End of Watch

While visiting my father in Las Vegas for Thanksgiving, we saw End of Watch.

End of Watch starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña; directed by David Ayers; some Spanish with subtitles; (2012) - Official Website

Visiting Las Vegas a several times over the past 15 years, I notice the differences in cinematic options. There are no rep houses in Las Vegas.  Nothing akin to PFA, Castro Theater, Landmark Theaters, Stanford Theater, Roxie Theater, etc.  It's strictly metroplex - Cinemark and Regal with only one AMC location.  That is interesting to me.  In SF and the Peninsula, it's most Cinemark & AMC with only the Stonestown as a Regal outlet (UA or United Artists is part of Regal).  There are a few more location in East Bay - Jack London Square in Oakland, the UAs in Emeryville and Downtown Berkeley.  For whatever reasons, Regal is weak in the Bay Area and AMC is weak in Las Vegas.

In general, this means I can't see anything but general release films when I go to Las Vegas.  There are a few exceptions such as That Evening Sun which never screened in the Bay Area.  A more common occurrence is to see films that have left the Bay Area chains still playing in Las Vegas.  End of Watch is one of those films.

According to Fandango, End of Watch was not screening in the Bay Area during Thanksgiving week with the exception on daily 9:10 PM screening at Bluelight Cinemas, a second run theater in Cupertino. It had dedicated screens at AMC and Regal locations in Las Vegas that week.  These difference in demographics and audience preferences interest me but I'd still rather live in the Bay Area than Las Vegas.

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LAPD Officers Taylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Zavala (Michael Peña) are partners.  Over the opening credits we see them (via a dashboard camera) pursue a car and have a shootout with two suspect.  Cleared of any wrongdoing, the film opens with Taylor & Zavala back on duty in the precinct.  Taylor is the smarter and more ambitious one.  Zavala is the sidekick but holds his own.  Taylor is single and a ladies man.  Zavala has been married to his high school sweetheart since graduation and was pushed by his wife into marriage and the police force.  He's not weak willed but is susceptible to suggestion from people he loves and respects.  Taylor & Zavala have a serious "bromance" going on which can only occur when people risk their lives for each such as in military combat or patrol cops in South Central LA.

The rapport with the two characters is really the heart of End of Watch   There are lot of shots from within the police cruiser of the two talking about all sorts of things.  I began to like both men; particularly Zavala who is more well-adjusted of the two probably due to the influence of his wife and family.  Actually both men are a bit of envious of the other.  Zavala wants to hear about the women in Taylor's life and Taylor's admires the relationship Zavala has with his wife.

The sidekick designation flips back and forth between the two although Gyllenhaal is considered the lead.  Early on Zavala challenges an African American suspect to fight in response to racial comments. He wins the fight (I would have insisted take off his bullet-proof vest) but doesn't report the incident which could have resulted in assault charges against the suspect.  This earns Zavala some respect among the Crips (or was he a Blood?).  As the film goes on to show, it's a new world in South Central. Later Zavala runs into a burning house to retrieve three children.  Hesitatingly, Taylor follows him in.  Both receive medals for their actions.

The real power in South Central is held by Mexican drug cartels (the Sinaloa Cartel in this film).  Taylor and Zavala make an arrest which produces some blinged out weapons including a gold plated assault rifle.  No one in the LAPD seems to follow up on the leads so Taylor decides to follow the leads because he wants to make detective.  Using the house fire as leverage, he gets Zavala to back his play.  They raid a house where they find human smuggling going on.  Within minutes, ICE shows up and tells Taylor that he interfered with an ongoing investigation.  Taking Taylor and Zavala aside, the ICE agents cautions them that they just took down a Sinaloa safe house and they should "power down" for their safety.

Events conspire against them.  Following up on a report of an old woman who hasn't been heard from for several days, they kick down the door to find drugs, the woman dead and tortured/mutilated remains of several other bodies.  The arrest makes the evening news which gets the attention of the Sinaloan shotcallers.  They put a hit on Taylor and Zavala.

One night, they see a car run a red light and they pursue it but it's a trap.  They chase the suspect into an apartment with the hit squad is waiting.  After escaping the initial attack, the two cornered on the street an Zavala thows himself on the wounded Taylor.  End of Watch ends with Taylor giving a eulogy at Zavala's funeral.  Actually there is a hilarious postscript in the patrol car where Zavala recounts his unsuccessful attempt to lose his virginity with his wife.  The scene is tinged with sadness because the audience knows what happens to him.

