Author Topic: 1945 Retrospots: Discovery Project  (Read 22346 times)

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Re: 1945 Retrospots: Discovery Project
« Reply #130 on: March 09, 2017, 10:24:25 PM »
What did you think of Laird Cregar in the lead role? I expect him to be a Retrospot front runner but you didn't even mention him.

I think the film also has an excellent shot at Best Hidden Gem

oldkid

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Re: 1945 Retrospots: Discovery Project
« Reply #131 on: March 09, 2017, 10:49:31 PM »
Certainly best hidden gem.

I know that Cregar put a lot of work into the role.  As the film goes on, we see him lose maybe 40 pounds.  But I wasn't especially impressed by the actual acting-- it was a lot of big show, but no subtlety.   The wiping off of sweat, large facial expressions of confusion or anger, but it all felt too big, without nuance.
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

oldkid

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Re: 1945 Retrospots: Discovery Project
« Reply #132 on: March 13, 2017, 01:25:07 AM »
Scarlet Street

Edward Robinson is the saddest of sad sacks.  In a miserable marriage, a dull job, his only joy is his Sundays of painting, which his wife constantly complains about.  Then he saves the young and beautiful Kitty from an attack and he becomes infatuated with her.  Then they begin their dance where he pursues her and she hides her boyfriend from him in order to get some of the money she thinks he has.  It only goes downhill from there...

I really appreciate this early noir where the mood and tropes of the genre hasn't really been established.  Yes, it is a crime drama with a dark pallet, but the first half I'd be hard pressed to call it noir.  More of a misguided romance.  The darkness of the second half really establishes it firmly in the noir camp.  But like Hangover Square, the tone is lighter than later noir and the stakes don't seem so high at first.  The focus is not on detectives and there is no mystery, except the mystery of what will end up happening.

It is interesting because the main three individuals in this love triangle are all culprits and all victims. The motivations may differ, but in the end, they all decided to take advantage of each other and they all were taken advantage.  There is a kind of horrible symmetry in this.  In the end I am left with a puff of smoke.  Justice is certainly left unfulfilled.

3.5/5
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

Teproc

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Re: 1945 Retrospots: Discovery Project
« Reply #133 on: March 23, 2017, 04:11:58 PM »
Les enfants du paradis / Children of Paradise (Marcel Carné, 1945)

A big, bold film, which - given the time and place iin which it was made -necessarily has a bit of a sour taste. I'm sure one could relate it to its historical context, but I didn't see it... in fact it seems to generally avoid political context altogether, since it's two parts are set on either side of the July Revolution (and thus take place under two different regimes), but you would never know that from watching it.

There is a lot going on in this film, but mostly I'd boil it down to a romance (or four) and a meta narrative about the changes occuring in 19th century Paris in theater. The central romance, between Garance and Baptiste (and all the other ones, but those two connect them all and are the closest this film has to leads), doesn't really work for me. I have issues with both those characters in general, especially Baptiste. He's a typical tragic romantic (in all senses of the word) figure, and Garrault plays him so straight that he's just a pretty boring guy in a sea of infinitely more enjoyable/interesting characters... and his pantomime sucks. I recognize that this is not very constructive, but it's just mystifying to me that these could be considered good in any way... he''s like a second-rate, anachronistic Chaplin imitator and we're supposed to see him as some kind of visionary genius ? Clearly we are, because Carné spends a lot of time on those plays, and it's very much wasted as far as I'm concerned.

As for Garance... it kills me to say this, but I don't think Arletty is right for the role. There is the - admittedly highly subjective - issue of Arletty not being beautiful in the kind of way that would make men react to her the way they do here. She looks better in the second part actually, but everyone's already been in love with her for a decade at this point. Even if we go past that, Arletty's whole charm relies on her gouaille, a way of speaking that's very specific to early 20th century Paris and sounds completely out of place here : not just because it's the wrong era, but especially because it's the wrong class. It'd be like having Laurence Olivier playing a fisherman (except the other way around) : it just doesn't fit. I appreciate that this is probably not an issue for non-French speakers, but it's a pretty big one for me. She's obviously aware of it and tones it down significantly, but it's still there... and it's a shame too, because I think her performance is otherwise quite good, but I could never get past that basic barrier.

