The King Of Comedy

The King Of Comedy (1983)

a film by Martin Scorsese

This is not a comedy nor a thriller, is something strange that lies in between and yet maintains a whimsical tone in a dark story of obsession and entertainment business.

Rupert Pupkin, brilliantly bring to life by Robert DeNiro, is an aspiring stand-up comic with obsessive ambition. After meeting with Jerry Langford, a famous comedian and talk show host, Rupert believes his "big break" has finally come and his obsession unleashes. He will do everything to get his place in the spotlight.

I really liked the ambiguous tone of this film, a portrait of obsession in the world of comic is both paradoxical and interesting. Last time I saw Robert DeNiro was in Taxi Driver and now in The King Of Comedy he surprises me bringing a completely different but equally disturbing portrait of obsession, delirium and social isolation.

This is not a funny movie but still steals some laughs while it delivers a social satire in the shape of a character obsessed with fame. I laughed but mostly felt desolated by the loneliness of this character in his delusion and unlimited ambition. Rupert Pupkin has a charm absent in the Taxi Driver, its alienation is different and less tragic but it is equally shocking.

Grizzly Man

Grizzly Man (2005)

a film by Werner Herzog

Grizzly Man is a documentary in which Werner Herzog uses all the power of his narrative and sequence composition to bring the story of Timothy Treadwell, a man that as an end of his delirious obsession of protecting and living with the grizzly bears in Alaska gets himself and his girlfriend eaten.

Timothy Treadwell live among the coastal grizzly bears of the Katmai National Park in Alaska for almost 13 summers before meeting his tragic end. He documented his journeys using a video camera and using this footage Herzog composes the story of his life and his obsession.

Obsession is a topic known for Herzog and is no big surprise that the director of Fitzcarraldo and Aguirre can bring such a great portrait of delirium. What really caught me by surprise was the powerful emotions that it managed to transmit. Treadwell's footage is full of incidental beauties and even in his moments of madness his portrait is so human and his story so tragic that it is deeply touching.

I don't know how he doesn't but Herzog managed to compose this story letting the footage speak, composing more than telling. I felt moved, angry, scared, sad and thoughtful while watching this film, it is a heart-melting mind-blowing piece of cinema.

True Grit

True Grit (1969)

a film by Henry Hathaway

With the advent of the Cohen brothers' True Grit I felt compelled to cross this classic off the list and I found myself, a big skeptic of remakes, looking forward for their renewed version but longing that they keep the powerful story and the memorable landscapes as untouched as possible.

After Frank Ross is murdered by his hired hand, Tom Chaney, his 14-year-old daughter, Mattie Ross, leaves her home and hires the ruthless and aging US Marshall Rooster Cogburn to guide her to Indian Territory to capture Chaney and bring him back to the authorities.

This movie seems to arrive out of time. Right in the moment when the American cinema was receiving the effects of the Nouvelle Vague, it takes the camera into the impressive setting of the Western but with an acting an dramaturgy from the age of the studios. It heart-warming to see John Wayne in this movie, but it also seems that his Academy Award came as late as the release of this film. Nevertheless, the story is so powerful and the images are so impressive that this becomes a really enjoyable film. Both the amazing American landscapes and the most intimate and emotional moments between the characters are memorable, but often I found myself asking the director to move the camera a little bit out of the plane, to get a little bit closer to the characters as in that scene in which Mattie receives her dad's watch.

I enjoyed the short times when Robert Duvall and Dennis Hopper appear in the screen, and felt the shake in the scene of the hangings. This is a good movie and I fear I'm asking to much from it now that I know that there is a new release. I'll miss John Wayne, but I hope the Cohen brothers made it well and fix the elements and the limitations of this version because I really like this story.

The African Queen

The African Queen (1951)

a film by John Houston

The African Queen is a movie in which unexpected elements come together to make a beautiful and entertaining story. I couldn't image that I would like so much this story of implausible love on board of a boat in the heart of Africa in search of survival and heroism. This movie has really impressive takes, that at the time must have been of this kind in the African continent. It has Humprey Bogart at the top of his game and a powerful and lovely Katherine Hepburn, unafraid of showing her age and a glowing with beauty.

Rose Sayer and her brother are missionaries in a village in East Africa, when World War I starts and leaves Rose alone with only the help of the rough boat captain Charlie Allnut. Drifting on board of the African Queen they find love and a purpose: try and sink the German gunboat that grants them control of the navigation on that portion of Africa.

Unlikely but lovely, this is the kind of movie in which is easy to believe the unbelievable. It is easy to follow this story to enjoy the time spent with these too characters and the adventures that await on their journey. This is a great classic, the product of the great actors taken to new levels of adventure by the vision of a great director, but overall, a lovely and heart-warming movie.

Travolti da un insolito destino nell'azzurro mare d'agosto

Travolti da un insolito destino nell'azzurro mare d'agosto (1974)

a film by Lina Wertmüller

Sometimes is much more easy to write about the films I don't like that about the films I like. The reasons why I don't like this movie that was commercialized in English as Swept Away, are so specific that I find it hard to find something I like about the movie, but I will do my best. But first let me write what is it about.

During a fancy vacation on a fancy sailing boat in the Mediterranean, one of the rich and glamorous tourists -a woman so annoying that boggles the mind-, gets into a fight with one of the members of the crew, with such a bad luck that after a storm, the two of them end up in a deserted island where their social tensions are washed away and the give up into a deep romance.

