Movies, 2010

Movies, 2010

The White Ribbon

Do not miss this film. We could not stop talking about it for 24 hours. The German is 1000 years apart from the Jew. How these two cultures even attempted to live together for centuries is quite astounding. But, in the brutality and harshness, the lack of any joy, the child rearing and authoritarian practices, the patriarchal society, the treatment of women, one can see so clearly the seeds of the modern day Nazi a generation later. The entire film evolves inside a small German village. The piece is indeed, a Masterpiece. But, not one that I would recommend to anyone.


The Loss of a Teardrop Earring

Tennessee William's lost manuscript found years after he died. This movie, set in 1923, is of a confused and desperate heiress, who has set her eyes on a laborer's son who works her father's farm. Trying to fit into provincial southern society, when her life style and charades, are completely out of sync with the restrained and conventional mores and culture, our heroine tries without much success to fit in, only alienating herself more. The story and drama and dialogue feel dated and out-of-touch.


Indiscretion of an American Wife, 1952

Jennifer Jones and Montgomery Clift. The entire short film takes place in a train station as these two lovers must part and forever say goodbye. Jones does a wonderful job communicating her indecision, anguish, fear, inability to let go, torn apart passion. Clift has far less range. I found it sad and romantic and real.


DOA

A suspenseful and desperate search for the reason and answer as to why this man was murdered by a deadly luminous toxin, which is a descriptive form for an actual poison. In his search, and before he dies, he realizes that he was murdered because of an accounting deal he correctly filed and unknowingly made himself vulnerable to evidence. Style was classic, film was old, but it held my attention.


Bicycle Thief, 1949

This extraordinary simple classic is a Masterpiece. The story and setting and dialogue are simple, but the depth and range and scope of human experience, storyline and relationship is astounding. The range between father and son, with few words, expresses a relationship of adoration, authority, shame and fury, parent and child, obedience and protection, that I have rarely experienced in film. The horror and desperation of a father and husband who will loose his job and not be able to support his family is real and primordial. A man without an ability to work, is a man destroyed. I cried.


Inviticus

Clint Eastwood, Exec. Producer, Writer and Director. This is a story about the white rugby team in South Africa and how Mandela uses it to unite the country and heal its wounds. Technically, the movie is extremely well done. There is little sentiment. The story stays true to itself. It is a well crafted film from an experienced director. But, it left me cold and uninspired. I would have preferred a film about Mandela, instead of watching so much rugby. The film was long, 2 hours and 20 minutes. The music was good.


The Good Earth, 1937

(Pearl S. Buck) Starring Luise Rainer. The movie is a wonderful piece of old China. It is about a farmers family, arranged marriage, and their struggles with childbirth, famine, revolution, lust, locust and survival. It was photographed in the most advanced methods they had at the time. Today, it would appear as a very different film with our new technologies, but this version was crafted with heart and soul, tenderness and beauty.


Scream of Fear, 1961

Susan Strasberg. A psycho thriller of a young girl who comes back to her home, after a ten year absence to hear that her father is not home but will be returning in a few days. Her step mother and driver are most solicitous. She is wheel chair bound and during the next fews has "visions" of seeing her dead father and screams. Of course, she is being set up by the step mother and driver who want her dead in order to get all the money. There is an unusual twist. The girl in the wheelchair is not Penny at all, but her stand in, and like a sting operation, pretends to be the daughter who had committed suicide three weeks earlier. Suspenseful to the very end. Very good.


The Goddess, 1958

Paddy Chayefsky wrote this screenplay. He writes about loneliness, "which is the great ultimate ache of desolation," and of "peering through unseeing eyes and the horror of loneliness." The story follows this poor girl who strives to make it in Hollywood and does but not before she succumbs to madness and alcohol and utter abandonment. The rags to riches story. The bio of Marilyn Monroe.


A Hatful of Rain, 1957

Fred Zinnemann directed. Eve Marie Saint. The movie, which feels like a play, describes in devastating detail, the effects of drug addiction on one family. "You couldn't hurt me anymore if you killed me." Two brothers, one wife, and a father all come together and bounce off each other, until the truth is ultimately revealed.It is a wonderful, wonderful film, one of the first of its kind.


A Face in The Crowd, 1957

Andy Griffith. Patrick Neal. A powerful brilliant film about the rise of this character, who, through sheer charisma and charm and deceit, rises to the top, to become a most despicable character, which he always was, but when given power and fame, he misuses to a terrible degree. This film was made over 50 years ago and yet, through the dialogue, it reflects on the impact of fame, the danger of the media, the effects of power, the manipulation of others through the media. It was breathtaking in how relevant this film plays out today.


Avatar

The story is stupid. The dialogue even more stupid. The plot hokey. In fact, it is a cartoonish caricature with a religious orientation that would do well at Berkeley. The "politics" are the Indians against the Cowboys. The peaceful, loving, good and kind and noble savages against mean, wicked, powerful Americans. Of course, this tribe of Pandora, at the end, becomes as violent and brutal as the Americans, but that is merely an oversight! But, it is a MUST see for the technology and taking computers to a whole new level of capability. Quite extraordinary and thrilling. That being said, you must not miss it. The film becomes an escape experience, a fantasy, transported in a way, unimaginable. It is almost magical in this sensation.


An Affair To Remember, 1947

Marlena Dietrich. Jean Arthur. A congresswoman is sent to Berlin, where the movie was filmed, right after the war to investigate the low moral of American soldiers. In reality, there is no low moral, the soldiers seem to be enjoying themselves quite nicely with all the German women. The congressman is wooed by an army Captain, initially to keep her away from investigating Marlena Dietrich, who plays Americans and Germans for her own desire and needs, but whom the Captain eventually falls in love. Very entertaining. Great!


Miracle of Rain, 1956

Jane Wyman and Van Johnson. It is a touching film. It is about a lonely, simple, small boring and dull woman who is wooed by a soldier going off to war. They fall in love over a long weekend. She takes care of her ailing mother. Her life is small and it is as if he rescues her. He leaves and he dies. She falls apart and in the end, when she enters the church, she feels his presence and is left with the coin he has returned to her.


Fish Tank

"Growing up in a British housing project, 15-year-old Mia is tough enough to withstand a range of hardships and cruelty until she meets her mother's new sympathetic boyfriend. One pities Mia, her hard life without love or any softness or kindness, yet, one does not particularly like her. She is too angry and hardened by her life. Her mother is too hungry for love herself to pay any attention to her daughters. The movie is raw and gritty and at times, hard to view, because it is such a bleak and cold world. One will do whatever one needs to do to find love and Mia, who for the first time, finds what she feels is genuine attention goes after her mother's boyfriend, only to discover that he takes advantage of her and what was on his mind, was not what she was searching for. In seeking revenge, a sad, sad ending is the result. It is a superb film, but not for everyone. It is hard and poignant and a story of raw survival.


Ordinary People, 1980

Directed by Robert Redford. With Mary Tyler Moore. Donald Sutherland. Tim Hutton. Judd Hirsch. This movie won Best Picture at the Oscars. It feels dated, monied, white, Wasp, where one held in their emotions. Moore's clothes felt out of Ralph Lauren. She was never in the same pants with sweater outfit, twice. Moore was controlled and cold and unforgiving and unloving and her son was nearly destroyed by this. The dead son was the only one she loved and she blamed Conrad for his death. Well, acted and well executed, it felt like a movie from the old school without special effects or manipulation. It only told the story. Very well done and should be revisited every 20 years to see if it stands the test of time. It does.


Where The Wild Things Are

This movie is based on Maurice Kendrick's children's book story about a little lonely boy who is befriended by gentle monsters. Through his relationship with them, he learns to understand his personal issues of abandonment, loneliness, why parents do not get along, and why people can be so mean. Lovely and very will done.


A Prophet

A French suspenseful film. It is the "incendiary crime epic from Jacques Aoudad, an immigrant allegory, a parable of ambition, a Horatio Alger-esque, up-by-the bootstraps saga, about a man cast into a figurative New World where he must eat or be eaten." I found the film highly tense and intense but it felt like a cliche. It felt like the typical prison pecking order life, brought to a brutal reality of how to play the game to survive.


The Ghost Writer

Roman Polanski's new film is suspenseful, well-developed and crafted, tense, and extremely well done. He has full command and possession of his craft. Yet, with all of his films, there seems to be a distance between the film and the audience, one is always kept at a distance and you never loose sight that you are watching a movie. I found reflecting dialogue of his autobiographical life with the characters, if one listened closely.


Review of Oscar Best Picture Win: By Hallie

"Over the last decade the voting membership of the Academy has skewed increasingly toward indie- and foreign-based filmmakers. That is because revised admissions rules strongly favor Oscar nominees over the kind of Hollywood old hands who were once a shoo-in for admission. As smaller films got a footing in the awards over the last few years, those who made and appeared in them became voters, increasing the tilt toward little movies."


Maybe it is also because independent films tend to be far finer, more substantive and simpler to tell a story, without all the special effects that studio films have now come to rely upon to grab the adolescent audience.


The Hurt Locker.

I am so thrilled about The Hurt Locker. I saw it twice. After the first time, I came out and said this is an Oscar Award Film but it will never win because it is a poor independent. I thought it was a masterpiece — tight, realistic, possessed a tension that grabbed you instantly and never let go of you, whether you see it one time or 20 times. There were no extras, no gimmicks, no manipulation, no lies. You entered the film without having to wear 3-D glasses. And because of limited money restraints, the actors had to step up to the plate without relying on studio in-house movie tricks to rescue them. It all felt so honest and true. Raw and poignant. It got into the heart and soul of a "soldier" in war. It was an amazing film experience from every perspective.


I thought Aviator was brilliant in state-of-the-art technology and won the accolades for the things it should have won for. But the dialogue, plot, story-line, acting, messages was hokey, new-age, imitative, stupid, and at times, bordered on the ridiculous, made for adolescent boys. I broke out laughing during parts of it! I enjoyed it immensely while I was watching it, but it possessed no staying power afterwards.


I am so glad the Academy did not cave in to the 2 Billion and counting pressure, the enormous ego of JC, and gave the Oscar to the film that carried the integrity and power.


This is the miracle.


The Blackboard Jungle, 1955

With Glenn Ford. A powerful film about life in the inner schools and a Marine who completed his service in WW2 wants to give back and teach. The dialogue and kids were so relevant and contemporary, it felt as if it was reflecting an inner city school today, with knives and smart aleck talk back, and attacks on the teachers and gangs. I love this movie for its clarity and suspense and wonderful acting.


The Yellow Handkerchief

Where have you been John Hurt? What a marvelous quiet and subtle actor he is! He takes over and commands any film he is in. The movie was about three separate people who each possess their secrets and isolation and not belonging anyway and through a road trip they end up sharing and changing and transforming all of their lives. Hurt plays a released con man and the two actors are young kids. There was a quiet intensity and caring and love in this film. Well, done and well crafted.


Coraline

"Extraordinary stop-motion animation propels this imaginative romp about a daring young girl who moves into a new house and finds a parallel magical world." The movie twists into a horror film with the second mother becoming a monster in disguise. Don't wish for better parents, as what you find may be far worse. It became boring and endless and repetitive and imitative.


Oscar Nominated Short Films Animated

I always make the effort to see these and the Live Action as they are nominated from around the world. This year was not as good as last year. I like the Grandma and her telling a fairytale to her terrified grandchild.


Oscar Nominated Short Films Live Action

The first one taking place in India I liked a lot. The others were forgettable and harsh, hard.


Mother

A Korean film about a mother who will stop at nothing to save her retarded son from remaining in jail after he is accused of murder of a loose girl, who has no parentage or even a grandma who loves her. The film keeps taking unexpected twists and turns as you try and figure out who did it. Certain things are established: honesty is one of them and the girl has to be utterly abandoned by society and family in order not to have any feeling about her murder. It was OK, not great, forgettable in time.


Heat Lighting, 1934

A sweet old film that rated two stars that was entertaining and simple. The entire movie takes place at an out of the way gas stop run by two sisters when two escapes arrive. One of them realizes he has had an affair with one of the sisters and uses it to his advantage, only to be murdered by her at the end.


Annie Oakley, 1955

The music and lyrics were written by Irving Berlin, creating a wonderful musical soundtrack. I had not seen this film for quite a while and found myself enjoying it immensely. The whole movie is utterly not political correct in its portrayal of Indians and women. But, it was engaging and fun and lively and entertaining.


The Runaways

This is a movie about the first punk female rock band that reached stardom. It was hard and tough to see, as these young, unformed, lost and abandoned girls groped their way to fame and lost their way into drugs and sex and abuse. They had one great hit and then in order to survive life, they broke up.


The Girl With A Dragon Tattoo

Phenomenal. I saw it twice in one week, to get beyond the sexual trauma, and catch the nuances and details that I might have missed. This gripping, suspenseful and brilliant mystery thriller keeps you glued and twisted up in your seat. I cared for Elizabeth, for all she endured and yet, knew right from wrong, good and bad, light and evil.


High and Low, 1962

Kurosawa's black and white absorbing account of a kidnapping case of a wealthy tycoon's son, only to be discovered that it was his chauffeur's son and the lengths he goes to save this young boy, losing his job and reputation and how the police put the pieces together to find the culprit. Fantastic. I saw it twice.


The Secret in The Eyes

Told in flashback, the romantic crime thriller The Secret in Their Eyes is winner of this year's Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Benjamin Esposito has spent his entire working life as a criminal court employee. In 1999, recently retired and with time on his hands, he decides to write a novel. Drawing on his own past life as a civil servant, he recounts a true, moving and tragic story in which he was very directly involved: in 1974, his court was assigned an investigation into the rape and murder of a beautiful young woman. Moved by the grief of the husband, only married a short time, Esposito tries to help him find the culprit, despite having to contend with the apathy, ineptitude and even hostility of the police and legal system. For assistance he turns to Pablo, a close friend and underling at his office who seeks release from his routine by drinking himself unconscious, and his boss, the beautiful upper class lawyer Irene, with whom Esposito is secretly in love. Espósito's investigation spanning decades takes him deep into the world of Argentina in 1974—a perfect backdrop for the violence, hate, revenge and death—no longer as an observer, but an unwilling central character. Wonderful film. I went down the wrong road from the beginning and stayed confused because of it.


Please Give

This movie opened to rave reviews and I hated it. Every character seemed to sleep walk through life, uncaring how they treated each other, standing up and engaging in nothing in particular. Even an affair by the husband carried no passion or obsession or interest. I found it depressing, deadening, lifeless. I thought the teen-ager was an obnoxious brat. The only kind character was Rebecca. This is the description of the movie: Please Give is writer/director Nicole Holofcener's perceptive—and devastatingly funny—take on modern life's contradictions, good intentions and shaky moral bearings. Kate (Catherine Keener), Alex (Oliver Platt) and their teenage daughter Abby purchase the apartment next door in order to expand their two bedroom Manhattan apartment. They're only problem is Andrea, the cranky old lady living in it, and that they've got to wait for her to die. Andrea is cared for by her sweet granddaughter Rebecca who has no life, and is blatantly rejected by her other granddaughter, the highly cynical Mary. Simply waiting for Andrea to die becomes complicated when the two families' lives intersect, resulting in a dramatic comedy about love, death and liberal guilt.


Alice in Wonderland

A 3-D film, that was extremely well done and well acted. Johnny Depp played himself. Alice was terrific. It was a well written and well adapted script and thoroughly entertaining for what it was.


New Moon

Number 2 of the Twilight Series, and not as good as the first one, it was still wonderful and romantic and mysterious and absorbing. I love this series!


Frances, 1980

Jessica Lange. Sam Shepherd. Frances Farmer, whose Hollywood career was shattered by her mother's overly ambitious drive to make her daughter into a star, ended up destroying her and she went in and out of mental institutions. This movie is a profoundly sad film and Lange plays it brilliantly with all of her vulnerability — how others abuse her for their own profit and gain.


All This, And Heaven Too, 1940

Barbara O'Neil. Bette Davis. Charles Boyer. Rachel's Fields novel about an illicit and unrequited love affair in 1848. This film is a wonderful dramatic drama wit power and insight, full of dialogue and wisdom on unrequited love and lost love and patient love and lack of a mother's love.


Just Wright

Queen Latifah. I mindless, predictable, forgettable comedy of love and miss with an entire black cast. I thoroughly enjoyed it and found it utterly entertaining and total fun. I love Queen Latifah!


The Patsy, 1924

Marion Davis. This silent movie is about two sisters, the younger one Pat is madly in love with the older sister's boyfriend. This sister, Grace, is not in love with him, but is just dating him until a richer suitor comes along. The mother loves Grace the best and the father protects Pat. I find the dialogue and plot fresh and current and marvelously entertaining. For a young child, these silent films are terrific as they are visual stories with words that need to be read out loud. They are chaise and romantic and filled with comedy.


The Swimmer, 1968

Burt Lancaster. Directed by Frank Perry. Based on a John Cheever story, this extraordinary and fine independent small film is about a shattering odyssey through Westchester, NY Lancaster plays a man who "swims" through pools to reach his home and through the people he encounters his life unfolds in front of him destroying his myths, realities, dreams and perceptions. A brilliant acting job and film. A haunting and deeply disturbing movie.


Anne of Green Gables, 1934

Anne Shirley and Tom Brown. Played by an actress with the same name this charming and delightful film follows the highlights of the book with charm and clarity and delight.


Harry Brown

Michael Caine. A wonderful vigilante film, easily understood and empathized with, about an older man who is driven to take the law into his own hands because of his loss, and because around him he has no choice. The Police do nothing. Caine is wonderful, the film is wonderful because it is not a Hollywood ending with a Hollywood politically current theme. I loved it. Suspenseful. Moving. And, well acted.


Scandal Sheet, 1952

Donna Reed. Broderick Crawford. 82 minutes. A simply perfect film. A murder mystery. Suspenseful and dramatic and completely compelling. There is no detail that is not accounted for. There is no actor that does not play a significant part. Every scene is essential to the movie. I have never experienced a more perfect film in detail, plot, acting and effectiveness. It all works brilliantly.


Babies

A cute theme using 4 new borns - 18 months, from 4 wildly separate countries, Mongolia, Africa, USA and Japan, and watching how they are raised and nurtured and loved and treated. The African babies I felt were the saddest because they have no future. The older kids did absolutely nothing all day long. The mothers just sat. I would like to see these same kids 7 years from now.


This Side of Heaven, 1934

Lionel Barrymore. A family of 5, each dealing with their own issues of romance and rejection, publication , etc., when the father is falsely accused of embezzlement. He decides to take his life, when at the moment, he should be dead, his son is hit in a train wreck and miraculously survives, as does the father. Lots of nervous energy and over acting.


Holy Rollers

"Holy Rollers is inspired by actual events in the late '90s when Hasidic Jews were recruited as mules to smuggle ecstasy from Europe into the United States. Sam Gold (Jesse Eisenberg), a young Hasid from an Orthodox Brooklyn community, reluctantly follows the path his family has chosen for him, awaiting a pending arranged marriage and studying to become a Rabbi. A charming neighbor, Yosef, senses Sam’s resistance and propositions him to transport ‘medicine’ for Jackie , an Israeli dealer, and his girlfriend, Rachel. Sam quickly demonstrates his business skill to his bosses, who instantly take Sam under their wing. Now exposed to the exciting and gritty worlds of Manhattan and Amsterdam nightlife, Sam begins to spiral deeper into their detrimental lifestyle, experimenting with ecstasy and then falling for Rachel. As the business grows, Sam’s double life begins to rip his family apart and the community becomes suspicious of his illegal activities. Sam slowly comes to realize the façade behind the easy money and parties. Caught between life as a smuggler and the path back to God, Sam goes on the run, forced to make a fatal decision that could bring the entire operation crashing down." This predictable movie could have been an HBO story. The only difference that set it apart was by using the Hassidic community as an interesting back-story. Jews came out looking awful.


Everyone Else

German. Long and at times excruciating. The plot is about a wealthy architect young man and his girlfriend as they sort out they're highly passionate relationship. She is of a lower class and does not fit into his social or professional world. She is manipulative and needy and hungry and he comes across as powerless and confused, ambivalent about his relationship with her. They are miss matched but will cling to each other because of fear and loss. It was long...


Lemon Tree, 2008

Israeli film. A 45 year-old Arab woman, whose husband has died, takes care of her lemon orchard and eek out a meager living from the lemons. The orchard was given to her by her father and grandfather. When her new neighbor, the Israeli Minister of Defense, moves in across from her, his security precautions demand that she knock down the orchard. She sues. It is a fine and intimate portrayal of Israeli society and all of its complexities, with good people and bad. The fact that she is able to take her issues to a court is an issue that is not honored or treasured in Arab culture or society and is taken for granted by all who see this film.

Haim Abbass is the actress.


Gypsy, 1962

Rosalind Russell. Natalie Woods. Karl Madden. Based on a play which was based on memoir of the famous stripper, Gypsy Rose Lee. This musical has its poignant and humous and touching moments. It felt dated, long and like a play. The drama at the end between mother and daughter left an indelible imprint on me as I remember it so much harsher and fiercer when I first saw it as a child. I never forgot the last 3rd of the movie.


The Father of My Children

"In The Father of My Children, winner of the Special Jury Prize at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, Paris-based film producer Groggier Canvel [Louis-Do de Lencquesaing) has it all: a wife and three daughters he adores and a stimulating job that he's devoted to. On the surface he seems invincible, maintaining humor and charm as he tirelessly juggles the never-ending demands of his production company with his domestic responsibilities. But when Grégoire's reserves—both financial and emotional—reach a dramatic breaking point, his wife Sylvia and children are forced to cope with the profound repercussions. Written and directed by Mia Hansen-Løve." This film brought down the octane in the room by 5 notches creating an evenly paced, reality feel to the movie. I liked how suspension was created, where there were moments you expected a terrible turn of fate, when in fact in truth nothing happened, much like life. It was a marvelous and profoundly sad film. Highly recommended.


The Big Parade, 1925

Silent Film. John Gilbert. Renee Adoree. This film was an overwhelming success and made the most money next to The Birth of A Nation. It is King Vidor's classic about a wealthy American who comes of age in World War 1. Romantic and with a handsome leading man, it captures war in all is heartache and meaning.


Green Dolphin Street, 1947

Lana Turner. Donna Reed. The movie takes place in 19th century New Zealand where two sisters fall in love with the same man. The mother tricks him by sending the wrong daughter to meet him n New Zealand. The viewer is never told why she did this, leaving the film unsatisfactory and incomplete. Donna Reed becomes a nun!


Sex and The City2

A wonderful entertaining funny and poignant chick film of our favorite best friends forever.


The Portrait of Dorian Gray, 1945

This movie was based on Oscar Wilde's autobiographical book, using much of the book's language through voice over. Hurt Hatfield. George Sanders. Donna Reed. It is about a tale of a man who does not age. The portrait however does, revealing the insidious evil and dark side of his personality, his degeneracy and self-loathing, his deceit and deception. Yet, the world saw the timeless, ageless persona, as the self portrait revealed his descent into crime and cruelty, his hiding of his dark and brutal secrets.


Kill Bill, 2003

Quentin Tarantio, Director. Uma Thurman. Entertaining, cartoonish, chapter organized, incredibly violent story of a bride whose entire wedding party was destroyed on the day of her wedding, along with her new born baby inside of her. The movie becomes a revenge in all the horrific horror one can image. Tarantio continues along this line with his Inglorious Basterds which to me, was far more sophisticated and polished.


