The Wolf of Wall Street

When I visited my father in Las Vegas earlier this month, we saw The Wolf of Wall Street.

The Wolf of Wall Street starring Leonardo DiCaprio; with Jonah Hill & Margot Robbie; directed by Martin Scorsese; (2013) - Official Website

I think we saw Wolf of Wall Street in its final week of theatrical release as it wasn't playing in Las Vegas or the Bay Area the following week.

With Wolf of Wall Street, I saw all nine films (in a movie theater) which were nominated for Best Picture at this year's Oscars.  I saw eight of the nine prior to the awards ceremony.  That's the first time I have seen all nominated films from a given year.  When I check the nominees from previous years as far back as the 1930s and 1940s, I still cannot find a year in which I have seen all nominated films.

To recap, the nine nominated films this year were:

12 Years a Slave (winner)
American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Dallas Buyers Club
Gravity 
Her 
Nebraska
Philomena
The Wolf of Wall Street

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The Wolf of Wall Street doesn't need much of a recap because it received so much press.  It is based on the memoirs of Jordan Belfort who founded Stratton Oakmont, a brokerage firm.  DiCaprio portrays Belfort in the film.

My father will frequently doze off during a film but I noticed he didn't close his eyes once during Wolf of Wall Street.  The subject matter of the film does not lend itself to subtlety.  The film revolves around coked up, testosterone laden stock brokers with too much money and behaving badly in their professional and personal lives - sex, drugs and IPOs.

DiCaprio and Jonah Hill as his chief lieutenant essentially form comedy duo as they bounce from one misadventure to another - smuggling cash out of the country, Quaalude induced silliness, sailing their yacht into a storm, etc.  Injecting more comedy into this film than I'm used to, Scorsese blunts some of the cautionary aspects of The Wolf of Wall Street.  At times, the scenes from the film call to mind a Roman orgy and DiCaprio plays Belfort as an unrepentant libertine & bullshitter...so much so that Belfort has deluded himself.

At three hours, you wonder how Scorsese can fill so much screen time.  He does so by dispensing with a coherent plot for long stretches.  Scenes of debauchery & drug use dot the film throughout and add little to the story except to continually reinforce the concept of excess which Belfort & his cronies practiced with abandon.  I can't help but wonder if Scorsese called upon his own experiences in the 1970s to inform the film.  Scorsese must have seen a kindred spirit in Belfort.

The Wolf of Wall Street isn't a film on par with Goodfellas or Taxi Driver.  It shows the rise & fall of Jordan Belfort but he seems to be immune to any kind of self-introspection which gives the film an empty feeling.  The Wolf of Wall Street is immensely watchable with several strong performances but afterwards, you feel unfulfilled which may very well have been the point.

Given the current resentment of the 1%, the film seems to validate this point of view which is a sad indictment of the American Dream.  In Scorsese & DiCaprio's hands, the American Dream is nothing more than a con game and the best way to get ahead is by lying and taking advantage of other people's greed.  It's not the first time this sentiment has been expressed in film but Scorsese's considerable cinematic élan elevates Wolf of Wall Street to something beyond itself.

The Wolf of Wall Street was three of the most enjoyable hours I have spent in a movie theater but I can't call it a great film; it's great fun but not a great film.

Rob the Mob

I saw Rob the Mob last week at the Landmark Embarcadero Center Cinemas.

Rob the Mob starring Michael Pitt & Nina Arianda; with Andy Garcia & Ray Romano; directed by Raymond De Felitta; (2014) - Official Website

Rob the Mob is based on the true story of Tommy and Rosemarie Uva, a Queens couple who robbed Mafia social clubs in the early 1990s.  That's a great hook - who is crazy enough to rob the Mob?  As portrayed in the film, Tommy (Michael Pitt) and Rosemarie (Nina Arianda) are more stupid and ignorant than crazy.  Set in the early 1990s, Tommy attends the trial of John Gotti.  He hears the testimony Sammy "The Bull" Gravano testify that guns are verboten at Mafia social clubs.  Tommy, previously convicted of armed robbery, gets the idea to rob the social clubs since they won't have guns.  As an added incentive, Tommy's father was killed by mobsters when he was a boy.

The predictable plot works its way to its conclusion with little to distinguish it.  Pitt & Arianda have some chemistry and are energetic enough but their dim-witted escapades never quite rise to the level of empathy.  In fact, the dialogue is stilted at times and the most common sentiment elicited from me was contempt for these two idiots.

Ray Romano plays a newspaper columnist who convinces the couple (dubbed Bonnie & Clyde) to give an interview.  Andy Garcia, with a bushy beard, plays the mob boss whose clubs are being robbed.  Garcia tries to show the quiet fury beneath the surface but once again, the dialogue fails the characters.

Burt Young &  Michael Rispoli have smaller roles as mobsters.  Cathy Moriarty has one scene as Tommy's embittered mother (best scene in the film).  Griffin Dunne has a few scenes as the owner of the debt collection agency where Tommy & Rosemarie work.

Rob the Mob is like a sport car not firing on all cylinders.  You know something is off, you're not quite sure what it is and you spend more time trying to figure out what is off than enjoying the ride. 

As I was watching Garcia trying to gain traction in his role, I was reminded of one of his films called City Island which I saw at the 2010 San Francisco Independent Film Festival.  Garcia was similarly hamstrung by mediocre dialogue and a plot which featured his prison guard character's embarrassment at trying to be an actor.  I was so lukewarm about the film that I didn't write anything about it in my post.  City Island was far from horrible but not particularly memorable although I will admit that I am able to recall a surprisingly large part of the plot.  I don't doubt that I'll be able to write the same sentence for Rob the Mob in a few years. 

I have digressed - City Island and Rob the Mob were both directed by Raymond De Felitta which means it's probably not coincidence that I feel tepid about both films.

Child's Pose and It Felt Like Love

I saw two very good films at the Roxie earlier this week.

Technically, I saw both films at the Little Roxie.  I have noticed that their film screenings do not always match their website.  Their website lists whether a film will screen in the Big Roxie or Little Roxie for a particular showtime.  As I have stated before, I try to avoid the Little Roxie for various reasons.  I can't remember which but one of the two films was scheduled to be in the Big Roxie on the website but I was sorely disappointed to see it was screening at the Little Roxie when I arrived at the box office.  This is not the first time this has happened.

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Before I forget, the Roxie has posted the schedule for Elliot Lavine's 2014 edition of I Wake Up Dreaming.  I notice he has combined some pre-Code films into the mix.  For the past two or three years, Lavine has programmed a one week pre-Code film series in March as well as the two week I Wake Up Dreaming series in May.  Unless it slipped past me, there was no pre-Code series this year.  I suppose Elliot is merging the two.

The lineup looks interesting because there are so many titles I'm unfamiliar with.  Giving it the once over, I only recognize eight films I have seen before:  The Locket, Fall Guy, When Strangers Marry, The Window, The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond, Al Capone, While the City Sleeps and Brainstorm.  With 30 films in the lineup, that means 75% of the films are new to me.

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Child's Pose starring Luminița Gheorghiu; directed by Călin Peter Netzer; Romanian with subtitles; (2013) - Official Website
It Felt Like Love starring Gina Piersant; directed by Eliza Hittman; (2013) - Official Website

Child's Pose won the Golden Bear (highest prize) at the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival.

It Felt Like Love is Eliza Hittman's first feature length film.

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Child's Pose is notable for the tremendous performance by Luminița Gheorghiu.  Gheorghiu plays Cornelia Keneres, a sixtysomething woman who is something to behold.  As the film starts, we see that Cornelia is part of the well-to-do set in Bucharest with important people attending her party.  She complains to her sister that her son never calls which would seem like a familiar refrain except she speaks as if she is in competition with her son's live-in girlfriend.  Cornelia's maid is also her son's maid and she bullies and bribes her into providing information about her son's life.

The film veers into more dramatic territory when we learn that Cornelia's son Barbu (Bogdan Dumitrache) has killed a boy with his car.  Cornelia quickly springs into action.  She races to the police station where she ignores the victim's family, uses her contacts to influence the police investigation, browbeats the police detectives taking his son's statements and even instructs her son to change his initial statement.

Although Cornelia clearly loves her son, she also is one ballsy bitch that needs to control every situation.  For his part, Barbu is tired of his mother and the possibility of prison times seems less frightening than having to deal with his mother.

Over the course of the film, we learn the depth of dysfunction in the mother-son relationship although we are never told the exact cause.  Cornelia's manipulative manner is implied to have been the root cause of many of Barbu's problems - which includes a failing relationship with his girlfriend, drug abuse and other problems.

Two scenes stand out for me.  In the first, Cornelia and Barbu's girlfriend Carmen (Ilinca Goia) have as close to a heart-to-heart as Cornelia can have.  Eventually, Cornelia elicits detailed information about Carmen and Barbu's sex life.  First, it seemed peculiar for a woman and her boyfriend's mother to have such a conversation.  Second, the revelations imply that Barbu's problems with his mother have spilled over into his relationship with Carmen.  For her part, Cornelia desperate need to be close to her son has left him frustrated, emotionally stunted and angry at the world.  Still Cornelia cannot let her son go.  It is hinted, ever so slightly during a scene where Cornelia rubs ointment on her son's back, that incest is either in their history or on Cornelia's mind.

