#5 on my Top Ten Film list

While coming up with the first five was a snap, (to recap: Seven Samurai, Dr. Strangelove, Silence of the Lambs, Pulp Fiction, and this 'un below, The Producers) I've got a list on my hard drive of about, no joke, twenty other movies duking it out for the next five. I've spent the past few months going over them in my head trying to narrow down the criteria I'd let a film onto my list. So far, my personal judgement for these films is: "I can sit down and watch it any time and it'll still hold my attention" and "I get something new out of it every time I watch it" as well as "It's entertaining" and "It's well written" and even "It's beautifully shot". Later, I should make a list of some of the also-rans; the films that I like but aren't going to make the list for whatever reason.

For instance, all the films of Jean Renoir ("WRENWAAAIR!")that I've seen are damn fine, but I'm gonna have to see Rules of The Game again pretty soon to decide. Also, I've noticed that as I get older, my tastes change. (Wow! You too? Do you like pizza, also?) Like, sci-fi action films like "The Matrix" and "Aliens" may have made the list before, but now I'd put 'em on the 'also-ran' category. And that's a topic for further discussion. So, here we go...






5)The Producers- This is, by far, the funniest comedy I've ever seen. It's funny because the premise is so good; a down-on-his-luck Broadway producer and a schulb accountant team up to produce a musical so deliberately awful that it closes on opening night. The rationale for this is that if the producer can oversell the shares in the play and make money on the front end, a flop will entitle him to not pay off his backers. My understanding is that writer/director Mel Brooks actually worked with a producer who did this, albeit on a smaller scale. On a personal note, I myself was involved in a company which kept sucking money from investors for years, and never put anything out while I was there. My pet name for it was "Bialystock and Bloom, Video Game Producers". So it's not as far-fetched a premise as you'd think.

Zero Mostel plays the washed-up producer, Max Bialystock and Gene Wilder plays Leo Bloom, the mousy accountant. While Mostel mugs up his role a bit, (Hell, it's Zero Mostel, when does he NOT mug?) they're both perfectly cast. It's because they're both so fundamentally good-hearted that it's a pleasure seeing Bialystock play Memphisto to poor Leo's Faust. Note how they both disgustedly spit in the trash can after throwing the Nazi armbands the deranged playwright Franz Leibkind (Kenneth Mars-where'd HE go?) makes them wear after they
get his approval to sign his play.

Actually, Leo and Max, for all their flaws, are the most stable people in the cast. You've got the psycho Nazi playwright Franz; was there any doubt he'd come after Leo and Max with murder in his heart after seeing what they did to his play? ("Vas ist dis 'baby'! Hitler neffer zaid, 'baby'!). Then you've got the so-flaming-he's-plasma-gay director, Roger Du Bris (Christopher Hewitt). Though it was filmed at a time where you'd take gross homosexual stereotypes like this as a matter of course, Brooks' take on it isn't mean-spirited:

Max Bialystock: Roger, did you have a chance to read "Springtime for Hitler?"

Roger De Bris: [emerges from behind a partition wearing a dress] Remarkable, remarkable! A stunning piece of work.

Leo Bloom: [under his breath] Max... he's wearing a dress.

Max Bialystock: No kidding.

Roger De Bris: Did you know, I never knew that the Third Reich meant Germany. I mean it's just drenched with historical goodies like that... Oh dear, you're staring at my dress. I should explain. We are going to the choreographer's ball tonight and there's a prize for the best costume.

Carmen Giya: And we always win!

Roger De Bris: I don't know about tonight. I'm supposed to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia, but I think I look more like Tugboat Annie. What do you think, Mr. Bloom?

Leo Bloom: ...Where do you keep your wallet?

