The Criterion Chronicles - The Stranger

This is an ongoing series in which I chronicle the films of the Criterion Collection that I watch. I will include a brief synopsis and my thoughts. I usually watch these films on Hulu Plus' Criterion Channel..... I am currently paid by neither..

"The Stranger" by Satyajit Ray is about an affluent Calcutta family who is paid an unexpected visit by a man who claims to be a long estranged uncle. He claims to have other business in town and apologizes for the intrusion. Having not seen the man in the past 35 years, the family grows more and more suspicious of his true identity and motive for the visit.

This is only my second film by India's Satyajit Ray. Earlier this year, I watched his 1958 film, "The Music Room" and was completely blown away so I've been looking forward to checking out some more of his work. This film made me even more excited about exploring the rest of his filmography. I really took me by surprise.

There isn't much of a plot. The world-weary stranger shows up, the family is suspicious, he tells them fantastic stories of his many travels, then he leaves. The film essentially is a series of dialog driven set pieces about trust, respect, culture, religion and human relationships. This is the dialog driven type of heartfelt drama like "Certified Copy" or "Before Sunrise" that I have been more apt to fall for over the past few years.

It's fitting that this film turned out to be the swan song from an accomplished auteur. He passed away in the

year following this film's release. It feels as though the titular character of the film knows his time is limited and is attempting to leave us with his last tidbits of knowledge before his final parting. As such, the film itself turns into a smorgasbord of philosophical and thought provoking colloquy.

It's worth noting also that this film looks completely beautiful. Most Indian films have lavish colors palettes and this one is no exception. It also features a great dance sequence at the end.


I'm glad I watched this one and I'm looking forward to finding more from this Satyajit Ray. There are several from me to chose from on Hulu.

 

Enjoy.

The Criterion Chronicles - Cria Cuervos

This is an ongoing series in which I chronicle the films of the Criterion Collection that I watch. I will include a brief synopsis and my thoughts. I usually watch these films on Hulu Plus' Criterion Channel..... I am currently paid by neither..

Carlos Saura's 1976 film takes place in the Franco's fascist Spain and tells the story of three orphaned girls being raised by their aunt and long time housekeeper. We watch through the eyes of the main character, Ana (Ana Torrent), the middle sister who is fascinated with the macabre, having witnessed both of her parent's deaths. 

The title of this film is an abbreviation of the Spanish proverb,  "Cria cuervos y te sacaran los ojos." which literally translates "Raise ravens and they'll take your eyes out." I think this story is meant to be a metaphor of the self destructive nature of an entire generation 'raised' by a fascist dictatorship and it illustrates the inevitable turning of the tides. The girl's father was a high ranking military official and Ana thinks that she was responsible  for his death. Bear in mind that this film was being made while Francisco Franco was on his deathbed. Director, Carlos Saura, an avid anti-Francoist even joked, "Franco took so long to die, we had time to buy champagne."

I love the way this film toggles between fantasy and reality from the eyes of Ana. She still seems to maintain a relationship with her deceased mother. It's not always clear whether this is from a supernatural medium or from a combination of her imagination and memories. Either way, its clear that she sees more than what meets the eye. This is similar to Ana Torrent's performance in her earlier performance in "The Spirit of the Beehive." I'm pretty sure its that performance that inspired the casting for this film. This film also features a great dual performance from screen legend Geraldine Chaplin as both the mother and Ana as an adult. 

I can't really tell how much of a fan of this film I am or will be. I can tell you that it demands a second viewing. I think I'll have to revisit it some other time. I was very struck by the performances and I've always loved when a film skips the exposition and just takes takes you for the ride. I also really dug the song, "Porque Te Vas" by Jeanette, which is featured prominently a few times in this film.... My suggestion, check it out... it won't hurt and you might like it...

Enjoy.

The Criterion Chronicles - Eyes Without A Face

This is an ongoing series in which I chronicle the films of the Criterion Collection that I watch. I will include a brief synopsis and my thoughts. I usually watch these films on Hulu Plus' Criterion Channel..... I am currently paid by neither..

George Franju's "Eyes Without A Face" (1960) is about a genius plastic surgeon, Dr. Genessier (Pierre Brasseur) who, with the help of his assistant Louise (Alidia Valli) abducts young pretty girls, cuts off their faces and grafts them onto his cherished daughter's face. His daughter, Christiane (Edith Scob) has been in hiding and is thought dead since the accident that left her disfigured. As the operations fail one after another, Christiane spins deeper and deeper into guilty depression as her Father becomes more and more obsessed with successful procedure.

