58 - Tosca (2001)

Giacomo Puccini’s 1899 opera Tosca is based on a play Victorien Sardou wrote as a star turn for Sarah Bernhardt in 1887 (La Tosca), with an opera libretto by Luigi Illicca and Giuseppe Giascosa. Sardou’s five act play was reduced to three acts. Elements of Shakespeare’s Othello [Iago] and Measure for Measure  [Angelo] surround three main characters:  Singer Floria Tosca, who says of herself, “Tosca’s blood burns with a mad love,” her painter lover Mario Cavaradossi and the Chief of Police Vittelio Scarpia -- imaginary characters peopling real Roman settings.

The opera opens in 1800 in the church of Sant’Andrea della Valle in Rome, at the Attavanti Chapel. On one side, a large easel holds a painting of a blonde blue-eyed Mary Magdalene, the work of the painter Mario Cavaradossi. Unbeknownst to Cavaradossi, the woman he has painted is the sister of Angelotti, consul of the late Roman Republic, who has just escaped from prison and is hiding in the church. Cavaradossi, a support of Angelotti’s hides him as Tosca enters. Angelotti tells him his sister has been in the church to leave him a disguise of women’s clothes and a fan. Just then Tosca, Mario’s jealous lover, comes and hears voices. She assumes he is hiding another lover and is even more suspicious when she sees the painting, since she has dark hair and eyes. Eventually, she goes off having made a date to see Mario later. Fearful of Angelotti being discovered, Mario takes him off to hide in his villa. When Il Barone Scarpia comes searching for Angelotti. He believes the painter has hidden him, so when Tosca returns to cancel their date because she has to sing celebrating the Italian victory over Bonaparte, Scarpia plays on her jealousy and says that the fan he carries (which Angelotti had left behind) was actually belonged to the girl Mario was meeting. she goes off to confront him. Scarpia plans to trap Angelotti and Cavaradossi and bed Tosca. The act ends with the people filling the church, celebrating a Te Deum.

Act II opens at the Farnese palace in Scarpia’s apartment on the upper floor, where he is having a late supper. During the first part of the scene, Tosca and the chorus sing offstage. Cavaradossi is brought in for questioning and denies knowing about Angelotti’s whereabouts. When Tosca arrives, Mario is taken offstage and tortured while Scarpia tries to get her to admit where Angelotti is. As Mario’s pain become unbearable to her, she finally tells Scarpia what he wants to know. Mario is brought back in and Scarpia revels in telling him he’s been betrayed. He is taken off to be executed. Scarpia finally tells Tosca that if she will have sex with him, he will spare Mario’s life. Not wanting to outright pardon him, he proposes that blanks be used in his execution. She agrees’ and at her urging, he signs safe passage for the two lovers. As he tries to attack Tosca, she takes a dinner knife and stabs Scarpia. In the libretto stage directions, “Tosca puts down the knife, washes her hands, pulls the safe conduct from Scarpia’s clenched hand, places a lighted candleon each side of the dead man’s head and a crucifix on his chest. Looking about cautiously, she goes out the door and quietly closes it.”

Act III takes place in a cell in the Castel Sant’Angelo and above is an outdoor platform reached by stairs. A shepherd is heard in the distance. Mario sings of his sweet memories of Tosca. She comes and tells him of the plans, telling him how to act when shot and not to move until she calls him. After they sing of their love, the soldiers come and Mario is shot. But Tosca has been tricked. The bullets are real and Mario is dead. As they discover Scarpia’s murder, Tosca climbs to the top of wall and after telling Scarpia that he and she will stand together before God, she throws herself off the wall.

While the real places mentioned in the opera offer the glorious opportunities of setting, the film relies on props and set pieces in front of a black background. Occasionally, however, brief images of the real places present jarring intrusions. Tosca sings of the villa where they’ll meet and we are shown it. Scarpia walks through the church and we suddenly see the baroque paintings of the ceiling.  Also, to establish a concert feel to the production, black and white images of the orchestra and the singers in a studio are used to open and close scenes. When the actors would sing to themselves, we tend to get these as voice-overs.

The strongest visual image of the film is Tosca’s second costume, a flame red empire gown with lengthy train and cape with even longer train. As seen from above, the swash of color looks like blood spilling on the floor.  One of the surprises of the film for me is the director’s choice to eliminate Tosca’s business with the candles and crucifix. This moment is one of the most seen images of the opera and the play. Without it, I reacted with a “wtf?”

Angela Gheorghiu (Tosca), Robert Algna (Cavaradossi), and Ruggero Raimondi (Scarpia) all have strong and often lyrical voices. But since director Benoit Jacquot likes close-ups, we often have operatic large gestures and emotions thrust into our face.

The subtitles in the version I saw (unlike the clip below) do help.

I would not call this the definitive version of the opera, but it is worth a look.

Tosca (2001) ***

57 - Kill Your Darlings (2013)

If Daniel Radcliffe really wants to get rid of his Harry Potter image, he's made the right choice playing poet Allen Ginsberg in a prequel to "the Beat generation." As the movie proclaims from beginning, what we see is a "true story," although we're not always sure what version of that story to believe. 

It's a lovingly recreated 1940 when virgin/Jewish Allen Ginsberg goes off to Columbia University to study writing and gets caught up in the lives of charismatic Lucien Carr (Dane DeHaan), druggie William Burroughs (Ben Foster), and writer Jack Kerouac (Jack Huston). As the group experiments with drugs and sex and writing poetry in a way never tried before, they decide Lucien needs to be free of his stalker/teacher/boyfriend, David Kammerer (played with creepy stares by Michael C. Hall). The murder we're told from the beginning was real is David's. Just how it happened is the focus of the film.

