The Betrayal Reviewed by: Amanda Ondretti for Moving Pictures Magazine

In apology for the almost two month absence and in an effort to let you know what I've been up to I am posting my review for Moving Pictures Magazine on Ellen Kuras' documentary The Betrayal. The film comes out this January and has already been short listed for Best Documentary at this years Oscars. I suggest a viewing to all those who wish to appreciate superb quality. A merit that comes in the form of the utterly humbling tale of a Laotian family's hardships in escaping Laos and surviving in America after the Vietnam war.

*Click on the photo for a link to the review.

'Klute'

So I’ve just finished it, ‘Klute’, that is. Directed in 1971 by one Alan J. Pakula, and what an outstanding film. My notes on the film, as a look over them now, don’t even comprise one page as I was completely enthralled the whole time. This is a film that when you’re watching it you think to yourself there is no possible way that this can be duplicated. As this film oozes with eroticism and suspense and just emotes far too unique a feeling to ever expect to hear from it again. It’s rather quite brilliant and just spectacularly put together, visually stunning, utterly suspenseful in the most withholding manner, and I wont even get started on Donald Sutherland.

Despite all this, what I did manage to jot down though, besides the obvious acting commendation was how impeccable the cinematography and music was. And my commentary will focus solely on those two attributes because they're impeccable. Either way to no word of a lie in my notes and quote directly I wrote: “some of the cinematography reminds me of The Parallax View.” I wrote about The Parallax View, a film about a reporter who gets in way over his head while investigating a senator’s assassination, for a film course I took a few years ago that focused on American Cinema from 1970s onwards. Now to my joyous surprise I found out that Pakula does not only direct both these films but also shares the same cinematographer, Gordon Willis, and original music by Michael Small.

The music is the most eerie thing ever in this film. Despite watching the film in mid daylight I was surprisingly really spooked by the it and the music was key in providing that atmosphere. I am going to try and find a snippet of it to express just how well done it is…. It’s the opening credits; sorry I couldn’t help myself they’re just great. The sound recording isn’t too good, but you’ll get the point of what I mean once you’ve heard it. Begin clip at 3:37:

Hopefully you felt it to, cause I get the creeps just thinking about.

On to cinematography, which is stunning in this film. If you can’t already see by the pictures posted. I am going to post one of my personal favorite scenes from the film. The sound is better on this one but the picture is something else. Listen out for the music also in this scene; cause it just shows how versatile Small is and how fitting the music is for this scene in comparison to the eerier sounds in the rest of the film. This is also telling of how well the music is used. Just watch:

Look how well the light is utilized in each frame, illuminating only some parts of the frame and its properties. It displays such a lulled atmosphere and physically focuses our sight to the characters solely. And we wont even get started on how eroticism operates in this film and how well it used in this scene.

Overall the film is rather flawless and I haven’t seen one of such quality in a while so it’s nice, keeps my spirits up. Everything has a place, a purpose and is maxed out in quality. Everything from story to plot, to lighting and composition, to music and sound has a strict place and it used rather precisely and never haphazardly which can happen a lot in films that employ suspense like this one. Both of the two clips I’ve posted demonstrate I think to an extent just how well things are put together in this film and how precisely everything is set up.

In the end the film demonstrates an enormous quality. Just how well the formal attributes of film style and film story can be used to comprise not something over the top but just right shows a precise genius in being withholding. The film is top notch and if your going to rent this one I suggest you rent The Parallax View while your at it, Warren Beatty and killer cinematography makes for a hell of a good time. Enjoy!

My Halloween Post - Capra's Arsenic and Old Lace

I’ve been meaning to watch this film for a while, not for any specific reason but just been meaning to, just never had a real urge to. But now since I am catching up on some long overdue film viewing I finally got the chance to watch this 1944 Frank Capra film and boy did it pleasantly surprise me. The film stars Cary Grant, Josephine Hull, and Jean Adair and is based on a stage play of the same name by Joseph Kesselring. The film concerns the Brewster family and the insanity that ensues on one glorious Hallows Eve.

