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September 30, 2014

The Man who will Come

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b>L'Uomo Che Verra
Giorgio Diritti - 2009
Palisades Tartan Region 1 DVD

The Man who will Come might not be quite in the rarified company of Forbidden Games or Come and See, but is still an effective film about war from the point of view of a child. Diritti's film was awarded several David di Donatello Awards, Italy's equivalent to the Oscars, winning best picture against Marco Bellocchio's stunning Vincere, with Paolo Virzi's The First Beautiful Thing running close behind. Unsurprisingly, ten year old Greta Zuccheri Montanari was nominated for best actress in her debut film performance.

The film is told mostly from the point of view of Martina, a young girl, who is also mute. The film takes place in a small Italian farming village, opening in December 1943, with German soldiers occupying Italy. While Martina can not speak, she is revealed to be an eloquent writer, almost getting into trouble for an observant essay culled from the conversations heard by the adults about the different factions involved in the war, knowing that there are people called Fascists, Nazis, and Allies, but not understanding exactly who they are or why they are important. The peasants are less concerned about taking sides, then of getting by, with several joining partisan activity primarily because it means getting the Germans out of Italy.

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Shot with a digital camera, Diritti appears to have depended primarily on available light. This is especially effective with several scenes that take place with candle light. The use of light is especially important to the narrative as several scenes involve efforts by the farmers, partisans, and children, to stay hidden in darkness, whether in a farm house or in the woods. Diritti also allows for a point of view shot, with Marina partially covering her eyes while looking at the women make preparations for the birth of her baby brother.

in discussing the motivation for making The Man who will Come, Diritti was inspired by the events surrounding the massacre of civilians at Monte Sole, and how Italian cinema has avoided certain topics - ". . . Italy itself has essentially repressed the most heinous chapters. It has not come to terms with what was a civil war, albeit an undeclared one. It has preferred to make films on the stereotypes of the Resistance, or else give in to triumphalism, instead of reckoning with the many facets of history, whose memory it is important to keep alive. Especially when it comes to events such as the Monte Sole massacre. What happened 60 years ago in Italy is happening elsewhere today, and we must stay vigil so that civilians are always protected, and so that ideologies such as those that led to these massacres do not take hold."

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Posted by Peter Nellhaus at 06:56 AM

September 28, 2014

Coffee Break

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Andre Benjamin in Idlewild (Bryan Barber - 2006)

Posted by Peter Nellhaus at 09:49 AM

September 26, 2014

Stunt Squad

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La Polizia e Sconfitta
Domenico Paolella - 1977
Raro Video BD Region A

In the first scene of Stunt Squad a pair of repairmen show up at a tiny bar to fix a pay phone. Neither the owner nor the couple of patrons notice that the guys are planting a small bomb inside the small box holding the phone. After the repairmen leave, we see a guy, strangely shirtless, but wearing a fur lined jacket, making a call from a nearby phone booth. This is a rotary phone. Every time the shirtless guy dials a single number, the film cuts to a shot inside the bar. The viewer knows that that the bar phone is being dialed and that there is certainly a mechanism that is going to trigger a bomb. It's a simply done scene, yet very effective. There may be no surprise that there is going to be an explosion, but that still does not deny tension in this scene.

The original Italian title translates as "The police are defeated", and it is more accurate description of what happens in this film. The stunt squad devised by lead cop Marcel Bozzuffi is suppose be a bunch of Italy's brasher cops, guys who can speed through the streets on motorcycles while accurately shooting their targets at the same time. These guys are quite talented regarding stunts, but they aren't the most effective enforcers of law, managing to get picked off by the shirtless criminal, named Villa, who runs a protection racket.

