New Survey from the Movie Survey Gods!

What movie have you watched the most time? It would probably have to be "It's a Wonderful Life". I've watched it every Christmas and many times since I was a kid. "Casablanca" would probably up there too, as well as "The Apartment".



What is the first DVD youve owned? I was so excited getting a DVD player for the first time, and although my brother got me "Minority Report" for Christmas, I would say the first DVD I ever purchased myself was Robert Altman's "MASH"



What is the first movie you saw in theaters which you remember clearly? I distinctly remember seeing "An American Tale"

Genres


What is youre favorite comedy? Pretty much all the early Marx Brothers comedies, but I think "Horse Feathers" has my favorite comedy bit they ever did, "The password is Swordfish". It also has my favorite Groucho song "I'm against it"



What is the scariest movie of all time? Hitchcock's "The Birds" freaks me out, but if I really want a scare I go with the original "Halloween"



What is the best thriller? "Vertigo" has a lot of thriller elements to it, and it is my favorite Hitchcock film, but ultimatley as an all out thriller, I would have to go with "Double Indemnity" which is my favorite film noir ever.



What is the ultimate action movie? I kinda have a soft spot for the first two "Lethal Weapon" movies, to me they are the ultimate in that kind of 80s action film. I would have to say though that Tarantino's "Kill Bill" movies are the best action films in recent memory.



What is your favorite adventure movie? "Raiders of the Lost Ark", nothing has come near in pure adventure even before or after it.



What is your favorite fantasy movie? If you consider the "It's a Wonderful Life" a fantasy I would say that. And even though you could argue it being in science fiction, "E.T." has a lot of fantasy elements in it as well, so I would choose those two.



What is your favorite Sci-Fi movie? Spielberg has made some of the most significant science fiction films from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" to "War of the Worlds" (Yes everything up to the phony happy ending was pretty brilliant. but I have to go with Kubrick's masterpiece "2001: A Space Odyssey" which is one of the greatest films of all time.



What is the most historically sgnificant movie in film history? There's no doubt about it, "Citizen Kane" changed the ways movies were made. It created a whole new kind of film language, and no matter what your thoughts are of it as a film, that aspect cannot be denied.

Themes



What is the most romatic movie? This is tough. There are many romantic films that deserve this title, starting with "Casablanca". Some might even argue "Annie Hall" which I look as somewhat of an anit-romance. My kind of romance that fits with my personality is "The Apartment". But if I were to choose a great no-nonsense romantic comedy with two appealing and likable people you really want to see get together, look no further than "The Shop Around the Corner". Also for those who haven't, take a look at "Once", the best modern romance in years.

What is the best movie about friendship? I mentioned it above, but not many films come close to showing a true friendship better than "E.T." Elliot and E.T. share a common need for eachother at a time when they need a friend the most.

What is the best movie about sacrifice? This is a good spot to use "Casablanca". I mean come on, Rick gives up everything, his freedom, his cafe, and the woman he loves for a cause greater than all of them put together.

What is the best movie about war? From "The Thin Red Line" and "Saving Private Ryan" to "Flags of our Fathers" and "Letters from Iwo Jima", I have to say they got something right in depicting the harsh realities of war. However as a throwback to a good old fashioned war adventure movie, I'll go with "The Great Escape."

Which movie is the biggest in terms of epic scale? After just re-watching "The Lord of the Rings" films, it's easy to say those are pretty epic in the biggest terms possible. But I have so far seen nothing in the scope of "Lawrence of Arabia" when it comes to portraying a huge adventure but also being part character study.

What is the best coming of age movie? I'm not a big fan of these kind of movies, maybe I was back in the day. I'm not sure if "American Graffiti" can be put under this but that would be my pick.

Scenes
What is the best action scene?Love the truck chase scene in "Raiders of the Lost Ark"

What is the best sex scene? I'm stumped. There's something really unsenuous about actual sex scenes. It's the build up to one I like. So I'm going to go with Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint in "North by Northwest". They are alone in a train car, together in bed. Cut to the outside of the train going into a tunnel and fade to black, that's all you need.

What is the funniest comedic scene? I mentioned The Marx Brothers Swordfish routine. Also love Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck confusing Elmer Fudd as to weather or not it's rabbit season or duck season. Also love the "puttin on the ritz" scene in "Young Frankenstein", and I don't know, did I mention the Marx Brothers?