The pièce de résistance is the extended scene at the end of the film where Cornelia visits the parents of the dead boy and reveals her feelings while pleading for her son's freedom.  Cornelia has fixed things enough that if the parents will withdraw their complaint, her son will likely receive little to no punishment.  Having seen her manipulations throughout the film, the audience wonders how much of what she is saying is true.  Gheorghiu plays the scene without giving any indication of Cornelia's veracity - reinforcing how good a liar Cornelia is.

Gheorghiu's Cornelia is the type of woman you'll always be weary of but can never put your finger on exactly why she makes you feel uncomfortable.  It's a great role and a great performance and by extension a great film. 

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The plot for It Felt Like Love is a little thin.  Gina Piersanti is Lila, 14 year old Brooklyn girl who spends her summer vacation hanging out with her best friend Chiara (Giovanna Salimeni) and her boyfriend Patrick (Jesse Cordasco).  Chiara & Patrick are quite affectionate and Chiara is very willing to speak with Lila about her sexual experiences.  With her mother dead and a strained relationship with her father, Lila is left to wonder if her lack of sexual experience is normal.

Uncomfortable at being a third wheel, Lila fixates on Sammy (Ronen Rubinstein), an older acquaintance of Chiara whom she refers to as a "total douche."  Pursuing him by stopping by his workplace and leaving behind her sunglasses as a pretext so they can meet again, Lila is more intrigued with the idea of sex than actually having sex.  Taking advantage of Sammy's drunken state, Lila claims to have had sex with Sammy although the audience knows this to be false.

Sammy is doubtful that this occurred and put off by the lie; not to mention he could be prosecuted for statutory rape if the authorities believe Lila's claim.  Lila is still not dissuaded and goes to Sammy's house to seduce or relent to him.  In a disturbing scene, Lila offers to give Sammy and his two friends fellatio.  At first, the three young men are dubious but one by one, each man pulls down his pants while Sammy kneels on the floor.  The scene cuts away so we don't know what transpired although it is implied she left without performing the act. Eventually, Lila "falls out of love" with Sammy but is left confused and frustrated by her own lack of sexual exploits.

It Felt Like Love is the summer nothing happened to Lila although she put herself in dangerous situations and spread false rumors about her own sexual escapades. Lila is a typical teenage girl.  Still a little coltish, she's definitely not a  woman but she doesn't want to be a child anymore.  Encouraged and envious of her friend's sexual experiences, Lila is anxious to move to this phase of her life but I was relieved that she didn't.

Gina Piersant gives a strong performance as Lila.  She captured the teenage angst that I recall from that age.  Perhaps it was stretch for Miss Piersant to play the awkward Lila or perhaps not.  Regardless, she conveyed a difficult period of a woman's life very effectively in It Felt Like Love.  The film was more of a mood piece than complete story.  It was a quick peek into the summer of a young girl where something life altering could have occurred but didn't.  Rather than feel disappointed by the film that didn't deliver, I felt happy for Lila which is one indicator that the film was effective - it made me care about the protagonist.

The Puzzle Within the Castro Theater's April 2014 Calendar

I give paper copies of the Castro Theater calendar to a co-worker.  He's partial to the sing-alongs at the Castro.  I told him about the puzzles embedded in the calendar and he has become quite adept at solving the name game portion.  He's quite good a matching faces to, if not names, then characters from movies and television shows.  My co-worker identified three of the people in the April calendar.  I left the calendar for him when I got into work.  He & I had several meetings that morning so I didn't see him until lunch.  By then he identified three out of the four.

April 7 - Adam West

April 14 - Sheree North

April 28 - Clint Eastwood

After identifying those three, I saw the pattern and correctly identified Ann Sothern.

April 21 - Ann Sothern

I guess I'm excused for not recognizing the actresses.  Looking at her filmography, I can only recall two of Sheree North's films - Charley Varrick and The Shootist. I can only recall one film with Ann Sothern - A Letter to Three Wives.

The clues are directional - North, South, East & West.  I believe the clues are pointing us to Earth Day (April 22).  By the way, the calendar states "TBA" for April 22 but the website states the Castro will be closed that day.  The films for April 15 have not been posted.

A second possible solution is the 2014 San Francisco International Film Festival with emphasis on "International" as in the four corners of the globe  The festival lineup was announced on April 1 and the festival begins on April 24 at the Castro so this gives it some credence. 

Castro Theater Calendar - April 2014

Jodorosky's Dune

I saw Jodorosky's Dune at the Landmark Embarcadero Center Cinemas earlier this week.

Jodorosky's Dune; documentary; directed by Frank Pavich; Spanish, French, German & English with subtitles; (2013) - Official Website

Jodorosky's Dune is an entertaining documentary about "The Greatest Movie Never Made."  Actually, that sobriquet was used to describe Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno which was the subject of an entertaining documentary by Serge Bromberg called Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno.

Of course, Dune was eventually made. David Lynch directed the 1984 film which Jodorosky admits on camera, in a moment of schadenfreude, was terrible.  An admirer of Lynch, Jodorosky blames the poor quality of the film on the producers.  For his part, Lynch has distanced himself from Dune.  He refuses to discuss the film in interviews and his name has been removed from the credits in some versions.

Back to Jodorosky:  after the cult success of El Topo (1970) and financial success of The Holy Mountain (1973), Jodorosky was contacted by French film producer Michael Seydoux, granduncle of Léa Seydoux (Inglourious Basterds, Blues is the Warmest Color and The Grand Hotel Budapest).

Seydoux gave Jodorosky carte blanche for his next film project and Jodorosky chose Dune, a 1965 novel by Frank Herbert.  After writing the script, Jodorosky assembled his team or warriors as he calls them.  He recruited artists Jean Giraud (aka Moebius), Chris Foss and H.R. Giger.  For special effects, he got Dan O'Bannon based on his work on John Carpenter's Dark Star.  Then he set out to cast the film.  Jodorosky claims to have got agreements (presumably verbal) from the likes of Sallvador Dalí, Orson Welles, Mick Jagger and David Carradine. Jodorosky's son Brontis was to have the lead role of Paul.

Jodorosky is quite the raconteur and some of the coincidences in his stories seem a little contrived but I won't quibble.  What is undeniable is some of the eye-popping artwork.  Seydoux packaged the storyboards and sketches into a tome for marketing purposes.  Although the Hollywood studios passed on the project, much of the designs seemed to have made their way into later films.  Jodorosky suspects the pitch books were used by studios for inspiration.

Jodorosky's "warriors" also had later success in Hollywood particularly with James Cameron's Alien.  O'Bannon went on to write the screenplay for Alien on which Chris Foss and Jean Giraud did artwork.  Giraud later went on to do artwork on TRON and The Abyss.  H.R. Giger won an Oscar for Best Visual Effects for his work on Alien.

Jodorosky was trying to get Dune greenlit in the mid-1970s; before Star Wars.  Studios were leery of funding the $15 million budget Seydoux was estimating.  Given the outlandish enticements Jodorosky gave to Dalí and Welles, I think Jodorosky's Dune may have become Jodorosky's Heaven's Gate.  It's enticing imagine what could have been.  Jodorosky still has his copy of the storyboard book so his Dune lives on in that format.  As he mentions near the end of the film, his Dune would make a great animated film and the technology exists today to do his vision justice.

 

The Emperor’s Castle by H.R. Giger

Frank Capra at Stanford and David Rumsey at SFO

Before I forget, there is a great map exhibit in Terminal 2 of the San Francisco International Airport.  It's titled San Francisco Maps from the David Rumsey Map Collection.  The exhibit runs through August 3 and is post-security so you'll need an airline ticket to see it.  Most (if not all) of Virgin America's flights arrive & depart out of the Terminal 2 gates.  The David Rumsey site is quite a treasure trove for amateur and professional cartographers.  I was particularly fascinated with the map of Chinatown from 1885.  The map conveniently (or disparagingly) shows opium dens, gambling dens and houses of prostitution with a color coded legend.

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The Stanford Theater had a month long Frank Capra series in January & February.  They took less than a week off between the end of their Joan Fontaine series and the start of the Capra series.

Several of the films in the series were also screened at the PFA as part of their Early Capra series in 2010.

