Best of 1934

1. The Scarlet Empress                                                                  Josef von Sternberg
2. L'Atalante                                                                                    Jean Vigo
3. Twentieth Century                                                                      Howard Hawks
4. Judge Priest                                                                                    John Ford        
5. La Signora di Tutti                                                                        Max Ophüls
6. Little Man, What Now?                                                               Frank Borzage
7. The Man Who Knew Too Much                                                 Alfred Hitchcock
8. It Happened One Night                                                              Frank Capra
9. Les Misérables                                                                           Raymond Bernard
10. Dos Monjes                                                                                Juan Bustillo Oro

          Honorable  Mention

         Man of Aran -- Flaherty

         Films I Enjoyed

         The Black Cat, A Story of Floating Weeds,

         The Lost Patrol, The Merry Widow, 

         Treasure Island, Death Takes a Holiday,

         Cleopatra, Our Daily Bread,

         The Gay Divorcee, Imitation of Life,

         Que Viva Mexico, The Scarlet Pimpernel,

         Viva Villa, Broadway Bill,

         Easy to Love, 

         Sadie McKee, The Thin Man 

         Below the Mendoza Line

         Murder at the Vanities, Flirtation Walk,

         Mandalay, Triumph of the Will

         Fugitive Road, Kid Millions,

         Baby Take a Bow, Manhattan Melodrama,

         Babes in Toyland, Massacre,

         Of Human Bondage,

         The Scarlet Letter

                          

Nocturama

Lost at the mall: Nocturama

Bertrand Bonello's Nocturama is a first rate art film that dares to explore terrorism shorn of ideological baggage. Both John Waters and Positif have characterized the film as irresponsible, though only Positif used the term pejoratively. Bonello is exploring the unconscious roots of terrorism in a surrealist manner much like Buñuel in his later, French language films. 

The first half of the picture shows the terrorists coordinating their bombing mission. They are shown conveying through Paris as if they are rats in a Google grid whether they are on the boulevards or in the Metro. They exude a sense of purpose which Bonello sketches in with flashbacks that offer glimpses of how this band of outsiders came to be. 

This sense of purpose collapses in the second half of the film when, after successfully completing their mission and bringing Paris to a standstill, they hole up in a high toned shopping mall to wait till the coast is clear. Things do not goes as planned. The terrorists succumb to anomie and anxiety before they more ultimately succumb. This is thanks to the faceless police force who have been given carte blanche to eliminate these enemies of the state. Bonello offers us a despairing portrait of an official France growing more authoritative whilst its resistance grows more feckless and divided.

Bonello has one of the terrorists allude to Nixon's toppling of Allende, but this is a red herring. More pertinent is the conversation about civilization succumbing to its own decadent forces and the glittering mall that houses Nocturama's last hour represents our culture at its most bewitching and vulgarly materialistic. There is a lot to chew on in Nocturama and I have only just started to masticate it, but I think it is the most accomplished and complex French film I have seen since Leos Carax's Holy Motors; a film to which it bears a faint resemblance. (4/3/18)

Hollywoodland

                         

Allen Coulter's Hollywoodland, from 2006, aspires to be a modernist take on LA noir like Chinatown and L.A. Confidential, but ended up a failure with only muffled attempts at cinematic style. Coulter is a good TV director, but can't transcend a muddled script that attempts to put a Rashomon spin on the suicide of George Reeves. Ben Affleck is miscast as Reeves despite his Superman status. Reeves was a chunky, two bit supporting player and not the Adonis A star that is our Ben. Affleck underplays his charm for a nice deprecating effect, as in Chasing Amy. This spark of charisma is badly needed as Adrian Brody sucks up all the film's oxygen as a screenwriter/detective (!) obsessed with Reeves' demise. Brody is difficult to cast as the lead in any film and seems destined for sinister or wacky supporting roles. Diane Lane wins the acting laurels by portraying Reeves' older love with desperation and acerbic relish. Joe Santos is very good as a fixer, but Robin Tunney is miscast as a party girl; they should have gone with Fairuza Balk. Hollywoodland is a mess with glimpses of the better films that inspired it contained within. (4/9/18)