End of Watch is an extremely tense and violent film.  It would have been easy for this film to devolve into two adrenalin junkie cops kicking ass in da hood.  Writer & director David Ayers (who wrote the fabulous Training Day) spends considerable time fleshing out Taylor, Zavala and their relationship.  To the extent the audience likes and bonds with these two men, End of Watch will work.  I liked the two characters and thought End of Watch was incredible.  Michael Peña shines in the smaller of the two lead roles but the film is well cast - David Harbour as the dyspeptic cop, Natalie Martinez as Zavala's wife, Maurice Compte and Yahira Garcia as hardcore gangbangers and America Ferrara as a fellow cop.

And You Thought Your Job Was Bad...

In September, the Castro had very enjoyable double feature.

Office Space starring Ron Livingston; with Jennifer Aniston & Gary Cole; directed by Mike Judge; (1999)
Secretary staring James Spader & Maggie Gyllenhaal; directed by Steven Shainberg; (2002)  - Official Website

Office Space is a modern day classic.  People in my office talk about the film and were surprised that I had not seen.  I've now rectified that situation and can attest that it is very funny.  Set at software in the months leading up to Y2K, Office Space stars Ron Livingston as Peter Gibbons, an unmotivated tech worker.  His best friends are Samir (Ajay Naidu) whose last name no one pronounce and Michael Bolton (David Herman) who hates having the same name as the singer.  The three of them are subjected to the petty tyranny of VP Bill Lumbergh (great performance by Gary Cole) but that's nothing new - same shit, different day.

A few things occur to change their live.  First, the two Bobs (John C. McGinley & Paul Wilson) arrive.  Consultants who specialize in corporate layoffs, their presence sends shock waves through the office.  The second thing to happen is that Peter undergoes hypnotherapy at the urging of his girlfriend (whom everyone suggests is cheating on him).  Under hypnosis, Peter is to imagine not feeling any stress and to imagine removing everything that causes him stress.  The hypnotist dies before bringing Peter out of the trance so Peter rest of the movie avoiding stress which is pretty much everything at work.

Rather than costing him his job, Peter new attitude impresses the two Bobs who find his calm demeanor and candor qualities of upper management.  They recommend Bob for promotion but Samir & Michael Bolton aren't so lucky.  They decide to plant a virus in their accounting system.  An oldie but a goodie, they will divert the fractional cents from all the transactions being processed into a their bank account.  Executed on Samir and Michael's last day, the scheme is more successful than they could have imagined which makes them worried that they'll get caught.  Peter decides to take full responsibility for the crime and writes a letter with cashier checks for the diverted amount.  A fire at the office destroys all evidence of the crime and Peter's admission.

I've omitted the character of Miton (Stephen Root), a meek employee who constantly ends his sentences in an indecipherable mumble.   Milton is the most abused of all employees in the office.  The two Bobs discover he'd been laid off years ago but through a payroll glitch he's been receiving paychecks all that time.  First, they cut off his paychecks and Lumbergh refers to Payroll which becomes one of Milton's Seven Rings of Hell.  Lumbergh next shrinks his cube until he is forced to work in electrical closet of the basement.  Finally, Lumbergh confiscates his prized red Swingline stapler because it is not standard company issue.  Root's performance is probably the most memorable which is saying a lot because there were a lot of quirky characters in this film.

It's quite ridiculous but there is enough basis in reality to make an office worker recognize him/herself, a co-worker or a work situation.  I'm certain that's what made the film a cult classic.

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I recognized aspects of the workplace in Office Space but the office shown in Secretary was completely foreign to me.

Lee Holloway (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is a cutter (i.e. self-injury with razor blades if I recall correctly).  Awkward and overly sensitive, Lee gets out of a hospital to live with her family.  Not fitting in at home and keeping her cutting supplies hidden under the bed for stressful moments, Lee decides she needs to make a change.  Acquiring a certificate from a secretarial school, Lee gets a job for attorney E. Edward Grey (James Spader).

With office in what appears to be a converted barn or church, Grey is eccentric but the audience doesn't know the half of it yet.  Struggling to keep his emotions in check, Grey & Lee settle into a routine but after one typo too many, Grey explodes.  Typos are his pet peeve.  He sternly tell Lee to correct the typos and to make sure she doesn't forget, he has her bend over his desk and spank her while she reads the mistyped letter aloud.  That never happens in my office...at least not during working hours.

Rather than filing an EEOC complaint against Grey, the incident has a profound effect on Lee's self-esteem.  Although she has a boyfriend (a timid high-school acquaintance), Grey's attention arouses sexual feelings which Lee was unaware she possessed.  The two settle into a routine where Lee dresses better and occasionally slips in an intentional typo in order to receive her "corrective feedback" (to use the parlance of my workplace).

