Films of the 50's: Crime Doesn't Pay (in France)

Elevator to the Gallows (1958, Louis Malle)

Like all good heist / crime / murder caper films, Elevator to the Gallows proves that despite meticulous scheming, there is no such thing as the perfect plan. Unlike other caper films, however, Elevator is full of interestingly drawn out wrinkles, thoughtful plotting, and an interesting comparison between premeditation and impulse. We begin by meeting Julien and Florence, a pair of lovers intent on killing Florence’s husband, Simon Carala, who also happens to be Julien’s boss, making it look like a suicide in the process.

One has to stretch their imagination a bit to accept the actual plan as flawless. It involves Julien, explained to be a former Foreign Legion parachutist, rappelling by rope up to Simon’s office, killing him, locking the office door from the inside, then rappelling down again. The leap involves the general public never bothering to look up at any point as the office borders a busy street. But, if the viewer can swallow that, the rest is ultimately believable, if not amazingly unfortunate for many characters.

In a Hitchcockian-like twist, Julien realizes from the street below that he has left the rope dangling from the office window. (D’oh!) He leaves his car in front of the building, with the keys in the ignition (oh, for simpler times), and attempts to fix the situation. Having removed the rope, and assumedly putting himself in the clear, Julien becomes trapped in the elevator when the office building closes for the weekend. Meanwhile, a local flower girl, an acquaintance of Julien’s, and her boyfriend steal the car out front and go for a joyride. Florence, of course, happens to see Julien’s unique car driving by with the lovely young flower girl in the passenger seat, and thinks that Julien has betrayed her. Holy twist of fate, Batman!

As Julien tries to escape his tiny prison, Florence walks the streets of Paris in fear and doubt, hoping for the best, but fearing the worst. The two youngsters who stole the car get into even more trouble by registering at a hotel under Julien’s name and committing a crime in an entirely impulsive fashion. Jinkies! There are even further twists ahead, with plenty of thrills, near misses and tragedies, but I’ll leave those for you to discover. What makes this film work is its steady pace. Malle doesn’t try to create tension with forced rapidity. Julien is in the elevator for almost the entire film. His attempts to escape are purposely realistic and arduous. Jeanne Moreau’s turn as Florence is a major highlight of the film. Her scenes are wondrously fraught with inner turmoil, accented by the now legendary film score by Miles Davis. Davis’ trumpet fills the film with loneliness, a longing feeling that was mastered by the musician a mere two years later on his landmark, Kind of Blue.




Pickpocket (1959, Robert Bresson)

Pickpocket is a compact gem of a picture. It is as tight as the intricate movements required for the agile moves within. The story is simple enough. Michel is a pickpocket, living in a tiny apartment, making small time scores to live. The first such ‘lift’ we see is at a horse race. The police detain Michel. They suspect him of the theft, but having no concrete evidence, let him go. Michel is emotionless throughout the film, obsessed only with the art of the steal. At one point, he learns more from a mentor, and we become privy to a series of amazingly filmed tricks of the trade. Buttons are cut, newspapers act as shields, wallets are lifted out of coat pockets and dropped safely to a hand waiting below, only to be stripped of their money and delicately returned to the owners. The moves are highly choreographed, and in their way, beautiful.

Meanwhile, Michel’s mother is ailing, tended to by the young Jeanne, a lady who we think could possibly redeem Michel. But throughout the film, we start to realize that Michel may not be redeemable. The thrill of the crime is everything to him, and is one of the few ways he actually interacts with people. It is a psychosexual drama played out in front of our eyes, and we realize at some point in this compact film that there is likely no happy ending. Regardless, Pickpocket is an amazing film, meticulously constructed, much like the actual act of pickpocketing. Those close-up scenes of the lifts alone are worth it, with us as viewers feeling the immense amount of tension and anxiety that Michel never shows on his stone, expressionless face.



Rififi (1955, Jules Dassin)

Rififi is probably the one heist film on which all other successful heist films are based. Reservoir Dogs, Ocean’s 11, and many others all owe gratitude to Rififi and its director, Jules Dassin. Dassin, heralded for The Naked City, yet blacklisted by the HUAC, retreated to France to find work. Originally, Rififi was to be directed by the great Jean-Pierre Melville, but he bowed out for Dassin. It is the ultimate archetypal heist film. We start with a veteran criminal, Tony, just out of jail (Danny Ocean, anyone?) and a proposition for a heist that he initially turns down, but then perfects and enlarges after finding out his woman left him for a goon.

A crack team is assembled for the project, in which they drill through the ceiling of a jeweler’s shop from an apartment above, including the director himself playing the role of César, a safe cracker, and Robert Manuel playing Mario, an over-the-top yet charming lothario. The caper itself takes place over a half hour, supremely detailed, sans music or dialogue. All we see is the plan being executed with every bit of minutiae played out for the viewer, and you can’t take your eyes off of it.

