Movies, movies, and more movies!
Here's what I've been watching lately and my take on it.
Love Me Tonight, 1932, Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, dir. Rouben Mamoulian
The song "Isn't It Romantic" pops up again and again in this ridiculously fun, frothy, light-hearted musical that is in every way a predecessor to the big budget MGM productions that would crop up in the next decade. It is one of the earliest musicals I've seen (along with some early Rene Clair French musicals) in which the songs are not merely breaks from the plot, but where the songs help further the story. Unlike the Busby Berkeley repertoire where the songs HAD to take place on a stage and often had little to nothing to do with the offstage goings-on, Love Me Tonight uses its music to express the emotion and feeling of the characters at hand. The love story between Princess Jeanette (MacDonald) and the lowly tailor Maurice posing as a Baron at her country estate (Chevalier) is surprisingly honest and genuine. Yes, the whole movie is ridiculously contrived, but when the pretenses are dropped and Jeanette discovers, to her horror, Maurice's true profession, he asks her, with pain and longing etched all over his face, "Does it really make that much difference?" This unexpected jolt of heartbreak grounds the film. Of course there's a happy ending, but it tastes that much sweeter knowing that the characters are emotionally committed to one another. Humor abounds in every nook and cranny of the movie. A vampy Myrna Loy is perfect as a predatory countess, and Charlie Ruggles is wonderful as the viscount who brings Maurice into the castle in the first place. Look for lots of suggestive and risque comedy. When an elderly seamstress is told off by Maurice, she runs from the room screaming that she has been insulted. Responds the Viscount, "The old girl must have something." This is a pre-Production Code Crack Down movie, and they were able to get away with many jokes that wouldn't fly in the coming years. Wholeheartedly fun, great songs, and wonderful performances make this film a joy from start to finish. Highly recommended.
A Nous La Liberte (Freedom for Us), and Le Million, both 1931, dir. Rene Clair
Musical, comedy, and farce. Not necessarily three words you would use when describing French cinema. However, both films fit those descriptors. Light and fun, both films explore the early use of sound in films, expanding it exponentially and paving the way for the highly successful MGM musicals. Apart from the songs in the films, there is also significant use of soundtrack, which at the time was still a novel concept. In A Nous La Liberte, two prisoners conspire to escape. One is successful, one is not. The successful escapee becomes a flourishing industrialist, and when the second prisoner is released on parole, he comes to work for the first one. Like Chaplin's, Modern Times, humor arises from the mechanization of the modern world. In Le Million, a starving artist realizes he's won the lottery, but the ticket is in a coat which his girlfriend has just given away. Particularly enjoyable was a scene in which the coat is passed around like a football in a rugby match. Clair cleverly superimposes sounds from a rugby game over this scene, thus truly exploring the way sound can work to enhance a film. Recommended.
Earth, 1930, dir. Aleksandr Dovhzenko
Early Soviet cinema flourished until the machine that was WWII shut it down and destroyed it for decades. While nearly all early Soviet films were propaganda in some way (and this film is no exception), some were more blatant than others. Earth, which tries to convince the viewer that the merging of all farmland from privately-owned to community-controlled is for the best, is nonetheless far more than a mere "message" movie. The plot is fairly nominal, and therefore, the propaganda is fairly nominal. Look instead at the gorgeous shots of wheat fields blowing in the wind, apple trees replete with their harvest, themes of life and death and birth all mixed together in very clever montage shots. Dovhzenko is able to rise above confines of his plot and make a movie that is so rapturous at times, it's almost giddy. This is a film more on the level of Vertov's Man With a Movie Camera than any of Sergei Eisenstein's far more heavy-handed early films. Recommended for film buffs looking to explore very early cinema.
