The Heist of the Century (2020)

 ☆ ☆ ☆

The Heist of the Century (2020) – A. Winograd

Commercial film-making Argentina-style – which is to say, not all that different from Hollywood film-making (or that’s clearly the goal).  Sure, this heist caper is based on a true story, the biggest bank robbery in Buenos Aires circa 2006 and it’s somewhat wacky – but not nearly enough – instead, the film follows the usual genre formula.  First, we see dope-smoking martial arts instructor Fernando (Diego Peretti) come up with his plan (to access Banco Rio’s safety deposit boxes via a tunnel dug upward from a storm drain).  Then, we see him get his team together – chiefly, professional thief Luis Mario (Guillermo Francella), who doesn’t want to put up with Fernando’s loopiness, and a few other guys with smaller speaking parts.  Most of the running time is taken up with the actual heist and it’s handled well by director Ariel Winograd.  Luis Mario keeps the hostage negotiator busy while the rest of the team executes the theft. Of course, there’s fallout after the robbery, but you expect that.  In fact, there’s nothing really unexpected about this film at all – but it’s perfectly acceptable as light entertainment.  

 

Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife (1938)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife (1938) – E. Lubitsch

Although not rivalling Lubitsch’s masterpieces and filmed immediately before two of them (Ninotchka, The Shop Around the Corner), Bluebeard still has enough of the director’s sly “touch” to bring a smile to these lips and even some chortles.  Gary Cooper is a multimillionaire used to getting his way who decides that he’d like to have Claudette Colbert as his wife (and her hustler father, Edward Everett Horton is certainly keen). However, when she finds out she is to be the 8^th wife (and he is rather cavalier about it), she forces Cooper to boost the pre-nup agreement to give her a healthy annual pay-out upon divorce.  And then she proceeds to torment him by partying and carrying on and ignoring him (particularly in the boudoir).  A very young David Niven plays her supposed love interest and it’s a good comic turn from him.  Of course, Colbert is sparkling and even Cooper (who can be stodgy) is able to bring laughs. Perhaps the battle of the sexes doesn’t quite soar but it’s refreshing to see the topic broached (as Lubitsch has done before).  Worth a watch (after you watch the director’s 4 or 5 even funnier films). 

 

The Bigamist (1953)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Bigamist (1953) – I. Lupino

More of a melodrama than a film noir, as directed by Ida Lupino who also takes one of the three key roles – that of the “other woman”.  Edmond O’Brien (who featured in many noirs: The Killers, D. O. A., White Heat) stars as Harry Graham who seeks to adopt a child with wife, Eve (Joan Fontaine). This leads to an investigation into his background by fussbudget Mr. Jordan (Edmund Gwenn, who gets a few in-jokes referencing his earlier role as Kris Kringle here). The investigation uncovers Graham’s double life – and we learn in flashback how he ended up also married to Phyllis (Lupino) while still married to Eve.  Possibly the film encourages us to have sympathy for Graham who winds up in this plight because he tries to be a nice guy – but Jordan and later the judge (and Lupino) never let us forget that Graham’s own behaviour, a serious moral transgression and betrayal, initiated the calamity that ensnared all three. Lupino is a steady hand behind the camera and should have had more opportunities to direct.  

 

Family Romance, LLC (2019)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Family Romance, LLC (2019) – W. Herzog

When a student from his “Rogue Film School” told Herzog about his idea for a film based on the real Japanese company “Family Romance” which loans out trained actors to play the part of family members at various occasions, the famed director promptly decided to make the film himself. Moreover, he also served as his own director of photography, using a handheld 4K digital camera and shooting on location (and sometimes guerrilla style).  He claims that this got him back in the spirit of his early innovative films (such as Aguirre, the Wrath of God).  Perhaps, however, the real link to his oeuvre (which always blended fiction with reality) was the decision to cast the real owner of Family Romance (Yuichi Ishii) as his lead actor (playing himself) and to write the screenplay, based in part on Ishii’s business anecdotes and in part on his own fascination with Japan and more generally with the way that humans play roles in all aspects of their lives, blending “truth” or authenticity with lies (often white lies) and play-acting, for the benefit of relationships and others’ feelings. The central story is about Ishii being paid to play the role of a missing father to a young 12-year-old girl (Mahiro).  He tells her he has been away since the divorce but now wants to be a part of her life.  The mother gives Ishii enough background in order to play the role convincingly.  However, tension arises for Ishii as the girl opens up to him and starts to form a real bond.  He starts to imagine various ways that the relationship will have to end when the contract is up.  We also see various other assignments for Ishii and his company that allow Herzog to indulge his various interests (in a robot hotel or the making of a viral video celebrity). Indeed, one of the flaws of the film is that Herzog tends to impose himself on the project (albeit without his distinctive voiceover) rather than let the players speak for themselves. Perhaps we would have learned more from Ishii himself than from the words put in his mouth by Werner. The script itself doesn’t quite congeal as much as I would have hoped either. Nevertheless, the film did manage to tantalise this viewer by raising questions about fiction vs. reality, the accountant’s truth vs. ecstatic truth (see Herzog on Herzog), a Goffmanian dramaturgical perspective on self-presentation (“all the world’s a stage”), socialisation and relationships (how we learn to act from “role” models), etc. At the end, perhaps we may also wonder, alongside Ishii, whether anyone is really authentic, including our real family members!   

 

The Vast of Night (2019)

 ☆ ☆ ☆

The Vast of Night (2019) – A. Patterson

We are in the midst of an Amazon Prime (Australia) free trial and I have been searching for anything that looks decent (that I haven’t already seen).  This sci-fi flick set in the 1950s came recommended by various websites.  I suppose it does find ways to refresh a tired old premise (the sighting of UFOs in New Mexico) by more closely following the activities of the two lead characters: Fay (Sierra McCormick), the telephone switchboard operator in the small town, and Everett (Jake Horowitz), the local radio station’s evening DJ.  After hearing reports of strange electronic sounds and various sightings in the night sky, they ask listeners to call in to the radio show if they know anything.  A former military officer tells a strange tale (although not too strange to anyone who has heard of Area 51) and an shut-in old lady invites them to her house to reveal even more weirdness (possible abductions).  The whole film is packaged as a pseudo-Twilight Zone episode, which ends with the unexpected (or not) twist.  All said and done, this is diverting enough (mostly because we get to see life in the ‘50s in more detail than usual) but based on too many cliches of the genre to make it truly interesting (unless perhaps you are new to said genre).

  

Hollow Triumph (1948)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Hollow Triumph (1948) – S. Sekely/P. Henreid

A.K.A. The Scar.  Paul Henreid is a gangster just out of jail who decides to rob a notorious gambling den but things go awry.  He goes into hiding to avoid the hitmen after him and happens to run into his exact double, a psychoanalyst with a thriving practice.  Having studied psychology himself, Henreid plots to kill the doctor and take his place (approaching his secretary Joan Bennett in order to glean personal info about his double, he winds up falling in love). The only difference between Henreid and the psychologist (also played by Henreid) is that the latter has a pronounced facial scar on his left cheek.  Unfortunately, when Henreid cuts himself to reproduce the scar, he accidentally chooses the wrong cheek – but no one notices (or do they?).  The suspense is built and, in Hitchcock-like fashion, we find ourselves barracking for the bad guy. But this being film noir, it can’t possibly work out and the ending is deliciously ironic.  Although Paul Henreid apparently took over direction of the film himself, the real highlight here is John Alton’s shadowy cinematography – characters are shown starkly surrounded by pitch black darkness more often than not. Above average noir, not least because of its weird plot. Worth seeking out (I found it on youtube).