Movies

Coming up on TV: Lawrence of Arabia

by
Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif in Lawrence of Arabia

It’s time to revisit a spectacle.  On May 9, Turner Classic movies is broadcasting Lawrence of Arabia.  For decades, many of us watched this epic squeezed into tinny-sounding TVs.   In 1989, I was fortunate enough to see the director’s cut in an old movie palace.   Now technology has caught up, and modern large screen HD televisions  can do this wide screen classic justice.  Similarly, modern home sound systems can work with the great Maurice Jarre soundtrack.

Nobody has ever created better epics than director David Lean (Bridge Over the River Kwai, Dr. Zhivago).  Peter O’Toole stars at the moment of his greatest physical beauty.  The rest of the cast is unsurpassed: Omar Sharif, Jose Ferrer, Anthony Quinn, Anthony Quayle, Claude Rains, Arthur Kennedy, thousands of extras and entire herds of camels.  The vast and severe Arabian desert is a character unto itself.

Settle in and watch the whole thing – and remember what “epic” really means.

The Princess of Montpensier: a woman who is loved too much

by

Set in late 16th century France amid the French religious wars, a young noblewoman is forced by her father to marry – but not the man she loves. Her new husband is unhealthily jealous and for good reason – various members of the Court fall in love with her and she is too immature to handle it well.

The 35th film directed by Bertrand Tavernier (Coup de Torchon) is often exquisite. There is brutal 16th century warfare set against the beautiful French countryside, gorgeous costumes, thundering horses, swordplay in the Louvre and heaving bosoms.

It’s a good film that could have been great.  Unfortunately,  Melanie Thierry doesn’t live up to the great role at the center of this romance. Instead, Lambert Wilson steals the picture with an exceptional performance as the husband’s mentor and the Princess’ confidant.

The Robber: robbing and running, but why? and who cares?

by

The title character in The Robber/Der Rauber finishes a six-year prison term for bank robbery and immediately and compulsively robs a bank.  He doesn’t care about the money, he is simply driven to rob banks.

He has spent his six years in prison obsessively training, and he wins the Vienna Marathon when he gets out.  Along the way, his running ability helps him make dramatic escapes.  The role of the robber is very physically demanding, and he is well-played by Andreas Lust (Revanche).

It’s a well-acted and at times beautifully shot movie, but the story by writer-director Benjamin Heidenberg lets us down.  Why is the robber so compulsive?  How did he get to be so alienated?  Since he shows no emotion or human connection, why should we care?

There exists an excellent German bank robbery drama with lots of running, plus a great character, so I recommend Run Lola Run on DVD.

DVD of the Week: Moguls And Movie Stars

by

Moguls And Movie Stars: A History of Hollywood is a 7-part series from Turner Classic Movies , which originally broadcast the series last fall.  Most histories of cinema emphasize the technical and creative evolutions of film.  Instead, Moguls traces the business story – how mostly Jewish immigrants started with the early peep shows in old Eastern cities and wound up building monopolistic empires in the sun and glamor of Hollywood.  It’s a great story, and this series tells it very well.

The DVD set is now available for purchase for about $28.  Here’s the original TCM promo.

Blogging from SFIFF: Attenberg

by

Attenberg is a winningly offbeat original from Greek director Athina Rachel Tsangari.  It’s about a 23-year-old who grudgingly decides it’s time for her sexual initiation.  Her oversexed friend (who dreams of trees fruited with hanging penises) gives her some pointers.  Hilariously awkward attempts at intimacy ensue.  She has a poignantly close relationship with her single dad, and their love of sarcasm and animal documentaries help them cope with his cancer.  As if this weren’t enough,  the film is randomly interspersed with Silly Walks by the gals that would impress John Cleese.

As the lead, Ariane Labed won the Best Actress Award at the Venice Film Festival.

