The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions (Decade Project Vol. 4)

An ongoing project to survey the best films of individual decades, genres, and filmmakers.
Post Reply
Message
Author
nitin
Joined: Sat Nov 08, 2014 6:49 am

Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#551 Post by nitin » Fri Jul 17, 2020 9:46 am

extra month much appreciated, I have been slammed at work lately and have not seen as much as I had hoped to.

User avatar
hearthesilence
Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:22 am
Location: NYC

Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#552 Post by hearthesilence » Sat Jul 18, 2020 10:58 am

Despite the frequent criticism over casting, I was hoping to appreciate Guys and Dolls a whole lot more, thanks to some promising re-evaluations. Obviously, it would be marvelous to discover another great Brando film - it's kind of frustrating that his enormous legacy rests on a few performances when he's often cited as the greatest of film actors over a 50 year career. (Granted, he wasn't very active in the last 20.) I don't think Guys and Dolls comes together as a truly great film, but I don't think Brando (or Simmons for that matter) is the complete misfire some make him out to be.

The usual knock is that Sinatra should have played Sky Masterson, which is the role he wanted and I don't doubt his singing would have been wonderful. (He just started his legendary run at Capitol Records, and he recorded a masterpiece, In the Wee Small Hours, around the same time.) But his resentment for not getting that role sabotaged his performance as Nathan Detroit, to the point where he refused to sing songs in character. As a result, his performance doesn't cohere and his best scenes/numbers work only when they're taken out of context.

On the other hand, Brando is superb - I can't imagine Sinatra bringing the same level of grace, humor and charm. The only place where Brando isn't effortlessly wonderful is the singing, and to be fair, he knew this was going to be a challenge - he worked extremely hard and spent an enormous amount of time in the recording studio so that the mixers could piece together a good take (and this is what they used as playback on-set). The film was never going to produce a great soundtrack album, but Brando's numbers work beautifully within the film for the reasons others have stated: conceptually and dramatically, it fits into the character's shoot-for-the-moon aspirations. And enough can't be said about Simmons - she is spectacular in this film, especially in the Havana sequence where she lets loose with the dancing and her 'drunk' singing of "If I Were a Bell."

Michael Kidd's choreography is exceptional. (I have little knowledge of the original Broadway production so I have no idea if he mainly transported his work there to this film, but it works marvelously with the Havana sequence again as a high point.) Mankiewicz composes a lot of this brilliantly. And yet the whole film never quite gels - it's still too uneven, and the scenes with Sinatra and Vivian Blaine are especially stiff, lacking any real spark to them. In the end, I wondered if the studio should have replaced them with other seasoned actors and pull off the kind of musical Peter Bogdanovich and Woody Allen hoped to do years later with non-singing actors.

User avatar
therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#553 Post by therewillbeblus » Sun Jul 19, 2020 4:55 pm

I Confess

I hadn't revisited this one in long enough to have a completely different perception this time around on how impressive the weight of conflicting ethical forces function in this narrative of multifaceted dilemmas. By revealing the culprit of the murder in the very first scene, and divorcing our complete alignment with Clift's subjectivity, Hitchcock allows for a considerate angle of study in picking apart his reasoning, through the perspectives of others. Clift's rigid codes and personal morality indebted to an institution vies with the same binding codes and institutional ideologies from our societally appointed representatives of law and order. Similar to the false invitations of deconstructing the psychologies of priests in Diary of a Country Priest and Silence, Hitchcock's film understands that Clift's decisions are rooted in self-fulfilling codes of conduct that affect his "moral" choices, whether they're in breaking a confession or withholding carnal desires and romantic emotions from actualizing. The Bresson is most similar, because the 'harm' done isn't as prodding in demonstrating physical consequences like Silence, for the pain inherent in subscribing to codes that ostracize one from their social environment in favor of a stubborn spiritual path is a weight that is complex enough without the murder. So the typical Hitchcockian plot serves as a ruse, inserting an unavoidable provocation toward Clift to unveil the limitless dilemmas and their consequences that his choices, in actions through non-action, have contributed to, as a participant.

Hitchcock's point seems to be that despite making every effort to only participate as an agent of goodness, one's existence in a complicated world of social interaction begets moral questioning, the potential for direct or indirect degrees of harm, and inescapable compromise. The impact of all of this on Clift is beautifully underplayed, internalized so subtly that he doesn't become the source of our empathy. This is because- as opposed to those other films- he seems to fully understand the responsibility he has taken on, and this is where we find the difference between this film and those others, in that further characterization is futile. The big "twist" in this Hitchcock film is that we don't find Clift in disharmony with himself, against our own expectations of narrative. Instead he is a vessel of strength- an enigma that serves as a mirror for the other characters that we can, and do, identify with.

