Jeanette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc

Here we go loop de loo: Bruno Dumont's Jeanette...

Bruno Dumont's Jeanette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc is one of the oddest films to come down the pike in quite some time. In this umpteenth film about Joan, Dumont has the gumption to stage Joan's youthful philosophical struggles as a rock opera. The film often borders on ludicrousness, but I was won over by its crazed intensity and singularity of vision. Working with an amateur cast, Dumont illuminates Joan's quest to work for God's grace in a world beset by evil. The musical numbers startlingly evoke Joan's devotional quest. A film that teeters on the edge of disaster, Jeanette ultimately worked for me because Dumont and his cast are utterly committed to Joan's plight. 

Eschewing the trappings of conventional musicals, Jeanette eerily resembles the work of Bresson in its utilization of non-actors, its deceptively simple cinematic technique, its naturalized settings and its unabashed invoking of religious fervor. Dumont also employs closeups, as did Bresson, to stress the restraints to and freedom of man's will in the temporal sphere. Both actresses who play Joan give their all and it is this emotional directness that many viewers will find off-putting, but I found refreshing.

Jeanette is a crude film in many respects: choreography, cinematography, the acting, etc., etc. A number of critics have seized upon the amateurish nature of the film to deride it as a catastrophe. The root of the word amateur is, of course, the Latin word for love and I think this is a clue to Dumont's intentions. He didn't want to make a gussied up super production about a medieval peasant girl who willed herself to sainthood. Dumont wanted to make a personal film stressing the humility and intensity of the saint and in this he has succeeded. I somewhat eagerly await the sequel. (1/4/19)

Emma

Anya Taylor-Joy and Johnny Flynn in Emma

Autumn de Wilde's  Emma is a droll and delightful Jane Austen adaptation. Some have objected to the broad comic tone de Wilde has chosen, but I think it is perfect for Austen who I view as more of a light entertainer like Thackeray than a major artist such as Dickens or George Eliot. This may be my hangup: I keep waiting for a dark, Byronic male to show up in Austen, but all I get are callow rakes that pale next to those of even Richardson. This Emma has ravishing decor and costumes, lithe cinematography and a deft cast. 

Anya Taylor-Joy brings out the imperiousness of Emma more than her forebears. Taylor-Joy's steely technique is a nice contrast with the more roughhewn style of Johnny Flynn as Mr. Knightly. Ms. de Wilde's objectification of Mr. Flynn is a nice example of tables being turned amidst a pageant of pagan iconography.

Ms. de Wilde was heretofore an LA based still photographer and video director. Emma shares the vibrant color and playfulness of de Wilde's previous work, but de Wilde also proves to be adept with her cast. Mia Goth, Miranda Hart and Bill Nighy are the standouts in a cast that provides many memorable comic vignettes. Emma is a strong first feature and among the finest films released this year; damning with faint praise, I know. It ranks with the best Austen adaptations: Patricia Rozema's Mansfield Park, Whit Stillman's Love & Friendship and Amy Heckerling's Clueless.

Best of 1970

1. La Rupture                                                                           Claude Chabrol
2. Claire's Knee                                                                        Eric Rohmer
3. Wanda                                                                                   Barbara Loden
4. The Spider's Stratagem                                                       Bernardo Bertolucci
5. Gods of the Plague                                                              RW Fassbinder
6. The Private Life of Sherlock Homes                                  Billy Wilder
7. Le Boucher                                                                           Claude Chabrol
8. The Ballad of Cable Hogue                                                 Sam Peckinpah
9. Zorns Lemma                                                                       Hollis Frampton
10. Brewster McCloud                                                               Robert Altman

         Honorable Mention

         There Was A Crooked Man -- Mankiewicz, Two Mules for Sister Sarah -- Siegel,

         The Conformist -- Bertolucci, Multiple Maniacs -- Waters,

         Le Cercle Rouge -- Melville, M*A*S*H -- Altman,

         Valerie and Her Week of Wonders -- Jires

         Films I Enjoyed

         Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, Patton, 

         Tristana, Woodstock, 

         Performance, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, 

         Gimme Shelter, Rio Lobo, 

         Kelly's Heroes, Little Big Man, 

         Five Easy Pieces, The Wild Child,

         Monte Walsh, The Liberation of L. B. Jones,

         Zabriskie Point, The Aristocats,

         The Honeymoon Killers, 

         The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Hi, Mom!,

         El Topo, Where's Poppa?,

         Loving, The Owl and the Pussycat.

         Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon

         Below the Mendoza Line

         Getting Straight, Rider on the Rain,

         The Out of Towners, 

         The Molly Maguires, Bloody Mama,

         Tora! Tora! Tora!, Catch 22, 

         Chisum, Trash, Ryan's Daughter, 

         I Never Sang for My Father, The Dunwich Horror, 

         A Man Called Horse, The Cheyenne Social Club, 

         WUSA, Scrooge, 

         Equinox, The Great White Hope, 

         They Call Me Trinity, The Boatniks,

         Flap, The Strawberry Statement, 

         Airport, Love Story,

         Gas-s-s-s, Soldier Blue

        

         

Jigoku

Nobuo Nakagawa's Jigoku (Hell), from 1960, is a lurid horror film full of memorable images. Nakagawa had already churned out a number of "wicked" exploitation films for Shintoho Studios, but, at this point, the studio was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy and you get the feeling that Nakagawa was pulling out all the stops because he knew the end was near.

The plot is the height of ridiculousness, but provides an excuse for Nakagawa to explore the collective guilt of the Japanese psyche: nearly every character is implicated in a killing. A charming demon named Tamura lures the characters into ghastly fates and soon all are suffering the various torments of hell. The film verges on the mod and surrealistic. The color photography is enjoyably vivid and a theremin appears to spooky effect on the soundtrack. Nakagawa direction veers from evocative to incoherent, but his tenacity despite budgetary restrictions is heartening. Before going to hell, the film is a portrait of the curdled bonhomie of the lower depths of Japanese society.

There is a ray of hope amidst the torture and dismemberment. The lotus leaves showering the two heroines at the conclusion symbolize purification of the mind and a purgation of the soul. Not that Jigoku reaches the catharsis of high tragedy, but it is effective schlock. Fans of Mario Bava, Giallo, Roger Corman and the "Coffin Joe" films should check it out. 

Support the Girls

Regina King and coworkers in Support the Girls 

Andrew Bujalski's Support the Girls is an intermittently engaging portrait of the staff at a Hooters like restaurant. The film is chiefly a vehicle for Regina King who portrays the establishment's manager. Her character's travails within the twenty four hours period of the film are overloaded: she splits with her diffident romantic partner, puts on a fundraiser for an allegedly injured colleague and decides that she needs to seek new career opportunities. Bujalski telegraphs his message by having one of the "girls" voice her love for her work "family" at the denouement.

Support the Girls continues the trajectory of Bujalski's films' exploration of subcultures within the US. Its feminism and critique of capitalism are more explicit than heretofore, perhaps overly so. Haley Lu Richardson and James Le Gros are effective. Dylan Gelula and Shayna McHayle (aka Junglepussy) less so. Ms. King's performance has been justly laureled. She gives Support the Girls its focus and never seems false or actorly.

I ultimately support the film because of its humanism and because it displays an advancement in Bujalski's skill as a visual storyteller. Dialogue has been a strength of Bujalski since his mumblecore days, but Support the Girls marks the first time he has succeeded in showing, rather than telling, how his characters' feel. The title sequence with its shots of autos criss-crossing freeways establishes the curvy sports bar as a way station for those seeking respite from the rat's maze of capitalist culture. Bujalski's pans between the staff members in the bar warmly celebrates the camaraderie and fortitude of a team more worth honoring than the greats of the gridiron pictured on its video screens. (1/8/19)

Best of 1971

1. Out 1                                                                Jacques Rivette, Suzanne Schiffman
2. Two English Girls                                                    Francois Truffaut
3. McCabe and Mrs. Miller                                          Robert Altman
4. The Beguiled                                                            Don Siegel
5. Beware of a Holy Whore                                         RW Fassbinder
6. Upstairs, Downstairs                                               Eileen Atkins, Jean Marsh, etc.
7. Just Before Nightfall                                               Claude Chabrol
8. Deep End                                                                 Jerzy Skolimowski     
9. Such Good Friends                                                 Otto Preminger
10. The Anderson Tapes                                               Sidney Lumet

          Honorable Mention

          Duel -- Spielberg, The Last Picture Show --Bogdanovich,

          Get Cater -- Hodges, Dirty Harry -- Siegel

          Films I Enjoyed

         Two Lane Blacktop, Walkabout, 

         The French Connection, Shaft,

         The Hospital, A New Leaf, Klute, 

         Play Misty for Me, The Last Movie,

         The Search for the Nile, A Clockwork Orange, 

         Trafic, Wake in Fright,

         THX 1138,  Sunday Bloody Sunday, 

         The Last Valley, Willard,

         The Devils, Bananas, 

         Summer of '42, Investigation of a Citizen Above...,

         Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, Diamonds Are Forever,

         The Omega Man, The Emigrants,

         They Must Be Giants, Support Your Local Gunfighter

         Below the Mendoza Line

          

         Macbeth, A Touch of Zen,

         A Bay of Blood. 

