Floating Clouds (1955)

Floating Clouds (1955)

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“You said that you would do anything for me; now you only want to get rid of me!”

Synopsis:
A woman (Hideko Takamine) seeks out the man (Masayuki Mori) she had an affair with in French Indochina during the war, only to find him still married to his sickly wife (Chieko Nakakita) and flirting with a much younger married woman (Mariko Okada). Will Takamine, who eventually turns to prostitution to survive, be able to forget about Mori and leave him behind — or are they destined to somehow live a life together?

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

  • Feminism and Women’s Issues
  • Japanese Films
  • Star-Crossed Lovers

Response to Peary’s Review:
Peary writes that this “most famous film in the 37-year career of Mikio Naruse” features the star of 17 of his movies — “beautiful Hideko Takamine,” who “gives a sympathetic performance as a young woman” who “will suffer great indignities” because of her enduring love for a married man.

He argues that “Naruse wanted the misery of Takamine and the women who are exploited by insensitive men to reflect the depressed, defeated country,” and asserts that Naruse “believed that the widespread ill-treatment of women was the reason postwar Japan was such a miserable place.” He points out that the “direction by Naruse is typically unobtrusive,” with the camera rarely moving “away from the actors” — but he notes that rather than “being static,” this “unusual film” has “a distinct romantic flow,” and we “feel deeply about what happens to these interesting people.”

I agree with Peary’s points. These flawed characters — who often don’t make “smart” decisions, instead basing their responses on passion or familiarity — feel very real. To that end, however, viewers should be forewarned that the storyline is almost relentlessly bleak; there are no easy solutions or outcomes for these protagonists.

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:

  • Hideko Takamine as Yukiko
  • Masayuki Mori as Kengo
  • Fine cinematography and sets

Must See?
Yes, to see Naruse’s most celebrated film — but be sure to check out When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960) as well.

Categories

  • Important Director

Links:

Red and the Black, The (1954)

Red and the Black, The (1954)

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“Never has sin been committed with less joy.”

Synopsis:
After seducing the mother (Danielle Darrieux) of the children he’s tutoring, an upwardly mobile aspiring priest named Julien Sorel (Gérard Philipe) takes a new position in the household of a lawyer (Jean Mercure) whose virginal daughter (Antonella Lualdi) falls for and seduces him — but how will Darrieux react when she learns her former lover has not gone into the priesthood after all?

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

  • Courtroom Drama
  • Cross-Class Romance
  • Danielle Darrieux Films
  • Flashback Films
  • French Films
  • Historical Drama
  • Infidelity
  • Social Climbers

Review:
French director Claude Autant-Lara helmed this adaptation — named Best Film of the Year by the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics — of Stendhal’s 1830 two-volume novel. The book is known as the first “psychological novel”, given Stendhal’s use of interior monologues for the main character — a rhetorical structure retained here to surprisingly good effect (i.e., they help us to better understand the thoughts and motivations of this complex character, but aren’t overused).

Sorel is an intriguing protagonist — someone we don’t especially like, but are curious to learn more about as we see the various moves he makes, especially knowing he’ll end up in court defending himself (the film is structured as a lengthy flashback occurring during his trial for shooting a woman). We wonder why he wants to be a priest, for instance — but a key scene when he observes a bishop genuflecting in front of the mirror helps us understand that he’s eager to climb the heights of this profession and be adored in precisely this way:

Meanwhile, his predatory seduction of Darrieux’s Mme. de Rénal feels loathesome, yet he does seem to eventually love her in his own way:

As the story progresses, we continue to learn more about Sorel’s ambitions and how calculated he is about every single decision in his life. While he’s temporarily foiled time and again, he eventually “succeeds” in landing a higher spot in society — only to have it all unravel due to jealousy and passion. C’est la vie.

Note: This film has existed in a variety of lengths over the years, ranging from 113 minutes to 194 minutes; the latter is the version I saw, and it never seemed to drag (though I did watch it over several different sittings).

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:

  • Fine sets, costumes, and cinematography

Must See?
No, though it’s worth a look if it sounds of interest.

Links:

Hell and High Water (1954)

Hell and High Water (1954)

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“Each man has his own reason for living — and his own price for dying.”

