Black Narcissus

A mighty "good showing" by The Archers ( Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger) who created classics like "The Red Shoes", "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp", "I Know Where I'm Going!" etc. "Black Narcissus" was probably one of the most dark but beautifully shot films ever made, it comes as a surprise to me since I have only seen few Archer films but I didn't know that they can produce a well made thriller in the tradition of Hitchcock. 

The film starts in a convent where a group of nuns are sent high up in isolated region of Mopu in the Himalayas, they are lead by Sister Clodagh (Deborah Kerr) who's task is to educate and civilize the locals by building a hospital and school for the children. Clodagh is the "Sister Superior" assigned to lead the group, the nuns also consists of Phillippa (Flora Robson) the gardener, Briony (Judith Furse) who is knowledgable in medicine, the likeable Honey (Jenny Laird) and the mentally unstable Ruth (Kathleen Byron). 

The Old General (Esmond Knight) amusingly gives them a palace to stay in which was formerly used by the concubines of the old ruler, they immediately struggle to find peace and harmony in their new sensual surroundings. The caretaker Angu Ayah (May Hallatt) makes fun of the nuns and the cynical but seductive Mr. Dean (David Farrar) adds to the unrest and escalating tension in the nunnery. 

The Archers in this film are able to portray nuns as ordinary human beings rather than the uncorrupted saints that they are often shown which was quite unusual for it's time. The nuns are shown to make mistakes both minor and fatal like everyday people do, one of them even goes nuts with desire for Dean (the bare legs did it) even to going as far as to try to commit murder for the sake of lust and desire which is not often a normal person would do. 

"It's Sabu!"

The cinematography is breathtaking as the camera shows the majestic palace sitting atop the heavenly mountains of the Himalayas, Kerr in her starring role was good enough in playing the conflicted nun but she was overshadowed by Kathleen Byron who played the psychotic Ruth to the bone. Ruth is shown in the beginning as fragile and delicate but her sexual desires are awakened by the rugged bare legged Dean who seemed to enjoy torturing Clodagh instead because of his desire for her which sends Ruth into a jealous fit. 

Much worse is the arrival of The Young General (Sabu) who wears a perfume which earned him the nickname "Black Narcissus", he runs away in the middle of the film with Kanchi played by the young Jean Simmons in a none speaking role. Some critics may say that it is a highly erotic film but I never really felt it because I was too worried by the crazy nun and I really didn't find the nuns attractive enough even Deborah Kerr. 

But I must say the film is very entertaining even though the story seemed very dated, The Archers were able to make use of the characters repressed feelings and turn it against them and each other. The cinematography is also top notch as the scenery and atmosphere contributes with the tension that continues to mount in each scene. The Archers shot another masterpiece definitely worth seeing. A real bullseye! 

Rating: A

Kanał

"Kanal" is a Polish film directed by Andrzej Wajda, his second effort after his first war film "A Generation" is an astonishing portrayal of the hardships of Polish resistance fighters during the Nazi occupation of Poland during World War II.

Set in in the 56th day of the Warsaw uprising, 43 soldiers both men and women are forced to give up their positions in the district of Warsaw being overwhelmed by the Nazis.

 Rather than surrender their positions they were given orders to crawl under the city sewers (hence the title) and make their way downtown for safety.

Commander Zadra (Wienczysław Glinski) hopes to get back at the Nazis but he must first lead his men in crossing the dark sewers.

 Zadra was also hoping to bring the tenacious but beautiful Daisy (Teresa Izewska) to lead them out of the sewers but she instead chooses to stay behind and help her lover Korab (Tadeusz Janczar) who was also injured earlier in a shootout with the Nazis. Lieutenant Wise(Emil Karewicz) who was with the detachment was also hoping to catch up with Zadra and his men along with his lover Halinka and the musician Michal (Vladek Sheybal). 

This film is probably one of the best and often overlooked war films I have seen, it is truly agonizing to watch as they suffer slowly beneath the suffocating labyrinth of the sewers. I find it amazing how Wajda was able direct the actors and shoot with almost no light and the water waist deep, you can actually feel the agonizing heat and filth of the sewer just by looking at the actors facial expressions. Credit is also due to the screenwriter Jerzy Stefan Stawiński who also took part of the uprising and experienced first hand the horror of having to make your way into the dark sewer while the Nazis were up in the streets terrorizing the remaining population. 

 

The scene that stuck with the the most is watching the soldier Slim diffuse the grenades that the Nazis setup along the sewer exits, I couldn't help but cover my eyes as this agonizing scene plays out because we know that something bad was about to happen but we were still hoping that this bloody scene is not shown but the director deemed it necessary. Only a man with gusto could have filmed that scene and Wajda made a brilliant film so tragic and haunting I couldn't wait to show it to other people. It should be mentioned as one of the greatest war films ever made. 

Grade: A+

Vivre sa Vie (My Life to Live)

A film about about broken dreams and eventual tragedy, I had high expectations with "Vivre sa vie" being one of Godard's early films ( his 3rd feature to be exact) and I thought he could have done better with this film but it was not really what I had expected. It's a story of Nana (Anna Karina), a struggling young woman in Paris chasing her dreams to become an actress only to drift into prostitution. There are few filmmakers in the history of cinema that had the guts and smarts of Godard and you will have to have all of that to make a film like "Breathless" or a film like "Vivre sa vie". 

 

The story is told by chapters like a book and given each titles giving us a premonition of scenes that will happen or has happened on the film. In this story Nana is played by the gorgeous Anna Karina, she is lost not knowing what she will do with her life. She meets men on bars and public places looking for her next big break, Nana is really more of a lost child than a woman with her bob haircut and cynicism more of a facade hiding her own vulnerability from predators ready to take advantage of girls like her. She risks it all leaving her husband and child for fame and riches that she never have.

 

Godard is also able to show Paris as a materialistic city giving weight to women like Nana, to simply live in Paris is not enough that is why Nana hustles to make ends meet for herself until she is able to get her big break as an actress. Every time she meets strangers, a man or people she knows show business always comes to her and what she talks about which only heightens frustrates. In a movie theater she watches the silent film "La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc" whom the heroine she easily identifies with.

"Nana identifies with Joan of Arc"

Godard being a cinephile himself was able to cleverly associate Nana's character to Joan of Arc and he was able to get his point across to the audience. He was also able to use American pop culture to bring a certain lightness to the film, like in the scene where a customer was asking for a Judy Garland record or the dance sequence in the billiard hall. Godard was able to mask the grim situation Nana was in, yes she was dancing but her pimp Raoul (Saddy Rebbot) is also talking to another man possibly a client to sell Nana's services. I actually liked the first half of the film but not the abrupt ending, Godard already gave the audience a premonition of Nana's fate with the gangsters in the early scene when they shot a man down but I thought he could have gone deeper with the story. I'm sure the chapters he set was a real breakthrough back then but I thought some parts should have been shown like the 1000 franc she was  supposed to have "stepped on" before being questioned by the cops. 

Certain scenes should have been included to emphasize more of Nana's struggles and I thought Godard could have omitted other scenes like the philosophical discussion with the old man which confused the hell out of me, I felt Godard sacrificed the depth of the character for the sake of making the story more stylish and narrative. But then again it's just my opinion since other critics do find the film interesting and is considered a classic today. I guess if I would grade the film I would give it a C rating not just because of the abrupt ending but because of the scenes that Godard should and could have shown. Even though the film has it's flaws it doesn't take away Godard's edge in showing the grim life of a prostitute in Paris but I wish he could have done better.        

Grade: C

Chungking Express

If I was a film maker I would probably direct a film like "Chungking Express" just to satisfy myself as an "artist". Wong Kar-wai was able to direct a film full of eclectic surreal visuals unraveling in the hustle and bustle streets of Hong Kong. 

In the center of the film are 2 identical stories not really related to each other but they happen at the same time frame. 

The first story starts with Cop 223 (Takeshi Kaneshiro) fresh from a breakup from his old flame, he buys a can of Del Monte pineapples everyday with an expiration date of May 1 which is his birthday. Hoping to reunite with his ex girlfriend before the said date, the cans are a sort of symbol hoping for his love to continue before it expires. 

"Do you like pineapples?"

Cop 223's loneliness leads him to a bar where he meets a mysterious blonde woman wearing sunglasses and trench coat (Brigitte Lin). The blonde woman is a drug dealer searching for a group of Indians who disappeared after a botched operation, she tries desperately to search for them even as going far as kidnapping an Indian man's daughter.

She eventually gives up up for the time being and goes to the bar where Cop 223 was hanging out, the blonde woman is approached by Cop 223 who is looking for romance but she appears uninterested. He asks her personal questions ("Do you like pineapples?") but the blonde woman keeps giving bland answers, they eventually rent a room because of drunkenness as Cop 223 leaves the blonde woman in the morning. 

As Cop 223 starts his day  jogging he receives a message from the blonde woman greeting him a Happy Birthday, as we find out the blonde woman continues her criminal ways as she executes a drug kingpin. 

As the day ends Cop 223  visits the snack bar Midnight Express where we meet the waitress Faye (Faye Wong). 

The second story picks up this time with Cop 663 played by (Tony Leung) in a similar situation with the first cop, this time his story is mush more detailed. He is dealing with a breakup with a gorgeous flight attendant (Valerie Chow) until he meets Faye. She secretly falls for him and gets the chance to live his world (by entering his apartment) when the flight attendant leaves with her own key of the apartment they once shared. Faye in between breaks and errands breaks into Cop 663's apartment and redecorates his place without him knowing. 

