074 - Hard Boiled

Synopsis: Shoot 'em up video game

Director: John Woo

Actors: Yun-Fat Chow, Tony Chiu Wai Leung, Teresa Mo, Anthony Wong

Date: 1993

How viewed: Rented from Lovefilm

Rating: 2/5

David Meyer says:
John Woo creates the most poetic, lyrical, technologically impossible, rhythmic, orgasmic, skillfully edited, widely imitated action sequences in the history of filmmaking. 

I say:

Guns, fast cars, kung fu, origami, jazz, the Hong Kong skyline, neon, yachts, sharp suits, and explosions - what more could you possibly want? Well, some sort of coherent story line would help! Otherwise this is just 2 triad gun-smuggling gangs and the police all shooting each other (and innocent passers by) with guns that rarely need reloading, and it is relentless - the body count runs into the hundreds, all of whom die beautifully choreographed deaths flying through the air in slow motion - unless of course they are the heroes who somehow avoid the hail of bullets fired straight at them! I know that, in its day, it was revolutionary, and pre-dates all the current video massacres and action films, but that doesn't save it from being an extremely boring comic book film. 

073 - In Which We Serve

Synopsis: Lives and loves of 3 Royal Navy sailors during WWII

Director: Noel Coward, David Lean

Actors: Noel Coward, Bernard Miles, John Mills, Richard Attenborough, Celia Johnson, Joyce Carey, Kay Walsh

Date: 1942

How viewed: Rented from Lovefilm

Rating: 3/5

David Meyer says:

Never a voice is raised, never a plot point is overemphasised, never anything so gaudy as an overdone action sequence is permitted to ruffle the calm, smooth tone.

I say:

A terribly, terribly British propaganda film about the courage of all the ranks (and their wives at home) serving on a Royal Navy destroyer in WWII. Noel Coward produces, directs, stars and probably makes the tea (well, probably not). The film follows the history of the ship, from being built and commissioned just as war breaks out, through various scraps, until it is sunk, with only about a third of the crew surviving (rather a bold move for a wartime propaganda film!). The stories of 3 men (upper, middle and lower class - hints of those sketches in 'That Was The Week That Was' with Corbett, Barker and Cleese!) are told in flash-back as they cling to a life raft awaiting rescue (the message being that everyone needs to pull together in the war effort). Some of the action stuff is great, and Bernard Miles, John Mills, and the wives (Celia Johnson, Joyce Carey, Kay Walsh) are all believable characters, but, for me, Noel Coward in his role as Captain of the HMS Torrin, is the only jarring aspect of the film, with his clipped tones, and stiff upper lip - it just doesn't ring true. Lots of propaganda ('There'll always be an England', and the like) obviously age the film, but nevertheless some of the bravery, fear, grimness, and dignity of what it must have been like, come through, especially moving are the arrival of telegrams at home with the families not knowing whether it will be wonderful or terrible news. Apparently the film is based on Lord Mountbatten's experiences and his speeches to the crew are taken word for word. The ending though is somewhat weird, with the surviving crew being re-allocated to other ships, the Captain shakes hands with them all to say goodbye - it seems to go for ages, and at the end Noel wanders off, leaving 4 officers, who sort of stand there embarrassedly, and then also wander off! 

072 - The Last Movie

Synopsis: The blurred edges between reality and movies

Director: Dennis Hopper

Actors: Dennis Hopper, Kris Kirstofferson, Don Gordon, Stella Garcia, Peter Fonda, Henry Fonda, Sylvia Miles, Sam Fuller, Dean Stockwell, Michelle Phillips, Julia Adams

Date: 1971

How viewed: Bought DVD from J4HI.com

Rating: 4/5

David Meyer says:

It's clear that Hopper was on the track of something miraculous, but for whatever reasons lacked the courage of his convictions while editing the final third of the film. Or that as a (totally self-destructive) director, preferred anarchy to a more conventionally satisfying conclusion.  

