What's Up Tiger Lily? 1966 Woody Allen

Early in his career, Woody Allen bought a cheesy Japanese detective film and re-dubbed it in English so that the detectives are searching for a really good egg salad sandwich.

The first three minutes are scenes from the original, undubbed film, then you see a short interview with Woody Allen, and then his dubbed comedy. When I was a kid and I saw this on TV, I thought it was hilarious. If you watch it, I hope you like it.

Special cameo appearance by The Lovin' Spoonful.

Please watch the film here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLU_-YMPX7I

Twelve O'Clock High - 1949 - Henry KIng

This is considered one of the better Hollywood war movies and represents another collaboration between Henry King and Gregory Peck.

It's a fictionalized account of the struggles of American pilots in their daytime bombing campaigns against German industrial centers during World War II. When a very kind and understanding commanding officer cannot seem to handle the demanding responsibilities of leading his men in regard to missions that entail immense emotional stress, pain and hardship, a new commanding officer is brought in to take exactly the opposite approach - he becomes a severe disciplinarian who sets high standards and requires a 'maximum effort' from everyone.

Witchhammer - 1969 - Otakar Vávra

See the film here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXTA1yAptuc

This Sporting Life - 1963 - Lindsay Anderson

Richard Harris plays a guy from the working class who achieves fame on the rugby field through the anger and aggression that has built up in his life. Unfortunately, this approach does not work very well in other parts of his life.

Guys and Dolls - 1955 - Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Luck be a lady tonight!

One of the best Broadway musicals of all time made into a movie with Frank Sinatra and Marlon Brando.

Birth of a Nation - D.W. Griffith - 1915

Essential early cinema -





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Rope - Alfred Hitchcock - 1948

This film was an adaptation of a play based on the infamous Leopold and Loeb murder of the 1920s.

Leopold and Loeb were very wealthy and academically successful young men who were influenced by the philosophy of Nietzsche. Indeed, they believed that they were Nietzchean 'supermen' who could rise above the law and accountability to others.

To demonstrate this to themselves they decided to kidnap and murder a 12 year old boy for no reason and to collect a ransom for this kidnapping that they did not need even though the boy was dead.

Once inside the apartment where the story of this film takes place, Hitchcock only uses one camera. When you see him do a close up into the back of a guy's jacket, he is basically changing the film in the camera.

In the play there are many differences to the story, but there is a murder committed purely so that young men can relish what they feel is their superiority to others. They want to feel as if they can rise above what restricts others from engaging in the 'taboo'.

Here is a documentary on Leopold and Loeb:

Tokyo Story - Yasujirō Ozu - 1953

In his films, Ozu seemed interested in the sense of duty felt between family members in Japan and to what extent this might be due to social pressure and to what extent it might be due to human emotion. He also seemed interested in looking at how social change affects change within the family in Japan. In addition to this, he examines the compassion of strangers vis a vis family relationships and duties.

In this film, a young woman who has no real connection to an elderly Japanese couple shows the most concern for this couple, even beyond the concern shown by the couples' own family.

This is regularly voted as one of the best films ever made.

Madame Butterfly (film version) - 1995 - Frédéric Mitterrand

Madame Butterfly is one of the most powerful works of art ever created.

Usually folks focus on the injustice against Cio-Cio San by B.F. Pinkerton in this opera, yet, I feel compelled to play devil's advocate. Pinkerton expresses extreme remorse at the end of the opera and one could argue that Cio-Cio San is using Pinkerton to a significant degree, as he is surely using her. Neither person enters this bizarre marriage completely innocently. Cio-Cio San is only 15, however, and in a desperate situation.

So Cio-Cio San is a 15 year-old geisha singer. She comes from an aristocratic family, but they have lost their wealth during Japan's rush to modernization and now Cio-Cio San sings for her very survival.

She agrees to marry an American naval officer - B.F. Pinkerton - through an oily marriage broker named Goro. Basically, the life of a geisha singer is hell and Pinkerton seems to be Cio-Cio San's ticket out of that hell. For his part, Pinkerton feels that he is 'renting' a wife along with a beautiful huge house he is able to get in Nagasaki. Cio-Cio San throws herself completely into this marriage, with deep seriousness, to the point where she is cursed and abandoned by her own family. It is basically Pinkerton or nothing at this point.

So the big question in the film is whether Cio-Cio San is as deeply in love with Pinkerton as most have believed her to be. I question this. Pinkerton serves a function for her. She serves a function for Pinkerton. At one point when she is asked what she will do if Pinkerton never comes back to her, she says she has two choices - going back to singing as a geisha or killing herself. She then states that killing herself would be preferable to singing as a geisha again.

To what extent does she need Pinkerton and to what extent does she love him? To what extent is Pinkerton playing a horrific game and to what extent does he love and care for her?

This opera packs a big emotional wallop and this film version does an excellent job of delivering this wallop. Mitterand chose new and young performers who are incredible actors as well as singers. One of the best operas on film ever.

Late Autumn by Yasujiro Ozu - 1960

The plot of this movie is almost like a Mozart Opera - so much romantic scheming.

Akiko, who is now middle aged, was once a beautiful young woman pursued by four suitors who were all best friends. Miwa won her hand. After about 20 years, however, Miwa died leaving Akiko a widow with a daughter Ayako.

At the 7th year memorial service for Miwa his three friends decide to find a good man for his daughter to marry. Each friend is a high-ranking businessman who supervises many high quality young men and each of the three friends chooses a possible suitor for Ayako. She likes Mr. Goto.

There's one problem: Ayako does not want to get married because she fears she will have to leave her mother all alone. So, the three men decide they have to find a husband for Akiko too! Since one of the three friends is a widower, they believe he will work out fine.