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Villa is play by Vittorio Mezzogiorno, described in an unattributed quote as "perhaps the most gruesome and ruthless villain of the Italian crime drama". There is a later scene where Villa and his gang beat up the pimp that gave away his hiding place. The pimp is then subject to amputation of his penis with a straight razor, the surgery suggested by camera placement rather than anything seen onscreen. The pimp, holding onto his bloody crotch, is shot to death by the machine gun wielding Villa. Under those circumstances, I would consider this a humane ending for the pimp. For gruesome and ruthless, I'd nominate the character Tomas Milian plays in Almost Human, a smalltime hood who gets his kicks breaking into someone's house, and kidnapping and torture are just the beginning.

The modest pleasures of Stunt Squad stem from the low tech special effects employed here. The cars and motorcycle chases are done on real streets, crashing and catching fire, without the benefit of any computer generated effects. Stelvio Cipriani's score is inventive in using a slide whistle in the main theme. Paolella employs his background as a journalist and documentarian for a scene with the movie cops watching a slide show of photos taken of real and recent Italian crime scenes. The English dubbing is quite good here, which is how I like to watch genre films from this era.

Posted by Peter Nellhaus at 07:13 AM

September 24, 2014

Run Silent, Run Deep

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Robert Wise - 1958
KL Studio Classics BD Region A

Even though Burt Lancaster had established himself as both producer and star at United Artists, one of his savvier moves was to pair himself with actors who had greater box office clout. The first time out was with Gary Cooper and Vera Cruz, a film that has gained critical appreciation for having inspired some of the first Italian westerns almost a decade later. The teaming with Clark Cable is a bit more low key. Produced a year after Sweet Smell of Success, Burt Lancaster needed to make a film that had guaranteed commercial viability to counter the financial loss from the previous production. Made at a time when films about World War II were a viable genre, Run Silent, Run Deep is well-made, but hardly unconventional. As part of Robert Wise's filmography, it's an assignment, with the more personal I Want to Live! and Odds Against Tomorrow to follow.

What Wise brings is a visual discipline so that the viewer will think the film was actually shot on board a submarine, rather than a soundstage. While not the definitive submarine movie (that would be Das Boot), Wise limits the camera movement, can composes the shots to emphasis the limited space and the forced physical closeness imposed on the sailors. Most of the film takes place inside the submarine.

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Gable is a captain forced to a desk job when his previous ship has been sunk by the Japanese. He is given the opportunity to take over command of a submarine, a position Lancaster has assumed would be his. Grudgingly continuing his role as executive officer to a new captain, Lancaster and the crew sail to the area where Gable's ship was sunk. Gable is hoping to get revenge against the ship that sunk him. It shouldn't surprise anyone that following a period of tension between Lancaster and Gable, or between crew members, that the Japanese ship is found and sunk.

The Japanese are generic here. There's a distance from the jingoism that might have been found in films made during the war. Office Brad Dexter does cast aspersions towards Jack Warden's sailor with the Germanic last name of Mueller. The film is more interested in the ideas of duty and protocol, done with impersonal professionalism. In an early part of the film, Gable forces the crew to repeat a drill where the submarine has to dive and be battle ready simultaneously in about thirty seconds. While the goal of the drill may well be for Gable's personal vendetta, there is also the sense that even without Gable, the crew would benefit from this kind of preparation.

The Blu-ray is basic, with just a trailer for extras. But the black and white cinematography by Russell Harlan looks beautiful here, with the occasional tilted angle and use of shadows that recall Wise's roots in horror and film noir. While he has written about his debut screen experience with Run Silent, Run Deep in his book, A Memoir, I don't think I would alone in wishing for a commentary track by Don Rickles.

Posted by Peter Nellhaus at 07:05 AM

September 22, 2014

Firestorm

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Feng Bao
Alan Yuen - 2013
Well Go USA Entertainment Region 1 DVD

Firestorm may well be symbolic of not only what's has happened with the Hong Kong action movie, but Hong Kong itself - it's more sophisticated and more expensive, but not necessarily better than what was available in the past. It's obvious that Alan Yuen wants to take the police thriller to a couple of places were it's never been, both in terms of characters and set pieces, yet nothing in these efforts is more than surface deep.