Director John Krokidas has a fondness for closeups, loud sound transitions, and rich colors. Radcliffe's daring nude gay sex scene, intercut with the murder and Burrough's drugging will probably get a lot of press, but the film does give insight into four literary figures whose friendship helps fuel On the Road, Howl, and Naked Lunch.

Seen at the Chicago Film Festival last Saturday, the crowd around me seemed very positive. I think it is definitely a film to see.

Kill Your Darlings ***** 

56 - Gravity (2013)

Although I'm not a great fan of Sandra Bullock, the premise of the movie and the trailers intrigued me enough to see the film. With two friends, we decided after I had raved about the IMAX experience with The Hobbit that we would do it with 3D. We weren't disappointed as it proved one of the most involving films of the year.

[More to come]

Gravity (2013) *****

55 - Don Jon (2013)

Joseph Gordon-Levitt proves he can not only act but also direct and write.

[more to come]

Don Jon (2013) ****

54 - Still Mine (2012)

Very strong performances.

[More to come]

Still Mine (2012) ****

53 - Prisoners (2013)

Incredibly strong performances and a well crafted screenplay make this a must see.

[more to come]

Prisoners (2013) *****

52 - Salinger (2013)

Salinger is a documentary based on the life and work of reclusive writer J.D. Salinger. Having taught his works for American English, I was interested to learn what new information I could glean about the author.

One of the first things I learned was that his experiences in World War II did a lot to shape the thoughts of the man. The second thing I learned was that Salinger was drawn to young women who he could impress and mold into companion writers, until they grew old enough to realize how stiffling the relationhip was.

The film says that Salinger did have some final writings that he refused to have published until most of his current fans would be dead. I'm not sure why a writer would do that to the fans that make him famous, but I would wonder how a future generation might view the works that were so definitely set in the 1950/1960s.

The film uses talking heads and staging with an actor playing out his part against a large screen. Sometimes the approach was effective.

Salinger (2013) ***

51 - The Grandmaster (2013)

The fight which opens Kar Wai Wong's The Grandmaster is one of the most reviting fights I've seen. The rain drops and the puddles become a total part of the action.

[More to come]

The Grandmaster (2013) *****

50 - Josh Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing (2012)

I have to admit that Much Ado About Nothing is a Shakespeare play I've avoided. I read it in college, but little of the plot or characters stayed with me. 

So as Josh Whedon's stylish black and white version began in a very contemporary setting, it took me a long time to adjust to the juxtaposition of Shakespeare's language in contemporary drag. Somewhere about the time that Amy Acker's Beatrice and Alexis Denisof's Benedick begin in earnest to pursue each other, I found myself fully in the production. By the end, I would truly say I enjoyed the experience.

I am a fan of many of the actors in the cast, so I enjoyed their ensemble acting. Of particular note was Nathan Fillion's Dogberry which at first seemed too over the top, but gradually grew on me.

I found myself a little disappointed that the spot color used in the trailer didn't appear in the actual film.

Having read that Matt Whedon's home in Santa Monica, California, was used as the film location, I found the house as rich a character as the cast.

Josh Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing (2012) ****

49 - Lee Daniels' The Butler (2013)

Many of my friends have spoken glowingly of Lee Daniels' The Butler, a film which tells the story of White House butler Cecil Gaines, who worked under seven presidents.  The film seems to have stirred up for my friends strong memories of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. While they see the film as a great historical lesson, I found the film, although peopled with excellent actors, poorly written and episodic—it is history lite, the kind of film a high school teacher could easily show his students to give a two hour overview of the movement.

The film starts with a powerhouse beginning. Cecil as a boy picks cotton with his family when the young master of the plantation rapes his mother and then shoots his father.  The white mother of the plantation owner, a beautifully nuanced elderly Vanessa Redgrave, saves Cecil to work in the house. This is the film’s unredeemable Miss Daisy.  Quickly Cecil steals food and then suddenly proves he can be a good butler in a hotel. As Forest Whitaker takes over Cecil’s role, the plot becomes so condensed and caught up in its narrative that there is no time for drama in depth. Without any real setup, Whitaker and Oprah Winfrey are married with children. The film moves from scene to scene with title cards giving a year—it feels like a slide show of all the key moments in the history of the black movement from the late 1920s to the present day through the eyes of Cecil Gaines and alternately Louis, Gaines' eldest son. Everything tends to be telegraphed rather than developed.

We see brief scenes of each president for whom Gaines worked (except the modern living ones), but none has a scene of any substance.  Ike drinks coffee and worries about Gov. Faubus and the riots in the South. Vice President Nixon comes to the kitchen to convince the help to vote for him. Kennedy seems oblivious to what is going on until his brother Bobby clues him in. Johnson rages while seated on a toilet. Nixon as president lounges on his couch saying he won’t resign. Reagan shares that he feels he’s wrong on not seeing how apartheid in Africa relates to the American Black Movement. Limiting them to one or two scenes per president makes the film feel quite insubstantial. (For those people outraged by Jane Fonda playing Nancy Reagan, her scenes don’t amount to enough screen time to even throw a fuss.)

A consistent problem is that we are TOLD what we are supposed to know or feel: Oprah’s character is seen drinking and unhappy, then suddenly we learn she is an alcoholic, and just as suddenly she has stopped drinking. With a talent like Oprah one wonders how one scene at least dealing with her conversion could have been ignored. The couple have two sons, Louis immersed in the Civil Rights Movement and Charlie who almost runs off to the Viet Nam war waving his country’s flag. We know who won’t make it to the end of the film—history as melodrama.