Oh, let's not forget the drugged-out, over-the-hill hippy, L.S.D. (Dick Shawn- and where'd HE go?) Though, to

be honest, Brooks and Shawn's take on 'hippies' isn't as on the nose as say, Broadway producers. It's more like 'Laugh-in's' take on hippies. Still, he steals the show (in more ways than one) starting with his silly song for his audition:

Lorenzo St. DuBois: [singing] And I give a flower to the big fat cop / He takes his club and he beats me up / I give a flower to the garbage man / He stuffs my girl in the garbage can / And I give it to the landlord when the rent comes 'round / He throws it in the toilet and he flush it down / It goes into the sewer / With the yuck runnin' through 'er / And it runs into the river that we drink / Hey, world, YOU STINK!

Groove-ey, maaa-aan.

Anyway, what happens is that in Max and Leo's quest to produce the worst play ever, they inadvertently create a smash comedy that is destined to run on Broadway for a long time, or at least until the various legal teams involved shut it down. ("Where did we go right?" asks a forlorn Max) After an aborted attempt to blow up the theater running the play, ("Don't shoot the dynamite!" exclaims Max. "It might get mad and blow up at us!") our heros end the film in prison, selling 1000% of the shares to their new production, "Prisoners of Love".

While I'm here, I may as well comment on the film version of the musical, starring Nathan Lane as Max and Matthew Broderick as Leo. Not bad, not outstanding. It does clear up some of the inconsistencies of the original. For instance, people who walked out of "Springtime for Hitler" in the first half wouldn't come back for the second part. Getting rid of the 'L.S.D.' character was probably a good idea too, in retrospect. (He does date the first film.) My only real complaint is that like most musicals, they stop the story to perform the musical number, than start up the story again without adding onto it. Also, this is just me, but Uma Thruman's getting a little long in the tooth to play ingenues...

Top Ten List, Number Four...

Silence of the Lambs- Now, honestly. You can't tell me at some point in your life you haven't seen a friend or co-worker putting some kind of emollient on his or her skin and not said, "It rubs the lotion on its skin, or else it gets the hose again!" (And if that person has your sensibilities, they of course responded, "Put the lotion in the fuckin' baaaasket!") Jonathan Demme takes Robert Harris' tightly woven mix of detective procedural and character-driven suspense thriller to give us a movie which deservedly swept the 1991 Oscars.

So, consider the character of Clarice Starling.(Played by the very capable Jodie Foster) When we first meet her, she's unglamourously running through an FBI trainee obstacle field. She's summoned to meet the FBI head of Behavioral Science, Jack Crawford.(Scott Glenn) Note how on the way to meet Crawford, Demme sticks Starling in an elevator surrounded by several male FBI trainees, all dwarfing her. Later on, in a scene set in a rural southern funeral home, she's surrounded by the hostile presence of a crowd of rural policemen. Usually, in thrillers with a female protagonist, she's always given a husband or boyfriend to act as the stable force in her life. (and, y'know, save her bacon in the film's third act...) In Starling's case, Crawford is as likely to use her up as a military captain sending troops to take an enemy hill. While he's a mentor of sorts, Crawford is not the asset Starling uses to track down the killer of young women, Buffalo Bill.(Ted Levine,in a creepy performance) That role goes to a most unlikely candidate...

Hannibal Lecter. He's become a pop icon of malevolence right up there with Dr. Mabuse or Baron Corvo. Lecter made an appearance in Harris' earlier book, 'Red Dragon' (filmed by Michael Mann as Manhunter, and the inferior remake by Brett Ratner.) In 'Red Dragon', Lecter's 'help' caused the protagonist permanent mental, and physical damage. He aids Starling in her search, mainly to show off his considerable intellect, partially to open a door to escape, partially to engage in causing more suffering...and because this monster may be attracted to Starling. Her meetings with him are like watching a feeder bird in a crocodile's mouth.

Hannibal Lecter: I will listen now. After your father's murder, you were orphaned. You were ten years old. You went to live with cousins on a sheep and horse ranch in Montana. And...?

Clarice Starling: [tears begin forming in her eyes] And one morning, I just ran away.

Hannibal Lecter: No "just", Clarice. What set you off? You started at what time?