The cast of characters around him -mainly Baxter, but also her husband, and even extending to the actual murderer, his wife, and the detective- struggle as a reflection of Clift's composed blank canvas. Part of his function (his burden, or liberation?) is harnessing the loads of his fellows, and as a result of unabashedly breathing his self-actualized choices, forces spiritual growth in others by proxy. It's a brilliant trick to fade the attention away from him and onto the supporting players, and the implications are fresh, completely different than the other priest films that tune us into them as subjects struggling with existential crises, rather than remaining mysterious agents of support for change. The subjects are everyone else, whose humanity we see in ourselves. We can be, have been, and are comforted by the virtues via unconditional compassion emitted by people like Clift, who can keep a level head and be there for the rest of the world looking for God's presence, which is filtered through other people to promote moral development.

User avatar
Rayon Vert
Green is the Rayest Color
Joined: Wed Jan 08, 2014 10:52 pm
Location: Canada
Contact:

Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#554 Post by Rayon Vert » Sun Jul 19, 2020 5:32 pm

Nice bit of kismet there, because I rewatched that one as well earlier this week...

I Confess (Hitchcock 1953).
I like this one more and more each time out. It’s quite earnest drama, without Hitch’s usual touches of humor, which in this case works in its favor. There are definitely similarities to The Wrong Man, not only of course in the wrong man narrative but in the fact that the police and judicial systems are partly the villains, and with the presence of Christianity. Beyond Father Logan following the seal of confession because it’s his job, there’s something Christ-like in the personal sacrifice he’s also making here. Clift is very good here (as usual?), bringing a nice quiet intensity to the role, and so’s Baxter. I also like how at the beginning of the film we’re made to sympathize with the murderer himself, a somewhat understandably, slightly paranoid German immigrant (in a film where the war’s shadow is also otherwise present) who feels alone and whose act is one of need and desperation. The very Catholic Quebec City setting adds also a lot of unique cachet.


The Flowers of St. Francis (Rossellini 1950).
After the effusive praise heaped on the film earlier in the thread, I’m a little shy to say it’s a case of diminishing returns for me here, especially since I hold the director’s oeuvre in high esteem and this used to rank so much higher for me. Maybe it’s just a question of too many viewings and being not in the right mood for it – part of that possibly a reaction to the strong whimsy that barryconvex noted that was very much in evidence for me this time. The actors have a lot of charm, and certain scenes are poignant, especially the ending, but some of the vignettes early on leave me scratching my head, although that’s apropos for the Zen/child-like quality of the Franciscan monks. I’m quite confident another viewing at a future time will bring it up back several notches. (Two other Rossellini films will make my list high enough though).


99 River Street (Karlson 1953).
Par for the course in terms of toughness and physical violence for the director. John Payne in his usual macho he-man persona skirts the ridiculous at times, but there’s something engrossing about the story of this guy in a world where everything goes wrong for him. Not incredibly original, but it’s really tightly-scripted and paced, and the beats get more and more entertaining the further along it goes. Evelyn Keyes turns out a stand-out performance, especially in that erotic but disturbing scene where she attempts to goad the murderous thief out of the bar.

bamwc2
Joined: Mon Jun 02, 2008 11:54 am

Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#555 Post by bamwc2 » Mon Jul 20, 2020 4:19 pm

I had thought about highlighting Scaramouche or Little Fugitive, but was heartened to see them already discussed earlier in the thread. So, instead I’ll draw a spotlight on Kon Ichikawa’s unduly neglected Odd Obsession. Though I believe that he’s made several films better than it, few things baffle me more about why this particular film isn’t held in the same regard as Fires on the Plain or The Burmese Harp.

As someone who just turned forty, I resonate with the film’s story of Kenji (Ganjirô Nakamura), an aging man whose body has begun to fall apart. When the film opens, a fictional physician, Dr. Kimura (Tatsuya Nakadai), directly addresses the audience as if he were giving a lecture at a medical school about the various milestones human meet throughout their lives as their ersatz forms begin to betray us. As we learn early on, Kenji, suffers from impotence in the days before that could be cured by a little blue pill. Unfortunately for Kenji, his twenty-something year younger wife, Ikuko (Machiko Kyô), no longer arouses him, but still may hold the cure for his malady. Their daughter, Toshiko (Junko Kanô), is engaged to Dr. Kimura, and the family hosts him for dinner. That night Ikuko falls unconscious due to a vitamin deficiency while taking a bath. Fortunately, her family catches her before she slipped under, and they take her out of the tub in a scene with implied nudity that was rather risqué for 1950’s Japanese cinema. Kimura witnesses it all, and the sight of another man with his naked wife gives him an idea. He eventually tries to set up a sexual rendezvous between Kimura and Ikuko, hoping that the sight of his wife with another man will excite his virility again. Of course, things go wrong, and the film culminates in an ending that is reminiscent of Ki-young Kim The Housemaid, made just the following year in South Korea.

