And, I know Sundays are a riot of television riches right now, and all our dvrs are on the verge of catching fire, but do yourself a favor and make some room for this 1936 film, starring Walter Huston (John Huston's da), Ruth Chatterton, and Mary Astor.
Ruth Chatterton and Mary Astor in Dodsworth (1936)
Dodsworth, which is based on a novel by Sinclair Lewis and a play version of said novel by Sidney Howard -- Howard wrote the screenplay -- is about as bracingly fresh, adult, and sophisticated on the subject of marriage as any film you are ever likely to see. And, in one very important respect the then recent reinstatement of a now no longer toothless Production Code certainly worked in the team's favor: All those separate beds for Huston and Chatterton's married couple? Makes perfect sense. There is no way that married couple sleeps together anymore.
Howard's script time and again brilliantly evokes the type of conversations that real married couples have. There is nothing phony or artificial about the way Huston or Chatterton or Astor express their desires for marriage, happiness, or social standing. And, Hollywood legend Rudolph Maté's use of deep focus, combined with director William Wyler's immaculate and meticulous scene blocking only enhance the drama; placing the viewer inside the film itself.
There are performances to die for here. Huston, who did the Broadway Dodsworth role before the film, and Astor, in particular. Astor has two moments in the film that are both so simple and understated, yet splinteringly evocative. Ms Astor was never more beautiful, as well.
Dodsworth is a sophisticated and honest film for grown-ups about grown-ups. It is as relevant today as it was in 1936. And, it is organized and produced so perfectly that you can tell that every single member of the production team -- actors, writers, design, and technical crew -- absolutely gave it their all to make the finest film they could.
There are no spoilers here because I am recommending this masterpiece about as highly as I can recommend any film. See it for yourself. You will not regret it.
Am I the only one who believes that the most recent installment of Sherlock, entitled The Sign of Three, and which is the eighth "film" of the series, was their finest one yet?
The Wife and I practically wanted to applaud at its conclusion. At home. Moreover, I believe that Sherlock's absolutely brilliant best man speech will be talked about at weddings, and copied, or referenced/nodded to for the next ten years or more in both the US and UK.
Television on Sundays right now is sick with amazing greatness.
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And, quickly, and completely unrelated to television or Sherlock Holmes, I would like to say that David Thomson's most recent book, Moments That Made the Movies, is vastly superior to his previous book.
Thomson picks about seventy moments from different films and writes around five hundred words on each one. He touches on Don't Look Now, Pandora's Box, Chinatown, Citizen Kane, The Red Shoes, etc, and etc, ...
The real big highlights for me personally were his thoughts on Mary Astor's stunning acting choices and execution in Dodsworth (I swear, I will write about Dodsworth tomorrow! I swear!), and his thoughts on Celine and Julie Go Boating. Where he sums up a delicious cinema paradox for me that I have personally been dealing with for years now.
I quote,
"This film has not yet been put on DVD in America, and I like it all the more for that. So, it is hard to get at, elusive, difficult to see -- and its length has always put it in some box-office peril. Still, we should not not be deceived by the chronic availability of DVDs. We need to know that there are unattainable things, or films that we must search for. Or wait for.There is no desire without that frustration. The ability to dial up any movie on our computer or our inner eye may be useful, and it will surely come to pass, but it is one of the things that may drain away the quality of desire in the medium."
So flipping beautiful and right. Thank you Mr Thomson. Again. (The emphasis in the quote is mine. I hope he will forgive me.)
One of those movies that really can change your life. Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974)
Starring Greta Garbo, is deliriously dopey. But I love it anyway. I love it because of the swooning racy sexiness of the opening sequences, which were shot by the original director Mauritz Stiller; and because Garbo literally consumes the audience through the screen. This was a new type of eroticism, and audiences ate it up. She became one of the biggest stars in the world after the picture.
Garbo in The Temptress (1926)
Stiller was Garbo's very strict mentor. He was the one who got caps for her teeth, and insisted she lose weight. Louis B Mayer hired both of them from Sweden as a package deal, but it was really Garbo he had his eye on. As soon as he possibly could, Mayer had Stiller removed from the director's chair for The Temptress, and replaced him with Fred Niblo. The crew and cast were particularly cruel to Stiller on the set, and there was a definite language barrier problem. Stiller was crushed, and returned back to Sweden post haste. Two years later he was dead.
Garbo, of course, stayed and became Garbo.
The Temptress, as silly as it is, (bullwhip duels, dam building in the Argentine, Jesus in a Paris cafe) still comes highly recommended by me. Heck, it is worth it alone for Stiller's amazing risque banquet sequence, which gives new meaning to the phrase Upstairs Downstairs.
Garbo
And, if you are interested in checking out Stiller's work, watch his 1920 Swedish silent masterpiece, Erotikon, which I have discussed, at length, in this space before.
About Carl Th Dreyer's La Passion de Jeanne D'Arc in Judy Jones and William Wilson's absolutely crucial and essential book, An Incomplete Education (which I will continue to link to, and gush about in this space until the whole world owns a copy.)
