Women in Touch With Their Sexuality

In June, I caught three films about women embracing their sexuality despite considerable obstacles.

Turn Me On, Dammit! starring Helene Bergsholm; directed by Jannicke Systad Jacobsen; Norwegian with subtitles; (2011) - Official Website
Barbarella starring Jane Fonda; with Milo O'Shea, John Phillip Law, Marcel Marceau & Anita Pallenberg; directed by Roger Vadim; (1968)
Cherry 2000 starring Melanie Griffith & David Andrews; directed by Steve De Jarnatt; (1987)

I saw Turn Me On, Dammit! at the Landmark Embarcadero Center Cinema.  Barbarella and Cherry 2000 played together as a double feature at the Castro.  Perhaps it didn't register with me before but at some point the Castro Theater raised their regular admission price from $10 to $11.

I recall seeing the title Turn Me On, Dammit! at a film festival, but a check of the 2012 Cinequest and 2012 San Francisc International Film Festival websites revealed nothing.

I thought Turn Me On, Dammit! was a delightful comedy dealing with a teenage girl's (overactive) sexuality.  Helene Bergsholm plays Alma, a 15 year old girl with the sex drive of a 15 year old boy.  She masturbates during paid phone sex (in fact, she uses it so much, she frequent customer bonus calls), masturabates while fantasizing about various people (man or woman, young or old), masturbates so loudly that her mother has to wear earplugs, masturbates...you get the point.  At a party one night, Artur (a classmate & main object of Alma's desire) shows Alma his penis.  The film has numerous fantasy sequences so the audience is not sure if the incident actually occurred or was just another of Alma's fantasies.

Alma tells her best friend and her sister (who is keen for Artur).  So the news is all over school and rather than prosecuted for sexual assault (which would be the likely result in the US), Alma is ostracized for making up the incident.  Why would a teenage girl make up such a story?  The same reason an attractive, 15 year old, blonde would need to resort to phone sex.  It's a movie; more specifically a Scandinavian film whose humor and cinema I am liking more and more.

The remainder of the films shows how Alma deals with her ostracization.  Quirky and good natured, Turn Me On treads some potentially salacious ground to give a new wrinkle on the coming of age story. 

§§§

Barbarella is a very famous film.  I saw a restored version on HBO about 25 years ago and recall being sufficiently "impressed" with Jane Fonda.  Campy but undeniably sexy, Barbarella would be a career defining role for a less accomplished actress.  I enjoyed watching the film on the big screen at the Castro and am pleasantly surprised that I could enjoy the film from the perspective for a 40something.  In fact, I think I appreciated the film more this time.  Fonda delivered her lines with a dry, vapid cadence which nonetheless suggested something more meaningful in Fonda than the character.  Of course, I may be inferring more from her performance given what was to come in her life.  Even if true, Hanoi Jane playing Barbarella is more interesting than the 1968 version of her playing Barbarella.  Milo O'Shea's performance as Durand Durand stood out in this viewing.

§§§

Cherry 2000 is a film I don't recall ever hearing about much less seeing. In the mid-1980s, I was a big Melanie Griffith fan.  Two of my all-time favorite films are Brian De Palma's Body Double (1984) and Jonathan Demme's Something Wild (1986); both star Griffith and sadly, I haven't watched either in several years.  I suggested both film in passing to Elliot Lavine in May; I'm hoping he programs them soon.

Cherry 2000 is notable for its lengthy delay between production and release.  It was never released to US theaters.  Instead it was released on VHS which makes me wonder what format the Castro screened.  Although the picture quality was fine, the audio was hard to understand.  I attributed it to the low production standards but who knows...who cares?

The plot (which sounds like a pastiche of various Sci Fi films) is set in 2017.  In this timeline, there are Fembots not unlike Austin Powers.  These androids are sexy, attentive, take care of household chores and other needs that a man may have.  Sam Treadwell (David Andrews) has a Cherry 2000 model which he loves...literally.  When she short-circuits (I'm not sure if it resulted from the soapy water of the dishwasher or Sam's ardor), it's kaput for Cherry.  She can't be repaired and they don't sell her model anymore.  The repairman pops out her disk storing her memories and points Sam to Glory Hole, NV which is on the frontier of a post-apocalypitic wasteland.  Cherry 2000s can be found in Zone 9 or somewhere but Sam will need the help of E. Johnson, a tracker with a souped up muscle car and knowledge of the area.  E. Johnson turns out to be Melanie Griffith sporting a Raggedy Ann dye job and not looking half as good as she did in Body Double or Something Wild.

Edith Johnson is an ass-kicking machine who bemoans the fact that Sam is gaga for a robot.  How is a gun-toting, free-thinking mercenary like Edith Johnson supposed to compete against the ultimate Stepford wife?  Most of the rest of the film is predictable - Sam & Edith fight their way to Zone Whatever, Sam proves surprisingly adept with automatic weapons, they get some help for Edith's mentor Six-Fingered Jake (Ben Johnson) & their romance heats up.  The only original part of the story is the villain.  Instead of S&M bikers or zombies or talking apes, Cherry 2000's villains are a gang of surbanites who will kill to maintain their way of life...which mainly appears to be barbecuing in Bermuda shorts with their fembots.  They can't let anyone steal their fembots because that would leave less for them.  Tim Thomerson is memorable as the gang leader.

You can guess how it ends.  Cherry 2000 is just as good as any other film from the 1980s as long the other film has cheesy production values, silly dialogue, a predictable script and goes to great lengths to make a young Melanie Griffith look like a car mechanic. Griffith didn't show much in terms of sex appeal or screen presence.  On the other hand, Pamela Gidley was not just sexy but damn sexy as Cherry.  Harry Carey Jr. (unrecognizable from Red River) has a small role.  Laurence Fishburne had an even smaller role which made me wonder what he did between Apocalypse Now and The Matrix.  Ben Johnson always has screen presence and shines as much as he can in this film.

