Day 96/100 - Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff (2010)

In this fascinating documentary, Jack Cardiff describes his superb career as one of the ultimate Technicolor cinematographers of the twentieth century, who worked on 86 films. Beginning work in 1918, he continued up until 2007, dying in 2009. Telling fascinating stories of the film production, films, directors, and actors that he worked with, Jack shows a keen sense of humor. Martin Scorsese also offers commentary throughout.

Below is only a partial list of only a few of his important films discussed in the film:

• West Approaches (1945) - the first documentary in Technicolor
• A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
• Black Narcissus (1947) - a magnificently lighted and filmed studio work, which appears to be location work but actually isn’t
• The Red Shoes (1948) - A film I saw about 1950 and blew me away with its innovative storytelling and knock-out color. It tells in truly glorious Technicolor of the world of an obsessed dancer/artist. I can still see the scenes through my seven-year old eyes.
• Under Capricorn (1949) – A special crane was created so that Hitchcock could construct one shot moving camera scenes where walls were moved out and then back.
• The African Queen (1951)
• The Barefoot Contessa (1954) - with Ava Gardner at  her most beautiful
• War and Peace (1956)
• The Vikings (1958)
• Prince and the Showgirl (1957) – with Marilyn
• Rambo: First Blood, Part II (1985)

As a portrait photographer, Cardiff captured fascinating images of his female stars: Audrey Hepburn, Sophia Loren, Anita Eckberg, Janet Leigh, Marilyn Monroe. We also get a chance to see several of his home movies of film production and stars. It is a fascinating view of behind the camera.

The documentary is well told, and Cardiff becomes a man I would like to have known and whose work I greatly admire.

Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff (2010) **** (found on Netflix Streaming)

Day 95/99 The Big Sleep (1946)

Carmen, Mars, and Marlowe in a scene from The Big Sleep.
The Oriental bust at left  had a camera  in it to take blackmail pictures.

I’m currently teaching a course called Evil in Literature and we just finished Raymond Chandler’s Farewell, My Lovely. Instead of Mitchum’s 1970s version of Philip Marlowe, I decided to give the students Humphrey Bogart’s take on the character.  The Big Sleep was directed by Howard Hawks, with a script by William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett and Jules Furthman. Although filmed during the war, scenes were added to beef up Lauren Bacall’s part to play off of the 1944 success Bogart and Bacall had with To Have and Have Not. The film was released in 1946.

Bogart, for me, is one of the best of the Philip Marlowes. Small, wise-cracking, glib, a man that women are attracted to in spite of a face that few would call handsome but with a personality and smile that makes you forget it. He has a film charisma which makes his both likeable and watchable. His repartee with Bacall plays well and shows a sexual tension that doesn’t always show itself with cast members in relationships beyond their picture. (Bogart and Bacall were married in 1945.)

The film, a great example of 1940s film noir, begins with wheelchair-bound millionaire General Sternwood hiring Marlowe to track down a blackmailer (rare book dealer A.G. Geiger) who has some major I.O.U.s from Sternwood’s younger daughter, Carmen (Martha Vickers), who we meet when Marlowe arrives. An old friend of Marlowe’s, Sean Regan, has disappeared and the General’s older daughter Vivian (Bacall, described as “spoiled, exacting, smart, and ruthless”) asks him to find him. The general says of his daughters,“I assume they have all the usual vices besides those they invented on their own.”

Marlowe eventually follows Carmen to Geiger’s home where he sits outside while Geiger is shot after taking compromising pictures of Carmen Sternwood. Marlowe finds the body and Carmen in a drugged state. Returning Carmen back to the Sternwood mansion, Marlowe returns to Geiger's and finds the body missing. Soon a character named Eddie Mars (John Ridgely), owner of a gambling club, appears as owner of Geiger's house. We are led to believe that Mars’ wife had run off with Sean Regan. 

As always in Chandler’s books, the plot gets more and more complicated, with everybody producing a gun, several characters being shot, one character being poisoned, Marlowe being told to lay off his search, Vivian and Marlowe heavily flirting and kissing, lots of women throwing themselves at Marlowe, drinks, and ubiquitous cigarettes. The whole plot and repartee is enjoyable, as is all the period detail, true for 1945, but wonderfully kitch for today. [For example, I can't think of many movies with scenes of a female taxi driver. Period gas ration stickers appear in the car windows. Bacall even sings a 1940s song for us.]  Watching the period décor of Fred M. MacLean and the classy suits and gowns of Leah Rhodes gives for me a much closer rendition of the period described by Chandler than the nostalgic grunge of Mitchum’s Farewell, My Lovely. 