The Major and The Minor, 1942

Ginger Rogers. Ray Milland. A woman poses as a 12 year old in order to get a cheaper fare on the train. She is discovered, hides randomly in a car where she meets The Major. The rest of the movie is how she has to keep up her disguise as she and the Major fall in love. It could never be made today!!! But, it was adorable. In retrospect, I wonder if the Major did not know all along, that she was not really twelve, but she was indeed, a woman. I would hope so!


True Grit, 1969

Oscar award winning star John Wayne plays his part to his zenith. A wonderful journey through the landscape of old westerns. Wayne plays a used up drunken crusty Marshall who helps a young girl find the murdered of her father. John Campbell joins them too. It is a truly finely executed and well nuanced film. I loved it and enjoyed it immensely.


Girl With The Green Eyes, 1964

Peter Finch. Rita Tushingham. This poetic and sad film is about a naive and young, inexperienced romantic girl who falls for a troubled older man who is a writer. Lynn Redgrave who is the daughter of the producer of the film, Tony Richardson, plays her over bearing best friend who saves her from herself. Our young girl lost her mother and lives with a brute as a father. Shot in Dublin, with all the limitations and opportunity that the society holds for a young girl, her escape at the end, takes the darkness of the film and concludes it in light. "Old men and young girls are gold in books and not much any place else."


Away We Go, 2009

John Krasinski. Maya Rudolph. Directed by Sam Mendes. This warm hearted and tender film is about a thirty age young couple, unmarried, who, when pregnant, decide to find the perfect community to raise their child. Through this journey and process, their own relationship and strengths come to the forefront. Through the relationships and private sorrows of the lives of their couple friends, they discover what they want for themselves and what they definitely do not want either. It is a wonderful and thoughtful film.


Strangers On A Train, 1951

Alfred Hitchcock. No one builds tension as brilliantly as Hitchcock. This ambitious tennis star is lured into a murder that he did not commit through the careful plotting and build up of a psycho that he meets on the train. It is superbly down and brilliant executed and Hitchcock at this finest. I loved the word "Thorny."


Yes Man, 2009

Jim Carrey. An absolutely silly, mindless film that I was able to see for only about 1/2 of it before I was bored senseless.


The Last Metro, 1980

Francois Traflaut's study of a theater house in Nazi-occupied Paris. Catherine Deneuve. Gerald Depardieu. Very French. The love songs. The femininity and masculinity of life. It carried its own underlying tension of survival during the Nazi terror era. Very well done. Complete. Absorbing. Layered and nuanced. A wonderful satisfying film, loosely based on events in the Director's life.


Fast Food Nation, 2006

Vil Kilnar. Bruce Willis. Ethan Hawke. A pseudo documentary of the fast food cattle industry, of lives all woven together to form the enormous chain behind the corporate enterprise of fast food. The little man is screwed. Corporations are corrupt and evil. What you eat is not food. It is disgusting. Many short small stories woven into the larger picture and where the movie begins is where it also ends, so the cycle begins again.


Easy Rider, 1969

Written and Produced and Directed by Dennis Hopper. With Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson who steals the movie and scene whenever he is in it. The musical soundtrack is fantastic! The movie seems so dated without cell phone, computers, guns, enlarged breasts and lips. It is a drug infested, self indulgent, drug crazed journey of hippies going by motorcycle from LA to New Orleans for the Mardi Gras. LDS. Hallucinations. Tune In. Turn On. Drop Out. Culture. I did not connect to it then. It felt so out of control. Fonda plays the withdrawn, everything is good, go along with everything type of character. He seems sad, withdrawn into himself . Gentle. The trip ends with a bad hallucination trip. And, of course the murders by southern bigots. Drugs enabled the cash flow. "We've done it! We've done it! We're rich, man. We're rich man." Hopper exclaims. "We blew it. You go through the big money man. You think you're free? We blew it." Fonda responds. I wondered what they have to show for their empty lives. It ends with Bob Dylan. I wondered if it became a classic cult hit because they both died at the end for just doing their own thing. Nicholson spoke the truth of the film with his short cameo role.


The Dead Girl, 2006

Writer and Director is a woman! Karen Moncrieff. Starring Toni Colette. Marcia Gay Harden. Brittany Murphy. The movie brings together five different stories as they are told through A Mother. A Sister. A Husband. etc. A prostitute is murdered and through these short vignettes, their lives intersect and interlock with each other and the viewer comes to understand and see how The Dead Girl, played brilliantly by Murphy who carries such pathos and pain and vulnerability and living so closely on the edge, ended up dead, much like in her real life.


Old Yeller, 1959

Walt Disney. With Dorothy McQuire. This classic film about a stray Labrador dog who comes to a homestead on the wild frontier in the 1860's. With today's sensibilities, it feels romanticized and goody goody. But, at the time, children wept when Old Yeller had to be shot to death.


Some Came Running, 1958

Frank Sinatra. Dean Martin. Shirley McClaine. An ex-serviceman comes home after being away for 17 years to cope with his family and friends and a writer's past. Contrived. Troubled. Slick for the times. Cliche. But, timeless entertainment. Shirley McClaine steals the film. The best dialogue came through Miss French, the English teacher. "Good writers have deeper appetites for life. They feel more deeply than the rest of us. Famous writers had big weaknesses but bigger strengths."


La Ronde, 1950

Anton Walbrook. Simone Signoret. Max Offal's concatenation of love affairs in 1900. "True love is only true love when there is truth and purity." But, when is their truth and purity in true love?" I ask myself. "It is the things that one speaks of most, that are the least real." So true. The movie is about the merry-go-round of love in all of its forms and relationships and understanding. Husband and Wife. Count and Actress. Shop Girl and Older Man. Lover and Married Woman. Street Walker and Soldier. All seeking love and romance.


Flower Drum Song, 1961

Roger's and Hammerstein. Nancy Kwan. A mail order bride from China comes to San Francisco and tries to adjust to her new life trying to get married and to the cultural differences between the old country and her new one. The movie is based on the novel by CY Lee. It is dated and the music is even more so. Boring and will not stand the test of time.


Diaboliques!1955 (The Devils)

French. This is Henri-Georges Clouzot's classic melodrama about a woman who conspires with her husband's mistress to murder him. Clout is considered the French Alfred Hitchcock. Simone Signoret plays the mistress. There is ominous music with a boys choir. This black and white noir suspenseful film creates tension and builds up plot slowly and deliberately. Every character plays a significant role, even the cameo performances. Well, done and dark, with an interesting and surprising twist at the end. Enjoyed it.


Far and Away, 1992

Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. An epic tale of a tenant farmer and a landowner's daughter who emigrate to American from Ireland in the 1880s. Very well done. Expansive and beautifully filmed. Tom Cruise was a hunk, a charismatic actor, machismo and daring. Though the film did not do well at the box, office or with the critics, I loved it.


Flight of The Red Balloon, 2007

French. Juliette Binoche. Hou Hsiao-hisen wonderful and lyrical film that literally paves a life as if it is happening. Real, almost feels like a documentary. A divorced and harried single mother with Song, her new Chinese Film Student nanny, and her young 7-year-old son Simon, they live out their daily life with its ruptures and difficulties. Gentle and Intimate. Poetic and Sensitive. Subtle. The red ballon is like a guardian angle and peeks around the corner protecting Simon. In Homage to The Red Balloon and its writer.


Judgement of Nuremberg, 1961

Spencer Tracy. Maximilian Schell. Burt Lancaster. Marlene Dietrich. Stanley Kramers powerful drama about the Nazi German Nuremberg War Crimes earned an Academy Award to the screenwriter Abby Man. The 31/2 film made me weep. The brilliant dialogue and built up suspense, the intense probing in trying to find meaning and justice and truth when the world went mad, the extraordinary Defense Lawyer, and who in real life was Jewish! And who carried the film, made me think and reflect and hold my breath. It was a commitment of seeing and witnessing great film about a tragic and unbearable history. "Break the Body. Break the mind. Break the spirit." "To be logical is not to be right." "You knew the first time you sentenced a man to death, that you knew to be innocent," that you had committed an evil act, Spencer Tracy says to Burt Lancaster.


A Christmas Tale, 2008

French Film. Catherine Deneuve. Mathieu Amalric. Directed by Arnaud Desplechin. This film explores the complicated and complex familial relationships that make up a family. The tension is built up gradually. Many things are left unsaid, but implied and are nuanced and understood. Members say cruel and mean things to each other, especially the mother, played coldly by Deneuve. What makes her so great? She comes across to me as utterly unfeeling, untouched, unmoved by those who solicit around her. She is now stout and matronly. Henri and the father to me are the most vulnerable and human, who speak the truth about this loveless life and where there is enough blame to go around. The white elephant in the room is the death of a child that haunts the family still 30 years later. Henri was born to save this child's life but their blood did not match and the mother never forgave Henri for being born and failing at his job. "I got trampled on. I was not paying attention," says Henri. "Don't dream. You have no family." "You have serious relationship problems. You are a real downer," Henri says to Elizabeth, who is a control freak, calculating and mean. I loved the monologues that the characters spoke out loud to themselves in private. I loved the use and symbol of masks that weaved through the film, that opened each monologue, where truth was revealed and bitterly embraced.


Picnic At Hanging Rock, 1975

Australia. Peter Weir, Director. The gorgeous classical soundtrack haunts the film as it unfolds the simple story in backward Australia, 1900. Young girls from a boarding school leave a picnic to go off on their own to explore the infamous Hanging Rock. They never return. Their bodies, but one, are never found. The movie tries to imply they were drawn up there by magnetic fields, or went to suffer a romantic poetic death. There were references to Chimera: head of a lion. Body of a goat. Tail of a snake. Like any disease.


The Paridine Case

Alfred Hitchcock. Louis Jourdan. Gregory Peck. Ann Todd. David Selznick. Hitchcock and Selznick fought bitterly over this film and never worked together again. Unsatisfying courtroom drama about a lawyer who falls in love with his client who is being accused of killing her husband. No special twist. No surprise. Not particularly good. Too many unexplained characters and to why they were in the film in the first place.


Breathless, 1960

One of the Masterpieces of the French New Wave, this film launched the career of Jean-Luc Godard. This singular film about the days in the lives of a beautiful American student and her criminal boyfriend who is wanted by the law for stealing cars and killing a policeman took the film world by a storm. It feels tame by todays standards but according to critics and film historians it broke boundaries and rules of film making. It also created Jean Seberg into an international star until her early death. Looking at it today, through the eyes of a different lens, it possesses the lightness of a typical French film, the lack of seriousness that tries to take itself seriously, an ambivalent feeling toward the handsome leading man who is a con man, amoral, immoral, uses people indiscriminately, steals from everyone and even commits murder without much thought or remorse, makes me, the viewer, feel a certain fear for Seberg. Is she in danger? Never. Really. But, Godard seems to romanticize their relationship, when I saw only flirtation and lust, and dislike for our hero, with his false bravado philosophical discourse on life and love, women and their needs.


San Francisco, 1936

April 18, 1906 5:35 AM. Clark Gable. Jeanette MacDonald. Spencer Tracy. A singer works for Blackie who runs a joint. She is a goody goody and he is typical Gable in his prime. Gable plays the action, lusty hero, the rough and tumble kind-of-guy. The "sinful, adorable, selfish scoundrel" the bad boy that women fall in love with but should not marry. The plot is fast directed with a honkey tonk feel and loose story. There is the black tap dancer with partner and you notice how the entire film is white, how black society literally did not reveal itself in films of this era. The style is of short pants for men, high waisted too and the use of "swell." But, what makes this meandering film spectacular is the 20 minutes of special effects at the end of the San Francisco earthquake. There were no computers or special effects that we have at our disposal today and it was quite extraordinary how they captured the impact of this monumental time. The gorgeous opera music, sung by MacDonald was marvelous - La Trivet, Nearer to God To Thee. San Francisco - and considering this was the music for the masses!


Summer Hours, 2008

French. Juliette Binoche. This simply marvelous and intimate and perfect film captures how three siblings come to terms with themselves, their lives, each other, truths and sorrows, after their mother passes.The simplicity and interactions, the dialogue and relationships felt real and true. There were lovely moments, where suddenly one couple would break out in laughter at the museum, that felt so natural and real, I felt as if it was me. I simply loved it.


Modern Bones

"Winner of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Prize and Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award, this tense, naturalistic thriller follows 17-year-old Ree Dolly [Jennifer Lawrence) as she confronts the local criminal underworld and the harsh Ozark wilderness in order to track down her father, who has put up the family homestead for his bail. Featuring a star-making performance by Lawrence,Winter's Bone is one of the most-critically acclaimed films of the year. Directed and co-written by Debra Granik."


By Director Debra Granik (From Review at The Landmark)

BEGINNINGS
On a park bench one afternoon, I read Daniel Wordless novel Winter’s Bone from cover to cover. I hadn't done that with any book in a long time. I was in suspense to see how the story's protagonist, Ree, would survive. It felt like an old-fashioned tale, with a character I couldn’t help but root for, and descriptions of a place that stoked my imagination as I tried to conjure Ree's world. Her circumstances are so different from my own that my curiosity was piqued.

To launch this project, we met with Daniel Woodrell in his home base in Southern Missouri and embarked on our first scout. I was aware that it was a geologically rich part of the country, with rolling hills and hollers above ground and an extensive system of caves and underground rivers below. So it already had a resonant, mythic quality for me, because of this above and below ground topography. We photographed homes, yards, roads, creeks and caves. The visual power of nature is manifest in the landscape filled with vines, brambles, thick woods and dramatically gnarled trees. In this first Missouri journey, we were also introduced to singers, storytellers, and folklorists steeped in Ozark culture. We also had an informative and disturbing discussion with the local sheriff, about what the meth problem has been like over the last two decades.

Two years later, we came back to a different section of the Missouri Ozarks to prepare for the film shoot. With the help of our local guide and location scout Richard Michael, we started by searching for a family living in a setting like the one described in the book. We knew we had to find a family who would let us see their house, their clothes, their objects, their dinner table, who would let us see them hunt, take care of their animals, and fix day-to-day problems as they arose. Eventually we found a family and neighbors who were willing to answer our questions, show us things, and advise us on the script.

THE LOOK OF THE FILM
In order to put on screen accurate details, we shot entirely on location on several families' properties. The costume designer Rebecca Hoofer exchanged garments with local people who were willing to trade pristine Carharts for well-used ones. Real life is frayed, frugal, dusted with soot from stoves, heavy dust from the hardscrabble surface of the earth in these Southern Missouri counties. We had to work with these potent forces of the environment.

The housing stock in this area has tremendous texture. Many houses are made from several different kinds of materials—wood, vinyl, stone, metal. And the geometry of these hand-built houses is interesting and unique. The production designer, Mark White, primarily used objects found in the locations, working from careful observation and visual notes on what he found. The dogs, cats and donkey which appear in the film belonged to their locations, and these four-legged actors were willing to saunter across the frame at random, and to greet the biped cast members authentically as they entered and exited.

CASTING
By casting many roles with actors from the area, we had people correcting dialect and watching our backs in general, making sure we didn't go down any misguided paths. The active participation of the location families also helped the lead cast members to finesse the details. Many of the actors came from states neighboring Missouri—Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi. It was exhilarating to work watch Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes, Dale Dickey and the other cast members who came from elsewhere immerse themselves in the story and take on the rhythms and accents of the region. They watched and listened closely to what people did and how they spoke. Ultimately, the out-of-state cast blended with the Ozarks-based cast members.

The process of working on location spawned other changes in the script and casting. In the novel, Ree has two younger brothers, who we attempted to cast in a traditional way by seeing children with acting experience from the neighboring towns. Meanwhile, during rehearsals and auditions that we held on location, I would turn to the six year old daughter of the family who owned the property, Ashlee, and ask her if she could show me or the boys how to do certain things. Every time we reviewed these rehearsal tapes, I was drawn in by Ashlee's presence with Jennifer Lawrence playing Ree, and the way she could be in the house and on the land with a natural ease—she was literally at home on the set. The decision to cast her as Ree's youngest sibling was a last-minute change, and a lucky one for the production.

MUSIC
Originally the story didn't have music, but as we spent time in the Ozarks we kept hearing stunning music, a lyrical element in the fabric of Ozark's life, and we were determined to put that into the film. Daniel Woodrell brought us to a picking session at a friend's house, and there we met the singer Marideth Sisco and some of the other musicians who would eventually appear in the house party scene in Winter's Bone. We found the bar band, White River Music Company, through an audition process. These musicians led us to others, some of whose work is heard in other scenes. The composer Dickon Hinchliffe was inspired by the regional music and shaped his score around these Ozarkian idioms. The film's closing instrumental, “Hardscrabble Elegy,” is the fruit of that process. Since the film wrapped, the musicians have recorded a collection of music from and associated with the film, which will be available soon.

NO FILM CAN REPRESENT A WHOLE REGION
Mountain regions have a history of outsiders representing them monolithically. The term hillbilly is often used against hill culture, and usually doesn't allow for much nuance. References to bootlegging and feuds come up pretty fast after the term hillbilly. The questions that pressed on us while researching this story and scouting for it centered on certain indelible stereotypes: what is a hillbilly, versus a person who lives in mountain country? What is the significance of debris in a yard? What is the reason, and what assumptions do we make about the person living in the house of that yard? We had to get to know that person. If the viewer doesn't meet that person and only sees the yard, do we perpetuate an image of a landscape that looks "trashy"? A yard filled with objects is photographically rich—endless depth of field, great colors and textures. Abandoned debris and trucks with plant life growing out of their windows, those things are inherently photogenic because they're both disturbing and beautiful. Objects become part of the landscape over time. But what about the tidy yard down the road? If we don't show both, have we just re-presented the region as a place with junky yards? These are the questions that we had to confront. Knowing the soul behind the yard helped a great deal. This is just one family, trying to make a go of it.

You can’t go to an area with such an intense history and lore and not lock horns with symbols, cliches, stereotypes and sensitivities. And it's an ongoing challenge to navigate to some form of storytelling that chips away at the stereotypes and adds some new details to what's gone before. Winter's Bone depicts different aspects of Ree's life, not just her survival skills, or her resolve, but very disturbing parts of her life as well. Like children in many other settings, Ree witnesses adults in her life who struggle with addiction. In any life with limited financial resources, the prevalence of destructive substances like meth, and what that does to families, the general climate of violence, deceit and callousness, is painful to discuss, and even harder to include in a movie. From moonshine to marijuana to meth, marginal economies can easily run over a culture and wear it down, violently corrupt it. Who wants to take this on? But add to the challenge that moonshine and meth are gasoline on the bonfire of cliches depicting mountain culture. Thirty-five years afterDeliverance, even a banjo can still be a loaded symbol. But through our trips down to Southern Missouri, banjos kept popping up in the most lyrical and alluring ways. Ultimately the banjo found its way into the film, offering notes of hope and perseverance. I came to think of it as a fresh start for that image.

A WESTERN HERO IN A GIRL'S BODY
Ree is focused on her commitment to guide her brother and sister through their childhoods. She is willing to fight to keep her family from falling apart. I see her as a lioness protecting her pride. She is also a teenager who experiences helpless feelings when adults around her make deadly choices, and are drawn down into a way of life that destroys them. She can’t do much to get her dad out of the meth world, or help her uncle with his chemical dependency and nihilism, yet she still cares about them. That is wrenching for any young person. The only thing left for her is to try to be different.

Like many a movie hero, Ree must struggle. We don't get to see much of her teenage side. We never really get to see her have a good time with her friend Gail or flirt with boys. Throughout the story she is single-minded in her focus, because the search for her father is all-consuming. There is a deadline. In this heightened context, we see that Ree does not take "no" for an answer. In matters of justice, I love characters who don't take no. I want to know how they get that resolve. We may not know what fuels Ree, but it is exciting to witness a girl who shows this much strength of character. Heroes are often terse and aloof, and I guess that's what keeps one thinking—"hmm, why does she go on, why doesn't she give up? Where does this kind of determination come from?"

I am drawn to looking at characters who doggedly try to solve the puzzle of how to make their lives work. Often that involves a lot of hard choices. What wows me are people who soldier on within difficult circumstances. I want to see how they are going to do it. In some lives a person appears to make great strides, reach heights, and in other lives it takes an equal amount of resolve and effort to move a centimeter. The cycle of effort, obstacles, trying again...these are the lives that I admire and want to document and portray.

From Hallie: This magnificent film, a film of perfection and integrity, left me remaining in my seat, the last one to leave the theater. When the last credit left the screen, the last verse of the song sung, the last photograph revealed, the last tune silenced, I felt in that moment I had experience that singular moment of Knowing why I love film; that I understood the essence of why good film is a priceless experience into loosing oneself, seeing oneself and life itself in front of you, being taken away into a State of Breathlessness and Being that no other medium can quite capture. In this film there was no sentimentality or falseness, manipulation or disguise. There was a raw brutal honesty, a survival, a strength and courage, an attention to detail that left me breathless. Ree's (Sweat Pea) inability to finish off her father as demanded by the sisters, the hard tears that came down her cheek at how low she had to descend to find Truth, and yet, he was her father who had been destroyed by meth, abandoned the family, left them destitute, but he was still her father. I cried. The acting was mountain women who knew the hills and had to live with the dealt of cards life dealt them. Our heroine was so real and played her with such understanding and depth, it took my breath away. The USA Army man was not a clique but was sympathetic and sized up her situation immediately, giving her wise counsel. The music gave the film hope and future and an escape out of the hardness and survival of their lives. This movie was a Masterpiece. And, it will become a Timeless Classic. Lost and then Rediscovered.

Louise May Alcott - The Woman Behind Little Woman

Documentary of this great woman writer who filled the niche into every one of her family member's life, who wrote to save her family from desperate and certain poverty, who was the son of the family, a fiercely independent, passionate and romantic woman who loved and lived to write. All her life she suffered from what she felt was the mercury they gave her to fight typhoid fever during the Civil War, when in fact, she suffered and died from Lupus.

Bitter Sweet, 1940

Charming, class structured film of Cole Porter's music staring Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy in this romantic operetta about two struggling people who fall in love, elope, and try to get their own romantic opera heard and seen. Set in Vienna, MacDonald comes across to me as a young Julie Andrews. Clean and Friendly and Wholesome. The opposite of sexy and hot. I also find this utterly entertaining film to be the musical diet for middle America in the 30's and 40's! My father adored their music and duets and song together. Around an hour and 20 minutes into the film, Karl Lindin dies, which was unexpected and sword dual swift. MacDonald says, " Karl didn't die. I did. A little. But, his music will always live. When I play, I see him. When I sing, I hear him."

Savage Grace, 2007

Julianne Moore. Written by Stanley Tucci. The film is a terrible portrait of a family that sinks into depravity, abuses privilege and power. Moore, a commoner who worked in a department store, marries an heir to a plastics fortune. He graphically anal fucks her with force and disgust and distain. All of them, from their homosexual son, descend into murder and incest, borrowed and shared lovers, drown themselves in drink and drugs, to avoid the meaninglessness of their lives and relationships. "Women all make a fuss," the father tells his son, " always telling us where to put our cocks and where not to." "Do not leave me and break my heart," the wife tells her husband who is escaping with their son's girlfriend, even though the son is gay. "You are nothing but paranoia and spite," he responds. The next scene is one of transition where Moore is coming out of a cafe and two local boys are using bee bee guns to shoot apart broken wine bottles, leaving them in glass shambles on the ground, a metaphor for their lives and for this film. Eventually, the incest destroys Tony, causing him to murder his mother and nearly kill his grandmother. Her role is significant only in that she loved him from the very beginning. But, decadent lives lead to meaningless ones and this could be seen in this film. "To say that one is tired of Paris is in fact to say that one is tired of life." F.Scott Fitzgerald. And, "One of the uses of money is that it allows us not to live with the consequences of our mistakes." This final quote by Moore is actually proven in the film to be utterly and completely false, much like how these characters lived their empty lives. False.