This is not my first experience with this film but I wanted to rewatch it this week because Criterion has just

announced its Blu-Ray release and new high definition transfer in October of this year. I remember liking this film before but I was completely floored with it this time around. This film does an amazing jobs at lulling you into thinking that it will be handling its more disturbing and gory aspects with kid gloves. This is eventually found out to not be true. Then it blasts you in the face with its practical effects. I was honestly taken aback by how gruesome the visuals were for a film that was made over half a century ago. 

But I feel the gore factor really takes a backseat to the creepy factor in this flick hands down. As well done as the makeup job is in the various women, sans-face shots, the mask that Christiane wears in between operations just wigged me the hell out. There's just something about a slightly off humanistic mask that looks absolutely disturbing. It's the perfect amount of recognizability combined with the complete lack of relatability. Coincidentally, I recently watched an episode of Vsauce, a science based web series, about the creepy phenomenon. Check it out, it's really good...

I was reminded of this picture a couple of years ago when Pedro Almodovar's brilliant film "The Skin I Live In" was released. At the time, I remembered it being somewhat similar but I was surprised at how many

similarities I noticed this time around. The subject matter is close, a brilliant doctor obsessed with his daughter committing unspeakable crimes. There's also the presence of the brick and mortar underground lair that the doctor hides away in after hours. I'm a big fan of post-modern filmmaking and I love to experience the great art that inspires other great art.

It's also worth mentioning the year that this film came out, 1960. This was a pretty great year for ominous and disturbing cinema. Alfred Hitchcock proved that he in fact does not have your best interest in mind in the first thirty minutes of his masterpiece "Psycho" and Michael Powell directed the equally off putting voyeuristic thriller "Peeping Tom" in that year. The movie industry does tend to follow trends and its good to keep in mind that this is not a new thing... and it wasn't a new thing in 1960. This would probably make a great Sunday afternoon triple feature... as long as you didn't plan on getting any sleep that night.

Enjoy.

The Criterion Chronicles - Cure

This is an ongoing series in which I chronicle the films of the Criterion Collection that I watch. I will include a brief synopsis and my thoughts. I usually watch these films on Hulu Plus' Criterion Channel..... I am currently paid by neither..

Kiyoshi Kurosawa's 1997 film is centered around a wave of murders in Tokyo that baffle the police. The murderers are found dazed and confused but calm with no explanation for a motive to the murders. Detective Takabe and police Psychologist Sakuma team up to connect the dots. A strange young man shows up and appears to be suffering from the some type of amnesia, Takabe suspects he is the key and attempts to make sense of it all through a series of interrogations.

This film felt kind of like Japan's answer to "Se7en" from a couple years prior. It was a psychological thriller

revolving around gruesome deaths at the hands of a complicated killer. It's much more of a slow and meditative thriller than it's American counterparts and with a considerably lower death toll. This is probably all relative considering the lower crime rate of the Eastern metropolis but I think some film fans may find that it drags a bit. I thought it was great.

This film strikes a great balance between pensive and spine-chilling. It's pacing lends itself amazingly to the type of matter-of-fact violence that I love from the films of the Coen brothers. There's a great flow throughout and the shocking moments are truly off-putting. I really appreciate a film that can do this as they are few and far between.

Aside from being a murder mystery crime caper police procedural, this film adds a supernatural twist and a great dramatic sidestory. It is very rare to find all of this in a film that clocks in at less than 2 hours. This is great because I almost always check the running time before I watch a film. I'm not allergic to longer films, I just typically don't have enough time to watch one that's much more than 2 hours and it's great to be able to explore so much ground in such a small amount of time. It feels like a good value.

Ultimately, I really enjoyed this film and I think its something that most fans of police procedurals and crime dramas will respond to it. Some will undoubtedly however, find it a bit too slow.

 

Enjoy.

Revisitation Rights - Only the Strong

This will be a semi-ongoing blog series in which I revisit films from my past. These are the flicks that I watched over and over far before I became the film snob I am today. I'm curious whether these films will stand not only the test of time but my own personal scrutiny.Or if the magic of them resides only in my own nostalgia.

