For the weekend ...

only the greatest song from the greatest musical drama ever.  The 3 alternative versions on the dvd are just as marvellous. See posts on Judy and Cukor ...

New year re-views 1 - Journey To Italy

Widely misunderstood and shamefully ignored at the time of its original release in 1954 (though filmed in 1953), but now recognised as simply not one of Rossellini’s greatest films, but as one of the key works of modern cinema, JOURNEY TO ITALY is a deceptively simple piece, all of 80 minutes. There is little plot to speak of: a marriage is breaking down under the strain of a trip to Italy as we watch. But in its deliberate rejection of many aspects of ‘classic’ Hollywood narrative and its stubborn pursuit of a quite different aesthetic, its mesmerising storyline creates space for ideas and time for reflection, as we follow the wife on her travels around Naples and that Pompeii site.

Catherine and Alexander, wealthy and sophisticated, drive to Naples to dispose of a deceased uncle's villa. There's a coolness in their relationship and aspects of Naples add to the strain. She remembers a poet who loved her and died in the war; although she didn't love him, the memory underscores romance's absence from her life now. She tours the museums of Naples and Pompeii on her own, immersing herself in the Neapolitan fascination with the dead and noticing how many women are pregnant; he idles on Capri, flirting with women but drawing back from adultery. With her, he's sarcastic; with him, she's critical. They talk of divorce. Will this foreign couple find insight and direction in Italy?

This is so influential in lots of ways. Bergman's anguish and feelings of isolation summon up Monica Vitti on that island in Antonioni's L'AVVENTURA, and the couple drifting apart remind us of Mastroianni and Moreau in LA NOTTE - also Antonioni, like the sequences of Moreau drifting alone around Milan. Rossellini has an ideal location here too, overlooking the Bay of Naples, Sorrento, Capri etc. The early 50s Italian chic is to the fore too in those hotels where the couple idle their time. Sanders is terrific here, in one of his best films - as of course is Bergman.

I actually saw this initially as a kid, when most of it would have been over my head, but remember being fascinate by that Pompeii site and the statues of the volcano victims being redisovered.

These Rossellini films were hard to see for a long time, before the video age and the dvd revolution. I remember Ingrid telling us at the London BFI/NFT in the early Seventies (when I practically lived there) how important these films were in the development of Italian cinema, paving the way for Antonioni and the others, and how they were being rediscovered. She was right about that. More on VOYAGE TO ITALY at labels. It is also covered in Martin Scorsese's essential MY VOYAGE TO ITALY documentary.  It is engrossing to see again and perhaps the most modern of the other Rossellini-Bergmans: STROMBOLI, EUROPA 51, FEAR and the comic episode of SIAME DONNE, 

Next up: L'AVVENTURA, PLEIN SOLEIL, DESERT FURY, THE CHAPMAN REPORT, LES DEMOISELLES DE ROCHEFORT, BLOW-UP, and some French double-bills, and more Deneuve and Aimee .... 

A Star Is Born premiere, 1954 + East Of Eden

That fascinating premiere footage of A STAR IS BORN in Hollywood in 1954, a dvd extra on the restored film, is also on YouTube. Its a time capsule now, as Hollywood - old and new - turned out for one of the biggest premieres of the era. It seems they all wanted Judy (rather overweight here) to do well in her comeback film ..... there's Doris Day, Peggy Lee, Debbie and Eddie, Liz and Michael Wilding, Tony and Janet, Jack Carson is the MC and Joan Crawford has fun joshing with her MILDRED PIERCE co-star. There's Liberace and his mother; Raymond Burr "back from Korea" turns up with a cute marine (a Mr Frank Vitti, who it seems spent several years with Burr) - and plenty more: Mitzi, Bacall, Shelley Winters - the furs, the costumes! 

We love A STAR IS BORN here, one of the first movies I saw as a kid, its still marvellous now. What did they think they were doing by cutting it drastically? It made no sense for Norman Maine to say to a nervous Esther Blodgett before her screen test "to think of a man eating a nutburger", as the scene of her working in the burger bar had been cut!

