Dennis Sands and friends did it again and the score sounds great in 5.1. The rest of the sound design is quite good for a comedy and the 2.35:1 image looks fine on the DVD.

I thought it was genuinely brilliant. No laughs at all, although the comic absurdity of people and their impossible search for self-fulfilment and comprehension within the absolute incompatibility of family life, is well to the fore. Sounds a bit of a downer, but the extraordinary ending, with the replacement mother literally imbuing the moribund daughter with a new life, is a cathartic uplift no matter how you read it. Great photography too in this sequence, with Maureen Stapleton in a red dress running down the sand dunes against a thundery sky. And good pastel-shade shots of interior decoration all the way through.

I think some people are put off the idea of Woody in serious mode, imagining the films to be boring and "difficult." I haven't seen all of them, but INTERIORS is absolutely not boring (the character nuances are riveting), and far from difficult (it's just like his comedies, minus the jokes). It's not even depressing, because by putting these problem people on the screen, he's bringing them out of isolation and into the company of angst-ridden filmwatchers everywhere. No man is an island anymore in a Woody film (even when THEY think they're islands).

This is the best film I'm likely to see all month, though I wouldn't mind seeing a funnier one.

No music.

INTERIORS (USA 1978)

Directed by Woody Allen
Screenplay by Woody Allen
Photography by Gordon Willis
Music by nobody

I think "Interiors" is a positively brilliant film, and one of my favorite films in Allen's body of work. Woody Allen and Gordon Willis created a beautifully sad and intensely interesting work worthy of Ingmar Bergman (the films imagery, including the seculded summer house surrounded by fields of wheat, owes a lot to Ingmar Bergman and Sven Nykvist). I have no doubt in my mind that Allen, a massive fan of Bergman, wanted to create a piece that lived and breathed like a Bergman film. As far as I'm concerned, he more than succeeded. A truly great film.

Woody Allen directed two more Bergman-esque films. I wasn't particularly impressed with "September," but I absolutely loved "Another Woman." "Another Woman" is terrific, with excellent acting, a well-structured Bergman-esque story, and excellent music. Woody Allen used Erik Satie's Gymnopedie #2 in many scenes, and I found some scenes to be intoxicatingly beautiful because of this, especially the ending (the way he uses it in the final scene is just incredible, it seemed to fit so perfectly that it's rather surreal). Anyway, "Another Woman" is another winner.

Dylan

There is a profound moment in Tod Browning's "Freaks" which occurs when two female Siamese twins are sitting in their trailer side-by-side, one is reading a book, the other is conversing with her lover. It is revealed earlier in the film that both of them can feel each and every emotion and sense that the other is experiancing. When the lover and his twin kiss, the other twin puts her book down and we see the unusual, blissful pleasure in her face as she is experiancing the sensation of the kiss her sister is receiving. It's such an oddly charming moment.

The film is set entirely in a traveling European circus. Cleopatra is a beautiful trapezist, Hercules her strongman lover. Amidst talented and attractive performers are the members of the circus sideshow, the freaks. There is Hans and Frieda, two midgets married to one another, but Hans has a crush on Cleopatra; there is the half-boy, with no lower half who moves with frightening ease on his hands, and a group of pinhead people, with acutely pointed heads. While the film may come off as disturbing (and some of it is very odd to watch), Tod Browning is ultimately showing the audience that the human characters are the true freaks, and the freaks are the compassionate and understanding characters in the story (though there are two compassionate human characters, a clown and his girlfriend, who are friends with the freaks).

Director Tod Browning is best known for directing the 1931 "Dracula," with Bela Lugosi. When he completed "Freaks," it was 90 minutes long, but the censors cut it down to 64 minutes, and eliminated most of the ending. Because of the editing, there are many fade-ins and fade-outs, and seemingly many jump-cuts. Even at 64 minutes, the film was banned shortly after it's release in 1932 and by the late 30's it was out of circulation. It unfortunately ruined Browning's career, who retired soon after "Freaks." In the late 1950's, it was re-released, and many people discovered it. "Freaks" then grew into the cult classic that it is today.