Cherry 2000 has a cult following and strangely I was drawn in at certain points of the film.  The best that can be said is that I didn't fall asleep during the screening.  Although I can understand why there could be a cult following, once was enough for me.  Let's hope its another quarter century before I see it again.

How I Watch Films and the Old One-Two

I always fall behind in chronicling the films I watch.  The primary reason for this blog is to provide (myself) a complete list of films I've watched.  Frequently, I search this blog for a film that I cannot remember the title of or to remind myself of the when and where of the viewing.  It's sort of an movie log with an enhanced narrative for most of the films. Some people (not very many according to Google Stats) come along for the ride.

I do not own a DVD player.  When I want to watch a DVD, I play it on my computer which I can (but usually do not) hook up to my television.  My new laptop doesn't even have a DVD player so I don't know what I'll do after I retire the old one.  I do have cable TV but each month when I receive the bill, I vow to look at other options.  I don't have premium channels such as HBO or Showtime.  A co-worker was recently telling me about Game of Thrones of which I was blissfully ignorant.

I don't even get the second tier premium channels such as TCM which I watch when I visit my father in Las Vegas.  I do watch AMC but not their original programming such as Mad Men and Breaking Bad.  I didn't start watching those shows at the beginning so I don't want to come in at the middle.  I always tell myself I'll watch the series of DVD after the original run.  However, I told myself that about Deadwood and The Sopranos but haven't done so.  The thought of holing up and watching 17 hours of DVD over a weekend just doesn't appeal to me.  Now that my new computer doesn't have a DVD player, I won't even be able to lie to myself about watching the DVDs.

As I ponder this, I realize my cinematic lifestyle could only be indulged in a handful of locations.  I visit Las Vegas frequently and there are no rep houses.  I was there last week and was surprised to see Monsieur Lazhar screening at one of the metroplexes.  As I mentioned last year, there isn't even a functioning 35 mm film projector in Las Vegas. 

So it is that I live this existence which is something out of the 1970s (pre-VHS).  I scour the dwindling rep house schedules (albeit on the internet) and plan my free time around these screenings.  I need the help of a spreadsheet to track what I will see and what I have seen.  I need to further document what I have seen on this website so I can recall it later.  Sometimes I am amazed at my recollection.  I recall specific movie scenes or dialog; typically when prompted by another movie scene or dialog. 

I think that's why I like The Family Guy because the cutaways frequently reference films which I immediately recognize.  For example, The Family Guy has a series of Road to... episodes which are spoofing the Hope-Crosby-Lamour series of films from the 1940s and 1950s.  When I mentioned this to someone recently, they were completely oblivious to the reference.  I wondered if they even knew who Hope, Crosby & Lamour were.

§§§

Rather than digressing into the walking anachronism I am, I'll knock out some film notes.

Following up on a 2009 series, PFA had a series in June called One-Two Punch featuring films based on the works of Dorothy B. Hughes, Mickey Spillane & Elmore Leonard.  I caught half the films in the series.

Fallen Sparrow starring John Garfield & Maureen O'Hara; directed by Richard Wallace; (1943)
Stick starring Burt Reynolds; with Charles Durning, Candice Bergen & George Segal; directed by Reynolds; (1985)
Valdez is Coming starring Burt Lancaster; with Jon Cypher, Susan Clark, Richard Jordan & Barton Heyman; (1971)

Fallen Sparrow was adapted from a Dorothy B. Hughes novel of the same name while Stick & Valdez is Coming are Elmore Leonard works.

These films were probably a case of great novels being adapted into mediocre films.  Fallen Sparrow, in particular, hinted at something better.  PFA curator Steve Seid introduced all  three films (on two separate evenings) and mentioned something about a serial killer in Fallen Sparrow.  That would have livened up the film quite a bit.  Instead, I was confused byt the plot twists and what I did understand seemed ludicrous.  The whole plot revolved around John Garfield's character.  An American who likely fought on the Republican side of the Spanish Civil War.  Captured and tortured by the Nazis associated with the Spanish Nationalists, Garfield withholds "vital information" from his captors.  Although vague about the torture, I am guessing that photos of him in a naked dogpile or wearing a leash were not part of the Nazi bag of tricks.

Originally from New York City, Garfield recovers in New Mexico, I believe.  When he finds out that the NYPD cop who arranged his escape in Spain (using contact from "the old country") has died under suspicious circumstances, he returns to the Big Apple.  The NYPD brass are surprisingly permissive when Garfield implies his goal is to avenge his friend's death.  Maureen O'Hara shows up as a hat model and there is a slinky torch singer with a suspicious Eastern European pianist and then Garfield's ex-girlfriend has fallen in a European refugee with an academic in methods of torture.  There were a bunch of other characters.  I couldn't keep track of them; I needed a scorecard.

What could the son of a NY flatfoot know that has the Nazis in a tizzy?  Garfield's unit defeated a German unit in Spain.  Unfortunately, the unit was commanded by Hitler's favorite general so der Führer risk exposing his espionage network to track down Garfield in NYC to recover the battle standard which I gather is the ornamental headpiece of the pole used to carry a military unit's colors into battle.  I recall Napoleon used eagles and they were guarded closely.  However that was the early 19th century.  I wonder if anyone in the audience during the mid-20th century when this film came out thought it ridiculous that the Nazis would expend so much energy over an ornamental medallion?

§§§

Coming on the heels of Stoker Ace, Smokey and Bandit Part III, Canonball Run II and City Heat, Burt Reynolds attempted something more weighty in Stick.  Written by Elmore Leonard, whose better adapted works include Get Shorty & Jackie Brown, I'm not sure if the source material was lacking or if Reynolds (who was also director) messed it up.