He eventually finds out of her secret and realizes that Faye has feelings for him, he asks Faye out on a date but she instead flies to California ending the possibility of a relationship that they might have. She returns a year late now a flight attendant herself and finds out that Cop 663 has taken over the Midnight Express and is planning to turn it into a restaurant. He asks her to go the opening of the restaurant but she she declines because she cannot stay long. The film's ending is ambiguous as she gives him a boarding pass supposed to go wherever she goes. 

 I found the film pretty surreal like the characters are living in a dream sequence, Wong is able to show the Hong Kong epicenter as a mix of culture, race, frustrated lovers, loners, misfits and pretty much anything goes in this movie. What I liked about the characters was the fact that they were not taken too seriously, they are lovable loners and losers but at the same time independent and can pretty much handle the whole world by their own until loneliness sets in.

 

The cinematography is like a never ending dream (or nightmare) full of warped sequences and eclectic colors, Wong is able to fuse it through the plot without making it too distracting to the story. I actually didn't know that Hong Kong was that orangey and blue but that is besides the point since this helps in creating a dreamworld that each of the characters inhabit. We also hear Wong's good ear for pop culture as "California Dreamin'" is frequently played in the second story while a reggae song is being played in the first story. The problem I had with the film was that the stories were not given the time needed to give the characters more closure, I actually wanted the film to finish but I guess this is what made the film great in the first place since it left you wanting more. This film proved Wong Kar-wai is not an ordinary director, he focuses on characters that chooses to live at the moment without worrying about tomorrow and that takes guts and vision in the tradition of other greats like Godard and Herzog.  This film is seriously worth the watch.

Grade: A

The Long Goodbye

These days if we say Film Noir people will usually say it's a dated film genre or if you know much about the genre people will ask you how old you really are but nevertheless if you are a talented director like Robert Altman was you could find a way to reinvent the it in your own way. That is what he did on Raymond Chandler's hard boiled novel "The Long Goodbye" which he adapted on screen. 

The story starts one night in Los Angeles when a sleeping Philip Marlowe (Elliott Gould) is awakened by his wily cat who seemed to be hungry, this prompted him to drive to a nearby supermarket to buy a certain brand of cat food that only his cat eats accompanied by a sleepy rendition of "The Long Goodbye" theme. 

His drive to the market is then inter cut by the arrival of his "close" friend Terry Lennox (Jim Bouton) who asks to drive him to Tijuana in Mexico. Nothing seemed peculiar during the trip as Marlowe drops Lennox off, in his return home he gets questioned, picked up and interrogated by cops asking of the whereabouts of Lennox who apparently murdered his wife the same night. He was locked up for 3 days with another jailbird named Dave (David Carradine) echoing Manson and was released only to find out that Lennox committed suicide. After his release he was hired by Eileen Wade (Nina Van Pallandt), the blonde trophy wife of Roger Wade (Sterling Hayden) a Hemingway type writer who has disappeared. 

"C'mon dog your supposed to get outta the way!"

He was able to track down Roger on an insane asylum who is being treated by an apparent quack Dr. Verringer and was able to persuade him to bring him home. He was able to help the Wade's and all seemed okay until the arrival of a Scorsese-esque gangster in his doorstep named Marty Augustine (Mark Rydell) who is psychotic enough to hurt the woman he cares about just to prove his viciousness. He asks Marlowe to give him the money that the dead Lennox owed him which Marty thought he had, after the ruckus in his home he tails Marty and his thugs in his car and leads to the home of Eileen Wade herself. Apparently his hiring by the seductive Malibu blonde and the arrival of the Mean Streets gangster is not all a coincidence as he tries to put the pieces together before his time runs out. 

In this film Altman was able to re imagine the genre of film noir as more surreal and quirky than it's usually played, the setting has changed from concrete jungles and dusty desolate highways and is replaced by present day 1973 Los Angeles filled with naked chicks, social parties and references to Golden Age Hollywood (the Walter Brennan impersonation was hilarious). Here Marlowe is not the tough talking hard boiled detective but a younger more modern version living in modern day Los Angeles with a bunch of hippy exhibitionists next door emphasizing him as the only dated character in the film. But even though the character is shown as old and dated this is still a more modern offbeat portrayal because apart from the other Marlowe's here is a detective who seemed more amused rather than pissed off in the tangled situation he is in. Gould's Marlowe is able to look in the perspective of a man lost in time allowing himself to walk in and bumble in certain situations with a wide eyed enthusiasm of a school boy which is a departure from other film noirs.