Let me use another example of the problem I saw. Louis Gaines is a racial activist who goes off to college, studies civil disobedience, and becomes involved in every aspect of the Civil Rights movement from the sit-ins, the freedom rides in Alabama, to hanging with Martin Luther King and after his assassination moving on to the Black Panthers. After dramatically being kicked out of his father’s house he breaks up with his Angela Davis-like girlfriend, goes back to school for a degree, and becomes a teacher. Later Gloria describes to her husband how Louis came home one time when the husband was gone and found her drunk on the floor, having soiled herself. She describes how lovingly he treated her, picked her up and cleaned her up. This is a major episode in the arc of her relationship with her son and her drinking, but it is only described, it is not shown.

An old writing adage says, “Show ‘em, don’t tell ‘em.”

By the end of the film, we have seen Oprah and Forest have their turn at aging, but the script never takes the time to show us the characters really growing or aging, except in brief snapshots.
For me the film pales in the comparison to such films as The Help, Cecily Tyson’s The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pitman, Backstairs at the White House, and so many others. Lee Daniels is a competent director, but his script fails him continually.

Lee Daniel’s The Butler (2013) ***

48 - The World's End (2013)

The Apocolypse is a popular topic this year. Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright as writers take on the subject with the same abandon as Shaun of the Dead (2004), Hot Fuzz (2007), and Paul (2011). Simon and his usual sidekick Edgar Wright rejoin three other college friends in an attempt to better their last epic college pub crawl, which was to end at the aptly named pub, The World's End. As they begin their planned route they discover that all the pubs from 20 years ago look the same; the people have become unfriendly and something sinister seems afoot. Eventually Pegg and his friends discover that none of the people in the town are what they appear to be and the pub crawl becomes a dramatic race to save mankind.

The World's End (2013) ****

47 - This is the End (2013)

This is the End feels like one of James Franco's performance art pieces where the audience is not sure whether they are being laughed at or supposed to buy into the insanity.  Centered around numerous young Hollywood stars, James Franco hosts a blow-out party of the century just as the Apocalypse hits.

Peopled with a who's who's of young Hollywood actors playing "themselves"--James Franco, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, Michael Cera. Additional star cameos are from Emma Watson, Mindy Kaling, David Krumholtz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Rihanna, Martin Starr, Paul Rudd, Channing Tatum, Kevin Hart. The film has the same wink at reality that 1944's Hollywood Canteen had in the 1940s, where actors like Bette Davis, Jack Benny, Joan Crawford, played themselves and encouraged the boys to fight. 

However, unlike the 1944 film, the aim of this movie seems to head squarely for college raunch, stoner humor and gay jokes galore. One wonders what the producers were smoking when the film was pitched to them. Funny? Often. Vulger? Almost always. Attempt at depth? Never. 

The film is undoubtedly the most gay oriented straight film I have seen in a long time. (If you are one of the people who watched and enjoyed Comedy Central's Roast of James Franco, you will know what to expect and how to react.)

This is the End (2013) *** [add a star depending on what you have smoked or drank before you see it]

46 - Before Hollywood, There Was Fort Lee, N.J. (1964)

Forget what you think you know about early American film history if you’ve never heard of Fort Lee, N.J. According to this 40 minute documentary using footage from films from 1893 to 1925, we learn how the early studios built their empire in what was called “The Bagdad on the Hudson.”

Edison invented film in 1889 and built the first studio, The Black Maria, in 1893 near his workplace near West Orange, NJ. The studio had a skylight and was built on a turntable so the crew could turn toward the sunlight.

The first film to use both studio and exterior locations is considered to be The Great Train Robbery (1903) which actually had exterior shots filmed from a moving train.

Some studios were built on the rooftops of Manhattan, but by 1904 Lincoln Studios was built in Fort Lee where buildings in the town and the mountainous New Jersey terrain (think the Palisades area near the entrance of the current George Washington Bridge) could substitute for the hills needed for Westerns.

D.W. Griffith began his career as a leading man in Rescued from the Eagle’s Nest (1908), shown in the documentary. Here again exterior shots were combined with studio shots.

Max Sennett stars in a short directed by Griffith and shown in full, The Curtain Pole (1909), which shows the beginnings of Sennett’s characteristic chases in which much of Fort Lee’s streets were used. The sequence shows Griffith’s use of cross-cutting to build tension and “the Griffith surprise ending.”

Other studios grew up in the same areas, including: 

• Champion Studios (1909)
• Éclair Studio (1911)
• World-Peerless Studio (made 380 short films and features from 1914 through 1921)
• Willatt Fox Studio (with its giant greenhouse appearing studio, home to Theda Bara) 1916 created a multi-acre Paris set for a production of Les Miserables with many of the Fort Lee people as extras. The same set was used the next year for a production of Tale of Two Cities. Many of the Broadway character actors worked in the early films.
• Solax Studio made a film 1916 with Ethel Barrymore
• Paragon Studio (1915-1925) had a 200 foot stage with sunlight and electric lights at night. It became Paramount. The 1917 Mary Pickford Poor Little Rich Girl made their fortune and saved the studio.
• Lincoln Studio
• Universal Studio (1914-1924)

As World War I hit and the coal was limited for heating the studios, many producers moved to the warmth of California.

The best thing about the documentary, which is rather staid, is seeing what is left of the studios and seeing what was created in them. If you like film history, you should see this film.

Before Hollywood, There Was Fort Lee, NJ (1964) ***

A further explanation of the film is found at http://fortleefilm.org/history.html, which includes a map of Fort Lee. Fascinating stuff.

45 - Days of Being Wild (1990)

I have been on a Wong Kar-Wai kick lately. This powerful film was voted No. 3 in 100 Best Hong Kong films. It continues pursuing two of Wong’s themes of searching for love and reacting to being rejected. If the main character Yuddy (or “York”), played with sensitivity by handsome Hong Kong actor Leslie Cheung, has elements of James Dean, it is well to remember that the film gets its name from the title given to Rebel Without a Cause when it was released in China.

