Film Persona

  Yasujiro Ozu's "A Story of Floating Weeds" There's something about Ozu that feels incredibly soulful. His 1934 silent film " A Story of Floating Weeds " is an incredibly atmospheric story of family secrets, betrayal, and connection and despite its simplistic nature and naturalist approach, its so full of soul and grace. It would be one of the last silent films that Ozu would make.  " A Story of Floating Weeds " tells the story of a kabuki actor returning with his troupe to the town of his former lover and his son. His son does not know about his father and the actor, in order to spare his child of the embarrassment of having a kabuki actor as a father, has pretended to be his uncle all his life. When the actor's mistress hatches a plot to reveal the truth to the son, everything begins to fall apart.  While watching the film, I was curious as to what the symbolic 'floating weeds' of the film's title was. Perhaps the floating weeds ...

  Raymond Bernard's "Les Miserables" After viewing Raymond Bernard's 1934 adaptation of the famous Victor Hugo novel " Les Misérables ," I exclaimed, " This  is the definitive ' Les Misérables ' film!" After scouring the internet, it turns out I'm not alone in this assessment. Stretching over 4 and a half hours in length, Bernard's film is a massive and sprawling work. Yet somehow, he manages to make it feel both epic and intimate.  The story of " Les Misérables " is an interwoven tale between various characters as they struggle through various forms of economic, societal, and political turmoil in post-Napoleon France. Each character is faced with moral decisions that stem directly from external pressures. In this economic, societal, and political divide, the characters are forced into circumstances where they must survive and to do so, must make difficult and morally compromised choices. Hugo's original novel, which c...

  Jean Cocteau's "Beauty and the Beast" I don't honestly think there's much to say about Jean Cocteau's 1946 adaptation of Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont's " Beauty and the Beast ." Cocteau's adaptation was the first time the " Beauty and the Beast " story had ever been adapted into film. And it certainly wasn't the last, as it sparked many and frequent remakes over the years of film history. Cocteau's version, for my money, is the definitive version. To tell the plot of " Beauty and the Beast " would be like telling the plot of " Romeo and Juliet " or " Alice in Wonderland ." It is a plot that everyone is familiar with and have probably known since their early childhood. However, the plot of the film doesn't exactly drive the interest in this particular film for me. Rather, it's all about the magical visual style of Cocteau. The film is like a dream. It's as if you float through ...

  John Huston's "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" Often considered one of the best American pictures of all time, John Huston's 1948 film " The Treasure of the Sierra Madre " was certainly an integral viewing experience in my deep dive into classic American cinema. Starring Humphrey Bogart, Tim Holt, and Walter Huston, the film tells the story of three men as they attempt to find gold in the Sierra Madre mountains. It's a film that pulls from many influences and itself has influenced many films after. I'm not going to get too much into the plot of the film, because it seems self explanatory. After finding gold in the mountains, the three men, especially the Humphrey Bogart character, become enveloped in paranoia and greed. Their insatiable desire for gold corrupts their human spirit and makes them turn their backs on each other. In the end, one ends up dead and none with the gold. My biggest takeaway from the film is the film's commentary on Ame...

  Jean-Luc Godard's "Breathless" Whether or not Jean-Luc Godard's 1960 masterpiece " Breathless " started the new wave movement is a moot point. I personally see Agnes Varda's 1955 film " La Pointe Courte " as being the ignition point for this phenomenon. Others view it as Francois Tuffaut's more subdued 1959 film " The 400 Blows ." Regardless, there's no denying that cinema as a whole changed completely after Godard's " Breathless ." As the Criterion summary of the film says, "There was before ' Breathless ,' and there was after ' Breathless ."  " Breathless " is considered a 'thriller' in story, but doesn't really play much like a 'thriller.' It tells the story of Michel, a youthful and dangerous criminal who models himself on the film persona of Humphrey Bogart. After killing a policeman and fleeing, he turns to an American love interest, Patricia, a student ...

  Vittorio De Sica's "Shoeshine" There is something Vittorio De Sica is able to do with his films that no other director can seem to do. For one thing, he certainly knows how to pull at the heartstrings and make your heart break in a final climatic moment. He builds relationships, complex stories, and emotional identification and twists it until the final pull is something utterly tragic. Another thing he is able to do is present reality as bare-boned as possible. Of course, his work in the Italian neo-realist landscape provided a lot of the bare-boned nature of his work. However, even so, it is no small feat that his films connect us to something pure and resonant and the film screen disappears behind the reality of life. The same can be said for his very first masterpiece, 1946's " Shoeshine ."  The film follows two young impoverished boys who are trying to buy themselves a horse. After getting involved with one of the boy's criminal brother and his sc...