Yuen seems to want to make a vague comment on the randomness of life, done with vehicle fatalities that come near the beginning and end of the film. In the first instance, a car driven by an ex-con, Tong, slams into cop Andy Lau's car while Lau is in the midst of chasing after crooks involved in an armored truck heist. Tong had nothing to do with the heist but is at the wrong place, wrong time, and his forced to act as a mole on behalf of Lau, who is trying to bust a major crime boss. The heist itself is one of Yuen's attempts to up the action film ante by having the armored truck picked up by a large construction crane, and lifted off the road.

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Tong also has a young daughter. There are explanations, but I am going to assume that as the daughter only communicates by screaming, that she is meant be Yuen's idea of an autistic child. I don't know whether Tong is suppose to be a loving, but ignorant, father, or if Yuen really didn't think things through, but slapping a screaming autistic child probably isn't the best choice for trying to calm her down.

Lau plays a detective Liu, in charge of a squad that is trying to bust gangster kingpin Cao. Liu is so intent on making his case that he does what he can to incriminate Cao, only to to find himself compromised by hidden surveillance camera footage. Electronic surveillance is all over the place, used by cops and criminals alike. In one scene, Tong is about to participate in a robbery, but stops to make a call to make sure his daughter is looked after by an "auntie". Actually, the call is to Liu. The leader of this criminal gang checks to make sure about whom is receiving the call. Liu and company anticipate this kind of follow-up with a woman receiving the verification call by Tong's partner in crime.

Firestorm was shown theatrically in 3D in Chinese theaters. The final scene, especially, would be set up to wow the audience. Cars fly and crash, guns are blazing, and there are lots of fiery explosions. As Liu, Andy Lau takes one beating after another, including a chase that concludes with his falling from a ten story building into the kitchen of a little old lady. The "Making of . . . " supplements are interesting in showing how the film was produced. For all the flash and noise, Firestorm manages to be forgotten as soon as it is over.

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Posted by Peter Nellhaus at 07:52 AM

September 21, 2014

Coffee Break

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Angelina Jolie in The Tourist (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck - 2010)

Posted by Peter Nellhaus at 09:33 AM

September 18, 2014

Tinto Brass: Maestro of Erotic Cinema

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Cheeky! / Trasgredire
Tinto Brass - 2000

Black Angel / Senso '45
Tinto Brass - 2002

Private / Fallo!
Tinto Brass - 2003

Monamour
Tinto Brass - 2006
Cult Epics BD Region A Five Disc Set

On the package jacket for this set is the anonymous quote describing Giovanni "Tintoretto" Brass as, "The Hitchcock of erotic cinema". I'm going to have to assume this is based more on Brass making appearances in his own films. With that constant, a very large, cigar in his mouth, Brass reminds me more of cigar chomping Ernst Lubitsch or William Castle. I would suspect Brass might even appreciate the comparison to Lubitsch as there are some thematic similarities the two share, although what is hinted at by Lubitsch is totally uncovered by Brass. As for that Hitchcock comparison, one guy is famous for Rear Window, while several of Brass's films could have been titled Rear End.

I also hardly think it coincidental that the picture of the new Blu-ray set has as disc partially out, reading "Ass Cinema".

The five disc set includes the last four features by Brass, plus an interview with Brass discussing his career as a filmmaker, with clips from several of his films. There is also a forty page booklet that has a transcription of the interview, done in 2001. Missing in the interview is any discussion of a name that appears frequently in the credits, Carla Cipriani, Brass's wife and a collaborator on several of the screenplays. My own familiarity with Brass's films prior to this set has been limited to Attraction, a somewhat experimental film from 1967, and The Key, something of a key film in Brass's filmography with a more constant emphasis on eroticism. What the documentary on Brass reveals is that female nudity has been a part of his work since the first feature.

