Man on Wire

James Marsh, 2008 (7.8*)
Best Documentary (AA)
[Note: hard to be a spoiler here, it's on the dvd cover and the film description]

This was an amazing event in 1974, and James Marsh has done an admirable job in assembling the story from the present day to re-create a documentary looking backwards. He's used the technique of interspersing interviews with the participants with documentary footage, similar to the style Warren Beatty perfected in Reds, and taken to its extreme by Ken Burns, best used in his Civil War, Jazz, and Baseball series for PBS.

Philippe Petit is a French tightrope walker who liked to dazzle crowds and thumb his nose at authority by doing things like walking between the two towers of Notre Dame. He has to prepare these events at night when no one can see, then perform in the daylight to the delight of people below, then go to his expected arrest and public scolding. When he saw the plans of the World Trade Center, he became obsessed with walking between them when they were near completion.

Marsh carefully re-constructs the story leading up to the final event and tries to add as much drama as possible, but such an event is hardly earth-shattering in light of the events of 9/11, which oddly are never mentioned here. This is more in the realm of Cirque de Soleil, which is dazzling and athletic entertainment, this performance carrying a bit more risk of death than usual but as Philippe begins the film being interviewed from the present day, we already know the outcome from the beginning. However, this is a well-crafted film by Marsh and won the Oscar® for best documentary of 2008.

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Kinamand

a.k.a. Chinaman
Henrik Rueben Genz, Denmark, 2005 (8.6*)
This is a small Chinese-Danish film, yet manages to tell quite a poignant tale about loneliness and affection. An everyman-type plumber named Keld, played by Bjarne Henriksen, finds that his wife of 25 years (Charlotte Fich) has decided that their marriage 'is a funeral', and moves out. Keld remains optimistic, hoping its just a separation, and he finds some solace in a daily routine of eating at the neighborhood Chinese grill.

There, he is befriended the gregarious and affable owner, who has a plumbing problem that Keld can fix. He then offers Keld a small sum to wed his sister, the ravishing Vivian Wu, who is visiting from China and will have to return otherwise, where 'single women have it tough'. This is an unpretentious story about friendships in a lonely urban setting, as well as a cross-cultural statement about the universality of human emotion. Those who liked Peter Weir's Green Card and Thomas McCarthy's The Visitor should also enjoy this touching film.

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Shallow Grave

Danny Boyle, 1994 (7.6*)
After best picture Slumdog Millionaire, I decided to check out the few Danny Boyle films I hadn't seen, really only Shallow Grave, an early one. I expected some sort of crude cheap-looking B movie, like Bogdanovich's early Targets, which was cheesy and cheap in spite of a retiring Boris Karloff (playing "Orkov"). Instead what Grave showed me was a clever tongue-in-cheek parody of the best of Hitchcock's homicidal thrillers.

The film begins with three snobbish flatmates interviewing potential roommates for the fourth, and empty, bedroom. Ewan McGregor is perhaps the most obnoxious, Christopher Eccleston the more bookish and reserved (yet arrogant all the same), while Kerry Fox is slyly seductive while playing along with both guys. Due to her persuasion, they take in a mysterious writer, and find that he has a heavy suitcase full of quite a surprise.

Without any spoilers, let's just say at that point the games begin, and being a Boyle film, this includes homicides, bodies, police, and general mayhem disguised as urban normality, as the probable state of decay of modern life. I loved the comedic undertones to what is really a suspense film, Boyle's attitude here keeps the movie enjoyable on either level. Nothing deep here, but good entertainment, not to be missed by Boyle fans.

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Milk

Gus Van Sant, 2008 (8.9*)
Terrific and inspiring film from Gus Van Sant (Drugstore Cowboy) about politician Harvey Milk, brilliantly played here by Sean Penn, who really captures his mannerisms. I was in SF when all this happened, and I was appalled by U.S. voters. The U.S. Constitution protects the state from religious domination - religions have freedom but cannot interfere in government, and vice versa; just the way you want it. Democracy does not give a majority the right to suppress the rights of minorities; we set up our system to protect all individuals in spite of their beliefs. The Webster definition of bigotry begins "opposing someone primarily on the basis of religion". Anita Bryant is featured in Milk in documentary footage, and seems to preach the religion of bigotry and hatred (and sounds eerily like the Nazis). Milk realized all this and fought for gay rights as an American Constitutionalist, so he was either going to win or American was going to lose its foundation.

First an aimless corporate worker in New York when gay men were forced into the closet, he moves to San Francisco, looking for a more open attitude. There he becomes a storeowner and facing daily bigotry even there, decides to try to change at least the city government, so that at least one city would be safe for homosexuals. We see him start his political trail by gaining the support of other minority groups, and eventually becomes the first openly gay politician to get elected, to a city council seat.