         Nicholas and Alexandra, 10 Rillington Place,

         Fiddler on the Roof, Carnal Knowledge, 

         Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Straw Dogs,

         Brian's Song, Big Jake, 

         Harold and Maude, Billy Jack,

         Escape from the Planet of the Apes, Lawman, 

         The Decameron, The Night Visitor,

         King Lear, Man in the Wilderness,

         Zachariah, 200 Motels

         Daughters of Darkness, Johnny Got His Gun,

         Whity, Scandalous John, Pretty Maids All in a Row,

         Bless the Beasts and Children

Claire's Camera

Min-hee Kim and Isabelle Huppert bond in Claire's Camera

Sang-soo Hong's Claire's Camera is a wispy slice of life that would evaporate before our eyes if not for its moral acumen and directorial commitment. The film concerns a film industry worker who is unexpectedly fired while working on a project in Cannes. Jeon, the young woman who has been canned, is given no objective reason for the firing by her boss, Nam, but only a vague explanation that she has not been totally honest. As it turns out, it is Nam who has not been totally honest. She has fired Jeon for a drunken one night stand with a director with whom Nam has been having a clandestine affair. The titular Claire is a Parisian tourist who befriends Jeon and, through her photographs of the various characters, acts as a deus ex machina to right the wrongs that have been done to Jeon.

At times, the film seems paper thin. It is as if Hong had two weeks in Cannes before the festival and the services of Ms. Huppert and needed to concoct a film on the fly. However, the charms of ms. Huppert and Min-hee Kim as jeon go along way to sell the film despite its flimsy premise. Hong uses zooms within static shots to emphasize the solitude of each character wrestling with their own moral dilemmas. The Cannes he pictures is not a party paradise, but a resort town in off-season filled with run of the mill cafes and third rate hotels too close for comfort to the train tracks.

The deglamorization of the settings adds weight to the film's portrayal of the characters' moral balancing act. At the conclusion, Jeon is seen duct taping boxes of equipment to take back to Korea. A moral equilibrium has been regained, but Hong has shown us how thin the veneer of civility is in modern society. 

Mom and Dad

Selma Blair and Nicolas Cage are Mom and Dad

Brian Taylor's Mom and Dad is a black comic horror film that chronicles a mysterious hysteria that causes parents to hunt and kill their children. The film has its moments of gleeful abandon, but does not coalesce into a comprehensible entity. Taylor has planted a few interesting ideas in the script, particularly about the resentments parents feel towards their offspring, but is not able to present his ideas into a intelligible narrative. Taylor is so intent on evoking the freneticism of his plot, as he did in Crank, that he sacrifices coherence. Taylor is overly enamored of huge close-ups that suggest terror, but do not add to our understanding of the characters or plot.

Mom and Dad suffers from a slow and clumsy exposition. Once Mom and Dad, Selma Blair and Nicholas Cage, start hunting their prey the pace picks up, but we never are emotionally invested in the carnage and who it destroys or why. Nicholas Cage is always fun when he gets to chew the scenery and Robert Cunningham is a newcomer to watch, but Mom and Dad, despite its exertions, adds up to very little.

The Rider

Chloe Zhao's The Rider is largely a meditative delight. The tale of a young rodeo rider, Brady Jandreau, recovering from a horrific mishap, The Rider alternates lyrical scenes of men and horses with scenes of Brady's physical rehabilitation and struggles to survive on a Lakota reservation in South Dakota. Zhao's camera is an impassive spectator of both the natural beauty of the American plains and the rusted squalor surrounding those trying to eke out a life on the edge of US society. Her use of a non-professional cast, as in her debut Songs My Brother Taught Me, strips the movie of dynamics and drama, but also allows Zhao to create scenes of beauty and mystery.

Chief among these scenes are those showing Brady breaking stallions. The choice to avoid quick cuts and Mr. Jandreau's skill with horses are enough to create many lovely moments. This contrasts nicely with the neo-realist portrait of a life of limited possibilities on the reservation. Jandreau's father and sister play versions of themselves. While this leads to a few awkward moments, it also leads towards a verisimilitude akin to the Dardenne brothers, Aki Kaurismaki and, especially, Robert Bresson. Like that austere Frenchman, Zhao is portraying a spiritual quest amidst materialist squalor.

