Sight and Sound (2002) Greatest Films Club - Page 12

I just saw Notorious, and thought it was a really good movie. I can't think well enough right now to go into detail because i am so tired, but i think i will give Notorious an A that raises my # to 61
Lew, FYI, i just saw Yojimbo also. i thought it was a great movie, and before watching it i seriously thought it was on this list. oh well. I still see things i don't like but this time, as was the case in Seven Samurai, it barely hampered it's acomplisment A

I also saw Notorious(A) and Yojimbo(A) with John. Notorious was very entertaining and had some brilliant camera work. Yojimbo was pretty awesome. i love Kurosawa's rich dialogue in this one, as well as most of his others; and it certainly was better than the remake Last Man Standing(F-). I didn't think it was as good as Rashomon(A+), though. This brings me to 48.

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caught a couple Antonioni pictures, and finally Hitchcock's Psycho... never got into the Antonioni films, just too art influenced, too careless character->empathy for my tastes

anyhow, my count's at 95, expecting to watch some Bresson and Bunuel these upcoming weeks

Marnie brings my total to 93.

One of Hitchcock’s deeply disturbing studies of sexual power and dysfunction. Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

Well I've just finished watching Dreyer's Ordet.

I was very impressed by the film all in all although frankly I did begin to find it dragging about half way through.

It picked up again though and I can see why it's rightly regarded as a cinematic masterpiece.

Certain scenes will doubtless remain indelibly printed upon my mind. For example the scene of the father crying out for his son on the dunes as well as pretty much every scene with the riveting Johannes in. He reminded me very much of Nosferatu in the classic B&W film of the same name, with many similar mannerisms and an almost equal sense of being alien to the world around him.

Ordet receives a straight A from me. Not quite an A+.

Once I feel a little less emotionally drained I shall tackle Gertrud or possibly Day of Wrath. (Thank you Criterion).

139 was The Passion of Joan of Arc. This is a stunning film in almost any way I can think of. Most important of all is probably the performance of Maria Falconetti. So many of the shots are closeups on her face, and she seems to be both expressive and not so at the same time. I wonder how tiring it must have been to act emotionally so close to the camera.

The reaction shots to Falconetti are also superb. Outrage, anger, fear, calculation, admiration, and so on are all beautifully expressed. There are shots of flying birds during the finale, and it somehow captures the mood perfectly, too. I saw the film with the Voices of Light piece, very powerful.

La Strada brings my total to 94.

Great movie—one which sets the stage for the masterpieces of Fellini’s middle period.

Le Mépris or Contempt as it is better known in the States is Jean-Luc Godard’s single foray into mainstream (Hollywood) filmmaking.

The Criterion 2-disk DVD is well worth a purchase, with some choice extras: a discussion with Godard and Fritz Lang (who acts in the film) plus an informative interview with cinematographer Raoul Coutard.

And the best demonstration I’ve ever seen of the difference between a P&S and OAR format.

But did you like it?


Watched Spirited Away again and will finally watch the Criterion Rashomon soon, but I think it will still be awhile before I watch anything I haven't already seen from the poll. I don't have anything coming from Netflix for a couple of months and Solaris and Contempt are near the bottom of my unwatched pile.

Watched Gertrud (Very nice I'll give her A-) & Day of Wrath (A+) both by Dreyer.

Funnily enough I came to the exact opposite conclusion to Arman in that I preferred the latter film.

There's clearly no accounting for taste.

I also watched Passion of JA again the other day for class. It only made me love the film more. For me Dreyer is depicting the conversion of the judges to true believers in the idea that God has touched Joan, though by the time they realize it there is nothing they can do (as if the secular British soldiers would have let her off anyway).

The imagary he uses to tell that aspect of the story is what always grabs me. Plus, how great is that panchromatic film. This is one of the best looking films ever IMO.

This isn't a question about a specific S&S film, and so if it's viewed as inappropriate, just ignore it. But this did seem like a good place to get my question answered.

I haven't seen 'tons' of Japanese films, but I have seen quite a few, although none of them during the WWII years. On the other hand I've seen tons of Hollywood films from WWII. Obviously these all have a given slant (Good Americans - always white, except for the occasional hispanic vs. Evil Japanese), and Hollywood had no trouble getting Asians (probably not usually Japanese) to play the Japanese in these films.