This is based on the Oscar winning documentary The Times of Harvey Milk, but Van Sant makes it into a mythic fable of freedom and American democratic folklore, as it should be. Much of this is due to the cast: Sean Penn won an Oscar® for best actor. Oscar®-nominee Josh Brolin as Dan White, was terrifying as the voice of middle-class morality, who resort to guns and violence when they fail to get their way. Milk has the ring of a Capra film, with normal citizens taking steps to make government listen to their rights. Best of all: it’s a true story. Everyone who believes in freedom or just great films should see this one!

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Mrs. Miniver

William Wyler, 1942, bw (8.2*)
Best Picture (AA)
This was the first William Wyler film to win best picture after a slew of nominations. He would eventually be nominated for director 13 times, with 12 best picture nominations, by far the most for one director. Mrs. Miniver is a beautiful woman, played by Greer Garson, in a beautiful film about a small coastal town in England at the onset of World War II. Garson won best actress for this, the middle of five straight nominations. She was only 33 but played the mother of a now adult son, and became the top box-office draw because of this role.

We see the pastoral village setting in the beginning as the town is getting ready for an annual garden festival with awards eagerly sought by the locals for the best rose, the best crysanthemum, and down the line. When the war starts, we see how the entire town responds. Mr. Miniver is played by Oscar®-nominee (actor) Walter Pidgeon in perhaps his finest performance, and he reeks gentility and proper British mettle in doing the right thing for king and country, so he becomes a member of the civilian guard, eventually taking his boat to Dunkirk. His son, now 18, joins the army and pilot school, as England is under attack from the air almost daily. His young bride, Teresa Wright, won a best supporting Oscar®. We get to see the early part of the war from the point of view of civilians, and the effect on them, we don’t spend time with soldiers at the battle front. That seems to be Wyler’s point as a filmmaker: war affects innocent civilians as well as brave soldiers – all are changed, no one can simply hope for it all to pass.

Wyler's The Best Years of Our Lives, the Best Picture of 1946, did this brilliantly and cynically, and remains my favorite anti-war film. Mrs. Miniver was filmed as the war began, and showed a pro-war propagandistic tone, as a scene with a downed German pilot made it clear that they were bent on destruction and had to be met with the same kind of determined force in return. Seven Oscars®, including actress, director, screenplay, and picture.

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Paths of Glory

Stanley Kubrick, 1957, bw (8.8*)
This early film from master director Stanley Kubrick is one of the few classics of the anti-war war film genre. The story is about World War I, when the armies were locked in trench warfare. This was really a stalemate, as neither line could advance in the face of heavy machine gun emplacements and the defensive positions of the other side. This didn’t prevent the commanders from trying, wanting to show some progress or at least an effort.

Kirk Douglas, in one of his career-defining roles as a French captain, is to lead a charge up and out of the trenches, into no man’s land. He does so but his batallion is driven back by heavy fire and massive losses, eventually retreating back to their trench. This is seen as cowardice by the higher command, so they decide to pick three men at random from the unit and try them for cowardice. Adophe Menjou is superb as one of the superiors battling with Douglas. This is a gut-wrenching examination of the motivations and reactions of career officers in the face of the reality of war. The battle sequence is brilliantly shot, putting the viewer into the action and moving along with the soldiers. This film put Kubrick on the radar as a serious director of important and artistic works that make a statement about mankind.

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A Little Princess

Alfonso Cuarón, 1995 (9*)
Sometimes you get one of those little unexpected gems of a movie, and you ask where the heck did that come from? This wonderful and magical children’s film came from a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett and has the look and feel of a 50’s Disney film that adapted a Victorian novel. The story is a about a little girl named Sara, whose dad tells her all little girls are princesses. They move from India to New York, so she can attend the same private school for girls her late mom once attended, as her father goes off to World War I for England. Eleanor Bron is perfect as the strict headmistress of the school, Miss Mitlin, not allowing the girls to speak a word during meals or really enjoy any portion of childhood. Much of this movie works because the kids are all excellent actors, especially newcomer Liesel Matthews as Sara.

The story evolves into one of class barriers, when Sara befriends an African-American servant and they later become best friends. She also becomes friends with the chubby girl with glasses that's shunned by everyone including the teachers. Sara dazzles the girls with fairy tales of her own invention and is able to transport herself and those around her into a more magical place, in spite of Miss Mitlin ire. The special effects of the fairy tale of an Indian princess and Rama coming to her rescue have a beautiful storybook feel, as they should, coming from the mind of a young girl, and in one brilliant sequence Rama’s arrows emit a yellow gas as we are shown Sara’s father in the trenches fighting poisonous gas himself.

