The Lady of Musashino (1951)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Lady of Musashino (1951) – K. Mizoguchi

A “modern” Mizoguchi that takes place in the immediately post-war years and shows the immense changes in Japanese society occurring at that time.  Mizoguchi favourite Kinuyo Tanaka plays the lady in question who honours the traditions of the past, sacrificing her own desires to support her professor husband even though he openly promotes philandering and tries to initiate an affair with her cousin’s wife.  Tanaka herself is in love with her other younger cousin, recently returned from the war and living a hedonistic life in Tokyo, but secretly yearning for the pastoral life back in Musashino.  Mizoguchi paints a wistful picture of the vanishing countryside around the city and its disappearing customs (and morals?).  The cinematography is often lyrical with long shots that find the characters embedded in their setting and quiet moments that let the viewer contemplate the plot.  The plot is ultimately depressing -- this is Mizoguchi after all and he gives Tanaka another chance to show a woman’s suffering, imposed by a society that allows men more freedom (even when they use it selfishly, as Masayuki Mori’s decadent husband does).  In the end, however, this film sees Mizoguchi not yet in his finest form – his classic tragedies (The Life of Oharu, Ugetsu, Sansho the Bailiff) would appear in the next few years.

Jafar Panahi’s Taxi (2015)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Jafar Panahi’s Taxi (2015) – J. Panahi

Jafar Panahi is serving a twenty-year ban from making films in Iran due to his willingness to make films that offend the government.  Since the ban was imposed he has creatively continued to make films but without a crew and previously in the safety of his own home (e.g., This is Not a Film, 2011).  This time, he has installed cameras in his car and taken on the role of taxi driver to film on the streets of Tehran.  Taking his cues from Abbas Kiarostami (who passed away after a botched operation in 2016) who often filmed actors (or non-actors) in cars (e.g., Taste of Cherry, 1997; Ten, 2002), Panahi has filmed himself carting people around and their conversations and experiences make up the content of the film.  It is sometimes difficult to know whether the dialogue is scripted or not, and, if scripted, what its inclusion signifies.  But it is clear that this is an act of resistance, because the episodes clearly reveal the political intolerance and human rights violations that are present in Iranian society.  These problems are made explicit when Panahi’s young “niece” (the actors remain anonymous to protect them), under the pretense of a class assignment on film-making, lists all of the content that is forbidden from movies, including any discussion of economic or political problems as well as the inclusion of characters with Persian names wearing ties (!!!).  Naturally, such a character soon appears!  At the end, Panahi films a discussion with a presumed well-known actress or lawyer (hard to say) about the actual violations that the current film represents. An earlier discussion of the death penalty and its imposition for minor crimes now fits into place; let’s hope that Panahi’s high profile (and the wide circulation of this film) protects him from any further clampdown.  We should all be so brave in the case that resistance is necessary even in presumed “free” nations. 

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) – T. Hooper

The title put me off from this one for thirty years and now that I’ve watched it, there’s no denying its visceral nature and memorable (indelible?) images, particularly given the very low budget.  However, is this something that you really need to watch? Probably not.  On the plus side, there is less gore than you might think, with a lot of the horror left to your imagination (a scary place). This is much preferred (but don’t go thinking that director Tobe Hooper is as discreet as Val Lewton or anything).  Also, there is the implicit vegetarianism theme – humans are likened to cattle being slaughtered for meat and the methods used are clearly spelled out (and exemplified). Worth thinking about in this age of factory farming. On the minus side, well, this movie is sadistic; the last victim is female (as usual) and there is always the risk that some wrong-minded viewers might feel support for attitudes that condone violence against women (the word “bitch” is telling). However, the character with a disability is treated fairly equitably.  Still, you should think twice before exposing yourself to a film where a bunch of young people get chased around by a man in a leather mask with a chainsaw.  Unless you want to be freaked out, that is.     

