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Local Date: 11-18-2008
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Re: Track the Films You Watch (2006)
07/31/08: PARTNER (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1968) **1/2
I had always wanted to watch this rarely-seen (and most Godardian) of Bertolucci films ever since I read about it in an old British film magazine of my father’s. However, having caught up with it now thanks to No Shame’s 2-Disc Special Edition, I have to say that I was underwhelmed, finding it overly didactic and, unfortunately, Godard’s trademark dynamism and humor (in his early work, at least) are seldom evident here.
While interesting and quite admirable in itself – being a loose updating of Dostoyevsky’s “The Double” – the film feels dated today (especially its consumerist critique, represented by a silly musical number about “Dash”, a detergent which ironically is still in use nearly 40 years on!); having said that, Godard had already attacked the same targets in 2 OR 3 THINGS I KNOW ABOUT HER (1967). Besides, Pierre Clementi’s cold and arrogant personality doesn’t allow much audience sympathy. Bertolucci’s technique is suitably experimental – one of his most surreal touches is having Clementi’s large shadow, cast on a wall, turning against him and, in a remarkable sequence, despite Morricone’s lush romantic music, a date between Clementi and Stefania Sandrelli consists of them being “driven” in a stationary vehicle with Clementi’s butler making do as chauffer i.e. acting out the machine’s sounds with his mouth! Incidentally, a similar scene was depicted in Jerzy Skolimowski’s LE DEPART (1967), another experimental film I caught up with recently and which also left me somewhat disappointed.
Apart from reflecting on politics and modern society, the script contrasts contemporaneous attitudes in theatre and cinema. Sandrelli, although looking positively gorgeous as a blonde, seems uneasy in this environment (even if she did go on to make 3 more films with the director) but Tina Aumont’s contribution (who expires unconventionally at the hands of Clementi at the end of the afore-mentioned musical number) is rather delightful. The film’s colorful widescreen photography makes great use of its Rome locations, while Ennio Morricone’s eclectic score serves more often than not as ironic comment on the action.
Not an easy title to appreciate, therefore, and Bertolucci has certainly made more involving films but, at least, the DVD extras prepared by No Shame (this is their first release I’ve sampled) – particularly the fascinating and lengthy interviews with Bertolucci and film editor Roberto Perpignani – are excellent indeed! An interesting piece of information gleaned from the supplements is that the film’s script was rarely adhered to and neither were current conventional Italian filming techniques (the sound was recorded live); besides, Pierre Clementi flew every weekend to Paris and reported back to Bertolucci with the most up-to-date slogans spouted by the protesters in those famous May 1968 riots, thus enabling him to incorporate them into his film like “Vietato Vietare” (It is forbidden to forbid) and “Proibito Proibire” (It is prohibited to prohibit)…
08/01/06: HIS DAY OF GLORY (Edoardo Bruno, 1969) **
Included on the second disc of PARTNER (1968), this ‘underground’ film (which actually utilizes outtakes from the Bertolucci film for its pre-credits sequence – when proposed leading man Pierre Clementi proved unavailable due to drug-related problems!) was virtually lost to the ravages of time; still, to be honest, the behind-the-scenes vicissitudes (described in detail by the director himself in an accompanying interview) are more interesting than the film itself!
It’s just as politically oriented as PARTNER, if not more, but lacks its visual sophistication (being amateurish in every department) and, while there’s an essential plot (with the central discussion among radicals of various persuasions being a direct nod to Godard’s LA CHINOISE [1967]), the film is tiresomely didactic for the most part (with a tendency towards discussing Brecht’s relevance). Two other notable movies which also contain long sequences of political debate between radical students are Michelangelo Antonioni’s ZABRISKIE POINT (1970) and Peter Watkins’ PUNISHMENT PARK (1971; which I’ve recently double-dipped on via Eureka/MoC’s R2 SE DVD but have yet to check out the disc) but I certainly don’t recall them being as heavy-going and dreary as they were here.
The most engaging performer is Maria Carriho, the female lead – a Portuguese undergoing political exile in Italy who took the subject to heart and eventually became a fully-fledged member of the Parliament of the European Union! The male lead, intended for Tomas Milian after the Clementi debacle, was actually played by his regular stand-in Raul Martinez, albeit rather stiffly. Philippe Leroy, the only professional cast member, is featured in a brief but important role which has a lot to bear on the film’s overextended climax (which is still, perhaps, its most inspired moment). Although the supplements on the No Shame disc feature footage of Lou Castel acting in the film, he also did not play the main role eventually but, disappointingly, there is no further elaboration at all on this from the director in his interview. One does learn, however, that HIS DAY OF GLORY was somehow sent to the Berlin Film Festival over an Elio Petri film – presumably A QUIET PLACE IN THE COUNTRY (1969), a remarkable psychological horror opus and an altogether superior offering!