All is well for the time being but Lee desires more than a physical relationship with Grey who has some issues of his own.  Ashamed of his own sexual habits and fearful of a committed relationship, Grey is unable to give Lee the emotional support and romance she needs.  The situation at work becomes intolerable for Grey who fires Lee to remove the object of his dysfunctional desires.

Rejected, Lee agrees to marry her boyfriend.  While being fitted in her future mother-in-law's wedding gown, Lee bolts for Grey's office and tells him she loves him.  As a test, Grey makes her sit in a chair without getting up until he returns.  This goes on for days as family and acquaintances visit to dissuade or encourage her.  Even the local television news sets up a vigil.  Eventually Grey returns and carries an exhausted Lee to the second floor of the office where there is conveniently a clawfoot bathtub.  The film ends with the two happily married with clues of their continuing S&M activities.

Secretary has a dreamy, fairy tale like quality to it which belies the sexual acts which are so crucial to its plot.  Even the poster for the film is provocative.  Showing a woman (we can't see her face but it is implied to be Gyllenhaal) "assuming the position" for a spanking, the poster plays up the prurient aspects of the film.  The filmmakers took care to retain a sweet-naturedness in the characters presumably because the S&M scenes could lead to some darker implications.  This dichotomy (an S&M fairy tale) gives the film much of its unique atmosphere.

Gyllenhaal and Spader are very good in their roles.  The film was a complete surprise to me.  I had never heard of the film before.  I went to the Castro Theater to see Office Space and stuck around to see Secretary as an afterthought.  I remember between shows wondering if I should just go home so I'm glad I stuck around.

An Army of Phantoms

In October, PFA held a series called An Army of Phantoms: American Cinema and the Cold War.  Curated by noted film critic J. Hoberman, An Army of Phantoms is also the name of Hoberman's latest book.  That arrangement seems more overtly commercial than most PFA series.

The films in An Army of Phatoms, the PFA program, "captures the hottest decade [1950s] of the Cold War with all the unnerved, high-spirited, and irrational emotions that combative moment could muster."

I saw only saw two of the nine films in the series.  Among the series were two films I've seen in rep houses within the past few years - Pickup on South Street and The Wild One and two I've seen on television - Fort Apache and Invasion of the Body Snatchers.  I regret missing Storm Warning (with Ronald Reagan, Ginger Rogers & Doris Day) and Panic in the Streets (with Richard Widmark, Jack Palance & Zero Mostel).  I don't regret missing Invaders from Mars despite Hoberman description of it as "a Cold War Cabinet of Dr. Caligari."

The two films I saw were:

The Next Voice You Hear starring James Whitmore & Nancy Davis; directed by William Wellman; (1950)
The Steel Helmet starring Gene Evans; directed by Sam Fuller; (1951)

The Next Voice You Hear looks like a B film but is a cut above.  Let's call it a B+ film which is what you would expect from William Wellman.  Actually, I wouldn't expect Wellman to be making B films so maybe this wasn't one.  The premise of the film is that God comes on the radio every night for one week.  You never actually hear his voice due to some clever cutaways.  Instead reacting to the voice, the audience reacts to the characters' reaction.  Joe and Mary Smith (Josepth & Mary!) are played James Whitmore and Nancy Davis (she was still a couple years from marrying Ronald Reagan).  With son Johnny (Gary), they form the nuclear family although they are far from perfect.  Joe has a bit of a temper and he gets fall down drunk which frightens young Johnny.

The God in The Next Voice is secular based on his recited messages.  His message is not "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near."  It's more "Can't we all just along?"

At 83 minutes, the film loses traction at times but Whitmore's performance is enough to buoy the film for most of the way.  An under-appreciated actor, Whtimore has always reminded me a little of Spencer Tracy crossed with William Bendix.  He captures the common man (even though he went to Choate and Yale and was a member of Skull & Bones) with flashes of anger in many of his films including The Next Voice.  The way he tears out of carport onto the street was memorable.

If The Next Voice isn't a great film, I wasn't disappointed because I wasn't expecting anything; one way or another.  I saw The Next Voice You Hear because it was part of a double feature.  I was more interested in the second half - Sam Fuller's The Steel Helmet.

Steel Helmet is an unusually frank cinematic depiction of men at war for the era as well as the first film set during the Korean War.  Sgt. Zack (Gene Evans), the protagonist, shoots an unarmed prisoner towards the end of the film.  The North Korean prisoner (Harold Fong) is one these wily and diabolical Orientals...and he speaks English.  Credited as The Red, Fong's character attempt to foment discord among the US ranks by reminding the African American soldier about Jim Crow laws and Nisei soldier about the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII.  The Red deserved what he got.  That's the attitude which underlies The Steel Helmet, at least on the surface.