Decades
Waht is the best film of the 30s? Impossible to pick one. "The Thin Man" would be up there, but so would "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington", "The Grand Illusion", ""City Lights" and "The Bride of Frankenstein". So that would be my top five

40s? "It's a Wonderful Life", but I don't want to forget "Late Spring", "Double Indemnity", "Citizen Kane", "The Big Sleep" and "Notorious"

50s?"Tokyo Story", but also "The Searchers" and "Vertigo". Oh and "Seven Samurai"

60s? "Jules and Jim" hands down, but practically anything by Jean-Luc Godard at this time is worth seeing. And "2001: A Space Odyssey". And "Psycho"

70? "Mean Streets" which is my favorite Scorsese (probably) but I also like Spielberg's "Close Encounters of the Third kind", and Woody Allen's "Manhattan". And you know what I like "Rocky" there I said it.

80s? "Raging Bull", "E.T.", "My Dinner with Andre", "Raiders of the Lost Ark", "Do the Right Thing", "Raising Arizona"

90s? "Miller's Crossing", "Schindler's List", "Fargo", "The Three Colors Trilogy", "Unforgiven"

sicne 2000? "Once", "No Country for Old Men", "The Terminal", "Kill Bill" Vol 1 and 2",

Sorry forgot one in scenes. what is the best battle scene? The Normandy invasion at the beginning of "Saving Private Ryan" is pretty stellar.

Charactors?
Who is the best movie hero? In a way people like Groucho Marx, Charlie Chaplin, and Woody Allen are all movie heroes to me. Indiana Jones is like the ultimate movie action/adventure hero. I would also go with Capra heroes like Jefferson Smith, Longfellow Deeds, and George Bailey.

Who is the best movie villian? Of recent movies I would go with Anton Chigurh from "No Country for Old Men". But you know what? Women haven't been given their due for great movie villanesses, so in honor of the ladies, I'll choose the great Barbara Stanwyck in "Double Indemnity". She's as cold as ice.

Who is the best movie charactor in terms of complexity? You could make a good case for Charles Foster Kane. I think Michael Corleone from "The Godfather" deserves a mention. I'm gonna go with a somewhat obscure reference and choose Gabriel Byrne's character in "Miller's Crossing". The thing that fascinates me about that movie is his characters motives, he keeps you guessing till the very end just what he's up to.

And finally

What is the best movie of all time? As I have probably shown here in my list, I don't think there is a best movie of all time. I love so many movies for so many different reasons. As a default I always seem to go with "It's a Wonderful Life" since it probably is my favorite. However I'm gonna change my tune a bit in an effort for people to try something new. In many ways I think Yasujiro Ozu's masterpiece "Tokyo Story" is the greatest film of all time. It's a film that indeed demands your attention, but it is probably the greatest film I've seen about life, and death, and family, and how people should be treated.

Summer Wrap Up Part One: May

It was the first day of fall today, which means the summer movie season has ended. Is it just me or does it seem like summer movies just keep popping up no matter where you are. While it's true, the fall is the time for more artsy or "prestigious" films to come out, but when it comes to box office, I don't see many people lining up to see them. But let's with hold my cynical view of movie-goers for the moment and reflect on a season gone by. While I dread most of what comes out in the summer, I was met with some pleasant surprises. I avoided some of the more talked about movies (ie. "Transformers 2" and that 3-D guinea pig movie), so I was able to catch some of the more hidden gems of the summer. We'll start with May.

As it turned out, I didn't really get to the cinema much during this month, it mostly had to do with the crumminess of the movies. But I'm here to talk about the ones I did see. My summer started with "Star Trek" a reboot to the old television series starring new faces playing the old characters. "Star Trek" became an acclaimed main stream hit and proved to the wide audience that the franchise wasn't dead. What I failed to realize was why so much fuss? The film was praised for its depiction of a more character driven story where we get to see the emergence of Captain Kirk, Spock, and the rest of the clan, but this is deceiving. Because we get to see Kirk's father die in an overly sappy way that could've been played for laughs , and we get to see Spock's mother die, means this film can suddenly be called character driven? Wrong, if you look at those scenes, they are cut from any real emotion, they serve as merely explanations as to why the characters act the way they do. The scenes were played as too melodramatic and didn't have the right tone to give an emotional response.



J.J Abrams who is some kind of television wonderkind missed the boat on the emotional level, but he did get the right actors to play the roles. When the film stopped trying for the phony emotion, it became somewhat enjoyable thanks mainly to the cast who could make this new reboot worth watching.

