Wednesday, February 28, 2018
424 - The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, France, 1964. Dir. Jacques Demy.
L'Infidelite, ou Les Parapluies de Cherbourg
Before there was La La Land, there was Ooh La La Land. The French version. More than fifty years before.
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. An explosion of color and sound and romantic sentiment and lyrical beauty and joy and sadness.
Catherine Deneuve is twenty.
Nino Castelnuovo, her costar, is twenty-eight.
Jacques Demy, their director, is thirty-three, and working on his fourth feature film.
And he has an idea that seems to spring from both a youthful heart and an old soul.
What makes a musical?
A story with songs.
What if we remove the songs but keep the singing. And tell the entire story only with singing. Every line of dialogue sung.
And begin by looking down on those colorful umbrellas as the water falls around us from above.
Talk about singing in the rain.
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is the shop around the corner. The umbrella shop owned by Genevieve's mother Madame Emery. The sixteen (seventeen!) year-old Genevieve works there to help her mother, and she is secretly in love with a guy named Guy.
Guy Foucher works at the nearby gas station, and he has a dream of owning his own one day. Of having a family. A wife and children. And taking care of them. As the owner of the store.
The guys talk (or sing) about what they are going to do after work. The theater. The cinema. Dancing. Guy is going to see Genevieve. This evening. Every evening. Every day. For the rest of their lives.
Genevieve's mother is in debt. They may have to close the store. They are in grave financial trouble. She tries to sell her pearls to her jeweler but he is in not position to buy them. He can only put them on sale on consignment. But she needs the money now. A man named Roland Cassard is in the jewelry store. He overhears them. He offers to buy the pearls. He saves Madame Emery. He sees Genevieve.
Guy's Aunt Elise is dying. A girl named Madeleine stays there to help her. Guy loves his Aunt Elise. His Aunt Elise loves him. Guy tells his Aunt Elise about Genevieve. She supports him.
Genevieve tells her mother about Guy. Madame Emery does not support her. She resists. Genevieve is too young. She needs to wait.
Guy and Genevieve are in love with each other. And determined to be together no matter what. They sing about it. They dance together. They love.
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg follows the lovers over the next few months and the next few years. How will it all turn out?
We will let them sing it for you themselves.
In their touching and heartfelt way.
* * * * *
When you think of a musical, you typically think of a normal story involving spoken dialogue and action, but with the added element that throughout the story people break into song and dance.
It is a play or movie that contains songs. The songs can be sold separately as a soundtrack to which people can listen and sing along.
In the credits, then, someone writes, or composes, the music. Someone writes the lyrics. And someone writes what is called "the book." This is the part that is spoken and not sung. In other words, it is the play itself, or the screenplay. It is the story upon which the songs are added.
So (not counting choreography) you have three credits. Book. Lyrics. Music. Consequently, you could have three (or more) people involved. The Writer. The Lyricist. The Composer.
Yet often these three duties are shared by two people. One person writes all the words, both book and lyrics, and the other person composes the music. Or one person writes the play or screenplay, and the other person writes the songs, both music and lyrics.
Over time people work together repeatedly and form teams.
Rogers and Hammerstein, for example. Richard Rogers composes the music. Oscar Hammerstein II writes the song lyrics and the spoken dialogue. Or, as in the case of South Pacific, Joshua Logan helps Hammerstein with the book.
Lerner and Loewe. Alan Jay Lerner writes the play and the lyrics. Frederick Loewe composes the music.
Or Herbert and Dorothy Fields write the play and Irving Berlin composes the songs, both words and music.
But what if someone wanted to make a musical in a different way?
What if, say, instead of talking interspersed with singing songs, what if people simply sang the dialogue? All the dialogue. All the way through the movie. Operas are done that way. Why not a film?
What if there were no songs at all, and therefore no song lyrics, and therefore no credit for lyrics.
What if there was only a screenplay set to music.
Screenplay by Jacques Demy. Music by Michel Legrand.
The result is that the dialogue might not rhyme, and the melody must conform to the written words. It works out. And it works out nicely.
Wednesday, February 28, 2018
Tuesday, February 27, 2018
423 - The Man Who Loved Women, France, 1977. Dir. Francois Truffaut.
Tuesday, February 27, 2018
423 - The Man Who Loved Women, France, 1977. Dir. Francois Truffaut.
You can't make love all day.
That's why work was invented.
So says Doctor Bicard as he prescribes our man Bertrand Morane his remedy for gonorrhea.
Doctor Bicard says he understands. He was young once. When he was young he was never allowed to eat an entire bar of chocolate. He grew furious. He vowed that as an adult he would eat all the chocolate he wanted. At every meal. He did. He came down with jaundice.
Morane is just going through the same learning experience. If he controls his appetites he will get better too.
Therefore, the doctor prescribes him, along with his medication, a diet devoid of alcohol, especially beer, no carbonated mineral water, and of course no copulating.
Then he hands him a book he wrote himself. The Evolution of Trout Fishing. That ought to keep you company in your time of convalescence.
But Doctor Bicard clearly does not know our man Bertrand Morane. Bertrand is a bit . . . high strung.
What the doctor does not realize is that Morane is not a player. Or as they would say, a ladykiller. Morane says so himself. He says he hates those kind of men.
He is looking for love.
He has a lot of love to give.
And he is looking for someone to give it to.
Only once did he get pulled into making a woman believe he was invested in her future when he was not. And he hated how it felt. And he vowed never to do it again. So in all of his searching, he seeks always to tell each woman the truth. If he is drawn to her, he says so. If it is not working out, he says so.
We have been with Bertrand now for half of the movie. And we have discovered that he is not a mere skirt-chaser. Although he is unsure himself. He is on a perpetual quest to understand himself. To understand others. To understand what it means to be human.
And in the process he is surprisingly transforming into an author.
When he falls for someone, he goes to any length to get her. Or in some cases, even to find her again.
Any length.
Perhaps Morane will finally find what he is looking for. One thing is for sure. He will spend the rest of his life trying.
* * * * *
To write, to express yourself, is also to expose yourself to judgment. The typist's condemnation of my book was all the more painful because it was done with kindness. My first reader had blacklisted me. At first I stopped writing. I lost interest in everything. Then I began to read nineteenth-century autobiographies. How do you write about yourself? How did others do it? What were the rules? - Bertrand Morane.
Doctor Bicard is played by the legendary Jean Daste, who began his film career back in 1932.
We have seen him in Jean Renoir's Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932), Jean Vigo's Zero for Conduct (1933), Jean Vigo's l'Atalante (1934), and Jean Renoir's one and only La Grande Illusion (1937). He also appeared in Costa-Gravras' Z (1969), Francois Truffaut's The Wild Child (1970), and Francois Truffaut's The Green Room (1978).
Boudu Saved from Drowning
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/02/057-boudu-saved-from-drowning-1932.html
Zero for Conduct
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/03/073-zero-for-conduct-1933-france-dir.html
l'Atalante
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/03/074-latalante-1934-france-dir-jean-vigo.html
Grand Illusion
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/03/061-grand-illusion-1937-france-dir-jean.html
Meanwhile, Nathalie Baye plays one of the woman Morane loves, or he thinks she is one of the woman he loves. Until he meets her up close. We have seen Nathalie Baye in Francois Truffaut's Day for Night (1973) and Jean-Luc Godard's Every Man for Himself (1980).
Day for Night
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/05/126-day-for-night-1973-france-dir.html
Every Man for Himself
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/04/119-every-man-for-himself-1980-france.html
423 - The Man Who Loved Women, France, 1977. Dir. Francois Truffaut.
You can't make love all day.
That's why work was invented.
So says Doctor Bicard as he prescribes our man Bertrand Morane his remedy for gonorrhea.
Doctor Bicard says he understands. He was young once. When he was young he was never allowed to eat an entire bar of chocolate. He grew furious. He vowed that as an adult he would eat all the chocolate he wanted. At every meal. He did. He came down with jaundice.
Morane is just going through the same learning experience. If he controls his appetites he will get better too.
Therefore, the doctor prescribes him, along with his medication, a diet devoid of alcohol, especially beer, no carbonated mineral water, and of course no copulating.
Then he hands him a book he wrote himself. The Evolution of Trout Fishing. That ought to keep you company in your time of convalescence.
But Doctor Bicard clearly does not know our man Bertrand Morane. Bertrand is a bit . . . high strung.
What the doctor does not realize is that Morane is not a player. Or as they would say, a ladykiller. Morane says so himself. He says he hates those kind of men.
He is looking for love.
He has a lot of love to give.
And he is looking for someone to give it to.
Only once did he get pulled into making a woman believe he was invested in her future when he was not. And he hated how it felt. And he vowed never to do it again. So in all of his searching, he seeks always to tell each woman the truth. If he is drawn to her, he says so. If it is not working out, he says so.
We have been with Bertrand now for half of the movie. And we have discovered that he is not a mere skirt-chaser. Although he is unsure himself. He is on a perpetual quest to understand himself. To understand others. To understand what it means to be human.
And in the process he is surprisingly transforming into an author.
When he falls for someone, he goes to any length to get her. Or in some cases, even to find her again.
Any length.
Perhaps Morane will finally find what he is looking for. One thing is for sure. He will spend the rest of his life trying.
* * * * *
To write, to express yourself, is also to expose yourself to judgment. The typist's condemnation of my book was all the more painful because it was done with kindness. My first reader had blacklisted me. At first I stopped writing. I lost interest in everything. Then I began to read nineteenth-century autobiographies. How do you write about yourself? How did others do it? What were the rules? - Bertrand Morane.
Doctor Bicard is played by the legendary Jean Daste, who began his film career back in 1932.
We have seen him in Jean Renoir's Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932), Jean Vigo's Zero for Conduct (1933), Jean Vigo's l'Atalante (1934), and Jean Renoir's one and only La Grande Illusion (1937). He also appeared in Costa-Gravras' Z (1969), Francois Truffaut's The Wild Child (1970), and Francois Truffaut's The Green Room (1978).
Boudu Saved from Drowning
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/02/057-boudu-saved-from-drowning-1932.html
Zero for Conduct
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/03/073-zero-for-conduct-1933-france-dir.html
l'Atalante
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/03/074-latalante-1934-france-dir-jean-vigo.html
Grand Illusion
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/03/061-grand-illusion-1937-france-dir-jean.html
Meanwhile, Nathalie Baye plays one of the woman Morane loves, or he thinks she is one of the woman he loves. Until he meets her up close. We have seen Nathalie Baye in Francois Truffaut's Day for Night (1973) and Jean-Luc Godard's Every Man for Himself (1980).
Day for Night
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/05/126-day-for-night-1973-france-dir.html
Every Man for Himself
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/04/119-every-man-for-himself-1980-france.html
Monday, February 26, 2018
422 - Small Change, France, 1976. Dir. Francois Truffaut.
Monday, February 26, 2018
422 - Small Change, France, 1976. Dir. Francois Truffaut.
Gregory went BOOM!
So says two-year-old Gregory himself after having just fallen ten stories from his apartment window. He was pursuing his family cat while his mother was inside distracted, talking to her friend and looking for her wallet. People on the ground watched aghast as Gregory tumbled. But he bounced on the ground and started laughing. He was fine.
Francois Truffaut is looking at the lives of children, and he stands in favor of their resilience despite the hardships that beset them. He tells the truth. He shews their vulnerability, their helplessness, their longings and desires, and their attempts to negotiate to the best of their abilities the difficult world around them.
Truffaut seems to agree with James Agee, who wrote the screenplay for The Night of the Hunter (1955), and who has the legendary Lillian Gish as Rachel Cooper state three times that children abide.
When you're little, you have more endurance than God is ever going to grant you again. Children are Man at his strongest. They abide.
Lord save little children! The wind blows and the rain is cold. Yet they abide.
They abide and they endure.
The Night of the Hunter
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/01/027-night-of-hunter-1955-united-states.html
Small Change is a kind of French Our Gang, or Little Rascals. It is a series of vignettes that follows children of a range of ages and celebrates their creativity and cleverness, their awkwardnesses and foibles. It is sweet and sad, humorous and serious. In the end it is optimistic.
We get to know Patrick and his friend Laurent and his other friend Leclou. Patrick's father in a wheelchair. Laurent's parents the hairdressers. Leclou's troubled home life that leads to the arrest of his abusive mother. The Deluca brothers, Mathieu and Frank. The boy with the funny haircut, Richard Golfier. Brouillard, the confident one. The teachers, M. Richet and Mlle. Petit.
Jean-Francois Steevenin, who was Francois Truffaut's real Assistant Director, and who played the Assistant Director in the behind-the-scenes film Day for Night (1973), returns here as the boys' history teacher, Jean-Francois Richet, and he turns in a memorable performance as a likable and good-hearted man. He AD'd and directed a few more times in his career, but from here on out he worked almost exclusively as an actor. Our gain.
Small Change continues Truffaut's streak of making films with heart, about real people in real-life situations.
"Life may be hard, but it's also wonderful."
422 - Small Change, France, 1976. Dir. Francois Truffaut.
Gregory went BOOM!
So says two-year-old Gregory himself after having just fallen ten stories from his apartment window. He was pursuing his family cat while his mother was inside distracted, talking to her friend and looking for her wallet. People on the ground watched aghast as Gregory tumbled. But he bounced on the ground and started laughing. He was fine.
Francois Truffaut is looking at the lives of children, and he stands in favor of their resilience despite the hardships that beset them. He tells the truth. He shews their vulnerability, their helplessness, their longings and desires, and their attempts to negotiate to the best of their abilities the difficult world around them.
Truffaut seems to agree with James Agee, who wrote the screenplay for The Night of the Hunter (1955), and who has the legendary Lillian Gish as Rachel Cooper state three times that children abide.
When you're little, you have more endurance than God is ever going to grant you again. Children are Man at his strongest. They abide.
Lord save little children! The wind blows and the rain is cold. Yet they abide.
They abide and they endure.
The Night of the Hunter
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/01/027-night-of-hunter-1955-united-states.html
Small Change is a kind of French Our Gang, or Little Rascals. It is a series of vignettes that follows children of a range of ages and celebrates their creativity and cleverness, their awkwardnesses and foibles. It is sweet and sad, humorous and serious. In the end it is optimistic.
We get to know Patrick and his friend Laurent and his other friend Leclou. Patrick's father in a wheelchair. Laurent's parents the hairdressers. Leclou's troubled home life that leads to the arrest of his abusive mother. The Deluca brothers, Mathieu and Frank. The boy with the funny haircut, Richard Golfier. Brouillard, the confident one. The teachers, M. Richet and Mlle. Petit.
Jean-Francois Steevenin, who was Francois Truffaut's real Assistant Director, and who played the Assistant Director in the behind-the-scenes film Day for Night (1973), returns here as the boys' history teacher, Jean-Francois Richet, and he turns in a memorable performance as a likable and good-hearted man. He AD'd and directed a few more times in his career, but from here on out he worked almost exclusively as an actor. Our gain.
Small Change continues Truffaut's streak of making films with heart, about real people in real-life situations.
"Life may be hard, but it's also wonderful."
Sunday, February 25, 2018
421 - The Story of Adele H., France, 1975. Dir. Francois Truffaut.
Sunday, February 25, 2018
421 - The Story of Adele H., France, 1975. Dir. Francois Truffaut.
"This incredible thing, that a young girl should step over the ocean, leave the old world for the new world, to join her lover--this thing will I accomplish."
So says Adele H. And she means it.
Halifax. Formerly French Acadia. Nova Scotia. Canada.
The people are worried. There may be Yankee spies among them. They are smuggling goods.
It is 1863. The United States of America is attacking the Confederate States of America.
Great Britain has stationed troops in Halifax. The British authorities are checking Europeans who disembark at port. Checking their papers.
The Great Eastern. A huge steamship. The Floating City.
A woman gets off with the crowd. She rides the rowboat. She comes ashore. A man from Liverpool is stopped. Questioned. Harassed. She avoids that drama. Walks around. Follows a group another way.
Mr. O'Brien, a cab driver, horse and carriage, takes her to the Hotel Hampstead. She looks at the Hotel. She says No. He takes her to the Boarding House. What we would call Bed & Breakfast. They call Room and Board. Mrs. Saunders takes her in.
Our woman identifies herself as Miss Lewly.
The next day she goes to the Notary Public. A. Lenoir. She introduces herself as Mrs. Lenormand, married to Dr. Lenormand, a doctor in Paris.
The names, they keep a-changin'.
Mr. Lenoir asks how he may help.
She says she has a niece. The way someone might say, "I have a friend." Meaning herself. Her "niece" is romantic. Her "niece" is in love with Lieutenant Pinson of the 16th Hussars.
Whether or not you know what Hussars are (they are cavalrymen, the term originating in Hungary), you will know who Lieutenant Pinson is. Adele H. will be sure of it.
Adele H. is her real name. As the title has already told us. We will learn that Adele H. is Adele Hugo. Daughter of Victor Hugo. The great French writer.
You may have heard of him. He wrote The Hunchback of Notre Dame (or Notre Dame de Paris) (1831). And Les Miserables (1862). Among many other works. In fact, while we may know him as a novelist, he was known in his lifetime as France's greatest living poet. He is among the greatest writers in the history of French literature.
Which means his daughter Adele lives under his great shadow.
We will learn that she also lives under the shadow of her older sister. Leopoldine Hugo.
Leopoldine got married at age 19. And drowned. Her new husband jumped in after her. And drowned. They were buried together in the same casket. Leopoldine's dress is on display in the Hugo house. All of this haunts Adele. It affects her greatly. She is overwhelmed by the romantic image of the two together. She feels jealous of the attention paid to Leopoldine's dress. She has dreams of her drowning. Haunting dreams. Nightmares.
Adele seeks her own romantic story. She dedicates her life to it.
Adele's story--or Lewly's, or Mrs. Lenormand's--to the Notary is that her "niece" was about to marry Lieutenant Pinson when he was shipped off to Halifax with his regiment. She has been sent by her family to find him.
The Notary, who is listening to her through an ear trumpet, understands that she wants him to look for Lieutenant Pinson for her.
