Black Moon

Black Moon (Criterion #571).
1975 Janus Films.
Starring: Cathryn Harrison, Joe Dallesandro, Alexandra Stewart, Therese Giehse
Written and directed by Louis Malle
Available from Amazon in both DVD or Blu-ray formats.

In a film influenced by the writings of Lewis Carroll, as well as films like Robert Altman's Images, Cathryn Harrison plays a troubled young lady named Lily who may or may not be prone to vivid hallucinations. After encountering a battle between male and female military units where the men were eagerly executing women soldiers, Lily makes her way to a country estate (director Malle's home at the time) where naked children are busy rounding up sheep, a pair of sibling caretakers both named Lily (Dallesandro, Stewart), and an old lady (Giehse, who died shortly after production was completed) who when she isn't communicating with her pet rat or operating a bed side ham radio, is very demanding, and she is breastfed by both sister Lily and Lily herself.

Lily also begins noticing a unicorn parading around the estate, and she pursues it. After Lily is beaten up by the naked kids, she discovers that the unicorn can also talk. The unicorn turns up in the old lady's room, where Lily prepares to breastfeed it. And the movie ends.

Louis Malle has created a film that manages to be completely surreal at times, and at other times, it can be unspeakably boring. There isn't a lot of dialogue in the movie to explain things, so be prepared to make your own judgements about what's going on.

Slightly recommended.

Sawdust and Tinsel

Sawdust and Tinsel [Gycklarnas afton] (Criterion #412).
1953 Janus Films.
Starring: Åke Grönberg, Harriet Andersson, Hasse Ekman, Anders Ek, Gudrun Brost, Annika Tretow, Erik Strandmark, Gunnar Björnstrand, Curt Löwgren
Written and Directed by Ingmar Bergman
Buy Sawdust and Tinsel at Amazon.

The continuing adventures of a traveling circus led by ringmaster Albert (Grönberg), who has not seen his wife Agda (Tretow) in three years. Agda prefered to remain at home as a shopkeeper while her husband led his circus from town to town over the past three years, sleeping with his mistress Anne (Andersson). After Albert is reminded of a situation where his clown Frost (Ek) discovered his wife Alma (Brost) swimming nude before a crowd of cheering soldiers, he decides to go home to visit his wife. Albert does not know what to expect upon his return home.

Anne is deeply upset by Albert's decision to see his wife, so she meets and seduces a young actor named Frans (Ekman). Upon Albert's return to the circus, a drunken Frost tells him about Anne's fling with the actor. Albert is enraged enough to try picking a fight with Frans during a performance at their most recent stop, but Frans manages to thwart Albert's blows, and delivers a beating to the ringmaster. A humiliated Albert contemplates suicide, but decides instead to punish Anne by killing the company's bear, which she was very fond of. Afterwards, Albert orders his circus to pack up and move to the next stop.

A classic Bergman film with a great, depressing ending. Ingmar Bergman himself said that this thirteenth film was the first good one he made, despite a cool reception from critics and moviegoers alike. Highly recommended.

Happy birthday, Ingmar!

La Bête Humaine

La Bête Humaine [The Human Beast or Judas Was a Woman] (Criterion #324).
1938 Paris Film and Janus Films
Starring: Jean Gabin, Simone Simon, Fernand Ledoux, Blanchette Brunoy, Jacques Berlioz
Director: Jean Renoir
Currently available at Amazon.

Jean Renoir directed this 1938 adaptation of the Emile Zola novel of the same name, while taking a small acting role in the production. Renoir hadn't even read the book for over twenty years when he began working on the screenplay, and most of Simone Simon's dialogue was copied almost word-for-word from the book.

Jean Gabin is locomotive engineer Jacques Lantier, a troubled man with a history of violent incidents committed against women, which he blames on the alcoholism of his forefathers, giving him "poisoned blood". Still, Lantier feels the best when he's driving the locomotive. A faulty axle ends up sidelining Lantier and his train in the city of La Harve for a few days, where he meets and falls for the wife of his coworker Roubald (Ledoux), the beautiful Severine (Simon).

Roubald is privy to his wife's long-term affair with her wealthy godfather Grandmorin (Berlioz), so the two of them plot to murder him on a train trip. They succeed, and an innocent passenger is convicted for the crime, while Lantier, the only witness, keeps quiet. Lantier and Severine begin an affair, partially instigated by Severine to keep the only witness quiet. Pretty soon, Severine is urging Lantier to murder Roubald, but unfortunately, she is unaware of Lantier's history of attacking beautiful women who fall in love with him, and it proves fatal for her.

A beautifully shot film with some stunning footage taken aboard a speeding train. The Criterion DVD presents a decent transfer for the most part, with a few scenes showing minor damage. Recommended film.

