Woody Allen, The Chronicles of Narnia, Love Streams

11/25/16 Crimes and Misdemeanors, 1989 #57 BBC

Crimes and Misdemeanors is one of the few Woody Allen films I saw in the theater; I think the only other one was Scoop, which I saw in Paris (in English, thank god). I remember liking it and the moral questions that Allen raised, and loving the performances by some of my favorite actors: Sam Waterston, Jerry Orbach, Martin Landau and Alan Alda (the rest of the cast is stellar, but I will watch almost anything these guys are in). Martin Landau is Judah Rosenthal, a successful ophthalmologist who has a very big secret; Woody Allen is Clifford Stern, a documentary filmmaker. I found the story about Judah and his secrets and lies (the name of a film by a totally different director, Mike Leigh) more interesting than Clifford's. Judah is having an affair with a flight attendant, Dolores (Anjelica Huston), and while it seems to dying out for him, Dolores wants to tell Judah's wife, Miriam (Claire Bloom). Judah, who is receiving a big award as the movie opens, is scared of Dolores spilling the beans and ruining the myth and illusion that he has created of being the perfect husband and citizen of the world. Judah brings his brother, Jack (Jerry Orbach) into the picture, to 'take care of things'. For a while, Judah suffers pangs of his conscience and feelings of guilt and fear of a different secret coming out. Clifford, who is struggling to make pet documentary film on a Holocaust survivor, takes on the job of doing a documentary on his brother-in-law, Lester (Alan Alda), a successful, obnoxious television producer. Saying that Clifford has zero enthusiasm for his subject is a minor understatement; Lester is everything that Clifford isn't, nor does he want to be. Clifford tries to begin a relationship with Halley (Mia Farrow), Lester's assistant producer. Clifford is about as successful at that as he is at everything else. Clifford's other brother-in-law, Ben (Sam Waterston), is a rabbi who is slowly losing his sight, and is a patient of Judah's. If you are waiting for the boors and bad guys to get their comeuppance, you may be waiting for a long time. If you think that guilt will eat away at Judah like he is in a Dostoevsky story, I hope you're not too disappointed. Sometimes, the good guys don't win. This is more of a drama than a comedy, but it does have its moments, especially when Clifford and Lester share the screen. Ingmar Bergman is one of Allen's influences, and this definitely could have been something that Bergman did, in fact, he probably did (without the Jewish influence), but I cannot come up with a specific movie at the moment.

12/2/16 Mighty Aphrodite, Best  Supporting Actress, 1995

 I was beginning to think I would never get to watch this 1995 Oscar winner by writer/director/actor Woody Allen. The first time I got the movie from the library, it wouldn't play; I think it might have even been a VHS tape, not even a scratched disk. Then it was gone from circulation, and it's in the 'unknown' category on Netflix. But, ta-da, Interlibrary Loan has come into my life and all kinds of things I thought I would never see are now possible. Mira Sorvino won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as Linda Ash, a call girl with a heart of gold, or at least acting ambitions. Linda has a baby and gives him up for adoption. Max's adoptive parents are Amanda Sloane Weinrib (Helena Bonham Carter) and Lenny Weinrib (Woody Allen); Amanda is an art gallery curator and Lenny is a New York sportswriter. Lenny seems far more obsessed with learning about his new baby's birth parents than Amanda, and he goes to some questionable lengths to do it. In a Woody Allen movie, questionable very often means funny, and that is true here. Allen uses the idea of the Greek chorus to help tell his tale and question Lenny's motives and actions, in a very humorous way, I was reminded of Mel Brooks. F. Murray Abraham is the Chorus Leader, and we also get commentary from Cassandra and Tiresius, both prophets, and others from Greek mythology. I thought it was a clever and unusual way (in films, at least) to break the wall between the audience and the actors. Lenny winds up tracking down Linda and goes on 'dates' with her, but not for sex, to learn more about her, but he doesn't tell her why. I'm not overly familiar with Sorvino's other films, so I don't know if this is a typical performance, but in the context of the film, she was really good; she was funny, she wasn't overshadowed or overpowered by Allen. Allen was not overly annoying, either; sometimes his 'schlemiel' characters can be too much, but not in this case. Being a fan of Bonham-Carter, I did think she was kind of wasted here; maybe 'wasted' isn't the right word, but I didn't get enough. I would love to see her in the type of role that Cate Blanchett played in Blue Jasmine. But anyway, that's a different story. I think this movie has probably been forgotten by a lot of people, but it's worth a look (if you can find it). An interesting tidbit: Dianne Wiest won the Best Supporting Actress the year before in Woody Allen's Bullets over Broadway.

12/3/16 The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Best Makeup, 2005