She repeats that it is for her "niece," as "Lieutenant Pinson is of no interest to me." She repeats the assertion. "Lieutenant Pinson is of no interest to me. All I want is my niece's happiness."
Right.
Adele's story is about how Lieutenant Pinson is of ultimate interest to her. He is her everything. The object of her desire. Her obsession.
She has travelled across the world on her own in order to find him.
Have you read William Faulkner's novel Light in August (1932)? Remember how the young pregnant Lena Grove crawls out of her bedroom window at night--as if the house itself were pregnant and giving birth to her--and she goes hitchhiking from Doane's Mill, Alabama, to Jefferson, Mississippi, to find the father of her unborn child, Lucas Birch, now known as Joe Brown.
After all, he got her pregnant. He said he was going to find work for the new family. He said when he did he would send for her. Why should she not believe him?
Remember what Martha Armstid says when her husband picks up the hitchhiking Lena and lets her stay the night at their house? Mrs. Armstid gives Lena her egg money and rages, "You men. . . . You durn men."
Like Lena Grove, Adele Hugo travels the world to find her man, Lieutenant Pinson. Because at one time he said he wanted to marry her. But her family refused. But unlike Lena Grove, Adele Hugo is not pregnant nor does she base her pursuit on an empty promise. On the contrary, he is quite honest with her. He knew women before her. He will know women after her. He no longer wishes to marry her. Now go away and leave me alone.
But why should she let that stop her?
She can love him just as much whether he participates in the relationship or not.
And she will prove it.
Her desire develops until it seems to be no longer about him but about the desire itself. She lives with a single-minded devotion to her romantic ideal. And she will pay any price to achieve it.
The Notary says Yes. He will look for Lieutenant Pinson for her. Discreetly.
(Remember in yesterday's film, Mississippi Mermaid, Francois Truffaut has Louis Mahe and Berthe Roussel hire a private investigator, Comolli, to search for the missing Julie. These are movies about people looking for people. And hiring people to help them.)
Mississippi Mermaid
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2018/02/420-mississippi-mermaid-france-1969-dir.html
In the very next scene Adele goes to the Book Shop, a paradise, and Lieutenant Pinson is leaving, with another woman and her dog in tow. The bookseller confirms that it was he. She states, this time, that Pinson is her sister's brother-in-law. Maybe we will get the facts straight eventually.
Adele is not here to buy books but to buy paper, and not in sheets but in reams. She has a lot of writing to do. She is the daughter of one of the world's great writers, and she herself is a prolific writer.
She secludes herself in the Bed and Board and writes in her journal. In her own invented language. One that will need to be interpreted years later. And she writes letters back and forth to her father in Guernsey.
Throughout their time in Halifax, Adele spies on Pinson. She arrives at his regiment. Attends his soirees dressed as a man. And looks in on his bedroom.
If you are writing a paper or journal article on the voyeuristic nature of film, check out this scene where Lieutenant Pinson brings a woman into his bedroom as Adele stands outside and watches.
Truffaut films it with outdoor wooden walls. With layers of planes behind which she may hide and through which she may look.
And here we discern the subtlety of Isabelle Adjani's performance. And why, at age 19, she was nominated for an Oscar and for a Cesar. And won a Donatello and the NRB and the NSFC and NYFCC. She watches with layers of emotion. We expect jealousy, hurt. She gives us other things that we do not expect. And she concludes with the slightest of smiles. A kind of acceptance. Even approval.
And Nestor Almandros, whom we have seen lensing several of Francois Truffaut's films, as well as co-lensing Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven (1978), places the catch light directly into the center of her eyes. Not on the iris but on the pupil. Making her already haunted bug eyes look possessed. And in one of those close-ups a tear begins to form in the center of her lower-right eyelid. It builds. And bulges. Until finally the teardrop shoots down the center of her right cheek. With her eyes unblinking and that catch light smack in the center of both pupils the whole time. Her acting. His lighting. Genius.
And that is only the technical aspect of that moment. What is really going on inside of her is going on inside of her heart. And she is acting with her heart. The tear is just the overflow.
Days of Heaven
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/02/039-days-of-heaven-1978-united-states.html
Bed & Board
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/05/125-bed-and-board-1970-france-dir.html
Love On the Run
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/05/127-love-on-run-1979-france-dir.html
She will love this man no matter what he does, and she will adapt herself to his behavior, as if participating in it herself, consenting with her blessing as a gesture of love.
When she comes to him in a meadow, she makes her appeal. If you marry me, you may have all the women you want. It will be my gift to you.
He is perplexed. She claims she loves him. He says she is selfish. She only cares about her own feelings. If you love someone, you do not try to manipulate him. If you love someone, you do not blackmail him. If you love someone, you set him free.
How does she respond?
She hires a prostitute and sends her to his house with a note, stating that this is her gift to him.
Adele is in this for life. Despite the fact that another man has proposed to her and she has turned him down. And the bookseller clearly has a crush on her and would be good to her if she let him.
Her parents love her. Men love her. She could live a great life if she could move on.
She writes to her parents requesting their approval for her marriage. They give it.
She writes them stating that they are now married. Back in Guernsey Victor Hugo places an announcement in the paper. When Victor Hugo places an announcement in the paper, it travels around the world.
Back in Halifax they see the announcement. Lieutenant Pinson gets in trouble with his Commanding Officer to the threat of court-marshal. He insists he has nothing to do with the announcement, that it must be some sort of a joke, and that he is absolutely not married.
He will not be able to shake her so easily.
He will get engaged and she will do what she can to stop it. And when his Regiment is shipped to Barbados, well, you may guess where Adele H. ends up going.
Francois Truffaut has made a serious film. A film about the human heart, the heart of a woman, the capacities and excesses of desire. And he has filmed it objectively. As an honest study of real human behavior. Molly Haskell in her review of 1975, the year the film came out, stated that the film appealed to the intelligence rather than to emotions. And she loved it.
We never see Victor Hugo in the film but we sense his love for Adele through his letters.
We see the maternal love of a local Barbados woman who sees Adele's plight and makes arrangements to get her home and to get her cared for.
What makes this film all the more compelling is that the story of Adele H. is true. Adele Hugo really did pursue Lieutenant Pinson for life. And she really did write about it in reams of journal entries written in her own secret language. Which had to be translated.
On one level, her life appears sad. On another, her unrelenting devotion to a single-minded purpose is one for the ages. Objectively, we see her going into decline. But subjectively, she might not realize it. She has her love to keep her warm.
And to give her a lifetime of hope.
421 - The Story of Adele H., France, 1975. Dir. Francois Truffaut.
"This incredible thing, that a young girl should step over the ocean, leave the old world for the new world, to join her lover--this thing will I accomplish."
So says Adele H. And she means it.
Halifax. Formerly French Acadia. Nova Scotia. Canada.
The people are worried. There may be Yankee spies among them. They are smuggling goods.
It is 1863. The United States of America is attacking the Confederate States of America.
Great Britain has stationed troops in Halifax. The British authorities are checking Europeans who disembark at port. Checking their papers.
The Great Eastern. A huge steamship. The Floating City.
A woman gets off with the crowd. She rides the rowboat. She comes ashore. A man from Liverpool is stopped. Questioned. Harassed. She avoids that drama. Walks around. Follows a group another way.
Mr. O'Brien, a cab driver, horse and carriage, takes her to the Hotel Hampstead. She looks at the Hotel. She says No. He takes her to the Boarding House. What we would call Bed & Breakfast. They call Room and Board. Mrs. Saunders takes her in.
Our woman identifies herself as Miss Lewly.
The next day she goes to the Notary Public. A. Lenoir. She introduces herself as Mrs. Lenormand, married to Dr. Lenormand, a doctor in Paris.
The names, they keep a-changin'.
Mr. Lenoir asks how he may help.
She says she has a niece. The way someone might say, "I have a friend." Meaning herself. Her "niece" is romantic. Her "niece" is in love with Lieutenant Pinson of the 16th Hussars.
Whether or not you know what Hussars are (they are cavalrymen, the term originating in Hungary), you will know who Lieutenant Pinson is. Adele H. will be sure of it.
Adele H. is her real name. As the title has already told us. We will learn that Adele H. is Adele Hugo. Daughter of Victor Hugo. The great French writer.
You may have heard of him. He wrote The Hunchback of Notre Dame (or Notre Dame de Paris) (1831). And Les Miserables (1862). Among many other works. In fact, while we may know him as a novelist, he was known in his lifetime as France's greatest living poet. He is among the greatest writers in the history of French literature.
Which means his daughter Adele lives under his great shadow.
We will learn that she also lives under the shadow of her older sister. Leopoldine Hugo.
Leopoldine got married at age 19. And drowned. Her new husband jumped in after her. And drowned. They were buried together in the same casket. Leopoldine's dress is on display in the Hugo house. All of this haunts Adele. It affects her greatly. She is overwhelmed by the romantic image of the two together. She feels jealous of the attention paid to Leopoldine's dress. She has dreams of her drowning. Haunting dreams. Nightmares.
Adele seeks her own romantic story. She dedicates her life to it.
Adele's story--or Lewly's, or Mrs. Lenormand's--to the Notary is that her "niece" was about to marry Lieutenant Pinson when he was shipped off to Halifax with his regiment. She has been sent by her family to find him.
The Notary, who is listening to her through an ear trumpet, understands that she wants him to look for Lieutenant Pinson for her.
She repeats that it is for her "niece," as "Lieutenant Pinson is of no interest to me." She repeats the assertion. "Lieutenant Pinson is of no interest to me. All I want is my niece's happiness."
Right.
Adele's story is about how Lieutenant Pinson is of ultimate interest to her. He is her everything. The object of her desire. Her obsession.
She has travelled across the world on her own in order to find him.
Have you read William Faulkner's novel Light in August (1932)? Remember how the young pregnant Lena Grove crawls out of her bedroom window at night--as if the house itself were pregnant and giving birth to her--and she goes hitchhiking from Doane's Mill, Alabama, to Jefferson, Mississippi, to find the father of her unborn child, Lucas Birch, now known as Joe Brown.
After all, he got her pregnant. He said he was going to find work for the new family. He said when he did he would send for her. Why should she not believe him?
Remember what Martha Armstid says when her husband picks up the hitchhiking Lena and lets her stay the night at their house? Mrs. Armstid gives Lena her egg money and rages, "You men. . . . You durn men."
Like Lena Grove, Adele Hugo travels the world to find her man, Lieutenant Pinson. Because at one time he said he wanted to marry her. But her family refused. But unlike Lena Grove, Adele Hugo is not pregnant nor does she base her pursuit on an empty promise. On the contrary, he is quite honest with her. He knew women before her. He will know women after her. He no longer wishes to marry her. Now go away and leave me alone.
But why should she let that stop her?
She can love him just as much whether he participates in the relationship or not.
And she will prove it.
Her desire develops until it seems to be no longer about him but about the desire itself. She lives with a single-minded devotion to her romantic ideal. And she will pay any price to achieve it.
The Notary says Yes. He will look for Lieutenant Pinson for her. Discreetly.
(Remember in yesterday's film, Mississippi Mermaid, Francois Truffaut has Louis Mahe and Berthe Roussel hire a private investigator, Comolli, to search for the missing Julie. These are movies about people looking for people. And hiring people to help them.)
Mississippi Mermaid
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2018/02/420-mississippi-mermaid-france-1969-dir.html
In the very next scene Adele goes to the Book Shop, a paradise, and Lieutenant Pinson is leaving, with another woman and her dog in tow. The bookseller confirms that it was he. She states, this time, that Pinson is her sister's brother-in-law. Maybe we will get the facts straight eventually.
Adele is not here to buy books but to buy paper, and not in sheets but in reams. She has a lot of writing to do. She is the daughter of one of the world's great writers, and she herself is a prolific writer.
She secludes herself in the Bed and Board and writes in her journal. In her own invented language. One that will need to be interpreted years later. And she writes letters back and forth to her father in Guernsey.
Throughout their time in Halifax, Adele spies on Pinson. She arrives at his regiment. Attends his soirees dressed as a man. And looks in on his bedroom.
If you are writing a paper or journal article on the voyeuristic nature of film, check out this scene where Lieutenant Pinson brings a woman into his bedroom as Adele stands outside and watches.
Truffaut films it with outdoor wooden walls. With layers of planes behind which she may hide and through which she may look.
And here we discern the subtlety of Isabelle Adjani's performance. And why, at age 19, she was nominated for an Oscar and for a Cesar. And won a Donatello and the NRB and the NSFC and NYFCC. She watches with layers of emotion. We expect jealousy, hurt. She gives us other things that we do not expect. And she concludes with the slightest of smiles. A kind of acceptance. Even approval.
And Nestor Almandros, whom we have seen lensing several of Francois Truffaut's films, as well as co-lensing Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven (1978), places the catch light directly into the center of her eyes. Not on the iris but on the pupil. Making her already haunted bug eyes look possessed. And in one of those close-ups a tear begins to form in the center of her lower-right eyelid. It builds. And bulges. Until finally the teardrop shoots down the center of her right cheek. With her eyes unblinking and that catch light smack in the center of both pupils the whole time. Her acting. His lighting. Genius.
And that is only the technical aspect of that moment. What is really going on inside of her is going on inside of her heart. And she is acting with her heart. The tear is just the overflow.
Days of Heaven
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/02/039-days-of-heaven-1978-united-states.html
Bed & Board
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/05/125-bed-and-board-1970-france-dir.html
Love On the Run
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/05/127-love-on-run-1979-france-dir.html
She will love this man no matter what he does, and she will adapt herself to his behavior, as if participating in it herself, consenting with her blessing as a gesture of love.
When she comes to him in a meadow, she makes her appeal. If you marry me, you may have all the women you want. It will be my gift to you.
He is perplexed. She claims she loves him. He says she is selfish. She only cares about her own feelings. If you love someone, you do not try to manipulate him. If you love someone, you do not blackmail him. If you love someone, you set him free.
How does she respond?
She hires a prostitute and sends her to his house with a note, stating that this is her gift to him.
Adele is in this for life. Despite the fact that another man has proposed to her and she has turned him down. And the bookseller clearly has a crush on her and would be good to her if she let him.
Her parents love her. Men love her. She could live a great life if she could move on.
She writes to her parents requesting their approval for her marriage. They give it.
She writes them stating that they are now married. Back in Guernsey Victor Hugo places an announcement in the paper. When Victor Hugo places an announcement in the paper, it travels around the world.
Back in Halifax they see the announcement. Lieutenant Pinson gets in trouble with his Commanding Officer to the threat of court-marshal. He insists he has nothing to do with the announcement, that it must be some sort of a joke, and that he is absolutely not married.
He will not be able to shake her so easily.
He will get engaged and she will do what she can to stop it. And when his Regiment is shipped to Barbados, well, you may guess where Adele H. ends up going.
Francois Truffaut has made a serious film. A film about the human heart, the heart of a woman, the capacities and excesses of desire. And he has filmed it objectively. As an honest study of real human behavior. Molly Haskell in her review of 1975, the year the film came out, stated that the film appealed to the intelligence rather than to emotions. And she loved it.
We never see Victor Hugo in the film but we sense his love for Adele through his letters.
We see the maternal love of a local Barbados woman who sees Adele's plight and makes arrangements to get her home and to get her cared for.
What makes this film all the more compelling is that the story of Adele H. is true. Adele Hugo really did pursue Lieutenant Pinson for life. And she really did write about it in reams of journal entries written in her own secret language. Which had to be translated.
On one level, her life appears sad. On another, her unrelenting devotion to a single-minded purpose is one for the ages. Objectively, we see her going into decline. But subjectively, she might not realize it. She has her love to keep her warm.
And to give her a lifetime of hope.
Saturday, February 24, 2018
420 - Mississippi Mermaid, France, 1969. Dir. Francois Truffaut.
Saturday, February 24, 2018
420 - Mississippi Mermaid, France, 1969. Dir. Francois Truffaut.
Some people just seem to be meant for each other.
Have you ever known a couple that seemed to be a mismatch in the eyes of everyone but themselves?
Love can be challenging sometimes. Human beings are imperfect. They let you down. But when you love a person, you commit to him or her no matter what. And you are willing to overlook the flaws. After all, you have flaws too.
But is there such a thing as too many flaws? Or flaws of too great a degree? When your partner crosses a line? Goes a little too far? To the point that loving him or her is hurting you? Or even dangerous to your well being?
Let us consider the relationship between Louis Mahe and Julie Roussel and see what we can learn from them.
Louis Mahe owns a cigarette factory, indeed, a tobacco plantation, on the island of Reunion. Off the coast of Africa. Near Madagascar. It is a French region, and its citizens are French.
Louis Mahe has 28 million francs in the bank in his personal account. Not counting his business accounts. He is rich. He is successful. But he is lonely.
So Mahe does what many people do. He takes out an ad in the Personal Classifieds. A kind of online dating before there was an online. And people read the papers from all over the world. Or at least back home in France they did.
And Louis strikes up a relationship with a beautiful girl from back home. They write. And eventually he proposes to her.
Louis's pen-pal girlfriend, Julie, says Yes, and Julie boards a ship, the Mississippi, to come to Reunion to marry him.
And they all live happily ever after.
Or . . . maybe not.
Perhaps Louis and Julie can act as our guide in better understanding these complicated matters of the heart.
We will give you a list of potential behaviors that your new partner might exhibit. You decide which ones might be overlooked by romantic love, and which ones might prompt you to call it quits.
1. The woman you married is not the person she claims she is. She is not, for example, Julie Roussel at all. Her real name is Marion Vergano.
2. She has a boyfriend named Richard.
3. She and Richard met your fiancee Julie on board the Mississippi and one or both of them threw her overboard so that Marion could pretend to be Julie.
4. Richard and Julie have an abusive relationship with each other. Richard shows up on the island and yells at and strikes Julie in public. Julie comes home and tells you that her bruises are from falling.
5. Julie takes all but 475,000 francs from your personal account and all from your business account and disappears, leaving you virtually broke in comparison to your expenses.
6. The real Julie's sister Berthe shows up and the two of you hire a private detective to find Marion, causing you to spend even more of what is left of your money.
7. You spot Marion on television partying at a dance club in Antibes. She is enjoying life, living it up, and is all over the men on the dance floor.
