All That Heaven Allows

In 2002, Todd Haynes released Far from Heaven. It was his tribute to director Douglas Sirk. The two movies of Sirk's that were influences on Far from Heaven were Imitation of Life and All That Heaven Allows.

All That Heaven Allows may have a trite plot (a widow in a love affair with a younger man) and a flimsy script, but Sirk has us look over these small details for the much grander ones of the film. It's a bold move, but Sirk has done it frequently in his career.

The grander details in question are what Sirk toys with constantly: lighting, color and framing. All three are applied to Cary (Jane Wyman) throughout. After her affair with Ron (Rock Hudson) starts, she goes from wearing dull shades to vivid colors. When the affair ends, she's shot in the shadows frequently. Also, she's framed in many objects (mirror, doorway, window pane) to show she's trapped to the conformities of her town.

All That Heaven Allows isn't just about a love affair that is frowned upon. It's about one's desire to break free of the hypocrisy they face from those closest to them. After all, haven't you had that desire?

My Rating: ****1/2

The Ox-Bow Incident

In old movies especially, morals are questioned on a regular basis. At first, some decisions were smart. But after more facts come in, those decisions don't look as smart.

A situation like that is shown in William Wellman's The Ox-Bow Incident. In the aftermath of a shooting, the townspeople are searching for who did it. They're hungry for justice and spilled blood. When they find the men (Dana Andrews, Anthony Quinn, Francis Ford), the only voice of reason in the posse (Henry Fonda) tries to convince the others the men are innocent.

Of the actors, I particularly liked Fonda and Andrews. Fonda because he is always the ideal choice for the voice of reason. (Anyone who has seen 12 Angry Men can agree with me.) Andrews, an underrated actor of the time, because he conveys fear without overdoing it. The close-up of him as he's told of the crimes shows the amount of worry within him building up. (That extra beam of light across his eyes in that shot is a nice touch.) Both are great and should have earned some form of recognition.

The Ox-Bow Incident could be viewed as almost a Western version of 12 Angry Men, however the outcomes for both are vastly different. It may be far from the Hollywood ending most movies of the time had, but there's no denying that the ending for The Ox-Bow Incident is a memorable one.

My Rating: *****

Last Tango in Paris

There are always those movies that get a slew of controversy upon their releases. Most of the time the controversy still lingers years later, but it manages to gloss over what the movie is actually about.

Such is the case with Bernado Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris. It's infamous for its frank depiction of sex. (It's infamous for a few other things, but you know what those are.) In reality, the scenes of intimacy between Paul (Marlon Brando) and Jeanne (Maria Schneider) are mere backdrop to the real heart of the story.

Brando is frequently dubbed the greatest actor of all time (even if we can't hear what the hell he's saying most of the time), and Last Tango in Paris shows as to why. In comparison to some of his earlier roles, Paul could be viewed in a similar vein to Terry Malloy, someone who shuts himself out from what's going on around him. That's only for the first half. The second half showcases Paul as a more brutish Stanley Kowalski. Paul could be viewed as a blending of previous Brando roles but either way, he is from a different part of Brando's range of acting.

Brando's most powerful scene in Last Tango in Paris (and perhaps his best scene in general) is when Paul speaks to his deceased wife. It starts off like a normal conversation, but soon Paul's inner anger starts to boil to the surface. He furiously questions her on she killed herself before he falls apart and tearfully apologizes. A scene like this has been done countless times by numerous actors, resulting in them overdoing the scene. With Brando, he makes the scene his own.

Last Tango in Paris is not what it seems. It isn't an erotic vision in the vein of In the Realm of the Senses. It's a tale of loss and longing, and Bertolucci weaves this tale beautifully.

My Rating: *****

Johnny Guitar

The best thing about Nicholas Ray is that he takes genres that are immensely popular and turns them around on their heads. Bigger Than Life made social dramas of the 1950's look like bad soap operas. In a Lonely Place and They Live By Night added new perspectives to film noir.

Like Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo five years later, Ray's Johnny Guitar shone a new light onto the Western. Both focus on the principle characters more than the action. Both have characters that capture the audience's attention. Both are made for those not that into Westerns, like yours truly.

What makes Johnny Guitar unique is its use of role reversals. The bandits are actually good guys, the townspeople are villains, and the women wear the pants in this show. After all, we learn early on that Vienna (Joan Crawford) and Emma (Mercedes McCambridge) are two dames you shouldn't cross.

God, I love what Ray has offered me so far. Rebel Without a Cause, In a Lonely Place, Bigger Than Life, They Live By Night, and now Johnny Guitar. What I like about them the most is that they're unconventional from other movies of the time. That is also why I love Ray in general.

My Rating: *****

Medium Cool

1968 was a hell of a year. There were countless riots because of the Vietnam War, as well as civil rights. The biggest news of the year were the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy. Many books and movies were inspired by the events of 1968.

One such movie is Haskell Wexler's Medium Cool. Wexler, better known for his cinematography in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, presents the events of 1968 not as a focal point but as a minor detail to the story he wrote and directed. (And, yes, did the cinematography for.)