There is obviously a healthy amount that is missing, but what is there is left is rather disturbing, very interesting, and often oddly charming.

There is no score, but the film relies heavily on carnival-source music, which is great music for a film like this. All in all, a great and interesting curiousity...but it's not for everybody!

Dylan

And I absolutely adore FREAKS. The ending is risible when you think about it (I mean, how did they actually turn her into a chicken?), but it's imbued throughout with a sense of poetry and a true love for the "freaks" on display. A masterpiece.

Not as good as those two movies is James Foley's new one, CONFIDENCE (twisty mobster movie starring Edward Burns, Rachel Weisz, Andy Garcia and Dustin Hoffman). It's very smart and flashy, and the relentless camera-swipes and voice over give it a veneer of sophistication, but the technique is also very reminiscent of something else. Can't remember what. Isn't that great? Being negative, I'd say it's watchable but superficial, but to be charitable I'll just switch the order of the adjectives and say it's superficial but watchable.

Giuseppe Tornatore is best known for the excellent, Oscar-winning "Cinema Paradiso," but unlike that film, "Everybody's Fine" is rarely talked about. One of my all-time favorite actors, Marcello Mastroianni (8 1/2, La Dolce Vita, Big Deal on Madonna Street), plays Don Matteo, an aging Sicilian father of five who goes on a trip throughout Italy to try and visit all of his children. This is a trip of revelation for Matteo, who believes his children to be happy and wealthy. Gradually, the truth comes down.

Throughout the movie, Matteo is haunted by dreams of a beautiful Felliniesque day at a beach in which a caravan of horses are destroyed by an ominous descending black balloon that also steals his children. This isn't the only thing in the film that is inspired by Fellini, there are a LOT of things in here that echo the great Fellini's work (including a shot of a bus driving by our main character, it's passangers with their hands on the windows glaringly staring at him...GOOD STUFF).

It's a very warm, sentimental film, and I thought it was quite wonderful. Legendary composer Ennio Morricone's extraordinary score fits the film like a glove. The score definately reminds me of the more dramatic scores of Nino Rota, particularly "The Godfather II." Morricone composed some wonderful waltzes (one of which reminded me a little of one of Rota's waltzes from "The Leopard"), and there are many dramatic, quirky themes throughout. I have never heard a Morricone score quite like this, and it just shows me how incredibly versatile he is. Definately my kind of score, and plan to order my copy from Tower Records very soon.

All and all, a great film.

This is now the third Truffaut film I have seen. I instantly fell in love with THE 400 BLOWS, but JULES AND JIM left me strangely cold and unmoved. I liked SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER. It's rather lighter in tone (at least until the last act) than the other two I mentioned, and I think it'd be hard for anyone not to be taken with it. It's a charmer. Coutard's photography is, as I have now come to expect, fantastic. Same goes for Delerue's music. I'm not sure where I'm going next with Truffaut, but I'm looking forward to it.

I'm a great fan of Godfrey Reggio's KOYAANISQATSI (and the other two are okay), so I've been meaning to see this film for a long time after reading about how influential it was. I must say, I'm completely stunned. I feel just as I did after I first watched KOYAANISQATSI. This is really an amazing experience.

Vertov films various scenes from daily life in Russia and cuts them together without any narrative or plot. Vertov uses every technique available to him at the time in both editing (dissolves, wipes, splicing, superimposition) and in photography (slow motion, fast motion, all manner of outlandish camera angles, and even a few scenes of stop-motion animation). The result is really breathtaking. By the end of the film you feel just as emotionally stirred (and drained) as you do at the end of any narrative. Highly, highly recommended (go see KOYAANISQATSI too).

The version I watched (and bought) was released on DVD in the U.S. just this year by Kino Video and features a new score by Michael Nyman. I decided on this one partly because I'm a big Nyman fan, and partly because it was the only version I could find. Nyman's music is first-rate and typical of his Nyman Band pieces. The last segment is really extraordinary.

A previous DVD release featured a new score by the Alloy Orchestra, based on what were apparently very detailed notes left behind by Vertov describing how he thought the music should sound. I'm anxious to watch the film with their score as well, and anyway that DVD has some supplemental material on it (Kino's contains only a couple of short written bios of Nyman and Vertov) so I'll have to get it at some point anyway, I loved the film so much.