EAST OF EDEN in 1955 was the business too, another big Warner Bros spectacular event. Marilyn and Brando were ushers at this one, handing out the programmes. Somehow, today's premieres are not quite the same ....

Summer re-views: favourite Sabrina moments

We can always sit down and look at SABRINA one more time - its a perennial Billy Wilder favourite, so 1954 and with that perfect black and white Paramount look. Audrey looks entrancing here, after her ROMAN HOLIDAY. Bogie is fine, maybe a bit too old, while breezy Holden (romancing Audrey at the time, before she chose Mel Ferrer) is just right too. Here are a few favourite moments: 

Audrey up in that tree at the start as the wealthy Larrabees party; her return from Paris all tres-Givenchy; that delicious moment at the party when worried Mrs Larrabee tries to put the family chauffeur's daughter in her place by asking her to come up to the house sometime to cook something delicious for them to show what she has learned in Paris - I love the way Audrey/Sabrina says "Oh, I've learned a lot" ... as she dances off in that dress with Holden, who is engaged to country club girl Martha Hyer who "does not want to spend the first twelve hours of her marriage on a plane, sitting up" - maybe a bit risque for 1954, but another example of the Wilder wit. Then there is Audrey is that little black dress posed against that New York skyline .... as older brother Linus woos Sabrina to ensure the merger with Holden and Hyer goes through. John Williams, Nancy Culp etc are sterling support and it all looks a treat. We love Sabrina's Paris apartment window looking out at Sacre Coeur, as "La Vie En Rose" plays in the background ....

The Gambler from Natchez, 1954

Regular readers will know that 1954 was my first year at the movies, when aged 8, and taken to the cinema by my parents in Ireland. Dad took me to westerns like JOHNNY GUITAR, SITTING BULL, DRUM BEAT, SHANE, and THE GAMBLER FROM NATCHEZ - western star Dale Robertson was my first movie crush! He is effective here, effortlessly gambling or swordfighting or romancing Debra Paget as the riverboat girl, and he also looks spiffing in his military outfit. (My mother and aunts must have taken me to A STAR IS BORN and other musicals, which I also loved...).

Returning to New Orleans, following four years of army service in Texas in the 1840s, Captain Vance Colby finds his father, a professional gambler, has been killed. The police tell him his father was killed while caught cheating in a card game by Andre Rivage, an arrogant young dilettante. Vance protests that his father was an honest gambler and never used marked cards, but the police inspector tells him there were witnesses. 
Aided by a riverboat owner, Captain Barbee, and his daughter, Melanie, Vance sets out to clear his father's name and avenge his death.

Its a nice period western now, with riverboats (like Tyrone Power's similar THE MISSISSIPPI GAMBLER about the same time) as Dale seeks revenge on the killers of his gambling father who are led by dastardly Kevin McCarthy, Thomas Gomez is Debra's riverboat father, and its all splendid, directed by Henry Levin, script by Irving Wallace. 

Senso, 1954

Another look at Visconti's SENSO induces rapture as we wallow in this opulent romantic and tragic costume drama, up there with Luchino's best recreations of that lavish past: THE LEOPARD, DEATH IN VENICE, LUDWIG, L'INNOCENTE ... films one can lose oneself in. 

This 1954 film has been nicely restored and is a key movie in the Visconti canon now. Alida Valli has one of her best roles as "the wanton countess" - one of its titles then, and Farley Granger was imported to play her reckless, selfish Austrian lover. Massimo Girotti plays her husband. Francesco Rosi and Franco Zeffirelli were assistant directors, Pierre Tosi as usual did the costumes, script by Visconti and usual collaborator Suso Cecchi D'Amico -  but with Tennessee Williams and Paul Bowles as dialogue collaborators. Bruckner's 7th Symphony and Verdi's ""Il Trovatore" provide the stunning musical background to this tale of doomed love, deceit and betrayal.

Venice, spring of 1866, in the last days of the Austrian occupation. A performance of Il Trovatore ends up in confusion due to an anti-Austrian demonstration, organised by Count Ussoni. His cousin Countess Livia Serpieri falls in love with vile Austrian Lieutenant Franz Mahler, but the times are changing.