My question is what kind of films was Japan churning out? Did they have films in which Americans were made out to be the evil enemy, and if so, what kind of actors did they have playing those roles?

I've at least seen some film clips and documentaries about German films during WWII, but nothing about Japanese films, and am curious about it.

Any insights?

I'm sure Japan made it's share of propaganda films but I haven't seen any either. I've only seen 2 Japanese films from this period - Kenji Mizoguchi's The 47 Ronin and Akira Kurosawa's Sanshiro Sugata.

The Japanses military financed Mizoguchi's film with the intent that he would make a rousing propaganda film but he had other ideas and created a more personal film about the honor and loyalty of a group of Japanses samurai who feel wronged by the authorities and you can see the money onscreen in the large sets and multiple sweeping crane shots and outstanding cinematography. I believe the film was banned by the military and Mizoguchi either suspended from making films for a period, or forced to make more tightly controlled propaganda.

Kurosawa's film would seem to be fairly nonpolitical other than providing an entertaining Japansese hero. It's a forerunner of kung-fu type films except here they use Judo (the movie is about the birth of Judo as a martial art) which creates some rather funny fights with the combatants clutching and grabbing, using holds and throws rather than the kicks and punches we're used to seeing. Good fun, but definitely a lightweight in the Kurosawa canon. I don't know anything about it's reception, but it must have been popular since he made a sequel the next year and would remake it again in the 60's.

Thanks for the info Brook.

Good question George. And to be sure, I don’t have any real answers, but I’ll make some random observations:

I did spend a couple of years in Japan back in the early-mid 60s and don’t ever recall seeing a film about WWII made in Japanese. I do remember some comments to the effect that many films made during the war (and also before) had been lost or destroyed—which seem obvious.

I have since seen films made probably around the late 30s that dealt with the Japanese invasion and occupation of China. But I can’t remember any titles, nor were any good enough to seek out, other than as a curiosity or for historical interest.

My pretty strong guess is that even if there are an surviving Japanese WWII films (made during that era), that they likely will not have been translated into English.

Just to add to what Brook and Lew have already said regarding Japanese wartime propaganda films, for the most part, the most offensive ones have been either destroyed during the war, US occupation, or even by the Japanese government censors themselves who were eager to show the western world a new "modern" Japan in the early 1950s. You can see this in the proliferation of people learning English in the 1950s (Ozu shows the children all learning English in Good Morning, for example).

If the propaganda disseminated at the time is any indication, it was pretty graphic (stuff like explicit cartoons of American soldiers raping Japanese women). Donald Kirihara's book Patterns of Time: Mizoguchi in the 1930s provides a pretty good picture of the environment of prewar Japan and how it translated to Mizoguchi's work.

The 47 Ronin wasn't really banned by the Japanese government, but they also didn't support the final product either, and the film was left to languish for another 15-20 years (the US had a broadstroke policy of abandoning immediately prewar films, so they certainly weren't keen to take up Mizoguchi's cause) until the Cahiers crowd "discovered" Mizoguchi with his postwar films like Ugetsu and Life of Oharu. His lack of "activity" during this period was a combination of personal and professional factors, including his wife's mental illness, the Japanese government's stringent censorship policies which was then followed by the Americans' censorship. For most filmmakers during this time, the constantly shifting, increasingly restrictive, and ambiguous constraints were enough to make them quit working altogether (like Teinosuke Kinugasa).

As for what is portrayed during postwar American occupation, it was still very unflattering, particularly in the shimpa genre. GIs were often shown propositioning geisha and bar hostesses (like Yukiko's "patronage" by Joe in Mikio Naruse's Floating Clouds) or abusing their lovers (like the GI who forces his girlfriend to have an abortion and tries to bribe a monk with a carton of cigarettes in Kon Ichikawa's Enjo).

Thanks Pascal. Guess I was misremembering or misinformed about Mizoguchi.

Mizoguchi's Ugetsu which appears on the S&S list, is a great film that's subtext deals with the guilt and tragedy of Japan's involvement in the war.

Another to check out if you haven't seen it is Kurosawa's Drunken Angel made a year or two after the war. With Takeshi Shimura as a doctor trying to care for the denizens of a crime and disease infested postwar village with a lake formed by a large bomb crater at its center.

Thanks to Brook, Lew & Pascal.