Ikiru

Ikiru [To Live] (Criterion #221).
1952 Toho Studios and Janus Films.
Starring: Takashi Shimura, Shinichi Himori, Haruo Tanaka, Minoru Chiaki, Bokuzen Hidari, Kamatari Fujiwara
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Ikiru is available from Amazon in the following links:
Criterion two-disc edition.
Single disc of Janus Films' Essential Art House line.
As part of the Essential Art House, Volume 2 set.
Part of Criterion's box set AK 100: 25 Films of Akira Kurosawa for only $318.49 as of this writing.
Part of the Janus Films box set Essential Art House: 50 Years of Janus Films for the low price of $772.49.

Roger Ebert's personal favorite Kurosawa film. Yes, he liked it even more than Seven Samurai.

Takashi Shimura is Kanji Watanabe, an employee for the government. He's worked in the same position for thirty years, and he is also a widower. His son and daughter-in-law live with him, but they are no more than roommates; the young couple are more interested in Kanji's pension, and their future inheritance. Kanji's coworkers are really no more than strangers to him.

Watanabe is diagnosed with stomach cancer and given less than a year to live. After deciding not to inform his son about his bad news, Kanji decides to go out and drink himself to death instead, but gives up after one night when he realizes it's not the answer. Still, he asks a piano player to perform "Gondola no Uta" in a pivotal scene.

The next day, Watanabe runs into one of his former coworkers, Kimura (Himori), and is attracted to her outgoing nature and love of life. Kanji confesses to her that he wants just one day to live like she does: totally carefree. Kimura's new gig is making toys, which makes her feel like she's playing with all of the children in Japan. Inspired, Kanji dedicates himself to leaving behind a positive legacy, and works tirelessly to help transform a cesspool (a community eyesore which numerous residents complain about in the opening of the film) into a playground for children.

At Kanji's wake, his former coworkers question why he changed so much in the last months of his life, and slowly realize that he must have known his time was limited. Over the course of many drinks, Kanji's surviving coworkers vow to live the same way he did, with the same dedication and passion. Back in the office, though, they find themselves unable to follow through on their new vow.

Highly recommended film.

Port of Shadows

Port of Shadows [Les Quai des Brumes] (Criterion #245).
1938 Osso Films, Janus Films and StudioCanal.
Starring: Jean Gabin, Michel Simon, Michèle Morgan, Pierre Brasseur, Edouard Delmont
Director: Marcel Carné
Amazon.com listing (only a few copies left).

An example of French "poetic realism", where characters often had a negative view of life and were either working class stiffs or criminals. Usually, these people got a last chance of love, but something would always go wrong, and the film would end in either disillusionment or death. Think of it as a nostaglic bitterness. Port of Shadows is a fine example of this genre, and it's a story of a man and his dog.

Jean (Gabin) drifts into a French port city called Le Havre, having deserted the army and seeking to escape France completely. He falls in with a loose knit group of misfits and outcasts who largely congregate at Panama's (Delmont) bar, just to hear Panama's stories about traveling the world. Among the group is Nelly (Morgan), a beautiful woman, and her godfather Zabel (Simon). Zabel is being stalked by a small-time hood named Lucien (Brasseur) because the gangster believes Zabel knows something about another crook named Maurice Brevin. Jean also has a dog following him throughout the film, who he saved at the beginning from being hit by a truck.

Jean acquires a fake passport, intending to leave for Venezuela, but he also falls in love with Nelly. In addition to that obstacle, Jean later finds himself at odds with Lucien!

Port of Shadows came out in 1938, just months before World War II erupted on the European continent. Surprisingly, even if the main character had deserted the military, there is no hint through the film of the imminent bloody conflict. Director Carné also had some problems producing the film, as the studio, Germany's UFA, had fallen under control of the Third Reich's propaganda minister, Josef Goebbels, who had already driven off the other major German directors and talents, including Fritz Lang. In the booklet that comes with the Criterion disc, an excerpt from Carné's autobiography goes into detail about finding a reasonable producer for the film, and how the French largely disliked the movie, since it wasn't an upbeat one, and it was linked to a Nazi-run film studio.

Recommended film.

3 Women

3 Women (Criterion #230).
1977 20th Century Fox.
Starring: Shelley Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Janice Rule, Robert Fortier, Ruth Nelson, John Cromwell, Sierra Pecheur, Craig Richard Nelson
Director: Robert Altman
Buy 3 Women from Amazon. Blu-ray edition hits stores on September 30th.

Robert Altman once had a dream which he did not completely understand, but he still adapted it into a film treatment with the intent of not using an actual script. 20th Century Fox greenlit the idea regardless.

