Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Gates to Paradise - by Andrzej Wajda - 1968



Wajda made some amazing films.  This one is about the Children's Crusade of 1212.

Basically, this film explores individual motivation for participation in widespread social or religious movements.  You always have a few true believers but then you get folks with ulterior motives or the wrong motives entirely.  Some folks might even be participating in movements of liberation against their will.

Enjoy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI-O0EtRB20

Sunday, August 24, 2014

Mahanagar by Satyajit Ray - 1963



So when we talk about the work of Satyajit Ray as an example of Indian cinema, we are definitely not talking about Bollywood stuff.  Yet the actress from this film - the first Ray ever directed - did, later, become a Bollywood star.

Here's a film by one of the most interesting directors ever.  It's a film about a woman who is compelled to abandon her traditional gender role through economic pressures.  Is she moving from a type of slavery to freedom or just from one form or slavery to another?

Click on 'cc' to get the English subtitles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KHu12xYxU4

Nayak by Satyajit Ray - 1966


One of the greatest directors of the golden age of 'arthouse' films was Indian - Satyajit Ray.

This film by Ray examines the life of an Indian movie star and the discrepancy between his 'perfect' public persona and his own inner conflicts or problems.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KHu12xYxU4

Red Sorghum by Zhang Yimou 1988


Sorghum is the most proletarian of plants.  It's tough and can be used as a staple food even in arid climates. To talk about using sorghum to make wine takes us right into the state-sponsored commie-pinko symbolism that pervades this film.  Red Sorghum (sorghum wine) symbolically represents the elevation of the proletariat to a higher level - at least rhetorically.

Indeed, Red Sorghum was the first big Chinese film of the contemporary era to break into the western market.  Albeit it was the art film market, but I can vaguely recall going to see this film at the Music Box theater in Chicago toward the late 80s.

In retrospect, I'm a little shocked this film was taken so seriously since it is, as I intimated above, little more than Chinese Communist Party propaganda from the late 80s.  There's no real aesthetic theme - indeed, there are two big POLITICAL (writ large) themes in this film.

Jiu'er (the young female hero of this film) is sold to the 50 year old owner of a distillery, by her father, as a bride.  To really make the audience aware that 'capitalism is bad', the old guy private business owner buying the girl has leprosy (nice subtlety in the symbols here huh?  The author of this novel won the Noble Prize for literature, but since Obama recently won for peace we know how valuable Nobels have become).

A worker gets horny for Jiu'er, knocks her up in a sorghum field (semi with and against her will), and kills Mr. Leper-Bigbucks. So Jiu'er and the workers take over the distillery and viola!!!!  the distillery becomes more successful under the eager hard labor of the proletarians than Mr. Capitalist Leprosy could ever make it.

So that's political message one.  Thank God, ooops, Thank Marx and historical materialism that all these capitalist lepers are gone and that China is now a workers' paradise!  Look how happy everyone is now to do the same back-breaking labor!

Political message two is more problematic.

To this day the Chinese government uses WWII atrocities committed by the Japanese military to galvanize its population against that nation.  Never mind that all the war criminals were hanged and that there is nary a war criminal left in Japan.  Forget that Japan (until Abe came along) was very much a pacifistic country.  The Chinese government regularly looks for excuses to scratch the old wounds and there is no indication they ever intend to stop. Indeed, it could be argued that folks like Abe came along because, frankly, some Japanese folks are getting tired of this wound scratching.

So in the second part of the film the evil Japanese come along and force a Chinese butcher to skin a Chinese worker to death.

So this film won the Golden Bear Award from Berlin (West Berlin believe it or not) and was a successful film here.  Basically it boils down to facile political propaganda that becomes maliciously anti-Japanese at the end.

This is a shame since I have liked some of Zhang Yimou's other stuff - please watch Raise the Red Lantern, which I also have posted somewhere on this blog.