In all, it becomes a very enjoyable 1 hour-54 minutes.

If you haven’t seen it in a long time or if you haven't ever seen it, you can find the film on Amazon Instant Video Rental.

The Big Sleep (1946) ****

Day 94/98 - Pastorela (2011)

A Pastorela is a traditional Mexican Nativity play where the role of Satan becomes the chief humorous character who tries to stop the shepherds and wise men from reaching the baby Jesus. In December, in the Mexico City parish of San Miguel de Nenepilco,  Chucho, aka Lieutenant Jesus Juarez Hurtado, wants to play the Satan as he has in years past. Unfortunately, the previous priest died while making love to a nun and the church has sent Padre Mundo, an exorcist, to take over, keep the money flowing and produce the annual  pastorela. Chucho and Mundo square off when Mundo casts Chucho’s taxidriving friend Bulmaro as Satan. Having been warned not to let the new parish question his authority, Mundo refuses to change his mind. Since the pastorela is entered into a contest and the Cardinal is interested in seeing the play, funny (and often ludicrous) complications mount.

Gradually, the screenplay by director/playwrite Emilio Portes seems to suddenly change focus and goes from a humorous struggle of Chucho versus the priest into a much more metaphysical struggle where the real Satan takes over Chucho and/or Mundo.  

The whole thing, of course, leads to the pastorela production where Padre Mundo decides to take on the role of Satan in his red tights, black cape,  and horned outfit. Chucho eventually shows up as the Archangel Michael in a white gown, roman breastplate and large wings. Actors wearing Satan costumes from other productions had been arrested in a plot twist and they storm the theatre while policemen dressed in angel costumes (???) try to stop  them.  The whole thing becomes a supernatural confusion where some actors are killed and good (or is it evil?) triumphs.

The film is highly irreverent with R-rated situations and dialogue. Both clergy and cops constantly swearing and the world seems a comic book reality. The whole Mexico City police force is seen as corrupt, as are the clergy. Some of the humor is lost in the subtitles which in a couple of key moments appear white on white images.

Pastorela (2011) ***

Day 93/97 - The Girl (HBO, 2012)

HBO’s The Girl, based on two chapters of Donald Spoto’s Spellbound by Beauty: Alfred Hitchcock and His Leading Ladies, concentrates on The Birds and Marnie, the only two films Tippi Hedren made for Hitchcock and their relationship. The whole thing suggests to any armchair-psychologist that Hitchcock fell victim to the same kind of obsession he filmed in Vertigo, where Jimmy Stewart finds Kim Novak, a woman who looks like a woman he has loved and lost and forces her to undergo changes to become the woman he loved.

Hitchcock was a genius filmmaker, but his treatment of women like Hedren suggests an almost infantile need to control them. Today, he might have been sued for sexual harassment. Back in the 1960s, people accepted his actions as part of his quirks.

Hitchcock first sees Hedren in a commercial on television, when his wife Alma suggests she has a pretty smile. Hitchcock traces her down and puts her under contract for seven years. Her first attempts at acting are embarrassingly bad, but Hitchcock is not deterred.

Toby Jones’ Hitchcock, inspired perhaps by Spoto’s  insights, becomes a highly complex character, who has a love/hate relationship with his wife Alma, tells dirty limericks to Hedren knowing she will be offended, and literally punishes her with live birds and breaking glass. At one point, he discusses with his assistant director his loathing of his own overweight unattractive body, which may hint at the reason he is so obsessed with an “ice-princess” he cannot have. Jones is quite effective in the role, allowing us to wonder what makes the apparent misagonist tick. Hitchcock once said that “actors should be treated like cattle.” Jones shows his constant disdain for and attraction to his creation quite convincingly.

The most written about point in the production of The Birds was the filming of the moment that Hedren’s character enters an attic and is attacked by scores of birds. For an entire week, with take after take (beyond 40), Hedren has to protect herself from birds that are thrown at her and even hooked onto her clothing. She had been led to believe the birds would only be mechanical ones, but as she comes on the set she realizes live birds had been in the planning from the beginning.