Clarice Starling: Early, still dark.

Hannibal Lecter: Then something woke you, didn't it? Was it a dream? What was it?

Clarice Starling: I heard a strange noise.

Hannibal Lecter: What was it?

Clarice Starling: It was... screaming. Some kind of screaming, like a child's voice.

Hannibal Lecter: What did you do?

Clarice Starling: I went downstairs, outside. I crept up into the barn. I was so scared to look inside, but I had to.

Hannibal Lecter: And what did you see, Clarice? What did you see?

Clarice Starling: Lambs. The lambs were screaming.

Hannibal Lecter: They were slaughtering the spring lambs?

Clarice Starling: And they were screaming.

Hannibal Lecter: And you ran away?

Clarice Starling: No. First I tried to free them. I... I opened the gate to their pen, but they wouldn't run. They just stood there, confused. They wouldn't run.

Hannibal Lecter: But you could and you did, didn't you?

Clarice Starling: Yes. I took one lamb, and I ran away as fast as I could.

Hannibal Lecter: Where were you going, Clarice?

Clarice Starling: I don't know. I didn't have any food, any water and it was very cold, very cold. I thought, I thought if I could save just one, but... he was so heavy. So heavy. I didn't get more than a few miles when the sheriff's car picked me up. The rancher was so angry he sent me to live at the Lutheran orphanage in Bozeman. I never saw the ranch again.

Hannibal Lecter: What became of your lamb, Clarice?

What impresses me about Starling is her sheer tenacity. It impresses Crawford enough to keep her on the 'Buffalo Bill' case and Lecter is impressed by her to aid her indirectly. (She stands her ground when another inmate at the asylum where Lecter is housed flings his 'baby-batter' at her-EWWWWW!! and Lecter changes his earlier sneering opinion of her.) In Starling's dealings with Lecter, she gains his help by sharing her deep personal traumas with him, knowing his capacity for cruelty on a whim, knowingly offering him her throat. (There's a sample of this when the bound Lecter, facing the kidnap victim's mother, monstrously taunts her anxiety...)

Demme and his cinematographer, Tak Fujimoto, keep the movie shot low-key,like under a cloudy day, de-glamorizing the sets. Check out, also, how canny Demme has most of the other characters when talking to Starling, talking AT the viewer, placing us in the centre of the tension. It's one hell of a departure from his earlier, sweet-natured polychromatic films like "Married to the Mob" and "Something Wild".

Top Ten list, Number Three...

Pulp Fiction- Yeah, yeah, yeah. You knew this'n would be on my list, wouldn't you? After all, one can't claim to be a member of Generation X without owning this movie, now can one? First off, having looked at all of Tarantino's work from 'True Romance' to his guest spot on 'Sin City', I've come to a conclusion about him. He's the filmmaker equivalent of an idiot savant. That is, one of those guys who can recite plane schedules or carve horses out of soap bars but can't tie their own shoes or boil water. Is that a 'dis'? No. First off, I couldn't carve a horse out of a bar of soap if I had my life to live over again. Also, I couldn't take the essential pop thrill one gets from the movies and condense it into a coherent whole. Which is what 'Pulp Fiction' does.

Tarantino bends genre conventions into loops and distills the thrills of trash films with the experimental camera-work of 'respected' filmmakers like Goddard, Trauffaut, and all the rest of the 'Cahiers du Cinema' crowd. (Who, I should point out, took their cues from American filmmakers like John Ford, Howard Hawks and Anthony Mann...) No, Pulp Fiction has no connection whatsoever to real life, and you wouldn't meet anything like the characters in the real world. But 'Pulp Fiction' connects with us.

