Tabu (1931)

Tabu (F.W. Murnau, 1931)

The final film of the German master F. W. Murnau, Tabu is a tale of love and dedication of two lovers. Co-written with Robert J. Flaherty, the film was supposed to be an entire collaboration between the two directors. However, after directing the opening sequence Flaherty was relegated to writing and later would be selling his part of Tabu to Murnau for 25 000$. It blends the documentary approach of Flaherty’s masterpieces and the plotted love stories of Murnau’s classic vision of storytelling. Added to all this, Murnau died of a car accident a few days before the premiere of the film.

Those are the gossips around the film but as a whole, Tabu is the last masterpiece of the director who offered such landmarks as Nosferatu, The Last Laugh, Faust, and Sunrise. Mastering again montage, storytelling, and the silent film medium, Murnau demonstrates a lesson of filmmaking. With almost no cards between scenes, and a few indications by the few letters, the plot is clearly told by the construction of images and the smart editing.

Murnau’s story is quite simple and very Germanic in its approach. This is a timeless plot of impossible romance and the rigidity of destiny decided by the Gods. This is the kind of tale that the Grimm brothers could have written and it is easy to relate to. Indeed timeless and also universal to have lovers facing the fate and having to transgress laws and rules to be together.

I can honestly state that I am a fan of Murnau’s films and I have seen Nosferatu at least a dozen times. His grammar, his themes, and his influence is vast and huge. It was a pleasure to watch all his films on the list. Of all his directing credits Tabu might be in the ones I esteem the most. Along the aforementioned Nosferatu, Faust, and Sunrise we are in the major leagues. No wonder, Andrew Sarris in his American Cinema, ranked Murnau as one of the Pantheon directors alongside John Ford, Robert J. Flaherty, D.W. Griffith, Jean Renoir, and many other pioneers of the Art that is Cinema.
Tabu being the final film from a director that left us too soon proves that he still had gas in the tank and lots of films. However, History has proven that great Silent film directors could have a hard time with their passage to talkies. Look at D.W. Griffith who struggled to get work once sound was introduced to motion pictures. Since, Murnau was more at his ease with silent film this could have tainted his recognition amongst the greats.

7 Women

Note: this review is a contribution to the John Ford Blogathon hosted by the great folks over at Krell Laboratories and Bemused and Nonplussed.


7 Women (John Ford, 1966)

Of the bunch of John Ford films that I've seen, a total of sixteen, I tend to prefer the tone of his non-Westerns because it takes him out of his "comfort zone" of the American myth and get him into the world of the likes of Tom Joad, Ireland, and in this case Northern China. Ford's final film to the silver screen was 7 Women, a lesser known entry in his oeuvre that was much more celebrated in Europe especially in France with Les Cahiers du Cinema highly praising it and its auteur. While being a catastrophic commercial and critical event in North America it forced him to retire from film making.

This being his last picture in 1966, the Film industry was on the eve of one of its greatest revolutions with the coming of Bonnie and Clyde, Easy Riders, and the revitalization of the 1970's that let much more space for the director as the creative force of the movie they are directing. One could say that it was a more European approach to the seventh art. But I digress, Ford was working with smaller budgets and less freedom over his work during the shooting of his last films. 
However he managed to have a script that was carrying many elements that were dear to him when telling a story. The Catholic mission being the setting of the story, the dedication to a moral duty by the women, the hard headed Dr. Cartwright (Anne Bancroft) that represents contrarity in this balanced world by the strong and very strict Agatha Andrews (Margaret Leighton), the head of the mission, the younger of the women, Emma (Sue Lyon), looking for a role model and flinching between the two "mothers" aforementioned. Are the most forefront characters of this almost entirely female cast. Except for Charles Pether (Eddie Albert) the mission teacher that dreamed to be a reverend and that brought along his middle aged pregnant wife in this far country.

Much like his position on racism that he tries to finally solve with Cheyenne Autumn, 7 Women seems to be his redemption with his projection of the Woman in society. While in his Westerns they are more related to supporting roles. With this film, he makes them the stars of his swan song. This is almost unexpected but also very revealing of the aging master's late redemption with his earlier detractors.

The film has this Fordian dilemma between moral values and moral dedication, it also shows much like The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance how words don't compensate for actions. He also believes in the theory of every one's role in a closeted society. 

When talking about Catholicism, there's a great debate about the level of sacrifice and how one must sin to achieve to help others. No human is a Saint until he dies. This is illustrated in many ways by the most human characters of the movie but also the negative aspects of the purist spirit that put into the action are completely wasted. 

This is an intriguing and also quite enjoyable entry into Ford's filmography even if more than far from his habitual films. The presence of The Graduate's Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft) and Lolita's Lolita (Sue Lyon) also brings an interesting aspect because they were actress not remembered for many roles. 