Sienna Miller is good, but she is not always as convincing as Jones. Miller, in many respects, has the more difficult role in trying to make clear why any actress would allow herself to be treated as she was. Hedren in Spoto’s book says she was an inexperienced actress under contract to a powerful man who was convinced by others that this is the way movies were made. The character has a confidant to tells this to, and Peggy, Hitch’s secretary, and Alma. But, at times the script needs to make her feelings clearer to allow us more sympathy for the character.

As difficult as acting in The Birds proved, Hedren's nightmare continued when she was next cast in Hitchcock’s Marnie, as a sexually frigid woman who is raped by her husband on her wedding night. By this point, Hitchcock was making clear intentions that he wished to leave Alma and start a new life with Hedren.  After Hedren totally rejects Hitchcock, she asks to be let out of her contract.

The film has convincing sets and costumes, and there are times that the director seems to be paying homage to some of the other Hitchcock films. When Hedren gets her hair dyed for Marnie, the shot looks like it is quoting Hitchock’s Novak hair-dying scene in Vertigo. Care has been taken to suggest the period. Penelope Wilton as Peggy Robertson, Hitch’s secretary, and Imelda Staunton as Alma, give evidence of the long suffering that many close to Hitchcock endured.

The Girl (HBO, 2012) ****

Day 92/96 - Seven Psychopaths (2012)

With a title such as this, I should have known that the movie would be filled with comic book violence intended often to be funny in the same way Pulp Fiction was funny--and I hated Pulp Fiction.

The film centers around Marty (Colin Farrell) who is trying to write a screenplay about seven psychopaths with the help of his friend Billy (Sam Rockwell) an actor who steals dogs for a living. Billy with his friend Hans (Christopher Walken) returns the dogs to distraught owners for money. Hans has a fairly complicated back story and he eventually becomes one of the seven who help Marty write his story. Billy has already stolen a Shih Tzu belonging to mob boss Charlie (Woody Harrelson), and quickly the film becomes a chase film with Harrelson pursuing the trio and killing many along the way.

The premise becomes a chance for the real screenwriter to tell several different stories and tie them all together. While Rockwell’s character is constantly manic and over the top much of the film, Farrell and Walken become much more interesting to watch and actually elicited sympathy from me. While the whole thing is on the coyote-roadrunner level of shock and violence, I found it difficult to laugh at Hans’ gentle wife being shot in the head and another of the psychopath’s being shot in the stomach and then treated as a great joke that she takes a long time to die. 

I was not a fan of the Pulp Fiction approach to shocking the audience with violence to get them to laugh, and I did not appreciate it here.

By the end of the film I was highly conflicted. I appreciated the many jokes in the script and constant use of irony, loathed the senseless feel of violence, and after analysis, found myself unable to recommend the film to any of my friends. Perhaps my response is purely a generational response, because I find too much violence in our world as it is. Do we really need gratuitous violence to laugh at, which implies that life has no meaning in the world?

Seven Pyschopaths (2012) ***

Day 91/95 - Kitchen Stories (2003)

By now, you know I am drawn to Indie films (often foreign) with quirky plots or characters. A friend point out this little gem to me.

In the 1944, Sweden established an institute to study the kitchen. In 1950, they changed the study to allow observers to move into the home of single male Norwegians (promising a horse but giving them a large Swedish Dala Horse instead). The observers were to sit on tall stools in the kitchens of their host and record their movements. The observers are not to talk with the host nor establish any kind of relationship with them.

Each observer drives his car and camping trailer (where he is to live during the study) and at the beginning we see a wonderful caravan of nine trailers. 

Folke Nilsson (Tomas Norström) comes but finds his reclusive elderly host, Isak Bjørvik (Joachim Calmeyer), has changed his mind and doesn’t want an observer in his home. For several days, the two establish a passive-agressive silent relationship. Folke sits and observes, and Isak turns off the lights and goes up to his bedroom where he can cook his dinner on a stove upstairs unobserved. Isak drills a hole in the ceiling directly over Folke’s stool to observe him.  Things change when Isak runs out of tobacco and Folke offers him some of his. Isak then offers Folke coffee, and the two begin a friendship that brings us smiles and even laughter. Eventually they begin to ask about the other’s life and views. "Understanding comes with communication, not observation" is the powerful message of the film.