Out in the California desert, newcomer Pinky Rose (Spacek) gets a job at a senior care center as a therapist. Another employee, Millie (Duvall), is told to help train Pinky. Millie fancies herself a social butterfly, and seems oblivious to the fact that everyone who knows her is making fun of her. Pinky sees Millie differently, and eventually they become roommates at an apartment complex co-owned by the third woman in our story, Willie (Rule). Willie is pregnant and married to a man named Edgar (Fortier). She also constantly paints elaborate and surreal murals with violent and sexual imagery at the apartment complex (including one at the bottom of the complex's swimming pool) and the bar that she and Edgar run. Edgar also sees nothing wrong with cheating on his pregnant wife; he sleeps with both Millie and Pinky behind Willie's back.

Pinky admires Millie enough that she seems to be attempting to become Millie, even reading aloud passages from Millie's diary. In return, Millie treats Pinky horribly, attacking her for the most mundane social faux pas. After an argument one night, Pinky leaves the apartment and takes a spill from a balcony into the swimming pool. Pinky is comatose for a time, and Millie brings in Pinky's parents from Texas.

Just after Pinky emerges from her coma, she becomes a completely new woman: the outgoing, aggressive and confident woman that Millie so desperately tries to portray in public. Millie, meanwhile, finds herself turning into what Pinky used to be prior to her accident; meek, passive, awkward. Later, Edgar abandons Willie, and both Pinky and Millie find themselves trying to deliver her baby themselves...with tragic consequences. The ordeal of Willie's child being stillborn further transforms all three women into what seems to be a very odd and curious situation: the three women now live together, Pinky refers to Millie as her "mother", and talks to Willie just like a sister. Edgar's fate is unclear, though.

Highly recommended film, although it does take a while to really get going. It's worth the wait, though, with excellent performances from Duvall and Spacek.

Amarcord

Amarcord [I Remember] (Criterion #4).
1973 Janus Films and F.C. Produzioni.
Starring: Magali Noel, Bruno Zanin, Pupella Maggio, Armando Brancia
Director: Federico Fellini
Buy Amarcord from Amazon.

The winner of the Best Foreign Language Film at the 1974 Academy Awards (among other accolades), Fellini's Amarcord is a delightful coming of age film set in the late 1930s in Rimini, Italy. Largely set around a year in the life of the Biondi family, where the boys are out of control deliquents, mother is ill, father is unable to cope with all of the changes happening in his personal life; not to mention any Mussolini-related issues, and the grandfather is growing senile. Another uncle has been institutionalized, but is allowed to spend a day in the country with the rest of his family...where he climbs to the top of the only tree for miles around and bellows "I want a woman!" over and over.

Chaos, violence, and confusion lie just ahead in the near future, but the Biondi family and the rest of the townspeople have one year to establish some long-lasting memories, and they all make the most of it.

Highly recommended film.

A Safe Place

A Safe Place (Criterion #548).
1971 BBS Productions and Columbia Pictures.
Starring: Tuesday Weld, Orson Welles, Phil Proctor, Jack Nicholson, Dov Lawrence, Gwen Welles
Produced by Bert Schneider
Written and directed by Henry Jaglom
Available only as part of Criterion's America Lost and Found: The BBS Story box set. Amazon: Standard DVD. Blu-ray.

Henry Jaglom's first movie is a big screen adaptation of a stage play he wrote and produced in the 1960s starring Karen Black, and Tuesday Weld on occasion. BBS Productions gave Jaglom the opportunity to produce a film version, and Jack Nicholson appeared in it as a favor to the director (Jaglom appeared in Nicholson's Drive, He Said), only expecting a new color television set as compensation. When A Safe Place was shown at the 1971 New York Film Festival, audience reaction was so divided that a riot nearly broke out.

A Safe Place is a surreal and somewhat confusing film where Tuesday Weld portrays a hippie woman named either Susan or Noah, and she seems caught between adolescence and adulthood, which is why she frequently retreats (seemingly) into her imagination. She is dating a somewhat nerdish man named Fred (Proctor), when she isn't having an affair with a wealthy married man, Mitch (Nicholson). Also appearing frequently is an older magician (Welles), and we're unclear as to who he really is, if he isn't a figment of Susan's imagination. Phil knows that Susan is whacko, but he puts up with her stories and other nonsense. Ultimately, neither Phil nor Mitch can completely satisfy Susan.

This one rivals Head as the oddest BBS production (they also produced and released The Last Picture Show in 1971). Still, Tuesday Weld gave a decent performance, and she looked gorgeous in this one. You can also tell Orson Welles was happy, as he got to essentially portray himself as the magician. Henry Jaglom uses plenty of unrelated jump cuts and other bizarre imagery to create a truly unique film. Recommended, although do not expect to get it the first time. This one may require more than one viewing, folks.

