The Great Dictator

The Great Dictator (1940)

a film by Charles Chaplin

I can only imagine the hope that was brought by this film in the darkest hour of the war. I can only imagine the smile of the audiences when looking at the images were with good will and good humor Chaplin made fun and ease the heavy spirits of terrible times. And if I can summarize this great film in one line it would be: hope and good humor.

In The Great Dictator, Chaplin shows his genius when portraying Hickel, the dictator of Tomania, making his figure a cartoonish image of Hitler and bringing back to earth the heavy atmosphere of the time, reducing the ambition and the hatred of the time to a boy's tantrum. It is in making fun of the darkest times and finding hope in the regular people that Chaplin manages to deliver an amazingly beautiful story.

I watched this film with the bitter feeling of knowing the aftermath of the war but I was easily contaminated with the spirit of hope that it brings. All of this in the middle of the situations that made Chaplin a master of the comedy. He trascends from the silent movie and for the first time I had the great experience of hearing his voice.

It takes a genius to face the darkest hours with creativity and good humor. It takes a genius to master the physical comedy and deliver memorable images as that of Hinkel playing with the world. It takes a genius to pass on so much faith in the human nature and make you laugh at the same time. And while watching this movie I had no doubt this beautiful movie was the work of a genius.

Dressed to Kill

Dressed to Kill (1980)

a film by Brian DePalma

I guess it is pretty accurate to call this an erotic crime thriller. There is at least two scenes of naked women in a misty shower room, there are horrible crimes, and the story possibly get really entertaining by moments. Sounds good at first glimpse, nevertheless, if there is a real crime in this movie and it is the poor acting and the lack of dramaturgy.

If you can tolerate tacky scenes, stereotyped characters, horrible acting -including Michael Caine in a regrettable role-and lame dialogues you may be able to fine some really good suspense scenes and good action sequences. Scenes like those in the Museum of Modern Art or the thrilling elevator sequence are barely enough to forget the boring characters that appear between electrifying moments. Maybe is worth seeing this movie to discover that it can thrill using poor character development.

There is no question on why the suspense scenes work. There is Alfred Hitchcock all around the place, there is Psycho and there is Dial M for Murder and there are many other references in this movie. Those scenes work as they worked for Hitchcock, there is excitement and some memorable moments on this film, but when I finished watching it I asked myself if going through the whole film was a price too-high to pay as this movie walks on the edge between B movie and a memorable thriller.

Les Vacances de M. Hulot

Les Vacances de M. Hulot (1956)

a film by Jacques Tatis

Comedy can be beautiful. It is with Chaplin and with Buster Keaton, and it is beautiful with Jacques Tatis. In this movie the images are great postcards in black and white, the gags are beautiful in their simplicity and the characters are remarkable on the way they are cartoons of themselves. Whatever I would write here will sound ceremonial when compared to the fresh manner in which this movie delivers its beauty and its humor.

The story is simple: vacations in the beach. And along the tourists you have a rich sea of relations going on: social classes, old and young people, rich and poor, a Marxist intellectual and a war veteran and around all of them Monsieur Hulot, uncomplicated and authentic. It is brilliant the way in which this character navigates through this temporary ecosystem of tourists and manages to deliver really memorable gags.

The costume of M. Hulot is as remarkable. The hat, the pipe and the striped socks are part of the icon that Jacques Tatis created with this character, that embodies at the same time a humble hero and a clown. To complete the figure of Hulot, each of the takes in this film could be used as a postcard as each of the characters can be used as a portrait of the stereotype they represent. The movie is loaded with so many common images that it is easy to relate to them and enjoy the beauty in the apparent simplicity of the story. So much good humor and amazing photography, this is superb movie. Great pirate costume, M. Hulot.

Raging Bull

Raging Bull (1980)

a film by Martin Scorsese

What a great character is Jake La Motta,, so full of destructive violence both in the ring and outside, so jealous and full of energy, so easy to hate but also so human. It is remarkable and epic the way in which Robert De Niro captures this character, using both his acting and his body to embody this boxer.

I'm a big fan of Scorsese movie but I never had the chance to watch this one. I was looking forward the boxing scenes and I wasn't disappointed. I love the traveling of the camera on the ring, specially during the fight between La Motta and Sugar Ray Robinson. The shots in the ring give this movie an amazing technical value perfectly complemented with really artistic shots like that one of Vicky splashing the water in the pool or Jake and Joey walking on the hallway. This film brings many memorable images and a really engaging story.