The Birth of a Nation, 1915, Lillian Gish, dir. DW Griffiths
Oh what a troubling film. The technique, the language of film is forever indebted to DW Griffiths. He explores the closeup, the long pan, the iris shot, and more in this early historical epic, while proving at the same time that audiences are willing to sit through a three hour melodrama. Accolades aside, however, it is absolutely impossible to ignore the film's racism. Perhaps the most shocking aspect of the racism is how blatant it is. Black people are all conniving, power-mad, and lusty, and the only way the white people can fight back is through the Ku Klux Klan. It's jaw-droppingingly horrible how Griffiths paints the KKK as utterly victorious, coming to save the government from black corruption and to save all the white women from rape. Even at the time of the film's release, it was considered controversial, and the NAACP boycotted the film. Griffiths, apparently, was shocked at the reaction, and it prompted him to make one of his other epics, Intolerance (1916). It's truly a shame that a movie that managed to create so many techniques of modern filmmaking is delivered in such a stomach-churning package. Hated it, but recommend it for serious early film buffs. A necessary evil.
Jezebel, 1938, Bette Davis, Henry Fonda, dir. William Wyler
Intended as a consolation picture for Bette Davis when it became clear she would not star in Gone With the Wind, this picture manages to be far more compelling than it's grander, technicolor stablemate because it focuses far more closely on its central character. Julie (Davis) is a fiery, tempestuous Southern belle who drives away her fiance (Fonda) from 1850's New Orleans by flaunting society's rules. When he returns a year later with a Northern bride, Julie fights back, and fights dirty. In a last act of redemption, however, she proves her worth. By narrowing it's focus to Julie's story (which, compared to that of Scarlett's in GWTW, is far less geographically spread out), the movie manages to be far more intriguing. Julie is willful, but also vulnerable. Davis plays her to absolute perfection. When she is on screen, she is utterly luminous, and you cannot tear your eyes away from her. Unlike my personal problem with GWTW, which is that I cannot sympathize with, and therefore hate, Scarlett O'Hara, Julie is beguiling and interesting, and one both understands and condemns her actions at the same time. Vastly enjoyable, this melodrama plays out on a luscious backdrop of cityscapes and plantation drawing rooms. Highly recommended.
She Done Him Wrong, 1933, Mae West, Cary Grant, dir. Lowell Sherman
Little more than an excuse for Mae West to exude sex appeal, She Done Him Wrong is a gloriously vampy tale of a saloon owner (West) who falls for a missionary (Grant). The plot is relatively unimportant; what IS important is to surround West with lowlife gangsters who fall for her so she can exercise her power over them, both fiscally and sexually. Grant is not the only man she tells to "come up sometime'n' see me," but she purrs it so lasciviously, so gutturally, yet so completely in control, that we KNOW she means it, and a heckuva lot more. In fact, West is SO bawdy that the Production Code crackdown in 1934 can practically be traced directly to this film. She Done Him Wrong also marks Cary Grant's Big Break, and West often gets the credit for discovering him. It's a pity that West's career was more or less destroyed by the censorship of the Production Code. Highly recommended.
On The Waterfront, 1954, Marlon Brando, Eva Marie Saint, dir. Elia Kazan
Films as famous and as critically acclaimed as this leave the viewer only two options upon their first viewing: either hideous disappointment, or sublime reverence. Fortunately for me, it was the latter. Marlon Brando plays Terry Malloy, a prizefighter-turned-longshoreman who works for the mob-controlled union. When an old friend of his is killed by the gangsters, Terry begins re-evaluating the system and considers blowing the whistle on the operation. Shot in incredibly gritty black and white, the film apologizes for nothing and aggressively demands the viewer's involvement. Nothing is pretty; victory comes at a horrifying cost. Brando is beyond superb as the conflicted Malloy; he wisely makes Terry incredibly multidimensional, with a barely-masked vulnerability that the gangsters are too thick to see. The riveting "coulda been a contender" scene is gloriously intense, with so much sadness and desperation laced throughout. It's difficult to decide if the film is ultimately uplifting or not; we are left to ponder lost lives along with lost souls. Kazan made this film after his infamous testimony to the House on Un-American Activities, and his confliction shines through. Highly recommended - every bit deserving of its reputation.