The main problem I had with this movie is that I didn't believe anything of what was happening in the film. I couldn't believe the main character, annoying as the character required but endlessly boring in her shallowness. I couldn't believe the guy that is stuck with her in the island, too slow to become the skilled castaway. I couldn't believe the storm and I could not believe the passionate relationship that they develop on the island, so overwhelmingly misogynous and brutal that even exceeds the hyperbolic cartoon that these characters are.

Movies are about believing. What we see on the screen is not real but we choose to believe because we like to explore the story, we like to be fooled to enjoy what the film has to deliver. But when the lie is evident, the spell is broken and you see the implausible in the screen. That was my experience in this movie, once I stopped believing, the comedic situation of these cartonish characters became just sound and fury.

Bonnie and Clyde

Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

a film by Arthur Penn

Bonnie and Clyde is the sublimed story of a couple of outlaws. This movie exalts the elements that produce fascination in the stories of criminals and outcasts, brings to new level the romanticism of the story using graphic violence as a counterpoint for an unusual love story and ultimately renews the story that had already fascinated the masses during the "public enemy era".

This movie defined the image of Bonnie and Clyde for the generations that came after it. Bonnie became the glamorous and stylish Faye Dunaway, Clyde became the ruthless but sensible portrait made by Warren Beatty, and with them the story reached new audiences and lingers in time.

I loved what this movie bring in terms of narrative: it brings a breath of fresh air to the American Cinema, with lots of exteriors, camera motions and scenes that challenge the standard conception of cinema. It feel almost as Nouvelle Vague, but was a distinctive American spirit, the landscapes of the never-ending land crossing State borders, and defying the anonymity that condemns the people in the rural United States.

Is the crude-comic tone that this movie uses and the ambiguity in the portrayal of criminals a way of glorifying murderers and banalizing violent actions? That is a huge question that ended up rolling in my mind as I finished watching this movie. Certainly, it will take more than a posting to discuss it and this movie to exemplify it. Maybe what is what it takes to turn a story in the corner of newspaper into a timeless image. In the case of this movie, I don't need to describe the story, it is simply, Bonnie and Clyde.

All About Eve

All About Eve (1950)

a film by Joseph Mankiewicz

A fable about ruthless ambition, All About Eve is a great story told through the characters. It is a great satire of the entertainment industry and also a story of the individuals that are part of that industry. The great achievement of this entertaining film is to form a puzzle of characters that fit as the story progresses and we get to know all about Eve.

All about Eve is the story of Margo Channing, an aging Broadway star and Eve Harrington, a helpful young fan who appears in Margo's life, ultimately threatening her career and her personal life in an ambitious search for success.

This movie is a great example of the character development as a mean to tell a story. Very theatrical in its setup, this film acquires its rhythm and engaging atmosphere by showing the relationships of the characters, no wonder why this film go enormous recognition for the work of the actors on it. Bette Davies is sharp and magnificent in her role of the aging star, both strong in her stardom and vulnerable in her personal life. Anne Baxter passes from good to evil in a few photograms and all the cast make a great mosaic in which the story becomes engaging.

All about Eve is a film that is easy to love, is one of the great products of the Hollywood actor system with a fresh and entertaining story with a sense of criticism and satire.

The Conformist

The Conformist (1970)

a film by Bernardo Bertolucci

The images in The Conformist compose the kind of memories that make me want to watch movies again and again. This is a story that talks through images a beautiful and potent way, frame by frame is not just a series of masterful photographies but a visual work of art. And yet it is not just that, this movie is a poetic and stylish portrait of the social chameleon, a moral tale told with dazzling power of cinema at its best.

The Conformist, is the story Marcello Clerici, a character -brilliantly plater by Jean-Louis Trintignant- drifting with the tide, fitting in the scheme of things, letting himself go in a moment of history were moral decisions and conscience meant facing the storm. In the Italy of the 40s, Clerici volunteers with the Fascist Government to assassinate his former college professor, a dissident leader refuged in France, during his honeymoon in Paris.

With great skill Bertolucci composes a story full with flashback that give away more details about the life of The Conformist and set him a human context right before committing his crime, but the movie does not only depends on these thread, it is so rich in characters and astounding visual elements that still after seeing it several times I have the chance to find new elements while some others still remain as a mystery.

This movie has the great ability to deliver a sense of depth beyond the screen, a structure in which the story develops like a labyrinth, not giving away too much, giving lots of space for thinking. Through the masterful composition of sequences with great visual power, this film gets to deliver a story with aesthetic and narrative beauty and strength. Not to miss are the scenes of Clerici in the Fascist ministry, visiting his father in the sanatorium the blind party and the closing scene.

Some of the things I like most on this and other Bertolucci movies is the role of the female characters. This film brings the counterpoint between a beautiful, strong and independent female character that is the professor's wife and the also beautiful but more detached from reality, naive and vane character that is Clerici's wife. Both seem to be trapped in the tide and as in the sensual and stylish scene where both women dance tango, the beauty and independence seem to survive briefly before being captured and crushed stronger and anonymous forces, the same kind of forces driving Clerici's mechanical actions.

This is a movie to watch again and again. Is the kind of movie that provides enough elements to keep finding surprises, the keep thinking and admiring, and why not, watch two really sexy women dancing tango together.

Enter the Void (Bonus Track)

Enter the Void (2009)

a film by Gaspar Noé

Wed. Jan. 12 /11 - 3:15pm

TIFF Bell Lightbox