But, of course, every criminal plan must go awry, otherwise there is no real conflict. César’s lack of foresight gets the gang noticed, and the goon closes in on our central figure, the jailbird Tony. The goon kidnaps Tony’s nephew, and Tony must rescue him. The rest of the film becomes a race against time and has a memorable ending. Rififi is the ultimate crime film, and one by which all others must be compared.




Bob le Flambeur (1955, Jean-Pierre Melville)

While Dassin was making Rififi, Jean-Pierre Melville was making Bob le Flambeur, a story that shares several elements with the former. Roger Duchesne plays Bob, a well-regarded member of his community who has had a long unlucky streak and is nearly broke. Hearing from a friend that a nearby casino stores a lot of cash, he hatches a plot and assembles a team to pull off the heist. In the meantime, he meets Anne, a gorgeous young free spirit who ends up dating his partner in crime, Paolo.

Bob also shares a fond friendship with a police inspector, Ledru, whose life Bob had once saved. As such, Ledru tends to overlook some of Bob’s dealings, though warns him off bigger crimes. Anne ‘accidentally’ lets Ledru in on the big heist and Ledru races off to warn Bob. In a twist of fate, Bob is having the biggest run of luck he’s ever had, winning big at the gambling table, making him late for the heist. What ensues is tragic, but ultimately we feel that Bob will be relatively unaffected, and things might even be improving for Bob in the long run.

While Bob le Flambeur might not have the same inner turmoil as in Pickpocket, or the intricacies of a plan like in Rififi, or the myriad twists and turns of Elevator, we do get to the heart of Bob and what makes him unique. This is what makes Melville’s movies so striking and memorable, as he later does with such great films as Le Samourai. It is Bob’s relationships, those with Ledru, Anne, Paolo, and his community that define him, not his crimes, his past or his luck, though those do paint a more detailed picture. In the end, we are rooting for Bob, and we don’t necessarily do that with Julien, Michel or Tony.

Films of the 50's: The Decade of Hitchcock (One of Many)

Strangers on a Train (1951, Alfred Hitchcock)

I could think of few other combinations as potent as Patricia Highsmith, Raymond Chandler, and Alfred Hitchcock. Highsmith wrote the original novel of Strangers on a Train, Chandler wrote an early draft of the screenplay (despite claiming the novel wasn’t believable), and Hitchcock directed the heck out of it. A recurring theme in many of Hitchcock’s films is the everyday man stuck in a tough situation and the evils of human nature allowing him to make things even worse for himself. Farley Granger is that man in Strangers on a Train, yet he’s not quite average. Granger plays an up and coming amateur tennis star, aptly named Guy, but he wants out of his marriage to a manipulative cheater. Thus, we have our first stranger.

Then we meet Bruno, played by Robert Walker. Bruno wants his father taken out of the picture. Both men have problems and Bruno, a bit psychotic, puts forth the idea of the ‘perfect murder’ in that they take care of each other’s killings. If Hitchcock makes one thing perfectly clear in most of his films, it’s that there is never any such thing as a perfect murder. Evidence is left behind, people who share a secret are not to be trusted, and nerves will always leave you undone in the end. In few other Hitchcock films does he present the game of cat and mouse so well, wrapping up in a nail-biting culmination that will leave you breathless. Strangers on a Train is easily one of my favorite Hitchcock films, despite the presence of Granger, one of my least favorite Hitchcock actors. Oddly, he is also in Rope, another of my favorites, so his presence apparently isn’t enough to change my opinion of a film.



I Confess (1953, Alfred Hitchcock)

Amazingly, before I Confess, I had never seen a Montgomery Clift film. I can say that after seeing this particular Hitchcock gem, I can see why he was a sought after star. I Confess is a film largely unsung in the Hitchcock collection and I’m not sure why. Clift plays a Catholic priest, Father William Logan. Logan is implicated in a crime by the church groundskeeper, a fact we as the audience know from the very beginning. The drama isn’t a whodunit, as it rarely is in Hitchcock's films, but rather how is the innocent man going to get out of it. The twist comes when we find out more about Logan’s life, about why he doesn’t have an alibi for the time of the murder, and why everyone suddenly believes he actually committed the murder. It is a study of public opinion, of paranoia, and of shared misinterpretation leading to mania. I Confess could be a film that is a parable for today’s audience, especially in things such as the New York mosque issue. Hitchcock always seemed to get amazing performances out of the secondary authority figures such as cops or judges. In this case, Karl Malden, playing Inspector Larrue, is phenomenal, as is O.E. Hasse, the groundskeeper.



Rear Window (1954, Alfred Hitchcock)

I tend to go back and forth as to whether Vertigo or Rear Window is my all-time favorite Hitchcock film. In a pinch, I’d have to go with Vertigo, but the latter is a very close second. There are oh so many things I love about Rear Window, from the elaborate set to the performances, and then the camera’s perspective. Jimmy Stewart plays L.B. Jeffries, often called Jeff, a famous photographer who is laid up in his apartment thanks to a broken leg after getting too close to the action for a photo. He is being taken care of, from time to time, by his girlfriend, played by Grace Kelly. Yeah, life is rough. But, being a man who needs to be in the thick of it, Jeff starts to snoop out his panoramic picture window into the courtyard between buildings. He begins to learn his neighbors’ habits and starts to give them nicknames, like Miss Lonelyhearts. I realize as I type this that I should be thinking this to be too much of a summary, as I hope that everyone has seen this seminal movie already. If not, you’re in for a treat. The twist on the story is that rather than just being an ordinary man thrust into dire peril, thanks to his natural instincts for finding trouble, he is given a handicap and is literally trapped with nowhere to go. The screenplay is based on a short story by the great Cornel Woolrich, who, if you haven’t read any of his work, you should. Plus, when a great film inspires an equally great Simpsons episode, how can you go wrong?




