FilmFanatic.org

Synopsis:
A Black matriarch (Claudia McNeil) in 1940s Chicago is torn between wanting to help her daughter (Diana Sands) go to medical school, buy a house for her family, and/or support her son (Sidney Poitier) and his pregnant wife (Ruby Dee) and child (Steven Perry) in her son’s dream to own a liquor store.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• African-Americans
• Grown Children
• Play Adaptations
• Ruby Dee Films
• Race Relations and Racism
• Sidney Poitier Films

Review:
All of the leading stars of Lorraine Hansberry’s original 1959 Broadway play production were cast in this cinematic adaptation, written by Hansberry and directed by Daniel Petrie. The story and performances remain powerful, with Petrie and DP Charles Lawton, Jr. effectively opening up the sets to show both the claustrophobia of the family’s cramped apartment, and the space and freedom they long to move to.

It’s heartbreaking to watch each of these characters grappling with challenging constraints, and see the pressures that inevitably arise within a landscape of limited funds and diverse ideas of how to achieve success and happiness. The toxicity of societal racism comes through loud and clear, with John Fiedler’s representative from the “Clybourne Park Improvement Association” (in the family’s intended new neighborhood) embodying the sniveling “new” format through which racial intolerance is communicated.

Authentic tension abounds through each of the interwoven narrative sub-strands, ranging from Poitier’s desperate desire to finally break free from his job as a chauffeur and work for himself, to Dee’s angst over bringing a new child into their family, to McNeil’s determination to provide a home for her family, to Sands’ indecision around who to date: her well-to-do suitor George (Louis Gossett Jr.) or a Nigerian classmate (Ivan Dixon) who entices her with visions of exploring her cultural heritage.

This engrossing, finely-acted film — which was selected by the Library of Congress in 2005 for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” — remains well worth a look.

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:

• Ruby Dee as Ruth
  
• Sidney Poitier as Walter Lee
  
• Claudia McNeil as Lena
  
• Diana Sands as Beneatha
  
• Charles Lawton, Jr.’s cinematography
  

Must See?
Yes, as a still-powerful screen adaptation of an enduring American play.

Categories

• Good Show

Links:

• IMDb entry
• Movie Diva Review
• TV Guide Review
• TCM Article

Synopsis:
Shortly after enslaved Englishman Henry Morgan (Steve Reeves) falls in love with his mistress (Valérie Lagrange), he and his fellow slaves commit mutiny, become pirates, and accidentally kidnap Doña Inez (Lagrange), whose angry father (Ivo Garrani) offers a huge reward to anyone able to capture and kill Morgan.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Historical Drama
• Italian Films
• Pirates

Review:
André de Toth co-directed this historical adventure flick loosely based on the life of Sir Henry Morgan, a Welsh pirate who was also the inspiration for the novel upon which Captain Blood (1935) was based. This iteration is pure Italian costume spectacle, primarily notable for featuring Hercules (1958) star and former Mr. Universe Steve Reeves in another bare-chested adventure.

Indeed, the film’s most amusing moment comes when Morgan faces his nemesis, a rival pirate (Armand Mestral) who reconsiders taking his own shirt off after seeing who he’s contending with.

There really isn’t much more to this swashbuckler than what meets the eye — but fans of swordplay, action-at-sea, and/or Steve Reeves will likely enjoy passing time with this one.

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:

• Fine cinematography and historical sets
  
  

Must See?
No; this one isn’t must-see unless you happen to be a Steve Reeves fanatic.

Links:

• IMDb entry
• TCM Article

Synopsis:
A pair of middle-aged taxi drivers in San Francisco — Marty (Dan Leegant) and Speed (Bill Ackridge) — take fares, hang out with their buddies, and navigate existential dilemmas.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Masculinity
• Workplace Drama

Review:
Director Rob Nilsson — whose debut feature, Northern Lights (1978), is also listed in GFTFF — dedicated this cinéma vérité indie film (“Story by Ron Nilsson, written by the cast”) to John Cassavetes, which makes sense given his clear influence on the style. Signal 7 (the title refers to a radio distress call) unfolds in a leisurely, seemingly improvised fashion which nonetheless coheres thematically; we watch as these working class men navigate their world by sharing stories:

… dreaming of more for themselves (one extended sequence shows them unsuccessfully auditioning for parts in a play):

discussing formation of a union, dealing with the murder of one of their colleagues, and interacting with their fares.

This low-budget movie received glowing notices by the New York Times upon its release, with reviewer Nina Darnton describing it as an “unusual, touching, intelligent film” about “pride, loneliness, friendship, ambition, failure, fear and hope,” with a story that “slowly draws the audience in, building with a cumulative power.” I would essentially agree: while it’s not must-see viewing, I became surprisingly caught up in this well-crafted tale about 24 hours in the lives of men who don’t usually get to shine on-screen.

