Boudu Sauvé des Eaux (Boudu Saved From Drowning)

One of my favorite Jean Renoir films, "Boudu sauvé des eaux"  (Boudu Saved from Drowning) is a funny and subversive film that challenges the morale and conventions of it's time predating Renoir's ultimate masterpiece "La Règle du jeu" (The Rules of the Game). 

This film is more simple and tame than told through the eyes of the wandering tramp Priape Boudu (Michel Simon), he tries to kill himself by jumping in the river Seine after losing his dog but is rescued by bookstore owner Edouard Lestingois (Charles Granval). 

He is hailed as a hero and tries to do more for Boudu by providing him home, food and shelter. Boudu however proves to be ungrateful and disrupts Edouard's home and private life, his young maid/mistress Anne-Marie Chloe (Sévérine Lerczinska) is constantly harassed by Boudu reducing their chances of nightly trysts. Edouard's wife Emma who has tried to kick Boudu out of the house since the first time they met is instead seduced by the anarchic Boudu after shaving part of his facial hair.

 "Go out without your shoes shined?! Are you nuts?!"

Renoir the genius has made an entertaining film not taking itself too seriously while cleverly poking fun at the bourgeois, his deep focus shots and different transition from one mood to another makes Boudu a timeless film to watch even with it's obvious era and setting. 

Simon was also key and was able to effortlessly portray the sleazy but lovable Boudu, he was able to seduce everyone and even had the guts to leave them in the end without showing any concern or thought. This is also what made the film wonderful because Renoir did not follow what was expected, Boudu even though winning the lottery and eventually winning the heart of the maid he's worked so hard to seduce decides to leave after just getting married and goes back to becoming a tramp. Never was a film more subversive even to the end and that's Renoir showing us that people like Boudu no matter what we do for them really does not care.

This is the brilliance of Renoir also making the most of the small cast and setting while focusing on what's really important in the film. Seducing the audience while appearing not to while using his own french version of The Tramp.  

Grade: A+

This Sporting Life

British director Lindsay Anderson's first feature was a classic marking the "Kitchen Sink" realism and "Angry Young Man" films to follow like "If..." and "O LUCKY MAN!". 
This is also a star making role for the great Richard Harris who was in top form both in his physicality and more importantly in his acting prowess. 

It tells the story of a frustrated Frank Machin (Harris), a lodger in love with his widowed landlady Margaret Hammond (Rachel Roberts). He tries to make something of himself by trying out for the local Rugby team and  eventually succeeds. His sheer physicality and smarts on the football field earns him a buzz and he is signed to an unprecedented contract. 

His frustration however continues to boil over as his landlady continues to ignore his affections and the owner of the team treats him like a dispensable commodity. He is badly injured in one match when his front teeth were bashed after receiving a violent blow from one of their opponents.

Anderson was able to show Machin's struggles in flashbacks and chronicles his search for acceptance in the gritty life of middle class Britain. Clearly this film also shows the class status and difference in British society, the character of Machin was able to represent the working class that continued to fight to find a better life for themselves in that time.

The story is also simple enough as it shows Machin struggle and eventually find success but the one person that he desires the most despises him. They were able to consummate their relationship but she continued to shut him out probably because the memory of her late husband still haunted her. This eventually leads to his out of control ego and his anger towards her and at the same establishment that made him a success.

The key for the film was obviously Harris who was able to carry the film although his performance is obviously a ripoff of Brando's in films like "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "On the Waterfront", his sullen expressions and violent outburst reminds me so much of a young Brando that I can't help but think that it was not Harris who was in the role.

But credit should be given to Harris nonetheless, he had the guts to show his dark side without compromise in this gritty film. Certainly worth the watch even though some of the scenes are too difficult and unbearable, I think it's the way the director Lindsay Anderson wanted it.

Grade: A

Onibaba (Demon Woman)

This was supposed to be my Halloween entry but I was busy this past couple of weeks so better late than never.

A visually arresting film about survival and the unquenchable human desire that can lead to horror, "Onibaba" or "Demon Woman" is an entertaining Japanese erotic horror  film that fascinates, haunts and seduces you making it more than an ordinary horror flick.

The story starts in 16th century Japan in the midst of the Civil War, an elderly woman (Nobuko Otowa) and her daughter-in-law (Jitsuko Yoshimura) make ends meet by killing stray samurais who gets lost in the susuki grass swamp they live in. The susuki grass fields are a perfect deathtrap for their unsuspecting victims, they kill them off and strip them of their body armors and valuables to sell them for bags of millet to the local black market dealers then dump the bodies in a deep hole.

The neighbor Hachi (Kei Sato) who went off to war with Kichi, the old woman's son and the husband of the daughter-in-law arrives one night and informs them that he was killed by 20 farmers. The old woman  finds it hard to accept that her son has just died and things get more complicated when Hachi looking like a more scruffier and less threatening version of Toshiro Mifune tries to stake his claim on the naive but voluptuous daughter-in-law.

The daughter-in-law is hesitant at first but succumbs to the scruffy neighbor consummating their desires, the old woman always suspicious and weary follows her daughter-in-law one night  to Hachi's hut and spies on their lovemaking. The old woman who is also lonely and sexually frustrated (poor tree) tries to seduce Hachi and begs him not to take her daughter-in-law, she gets rejected and tries to find a way to prevent the nightly trysts that her daughter-in-law is enjoying with Hachi. One night she is visited by a defeated samurai wearing a demon mask, he got lost in the susuki swamp and threatens to kill the old woman if she doesn't show him the way back to the main road.