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It may be no surprise that the best of the films here is the one with the least nudity. For Black Angel, Brass took the same literary source used for Luchino Visconti's Senso, but updated the story to the last days of World War II, when German troops occupied Italy, still barely under the control of Mussolini. The woman, "of a certain age", is played by a real actress, Anna Galiena, a David di Donatello (italian Oscar) nominee both as Best Actress (No Skin and Best Supporting Actress (But Forever in my Mind. Entranced by an icy blond German officer, Galiena plays a woman who tries to avoid facing the realities of war, as well as Italy's precarious position, months away from liberation by Allied troops. There is an orgy that might well be a tip of the hat to Visconti's own World War II drama, The Damned. I wish Brass had resisted the need to show that the wife of a partisan, shot dead on the streets by a German soldier, was not wearing any underwear. The film is so handsomely produced that it looks like it was filmed in a more classic style than a film from 2002. Galiena, forty-eight at the time of filming, reminded me of the leading ladies from 1940s Warner Brothers movies, particularly Joan Crawford and Kay Francis. The soundtrack also includes the song made famous in The Blue Angel, "Falling in Love Again", sung in German by Marlene Dietrich. Visually, Brass takes some queues from the German artist, George Grosz, whose unflinching, and often exaggerated look at Germany after World War I. Grosz's work was classified by the Nazis as entartete Kunst - degenerate art.

Of the other three films, Monamour is the best, and might well be interpreted as Tinto Brass's final summation on film, art, and philosophy. The film also has the closest Hitchcockian moment when Anna Jimskaia is stalked by a man in an art museum, bringing to mind Kim Novak in Vertigo. Still, if one is to compare Brass with a more classical filmmaker, it would be Ernst Lubitsch. Several films by Lubitsch are about imagined infidelities, while very real infidelities are part of Brass's films. Whether sexual jealousy, real or imagined, is an aphrodisiac, is subject for debate. The female protagonists in both Brass and Lubitsch films live life on their own terms. In a Lubitsch film, these women are often elegantly dressed, while in a Brass film, the women live in a universe where you're overdressed if you're wearing panties. Ultimately, Brass makes explicit what Lubitsch could only hint at in the relationships between men and women.

The "Making of" supplements are worthwhile just to have Brass explain the wordplay involved with the Italian titles of his erotic films. In this regard, I would hope no one needs an explanation for the double entendre English language title, Cheeky!. Brass also shows himself to be a "hands on" director with his actresses. The frequent motif of mirror shots in these films, as well as the incorporation of large paintings, especially pop art, make Brass's films of visual interest. The frequent close-ups of bush, tush, poles and holes are more interesting in theory as Brass blurs the line between art and pornography. Even a comparison with Courbet's painting, "Origin of the World" will only get you so far. Whether or not one agrees with Tinto Brass and whether his stated intentions actually are realized with what is onscreen, makes this series of interest to the more serious film scholar. And to quote Sir Mix-A-Lot, "I like big butts and I cannot lie".

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Posted by Peter Nellhaus at 07:53 AM

September 16, 2014

Faust

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Alexander Sukurov - 2011
Kino Lorber BD Region A

Winning the top prize at a film festival doesn't guarantee very much, if it ever did. Winning at the the 2011 edition of the Venice Film Festival didn't do much for the other winners, as the buzz on Michael Fassbender's exposed penis in Shame eclipsed everything else. After that, Alexander Sukurov's film made a couple more festival appearances, and only recently has been made available on home video, with a new blu-ray release.

This is not an easy film to watch like Russian Ark, although like that film, Sukurov reframes a good part of the narrative as a constant journey. The film takes its inspiration from Geothe's version, with a setting in early 19th Century Germany. Except for part near the end, Sukurov dispenses with the more fantastic elements of the story. The effect is that Sukurov keeps the essence of story, with the more literal aspects tossed aside in favor of a more abstract interpretation.