I also found myself driving behind a car the other day whose license plate said "STEP 39." I liked that a lot.

Coming soon (for me):
SPIRITED AWAY (Hayao Miyazaki)
L'AVVENTURA (Michelangelo Antonioni)
BASKETBALL DIARIES (Scott Kalvert)
BREATHLESS (Jean-Luc Godard)
MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (Frank Capra)
THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR (Joseph L. Mankiewicz)

Good thing I have nothing to do this weekend.

I'd also like to mention that I just finished reading Andrew Yule's book Losing the Light: Terry Gilliam and the Munchausen Saga, and it's amazing that THE ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN was ever completed, and a bonafide miracle that it still turned out to be such a masterpiece (in my opinion, anyway). I highly recommend it to everyone. Even with the "happy" ending of the film's completion, it's an even more terrifying and more depressing story than LOST IN LA MANCHA (the documentary about Gilliam's failed attempt at Don Quixote).

Thanks for posting your reviews. I haven't seen "The Man with the Movie Camera" yet, but it sounds absolutely extraordinary.

"Shoot the Piano Player" is a delight! I'm surprised you didn't like "Jules and Jim," but as I recall, I felt rather cold when I finished watching it the first time. The second time I tried it though, it was marvelous...so who knows? In any case, the cinematography in "Jules and Jim" was astonishing (I absolutely LOVED the shots when the three of them are running down the bridge, or riding their bikes). And Delerue's "Jules and Jim" score was very moving, and sometimes surprisingly carnivalesque (like Rota's "8 1/2," sounding similar in structure to "Sabre Dance"). Let me think of which Truffaut I would recommend you check out next. I would suggest you try his 1978 film "The Green Room" next, which is a very moving, tragic story. Truffaut stars as the protagonist (and he is excellent). "Green Room" is only available on VHS, but it was filmed in 1.66, so the 1.33 transfer (which is all we'll have for a long time, I'm assuming) is just fine. I haven't seen "Day for Night" yet, but it sounds marvelous (don't see the VHS though because it's the English dubbed version, see the new DVD if you can find it). His film "Small Change" is an inspired collection of vignettes involving the lives of children. I'd continue your exploration of Truffaut with those three.

"L'Avventura" is one of my all-time favorite films, so I hope you like it.

What's next (for me):

Il Bidone (Federico Fellini) (I ordered the Image DVD)
Who's That Knocking at my Door? (Martin Scorsese) (looks VERY inspired by films from the French New Wave, and Italian cinema...ordered this from eBay)

I'll probably rent some foreigns over the weekend, if I make it the video store.

And definately see "Persona" when you can (get the mid-late 90's MGM VHS, if you can find it, that's the best transfer we have so far....and it is important to note that early next year MGM will release Persona on DVD as a special edition).

The main title sequence that opens “Willard” is one of the most visually striking open title sequences in recent memory. The camera is panning across small tables, and picture frames with 2D or object animation playing within them. The only way I can accurately describe it would be that it seems like a stylization of a camera looking around the nooks and crannies of an old wooden cellar or basement. It was created with good old fashioned stop-motion animation model work. Shirley Walker’s opening title music is nothing short of magnificent, and the accordion-laden composition perfectly anticipates the character we are about to meet.

“Willard” is a very well observed story that intimately knows it’s lead character. It’s a film that’s quirkily disturbing, and funny too. Crispin Glover’s Willard character has very dark eyes, is very pale, and has a slick, short, combed-back haircut. He almost looks like he stepped out of a silent film. His performance brings pain and longing right in your face with his twitches, the way he responds to anger, how he wants to say something but doesn't, and especially by the way he walks. There is also real wit in the performance, and Glover is overall a delight to watch.