This might appeal more to John Ford enthusiasts, sure because its unique but also because it brings an important aspect of the director and the man sitting in this chair.

Young Mr. Lincoln

Young Mr. Lincoln (John Ford, 1939)

A family traveling through New Salem, Illinois in their wagon need groceries from Lincoln's store and the only thing of value they have is a barrel of old books including a law book, "Blackstone's Commentaries." After thoroughly reading the book, Abe (Henry Fonda) opts for the law after receiving encouragement from his early, ill-fated love, Ann Rutledge (Pauline Moore).

The Tiger of Eschnapur

The Tiger of Eschnapur (Fritz Lang, 1959)

Fritz Lang returned to Germany to direct two films The Tiger of Eschnapur and The Indian Tomb, which together tell the story of a German architect (Paul Hubschmid), the Indian maharaja (Walter Reyer) for whom he is supposed to build schools and hospitals, and the Eurasian dancer (Debra Paget) who comes between them.

Destiny aka Behind the Wall

Destiny aka Behind the Wall (Fritz Lang, 1921)

In the Expressionistic frame story, in which human lives are each represented by a candle, Death grants a woman three chances to save her lover, if love can triumph over death. The three stories within the story each occur in a setting that is nominally historic, but really in the realm of fantasy: an adventure tale with a Persian setting out of the Arabian Nights, a Renaissance Venetian romance, and a largely comic story set in China.

The Docks of New York

The Docks of New York (Josef von Sternberg, 1928)

The story involves an incredibly strong ship stoker named Bill (George Bancroft) and the beautiful prostitute named Mae (Betty Compson), whom he saves from drowning. She was attempting suicide as she had no money, almost no clothes and felt remorse about her life up to then. He steals some clothes for her and invites her out for a "good night".

The Big Heat

The Big Heat (Fritz Lang, 1953)

Homicide detective Sergeant Dave Bannion (Glenn Ford) is an honest cop who investigates the death of fellow officer Tom Duncan. It would seem to be an open-and-shut case, suicide brought on by ill health. Bannion, however, is contacted by the late cop's mistress, Lucy Chapman (Dorothy Green), who claims it could not have been suicide. From her, Bannion learns that the Duncans had a second home which would not have been possible on his salary.

The Shop Around the Corner

The Shop Around the Corner (Ernst Lubitsch, 1940)

Two employees of a Budapest shop can’t stand each other but they are secretly falling in love as anonymous correspondents.

Morocco

Morocco (Josef Von Sternberg, 1930)

Often considered as the peak of the Josef Von Sternberg and Marlene Dietrich collaboration, Morocco is perhaps one of the most important films of the 1930’s. The so-called peak of the duo of actress director fueled by their love relationship is in this critics’ mind The Scarlet Empress. Just like their previous film together, The Blue Angel,  Dietrich plays a cabaret singer called Amy Jolly that seduces more than one man. An important fact to know about this is that Dietrich used to be a cabaret singer and her appeal on goes beneath the screen. It is obvious that at twenty nine years old she fully understands the motives of her character and the musical numbers are so well acted that it is no guess to stipulate that it is herself and not the character that we witness on the screen.

M (1930)

M (Fritz Lang, 1930)

This article is part of a series of self- imposed movie reviews set in the participation of this film critic to the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die Club. It is an attempt at catching up the reviews that I’ve missed in my recent period of inactivity in the blogosphere.

Films from Germany made prior to the Second World War are a bliss for any film lover. So much of the influence and themes of German Expressionism aesthetics has been imported by Hollywood especially its greatest directors : F.W. Murnau and Fritz Lang. In the case of Lang, he escaped Nazi Germany in an anecdote Lang himself contradicted many times while telling it. However, before he flew to America, Lang made a name of himself by directing some of the most influential films of all-time with his Metropolis, Spione, Dr. Mabuse, Die Nibelungen, and M amongst many others. With M, Lang tells the story of a serial killer pedophile who infuriated the public opinion, the police, and the underground gangsters. It creates a race between the policemen and the gangsters because the police was thinking that it was the underground that was responsible for those horrible crimes.

All That Heaven Allows

All That Heaven Allows (Douglas Sirk, 1955)

An upper-class widow falls in love with a much younger, down-to-earth nurseryman, much to the disapproval of her children and criticism of her country club peers.

Melodrama, Technicolor, the 1950’s. Douglas Sirk! The formula is there and couldn’t get better. Remade in 1974 by Rainer Werner Fassbinder in his Ali: Fear Eats the Soul and in 2002 by Todd Haynes with his masterpiece Far From Heaven, Sirk’s All That Heaven Allows might be one of the most visually striking films that the German born director ever made. It’s a shame that I saw my first Sirk movie only two years ago, being such an enthusiast now. With recurrent lead actor Rock Hudson and Jane Wyman as a widow of the upper-middle-class who falls in love for her gardener who himself lives as a simple man living simply and growing trees. Their biggest problem is the disapproval of their relationship by Cary’s (Wyman) children and her circle of friends of the country club.