Ichikawa delivers a solid psycho-sexual dramady that centers on the lengths that one man is willing to go to get an erection just one more time. Performances are all around fantastic here, with Machiko Kyô standing out for having to go through the gamut of emotions while also plausibly portraying a vulnerable seductress. Based on Junichiro Tanizaki's novel Kagi (The Key), the film would later be remade by none other notorious Italian provocateur, Tinto Brass. While the Italian version is typical Brass softcore pornography, Ichikawa’s rendition was made in the confines of Japanese censorship laws in the late 50s, and retains most of its overt sexuality behind the director’s more modest discretion. Where Brass inundates the camera with exposed flesh, Ichikawa often conveys the same information with a passionate kiss or an exposed belly. The older couple in the equation prove to be far kinkier than the younger generation, but it is no mark against them, as all four leads explore the relation between sex, desire, and restraint.

Like I said at the outset, I don’t consider this to be Ichikawa’s masterpiece, but it is still a damn fine bit of filmmaking that deserves to have a higher place in the director’s oeuvre than its commonly given.

User avatar
Michael Kerpan
Spelling Bee Champeen
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:20 pm
Location: New England
Contact:

Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#556 Post by Michael Kerpan » Mon Jul 20, 2020 5:19 pm

bamwc2 -- The neglect of most of Ichikawa's work from this period (Kagi included) is mystifying. Maybe because he is more a Huston- style auteur (or "non-auteur", as some would have it) rather than a Ford or Hawks-style one? He made a large number of excellent (to very very good) films from the early 50s to the mid-60s. And almost all are ignored. There was a traveling retrospective of his work in the early 2000s -- and while it garnered lots of praise for his work, it generated no sustained interest (very like the seemingly very successful Naruse retrospective that likewise produced almost no lingering impact).

User avatar
knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#557 Post by knives » Mon Jul 20, 2020 5:24 pm

Which is unfortunate for me since my favorite films, like Odd Obsession remain in the closet unreleased on home video.

bamwc2
Joined: Mon Jun 02, 2008 11:54 am

Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#558 Post by bamwc2 » Mon Jul 20, 2020 6:35 pm

Michael Kerpan wrote:
Mon Jul 20, 2020 5:19 pm
bamwc2 -- The neglect of most of Ichikawa's work from this period (Kagi included) is mystifying. Maybe because he is more a Huston- style auteur (or "non-auteur", as some would have it) rather than a Ford or Hawks-style one? He made a large number of excellent (to very very good) films from the early 50s to the mid-60s. And almost all are ignored. There was a traveling retrospective of his work in the early 2000s -- and while it garnered lots of praise for his work, it generated no sustained interest (very like the seemingly very successful Naruse retrospective that likewise produced almost no lingering impact).
Thanks. That is quite unfortunate. Equally unfortunate is the fact that I'm mostly just familiar with his films that became famous in the West. I'd love to see more, but I'm pretty much limited to the ones released by Criterion, MoC, etc. I'd love to do a deep dive into his catalogue some day.

User avatar
knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#559 Post by knives » Mon Jul 20, 2020 6:41 pm

Criterion, bless their hearts, are streaming several of his films. Still only a drop in the bucket, but enough to have a full idea of his diversity as a director.

bamwc2
Joined: Mon Jun 02, 2008 11:54 am

Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#560 Post by bamwc2 » Mon Jul 20, 2020 7:14 pm

knives wrote:
Mon Jul 20, 2020 6:41 pm
Criterion, bless their hearts, are streaming several of his films. Still only a drop in the bucket, but enough to have a full idea of his diversity as a director.
By shear coincidence, I just signed up for the Criterion Channel yesterday, so that I could see Odd Obsession again. I think that I last caught it on Hulu about a decade or so ago.

User avatar
therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#561 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon Jul 20, 2020 7:25 pm

I'm split on Ichikawa, with Tokyo Olympiad and The Makioka Sisters doing nothing for me, while Fires on the Plain and An Actor's Revenge are incredible, but he's a real talent I'd like to explore more of. Odd Obsession sounds amazing, so I'll be fitting it in before the deadline- which prompts me to ask about any other left-field recs not yet mentioned in this thread. With the extra month, might as well make the tough decisions harder.

bamwc2
Joined: Mon Jun 02, 2008 11:54 am

Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#562 Post by bamwc2 » Mon Jul 20, 2020 7:29 pm

Therewillbeblus, we're going to have to agree to disagree on this one. Tokyo Olympiad is my absolute favorite by him, while I don't like An Actor's Revenge at all.