After "Star Trek", I waited patiently till near the end of the month, passing by "Terminator:Salvation" (McG's just not my cup of tea), "Angels and Demons" (Couldn't bring myself to watching "The DaVinci Code") and "Night at the Museum 2" (Never saw the first one). I finally came to a film I wanted to see which was Pixar's "Up". As I've said before, it is without a doubt Pixar's finest hour, and deserves to be mentioned with some of the classic animated films ever made. "Up" is a special treat for film lovers of all ages. The beginning starts with the meeting of two young kids name Ellie and Carl. Ellie craves adventure, while Carl does have the spirit, he's the more timid of the two. We are treated with a long wordless montage of Ellie and Carl as they grow up, get married, and grow old together. Ellie dies leaving Carl a lonely widower. Spending his life as a balloon salesman, he decides to turn his house into a flying machine, escaping spending his life in a retirement home, and pursuing his and Ellie's dream of going to Paradise Falls. His trip is interrupted by a rather bothersome boyscout who accidentally hitches a ride with him. When they get to Paradise Falls, even more surprises develop involving a talking dog named Doug, and a species of bird long thought to be extinct.



"Up" is a special movie of its kind, a mature film for both adults and children. The great thing about "Up" and all of Pixar films is how they can handle serious subjects in such a joyful and accessible manner. We start with one of the most poignant moments this year in movies with a summary of a married life. These were two people who were deeply in love with eachother, you get the sense that they really did share a life together, and not a word is spoken. Ellie is barely shown, but after her death, her loss is felt throughout the rest of the film. This might seem too dark for an animated film directed towards kids, but like the title, the remaining film lifts us up into something that transcends the usual animated movie. "Up" becomes a warm, funny, and heartwarming, when I think about it I can't help but smile.

The month of May ended the same week "Up" came out, for since I missed the last couple of weeks, I thought a double feature was the perfect remedy. I then indulged my darker side and went to see Sam Raimi's fun horror film "Drag Me to Hell". I can't say horror is my favorite genre. Horror seems to be going through a downward spiral these past few years mistaking the genre for torture porn. Yes I am one of those who doesn't feel "Saw" and "Hostel" have much horror elements in them. Raimi of course began his career in horror, and "Drag Me to Hell" was a return to his roots. The story is simple, a poor bank clerk (Allison Lohman) who has a moment of weakness and selfishly denies an old gypsy woman an extension on her mortgage is then told by said gypsy that in four days, she will be DRAGGED TO HELL! The rest of the film is filled with nifty BOO! moments. The film is actually rated PG-13 which means most gore is left off screen, Raimi depends more on sound effects, and lighting cues to create a spooky mood. The best way to watch "Drag Me to Hell" is to dim the lights in your house and snuggle close to someone who doesn't mind being grabbed when there during scary parts.

"Drag Me to Hell" was sadly treated as another mindless horror film, when it was something with a bit more intelligence and humour. It unfortunately died a box office death, but I'm thinking Raimiphiles will resurrect this film on DVD and it will gain the cult status it deserves.

Best Films of the Year So Far...

I try to stay steady with my movie going experiences this past year, I at least average one movie per week at the theatre. Due to my long absences over the summer, I haven't had time to write about every film I saw, but I hope to make up a Summer overview of films within the coming days. For now, before we get into the main awards season push of the film season, I just thought I'd share with you the films that stood out for me so far...

1. Good Bye Solo: My first film I saw directed by Ramin Bahrani who has become the new director to see over the past few years. "Good Bye Solo" is so far my favorite film of the year. It tells the story of a cab driver named Solo who goes out of his way to help a lonely old man who has thoughts of suicide. What could've been a run of the mill Hollywood movie with big inspirational music becomes something unexpected. Bahrani makes it more about the lives of these men than about any big moral to be learned. I also appreciated Bahrani's minimal approach to the story by not adding anything to take us away from the characters, nor feeling the need to explain everything in great detail to us. This is a film that respects its audience, and when I left the theatre, my heart was full. Both lead actors give two of the best performances of the year.

2. Up: Pixar's strongest film to date about old widower who turns his house into one big hot air baloon to travel to Paradise Falls, where he and his wife always wanted to go. A very mature film for younger audiences, but like "Good Bye Solo", it respects them enough without having to dumb it down. Pixar always takes on challenging themes for their subjects, this may be their most soulful picture. Add to that, a bunch of robot talking dogs, and you also a hilarious films that's full of pathos.

3. Inglorious Basterds: A film I actually had to see a second time in order to decide whether or not I liked it. Quentin Tarantino's war epic sometimes seems to be a jumbled up mess of a movie, but after looking at it again, I found method in its madness, not only does it include some of Tarantino's best dialogue and most intense scenes, it can also be seen as commentary on the power of cinema itself.