Coming up on TV: The great Erroll Morris and Gates of Heaven

by

On May 1, Turner Classic Movies is showing Gates of Heaven (1978), the first masterpiece by documentarian Erroll Morris.  It’s overtly about a Bay Area pet cemetery, but as Morris interviews the cemetery owners and the pet owners (as well as the guy at the rendering plant), the subjects expose their passions, aspirations and vulnerabilities.  And it’s hilarious.

This is an excellent introduction to America’s best documentarian, whose other films include The Thin Blue Line (which freed a wrongly convicted man from Texas’ Death Row) and Standard Operating Procedure (which exposed what was behind the abuses at Abu Ghraib).

Morris’ newest film, Tabloid, will be released on July 15.

In a Better World: an ambitious contemplation on violence

by

How do we respond to violence without perpetuating a cycle of violence?  What and how do we tell our kids?  Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier (Brothers/Brodre, After the Wedding, Things We Lost in the Fire) takes on these questions through the stories of two 12-year-old boys and their well-meaning but troubled parents.

A schoolboy bully is handled through shock and awe, but the responses to other incidents of violence are far messier.  A parent’s teachable moment about pacifism doesn’t seem effective, and the boys fashion their own disproportionate solution.  One of the fathers, a do-gooder doctor who puts in time at a hell hole of an African refugee camp, must face pure evil in the form of a local warlord.  It’s an often tense drama.

In a Better World benefits from outstanding performances, especially by the boy actors, William Jøhnk Juels Nielsen and Markus Rygaard.

In a Better World won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Picture.  I didn’t like In a Better World as much as Brothers and After the Wedding, but it’s still an ambitious and successful film.

Poetry: Learning to see what you’d rather overlook

by

Early in his film, Korean writer-director Chang-dong Lee tells us his theme.  Holding an apple, the teacher tells his students that, to write poetry, you must first see, really see the world around you.  Mija is a 66-year-old pensioner in his class who works part-time as a caregiver for a stroke victim and is raising her sullen slob of a teenage grandson. She struggles with the poetry, but she does begin to see the people in her world with clarity – and it’s not a pretty picture.  What she learns to see is human behavior ranging from the venal to the inhumane.

The key to the film’s success is the performance of Jeong-hie Yun as Mija, a protagonist who spends the entire movie observing. Her doctor tells her that her failing memory is the start of something far worse.  Sometimes she doesn’t see what we see because she is distracted.  But sometimes she doesn’t act like she sees because of denial or avoidance.  Sometimes she is disoriented.  But she has moments of piercing lucidity, and those moments are unsparing.

This unhurried film is troubling, uncomfortable and very, very good.

Coming Up on TV: The two best Civil War films

by
Jeff Daniels (center) in Gettysburg

The Civil War began 150 years ago this month, and TCM is broadcasting the two best Civil War movies on April 25.

Ron Maxwell’s 1994 Gettysburg is the gold standard of Civil War films.  It follows Michael Shaara’s superb historical novel The Killer Angels and depicts the decisive three day battle.  It was filmed on the actual battlefield with re-enactors.  Maxwell took great care in maintaining historical accuracy.  Civil War buffs will recognize many lines of dialogue as historical, as well as shots that recall famous photographs.  In addition, Gettysburg is especially well-acted, especially by Jeff Daniels, Tom Berenger, Stephen Lang, Sam Elliott and Brian Mallon.

The other very best Civil War movie is the 1989 Glory, which tells the real-life story of an all-black unit in the Union Army.  Glory has tremendous performances by Denzel Washington, Andre Braugher, Morgan Freeman and Jihmi Kennedy.

DVD of the Week: Rabbit Hole

by

Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhardt play a couple that lost their four-year-old son eight months ago, and are grieving in different ways and at different paces.  David Lindsay-Abaire’s screenplay is based on his Pulitzer- and Tony-winning play, and it’s as brilliant an exploration of the grieving process as I’ve ever seen.  There is just enough suspense and humor to make the film eminently watchable despite the grim subject.  Kidman, Eckhardt, Sandra Oh, Dianne Wiest and newcomer Miles Teller lead an excellent cast.

This is an exquisite film and is high on my list of Best Movies of 2010.