Set in 1960-1961 Hong Kong and the Philipines, York picks up innocent Su Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung) and promptly dumps her. York has issues stemming from being adopted and raised by an ex-prostitute Rebecca (Rebeca Pan) who refuses to reveal who his Philipino mother is. York picks up dance hall worker Leung Fung-ying aka ”Lulu” or “Mimi” (Carina Lau), Mimi moves in and intends to stay with him. York’s best friend Zeb (Jacky Cheung) quickly falls in loves Mimi and is rejected. Su returns for her things, but hopes to hook back up with York. After he rejects her again, she begins a tentative friendship with a caring policeman named Tide (Andy Lau).

The script by Jeffrey Lau and Wong Kar-Wai seems more interested in building moods and creating psychological moments than concentrating on substantial plot. When I think of the film, I tend to remember the brooding close-ups more than locations or actions.

The introduction at the end of a new character, Chow Mo-wan (played briefly by Tony Leung Chiu Wai), is explained by a note on IMDB which says that he was intended to be the main character in a second film which was never made.

Strong performances and an interesting mood piece.

Days of Being Wild (1990) ****

44 - Elysium (2013)

In the first few minutes of Director Neill Blomkamp’s Elysium, we are introduced to the earth of 2154. The wealthy have moved off planet to a space station where all sickness is cured and life is idyllic--Elysium. On earth, the poor and lower class live in a world which Dante would recognize as one of the rings of the Inferno. Crime, overpopulation, poverty, depleted resources are all that earth’s inhabitants can expect. 

Max (played by Matt Damon in a heart-pumping action hero role) dreams of escaping from the earth and going to Elysium. An ex-con with little hope for the future, he is injured in a job related accident and exposed to a lethal dose of radiation. His only hope of surviving is getting to Elysium. Max’s love from his childhood, Frey (Alice Braga) has a child dying also. I won’t spoil how they end up at Elysium, but the journey is action packed. We learn early on what Homeland Security Head Delacourt (played with venom by Jody Foster) does to protect those on Elysium, so we know the stakes are high and lethal.

The effects are impressive and the character of Max, who only wants to survive, is Damon at the top of his form.

I had to laugh that one person criticized that there were several dialects using a combination language. He was particularly upset with Jodie Foster’s dialect. They obviously missed one of Blomkamp’s points—that in our future our words and languages will meld into class languages, so the upper classes may use French words while the lower classes will use German or Spanish.

I found the film quite rewarding and satisfying and felt it gave me a lot to think about in terms of what price we would pay for Elysium.

Elysium (2013) ****

43 - Boudou Saved From Drowning (1932)

I had wanted to see this film because I was intrigued to see the work of Jean Renoir, second son of the great Impressionist painter, who is a highly respected film director (and is portrayed in the film, Renoir). This film did little satisfy my expectations. In fact, I was constantly reminded of a statement from The Go-Between: “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.”

Directed by Renoir in 1932 France, the film attempts to be a light farce of the early thirties fashion. 

Boudou, played rather heavy handedly by Michel Simon, is supposed to be a free-spirit tramp who tries to commit suicide but is rescued by the owner of a bookstore, Ėdouard Lestingois (Charles Granval) who is unhappily married to Emma (Marcelle Hainia) and having an affair with his maid, Sévérine Lerczinska. The whole household is turned upside down when Lestingois tries to civilize the boorish, unkempt, and loutish Boudou.

The outlandish behavior of Boudou was, I’m sure, intended to be very funny to the 1930s audience. He at one point is told by Lestingois not to spit on the floor, so he chooses a first edition of Balzac to spit in. He is told to polish his shoes and he does a lengthy sequence involving a kitchen and a bedroom where he smears shoe polish on everything, knocking down everything in the process. For many in the modern audience, his behavior was far from comic.

In the end of the film, as we know it will, Boudou wins a fortune, makes love to the wife and the maid and ends up marrying. He is saved from his marriage, however, when he knocks the boat carrying the whole bridal party into the water and he floats away blissfully free. He exchanges his good clothes with those of a scarecrow and goes off for his free adventures.

The film has been restored to its clear 1930s black and white and looks beautiful. Of interest is the fascinating street scenes and depictions of a pre-war France. The general reaction of the audience with whom I saw the film was expressed by one elderly lady I walked out behind, “I feel like I should walk back to box office and demand my money back.”

Note: If the film plot sounds familiar, the plot was used for Paul Mazursky and Nick Nolte's Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986).

Boudou Saved From Drowning (1932) **

42 - Blue Jasmine (2013)

When I feel Woody Allen is at his best, his movies are memorable (read here Annie Hall or Midnight in Paris); when they fail for me, they fail spectacularly (read To Rome With Love). Blue Jasmine is wonderfully on the mark and Cate Blanchett owns the title role.

From the beginning, as we watch Jasmine arrive in the airport talking to an older woman who we might mistakenly assume is her companion, we learn that Jasmine is a woman on the edge. She is Woody Allen’s modern incarnation of Tennessee Williams’ Blanche DuBois from A Streetcar Named Desire, complete with dead husband, sister she can run to, sister's loutish boyfriend with his card-playing chronies, and a lost estate, coming pennilessly to seek refuge from the only person who will have her. New Orleans and Belle Reve become San Francisco and New York.

Blanchett is transcendent. Watching the subtleties of her performance, I regret never having seen her play Blanche onstage as she did in Australia and New York. 