As the prologue says this is a “Halloween tale of Brooklyn where anything can happen and it usually does.” So by the point one should guess I was pretty damn excited I needed something fun to write about for my favorite holiday of the year and in Capra and Grant I found exactly what I wanted. A film about two remaining matriarchs of a well to do family and their very bad habit of ending the lives of lonely bachelors by serving them wine spiked with arsenic, strychnine and “just a pinch of cyanide.” One would also expect that the film that follows is hardly normal, it’s hardly anything ordinary at all, and it wouldn’t be quite fitting that such a story be told on any other evening of the year since I don’t think it would be quite as enchanting as this one.

Now accompanying this oddball story is the perfected comedic garnish throughout the film. I haven’t seem many Capra film’s and I am a fan, and this film doesn’t disappoint either it’s just not the sap happy Capra I am used to. The film is sheer screwball perfection and Cary Grant is the master. Honestly as I look over my notes I’ve mentioned how magnificent Grant is every five points or so. I am used to Cary Grant the romantic, the charming, tall, dark and handsome man from North by Northwest and Talk of the Town. And the rest of the supporting cast is just stunning. Josephine Hull and Jean Adair are spectacular and work the biddy old lady bit to its sweet end. You just want them to give you candy and tell you stories. Also Peter Lorre is always a pleasant surprise when you see him and he plays the perfect socio side-kick to Raymond Massey, who plays Grant’s sociopath brother Jonathon, who I must say at points in this film just gives me chills. Everyone just seemed to have worked so well together, and it just looks like they must have had a marvelous time making the film.

I feel like if I had watched this on Halloween night I would have enjoyed it even more. I miss black and white, and it’s utilized so well in this film in terms of lighting and compositions. Sol Polito, the director of photography for the film, used every possible chance he could get in the story to use the darkness to his advantage and not just have this be your everyday screwball comedy. This film is frightening at points and I think the lighting and photography aids us in enjoying it in that way. The film is delightfully frightening, don’t get me wrong, it’s funny. But as Aunt Abby says, “they ought not to be allowed to make such pictures just to frighten people” and as the tagline says “You’ll die laughing.” So I say this Halloween forget about Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13th or Nightmare on Elm St. don’t just put some Capra into your Christmas put him into your Halloween this year and you wont be disappointed.

I’ll leave you with a little taste from the movie, both to display how marvelous Grant is and how exactly the film mixes the comedic with the horrific. Happy Halloween Folks! All the best! And may the magic that is immersed in this holiday never be forgotten. Enjoy!

In Honor of My Brother

In honor of my brother Austin’s upcoming birthday, the 30th of October, I was going to write a review of the movie that inspired his marvelous name, Green Card. Unfortunately after viewing it I came to the conclusion that a review of that film would not do anyone any good or add to their life in any way, and most importantly wouldn’t honor my brother in the way that I hoped it would. Instead, I am going to write about another film that I picked up at the same time I got Green Card from the library. An animated film, that I’ve been meaning to see for a long time since my love affair with Hayao Miyazaki started, called Porco Rosso. Which I think my brother would have enjoyed more and would appreciate more then the 500 words about how painful Andie McDowell is and how much I like how Gérard Depardieu says “parcels.”

So initially I am going to say that this post will include a few more pictures then usual because, quite obviously, this medium is a visual one and just some of this stuff needs to be seen.

Okay, down to business. What gets me the most about flicks like this is I can’t possible even imagine what it would be like to be Hayao Miyazaki for a day. To be in that guys brain would be the most magical thing ever, Disney has nothing on this man, nothing. The imagination on this man is absolutely incredible, absolutely amazing. I can’t help but be in awe when I watch this stuff because I can’t possible source where this his material comes from.

The story is about a cynic, Bogartesque, sea plane pilot, and bounty hunter, who’s a pig, actually a pig. I would have no problem saying that this film is like the Casablanca of anime both in story type and status. I really don’t want to get much into the storyline I think the above should entice you enough to go rent it ASAP. I particularly enjoyed the portion of the film set in Italy, just the depiction of it, is rather fun. Despite that I may have enjoyed this part cause I am a bit home sick right now, its still quite something to see and rather amusing to say the least. Porco is a crass hero, who most importantly has honor, which, and sometimes not to the best of people’s nature, is something important to both the Japanese and the Italians, or at least is held in high regard.