A Girl Cut In Two, 2007

A TV weather reporter in Lyons, France engages in a stormy relationship with two wildly different men. The first is a famous rich author, 30 years her senior. She is caught by his power and prestige and experience. He uses and abuses her and as a rebound, she decides to get involved with an unstable and unsavory scoundrel, who is heir to one of the great fortunes in France, who raped a 7 year-old and got away with it. As to be expected, she is used and discarded after he violently murders the author. By trading on her beautiful looks, she gets ahead, but to what? The movie left me feeling dissatisfied and it ultimately, felt pointless. Would I recommend it? Never.

Smilin Through, 1941

Jeanette MacDonald. Brian Aherne. This marvelous, old and romantic classic is about a love that endures years in different forms and different lives. Sad and poignant with marvelous music, this movie tugs at your heartstrings and captures your heart. You see MacDonald in her prime and at her best. I loved it completely. How different is the world today! There is no romantic or courting or intimacy or sacrifice or yearning or principle. It is all gone."If you put a barrier between those who love ... drive this hatred out of yourself ... it is wrong ... why have you deserted me?"

The Bubble, 2007

Yosef Sweed. A disturbing Israeli film about a girl and her three gay roommates. Explicit lovemaking occurs between the men. One of them is Palestinian. This movie which is not supposed to be about politics cannot escape its strong Left Wing voice — completely missing the point that the gay lifestyle is simply not tolerated in Arab life. Arabs would never make a film like this — ever — with this dialogue. It was fun seeing Tel Aviv sights and sounds and culture.

Adam's Rib, 1949

Classic. Starring Spencer Tracy, Katherine Hepburn, Judy Holiday. A wealthy husband and wife, who are both lawyers, take opposite sides in a case of a woman who is being tried for attempting to murder her husband. The feminist dialogue is fantastic. The pace is crisp and one-step-ahead of the audience. Fresh and original and astounding, considering that this film is over sixty years old! "I think the human race is having a nervous breakdown!" "Man sows his wild oats and it is only a wink; a woman does and it is a scandal!" Katherine Hepburn says to her secretary. "You just sound cute when you get cause y," Spencer Tracy patronizes to his wife. By the way, she is the Yale graduate. It was amusing when Hepburn says, "Beat it!" and then pushes her male secretary away. Or when interviewing the wife who is up on murder charges, Holiday says, "I watched myself doing it, like in a dream." The line was significant and repeated twice. "Every living being is capable of attack if sufficiently provoked. Assault lies dormant within us all. It requires only circumstance to set us into violent motion. There was no murder attempt here. Only a pathetic attempt to save a home." And, "Lawyers should never marry other lawyers. This is called inbreeding which creates idiot children and more lawyers." "I love to look at girls and ladies and women!" And, I loved all these different categories from this era.

The Duel

"The New York Times Critics’ Pick Anton Chekhov's “'The Duel” breathes new life into a classic Chekhovian tale. Working with the master cinematographer Paul Sarossy and director Dover Kosashvil, they have made a gorgeously cinematic and accessible movie that is sensuous, passionate, dramatic and peppered with delightful moments of levity inherent to the great novella. “The performances are excellent all around, with Andrew Scott mesmerizing and the gorgeous Fiona Glascott making vividly clear why her character drives all men to distraction.” (Hollywood Reporter) “Adultery, betrayal, blackmail, drunken antics...the most successful literary adaptation I’ve seen since...Lady Chatterley.” (Village Voice)"


This marvelous rendition of Chekhov's novella did not disappoint. Set in the beautiful landscape of untamed Russia, the movie unfolds quietly, building up the drama and relationships carefully and specifically. No detail is left untouched. Love is expressed in different forms, such as falling out of love, hanging-in-their-love, tortured love, an envy and jealously love that can drive one to murder and revenge, hatred and control. The alter ego of Chekov was played exquisitely by our hero who does not love his mistress anymore but feels obligated and pressured to marry her — guilt that if he doesn't she is abandoned and alone without family or money. What will happen to her? Where will she go? What is his duty and obligation now that she is free from her marriage because her husband died? And, yet what about his own happiness? Is he doomed to marry her because of duty and obligation? The dialogue and universal theme and story continue to haunt us and follow us into our modern times.

White Night Wedding, 2007

Swedish. "This riveting adaptation of the Chekov play 'Ivanov" is about a literature professor whose impending marriage to a former student is complicated by fiscal disputes and bad memories from his previous marriage." Chekov must have had profound struggles and issues personally in his marriage and with the Institution as a whole. He deals with the same theme in The Duel. The movie possesses brilliant transitions from past to present, using the metaphor of dead birds repeatedly to stress this theme and conversation. The Professor is a disliked, a cold and selfish bastard who elicits little sympathy from the community or the audience. His wife voices desperation when she says, "I am pathetic and ugly and disgusting," and he does not respond. Cruel, I thought to myself, even if you feel so. "You don't save a marriage by moving to a new place," his new student girlfriend says to him. "Maybe things didn't turn out the way we dreamt. But, you changed your life and I am an opera singer," her father says to the Professor."How inconvenient," the Minister says to the Professor, "nothing in this world is right or wrong. Good or bad. Just different and complex," he says to him with utter distain and contempt. The movie concludes with the Professor speaking to his students, "Life offers no simple answers, just complex questions. The purpose of life isn't death, even if it's the end result, just as love or happiness is not the purpose of life. Rather it is the quest. The quest for love, the quest for happiness." The movie ends with the Professor, happy going home to have his dinner as his unhappy student bride is obviously unhappy and leaves to go out for the evening, alone. To me, this was a wonderful sense of justice, as you know she will leave him.

Blind Date, 2008

Stanley Tucci. Patricia Clarkson. Directed by Stanley Tucci. I wanted to see this movie because of my two favorite actors. It is about a married couple who try and cope with the tragedy of their dead 5-year-old daughter due to a car accident because they were laughing and driving and not paying attention. They role play, through personal ads, their grief trying to resolve and come to terms with it. They fail. The film was based on a film by Theo Van Gogh. "My dad thought burning a picture of me would help him forget. But burning something only makes you remember that thing more," the daughter says in a voice over. "They say a loss of a child is the greatest loss of all. They always reached out to other people they hardly knew for solace," the daughter comments. Referring to plastic flowers, "They are fake, but they will last forever." This sentence seems to summarize their permanent pain. Everything around them is real and their attempt to cover up or pretend that this pain will ever go away is fake." With that knowledge they knew they were doomed. They could not take the anguish of staying alive any longer. It was simply too much. The gorgeous music reflected their state of desolation and being shattered into a thousand pieces.

Keeper Of the Flame, 1942

Spencer Tracy. Katherine Hepburn. Directed by George Cukor. A reporter uncovers dangerous facts about a national political idol as he falls in love with this mans widow. "There is always good and evil up against each other. A man has to take sides sooner or later." This essential line of the film was given to the taxi driver speaking to Tracy. The movie was interesting in how we perceive and adore our idols publicly and how different their private lives are in reality. It is not any different today. The movie, though somewhat contrived, reflects universal truths of this issue and celebrity.

Cyrus

"Still single seven years after the breakup of his marriage, John [John C. Reilly) has all but given up on romance. But at the urging of his ex-wife and best friend Jamie (Catherine Keener), John grudgingly agrees to join her and her fiancé Tim (Matt Walsh) at a party. To his and everyone else's surprise, he actually manages to meet someone: the gorgeous and spirited Molly (Marisa Tomei). Their chemistry is immediate. The relationship takes off quickly but Molly is oddly reluctant to take the relationship beyond John's house. Perplexed, he follows her home and discovers the other man in Molly's life: her son, Cyrus (Jonah Hill). A 21-year-old new age musician, Cyrus is his mom's best friend and shares an unconventional relationship with her. Cyrus will go to any lengths to protect Molly and is definitely not ready to share her with anyone, especially John. Before long, the two are locked in a battle of wits for the woman they both love—and it appears only one man can be left standing when its over. Written and directed by Jay and Mark Duplass, the iconoclastic filmmaking team behind Sundance Film Festival favorite The Puffy Chair, Cyrus takes an insightful and funny look at love and family in contemporary Los Angeles."

I love John C. Reilly. I think that he is one of the best character actors on the scene today. Sympathetic, wide range of emotional depth, likable and real, there is something about him that I find immensely attractive and safe. He communicates a maturity in his character that is believable and watchable. And, of course Marisa Tomei is brilliant and one of our finest, playing her different characters in different movies wildly apart and separate from each other. The movie worked because of the acting and plot and it moved one step ahead of the viewer. Highly enjoyable and funny and poignant and well paced.

Night and Day, 1946

Cary Grant. Alexis Smith. "Wonderful tunes highlight this largely fictional account of the life of Cole Porter." This is a classic understatement. This gay man used women as fronts in order to be accepted into society. He was an appalling unappealing man. This white coat and white wash I found so offensive I turned it off after 30 minutes.

Still Walking, 2008

Japanese. Hiroshi Abe. "An elderly couples family reunion with children, grandchildren and grandparents and parents, to mark the 15 year old anniversary marker death of the eldest son who was a doctor and drowned rescuing a child from the sea. That child lived. I loved how the comments were so brutal and raw, when this boy, who is now a fat man, came to visit and then he left after he paid his forced respects. The family is marked by dysfunction, rage, resentments, revelations, regret and recrimination. Abe plays the underachieving son and is superb. It is a profoundly sad and devastating film, exquisite in its depth and understanding of how parents and family cope with the death of a child. Sensitive and implied, nuanced and inferred, this film comes close to perfection. "You never know how he might have turned out," or "Children don't necessarily turn out the way you want them to." "How are you making a living?" the father asks his second son? "Enough to support a widowed single mom," he responds. "There's a crack!" the grandchildren scream at that moment as they break open a watermelon. This scream and comment serving as the transition and symbol of this entire family. The second son cannot compete with the idealized version of the dead oldest son. He is singularly rejected, hushed up, judged, criticized, compromised, feels like a failure and shamed. The constant picture of the son on the table becomes a Metaphor for the Loss of this family, who are walking dead through life. "Junpei was my Heir. Ryo left the family," the father bitterly laments to his needy daughter who is crying out for love and attention. The father is so shattered by his death of his doctor son that he cannot even bear the presence of his second son. The idealized son versus the disappointed son. This is the basic theme of the film. As a doctor, the father tortures himself that he was not there to save his son, because he was with another woman at the time and his wife had to carry they're dying son back on her back to their house. "Everyone listens to a song on the sly," the second son says to his new wife. And, that is how these family members and audience know what is inside the heart of these saddened characters. The mother speaks out loud to herself in monologue knowing her son is on the other side and able to listen. An extraordinary film. The Best.


Killer of Sheep, 1977

Henry G. Sanders. Charles Burnett wrote, directed, photographed and edited this brilliant film. It is a powerful, and simple story of an impoverished black family in the South Los Angeles. How the movie was made, produced and promoted is a Cinderella story in and of itself, but it eventually was recognized as one of the greatest movies of this decade. Burnett tragically died of Aids in 1988. In this film, an underground tension and fear is implied of an accident or tragedy almost ready to happen around the corner, down the street, in the house. A tension and frustration builds, almost to explosion, but never quite, reaching that point of cinema climax that works to perfection, and in the process creates a sympathy for its characters that is devastating, defeating and sad.


Vagabond, 1985

French. Sandrine Bonnaire. Agnes Varda's stark tragedy of a mysterious woman who comes in from the sea, is almost mute, strange and emotionally detached and a stranger to all who meet her. It is a strange film and once seen is hard to be viewed again, but is never forgotten.


The Barretts of Winpole Street, 1935

Directed by Stanley Franklin. Fredric March. Norma Shearer. Charles Laughton. This absolutely wonderful film caught with superb dialogue and acting, especially by the father, who was played by Charles Laughton, the story of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and her passionate love affair and elopement at the age of 38 years old with Robert Browning. The tyrannical father was not unusual in that period and time and place. It took enormous courage to do what she did, especially as she was kept as an invalid in frail and declining health. The eldest of 12 children, she suffered greatly, with the loss of her mother, living with this father, feeling responsible for the death of her brother who came to visit her and who died in a boating accident, and then her favorite sister died, after Elizabeth got married. But, the movie centers on the three years that she meets Browning and her ambivalence and fear and final resolution to allow herself to escape and to live her life. "If you lock up a person for years on end, you can hardly expect them to feel energy and vigor. I am writing poetry." A horror of great darkness," Elizabeth laments about her life. "You are wounded in battle, undefeated and undaunted, unbroken, wounded," Robert says to her when he begs her to escape and elope with him. A wonderful film.


Room At The Top, 1959

Laurence Harvey. Simone Signoret. This movie is a "mature study of a ruthless social climber in a British industrial town. Frank dialogue retains much of the satire of John Braine's novel." This movie caused a sensation when it was released and ultimately became one of the best films of the year. It made Signoret an international star. Textured and layered and filled with class references and keeping you in your place and class, one could see how resentment and fury was built into the psyche against those who kept them in their place. The working class were the infrastructure of British society and yet, how unappreciated they were. Ultimately, the movie is a tragedy because our hero throws away love and comfort in his ruthless and cruel ambition and at the end of the day, what did he win? A woman he does not love. A society where he will never be accepted. A job he will detest. And, a boss who will torture him. Marvelous film.


A Raisin in The Sun, 1961

Sidney Poitier. Claudia McNeil. "Lorraine Hansberry's drama about a family living in a cramped Chicago tenement. "You got hurt and pain in you? I know a man who knew how to live with his pain and learned how to make his hurt work for him," the mother bitterly remarks to her self-destructive, beaten down son, who cannot take it anymore. A marvelous dramatic movie that feels like a play but is acted like real life. The dialogue and story, the acting and feel creates sympathy and heartbreak for lives that lacked opportunity and recognition. "Why not open the door?" "Because sometimes it is just hard to let the future in." or "There is something wrong when all the dreams in this house, good or bad, had to depend on something that might never have had happened, if a man had not died." "You just have to learn when to give up some things and to hold on to what you'e got." "We've never been that poor. We've never been that dead inside." "It is when he is at his lowest, that you start measuring a man."


I Am Love

"I Am Love tells the story of the wealthy Recchi family, whose lives are undergoing sweeping changes. Eduardo, Sr. , the family patriarch, has decided to name a successor to the reigns of his massive industrial company, surprising everyone by splitting power between his son Tancredi and grandson Edo. But Edo has dreams of opening a restaurant with his friend Antonio, a handsome and talented chef. At the heart of the family is Tancredi's wife Emma (Tilda Swinton), a Russian immigrant who has adopted the culture of Milan. An adoring and attentive mother, her existence is shocked to the core when she falls quickly and deeply in love with Edo's friend and partner Antonio, and embarks on a passionate love affair that will change her family forever." This over-wrought story and dramatic crescendo music was a bit much. The love affair felt as if it occurred from boredom and did not feel believable. She was twice his age and his son's friend.

Swinton is also so ugly and masculine that it did not feel as if there was any chemistry. And, of course, you had to have the lesbian daughter who is totally accepted, as is, without fanfare. The whole film felt over blown, contrived and trying to be romantic, when it lacked all romance. I did like the scenes of Italy, the food, the sounds of nature.

The Quiet American, 2002

Michael Caine. Brendan Frazier. "Graham Green's novel. Caine was nominated for an Oscar for his performance. The movie is about a cynical British reporter, Thomas Fowler in Vietnam, 1952, (Michael Caine) who befriends an American Aid worker who is really a CIA agent. Ultimately, after the agent steals his girl, he gets him killed. An excellent, excellent film, as gripping, as well acted and with wonderful dialogue as the first time I saw it. "You start out by being promiscuous and end up like your grandfather, faithful to one woman." B: " I trust you Thomas." "Always a mistake, when there is a woman involved," says Caine. "30 dead. Probably 20 more by morning." I liked how they remembered the wounded by this comment. Visuals worked perfect with script. Blood is dripping on the floor. Secretary says to Caine, "Did you cut your hand, sir?"

"Sooner or later, Mr. Flower, one has to take sides. One has to remain human," or B: "People change." C: " Maybe they never were what we thought they were." B:" Who of us is Thomas? Who of us is?" "What do you want? That I take no action? That I have no opinion?" says the CIA agent. As a voice over, Thomas says, " They say you come to Vietnam to understand a lot in a few minutes. The rest has got to be lived. They say whatever it was you were looking for, you will find it here. They say there are ghosts in every house. If you can make peace with him. He will stay quiet." A picture of a blinded wounded soldier, moves into close up and the print of the page, the black dots become larger and disappear into darkness, as the movie closes.


Sunrise at Campobello, 1960

Dore Schary wrote and produced this film from his play of the same name. It is about Franklin Roosevelt's fight against polio. It stars Ralph Bellamy and Hume Cronyn and Greer Garson. He is first struck with polio on August 10, 1921. "God takes man to deep waters. Not to drown him. But to cleanse him." "Invalids, eve temporary, are very lonely. A sick man wishes to be where he is not. Often when you are alone, sudden fears seek you and hunt for a place in your mind." "Deep sick despair. I turned to my faith for strength to endure. I must go through this fire for a reason." "Caution, my friend, is the refuge of courage." "Opinions. Ideas. Convictions!" "Most of our Blessings come in heavy disguises." "A bad beating either breaks the stick or the student. I am not broken! I am not settling to be an ailing invalid with all the implications, innuendoes and insinuations that I do so!" Franklin exclaims to his overbearing and interfering mother." In this movie, everyone walks in at the height of the dramatic moment, like in a play. It feels like a play. "In public life, one should pursue principles without calculating them!" Eleanor says. And Franklin responds, "I think she likes this political prowling!" The play is about how polio, his debilitating illness, changed and affected his life. It is remarkable the courage that he mustered and endured to not only survive but to triumph.

The Man From Laramie, 1955

James Stewart. (Will Lockhard) Arthur Kennedy. Seeking revenge a man searches for rifles being sold illegally to Apaches, that ended up in a massacre that killed his brother. He is accused of trespassing, burning wagons and shooting mules and knows exactly where to find Dave. Alex Wagerman owns the entire county. I love westerns because of my father. He loved them, so and when I watch them, I feel close to him. "I feel like I know you. And, I like what I know," a friend says to Will. "I've thought about it. Too much talk. Now I want to do something." Will says to Barbara Wagman, the girl that he is sweet on. "Whenever Barbara and Will get together, music starts. She talks to him about Daniel Boone, the hero of the day. "Did you know that he was 84 years old when he climbed the Rockies!?" I find this weird to talk to the man you are interested in about Daniel Boone! Dave, the weak and bad son, who is hot headed and Alec, the father who is a good and decent man, meaning he pays his debt, fill out the good and bad guys. "The county is built on greed and killing." Barbara says and she is right. This is how the West was created. The horses are gorgeous and one sees their essential need in order to survive the West. "A man has a right to know what he is going to die for." Will says to Barbara.

Separate Lies, 2005

2x. Written and directed by Julian Fowles. Staring Emily Watson. Rupert Everett. Jon Wilkinson. Jon gives a masterful, Oscar winning performance, nuanced and deeply felt and honorable and true to character. Emily is so homely and large and big, that although she is one of my favorite actors, in this film, I did not understand why. Terribly ordinary and ugly and I could not understand why two men were so interested in her or why she was so interesting. She certainly had no sex appeal and chemistry. The movie is an engrossing study of wealthy upper-class Brits, who become embroiled in a murder cover up. It reminded me a little bit of The Great Gatsby and the carelessness of other people's lives. It carried the same theme and how the wealthy get away with everything, even murder. There were marvelous and natural transitions. Her husband died. The next scene is at the funeral. Every character is significant and plays a part. "How is she?" "Widowed," Anne responds. "What will it be? Ice cream. Fruit. Or Summer Pudding." Anne asks, after she has confessed to her part in the murder. The callousness! "At the risk of sounding stuffy, I like to do the right thing. It is the way I am." Tom says to his wife's lover. "Tomorrow." And, the music stops. Click. "Even you make mistakes." Anne says to her husband. "I don't murder people," he responds. "Do you want suicide, glad-to-be-rid-of-you?" he asks his wife? "We are all wreckers. We make choices. We make them for the best and most loving reason. And, we don't see the damage we cause." Tom says to the wife of the man who died. "We all got stuff in our past that wasn't too clever ... She just gave me back my life." This wife responds to Tom about Anne and why at the end of the day, she comes to her defense and saves her life, even though you wonder if Anne would have done the same for her. "Sometimes, not speaking, is a lie." Tom says. The maid loved Anne. "And, Anne was tired of feeling guilty and in the end she stayed. It might have worked. I think it would have worked but for a chance encounter, some months later, with an unlikely instrument of fate. ... " " What if he is dead.""Maybe he is not. People don't always die, you know." Anne says to Tom. "Yes. They do," he responds. And, then you know their marriage is over. "You love them so much, you see. It doesn't matter how grown up or how they turn out. He is my son. I just love him so much," the old man sobs about the lover who is a basterd. "I love you. I am on your side. And, I do understand." Tom closes with Anne. It ends ambiguous.

The Old Man and The Sea, 1958.

Director, John Sturges. Ernest Hemingway. Spencer Tracy as the old man. Felipe Pazos as the boy. Voice over directly from the book. It is about an indomitable Cuban fisherman, perfectly cast in Spencer Tracy and who was nominated for an Oscar for his performance. His sole passion is to land a giant marlin only he is unlucky and worn. I think the movie might have been worked better in black and white, instead of color. It had gorgeous dramatic music throughout. "Everything about him was old, except his eyes. And, they were the color of the sea, cheerful and undefeated. When tired he looked like the flag and permanent defeat," "85 days. 85 is a lucky number." "Why do old men wake up early? Is it to have one longer day?" This is a tender, and warm-hearted film, as the viewer is being read aloud the short story that become a beautiful piece of writing and won Hemingway the Nobel Prize for Literature. "It is better to be lucky. But I wold rather be exact. Then when luck comes, you are ready." Philosophy and poetry and literature are all woven together into the lovely gem of a film. "He does not remember when he started. If the others heard me talking to myself, they would think I was crazy. But, since I am not crazy, I do not care." "Thank God they are not as intelligent as those who kill them, but they are more noble and more able," the old man says to the fish. "I wondered why he jumped. It was almost as if he jumped to show me how big he was," he says to himself. "The old man was suffering, although he would never admit to suffering at all." The moon runs away but think what it would be like, if she had to kill the sun." "I will show him what a man can and what a man endures. ... Each time was a new time. And he never thought about the past when he was doing it." "Tired. Deep into his bones. I could not fail myself ... God help me to endure ..." "He can't be that big. But he was that big." "Fish you are going to die anyway. Do you have to kill me too?" "The dark water of the Gulf is the greatest healer that there is." "I am only better than him through trickery. Am I am no better than he is?" "You violated your luck when you went too far out. It ruined us both." The sharks were the enemy, not the fish. "It is easy to be beaten. What beat you? Nothing. I just went out too far. Man is not made for defeat. Man can be destroyed, but not defeated."


