Rants and Ruminations

CAGED: Eleanor Parker and Hope Emerson in the prototype for Orange is the New Black

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31-days-2015-blogathonThis article is written for the annual blogathon in celebration of Turner Classic Movies’ 31 Days of Oscars.  The blogathon is hosted by classic movie bloggers Outspoken and Freckled, Paula’s Cinema Club and Once Upon a Screen.

Hope Emerson and Eleanor Parker in CAGED
Hope Emerson and Eleanor Parker in CAGED

Want to see the prototype for Orange Is the New Black?  In the 1950 Caged, Eleanor Parker (who died last year) played the naive young woman plunged into a harsh women’s prison filled with hard-bitten fellow prisoners and compassion-free guards. Parker was nominated for an acting Oscar, but her performance pales next to that of Hope Emerson, whose electric portrayal of a hulking guard also got an Oscar nod.

Caged is a Message Picture, editorializing that the prison experience unnecessarily molds inmates into criminals.  Although its trailer (available on IMDb), with its breathlessly sensationalistic narration, makes the film appear overwrought, Caged is edgy enough to have currency with modern sensibilities.  Parker’s newbie  is NOT innocent and wrongly convicted –  as the movie opens, she’s one of the crew in a bank heist.  She experiences hellish brutalization behind bars.  There’s also behind-the-bars pregnancy, inmate suicide and implied lesbianism.  The ending, when the protagonist is finally released and can choose between going straight or going bad, is filled with the cynicism and despair of film noir.

Eleanor Parker hit every note on her character’s slide from the Good Kid who made a dumb mistake all the way down to a Hard Case seasoned with hopelessness.  (In a stunningly competitive year, she lost the Oscar to Judy Holliday for Born Yesterday, along with Gloria Swanson for Sunset Boulevard, and both Bette Davis and Anne Baxter for All About Eve.)

But this is Hope Emerson’s movie.  Emerson draws the audience’s attention every moment that she’s on-screen.  Her prison matron is not just harsh but sadistic.  Emerson was able to radiate meanness with every glance, and took full advantage of her dominating physicality. It’s a performance that still works today.

This was the apex of Emerson’s career.  She stood a big-boned 6″2″, and then as now, Hollywood didn’t have many parts for an actress with her appearance.   She started on Broadway in her early 30s (as an Amazon in Lysistrata), was successful in radio voice-over work and managed 43 screen credits.  She was 53 years old when she made Caged.

Caged also features the fine character actresses Agnes Moorehead, Jane Darwell (Ma Joad in The Grapes of Wrath) and Ellen Corby (Grandma Walton here as a young woman).

Sixty-five years later, Caged might still be the best women’s prison movie ever.  TCM is featuring Caged on February 20 during its 31 Days of Oscar.  It’s also available on DVD from Netflix and streaming on  iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, Xbox Video and Flixster.

Get ready for CINEQUEST 2015

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CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA
CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA

It’s time to get ready for the 2015 version of the San Jose film festival Cinequest, coming up on February 28 through March 8.  At the media launch, Cinequest CEO and co-founder Halfdan Hussey pronounced himself “totally stoked”.  We all should be stoked because Cinequest 2015 will host artists from 50 countries and present 91 world, North American or US premieres.

This is the 25th anniversary of the festival, but Hussey described Cinequest 2015 as “about today and tomorrow”, referencing both cutting edge cinema and the film technology of the future.

One of the surefire festival hits will be Clouds of Sils Maria, where the ever-radiant Juliette Binoche plays an actress now relegated to the older role in her breakthrough play, with the younger role going to Kristen Stewart (All About Eve, anyone?).  The Twilight series has obscured what a good actress Stewart can be (Into the Wild, Adventureland, The Runaways), and her performance in The Clouds of Sils Maria has been getting raves.

Ann Thompson (Thompson on Film) will be receiving a Media Legacy Award and screening the Argentine revenge drama Wild Tales, which has been a festival hit at Cannes, Telluride, Toronto and Sundance.

Other highlights:

  • Rosario Dawson will appear to receive a Maverick Spirit Award.
  • That award will also go to Deliverance director John Boorman, who will be screening his newest work Queen and Country.
  • Richard von Busack, the highly respected film critic for Metro, will receive a Media Legacy Award and screen L’Atalante, the 1934 masterpiece of French writer-director Jean Vigo, who died at age 29 soon after its completion.

But the real treasure at Cinequest 2015 is likely to be found among the hitherto less well-known films – like last year’s Cinequest jewel Ida, which is high on my list of Best Movies of 2014.

Take a look at the program and the passes and tickets. (If you want to support Silicon Valley’s most important cinema event while skipping the lines, the $100 donation for Express Line Access is an awesome deal.) You can download the Festival Guide from this page.

As usual, I’ll be covering Cinequest rigorously with features and movie recommendations. Follow me on Twitter for the latest.

