Criterion by the Numbers: A Special Edition list - Page 4

149) Juliet of the Spirits - Juliet is eagerly awaiting her husband’s return home. Today is their 15th wedding anniversary and it has become apparent that the guy forgot. It turns out that Juliet’s husband set up a surprise party. At the party, Juliet meets a psychic that opens the doors to otherworldly connections. Juliet starts to awaken, as she finds herself confronted by odd and sexually charged. There’s a couple of bits with a bizarre transgender that lead you to wonder if Juliet has truly become evolved or is just turning into a certain kind of hag. The lady’s childhood, early adulthood and start of her marriage come into play as a new lease is given to her past. Fellini has always had a weird relationship with the women of his films. When he gave the titular role to his real-life wife, the oddity took a new level. But, I will cover that later.

138) Rashomon - Rashomon tells the story of a murdered 12th century Samurai. The famous bandit Tajomaru had raped the Samurai’s wife and tied up the honorable man. A woodcutter passing the scene sees a version of the events, but he doesn’t know quite what he saw. A priest happens upon the aftermath and offers up his version of what happened. Everyone ends up having a different take on the matter. Tajomaru tells everyone about how he was taking the Samurai’s wife and getting ready to run off with her. The Samurai talks about how he happened upon his wife being degraded like a harlot. Kurosawa made his name with this film that’s all about the careful structure of storytelling. Playing with the linear nature of film and the master stroke of an expert editor, he creates absolute must-see cinematic art.

137) Notorious - Alicia Huberman has been having a bad couple of days. The authorities have locked up her father on charges of treason. She’s kind of a slut, plus she drinks a lot. The press is on her ass and all of her high society friends speak ill of her. That’s when she meets Mr. Devlin. Devlin is a representative of the Brazilian government and he’s got a beef with Claude Rains. Claude Rains and his Nazi pals are working on a way to screw over the Allies. Devlin talks Alicia into charming the pants off Rains while the good guys can fight off the Nazis. Alicia is charming Rains rather well, but his mother shows up. This evil bitch of a woman knows that Alicia is a two-timer with secrets to hide. Now, Alicia must keep it together.

141) Children of Paradise - Marcel Carne shows a love of the French Theater that yet to be matched on film. Truth and Beauty play in the Boulevard of Crime, while the citizens try to go about their lives. Lacenaire is a petty thief/poet that is using Garance as an accomplice. The wealthy Count of Montray is in love with Garance and wants her body. When a local mime clears Garance’s name, the Count begins to lose his grip on the lovely lady. The mime spends the next several years turning into Frederick the Great, while Garance makes her way through the world. The Count becomes wealthier due to nothing more than birthright. As the Mardi Gras celebrations begin, everyone finds themselves drawn back together. Who will end up with who and what will be left with them on Ash Wednesday? This film is very long.

142) The Last Wave - David Burton is a corporate tax attorney. While the weather has gone to shit around Australia, a group of aborigines have been accused of killing one of their own. David begins to have strange dreams about one of the men, while the rest of his world falls apart. Legal Aid forces him onto the case, while he has to struggle against everything going against him. Emotions run high, as this turns from a magical ethnic movie and into something else. Cultural differences almost seem like a side-car matter as the film delves into the deeper issues of reality. Can all the odd things in life be rationalized away or is there a great meaning to their weirdness? Peter Weir messes around with a ton of bizarre images that are very stark in their finality. Have fun and enjoy the Australian New Wave.

155) Tokyo Olympiad - Kon Ichikawa wants you to feel the strain and exertion of competition. When the athletes ache, you will ache. We follow the road to the 1964 Summer Games, as every athlete tears through the prelims. The IOC is present in the background, but the bright faces of yesteryear are here to remind us of a simpler time. What are weird about the documentary are the bizarre quick cuts that come out of nowhere. You never get to see the end to some events, just the looks on the faces of disappointed fans. Hell, you don’t even get the full events at times. I know that it’s hard to compress the Olympics into a two hour documentary. When Ichikawa remembers it, there’s plenty of time for some forced national imagery for Japan. Basically, we get a lot of shots of suns rising on the horizon. On your first viewing, check out the effectively shot hammer toss.

156) Hearts and Minds - At the height of the Vietnam War, Peter Davis released Hearts and Minds. We see Eisenhower opening the film in archival footage. Our initial support for the French colonial interests were to secure our tin and tungsten supply. This initial action leads to later American Presidents upping the ante with more soldiers and advisors. Peter Davis comes back to take over the narrative, by allowing Americans to see the faces of the Vietnamese for the first time. Lungs burned, children killed and skin peelings were the collage of imagery coming out the local villages. Counterparts are shown in the tales of General William Westmoreland and bomber pilot Randy Floyd. The general can casually dismiss the Vietnamese as Orientals with no value towards human life. While we watch the bomber pilot Floyd go from cocky attacker to sympathetic soldier. It’s hard to slaughter a people when they can approach you and ask why it had to happen.