Rear Window, 1954, James Stewart, Grace Kelly, dir. Alfred Hitchcock
Rear Window has been parodied so many times that I felt I knew the film before I had actually seen it. Ha ha ha. Hitchcock once again proves he is the master of his craft in this unapologetically voyeuristic fantasy. Stewart plays Jeff, a photographer holed up with a broken leg in his NYC tenement apartment building with nothing to do but spy on his neighbors. Gradually, he begins to suspect one of them of murder. What's so fascinating about the film is the voyeurism. Hitchcock plays on the fact that when we walk past an apartment building, we all secretly want to peak in through the windows to see someone else's life. Hitchcock puts it out there in the open, and doesn't apologize for it. Jeff's girlfriend in the film (Kelly) initially chides him for spying, but is also slowly seduced by it. Hitchcock makes so much of this, in fact, that when the action is focused on Jeff's apartment, the viewer can't help wondering if the other people in the building are now watching HIM. The use of space and sets in the film are wonderful; the action never leaves the apartment complex. We are asked to wonder about people's lives away from the building, to fill in the gaps with either Jeff's wild concoctions or our own imaginations. Stewart delivers a fine performance, but it is Kelly who is the standout as his somewhat desperate girlfriend. Clearly turned on by her boyfriend, she is downright horny in some scenes. To see such a performance from such a refined and beautiful actress dressed in refined and beautiful clothing is gleefully fun. Highly recommended.
Other movies:
Pepe Le Moko, 1936. Jean Gabin is King of the Underworld in his little section of French Algiers. However, he is also confined by his kingdom - leave his section of town, and the police will surely arrest him. Will a beautiful French tourist finally convince him to take that chance? Compelling, somewhat fatalistic movie. Gabin makes it worthwhile.
It's A Gift, 1934. WC Fields is a bedraggled family man who dreams of owning an orange grove in California. And hilarity ensues. Winning set pieces include Fields trying to shave when his daughter is hogging the bathroom mirror, and Fields trying to get some sleep on his porch swing. Parts feel dated, but overall, the humor translates well to a modern audience, which is no small feat for a comedy.
Freaks, 1932. Circus freaks band together when a beautiful but evil trapeze artist conspires to con one of their own out of his money. Almost guiltily transfixing, the fact that Tod Browning auditioned and used real circus freaks for this film lends this a disturbing veracity. It almost reads as a horror film at times. The tacked on happy ending feels out of place - try to think of the film without it.
Rebecca, 1940. More Hitchcock, more creepiness. A young bride is haunted by her new husband's dead first wife, and the gloomy house and mysterious servants certainly don't help. Interesting, but lacks the deft touch Hitchcock uses in so many of his other films.
Boudu Sauve Des Eaux (Boudu Saved From Drowning), 1932. A well-to-do man saves Boudu, a tramp, from suicide, and takes him into his house. He almost immediately regrets this decision. Michel Simon, who plays Boudu, is not to my liking, and I didn't care for the comedy. Not my cup of tea.
Only Angels Have Wing, 1939. Cary Grant is an airmail pilot in the Andes - a hazardous profession considering the pitiful planes and difficult conditions. The love story between him and Jean Arthur is a bit unbelievable; more enjoyable is the relationship between fellow pilots, the strong men of the sky. Particularly good is Richard Barthelmess, an early Hollywood silent film star, talking and acting here, as a pilot trying to atone for past wrongs. Lots of fun.
Scarface: The Shame of a Nation, 1932. Yes, THAT Scarface - the Al Pacino version is a remake of this. Interesting early gangster film that manages to be very compelling because of the overtly incestuous relationship between Tony "Scarface" Camonte (Paul Muni) and his sister Cesca. Look for the classic coin-flipping, pinstrip-suited gangster in George Raft, and remember the ballet sequence from Singin' In The Rain with Cyd Charisse.
The Big Sleep, 1946. Bogie and Bacall schmooze together as he, private dick Phillip Marlowe, tries to solve her blackmail case. The plot is meandering with too many twists to follow in the first viewing. Enjoy instead the atmosphere and the palpable chemistry between the two leads - the studio added extra scenes between them that weren't in the original source novel. Very good, lots of fun.
Love Me Tonight and Rear Window were probably my favorites out of the bunch. I need to own both of them on DVD now.
cross-posted a couple places.