The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956, Alfred Hitchcock)

Jimmy Stewart is again the go-to guy, but this time in a remake of a film Alfred Hitchcock had already made. Hitchcock preferred this later version, saying it was more professional, but I’m sure some people would beg to differ. It is probably most known for the appearance of Doris Day, playing Jimmy’s wife, and her singing of “Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera Sera),” the Academy Award winning song introduced in this film. It seems an odd debut for a song with so much treacle, but there it is. On a trip to Morocco, the McKennas (Stewart, Day and the boy playing their young son) stumble upon intrigue and murder, thus making Stewart the titular hero. The boy is kidnapped, and the rest of the story is a race to save the son and a foreign dignitary. It’s not one of my favorites, and the song tends to stick out, but it is Hitchcock and it is enjoyable. I’d rather watch one of Hitch’s worst movies than watch most of the movies being made today.




The Wrong Man (1956, Alfred Hitchcock)

Other than Jimmy Stewart, I can think of few other ‘everyman’ actors as great as Henry Fonda. He plays Manny Balestrero, a jazz musician in New York who is mistakenly fingered for a bank robbery due to his resemblance to the real felon. The amazing thing about this film is that it was based on a true story. Originally told in a long article in Life Magazine, the story relates the tale of mistaken identity and the fight to prove innocence in the face of overwhelming ‘eyewitness’ evidence. Fonda is amazing in the film, giving one of his best performances, and that is really saying something, looking at his stellar work. Vera Miles also gives a fantastic performance as Balestrero’s wife. Through the film, we see the slow breakdown of what a simple case of mistaken identity can do to ordinary people, and how little the public seems to care about that suffering. Fonda’s scene with his son, trying to explain his innocence, and his son believing him with every fiber in his being, is undoubtedly moving. Like I Confess, The Wrong Man is unsung, and is yet one of Hitchcock’s finest films.



North by Northwest (1959, Alfred Hitchcock)

I love the story told by Gene Wilder on Inside the Actor’s Studio. Wilder had just starred in Silver Streak, a comedy / mystery film with Richard Pryor. Soon after, Wilder met Cary Grant, who remarked that he had enjoyed Silver Streak, and likened it to North by Northwest saying something to the effect of, “It always works, put someone in mortal danger, an everyday man like you or me…” The audience laughed, getting Wilder’s point. Cary Grant was never an everyman, but he didn’t need to be.

I love everything about North by Northwest. Hell, I could just watch Saul Bass’ opening credits, one of the first examples of kinetic typography, over and over again. Bernard Herrmann’s music is stellar. But, along with memorable appearances by James Mason and Eva Marie Saint, Cary Grant owns this movie from beginning to end. Grant plays Roger Thornhill, caught up in yet another signature case of mistaken identity, this time the baddies thinking he is George Kaplan. He barely manages to escape a murder attempt and then spends the rest of the movie trying to escape even more. Except for perhaps Vertigo and Psycho, North by Northwest has some of the most signature scenes in Hitchcock history, including the divebombing cropduster and the chase atop Mount Rushmore. But, Grant is anything but a bumbling or tortured Jimmy Stewart-type. Instead, he is a cavalier James Bond-ish figure, a dashing leading man on the run, yet so charming that we root for him all the same, despite not being able to fully relate to his predicament.

Things I Miss: The Movie Theater

If you’ve read this blog lately, you know that I love movies. What might surprise you is that I have only been averaging the viewing of barely over one movie per year in the theater. The reason? I’ll get to that. It wasn’t always like this. I once loved seeing first-run movies in the theater, enjoying the shared experience of the movies. From the original Star Wars films to the Indiana Jones adventures, the Muppet Movie, and hundreds of others, the movies used to be an escape. Escape from reality and all the frustrations and annoyances of life. Unfortunately, those annoyances have made their way into the theater. Not that I can claim to have experienced it, but movies used to be one of the few affordable pastimes during the Great Depression. Now, ticket prices are insane. Finally, whether my tastes have changed, the quality of films has decreased, or a combination of the two, there are very few films I even want to see in the theater. (The images shown are the posters of the last movies I’ve seen in the theater environment).