Today's secret ingredient is................

MARK DACASCOS!!!!!!!!!

That's right, I rewatched 1993's Mark Dacascos vehicle called "Only the Strong" about a young Green Beret named Louis Stevens that returns home to Miami after a four year long tour in Latin America. He heads back to his old high school to find that it's been taken over by street gangs. Fortunately, Louis has mad Capoeira skills... Capoeira is a Brazilian style of martial arts/dance and its also some sort of a game.... It's most similar American counterparts are known as B-Boying or Stompin' da Yard... only sometimes you kick people in the face... And I think you're supposed to be really really extra sweaty while you do it. I guess it's also very fortunate for Louis that all of the street gangs seem to use this style of dance party to settle all of their disputes as well.... You know, instead of guns and stuff.

So in case you didn't know, Mark Dacascos made a career as actor in many martial arts films before he was known as the crazy eyed host of "Iron Chef" or the twinkle toed beefcake of "Dancing with the Stars." He's worked on many films but this one is one of his very few starring roles. And, as far as I'm aware, this is the only role that he does any Capoeira.

I could probably make fun of this movie and just tell that it was a 'so bad its good' fun fighting flick. The plot is completely ridiculous. It's sort of a lovechild of "Dangerous Minds" and "Gymkata". And just look at
the tagline on the poster... "The strength ultimate power martial rhythm art."... Huh??? Did I mention the sweat... There's a lot of it...

But I digress, I actually really enjoyed it this time around. The stuff that's bad is pretty bad, but there is still quite a bit that you can take away on a positive note. The fighting style is a real joy to watch and this is only film that uses it to my knowledge. It seems like a highly inefficient style that lends itself much more to flair than self defence. But, I guess that would make it the perfect candidate for cinema. I also took special note of the stunt work in this film. This picked up a lot of the pieces where some of the fight choreography lacked. You could feel the weight of the slams and falls the various henchmen

I watched this movie on Netflix Watch Instantly with my 12 year old in "Super HD". He dug it in the same way that I did when I was around his age. I'm glad to have had the opportunity to introduce it to him. This film had a profound influence on my upbringing as a young man... After all, its the reason that I used Eddy Gordo every time I played Tekken Tag Tournament... and I kicked ass at that game...

Enjoy.

The Criterion Chronicles - French Cancan

This is an ongoing series in which I chronicle the films of the Criterion Collection that I watch. I will include a brief synopsis and my thoughts. I usually watch these films on Hulu Plus' Criterion Channel..... I am currently paid by neither..

French Cancan (1954) is Jean Renoir comedic drama about Nini, a poor laundress that is recruited as a Cancan dancer by Henri Danglard, proprietor of recently bankrupt cafe. Romance and jealousy ensue as Nini dances through life and love eventually finding herself the star of the Moulin Rouge. 

This film was shot using the very beautiful Technicolor process during its heyday, very shortly after it became
possible to strike a color print from a single camera negative. This process combined with the amazing restoration job by The Criterion Collection results in colors that pop right off the screen. This is one of the few color films that I've seen from Renoir and you can tell that he thrived in the medium.  You can tell that this film's lavish style was an inspiration to Baz Luhrmann's 2001 picture "Moulin Rouge!"

The two stars of this film, Jean Gabin (Danglard) and Francoise Arnoul as Nini give the films film's best performances. Their charisma provides the emotional core and the supporting cast gives the audience its comic relief. I especially loved the performance by Philippe Clay as Casimir le Serpentin. He's a tall and lanky all around showman who comes up with witty songs that seem to narrate the antics that transpire throughout the film. Overall, the cast put on great performances in the story as well as the set pieces.

Ultimately, this film actually turned out to be a bit of a disappointment to me. There is nothing specifically wrong with it but if you are comparing it to Renoir's greatest, it doesn't measure up. This is a shame because the first third of the story seems to be treading on his most familiar ground. Renoir has made some amazing stories of the 'haves' and their relationships and codependencies with the 'have nots'. This film begins this way, with essentially a broke art peddler begging for money from the rich and labor and love from the poor. Unfortunately, the film seems to abandon this theme around the halfway mark. It is definitely worth a watch but I would consider "The Lower Depths" and "The Rules of the Game" necessary prerequisites.

Enjoy.

