tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23077283536734895092024-03-21T20:01:40.578-07:00auteurs at warnem bajhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05757974878199258053noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2307728353673489509.post-65409676114297307872013-03-24T06:58:00.000-07:002013-03-24T06:59:30.812-07:00Abel Gance | Napoléon (1927)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Focusing on the early days of a man who (devastated and) changed the face of a whole continent, from military school cadet to conqueror of Italy, <i>Napoléon</i> is a film as bold, extravagant, innovative and legendary as its subject. Abel Gance's deliberate choosing of myth over history and of scopic sensation over explanatory narrative provide for a formidable dream-like experience of ambition, warfare and politics.
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Since my own living room has only one projector and one screen and my memories of a public projection are distant, for the purpose of this review I'll be referring to the <i>bootleg </i>Brownlow/Davis version. At 5h10mn, it is a composite of the 1983 Brownlow and Coppola edits. Since the Brownlow images come from a TV recording the picture quality is sometimes far from good, yet the music is excellent and, more importantly, the incredible momentum and luxury of details of the work is certainly there.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Frightful, living briars</i></span></span></div><br />
Momentum is the first key to <i>Napoléon</i>. From the children's snowball fight to the reviving of a French rag-and-tatters army, from the taking of Toulon to the crushing of the Vendémiaire royalist coup, the whole film is a tribute to offensive military tactics, and the belief that in warfare, a fighting spirit is the first step towards victory. Gance conveys this wonderfully with a combination of high-speed editing and fast camera movements. Interestingly, the battle scenes are not so much about the carefully ordered cohorts of well-aligned soldiers that so many films about the period indulge into, than about the mêlée, the scuffle - what French poet Hugo would later describe as <i>"... the dark midpoint of the battle's fires, / A throbbing clutch of frightful, living briars;"</i> (trad. Timothy. Adès).<br />
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Change could be the second key. The film presents a stunning view of the French Revolutionary era, certainly not watered-down when it comes to the Terreur years and afterwards. It's all there: the paranoïa, the ideologues-turned-executioners, the mob, the social changes in the upper class (the Victim's Ball scene is absolutely fantastic). Bonaparte's rise is that of a man who seizes the incredible opportunities offered by these versatile times, when military success appears as a solution to ending political violence. All opportunities, including marrying the socialite Joséphine. All opportunities in one flamboyant desire, just as the face of Joséphine blends with a terrestrial globe, in a scene echoed later in Chaplin's <i>Great Dictator.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Seizing all opportunities</i></span></span></div><br />
For the last key of <i>Napoléon </i>is certainly ambition. This is the story of an outcast, someone who under the monarchy would simply never had achieved much. Not even a continental-French. Rejected by his fellow cadets, by Corsican politicians, by the French military establishment... numerous scenes in the film stress that theme of the outsider beating odds. However, this isn't a feel-good after the fact kind of tale, not that of the "genius who was right before everybody else". In Gance's view, Bonaparte's personal destiny and ambition match the French people's destiny and ambition at the time. Their fears, hopes, and appetites. Obviously, the film praises this symbiosis (in the scenes with the troopers, with Violine etc.); yet in the light of what was happening in Europe in the years the film was presented, when - again - supposedly rational political systems gave birth to leaders with a carnal, mystical link to the masses, this masterpiece, much like Lang's <i>Metropolis</i>, offers a rather troubling vision.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoXAFGxyxV_xJRdrsq5DhBJ-G9pVkSULfnia7DPFoJAVk6kdmDG7US36yUMLaai4dP2cjOBX4TLf7lZpHVjp3TX9IWmmGdd1LLMdarJoMjSo7w_M7EEIe4Rm5mEW4lk9djLtapcr9xG2U/s1600/imdb2.gif" style="border: none; vertical-align: baseline;" /> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0018192/" target="_blank"><i>Napoléon</i></a> <i>at imdb</i>nem bajhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05757974878199258053noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2307728353673489509.post-64261030954435385232013-02-26T10:54:00.001-08:002013-02-26T10:56:15.585-08:00Liliana Cavani | The Skin (1981)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9B9VPFWiTGeg7kn6ShpqHpbF6hi7pfOEV9pEVW3OEPOjX8AiLTUrxIwsQee9VRinN6CWIcfjGyYmKyjCCThelp92OYsH22XL7jpfuyeNPv6H46FJYzUdmFV7iySvYJx_qK6SHFIJnH9A/s1600/pelle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9B9VPFWiTGeg7kn6ShpqHpbF6hi7pfOEV9pEVW3OEPOjX8AiLTUrxIwsQee9VRinN6CWIcfjGyYmKyjCCThelp92OYsH22XL7jpfuyeNPv6H46FJYzUdmFV7iySvYJx_qK6SHFIJnH9A/s1600/pelle.jpg" /></a></div>
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A very personal adaptation of a scandalous book, Liliana Cavani's film may well appear thirty years after its release as a feminist take on the birth of the 'globalization' process. In 1943 Naples, after almost twenty years of fascism and an invasion by the Wehrmacht, Italy is being invaded again, this time by its liberators: the Allied Forces under American command. The clash of cultures, and particularly its effect on women, is the main subject of <i>La Pelle</i>.
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As for every adaptation, what matters is what the director chooses to leave behind - and what she chooses to emphasize. Clearly, the masculinity issues so pervasive in the book are put behind; and though the character of Curzio Malaparte remains the guiding thread along a very chaotic journey three women - the Princess, the aviatrix and the 'virgin of Naples' - are put to the forefront. In the dire economic conditions and male-dominated order imposed by war and military occupation, Cavani's message is all but optimistic about the kind of 'liberation' actually going on.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>The only virgin in Naples</i></span></span></div>
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Actually, it seems more like trading an oppression for another. The sexual freedom of the Princess seems hopeless. The American aviatrix's advance in the world of 'men' is first questioned (at the <i>figliata </i>party) then annihilated (by her being raped by G.I.s). The well-intentioned captain simply ruins both the livelihood and the magic of the virgin. It's a world ruled by money, communication and sexual predation, where prostitution of women and children is everywhere and each soldier seems reduced to a mandatory fetishism assigned by ethnicity.<br />
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Audiences in the 80s were stunned by the numerous scenes of horror bordering the grotesque in <i>La Pelle</i>. Since then, <i>gore </i>has long invaded mainstream cinema and cable TV series; the positive effect is that we may be more able to concentrate now on the symbolic aspects of these scenes in the film. Similarly, the evocation of the total collapse of Italian-ness - Naples being of course a high mark on the oddness scale for non-Italians - and its replacement by American business values may seem less shocking now, as it is obvious that indeed, somewhere between 1914 and 1945, European History self-destroyed.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Deconstructing America ?</i></span></span></div>
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<i>The Skin</i> is still a very unsettling film, nonetheless because the director is a crafted artist. For instance, she doesn't need to resort to speech to express the idea that the Allied are the new masters: a couple shots of the ballet of the general staff occupying a former fascist conference room is enough. Mastroianni's interpretation is a wonder of understatement, of dignity under an overwhelming shame. And above all, Cavani doesn't need to give answers - everything is in the questions.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoXAFGxyxV_xJRdrsq5DhBJ-G9pVkSULfnia7DPFoJAVk6kdmDG7US36yUMLaai4dP2cjOBX4TLf7lZpHVjp3TX9IWmmGdd1LLMdarJoMjSo7w_M7EEIe4Rm5mEW4lk9djLtapcr9xG2U/s1600/imdb2.gif" style="border: none; vertical-align: baseline;" /> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082893/" target="_blank"><i>La Pelle</i></a> <i>at imdb</i><br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf7UxwKKjHat15NeMOlvyS67GfqbZ4SONw2dLfjvL-50EkiW2i-3JtY9iribufuW0uR3jFMxEJI49Naajbn-Peb-bArX0Jcjk9vJuaGh3W38vcz8MJyPsGJyAnEfeNRHwHf2q8YjhNdnc/s1600/filmaf.gif" style="border: none; vertical-align: baseline;" /> <a href="http://www.filmaf.com/search.html?has=0146982" target="_blank"><i>Blu-Ray Z2 edition</i></a> <i>(Gaumont, in my shopping list)</i>nem bajhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05757974878199258053noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2307728353673489509.post-39364787499054752352013-02-25T12:25:00.002-08:002013-02-25T13:08:11.700-08:00Douglas Sirk | Hitler's Madman (1943)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgreSV985tMIGpBl-9eICZKaY8ToxftpvPUEEZuyP1XBRbw-iall8pK-ZnbOFLP2PniLel7q7KVA62JKBRWoSDqZkT8yShnjoTxguAcEQkJcKho5zc1m9StFyECEKzwctysj78FTlBJaDo/s1600/hitman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgreSV985tMIGpBl-9eICZKaY8ToxftpvPUEEZuyP1XBRbw-iall8pK-ZnbOFLP2PniLel7q7KVA62JKBRWoSDqZkT8yShnjoTxguAcEQkJcKho5zc1m9StFyECEKzwctysj78FTlBJaDo/s1600/hitman.jpg" /></a></div>