Synopsis:
When the Chinese are suspected of building a secret atomic base on a Pacific island, a former Navy captain (Richard Widmark) is hired to man a submarine taking a famous French scientist (Victor Francen) and his beautiful young protege (Bella Darvi) to investigate the situation.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

  • At Sea
  • Cameron Mitchell Films
  • Cold War
  • Richard Widmark Films
  • Sam Fuller Films
  • Scientists
  • Submarines

Review:
Writer-director Sam Fuller’s seventh feature-length film was this Cold War-era submarine flick described by DVD Savant as “the damndest, most adolescent expression of confused anti-war, pro-war, peacenik, gung-ho insanity to come from a major studio.” Having recently rewatched Fuller’s excellent The Steel Helmet (1950) and Fixed Bayonets! (1951), I’ll admit I was disappointed to see what a mess of cliches is on display here; it seems Fuller was much better off leaving women out of his wartime flicks, given that Darvi is simply relegated to a standard 1950s role as a woman so sexy she can’t possibly be a smart, multi-lingual scientist — can she?

Naturally, she’s instantly coveted by boorish Cameron Mitchell:

… but (spoiler) she only has eyes for Widmark (because of course, she has to be interested in someone on board, right?). The action scenes are beautifully filmed but otherwise standard submarine-drama, anti-Commie fare. I find it challenging to know what else to say about this film, which Fuller completists will be curious to check out but others can simply skip.

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:

  • Joseph MacDonald’s CinemaScope cinematography

Must See?
Nope; you can skip this one unless you’re a Sam Fuller completist.

Links:

Late Chrysanthemums (1954)

Late Chrysanthemums (1954)

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“All men are vampires, feeding on women.”

Synopsis:
Four former geishas navigate life in middle age: moneylender Kin (Haruko Sugimura) tries to get her friends to pay back their loans, while also hoping that her married former client (Ken Uehara) might rekindle their affair; Tamae (Chikako Hosokawa) mourns the fact that her grown son (Hiroshi Koizumi) will be leaving soon for Hokkaido; gambling-addicted Tomi (Yuko Mochizuki) is frustrated to hear that her daughter Sachiko (Ineko Arima) has chosen to get married to an older man; and Nobu (Sadako Sawamura) runs a restaurant with her husband.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

  • Feminism and Women’s Issues
  • Has-Beens
  • Japanese Films
  • Survival

Review:
Peary lists only two films by prolific Japanese director Mikio Naruse in his GFTFF: this title and Floating Clouds (1955) (though I consider his When a Woman Ascends the Stairs [1960] to be a Missing Title, and have reviewed it here). Late Chrysanthemums offers a simple yet stark look at the realities of survival for women who have spent their lives relying on the “generosity” of men, and are too old to ply their trade any longer.

Not a lot happens in this film other than watching the women interact with one another:

… with their grown children:

… and with former clients — one of whom (Bontarô Miake) tried unsuccessfully to kill Sugimura and commit suicide, yet has the temerity to come asking her for a loan upon his release from prison!

Late Chrysanthemums — presumably so-named because the chrysanthemum “represents longevity, rejuvenation and nobility in Japan” — would make a good (albeit depressing) triple bill with Mizoguchi’s A Geisha (1953) and Street of Shame (1956), also about the challenges of survival for women in patriarchal post-WWII Japan.

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:

  • Fine performances by the leads

Must See?
No, though it’s certainly worth a look. Listed as a film with Historical Importance in the back of Peary’s book.

Links:

Wages of Fear, The / Salaire de la Peur, La (1953)

Wages of Fear, The / Salaire de la Peur, La (1953)

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“Who’d have thought there’d be so many candidates for suicide?”

Synopsis:
When the foreman (Williams Tubbs) of an American oil company in a poverty-ridden South American town puts out a call for drivers to make a dangerous but lucrative trip across the mountains with nitroglycerine, four men — Corsican Mario (Yves Montand), Parisian ex-gangster Jo (Charles Vanel), German Bimba (Peter van Eyck), and fatally ill Luigi (Folco Lulli) — volunteer.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

  • French Films
  • Henri-Georges Clouzot Films
  • Survival
  • Truckers
  • Yves Montand Films

Response to Peary s Review:
As Peary writes, this “unbearably suspenseful existential classic by writer-director Henri-Georges Clouzot, who adapted Georges Arnaud‘s novel” is about a “heart-stopping” trip in which the four protagonists “may be dead” at any moment. It features no less than “three unforgettable scenes” that “rate with the most thrilling sequences in cinema history”: “the trucks back onto rotting planks over a mountain ledge”:

… “Van Eyck uses nitro to blow up a boulder that blocks the road”:

… and “Montand drives his truck through a lake of spilled oil while Vanel swims in the black liquid, trying to get out of the way.”:

Peary notes that “Clouzot’s film is, in part, about how men are considered expendable,” with Clouzot openly attacking “corporations (the U.S. oil firm) which continually exploit individuals and let them risk their lives — especially non-union workers in Third World countries — so that the company profits.”

