Reviews

Redbeard (Akahige) 1965, the picture which along with Seven Samurai is Kurosawa's other great epic, has also remained relatively obscure here. To ask "which is Kurosawa's best film?" Is like asking what is the greatest work of Beethoven's, nevertheless, after you've seen them all Redbeard must surely rate high on the list. Here is the master at the top of his game with twenty films already behind him, working in a sheer virtuoso space. As usual in a Kurosawa film a tight plot makes the three hours fly by like three minutes. But what the film is really about, rather than plot, is character development. Ultimately, in the sense that all turns out well for the heroes, and in the sense that there are lots of laughs along the way, Redbeard may be classified as a dramatic comedy, which explores the entire range of human emotions experienced day to day by the staff and patients of a poor people's clinic in late Tokugawa Japan, just before the dawn of the modern era. "Redbeard", the central figure played by Toshiro Mifune , is the tyrannical head doctor (with, of course, a heart of gold), a doctor of the old school who runs the clinic with an iron hand but also with lots of ill-concealed empathy for the patients and plain old common sense. Matinee idol Kayama Yuzo is an uppity young doctor assigned to the clinic who gives Mifune a hard time until he sees the light of Redbeard's old school wisdom and is brought under respectful control. Among many memorable scenes; The hilarious judo (or karatte ) sequence where Redbeard is forced to resort to bone cracking violence in order to teach some marauding criminals a lesson, or the hat pin scene, where Kagawa Kyoko, a beautiful but insane patient, uses her wiles to seduce Kayama then attempts to murder him with a hat pin! It is to be noted that this was the last time actor Mifune worked with Kurosawa after a lengthy and famous collaboration. Mifune resented Kurosawa's imperious ways, especially when the director demanded that he keep his full beard for many months, which forced Mifune to turn down many other lucrative offers. This film remains, nevertheless, one of the outstanding landmarks of Mifune's own long career. Not to mention still snother Kuriswaw peak!

"THE BAD SLEEP WELL", "(1960), original title Waui yatsu hodo yoku nemuru, is basically a study of corruption in big Business with intimations, particularly in the telephone conversation at the end, that orders come from higher up, shades of Watergate in 1960 Japan. Toshiro Mifune, trading samuai robes for a business suit, appears in a very uncharacteristic role, emphasizing once again what a really fine all-around actor he can be under the right direction. The usual Kurosawa repertory actors are there: Mori Masayuki, the gentlemanly samurai who was victimized by Mifune in Rashomon (1950), pays him back as Iwabuchi the super-evil company president who orders Mifune's erasure; Shimura Takashi (chieftain of the Seven Samurai) plays the vice-president in what is perhaps his only role as a 'warui yatsu' (bad guy), and many other familiar faces in unfamiliar roles. This film, one of the most contemporary in the Kurosawa repertoire, is rarely seen in this country, largely because American film distributors operate under the delusion that the only good films coming out of Japan are samurai sword sagas.