08/03/06: MORGAN – A SUITABLE CASE FOR TREATMENT (Karel Reisz, 1966) ***
I’ve always had something of an ambivalent attitude towards the British “Swinging London” films of the 1960s: sometimes I enjoy their creative technique and anything-goes approach, while other times I find their brashness exasperating and extremely dated. Actually, MORGAN is now among the films I’ve revisited the most among them (more by accident than design) which has led me to toy with the idea of compiling a list of titles from that era – comprising above all films I’ve watched only once, or not at all, but also those which I haven’t checked out in ages (some of which are in my endless “DVDs To Watch” pile).
Anyway, the film itself is certainly one of the most engaging of the lot: basically an update of the typical Hollywood ‘screwball comedy’ formula, with one member of a divorced couple disrupting the new marriage plans of the other, though here we don’t get the conventional happy ending. Reisz was, along with Lindsay Anderson and Tony Richardson, one of the founding members of the “Free Cinema” movement; though he started at the very top with SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING (1960), the rest of his career was rather spotty with MORGAN being perhaps its closest in quality – even if the unflinching realism of the former had, by this time, given way to irreverent comic fantasy!
While the plot is somewhat thin and the lead character’s pranks to reclaim his wife become repetitive, the film’s hectic pace never wavers; stylish, amusing (particularly when dealing with Morgan’s Communist background and his obsession with gorillas!) and bolstered by John Dankworth’s playful score, it’s delightfully enacted by the three principals – David Warner (the role of his life), Vanessa Redgrave (the recipient of many accolades, including a surprising Best Actress Oscar nomination) and Robert Stephens – none of whom are typically associated with slapstick (though David Mercer’s script also offers perceptive comments about the painful consequences of a broken marriage).
08/05/06: THE MIND BENDERS (Basil Dearden, 1963) ***
Intelligent – and, at the time, X-Rated – sci-fi (written by James Kennaway) which I had always been interested in watching, given its theme and credentials.
Featuring excellent performances by all the main actors (Dirk Bogarde, Mary Ure, John Clements, Michael Bryant and Wendy Craig), fine black-and-white cinematography by Denys Coop and a good score by Georges Auric, the film deals with sensory-deprivation experiments which if over-exposed can render the subject susceptible to brainwashing. The idea is persuasively handled by the script and director Dearden, and actually predates Ken Russell’s ALTERED STATES (1980) by almost 20 years!
Still, after an intriguing first hour – with its introduction of suspense elements (where a scientist who has committed suicide is thought to have betrayed secrets to the enemy whilst ‘under the influence’) and the realistic depiction of the harrowing experiments (hinting at the supernatural), the plot is side-tracked into dealing with the domestic problems of Bogarde and Ure (which are mostly talked about rather than seen!) brought on by his change in personality during his stint in the water-tank – conditioned by Clements’ Secret Service man and Bryant’s fellow colleague, secretly enamored of his wife.
As such, the treatment is somewhat too highbrow (for the most part, it’s made by people not usually associated with this type of film) but it’s fascinating – and generally satisfying – all the same.
08/06/06: VICTIM (Basil Dearden, 1961) ***1/2
One of the best, if largely neglected, British films of the 60s (perhaps because it wasn’t made by an auteur); despite receiving a couple of citations (mentioned below), this controversial classic was conspicuously absent from the BAFTA’s Best Film category – while a number of less deserving titles were (in my opinion, Oscar consideration should not have been amiss either for such a fine piece)!
The first film to openly deal with homosexuality – and especially the way it’s looked at in Britain, where it was considered a criminal offense till 1966! – it does so in a very subtle and adult (i.e. unsensationalistic) manner. Cleverly, the excellent script (a deserving BAFTA nominee) approaches its delicate theme by way of a thriller plot involving several eminent personalities being targeted by a gang of blackmailers; the details of their ‘scandalous’ behavior is held off for as long as possible, which actually serves to suck the audience into the narrative from the very start.