Lost Horizon starring Ronald Colman; directed by Frank Capra; (1937)
The Bitter Tea of General Yen starring Barbara Stanwyck and Nils Asther; directed by Frank Capra; (1933)
That Certain Thing starring Viola Dana & Ralph Graves; live accompaniment by Dennis James; silent with intertitles; (1928)
It Happened One Night starring Clark Gable & Claudette Colbert; directed by Frank Capra; (1934)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington starring James Stewart, Jean Arthur & Claude Rains; directed by Frank Capra; (1939)
American Madness starring Walter Huston & Pat O'Brien; directed by Frank Capra; (1932)

I saw American Madness at the PFA as part of the aforementioned Capra series.  In order to make the trip to Palo Alto worthwhile, I watched American Madness a second time.  It was paired with Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

I saw The Bitter Tea of General Yen at the Castro in 2010.  My subsequent memories of the film led me to believe it would benefit from a second screening.

I've seen Lost Horizon, It Happened One Night and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington on television before.  Each of the screenings were the first time I saw the films on a movie screen.

I had never seen That Certain Thing.  They screened the film 3 times of four days and I caught the last screening.  That was fortunate for me because the print burned in the projector.  The projectionist did some quick work to skip to the next reel while James never missed a beat.  They would not have been able to screen the film another time without some splicing.  Technically, I didn't see the entire film.  When the resumed the film, a plot point had been resolved.

I had not intended to see Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and American Madness because their screenings conflicted with the Mostly British Film Festival and the San Francisco Independent Film Festival.  However, Shirley Temple (23 April 1928 – 10 February 2014) passed away and the Stanford preempted their schedule on February 15 & 16 with six Shirley Temple films each day.  Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and American Madness were bumped for Miss Temple but rescheduled to March 1 & 2 which allowed me to fit it in my schedule.

I'll start with those two film.  For many years, I have found Mr. Smith Goes to Washington to be a bunch of hokum.  The premise is that Jefferson Smith (Stewart) is this naive man child.  Stewart was in his early 30s at the time of filming.  Jeff Smith is the head of the Boy Rangers which I assume is a take on the Boy Scouts.  The Boy Rangers go around doing good deeds.  How Smith makes a living at this is unexplained.  It's also kind of creepy that a thirtysomething man spends so much time around prepubescent boys although I'll attribute that to modern day cynicism.

When the US Senator from Smith's state dies in office, the governor taps Smith as the replacement; mainly on the recommendation of his sons (not coincidentally Boy Rangers).  Frankly Smith seems unqualified to be a US Senator is glossed over.  He is honest to a fault which in Capra's eyes makes Smith more than qualified.

When Smith arrives in DC, he is taken under the wing of the senior Senator from his state, Joseph Paine (Claude Rains).  Paine is machine politician and is set to clean up financially.  He's bought up land near the site of a dam he is going to propose.  Unknowingly, Smith has his eyes on the same site as a camping ground for his Boy Rangers.  When Smith proposes a bill to seek funding for his bill, he sets in motion the full weight of Paine's machine.

I won't bother with more of the plot.  My "favorite" part is when Paine has his moment of amends by admitting his crime on the floor of the US Senate!  That immediately follows Paine's attempted suicide in an antechamber.

Capra lays it on too thick in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.  I can stomach It's a Wonderful Life but Mr. Smith is just too much for me.  Capra is too obvious in Mr Smith; it lacks all subtlety.  Over the years, I have begun to resent Stewart's character for his ignorance and naiveté.  Maybe I resent the film's iconic status or Stewart's celebrated performance (he was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar).  Even the much discussed filibuster scene lacks depth.  I found myself wanting more Harry Carey as the Vice President than Stewart as Smith.

Anyway, my curmudgeonly pronouncement is that this viewing will be the last time I watch Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

American Madness suffers some of the same problems as Mr. Smith.  Capra has a strong sense of right and wrong and he wants to share it in his films...even if it ruins the film.  Ambiguity and cynicism can be powerful agents of drama and humor.  They better fit our everyday lives but Capra seems oblivious to this.  To be fair, he made his name during the Great Depression where upbeat and uplifting movies were considered social benefits.  It just doesn't fit modern attitudes.

Cocksure bank president Dickson runs his bank his way which is to cater to little guy and downtrodden.  The board argues these are high risk loans but Dickson sticks with his instinct; we don't need no damn FICO scores.  One of his employees robs the vault and he is caught short on cash reserves.  Rumors spread and there is a run on the bank.  There is an endless montage scene showing how the rumor spread.

Anyway, the customers may not believe in the bank but Dickson believes in the customers.  He tries to get them to leave their deposits in place, tries to slow the outflow of cash, tries to line up short-term loans, etc.  It's all to no avail until at his darkest moment, some customers conspicuously and triumphantly enter the bank to make deposits which is enough to stem the run on the bank.

There is a subplot involving the employee who robbed the vault, Dickson's wife and another employee (Pat O'Brien) who is being framed for the crime.  It was kind of hokey and had a B picture feel to it.  Like the inner workings of the US Senate in Mr. Smith, my favorite part of American Madness was inner workings of the bank.  Opening and closing the vault door was quite possibly, my favorite part of the film.

That Certain Thing didn't make much of an impression on me.  Viola Dana plays Molly Kelly who wants to marry a millionaire.  She's kind of a gold digger.  She makes the most of her opportunity when she actually meets a millionaire - Andy B. Charles, Jr. (Ralph Graves).  Technically, Jr. is the son of a millionaire which comes into play with A.B. Charles disowns his son for marrying poorly.

Molly is back to where she started except now she has a husband with no marketable job skills.  After failing as a ditch digger, Molly & Andy come up with an idea.  A.B. Charles' chain of downscale restaurants are the source of frequent complaints from the laborers.  Molly & Andy start a box lunch company in direct competition.  In time, Sr. is forced to buy out Jr. business and thus fulfilling Molly's dream of being married to a millionaire.

There were some physical comedy scenes and Molly lives in a wild tenement building which provides some laughs.  Dennis James spoke before the film and mentioned that the box lunch used in the filming were later used to feed the cast and crew.

I had not seen Lost Horizon since I was a child and did not recall it so well.  Based on the best selling James Hilton novel by the same name, Capra's version of Shangri-La seemed kind of boring to me.  Ronald Colman plays British diplomat Robert Conway.  Helping Westerners escape an armed conflict in China (I cannot recall if the conflict was between Japanese & Chinese or between Chinese), Colman escapes on the last plane out of China with his younger brother George, a paleontologist, a flimflam man and a terminally ill woman (likely a prostitute).  Despite the danger, the plane flies "over the hump" as they would say in WWII.  That is it flies from China to India over the Himalayas.

The plane is hijacked, crashes in the Himalayas and the passengers are taken to Shangri-La; a term now so ubiquitous than it doesn't need an explanation but originated in Hilton's novel and perhaps more widely by this film.  People age slowly in Shangra-La but they do age.  The High Lama (Sam Jaffe) is near death and on the advice of Sondra (Jane Wyatt), arranged for Conway arrival.  Sondra is better read about the outside world than most residents of Shangra-La.  Familiar with Colman's writings, she & the Lama think Colman would make a suitable successor.

Most of the of the visitors want to leave Shangri-La but it's George's brother who is most vocal.  He has taken up with a woman (Margo) who, seemingly, is the only person who wants to leave Shangra-La.  Reluctantly agreeing to leave, Ronald sets out with Margo in tow.  However, as they leave the sphere of influence of Shangri-La's magical properties, Margo ages and dies (she is really several hundred years old).  George goes insane at the sight and leaps to his death.  Ronald eventually makes his way back to England, his memory of Shangra-La mysteriously gone as a result of his ordeal.  When he later regains his memory, he returns to Shangri-La.

Like Colman's character, I had no recollection of specific scenes from the film.  As the film progressed, I began to recall the film; particularly Sam Jaffe's performance.  Ultimately, I found Lost Horizon bad dated which is becoming a trend with Capra's films. Whatever impact Lost Horizon had on audiences in 1937 is long gone in 2014.  That could be said of any 77 year old film but whatever universal or timeless truths Lost Horizon was alluding to seem ridiculously quaint today and Capra's "let's-spell-it-out" approach only reinforces the sense that this film doesn't have much to say in 2014.

As a historical relic, it was interesting to see.  There is a fascinating backstory about production cost overruns and a 3½ hour preview version of the film.

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Lest one thinks the Capra series was a complete bust, I'm glad to report that The Bitter Tea of General Yen held up well to a second screening and It Happened One Night lived up to my expectations.

I stand by what I wrote on September 2, 2010. I will add a little based on the second viewing.  First, Nils Asther's performance has a little more racism than I initially thought.  His General Yen almost yearns to be white - adopting Western manners and forsaking all for a white woman.  I guess it is a form of self-loathing but it's also a symptom of Yen's lust for Stanwyck's Megan Davis.  If the opposite had been true - a white man spouting Confucius and forsaking a white woman for an Asian woman, the reaction would have been outrage in 1930s and derisive laughter today.  Instead, the self-obvious superiority of Western ways is seamlessly interwoven into the plot.

Like Asther's performance, I detected more racism in Stanwyck's role.  Her character has this innate belief on the superiority of her culture, her religion, her beliefs, etc.  It is only at the end, when Yen has given up his Chinese empire and identity that Davis adopts the role of Chinese concubine to comfort the dying general.  In that sense, the story comes down on the side of the Chinese but the next scene shows that Davis' position in China is untenable.  She has to leave the country for her own safety, a victim of reverse discrimination and potential Chinese barbarity.