Here's some nice commie propaganda for you to watch.
Access Red Sorghum here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=415CReI3zps

Friday, August 22, 2014

The Hill by Sidney Lumet, with Sean Connery - 1964




When I first saw this film I thought a couple things:

1) It was probably inspired by the success of the Living Theater's "The Brig".

2) It was 1960s English revisionist history about the 'great' WW II generation. It's as if the generation making this film is saying, "Sure our fathers' generation beat the nazis; that doesn't mean our fathers' generation was made up of remarkably moral people. They were basically the same as us, if not more corrupt."

So in the 60s you get lots of films examining institutional corruption and this film examines corruption in the English military in WW II.

Basically the film is set in a camp set up by the English for English soldiers who need to be 'disciplined' or punished during WW II.  "The hill" is a form of punishment at this camp (prisoners are sometimes forced to run up this hill continually until they can't do it any more - as you might expect, someone in the film dies as a result of this).

Sean Connery is in the film as a guy who is falsely or unfairly sent to this camp.  You've got the nutty camp commander, the good officer and the bad officer, you've got racism directed at the 'colonial' soldier (Ozzie Davis) - lots of predictable stuff.  Yet, the movie was engaging and I wondered how the whole thing was going to end.

Also, when the escalator isn't working at the 53rd and Lexington subway station (it doesn't work most of the time), I walk up the escalator stairs anyway and I sometimes think, "Wow, this is like that stupid hill in that Sean Connery movie - hope I don't pass out today."

Access The Hill here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdzJdxa0e1s


Thursday, August 21, 2014

These Are the Damned - Joseph Losey - 1963


Joseph Losey is an interesting director who was blacklisted during the McCarthy era - ergo he was forced to go overseas and do work.

Here's a cool, mod, rock and roll sci fi film that he did in England. Oliver Reed rocks.




A Day at the Races - Marx Brothers - 1937 - Directed by Sam Wood


Another of Misi's choices. Please enjoy the Marx Brothers.

It's a shame there aren't more Marx Brothers films available on youtube.  My favorite was
always Ducksoup.  Hail! Hail Freedonia!

A Day at the Races
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVapaUAyiiU

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

The Ruling Class by Peter Medak 1972


Cheap, easy jokes and over-the-top caricatures tend to mar this film.  Peter O'Toole plays a paranoid schizophrenic (Jack) who inherits a significant English estate as well as a place in the House of Lords.  The problem is that He believes He is Jesus Christ.

Toward the middle of the film a psychologist finds a 'miracle' cure and Jack seems to come back to normal - with one slight problem (won't ruin the film for you by telling you). I liked the ending where he proves himself to be sane by demanding harsher, uncompromising punishments for criminals in the House of Lords.

The film satirizes members of the English upper class.  Kind of a typical late 60s/early 70s English film which made money by presenting a harmless poke at the (idiotic) powers that be. I think it's good to watch this film to learn what to avoid doing if you want to write a really good satire. This film makes every mistake possible.

I guess I'm posting it here because I watched the film and it's not terrible and because Peter O'Toole really makes a very handsome, even sexy Jesus.

Access the film here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dgosa7wkfY&index=24&list=RDDGEqDF6ZMyY

Saturday, August 16, 2014

4 by Ingmar Bergman (as chosen by Misi) ^.^ Scenes from a Marriage, Persona, 7th Seal, Wild Strawberries

Ingmar Bergman was obsessed with trying to determine whether there might be anything meaningful about our lives and he was also interested in examining emotional states in complex familial or social relationships.

Misi, my new buddy, chose these 4 Bergman films.  Grab a bottle of wine and put on your thinking cap and indulge in your own Bergman festival! Invite the neighbors over and have a discussion afterwards.

Remember, to get the English subtitles you'll have to click on "cc".


