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December 30, 2018
Coffee Break
Henry Golding and Constance Wu in Crazy Rich Asians (Jon M. Chu - 2018)
Posted by Peter Nellhaus at 08:32 AM
December 26, 2018
Female on the Beach
Joseph Pevney - 1955
KL Studio Classics BD Region A
First, this film should not be confused with the similarly titled Woman on the Beach by Jean Renoir or Hong Sang-soo.
My own interest in seeing this film was sparked by this examination of Douglas Sirk's career at Universal-International, as it was known at the time time of production. Joseph Pevney is one of the contract directors discussed in some detail, and Female on the Beach has several elements that mark it as the identifiable product of its studio, most obviously in terms of genre, melodrama, with an older female star with one of the studio's top male stars. Additionally, the film was produced by Albert Zugsmith, his first at U-I, with a three year run that included Douglas Sirk's two best films, Written on the Wind and Tarnished Angels, The Incredible Shrinking Man, and ending with Orson Welles' Touch of Evil.
The lurid aspects are consistent with Zugsmith's other productions. The film might be described as a battle between Joan Crawford's legs, always her best feature, seen in short shorts, versus Jeff Chandler's bare chest. Being a studio film made when the production code was still very much in effect requires paying attention to some of the euphemisms as well as what is suggested, but never stated outright. There is also the matter of accepting that 49 year old Crawford's character was what she calls a former "specialty dancer". Jeff Chandler's prematurely gray hair does him no favors in the part of the gigolo next door. Most of the film takes place at Crawford's beach house, itself a example of mid-century architecture, with the appropriate accessories.
The film begins with a middle-aged woman shouting for someone named "Drummy", drunk, seen staggering to the beach side balcony, only to break the wooden railing and fall to her death. Was it suicide or murder? The film's theatrical origins a visible with the assortment of characters that walk in and out of the house, including a manipulative real estate agent played by Jan Sterling, a cop (Charles Drake) who appears out of the shadows, and the older couple next door, the Sorensons, (Cecil Kellaway and Natalie Schafer), who are revealed to be less lovable than at first appearance. Drummy is the nickname for Drummond Hall, the man with a history of seducing older, wealthy women. And Hall is not only in business for himself, but is expected to financially assist his, er, patrons.
Joseph Pevney was no visual stylist, but he does make the most of the frequently arch dialogue. One nicely done moment is a shot of Joan Crawford taking a phone call from Chandler. She does not want to seem desperate for him, and has held out on contacting him after their last fight. Pevney holds the camera at a medium shot from the waist up, as we see Crawford pick up the phone, and watch her face soften from anger to a look of schoolgirl glee as she makes a date with Chandler. While the trading of insults is entertaining, there is oddness in the formality where Crawford's character is mostly addressed as Mrs. Markham, while Sterling is Mrs. Rawlinson. Some contemporary viewers may have trouble with films of this era, where there was sometimes little distinction between romance and rape. Even when the dialogue skirts around the subject of sexual companionship for money, there's nothing subtle when the Sorensons introduce their new, um, protege, named Roddy. An early scene, with Chandler as a passenger in Sterling's speedboat, anticipates a similar scene with Rock Hudson as the passenger while Dorothy Malone recklessly drives her sports car in Written on the Wind, produced by Albert Zugsmith the following year
The blu-ray source appears to have been a pristine print. This is especially noticeable with the solid, pitch black sky in several nighttime scenes. There are two commentary tracks as well. Kat Ellinger discusses some of the production, how Crawford chose Chandler over Tony Curtis to be her leading man, and the marketing of the film. There are a couple small historical errors, but the one most glaring is in disregarding that Jeff Chandler's stardom was well established following his Oscar nominated performance in Broken Arrow in 1950. What has worked against Chandler in retrospect is that most of his films are either forgotten or simply forgettable. The second commentary, by historian David Del Valle with director David DeCoteau, is aimed more for the Joan Crawford fan, with some discussion of the production of Female on the Beach, but mostly anecdotes about Crawford, Chandler and other cast members. David and David also bluntly explain plot points that are slyly hinted at in the screenplay. There is no mistaking Female on the Beach for an overlooked classic. It's enough that it is a consistently entertaining, and well made, potboiler.
