TODO MODO (1976)

Italian auteur Elio Petri’s political allegory on the Christian Democrats and Aldo Moro (note how closely the title reflects his name), a savage satire on crony corruption masquerading as populism.  You’d imagine knowledge of the Italian political scene would be necessary to figure this one out, and while such info would clarify some things, more than enough comes thru without any background on the era.  (On the other hand, the kidnapping and murder of Moro by Radical Communists two years later made the film a rarity till a 2007 restoration.*)  When we enter the bunker-like complex that serves for a meeting of political power brokers, a national epidemic is already spinning out of control.  Inside, the men are led by a religious order that has it’s own agenda & priorities.  (This year’s CONCLAVE isn’t too far away - https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2024/11/conclave-2024.html.)  This highly stylized situation cunningly handled by Petri who knows how to turn us all into interloping voyeurs following the moves of Gian Maria Volontè for the secular side (though he’s desperate for religious absolution) and Marcello Mastroianni’s master priest and confessor of choice.  But rather than finding safety from the pandemic raging outside the brutalist-style facility, the participants are anything but safe, falling to murder within . . . or has the disease seeped thru the concrete?  Fascinating stuff, if not always clear.*  But what makes this essential viewing is Petri’s logistical control inside this mysterious complex, half rabbit warren/half convention center; and Mastroianni's staggering power in the second act when he’s had enough of the pomp and hypocrisy.  Who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?

DOUBLE-BIL/LINK:  Petri still largely known for his Oscar’d & Cannes’d INVESTIGATION OF A CITIZEN ABOVE SUSPICION.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2014/07/indagine-su-un-cittadino-al-di-ogni.html

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY/LINK:  *The film’s fortunes not unlike THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE/’63 which was pulled out of distribution for decades after JFK’s assassination.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-manchurian-candidate-1962.html

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  *And you don’t need to know a thing to laugh when mass comes to a halt because someone has stolen the hosts!  As if they were missing Girl Scout Trefoil cookies.

IN THE HEIGHTS (2021)

Between calling-card hits (CRAZY RICK ASIANS/’18; WICKED/’24), director Jon M. Chu had something of a film musical test-run with this adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s first B’way show.  Pleasant, well-fashioned (very Music Video ready), but with a weightless quality to it, like watching cartoon characters who don't cast a shadow.  (Or is it that Chu gives everything the same weight?)  Anthony Ramos, primus inter pares in what is essentially an ensemble piece about a block or two up in Washington Heights NYC, is the bodega owner who dreams of returning to his family roots in the Dominican Republic.  And it’s that flux of people leaving the nab (priced out thru gentrification, for University & upward mobility, simply dying off, or just for the Bronx!) that sets the relationships (and music) in motion.  Mass musical motion that is; substituting for actual choreography.  It’s the camera that does most of the sweating.  But once past the obligatory Welcome to the Neighborhood opening, too many musical numbers repeat the ideas.  Encore or Extended Cut?*  Lin-Manuel Miranda, in a guest spot, does himself a favor with a number lasting about three-minutes.  He nails it; then exits.  Leave ‘em wanting more something of a lost art these days.  And amidst so much raw talent, why are three sizable roles given to seriously over-parted actors?  Was Chu too busy keeping his compositions filled to the brim to notice?  Check out the clear bold graphic statement on our poster (it’s the soundtrack cover) to see what Chu should have been trying to achieve.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: Just a few months later,  Lin-Manuel Miranda made his film directing debut to striking effect with the far superior, personally specific choices of tick, tick... BOOM!/’21. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2021/12/tick-tick-boom-2021.html

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  *Fred Astaire’s famous dictum held that a musical number that worked on stage for eight & a half minutes could play on screen for no more than three & a half.  (Just bare in mind, he’s referring to the carefree B’way musicals of the 1920s and ‘30s.)

JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS (1963)

Even people who haven’t heard of the ‘50s & ‘60s Sci-Fi and Greek Mythology fantasy films made by Stop-Motion master Ray Harryhausen and producer Charles H. Schneer seem to know the stupifying warrior skeletons of this film.  Great fun, for sure; more surprisingly, well-made fun.  The film actually good; not often the case for these on-the-cheap sword & sandal epics.  Harryhausen & Schneer knew it, too; citing this as their favorite.  The credits show why: a Bernard Herrmann score*, writers with an ear for Greek Gods (co-scripter Beverly Cross Maggie Smith’s second husband*), handsome location shooting with Wilkie Cooper’s lensing shot ‘flat’ so the considerable post-production special effects match picture elements without forcing the grain, well-cast, too.  (Jason a bit low on wattage and dubbed, but no deal breaker.)  Definitely not part of the formulaic HERCULES series out of Cinecittà.  Harryhausen named his filming system Dynamation, whatever that was, but it’s the care taken in matching all the separate visual elements that makes the difference in making this look downright posh on screen and ‘selling’ what are essentially articulated puppets.  The story nothing more than Jason going from one adventure to the next (like an old-fashioned movie serial) surviving lively, perfectly integrated, stop-motion obstacles to reach the Golden Fleece, helped by his hunky argonaut mates.  Not a gym rat among them BTW, but plenty of rough-hewn masculinity.  Not really a pretty sight, but a good explanation of why those Trireme battle ships were open-air vessels!  Yikes!

READ ALL ABOUT IT:  *(Another HEAR All About It)  Though this film’s music isn’t included, the best collection of self-conducted Herrmann fantasy film scores is on BERNARD HERRMANN: GREAT FILM SCORES, originally out on gimmicky, but spectacular Phase 4 Stereo vinyl.   (Easy to find on all major streaming services.)  

DOUBLE-BILL:  *Harryhausen, Schneer & Cross all went back to the well for 1981's CLASH OF THE TITANS.  All that was missing was the magic.  (Apparently, Harryhausen had to do a bit of a rush job and was forced to delegate much of the painstaking work.)

GLORY / SLAVA (2016)

Superb, hilarious, devastating.  Tone is everything in this bitter fable of comic frustration as Bulgarian writer-directors Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov demonstrate the grim, inevitable ramifications of no good deed goes unpunished.  It starts with good fortune as a simple, but honest railroad linesman returns a stash of cash he’s found on the track bed during his daily maintenance rounds.  So, in spite of a disabling stutter that makes him appear witless, the poor man is brought to the city to be celebrated only to encounter a Murphy’s Law of disaster as he’s shuttled about for P.R. events run by an over-burdened official currently in the midst of fertility treatments she hasn’t the time for.  Her selfish contempt for the hero-of-the-day only abetted by her incompetent toadying staff and by her demanding superior.  The misery climaxed by an exchange of the poor man’s beloved ‘Glory’ watch, a cherished gift from his father, with a piece of modern digital junk.  Its inevitable loss setting the stage for a hopeless crusade of sorts; and not just for the missing watch, but also for civic justice as he opens up to a reporter about disappearing fuel deliveries and widespread corruption at the railways.  But when everyone’s in on the action, this truth-teller, honest but plodding, is easily portrayed to look like a menace who must be stopped.  The basic tone of a corrupt society not far from the films of Romania’s Cristian Mungiu*, but given a madly comic twist Preston Sturges would have understood.  (Or is that Gogol nodding in agreement?)  By the third act, all the laughs are sticking in your throat as worst case scenario takes over the action.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  *Cristian Mungiu’s best known for 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS/’07, but BACALAUREAT/’16 makes the better match.    https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2024/04/bacalauureat-graduation-2016.html   OR:  On the Film Movement DVD, this comes with the Oscar-winning Live-Action short, HELIUM/’13, a heart-breaker about a caring hospital orderly who bonds in fantasy with a 10-yr-old terminal patient.  Sounds sentimental, it probably is, but pretty wonderful all the same.