Drive, He Said

Drive, He Said (Criterion #547).
1971 BBS Productions and Columbia Pictures.
Starring: William Tepper, Karen Black, Michael Margotta, Bruce Dern, Robert Towne, Henry Jaglom, Michael Warren, Charles Robinson, David Ogden Stiers, Cindy Williams
Produced by Steve Blauner and Jack Nicholson
Screenplay: Jeremy Larner, Jack Nicholson, Terrence Malick (uncredited)
Director: Jack Nicholson
Drive, He Said is only available as part of Criterion's box set America Lost and Found: The BBS Story. Amazon listings: Standard DVD. Blu-ray.

Jack Nicholson's directoral debut not surprisingly features basketball as one of the central plotlines. It's also an interesting, but disorganized film. I still found it compelling enough.

Hector Bloom (Tepper) is a star college basketball player from California who has found himself at a small university somewhere in Ohio (modeled after Kent State). His roommate Gabriel (Margotta) is from a well off family, but he's still harboring radical feelings and getting involved with campus protests. Both Hector and Gabriel are both facing the draft: Hector to the NBA, while Gabriel will do just about everything to not go to Vietnam. And Hector, as the film goes on, seems more and more unhappy at the thought of turning professional.

Hector is also having an affair with the wife of his favorite professor, Olive (Black), which comes to an end once he realizes that he's in love with her. And then, Olive reveals she's pregnant. Coach Bullion (Dern) does his best to run the team and keep Hector motivated while slowly realizing that his star player may not have the heart for the game and the rest of the team anymore.

Drive, He Said has one notable standout performance, from Margotta as the increasingly crazed radical Gabriel, and the film itself is good, but not great. Interesting, I felt nonetheless, even if the finished project came across more as a series of unrelated, episodic sketches that are only tied together by the main characters. Recommended movie.

Slacker

Slacker (Criterion #247).
1991 Detour Filmproduction and Orion Classics.
Starring: Richard Linklater, Kim Krizan, Marc James, Stella Weir, John Slate, Louis Mackey, Teresa Taylor, and many others
Written, produced and directed by Richard Linklater
Buy Slacker at Amazon today!

Along with sex, lies and videotape, this film is considered the genesis of the independent film movement of the 1990s, and it was a major influence on Kevin Smith, who has often stated Slacker was the inspiration for Clerks. Also, this movie supposedly popularized the term "slacker" to describe any person "characterized by apathy, aimlessness, and lack of ambition".

Over a 24 hour period in Austin, Texas, Linklater showcases dozens of mostly twenty-somethings all doing their part in keeping Austin weird. We see one or two characters converse about just about everything for a few minutes before we start to follow someone completely different and unrelated to the previous characters. The only common thing all of the movie's players have is that they might pass by one another on the streets during their daily routine, or perhaps, their lack of routine.

Highlights include Linklater as a chatty taxi passenger who just completed a long bus trip, the UFO "expert" in the Batman T-shirt trying to convince a complete stranger that the United States has really been traveling to the moon since the 1950s, yet another JFK conspiracy buff, someone who is really into collecting television sets (he even walks around with one strapped to his back!), an elderly anarchist who talks a younger man out of robbing his home with stories about where he was during Charles Whitman's rampage in 1966, and most bizarrely, the odd woman (Taylor) who walks up to a random couple offering to sell them a genuine "Madonna pap smear".

Highly recommended.

This Sporting Life

This Sporting Life (Criterion #417).
1963 Janus Films and The Rank Organisation
Starring: Richard Harris, Rachel Roberts, Alan Badel, William Hartnell, Colin Blakely, Vanda Godsell
Produced by Karel Reisz
Director: Lindsay Anderson
Buy This Sporting Life from Amazon.

Lindsay Anderson's feature length debut is an outstanding example of the kitchen sink realism (the "British New Wave") that British cinema was producing between the late 1950s and early '60s. Richard Harris made his film debut here, and he won the Best Actor Award at the 1963 Cannes Film festival for his portrayal as the angry Yorkshire miner Frank Machin, who is recruited into a local rugby club after the team's manager witnesses a drunken fight between Machin and several of his players. Frank takes time to mature into a decent player, but he is signed to the premier team when the owner, Gerald Weaver (Badel) is impressed by Machin's aggressive play. In due time, Frank Machin has wealth and fame, but he finds that it's not enough to win the affections of his landlady, Mrs. Margaret Hammond (Roberts).

Margaret is the struggling mother of two young children, and her husband is recently deceased after an accident at Weaver's engineering firm which was ruled a suicide. At first, she rejects Frank's advances, but does begin a relationship with him that seems doomed from the start. Machin uses Margaret for sex, and she is still grief-stricken enough that she cannot return affection. Margaret, meanwhile, is upset at Frank's lack of social graces during a dinner date at a fancy restaurant. The affair ends, but a reconciliation is not in the cards. Margaret dies following a brain hemorrhage, and Frank finally realizes that his rugby career is probably no better than working all of his life operating machinery in a mine: both choices ultimately feels like an inescapable prison.