The Passion of Joan of Arc was one of a dozen films the authors spoke of as "Remedial Watching for the Baby-Boom Generation" in their chapter on film. Still, as intrigued as I was, and what with being constantly reminded of not only the film's importance, but its greatness, as well, I was still reluctant to watch it. Part of it is the old cynical prejudice most of us bear whenever we feel that something great is being forced upon us. Also, there is the fact that until recently I had a normal modern red-blooded bias against silent films. (Ernst Lubitsch, Sunrise, Greta Garbo, and David Thomson have cured me of that.) And, another part of it was the way the film was being described to me. As many of you know, I am not a big guy for Passion in art. Serious emotive feeling in art gives me the willies most of the time. Although, of course there are exceptions. I am a romantic at heart, who appreciates passion best through an armored window of irony.
“In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity, is the vital thing.” Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest
So, I basically knew in 1987, when I first learned about this film, that this was probably not my kind of film.
Yet, over this last year, there was a certain momentum building that finally brought us together. I had conducted a movie poll; La Passion made the Sight & Sound's Top Ten list again in 2012 (#9); David Thomson wrote about it in a few different books; and most importantly, the scene in Godard's Vivre sa vie, where Anna Karina watches the film alone in a theater and cries with Falconetti as Joan of Arc.
It was time. TCM showed it on Silent Sundays a couple of days ago, and I made it the prime feature for the Wife and I on Monday evening.
Well, I had nothing to worry about, after all. The key phrase from above in this case would be: "Although, of course there are exceptions." The folks is right. The Passion of Joan of Arc is truly an absolute Masterpiece, and although it might never make my personal Top Ten List, it is one of the greatest motion pictures I have ever seen.
I understand now why Falconetti never acted again. She appears to have been literally drained to a husk before being burned at the stake. Watching her suffering throughout the film almost suggests that the crew and the director must have been verbally abusing her throughout the process.
And, as nearly every single shot in the film is a close-up, it is in the close-ups of her face, where you can actually see bars reflected in her eyes, that her reality from seven centuries ago literally grabs you by the lapel and demands you pay attention.
Of course, the spare expressionistic sets (crosses everywhere!) by Hermann Warm (he worked on The Cabinet of Dr Caligari) and the white hot, crisp as a new sheet of paper lighting are essential to the story of why this film succeeds as it does. The production design and lighting dictate a brutal (yet transparent) interrogational style that are keys to the film's greatness.
But, it is all those close-ups. It is all those faces. With warts and wrinkles and grimy fingernails, and flies being brushed aside by actors. That is what brings home such an old story to a modern audience. This film makes you Joan! All those nasty old men constantly berating you, and abusing you; so close to you that you feel the spit from their mouths as they speak. You are a husk before being burned at the stake.
But, there are four little details about this film I would like to mention before signing off:
In a few of the scenes, you can see the illustration of a dragon on one of the walls right outside the room Joan was held captive in.
I love the carnival outside the castle, that presumably is performing at the same time that Joan would be executed; all the freaks showing their 'wares', taking advantage of the situation, an opportunity to make money.
The mother nursing her child as Joan burns, and
Near the end of the picture, way in the back of one shot, there is a man, hanging dead from a scaffold.
Sometimes the folks is right, and there are exceptions to every rule.
And it took me forever (way too long) to finally see it, but Céline et Julie vont en bateau, a film by Jacques Rivette from 1974, is everything you have claimed and/or promised, and is an absolutely delectable, magical wonderful treat that everyone should see.
And, myself, I even had a magical dream like reaction to it last night. The film is long, over three hours, so I was watching it in pieces, and I fell asleep during a certain part, and when I awoke, there was a funny taste in my mouth, and, and as I lifted my body to a sitting position on the sofa, and leaned my head forward, I had the strangest but v real sensation that something had fallen out of my mouth and onto the carpet. (A sweet?)
Dominique Labourier as Julie
I do not know how Rivette and his amazing actors, Dominique Labourier as Julie and Juliet Berto as Céline, do this. The film seems so simply made. I am not completely in touch with how the spell is cast, so much as still enchanted by the spell itself.
I v easily caught on to the Alice in Wonderland reference, and understand the power of magic, tarot, and telepathy in this film; and the melodramatic mystery that plays like a film loop in the haunted house (7 bis, rue du Nadir-aux-Pommes) makes perfect sense to me, coming from a filmmaker who makes extremely long films, of a theatrical nature, suggesting that cinema is life, life is cinema, and that if we find the magical key (a sweet?) we can enter the picture and change cinema, and change our own lives.
Labourier as Julie and Juliet Berto as Céline
Yet, still, I do not know if I am seriously fully able to examine this motion picture. In fact, I know I am not. But, I will say this: This is a childlike motion picture that is very grown up. This is a Woman's Picture. This is a murder mystery. This motion picture is literally an incantation, a movie spell cast upon all of us. It is a very real and human film that forcefully suggests in the slyest sort of way that magic is real, and we only need to find the key within each of us to make magic alive.
Once again, Thank you David Thomson, for a couple of books you have written, that have been my personal key to a whole new magical world of cinema that I had no idea existed before I "met" them, and "you".
The documentary, Room 237, is something I think I might like to eventually own. I love how the filmmakers give their five witnesses just enough rope to hang themselves on, but still make such an intoxicating film that has such a notable creepy seductive power.
