FACTOTUM (2005)

With his fondness for artfully balanced ‘found’ compositions, measured pacing, off-skew character comedy and fatalistic tolerance of life’s bumps, Norwegian helmer Bent Hamer (what a name!) may remind you of those Finnish Kaurismäki boys. But this adaptation of some typically alcohol-soaked Charles Bukowski tales of slackers, low-lifes & a struggling writer (gee, who might that be?) doesn’t quite come off. It’s partially a question of tone, the cast reeks of L.A. health in spite of the grubby apartments, pasted on pallor & thrift-shop clothes. And partially that the low-budget production couldn’t allow for period settings. Bukowski’s world of easy-to-grab temporary employment, cheap bars, easy sex, come-and-go lodging, shared smokes & horse-racing culture, are long gone. BARFLY was pushing the time-limit back in 1987. But if we can’t fully buy into all the characterizations or the milieu, the basic story is snazzily put forth & Matt Dillon brings uncanny physicality to his fading yet somehow indomitable literary wreck. Watch his body language as he splits from his current lover, Lili Taylor. It’s the work of a great actor. Matt Dillon? Matt Dillon.

THE REIVERS (1969)

The second William Faulkner adaptation from scripters Irving Ravetch & Harriet Frank works almost as well as their first, THE LONG HOT SUMMER/’58. This is Faulkner in a happy, nostalgic mode, looking back to his Southern childhood in a manner similar to Eugene O’Neill in his rose-colored coming-of-age tale, AH WILDERNESS! There’s a fine yellow roadster to ‘borrow’ for a trip; a white & a black handyman to share the adventure; a friendly whore house to stay at; a horse race to win (twice!); and some life lessons to learn. Alas, newbie megger Mark Rydell treats the material far too broadly, as if he’s making a deep fried version of THE MUSIC MAN; and he encourages everyone, even a minimalist actor like Steve McQueen, to overplay. Watching McQueen twinkle with delight is downright scary. The last third of the pic drops the forced merriment and you see what a great film this material, even this screenplay, might have made. The wonderful combination of score & narration from John Williams and Burgess Meredith is already working on that level. And, as McQueen’s ‘colored’ rival & pal, Rupert Crosse gives a racially charged, yet merrily unselfconscious perf all but unheard of for the era. His early death robbed us all.

FANFAN LA TULIPE (1952)

In one of his signature roles, the eternally young Gérard Philipe (dying early will do that for you) plays a lusty rapscallion in the age of Louis XV who swashes & buckles as a peasant soldier, wooing Madame de Pompadour & the King’s daughter before realizing that camp follower Gina Lollobrigida is the only girl he could ever love. On the way, he survives a hanging, outfoxes the machinations of the King & his minions, single-handedly wins a war for France & turns an entire generation of film-goers into Fanfan fans. You can pin-pont the exact moment this happened when a drunk Fanfan discovers that tru-love must not only be given, but returned. The film is cleverly structured as a sort of sub-Candide picaresque, with helmer Christian-Jaque substituting cute irony for Voltaire’s savage irony. He tends to make everything a bit too adorable, but under the shining lens of the great Christian Matras (those Philipe teeth!) everything pretty much IS adorable.

CLASSE TOUS RISQUES / THE BIG RISK (1960)

Claude Sautet‘s stunning directing debut is adapted from a typically tough-minded gangster tale by ex-con/writer José Giovanni. Lino Ventura plays a doomed gangster on-the-run (doesn’t he always?) who claws his way to Paris only to find his old chums coming up short in the loyalty department and a new pal (Jean-Paul Belmondo in irresistibly dewy form) holding firm. The two-reel prologue which goes from a daytime robbery in Turin, Italy to a deadly race-to-escape over land & sea, is almost too good. The rest of the film can’t maintain the propulsive level of suspense & character identification balanced against such believable & despicable acts of violence and murderous self-preservation. It’s a knock-out opening; the rest of the film is merely superb. Sautet began helming just as the French Nouvelle Vague came along to dominate the scene and his cinematic classicism has been undervalued ever since.

BAND OF ANGELS (1957)

The 1954 re-release of GONE WITH THE WIND/’39 (in ‘Perspecta’ which cropped the image for that wide screen look & jiggered the sound for faux-stereo) was so commercially successful that Warners & M-G-M each tried to duplicate the Civil War & romance formula. M-G-M made RAINTREE COUNTY/’57, a big, expensive dud with Liz Taylor as a mixed-race vixen and Warners’ made this budget-conscious dud with a hopelessly over-parted Yvonne De Carlo as . . . yep, a mixed-race vixen. (Her amateurish perf all but killed her movie career.) Bona fides were theoretically in place with Clark Gable reprising his Rhett Butler characterization (in slightly pickled form) and Max Steiner crafting a frankly unmemorable score. Raoul Walsh was near the end of his amazing directing career, but there’s little he could have done with this talky non-starter even in his prime. Sidney Poitier has the only interesting role as an educated slave chaffing at Gable’s kindly treatment, but he joins everyone else in this New Orleans based tale in speaking the most execrable French you ever heard.