At times Stick is so bad its funny but every once in awhile it flashes something resembling greatness.  In fact, Stick reminded me a little of Sharky's Machine (1981) which isn't surprising since Reynold directed both films.  Sharky's Machine, adapted from a William Diehl novel, had a dark and gritty edge to it.  I guess after five years of Stoker, Smokey & Cannonball, Reynolds wanted to have it both ways.  I can imagine Reynolds thinking he needed to get on the Miami bandwagon in the mid-1980s...kind of like Miami Vice but different.  So we're treated to the sight of Charles Durning wearing a ridiculous wig, George Segal wearing a thawb (yes I had to look that word up) and Reynolds wearing a pastel pink, Members Only jacket that looks like something Sonny Crockett gave to Goodwill.  That's just the wardrobe.  The dialog is painfully awkward at time. 

The plot is essentially Point Blank or Payback - tough guy feels a criminal owes him a nominal amount.  Nothing will dissuade said tough guy from collecting...not even the threat of a vicious criminal organization.  Candice Bergen plays the female lead although she doesn't get to do much.  Famed stuntman Dar Robinson memorably plays an albino hitman and even recreates his Sharky's stunt of free falling off a building.

After watching Stick, I recall why Reynold's career needed a comeback a decade later in Boogie Nights.  I do wonder what Reynolds could have done if he had had more discipline in his choice of films and self-direction.

§§§

Valdez is Coming was my favorite of the three films; most likely because of my fondness for Burt Lancaster.  Looking at Lancaster's filmography from the 1970s, it's pretty sparse pickings.  Between The Professionals (1966) and Atlantic City (1980), of the films in which Lancaster is one of the leads, only a handful look worthwhile.   Valdez is Coming and Ulzana's Raid (1972) are two of the most prominent films.  I would also like to see Go Tell the Spartans (1978) one day and rewatch Zulu Dawn (1979) sometime.  

Like Stick, the premise of Valdez is Coming is that Valdez, an aging tough guy (Lancaster), feels an Apache widow (married to a buffalo soldier nonetheless) is owed $200 as compensation for the death of her husband by Valdez and a mob organized by wealthy rancher Frank Tanner (Jon Cypher).  Tanner's response to Valdez's request that Tanner chip in $100 is to have his men literally crucify Valdez and send him off into the wilderness.

Tanner and everyone else thinks Valdez is just an old Mexican who somehow managed to get a job as town constable watching "over the Mexican side of town."  However, in his youth, Valdez was a US calvaryman, Indian fighter and expert marksman.  After getting loose of the cross (the scene appeared to have been partially missing from the print that was screened), Valdez dusts off the Army uniform and starts hunting Tanner, his men and the elusive $100.  He allows his first victim (Hector Elizondo) to live and return to Tanner's ranch to tell him "Valdez is coming."

Valdez almost gets the money except for the intervention of the number 2 man in Tanner's outfit, the aptly named El Segundo (Barton Heyman).  Valdez is forced to flee into the mountains with Tanner's "woman."  Gay Erin (Susan Clark) has a widow who is shacked up with Tanner (whom many believe killed her husband).  As El Segundo notes, she doesn't smile much.  In fact, the man killed at the beginning of the film was hunted by Tanner after being accused of killing Erin's husband.  As Tanner & El Segundo lead the gang in chase of Valdez, the slowly come to realize the skill and lethality of their prey.

Although disguised as a chase film, Valdez is Coming is very critical of racism, both overt and subtle.  I think it interesting that Tanner's right-hand man is Mexican.  Valdez and his old friend (Frank Silvera) have a memorable conversation where they mock/rue the white hegemony that keeps them as second class citizens.  That the Mexican Valdez is played by the Irish American Lancaster adds an irony to the film which was probably missing upon its original release.

Far from being a great film, Valdez is firmly entertaining.  Lancaster, Cypher, Heyman and Richard Jordan as a cowardly and racist hired gun play their parts with assurance.  Lancaster's star power or screen presence never failed him.  I sense that Leonard's book was better but the Valdez screening benefitted from following Stick.  The audio track on the print was very poor; there was static throughout the film.

Membership Has Its Privileges

As I mentioned, I bought a membership to the Roxie.  For $23 per month, I get "free" admission to Roxie programmed screenings.  This excludes festivals such as the recent Frameline or upcoming Frozen Film Festival or Indiefest series but does includes series such as I Wake Up Dreaming or Mick LaSalle's upcoming The Beauty of the Real: A Celebration of Contemporary French Actresses!

To best utilize my membership, I've been seeing films at the Roxie that I wouldn't necessarily have otherwise seen.

Jeff, Who Lives at Home starring Jason Segel, Ed Helms & Susan Sarandon; directed by Jay & Mark Duplass; (2011) - Official Website
Indie Game:  The Movie; directed by Lisanne Pajot & James Swirsky; documentary; (2012) - Official Website
The Connection starring Warren Finnerty & Carl Lee; directed by Shirley Clarke; (1962)

§§§

I've heard of the Duplass Brothers for awhile so I was anxious to see Jeff, Who Lives at Home.  The Duplass Brothers' latest film, The Do-Deca-Pentathalon, opens tomorrow.

The suddenly ubiquitous Jason Segel plays the eponymous Jeff, a 30something slacker who has no job, lives in his mother's basement and smokes dope.  His mother's (Susan Sarandon) insistence that he go out and buy some home supplies turns into an odyssey.  Jeff encounters dope smokers, gets robbed, encounters his brother (Ed Helms), gets involved with his brother's failing marriage and finally has a life defining moment on Lake Ponchatrain, I believe.

Jeff feels like a slacker comedy with mumblecore roots but the Duplass Brothers layer on contrivances to further the humor.  Due to  his stoner sensibilities, it's Jeff's brother, sister-in-law & mother who are the most unhappy and it is Jeff who cuts through the chaff of their problems.  The film may have had a deeper message than I took from it but I thought it an enjoyable little film.

