BEST FILMS OF 1958
by Mike Lorefice

Les Amants
Louis Malle

***

Ashes and Diamonds
Andrzej Wadja

***

Le Beau Serge
Claude Chabrol

***

Big Deal on Madonna Street
Mario Monicelli

***

Bonjour Tristesse
Otto Preminger

***

The Bravados
Henry King

***1/2

Buchanan Rides Alone
Budd Boetticher

Lesser-known film from superior western director Budd Boetticher predates Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo as an absurd, darkly comic tale where the mercenary laughs at the greedy fools. Randolph Scott played indomitable, deadly serious taskmasters in Boetticher classics such as Ride Lonesome and Comanche Station, but failing to comprehend the long standing, deep seeded greed of the townspeople, he's never in control and winds up spending the film with a bemused look on his face simply knowing he's at odds with the corrosive atmosphere. While Toshiro Mifune manipulated the warring buffoons into destroying themselves, these townspeople need no such puppet mastery; more than happy to do it on their own, the plot is driven by their latest underhanded deed. Even the title of Boetticher's tongue-in-cheek film is ironic, a parody of the typical western hero rather than the one being presented. Tom Buchanan is the most sociable character Scott played for Boetticher, picking up friends on the strength of his infectious grin as much as his honorable values. An unlikely candidate to stick his neck out for what he believes just given he's finally accrued enough blood money to purchase a ranch, Buchanan doesn't espouse any values; he's simply an amiable and accommodating individual. Riding into the town of Agry, run by the eponymous angry brothers who think nothing of double crossing and killing anyone in the way of their fortune and power, Buchanan enters into a feud on the right side, helping a Mexican (Manuel Rojas) who's avenging his sister's rape, but that's also the wrong side of the hypocritical town's law. Boetticher extends the hardboiled honor system to the Mexicans, certainly something racist Hollywood wasn't known for, portraying them as more noble and honorable than their American counterparts. Boetticher is at his best when Burt Kennedy contributes more than a rewrite, building strategy and tension between a small group of well defined characters that leads to the predestined final gunfight. Charles Lang's unfocused script is overloaded with coincidence and contrivance, negating the existential meditative game of human chess Boetticher is known for with unbelievable twists. Boetticher and Lang certainly know the script is ridiculous, they simply don't care because the Agry's way of life so greatly exceeds it. [9/8/07] ***

The Defiant Ones
Stanley Kramer

***

Elevator to the Gallows
Louis Malle

Malle's debut feature is a stylistic botched murder noir that was ahead of its time, but hasn't aged as well due to the somewhat by the numbers plot and thinness of the characters. In his only pure genre exercise Malle falls somewhere between Robert Bresson, who he assisted on the brilliant A Man Escaped (Maurice Ronet confined in a small elevator he must escape from and Jeanne Moreau's interior dialogue), and Alfred Hitchcock (Ronet is blamed for a murder he didn't commit). Moreau emerged as a star after almost a decade in the business, and soon become one of the symbols of the new wave. The main difference from her past work was without makeup and lighting artists she was finally allowed to be herself. Henri Decae's brilliant photography is what begins to usher in the changes in the look of French films, filming even the night scenes with natural lighting. Miles Davis completely improvised melancholic Jazz score recorded in one night ushered in an era where they became somewhat en vogue. The film features two couples, but really they are four lonely outsiders following their own solitary path. One daring aspect is that Moreau and star Ronet are never physically in the same area. [8/13/06] ***

Ivan the Terrible: Part 2
Sergei Eisenstein

***

The Magician
Ingmar Bergman

***

Man of the West
Anthony Mann

****

Mon Oncle
Jacques Tati

****

Party Girl
Nicholas Ray

***

The Proud Rebel
Michael Curtiz

***

Rock-A-Bye Baby
Frank Tashlin

***

Separate Tables
Delbert Mann

***

Terror in a Texas Town
Joseph H. Lewis

***

Thunder Road
Arthur Ripley

***

Touch of Evil
Orson Welles

****

Vertigo
Alfred Hitchcock

****

The Very Eye of Night
Maya Deren

Deren's "ballet of night" is the negative image of a professional ballet troupe superimposed over a constellation of stars. Maya is Buddhist for illusion and she passes this one off extremely well, especially when we consider, as Deren liked to say, "her films cost what Hollywood spends on lipstick" Initially it's traditional ballet with the ballerinas standing on their feet so to speak even though there's nothing to stand on. However, as the film progresses time, space, and gravity are obliterated and the ballerinas really seem to be floating through space as they are performing. Ito's ambient soundtrack of bells and blocks creates a rhythmic trance. There's nothing to interpret here, it's simply a spatial experiment that's impressive to look at. [4/16/06] ***