Zhao, like Bresson, averts sentimentality with an impassive gaze: especially when Brady visits his paralyzed comrade Lane; tenderness alternates with terror. Also, as in Bresson, Zhao displays a fetishistic visual fascination with hands, particularly Brady's damaged right hand. Zhao further fetishizes the accoutrements of rodeo life: saddles, bridles, chaps, etc. All to make tactile Brady's quest to connect with some of nature's finest specimens. The Rider is a memorable film that bodes well for Zhao's future. (1/19/19)

Best of 1972

1. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie                                        Luis Bunuel
2. The Merchant of Four Seasons                                                      RW Fassbinder
3. Ulzana's Raid                                                                                   Robert Aldrich
4. Frenzy                                                                                               Alfred Hitchcock 
5. The Last House on the Left                                                            Wes Craven  
6. What's Up Doc?                                                                               Peter Bogdanovich
7. Aguirre, the Wrath of God                                                              Werner Herzog
8. Solaris                                                                                               Andrei Tarkovsky
9. Travels With My Aunt                                                                      George Cukor
10. Avanti                                                                                                Billy Wilder

          Honorable Mention

          Duck You Sucker -- Leone, Chloe in the Afternoon -- Rohmer,

          Bad Company -- Benton, Sisters -- De Palma,

          The Age of the Medici --  Rossellini

          Films I Enjoyed

          Payday, What?,

          The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, Superfly,

          The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid, 

          The Carey Treatment, Junior Bonner,

          Boxcar Bertha, Eight Hours Don't Make a Day, 

          The Godfather, The Other,

          Deliverance, Fat City, 

          The Heartbreak Kid, The King of Marvin Gardens,

          The Hot Rock, Silent Running, 

          Un Flic, The Mechanic,

          Last Tango in Paris, Pink Flamingos, The Getaway,

          Season of the Witch, Jeremiah Johnson, 

          Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance,

          Images, Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?,
          Young Winston, Cabaret,

          X, Y and Zee, The Blood Spattered Bride,

          Hannie Caulder,   

          The Cowboys, You'll Like My Mother, 
          The Poseidon Adventure, Across 110th Street

          Below the Mendoza Line

          Cries and Whispers, The Assassination of Trotsky, 

          Don't Torture a Duckling, Play It Again Sam,
          The Candidate, Sleuth, 

          Sounder, $, Cisco Pike,

          Dirty Little Billy, The Ruling Class,
          Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex..., 

          The Canterbury Tales, 
          The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean,
          Buck and the Preacher, The Valachi Papers, 

          Joe Kidd, Tomorrow,
          Slaughterhouse Five, Brother Son, Sister Moon,

          Greaser's Palace, Andy Warhol's Heat,
          Butterflies Are Free, 

          Frogs, 1776         

The Mackintosh Man

John Huston's The Mackintosh Man, from 1973, has a pretty dire reputation, certainly neither Huston nor screenwriter Walter Hill had anything positive to say about it, but it struck me as an above average spy thriller. The picture's first act dawdles and Dominique Sanda is lost in the flood for the duration, but once the picture becomes a man on the run flick, a la North by Northwest, it finds a despairing groove. Similarly, Paul Newman seems ill at ease trying on a number of accents, but his prowess as a physical performer is well utilized once he is on the run.

The car chase sequences seem tacked on, as if to duplicate the success of Bullitt and The French Connection. What Huston excels at here is conjuring a mood of nihilistic helplessness. Any moral order has collapsed and these characters exist in a world where Manichaean dichotomies no longer exist. Newman's character has no moral compass or even a fixed identity; survival is all. Huston's cynical disgust suits the project. Only when one character's sense of justice is violated is there a moral reckoning. Huston's oeuvre between Beat the Devil and Fat City is a dispiriting succession of half-assed projects and wasted opportunities. Here, with the help of a number of excellent British supporting actors, Huston achieves, as in Fat City, genuine expressions of pain, doubt and alienation.

The Assistant

Trapped in space: The Assistant

Kitty Green's The Assistant has the cumulative effect of a nightmare. The film chronicles the very long work day of a producer's assistant at a Miramax type studio. The sexism and
dehumanization of the workplace are displayed with a coruscating matter of factness. The major and minor humiliations, featuring paper cuts and medical waste disposal, the assistant endures as she navigates her day paint a corrosive picture.

Ms. Green has the good fortune to have Julia Garner, the most promising of American actors, embody the assistant. Ms. Garner, as she displayed in Ozark and Dirty John, among others, is expert at suggesting her characters' innermost thoughts and feelings. Her performance in The Assistant etches her character's frustration. Jane the assistant, just plain Jane, must tamp down her very self to survive her daily grind. The film is largely silent, with minimal use of music, as Jane goes about menial tasks such as filing, copying and general clean up. When there is conversation, the assistant is largely excluded. Ms Garner plays with glances and gritted teeth through much of The Assistant.