I have never been a great Quentin Tarantino fan (I hated "Pulp Fiction" and walked out of "Reservoir Dogs") but right off the bat I will have to say that even if he doesn't get an Oscar this year, Mr. Q. should at least get a medal - the Congressional Medal of Honour (of Poland and Israel?) - for telling it like it should have been, even if it wasn't actually quite that way. Any person of Jewish persuasion who does not stand up and cheer at various points in this tremendous historical revision comedy isn't worth his (or her) weight in schmaltz. And any Gentile person of liberal democratic red blood who doesn't let out a few whelps of "Amen", or "right on", during the proceedings, needs to be taken out into the alley and shot in the head. The basic plot: A merciless vengeance unit composed mainly of Jewish commandos under the leadership of a delightfully southern drawling Lt. Brad Pitt (best thing he's ever done!) is parachuted into Nazi occupied France in 1941, their mission, to strike total terror into the hearts of all Germans by not only brutally slaughtering every German soldier they can get their hands on, but scalping them American Indian style, bashing their brains out with baseball bats (another all-American touch) and carving swastikas into the foreheads of their victims. One such swasticated German soldier is purposely let go so that he can take his tterrorization back to the Fuhrer hisself. Der Fuhrer (Adolph Hitler) is tellingly portrayed as a frenzied madman who does everything but literally chew up a rug (Supporting actor contender in my book) when he sees what these stop-at-nothing "Basterd" vigilantes are doing to his pure Aryan troopers. Propaganda minister Goebbels also comes in for significant treatment in a film almost as good in its portrayal of Nazi pageantry and evil as Istvan Szabo's "Mephisto" in heavy reverse gear. The plot, told in five well defined chapters, is far too complicated to unravel in a mini-review such as this, but it's all about getting good and even with the Germans for their well-known collective brutality and genocide policies. Suffice it to say that all the krauts get what they deserve in the end and just about every one of the many twisted and complex roles in the film are tossed off to perfection. Very fetching is one of the heroines, Madeleine Laurent, as "Shoshana Dreyfus", a French blonde Jewish girl whose whole family was murdered by the Germans and who is hell bent on revenge no matter what the cost. (and does she ever get it!). Equally fetching and outstanding is blonde German actress Diane Kruger aconspiring anti-Hitler German actress who will get herself unceremoniously strangled by Herr Oberst Waltz for her glourios underground efforts. Kruger, interestingly, was Helen to BradPitt's Hercules in "Troy" some seasons back, where she was little more than Teutonic window dressing, but here she has come a long way as an actress and is most cleverly employed by Quentin. Of exceptional note in this delicious international cast is German Actor Christof Waltz who very nearly steals the show as a smooth-talking tri-lingual Gestapo officer, almost as charming and suave as he is evil and cruel. Nearly half of the film is actually spoken in German and French, (with and without sub-titles) which adds a touch of class and authenticity, giving a realistic semi-serious edge to this basically surreal black comedy. Buñuel would have loved it and, even though it does get a wee bit talky here and there between scalpings and other instances of arch mayhem, I found the film extremely satisfying -- in short, I loved it. My only complaint was that there were not enough juicily explicit scalpings (since at the beginning unit commander Brad, half-Apache, tells his men that each one is expected to bring a minimum of 100 German scalps home, (or die trying) -- and in the final inferno, where a full house of high ranking Nazis (including Hitler, Goering and Martin Borman - just follow the white arrows) and their women folk are locked into a French cinema which is then set on fire - (remember that a favourite way of getting rid of Jews in WW II without wasting bullets was to lock them in a synagogue and then burn it down) -- Unfortunately we don't actually get to see these Krauts roasting alive in dynamic close-ups. What was needed here was a walk on by Robert Duvall doing a variation on his Apocalyose Now theme: "When I smell German flesh burning it smells like .. sniff-sniff ... VICTORY!" - and some lingering closeups of roasting live red German meat dripping juicily in the flames. All I can say to anybody who stumbles onto this review is, forget about the BS the critics have been writing to show how deftly they can dissect a truly joyous and educational film to death. Just get out there and see this bloody movie - or we'll break your laigs - and take the whole family too, because this is definitely family fare of the highest order. Not to be missed if you like movies that tell it like it should have been .... and you can take that to the bank! Grokked at ODEON Muswell Hill, London, Tues. August 25, 2009 PS: If you loved "Swindlers List" forget this.... Alex Deleon, London PSS: Christopher Walz did in fact get the Best Supporting role Oscar in 2010.

Review of an important Polish film classic Pozegnania Viewed at the 2019 Yerevan film festival. Pawel and Lidka are from different worlds but they somehow meet each other in a night club. He's a young lad from a wealthy family, she's an attractive dancer. They fall in love and go out of town but their happiness doesn't last long. By Alex Deleon

In 1958 director Wojciech Has was only 32. years of age and Pozgnania (Farewells) was only his second feature after Pentla The Noose) . Yet the film displays amazing maturity in the handling of the actors and everything else. If Has can be seen as the Orson Welles of Polish cinema then Wajda is more like a Cecil B. Mille if a comparison is to be made between masters.

The flirtation scenes between Janczar and Wachowiak in the early part of the film are exquisite -- the best I have ever seen in any language. Loaded with humor, tension, and social satire all at the same time and perfect,y orchestrated. The handling of all actors throughout is masterful as are the performances themselves.

The dialogues are so clever that I would now like to read the original novel by Dygat on which the film is based just to be able to linger on the lusciousness of the words.

Wachowiak, born 1938, was not yet twenty at the time of filming, yet displays a maturity and acting savvy far beyond her years. The B/w cinematography by Meczyslaw Jahoda is also exemplary. Typical of the pictorial brilliance of early postwar Polish cinema.

While this is a relatively small film that could have been expanded into an epic by including war scenes, the choice to omit them is artistically crucial. It is enough to know that between the first and second movements of this cinematic concerto Janczar suffered in Auschwitz without showing all that literally ~~ as if the War were a bad dream best forgotten. Pozegania remains a minor masterpiece and major landmark of Polish cinema that is as timely today as it ever was. And, needless to say, Maria Wachowiak is unforgettable. Then and now!

Desert Fury, 1947, Director, Lewis Allen Viewed at Noir City festival, Seattle, 2007. In "Desert Fury" which is shot in spectacular Paramount technicolor in a desert town somewhere near Las Vegas and introduces Burt Lancaster as the lantern jawed no-nonsense town sheriff, Liz Scott, the duchess of noir, is, well - sumthin' else! First of all she lives with her mother (Mary Astor of Maltese Falcon fame) but is this really her mother ? (it turns out not, if you actually concentrate on the plot) - or her older Butch lover? We'll never quite know except for that kiss on the mouth at the end as Mary gives Liz and Burt her blessing on the bridge where Liz's real mother was killed somewhere in the dark lurid past. Then there's this odd couple, notorious big time gambler John Hodiak (very hoaky, to say the least) for whom Liz falls at first bite much to mother's discontent, and his long-term live-in side-kick, Wendell Corey (film debut), who is so possessive about Hodiak that we might just begin to wonder what's been keeping them together all these years - other than partnership in crime. Eddie Muller, the Czar of Noir, calls this the "gayest film noir ever" and he may have something there, but sexual preferences, implied or expressed, aside, this is one helluvan enjoyable ride through the desert, in a real wood sided four-door Chrysler Town-and-Country convertible yet! A shaky plot is no great hindrance as the primo colorful cast and kinky characters are so much fun to watch. As for the debut of Lancaster, most 'reliable sources' list "The Killers" (1947) as his first film, but Muller points out that "Desert Fury" was actually shot earlier, although it was, for whatever reasons, released later. Thus, this is really the first film Burt ever acted in, and, no doubt about it, immediately demonstrated star quality. However, since he was already an overnight star from "Killers", when "Fury" was released soon afterwards he received top billing, his name appearing in the opening credits on the same screen with Mary Astor, Liz Scot and John, Hodiak. Amazing that Liz Scott with her platinum blonde mane, dazzling good looks, and sizzling personality never quite became a top star, but in her numerous noirs, like this one, she blazes with nothing but star quality. Enough to light up the darkest of scenes.

Liz Scott glows in a lurid all star desert noir with less than subtle streaks of gay.Q

Suburbicon Viewed at 2027 Venice film fextival. Director George Clooney has outdone himself with a superb satire of middle American suburbia in 1959. But there are resonances of relevance to the America of today as well... Matt Damon, all but unrecognizable except for the nose, disappears into the skin of a pudgy middle class middle American psychopath on a murderous death insurance scam in cahoots with sister-in-law Julianne Moore, who is as true to life as ever. Best scene of many good ones cleverly linked together is the unwelcome visit of scumbag insurance claim adjuster Isaac Oscar (star of The Promise) sniffing out improprieties in the claim on deceased sister who was actually murdered before the film began. Extremely clever and realistic dialogue marks this lengthy quivering bravura scene between Oscar and Moore. This absolute winner all around takes Mr. Clooney to the next level of savvy film direction. Actor Isaac Oscar was a real discovery in his one scene with supreme actress Julianne Moore.

"Leave Her To Heaven", viewed at the Seattle Film Noir festival, 2010, was a lavish 1946 Twentieth Century Fox Technicolor production starring the ethereally gaspingly beautiful Gene Tierney as the over-possessive wife of a wimpishly long-suffering Cornell Wilde, in which she adroitly murders his brother letting him drown while she looks the other way (shades of "A Place in the Sun"), "pre-murders" his un-born son in her belly by letting herself "trip" at the top of the stairs (in a marvelously acted and directed breath-taker of a scene), then finally "murders herself" with poison to get even with her beautiful sister (Jeanne Craine) by making it look like Jeanne, who has had dove eyes for Cornell all along, look like the culprit, thereby hoping to commit still another murder from beyond the Crypt! Never before in all of film history has one insanely murderous been so breathtakingly beautiful. The director was John Stahl, and this was one of the biggest box-office hits of its year. Although I have to agree with the Noir City program notes which describe "Heaven" in these terms: "Don't let the Technicolor gloss fool you -- this big-budget melodrama is black to the core, as perverse and malignant as it got in the 1940s..." - I still harbor some degree of reservation with regard to calling it a "film noir" just because of the lavish mainstream production values, but I have no reservations in calling it a masterpiece.