Posted by Peter Nellhaus at 08:36 AM
December 25, 2018
Murray Christmas!
Bill Murray in Aloha (Cameron Crowe - 2015)
Posted by Peter Nellhaus at 08:08 AM
December 23, 2018
Coffee Break
Dirk Bogarde in Despair (Rainer Werner Fassbinder - (1978)
Posted by Peter Nellhaus at 10:00 AM
December 16, 2018
Coffee Break
Pierre Etaix in The Suitor (Pierre Etaix - 1962)
Posted by Peter Nellhaus at 09:44 AM
December 11, 2018
Spartacus
Stanley Kubrick - 1960
Criterion Collection Region 1 DVD
Now at age 102, the star is truly a living legend.
There's a scene in the television series, The Sopranos, where Tony and his pals are watching Spartacus on TV. As played by the wonderful Joe Pantolioni, Ralph Cifaretto leaves the room, muttering something along the lines of, "Whoever heard of a gladiator with a flat top?".
I was nine years old, and saw Spartacus when it was still a newish movie. Even then I thought that Kirk Douglas had a strange haircut for a guy who existed in ancient Roman times. I was also disappointed that nobody in the commentary track even bothered to talk about the damn haircut, the most blazing anachronism in the film.
A lot of stuff that went over my head over fifty years ago was understood better, and more deeply, when I saw the restored version on the largest movie screen in Denver. Some of it has to do with maturity. Some of it has to do with my time spent in film studies. And yes, I like this film enough not only to own it on DVD, but to get the version where various people involved in the making of the film chime in on the history of the production, as well as the history of the restoration.
The commentary is extraordinary with its conflicting stories and opinions. Howard Fast, author of the novel, has no problem criticizing the acting of Kirk Douglas, but grudgingly admits that if it hadn't been for the producer/star, the film would never have been made. That the making of the film took its toll on Douglas is clear from a look at his filmography - nothing made after Spartacus was on such a large scale or as physically demanding.
What struck me seeing Spartacus again is how much Douglas is actually not in the film. In his commentary, Douglas speaks highly of the acting of Laurence Olivier, Peter Ustinov and Charles Laughton, going as far as to watch them film a scene that he's not in, simply for the pleasure of viewing them perform. That one of the top Hollywood stars at the time, and one who also functioned as as very hands on producer, allowed the other actors to shine as they do in this film is evidence of a generosity of spirit in what could have easily been more of a one man show.
In his New York Times review, Bosley Crowther's wrote about Spartacus that "it is pitched about to the level of a lusty schoolboy's taste." Maybe that explains why I was the almost perfect audience for this film when it was first released. And while my filmgoing in those years was still teetering between juvenilia and more adult stuff, I did make a point of seeing The List of Adrian Messenger and Seven Days in May when they came out. With the exception of Tony Curtis and Jean Simmons, most of the other actors meant nothing to me at the time, but paid some attention to Kirk Douglas. My attempt to see Lonely are the Brave was stymied by the absence of my parents, and a babysitter who refused to let me leave the house. By the time adolescence really kicked in, I had temporarily stopped paying attention to the "old" stars of Hollywood, mostly replaced by a new crew from England. That Spartacus is a film from my youth that I still feel affection for indicates how my own love of film has evolved to embrace oysters and snails, among other cinematic feasts.
Posted by Peter Nellhaus at 10:01 AM
December 09, 2018
Coffee Break
Nick Offerman in Hearts Beat Loud (Brett Haley - 2018)
Posted by Peter Nellhaus at 07:45 AM
December 04, 2018
La Prisonniere
Henri-Georges Clouzot - 1968
Siren Export DVD
Is Henri-Georges Clouzot due for more reevaluation from English language cinephiles? There are certainly some ripples in that direction with the recent home video release of six features on which he served as one of the writers, a set that includes his short film directorial debut from 1931. Add to that the upcoming home video release of La Verite from Criterion, as well as new blu-ray releases from the British Studio Canal. There is also Serge Bromberg's Inferno, made up of excerpts from the 1964 film that was abandoned by by Clouzot, for me the most fascinating study of a film never to be completed since the 1965 BBC documentary, The Epic that Never Was, about Josef von Sternberg's trouble plagued attempt to film I, Claudius in 1937.