The Criterion Chronicles - Eraserhead

This is an ongoing series in which I chronicle the films of the Criterion Collection that I watch. I will include a brief synopsis and my thoughts. I usually watch these films on Hulu Plus' Criterion Channel..... I am currently paid by neither..

Eraserhead (1977) is auteur, David Lynch's first feature length film about industrial printer Henry Spencer and his dismal existence. The world around him is loud and filthy, his apartment is tiny and run down, his only entertainment is a singing woman living in his radiator and his girlfriend is completely nuts. To make matters worse, she gives birth to a premature mutant child that cries all night. After all that, the movie start to get a bit weird...

This is not my first experience with this film. I watched it for the first time around ten years ago as a fan of David Lynch's other work. I really didn't like it at the time. For whatever reason, I just couldn't get into the story. But alas, I'm older and more patient now so I thought I should give it another chance. This film is very well respected by many of my peers and the cinematic community in general. Maybe my first viewing of it was skewed by my mood or something I ate. Maybe I just wasn't mature enough to appreciate it as the cinematic masterpiece it is. So, I gave it another shot....

Well Eraserhead, ummmm... have a seat.... can I get you anything?... Maybe a glass of water...? This is never easy... I'll just come out and say it... It's not you, it's me... No, really... There's actually a lot of things I really like about you. The practical effects used are well....... effecting to say the least, the cinematography is stark and at times very beautiful and the characters are very well written and fleshed out. I loved Allen

Joseph's "Mr X" as he is describing the "man made" chickens they are about to eat for dinner... "Little damn things, smaller than my fist.."

As far as I'm concerned, nobody should talk about this film without mentioning what I feel is by far it greatest attribute. Like many of his other films, Lynch does his own sound design. And this film is an amazing example of his genius at work in that particular department. The entirety of the picture is full not only of great sound effects but a constant ambient noise of the pulsating and whirring industrial machinery that absolutely fills the air. It's this attention to detail that I think led to Lynch's ability to achieve masterpiece status just three years later with 1980's "The Elephant Man".

So in summation, this may have not been my first experience with this film, it will be my last. I do admit however, that it is a far better movie than I had previously realized. And on some levels, it could probably be considered a masterpiece in its own right. Unfortunately, after watching it for the second time, I'm simply having too hard of a time not stabbing my eyeballs with my car keys.... Eraserhead, you're gross...

Enjoy.

The Criterion Chronicles - Summer With Monika

This is an ongoing series in which I chronicle the films of the Criterion Collection that I watch. I will include a brief synopsis and my thoughts. I usually watch these films on Hulu Plus' Criterion Channel..... I am currently paid by neither..

Ingmar Bergman' 1953 film tells the story of Harry Lund, an ambitious and responsible 19 year old who falls in love with Monika, the flighty and romantic 17 year old. They quit their jobs and steal away in his father's boat and spend the Summer on an isolated island. When Monika gets pregnant, they decide to go back home and marry. Very quickly, they both begin to realize that the same differences in personalities that attracted them to each other in the first place are now driving them further apart.

During Ingmar Bergman's entire career, he used two cinematographers almost exclusively. Sven Nykvist and Gunnar Fischer. This film was shot beautifully by the ladder. Fischer, who also collaborated with him on "The Magician", "The Seventh Seal" and "Wild Strawberries" has put together some of the best exteriors of Bergman's filmography. The entire second act of this movie takes place outside and he took full advantage of the breathtaking Swedish countryside. I love reflection shots and he uses the still water to bounce light and shadows into the lens in a truly amazing fashion. There are also a lot of scenes that take place during the first and last light of the day. This 'magic hour' combined with slightly abstracted angles gives some great silhouetted images against an overcast backdrop that I've always been very keen on.

This, like most of Ingmar Bergman's work begins with a rather capricious and light hearted tone and ends on

a far more serious note. By its final credits, you feel as though you have experience the equivalent of a cinematic gut-punch. I'm sure he was a fan of Shakespeare's work and because of films like this one, has been referred to the greatest dramatist since the 16th century playwright. I personally consider him among Alfred Hitchcock and Akira Kurosawa as one of the three most influential filmmakers in history. You could easily make the case for him simply by the sheer amount of great work he has done. This film is a great example of his good work... but falls short of being a good example of his great work. If you are so far unfamiliar with his other films, I wouldn't suggest you start with this one... But, get around to it nonetheless....

Enjoy.