Love Me Tonight, 1932, Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, dir. Rouben Mamoulian
The song "Isn't It Romantic" pops up again and again in this ridiculously fun, frothy, light-hearted musical that is in every way a predecessor to the big budget MGM productions that would crop up in the next decade. It is one of the earliest musicals I've seen (along with some early Rene Clair French musicals) in which the songs are not merely breaks from the plot, but where the songs help further the story. Unlike the Busby Berkeley repertoire where the songs HAD to take place on a stage and often had little to nothing to do with the offstage goings-on, Love Me Tonight uses its music to express the emotion and feeling of the characters at hand. The love story between Princess Jeanette (MacDonald) and the lowly tailor Maurice posing as a Baron at her country estate (Chevalier) is surprisingly honest and genuine. Yes, the whole movie is ridiculously contrived, but when the pretenses are dropped and Jeanette discovers, to her horror, Maurice's true profession, he asks her, with pain and longing etched all over his face, "Does it really make that much difference?" This unexpected jolt of heartbreak grounds the film. Of course there's a happy ending, but it tastes that much sweeter knowing that the characters are emotionally committed to one another. Humor abounds in every nook and cranny of the movie. A vampy Myrna Loy is perfect as a predatory countess, and Charlie Ruggles is wonderful as the viscount who brings Maurice into the castle in the first place. Look for lots of suggestive and risque comedy. When an elderly seamstress is told off by Maurice, she runs from the room screaming that she has been insulted. Responds the Viscount, "The old girl must have something." This is a pre-Production Code Crack Down movie, and they were able to get away with many jokes that wouldn't fly in the coming years. Wholeheartedly fun, great songs, and wonderful performances make this film a joy from start to finish. Highly recommended.
A Nous La Liberte (Freedom for Us), and Le Million, both 1931, dir. Rene Clair
Musical, comedy, and farce. Not necessarily three words you would use when describing French cinema. However, both films fit those descriptors. Light and fun, both films explore the early use of sound in films, expanding it exponentially and paving the way for the highly successful MGM musicals. Apart from the songs in the films, there is also significant use of soundtrack, which at the time was still a novel concept. In A Nous La Liberte, two prisoners conspire to escape. One is successful, one is not. The successful escapee becomes a flourishing industrialist, and when the second prisoner is released on parole, he comes to work for the first one. Like Chaplin's, Modern Times, humor arises from the mechanization of the modern world. In Le Million, a starving artist realizes he's won the lottery, but the ticket is in a coat which his girlfriend has just given away. Particularly enjoyable was a scene in which the coat is passed around like a football in a rugby match. Clair cleverly superimposes sounds from a rugby game over this scene, thus truly exploring the way sound can work to enhance a film. Recommended.
Earth, 1930, dir. Aleksandr Dovhzenko
Early Soviet cinema flourished until the machine that was WWII shut it down and destroyed it for decades. While nearly all early Soviet films were propaganda in some way (and this film is no exception), some were more blatant than others. Earth, which tries to convince the viewer that the merging of all farmland from privately-owned to community-controlled is for the best, is nonetheless far more than a mere "message" movie. The plot is fairly nominal, and therefore, the propaganda is fairly nominal. Look instead at the gorgeous shots of wheat fields blowing in the wind, apple trees replete with their harvest, themes of life and death and birth all mixed together in very clever montage shots. Dovhzenko is able to rise above confines of his plot and make a movie that is so rapturous at times, it's almost giddy. This is a film more on the level of Vertov's Man With a Movie Camera than any of Sergei Eisenstein's far more heavy-handed early films. Recommended for film buffs looking to explore very early cinema.
