BEST FILMS OF 1943
by Mike Lorefice

Bataan
Tay Garnett

***

Le Corbeau
Henri-Georges Clouzot

****

Full Movie Review

Day of Wrath
Carl Theodor Dreyer

****

December 7th
John Ford & Gregg Toland

***

The Eternal Return
Jean Delannoy

Jean Cocteau's signature is all over this underrated effort from Jean Delannoy made during the nazi occupation, but rejected by French audiences who for once took a stand against the fascist propaganda of the Aryan ideal. Cocteau wrote the script, and the film has his cast and to a good extent his dreamy look with the misty exteriors and some trick shots. It's not as good as the later efforts Cocteau directed himself, but you can see the basis of his cinema in its infancy. It's more poetic than realistic, but a very credible fantasy. Marais's uncle has had no reason to live since his wife died, so Marais', who is rather bored and aimless, promises to bring him back a lovely young bride. Based on the story of Tristan and Isolde, Marais finds that Madeleine Sologne instead brings him back to life. She's also much better suited for Marais since both are in their early 20's. The love story doesn't come across that well, it's cold and distant, intangible. It's one of those love stories where you have to just take their word for it because the characters tend to seem rather indifferent to one another. However, the film succeeds as an adult (i.e. intellectual) fantasy even if the only truly interesting character is the 24-year-old dwarf (Pieral) who wreaks havoc on everyone. ***

I Walked With a Zombie
Jacques Tourneur

****

Full Movie Review

The Leopard Man
Jacques Tourneur

Though slightly below Cat People and I Walked with a Zombie, this lesser seen Tourneur/Lewton pairing, their third and unfortunately final, probably should not take a back seat to any other horror movie made during the 1940's. What separated Tourneur's films from the lesser two directors Lewton worked with (Robson & Wise) were his visual and aural rhythms. His moody and evocative work had a fluidity and flow that was absent not only in the other Lewton productions, but quite frankly from anything being made in America at that time. Roy Webb's soundtracks worked perfectly with Tourneur's images, creating a few of the most poetic films ever to come out of Hollywood. Tourneur's use of sound to create atmosphere worked so well that you never considered the lack of " horror action", it subbed for it. Set in New Mexico, this one is steeped in Spanish flavor. Theoretically this doom laden tale is about a leopard that escapes from a nightclub act and murders working class women, but it's all shown through the oppressiveness of night and shadows. Though shot on sets (which don't provide the richness we got from the "West Indies" in Zombie) the illusion of the vacant openness of the night is created during the chilling scenes, yet at the same time there's an overwhelming claustrophobia. It's as if the victim is cut off only from anyone that could help her or anywhere she could escape to. Though a bit less suggestive than the previous two Tourneur/Lewton combos because we do see a bit of the leopard in the first murder, that in a way works to the films advantage because the big question is whether the leopard murdered the other people or it was a copyman. Obviously there wasn't a huge surprise as to how the duo was going to approach the material, but this still strikes me as the most terrifying of the three. The tension leading up to the murders is incredible, things like wind, branches whistling, and reflections have never been so frightening! Though the night clubs publicity stuntman (Dennis O'Keefe) and songstress (Jean Brooks) are purportedly the main characters, investigating the leopard murders with more thoughtfulness and diligence than the police, Leopard Man has one of the most daring narrative structures a talking Hollywood picture had employed, allowing the murders to be the center and thus shifting the focus between the various victims and investigators. The source material was a hard boiled novel by Cornell Woolrich, who penned such works as Rear Window and The Bride Wore Black. I'll concede the finish (actually the entire whodunit aspect) is not exactly a strong point, but I'd suggest they've conceded it in order to keep some "coherence" in their daring narrative style. What's more important is what they are able to do in such a brief time; I can't think of another horror movie where we learn a so much about the characters in such a brief time. This is highly effective storytelling, with characters made meaningful. [10/24/05] ****

The Life & Death of Colonel Blimp
Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger

David Low's military satirizing comic strip character was noted for being a nice honorable gentlemanly guy and also the epitome of the foolhardy selfish unknowingly fascist reactionary who can be counted on to be pronounce opinions 180 degrees from actuality. Powell & Pressburger turned these short sketches into an episodic epic that covers a British soldier's life through their last three wars. Though WW II was far from won and this was slated to be British propaganda with the point being gentlemanly conduct (old honorable way) will not stand up to Hitler (perhaps true but a dubious), the main British character in many ways comes off as poorly as the main German one. That said, in many ways they are equally awesome. Colonel Candy (a great performance by Roger Livesey) is the representation of Britain, nothing ever changes because they always win, thus it's the same ideas, the same conduct, Candy even goes for the same girl every time (Deborah Kerr plays them all). And yet the film is very clever, particularly in employing it's framing device. It starts in 1942 with the old Candy and then goes back 40 years, showing a seemingly very different man and following him as he loses vigor and theoretically gains wisdom until we get back to the present. Like Britain, Candy's problem is he cannot adapt and thus he slowly loses his relevance and his place in the world. The brilliance of the film is that it's so lovingly rendered, such a humanist work. We spend so much time with him we lose our perspective, our rational, and begin to forget Candy is wrong and in his low moment believe he's gotten the shaft. All the points are made indirectly, if not in a contradictory fashion, and the way of life is depicted so well that the audience is boxed into its (Candy's/Britain's) limited ideologies. Powell & Pressburger seem torn, loving the old ways but feeling they are no longer relevant, so if you don't step back on your own the film seems overly positive and perhaps if you do the film seems overly negative (I'm probably guilty of that). The foolishness of war is depicted by Candy and German Colonel Theo Kretschman-Schuldorff's longtime friendship. They meet irrationally trying to kill each other in a duel, but recovering in the same hospital become best friends and though Theo lost the duel he wins Candy's first love. Theo is similarly pigheaded initially, but unlike Candy he does change because Germany is turned upside down through the loss of WW 1 and the rise of Hitler. And the irony is, unlike Candy, he's no longer of use to anybody so all he learns is wasted as he learned it too late. Expertly crafted with fine use of Technicolor, great set design, and inventive visuals this is a funny, enjoyable, lovingly mocking film. It's probably a masterpiece, but it's such an indefinable enigma it's difficult to judge what does and doesn't work. [9/12/05] ***1/2

Man with a Cross
Roberto Rossellini

***

Meshes of the Afternoon
Maya Deren & Alexander Hammid

The first and arguably best experimental short of Maya Deren started the avant-garde movement in America. Deren disregards traditional linear narrative structure, instead employing an amalgam. This gives viewers the idea Deren plays several characters, but duplication and repetition, sometimes with minor variation, are the keys to her rhythms. I believe we are seeing the same woman at different points in her nightmare (even the grim reaper's mirror face reflects her image back at her), and probably different sides of her personality. Starting with dislocated closeups of body parts and silhouettes, the film seems to slowly build by revealing the slightest details, but to some extent that is not the case as it maintains the logic, atmosphere, and cohesion of a dream. Thematically the work is a mix of Freudian psychology with desire, fear, alienation, paranoia, and estrangement. The major theme may be feminine angst, as it delves into the fear of men with then husband Hammid playing both the lover who seems capable of putting her life back together and the grim reaper who she can never catch to stop him from taking her life. The film experiments with space, in a sense it's a chase with the non-linear narrative and dislocating cutting methods providing a new way to show Deren's lack of progress in capturing the reaper. Deren was sometimes thought of as a surrealist, but she's far more toward expressionism, particularly in her first two works because Hammid's exceptional photography features dynamic dramatic lighting, makes exquisite use of shadows, and places much emphasis on the gesture. Originally the film was silent; not only are there no intertitles but there's no dialogue and we don't even get a hint at what type of music is playing on the record player. The traditional Japanese percussion and woodwind soundtrack was added by her third husband Teiji Ito in 1959. Though Deren's work more than holds its own in silent form, this score understands what the film is trying to accomplish so well, fleshing out the physical states, the mood of paranoia and dread. Moreover, it matches the rhythms the segments are cut to so well that it's hard not to rate it slightly above At Land, which remains in original silent form. [4/15/06] ****

