Life is Beautiful

Life is Beautiful (1997)
IMDB #77 [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118799/]

The Gist:
Okay, so this movie took me three sittings to watch (just like Tokyo Story), but for completely different reasons. I watched the first half and it breezed by, it was excellent, very clever writing. Then I had to stop for homework reasons. I picked it back up and the tonal shift happened immediately and then I had to turn it off because it was depressing me. ...A lot. Now that I've finished it, I don't know what to think. My nerves are a little raw from the experience. It's clearly a good movie, and I'm glad that the ending pulls its punches a little. Holocaust movies get to me, it's hard for me to watch this without just feeling depressed and enraged.

Swing Time

The Swing Time (1936)
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028333/]

The Gist:
If you don't count Funny Face, and I'd rather not count Funny Face, this is the first Fred Astaire film I've seen. Being so, it did not disappoint. The story was simple but charming, but the life of the film is in its numbers. Also, I don't know if anyone's noticed this but Fred Astaire is a weird looking guy. His forehead is huge, and his legs are crazy long. Just shows that a lot can be forgiven if a guy knows how to tap dance. Anyway, I love how the music numbers informed on the plot, helped viewers grow more attached to the characters. When Ginger Rogers agrees to marry the wrong guy I yelled at my television. That, I think, is the nicest thing I can say about the film.

Ballast

Ballast (2008)
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1153690/]

The Gist:
Ballast is a film that has been dubiously dubbed by A.O. Scott as part of an American "Neo-Neo Realist" movement. The entire film is shot hand-held (unless there's some tricky tripod shot hiding in there for like five seconds, which I doubt), and the editing is sporadic, lively, organic. The film was directing, produced, written, and edited by Lance Hammer who has never made a feature film before in his life. He shot in the Mississippi Delta with nonactors that were native to the area. And yeah, the list goes on like that. Let me just say that the film is amazing, that it trembles with life, and be done with it.

The Lady Eve

The Lady Eve (1941)
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033804/]

The Gist:
All I have to say is that it's a good thing Henry Fonda has such a screen presence because his character was seriously underwritten. The movie works because of Henry Fonda, and if someone else played the part the character would have been hopelessly unlikable from my standpoint. This coming from a film that, in and of itself, is incredibly well written for classic hollywood. It's penned and directed by previous film karma favorite "Sullivan's Travels," and manages to blend high brow and low brow rather seamlessly. In the end, I laughed out loud on several occasions (which I don't tend to do), and loved Barbara Stanwyck's character immensely.

Week Twenty-Four

Okay, so since I decided that I want one foreign film a week, and since it took me forever to watch Tokyo Story, this week is nearly finished with. Just have one last film to watch:

The Lady Eve (1941) - check
Ballast (2008) - check
Swing Time (1936) - check
Life is Beautiful (1997)

Tokyo Story

Tokyo Story (1953)
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046438/]

The Gist:
The film is a slow burn for realist junkies, about an elderly couple visiting their family in Tokyo. It deals with age and the gradual separation between parents and their children, and moves with a very slow and deliberate pace. Long story short, it took me three separate sittings to finish the film. I don't know, it's really beautiful but I think I need a little more dramatization in my realist films. I guess that makes me more of a formalist than a realist, which fits given my favorite films. I will certainly watch more Ozu films because I think there's a lot of wealth to the picture, and undoubtedly to the rest of his canon as well. But I may have to steel myself for it.

The Awful Truth

The Awful Truth (1937)
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028597/]

The Gist:
Screwball comedy about a married couple accusing each other of having affairs, of getting a divorce. The odd thing about the film is that I kept waiting for the "Awful Truth" to come out, for the characters to admit to adultery or to clear their names. Yeah, didn't happen. Instead, you see that the two are plainly still in love with each other, go to great lengths at times to get back to a place where they can be together. I think the film makes more sense in the end if they both had affairs, but there was nothing in the film to suggest that it would be left so open-ended (it is Hollywood...no neat bow? Really?).

The Last Picture Show

The Last Picture Show (1971)
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067328/]

The Gist:
A melancholy film about a small town and the transition into adulthood. It all has an indie beat up charm befitting something like clerks only it feels more sophisticated, meaningful (sorry, Clerks). Thematically I could compare it The Graduate, only a bit more sprawling in its focus. What I like here though, is that instead of focusing on an important moment, the film continually delves past that moment into the aftermath. It's impressive when a film can do that and still stay potent.

The Night of the Hunter

The Night of the Hunter (1955)
IMDB #175 [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048424/]

The Gist:
Kind of a contradicting film, equal parts art house and Hollywood convention. Fascinating throughout though, very suspenseful, the preacher has a very natural malevolent presence. I thought the ending felt a bit too warm and cozy with all its "oh the poor children" lines, and the moments of conflict were occasionally marred by the preacher becoming terribly slow all of a sudden. However, what it does well, it does really well. Rich noir artistic framing (like the picture above), strange risky editing and narrative choices, and an overall mythologizing of good and evil that culminates in an amazing scene with two characters singing different versions of the same hymn.