4. I Love you Man:: Paul Rudd should get an Oscar nomination for his dead on, original portrayal of a poor yuppy schlub who's in search a best man at his wedding, but I have a feeling, he'll get looked over. The film probably wouldn't have worked as well without Rudd's performance, nor Jason Segal as the man who would become his true bromance.

5. The Hangover: The second funniest movie I've seen this year is this tribute to "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas". While some people were disappointed with the films rather simple solution, I found the trip to be more fun than its destination. Some great comic moments happen after a night in Vegas goes horribly wrong leaving one of their buddies missing on his wedding day. The film takes some unexpected turns, that keeps you guessing all the way through. It's not just a comedy, but also a mystery where you just gotta ask yourself, what exactly happened the night before?

Some honorable mentions: Steven Sodebergh's "The Informant!", the stop motion animated movie "Coraline", the pleasant if self-conscious "(500) Days of Summer", the Iraq war drama "The Hurt Locker", Michael Mann's somewhat misunderstood "Public Enemies", and Sam Raimi's triumphant return to horror with "Drag me to Hell".

A Swell Movie: Sita Sings the Blues

Nina Paley's "Sita Sings the Blues" is a film so special and unique, it deserves a wider audience. I've just viewed a copy of the film which is available to purchase, or you could even download it for free from Paley's website it's Paley's protest against copyright laws which have prohibited her to use the songs in her film. Whether you agree on this or not, you can still send a donation to the website if you'd like.

Small films like these are the type that don't get enough distribution, it's different and original and I dare you not to like it.

"I Was Born But..." Lesson Learned

"I Was Born But..." is possibly the most intelligent film to deal with the lives of children. It is not only rich in theme and clever in its execution, it's one of those rare films that can still surprise you even after seeing it multiple times. This isn't just a film about children, it also deals with the harsh truth one must face as they reach adulthood.

By it's description, "I Was Born But..." may not sound like a joyful and playful silent comedy, but indeed it is, directed by one of the masters of cinema who today is mostly known for his sad elegies about growing old.

Yasujiro Ozu was probably Japan's greatest directors and deserves to be mentioned along with Welles, Renoir, and Ford, as one of the masters of the medium. He was not really discovered by western audiences until the 1970s, but he was widely popular in his native country during his lifetime. Ozu's films were defined as "too Japanese" to really reach a wider audience, that term has since become cliche. Even though Ozu dealt specifically with the modern Japanese family, his films were universal in their themes. Although Ozu is probably better regarded for his later masterpieces like "Late Spring", and "Tokyo Story", which dealt with issues about families who had to separate either by the marriage of one member, or the death of another So it might be surprising to find his earlier work to be more on the playful side.

If one were to only his late masterpieces, Ozu might be thought of as an old man's director, but he started filmmaking quite young. He was 29 when he directed "I Was Born But...", which was already his 23rd film. He was also a regular cinephile who was greatly influenced by the silent comedies of Harold Lloyd and Ernst Lubitsch. However despite having what looks to be a less disciplined approach in those early films, Ozu was always aware about what he was trying to say in them, and you can even see in those films a certain somberness that would become his trademark.

"I Was Born But..." is probably best early film of his that I have seen. It tells the story of two young brothers (Hideo Sugawara and Tokkan Kozo) who move to a new neighborhood when their father Yoshii (Tatsuo Saito) gets a new job. The boys soon get in trouble with the neighborhood kids, and are in fear of getting beaten up if they dare go to school. When Yoshii finds out about this, he follows the boys to school to make sure they get there. However there is a change in leadership in the children, when the brothers are able to convince an even bigger kid to beat up the head bully of the group. The brothers then become the leaders and demand the respect of the rest of the kids. They even have a system where they pretend to kill someone who misbehaves or speaks out of turn, then having a fake christian funeral for them. The two boys become the alpha males of their group, we learn their dad on the other hand is below the totem poll at his work.

Yoshii is seen constantly greeting his boss and sucking up to him as much as he can in order to keep in his favour. As the audience, we can see this happening, but the boys seem to be completely oblivious, that is until they are invited to the bosses house to watch home movies. In the movies, the boys see their dad as a buffoon acting out for the camera doing funny walks, and making ridiculous faces. Everyone in the room is laughing, but the boys are utterly humiliated (The look on their faces is priceless). They come to realize the truth, that their father is a subservient at work. This leads to a memorable climactic hunger strike the boys take in rebellion to their father's low status.

Even though this can be defined as a comedy, and one of the best ever made, "I Was Born But..." does carry a familiar thread that can be seen even more clearly in Ozu's later work. Life becomes a little different for the boys after this revelation by their father. In the film's most touching scene, Yoshii is awake with his wife while the boys are asleep. He confesses he doesn't suck up to the boss because he likes it, but because he has to in order for his family to eat. He and his wife then kneel by the sleeping boys, and Yoshii wishes they would grow up not being "an apple polisher" like their old man.