The Dead, 1987

Directed by John Houston. Angelica Houston. Frank Paterson! (My favorite Irish tenor who died of a brain aneurism at age of 62.) This movie was taken from the book The Dubliners by James Joyce. It is a lyrical tale of lost love and lives that are realized at a family Christmas dinner in Dublin, 1904. This is Houston's final film. "You have taken the West. The East. The North. And, the South. The Before and the Behind. ... You have taken God from me." "The older we get, the more flavor we like." "May you have health, wealth, hospitality and prosperity, honor, affection, which they hold in our hearts." This was the conclusion to the most magnificent toast to the hostess that I have ever heard. The movie spoke of a profound and deep and silent sadness. It felt very Irish. And, then Patterson sings a ballad and it triggers a memory that creates the climax and one hears the most beautiful and painful and poetic soliloquy that I have ever heard in film, and the last work of this was the word Dead and then the film concludes. "One by one we are all becoming shades. Better to pass boldly into that Other World in the full glory of passion than to wither away in old age."


The Karate Kid

Jaden Smith. Jackie Chan. Will Smith's 12-year-old son plays the young man in this remake, filed in China. It is wonderful and poignant and I was brought to tears by its message, it's communicating of values and wonderful acting by Jaden. It was as good as the first. I liked his American casual disregard and disrespect and how Chinese attention to discipline and hardness and meanness to win at all costs, to cheat if necessary, was so easily described and seen. "I don't want to be afraid anymore," he says. And, this sums up the film for me, what drove him to succeed at great injury and pain.


Children of The Sun, 2009

A documentary portrait, using old film footage, of life in kibbutz in Israel during the first generation kibbutz life. The voice over of the people who spoke, and who can be seen at the end of the film, describe vividly and realistically the pluses and the minus of kibbutz life, its hardships, its good points and its bad ones. The time period follows 1920 - 1980'3 when kibbutz way of life went into decline. It speaks of the philosophy that it wanted to create with the new family and to reject bourgeois attitudes and family life. It wanted to create a revolution from where individual life became second nature to cooperative life in every way, morally, ethically — the new man who is free from the ills of capitalistic society. Children are cruel and they grew up feeling that they did not have family protection. There was no memory of spending time with their parents for two hours every single day. They possessed total freedom. There were no parents around. "And, so with these details we summarize our life in the children's group. Height. Weight." A city person became a pejorative term. For those who died in war, kibbutz children felt that their lives gave to them a sense of meaning and purpose, of how good they were and how much they were sacrificing for the common good. They saw themselves as elevated and superior to city folk. They were the elite, the most revered — they fulfilled the Zionist ideal. "Each one on his own is not worth much but together, now that's a different story!" They were living in a bubble. And, when ultimately most of them left the kibbutz, they realized that their needs became more important than societies needs. Instead of an us, they had to learn to say I. And, that proved to be most difficult. Today, most of them are crying because their life's beliefs have gone up in smoke. The kibbutz system, as they knew it, failed. They felt that all that togetherness robbed them of having their own special family private life and they learned to keep their emotions in check and private. They felt though that the kibbutz taught them "that he who believes in a more just society cannot reject another's misfortune and failure." Today, kibbutz people can still recognize another by the intrinsic language and culture created by kibbutz life. I came away with a realistic and less romantic picture of communal living.


Au Revoir, les Enfants, 1987

Directed, Written and Produced by Louis Malle. Winner of the Lion d'OR, 1987. With Gaspard Manesse. Francine Racette. Semi-autobiographical movie of the WWII friendship between Julian (Malle's alter-ego) in a Catholic Academy and a Jewish boy who was hiding there under an alias name by the Carmelite Priest and Headmaster. They built an unlikely friendship over time. Julian came from an aristocratic and wealthy family. The Jewish boy did not. His father was an Accountant. Ultimately, he was betrayed by the Muslim cook who informed the Nazi's when he was caught for stealing and taking bribes and dismissed. The film captured the harshness during war time in the lack of heat and food and nourishment and education. The Jewish boy was brilliant and creative and scared. It broke my heart inside to see a child of such brilliance and creative talent, seriousness of purpose in math and honor, ultimately caught and killed in Auschwitz. In reality, they were not close, but were competitors, but Malle was haunted by him for the next forty years until he died. This film caught the loss, of what was lost. He captured it in this one young Jewish boy. He suffered guilt that maybe somehow he had caused him to be caught, although the doomed Jewish boy did not want him to feel that way, which felt like such sensitivity, when he said, "They would have caught me anyway." This movie became an honor and a tribute to him. Not to be missed by any means. A Classic.


Girls School, 1938

Anne Shirley. A simply marvelous small film about the private girls school, based on the Porter School Academy in Connecticut. It is about one scholarship student who is shunned by the rich girls because she is poor and what is also implied is that she is Jewish too. Her name is Natalie Friedman and during this time period of anti-semitism, films like this and A Gentleman's Agreement were being made to reflect and interpret society. In today's sensibility, this detail would not be picked up by the viewer. The girls are mean and cruel to Natalie. I am impressed by her backbone and sensitivity. "We are the kind of people that get our troubles first and then get our happiness later," her plumber boyfriend says to her. Anne Shirley is beautiful, lovely and feminine. She possesses my kind of female and feminine presentation. Natalie is constantly reminded by how grateful she should feel and has to swallow her pride and shame again and again. She finally has her reward and triumph at the end of the film. A terrific movie.


Bell Book and Candle, 1958

Kim Novak. Jimmy Stewart. Jack Lemmon. Novak plays a witch. The movie is an adaptation of John Van Druten's play about witchcraft in mid-20th century Manhattan. I like the individual soliloquy that the witch,Gillian says out loud. "Why do I fell this way? Same old rut. I'd like to do something different. Meet someone different. Why don't you give me him for Christmas, Pie?" (the cat) "I don't take other women's men!" she says to Shepard Henderson, (Stewart). She take him away from his fiancee when she casts a spell on him. They had to make this woman into an evil, mean and cruel monster in order for the audience to swallow doing this to her, that Gillian was actually rescuing him for what would have been a bad marriage! "She is a liar and a sneak. She writes poison pen letters. She is a bow snatcher!" Of course, Novak acted supremely seductive and Monroeish. I loved her sultry beauty (these were my father's two favorite actors) and her ash color hair. Shep's hat becomes the metaphor when you see the wind pick it up, symbolizing that he is throwing caution to the wind. "There is a timelessness. Spellbound. Enchantment. Burn ourselves out. Guilt. Have we done something dreadful?" dialogue to what they are feeling with each other. "Jilting. I would rather call it Uncoupling," he says to his fiancee. "You are vile, sleazy, contemptible!" she responds. "And, I almost forgot my hat!" Shep retorts. To be a witch, means that you cannot cry, blush or swim. A man is a warlock. Pets have to carry out their Master's bidding. "I am going to tell Shep the truth, that I am a witch," says Gillian. "Either way, it is your funeral," says her brother. "I am tired of ending up in a world of separateness," Gillian cries for the first time.


Bending For Beckman, 2002

2X. Keira Knightly. Parminder K. Nagra. Jonathan Rhys Meyers. This classic comedy, like My Cousin Vinney, has maintained its charm and originally and fast pace and absolute delight of a film. It is the coming of age story of a young Indian girl, but British subject, liking like an Indian proper family inside British society. Her dream of being a soccer player is put into clash and conflict with her culture and expectations. "If you end up pleasing, then forever, you will end up blaming them," her coach says to her. "I don't want her not accepting life. I want her to fight. I want her to win," her father finally stands up for her. "My parents are finally letting me go," she says to her coach. "I cannot betray them by breaking that trust with you." I admired this so much. It is one of the best films and will always endure.


The Love Ranch

In Love Ranch, a fictional story that draws on many truths about Nevada's extremely successful brothel industry, Helen Mirren and Joe Pesci star as Grace and Charlie Bontempo, a husband-and-wife team who own and run one of Nevada's first legalized brothel ranches. Their lives are irrevocably altered when Armando Bruza (Sergio Peris-Mencheta), a world famous heavy weight boxer from South America, is brought to the Ranch to train as part of Charlie's ever expanding entrepreneurial empire. Plans quickly go awry when Bruza comes between Grace and Charlie as an unforeseen romantic triangle develops that erupts into uncontrollable passion and murder. Directed by Taylor Hackford , Mirren's husband in real life. He Directed Ray. Mirren was marvelous as always. She is grounded and solid and a highly professional and in-command-of-her-craft actress. What ever role that she inhabits she owns. This film had a feminist take, some great quips and one-liners, good storyline and extremely well done. Men would be threatened and insecure by this film, and I find it interesting that men reviewers panned it completely!


Dodge City, 1939

Michael Curtiz, Director. Errol Flynn, who is young and gorgeous plays Wade Hatton. A young Olivia de Havilland plays his love object. This film is a sturdy western, done with a lavish style and pizazz. It is about a soldier of fortune who decides to build up the town after the Civil War has ended, when attention goes to building up the West. It opens in Kansas in 1866. Blacks are called boys and have a black face comedy element to them. "This is the symbol of American future. Progress! And Iron Horses (trains) — you can't beat them!" "It takes all sorts of men to build a railroad. No sir. Only a couple of Irishmen!" "He's the most moving kind of man you ever saw." In Dodge City there are only settlers and thieves and gunmen. The movie moves to the American Frontier of 1872 and in Dodge City there are no ethics, but cash and killing. This is a grand epic western film. It shows how Dodge City, the most corrupt and dangerous city in the West was built and tamed. It uses in Editing, the same picture of gambling tables several frames later! This city was a public disgrace, there was no law. "I believe you call it pioneering. Enjoy it? How can anyone enjoy sand in your hair, eyes, teeth, jolted week in and week out in this wagon train, dealing with nightmare wind?" Havilland laments to Hatton. "You spoil him by admiring him," Hatton retorts, talking about her brother. "What's the news of Dodge City? Gambling. Drinking. Killing. We're used to death here in Dodge City. Even to the people we love." Hatton becomes Sheriff to clean up the town. He seeks to smash Surrett's Rule and get rid of the undesirable element. Hatton says to his girl, "Buffalo are hard headed, very uncertain temper, and a very lonely future-apart from that there is hardly a comparison with you. We had such a bad beginning. We are bound to have a wonderful future." "Typical Irish logic," she retorts.


The Solid Gold Cadillac, 1956

George Burns. Judy Holliday (Laura Partridge). Jean Louis, Clothes Designer. As a minor stockholder of 10 shares, Holliday comes up against the top executives who try to silence her by hiring her. "I am going to hire her. If you can't crush them. Join them. If you can't kill them, acquire them." She acts like the dumb blond but he possesses intelligent participation and comedy. "I don't get suspicious of people if they are nice to me." "Someone has to keep an eye on these genius's. ... And he better bring those other dummies with him." "I didn't say he was a baboon! I simply said the country would be better represented by a baboon!" "You're scared of girls!" "I am an innocent, honest businessman and you are here to persuade me to do something unethical. To entice me with your wiles! To come here as a temptress, to break down my morale! To temper with my ethics!" "And those terrible headlines! Weren't they wonderful?" she sighs. "I should have fired him 15 years ago when I caught him stealing paper clips." "A man needs more than money. A man needs a job to go to. A job he loves. And, he needs a home to come home to. A happy home." This fresh dialogue feels startling to hear 50 years later. It is still true today. Nothing has changed in life or film, except great dialogue! I thoroughly enjoyed this wonderful entertaining film. Holliday is a superb comedic actress. And, the only color in the film was the last frame, when she and her love object drove away in the solid gold cadillac. Great film.


The Shootist, 1976

John Wayne. James Stewart. Lauren Bacall. John Carradine from Stagecoach, Ron Howard. Western, set in turn-of-the-century Nevada. Based on the novel by Glendon Swarthout. The movie takes place over specific days beginning with 1/22/1901. This was John Wayne's final film. It is a well seasoned cowboy movie of art imitating life. Wayne plays a legendary gunman, JB Books, who knows his life is coming to an end. He wants to live out the remaining two months of his life in peace but his reputation won't let him. He is playing a man who days are now numbered. The back story of this film is what nobody knew is that it mirrored his real life. Wayne was dying of cancer and he knew it. It is poignant to watch as the dialogue matched his own reality. "My credo: I won't be wrong, I won't be insulted, And, I won't be let a hand on. I don't do these things to other people and I require the same from them." "The old man's not worth a bullet. He looks all tuckered out. You got that right son," (speaking about Wayne) "In my profession, if you trust too much, you don't celebrate many birthdays." "Why don't you just say it flat out? You have a cancer. Advanced." Both Stewart and Wayne looked like two old farts. "You told me I am as strong as an ox. Even an ox dies. What can I do?" "Later on you won't want to." "Dying is my own business. ... There is more to being a man than handling a gun. ... You are going a a long way around the barn. ... There has been so much cheap fiction about gunman ... You are nothing but a prying pip squeaking ass. ... I would not die a death like I just described, not if I had your courage," says the Doc to Wayne. "I've been full of alone lately. ... What will stop me? Fear of dying? ... Man should know how to use a gun. Use it with discretion. ... It isn't fast or accurate but are you willing. ... You are two sides of a counterfeit coin. ... I don't want to be remembered by a pack of lies. ... I'm a dying man, scared of the dark. ... A man's death is about the most private thing in his life — its mine. My soul is what I've already made of it." And to Lauren Bacall, "You are such a real lady on the outside and you are filled with vinegar and gin on the inside." "I don't want questions, curiosity or women's intuition. No tears." John Bernard Books 1/29/1843. An excellent, excellent thoughtful and easy film.


Bee Season, 2005

Richard Gere. Juliette Binoche. Based on the novel by Myla Goldberg. Terrible movie. It is a morose story of a young girl who competes in a spelling bee. Each member of the family is searching for their light and truth. Each member is falling apart and you have no understanding as to why. "We are not alone. We can make connections." Really? No one made connections. Every member in the family seems clinically depressed. It is absurd to be teaching Kaballah to a child. You have to be over age 40 years. A man. Have Mastered Torah. "Go slowly as the path is dangerous and it must be traveled with caution." The movie is weird in how it uses a child to study kaballah and the son gravitates to Hare Krishna. It keeps reliving the accident of broken glass, chards of glass, a broken world and that our job is to bring it back together, and to hold the light, tikkun olom. Eventually problems and resentments explode, the spelling bee is used only as a backdrop, the ending makes so sense when she purposefully misses the word she knows. It is stupid.


The Letter, 1940

Director, Billy Wilder. Bette Davis. A fascinating performance about a woman who commits a crime of passion and then claims an act of self-defense. "No woman wants to be flattered on her worst points." Davis says, and then says her famous line, "You are too kind." Wilder uses the light of the moon to denote evil, the passing of time, bars of a prison across her white shirt, ominous times. "You can love me. That is all that I need." "How do you know what a man will do when he is drunk?" "He is so good, simple and kind. And, he trusted me so much. I mean everything in the world to him. This will ruin his life." "It is strange," Leslie's lawyer says, " a man can live with a woman for 10 years and not know the first thing about her. ... I have an unpleasant feeling I am going to be jeopardizing my whole career and I will pay the price having to rely on your discretion." He despises her for putting him in such a compromised position. And talking about her passion Davis says, "It was like I was struck with some kind of loathsome disease and didn't want to get caught. Even my agony was a kind of joy. I didn't care. I hadn't seen him for 10 days. I hated him because he made me despise myself." "He is going to forgive you." Yes,. He is going to forgive me." Her husband then says to her, "If you love a person, you can forgive anything." At the end, she destroys her husband and seeks out her own death.


The General, 1927

Written and Directed by Buster Keaton. This phenomenal silent film has been called "the last great comedy of the silent screen." It is based on a true incident but in reverse. It is a true Civil War story with Keaton as a Confederate train engineer riding a train called The General. Filmed in Oregon. The phenomenal music was by the Alloy Orchestra. I loved the film. Brilliant and suspenseful!


The Duchess of Langeais, 2007

French. Jacques Rivette directed this adaptation of Honore de Balzac novella about an ill-fated love affair that was never consummated with a Duchess, whose Duke husband was never around, and a Napoleonic General war hero. It stars Guillaume Depardieu. This tedious film took itself far too seriously. It was boring and morose. The General was limited and dull. There was no passion, only game playing. "A woman who loves becomes naive. Remember your rank in society. You must not humiliate your husband. A woman must not give her husband a reason. Life is simply a reconciliation between sentiment and reason. No love is worth the price. You would not be dishonored alone. An imprudence means a wandering life. Stay in position." Wise counsel by her wise aunt. She eventually runs off to a nunnery, where the General pursues her for five years and where he tries to rescue her but she has died. Such false drama! Spare me!


Weekend At The Waldorf, 1945

Directed by Robert Leonard. Ginger Rogers. Van Johnson. Lana Turner. Walter Pigeon. The film is about the hopes and fears and happiness of guests all staying at The Park Avenue Hotel. It shows that anything can happen in a weekend at the Waldorf Astoria! "I wish I had a star like Irene. No shineagins. No nonsense. No temperament. No Divorces. No Relatives!" "He is wise. He's kind. He's wonderful. Handsome. Strong. Steady. Witty. Charming. He is as real as anything else in my life. He just doesn't exist!" "She has everything. She can go anywhere. Do Anything. Buy Everything." I liked how they introduced the stars and characters into the film. The transitions were smooth. "You have an even chance. But doctors cannot give you the will to live." The private communications revealed are down to a science. The Showdown occurred at the Starlight Room in the Waldorf Astoria on Park Avenue. You see how escape was used in film by using wealth and money and power and elegance . A long film but entertaining and relaxing.


The Show Off, 1934

Spencer Tracy plays Aubrey Piper and Madge Evans plays Amy Fisher. Tracy plays a lovable liar who causes no end of grief for those around him. He means no harm but his bragging and escapades always lands him in trouble. The movie is from George Kelly's play. "It is dishonest to spend money you don't have. It is a crime." How dated this feels. I love how they put values and mores and morals into old films. "I am going to stop talking big until I am big." "We can't go on this way. If I go on another day like this, I will loose all my respect for you. ... You've done something to me. ... Everything has changed. Feeling about you the way I do, I can't go on living with you." His life goes up in smoke but Hollywood redeems our lovable liar and everything turns out peachy at the end. Fun. I love Spencer Tracy.


Who/$ Jackson Pollack

"The entertaining documentary tells the incredible true story of a 73-year-old former truck driver, of white trash, and her 15-year-old battle with the art world elite to prove that the painting she bought at a thrift shop for $5.00 is a genuine Jackson Pollack worth millions. She was offered 9 million and turned it down." Stupid or what.


To Each His Own, 1946

Olivia de Havilland. John Lund. From a story, written and produced by Charles Bracket. Mitchell Leisen, Director. Havilland won an Oscar for this performance. She plays Miss Jody Norris. Norris has a baby from a one night affair and through a series of mistakes, looses the baby through an adoption that she never wanted or consented to but at the end of the movie her adult son is told the truth and accepts her as mother. "We are the forlorn people that do extra duty on holidays, so other people can celebrate," her new Lord friend says to her. "We are the middle age forlorn people, the ones who never care and the ones who care much to much. And, we are alone." "Don't you like flying? Sure I do! Like a drunk likes liquor. ... Teaching people to fly, it is instinct, it is luck. It is for the wild ones, with nothing come back to, tattered nerves. "When you are wildly and deeply in love, you don't stop loving just because somebody dies and certainly, if there is a child involved." A good solid well done film, dated by its time. Great dialogue though!


The Fireman's Ball, 1967

Czech film. Milos Forman's tale of a village fire department whose annual dance is disrupted by its out-of-control celebrants. Old man is played by Josef Svet. This is a sweet film of a slice of foreign intimate life. One can see the poverty and cultural norms and the strong differences between societies. All the things that happen in the film from the breaking of the pearls, to seeking the pretty girls for the beauty pageant, to the mother who insists on being present for supervision, to the classy old man who gives a beautiful toast only to see his present was stolen and he remains silent, all create a kaleidoscope into a life of heavy drinking and boring and ugly women.


Cimarron, 1960

Glenn Ford. Maria Scheft. Based on the novel by Edna Ferber, it is about the settling and the staking out of the state of Oklahoma. It is a remake of the great western frontier and is an epic film. Over 2 million acres were staked out, 160 acres for each person. The film feels Pollyannish and goody goody, mindless and unreal. It deserves the two stars it received. Bad people are killed early on so the suspense is reduced and show downs happen 1/2 way through the film. Yancey Gravat's wife is like a valley girl and is miscast. She is hysterical and cries all the time and is so stylishly dressed. A real goody goody. Later on she complains constantly about the hard life. If she wanted security so badly, why did she leave the East coast? "You listen to your mother. She is the only one who makes sense. Don't forget that," Yancey tells his son as he abandons the family for 5 years, later on 15 years. "Friendship is friendship and Business and business!" "Water is to fire what love is to sense." "Heart is like gold. It is sold for twice as much as what it is worth." Like Gone With The Wind, there is a Belle character. "You women. Calm and respectable, always caring what other people think. ... Women are 3 parts. Mother. Companion. Whore." "I have put up with your arrogance, insolence and endless brood of relatives long enough." Yancey is Mister Integrity. It is fascinating how old films communicate through body language and innuendo. Was moving west worth it? "It's not worth it she said. I am a woman. Where are my children? I am a woman. Where is my man? The movie takes place from 1889-1914. "I apologize for loving you," he says.


The Magnificent Seven, 1960

Steven McQueen. Yul Bryner. Charles Bronson. Eli Wallach. James Coburn. Robert Vaughn. Horst Buchholz, who I think was the criminal from Tiger Bay. Produced and Directed by John Sturges. Great theme music by Elmer Bernstein. This has to be the best western ever created. It is a western version of Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai. It is about 7 gunmen who are hired to protect and drive away bandits from a poor, small Mexican village. They need to drive the bandits away for good and hire these gunmen. "Women's fashions? Shameless. Religion? You'd weep if you saw how true religion is a thing of the past," the old man says to the Mexican. How timeless the dialogue. "Where are you from? Dodge." And, you? Tombstone." These are two places that I know from other westerns! Three young boys who have become attached to Charles Bronson's character have this dialogue which carries moral message, a father figure to son image, a real man image, all qualities that are no longer portrayed in current film. "I am ashamed to live here," exclaims one of the 3 boys, "our fathers are cowards!" "Cowards!" retorts Bronson, as he grabs the boy and spanks him, "Don't you ever say this about your fathers!. Because they are not cowards! Do you think I am brave because I carry a gun? Your fathers are much braver because they carry responsibility. For you, your brothers and sisters. Your mothers. And, this is responsibility. It is like a big rock that bends and twists them until finally it buries them under the ground. And, there is nobody who says they have to do this. But they do it because they love you and want to. I have never had this kind of courage — running a farm, working like a mule everyday without no guarantee that anything will ever come from it. This is bravery."