8. You arrive at the dance club and wait for her backstage with a gun, only to find her calling your bluff and telling you to go ahead and kill her.
9. She reveals that she is not Marion Vergano either. She was orphaned young and has lived a life of crime, doing stints in prison.
10. She is working as a prostitute.
11. After you hook up with her again and the two of you set up house in Aix-en-Provence, she grows hot and cold. She teases you that she will make love with you and then she refuses.
12. She demands more money to keep up the lifestyle she desires. She convinces you to sell your entire business so that the two of you can spend the cash.
13. When the private detective shows up, still doing his job and having tracked her here, your passion for her leads you to kill him so that he will not have her arrested for the drowning of the real Julie Roussel from aboard the Mississippi.
14. Now that you too are a fugitive from justice, you try to go back to your apartment to get the cash you just gained from liquidating your company, only to find the apartment swarming with police, forcing you and Marion to flee to Switzerland without any money.
15. As you drive through the snow-covered mountains looking for shelter, she taunts you, comparing you to Richard and claiming that he was the better man.
16. She tries to abandon you in the middle of the night. When you awaken she pretends she was out of bed due to a rat and demands that you buy rat poison.
17. When you do she starts slipping some of the rat poison into your drinks, slowing increasing the amounts so that you begin to die a slow death.
18. When you force your way out of the cabin and onto the road to try to get help she returns from having hitched a ride with a trucker and offers you one more drink, attempting to finish you off.
Has she crossed a line yet?
Yet you tell her, Go ahead. Fill the cup. Finish me off. I still love you.
And the two of you walk off into the woods arm-in-arm to continue your life of bliss together.
And they all live dysfunctionally ever after.
Ah, love.
With a friend like Julie, who needs the devil?
Mississippi Mermaid is two movies in one. It begins as a kind of suspense mystery where the viewer tries to understand the strange behavior of the new bride, followed by the question of where did she go.
But it dispenses with that idea fairly quickly and moves into a romantic drama triumphing in the bathos of mutual codependency.
Francois Truffaut ostensibly is borrowing from Hitchcock, with whom he has spent the last few years in conversation and in the publication of their book together.
But Truffaut cannot really do Hitchcock, and he does not really try. He is a director of human relationships, and that is the focus of this film. The suspense element is a mere formality which he seems eager to abandon quickly in order to get on with the relationship.
And despite the unrealistic expositional conversations that the two have when they reunite (Oh, that is who you really are; I forgive you; let's keep loving each other as if there were no consequences), the chemistry between these two great stars remains palpable.
Jean-Paul Belmondo and Catherine Deneuve.
Put them in a film together and let them take care of the rest.
Then add the great character actors Marcel Barbert and Michel Bouquet respectively as factory manager Jardine and private detective Comolli.
And you have another delightful Truffaut film.
Just watch out for those red flags.
They might could save you a lot of trouble.
420 - Mississippi Mermaid, France, 1969. Dir. Francois Truffaut.
Some people just seem to be meant for each other.
Have you ever known a couple that seemed to be a mismatch in the eyes of everyone but themselves?
Love can be challenging sometimes. Human beings are imperfect. They let you down. But when you love a person, you commit to him or her no matter what. And you are willing to overlook the flaws. After all, you have flaws too.
But is there such a thing as too many flaws? Or flaws of too great a degree? When your partner crosses a line? Goes a little too far? To the point that loving him or her is hurting you? Or even dangerous to your well being?
Let us consider the relationship between Louis Mahe and Julie Roussel and see what we can learn from them.
Louis Mahe owns a cigarette factory, indeed, a tobacco plantation, on the island of Reunion. Off the coast of Africa. Near Madagascar. It is a French region, and its citizens are French.
Louis Mahe has 28 million francs in the bank in his personal account. Not counting his business accounts. He is rich. He is successful. But he is lonely.
So Mahe does what many people do. He takes out an ad in the Personal Classifieds. A kind of online dating before there was an online. And people read the papers from all over the world. Or at least back home in France they did.
And Louis strikes up a relationship with a beautiful girl from back home. They write. And eventually he proposes to her.
Louis's pen-pal girlfriend, Julie, says Yes, and Julie boards a ship, the Mississippi, to come to Reunion to marry him.
And they all live happily ever after.
Or . . . maybe not.
Perhaps Louis and Julie can act as our guide in better understanding these complicated matters of the heart.
We will give you a list of potential behaviors that your new partner might exhibit. You decide which ones might be overlooked by romantic love, and which ones might prompt you to call it quits.
1. The woman you married is not the person she claims she is. She is not, for example, Julie Roussel at all. Her real name is Marion Vergano.
2. She has a boyfriend named Richard.
3. She and Richard met your fiancee Julie on board the Mississippi and one or both of them threw her overboard so that Marion could pretend to be Julie.
4. Richard and Julie have an abusive relationship with each other. Richard shows up on the island and yells at and strikes Julie in public. Julie comes home and tells you that her bruises are from falling.
5. Julie takes all but 475,000 francs from your personal account and all from your business account and disappears, leaving you virtually broke in comparison to your expenses.
6. The real Julie's sister Berthe shows up and the two of you hire a private detective to find Marion, causing you to spend even more of what is left of your money.
7. You spot Marion on television partying at a dance club in Antibes. She is enjoying life, living it up, and is all over the men on the dance floor.
8. You arrive at the dance club and wait for her backstage with a gun, only to find her calling your bluff and telling you to go ahead and kill her.
9. She reveals that she is not Marion Vergano either. She was orphaned young and has lived a life of crime, doing stints in prison.
10. She is working as a prostitute.
11. After you hook up with her again and the two of you set up house in Aix-en-Provence, she grows hot and cold. She teases you that she will make love with you and then she refuses.
12. She demands more money to keep up the lifestyle she desires. She convinces you to sell your entire business so that the two of you can spend the cash.
13. When the private detective shows up, still doing his job and having tracked her here, your passion for her leads you to kill him so that he will not have her arrested for the drowning of the real Julie Roussel from aboard the Mississippi.
14. Now that you too are a fugitive from justice, you try to go back to your apartment to get the cash you just gained from liquidating your company, only to find the apartment swarming with police, forcing you and Marion to flee to Switzerland without any money.
15. As you drive through the snow-covered mountains looking for shelter, she taunts you, comparing you to Richard and claiming that he was the better man.
16. She tries to abandon you in the middle of the night. When you awaken she pretends she was out of bed due to a rat and demands that you buy rat poison.
17. When you do she starts slipping some of the rat poison into your drinks, slowing increasing the amounts so that you begin to die a slow death.
18. When you force your way out of the cabin and onto the road to try to get help she returns from having hitched a ride with a trucker and offers you one more drink, attempting to finish you off.
Has she crossed a line yet?
Yet you tell her, Go ahead. Fill the cup. Finish me off. I still love you.
And the two of you walk off into the woods arm-in-arm to continue your life of bliss together.
And they all live dysfunctionally ever after.
Ah, love.
With a friend like Julie, who needs the devil?
Mississippi Mermaid is two movies in one. It begins as a kind of suspense mystery where the viewer tries to understand the strange behavior of the new bride, followed by the question of where did she go.
But it dispenses with that idea fairly quickly and moves into a romantic drama triumphing in the bathos of mutual codependency.
Francois Truffaut ostensibly is borrowing from Hitchcock, with whom he has spent the last few years in conversation and in the publication of their book together.
But Truffaut cannot really do Hitchcock, and he does not really try. He is a director of human relationships, and that is the focus of this film. The suspense element is a mere formality which he seems eager to abandon quickly in order to get on with the relationship.
And despite the unrealistic expositional conversations that the two have when they reunite (Oh, that is who you really are; I forgive you; let's keep loving each other as if there were no consequences), the chemistry between these two great stars remains palpable.
Jean-Paul Belmondo and Catherine Deneuve.
Put them in a film together and let them take care of the rest.
Then add the great character actors Marcel Barbert and Michel Bouquet respectively as factory manager Jardine and private detective Comolli.
And you have another delightful Truffaut film.
Just watch out for those red flags.
They might could save you a lot of trouble.
Friday, February 23, 2018
419 - The Bride Wore Black, France, 1968. Dir. Francois Truffaut.
Friday, February 23, 2018
419 - The Bride Wore Black, France, 1968. Dir. Francois Truffaut.
Who is that mysterious woman in the white gown?
She attempts to get into Bliss's apartment, but the bellman will not let her.
So she shows up at Bliss's party the night before his wedding.
Bliss's friend Corey is captivated by her. So is Bliss. They compete for her attention. Bliss wins.
Bliss loses.
Another man, Coral, receives a ticket in the mail. What a surprise! He attends the concert. In his own private box. She appears. They sit in silence and listen to the music. Afterwards, he asks.
Did you send me the ticket? How do you know me?
He asks her on another date. At his place. She brings the liqueur. And a 45-rpm record for them to listen to.
A little boy named Cookie is playing in his yard. He meets her.
His father does as well. Miss Becker is here to help. While your wife and mother is visiting her mother.
Let us play Hide-and-Seek.
Cookie hides. Miss Becker finds him. Miss Becker hides. Cookie finds her. Miss Becker puts Cookie to bed. Miss Becker cannot find her ring. A man's signet ring.
M. Morane looks for it. M. Morane hides. The police find him.
A man named Delvaux goes to jail.
Fergus the great painter receives a surprise model at his apartment. Diana the Huntress. He paints her. He paints her on the canvas on the easel. He paints her on the wall above his bed.
She hunts. She captures.
How to get to Delvaux? The mysterious woman knows how.
She knows.
Julie Kohler is on a mission.
And we learn what she is after.
"For you it's in the past,
But I live through it every night."
* * * * *
Jeanne Moreau plays Julie. We have seen her quite a bit.
In Elevator to the Gallows (1958), The 400 Blows (1959), La Notte (1961), A Woman is a Woman (1961), Chimes at Midnight (1965), and The Immortal Story (1968).
Michael Lonsdale plays Rene Morane. We have celebrated him before in Stolen Kisses (1968).
Stolen Kisses
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/05/124-stolen-kisses-1968-france-dir.html
"Every young girl dreams of meeting her Prince Charming, of getting engaged and married. I never had to dream because David was always there. I never looked at another boy, and no other girl existed for him. I waited for David. I waited to become his wife."
"You're wrong because revenge is wrong. Revenge is hopeless. it would be endless. It would be necessary to avenge too many wrongs, too many crimes, too much ignorance. The evil thoughts of people. You must renounce this sinister mission you've taken on yourself."
"I don't see remorse in your eyes. Don't you fear for your soul?"
419 - The Bride Wore Black, France, 1968. Dir. Francois Truffaut.
Who is that mysterious woman in the white gown?
She attempts to get into Bliss's apartment, but the bellman will not let her.
So she shows up at Bliss's party the night before his wedding.
Bliss's friend Corey is captivated by her. So is Bliss. They compete for her attention. Bliss wins.
Bliss loses.
Another man, Coral, receives a ticket in the mail. What a surprise! He attends the concert. In his own private box. She appears. They sit in silence and listen to the music. Afterwards, he asks.
Did you send me the ticket? How do you know me?
He asks her on another date. At his place. She brings the liqueur. And a 45-rpm record for them to listen to.
A little boy named Cookie is playing in his yard. He meets her.
His father does as well. Miss Becker is here to help. While your wife and mother is visiting her mother.
Let us play Hide-and-Seek.
Cookie hides. Miss Becker finds him. Miss Becker hides. Cookie finds her. Miss Becker puts Cookie to bed. Miss Becker cannot find her ring. A man's signet ring.
M. Morane looks for it. M. Morane hides. The police find him.
A man named Delvaux goes to jail.
Fergus the great painter receives a surprise model at his apartment. Diana the Huntress. He paints her. He paints her on the canvas on the easel. He paints her on the wall above his bed.
She hunts. She captures.
How to get to Delvaux? The mysterious woman knows how.
She knows.
Julie Kohler is on a mission.
And we learn what she is after.
"For you it's in the past,
But I live through it every night."
* * * * *
Jeanne Moreau plays Julie. We have seen her quite a bit.
In Elevator to the Gallows (1958), The 400 Blows (1959), La Notte (1961), A Woman is a Woman (1961), Chimes at Midnight (1965), and The Immortal Story (1968).
Michael Lonsdale plays Rene Morane. We have celebrated him before in Stolen Kisses (1968).
Stolen Kisses
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/05/124-stolen-kisses-1968-france-dir.html
"Every young girl dreams of meeting her Prince Charming, of getting engaged and married. I never had to dream because David was always there. I never looked at another boy, and no other girl existed for him. I waited for David. I waited to become his wife."
"You're wrong because revenge is wrong. Revenge is hopeless. it would be endless. It would be necessary to avenge too many wrongs, too many crimes, too much ignorance. The evil thoughts of people. You must renounce this sinister mission you've taken on yourself."
"I don't see remorse in your eyes. Don't you fear for your soul?"
Thursday, February 22, 2018
418 - Fahrenheit 451, United Kingdom, 1966. Dir. Francois Truffaut.
Thursday, February 22, 2018
418 - Fahrenheit 451, United Kingdom, 1966. Dir. Francois Truffaut.
Yevgeny Zamyatin's We (1921). Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1932). George Orwell's Animal Farm (1945). George Orewell's 1984 (1949). Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 (1953). Kurt Vonnegut's "Harrison Bergeron" (1961).
There was a time when writers warned society about a kind of pending tyranny, where people would be forced into subservience to an overbearing State. The State asserts that it knows best, that it is the purveyor of happiness, and that its citizens need only to obey in order to live in the best of all possible worlds.
Tyrannies have risen throughout human history. They may even be the norm. They certainly reigned throughout the twentieth century, when these works were being written.
Ray Bradbury takes his turn in what he deems his only science fiction work. (He says The Martian Chronicles (1950) is a fantasy myth rather than a work of science fiction.) And thirteen years after its publication it is made into a feature film by our beloved Francois Truffaut.
The director of sensitive relationships is taking on the firemen. And he is the right man for the job.
Francois Truffaut is going through his Alfred Hitchcock period. 1966 is the year his interviews with Hitch are published in the book Hitchcock/Truffaut. He gets Hitch's long-time composer Bernard Herrmann to compose the score. He films for the first time in color, and he uses a strong color palette. He employs the famous Vertigo camera move by dollying out while zooming in.
His cinematographer Nicholas Roeg will go on to be a great director on his own.
Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is not to put out fires--that is no longer necessary now that all houses are built to be fireproof--but to start fires. To start fires to burn books. To burn books because books are banned. Books are banned because they give people ideas. Ideas that make people unhappy. And the State knows best how to make people happy. Watch TV. Redecorate their homes. Read comic books without words in them. Live shallow social lives.
People find ways to hide books in their homes. In the toaster. In the ceiling light fixture. In the hollow table. In the fake television set.
But firemen are highly trained to find the books. So when a neighbor or family member rats out a book owner, the firemen arrive and discover the books every time.
They bring them outside. They place them on a grill. They use flamethrowers to set them ablaze.
Guy Montag is good at his job. His chief, Captain Beatty, tells him he is up for promotion. He teaches the new recruits at the fire academy. If anyone can find a hidden book, he can.
He commutes to work on the suspended monorail built by SAFEGE. In real life a test track at Chateauneuf-sur-Loire. Only 1.4 km (.87 mi.) long. But in the movie, the transportation of the future.
While commuting, he meets a woman named Clarisse McClellan.
Hello, Clarisse.
She challenges him. She sees something in him. They live in the same neighborhood and make the same commute every day, so she has had time to watch him. He does not notice her until she introduces herself, but by then she has had lots of time to size him up.
She believes he is different. That he does his job because that is what he was trained to do. But that he has something deeper inside him. A human capacity. A heart.
She believes he has the heart to be a great reader.
A lover of books.
Francois Truffaut is a reader. Truffaut is a lover of books. And he shows it off with many an insert of book covers throughout the film.
And, sadly, many a close-up of books burning.
Montag's wife Linda is committed to the government's point of view. So is Montag. Unless Clarisse can reach him. Will she?
The film shows the devastating effects of totalitarian control.
And posits a high view of the value of literary texts.
And offers hope. And surprise.
No matter what tyrannies arise over the course of human history, they will never succeed in stamping out the strength of the human spirit.
And its resolve for freedom.
We need this message today.
* * * * *
Oskar Werner plays Guy Montag. We saw him earlier as a Student in Lola Montes (1955) and as Fiedler in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965).
Lola Montes
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/04/094-lola-montes-1955-france-dir-max.html
The Spy Who Came In from the Cold
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/10/283-spy-that-came-in-from-cold-united.html
Julie Christie plays Clarisse, coming off her success in Doctor Zhivago (1965) and her Oscar win for Darling (1965). We saw her earlier as Mrs. Miller in Robert Altman's McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) and again in a cameo in Robert Altman's Nashville (1975).
McCabe & Mrs. Miller
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/12/362-mccabe-mrs-miller-united-states.html
Nashville
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/12/363-nashville-united-states-1975-dir.html
Now, who plays Linda?
418 - Fahrenheit 451, United Kingdom, 1966. Dir. Francois Truffaut.
Yevgeny Zamyatin's We (1921). Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1932). George Orwell's Animal Farm (1945). George Orewell's 1984 (1949). Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 (1953). Kurt Vonnegut's "Harrison Bergeron" (1961).
There was a time when writers warned society about a kind of pending tyranny, where people would be forced into subservience to an overbearing State. The State asserts that it knows best, that it is the purveyor of happiness, and that its citizens need only to obey in order to live in the best of all possible worlds.
Tyrannies have risen throughout human history. They may even be the norm. They certainly reigned throughout the twentieth century, when these works were being written.
Ray Bradbury takes his turn in what he deems his only science fiction work. (He says The Martian Chronicles (1950) is a fantasy myth rather than a work of science fiction.) And thirteen years after its publication it is made into a feature film by our beloved Francois Truffaut.
The director of sensitive relationships is taking on the firemen. And he is the right man for the job.