The Birth of a Nation, 1915, Lillian Gish, dir. DW Griffiths
Oh what a troubling film. The technique, the language of film is forever indebted to DW Griffiths. He explores the closeup, the long pan, the iris shot, and more in this early historical epic, while proving at the same time that audiences are willing to sit through a three hour melodrama. Accolades aside, however, it is absolutely impossible to ignore the film's racism. Perhaps the most shocking aspect of the racism is how blatant it is. Black people are all conniving, power-mad, and lusty, and the only way the white people can fight back is through the Ku Klux Klan. It's jaw-droppingingly horrible how Griffiths paints the KKK as utterly victorious, coming to save the government from black corruption and to save all the white women from rape. Even at the time of the film's release, it was considered controversial, and the NAACP boycotted the film. Griffiths, apparently, was shocked at the reaction, and it prompted him to make one of his other epics, Intolerance (1916). It's truly a shame that a movie that managed to create so many techniques of modern filmmaking is delivered in such a stomach-churning package. Hated it, but recommend it for serious early film buffs. A necessary evil.
Jezebel, 1938, Bette Davis, Henry Fonda, dir. William Wyler
Intended as a consolation picture for Bette Davis when it became clear she would not star in Gone With the Wind, this picture manages to be far more compelling than it's grander, technicolor stablemate because it focuses far more closely on its central character. Julie (Davis) is a fiery, tempestuous Southern belle who drives away her fiance (Fonda) from 1850's New Orleans by flaunting society's rules. When he returns a year later with a Northern bride, Julie fights back, and fights dirty. In a last act of redemption, however, she proves her worth. By narrowing it's focus to Julie's story (which, compared to that of Scarlett's in GWTW, is far less geographically spread out), the movie manages to be far more intriguing. Julie is willful, but also vulnerable. Davis plays her to absolute perfection. When she is on screen, she is utterly luminous, and you cannot tear your eyes away from her. Unlike my personal problem with GWTW, which is that I cannot sympathize with, and therefore hate, Scarlett O'Hara, Julie is beguiling and interesting, and one both understands and condemns her actions at the same time. Vastly enjoyable, this melodrama plays out on a luscious backdrop of cityscapes and plantation drawing rooms. Highly recommended.
She Done Him Wrong, 1933, Mae West, Cary Grant, dir. Lowell Sherman
Little more than an excuse for Mae West to exude sex appeal, She Done Him Wrong is a gloriously vampy tale of a saloon owner (West) who falls for a missionary (Grant). The plot is relatively unimportant; what IS important is to surround West with lowlife gangsters who fall for her so she can exercise her power over them, both fiscally and sexually. Grant is not the only man she tells to "come up sometime'n' see me," but she purrs it so lasciviously, so gutturally, yet so completely in control, that we KNOW she means it, and a heckuva lot more. In fact, West is SO bawdy that the Production Code crackdown in 1934 can practically be traced directly to this film. She Done Him Wrong also marks Cary Grant's Big Break, and West often gets the credit for discovering him. It's a pity that West's career was more or less destroyed by the censorship of the Production Code. Highly recommended.
On The Waterfront, 1954, Marlon Brando, Eva Marie Saint, dir. Elia Kazan
Films as famous and as critically acclaimed as this leave the viewer only two options upon their first viewing: either hideous disappointment, or sublime reverence. Fortunately for me, it was the latter. Marlon Brando plays Terry Malloy, a prizefighter-turned-longshoreman who works for the mob-controlled union. When an old friend of his is killed by the gangsters, Terry begins re-evaluating the system and considers blowing the whistle on the operation. Shot in incredibly gritty black and white, the film apologizes for nothing and aggressively demands the viewer's involvement. Nothing is pretty; victory comes at a horrifying cost. Brando is beyond superb as the conflicted Malloy; he wisely makes Terry incredibly multidimensional, with a barely-masked vulnerability that the gangsters are too thick to see. The riveting "coulda been a contender" scene is gloriously intense, with so much sadness and desperation laced throughout. It's difficult to decide if the film is ultimately uplifting or not; we are left to ponder lost lives along with lost souls. Kazan made this film after his infamous testimony to the House on Un-American Activities, and his confliction shines through. Highly recommended - every bit deserving of its reputation.