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:

• Fine cinéma vérité directing and cinematography
  

Must See?
No, but it’s worth a one-time look if you happen to catch it.

Links:

• IMDb entry
• NY Times Original Review
• Spirituality and Practice Review

Synopsis:
In ancient Greece, the grown daughter (Irene Pappas) and son (Yannis Fertis) of Queen Clytemnestra (Aleka Catselli) seek revenge when she kills their father and marries her lover (Fivos Razi).

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Greek Films
• Grown Children
• Play Adaptations
• Revenge
• Royalty and Nobility
• Siblings

Review:
This Oscar-nominated foreign language film by Greek director Michael Cacoyannis — probably best known for helming Zorba the Greek (1964) — takes Euripides’ classic tragedy into a primarily outdoor setting, showcasing the rocky landscape of Mycenae and Argos.

Most notable of all is the lead performance by Papas, whose soulful eyes dominate the screen:

… though she’s nearly out-staged whenever evil Catselli comes glowering around.

This film is very slow-moving, with rapid activity only seeming to occur during book-ended death sequences, so viewers should be forewarned; but it’s a fine example of a film made during the Golden Age of Greek cinema.

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:

• Irene Papas as Electra
  
• Aleka Catselli as Clytemnestra
  
• Walter Lassaly’s cinematography
  

Must See?
No, but it’s recommended for one time viewing.

Links:

• IMDb entry
• NY Times Original Review

Synopsis:
A young woman (Juliet Berto) and man (Jean-Pierre Léaud) come together in a dark room to discuss the nature of language and learning.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• French Films
• Jean-Luc Godard Films
• Jean-Pierre Léaud Films
• Revolutionaries

Review:
Shot just before and after the French civil unrest of 1968, this riff on Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Emile (1762) was a sort of sequel to Godard’s La Chinoise (1967), and a clear exception to the “end of cinema” he proclaimed in the final shot of Weekend (1967). Interestingly, it received a reasonably decent review in The New York Times, with Vincent Canby noting that “Godard is still communicating with us by means of beautiful, comparatively conventional, if fragmented, images and sounds”:

… as his two characters “hav[e] a discourse on language” while “the camera is constantly cutting to points of visual references—Paris streets, cartoon strips, pop posters—images, which, though fragmented, make complete sense.”

“Complete sense” is a bit of a stretch; indeed, this is an intensely heady, academic affair — one which will only appeal to those ready to dive into assertions like, “We can say all we want about what we see, but what we see is never lodged in what we say.” and “The conflicts of a child, I said, are not conflicts with reality but originate from the subject’s inability to identify himself — so what is being questioned is the image of oneself.” Not exactly clear as day, but at least it’s all photographed beautifully by Georges Leclerc.

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:

• Georges Leclerc’s cinematography
  

Must See?
No — unless, of course, you’re a Godard completist (and you know who you are).

Links:

• IMDb entry
• NY Times Original Review
• J. Hoberman’s Review
• Time Out Capsule Review

Synopsis:
An urban housewife (Marina Vlady) with two young kids turns to prostitution to support her family’s middle-class budget.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• French Films
• Housewives
• Jean-Luc Godard Films
• Prostitutes and Gigolos

Review:
Continuing with the theme of prostitution as a metaphor for modern capitalist existence — as shown in his earlier Vivre Sa Vie (1962) — Jean-Luc Godard’s 13th feature-length film remains generally critically lauded, and is included in the book 1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. In her essay for Criterion, Amy Taubin describes it as “the greatest film by the greatest post-1950s filmmaker,” arguing it presents “as a machine that morphs the colliding meanings of words and objects with dazzling speed, and generates an astonishing array of metaphors, paradoxes, digressions, and, above all, dialectical relationships, between idea and action, word and image, sound and picture, interior and exterior, microcosm and macrocosm.”

DVD Savant offers a more measured analysis, referring to it as “an attractive slide-show lecture and poetry recital” which “minimizes the contribution of conventional acting” (!!) and is simultaneously “engaging, titillating and frequently frustrating.”

I’m more in alignment with Savant’s assessment. Having just finished watching and reviewing the two films Godard made before (or alongside) this one — Masculin-Feminin (1966) and Made in U.S.A. (1966) — it’s easy to see this cinematic essay as both a culmination of his continuing obsessions, and a clear marker of his shift into more overtly political films. Its lack of likable characters is a challenge, as is the fact that Godard was feeding lines to his actors (he was apparently angry at Vlady for refusing to marry him in real life, though he had just met Anne Wiazemsky and was moving on).

Of note stylistically-speaking is Godard’s frequent juxtaposition of red, white, and blue within the frame:

… his typically avant-garde use of sound and music; and, of course, an ongoing emphasis on pop culture, advertising, and consumerism.