Violence is crude on this film, maybe because in contrast with other Scorsese movies, this time it is presented bare naked without music. Joe Pesci feels really fresh although I had seen this role repeated with really similar features in other films, and how impressive it is to see his rage unleashed in the scenes. It is the contrast between this rage and his personal feelings that makes his character so memorable, and is this contrast in the end that make the story in this film so vibrant.

This movie grows in the my memory as I'm thinking about it before writing this lines I find it more and more full of passion. Each of the scenes delivers a dose of the strength of the character, and some times in the ring it just seems La Motta is about to jump out of the screen.

High Art

High Art (1998)

by Lisa Cholodenko

I arrived to High Art with an unexpected prejudice founded on the comment of a friend whose opinion in film I really respect. So even when I worked hard to arrive to the movie without any expectations, I watched this one with Hipster Movie tag was still in my mind. Nevertheless, as I started to watch I really liked the initial scene, the colors, the realism of the characters and the photographic beauty of the takes.

A lot can be discussed about this movie, including the fact that is in this fancy list instead of many other remarkable movies, but beyond the list I consider this a movie worth watching specially if you like photography. This is a late coming-of-age movie, with a passionate and ambitious character that is also really human and sensitive, finding herself in unusual circumstances by the randomness of life. She finds her passion reflected in the character of Lucy, that has accomplished to become an isolated and independent artist but is also stuck in a moment of her life and see Syd as a door to something else.

I like the casting in this movie, the bodies of the actresses and their movements reveal as many things as the dialogues as the images. Patricia Clarkston is incredible here, and I'm only avoiding to find out if Greta Krauss is a real actress because I don't want to spoil Fassbinder's Berlin Alexanderplatz.

So it is or is not a Hipster Movie? Well, the characters are definitively hipsters and they live particular lives, nevertheless, the situations in which they are involve are easy to identify with and the passion of the characters is a motor that sustains the movie. From the mean bosses at the photography magazine to the neglected boyfriend these movie is sparkled with situations that are common to young adults and that gives the movie a tone of soap opera that I didn't really like. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed it, I really liked the images and although I have reserves putting this film in this list next to great master pieces, I think it is enjoyable and certainly gives a lot of topics for discussion.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
a film by

So many elements on this film have spread in the form of reference in the popular culture that even watching it the first time it feels so familiar. "Raindrops are falling on my head" is the last thing to expect in a western and it fits here perfectly as the Paul Newman's tricks on the bike.

Watching Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is an invitation to ambiguity. It is an invitation to discover and love this two characters that even being heartless bank robbers manage to captivate as much as the historical figures in which they are based. These are the ultimate nice bad guys and the word antiheroes is all over the place.

This is a movie about an amazing duo, and beyond being Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Robert Redford and Paul Newman do an amazing job with this characters that seem fresh and kind where many other western characters fall in the serious cartoon of the ruthless cowboy. This movie reminds me of another amazing duo movie: Jules et Jim. They are the kind of character that seem to have a dimension outside the movie and linger after the credits have rolled.

I really like the "irregular" narrative, the photo-stills and the music that fills in the gaps of the story. The movie doesn't need to tell it all. It feels and appear in the screen -sometimes in unexplainable ways like that bike scene- like a jigsaw, where it is left to the audience to fill in the blanks and construct the story of the great adventures of this two memorable characters.

My Own Private Idaho

My Own Private Idaho (1991)
a film by Gus Van Sant

The circumstances that leads us to find a particular film and make it meaning full are as unpredictable as the places where movies can take you. I found My Own Private Idaho in a poster by the twin churches in Piazza del Popolo in Rome and it took me to the endless plains of Idaho and the loneliness and bitter beauty of this story.

I knew Gus Van Sant's work and I wanted to be fully awake for this story. His films have felt for me like a moving sedatives and I wanted to be in the right attitude for this one. So I decide to follow the story of this character in his circular path, starting and ending on the same road, on the same loop, isolated and rejected. It was moving to follow him in the middle of such a beautiful set of images. Endless fields of wheat, two identical churches in a foggy day and the rooftops of Portland frame this tough story in a halo of beauty and colour that contrast with the toughness of the story.

It needs a particular state of mind to watch this movie and catch the brush of solitude and the feeling that I can describe with other words than happy-sad. This feeling is brought mainly by the character of River Phoenix who is absolutely great in this film and who delivers most of the intense load of this outcast character. On the other side the rest of the characters help to construct the reality around the main thread and in the same sense help to make the context that makes the story so light but emotional at the same time.

There is no way to leave this film without wanting to talk about the interpretations and the influences, without trying to debate or comment. The only way to do it is watching it and is worth taking your time to do it. Pick a large screen and quiet day.