As anyone who has read The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer knows, captured prisoners were shot; especially in the Pacific Theater where Japanese mistreatment of Allied prisoners were well known and Japanese troops often fought to the death making captured prisoner a rarity compared to Europe.  Never publicized but easily understood (perhaps even tacitly approved of), these practices would have shocked the home front or so military censors thought.  Similarly, segregation was the law in several states at the time and Order 9066 was fresh in everyone's memory.  These are taboo film subject for 1950.

Although Fuller cloaks Steel Helmet in virile and patriotic disguises, he is really levelling some serious indictments against US hypocrisy, self-delusion and war, in general.  I didn't fully pick up on this until after I watched the film.   The film ends on such a jingoistic note that it is unclear if it is intended tongue-in-cheek or at face value.  Sgt. Zack intones, "[We're] US Infantry."  Within the context of the film, is that something to be proud of?

The American Scream

I forgot that the 2012 San Francisco Documentary Film Festival had a launch event/screening at the Roxie on October 16.

The American Scream; directed by Michael Stephenson; documentary; (2012) - Official Website

The American Scream is a documentary about three families in a small Massachusetts town who go all out in their Halloween house decorations aka "haunters" - similar to those people who go all out in their Christmas house decorations.  Superficially uplifting, director Michael Stephenson keeps exploring his subject until some disturbing facets of their lives come.

Victor Bariteau is married with two children.  The storage of his Halloween decorations and props take up every spare inch of his house to his daughters and wife's consternation.  Despite that, wife and elder daughter are completely behind Bariteau.  His obsession is odd until he shares that he was raised Branch Davidian which is the same "religion" as David Koresh and his Waco followers.  Not allowed to celebrate Halloween for religious purposes, Bariteau compensates as much for his own sake as his children.  Although he says it for the kids, I wondered how much was a coping mechanism for himself.  His commitment to "haunting" has more dark overtones considering his youth.

Manny Souza almost died of a heart attack and approaches haunting as if each year is his last.  He displays a fatalism which at odds with the wholesome Halloween festivities.

Matthew Brodeur seemed to have a mild learning disability.  He and his father, Victor, create the least sophisticated haunt and bicker nonstop with each other.  The father is a retired civil engineer.  The son (with his father) appeared to make his living as a clown at children's events which I have always considered peculiar on its face.  While Victor & Manny had full time jobs which they discussed, Matt didn't seem to have a "regular" job.  What makes Matt odder yet is that he has no wife or children (unlike Victor and Manny).  In fact, there is a woman who helps Matt and Victor out in their haunting.  She stated that Matt has told her explicitly that their relationship is platonic  and will remain so.  She seemed eager to be with Matt but he was oblivious or asexual.  I guess he could be not interested in her but I suspect Matt is not beating women off with a stick.

Director Michael Stephenson never confronts the subjects.  He likely gained their trust and then let them reveal their own troubled pasts.  The film isn't exploitive of the three men but it does much more than just document their preparations and Halloween activities.  I'm always surprised what people will willingly or inadvertently reveal about themselves in a documentary...or a blog.

Cinematic Spelunking

In late June, Lost Weekend Video opened the Cinecave.  I have not been there yet.  In my defense, they don't always keep their website up to date.  I've frequently checked their website in the past six months and the Cinecave program listing is out of date or not even listed.

One of the recurring events I've wanted to see is Shaolin Sundays.  Not held every Sunday (or even most Sundays), Shaolin Sundays celebrates kung fu films.  At 7 and 9 PM tonight, Cinecave is holding an Alexander Fu-Sheng Tribute.  It has captured my interest.

I'm still not sure how one attends.  I've never been inside Lost Weekend Video which is at Valencia at 21st St.  As their website says, "Cinecave is a private club, but it's free to join!  (It's included in your LWV membership)."  What is that all about?  Calling something "a private club" (while it essentially remains open to the public) is typically a way to get around some local ordinance.  

Perhaps coincidentally, the Roxie is having a Kung Fu double feature on December 13 - Seven Grandmasters (1978) and Snake in the Eagle's Shadow (1978).  Snake in the Eagle's Shadow was Jackie Chan's breakthrough role   Director Yuen Woo-ping would go on to more success (Drunken Master w/Chan) but to Western audiences, he would become best known for his fight choreography in The Matrix films, the Kill Bill films and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

I have a spotty record with Kung Fu films.  I want to like them but I'm often bored by them.

Forever Natalie Wood

On Veterans Day Weekend, I split time between three film series.  The San Francisco Film Society's Cinema By the Bay at the Viz, DocFest at the Roxie and Forever Natalie Wood at the Castro.  The Natalie Wood tribute was a Marc Huestis Presents event.  Marc Huestis is a local events filmmaker and film tribute events planner.  For more than a decade, Huestis has been holding tribute screenings at the Castro with the guest of honor present for an on-stage interview.  I've somehow missed all of them.  Typically, these events are one night only but the Natalie Wood event was three days so I was able to catch three films.  Obviously Natalie Wood couldn't be there but her sister, Lana Wood was there although I missed that evening to see Amity.