Isak has one lone friend, Grant (Bjørn Floberg), who comes for coffee after sending a coded telephone message or to have Isak cut his hair. They don’t talk much, but quickly Grant becomes jealous of the budding friendship. He even at one point takes Folke’s trailer (with Folke in it) and leaves it at a railroad crossing in hopes a train will dispatch Nilsson. 

It would not be surprising that most of the researchers lead lonely lives. Folke seems to have no one who is concerned about him other than an elderly aunt who sends him food occasionally. As the friendship grows stronger, Isak climbs up in the stool to see what Folke sees, and he tends to occupy the stool when Folke is in his trailer. When they break all protocol and drink and eat together, it feels like a moving triumph of the need we have for other people.

The film has wonderfully quirky humor, and we find ourselves caring what happens to the two. 

You can find the film on Amazon prime and I highly recommend it.

Kitchen Stories (2003) *****

Day 90/94 - The Big Uneasy (2010)

For seven years during the late 1980s and early 1990s, I attended Mardi Gras with friends who lived in NOLA, so I have a deep love for the people and the city. Watching the devastation of the 2005 hurricane Katrina was heart-breaking. 

This documentary reopens that painful period. Many people would recognize director, writer, narrator, and New Orleans resident Harry Shearer for his over 152 acting roles ranging from The Simpsons to Spinal Tap, A Mighty Wind, and For Your Consideration. 

Shearer has a lot of understandable rage toward what happened to his city. Unlike those who want to just lay the blame on "It was an unprecidented natural disaster," the film follows the findings of two leading scientists who headed their own investigation teams and a government whistleblower, who lays out how equipment failures were inevitable. The film points its finger chillingly at the work of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and, ultimately, their maintenance and operation of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO), [cited in a legal opinion of Judge Stanwood Duval]. The scientists show that the levees were improperly built. Pumps were used which never passed tests. And not surprisingly, a lot of effort has been spent in covering up what happened.

The film doesn’t just present blame. It also investigates solutions which could help correct some of the current problem, such as establishing canals like those used in Holland.

For anyone who has affection for NOLA, this is a must-see film.

Additional documents researched for the film are found at The Big Uneasy's website. 

The Big Uneasy (2010) ****

Day 89/93 - Farewell, My Lovely (1975)

Farewell, My Lovely (1975) doesn’t hold up as much as I’d hoped it would.

The film tries for the same 1940s Los Angeles atmosphere popularized by 1974’s Chinatown. Raymond Chandler’s novel would seem a good choice for 1940s nostalgia, but David Zelag Goodman’s script throws out much of the novel, other than character names, and adds gratuitous 1970s skin and sleaze.

David Shire’s opening soundtrack effectively evokes the feel of the period (although by the end the soundtrack feels like a television detective show). The dark shadows of the cinematography, various L.A. period locations, and Robert Mitchum’s voice-over says we’re heading into film noir country.

Mitchum at 58 feels a little old for the 40ish Philip Marlowe, but his world weary attitude does contribute to his character. Chandler’s Marlowe should have the charisma that women fall for and Mitchum doesn’t have this. He appears more father than possible lover. Mitchum’s acting style is often stilted.

Goodman keeps the racial bigotry found in the opening scenes of Chandler’s novel, but then throws in a mixed race couple for no reason other than to perhaps to “save the cat” (to show us what a good guy Marlowe is). In the book, Chandler gave Marlowe a female side-kick (Anne Riordan) who helps him solve the case and provides some love interest. She disappears from the cast. I found some of the changes humorous: the male psychic Amthor becomes a madam with a house of working girls; Amthor’s hired gun the Indian becomes a the madam’s  hired gun Cowboy.

Sylvia Miles as the slatternly Jessie Florian gives one of her best performances (and was nominated for an Oscar for her role). Charlotte Rampling as Helen Grayle channels a young Lauren Bacall. John Ireland, Anthony Zerbe, Harry Dean Stanton, Jack O’Halloran and a young Sylvester Stallone are all fairly forgettable in their roles.

All in all, reading the book was more fun than watching the film.

Farewell, My Lovely (1975) ***

Day 88/92 - Argo (2012)

The opening scenes of Argo of the Iranian take-over of the American embassy in November 1979 are riveting. The real news footage combines beautifully with the modern film. Watching  quick cuts of the invasion of compound and the fear of the people working there, unsettles us from the beginning. We are warned about the consequences for the 52 hostages taken—they could be hanged, shot, beheaded—and as volatile as the situation was, many people saw their chances of release pretty slim. (In fact, they were held hostage 44 days.)  