Francois Truffaut is going through his Alfred Hitchcock period. 1966 is the year his interviews with Hitch are published in the book Hitchcock/Truffaut. He gets Hitch's long-time composer Bernard Herrmann to compose the score. He films for the first time in color, and he uses a strong color palette. He employs the famous Vertigo camera move by dollying out while zooming in.
His cinematographer Nicholas Roeg will go on to be a great director on his own.
Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is not to put out fires--that is no longer necessary now that all houses are built to be fireproof--but to start fires. To start fires to burn books. To burn books because books are banned. Books are banned because they give people ideas. Ideas that make people unhappy. And the State knows best how to make people happy. Watch TV. Redecorate their homes. Read comic books without words in them. Live shallow social lives.
People find ways to hide books in their homes. In the toaster. In the ceiling light fixture. In the hollow table. In the fake television set.
But firemen are highly trained to find the books. So when a neighbor or family member rats out a book owner, the firemen arrive and discover the books every time.
They bring them outside. They place them on a grill. They use flamethrowers to set them ablaze.
Guy Montag is good at his job. His chief, Captain Beatty, tells him he is up for promotion. He teaches the new recruits at the fire academy. If anyone can find a hidden book, he can.
He commutes to work on the suspended monorail built by SAFEGE. In real life a test track at Chateauneuf-sur-Loire. Only 1.4 km (.87 mi.) long. But in the movie, the transportation of the future.
While commuting, he meets a woman named Clarisse McClellan.
Hello, Clarisse.
She challenges him. She sees something in him. They live in the same neighborhood and make the same commute every day, so she has had time to watch him. He does not notice her until she introduces herself, but by then she has had lots of time to size him up.
She believes he is different. That he does his job because that is what he was trained to do. But that he has something deeper inside him. A human capacity. A heart.
She believes he has the heart to be a great reader.
A lover of books.
Francois Truffaut is a reader. Truffaut is a lover of books. And he shows it off with many an insert of book covers throughout the film.
And, sadly, many a close-up of books burning.
Montag's wife Linda is committed to the government's point of view. So is Montag. Unless Clarisse can reach him. Will she?
The film shows the devastating effects of totalitarian control.
And posits a high view of the value of literary texts.
And offers hope. And surprise.
No matter what tyrannies arise over the course of human history, they will never succeed in stamping out the strength of the human spirit.
And its resolve for freedom.
We need this message today.
* * * * *
Oskar Werner plays Guy Montag. We saw him earlier as a Student in Lola Montes (1955) and as Fiedler in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965).
Lola Montes
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/04/094-lola-montes-1955-france-dir-max.html
The Spy Who Came In from the Cold
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/10/283-spy-that-came-in-from-cold-united.html
Julie Christie plays Clarisse, coming off her success in Doctor Zhivago (1965) and her Oscar win for Darling (1965). We saw her earlier as Mrs. Miller in Robert Altman's McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) and again in a cameo in Robert Altman's Nashville (1975).
McCabe & Mrs. Miller
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/12/362-mccabe-mrs-miller-united-states.html
Nashville
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/12/363-nashville-united-states-1975-dir.html
Now, who plays Linda?
Wednesday, February 21, 2018
417 - The Night Heaven Fell, France/Italy, 1958. Dir. Roger Vadim.
Wednesday, February 21, 2018
417 - The Night Heaven Fell, France/Italy, 1958. Dir. Roger Vadim.
Columbia. CinemaScope. Eastmancolor. Aspect Ratio 2.35:1. Andalusia, Spain.
Brigitte Bardot. Alida Valli. Stephen Boyd.
Director Roger Vadim seeks to recreate in Spain the success he had two years ago in Saint Tropez, on the French Riviera, when he made . . . And God Created Woman (1956).
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/04/102-and-god-created-woman-1956-france.html
He brings back his wife, Brigitte Bardot. She hand picks her male co-star, Stephen Boyd. They get the one-and-only Alida Valli to join them.
He has backing. He has money. He has resources.
The small train arrives in the village.
A young Ursula Defontaines disembarks. She is coming home from the convent. She is not a nun. She was a student. And she has graduated. Time to come home and enter the adult world.
Her uncle's chauffeur picks her up in their shiny red convertible Chevrolet. He takes her luggage. She gets in. They drive up the winding gravel roads into the mountains above the sea.
Ursula is to live with her uncle and aunt, the Count Miguel de Ribera and Florentine.
Autrefois ceux les gendarmes traquaient sur les routes s'appelaient entre eux . . .
In the old days, those gendarmes tracked on the roads were calling each other . . .
Les bijoutiers du clair de lune.
The Jewelers of the Moonlight.
Moonlight Robbers.
Crescendo. Coda.
They enter the village. The streets are filled with people.
A girl in a bright yellow dress is brought up from the bottom of the well. She has thrown herself in. She is dead. Her mother holds her. Her mother cries.
Her brother Lamberto stands seething. He knows why she killed herself. We will find out too. She felt public shame from having been molested by the Count. Ribera is not so good a man.
Lamberto wants revenge. He will walk up the mountain to the estate. He will enter. He will confront Ribera.
But the Count's car is right there in the road. A way up. The chauffeur begins driving. Lamberto chases it. He jumps on. Crawls up. Sprawls across the trunk. Holds on to the top of the back seat within an inch of his life.
The chauffeur tries to shake him. Driving up the mountain road. Twisting and turning. Winding and weaving. Writhing and wreathing. But Lamberto holds on.
When they arrive the Chauffeur demands Lamberto leave. Lamberto gets out. The car drives in the gate. Lamberto sneaks in. The car parks. Lamberto is there.
And everything from here on will unravel.
Lamberto confronts Ribera. They fight. Ribera wins. They nurse him. Ursula feels sympathy for him. The seeds of a deeper feeling.
When Ursula lies out sunbathing in a remote spot on the estate, Ribera seeks her out. He rides his horse. He finds her. His dismounts the horse. He mounts her. She resists. She struggles. She succeeds. She runs. He mounts his horse and follows her. Ribera is a bad man.
She climbs a tree. Ribera arrives at the tree. She is trapped. A priest comes by on his buckboard at just the right moment. Ursula asks for a ride home. She is saved.
Now we know.
Florentine no longer loves her husband.
She secretly loves Lamberto.
And Ursula, who is nursing her own love for Lamberto, discovers them in their moonlight tryst.
A love triangle.
Lamberto is not so great either.
He is there for an alibi.
As he prowls around the estate at night, Ribera hunts him like a wild coyote. On his horse. With a rifle. It is dark. Lamberto has a knife. Lamberto is young. Lamberto can scale the walls and walk the roofs. Lamberto has the upper hand.
Ribera shoots. Ribera shoots. Ribera shoots. Lamberto leaps. Ribera bleeds. Ribera expires.
So Lamberto goes to Florentine hoping that she will defend him.
She will not.
Ursula will.
Ursula and Lamberto go on the lam.
And the chase begins.
Through the streets and the bullrings and the mountains and ravines.
Florentine still loves her Lamb.
Even though in rage she sends the police to capture him.
And all will converge for the final showdown.
In the bright sunlight of Southern Spain. Above the Alboran Sea.
417 - The Night Heaven Fell, France/Italy, 1958. Dir. Roger Vadim.
Columbia. CinemaScope. Eastmancolor. Aspect Ratio 2.35:1. Andalusia, Spain.
Brigitte Bardot. Alida Valli. Stephen Boyd.
Director Roger Vadim seeks to recreate in Spain the success he had two years ago in Saint Tropez, on the French Riviera, when he made . . . And God Created Woman (1956).
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/04/102-and-god-created-woman-1956-france.html
He brings back his wife, Brigitte Bardot. She hand picks her male co-star, Stephen Boyd. They get the one-and-only Alida Valli to join them.
He has backing. He has money. He has resources.
The small train arrives in the village.
A young Ursula Defontaines disembarks. She is coming home from the convent. She is not a nun. She was a student. And she has graduated. Time to come home and enter the adult world.
Her uncle's chauffeur picks her up in their shiny red convertible Chevrolet. He takes her luggage. She gets in. They drive up the winding gravel roads into the mountains above the sea.
Ursula is to live with her uncle and aunt, the Count Miguel de Ribera and Florentine.
The trumpet plays. Spanish percussion. Drums. Horns. Jacques Metehen oversees the orchestra, who also conducted the memorable music for Jules Dassin's Rififi (1955).
The film moves into a postcard as the credits swipe white on black. The red convertible scales the slopes.
A note:
Autrefois ceux les gendarmes traquaient sur les routes s'appelaient entre eux . . .
In the old days, those gendarmes tracked on the roads were calling each other . . .
Les bijoutiers du clair de lune.
The Jewelers of the Moonlight.
Moonlight Robbers.
Crescendo. Coda.
They enter the village. The streets are filled with people.
A girl in a bright yellow dress is brought up from the bottom of the well. She has thrown herself in. She is dead. Her mother holds her. Her mother cries.
Her brother Lamberto stands seething. He knows why she killed herself. We will find out too. She felt public shame from having been molested by the Count. Ribera is not so good a man.
Lamberto wants revenge. He will walk up the mountain to the estate. He will enter. He will confront Ribera.
But the Count's car is right there in the road. A way up. The chauffeur begins driving. Lamberto chases it. He jumps on. Crawls up. Sprawls across the trunk. Holds on to the top of the back seat within an inch of his life.
The chauffeur tries to shake him. Driving up the mountain road. Twisting and turning. Winding and weaving. Writhing and wreathing. But Lamberto holds on.
When they arrive the Chauffeur demands Lamberto leave. Lamberto gets out. The car drives in the gate. Lamberto sneaks in. The car parks. Lamberto is there.
And everything from here on will unravel.
Lamberto confronts Ribera. They fight. Ribera wins. They nurse him. Ursula feels sympathy for him. The seeds of a deeper feeling.
When Ursula lies out sunbathing in a remote spot on the estate, Ribera seeks her out. He rides his horse. He finds her. His dismounts the horse. He mounts her. She resists. She struggles. She succeeds. She runs. He mounts his horse and follows her. Ribera is a bad man.
She climbs a tree. Ribera arrives at the tree. She is trapped. A priest comes by on his buckboard at just the right moment. Ursula asks for a ride home. She is saved.
Now we know.
Florentine no longer loves her husband.
She secretly loves Lamberto.
And Ursula, who is nursing her own love for Lamberto, discovers them in their moonlight tryst.
A love triangle.
Lamberto is not so great either.
He is there for an alibi.
As he prowls around the estate at night, Ribera hunts him like a wild coyote. On his horse. With a rifle. It is dark. Lamberto has a knife. Lamberto is young. Lamberto can scale the walls and walk the roofs. Lamberto has the upper hand.
Ribera shoots. Ribera shoots. Ribera shoots. Lamberto leaps. Ribera bleeds. Ribera expires.
So Lamberto goes to Florentine hoping that she will defend him.
She will not.
Ursula will.
Ursula and Lamberto go on the lam.
And the chase begins.
Through the streets and the bullrings and the mountains and ravines.
Florentine still loves her Lamb.
Even though in rage she sends the police to capture him.
And all will converge for the final showdown.
In the bright sunlight of Southern Spain. Above the Alboran Sea.
Tuesday, February 20, 2018
416 - Manon, France, 1949. Dir. Henri-Georges Clouzot.
Tuesday, February 20, 2018
416 - Manon, France, 1949. Dir. Henri-Georges Clouzot.
Welcome back to France. Have you missed it? I have.
French films are so beautiful and wonderful and good. How could we possibly stay away from them for very long?
Robert Desgrieux is a soldier for the French Resistance. The War is over, and he is tasked with helping to restore order to France.
Manon Lescaut is a woman accused of giving aid to the Nazis. We do not know if she did or not, but we do know that she does not wish to lose her hair.
A mob of French women has convened to shave her head. To identify her as a traitor. To punish her with humiliation.
Soldier Desgrieux steps in to rescue her locks and to give her a more proper due process. He arrests her.
Manon has a way of dealing with men in situations such as these. She flirts with him. Makes him promises. Seeks to seduce him.
Desgrieux will not fall for that. He has no time for shenanigans, so he unequivocally resists her. Until his Commanding Officer appears and Robert absentmindedly helps her hide in a confessional.
Under the icons.
Under the watchful gaze of the Saints.
He lies to his C.O. Tells him she escaped. Keeps her hidden until his C.O. leaves. Then she emerges from the confessional and he kisses her.
What?
Something has come over him.
Now he is in a dilemma. If he is caught, he will be court-martialed. Time to flee together to Paris!
They take shelter with her brother Leon. No, he is not in a chocolate war. He is a black marketeer. And Robert finds himself drawn into the underworld in order to make money to keep up with Manon's spending habits. Girls just want to have fun. She says so. She likes to live well. To dress well. To eat well. To be pampered. And she demands it of him. He loves her so much he gives in. He will do anything for her.
But whatever he makes, it is never enough. So she secretly begins a life of high-end prostitution to bring home more money. When Robert finds out about it, he is jealous and angry, but he does not leave her. He doubles down. To keep her. To win her. To prove he loves her most.
Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote about the film at the time it came out. "As a demonstration of human nature, we're afraid this film . . . fails to convey why a man would throw himself at the feet of an obviously no-good dame."
Apparently Bosley Crowther had never met a human being before. He believed people behave rationally. That they know what is good for them. And that they make wise choices. Nice dream, Bosley. Between Clouzot's movie and Crowther's criticism, Clouzot has the better handle on how real people really behave. Perhaps Crowther never experienced a human impulse. Perhaps he lived life outside of human nature. Or perhaps he was just deluding himself.
There is more going on here than the love story. Clouzot is commenting on French expectations after the War. On politics, society, and culture. Perhaps not everything is turning out the way people thought it would.
Robert and Manon will have to flee together again.
And this time they become stowaways aboard a ship on which Jews are escaping to Israel. The newly formed Israel. Israel became a country again in 1948. Manon came out in 1949.
This event is revealed early on in the movie, for the story begins aboard the ship. Robert and Manon are together. The Captain finds them. He takes them to his stateroom. They tell him their story.
Then we go into flashbacks.
After that, they will attempt, as Gentiles, to make it to the Promised Land. To Eden Garden.
They make it to the wilderness. And they are happy for a time.
She begs him to stay.
This side of Paradise.
But we watch as he insists that they traipse across the open desert, looking more as if being led by Lawrence of Arabia than Moses, on their way through Palestine, in search of the New Jerusalem.
Maybe they will make it.
Or maybe he will discover the only way that he can finally have her all to himself.
* * * * *
Michel Auclair plays Robert Desgrieux. We saw him in Jean Cocteau's great first film, La Belle et la Bete, as Ludovic.
For Manon's brother, Leon Lescaut, we return to the dashing French-Italian actor and singer Serge Reggiani. We have seen him near the beginning of his career, in La Ronde (1950), and we have seen him somewhat later in his career, in Le Doulos (1963), The Leopard (1963), and Army of Shadows (1969).
Now we go back earlier in his career, when he was 27, for Manon.
When you watch Manon you may expect to see the great Simone Signoret starring with Reggiani, in the role of Manon. After all, she starred alongside him in La Ronde, in Army of Shadows, and in Jacques Becker's Casque d'Or (1952). They had also both appeared early in their careers in Le Voyageur de la Toussaint (1943). And, she also starred in our director Henri-Georges Clouzot's classic thriller Diabolique (1955).
But no, apparently Clouzot has not yet discovered her.
Today's female star is Cecile Aubry.
Who?
Cecile Aubry is credited with but nine roles in feature films. In one as "Actress." In another as "Uncredited." And in another as "The Foreigner" in a compilation film. This is her second film, her first as a leading lady, and perhaps Clouzot was setting her up to be a star. She is twenty years old and has something going on.
Aubry did in fact gain the attention of Hollywood, and after the success of this film she signed a contract with 20th Century Fox. She starred in Henry Hathaway's The Black Rose (1950), with Orson Welles and Tyrone Power, but it was she herself who decided to retire from acting in order to marry a Moroccan prince and become a writer. She went on to write children's literature and song lyrics.
Here are some reminders of films we have seen before.
SERGE REGGIANI
So far we have seen Serge Reggiani in four films:
1. La Ronde (1950).
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/04/091-la-ronde-1950-france-dir-max-ophuls.html
2. Le Doulos (1963).
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/03/086-le-doulos-hat-1963-france-dir-jean.html
3. The Leopard (1963).
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/06/163-leopard-1963-italy-dir-luchino.html
4. Army of Shadows (1969).
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/03/089-army-of-shadows-1969-france-dir.html
JEAN COCTEAU
Meanwhile, we have seen two films written and directed by Jean Cocteau and one written by him.
1. La Belle et la Bete (Beauty and the Beast) (1946).
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/01/003-la-belle-et-la-bete-beauty-and.html
2. Orpheus (1950).
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/04/095-orpheus-1950-france-dir-jean-cocteau.html
3. Les Enfants Terribles (1950)
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/03/084-les-enfants-terribles-terrible.html
HENRI-GEORGES CLOUZOT
Finally, we have seen two of Clouzot's films, early on in our process. They were the fourth and fifth films we watched together. How lovely to come back to him at 416. And earlier in his career.
1. The Wages of Fear (1953).
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/01/004-wages-of-fear-1953-france-dir-henri.html
2. Diabolique (1955).
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/01/005-diabolique-1955-france-dir-henri.html
416 - Manon, France, 1949. Dir. Henri-Georges Clouzot.
Welcome back to France. Have you missed it? I have.
French films are so beautiful and wonderful and good. How could we possibly stay away from them for very long?
Robert Desgrieux is a soldier for the French Resistance. The War is over, and he is tasked with helping to restore order to France.
Manon Lescaut is a woman accused of giving aid to the Nazis. We do not know if she did or not, but we do know that she does not wish to lose her hair.
A mob of French women has convened to shave her head. To identify her as a traitor. To punish her with humiliation.
Soldier Desgrieux steps in to rescue her locks and to give her a more proper due process. He arrests her.
Manon has a way of dealing with men in situations such as these. She flirts with him. Makes him promises. Seeks to seduce him.
Desgrieux will not fall for that. He has no time for shenanigans, so he unequivocally resists her. Until his Commanding Officer appears and Robert absentmindedly helps her hide in a confessional.