A fine cast supports Blanchett, including Alec Baldwin as her unfaithful husband; Peter Sarsgaard, her only chance for a new life; Sally Hawkins as her step-sister Ginger; Andrew Dice Clay as Ginger’s ex-husband, Bobby Cannavale as Chili (the surrogate Stanley), and Louis C.K. as Ginger’s passion. While modernizing the plot twists, Allen plays on his oft-repeated theme of men being pond-scum, always unfaithful to women. He also stresses the idea of how lies only hurt us in the end.

The story is told in a nonlinear fashion, perhaps mimicking the fragile state of Jasmine’s mind, since she is a woman who talks to herself and lives closer and closer to a world of total mental breakdown. 

By the end of the film, as is true with Williams’ Blanche, we feel great pity for the tragedy of Blanche’s life.

Rush to see Allen and Blanchett at their best.

Blue Jasmine (2013) *****

This is a great interview by Cate on working with Woody Allen.

41 - Ashes of Time Redux (2008)

Ashes of Time (1994) is a Hong Kong film written and  directed by Wong Kar-wai, and loosely based on Jin Yong’s Wuxia (martial hero) novel, The Legend of the Condor Heroes. Rather than following Yong’s book’s plot, Wong has taken the names of four characters and created his own story.

Almost ten years after the release of the film, Wong had been informed by the people who were storing the film that it was in bad shape with no quality edition available. Eventually Wong re-edited and re-released a shorter version of the film, calling it Ashes of Time Redux, which is the film I watched.

Both films involved lengthy and arduous desert shoots for the crew. The plot is characterized by episodic story telling.

The film, set in an unspecified ancient time in a Chinese desert, revolves around Ouyang Feng, the Venomous West (Leslie Cheung) who lives alone in the desert and acts as a go-between when people want to hire professional killers. He narrates the film based on Tung Shu predictions. The first killer is Huang Yaoshi, the Malicious East (Tony Leung Ka-fai, not to be confused with Tony Leung Chiu-Wai who starred in Happy Together). He drinks a wine that makes one forget and when a young man, Murong Yang (Brigitte Lin) asks him to marry his twin sister Murong Yin (played also by Lin) he agrees and then forgets. Murong comes to Ouyang to hire a bounty-hunter. A Blind Swordsman (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai) is hired and hopes to reach his home so he can see his wife before he is killed in battle. Hong Qigong (Jacky Cheung) is a barefoot swordsman who travels with his wife.

One of the motifs of the film is how each character has been rejected by others and become cold and heartless because of it. Often Wong uses slow motion in the martial arts sequences which sometimes makes it difficult to tell which actors we are watching. While I found Wong's Happy Together a stronger personal story, the visual images and the epic scope of this film makes it one to see.

Ashes of Time Redux (2008) ****

40 - The Red Shoes (1948) - Restoration DVD

The Red Shoes is one of the best dance films ever made.

Filmed in lush Technicolor of the late 1940s, the film has been gloriously restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive and the Film Foundation. Get the Blue-Ray copy and be sure to watch the special features which describe the process.

I first saw this film when I was about eight and remember being enthralled by the world of theatre and dance that the film depicts. While the film essentially is about Victoria Page, a beautiful aristocratic red-haired dancer (Moira Shearer), the film equally centers on her discover and mentor, who owns his own dance company, Boris Lermontov (Anton Walbrook).

Boris tells Victoria that he will make her a legendary dancer if she concentrates her life only on dance. She falls in love with the company's composer, Julian Craster (Marius Goring), and has to choose between her career and her love for him.

As Boris sets up Victoria's career, he has Craster write the score to a ballet based on Hans Christian Anderson's short story about The Red Shoes--one in which a girl is made a gift of red dancing shoes which once she has on refuse to allow her to rest until she dies from exhaustion.

The ballet sequence which makes Victoria famous is one of the magical film moments onscreen. Going into a dreamworld unhampered by a real world theatre production, directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger allow us to experience what the music and the dance wants us to feel by allowing such things as instantaneous cuts from scene to scene. At one point Shearer dances with a live dancer and that dancer becomes a large piece of newprint cut into the shape of the dancer. At another point, we look from the stage toward the audience and as they applaud, they become an ocean which Victoria hears. The dance sequence alone is a reason to see the film.

While the plot remains 1940s melodrama, the lush colors and theatrical world shown draw us deeply into its story. With everything that proceeds it, the ending seems totally fated.

As a side note, I find the characters and situations of the film remind me very much of the Russian Ballet owner Sergei Diaghilev and his relationship with ballet dancer and choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky. Walbrook, with his moustache, even looks like a thin Diaghilev.

The Red Shoes (1948) ****

39 - Happy Together (1997)

The two leads dance a tango in a crucial scene of the movie.

I wasn’t aware of the scope Leslie Cheung’s acting, writing and musical career (he was once ranked as the favorite actor in the 100 years of Chinese cinema) when I saw a beautifully sculpted 1:6 scale action figure of him in a tuxedo. 

I was intrigued by this actor who was so popular and then threw himself off a hotel roof in 2003. 

I set out to see some of his films. The first I’ve seen is Kar Wai Wong’s Happy Together, in which he stars with Tony Leung Chiu Wai. I’ve seen the film twice and found it even more powerful the second time.

The irony of the title is established from the beginning of the film, which deals with the episodic love-hate relationship of Lai Yiu-Fai and Ho Po-Wing, a gay couple from Hong Kong who end up in Argentina. Po owns a light which shows Iguzau Falls and the two set off to find it. That quest becomes one of the motifs of the movie—the elusive place where they might just find the happiness they seek together.

Early on in the film, which appears to be only in black and white, Fai pictures the falls and they are a deep blue. Gradually, director-writer Wong establishes that Fai’s happiness is tied to the use of strong saturated color. Another motif of the movie is use of the Argentine tango music and the dance which often appears the metaphor to Fai and Po’s relationship. A third motif of the film is stated at the very beginning as the two of them break up and Po says to Fai, “Let’s start over.” Fai tells us that to Po that means many different things.