SOME LIKE IT HOT 1959 by Billy Wilder (USA, 1959, 121', B/W) Set a bench standard for ensemble comedy acting that has never been equaled. Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, and Marilyn Monroe all at the top of their game against prohibition era gangster setting. Curtis and Lemmon on the run after accidentally witnessing a gangland massacre have to dress up as females to hide from the mob and Monroe joins them. Ends with famous Joe E. Brown line, "well, nobody's perfect" but this movie is just about the perfect comedy from stem to stern. Curtis once quipped that kissing Monroe in this picture was like kissing Hitler, but if so -- well, make mine Hitler. Restoration: Park Circus in collaboration with Metro Goldwyn Mayer and The Criterion Collection

L'ANNÉE DERNIÈRE À MARIENBAD (Last Year at Marienbad) by Alain Resnais (France, Italy, 1961, 94', B/W) was a complete departure from the low budget early Nouvelle Vague films by Godard and Co. Resnais's use of time scrambling -- was it really last year, or maybe this year, or next -- had many viewers scratching their heads but the sumptuous setting in a Baroque chateau and dreamlike characterizations set an inimitable high water mark for the time. Actress Delphine Seyrig, memorable. Definitely Resnais' masterpiece, and totally unique even today. Restored version-bat Venice, 2018.

Restoration: Studiocanal with the support of Centre National du Cinéma.

Restored cooy viewed at Venice, 2018. THE NAKED CITY, by Jules Dassin (USA, 1948, 96', B/W) Is a trendsetting noirish pursuit of a notorious murderer around the streets of New York City. Dassin's documentary like use of the city itself was soon to be imitated by many others. Last chase scene atop the Brooklyn Bridge is an all-rime nail-biter. Ted de Corsia was so perfect as the killer he should have gotten an Academy Award that year. Popular Irish character actor Barry Fitzgerald, usually seen as a droll Irish uncle, was also compelling as the hard boiled head cop in charge of the investigation. Restoration: Torsten Kaiser - TLEFilms FRPS, Master Licensing Inc. and Brook Productions

THE NAKED CITY, by Jules Dassin (USA, 1948, 96', B/W) Is a trendsetting noirish pursuit of a notorious murderer around the streets of New York City. Dassin's documentary like use of the city itself was soon to be imitated by many others. Last chase scene atop the Brooklyn Bridge is an all-rime nail-biter. Ted de Corsia was so perfect as the killer he should have gotten an Academy Award that year. Popular Irish character actor Barry Fitzgerald, usually seen as a droll Irish uncle, was also compelling as the hard boiled head cop in charge of the investigation.

"The Square" of the title is Tehrir Square in Cairo, scene of all the major Egyptian protest demonstrations of the past two years. and this is a two hour long documentary on the Nightmarish 'Arab Spring' in Egypt, is an astounding personal summary of the events in Egypt from the fall of the Mubarak dictatorship in early 1991 to the rise and fall of the Moslem Brotherhood under "legally elected" Islamist president Morsi just a few months ago. The intrepid female director, Jehane Noujaim, an American Egyptian filmmaker went to Cairo in January 2001 to witness the historical events taking place in her family's home town, but with no such ambitious film project yet in mind ....

At the end, you may also understand it better than you did before. This fearless exercise in political reportage is also a formidable, if necessarily raw, work of political thought. Ms. Noujaim's sympathies are clearly with those who refer to themselves as "revolutionaries" - a word that comes to signify resistance to both the Brotherhood and the military - but she is hardly blind to their limitations. The revolutionaries are able to compel the world's attention and sympathy, and to risk life and limb in defiance of authority, but they have neither the organizational discipline nor the strategic ability to assume and exercise power. Lacking weapons or a party apparatus, they become pawns and bystanders in an increasingly lethal struggle between forces more ruthless and less principled than they. This is a tragedy, not only for Ahmed and his friends, but also, it's fair to say, for the Egyptian people as a whole. But "The Square," while it records the gruesome collision of utopian aspirations with cold political realities, is not a despairing film. It concludes on a note of resolve grounded in the acknowledgment that historical change can be a long, slow process. It suggests that the Egyptian revolution, after a glorious birth and a blighted infancy, is still at Square 1.

SHIOSAI ~ The Sound of Waves, Japan, 1985 5th Screen Incarnation of the Famous Mishima Novel,

Toho's latest edition of "The Sound of Waves" (Japanese title "Shiosai") is the fifth screen adaptation of the famous Mishima novel. The first version in B/W directed by Senkichi Taniguchi for Toho, came out in 1954 on the heels of the first publication of the book which was an immediate best seller. The original film version, partly because of a nude scene considered quite daring for its time, was also a hit. This was followed 10 years later by a wide screen color version put out by NIKKATSU in the Olympic year, 1964, as a vehicle for the first of the great female youth idols, Yoshinaga Sayuri. This was another box- office winner, and Sayuri is still, at forty, a big star much in demand. In 1971 shortly after the death of Mishima Toho quickly slapped together a listless third version which, along with the new faces it introduced, was quickly forgotten. The fourth "Shiosai" directed by Nishikawa Katsumi, again for Toho, was released during Golden Week, April 1975, and featured the "Golden Kombi" (golden combination), super idol Momoe Yamaguchi and her future husband, sub-idol Miura Tomokazu, in the roles of the young lovers. Like all Momoe flicks this one also did well at the wickets. The current "Shiosai" while distributed by Toho, was actually produced by HORI Productions which is primarily a music talent agency. Chiemi Hori (no relation to the boss), the young lady who plays the heroine "Hatsue", is a Hori-Puro protégé -- to wit, a teenage idol popular with the high-school crowd both as a singer and from a recent TV series entitled "School For Stewardesses". While it would be fatuous to compare Miss Hori to such illustrious superstar predecessors as Momoe-chan and La Yoshinaga in terms of overall allure, she is nevertheless, as a direct consequence of her relative plainness, far more like the rustic heroine one envisions from Mishima's verbal description than either of the others. Moreover, under the savvy direction of Tsugunobu Kotani she turns in a respectable and wholly credible performance. In addition, Shingo Tsurumi, an unknown newcomer (and also a Hori property) is the embodiment of "Shinji", the shy rustic hero of this idyllic tale -- certainly more so than his immediate predecessor, the suave and urbane Mr. Miura. The Mishima story does not lend itself well to star show-casing and director Kotani seems, prudently, to have aimed at the most faithful representation possible of the atmosphere of the novel and the intentions of the author. In this he has succeeded admirably, partly, we may surmise, because he was not saddled with the burden of tailoring the material to the personalities of established stars. The result, beautifully photographed by veteran cameraman Kenji Hagiwara with an almost ethnographic eye for detail, is in every respect a director's film, arguably the best 'Shiosai' that has ever been made. The only big name in the cast is Tamba Tetsuro in an important supporting role as Hatsue's overbearing father, the richest man on the island. Kotani says that one of his biggest problems was trying to keep Tamba under control. "He has such a powerful personality that he tends to blow other actors away. I'm not sure even now if I was able to restrain him enough ..." While the details of Mishima's adaptation of the romance of Daphnis and Chloe (which, according to biographer John Nathan, Mishima called his "joke on the Japanese public") will be completely familiar to those who have read the story, for those who know only the title, the basic plot is as follows: Opening with a voice-over narration intoning the first lines of the novella, "Utajima is a tiny island, population 1,400 ..." an aerial camera zeroes in on the actual island Mishima used as his setting. On the boat where he works we meet Shinji, the innocent young fisherman, and soon thereafter, at the fish market, Hatsue, an 18 year old girl who is a fledgling diver (ama-san), the traditional occupation of the women on the island and It is, of course, love at first sight, for both. However -- Fly in the ointment -- Shinji was sort of promised to a more sophisticated lass, Chiyoko, who has gone off to the mainland to study for a while. Shinji and Hatsue tryst at an abandoned WW II observation bunker, and there ensues the celebrated nude scene in which, drenched to the skin and seeking shelter from a sudden squall, they both disrobe before a roaring fire -- but stop short of you-know-what -- by mutual consent. "We can't do this until we're married" -- (This is after all 1954 Japan, and the remote provinces at that). Well, in such a close-knit community gossip gets around quick, and the word, spread by CHIYOKO, the erstwhile fiancée back from the mainland and burning with jealousy, is that Shinji and Hatsue have been ... dare I say it? -- fornicating wantonly! Actually, as we know, they have not been -- and the rest of the story centers on the angst and tensions of the lovers and their respective families, stirred up by all the wagging tongues and vicious rumors. Eventually, all is happily resolved (except for poor Chiyoko, who is left out in the cold) -- thus concluding this breathtakingly innocent romance. I say "breathtakingly innocent" without the least trace of cynicism, because personally I found "Shiosai" to be not only a most welcome relief from the morbid horror films ("Fright Night"), bird-brain fantasy films (like, 'Back to the Future") and mindless violence flicks that keep pouring from the screen these days -- in that sense a breath of fresh air, but also - - on cinematic grounds alone, a small gem of a picture. ---------------- Originally written by Herman Pevner for the MAINICHI EVENING NEWS, TOKYO, Tue, Nov. 5, 1985 NOTE: "Herman Pevner" will become Alex Deleon, when he GETS Back to the Future in L.A. (circa 1986)

Viewed atn the 2004 San Sebastian film festival "Being Julia" (Director Istvan Szabo) is a highbrow comedy dripping with class from the very first seconds of the opening credits and has numerous Oscars written all over it. Annette Bening s simply magnificent in the title role of this Somerset Maugham tale of snobbish West End sophisticates set in the London of 1938. With a star-studded cast featuring such British stalwarts as Jeremy Irons (in one of his best portrayals in years as Benning's theatrical producer husband) and Michael Gambon as Julia's acting guru, "Julia" may well turn out to be the film of the year. Although Gambon's role is little more than an extended cameo, it has the it has the incrustations of a major supporting performance. The film in fact opens with a "tirade" by Gambon on the art of acting that puts the viewer in the mind of George C. Scott's unforgettable opening address to the audience in "Patton". The Spanish poster for the film bears the inscription "Preparate para la mejor actuacion de su vida" -- "Get ready for the best acting you've ever seen" -- and for once the initial hype seems to be right on the mark. Yes -- great acting all around in a most sophisticated piece of entertainment from the director of such Hungarian classics as "Mephisto" (Academy award, 1981) and numerous others. Hungarian durector Szabo, a bit like Woody Allen, somewhat underappreciated in his own country of late, is now set to become known to the iinternational public as an "English" director of the first rank.

A working-class Italian-American bouncer becomes the driver of an African-American classical pianist on a tour through the 1960s Jim Crow American South. After a string of weak and questionable choices in recent years the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences finally got it right for a change by awarding Green Book the Best Film Oscar of 2019. Whether or not similar stories have been told before (e.g., Driving Miss Daisy) this one takes the cake on every level. Viggo Mortensen is beyond belief as the low class Italian American slob hired to Chauffeur an erudite posh mannered snobbish Pianist (Don Shirley) on a concert tour of the horridly outrageously racist deep south in 1961. The way in which their early antagonism turns into deep friendship along the way is told in a most amusing manner skedaddled along by the bottomless talents of both actors. The situations are perfectly chosen to point up the deepening racism the deeper south they go. In one rain soaked scene we are subtly reminded that in the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave there actually existed places (in Mississippi) where it was illegal for a black person to be see on the streets after dark! ( don't let the sun set on you) -- Shameful, shameful but true! In this scene Viggo punches out one redneck cop and both land in jail. Will they ever get out of this one? -- Shirley knows his rights and is allowed one call to a lawyer. The return call shocks the sickening redneck cops into letting the prisoners go. It was from the Attorney General in Washington -- Shirley was a personal friend of RFK, brother of JFK -- neither mentioned by name. The picture opens without so much as a main title plunging right in to the back story of Tony Lip the night club bouncer (Mortensen) and his Italian dialect speaking extended family with Mafioso connections. All mix their English up with snatches of Sicilian immigrant Italian (subtitled) adding an immediate element of authenticity. We don't even get to the main part of the film for art least twenty minuted when Tony, out of work, is hired for a well paid job as a chauffeur and bodyguard by Shirley (Mahershala Ali, Best supporting actor) but this part alone is almost a complete movie in itself. We don't get to understand that the Green Book of the title is the name of an actual hotel/motel guidebook that was published to help black people find accommodations when traveling in the racially segregated south until nearly a third of the way into the story. But by this time the tone is already set. Another strong plus is the way Shirley's swift piano fingering is shown without a hitch making it look as if Ali is doing the playing himself. At the Oscars Spike Lee was brimming with bitterness that his BlaKKKlansman was so easily outflanked by Green Book, but having seen both pictures I am inclined to agree with the critic who said that he was very glad that a heartwarming and highly entertaining film like Green Book won out over Lee's angry hate filled diatribe. And that's exactly what KKKlansman was. A hate filled diatribe. Ps: Although I was very favorably impressed by Rami Malek's rendition of Freddy Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody I was even more impressed by Mortensen's amazing ability to totally enter the skin of a low class Italian slob and endow the role with a perfect mix of violence, humor, and humanism. For me it was Best Actor, Viggo.

"Kurutta Kajitsu" (Crazed Fruit) 1956, is a landmark of Japanese cinema that has more to say about postwar Japan and mid fifties movies in general than all the other films of that decade put together. Made by a fledgling studio director, Kô Nakahira, age 29 at the time of shooting, this is one of those inspired quickly made first efforts (shot in seventeen days) that turn out to be a small masterpiece. In a streamlined running time of 86 minutes Nakahira and his incredibly well chosen band of young actors say everything that has to be said, snd more, with no holds barred. It's about a bunch of bored rich kids (The "Sun Tribe") who have motor boats and sailboats to amuse themselves with at the summer seashore near Kamakura. The dialogue amongst them is typical teenage putdown banter. Two brothers, the older a cynical fast talking know-it-all wise guy with an exceptional singing voice (Natsuhisa) and the innocent naive younger one (Haruji) both fall in love with the same elusively beautiful young woman (Eri) leading to a deadly case of sibling rivalry. Many scenes of water skiing set the pace and lingering shots on the faces of all three principles set the emotional tone throughout. Sex scenes while short and not particularly explicit are nevertheless hot for the time and still smolder today. One young lady sums a political discussion up by saying "We live in boring times. Let's eat". The film is packed to the seams with youthful energy but also a certain sociological and political savvy. Of the four principle actors, the two brothers, the older Yujiro Ishihara, was 21, and his kid brother Masahiko Tsugawa, in a most temarkable performance, was only 16. Mie Kitahara the catlike femme fatale loved by both was 23, and Masumi Okada (ice cool go-between Frank) was 21. This is practically a perfect film in the sense that hardly a frame could be excised or added without lessening the impact. Every shot makes its point unselfconsciously building to a smashing conclusion that leaves an unforgettable imprint. Mind boggling. Forget about Kurosawa and Ozu. If you only see one Japanese film and want to really get some penetrating insights into Japanese culture this is the one to see. PS. Tall gangling Yujiro Ishihara went on to become a major singing and film star on a level of popularity in Japan comparable to that of Frank Sinatra or Elvis Presley in the United States and married co-star Mie Kitahara in real life in a relationship that lasted until his death in 1987. Director Nakahira did nothing of note following this sensational debut.

An alien lands and tells the people of Earth that they must live peacefully or be destroyed as a danger to other planets

"TDTESS", a black and white film from 1951, is still the best alien visitation SciFi film ever made and still one of my all time favorite motion pictures. The story is simple. A UFO from another Galaxy lands in Washington, DC. amongst the familiar monuments and only has two passengers aboard, Klaatu, a perfect humanoid clone able to speak perfect English -- a snap for such an advanced civilization -- and Gort, an infinitely powerful robot under Klaatu's commands which are related to him in terse intergalactic language. The arrival of the extraterrestrial spaceship is given added authenticity by snippets of TV enacted by prominent Newscasters of the time; Drew Pearson, Elmer Davis, H. V. Kaltenborn and Gabriel Heater. (They don't make them with names like that anymore!) In panic US Army units surround the space ship and bombard it with their best weaponry which is useless against the alien invulnerability of giant robot Gort. Gort opens his visor and sends out a series of death rays which vaporize the attackers in their tracks. Now Klaatu needs to do some field work among the Earthlings to analyze their mentality and intentions. He adopts the earthling name of Carpenter and is taken in by a single mom, Helen Benson (Patricia Neal) who treats him with awesome respect and, perhaps, an inkling of romance. Carpenter contacts a leading scientist (Sam Jaffe, think Einstein) asking him to assemble all the world leaders to hear his message. He comes in peace but wants to tell the world that with their current accumulation of atomic weapons of mass destruction they have become a menace to other civilizations. To demonstrate his beyond human mental powers Klaatu solves a board-full of equations Professor Barnhardt has been working on for years with a single stroke. To demonstrate his power to the collected heads of stare he literally makes the Earth stand still, for twenty four hours, all this very convincingly realized on screen. He quietly but firmly informs them that if they do not comply with his simple request to stop testing and accumulating nuclear weapons Gort has the power to destroy the earth. Now seen as an awesome threat to humanity Klaatu is fatally shot. With his dying words "Klaatu berata nikto" he informs the robot to rescue him, restore him to life temporarily (think, Jesus and resurrection) and bring him back to the spaceship for a return to where they came from. Whoosh -- and away they go. Leaving us to wonder whether the leaders of Earth will get the message and control their collective atomic madness, or go on blindly to self destruction. Klaatu/Carpenter is played by British actor Michael Rennie, who with his sharply chiseled features and other worldly clipped English accent, seems to have been born for this sigle role. No other actor could have pulled off the role of Carpenter so convincingly. The main reason that this picture renains fresh even today, The story plays out more as personal drama than science fiction and all elements of the drama, scientific and earthly, are perfectly handled by director wise. When I saw this movie upon initial release I didn't know much about Christianity and did not relate to the obvious parallels with the life of Jesus who was a carpenter by trade! I just saw it as an extremely intelligent science drama adressing the fears, rampant at the time, of an atomic war between Russian and the US. Einstein was sill alive and must have enjoyed seeing himself impersonated by versatile actor Sam Jaffe -- who played Gunga Din back in 1939. "The Day The Earth Stood Still" is a classic that has stood the test of time and, now, 68 years later, is just as relevant to the problems of the workd as as it was then, if not even more so. But, above all, a marvelous piece of screen entertainment. I would love to see it revived and circulated once again. PS. I once met Robert Wise at a film festival in Seattle and asked him if the rumors I had heard that the alien Space language used in his film was actually based on an obscure American Indian language were true. He waved my query off with an amused chuckle saying, "Hell no, we just made all that stuff up". ~~ Gort, Berenga! (bring on the big guns).

Viewed at Berlin, 2029. Gully Boy, india, directed by Zoya Akhtar.(46) seems to be pointing Bollywood in a new direction away from the Masala formula loaded with often irrelevant mass dance numbers and focussing on the lives of the wealthy upper classes. "Gully" is one Hindi word for-street from which the less common English word "gulley" is derived and immediately informs viewers to get ready for something different. Set in the infamous Mumbai slum of Dharavi Gully Boy is in a way a local response to Danny Boyle's 2008 world wide success "Slumdog Millionaire", focusing, of all things, on the recent Indian craze for Hop Hop and Rap music and the lives of the slum dwellers. Murad, a 22-year-old youngster in an Islamic ghetto family (Ranveer Singh), knows he has a way with words and dreams of making it in the rapper world but only as a composer because he is too shy to take the stage himself. He us encouraged by successful rapper, Sher, (the Lion) to mouth his own words at the mike and is warmly received. Eventually he will enter an aggressive Rapper duel with an enormous cash prize for the winner. Meanwhile his ultra conservative father takes a dim view of Murad's ambitions and demands that he follow up an education to be a white collar worker. Needless to say, in the end Murad will triumph but not before the obstacles of poverty and resignation to lowe classness have been overcome. His feisty girlfriend (Alia Bhatt) provides him with moral support. At 33 Ranveer is maybe a little long in the tooth to play such a youngster but he has charisma to burn and pulls it off with restraint and verve. With this off beat role he has clearly established himself as the leading actor in Bollywood. SRK move over. And you do not need to be a hip hop fan to get on this swift roller coaster of a ride and enjoy it to the hilt. Not in competition Gully Boy was nevertheless a rousing experience, feel-good in its own way, and one of the better films seen at this festival Zoya Akhtar, stemming from a prominent Indian film family, is not only the only major female director in Bollywood, but one if its very smartest, most effective and most skillful. A leading figure of the new Bollywood until now totally male dominated.