The Thin Man, 1949

Directed by Carol Reed. Joseph Cotton. (Holly Martins) Orson Wells ( Harry Lyme) Howard Trevor. This Graham Green's thriller takes place in post war Vienna. Full of suspense and intrigue, mixing fact with fiction, it has comedy and thriller. In 2000, it was voted the Best Film of all Time in England and is considered one of the great classics of the 20th Century. The photography is extraordinary, with amazing shadow and light, and close ups that absorb you. "He never grew up. The world grew up around him. It buried him." There are brilliant surprises. Like the writer Holly, we think that he is being kidnapped and instead the suspicious man waiting is the cabdriver who has been hired to take him to the meeting. "A person doesn't change because you find out more." The music is marvelous and the body language and subtly, that is so critical in old films, and carries its own second language, and is wonderful, has been completely lost in our modern films. Moral conventions are turn on its head.


Nights of Cabiria, 1957

Frederico Fellini, Director. Giulietta Masina. (Maria Ceccarelli or Cabiria) Fellini's poignant story of a streetwalker who is hoping for a way out of her sordid life. There is lots of emotional screaming and out-of-control behavior in a classic Italian style. I loved the transitions and juxtapositions of barefoot pilgrims walking on the wet concrete appear, as if in a dream, out of nowhere and Cabiria walks in long shadow. She gives the man her real name. He is kind to her. And, decent. (Everyone is ultimately looking for kindness, attention and validation.) The film tells a story, filled with festivals and detours. It expresses the essence of the female spirit and longing and needing to be loved and protected and how man so take advantage of a woman's emotional fragility. "Everyone has a secret agony. Everyone has a wish to be fulfilled. ... Open your heart to the suffering, desperate poverty. Help me change my life. ... All girls want to be married." The police come and the whores are hunted down like animals in fear. "Loneliness is a heavy burden, but I would rather be alone than make compromises." He promises to her. Oh how vulnerable girls are. This movie choked me up. It is a Masterpiece.


Old Man Out, 1946

Carol Reed, Director. James Mason. Kathleen Ryan. This black and white movie is an intense drama of an Irish patriot who becomes a murderer during a holdup that fails. It takes place in Northern Ireland. "Johnny. Will you ever be free?" "Someday. Perhaps. "You've been stuck in this house for months. You're not fit for it. Let Dennis go instead." This becomes the line, the diving board that opens the movie into a situation that goes terribly wrong. The movie possesses many images that remind me of Helen Levitt's or Bruce Davidson's photographs. "All the fine voices of the boys singing the songs. And, I had 11 children." "What do you want with me? Go back to life." The movie has a dark, cold weather back drop, a heavy Catholic moral preaching dialogue with good and evil. I felt Mason, who got shot and hurt in the bank robbery, played his dying part too soon in the film, almost immediately. He should have had more energy at the beginning so that you would see his dying process becoming increasingly worse by the end of the film. You see how different political groups and forces, individuals and their sympathies, all play a role in how he is treated, as he progresses through the film.


The Purple Rose of Cairo, 1985

Woody Allen, Director. Mia Farrow. (Cecelia) Jeff Daniels (Tom Baxter)The movie is a fantasy about a housewife whose movie hero walks off the silver screen and into her real life. "What's life without a little risk taking?" "The way he speaks, all romantic like — adventurer, explorer, poet. ... You're fetching." This film was the favorite of both Allen and Farrow. "It would be like a movie with no point or no happy ending. ... You've got a magical glow." "The origin of anything we see about us. The finality of death, how magical it seems in the real world as opposed the to the world of celluloid and flickering shadows, the astonishing miracle of childbirth with all of its attended feelings of humanity and pathos - I stand in awe of existence." "I am hopelessly head-over-heels in love with Cecilia. Every heartbeat she takes, makes my heart dance. She is all I want. She has my loyalty, my devotion. ... This guy. He kills me. Are there any other guys like you out there?" "I just met a wonderful new man! He's fictional but you can't have everything." "The most human of all attributes is that you can choose ... In your world things always have a way of working out right, with a happy ending." At the end, reality is chosen and Cecilia is hurt, as she has been used only to get the celluloid character back onto the screen. And, the real man had no intention at all in running off with her to get married. He only used her. And, she is left alone. Empty Stage on Screen. Empty Theater. Yet, no one can take way her love for the movies.


Fort Apache, 1948

John Ford, Director. (When his name comes on screen, the music crescendos' into life!) John Wayne. Peter Fonda. Shirley Temple. This film is the first of Ford's cavalry trilogy which tells the story of a demanding, cold Colonel who makes bad and dangerous decisions for his men because of ego and lack of respect for the soldiers beneath him, putting them all in grave danger. He clashes with his own troops who challenge his decisions. And, yet, history will make him a hero. It is a western film that takes place after the Civil War in the territories. Men act like bumbling idiots around women. Philadelphia is the 16 year old daughter. Fonda plays the Lt. Col. Wayne the Captain. There is so much dust! The film captures the tedious life with humor, in this far out post.

It shows the black night without electricity. Most of all, the film is entertaining. It gives historical references. It is one hour into the film before any action takes place. There is lots of drinking and boredom in the out post.


Orphans of The Storm, 1921

Silent Film. DW Griffiths from Birth of A Nation. Lillian Gish and Dorothy Gish. Lillian Gish has had the longest career in Hollywood for 81 years. She died in 1993 at the age of 99. This movie was a blockbuster when it opened. It shows women with hair under their arms and reveals breasts, men are effeminate, and the sisters constantly kiss each other on the lips. The waifs are caught up in the French Revolution. It is dramatic, lots of crowd movement with swords and over-acting. The text adds much of the French History. Music accompanies the film. The blind girl (Louise) and her sister, Henrietta, not by blood but through adoption, end up in the throes of the backdrop of the French Revolution when they journey to Paris to see an eye doctor to cure Louise's blind eyes after their parents die. The Count falls in love with her. There are mob scenes against the evil Aristocrats which is another theme to the film. "Death to The Aristocrats and to all that shelter them!" The text always informs the viewer of what will happen, "After a hazardous journey ..." Guillotine! Robespierre! Just as Henrietta's head is about to be chopped off in a very dramatic moment of less than a second, she is saved!


The Valley of Decision, 1945

Greer Garson. Jessica Tandy. Lionel Barrymore. Gregory Peck. Peck was only 28 years old in this film. It is the romance between the maid and the scion of a steel family. Peck is so handsome and talented. He avoided the draft because of a bad back. "A man can stand pain but hatreds will make him stark raving mad." "Things can fester in the mind just as they do in the body, but worse." "Sometimes I'm afraid when he has the madness in him." "Only the past was real. The future, empty and dark." The two fathers died on September 11, 1877.


Of Time and The City

Written and Directed by Terence Davies. "This film is an autobiographical documentary by British Director, Davies, who directed The House of Mirth. He returns to his native Liverpool to present a poetic and heartfelt look at the city and its influence on him as he grew up in the late 1940's-1950's." "If Liverpool did not exist, it would have to be invented. ... We love the place we hate. We hate the place we love. We leave the place we love. And, then spend a lifetime trying to regain it. ... Come closer now and see my dreams. Come closer now and see yours. As you are now — we once were. (James Joyce) ... The trouble with being poor is that it takes all your time. The trouble in being rich is that it take up everyone else's. ... Come all ye faithful. Have another plateful of Duty and Tradition?" The film is filled with poetry, a deep voice over that reflects a profound sadness and alienation and sorrow, phenomenal classical music, great poverty and sameness and bleak and rainy days. "We meet our destiny on the road that we take to avoid it." Carl Jung. "But never yield to the night. ... Is it sleep or is it death?" This film is moving and introspective and full of art and reflection and not for everyone.


Man With A Million, 1954

Director, Ronald Neame. Taken from the short story by Mark Twain called The Million Bank Note. Gregory Peck. Jane Griffiths. This film is about a million pound bank note and a bet and how Peck, Henry Adams, is used for the bet. It is funny and ironic and insightful about human nature and the power of money, real or perceived, and how people react to those whom they think have money and the hypocrisy in society. It is simply wonderful and comical and sharp. I loved it. When Adam is down and out, he is wearing blue jeans and is hungry. "Are you trying to tell me an American's money means more than an Englishman's name! England is going to the dogs. "Nothing but talk, talk, talk and no one every says anything!" "A laugh is one thing. But when a man is expected to pay his tailor bill, that has gone too far!" It was great fun.


Deliver Us From Evil, 2009

Written and Directed by Amy Berg. This powerful and Oscar-nominated documentary chronicles the story of convicted Pedophile and former Priest, Father Oliver O'Grady. The movie opens with this quotation "If you bring forth what is within you, What you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, What you do not bring forth will destroy you." Jesus. Gospel of Thomas. One of the abused said, "We were a very strict Catholic family. There was no other way of life. It was our life." Evil was in their midst. The Church demands Docile Behavior. Obedience. Followers. Hierarchy. These priests pray on families with children. They are charismatic and attentive and the parents are flattered and honored that the priest is paying them this kind of attention. And, then at night he rapes their children. O'Grady had so many victims he could not even keep track of them. He was a dangerous and aggressive man. He was the wolf and the gatekeeper. How could we be so wrong about him? The Church protects these monsters for centuries through planning and thinking and excusing abuse. They have spent over one billion dollars settling claims and lawsuits around the world. One girl who was raped at age 5-12, said that her father told her that if anyone ever tired to hurt her, he would kill them. The day after she was raped by this Priest, she asked her 5-year-old friend, what would happen if her daddy killed someone and her friend said that he would go to jail for a long, long time. She never told her parents because she wanted to protect her father from going to jail. I was filled with rage watching this. Hard with anger.


Speedy, 1928

Harold Lloyd. Ann Christy. Last Silent Film. Lloyd plays a young man trying to save New York's last horse drawn streetcar line. Babe Ruth is in the cab! Climatic Chase! System of measurement that Lloyd used was: Tickle. Chuckle. Laugh Outburst. Scream. Screech. I loved his look and his black spectacles. Everything he does is a disaster except at the end. When the streetcar crashes, it was a pure accident, but they redeemed themselves in a brilliant way. A great film.


Tale of Two Cities, 1935

David O'Selznick's splendid production of the Charles Dickens's classic about the French Revolution. Ronald Goldman plays Sydney Carton. "Bear it! They live in the very shadow of the Bastille. They have t ear it. They know only black bread and death. ... Death to the Aristros. Death to their friends. Their servants. To the innocent, as well as the guilty the Nobles fled or died and the mob ruled. ... It's going to seem like such a long time afterwards. ... It is a far, far better thing I have ever done. It's a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever know."


Pat and Mike, 1952

Directed by George Cukor. Spencer Tracey and Katherine Hepburn (Pat Pemberton) He is her promoter and manager and she is a superb professional athlete. "There are pants. These are slacks. Watch your language."

Her beau is a controlling, critical man who puts her down and makes her feel small. She freezes and feels judged every time that she has to perform in front of him and always fails even though she could easily beat her opponent. He criticizes her dress, comments that he fears that she will embarrass him in front of others. Her response? "I feel like the whole world is against me. I am friendless. ... Makes me feel you don't believe in me. And that you never will. ... Do you know how to not get our frazzled? Get yourself unfrazzled! ... I have to be in charge of myself! Everyman wants to dominate her. He is allergic to the flowers given to her by Collier. "No one understands why they do what they do! A great Happy Ending!


The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield, 1935

Directed by George Cukor and Produced by David Selznick. W.C.Fields. Lionel Barrymore. Margaret O'Sullivan. Madge Evans. Frank Lawton. It stars almost the identical cast of Tale of Two Cities. "Like many fond parents, I have in my heart of hearts, a favorite child, and his name is David Copperfield." Charles Dickens. This book was very much like his own life in many ways. "Your find us rough Sir, but your find us ready." "I'm alone and lonely creature and everything goes contrary with me." "Good as good. And true as steel!" Mother's Voice: "I crave attention. I can't live under coldness and unkindness." "David Copperfield: You perceive before you a shattered fragment of a Temple once called Man. ... in short, I am forever flawed. Never Despair." The aunt cries out, " You broke her. You trained her. You were a tyrant. You gave her wounds that she died from!" The dramatic dialogue came straight out of Dickens words. The film was filled with eccentric characters. Uriah Heep. There were good moral lessons: "Why must I go away? Make us proud David. Never be cruel. Never be mean in anything. Avoid indecent vices and I can always be proud of you." In Dickens good men are all good and bad guys are all bad. And the same goes for the women. "Any one who is a friend of David's can make their claim on me." "I can't see you because of my feelings." "You come upon me like a reproachful ghost." Very satisfying film.


Darling Clementine, 1946

Henry Fonda (Wyatt Earp) and Victor Mature (Doc Holiday) This film is the best of the John Ford's sage of how Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday clean up Tombstone. The black and white photography is phenomenal and intense. The movie unfolds easily and quietly and evenly without all the manic sound effects and hype of tension of film work today. I like its easy, natural and slow pace in how the story unfolds. There is a quiet strategy in all of it. A planning. It is a well thought out film. The sound effects are brilliant. Quiet. Music. A click of a gun. A whistle. Wind blowing. Stage coach passing by. It is not sentimental. Doc Holiday dies. Lingering darkness. Fade out. Clean. "Great souls by instinct to each other turn. Demand allegiance and in friendship burn. Good night Sweet Prince." Shakespeare. Only Ford could quote this in a western! Phenomenal film! The best of all westerns.


Ferris Bueller's Day Off, 1986

Written and Produced by John Hughes. He only made 8 films before his passing at 59 years old. He focused on teenage angst and being misunderstood by parents and authority figures while trying to navigate life. He possesses a sympathy for young people and feel that adults are bumbling idiots, easy to manipulate and con. The movie feels dated and far less complex and complicated than a teenager's world is today. Matthew Broderick. Jennifer Gray. Martin Sheen. Allen Ruck. "I'm just tired of being afraid," pretty much sums it up.

The best scene is during the Chicago parade when Broderick does a Twist and Shout Beetle's rendition where the entire cast participates. The black ensemble dances and one can see the beginning of early rap. Fabulous scene - the best in the movie.


My Favorite Wife, 1940

Irene Dunne. Cary Grant. Funny and amusing, Irene Dunne plays the wife who has been shipwrecked on an island for seven years, only to return to see her husband getting married to a new woman, after declaring her legally dead. The cantankerous judge, plays it brilliantly. It was a charming and delightful film.


On Borrowed Time, 1939

Sir Cedric Hardwicke (Mr. Brink). Lionel Barrymore. When Death is personified, he calls on an elderly man who tries to trick him into not taking him sooner than he is being called. The rustic apple plays a significant part. Death Speaks. A train whistles in the distance as it moves into the young boy whistling like a train, which signals ominous things to come. The aunt, who is like the wicked witch from the Wizard of Oz, is mean and cruel and you watch the film wondering how will it end because Gramps will not allow her to take his grandson and raise him when he finally must go with Mr. Brink (Death). It ends the only way it can, sad. This concept was very clever and interesting and it kept my interest.


The Return of Martin Guerre

A beloved classic.


Mary Antoinette, 2006

Written by Directed by Sofia Coppola. However, when seeing an interview with her, her father, Francis Ford Coppola was very much on the set and I wondered whether he was not the mover and shaker and director behind the scenes. This film mixed contemporary music with period pieces. There was unbelievable decadence and tedious boredom which was filled with gambling, much drinking, whoring, and shopping and making clothes and eating. This movie caught the lives of endless parties and an environment of intrigue and trying to amuse oneself. Masterful settings and costumes. It caught the time period in an off beat way, depicting the lavish life of this young Austrian teenager who was married off to the impotent Louis XVI.


Ghosts, 2006

"Award winning documentarian Nick Broomfield directed this powerful story of illegal Chinese immigrants in the UK based on actual events and using a cast of non-professional actors." "I really regret it. I should not have left." Illegals live completely hand-to-mouth, vulnerable, with such fear and desperation and terror and homesickness. They sing a Chinese song: "A person wandering away from home. Is missing you, dear Mum. The steps of a traveller on the other side of the world without a home, soften my tears. Walking on and on and on. Walking across many strange places. And through many years." I kept asking myself, where is the camera recording all of this and then only at the end did I realize that it was a new term documentary, not actual but based on actual events, reenacted. The story that triggered this "documentary" took place on February 2, 2004, when 23 people drowned — desperate young people just trying to make a living, money to send home.


Gun Crazy, 1949

Peggy Cummins, (Annie Laurie Starr) John Dall (Barton Tare). This movie has become a cult classic about a sharp shooting couple in love who go on a robbing, murdering spree. It reminded me of a combination of Bonnie and Clyde and Body Heat. At the beginning, the movie is set up with a moral lesson: "The things you like Son will turn into a dangerous mania with you. ... We all want things Bart, but our possession of them has to be regulated by law," says the Judge, "without jeopardizing the lives and property of others." John Dall plays a marvelous leading man, passionate and warm, believable and full of fulling-in-love pathos that feels deep and loyal. Great photographic angles. And, his voice is like the voice from a deep tenor. "We got more ways of making suckers than we have suckers." A theme that seems to run through the movie. Laurie and Bart become Bonnie and Clyde in Body Heat! "You're never make money! You're a two-bit guy." "Nothing really happens. Nothing is really real." "You are the only thing that is real Laurie. The rest is a nightmare." Oh. So you are a killer with a conscience, afraid of leaving his gal." "We are all alone. Always will be." Something happened when I was scared." "We go together, like guns and ammunition."


My Name is Julia Ross, 1945

Directed by Joseph Lewis. This is a terrifying dark mystery tale staring Nina Foch. It is an about an evil plot to drive a woman insane. The kidnappers need to do this in order to cover their tracks because they need this woman's body to cover up the murder of the man's wife. "Thats what I like about the sea. It never tells its secrets. It has many. Very many secrets." The movie was made on a shoe string budget, used lots of close-ups in order to compensate that they did not have money for large sets, but this created its own creative intensity.

A great! Great! Movie.


Ride The High County, 1962

Directed by Sam Peckinpah. Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea star as the two aging cowboys. This movie is a classic western in the old west about two aging gunfighters who are transporting gold from the mines in the mountains back to the bank in town. They end up duking it out with each other, when the enemy becomes the one within your midst. "Everything is not good and evil. Right and wrong." And, the movie proves this adage correct. "When I questioned you about that boy, I should have gone deeper into the question of his character," Judd says. "To traffic in gold-which to possess is to live in fear -to desire is to live in sorrow," the father says. "A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches. Proverbs 22." Judd responds to him. Moral issues.


Little Lord Fauntleroy

Directed by John Cromwell. Produced by David Selznick. Freddie Bartholomew (From David Copperfield) and Delores Barrymore. The film is from the children's book by Frances Hodgson Burnett who wrote The Little Princess and The Secret Garden. The movie opens in Brooklyn in 1880. The little boy, whose father is English and dies, but whose mother is American, is awakened to the information that he has become a Lord and that his paternal grandfather wants him to return to England to learn his Lord duties. "The best of friends must part," Mr. Hobbs, who friend who runs the candy shop, says to him in sadness. There are some cute comments:

"Muffins are biscuits. And, biscuits are cookies. And, you know it is the company that makes the dinner, not the food." Lord Fauntleroy is a pollyannish, almost-too-good-to-be-true, 9-year-old boy, who possesses a character and judgement far beyond his years. He calls his mother Dearest because that is what his deceased father caller her. There is a wisdom inside him that is remarkable and when his Title is challenged he understands with grace and dignity. He slights no one and gives those who honor him their due. I choked up in this sentimental and dramatic interpretation and loved it thoroughly! Go figure!


A Woman's Face, 1941

Directed by George Cukor. Starring Joan Crawford. She plays a badly scarred in the face woman who lives her life by blackmailing others. It serves her rage against society who scorns and mocks her. All she wants is to be pretty. The doctor, who treats her burns, feels that she is the most "terrified, cold-blooded, bitter, ruthless creature that I have ever known." He sees beneath her exterior and falls in love with her and believes in her as she cries, "I want to belong to the human race! I want to belong!" He responds by saying, "You want to walk like other women — not twisted up and bitter." The power of directing can be seen when the music in the background stops. The Power of Silence. Hands moving. It took my breath away. Satisfying film.


Ladies of The Jury, 1932

Directed by Lowell Sherman. With Edna May Oliver. A jury film of a woman wrongly accused of the murder of her husband. You see how easily people are swayed, how their own self interest and agenda decides their vote, and how complicated it is to get beyond manipulation. By using comedy and humor, an exaggerated, but very funny society woman disrupts the entire jury! Silly but entertaining. Oliver also stars in David Copperfield.


Sunrise, 1927

Silent film. Winner of Three Academy Awards. George O'Brian and Janet Gaynor. This film is considered one of the most poetic films ever made. It was magnificent. "A farmer intends to drown his wife so he can be with his seductive girlfriend. But, although he considers carrying out this hideous crime, he is unable to go through with it." It is a marvelous story of betrayal, loss of trust, fear and ultimately, redemption. I LOVED IT.


The Little Princess, 1939

Directed by Walter Lang. Shirley Temple. Richard Greene. The movie takes place in 1899. It is completely different from the book. The later Masterpiece Theater production is far, far superior. Shirley Temple is at her best and most popular when she plays a waif who haunts the hospital looking for her father. She was 10-years-old when she made this movie and at her peak. She plays a snappy, sassy, adorable and cute little girl, who is not saccharine, nor silly, nor spoiled.


That Hamilton Woman, 1941

Produced and Directed by Alexander Korda. Vivian Leigh and Laurence Olivier. The movie is a recounting of the tragic and doomed love affair and romance between Lord Nelson and Lady Emma Hamilton. It plays out as a flashback. "My life really began when I was 18." "You know, lower and lower and then up, up and up. ... She is still beautiful, despite her past." There is a sadness to Olivier's performance. "There are 3 kinds of deceived husbands in the world. First, there are those who are born to be deceived. Second, who do not know. Third, who do not care." Have you forgotten the 4th kind? The kind that is hard and empty and gives nothing? I am just an ornamental object and just as dead." "My dear, ow can you call my statues dead? They will always be lovely and will never grow old and will never walk out with sailors." "I know I should not come back. And, I know nothing will ever keep me away. ... Why do we always meet, just to say goodbye? ... I would have died if you had left me here. ... And because it is wrong, it cannot bring happiness. ... Is this better? Lower our voices. Stolen Meetings. Darkness. Suspicion. Lies. More Lies. And more lies. Is this what has become of it? All that beauty and light and glory. Goodnight my dearest love." The passionate and alchemical acting and love between these two stars is real and felt. The communicated a brilliant love that one does not see today in film.

The movie stayed very true to the Truth of their lives according to Wikipedia. This was the greatest scandal of the day and fascinated those at that time. Emma was a great beauty and Nelson was a great war hero. Their love was scandalous and shocking. A captivating and absorbing film. I am very glad that I saw it and learned from it.


Heidi, 1937

Shirley Temple. She is 8 going on 9 when she plays in this movie. She plays the orphan who softens the heart of her silent and reclusive and brooding grandfather who lives in the Alps. A simple tale and a simple film.


A Throw of The Dice, 1929

Silent. Directed by F. Osten. Music by Nitin Sawhney. Seeta Devi Himansu. This movie was lost for 70 years and then rediscovered. They used over 50 elephants and 1000 extras. The story is of two Indian Royals and cousins who both fall in love with the same woman. The evil cousin tricks the naive cousin into settling who will possess both kingdoms and the girl by a game of chance, which he then fixes to go his way. They used real Indian actors instead of Westerners dressed up as Indians. The music is haunting and melodic and wonderful. Deep cleavage is shown which surprised me because of the year. Ranjit is the evil cousin. Sunita is the beautiful girl. King Sohat, the good King was naive and too trusting and because of this he ended up not protecting Sunita. The moral of the film is how gambling can destroy everything one loves and cherishes. It is a wonderful film.