§§§

Indie Game:  The Movie is a Doc Lite film.  Reminiscent of the Tetris documentary from Indiefest or The King of Kong; Indie Game follows a few independent game designers.  I've never played Wii, XBox or PlayStation so I went in knowing nothing.  I grew up in the age of quarter arcade games.  There is a laundromat near me that has a game I don't even know the name of.  You shoot colored balls to the top of the screen.  You can bounce the ball off the sides.  When you get three balls of the same color touching, the balls disappear.  Every so often the row of balls get pushed down one row.  The goal is to clear the balls from screen before they touch the bottom.  That game is about the extent of my videogame playing for the past the decade. 

So when the characters mention EA Games, I had to think for a moment.  Their description of hundreds programmers working on Halo sounded like the complaints independent filmmakers frequently state.

I can't recall the games.  There was a weird one about Meat Boy who has no skin or something.  There is one called Fez that in the film industry would be called "stuck in development hell."  Perhaps a more accurate analogy would be Clouzot trying to finish Inferno. 

So Indie Game just didn't interest me due to the subject.  The film was mildly interesting to me and the filmmakers did a nice job building suspense but ultimately, I couldn't identify with the subjects.  Why did they invest so much time into creating these games?  Why didn't they do something worthwhile with the energy and time...like writing a movie blog.

§§§

The Connection is a famous mocumentary about some heroin addicts waiting around for their dealer to show up so they can score.  The film reminded me a lot of Waiting for Godot but instead of waiting for the dealer, they are really waiting for their next fix.  The junkies argue and banter and tell stories.  When dealer Cowboy (Carl Lee) finally show up a Salvation Army granny in tow, it is almost anti-climatic.  The addicts dutiful queue to score their fix in the bathroom and we see each one change their behavior (or not) as the smack kicks in.

The film looked like a play adapted for the screen which in fact it was.  I'm certain it was edgy in 1962 but it had lost some of its edge.  Four jazz musicians/junkies are holed up in the apartment waiting for Cowboy.  Heroin addicted, jazz musicians - stereotypical but they jam some nice tunes while before and after getting their fix.  Sounds real hep in the Village in 1959 but doesn't play in the Mission in 2012.  Warren Finnerty (predating Ratso Rizzo by almost a decade) stands out as Leach, the biggest addict of them all who almosts ODs because one fix doesn't get the job done.

Likened to Lionel Rogosin's On the Bowery (1956) since it showed the seedy side of mid-century society in the US, I much preferred the cinéma vérité style of Rogosin's film to the jazz-infused dialog of Clarke's film.

§§§

For all three of these films, I can't say I would have regretted skipping them.  They were fine films but not quite in my wheelhouse which I guess is the main benefit of a Roxie membership.  It allows me to see films that I would not otherwise spend the admission price on.

If someone asks me if I can recommend a slacker comedy or a documentary on video games or a stylized exploration of heroin addiction, I have some decent recommendations.

Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Most Assuredly Zeppo

A year ago, the Castro Theater showed a Marx Brothers double feature.  The two films were Duck Soup and A Night at the Opera.  The Castro upped the ante in May with a Marx Brothers triple feature.

Horse Feathers starring the Four Marx Brothers & Thelma Todd; directed by Norman Z. McLeod; (1932)
Animal Crackers starring the Four Marx Brothers and Margaret Dumont; directed by Victor Heerman; (1930)
Monkey Business starring the Four Marx Brothers & Thelma Todd; directed by Norman Z. McLeod; (1931)

Combined with the two from last July, the five films represent the bulk of the Marx Brothers' quality films.  Coconuts (1929) preceded Animal Crackers and A Day At the Races (1937) proceeded A Night at the Opera.  Those seven films represent the total output of the Marx Brothers at Paramount and at Irving Thalberg-controlled MGM.  After A Day At the Races, they bounced from RKO back to MGM to United.  In my opinion, they never regained their comic genius.  As I wrote last year, I think they lost a step when they lost Zeppo when they moved from Paramount to MGM.  Either Zeppo exerted an off screen presence or his departure coincided with the switch from films based their stage material to custom screenplays.

Animal Crackers is the one where Groucho plays Captain Spaulding, the noted explorer.  He delivers the "shot an elephant in my pajamas" joke. Most of the plot revolves around a counterfeit painting.

Monkey Business is set on a cruise liner with the brothers as stowaways.  There are two gangsters who each hire a differnt pair of brothers to be their bodyguards.  Thelma Todd (Hot Toddy), in her first collaboration with the Marx Brothers, plays the girlfriend of one of the gangsters.  Notable gags include each one singing You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me while doing a Maurice Chevalier impersonation.  There is also an extended scene with Groucho and Todd that has Groucho going into the closet repeatedly.

Horse Feathers is my favorite Marx Brothers film.  Groucho plays the college president and Zeppo is his son who has taken up with the "college widow" (Thelma Todd).  You'll have to look up that term.  Chico works at a speakeasy and Harpo is a dogcatcher.  Groucho goes to the speakeasy to hire some football ringers who he misidentifies as Chico & Harpo.  Notable gags include the extended sequence on the gridiron and Harpo's running feud with the guy that runs a lemonade cart.  The film also features their best musical number - Everyone Says I Love You; Groucho's rendition has him serenading Hot Toddy on a lake while she rows the boat.

Howard Hawks: The Second Measure of the Man

The Stanford Theater ended its Howard Hawks series in late June.  I saw six films in the series; all directed by Hawks with the exception of O. Henry's Full House which I explain later.

A Girl in Every Port starring Victor McLaglen, Robert Armstrong & Louise Brooks; silent with intertitles; live accompaniment by Dennis James; (1928)
Air Force starring John Garfield; (1943)
Red River starring John Wayne & Montgomery Clift; with Walter Brennan, Joanne Dru & John Ireland; (1948)
O. Henry's Full House; anthology; (1952)
I Was a Male War Bride starring Cary Grant & Ann Sheridan; (1949)
The Big Sky starring Kirk Douglas & Dewey Martin; (1952)

The Stanford series followed and mostly duplicated a similar PFA series of which I only saw three films.  The films I most regret missing were Paid to Love, Dawn Patrol, Viva Villa! and The Outlaw.  I have not seen the first three films and it must be 30 years since I saw The Outlaw.  Jane Russell had quite an effect on my adolescence.  I was a big fan of Paleface and Son of Paleface also (I used to know the words to Buttons and Bows).  Perhaps someone will put on a posthumous Jane Russell retrospective.

