carbonel

I watched Zero for Conduct (Zéro de conduite) and listened to the commentary track last night. I usually split up the two activities over a couple of evenings, but this one was only 44 minutes, and with only a week left I'm still trying to maximize my number of Netflix discs. Watching this was an interesting experience, because it was clearly a precursor to two later-made movies I'd already seen as part of my 4-star project (...if and The 400 Blows). This movie was banned in France immediately after it was made for its anarchist themes and indictment of French schools -- which is a shame, because for a movie made in 1933, it's remarkable accessible. The director, Jean Vigo, died of tuberculosis at age 27, so his output is small, but both this at L'Atalante (about the early days of a marriage) were on my 4-star list, probably deservedly.

And since I don't think Netflix will come through with the final four movies that were allegedly available in DVD before the DVD service shuts down at the end of the month, this is the end of the Netflix portion of my 4-star project. I still have around 27 movies left to find copies of from library, ILL, Archive.org, and various streaming sources. I might finish the project by the end of the year; if not, definitely in 2024. I've watched over 400 movies so far, and it's taken me more than twenty years, mostly at a leisurely pace.

I like cop shows. In recent days, I've been watching them somewhat as an anodyne to recent events, rather like watching West Wing as a hopeful antidote to current politics.

I prefer shows that combine a long-term plot with shorter ones that are wrapped up in an episode or two. The ones that focus on one story for the entire season tend to have way too many unbelievable sub-plots tossed in to keep the story going. I much prefer serious to comedy. I couldn't watch Brooklyn 99. The Mysteries of Laura with Debra Messing was right on the line, and it was kind of a relief when it was canceled.

Yesterday, I finished watching City Homicide, an Australian cop show. It was just about perfect. Interesting characters with real lives, good plots, and a mix of long- and short-term stories. Also, Australia, so inherently interesting for that. Unfortunately, I've now watched all five seasons, so that's it for that one for at least a few years. The first four seasons are on Tubi, Hulu, and Amazon Prime; the fifth season only seems to be on Hulu.

Some years ago, I watched four seasons of Scott & Bailey, a British cop show with a focus on female characters. I recently discovered that there's a fifth season, and it's available on Amazon Prime, so I've started a complete rewatch, because it's been long enough that the plot descriptions from the early seasons didn't sound at all familiar -- and there are only thirty-three episodes in all.

I've heard good things about Vera, which would require an Acorn subscription that I don't currently have.

I'm also thinking about doing a rewatch of The Closer/Major Crimes, which would keep me busy for quite a while. Interestingly, one of the characters from that show seems to be a refugee from the comedy type of cop show -- except that underneath the clowning, he's experienced and competent. At least, when he's not screwing up for stupid plot reasons.

Any other recommendations?

In non-cop-show watching, I'm making continued slow process with my four-star movie project (now nearing the start of its third decade), having finished watching Shoeshine (Italian neo-realism) and listening to the commentary track. Next up is The Searchers, which should be equally cheerful (not) in a different way.

The Ox-Bow Incident
Director: William A. Wellman
1943

This is a very short movie (75 minutes) about two men who unwillingly participate in a lynching of three men accused of cattle rustling and murder. They abstain from the actual killing, but are unable to stop it, despite being convinced that the accused men are innocent. After it is too late, it turns out that the supposed murder never even occurred. For me, the most unbelievable part of this movie is the suicide of the self-styled major who set himself in charge of the proceedings. From everything else we've seen of him, I think he would have found a way to justify his actions as necessary. Henry Fonda and a young Harry Morgan (I mostly knew him as Colonel Potter on MASH) are the onlookers.

According to Wikipedia, the studio shelved the movie for a year, because once having made it, they had no idea how to market something so inflammatory.

Open City aka Rome, Open City aka Roma città aperta
Director: Roberto Rossellini
1945

This movie is set during the 1944 Nazi occupation of Rome, and was made a year later, on a shoestring, partly with materials scrounged from the US Signal Corp. It was apparently a real-world game changer, because it was a widely distributed work that showed the Italians as victims of the Nazi regime, instead of Axis collaborators.

It's a grim work that ends up with most of the original characters dead at the end of the movie, though with occasional moments of humor, such as the priest who is waiting in an antique shop turning a statue of a saint so that he no longer faces a female nude. It plays almost like a documentary; the film commentary says that it's one of the earliest works of Italian neorealism.

According to Wikipedia, it's one of Pope Francis's favorite films.

Ordinary People
Director: Robert Redford
1980

This was Robert Redford's first directorial gig, and it was a triumph. It won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (and another actor from the movie was also nominated), and a nomination for Best Actress. It was also the movie where Mary Tyler Moore showed that she could be serious as well as funny.

The thing I like best about this movie is the fact that it has Judd Hirsch as a competent psychologist who slowly helps Timothy Hutton turn his life around again. There's no miracle here (though there is one very cathartic scene), just the evolution of coming to realize that he can't be the perfect son, and that it's not his fault that his mother cares more about being normal and putting on a good face than in actually loving and caring for her traumatized son.

On the Waterfront
Director: Elia Kazan
1954

This movie is so iconic that there's not much new I can say about it, but I do have a theory. I talk about a lot of movies being dark and depressing, but this one should have been more dark and depressing: it has a more-or-less happy ending that wasn't mirrored in real life. In the movie, Marlon Brando's character testified against the mobsters and the implication was that the union was taking back control. In reality the character Brando was loosely based on was murdered, and the mob stayed in charge.

It's often said that this movie was Elia Kazan's answer to people who looked down on him for naming names to HUAC. He often denied that, but if it was the case, even unconsciously, then he had an incentive to make a movie where testifying had a good outcome.

I saw this movie back in 1973, at summer camp, and didn't follow it very well. I still think it's a complicated movie, and the best message to be taken out of it is that in some situations there aren't any easy answers.

On the Beach
Director: Stanley Kramer
1959

I think the most remarkable thing about this movie is that it got made at all -- and that it got made with an all-star cast and without significantly changing the ending.

No real spoilers, since the basic plot is set out at the beginning: this is about the end of the world from radiation poisoning following World War III (it's never mentioned whose fault it is). The movie isn't about averting the end of the world: that's already happened. Most of the world is already dead, but one American submarine arrives at Australia, where the last survivors are waiting for the cloud of radiation that will inevitably kill them.

The film (following the book) shows most people accepting their fate stoically, staying at their jobs until the last. I think social services would break down sooner, but that would be a different movie.

In a way, this movie was less grim than some of the other depressing movies I've watched in the past few weeks, because there was no feeling of suspense. As a cautionary tale, I don't know how effective it was, but I'm glad it's a future that never arrived.

Olympia
Director: Leni Riefenstahl
1936

First, my bias. I'm an Olympics junkie. I love the fact that there are four or so network subsidiaries broadcasting all the obscure sports of today's Olympics, even though I can only watch a fraction of it. So to see the very first Olympics documentary, and probably the first real sports documentary, was a remarkable experience.

That said, it's an amazing piece of work. It's remarkably modern-looking; there are many film techniques I recognize as used today.

I’m inclined to give Riefenstahl a pass on the German propaganda question for this movie. While there is glorification of the human body in the two introduction to the two parts of the movie, there is actually less nationalism than I've seen in US broadcasts of the Olympics. This is not, of course, true for The Triumph of the Will, which will show up much later, since I'm watching in mostly alphabetical order.

The Official Story
Director: Luis Puenzo
1985

An Argentinean mother is forced to question her government's official story of the "Dirty War" of the 1970s when she comes to suspects that her dearly loved adopted daughter may be the child of a murdered political prisoner. Her husband, who works in the government, tries to stop her quest -- he may not know the answers, but he doesn't want to, either.

This is an independent film that was apparently made just as things were changing in Argentina. It's an uncomfortable movie, because it doesn't give any answers, but asks many questions, while showing both the people who don't want questions asked and the people demanding answers.

The Overcoat ("Shinel")
Director: Aleksey Batalov
1959

This is the story of a Russian clerk who, at the end of his career, scrimps and saves to buy a warm overcoat, only to have it stolen from him shortly after he acquires it. It's apparently a faithful adaptation of the Gogol story it's based on. I had to go back and watch the last section of the movie, because what I thought was a dying hallucination turned out to be a genuine haunting.

I'm thankful to the interlibrary loan system for finding me a copy of this movie on VHS. I had to go outside the MNLink system to the national system.