Cabin In The Sky, 1943

Directed by Vincent Minnelli. Ethel Water. Eddie Anderson. Lena Horne. And, Patsy from Gone With The Wind. The Wall Johnson Choir. Louis Armstrong. Duke Ellington. Nat King Cole. It is an amazing cast of Who's Who! This all black musical from Broadway is about how Petunia (Waters) challenges Lucifer, Jr. (The Devil) for the soul of her husband who is constantly sinning with cards and girls and gambling, creating debt. She loves and adores him as he is constantly being tested by the Devil. It is a legend, fable, fantasy. "Please Lord. Please don't take Little Jo from me. I know how sinful he has been lately. But I love him. And, please forgive me for loving him so much. LIttle Jo wicked. He's just weak." ... "Sometimes when you forget the devil, you gotta jab him back with his own pitch fork." ... "I've been burned more than this. Consequence. I'm not prepared to take the price. Why do you let me love him so much so he can hurt me so bad?" ... "I only had a 6 months lease on that cell." ... "I'm still the wife and got the inside track. ... We have so much in common. We both hate the same man."


Roman Holiday, 1953

Directed by William Wyler. Audrey Hepburn. Gregory Peck. Hepburn plays a European Princess who has a wonderful magical 24 hours escape with a journalist. She won the Oscar Award for her performance. The movie is a classic. I have seen it countless times and it never fails to weave its magic and beauty and marvelous experience of movie enchantment.


The Old Maid, 1939

Director, Edmund Goulding. George Brent. Bette Davis. Miriam Hopkins. This film, taken from the Pulitzer Prize winning play, is about an unwed woman whose daughter is raised as her sister's child. The sister manipulates and connives so that this little girl thinks of her as the mother. She breaks the wedding so Bette cannot marry her husbands brother. Bette always speaks the truth but it does not stop her from "becoming an old man who is old and hideous a dried up and has never known anything about love." "You've become morose and distant. You seem to be living inside yourself, somehow." ..."You said at the time that it was a sacrilegious thing to lay a hand on another person's destiny. I thought it was a mistake. But one never knows what was a mistake and what was not. You can't turn back the clock and play life over again." ... I think you paid for your mistake, if it was a mistake. She is a bitter, frustrated woman. Heaven knows what thought to keep us company. Perhaps its because memories have a way of inviting themselves to the family feast whether they are invited or not. She never really belonged to me because her father never really belonged to me either."


Poor Little Rich Girl, 1936

Shirley Temple stars in this adorable vehicle of a film where she runs away and joins a vaudeville team in a commercial that unknowingly is in competition with her father's company. There is a disturbing pedophile in the film and Shirley looks a bit over weight! But it is cute and charming and mindless. She was the #1 star from 1936-1939!


The Lives of Others, 2008

Reviewed when originally seen. The turning point for him was when he heard Beethoven and wept. "How can someone truly hear him and not be good?" the writer says? Girlfriend: "You are a good man." He changes, although the evil man says, man never changes, because someone sees his goodness. This movie is ultimately a deeply religious film. It is about goodness triumphing over evil. It is how Artists always seek Truth in their work and therefore come in conflict and become threats to Governments, that are full of evil agenda, propaganda, power at all costs and with all military might at their disposal. "I'm cold." This created an ominous feeling. An extraordinary film, one of the greats.


Farewell

Exclusive Filmmaker Letter
from Director Christian Carion

Few people know of the Farewell Affair, which played such a crucial part in the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

I wanted to tell this story in film, not simply because it deserves its place in public memory, but also because I felt really drawn to certain aspects of the story.

It is first and foremost a humanistic tale. One man in Moscow in 1981 decided to do something to change things, and 8 years later, everything changed.

I like when the seeming footnotes of history impact on the bigger picture and when the destiny of the world is changed as a result. In a certain sense, Farewell is an extension of my last film. While the men in Joyeux Noël (Merry Christmas) performed an unthinkable act which would have no real incidence on the march of history, here, in Farewell, a single individual plays a major part in changing the worldwide scheme of things...

I found the idea of inter-cutting scenes of daily life in Moscow with the atmospheres which reign in the halls of power, such as the Elysée Palace in Paris or the White House in Washington, particularly attractive. The general public is far more partial to the world of politics than we think. I wanted to show how a number of documents photographed in Moscow could bring together two men, who in theory were totally incompatible: Ronald Reagan and François Mitterrand.

Another feature of this tale is that we don't know the whole story, and probably never will. It is only fitting that an espionage affair maintains its shadow side.


Engaging, emotional and riveting, Farewell is an intricate and highly intelligent thriller pulled from the pages of history—about an ordinary man thrust into the biggest theft of Soviet information of the Cold War. A piece of history largely unknown until now,Farewell begins in 1981, when U.S./Soviet relations are at their lowest point in more than a decade. A French businessman based in Moscow, Pierre Froment (French director Guillaume Canet, Tell No One), makes an unlikely connection with Grigoriev (Palme d'Or and Golden Bear winner Emir Kusturica),, a senior KGB officer disenchanted with what the Communist ideal has become under Brezhnev. Grigoriev begins passing him highly sensitive information about the Soviet spy network in the US Torn between the fear of putting his wife and children in danger and the desire to know more, Froment brings the documents to the French government. Soon, the flow of information reaches the White House and brings the Soviet regime to the tipping point of collapse, forcing the KGB to escalate its search for the leak, and placing the two men and their families in extreme peril. Directed by Christian Carion, the Academy Award nominated filmmaker of Joyeux Noel (Merry Christmas).


Eli and Ben

Israeli. Directed by Ori Ravid. "The life of the Yassif family becomes almost impossible when the father, the city architect of Herzila is charged with taking bribes. Told through the eyes of his 12-year-old son, this moving and powerful film tells the impact of how this act profoundly changes his son and those around him. Morality, hypocrisy, corruption, bullying, the devastation of heroes, substitute fathers, compassionate teachers, a grandfather, all reveal these issues in painfully human ways where human drama and conflict can be seen and experienced. A marvelous, marvelous film.


Get Low

GET LOW is inspired by the true story of Felix "Bush" Breazeale, who attracted national attention when he threw himself a living funeral party in 1938 in Roane County, Tennessee. For years, townsfolk have been terrified of the backwoods recluse known as Felix Bush (Robert Duvall). One day, Felix rides to town with a shotgun and a wad of cash, saying he wants to buy a funeral—a "living funeral," in which anyone who ever had heard a story about him will come to tell it, while he takes it all in. Sensing a big payday in the offing, fast-talking funeral home owner Frank Quinn (Bill Murray) enlists his gentlemanly young apprentice, Buddy Robinson (Lucas Black), to win over Felix's business. Buddy discovers that behind Felix's surreal plan lies a very real and long-held secret that must get out. As the funeral approaches, the mystery—which involves the widow Mattie Darrow (Sissy Spacek), the only person in town who ever got close to Felix, and the Illinois preacher Charlie Jackson (Bill Cobbs), who refuses to speak at his former friend's funeral—only deepens. But on the big day, Felix is in no mood to listen to other people spinning made-up anecdotes about him. Director Aaron Schneider.


This is an Oscar Nominated film and Robert Duvall will get nominated and will win an Oscar at 73 years old for this part. Mark my words. The movie choked me up and made me want to cry. He was shattered to pieces 40 years ago, much like my aunt and uncle when they lost their son and could not live with their guilt or their loss. We all live messy lives and whether we cope or not, whether we are able to compromise or not, whether we can bend or not all depend on the experiences and decisions that we make, all rest on forces, more often than not that are out of our control and that we have early on. Ironically, these moments happen in the first half of our lives and we have to reflect and learn upon them for the rest of our lives.


The Pool, 2007

Indian. Venkatesh Ghavan. Jhangir Baddashah. "A poor Indian 18-year-old teen who cleans hotel rooms becomes obsessed with a luxury home's swimming pool and tries to befriend it wealthy owner in this sensitive and beautifully shot film by Chris Smith who Directed and Photographed it." Suspense is captured brilliantly in that there were several scenes where the audience anticipated a tragedy or something bad was going to happen and it did not materialize because in life, more often than not, nothing happens and life moves on. It was moving how our hero sold his future to his young 11-year-old orphaned friend to have his birthright, his access to an education that was given to him by the pools owner.

"They must have lots of money to have houses that they don't live in." You do not know how the story will unfold. It can go many different way but it stayed true to Truth. You see all too painfully how poor people become so locked into remedial jobs and how there are no opportunities, only futile and hopeless dreams. "Don't keep sitting in that tree. You will fall out and break your neck." "When you have money, anyone can rob you. But when you have an education, nobody can take it away." "Lots of scars. And, some that are hidden. They are the most painful." I don't want a great gardner. I want a great person." His mentor was a rough diamond, whom his daughter despised and did not trust. Our hero could not leave his family ultimately, and go away to Bombay. It was too frightening, too foreign, too far, and for too long.
Ultimately, he lacked the courage. So for, me, it felt sad at the end. A wonderful gem of a film.

One Way Passage, 1932
Kay Francis. William Powell. Two doomed lovers on a ship — a classic tale. The sweet film is about a man who is being taken back to San Francisco to be hung for murder and a girl that he meets in a bar and falls in love with and who is dying from a weak heart. They never openly declare their secrets to each other and when they part they both know but have to go their separate ways. It is small in scale, tender, and touching. I was amazed by how small breasted Francis was and how large a star she became and how her dresses masked this body part from the audience. She would never make it in Hollywood today and what an interesting face she has, unlike the frozen masks of scarlets today.

Elvis on Tour, 1973
Produced and Directed by Pierre Adlidge and Robert Abel. Designer of his Wardrobe, Bill Belew. Documentary also by Martin Scorsese. Made in 1972, this King of Rock and Roll travels in concert in Virginia, Texas, and North Carolina. It is a look as he crosses the country. He goes to Buffalo, Richmond, San Antonia, Florida. 15 different cities in 15 different nights. "I always have stage fright before every show. I have never gotten over it. It has to be like the first time I came on. It is a new and different audience. I have to please the crowd and make them happy." Elvis says in a voice over. When he first comes on, he gets familiar with the stage, the band, and a large band it is!, the audience, he receives directions from the people behind the scenes and then waits, which always makes him nervous. Quickly he is sweating profusely under the hot lights. He has bad coloring, is pasty and puffy and over weight. Although, by today's standards he doesn't look fat, just puffy, induced by drugs. In this documentary, you see the world of fame and its isolation, a Fame Bubble, studios, scychopants, the body guards and protectors. You see the contrast of the screaming, hysterical masses of fans and groupies, women throwing themselves at him, with the private strain and exhaustion that it pulls from Elvis. "That one girl really reached," he comments. This world feels surreal once he is safe in his private car with his own, where it is quiet. "I was scared to death the first time I came on," he says, "I didn't know why everyone was screaming." Elvis comes across as shy, humble, introverted and you see the tension and nervousness that all the screaming fans have on him. He is not arrogant, but generous, and giving. He is very likable. He is not mean or cocky. He doesn't strain his voice. He surrounds himself with a well oiled and loyal Elvis machine and is appreciative and respectful to them. You never hear bad words coming from his mouth. Only they know the toll it takes on him and try to make it as easy as possible on him. He comes alive and loves the moment that he is on stage. This is when he feels safe and at home. His fans speak: "I wouldn't miss this for nothing' I have every record, every movie, every album, every scrapbook, every little clipping,' everything of Elvis. I got it all." Elvis is exhausted after every concert. He gives it his all.

This Is England, 2007
English. Written and Directed by Shane Meadows. The movie takes place in July 1983 during the height of The Faulkian War. Thomas Turgoose. Stephen Graham. Turgoose is a young, amateur actor. (The film is dedicated to his mother who died two years earlier when she was 41 years old.) In the movie, he plays an 11-year-old impressionable boy who is bullied at school and then falls into a gang of Skinheads many years older than him but who offer him protection from the bullying. When he deflects to a more violent part of the gang, I cannot but think that his father, who died in the war, would be rolling in his grave if he saw the direction his son had taken. At the end, you want to think that his son saw the light and was in way over his head, but you do not know. He throws the flag of England into the sea. A well crafted and absorbing film.

Let The Good Times Roll, 1973
"The birth of rock and roll in the the 1950s. Featured are performance clips from Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, The Shirelles, Bo Diddley, Little Richard, Chuck Berry." Intersected with the concert performances are still photographs reflecting the politics and time period, the heroes of the infamous and the famous personalities. Some of the these photographs I identified taken by Dorothea Lange, Helen Levitt, Robert Frank. There were visual excerpts from TV and commercials which look dated from today's perspective. Times looked so much simpler and innocence. You see through these images how these famous people revile and love their fame, soak it up and yearn for it, seek it out when it is absent. This is an extraordinary documentary of black rock and roll singers — all the originals - You see how they feel about themselves, their humor and their talent, rage and how hard a life it has been to make it to where they are. Little Richard washed dishes at Greyhound station for 5 years before he got his break. He still cannot believe where he is today. This is great, great original talent and these artists are profoundly appreciative for what they have received and how far they had to come. They see it as a great Blessing. Nearly all of them were warm and wonderful, larger than life personalities, once they came on stage. Behind stage, they were tense, doubted their talent, wary and watchful. What is it with the costumes and red pants and jackets and jewelry? Lots of bling and lots of black dress! I loved every moment!

An Unfinished Film
Yael Hersonski. An extraordinary documentary of a film that was recently discovered in an old vault in Europe of the Warsaw Ghetto, May 2, 1942. Germans were hired to film the "rich" and poor in the Ghetto. There were no rich but they were forced to dress up and behave as if life in the Ghetto was wonderful and plentiful. Restaurants were full and bustling and people were living in lovely apartments and children were happy and playing. It was all a complete farce and afterwards, most of them were murdered. Diaries were found that expressed this facade that Hitler played on the world regarding these false film crews. If people did not participate they were severely beaten or killed. It was extraordinary the length that Hitler went-circumcision and ritual baths and cemetery burials. The amount of work and editing and participation from all over the world to bring this documentary to light was short of phenomenal. Superb.

Eat, Pray, Love
I did see it. I did not recommend it to you because I thought it was dreadful. Stupid, is more like it. Contrived, in love with itself, trying to express a new age message to find wisdom and meaning, when it fact it was really about damaged individuals that were trying to hide behind this new age spirituality to give themselves an inflated sense of their own self worth. The more I get away from the film, the more ridiculous and self absorbed all the characters seemed to be. I did like the little girl in Bali. I thought she was cute and authentic. She played with the blue tile that I liked. I did like the blue tile. I thought the tile was a good find. I am so cynical of all these gurus and yoga instructors.They seem like good money marketers to me, with their synthetic and phony goodness and sweetness. In India, Julia leaves her bag and purse everywhere and never seems to get robbed. I think the only thing I did like was the spiggetti in Italy. That looked really good although the whole time she was eating it I was worried that she was going to spill it on her blue light denim dress and I didn't know if she could afford a cleaner if she did. This is what I am thinking about as she is eating it! Where will she clean the dress if she spills the sauce on it! She never wore the same outfit twice! I was wondering how she cramped all of her clothes into that one duffle bag. And, all these guys hitting on her — that seemed a stretch, especially when she seemed so depressed and closed off and defended and unavailable. I didn't understand the attraction she held to others, except that they knew it was Julia Roberts and not the character that she was playing, otherwise, it didn't make sense to me. Another stupid scene was at the beginning when the black friend (puh-leeze, was this political correctness or what) leaves her baby with Julia's husband and he holds it like it is a dirty sponge, at an arms distance. Do you know how a baby would screech to be left like this with a stranger and how a baby would screech being held like that for even a moment, and to think that he would actually fall asleep! Who comes up with this stupidity! Do you realize how Julia had no family at all — no mother or father or sister or brother, no references of any kind other than the black friend? And, then out-of-the-blue, she sends an email and raises $18,000! Dollars!!!! I nearly started laughing. Even with our monied friends, I could never imagine raising that kind of money like that! I had fundraisers in my house from friends! I was lucky to raise $1000. And that was with Cary and me contributing 80% of it! At the Emerson event at Sinai, we raised $12,000 and that was from 1000 people who believed in the cause!!!!! And, she raises $18,000. just like that, without phone calls after persistent phone calls and personal visits and interventions and a team of solicitors and follow-ups. Just one email from friends! What planet were these struggling screenwriters living on? Could any of them just drop a few grand to support this cause that they honestly couldn't care less about? The whole thing was ridiculous. In fact, the whole insipid film was ridiculous. This is why I could not recommend it to you. I wished you had asked me.

Animal Kingdom
Australia. I powerful, yet disturbing movie, of an orphan 18-year-old boy, who goes and lives with his evil grandmother who has turned her four sons into murderous monsters. Through the only decent character, Guy Pierce, who plays the detective, this boy who rarely speaks more than a few mumbled words, is able to finally emerge from his family that has a grip on him out of fear and abandonment. It is an intense and difficult to recommend film but very well done.

The Last Voyage, 1960
Robert Stack. Dorothy Malone. Andrew and Virginia Stone demolished the ile de France, an actual cruise liner, to make this tale of a sinking ship, and the final cruise run. A precursor to the Titanic, this film was without comparison far superior and suspenseful and more powerful than the later version. To the very last frame, the viewer is kept in utter suspense and on the edge of their seat. I loved it, especially the powerful and beautifully chiseled black man who works in the furnace.

Dinner at Eight, 1933
Marie Dressler. John Barrymore. Wallace Berry. Jean Harlow (the tough talking, wise-cracking character)The Kaufman-Ferber play makes for an interesting study of characters, all invited to a swanky dinner party. The relevant dialogue and subject matter was astonishing by today's standards. I loved this part of the film and the fact that the storyline was developed before anyone came to dinner — in fact, that was literally the last scene! The word 'Mashers' was used repeatedly. What does this mean? A 'Ladies Man' or 'A Player" in 2010 speak. THE END

Student Prince/Old Heidelberg, 1927
Silent. Norma Shearer. Ramon Navarro. Director, Ernst Lubitsch. This charming and delightful film tells the tale of an innocent prince who falls in love with the inn keeper's niece. He goes away to college with his wonderful and delightful tutor, to learn about life and love. It came with a full orchestral score to replace the live music when shown in 1927. I loved the tutor, a warm and loving man, so unexpected, as tutor's tended to be cold and austere and an enforcer of rules. This movie is completely charming, marvelous, sad and romantic and most silent films are. The Prince has to fill his role with duty, obligation and tradition, giving up the woman he loves because it is inappropriate, which he realizes when he returns and he is not treated the same way that he was before.

Red Corner, 1997
Richard Gere. Bai Ling. "In this thriller set in China, a slick attorney must fight for his life after an evening of passion ends with a murder charge. His only hope lies in the hands of a public defender who must risk her own career to prove his innocence." Tense. Well, done suspense thriller. The Chinese are depicted as amoral and ruthless and disrespectful of the values and rules held in the West.

Sleeping With The Enemy, 1991
Julia Roberts. One of the most scariest films I have seen! I was terrified! It felt real and understandable. A beaten wife escapes by planning a fake death and her stalking evil husband pursues her relentlessly and deliberately. Julia looked so young and innocent and feminine. I loved it for the genre that it was!

The World of Harry Orient, 1964
Peter Sellers. Paula Prentis. Music by Elmer Bernstein. Screenplay by Nora Johnson. Directed by George Roy Hill. This particular film created for me a love for film because it caught Ann and Hallie as great girlfriends. I had never seen a film before this that caught this age of friendship with as much clarity, as it did mine with Ann and for this reason alone, I have always cherished this film. I was Valery Boyd and Ann was the other. It caught the loss of innocence, the outsiderness, the meaning of friendship, the need for space, and of course the wonderful comedy by Sellers. To me, this film will always be a classic. Hill's went on to direct Sting and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid but Harry Orient was always his favorite. As it was, mine.

Once Around, 1991
Richard Dreyfus. Holly Hunter. Danny Aiello. Gene Rowlands. What a phenomenal cast of great actors in their prime and in their best acting role! It is a poignant film that does not turn out as one would expect. Dreyfus plays Sam, an overbearing successful businessman who courts the eldest daughter of a close-know Italian family and through his obnoxious behavior, overbearing personality, interfering and intrusive way of being, he wreaks havoc on his wife's family. Sam plays a man from Lithuania, but I feel the part was originally a Jew and it got lost in translation.

Approaching Union Square, 2006
Directed and written by Marc Meyer, his first featured film. The film is of 11 monologues of 11 passengers who intersect on a New York City bus. All of them are sad and heartbroken and carry stories of loss and regret and remorse. They are revealed in a series of vignettes. The Opening is of a woman who can foresee tragedy, is psychic and at the end, it is reaffirmed as she saves this bus from crashing. "We get what we want in life if we are clear and ask for it. It may not happen how we want to, but how we need to."

The Hunchback of Notre Dane, 1923
Silent. Directed by Wallace Worsley. Made possible by Irving Thalberg (who was only 22 at the time) Lon Chaney plays the Hunchback and is brilliant and athletic. He created one of his most grotesque inspired makeup's as Quasimodo in Victor Hugo's classic. It took him 3 hours each day! This version has been the best adaptation ever of this film. I loved how they introduced the characters so it was clear and easy to follow. One understood the hatred between Aristocrats and Poverty. The rich held the poor in nothing but contempt and the poor held the rich in nothing but fear and hatred. "Keep to your own women," he saids to Phoebus, Captain of the Guard who is in love with Esmeralda, the step daughter of the Head of the Poverty. Wonderful.

Rachel, Rachel, 1968
Joanne Woodward. James Olson. Directed and Produced by Paul Newman. Filmed in Conn. From the book called "a jest of god" by Margaret Lawrence. It is a sensitive portrait of lonely 35-year-old spinster, school teacher in a small town around the 1940s. Rachel wants to keep the baby, and her friend says, "If you did, it would be the first decision you ever made that showed any respect for yourself." "How can I be out of danger, if I am not dead?" "I will be afraid, always. I may even be lonely, always.
What will happen? What will happen?"

The Hurricane, 1937
Director, John Ford. Starring Dorothy Lamour. Jon Hall. This remarkable and exciting and absolutely marvelous film in every way, will become one of my all time favorites. It tells the story of a ruthless governor who shows no mercy with the natives of an island that he over sees. A married native couple are torn apart because of his inflexible and rigid decision and Hall pays the price for this. Ultimately, there is redemption but at a terrible and heartbreaking price. This movie is Phenomenal!