Robert Forster, more familiar to today's audiences from his Oscar-nominated turn in Jackie Brown, I particularly liked here. He works for a Chicago news station, but isn't interested in most of the stories he covers. He's more into the human interest stories than the ones on politics. This is why RFK's assassination is treated as something unimportant in the story.

Medium Cool is a very well done movie. It's not a political thriller in the vein of The Manchurian Candidate but rather as a retrospective of the 1960's. I admire that a majority of the movie is shot in documentary-style, which adds to how hectic the time period was.

My Rating: ****1/2

Crossfire

During the late 1940's, anti-Semitism was unfortunately on the rise in the United States. Even after what happened earlier in the decade in Germany, there was still much discrimination towards people of Jewish faith.

Hollywood took note of it. In 1947 alone, Gentleman's Agreement and Crossfire were released. The plots for both were different, but both were strictly focused on anti-Semitism. Gentleman's Agreement was about a man posing as Jewish; Crossfire was about a man who was murdered because he was Jewish.

Crossfire is based on a book written by Richard Brooks (later famous for directing such movies as Elmer Gantry and In Cold Blood), however there was one major difference between the book and Edward Dmytryk's movie. The murder victim in the movie is Jewish; in the book, he was a homosexual. (It was changed to appease the censors.) Either way, both could make someone an immediate target of a hate crime.

Crossfire is quite good. I particularly liked the work by Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan and Gloria Grahame, all familiar faces to film noir. However, the flow of the narrative is a little flawed throughout, but that doesn't stop me from recommending it.

My Rating: ****1/2

Hugo

With all of the recent family friendly movies being released, it's hard to find one right for the whole family. So naturally it would be surprising that the best came from the least likely of names in the field: Martin Scorsese.

Surprising as that may sound, Scorsese captures what many movies in the same spectrum try so hard to contain: the wonder seen through a child's eyes. So many directors have tried to achieve that feat. Only a few have succeeded.

Hugo has to be Scorsese's most personal entry. What other contribution of his to the world of film conveys his love of film? This is more than just a movie for kids. This is a movie made for those who are as deeply devoted to the early years of film as much as Scorsese is.

Hugo is one of this year's best. Scorsese can do no wrong here. (Then again, when doesn't he?) He masterfully blends fantasy and realism within each scene. Also, if you're going to watch this (which you should), see it in 3D. It will enhance your viewing experience to a new level.

My Rating: *****

Barton Fink

Joel and Ethan Coen are one of the most compelling duos in the film industry. Their movies are different from others'. I don't mean that in a bad sense; it shows their work is memorable.

Barton Fink depicts the life that was 1941 Los Angeles, which by all accounts wasn't as glamorous as it was cracked up to be. Around that time, established writers and playwrights were being commissioned by studios, and were disappointed by the Hollywood treatment. They thought they would be getting more out of what they were being paid.

John Turturro, a frequently underused actor, stars in the title role of the Clifford Odets doppelganger. Through his bouts of writers' block while cooped up in a Los Angeles hotel, he encounters a mysterious salesman (a villainous John Goodman).

Barton Fink conveys the many themes of the Coen brothers, however it's much darker than some of their other work. The performances by Turturro and Goodman are great. To those wanting a glimpse of Hell on earth, you'll find it in the form of Barton Fink.

My Rating: ****1/2

Eyes Without a Face

After seeing Diabolique, I knew the French mean business when it came to horror movies. I realized that even more after seeing Eyes Without a Face.

Any movie that contains surgery scenes will always have me turning away. It doesn't help much that Eyes Without a Face has a segment where demented Dr. Genessier (Pierre Brasseur) and his even more demented nurse Louise (Alida Valli) remove a girl's face in one piece. (Can you say "gross"?) All of that to repair the face of Genessier's daughter Christiane (Edith Scob). Isn't that sweet?

Of course, there are the small details of Eyes Without a Face that make it even more horrifying. There's Georges Franju's direction, which could be compared to Hitchcock or Clouzot. And that score by Maurice Jarre (more famous for Lawrence of Arabia). It sent chills up my spine like Bernard Herrmann's score for Psycho.

Eyes Without a Face is one of the more unnerving horror movies. The most unsettling part of this has to be Christiane's mask. The blank and expressionless face she wears to hide her real (and heavily damaged) face just flat out scares me. Also, don't be surprised if it reminds you of another mask of similar traits.

My Rating: *****

The Purple Rose of Cairo

You ever been in a low mood and your first solution is to watch a movie? It has and always will be the best way to forget your problems.

This is the case with Cecilia (Mia Farrow). She has good reason for her moviegoing. She's stuck in an abusive, loveless marriage, she has been fired from her job, and she's looking for an escape from the poverty throughout her neighborhood in Depression-era New Jersey. What better escape than going to the movies?

I've always liked Woody Allen's work (mainly Manhattan and Hannah and Her Sisters), mostly because he knows how to capture the movie's mood. With The Purple Rose of Cairo, he blends the feel of the 1930's with the ambiance of a comedy from that time. Not many movies can do that successfully.

I absolutely love The Purple Rose of Cairo. Farrow and Jeff Daniels have magnificent chemistry together. In fact, the movie acts as though it's from the 1930's. The ending just about crushed my heart, but that didn't stop me from adoring this movie.

My Rating: *****