WILD TALES
WILD TALES

2014 at the Movie: farewells

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James Shigeta (Right) in THE CRIMSON KIMONO
James Shigeta (Right) in THE CRIMSON KIMONO

Actor James Shigeta, who along with writer-director Sam Fuller, broke ground in 1959’s The Crimson Kimono, died in July at age 85. Shigeta’s  first movie role was in The Crimson Kimono, another sensationalistic and deliciously exploitative cop noir from the great Sam Fuller. Always looking to add some shock value, Fuller delivered a Japanese-American leading man (Shigeta), an inter-racial romance and a stripper victim. The groundbreaking aspect of The Crimson Kimono is that Fuller’s writing and Shigeta’s performance normalized the Japanese-American character. Shigeta’s Detective Joe Kojaku is a regular hardboiled, jaded and troubled film noir protagonist.  Of course, Fuller certainly relished the fact that many 1959 Americans would have been unsettled by a Japanese-American man’s intimate encounter with a white woman – another groundbreaking moment in American cinema.

We’re going to miss some other cinematic masters.  Some icons.  And some that we were expecting to create yet more film treasure:

And Philip Seymour Hoffman: His heartbreaking death was a punch to the gut on Super Bowl Sunday.  That’s the thing about addiction – not everybody makes it.

Philip Seymour Hoffman in CAPOTE
Philip Seymour Hoffman in CAPOTE

Happy Anniversary to The Wife

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Myrna Loy in THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES – the second best wife ever

Happy Anniversary to The Wife, also known as Lisa The Love of My Life!

This year, I cherished sharing my VERY BEST movie experiences with her – my top two movies Boyhood and Ida, along with the very moving Alive Inside.  (She loves to catch me weeping at a movie.)

She tolerated my spending huge chunks of time at Cinequest, the San Francisco International Film Festival, Noir City and French Cinema Now.  She even accompanied me to four Cinequest screenings (The Grand Seduction- YAAY!) and sat through the looooong Mr. Turner at the Mill Valley Film Fest.

Without her pressing me, I wouldn’t have seen Gone Girl, and that would have been a big loss for me.  It was even HER glorious idea to settle in for a Bogie double feature of The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep!

She’s the biggest fan and supporter of this blog, and I appreciate her and love her.  Happy Anniversary, Honey!

Best Movies of 2014

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Eller Coltrane, Ethan Hawke and Lorelei Linklater in BOYHOOD
Eller Coltrane, Ethan Hawke and Lorelei Linklater in BOYHOOD

Visit my Best Movies of 2014 for my list of the year’s best films, complete with images, trailers and my comments on each movies. My top nine for 2014 are:

Boyhood
Ida
Dear White People
Birdman
Gone Girl
Locke
Force Majeure
Calvary
Alive Inside

The other best films of the year are: True Detective (the HBO mini-series), A Coffee in Berlin, Borgman and The Grand Seduction.

I’m saving space for these promising films that I haven’t seen yet: A Most Violent Year, Inherent Vice, Selma, American Sniper, The Overnighters and Two Days, One Night.

2014 at the Movies: most overlooked

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Macon Blair in BLUE RUIN
Macon Blair in BLUE RUIN

Talk about “overlooked” – there were some great movies this year that didn’t even get a meaningful theatrical release. Let’s start with Blue Ruin – a completely fresh take on the revenge thriller.

Then there’s the romantic drama a la Twilight Zone, The One I Love, with brilliant performances by Elisabeth Moss and Mark Duplass.

The year’s best documentary – Alive Inside – didn’t even get shortlisted for the best Documentary Oscar. I dare you to watch this movie without tearing up.

I thought that the Canadian comedy The Grand Seduction would become a long running art house hit like The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel or The Full Monty. But, despite being the year’s funniest and most audience-friendly comedy, it came and went quickly.

I loved the darkly droll German slacker comedy A Coffee in Berlin, but only a few other folks saw it in this country.  It was a big hit in Europe – for a reason.

Fortunately, Blue Ruin, The One I Love, The Grand Seduction and A Coffee in Berlin are all available on DVD and/or streaming. Follow the links above to find out how to watch them. But two wonderful films that I saw at Cinequest – the outrageously dark Hungarian comedy Heavenly Shift and the provocative Slovenian classroom drama Class Enemy are not currently available to US audiences. When they are, I’ll let you know.

2014 at the Movies: the year of the dual performance

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Elisabeth Moss and Mark Duplass in THE ONE I LOVE
Elisabeth Moss and Mark Duplass in THE ONE I LOVE

This year we’ve seen an unusual number of actors playing multiple roles in the same movie. Jesse Eisenberg in The Double and Jake Gyllenhaal in Enemy play guys who encounter their dopplegangers – and the fun is in the contrasting personalities of the lookalikes.

In The Face of Love, a grieving widow falls for the exact double of her late husband (but she doesn’t tell the new boyfriend about the resemblance).  Ed Harris plays both roles.

In the The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, Jessica Chastain and James McAvoy plays a couple who have experiences a tragedy. In a Rashomon-like manner, part of the movie is told from her perspective and part from his, so McAvoy and Chastain are playing the same character, but shaded by the differing viewpoints.