Ryan's Daughter, 1970
Director, David Lean. Trevor Howard as Father Collins. Sarah Miles as Rosie. John Mills, as Michel who plays the town Idiot and who won an Oscar for his role. He never says a word of dialogue! This lovely, epic film takes place in a small Irish village where people are small and their lives are even smaller. Rosie has the quality of a romantic lovely lady, who by her character and bearing does not belong with these locals. She marries the local school teacher, a middle-aged widow, who recognizes her character and tries to convince her from marrying him. But, she does. Of course, he fails to excite her sexually and bring her alive and she feels as if she is dying in the marriage. Father Collins who protects and cares for her reminds her of the Contract of Marriage: 1. Comfort for the long dull days and dreary evenings. 2. Reproduction. 3. Satisfaction of the flesh. "How could I know! She exclaims to the Priest over her unhappiness. "I don't even know what more there is!" He responds, "You've got a good man. You've got enough money. You have your health! There is nothing more. ... Don't nurse your wishes Rosie - or sure to God, your get what you're wishing for." After, she is outed by the innocent Michael, and the women will not let her buy from them, she is yelled out of the store, "The way I see it is there are loose women and then there are whores and then there are British Soldier's whores." She stumbles in shock out of the store. Only after she is feathered, is she able to show compassion for Michael. The shock is how her own father betrays her too but then, he has to live in the town and make a living. And, how her husband stands with her. The music is grand and one is left with the feeling that this is quite a movie. I love this movie. It is so well done. I have seen it many times.

Flesh and The Devil, 1926
Silent. John Gilbert and Great Garbo. Directed by Terrance Brown who said that this was his favorite film that he directed. This romantic and simply marvelous film created a sensation when it was released. The passion and chemistry between these two actors was pat-able and jumped off the screen. There is something about silent films in their romance and dramatic acting that feels so perfect for film and people's imagination that simply is not captured into today's insipid romantic films. Romance on screen in silent films jump off the screen and transcend the film itself. I adore Greta Garbo and find her mystery and beauty and femininity and gentleness perfection for a Muse and romantic spirit.

Joan Rivers, A Documentary
The film was terrific - I came away with a new found respect for her, that I actually found her compassionate and kind in her personal life in comparison to her in-your-face persona, and that her daughter was the one that I felt was a Bitch! Not Joan. She broke through women barriers, she works tirelessly and lives with a continual anxiety because of her enormous pay load, that no job is beneath her, that she is upfront why she works so hard and, at her age, and I thought the documentary was honest and funny and informative and terrific. Her energy was enormous. The funniest joke was toward the end when she said that she does not understand why it is so hard to find Osama Bin Laden. He is on dialysis and there is one plug in all of Afghanistan. Just follow the cord as she bends over demonstrating this. I cracked me up.

The Switch
Jennifer Aniston. Jason Bateman. From the previews, this film looked ridiculously stupid. Maybe my expectations were beyond low and I never would have seen it if my girlfriend had not picked it out. Much to my surprise, I enjoyed it. I did not expect to. With a voice over, the dialogue felt relevant, contemporary and the script, well written. Bateman nailed his simple role, as did all of the characters. I liked the new definition of neurotic, that it was intense introspection. The movie is about a man/child unable to take risks. The woman he loves he lets go. Through a drunken orgy, he switches his sperm with a donor in order to give Cassidy a child. He lacks the courage to tell her that he did this. Years pass and the young boy who looks and acts like him eventually forces him to grow up and assume responsibility for his feelings and actions.

The Rocking Horse Winner, 1949
Produced and Directed by John Mills. Valerie Hobson as Hester. Bassett as John Mills. John Howard Davies as the young boy, Master John. Short Story by DH Lawrence. Directed by Anthony Pelissier.
This marvelous and disturbing film is about a young boy who has a remarkable ability, while riding his rocking horse, to pick the winning horses in the horse races. He goes into partnership with his Uncle and the house handyman Bassett, to raise money for his mother who lives way beyond her means. The movie is disturbing and intense, the photography remarkable and always right on target, each frame expressing enormous and intense emotion. I found the mother, with all of her beauty, grasping for a better life style regardless of the price it was paying on her family, one of the most disturbing characters in film. I felt great anger inside of me toward her. Her young son was desperately trying to make her safe and happy, as his world became more and more desperate. The New York Times called the young boy's character as one of the greatest portrayals of youthful distress that one would ever see." I agree.

Annie Hall, 1977
I did not realize what a brilliant comedy this film was when I saw it way back when. The movie was the lowest money maker of any Academy Award winning film. It is about a writer who falls in love with an aspiring singer and their relationship over a couple of years. It ends sadly and without resolution. To me, he has fallen in love with her. And, she has used him to help her with her career and ego. Carole Kane has a cameo role as his first wife. She is exquisite. What ever happened to her! Paul Simon, he is really, really short, maybe 5' plays a cameo role. The movie reflects the beginning of playing loose with relationships without commitment, moving in, moving out, moving on, sex is no good, so time to leave, no marriage. This era introduced this new life style that one sees today in how its been played out with broken lives and hearts and souls. What astounded me his Allen's humor and wit and insight. It is as relevant today as it was over thirty years ago. What a feat! I also liked how he used music. It was completely silent at the beginning and at the end. A precursor of things to come.

Under the Domain Tree
Israeli. A classic Israeli film. It is about a world, who during the day at this kibbutz the teen age children lead normal lives and at night are tortured by their demons. They are all children who survived the Holocaust in one form or another and all carry secrets and confusions and terrors and damaged souls. The movie shows how they try and heal themselves and each other.
It is a sensitive and beautifully done film — and one sees the rippled waves or profound destruction of Hitler's horror, through these children that were saved. A film that is not forgotten and long remembered.

Mao's Last Dancer
"From Academy Award-nominated director Bruce Beresford [Driving Miss Daisy, Tender Mercies) comes the inspiring true story of ballet dancer Li Cunxin (Chi Cao) and his extraordinary journey from a poverty stricken boy in China to international stardom as a world-class dancer. Based on Li’s bestselling autobiography, Mao’s Last Dancer weaves a moving tale about the quest for freedom and the courage it takes to live your own life. The film poignantly captures the struggles and triumphs, as well as the intoxicating effects of first love and celebrity amid the pain of exile. Mao’s Last Dancer showcases ballet sequences from acclaimed Australian choreographer Graeme Murphy and co-stars Bruce Greenwood, Kyle McLachlan and Joan Chen." This marvelous film that received mixed reviews was the first film in a long time that I was brought to tears and I always trust my tears. It was simply fabulous. The lead was handsome. There was not one false note in sentiment. The seamless transitions from the past to the present and back to the past were flawless. The ballet at the end was chosen to show that this kind of freedom of dance is why he could not go back to China. In an interview he said that when he was arrested in the Chinese Embassy that they were the hardest 4 hours of his life. I never thought of my watch or the time. I loved it and will buy it when it comes out on video. The Teacher was profound in his simplicity and support and belief and encouragement. What a film!

Upstream, 1927
Silent.
Upstream was simply sweet and delightful and captured so much. It reminded me of reading a Charles Dickens novel, with all the exaggerated and quirky characters and back stories, such as the two tiny tap dancers who named Callahan and they both looked so Jewish! Everyone was an exaggeration of themselves. Classic Dickens. I loved the Diva. He played his part almost as a spoof of Hollywood. And, that was the other thing. The knife throwing actually became a metaphor to me of all the issues in society where people are stabbed nearly to death and die emotionally or physically. Abandoned girlfriends by bad boyfriends; Blacks and so forth. The Famous Named Diva nailed his role as the classic Hollywood Egomaniac and Prima Donna. How many of them do we know! The List is endless. Another stab with the knife. Where talent is nothing and marketing is everything. There were so many truisms in this movie. The one of Hollywood. Nailed. The Girlfriend who ended up marrying a man she learned to love and needed, and not the one that she was in love with. The Teacher. This classic old silent film treated The Teacher as society did at that time. With Respect and Authority and Honor. I knew the Prima Donna's moments were numbered from the time he insulted his Teacher and Mentor. It was The Teacher that carried the Truth. And, when our Egotist insulted him to his face, you knew that that was the beginning of his downfall. The Teacher tried to teach that he was only the vehicle that was fortunate to be the communicator of Hamlet to thousands. And, he responded with no understanding, that it was not that, it was HIM that people were coming to see. It was all about HIM and not the bigger picture or what an artist really is in society and the role that he plays. Our Prima Donna was so wrapped up in himself that he was clueless as to the Truth behind art and beauty and timelessness. I loved these moral lessons. They felt like Grace.

I found the boarding house itself fascinating. LIke the Better Man before it, I thought both backgrounds caught the essence of the story. The cowboys and bar looked exactly as to what it ought to look like. As did the Boarding house with the faded wallpaper and stairs and furniture, and hovering Landlady. Today's films loose all of that entirely. They rarely get the background correct. Maybe the film was so old that it synchronized perfectly with the storyline. I don't know, but I felt as if I was in both movies, because it felt completely real. I loved it.

Crossfire, 1947
Director: Edward Dmytryx. Robert Young. Robert Mitchum. "Powerful story of GI's involved in a murder with anti-semitism as the motive." Capt. Finley: Robert Young. Sgt. Keeley: Robert Mitchum. Montgomery: Robert Ryan. I loved the voice and powerful moral story. Suspenseful and even though the audience know the murderer, it is fascinating how they catch him.

The Man With a Horn, 1950
Kirk Douglass. Lauren Bacall. This biography film is the story of Bix Beirderbecke's life, the great trumpet player, who inspired this story. It was a superb film, not your typical self destruction with death as an ending. Douglas was magnificent and I could see why he rose to fame. Intense and Passionate and Handsome and filled the screen with his presence.

Mary & Max, 2008
"Poignant clay animation film that chronicles the pen-pal friendship between misfits Mary and Max. They are the voices of Toni Colette and Philips Seymour Hoffman whose relationship blossoms despite the barriers of age and distance." Max suffers from Asburgs Syndrome which explains his writing and behavior to a young child. The movie moved me to tears behind my eyes. It was touching and moving and completely absorbing. "A broken promise is like a broken home. The way things are going, they are lucky to have fathers at all."

Going The Distance, 2010
Drew Barrymore. This insipid and silly film bored me to distraction. How did she go so far? She is not at all pretty or sexy, has a terrible profile and cannot act. It must be her name and ET. She is getting old and it is no longer cute that she stars in these silly ingenue films. I found the vocabulary appalling. Everyone, including the women, spoke with such vulgarity and profanity I could not bear it. I could take the sex scenes, but not the language. It went beyond the pale. And, the roommate was such a looser, I could not stand listening or putting up with him. And, of course the institution of marriage was completely razed. The biggest complement he could give her was, "I want you to live with me." Really? What about marrying her?

Dark Journey, 1937
Vivian Leigh (age 23)as Madeleine and Conrad Veidt as Von Marwitz. Directed by Victor Saville. Produced by Alexander Corda. The movie takes place in 1918. "You have never been faithful or sincere and loyal to any woman in our life!' Madeleine coyly says.
The simple and somewhat contrived film is about two opposing spies that fall in love with each other. You do not know until the end of Madeleine is a double agent. It kept my interest as I was mesmerized by her youth and beauty.

Annie Oakley, 2006
A PBS American Experience. Using photographs that still exist, this limited and superficial biography tries to cover her life. I enjoy the photography and the one video of her. However, reading a book would cover the depth and breath of her life far greater. A Disappointment. Annie Oakley is one of my true heroines and her story is one of legend.

Lagerfeld Confidential, 2008
A "documentary" of this iconic fashion designer of Channel, when he took over the helm in 1983. "Fashion is ephemeral, dangerous and unfair." He keeps a mysterious, yet articulate and serious attitude of life. "If you are honest, you know the answers and the question." ... "I have the life that suits me, which is the right one. Some other life is not necessarily for you." I live wherever I am." "Maybe passing away is awakening from the dream of life." "We are here and then we are gone." I was wanting to dislike him. I wanted to find him arrogant and full of himself and yet, he was just the opposite. Thoughtful and reflective. He lived a rare life, full of personal drivers and unbelievable wealth and luxury with private planes, where he travels always with a pillow on his stomach. He lives a solitary life, remote and withdrawn, yet surrounded by sycophants and leaches. Very, very interesting — a consuming and complete world where nothing else enters into it — but fashion and drive and focus.

Amreeka, 2009
Alia Shawkat. Hiam Abbass. Jenna Kawar. "Director Cherien Dabis's heartfelt debut follows a divorced Palestinian mother and her son as they move to rural Illinois and find their lives changing in ways they never anticipated. Although this movie was biased and had a particular point-of-view, which was anti-Israel, from the human and individual part, it worked. The acting was superb. The trials were one of any immigrant group. I was happy that the nice Principal was Jewish! That gave a balance that on an individual level, there are mean people and decent ones. Too.

Never Let Me Go
From the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. Two of my favorite British actresses: Carey Mulligan and Keira Knightley star in it. This strange and weird movie of orphaned children who are raised to die, because they are forced and marked to donate organs for others became bizarre and surreal. I did not like the direction of the film once this became clear. I stayed strangely removed and disturbed by this premise. Who comes up with ideas like this and the passivity of how they accepted their fate, their submission to it, became even more disturbing. Why did they not run away, go into hiding, get a gun and murder the authorities who were making them do this? The whole movie was extremely unpleasant.

ForEver, 2006
This said and melancholic film about the Pere-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, the resting place for the famous in history. It became a meaningful and thoughtful journey told through the eyes of its director, Heddy Honigmann. This place of death is alive with life. The grave washers, women who come weekly to water and tend to the graves of their heroes or loved ones; the Iranian taxi driver who can quote the poetry of the author of The Blind Owl, Hekemat Sakayat, and who suffered from exile and displacement as he does. He brings flowers to this great author, to pay his respect. The Japanese Chopin piano player who pays her respects to this great musician, and who looks like Mogdiglani and when she plays her face is reflected in the piano itself as Honigmann transitions you to his burial place. The exquisite movie zigzags between stories and graves, to past and present, as we walk through this extraordinary place of irreplaceable genius and irreplaceable loss.

The Town
"Doug MacRay [director Ben Affleck) is an unrepentant criminal, the de facto leader of a group of ruthless bank robbers who pride themselves in stealing what they want and getting out clean. With no real attachments, Doug never has to fear losing anyone close to him. But that all changed on the gang's latest job, when they briefly took a hostage—bank manager, Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall). Though they let her go unharmed, Claire is nervously aware that the robbers know her name...and where she lives. But she lets her guard down when she meets an unassuming and rather charming man named Doug...not realizing that he is the same man who only days earlier had terrorized her. The instant attraction between them gradually turns into a passionate romance that threatens to take them both down a dangerous, and potentially deadly, path." It was a wonderful film for its genre. Instead of it being a special effects film, it became a film with dialogue and meaning and relationships. Affleck is a marvelous director, tight and clean and has a good pitch and come down.

Three Came Home, 1950
Claudette Colbert. This is a story of a family of 3, the little boy is 8, who are drawn into the Japanese Prison Camp for several years during the war. She had a chance to leave with her son and chose not to. A bad choice and it was hard to feel sympathetic for her, since it added so much stress to her husband. I kept thinking though, this is the Four Seasons compared to what the Jews experienced in Europe. It was not the Holocaust.

Fighter, 2007
Semra Turan. Nima Nabipour. "The willful daughter of Turkish immigrants in Copenhagen clash with her conservative parents when she joins a Kung fu club. Sema Turan stars in this spirited and offbeat coming-of-age tale." I so enjoyed this movie. I loved the leading actress who comes in second in the competition. How her parents blamed her for everything, her brothers broken engagement, her father's lost job, etc., reminded me of my own background. Yet, though her grades were failing, she could not abandon her karate. I loved her determination and ambition in the passion that gave her a reason to continue against her parents values and traditions. Not easy.
It reminded me of Bending for Beckham.

Summer of 42, 1971
Gary Grimes. Jennifer O'Neil. Director, Robert Mulligan.The story is about 3 teens who are vacationing on an island during the summer when they were 15 years old. It is a coming-of-age movie where he loses his virginity to an older woman he has fallen in love with. He is 15 and she is 21. But, she is married, whose husband dies in the war during the film. This experience with her marred his entire adult life, for the rest of his life and years later, after his movie and book came out, he was hoping she would contact him. Dozens of Dorothy's did and he recognized one by her hand writing. She wrote and said that she "hoped the experience had not damaged his psyche." He never heard from her again. But, it had damaged him in deep and profound ways. This was the introductory quotation: "nothing from the first day I saw her, and nobody that has happened to me since, has ever been as frightening, and as confusing for no person I have ever known has ever done more to make me feel more sure, more insecure, more important and less significant."

The Fountainhead, 1949
Gary Cooper. Patricia Neal. This movie is from Ayn Rand's study of a brilliant architect whose integrity allowed no compromise of his work. I thought the introspective dialogue and insight into art and compromise, genius and the ordinary was true and well done. The movie did slide into unnecessary drama, but it succeeded in communicating truths inside the creative world and the pressures from outside.

Strangers, 2007
"A Palestinian woman Lubna Azabal and an Israeli man Liron Levo meet after accidentally swapping backpacks on the subway and consequently fall in love against the back drop of the 2006 World Cup Finals in Berlin. I felt sick when he returned to her at the end. Moroccan by Birth, Levo plays a kind and loyal character. He chose love over country at the end. It made me irritated that Lubna kept calling herself Palestinian from Palestine instead of an Israeli Arab from Ramallah. The movie was well done, the political message manipulated but I loved watching Levo.

Sidewalks of London, 1939
Charles Laughton. Vivian Leigh. Rex Harrison! This beautiful and wonderful little film takes place on the London Sidewalks on the West End, in the 1930s. It is about street performers who entertained the audience, who stood on the sidewalks, as they waited to get into the theater. It has a Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser feeling to it. One of the best lines was, " If you let success make a difference to you, then you were not a success."

The Subject was Roses, 1968
Frank Gilroy s adaptation of his Pulitzer Prize winning play is about a troubled family, much like Eugene O'Neil's, Long Day's Journey Into The Night. Patricia Neal.
A young Martin Sheen who was marvelous as the returned soldier from World War II.
The movie feels much like a play, the dialogue and acting simply marvelous. I was completely absorbed. "The past 12 hours is the only real freedom I have ever known. Why did I come back? I am a coward." ... "Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything. That is how the light gets in." A thought that I had was the following:
What is Truth? It is always the writer who reflects on the life he grew up in — who craves and seeks it.

Easy A
A funny John Hughes type of teenage spoof film about a girl who pretends that she has lost her virginity and sleeps around when in fact she is helping all these students, gays, Christians, who want to come across as macho and need her as a pretense. The star is perfect and she plays it on target. Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci play the outrageous parents who need to be reigned in by her. entertaining and mindless

The Social Network
"On a fall night in 2003, Harvard undergrad and computer programming genius Mark Zuckerberg [Jesse Eisenberg) sits down at his computer and heatedly begins working on a new idea. In a fury of blogging and programming, what begins in his dorm room soon becomes a global social network and a revolution in communication. A mere six years and 500 million friends later, Mark Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire in history... but for this entrepreneur, success leads to both personal and legal complications. From director David Fincher and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin comes The Social Network, a film that proves you don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies. Based on the book The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich." Mark becomes the anti-hero and you root for him through much of the movie. There is a large streak of anti-Semitism that runs through the movie. And, jealously and revenge. One line about Jewish girls I found particularly offensive.
The very funny scene was where Larry Summers makes a cameo role with the twins. The movie was fast paced, quick wit and reflective of the new young brilliant businesses that are the face of the next generation. I felt the twins were greedy. You cannot sue an idea. Mark did all the work, they did nothing and yet walked away with 65 million. He settled with them to get them off his back.

Secretariat
"Based on the remarkable true story, Secretariat chronicles the spectacular journey of the 1973 Triple Crown winner. Housewife and mother Penny Chenery (Diane Lane) agrees to take over her ailing father's Virginia-based Meadow Stables, despite her lack of horse-racing knowledge. Against all odds, Chenery—with the help of veteran trainer Lucien Laurin (John Malkovich)—manages to navigate the male-dominated business, ultimately fostering the first Triple Crown winner in 25 years and what may be the greatest racehorse of all time. Directed by Randall Wallace." This extremely well done and suspenseful film, when women had little power or voice, I felt was well done. I enjoyed it thoroughly. Chenery was a remarkably strong woman — raised with horses — she knew them well and made wise and definitive decisions, against men far stronger and more powerful than she. The only thing I would have changed is at the end in the final race, when Big Red comes around the corner and you hear as a voice over, Chenery's voice read four lines from the Bible, at that point, they move into loud and gospel like music. I would have kept it silent, the audience seeing the audience with their mouths wide opened, and us, sitting in the audience hearing only the sound of the horses hoofs would have been more effective. I think the way they did it broke the tension. The way I would done it would have been to use the silence, instead of silencing the silence.

Nowhere Boy
"Imagine... John Lennon's childhood. Liverpool 1955: a smart and troubled fifteen year-old (Aaron Johnson as Lennon) is hungry for experience. In a family full of secrets, two incredible women clash over John: Mimi (Kristin Scott Thomas), the buttoned-up Aunt who raised him, and Julia (Anne-Marie Duff), the prodigal mother. Yearning for a normal family, John escapes into the new and exciting world of rock n' roll where his fledgling genius finds a kindred spirit in the teenage Paul McCartney (Thomas Sangster). Just as John begins his new life, tragedy strikes. But a resilient young man finds his voice—and an icon explodes into the world. Directed by Sam Taylor-Wood." This remarkable and marvelous movie made me gasp and made me cry. It was simply wonderful — one saw so clearly how the life of confusion and pain can evolve into a work of and life of art. I simply loved this film. Yoko was so affected by it that she gave her permission to use live Lennon music in it. You also saw the powerful impact of Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly on Lennon's music and affect.

Fugitive From A Chain Gang, 1932
Paul Muni. Glenda Farrell. This phenomenal film, told in black and white, about an innocent man's persecution after being sent to prison on a hold-up charge. Its impact is that it stopped the chain gang for a while in society. I saw this film twice - I loved the intensity, the realism, the lack of any romantic and sentimental nonsense. It had an authenticity that took my breath away — especially the ending. Heartbreaking and bitter.

Touching The Void, 2003
"A gripping account of survival in the Andes, based on the book by British adventurer Joe Simpson, who broke his leg while descending from a 21,000 foot peak during a blizzard in 1885." Starring the reenactments are Brendan Mackey and Nicholas Aaron. This was truly a miracle in endurance, focus, determination, strength and courage. Abandoned and cut, falling into a void with a severely fractured leg, I was in awe how he survived. And when he reached base camp, crawling over the rock — near death, he would have died just a few hours later. His partner, who had cut the rope, was going to pack up in the early morning and leave. Why his partner never went to search for him is the question. Although Joe always said that he would have done the same thing.

A Letter From A Soldier, 1951
"A serviceman on leave visits a dead comrade's mother to deliver his final letter." Keete Brasselle,
(a good looking actor). It was a bit corny and overly patriotic. The letter, referring to the Korean War, would never have been written by a soldier. It was a bit over the top. This short was 11 min.

Ballad of A Soldier, 1960
Russian. Vladimir Ivashov and Shanna Prokhorenko. "Grigori Chukhrai's moving account of the efforts of a war hero [Ivashov) to get home on a brief furlough." This phenomenal film carried a tension with this young and innocent, yet manly soldier. You fall in love with him. And, all for a moment and a hug from his mother. I thought of every son who loves and adores his mother.
One feels that he does not survive at the end of the film which makes his journey even more powerful and poignant.

Phantom, 1922
Silent. German. Alfred Abel. Lil Daagover. "A ghost makes a store clerk commit crimes in this eerie and atmospheric silent fantasy from director FW Murnau." The director was killed in a car accident at age 42 on Pacific Coast Highway after only four American films. I loved this movie. It was about being caught by an anima figure and possessed by her, and how, if one does not a strong compass inside, how easily they are swayed to do things they would never normally do. Our character was a sensitive poet, full of passion and weakness. It had lots of wisdom attached to it.