Watching, you want to believe that these witnesses might just have the key that will finally open you up to all the really dark scary things our lives contain.
It is a wholesome attempt, but falls just short, in the end. These folks, witnesses, ultimately begin to seem "oh, my friends/and, oh, my foes" more than a bit silly.
Many of the things they talk about are patently ludicrous and "made up" by a slavish devotion to the notion that Kubrick would never have a continuity error in The Shining. It must be a conscious choice! They give entirely too much credit to Kubrick, practically resting supine in the glow of Kubrick's aura.
But, the film is so objective, and earnest, in such a good-natured way, that you start to believe that there might just be applications like these for other films, or other types of art. One of the witnesses insists that even if Kubrick did not honestly intend for all those messages to be conveyed through The Shining, that some or many of the secret messages that he has divined from the film are very likely the result of Kubrick's subconscious instead. Nice way to cover your behind.
I am a big Intentional Fallacy kind of guy, anyway. And a sucker sometimes for conspiracy theories, if only to challenge existing views critically, break them down, and then destroy them for my own personal security blanket reasons.
I read all those subliminal advertising paperbacks back in the day. And, I used to be heavily in to Astrology as a child, and still enjoy it in a lighthearted fun sort of way today.
These witnesses might enrich my experience of watching The Shining again. But, I have seen it so many times, and, strangely enough after watching Room 237, I was more eager to watch other Kubrick films, i.e. Lolita, Full Metal Jacket, 2001, and Barry Lyndon, that I might be more apt in the near future to want to watch the criticism (Room 237) more than the text (The Shining).
Ever since the election ended I have dedicated myself wholeheartedly and obsessively to the cinema. I am trying to watch at least one film (or quality television program) a day, and often I am watching more than one. Yesterday, I watched the second episode of season two of The Hour; Fritz Lang's seamy, cheap, gut wrenching film, Scarlet Street; and started -- which I will finish today. Gosh! Capra used to be good! -- Ladies of Leisure, directed by Frank Capra, which features the debut of Barbara Stanwyck. ("Have you got a cigarette?" is the first clearly audible speech of her career.) And, I have got a lot on my plate for today, too. I would like to watch Gloria Grahame's first film, Blonde Fever; Crossfire; The Woman in the Window; The Bitter Tea of General Yen, etc, ...
"Missy", Barbara Stanwyck
And, then there all the films (and "films") recently I have seen, that my (healthy) obsession is such that I can barely keep up writing about them in this space: Ullmer's Detour and Ruthless; Elena; Flame and Citron; Treme; Young Adult (It is a fucking joke, just as I expected); Kiss Me Deadly; Ninotchka; Peep Show; Side by Side; The Rockford Files (I swear I am going to do a post on this series. It is unbelievably solid, perfect, and a force for good); The Naked City (awful); Mid-August Lunch and The Salt of Life (both so touching and special), etc, ...
I am hopelessly what David Thomson would call a cinephile, and part of the blame has all to do with him. But, I was before what I am now, only much larger and louder re the cinema.
It was both exhilarating and a little scary to read these words by Thomson, in a blog post for The New Republic re the 2012 Sight and Sound Greatest Films Poll:
The cunning thing about modern movie technology is that if you want to be a cinephile, instead of a moviegoer, it can be arranged. Cinephile is a classy word, one that suggests a careful superiority and the unquestioned notion that film or cinema is an art, to be preserved and enjoyed in the way Alistair Cooke once ushered in what was really “Masterpiece Television.” (Of course, the true energy of TV, like movies, was interested in sensation, not in masterpieces. “Laugh-In” and “Monty Python” were strokes of genius, but they were also manifestations of the remote control device, that wand of the urchin gods.)
So as the movies are dying, you can choose to ignore the awkward stink. Cinephiles watch Turner Classic Movies and subscribe to Netflix. They swear by Criterion. They may be within reach of a film museum, and even a repertory house. They go to silent screen festivals, and revel in the club-like mood of their packed houses. Cinephiles have their rows of DVDs, and we can watch our best Blu-Rays of the golden oldies, and nod in agreement to the admission in Ozu’s Tokyo Story (1953, third place) that “life is disappointing, isn’t it?” In the directors’ poll that ran alongside the critics’ poll, directors said Tokyo Story was the best film ever made, leaving us to wonder why more directors don’t try to make sad, quiet, restrained films about family life instead of The Hunger Games or Killer Joe.
It is to avoid the vulgarity and the violence of those films (to say nothing of the chatty young audience) that older cinephiles stay at home nursing their Criterion securities. They have never had it so good, or so misleading. But they need to know that the investment in their Blu-Rays is allowing the companies that hold the negatives and the prints to treat those things with mounting disdain. That’s how digital projection is taking over, and why good projectors and projectionists are hard to find. Inevitably, this will lead to foreclosure for most theaters. But don’t worry: new movies will be released on any Pad you have, streaming, screaming, and available for interruptions of all sorts. “Moviegoing” may become as quaint a term as “home theatricals.”
It is frightening, indeed, to be called out so plainly on the interwebs. Called out, yet, still so proud of my cinephile status.