THREE ON A MATCH (1932)

The ‘three’ are Bette Davis, Joan Blondell & Ann Dvorak, but Davis was the new gal @ Warners so it’s more like ‘two & a half,’ with Davis in support. This is one of Mervyn LeRoy ’s best pics, a fast, racy Pre-Code programmer about three school girls who meet up as adults and find their lives crisscrossing. Dvorak is shockingly fine as the beauty who married well, but got too bored to appreciate her husband, home & child. Drugs & empty love affairs cause her life to spiral out of control and her physical decline and tenement life are shown with surprising realism. Blondell is the tough kid who takes her knocks and eventually sees life straight. She ends up with Dvorak’s ex, the normally shady Warren William in good-guy mode. Poor Bette gets stuck playing nursemaid for this swell couple & watching Dvorak go to pieces in the showiest role. Davis must have been pea-green with envy! Watch for an exceptional scene where Dvorak catches Blondell on the street and asks for a hand-out. And what a line up of supporting actors: Humphrey Bogart, Allen Jenkins, Grant Mitchell, Glenda Farrell, Edward Arnold; in a 64 minute programmer! How’d they do it?

CONTEST: This pic's title could have served for another classic Warners Pre-Code pic starring one of this film's stars. Name that film and the star to win a MAKSQUIBS write-up on the NetFlix DVD of your choice.

THE DIVORCEE (1930)

This typically stiff early M-G-M Talkie was considered pretty racy in its day since Norma Shearer (in an Oscar© winning perf) responds in kind to her husband’s infidelity. She doesn’t much like it, but after the inevitable divorce, she continues to play with men’s hearts. (The film makes it clear that she doesn’t do more than play after her initial booze-induced slip, but she sure acts with abandon.) A final flirtation, the most serious yet, is renounced and Norma goes all the way to Paris to reclaim her first love. (The main men in question are Chester Morris, Robert Montgomery & Conrad Nagel.) Film academics have been teasing out Shearer’s racy Pre-Code ethics over the past decade, but this story isn’t all that different from Shearer’s final misogynist hit, THE WOMEN/’39, while as an actress, she’s hopelessly affected in both. Shearer is far better in similar ‘daring’ mode in next year’s A FREE SOUL, but she’s really at her best in her ‘silent’ ingenue days, especially under a great director like Ernst Lubitsch in THE STUDENT PRINCE/’27.

NIGHT NURSE (1931)

Early Barbara Stanwyck vehicle from Warners has all the expected Pre-Code raciness (how many times can a nurse strip down to her slip?) and a tasty gang of supporting players for the zingy one-liners. Joan Blondell is a stand out as a gal pal for Babs to snuggle in bed with (!) and tall, dark & handsome Clark Gable makes a big physical impression as an evil chauffeur in a black uniform that’s a fetishist’s dream. Even better when he uses his fists . . . on Babs! But like so many William Wellman pics, the film is wildly uneven with a well structured first half (a desperate Babs learns the ropes in a swanky hospital) giving way to a ludicrous part two (trust fund tots are being starved to death for their inheritance). Still, it’s all wrapped up in a snappy 72 minutes and Stanwyck really gets to let loose on this one.

UN COEUR EN HIVER (1992)

Claude Sautet‘s penultimate work is a beautifully observed film about a love triangle involving business partners in the high-end violin trade (Daniel Auteuil, André Dussoilier) and a violinist (Emmanuel Béart) who is engaged to one, but unexpectedly attracted to the other. The story’s crisis comes when the ‘other’ man (Auteuil) declines to take advantage of the situation, a response that should tilt the story toward comedy. But Sautet is drawn to the quiet desperation behind his inaction, so instead of an explosion, we advance to a sadder-but-wiser bitter-sweet landing. The film holds an extra layer of interest & delight since it’s not only set in the world of classical music, but uses Ravel’s chamber music (trio & violin sonata) not as a tony backdrop, but as the dramatic sinew to ground the story. (Béart’s violinist may have the lead in the film, but the star performer on the soundtrack is the extraordinary pianist.) It may sound flip, but this is undoubtedly the best film ever made about a luthier.