After having seen The Bitter Tea of General Yen twice, I am anxious to see it a third time.  It's amazing to me that Capra followed American Madness with The Bitter Tea of General Yen.  General Yen was a box office failure which likely played a part in Capra's future directorial efforts.

In It Happened One Night, Claudette Colbert is Ellie Andrews, a wealthy heiress who runs away from her father's yacht to marry a man her father doesn't approve of.  Without money and unwilling to reveal her location to her father, Andrews is forced to accept Peter Warne (Clark Gable), a fast-talking, wise-cracking, newspaper reporter.  As they make their way from Florida to New York with little to no money, the pair slowly fall in love.  Andrews is a spoiled rich girl and Warne a cynical newsman.  Initially they dislike each other but their mutual reliance and attraction carry the day. 

It Happened One Night is an oft-told romantic story (Moonlighting with Bruce Willis and Cybil Shepherd was one of my favorite versions).  However, Gable & Colbert have undeniable screen appeal and elevate the film beyond what most other actors could have achieved.  Colbert in a particular is funny, sexy, petulant and appealing.  What constitutes "funny, sexy, petulant and appealing" in a woman changes as men age.  Colbert, 29 years old during filming, gives a performance which I would not have appreciated as a boy or younger man, but greatly appreciate in my middle age. 

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San Francisco Chinatown (1885)

RIP Joan Fontaine

The Stanford Theater had a four film tribute to the late Joan Fontaine (22 October 1917 – 15 December 2013) in January.  I was out of town the first week of the series so I missed Rebecca & Suspicion (both of which I had seen before).  I caught a double feature on January 10.

The Constant Nymph starring Charles Boyer, Joan Fontaine & Alexis Smith; directed by Edmund Goulding; (1943)

Letter from an Unknown Woman starring Joan Fontaine & Louis Jourdan; directed by Max Ophüls; (1948)

The Constant Nymph was enjoyable.  Letter from an Unknown Woman was more significant and resonates within me three months after viewing it.

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Joan Fontaine was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar for her performance in The Constant Nymph.  She cited it as one of her favorite performances.

The Constant Nymph revolves around the Sanger daughters.  The patriarch is Albert Sanger; kind of an older, white haired Tevye the Milkman type.  He has four rambunctious daughters of which Joan Fontaine plays the youngest, Tessa.  Fontaine was 25 years old when the film was made but plays a 14 year old girl.  Wearing pigtails, pinafore and schoolgirl frocks, Fontaine almost pulls of the transformation but I could never lose sight of the fact that Fontaine was older than her character.

The famed musical composer Lewis Dodd (Charles Boyer) comes to visit Sanger, his mentor, and Sanger's daughters, his muses.  Sanger soon dies and the sisters are split apart.  One of the older sisters goes off with Peter Lorre!   Tessa and the next youngest sister are sent to live with a wealthy uncle in London.  Their cousin, Florence (Alexis Smith), arrives to accompany the girls to England.  Dodd & Florence fall in love; much to the consternation of Tessa who is not-so-secretly in love with Dodd.

It beggars belief that Dodd is largely unaware of the girl's true feelings toward him.  Indeed, as the film progresses, it becomes impossible for him to ignore the girl.  Florence is fully aware of her cousin's true feelings and is incapable of convincing Dodd.  Whatever misgivings she (and Dodd) have about their relationship, they get married.   Florence & her wealthy father are at the center of London's social scene - an environment foreign to Dodd and nonconducive to musical composition.  Florence has managed the Tessa problem by shipping her off to boarding school but her holiday return sets off a flurry of creativity within Dodd.

At some level Dodd must be cognizant of the girl's feelings but between her age and his marital status he represses that awareness as well as his own feelings.  Instead, he focuses on the creative burst of energy given to him by Tessa and the entire Sanger family.  The girl, who keenly feels Dodd's composition, reciprocates and they collaborate on his most important piece.

The Constant Nymph is treading some dangerous water.  At its heart is the more-than-platonic, less-than-sexual relationship between a grown man and 14 or 15 year old girl.  1930s and 1940s Hollywood treated this issue with less gravity than today - The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer is one that comes to mind.

What saves The Constant Nymph is that Joan Fontaine doesn't look like a fourteen year old girl.  The dynamics would have been much different if Fontaine played her age.  In the conflict between Tessa and Florence (great performance by Alexis Smith), Tessa has the upper hand due to her age.  She can claim innocence with Tessa that a 25 year old woman couldn't get away with.

The Constant Nymph has some laughs and Joan Fontaine literally gets to act like a teenager.  Smith is admirable in a difficult role.  There is a confrontation scene between the two cousins which is memorable.

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Procrastination can be a good thing.  I was luke warm about Letter from an Unknown Woman immediately after seeing it.  However, the tragedy of Fontaine's character has lingered in my mind for several months.  If a film can impart such a memory, there must something to it.

Fontaine plays Lisa, a teenager when the film begins.  Concert pianist Stefan Brand (Louis Jourdan) moves into the Lisa's apartment building.  Lisa is immediately obsessed with Brand - stalking him, entering his apartment when he is gone, staying up late to listen to him play piano.  Brand, thankfully, pays the girl no attention.

Lisa's father has passed away.  Her mother remarries and they have to move away.  Most of the film takes place in Vienna.  Lisa impulsively runs away at the train station to...I'm not sure what she was going to do.  She ends up waiting outside Brand's apartment all night until she sees him and a young woman arrive together.  Heartbroken, she reluctantly agrees to join her mother & stepfather.

Her stepfather arranges an introduction between Lisa and a young military officer.  He eventually proposes to Lisa but she lies and says she is in love with someone in Vienna which the truth but deceives everyone (including herself) by suggesting the relationship is more mutual.

Falling out with her parents, Lisa returns to Vienna to work as a dress model.  She returns to stalking Brand by waiting outside his apartment every night, seeing a procession of women accompanying him.  Eventually, he notices her but not the fact that she used to live in the building.  They have a whirlwind courtship ending in their consummating the relationship.  Brand departs for a concert in Milan; Lisa discovers she's pregnant.  Brand never contacts Lisa and vice versa.

A decade later, Lisa has married a wealthy older man who has accepted her son, named Stefan after his father.  One evening, at the opera, Lisa runs into Stefan.  Again, he doesn't recall meeting Lisa although he feels an immediate attraction.  Despite her husband's objection, Lisa pursues Stefan again; showing up at his apartment (the guy never moves?).  During his encounter, Lisa realizes that Stefan never loved her.  I would think the lack of contact and failure to recall their acquaintance would have tipped her off earlier but better late than never...except in Max Ophüls film.

After the death of her son from typhus, Lisa falls ill herself (although her illness is not specified).  She composes a deathbed letter to Stefan detailing her strange and self-destructive obsession with him.  Still unable to remember the previous encounters, Stefan confirms her account by asking his longtime valet if he recalls her.  When he confirms the account, Stefan's sense of guilt and shame are resolute.  He agrees to a duel with Lisa's husband with the implication that he will be killed by not engaging in the duel.

No explanation is ever given as to why Lisa is so attracted to Stefan.  That adds to the mystery and tragedy and in fact, any explanation would likely seem implausible.  The premise is ridiculous to my sensibilities but Fontaine's performance & Ophüls' direction give Lisa's misguided persistence a tragic futility; Letter from an Unknown Woman is operatic.

New PFA Building Update

Recently, I received an email which updated PFA members on the status of the new BAM/PFA building.  The new building has long been set to open to the public in "Early 2016."  I assumed that meant business as usual until the Winter Break of the 2015-16 school year.  I figured they would install the art work and film equipment during the break.  At most, I thought a month on both sides of the break to account for the holiday season and contingencies.

The email informed me that "Our rich program of film screenings will continue at the PFA Theater through July 2015. "  That means the PFA will be closed for at least 5 months and maybe longer depending on the exact date of "Early 2016."   The Berkeley Art Museum "will be suspending...gallery programs as of mid-December 2014."  They'll be closed for over a year at a minimum.

Soon after receiving the status update email, I received an email inviting me to take a survey about the new BAM/PFA building.  The survey mentioned that there was still a multi-million dollar shortfall in fundraising for the privately-funded project.  Another question asked the likelihood of my remaining a member if they raised membership dues.  That doesn't sound very promising.

It will be strange to have the PFA closed for such an extended period.  Since I last perused their website, artist's renderings of the new building have been posted.  The theater has stadium style seating; approximately 12 rows of 20 seats.  Frankly, it doesn't look much different than a theater in any new cineplex.  Undoubtedly, the seats will be more comfortable but I kind of like the student seats with flip-top desks.  It reminded me of my college days.

For me, the biggest benefit about the new building is its closer proximity to Downtown Berkeley BART.  The current PFA building is a 15 minute walk from BART.  The new building is less than 5 minutes from BART.