As usual, Visconti recreates the opera house scenes and Valli gives one of the all-time great movie star performances - overlooked in that great year 1954 - while Granger is adequate and attractive as the wastrel deserter she falls passionately in love with, as he casually betrays her and takes her money which was meant for the revolutionaries. She then betrays him and he is hauled off to be executed for desertion, while she runs mad through the streets ..... its a stunning operatic climax; Or as a review at IMDB puts it: "the wealthy older woman and a manipulative wastrel. After wheedling a small fortune out of her to bribe a doctor who declares him unfit to serve, he dumps her. But hell hath no fury....Luchino Visconti pulls out all the stops, ending with a finale reminiscent of Tosca (but with a twist). Senso is a shameless and unforgettable wallow in Italianate passion." It is one of the great Italian films. More on Valli and Visconti at labels. 

Top 20 Desert Island Movies

"Desert Island Movies" don't have to be "masterpieces" or classics (though they can be of course), they are not the Best Movies but simply the movies one enjoys watching and can return to many times (you would have to on a desert island) so no Tarkovsky then, Martin Bradley, or even CITIZEN KANE or history of the cinema items (unless of course you enjoy watching Orson's classic over and over, I like it a lot, but ...). No Trash Classics either, much as we like them one would soon tire of them. Movies then with people one likes spending time with and by directors whose visions we like .... (I have written about these extensively already here, as per labels).

• JOHNNY GUITAR - a favourite western and the first movie I ever saw, aged 8, what a vivid introduction to cinema, I never tire of it. The BFI has it on the cover of their new "Sight & Sound" magazine and it features in their upcoming western retrospective. 
• A STAR IS BORN - another early one I saw as a kid in 1954, its even better now its been restored, the best musical drama ever? I love Cukor's staging of those CinemaScope images in rich Warner-color, and of course Judy and James.
• SOME LIKE IT HOT - for me THE Billy Wilder classic and the still funniest film ever made
  
• THE AWFUL TRUTH - a 30s classic thats a fairly recent discovery
• ALL ABOUT EVE - Mank's script and situations and characters we never tire of
• A LETTER TO 3 WIVES - see above
• THE QUIET MAN - back to that mythical Ireland in Ford's enduring favourite
• THE SEARCHERS - Ford's poetic vision of the West is another enduring favourite
• BLACK NARCISSUS - 2 Michael Powell classics - I sometimes think this and I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING are my top favourite films of all time ..... 
• I KNOW WHERE I’M GOING - I love that mythical highlands, those great characters and its a perfect '40s dreamworld movie. 
• BLOW-UP - maybe still my Number One, on my island I want to re-visit that green park and be back in mid-60s London
• L’AVVENTURA - Monica and Antonioni still fascinate me
• THE LEOPARD - I want the opulence of Visconti's classic and revisit that great ball sequence many times, with that Verdi waltz and Delon and Claudia being impossibly beautiful.
• BARRY LYNDON - this or 2001 ? - hard to decide, but I would get more enjoyment re-visiting this Kubrick classic 
• BRINGING UP BABY - the best of screwball, Hawks, Hepburn and Grant? 
  
• THE SCARLET EMPRESS - we also want the opulence of Josef Von Sternberg - this or Marlene emerging from the gorilla skin in BLOND VENUS or the delirious SHANGHAI EXPRESS?
• THE BANDWAGON - maybe my top favourite musical - endlessly rewatchable,
• THE MISFITS - another movie I used to be obsessed by and can live in.
• NIGHT OF THE IGUANA - another Huston favourite, maybe the best Tennessee Williams, great characters and people I like.
• EL CID - probably my favourite epic, again I can revisit it a lot, even though Sophia dismisses it in her latest book. I remember Chuck towering over me back at the BFI in 1971 ...
  
• Oh, let's have one more, it has to be CASABLANCA - a key Golden Age '40s movie that never goes out of fashion - we will always want to go back to Rick's Cafe Americain with Ingrid, and Sam playing "As Time Goes By" ...

