Ciceronian Review

Dear White People

I saw the film "Dear White People."  I thought it a bit too arch, and the opening episode of the Netflix series was similar.  But the rest of the series realized a good deal of the potential of the film and initial episode.  Interesting takes on conflicts and variety in politics.  Of course, it is entertainment, so significant portions are not more than that.  Most of the characters have wardrobes that are quite impressive, and dormitory rooms bigger than some of the apartments I've lived in.  But that is just part of the television world.  But to the point:  Dear White People discusses some difficult and puzzling issues in black/white relations in a college.  And, more interestingly, diversity within and among African-American groups.  Not many clear hard lines and almost nothing in the way of lectures about moral or political lines.  the episodes don't end with a wrap-up resolution, but do resolve enough to think that it is an episode.  Characters break apart in ways that suggest there are still connections.  All of the characters have serious flaws, and are a good deal less stalwart than usual in film and tv.  All to the better.  One continuing theme is the complexity of choices in mixing personal and political ambitions, both the complexities in efforts to achieve political goals and the interaction of personal ambitions with political goals.

Dunkirk

The movie did some things well, and some other things poorly.  Some of the battle scenes are well-done.  They are reminiscent of the opening of Saving Private Ryan.  But, because the scenes are different in type, not as overwhelming.  The flight scenes were the best of battle scenes. For once, the pilots kept their masks on -- and the surprise of being shot at came through.  I found these parts of the film the most interesting.  Although, the German bombers were given astonishing accuracy -- way beyond what the planes could have accomplished.  Even anchored ships would not have been successfully hit as often as in the film.  Quite short of people, but the beach scenes are more atmosphere than anything else.  In focusing so tightly on individuals, the import of the events got lost, I thought.  Most of it could have been somewhere else some other time without any loss in the effectiveness of the film.  I think there were ways to bring in the risk to the UK and French armies without undermining the focus on individual stories.

Churchill gets his film in the Fall. Interested to see how far they ignore his record on Indian and other soldiers from elsewhere in the Empire -- I am betting on the answer being "entirely."  

Alexander Nevsky

Eisenstadt's great film is not so great.  Quite a number of itneresting shots and framed set pieces, but the plot and script were close to petrified.  Potemkin was more interesting.  The evil German Knights pillage and murder, driven out by the heroic good Rus (with a few disreputables trying to cozy  up to the Germans).  A ridiculous romance tossed in -- I hope for comic relief, but I am not sure.  And then there was the translation -- surely someone in the Soviet Union spoke English (the translated subtitles date from the sixties I think).  The only positive for the film was that it was an excuse to talk about what it called the Swedish invasion.  Vikings came down from the Baltic and set up shop deep inside Rus along the rivers.  I have ancestors that got into Russia that way.  The contrast with the Dr. Mabus is striking -- equally limited set of characters and space, but a much more interesting movie, any of them I think.

NetFlix turns another one into a film smarty. For the moment.

German Silence

I have been watching Fritz Lang's silent movie Dr. Mabuse - The Gambler.  Have a couple more lined up on Netflix for downloading.  I started with Metropolis, which turned out a better film than I expected.  A bit histrionic, but a fair amount of good acting and interesting staging.  That led to Dr. Mabuse, a film I find compelling.  It involves various events constructed by a criminal genius able to exercise some form of mind control.  The story is sort of silly, as most films are.  But it is very well acted and moves along.  That it is silent fades out for long stretches.  There is relatively little dialogue necessary to carry the story along.  I wonder if anyone is trying to make silent films now?  We have remakes of all sorts of other works, and it would pose some interesting problems.  On films, I also finally saw Jazz on a Summer's Day -- very good indeed.  The music is first rate, and the cinematography is up to it.  I had seen little pieces from the film in various documentaries about artists, Anita O'Day for example.  It is better than the excerpts.  Interesting use of color and interconnecting the music to the audience, and, even, the America's CUp trials, some of which takes place during the film.

Stuff to watch in the early a.m.

The German King

The King's Speech is a pleasant movie.  I had a hard time feeling much sympathy for King Bertie because, well, he had so little to do and was so well paid for doing it.  But the film moves along.  There is one very odd moment in the film, the great speech scene.  The background music was Beethoven.  I was taken aback.  Not to suggest any connection between the Third Reich and Beethoven, yet it is still a surprising choice to have the speech with that music.  I doubt that it was intended as a comment on the humanities or culture.  Also, why no mention in the many reviews?