Ossessione
Luchino Visconti

***1/2

The Ox-Bow Incidenta
William Wellman

***

Shadow of a Doubt
Alfred Hitchcock

****

Sanshiro Sugata
Akira Kurosawa

***

The Seventh Victim
Mark Robson

Long before Rosemary's Baby, Val Lewton produced this suggestive horror that has a little to do with satan worshippers in Greenwich Village. This is one of the least lurid horror movies ever made though; there's some fantastic talk but beyond shadows nothing is seen, much more than even the horror is completely left to the imagination. It's truly amazing how little the film delivers on what's supposedly promised, though anyone familiar with Lewton productions will know how good it is for it. It remains intelligent and believable from start to finish, at least to the extent that any film involving satan worshippers could possibly be, which is probably even more amazing when you consider its effectiveness in creeping further and further from rationality. Lewton's literary influences make Victim. A doom laden quote from poet John Donne leads off the piece, and the film never relents in the displeasure. Everything is handled with the maturity and psychology of a good novel, and that is quite surprising considering in addition to cultists the subject matter involves a shrink who has an affair with a married patient, a husband who falls in love with his wife's sister, suicide, and potential lesbianism. These personal Lewton horrors show what the genre is capable of offering, in Curse of the Cat People he gives us a valuable study of child psychology, here it's the effects of repression. Lewton had to take a very hands on approach to help first time director Robson, making it one of the two (the other being Curse of the Cat People where Robert Wise took over after the shooting should have been finished) to point to when you want to prove Lewton's worth as an artist. Robson was nothing without Lewton, one or two of his subsequent films was good but certainly none approached the quality of Victim, and the immensely overrated Wise wasn't much better (he made a couple good genre films amidst many turds). Tourneur certainly benefited from Lewton, but it was in supplying material that lent itself to artistry and most importantly shielding him from the meddling that underminded some later would be classics like Curse of the Demon. Victim is not nearly as stylish or poetic as the three Tourneur atmospheric masterpieces that preceded it; it has a consistent ominous dread but does not inspire outside of the key scenes. One such scene is probably the first memorable shower scene, once again proving the power of shadows. Star Kim Hunter is prone to a devil worshipper who threatens her. The whole scene shot from inside the shower through the curtain managing to show Hunter (without any unallowable nudity) and the shadow of the satan worshipper without any hint at what she might do (the curtain is completely translucent). Look out for Hugh "Ward Cleaver" Beaumont as "Mr. Ward", the husband of Hunter's missing sister. His character not surprisingly always knows what's best and condescends to Hunter like she's a child. [10/22/05] ***1/2

This Land Is Mine
Jean Renoir

Should have been forgettable wartime propaganda, but pesky Renoir refuses to take the convenient sides and dish up the expected cardboard stereotypes. The head German is only doing his duty, so the real guilty people are the collaborators, for they allow the Germans to monopolize all the power and grant them the security they need to devote most of their troops to the unconquered territories. The hero is the one who appears to be a laughable coward, and for the most part vice versa. What's interesting is comparing this supposed pro French propaganda to the supposed anti French propaganda of Clouzot's Le Corbeau. In both cases there's essentially one who isn't rotten. Renoir doesn't paint such a bleak picture, create the corrosive atmosphere, but you could still argue whether he's condemning everyone or asking them to rise above the pack. It's a bit speechy and preachy, as expected from socially conscious Hollywood, but one of the few worthwhile WW films that came out during the war, and certainly beats the "anti-war" gorefests and blind flag waving that characterizes the studio releases since Gulf War 1. [9/12/05] ***

Watch on the Rhine
Herman Shumlin

***