From the artist's rendering, it's unclear if they will project movies onto an exterior screen or if the James Stewart image is a mural.

Love Is Colder Than Death: The Cinema of Rainer Werner Fassbinder

There was a massive retrospective of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's films in the Bay Area this past autumn/winter.  The Roxie, YBCA & PFA had multiple screenings of Fassbinder films.  The PFA program was titled Love Is Colder Than Death: The Cinema of Rainer Werner Fassbinder and ran from October to December.  The YBCA program ran for a similar period.  The Roxie program screened one film per night for seven consecutive days.  Between the three venues, there must have been over 40 screenings of Fassbinder films although some films were screened more than once.

I saw nine films directed by Fassbinder.

The Marriage of Maria Braun starring Hanna Schygulla; German with subtitles; (1978)

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul starring Brigitte Mira & El Hedi Ben Salem; German with subtitles; (1973)

Effi Briest starring Hanna Schygulla; German with subtitles; (1973)

The Merchant of Four Seasons starring Hans Hirschmüller & Irm Hermann; German with subtitles; (1971)

Fear of Fear starring Margit Carstensen; German with subtitles; (1975)

The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant starring Margit Carstensen, Hanna Schygulla & Irm Hermann; German with subtitles; (1972)

Why Does Herr R. Run Amok? starring Kurt Raab; co-directed by Michael Fengler; German with subtitles; (1969)

Despair starring Dirk Bogarde & Andrea Ferreol; German with subtitles; (1977)

Querelle starring Brad Davis, Franco Nero & Jeanne Moreau; (1982)

I watched Querelle, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul & Effi Briest at the YBCA.  I saw all the other films at PFA.

I was ambivalent about the films I watched.  I had previously seen Fassbinder's World on a Wire and Berlin Alexanderplatz.  Given Fassbinder's reputation and the magnitude of the retrospective series, I was initially anxious to see as many of the films as possible.  By the end, I was fatigued (both mentally & physically) and did not see as many of the films as I initially planned.

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The Marriage of Maria Braun was a tremendous way for me to start the series.  During WWII Maria (Hanna Schygulla) marries soldier Hermann Braun (Klaus Löwitsch).  After the briefest of honeymoons, Hermann is sent back to the front.  After the war, Maria is informed that Herman was KIA.  To make ends meet, Maria begins working in a club (Fassbinder plays the proprietor) which caters to American GIs.  Essentially, she is a prostitute servicing Americans because they're the only one with any money in post-WWII Germany.

Maria eventually takes up with black soldier Bill (George Byrd).  When Hermann shows up at the house and catches them in bed together, Bill and Hermann begin to fight.  Bill gains the upper hand but Maria strikes him with a bottle to aid Hermann.  The force of the blow kills Bill.  Hermann takes the blame for the death and is sentenced to a lengthy prison term.

On the train after visiting her husband in prison, Maria meet Karl Oswald, a wealthy older man who doesn't know what he is getting into.  Brazenly forward, Maria quickly insinuates herself as Oswald's assistant, mistress and confidante.  Instrumental in the post-war success of Oswald's company, Maria shares in his increasing wealth.  Oswald would like Maria to himself so he pays a visit to Hermann in prison & convinces him to abandon Maria after his upcoming release.  Hermann, who is susceptible to suggestion, complies with Oswald's suggestion.  The love triangle is set - Maria & Oswald in Germany and Hermann abroad.  Upon Oswald's death, Maria discovers the arrangement made between Oswald and Hermann.  Hermann has returned to Germany to be with Maria but news of the arrangement has upset Maria.  She inadvertently leaves the gas stove on after hear the news about Oswald and Hermann's pact.  Later, she lights a cigarette and the house blows up, presumably killing Maria & Hermann.

The character of Maria Braun & Schygulla's portrayal of her are stupendous.  It's said that the characters represent different aspects of (West) German society in the post-war period.  Braun represents the German people's sordid past, ability to put it behind them and ruthless ambition for financial security in post-war era.  However, viewing the film in that manner lessens the beauty of it.  The Marriage of Maria Braun succeeds without having recognize metaphors.  Maria Braun is like a heroine in some 18th century novel who goes from mousy to desperate to confident.  The rise of Maria Braun would be uplifting if not for her casual cruelty and cold ambition.

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Ali: Fear Eats the Soul was also a tremendous film.   Emmi (Brigitte Mira), is an elderly cleaning woman.  Walking home one day, she ducks into bar to escape a rainstorm.  She encounters a foreign world in the bar - Arabic music and expatriate community of Arab speaking immigrants.  One of them, Ali (El Hedi Ben Salem) is goaded into asking Emmi for a dance.

An unlikely friendship and romance develops between Emmi & Ali.  In addition to their ethnic differences, Ali is 20+ years Emmi's junior. As the film shows, it is Emmi & Ali's friends' reaction which is the biggest impediment.  Ali shacks up at Emmi's place (she is a widow) which draws the ire of the landlord about violating the terms of the lease.  Impulsively and fearful of losing Ali who is the sole source of happiness in her life, Emmi announces to the landlord that she & Ali are about to get married and plan to live there as man & wife.  Ali doesn't bat an eye and agrees to the indirect marriage proposal.

Emmi's neighbors, co-workers and children (Fassbinder plays Emmi's son-in-law) react with anger & contempt to her relationship with a foreigner.  Emmi & Ali take a vacation to escape the hostility.  Upon their return, they are welcomed back without any of the previous ill will.  However, this is more for convenience than changes in attitudes.  The shopkeeper wants Emmi's business, the daughter wants Emmi's babysitting services, the co-workers need Emmi covering their shifts, etc.

Emmi begins to tacitly adopt racist attitudes of her previous tormentors.  She objectifies and belittles Ali in front of others, she refuses to prepare or eat couscous because it is a foreign food, etc.  In response, Ali turns to the Barbara (Barbara Valentin), the female bartender at the bar he first met Emmi.  Apparently having been intimate with her before, Ali increasingly spends time with Barbara until Emmi becomes concerned about his absence.  She shows up at the garage he works at and Ali pretends not to know her.  This implies Ali has kept the relationship a secret from his co-workers.

Later, Emmi returns to the bar where Ali is drinking with friends.  Barbara puts the same song on the jukebox as when they first met.  Emmi & Ali dance again and is seems as if they will reconcile except Ali collapses to the floor.  We next see Ali in the hospital.  His ulcer, which has been acting up peridocially throughout the film, is the cause.  The doctor tells Emmi that immigrants frequently suffer from ulcers due to the discrimination they face and although surgery will fix this ulcer, Ali will likely develop another in a few months.  Emmi says she will try to prevent it from happening.  Given their history, it's ambiguous if she will be successful.

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul is a wonderful film about a romance which defies expectations and faces considerable obstacles.  Strong performances by Brigitte Mira & El Hedi Ben Salem but the backstory of the actors is also interesting.  Salem was Fassbinder gay lover despite Salem being married to a woman at the time.  His only movie credits are in Fassbinder films.  Later, he stabbed some bar patrons in a drunken frenzy and was deported to France where he committed suicide.  Barbara Valentin, whom I found extremely sexy, would go on to be Freddie Mercury's lover in the 1980s despite his seemingly open homosexuality.

The Marriage of Maria Braun and Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, which were the first two films I saw in the Fassbinder set of series, were also my two favorite films of the nine I saw.

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The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant was jagged little pill of a film.  Based on Fassbinder's play, the film takes place in the fashionable apartment of Petra von Kant (Margit Carstensen), a successful fashion designer.  Karin Thimm, a friend of Petra's cousin, arrives after several years abroad.  Von Kant, twice married with a daughter who is off to boarding school or university, is immediately attracted to Karin (Hanna Schygulla), whose husband has stayed overseas.  Petra suggests Karin model clothes and pledges to help by using her contacts within the industry.

Six months pass and Karin is living at Petra's place.  I should note that Petra has a live-in assistant named Marlene (Irm Hermann) who functions as Petra's assistant designer, secretary, hostess, maid and whipping boy.  Marlene doesn't say a word throughout the film but occasionally her facial expressions give a glimpse into her inner thoughts.  Anyway, Petra & Karin's sexual relationship which was red hot at the beginning is cooling off after six months.  Karin's ambivalence and cruelty undermine their relationship.  She has just stayed out all night, is evasive about whether she slept with a man and reveals that she is still in contact with her husband who is now in Zurich.  Karin had told Petra she was planning on divorcing her husband but now asks Petra for money for a flight to Zurich to be reunited.

Karin's reconciliation with her husband sends Petra into a drunken tailspin.  On her birthday, Petra's cousin, mother & daughter come to visit but Petra is most anxious for Karin to make an appearance.  As she becomes more drunk, her acrimony becomes more pointed.  Although she does receive a phone call from Karin, it is clear that the relationship is over...at least as far as Karin is concerned.  Petra apologizes but the damage to her friends and family has been done as evidenced by Marlene's packing her suitcase and leaving as the film ends.