I also masochistically love Lena Dunham's statement in the great doc, Side by Side -- I am paraphrasing -- "I don't know anyone who goes to the movies anymore as a date. Now, it is, 'Would you like to come over to my house and watch Netflix on my computer?' Which is really just an excuse for a twenty-four year old guy to get his date on his bed."
Here is Thomson's article for The New Republic in full. The finest thing he has written in years, perhaps even greater than his most recent book, The Big Screen. (Though, I have not finished it yet.) And, he (and the Sight and Sound critics) are right: The Man with a Movie Camera is an absolute magical, majestical delight of filmmaking. I do wish so that Thomson is right, and that our new technologies, and tiny screens, will lead to filmmaking like this.
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But, a large portion of this post, and what I would like to speak of today is the 2012 General, the OEE (Orchestrated Electoral Extravaganza), if you will. And, how I did with my November 4th predictions. And, if I do dare say so myself, I did spectacularly well.
Here is the link to the post in full. Below, I will dissect the post for you, and inform you on how I did.
I am not going to bury the lede.
The good guys are going to win this thing on Tuesday. And, we will know that the good guys have won on Tuesday evening. I am guessing that Obama will break the two-hundred and seventy electoral vote threshold at about a quarter after eight PM PST.
... With Nick C and my Wife as my witness, the networks called Ohio for Obama at 8:18 PM PST. Ohio was the state that put Obama over the two-hundred and seventy electoral vote threshold and also had the bonus effect of making Karl Rove's head explode on national teevee ...
All the shenanigans in Ohio and Florida, and the True the Vote douchewackets will not be able to steal this election for the GOP. Women, all across this nation, are going to come out in full force on Tuesday and nail this thing down for Obama/Biden.
... Women made up fifty-four per cent of the 2012 OEE electorate, and went for Obama over Romney fifty-five to forty-four ...
Here is what the map will look like. Obama will win the Electoral College 332-206.
... I, and many others, including Nate Silver and kos, were one-hundred per cent right on this. Obama won every state we said he would and the final electoral college vote was 332-206 ...
Obama will win the National Popular vote fifty to forty-seven.
... According to kos, updated just two days ago, the current 2012 OEE popular vote stands at (rounding up) fifty-one to forty-seven, Obama over Romney ...
Democrats will maintain control of the Senate, with a fifty-three to forty-six edge. No one knows what that crazy guy in Maine is going to do, who he will caucus with, whatever, ... ... The crazy guy in Maine won, and no one still REALLY knows which party he will caucus with, but the new Senate line-up in January will be fifty-four D and forty-five R ...
Obama will still have to deal with an intransigent GOP House of Representatives, of which the GOP will have a majority of 238-197. As much as I would like to see loony tunes Michele Bachmann ousted in Minnesota, I do not think it will happen.
... Bachmann won, but Allen West was defeated in Florida. The new House will be 234 R and 201 D ...
Claire McCaskill will defeat Todd Akin; Professor -- boy, did that strategy backfire -- Elizabeth Warren will become Senator Warren; Joe Donnelly will defeat Dick Mourdock; Tester will win in Montana; Kaine will win in Virginia; Heitkamp will lose in North Dakota; and Tammy Baldwin will win in Wisconsin.
... I was right about every single one of these predictions except for Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota. AND, right around the time I wrote this post, days before the election, I had a dream that Ms Heitkamp was at my store with her husband, and I commiserated with her about losing the election. In the dream she was very upset with me and stormed off. So there is that ...
And, Joe Walsh will be thrown out on his ear, and will become a whackjob Fox News contributor.
... Joe Walsh WAS thrown out on his ear, but there is no news on whether Fox News has hired him yet ...
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This is kind of an odd post, right? What was up with all that stuff about my cinema habits and the David Thomson cinephile stuff? Why did I bury the lede, quoting an old post that was titled: I am not going to bury the lede?
My point is that I did so well with my predictions because of my naturally addictive, obsessive nature. I do not have any insider friends, or secret knowledge of the political game. I did so well with my predictions because I read a lot. (Or, as Chloe Sevigny says in Whit Stillman's excellent Last Days of Disco, "I read a lot.") I completely immersed myself in to the OEE horserace, like I do with everything that I deeply care about.
I did so well with my predictions because of my passionate nature. Whatever it is that I am interested in is something that I will throw myself in to (sometimes recklessly) with every last ounce of my spiritual and physical energy. Of course, some of my friends and lovers have questioned these directions of energies, that perhaps they are wasted on frivolous things, instead of something more productive or rewarding. And, they have a point.
To wit, the last three times my "teams" have won major titles -- the Sooners and Stars at the turn of the most recent century and the Mavericks in 2011 -- I was horribly sick right after they had won. See here. Basically, what was happening is that my body had to shut down, it could not cope anymore with the psychic/spiritual demands laid upon it.
I was not sick after Obama's reelection, but was confronted with a couple of much more serious vulnerabilities of my character. Serious things that I need to work on to become a better person.
I am confident that I can do the things I need to do to insure a rich rewarding rest of my life with Renee and all my closest friends without stifling my passionate spirit.