This Sporting Life also features William Hartnell as "Dad" Johnson, a rugby scout who is devoted to Frank to an uncomfortable degree even after Machin abandons him after his first taste of success. Hartnell's appearance here gained the attention of the first Doctor Who producer, Verity Lambert, and he would become the first Doctor that same year.

Get this DVD! Highly, highly recommended film.

The King of Marvin Gardens

The King of Marvin Gardens (Criterion #550).
1972 BBS Productions and Columbia Pictures.
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Bruce Dern, Ellen Burstyn, Julia Anne Robinson, Benjamin "Scatman" Crothers, Charles LaVine, Josh Mostel
Director: Bob Rafelson
Available as a single DVD, or part of Criterion's America Lost and Found: The BBS Story box set (standard DVD) (Blu-ray).

This 1972 film directed by Bob Rafelson was reissued last year in one of the most (IMHO) exciting home video releases of 2010, Criterion's America Lost and Found: The BBS Story. Originally, the project was supposed to be released by Sony with the generic "New Hollywood" title in fall of 2009, but at some point, Sony licensed the set to Criterion, who worked their unique brand of magic on the seven films included, and the plethora of extras found on each disc. BBS Productions was formed in 1968 by Rafelson, Bert Schneider, and Steve Blauner, financed by the success of the Monkees' TV series. Over the next four years, BBS would create and release some undisputed classic films which were distributed by Columbia Pictures, notably Five Easy Pieces, Easy Rider, and The Last Picture Show. BBS was also responsible for the Academy Award winning 1974 Vietnam documentary Hearts of Minds, which is not included on the BBS set, but it has its own Criterion release.

The King of Marvin Gardens stars Jack Nicholson, playing against type as a depressing and almost passive radio host named David Staebler, also known as "The Philosopher", who spends his evenings depressing and boring the hell out of anyone who's listening in or around Philadelphia. One of his favorite topics to discuss on the air is his older brother Jason (Dern), who at the time, is in jail, allegedly for stealing a car. After one memorably bad show, David is called upon to bail Jason out of the hoosegow, with the help of a shady businessman named Lewis (Crothers). Arriving in Atlantic City, the bold and outgoing Jason ropes his brother into an outrageous scheme: buying a small island near Hawaii, and turning it into a resort. Jason is also living with two girlfriends in a once-grand Atlantic City hotel; the aging beauty queen Sally (Burstyn) and her stepdaughter Jessie (Robinson). Sally starts to grow paranoid that Jason will abandon her once his "upcoming success" in Hawaii becomes a reality.

The tension between Sally and Jessie gradually increases over the course of the movie, and David seems to realize that Jason's plans simply aren't going to happen, especially after a debacle of a lobster dinner with two potential investors from Japan, who do not come through. Also, Jason seems to be confident that he can get financial support from Lewis, who isn't buying in, as David will find out one evening. Tragically, Jason's grand scheme never gets out of Atlantic City, as Sally shoots him to death following a loud argument between the two of them and David.

A great movie, even if it was a bleak and depressing one at time. Its violent ending seemed almost appropriate in this character study of four people with no real future to their lives or any chance to escape Atlantic City, New Jersey. Recommended movie.

House

House (Hausu) (Criterion #539).
1977 Toho Films & Janus Films.
Starring: Kimoko Ikegami, Miki Jinbo, Kumiko Oba, Ai Matsubara, Mieko Sato, Eriko Tanaka, Masayo Miyako, Kiyohiko Ozaki, Yoko Minamida, Godiego
Music: Godiego
Director: Nobuhiko Obayashi
Available from Amazon as a Criterion standard edition DVD or Blu-ray.

Not to be confused with the medical drama staring Hugh Laurie that airs on Fox, House is the debut feature film from director Nobuhiko Obayashi, who up until that time, was known for his experimental films such as Emotion (which is also included on the Criterion DVD) before transitioning into filming television commercials featuring American stars such as Kirk Douglas and Charles Bronson. Obayashi also employed many of his experimental filming techniques in his commercial work, and it should be no surprise this practice carried over into his feature films.

After the success of Jaws, Toho studios wanted to make a similar blockbuster film, and they asked Obayashi to develop a script. The director took several ideas from his young daughter Chigumi, believing that "children can come up with things that can't be explained". The finished script was approved by Toho (even if they felt it was "incomprehensible"), but none of their in-house directors wanted to touch the project, fearing it would end their careers. Obayashi ultimately directed the film, casting mostly unknown actors in addition to established stars Kimiko Ikegami and Yoko Minamida.

And now, the plot...