I’m long past fitting in the 18 to 24 year-old demographic. Loooong past. But, the reports I’ve read say that the average consumer sees at least one movie a month in the theaters. I don’t seem to fit into that demographic either. I was curious to look back and determine how many movies I used to see in an average year. So, I researched 1990, the year I graduated from high school, entered college, and turned nineteen. (Why am I hearing Paul Hardcastle in my head?) I tried not to cheat at this. I used to work at a movie theater, so I specifically avoided choosing one of those years. In 1990, I saw 25 films in theaters. I think we can rule out the notion that films were better then. Out of the 25, I can only recommend 4, and that’s a stretch.



So, what has changed? In 1990, the average ticket price was $4.22. I’m sure that the half year I was in Los Angeles saw higher prices than that, but it still wouldn’t compare to the $10-$15 dollars being paid now, and that range is just in Seattle, depending on choice of theater, IMAX, or 3-D options. I was a student then, and I’m a student now, yet now I’m not seeing close to the number of movies I was seeing then. Now, that’s not even getting into snack and drink prices, the biggest scam in the movie business, but I wisened up on that score even longer ago than my decline in theater visits. With so many other entertainment options on the table, such as Netflix, their streaming options, Internet, and good, old-fashioned books, paying $50 or more on a date, not including dinner, or half that all by my lonesome, doesn’t seem appealing. Add in the fact that most movies being released are absolute drivel and the decision becomes even easier.



Movies used to be an incredible shared experience. Patrons would gasp, weep, laugh and cheer together. These days, no one seems to do anything as one. We’ve all experienced theater annoyances, including crying babies and ringing cell phones. But, the advent of home video and TiVo technology has somehow deceived theatergoers into believing that the theater is an extension of their living room, and they can say and do as they please. My frustration started innocently enough. Back in 1986, I sat in a typical movie theater audience watching the latest Eddie Murphy vehicle, The Golden Child. Out of nowhere, about two seconds before Murphy himself said it in the film, someone in front of me said, “All I want is a chip,” completely deflating the upcoming joke. Man, was I pissed. Several other instances occurred: two guys not shutting up throughout A.I., a gaggle of old ladies chatting loudly in the midst of O Brother, Where Art Thou, and various other similar situations, and that’s not even addressing the horrors I saw as a theater usher. The tipping point occurred during a viewing of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. A couple sat behind me, along with their son who was far too young to understand the plot. Their solution? They explained what was going on all the way through the movie, despite several admonitions from neighbors. (And believe me, I checked afterwards, stealthily, to see if he was blind or impaired in some way, which might have excused the transgression).




I just can’t take it. I’d rather wait the short few months for a Netflix appearance (which now may be getting even better thanks to some smart studio deals) than to have to pay exorbitantly to be annoyed, frustrated and let’s face it, the opposite of entertained. I think I’ve made the right decision. The last few movies I’ve seen, while not necessarily in my top ten list of all time, have been good ones. I wish I could one day enjoy the theater experience again. The recent gimmicks of the studios to get more people in theaters, however, have had the opposite effect on me. It happens every time an entertainment medium starts to run out of ideas. It happened with comic books in the 90’s, when holograms, foil-embossing, and variant covers nearly ruined the industry. It is also happening now with DVD’s, where silly ‘collectables,’ hastily thrown together special features, and packaging have trumped better quality transfers and entertaining commentaries. I don’t ever want to see a 3-D film. I couldn’t care less about D-Box seating. IMAX has a small amount of allure, but not enough to turn the tide.



For a short period, I worked at the Laemmle Royal Theatre in Los Angeles. Yes, you can tell it’s an art theater as they spell theatre with an ‘re.’ During this time, I was able to see a massive amount of movies, some great, some not so great. Could I have achieved theater overload? Could my experiences as an employee have tainted my later enjoyment of the theater experience? Possibly. But, when I remember seeing The Usual Suspects, The Shawshank Redemption, Pulp Fiction, The Last Seduction, and Killing Zoe I think it was worth it. I just have to completely repress Natural Born Killers and Showgirls. Ugh.



I go to movies for one reason and one reason only, to experience a well-told visual story. It seems that one element is the last on the priority list for Hollywood films recently. If I needed any kind of validation of my complete disconnect with Hollywood, it is exemplified by the “ratings low points” of the Oscars in the last fifteen years. Two of the lowest rated Academy Awards ceremonies, as well as being the ones named by public as being ‘the worst,’ are two of my favorite years for films. In 1997, I would have been happy with either The English Patient, which ended up winning, or Fargo, as Best Picture. But, Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet, Secrets & Lies, and Trainspotting also earned high marks for me, and increased my respect for the Academy. In 2008, I honestly would have been happy with any of the five Best Picture nominated films earning the Oscar. No Country for Old Men, Atonement, Juno, Michael Clayton and There Will Be Blood were all films that involved well-told visual stories. They were all well-acted, and visually compelling. Yet, the public hated that year of films. I realize I’m not Hollywood’s notion of an ideal theatergoer, but if more films like these were made, I might go more than once a year.

An Open Letter to Roger Ebert (With Love)

Dear Mr. Ebert,

I write to you today, not out of any desire to express my longtime admiration of your writing, my agreement with you on any particular opinion of film, or even my complete awe at your bravery in the face of cancer, though all of these are true and could inspire my writing through several pages. No, instead, I am writing to you about books.