The next morning the boys do realize why their father does what he does, and that's when the hunger strike ends.

Though all is resolved, and things go back to the way they were in the end, Ozu makes a very profound statement about the places we are put in life. For the boys, it is probably the first time they find out that perhaps they might not be able to become the people they hope to be. The idea hearkens towards "Tokyo Story" with those famous lines "Life is disappointing".

However, through all these harsh realities Ozu reminds us of, he still seems to keep a sense of optimism in keeping with the family unit. Families seem to be the saving grace in his films, which is why in his later ones, when they break up, Ozu sees it as a tragedy. But there is genuine love between the boys and their father, and a special bond between them that probably is what makes Yoshii bear through his low status as an employee.

It is with this type of optimism and joy that keeps "I Was Born But..." one of the most likable and charming movies ever made. Ozu has a great flare for physical comedy and sight gags, the two boys as played by Suguwara and Kozo give two of the most natural performances by children ever put on screen. Ozu makes great use in their acting in unison to portray some the film's best sight gags.

There's also a great fluidity in Ozu's work as demonstrated by how he transitions from the father's work place to the boys school so effortlessly, that it just looks like one take.

I have never seen an Ozu film I wouldn't want to see again and again, in some ways I believe he has created the perfect films. For me he's depicted reality in films better than anyone else, and his humanity in his characters is second to none. I go to his films for a nourishment of comfort and a certain reassurance. Ozu is the kind of director I will continue to revisit only to rediscover something I hadn't seen before.

Woodstock and the Cinema of the 60s

If there was a decade I would want to live through if only for its cinema I think it would be the 60s. While I love all the classic films that came before it, as well as the new Hollywood movies that came after it in the 70s, for me the 60s was the time that changed all the rules.

This may seem like romanticising the decade, and coming from someone who never went through it, I probably am a little. I pretty much just know of the sixties from a historical point of view. It was a turbulent time which included the assassinations of JFK, RFK, and MLK, as well as the Vietnam war and civil rights being shown all across the television.

I first became entrance with the sixties throught its music. As a kid I listened to The Beach Boys, then The Beatles, and as I grew older I leaned towards Dylan as my one true poet laureate. I remember writing a short story in my seventh grade English class about a kid who felt he belonged in the sixties rather than today.

It was only till later on I started viewing more films from the sixties. Growing up I only remember watching the films that the old studio system was still dishing out. I was fed on big budget Broadway musicals like "My Fair Lady", and "West Side Story", along with Disney's "Mary Poppins". It was all fairly lighthearted stuff, strange I thought, considering the music I was listening to at the time seemed to have more of a raw feeling of rebellion and revolution, it was odd the films of that time didn't reflect the same thing. However I wasn't really getting the whole picture.

Two films that soon changed my opinion were Richard Lester's "A Hard Days Night" and D.A. Pennebaker's "Don't Look Back". As a fan of both The Beatles and Dylan, I simply had to see them. The thing I noticed right away, which differed from the other 60s films I was seeing at the time was they were done in a crude fashion, but there was something unique about that whole approach. In "A Hard Days Night", The Beatles were in an absurdest comedy not unlike a Marx Brothers film, things were never as it seemed as scenes would cut away to something completely different. In "Don't Look Back", it was a behind the scenes look at Bob Dylan who is seen more of an anti-hero who seems to resent his celebrity status but at the same time embraces it. He's seen as sometimes unlikable and isolating, but that's what draws us to him.

My first impression of these films was one of intrigue, if these films were made during the sixties perhaps there's more of them. I found out there was not only more, but better films.

It's safe to say the old golden age of Hollywood crumbled in the 60s, but in its wake a new generation arose, however the bulk of the talent were coming from Europe. The French New Wave exploded in the late 50s early 60s with the first films by Truffaut, Godard, and Malle. They were film critics who saw American films but were able to put them into context. They had their own theories about what films were, and what they could do. They came from a background of film criticism, and approached it as an artform rather than popular entertainment. Along with them came Fellini and Antonioni from Italy with films like "La Dolce Vita", "8 and a half" and "L'Avenntura".

The 60s became a breeding ground for freedom of expression, filmmakers became open to discuss philosophical and political issues more openly. There was a need for this all over which made arthouses more popular than ever.

Film criticism itself became more relevant as we saw the breaking out of important writers as Pauline Kael and Andrew Sarris, as well as the blossoming of a young Roger Ebert.