Going back and forth to eat, read my David Thomson book, watch episodes of Veep, and the film, The Names of Love -- a splendid love story about family, parents, religion, love, and, yes, politics.
It is going to be a rollercoaster ride, and it is going to be close. Honestly, my advice to my friends and loved ones is to go outside if the weather permits, and do not take your smartphone with you. If you have to stay indoors, read a book, or watch The Names of Love.(Streaming on netflix.) And, if you are working, do not bother with updates, or dailykos, or the drudgereport. Let me do all that worrying for you. And, do not pay attention to exit polls!
Settle in for the prime time election results on your favorite network at around seven PM EST. That is when we will start getting results from Virginia.
Until then, relax, work, drink tea, read a book, curl up with your loved ones, your kitties, your puppies, whathaveyou, and, of course, go vote if you have not already.
And so can you! That is a link to the Explore Sight & Sound's 2012 Greatest Film Poll. Knock yourselves out. I have just barely scraped the surface. (No votes for All That Jazz, fourteen for Trouble in Paradise, three for Cabaret, etc, ... )
I will post a big big big rundown later this week.
I watched Man with a Movie Camera today (number eight on the 2012 Critics' List.) It is a majestic, gorgeous, magical little "documentary" that I will purchase through Amazon this weekend. More on that later, too.
There are oodles of artists, orchestras, and bands that have scored Man with a Movie Camera. This score, heard above, is by Cinematic Orchestra, and the video above is a one reel edit of the full seven reel film. I rented on Amazon streaming the version with Michael Nyman's score. The dvd I will buy has Nyman's score and one or two other choices, I believe.
Man with a Movie Camera is very ardently highly recommended.
So, here, is what one of my heroes, David Thomson, has to say about the upcoming Paul Thomas Anderson film, The Master, released in October. He is very excited, yes? My gosh, is he excited. And, his excruciatingly detailed critiques of two trailers for the film, each named (by him) for the months they were released, nearly makes me laugh.
(A quick aside, I love Thomson to pieces, precisely for thoughts like I just linked to above. Even when I do not agree with him. He is not a "critic", really, despite writing some of the finest film criticism ever. He is completely unashamed of revealing his prejudices, or, writing mash notes to his "crushes." That shows to me that he is in hopeless thrall to the cinema, much like I am.)
Meanwhile, here are Thomson's thoughts on the other Anderson's film, Moonrise Kingdom. He is quite plainly "over" Wes Anderson.
Nick C suggested that there might be warring camps at work here. That there are Wes fans who care naught for PT Anderson's films, like myself, and vice versa, like Thomson. I am sure there are plenty of folks, like Nick C, that admire both filmmakers, though Nick C seems to be considerably more wary about The Master, and its insane hype, than Thomson and other serious PT Anderson devotees.
I will admit that this is the first time I am even considering seeing a PT Anderson film in the cinema in a very long time, since Boogie Nights, I guess. But I am wary, too. For whatever reason, PT's pretension repels me, sickens me. Just as Wes' pretension delights.
Re movies. Every time I make a choice at home, or actually at the cinema, I am richly rewarded.
Screenshot from Erotikon, Tora Teje on the right.
Still, today's amazing epiphany, Erotikon, is all due to David Thomson, the critic and author who made me in to a cinema freak. He wrote about Erotikon in his amazing book, Have You Seen ... ?
But I had forgotten about it until a couple of weeks ago, and waited to find the right opportunity to seek it out and watch it.
Today was that day, home alone, lounging, relaxing, listening to soft breezes, having sandwiches, drinking rose, etc, ...
You can watch Erotikon for free on YouTube, but it is a Swedish silent film with Swedish intertitle cards, and those are actually subtitled in Italian. The film is pretty simple to understand, and you can go that route, but there are a lot of double entendres in the intertitles, so, I suggest you do what I have done and either rent the film digitally on Amazon or plain buy it digitally, to watch on your computer at home.
And, that is right. I said, that Erotikon is a Swedish silent film. From 1920, to boot. I know there are many folks out there who just can not do silent films. And, I understand that. There are a lot of really awful silent films out there, a lot of mugging, and crazy melodramatic claptrap. But there are so many good ones, too. Directors like Ernst Lubitsch, Jean Vigo, Luis Bunuel, Abel Gance, Sergei Eisenstein, FW Murnau, and dozens of others that made absolutely thrilling motion pictures. By the time "talkies" were inevitable most of these masters were so good at telling their stories that they had abandoned intertitles all together.
The director, Mauritz Stiller, is not well known. Well, at least not for directing. He is best known for being the man who discovered Greta Garbo. And he arranged a deal with Louis B Mayer at MGM to be part of a package deal with Garbo. Except Mayer turned Garbo in to the biggest star on the planet, and ignored Stiller, practically shunning him in to a return to Sweden. Stiller died within the year upon his return.
