This is the 14th entry in my series of thumbnail reviews of films I’ve been watching on the Criterion Channel streaming service since September 2021. I watched this set of ten films in August 2022.
This latest set of films include Mira Nair’s hit from 1991 starring Denzel Washington, a comedy/spy-thriller from the 1960s starring Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren, a couple of classic American comedies starring the dazzling on-screen pairing of William Powell and Myrna Loy, a poignant film about the tragedy of war by Italian master Vittorio De Sica, a searing portrait of social decay by Argentinian director Lucrecia Martel, a biopic of American boxing champion Jim Corbett starring Errol Flynn, and three engrossing films by British humanist director Mike Leigh.
Mississippi Masala (1991): Indian-American filmmaker Mira Nair‘s sophomore feature is a romantic drama, starring Denzel Washington and Sarita Choudhury as a young interracial couple in love, who struggle to overcome prejudices from their respective communities. The cast is peppered with an impressive array of American, British and Indian actors including Roshan Seth, Sharmila Tagore and Charles S. Dutton. But it’s Sarita Choudhury, in her film debut, who steals the show as the sexy and fiercely strong-willed daughter of Indian immigrants, who like many second-generation youngsters, seeks to break away from the shackles of her community. The film was nominated for a Golden Lion at Venice, building on the Oscar nomination Ms. Nair received for her 1988 debut film, Salaam Bombay!; she would go on to win the Golden Lion for her 2001 drama, Monsoon Wedding.
Arabesque (1966): Stanley Donen made his name directing some of Hollywood’s biggest musicals like On the Town, Singin’ in the Rain and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers in the 1950s, then graduated to big-budget romantic comedies like The Grass Is Greener and Charade. Following in the same Hitchcockian vein as Charade, this comedic spy-thriller featured two of the biggest box office draws of the era – Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren. Peck plays Prof. David Pollock, an unassuming professor of Egyptology at Oxford University, who is drawn into an international web of intrigue involving a message written in hieroglyphics that different parties want to get their hands on. Sophia Loren plays the glamorous femme fatale whose loyalties are initially unclear. There are plenty of twists and turns to the plot before it reaches a satisfying conclusion. The score by Henry Mancini was nominated for a Grammy, and is reminiscent of his Pink Panther theme from three years earlier.
After the Thin Man (1936): Myrna Loy and William Powell were among Hollywood’s most successful onscreen couples, appearing in 13 movies together. They were particularly well-known for the Thin Man series of films, one of the earliest movie franchises in Hollywood history. Dashiell Hammett’s novel about Nick and Nora Charles, a retired private detective and his whip-smart socialite wife, was first adapted to the screen in 1934 and audiences fell in love with Loy and Powell’s witty banter and natural comic timing. This sequel features more of the same blend of comedy and mystery…the plot is almost immaterial, as the entertainment value comes mainly from Loy and Powell’s on-screen chemistry. The film received an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay and four more sequels followed over the next 11 years, although with diminishing box office returns.
I Love You Again (1940): W.S. van Dyke directed the first four Thin Man films and after the third, he reteamed with stars Myrna Loy and William Powell in yet another comedy of manners built around their celluloid charm. The plot revolves around Powell’s character, who experiences amnesia, causing him to switch between two diametrically different characters. Throw in a love triangle and a real-estate scam, and you have the recipe for a laugh-a-minute movie-watching experience.
Sunflower (1970): Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni star as ill-fated lovers separated by World War II (shades of The Cranes Are Flying) in this international co-production directed by Italian master Vittorio De Sica. Antonio, a soldier posted in Naples during World War II, falls in love with a local girl, Giovanna. In spite of his best efforts to avoid being sent to the frontlines, Antonio is dispatched to the Russian front, leaving Giovanna behind to wrestle with loneliness and anxiety. After the war ends, she is among the thousands of women waiting to learn the fate of their beloved. Is her husband dead or missing in action? Sophia Loren brings pathos to her role as the presumed war widow, seeking closure while clinging to the memory of those few days of joy in the distant past. A sombre and at times, heart-rending film, this is considered one of director De Sica’s lesser efforts when held up against his body of work. A few months after its release, De Sica released another war-themed film, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, which went on to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Film.