Where there is a fantasy element is in the very beginning, an opening shot that resembles the kind of special effects work for something like Frank Capra's version of Lost Horizon. The image is in a hard matte 1.33:1, with most of the colors desaturated to give the film something of the monochromatic look of an older movie. There are a couple of moments when parts of the film are specially tinted, not quite what one would see in some films from the silent era, but close enough. Some of the imagery, especially those scenes in the crowded town, seem inspired by the paintings of Pieter Bruegel. Sukurov is probably well aware of his own similarities to his character, from having the film made in no small part due to the intercession of Vladimir Putin, as well as being a filmmaker who chooses to work on his own terms with total disregard for commercial demands.

Posted by Peter Nellhaus at 07:46 AM

September 14, 2014

Coffee Break

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Jake Gyllenhaal and Oliver Platt in Love and other Drugs (Edward Zwick - 2010)

Posted by Peter Nellhaus at 08:49 AM

September 11, 2014

Friend 2: The Legacy

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Chingu 2
Kwak Kyung-Taek - 2013
CJ Entertainment Region 1 DVD

Even before it was actually stated in one of the DVD supplements, I suspected that Kwak Kyung-Taek had The Godfather II on his mind when he made Friend 2. The ambition, though not the running time, is there. The film shifts around at various time periods, showing a brief history of organized crime in Korea, from small independent gangs, to the much larger, formally assembled families. I only wish that CJ Entertainment had issued a new DVD of the first Friend from 2001, or better, included that film as part of a set, making the narrative of Friend II a bit easier to follow.

This is a story of fathers and sons, and mentors and proteges. The main story is about a crime boss, Joon-seok, newly out of prison in 2010 after serving a seventeen year sentence for the murder of a friend who was in a rival gang. Joon-seok takes on Sung-hoon, the son of a high school acquaintance, as a new recruit for his gang upon release. The film contrasts the loyalties of biological families with crime families, as well as the different ways of male bonding, whether through shared experiences, or purely mercenary.

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There is an impressive scene when Joon-seok is released from prison and goes to a formal dinner welcoming him back to his organization. There is a procession of black Mercedes, all the same model. The gang is composed of men dressed identically in black suits with open collar white shirts. The scene tells the viewer everything needed about how formalized gang life is at the moment. There is another scene of formal elegance, that of the cremation of the crime family chairman, with the casket moving forward down a long, golden corridor. Even if one loses track regarding how the characters are related to each other, Friend 2 is full of beautiful composed visual moments.

The original film is said to have autobiographical elements, taking place in Kwak's home region around Busan. The flashback section to 1963 is a capsule view of how Korea's organized crime was able to capitalize of Busan's location as a port city. The flashback also includes the rivalry between the street gang led by Jeon-seok's father against the yakuza, which at the time had control over port activity with unstated cooperation by the U.S. military. Especially as Korean films usually have present-day settings, and this part of Korean history is generally unknown to western viewers, it suggests that perhaps Kwak Kyung-taek should take on a film that takes place entirely in Busan, fifty years ago.

Posted by Peter Nellhaus at 07:03 AM

September 09, 2014

Prom Night

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Paul Lynch - 1980
Synapse Films Region 1 DVD

In it's own idiosyncratic way, Prom Night is more interesting as a time capsule than as a horror movie. The film takes place in a time when the people communicated by rotary phones, which plays a major part in the story. One of the side character drives a van, a reminder of that very brief moment when being a "vanner" had status among young adults. As a slasher movie, this is pretty mild compared to the Halloween movies, but it does offer the spectacle of watching Jamie Lee Curtis dance.

The film begins with a group of ten year old kids playing in an old, decrepit building. Their game involves chanting, "the killer is coming". Essentially, they scare one girl who accidentally falls out a window. Somehow, the kids manage to keep their promise to each other not to reveal their part in the accident. The death of the girl is blamed on the neighborhood "catatonic schizophrenic" who has terrorized the community. Forward six years later, and the kids are about to go to the big prom at Disco Alexander Hamilton High School, the crazed killer has escaped from the local loony bin, and someone is making threatening phone calls to those guilty kids.