Willard is a sensitive, deeply disturbed grown man who is constantly being mentally tormented by the people around him. His mother talks down on how much of a waste he is, his boss is arrogant and enjoys threatening him at work, and nobody else seems to pay attention to him. Nobody, except for Catherine (played by Laura Elena Harring of “Mulholland Drive”), a fellow emplyee who seems to be a potential social isle for Willard, as she shows sympathy for him and actually talks to him at work, but he never pursues a friendship. While in the cellar setting rat traps, Willard beings to sympathize with the rats he’s laying traps for, and befriends them, particularly one white rat, who he has named Socrates.

Shirley Walker’s score is undeniably the heart and soul of the film. It’s a powerful, thematic work that’s one of the finest film scores of recent years, and the finest horror score in ages. As some modern-day viewers are aware of when watching newer films, an orchestral score for a cultish horror piece is a rare and sublime gift. The approach and feel of this score is a brilliant homage to Bernard Herrmann. The music knows exactly what emotions it’s attempting to bring out in the viewer as it digs deep inside the story and the inner feelings of our lead character. It’s a terrific segueing of music and image, and it’s Shirley Walker’s greatest achievement.

I can see people having problems with the ending. I personally thought the ending was campy and creepy, with Glover at his most insane, though some may complain that it runs a few minutes longer than it’s natural climax. On a narrative level, I was satisfied with this ending, I got the same vibe that I felt during the ending of the silent film “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” (both films end in similar settings).

“Willard” was a $22 million dollar film, but it made barely $7 million back. The film didn’t find it’s audience, which is a shame. Part of the problem was that it opened in March, which isn’t the time of year to release a film like “Willard” (October is the ideal time). Thankfully, New Line Cinema seems to feel that the film deserves a second life on DVD, because the “Willard” DVD is jammed-pack with goodies. A highlight is a music video of the song “Ben,” sung by Crispin Glover. The music video is striking and marvelous, and surprisingly visually owes just about everything to Federico Fellini (which was indeed surprising, since the film itself has no Felliniesque quality). Crispin is seen flying down on a stage, the audience composed of strange-looking people looking at the camera with mocking or deadly serious expressions. Fellini is alive in this, right down to the very sexually suggestive nature of the music video. IT'S REALLY GOOD STUFF!!!!

“Willard” is a rare kind of film in these days. It’s an obscure curiosity, a film most studios wouldn’t gamble with, and it’s wildly vast difference from everything else we see these days is one of the reasons why I love it.

This is a richly poetic film, a stark portrait of three con-men who make their living by swindling the poor out of what little money they have. The film moves back and forth between the scams they pull in the countryside and their lives in the city between jobs. The group's leader is Augusto, played expressively by the great Broderick Crawford. The other two con men are Roberto (Fabrizi), a lady chaser and risk-taker, and Picasso (Basehart), a family man and painter. Picasso’s wife Iris is played by the great Giulietta Masina. Crawford (who won an Oscar for "All the King's Men," a film I need to see) is really excellent as Augusto, who begins addressing the matter of his conscience when by chance he runs into the daughter he has abandoned.

The party and dance scenes in the film’s first half are really fantastic and crazy, full of men and women dancing to Nino Rota’s music, crazy situations and fights arising, lots of drinking, lots of people looking at the camera (including a photographer who bounces up from the bottom of the frame, takes a picture, and kneels back down out of sight…that’s typical Fellini there). For all of the fun that's present in this film, it takes some very moving and sad turns...and the amazing thing is how Fellini balances something funny and surreal to something truly heartbreaking (the film's final 15 minutes are stunningly touching).

Nino Rota’s score is, as always, marvelous and really nails the feel and tone of the film. There are many themes, including a somber theme for Augusto’s daughter, a really eccentric circus march theme, and lastly a terrific emotional theme that especially pulls into sharp effect in the film’s closing moment. All of his themes are cleverly adapted in many variations bouncing between different styles of music- from mambo to wildly eccentric dance to rather Arabian to his typical circus-like music to just as often something very dramatic and emotional. This great score was released by CAM records just a couple years ago, it includes most of the music that’s in the film, and is a great listen for Rota fans.

“Il Bidone” is the most ignored and overlooked film in Fellini’s body of work, which is unfortunate. It's truly unforgettable how it depicts struggle, loneliness, and utmost guilt in the loveliest and most poignant ways imaginable.