SEBASTIAN (2024)

The well-trod tropes of the gifted young writer caught transcribing rather than transforming friends, relatives  & personal experiences as source material, gets the New Queer Cinema treatment in this London-set film from Finnish writer/director Mikko Mäkelä.  Ruaridh Mollica is Max, a standout college writer earning awards & publishing opportunities for his graphic tales of the city, mostly about gay sex-worker Sebastian.  Sebastian no creation, but Max’s pseudonym when turning tricks for cash and literary inspiration.  But is the line dissolving between these two?  Caught up in a reckless world of paid pleasure, Max is losing his grip, missing class, assignments and blowing off interviews for the school’s respected magazine.  But a rather elegant, elderly client, seemingly his least appropriate, will shake him up in emotional/intellectual ways, just as he’s starting to fall apart.  With an excellent cast and London’s gay demi-monde nightlife believably caught, the action doesn’t always move in ways you expect.  A shame the film loses a step in the second half with Mäkelä hanging fire when he tries to reflect the wary caution Max lives with.  On the other hand, it’s nice to avoid one of those tragic endings you typically get on a queer Pilgrim’s Progress, instead recognizing the oneness of Max/Sebastian.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  See what’s changed in seven decades of gay themes on college campus life with TEA AND SYMPATHY/’56.    https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2013/02/tea-and-sympathy-1956.html

WITH A SONG IN MY HEART (1952)

So many Golden Age Hollywood bio-pics start at the end, with some sort of testimonial dinner setting up a flashback to cover the whole story, this structural device is a genre on its own.*  As here, with this largely forgotten film about a largely forgotten singer (Jane Froman).  A surprisingly big deal in its day with one Oscar, five noms, (including the two femme leads); the year’s #11 grosser; TechniColor; plus 20th/Fox’s Darryl Zanuck assigning it to fave scripter Lamar Trotti.  Susan Hayward (dubbed by Froman) has an easy rise up the Hit Parade, but the real drama is saved for the second half of the pic when ONE: she’s seriously injured on a WWII flight to entertain the troops in Europe, and TWO: when she falls hard for pilot (Rory Calhoun) but won’t break with loyal hubby David Wayne.  Unexpectedly, the big drama involving her leg injury (other than the great Thelma Ritter as a wisecracking nurse) takes a backseat to the adult behavior attempted on the villain-free romantic triangle.  If only director Walter Lang weren’t such a friction-free megger!  And if only the film didn’t climax with an interminable States of the USA medley that merges seamlessly into a reprise of her signature tune at the big testimonial.  Like a built-in encore we didn’t ask for.  Otherwise, standard stuff.

DOUBLE-BILL:  *There’s nothing inherently wrong with the full-life flashback bio-pic.  For a WWII example you can’t do better than James Cagney in Michael Curtiz’s YANKEE DOODLE DANDY/’42.  Froman even sings George M. Cohan’s iconic ‘Give My Regards to Broadway.’ 

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  Nice little dramatic showcase for a very young Robert Wagner as a fan, and then a wounded soldier boy.

VERONICA GUERIN (2003)

I suppose action-specialist producer Jerry Bruckheimer could have found a director less well suited to this fact-based tale of a risk-taking, overconfident Irish journalist who battles the Dublin drug lords of the ‘90s than Joel Schumacher, but it’s hard to think of one.  With his usual trifecta of faults (coarse tone, clichéd response, co-opted tropes), Schumacher pushes too hard at both ends of the film, starting Veronica’s story with a nuclear family so happy, they dance their doubts away before she heads off alone down a dark alley with near masochistic longing.  Cate Blanchett’s Guerin a tricky character, a scandal-seeking reporter with her own ethical problems (she’s repeatedly led my the nose into printing single-sourced articles that play into power struggles among the drug kingpins), and so willfully foolhardy about safety, you wonder if she has a martyr complex.  Schumacher not unaware of the contradictions, but seemingly more interested in a makeup for Blanchett that turns her, distractingly, into a Princess Di facsimile.*  Weak as much of this is, there’s a dramatic pull to the facts and a typically elusive turn from Ciarán Hinds as Guerin’s inside frenemy contact.  His hulking features withstanding even Schumacher’s attempts at taming.