The three films I saw were:

This Property is Condemned starring Natalie Wood & Robert Redford; with Charles Bronson & Robert Blake; directed by Sydney Pollack; (1966)
Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice starring Natalie Wood, Robert Culp, Elliott Gould & Dyan Cannon; directed by Paul Mazursky; (1969)
Inside Daisy Clover starring Natalie Wood; with Robert Redford, Christopher Plummer, Roddy McDowall & Ruth Gordon; directed by Robert Mulligan; (1965)

Other films screening in the series were Rebel Without a Cause, Gypsy, Love With a Proper Stranger, Splendor in the Grass and West Side Story (sing-along).  When was the last time the Castro played West Side Story without the karaoke subtitles?

Before the event, I knew a few things about Wood.  She was of Russian descent; her sister Lana's full name is Svetlana.  She was deathly afraid of water as she almost drowned during a movie shoot.  Also, she injured her left wrist at a young age (also on a movie shoot).  Wood's mother was worried if the wrist was treated and cast, Natalie would be dropped from the film so they hid her injury and it was never treated.  As a result, it healed incorrectly and her wrist was noticeably deformed.  Whenever Wood's wrist was exposed, she would wear a bracelet or wristwatch over it to hide the protruding bone(s).  In every Natalie Wood film I've seen, I see the bracelet or watch.  Huestis mentioned that Wood is in water for many of her films which must have been difficult for her.

I think Natalie Wood was a terribly sexy woman.  For many years, I was not aware that she was the girl in Miracle on 34th Street but as Huestis alluded to, her years as a child actor affected her the rest of her life...and not necessarily for the better.  I wonder if her childhood years infused her acting with a vulnerability that many men find appealing at some level.

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This Property is Condemned is based on a one act play by Tennessee Williams.  Francis Ford Coppola shares screenwriting credits.

Wood plays Alva Starr, the beautiful elder daughter of Hazel Starr (Kate Reid), owner of the Starr Boarding House which caters to railroad workers; there is a maintenance facility in town.  Starr Boarding House is a raucous place with Alva as the object of the boarders' attention.  Used to the attentions (wanted and unwanted) of the many men who come & go through her mother's boarding house, Alva is intrigued by Owen Legate (Robert Redford), the new and mysterious boarder.  Legate is put off by Alva's coquettish behavior.

Legate is tight lipped about his job because he is the railroad's hatchet man.  He's there to layoff workers due to a dropoff in railroad traffic (the film is set during the Great Depression).  Among the layoff victims are two residents of the Starr Boarding House - J.J. Nichols (Charles Bronson), Hazel's boyfriend who shows a not-so-secret preference for Alva and Sidney (Robert Blake), a younger man who is Alva's most unctuous admirer.  Both men sense Alva's attraction to Legate which adds one more reason to resent him.

Hazel has been pressuring Alva "to be nice" to an older and wealthier boarder, Mr. Johnson.  Hazel is essentially pimping Alva out to Johnson, whose wife is an invalid.  With marriage out of the question, Hazel hopes Johnson will be Alva's sugar daddy with some of the excess sugar going into her pocket.  This desire is made more intense when news of Legate's layoffs makes the rounds.  Hazel realizes her boarding house isn't worth much with the railroad workers to fill it.  She manipulates Johnson into agreeing to relocate the Starr family to Memphis and bankrolling a new boarding house there...if Alva will play nice and go along with the implicit arrangement.

Alva has plans to go to New Orleans with Legate but Hazel manipulates his insecurities about Alva's true character.  Legate and Alva have an argument which ends in him calling her a whore a leaving.  Thinking she has achieved her desired outcome, Hazel, J.J., Alva & Johnson to out to dinner to celebrate but Alva gets drunk and reveals J.J.'s untoward behavior towards her.  To spite Legate & her mother, Alva manipulates J.J. into asking her to marry him which she readily accepts.  They marry that night and the next morning, Alva sneaks out of their room with J.J.'s cash and the marriage certificate.

Alva makes her way to New Orleans to see Legate although that is not stated.  They eventually reunite and reconcile although Alva keeps her marriage a secret.  Happy for the first time in her life, Alva asks Legate if they can send for her younger sister (Mary Badham who played Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird).  Alva sends a postcard to arrange her travel but Hazel intercepts it and arrives in New Orleans with revenge on her mind.  Over her daughter's pleas, Hazel informs Legate that Alva is already married...to J.J. and he wants his wife back.  Horrified that her secret has been revealed, Alva runs off into the rainy night.  We learn through Badham's voiceover narration that Alva later died of lung disease most likely brought on or exacerbated by her flight into the night.