There are a couple of plot twists that I won’t reveal, only to say that the story seems to evolve perfectly into the final conclusion, and you find yourself wishing there was a sequel. This is one of the best serious children’s stories, made better by excellent music from Patrick Doyle, which always seemed to be perfect but without distracing. Director Alfonso Cuarón showed a nice sensitivity to the literary touch here, and later made some big films: Y Tu Mama Tambien, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and Children of Men; all of these are worth seeing, yet they're all so different as well.

They need to make more intelligent family films like this, it’s becoming a rarity in the age of instant musical divas, characters ready for simultaneous video game and toy spinoffs, when the major media companies don’t seem to be interested in just good films, they want a blockbuster enterprise. Oscar® nominations for cinematography and art direction.

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They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?

Sydney Pollack, 1969 (7.8*)
This is a gut-wrenching indictment of the exploitation of everyday people during the Depression, in the name of entertainment. Does this sound familiar? Using the lure of a contest prize of $1,000 or more, venues were able to get average folks to dance non-stop (except for short restroom breaks) for days, with the last couple standing getting the prize, the rest go home empty. In this movie, emcee Gig Young, in an Oscar®-winning supporting role, shows the limits the emcees went to in order to attract fans and make the contest more interesting.

Jane Fonda burst through with her first important dramatic role here, gaining an Oscar®-nomination as the jaded dance partner to Michael Sarrazin, who is new to marathons and Fonda’s despair. Red Buttons and Bonnie Bedelia (Oscar®-nominated) are another persevering dance couple, Buttons playing a marathon vet who gives his fatherly advice to keep others going. This is a bleak but honest look at hopeless people living in desperation, grasping for the last brass ring before leaving the circus.

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The Earrings of Madame De

Max Ophüls, France, 1953, bw (8.4*)
This is a gorgeously crafted and beautifully filmed truffle about what else: a romantic triangle among the French aristocracy. The Madame De (we aren’t given her last name to protect the guilty) begins the film rummaging through some jewelry, and finds some earrings to sell. We don’t know why, but we see the innovative direction from Max Ophuls right away as the camera follows her eye, the wonderful actress Danielle Darrieux. She is perfect for this part, always appearing elegant but letting her body language do her acting. I would compare her to Garbo, but the Swedish goddess didn’t have the acting skills of Darrieux. (Don't be misled by the dvd cover, Darrieux is much more beautiful than the cheesy artwork)
After she sells the earrings, a wedding gift from her husband, the Count who’s also The General, wonderfully played by Charles Boyer in perhaps his finest performance, she set a chain of events in motion that seem to force her life to spiral into a web of deceit to everyone in her sphere. She meets an Italian diplomat, played by an appealing Vittorio de Sica, taking a break from directing classics like The Bicycle Thief (1949), and they start a whirlwind flirtation, seemingly blessed by her jovial husband. Here the camera of Ophuls really shines, as we track them dancing through three rooms of opulent French artifacts. The story becomes typically entangled, as only the French seem to encourage, yet the stars of this film are really the Oscar®-winning costumes, the incredible art direction, and the innovative direction of Ophuls, which has the camera in constant motion so the pace never lets up.

Ophuls' masterpiece, as well as the best of a certain type of costume romance that reeks of a lifestyle of aristocratic opulence with little substance or heart. These people seem to possess each other like jewelry, which can be given away, sold, or even re-bought. Madame’s earrings become the perfect metaphor for her affairs of the heart. Before this film, cameras just didn't move this way; film buffs and artists will be entranced by just the camera movement alone.

Also see our review of his triptych of De Maupassent stories, Le Plaisir

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Dead Ringers

David Cronenberg, 1988 (6.8*)
This is an acting tour-de-force by Jeremy Irons, who plays twin gynecologists, one of whom has a decidely warped sense of reality. The brothers don’t let people know they are twins, which allows them to switch off with a new lover, played by Genevieve Bujold. It also lets them play around in a world of their own fantasy creation for the most part. Somewhere down road to bliss one brother takes a definitely wrong turn, and ends up somewhere between Salvador Dali and Marquis de Sade. Irons makes both brothers just slightly different, and turns in not only a career best performance but one of the best of all-time.

Puzzlingly, Irons wasn’t even nominated for an Oscar®; a group of actresses led a write-in campaign in protest but the Academy refused to accept the ballots. When he won the Oscar® for his next, and definitely inferior performance in Reversal of Fortune, he said “I have David Cronenberg to thank for this, and some of you out there know what I mean.” Like most Cronenberg films, this one is very disturbing and has some gore, which detracts from an otherwise interesting psychological study, but still worth seeing for the Irons performance alone.

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