The Assistant conveys the malaise of its workplace through its sickly color, murky lighting and concise, claustrophobic editing. The office contains a host of outmoded techno tools (phones, computers, microwaves, coffee makers and copiers) that themselves create a mood of creepiness and unease. Instead of a straightforward Me Too parable, The Assistant represents a continuation of workplace critiques that began in the silent era with King Vidor's The Crowd and culminated with Mike Judge's Office Space. One's sense of space is constricted in The Assistant to help visualize the concept of a confined and hierarchical society.

Power and status dictates the usage of office space in The Assistant. Underlings stay within their cubes and share cabinets that contain their coffee mugs. Satraps get to store their totems of power, be they golf clubs or injectable Alprostadil syringes, where they wish. Some viewers have been put off by the film's lack of affect. Who can enjoy a detailed illustration of office life, they ask, but this is Ms. Green's point. The Assistant is more a compact Jeanne Dielman... than the uplifting Hollywood protest of Norma Rae and 9 to 5 and it is all the better for it.

Best of 1973

1. Charley Varrick                                                                        Don Siegel
2. Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid                                                   Sam Peckinpah
3. Mean Streets                                                                             Martin Scorsese
4. La maman et la putain                                                             Jean Eustache
5. World on a Wire                                                                        RW Fassbinder
6. Badlands                                                                                    Terrence Malick
7. The Long Goodbye                                                                   Robert Altman
8. The Three Musketeers                                                              Richard Lester
9. Paper Moon                                                                               Peter Bogdanovich
10. F is for Fake                                                                              Orson Welles

         Honorable Mention

         American Graffiti -- Lucas, Papillon -- Schaffner, Don't Look Now -- Roeg,

         Day for Night -- Truffaut, The Macintosh Man -- Huston

         Films I Enjoyed

         Walking Tall, The Holy Mountain, 

         High Plains Drifter, Sleeper,

         Blume in Love, Scarecrow,

         Kid Blue,

         Slither, Spirit of the Beehive, 

         Emperor of the North Pole, The Crazies

         The Last of Sheila, The Last American Hero,

         The Sting, Lady Snowblood,   

         State of Siege, The Day of the Jackal,

         I Escaped from Devil's Island, The Friends of Eddie Coyle,

         The Outfit, The Cat Creature,

         The Train Robbers, A Touch of Class, 

         The Exorcist, The Wicker Man,

         Revolver, Hanzo the Razor: The Snare,

         My Name is Nobody, 

         Schlock, The Baby

         Below the Mendoza Line

         Amarcord, Pulp,

         Robin Hood, The Way We Were, 

         Theatre of Blood, Ludwig,

         Save the Tiger, Breezy,

         La Grande Bouffe, The Last Detail, 

         Harry in Your Pocket, White Lightning,

         Prime Cut, Soylent Green,

         The Amusement Park,

         The Tall Blond Man..., Enter the Dragon, 

         Westworld, The Paper Chase, 

         Bang the Drum Slowly, Cinderella Liberty,

         Day of the Dolphin, Jesus Christ Superstar,

         Ivan Vasilievich: Back to the Future

         Cahill US Marshall, 

         Live and Let Die, Gawain and the Green Knight,

         Oklahoma Crude

         Cave Videntium

        

         Lost Horizon

          

A Story from Chikamatsu

Lovers on the run in A Story from Chikamatsu

Kenji Mizoguchi's A Story from Chikamatsu, from 1954, is a masterpiece to rival most of his postwar output, therefore it is near the pinnacle of cinematic achievement. Most memorable is Hiskazu Tsuji's production design, particularly the set design for scroll-master Ishun's home factory which dominates the mise en scene of the film's first section. Ishun's residence, a bourgeoise dream of elegance and workplace efficiency, is a series of grids and mazes that serve to entrap its inhabitants. Mizoguchi's camera utilizes the building's sliding doors to create a field of action amidst three grounds: fore, middle and back. This 3D effect magnifies the sense of societal enclosure that Mizoguchi's doomed lovers must escape from.

They do so by traveling to the country where they can drift for awhile in nature. When they finally consummate their relationship, they tryst in a shed filled with hay which Mizoguchi films as if it were a moonlit bower. Away from the grid, they can indulge apart from the city and the machinations of men. The tragic ending, which is a departure from the source material, reflects the fatalism of Mizoguchi. However, the lovers' fate is triumphant. They go to their end happily because of their shared love, but also because they have found self-knowledge. A Story from Chikamatsu is a powerful rejoinder to Japan's stifling authoritarianism.

Spoiler alert...The US title: The Crucified Lovers