Blogging the Hulu Plus Criterion Collection: Andrei Rublev

Andrei Rublev

One of the benefits of doing this project is that you get to see how different films tackle the same or similar subject matter. A while ago I saw Age of the Medici by Rossellini. I wouldn't call it my favorite of the Criterion Collection. Now I come to Andrei Rublev by Andrei Trakovsky. The two projects cover similar subject matter and time periods. Medici was about the city of Florence in the 15th Century as it became a base for the Renaissance and the Humanist movement. Andrei Rublev is about the 15th Century Russian religious painter of the same name. Like Age of the Medici, Andre Rublev has a strong theme of the human spirit and how artistic expression is vital to that spirit. Unlike Medici, which had some strengths but some obvious flaws, Andrei Rublev was fascinating from beginning to end. This movie has a beating human herat at it's center.

This is the longest single film in the Criterion Collection I've reviewed so far yet every minutes held my attention. The story starts with a man taking a hot air balloon ride in the 15th Century. This is a wild and incredible sequence. It has nothing to do with the plot but it expresses the theme of man escaping from the boundaries set by society. The film then follows the career of Andrei Rublev one of Russia's great religious painters. He rises to prominence and expresses a very humanist view of the bible and the role art should play in people's lives. His faith is shattered when an army sacks the city's he's in. He becomes a recluse but finally is inspired by a young bell maker to return to art.

As I said this film isn't just about ideas it's about people. Early on Andrei and his fellow monks come upon a jester entertaining the peasants with a bawdy song, a frenetic tune that sounds almost modern. But the man is soon arrested by soldiers after being denounced by Kiril one of Andrei's fellow monks. Kiril is a fascinating character. His jealousy of Andrei leads him to abandon the monastery. Years later after confessing all of his misdeeds Kiril still smirks when Andrei remains silent. Another fantastic is Boriska the young bell maker who sets out to create a magnificent bell despite a lack of experience. At first he is obsessive, driven and arrogant. But as the project nears completion he shrinks. Finally he breaks down in Andrei's arms. He had been faking his knowledge of the craft all this time. Even his success can't wash away all the tension he's felt up until that moment. It's a wonderful scene.

Andrei Rublev is also alive visually. It's black and white but some of the images are stunning in their detail. Grass, branches and sea plants are seen through water. The attack on the city of Vladimir is horrific. There's a pagan ritual in the woods where dozens of naked people dash out into the river holding torches. The whole film is a visual feast to go along with its incredible characters and powerful ideas. It's alive in a way Age of the Medici isn't.

This film is a must see for young directors. Writers should be warned that the story is a little too episodic. But the fine characters, especially Kiril and Boriska are worth studying.

Blogging the Hulu Plus Criterion Collection: ...And God Created Woman

...And God Created Woman

This is an odd entry for the Criterion Collection. It is significant in the history of popular culture but as a movie And Created Woman hasn't enjoyed the best reputation among film snobs. At best it's a guilty pleasure.

The plot is pretty simple. Juliete Hardy (played by Brigitte Bardot) is a vivacious and sexy 19 year old living on the coast of France. She drives all the local men wild including millionaire developer Carradine (played by Stromberg himself Curt Jurgens.) Juliete is in love with the dashing Antoine, but he only sees her as a one night stand. Juliete is an orphan and her foster parents threaten to send her back to the orphanage. Desperately in love Antoine's brother Michel offers to marry Juliete so she can stay in the town she loves. She accepts though she has her doubts.

Juliete makes the effort and finds herself falling in love Michel. But a deal with Carradine brings Antoine back to town and things take a turn for the... well a little odd really. The ending involves Juliete dancing a mambo. From the look on Michel's face you'd think she was attending a Larry Flynt pool party.

Strangely enough I found something of value in the much maligned story. I think I get what director Roger Vadim was going for. All the character types of a typical romance are present. Juliete is the heroine who is helpless before fate. The dashing true love, Antoine. The sinister villain Carradine and the brother who marries the girl but can't win her love. At least that's how it's supposed to go. But here everything is twisted around. Antoine, if anything is the villain here. This all starts because he sees Juliete as a one night stand instead of a serious relationship. Even when he comes back he never treats her any better. Michel has a few noble moments but ultimately he can't deal with the fact that Juliete is a sexual creature with her own desires. If there's a good guy in all of this it's Carradine. He has the ability to deal with Juliete as she is. At one point he even calls out Antoine on his sexist BS. And finally Juliete is far from helpless. She has her own will and her own desires. In the end she stays with Michel because deep down she wants to. There is no scene where Michel breaks the wild girl. If anything the wild girl has broken Michel. This movie came out around the time the Kinsey Report was turning the ideas of sex all around. The sexual revolution was just around the corner. Vadim was giving the world a taste of what was to come.

The film has gorgeous visuals. The story is an historical oddity. This could only work back then.

Blogging the Hulu Plus Criterion Collection: The Amputee

The Amputee Version 1 and 2

Here's another short subject by David Lynch. The Amputee I think is more typical of Lynch's work more so than The Alphabet which I reviewed earlier.