148) Ballad of a Soldier - Alyosha is a young Russian soldier who accidentally became a hero after destroying two German tanks. His reward for the task was a chance to leave the frontlines and visit his mother for two days. His portion of the film concerns his odyssey back to his mother. On the train home, Alyosha meets the lovely Shura and strikes up a brief romance. Meanwhile, his mother waits for his return. Will it come, who knows? There’s been some discussion of an Oedipal conflict in the film. I feel it kind of shows up in any instance where you have a male lead that is slightly attached to his mother. Is it a plot point? Not really, but it’s there and it’s worth examining. That’s an idea for an expanded look at the film, but I’m not really feeling at the moment. You should enjoy it for what it is.

194) Il Posto - Domenico is a young man that lives with his family outside of Milan. His little brother Franco is still in school, but it’s time for Domenico to become a man. He’s about to take a civil service exam that will guarantee him a job as a mailman for life. He meets the lovely Antonietta at the test and tries to strike up a conversation with her. She doesn’t really return his affection, as she’s out to secure a future while she’s living it up in the present. Antonietta knows that she has a limited time before she’s forced to get married and settled down. After that, it’s nothing for her. The sincere nature of the office environment and the emotion among strangers is quite touching. One could almost compare it to the later work of Merchant/Gervais. But, I’m not going to do that here. It would be rather trivial to place The Office on par with one of the better works of Italian Cinema. It’s almost like I’m trying my hardest to find a way to relate a piece of World Cinema to the common horde. Ermanno Olmi wouldn’t have appreciated that at all.

143) That Obscure Object of Desire - Mathieu Faber begins to tell the tale of his love for Conchita Perez. Mathieu has spent the past couple of weeks stalking Conchita. He eventually finds out that her family is bankrupt following the death of her father. Conchita isn’t terribly interested in Mathieu, but her family needs his immense wealth. So, she decides to try and court the wealthy lothario. The problem with Mathieu is that he will never agree to see Conchita as an equal. This leads Conchita to bail on Mathieu time and time again. When Mathieu nearly gets Conchita, she promises to let him take her virginity. Mathieu is excited, but he desires more. The use of flashback is slammed over your head, as the audience is made to feel Mathieu’s intense pursuit. There’s a weird undercurrent of sexual aggression that gets diffused by the usual Bunuel cinematic weirdness.

146) Cranes are Flying - On the eve of the German Invasion of Russia, Veronica and Boris spend the afternoon together. Veronica is scared to death that she’ll lose Boris to the Draft, but Boris’s cousin has an idea. Boris can apply for an exemption due to the fact that he’s about to be married. Boris’s cousin also has a boner for Veronica, but that’s another thing all together. One day, Veronica finds out that Boris and his co-workers have volunteered for the army. The city is busy being prepared for the lengthy skirmish, so it takes awhile before Veronica can find her way to Boris. She never gets to see him, so she bunkers down with the rest of the city. An air raid kills her parents, thus she’s sent to live with Boris’s family. At their home, Veronica bonds by default with Boris’s cousin. Prepare for the downer ending.

145) The Firemen's Ball - A group of firefighters are planning a retirement ball for their Chief. The problem is that the Chief has recently been diagnosed with cancer. The firefighters don’t want the Ball to be seen as a celebration of the recently morbid, so they come up with ways to bring others into the event. The firefighters decide to host a beauty pageant, but the prizes are lost. The decorations fall down and nothing works out for the impending event. The cast is made up of Czech villagers, but the amateur actors add to the homegrown quality of the comedy. You will believe that the errors that were made were realistic. The film’s is in color which was a first for the Czech New Wave. It’s not like it was an aesthetic choice, mainly it had to do with the crushing poverty factor. Still, I’d recommend watching it.

152) George Washington - George Richardson could die. But, he wants to President. He also wants to live to be 100 years old. All of the local kids love him, but he can’t find his way through his poor North Carolina town. His uncle Damascus is pretty crazy, but that doesn’t bother George. He’s recently become a hero to the other kids and he wants everyone to know what he is. There are four other kids, but George is the star of the show. Nasia and Buddy are the only ones that get major face time onscreen, but they mainly exist to remind the audience of the fact they are watching young adults. The film was David Gordon Green’s directorial debut. The guy has gone on to develop his own style and work with most of Young Hollywood. Is it too soon to call this the start of the North Carolina New Wave? Maybe, I guess.