Which is a real shame. Because Erotikon is a flat-out masterpiece of the cinema. Erotikon, made in 1920, is hipper, more sophisticated, and more open about sex, than you, or me, for that matter. Watching scenes unspool, you begin to recognize situations from your own life, being replayed on the screen. It is essentially the story of a vaguely unsatisfied wife, and how dangerously close she will come to ruining a half dozen lives, by shamelessly flirting, and manipulating men to achieve her final goal. But there is no judgement here. She is not a slut. She is not a villain in this picture. There are no villains. She understands the consequences that might occur if she can not finally end up with the man she wants. And she is willing to pay the price, as well, with courage, dignity, and grace. Erotikon is all about the power of flirting (flirt is absolutely one of the prettiest, and finest words in the English language) and seduction. Erotikon is about how passion and love to some are always changeable and moving. This is taken as a matter of fact. Love is a crazy crazy creature that none of us will ever truly understand. It is better to be true to yourself than it is fit in to some correct societal norm that is smothering you.
Tora Teje in Erotikon.
And, let me not get away here first without mentioning our star, Tora Teje. Ms Teje is not particularly pretty, though she has her moments. But she radiates a simmering flirtatious radiant sexuality that burns up the screen. It is one of the sexiest performances I have seen from any actor in any film, period. Most of the time in a film, you get one, maybe two, or sometimes even three wildly sexy moments from actors. Ms Teje has over a half dozen in this ten reeler. The body language she uses; the elegant hand gestures; the way she looks at a subject or an actor; the sublime way she elongates her slender frame like a cat; and on and on. She literally makes you fall in love with her all over again at least once in every reel.
So, this is insanely highly recommended.
If you can get over the whole silent film "thing". (My advice is, if you find yourself getting bored, just take the film in pieces. Set aside twenty minutes or half hour or so and munch it up in bites over a few days.)
Mwah, ...
Ardent
UPDATE! 7/3/12: Two things I forgot to mention yesterday. First, the intertitle cards in Erotikon are beautiful. Each time a new major character is introduced in the film, we get a card telling us who the character is and who the actor is, playing them. Plus, the cards are lovely, each one with a different little art deco illustration that either comments on the character speaking the line, or the story.
And, second: Ingrid Bergman was five years old, and living in Stockholm, when Erotikon was released. I am certain she must have seen the film, growing up. Being the "broad-minded", "notorious" flirt that she was, I would like to think it was one of her favorite motion pictures.
Re Lena Dunham's HBO series, Girls, is a fantastic read. Here it is. And, apparently, he has the same itch wanting to be scratched that I do. That is, that these times are desperately crying out for our version of Citizen Kane. His suggestion that Ms Dunham be the one to do that is shrewd and more than just a good idea. Thomson is also correct that Girls simply can not sustain itself for any serious length of time. The subject matter does not allow it. They should wrap it up after two (or maybe) three seasons.
The "It" girl.
And, I would just like to say, with the caveat attached that Veep and Girls are by far the best things on television right now, that I did not like the turns both programs took last Sunday. I thought Girls went sappy and cheap, and that Veep just is not as good when it becomes too serious. (Though the last shot/scene of Veep was an absolute masterstroke last week. So, there is hope.) Actually, both programs will be fine, and I will seriously be suffering from withdrawal in a few weeks when they wrap. (Plus, we have Sorkin's The Newsroom to look forward to!) So, remember the caveat.
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Today is going to be a wonderful day. I can just feel it. And I do not even care that the Rangers lost 21-8 (!) yesterday.
Also, I am going to give you a Top Baker's Dozen, a lucky thirteen, if you will, on this rainy Bay Area Leap Day, 2012. Because "Real life is for March."
Casablanca viewed now, rather when it was new, is from a different perspective. The use of black and white rather than color, using a moving line on a map to show travel, and the newsreel type narration are from another era and add a nostalgic element. The title and location give an exotic and foreign feel to the movie.
Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman give great romantic performances, but it is the supporting actors that add so much flavor of the movie. Peter Lorre and Sidney Greenstreet play types with which they have come to be identified. Claude Rains as Captain Renault, is a cynic and opportunist who will make the best of any situation provides some humor.
Parts of dialog that have become recognizable one-liners include; “I was misinformed” (about the water) “round up the usual suspects”, “I am shocked to find gambling is going on here”, “Play it again Sam” have become famliar. The flashback to an earlier time in Paris was done well and links in the familiar “As Time Goes By” music that really adds to the appeal of the movie. The many little side stories and characters add interesting detail. and many cannot be accused of being too subtle
The movie was released during WWII and the aspect of self-sacrifice for the greater good and war time patriotism are obvious.
But it is the writting and direction that make Casablnca exceptional in my opinion.
This comment about Casablanca was provided from an anonymous contributor.
No. 2: The Godfather, Parts 1 & 2 (Coppola)
(10 votes -- 59 1/2 points)
Coppola's finest work. These films were not only Masterpieces of their time but were mammoth Box Office hits that crossed racial boundaries, unwittingly becoming one of the main inspirations for the Gangsta Rap movement.
The cinematography by Gordon Willis was sublime; the violence depicted in a pulpy yet brutal manner; and the films are full of amazing performances; notably Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, John Cazale, James Caan, and Diane Keaton.
I will let the wonderful critic and author, David Thomson, have the final word: "Compellingly entertaining, The Godfather is still as beautiful as it is mysterious. No other American classic so repays repeated viewings. How odd that American film offered this last song of vindication just as it delivered its most foreboding message: the corruption of the state. For years, Hollywood films were happy and positive; now it had grasped eternal unease. Has the America that followed been fit for movies or songs, or is it just too sunk in its own dismay?"
