Weeks 41-42

Introduction

Ah, University! Work has now fully returned to interrupt all the lazing around and film-viewing I so enjoyed before; of course, studying a film module does mean there's a guaranteed one or two new films every week, and probably quite unusual ones too. "Hurrah" cry the statistics! "Ooh" cry... erm... anyone who likes more unusual choices...

I do feel a tad arty this week, actually. Of the six films listed below, two are French, one German, one Japanese, two are shorts, and five are between 77 and 94 years old! That's two weeks at the start of a University film module for you, eh!


Weeks Forty-One and Forty-Two

We begin with the two oldest of all those, both made 94 years ago! That's no guarantee of anything mind... well, except no spoken dialogue...


105) Fantomas: Juve Versus Fantomas (1913, Louis Feuillade, DVD) 4/5
Second installment of the early French film serial, adapted from a long-running series of pulp novels. Fantomas is a criminal adept at disguise and avoiding capture by police inspector Juve. It's full of crazy schemes and action set pieces, which means it's actually a great deal of fun, relatively fast-paced and densely plotted, exciting and deliberately amusing (though, as with anything this old, there are things to point and laugh at if you're so inclined). It also looks stunning for its age, with a stable and crisp picture, which incidentally makes great use of colour tinting (for example, turning from blue to yellow when someone switches on a light). It's not for everyone, but if you're interested in early cinema this is one of the most entertaining examples I've seen. As you may have guessed, we were shown this as part of my degree; off the back of it I've ordered the DVD of the full serial.

106) Traffic in Souls (1913, George Loane Tucker, VHS) 2/5
Silent movie (Universal's first feature-length release) about white slavery in America. You don't expect that from a 1913 film, eh? Of course, the issue is handled in a suitable way for the period: why the women are kidnapped is never alluded to (in reality it was for prostitution) and all the Bad Men are brought to justice. It's not all bad: in a surprising move for the time, the main villain is an apparently-respectable society gentleman who publicly campaigns against white slavery; by a similar token, the kidnappers are made up of women as well as men. The first half zips along an intricate multi-stranded narrative covering several groups of unrelated characters, but as they come together it begins to slow: what seems to be the climax takes half the film to play out its immediately-obvious events. It sadly ruins something that was initially rather promising.

107) Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion (1997, Hideaki Anno & Kazuya Tsurumaki, DVD) 3/5
Eight weeks and sixteen films later than I'd've liked, I can finally complete the Evangelion story! (For my review of the first film, check out week 34.) First off, don't even attempt this if you haven't seen all of the (excellent) TV series -- it won't even vaguelly make sense. Sadly, if you have seen the series, it's a disappointing climax. Promising a clearer ending than the original arty philosophical one, it winds up delivering something that's almost as bad. It's somewhat redeemed by what leads up to this final confusing half hour: some proper story, resolutions for some outstanding plot threads, and a few instances of decent action too. As a conclusion it's far from satisfying though. One can only hope the new four-film remake of the whole story (the first of which was recently released in Japan), which promises another fresh conclusion, can come up with something more comprehensible. I wouldn't count on it though.

108) Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (1927, Walter Ruttman, download) 2/5
German silent movie depicting a day in the 'life' of Berlin, part of the 'city symphony' genre that was popular around the 1920s. This makes it one of those films that is in some way important, but sadly it's still a bit, well, boring. Essentially it's a documentary showing many facets of city life and industry, though with no kind of narration and often edited in an artistic fashion (fast cutting and crazy angles to represent the chaos of a busy junction, for example). It has its moments (the opening train journey being the highlight for me) and I'm sure some would find the footage of '20s life fascinating, but it's the sort of thing that's just too dull for my tastes. For something similar which I enjoyed a bit more, try the Russian Man With a Movie Camera. (Berlin is available for legal download and streaming at Google Video.)

108a) A Propos de Nice (1930, Jean Vigo, download) 3/5
Short film about the French city of Nice, mixing documentary-style footage of people with shots of the architecture, as well as clearly staged scenes (a man getting sunburnt, for example). There's a certain playful edge to it all, not just with content such as a garish parade and crazy dancing, but with amusing tricks (again, the sunburning), camera tomfoolery (for example, moving it to follow the loops of arches at speed; or using slow motion and sped-up shots), and picking out shots of pedestrians apparently for their annoyance at being filmed. It's an interesting amalgamation, then: part art, part documentary, part sketch show. (Available for legal download and streaming at Google Video.)

108b) Skyscraper Symphony (1929, Robert Florey, download) 2/5
Another 'city symphony' film, this time a short one of skyscrapers in New York. It's probably hard to 'appreciate' this without getting a little pretentious; certainly, it's much more aimed at creating the feeling of a city, or a visual representation of it, or something like that, than it is with, say, showing pretty views of New York's buildings. That said, in between the meaningful mucking about, there are some fairly impressive sights to be seen. (Available with mildly dubious legality, and a live score by "experimental sound artists" Ampersand, on YouTube.)

109) The Paleface (1948, Norman Z. McLeod, DVD) 4/5
Bob Hope and Jane Russell star in this Wild West comedy, in which Calamity Jane (Russell) has to stop a group of men smuggling rifles to the Indians. It's clearly designed as pure entertainment, mixing styles in a way no film would dare attempt today -- there's broad comedy, gunfights, horse chases and even a song or two! It works too. OK, so the direction may be a little flat and some of the comedy old fashioned... but it was made in the '40s and there's still a good number of laughs, so it seems churlish to complain.