The Ones that Got Away and The Ones That Are Coming Up

I will note that I completely skipped this year's DocFest (June 6 to 23) and Frameline (June 20 to 30) film festivals.  I saw 28 film screenings in June so it's not as though I had a lot of time to squeeze those two festivals into my itinerary.

I considered buying a six pack for DocFest but never pulled the trigger.  This is the first year that DocFest is in June so I'll have to work on making time to see it.  I have long supported Jeff Ross and the Indiefest team.

I plan on seeing several films at the 2013 San Francisco Silent Film Festival starting on Thursday and running through Sunday, July 21.  I'm also eyeing a few screenings at the 2013 San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (July 25 to August 12).  I just purchased tickets to some of the screenings at the Japan Film Festival (July 27 to August 4) at the Viz.

I also read there was a shooting on the same block as the Roxie Theater.  I have written before about how that area of the Mission is becoming more dangerous.  The latest shooting occurred outside the Double Dutch bar, an establishment that Indiefest has had events at before.  I've never been there but I have been to Doctor Bombay's (Bewitched reference) the previous bar in that location.

Clockers

On June 29, I went to the PFA to see Clockers.  The film's editor, Sam Pollard, was there to discuss the film before & after the screening.  I skipped the post film discussion.

Clockers starring Mekhi Phifer, Harvey Keitel & Delroy Lindo; directed by Spike Lee; (1995)

Originally slated to be a Martin Scorsese film, Spike Lee took over on the basis of Scorsese's recommendation.  The film seems more suited to Lee's oeuvre.  Mekhi Phifer is Strike, a "clocker" or small-time drug dealer.  Technically, he is the head clocker or he has a crew of drug dealers.  Strike is the liaison between the street dealers and Rodney Little (Delroy Lindo), a barber or general store owner who is the drug lord of the neighborhood.

Strike is rotting away as a drug dealer; both literally and figuratively.  He has an ulcer but he's also lost his sense of morality.  When Rodney suggests he kill another drug dealer, Strike opportunistically dupes his brother (who has a legitimate job) into doing the killing.  Harvey Keitel and Nicholas Tuturro are the police detective who investigate the murder.  Strike's brother quickly admits to the murder but Keitel has his suspicions.  As he focuses on Strike, the tension rises.  There is a number conflicts Strike has to deal with - Keitel thinks he is the real murderer, Rodney thinks he will rat him out to save his own skin, the mother of a boy Strike has taken under his wing is pressuring Strike to leave her son alone and finally, Strike is self-conflicted as the confronts the man he has become vs. the man he wants to be.

There wasn't too much violence but Delroy Lindo is one bad MF as Shaft would say.  Actors in smaller roles stand out:  Tom Byrd as Rodney's drug-addled, psychopathic parter, David Keith as a neighborhood beat cop and Regina Taylor as the mother of the boy who admires Strike.

Clockers lacks some of the passion of other Spike Lee films.  It feels a little mechanical and the performances are more subdued.  I'm thinking of a Lee film like Inside Man.  Essentially a caper film, Lee's direction infuses the film with a vigor and swagger that are largely missing from Clockers.

Two at the Four Star

I saw two films in April & May at the 4 Star Theater.

42 starring Chadwick Boseman & Harrison Ford; directed by Brian Helgeland; (2013) - Official Website
The Place Beyond the Pines starring Ryan Gosling & Bradley Cooper; with Eva Mendes & Ray Liotta; directed by Derek Cianfrance; (2013) - Official Website

42 refers to the Jackie Robinson's uniform number.  The city of Schenectady (New York) is derived from the Mohawk word which means "the place beyond the pines."  General Electric was founded in Schenectady and having done business with GE, I know the zip code for their facility in Schenectady is 12345.

42 was a biopic of baseball player Jackie Robinson.  Robinson, of course, from Major League Baseball color barrier in 1947 with the Brooklyn Dodgers.  He had to endure blatant racism from the fans, his opponents and even his own teammates.  Robinson was selected by Dodgers GM Branch Rickey because he felt Robinson could hold his temper.  If Robinson lashed out, Rickey felt it would set the cause of integration of baseball back by several years.  Robinson was given strict order not to retaliate or complain.