Josee (pronounced like Josie) is a young film editor at a TV station who is working on a documentary about women who have been in relationships with men that teeter in a gray area between abuse and consent. She lives with Gilbert, who creates abstract sculptures made up of boxes. Stan runs an art gallery that shows Gilbert's work. Stan privately is a photographer, close-ups of single words by famed artists and authors, as well as erotic images of submissive women. Josee accidentally sees one of Stan's erotic photos and is initially repelled, later to become one of Stan's models and briefly his lover.
As in his previous films, Clouzot examines marital fidelity as well as the nature of truth, especially the truth of what is being observed. As far as Stan is concerned, everyone is a voyeur. The main characters here are all involved in manipulating images, whether it is the creation or selling of art, editing film, or as a model being paid to be a visual object. The English language title given to this film is Woman in Chains, though most of the chains here are psychological. The original French title, which literally means "The Female Prisoner" is more accurate, though the prison that Jose is in at the film's conclusion is both cruel and heartbreaking.
Setting aside the narrative, Clouzot continues what was begun with Inferno with a continued interest in abstract and "experimental" filmmaking as it was expressed in the mid to late 1960s. Gilbert plays with his own sense of monovision, alternating with one eye open while the other is closed. Clouzot shows a series of point-of-view shots with the same exit sign seen at slightly different angles. Gilbert also plays with waving his fingers in front of his eyes, again with the view seeing the action, followed by more point-of-view shots. While Josee and Gilbert ride a train, Clouzot has a montage of train tracks and electric lines. The final montage is a succession of extremely short shots, some subliminal, of Josee reflecting on past events. At one point, Josee and Gilbert are seen behind the patterned glass of a bathroom, reduced to small squares of light and color. A sex scene is filmed as a series of extreme close-ups of eyes, lips, and legs.
There is also the recurring motif of color. I wonder if the writer Charles Willeford was at all familiar with La Prisonniere. He wrote a book about chicanery in the art world, The Burnt Orange Heresy, about a legendary painting that may, or may not, exist. That novel came out in 1971, two years after the U.S. release of Clouzot's film. What links the two for me is that the color, which I will identify for lack of a better term as "burnt orange" shows up in almost every shot. It's first significantly noticeable as the color of cloth covering the windows of Stan's apartment and then Gilbert's little Citroen. Later we see the color as part of a character's clothing, as part of some of the artwork, and even incorporated as part of the exterior settings. In addition to the color, the art that visually informs the film is that which uses circles, squares and grids, recalling among others, Piet Mondrian and Frank Stella. That this film is set among art and artists is also fitting for the man who made The Mystery of Picasso,
Clouzot may have also made the character of Stan somewhat autobiographical. Some actors have refused to work with Clouzot due to the demands he makes of his actors, as documented in Inferno, both psychological as well as physical. When Stan appears to be in love with Jose, he is seen briefly with pipe in his mouth, as was Clouzot. That Stan sees himself as being misunderstood by both Gilbert and Jose also could be applied to Clouzot. With the exception of Francois Truffaut, Clouzot was rejected by the Nouvelle Vague, but neither were his films part of the "cinema of quality". Clouzot would famously be misunderstood with his political allegory made in Vichy France in 1943, Le Corbeau, making a popular film that simultaneously angered both the left and right wing pundits. As for what turned out to be his last film, Clouzot had stated" ""I know that La Prisonniere will hit, shock. horrify some spectators. We will cry provocation, scandal. However, believe me, perversion exists, and to describe it in its oppressive and tragic aspect, I had to go as far as possible, without fear of traumatizing the public."
This post is part of the "Late Show" blogathon hosted by David Cairns and Shadowplay.
Posted by Peter Nellhaus at 08:11 AM
December 02, 2018
Coffee Break
Andie MacDowell in Love After Love (Russell Harbaugh - 2018)
Posted by Peter Nellhaus at 09:44 AM