Scenes from a Marriage
Watch the movie here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwOQMpuIAa8

Here's what Roger Ebert wrote about it: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/scenes-from-a-marriage-1974



Persona
Watch the movie here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMfqSuRlerU

Ebert's review: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-persona-1966



The Seventh Seal
Watch the movie here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbgiWPJLSsM



Wild Strawberries (Bergman)
Watch the movie here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFsU0QA7-M4


Thursday, August 14, 2014

Walking Tall by Phil Karlson starring Joe Don Baker 1973


In the early 70s there were many films in America about single individuals who stood up against and fought against forms of corruption in their communities.

Buford Pusser was one such man and this is his film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odH8scMjBVk

Fort Apache, The Bronx by Daniel Petrie 1981


Actually, this film sucks.  It's a pretty badly conceived film. But, it's a film that gives you a glimpse at what New York City looked and felt like in the outer boroughs before gentrification set in. It's a pretty shocking view.

As someone who taught in the Bronx, there are still chunks of this borough that look the way this film from the early 80s portrayed it.

How bad is this film? At times it's stupid.  Why does Paul Newman, as a cop, have to deliver a baby in an apartment?  A paramedic just as readily could have done that. Then this unnecessary and unsanitary delivery leads to Paul Newman finally getting a date with the sexy nurse he's been lusting after.  Pretty tacky stuff.

In any case, I was just fascinated by what a hell hole the Bronx used to be.  It's still a hell hole which has been neglected by business and government, but not as much of a hell hole as it used to be.  I guess it couldn't have gotten any worse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrcVKWm7vog


The Last Detail by Hal Ashby 1973


Hal Ashby directed some amazing films.  I would love to be able to have Harold and Maude on this blog, for free, but that film was taken down.

The Last Detail is a movie about two sailors who have to transport another sailor to a detention facility where he will be locked up in solitary confinement for 8 years for stealing $40. The two sailors begin to develop a sense of compassion for the prisoner due to the harsh penalty assessed to him and due to how simple and unassuming this prisoner is.  Before he is to be locked up, the two other sailors decide to show him a good time as their only way to express their empathy.

Something funny: While watching the film I realized Gilda Radner is in one scene between the 58 and 60 minute marks.  She plays a member of a religious cult that chants nam me oh ho renge kyo. These nam meoho renge kyo folks are still in this city and still bugging folks to chant, chant and chant some more!  The more things change the more they stay the same.

Jack Nicholson and Randy Quaid are in this film. This film was also recommended by Misi.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2fP3C7AH2M

Knife in the Water by Roman Polanski 1963


Recently a new friend of mine named Misi sent me a list of cool films that are free on youtube and so I'm going to begin posting Misi's choices here as well.  Thanx.... :)

This was the first film by Polanski which caught the attention of folks in the west.

Basically an aging journalist and his younger lover invite a young, virile hitch-hiker to go boating with them. You begin to realize that the older journalist has ulterior motives for doing this, as he continually attempts to tear down the younger man in order to build up his own image with his lover. There's a weird, tense psychological and sexual dynamic in the film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKmT5vR24pE

Sunday, August 10, 2014

Rubber's Lover Shozin Fukui 1996


Well, all I can say is that this isn't a film by Ozu. :P  A pretty extreme film, just the kind I like!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlDCrRqYMuI

The Battle of Algiers by Gillo Pontecorvo 1966



This is a very dynamic movie film which was filmed in documentary style.  Some folks consider this to be one of their favorite films of all time.  It's about the Algerian people's fight for independence from France after WW II. There are no good guys in this film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeMWdueGTZ4&index=5&list=PL5357F089480D091F

Stroszek by Werner Herzog 1977


I saw this movie years ago - it is a bizarre little film.  Apparently Herzog needed a schizophrenic actor to play the role of Caspar Hauser in a film he wanted to make about that poor person (Hauser had been raised in a dark basement in a German town until he was discovered as a teenager).

Herzog found Bruno S. in a mental institution to play the role of Hauser (the film was called: Every man for himself and God against all) and really liked working with Bruno S. So he made this film specifically for Bruno S.

Click on cc for the English subtitles:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obgwTetpjE4&index=97&list=PL7C2D82459F428C2A