170) Trouble in Paradise - Ernst Lubitsch is such an odd director. There are people that follow him religiously and swear by the Lubitsch touch. I didn’t quite get it, when I started with the Criterion project. He was quite adept at filming the light comedy and romance. Pickpocket Lily and master thief Gaston are in Venice, as they try to pull a con. They play well off each other and you believe they’re in love, but there’s no threat of criminal activity. They both target a wealthy local widow, but they have different views on how to fleece her. Lily won’t still her purse, but Gaston will steal a valuable gem from her. Sure, he returns it later for a reward. The trick of the matter is that Gaston uses the reward talk to woo the widow. He claims to be a recently downtrodden businessman who has been hit hard by the Depression. The wealthy widow’s suitors have a problem with this, as they don’t seem to know the man from society events. Outstanding!

165) Man Bites Dog - A documentary film crew is following around a serial killer named Benoit. Benoit kills people in a specific order during the month. But, he thinks nothing of it. He finds distaste in the world around him. Hell, he spends more time talking about their homes than the person who’s bleeding out on the floor. Benoit helps the crew get choice shots. Hell, the crew even helps to dispose some of the bodies. Some time passes before the walls fall down and the crew joins in. They force a husband to watch his wife getting gang raped. When the crew begins to embrace the insanity, we find something really bizarre about the art of documentary filmmaking. By forcing the world of cinema upon the real world, we create new bizarre rules. What can we expect people to do when a dozen cameras are thrust upon them? They’re beginning to act out and put on a show. The same rules given to the insane allows for tragedy.

163) Hopscotch - Walter Matthau is CIA Agent Miles Kendig. KGB Agent Yaskov has managed to steal some important information after a foul-up in Germany. Miles hates his boss, his work and everything that he has lost over the years. So, he decides to write a book about his spy adventures. His former lover decides to help him, but Miles is doing it a little differently. He’s going to mail a chapter at a time to the media. Whoever receives it can publish what they want. The Russians are pissed, the Americans are pissed and Miles knows what is in the cards. Miles enlists his former lover, his younger partner and a field agent to help him stay ahead of the coming shitstorm. Matthau offers up some of his best work as a spy that knows what he’s worth. The end of the Cold War was a strange time for Spy Fiction and Ronald Neame tried to do something different. One of the more interesting Criterions.

192) Coup de Grace - The Germans are busy trying to push the Bolsheviks out of Latvia. The young Sophie is madly in love with a German soldier, but her brother doesn’t care for the relationship. The Red Scare comes alive, as the Germans execute commies left and right. Any citizen that fails to denounce the Red bastards also gets killed. Sophie is the star of the flick, as we watch her passions drive her to all sorts of crazed states. The German soldiers Erich and Konrad almost seem unnecessary. When you focus on Sophie and her insane grandmother, you get a better look at the level of paranoia that drives the German aggression against the Bolsheviks. The issues of sexuality among Erich and Konrad aren’t as interesting as the exploration of German military aggression. As Erich collapses into a near nationalistic sense of identity, we see a young man who would later grow into another Nazi monster. When I first started the film, I was quick to dismiss it as the Germans mining the Bergman tropes. But, there’s something more to it. We’re being asked to watch youth fail and the decay of adulthood to begin.

162) Ratcatcher - 12 year old James Gillespie is trying to deal with the garbage strike in Scotland. It’s somewhere in the early 1970s, as James begins to discover the kids around him. His drunken father beats him, but it doesn’t keep him from noticing the lovely young Margaret. James accidentally drowns his friend Ryan, but manages to cover it up. This leads to James trying to deal with the nature of life and being a young kid. He wants to understand sexuality, death and those that are around him. But, he’s got an immature girl and a friend that likes to torture animals. There’s no older outside influence to help change James and make him a better person. There’s just a blank slate that absorbs all the shit in the world and tries to make sense of what is happening to him. This is one of the few Criterions that I find myself revisiting on a consistent basis this truly horrifying vision of youth.

164) Solaris - Tarkovsky hates the casual viewer. Soderbergh did his best to make the material work for the American audience. Tarkovsky made the better film. Psychologist Kris Kelvin has been sent to a deep space station to help three crew members to get a better grasp on reality. The space station orbits the mysterious planet of Solaris. Any attempt to land on Solaris has met with death and madness. The surviving space station members are wrecked when Kelvin arrives. He tries to ask them questions about what has happened, but they only speak gibberish. When Kelvin finds out how Solaris is impacting the survivors, the questions begin. Is Solaris alive? Can we call it a living organism that works like a planet-level parasite on mental energy? Why does the planet need mental energy to thrive? The alien intelligence is neither hostile nor friendly. What makes it scary is that it views humanity as nothing more than a tool to be used. I can’t imagine anything worse.