  Nicholas Ray's "In a Lonely Place" Nicholas Ray's 1950 film " In a Lonely Place " is considered by many film historians to be one of the greatest film noirs of all time. After watching it, I found many aspects of the film to be incredibly interesting, particularly the bleak nature of hopelessness for the characters and their own muddled morality and behavior. However, I walked away from the film feeling a little cold. I found the characters to be unlikeable, the story story-less, and the theme to be empty of any substance. However, these seem to be the point of the whole film. The film stars Humphrey Bogart as a Hollywood screenwriter named Dixon Steele. He is an aggressive and oft violent man and former World War II commanding officer who takes a young barmaid home one night in the hopes of sleeping with her. The attempt fails and she leaves his house, only to be murdered later that night. The police list Steele as the prime suspect, however Steele's ...

  Wu Yonggang's "The Goddess" After watching Wu Yonggang's 1934 film " The Goddess ," I found it hard to believe that such a socially and politically charged film could have ever graced the film screen in 1930's China. After reading more extensively about China's culture and politics in 1934, I find it ever more surprising!  " The Goddess " centers on a single mother in Shanghai who must prostitute herself on the street in order to provide economically for her son. After a street thug begins to take advantage of her, she starts hiding money to enter her son into a private school. However, once other parents learn that their children are going to school with a prostitute's son, they write letters to the school demanding his expulsion. The principal investigates only to be won over by the woman's tragic story and her resolve to better her son's life. He tells the school board that if they decide to expel the student, he will resig...

  Agnes Varda's "La Pointe Courte" Many people consider the start of the French Nouvelle Vague movement to be with François Truffaut and his 1959 masterpiece " The 400 Blows ." Those that consider that would be gravely mistaken, as the ignition point of the Nouvelle Vague movement lies with Agnes Varda and her 1955 film " La Point Courte ." At the age of 26, Varda constructed a film that would have one of the largest impacts on cinema in the 20th century. " La Pointe Courte " is the work of an amateur, and it's only an amateur that could make something as artistic and rule-breaking that would change the film landscape.  " La Pointe Courte " shifts back and forth between two differing sequences. In one, a group of fisherman in a small fishing village called La Pointe Courte face challenges of fishing in a polluted lagoon while their wives deal with domestic duties. These moments in the film deal with the small, sensory everyday l...

  Ingmar Bergman's "Summer with Monika" After the existential experience of watching Ingmar Bergman's 1951 film " Summer Interlude ," I return back to Bergman and back to a film dealing with themes of "summer." Like in " Summer Interlude ," Bergman's exploration of the summer months in " Summer with Monika " are also explorations of youthful respite from the harsh realities of adult life.  The film finds two young lovers who run away from their harsh and abusive working class lives. The young lovers, Harry and Monika, steal Harry's dad's boat and spend the summer at the Stockholm Archipelago. Their summer is full of youthful adventure and carefree living. After a while, they begin to get restless and hungry, especially after Monika reveals that she believes herself to be pregnant. After returning back to the city and back to 'reality,' Harry gets a job to support the new baby, while Monika takes the responsib...

  Federico Fellini's "I Vitelloni" There's something about the work of Federico Fellini that seems almost untouchable. There's a certain magic that permeates the fabric of the film screen. The same rule applies to his second feature length film, 1953's " I Vitelloni ." The film won the Venice Film Festival Silver Lion in 1953 and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Screenplay in 1958. It was Fellini's second film, but was the first commercial and critical success of his career. The film portrays the daily lives of five young men in a small Italian town. The film is mostly without plot, but mundanely inhabits the lives of these men who seem to be in a state of arrested development. To best understand the film, you would first need to understand the film's title. When the first was first shopped around, many distributors wanted to change the title of the film, as it was generally incomprehensible. However, Fellini adamantly refused, as...

  Alfred E. Green's "Baby Face" Before the Hays Code was put into effect in 1934, the pre-code era of Hollywood contained films that were more liberal in their depiction of sexuality, politics, and other 'controversial' subject matters. One of the films that kickstarted the need for the Hays Code was Alfred E. Green's 1933 film " Baby Face ." The film stars Barbara Stanwyck as an abused barmaid who sleeps her way to the top of the banking empire, leaving a trail of broken marriages in her headstrong quest to better her life.  The film was controversial for many reason. Firstly, the Hays Office disliked the overt sexual nature of the films. After all, a woman uses her natural sexuality to exploit the men around her. She uses her sexuality as a form of power. She sleeps with multiple men in the film and breaks apart many a marriage in order to climb her way to the top. The Hays Office felt this was too explicit and immoral. Secondly, another issue take...

  Gustav Machaty's "Ecstasy" Gustav Machaty's 1933 Czechian film " Ecstacy ," starring Hedy Lamarr is perhaps the first non-pornographic film to portray sexual intercourse and female orgasm, although never showing more than the actor's faces. It controversial for this reason, as well as the scene showing a nude Lamarr. Despite its director winning the Best Director award at the 1934 Venice Film Festival, the film was denounced in many countries and even banned in a few for a few years until a censored version could be made available. 

  Leo McCarey's "Duck Soup" " Duck Soup " is the very first Marx Brothers film I've ever seen. My verdict is the same verdict many other people throughout history have felt: they are very funny. This might sound incredibly simple, but I don't have much vocabulary to explain its rhythms, gags, and comedy. I found myself laughing the whole way through.  In the film, Groucho Marx plays the newly installed president of the fictional country of Freedonia. Zeppo Marx plays his secretary and Chico and Harpo are spies for the neighboring country of Sylvania. Relations between Groucho and the Sylvanian ambassador deteriorate, eventually leading to war between the two countries. My one note about the film is that every creative or thematic choice goes by the wayside in order to serve the comedy of the Marx Brothers. This is not necessarily a bad thing. After all, the comedy that Marx Brothers are producing is some of the most iconic and ingenious comedy of the 20t...

  David Lean's "Brief Encounter" When I first started watching David Lean's 1945 British film " Brief Encounter ," I figured that I knew what I was in for. After all, the plot of the movie seems commonplace in all art: forbidden love. I felt myself becoming restless throughout the opening of the film, feeling as though I could already predict the story. After all, we are shown the ending first. Everything else is easy to figure. A woman meets a man during a brief encounter at a train station. The two continue to see each other until eventually falling in love. Their love is doomed, however, as both are in committed relationships and not wanting to destroy the lives they've built. There it is. The entire plot of the film is assumed right from the get go. And you know what? As the film unfolded, the plot that I expected is exactly the plot I got. Normally, already knowing the entire plot of the film would completely render it boring and unwatchable. Howeve...

  George Cukor's "Dinner at Eight" " Dinner at Eight ," adapted from the Edna Ferber stage play of the same name, was a breakout success for director George Cukor. It featured a cast of characters all intertwined through the expectation of attending a dinner party at the wealthy Jordan residence. However, all of the characters face critical and existential moments leading up to the dinner party, as they all scramble to re-evaluate their lives. The film's cast is expansive, as the studio tried to mirror the star-studded cast of the breakout hit " Grand Hotel " from the year prior. " Dinner at Eight " stars Marie Dressler, John Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Jean Harlow, Lionel Barrymore, and others. The large and varied cast was the main selling point of the film. Much like the reviews state in 1933, I was enveloped and gripped by the intricate web of storylines and characters from beginning to end.  The film centers on very wealthy individuals...

  Marcel Carne's "Port of Shadows" In the 1930s, France was experiencing a cinema renaissance, one that would later be matched and topped by the Nouvelle Vague movement of the 1960s. The poetic realism movement in the 1930s was a movement that used heightened realism to convey romantic or poetic visual meaning to the realistic images. Filmmakers like Jean Renoir, Rene Clair, and Jean Vigo were at the forefront of this movement. This movement would come to an end with the invasion of the Nazis in 1940. However, toward the end in the 1930s, there was one last explosion of artistic poetic realism that was unmatched. The film that many film scholars consider to be the shining example of poetic realism is Marcel Carne's " Port of Shadows ."  " Port of Shadows " stars Jean Gabin as a rough and tumble army deserter who reached the port city of La Havre. There, he meets and falls in love with a 17 year old who has run away from her godfather. Before they c...