Random Top 10: Should-Be Criterions

A couple of days ago, Barnes & Noble announced their regular Criterion 50% Off Sale, sending a legion of cinema nerds into a buying frenzy. I'm pacing myself throughout the sale, buying only a couple at a time so I don't go into massive debt. Today I picked up A Christmas Tale and Chungking Express, expanding my Criterion family from four to six:

My first born, and, not surprisingly, my favorite. This is the first thing I would grab if my house was on fire.

The rest of my children.

Anyways, with this sale going on, everyone is in a Criterion frenzy, so what better time than to start talking suggestions for future releases? I know that Criterion has been hit hard by the recession, forced to release a large amount of "mainstream" foreign arthouse flicks just to get by. But once things start to turn around, and they don't have to worry so much about trying to maintain a proper cashflow, here are some films I really hope they can get their hands on and give the Criterion treatment.

10. David Fincher Music Videos
Criterion is known for releasing unusual "speciality" collections--most notably two collections of avant garde works by Stan Brakhage--so why not music videos, an artform in its own right, this go-around? During his height in the late 80's/early 90's, David Fincher was the indisputable master of the artform. With Madonna's 'Vogue' and 'Express Yourself,' George Michael's 'Freedom' and Paula Abdul's 'Cold Hearted Snake' under his belt, among many other masterpiece I'm sure, this collection would be fascinating to say the least.

09. Saratoga Trunk
I've already said my piece about the film, now if only everyone could see it besides the occasional showing on TCM. This is the sort of divisive film Criterion should be taking a chance on every once in awhile.





08. [Safe]
I don't know if this me being oblivious or what, but I simply can't find a DVD of this to see. And watching Julianne Moore suffer under some harsh auteur's guiding hand is always a pleasure.







07. King Vidor Silents
The most consistently interesting director working at any of the studios during the silent era was, without a doubt, King Vidor. He wasn't exactly an artistic visionary, but no one could craft a smart, entertaining crowd pleaser like he could. My dream collection would contain three of his masterpieces currently unavailable anywhere on DVD: the epic WWI romance The Big Parade, the "experimental" look at the life of one ordinary couple The Crowd and his playful jab at the movie industry of the silent era Show People. All three of these are exceptional, underseen films that would vastly benefit from a Criterion release (as opposed to an eventual release somewhere down the road, if ever, from MGM that will receive absolutely no fanfare).




06. The Green Room
Truffaut already has a massive amount of his filmography available through Criterion, but this title has alluded release in America and it's the one film of his I haven't seen I'm most curious about. The plot--a journalist is so obsessed with his long dead wife he dedicates a room in his house as a shrine to her--sounds so completely atypical from anything Truffaut ever did. A great curiosity indeed.




05. Family Diary
While Criterion makes most of their money off releasing films by BergmanGodardFelliniTruffaut, this also affords them the opportunity to highlight smaller, more idiosyncratic directors. Case in point: Valerio Zurlini, who made this positively fascinating melodrama with Criterion favorite Marcello Mastroianni and Jacques Perrin. The plot isn't exactly earth shattering, but I think it's one of the finest studies of sibling relationships I've ever seen.

04. The Servant
This male version of Persona with even more homoeroticism is sadly out of print on DVD. And the world needs more Dirk Bogarde being über gay and über creepy.

03. Buster Keaton Collection
With Criterion releasing their own collection of Charlie Chaplin's film, just a few years after another fine set was released with a multitude of extras, I think it's fitting that they soon honor the other king of silent comedy with his own collection. A Buster Keaton collection is perhaps even more urgent since the only box set with all his films isn't very good. The prints are scratchy and in obvious need of restoration and there are no extras to speak of. I would love for a whole disc of documentaries about his legacy and interviews with him talking about his work (if they even exist).


02. The Mother and the Whore
According to legend, this post-New Wave film contains Jean-Pierre Léaud's best performance. Enough said, yes?


01. Face to Face
According to legend, this little seen Bergman contains the greatest performance from Liv Ullmann as a psychologist who goes gloriously off the deep end. And considering this is the same woman who brought us Persona, Scenes from a Marriage and Autumn Sonata, this must be one hell of a feat. Depriving us Ullmann devotees of this (supposed) treasure is a crime against humanity. We want Liv and we want her now!

Rants on Scenes from a Marriage

The idea of reviewing an Ingmar Bergman film, especially considering my last post involved a memoir from a girl who at the time of publication couldn't even drive a car, seems a little daunting to say the least. But considering I spent five hours watching the TV version of his Scenes from a Marriage, I figured I owed it to myself to write up a couple thoughts about it.

In the simplest terms possible, Scenes from a Marriage follows the disintegration of the marriage between Marianne (Swedish acting goddess Liv Ullmann, in one of her most famous performances) and Johan (Erland Josephson). For years, they have pretended that their marriage has been a happy one. In reality, however, they've simply swept their problems under the rug, as the title of the second episode implies, and subconsciously avoided discussing their real feelings toward each other. Marianne, in particular, has deluded herself so much that when her husband tells her that he's leaving her for another woman, she is caught completely off-guard. Apart from each other, they begin a journey of self-discovery which leads to drastically different results. Marianne realizes that she has a problem standing up for herself and putting others' feelings ahead of her own. Johan, on the other hand, realizes how utterly miserable he is without Marianne and admits that he made a mistake leaving her. After their separation and even through subsequent marriages, the two of them continue to analyze what went wrong in their relationship.

The plot doesn't sound too different from a typical American divorce drama circa 1982 but Bergman's execution completely sets apart. As per usual, the visuals from famed Sven Nykvist are emotionally cold and distant, appropriately highlighting the relationship between Marianne and Johan. What is particularly unusual about the camerawork, however, is its remarkable simplicity. Bergman wasn't particularly famous for a moving camera, but he had an eye for crafting haunting images using lights and shadows. I still find myself frightened by that image of Liv Ullmann in Cries and Whispers where she stares straight into the camera while a shadow covers half of her face. With Scenes from a Marriage, the camera is often non-existent, peering at the Marianne and Johan like an uncomfortable third-party. This often gives the film the feeling that it's more of a rough cut of a film than a fully realized one. The camera often lingers on the same shot of Marianne and Johan, deep in conversation about some aspect of their marriage, for far too long. When you expect the film to make a cut and move on, the camera is still trying to capture something else. The art direction is also rather uncomfortable, eerily similar to the sets in Godard's La Chinoise (a surprising comparison since Bergman thought Godard was a "fucking bore"). This makes sense because, like that Godard film, Scenes from a Marriage is not necessarily interested in making a statement visually. The lack of distracting camerawork and art direction is on purpose so we can focus on what is being said by the characters. This is a film about words and faces and reactions and, holy hell, do we get a lot of that. At times, Scenes from a Marriage comes across as too harsh and too personal, to the point where you have to tune out to keep your sanity. But a lot of what is said is powerful stuff and apparently needed to be brought out in the open as, according to Bergman, the divorce rate skyrocketed after this debuted on TV. This film touched a lot of people, which is both incredibly hard to do and surprising considering Bergman's cerebral filmmaking. If anything, Scenes from a Marriage showed just how complicated and twisted the relationship between formerly married couples can be. Unexpectedly, this film validated the complex relationship between Dorothy and Stan on The Golden Girls; finally I understood why even after all the hurt they had gone through with each other, they never could completely break free. B

By the way, I feel like I should mention Liv Ullmann's performance here. As you may be aware, she was notoriously declared ineligible at the 1974 Oscars since the film had aired on TV beforehand which prompted this newspaper ad from all of Hollywood's then-reigning females thespians to have her included for consideration. Pretty ballsy, huh? And, judging by her performance, those ladies were on to something. While I didn't love her as much as I did in my personal favorite performance of hers, Autumn Sonata, she's damned excellent. She has the uncanniest ability to portray five emotions at once using only her eyes and slight shifts in her face. And she does this all in the most unshowiest way possible. If she was in her heyday now, there is no way she would ever be nominated for an Oscar, let alone two in a five year span. I've never seen anything like it. She is a one-of-a-kind talent and I'm dying to see more of her work.

10 Best Actresses I'm Excited For, 10 Not So Much

With Nick Davis winding up his immaculate Best Actress Project with a profile of a Best Actress nominee every day for the past week and a half or so, I've become re-immersed in my own progress with the category. After watching Ship of Fools a couple of days ago (and I was fighting the whole way not to turn that piece of crap off), I am now down to 80 nominees left to see. Not too shabby, me thinks. Of course, there are a few films which are either obscure as hell in America (Marriage- Italian Style, The Constant Nymph), not available in any format besides the film (The Barker, The Trespasser) or outright banned because of copyright issues (The Blue Veil), but, for the most part, a lot of the remaining ladies shouldn't be too difficult to find. So, in order to commence this re-immersion, here are ten ladies I'm eagerly anticipating...