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Truthfully, and without giving too much away, the film is based on a premise that really makes no sense. Why would the person who knows knows who was responsible for the accidental death, bother to wait six years, and then chase everyone involved with an ax while wearing a mask, when it would have been a whole lot easier to just call a cop or some authority figure? I would guess there's something to taking revenge in your own hands, and of course, without it, there wouldn't have been much of a story here.

There is some use of frames within frames, shots using windows and mirrors, as well as reflecting surfaces, that give the film some visual interest. Leslie Nielsen, as both the high school principal and father to Curtis, doesn't do much here, although it is fun to watch him awkwardly on bust a move on the dance floor while Curtis vigorously dances up a storm.

The DVD comes with a supplement with Lynch and several cast members sharing their memories, as well as a commentary track by Lynch and screenwriter William Gray. One revelation, if you will, is that one of the subplots, one of a couple MacGuffins, was contributed by uncredited writer John Hunter. Lynch mentions how he wanted to use the song, "Born to be Alive", although some might argue that "I Will Survive" might have been more fitting. The filmmakers got away with using a song that sounds very similar to the Gloria Gaynor hit, appropriate for a film that liberally reflects and barrows from, if not always intentionally, the zeitgeist of a very specific time.

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Posted by Peter Nellhaus at 07:15 AM

September 07, 2014

Coffee Break

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Liraz Charhi and Naomi Watts in Fair Game (Doug Liman - 2010)

Posted by Peter Nellhaus at 07:41 AM

September 04, 2014

Juggernaut / Forum

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A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Richard Lester - 1966

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Juggernaut
Richard Lester - 1974
both KL Studio Classics BD Region A

For a brief time, the Fall of 1973, I was working as the Assistant Manager of the Greenwich Theater in New York City. I don't recall all the details, but while a movie was playing inside the theater, a commercial was being shot in the lobby. The commercial featured character actor, Jack Gilford, a face many viewers would recognize even if they don't know the name. During a break from shooting, I went up to Gilford to ask about his experience making A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. I am paraphrasing here, but he didn't like the film, and said something to the effect that Richard Lester did not respect the show.

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I have to assume that Gilford was hoping that the film version of Forum would be a bit more like the traditional filming of a Broadway musical. And if you compare two musicals from the previous year that Forum was released, Lester's film more strongly resembles Help! than The Sound of Music. And from my point of view, that's how it should be. The two new Blu-ray releases of Forum and Juggernaut are compelling arguments in favor of the auteur theory as both are projects that Richard Lester originated, but both unmistakably show his hand.

The musical number, "Everybody Ought to have a Maid", in particular, visually resembles the what Lester did in Help! with the song filmed in such a way that the characters will sing part of the song in one location, inside a house, with a jump cut, to Zero Mostel, Jack Gilford, Michael Hordern and Phil Silvers, suddenly on a rooftop. An apt comparison would be with The Beatles performing "Ticket to Ride".

This is the first time I have seen Forum since its initial theatrical release. Almost fifty years later, the film comes off as more frenetic than funny. Richard Lester's demand for historical realism may be seen in sets and his insistence that Phil Silvers not wear glasses, but is absent from the one scene of Silver's courtesans performing various seductive dances. Aside from the pleasure of watching the main cast, there is Buster Keaton in his last screen performance, with one final pratfall. Also, Stephen Sondheim's lyrics still tickle the mind as well as the ear.

In contrast, Juggernaut is a more conventional film visually. Lester was brought in to direct following the departures of Bryan Forbes and Don Taylor. Where the two filmmakers would have made films that would have probably been more straight forward thrillers, Lester found ways to insert visual and verbal humor. On an ocean liner with seven hidden bombs, one of the subplots involves the ship having faulty gyroscopes, as well as sailing in inclement weather. As a filmmaker who loved the pratfalls of silent comedies, Lester films the crew and passengers slipping and sliding on deck, as well as buffeted about in the passageways.