User avatar
therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#563 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon Jul 20, 2020 7:36 pm

That's strong enough praise to convince me to revisit it for the 60s project, even if I already expect to die from overstimuation looking at my to-watch list for that decade.

User avatar
knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#564 Post by knives » Mon Jul 20, 2020 8:47 pm

To give you some '70s homework as well I think his follow up short in Visions of 8 is even better.

User avatar
therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#565 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon Jul 20, 2020 10:06 pm

Revisited Calamity Jane yet again today, and the gender playing just gets more provocative each time. I love how Day's femininity clashes with her identity as she splits her desires between being herself and vying for the male attention that is not reciprocally attracted to her natural demeanor. There's a tragedy in how she embodies a puzzle piece that doesn't quite fit into society in all the ways she wants and needs, a familiar life of compromise for basically everyone on the planet in some way. The essential function of musical numbers in allowing for an emergence from reality, in this context, provide a space where Day can express herself in diverse ways that promote her value across all wishes and roots of her identity simultaneously, or as she chooses based on the desire bubbling up at any given moment. She can sing with a masculine voice and play a 'tough guy' part, or return with worldly knowledge in Windy City as the center of attention; or -in a wonderful turn of events as they ride to the ball, following her failure to embrace her sexual role in reality, she sings with a feminine voice and joins with her objects of affection in the opposite sex, and newly-found same-sex personality-mismatched friend, with full smiles and vocal pitches in-sync with their expected genders. Most importantly, Day sings more like a woman than before as her admirers look at her sexually, engulfed in her sensual allure and personality at once.

The musical numbers allow her to have her cake and eat it too, and are severely divorced from the constant turmoil permeating the tropes of western milieus outside of them, not to mention typical social drama that threaten either area of comfort from being realised for her. I said it in my initial writeup, but Day- who is quite feminine outside of this film- digs into her talent at controlling the valve that blocks her womanly charms, and gradually opens up in bouts that reward an attentive eye. The declaration that Jane acts like a man but thinks like a woman practically breaks her, and her disposition as she sits with this inner conflict transforms her face red, not breathing, as if she's about to explode. In an age with people who identify as 'gender nonconforming' are using platforms to normalize their experience with louder voices, I really hope this film undergoes a critical re-evaluation.

Day becomes "free" after that scene (in a reverse of the MPDG-trope, it's actually the fairly thinly-characterized supporting male who arguably exists only to help her self-actualize!) but she still only expresses it in song with a smile, in step with the utopian fantasy of musical numbers that permit easy serenity for a few minutes. Is this womanly wish fulfillment forced, will it last, or is it just a daydream? The consummation of narrative in the finale is tellingly prompted by her friend's letter that forces Jane to admit her own problematic contrast of self (is she possibly being reinforced to feel shame for this subconscious confusion causing harm?) - so she can submit to her default heroic masculinity to follow her friend to save the day. She is also granted her man through said letter, an indirect false disclosure, initiating her heroism to confront the content's lies and finally face what her femininity wants through masculine means. As she finds Katie, she finally says what she never could before without the tool of song, and for the first time Jane's innate masculine 'self' and feminine desires collide, permitting her to act authentically as the key mechanism to access what her heart needs. An impossibility throughout the entire film only to stumble into a perfect fusion in the end, this catharsis is followed by a last-minute a wedding gag that only cements the sustainment of such an optimal blend, giving hope that this will continue long after the final frames, even outside of song.

User avatar
Michael Kerpan
Spelling Bee Champeen
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:20 pm
Location: New England
Contact:

Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#566 Post by Michael Kerpan » Mon Jul 20, 2020 10:37 pm

Once one has tuned into ichikawa's wave length, Actor's Revenge starts improving. This is a film which benefits somewhat from knowing its "prehistory" (including having some familiarity with older -- i.e. pre-Kurosawa -- Japanese historical action movies in general). It's not a top favorite of mine, but I've grown fonder of it over the past 20 years.

I find Makioka Sisters pretty unimpressive (except for the pretty color and lovely kimonos). Then again, I've yet to see any later Ichikawa films I've liked. I would say that the films being streamed by Criterion do _not_ give a full picture of Ichikawa's range during the 50s and early 60s. ;-)

Hard-to-find 50s Ichikawa films to see (in the off chance one finds an opportunity): A Billionaire, Mr. Pu, Punishment Room, Crowded Streetcar, Conflagration, and The Hole (if for no other reason than seeing Machiko Kyo channeling Nancy Drew).