All this I knew before seeing 42 and I didn't gain any new knowledge from watching 42.  Honestly, Chadwick Boseman's by-the-numbers portrayal of Robinson didn't really add much to my knowledge or the film.  As far as biopics go, 42 was plain vanilla with very little "value added."  Unimaginative and plodding, I find the film to be a bore which is a shame given that Robinson's story is so interesting. Christopher Meloni as Leo Durocher and Alan Tudyk as Phillies' manager Ben Chapman added some flashy scenes.  Durocher was suspended before Robinson's inaugural season for associating with known gamblers.  Durocher lived a colorful life.  He was having an open affair with actress Laraine Day who was married at the time.  Chapman was blatant racist and shouted taunts at Robinson when the Phillies played the Dodgers.  His vitriol was so severe that he was forced to apologize to Robinson.  Tudkyk's scenes were among the most powerful in the film.

The Place Beyond the Pines has been much discussed.  I'm feeling a little fatigued after so many consecutive days of posting to this site.  Gosling plays a bank robber, Cooper plays the cop who shoots him and the film follows their lives as well as their two sons a decade and a half after the shooting.

Gosling is getting a lot of praise for his performance.  His character reminds me of the role he played in Drive.  Nice performances all around.  Ray Liotta shows up again. He's been in a number of films recently - The Place Beyond the Pines, The Iceman and Killing Them Softly.  He's become the "go to" guy when casting directors need an older, shady cop/gangster.

Five at the Castro

In April & May, I saw five films at the Castro Theater.

Blood Simple starring John Getz & Frances McDormand; with Dan Hedaya & M. Emmet Walsh; directed by Joel Coen; (1984)

Happy Together starring Leslie Cheung & Tony Leung Chiu Wai; directed by Kar Wai Wong; Cantonese & Mandarin with subtitles; (1997)

Fallen Angels starring Leon Lai, Michelle Reis & Takeshi Kaneshiro; directed by Kar Wai Wong; Cantonese with subtitles; (1995)

Spring Breakers starring James Franco, Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson & Rachel Korine; directed by Harmony Korine; (2012) - Official Website

Enter the Void starring Paz de la Huerta; with Nathaniel Brown & Cyril Roy; directed by Gaspar Noé;  English & some Japanese with subtitles; (2009) - Official Website

Happy Together and Fallen Angels were double features as were Spring Breakers and Enter the Void.

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Way back in early April, I saw Blood Simple at the Castro.  Blood Simple is notable because it is the first Coen Brothers film.  I always get them confused.  Joel Coen is usually credited as the director, Ethan Coen is usually credited as the producer and both are usually credited as the screenwriters.  For the past few films they have worked on, both are sharing credits as director and producer.  Joel is married to actress Frances McDormand although during production, they were likely not married.  They were married on April 1, 1984 but I'm not sure when the film was in production.  It premiered in September 1984.  Blood Simple was remade by Chinese director Zhang Yimou (Raise the Red Lantern) under the title A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop.

Bar owner Julian Marty (Dan Hedaya) suspects his wife Abby (McDormand) of having an affair with Ray, one of his bartenders.  His suspicions are justified because they are having an affair but Marty is a controlling, manipulative jerk so it's not surprising his wife would stray.  Marty hires private investigator Loren Visser (M. Emmet Walsh) to surveil the two.  When Visser returns with photographic evidence of the affair, Julian ups the ante by hiring Visser to kill the couple.

Visser is one sleazy "sonbitch" as they say in Texas where the film is set.  He doctors photos of Ray & Abby to make it appear they are murdered.  He presents the photos and collects his fee, but then double crosses Marty and kills him with Abby's gun which he has stolen during the course of his "investigation."  He inadvertently leaves behind his distinctive cigarette lighter and later realizes Marty locked one of the photos in the floor safe.