All this came to a boil, and it wasn't long until Hollywood changed its tune starting in 1967 with "Bonnie and Clyde" paving the way for more personal films to come in the 70s.

When the 70s came, there seemed to be more of an open door policy for filmmakers, more and more people were seeing movies not just from Hollywood but from all over the world, this then paved the way to the indie movement of the 80s, right up to today where a director can now show their latest film on Youtube.

I think this all started with the 60s, the ending of that decade for me came with the monumental documentary about "Woodstock" which celebrated its 40th anniversary just this year. After recently re-watching that film, it brought to my mind everything about the sixties that I loved. There was the music, but there was also this talk about change, and the opening of new possibilities, and a hopeful future. Of course we can't say that would all come to pass, but I still would say that sensibility is in me today.

Today I get tired of a somewhat jaded and cynical point of view in our films, not much of what I see seems to move me in any such way. Of course there is the exception, but the 60s represented something alive, youthful, and vibrant, and it's lacking not only in our films today, but in some of the audiences that go to them.

My favorite film of the 60s would probably be Truffaut's "Jules and Jim" which represented something more than just a doomed romantic triangle, but a certain bohemian life that seems to be drifting more and more away from us. Perhaps this was just Truffaut's romantic idealism, but maybe in the 60s it seemed more possible. People seem to take into conformity a lot easier these days.

I long for the day when the kind of rebellious and reactionary films that the 60s represented come again, and something is telling me that day is coming soon.

Anyway what's your take on this, plus I would love to know if there was a decade of film you'd love to live through, what would it be?

The Untouchables: My first DePalma

This is my contribution to the DePalma Blog-a-Thon

"The Untouchables" was the first DePalma film I had ever seen. I was a very impressionable 11 or 12 year old with a love of films. I had seen most of everything Spielberg had done up to that point, however I had not seen my first Scorsese. I was kinda in the middle of popular cinema and more serious cinema. I had heard of "The Untouchables" because of my love of gangster films. In my world Al Capone and Eliot Ness were the iconic figures of good and evil. I wanted to see the film because at that time both Kevin Costner and Sean Connery were two of my favorite movie stars and to see them in a film together was a dream come true for a little kid. However I had also discovered the term of a director, and while I was still unsure as to what their job was, I had this notion that they were the guys in charge. I had heard of Brian DePalma before, but I wasn't sure what to expect from him. My parents probably thought I was too young for "The Untouchables" and maybe I was,but that didn't stop me from seeing it behind their backs.

The moment I saw "The Untouchables" with that great opening credit sequence and the memorable Ennio Morricone score which was exciting and heart pounding, I knew I was in for something great.

The film of course starts with the first scene of Al Capone (Robert De Niro) in a barber chair during a press conference. DePalma's camera is seen from high up and it cranes down to De Niro's face as the barber takes off his hot towel in a nice reveal. I remember De Niro's performance being rather brood, a nice choice for this kind of picture. His Capone is larger than life, sort of a comic villain that you love to hate. There's even a scene with Capone in his bed reading the newspaper about Ness being foiled, and you can sense his comic presence from his over the top chuckle and his giant cigar.

We soon get the Eliot Ness as played by Kevin Costner, who has taken some flack for his performance being bland, even as a kid I couldn't help notice this. However how else are we suppose to see this young by the book young man turn into the "What are you prepared to do" law enforcer he becomes? Costner was probably the only leading man at the time who could make this "too good to be true" lawman believable.

After one failure, Ness soon recruits his infamous band of "Untouchables". He starts with the most memorable character in the film Malone (Sean Connery), an aging beat cop who teaches Ness that it will take more than just being honest to beat Capone. This role of course became a crowning moment in Connery's acting career for which he won the Oscar. He commands each scene he's in, and of course after his death, you can really feel his presence sorely missed.

The other members of the small band are Any Garcia's rookie cop Stone, who is more or less there to represent the precision of an ace gunman, and Charles Martin Smith's accountant Oscar Wallace who doesn't exactly fit in with the rest of the tough guys, but can carry his own weight. In one of the film's many set pieces by the U.S./Canadian border, it is Wallace who really goes all gung ho when the cards are down.

The trick "The Untouchables" had to accomplish was doing a cops and gangster picture like it had never been done before. As a boy, I was familiar with James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart films thinking they were the be all and end all of the genre, but this was the first time I was in DePalma territory. I don't think DePalma accomplished anything new with this film, in the sense that he had done some of this before in his past films. However the difference here was the budget, DePalma got a little bit of breathing room, and this was a great way for him to show off to a wider audience.