A young student named Gorgeous (Ikegami) changes her summer vacation plans after being told that her father (Saho Sasazawa), who has been in Italy scoring film music, has remarried. Upset, Gorgeous writes a letter to her aunt, asking if she can come visit for the summer, and after she is given permission, she invites her six best friends along. In addition to Gorgeous, and her Persian cat Blanche, we get to meet the brainy Prof (Matsubara), the expert at piano Melody (Tanaka), the brave Kung Fu (Jinbo), the constantly hungry Mac (Sato), the adorable Sweet (Miyako), and the quick to panic Fantasy (Oba). The seven samurai hop on a cross-country train trip, where the members of the band Godiego take time out of their busy schedule to see the girls off.

Once the girls arrive, and get settled in at Auntie's (Minamida), weird things start happening. Mac disappears after going to fetch a watermelon she picked up on the trip over. Fantasy finds, and is attacked by Mac's head after she goes to retrieve the watermelon. Auntie disappears after entering a broken refrigerator, and the rest of the girls are attacked by household items. Gorgeous is possessed by her aunt's mirror, and Sweet disappears after being lured into a spare room by Blanche, but not before she is attacked by mattresses. The remaining girls decide that they've had enough, but after Gorgeous leaves to find some help, the house locks Kung Fu, Melody, Prof and Fantasy in. After Melody is devoured by the piano she was playing, the girls run upstairs and find Gorgeous wearing a bridal gown, and she reveals her aunt's diary.

Ultimately, Gorgeous reveals that her aunt died many years ago waiting for her husband to return from World War II, but her spirit remains, and it is eating unmarried girls who arrive at the house. Kung Fu and Prof both fall victim to Auntie's spirit as the house begins to fill with blood. Fantasy manages to escape to find Gorgeous upstairs waiting for her. The next morning, Gorgeous' new stepmother Ryoko (Haruko Wanibuchi) arrives at the house, where she is met by Gorgeous, who tells Ryoko that her friends will be awake soon, and that they're "hungry".

House, with all of its deliberately bad special effects, and every single camera trick available, turned out to be a big hit in Japan, especially with young audiences. The film was never shown in the United States until after Janus Films bought the rights, originally intending for it to be released as part of Criterion's "Eclipse" line of DVDs. Interest in the movie led Janus to release the film theatrically in late 2009 and through the next year, before it was released by Criterion itself to DVD and Blu-ray on October 26th, 2010.

Highly recommended, although some caution should be used if there are young children in the audience, due to brief nudity in two scenes.

Bigger Than Life

Bigger Than Life (Criterion #507).
1956 20th Century Fox.
Starring: James Mason, Barbara Rush, Walter Matthau, Robert Simon, Christopher Olsen, Roland Winters, Jerry Mathers (uncredited)
Scene deleted: Marilyn Monroe
Director: Nicholas Ray
Buy Bigger Than Life from Amazon.

James Mason is Ed Avery, a school teacher and family man who is secretly moonlighting as a cab driver to earn extra money to support his wife Lou (Rush) and son Richie (Olsen). Ed keeps pushing himself harder despite suffering increasingly painful spasms. Finally, Ed collapses, and while hospitalized, learns that he has been stricken by a rare arterial disease. The doctors have given him less than a year to live, but they do offer to provide him an experimental treatment with cortisone. At the time, cortisone was a new, and not fully tested as a drug.

Ed makes a full recovery and returns to work and family life, but things are not the same. For one thing, Ed has adopted a carefree attitude towards money. What's worse, Ed begins going through some very violent mood swings, where he finds himself talking down at just about everyone, family included. His closest friend, Wally Gibbs (Matthau), also finds himself on the receiving end of Ed's sudden outbursts. He soon comes to the conclusion that it's the cortisone at the root of the problem, and Ed is taking far more of the experimental drug than he has been prescribed, claiming that it's the only thing keeping him alive. Finally, one Sunday, Ed experiences a psychotic episode that threatens the safety of his family and best friend.

Bigger Than Life is a great look at drug addiction and psychological unhingement being brought into a 1950s suburban American home, which is probably why it was not a box office success at the time. Everyone needs to see this picture at least once. Highly, highly recommended.

Make Way for Tomorrow

Make Way for Tomorrow (Criterion #505).
1937 Paramount Pictures, now owned by Universal Pictures.
Starring: Victor Moore, Beulah Bondi, Fay Bainter, Thomas Mitchell, Porter Hall, Barbara Read, Maurice Moscovitch, Minna Gombell
Director: Leo McCarey
Buy Make Way for Tomorrow from Amazon.

Leo McCarey directed this Depression-era drama in the same year that he also made The Awful Truth, one of the all time great screwball comedies. McCarey won the Oscar for Best Director for the latter film, but he couldn't resist remarking "Thanks, but you gave it to me for the wrong picture." Orson Welles, in a conversation with Peter Bogdanovich, commented that Make Way for Tomorrow "would make a stone cry".