Dylan
NP: Il Bidone (Nino Rota)

Directed by Kevin Costner
Screenplay by Craig Storper, from the novel by Lauran Paine
Photography by James Muro
Music by Michael Kamen

Main Cast: Kevin Costner, Robert Duvall, Annette Bening, Michael Gambon, Diego Luna

Times are a-changing, the cowboys are getting old and thinking of settling down, but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.

So there's nothing new in the crepuscular OPEN RANGE, but it goes over the familiar ground well enough, though I can't get much more enthusiastic than that. I thought something could have been made of the potential Costner-Bening-Duvall triangle, for example. In fact, the whole film seems underwritten (did any footage end up on the cutting room floor?)

Something definitely seems lacking here, but on the plus side it's evocatively photographed, and there's an excellent shoot-out at the end.

Directed by Woody Allen
Screenplay by Woody Allen
Photography by Ghislain Cloquet
Music by S. Prokofiev

Woody does the Russian classics.

As a bridge between his early knockabout comedies and the subsequent more introspective ones, I think that LOVE AND DEATH is the best of both worlds. The lunacy here leans towards that of Mel Brooks, or even AIRPLANE/ NAKED GUN, but much more balanced (i.e. balanced by neurotic musings on the nature of Love and Death). Great fun.

It's also funny how, even when Woody appears in period pieces (like as the court jester in EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX...), he's still got the same specs. Here's an exchange between him and Diane Keaton in LOVE AND DEATH which mentions his specs -

WA: "How can I be made in God's image? I mean, do you think he wears glasses?"

DK: "Well, maybe not with those frames."

I wish I would have written about this film right after I saw it. It was over a week ago, and now I'll have less to say than I would have.

This is my first experience with Antonioni, and I was very, very moved by it. This is a bold, wonderful film that I'll definitely be going back to again (I plan to buy it at some point).

Even 40 years later, this film is still unconventional. It is very slow-paced and has very little story to speak of, yet I did not lose interest for a second. I was totally entranced by the characters and their feelings, their thoughts and their discussions. This is a film that seems to have a lot to say, but sometimes revels in not saying a thing, and sometimes goes back and tells you that what it said earlier may have been meaningless.

It sounds contradictory, and it is, but that's what makes it so authentic. It's a film about love and all the emotions that come with it, a film with just as many emotional highs and lows as a real relationship has, a film whose emotions are just as profound as those of the characters it portrays.

It must also be said that Aldo Scavarda's black-and-white cinematography is overwhelmingly beautiful, even on its own just as moving as anything else in the film.

This was a wonderful film, and a great experience I'll have to go back to any time I'm feeling "an overall sense of ennui" (hopefully someone here has seen FREE ENTERPRISE). I'll be searching for more Antonioni films very soon.

This is both my second Miyazaki film and my second animated Japanese film (that I've seen in full). The first in both cases was PRINCESS MONONOKE, which I instantly fell in love with. SPIRITED AWAY was no different. This film is fantastic, in both senses of the word. Miyazaki just pours ideas onto the page, each one more imaginative and spectuclar than the last, and the story is one that, while meant for children, is relevant to all people.

There is so much imagination etched into every frame of this film there's no way to form a cohesive description of it. But everything from the characters to the locations to the music is great, full of amazement, endearing and memorable. One scene in particular, when Sen rides the train to Swampbottom, was particularly haunting. It's an indescribably moving and poetic sequence that will be with me for the rest of my life.

It's also worth mentioning that the English dub of this film is far, far, far better than the one imposed upon PRINCESS MONONOKE. With that film I watched the English version first and then had to go back and watch the Japanese version to fully appreciate it. With SPIRITED AWAY I did the same thing, but when I went back the second time and watched the Japanese version, it was just like watching the film again (which is exactly what it should feel like).

Here's another one I have to buy now.

