Robert Bresson's
exacting drama of a French Resistance fighter planning his escape from a POW
prison. Lots of shots of hands (and feet) doing things embody the tale, but the
theme is all about spiritual liberation.
Less a film
noir than a mysterious romance, between a cop and a dead lady, presided over by
Clifton Webb,
in fine bitchy form. Vincent Price is a gigolo. The result is all sweeping
strings and elegant cocktails (and probably a lot of suspense, if I hadn't seen
it before).
Epic movies are
becoming more like video games and this historical Chinese battle film proves
the point. John Woo couldn't really hire a cast of 1000's, could he? Instead,
the CGI looks great (not real, but not cheesy). There is enough
characterization (particularly by the great Tony Leung) to make the action
meaningful and the battle scenes have a good strategic element. Plus, it's John
Woo, so you get a guy fighting with a baby in his arms, a dove flying, and two
generals pointing swords at each others' throats in a standoff.
A strangely compelling
series of anecdotes from Luis Bunuel. Compelling because they are so strange,
strange because they abruptly segue into the next before the previous one has
finished. As usual, Bunuel's goal seems to be to send up the social (and
narrative) conventions by which we live, using surrealistic and absurd plot
twists.
Although it has a
cheesy wet-behind-the-ears young girl in big city frame around it, this film is
really about dread and angst. How can one cope with life? Is knowing that you
can end it really the key to committing to it in a serious way? What solace
would the left-hand path offer? Val Lewton conjures up Sartre in the shadows.
Robert Ryan is too old
for the boxing game but still dreams of the one punch that could lead him to a
championship. When he's told to take a dive, he can't make himself do it. Maybe
this is one film noir where it doesn't really end badly...
A wistful and comic
tale of three bumbling old men who seek to arrange a marriage for the daughter
of a woman they once flirted with, now widowed. Ozu echoes his own Late Spring
by placing Setsuko Hara in the role of the widowed parent whose daughter
refuses to get married, a role reversal from the earlier film. As always with
Ozu, the action (which is to say, conversation) takes place in warm interiors
of muted greens and browns (with that one red object in each frame).
Comfortable as old shoes.
