2009 Films LVII-LIX
LVII: Walkabout (Nicolas Roeg, 1971)
Typically ambiguous Roeg trip movie - a father takes his two children into the desert, shoots at them, and then kills himself. The two are left to walk across country, where they are aided by an aboriginal. The ending either points toward a narrative coming full circle, a fantasy of what might have been or two parallel realities. Roeg's dialectical editing contrasts the western world and the natural world, and nature wanders through with a curious benignity that echoes the children travelling down river in Night of the Hunter.
For those of a certain age, it features Jenny Agutter in the all together, though I confess I am immune to her charms. The other child (none of the characters are named) is played by Lucien John aka Luke Roeg. David Gulpilil grew up to be King George in Australia, a far inferior film. I was convinced this was one of the Top 100, but no.
LVII: Herr Tartüff (F.W. Murnau, 1925)
Silent adaptation, made by Murnau against his will. This version seems to be assembled from several of the surviving prints, which differed from territory to territory - it looks like different takes were used for the US to the the Argentinian versions, say (and these were then censored, of course). Written by Carl Mayer (who also did Caligari, The Last Man (aka The Last Laugh and Sunrise), from a Molière play), this is a film within a film: A husband returns from a trip, under the spell of the ultra-religious Tartuffe, and seems likely to disinherit his family in favour of the hypocrite. His wife sets out to seduced to expose Tartuffe. The framing narrative features a housekeeper trying to poison an old man against his grandson - the grandson shows the film, disguised as a travelling cinema show man. The way you do. Very Hamlet.
Quite a starry cast - Emil Jannings as Tartuffe, who won the first Oscar, Werner Krauss, who was Dr Caligari, Rosa Valetti as the housekeeper (later in various Fritz Lang movies) and Karl Freund (Metropolis, The Mummy) was the photographer. Some nice low angles, but a little dull.
LIX: Edmond (Stuart Gordon, 2005)
A horror director (who also did the amusing Space Truckers) directs a white, white-collar worker's descent into hell in an American city. The fact that it is William H. Macy and David Mamet adapting his 1982 one act stage play for the screen just about redeems it - but we're not quite clear ever what made his life hell (he's put upon, he's bored with his wife) and an ironically happy ending undercuts much of what goes before.
What is shocking is the casual racism - Macy is as always magnetic when imploding, but it's rare to see the n-word deployed so frequently by white characters, and to see so many black characters out to get someone (to be fair, later on it's white characters too). Apparently it's message is that everyone is racist - and it also feels like all men are misogynist. Mamet always plays on that tension between depicting racists/sexists and being racist/sexist. Two moments of violence are handled rather cack handedly - but as I say, Macy demands to be watched.
Totals: 59 - [Cinema: 16; DVD: 40; Television: 3]
Typically ambiguous Roeg trip movie - a father takes his two children into the desert, shoots at them, and then kills himself. The two are left to walk across country, where they are aided by an aboriginal. The ending either points toward a narrative coming full circle, a fantasy of what might have been or two parallel realities. Roeg's dialectical editing contrasts the western world and the natural world, and nature wanders through with a curious benignity that echoes the children travelling down river in Night of the Hunter.
For those of a certain age, it features Jenny Agutter in the all together, though I confess I am immune to her charms. The other child (none of the characters are named) is played by Lucien John aka Luke Roeg. David Gulpilil grew up to be King George in Australia, a far inferior film. I was convinced this was one of the Top 100, but no.
LVII: Herr Tartüff (F.W. Murnau, 1925)
Silent adaptation, made by Murnau against his will. This version seems to be assembled from several of the surviving prints, which differed from territory to territory - it looks like different takes were used for the US to the the Argentinian versions, say (and these were then censored, of course). Written by Carl Mayer (who also did Caligari, The Last Man (aka The Last Laugh and Sunrise), from a Molière play), this is a film within a film: A husband returns from a trip, under the spell of the ultra-religious Tartuffe, and seems likely to disinherit his family in favour of the hypocrite. His wife sets out to seduced to expose Tartuffe. The framing narrative features a housekeeper trying to poison an old man against his grandson - the grandson shows the film, disguised as a travelling cinema show man. The way you do. Very Hamlet.
Quite a starry cast - Emil Jannings as Tartuffe, who won the first Oscar, Werner Krauss, who was Dr Caligari, Rosa Valetti as the housekeeper (later in various Fritz Lang movies) and Karl Freund (Metropolis, The Mummy) was the photographer. Some nice low angles, but a little dull.
LIX: Edmond (Stuart Gordon, 2005)
A horror director (who also did the amusing Space Truckers) directs a white, white-collar worker's descent into hell in an American city. The fact that it is William H. Macy and David Mamet adapting his 1982 one act stage play for the screen just about redeems it - but we're not quite clear ever what made his life hell (he's put upon, he's bored with his wife) and an ironically happy ending undercuts much of what goes before.
What is shocking is the casual racism - Macy is as always magnetic when imploding, but it's rare to see the n-word deployed so frequently by white characters, and to see so many black characters out to get someone (to be fair, later on it's white characters too). Apparently it's message is that everyone is racist - and it also feels like all men are misogynist. Mamet always plays on that tension between depicting racists/sexists and being racist/sexist. Two moments of violence are handled rather cack handedly - but as I say, Macy demands to be watched.
Totals: 59 - [Cinema: 16; DVD: 40; Television: 3]