The film is through Fai’s eyes (with a subjective narration)--until a third character Chang arrives and then he occasionally gives commentary.

In a long black and white sequence, after their opening breakup, Fai ends up in Buenos Aires as a doorman to a tango bar. Po-wing comes to the club with rich guys he is dating. They end up fighting, Po gives Fai a watch and then gets beaten up. (Po tends to date guys who beat him up.) Po tries to seduce Fai in a scene where he asks for a cigarette, but it takes Po showing up badly injured (blood streaming from his forehead and his hands) before they start over and Fai moves him into his apartment. The film moves to highly saturated color.

Director-writer Wong takes scenes and long shorts to establish the growth and eventual breakup of the two lovers. In a beautiful sequence, the two finally appear truly happy as they tango in the apartment building’s communal kitchen.

Gradually each becomes jealous of the other and Fai tries too hard to keep Po to himself. When Fai changes jobs and develops a friendship with coworker Chang (Chen Chang) he finds a caring friend who offers more emotional support than the self-centered mercurial Po.

Tony Leung Chiu Wai is a strong actor and has an incredible scene where he merely sits with a pocket tape recorder in front of his face and begins to cry. His scene is matched with a later moment where we see Leslie Cheung sitting clutching a blanket and sobbing. Both actors/both characters feel strongly and make us feel the same.

Throughout the film is a pervasive melancholy mood which is only somewhat resolved at the end. Will the two start over again? Perhaps, or perhaps not. When the Turtles’ sing about being happy together, we know they may not find that.

The film reminds me of Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain (2005) in many ways, especially the unrestrained display of the gay world these three characters inhabit. Like Lee’s film, it is one which is difficult to forget.

Happy Together (1997), *****

38 - I'm So Excited - Los amantes pasajeros (2013)

Publicity shot including Almodóvar and cast

Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar's I'm So Excited is a light comedy that I considered my sorbet following all the summer blockbusters. I loved it for what is was.

The film deals with the problems aboard a trans-Atlantic jet flight on a fictional airline, As the plane took off the landing wheels were damaged and now the pilots have to find somewhere to land safely. [The majority of those on the plane has no idea what is going on because they have all been fed sleeping pills to stop any sense of panic, thus the filmmaker can concentrate only on a group of 12 people.] The disaster film formula concentrates on the occupants of the cockpit, flight crew, and business class. In true disaster film fashion, we learn the secrets of the various people involved. 

For me, the highlights of the film included sight gags such as the portable altar one of the stewards brings onboard, the crew's lip-sinching of the Pointer Sister's title song, the passengers reaction to drugged drinks, mile-high sex and a 1980s flight orgy.

Almodóvar tends to be noted for his intense colors and outrageous comedy. Some critics criticized the film because it seemed so insubstantial, but I found the film just the thing for mid-summer viewing.

I'm So Excited (2013) ****

37 Pacific Rim (2013)

I saw Pacific Rim at a theatre complete with DX seats (they move with the noise of the film) and in 3D. I like the director Guillermo del Toro and his Pan's Labryinth so my expectations were pretty high. Unfortunately I was disappointed with the film.

Imagine Transformers mated with Godzilla and you have a pretty good idea of the premise of Pacific Rim. The script seems geared for pre-teen boys and there was not a lot of depth. IMDB states that Del Toro was "inspired by the anime and tokusatsu" of his youth. Maybe that was the problem. Lots of time was spent on effects and not as much care into a script.

After a long expository opening (an extended version of what you see in the trailer) where we are primarily give a history lesson of the world against the monsters from beneath the sea, the Kaiju. We finally learn that to fight them, gigantic mechanical Jaegers are created which are operated by two people who must become the right brain-left brain of the fighting beings. One of the best of the Jaeger pilots (Raleigh Becket) lost his brother to the Kaiju and is brought back to help man one of the last of the Jaegers in a final attempt to stop the Kaiju.

If you've seen any Godzilla or Transformers movie you have a pretty good idea where all this heads.

One of the scenes that did bring a smile to my face was a "St. Crispin's Day's" speech (Henry V) by the head of the Jaeger program, ending with a heart-felt: "Armagedden stops here."

The two main characters, Charlie Hunnam  (Becket) and Rinko Kikuhi as Mako Mori, are attractive actors but not given much depth. Charlie Day (from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Horrible Bosses) and Burn Gorman (of Torchwood) become the comic relief as scientists with opposing theories who become the savoirs in the end.

The film goes exactly where you expect it to go, but one of the surprises is that for a film where the fights between the mechanical Jaegers and the Kaiju monsters are of prime importance, the action is often unclear and in closeup.

Pacific Rim (2013) ** see the film on DVD.

36 - The Heat (2013)

The trailer tells us everything we need to know about The Heat.

Sandra Bullock plays Ashburn, a brilliant FBI agent who is socially inept, pitted against a loud, brash police officer, Melissa McCarthy. We know the formula and know that by the end of the film Bullock will become more like McCarthy and others will see what a great cop McCarthy is.

Everything follows the formula and although the humor is sometimes a little too slap-stick and somewhat negatively spirited, we can sit back and watch two enjoyable comedians react to each other.

McCarthy is the real gem here who, while I love her physical comedy and brash demeanor, makes me wish she would do more to expand her range.

The Heat (2013) ***

35 - White House Down (2013)

I find Channing Tatum has a lot of film charisma and makes a credible action hero. His name drew me to White House Down. Jamie Foxx plays a good companion character, so we quickly begin rooting for the two.