The bank has foreclosed on the house that Barkley and Lucy Cooper (Moore & Bondi), a couple in their late 60s, have owned while bringing up their five children. The Coopers knew about their money problems, but did not act on them, and they instead waited for things to turn around for them. Ma and Pa turn to their children for help, but none of them can take both of their parents in together. Barkley moves in with his daughter Nellie (Gombell) and her husband Harvey (Hall), while Lucy is taken in by son George (Mitchell) and his spouse Anita (Bainter). The new living situations prove stressful for everyone involved.

Later on, the plan for the Cooper children is for one of them to take in both Ma and Pa so they can spend the rest of their lives together. Barkley is experiencing health problems, and it's believed that he would be better off in a warmer climate, but Lucy decides to move into a home for older women, which means the separation between she and Barkley will likely turn into a permanent one. Still, the Coopers still have one more day to spend together before moving into an uncertain future apart.

This isn't the most depressing film ever made, but it's close. Highly recommended, though.

P.S. Dear Criterion, please consider releasing My Son John if you ever want to issue another Leo McCarey film. While you're at it, I hear Duck Soup just might be available!

Burden of Dreams

Burden of Dreams (Criterion #287).
1982 Flower Films & Janus Films.
Starring: Werner Herzog, Claudia Cardinale, Klaus Kinski, Mick Jagger, Jason Robards
Narration: Michael Goodwin (writer), Candace Laughlin (spoken)
Directors: Les Blank with Maureen Gosling
Buy Burden of Dreams at Amazon.

Les Blank, with some help from Maureen Gosling, directed this documentary examining German filmmaker Werner Herzog and his nearly-five year struggle to film Fitzcarraldo in the South American jungle. Fitzcarraldo is the story of Brian "Fitzcarraldo" Sweeny Fitzgerald, a European living in Peru who loves opera music enough that he decides to build a music hall in the middle of the Peruvian rain forest, simply so Enrico Caruso can christen it with a performance. Fitzgerald breaks into the rubber industry, Peru's most profitable industry at the turn of the 20th century, to realize this vision.

From the very start, the production seems cursed, as original star Jason Robards becomes ill, and returns to America, where his doctor orders him to stay. His co-star, Mick Jagger, has to drop out of the film to honor commitments with the Rolling Stones (recording Tattoo You, and touring to support that record). Herzog replaces Robards with his frequent collaborator Klaus Kinski, and deletes Jagger's role from the script. The film's production also is hindered by unpredictable weather, and dealing with hostile local tribes, not to mention hostilities between Peru and Ecuador military units. Kinski was also difficult to deal with during the shoot, and he clashed with Herzog and other crew members many times, upsetting the local extras enough that a native tribe leader offered to murder the actor. Herzog turned down the offer...because he needed Kinski to finish filming.

Herzog wanted his movie to be as realistic as possible, which meant that instead of using models or other special effects, he hired hundreds of local residents to help move a 320 ton steamship over a hill (the real life Fitzgerald simply dismantled his boat before transporting it). The director believed that no one had ever performed a similar feat in history, and likely would never try it again, so he called himself "Conquistador of the Useless". Regardless, despite all of the hardships and setbacks, Herzog never gave up, and Fitzcarraldo was released to theaters in 1982, garnering great critical success.

As for Burden of Dreams, it is a very interesting documentary depicting the efforts of a nearly impossible and at times ridiculous film production that would've broken the wills of many directors, actors, or other film crew members. Highly recommended.

I Know Where I'm Going!

I Know Where I'm Going! (Criterion #94).
1945 The Rank Organisation & Janus Films.
Starring: Wendy Hiller, Roger Livesey, Pamela Brown, Finlay Currie, George Carney, Nancy Price
Directors: Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
Available from Amazon.

From her infant days, Joan Webster (Hiller) always possessed an independent spirit, and always knew where she was going, or at least she thought so. As an adult, she leaves home in Manchester, planning to travel to the Hebrides to marry the very wealthy and much older industrialist Sir Robery Bellinger (voiced by Norman Shelley), settling down on the island of Kiloran. Bad weather keeps her stuck for a week on the Isle of Mull, and Joan waits in a small community of people whose values are foreign to her.

During the wait, Joan meets a naval officer named Torquil MacNeil (Livesey), who is also trying to make his way to Kiloran for shore leave. Over the next few days, she falls for MacNeil, but she still doesn't want her original plan to go to waste. Joan unsuccessfully tries to sail to Kiloran, but Torquil, who invited himself aboard after hearing that she was making the trip, manages to bring the boat back into a safe harbor. Only then does Joan learn that her future does not lie in a marriage of convenience on a small island, but it resides on the mainland with Torquil.