Pretty underwhelmed by this one. For a true story (I don't know how true, not having read Carroll's book to compare) it sure had its fair share of cliches and one-dimensional characters. The film's problem, I think, is that it spends far too much screen time with Jim's experiences in the gutter. As a result, everything (and everyone) else becomes completely peripheral. Events seem contrived and characters show up only to provide the contrivances. And the ending wraps up far too quickly after lingering so long on the bad stuff. The entire third act lasts all of two minutes. Jim is at an all-time low, then suddenly he tells you six months later he was fine, and the movie ends. They should have either left his future uncertain (which might have been a little stupid considering the story's origins) or spent more time on his rehabilitation.

What is overwhelming about this film, however, is Leonardo DiCaprio's performance. He was absolutely outstanding, and really blew me away. This was definitely the best performance I've seen from him. Anyone interested in Leo should check it out, otherwise you can skip this one.

Nick Digilio, a film critic on WGN radio here in Chicago, has been raving endlessly about this film ever since he saw it at a festival over a year ago. The blurb that eventually opened the film's trailer was from him: "A significant piece of American cinema." He generally loves insane horror films, but this one seemed different when he described it.

Of course, everyone loves Bruce Campbell, and the premise of the film (Elvis and JFK as old men fighting an Egyptian mummy in a rest home) sounded like it couldn't possibly not be enjoyable. So I went with a couple friends to the opening night here. Bruce Campbell was there for three or four of the shows. Every screening from 6:30 on was sold out a day earlier, and people were being turned away. It was completely crazy, but luckily we had bought our tickets online four days in advance.

So after an hour and a half of waiting (we were lucky to get there early enough to be the second party in line) we finally saw the film. I am positively stunned. This is a great movie. Yes, a great movie.

It's virtually impossible to describe just how it accomplishes this greatness. Yes, it is indeed a funny, schlocky horror-comedy (what you would expect), and on that level it's a shining example of its breed. But it's also much more than that. Somehow, this film also manages to be very poignant and strangely moving. Sure, it's great fun to watch Bruce Campbell in aged-Elvis makeup fighting a mummy who's always cast in just enough shadow to make it impossible to tell how many limitations there were in the costume. But at its heart, this is a touching story of regret and redemption, WILD STRAWBERRIES written as a low-grade monster movie. And I know that sounds even more absurd than the film's premise, but it's true.

While it's a safe bet Coscarelli had all this in mind, I think the film accomplishes all of this because of the two lead performances. You would expect them to play out parts like these totally tongue-in-cheek, but they don't. Both Campbell and Davis turn their characters into believable, real people who, by the end of the film, the audience truly cares about. Campbell, in particular, is spectacular, and he deserves an Oscar nomination for his work here.

Yes, an Oscar nomination. For Bruce Campbell. In a movie about Elvis. In a rest home. With cancer on his penis. Fighting a mummy that sucks people's souls out through their butts. An Oscar nomination.

Afterwards Bruce Campbell came out for a short Q&A with the audience. He's a great guy, very honest and open, and very funny, constantly taking jabs at people (not seriously, all in good fun).

GUY: I'm from the Illinois chapter of Alpha Epsilon....
BRUCE: The Illinois chapter of what?
GUY: Alpha Epsilon, its a fraternity.
BRUCE: And I'm supposed to give a rat's ass because?
GUY: Well, we drove 300 miles for this, and -
BRUCE: You drove 300 miles for this? Oh, you sad, pathetic bastard. What's your question?

I doubt anyone will read this who hasn't seen RAIDERS, so I'll be brief. We saw this after BUBBA HO-TEP as a midnight show at Chicago's gorgeous Music Box Theatre. I'm not a huge fan of this film (I like it, but I prefer LAST CRUSADE), but anything is worth seeing at the Music Box.

This is a fun movie, but my main problem with it has always been Marion. As much as I like Karen Allen, Marion seems wildly inconsistent to me, one moment strong-willed and independent, the next moment screaming her head off for Indy to come and save her. I suppose if she were completely self-reliant it might draw too much of the audience's attention away from Jones, but that's no excuse for making her self-contradictory.

At any rate, this is still a continually fun movie to watch, and it was great seeing it in a theater, especially one as nice as the Music Box. The print looked fantastic and sounded just okay (which is generally how it goes, I guess). I wouldn't have made the trip downtown just for this, but coupled with BUBBA HO-TEP and seeing Bruce Campbell in person, it was a great night out.