The premise is that single-dad John Cale (Tatum) takes Emily, his precocious teenage daughter (Joey Kiing) on a tour of the White House on a day that terrorists attempt to take down the symbol of state. Emily goes off to the bathroom just as all hell breaks loose and Cale spends much of the time trying to rescue the President (Foxx) and then Emily from the bad guys. There are plot twists (which I didn't find real surprises, but I also wasn't disappointed that they were rather obvious).

I expected the film to be a fun ride with great effects, which it was, but as the film played out, I became really mindful of how conceivably this might happen. Watching the Capital Building bombed and burning and the White House badly damaged (although not as completely as Independence Day), brought back some of the 9/11 feelings I thought I had gotten past.

I found it refreshing that the terrorists had nothing to do with the Middle East.

By the end of the film, I felt Tatum and Foxx made a good team and I had enjoyed the ride.

White House Down (2013) ****

34 - The Lone Ranger (2013)

I generally avoid reading the reviews before seeing a film, but I had seen a couple of scathing reviews of The Lone Ranger and realized they didn’t want me to see the film. Having seen the trailer, I decided I wanted to see the film when it came out and did. I definitely felt the negative critics were wrong.

I spent a lot of time after the film trying to analyze why critics disliked what I found enjoyable.

Was it because it was a Disney film, following in the footsteps of something like Pirates of the Caribbean series? Disney films make a lot of money and therefore become prime targets by those upset at how popular the merchandising becomes connected to the film.

Was it because Johnny Depp makes lots of money and creates another quirky character, complete with a crow he wears on his head? (Surprisingly that detail is one that research into native American history is based a painting by Kirby Sattler: I am Crow.)

Some were upset that Johnny Depp is playing a native American, although the publicity department stressed that Depp's genetic background has some native American blood.

One critic felt the film dealt with issues that were too adult for what should have been a child oriented film—it is Disney after all. Immediately Bambi pops into my mind where the fawn's mother is killed within the first reel. I do agree that the film is definitely not intended for a children audience--the humor is way over their heads and the horror more descriptive than seen. When the main character’s good-guy brother is killed, his heart is eaten by the villain and another character vomits in reaction; the film at that point definitely moves out of the child’s realm.  True, however, we only see the heart episode reflected in the Lone Ranger’s eyes.

Perhaps people were upset that in updating the film, the focus has shifted from The Lone Ranger’s viewpoint to Tonto’s. I liked the bookend device of having the old Tonto tell the story while in a sideshow carnival in 1930s San Francisco. 

I also enjoyed watching the Lone Ranger story that we know taking shape. Tonto in the film is the character who talks with Silver, the white horse who is loco and at one point ends up in a tree. When the great train chase begins which becomes the centerpiece of the last section of the film, I cheered along with many in the audience when the Lone Ranger rides silver to the “William Tell Overture” theme. The Lone Ranger’s mask and hat become running gags, as does the Lone Ranger’s relationship with Silver.

Depp makes his Tonto grumpy and wise and funny. Armie Hammer plays The Lone Ranger against the heroric mold of the original character, but we watch his transition through the film as he goes from city dude into epic hero. Tom Wilkinson plays a villain who has no qualms harming a lady and her child.

The film is long (2-1/2 hours) and in 3D, but held my interest throughout.Talking with friends on Facebook, we all agreed that the humor and the adventure of the film made for a fun movie—and we disagreed with the critics.

The Lone Ranger (2013) ****

33 - World War Z 3D (2013)

I learned several things about zombie's in director Marc Forster's World War Z:

• George A. Romero was wrong about zombies in Night of the Living Dead. They don't just shuffle. They can run. You've been warned.
• Oh, yah, and they are drawn to loud noises.
• All zombies must lose their dental programs because they have awful teeth.
• If the zombie apocalypse comes, you want to be with Brad Pitt. He is awesome and makes a great action hero.
• If you are hired to give the message of the film, you're probably don't have long to live.
• If you are fleeing from zombies, take the extra expense to have seating in first class. And be sure and buckle yourself in. It'll always be a bumpy ride.

The film jumps into the adventure after only a couple of scenes and from then it is non-stop chills and thrills. The movie is pure fun.

World War Z 3D, ****1/2

32 - Man of Steel 3D (2013)

In Man of Steel, Henry Cavill has lots of obstacles in his way portraying Kal-El/Clark Kent, ... (insert here all the names of the actors who has laid claim to the role). The main things that are in his favorite are incredible good looks, acting ability, a strong persona that commands attention on the screen, and an innovative script written by David S. Goyer (who created a television series I loved called FlashForward) from a story by Goyer and Christopher Nolan (one of my all-time favorite filmmakers) that reimagines a lot the Superman history.  Good action sequences were enhanced by the 3D.

I enjoyed the chemistry between Amy Adams and Cavill and thought they made a good time  whose futures I want to follow. Michael Shannon (General Zod) is someone whose work I enjoy no matter what role he takes.

Man of Steel 3D (2013) ****

31 - Before Midnight (2013)

One of my favorite film memories is my 1995 meeting and falling in love with Jesse and Celine (Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy) in Before Sunrise, one of my favorite romantic films. In 2004, with Before Sunset, we meet up with them again as they encounter each other while he, now married, travels on a book tour. The magic of their dialog surprisingly held up. After nine years, a divorce and remarriage and two daughters, we begin the film in Greece with Jesse saying goodbye to his American son who is returning home to Chicago. There are glimpses of the old magic, especially where Jesse and Celine join friends around a table discussing love and commitment. The scene alone is worth the price of admission.

But somewhere along the way, I have fallen out of love with the Julie Delpy free spirit. Two Days in Paris (2007) which she wrote seems a playing with the same kind of character, but although we are supposed to find her free-spirit charming, here it only became utterly grating. Even more grating was her rehash of the same script only pairing her with Chris Rock in Two Days in New York (2012). By the end of this film I found her whiny and dismissive, and I asked myself whether some things should not have a graceful end.