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Considered a minor film in Sirk's filmography, shot in a week as a low-budget independent production before being bought by MGM, Hitler's Madman is often dismissed as a propaganda piece. Nevertheless, it is a remarkable work for two reasons: some of the director's main themes - however surprising it may be, considering the subject, to those who are unfamiliar with them - are illustrated here, and furthermore it contains the most stunning interpretation of Reinhard Heydrich ever filmed.<br />
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Beyond the obvious physical resemblance between John Carradine and Heydrich, it has often been noted that Sirk, a successful director at the UFA before he left Germany in 1937, had already met in person the head of RHSA. This doesn't mean that the portrait is individually accurate; yet it certainly reflects the impressions of a German in exile (Germans, in fact, as this is as much a German film as an American one) about that kind of men, and the regime they stood for. As a dandy, technocrat, pervert and nihilistic kind of Antichrist, the portrait is terrifying. So is the portrait of a doomed nazi apparatus, where men not only destroy society but devour themselves.<br />
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Conflicting forces within a society are also a recurrent theme in Sirk's works. Here, we have the 'traditional' (pastoral and peaceful) against the 'new order' (urban and bellicose), the former being the place for romance as well as religion, the latter the place of sexual perversion and nihilism. Whereas Fritz Lang's <i>Hangmen also die</i> was an urban, intellectual and secular thriller, Sirk's film from the start places the emphasis on the countryside ('land') and on religion as a desirable social order for a community - and as a strength against totalitarianism. We also have the conflict of generations among the villagers, the elders being accused by the young of being collaborators, however reluctant, to the occupying power.<br />
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Finally, we have the imbrication of racism and sexual predation (as a precursor to <i>Imitation of Life</i>). War crimes of a sexual nature weren't new in cinema (they had been depicted in early silent films about WWI), yet it is made clear in this film that it is an element of the nazi racial practice. As so many 70s nazi-sexploitation films would attest, it is a risky if not risqué subject, yet Sirk somehow manages to successfully resort to emotion as a closure. For these oppositions do not attempt to reach any kind of historical accuracy (in fact, many liberties are taken) but they are fully functional in setting the main characters' background, upon which their emotions - as well as ours -will unfold.<br />
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Emotionally, <i>Hitler's Madman</i> doesn't reach the heights of Sirk's 50s melodramas. However, women are as usual at the front, and make for very powerful scenes such as the student committing suicide, or the German mayor's wife learning about the death of both her sons on the Eastern Front. But the most striking scene is certainly Heydrich's ultimate moment: he is so desperate, cynical and unrepentant, and at the same time so eager to live that it's hard, not to feel sorry for him, but to deny him a part of humanity. Far from the numerous - and often poor - attempts to make such criminals 'familiar' by exposing their ordinary side, Sirk deliberately goes to the Shakespearian: it's the radical monster that belongs to us.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoXAFGxyxV_xJRdrsq5DhBJ-G9pVkSULfnia7DPFoJAVk6kdmDG7US36yUMLaai4dP2cjOBX4TLf7lZpHVjp3TX9IWmmGdd1LLMdarJoMjSo7w_M7EEIe4Rm5mEW4lk9djLtapcr9xG2U/s1600/imdb2.gif" style="border: none; vertical-align: baseline;" /> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036005/" target="_blank"><i>Hitler's Madman</i></a> <i>at imdb</i><br />nem bajhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05757974878199258053noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2307728353673489509.post-21556652114311645252013-02-19T11:38:00.002-08:002013-02-19T14:08:38.359-08:00Robert Parrish | The Purple Plain (1954)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiORBMVeTe3tOFWdqgmoZ92zCqGo57d2szjV8Jqj9RVVdVhKsflZhCyP1xLjruKXClG1bK6G4JDbKIntYM65S3sOKBRwoHnRcdQOGvRV1W36SMlaex7FsYxMhjA90IGvvXi5gMqsI8u0Cc/s1600/purple.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiORBMVeTe3tOFWdqgmoZ92zCqGo57d2szjV8Jqj9RVVdVhKsflZhCyP1xLjruKXClG1bK6G4JDbKIntYM65S3sOKBRwoHnRcdQOGvRV1W36SMlaex7FsYxMhjA90IGvvXi5gMqsI8u0Cc/s1600/purple.jpg" /></a></div>
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<i>The Purple Plain</i> fits the (ever-changing) borders of the war movie genre, yet it just as well could have been a <i>western</i>. It is a psychological journey, a story not of redemption but of reconciliation of a man with his kind, within a ruthless and deadly environment... of which he has become an integral part. His ascetic direction well tempered by one of Gregory Peck's finest interpretations, Robert Parrish delivers here a superb tale of the survival instinct prevailing over self-destruction.<a name='more'></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Child's play</i></span></span></div>
The 'depressed pilot' has been a classic of war movies since the early thirties. Sometimes as evidence of the disorders of the human mind right within the heart of technology, sometimes as a symbol of the burden of war and its cohorts of destruction, even on those holding a position generally viewed as more desirable than others. Peck's character is quite special: a bomber pilot in Burma, his wife was killed in front of him by a bomb in London. And things aren't going so well.<br />
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<i>The Purple Plain</i> is typical Parrish. Far from the excesses of spectacular, over-dramatized psychological entanglements that cripple so many war films, melancholy reigns supreme. There's no glory here, but no doom either; the character isn't dispassionate - Peck's acting prevents that - but seems temporarily detached, suspended. The brilliant sound editing of this film regularly sustains this mood: whereas the musical score is mostly used to evoke the turmoils of either the characters or the audience's feelings, sounds of nature often take over in the closing of scenes, functioning like 'reality checks'.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Reality check.</i></span></span></div>
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The picture editing and composition are also quite remarkable. In particular, diagonal directions are used to hint at the characters' conversations dynamics: opposite diagonals in shot/reverse shots express conflict. In a single shot two characters sharing the same oblique line, one being close and the other further apart, often point at a possible - but not yet achieved - cooperation. Not only does this kind of craftsmanship relieve the script from superfluous dialog lines, but it also lets the audience fill in the blanks.<br />
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As a caveat, one shouldn't expect action-heavy military sequences in this film: war, in the form of death, destruction and fear, is at the same time the source of the main character's inner conflict, and the ground where it will be resolved. Not an object of entertainment nor edification. And though the female lead is a big flaw, the movie is so centered on Peck's character I'm not sure it can spoil the whole experience of this inspired piece of cinema, by a director with such obvious talent.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoXAFGxyxV_xJRdrsq5DhBJ-G9pVkSULfnia7DPFoJAVk6kdmDG7US36yUMLaai4dP2cjOBX4TLf7lZpHVjp3TX9IWmmGdd1LLMdarJoMjSo7w_M7EEIe4Rm5mEW4lk9djLtapcr9xG2U/s1600/imdb2.gif" style="border: none; vertical-align: baseline;" /> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047376/" target="_blank"><i>The Purple Plain</i></a> <i>at imdb</i><br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf7UxwKKjHat15NeMOlvyS67GfqbZ4SONw2dLfjvL-50EkiW2i-3JtY9iribufuW0uR3jFMxEJI49Naajbn-Peb-bArX0Jcjk9vJuaGh3W38vcz8MJyPsGJyAnEfeNRHwHf2q8YjhNdnc/s1600/filmaf.gif" style="border: none; vertical-align: baseline;" /> <a href="http://www.filmaf.com/search.html?upc=027616921703" target="_blank"><i>DVD edition</i></a> <i>(MGM)</i>nem bajhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05757974878199258053noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2307728353673489509.post-26652454247540099422013-02-13T10:33:00.000-08:002013-02-13T14:24:39.292-08:00Miklós Jancsó | The Red and the White (1967)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeZES81q7mIyFGmHlUndOSMn1dBwzGfvAHEKi02G8VPPkeql8wnDFhIHKaC5dn_MRIMdlN_17oBgcv3gyOd1BOI0jWtYvbsrR5R4IMPXrZFBoS_e1vPubZ1Z5Df6Chuth3mGYG0ebSq_s/s1600/redw.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeZES81q7mIyFGmHlUndOSMn1dBwzGfvAHEKi02G8VPPkeql8wnDFhIHKaC5dn_MRIMdlN_17oBgcv3gyOd1BOI0jWtYvbsrR5R4IMPXrZFBoS_e1vPubZ1Z5Df6Chuth3mGYG0ebSq_s/s1600/redw.jpg" /></a></div>