The first sequence that got me rattled was the first big one which included a little girl who is killed while holding a briefcase containing a bomb. The sequence happens very early one in the film, and it's like DePalma is telling us, this will be the kind of blockbuster where no one is safe. It's unsettling, and indeed as the picture moves along we will see more innocent blood be shed, which is one way this film does separate itself from other mainstream movies.

However despite all the blood shed, DePalma is the kind of director who sympathizes with the audience, he knows when too much is too much, and that is no more prevalent than in the death of Wallace. DePalma does a quick cut away just before Wallace is shot, so we never see his murder. Though the murder scene itself is rather graphic, DePalma doesn't dwell on Wallace too much to make in unbearable, just enough for the audience to feel the loss of someone we've come to like.

Malone's death happens in a more poetic, and ironic way. We are set up with one of DePalma's great stalker sequences, where the camera becomes the view point of the man sent to kill Malone. We see Malone alone in his apartment. From our viewpoint, it doesn't look like he suspects anything, however by the time the sequence ends, Malone surprises us when he pulls out a gun and points it to the killer. We think he has the drop on the bad guys, but alas, his fate awaits him from a second gunman waiting in the ally.

Of course nothing can be said about this film without referencing the main set piece at the train station. After budget constraints forced DePalma and his crew to rethink the sequence, he pulls from his film knowledge the Odessa Steps sequence from "Potemkin". DePalma re imagines Eisenstein's vision for his famous shoot out, and the scene becomes the most memorable sequence in the film. As a kid not knowing who Eisenstein was, I was under the impression DePalma made the whole thing up himself. It certainly made an impression on me, I remember sweating with anticipation as to what was going to happen, and the sigh of relief when it was all over. Not many films made me feel that way when I was a kid.

When the film ended I was completely satisfied, I thought "The Untouchables" was a masterpiece, I remember watching it again as soon as it was over. Even though it was probably the most graphic and violent movie for my age, I didn't feel effected by it. The film was an old fashioned gangster story, and I felt sophisticated enough to understand what was real and what was fake. This was way before I was to see Scorsese films and "The Godfather" where violence was depicted more realistically. DePalma uses it in a way that's operatic and it services the outlandish and unrealistic world he created.

Now after returning to "The Untouchables" after so many years, I still enjoy it. It is probably DePalma's most accessible film. It doesn't try to redefine the genre the way the Coens did a few years later with "Miller's Crossing", but it does tell an old story in a new way. Today I don't consider it my favorite DePalma film or his best, but that's only because I've seen more of what he's done since, and what he did before. What I can say is "The Untouchables" was the right film to come along for me at that time. I was young and in love with the movies, DePalma found that primal thirst I had for something new and different, and even if I didn't know it then, it opened up a new cinematic world for me.

A Basterd of a Movie

I'm a little late in joining the fun of the critical reception for "Inglorious Basterds", but I've had a hell of a time reading what there is about it. It's great seeing a film inspire such debate in a critical community. "Inglorous Basterds" is the kind of film you can't have no feelings for, because it is designed to grab your attention.

Some have called it an outrageous revenge fantasy, others have called it an exercise in style stripped of all emotion, while others accuse it of Holocaust denial.

For me I felt I had to see it again a second time, it's the kind of film that warrants it. I didn't fully enjoy my first viewing of "Inglorious Basterds", perhaps I was loooking at it a little too critical. I felt the chapters didn't hold together as well as I would've liked them, although Tarantino achieved some of his best individual scenes in these movies. I also thought the narration by Samuel L. Jackson felt out of place and took me out of the movie, and the final scene with Brad Pitt's Aldo Raine and Christoph Waltz's Hans Landa didn't ring true. I was entertained by it as a whole, and didn't think of Tarantino's rewriting history to be nothing more than fun fantasy fulfillment. Overall though the film left me underwhelmed, I was expecting a lot more from Tarantino. However I still had the nagging feeling inside me, which caused me to suspend judgement until the second viewing because knowing Tarantino he would've filled his film with things I perhaps missed the first time.

Now after having just come from my second screening, I can now say that Tarantino has created a near pulp masterpiece perhaps second only behind his "Kill Bill" films. This time I felt the chapters did hold together well as a whole rather than just individual pieces. I enjoyed the elaborate set pieces, that Tarantino does better than most anyone, using long bits of dialogue underscoring the intensity of every scene. I appreciated some performances more the second time around as well. Much has been said of Waltz's Hans Landa: "The Jew Hunter" and indeed he is charming and sinister, but I also appreciated Pitt's broad comic turn as the hero Aldo Raine. Like he showed last year in The Coen Brothers' "Burn After Reading", Pitt has a flare for comedy, and I truly hope he decides to take more roles of this nature.