154) The Horse's Mouth - Ronald Neame started his cinematic career as a cameraman for the Archers. He made his directorial debut with this film based on an Alec Guinness script. Guinness wrote the picture as his follow-up to his Oscar winning role in “The Bridge on the River Kwai”. The once and future Obi-Wan plays a rather poor painter who uses his immense talent to scam the rich. What’s so neat about the Criterion DVD for this release is the inclusion of the D.A. Pennebaker short “Daybreak Express”. The short originally played before this film during its initial American theatrical run. Back to the film, it’s your typical scumbag validates hating the rich. When a rich British couple tries to stiff him on his seven thousand pound advance, Guinness decides to pawn their belongings for the cash. The couple (who’re vacationing in Jamaica) continues to remain out of the country, while Guinness opens their home to his pals.

158) The Importance of Being Earnest - Jack Worthing lives in the country with his ward Cecily. When in London, Jack calls himself Ernest and picks up some side tail. Jack/Ernest’s main piece of ass has a brother that also uses the pussy chasing name of Ernest. He takes his powerful name and tries to seduce Cecily. Eventually, the two men are brought together and are forced to explain their confusing names. People laugh, the British chuckle and I’m left wondering why the fuck should I care about Oscar Wilde. Anthony Asquith makes Wilde’s story come to life with lush visuals that make the most out of the three strip Technicolor palette. Dame Edith Evans shows up as Lady Bracknell. Bracknell is supposed to be comic relief. I don’t really get the point now. Fuck, I didn’t get the point of the character when I was trying to fake giving a damn about the story in High School. It has to be a weaker Criterion.

159) Red Beard - Dr. Kyojio Niide has been deemed Red Beard by the fellows at Koishikawa Public Clinic. Yasumoto has arrived at the Clinic after spending years working in the Dutch hospitals in Nagasaki. Everyone at the hospital fears Red Beard, but they respect him. When Yasumoto finally meets Red Beard, he’s blown away by how ass backwards he appears to be. He tells the nurses that he knows more than Red Beard. Hell, he thinks the old guy is trying to steal his medical notes. That’s when Red Beard introduces Yasumoto to the 12 year old brothel worker Otoyo. Otoyo has been taught that strangers will only hurt her. Red Beard places her rehabilitation in Yasumoto’s hands. He asks Yasumoto to not only cure Otoyo’s syphilis, but her state of mind. Kurosawa has constantly told audiences that a man’s worth is measured in his dedication to mankind. “Red Beard” has to be the shining example of this philosophy. I’d recommend it.

161) Under the Roofs of Paris - Albert loves Pola, but she’s got a thief stalking her. Albert takes the fall for the crook and ends up behind bar. Pola falls in love with Albert’s pal, Louis. Louis leads Pola into musical interludes and the awkward camera movement that came with early talkies. Rene Clair plays a lot with found music. Hell, there’s an entire fight scene built around the use of the William Tell Overture. Eventually, we get back to the main plot when Albert is freed by the thief’s capture. This results in Louis, Albert and Pola having to figure out what everyone means to the other. Albert realizes what freedom means and we get more musical fun. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen a rather chipper French flick in the Criterion Collection. If you’re new to French cinema and want to skip the New Wave, I’d recommend starting with Clair. But, if you prefer the French New Wave, you really won’t dig this too much.

166) Down by Law - Three men have been arrested and thrown into the same cell. Zack, Jack and Bob try to keep their sanity, while figuring out a way to get out of jail. The Italian Bob often pushes Zack and Jack to focus on their situation and speak to each other. Bob also understands about twenty words in English. Bob is also the only guilty man in the cell. He murdered a man in self-defense. But, he did it by bashing the guy’s skull with a billiard ball. Zach and Jack might not dig Bob for that and the language issue, but they have a common goal. All three men bond over their imprisonment and they plan to escape to the Bayou. I often find myself focusing on John Lurie’s performance as Jack the pimp. Lurie’s character puts the blame for his imprisonment on the women who work for him. But, he qualifies his actions by saying that the whores were mentally abusing him. Honestly, it’s pretty damn odd.

167) The Complete Monterey Pop Festival - D.A. Pennebaker is one of the great American documentarians. One weekend in June 1967, the hippies got together and put on a better music festival than Woodstock. Pennebaker hit the scene with a camera crew and began to cover every aspect of the music. Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Otis Redding had their careers explode at the Festival. Nearly a third of the documentary is dedicated to Otis putting on the best show of his life. That’s not to discount the other installment where we see The Jimi Hendrix Experience tear the place apart. In the past year, it’s been released to Blu-Ray and it holds up fairly well. You get an amazing DTS-HD master audio track that breaks apart the archival dirt and helps the music cavalcade to spring forth out of your 5.1 Home Theater system. The Criterion Collection has assembled the full two hours and twenty-seven minute runtime of Pennebaker’s vision. Next, we’ll take a look at the two major parts of the release.