Castle of Sand (1974)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Castle of Sand (1974) – Y. Nomura

Expert police procedural from Yoshitaro Nomura which follows two detectives trying to solve the murder of an elderly man at a railway station in Tokyo.  The first hour of the film appears to be nothing but dead ends. There are only two clues, the victim’s heavy regional accent and the word “Kameda” overheard by a bar hostess.  Finally, a linguist offers a breakthrough and the investigation gains some traction.  Around the halfway mark, the film starts to transition with a look into the life of the killer (who has already been observed in passing a few times).  As the detectives piece together some amazing clues, we are provided with the killer’s complete backstory revealing his motive, if not justifying it at all.  In some ways, the shape of the film is not too different from Kurosawa’s great High and Low (1963), which is the best police procedural I have seen.  Yet, despite a drawn out sequence during a piano concerto that seeks to reveal the mind of the killer, I still felt he remained opaque (and the film drags at this point, past the two-hour mark).  But the title remains apt – some castles made of sand melt into the sea, eventually (and even though the direct Japanese translation is “sand bowl”, the logic remains the same).  The film looks great in color and widescreen nevertheless.

Monsieur Gangster (1963)

☆ ☆ ☆

Monsieur Gangster (1963) – G. Lautner

French gangster spoof that finds Lino Ventura (best known for his later appearances in Melville’s Army of Shadows and Deuxieme Souffle) unexpectedly inheriting a crime syndicate from an old friend that comes with the obligation to look after the friend’s teen daughter.  This is the kind of role that De Niro might take on, a tough guy who plays for laughs but maintains a straight face. Of course, the teenager causes all sorts of trouble, as do the underbosses of his old friend who wish to run the business themselves.  So, there are some broadly comic moments (as when Ventura takes to punching the deliciously put-out Bertrand Blier every time he sees him) and some action sequences (some shoot-outs).  But apparently something is lost in translation for the English-language viewer because this film is much loved in France specifically for its clever dialogue by Michel Audiard; the subtitles do show some unusual phrasing but nothing that leaps out to make you laugh.  One scene where the gangsters reminisce about the old days while drinking moonshine was funny anyway and probably was hysterical to French-speakers.  In the end, I was hoping for a bit of a Grisbi type picture but instead I got a situation-comedy that nevertheless evokes some of the genre.

  

Scrooged (1988)

☆ ☆ ½

Scrooged (1988) – R. Donner

Loud and largely unfunny – I guess I was right to have skipped this back in the day.  Bill Murray doesn’t really do a convincing “mean” – his sense of humor is wryer and more smart-ass than the sub-Don Rickles insult comedy which he is asked to deliver here.  The script is a barrage of bad jokes and celebrity cameos flung at the wall with the hope that something will stick.  And since this is a version of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, we need to believe that Murray is a bad man in need of transformation -- but he doesn’t go all the way in either direction (his previous film The Razor’s Edge should have taught him something). Nevertheless, the pay-off at the end (after being visited by scary David Johanssen and awkward Carol Kane plus a guy in a skeleton suit) does hold some rewards – we get a classic Murray improv riff, not exactly funny, but at least feeling authentic at last.  Or perhaps I’ve simply forgotten what Murray was like in the ‘80s now that he has matured into a very good and often subtle character actor.  No subtlety in this picture, however.  Oh and if you are wondering, the Scrooge character is a TV exec and there is a tacked on romance sub-plot (featuring Karen Allen) that Dickens didn’t cheapen his material with.  The “Tiny Tim” surrogate is a young Black fellow who hasn’t spoken a word since his father was killed – and, of course, miraculously does as everything comes together in the spirit of Christmas.  If only this sentimental ending were earned.   

Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970) – E. Petri

Almost grotesque in its point-making, Petri’s film targets corruption, fascism, and power by showing that a leader of the police force might theoretically be immune from prosecution, even for murder.  Gian Maria Volonte plays said cop, the head of the homicide division (but promoted to the head of the political division as the film begins), who murders his mistress and plants obvious clues incriminating himself to test whether he really is “above suspicion”.  Rather garish to look at, as some Italian films seem to be, and full of travelling shots, flashbacks, and minor characters that clutter things up a bit, this is still Volonte’s show as he dominates everything (and even more so when he starts targeting subversives as a function of his new role).  I guess it is blackly comic how the police and surrounding bureaucracy do everything possible to deny Volonte’s guilt, even when he goes so far as to confess.  I didn’t think this at the time but perhaps Donald Trump’s ability to get away with the most heinous sexist and racist actions also fits this pattern…although in this case, actions have been minimized by supporters rather than completely denied (but this too would keep an authoritarian leader in place).