Aside from the brilliant casting of Gould is the impressive supporting cast most notably of Film noir vet Sterling Hayden who's portrayal of the has been writer is nothing short of marvelous. Hayden is of my favorite actors and I must say one of the most underrated having starred in 7 or 8 classic films playing either the lead or the heavy. Nina Van Pallandt was perfectly cast as the would be femme fatale and alibi, her role perfectly suited her since she was a mistress herself and for a time was involved with infamous fake writer Clifford Irving. The rest of the cast was also brilliant with Mark Rydell portraying the out of place gangster who seemed to come out of Scorsese's "Mean Streets" and Henry Gibson who played the diminutive but determined Verringer who was the only one who can slap the sense out of the hulking Roger Wade. 

I would strongly recommend this film to Noir fans and to other cinephiles because Altman's direction alone is worth the watch, in this noir the "Marlboro Man" who smokes a lot and has runs in with LA cops, gangsters and Malibu trophy wives is a movie that is hard to say goodbye to. 

Hooray for Hollywood! 

Grade: A+

Sanshō Dayũ (Sansho the Bailiff)

One of the most beautiful but tragic films I have seen, "Sansho the Bailiff" explores the injustice and harsh realities that many people endured during the dark ages of Japan. It was directed by Kenji Mizoguchi, one of Japanese cinema's great big three. 

It tells the story of a family torn apart in Feudal Japan. It starts with Tamaki (Kinuyo Tanaka), the wife of Taira (Masao Shimizu) a district administrator who is traveling with her 2 children and servant. Tamaki's husband got in trouble with a feudal lord who banished him years ago, now Tamaki and her brood have been on a long journey to join him. 

One night they built a shelter in the forest but was deceived by a would be priestess, it was hard to watch as the slave traders through sheer force of violence separate Tamaki and her servant with her 2 children. The children are then sold to Sansho (Eitaro Shindo), an administrator of sorts who is in charge of a manorial estate full of slaves. The slaves are treated harshly and are even branded on the head if they try to escape. Years would pass and the children Zushio (Yoshiaki Hanayagi) and Anju (Kyoko Kagawa) now grown up would learn to work and survive in the slave camp.  

"And you thought it was about this guy."

Even with all the years that have passed Anju is still hoping to reunite with their parents but Zushio has grown cold and heartless becoming the right hand man of Sansho himself. Anju hears a song from a new slave girl who mentions her and Zushio in the lyrics, this renewed their desire to escape and find their parents but Zushio believes that this is futile because of the situation they are in. Even with seemingly hopeless odds they find a way to escape when Zushio is asked to leave an old sick woman on the wilderness. Perhaps seeing this as they're only chance of escaping he asks Anju to escape with him but she asks to be left behind instead to distract the guards. 

 Zushio promises that he will return for her but Anju making the ultimate sacrifice drowns herself to distract the pursuers, Zushio finds refuge with Sansho's son Taro who mentored them in their early days at the slave camp. Taro writes a letter to help in Zushio's quest to go to Kyoto to protest the treatment of slaves in the camp and to a lesser extent restore their family title. Zushio then appointed governor goes back to the province of Tango and abolishes the slave camp but not without a price as he finds out that Anju has taken her life the same day they escaped. 

He quickly relinquishes his newfound title and goes on a quest to find his mother. After hearing that his mother was taken as a prostitute and was supposed to have died, he still continued his search only to find Tamaki blind and in poverty living on a distant island in a beach singing the songs she made for her lost children. 

This film I must say is truly one of a kind that only a master like Mizoguchi can make, a simple story yet truly powerful in both it's story and meaning. I tried to find faults in the film but I could not because it was just so beautifully made. The haunting cinematography alone is worth it, watching "Sanshō Dayũ" is like watching the most beautiful but tragic fairy tale unfold before our eyes like ghosts of years past. His telling of the story is also brutal and without mercy, but the saint like virtue of characters like Tamaki and Anju still makes us believe not in tragedy but hope of a better tomorrow for them.

Mizoguchi was able to seamlessly pass through the flashbacks without showing a single hint of tragedy that will unfold on the main characters. 

Kinuyo Tanaka who played Tamaki was brilliant, I thought of my mother every time she would sing her song and call out her children's names. She's like a beautiful living ghost, haunting but beautiful and I can't even describe what it would have felt being on her situation but I'm sure a person with less faith would have given up against all odds. Masao Shimizu who played perhaps the best father in the world was also magnificent in making the most of his brief screen time. Even though he only appeared on a few scenes nothing was lost in capturing the essence of the morals he was trying to preach to his family. The dutiful son Zushio was able to become a real man when he followed his father's words, his sister did not die in vain in her sacrifice. The reunion of mother and son did not produce water falls right away, Mizoguchi knew that it's not just about making the heart cry but showing the audience that apart from all the pain that the world has caused to this family they are now at peace spiritually not only with themselves but also with the living world. There are few films that literally killed me and almost broke my heart, but maybe the only film that can equal this for me is "The Grapes of Wrath" but I can honestly say this film is in a league of it's own. A genuine masterpiece. 

Grade: A+