Before Midnight (2013) ***

30 - We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks (2013)

Alex Gibney's documentary details the creation of Julian Assange's controversial website and the parallel story of Bradley Manning's part in "the largest security breach in U.S. history." As the story lays out the internet contribution and ideas of Assange, it becomes easy to agree with his attempt to create a vehicle to make the internet a transparent means of social change. I was reminded of many of the ideas discussed in The Gatekeepers. Both films focus on footage of civilians being killed in war--shocking and disturbing images. Assange offers many interviews explaining his viewpoint.

The more hidden character is Bradley Manning, presented as a deeply disturbed loner who buys into Assange's politics, and then, if I interpreted Gibney correctly, was easily manipulated by Assange into publishing the 1000s of documents he had downloaded while on duty in Afghanistan. We only know Manning from his emails, still pictures, and interviews of people who worked with him.

As the film progresses, I found Assange's ego made it difficult to feel any sympathy for him. Perhaps because we see Manning only collaterally, I found I did sympathize with him. The documentary is well worth seeing.

We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks (2013) ****

29 - Stories We Tell (2012)

What is truth? If everyone we know gives their version of things that happen, do we ultimately end up with the truth?

Sarah Polley, in this fascinating documentary called Stories We Tell, sets out to tell the story of her mother and Sarah discovered that the father who raised her was not her biological father. She narrows the possibilities down to essentially two men. Using straight-on interviews with her two sisters, two brothers, friends of the family, and the two possible fathers, Sarah paints a vivid portrait of her actress mother. Throughout the film we have interviews and "home movies" to tell the complicated story.

"I want to tell my story," Sarah and both her fathers say. The stories often contradict each other.

For me the one of the real discoveries was that at the end we see Sarah filming many of the "home movies" with actors. While I thought we were immersed in truth, how much is that reality hampered when the "truth" isn't really the truth? I still haven't reached a conclusion about that. Certainly the documentary is a must-see on my list.

Stories We Tell (2012)

28 - Behind the Candelabra (HBO)

Based on Scott Thorson's "autobiographical novel," the film details the six-year relationship between Liberace and his much younger lover. Direct Steven Soderbergh relishes in the lavish lifestyle we expect to see and is not reluctant to throw in nudity--Michael Douglas and Matt Damon in bed and bath.

Debbie Reynolds appears in a fun cameo as Frances, Liberace's mother.

The Soderbergh/Douglas' version offers an interesting contrast to the more traditional approach of the Victor Garber Liberace - Behind The Music (1988), with Maureen Stapleton as his mother. Unfortunately both Douglas and Garber border on the "wax museum approach--almost there but not quite."

While the film doesn't reach the depth it tries to, it becomes an interesting couple of hours and proves the versatility once again of Matt Damon who is the real reason to watch the film.

\

Behind the Candelabra (HBO) ***

27 - Star Trek Into Darkness 3D (2013)

Part of the fun of the Star Trek franchise is to see the twists and reimaginings necessary to make another prequel of the original series. This episode felt even more satisfying than the last: mind-boggling special effects, great action sequences, strong and well realized characters.

By now, Chris Pine has become blended into my concept of the early Kirk and  Zachary Quinto has merged with Spock. Zoe Saldana (Uhura), Karl Urban (Bones), and Jon Cho (Sulu) remind us of the predecessors/future beings. Simon Pegg doesn't so much as channel Scotty as create his own parallel being who offers much needed humor to his character. Benedict Cumberbatch makes a worthy villain.

Star Trek Into Darkness 3D (2013) *****

26 - The Great Gatsby - 3D (2013)

I went to see The Great Gatsby with great trepidation. I was not one of the fans of the Robert Redford/Mia Farrow version, but I am a great fan of Leonardo DiCaprio and Carrie Mulligan. While I liked Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge, I couldn't picture that style as the framework for Gatsby.

Well, I totally bought into the film.

Whereas Redford and Farrow only convinced me that their acting range was actually quite limited, DiCaprio gave a very nuanced role that brought out both Gatsby's mystique and his hidden lower class origins. Mulligan's Daisy was funny, blissfully unaware of the damage she did in others lives.

In previous versions, the character of Nick has been nondescript at best. Here I found Toby McGuire's character interesting in his own right.

In Moulin Rouge, some of the magic of the film were the panoramas of Paris and the famous windmill. Here, the early part of the film gradually clarifies images from 1920s New York into the modern film. The party becomes one of the memorable moments in the film, showing outlandish expense lavishly spent on Gatsby's attempt to seduce Daisy and her husband to come across from the bay and join him on his Long Island estate.

Gatsby's pink suit from the book is beautifully rendered in a subtle pink/mauve tone with sets off DiCaprio's blonde hair.

I worried that I would hate the music since it sounds very modern. Actually it was felt to have reinterpreted the 1920s jazz sound and never felt discordantly modern.

The Great Gatsby 3D (2013)  *****

25 - The Sorceror and the White Serpent (2011)

Also called The Emperor and the White Snake or "Bai she chuan shuo"

I like Chinese fantasy films with elaborate fights and lots of special effects. Seeing the trailer on YouTube, I found this fun film online.

Here a master monk searches out evil demons to destroy. His assistant gets kidnapped by a demon and eventually changes into one. White and green serpent demon sisters see a handsome young doctor gathering herbs and the white serpent falls in love with him. She makes an attempt to keep their love forever.

The effects are pretty good and the eventual battle between good and evil allos for philosophical musings along with good special effects.

The Sorceror and the White Serpent (2011) ***