I say: 

On first viewing I found it very difficult to decide whether this film is an indulgent  mess or a masterpiece - and had to watch it again to try and see which side of the fence I came down on. I certainly liked it a lot more the second time - though a lot of it still didn't make sense! Dennis Hopper plays a wrangler with a film crew making a western in Peru - but after a stunt man accidentally dies on set (I admit I still didn't spot that!), he stays on in Peru with a local woman, but then finds out that the locals are making their own 'film', but are shooting each other for real. However, the film itself blurs the edges of what's real and what's imaginary, and is difficult to follow, due to the confusing timeline, the many jump cuts, various side plots (e.g. searching for a gold mine), and other unconventional devices (like the title not coming up until about 30 minutes into the film). The film does not seem to officially be on DVD, but I picked up a copy from J4HI ('Rare, Out of Print, and Lost Cult Film' - http://www.j4hi.com/index.html - well worth a browse!) and I've just realised that someone has posted it on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxNyUCE6kPo. However, both options are somewhat blurred, the sound's not great, and there's no subtitles (I find I tend to turn on the subtitles for everything these days - not just because my hearing may be going, but because the trend for mumbling means you can miss important details!). I also notice that there's also 'an extremely rare' documentary of Hopper editing the film, on youtube called 'The American Dreamer' (Hopper spent years editing the film in an 'unconventionally way in an attempt to break new cinematic ground'). The tagline for The Last Movie says 'Compared to this, every movie you've ever seen is just a film. This is cinema' - and whilst today its disjointed confusing feel would probably not feel out of place, 40 years ago it undoubtedly would have been considered revolutionary. See it at least twice, I think you might start to like it! 

071 - Kind Hearts and Coronets

Synopsis: Disinherited son murders his way to a Dukedom

Director: Robert Hamer

Actors: Alec Guinness, Dennis Price, Joan Greenwood, Valerie Hobson
Date: 1949

How viewed: Lovefilm rental

Rating: 3/5

David Meyer says:
Am adult exercise in irony, crafted to perfection, presented in a flowing, unhurried rhythm. An unmistakeable product of its age: the ultimate - and funniest - British black comedy.

I say:

I'm afraid that once again I find myself out on a limb and not agreeing with the general opinion that this is one of the greatest British films of all time, sorry! I felt it was a rather boring, macabre little tale, with, sadly, few laughs. It recounts how a disinherited member of the aristocracy (Dennis Price) gains his revenge by killing off all those ahead of him in line to become the next Duke of Chalfont. It's all done in a very flat, matter of fact, tone, poking fun at the aristocracy and indeed seeming to approve of their demise! In it's favour, the circular format of the story (the revenger is eventually trapped by revenge) is neat, but mainly it's a vehicle for Alec Guinness to have fun playing all 8 of the members of the family who get bumped off (though they are all rather similar characters, and some are only on screen for a few seconds!). Nice to see the great Arthur Lowe pop up as a reporter in the last scene - though blink and you'll miss him! Overall though, not a bundle of laughs. PS The film's title comes from a line in a Tennyson poem: "Kind hearts are more than coronets, and simple faith than Norman blood' - though not sure how that really fits the film!

070 - Le Dernier Combat (The Last Battle)

Synopsis: Life in a post-apocalyptic world

Director: Luc Besson

Actors: Jean Reno, Maurice Lamy, Pierre Jolivet
Date: 1984

How viewed: Bought DVD

Rating: 2/5

David Meyer says:

Weird, funny, hypnotic and irresistible. The first hint of Besson's unique merging of American mayhem and French art film.

I say:
In Besson's film, It's not much fun after the apocalypse - the wind blows, skyscrapers are half submerged in sand, there's no food or water (though it does rain fish!), the survivors have lost the power of speech, everyone's out to kill you, and the few remaining women are kept locked up as possessions. Plus it's a near silent film in back and white... This is story of one man, alone after some apocalyptic event - living in an office block, scavenging parts to build a plane to escape across the vast desert that presumably now covers the city. He escapes, he crashes, he's chased, he finds a friendly doctor living in a derelict hospital, they continue to be hunted until he is alone again, eventually flying back where he came from (why?). It's all very slow and depressing, occasionally coming across like a silent comedy (though with few laughs). Not sure what we're supposed to take from it - I guess that in extreme circumstances man reverts to an animal. Great, thanks for that!