More to my point, it’s hard for me to understand how people don’t enjoy animated features or just dismiss them as child’s play. Especially when stuff like Porco Rosso and even more so Grave of the Fireflies (Isao Takahata, 1988) exists. I think that people should appreciated it all a little more and more importantly expose more adults to it also. It’s not to say that this stuff isn’t appropriate for kids because it is, I just think that the general adult public should have a little more appreciation for it. I remember when Howl’s Moving Castle, another film by Miyazaki, came out and how excited I was that is was playing at my local theatre. I went with a friend on the first day it played and unfortunately there was not a single person there beside me and my friend, no one, not a soul. It was disheartening.

In the end people need to just let go and enjoy this stuff a bit more and by a bit more I mean a whole lot more. In the spirit of hope that everyone who reads this goes out and rents Porco Rosso and any of the other films I’ve mentioned I am going to mention another one. Coming out as of this October 31st, if I am not mistaken, called Fear(s) of the Dark which is a compilation of animated shorts done by some of the greatest graphic artists of our time. Go give it a look and give it some love. Fin.

What Do You Really Want? Good Dick and Issues of Authenticity

I would like, firstly, to say that I commend this film for showing a couple we don’t usually see in films; the two actors comprising it were both equally fascinating. But I would like to say that I do think that this type of couple is just as much an "ideal"* as any other couple we see in the usual romantic comedies that star Colin Firth or Sandra Bullock.

On the film's website the director, writer and one of the main protagonist’s of the film, Marianna Palka, explains why she made the film and what she wanted to achieve. She says: “I wanted to reintroduce…the romance of a film about real people whose sexiness abounds because of their authenticity.” Now as glorious as that sounds just because they’re unconventional characters doesn’t make them "authentic". I think their emotions and sentiments are genuine and that is what makes the film so lovely and human. But I don’t want to call them authentic because I think that the characters, specifically, Jason Ritter’s character, is still a form of ideal and still unrealistic.

Now despite all this I did really enjoy the film. I enjoy the idealistic quality of the relationship we see, I am sucker for stuff like that. But as I said, I think the characters have genuine emotions and sentiments and it makes for a marvelous human quality to the film, but it's still a form of ideal and not as authentic as the author might have wanted. And I do agree with the artist when she says that: “definitions of masculinity often tend to be deformed in our culture.” It was nice to see a different projection of masculinity in this film, as Jason Ritter is a revelation in that department. The female, Palka’s character, is lovely and the first moment you see her you know she is just screaming from the inside without saying very much.

It’s hard to describe, but these characters brought something out in each other that allows them to be much more human on their own, but it was when they were together that I had a hard time keeping hold of this authenticity issue. Maybe it was the thought of them as a couple? They were fascinating, yes, and it was nice to see the risk that was taken in how the two shared their relationship, but I found it hard to believe. I don’t want to say that it shouldn’t have had a happy ending and then maybe it would have had more resonance, because I am not sure if that would be true. But it does bring up a good question about whether or not the characters would be more “authentic” if the film didn’t have a “happy” ending.

Maybe I am a bit of a cynic, but I suggest you take a look at the movie and make up your own mind. Like I said the emotions and sentiments that allow for a lovely human quality to this film abound. And it was refreshing to see this set of unique characters dealing with the questions of love and happiness. But I think the there is still a sense of ideal in the film despite its unique and unconventional qualities.

*insofar as what is unrealistic.

Roger Ebert and Why He Just Made My Day and Reminded Me About Why I Love the Cinema

Here’s the quote first from an article Ebert wrote about the question "What's your favorite movie?":

“Movies do not change, but their viewers do. When I saw "La Dolce Vita" in 1962, I was an adolescent for whom "the sweet life" represented everything I dreamed of: Exotic European glamour, sin, the weary romance of the cynical newspaperman. When I saw it again, around 1970, I was living in a version of Marcello's world. Chicago's North Avenue was not the Via Veneto, but at 3 a.m. the denizens were just as colorful, and I was about Marcello's age. When I saw the movie around 1980, Marcello was the same age, but I was 10 years older, had stopped drinking, and saw him not as a role model but as a victim, condemned to an endless search for happiness that could never be found, not that way. By 1991, Marcello seemed younger still, and while I had once admired and then criticized him, now I pitied and loved him. And when I saw the movie right after Mastroianni died, I thought that Fellini and Marcello had taken a moment of discovery and made it immortal. There may be no such thing as the sweet life. But it is necessary to find that out for yourself.”