This Property is Condemned is one of the better Tennessee Williams adaptations I've seen.  I have to believe a young Francis Ford Coppola's script treatment must have contributed to my opinion.  Some knowledge of Wood's life comes in handy as well.  Wood made her transition to adult roles with Judy in Rebel Without a Cause (1955) directed by Nicholas Ray.  Ray, in his 40s at the time, and Wood, 16-17, became lovers which no doubt influenced the casting of the role.  There is some debate about whether Wood was the sole instigator or if Wood's mother put the idea into her head.  With that tidbit in my mind, the scenes between Kate Reid and Wood, as mother and daughter, took on special meaning.  Reid's performance was one of the best parts of the film.  Maybe I saw what I wanted to see w.r.t. Wood's performance but her best scenes with Reid were the most powerful in the film.  This (strong scenes between Wood & her on-screen mother) a trend in a few of her films - with Rosalind Russell in Gypsy and with Ruth Gordon in Daisy Clover. 

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Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice was a film I saw many years ago.  I was familiar with the general plot but not the details.  Bob & Carol Sanders (Robert Culp & Natalie Wood) start the film at a...I'm not quite sure what to call it.  It's not New Age but it's similar.  It's an institute where people strive to achieve emotional honesty through open discussion, hugging, scream therapy. etc.  I see the term "Esalen" used but I'm not familiar with that organization or its technique.

Changed by the experience, Bob & Carol pledge to live their lives in a more honest manner.  They share their new outlook of life with their best friends Ted & Alice Henderson (Elliott Gould & Dyan Cannon) who are more conservative and skeptical of what they are preaching.  Alice seems to have some sexual hangups that interfere with her marital relations.  Ted, frustrated by his lack of relations with Alice, just needs a little push to embrace the free love concept which evolves from Bob and Carol's respective extramarital affairs.  Rather than keep them secret, the Sanders proudly share the news with Hendersons.

In one of the best scenes, Alice sees a psychiatrist and it becomes clear she has latent desires for Bob which she has not confronted due to her friendship with Carol.  Bob's extramarital affair seems to bring out Alice's jealousy; it was a "if you are going to cheat, why not with me?" resentment.

The famous bedroom scene takes place in Las Vegas as the two couples drive there for a weekend getaway.  When Bob exposes Ted's past infidelity, Alice retaliates by voicing her desire for Bob.  In the name of emotional honesty, Carol I believe, proposes they swap husbands to make everything all right between.  Ted is the last one to go along with the idea but he eventually is on board (with some odd looking jockey shorts).

They don't "go all the way" but they go close enough that it gets uncomfortable which is the moral of the story.  Honesty is frequently not the best policy and the Sanders' honesty have caused problems between themselves and it's seeped into the Henderson's life.  When you are married, a good rule of thumb is to keep your mouth shut regarding sexual desires and sexual relations with people not your spouse.  It's an interesting and oft debated moral quandary.  What if dishonesty (a "white lie") is morally superior in the big picture?

The film has gotten a reputation for salaciousness and there is some.  Wood rocks a bikini like no one's business.  At its core, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice is exploring the morality of the era which did revolve around sex to a large extent.  Gould & Cannon had some of the best scenes, particularly the bedroom scene after Bob admits his infidelity to them at a dinner party.

The final scene was inspired also.  Bob & Carol, followed by Ted & Alice lead an ethnically diverse procession of people out of their Las Vegas hotel while Jackie DeShannon's (music by Burt Bacharach) What the World Needs Now is Love plays on the soundtrack.

I enjoyed Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice more than I thought I would.

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Inside Daisy Clover must have hit close to home for Natalie Wood.  Set in 1930s Hollywood, Daisy Clover (Wood) is a teenager who submit a recording of her of voice to Swan Studios, hoping to break into the movie business.  Daisy lives on the beach with her mentally unstable (but sweet natured) mother (Ruth Gordon) selling "autographed" photos of movie stars.  Studio executive Raymond Swan (Christopher Plummer) signs Daisy to a contract and puts his studio to work manufacturing her stardom.  To better sell her image, Daisy becomes an orphan while her mother is put in an asylum   This actually happened to Marilyn Monroe by the way.