The Amputee is short film told in a single shot. In it a legless woman, played by Catherine E. Coulson (the Log Lady from Twin Peaks)writes a letter while a nurse (David Lynch in drag) cleans one of her stumps.

The nurse quickly has trouble as the stump begins oozing fluid. Soon fluid is gushing out and the nurse flees, hopefully to get help. Through it all the woman keeps writing her letter. There are two versions of this story. The only difference is the amount of fluid that gushes out of the woman's stump. In one version it's like a fire hose almost and even gets on some of the letter. The woman still doesn't pay any attention.

Both versions were shot on 1970s era black and white video. The notes say this was a stock test for the American Film Institute. The grainy image gives this weird scene some added realism which makes it even more cringe worthy.

As I said this short captures more of Lynch's signature style than the Alphabet. The Alphabet was weird but it was only weird. Here we have the weird and the grotesque sitting literally right next to normalcy. And by simply going on with her chore, the seemingly normal woman becomes even stranger and more grotesque than her oozing limb. That is a perfect summation of Lynch's aesthetic in Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, and Mulholland Drive. It isn't just the weird that Lynch excels at. I?t's putting the weird right next to the normal and in that way making you question your ideas of normalcy.

This is one of the most perfect shorts I've scene. In a single scene it summarizes this character and has taken the audience into a very strange and dark place. To directors and writers who want to make short, this would be an excellent template.

Blogging the Hulu Plus Criterion Collection: The American Soldier

The American Soldier

This is another Rainer Werner Fassbinder film but frankly it's no where near as good as Ali: Fear Eats the Soul. The American Soldier is an earlier film by Fassbinder and while it has some interesting moments it also has some big flaws. Above all it lacks the vulnerable humanity of Ali.

The American Soldier is a noir thriller set in Germany. Ricky, a German who immigrated to America and served in Vietnam returns to Germany as an assassin. He's been hired by some corrupt cops to kill various people. The cops have no intention of paying Ricky at the end and that leads to a climactic final scene. The plot is pretty standard but there are some nice touches. The people Ricky kills don't seem that violent. They are identified as gypsies and homosexuals. Since this is Germany there are uncomfortable echoes of the Nazis.

Ricky isn't a hard guy to like, he's impossible to like. This is established from his first scene where, shades of Grand Theft Auto, he kicks a prostitute out of his car and shoots her, thankfully with blanks. He goes about his job with no emotion. His final target is the woman he's been sleeping with and kills her. It was meant to be a badass scene but instead it just comes off as sad.

There are some major flaws in this film and one of them is the slow pace. Things move glacially in this story starting with the opening scene. That might not matter but the film also keeps the audience at arm's length. The characters are either emotionless like Ricky or they are so over the top in their emotions they border on farce. In one scene a woman stabs herself in the gut and the other characters completely ignore her. This is a far cry from Ali, where everything was emotionally alive and the characters sucked in the audience with their humanity. This looks like Fassbinder was trying for the more cerebral, art house crowd. Thankfully he developed another storytelling style.

There are some incredible scenes however. There are several scenes that follow a moving car throughout the city. There's an interesting scene where a maid breaks the fourth wall and tells the audience a story...while Ricky and his girlfriend make love in the background. Interestingly the maid's story is the plot to Fear Eats the Soul though with a different ending. Fassbinder obviously had that movie in his head for a long time.

The best part about this film is the third act which is, despite everything else, just a fascinating freak show. Ricky goes to see his mother and brother who are still living in Germany. They have a pinball machine right in their front parlor. And Ricky's brother has a homoerotic crush on Ricky.

The mother and brother show up at the final shootout and because of them Ricky and his friend (played by Fassbinder himself) are fatally shot. This leads to the final scene. As a pop song plays, Ricky's brother rushes done and embraces his dead body. The brother rolls around with the corpse for a good minute or more in slow motion. Meanwhile the mother stays frozen in place and doesn't react to her son's death or the insane display of grief happening right her feet. In the end it's pretty obvious that The American Soldier was a joke. It has a great punchline but lacks a good build up.

Directors can still find plenty to analyze with this film. Fassbinder is a master and even with a tiny budget he can put in some amazing shots. I wish more directors would remember that. CGI is making people lazy. The story needed a few more passes. Fassbinder is capable of so much more. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul would be the script to study.

Blogging the Hulu Plus Criterion Collection: Amarcord

Amarcord

Now we reach Federico Fellini. Amarcord was a staple on the Foreign Film shelf of the old VHS stores. It was a title you could always find though it didn't carry nearly as much weight in film studies circles as La Strada or 8 1/2. Film buff trivia: Roger Corman was one of the film's original US distributors.

Amarcord (I Remember) is a very typical Fellini film. It's visuals are nothing short of stunning. The story is very loose and the characters are often grotesque. There are plenty of fantasy sequences. This film is what Tim Burton was going for when he made Big Fish. But even though Amarcord has its faults it's still miles better than Big Fish.