169) Jimi Plays Monterey - Jimi Hendrix had taken England by storm before appearing at Monterey. Papa John Phillips narrates the opening of the documentary, as we see Hendrix perform some covers. The crowd wows and then we get to see a splatter painting of Hendrix. It’s nearly fifteen minutes into the documentary, before we get actual event footage of Hendrix. He plays the guitar with his teeth, and then he torches his guitar towards the end of his Wild Thing cover. Jimi Hendrix throws down the gauntlet so many times in his set, that the floor nearly breaks away. Racial divides regarding music and pop culture were finally starting to erode in America. No one came to protest Jimi, but to praise him. For a man that had been kicking eight shades of ass in England, he had finally found the respect at home. Blaring feedback, the wild hair and guitar theatrics helped to cement Hendrix in America. The homeland loves spectacle and from that moment on he was a rock legend.

Shake! Otis at Monterey - Otis was on tour with the Stax Records revue, when The Monterey Festival came calling. Otis Redding had a musical following that didn’t sport many white audiences at the time. Sure, he had luck in Europe. But, most rocker kids weren’t listening to anything by Redding or his label mates. When Otis took the stage with Booker T. and the MGs, that rainy morning changed. Speaking out into the Love Crowd, he found a willing partner to hear his clever covers of Rolling Stones and Sam Cooke songs. It’s when Otis closes the set with Try a Little Tenderness. What sucks about this portion of the documentary is the short running time coupled with the screwed up footage. Half of the shots are taken out of order or from the wrong performance. Hell, Pennebaker confessed to some throwaway shots actually being from Ravi Shankar’s earlier performance. I know that matching shots on the fly is kind of hard, but where was the editing guidance? Oh well, it’s still amazing.

168) Monterey Pop - The show was fusion defined. There was some Jazz, some Rock, some Soul and even a dash of World Music. When one sees the full setlist, you can’t help but be amazed by the talent on hand. Still, there’s a twinge of sadness in the air. David Crosby is sent lamenting the fact that his band has never had a decent sound system before this event. Everyone is there trying to make their bones. The Mamas and the Papas get too much limelight, while other acts have to perform at odd hours. Still, it was a hotbed of classic images and a chance for people to really enjoy the music. Most of the hippie bullshit that was later sported in Woodstock didn’t have the chance to come to light. Mainly, because the music was better and the kids were angrier. Well, there was also the greater availability of high octane mind-altering drugs. Nothing puts a smile on your face like jamming to Hendrix with some high blotter acid.

172) Pepe Le Moko - Pepe Le Moko is a man that everyone wants to have. When a Parisian chick catches up to him, he finds himself involved in a new game. The film takes place in the Casbah of Algiers and it allows for a change to the French crime film. The gangster is seconds away from being caught, but he’s become accustomed to his trap. This allows a wanted man to remember his past and wish for a better tomorrow. Will he ever return to Paris and what is really waiting for him? The cops know where he is and he’s got a rap sheet longer than your arm. Some critics call Jean Gabin the precursor to the weakened Post-War mobster. I don’t see his longing for home as a weakness. By giving the hero a chink in his armor, we discover that the Scarfaces of the world aren’t superhumans. There was an American remake of the film merely a year after the fact. It was called “Algiers” and it was a giant cinema shit.

171) Contempt - Paul Javal has been hired to make Ulysses into something more conventional. Fritz Lang and his new producer want to make it even more mainstream friendly, but they don’t know if Javal can do it. Bardot plays Javal’s wife and she mainly gets the trophy role of being the blonde with amazing tits. The producer Jeremiah befriends Bardot, as he tries to explain his vision of what he wants Paul to write. Bardot doesn’t care, as she is tired of being treated like someone’s prize. This film stands as Godard’s largest attempt at examing the filmmaking craft. Everyone’s perspective is put into play, as Godard tries to direct everyone to their fullest. Still, there’s something missing from the final picture. You’ve got a movie that gets a lot right without saying anything. Does Bardot ever discover that she can be a fully realized woman? Does Ulysses ever become the film it should be? There aren’t any concrete answers. Criterion lost the rights to the film recently to LionsGate. Try to enjoy.

183) Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne - Helene has been feeling neglected by her lover Jean. She asks the dude if he wants to break up and Jean goes for it. Helene is pretty pissed about this and sets out to fuck up Jean’s life. So, she decides to rescue a whore off the streets. Helene takes care of the girl and her mother, but she wants to set the whore Agnes up with Jean. Agnes and Jean hit it off and they actually begin a real relationship. All the while, Helene enjoys setting Jean up for his great fall. But, Jean thanks Helene for her efforts. This puts Helene in an awkward position. She doesn’t want to completely destroy the man she used to love, but he has to pay for some imaginary transgression. That’s why she has to work it out in her head how she’ll socially destroy him. It’s pretty fucking dark and shows this weird French take on material that Larry David excels. But, there’s no humor in Bresson’s film. It’s just so fucking serious and dark that you’re left feeling terrible for these sad people.

173) The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp - Clive Candy has been an officer in the British Army for nearly four decades. He falls in love with a girl named Edith at the start of World War I. He loses her to a dueling opponent, which then sets him up for a return in the 1930s. Blimp sees the start of World War II coming and he can’t figure out where he belongs in this man’s army. Winston Churchill took great offense to the movie, as he was trying to rout several Blimp types out of the British Armed forces. To meet the growing changes of the modern world, the British military had to get meaner and shake off the Colonial fighting style of old. The Archers have spoken before about Blimp and how he is a parody of the classic British soldier. What doesn’t come across so well in the film is the better preference of soldier. There’s something to be said for Blimp’s heart, but it doesn’t mean shit in a world of atomic weaponry. I’d recommend watching it.

195) I Fidanzati -Giovanni is a construction worker who is moving to Sicily for a year. He just got a promotion and he’s hoping that a move to the South might help him out. He lives his fiancée behind, while he wanders the streets of Sicily. The film sports a rather short running time, so get ready to watch a lot of pointless scenes. There’s too much dancing, too many scenes of Carnivale and way too many shots of sad-sack Giovanni wandering random back alleys. The fiancée Liliana barely comes back up in the plot, but Giovanni continues to pine for her. There’s no dialogue that really pushes the reconnection with his absent love, but Giovanni continues to search for an answer. This was one of the harder Criterion flicks that I’ve reviewed in my attempt to cover the entire Collection. A lot of Criterion detractors have brought this flick up as evidence of art house style over real cinematic substance. I don’t want to cave and admit that they might be right. Therefore, I’m putting it to you. Defend this film and you can pick the next 10 Criterion entries I cover. Sounds like fun, doesn’t it?

193) Quai des Orfèvres - Jenny Lamour and her husband Maurice have to help cover up the death of a local asshole. Their pal Dora tags along, as Clouzot makes his first film since being blacklisted. Inspector Antoine gets called in to investigate the crime, while Jenny and her cuckolded husband have to bat clean-up. There are a lot of Chandler style elements up and down this bitch. You’ll see a lot of seedy porn setups and nude photography mentions. It gives you a twinge of The Big Sleep at parts, but nothing that says outright homage. Dora has a few scenes later in the film, where she seems to have a lesbian crush on Jenny. Jenny plays it off, but it’s neat to see a lesbian shown as being something normal in a film from the 1940s. Hell, I’d be surprised to see it in a recent American film. There are a lot of subplots that are never quite resolved; still it works as a film based on the central mystery. I’d recommend a double feature with Le Corbeau, so you can see where Clouzot was coming from at the time of production. Check it out now.

196) Hiroshima Mon Amour - Alain Resnais dedicates his first film to the passionate love affair between a French actress and a Japanese man. The opening of the film serves as a fifteen minute documentary about the aftermath of Hiroshima’s bombing. The atomic fire that leveled a city and caused a peaceful rebirth among the locals is framed by the Peace Museum. The actress and her Japanese lover are in bed when the Frenchie thinks she has figured out the purpose of the Hiroshima nuking. The Japanese architect states that the bombing was the breaking point for civility in the world. The French actress frames the bombing around the death of her former Nazi lover. Both people are right and wrong in their own way. The individual’s perspective always casts a shadow over tragedy and it blurs the vision of reality. When the two lovers are able to step outside of themselves for a moment, they come close to understanding the attacks. This film also marked the debut of fugitive intrusion editing into modern cinema. Did you like all of those quick cuts in Shutter Island? Well, you’ve got Resnais to thank. Somebody should give the guy some more damn credit.

200) The Honeymoon Killers - Martha Beck is a depressed obese woman who likes to use the Lonely Hearts ads to fulfill her bloodlust. She meets Ray and the duo hits it off. William Kastle became a high school favorite of mine, as I studied this film repeatedly. It was the true vision of violence in an era of hippie powered off-red blood carnage. The only other person who was operating on the same level was Peckinpah. But, Peckinpah’s violence was perpetrated at near operatic levels. When Martha and Ray attack their victims, it’s in stark black and white. The attacks are quick and nasty. What makes them more revolutionary is that they were going after normally off-limit targets. The seedy nature of the film comes out when you see how the gigolo Ray and the murderous Martha set up their victims. They are all older women who are off-weight and sport uncharming personalities. They’re all sad bastards that answered a personal ad and hoped for something to better their lives. When you seem fighting the Killers and eventually dying, it’s just that much more pitiful. I picked this up during the last Barnes and Noble sale on the cheap. This is a personal favorite.