Diahann Carroll, Claudine I'm usually fascinated by stories about African American families struggling to overcome racism and a vicious cycle of poverty. Bonus points: Nick Davis is ecstatic about Carroll's work here.
Stockard Channing, Six Degrees of Separation I always enjoy Stockard Channing. Seriously one of the most underrated actresses around.
Joan Crawford, Sudden Fear Joan's last nomination. Apparently Oscar saved the best for last. I'm optimistic, but it will be hard to top Possessed.
Jessica Lange, Frances Lange plays a mad actress from the 1940's in a highly emotional and excessive way. Sign me up, sign me up!
Carrie Snodgress, Diary of a Mad Housewife I love a good film about a despondent, lonely housewife. Plus, the film was directed by Frank Perry (aka the man who brought us Faye Dunaway in Mommie Dearest).
Kim Stanley, Séance on a Wet Afternoon Director Bryan Forbes has been 2 for 2 with me in terms of Best Actress nominees he has directed (Caron in The L-Shaped Room, Edith Evans in The Whisperers). Can Stanley make it 3?
Meryl Streep, Ironweed I've heard this is one of Streep's more underrated efforts. Let's see if she can match the quiet hype.
Gloria Swanson, Sadie Thompson Completely fascinated by the 1932 version with Joan Crawford (one of her best performances ever). Interested in what Swanson will be able to do in this silent version.
Liv Ullmann, Face to Face According to many who have been fortunate enough to see it, this is Ullmann's best work. And that's truly saying something about the woman who gave us Persona, Cries and Whispers and Autumn Sonata. Criterion, release this shit soon, please.
Sigourney Weaver, Aliens LOVED her kick-ass Ripley in Alien. Apparently, she's even better here.

...and, on the flip side, here are ten ladies I'm gonna have to be tied down Clockwork Orange-style in order to get through:

Geneviève Bujold, Anne of the Thousand Days A studio-made historical epic from the mid-60's designed purely for Oscar consideration. Shoot me now.
Ava Gardner, Mogambo I've never been particularly fond of Gardner. Combined with Grace Kelly and post-Lombard Clark Gable in a John Ford film sounds like pure torture.
Jennifer Jones, Love Letters The epitome of an actress who slept her way to the top. All of her other nominations have been close to insufferable.
Sarah Miles, Ryan's Daughter A 3.5 hour David Lean epic that's not even as good as the middling The Bridge on the River Kwai. Oscar truly is a sadistic bastard sometimes.
Michelle Pfeiffer, Love Field Not a huge Pfeiffer fan and this sounds like Movie of the Week stuff to me.
Debbie Reynolds, The Unsinkable Molly Brown I normally adore Debbie Reynolds, but I've heard nothing but bad things about this one.
Janet Suzman, Nicholas and Alexandra See Bujold above.
Gene Tierney, Leave Her to Heaven I simply don't get the big deal about her. One man's acting goddess truly is another's vacant dummy.
Kathleen Turner, Peggy Sue Got Married I saw the first twenty minutes a few years ago and was hardly impressed. It's going to take a lot to get me to try this one again.
Loretta Young, Come to the Stable One of the worst Best Actress winners ever is back as a kind and gracious nun. Just...no.

Short Rants on Gaby- A True Story

In all honesty, there were only two reasons why I decided to sit down and watch Gaby- A True Story (Luis Mandoki, 1987). The first was, obviously, for Norma Aleandro's Best Supporting Actress nomination (since I have an irrational need to see all of the major nominees I can get my hands on). Secondly, I wanted to see what Bergman-favorite Liv Ullmann was doing in a film with a plot straight out of an 80's, made-for-TV movie of the week: a child, Gaby, is born with cerebral palsy so severe she can't speak and only has mobility in her left foot and, with the help of her supportive parents and a silent but dedicated nurse, she overcomes adversity by working her way through college. It's exactly the type of disposable, handicapped-people-are-human-beings-too film the Academy ate up in the 80's, but what sets it apart from something like Children of a Lesser God is that they're is actual artistry and style in the filmmaking technique instead of relying of cheap melodrama and "inspirational" breakthrough moments. Thanks to cinematographer Lajos Koltai's bleak, cold, almost impenetrable camerawork, the film feels closer to Ingmar Bergman than anything you would see done on a Lifetime movie. There's also a sex scene in the movie that could have been gratuitous in the extreme, but, with Koltai's camera, manages to look beautiful and, dare I say it, tasteful (well, as tasteful as seeing two teens with cerebral palsy going at it while flopping around on the floor like fish on dry land can be). The acting all around wasn't nearly as atrocious as it could have been. Liv Ullmann, in particular, rises above the material and clichés of the fighting mother stereotype we've come to expect from films like this. Then again, would you expect anything less from the same woman who did Cries and Whispers and Persona? Norma Aleandro was quite good as well. She may have spent just a tad too much time staring off into the distance at just the right angle for the camera to catch her expression, but that face is fascinating to look at so I can't really begrudge her that. B-

P.S. Throughout the movie, I kept wondering where I had seen Rachel Levin, the woman who played Gaby, before and after a quick search on IMDb, I discovered that under the name Rachel Chagall, she was Val on The Nanny:

Oh my God, I used to love that show when I was a kid. Hell, I still do. Who knew that the same woman who played the featherbrained Val opposite Fran Drescher was also in a movie with Liv Ullmann? That blows my mind.