Let me first introduce myself so you know the background from which I can speak. I am a longtime book lover, much like you. I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English from UCLA. I have been a bookstore manager for over fifteen years, but recently decided to go to graduate school to become a high school English and Social Studies teacher.

I can’t help but have noticed your jabs at eBooks on Twitter, since I am one of your over 200,000 followers. Let’s just barely touch on the irony of making jokes about eBook technology on Twitter, then move on directly to the romantic notions of books. Don’t get me wrong; I have them too. At one time, before I had to move to a smaller apartment and make budget cuts for school, I had upwards of over 2,000 books. There are still those books that I couldn’t possibly put in storage, or much less part with, including a signed leatherbound edition of the complete works of Arthur Miller, a signed limited edition copy of Don DeLillo’s Underworld, a first edition copy of Raise High the Roofbeam, Carpenter, and a first of Graham Greene’s The Comedians, among many others dear to my heart.

I can remember where I obtained nearly every book in my collection. I can remember when I read them. I thrill at the smell, the touch and yes, the weight of printed books. But, I think romantic notions of books only go so far. I had the same romantic notions, as well as many of my friends, about vinyl records. We decried the arrival of the CD and the cassette, the loss, or at least the shrinking, of album cover art. We feared the gains of digital technology that would wipe out the warm sound of a needle on plastic. But, vinyl still thrives, albeit specialized to what I would like to think of as “the good stuff.” You can get Arcade Fire, Spoon, and yes, even Miles Davis and John Coltrane on vinyl to this day in reissues of a better quality than the original releases. What you can’t find is Justin Bieber or the Jonas Brothers on vinyl, which I’m thankful about in the saving of resources. Vinyl is now relegated to a certain market, and consumers have created that market.

This brings me to environmental concerns. Yes, I am disappointed that more people aren’t reading books. I agree that more can be done in that fight. Yet, as I know your tastes run to the sublime, I know you’d agree with me that the vast majority of books printed in this country are rubbish. I certainly don’t advocate censorship, but when people are more often buying the more popular, lower quality books digitally, isn’t that a win-win? We save on natural resources for every average reader that switches to eBooks. And let’s face it, they’re not the ones cherishing that trip to the Tattered Cover, Powell’s, or Shakespeare & Co. The same thing has happened with vinyl, and it should be lauded. Eventually, maybe only the books of David Mitchell, Haruki Murakami, Aimee Bender and George Saunders will be available in print. I'd have no problem with losing print editions of Dan Brown, Glenn Beck and the latest Star Wars novel.

Finally, as a hopeful teacher candidate, I feel compelled to support the idea of eBooks in education. Schools are facing budget crises in nearly every state in this country. Textbook prices are skyrocketing, and students’ bookbags are becoming anvils strapped to their backs. When teachers assign the books they’d like to see inspire their students, and see that eBooks are not only a viable option in a budgetary sense, but also smart in a grander scheme of educational goals and initiatives (with a variety of tools available to the student through these devices), the romantic notion of books has to take a back seat. Students can fit thousands of books on a Kindle, and even more on an iPad, meaning that they could potentially keep the device through their entire pre-college education, and not have to ‘sell back’ any of those books, keeping them for repeated readings or reference throughout. It used to sadden me, as a student store supervisor at UCLA, to have to go through the book buyback sessions, trying desperately to convince students to keep their copy of Under Western Eyes, or A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man as they’d only get fifty cents from the sale. Heck, I even offered a few students fifty cents out of my own pocket to keep the book they were trying to sell. With eBooks, this is not necessary.

Ultimately, the romantic notion of books might not be the deciding factor in what inspires the next Raymond Carver, William Faulkner, Margaret Atwood, or Toni Morrison, just to name a few. In the end, I think we have to trust that text is text, and that great writing will shine through, whether on a printed page or a 6” x 4” screen. As a book lover, I can appreciate the jabs, but I was just hoping that you were seeing another side to this. The funny thing about this?...I don’t even own an eBook reader. Once I am placed in a high school, it will definitely be something in which I’ll invest. Be well.

Sincerely, a fan,

Terrance Terich

Films of the 50's: Three Horrors, a Dance with Death, and if it's Not Love then It's the Bomb that Will Keep Us Together

Les Diaboliques (1955, Henri-Georges Clouzot)

Henri-Georges Clouzot, who had already impressed (though not without controversy) with Le Corbeau and The Wages of Fear, returned with a movie whose script was stolen right out from under the nose of Alfred Hitchcock, both literally and figuratively. Les Diaboliques is one of those films, like many of Hitchcock’s, that is hard to pigeonhole into either horror or thriller, but is an arguable hybrid of both. That being said, Les Diaboliques houses one of the scariest scenes in modern cinema.

I don’t really want to get into the plot, as this is one of those ‘spoiler alert’ types of film. What I can say is that the film involves a couple and a teacher who works for them. The couple includes Michel, who is the headmaster of a boarding school, and his wife, Christina, who owns the school. Nicole, played by the exquisite Simone Signoret, is the teacher, trying to help the abused Christina get out from under the heavy thumb of her abusive husband.