How marvelous a sentiment as the one above, this is why I love the cinema. Movies provide us with a rich language for discussing and describing the world around us as I’ve said before. But what most tend to forget is that it allows this in regard to ourselves also and it’s nice to see that this type of experience continues today. I grew up with the cinema in my life; I don’t remember a time without it, when I couldn’t reference it, what I liked at what time or watching at whatever time. Cinema has become a part of who I am, my religion of sorts. I considered myself to be a part of an artistic community who both relish the works of others and hopes for a cinema that balances great substance for the mind and sustenance for the eyes.

I am searching for a job right now, and with not much luck this paragraph here has made me completely happy and reminded me about why I love the cinema. Something that I completely rethink over and over again when it comes to why I do love the cinema was said most perfectly in a great movie called The History Boys. It is that some of the best moments are when you come across something, it could be a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things, that you’d thought special, particular to you. And there it is in front of you said by someone else, a person you’ve never met, maybe even someone long dead. And it’s as if a hand has come out, and taken yours. Just writing that now makes me so emotional because I know this is how the cinema affects me and why I find it so special and I hope that more and more people are affected in such a manner. I think that a cinema of great personal nature or that comes from a very human place, or authentic place gets this type of affect and I think this is what we’re lacking in the cinema today, something profoundly genuine. Like Ebert says: “it’s necessary to find that out for yourself.” I just hope more people do and take the time to be affected by it and inspire by it.

*the man in the picture above is the one and only Federico Fellini. Side note: I feel that about any of the directors that one might have ever said that about Fellini is the one I can say that and it actually be true.

“It’s a man’s right to ask and a women’s duty to refuse”: Pietro Germi and a Brand of Comedy We Don’t see Anymore.

So as I began to watch Pietro Germi’s Seduced and Abandoned I quickly became deterred to write anything about the film because I figured it’s significance was too specific to time and place. But as I continued the film I began to realize that it wasn’t and that Germi’s film still has some resonance today. Firstly I’ll give a bit of a background about what the film gives its commentary to, because I do believe any discussion of the film needs it. And eventually get to how it’s unfortunate that this type of film seems so scarce in the filmmaking of today.

So let’s begin. Simply the film speaks of forced marriages. Basically there was law in Sicily, that was later repealed, that stated that a rapist could go free if the victim married him. It’s said that Germi never did comedy for comedy sake and that behind the irony and the laughter there had to be something of substance, a balance between that which is wildly entertaining and powerfully grotesque.

The film deals with as I stated above, a law that allowed a rapist to go free if his victim married him. The plot: A 16-year old girl is seduced by her sister’s fiancé. She becomes pregnant and when her family finds out they confront the man with marriage. He refuses to marry her because he says he wants a virgin for a wife. One of the best lines in the film is when the culprit’s father responds to this by saying: “It’s a man’s right to ask [for sex before marriage] and a women’s duty to refuse.”

What this film ultimately shows is how society is based on an unstated principle that everyone shares: that there’s a huge difference between private and public and that the latter should never fully know about the former. But in those instances when the private is publicized those involved and subsequently their families feel that it’s necessary to make sure that their "names" are never shamed or dishonored. Now I am sure we all know that one can talk all day about why, at the root of the problem, this is to be considered shameful or dishonorable. And despite how much I am tempted to discuss this I want to speak more importantly about why films like Germi’s are ever so sparingly made today.

Now I don’t mean films that just criticize social mores, because we’ve got lots of those and they’re garish. What I mean is what happened to a film that critically observes society, with bitterness, and skepticism, and desperation? Films that take a “scalpel to society and samples its utterly senseless, absurd and grotesque aspects.”* Furthermore, I would like to add that I think that comedy and it’s counterparts in irony, satire, and parody are part of the highest forms of art because of the commentary they can achieve and subsequently deliver towards the general public. I would hope that somehow people begin to appreciate what these types of films are doing and hopefully be inspired. I really just would like to begin to see, at least, people taking chances in today’s cinematic endeavors to achieve such possibilities. This type of smart cinema is a bit lost today and I hope that it somehow finds it's way back, cause I really miss it.

*Sesti, Mario. "Commedia Al'Italiana: Germi Style." Interview with Criterion Collection. Commedia Al'Italiana: Germi Style.