Film Persona

  Robert Rossen's "The Hustler" Perhaps the most surprising aspect of Robert Rossen's 1961 film " The Hustler " is that its lead actor, Paul Newman, did not win an Academy Award for his performance. He instead lost to Maximilian Schell, whose performance in " Judgement at Nuremberg " is far more of a supporting effort. This notion is utterly wild to me, given the charm and emotionality of Newman's performance. Beyond this fondness for Newman, I was very mixed on " The Hustler ." It's a more thematically complex film that I would have originally given it credit for. The problem is that it can be so rhythmically mundane at times. Its central hero must succumb to both internal and external sabotage in order to build the character he needs to come through a better person on the other side. While this dynamic of the film really drew me in, the path to get there was a bit tedious, story-telling-wise. 

  Ralph Nelson's "Lilies of the Field" The only reason the 1963 film " Lilies of the Field " registers in the zeitgeist of cinema is due to its lead actor, Sidney Poitier, becoming the very first black actor to win for a leading role at the Academy Awards. Beyond this outstanding achievement, the film itself has little effect in the public consciousness. After watching the film, it did little to move the needle in terms of my own personal recognition. However, its admirable themes and solid lead performance made it notable at the very least. Poitier stars as a drifting handyman named Homer, who stops at a remote Arizona farm seeking water for his car. A group of nuns from East Germany who occupy the farm believe that Homer has been sent by God to build them a chapel. Homer begrudgingly agrees to the task and ends up uniting the entire community. Despite my admiration for the progressive themes, the film is too simplistic to contain much depth. Its drama lies in ...

  Jack Clayton's "The Innocents" Despite having a cult-esque admiration by a sect of the film community, " The Innocents " did not engage with me in the slightest. Beyond its admirable gothic psychology, its contents felt hollow. The film is adapted from a 1950 William Archibald play of the same name, which in turn was adapted from Henry James's famous 1898 novella " The Turn of the Screw ." Along the line of adaptation, an atmosphere was kept that renders the film watchable, but something was lost along the way indeed. The film follows a Miss Giddens, a first time governess of an absent, wealthy bachelor. Her duties are to keep accompany of his orphaned niece and nephew, who are exhibiting strange behavior. During her duties, she uncovers the startling truth that perhaps these children are the conduits of the previous residents of the estate. I was utterly intrigued by the potential plot of the film, only to be let down by its mundanity. Sure, the...

Kaneto Shindo's "Onibaba" After being utterly floored by " The Naked Island ," I was very excited to sit for Kaneto Shindo's 1964 film " Onibaba ." It has quite a reputation, so I felt that it had the ability to surpass its former. However, aside from the style and visual prowess of Shindo's direction, I was less than enthused about its feeble attempts at symbolism.  The film centers on an older woman and her daughter-in-law in the mid-14th century. As war rampages the country, the two women hide away in a marsh field stealing supplies and food from passing, lost soldiers. After one of their neighbors returns having news of their son/husband's death, he entices the widow to sleep with him. She does, making the mother-in-law very angry. The mother-in-law then uses a samurai demon mask to scare her daughter-in-law from continuing in the sexual engagement. The best quality " Onibaba " has is its biblical aesthetic. It has the visual ...

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...

  Claude Berri's "The Two of Us" Titled " Le vieil homme and et l'enfant " when it was originally released in France, " The Two of Us " was Claude Berri's directorial debut. Despite being released in 1967, the film feels like a throwback to classic French cinema - the era of "tradition of quality." It also happens to be one of Michel Simon's greatest roles, especially in the twilight of his career. The film centers on Claude, an 8-year-old Jewish boy living in France during the Nazi occupation. To reduce the chance of being sent to Auschwitz or a similar fate, his parents change his name and send him to live on a farm with the elderly parents of their Catholic friends. The only issue is that this elderly couple is antisemitic and have no idea the young boy is Jewish.  I was expecting some sort of conclusory realization at the end of the film, not that it was necessary. But, as I was watching the film, I was predicting that the eld...

  Blake Edwards's "Breakfast at Tiffany's" The most likeable aspect of Blake Edwards's 1961 film " Breakfast at Tiffany's " is that it is aesthetically pleasing. Beyond its sheen and shine lays a hollowed out attempt at Truman Capote's classic novella. Of course, nobody will remember Capote's classic over the film adaptation. My main point about the film's ability to aesthetically please attributes to this, but I think it is the iconic performance of Audrey Hepburn that cements the film into the collective consciousness. There are numerous problems I had with this film. Firstly, the notoriously racist depiction of the Japanese landlord, Mr. Yunioshi, played by Mickey Rooney. Not only is it a caricature, the use of bucktooth is incredibly shameful.  My second gripe with the film is the ending's final, seemingly romantic, message. Throughout the film, Hepburn's Holly is a 'free spirit,' unwilling to be caged in by anyone. Wh...

  Jacques Rivette's "Paris Belongs to Us" I watched Jacques Rivette's 1961 film " Paris Belongs to Us"  on the Criterion Channel. Had I watched it in the theater, it would be a rare instance in which I walked out. In this case, I simply stopped watching with 40 minutes left. It is very unlike me to completely give up on a film, so this particular instance was very strange and fascinating to me. I read all the time about people "walking out of theaters" for films that they do not like. I've always thought that was a foreign concept. I never understood the reasoning for not staying until the end. Was the film that bad? You simply couldn't stand it any longer? Well, for me and " Paris Belongs to Us ," the answer was yes.  The film revolves around a character named Anne, who spends the entire film trying to uncover the mysterious death of Juan, an unintroduced character that everyone around Anne seems to know. She ventures through the...