Interestingly, while several actors refused to appear in it, at least two well-known (and highly-respected) stars – Dirk Bogarde and Dennis Price – who were actually gay risked their reputation by not flinching from the material! However, while Bogarde’s career subsequently flourished with mature works for Joseph Losey and Luchino Visconti among others, Price’s spiralled downwards and mostly degraded himself with thankless roles in cheap, sleazy exploitation fare (most notably for Jesus Franco)! Tellingly, however, the film still cautiously depicts Bogarde as trying to supress his true feelings and seek to live out a normal life with his on-screen wife Sylvia Syms who, uncharacteristically perhaps, also opts to stick by her man and face the upcoming turmoil together. Having said that, Bogarde had just played another sexually ambiguous character in Roy Ward Baker’s eccentric semi-Western THE SINGER NOT THE SONG (1961) – in which his black-clad villain seems more interested in parson John Mills than leading lady Mylene Demongeot – and would go on to do so again in Visconti’s DEATH IN VENICE (1971).
The entire cast of VICTIM – including plum roles for Norman Bird, Charles Lloyd Pack, Peter McEnery, Derren Nesbitt and Nigel Stock – delivers superb (and sometimes moving) performances, with Bogarde (also a BAFTA nominee) in peak form; his sensitive scenes with Syms are especially effective. Production values receive equal consideration, with Otto Heller’s striking location photography leading the pack.
Basil Dearden (whose film career ended prematurely with his tragic death in a car accident in 1971) may not have been one of the great directors but his career is a distinguished one and he tackled efficiently most types of subjects; like VICTIM, however, his most notable work was done in the thriller genre – the seminal THE BLUE LAMP (1950; also featuring Bogarde), the racially-sensitive SAPPHIRE (1959) and the lighthearted caper THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN (1960).
08/08/06: MODESTY BLAISE (Joseph Losey, 1966) **1/2
Truth be told, I hated this movie on first viewing many years ago and, in fact, I only just now purchased the utterly bare-bones Fox DVD for three reasons: the disc is now out-of-print; I found it very cheaply (surprisingly) at a local retailer; and, most importantly perhaps, I was prepared to give it another chance thanks to my ongoing (and very rewarding) Losey-thon.
To say that Joseph Losey was a strange choice to helm this picture would be a massive understatement. In his previous films, very rarely (if at all) had he shown that he had any sense of humor, much less the kind of campy, knowing and irreverent one essential for successful comic strip adaptations. As it happens, the film was not well-received and both leads – Monica Vitti (who apparently phoned Michelangelo Antonioni everyday during the shoot) and Terence Stamp – were unhappy making it; there are those who even go so far as to consider it not just Losey’s nadir but quite simply one of the worst films ever made! Well, based on that first TV viewing of it, I probably would have endorsed such sentiments myself…
However, my reacquaintance with it proved something of a minor revelation: while still as uneven as I recalled, I couldn’t now deny that there were some delightful elements which, on the whole, made the film palatable and, at times, even endearing: Evan Jones’ script was occasionally quite witty, Losey’s own trademark odd compositions (usually so overpowering in his melodramas) suited the “anything goes” mood of the material, Jack Hildyard’s glossy cinematography of attractive Mediterranean locations, outrageous outfits and groovy production design was top-notch and Losey’s frequent composer Johnny Dankworth provided an infectious score.
And what about that cast? Monica Vitti (who would have guessed that she could ever be as attractive and sexy as this judging by her work for Antonioni?), Terence Stamp (gleefully throwing knives, bedding women and engaging in a charming, impromptu singing duet with Vitti while driving up a mountaintop and reprising it for the action-packed finale), Dirk Bogarde (ironically named Gabriel, he was never campier – or gayer – than as the silver-wigged, self-proclaimed “villain of the piece”), Michael Craig (as Vitti’s ex-lover and pursuing British agent), Harry Andrews (as a top British Secret Service official firing away bullets from his umbrella), Alexander Knox (as a bumbling British MP forever mispronouncing names and giving out the wrong information), Clive Revill (for no apparent reason in a dual role: as Bogarde’s right-hand man who keeps the accounts even on the field of battle and as Vitti’s “father”, an Arabian Sheik!), Rossella Falk (as the lethal Miss. Fothergill, Bogarde’s manly assistant, who keeps a regiment of mostly aging men in shape through arduous physical exercise), Saro Urzi (as a lowly, opera-singing henchman of Bogarde’s), Tina Aumont (as an ill-fated conquest/informer of Stamp’s) and real-life magician Silvan (as a duplicitous circus performer).
Ultimately, while the plot is too convoluted to follow at times and the film itself may not be in the same league as Mario Bava’s DANGER: DIABOLIK (1968) or even Roger Vadim’s BARBARELLA (1968), it’s certainly an engaging spy spoof and far better than its reputation suggests.
Last edited by Mario Gauci : 08-09-2006 at 07:50 AM.
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