Dogs Bark

She Kicked The Habit* - - The Nun’s Story (1959, USA, Color 149 min) - - 1 June 2017

Recommended. The Nun’s Story was - - famously - -  Audrey Hepburn’s favorite movie. Why would that be after - - also famously - - making such worldly pronouncements as, “I believe in manicures. I believe in overdressing. I believe in primping at leisure and wearing lipstick. I believe in pink. I believe happy girls are the prettiest girls.” That sounds like the woman that made Funny Face or My Fair Lady. But once her Hollywood career ended, Hepburn returned to Africa. Nothing about her life seems to betray that idea that she did base her final years on the compassion at the heart of this movie, despite her obsession with Givanchy. The movie is interesting, a bit slow in places, but another serious study of moral conflict from Fred Zimmerman (High Noon). The famous final scene is near perfect. The cast is also extraordinary, with two titled actresses and five Oscar winners . . . and the gowns are Latin.

*alternative title attributed to Jack Warner

Pale Horse - - Idi I Smotri [Come And See](1985, Soviet Union, 142 min) - - 30 November 2016

Strongly recommended. Funny, but I had no trouble finding the relevance of the Biblical title of this powerful film. Perhaps it’s that the supplication is the essence of banal evil, a serene nudge to take a peek. Now, with neo-Nazis prancing up the Mall, the eternal danger of trusting simple solutions is resonant . . . ironic, coming from a director of the old Soviet empire, Elem Klimov (Rasputin). Come And See follows a 13-year-old Belarusian as he fights - - and fights to survive - - the German occupation of the Soviet Union during World War II. Klimov’s camera spends an eternity resting on the face of young Florya (Aleksey Kravchenko, The Star) and ages him ten years in a single season of war. His superb acting is matched by Olga Mironova (her only movie) playing a young girl who attaches herself to him. It’s a bleak story, but a necessary reminder of an old evil.