Now Over 5500 Reviews and (near) Daily Updates!

WELCOME! Use the search engines on this site (or your own off-site engine of choice) to gain easy access to the complete MAKSQUIBS Archive; more than 5500 posts and counting. (New posts added every day or so.)

You can check on all our titles by typing the Title, Director, Actor or 'Keyword' you're looking for in the Search Engine of your choice (include the phrase MAKSQUIBS) or just use the BLOGSPOT.com Search Box at the top left corner of the page.

Feel free to place comments directly on any of the film posts and to test your film knowledge with the CONTESTS scattered here & there. (Hey! No Googling allowed. They're pretty easy.)

Send E-mails to MAKSQUIBS@yahoo.com . (Let us know if the TRANSLATE WIDGET works!) Or use the Profile Page or Comments link for contact.

Thanks for stopping by.

Sunday, August 9, 2020

REDES (aka THE WAVE) (1936)

Fred Zinnemann made his directing debut on this agit-prop/proletariat film (shot in 1934, the title translates to NETS), funded by Mexico’s newly installed left-wing government.  With strong whiffs of Eisenstein’s POTEMKIN/’25 in its working-class/injustice premise: Power to the people! (At least: Power to the fishermen!); it was shot on a silent-era, hand-cranked Akeley camera by famed still photographer Paul Strand (all sound dubbed in ‘post’) and is too artfully composed by half for its own good.  Zinnemann wanted more movement & spontaneity.  But Strand held to a handsome, even chic, distressed-fashion look*: strikingly fit, blemish-free peasants (non-pros, the lead a university student, the rest Mexican Men’s Health worthy) who stop fighting amongst themselves to join as one in the face of twin tragedies (including a child dying for the price of medicine), rising against capitalistic boat-owners, overlords & the town’s monopolistic fish trader; all responsible for near-starvation wages.  Beautifully restored, including a soundtrack with Silvestre Revueltas’ notable score, at an hour, it’s as lean as its Party Line protagonists.

DOUBLE-BILL: Also restored, BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN is now aspirational and entertaining; far easier to see how it conquered the cinematic world, though unlikely to ever regain a Top Ten World Cinema position.  OR: *WHITE MANE/’53, Albert Lamorisse’s superb followup to his much-loved THE RED BALLOON/’52, offering similar (unintentional?) distressed-fashion chic with its child protagonist’s untamed coif & worn, sun-baked outfit.  OR: ARAYA/’59, Margot Benacerraf’s nearly forgotten documentary on the Araya Venezuelan salt marshes.  (All three covered below.)

No comments: