Film Persona

  Yasujiro Ozu's "Floating Weeds" " Floating Weeds " was Yasujiro Ozu's second adaption of one of his previous films that he did in 1959. The other, " Good Morning ," was adapted from his 1932 film " I Was Born, but... " while " Floating Weeds " was adapted from 1934's " A Story of Floating Weeds ." While " Good Morning " was only a loose adaptation, " Floating Weeds " was far more direct. It centers on a travelling theater troupe who arrive at a seaside town for their next performance. While on this temporary stop, the troupe's lead actor and owner, Komajuro, visits his former mistress and his secret son, pretending to be the boy's uncle. Komajuro's current girlfriend and lead actress, Sumiko, discovers his secret, she pays one of the supporting actresses to seduce the young boy. Things begin to unravel, bringing to light all of the hidden secrets. Like with Ozu's 1934 silent ve...

  Masaki Kobayashi's "The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity" The second installment of Masaki Kobayasi's " Human Condition " trilogy, called " Road to Eternity ," finds our protagonist, Kaji, moving from running a concentration camp to being an army conscript. Like in the first film, Kaji attempts to better the humanity surrounding wartime Japan by holding on to his pacifist ideals. However, his difficulties mount, given the brutal nature of war and, more specifically, the human condition itself. While I found myself not being as attuned to this film as I was in the first one, I think this film is as much of an achievement. Its three hour length is completely necessary to breaking down the audiences' spirits, just as Kaji's spirits continue to be battered and abused. Kobayashi manages to visualize the struggle of holding on to one's sense of humanity during the most inhumane time.

  Karel Reisz's "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning" After Tony Richardson's successful realization of the British "kitchen sink drama" with 1959's " Look Back in Anger ," he went on to produce more kitchen sink dramas. For the adaptation of the 1958 novel " Saturday Night and Sunday Morning ," he handed over the reigns to Karel Reisz. Starring Albert Finney, " Saturday Night and Sunday Morning " went on to be just as prominent in British culture as " Look Back in Anger ."  Centering on an 'angry young man,' a trope integral to the format of the kitchen sink drama, the film takes us through his life working as a young machinist and a social terror. Bored of the mundanity of his empty job, he starts up an affair with a older, married woman and eventually impregnates her. All the while, he also forms a relationship with another woman, Doreen. She wants to live a domestic life - something that feels suffocating...

  Jean-Luc Godard's "Weekend" With " Weekend ," Jean-Luc Godard takes a final bow to France's New Wave movement. After the film, Godard took a break from making fictional feature-length narratives. This move was intended to be permanent, but he could not help himself by the time he reached the 1980s with " Every Man for Himself ." " Weekend " demonstrates Godard at his most extreme, and more importantly, at his most political. To me, " Weekend " seems incredibly reminiscent of a Luis Bunuel film. Bunuel films typically centered on characters attempting to to do something, only to be prevented from doing so time and time again. The lovers in " L'Age d'Or " cannot consummate their affections and continue to get interrupted, the guests at a dinner party in " The Exterminating Angel " cannot physically bring themselves to leave the ballroom, and the wealthy characters of " The Discreet Charm of the B...

  Claude Chabrol's "Les Cousins" Although it was his second feature film, " Les Cousins " was Claude Chabrol's first feature that he attempted to make. Due to its excessive budget, he instead made the cheaper " Le Beau Serge " his first film and used the profits to make " Les Cousins " immediately afterward. The two projects also parallel each other in story, although the two actors - Gerard Blain and Jean-Claude Brialy - switched archetypical roles. Blain played the niave outsider in " Les Cousins " while Brialy played the established insider, both of which were reversals of their roles in " Le Beau Serge ." The film centers on two cousins, Charles and Paul. The naive, innocent, and idealistic Charles has moved to Paris to share his uncle's apartment with his dissolute, profligate, and jaded cousin Paul. Both are studying for their law exams. However, while Charles diligently studies, Paul throws raucous parties, ...

  Robert Altman's "McCabe & Mrs. Miller" Although it received mostly negative reviews when it premiered at the Criterion and Loew's Cine theaters in New York City in 1971, " McCabe & Mrs. Miller " has gone to to receive lauded contemporary reviews. So much so that many consider the film one of the most significant films of the emerging New Hollywood movement. Many credit Robert Altman for the film's lasting success as a Hollywood classic. The film centers on a mysterious gambler and alleged shootist named McCabe who is takes over an unincorporated boomtown in the state of Washington. His quick ascent is largely due to both the inhabitants' simple-mindedness, as well as the floating rumor that McCabe is a notorious gunfighter. He financially partners with Mrs. Miller, a loud and brash cockney woman, who understands how to run a whorehouse far better than McCabe. After McCabe gets into some bad business dealings, he is under the gun of dangerou...

  Andrei Tarkovsky's "Ivan's Childhood" In watching " Ivan's Childhood ," I am able to finally begin the filmography of my all-time favorite filmmaker, Andrei Tarkovsky. It's clear that this is an amateur work from the great master, given that it's his debut feature. However, many of the styles and choices he will come to be known for creep up in " Ivan's Childhood ," and marks a dramatic shift in Soviet cinema. One of the key ways it marks a shift in Soviet cinema is Tarkovsky's concentration on nature. The Stalinist viewpoint that had indoctrinated itself into the nation's standards for cinema was that nature was to be depicted as a means to serve human agency. During the Khrushchev thaw at the time of the film's release, many filmmakers began to operate outside the scope of the previous regime's restrictions. Tarkovsky chose to depict nature as being an omniscient observer of human violence and suffering.  Remarka...

  Kon Ichikawa's "Fires on the Plain" Despite receiving mixed receptions at the time of its release, Kon Ichikawa's 1959 film " Fires on the Plain " has gone on to be considered a classic of the Japanese Golden Age. The film follows a Japanese private attempting to stay alive in the Philippines during the Second World War. One of the reasons for the lukewarm reception was due to the film's violence and bleak theme.  However, these thematic notions are entirely what make the film such an memorable and worthy film. Its unflinching observation of how humanity devolves given the bleak circumstances provides an natural sense of discomfort. I was very discomforted by the film, simply by the horrible conceptions of what could befall us given its scenarios. 

  Francois Truffaut's "Bed and Board" I don't have much time to comment on Francois Truffaut's 1970 film " Bed and Board ," but what I will say is that I always thoroughly enjoy re-entering the world of Antoine Doniel. He is such a flawed, yet endlessly interesting fellow whose triumphs and downfalls I'm deeply invested in. With " Bed and Board ," we are focused thematically on Antoine's domestic responsibilities.  After getting married to his Christine, Antoine works as a courtyard carnation dyer while Christine maintains their small apartment. The typical circumstances of life happens: Christine gets pregnant, they have a baby boy, and Antoine gets a higher paying job. However, Antoine fails in his responsibilities after having an affair with the Japanese daughter of one of his company's business patrons.  As mentioned before, Antoine's foibles make him more human and relatable. He is an interesting character to follow the lif...

  Luchino Visconti's "The Leopard" The 1963 book-to-screen adaptation of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's 1958 novel " The Leopard " is perhaps the greatest film that Italian director Luchino Visconti ever directed. This is quite the statement, given the director's illustrious career and his signification as the founder of the Italian neo-realist movement. But it is " The Leopard " that holds this distinction, simply due to its completeness as a piece, its epic quality both in scope and emotion, and its ability to communicate the existential thoughts of its protagonist through its visual style and Visconti's apt hand. The story is set during the Unification of Italy in the mid 19th century. Burt Lancaster plays Don Fabrizio Corbera, an aging Sicilian prince, who must reconcile with the changing of the socio-political tide. In order for his family name to remain prevalent in the changing landscape, he orchestrates a marriage between his ideali...

  Werner Herzog's "The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser" Werner Herzog's 1974 film " The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser " is just as enigmatic as its central character. Based on the true story of Kasper Hauser, the film follows a strange young man who, after being isolated the first seventeen years of his life, is found in the town square without the ability to speak, walk properly, or adhere to social norms. This format of film and subject matter strike a similarity to Truffaut's " The Wild Child ," which also centers on the rehabilitation of a socially isolated young man. What's uncanny is I just watched " The Wild Child " a few days ago, so the ability to reconcile the two is due to Truffaut's film being fresh in my mind. Although the two are based on true events, I think where Herzog ventures drastically from Truffaut is that he identifies with his protagonist. The character of Kaspar, although lacks the basic fundamental knowledge of how...

  Roberto Rossellini's "General Della Rovere" I watched Rossellini's 1959 film " General Della Rovere " at the recommendation of Slavoj Zizek, who mentioned the film during a panel. He marked it notable due to its thematic notion that identity can be a completely external classification - that someone can become any form of identity simply by inhabiting it. While this notion was prevalent in the film, I had a difficult time mining any meaningful or philosophical significance from this picture. The film centers on a petty thief named Emanuele Bardone, who is hired by the German occupation forces in 1944 Genoa to impersonate an Italian Resistance leader, General Della Rovere, and infiltrate a group of resistance prisoners in a Milan prison. Gradually, Bardone loses himself in his role and eventually becomes the very hero he is impersonating. After encouraging his fellow prisoners, he turns on the Nazis and accepts his fate. While I found certain gems of the fi...

  Francois Truffaut's "The Wild Child" For some inexplicable reason, I was convinced before watching Francois Truffaut's " The Wild Child " that it would be an ineffective and disengaging experience. However, I couldn't have been more wrong. It completely took me by surprise and its depth of character and philosophical themes are worth consideration. The film is based on the true events regarding Victor of Aveyron, a late 18th century French child who spent the first eleven or twelve years of his life with little or no human contact. Dr. Jean Marc Gaspard Itard, a physician, takes the boy in, in an attempt to educate the boy. Dr. Itard, along with his caring housekeeper, is patient and cares for the boy, eventually teaching him the fundamentals of language.  What struck me most about this film is its capacity for character. There is nothing in-depth that is exercised and the story structure is rather quite simple. In fact, there's not really that muc...

  Ingmar Bergman's "The Passion of Anna" 1969's " The Passion of Anna " is perhaps the most tonally bizarre film I've seen from Ingmar Bergman yet. Its characters are listless carcasses of human beings that fail to provide any sort of humanity or comfort to the viewer and Bergman's film stews in its own emptiness and self-loathing. Interspersed in the drama are cutaway scenes of the actors commenting on their own characters. It's an interesting amalgamation of a film that doesn't quite have the emotional peaks as Bergman's other films, but it certainly is perhaps one of the more unique and hard-to-define works. It almost feels futile to even describe the plot of the film. The protagonist, Andreas, is a recently divorced man who enters into a relationship with an emotionally devastated widow. Their relationship, as well as the continued interaction with their married neighbors, is ripe with emotional unavailability. There is domestic viole...

  William Wyler's "Ben-Hur" It seems appropriate that MGM tasked William Wyler to direct their 1959 remake of the classic silent epic, 1925's " Ben-Hur ." The reason it's so appropriate is that Wyler was an assistant director on the original 1925 production. Although he would go on to film pictures over the next decade, most notably 1968's " Funny Girl ," " Ben-Hur " marked a full-circle moment for the iconic Hollywood director. Starring Charleston Heston as the titular Judah Ben Hur, who is betrayed by a Roman general and sold into slavery. After spending years in the galleys of a ship, Ben Hur saves the consulate of the vessel, earning him a high-ranking position. Using his position, he competes in the chariot races against the man who originally betrayed him. All the while, Jesus Christ and his persecution by the Roman state acts as a backdrop. " Ben-Hur"  had the largest budget and largest set build of any film produ...

  Sergei Parajanov's "The Color of Pomegranates" Although I am not familiar with the 18th century Armenian poet Sayat-Nova, I still feel enjoyment and emotional enrichment from Sergei Parajanov's 1969 film about his life, " The Color of Pomegranates ." Not exactly a biographical narrative, the film is entirely abstract images that are derived from Sayat-Nova's life and poems. Despite being unaware of his life and poems, the film is still a singular experience. After watching such an abstract piece of art, it's difficult to try and put it into words. Its images cannot be explained merely be literalizing them. Rather, the act of watching the film is the purest form of participating in the film, which cannot simply be hacked away by over-analysis.  The film was a cause for concern with Soviet censorship, who believed the lack of explanation regarding the images didn't properly educate the public on Sayat-Nova. On top of this, the film's religiou...

  Werner Herzog's "Aguirre, the Wrath of God" Although there are aspects of Werner Herzog's " Aguirre, the Wrath of God " that are pulled from non-fictional accounts of the Spanish conquistador Lope de Aguirre, the film is mostly entirely fictional. Written by Herzog, the film follows Aguirre and a group of conquistadors as they traverse the Amazonian rainforest in South America in search of El Dorado. What makes Herzog's realization of his screenplay work so congruently with his themes is the documentary visual style - real, dirty, base-bones.  The themes of the film reveal themselves pretty quickly. It doesn't take long for this group of Spanish explorers to descend into savage, unhinged behavior. This is especially true for Aguirre, who quickly assumes power through violence and insanity. In the pure wilderness, these humans are revealed to be depraved and just as savage as the natives who continue to sneakily attack them. These characters become ...