Ray arrives at the bar to collect his last paycheck only to discover Julian is dead.  Seeing Abby's gun and remembering a warning from Julian to not trust Abby, Ray assumes Abby killed her husband.  The becomes an after-the-fact accomplice by cleaning the office of the blood and disposing of Marty's body.  Actually, Marty isn't quite dead as Ray discovers when he starts to bury him in a cornfield.  No need to split hairs, Ray keeps on shoveling dirt over the barely conscious Julian.

Ray & Abby have some cryptic conversations where Ray attempts to explain he has taken care of Abby's mess but unaware her husband is dead, Abby doesn't get the drift.  Roy is put off because he thinks Abby is playing coy.

Abby goes to the bar and finds the office looking fine...except someone has attempted to break into the safe.  It was actually Visser trying to retrieve the doctored photo but Abby assumes it was Ray since he was upset over his last paycheck.  Combined with Ray's odd comments from before, Abby assumes Ray killed Marty.

When they later meet at Abby's apartment, Abby is leery of Ray thinking him a killer.  Ray has noticed someone following him and instructs Abby to turn off the light.  Fearful that Ray wants the lights off so he can kill her too, Abby refuses.  Visser has indeed been following Ray and is positioned on the roof across the street with a high powered rifle.  He shoots and kills Ray which causes Abby to knock out the light & hide in the bathroom.  Visser is quick to enter the apartment but when he goes into the bathroom, it is empty.  Realizing Abby must have exited the bathroom window and into the window of the next door unit, Visser reaches his arm out to open the next door unit's window. Abby slams with  window shut on his hand and drives a kitchen knife through his hand.  Visser shoots through the wall thus weakening it.  He eventually punches through the wall to remove the knife.  As he enter the unit to kill Abby, she shoot him through the door.  Her comments indicate she thought it was her husband who had come to kill her.

That was a long write up because the film had a lot of plot twists.  Everyone was suspicious of everyone else...as it should be in noir.  Both Abby & Ray thought the other capable of murder which makes for a healthy extramarital relationship.  M. Emmet Walsh, two years removed from Blade Runner, shines as the depraved PI.  Dan Hedaya also stands out as Marty.  The Coen Brothers have made some really good films and this is one of them.

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Ho (Leslie Cheung) and Lai (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai) are a dysfunctional gay couple at the center of Happy Together.  Lai is the more stable one while Ho is prone to promiscuity and mental abuse.  The two seem to have gone through several cycles of breakup, reconciliation and abuse.  For a change of pace, the film is set in Argentina.  At the beginning, I thought the film was going to be black & white but color is gradually added to the scenes.

After Ho & Lai breakup, Lai gets a job a nightclub where Ho comes in with other men.  This upset Lai greatly.  One day Ho shows up at Lai's apartment after being beaten.  Lai takes him in to care for him but eventually the rekindle their relationship and the destructive cycle begins anew.  Ho torments Lai until he leaves him once again.  Lai begins a friendship with Chang (Chen Chang) a co-worker at the Chinese restaurant he works at.  It is implied Chang is gay but their relationship is platonic.

However, when Chang leaves for an extended trip to the southernmost lighthouse in South America, Lai flounders and begins to exhibit behavior similar to Ho's...who coincidentally shows up at this juncture. Lai has matured in the intervening time.  He recognizes the cycle of abuse and refuses to see Ho.  In addition, Lai has stolen money from a business associate of his father.  He writes a letter attempting to reconcile and promising to return to Taiwan to face the consequences.  Before he returns, he visits the lighthouse Chang went to.  According to legend, you can drop your sorrow into the sea at this location.  Afterwards, Lai returns to Taiwan where he goes to the night market food stall which Chang's parents own.  Although Chang is not there, Lai glimpses a photo of him tacked the support beam and steals it.

Happy Together reminded me a lot of director Kar Wai Wong later 1960s trilogy.  The themes of destructive relationships and unfulfilled desires are present in Happy Together although it is played out among gay men.  As always, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai delivers a subtle performance as Lai.  In the later trilogy, Leung displays characteristics of both Ho & Lai in his performance.