He adds that Clouzot is “equally disappointed in men (such as our ‘heroes’) who are careless with their own lives” — but I take the opposite view; these men are far from “careless,” but instead simply feel they have no other options left. (The film was originally released in a truncated version which left out portions of the first establishing hour; this could help explain Peary’s stance.)

Regardless, there is very little about this relentlessly bleak film that’s easy to take — from opening lines spouting blatantly racist and colorist notions, to the miserable treatment of “Vera Clouzot as the knocked-about barmaid who loves Montand”:

… to every single moment of the drivers’ harrowing journey.

Indeed, this is such a deeply uncomfortable and stressful film that I put off re-watching it for decades, and will admit it’s not one I plan to return to. However, it is most definitely must-see viewing at least once.

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:

  • Yves Montand as Mario
  • Charles Vanel as Jo
  • Armand Thirard’s cinematography

Must See?
Yes, as a knuckle-biting classic.

Categories

  • Foreign Gem
  • Genuine Classic

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

Links:

Ikiru (1952)

Ikiru (1952)

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“What have I been living for all these years?”

Synopsis:
When a widowed bureaucrat (Takashi Shimura) learns he has stomach cancer and will die within six months, he begins to reassess his life — including his relationship with his son (Nobuo Kaneko) and daughter-in-law (Kyôko Seki). He heads out on the town, where he encounters a drink-loving writer (Yûnosuke Itô) and hangs out repeatedly with a young colleague (Miki Odagiri) who has just quit. Will Shimura be able to find purpose and meaning in his final months?

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

  • Akira Kurosawa Films
  • Character Arc
  • Death and Dying
  • Do-Gooders
  • Flashback Films
  • Japanese Films
  • Widows and Widowers

Response to Peary’s Review:
As Peary writes, this “precious film” — loosely inspired by Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886) — may be Akira Kurosawa’s masterwork.” He notes that the storyline begins by showing us a “pathetic, self-pitying, insignificant person” (Shimura) who is “ignored by his grown son” at home and “part of the do-nothing Japanese bureaucracy, a minor government worker who has spent 25 years rubber-stamping the papers that pile on his desk.”

When Shimura “is told he is dying of cancer,” he wants to live (this is what the film’s title translates into), and thus “withdraws his money and goes out on the town for a night of pleasure” — but “when drinking and carousing don’t please him, he “decides to find happiness through another person” (Odagiri), only to find that “still he is unsatisfied.”

The film pivots in its second half to “five months in the future [at] Shimura’s wake, where family and fellow employees praise (but not too much) what he accomplished before he died.” We are shown through a series of flashbacks how Shimura goes “on a one-man crusade to build a park for children where a dangerous cesspool stands” and “becomes indomitable as he goes through bureaucratic red tape, taking insults right and left, ignoring negative responses, circumventing runarounds.”

Peary notes that this picture — a “beautiful film in every way” — is a “strong indictment of Japanese bureaucracy, a wonderful character story, [and] a heartfelt meditation on the meaning of living and doing one’s part.” He adds that “Shimura’s performance is exquisite,” with “many great moments,” but perhaps the “most memorable has Shimura… sitting on a swing and, while snow falls gently on him, singing softly about the shortness of life.”

In addition to focusing on one of life’s enduring challenges — finding meaning in one’s existence — we see incontrovertible evidence of the need to value human well-being over bureaucracy. Indeed, in this case, without deliberate disruption of dysfunctional norms, children will be harmed and society overall will be much worse off. This lesson remains as important as ever these days, making Ikiru truly a timeless classic.

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:

  • Takashi Shimura as Watanabe
  • Asakazu Nakai’s cinematography

Must See?
Yes, as a foreign gem.

Categories

  • Foreign Gem
  • Genuine Classic
  • Important Director
  • Noteworthy Performance(s)

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

Links:

White Sheik, The (1952)

White Sheik, The (1952)

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“I’m always dreaming.”

