1001 GRAMS (2014)

Drama is dosed out by the dram in Bent Hamer’s ‘late’ coming-of-age fable about a 30-something Ministry of Weights & Measures official who discovers the unquantifiable value of emotional connection when she takes her father’s place in Paris at an international ‘KILO’ convention. Composed largely in chilly Norwegian off-whites & blues, the story loses rather than gains interest when it blooms into fuller color under the Rabelaisian tutelage of a free-spirited Frenchman, an academic who gave up his position at the Institute of True Weight to work on its grounds as gardener. (An obvious idea that works better than it sounds, but still . . . ) Though not without passing charm, gentle laughs & off-beat visual dazzle (watch for a marvelous parade of blue umbrellas passing a line of trees), the story might have worked better condensed into an anthology film. As it stands, Hamer’s work feels uncomfortably perched between one of Aki Kaurismäki’s eccentric, yet satisfying minimalist fables; and a let-yourself-go screwball rom-com with, say, Irene Dunne or Jean Arthur.* (Come to think of it, the accident that brings on the third act is more like BRINGING UP BABY/’38.)

DOUBLE-BILL: *An odd pairing, but you can really see what Jean Arthur might have done with this in Billy Wilder’s bitter Cold War political comedy A FOREIGN AFFAIR/’48.

MINISTRY OF FEAR (1944)

Top dog in his German/UFA days, the great Fritz Lang fought for work & reputation during his two decade Hollywood run, slowly losing altitude & quality assignments. Often lumped with Hitchcock as a Master of Suspense, it’s a simplification that does neither director much justice.* But just this once, Lang really does seem to be trying for the Hitchcock Touch in an innocent-man-on-the-run British picaresque; ambivalent blonde beauty on the side. It’s got THE 39 STEPS/’35 written all over it, in spite of coming out of a novel by Hitchcock agnostic Graham Greene. Ray Milland plays neutral to fine effect as a compromised man-with-a-past who stumbles into a Nazi Spy Ring at a village charity fair. Soon, he’s a wanted man trying to clear his name and solve a series of fast escalating crimes as Fifth Columnists & Scotland Yard gain ground on him. Scripter Seton I. Miller (who also produced) leaves too many good ideas hanging (like those huge tailor’s scissors Dan Duryea’s villain uses to dial his phone . . . Yikes!), and Marjorie Reynolds leaves little impression at all (on Milland or the film) as romantic interest. But the film is never less than a pleasure to watch, with expressive artificial studio sets and too many good bits to miss even when things don’t quite add up. Lang would fix all that soon enough on WOMAN IN THE WINDOW and SCARLET STREET/’45, his Hollywood peak. (There’s your DOUBLE-BILL.)

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *Hitchcock always acknowledged Lang as an early influence, but he may also have nipped this film’s elderly book shop owner, and darkening sales floor, for VERTIGO/’58.

SONO YO NO TSUMA / THAT NIGHT’S WIFE (1930)

This early silent from Yasujirô Ozu shows less of his late style then the other five titles out on a pair of Criterion DVD sets. But that’s no problem, since Ozu shows unexpected levels of comfort & easy cinematic flair working inside unfamiliar (to him) genre boundaries -- here, crime & kiddie medical crisis -- just as he will on his classic post-WWII intimate family dramas. So it’s robberies, melodrama, urban chases & sentiment; a ‘job of work’ in John Ford's phrase, for a natural filmmaker testing the waters. The first act is particularly strong, jumping right into the middle of an armed robbery, and the subsequent chase by a score of armed cops thru moody streets in the warehouse district. We might be in an episode from a Fritz Lang DR. MABUSE thriller, all dynamic angles, shadows, ‘dollies in’ & monumental building columns for quick hide-and-seek escapes. As an opening, it probably sets the bar a little too high for the rest of the pic where we discover that the criminal on the run is the father of a sick little girl in need of expensive medical treatment. Mom & Dad (it’s the same couple Ozu uses in the more lighthearted TOKYO CHORUS/’31) stay up all night with the child, along with the craggy detective who’s been on their tail all along. Will he bring the criminal in or let the parents have a night for the child’s sake? Here, the film switches tones & slows its pace, moving from Lang to something more like Borzage or von Sternberg. (And with Hollywood posters covering the apartment walls, Ozu puts his preferences right in our face.) You’ll miss the sheer excitement of the opening, but the rest is equally satisfying, just in a different way. Very strong, though not yet very Ozu.

DOUBLE-BILL: Find more early silent Ozu Write-Ups below. All highly enjoyable. And on a separate disc, the start of his true form in I WAS BORN, BUT . . . /’32.