Under the icons.
Under the watchful gaze of the Saints.
He lies to his C.O. Tells him she escaped. Keeps her hidden until his C.O. leaves. Then she emerges from the confessional and he kisses her.
What?
Something has come over him.
Now he is in a dilemma. If he is caught, he will be court-martialed. Time to flee together to Paris!
They take shelter with her brother Leon. No, he is not in a chocolate war. He is a black marketeer. And Robert finds himself drawn into the underworld in order to make money to keep up with Manon's spending habits. Girls just want to have fun. She says so. She likes to live well. To dress well. To eat well. To be pampered. And she demands it of him. He loves her so much he gives in. He will do anything for her.
But whatever he makes, it is never enough. So she secretly begins a life of high-end prostitution to bring home more money. When Robert finds out about it, he is jealous and angry, but he does not leave her. He doubles down. To keep her. To win her. To prove he loves her most.
Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote about the film at the time it came out. "As a demonstration of human nature, we're afraid this film . . . fails to convey why a man would throw himself at the feet of an obviously no-good dame."
Apparently Bosley Crowther had never met a human being before. He believed people behave rationally. That they know what is good for them. And that they make wise choices. Nice dream, Bosley. Between Clouzot's movie and Crowther's criticism, Clouzot has the better handle on how real people really behave. Perhaps Crowther never experienced a human impulse. Perhaps he lived life outside of human nature. Or perhaps he was just deluding himself.
There is more going on here than the love story. Clouzot is commenting on French expectations after the War. On politics, society, and culture. Perhaps not everything is turning out the way people thought it would.
Robert and Manon will have to flee together again.
And this time they become stowaways aboard a ship on which Jews are escaping to Israel. The newly formed Israel. Israel became a country again in 1948. Manon came out in 1949.
This event is revealed early on in the movie, for the story begins aboard the ship. Robert and Manon are together. The Captain finds them. He takes them to his stateroom. They tell him their story.
Then we go into flashbacks.
After that, they will attempt, as Gentiles, to make it to the Promised Land. To Eden Garden.
They make it to the wilderness. And they are happy for a time.
She begs him to stay.
This side of Paradise.
But we watch as he insists that they traipse across the open desert, looking more as if being led by Lawrence of Arabia than Moses, on their way through Palestine, in search of the New Jerusalem.
Maybe they will make it.
Or maybe he will discover the only way that he can finally have her all to himself.
* * * * *
Michel Auclair plays Robert Desgrieux. We saw him in Jean Cocteau's great first film, La Belle et la Bete, as Ludovic.
Now we go back earlier in his career, when he was 27, for Manon.
When you watch Manon you may expect to see the great Simone Signoret starring with Reggiani, in the role of Manon. After all, she starred alongside him in La Ronde, in Army of Shadows, and in Jacques Becker's Casque d'Or (1952). They had also both appeared early in their careers in Le Voyageur de la Toussaint (1943). And, she also starred in our director Henri-Georges Clouzot's classic thriller Diabolique (1955).
But no, apparently Clouzot has not yet discovered her.
Today's female star is Cecile Aubry.
Who?
Cecile Aubry is credited with but nine roles in feature films. In one as "Actress." In another as "Uncredited." And in another as "The Foreigner" in a compilation film. This is her second film, her first as a leading lady, and perhaps Clouzot was setting her up to be a star. She is twenty years old and has something going on.
Aubry did in fact gain the attention of Hollywood, and after the success of this film she signed a contract with 20th Century Fox. She starred in Henry Hathaway's The Black Rose (1950), with Orson Welles and Tyrone Power, but it was she herself who decided to retire from acting in order to marry a Moroccan prince and become a writer. She went on to write children's literature and song lyrics.
Here are some reminders of films we have seen before.
SERGE REGGIANI
So far we have seen Serge Reggiani in four films:
1. La Ronde (1950).
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/04/091-la-ronde-1950-france-dir-max-ophuls.html
2. Le Doulos (1963).
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/03/086-le-doulos-hat-1963-france-dir-jean.html
3. The Leopard (1963).
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/06/163-leopard-1963-italy-dir-luchino.html
4. Army of Shadows (1969).
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/03/089-army-of-shadows-1969-france-dir.html
JEAN COCTEAU
Meanwhile, we have seen two films written and directed by Jean Cocteau and one written by him.
1. La Belle et la Bete (Beauty and the Beast) (1946).
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/01/003-la-belle-et-la-bete-beauty-and.html
2. Orpheus (1950).
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/04/095-orpheus-1950-france-dir-jean-cocteau.html
3. Les Enfants Terribles (1950)
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/03/084-les-enfants-terribles-terrible.html
HENRI-GEORGES CLOUZOT
Finally, we have seen two of Clouzot's films, early on in our process. They were the fourth and fifth films we watched together. How lovely to come back to him at 416. And earlier in his career.
1. The Wages of Fear (1953).
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/01/004-wages-of-fear-1953-france-dir-henri.html
2. Diabolique (1955).
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/01/005-diabolique-1955-france-dir-henri.html
Monday, February 19, 2018
415 - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, United States, 2008. Dir. David Fincher.
Monday, February 19, 2018
415 - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, United States, 2008. Dir. David Fincher.
Spoilers.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a love story.
Benjamin grows backwards. He is born old and ages in reverse until he is a baby at old age.
He meets the love of his life, Daisy, when they are 5, but as they go through puberty and reach their teens and twenties, he is still just too old for her.
She plans to wait.
They meet in the middle in their 40s, the glorious decade when love finally blossoms, and they have for awhile the life they always wanted.
But when they get pregnant, he fears that he will become a burden to Daisy. As he keeps aging younger, he will eventually become as a teen, a child, a toddler, and an infant. He will make a poor father, and he will be a burden to Daisy. She will go from a wife and mother of one to a single "mother" of two.
Benjamin wishes to spare Daisy this burden.
The story is told by Daisy to her daughter--their daughter--Caroline when Daisy is an old woman. It is also told by Carolime's reading of Benjamin's private journal, which Daisy herself has never seen. Both provide revelations.
Among other things, the film is a showcase of make-up and effects.
And it is touching.
Oh to love and be loved when you are in your 40s.
415 - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, United States, 2008. Dir. David Fincher.
Spoilers.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a love story.
Benjamin grows backwards. He is born old and ages in reverse until he is a baby at old age.
He meets the love of his life, Daisy, when they are 5, but as they go through puberty and reach their teens and twenties, he is still just too old for her.
She plans to wait.
They meet in the middle in their 40s, the glorious decade when love finally blossoms, and they have for awhile the life they always wanted.
But when they get pregnant, he fears that he will become a burden to Daisy. As he keeps aging younger, he will eventually become as a teen, a child, a toddler, and an infant. He will make a poor father, and he will be a burden to Daisy. She will go from a wife and mother of one to a single "mother" of two.
Benjamin wishes to spare Daisy this burden.
The story is told by Daisy to her daughter--their daughter--Caroline when Daisy is an old woman. It is also told by Carolime's reading of Benjamin's private journal, which Daisy herself has never seen. Both provide revelations.
Among other things, the film is a showcase of make-up and effects.
And it is touching.
Oh to love and be loved when you are in your 40s.
Sunday, February 18, 2018
414 - The Squid and the Whale, United States, 2005. Dir. Noah Baumbach.
Sunday, February 18, 2018
414 - The Squid and the Whale, United States, 2005. Dir. Noah Baumbach.
In The Darjeeling Limited I talked a little bit about the difficulty in watching a Wes Anderson film.
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2018/02/410-darjeeling-limited-united-states.html
Here you have a filmmaker that filmmakers love, that actors love, and that many fans love, because his artistic vision is unique and wonderful and whimsical. He is precise. He is rigorous. He is brilliant.
Yet he keeps a wall around the human heart.
And in the midst of the most painful, heartbreaking moments, the characters retain a closed-off smile. Having beloved actors perform those tasks only helps. We know that there is something mournful going on in Bill Murray, and we love him for it. He does not have to make it explicit. He can cover the pain with his humor. We will go along for the ride. The next generation's Owen Wilson is building a career along similar lines. With kindness to boot.
But at the end of the day we want to ask the characters of Francis or Peter or Jack, Do you not ever cry? Do you not ever acknowledge that your parents have hurt you? That you long for a family? That you long to be loved?
These questions relate directly to today's movie because Noah Baumbach and Wes Anderson are friends. And they worked together during this time. And they had similar childhood experiences, albeit in different parts of the country under different circumstances.
Baumbach co-wrote the script for Anderson's previous film, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004). And they had been reading each other's scripts for a few years.
Now Baumbach comes out with his own movie about divorce. Also with an ensemble cast of known actors. But in a very different style.
Wes Anderson filmed their joint script, Life Aquatic, on a $50 million budget. (Its poor reception drove Darjeeling's budget down to $18 million.) The Squid and the Whale was made with only a $1.5 million budget. Which is exceedingly limited for a film with the following stars: Jeff Daniels, Laura Linney, Jesse Eisenberg, Anna Paquin, and William Baldwin.
So while Wes travels to Italy or India, buys or rents ships and trains, builds cross-sections of ships and trains, and places his camera on a dolly on track, Noah goes to a house, a couple schools, and a few restaurants in Brooklyn and has their shared cinematographer, Robert D. Yeoman shoot handheld in Super 16mm.
The results are tremendous.
It begins with a great script. A painful script. A script which Baumbach states he typed with aggressive physicality, taking his anger out in a burst of energy on the keys.
It continues with superb acting.
We already know this is the perfect fare for Laura Linney, who first burst into our consciousness in the similar arthouse gem You Can Count on Me (2000). Yes, she had already appeared in Lorenzo's Oil (1992), Dave (1993), Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993), Congo (1995), Primal Fear (1996), Absolute Power (1997), The Truman Show (1998), and a few others before then, but it was in You Can Count on Me that we saw her profound acting talent in an arthouse setting. She fits in nicely with big-budget studio films, but in these smaller films her talent really gets to shine.
But then, would you have thought of Jeff Daniels? Woody Allen did. He knew nine years before Dumb and Dumber (1994) that Daniels was a terrific actor, when he cast him in the brilliant romantic fantasy The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), and again in Radio Days (1987). But here he plays the overreaching Bernard Berkman with so many layers of complexity.
Jesse Eisenberg plays older son Walt with tremendous vulnerability. He is intelligent and unsure and trusting. He tries things and stumbles and attempts to negotiate his situation to the best of his ability.
Then there is the newcomer Owen Kline, who is fantastic. A truly natural talent. We are still waiting for his career to take off, and we want it to really badly. Owen, we are pulling for you. You are quite good. Casting Directors, please go back and follow him.
It is always nice to see William Baldwin working, and we enjoy his character work, and Anna Paquin is a revelation if you still think of her as the little girl in The Piano (1993). Past time for an update. OK, you probably know of her as Rogue from the X-Men series. I am the one who needs an update.
The Squid and the Whale is an actors' movie.
And one that gives you all the heart that The Darjeeling Limited hides. Which is fine. They are different movies. But in this case the pain of being a child of divorce is put out there in the open.
All of the characters have tremendous flaws. All of them are also likable, or at least sympathetic. Precisely because we see their vulnerability. And because Noah Baumbach himself is not judging them. He is treating them with understanding.
He says, "There's definitely an aspect of revenge in that, in going back and writing about childhood. Because no matter what kind of childhood you had, you're owning it now in a way that you couldn't then, because you were powerless. You had to believe all these people had your best interest in mind and they knew what they were talking about, and it's something we all learn and relearn as grown-ups . . . that that wasn't necessarily the case. . . . And it's not even necessarily anyone's fault."
That last sentence is his statement of grace.
It is not even necessarily anyone's fault.
Even though he is getting his revenge and owning it, he is also acknowledging that they too were human. He is implying that he recognizes they were doing the best they knew how. And he seems to be forgiving them.
This approach influences the making of this film tremendously.
These people are human. All too human. And we see presented before us tremendous emotional pain.
And we care for them.
And desire for them to be healed.
414 - The Squid and the Whale, United States, 2005. Dir. Noah Baumbach.
In The Darjeeling Limited I talked a little bit about the difficulty in watching a Wes Anderson film.
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2018/02/410-darjeeling-limited-united-states.html
Here you have a filmmaker that filmmakers love, that actors love, and that many fans love, because his artistic vision is unique and wonderful and whimsical. He is precise. He is rigorous. He is brilliant.
Yet he keeps a wall around the human heart.
And in the midst of the most painful, heartbreaking moments, the characters retain a closed-off smile. Having beloved actors perform those tasks only helps. We know that there is something mournful going on in Bill Murray, and we love him for it. He does not have to make it explicit. He can cover the pain with his humor. We will go along for the ride. The next generation's Owen Wilson is building a career along similar lines. With kindness to boot.
But at the end of the day we want to ask the characters of Francis or Peter or Jack, Do you not ever cry? Do you not ever acknowledge that your parents have hurt you? That you long for a family? That you long to be loved?
These questions relate directly to today's movie because Noah Baumbach and Wes Anderson are friends. And they worked together during this time. And they had similar childhood experiences, albeit in different parts of the country under different circumstances.
Baumbach co-wrote the script for Anderson's previous film, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004). And they had been reading each other's scripts for a few years.
Now Baumbach comes out with his own movie about divorce. Also with an ensemble cast of known actors. But in a very different style.
Wes Anderson filmed their joint script, Life Aquatic, on a $50 million budget. (Its poor reception drove Darjeeling's budget down to $18 million.) The Squid and the Whale was made with only a $1.5 million budget. Which is exceedingly limited for a film with the following stars: Jeff Daniels, Laura Linney, Jesse Eisenberg, Anna Paquin, and William Baldwin.
So while Wes travels to Italy or India, buys or rents ships and trains, builds cross-sections of ships and trains, and places his camera on a dolly on track, Noah goes to a house, a couple schools, and a few restaurants in Brooklyn and has their shared cinematographer, Robert D. Yeoman shoot handheld in Super 16mm.
The results are tremendous.
It begins with a great script. A painful script. A script which Baumbach states he typed with aggressive physicality, taking his anger out in a burst of energy on the keys.
It continues with superb acting.
We already know this is the perfect fare for Laura Linney, who first burst into our consciousness in the similar arthouse gem You Can Count on Me (2000). Yes, she had already appeared in Lorenzo's Oil (1992), Dave (1993), Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993), Congo (1995), Primal Fear (1996), Absolute Power (1997), The Truman Show (1998), and a few others before then, but it was in You Can Count on Me that we saw her profound acting talent in an arthouse setting. She fits in nicely with big-budget studio films, but in these smaller films her talent really gets to shine.
But then, would you have thought of Jeff Daniels? Woody Allen did. He knew nine years before Dumb and Dumber (1994) that Daniels was a terrific actor, when he cast him in the brilliant romantic fantasy The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), and again in Radio Days (1987). But here he plays the overreaching Bernard Berkman with so many layers of complexity.
Jesse Eisenberg plays older son Walt with tremendous vulnerability. He is intelligent and unsure and trusting. He tries things and stumbles and attempts to negotiate his situation to the best of his ability.
Then there is the newcomer Owen Kline, who is fantastic. A truly natural talent. We are still waiting for his career to take off, and we want it to really badly. Owen, we are pulling for you. You are quite good. Casting Directors, please go back and follow him.
It is always nice to see William Baldwin working, and we enjoy his character work, and Anna Paquin is a revelation if you still think of her as the little girl in The Piano (1993). Past time for an update. OK, you probably know of her as Rogue from the X-Men series. I am the one who needs an update.
The Squid and the Whale is an actors' movie.
And one that gives you all the heart that The Darjeeling Limited hides. Which is fine. They are different movies. But in this case the pain of being a child of divorce is put out there in the open.
All of the characters have tremendous flaws. All of them are also likable, or at least sympathetic. Precisely because we see their vulnerability. And because Noah Baumbach himself is not judging them. He is treating them with understanding.
He says, "There's definitely an aspect of revenge in that, in going back and writing about childhood. Because no matter what kind of childhood you had, you're owning it now in a way that you couldn't then, because you were powerless. You had to believe all these people had your best interest in mind and they knew what they were talking about, and it's something we all learn and relearn as grown-ups . . . that that wasn't necessarily the case. . . . And it's not even necessarily anyone's fault."
That last sentence is his statement of grace.
It is not even necessarily anyone's fault.
Even though he is getting his revenge and owning it, he is also acknowledging that they too were human. He is implying that he recognizes they were doing the best they knew how. And he seems to be forgiving them.
This approach influences the making of this film tremendously.
These people are human. All too human. And we see presented before us tremendous emotional pain.
And we care for them.
And desire for them to be healed.
Saturday, February 17, 2018
413 - Punch-Drunk Love, United States, 2002. Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson.
Saturday, February 17, 2018
413 - Punch-Drunk Love, United States, 2002. Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson.
Barry Egan has some anger inside him.
He has sisters. Nothing but sisters. In fact, seven sisters. And they each call him and harass him into coming to their party. Where they remember the time he got so angry he threw a hammer through the window.
He does it again.
Barry runs a company in the San Fernando Valley. They make Fungers.
Fun Plungers.
With decorations and games at the top of the handle. At children's height so that children can see them.
How fun!
No, the money is not flowing in. He does make money. He does have employees. Including his loyal friend Lance. But he is always one step shy of really making it.
One morning after hanging up the phone, he gets up from his desk--which sits in the corner of a large empty room in a warehouse--and follows his instincts to see what is going on outside. He turns the corner and walks to the street. At 10101 Canoga Avenue in Chatsworth.
He sees a car inexplicably flip over and drop a small wind organ on the side of the road before moving on. He calls it a piano. He is later told is a harmonium.
A woman pulls up. Lena Leonard. She wants to leave her car at the mechanic next door to Barry. But they are not open. And she has to get to work. She hands Barry the keys. Will you watch it for me? And move it if it needs to be moved?
A chance encounter.
Some chance encounters are not so chance.
Barry brings the harmonium inside. He plays with it. He tries to play it.
He figures out a way to earn frequent flyer miles by buying cans of pudding. Good thing he owns his own warehouse. He buys lots of cans of pudding.