Another thing I love about Raine is how he is the kind of hero people want in a movie, he's smart, he's funny, he's merciless to his enemies, and he does exactly what we want him to do. This comes to no surprise, Tarantino excells in delivering to the audience what we want to see.

Another performance I admired is Michael Fassbender's stiff upper lipped British officer Archie Hilcox. Again like Raine, Hilcox is the kind of hero who reacts the way we want him to, he always plays it cool even when he is literally under the gun.

Tarantino's own flare for dialogue has become even more tightly gripped and in control. He doesn't let his characters riff on things on and on as he did rather a little too much in "Reservoir Dogs" and parts of "Pulp Fiction". Tarantino is now an assured director more confident than ever before. The joy of Tarantino is in his delivery, he understands what film is and what it can do, and we delight in his playfulness.

I don't think "Inglorious Basterds" is the kind of film to take seriously, it is a revenge fantasy, and if anything it's a love letter to cinema. The climax takes place in a movie theatre with an ending that can only happen in a movie. It's a testament to Tarantino's belief in what film can do particularly in the movie's most poignant scene. The film's heroine Shosanna (Melanie Laurent) is in the projection booth about to unleash her masterplan when she is interrupted by the German war hero Fredrik Zoller (Daniel Bruhl) who is the star of the propaganda film being shown. After a romantic entanglement that goes awry, Shosanna shoots Zoller, but after looking at his face on the screen, her face changes. What does she feel for him? Is it empathy? Is is sadness? Whatever it is and perhaps forgetting for a moment what Zoller represents, she kneels down beside his dying body, thus sealing her fate. For Tarantino, it is film itself that has the power to move us in unexpected ways.

2 or 3 Things I Know about Godard

A few days ago I viewed Jean-Luc Godard's film "2 or 3 Things I Know About Her", and it continues to nag me. There are those films that you watch and you know right away it is a masterpiece, "2 or 3 Things I Know About Her" is one of those films.

The way Godard tells the story is a mesh of different styles, and for those familiar with the director's work, this comes to no surprise. This year I've discovered many of Godard's films for the first time including his other masterpiece "Contempt", "A Woman is a Woman", "Masculine-Feminine", and "Made in U.S.A." He's the kind of director who can entertain as well as frustrate, he is perhaps the most intellectual of filmmakers, he uses the medium sometimes against itself to prove a point, for many of his films, I'm still trying to figure out what the point is, but I continue to be more and more drawn to his work.

"2 or 3 Things I know About Her" was made in 1967 near the end of his great run of films ("Breathless" to "Weekend"). It tells the story of a woman who turns to prostitution in order to stay in her living conditions. If that weren't a great film subject already, Godard has other things on his mind as well. The film not only shows the life of this woman, but it also becomes a personal attack on consumerism in our culture. Throughout the film we hear the soft whisper of Godard as a narrator (although he sounds more like an essayist)as he spouts out his general distaste for the culture. In one poignant scene, the greatest one I've seen in his films thus far, Godard takes us to a cafe where the main character has a coke. Godard cuts to separate people in the cafe and then gives us a brilliant close up on a cup of coffee. Godard begins on a thoughtful monologue about the state of the world: "The world alone today, where revolutions are impossible, where bloody wars menace me, where capitalism is no longer sure of its rights and the working class is in retreat, where the overwhelming progress of science gives future centuries an oppressive presence, where the future is more present than the present, where far-off galaxies are at my door.....Mon semblable, mon frere"

As he says this,a sugar cube is added to the cup of coffee and we see it form into a sort of universe. Godard's film becomes philosophical, that other films would never dare to travel, the story of a housewife who has to work as a prostitute becomes a personal statement in a most unexpected way.

I am in no way an expert of Godard, I have only seen a handful of his films. I am confident to say he made perhaps the greatest films of the sixties, he moved them further to what they could convey than any other director of that time. It seems with this film he was building up to something, which to my knowledge was unleashed with "Weekend", a film only know by reputation.

"2 or 3 Things I know About Her" was released the same year as "Bonnie and Clyde", which was America's answer to the French New Wave. While "Bonnie and Clyde" was the beginning of a new generation of personal filmmaking in Hollywood, Godard proved with his film, he was still miles ahead of them all.

News from the dead plus New Coen Brothers Movie!

I've been preoccupied with a few things lately, but fear not, I've seen a bunch of movies, some good, some great that I want to discuss very soon. In the mean time, here's the new Coen Brothers movie trailer. I hope it wets your appetite as it does mine.