User avatar
therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#567 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon Jul 20, 2020 10:46 pm

Michael Kerpan wrote:
Mon Jul 20, 2020 10:37 pm
The Hole (if for no other reason than seeing Machiko Kyo channeling Nancy Drew).
That's enough reason for me. Guess I know what I'm doing this week/end.

User avatar
Michael Kerpan
Spelling Bee Champeen
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:20 pm
Location: New England
Contact:

Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#568 Post by Michael Kerpan » Mon Jul 20, 2020 11:04 pm

therewillbeblus wrote:
Mon Jul 20, 2020 10:46 pm
Michael Kerpan wrote:
Mon Jul 20, 2020 10:37 pm
The Hole (if for no other reason than seeing Machiko Kyo channeling Nancy Drew).
That's enough reason for me. Guess I know what I'm doing this week/end.
I've never seen this subbed -- so I'm sure I have missed various plot points. Machiko Kyo wears lots of disguises and gets bopped on the head and tied up -- which seems pretty Nancy Drew-ish to me (regardless of details -- like she seems to be a cub reporter rather than a girl detective). ;-)

Crowded Streetcar is notable for having Chishu Ryu and Haruko Sugimura as rather demented parents of the hero (anti-hero?).

User avatar
therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#569 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon Jul 20, 2020 11:14 pm

I spoke too soon- could only find Conflagration and Punishment Room subbed. The others sound great though, and you're tempting me to just watch The Hole unsubbed for the visual ride.

User avatar
Michael Kerpan
Spelling Bee Champeen
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:20 pm
Location: New England
Contact:

Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#570 Post by Michael Kerpan » Mon Jul 20, 2020 11:47 pm

James Quandt put together a bunch of articles on Ichikawa. I use this as a resource for watching unsubbed films (not sure whether it has much discussion of Hole or not). Conflagration and Punishment Room are both very much worth seeing -- but both are pretty serious and don't provide any insights into the (black) comic side of Ichikawa's work.

User avatar
senseabove
Joined: Wed Dec 02, 2015 3:07 am

Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#571 Post by senseabove » Tue Jul 21, 2020 2:43 am

The Model and the Marriage Broker (Cukor, 1952) Another in Cukor's run of on-location NYC movies from the 50s, this one stars Thelma Ritter as a professional matchmaker with a bustling, if not lucrative, office in the Flatiron Building (where she is only occasionally mistaken by traveling businessmen for a Madame). Based on the set-up, I was expecting a soft comedy about Ritter as an extracurricular cupid, fixing people up even when they haven't asked to be, but by the end it becomes an unexpectedly sincere cross-section of why people, rightly or wrongly or unfortunately, cling to or are stuck with solitude, and whether that's the same thing as loneliness. Which makes it another of Cukor's 1950s movies that seem a little quaint, now, but have a surprising, earnest edge to them, pushing the 50s status quo to the limits of what was acceptably "dramedic" subject matter, in this case not only with regard to marriage and infidelity, but also, perhaps more surprisingly, being single.
SpoilerShow
Given, it's about as surprising that the 50-year-old woman should end up being 'happily single' as it is that the titular model ends up engaged, but, as with It Should Happen to You and The Marrying Kind, it's surprising for these movies to let their main characters actually work through the emotions to arrive at their own conclusions, even if they are, in the grand scheme of things, foregone.
Roman Holiday (Wyler, 1952) Given the Wyler thread and the times, I gave up on waiting to catch this one in theaters and just watched the stream on Prime. I feel like the most succinct description of this would be that it's the prefect antithesis of screwball. Everyone behaves perfectly understandably throughout, with perfectly understandable selfishness and perfectly understandable compassion. There are no belabored misunderstandings, the limits of our suspension of disbelief are hardly even tested, and the sentimentality is tone-perfect, distending the movie's placid evenness only at the narrative and emotional climaxes. It's just unbelievably smooth.
SpoilerShow
It it hyperbole to say that the lighting on Hepburn's shoe when she walks into position at the final press interview is one of most beautifully precise, miniscule touches of the studio era?

User avatar
therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#572 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Jul 21, 2020 6:01 pm

Watched three Ichikawas, and despite recognizing his immense talent in composing very intellectually-stimulating works, I found them of varying interest. Conflagration was a tragic tale that sold its premise well in suggesting one's sanity to be the price of decadence. The importance of culture and values corroborating to help support identity is explored via a very painful series of interpersonal exchanges and the wear they have on a certain soul, but all the raw exposure didn't stress any particularly novel take on the unofficial subgenre of Japanese cinema that reflects on tragic lifespans.