The Stanford series (called Movies to Dream By On a Desert Island) had the involvement of noted film critic and historian David Thomson (The New Biographical Dictionary of Film).  Thomson wrote the program guide included 10 pages of biographical information on Hawks as well as synopses of all of Hawks films (not just the ones screened by the Stanford).  In addition, Thomson introduced the 7:30 film on Saturday nights.

§§§

O. Henry's Full House consisted five short film based on O. Henry stories.  Each story was directed by a different person.  The author John Steinbeck introduced each segment.  I stayed through the fourth segment, The Ransom of Red Chief which starred Fred Allen & Oscar Levant and was directed by Hawks.  By then it was almost 11:30 PM and I was getting sleepy

The preceding segments were The Cop and the Anthem starring Charles Laughton and directed by Henry Koster; The Clarion Call starring Richard Widmark & Dale Robertson and directed by Henry Hathaway; and The Last Leaf starring Anne Baxter, Jean Peters & Gregory Ratoff and directed by Jean Negulesco.  The segment I skipped was The Gift of the Magi with Farley Granger & Jeanne Crain and directed by Henry King.  Marilyn Monroe makes a cameo appearance in The Cop and the Anthem.

The fact that three of the five directors of O. Henry's Full House were named Henry makes me wonder if Hawks & Negulesco were replacements or second choices.

Full House left me near empty.  It was kind of interesting to see Charles Laughton as a bum and Richard Widmark channel Tommy Udo again but their performances seemed ham handed.  The Last Leaf was my favorite.  Anne Baxter plays a woman ill with pneumonia.  She comes to believe that when the last leaf falls from the tree outside her bedroom window, she will die.  Jean Peters plays here sister and caregiver.  Russian born Gregory Ratoff plays the tempermental artist who lives upstairs of the sister who plays a crucial role in Baxter's recovery.

Hawks' The Ransom of Red Chief  had a lighter tone than the other segments despite the fact child kidnapping and ransom were at the heart of the story.  Fred Allen & the droll Oscar Levant play kidnappers whose victim (Lee Aaker) is a hellion and then some.  The boy makes such a nuisance of himself that the kidnappers agree to pay the boy's father to take him back.  Lacking in Hawks' typical flourishes, Red Chief  never elicited more than a smirk from me.

§§§

Air Force was a WWII propaganda film which played a loose and fast with the facts.  No need to recount the inaccuracies since there were so many.  The film follows a B-17 crew as they fly from California to Hawaii to the Philippines in the days around December 7, 1941.  John Garfield plays the hardnut side gunner who washed out of flight school.  There is another pilot named Tex who is fighter pilot but looks down on the bomber pilots.  If I recall correctly, the co-pilot (Gig Young) was dating the pilot's sister.  Frankly, Air Force wasn't worth the trip down to Palo Alto.

Similarly unimpressive was The Big Sky with Kirk Douglas and Dewey Martin as two frontiersmen making their way up the Missouri River on a keelboat.  They have a friendly rivlarly which I've seen depicted in countless films.  Arthur Hunnicutt (who would play Bull in El Dorado) plays the grizzled trapper who serves as a mentor to Douglas and Martin.  Half-Cherokee Elizabeth Threatt plays a Blackfoot princess in her lone (but memorable) film appearance.  Covering much of the same ground as Hawks' Westerns, The Big Sky never really hit its stride.

§§§

Red River is a film I've never seen all the way through before.  For 97% of the film, it was as good as any John Wayne film I've seen.  Wayne plays Thomas Dunson, a stubborn man who gave up his true love and is willing to kill in order to be successful as cattle rancher.  Along for the ride is Walter Brennan as his second banana and Montgomery Clift as Matt Garth, his ward.  Matt's parents were killed when he was a child on the wagon train out west.  Dunson and Groot (Brennan) take him in and form a de facto, tri-generational family unit.  Dunson owns the ranch, even though Matt's cow and Dunson's bull started the herd. 

15 years later, Matt is grown up and Dunson has a herd of 1,000 head.  He can't sell them in Texas so he has to drive the herd to Missouri.  Dunson sets out with a group hired cowpokes.  He makes them all pledge to see the drive through to the end which is hypocritical since he broke a similar pledge when he left the wagon train to set up his ranch.  Among the hired hands is Cherry Valence (John Ireland) who has a rivalry with Matt that borders on homoerotic.  They literally compare the size of their pistols.

Dunson is the harshest of trailbosses.  Nothing will dissuade him from his Missouri destination including unconfirmed reports of railroad stockyard in Abilene.  When Dunson attempts to lynch two deserters, Matt leads a rebellion against Dunson.  They oust Dunson from their camp and take the herd to Abilene.  Dunson vows to kill Matt and take back his herd.

The rest of the film shows Dunson (with a group of cowboys/gunslingers) tracking Matt and the herd to Abilene.  Joanne Dru shows up as a love interest for Matt who bizarrely offers to bear Dunson's child if he will give up his pursuit of Matt.  I must have missed some of the coded messages in that scene.  The film progresses nicely until the finale when Dunson catches up with Matt in Abilene.  They begin a furious fistfight which is interrupted when Dru starts shooting (she is a marksman) at them and demands they recognize the love they have for each other.  Turning on a dime, Dunson sees the error in his ways and makes peace with Matt...even encouraging him to marry Dru so as to avoid the regret he faced as a younger man.  Complete copout at the end which isn't surprising because the film is based on a Borden Chase story which was serialized in the Saturday Evening Post.  Do they still publish that?  Anyway, the film changed the ending of the story and it sticks out like a sore thumb.