Who played the GIs? Obviously Hollywood had a mixed track record with a lot of non-asians playing asian roles. Were the GI's played by Japanese or non-Japanese? Overall, it looks like Japanese WWII propaganda films are going to remain a hole in my viewing experience.

To quote David Bordwell's Film History: an Introduction (pg 259 second edition):


not specifically about the war period perse but a nice summary, and some interesting looking books if anyone wants to pursue their knowledge further. Hope this helps.

Adam

Good question George. Nice discussion topic.
Not that I can add anything to it though.


I did want to say that I finally saw White and Red, finishing the trilogy so my count goes up by one (Blue and Trilogy being the "films" listed) - this puts me at 129 seen, 211 left. I think I will either start a trilogy thread or find an existing one. Awesome films. 94 was a fine year for cinema.

Well, they were definitely Westerners, and the language sounds "American English" but also usually muffled which makes me think that at least on some occasions, their voices are dubbed.

Ah, my count is up to 3, with the most pleasant movie I have seen in a while, Seven Samurai .
Where do I start? With Mifune, I guess. Everyone was touting him as a brilliant performer in this film. Yes, that is correct (I especially love the scene where he is holding the baby and has a realization of his own raising) but I definitely do not think he was the strongest performer here. BUT, that said, I loved his character about 95% of the time, being only slightly annoyed with a few of the mannerisms.

I think the strongest character and actor was Kambei/Takashi Shimura. I loved his lead role in the film. The tryout scenes were fantastic, with his facial expressions being the highlights (the grins, the straight faces, the sternness, etc.) And he was very believable as being the leader of the group.
Okay, my quibble is this...(and I know I may receive some backlash), Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
Do you get what I'm getting at? But, I did not let my personal disappointment at all effect my rating of the movie. I loved the story and the cinematography and the scenery and the characters and the.... I was entranced throughout.
A great film in my book (and my 2nd Kurosawa hit I've seen). I will give it an A+!
Next up, Wages of Fear, Ordet, 8 1/2, and Vertigo, all this weekend!
BTW, off the topic of the thread, I just Netflixed the Plexifilm DVD of the Wilco doc. and I loved it. For anyone who digs Wilco or music in general, check this out. Even if you don't like them, it is interesting to see the inner workings of a band and the problems you can have internally, dealing with egos, and the stupidity of the major record labels (especially Warner).

Don't know enough to add to the ongoing discussion, but another Kurosawa film right after the war is No Regrets For Our Youth, showing how the freedoms of the Japanese were taken away by the militant government.

I rewatched Brazil for 140. I dreaded this, but thought I had to give the film another chance. And I'm sorry to say, I still do not like it. In Brazil, the absurdist humor that Gilliam offers is usually sharply pointed (my favorite is the way roads are blocked off by walls of advertisement), sometimes funny, but always annoying. Everything is overwhelming in the movie, especially the outlandish mise en scène.

The movie has good intentions. It tries to show a world of buearacrucy that bases everything on rational choice, with dehumanizing results. But the way everything is executed, from the incoherent storyline to the supposedly funny quirks and exchanges, you can just see Gilliam writing and placing his camera thinking, "how great is this?" A big chore to see through.

But where would the tension come from, if your idea were followed?

Even the final shot of the graves (one of the most famous and moving in cinematic history would not only make no sense, but would not even be present.

This is the only way that the young samurai can grow and that the Mifune character can get closure.

Think about how the movie would need to be restructured in order to accommodate your idea.

Intolerance

Boy, it took me about 3 viewings to watch it, but it sure was worth it. The Babylonian battle scenes are some of the most breathtaking scenes ever caught on film, and they still hold up well. A

I completely agree Michael. Its an amazing film for any time, not just its time.

And I agree also. In these years, Griffith was revolutionizing the cinema with each film, further expanding on the techniques of Birth of a Nation and the epic qualities and grandiose sets of the early Italian films The Last Days of Pompeii and particularly Cabiria.

If you want to explore Griffith further, check out his take on the French Revolution in Orphans Of The Storm or his powerfully tragic ahead-of-its-time interracial love story Broken Blossoms.

i agree with Lew about loss is a crucial part of a great story.

Just watched John Ford's The Searchers, i thought it was a great film. What annoyed me most is that i have been wanting to see this for a long time and when i saw it was on AMC, i just couldn't pass on my chance, so i had to sit through commercials butchering film. Just Terrible
oh well, i give it an A+
That Brings my total to 62 S&S films seen