Synopsis:
A starstruck newlywed (Brunella Bovo) obsessed with fotoromanzi leaves her bewildered husband (Leopoldo Trieste) at their hotel in Rome to go meet her crush — a fictional character known as The White Sheik (Albert Soldi) — and soon finds herself much more deeply involved in his creative world than she anticipated.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

  • Federico Fellini Films
  • Italian Films
  • Living Nightmare
  • Newlyweds
  • Obsessive Fans

Review:
Federico Fellini’s second directorial feature after Variety Lights (1950) — and his first solo film at the helm — was this bittersweet homage to both the seduction of make-believe, and the inevitable tensions that emerge when a couple is making a new life together. From the moment we first see wide-eyed young Bovo, we can tell that she is either terrified:

… and/or living in some kind of escapist fantasy reality, as evidenced by her decision to deceive her husband and set out for the recording studios where her beloved fictional universe is created.

To that end, we’re never quite sure exactly how “sane” Bovo is (and in a Fellini film, perhaps that’s irrelevant). Meanwhile, Trieste becomes more and more panicked as time progresses and he realizes his best laid plans for a methodical honeymoon in Rome — including introducing his new wife to his “respectable” family, and visiting the Pope — will not go anything like he planned.

Along the way, both protagonists are subjected to numerous humorous travails, with highlights including Bovo and Soldi’s trip on a “pirate ship”:

… Soldi and Bovo’s on-set interactions with Soldi’s furious wife (Gina Mascetti):

… and Trieste’s late-night encounter with two prostitutes (including Giuliana Masina as “Cabiria”):

Thankfully, the ending leaves us with some hope for these young newlyweds despite everything they’ve been through.

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:

  • Fine performances by the leads

  • The fotoromanzi shooting sequence
  • Otello Martelli’s cinematography
  • Nino Rota’s score

Must See?
Yes, for its historical significance as Fellini’s first solo film. Listed as a film with Historical Importance in the back of Peary’s book.

Categories

  • Historically Relevant
  • Important Director

Links:

Variety Lights (1950)

Variety Lights (1950)

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“I’m an artist. So are you!”

Synopsis:
When the director (Peppino De Filippo) of a vagabond vaudeville troupe falls for an ambitious and beautiful dancer (Carla Del Poggio) who insists on joining their show, he breaks the heart of his loyal girlfriend (Giulietta Masina), and the couple part ways — but will De Filippo and Del Poggio succeed in their dreams of fame and fortune?

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

  • Actors and Actresses
  • Aspiring Stars
  • Federico Fellini Films
  • Italian Films
  • Love Triangle

Review:
Federico Fellini’s debut film as a director (albeit one co-produced and co-directed with Alberto Lattuada) was this light-hearted look at the vagaries of small-time show business. Much like All About Eve (1950) from the same year, this tale focuses on a beautiful young woman (Del Poggio) eager to do whatever it takes to secure her spot on stage, even if this means hurting the kind older woman (Masina) who is at first friendly and charitable to her. Masina (Fellini’s real-life wife) steals the show as “Melina Amour,” a self-confident performer who can’t fathom that De Filippo would betray her — and then must deal with the unfathomable.

However, Del Poggio (who reminds me of Rita Hayworth) holds her own as a young woman who is more single-mindedly ambitious than evil or unfeeling:

… and De Filippo strikes the right tone as a man both deeply committed to his career, and naively eager to “protect” Del Poggio’s virtue.

Variety Lights shows nascent evidence of Fellini’s trademark wit and surreality, most notably when the troupe is invited to a mansion to fix dinner and dance:

However, the bulk of the story focuses on foiled ambitions, broken hearts, and the ongoing challenges of making it in show business — and to that end, Del Poggio’s ultimate decision (and where it lands her) is a telling reveal.

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:

  • Giulietta Masina as Melina Amour

Must See?
No, but it’s worth a look for its historical importance as Fellini’s first film. Listed as a film with Historical Importance in the back of Peary’s book.

Links:

We Are All Murderers (1952)

We Are All Murderers (1952)

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“While offenders are murderers, they are also human.”

Synopsis:
A French resistance fighter (Marcel Mouloudji) remains indiscriminately violent after WWII has ended, leading to his arrest and placement on Death Row. Will his idealistic young lawyer (Claude Laydu) be able to convince the French justice system to give him another chance?