The film concentrates not on the 52 hostages, but on the six American diplomats who escaped that day and took refuge in the Canadian Ambassador’s home. (In spite of the danger he and his wife faced for the actions.)

Various plans of escape were suggested by those in command at the White House; among them providing them with bicycles for them to ride out (it was winter) or claiming they were foreign teachers (there were no foreign teachers left). Finally CIA specialist Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) suggests the most audacious of the plans: claim they were part of a Canadian film crew scouting locations for a movie and have them fly out of Tehran right under the nose of the military.

When they are given the go-ahead, Mendez enlists John Chambers (John Goodman), a well-known Hollywood special effects guru, and film producer, Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin) to create a movie that doesn’t exist, with a script, publicity campaign, cast, and production offices. Thus the film Argo is born.

Affleck’s cast is superb; the production values excellent; the recreation of the 1979 time period is carefully crafted; the tension overwhelming. With reminders of the danger, whether it is the shooting of Iranian citizens, or bodies hanging from cranes from public executions, or the constant rhetoric of the Iranian liberation movement leaders, the film builds to an incredible climax, where I wanted to jump up and cheer just to break the tension.

I will be disappointed if the film is not nominated in several fields and hope that it makes the boost Ben Afflick’s career could use. This is one of the best films I have seen in my 100 days.

Argo (2012) *****

Day 87/91 - Elling (2001)

Petter Næss’ very funny Norwegian film, Elling, released in 2001, is based on Ingvar Ambjørnsen’s novel Brødre I blodet (Blood Brothers).  The Academy of Motion Pictures nominated the film as one of the Best Foreign Language films of 2002. The film concentrates on the relationship of Elling and Kjell Bjarne, two social misfits thrown together by fate.

 Elling (Per Christian Ellefsen) had lived in an apartment with only his mother until her death. The police have to come and drag him out of hiding in his closet. They send him to an institution where he befriends his roommate Kjell Bjarne (Sven Nordin), who Elling calls the Orangutan.  Kjell Bjarnes (always called by both names by Elling) is a simple-minded companion who is at first fascinated by the sex-stories that Elling makes up. The two are eventually released and set up in a two-bedroom apartment in Oslo which is paid for by the Norwegian government.  The first thing the friends do is move Kjell’s bed into Elling’s room so they don’t have to face the change of being alone.  And they become a Norwegian Odd Couple.

The film concentrates on the difficulties the two have in establishing what society would view as normal lives.

They have had no experience with a phone, but Kjell quickly discovers phone sex and runs up a huge bill. Elling’s mother did all the shopping while she was alive, so Elling’s first journey to the story ends up with him in a complete breakdown outside the store. As they meet each challenge, monitored by their social worker, Frank  Åsli (Jørgen Langhelle), small ordinary actions become major breakthroughs.

They learn to eat out at a restaurant. Kjell makes friends with Reidun Nordsletten (Marit Pia Jacobsen), a pregnant lady who lives in their building and the two begin a relationship. Elling becomes jealous, but it pushes him to go out to a poetry reading club where he meets a friend who owns a Buick and a cabin (keys to open new worlds for the pair).

With each change, we grow in our concern for them. To see them celebrate Christmas together and give each other gifts or watch them respond to the birth of Reidun’s baby was truly joyful to watch. And Elling’s final successful transition into society feels like a triumph.

Elling (2001) *****

Day 86/90 - Columbus Circle

Opening credits are always telling for me of the production values of a film. The opening titles here are puzzle pieces which begin joining together--a good visual metaphor of the film we are to see.

The film begins with the murder of an old woman who is threatened by someone in her apartment in the middle of the night. We learn later she is pushed or thrown down a flight of stairs in her modern condo. There are only two apartments on the top floor of the condo building at Columbus Circle in New York City. When Detective Frank Giardello (Giovanni Ribisi) tries to speak to the woman who lives across the hall in the only other apartment on that floor, he meets Abigail (Selma Blair), a reclusive heiress who has lived there since she was a teen. Abigail’s only contacts with the outside world are Ray her doctor (Beau Bridges) and the building’s concierge, Klandermann (Kevin Pollak). 

