This is the eleventh entry in my series of thumbnail reviews of films I’ve been watching on the Criterion Channel streaming service since September 2021.
I watched these ten films between from the end of May to late June 2022, some of it while recovering from Covid!
This latest batch of films being reviewed include two Japanese comedy-satires from one of the masters of the genre, two films from the Czech New Wave of the 60’s, an all-time Russian classic from the 50’s, an all-time French classic from the 30’s, an early effort from one of Britain’s most celebrated directors, a UK spy film that predates but shares DNA with James Bond, an American comedy from the 30’s starring W.C. Fields, and a 70’s blaxploitation thriller featuring the top three male stars of the genre.
Tales of a Golden Geisha / A-Ge-Man (1990): This is a film from the middle period of Juzo Itami‘s career, after he made a splash in the mid-80’s with three highly acclaimed comedy-dramas, The Funeral, Tampopo and A Taxing Woman. All his films feature his wife Nobuko Miyamoto, and in this one she plays the lead role of a geisha named Nayoko, who brings good luck to her male companions (known as an “Ageman”, hence the title). Itami, in his usual style, skillfully uses humour to shine a light on the human foibles of corruption, greed and pride. Not as good as Itami’s first three films, but a fun viewing experience all the same.
Intimate Lighting / Intimní osvětlení (1965): Lovers of world cinema are familiar with the Czech New Wave film movement of the 1960’s, from which emerged world famous directors like Miloš Forman, Jiří Menzel and Ivan Passer. Passer started off as a writer, collaborating with Forman on several of his films before making his directorial debut with Intimate Lighting. It is a simple slice-of-life story about a cellist who is invited back to his home village to play in an upcoming local concert. The cellist arrives with his girlfriend and the rest of the film uses the interactions between the villagers and the two visitors to meditate on friendships, generational gaps and cultural differences. Watching the movie in the 21st century provides a a quietly humourous, heart-warming and at times, wistful look back at a simpler time. I also loved the B&W cinematography by Miroslav Ondříček who went on to become a regular collaborator with Miloš Forman. Passer eventually crossed over to international and Hollywood productions in the 70’s and late in his career directed the award-winning biopic Stalin for HBO (1992).
The Cranes are Flying / Letyat zhuravli (1957): I finally got to watch this landmark film, which won the Palm d’Or at Cannes in 1958. It’s production signposted a new era in Soviet filmmaking marked by greater artistic freedom, following the death of Stalin in 1953 and the more open policies adopted by his successor Nikita Khruschev. Put together the keywords “Soviet”, “pacifist” and “humanist” and it’s no spoiler to state up front that this film is steeped in tragedy; in fact such an outcome almost feels inevitable after the opening shot of the two carefree lovers Veronika and Boris skipping happily along the riverside. News soon follows that the Germans have invaded and the lovers are to be separated as Boris must go to the front. Things get progressively more grim for Veronika in the months and years that follow, and the story comes to its conclusion with the end of the war in 1945. Besides the intense acting performance from Tatiana Samoilova as Veronika, the lighting and the camera angles create a stunning viewing experience; cinematographer Sergey Urusevsky’s work has surely been the inspiration for an entire generation of filmmakers. Director Mikhail Kalatozov had been directing documentaries and features since the 1930’s, but this film remains his most celebrated work.
The Gentle Art of Japanese Extortion / Minbo (1992): Juzo Itami’s follow-up to Tales of a Golden Geisha has Nobuko Miyamoto cast as a lawyer who specializes in dealing with yakuza-related crime. Miyamoto’s character helps out a hotel which is losing its clientele after it becomes a favourite haunt of the local yakuza. As with all Itami films, there are craven villains and do-gooders with hearts of gold, all wrapped up in an entertaining mix of satire and physical comedy. As with Tales of a Golden Geisha, this film too is a lightweight by sufficiently entertaining entry in Itami’s oeuvre. It’s a well documented fact that Itami’s irreverent depiction of yakuza in this and other films earned their ire, and it’s considered highly likely that his death in 1997 after falling from a rooftop was actually murder rather than suicide.