Rear Window, 1954, James Stewart, Grace Kelly, dir. Alfred Hitchcock
Rear Window has been parodied so many times that I felt I knew the film before I had actually seen it. Ha ha ha. Hitchcock once again proves he is the master of his craft in this unapologetically voyeuristic fantasy. Stewart plays Jeff, a photographer holed up with a broken leg in his NYC tenement apartment building with nothing to do but spy on his neighbors. Gradually, he begins to suspect one of them of murder. What's so fascinating about the film is the voyeurism. Hitchcock plays on the fact that when we walk past an apartment building, we all secretly want to peak in through the windows to see someone else's life. Hitchcock puts it out there in the open, and doesn't apologize for it. Jeff's girlfriend in the film (Kelly) initially chides him for spying, but is also slowly seduced by it. Hitchcock makes so much of this, in fact, that when the action is focused on Jeff's apartment, the viewer can't help wondering if the other people in the building are now watching HIM. The use of space and sets in the film are wonderful; the action never leaves the apartment complex. We are asked to wonder about people's lives away from the building, to fill in the gaps with either Jeff's wild concoctions or our own imaginations. Stewart delivers a fine performance, but it is Kelly who is the standout as his somewhat desperate girlfriend. Clearly turned on by her boyfriend, she is downright horny in some scenes. To see such a performance from such a refined and beautiful actress dressed in refined and beautiful clothing is gleefully fun. Highly recommended.
Other movies:
Pepe Le Moko, 1936. Jean Gabin is King of the Underworld in his little section of French Algiers. However, he is also confined by his kingdom - leave his section of town, and the police will surely arrest him. Will a beautiful French tourist finally convince him to take that chance? Compelling, somewhat fatalistic movie. Gabin makes it worthwhile.
It's A Gift, 1934. WC Fields is a bedraggled family man who dreams of owning an orange grove in California. And hilarity ensues. Winning set pieces include Fields trying to shave when his daughter is hogging the bathroom mirror, and Fields trying to get some sleep on his porch swing. Parts feel dated, but overall, the humor translates well to a modern audience, which is no small feat for a comedy.
Freaks, 1932. Circus freaks band together when a beautiful but evil trapeze artist conspires to con one of their own out of his money. Almost guiltily transfixing, the fact that Tod Browning auditioned and used real circus freaks for this film lends this a disturbing veracity. It almost reads as a horror film at times. The tacked on happy ending feels out of place - try to think of the film without it.
Rebecca, 1940. More Hitchcock, more creepiness. A young bride is haunted by her new husband's dead first wife, and the gloomy house and mysterious servants certainly don't help. Interesting, but lacks the deft touch Hitchcock uses in so many of his other films.
Boudu Sauve Des Eaux (Boudu Saved From Drowning), 1932. A well-to-do man saves Boudu, a tramp, from suicide, and takes him into his house. He almost immediately regrets this decision. Michel Simon, who plays Boudu, is not to my liking, and I didn't care for the comedy. Not my cup of tea.
Only Angels Have Wing, 1939. Cary Grant is an airmail pilot in the Andes - a hazardous profession considering the pitiful planes and difficult conditions. The love story between him and Jean Arthur is a bit unbelievable; more enjoyable is the relationship between fellow pilots, the strong men of the sky. Particularly good is Richard Barthelmess, an early Hollywood silent film star, talking and acting here, as a pilot trying to atone for past wrongs. Lots of fun.
Scarface: The Shame of a Nation, 1932. Yes, THAT Scarface - the Al Pacino version is a remake of this. Interesting early gangster film that manages to be very compelling because of the overtly incestuous relationship between Tony "Scarface" Camonte (Paul Muni) and his sister Cesca. Look for the classic coin-flipping, pinstrip-suited gangster in George Raft, and remember the ballet sequence from Singin' In The Rain with Cyd Charisse.
The Big Sleep, 1946. Bogie and Bacall schmooze together as he, private dick Phillip Marlowe, tries to solve her blackmail case. The plot is meandering with too many twists to follow in the first viewing. Enjoy instead the atmosphere and the palpable chemistry between the two leads - the studio added extra scenes between them that weren't in the original source novel. Very good, lots of fun.
Love Me Tonight and Rear Window were probably my favorites out of the bunch. I need to own both of them on DVD now.
cross-posted a couple places.