Will this lonely man ever find love?
Will his spontaneous phone call to a copulation line result in aggressive extortion or even bodily harm?
Adam Sandler steps out of his usual comedic lead to explore this dramatic role.
Emily Watson plays Lena Leonard.
Luiz Guzman plays Barry's loyal friend Lance.
And Philip Seymour Hoffman plays the conniving Dean Trumbell. Do not mess with him. Or he will mess you up.
Unless, maybe, he meets his match.
What happens when you start with a man who has some anger inside him?
And add to that a feeling of invincibility. Over being in love.
What happens when a man has nothing to fear?
Any longer?
Paul Thomas Anderson explores those questions. As he plays with light and shadows. Anderson has a flair for flares. And soft focus. So if you want to see games played in the camera, check out this film.
If you want to see a different kind of love, check out this film.
If you like your love a little more, well, sans the anger, then, well . . .
Some people fall punch-drunk in love.
Some people are working through their anger.
What happens when you do forgive?
413 - Punch-Drunk Love, United States, 2002. Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson.
Barry Egan has some anger inside him.
He has sisters. Nothing but sisters. In fact, seven sisters. And they each call him and harass him into coming to their party. Where they remember the time he got so angry he threw a hammer through the window.
He does it again.
Barry runs a company in the San Fernando Valley. They make Fungers.
Fun Plungers.
With decorations and games at the top of the handle. At children's height so that children can see them.
How fun!
No, the money is not flowing in. He does make money. He does have employees. Including his loyal friend Lance. But he is always one step shy of really making it.
One morning after hanging up the phone, he gets up from his desk--which sits in the corner of a large empty room in a warehouse--and follows his instincts to see what is going on outside. He turns the corner and walks to the street. At 10101 Canoga Avenue in Chatsworth.
He sees a car inexplicably flip over and drop a small wind organ on the side of the road before moving on. He calls it a piano. He is later told is a harmonium.
A woman pulls up. Lena Leonard. She wants to leave her car at the mechanic next door to Barry. But they are not open. And she has to get to work. She hands Barry the keys. Will you watch it for me? And move it if it needs to be moved?
A chance encounter.
Some chance encounters are not so chance.
Barry brings the harmonium inside. He plays with it. He tries to play it.
He figures out a way to earn frequent flyer miles by buying cans of pudding. Good thing he owns his own warehouse. He buys lots of cans of pudding.
Will this lonely man ever find love?
Will his spontaneous phone call to a copulation line result in aggressive extortion or even bodily harm?
Adam Sandler steps out of his usual comedic lead to explore this dramatic role.
Emily Watson plays Lena Leonard.
Luiz Guzman plays Barry's loyal friend Lance.
And Philip Seymour Hoffman plays the conniving Dean Trumbell. Do not mess with him. Or he will mess you up.
Unless, maybe, he meets his match.
What happens when you start with a man who has some anger inside him?
And add to that a feeling of invincibility. Over being in love.
What happens when a man has nothing to fear?
Any longer?
Paul Thomas Anderson explores those questions. As he plays with light and shadows. Anderson has a flair for flares. And soft focus. So if you want to see games played in the camera, check out this film.
If you want to see a different kind of love, check out this film.
If you like your love a little more, well, sans the anger, then, well . . .
Some people fall punch-drunk in love.
Some people are working through their anger.
What happens when you do forgive?
Friday, February 16, 2018
412 - Ghost World, United States, 2001. Dir. Terry Zwigoff.
Friday, February 16, 2018
412 - Ghost World, United States, 2001. Dir. Terry Zwigoff.
Enid and Rebecca are graduating from high school.
Finally.
Now they can stop seeing and having to talk to all those phonies. Forever.
Now what?
Life is boring. Unless its purpose is to stand aloofly and comment with ironic mockery. Then it is funny. And sad.
At least they have each other. They can agree that nothing else is worth getting excited about. Only ridiculing. And they can ridicule together.
Except that even they are starting to grow in different directions. Rebecca gets a job. And wants a nice apartment.
Enid is supposed to room with her. But she hates every location Rebecca likes. They are too normal. Rebecca is threatening to become too normal. Oh no.
They sit in the booth of some stupid new 50s diner and read the personal classified ads. A man ran into a woman. He felt something. Did she? If so, please call me.
Enid and Rebecca have the perfect prank. Who is this loser? We will call him. We will pretend to be the woman.
They leave a message. Enid purports to be the woman. Yes! she says. I felt something too! Meet me at this time and place. She gives the stupid 50s diner as the place.
They wait for him.
Sure enough, he arrives.
And this sets off a chain of events that will change everything.
There is one thing Enid can count on in life.
Norman.
He sits patiently at the Bus Stop awaiting for the bus to arrive. She informs him that bus service ceased two years ago. He remains undaunted. Day after day, night after night, he sits patiently awaiting the bus.
Whenever she passes, there he is. At least she can count on that.
Enid hides a fantasy of escaping life one day. Of taking off and disappearing.
But she never counted on meeting Seymour.
An odd bird that out-odds even her.
Thora Birch plays Enid. She had just come off a star-making role in the Oscar-winning American Beauty (1999).
Scarlett Johansson plays Rebecca. You may have heard of her.
Steve Buscemi plays Seymour. He is perfect for the role.
Illeana Douglas plays Roberta Allsworth, the Summer school art teacher. Hilariously. In a time when political correctness was still on the outside trying to force its way in. And people still made fun of its foolishness. Before they gave in to it.
Bob Balaban plays Enid's dad. And he loves her. He does his best to understand and communicate. You may think of Bob Balaban as being from the Christopher Guest movies. But he has done so much more. We just saw him in Moonrise Kingdom (2012). He comes from a family dynasty in Hollywood history.
Terry Zwigoff is an original voice. He made documentaries Louie Bluie (1985) and Crumb (1994). And the art film Art School Confidential (2006). Somehow he also directed Bad Santa (2003).
Now, about that childhood fantasy. . . .
412 - Ghost World, United States, 2001. Dir. Terry Zwigoff.
Enid and Rebecca are graduating from high school.
Finally.
Now they can stop seeing and having to talk to all those phonies. Forever.
Now what?
Life is boring. Unless its purpose is to stand aloofly and comment with ironic mockery. Then it is funny. And sad.
At least they have each other. They can agree that nothing else is worth getting excited about. Only ridiculing. And they can ridicule together.
Except that even they are starting to grow in different directions. Rebecca gets a job. And wants a nice apartment.
Enid is supposed to room with her. But she hates every location Rebecca likes. They are too normal. Rebecca is threatening to become too normal. Oh no.
They sit in the booth of some stupid new 50s diner and read the personal classified ads. A man ran into a woman. He felt something. Did she? If so, please call me.
Enid and Rebecca have the perfect prank. Who is this loser? We will call him. We will pretend to be the woman.
They leave a message. Enid purports to be the woman. Yes! she says. I felt something too! Meet me at this time and place. She gives the stupid 50s diner as the place.
They wait for him.
Sure enough, he arrives.
And this sets off a chain of events that will change everything.
There is one thing Enid can count on in life.
Norman.
He sits patiently at the Bus Stop awaiting for the bus to arrive. She informs him that bus service ceased two years ago. He remains undaunted. Day after day, night after night, he sits patiently awaiting the bus.
Whenever she passes, there he is. At least she can count on that.
Enid hides a fantasy of escaping life one day. Of taking off and disappearing.
But she never counted on meeting Seymour.
An odd bird that out-odds even her.
Thora Birch plays Enid. She had just come off a star-making role in the Oscar-winning American Beauty (1999).
Scarlett Johansson plays Rebecca. You may have heard of her.
Steve Buscemi plays Seymour. He is perfect for the role.
Illeana Douglas plays Roberta Allsworth, the Summer school art teacher. Hilariously. In a time when political correctness was still on the outside trying to force its way in. And people still made fun of its foolishness. Before they gave in to it.
Bob Balaban plays Enid's dad. And he loves her. He does his best to understand and communicate. You may think of Bob Balaban as being from the Christopher Guest movies. But he has done so much more. We just saw him in Moonrise Kingdom (2012). He comes from a family dynasty in Hollywood history.
Terry Zwigoff is an original voice. He made documentaries Louie Bluie (1985) and Crumb (1994). And the art film Art School Confidential (2006). Somehow he also directed Bad Santa (2003).
Now, about that childhood fantasy. . . .
Thursday, February 15, 2018
411 - Moonrise Kingdom, United States, 2012. Dir. Wes Anderson.
Thursday, February 15, 2018
411 - Moonrise Kingdom, United States, 2012. Dir. Wes Anderson.
Yesterday we asked, "Where is the love?"
Today Wes answers, "Here it is."
With Moonrise Kingdom, Wes has given us a love story. The story of two young people who fall in love.
Sam Shakusky and Suzy Bishop.
They are quite young.
But then so were Romeo and Juliet. Juliet, in fact, was thirteen. Just ask her father, Lord Capulet.
"My child is yet a stranger in the world;
She hath not seen the change of fourteen years."
- William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Lord Capulet, Act I, Scene 2, Lines 8-9.
Sam and Suzy are twelve. And their blossoming relationship is sweet and pure and good. It is not consummated. They are not ready for that. It is a friendship with a connection of the heart.
Sam has met Suzy at an opera. At their church. On New Penzance Island. She plays the raven in Benjamin Britten's Noye's Fludde. Noah's Flood. Sam is in the audience.
When he exits the men's room, he stumbles through two racks of clothes into the girls' dressing room. He sees her. He immediately asks her what bird she is. To the exclusion of all other birds in the room. The sparrow and the dove, for example. He singles out Suzy. He likes her.
The girls go onstage. Sam returns to his seat. But the two start writing. And during their year of being pen pals, they hatch a plan. A plan to escape the jail of their lives and meet in a field and go off together.
Suzy leaves from her house Summer's End. She is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Walt and Laura Bishop. She has three young brothers, including Lionel
Sam leaves his Khaki Scout troop. He is the foster son of Mr. and Mrs. Billingsley. Who run a professional foster home service. But he has been leaving in a tent at Camp Ivanhoe with Scoutmaster Randy Ward.
Everyone sets out in search of the two kids.
A battle ensues. Who will win the battle?
In this, another ensemble cast of stars, with two newcomers, from Wes Anderson.
411 - Moonrise Kingdom, United States, 2012. Dir. Wes Anderson.
Yesterday we asked, "Where is the love?"
Today Wes answers, "Here it is."
With Moonrise Kingdom, Wes has given us a love story. The story of two young people who fall in love.
Sam Shakusky and Suzy Bishop.
They are quite young.
But then so were Romeo and Juliet. Juliet, in fact, was thirteen. Just ask her father, Lord Capulet.
"My child is yet a stranger in the world;
She hath not seen the change of fourteen years."
- William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Lord Capulet, Act I, Scene 2, Lines 8-9.
Sam and Suzy are twelve. And their blossoming relationship is sweet and pure and good. It is not consummated. They are not ready for that. It is a friendship with a connection of the heart.
Sam has met Suzy at an opera. At their church. On New Penzance Island. She plays the raven in Benjamin Britten's Noye's Fludde. Noah's Flood. Sam is in the audience.
When he exits the men's room, he stumbles through two racks of clothes into the girls' dressing room. He sees her. He immediately asks her what bird she is. To the exclusion of all other birds in the room. The sparrow and the dove, for example. He singles out Suzy. He likes her.
The girls go onstage. Sam returns to his seat. But the two start writing. And during their year of being pen pals, they hatch a plan. A plan to escape the jail of their lives and meet in a field and go off together.
Suzy leaves from her house Summer's End. She is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Walt and Laura Bishop. She has three young brothers, including Lionel
Sam leaves his Khaki Scout troop. He is the foster son of Mr. and Mrs. Billingsley. Who run a professional foster home service. But he has been leaving in a tent at Camp Ivanhoe with Scoutmaster Randy Ward.
Everyone sets out in search of the two kids.
A battle ensues. Who will win the battle?
In this, another ensemble cast of stars, with two newcomers, from Wes Anderson.
Wednesday, February 14, 2018
410 - The Darjeeling Limited, United States, 2007. Dir. Wes Anderson.
Wednesday, February 14, 2018
410 - The Darjeeling Limited, United States, 2007. Dir. Wes Anderson.
What does it take finally to rid yourself of your baggage?
Francis has corralled his brothers Peter and Jack to go on a journey to find out. They are jumping a train to take through the Indian countryside. They are not jumping the train as stowaways. They have tickets. They are just late.
Which seems fitting for the way they have lived their lives.
Francis has his head wrapped in bandages. A year ago he was in a life-threatening motorcycle accident. On purpose.
Peter is thinking of leaving his wife. She is seven-month's pregnant. He doubts his ability to be a husband and father.
Jack has left his girlfriend. She came to him in a Paris hotel room. In the accompanying short film. "Hotel Chevalier." He had been hiding from her. For over a month. When she found him, he revealed that he did not love her. They had a painful tryst.
Now the brothers are on a journey of spiritual enlightenment.
And, unbeknownst to Peter and Jack, on a quest to find their missing mother.
Their father died a year ago. Having been struck by a taxicab. The brothers have not seen each other since then.
Their mother did not come to the funeral. She has been gone for several years.
And Francis believes they will find her at a Catholic convent hidden away in the Himalayas.
After their whimsical adventures aboard the train--including a hook-up with the stewardess Rita, dubbed Sweet Lime--and after a deviation through the Indian wilderness where they attempt to rescue three boys who represent themselves (two survive and one dies)--they do.
On the one hand, mother Patricia seems to be doing good work. The children sit in school and learn. And sing. Praise Him, Praise Him. Praise him in the morning. Praise him in the noontime.
But on the other hand, Patricia has abandoned her own three children to be the surrogate mother of this classroom.
When the brothers arrive, she speaks to them bluntly. "Everyone here's an orphan, by the way. You should feel right at home."
And again--
You should've been at Dad's funeral.
So that's why you came here. To make me feel guilty.
We came here because we miss you.
I miss you too.
But why didn't you come to Dad's funeral?
Because I didn't want to. He was dead. . . . What's wrong with us? Why are we talking about this? We should be celebrating!
And yet again--
The past happened, but it's over isn't it?
Not for us.
And that is the problem for Francis, Peter, and Jack. The past is not over for them. They are still carrying their baggage.
Including eleven oversized Marc-Jacobs-for-Louis-Vuitton suitcases stuffed with items from their father.
Because why not be burdened with all your childhood memorabilia as you traipse through the wilderness?
When they awaken, their mother is gone.
Again.
And they are left alone.
Jack has been writing short stories throughout their journey, and Francis and Peter have been calling him out on it. That the stories are about him. Despite the fact that he insists they are fictional characters.
But when he reads his latest story, on the way back to the train, he finally stops protesting. "The characters are . . . " and he goes silent. He is reading the exact dialogue from his experience with his girlfriend in "Hotel Chevalier." The characters are not so fictional as he has wanted his brothers to believe.
And one cannot help but wonder if Wes Anderson, the middle of three boys whose parents divorced when he was eight, is speaking perhaps a little personally.
His films may have as precisely controlled a production design as any you will ever see. Every square inch of every frame drawn out to exact specifications. With as much taste as the Louis Vuitton luggage.
But while the brothers drop their suitcases and leave them in the dust in order to make the train, they never do forsake their baggage. No one in a Wes Anderson film has yet. No one has yet been cleansed or healed or even moved. There is no catharsis.
There is beauty. And symmetry. And artistry. And whimsy. And drollery. And cleverness. And wit. And fun.
And cold ironic detachment.
And an underlying melancholy.
Covering a dormant, hidden rage.
But not love.
These are difficult films to watch. If you attempt to look below the surface. Because they posit a life without grace.
It is as if you have stepped into a world of the most marvelous paintings. Painted by a painter. Who has yet to discover
The power of forgiveness.
410 - The Darjeeling Limited, United States, 2007. Dir. Wes Anderson.
What does it take finally to rid yourself of your baggage?
Francis has corralled his brothers Peter and Jack to go on a journey to find out. They are jumping a train to take through the Indian countryside. They are not jumping the train as stowaways. They have tickets. They are just late.
Which seems fitting for the way they have lived their lives.
Francis has his head wrapped in bandages. A year ago he was in a life-threatening motorcycle accident. On purpose.
Peter is thinking of leaving his wife. She is seven-month's pregnant. He doubts his ability to be a husband and father.
Jack has left his girlfriend. She came to him in a Paris hotel room. In the accompanying short film. "Hotel Chevalier." He had been hiding from her. For over a month. When she found him, he revealed that he did not love her. They had a painful tryst.
Now the brothers are on a journey of spiritual enlightenment.
And, unbeknownst to Peter and Jack, on a quest to find their missing mother.
Their father died a year ago. Having been struck by a taxicab. The brothers have not seen each other since then.
Their mother did not come to the funeral. She has been gone for several years.
And Francis believes they will find her at a Catholic convent hidden away in the Himalayas.
After their whimsical adventures aboard the train--including a hook-up with the stewardess Rita, dubbed Sweet Lime--and after a deviation through the Indian wilderness where they attempt to rescue three boys who represent themselves (two survive and one dies)--they do.
On the one hand, mother Patricia seems to be doing good work. The children sit in school and learn. And sing. Praise Him, Praise Him. Praise him in the morning. Praise him in the noontime.
But on the other hand, Patricia has abandoned her own three children to be the surrogate mother of this classroom.
When the brothers arrive, she speaks to them bluntly. "Everyone here's an orphan, by the way. You should feel right at home."
And again--
You should've been at Dad's funeral.
So that's why you came here. To make me feel guilty.
We came here because we miss you.
I miss you too.
But why didn't you come to Dad's funeral?
Because I didn't want to. He was dead. . . . What's wrong with us? Why are we talking about this? We should be celebrating!
And yet again--
The past happened, but it's over isn't it?
Not for us.
And that is the problem for Francis, Peter, and Jack. The past is not over for them. They are still carrying their baggage.
Including eleven oversized Marc-Jacobs-for-Louis-Vuitton suitcases stuffed with items from their father.
Because why not be burdened with all your childhood memorabilia as you traipse through the wilderness?