The old lady’s apartment is quickly sold to a couple, Charles Stratford (Jason Lee) and Lillian Hart (Amy Smart). When Stratford beats up Lillian in a drunken rage, one night, Abigail takes her in and becomes involved with their lives.

Through flashback glimpses we learn about Abigail and Lillian’s pasts. Both women have taken on new lives from abusive fathers.

Director George Gallo also co-wrote the script with Kevin Pollak. They have created several twists to the interesting plot, which involve abuse, trying to steal identities and hidden fortunes. No one may be quite who they appear to be. 

The film has good production values, although at times it feels like a made-for-television film. It does, however, provide a couple of hour’s entertainment. 

Selma Blair’s early scenes feel very stilted but she and Amy Smart are able to give their characters some depth. Jason Lee has a pretty good turn at a non-comic role.

One of the basic themes seems to be that when you try to scam other people, there is always pay-back.

Columbus Circle (2012) ****

Day 85/89 - The Cabin in the Woods (2011)

If you are fan of horror films (which I am), you probably can immediately understand what the cabin in the woods genre is. Attractive kids (the film suggests it is always five) get trapped in a cabin in the woods where they are in peril of their lives and are gruesomely killed one by one. Director Drew Goddard co-wrote this film with Joss Whedon, whose names you might associate with Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The film, according to Goddard, tries to examine why we as viewers enjoy watching slasher films and seeing young people get chopped up.

The gimmick for this film is set in place at the end of the beginning sequence. Five college kids head off to a cabin deep in the woods of Canada—the promiscuous girl (Anna Hutchison), the horny athlete (Chris Hemsworth), the handsome brain (Jesse Williams), the stoner (Fran Kranz), and "the virgin" (Kristen Connolly). As they drive off in their van, we see they are being watched by high tech security. Quickly we discover we’re at two levels. Goddard calls them “the upstairs” (the kids) and “the downstairs" (scientific tech adults who are manipulating the life and death adventures of the five).

The adults, led by Sitterson (Richard Jenkins) and Hadley (Bradley Whitford), allow their team to bet on what demons the kids will unleash. It is all about choice, Sitterson stresses. Explaining the system to another technician, Sitterson says:

They have to make the choice of their own free will. Otherwise, system doesn't work. Like the harbinger: creepy old f..k practically wears a sign saying "YOU WILL DIE". Why would we put him there? The system. They have to choose to ignore him. They have to choose what happens in the cellar. Yeah, we write the game as much as we have to but in the end, if they don't transgress they can't be punished.

Multiple nightmares are in place, but the kids will make their own choice of what will kill them.

They eventually chose a family of pain-loving religious zombies.

With the first death, we suddenly see there is an element of sacrifice to the scenario and a new level is introduced to the plot. 

The writers delight in some very creepy scenes. One comes as the technicians stand around voyeuristically watching a couple making out while we know they are about to be attacked-- effective commentary indeed on the film audience’s similar reaction. Later the same group parties while one of the kids struggles to survive a brutal attack. 

Suddenly, then, the film veers into another dimension where the attacked actually are able to penetrate the world below and change the dynamic of the genre. Those clever and gory changes offer constant surprises.

The film offers humor amid graphic gore. This film is not for the squimish, but the fans raised on 1950s comics, graphic novels or Night of the Living Dead or The Walking Dead or Buffy the Vampire Killer will enjoy the ride. (It's no surprise to hear writer Whedon refer to attending Comicon.)

[Note: IMDb has a great trivia section which discusses the choices the kids could have made. On the DVD, one of the extras is a very interesting short on the making of the film.]

The Cabin in the Woods (2011) ****

Day 84/88 - Sound of Noise (2010)

For  who only think of Swedish films in the somber tones of such films such as Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring or Niels Arden Oplev’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series, it’s fun to come across a funny and wacky “absurdist comedy” where you can laugh out loud.

In Ola Simonsson and Johannes Stjarne Nilsson’s Sound of Noise, six percussionists create a symphony of sound as artistic terrorism. They’re not out to kill anybody; just to create music like no one ever has.

Amadeus Warnebring (Bengt Nilsson) is the tone-deaf brother of a famous conductor and a well-respected police officer. Hating music as he does, he is the first person to realize that the terrorists who leave a ticking metronome in a van instead of a bomb and then later torture a patient in an operating room of a hospital are actually musicians performing. The four percussionist movements—in a hospital operating room, at a bank, in front of a symphony hall during a musical performance, and on the electrical wires of the city—as beautifully staged and very funny.

