Night and the City (1950)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Night and the City (1950) – J. Dassin

With Dassin’s talent for film noir to aid him, this is really Richard Widmark’s show.  His nervous energy drives the frantic pace of the film and gives even the quieter moments a tense desperation.  He’s a hustler, trying to make a name for himself by any means possible, clearly because he’s been kicked around so long and is the laughingstock of the London underworld.  In reality, Widmark is working for (one of my faves) Francis L. Sullivan as a “tout” for his sleazy club, the Silver Fox but he does happen upon one plausible scheme – to promote wrestling backed by a famous retired Greek champion.  However, it probably isn’t such a good idea that said champion is really the father of the current wrestling promoter (a mobster played by Herbert Lom) and starting this new venture equates to dirty double-crossing and worse.  So, this is a tale of doom and Widmark’s bad decisions and just plain bad luck makes him an archetypal noir loser, done up in low-key lighting on gritty London streets.

The Black Cat (1934)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

The Black Cat (1934) – E. G. Ulmer

Karloff meets Lugosi for the first time in this weird tale (that has nothing to do with Poe).  After their carriage turns over, killing the driver, a couple takes refuge in the Eastern European house of a famous architect (Karloff), led there by a doctor (Lugosi) who wants to kill him as revenge for a betrayal years earlier during WWI.  The betrayal resulted in Lugosi being placed in a notorious prison for 15 years during which time Karloff treated his wife to taxidermy and married his daughter.  So, Lugosi isn’t happy. To make matters worse, Karloff is a Satanist (great shot of him reading “the Rites of Lucifer” in bed) and wishes to use the innocent wife of the couple in his next “dark of the moon” rite.  But he agrees to play chess with Lugosi for the fate of the couple.  And all this takes place in a bizarre “modernist” setting, directed adroitly by Edgar G. Ulmer.

I am Cuba (1964)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

I am Cuba (1964) – M. Kalatozov

The kind of movie you might see in your head if you’ve been slipped a mickey and unceremoniously dumped on the beach outside of Havana. A woozy coproduction between the Soviets and Cuban teams (directed by Mikhail Kalatozov) that has clear propaganda goals – but which target of such efforts could make it all the way through? There is no clear narrative structure and we don’t follow any particular characters for any length of time.  Basically the film moves from a depiction of Batista era party days with exploitation by crude foreign interests (prostitution, big bands), to poor sugar farmers losing their livelihoods to the United Fruit Company, to an uprising by students and finally, of course, to revolution led by Castro.  The whole thing is shot with the kind of angles and style that were favoured by Orson Welles (after too much Paul Masson). It’s all too much and therefore worth a look.

Young Frankenstein (1974)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Young Frankenstein (1974) -- M. Brooks

Mel Brooks' spoof of the Universal Pictures Frankenstein series is actually a lovingly recreated homage in black and white that is played surprisingly straight despite the ridiculousness that is heaped on in generous portions. Gene Wilder (whose idea this apparently was) plays Frederick Fronkensteen, descendent of the original mad scientist who returns to his ancestral home in Transylvania (as in Son of Frankenstein, 1939). There he meets I-gor (played hysterically by googly-eyed Marty Feldman) and Inga his assistant (played by Teri Garr). Peter Boyle steals the show as the Monster he creates- who could forget his rendition of "Putting on the Ritz"? I don't laugh at most comedies but I laughed at this one (even having seen it many times before). No doubt it holds up because of its affection for the original.

Frances Ha (2013)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Frances Ha (2012) -- N. Baumbach

I liked it.  Sure, it's a highly stylized character study with lots of montage sequences that have quirky musical overlays (and some dialogue too).  Yes, it's shot in black and white but not beautifully so.  Greta Gerwig (co-writer and director Baumbach's paramour) is in every scene and her goofy personality is over the top, yes -- a lovable loser (but never so embarrassing that you cringe). She's 27 and she doesn't have her act together although many of her peers already have careers.  New York City looks fun, especially if you get to hang out in funky circles with artists and creative professionals (she's a modern dancer but not too successful). But is this real life?  Decidedly not (although there are some real-feeling moments). But Wes Anderson's films aren't either and we don't worry about that.

Welfare (1975)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2

Welfare (1975) -- F. Wiseman

As one of the leading progenitors of Direct Cinema still going in his 80s, Frederick Wiseman should be noted as one of our most important historians.  After all, across nearly five decades, he's managed to document our most influential institutions, the ones that control and impact our behaviour, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse.  Here, he points his fly-on-the-wall camera at a busy welfare office in New York City (circa 1974), showing the interactions between clients, welfare workers, social workers, security guards, and other visitors and occupants of the building.  Although seemingly objective (there is no voiceover here and no talking heads), Wiseman has carefully extracted a 3 hour movie from 100's of hours of footage and he has certain points to make.  Primarily, he portrays the welfare system as a certain kind of hell in which both clients and workers are ensnared in endless red tape and bureaucracy with neither always knowing the proper course of action.  The system seems designed to block people from receiving assistance rather than to help them and this is fairly apparent to everyone in the building.  Unfortunately, those who seek to do the right thing by the poor (and this is most of those who we meet) are just as hamstrung by the rules as those who simply turn off their empathy.  Wiseman shows us a range of problems faced by those seeking and receiving welfare, demonstrating clearly that many are in the least position to be able to navigate the confusing paths they are directed to take.  He masterfully controls the pacing and the emotional tenor of the film which rises to a nearly unbearable peak near its end. No doubt this institution has not changed and for that reason this film is a must see for all who care about the human condition.

Watch this video on The Scene.

Kandahar (2001)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Kandahar (2001) - M. Makhmalbaf

At the start of this century, Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf turned his attention to war-ravaged Afghanistan (soon to be invaded by the USA) and, in defiance of the Taliban, filmed this short feature on the border between the two countries.  Nelofer Pazira, an expatriate Afghan living in Canada, is trying to get to Kandahar because her despondent sister who lives there is going to commit suicide on the night of the eclipse, which is in 3 days time,  Presumably she is despondent due to the anti-woman policies that keep all women hidden behind fall body burqas. So, this is a road movie of sorts and Pazira has a number of experiences that allow Makhmalbaf to offer some political and humanistic statements about war and human rights.  However, the movie is anything but didactic - instead it is fully surreal, as Afghanistan probably is.  Brightly colored burqa wearing women march across the desert, men with limbs blown off by mines hobble on crutches after artificial limbs dropping by parachute from passing aircrafts, a doctor (who turned out to be real life fugitive terrorist David Belfield) treats women who lurk behind a curtain with only an eyehole to peer through. Makhmalbaf's camera makes the strange stranger, allowing us to look in wonder and therefore fully register our horror.