La Cienaga / The Swamp (2001): Several years ago, I watched Argentinian director Lucrecia Martel‘s highly acclaimed 2008 film, The Headless Woman. I struggled to get through it and couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about. I am happy to say that I had a very different experience with Ms. Martel’s debut film La Cienaga. This tale of ennui and spiritual decay, depicts the comings and goings of a wealthy family vacationing at their country estate during a hot and humid summer. Like watching a car crash in slow motion, the slow-burning narrative strips away the family’s thin façade of respectability to reveal the baseness of their human needs and wants. The film was nominated for the Golden Bear at the Berlinale and won several awards in its native Argentina.
Gentleman Jim (1942): Prolific American director Raoul Walsh brings to the big screen this biopic of boxing champion “Gentleman Jim” James Corbett, with the title character played by the charismatic Errol Flynn. The film picks up the narrative during Corbett’s days as a bank teller when he was introduced to boxing during its emergence as an organized professional sport. As with all sporting biopics, the film follows Corbett’s battles both on and off the sporting stage, the latter being his attempts to win the heart of Victoria, a young upper class woman who is in equal parts, annoyed and attracted to the brash young man. The film was among the last of Flynn’s big hits, with his star starting to fade towards the late 1940s. Director Raoul Walsh made over 150 films, including classics like High Sierra (1941) with Humphrey Bogart, White Heat (1949) with James Cagney and Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951) with Gregory Peck.
High Hopes (1988): Mike Leigh was the featured director on Criterion in August 2022, and I ended up watching a bunch of his films at one stretch. High Hopes was his first film to receive wide theatrical distribution, and is a bittersweet comedy chronicling the ups and downs in the lives of a working-class couple living in central London. The film is an exploration of relationships – between partners, with siblings, an elderly parent, and with friends and neighbours. It is also a subtle commentary on the impact of Margaret Thatcher’s economic policies in the 80s. All of this is delivered in a matter-of-fact style, through everyday mundane events and the interactions of the soft-spoken, unassuming protagonists, played by Philip Davis and Ruth Sheen. The international film community sat up and took notice, with the film being nominated at festivals in London, New York and most importantly, at the Venice Film Festival.
Life is Sweet (1990): Mike Leigh’s first major commercial success was also the breakthrough film for many of its cast members, who would go on to sterling careers – Alison Steadman (the excitable Mrs. Bennett in the 1995 BBC hit Pride and Prejudice), Jim Broadbent (Oscar winner for Iris in 2001), Timothy Spall (Wormtail in six Harry Potter movies), Stephen Rhea (Oscar nominated for 1992’s The Crying Game) and David Thewlis (nominated at Cannes in 1993 for Naked). Andy (Jim Broadbent) and Wendy (Alison Steadman) are a working class couple living in North London with their twin twenty-something daughters; the film follows their lives over the course of a summer, covering events that are humorous, disturbing, heart-breaking and bittersweet. David Thewlis plays the lover of one of the twin daughters, and Timothy Spall is hilarious as a slightly unhinged family friend with delusions of grandeur.
Secrets & Lies (1996): Mike Leigh’s most commercially successful film features yet another memorable ensemble performance from some of Britain’s most talented actors. Brenda Blethyn is extraordinary as an emotionally fragile middle-aged woman who is contacted by the illegitimate daughter who she had given up for adoption at birth. Her instinctive reaction is denial, but eventually she accepts the reality and they start meeting in secret, getting to know each other. There are subplots involving the other members of her dysfunctional family – her kind-hearted son (Timothy Spall), snobbish daughter-in-law (Phyllis Logan, the housekeeper from Downton Abbey), her rude and discontented daughter (Claire Rushbrook). The bombshell final act brings the entire cast of characters together who react with disbelief, resentment and anger at the revelation. Actress Marianne Jean-Baptiste navigates a difficult role as the birth daughter who maintains her poise amidst all the family hysterics. The film won the Palm d’Or at Cannes, was nominated for five Oscars and 7 BAFTAs, deservedly winning the BAFTA for Best British Film and Best Screenplay. Mike Leigh works at the peak of his powers and handles a difficult topic with great sensitivity and empathy.
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, #91-100, #101-110, #111-120 and #121-130.
Chronophlogiston 