Note: The film’s most devastating scene shows Vlady emotionlessly dropping off her crying young daughter at a daycare (which also functions as an armed brothel):

… then walking outside to become part of the anonymous masses. Ouch.

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:

• Raoul Coutard’s cinematography
  
  

Must See?
No, though it’s worth a look if you’re interested in the idea of cinema-as-collage. Listed as a Personal Recommendation in the back of Peary’s book.

(Listed in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die)

Links:

• IMDb entry
• NY Times Original Review
• Criterion Essay
• DVD Savant Review
• Screen View Mirror Video Review

Synopsis:
A private eye (Anna Karina) investigates the mysterious death of her former lover, found in the apartment of a writer (David Goodis).

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Detectives and Private Eyes
• French Films
• Jean-Luc Godard Films
• Jean-Pierre Léaud Films

Review:
Shot simultaneously with 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), this semi-improvised, genre-adjacent quickie by Jean-Luc Godard was nominally based on a novel called The Jugger by Richard Stark (a.k.a. Donald E. Westlake), but in reality does its own thing at every turn, intentionally messing with the audience’s sense of narrative or linear logic; indeed, as Jonathan Hoberman describes it in his illuminating essay for the Criterion Collection, it “represents Godard’s most sustained derangement of narrative convention.” Hoberman adds that it is “at least nominally, a political noir in the tradition of Godard’s second film, Le Petit Soldat (1960) [while] at the same time, it resembles Band of Outsiders (1964) in being a thriller about people who are acting as if they’re living in a movie.” Also useful is Hoberman’s explanation that:

“Part of Godard’s inspiration was Howard Hawks’ The Big Sleep (1946), whose mystery plot is infamously complicated and ultimately unsolvable, and in typical Godardian fashion he reworks it to the nth degree, not just gender-recasting the Bogart role with Karina (who in voice-over says she feels like Bogart in a Disney film), but taking the idea of an inscrutable plot and stringing it out to its logical ends.”

Perhaps most notable are the film’s endless references to filmmakers, writers, actors, and political figures of the time — starting with an homage to Nicholas Ray and Sam Fuller in an opening slide:

… and including characters with names like Richard Widmark, [Doris] Mizoguchi, and Donald Siegel, as well as mentioning the disappearance of Moroccan revolutionary Medhi Ben Barka. (All of this is explained in a 20-minute visual-essay supplement and a short documentary entitled “On the Cusp,” both included on the DVD.)

While this was all likely fascinating once upon a time to Godard enthusiasts, the irony is that a film made in reference to American pop culture was only shown here once (at a NY film festival in 1967) before it finally (re-)premiered in 2009, after Westlake’s passing. Godard enthusiasts will obviously want to check this one out, but it’s skippable by all others.

Note: Watch for a cameo by Marianne Faithfull singing The Rolling Stones’ “As Tears Go By” a capella in a cafe.

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:

• Colorful sets, costumes, and cinematography
  
  

Must See?
No. Listed as a film with Historical Importance in the back of Peary’s book.

Links:

• IMDb entry
• Criterion Collection Essay
• Q Network Review
• TCM Article

Synopsis:
A self-absorbed young woman (Macha Méril) drifts between an affair with an actor (Bernard Noël), and married life with her pilot-husband (Philippe Leroy) and his son (Christophe Bourseiller).

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• French Films
• Infidelity
• Jean-Luc Godard Films
• Marital Problems

Review:
Despite there being very little substance to this stylized look at a shallow marriage threatened by infidelity, this film (Godard’s eighth feature) premiered to great acclaim and ended up as one of his most financially successful pictures. Méril — perhaps best recognized as the blonde psychic who is brutally murdered on stage near the beginning of Dario Argento’s Deep Red (1975) — plays Charlotte, a beautiful but vapid woman who is overly concerned with her appearance and sexual appeal, as echoed in the media-saturated landscape she moves within.

She bounces back and forth between lovemaking sessions with her lover, Robert (Noël) — who is eager to have a child with her — and her husband, Pierre (Leroy), who’s had her followed by a private investigator; many of these scenes are comprised of various body parts, emphasizing the physicality and truncated nature of Charlotte’s daily existence.

Indeed, Charlotte’s life is so empty that she spends her time discussing tidying up the cupboards, measuring her bust, and wandering through department stores; occasionally we hear her inner musings, which consists of statements like, “The most important thing for me is to understand what’s happening to me.”

Yes, that’s pretty much what you get with this tiresome flick, which is visually pleasing (Raoul Coutard’s cinematography is top-notch as always) but otherwise a bore.

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:

• Raoul Coutard’s cinematography
  

Must See?
No; you can skip this one unless you’re a Godard completist. Listed as a film with Historical Importance in the back of Peary’s book.

Links:

• IMDb entry
• TCM Article