The headstrong Daisy clashes with the equally assertive Swan while his wife Melora (Katharine Bard) plays a more maternal role.  Always present is the efficient Walter Baines (Roddy McDowall), Swan's eyes, ears and hands (when he doesn't want to get them dirty).  Unhappy, Daisy quickly becomes involved with handsome Wade Lewis (Robert Redford), Swan Studios biggest matinee idol.  Despite her being underage, the two get married over Swan's objections.  He abandons her in a Arizona roadside motel and we later discover Swan is bisexual making Daisy's abandonment more painful.

After a failed romance with Swan and her mother's death, Daisy has a nervous breakdown.  There is a great scene where she is singing voiceovers for one of her films.  She is in a soundbooth watching the film being projected while singing to match her on-screen lip movement.  The director keeps asking her to do take after as her mental state slides downward.  By the end, she has a full nervous breakdown.  When the camera is outside the booth, we hear silence.  When the camera shows Daisy from inside the booth we hear the beep-beep-beep-beep of the countdown from 4 to 1 before the images come on the screen and Daisy sings.  The beeping sound is haunting.

The film is very depressing and a damning indictment on the Hollywood studio system which Wood grew up  in and which, to a limited extent, the movie was produced in.  Gordon received an Oscar nomination for her role although I wasn't that impressed.  Once again, Wood seemed to thrive in scenes where her character was abused or vulnerable.  Christopher Plummer was very convincing in the role of the studio honcho who views Daisy as a commodity to be exploited.  Also the musical numbers were  not quite as toe-tapping as I was expecting.

I didn't like Inside Daisy Clover as much as the other two films but it was still worthwhile.

Life Is Short: Nikkatsu Studios at 100

The PFA had a series in September & October titled Life Is Short: Nikkatsu Studios at 100.  The series commemorated the 100th anniversary of the founding of Nikkatsu Studios, the oldest film studio in Japan.

Of the 14 films in the series, I watched 12.  The two I missed were Made to Order Cloth and Harp of Burma.  I was at the Hong Kong Cinema series the day Made to Order Cloth screened and I had seen Harp of Burma (under the the title The Burmese Harp) at the Viz in 2010.

Suzaki Paradise: Red Light District starring Michiyo Aratama & Tatsuya Mihashi; directed by Yuzo Kawashina; Japanese with subtitles; (1956)
A Colt Is My Passport starring Jo Shishido; directed by Takashi Nomura; Japanese with subtitles; (1967)
Capricious Young Man starring Chiezo Kataoka; directed by Mansaku Itami; Japanese with subtitles; (1936)
The Warped Ones starring Tamio Kawaji; directed by Koreyoshi Kurahara; Japanese with subtitles; (1960)
Season of the Sun Yoko Minamida & Hiroyuki Nagato; directed by Takumi Furukawa; Japanese with subtitles; (1956)
Hometown starring Yoshie Fujiwara; directed by Kenji Mizoguchi; Japanese with subtitles; (1930)
Singing Lovebirds starring Chiezo Kataoka & Takashi Shimura; directed by Masahiro Makino; Japanese with subtitles; (1939)
Rusty Knife starring Yujiro Ishihara & Akira Kobayashi; directed by Toshio Masuda; Japanese with subtitles; (1958)
Sun in the Last Days of the Shogunate starring Frankie Sakai; directed by Yuzo Kawashima; Japanese with subtitles; (1957)
Gate of Flesh starring Satoko Kasai & Jo Shishido; directed by Seijun Suzuki; Japanese with subtitles; (1964)
The Young Rebel starring Ken Yamanouchi; directed by Seijun Suzuki; Japanese with subtitles; (1963)
Elegy to Violence starring Hideki Takahashi; directed by Seijun Suzuki; Japanese with subtitles; (1966)

This was a much anticipated series for me which largely paid off with a few exceptions.

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My favorite films from the series were also the most violent ones - A Colt is My Passport, The Warped Ones, Season of the Sun, Gate of Flesh, and Elegy to Violence.

In A Colt is My Passport, Jo Shisido (the stalwart of the series), plays a hitman on the run from the mob.  He and his younger associate (Jerry Fujio) have been betrayed by the gang who hired them to kill a rival gangster so both gangs are after the two.  They take refuge in a dockside motel where the chambemaid (Chitose Kobayashi) shows interest in Shisido.  He's loyal to his partner (who is wounded).  Actually his loyalty goes beyond commendable to being suspicious.  You begin to wonder about the exact nature of the relationship between these two men.  A neat soundtrack and Sergio Leoneesque shootout give the film style in spades.