The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant never strays far from its theatrical roots.  The action never leaves von Kant's apartment so the effect is claustrophobic.  These three women are locked in a dysfunctional codependence.  The older, successful woman is smitten with the younger woman who eventually gains the upper hand against the older woman.  All the while, the masochist looks on and is forced to watch someone supplant her.  It's easy to imagine Marlene starting the same way as Karin but Karin's mercenary streak takes her in a different direction -  the casual sadist vs. the earnest masochist.

The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant is Fassbinder's chamber piece cum Southern Gothic à la 1970s European aesthetics.

I also enjoyed Fear of Fear which starred Margit Carstensen as Margot a housewife and mother of two who develops a fear of being alone with her newborn.  Her self-absorbed husband and busybody in-laws don't help matters.  Ultimately prescribed Valium, Margot becomes addicted and unable to get her doctor prescribe more, she resorts to sleeping with the pharmacist in order to get the pills.  This is just the most obvious step in Margot's descent which I took to be as much as an indictment of the isolating effects of modern society as the story of Margot's inner turmoil.  Unable to love her children or feel a connection to anyone, Margot's psychological issues are manifestations of her isolation.  Packaged as a melodrama, Fear of Fear is really an observation of the human condition.  That could be said of all of Fassbinder's films but unfortunately, I found the other films in the series nearly inscrutable.

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I've had a sense of deja vu with Querelle since seeing it.  I recently read Patti Smith's Just Kids and discovered that Robert Mapplethorpe was a fan of Genet's novel.  I also ran across it in an article I recently read which I cannot recall.

Brad Davis (who also starred in Midnight Express which plays at the Castro Theater on April 17) stars as Querelle, a sailor with bisexual tendencies.  A murderer, when Querelle's ship pulls into Brest, he visits a brothel run by Lysiane (Jeanne Moreau).  Querelle's brother Robert happens to be Lysiane's lover while Lysiane's husband, Nono, likes to play a dice game with prospective paramours of his wife.  If they win, they can proceed.  If they lose, they have to submit to being sodomized Nono.  I think that at this point, I started to lose interest.

The sets of Querelle looked artificial and the plot seemed secondary.  Instead, Querelle seemed more of a homosexual manifesto.  Moreau belts out a soulful rendition of Each Man Kills The Things He Love and I don't recall much else.  I am curious about Genet's novel.

Effi Briest was based on a novel by Theodor Fontane.  Hanna Schygulla looks radiant as Effi, a woman whose adultery is revealed years later by letters she has kept.  Her husband, a baron, has to challenge the man to a duel which cause a scandal and ultimately cost Effi her daughter and her family.  I'm sure there were some strong criticisms of a patriarchal society and the foolishness of honor but I could quite concentrate enough to enjoy Effi Briest.

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I don't have the energy to write up the other films properly.  I didn't really enjoy them or take much away from them.  Given Fassbinder's reputation, I feel as though my inability to appreciate several of them reflect poorly on myself.  My only excuse is that I have hard time concentrating as I get older.  I cannot watch serious film after serious film on consecutive nights and fully comprehend and appreciate what I'm watching.  I remember being cinematically fatigued in the period between Thanksgiving and mid-December.  I came down with a bad cough a week before Xmas.  I wonder if the illness was sapping my energy before the symptoms became obvious.

The PFA screened a washed out print of Why Does Herr R. Run Amok?  I think that may have been the worst 35 mm print I've ever scene at PFA (but not ever).  The film required tremendous concentration to pick up on the subtle signals that Herr. R was going to run amok.

The Merchant of Four Seasons is about Hans (Hans Hirschmuller) a fruit seller with a nagging wife and unloving mother.  He has a heart attack and his old army buddy comes to help...help himself to Hans' wife and business.  Depressed by the turn of events, he drinks himself to death.  Then we are treated to Hans' life as it could have been if he had stayed on the police force.  Hans was fired when his superior walked in on him receiving fellatio from a criminal suspect.  It was a very bleak film which made it more difficult to pay attention.

Despair did feature a strong performance by Dirk Bogarde.  He plays a chocolatier give to dissociative states.  He's a Russian in 1930s Germany, his wife is cuckolding him with her fatuous cousin and he finds a vagrant who he thinks looks like himself.  He murders the vagrant assuming people will think it is him.  That way, he can walk away from his life.  Absurd and with noir elements, my opinion of Despair is rising as I write these words and recall portions of the film.

Tales of Love: The Enchanted World of Jacques Demy

This post has existed in a state of partial completion for over five months.  My procrastination strikes again.  Actually, in this instance, it's not so much procrastination as a lack of time.  I've been told no one has a lack of time.  We all make priorities and complaints about "lack of time" is just buyer's remorse over the way we have prioritized the past.

The PFA had a Jacques Demy series from July 25 to August 31.  I saw five of the films in the series.

Lola starring Anouk Aimée & Marc Michel; directed by Jacques Demy; French with subtitles; (1961)

Model Shop starring Anouk Aimée & Gary Lockwood; directed by Jacques Demy; (1969)

The Young Girls of Rochefort starring Catherine Deneuve & Françcoise Dorléac; with Gene Kelly, Michel Piccoli, George Chakiris & Danielle Darrieux; directed by Jacques Demy; French with subtitles; (1967)

The Pied Piper starring Donovan, Donald Pleasance & John Hurt; directed by Jacques Demy; (1972)

Three Seats for the 26th starring Yves Montand, Mathilda May & Françoise Fabian; directed by Jacques Demy; French with subtitles; (1988)

Two short films accompanied the films I caught.

Le sabotier du Val de Loire; documentary; directed by Jacques Demy; French with subtitles; (1956)

Lust starring Jean-Louis Trintignant; directed by Jacques Demy; French with subtitles; (1961)

Le sabotier du Val de Loire preceded Lola.  Lust preceded Model Shop.  Lust was one segment of The Seven Deadly Sins.  Each segment was named after one of the seven sins and directed by a different director.  Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol & Roger Vadim were among the other directors contributing to The Seven Deadly Sins.  Because I always forget them, the seven deadly sins are wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy & gluttony.  Looking at the list, I wish I hadn't looked them up.

I had previously seen two of the films in the series - Bay of Angels and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.

Lola is a bit of a prequel to The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.  It was director Jacques Demy's feature film debut.  Roland Cassard (Marc Michel) who has a supporting role in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) is young man who gets involved in a smuggling ring in Nantes. He is in love with Lola (Anouk Aimée), a "cabaret dancer" whom he knew many years ago as teenagers.  Lola is waiting for her love, Michel (Jacques Harden) who is the father of young son.  Rounding out the list of suitors is Frankie (Alan Scott), an American sailor stationed nearby.  Nantes is on France's Atlantic coast.

In typical Demy fashion, the character interact with each; some unaware of the others' acquaintance.  The effect is amusing and sometimes enlightening.  Supporting characters include teenage Cécile (Annie Dupéroux) and her mother (Elina Labourdette) who are friendly with Roland and Frankie.

Anouk Aimée is stunningly sexy as Lola.  Demy bathes the film in a lyrical tone but at it's core, Lola is a bittersweet tale of unrequited love.  Roland loves Lola but she doesn't love him; Lola loves Michel but it seems he doesn't love her; etc.  As I would see from the series, Lola is the first film in a continuum of Demy films which re-explores the general theme of the harsh realities of life intruding on fairy tale endings Hollywood feeds us.

Model Shop updates us on the life of Lola.  Aimée reprises the role but the action has been moved to Los Angeles.  Demy paints LA in a grayer tone than any of the French cities from his films which gives Model Shop a darker edge than French films.  All his films have a "rotten at the core" motif but Model Shop reflects that sentiment in its visuals unlike his French films.

Gary Lockwood plays George, an unemployed man with an aspiring actress girlfriend who breaks up with him near the beginning of the film.  He is behind on the payments of his sportscar and needs immediate cash to avoid it getting repossessed.  Driving around LA looking to borrow money from friends, George spots a beautiful woman (Aimée).  He follows her and discovers she works as a model in a sleazy photo studio.  You rent the camera and take photos of the models in lingerie.

Lola and George hit it off and they have a one-night stand.  Lola updates the audience on her backstory although how she made her way to LA is omitted.  Lola is about to return to France.  George has recently discovered he is being drafted in the Army and likely sent to Vietnam.  They promise to keep in touch but the ending indicates that is impossible.

Model Shop is very much a Demy film in plot and implications but it lacks all the fairy tale qualities of his French works.  It's as if they made a foreign film in LA and tried to adapt it for topical subjects of the time - Vietnam War, disillusionment and the sprawling metropolis of the City of Angels.  Model Shop was a very good film; it didn't feel like a Demy film and seems dated 45 years later.  Films from the 1960s suffer the worst in terms of outdatedness.