I saw Fallen Angels at the Red Vic in January 2009.  I remember the cinematography.  Much of the film was shot at night among neon lit streets of Hong Kong.  The loose plot involves a hitman (Leon Lai) and his handler (Michelle Reis).  The two never meet but they exchange messages about jobs at a ramshackle, industrial space that serves as their apartment.  The woman is sexually attracted to the man; even using the scent of his clothing as masturbatory aids.

The other main character is odd mute (Takeshi Kaneshiro) who essentially breaks into businesses at night and either sells their products or insists on being paid to leave.  For example, he breaks into an food truck and forces people to buy the food out the window.  Some people don't know anything is amiss but if you try to leave without buying anything, he harasses them.

I glimpsed a plot but it's not important.  The three lead actors plus Karen Mok as a pink haired punk with a voice that couple peel paint just power through the scenes.  Some scenes are humorous such as the killer showing a classmate a photo of his "wife" who is a black woman he paid to have his photo taken with.  Other scenes have a kind of violent elegance more associated John Woo.  Still other scenes are headscratchingly weird.  The effect is cumulative; you'll either grow to love it or grow hate it - I was the former.  The film also has a distinct soundtrack which I liked.

Happy Together and Fallen Angels was a very successful double feature in my opinion.

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Spring Breakers was advertised as not your typical spring break film.  Right at the beginning, there is a skillfully edited montage scene which makes spring break appear grotesque.  Actually, when thought of rationally, the debauchery is grotesque in a libertine sort of way but for generations, young people have rationalized their annual week of bacchanalia as a necessary stress reliever.  Also, there is a "what happens in Ft. Lauderdale stays in Ft. Lauderdale" mentality and code of silence.

Four college girls (Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson & Rachel Korine) go to Florida on spring break.  Actually, three of them robbed a restaurant to get the money so they could go.  This film is already going in directions other spring break films don't go.

After the requisite party scenes, the film swerves into uncharted territory.  The four girls are arrested for public drunkenness or disturbing the peace.  Arraigned while still in their bikinis, the four believe they will spend the rest of spring break in lockup because they can't pay their bail.  Witnessing the proceeding is a corn-rowed wigga called Alien (Jame Franco).  Rapper, gangsta, playa and owner of an outrageous gun collection, Alien bails out the four women.

The five are out to party but the action gets increasingly disturbing.  At one point, two of the women point a gun at Alien during (what the audiences thinks is) foreplay for ménage à trois.  Initially hesitant, Alien embraces the new spin, even going so far as to suck on the pistol barrel à la fellatio.

As the action heats up and gets weird, the girls peel off.  First to go is Selena Gomez whose character goes prayer group and was not part of the robbery.  Next to go is Rachel Korine (the director's daughter) who was the getaway driver during the robbery.  She is shot during a drive by shooting by some rival gangstas of Alien.  I guess getting a flesh wound in the arm puts a damper on the thug life.

The two girls who are left (Hudgens & Benson) are the wildest of the quartet.  The two actresses go for broke in their performances.  The scene where they enter the diner to rob it is chilling and there is a shocking disconnect between their petite bikini clad appearance and their behavior.

After a threesome in the pool, Alien and the two girls go to get some payback for the driveby.  Rocking tiny bikinis, wearing pink ski masts and toting assault rifles, the two girls contribute to a memorable shootout.

Although Spring Breakers has some disturbing imagery, it's played as a dark comedy.  Franco chews up the scenery.  Some of the scenes are patently ridiculous.  Director Harmony Korine has a vision of where to take the film and she gets there in stylish fashion.  I thought Spring Breakers was tremendous.

I was on the fence about sticking around after Spring Breakers.  The next film (Enter the Void) was more than 2.5 hours long and the film was starting at 8:45 PM.  I'm glad I did because the opening title sequence was almost worth the price of admission.