What I liked a lot more was the theater stuff. This is, I'm guessing, the whole reason the film takes place when it does : right around the time of the battle of Hernani, which is not a swords-and-canons kind of battle. Hernani was one of Hugo's first plays, and it caused a gigantic controversy at the time because it ignored classical versification and generally embraced romanticism, in opposition with the classicism that was dominant at the time (ie Greek-style tragedies). The conflict runs through this film as an undercurrent, especially through Frédérick Lemaître, played by a wonderfully hammy Pierre Brasseur, who's having a lot of fun, oozes charisma and really should have been the main character. He's a bit in-between, with his love of language (the main issue people had with Hernani was the language being too "trivial") and relative disdain for Baptiste, but Shakespeare was also seen as quite the populist, which was obviously unacceptable. This is where Prévert's influence is felt in the film (well, that and the witty dialogue), with both Baptiste and Frédrick set up as Hugo-esque heroes of popular art against the aristocratic and hypocritical (with his duels being just another manner of murder) Lacenaire.

This review is way too long (appropriate for a 3-hour film I suppose), especially since I'm going to land on this being underwhelming overall, with the most interesting/enjoyable part being buried by romances centered on character I had trouble with., but I'll end with an appreciation for Maria Casares as Baptiste's long-suffering wife, who reminded me of Olivia de Havilland in Gone With the Wind : a saintly, beautiful side character who ends up being the emotional heart of it all.

6/10

Possible nominations :

Supporting Actor - Pierre Brasseur
Supporting Actress - Maria Casares
Original Screenplay
Art Direction
« Last Edit: March 23, 2017, 04:15:08 PM by Teproc »
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1SO

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Re: 1945 Retrospots: Discovery Project
« Reply #134 on: April 07, 2017, 06:49:43 PM »

The Corn is Green

A cultured woman with money and time moves to a Welsh mining town and decides to use her resources to open a school. At this start, this looks like pure Oscar bait where the headstrong Miss Moffat clashes with the students, the parents and the owners of the mine, outmaneuvering everyone with her sharp mind and clever wits. There is a scene early on where Moffat (Bette Davis) cons the local fat cat who calls himself The Squire (Nigel Bruce) into sponsoring one advanced student by appealing to his feeling of male superiority, and it's perhaps the best scene in the movie because you watch Davis pretending to be the weaker sex and the great Nigel Bruce fall for it like Ron Burgandy.

The story is more full-bodied than that, with the focus shifting to that student, played by John Dall (Rope, Gun Crazy) in an Oscar nominated performance. Except for his lean Lee Marvin features, Dall is hardly recognizable from his later Noir work. Davis is great too, which may sound obvious, but the generosity of her character and her ability to be more exhausted than determined is not typical for the actress. Bruce is his usual great self even though he's playing the jerk this time. I should comment on Joan Lorring who was also Oscar nominated. She's quiet for much of the film but emerges to be a real pest for everyone. It's a big and loud performance, not one I would consider for a nomination, especially in a year when Ann Blyth plays a similar character so much better in Mildred Pierce.

While the Welsh mining town is clearly Hollywood stage work, this film finally connected for me scenes of workers singing as they return from the mine found in How Green Was My Valley - where I thought it was just Ford being Ford - and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - where I thought it was just Disney being Disney.
Rating: * * * - Good, #16 out of 78 for 1945

Possible Nominations: Best Actress - Bette Davis, Best Supporting Actor - John Dall, Best Hidden Gem
Oscar Nomination: Best Supporting Actor - John Dall, Best Supporting Actress - Joan Lorring
Chances that somebody else will watch this: 95% chance that Sandy will seek this out

Knocked Out Loaded

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Re: 1945 Retrospots: Discovery Project
« Reply #135 on: April 25, 2017, 01:41:27 PM »
Pillow To Post (Vincent Sherman).