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The Russian Civil War opposed communist Reds and counter-revolutionary Whites, in a highly confused national and international context following both the October Revolution and the end of the First World War. A considerable number of nationalities including Hungarian, either as volunteers or within expeditionary forces, took part in a conflict that spread for five long years throughout the margins of the vast Russian empire. Contrary to WWI and in spite of what the opposition in colours suggest, this wasn't a war with steady sets of alliances and clear frontlines.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Attack and retreat</i></span></span></div>
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Confusion, especially for non-East European viewers, is the first striking characteristic of <i>The Red and the White</i>. Like in a gigantic revolving opera set gone mad, locations change control, winners become losers, victims turn into executioners. There is no telling if a character we've been following for a while won't be dead in the next scene - in fact, he probably will. Yet, the film holds in a magnificent way, drawing its coherence and strength not from a preformed storyline, but from what actually happens in front of the camera, and how it is shot.<br />
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War is about division. Divide between friend and foe, men and women, Russians and non-Russians, the uniformed and the naked, being alive and being dead. The soldiers in <i>The Red and the White </i>are busy bees spending their time in frantically creating such divides <i>ad absurdum.</i> And while they sometimes hesitate in engaging in some of them, or boldly refuse, it is only a postponement for nothing seems to appease the whirlpool. Even humane gestures seem to happen by accident, as if kindness could only randomly overcome this great passion for cutting the world in two.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>A ballet of life and death</i></span></span></div>
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The camera is the only thing that can make sense of this split-apart universe. Through meticulously crafted, extended tracking shots (a technique which would later culminate in <i>Red Psalm</i>) Jancsó organizes a fantastic choreography of armies, bodies, faces, architectures, lands and skies. Not only does this immediately refuses us the comfort of choosing sides, but as odd as it may seem to film war as a ballet it is probably one of the most effective attempts I have seen to convey at the same time its futility, restlessness and tragic beauty.<br />
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Jancsó's work is more than a great film. It is a brilliant example of the necessity, for an artist who
wishes to challenge political opinions, to challenge the very art form
he is using. No matter the amount of pacifist speech and horrifying
shots you add into it, you can't make an anti-war movie shaped like a
pro-war (whatever the reasons) one.
For if there is no relevant divide between style and content in
politics, there should be none either in the cinema that engages them.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoXAFGxyxV_xJRdrsq5DhBJ-G9pVkSULfnia7DPFoJAVk6kdmDG7US36yUMLaai4dP2cjOBX4TLf7lZpHVjp3TX9IWmmGdd1LLMdarJoMjSo7w_M7EEIe4Rm5mEW4lk9djLtapcr9xG2U/s1600/imdb2.gif" style="border: none; vertical-align: baseline;" /> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061537/" target="_blank"><i>Csillagosok, katonák</i></a> <i>at imdb</i><br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf7UxwKKjHat15NeMOlvyS67GfqbZ4SONw2dLfjvL-50EkiW2i-3JtY9iribufuW0uR3jFMxEJI49Naajbn-Peb-bArX0Jcjk9vJuaGh3W38vcz8MJyPsGJyAnEfeNRHwHf2q8YjhNdnc/s1600/filmaf.gif" style="border: none; vertical-align: baseline;" /> <a href="http://www.filmaf.com/search.html?upc=5060114150577" target="_blank"><i>DVD edition</i></a> <i>in the Miklós Jancsó Collection (Second Run)</i>nem bajhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05757974878199258053noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2307728353673489509.post-49974351579894956882013-02-08T05:03:00.000-08:002013-02-13T14:37:36.067-08:00Masaki Kobayashi | The Human Condition (1959-61)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhogvxoqACft0CSBKIfwxCD1cPCJoC6K0cevdqs2uO1LKBQmQ8RQNWqNihkAJBEdugZvPgdnim0thRIJfoO45T0ywY5QFncrOgvL3XZ69wRbarf0KXxXJDi2zFck6dus0KcnlGE_iAS6ls/s1600/huco.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhogvxoqACft0CSBKIfwxCD1cPCJoC6K0cevdqs2uO1LKBQmQ8RQNWqNihkAJBEdugZvPgdnim0thRIJfoO45T0ywY5QFncrOgvL3XZ69wRbarf0KXxXJDi2zFck6dus0KcnlGE_iAS6ls/s1600/huco.jpg" /></a></div>
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<i>Ningen no joken</i> (人間の條件<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Installing_Japanese_character_sets"></a>) is an exploration of the moral challenges faced during war by men - that is, individuals of the urban middle classes in a late modern and post-modern world, by which I mean me and most likely you, my reader. The trilogy addresses namely the subjugation of enemies in part 1: <i>No Greater Love</i>; the military organisation in part 2: <i>Road to Eternity</i>; and death and survival in part 3: <i>A Soldier's Prayer</i>. A visible blend of 'christian' and 'asian' spirituality- not unlike that of <i>The Thin Red Line</i>, brilliant cinematography, clarity of expression and disquieting beauty make Kobayashi's film a masterpiece.<a name='more'></a><br />
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This is not an epic. There are no voice-off, no bird's eye views. No choir. No 'big picture' to be grasped. From beginning till end, we are stuck with the main character yet the first stylistic <i>tour de force</i> of <i>The Human Condition</i> is that the scare composition of the shots never imprisons the viewer within Kaji's thoughts and actions. Such a framing, by leaving vast 'unoccupied' portions of the image, creates a mental space which we can freely invest. The screen becomes at the same time an expression of both the loneliness and sharedness of moral choices. And those reverse-shots... enough said.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Manchuria's quiet countryside</i></span></span></div>
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What would you do, if you found yourself having to manage a forced labor camp? Can anyone be blind to the terrible divide between friend and foe, introduced by a state of war? Can reason itself make the situation 'humane', whereas the whole process seems to aim at shrinking men to bare appetites like water, food, greed and sex? This is what <i>No Greater Love</i> is about, and it is properly overwhelming. Like in a Greek tragedy, Kaji's failure will eventually have him caught into what he initially wanted to avoid - being drafted - but this first part is also a reminder that modern war is a challenge to everyone providing they don't turn their head and pretend they don't see.<br />
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Part 2, <i>Road to Eternity</i>, deals mostly with the organization of military life. It may be harder for a non-Japanese to abstract oneself from the historical and cultural context of the Imperial armed forces of the time. Nevertheless, all the challenges posed by a social stratification where violence is both the norm and the purpose are again brilliantly depicted. We're very far from the romantic view of a warrior society, or from the comforting pictures of camaraderie - and all those who have had an insight of what an army is should easily relate.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>The Killing</i></span></span></div>
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The combat scenes begin at the end of the second part, yet it is <i>A Soldier's Prayer</i> that unveils Kobayashi's intentions. This isn't about winning, it is about survival, absolute (ie, not death) as well as moral. The ordeals that Kaji and the others character go through are like circles of hell, except they are clearly on earth - a nature scorched by men themselves. Will the circles be broken, and by whom or what? The disenchanted ending, at the hands of the Red Army, isn't the least of <i>The Human Condition</i>'s merits. Now hopefully cleared from the ideological debates of the sixties, it stands out as an incredible piece of cinema, and possibly one of the very best films ever made about war in the XXth century.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">PS: Sorry about the video quotes, I'll try to correct the aspect ratio and hard-code the subtitles in the future.</span><br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoXAFGxyxV_xJRdrsq5DhBJ-G9pVkSULfnia7DPFoJAVk6kdmDG7US36yUMLaai4dP2cjOBX4TLf7lZpHVjp3TX9IWmmGdd1LLMdarJoMjSo7w_M7EEIe4Rm5mEW4lk9djLtapcr9xG2U/s1600/imdb2.gif" style="border: none; vertical-align: baseline;" /> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053114/" target="_blank"><i>Ningen no jôken</i></a> <i>at imdb</i><br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf7UxwKKjHat15NeMOlvyS67GfqbZ4SONw2dLfjvL-50EkiW2i-3JtY9iribufuW0uR3jFMxEJI49Naajbn-Peb-bArX0Jcjk9vJuaGh3W38vcz8MJyPsGJyAnEfeNRHwHf2q8YjhNdnc/s1600/filmaf.gif" style="border: none; vertical-align: baseline;" /> <a href="http://www.filmaf.com/search.html?upc=715515046619" target="_blank"><i>DVD edition</i></a> <i>(Criterion)</i>nem bajhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05757974878199258053noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2307728353673489509.post-43858442923501669852013-02-05T02:16:00.002-08:002013-02-11T05:57:16.795-08:00Howard Hughes, James Whale | Hell's Angels (1930)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfUyq89wkgruciugtu-SZC1XpwmDMq8LFB5cUnHUzkDRCBXN0k7k6_DwZXUOPCkS7q2Lq_KuEEQ4M7D-CBpkvuuC2GNF2c2Cp1OnKEBOpXklNLxiOhveNQ64Q8urJATrV5WbRrmLiDJJQ/s1600/hells01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfUyq89wkgruciugtu-SZC1XpwmDMq8LFB5cUnHUzkDRCBXN0k7k6_DwZXUOPCkS7q2Lq_KuEEQ4M7D-CBpkvuuC2GNF2c2Cp1OnKEBOpXklNLxiOhveNQ64Q8urJATrV5WbRrmLiDJJQ/s1600/hells01.jpg" /></a></div>