When they awaken, their mother is gone.
Again.
And they are left alone.
Jack has been writing short stories throughout their journey, and Francis and Peter have been calling him out on it. That the stories are about him. Despite the fact that he insists they are fictional characters.
But when he reads his latest story, on the way back to the train, he finally stops protesting. "The characters are . . . " and he goes silent. He is reading the exact dialogue from his experience with his girlfriend in "Hotel Chevalier." The characters are not so fictional as he has wanted his brothers to believe.
And one cannot help but wonder if Wes Anderson, the middle of three boys whose parents divorced when he was eight, is speaking perhaps a little personally.
His films may have as precisely controlled a production design as any you will ever see. Every square inch of every frame drawn out to exact specifications. With as much taste as the Louis Vuitton luggage.
But while the brothers drop their suitcases and leave them in the dust in order to make the train, they never do forsake their baggage. No one in a Wes Anderson film has yet. No one has yet been cleansed or healed or even moved. There is no catharsis.
There is beauty. And symmetry. And artistry. And whimsy. And drollery. And cleverness. And wit. And fun.
And cold ironic detachment.
And an underlying melancholy.
Covering a dormant, hidden rage.
But not love.
These are difficult films to watch. If you attempt to look below the surface. Because they posit a life without grace.
It is as if you have stepped into a world of the most marvelous paintings. Painted by a painter. Who has yet to discover
The power of forgiveness.
Tuesday, February 13, 2018
409 - The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, United States, 2004. Dir. Wes Anderson.
Tuesday, February 12, 2018
409 - The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, United States, 2004. Dir. Wes Anderson.
Steve Zissou is a modern-day Ahab.
Well, sort of.
But rather than pursuing a great white whale, he seeks retribution against a Jaguar Shark.
Zissou is an underwater filmmaker. A fictional Jacques Cousteau. On his last voyage he lost his friend and chief diver Esteban du Plantier (Seymour Cassel). Esteban was eaten (not bitten), chewed (not swallowed whole), by a Jaguar Shark, and Zissou determines to focus his next film, devoting his next voyage, on getting back at the shark.
He sits on the stage of a grand Italian theater and answers questions asked in multiple languages about his last film--the one on which his chief diver died--and his next film--the one on which he seeks to balance the scales.
Why do you want to go back?
Revenge.
Steve's wife Eleanor is threatening to leave him. He wants her to stay.
A man named Ned Plimpton appears claiming to be his son. Steve believes him and lets him come on board.
A pregnant journalist named Jane comes to interview him. He expects it to be a puff piece, but her questions seem a bit more penetrating. He makes her cry.
Apparently, his fans have been leaving him, and his career is not what it once was. He was unaware of this development. He is unconcerned.
Let the voyage of the Belafonte begin.
Because the film is a film within a film, the film moves back and forth between the real ship and the ship built in the studio. The studio ship is cut in half and shown in cross-section. On a stage. As in an auditorium. Live theater.
Life Aquatic is an ensemble film with a cast of stars. Bill Murray. Owen Wilson. Cate Blanchett. Anjelica Huston. William Dafoe. Jeff Goldblum. Michael Gambon. Noah Taylor. Bud Cort. Seymour Cassel. And a debut performance by a young Matthew Gray Gubler. Who is now approaching his 300th episode of Criminal Minds.
It is another display of the visual style that makes Wes Anderson Wes Anderson.
It is his first film to write without Owen Wilson, whose acting career is now taking off like a moon rocket. Anderson co-writes this film with Noah Baumbach before going on to co-write future films with Roman Coppola.
Some people did not like it. They think he jumped the shark. It lost money.
But it fits neatly in his body of work. And it looks as though it was a lot of fun to make.
409 - The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, United States, 2004. Dir. Wes Anderson.
Steve Zissou is a modern-day Ahab.
Well, sort of.
But rather than pursuing a great white whale, he seeks retribution against a Jaguar Shark.
Zissou is an underwater filmmaker. A fictional Jacques Cousteau. On his last voyage he lost his friend and chief diver Esteban du Plantier (Seymour Cassel). Esteban was eaten (not bitten), chewed (not swallowed whole), by a Jaguar Shark, and Zissou determines to focus his next film, devoting his next voyage, on getting back at the shark.
He sits on the stage of a grand Italian theater and answers questions asked in multiple languages about his last film--the one on which his chief diver died--and his next film--the one on which he seeks to balance the scales.
Why do you want to go back?
Revenge.
Steve's wife Eleanor is threatening to leave him. He wants her to stay.
A man named Ned Plimpton appears claiming to be his son. Steve believes him and lets him come on board.
A pregnant journalist named Jane comes to interview him. He expects it to be a puff piece, but her questions seem a bit more penetrating. He makes her cry.
Apparently, his fans have been leaving him, and his career is not what it once was. He was unaware of this development. He is unconcerned.
Let the voyage of the Belafonte begin.
Because the film is a film within a film, the film moves back and forth between the real ship and the ship built in the studio. The studio ship is cut in half and shown in cross-section. On a stage. As in an auditorium. Live theater.
Life Aquatic is an ensemble film with a cast of stars. Bill Murray. Owen Wilson. Cate Blanchett. Anjelica Huston. William Dafoe. Jeff Goldblum. Michael Gambon. Noah Taylor. Bud Cort. Seymour Cassel. And a debut performance by a young Matthew Gray Gubler. Who is now approaching his 300th episode of Criminal Minds.
It is another display of the visual style that makes Wes Anderson Wes Anderson.
It is his first film to write without Owen Wilson, whose acting career is now taking off like a moon rocket. Anderson co-writes this film with Noah Baumbach before going on to co-write future films with Roman Coppola.
Some people did not like it. They think he jumped the shark. It lost money.
But it fits neatly in his body of work. And it looks as though it was a lot of fun to make.
Monday, February 12, 2018
408 - The Royal Tenenbaums, United States, 2001. Dir. Wes Anderson.
Monday, February 12, 2108
408 - The Royal Tenenbaums, United States, 2001. Dir. Wes Anderson.
What if you had six days?
Just six days.
What would you do with your time?
Royal Tenenbaum wants to make up for lost time.
He has children he has not seen in a long time.
And grandchildren he has not seen any time.
He is about to have the greatest six days of his life.
Playing games with his grandchildren. Playing sports. Playing pranks.
And visiting the cemetery.
That is thing with him.
His grandchildren love it.
His wife is over it.
His son Chas is not buying it.
His wife's boyfriend Henry Sherman is going to expose it.
Royal is not sick at all. He just told Etheline that he was in order to get back into her good graces.
At least it is fun while it lasts.
The Tenenbaums are a family of geniuses with great talent and plenty of money.
It is too bad that they do not have love.
They want to. They try to. It is just that life can be complicated.
And people can fail at things.
We understand, says the film. We are all human. We are all too human.
Chas and Richie are the brothers. Played by friends. (Ben Stiller and Luke Wilson).
Richie and Eli are the friends. Played by brothers. (Luke Wilson and Owen Wilson).
Margot is the sister. (Gwynneth Paltrow). She is adopted. She has secrets.
A secret smoking habit.
Secret lovers. Many of them. Over many years.
A secret thing for her brother Richie. It is okay, though. They are not related. There is no blood between them.
Gene Hackman is Royal Tenenbaum. Angelica Huston is Etheline. Bill Murray is Margot's husband Raleigh St. Clair. Danny Glover is Etheline's boyfriend Henry Sherman.
Seymour Cassel is Dusty. The bellboy at the hotel where Royal now lives, who pretends to be his doctor.
Kumar Pallana is Pagoda. His dear friend and servant who once stabbed him with a knife and then saved his life.
Alec Baldwin narrates.
Wes Anderson revels in multiple set ups with extravagantly precise production design. A shot of this. A shot of that. Many shots of many things. Lots of props. Lots of color. Lots of compositions. Minute details.
And long takes without cutting. The shot of Gwynneth Paltrow getting off the bus. The shot of the car wreck near the end.
A film school in a film.
Anderson tells us he did think a lot about Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) as he was making this film. Another film set in the house of a great family in great decline. By the original master of the long take.
And he played the music that would later be played on the soundtrack while they were filming, to give the cast and crew the feeling the music conveyed.
The legendary Gene Hackman and the up-and-coming Owen Wilson made two films together that year. The Royal Tenenbaums and Behind Enemy Lines. Hackman would make only two more films before retiring. We are thrilled he made this one. For scale, no less. And we thank Wes Anderson for doing what it took to get him, as we all love Gene Hackman.
Now,
Anybody interested in grabbing a couple of burgers and hitting the cemetery?
408 - The Royal Tenenbaums, United States, 2001. Dir. Wes Anderson.
What if you had six days?
Just six days.
What would you do with your time?
Royal Tenenbaum wants to make up for lost time.
He has children he has not seen in a long time.
And grandchildren he has not seen any time.
He is about to have the greatest six days of his life.
Playing games with his grandchildren. Playing sports. Playing pranks.
And visiting the cemetery.
That is thing with him.
His grandchildren love it.
His wife is over it.
His son Chas is not buying it.
His wife's boyfriend Henry Sherman is going to expose it.
Royal is not sick at all. He just told Etheline that he was in order to get back into her good graces.
At least it is fun while it lasts.
The Tenenbaums are a family of geniuses with great talent and plenty of money.
It is too bad that they do not have love.
They want to. They try to. It is just that life can be complicated.
And people can fail at things.
We understand, says the film. We are all human. We are all too human.
Chas and Richie are the brothers. Played by friends. (Ben Stiller and Luke Wilson).
Richie and Eli are the friends. Played by brothers. (Luke Wilson and Owen Wilson).
Margot is the sister. (Gwynneth Paltrow). She is adopted. She has secrets.
A secret smoking habit.
Secret lovers. Many of them. Over many years.
A secret thing for her brother Richie. It is okay, though. They are not related. There is no blood between them.
Gene Hackman is Royal Tenenbaum. Angelica Huston is Etheline. Bill Murray is Margot's husband Raleigh St. Clair. Danny Glover is Etheline's boyfriend Henry Sherman.
Seymour Cassel is Dusty. The bellboy at the hotel where Royal now lives, who pretends to be his doctor.
Kumar Pallana is Pagoda. His dear friend and servant who once stabbed him with a knife and then saved his life.
Alec Baldwin narrates.
Wes Anderson revels in multiple set ups with extravagantly precise production design. A shot of this. A shot of that. Many shots of many things. Lots of props. Lots of color. Lots of compositions. Minute details.
And long takes without cutting. The shot of Gwynneth Paltrow getting off the bus. The shot of the car wreck near the end.
A film school in a film.
Anderson tells us he did think a lot about Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) as he was making this film. Another film set in the house of a great family in great decline. By the original master of the long take.
And he played the music that would later be played on the soundtrack while they were filming, to give the cast and crew the feeling the music conveyed.
The legendary Gene Hackman and the up-and-coming Owen Wilson made two films together that year. The Royal Tenenbaums and Behind Enemy Lines. Hackman would make only two more films before retiring. We are thrilled he made this one. For scale, no less. And we thank Wes Anderson for doing what it took to get him, as we all love Gene Hackman.
Now,
Anybody interested in grabbing a couple of burgers and hitting the cemetery?
Sunday, February 11, 2018
407 - Rushmore, United States, 1998. Wes Anderson.
Sunday, February 11, 2018
407 - Rushmore, United States, 1998. Wes Anderson.
Max Fischer loves clubs.
No, not dance clubs. But extracurricular activities at school. He attends Rushmore Academy, an exclusive private school made up largely of the children of wealthy parents.
Max's father is a barber. He is not rich. Max won a scholarship to Rushmore when he was younger. For writing a play.
He has a lot of enthusiasm and energy for all of the things he enjoys. The only problem is that all of his activities keep him from studying, which leads him to get poor grades.
His father does not seem to mind. His father is proud of him. He seems to love him unconditionally.
But the school administration is quite concerned.
When wealthy businessman Herman Blume, played by Bill Murray, comes to speak at the school, Max loves what he says. He gives him a solo standing ovation.
Hello, Herman.
The two of them strike up a friendship.
The only problem is they both like the same woman. A school teacher.
Max is precocious in everything.
Fortunately for Wes Anderson, he did not carry this idea through to its conclusion but had Rosemary (Olivia Williams) rebuff Max's proclamations.
In 1998 this plot point probably felt like a quirky oddity of pubescent longing. Before the rash of inappropriate behavior by female teachers with their underage male students. By today's standards, it has the potential to be creepy and uncomfortable.
Wes Anderson co-wrote the screenplay again with Owen Wilson. Wilson does not appear in the film but his brothers Luke and Andrew do.
We also have the delicious work of Seymour Cassel and Brian Cox.
And of course Bill Murray.
I was glad when I heard that legendary film critic Pauline Kael said she did not know what to make of this movie, because I do not either. Not yet.
I saw it when it first came out, and now, watching it 20 years later I still do not understand it.
It seems to avoid dealing with matters of the human heart. Characters are kept at an emotional distance, in ironic postures. They do not show vulnerability or human frailty. They are like robots with opinions.
One can clearly see Anderson's artistic brilliance. The writing, the production design, the staging, and the framing are all spot on. And as an actor I would leap at the opportunity to do a film like this.
As we continue to watch his movies, we will see his talent develop and his artistry shine. But at this point I do not understand Rushmore.
It might be like Picasso's cubist period for me. I went for several years not understanding it. Then I attended a Picasso exhibit at the L.A. County Museum of Art (LACMA). I rented the audio tour, with narration by Dustin Hoffman. And as I stood there looking at Picasso's 1913 painting Woman With a Guitar and listening to Hoffman's description, suddenly it all opened up for me.
I saw Picasso's genius. I felt cubism's impact.
I have had moments like that throughout my life, where someone helps you see something that you could not see before. Where you stopped making fun of something and started to appreciate it. And even adore it. That is why we need teachers.
And for that moment I thank Dustin Hoffman and the person who wrote the copy he was reading. And LACMA for hosting the exhibit and hanging and lighting the painting the way they did.
I have not yet had that moment with Rushmore. Perhaps I will in the future. I already like Wes Anderson a lot for some of his other work.
But in the mean time I am stuck with asking this question: What is the point of this story?
Or, why make this movie? Does it entertain? Give insight? Move? Educate? Inspire? Challenge? Upset? Provoke? Or any of the many other things art does? For now I will give it the benefit of the doubt that it does. Something.
Until then I am left with this conclusion:
So what?
407 - Rushmore, United States, 1998. Wes Anderson.
Max Fischer loves clubs.
No, not dance clubs. But extracurricular activities at school. He attends Rushmore Academy, an exclusive private school made up largely of the children of wealthy parents.
Max's father is a barber. He is not rich. Max won a scholarship to Rushmore when he was younger. For writing a play.
He has a lot of enthusiasm and energy for all of the things he enjoys. The only problem is that all of his activities keep him from studying, which leads him to get poor grades.
His father does not seem to mind. His father is proud of him. He seems to love him unconditionally.
But the school administration is quite concerned.
When wealthy businessman Herman Blume, played by Bill Murray, comes to speak at the school, Max loves what he says. He gives him a solo standing ovation.
Hello, Herman.
The two of them strike up a friendship.
The only problem is they both like the same woman. A school teacher.
Max is precocious in everything.
Fortunately for Wes Anderson, he did not carry this idea through to its conclusion but had Rosemary (Olivia Williams) rebuff Max's proclamations.
In 1998 this plot point probably felt like a quirky oddity of pubescent longing. Before the rash of inappropriate behavior by female teachers with their underage male students. By today's standards, it has the potential to be creepy and uncomfortable.
Wes Anderson co-wrote the screenplay again with Owen Wilson. Wilson does not appear in the film but his brothers Luke and Andrew do.
We also have the delicious work of Seymour Cassel and Brian Cox.
And of course Bill Murray.
I was glad when I heard that legendary film critic Pauline Kael said she did not know what to make of this movie, because I do not either. Not yet.
I saw it when it first came out, and now, watching it 20 years later I still do not understand it.
It seems to avoid dealing with matters of the human heart. Characters are kept at an emotional distance, in ironic postures. They do not show vulnerability or human frailty. They are like robots with opinions.
One can clearly see Anderson's artistic brilliance. The writing, the production design, the staging, and the framing are all spot on. And as an actor I would leap at the opportunity to do a film like this.
As we continue to watch his movies, we will see his talent develop and his artistry shine. But at this point I do not understand Rushmore.
It might be like Picasso's cubist period for me. I went for several years not understanding it. Then I attended a Picasso exhibit at the L.A. County Museum of Art (LACMA). I rented the audio tour, with narration by Dustin Hoffman. And as I stood there looking at Picasso's 1913 painting Woman With a Guitar and listening to Hoffman's description, suddenly it all opened up for me.
I saw Picasso's genius. I felt cubism's impact.
I have had moments like that throughout my life, where someone helps you see something that you could not see before. Where you stopped making fun of something and started to appreciate it. And even adore it. That is why we need teachers.
And for that moment I thank Dustin Hoffman and the person who wrote the copy he was reading. And LACMA for hosting the exhibit and hanging and lighting the painting the way they did.
I have not yet had that moment with Rushmore. Perhaps I will in the future. I already like Wes Anderson a lot for some of his other work.
But in the mean time I am stuck with asking this question: What is the point of this story?
Or, why make this movie? Does it entertain? Give insight? Move? Educate? Inspire? Challenge? Upset? Provoke? Or any of the many other things art does? For now I will give it the benefit of the doubt that it does. Something.
Until then I am left with this conclusion:
So what?
Saturday, February 10, 2018
406 - Bottle Rocket, United States, 1996. Dir. Wes Anderson.
Saturday, February 10, 2018
406 - Bottle Rocket, United States, 1996. Dir. Wes Anderson.
Anthony Adams is staying at a voluntary mental health facility. He later tells his kid sister it was for exhaustion.
Anthony's best friend Dignan is loyal to Anthony. So loyal that he decides to spring him from the joint.
Anthony asks the facility manager not to inform his pal that he can leave freely. He does not want to ruin it for him. So Anthony ties bedsheets to the bedpost and lowers over the window and escapes.