The Young Girls of Rochefort stars Catherine Deneuve and her sister Françcoise Dorléac who would die in a car accident less than three months after the film was released.  Deneuve and Dorléac plays twin sisters Delphine and Solange, respectively.  The film is a dizzying, pastel drenched melange of subplots.  The carnival has come to town and the twins flirt with the carnies (including George Chakiris).  Their mother (Danielle Darrieux) runs a très chic cafe in the town square.  That cafe is something to behold - glass enclosed, brightly lit with sunlight, white floors and light blue tables.  The cafe stays in my memory six months after seeing the film.  Anyway, the mother pines away for her true love who left town because of his embarrassing last name - Dame.

Michael Piccoli is Simon Dame who improbably has returned to town, has never ventured into that beautiful cafe and runs a music store which Solange frequents.  Dame is equally anxious to meet his former love.  I guess it was harder to find people before the internet.  Gene Kelly shows up as Dame's buddy and Solange's mentor/romance.  Delphine has appears to be an art gallery owner's mistress.  There's a French sailor too and I almost forgot, there's a serial killer running around.

As you can imagine, the plot is intricate but really superfluous.  The sisters get to dress up, dance and sing with Chakiris and Kelly and others.  They looks fabulous, they get some laughs and I had a great time.

With Three Seats for the 26th, Demy, in his final film, might have pushed it too far.  Yves Montand plays Yves Montand.  The cinematic Montand has returned to his hometown of Marseilles to mount a stage production based on his life.   Montand's true love was a prostitute named Mylene (Françoise Fabian) whom he met as a young man in Marseilles many years ago.

Meanwhile, Marion (Mathilda May) is a young, aspiring singer who is anxious to see Montand's show.  Unable to buy tickets, she decides to approach him directly, state her admiration and appeal to him directly to give her a ticket.  She sings for him, lands a role in the show and eventually gets her big break.

A third subplot involves Marion's mother (Françoise Fabian) who is a baroness and...you guessed it, the prostitute from Montand's youth.  I'll give you one guess as to the true parentage of Marion.

With intricate plotting, plethora of great musical numbers and Montand's star power, Three Seats for the 26th seems to be in the tradition of The Young Girls of Rochefort.  Montand's show within the show touches on his romance with Marilyn Monroe and marriage to Simone Signoret.

The only part where the wheels fall off is toward the end of the film.  Let's just say that Montand loves his daughter in a non-paternal way.  Did we really need to have that in there?  Montand gets over it pretty quickly.  Marion remains, throughout the film, unaware of her true relationship with Montand.

I didn't enjoy The Pied Piper.  A dark film befitting its source material, The Pied Piper misfires on many levels.  First, Donovan is miscast and if his acting is off, having him sing a folk song is doubly off.  That leads me to the second issues which is that this film looks like a 1970s film.  It didn't look like the Dark Ages, it looked a bunch of actors from the 1970s playing characters from the Dark Ages.  Sometimes the rats looked mechanical as well.

Frankly, I can't remember all the reason I didn't like The Pied Piper.

More Spring Cleaning

I saw a number of non-festival films in the first quarter which were interesting and worthwhile if not spectacular.

The Great Passage starring Ryûhei Matsuda; directed by Yûya Ishii; Japanese with subtitles; (2013)
Two Lives starring Juliane Köhler & Liv Ullmann; directed by Georg Maas & Judith Kaufmann; German & Norwegian with subtitles; (2012) - Official Website

24 Exposures starring Adam Wingard, Caroline White, Simon Barrett & Sophia Takal; directed by Joe Swanberg; (2013)

7 Boxes starring Celso Franco; directed by Juan Carlos Maneglia & Tana Schembori; Spanish with subtitles; (2012) - Official Website

Gloria starring Paulina García; directed by Sebastián Lelio; Spanish with subtitles; (2013) - Official Website

Generation War Part 1 starring Volker Bruch, Tom Schilling, Katharina Schüttler, Miriam Stein & Ludwig Trepte; directed by Philipp Kadelbach; German & Polish with subtitles; (2013) - Official Facebook

Generation War Part 2 starring Volker Bruch, Tom Schilling, Katharina Schüttler, Miriam Stein & Ludwig Trepte; directed by Philipp Kadelbach; German & Polish with subtitles; (2013) - Official Facebook

The Grand Budapest Hotel starring Ralph Fiennes; directed by Wes Anderson; (2014) - Official Website

I saw The Great Passage & Two Lives at the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center in January as part of their annual For Your Consideration series in which they screen film submitted for the Best Foreign Language film Oscar category.   The Great Passage later screened at the 2014 CAAMFest in March.

I saw 24 Exposures and 7 Boxes at the Little Roxie.  I saw 24 Exposures on the first day in February and 7 Boxes on the last day in February.

I saw Gloria at the Magick Lantern in Pt. Richmond in March.

I saw both Generation War films on successive afternoons in March at the Landmark Embarcadero Center Cinemas.

I saw The Grand Budapest Hotel in late March at the Stonestown Cinema.

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Let's start with Gloria since I ventured all the way to Pt. Richmond to see it.  Is Pt. Richmond a separate municipality than Richmond?  It was my first time in Pt. Richmond which has a quaint, downtown area where the Magick Lanten is located.

I first heard of the Magick Lantern about a year ago.  I had been meaning to go but am rarely in that area.  Looking at transit options from Richmond BART, I decided that driving would be the best option.  That limits my opportunities to visit as I rarely drive across the bay.  In addition, the Magick Lantern only has six regularly scheduled screenings per week (Thursday through Sunday).

A few months ago, I read that the Magick Lantern is struggling one year after opening.  Although I'm hoping for its success, I thought it better that I make it a priority to get over there to see it in case it doesn't survive.  Owner Ross Woodbury states in the article "Right now (the theater) is being run as a charity...The films I show are really, really good, but they’re generally not as well known. There’s x-number of people who come every week, and I’m delighted with them and love them. But there just aren’t enough of them."

For the past few months (maybe longer), the Lantern has been screening San Francisco Noir films on Thursday nights at 7:30 PM.  Admission is free.  On Thursday, The Midnight Story (1957) with Tony Curtis is screening.  The Rocket is screening five times from Friday night through Sunday afternoon.  Admission is $7 (cash only).

What are my impressions about the theater?  As the news article states, it's hidden, on the left hand side of a hallway.  If I recall correctly, there was a sandwich board sign on the sidewalk advertising the theater.  From the street, it's easiest to find by looking for the prominent Starbucks signage next to it.  As I entered the theater, the first thing I noticed was an impressive collection of cinema related books on large bookshelves to the left of the entrance.  I believe the back of the bookshelves form the back wall of the auditorium and they don't quite reach the ceiling.  After purchasing my ticket, I perused the books as well as some VHS tapes and DVDs.  I'm not sure if the items were for sale.

The screening room consists of four or five rows of theater seats; perhaps 10 seats across.  In front of the first row of seats are some beanbags on the floor which were being used by some of the audience.  On the evening I went, an entire row of seats were taped off because they weren't securely fastened to the floor.  Turkish or Afghan rugs were hung on the walls as makeshift soundproofing.  The projection is strictly DVD/Blue Ray.  There is no space for a 35 mm projector (either platter or changeover).  I went to a 7:30 screening on a Saturday night and there were approximately 20 people in the house.

Gloria is set in Santiago, Chile.  Pauline Garcia portrays the titular character, a divorcée in her late 50s.  Benignly neglected by her grown children and bored by her life, Gloria explores the singles scene which the synopsis tell us is quite vibrant for senior citizens.  She meets Rudolfo (Sergio Hernández), a retired naval officer.  Their relationship quickly progresses but Gloria has her doubts.  Rudolfo claims to be divorced but his ex-wife seems unusually dependent on him.  He also disappears from a family dinner where she introduces him to her children (and ex-husband).

The relationship continues to deteriorate and although Rudolfo marital status is never confirmed, Gloria appears to believe he is still married.  Her final, dramatic break from him signals her rebirth which is visually punctuated by her dancing at a disco to the Spanish language version of Gloria (the Laura Branigan song; not the Van Morrison one).

Kudos to Garcia for her performance which features nude sex scenes.  She is in nearly every scene and continues to show a buoyant attitude that belies the realities of her life.  Not necessarily sad, she is definitely on the downside of a life that has had its share of setbacks.  However, it is Hernández as Rudolfo who powers the film.  Whatever complaints Gloria may have about the way her life turned out, Rudolfo would seem to have more.  His grown daughters have no income of their own and are entirely dependent on their father both financially and emotionally.  Rudolfo seems unwilling to change the clearly dysfunctional dynamics within his family.  Unwilling to commit to Gloria and unwilling to cut his children loose, Rudolfo wants to have it both ways and Gloria is having none of it.

The transformation in the film is not so much with Gloria but rather the audience's perception of her.

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I became aware of Generation War at the 2013 Mill Valley Film Festival.  At MVFF, it was screened as one film with a running time of 4 hours, 30 minutes.  I wanted to see it but the screening I was interested in was At Rush so I went for a bird in the hand instead.  Interestingly, I cannot recall which film I saw instead of Generation War.  The film was broken into two parts for its US release.

