Cry-Baby

Cry-Baby (John Waters, 1990)

Earlier this year I made a promess to myself and my readers that I would tackle a list of directors that I’ve never seen a movie they directed. This list includes many great and recognized names : from Maurice Pialat to Ermano Olmi and from Russ Meyer to Glauber Rocha. One of the names on this list that intrigued me the most was John Waters. From his thrash counter culture films of the 1970’s and 1980’s starring the transsexual Divine to his more mainstream pieces like Hairspray and Cry-Baby. At first, I knew it was a Grease parody and a tribute to the teenage exploitation films of the 1950’s. It is also a pastiche of Elvis Prestley movies. After reading these lines one could easily put the label kitsch here. Well, one cannot be more right. It is a film that is not taken itself too seriously while involving a great laugh and a good fun. So it is far from being high-brow and not that far to low-brow. However, it is not as trashy as his Pink Flamingos where scenes of hardcore sex and feces eating are presented.

Meet Me in St. Louis

Meet Me in St. Louis (Vincente Minnelli, 1944)

It is often said that black and white films were more « artsy » and that they truly represented the craft that is Cinema. However, the right handling of the coloured medium can easily surpass the best use of the smoothest B&W. A wider color palette, a much easier graduation of colors and light can easily support this argument. In the case of Meet Me in St. Louis, the superb use of bright colors in the costumes and the sets added to Vincente Minnelli’s sumptuous mise en scène can’t be wrong.

Set in 1903, the year before the World Fair of 1904 held in St. Louis, the Smith family has four girls and one boy. Rose (Lucille Bremer), Esther (Judy Garland), Agnes, and Tootie (Margaret O'Brien) and Lon Jr. as the only boy. The story revolves around the family but more specifically around Esther, 17 years old who has a crush to the guy next door: John Truett (Tom Drake). Everything is picture perfect in the Smith house: the family is tight together and Mr. Smith (Leon Ames) a business is wealthy. Until, he accepts a higher position in his company and a transfer to New York City. For the elder girls this is catastrophic because their main interests are the nice men of St. Louis.

The story is told with the passing of the seasons like the chapters of a novel retelling the story of a family reminding me of Little Women at some point. But here, the drama isn’t really as dramatic as the Leo McCarey film. Let’s also keep in mind that this Garland/Minnelli vehicle is a Musical after all. Both were renowned for their mastery of the genre. This is right after the shooting of Meet Me in St. Louis that they got together and had baby Liza Minnelli.

Since we are into the Musical genre let’s have a look at the numbers. They doesn’t seem too forced to fit into the story and at some points they are parts of the action. The “cutest” moment is the duo of Esther and her younger sister Tootie during the birthday party of their brother Lon. Seeing Garland singing and dancing with the child reminds that she started singing on a stage at the age of two years old and that her life always have been around show business. The songs sung by Garland are classics of the genre and are never too long into the pace of every scene. It shows a great mastery in the craft of dosing the numbers and the story. Garland’s contralto voice is perfect and even she is the shortest person on the set, at 4’11” she is the biggest star.  

Musicals never were love at first sight for me, but the more I discover the classics and the more I watch them the more I grow to like them. They luscious colors, the superb sets and costumes and the beautiful ladies are many reasons why I enjoyed Meet Me in St. Louis so much. It also feels like a well crafted literary adaptation nicely translated on the big screen. And the tunes just stick into your head I am still humming it as I write those lines: Meet me in St. Louis Louie!

Une femme est une femme

Une femme est une femme (Jean-Luc Godard, 1961)


In a tribute to the musicals of the 1950's and introducing the style of Jacques Demy's films, Godard with Une femme est une femme assimitated his influences and reinterpreted them in his very own particular way. In the 1960's no director was more prolific than Jean-Luc Godard, as for his number of films to what they brought to Cinema.

Une femme est une femme is a film about Angela (Anna Karina) who desperately wants to have a baby. If it's not from her husband (Jean-Claude Brialy) It will be from her ex (Jean-Paul Belmondo). Angela is a strip-tease girl and besides the fact that she has an "uncommon" job for a married woman she has a very "common" need to have a baby. It's just the way she will have it that is more theatrical... Far from being the traditionnal Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly musical, Une femme est une femme is the child of those two influences on Jean-Luc Godard.

The story of the film itself reflects what the couple Godard-Karina just had to pass through, Karina was pregnant of Godard but complications made her loss the baby with the result of her being sterile. Godard wanted to give to Karina the chance to live and surpass this problem by playing a role that could made her get over that hard moment... But as many know, the couple was like a roller coaster and their relationship was too intense. Sometimes they were having a fight the eve of the shooting and the day after Godard would have written the script with the same words as the last day's fight. His inspirations are everywhere and he always has been the best recycler of everything in Cinema and in his life.

This is a film without any pretention and the way it was shot made it light and beautiful. The lavish colors gives it a melancolic tone perfectly agencing Karina's interpretation of the little Angela. Prior to Vivre sa vie and even after, Karina's characters are often closer to childish women than anything. In Une femme est une femme we have the feeling to see a kid wanting a child. Even her demand to her boyfriend is childish making scenes out of it and playing around. It's an interesting way to discover how Godard perceives women in general.

Une femme est une femme stands as one of the few comedies Jean-Luc Godard did in his whole oeuvre and should be seen for its originality. Godard may be one of the few "auteurs" to actually have changed the face of his art. It's a film that has been underappreciated but stands as one of the strongest efforts from its auteur and from the Nouvelle vague.