Week in Film #15: 4/4/16-4/10/16

Week in Film #15: 4/4/16-4/10/16

Film of the Week: Hiroshima, Mon Amour
   Year: 1959
   Director: Alain Resnais

       The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is often an overlooked subject matter in film, and this is really the first time I've seen this topic tackled head one. Which is surprising that I say that given that the film is at the same time obscure in its relation to that topic. That is how the film functions: close and distant, hot and cold. It is a film that brings you in to the heart of its leading lady, right up close enough to feel the tears and the tremors of pain and rage, and then just as easily pushes you far away from her in a cold point of nulled feeling and distance from the hot emotion we were moments ago so close we could feel its aching pulse. That is much how we interpret great tragedies. At first with a visceral empathy, and later with a faded remembrance, eventually forgotten.

   Rating: B+

The Rest:

Youth of the Beast
   Year: 1963

   Director: Seijun Suzuki

       Seijun Suzuki is a stylist above all else, and not the kind that seems to have any concern with the likes of plot, character, or making his films in any realm of logic or sense. If you take it at that level, this is a lot of violent, cool fun. If you look for any shred or semblance of story or reason, you will have a considerably less enjoyable time with his films. Luckily, I learned this with his other well known effort, Tokyo Drifter, and therefore knew what I was getting into with this adventure. That being said, I was still surprised by the ridiculousness of it all, and the essentially incomprehensible storyline.

   Rating: C

Drunken Angel
   Year: 1948
   Director: Akira Kurosawa

       A doctor tries to cleanse his countries landscape, especially the rundown part he resides in, but while he preaches of cleaning up the scum, he doesn't seem to realize he's part of it. Kurosawa has the self awareness and complexity to make this decision, showing the savior of society ultimately being another product of it, even if he is the one who is able to call out the problems. The doctor at one point chastises some gangsters about their feudalistic attitudes towards women, only in the next seen to yell at the a woman for making a decision he perceives to be wrong, and forcing her into a choice she herself is not choosing. The doctor is probably right in the end over the decision in question, but it is not his place to decide for her. And theres the rub: how do you force a broken person/society to make a decision that would benefit them without taking away their freedom to choose? And does that professional with the foresight to see a downfall matter when he is a drunk himself? He may be the angel that is sent to save humanity from itself, but he's not the one that humanity needs, nor the one that can save it.

   Rating: B-

Miracle Mile
   Year: 1988
   Director: Steve De Jarnatt

       The logic is that of a nightmare, the feel of a Lynchian one, only more action packed. The nightmare is that scenario where you are running from something you can't escape from. The something in this case is atomic decimation. Unfortunately, the nightmare is also combined with the more daily life horror of being stuck with people so incredibly incompetent and lacking in any sense of urgency to the point that, spoiler alert, they all die based on their complete disregard of the threat at hand coupled with an apparent inability to comprehend the meaning of "nuclear annihilation" or the concept of time. The tragic ending is brave for a movie like this, pushing away from the Hollywood demanding criteria of a happy ending. In fact, the entire movie could be seen as a dismissal and critique of the typical Hollywood movie. Notice how, like I mentioned before, the characters don't seem to have a sense of immediacy when it comes to their situation. This is because they are too busy engaging in long kisses in soft light and making heartfelt speeches and declarations of sentiment to worry about the world crumbling around them. It is initially set up as a sort of romance and seemingly standard boy meets girl story, but in the end becomes the destruction of that boy and that girl based on the very romance that the film began as. You don't need a more telling symbol than the destruction of Hollywood itself.

   Rating: B-

3:10 to Yuma
   Year: 1957
   Director: Delmer Daves

       A psychologically rich western on a small, tense scale. The story is a tale about doing the right thing, even in the face of great adversary, and almost to the point of foolishness based upon a sense of duty. That sense of duty derives not just from a moral standpoint, and a wanting to band together with the community, but also insecurities about masculinity. This especially shows in the contrast between the outlaw and man who is determined to guard him. He, the man on guard, sees the outlaw who attributes the assertiveness, and boldness, and the masculinity he so wishes he could obtain. In an earlier scene, we see as the man has to stand by helpless, humiliated in front of his young boys as he is held up at gunpoint and has release his two horses. The boys ask the father why he didn't do anything, and the father answers them with logic, explaining that there was nothing he could have done. But emotions and the defined roles of men in this time in place don't play by the rules of logic, and his feelings of insecurity and impotence as a man haunt him and account for his need to try and make up for his lost sense of manhood, compensating. In the end, this saves the day, and perpetuates the myth of the old west and of the masculine figures and legends of that setting. This vision of the west survives on overblown macho mentalities, and is a way of surviving such a harsh landscape. But the decision early in the film to do the smart thing over "what a man should do" saves his life, and the lives of his two young children.

   Rating: B+

Laura
   Year: 1944
   Director: Otto Preminger

       A solid noir, but not quite up their with the best of them. The central conceit of a man falling in love with a portrait is interesting, but not explored much after the dead woman turns up not dead after all, and the rest of the picture plays out in a different direction than potentially more interesting ones it could have gone in.

   Rating: B

Rio Bravo
   Year: 1959
   Director: Howard Hawks

       Good, but overrated in my opinion. There is a warmth here that I admire, and the relationships between the men are handled with in such a way that it manages to straddle the line between touching and cheesy, almost falling over onto the latter's side but never quite doing it. To be honest I'm not really sure why this is considered one of the greatest westerns ever made. It is good, but not a masterpiece.

   Rating: B

Waking Life
   Year: 2001
   Director: Richard Linklater

       I've seen many films employ dream logic in their structures and narratives, but I've rarely found a film to nail the feeling of a dream as well as this one does. The conversations can be hard to follow but overall the messages get across I think. It is always nice to see a movie dive headlong into ideas the way this one does, and the animation helps to keep it all interesting.

   Rating: B+