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

  • French Films
  • Prisoners
  • Resistance Fighters
  • World War II

Review:
There doesn’t seem to be much written about this unique French docudrama — winner of the Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival — on the internet, though a Mini Biography at the IMDb helps us to better understand its co-writer and director:

André Cayatte was a lawyer turned novelist and journalist, then screenwriter in 1938, after which he became a film director in 1942. He was known in France from the 1940s to the 1970s for uncompromising films examining the complex ethical and political dimensions of crime and justice in the French judicial system. He saw film as a stimulus for reform, advocating social concerns, and in this way was much a seminal forerunner to Costa-Gavras.

Indeed, We Are All Murderers is most definitely a “message film” — and the message is complex enough to warrant the creative treatment it’s given here. As the film opens, we see a harsh life of poverty being endured by Mouloudji and his brother (Georges Poujouly), and understand this is meant to show how Mouloudji has eventually developed such sociopathic indifference towards fellow humans:

While Mouloudji seems too far gone to help, we wonder and worry about his younger brother, who disappears from the action for quite a while, but shows up again (crucially) later on:

Will Poujouly meet the same fate as Mouloudji — or will society intervene to prevent the cycle of poverty, illiteracy, and violence from occurring once again? Meanwhile, the bulk of the storyline is taken up with showing us life inside Death Row, which is punctuated by boredom, temporary camaraderie, and the constant anxiety of not knowing when your time will be up.

To that end, we briefly “meet” a few other prisoners throughout the span of the film, learning a little bit about what led each of them to this final point. A Corsican (Raymond Pellegrin), for instance, says, “I killed a person who transgressed. It was for honor.”:

… while another man (Julien Verdier) is duly haunted from having killed his own baby.

Another significant theme is how Mouloudji’s upper-class lawyer (Claude Laydu) has such incredible support on the home front, and was clearly “destined” for good things in life (in the same way Mouloudji never had a chance):

Finally, we see plenty of compassion on the part of priests and prison guards, who (mostly) seem to carry out their jobs with resolve and dignity:

While We Are All Murderers is at times a bit didactic, this can easily be forgiven in light of its unique approach and subject matter; it remains well worth a look.

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:

  • A provocative storyline with no easy answers

Must See?
Yes, as a unique foreign film. Listed as a film with Historical Importance in the back of Peary’s book.

Categories

  • Historically Relevant

Links:

Casque D’Or (1952)

Casque D’Or (1952)

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“I always think about you.”

Synopsis:
In turn-of-the-century France, when the moll (Simone Signoret) of a gangster (Claude Dauphin) leaves her current boyfriend Roland (William Sabatier) for an ex-con named Manda (Serge Reggiani), Roland and Manda duel for her hand — but even once this is settled with finality, Dauphin has further plans up his sleeve.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

  • Ex-Cons
  • French Films
  • Gangsters
  • Historical Drama
  • Love Triangle
  • Simone Signoret Films
  • Star-Crossed Lovers

Review:
French director Jacques Becker is best known for three of the thirteen feature-length films he made between 1942 and 1960: Le Trou (1960), Touchez Pas Au Grisbi (1954), and this film, Casque D’Or — the only one of these titles listed in Peary’s GFTFF. While it wasn’t particularly well received in France upon its release, French New Wave directors embraced Casque D’Or, and Signoret won a BFA award for her performance. The movie tells a simple but atmospherically filmed tale of doomed lovers who fall for one another at first sight (with Signoret the most insistent and brazen), ultimately meeting a tragic end — but not without a sweet interlude of erotic bliss in the countryside thrown in:

The two scenes of explicit violence are handled efficiently and effectively:

… providing a good sense of what’s at stake for these lovers caught up in a world of gang-fueled dominance and retribution. Signoret gives a heartfelt performance:

… and Reggiani is appropriately stoic as a man hoping to simply live his life, but unwilling to back down from bullies.

Note: The film’s title translates into “helmet of gold,” and is meant to represent Signoret’s beautiful blonde “helmet” of hair.

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:

Must See?
Yes, once, simply for its relevance as Becker’s acknowledged masterpiece, and for Signoret’s performance. Listed as a film with Historical Importance in the back of Peary’s book.

Categories

  • Historically Relevant
  • Important Director

Links: