For a Few Dollars More (rewatch)

I really wish there was more Klaus Kinski in this.  I may make it my mission to watch every Kinski movie I can get my hands on.  Uh, what else?  I guess I’ll stick with my original assessment: about on par with Fistful.  Better in some ways (bolder techniques, Lee Van Cleef), worse in others (story not as compelling, one very annoying minor character).  Rating: 8

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The Color of Pomegranates

This is about as far from narrative storytelling as you can get without dipping into the realm of experimental cinema.  Ostensibly about the life and death of poet/troubadour Sayat Nova, it’s a parade of symbolic images that explores the (tortured?) soul of the man.  No camera movement, very little dialogue, only a few recurring characters.  The soundtrack is a blend of narrated passages (some Biblical, the others presumably from Nova’s work), folk songs, and sounds that only occasionally match what’s happening onscreen.  The visuals are striking compositions with mysterious meanings.  Objects are heavily featured: bowls, books, lutes, some kind of sword, lambs, chickens, costumes.  The closest analogue I can think of is Matthew Barney.  I’ll admit that the symbolism flew almost entirely over my head.  I vacillated between thinking I was missing the point and thinking there was no point to be missed.  I’m convinced that it was the former, though.  I feel that multiple revisits will reveal more and more of the obscured meaning.  Unfortunately, the Kino DVD is pretty crap, so I’ll just hold out hope for a better version someday.  It’s a shame that such unique and powerful images aren’t available in a better presentation.  Rating: 8

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Also on the disc was Hakob Hovnatanyan, a short film about an artist.  This is even more abstract, the first half consisting mostly of hands from Hovnatanyan’s paintings, and the second half I don’t know what the fuck.  Considerably less interesting, but thankfully brief.  Rating: 5

A Fistful of Dollars (rewatch)

It kind of sucked to watch this with Yojimbo still fresh in my memory, I ended up focusing too much on comparing them.  It’s still a kickass movie, although not as great as either Yojimbo or The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.  Rating: 8

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The Beautiful Country

Well-meaning, but contrived and manipulative.  Binh’s journey is fraught with one clichéd hardship after another, and each one is milked for maximum sentiment.  The script lurches in stops and starts, laboriously making its way towards the ending, which is the most restrained (although, I must say, somewhat calculatedly restrained) and satisfying part of the picture.  You care about what happens to Binh, which makes it all the more frustrating that his story is so hackneyed (would you believe there’s even a hooker with a heart of gold?).  Rating: 5

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Idiocracy

I don’t know why they set this 500 years in the future, I’d say we’re much closer than that.  This isn’t brilliant satire, but it’s on the mark and the screen is crammed with lots of great little sight gags.  If it comes off as blunt and somewhat predictable, at least its heart is in the right place.  Rating: 7

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Pan’s Labyrinth

Overrated by the internet crowd, but that’s to be expected whenever fantasy is involved, especially when accompanied by graphic violence.  It’s a good movie, though… very nicely shot, imaginative, somewhat touching.  The fascist captain is a figure of eye-rolling cartoonishness, but the other characters are at least believable (if not terribly compelling, save for the main character Ofelia).  I appreciated the parallels between the real world and the fantasy world, but I’d have to say the metaphor became rather labored.  The film seemed to lose its way at a certain point, and I felt should have stuck closer to Ofelia.  The parts with her were all wonderful.  Rating: 7

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Imitation of Life

An incredibly layered film for what is, on the surface, a “weepie”.  Sirk’s handling of racial issues is bold and scathing, especially for 1959.  Lora (Lana Turner) is the center of the film, but Sirk doesn’t let her off the hook.  She’s never once blatantly called out as a racist (nor should she be) but her role in perpetuating ingrained racism is clear.  When she says to Annie (Juanita Moore, an absolute gem), “You have friends?”, it’s devastating.  However, the meat of the race relations angle revolves around Sarah Jane (a stellar performance by Susan Kohner).  I’d be really surprised if there were many other films of this time addressing race in such a complex manner.  Beyond the race issues, there’s a lot more going on, and we’re never quite sure what to make of Lora’s ambition, or Steve’s passive-aggressive whining.  The film is also astoundingly moving, as a melodrama should be, and beautifully photographed (keep an eye out for triangles surrounding Lora, Susie, and Steve).  Rating: 9 

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The Lady from Shanghai

Again, we’re left to imagine what Welles’s work might have been if it hadn’t been butchered by the studio.  What’s left isn’t a great movie, but it’s a good movie with moments of greatness.  It’s rather pedestrian at first, most of the great moments come near the end (the shambles of a trial, the funhouse, the Chinese theater).  If nothing else, it’s a solid noir thriller with some snappy dialogue and a few intriguing shots (lousy music, though).  Orson’s Irish accent needs work, but Glenn Anders’s off-kilter performance is weirdly compelling.  The movie actually made me want to watch Mr. Arkadin again, perhaps because both stories are about clueless schlubs who get in over their heads with sinister Machiavellian figures.  Rating: 8

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Bad Boy Bubby

At first I really thought I was in for a lousy experience.  It seemed to be an exercise in “edgy” nihilistic chaos.  But things turn around fairly early, and the films gains a great deal of breadth and a little bit of depth.  It won’t change your outlook on life or anything, but it’s satisfying and even somewhat sunny.  The humor is a mixed bag, for the most part it works.  Nicholas Hope has a commanding presence, the other actors are largely forgettable.  The binaural soundtrack (letting you hear things from Bubby’s perspective) was a bit gimmicky, although after a while you don’t even notice it.  The director seems rather full of himself during the interview on the DVD, unfortunately, but that doesn’t affect my opinion of the film.  Rating: 8

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The Goebbels Experiment

Really superb, and a perfect follow-up to Triumph of the Will.  The film consists of excerpts from Goebbels’ diary read by Kenneth Branagh over corresponding stock footage.  The marriage of word and image is handled very well, and Branagh makes an excellent narrator, infusing Goebbels’ words with the proper air of snobbery without stooping to snide caricature.  You learn an awful lot about Goebbels: his early humiliations, his doubts about Hitler gradually transforming to worship, his loathing of Goering, his manic-depression, his increasing arrogance, and even his film critiques (he rightfully accuses Eisenstein of laying on the propaganda too thick).  It’s a fascinating look at the man, and through his eyes, the rise and fall of the Third Reich.  Rating: 9

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