Amadeus is able to solve the case, win a kiss from the girl, and come to terms with his hatred of music.

It’s a fun movie.

Sound of Noise (2010) ****

 

Day 83/87 - Bubble (2005)

Yes, this is Indie week for me. Bubble is an early Steven Soderbergh (Magic Mike) crime drama mystery film about three people trying to carve out lives in a small “crumbling” Ohio town.

Martha (Debbie Doebereiner) takes care of her ailing father. After setting him up for the day, she goes off to work a dead-end job putting dolls together. She paints them, wigs them, and even spends her evenings sewing clothes for them. Her “best friend” is much younger. Kyle (Dustin James Ashley) pulls the doll parts out of the molds. He has no bank account, rarely dates, and lives in one room at his mother’s house. Martha gives him rides to work every day, and even takes him to his second job when he asks. The lives of the two are going nowhere, although Martha has dreams of going on vacation to Aruba. When Rose (Misty Wilkins), a rather mousy single-mother is hired at the company to paint the dolls also, Martha’s world begins to crumble.

Rose is a user. She begins asking Martha for favors. She asks Rose to pick her up at a job where she is supposed to be cleaning a woman’s house. Martha finds her enjoying a bubble bath in the woman’s bathroom. Rose asks Martha to babysit so she can go on a date.  Martha agrees but is devastated to see that Rose’s date is Kyle. While Rose and Kyle are on their date, they go back to his house where Rose steals money from his dresser. When Kyle drops her off, Rose’s ex-boyfriend, father of her child, comes and argues with Rose about stealing money from him. The next day Rose is discovered murdered and the movie works toward solving the case.

The actors are all amateurs and often it shows. The dialog is mostly improvised.  While the line delivery is often halting and stilted, one reviewer on IMDB has pointed out how that the captures the sense of “repressed emotions, due to constant care-taking of others, spending most of your time and energy just getting by, working in monotonous jobs, working all the time, not working at all, just surviving, just getting by.” Filming on location their characters’ homes are the actor’s real homes. 

The film takes time to develop the characters and help us understand their lives. One of the best things the film does is the sense of documentation of real workers doing real jobs. There are memorable shots of the dolls in various stages, appearing like silent Greek choruses to the low-key drama being played out. We leave the film identifying with the monotony Martha and Kyle face every day in lives without futures.

Bubble (2005) ****

Day 82/86 - Cold Weather (2010)

An Indie crime mystery set in Portland, Oregon, Aaron Katz’s Cold Weather focuses on Doug (Cris Lankenau) who studied to be a forensic specialist, but has only found work at an ice factory. He lives with his sister Gail (Trieste Kelly Dunn). At work Doug befriends Carlos (Raul Castillo), a d.j. who ends up dating Doug’s former girl friend Rachel (Robyn Rikoon).  

Doug turns Carlos onto Sherlock Holmes and when he arrives to find Rachel not in her motel room, he immediately determines “the game is afoot.” Carlos convinces Doug he must use his forensic skills and the two have a really interesting sequence where they go to the motel to find clues.

Later Doug enlists his sister’s help in deciphering the clues Doug finds. He has her steal a library book and drive him around.

The characters are likeable and I began to expect a lot because of the first part of the film. About two-thirds of the way through the film, the plot gets a bit muddled and it ends abruptly, ignoring any sense of basic resolution.  In spite of the ending, the characters and the first part were enjoyable enough for me to recommend the film. Feel free to scream at the ending like many have.

As a special note, I really liked the music in this film. It beautifully set the mood.

Cold Weather (2010) ****

Day 81/85 -The Metropolitan HD Live: Le Comte Ory (2011)

Gioachino Rossini’s Le Comte Ory was produced during the Metropolitan Opera’s 2010-2011 season and a live production was filmed. Shown on television in 2011, the film was also shown last year as one of a series of filmed operas shown on the large screen. 

Rossini’s 1828 final comic opera features Juan Diego Flórez in the title role. He dominates the production with a great voice and a sense of enthusiasm and panache. Disguised first as a hermit, he later joins his men disguised as nuns on a pilgrimage. He appears to have fun with the role and we in turn respond to him. The mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato has the trouser role of Isolier, Comte Ory’s page, who competes for the love of Countess Adèle, sung by soprano Diana Damrau. 