Movie Watching Goals For 2012 - December Update

Since I put my hand on Andrew Sarris’ The American Cinema : Directors and Directions 1929-1968, my interest for completing a list I’ve been rambling about over and over here at the good old LMdC (short for Le Mot du Cinephiliaque), is TheyShoot Pictures Don’t They? 1000 Greatest Films of All Time is became my priority. To me and many others, Kevyn Knox for instance @The Most BeautifulFraud In The World, this is the ultimate cinephile’s reference.

North by Northwest

North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959)

A hapless New York advertising executive is mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies, and is pursued across the country while he looks for a way to survive.

After the famous shower scene of Psycho, the scene of the chase of the crop duster after Cary Grant is the most recognizable Hitchcock moment. With this film, Hitchcock wanted to check many things on his long list of elements he liked and wanted to include in a film. First, the presence of Cary Grant his favourite leading man with whom he didn’t had much to ask except; be Cary Grant, a natural comic actor with a bad temper as being a prima donna. But his presence in the credits was instant box office success and he represented everything Hitchcock wanted to be: handsome, athletic, and popular amongst women.

Angel (1937)

Angel (Ernst Lubitsch, 1937)

Woman and her husband take separate vacations, and she falls in love with another man.

While in Paris, a lady named Mrs. Brown/Mrs. Barker/Angel (Marlene Dietrich) meets a man (Melvyn Douglas) with whom she falls in love. However, back in London she has a husband (Herbert Marshall) that is a diplomat and a workaholic. They barely see each other. But one day at a race track the two men meet and Sir Francis Barker, the husband, invites Anthony Dalton, the secret lover, to stay under his roof. A series of hide and seek events will lead Barker to discover the truth. And at the end, back in Paris, Angel will have to choose between her lover or her husband.

With Marlene Dietrich in the title role and Ernst Lubitsch directing one could expect to have a great and sophisticated entertainment in the kind of the “Lubitsch touch” and the Dietrich legendary presence. But it is mostly an average romantic comedy that doesn’t have the wit and quality of the two stars’ other pictures. Despite a promising opening act, the pairing suffers from a poorly written script and an average cast of supporting characters portrayed by excellent actors. When acquainted to quality films like To Be or Not To Be, The Shop Around the Corner, Ninotchka, and Design For Living from Lubitsch Angel is clearly a letdown and one of his lesser Hollywood films.  

Angel being my last Ernst Lubitsch film on my quest at tackling down the 1000 Greatest Films of All Time by They Shoot Pictures Don’t They, it reminds me how I recently got into his films and now I have seen most of his major work. The list of Pantheon Directors is getting shorter everyday and I still have some films from John Ford, Fritz Lang, Josef Von Sternberg, Max Ophüls, F.W. Murnau, Robert Flaherty, and D.W. Griffith to watch before getting the job done and passing into another slice of the list. Still, so many great films to watch!

Written on the Wind

Written on the Wind (Douglas Sirk, 1956)

Alcoholic playboy Kyle Hadley marries the woman secretly loved by his poor but hard-working best friend, who in turn is pursued by Kyle's nymphomaniac sister.

Influencing some of the most respected directors (Jean-Luc Godard, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Todd Haynes, Pedro Almodovar) of the past and today, Douglas Sirk’s Melodrama Written on the Wind is one of the most brilliant masterpieces of the genre. Considered as the cornerstone of the soap opera, the sheer excesses of Sirk’s mise en scène, art direction, and his parentheticals to the actors are at their best in this movie. Having only seen The Magnificent Obsession and A Time to Love and a Time to Die prior to Written on the Wind, I did not knew much what to expect. Well, I had a slight idea but I wasn’t prepared to be impressed and charmed by the eccentric facets of Sirk’s once ridiculed film that regain its esteem into the cinephile circles. When one enters into a Sirk film he should be warned that the bright colors and the exuberant over the top acting won’t be an instant amazement.

F for Fake

F for Fake aka Vérités et mensonges (Orson Welles, 1973)

A documentary about fraud and fakery.

Throughout his career Orson Welles has been a director “maudit”. Just for his making of Othello and Falstaff for instance, he had to shoot during spans of months and years because of lack of financing for his personal projects. He managed to make his films like he wanted them to be and left a mark in the imagination of cinephiles for more than sixty year with the most celebrated film of all time: Citizen Kane. This is the story of a newspaper tycoon. Welles is tricking its audience on believing who was and who wasn’t Charles Foster Kane. As for its technical aspect, two thirds of it is cinematic trickery and lookalikes. It has had repercussions by creating a real typhoon in the business in the size that only Orson Welles could have provoked. Since then, and even before, Welles has been a master at magic tricks, fake, fraud, trickery, and most of all storytelling. This is why F for Fake might be one of Welles’ most personal projects.

