The Razor’s Edge (1946)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Razor’s Edge (1946) – E. Goulding

Once upon a time, this was an important movie to me (and I later read the book by Somerset Maugham).  Perhaps it still is.  My interest was always in the character of Larry Darrell (played by Tyrone Power), who returns from WWI hollowed out and searching for meaning.  He can’t bring himself to commit to the world of business and materialism and the usual domesticity.  His wealthy fiancée (Gene Tierney) promises to wait for him when he sails off to Paris to find answers to his questions.  However, the wait becomes too long and she breaks off the engagement and marries another friend, a millionaire who is much more traditional.  Meanwhile, Larry works in a coal mine and then goes on a quest, visiting a holy man in India and then choosing a period of solitude.  When he has learned what he can, he returns to Paris to find….melodrama.  Although the movie doesn’t make explicit the comparisons, the experiences of the people around Larry are filled with suffering and we witness their different reactions to it (different to the meaning-making reaction of Larry to the suffering in war).  Sophie (Anne Baxter, who won the Oscar) responds by drowning herself in booze (and you can’t help but think of Gene Tierney’s later travails).  Gray (John Payne) experiences psychosomatic symptoms. Larry tries to help them and we witness the public’s reaction to him through the shrewish sniping by Clifton Webb (Tierney’s uncle) and the fond but noncommittal approach taken by Maugham himself (played by Herbert Marshall).  I always felt some affiliation to Larry (and the movie must encourage this), thinking about life as something you guide and chart out, like a quest, rather than something that just happens to you.  The philosophy of existentialism, where one takes responsibility for one’s actions and one’s life, rather than ascribing it to destiny or some greater power, seemed/seems accurate.  But Larry Darrell found something that made him feel one with the universe (which I have only rarely felt) – he rejected the values of his society and sought a spiritual answer that potentially allowed him to transcend suffering (or to work through it). This seems the most challenging part of life, to handle stresses and tragedies with aplomb, and it might take a lifetime to master it.  Unfortunately, the movie doesn’t provide a blueprint, so we’ll have to work it out for ourselves.  However, it is a sumptuous production that explores deeper ideas than most Hollywood fare and I am forever returning to it.

The African Queen (1951)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

The African Queen (1951) – J. Huston

John Huston’s film is a classic Technicolor adventure yarn that keeps its focus on the burgeoning romance between two mismatched misfits played by Humphrey Bogart (early 50s) and Katharine Hepburn (early 40s) and leaves more serious questions behind.  As they escape the WWI-era Germans down the Ubangi river in Bogie’s ramshackle (and titular) boat, they need to work together to overcome many challenges (an enemy fort on the shore, a series of rapids, a broken propeller, an endless shallow and muddy river of reeds).  Bogie is rather rough and loves his gin whereas Kate is prim, religious, and a bit of a prude.  But as they fall in love, they compromise – this is a gentle older person’s companionate love.  And they cook up a plan to blow up a big German warship patrolling an African river.  It’s fun and the music (by Allan Gray) is jaunty and almost comical at times.  Of course, Huston notoriously shot this on location and engaged in big game hunting and lots of drinking during their stay in Africa.   Lauren Bacall (who doesn’t appear in the film) was along to look after Bogie who apparently hated the shoot but won an Oscar.  To my mind, The African Queen is lighter fare, potentially even for kids (who are old enough to understand war); I would have preferred things to be a bit edgier but there is no doubt that the film belongs in the canon just for the unique pairing of the stars alone.

Divorce Italian Style (1961)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Divorce Italian Style (1961) – P. Germi

Marcello Mastroianni virtually disappears into the character of a Sicilian Don/Baron who wants to escape his cloying wife in order to pursue his teenage cousin (bear with me, as this is satire) – however, Italian law does not allow divorce (in 1961).  The law does allow a husband who discovers his wife in flagrante delicto to kill her.  So, the Baron embarks on a campaign to find his wife an illicit lover (after fantasizing about other ways she might die).  Of course, things do not go entirely to plan.  Yes, this is a very black comedy and perhaps a distasteful one in this day-and-age; however, the Baron is far from a hero and the aging Lothario that he (and other Sicilian elders) imagines himself to be is ridiculed here.  Along the way, director Pietro Germi takes pot-shots at Italian society and norms (for example, the prohibition on sex before marriage).  There is a great nearly self-referential moment when the Baron finds that his wife is going to have her tryst during the opening of Fellini’s La Dolce Vita which was then scandalizing Italy with its sexual frankness (of course, it starred Mastroianni).  The film dazzles in its cinematography and production design – sharp black-and-white and beautiful Sicilian locales.  Did I mention that the entire plot appears to be a flashback (with flashbacks within the flashback)?  Really this is a masterpiece of comic timing and characterizations.

  

I, Daniel Blake (2016)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

I, Daniel Blake (2016) – K. Loach

As anyone who has ever contended with governmental bureaucracy (which is to say everyone) can attest, it sucks.  But never more so than for the people least equipped to deal with it.  In this film, director Ken Loach shows us one man’s (Kafka-esque) struggle in a straightforward realist way – the facts speak for themselves, no comedy allowed (despite the fact that star Dave Johns is a British comedian).  Loach’s films have always championed the working class and the down-and-out and that hasn’t changed here – but at age 79, he has found a way to reduce the polemics and just show the pain (and the human dignity it impinges upon).  Daniel Blake, a carpenter, has had a heart attack and his doctors forbid him from working – so he goes on what we would call “disability” payments here in Australia (the UK system seems similar).  But for some reason, his case is re-evaluated and he is found “fit for work” by a telephone assessor, a judgment which he tries to appeal by necessity, given his doctors’ verdict.  While waiting for appeal, in order to keep any payments at all, he is encouraged to apply for the “jobseeker’s allowance”, which comes with an array of strings attached – 35 hours per week spent seeking work, a condescending CV workshop, and other indignities.  Blake dutifully complies (but not without some sarcastic retorts, not quite sotto voce) despite the fact that he can’t really take any job he finds.  A subplot involves a young single mother (Hayley Squires), befriended by Blake, who is relocated to Newcastle (where the film takes place) for public housing but isn’t given any welfare because she was late for an appointment (due to getting on the wrong bus).  Her experience seems even more calamitous and desperate than Blake’s.  Loach does resort to some pretty dramatic examples to show us how the system fails ordinary people -- and how those who work within it can become hard-hearted in order to manage programs that are under-resourced, “digital by default”, and ideological targets for right-wing politicians to cut.  A quick Google search for “Centrelink problems” here in Australia results immediately in the following quote from our national news desk: “The Government knew Centrelink's debt recovery program would incorrectly tell clients they owed money if human oversight was reduced, but continued to do so in a bid to cut costs.” Equally terrifying.  Films such as this can win sympathy (the film won the Palme d’Or at Cannes) but will the politicians listen?  Every vote counts.