What transpires from there is pure Hitchcockian suspense. People are murdered, bodies disappear, people are suspected and living in fear, and some insist they see ghosts. The truth is slightly unbelievable, but neatly wrapped up, making it yet another fantastic film from Clouzot. The Wages of Fear might be my favorite, but Les Diaboliques is not far behind.



The Blob (1958, Irvin Yeaworth)

I once saw The Blob as a kid on a local television station as a Saturday movie of the week. Now, I’ve never been a big viewer of horror films, probably after deciding to watch films such as The Exorcist or The Shining after midnight, alone in the house. Yeah, I was S-M-R-T. But, back then I didn’t get what the big deal was about The Blob. Being overtaken by a giant rolling slab of watermelon Jell-O was not, in my mind, a bad way to go. In fact, it might be just ahead of freezing to death. Upon reviewing the film, however, I found it much more entertaining than I did when I was in grade school.

The story has been told a million times, yet never quite this simply and elegantly. An alien form falls to earth, becoming a hostile entity that threatens the population. The biggest difference is in the movie’s central figure, played here enthrallingly by a young Steve McQueen. McQueen’s performance manages to make up for a host of horror movie clichés, stereotypical horror character mistakes (i.e. “Don’t go in there alone,” “Don’t turn your back to the unknown thing,” etc.), and fairly simplistic dialogue of a squeaky-clean teen movie variety. The Blob is a movie that practically defined America’s image of the drive-in movie. What makes it even more memorable is the incredibly goofy theme song, written by Burt Bacharach, called “Beware of the Blob.” For its limited budget, the movie is well made, am impressive use of restraint of imagery and off camera horrors.



House on Haunted Hill (1959, William Castle)

William Castle was the P.T. Barnum of cinema. For Castle, whose budgets were always constrained, it was more about marketing and gimmicks than putting together the best quality film. Some of the gimmicks included joy buzzers in seats for a heightened scare, breaks in the film to let ‘chickens’ leave before the scary parts, only to be ridiculed by 'planted' theater patrons, and skeletons dropping into the audience from the ceiling. The latter was one of the stunts used for the release of House on Haunted Hill. The story seems to have some holes, or at least needed some tightening. There’s an owner of the house, and a host, yet not the same person. The owner is played by Elisha Cook, Jr., giving a performance that unbelievably goes farther over the top than that of the host, played by Vincent Price.

Despite Castle’s notoriety for b-movie quality, House has some definite scares and startling imagery. Then again, it also has some incredibly cheesy effects, but Castle manages to slip out of some of the criticism by providing some interesting explanations. More than anything, the film is a great party movie, as is evidenced by the fact that the former MST3K crew, now working as RiffTrax, have provided a humorous voiceover. The premise is simple, and is not any newer than the premise for the Blob. A group of people is invited by a creepy host to spend the night in a haunted house (in this case the famous Ennis House in Los Angeles, used as the location for Angel’s ‘castle’ in Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and if they can last the night, they win some cash. There are a few twists and turns along the way, which make it worth continuing, but overall you have to come in expecting the worst to make it surpass those expectations.



The Seventh Seal (1957, Ingmar Bergman)

I doubt there’s anything new or revealing I could say about Bergman’s The Seventh Seal. I suppose I could just wrap it up there, but that would be somewhat of a cheat. Bergman’s medieval play, with the backdrop of the Black Death, has spurred parody and homage for years. I suppose you know your film is iconic when the parodies are as varied as Woody Allen and Bill & Ted. Max von Sydow plays Antonius Block, a knight returning wearied from a battle of the Crusades. He finds his home country of Sweden crippled by the Black Death, and he is quickly approached by Death himself, leaving Block to both contemplate the meaning of life, and to try and outwit Death by challenging him to a game of chess. As might be expected from an art film as opposed to a Hollywood movie, Death is witty, patient, and a bit of a trickster.

Along his journey, Block and his squire meet several villagers and travelers, additional dramatis personae who seemingly influence Block’s views of the world, life and death. Again, I can’t say anything that hasn’t been said already. The Seventh Seal is considered one of the finest art films in history. Personally, I think the art tag is unnecessary. The film is a masterpiece, measured in existential philosophy, humor and pathos. In 1957, I don’t think many people could envision the man playing the deeply thoughtful role of Antonius Block playing Brewmeister Smith in Strange Brew, or Ming the Merciless in Flash Gordon, but I suppose that merely proves the actor’s range.

The heart of the film lies in the characters of Jof and Mia, the actor and his wife, and their baby, representing the surviving future of mankind, in my incredibly obtuse interpretation. Jof’s vision and humorous antics remind me of one of his antecedents, Roberto Benigni, while the mere representation of the family’s character as a whole has a moving effect on the other characters, specifically Antonius. If there is any other image in The Seventh Seal that rivals the chess game with Death, it is the Dance with Death, the vision of silhouettes in a daisy chain on the top of a hill. For me, that scene is up there with Kane’s snow globe, Rick and Renault in the fog on the tarmac, and Jimmy Stewart looking down the ‘smash-zooming’ staircase.




Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959, Alain Resnais)

For the last week, I’ve been studying modern wars and, specifically, the decision to use the atomic bomb. Aside from the assigned textbook, I’ve read John Hersey’s Hiroshima and portions of David McCullough’s Truman. So, it was kismet that Alain Resnais’ Hiroshima Mon Amour recently arrived from Netflix. The film, like most of Rensais’ work, other than Night and Fog, is difficult to summarize. At its core, it revolves around a love affair between a French woman and a Japanese man, both haunted by the events of World War II. What must be said, before getting too deep, is that Hiroshima Mon Amour is a film that equally belongs to two creative minds, one belonging to Resnais, and the other, writer Marguerite Duras.

Duras’ words contribute as much to the atmosphere as Resnais’ incredibly chosen images. The first twenty minutes set up the symbolism and metaphor throughout the rest of this memorable film, and I use memorable intentionally. Memory is a keystone for Resnais, probably never used as effectively as in his later film, The Last Year at Marienbad. The collective memories of the victims of war are encapsulated in these two unlikely lovers, an affair that brings together two distant spheres of post-war pain. The mini-documentary at the forefront, mixing horrific images of the effects of the A-bomb with Emmanuelle Riva’s ethereal dialogue, only sets the stage for future hallmark imagery that recalls the horror of Hiroshima. We see the shadow of two lovers on the walls of buildings, repeated touches of hair and skin, those things most easily lost by the fallout of the bomb, and we see mirroring of France and Japan in its rivers and the Paris garden cupola that resembles the Atomic Bomb Dome, one of the few standing buildings after the attack.

As I’ve studied, the question has come up as to Truman’s choice to use the bomb. Riva repeats in the intro, “You’re destroying me. You’re good for me.” Although she may be talking about her affair, it’s not a far stretch to attribute any of these lines to a number of different interpretations. Duras’ words are simple in form, yet lead to varied avenues of translation. 'His' story is told quickly, and is the story of many others caught up by the destruction of the bomb, but 'hers' is one of German occupation, nationalism, and forbidden love. In the end, it is a film that cannot be internalized easily. But, like all great films, it sets different parts of the brain and heart in motion. It’s no mistake that toward the end of the film, Resnais has his unnamed characters rendezvous in a club called the Casablanca. Nearly two decades later, Hiroshima Mon Amour is a more complex, jagged, and yet beautiful retelling of Casablanca, a classic story of impossible love affected by the memories of war.

Friday's Playlist 8-6-10

‘Til Tuesday- “Don’t Watch Me Bleed”
Trashcan Sinatras- “Obscurity Knocks”
Broken Social Scene- “Almost Crimes (Radio Kills Remix)”
José González- “Cycling Trivialities”
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers- “Don’t Pull Me Over”
Ra Ra Riot- “Each Year”
David Byrne, Fatboy Slim, Cyndi Lauper, Tori Amos- “Why Don’t You Love Me?”
At the Drive-In- “One Armed Scissor”
Pixies- “Velouria”
Ed Harcourt- “Hanging with the Wrong Crowd”
Sting- “Shadows in the Rain”
Air- “New Star in the Sky”
A Flock of Seagulls- “2-30”
Grant Lee Buffalo- “The Whole Shebang”
Magnet & Gemma Hayes- “Lay Lady Lay”
Tracey Ullman- “They Don’t Know”
Simple Minds- “Ghostdancing”
Great Northern- “Shakes”
A Place to Bury Strangers- “Exploding Head”
The Magnetic Fields- “From a Sinking Boat”
Broken Social Scene- “Capture the Flag”
Gorillaz- “Stylo”
The Bird & the Bee- “Again & Again”
Prince- “Do Me, Baby”
Aphex Twin- “Windowlicker”
Raphael Saadiq- “What’s Life Like”
Tallest Man on Earth- “Honey, Won’t You Let Me In”
Russian Circles- “Malko”
Julianna Barwick- “Bode”
Jason Segel- “A Taste for Love”
7 Worlds Collide- “You Never Know”
Them Crooked Vultures- “Reptiles”
Flying Lotus- “Intro / A Cosmic Drama”
Radiohead- “Dollars and Cents”
Squeeze- “Slap and Tickle”
The Waterboys- “The Pan Within”
Tom Waits- “Closing Time”
Finn Brothers- “Mood Swinging Man”
Travis- “How Many Hearts”
Blonde Redhead- “Loved Despite of Great Faults”
Placebo- “Teenage Angst”
Billy Joel- “Piano Man”
David Bowie- “Janine”
Pixies- “Nimrod’s Son”
Sufjan Stevens- “Seven Swans”
Weezer- “The Good Life”
Split Enz- “Hard Act to Follow”
Queens of the Stone Age- “In the Fade”
Gorillaz- “El Mañana (Metronomy Remix)”
Four Tet- “She Just Likes to Fight”
Elbow- “Friend of Ours”
Tom Waits- “Good Old World (Waltz)”
LCD Soundsystem- “On Repeat”
Billy Squier- “She’s a Runner”
Broken Social Scene- “Water in Hell”
My Morning Jacket- “Just One Thing”
Grizzly Bear- “Dory”
Split Enz- “Double Happy”
Yeasayer-“Grizelda”
Travis- “River”
The English Beat- “Walkaway”
The Go! Team- “Huddle Formation”
The English Beat- “Sorry”
The 13th Floor Elevators- “Gloria”
Foals- “After Glow”
Jesu- “Silver”
Lansing-Dreiden- “Locks in Shadows”
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds- “As I Sat Sadly By Her Side”
Peter Gabriel- “Not One of Us”
X- “Hungry Wolf”
Duran Duran- “Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)”
John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman- “Autumn Serenade”
Caribou- “Barnowl”
Frightened Rabbit- “Skip the Youth”
Gorillaz- “Feel Good Inc.”
Idlewild- “Out of Routine”
Handsome Boy Modeling School w/ Cat Power- “I’ve Been Thinking”
OK Go- “What to Do”
Kid ‘N Play- “Energy”
Sleeper- “Sale of the Century”
Japandroids- “Avant Sleepwalk”
Minus the Bear- “Dayglow Vista Rd.”
Skee-Lo- “I Wish (Street Mix)”
Voice of the Beehive- “Beat of Love”
Broken Social Scene- “Complications”
Information Society- “Running”
Yes- “Starship Trooper”
Scott Walker- “Always Coming Back to You”