I liked Punishment Room more after a skeptical start, as we're introduced to a typical nihilist Holden Caulfield character moving through life burning everything in sight to the ground. However, Ichikawa eventually reveals his study to be a much more ferocious and perverse film. In refusing to grant its character character evolution toward our expectations, we realize that these predictive narrative turns are rooted in the traditionalist parents' worldview. His encounters with them are so uniquely on-point, reminding me of the grey details of conflict in the mother-daughter verbal spats in Margaret, that I had to go back to make sure he admitted on screen to
SpoilerShow
"drugging and having his way with local girls" nonchalantly with a calm, taciturn retort that simultaneously reinforces the divide between him and his parents and also 'fairly' rationalizes his actions to himself!
The confidence Ichikawa demonstrates in allowing conflict to exist, without forcing even subtle mergers toward comprehension, is commendable; and even if the finale ventures into familiar places, the ride there is paved with originality and a welcomed willingness to sit with discomfort in static dynamics, while infusing maximum mood lability into the futile responses on either side.

Odd Obsession explored Ichikawa's skills at balancing drama with dark comedy, and watching this made me wish I had access to the other, apparently more humorous, films in his oeuvre. bamwc2 summed up the provocative core of this film well in citing it as a "psycho-sexual dramady that centers on the lengths that one man is willing to go to get an erection just one more time," which validates the critical subjective significance of 'loss' a human being experiences in the deterioration of any of our physiological abilities, no matter how silly it may seem in an objective context. The games spin off into fun places, as is the nature of social chaos when one's goal necessitates the participation of other free-thinking human beings to be objects to support that goal on their wavelength; an inherent impossibility that never works out according to plan. I particularly liked the subtle ways in which all characters justify or permit their id-driven behaviors through a removal of participation or selfish involvement. Aside from the husband who detaches himself from the action into the position of passive voyeur despite his role as puppetmaster, the wife and Nakadai's character discuss the loyalty to the husband's wishes as they wrestle with their sexually charged feelings. The ability to call a spade a spade and directly confront anything is sidetracked, with everyone saving face via some suppression and self-persuasion that minimizes shame. It's a pretty apt exhibition on social psychology, and like his more serious efforts it endorses the stance of stewing in a weird place that doesn't take us to predictable destinations, nor does it travel through expected routes to get there.

User avatar
Michael Kerpan
Spelling Bee Champeen
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:20 pm
Location: New England
Contact:

Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#573 Post by Michael Kerpan » Tue Jul 21, 2020 6:57 pm

I have yet to see an Ichikawa film written by Natto Wada, his wife and long-term script-writer, that I did not find interesting and worth seeing (and many of them are quite good). His track record with scripts written by others seems very spotty (at best) to me.

bamwc2
Joined: Mon Jun 02, 2008 11:54 am

Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#574 Post by bamwc2 » Wed Jul 22, 2020 3:05 pm

Viewing Log:

The Actress (George Cukor, 1953): Ruth Gordon adapts her own stage play Years Ago in this biopic/dramedy about how she got her first break as an actress. Jean Simmons stars as the 17-year-old Ruth, while Spencer Tracey and Teresa Wright play her parents Clinton and Annie, and a young Anthony Perkins plays her high school beau Fred. The drama here concerns the working class Clinton's desire for his daughter to get a proper education and take a respectable job, while Ruth spends her days reading magazines about the stage and fantasizing about being there herself. Much of the film is firmly in the drama category, but in its most famous scene, Tracey shows off his calisthenics ability while in a loose pair of pants. imdb informs me that someone was so offended by this scene that they began writing threatening letters to a theater in Columbus, OH for showing the "obscenity" of Tracey in boxer shorts. While I'll give it a mild recommendation, Simmons isn't at her best here and the story had a hard time making me care about her antics. I love Ruth Gordon, so I was surprised that I didn't enjoy this more.

The Black Pit of Dr. M (Fernando Méndez, 1959): This Mexican horror film begins with Dr. Masala (Rafael Bertrand) as he visits his colleague Dr. Jacinto Aldama (Antonio Raxel) on his death bed. Masala reminds the dying man of a pact that they made the previous year, agreeing that whoever dies first will return to Earth to inform the other how to visit the afterlife and comeback alive to Earth. Sure enough, Aldama dies and reveals during a seance that he will, in three months time, return with key for Masala to enter the afterlife as a living man, but warns him that it will come at a terrible price. Masala returns to life at the mental asylum where we get plenty of opportunity for reaction shots of patients maniacally mugging for the camera. Spooky events unfold as Masala makes his to the chosen date. This was the first 50s Mexican genre film that I can remember seeing. While far from perfect, Méndez does a good job with what he has to work with. I'd definitely be interested in checking out more films like this in the future.