LIFE OF A KING (2013)

This fact-suggested/modest-to-a-fault/Urban Inspirational stars Cuba Gooding Jr. as an ex-felon getting a hold on his life, and the lives of a few high school detention regulars, starting up a chess club. Fill in the blanks. Whatever interest remains here is less in what happens (you’ll guess every film-school consecrated story-beat) then in wondering if there’s still an audience waiting to see one of these uplift sagas. General Answer: YES! Especially if you tie it into some ethnic or religious niche market and aren’t ashamed to push old buttons in ways that seem new & sincere. Specific Answer: NO! Co-writer/director Jake Goldberger tics off all the boxes, but misses just the sort of detail you need to help us feel context & consequence. The film shows up D.O.A., assuming you don’t carry a torch for '80s cable pics. No surprise a token theatrical release topped out at 5 thou.

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: The modern Urban Inspirational probably started with Edward James Olmos in STAND AND DELIVER/’88: mathematics & Hispanics in for chess & Blacks.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: As writer/director, Goldberger skimps so badly on info needed to build up rooting interest you wonder about possible dropped shots from a crazy-tight schedule. Even the foreignness of the game is barely explored/exploited. On the other hand, we are spared the showy CGI visualizations of chess moves & countermoves a larger budget might have tempted Goldberger into.

IL SORPASSO / THE EASY LIFE (1962)

Dino Risi’s Italian road movie, a commedia all’italiana classic, earned quick word-of-mouth success, but took decades to gain equally well-deserved critical mass. Perhaps because Risi is so technically gifted when on form, with unerringly ‘right’ shots, an example of the-art-that-hides-art. Especially so when you’re dealing in comedy. (Fellow filmmakers noticed quickly, from EASY RIDER/’69 thru SIDEWAYS/’04 and NEBRASKA/’13, with many stops along the way. Though in filmmaking style & attraction to the painfully funny side of mid-life crises, Risi is closer to Blake Edwards.) Vittorio Gassman is phenomenal as the id-driven hedonist on the verge of out-pacing his looks & luck over a holiday wknd outside Rome. Jean-Louis Trintignant, pale & delicate next to Gassman’s robusto presence, is the emotionally constipated law student picked up as a companion after Gassman borrows his apartment phone. Not in any way a sexual pick-up (or is it?), these two hit the road, hunt up dates, eat a lot of fresh seafood & share awkward visits with relatives. Gassman, alternately exasperating & exciting, compellingly free-spirited & adolescently self-centered (often in a dangerous manner), makes Trintignant feel more alive, more in touch with the world and its possibilities, even with his anger, than he’s ever felt before. All this, brought off by both actors without special pleading for sympathy. Gassman's character, in particular, is often an appalling person, yet you see what draws people in. And few films give so much more on repeat viewing.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Gassman drives a great, if hardly pristine, Lancia Aurelia B24 Sport. Great on its own, but this one comes with a built-in 45rpm record player for those ‘60s ‘pop’ singles. So cool.

THE GRASS IS GREENER (1960)

A couple of insurmountable bumps slow this marital-infidelity drawing-room comedy down. First: it’s tough to buy Deborah Kerr leaving hubby Cary Grant for a spur-of-the-moment affair with Robert Mitchum. Sure, Cary’s a cash-poor Lord in an English manor that’s open to the public while Bob’s a tempting millionaire American oilman. But in films where men sport tuxes, it’s always going to be advantage Grant. Second: (only slightly more important) it’s a third-rate play, the sole feature credit for writers Hugh & Margaret Williams. Still, worth wading thru the strained first half to catch Grant working his magic on the back nine, enlivening the limited action as he explains it all to a ditzy Jean Simmons, Kerr’s nosy, gal-pal & audience surrogate. The ‘sophisticated’ twist is that Grant must let his wife run out her fling if he wants his marriage back, slightly soiled, but ‘intact.’ And while he appears passive, appearances can be deceiving. William Douglas-Home, master of this sort of light comedy at the time (see Vincente Minnelli’s smashing THE RELUCTANT DEBUTANTE/’58*), had it all over the Williamses, but watch what Grant is able to make of this pale simulacrum thru underplaying, agogic emphasis & sheer personal style. Plus, here & there, in scenes Lubitsch might have agreed to shoot (a medley of vacated paired chairs; a neatly staged duel in a corridor), Donen shows his formidable directing chops.

DOUBLE-BILL: The third collaboration for Grant & director Donen; the third for Kerr & Mitchum; the third for Kerr & Grant; and the third for Simmons & Mitchum!  Twelve pics!  How many have you seen? And that doesn’t even include Grant/Donen’s upcoming CHARADE/’63.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *Apparently, Rex Harrison was set to play the Grant role, but dropped out to nurse ailing wife Kay Kendall, his delectable co-star on DEBUTANTE. You can get a pretty good idea of what Rex might have done with the part watching THE YELLOW ROLLS ROYCE/’64, written by drawing-room dramedy master Terence Rattigan who’d go on to write a play specifically for Rex all about his dilemma with a dying wife (IN PRAISE OF LOVE/’74).