Thursday's Playlist 8-5-10

Deerhunter- “Nothing Ever Happened”
Godspeed You! Black Emperor- “Motherf#$@er=Redeemer (Part 2)”
Mogwai- “R U Still In 2 It (Live)”
John Wesley Harding- “She’s a Piece of Work”
Mew- “Owl”
A Place to Bury Strangers- “Keep Slipping Away”
Big Boi- “Shutterbug”
Eisley- “Lost at Sea (Remix)”
How to Destroy Angels- “Fur-Lined”
Raphael Saadiq w/ Stevie Wonder- “Never Give You Up”
The English Beat- “March of the Swivelheads”
Blur- “Chemical World (Live)”
Billie Holiday- “Them There Eyes”
Torche- “Triumph of Venus”
New Order- “Ecstasy”
Lamb- “Heaven”
Garbage- “Shut Your Mouth”
Echo & the Bunnymen- “The Game”
The Radio Dept.- “Memory Loss”
The Kinks- “Little Miss Queen of Darkness”
A Certain Ratio- “Do the Du”
Duran Duran- “Secret Oktober”
Neko Case- “This Tornado Loves You”
Handsome Boy Modeling School- “A Day in the Life”
Shudder to Think- “So Into You”
Blonde Redhead- “23”
Mystery Jets- “Lady Grey”
Elliott Smith- “A Distorted Reality is a Necessity to Be Free”
The Antlers- “Epilogue”
Garbage- “Breaking Up the Girl (Timo Mass Remix)”
Def Leppard- “Let it Go (Live)”
Travis- “Somewhere Else”
Swans- “(---)”
Jay-Z- “NYMP”
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club- “Aya”
Crowded House- “Even If”
Death from Above 1979- “Romantic Rights”
M.I.A.- “Caps Lock”
52nd Street- “Cool as Ice”
The Farm- “Groovy Train”
Black Tusk- “The Takeoff”
Eels- “After the Operation”
Pulp- “Sunrise”
The Clientele- “Sketch”
Pearl Jam- “Supersonic”
Local Natives- “Shape Shifter”
Radiohead- “Paranoid Android”
Can- “Aumgn”
The English Beat- “French Toast (Soleil Trop Chaud)”
Liars- “I Still Can See an Outside World”
Finn Brothers- “Only Talking Sense”
John Wesley Harding- “I’m Wrong About Everything”
The Rolling Stones- “Shake Your Hips”
ceo- “Love and Do What You Will”
Editors- “Bullets”
The Knack- “Maybe Tonight”
Foreign Born- “See Us Home”
Boston- “Peace of Mind”
Swervedriver- “Deep Seat”
BLK JKS- “Mzabalazo”
Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti- “Thespian City”
HEALTH- “In Heat (Javelin Remix)”
Gorillaz- “Mutant Genius”
Cake- “Is This Love?”
Prince- “Pope”
Danny Elfman- “Lightning”
Lansing-Dreiden- “Dethroning the Optimyth”
Little Joy- “Brand New Start”
Mystery Jets- “Lorna Doone”
Badly Drawn Boy- “All the Trimmings”
Prince- “I Wanna Be Your Lover”
Split Enz- “One Step Ahead”
David Byrne & Fatboy Slim w/ Charmaine Clamor- “Walk Like a Woman”
Gay Dad- “Oh Jim”
The Rolling Stones- “So Divine (Aladdin Story)”
Sigur Rós- “Fljotavik”
Vampire Weekend- “Holiday”
Passion Pit- “Sleepyhead”
Little Dragon- “Scribbled Paper”
The Names- “Night Shift”