And here’s my favorite.  In The One I Love, Elisabeth Moss and Mark Duplass each play two characters, but I’m not going to spoil,the movie by telling you who they are. It’s a superb Twilight Zone-like experience.  Just watch the movie.

2014 at the Movies: most fun at the movies

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DEAR WHITE PEOPLE
DEAR WHITE PEOPLE

I do this for fun.  This year, my most fun at the movies happened at film festivals (Cinequest, San Francisco International Film Festival, Mill Valley Film Festival, Noir City), the SFFS French Cinema Now film series and my movie club, the Camera Cinema Club.

These gave me an early look at some of the Best Movies of 2014 – Ida at Cinequest, Dear White People and Calvary at SFIFF and Alive Inside at Camera Cinema Club.  The screening of Dear White People, with a packed, appreciative audience and a Q&A with writer-director Justin Simien, was a howl!  And I hope that two foreign films from Cinequest, Heavenly Shift and Class Enemy, will become available – on DVD or VOD – to US audiences.

And I always value my steady companion Turner Classic Movies.  TCM always turns me on to new favorites in film noir; this year TCM introduced me to Pitfall with Dick Powell and I Wake Up Screaming with Victor Mature and the irreplaceable Laird Cregar.

Best Movies of 2014 So Far

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Eller Coltrane, Ethan Hawke and Lorelei Linklater in BOYHOOD
Eller Coltrane, Ethan Hawke and Lorelei Linklater in BOYHOOD

Instead of waiting for my year end Top Ten list, I keep a running list throughout the year: Best Movies of 2014 – So Far.  That list is shaping up, though, and my recommendations are getting validated by the early critics awards.  In the last two weeks, both the New York Film Critics Circle and the San Francisco Film Critics Circle recognized my #1 film, Boyhood, as the top film of the year and my #2 film, Ida, as the top foreign film.  And the New York Times’ A.O. Scott picked Boyhood and Ida #1 and #2 on his top ten list.

Boyhood is pretty much out of theaters, awaiting a DVD release in January.  So is Dear White People, out on DVD in February.  But you can see almost all the rest right now:

Birdman, Gone Girl and Force Majeure are in theaters right now.  And Ida, Locke, Calvary, Alive Inside, A Coffee in Berlin, Borgman, True Detective and The Grand Seduction are available on DVD and/or streaming.  Check my Best Movies of 2014  for DVD/streaming availability.

To get on my list, a movie has to be one that I’m still thinking about them a couple of days later.  I’m still mulling over whether to add A Most Wanted Man, The One I Love or Whiplash.

I’m still waiting to see several contenders for my year-end list: A Most Violent Year, Big Eyes, Inherent Vice, Selma, American Sniper, The Overnighters and Two Days, One Night.  From what I read, any or all of these might end up on my final list.  [Although it’s likely to be nominated for a Foreign Language Oscar this year, most of us won’t get a chance to see the Russian Leviathan until well into 2015, so I’ll leave it for next year’s list.]

For some reason, Under the Skin, Snowpiercer, Grand Budapest Hotel , The Lego Movie and Love Is Strange are all showing up on some top ten lists. I really can’t understand why. At least Under the Skin and Snowpiercer were entertaining, but none of these were great.

Mike Nichols: a belated remembrance

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Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols

I didn’t get a chance to weigh last week on the passing of the seminal filmmaker Mike Nichols, but on this Saturday Turner Classic Movies is airing three of Nichol’s movies: The Graduate, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Carnal Knowledge. The superb Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was Nichol’s directing debut. Imagine, as a rookie director, handling the world’s two biggest movie stars, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, at the height of their media circus celebrity, tempetuous relationship and individual willfulness. Three quick reflections on Mike Nichols:

1. It’s easy to recognize the greatness of The Graduate today, but it’s hard to appreciate how groundbreaking it was – all because of Nichol’s directorial choices. Dustin Hoffman’s performance was central to the success of the film, yet he was a nobody at the time and Nichols had to fight for him – the studio preferred a conventionally handsome leading man. Nichols sure wasn’t copying anybody else when he put the Simon and Garfunkle songs in the soundtrack. And the final shot – where Nichols kept his camera lingering on Hoffman and Katherine Ross until the actors became uncomfortable – is one of cinema’s best.

2. Nichols was still at the top of his form in 1998 with the Bill Clinton story Primary Colors. We can see his continuing comedic mastery when Allison Janney’s teacher union president emerges in a Walk of Shame from the candidate’s hotel room. And when the Hillary character explains the “momma” phenomenon where the Bill and Carville characters are weeping about their mommas. Primary Colors is available on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Amazon Instant, Vudu and Xbox Video.

3. And this precedes his movie career, but it occurs to me that Mike Nichols’ comedy sketch collaboration with Elaine May was really the precursor of the 50’s becoming the 60’s in America. Just search on YouTube for “Mike Nichols Elaine May” and watch some clips – you’ll see why.