Film Persona

Robert Bresson's "Four Nights of a Dreamer" Robert Bresson's 1971 " Four Nights of a Dreamer " is the second adaptation I've seen of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's short story " White Nights ." The other was Luchino Visconti's 1957 film. Of course, Bresson's version is very...well...Bressonian.  The film centers on Jacques, a depressed and alienated Parisian artist who meets Marthe - a woman pondering suicide at the edge of Pont Neuf. She spends her nights awaiting the return of a past lover, who has yet to come and see her. Jacques spends the next four nights with Marthe, comforting her while waiting. The two eventually fall in love. However, on the final night, Marthe's lover returns. In Visconti's version, the story is told through a more romantic lens, even its final melancholy. But, in pure Bressonian fashion, " Four Nights of a Dreamer " is a far more cold, clinical imagining of Dostoyevsky's work. That being said,...

  Stanley Kramer's "Judgement at Nuremberg" The 1961 American film " Judgement at Nuremberg " features a dramatization of the real-life Nuremberg Trails that took place between 1946 and 1949. Specifically, it features the "Judges' Trial," in which multiple jurists and lawyers were put on trial for their association with carrying out unjust laws. The main takeaway I got from watching this classic Hollywood piece is the desire to study the very real trials that took place. Beyond that, the film is a moderately good courtroom drama. While it was interesting to see a theatrical version of the real trials, along with very effective quick zooms, the oversimplification of the events leaves one to be desired. That being said, the film does its very best to layout all the complex notions it's bringing to the table. There is far more happening than the posited question: should the Germans be held accountable? The film muses on this question while providi...

  Robert Wise's "West Side Story" Based on the acclaimed 1957 Broadway Musical of the same name, the 1961 film adaptation of " West Side Story " is one of the most memorable movie musicals in history. The original story is based on William Shakespeare's famous play " Romeo and Juliet ," but updated for a 'modern' New York City. While it remains a classic of Hollywood history, to me, it does little to distinguish itself from the other colorful musicals of the time. The best aspect of the film's impact, beyond its critical recognition, is its timely politics on civil unrest and race relations. In the film, two teenage gangs rival for control over of the Upper West Side. One gang is white, the other Puerto Rican. While the representation of some of the Puerto Ricans by white actors is a bit undermining of its main point, I still feel its central thematic focus was an important social commentary at a time when civil rights were heating up i...

  Elia Kazan's "Splendor in the Grass" Coming out of the 1950s, there was a certain eye-rolling quality in American cinema that continued to persist. The films very either very propagandic or very overdramatic. I felt the sting of stupidity emanating from Elia Kazan's 1961 film " Splendor in the Grass ." Although it doesn't an egregious amount of offense and does contain some engaging elements, its attempt at continuing Kazan's pulse on American youth felt very dried up. It stars Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty as a teenage couple, Deanie and Bud, in 1928/29 Kansas. The pressure from all the adults in their life about their future and status cause their relationship to spiral. This eventually leads to their separation and individual problems that stem from it. There's really nothing more to the story. In the beginning, I felt a sense of promise on its initial themes. Kazan had made plenty of film's dealing with the problematic upbringing of mo...

  Federico Fellini's "Satyricon" Loosely based on the 1st century Latin work " Satyricon ," Federico Fellini's delirious concoction of a film, 1969's " Satyricon " is a madcap work, even for the likes of Fellini. When the film was first screened at the 30th Venice Film Festival, it was met with a generally positive reception, albeit critics wrote about the film with "stunned bewilderment." Although set during the Roman times of Nero, the depiction of Imperial Rome is far more like a surreal dream. The film is broken out between 9 episodes, most featuring a character called Encolpius. While there is a loose narrative structure, the film can be difficult to surmise a consistent plot, as most of the scenes are filled with too many abstractions to coherently build linear cohesion. However, we follow Encolpius, the pansexual, as he attempts to traverse the delirious and wild environment of paganist debauchery and violence in Imperial Rome....

Pietro Germi's "Divorce Italian Style" There are certain films that have a thematic resonance that overpowers the film's sense of entertainment value. Then there are films that are so entertaining, you don't even attempt to mine any semblance of theme or greater point. Pietro Germi's 1961 comedy " Divorce Italian Style " is one of those films. The film centers on a 37-year-old impoverished nobleman named Ferdinando who daydreams about the various ways he could end the life of his wife of 12 years, Rosalia. He decides to hatch a plan to break off his marriage in order to secure a marriage between himself and his 16-year-old cousin, Angela, whom he only sees during the summer. To enact his plan, he hires his wife's former lover to come and pain their ceiling, hoping he can catch them in the act and murder them. While the plot of the film may sound dramatic or intense, it is actually done incredibly farcically. Every bit of what's happening in t...