The story is about life in an Italian town during the Mussolini years. There are several characters but the main one is Titta, an adolescent boy who is a stand in for Fellini himself. The movie tracks a year in the life of the village starting with Spring when the puffballs float in the air. It ends a year later with the puffballs returning.

Describing the story doesn't really do this film justice. It is a visual feast starting with the big bonfire sequence at the very beginning. The film is alive with color and camera movement. There are certain scenes like a boy's journey through a fog that recall the Italian horror films of Mario Bava and Dario Argento. There's an incredible scene when the entire town sets off in boats to see a giant ocean liner pass by. There's a melancholy scene where Titta and his friends dance in front of an abandoned hotel.

There are some elements that are a little harder to take. Sex is a major part of this story as it is in a lot of Fellini's work. And the objects of Titta's desire are both beautiful and repulsive at the same time. The strange thing is there are characters in the story who are much more conventionally beautiful yet Titta's eye is never on them. Instead he fantasizes about a shop owner with huge breasts. This lady eventually gives Titta all he can handle.

There's his school teacher who is also well endowed but has a glare like Dracula. Then there's Gradisca, who is famous in the town for making love to a prince. She's the most idealized of the sex fantasies. And the movie ends with her marrying and moving away from the town. Like 8 1/2 Fellini is acknowledging that sexual attraction can go in some strange places. It's strange yet also relatable.

There's a sequence depicting a fascist celebration that is funny but a little disturbing. One boy fantasizes that the giant Mussolini face made flowers comes to life and marries him to his secret crush. But immediately after this scene Titta's father is taken in and brutally questioned. Mussolini's regime was responsible for a lot more and it ending pretty horrifically for the Italians yet that part of history isn't present in this film. The story takes place during a single year. It might have been in the inter war period. But still it feels a little like the film is purposefully ignoring that section of history.

Anyone interested in cinematography and editing needs to see this film. Fellini even at his worst is an amazing visual artist who inspired a generation of other top notch filmmakers. The story is a little too loose and episodic. It's doubtful this script would find many takers today.

Blogging the Hulu Plus Criterion Collection: The Alphabet

The Alphabet

Here's an entry by David Lynch. The Alphabet is another short subject film; barely 5 minutes in length. It's the alphabet song done with some really creepy imagery. There's no story to speak of.

This is a fascinating film to watch because David Lynch was and is such an original voice in movies and television. This shows that always had a macabre slant. The film begins with an animated section that looks like it was inspired by Terry Gilliam.

The short then ends with something more typical of David Lynch. A strange woman recites the alphabet. When she's done she spews blood all over herself.

As disturbing as this short is I get a sense that David Lynch hadn't quite found his style at this point. There's another short subject coming up that is much more Lynch-ian. Watch this one if you want some creative, dark imagery.

Blogging the Hulu Plus Criterion Collection: All These Women

All These Women

When you hear "Ingmar Bergman" you think "depressing" right? You think "deep." You think "complex." Do you think "funny?" How about "silly?" Or "insane?" Or "hilarious?" If you don't it's because you've never seen All These Women. The apparent black sheep of the Bergman filmography. This is the one that never gets mentioned. Bergman did comedy before but not like this.

All These Women is about a music critic who goes to the mansion of a famous cellist in order to write his biography. There he finds him surrounded by both his wife and a harem of mistresses. There's nothing subtle about what follows, except for one part I'll get to later. This is a farce from beginning to end. This thing plays like a Animaniacs episode with even more adult humor. Bergman fans seem to snub this one but I know at least one person who treasures this film. I'll bet Woody Allen watched this film a lot. Allen is one of the biggest Ingmar Bergman fans out there. And when I was watching this film it reminded me a lot of Sleeper or Bananas, Allen's early work. There's plenty of slapstick and all of it is set to jazz. There's a scene in the beginning where the critic wrestles a gigantic bust that is hilarious. This film came out just a few years before Allen launched his own directing career. Is it possible this was his template in the early years?

But it's not all fun and games. There is that one scene that is quintessential Bergman. After being humiliated the critic confronts the cellist (who is never seen.) The critic launches into an attack on how artists are forgotten after they die and how the only thing that survives is what the critics write about them. The cellist is stunned. It's a scene that would fit in with Bergman's other films. The concept is also very characteristic of Bergman. The critic discovers that the cellist has created his own world on his estate. The mistresses go by different names and have assigned roles. The critic begins to fret that he is being absorbed into this private world and in the end he is. It's a variation of the theme Bergman explored with Persona.

The movie also shows that he is a master filmmaker. The opening is a long single take at a funeral home. The ceremony gets more and more chaotic as we watch. There are a lot of visual gags in the story. At one point a quill pen moves around like its a live bird. The critic stops at the edge of the pool wearing his suit and after a jump cut is in his bathing costume. The movie is very much of the '60s. Comedies were getting more aggressive and more surreal as the decade wore on.

I thought this was a great discovery. Subtle? Not exactly. But it's funny. I happen to like early Woody Allen. As for the script, for a dumb comedy it has a lot of ideas. That's a lesson all comedy writers should learn.