The Warped Ones reminded me a some of of Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless from the same year but it's like Breathless on crystal meth.  Tamio Kawachi plays Akira like he is mentally deranged.  Hopped up on criminal thrills and bebop jazz, Akira starts a crime wave with his prostitute girlfriend and an ex-con he met in the joint.  Eventually they assault the man that turned them into the police and rape his girlfriend Yuki (Yuko Chishiro).  When Yuki turns up pregnant and her boyfriend grows distant, she appeals to Akira's honor which is a lost cause.  She confides in Fumiko (Noriko Matsumoto), Akira's now prostitute ex-girlfriend who agrees to seduce Yuki's boyfriend so they will more sexually equivalent.  I guess "blame the victim" was prevalent in Japanese attitudes towards victims of rape...although Akira did give up a little too easy for my cinematic tastes.  The film ends with the two couples at an abortion clinic which Akira finds hilarious.  Full of jump cuts and frenetic music, The Warped Ones must have been  unlike anything seen before in Japanese cinema.  If you liked Breathless (which I did), you owe it to yourself to seek out The Warped Ones.

Season of the Sun gave rise to the "Sun Tribe" or "Taiyo-zoku" subculture of Japanese youth who based much of "bored, angry and jaded" views on the novel Season of the Sun by Ishihara Shintaro on which this film is based.  Ironically, Ishihara was governor of Tokyo Prefecture (kind of like the City & County of San Francisco) until Halloween 2012 when he resigned to form a far right political party for the upcoming national elections.  Films expressing the Sun Tribe viewpoints on life & society appropriated its name for their genre.  Some film critics liken the Sun Tribe to the French New Wave and even refer to it as Japanese New Wave.

Season of the Sun is set among some wealthy young people who consist of people old enough to remember Japan's war years but who came of age in an American Occupied society.  Their national pride in tatters and influenced by Western customs, this generation struggled to find themselves.  In the film, they spend their time sailing and at the beach.  One young but nihilistic woman falls in with a poor boxer which leads to tragedy for both of them.  With its depiction of sex, rape, pregnancy, abortion amd violence, Season of the Sun was quite shocking in its time and even packed a punch in 2012.  Not as outrageous as A Colt is My Passport and The Warped Ones.

Gate of Flesh was the most outrageous of all.  Set in a post-war slum, a gang of prostitutes live...I don't know what it was.  A condemned building?  An abandoned port facility?  These are some tough whore who vow not to have sex with a man unless he pays for it.  The penalty if they discover one of their own has given it away is a whipping and possible a shaved head.  Into this estrogen rich atmosphere comes a wounded Jo Shishido to convalesce.  He's a violent thug with a bum leg who frequent state of undress leads the ladies to rethink the cardinal rule.  Maya (Yumiko Nogawa) succumbs to his Kowalskiesque magnetism and pays the price.  It's true love though; they agree to go on the lam together...until Shishido is double crossed and shot leaving Maya alone as the film ends.  Exploitive and bordering on pornographic at times, Gate of Flesh is something to behold.  In the hands of a lesser director, it would surely have devolved into something ridiculous.  However, Gate of Flesh was directed by Seijin Suzuki and it maintains its energy throughout.  Anything but subtle, the film has an in-your-face attitude towards sex and violence which has long been a hallmark of the best that Japanese cinemas has to offer.

Elegy to Violence was also a hoot.  Exploring militaristic and adolescent tendencies towards violence, Elegy focuses on Nambu, the most violent of all teenagers at his school.  The violence is only a outlet for unfulfilled sexual desire for Michiko, a Catholic girl!  I particularly like the way he would look at the crucifix before having carnal thoughts or committing acts of violence.  Eventually seeing the futility of violence, Nambu gets busy romancing Michiko but his violent past won't let him completely free.  Unexpectedly humorous, Elegy to Violence is another sterling effort by Suzuki.

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Not quite as memorable but worthwhile were Rusty Knife and The Young Rebel (aka The Bastard) explore violence through lens of gangster codes and pre-war militarism.  Suzaki Paradise: Red Light District is a tragic romance about a couple who are undone by their own desires and proximity to the titular red light district.  Unlike the other seven films I have mentioned so far, Suzaki Paradise relied less on sex & violence and more on poverty and human flaws to advance its tale tragedy.

Singing Lovebirds was interesting in that it was pre-war but used Western style music to tell a story set in the 1800s or early 1900s.  Chiezo Kataoka shines as the daughter of the umbrella maker (Takashi Shimura) who longs for the samurai.  When was the last time you saw a Samurai musical?

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I couldn't get into Capricious Young Man and Sun in the Last Days of the Shogunate.  Hometown is Kenji Mizoguchi's first sound film and it shows.  With editing that butchered the thin plot, it was like watching an experimental film.  Actually, I recall similar efforts in US films of the era as filmmakers tried to find techniques that would work for talkies.  Hometown seems to bet its money on tenor Yushie Fujiwara, a half Scottish, half Japanese opera singer.  Hopelessly incomprehensible, I considered walking out but kept hoping it would get better.