and Hiroshi’s undeniable sincerity prompt her to give in to his persistence. The family has no choice but to agree.

As feared, however, the gulf between her and the family proves deep despite her best efforts. Continue reading →

Every-Night Dreams (夜ごとの夢)

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  • 夜ごとの夢 (Every-Night Dreams)

8/10/24 (Fri)

Naruse’s 1933 melodrama, one of his final silent films, already picks up on his much-visited theme of a woman forced to support herself due to weak or duplicitous men. Here, it is the former. Continue reading →

Brighton Rock

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  • Brighton Rock

8/1/24 (Thurs)

John Boulton’s 1948 British film is clearly modeled on American gangster flicks; I almost expected the lead to break into a Cagney-like “You dirty rat.” A local gang of hoodlums in the beach town hunt down a reporter whose exposé brought their activities to light, killing him on a haunted house ride. One of the gang members is spotted by a waitress, Rose, as he is attempting a cover-up. That unnerves the gang leader Pinkie (what’s with the pink and rose?), who becomes intimate with Rose in an attempt to eliminate the potential threat. The waitress, not even aware of what she has witnessed, unwisely falls in love with him.

They have neglected another witness, however. A loud and often drunk entertainer named Ida who met the reporter just before his death is convinced that there has been foul play. She gets no help from the police, who have determined that the man died of a heart attack – despite the fact that he never reemerged from the haunted house. She decides to solve the mystery on her own.

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