The Human Beast / La Bete Humaine (1938): This is the middle entry in Jean Renoir’s trifecta of critically acclaimed masterpieces released in the late 30’s, sandwiched between Grand Illusion and Rules of the Game. Loosely adapted from Emile Zola’s 19th century psychological thriller, the film features Jean Gabin as Lantier, a train engine driver with a history of violent behaviour, triggered by alcohol and sexual desire. Obsessing over his train engine and immersing himself in his work has helped him control his urges. But everything begins to unravel when a beautiful young woman convinces him to help her conceal a crime. His subsequent emotional entanglement with this femme fatale unleashes his bestial side and leads to tragic consequences. La Bete Humaine can be considered a proto-noir, and with most of the narrative set on a train or near the railroad, there is plenty of symbolism for film aficionados to delve into. Although it is a much admired classic, I found it a disquieting and not particularly enjoyable viewing experience.
49th Parallel (1941): Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger together wrote, directed and produced a series of influential films in the 1940’s which are considered classics of British and world cinema. The first of their films to gain critical attention was this war film, their 3rd effort, which received Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Screenplay. Although rising star Laurence Olivier headlines the picture, the story in fact focuses on the six surviving members of a German U-boat crew who are marooned on the North American coast during the war, and their attempts to secretly travel across Canada and get a boat to Japan. As this was a war propaganda film funded by the British government, the purpose of the story was to show the infighting and lack of honour among the Germans, and also to highlight to the then-neutral US government the dangers posed to the US by German action in the North Atlantic against Canadian ships. I found the opening act engaging but then the pacing started to drag in the middle before ending strongly with an action-led finish.
Capricious Summer / Rozmarné léto (1968): Of the half dozen acclaimed Czech New Wave films from the 1960’s that I’ve watched, this one by Jiří Menzel is my least favourite. The film presents village life as experienced by three middle-aged friends, whose summer repose is enlivened by the arrival of a traveling magician and his beautiful assistant. Although it’s highly regarded, I think I just didn’t have the cultural context to appreciate it, and therefore found it to be slow and uninteresting. In comparison, Menzel’s My Sweet Little Village made nearly 20 years later, and providing much of the same human insight in a village setting, is a more accessible and enjoyable film.
Q Planes (1939): This lighthearted spy thriller stars Laurence Olivier and is the film he made in the UK just before hitting the big time in Hollywood with William Wyler’s Wuthering Heights. Olivier plays test pilot Tony McVane, who works for a company building experimental aircraft for the British government. But the aircraft and their crew start vanishing during test flights and neither the government’s best spymaster (played by Ralph Richardson) nor intrepid reporter Kay Hammond (played by Valerie Hobson) can unravel the mystery. McVane volunteers to be the bait and pilots the next experimental plane, hoping to discover the fate of the other missing aircraft. Sure enough, he uncovers foreign machinations, leading to an action-packed finale. With its mix of spies, international villains, advanced technology and dry British humour, one would think I was describing a James Bond film. Well, guess what! Twenty years later, one of the film’s writers, Jack Whittingham, was hired by Ian Fleming and production partner Kevin McClory to help write the script for the first James Bond film. That script ended up becoming the novel Thunderball, which although not the first Bond film, did provide the template for the film series.
Million Dollar Legs (1932): Watching a W.C. Fields comedy is a very particular experience. Irrespective of the film and the character he plays, Fields typically adopts the persona of a hard-drinking scoundrel with contempt for children and dogs, who nevertheless has a heart of gold and does the right thing. As with many comedies of that era, the story played second fiddle to the lead comic (e.g., Harry Lloyd, Charlie Chaplin, The Marx Bros.) and the comedic elements – either slapstick or outlandish dialogue. In Million Dollar Legs, Fields plays the President of the fictitious nation of Klopstokia, who decides to enter his country into the Olympics in order to win a cash prize to save his country from bankruptcy! As I said, the story doesn’t really matter. There’s a gag every few minutes and the one hour run time goes by pretty quickly.
Three The Hard Way (1974): Gordon Parks Sr. kicked off the blaxploitation wave with Shaft in 1971. Three years later, his son Gordon Parks Jr. brought together three iconic Black superstars – martial artist turned actor Jim Kelly, NFL player turned actor Fred Williamson and another NFL player turned actor, Jim Brown – in this film about a secret plan by a white supremacist organization to perpetrate a black genocide. As with all films in this genre, there is gratuitous nudity and plenty of action and violence (by the standards of the 70’s). The brisk 90 minute runtime keeps everything ticking along and it’s always fun when the bad guys get what’s coming at the end.
Here are the links to the previous thumbnails: #1-10, #11-20, #21-30, #31-40, #41-50, #51-60, #61-70, #71-80, #81-90 and #91-100.
Chronophlogiston 