Often categorized as a documentary, the movie that Welles directed isn’t just a simple film or just a documentary. It is a study on how as viewers we are eager to believe anything that we are told and how it is possible to forge great masterpieces of Art, History, mysterious persons, and even to trick an audience. F for Fake is the story of Elmyr de Hory the most successful Art forger of the 20^th Century and his biographer Clifford Irving. Both are frauders in their own spheres and they have succeeded when imitating and lying about their works. Welles brings us to reevaluate the experts in Art and everything we put a high price on just for the sake of its evaluation.

It was Pauline Kael who wrote that F for Fake was not a Wellesian picture because it doesn’t have the master’s signature. Welles responded by saying that he really cared not to put anything that reminded of his visual touch, this is why the editing is very precise and that there are no real long shots. Welles actually worked one year in three editing rooms seven days a week to complete this movie. It is easy to believe this obsession from the master because the trick plays very well and the film is entertaining, filled with material that will take you on another level and it stands out as one of the most important films of Welles career. Given the right means he could have reinvented himself just like a Jean-Luc Godard and develop his own non- genre. On a personal level, Welles was a mythomaniac and in interviews he often misled his past, his relationships, and his family. He forged an image of himself and even the people who were close to him knew that he liked to maintain this façade. F for Fake is then, a very autobiographical document that is not speaking directly of its subject but like any well gifted storyteller it broads around facts and present it in a riveting manner.

With time and thinking I would rank this film along Welles’ other masterpieces and not being as game changing as Citizen Kane, or stunning as The Magnificent Ambersons, F for Fake stands alone in its unique spot of great films.

Being the ultimate film by Orson Welles on the list of 1000 Greatest Films, I feel like this completion feels great but also I feel a little sad that I don’t have any more films from this great director. It is somewhat fulfilling to catch a director’s whole corpus and be able to put it in the perspective of its entire career. There are very few directors that I truly admire that I can say I have seen all the films. Just like Andrew Sarris, I think that Welles is a Pantheon Director and he deserves his place amongst the great gods of Cinema.

The Shanghai Gesture

The Shanghai Gesture (Josef von Sternberg, 1941)

A young woman, Poppy, out for excitement in Shanghai, enters a gambling house owned by "Mother" Gin Sling, a dragon-lady who worked herself up from poverty to buy the casino. Sir Guy Charteris, wealthy entrepreneur, has purchased a large area of Shanghai, forcing Gin Sling to vacate by the coming Chinese New Year.

Getting into the works of director Josef von Sternberg is something engaging and for some viewers alittle bit exhausting. His visual prowess and richness has never been equalled even compared to a master like Max Ophüls. Sternberg’s films are like a huge snowstorm; it is beautiful to look at but very tiring to try to drive through it. His most distinct work was with star Marlene Dietrich during the 1930’s, most notably with The Blue Angel, Scarlet Empress, and Morocco. With The Shanghai Gesture, Sternberg makes one of his final notable films. Known as a difficult and stubborn director, he fought to keep his artistic vision intact and to stay the only master aboard. Clearly being successful at his craft, he is on the very select list of Pantheon Directors of the late film critic Andrew Sarris.

This extravagant fresco of peculiar characters depicts a young globetrotter called Poppy (Gene Tierney) and her father (Walter Huston) on a business trip in Shanghai. While Poppy wants to enjoy life and meet interesting people, her father purchased a great deal of land in Shanghai and forces its owner to vacate her casino for the Chinese New Year’s Eve. We slowly discover that Mother Gin Sling (Ona Munson), the casino owner, is linked with our two other characters. The story passes from Drama to Film noir and never sticks to one genre in particular. This gives a genuine pace to the film and a unique structure.

The Sternbergian signature is at every corner of every frame and every camera movement. The overcrowded frames of opulence and saturation of Sternberg’s touch can’t be denied. It is sometimes very hard to distinguish a film from a director or another when it comes to the films of this era. However, like Orson Welles or the aforementioned Ophüls, we don’t need the credits to recognize him.

As Jeffrey M. Anderson noted, Tierney captures the role Dietrich may have had in real life with Sternberg. The downfall of Poppy recalls how the director felt hard to recover from the split with his long time collaborator.

This being the third Sternberg film I’ve watched and I can say that it is my least favorite; this spot is still held by Scarlet Empress with The Blue Angel not far behind. The Shanghai Gesture is above a whole lot of other movies of its era, and lesser Sternberg is better than any film worth a look.