Bartlett Sher directed  this version of the opera, which includes a full 18^th century style production within a production. Michael Yeargan’s set is dominated by a platform stage on the stage with footlights in front of a vast brick wall. A silk curtain is occasionally pulled across to denote acts and vast chandeliers, a window unit, and other set pieces are flown in or moved on to denote various settings. Several artificial trees are moved around to suggest change of scene. In the last act when the comte, the countess and the page end up in a large bed together, a pink canopied bed dominates the scene and can be cranked up to allow the audience a view of all that goes on.

The action is all directed by the Prompter (Rob Besserer) who issues directives to his crew, rolling around trees and ladders and manipulating thunder and wind machines for the audience’s delight during a storm scene. He also controls delightful butterflies on wires in one of the scenes.

Although Catherine Zuber’s costumes merely suggest the 1200 period, the costume wash the plain stage with vibrant purples, pinks and reds. 

The Metropolitan HD Live: Le Comte Ory (2011) **** [The film runs just under 3 hours.]

Day 80/84 - The Missing Person (2009)

Add two parts the thirties Humphrey Bogart, one part film noir, and one part September 11. Top off with two mysterious women. Mix slowly to some atmospheric jazz and several plot twists and you will have the surprisingly effective The Missing Person, written by director Noah Buschel. Buschel wrote the script and directed Neal Cassady, which I wasn’t very fond of, but here he hooked me in by playing with the rules of the detective film noir genre.

Michael Shannon (who I was knocked out by in 2011’s Take Shelter) plays hardboiled hard-drinking detective John Rosow who gets hired over the phone to follow Harold Fullmer (Frank Wood), who is taking a train from Chicago to California. Miss Charley (effectively played by Amy Ryan) acts as his go-between with his employer. His job starts at merely following Fullmer, but half-way through the film changes to bringing him home to New York City.

The greatest thing about the storyline are the swirves and curves Buschel gives us. As with any film noir, we and the hero often have to discover the subtext and real story going on. Is Fullmer, who is traveling with a young Mexican boy, a pediphile, or are we reading the situation wrong? Why are the FBI following him? I knew when Rosow jumps in the trunk of a cab to follow Fullmer without him seeing him that we were in for some twists and updating of the genre. The cabbie, named appropriately Hero Furillo (John Ventimiglia) keeps telling Rosow, just do the right thing—and we see that Rosow is a moral man who can perceive right moves from wrong.

The first part of the film feels like we are evoking the 1940s, especially with the train travel. Someone once mused that all great mysteries involve train travel. Certainly this sequence brings a smile as Rosow sits in the dining car watching Fullmer. But as the film progresses the color loses some of its sepia layering, we begin to learn Rosow’s ties to New York City and why he moved to Chicago and became a drunk.

I definitely enjoyed the film.

The Missing Person (2009) ****

Day 79/83 - Stars in Shorts (2012)

Stars in Shorts certainly had a great premise. Take fairly well-known actors and put them in short films. The trailer convinced me that I wanted to see it.

Don't trust the trailer.

The Procession with Lily Tomlin and Jesse Tyler Ferguson was everything I’d hoped it would be, as the two stars—mother and son—attend the funeral of someone they don’t know well and end up in the funeral procession, eventually leading the procession to they-don’t-know-where. Great premise, well written, enjoyable acting. Playing at 12:26, it’s definitely worth seeing. Watch for it to go viral.

Unfortunately then follows five films, often weakly written and generally boringly directed. After School Special, intended to play off the surprise punchline of a grade schooler, who is having sex with his teacher, merely became offensive. I guess, the others, which are generally boring, are worse.

I used to say that I would pay to see an actress like Meryl Streep just reading a phone book. Five of the films felt like I had done the same with Colin Firth, Keira Knightly, Jason Alexander, Val Pettiford, Julia Stiles, Marin Ireland, Kenneth Branagh, and Wes Bentley. I quickly realized that no matter how good the actor is, they need a script and director to work with.

Even the great Judi Dench was better than the material she was given in the last film, as an elderly lady learning to use social media to connect with her boyfriend.

My advice: Don’t trust the trailer.  As a friend of mine who works in movies said about another film, “That’s two hours of my life I can never get back.”

Stars in Shorts (2012) *