Dark Passage, 1947
Lauren Bacall. Humphrey Bogart. "Humphrey Bogart escapes prison to track down the murderer of his wife and closest friend." A dark film, filmed brilliantly and creatively. You do not see Bogart's face until he has had it altered. It shows the desperation and loneliness of an innocent man who is tried and goes to prison unfairly. Well, done, though its conclusion is rushed at you.

So Big, 1953
Jane Wyman. Sterling Hayden. "Wyman stars in the remake of Edna Ferber's 1925 Pulitzer winning novel about the life of a Midwest farm woman." I don't like Jane Wyman. The woman cannot act. I have seen enough of her films now to make this statement. How she got as far as she did is a puzzle to me. This movie idealizes farm life and honors this message that working with the land is the best and seeking success and material wealth is evil and bad and wrong. There were some lovely passages I will not quote."Remember Celina. Always remember. That the more kinds of people you see, and the more things you do, the richer you are. Especially, the things you achieve by yourself. That's the hidden treasure. The knowing of what you've done. You had the strength to do alone. ... He left me rich. Really. Rich in beauty. It's the adventurer Celina. Finding all new Treasure. It's all adventure. The whole thing you call Life. Watch closely. You will see all the wonders beacon you. ... I don't intend living his life for him. I only want him to know how to get full value out of it. So that he will be rich, maybe not rich with money but with the secret treasures my father used to talk about, not through so much my effort, but through his own. ... But the effort, the determined obsessed effort, that was all Celia's. The endless work and the quest for modest prosperity that came with the passing of years. ... The way you think and look at things. Beauty is never lost. It's not a person. It's not any of the things that you got your heart set on. It's a spirit. And, a feeling. It can be anywhere and everywhere. Don't you see? So if you see, then anything can happen."

The Toy Story
A well done film and worth watching on an airplane, with much time to kill. The computer generating brilliance is what made this film interesting for me.

Nora's Call
This movie won the Best Picture of the Year in Mexico and 8 other Academy Awards. I don't get it. I found it unbearably boring, contrived, painfully slow, meaningless, with too many pieces not connecting, with Jewish ritual not making sense, with no rhyme nor reason to her motive, and not particularly caring for any of the characters other than the Maid, I found it awful. I would have left and gotten my money back but I was with friends and could not leave. And, it won all the Awards! Go figure.

Letter's To Juliet
Vanessa Redgrave. Who comes up with these stupid and silly films? For the plane, it was fine. But had I paid for this film, I would have been angry with myself. It was contrived and ridiculous and profoundly hitting the wrong notes, romance does not evolve and develop like this — not in real life, and because of the scenery and backdrop and insipid plot, it held my interest on the plane, where I had little to do but to space out and watch the film.

The Spirit of St. Louis, 1957
James Stewart. Director, Billy Wilder. "James Stewart recreates Lindbergh's nonstop flight from New York to Paris in 1927.
I saw this movie as a little girl and I still remembered it, down to the detail of how the fly woke him up as he dosed off to sleep inside the plane! I did not know that Lindbergh's father was in Congress for 10 years and that he considered his son a bum, that he considered flying was for the birds. I loved this movie. It was suspenseful, well developed like all of Wilder's films, with the bumbling, unsophisticated mail pilot turning into a hero. The film captures the extraordinary courage and remarkable heroism it took to even want to consider this and how it revolutionized man and propelled him into the skies forever, creating an Aviation Industry that defined the 20th Century. I was so tense and nervous as I was watching it and I knew the outcome! The scenes of seeing this tiny little plane up in the sky took my breath away. And, when I saw it in person, the feat of this dare became even more remarkable. A must see!

Amelia , 2009
Hilary Swank. Richard Gere. Ewan McGregor. This movie was like watching a glossy magazine come to life. Utterly detached and void of any emotion or connection, with Hilary smiling her way through the film with little other emotion, and Gere playing loving husband or an annoyed GP Putnam, as his complete emotional range, the movie felt sterile and boring and I questioned much of the historic accuracy. Amelia lived from 1897-1937. Her death overshadows much of her life.

100 Voices
A moving and touching documentary of 100 Cantors who return to Poland to perform at the famous concert halls and synagogues that existed pre-World War Two. Many of the Cantors were Children of Survivors and they are interviewed and speak of returning and filling the halls with cantorial music. The most interesting part for me was hearing and seeing the history of Cantorial Liturgy and realizing that all of is this lost for future generations. It will be no more. In this area, Hitler won.

The Longest Day, 1962
Director: Darryl F. Zanuck. The greatest WW2 film that I have ever seen — followed the book exactly and every leading actor of his day was in this film. A must see for any WW2 or War film buff. Winner of Two Academy Awards.

Morning Glory
Rachel McAdams. Harrison Ford.
"When hard–working TV producer Becky Fuller (Rachel McAdams) is fired from a local news program, her career begins to look as bleak as her hapless love life. Stumbling into a job at "Daybreak" (the last–place national morning news show), Becky decides to revitalize the show by bringing on legendary TV anchor Mike Pomeroy (Harrison Ford). Unfortunately, Pomeroy refuses to cover morning show staples like celebrity gossip, weather, fashion and crafts—let alone work with his new co–host, Colleen Peck (Diane Keaton), a former beauty queen and longtime morning show personality who is more than happy covering morning "news." As Mike and Colleen clash, first behind the scenes and then on the air, Becky's blossoming love affair with fellow producer, Adam Bennett (Wilson) begins to unravel—and soon Becky is struggling to save her relationship, her reputation, her job and ultimately, the show itself. Directed by Roger Mitchell." This mindless and predictable and forgettable film allowed me to space out for two hours. McAdams seemed a bit intense and trying to take herself too seriously. She is cute and spunky and fresh. I have always liked her.

The Hoodlum, 1919
Silent Film. Kenneth Harlan. Mary Pickford. "A spoiled young lady looses her privileged life and must learn to live in an NYC tenement, where she eventually adepts to her situation and begins to fit in and appreciate her former existence." Newly restored. The movie carried the Jewish stereotype and silliness.

The Last Three Days
"Life seems perfect for John Brennan [Russell Crowe) until his wife, Laura (Elizabeth Banks), is arrested for a gruesome murder she says she didn't commit. Three years into her sentence, John is struggling to hold his family together, raising their son and teaching at college while he pursues every means available to prove her innocence. With the rejection of their final appeal, Lara becomes suicidal and John decides there is only one possible, bearable solution: to break his wife out of prison. Refusing to be deterred by impossible odds or his own inexperience, John devises an elaborate escape plot and plunges into a dangerous and unfamiliar world, ultimately risking everything for the woman he loves. Directed by Paul Haggis." A fast paced, well acted, highly suspenseful and terrific enjoyable film. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time, it stayed one step ahead of me. Russell Crowe is one of my absolute favorites.

The Coward, 1915
Silent. "A confederate deserter [Charles Ray) runs away from a battle but when he finds himself trapped behind enemy lines, he sees an opportunity to redeem himself." His Colonel father is appalled and ashamed by his sons initial behavior, ends up shooting him without realizing it, and when he becomes a hero because he takes the enemies battle secrets and sneaks them to his side — on then does his father accept him. But, he ends up dying in his father's arms.

Summertime, 1954
Rossano Brazzi. Katherine Hepburn. A dated and exaggerated and almost silly story of a spinster woman in her early 40's who goes as a tourist to find romance in Venice, and finds the most gorgeous gentleman, married man, and proceeds to have hysteria fits and leaving me wondering what in the hell he saw in Hepburn in the first place.

Saturdays Children, 1940
John Garfield. Anne Shirley. Claude Rains. The movie is a touching story of a poor couple who fall in love. It is all dialogue. Shirley is one of my favorite actresses. She tricks Garfield into marrying her because of a dream he has to go far away and then he feels stifled and she feels she has destroyed his dream. The father keeps them together and they realize their love is greater than a dream. She becomes pregnant at the end. It is a lovely and moving movie.

When A Man Comes Home, 2007
Danish. The movie follows a shy young, handsome stutterer (Oliver Moller Knauer) who became so when he was told his father committed suicide under a train. In reality, he did not and returned to the town as a famous opera singer who wanted to come home and hear the church bells of his youth. Meanwhile, the young man is living with one girlfriend but falls in love with another — as his father seduces this same girl. Betrayal and rage set in. But, at the end, he goes with the girl he loves and his father opens the door for a relationship he sought — to have a son which he never knew he had fathered. It held my interest and revealed how awful men can me to the women they sleep with and love?

Love and Other Drugs
"Anne Hathaway portrays Maggie, an alluring free spirit who won't let anyone—or anything—tie her down. But she meets her match in Jamie (Jake Gyllenhaal), whose relentless and nearly infallible charm serve him well with the ladies and in the cutthroat world of pharmaceutical sales. Maggie and Jamie's evolving relationship takes them both by surprise, as they find themselves under the influence of the ultimate drug: love." The movie was filled with sex and Hathaway revealed her breasts. The Pajama Party had to be the ultimate dream of adolescent boys who wrote the script. I cannot stand those fat obnoxious and disgusting guys that seem to be in all the movies now. They ruin the film for me. Hathaway is beautiful and Jake is handsome so they work well together. He finally manned up and owned up to her disease and did not abandon her at the end which made the last 15 minutes of the film satisfying. The husband speaking about living with a sick wife did not leave me with a good feeling either, or any woman sitting in the audience. Recommend it? Not really. In fact, no.

The King's Speech
Colin Firth (A Single Man) and Geoffrey Rush (Shine) are both Oscar-worthy in this heartfelt, funny, gripping story. Firth plays Bertie, the second son of King George V (Michael Gambon), afflicted with a stammer and overshadowed by his confident older brother, the heir to the throne (Guy Pearce). Bertie's loving wife Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter) has tried everything to help him, and finally discovers something that works: maverick Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue (Rush). Initially the enthusiastic, ultra-casual Logue and the repressed, oh-so-formal Bertie clash, but neither will give up, and ultimately they become good friends. When Bertie’s brother becomes King Edward VIII in 1936, he refuses to give up his lover (American divorcee Mrs. Simpson), resulting in his abdication and Bertie's extremely reluctant ascension to the throne as King George VI, leading a nation facing the horrors of looming war. The strong supporting cast includes Derek Jacobi, Timothy Spall and Claire Bloom. Directed by Tom Hooper (The Damned United, "John Adams"). This highly intelligent and deeply moving film, filled with marvelous classical music, left me deeply touched. The acting, of the two main leads were outstanding — both will be nominated and should win the Oscar for their performances. It was simply an outstanding film. I loved it. What I loved the most was the message: The King had to overcome the most horrible stammer, with relentless and insurmountable work and odds, in order to speak. He was not groomed to be King. And, his speech impediment filled him with shame and dread and horror whenever he had to talk. He had to personally overcome this crippling handicap. At the same time he was asking the English People to move into another war, knowing the sacrifice and hardship that they would have to endure. Both his personal struggle and the struggle that England would soon face, mirrored each other brilliantly.

Barney's Version

"Based on Mordecai Richler's prize-winning comic novel—his last and, arguably, best—Barney's Version is the warm, wise, and witty story of Barney Panofsky [Paul Giamatti), a seemingly ordinary man who lives an extraordinary life. A candid confessional, told from Barney's point of view, the film spans four decades and two continents, taking us through the different "acts" of his unusual history. There is his first wife, Clara (Rachelle Lefevre), a flame-haired, flagrantly unfaithful free sprit with whom Barney briefly lives la vie de Boheme in Rome. The "Second Mrs. P.," (Minnie Driver), is a wealthy Jewish Princess who shops and talks incessantly, barely noticing that Barney is not listening. And it is at their lavish wedding that Barney meets, and starts pursuing, Miriam (Rosamund Pike), his third wife, the mother of his two children, and his true love. With his father Izzy (Dustin Hoffman) as his sidekick, Barney takes us through the many highs, and a few too many lows, of his long and colorful life. Not only does Barney turn out to be a true romantic, he is also capable of all kinds of sneaky acts of gallantry, generosity, and goodness when we—and he—least expect it."

I found this movie offensive, written by a self-hating, self-loathing Jew. It was infused with all the stereotype and innuendoes that make me cringe inside and allow our enemies to hate us.

He was a person with terrible character, no charm nor grace, with the long suffering Madonna-like good and perfect wife, that took every clique to the next level. There was an unpleasant, odorous and distasteful quality and feeling about Barney and this movie. I never understood her attraction to him. He was course and vulgar and humorless, obnoxious and ugly. It was simply not believable.

The movie incorporated every stereotype and clique imaginable toward Jews. To Barney, his only redemption was finding a bride who was not a Jew but, only goodness and grace. I do not know even one single Christian woman like this! When someone disgraces their religion with stereotype, with a disdain and contempt without the love and affection to back it up, it becomes self-loathing. In this film, you never felt any love toward community, his people or our tradition. You felt only his contempt and disdain by his snide comments and behavior.

I never laughed. I never found any of his antics funny. I only cringed inside myself. That is the difference. With the play New Eyes that I recently saw, I felt her Proudness. With Barney, you felt only his shame.

Leap Year

Amy Adams. Matthew Goode. This whimsical romantic comedy takes place in Ireland. Amy decides to put pressure on her Irish boyfriend to marry her by flying to Ireland and making him propose to her there, on leap day, as there is a tradition that he is then forced to accept the proposal. This movie was panned by the critics with one star. I actually liked, liked the countryside, and found it completely enjoyable. Go figure.

Cabaret, 1972

Liza Minnelli. Joel Grey. Brian York as Michael. Directed by Bob Fosse. This movie won all the Oscars in this year. It is set in Berlin, 1931 during the rise of the4 Nazis. It is one of the most phenomenal classics I can remember. I saw it twice not believing how well I knew the music and songs and how much I absolutely loved it. Brilliant and Powerful and Moving and Unforgettable. Literally. Unforgettable. It is a haunting and disturbing film about a decadent musical hall and lonely and sad people. I loved it.

How Do You Know

Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, Paul Rudd, and Jack Nicholson. "Written and directed by James L. Brooks. Reese plays a woman whose athletic ability is the defining passion of her life. When she is cut from her team, everything she has ever known is suddenly taken from her. Not knowing what to do, she stumbles toward regular life. In this mode, she begins a fling with Matty (Wilson), a major league baseball pitcher, a self-centered ladies man—a narcissist with a code of honor. George (Rudd) is a straight-arrow businessman whose complicated relationship with his father, Charles (Nicholson), takes a turn when George is accused of a financial crime, even though he's done nothing wrong. Though he may be headed to jail, George's honesty, integrity, and unceasing optimism may be his only path to keeping his sanity. Before Lisa's relationship with Matty takes root, she meets George for a first date on the worst evening of each of their lives: she has just been cut, and he has just been served. When everything else seems to be falling apart, they will discover what it means to have something wonderful happen." It is a cute film, nothing exceptional. Owen steals it.

Black Swan

"A psychological thriller set in the world of New York City ballet, Black Swan follows the story of Nina [Natalie Portman), a ballerina whose life, like all those in her profession, is completely consumed with dance. Artistic director Thomas (Vincent Cassel, Mesrine) seems ready to cast her in the lead for his new production of Swan Lake, but she has competition: a new dancer, Lily (Mila Kunis), impresses him as well. Thomas' concept requires one dancer to play both the White Swan, with innocence and grace, and the Black Swan, who represents guile and sensuality. Nina fits the White Swan role perfectly but Lily is the personification of the Black Swan. As the two young dancers expand their rivalry into a twisted friendship, Nina begins to get more in touch with her dark side with a recklessness that threatens to destroy her. Co-starring Barbara Hershey as Nina's retired ballerina mother Erica, who zealously supports her daughter's professional ambition. Directed by visionary filmmaker Darren Aronofsky (The Wrestler)"

I thought that this movie was for young people, it is the Carrie of their generation. It was actually a horror film, set in the framework of a girl that is slowly dissolving and destroying herself. It has all the sex and lesbianism and self mutilation and horror that people like to see today. I thought that Natalie Portman was extraordinary and will win the Oscar for her role. She was simply astounding.

Rabbit Hole

"Rabbit Hole is a vivid, hopeful, honest and unexpectedly witty portrait of a family searching for what remains possible in the most impossible of all situations. Becca and Howie Corbett (Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart) are returning to their everyday existence in the wake of a shocking, sudden loss. Just eight months ago, they were a happy suburban family with everything they wanted. Now, they are caught in a maze of memory, longing, guilt, recrimination, sarcasm and tightly controlled rage from which they cannot escape. Becca hesitantly opens up to her opinionated, loving mother (Dianne Wiest) and secretly reaches out to the teenager involved in the accident that changed everything (Miles Teller); Howie lashes out and imagines solace with another woman (Sandra Oh). Yet, as off track as they are, the couple keeps trying to find their way back to a life that still holds the potential for beauty, laughter and happiness. The resulting journey is an intimate glimpse into two people learning to re-engage with each other and a world that has been tilted off its axis. Directed by John Cameron Mitchell from a script by playwright David Lindsay-Abaire, adapted from his Pulitzer Prize-winning play." All the critics have been saying the Kidman deserves the Oscar for this. She was good but not out-standing. She was Kidman, whom I do not think is a particularly good actress to begin with, who has had too much surgery on her face and mouth. Natalie Portman, who plays a far more grueling role in nuance and difficulty has it hands down in my book. The film was a moving and steady presence and interpretation to an unbearable horror and sorrow. I found the sister over-bearing and her black husband with the constant derby on this head, too politically correct. I found Eckhart, in his restrained performance the best of all. It was a sad film but it did not move me to tears.

Love In The Afternoon, 1957

Audrey Hepburn. Gary Cooper. Maurice Chevalier. Directed by Billy Wilder. According to Wilder, his movie was "a pleasant movie in a minor key." It was miscast. Cooper was 55 but looked much older. Hepburn was 27 but looked younger. There was no chemistry or support. The film is about a Parisian woman who falls in love with the idea of romance onto an American wealthy businessman. Hepburn is magical and marvelous. She lights up the screen with her beauty and femininity and loveliness. I found the gypsies playing their instruments funny. The dialogue was surprisingly relevant. "No involvement. No commitments. No Tears. All women are seriously sentimental about their first love. He who loves one day lives to run another day. We are just two people who met between planes. Scenes. Tears. Everything gets so maudlin. Love and Run. No one gets hurt." These kinds of men continue to behave badly toward women.

Zoo In Budapest, 1933

Gene Raymond. Loretta Young. This lovely and charming fable is about a jobless orphan boy who grows up in the zoo and communicates and takes care of the animals better than the doctor's can. He is like a trapeze artist too. He falls in love with one of the orphan girls who comes every week with her orphanage. She escapes one night into the zoo and through a series of situations, they end up together taking care of the Estate of the family whose son was saved from the escaped lions. It was a gentle and wonderful story which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Good Hair, 2009

Chris Rock channels his razor-sharp wit in this documentary about the role of hair in the Black community and its far reaching effect on culture identity. "Hair is a woman's glory." says Maya Angelou. The movie generated a lot of wrath and embarrassment in the black community. The cost, over $1000.00 for weaves and Relaxants, the danger of these harrowing chemicals, the hatred of their nappy hair which no one wants, the billions of dollars on black hair products that is controlled by Koreans and Whites, the refusal to allow black men to touch the hair of the wives or girlfriends, short of getting shot, all this became an eye opener to the outside community. I loved the barbershop conversations and the interviews with the beautiful black actresses.

Saving Private Ryan, 1998

Steven Spielberg. I first saw this film when it came out and was bored and restless. After being to Normandy and the environment and becoming steeped in this period of history, I decided to see it again. The movie is astounding, truly visionary. It kept true to the historical facts. It captured war in all its horror. It unfolded as wars do. It was magnificently acted.

This is truly a classic.

The Thin Man, 1934

Directed by W. S. Van Dyke. William Powell. Myrna Loy. This was the first and best of the famous whodunit series that had a husband and wife sleuthing team. The film never turned into horror because of the great comedy element that pervaded the film.

True Grit, 1969

John Wayne. Kim Darby. Wayne won Best Actor at the Oscar's for his role as a crusty Marshal (Rooster Colburn) who helps a 14-year-old teenager track down her father's killer.

The Sons of Kathie Elder, 1965

John Wayne. Dean Martin. Four Brothers are victimized by the man who murdered their father and stole the family ranch. Wayne looks like he is 40 years old! and fat! and can barely ride a horse. I felt sorry for the horse carrying that weight!

It was a good solid western with lots of gun shooting and moral lecturing about good and bad, right and wrong.

The Tourist

"From Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (The Lives of Others) comes the romantic thriller The Tourist. Johnny Depp stars as an American tourist whose playful dalliance with a stranger leads to a web of intrigue, romance and danger. During an impromptu trip to Europe to mend a broken heart, Frank (Depp) unexpectedly finds himself in a flirtatious encounter with Elise (Angelina Jolie), an extraordinary woman who deliberately crosses his path. Against the breathtaking backdrop of Paris and Venice, their whirlwind romance quickly evolves as they find themselves unwittingly thrust into a deadly game of cat and mouse." Although the critics panned this mystery thriller, I loved it. Jolie is a beautiful woman. Depp played his role close to the chest. It kept a wonderful pace, with a completely unexpected conclusion and surprise and looking at Venice in all its beauty and magic was wonderful! A great plane film and looking forward to seeing again on the plane in the spring. I was surprised to see how short Depp was. There were no curse words or even sex!

True Grit - 3 Times in one week

"With their new interpretation of the classic western novel True Grit by Charles Portis, filmmaker brothers Ethan and Joel Coen update and intensify the dust and drama of the Old West. Fourteen-year-old Mattie Ross's (Hailee Steinfeld) father has been shot in cold blood by the coward Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin), and she is determined to bring him to justice. Enlisting the help of a trigger-happy, drunken U.S. Marshal, Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges), she sets out with him—over his objections—to hunt down Chaney. Her father's blood demands that she pursue the criminal into Indian territory and find him before a Texas Ranger named LaBoeuf (Matt Damon) catches him and brings him back to Texas for the murder of another man." I LOVED THIS FILM. I loved everything about it! It was a large and expansive film needing to be seen on a big screen. Everyone played their character to perfection! The girl was actually a 14 year old! She was tall and in control of her talent and her role. Instead of following the 1969 screenplay the Coen Brothers followed the book and gave it the book ending. They used the voice over, from Matti's voice, using the dialogue directly from the book. This gave it an authenticity and it removed the Hollywood ending. This movie is outstanding!

Ah, Wilderness! 1935

Wallace Beery. Lionell Barrymore. Eugene o'Neil's story of life in an American town, 1906, as our hero is approaching manhood. It is a lovely and lyrical and poetic slice of life in small town over a century ago. Filled with poetry and gentle comings and goings, music and celebration, the movie spoke of future and past, of hope and dreams gone by. Compltely satisfying and romantic, as only O'Neil could do.

Holiday, 1938

Katharine Hepburn. Cary Grant. Philip Barry's play about the futility of wealth. Directed by George Cukor. Grant falls in love with the younger sister. The dialogue is so relevant and current. "Wealth" is made to look bad and ugly as those in wealth lived in such opulent splendor. However, without all this wealth, who would have seen this film? It shows a very young Cary Grant and Hepburn in a delightful short film.