DOUBLE-BILL:  *Blanchett went from lookalike Diana to Katharine Hepburn in next year’s THE AVIATOR/’04, Martin Scorsese’s Howard Hughes whitewash.

THE SECRET BRIDE (1934)

Overlooked and underrated, this political drama from Warner Bros. needs a bit of creative viewing to take flight, but is worth it.  Briefly, Governor’s daughter Barbara Stanwyck has secretly married State D.A. Warren William just as Dad gets hit with impeachment on a Cash-for-Pardon bribery scandal.  Worse, she’s the sole witness on a follow-up murder that would explain everything.  Yet she refuses to take the stand & testify (this murder trial is in court the next day!) because her recent marriage to William’s D.A. would make his efforts look romantically & politically tainted.  Really?  That’s the motivation?  This idiotic idea scuttles what is otherwise an exceptionally tight & imaginative production (lensing/direction/sets : Ernst Haller/William Dieterle/Anton Grot - all three on fire).  Pacey & suspenseful from the first shot, with one of those amazing four-star Warners contract player lineups of supporting character actors.  So what’s behind the weak underlying motivation?  See release date for a probable answer: late 1934.  The film, all but certainly developed Pre-Code, now scrambling to find acceptable Post-Code substitutes for Babs non-action and reluctance to testify to save both Father and Glenda Farrell’s innocent secretary from jail . . . or worse.  Our speculative guess is that the original storyline had Babs & William trysting before marriage (she spotted that murder from his bedroom - Yikes!) and now he’s insisting they keep the pre-marital affair under-cover while he works to get the charges dropped without Babs having to admit her moral disgrace and ruin Dad’s political career.  Viewed this way, plot & motivation click into place with something believable at stake.  Keep that in mind to get the most out of what’s otherwise a damn fine, if forgotten production.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY:  This entire POST a Screwy Thought, no?

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  1934 was the year Warren William should have, but didn’t become a major studio star.  With nine films, co-starring Mary Astor, Ginger Rogers, Stanwyck, Claudette Colbert (twice!), Joan Blondell & Kay Francis.  Even playing Perry Mason and working under C. B. DeMille.  He was even better cast in his six 1933 films where that slight sleazy factor he carried with him (and that we love him for) was more fully on display.

LOOK BACK / RUKKU BAKKU (2024)

The first major new voice in Japanese anime to appear after Makoto Shinkai’s breakout spectacular YOUR NAME/’16, has produced no spectacular.  But that's fine for this chamber piece from debuting director Kiyotaka Oshiyama taken from a popular manga that's all about manga (the Japanese comic book/graphic novel hybrid) and lasting just under an hour,  It’s a high-spirited yet contemplative look at two unlikely friends, an ultra popular, extroverted grade schooler and an introverted home-based classmate (a near shut-in) who become rivals with competing mangas on the school paper.  But a face-to-face meeting shows what opposites can offer each other, a yin to her yang.  Oshiyama has yet to build up his narrative skills, and a discontinuous timeline doesn’t help clarify things, but as anime technician & innovator, he’s downright formidable.  What cool POV angles!  And he’s helped rather than hindered by the tight budget forcing set pieces to be built up from stills & montage effects that detail artistic growth as these two natural artist pals work their specialties (character, story, background) to reach the greater goal.  A treat just to gaze at; plus some big emotional payoffs catching us by surprise.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  As mentioned, YOUR NAME which is a fully mature masterpiece.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2018/06/kimi-no-na-wa-your-name-2016.html

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  One of the film’s producers is M-G-M whose famously fatuous motto: Ars Gratia Artis, for once, actually fits the project it’s attached to!