Mr Thomson's thoughts on The Godfather are from his absolutely crucial and essential book on film, Have You Seen ... ?
Citizen Kane turned main stream motion pictures into art film. The camera was now as important as the actor in telling the story. When I first saw this film I was stunned at the visual images playing out on the screen , deep focus, tilted angles, really good sound effects, interesting lighting. And as all great art, it is based on a simple concept. As I have gotten older the story resonates even more than when I first saw it in the early 1970’s.
What makes it even more special, as well as exasperating, is that Orson Welles was only 24 years old when he wrote, starred in and directed this movie. It was also his first feature film. If you can only make one good thing in your life you might as well make it the best ever. (But wait he also made the best radio show ever....)
Citizen Kane also stands the test of time, it stands up just as well today as when it was made in 1941. It beats the snot out of almost every movie that is made today.
Thoughts on Citizen Kane contributed by my father, Andy Spitler.
No. 4: Star Wars, Episode Four -- A New Hope
(6 votes -- 43 1/2 points)
Star Wars is the myth for the new era. A myth is a story that may never have happened but is always true.
It is the hero's journey. Myth, as Shelley said about poetry, sensitizes us to the fragility of the soul. Star Wars connects us at this soul level, with a sacred concept, that we are all Jedi Knights in service of the force. We are all called to be a sacred answer to a cosmic need. We all want to be called to a higher purpose and Star Wars is that call. Maybe subconsciously, but we all await the knock on our door from the Jedi. This is the power and the call of Star Wars A New Hope.
Thoughts on Star Wars contributed by Terry Layton.
More than thirty years later, I persist in my belief that Francis Ford Coppola’s APOCALYPSE NOW is the greatest film our cinema has produced. For me, no other film fuses together such intensity and richness in its terrible and gorgeous imagery, hallucinatory music and sound design, indelible writing (and improvisation), philosophical heft and outrageous humor, great acting, and metaphorical journey of a plot into a massive work of such overwhelming power. I think the criticism that its third act is a murky mess has been disproven by history, as Brando’s scenes are now iconic (“My God, the genius of that. The will to do that. Perfect, genuine, complete, crystalline, pure.”) and “the horror” of the climax an acknowledged masterpiece of visual and rhythmic virtuosity.
Thoughts on Apocalypse Now contributed by Scott Shattuck.
No. 6: Annie Hall (Allen)
(6 votes -- 32 points)
First off, here are my thoughts on Annie Hall. But I would also just like to mention how Allen finally made a great American film that seemed so European (or French, really.) Although he adores Ingmar Bergman, Allen simply does not have that type of sense of humor. And none of his attempts at the Bergman style have been very good.
But with Annie Hall, Allen finally found his voice and started making profoundly funny and profoundly moving films. It is all the more ironic that Allen be best remembered for Annie Hall, as the film was an absolute disaster before cutting, over three hours long, and a complete mess. But somehow Allen, Gordon Willis (there is that name again), Marshall Brickman, and the editing team found the story and the style and recovered an absolute diamond from the mine.
I love the way Mel Brooks dealt with racism in Blazing Saddles. Whenever I feel like the world has gotten too P.C. for me, I think of the scene where the chain gang is asked to sing an "old negra spiritual worksong" and they break out with Cole Porter's "I Get A Kick Out of You", and have no idea what "De camp town laaaydees??" is.
Thoughts on Blazing Saddles contributed by Michelle Lee Houghton.
This Masterpiece by Kurosawa is an epic story of courage, humility, and nobility. Despite being filled with epic, groundbreaking battle scenes, the film also contains a good deal of humor.
Once again, I will let David Thomson have the last word, "It is a landmark in action films, but in its treatment of heroism, too ... And Seven Samurai comes as that notion was being treated with cynicism. But there is no denying or forgetting the faces of these men. They are the seven samurai, and they have found themselves. They do not need to say so, because we understand it."
Once again, a very serious tip of the hat to the marvelous David Thomson and his splendid book, Have You Seen ... ?
No. 9: Aliens (Cameron)
(4 votes -- 27 points)
I first saw this film upon its release with my movie buddy at the time, Kevin Parker. We were very excited to see it, listening to NPR on the way to the theater, a reviewer extolling its virtues.
I like how Cameron completely eschewed the original Alien genre and made an action film instead. I also like how the Marines are all a bunch of sweary loudmouth badasses going in to the battle but are all reduced to sniveling little crybabies by the time they return to HQ.
In my personal opinion, Cameron has never made a film near as good as this one. And I doubt he will ever top it.
-- Ardent Henry
No. 10: Singin' in the Rain (Donen and Kelly) (5 votes -- 26 1/2 points)
Like Gold Diggers of 1933, Singin' in the Rain is one of the very few Musical Comedies that satisfy on every level. The music is fantastic, the songs are good (though Arthur Freed totally ripped off Cole Porter for Make 'Em Laugh), the comedy is absolutely side-splitting (Jean Hagen deserves a Lifetime Oscar for her work in this film alone), the dancing (Gene Kelly did the choreography) is sublime, and there are so many iconic moments in this film that will outlast us all. But what else do you expect from the Freed Unit at MGM?