184) By Brakhage: An Anthology, Volume One - Stan Brakhage was a guy whose work I didn’t see until my freshman year in college. I was quick to dismiss his shorts as the rantings of another weed-infused academic that would never survive outside the ivy walls of the liberal arts school. Mothlight and later shorts would show experimentation with animal parts and an obsession with decay. Cronenberg would be proud of the amateur body horror that Brakhage displays for the 16mm world. I just wish that the transfer was a little cleaner or that Brakhage took a little more time to prepare his work. Dog Star Man is where Brakhage eventually loses me. It’s an endless film about a man, the stars and a dog wandering through the cosmos. Shit like this is why Middle America hates Academia. Stellar is the most recent work on the disc and it shows a slight beauty to Brakhage’s work. Painting directly on celluloid seems neat and it allows for a splatter effect. But, that effect wears thin at twenty-four frames per second. It’s like looking inside your eyelid. This release is coming to Blu-Ray soon.

185) The Adventures of Antoine Doinel boxset - Antoine Doinel will always be one of the greatest heroes of World Cinema. Francois Truffaut spent four films and two decades trying to show us one young man grows up in the harsh world. Criterion has brought together the films for the first time on DVD with remastered transfers. Truffaut’s early short film Les Mistons has also be included in this boxset. The film opens on five young boys between the ages of ten and twelve. They’re typical young men on the cusp of puberty. They watch other people in love, as though they’re trying to study how to become men. Bernadette (Bernadette Lafont) and Gerard (Gerard Blain) are constantly drawn into their lives. Everytime her skirt flies up while riding her bicycle, the boys watch in voyeuristic fascination. Every Thursday, Bernadette works out at the tennis courts and builds up a sweat. They toss the balls that get away back to her, as a means of keeping their sweaty goddess busy. After some time, the boys get tired of playing with the two. Their new purpose in life now is to make them miserable.

174) Band of Outsiders - Franz, Odile and Arthur fuck around Paris with nothing to do. They get an idea to rob a relative, but that doesn’t work out too hot. They run through the Louvre and then they dance. Tarantino got the name from his production company from this film. While, I still wonder about the appeal of Godard to arthouse snobs. Raoul Coutard’s cinematography is the star of the picture, as you see the guy nail incredible shots in spite of Godard’s direction. I had a rather lengthy reality based discussion about this film with a couple of ex-pat Frenchies. They hate the film, which surprised me. I thought all frogs were supposed to view the French New Wave as the gospel. But, they saw it closer to the way I saw it. Band of Outsiders is more about the art of being cool than about narrative. American viewers have two screening modes; narrative and visual panache. When you break out of the cycles, you lose 75% of your audience. That last quarter is birthing cinema magic.

178) My Life as a Dog - Lasse Hallstrom does wistful cinema well. Young Ingemar is having a hard time growing into his teen years. His sick mother sends him and his siblings off to play. Ingemar’s dad is absent, as he’s attending business matters in the Tropics. This leaves Ingemar to indulge in social activities, while trying to find his identity. Ingemar takes solace in his dog, but that dog is taken to a kennel because of a trip to Ingemar’s uncle. Ingemar gets left there to be socially ostracized and forced into more awkward situations. Hell, half of the film feels like an exercise in how to make a little boy cry. The only person that Ingemar can find relative comfort in is the image of Laika. Laika was the dog that the Soviet Space program fired in deep space. The kind of uncontrolled mistreatment forms a weird image of Ingemar’s world. The cinematography and set design contributes to the dour world that Ingemar exists in. Yet, this mid-generation DVD transfer leaves a lot to be desired. I would like an HD revisit.

182) Straw Dogs - When I first saw “Straw Dogs”, I didn’t get the appeal. Then, I rewatched it again and again. The average idiot will try to make Hoffman’s arc as David into the main story. But, the meat of the picture hangs on Susan George’s portrayal of Amy. Spurring on decades of feminist ire and discussion, Amy has become this weird figure in Peckinpah’s middle period. When her former husband Charlie leads a gang rape upon her, Amy sits there and takes it. At times, you almost see her smile mid-rape. This led several critics and other arm-chair intellectuals to slam Peckinpah as a giant misogynist. I don’t buy it, as it doesn’t match up to the woman we saw leading into the gang rape. When she returns to her ancestral English home, she knows that she’s viewed as a commodity. Playing the locals, she teases and binds the attention of the men. She knows what she’s got and she’s slightly disgusted by her American wimp of a husband. When she finally gets the chance to reconnect with her past, she forces herself forward.