What happens? Please watch the film.

It's a typical Ozu film - a 'domestic' drama involving real types of people with no violence, no pettiness, and a lot of self-restraint, serenity and humanity.

In his films Ozu seemed interested in the sense of duty felt between family members in Japan - how strong this sense could be, when it might weaken, how it might guide or limit behavior and lives. He also seems to enjoy investigating the compassion of strangers as it can be compared and contrasted with familial duty.

Pandemonium/Demons - Toshio Matsumoto - 1971

Ostensibly this is a Michael Kohlhaas type of story - an honorable person is defrauded and then becomes cruel and inhuman in his pursuit of justice.

Yet, there are many deeper levels to this film - for example, the film seems quite self-reflexive and seems to offer many insights and comments on the theater and the theater experience. The 'hero' is, after all, duped into giving away money he desperately needs after watching a highly theatrical performance.

One question the film seems to ask, in relation to the theater, is: what part of our lives is NOT performance toward some self-enriching goal? Is all personal action a deceptive performance?

This film was banned in England, I am assuming for the brutality and cruelty.

You can watch this amazing film here:

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

Looking for Mr. Goodbar - 1977 - Richard Brooks

"...when your night life interferes with your day life."

There's one scene where a club guy introduces cocaine to the protagonist of the film. She says, "What will this do?" He says: "It will make America great again."

OK, I lied, but I couldn't resist. He actually says, "It will make America beautiful."

Catch a glimpse of New York City disco culture and follow the double life of a teacher who frequents various seedy bars and indulges in various 'vices'. This is based on a true story. A remarkably good film. This film was huge in the late 70s.

Aleksandr Nevsky - Sergei Eisenstein - 1938

On April 5, 1242, Prince Aleksandr Nevsky set up a defensive position at Raven's Rock near a frozen lake and an epic battle between the army of Teutonic Knights and Russians was fought. Had Nevsky and his army lost, Russian history would have been radically different and a Russian state would have had far less territory. Indeed, the very survival of Russia was probably at stake in the battle.

Eisenstein used this battle to create a propaganda film encouraging his contemporary Russian viewers to recall this great victory, created through massive individual sacrifice, in preparation for what he felt was an inevitable German invasion soon to come.

To see the film, please click on this link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nRev9FvsBU&spfreload=5

The Cup - 1999 - Khyentse Norbu

A couple young Buddhist monks in training try to figure out how they are going to watch the 1998 World Cup...

Watch the film by clicking on this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiFbLt-Axdk

Never on Sunday - 1960 - Jules Dassin

You may recall that Jules Dassin directed Rafifi. He wrote, directed and starred in this film: Never on Sunday.

This is a film filled with good-will and humanity. It's a comedy about a Greek prostitute whom an American intellectual wishes to 'save'. It's really worth watching this wonderful and funny film.

Please view the film by clicking on the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLtGEM1fct8

The Glass Menagerie - Anthony Harvey - 1973

The Tennessee Williams classic -

See the movie version here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pddUuIaUbf0

Twilight's Last Gleaming - 1977 - Aldrich

Robert Aldrich is certainly a Hollywood director worthy of a second look. Among the diverse types of films he directed were: Vera Cruz, Kiss Me Deadly, Attack!, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, The Dirty Dozen and Ulzana's Raid.

Toward the end of his career, in 1977, he directed Twilight's Last Gleaming.

This is a film in which a renegade Air Force general takes over a missile silo complex and threatens to launch 9 nuclear missiles at Russia unless the President of the US makes a secret document concerning the origins of the Vietnam War known to the American people.

What's amazing to me is that people believed, in 1977, that a disclosure of information to the American people might change anything. Indeed, information has been disclosed about the origins of the Vietnam War and barely a ripple was ever made due to it. Wikileaks has disclosed damning information about a major political candidate, and she will probably become the next president.

Lesson to be learned: information disclosure, in itself, changes nothing.

It is now part of the historical record that Lyndon Baines Johnson used a minor skirmish in the Gulf of Tonkin as a pretext to begin a major war against a technologically under-developed country of Buddhist farmers, in which over 50,000 Americans were killed as well as over 2 million Vietnamese (and other SE Asians).

So not only did/do Americans know of this, but Americans knew about Agent Orange and napalm as well as the Mai Lai Massacre. After photos of that massacre were released, over 50% of Americans still supported the war and objected to the prosecution of an officer involved in the killing of innocent Vietnamese civilians.

If the president, in this film, had disclosed the secret documents at the end of this film, America would have greeted these materials with a vast, collective yawn.

The very ending seemed the most interesting to me in which characters begin to speculate that there is a source of power even greater than the US President and that the president is considered expendable to this source of power. I am not convinced there is one organized source, but there certainly are enough folks with shared interests to sway things if they want to.

An adventure/thriller worth watching from the ever thoughtful perspective of Robert Aldrich.

You can watch the film by clicking on this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAmr-WBCRes

Irezumi - Masumura Yasuzo - 1966

The challenge in the film is to understand the real source of Otsuya's rage.

What do you think the spider tattoo means? Perhaps it represents the expectations of men which silently and invisibly (she can't see the tattoo on her back but felt the pain of receiving it) have altered her life.

Why do you think Otsuya and not some other woman received this tattoo - was it just for her beauty?

See film here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBU1SmEJpGs

The Getaway - Sam Peckinpah - 1972

Click link for film:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZT9UQrShIlU

I think this film is a type of 'thought experiment' by Peckinpah - if a person really values money and the comfort that money can bring more than anything else, is it even possible for any moral values to remain in that person?  Do you, basically, lose everything when you live to make money?

Kes - Ken Loach - 1969

Watch the film here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoF-UrCVaCg