I never read the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis even though a lot of my classmates did. I don't know why, but I just didn't, so in some ways I'm not tied by emotion or nostalgia to them. When I watch the movies or television representations, I just enjoy them for what they are, which are wonderful, fantastic adventures. The movie starts off in war time England, with bombs raining down on London, so families begin sending their children off to live in the country, many times with total strangers. That is the case for the four Pevensie children: Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy. During a game of hide and seek in the large house owned by the reclusive professor Digory Kirke (Jim Broadbent), Lucy falls through the wardrobe and into the magical world of Narnia. Narnia is made up of fauns, talking animals like beavers, foxes, wolves and a really big lion, Aslan (Liam Neeson). Oh, and the White Witch (Tilda Swinton). Lucy comes back from her visit to her skeptical older brothers and sister, until the next time, they all go through to Narnia. The Narnians refer to the siblings as Daughters and Sons of Adam, and it seems that the children may bring with them a changing tide in Narnia, perhaps ridding them of the evil witch. Of course, nothing is as straightforward as that, and there are crazy escapes from the witch's rabid wolves, coming of age for the children as they learn more about themselves and the world they now inhabit, and battle of epic proportions. Neeson was made to be the voice of Aslan, who I think may be one of my favorite characters. Swinton is so fun as Jadis, the White Witch. She totally embraces the role and Jadis's villainous nature, but shows her campy side as well. After watching her in many different movies and roles, I'm convinced she could play any type of role or character she wants. Lewis's Christian theology can be seen in his writings, and much is made of the use of allegory and symbolism in The Chronicles of Narnia, but I honestly cannot intelligently comment on how that comes through in the film, or if it even does. If it did for you, then I missed it. Please don't interpret the previous comments as pejorative or anti-theological; they are not, I just enjoyed the movie as a fun, fantastiscal interpretation of a childhood classic. I think it's a wonderful cinematic experience, with beautiful visuals, very talented actors, and a story that I think a lot of children will enjoy. There were two subsequent movies, but I seem to recall that they were not necessarily as successful at the box office.

12/3/16 Mississippi Burning, Best Cinematography, 1988 

I would love to say that Mississippi Burning is a snapshot from a long ago time, and that we have moved forward in this country to a point where your race is as little a factor in daily life as whether you are right-handed or left-handed. Maybe that is naive or just plain dumb, I like to think that was hopeful. Sadly, as events have played out over the past 18 months, racism in this country is not a thing of the past. Perhaps I will just say I hope things never get as bad as they were in the South in the 1960s as the Civil Rights Movement was gaining momentum, and civil rights workers, as well as ordinary citizens, were subjected to harassment and violence in pursuit of equality for black Americans.  Mississippi Burning is a dramatization of the murder of three Civil Rights workers in Mississippi in the summer of 1964. Gene Hackman (in an Oscar-nominated role) and Willem Dafoe star as the two lead FBI agents looking into the disappearance, later determined to be murder, of three college students trying to register black voters in the deep South. Hackman is Rupert Anderson, born and raised in Mississippi and Dafoe is Alan Ward, a northerner who is by the book and seemingly unaware of how to navigate the social and political minefield they have entered. The movie is as much about Anderson and Ward's relationship as it is about examining the events of the day. The two agents run into a brick wall made of up of corrupt law enforcement and politicians, who may also be Klansman, who have no interest in finding the missing students or getting justice for them. Director Alan Parker (Fame, Birdy, Evita, Bugsy Malone) does not sugarcoat the violence that the black community experienced, or the fear people had in speaking out. There is an element of a mystery story as Ward and Anderson peel back the layers on the onion: who knew what, who did what, where are they in the power structure of the town or the Klan. The cast is comprised of many familiar faces: Frances McDormand and Brad Dourif are Mrs. Pell and her husband, Deputy Sheriff Clinton Pell (McDormand was nominated for Best Supporting Actress); R. Lee Ermey played Mayor Tilman; Michael Rooker (now in the Guardians of the Galaxy films) played Frank Bailey, a particularly violent man; Darius McCrary, is Aaron Williams, a young man who preaches and tries to encourage his community. It's not an easy movie to watch, but it is very well done and should be seen and used as a platform to discuss the Civil Rights Movement then and now.

12/9/16 Love Streams, 1984, #63 BBC 

I seem to question myself and my chosen hobby of movie blogging when I watch a film that is critically acclaimed, called inspirational, and I can't stand it, don't get it and want to turn it off. Am I missing something? Would I 'get it' if I studied film? These were my thoughts as I slogged through over two hours of (in my opinion) self-indulgent, wandering film-making called Love Streams. The later actor, writer and director John Cassavetes filled all three roles in  Love Streams. For film savants (not me), that should be all you need to know to bow down and be inspired by the lack of pretense, the laying bare of the soul, the raw nature of the main characters, Robert Harmon (Cassavetes) and his sister, Sarah Lawson (Gena Rowlands). Sadly, I am not one of those people, and it didn't resonate with me at all. Harmon is a playboy, writer, who uses women as his muse; he drinks too much, is a reluctant father and unreliable boyfriend/lover. His sister, Sarah, is at the tail end of a divorce, and is not handling it all that well, in fact, previous visits to mental institutions are referenced by her soon to be ex-husband. Sarah takes a trip to Europe to try and get better, but comes back a little more lost, confused and unfocused, and without her daughter, who makes it clear she would rather live with her father. Sarah heads out to California to be with Robert. Sarah goes through manic episodes, and Robert is not all that certain how to handle them, but he is afraid of losing her and upsetting her. As an example, Sarah takes a cab out somewhere, a small farm or something, looking for something cuddly, and comes home with miniature horses and a goat (I think) - all in the cab. It seems the cab driver didn't think any of this was weird. Rowlands' Sarah reminded me of her performance in Woman Under the Influence, also directed by Cassavetes, and the woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown persona. There were a few moments where I felt some compassion, but very few; most of the time I just found the whole thing unbelievable (I know it's just a film), and rambling. These two people are hurting and lost and need each other, but to me, the poor dialog and lack of focus (I'll put that down to the improvisational techniques used) just didn't reach me. This is not the first time, and certainly not the last, that I have disagreed with the BBC 100 list.