176) The Killers (1946) - Max and Al have been hired to kill The Swede. The duo has to seek out Kitty Collins. Kitty was the last chick to have seen The Swede. The Swede pulled off a daring payroll robbery, so that he could be closer to Kitty. The problem with that was he was stealing from the mob. The bigger problem is that Kitty was the head mobster’s top bitch. Time passes, as the Killers and the local insurance adjustor piece together what happened. Kitty pulls a surprise partner out of her butt, which then leads to more hi-jinks. The head mobster Big Jim catches a bullet and The Swede gets double-crossed. Plus, a lot of people wear hats. Remember when hats were acceptable to wear inside? Neither do I. Robert Siodmak would go on to an Oscar nomination for Best Director for this film. Nearly 65 years later, it still holds up as a well-crafted mystery. I don’t know how much of that can be factored back to the Hemingway source material. But, I won’t discount Siodmak’s involvement.

The Killers (1964) - Don Siegel does the better version of “The Killers”. Fuck, it’s so good that Tarantino copied a lot of the aesthetic for “Pulp Fiction”. The film opens on the two Killers breaking their way into a School for the Blind. They find the mechanics instructor and gun him down. The recently deceased is named Johnny North and something isn’t sitting quite right about it. Perspective is toyed around with, as we then jump into the past. We see Johnny North as a young race car driver who gets involved with some bad guys. The lead asshole is played by Ronald Reagan. Reagan would later take what he learned from this film to torture communists, air-traffic controllers and inner-city youth. Lee Marvin and Clu Gulager do amazing work as the titular hitmen, but the real legwork is done by John Cassavettes. We get a better picture of Johnny North/The Swede/whatever reworked name you want to call him. You see why he falls in with the mob and why he loves the woman he loves. Truly amazing work.

181) I Am Curious...Blue - Vilgot Sjoman loses his edge with his second I Am Curious film. Lena Nyman is back and she’s lost any interest in non-violence and civil rights. Half of the film is made up of unused footage and reshoots from I Am Curious Yellow. The film opens with a collection of random women talking about their sexual encounters and experiences. There are more tired discussions about religion and the weight of morality in a post-modern world. Hell, there’s also an awkward sex scene in a rather elongated tower. The tower’s elevator carrying the lovers shooting back and forth through the middle of the elongated monolith, it’s pure cinematic masturbation. When Lena meets single mother Sonja, the film actually finds something to say. Naturally, Lena can’t be bothered by Sonja and quickly moves past her. Lena quickly falls in love with a local young man, but is it the man or the actor? Director Sjoman watches the interactions with great disdain, as the lines between reality and film are blurred. By the end of the film, I really couldn’t give a fuck anymore.

179) I Am Curious...boxset - I Am Curious was this weird Swedish phenom that hit the World Cinema with a collective gasp. Yet, what was shocking four decades ago is lame now. Still, I don’t want to play down the importance of I Am Curious…Yellow. It helped to redefine sexuality in the cinema, thought that’s not saying much for American cinema. We went from showing bare leg to eventually showing major boobage on the big screen. Still, it’s not like we’ve got actresses getting their shit pounded on a weekly basis at the Cineplex. They want to take their time to explain about how their inner beauty means something and how a greater appreciation of the world can be grasped by Kathy Bates going About Schmidt. Lena Nyman didn’t give two fucks about that. She dropped the panties and showed her stuff. Sure, she ran her mouth like some young asshole discovering their first Howard Zinn book. But, she knew what the audience wanted. That’s more than Sjoman was able to get across. You might check it out when you eventually get the chance.

201) Umberto D. - Vittorio De Sica is my favorite of the Italian Neo-Realists. A lot of people tend to side with Rosselini, but I can’t dig on a guy whose material doesn’t have heart. “Umberto D.” was released in 1952 and it sports one of the most crushing depictions of old age on film. Umberto is a retired civil servant who has outlived his purpose in life. Umberto (Carlo Battisti) and his little dog are removed from their apartment due to failure to pay rent. His only friend in the world can’t float him the money, so Umberto is now homeless. The film follows Umberto over the next day or so. He tries to decide what he’s going to do and how can he support his dog. There’s a rather emotional scene involving a train where Umberto decides that he has to end his life. Watching the terror in the little dog, as he clutches him close to his chest is one of the most horrific images caught on film. Very few directors have been able to mimic such levels of true emotion. There’s no melodrama, as De Sica earns all the response onscreen. Scorsese covered the film extensively in his Italian cinema documentary.