For most of the way, Red River is a great film with John Wayne giving us a preview of Ethan Edwards from The Searchers.  The film is propped up by a strong supporting cast including Clift, Brennan, Ireland, Harry Carey Jr. as a cowboy with a sweet tooth who causes a stampede and Chief Yowlachie as a poker playing Indian who wins Groot's false teeth.

I recognized one of the songs as a downtempo version of a song from Rio Bravo.  It's clear that Hawks had a stock company of actors he used in his Westerns including Wayne, Brennan, Hunnicutt, Paul Fix, et al.

§§§

It's a bit sad to see Cary Grant dressed in drag in I Was a Male War Bride.  Fortunately, it only happens for a brief period towards the end of the film.  For the majority, Cary Grant is busy being Cary Grant.  Oddly enough, he is cast a French army officer who is assigned to find a German scientist in post-WWII Europe.  Ann Sheridan as an American WAC accompanies him on his mission for no apparent reason except so that he can have someone to banter with.  Actually, Sheridan plays a great "straight man" for Grant to bounce off of.  For most of the film, Grant is exasperated at Sheridan's actions as well as the indignities he must suffer as a man trying to marry an American military "serviceman."  The Army procedures assume an American male will marry a foreign female and Grant's situation sets this assumption on its head...to madcap results.

A lightweight film which seems to waste Grant and Sheridan's talents, I was nonetheless amused by I Was a Male War Bride at vaious points throughout the film.  That's more a testimonial to Grant & Sheridan (I just picked up on the Civil War connection...if I only I could think of a pun) than the plot.

§§§

That leaves A Girl in Every Port with the incomparable Louise Brooks whose screen time is lamentably short in the film.  Victor McLaglen and Robert Armstrong are two sailors who go from port to port.  They have a not so friendly rivalry in trying to shack up with women in each port.  They bond over a couple of bar room fights and one saves the other from drowning and/or a night in jail.  Slapstick and broad emotional brushstrokes are the stock in trade until Louise Brooks shows up. 

What an first impression she makes!  With her trademark bob cut, she is a circus highdiver wearing a curve hugging swimsuit.  The camera follows her shimmying up a ladder to prepare for her high dive.  Brooks, Montgomery & McLaglen form a love triangle, although the audience & Montgomery know that Brooks is a gold digger as they shared a past in Coney Island or somehwere.  There is the obligatory split between the two men with Montgomery not wanting to destroy McLaglen's idealised view of the woman.  Montgomery leaves his mark on his conquests which is a small anchor & heart tattoo.  This proves crucial in tipping off McLaglen about Brook's past.

That's too much plot recounting.  The main reason to see A Girl in Every Port is to see Lulu - to admire her, to be smitten by her, to desire her and to plan to see Pandora's Box where her beauty and talents are on full display.  Pandora's Box plays at the 2012 San Francisco Silent Film Festival on Saturday, July 14 at 7:00 PM at the Castro Theater.

Confessions of a Francophile (Part 2 of 2)

Of the ten French films mentioned in the last post, I saw four at the Sacramento French Film Festival (SFFF).  I saw Four Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle, La Rayon Vert and The Wages of Fear at the Viz (or as I find myself calling it more frequently, the Film Society Cinema).  I saw Children of Paradise and Grand Illusion at the Castro.  Finally, I watched The Kid With a Bike at the Landmark Center Embarcadero Cinema. 

Four Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle and La Rayon Vert was presented as a double feature; the first I've attended at the FSC. 

The Kid With a Bike was part of the Film Society's 2011 French Cinema Now series which ran last October/November.  I missed it then so I'm glad I got a second chance.

Children of Paradise also played at the SFFF.  The film underwent a 4K digital restoration by Janus Films.  That version has played at the Castro on two different occasions this year.  That reminds me, I asked one of the SFFF/Crest workers (who was working the control panel) what kind of format the "films" were presented.   He said the short films were digital but the features were all 35 mm.  Indeed, they had problems with the Hôtel du Nord projection which was blamed on an old print.  I wonder how they projected Children of Paradise from celluloid when the Janus website claims they played the digital version.  Perhaps he was referring to the first weekend's screening only.

§§§

The Kid With a Bike was a French language, Belgian film.  I can never recall if the French speaking peoples of Belgian are Flemish or Walloons.  The film was about Cyril (Thomas Doret), a 12 year old boy, living in an orphanage of sorts.  He runs away to be with his father but discovers his father has moved out of their apartment without warning and sold his beloved bike.  With the help of Samantha (Cécile de France), a good Samaritan, Cyril is reunited with his bike and his father; the latter with less than satisfactory results.  Explicitly rejected by his father, Cyril forms a psuedo-maternal retaltionship with Samantha which is tested when he comes under the influence of a local gang leader.

That synopsis does not do justice to the film because Doret's performance as Cyril is alternately exasperating and endearing.  I could quibble with the relative ease with which Samantha situates herself into Cyril's life or the contrived ending but Doret's performance is reason enough to see the film. 

Four Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle and La Rayon Vert were two mid-career films from Eric Rohmer.  Four Adventures had a whimsical quality and consisted of four vignettes about two girls (one from the country & one from Paris).  My favorite was the fourth with Fabrice Luchini memorably playing a pretentious art gallery owner.