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<i>Hell's Angels</i> could have been a masterpiece. Or at least a 'great flawed film' according to Truffaut's characterization of <i>Marnie</i>. Unfortunately it is neither, for too many indecisive compromises between discordant directions eventually make for a disjointed, self-contradictory work. However, it remains a fascinating thing to watch, and not only because of <i>schadenfreude </i>(since it is a failure of such epic proportions that only true hubris can achieve). It is the clashing of two powerful undercurrents that make it at the same time baffling and fruitful.<br />
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The most obvious of these streams is that of the spectacular. It is, of course, striking in the two 'action' sequences. Both the attack on the airship bomber and the large-scale sky battle bring combat on film to unprecedented, grandiose levels. Maybe, the dogfights in <a href="http://auteursatwar.blogspot.hu/2013/02/william-wellman-wings.html" target="_blank"><i>Wings</i></a> were more accurate in their restraint; maybe, the editing of the aerial scenes in <i><a href="http://auteursatwar.blogspot.hu/2013/02/howard-hawks-dawn-patrol.html" target="_blank">The Dawn Patrol</a></i> was better from a narrative point of view. Yet, neither are as outrageously extravagant as <i>Hell's Angels</i>.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Battle in the sky</i></span></span></div>
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Naturally, Hugues overdoes it. A suicide RAF pilot destroying an airship manned by German lemmings? Seriously. And in the last battle, the conspicuous risks taken by the actual pilots don't mix well with the dramatization of deaths. But the same stream flows in the veins of the scenes with women. Jean Harlow may be a poor British heiress, but she's a formidable slut in her actual late-twentyish clumsiness; and the two French prostitutes are too bad not to be true. One has to pay tribute to Mr. Hugues in admitting that sometimes, on screen, nothing succeeds like excess. Be it at the price of indigestion.<br />
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The second undercurrent is more discreet, as its attempts to burst on the surface are repeatedly blocked by correctness. <i>Hell's Angels</i> often develops a neurotic, desperate atmosphere, which probably shows best in Ben Lyon's character. Was it Howard Hughes, was it James Whale? Hard to say. Nevertheless, the total inadequacy of the younger brother's hedonism with the war is quite moving, and the gloom is reinforced by the older brothers' useless sense of morality.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Fools, what are you fighting for?</i></span></span></div>
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Yet, while those two men being on the verge of a nervous breakdown in the middle of a war should have lead to a series of fantastic disasters (of the <i>Dr. Strangelove</i> kind), it unfortunately always deflates in patriotic endings. The same phenomenon shows in the 'soapbox scene': the anarchist's rant is delivered quite convincingly, and then nullified by a line that makes the whole moment almost nihilistic. Furthermore, neither depression nor anti-war sentiment do blend well with the unabashed exhilaration of the spectacular moments, much as if <i>Hell's Angels</i> were two different films.<br />
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The inner contradictions of the movie shouldn't be dismissed, as they seriously undermine its overall quality. Certainly, the hectic conditions in which the production took place had serious consequences, but clearly the film not knowing where it was going wasn't due to technical issues. Its contradictions are deeply human in nature. They're the reason why this puzzling film has inspired great filmmakers in the second half of the Xxth century, somehow encouraged to solve the inconsistencies; and the reason why watching <i>Hell's Angels</i> is still a unique experience today.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoXAFGxyxV_xJRdrsq5DhBJ-G9pVkSULfnia7DPFoJAVk6kdmDG7US36yUMLaai4dP2cjOBX4TLf7lZpHVjp3TX9IWmmGdd1LLMdarJoMjSo7w_M7EEIe4Rm5mEW4lk9djLtapcr9xG2U/s1600/imdb2.gif" style="border: none; vertical-align: baseline;" /> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0020960/" target="_blank"><i>Hell's Angels</i></a> <i>at imdb</i><br /><br />
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf7UxwKKjHat15NeMOlvyS67GfqbZ4SONw2dLfjvL-50EkiW2i-3JtY9iribufuW0uR3jFMxEJI49Naajbn-Peb-bArX0Jcjk9vJuaGh3W38vcz8MJyPsGJyAnEfeNRHwHf2q8YjhNdnc/s1600/filmaf.gif" style="border: none; vertical-align: baseline;" /> <a href="http://www.filmaf.com/search.html?upc=025192593321" target="_blank"><i>DVD edition</i></a> <i>(Universal)</i>nem bajhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05757974878199258053noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2307728353673489509.post-76610246913385200422013-01-31T13:31:00.000-08:002013-02-11T05:57:16.797-08:00William Wellman | Wings (1927)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Prior to the United States entering WW1, Hollywood had issued two super-productions which partly dealt with the ongoing war: Thomas Ince's <i>Civilization </i>and D.W. Griffith's <i>Intolerance. </i>Although the Hun was certainly portrayed as the foe, both films were openly pacifist as was most of american public opinion at the time. Ten years later, Wellman's work revived the war epic pattern with a huge scale production, in which war had become an exciting adventure for young men providing they fight in the sky - for <i>Wings</i> was also to be the mother of all air war movies.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
War, an adventure? It may seem odd. Even if the 'never more' stance so prevalent in European post-war films and literature was less salient in America, Vidor's <a href="http://auteursatwar.blogspot.com/2013/01/king-vidors-big-parade.html" target="_blank"><i>Big Parade</i></a> had brilliantly stressed that the loss of one's innocence at the price of so many deaths (and the loss of one's limbs) was far from desirable. Yet in 1926 Walsh's <i>What Price Glory?</i> had been a successful 'buddy war movie' adapted from a Broadway hit, paving the way for films that would set aside the horror and make for good entertainment.<br />
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<object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" height="403" width="100%"><param name="quality" value="high"><param name="src" value="http://i48.vbox7.com/player/ext.swf?vid=7acf653b50"><param name="pluginspage" value="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://i48.vbox7.com/player/ext.swf?vid=7acf653b50" quality="high" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" height="403" width="100%"></object></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Dogfight!</i></span></span></div>
<br />
Aviation was undoubtedly a very hot topic: Lindbergh's crossing of the Atlantic was performed just weeks before the release of the film<i></i>. As a decorated war veteran from the Foreign Legion and the Lafayette Flying Corps, William A. Wellman was probably in a unique position to express all the excitement of aerial combat, which he does quite unabashedly in this film. The juvenile exhilaration, adrenaline rushes, <i>c'est-la-guerre</i> attitude give <i>Wings </i>an formidable freshness that still stand today.<br />
<br />
The aircraft-mounted cameras provide for unprecedented moments of rollercoaster cinema. The huge budget was spent on the reenactment of a joint arms offensive with thousands of extras (some of which would be hurt in the process), which is as much a tribute to the power of the motion picture industry as it is a testimony of the scale of WW1 itself. And the depiction of the Paris nightlife in 1918 - or should I say of its discovery by a young American - is incredibly vivid; fortunately, the Motion Picture Code hadn't been implemented yet.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" height="403" width="100%"><param name="quality" value="high"><param name="src" value="http://i48.vbox7.com/player/ext.swf?vid=bcf6980a51"><param name="pluginspage" value="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://i48.vbox7.com/player/ext.swf?vid=bcf6980a51" quality="high" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" height="403" width="100%"></object></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Les années folles</i></span></span></div>