What followed was equally imaginative and exhausting.  Oscar (Nathaniel Brown) is American drug dealer in Tokyo.  His sister Linda (Paz de la Huerta) is a stripper, also in Tokyo.  Oscar is shot by the police (in the Japanese style public toilet of all places).  His spirit or soul rises from his body and the rest of the film is told from this disembodied viewpoint as the action skips back and forth in time to tell Oscar and Linda's story.

This sounds like a gimmick film but director Gaspar Noé is almost able to pull it off.  I say almost because I'm not sure if the movie was received by the audience as the director intended.  The story is told in mind-numbing detail as layer upon layer and character upon character is given screen time.  This may have been Noé intention so as to show the state of Oscar's spirit.  The effect on the audience was excruciating at time.  Although my concentration flagged occasionally, I never fell asleep and my interest was maintained through the end.  What an ending!  Linda and another character go to a love hotel.  After a dizzying array of overhead shots featuring several characters performing various sex acts, Linda engages in sex.  In some ways, it's as if Oscar is having sex with her sister but if that isn't creepy enough, Noé switches visual perspectives midway through the act.  The audience gets a shot of the penis inside Linda's vagina during and we  are treated to the proverbial money shot.  Boring and obligatory in pornographic films, in Enter the Void it signaled Oscar's rebirth or reincarnation as well a signpost to the audience that film was almost over.

Enter the Void was self-indulgent but Noé's vision for the film proved engrossing.

Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson & Rachel Korine (pick two) in masks and James Franco (back to camera) in Spring Breakers

Snow White, Wikileaks, Hitmen, Nuclear Energy & Disco Music at Landmark Theaters

From April through June, I saw five films at Landmark Theaters.

Blancanieves starring Macarena García & Maribel Verdú; directed by Pablo Berger; silent with intertitles; (2012) - Official Website
The Iceman starring Michael Shannon; with Winona Ryder, Chris Evans, Ray Liotta, David Schwimmer & Robert Davi; directed by Ariel Vromen; (2012) - Official Website
We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks; documentary; directed by Alex Gibney; (2013) - Official Facebook
Pandora's Promise; documentary; directed by Robert Stone; (2013) - Official Website
The Secret Disco Revolution; documentary; directed by Jamie Kastner; (2012) - Official Website

I saw Blancanieves, The Iceman and We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks at the now (temporarily) closed Embarcadero Cinema.  I saw Pandora's Promise & The Secret Disco Revolution at the Opera Plaza.

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Blancanieves was the Snow White story set in 1920s Spain among bullfighters.  That was an inspired choice - Snow White & the seven dwarfs are bullfighters, silent B&W film consistent with the period the film is set, Hemingway and The Sun Also Rises and heralded as the next The Artist, Blancanieves never quite reached those lofty heights.  It was a nice film (Maribel Verdú was quite good as the Wicked Stepmother) I felt like I was watching a finely crafted film instead of losing myself within the story.

The Iceman felt like Donnie Brasco or one of those Scorsese films set in the 1970s.  Michael Shannon plays Richard Kuklinski (a real-life Mafia hitman).  Even before he becomes an assassin, Kuklinski is tightly wound.  Early in the film, he kills a man for suggesting his girlfriend is not a virgin. Of course Kuklinski fails to tell his girlfriend and future wife (Winona Ryder) that he works as a film editor for porno film.  He has to keep his profession a secret when he switches from porn to paid assassin for the mob.  Ray Liotta is his mafia handler, David Schwimmer is Liotta's Jewish lieutenant and Chris Evans is a fellow hitman that Kuklinski frequently partners with on jobs.

The Iceman had a lot of style with Shannon playing Kuklinski as the type just barely controlling his rage.  Liotta is sociopathic, Schwimmer has this big mustache and is self-loathing wannabe Guido and Evans is just plain weird as the hitman.  The Iceman is pretty predictable - it's the rise and fall of Kuklinski but all these character make the ride fun even if you know where its going to end.  It was a very enjoyable film.

At over 2 hours, We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks felt a little bloated.  The film starts by implying that Julian Assange hacked into NASA during space shuttle mission.  It was a nice tidbit of information but the film never really reveals what makes the WikiLeaks founder tick.  Parallel to Assange's profile, the film spends a lot of time interviewing people who knew Bradley Manning, the Army specialist who leaked the US diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks.

Their stories are fascinating but We Steal Secrets never adds value beyond informing me of particulars of the case which could have been expounded upon more.  For example, Assange was accused by two women of rape in Sweden.  According to one of the women, the condom broke and she wanted Assange to prove he was free of sexually transmitted disease.  Assange blew her off and it was only then (by her own admission) that she went to the police.  That is not rape.  I'm not sure why the authorities would charge rape if that is all there is to the story.  Assange may be a selfish and paranoid ass but the story recounted in We Steal Secrets did not amount to rape...at least for the woman who appeared in the film.

Similarly, Manning was suffering from gender dysphoria at the time he was leaking the documents.  Although that doesn't explain his actions, it puts them in a different context.  While he is the under stress of gender confusion, he is leaking classified documents.  What state of mind was he in?  Prior to be arrested for leaking the documents, Manning assaulted his superior officer.

How did Manning download all those documents and then upload them to the WikiLeaks site from a secure computer at an overseas military base?  The volume of data he leaked is mind boggling.  Where was the oversight such that a Army PFC could access such sensitive material and then upload to a non-secure website?  These are questions that are only broached in the film.

We Steal Secrets' reach exceeded its grasp.

I was familiar with much of the information presented in Pandora's Promise.  In fact, I'll go so far as to say I'm pro-nuclear energy.  Nuclear energy is free of greenhouse gas emission and dispatchable which means the operator can specify the output unlike photovoltaic panels and windmills whose output depends on ambient sunlight and windspeed, respectively.  The film does a good job showing that many people are anti-nuclear without knowing the fact.  They have been conditioned to equate nuclear energy with evil and so the debate over nuclear becomes one of good vs. evil.  I doubt Pandora's Promise will change the minds of hardcore anti-nuclear activists but I do hope open-minded people will listen.

The film is divided into two parts.  The first part covers the Fukushima nuclear accident and the second part is a history of nuclear energy in the West.  I was surprised at how far nuclear radiation readings in the area have dropped since their peak levels.  I learned that the volume of spent nuclear fuel would fill a football field from endzone to endzone and 3 feet high.

The Secret Disco Revolution was more of a faux documentary.  Ostensibly about the disco era, the film posits that disco's popularity was the result a secret conspiracy by s shadow group with reenactments by three actors representing a gay man, a woman and an African American - 3 demographics who benefited from disco's success.  I could take or leave the conspiracy subplot because the film had tons of interviews with people such as Gloria Gaynor & the Village People.

I did learn quite a bit about the circumstances surrounding disco's rise.  For example, before and since the disco era, popular music has largely followed an established pattern.  Record companies and radio stations work together to play certain songs which the audience enjoys and subsequently purchases the record, CD, iTune, etc.  Disco music started in the club scene of NYC.  Club DJs would play song they would like and the club patrons would go to the record stores to by those songs.  At one point, the #1 selling record in NYC had not received an commercial airplay.

I found the The Secret Disco Revolution to be fascinating because of the "inside baseball" look at the circumstances that led to the music.  Another example is that the film criticizes Studio 54 for leading to disco's downfall.  The club

As I ventured around the City on Gay Pride weekend, I was struck by the 1970s imagery and disco music blaring from the speakers at various locations.  It made me wonder why disco still resonates with certain subgroups today.

Paradise Trilogy

The YBCA screened Ulrich Seidl's Paradise Trilogy in June.

Paradise: Love starring Margarete Teisel; directed by Ulrich Seidel; German with subtitles; (2012)
Paradise: Faith starring Maria Hofstatter; directed by Ulrich Seidel; German with subtitles; (2012)
Paradise: Hope starring Melanie Lenz; directed by Ulrich Seidel; German with subtitles; (2013)

The Paradise trilogy is a loosely connected set of stories.  It involves two generations of women - two sisters and one of their daughters.  Each installment works as a stand-alone film but seen as a series, some interesting parallels in the women's lives show up.