La Rayon Vert translates to "The Green Ray" which is a reference to the title of a novel by Jules Verne.  La Rayon Vert was released as Summer in the US.  Marie Rivière is Delphine, a young woman in Paris who is suffering from a terrible case of ennui.  Delphine is also guarded, difficult to engage and self-pitying.  Frankly, the character resonated with me.  In Delphine's case, she has broken up with her long-time boyfriend and had a cancellation in her vacation plans.  She's stuck in Paris in July & August (the days are stated in intertitles).  Actually, she is not stuck.  She accepts (and rejects) offers from friends and family for a vacation but her restlessness doesn't allow for any peace.  Whether it is her passive-aggressive behavior towards non-vegetarians or her unwillingness to flirt with men, Delphine is uptight and unhappy.  Rohmer never reveals the root cause of Delphine's behavior.  The audience is left to witness her self-imposed travails.  Although I empathized with her character; I can easily see how some in the audience would grow to dislike Delphine.  Rivière delivers a strong performance.  Of the two Rohmer films, I preferred La Rayon Vert.

The Wages of Fear is a Henri-Georges Clouzot film which I missed during the PFA series earlier this year.  Set in a small South American town (in Venezuela?), Wages of Fear essentially tells the story of polyglot bunch of refugees who came to town to make their fortunes drilling for oil.  Once the Americans arrive, they freeze out the non-Americans who are stuck in the small town.  Few jobs to be had and not enough money to afford passage on the airplane out of town (which is the only way out of town).  Bored and disconsolate, they are resigned to their fate.  Clouzot uses the first hour to set up the situation, develop Yves Montand & Charles Vanel's character and display the considerable sex appeal of his wife, Véra Clouzot...no woman ever looked sexier scrubbing the floors.

The second half of the film is a hair-raising thriller involving transporting nitroglycerin by trucks over rough roads to put out an oilwell fire.  The harrowing trip brings out the best and worst of the truckers.  Charles Vanel's Jo experiences a notable change in demeanor.  Bristling with unnecessary anti-Americanism, Wages of Fear would have been more effective if it had dispensed with the political commentary and simply placed the men in their situation which has existed since history began.  However, it was intertesting to see Clouzot's criticism of American hegemony in 1953...a scant 8 years after WWII ended.

Somewhat silly at times, Wages of Fear is a taut thriller in both its depiction of the journey and into the psyche of the men who risk their lives on the journey.

Grand Illusion is a very famous film by Jean Renoir with Jean Gabin & Pierre Fresnay as two French aviators who are shot down by German Baron von Rauffenstein (Erich von Stroheim).  French Capt. de Boeldieu (Fresnay) is an aristocrat while Lt. Maréchal (Gabin) comes from the working class.  Maréchal & de Boeldieu are moved from POW camp to POW camp.  Never able to form a true friendship due to the class differences, they learn to accept each other along with Lt. Rosenthal (Marcel Dalio), a Jewish nouveau riche who forms the third leg of Renoir's exploration of the social classes.

Later von Rauffenstein reappears as a POW camp commandant and rekindles his friendship with de Boeldieu who appears to have more in common with his German captor than his French comrades.  Von Rauffenstein & de Boeldieu are officers and gentlemem so they carry out their duties which leads to de Boeldieu's death and Maréchal & Rosenthal's escape.  The final portion of the film find the two fugitives taking refuge at a German widow's (Dita Parlo) farmhouse. 

Grand Illusion takes the humanist view of war as all the characters are terribly decent given their suffering.  As such, Grand Illusion is nothing like Stalag 17 or The Great Escape.  Renoir's film aspires to celebrate the human condition and condemn warfare.  With von Stroheim leading an extremely capable cast, Grand Illusion is a great film which transcends its pre-WWII overtones.

Children of Paradise & Hôtel du Nord were both directed by Michael Carné.  They depict a time and mentality which simply don't exist anymore and as such they look out of place today.  They both feature Arletty who was 47 and 38 when the films were released, respectively.  I don't know if it was the magic of moviemaking but she was quite attractive at age 47.  Well made films both, I couldn't really get excited about either.  I recognized their merit and the skills of the director and performers but neither film captured my excitment.

Romantics Anonymous, which will play at the Roxie starting July 20, was a delightful romantic comedy about a shy chocalatier and her new boss, who is anxiety ridden, tongue tied and profusely perspiring.  A non-threatening and nice film which showcases the comedic performances of Benoît Poelvoorde & Isabelle Carré.

A View of Love is a film I could not quite embrace either.  Moving back and forth between 1980s Aix-en-Provence and 1960s Algeria, the film focuses on the deferred romance between a high-end real estate agent (Jean Dujardin) and his wealthy client/childhood sweetheart (Marie-Josée Croze).  Full of intrigue (perhaps over-stuffed), the affair never really sizzles although Marie-Josée Croze is certainly a sexy woman.  Sandrine Kiberlain, who I have recently seen in The Women on the 6th Floor and Polisse shows up as Dujardin's wife.  I'd really like to see her in a lead role.

My favorite film of SFFF was Empty Days.  The 1999 film explores the romance between a corporate executive (Patrick Dell'Isola) and mousy housewife (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi).  Both have been unemployed for an extended period which takes its toll on their psyches and self-esteem.  Looking for support from each other, the two fall into an illicit romance (they are both married).  Both have their character flaws - the man is conceited while the woman is lacking in self-confidence.  They give each other a needed sense of validation as they spend their days passing time.  The film is loaded with small nuances such as their grocery shopping sojourns and Tedeschi's numerous facial expressions to show her insecurity.  I thought Tedeschi quite attractive so I wasn't sure about her character's obsession with losing weight but she displayed the character's diffidence in subtle ways. 

Empty Days was an extremely fulfilling film which combined the anxiety of long-term unemployment, the camaraderie of the unemployed and the need for empathy that even a spouse cannot provide.  Two people who wouldn't otherwise associate and who know their relationship is doomed still proceed because of their desparate isolation resulting from their unemployment and subsequent loss of self-worth. 

Dell'Isola and Tedeschi give outstanding performances. Tedeschi is the older sister of Carla Bruni, the wife of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Confessions of a Francophile (Part 1 of 2)

I am half Japanese so I have a bias towards Japanese films.  I also enjoy Chinese films.  I recently wasted an hour during the weekend watching Zhang Yimou's Hero (2002) on television; a film which I have seen numerous times.  Despite the Asian population it the Bay Area, it seems clear to me that the cinematic foreign language of choice is French. 