<br />
Surely, <i>Wings </i>has its flaws. It has too many inter-titles and drags a bit in the middle, plus the 'love interest' is quite unbelievable - although silent film amateurs might find a guilty pleasure in watching the otherwise scandalous Clara Bow play... an ingenue. However if many of its moments would instantly become clichés, mimicked in almost every Hollywood aviation flick afterwards, it cannot be reduced to the formulaic: much like many Wellman films, the film stands out for its honesty. Just watch the short scene in which a young Gary Cooper demonstrates his conception of fate, and you'll see what I mean.<br />
<br /><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoXAFGxyxV_xJRdrsq5DhBJ-G9pVkSULfnia7DPFoJAVk6kdmDG7US36yUMLaai4dP2cjOBX4TLf7lZpHVjp3TX9IWmmGdd1LLMdarJoMjSo7w_M7EEIe4Rm5mEW4lk9djLtapcr9xG2U/s1600/imdb2.gif" style="border: none; vertical-align: baseline;" /> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0018578/" target="_blank"><i>Wings</i></a> <i>at imdb</i><br />
<br />
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf7UxwKKjHat15NeMOlvyS67GfqbZ4SONw2dLfjvL-50EkiW2i-3JtY9iribufuW0uR3jFMxEJI49Naajbn-Peb-bArX0Jcjk9vJuaGh3W38vcz8MJyPsGJyAnEfeNRHwHf2q8YjhNdnc/s1600/filmaf.gif" style="border: none; vertical-align: baseline;" /> <a href="http://www.filmaf.com/search.html?upc=097361448046" target="_blank"><i>Blu-Ray restored edition</i></a> <i>(Paramount) & others</i><br /><br />
<iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=autatwar-20&o=1&p=13&l=st1&mode=dvd&search=B0067MLCEI&fc1=000000<1=_blank&lc1=3366FF&bg1=333333&f=ifr" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" width="468" height="60" border="0" frameborder="0" style="border:none;" scrolling="no"></iframe>
nem bajhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05757974878199258053noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2307728353673489509.post-14745888091434521202013-01-27T02:27:00.000-08:002013-02-11T05:55:43.809-08:00Tay Garnett | Bataan (1943)<h1>
</h1>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVuKnAqK4TQY_GNDJxNdQSfjqkpk0IU5YB6_wfkCwRgfO9s0UrvFUPoMDX_okK9A0RvAj_alk-opjpKzAEckb3exA7cDO2fr2cRCfuarEAIxpqbmmn0LpDKq72NxAtCtHQKzGFqXwt2KY/s1600/bataan500_01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVuKnAqK4TQY_GNDJxNdQSfjqkpk0IU5YB6_wfkCwRgfO9s0UrvFUPoMDX_okK9A0RvAj_alk-opjpKzAEckb3exA7cDO2fr2cRCfuarEAIxpqbmmn0LpDKq72NxAtCtHQKzGFqXwt2KY/s1600/bataan500_01.jpg" /></a></div>
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Set during the first stage of the Filipino theater of WWII, <i>Bataan</i>
tells the story of an improbable group of U.S. soldiers who volunteer
to hold a position at all costs, with the sole purpose of delaying an
unstoppable Japanese offensive. It has been said that Tay Garnett's opus
redefined the war movie genre, imposing a recipe that would be used in
tens of Hollywood later films until the 70s, particularly those about
WWII and Korea.
<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>The breakthrough may not appear to those not familiar with american
war films of the 20s and 30s, however it is hard not to acknowledge that
the themes, character types and plot dynamics of <i>Bataan</i> have been used and abused in numerous movies posterior to this one. Nevertheless, this is not the side of <i>Bataan</i> I'll try to cover here (readers interested in this issue could read for instance Jeanine Basinger's <a href="http://books.google.fr/books?id=2YBIg-iwfUUC&lpg=PA30&hl=fr&pg=PA30#v=onepage&q&f=false" target="_blank">excellent article</a> in the book <i>The War Film</i>). Instead, I'd like to share the idea that this is a great early <i>film noir</i>: a violent and gloomy piece about lonely men trapped in a hostile environment, facing odds they know they will not overcome.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Angst out of shot</i></span></span></div>
<br />
The jungle doesn't feel 'natural' at all. This isn't because the film
was shot entirely on a sound stage, for adding wide-angle stock shots
of treelines or mountains would have been easy. This is deliberate,
reinforced by the repetitive use of dry ice to create unrealistic (but
certainly fantastic) ground smoke effects. The only attempt at going
back to nature, by the Filipino Morro soldier, ends up tragically. Much
like the city in urban <i>noir</i>, nature here has simply turned to be an absolutely hostile environment, which offers no way out.<br />
<br />
From the beginning, the violence is graphic. I can't remember any post-Hays Code movie before <i>Bataan</i>
showing women and children being actually blown out by a bomb. Sure,
the movie has its flaws notably when in comes to hand-to-hand combat
sequences: the choreography is showing, much as today's action films
choreographies will probably have future audiences smile. Yet, I find it
remarkable that even in the most gruesome moments the camera never
lingers (which is even more remarkable considering this is, after all, a
propaganda piece). The film doesn't try to sugarcoat the violence, and
yet doesn't fall into the trap of exploitation. It's about ethics, not
realism: the effect of violence has to be shown, but there is no lesson
to be learnt, except it's just the way it is.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>No place for love</i></span></span></div>
<br />
But there's more in the matter of <i>noir</i> style than just the
isolation and the violence: rage. Robert Taylor gives a performance as
great as it is unexpected (if you remember him from his appearances in
the 30s). He goes from tough to hard-boiled to furious throughout the
movie, and yet there's some kind of integrity developing . It isn't
sentimental nor righteous. As if once all hope has been lost, a steady
rage was the last way to remain human.
An almost ethical, elegant rage (which by the way doesn't only affect
Taylor's character, but also Lloyd Nolan's who in a memorable scene with
Robert Walker towards the end refuses to give up to sentimentality).
The rage, which goes litterally in the viewer's face in the last scene,
is why beyond all the propaganda figures in the film, including the
utterly racist treatment of the enemy, <i>Bataan</i> still tells us something today about modernity.<br />
<br />
Although seminal for the genre in characterization and narrative,
this film is in my eyes an oddity. My guess is it succeeded in making
propaganda out of a crushing military defeat precisely because its style
reached beyond the genre, echoing a spirit that would only become
obvious in later years (and in far more civilian settings). Tay
Garnett's career was uneven to say the least, but if you loved his <i>Postman Always Rings Twice</i> - which had the same cinematographer and editor - I think you'll thoroughly enjoy this one as well. <br />
<br />
<br />
PS : special mention to Bronislaw Kaper's low-key but haunting musical score, which perfectly fits the mood of the film.<br />
<br />
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoXAFGxyxV_xJRdrsq5DhBJ-G9pVkSULfnia7DPFoJAVk6kdmDG7US36yUMLaai4dP2cjOBX4TLf7lZpHVjp3TX9IWmmGdd1LLMdarJoMjSo7w_M7EEIe4Rm5mEW4lk9djLtapcr9xG2U/s1600/imdb2.gif" style="border: none; vertical-align: baseline;" /> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035664/" target="_blank"><i>Bataan </i></a> <i>at imdb.</i><br /><br />
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf7UxwKKjHat15NeMOlvyS67GfqbZ4SONw2dLfjvL-50EkiW2i-3JtY9iribufuW0uR3jFMxEJI49Naajbn-Peb-bArX0Jcjk9vJuaGh3W38vcz8MJyPsGJyAnEfeNRHwHf2q8YjhNdnc/s1600/filmaf.gif" style="border: none; vertical-align: baseline;" /> <a href="http://www.filmaf.com/search.html?upc=012569505629" target="_blank"><i>DVD edition</i></a> <i>(Warner) & others</i>nem bajhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05757974878199258053noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2307728353673489509.post-85783924814069319062013-01-26T09:40:00.000-08:002013-02-11T05:57:16.799-08:00Howard Hawks | The Dawn Patrol (1930)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAlUH8nJ5JloFnH4uigMrtV48mZILbBCqE62NAYcxeVZ2phy93uMz5woCHYQgZrUn6QztOJA_RQdrQZZ50_7nlHEgSBb7KfpiccJ6hj51nuDcPtXXh8Msbj36xqfZes0CXFejNoxGif-E/s1600/dawnp01.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAlUH8nJ5JloFnH4uigMrtV48mZILbBCqE62NAYcxeVZ2phy93uMz5woCHYQgZrUn6QztOJA_RQdrQZZ50_7nlHEgSBb7KfpiccJ6hj51nuDcPtXXh8Msbj36xqfZes0CXFejNoxGif-E/s1600/dawnp01.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<i>The Dawn Patrol</i> can be placed in several contexts: it is the director's first war movie as well as his first
talkie ; besides, it is part of the wave of American aviation films, military or not, that followed Lindbergh's 1927
Atlantic crossing and included Wellman's <a href="http://auteursatwar.blogspot.com/2013/02/william-wellman-wings.html" target="_blank"><i>Wings</i></a> as well as Hughes & Whale's <a href="http://auteursatwar.blogspot.hu/2013/02/howad-hughes-james-whale-hells-angels.html" target="_blank"><i>Hell's Angels</i></a>. However,
contrary to the two aforementioned and to its own original poster baseline, <i>The Dawn Patrol</i> is not an epic. Nor
does it fit the usual overtones adopted at the time (and still pretty much today) for most war movies, be it
adventure, sacrifice or pacifism.