I saw the film on three consecutive Thursdays.

Paradise: Love focuses on Teresa (Margarete Teisel) an overweight, middle aged, Austrian woman who goes to Kenya for vacation.  Kenya may seem like an odd place for a mature woman to go alone for vacation but apparently, there is flourishing sex trade in Kenya.  European women go to Kenya to have sex with younger Kenyan men.  Teresa has a teenage daughter (the focus of Paradise: Hope) who is surly.  She leaves her daughter with her sister (Paradise: Faith) and heads off for Kenyan with no explanation why this woman would travel 3,500 miles for sex.

Teresa seems to have convinced herself that she will have a traditional vacation but her friend is already there and enthusiastically participates in the sexual market for Kenyan men.  After some hesitancy, Teresa takes the plunge and gets in over head.  At first shy and reserved, Teresa convinces herself she has found true love until the man's wife shows up at his door.  From there Teresa looses most of her inhibition.  She readily accepts the offers from a couple pros but in the denouement, Teresa sets her sights on a bartender at the resort she is staying at.  He returns to her room with the intention of servicing her but he draws the line a cunnilingus which Teresa demands.  She angrily kicks the man out of her room (without paying) and is left sobbing as the film closes.

The most impressive aspect of Paradise: Love is Margarete Teisel courageous performance.  Frequently nude for her sex scenes, she captures Teresa's descent into self-loathing.  A painfully lonely woman, Teresa came to Kenyan looking for love (or at least a human connection) instead of sex.  By the end of the film, she has de-personalized the act to a monetary transaction with interchangeable young men.  I would expect this kind of story with a male protagonist but it seems more effective with a female lead character.  Paradise: Love was my favorite of the trilogy and one of the better films I've seen in 2013.

Paradise: Faith was my least favorite entry in the trilogy.  Teresa's sister Anna Maria (Maria Hofstatter) is a X-ray technician who spends her vacation time going door-to-door with a statue of the Virgin Mary and urging poor immigrants to pray.  She also practices self-flagellation which is a Catholic form of penance.  I went to school in New Mexico and there is a lay brotherhood order knows as the Penitente Brotherhood who practices self-flagellation.

Into Anna Maria's pious life comes her estranged, wheelchair bound, Muslim husband.  How did a devout Catholic and Muslim ever get married?  The film doesn't explain.  Whereas Teresa is desperate for love, her sister is determined that she and her husband will have no carnal knowledge.  There is room for only one man in Anna Marie's bed and that man is Jesus.

As Anna Maria goes about her Christian duty to care for her husband, his frustration at not sharing their conjugal grows.  A sort of holy war ensues as each attacks the other emotionally, spiritually and physically.  By the end of the film, Anna Maria seems to renounce her faith.

A somewhat surreal film which is played straight by Hofstatter, Paradise: Faith seemed out of step to me.  I wasn't quite sure if what I was seeing was drama or comedy.  However, the order in which I saw the films may have played a role.  I saw Paradise: Love first, Paradise: Faith a week later and Paradise: Hope on the third week.  Paradise: Hope had some dark humor which I was better able to appreciate.  Perhaps if I had seen Faith last, I would have been better conditioned to appreciate the surrealism in the film.

Teresa's daughter Melanie (Melanie Lenz) is the dysfunctional one in Paradise: Hope.  Overweight like her mother, Melanie goes a fat camp for children.  There is a stern exercise trainer who takes a sadistic pleasure in tormenting the children.  There is also a silent, blonde female trainer whose presence must make the children (especially the girls) feel self-conscience.  However, the key staff member in Hope is the doctor (Joseph Lorenz) who is part predator, part prey.

Becoming aware of her sexuality through contact with an older, more sexually experienced roommate at the camp, Melanie awkwardly attracts the attention of the doctor who reciprocate at times.  Unable to fully understand or act on her sexual impulses, Melanie is stuck in a sexual limbo.  She and her roommate sneak into town and get drunk.  It appears that Melanie will be the victim of a date rape except the owner of the bar intervenes.  He doesn't mind underage girls in his bar but he draws the line a rape.  Assuming Melanie is part of the fat camp, the bar owner contacts the doctor who puts the unconscious Melanie in her car, drives out to the woods, lays her on the ground and lays next to her.  I think he sniffed her too.  The doctor was kind of creepy.  Coming to his senses, the film ends with him telling Melanie that she can longer contact him.