Week Twenty-Three

Still going pretty fast for the month of February, but now that I think of it it's a shorter month so it kind of works. New Queue:

The Awful Truth (1937) - check
The Night of the Hunter (1955) - check
Tokyo Story (1953) - check
The Last Picture Show (1971) - check

Grave of the Fireflies

Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
IMDB #182 [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095327/]

The Gist:
This film probably could not be made without animation. It's just too depressing, I honestly could not watch flesh and blood characters starve to death on screen. It's just too much (I'm looking at you, overrated Into the Wild). However, by using the anime approach, it provides just enough separation to allow the broader themes of the numerous and nameless atrocities that the war brought on to develop without the distraction of visceral reaction.

Angels With Dirty Faces

Angels With Dirty Faces (1938)
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029870/]

The Gist:
Remember when I said Hollywood's gangster films would get better? Now granted, I wrote that like two seconds ago, but that's besides the point. A mere seven years after Public Enemy we have Angels With Dirty Faces made under the Hays Code and showing significant improvements on the pre-code gangster films. Instead of violence as pure sensationalism, we have the added element of moral weight which lends the story energy and poignancy. Also, yes I am on a James Cagney kick. He's pretty cool.

The Public Enemy

The Public Enemy (1931)
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022286/]

The Gist:
Classic gangster film of the early sound period, showcasing James Cagney in his first role. The performance by Cagney is solid, the story is a little bland but still intriguing. It's fun to see Cagney and his partner muscling around, but the truth is that not a lot happens in the film. You have maybe a couple steep rises in conflict and then its all over in a hail of gunfire. Not bad, but Hollywood would get better with the gangster film as time went on.

Yankee Doodle Dandy

Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035575/]

The Gist:
A reasonably entertaining piece of mild war time propaganda. There are some catchy numbers that are now fairly inseperable from other traditional patriotic hymns, songs, whatever. Also James Cagney is still awesome. However, the movie had no real conflict and was a bit too easy to digest.

Odd List of the Month

My New Top Twenty - No Particular Order

Moulin Rouge
Vertigo
La Dolce Vita
Happy Together
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Spirited Away
Breathless
The Hustler
Shaolin Soccer
Raging Bull
Rear Window
Manhattan
Apocalypse Now
Chinatown
The Fountain
In the Mood for Love
Star Wars
Dead Man
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Pulp Fiction

Week Twenty-Two

I think that was the fastest turn around for a week since the projects inception. Four films in the first four days. Might as well put up a new queue:

Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) - check
Angels With Dirty Faces (1938) - check
Grave of the Fireflies (1988) - check
The Public Enemy (1931) - check

The White Ribbon

The White Ribbon (2009)
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1149362/]

The Gist:
Small town in Germany at the brink of world war one, where strange and tragic events keep happening and there's a big mystery as to who is behind it. Except there isn't, it's the kids. Maybe the enigma of the film is why the kids are doing it? Except no, that isn't a mystery either. It's because the town is filled with a repressed air of religion and tradition, is a toxic environment, and so on. Really what keeps you enthralled with the film is to see how it's going to play out, how are things going to come to a head. It's a subtle work, and the few moments of heavy handedness were a bit of a blunt shock to me while watching. As a whole, it was mesmerizing and increasingly sinister.

Rosemary's Baby

Rosemary's Baby (1968)
IMDB #196 [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063522/]

The Gist:
Basically, Rosemary's hubby makes some weird pact with the creepy neighbors next door that has something to do with Rosemary's baby. They all treat her weird, force tanus root on her, force a doctor, and generally control her in ways both subtle and obvious. She goes back and forth from knowing something is going on and trying to uncover the truth to trying her best to ignore it (because the implications are pretty outlandish). In the end, the result is pretty suspenseful, manages to be pretty primal at times. However, the ending seems almost ludicrous (probably intentionally), and there were moments in the film where the husband's actions were so overtly manipulative and sketch that I wanted her to go for the knife way before she did. Once she did I wanted her to use it.

The Sweet Smell of Success

The Sweet Smell of Success
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051036/]

The Gist:
The weird niche world of a press man in a muckraking newspaper, the disintegration of the American dream of capitalism, the gradual loss of moral grounding, and the objectification and subjugation of women. All these elements are fair game in The Sweet Smell of Success, a film that drags every dirty and rotten thing about society at a place and time into the mud and leaves the audience with a subtle feeling of determination. This feeling is mostly due to one character's decision to finally assert herself while those around her are left to dwell in the darkness, and we as an audience are reminded that the path of the righteous is not an easy path but one always available. Or something like that.

Footlight Parade

Footlight Parade (1933)
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024028/]

The Gist:
Early Busby Berkeley musical with James Cagney, and really the forerunner of all musicals to follow. The dialogue is fast, crisp, the atmosphere manic. The musical numbers don't really come until the end, kind of like All That Jazz (only All That Jazz put a really morbid spin on this idea). Before the numbers take place, the film is entrenched in the backstage of the musical, breathing the beautiful process.

Week Twenty-One

Alright, we're into the dash weeks (twenty-one, twenty-two, etc). New queue:

The White Ribbon (2009) - check
Rosemary's Baby (1968) - check
The Footlight Parade (1933) - check
The Sweet Smell of Success (1957) - check

Five Months

As we approach the half year mark, the project is in good spirits. The top five of the month:

1. Wild Strawberries
2. Sullivan's Travels
3. My Dinner With Andre
4. Play It Again, Sam
5. Laura

Honorable Mention: Riding Giants, All About Eve