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
What may strike the viewer here is the cyclical structure, which Hawks also used later on in
<i>The Road to Glory</i>. War is seldom told as a repeating story, although the pattern can be seen in <i>Apocalypse
Now</i> or <i>The Thin Red Line</i>. Just as there is a 'comedy of repetition', <i>The Dawn Patrol</i> is a somehow a
'tragedy of repetition'. Month after month, a new flight commander, a new squadron leader, and new recruits keep doing
the same things, playing the same dynamics with no end in sight - that is, no foreseeable end within their life
expectancy.<br />
<br />
In that respect, the film is indisputably a testimony about the spirit of those who fought World War I. Though one may
see it as a tribute to the heroics of tenacity, it just as well demonstrates the absurd mechanics of destruction on an
unprecedented scale. The theme is usually likely to be associated with the trenches' war, but Hawks gives it a unified
- or should we say joint - dimension. Whereas Wellmann and Whale insisted on the distinction beetween doughboys and
flyboys, Hawks tells us that war is the same in whatever position you're in.<br />
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<object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" height="403" width="100%"><param name="quality" value="high"><param name="src" value="http://i48.vbox7.com/player/ext.swf?vid=4d80fce72c"><param name="pluginspage" value="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://i48.vbox7.com/player/ext.swf?vid=4d80fce72c" quality="high" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" height="403" width="100%"></object></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Action! And a Hawks cameo as 'Von Richter'.</i></span></span></div>
<br />
Of course, this doesn't prevent the film to supplement the 'air force flick cliché collection' with new figures. Notably: the pilot-having-a-nervous-breakdown, the flight commander/squad leader fights, the motherly mechanic and the aviators-singing-songs-in-the-mess scene will be seen many many times in later aviation movies. Yet, the last two have a peculiar place in Hawks' work. The 'motherly mechanic', for instance, is a sketch for the recurring figure of the 'old man' in the director's movies.<br />
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<object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" height="403" width="100%"><param name="quality" value="high"><param name="src" value="http://i48.vbox7.com/player/ext.swf?vid=3de96a7844"><param name="pluginspage" value="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://i48.vbox7.com/player/ext.swf?vid=3de96a7844" quality="high" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" height="403" width="100%"></object></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Here's to the Dead already...</i></span></span></div>
<br />
The song is older than WWI and outlasted it. <i>"Here's a toast to the dead already / Hurrah for the next man who dies !</i> In Hawks' movies groups of men, or predominantly male, often resort to singing to express the idea that their fate is shared. It is all the more moving here, as this is almost the only music in the whole film, and the macabre words contrast fully with the warmth of togetherness. This is pure Hawksian emotion. The idea that during a war, humanity lies in the understanding that the fate is more collective than individual is also conveyed in the scene where the fallen German pilot is invited to drink with the (hardly) British aviators. It's not about 'chivalry', only a way to survive as a human being.<br />
<br />
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoXAFGxyxV_xJRdrsq5DhBJ-G9pVkSULfnia7DPFoJAVk6kdmDG7US36yUMLaai4dP2cjOBX4TLf7lZpHVjp3TX9IWmmGdd1LLMdarJoMjSo7w_M7EEIe4Rm5mEW4lk9djLtapcr9xG2U/s1600/imdb2.gif" style="border: none; vertical-align: baseline;" /> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0020815/" target="_blank"><i>The Dawn Patrol</i></a> <i>at imdb.</i><br />
<br />
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf7UxwKKjHat15NeMOlvyS67GfqbZ4SONw2dLfjvL-50EkiW2i-3JtY9iribufuW0uR3jFMxEJI49Naajbn-Peb-bArX0Jcjk9vJuaGh3W38vcz8MJyPsGJyAnEfeNRHwHf2q8YjhNdnc/s1600/filmaf.gif" style="border: none; vertical-align: baseline;" /> <a href="http://www.filmaf.com/search.html?upc=883316690840" target="_blank"><i>DVD edition</i></a> <i>(Warner) & others.</i>
nem bajhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05757974878199258053noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2307728353673489509.post-63033329397210033322013-01-26T02:41:00.000-08:002013-02-03T16:05:38.964-08:00John Ford | Drums Along the Mohawk (1939)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-TJROmBH6xakB9UZSszpLiAu3zFWKsvC0-_Ow78Drw9fgPCqNcEYQr3CoSYi8NnOD9pbHKTsRTZt9DGHi0TTGcWNfNDZxVWU5iY0X7sNmHHJOJFVkHYgzVpNKfqc0fTJoUWu6qb9ye2o/s1600/drums500_01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-TJROmBH6xakB9UZSszpLiAu3zFWKsvC0-_Ow78Drw9fgPCqNcEYQr3CoSYi8NnOD9pbHKTsRTZt9DGHi0TTGcWNfNDZxVWU5iY0X7sNmHHJOJFVkHYgzVpNKfqc0fTJoUWu6qb9ye2o/s1600/drums500_01.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Oddly enough, Hollywood has produced remarkably few films about the
American Revolutionary War, and only a few of them are good - a
situation mirrored, on the other side of the Atlantic, by that of French
movies about the French Revolution. From a military historian point of
view, <i>Drums...</i> is certainly not among the best. It shows a
prominent consensual bias - whereas the English and Loyalists are almost
non-existent, the Patriots are too good to be true - which certainly
disregards the complexity of the situation. However, this bias makes
ample room for the depiction of the settlers' life, and thus for the
evocation of the effect of war upon people. Therein lies the brillance
of this film.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
John Ford is a master at painting communities of ordinary people.
