Antoni Gaudi – This
doc about the maverick Spanish architect
is a stunning piece of visual poetry.
Gaudi’s work is unique – it would be impossible to mistake his work for
that of anyone else, and this flowing, largely dialogue-free catalogue of his major
works was a major rush for me. Japanese
director Hiroshi Teshigahara (The Woman in the Dunes) simply lets the images do
the talking here, and if you are into architecture, this is a must-see.
Each Dawn I Die – Above-average prison drama from 1939 stars
James Cagney as a reporter who is framed for murder by a crooked politician,
and gets sent to prison. George Raft
plays a career hood with whom he strikes up a friendship in the joint. It’s fun
to see these two legendary tough guys play off each other, and the plot is
interesting and pretty hard-edged for its era. Recommended.
Hells Angels on Wheels – Sorta fun biker flick from 1967
stars a pre-superstardom Jack Nicholson as a bored gas station attendant who
hooks up with Hells Angels. The film is truly a product of its times, as there
is lots of sex, alcohol, and drugs, but it is to the films credit that there is
a somber undercurrent to all the Hedonism onscreen. Nicholson’s Poet is first
taken in by the lifestyle, but gradually begins to see how selfish and
irresponsible these people are. Some good performances and terrific location
photography make up for some of the films weaker points.
Pitfall – Truly strange ghost story from Hiroshi Teshigahara
revolves around an itinerant miner who is murdered by a mysterious man in
white, and who comes back as a spirit and observes the aftermath. You really, really
can’t encapsulate this film in a few sentences. Also included are another man who
is the double of the murdered man, a female shopkeeper who also ends up murdered
and coming back, and a sub-plot about politics between two rival unions. I do recommend it, however, because it’s such
a stylistic free-for-all. Besides the beautiful barren locate, there are fast
cuts, backward shots, freeze frames and hand-held-shots – The works.
The Face of Another – Another from Teshigahara, this is the
story of a man badly scarred in an accident who gets a new lease on life with a
“face transplant”. The man evolves from being a sullen recluse to an amoral
blank slate, and the films beauty lies in how it tackles the issue of how we
maintain our humanity if all the checks and balances in our lives were to
suddenly be gone. It is slow in places, but TFoA is a visual tour-de-force in
many of the same ways that Pitfall is. Both films are available from Criterion,
and I recommend both.
How The West Was Won – Big budget epic Western from 1962
covers the trials of one American family through settlement, the gold Rush, the
Civil War, and the coming of the railways. This was an ensemble bit of
filmmaking, with the different segments being directed by such titans as John
Ford and Henry Hathaway, and starring the likes of John Wayne, James Stewart,
Gregory Peck, Henry Fonda and Richard Widmark. This is such a huge story, that
it's predictable that it doesn’t get everything right, but there are a lot of
good things here, like a buffalo stampede through a settlement, and a terrific
shoot-out on a moving train. There are also some musical numbers that don’t
really belong, however, and a couple of supporting roles that are a bit embarrassing
(Karl Maldens’, for instance). Shot in ultra-wide-screen Cinerama format (Example below)
No comments:
Post a Comment