069 - Poto and Cabengo

Synopsis: A documentary about twins who speak in an invented language. 

Director: Jean-Pierre Gorin

Date: 1979

How viewed: youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqyvBN4lXm4

Rating: 2/5

David Meyer says:

Jean-Pierre Gorin was pursuing one subject for his documentary, when, to his surprise he discovered another - the life and delusions of the downward-spiraling American working-class family.

I say:
This is the 3rd (and final) film that was missing from my list, and found a few days ago on youtube (though you can get a Region 1 DVD which contains this and 2 other of Jean-Pierre Gorin's documentaries). One of the comments posted on youtube about this film says 'One of my all time fave films', whereas in contrast I thought it was one of the worst films I've ever seen. It's a documentary about identical twin girls who communicate with each other in their own invented language (known as idioglossia - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idioglossia). This is such a fantastic subject - but unfortunately this is a complete dog's breakfast of a film that completely fails to address or answer almost all of the questions that this raises. The girls (Ginny and Gracie - Poto and Cabengo are what they call each other) seem to have invented their personal language because their family was concerned that they were retarded (probably not a PC concept these days) and so they were kept at home and away from outside influences. The film seems to lay most of the blame on the facts that: their father is American and their mother German, their German speaking grandmother came over and looked after them most of the time, the father is more of less out of work and had little money, and they moved across the States to San Diego - none of which seem to me to be a convincing cause. The film was made as they were starting to be assimilated into the wider world, and, as you might expect, the kids are hyperactive when they are brought into new environments like the zoo, and they clearly play up to the camera, but the film-maker gives up after 2 days and goes home as he can't make them sit still! However, I really liked the fact that on their first visit to a bookshop and being allowed to chose a book to take home, one of twins chose a book on Volkswagen maintenance and the other one on quantum mechanics! So, anyway, to save you having to watch, the denouement is that their invented language is in fact English, but they simply mis-pronounce or have a variety of ways of pronouncing words - there's an example in the film of 16 ways they pronounce 'potato'. Personally I blame the mother's hair (one example in the photo), which is clearly alien.


  

068 - A Flash of Green

Synopsis: Local reporter caught in the conflict between developers and environmentalists 

Director: Victor Nunez

Actors: Ed Harris, Blair Brown, Richard Jordan, George Coe

Date: 1984

How viewed: youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUMKve_PJ44

Rating: 5/5

David Meyer says:

Nunez has a feel for the light of Florida, for the weight of its heat and for the lust that springs up in the boredom of air-conditioned afternoons. He has a gift for atmosphere - moral, sexual and political - and that makes up for his shortcomings as a storyteller.

I say:

This is the 2nd of my 'missing' films which I finally found on youtube - though it is available on VHS (does anyone still have a VHS player?) - and although it's a bit blurred and the sound is fuzzy and it's been posted in 6 parts, it still shines through as a great little film, and it's a mystery as to why it's not more widely available.  On IMDB there are just 8 user reviews, 3 of whom score it 10/10 and the others either 8 or 9/10. It came as an interesting contrast to the previous film (Candy Mountain) which is clearly written and acted but features grand landscapes - whilst The Flash of Green is so natural and slow and small and quiet. It's based on the book by John D MacDonald (see also Cape Fear) which surprisingly doesn't seem to be available in the UK. Anyway, Ed Harris is wonderful as a small town reporter (I kept seeing echoes of James Stewart) in Florida who is courted by the local movers and shakers to dig the dirt on the little protest group who are campaigning against their plans to build a new housing development on the bay. However, his sympathies tend to lie with his protesters who include his friends and neighbours. As the dirty tricks get more and more dirty he has to decide whose side he is on, but following his conscience results in him being ostracised, beaten up, and persuaded to leave town. He comes back however, and whilst he regains his job and his lover he cannot stop the march of progress. By the way a flash of green light is what can sometimes be seen at the moment the sun goes down (and when you should make a wish) - see also The Green Ray directed by Eric Rohmer.