The rituals of their social life (births, weddings, mournings, dances,
solidarity, work etc.), the interacting worlds of men and women at the
time. He's done that many times, he is at is best in <i>Drums...</i>
because he is never dull. Where else but in a Ford movie would you hear a
priest advertise, right in the Church, for the local milliner? Where
would you get in the same film one man most seriously advise another to
beat his spouse good, and possibly one of the strongest independent
female characters (the widow McKlennar) ever filmed at the time? Where
else would you witness the beginning of a romance between a 56 y.o. Edna
May Oliver and a 36 y.o. Ward Bond?<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>La fleur au fusil</i></span></span></div>
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Because the tough lives and sincere hopes of the settlers - including
of course newlyweds Gilbert and Lana Martin (Henry Fonda and Claudette
Colbert) - are so well rendered, the irruption of the violence and
devastation brought by war can reach its maximum emotional impact on the
viewer, with only minimal graphic precision. Scenes such as Gilbert's
dismal account of his first battle, the (un-filmed) death of a man
because of a leg wound and an inexperienced surgeon, the visual
counterpoints of the same landscape at peace and at war, the single shot
of a violence-drunk fighter about to throw a baby through the room, a
long chase in the dusk... bear witness that great cinema, just like our
dreams, doesn't need surround sounds of bullets flying, close-ups of
silicon organ pieces and cgi-enhanced torrents of blood to be
meaningful.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Unhappy returns</i></span></span></div>
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Released in 1939, <i>Drums Along the Mohawk</i> was a box-office success, though critically eclipsed by the director's two masterpieces of the same vintage (<i>Stagecoach</i> and <i>Young Mr Lincoln</i>). To consider this film as a <i>western</i> and dismiss it as a <i>war movie</i> is actually tempting, as the original poster suggests. And surely, the theme of the Frontier is omnipresent in <i>Drums...</i>
Nevertheless, not only is this in my opinion one of the best
contributions Ford has ever made to the war film genre, but I'll also
argue that the peculiar combination of the archetypes of the militia
and that of the Frontier, as developed in this film, remain central to
an American conception of war.<br />
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For in <i>Drums</i>..., war proceeds somehow 'naturally' from the
community being threatened in its development. It is not a matter of
political calculations. Since the destiny of the community seems to be
its own expansion (both demographic and geographic), the Enemy appears
mostly as those (or that) who threaten this un-questioned order of
things. Thus, the Enemy doesn't need to exist outside the realm of its
function as an obstacle to be overcome - a constant in U.S. war movies,
which is why they so often look like <i>westerns </i>(no derogatory
intention here). Only in the end will the settlers discover for the
first time the flag they have been fighting for: until then, for all its
horror, war was just the natural thing to do.<br />
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PS : on DVD, the best color transfer is to be found in the Region 1 "Ford at Fox" box set.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoXAFGxyxV_xJRdrsq5DhBJ-G9pVkSULfnia7DPFoJAVk6kdmDG7US36yUMLaai4dP2cjOBX4TLf7lZpHVjp3TX9IWmmGdd1LLMdarJoMjSo7w_M7EEIe4Rm5mEW4lk9djLtapcr9xG2U/s1600/imdb2.gif" style="border:none;vertical-align:baseline;"/> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031252/" target="_blank"><i>Drums Along The Mohawk </i></a> <i>at imdb.</i><br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf7UxwKKjHat15NeMOlvyS67GfqbZ4SONw2dLfjvL-50EkiW2i-3JtY9iribufuW0uR3jFMxEJI49Naajbn-Peb-bArX0Jcjk9vJuaGh3W38vcz8MJyPsGJyAnEfeNRHwHf2q8YjhNdnc/s1600/filmaf.gif" style="border: none; vertical-align: baseline;" /> <a href="http://www.filmaf.com/search.html?upc=024543483113" target="_blank"><i>Ford at Fox DVD edition</i></a> <i>(Fox) & others.</i>nem bajhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05757974878199258053noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2307728353673489509.post-44821460299097512752013-01-25T12:12:00.000-08:002013-02-11T05:57:50.920-08:00Jean Jacques Annaud | Black and White in Color (1976)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPgMIFw5uEm-wLm66bLw_I4nL772RHnvrtPw2pPOOh_FzvE10HItZ2tXN2Z8kGcrG-msQznyDzbO-GxOcxpWSZIByAL38NPZ6npMuXSQCsN0sXQhCmQL-lLd4OsGStDxGfnGy5BopcVKI/s1600/bwcolor.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPgMIFw5uEm-wLm66bLw_I4nL772RHnvrtPw2pPOOh_FzvE10HItZ2tXN2Z8kGcrG-msQznyDzbO-GxOcxpWSZIByAL38NPZ6npMuXSQCsN0sXQhCmQL-lLd4OsGStDxGfnGy5BopcVKI/s1600/bwcolor.png" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[originally posted on <a href="http://allaboutwarmovies.com/" target="_blank">allaboutwarmovies.com</a>]</span></span></i><br />In a nutshell: two French and German outposts in 1914′s central Africa, cut away from their respective metropolitan authorities, mimic the European conflict once they have learned its existence – six months after the hostilities have been declared in Europe. Focusing on the French, the movie is a satire of patriotism and the ‘civilizing mission’ of french colonialism.<br />
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Director <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000269/" target="_blank">Jean-Jacques Annaud</a> may be known to younger audiences as the craftsman behind international productions such as <i>The Name of the Rose</i>, <i>Seven Years in Tibet</i> or <i>Enemy at the Gates</i>, but he started his career in France by directing two little rebellious films, <i>Hot Head</i> (about local sports celebrity and politics) and <i>Black and White in Color</i>, which is a war movie based on an actual event. It is a comedy, cliché-based from the start, the Germans being organized and professionals, whereas the French spend more time speaking, eating and making love than preparing for a fight. Yet the latter are so vain they launch the first offensive, which ends up being a disaster. Now they’re scared and in a defensive mode – which means time has come for a radical change in leadership.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Victory in singing?</i></span></span></div>
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For the main weakness of the French is the way the small community in their outpost envisions exploitation: the locals are not considered as men, crooked shopkeepers and even more crooked missionaries exploit the populations for immediate profit, and the only French soldier, a sergeant (seconded by a handful of <i>tirailleurs</i>, professional Black soldiers), is only a few months from retirement, and has never fought a battle except maybe against the appeal of booze and local women (those battles he seemingly always looses).<br />
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However, a young educated geographer, a pacifist and a socialist, decides to take over after the defeat. He engages the village chief, using the antagonism between villagers and bush tribes, to capture fresh cannon fodder from the countryside. Then he appoints the local White bully as a staff trainer, and takes a Black woman, possibly of high rank, as his mistress. The result is a brand new force of African soldiers, which is used to launch a new offensive on ‘German’ soil, this time with better, though inconclusive, results. They start digging trenches similar to those appearing in French magazines… I won’t spoil the ending.<br />
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The whole thing is a cruel satire, the story of a ridiculous war fought by Black proxies on account of racist White trash. Whether you’re a French with self-irony or a fan of French-bashing, it will surely please you. But its strength lies in the fact that is quite witty. The role played by language barriers is both symbolic and hilarious. Also, on one hand the Africans are <i>real people</i>, with their own identities, language and distinct approaches to the colonizers – yet on the other hand the recognition of their social existence by the French geographer gives him more exploitative power than his predecessors ever had… which in turn seems to give new strength to the contestation of colonial power. And finally, the intellectual betrays his own pacifist ideals for the pursuit of glory, sending more men into combat… in the name of humanism.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">PS: this review refers to the international version of the film, which gained the Foreign film Academy Award in 1976 in the name of Ivory Coast, where it was shot. On first release, the movie received extremely bad reviews in France, then the international version was re-released in France after the Oscar…</span></span><br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoXAFGxyxV_xJRdrsq5DhBJ-G9pVkSULfnia7DPFoJAVk6kdmDG7US36yUMLaai4dP2cjOBX4TLf7lZpHVjp3TX9IWmmGdd1LLMdarJoMjSo7w_M7EEIe4Rm5mEW4lk9djLtapcr9xG2U/s1600/imdb2.gif" style="border: none; vertical-align: baseline;" /> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074972/" target="_blank"><i>Black and White in Color</i></a>nem bajhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05757974878199258053noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2307728353673489509.post-34344622347249094142013-01-24T12:37:00.000-08:002013-02-03T11:42:27.670-08:00Luchino Visconti | Senso (1954)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrf5fw_coyLtC08wYBaub3oPPNEC-J44vI6HagZlDvbrejFY7pRSWgo6SFb_ecRIsHpKn0Bp0AJ1I5wVqPjYIG90alz-T6UmqrpK1y6K04DN6gfq5rM5U8-beq4dvGljGd8sI3DUWI5S4/s1600/senso.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrf5fw_coyLtC08wYBaub3oPPNEC-J44vI6HagZlDvbrejFY7pRSWgo6SFb_ecRIsHpKn0Bp0AJ1I5wVqPjYIG90alz-T6UmqrpK1y6K04DN6gfq5rM5U8-beq4dvGljGd8sI3DUWI5S4/s1600/senso.jpg" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[originally posted on <a href="http://allaboutwarmovies.com/" target="_blank">allaboutwarmovies.com</a>]</span></span></i><br />