The old woman curious to find out why the samurai is wearing a mask asks him to remove it and show his face but the samurai refuses, he says his face is the most handsome in Kyoto and no ordinary peasant can see it. The old woman trying to satisfy her earthly urges begs but the samurai like Hachi rejects her, she then tricks the samurai by luring him to the hole in the middle of the field and is killed after falling to his death. 
The old woman goes to the hole and forcibly removes the mask revealing not a handsome but a hideous disfigured face, she then uses the mask to scare her daughter-in-law every night to break the nightly trysts they enjoy.

This trickery and deceit will lead to her undoing though as she is surprised to find out that the mask becomes forever attached to her face thus becoming an "Onibaba" or "Demon Woman". The director Kaneto Shindo was able to shoot through the tall high susuki grass that covers most of the landscape that the characters were living in making it more other worldly, claustrophobic and spooky at times.

The human conditions and morale are also challenged where decency and kindness is thrown out of the window, indeed war is hell and this is the world that only the strongest can survive and the old woman and her daughter-in-law is right smack in the middle of it.

The story is also simple enough and it doesn't have the usual plot twists in horror films that sometimes ruin the flow of the story, Shindo directed a film that set out to do it's purpose which is to scare and haunt it's viewers. This is a see film that is definitely worth seeing.

Grade: A

Der Himmel über Berlin (Wings of Desire) (The Sky Above Berlin)

How many films have you seen that can leave you wondering and asking for more?

Der Himmel über Berlin (The Sky Above Berlin)  or Wings of Desire is a haunting philosophical film that reveals all hidden emotions that a human being can feel.

The story is set in Berlin near the end of the cold war, two angels who have been observers since the dawn of time travel from one place to another listening to different thoughts, feelings and emotions of humans. Each perspective change as the angels Damiel (Bruno Ganz) and Cassiel (Otto Sander) observe different people, with the haunting backdrop of Berlin. German director Wim Wenders was also able to internalize and meditate about what happened to Germany during the war years which continues to haunt the city and it's inhabitants.

The cinematography and the atmosphere also helps create a sense of loneliness and introspection as different characters weigh in on the different situations in their lives. 

The angels are most of the time just spectators with each scene shot in bronze like color, but are forced to interact with their human counterparts due to curiosity and a sense of longing to be a part of a world they have observed for so long. 

The angel Damiel falls for a trapeze artist Marion (Solveig Dommartin) and relinquishes his immortality to be with the woman he has fallen for, he then enters the world now in full color and experiences the feeling of being human after getting hurt and even tasting his own blood. He sells his old armor and buys new clothes to fit into into this new world, he finally meets Hollywood actor Peter Falk playing himself who amusingly reveals that he was a former angel himself explaining his role in this sometimes surreal film. 

Marion the trapeze artist longs for love and success but this eludes her until she finally meets Damiel, the scene where she watches as the circus troop leaves sitting on her luggage on an empty lot is an obvious homage to Charlie Chaplin's film "The Circus" evoking a sense of need and loneliness. 

 This is the one of the film of Wenders that I have seen so far and the other is "Paris, Texas", both films evoke a sense of calm and uneasiness that draws you in to find sense on things and evokes emotions that are difficult to deal with. I would say that a film  like this requires a sense of open mindedness, you just have to go along for the ride and let it take you away from your own life even if just for a mere 2 hours.    

Grade: A

Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)

 

 I am addicted to Cult films and being a cinephile I heard lot's of good things about "Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)" and I thought I had to watch it to satisfy ny curiosity. I watched it with my mother just to amuse her but she never liked the film and so did I. 

The story starts in the crime infested ghettos of Los Angeles, a group of "Street Thunder" gang members gets ambushed by the police after stealing a large number of weapons and ammunition.

In the wake of the bloodbath 3 leaders of the gang swear a blood oath to terrorize the citizens of Los Angeles to avenge their fallen members. 

A newly promoted Lt. Ethan Bishop (Austin Stoker) takes command of the old Anderson police station before it closes with it's 2 secretaries Leigh (Laurie Zimmer) and Julie (Nancy Loomis). Meanwhile the "Street Thunder" gang strikes with the killing of a young girl eating ice cream and it's driver. The father of the girl Lawson (Martin West) takes it upon himself to avenge his daughter and chases the gang members with the gun from the driver and kills one of them. Shocked by the murder of her daughter and for what he had done  he runs and seeks refuge inside the Anderson police station but is unable to explain what happened due to shock.

"Noooo!!!"

A prison bus in the meantime arrives at the precinct hoping to get a doctor for one of the prisoners who became sick, 2 of the other prisoners are Wells (Tony Burton) and the notorious Napoleon Wilson (Darwin Joston). As the prisoners were about to be loaded back to the bus the Street Thunder gang attacks the station almost single handedly wiping out the entire convoy leaving Wells and Wilson the only survivors. Now it's up to Bishop with the help of the 2 convicts and the feisty Leigh to fight off the seemingly endless attacks by the  gang members. 

I suppose the film could have been better than advertised and John Carpenter with his reputation as the master of blending horror, action and suspense could have made the film more grittier and realistic. 

The action scenes at times were awkward and the dialogue were too "Hawkish" for it's own good, the endless shooting scenes really did not make the film exciting and made it less interesting. The gang members did not act like real people but  mindless zombies that became target practice for the main characters, the film had it's moments with Napoleon Wilson and Leigh providing the sexual tension it needed trying to evoke the Bogie-Bacall chemistry that Howard Hawks used in his heyday which I know Mr. Carpenter is a big fan. But the running gag with the smoke and the convicts playing potatoes really killed the movie for me.

The ending really did not give the film closure as it should have because the gang members were easily defeated by 2 guys and 1 wounded secretary. Maybe because my expectations were a bit too high but this film really disappointed me and it was not the cult film I was expecting, this film is a far cry from Carpenter's other films like "Halloween" and "The Thing" which are favorites of mine. 

Grade: D+