Nobody, nobody made better musicals than MGM at this time. And no unit at MGM could even touch the Arthur Freed Unit. I strongly encourage you to watch the brill documentary, Musicals Great Musicals: The Freed Unit at MGM whenever you get a chance. The doc is part of the lavish dvd set of Singin' in the Rain.
(And just on a personal note, as a tween in Dallas, Texas in the late seventies/early eighties, seeing Cyd Charisse dance in the final "Gotta dance!" production number was like receiving a punch in the solar plexus. That is the day Michael David Spitler discovered that girls really were different from little boys.)
-- Ardent Henry
No. 11: To Kill a Mockingbird (Mulligan) (4 votes -- 24 1/2 points)
I was in a theatre production of To Kill a Mockingbird in high school. I was cast as Dill and I made an absolute hash of it, a travesty. I wanted the Mr Gilmer DAs part instead.
I have always loved the fact that the amazing Harper Lee wrote just one novel. Hey, if you are going to write just one book, why not make it one of the greatest novels in American history.
And I have always loved that Horton Foote wrote the screenplay for the film. I also appeared in a Horton Foote play in 1984. I played the lead (a kid again -- I almost always played kids due to my height and my intelligence) and I nailed it, one of my finest performances.
There is something about Texas and the South, that if you have never lived there, frankly, you just will not ever understand.
This is a wonderful adaptation of Ms Lee's masterful novel and I am so honored that it made this list.
-- Ardent Henry
No. 12: All That Jazz (Fosse)
(4 votes -- 23 1/2 points)
Here are my personal thoughts on All That Jazz again. But I will add a few more observations here:
Though depressing, there is so much life in this film that it bears multiple viewings. I can not tell you how many times I have seen this absolute genius motion picture.
Fosse was not only one of the finest choreographers that ever lived but he was a masterful director who time and time again got uncanny, amazing performances from his actors, merely by directing them in a documentary, interviewer's style. He always asked questions to his actors, never gave them direction.
Fosse was one of the all-time legends of cinema and Broadway. He is so sorely missed.
-- Ardent Henry
No. 13: All About Eve (Mankiewicz)
(5 votes -- 22 1/2 points)
All About Eve also made my personal ballot and you can read my thoughts here.
As I discussed re Trouble in Paradise, All About Eve is also a movie for smart grown-ups. It is the type of film that Hollywood gave up on ages ago. And we, as cinema goers, are all the worse for it.
And like All That Jazz, All About Eve is the type of film that theatre/showbizzy folk could stand to watch once a month (or more) for the rest of our lives.
-- Ardent Henry
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Honorable Mention (in no particular order):
Until the End of the World; Chinatown; Goodfellas; Rear Window; Manhattan; Bringing Up Baby; Dr Strangelove; Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me; 12 Angry Men; North by Northwest; Lord of the Rings; 2001: A Space Odyssey; Blade Runner; The Outsiders; The Empire Strikes Back; Raiders of the Lost Ark; Double Indemnity; Now, Voyager; The Blues Brothers; Pulp Fiction; It's A Wonderful Life; and Lawrence of Arabia.
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Honestly, I wanted to give you a whole rash of favorite ballots with this post but I am not going to be able to get to that today. (Going to the big Frog's Leap Leap Day Party in Napa very soon. Woo-hoo!)
I will give you my two favorite ballots today, though. They are both from the two most important Libras in my life, my father, Andy, and my wife, Renee. Both of them simply could not list just ten films. My father gave me eighteen, and my wife gave me twenty-one! What is it about Libras? Rules? What rules? We are the true judges, after all!
Renee Diskowski's ballot:
(in no particular order)
Manhattan
An American in Paris
Metropolitan
Cabaret
Citizen Kane
Annie Hall
Bedazzled (the Donen directed Dudley Moore/Peter Cook version)
All About Eve
Bringing Up Baby
Happiness
North by Northwest
Now, Voyager
The Philadelphia Story
Play Misty for Me
Rear Window
Sunset Blvd.
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Welcome to the Dollhouse
Hanna and Her Sisters
Beauty and the Beast (the Cocteau live-action Masterpiece)
Glengarry Glen Ross
William Andrew Spitler's ballot:
(in no particular order)
Citizen Kane
Casablanca
Salesman (Mayles Bros documentary)
Day for Night
Brazil
Matewan
2001: A Space Odyssey
Blade Runner
The Fly (Cronenberg version)
Double Indemnity
The Philadelphia Story
All That Jazz
The Elephant Man
The Sting
The Maltese Falcon
Chinatown
Glengarry Glen Ross
Bye Bye Brazil
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And there you have it, folks! Thanks to all of you that participated. Perhaps I will do another one on Leap Day, 2016?
I will publish in the coming days other ballots that I loved or found interesting. I hope all of you have enjoyed this project as much as I enjoyed hosting it.
Thank you all so much! I love you all,
Mwah, ...
mds
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You have got to be kidding me, Cyd!
The exquisite Cyd Charisse (1922-2008) yet another Woman Michael Loves.
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