067 - Candy Mountain

Synopsis: Struggling musician goes on road trip to find famous long lost guitar maker

Director: Robert Frank, Rudy Wurlitzer

Actors: Kevin J O'Connor, Harris Yulin, Tom Waits, Bulle Ogier

Date: 1987

How viewed: youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M46U83r5Ss0

Rating: 4/5

David Meyer says:

Though the camera work is simple (due to a low budget) there are images of heartbreaking poetry. Frank's visuals support a core value of road movies: There's profundity in the open landscape of the outback and only the road can take you there.

I say: 

This was one of the films I feared I'd never find - it's not on lovefilm, or imdb, and although it's been on my amazon and ebay wish lists for a couple of years, no copies have appeared. But then, a couple of days ago, I did a general google search and found it (and the 2 other films I was missing!) on youtube - some kind soul had posted the entire film there - OK, it's a bit blurred, but it's fantastic to see it! I've no idea why it's not available - it's got a lot of pluses - directed by Robert Frank (the noted photographer, who, according to his wikipedia page, took road trips across the US for 2 years photographing all strata of its society. He took 28,000 shots, of which only 83 were finally selected for publication in his famous book ' The Americans'), so you sense it's somewhat autobiographical, and a pile of famous and not so famous musicians - Tom Waits, Mary Margaret O'Hara, Dr John, Leon Redbone, Jo Strummer, David Johansen, Rita MacNeil - though most 'act' rather than sing. So anyway, Julius (O'Connor) overhears that guitars made by Elmore Silk (Yulin) are extremely valuable, but that Elmore has disappeared, and offers to find him and persuade him to sell some of his guitars as a quick way of becoming rich and famous. So, as he slowly tracks Elmore down, by being passed from person to person, and given possible addresses, he has less and less money, gets more and more beat-up transport, and travels from the New York to the edge of the world (Nova Scotia). The film is supposed to be about the realisation that quality of life is more important than money, but I'm not sure Julius sees it that way! It's not a great film, Frank is first and foremost a photographer rather than a director, and whilst it's great to see so many musicians (especially M2O'H (love her!!), and Leon Redbone (I had to stop the film and go and order a couple of his CDs on Amazon!!) they are not good actors, though as the film progresses everyone and everything somehow seems more and more relaxed. Worth seeing? Only if you're a fan of Robert Frank, road trips and a bunch of famous/infamous musicians (which I am!!).

 

066 Henry V

Synopsis: Henry V asserts himself, wins at Agincourt, and marries French princess

Director: Laurence Olivier

Actors: Laurence Olivier, Leslie Banks, Felix Aylmer, Robert Newton, George Cole, John Laurie

Date: 1944

How viewed: Lovefilm rental

Rating: 3/5

David Meyer says:

Olivier plays dress-up in a glistening, happy, artificial universe, making himself more heroic by his accessibility, and giving his audience a genuine escape from the dreary wartime reality waiting outside the theatre.

I say: 

As someone unfamiliar with the play, this comes across as very inconsistent. It's probably not fair to criticise the film which is nearly 70 years old (!) and pretty faithfully follows Shakespeare's text, but the impressive sections (the quiet contemplations the night before the battle at Agincourt, and especially the recreation of the battle itself) are somewhat overshadowed by the ropy sets in most other scenes, the comedy Scotsman, Irishman and Welshman (and vicar!), and the fact that Katherine is the only French person who doesn't speak impeccable English! The film was made during the war and acted as propaganda - the English win at Agincourt against impossible odds by playing by the rules, and then being magnanimous in victory. Quite a hard film to follow, one needs to be more of a Shakespeare buff to get the subtleties, though one's ears automatically prick up when the famous speeches occur ('Once more unto the breech..' and 'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers..'), but lots of famous faces to look out for: Robert Newton (the definitive Long John Silver), George Cole (aka Arthur Daley), and John Laurie (from Dad's Army).