Generation War follows five young Germans from 1941 to 1945.   Wilhelm (Volker Bruch) is an officer in the Wehrmacht and has already seen combat when the film begins.   Friedhelm (Tom Schilling) is Wilhelm's younger brother.  He has not served in the military before and in contrast to his brother, he sees no honor in warfare.  Charlotte (Miriam Stein) is naive and secretly in love with Wilhelm.  She volunteers as nurse and is stationed on the Eastern Front, not far from where the brother are stationed.   Katharina Schüttler is Greta, an ambitious singer who has an affair with an SS officer in order to advance her career and save her Jewish boyfriend Viktor (Ludwig Trepte).  Unbeknownst to Greta, the SS officer double crosses her and arrest Viktor.  He escapes his fate at a concentration camp and falls in with Polish resistance fighters.

Originally a German television miniseries, Generation War as epic reach which sometimes exceeds its grasp.  The five actors are in one scene together.  After that, they appear apart in pairs, trios or even quartets.  For me, the plot lines concerning Wilhelm and Friedhelm were the most compelling.  Wilhelm begins the film as patriotic and duty bound.  As Wilhelm is weighed down with his responsibilities as a platoon commander, he begins to realize the inhumanity of war and in particular, the brand of war the Nazi fought.  Meanwhile, his younger brother Friedhelm, who serves in his platoon, slowly loses his sense of morality as the atrocity he watch have an opposite effect on him than his brother.  The attitudes of the two brothers slowly come together and then diverge as they end at extreme opposites.  Wilhelm becomes a deserter, is captured and forced into a penal battalion where his unit is given the most dangerous missions.  Friedhelm becomes foolhardy in combat before eventually falling in with some fervent Hitler Youth defending against the Soviets during the final weeks of WWII.

Charlotte grows up fast in the field hospital she works at.  Seeing death on a regular basis and even turning Jewish staff members, she becomes a capable nurse before failing to evacuate and being captured by the Soviets.  She escapes rape and possibly death, courtesy of the Jewish woman she turned in (who is now an officer in the Soviet Army).

Greta becomes more ambitious as the war progresses.  She lives in luxury as her SS benefactor paves the way for her success.  However, when she threatens to expose their affair to his wife, he sends her on a tour of the Eastern Front where she reunites with Charlotte and the brothers.  Assuming the convoy will wait for a big star like her, she is left without transport back to Berlin and must make her own way.  When she finally returns, she takes revenge on the SS officer by exposing their relationship to his wife for which she is immediately sent to prison where she remains for the rest of the war.

Finally, there is Viktor.  I'm not sure how many Jews were left in Berlin in 1941 and hindsight may be 20/20 but it seem ridiculous for him and his parents to stick around Germany and I doubt he would have greeted his Aryan friends on the street of 1941 Berlin with "Shalom!"  His transformation from nice Jewish boy to resistance fighter seems most extreme.  He is continuously forced to hide his Jewish background from the partisans as they are as rabidly antisemitic as the Nazis.

I won't reveal who survives the war and who doesn't.  Each of them face and escape death at least once.  The film was a little melodramatic and contrived.  It definitely felt like a TV miniseries.  It also treated the five Germans as complicit victims of the Nazi regime.  It's a balanced portrayal but each of them can claim victimization by the Nazi regime which four of them openly serve.  Viktor of course, is the odd man out.  At most, he was a little too passive when his girlfriend starts screwing an SS officer to gain his travel papers.

By the way, that SS officer (Mark Waschke) is one of the best roles in the film.  Pure villain, he abuses his power as an SS officer and rather than face his comeuppance, he burns his uniform at the end of the war, assumes a new identity, escapes de-Nazification efforts and lands a job working for the American occupation forces.

Decidedly middlebrow and filled with false or at least, faux insights about the German people of WWII, Generation War has a fervent energy which propels it for most of its 4.5 hours.  It's hard to make a boring film about Nazis and WWII.

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I've become a bit of a Joe Swanberg fan since the Roxie held a retrospective of his work last year.  I was anxious to see his almost latest film, 24 Exposures, at the Roxie.  Swanberg premiered another film at this year's Sundance Film Festival in January.

Interestingly, the Roxie's website did not prominently mention that 24 Exposures was directed by Swanberg.  The copy mentioned "Vaseline-lensed sense and sexability of an early ‘90s Zalman King production..."  That doesn't sound like Swanberg whose films don't shy away from sexuality but strives for realism with mumblecore dialogue and recognizable situations.

24 Exposures is about a photographer who shoots models in mock death scenes (think crime scene photos) with an eye towards the erotic aspects of dead, topless women.  He and his girlfriend also likes to engage in ménage à trois with some of the models.  In parallel, a suicidal police detective is investigating a series of murders where the victim are dead, topless women.

Adam Wingard is Billy, the photographer and Simon Barrett is Michael, the cop.  Alex, Billy's girlfriend, is portrayed by Caroline White and indie film queen Sophia Takal is one of the models who looks impressive in a pair of red stretch pants.

Much of the dialogue, particularly Michael's, seems awkwardly delivered and artificial.  I can't believe Swanberg was unaware of that.  Swanberg must be commenting on the genre or perhaps the audience's expectation of his films.  In the end, Swanberg plays an book agent who critiques Michael's memoirs of the murders.  Swanberg ticks off a number of shortcomings in the draft which could easily apply to the film which then leads the audience to think the film is an adaption of the faux memoir which the book agent is rejecting.  It's a little too meta for me.

24 Exposures isn't a horrible film but of the half dozen or so Swanberg directed films I've seen in the past year, it is my least favorite.

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7 Boxes is a Paraguayan film; perhaps the first Paraguayan film I've seen.  I see so many films, I can't keep track the country of origin.

Celso Franco is Victor, a 17 year old boy who dreams of being famous and on television.  To achieve these dreams, he needs a cell phone.  I'm not sure why he needs a cell phone to achieve stardom.  Anyway, he gets a job to move 7 boxes several blocks in Asunción.  He has to deal with stolen cell phones, criminals, cops, a girl and the unknown contents of the boxes.

7 Boxes has thrills and some black humor.  It's one of those films where multiple plot threads come together and then apart as the story progresses.  It's clever and entertaining but didn't leave much of a lasting impression.

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The Great Passage was Japan's submission for the Best Foreign Language film at this year's Oscars.  It did not make the list of final nominations.

Ryûhei Matsuda is Mitsuya Majime, a book publishing company employee.  The film begins in the 1980s when Majime is a struggling salesman.  He is quickly recruited by the editors on a project to publish a new edition of a dictionary.  Despite being a thankless and likely money-losing proposition, Majime, a linguistics major, quickly shines in his role as researcher and ultimately editor of the dictionary.

The film spans about 20 years during the which the dictionary is compiled and goes through several edits.  During this time, Majime meets a woman, gets married, assumes more responsibility on the project and ultimately shepherds it to completion.

A little too sentimental for my tastes, The Great Passage is far from the best Japanese film I've seen in the past few years.  At nearly 2 hours and 15 minutes, I thought 30 minutes of editing could have made the film a better product.  It couldn't have been all bad because I can remember two scenes 3 months later.  First, define "left" without using the word "right."  How do you define your left hand without referencing the right hand?  Second, define "love."

Two Lives was Germany's submission for the Best Foreign Language film and it didn't receive a nomination either.  The film is set in the early 1990s as the Berlin Wall falls.  We see a woman (Juliane Kohler) using disguises and false papers to sneak into East Germany.  We later learn the woman is Katrine Myrdal, a Norwegian housewife and new grandmother.  Her husband is a submarine captain in the Norwegian navy, her daughter is a college student who has decided to have a child out of wedlock and her mother is Liv Ullmann.  Katrine was taken by the Nazis as a baby for her Aryan features, raised in East Germany after the war, became a Stasi spy and escaped to Norway as a young woman.  There is more to the story than that but I'll omit the major surprise element.

Evocative of a John le Carré novel, Two Lives recalls the end of the Cold War made personal by viewing the emotional toll Katrine has paid after having lived her life as an undercover agent.  The story is a engaging although the multiple deceits and frequent flashbacks make the film more difficult to follow.  I can only image that, like Generation War, Two Lives resonated more with German audiences where the specter of post-WWII politics, reunification and familiarity with Stasi activities are more keenly felt than in the US.

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With each film Wes Anderson releases, I enjoy his work a little less.  That trend continues with The Grand Budapest Hotel.  I can't say I disliked the film but his filmmaking style is wearing thin for me.  Whimsical, fantastical elements, deadpan deliveries - they are all there in Budapest and the visual composition and plot are meticulously planned.  It's a well made film but I guess I'm fatigued by the Anderson Touch.  His style has become equally or more important than his substance.  I'm sure Anderson's fans will disagree and gobble up Budapest but I just didn't feel it this time.   I should go back and watch The Royal Tennebaums (my favorite Anderson film) to see if my enjoyment of it has cooled.