Highly recommended.

Wise Blood

Wise Blood (Criterion #470).
1979 New Line Cinema (distributors) & Janus Films.
Starring: Brad Dourif, John Huston, Dan Shor, Harry Dean Stanton, Amy Wright, Mary Nell Santacrose, Ned Beatty, William Hickey
Director: John Huston
Buy Wise Blood from Amazon.

John Huston directed this adaptation of Flannery O'Connor's 1952 novel of the same name. Brad Dourif is Hazel Moses, a returning veteran discharged due to an embarrassing injury that he'd rather not discuss. Moses plans to settle down in a new town to experience things that he's missed out on before. Once he arrives in an unspecified mid-sized community called Taulkinham, various strange characters begin to congregate around him, including a young man named Enoch Emory (Shor), who is evidentally desperate for Hazel's approval, claiming to have "wise blood" flowing in his veins.

Hazel's grandfather (Huston) was a pretty hardcore fundamentalist preacher, we learn in flashbacks, and Moses grew up as an angry young man who refused to believe in a higher power. Even though Hazel grew up to despise preachers, he finds himself transforming into a zealous street preacher promoting his so-called "Church of Truth Without Jesus Christ", where a member has to save himself because "sure as hell the Lord won't save you". Moses also runs across a fellow preacher named Asa Hawks (Stanton) who feigns having blinded himself in the name of Jesus, as well as his daughter Sabbath Lily (Wright), who isn't as innocent as she seems.

The Church Without Christ never truly takes off, despite the efforts of Sabbath Lily, Hawks, Enoch, and a huckster known as Onnie Jay Holy (Beatty), who steals Hazel's message and attracts the following that Moses was unable to attain. Things start to spiral out of control for Moses, and a routine traffic stop is the catalyst that sends him over the edge.

Highly recommended, but this is still a weird movie.

Blast of Silence

Blast of Silence (Criterion #428).
1961 Universal International.
Starring: Allen Baron, Molly McCarthy, Larry Tucker, Peter H. Clune, Danny Meehan, Howard Mann, Charles Creasap
Narrator: Lionel Stander (uncredited)
Director: Allen Baron
Buy Blast of Silence from Amazon.

This is an excellent late period film noir written, directed by, and starring Allen Baron. Peter Falk was originally cast for the role as Frankie Bono, but scheduling conflicts prevented this.

It's New York City at Christmas, 1961. An antisocial loner of a hitman named Frankie Bono arrives in the Apple from Cleveland, where he'll make a hit on a millionaire named Troiano (Clune). Frankie knows where to find his man, but his surroundings may prove it difficult to stay focued on killing Troiano, such as the reappearance of an old flame named Lorrie (McCarthy), and the Christmas season bringing Bono's suppressed loneliness to the surface. He has very painful memories of aforementioned holiday.

The DVD boasts an excellent (okay, nearly flawless) transfer of the film, providing the viewer with crisp, black and white shots of Manhattan. Again, this is an all around amazing movie. Highly, highly, highly recommended.

Hopscotch

Hopscotch (Criterion #163).
1980 AVCO Embassy Films, StudioCanal & Janus Films.
Starring: Walter Matthau, Glenda Jackson, Sam Waterson, Ned Beatty, Herbert Lom
Director: Ronald Neame
Hopscotch is available from Amazon.

The Criterion Collection does have a few head-scratchers for movies that they've released, notably both of the Michael Bay films they issued on DVD, and most recently, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I also have to agree that Hopscotch, which to my knowledge was never a commercial or critical success, is one of those movies. Criterion has released other films made by director Ronald Neame, so it isn't completely unusual that Hopscotch is present in the collection.

Based on Brian Garfield's novel of the same name, the feature stars Walter Matthau as renegade CIA agent Miles Kendig who plans to publish a book exposing the inner workings of both his employers and the KGB. After Miles participates in a sting operation in Munich, he learns that his supervisor Myerson (Beatty) is planning to force him into semi-retirement and a desk job. Kendig insists that he's a field man, and takes it upon himself to leave, destroying his file on the way out. With the help of Isobel von Schonenberg (Jackson), Kendig starts globehopping, staying one step ahead of his pursuers from America and Russia, even hiding out in Myerson's Georgia home. He also finishes his book while hiding in London.

Kendig fakes his death in England, departing with Isobel for France, and everyone else involve believes that he really is dead, save CIA agent Joe Cutter (Waterson). The book does become a bestseller, though, amid rumors that Miles is alive and hiding in Australia.

Recommended film, although I admit that I didn't pay that close attention to it, as I was spending more time bouncing between various websites trying to read more about the death of Michael Jackson, so my apologies. Fortunately, Hopscotch did pick up the pace after Kendig went on his escape, keeping a step ahead of two powerful government agencies.