De Plama's Swan

Over the weekend I saw "Black Swan."  It was pretty obvious that Portman is not a dancer, a year of study notwithstanding.  But that is not really a surprise.  What was a suprise was how little the movie was about or involved ballet.  There were a few scenes of class and rehearsal, and some of the purported opening performance.  None of that was of the portions that required real skill.  Which is fine - -there are not many actors with enough background to do a dance movie (Neve Campbell comes to mind, as she was a dancer, and so was at least one of the Tilleys).  What surprised me was that the ballet setting was not really any more than a backdrop to a psycho movie.  In fact, the movie was more Brian De Palma goes to the ballet -- the movie is about a woman suffering some serious psychiatriatic problems.  Porlematic that it is doubtful that anyone suffering such halluciantions could function well enough to be the prima and hold up over the months of rehearsal.  And like a good De Palma movie, the death is completely ridiculous -- no one could dance two acts of Swan Lake wth a hole in her stomach without bleeding all over the stage, least of all when one of the acts is in a white costum.  Black Swan is a better movie than Turning Point (Shirley McClain, for God's sake), but Turning Point is a bad movie with good dance.  This was a better movie with worse dance. 

Bullitt

I think I have seen the car chase scenes from Bullitt about a dozen times, more if one counts the obvious emulations.  But it has been decades  since I saw the rest of the movie.  I watched it last night, expecting something like the usual police procedural from the later sixties.  Not os.  It is a very well made movie.  The cinematography is very good.  Not just the coloration, but the framing of images and movement of the actors across the screen are well done.  The direction is equally interesting.  Lots of movies from the period do not hold up over the years -- the acting is too broad and the images seem mostly an after-thought.  

Death of Modesty

It took some time to get to the United States, but Modesty Blaise is no more.  At least, the creator of the great Modesty Blaise is no more.  Peter O'Donnell died last week.  I have long been a fan of the Modest Blaise novels.  I always found them fun.  You might think of it this way: Modesty is to Bond (the new Daniels version) as Simone de Beauvoir is to Sartre.

Unfortunately, none of the novels are available in the US, except through used book stores.  You can get them new in India, however.  

There are two Blaise films -- skip the Monica Vitti film; the later one is much more like the novels.

The Fox was Fantastic But the Cook was Not

I recently watched "The Fantastic Mr. Fox" and "Julia and Julie".  Mr. Fox was a lot of fun.  Interesting characters, more interesting than most live action movie characters.  I particularly liked the meals -- kept enough of the fox to have them eat the way good canid should eat.  The glory of temptation and succumbing to temptation.  Great casting of voices.  I am sorry I did not see it in a theater.

Julia and Julie, on the other hand was half a bad bad movie.  The Julie character was hard to bear.  Aside from being smarmy, it is very hard to believe that character could have worked her way through the cookbook in a year.  I am not much of a chef, but I eat well and I can see what you need to do to make french food of Child's sort.  First of all, the characters must have thrown out almost everything that was cooked.  Could not have made those dishes and gone off to work.  Second, the character just lacked the cooking skills and time to do all the recipes.  The shopping alone would have taken more time than allowed, and a fair number of the dishes could not possibly be done after work (unless the cook was using meth or cocaine to get through the following day).  Meryl Streep as Julia Child (and the character) were delightful, but that was just half a movie.

Avatar

When I lived in LA I looked forward to the Oscars and the long broadcast of the event.  Mostly, I admit, for the clothes.  The speeches are nearly always inane, and the choice of winners often a bit of puzzle.  Here in Zion we are left only with the nominations and winning -- the long broadcast is actually fairly short here.  This number of nominations has expanded this year.  Nominated for Best Motion Picture of the Year is, among others, Avatar.  That is a measure of the nature of the industry.  I can agree that the special effects are remarkable, and quite entertaining.  But the rest of it is very far from best of anything.  The plot is too dumb to be inane, as trite a plot as made into a movie.  The characters are silly and unbelievable.  Every part of it is hard to swallow.   The great white hope saves all.  (Why do the natives attempt to revive the Weaver character?  If they can bring people from the edge of death, how come none of their own?)  What sort of Marine plans uses a battle plan which has folks with bows and arrows, and lances, mount a frontal assault on an enemy armed with automatic weapons?  Or attacks helicopter gunships with similar weapons?  Why not drop rocks on the helicopters -- the rotors clearly break.  He lose his legs in a kitchen accident?  Always a bad sign when physics suddenly stops working.  No way the flying lizards could carry the extra payload.  And on and on.  So, aside from huge expenditures to make and fun effects, there is no real movie here. 

There was a lot of Last of the Mohicans with less thought.