Le monde du silence (Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Louis Malle, 1956): Malle's first feature length film features some truly gorgeous underwater cinematography, as his cameras follow around Jacques Cousteau's crew through their ocean exploration. I knew that it had a reputation for being brutal, but holy shit! Nothing prepared me for what I'm witnessing. These guys are psychopaths that kill everything they come across? Find some lobsters on a dive? Put them in a sack so they can be boiled later. Want to know how many fish live in a coral bed? Plant some dynamite in it and count the dead ones. See a pod of sperm whales? Let's harpoon one of them. Sharks are attracted to the whale corpse you're dragging around? Let's bring them on deck with fishing line and then hit them repeatedly with an axe. From the smallest piece of coral to largest inhabitants of the ocean, there's nothing that these bastards won't kill. There's a scene where a sea turtle lays its eggs, and I'm shocked that the crew DIDN'T take a sledgehammer to its head just for the fun of it. I'm a vegetarian for ethical reasons. This was clearly the wrong movie for me to watch.

L'opéra-mouffe (Agnes Varda, 1958): An early career documentary short from Varda begins with her fully nude in the third trimester of her first pregnancy. As the camera focuses on her pregnant belly, we're suddenly transported to a street merchant taking apart a gourd. Varda's short is filled with this kind of free associations like this, as she delivers a love letter to her home Mouffetard street in Paris. Like Jean Vigo's short from 28 years earlier, À Propos de Nice, a large amount of the film is dedicated to just showing the daily activities of the people on the street. Two women, who look like the kind of people that Fellini would find to appear in his films, argue furiously in the street. We get a pair of fictitious lovers who spend their days in the nude in the apartments that line the streets. Not everything is so literal here though. A hammer smashes light bulbs lying on a table. A hatching egg appears inside of the broken bulb, and then the hatchling spends its first few moments of life inside of a glass. Alternating between realism and surrealism, Varda's camera catches it all.

Princess Yang Kwei-fei (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1955): Machiko Kyô plays the titular Princess Yang Kwei-fei, a humble servant girl who is courted to gain the favor of Emperor Xuan Zong (Masayuki Mori) in this lush period piece from Kenji Mizoguchi. Set in 8th century China, the powerful Yang family plots to gain influence with the Emperor. Recruiting Yang Kwei-fei, the family gives her a makeover and quick training in the arts in order for her to gain Xuan Zong's attention. Soon enough he falls for her, and the two marry. The Yangs curry favor through the marriage and are appointed to various important posts around the empire. However, they prove corrupt, and when a popular revolt goes after the Yangs what will happen to the Princess? It's beautifully made, but I can't help but think that it pales in comparison to the director's best films.

Sunday in August (Luciano Emmer, 1950): The film is an episodic grouping of stories that are all centered around a beach in Rome on a Sunday. I honestly can't think of much to say on this one. It has the same jovial lighthearted sense of humor so common in Italian comedies of the era, and Marcello Mastroianni briefly shows up. I'm not the biggest fan of the genre, but I found it just amusing enough for a very mild recommendation.

You Were Like a Wild Chrysanthemum (Keisuke Kinoshita, 1955): Masao (Chishû Ryû), a septuagenarian with a failing body, visits the estate he grew up on and reminisces the relationship he had at 15 (Takahiro Tamura) with his cousin, 17-year-old Tamiko (Noriko Arita). With 95% of the film shown through an ovular pinhole matte meant to simulatee a flashback, as the two engage in an ill-fated affair. Rather than focus on the romantic plot, most of the time involves more dramatic matters as the couple faces rejection and ridicule from all corners. Kinoshita's DP, Hiroshi Kusuda, does a masterful job with film's black and white aesthetic. You have to be in the right mood for a film like this, but when you're feeling crushed by the world, you couldn't do much better than it.

bamwc2
Joined: Mon Jun 02, 2008 11:54 am

Re: The 1950s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#575 Post by bamwc2 » Fri Jul 24, 2020 1:04 pm

Viewing Log:

711 Ocean Drive (Joseph M. Newman, 1950): Edmond O'Brien stars as Mal Granger, a small time telephone service employee who breaks into the California mob when he uses his technological knowledge to revolutionize a bookie's operation. Thanks to the machinations of his moll, Gail (Joanne Dru), Mal grows unhappy with his cut and soon plots a move to the top. Eventually the police close in on them, and he and Gail go on the run. It's a by the book, L.A. noir that has a lot going for it, but it never really breaks through the crowded field to stand out among them. It's good, but I'll probably forget it in a month.