Scenes like Vincent Vega(John Travolta) stabbing a needle full of adrenaline into the chest of his boss's wife, Mia Wallace(Uma Thurman) hold us breathless with tension. (When I first saw it in a crowded theater, the crowd was dead silent. Then a girl in the front softly muttered, 'Oh, you idiot',regarding Vincent's desperate attempt. The crowd went nuts at that comment, breaking the tension.) The scene where Jules Winfred (Samuel Jackson) and Vincent show up at Jules' friend Jimmy's house (Tarantino himself) to get out of the predicament of Vincent accidentally shooting another person in Jules' car. (that in itself, is such a shock, I almost leapt out of my seat) The dialogue between Jules and Jimmy (Haw! a Traffaut reference!) is straight out of Monty Python:

[Jules, Vincent and Jimmie are drinking coffee in Jimmie's kitchen]

Jules: Mmmm! Goddamn, Jimmie! This is some serious gourmet shit! Usually, me and Vince would be happy with some freeze-dried Taster's Choice, but he springs this serious GOURMET shit on us! What flavor is this?

Jimmie: Knock it off, Jules.

Jules: [pause] What?

Jimmie: I don't need you to tell me how fucking good my coffee is, okay? I'm the one who buys it. I know how good it is. When Bonnie goes shopping she buys SHIT. Me, I buy the gourmet expensive stuff because when I drink it I want to taste it. But you know what's on my mind right now? It AIN'T the coffee in my kitchen, it's the dead nigger in my garage.

Jules: Oh, Jimmie, don't even worry about that...

Jimmie: No, let me ask you a question. When you came pulling in here, did you see a sign out in front of my house that said Dead Nigger Storage?

Jules: Jimmie, you know I ain't seen no...

Jimmie: Did you see a sign out in front of my house that said Dead Nigger Storage?

Jules: [pause] No. I didn't.

Jimmie: You know WHY you didn't see that sign?

Jules: Why?

Jimmie: 'Cause it ain't there, 'cause storing dead niggers ain't my fucking business, that's why!

I should also point out the camera work by Andrzej Sekula. Notice how it nervously follows the characters around in long takes. Roger Ebert points out how it seems anxious to return to the main action when Vincent and Jules break off to discuss the implications of a good foot massage early in the film. The only real criticism I can bring to "Pulp Fiction", is how Tarantino influenced a whole sub-genre of 'Tarantino-esque' film-makers who ran the gamut from okay(The Usual Suspects) to god-awful(Boondock Saints).

Seven Samurai

Depending on my mood, either this or Dr. Strangelove is my favorite movie of all time. Having just picked up the new, expanded Criterion version,(and all it's attending extras) I'm listing 'Seven Samurai' as my favorite. (for now...)

There are no emotionally complex characters-odd for Kurosawa. There's no deep moral theme running through it. On the surface, we've all seen this type of 'Guys-on-a-mission' type movie before, right? But this is the one that created that whole sub-genre. If I were a pretentious twerp, I'd be inclined to tie this movie in to Kurosawa's Dostoevsky influence. You know, fate and redemption. Trouble is, only Mifune's 'outsider' samurai is the only one that even remotely fits the bill here. No, what we got here, theme-wise, is that Japanese proverb, "The nail that stands out get hammered down." The samurai fight for the peasants because it's what their class is supposed to do. (The lead samurai's speech about 'testing ourselves in battle' rings a little hollow.) Note how at the end, the romance between the youngest samurai and the peasant girl is abruptly cut off once the village is saved.

In classic Kurosawa form, every detail is fully realized, and every blast of wind and drop of rain is there for a reason. Notice how the wind always comes up at moments of tension. The final climactic battle is set in a thunderstorm, churning up the ground into a muddy soup. The more I watch this movie, the more little details accumulate. I particularly love the scene where Toshiro Mifune tries to convince the others that he's from an actual samurai family, bringing in a tattered family scroll to bolster his claim. The leader points out both Mufune's lie and his illiteracy by bringing up the fact that the name Mufune claims as his belongs to a 13-year old. In the back we see one of the other samurai counting out the years on the scroll on his fingers, then laughing as he gets the joke at the same time the leader informs Mufune of his error.