I have to admit, I'm a big fan of many French films and directors.  Godard's Breathless (1960) and Contempt (1963) are among my favorites as is Jules Dassin's Rififi (1955).  More recently, I was supremely impressed with Claire Denis' Beau Travail (1999) and Daniel Auteuil's turn in The Closet (2001) still brings a smile to my face. 

I'm clearly taking advantage of the many French offerings being screened in Bay Area theaters.  I am greatly anticipating Mick LaSalle's upcoming series at the Roxie focusing on modern French actresses.

Over the past three months, I've seen 10 French films I've yet to document here.

The Kid With a Bike starring Thomas Doret & Cécile De France; directed by Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne; French with subtitles; (2011) - Official Website
Children of Paradise starring Arletty; directed by Michael Carné; French with subtitles; (1945)
Four Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle starring Joëlle Miquel & Jessica Forde; directed by Eric Rohmer; French with subtitles; (1987)
La Rayon Vert starring Marie Rivière; directed by Eric Rohmer; French with subtitles; (1986)
Grand Illusion starring Jean Gabin & Pierre Fresnay; with Erich von Stroheim, directed by Jean Renoir; French, German & English with subtitles; (1937)
The Wages of Fear starring Yves Montand; directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot; most French with subtitles; (1953)
Hôtel du Nord starring Annabella, Louis Jouvet & Arletty; directed by Michael Carné; French with subtitles; (1938)
Romantics Anonymous starring Benoît Poelvoorde & Isabelle Carré; directed by Jean-Pierre Améris; French with subtitles; (2010)
A View of Love starring Jean Dujardin & Marie-Josée Croze; directed by Nicole Garcia; French with subtitles; (2010)
Empty Days starring Valeria Bruni Tedeschi & Patrick Dell'Isola; directed by Marion Vernoux; French with subtitles; (1999)

§§§

The real confession I have to make is that I went to Sacramento see a few films...and I liked it.  I cannot recall the last time I went through the Caldecott Tunnel much less Sacramento for any reason except work.  With the exception of the PFA, I rarely venture to the East Bay proper much less the Central Valley.  I've pretty much confined myself to the City with occasional trips to the Stanford Theater and the two weeks of Cinequest in San Jose.

However, I've been eyeing a trio of Sacramento film festivals for a few years now.  The Sacramento International Film Festival (SIFF) is held in April, the Sacramento French Film Festival (SFFF) is held in June and the Sacramento Japanese Film Festival (SJFF) is held in July.  Unfortunately, the SIFF conflicts with the SFIFF.  This year, the SJFF conflicts with the SFSFF.  That's too bad because I would have probably gone to Sacramento to see the SJFF screenings of A Good Husband, A Boy and His Samurai and Yoji Yamada's Kabei: Our Mother.  Not wanting to delay my Sacramento trip for another year, I decided to spend a weekend in Sac for the SFFF.

I was also interested in seeing the Crest Theatre on K Street in Downtown Sacramento.  With a main auditorium that can seat nearly 1,000 people, the Crest is an old-time movie palace on par with the Castro.  The Crest has subdivided what was probably the balcony into two smaller screening rooms which can seat 180 each.  That indicates the original theater could hold somewhere around 1,400 people which is about the capacity of the Castro. 

Opened in 1949 and restored for $1 Million in 1995, the Crest is a little more upscale than the Castro but nowhere near as glitzy as the Paramount in Oakland.  The first 10 or so rows are slightly raked while the back section is 20 or more rows of steep, stadium-style seating.  You enter the theater from the left or right of the auditorium via the main aisle which separates the upper and lower sections.  I didn't get to see the smaller screening rooms.  The lobby is split level with the concession counter and restrooms on one level and a lounge with photos and artifacts on the lower level.  The men's restrooms has a large anteroom which I imagine was used as a smoking room.  What looks like the original urinals are still in use; remarkably maintained I might add. 

Street parking was difficult in the area as the streets were metered on Saturdays.  Not to worry, the Crest provided parking validation for City of Sacramento Parking Garages; the closest being the Capitol Garage which you enter from 10th Street between K and L Streets.  Ask for the validation at the concession counter.

I went to the SFFF during its first weekend (June 16-17) and saw Hôtel du Nord, Romantics Anonymous, A View of Love & Empty Days.  I could have watched two more films but the timing wasn't good.  It was brutally hot in Sacramento that weekend & I was anxious to get back home.  The traffic was unusually bad for an early Sunday afternoon.  It took me over two hours to get from downtown Sacramento to the Financial District and I didn't see any accidents.  Although I drove, I wished I had taken the train instead.  Slightly more expensive than driving, I would have been saved the stress of the traffic and stifling heat which my car's air conditioner could not keep up with. 

I saw a flyer for Trash Film Orgy (TFO) which is hosting a midnite movies series at the Crest every Saturday night from July 14 to August 18.  Battle Royale is screening July 21 but it's the Five Deadly Venoms (August 11) and to a lesser extent Flesh Gordon (August 4) which I'm targetting.  The Sacramento Amtrak station is about five blocks from the Crest so I may take the train if I go. 

It turns out I like quite a bit of the schlock that TFO screens.  I've seen about 30 of the films they've screened in the past decade.  They even screened Switchblade Sisters (Jack Hill, 1975) a few years ago.  That's an exploitation film I've long wished the Maniac or Another Hole in the Head would screen.  Jesse has screened the trailer but not the film. 

Three of the SFFF features were preceded by short films.

Rendez-Vous directed by Yohann Gloaguen; French with subtitles; (2011)
Révolution directed by Nadia Jandeau; French with subtitles; (2011)
Dripped directed by Leo Verrier; animinated; no dialogue; (2010) - Official Website

Dripped can be seen on YouTube.