In a nutshell: on the eve of the third Italian war of independence, in the Austrian-occupied city of Venice, the Contessa Serpieri (Alida Valli), a married Italian aristocrat, falls hopelessely in love with a younger Austrian lieutenant (Farley Granger), a notorious seducer. For him, she will betray both her social position and her beliefs in Italian independence, while he will exploit her love, and in turn betray his own career and country, up to a tragic ending.<br />
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Had it not been for the censorship, Luchino Visconti’s movie would have been called <i>Custoza</i>, after the second battle of Custoza, near Verona, where the Italian independence army was defeated by the Austro-Hungarian forces in 1866. Fortunately for the Italians, their opponent’s defeat at Königgrätz against Prussia prevented them for pushing their advantage and keep the Venetia region. However, in spite of its name reverting to that of its (loosely adpted) source short story, <i>Senso</i> certainly remains a war movie.<br />
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Of course, it is also a melodrama, an operatic portrait of the desperate, nefarious, masochistic love of an educated woman for an adventurer. I will not insist upon this aspect here. Yet, although there isn’t much combat to be seen, in part due to the censors, war is everywhere. War, in <i>Senso</i>, is at the same time the driving force of its protagonists’ lives, and the telltale device which reveals their character. And on a historical level, war is at the same time the developing bath and the accelerator of global changes.<br />
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As Renoir’s <i>Grand Illusion</i> demonstrated, a war movie isn’t always about those who fight. In this case, it’s about those who choose not to – those who, confronted with a crisis which reveals that their world is crumbling down (a theme dear to Visconti), choose not to join either side, and instead pursue their self-centered interests, their passions. Here, the battle of Custoza is a defeat for both sides. For Italy, it is the defeat of idealists betrayed by the aristocracy. For Austria, it is the beginning of the end of a decaying empire.<br />
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Visconti’s images of the battle of Custoza remind me a lot of the way many cinematographers chose to render the American Civil War. There’s a strongly suggested state of confusion, which brings the idea that the opponents belong to the same culture. It’s not so much a war beetween foreign and domestic as it is a conflict beetween the old and the new. Here, the new is a nation-state in the making, forged by ideals: Italy. While the old is a multi-cultural empire held by social allegiances, bent for dissolve: Austria-Hungary.<i> </i><br />
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<div id='blogvision'><iframe src='http://www.allocine.fr/_video/iblogvision.aspx?cmedia=19447467' style='width:100%; height:270px'></iframe><br /><a href='http://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm=1409.html' target='_blank'>Senso Bande-annonce VO</a></div><br/>
<i>Senso</i> might not be as achieved as <i>The Leopard</i>, as it is sometimes difficult for the viewer not to give priority to one of its two main streams (the love story and the historical statement) over the other. However, the narrative use of tracking shots is wellesian. The settings, composition and costumes are magnificent, well in line with what we know of the director’s personal background, knowledge, and career in the opera and theatre. Yet the camera never indulges in sheer production show-off: these elements constantly add meaning to what’s going on – and in the interior scenes, the games with the mirrors, paintings and doors are quite devilish. Last but not least for European music lovers, the double use of Verdi (for politics) and Brückner (for love) should make for an unforgettable experience.<br />
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<i>PS: Blu-Ray restored edition recommended. You may have a peek at the results <a href="http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1773-three-reasons-senso" target="_blank">here</a></i><br />
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoXAFGxyxV_xJRdrsq5DhBJ-G9pVkSULfnia7DPFoJAVk6kdmDG7US36yUMLaai4dP2cjOBX4TLf7lZpHVjp3TX9IWmmGdd1LLMdarJoMjSo7w_M7EEIe4Rm5mEW4lk9djLtapcr9xG2U/s1600/imdb2.gif" style="border: none; vertical-align: baseline;" /> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047469/" target="_blank"><i>Senso</i></a>nem bajhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05757974878199258053noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2307728353673489509.post-9037257244242505802013-01-23T13:26:00.000-08:002013-02-11T05:57:16.801-08:00King Vidor | The Big Parade (1925)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiNa82-N1BTpm7PnL0n6IWUHfeLnytU5qdl3gvvAQuft_GkV1nx9g_VvdcHduBkWfEoptHDvwv9asnHlz_cxyepTveC9V4LTkNwQcsbe9LXQq2tE4oKX63gMhmiVwqbcx1KGOE4b0pVM0/s1600/bigpa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiNa82-N1BTpm7PnL0n6IWUHfeLnytU5qdl3gvvAQuft_GkV1nx9g_VvdcHduBkWfEoptHDvwv9asnHlz_cxyepTveC9V4LTkNwQcsbe9LXQq2tE4oKX63gMhmiVwqbcx1KGOE4b0pVM0/s1600/bigpa.jpg" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[originally posted on <a href="http://allaboutwarmovies.com/" target="_blank">allaboutwarmovies.com</a>]</span></span></i><br />
The biggest hit of american cinema until <i>Gone With the Wind</i> was a war movie. Its commercial success was a surprise: in 1925, so close to World War I, the subject was still considered to be doomed at the U.S. box-office. King Vidor’s <i>The Big Parade</i> definitely reversed the tide, and its later influence on so many filmmakers makes it a must-see for the readers of this blog.<br />
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<i>The Big Parade</i> follows Jim, a young American man from an upper-class family who, like many others of different backgrounds, enlists in the Infantry and goes fighting in Europe. He will experience military life and love in the French countryside, then the horrors and glories of the Great War. This simple storyline is a perfect vehicle for a very strong theme in the director’s work: that of the individual at grips with society, the pressure of one’s social circles and the collective passions of the time (from <i>The Crowd</i> to <i>The FountainHead</i>).<br />
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Between two ‘book-ends’ sequences about Jim’s (John Gilbert) civilian life, the story is two-fold, almost perfectly symmetrical. The first part looks like a ‘military comedy’, young troopers making buddies and flirting with French women despite the language barrier, getting into rows, coping with the oddities of service… It is nicely shot, funny like only silents can be, and full of Vidoresque traits. For instance the scene when Mélisande (Renée Adorée) watches Jim’s buddy naked under their improvised shower – this was of course pre-code – which will find its clothed replica in <i>The FountainHead</i>; the moment when she rubs on her skin a rose she just picked, in order to smell good, and of course the chewing-gum initiation…<br />
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At some point the first time viewer might be tempted to wonder where this is going. After all isn’t this depiction of, well, American sex tourists, while so many others were dying, outrageous? Now, if these idyllic moments got to you by their simple poetry and lust for life, you’re in for a dramatic turn right in the middle of the film. In a masterful eight minutes scene – the departure of Jim’s unit for the front, leaving Mélisande behind – your heart should be wrenched, and you’ll start to feel exactly what humans leave behind when a war starts.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Like a funeral march</i></span></span></div>
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Then comes the second part, with its emblematic shots. The symmetry between the column of rookies riding to the front and the column of ambulances bringing back the wounded (Monicelli’s train scene in <i>La Grande Guerra</i>), the claustrophobia of the shell-holes (Milestone’s <a href="http://allaboutwarmovies.com/2010/11/22/all-quiet-on-the-western" target="_blank"><i>All Quiet…</i></a>, Kubrick’s <a href="http://allaboutwarmovies.com/2011/01/05/paths-of-glory" target="_blank"><i>Paths of Glory</i></a>), the difference between war and murder (Kobayashi’s <i>Human Condition</i>), the ensemble march in the woods (Kubricks’ <a href="http://allaboutwarmovies.com/2011/01/03/full-metal-jacket-1987" target="_blank"><i>Full Metal Jacket</i></a> final shot), the contrast between disciplined fighting and the rage when your friends are killed (too many to list), etc.<br />
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Sure, you’ve seen all this in later movies. But this is the original grammar book, and Vidor is at his best: the cinematography, the editing are amazing, constantly switching between very wide shots and intimate ones to compose a lyrical vision of… hell. For war is undoubtedly a man-made hell in this film. Yet, the <i>tour de force</i> of Vidor’s movie is that it is beyond the pacifist debate: « <i>The Big Parade</i> charts a modern progress through a crazy world. Neither picaro nor pilgrim, [Jim] drifts, marches, stumbles upon a landscape he never made »(1).<br />
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The last ‘bookend’ sequence, the return to civilian life, might seem quaint. Yet it does not depart from the lyricism of the work, torn between human despair and hopes. The flashback in the mind of Jim’s mother, the ending between Jim and Mélisande (a soft rehearsal for <i>Duel in the Sun</i>‘s finale?) should please any opera lover, and the ‘lost generation’ gaze of John Gilbert when he rides home with his father is probably the best introduction to Scott Fitzgerald ever filmed…<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">1</span>) Raymond Durgnat & Scott Simon, King Vidor, American, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.</span></address>
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoXAFGxyxV_xJRdrsq5DhBJ-G9pVkSULfnia7DPFoJAVk6kdmDG7US36yUMLaai4dP2cjOBX4TLf7lZpHVjp3TX9IWmmGdd1LLMdarJoMjSo7w_M7EEIe4Rm5mEW4lk9djLtapcr9xG2U/s1600/imdb2.gif" style="border: none; vertical-align: baseline;" /> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0015624/" target="_blank"><i>The Big Parade</i></a>
nem bajhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05757974878199258053noreply@blogger.com0