YVES SAINT LAURENT (2014)

You couldn’t call this bio-pic on the fashion icon useless; it could, serve as warning for any films in development on Andy Warhol or Michael Jackson, non? In over his head from the start, director Jalil Lespert goes thru the motions of charting high (and low) lights in the life of the famous, and famously troubled, designer, assisted (if that’s the word), now & then, with tagline narration from life & business partner Pierre Bergé. Pierre Niney & Guillaume Gallienne do what amounts to party turns as the couple: one acting out with the occasional female overnighter; the other diving into drugs & boy-toys. Once in a while, Yves boldly tucks a piece of fabric into a boring dress and . . . voilà, haute couture! When all else fails, season with a trio of arias from Maria Callas. Serving cocktails?: Libiamo from TRAVIATA; Suffering for your art?: Vissi d’arte from TOSCA; Fashion Show soundtrack?: the aria from LA WALLY they used in DIVA/’81. No cliché left unattended. YSL wouldn’t have let this leave the atelier.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Yet another commercial nonstarter for those Weinstein boys. Can anyone explain how they do it? Back in MIRAMAX days, finances were like the proverbial shark: keep moving forward or die. Today the Weinstein Company is more like a cinematic Ponzi scheme. One that Quentin Tarantino’s underperforming HATEFUL EIGHT may not be able to shore up.

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: Get a real haute couture fashion fix (plus Astaire, Hepburn, Thompson & Gershwin) in Stanley Donen’s miraculously right FUNNY FACE/’57. Think Pink!

A BULLET FOR JOEY (1955)

Shortly before Cecil B. DeMille granted Edward G. Robinson unofficial pardon from Hollywood’s ‘Gray List’ with a role in THE TEN COMMANDMENTS/’56, Eddie G. was wrapping up a half-decade of Pinko Purgatory with two underwhelming B pics for Lewis Allen. The second one, ILLEGAL/’55, with Eddie as mob lawyer, limps along, but still bests this lame effort. George Raft co-stars as an exiled, nearly immobile crime boss who sneaks into Canada, with his old gang right behind him, to grab an atomic ‘device’ & scientist. Robinson, sedate but inexorable as the inspector on his trail, manages to add some class, say his idiotic lines and not simply walk thru the script’s inanities. No small accomplishment when even Audrey Totter, stalwart noir sleaze-pot seems embalmed. Yet, what an apt little story for Eddie G. to take on! Rooting out a Commie atomic spy ring when, back in the real world, his career was under a cloud from Hollywood's Commie Witch Hunt. Irony surely not lost on the great actor.

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: Just before Eddie got tagged by the Hollywood ultra-Right as a dangerous ‘Premature-Anti-Fascist’ (damn ‘modern’ art collector, too!), he turned in one of his best perfs in Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s underrated/underseen HOUSE OF STRANGERS/’49.

SPOTLIGHT (2015)

A great story, a decent film . . . decent in all senses of the word. Not much else to say about Tom McCarthy’s film about the small team of special investigative reporters @ The Boston Globe’s SpotLight division who uncovered the disgraceful, systemic epidemic of pedophile Priests in the Boston Catholic Church . . . and borders beyond. On the plus side, the pre-digital/analogue bias of 2001 meant reporters still did research in actual locations (libraries & warehouses, so much more photogenic than computer screens & keyboards). On the negative, McCarthy can no longer shock with Priestly revelations, and he falls victim to ‘walking exposition’ shots in an attempt to add dynamism. McCarthy, who’s pretty new to the directing game, is so determined not to sensationalize his touchy subject matter, he lets things go a little flat just when they need to pop. Not much helped by Masanobu Takayanagi’s drab digital lensing which crucially misses the mood setting specificity of Gordon Willis’s cinematography for ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN/’76, that film’s principal glory. Fortunately, there’s a strong cast on hand to play the reporters, lawyers, victims & Catholic leaders, with real standout perfs from Billy Crudup (sending off conflicting impulses with every cracked smile) and Stanley Tucci (nailing the pic’s broadest characterization) as lawyers, while back @ The Globe, Michael Keaton’s editor/reporter does his work selflessly inside the film fabric. Contrast with fellow reporter Mark Ruffalo who pecks nervously at each & every line, cancelling himself out. All told, a good film, to be sure; yet holding something self-congratulatory in its over-rapturous reception.

DOUBLE-BILL: In addition to the obvious choice of ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN maybe a classic Warners press drama like FIVE STAR FINAL/’31 which paints its tabloid in a more ambiguous light.