Dignan is thrilled.
Now they can get on with their lives.
Which Dignan has planned. In fact, he has a 75-year plan. Handwritten. In a notebook. Which he presents to Anthony upon his successful escape.
The plan includes a little burglary. First, they will make their money quickly. Then they will stop the burglaries and get married.
Dignan wants to settle down. He just wants to get his money first. And quickly.
So they try out a little burglary, as a practice run. They break into Anthony's parents' house.
Dignan's friend Robert Mapplethorpe drives the getaway car. Because he has a car.
Other than Dignan's taking of a pair of earrings that Anthony bought for his mother, the heist is a success. Now for bigger and better things.
They rob a bookstore. Because bookstores are hot. And carry so much cash.
The clerks see their guns and let them.
Now they go on the lam. When they check into a motel, Anthony sees the housekeeper Inez and starts chasing her.
And things continue.
Dignan is played by the charming and lovable Owen Wilson. You know him for his thick and wavy locks of blonde hair. But here he has a tight crew cut. He looks like a different man.
Or man-boy in this case.
Dignan is a kid.
Anthony, meanwhile, is played by Owen's real brother Luke.
And another character, Future Man, is played by another Wilson brother, Andrew.
James Caan appears as Mr. Henry.
Wes Anderson wrote the movie with his friend and former roommate Owen Wilson.
The two met at the University of Texas.
And they first made a short film together. Also called "Bottle Rocket." That short film got accepted to Sundance. And in turn caught the attention of James L. Brooks.
Whose film we just watched in Broadcast News (1987).
He took the new filmmakers under his wings, took them to Columbia Pictures, and helped them make the feature-length version of their film.
It did not do good business, but it launched the careers of Wes Anderson and the Wilson brothers.
Now,
What part of Mexico are you from?
Paraguay.
406 - Bottle Rocket, United States, 1996. Dir. Wes Anderson.
Anthony Adams is staying at a voluntary mental health facility. He later tells his kid sister it was for exhaustion.
Anthony's best friend Dignan is loyal to Anthony. So loyal that he decides to spring him from the joint.
Anthony asks the facility manager not to inform his pal that he can leave freely. He does not want to ruin it for him. So Anthony ties bedsheets to the bedpost and lowers over the window and escapes.
Dignan is thrilled.
Now they can get on with their lives.
Which Dignan has planned. In fact, he has a 75-year plan. Handwritten. In a notebook. Which he presents to Anthony upon his successful escape.
The plan includes a little burglary. First, they will make their money quickly. Then they will stop the burglaries and get married.
Dignan wants to settle down. He just wants to get his money first. And quickly.
So they try out a little burglary, as a practice run. They break into Anthony's parents' house.
Dignan's friend Robert Mapplethorpe drives the getaway car. Because he has a car.
Other than Dignan's taking of a pair of earrings that Anthony bought for his mother, the heist is a success. Now for bigger and better things.
They rob a bookstore. Because bookstores are hot. And carry so much cash.
The clerks see their guns and let them.
Now they go on the lam. When they check into a motel, Anthony sees the housekeeper Inez and starts chasing her.
And things continue.
Dignan is played by the charming and lovable Owen Wilson. You know him for his thick and wavy locks of blonde hair. But here he has a tight crew cut. He looks like a different man.
Or man-boy in this case.
Dignan is a kid.
Anthony, meanwhile, is played by Owen's real brother Luke.
And another character, Future Man, is played by another Wilson brother, Andrew.
James Caan appears as Mr. Henry.
Wes Anderson wrote the movie with his friend and former roommate Owen Wilson.
The two met at the University of Texas.
And they first made a short film together. Also called "Bottle Rocket." That short film got accepted to Sundance. And in turn caught the attention of James L. Brooks.
Whose film we just watched in Broadcast News (1987).
He took the new filmmakers under his wings, took them to Columbia Pictures, and helped them make the feature-length version of their film.
It did not do good business, but it launched the careers of Wes Anderson and the Wilson brothers.
Now,
What part of Mexico are you from?
Paraguay.
Friday, February 9, 2018
405 - Armageddon, United States, 1998. Dir. Michael Bay.
Friday, February 8, 2018
405 - Armageddon, United States, 1998. Dir. Michael Bay.
Imagine how mundane and esoteric an advertisement could potentially be.
Let us say that you wish to promote dairy. You are a member of the 1993 California Milk Processor Board. Your reach is local.
I am asleep already.
You partner with the national Milk Processor Education Program to expand your reach nationally.
Wake me up when it is over.
You decide to make a television commercial that takes place in a museum. I like that, but you have just lost half your audience.
It will feature classical music. I love that, but you have just lost half more.
It will focus on a quasi obscure moment in America history. The duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr.
Aaron who?
Everyone watching TV has now gone to the bathroom.
You have no audience.
Your campaign will go the way of all goody messages that have earnestly admonished schoolchildren, only to have them go out and do the opposite.
Unless you make it cool.
Unless you ask a 28-year old music video director to direct your commercial.
And ask a simple two-word question?
Got Milk?
And suddenly rock stars line up be photographed with a milk mustache.
And your ad campaign runs for twenty-one years. And is copied and parodied by brands the world over.
And is directly responsible for the sales of billions of pounds of fluid milk per year.
And is cited as one of the greatest ad campaigns in history. With that one commercial named one of the top ten greatest commercials ever made.
That is the power of Michael Bay.
Yes, the ad agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners stumbled upon the initial genius.
But they hired the right man to launch it.
If Michael Bay had not directed that first commercial, the whole campaign might never have been as effective as it came to be.
And an entire generation of people might have more brittle bones today.
When your doctor tells you your calcium levels are good, you know whom you can thank.
In 1981 Michael Bay was a Production Intern on Raiders of the Lost Ark. He was 15 years old.
Within a few years he was directing music videos.
Tyler Collins, Gregg Allman, Donny Osmond, Poco, Richard Marx, Vanilla Ice, Slaughter, The Neville Brothers, Styx, Chicago, Winger, Great White, Divinyls, House of Lords, Young MC, Tina Turner, Wilson Phillips, Lionel Ritchie, Meat Loaf, Aerosmith.
Ah, yes. Aerosmith. I wonder if that Aerosmith music video had an impact on Bay's career.
Then he made those commercials.
Got Milk? Nike. Miller Lite. Bugle Boy. Victoria's Secret. Levi's. Isuzu. Mercedes-Benz. Saturn. Chevy. Some say as many as 300 of them.
Michael Bay invented a unique visual style and influenced a generation of filmmakers.
When you hear people refer to "MTV-style editing," they are not referring to a filmmaker who was influenced by MTV. They are referring to a filmmaker who helped make MTV.
Whatever you think of him, he is an auteur. A man with a singular vision. A man who changed the way people watch things.
But he also makes money.
And ladies and gentlemen, in the world of show business, the business is just as important as the show.
In 1995 he began making movies.
Bad Boys (1995). The Rock (1996). Armageddon (1998). Pearl Harbor (2001). Bad Boys II (2003). The Island (2005). Transformers (2007). Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009). Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011). Pain & Gain (2013). Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014). 13 Hours (2016). Transformers: The Last Knight (2017).
Let us look at these films from a financial standpoint.
How many of them have lost money?
NONE.
Which ones underperformed? Only two. The Island and 13 Hours.
And what does underperforming mean?
The Island only made a 29.37% return on investment, and 13 Hours only made a 38% return on investment.
Only.
What businessman would not spring for that kind of action? And those are the underperformers?
Someone please give me an investment that performs that poorly.
The current average savings account has an annual percentage yield of 0.06%.
The current core interest rate year over year is 1.8%.
If you have a dollar in your savings account today, then this time next year it will be worth $1.0006, rounded to $1.00.
But the product you wanted to buy for a dollar will then cost $1.018, rounded to $1.02.
Multiply it out. $100.06 vs. $101.80. $1000.60 vs. $1,018. $10,006 vs. $10,180.
You can no longer afford it. Your purchasing power is going backwards.
How is that savings account working out for you?
I know a good firepit you could throw your cash in.
But if his underperformers made 29% and 38% ROI, what did his other movies make?
ALL THE REST OF HIS MOVIES HAVE MADE BETWEEN A 110% (Bad Boys) and a 642% (Bad Boys II) return on investment.
That means at worst you double your money and at best you get seven times as much in return.
The average ROI on all thirteen of his movies is 283.2%. The average ROI not counting The Island and 13 Hours is 328.57%. The average ROI of the four Transformers movies he directed is 348.74%.
If you put $20 million into something and get $80 to $120 million back, or if you put $120 million and get $300 to $500 million back, or if you put $200 million into something and get $1 billion back, what do you call that?
A sound investment.
More reliable than Bitcoin.
So for those who roll their eyes and complains that they are already working on Transformers 7 and Transformers 8, we have one question for them.
Are you stupid?
Michael Bay has created a machine for making money and you are complaining? How about the thousands of people who have jobs because of him.
What are you doing to provide incomes for thousands of other people?
Michael Bay is only 52. That is astonishing.
He did much of his most influential work in his 20s and 30s.
But let us get back to the movie at hand.
And discuss the aesthetics.
If you saw Armageddon twenty years ago, you may have enjoyed it at the time. Then, over the next twenty years, you may have grown to laugh at it. How silly. How unrealistic. How outrageous.
Let us all make fun of Michael Bay because that is the thing to do.
But when was the last time you watched it?
Watch it again.
Armageddon is entertaining.
It is not Ingmar Bergman, but it is not trying to be. It is a Summer Blockbuster.
And as Summer blockbusters go, it is up there. A great ensemble cast filled with major movie stars. A high concept. A monster soundtrack. Special effects which frankly hold up quite well for the time period. An impossible task without enough time to do it. A love triangle, in this case between father, daughter, and boyfriend. Drama. Self-sacrifice. Heroism.
And the quick cutting is not that big a deal. And not as quick as you might remember. We are so used to that style by now that this application of it seems tame.
The cutting certainly seems slower than a Jason Bourne movie directed Paul Greengrass.
And for those of you who love J. J. Abrams, the director of both Star Wars and Star Trek movies, the creator of Felicity and Alias and Lost, do not forget that he co-wrote the screenplay for Armageddon.
There is a lot about Armageddon that is not great. Underwritten characters. Bad lines. Weak acting. But it has a solid narrative structure and it hits all its beats. And Billy Bob Thornton and Bruce Willis are solid. Doing what they do best.
There are times when you want fine dining and times when you want a cheeseburger. This movie is a cheeseburger.
Lacking the nuances of flavor that a great chef would put in it.
Made for mass consumption.
Something to grab at a drive-through when you are on the go.
And yet it is hot and juicy.
And you love every bite of it.
As you smack your lips in the car on the way to your next errand.
This is a movie to watch with your family and friends on a Friday night on a big TV with the sound turned up loud.
When you don't want to close your eyes.
When you don't want to fall asleep.
Cause you'd miss your baby
And you don't want to miss a thing.
* * * * *
Look at this cast:
Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, Will Patton, Steve Buscemi, William Fichtner, Owen Wilson, Michael Clarke Duncan, Peter Stormare, Grace Zabriskie, Lawrence Tierney, and Charlton Heston.
405 - Armageddon, United States, 1998. Dir. Michael Bay.
Imagine how mundane and esoteric an advertisement could potentially be.
Let us say that you wish to promote dairy. You are a member of the 1993 California Milk Processor Board. Your reach is local.
I am asleep already.
You partner with the national Milk Processor Education Program to expand your reach nationally.
Wake me up when it is over.
You decide to make a television commercial that takes place in a museum. I like that, but you have just lost half your audience.
It will feature classical music. I love that, but you have just lost half more.
It will focus on a quasi obscure moment in America history. The duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr.
Aaron who?
Everyone watching TV has now gone to the bathroom.
You have no audience.
Your campaign will go the way of all goody messages that have earnestly admonished schoolchildren, only to have them go out and do the opposite.
Unless you make it cool.
Unless you ask a 28-year old music video director to direct your commercial.
And ask a simple two-word question?
Got Milk?
And suddenly rock stars line up be photographed with a milk mustache.
And your ad campaign runs for twenty-one years. And is copied and parodied by brands the world over.
And is directly responsible for the sales of billions of pounds of fluid milk per year.
And is cited as one of the greatest ad campaigns in history. With that one commercial named one of the top ten greatest commercials ever made.
That is the power of Michael Bay.
Yes, the ad agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners stumbled upon the initial genius.
But they hired the right man to launch it.
If Michael Bay had not directed that first commercial, the whole campaign might never have been as effective as it came to be.
And an entire generation of people might have more brittle bones today.
When your doctor tells you your calcium levels are good, you know whom you can thank.
In 1981 Michael Bay was a Production Intern on Raiders of the Lost Ark. He was 15 years old.
Within a few years he was directing music videos.
Tyler Collins, Gregg Allman, Donny Osmond, Poco, Richard Marx, Vanilla Ice, Slaughter, The Neville Brothers, Styx, Chicago, Winger, Great White, Divinyls, House of Lords, Young MC, Tina Turner, Wilson Phillips, Lionel Ritchie, Meat Loaf, Aerosmith.
Ah, yes. Aerosmith. I wonder if that Aerosmith music video had an impact on Bay's career.
Then he made those commercials.
Got Milk? Nike. Miller Lite. Bugle Boy. Victoria's Secret. Levi's. Isuzu. Mercedes-Benz. Saturn. Chevy. Some say as many as 300 of them.
Michael Bay invented a unique visual style and influenced a generation of filmmakers.
When you hear people refer to "MTV-style editing," they are not referring to a filmmaker who was influenced by MTV. They are referring to a filmmaker who helped make MTV.
Whatever you think of him, he is an auteur. A man with a singular vision. A man who changed the way people watch things.
But he also makes money.
And ladies and gentlemen, in the world of show business, the business is just as important as the show.
In 1995 he began making movies.
Bad Boys (1995). The Rock (1996). Armageddon (1998). Pearl Harbor (2001). Bad Boys II (2003). The Island (2005). Transformers (2007). Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009). Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011). Pain & Gain (2013). Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014). 13 Hours (2016). Transformers: The Last Knight (2017).
Let us look at these films from a financial standpoint.
How many of them have lost money?
NONE.
Which ones underperformed? Only two. The Island and 13 Hours.
And what does underperforming mean?
The Island only made a 29.37% return on investment, and 13 Hours only made a 38% return on investment.
Only.
What businessman would not spring for that kind of action? And those are the underperformers?
Someone please give me an investment that performs that poorly.
The current average savings account has an annual percentage yield of 0.06%.
The current core interest rate year over year is 1.8%.
If you have a dollar in your savings account today, then this time next year it will be worth $1.0006, rounded to $1.00.
But the product you wanted to buy for a dollar will then cost $1.018, rounded to $1.02.
Multiply it out. $100.06 vs. $101.80. $1000.60 vs. $1,018. $10,006 vs. $10,180.
You can no longer afford it. Your purchasing power is going backwards.
How is that savings account working out for you?
I know a good firepit you could throw your cash in.
But if his underperformers made 29% and 38% ROI, what did his other movies make?
ALL THE REST OF HIS MOVIES HAVE MADE BETWEEN A 110% (Bad Boys) and a 642% (Bad Boys II) return on investment.
That means at worst you double your money and at best you get seven times as much in return.
The average ROI on all thirteen of his movies is 283.2%. The average ROI not counting The Island and 13 Hours is 328.57%. The average ROI of the four Transformers movies he directed is 348.74%.
If you put $20 million into something and get $80 to $120 million back, or if you put $120 million and get $300 to $500 million back, or if you put $200 million into something and get $1 billion back, what do you call that?
A sound investment.
More reliable than Bitcoin.
So for those who roll their eyes and complains that they are already working on Transformers 7 and Transformers 8, we have one question for them.
Are you stupid?
Michael Bay has created a machine for making money and you are complaining? How about the thousands of people who have jobs because of him.
What are you doing to provide incomes for thousands of other people?
Michael Bay is only 52. That is astonishing.
He did much of his most influential work in his 20s and 30s.
But let us get back to the movie at hand.
And discuss the aesthetics.
If you saw Armageddon twenty years ago, you may have enjoyed it at the time. Then, over the next twenty years, you may have grown to laugh at it. How silly. How unrealistic. How outrageous.
Let us all make fun of Michael Bay because that is the thing to do.
But when was the last time you watched it?
Watch it again.
Armageddon is entertaining.
It is not Ingmar Bergman, but it is not trying to be. It is a Summer Blockbuster.
And as Summer blockbusters go, it is up there. A great ensemble cast filled with major movie stars. A high concept. A monster soundtrack. Special effects which frankly hold up quite well for the time period. An impossible task without enough time to do it. A love triangle, in this case between father, daughter, and boyfriend. Drama. Self-sacrifice. Heroism.
And the quick cutting is not that big a deal. And not as quick as you might remember. We are so used to that style by now that this application of it seems tame.
The cutting certainly seems slower than a Jason Bourne movie directed Paul Greengrass.
And for those of you who love J. J. Abrams, the director of both Star Wars and Star Trek movies, the creator of Felicity and Alias and Lost, do not forget that he co-wrote the screenplay for Armageddon.
There is a lot about Armageddon that is not great. Underwritten characters. Bad lines. Weak acting. But it has a solid narrative structure and it hits all its beats. And Billy Bob Thornton and Bruce Willis are solid. Doing what they do best.
There are times when you want fine dining and times when you want a cheeseburger. This movie is a cheeseburger.
Lacking the nuances of flavor that a great chef would put in it.
Made for mass consumption.
Something to grab at a drive-through when you are on the go.
And yet it is hot and juicy.
And you love every bite of it.
As you smack your lips in the car on the way to your next errand.
This is a movie to watch with your family and friends on a Friday night on a big TV with the sound turned up loud.
When you don't want to close your eyes.
When you don't want to fall asleep.
Cause you'd miss your baby
And you don't want to miss a thing.
* * * * *
Look at this cast:
Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, Will Patton, Steve Buscemi, William Fichtner, Owen Wilson, Michael Clarke Duncan, Peter Stormare, Grace Zabriskie, Lawrence Tierney, and Charlton Heston.
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