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That the name of the ship is Britannic sounds close enough to the name of a more famous ship. At one point, the hapless entertainment director of the ship, played by Lester favorite, Roy Kinnear, in preparing for what may be the ship's last party describes it as, "A night to remember", and later tries to reassure passenger Shirley Knight that there are no icebergs. Those who have followed Lester's career might have been amused by a moment in that same scene when what is heard sounds very much like the famous opening, jarring chord for A Hard Day's Night.

This is my return to Juggernaut, forty years after the theatrical release. The scene of Richard Harris and David Hemming trying to defuse their respective bombs still retains tension. One can see the sweat on Harris' nose as he tries to determine which wire is to be cut. A name more meaningful for current viewer is Anthony Hopkins as the London based policeman, whose wife and children are on board the ship. Still, the heart and soul of this film is Kinnear, giving the performance of his career.

Posted by Peter Nellhaus at 07:36 AM

September 02, 2014

14 Blades

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Jin yi wei
Daniel Lee - 2010
Anchor Bay Entertainment BD Region A

Made between the very good Three Kingdoms and the less satisfying White Vengeance, Daniel Lee's film gets an overdue home video release. This is a film that will more likely be of interest to genre enthusiasts, but the genre isn't so much the martial arts film, but the western.

This story set at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, about 1386, has Donnie Yen as a soldier with loyalty only to the emperor, assigned to carry a seal, proof of the traitorous intentions of a prince. The basic narrative follows the template made most famous by John Ford, or having his group of characters travel to their destination, overcoming the obstacles placed by various opponents, as well as the divisions between themselves. In this case, Lee's film kicks in when Yen shows up at the door of the Justice Escort Agency, hiring the weather-beaten gang, and the chief's attractive daughter, to take him to Yanmen Pass. The western genre element is made more obvious with the setting in the western part of China - desert and mountains. It might not be Monument Valley, but it is a serviceable setting.

A good portion takes place at the town near the Yanmen Pass, and it is easily analogous to the kind of border towns seen in countless westerns. While historically not part of the Silk Road, the town is presented here as having a mix of Arab and Mongolian residents along with Chinese. It's also a stopover for outlaw gangs. Daniel Lee took some heat for casting Eurasian Maggie Q in Three Kingdoms, but he has an ongoing interest in the often ignored multicultural aspects of Chinese history.

The title refers to a boxed set of swords Yen carries with him though out the film. While they are each named, and are stated to each have a specific purpose, according to the introductory narration, nothing more is made of this detail. Most of the martial arts here is fairly routine, the wire work and computer generated effects having been so overused in the past decade. Where it is of greater interest is with the female assassin, Tuo Tuo, played by Kate Tsui. In the course of fighting, Tuo Tuo has the ability to become a spectral figure, an empty cloak floating in the air, seemingly two places at once. The final fight places her against Donnie Yen's character in an older building filled with abandoned terra-cotta warriors covered in dust, in spaces made smaller by the various gates between the rooms. There is a point in the fighting when Yen's sword gets heated. The rooms, Yen and Tsui, are mostly blue, but the point of Yen's sword is red. When Yen is able to cut off one of Tsui's garments, there is a splash of red, similar to the effect in an action painting, where it seems to spread across the screen almost at random.

Other reviews of 14 Blades have noted the cross-cultural aspects of the film with such terms as "fried noodle western" and "chow mien western". Be that as it may, Daniel Lee does a couple of nice visual bits - an overhead shot of a tiny rider on horseback racing through a canyon, and a silhouette shot of Yen and the gang along a desert pass. Lee isn't at all shy about having his characters, twice, riding straight into the sunset.

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Posted by Peter Nellhaus at 07:12 AM