And his editing, my God, has never been better. The first we see of the lead Samurai, played by Takashi Shimura, he is shaving his head to disguise himself as a monk. (If you wonder at the overly startled reactions of the surrounding villagers to this, bear in mind that a samurai's topknot was his badge of status. Losing it was equal to pooing one's pants in public...) He's disguising himself to draw out a thief that's kidnapped a little boy. Throwing in some food to the thief's hideout to distract him, he rushes in, there's an offscreen struggle, and then, in slow motion, the thief staggers out, the gathered crowd reacts,(in normal speed) then the thief drops dead, a cloud of dust emerging from the corpse. This technique shows up again in the fatal duel between the master swordsman(Seiji Miyaguchi) and a hot-headed samurai. I suspect it's the first time this slowed-down camera at the time of death gag's been used in cinema, and here, it's so effective. I should also point out that this is the first action movie to give us the 'reluctant hero' plot point. There's probably a bunch of other 'firsts' for this movie, but I'll find 'em later.

In closing, if this DVD isn't in your library, you suck.

My Favorite Movies of All Time- Part One

Okay, let's get this done...

Dr. Strangelove- It's been said that there's two types of satire: satire from the outside and satire from the inside. Satire from the outside condemns the priest for teaching a false religion. Satire from the inside condemns the priest for not following the teachings of his religion. Or, to be more succinct, Dr. Strangelove is a movie about how the guardians of democracy are infantile madmen; while the movie, "How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying"(released at about the same time) is about how them ad execs really like their coffee breaks.

I'm not one to critique a movie like an olympic judge, but to my mind, Dr. StrangeLove is about the most successful example of black comedy in film that I've ever seen. Other examples of black comedy like Fight Club or Wag the Dog tend to lose their nerve most of the way through the picture. My understanding is that Kubrick was preparing to direct a straight adaptation of the novel, "Fail-Safe". In the course of his usual through research, he found that U.S. foreign policy involving nuclear deterrence was more absurd than an Alfred Jarry play. "Mutually Assured Destruction", anyone? So he then got the help of master comic writer Terry Southern to work with him on the screenplay.

The tone of the movie is of a mouth contorted into a rictus grin, small beads of sweat appearing on the upper lip. Every part is played straight, with no broad comic strokes whatsoever. (Well, George C. Scott plays his role of the overenthusiatic general pretty broad, but, C'mon. It's George C. Scott!) Peter Sellers, the master of sinking into a role, handles three different parts with aplomb. He's ineffectual President of the United States, Merkin Muffey,(note the effeminate name) Group RAF Captain Lionel Mandrake, the voice of reason to the insane General Jack D. Ripper, and what is to me possibly the most absurd character ever to appear in film, the Dr. Strangelove of the title. Reportedly, he was also pegged to play the B-52 group commander, Major Kong.

Notice the character of General Jack D. Ripper(Sterling Hayden), the insane head of the air force base that orders his bombers to attack Russia. He's not your stock madman. He doesn't rant and rave at the top of his voice. His tone throught the whole movie is one of calm, ordered, well-thought out logic. His rationale for beginning the attack makes sense, if you're a right-wing paranoid. It's only when he reveals his abhorrence for floride treatments in water (actually, there's a reasonable rationale for being opposed to floridation, but I'm not going to go into it here...) that we (and Captain Mandrake) realize that Ripper's gone off the deep end a long time ago:

General Jack D. Ripper: Mandrake, do you realize that in addition to fluoridating water, why, there are studies underway to fluoridate salt, flour, fruit juices, soup, sugar, milk... ice cream. Ice cream, Mandrake, children's ice cream.

Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Lord, Jack.

General Jack D. Ripper: You know when fluoridation first began?

Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: I... no, no. I don't, Jack.

General Jack D. Ripper: Nineteen hundred and forty-six. Nineteen forty-six, Mandrake. How does that coincide with your post-war Commie conspiracy, huh? It's incredibly obvious, isn't it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual. Certainly without any choice. That's the way your hard-core Commie works.

Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Uh, Jack, Jack, listen, tell me, tell me, Jack. When did you first... become... well, develop this theory?

General Jack D. Ripper: Well, I, uh... I... I... first became aware of it, Mandrake, during the physical act of love.

Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Hmm.

General Jack D. Ripper: Yes, a uh, a profound sense of fatigue... a feeling of emptiness followed. Luckily I... I was able to interpret these feelings correctly. Loss of essence.

Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Hmm.

General Jack D. Ripper: I can assure you it has not recurred, Mandrake. Women uh... women sense my power and they seek the life essence. I, uh... I do not avoid women, Mandrake.

Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: No.

General Jack D. Ripper: But I... I do deny them my essence.

And there's Peter Sellers' President Merkin Muffey (such a great name!) His monologue with the drunken Russian Premier is like a Bob Newhart sketch:

President Merkin Muffley: [to Kissoff] Hello?... Uh... Hello D- uh hello Dmitri? Listen uh uh I can't hear too well. Do you suppose you could turn the music down just a little?... Oh-ho, that's much better... yeah... huh... yes... Fine, I can hear you now, Dmitri... Clear and plain and coming through fine... I'm coming through fine, too, eh?... Good, then... well, then, as you say, we're both coming through fine... Good... Well, it's good that you're fine and... and I'm fine... I agree with you, it's great to be fine... a-ha-ha-ha-ha... Now then, Dmitri, you know how we've always talked about the possibility of something going wrong with the Bomb... The *Bomb*, Dmitri... The *hydrogen* bomb!... Well now, what happened is... ahm... one of our base commanders, he had a sort of... well, he went a little funny in the head... you know... just a little... funny. And, ah... he went and did a silly thing... Well, I'll tell you what he did. He ordered his planes... to attack your country... Ah... Well, let me finish, Dmitri... Let me finish, Dmitri... Well listen, how do you think I feel about it?... Can you *imagine* how I feel about it, Dmitri?... Why do you think I'm calling you? Just to say hello?... *Of course* I like to speak to you!... *Of course* I like to say hello!... Not now, but anytime, Dmitri. I'm just calling up to tell you something terrible has happened... It's a *friendly* call. Of course it's a friendly call... Listen, if it wasn't friendly... you probably wouldn't have even got it... They will *not* reach their targets for at least another hour... I am... I am positive, Dmitri... Listen, I've been all over this with your ambassador. It is not a trick... Well, I'll tell you. We'd like to give your air staff a complete run-down on the targets, the flight plans, and the defensive systems of the planes... Yes! I mean i-i-i-if we're unable to recall the planes, then... I'd say that, ah... well, ah... we're just gonna have to help you destroy them, Dmitri... I know they're our boys... All right, well listen now. Who should we call?... *Who* should we call, Dmitri? The... wha-whe, the People... you, sorry, you faded away there... The People's Central Air Defense Headquarters... Where is that, Dmitri?... In Omsk... Right... Yes... Oh, you'll call them first, will you?... Uh-huh... Listen, do you happen to have the phone number on you, Dmitri?... Whe-ah, what? I see, just ask for Omsk information... Ah-ah-eh-uhm-hm... I'm sorry, too, Dmitri... I'm very sorry... *All right*, you're sorrier than I am, but I am as sorry as well... I am as sorry as you are, Dmitri! Don't say that you're more sorry than I am, because I'm capable of being just as sorry as you are... So we're both sorry, all right?... All right...

The film itself is Kubrick at the height of his powers. His bone-dry wit, his sly little gags, (note how General Turgidson's 'secretary' is the Playboy Centerfold that one of the B-52 crew ogles on duty. 'Peace is our Profession' on a sign in the besiged air force base, looking over several dead soldiers, "Gentlemen! You can't fight in here, THIS is the WAR ROOM"...) his deadpan camera shots. It's unfortunate how Kubrick's later work ossified these skills of his into empty technique, but for this movie and the earlier 'Lolita', they served the subject matter well.