Dogs Bark

My Ms. Brooks - - Tagebuch Einer Verlorenen [Diary Of A Lost Girl] (1929, Germany, B/W, 104 min) - - 8 June 2019

An essential. If you want to know what Gloria Swanson was talking about in Sunset Boulevard, you need to see Louise Brooks (Pandora’s Box) in Diary Of A Lost Girl. Like Norma Desmond, Brooksie could say anything with her eyes. And such gorgeous eyes! Despite this, Austrian Director Georg Wilhelm (GW) Pabst (The White Hell of Pitz Palu) was more than Brooksie’s Max Von Mayerling. This movie is loaded with unique shots, dramatic lighting, in a sense, all of the Expressionist elements that distinguished pre-war German cinema. The supporting cast is wonderful, particularly Andrews Engelmann (G.P.U.) and Valeska Gert (The Threepenny Opera) in the reformatory scenes and Martha von Kossatzky as the madam who takes in Brooks. Diary Of A Lost Girl suffered numerous censorship cuts; despite the sexually liberated times, this movie - - like Pandora’s Box - - really trains its sight on the patriarchy and this was verboten even for Weimar.

Robata Inamorata - - Her (2013, USA) - - 11 January 2013

Strongly recommended. One of the common failings of crap movies is a good idea that never gets past the first act. The trailers of this dreck are all you need. And then there is Spike (Being John Malkovitch) . . . whose stories just keep going and going and going. Her begins as a funny mediation on the horror that is love in the 21^st century.  I’ve been on that blind date with Olivia Wilde (shudder). Leaving the SNL skits behind, Her goes cute with Samantha the Operating System (Scarlett Johansson), then veers again with a twist that riffs on the nature of consciousness. Yeah, that nature.  I can’t give up much more plot without spoiling things but the movie ends exactly where and when it should. Arcade Fire provides a great score and Amy Adams is at her most charmingly frumpy. Also, watch the credits for an amusing voice-cameo.

Jung At Heart - - Sleeping Beauty (2011) - - 23 July 2013

Recommended.  This twisted and darkly funny story, written and directed by Aussie tyro Julia Leigh, owes more to Maria Luisa von Franz than Walt Disney. The luminous Emily Browning (Sucker Punch) plays a dissolute student and sometime b-girl who takes a third job with a high-end, in-call service. Browning is drugged unconscious while men fondle her (“no penetration”) for a large fee. This continues until her trepidation and curiosity becomes too much and she hides a camera in the room. Since Sleeping Beauty is a fairy tale, the surreal tenor of the story is not hushed and the Kubrickesque camera work (Geoffrey Simpson, Shine) and Ben Frost’s frigid score support that theme. In my opinion, the point is the way youthful women are objectified and then economically coerced by powerful men into providing decoration for this decadent world.  So far, so good . . . until they wake up next to a corpse.  

 

Duke’s Picks - - The Oscars 2007 - - 22 Feb 2008

I have tried over the last month to see all the nominated films and failed just like every other year. If someone would pay me for this, maybe I could get it done. But what the hey. . . this is my consideration - - certainly not a prediction. Who knows what those dickwads voted for?

Best Actor in a Starring Role
George Clooney - - Michael Clayton - - This is close. I really loved Viggo Mortensen in Eastern Promises. This was his strongest role . . . ever. And I really liked Daniel Day Lewis, although I thought he was not stretching very far. However, Clooney was so subtle and precise; I had to go with him. He was clearly the center of this excellent movie.

Best Actress in a Starring Role
Julie Christie - - Away From Her - - I so wanted to vote for Ellen Page.  But Julie was my first love and this was such a hard part to play. Marion Cotillard was also close competition and Laura Linney also deserves a strong vote. Don’t be mad. I love you all. 

Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Phillip Seymour Hoffman - - Charlie Wilson’s War - - Javier Barden did a fantastic job, no doubt. Hal Holrook was also very good. But I felt Hoffman really made this movie jump and shout.

Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Amy Ryan - - Gone Baby Gone - - Other than Breaking Bad, one of the most authentic portrayals I’ve ever seen of the underbelly of America, very daring and strong for a reasonably new star.

Best Original Screenplay
Diablo Cody- - Juno - - How could I not vote for the ex-stripper? But it actually was very close. Michael Clayton was a powerful story that held me completely under water, beginning to end. But Juno made me cry.

Best Adapted Screenplay
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen - - No Country for Old Men - - No one has ever been as successful with McCarthy and the essence of his take on life was perfectly portrayed in this outstanding movie.

Best Editing
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen - - No Country for Old Men - - The pace and rhythm of this movie was near perfect.

Best Cinematography
Seamus McGarvey - - Atonement - - This is close because I loved the camera work in There Will Be Blood. But there was a slight edge at the Channel. Yeah, I liked it, too, despite the insult to the BEF.

Best Score
James Newton Howard - - Michael Clayton - - I’m not normally a big fan of Howard but I thought he got this one. Dario Marianelli was also very good with Atonement.

Best Direction
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen - - No Country for Old Men - - In the end, this movie was almost perfect. I think I have placed a pretty high bar in front of the Coen’s, like maybe Fargo? But attention must be paid

Best Picture
Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen - - No Country for Old Men - - I have a huge respect for Scott Rudin. He should have won this for The Hours (Chicago sucked) or Wonder Boys (Gladiator sucked dead bears). This time, he can not be denied.

And so it goes . . . Meg Ryan is waiting in the limo.