The film ends with hope that Melanie can have a more healthy attitude towards sex than her mother and aunt.

Girls! Guns! Ghosts! The Sensational Films Of Shintoho

The YBCA had an interesting sounding program called Girls! Guns! Ghosts! The Sensational Films Of Shintoho.  The program ran from May 9 to 26.

Specializing in noir, horror, and risqué oddities, Japan’s Shintoho studio produced more than 500 films in 14 years. The company went bankrupt in 1961, and few of their films have been seen in the West—until now. Though they produced works by masters like Kurosawa and Ozu, they are best remembered in Japan for their low-budget, high-concept genre films. Shintoho is comparable to American International Pictures, who, along with producer/director Roger Corman, flooded American drive-ins in the 1960s with tales of rebellious teenagers, vampires, werewolves, and curvy girls in bikinis. 

I saw four of the eight films on the program.

Flesh Pier starring Hiroshi Asami, Seiji Hara  & Yôko Mihara; directed by Teruo Ishii; Japanese with subtitles; (1958)

Death Row Woman starring Miyuki Takakura & Yôichi Numata; directed Nobuo Nakagawa; Japanese with subtitles; (1960)

Yellow Line starring Shigeru Amachi, Teruko Amano & Seiji Hara; directed by Teruo Ishii; Japanese with subtitles; (1960)

Revenge of the Pearl Queen starring Michiko Maeda; directed Toshio Shimura; Japanese with subtitles; (1956)

The description was fairly accurate but the films themselves were not that well made.  A film about a prostitution ring in 1958 may have had shock value but in 2013, we are more jaded and the shortcomings of the films were more apparent.

To be honest, I don't remember some of the films very well.  That is an indictment of the films as they did not register in my memory.

Flesh Pier was about a prostitution ring.  More accurately, it was what we would call "white slavery" in this country.  I wonder if that term exists in Japan.  The film was imminently forgettable.

Yellow Line was about an stripper who is kidnapped by a hitman running from the law.  This film is slightly less forgettable than Flesh Pier...primarily because a striptease/burlesque number.

Death Row Woman wasn't quite as exploitative as the other films.  A woman is convicted for the murder of her father and facing the death sentence (hence the title).  She makes a prison and with the help of her fiancé.  However, she is unaware that her mother & fiancé are having an affair and killed the old man.  I kind of liked Death Row Woman but the performances were a little wooden.

Revenge of the Pearl Queen was the most memorable of the bunch.  Michiko Maeda plays the secretary of the CEO of some big company.  The CEO has conspired to kill the chairman of the board and frame the secretary's boyfriend for the murder.  In the meantime, the CEO needs Maeda to accompany him on an overseas business trip via passenger ship.  The CEO tries to rape Maeda and she falls overboard.

She washes up on a small island.  The island is uninhabited except for some Japanese WWII soldiers who've been abandoned there for 15 years.  The presence of a woman (and a rather attractive woman at that) sends the men into a killing and raping frenzy.  Fortunately for Maeda, the only honorable man among the bunch saves her.

While on the island, Maeda develops some skills such as the ability to dive for pearls.  She also loses much of her clothing and modesty.  Eventually, the two are saved by a passing ship.  Maeda returns to Japan with alias, a fortune in pearls and a desire for revenge.  She has also never regained her comfort in restrictive clothing so she continues to walk around her spacious hotel suite with little clothing.  Hey, it's an artistic statement!

I can't even remember how she exacts her revenge.  Plot and Maeda's thespian skills were not the main selling points of Revenge of the Pearl Queen.  If only all the films in the series had a Michiko Maeda type actress to elevate their artistic content.

Michiko Maeda (right) in Revenge of the Pearl Queen