The Ballad of Narayama (Keisuke Kinoshita, 1958): Told like a kabuki stage play, the film adapts the story of a remote 19th century village where the elders go to die in Narayama when they reach age 70. Orin (Kinuyo Tanaka) is close to her trip to the top of the mountain, but spends the day laboring alongside her 45-year-old son Tatsuhei (Teiji Takahashi) in the field for basic sustenance. During her free time, she plots for her son to marry a window from a nearby village, but he doesn't exactly do himself any favors on this front. I first saw Shôhei Imamura's The Ballad of Narayama on a VHS rental about 15 years ago, and fell in love with it, so I was a bit surprised by Kinoshita's adaptation of Shichirô Fukazawa's source material. While the same basic plot exists in both, 50's censorship didn't allow for all of the erotic elements that Imamura included in his version. Beautifully shot, the film is a veritable masterclass on what can be done with lighting and stage setting. I still prefer the remake, but this version is still quite good.

Black Tuesday (Hugo Fregonese, 1954): Mob boss Vincent Canelli (Edward G. Robinson) is scheduled to be executed tonight along with bank robber/cop killer Peter Manning (Peter Graves) one after the other. Canelli spends the day taunting Manning, and putting on an air of bravado. Manning, who has a missing two million stashed away somewhere where the police can't find it, finds himself the wounded captive of Canelli when the two escape in a breakout designed by gangster moll Hatti Combest (Jean Parker). Canelli begins a mad dash to get the missing cash and flee the country, but fate has other plans for the trio and their hostages. It's a pretty decent genre film, so it's a real shame that this was never released on DVD. I caught this gangster-noir hybrid from a nearly unwatchable rip from the site that shall not be named. Any ideas on why this isn't more widely available? Is it a rights issue?

Jan Hus (Otakar Vávra, 1955): Speaking of great films that never made it to DVD in region 1, the 1955 Czechoslovakian masterpiece is criminally unknown in the West. The film begins with a pair of 16th century lovers soon-to-be married when a representative of the Catholic Church takes his axe as an initial payment in the debts he owes Rome. The Church sends a high ranking official to their capital to sell plenary indulgences, but finds himself opposed by university theologian Jan Hus (Zdenek Stepánek). Eventually the city rises up to expel the Catholic representatives, which leads to a crackdown from Rome. As the Church breaks vow after vow, Hus turns himself in, but refuses to recant his stand on indulgences even to save his life. I may be an ex-Catholic turned atheist, for some reason, I tend to have a soft spot for films about figures of faith and this one is no different. It's buoyed by impressive cinematography and beautiful set pieces. I know that it meshed with their nationalist interests, but I'm still a bit shocked that a film this religious managed to get made under communist rule.

The Quatermass Xperiment (Val Guest, 1955): American professor, Bernard Quatermass (Brian Donlevy), runs Britain's rocket program. When the first ship they launch returns to Earth in a firery crash, it's up to fearless scientist to figure out why two members of the crew are missing, and the third is in a near catatonic state with strange physical changes as well. After the astronaut's wife breaks him out of the hospital he was assigned to, he begins his transformation into an alien flesh creature that racks up a body count on the streets of London. Donlevy plays his character with utter seriousness as comically absurd sci-fi silliness abounds around him. As utterly ridiculous as this trifle is, I couldn't help but enjoy it for what it was.

Quatermass 2 (Val Guest, 1957): In the follow up to his The Quatermass Xperiment made two years prior, director Val Guest returns to explore the further alien adventures of Bernard Quatermass (Brian Donlevy also returning to the role). This time, the adventuress professor's ideas for a lunar colony are dashed when the British government refuses to fund it. Somehow though, the professor comes across his design built in the countryside here on Earth. While exploring the ruins around the site, his companion finds a meteor that emits a strange smoke and leaves a burn on his neck. Before Quatermass can react, military personnel with the same markings beat him and take the man. Eventually Quatermass uncovers a conspiracy by asteroid men that want to take over the Earth by poisoning humanity's food supply. Like it's predecessor, this one was utterly silly, but good fun.

Woman Basketball Player No. 5 (Jin Xie, 1957): An ensemble cast drama about the tribulations awaiting an all women's basketball team just seven years after the revolution. The team's coach, Tian Zhenhua (sorry, but imdb doesn't have he credits for this one), seeks redemption for his past failures (including a beating at the hands of the mafia as payment for not throwing a game) as he leads the team to a triumphant season. Tian, who was in love with Lin Jie, back in his playing days, finds himself now coaching her daughter, Xiao Jie in the eponymous role. When Xiao Jie is injured, her mother returns and the passion between her and Tian Zhenhua rekindles. The film looked a little rough (though I believe there is a recent restoration), but it was still enjoyable as a minor amusement.

Post Reply