Ida Lupino is Jean Howard whose father deals in oil drilling equipment. Because of the war there are no sales people available and spoilt Jean seizes the opportunity to do something worthwhile for once. In order to close a deal she has to stay overnight at motel where the rooms only are available for military personnel and their wives. She arranges with a lieutenant to cover for her, but it turns out the lieutenant's commanding officer also stays at the same place. And thus things get more and more complicated as the white lies add up. This was both funny and silly at the same time; at times it almost tilted over and reminded of a slamming in the doors farce.

Ida Lupino herself was a charming, she gets a push for best female lead and there was one song from Lois Armstrong, so a nomination in the soundtrack category is also very possible.

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1SO

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Re: 1945 Retrospots: Discovery Project
« Reply #136 on: April 26, 2017, 02:10:17 AM »
Pillow to Post is in my queue because I find the idea of a charming Ida Lupino irresistible. I know her mostly from Noir where she's often what I call "pretty poison."

Knocked Out Loaded

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Re: 1945 Retrospots: Discovery Project
« Reply #137 on: April 26, 2017, 04:29:49 AM »
My only previous experience with Ida is The Hitch-Hiker. This must have been a fun diversion for her.
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Teproc

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Re: 1945 Retrospots: Discovery Project
« Reply #138 on: May 10, 2017, 03:20:02 PM »
Brief Encounter (David Lean, 1945)

Watching this makes me wonder why anyone spends anytime talking about the romance in Casablanca, when this is right there. Ok, Casablanca has a lot other stuff going on... but maybe that's why I like this film (which really has very little to do with Casablanca, but it came to mind for some reason) so much better. It's sharply focused aside from a small and sweet comedic subplot; entirely devoted to this very British version of a doomed romance, with a very proper amount of passion and a lot of crushing guilt.

It approaches the fantasy of romance in a very grounded way, but it's still a fantasy. They both know it can't last, and yet, they have to do it (well, to the extent that they do anything), or at least she does. Celia Johnson's performance is undeniably great, which is quite remarkable given that a lot of it relies on voice-over accompanying close-ups, something that generally doesn't work out well in my experience. She has great chemistry with Howard, and - unlike most Hollywood romances of the time - there's actually time for these characters to fall in love and for us to really care about them.

Lean's direction is what makes this go beyond "well-acted romance" though, through some stylistic flourishes (the tilt at a crucial moment late in the film for example) and the use of the train station most of the film takes place in. I suppose trains are inherently cinematic somehow (come to think of it, this is my third David Lean film and all of them have featured trains in rather prominent ways), but the exquisite cinematography and the way the romance initially feels a bit like it would belong in a cheap novel* in its escapist simplicity and relatibility, it all just adds up to me, I don't exactly know why.

*"roman de gare", literally "train station novel" is used to describe cheap (generally romantic) novels here, and this film feels like Lean trying to make that in film, but undercutting it with deep melancholy.

9/10

Possible nominations :

Best Picture
Best Director
Best Adapted Screenplay
Best Actress (Celia Johnson)
Best Editing
Best Cinematography
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Re: 1945 Retrospots: Discovery Project
« Reply #139 on: May 23, 2017, 06:46:46 PM »


Rome, Open City  (Roberto Rossellini, 1945)

Damn, I didn't write a review or even any notes for this back when I viewed it in February. Three months later, I recall the rewatch being one of those where I really struggled with how much I wanted to like the film (based on its reputation and the grand achievement of its being made at all in 1945 Italy) and how much I actually liked it. There's plenty to appreciate in the movie — the end of the first half is justly famous, and the brutality of the second half remains striking — but the final product definitely betrays the difficulties of the production. The individual scenes, though generally strong, don't always feel part of a cohesive whole. At times that makes for vibrantly extemporaneous filmmaking, but other times the result feels unpolished, like a first draft. The break in the middle of the film really interrupts the film's already rough flow. Anna Magnani's performance, though quite good, didn't impress me quite as much as I remembered. I wonder whether, in memory, I projected the power of the film's most famous scene onto her performance. Aldo Fabrizi is very likable in his role and holds the film together, but I don't foresee him making my ballot when all is said and done.

Potential Nominations: Supporting Actress (Anna Magnani), Non-English Language Film

Grade: B

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