Martin has commanded me to stick to 20, so I am gutted to leave out lots more: there's nothing fairly recent here, not even Scorsese; no '40s noirs, no Garbo or James Dean movies, or other musicals (MEET ME IN ST LOUIS, FUNNY FACE) or dramas I love (ANATOMY OF A MURDER, SEPARATE TABLES), and no Hitchcocks - I could do 10 Hitch classics, but which to decide?, then theres all those Hollywood classics and European stuff I like (PLEIN SOLEIL!), or favourites like LES GIRLS or THE WOMEN and its '56 remake THE OPPOSITE SEX or Vincente's DESIGNING WOMAN or THE LION IN WINTER or THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE Then there are Ingmar Bergman's like AUTUMN SONATA or his enchanting recording of Mozart's THE MAGIC FLUTE - ideal for desert island balmy evenings!  It could be a different list some other day ...

Class of '54 ....

Audrey in Paris: SABRINA

A quick look at those 1954 gals all going places ... Marlon (in DESIREE Napoleon costume) meets Marilyn (in one of her THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS frocks); Audrey scores in SABRINA - Wilder's valentine to her after the success of ROMAN HOLIDAY; a marvellous shot of Grace by Irving Penn - 1954 was her busy breakout year with those Hitchs + THE BRIDGES AT TOKO-RI and the GREEN FIRE programmer; 
Ava scored as THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA, and Elizabeth looked sensational in that haircut for THE LAST TIME I SAW PARIS, one of 4 she did that year. (here with young Roger Moore),

Marilyn consolidated her 1953 successes with the Fox musical and then off to Canada for RIVER OF NO RETURN.and created headlines marrying and divorcing Joe DiMaggio. 

Other busy gals included Shelley Winters, Virginia Mayo, Janet Leigh, Jean Simmons, Deborah Kerr, June Allyson, while Joan Crawford, Barbara Stanwyck and Susan Hayward were out west. Judy Garland delivered and how in A STAR IS BORN. Over in Italy young Sophia Loren had her first teaming with Marcello in the delightful TOO BAD SHE'S BAD, one of 8 she did that year ...  while in England Dirk Bogarde and pal Kay Kendall helped make DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE the comedy of the year. And again, that great REAR WINDOW shot with Hitch, Grace, Stewart and that set. Brando and Mason were actors of the year as Kazan began a new drama with an exciting youngster James Dean, who would explode on the scene next year in 1955 and be gone just as quick ...

Class of '54: The Silver Chalice

It been fun re-seeing anther 1954 favourite which made an impression on me as a kid: THE SILVER CHALICE,  best known now as Paul Newman's first role which he was so embarrassed about that he apologised publicly .... well Paul need not have worried, he is the least interesting thing here, as the film is stolen by Jack Palance and Virginia Mayo as Simon the magician and his assistant Helena - Paul's lost love, played when young by Natalie Wood in a blonde wig! Pier Angeli completes the lineup as the dutiful love interest of Newman, as Basil the sculptor.

A Greek artisan is commissioned to cast the cup of Christ in silver and sculpt around its rim the faces of the disciples and Jesus himself. He travels to Jerusalem and eventually to Rome to complete the task. Meanwhile, a nefarious interloper is trying to convince the crowds that he is the new Messiah by using nothing more than cheap parlor tricks.

Natalie Wood becomes Virginia Mayo

The 1950s was, for me, the great decade of musicals and westerns and epics/peplums or costume dramas, whether biblical or medieval, starting with QUO VADIS and THE ROBE and ULYSSES. 1954 was full of them: DEMETRIUS AND THE GLADIATORS, THE EGYPTIAN, KING RICHARD AND THE CRUSADERS, THE BLACK SHIELD OF FALWORTH, ATTILA, TWO NIGHTS WITH CLEOPATRA, PRINCE VALIANT, SIGN OF THE PAGAN, PRINCESS OF THE NILE and yes, THE SILVER CHALICE. 

(1955 delivered THE PRODIGAL LAND OF THE PHAROAHS,  HELEN OF TROY, MOONFLEET and QUENTIN DURWARD while 1956 had Cecil's THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (we had a school outing to see that...), ALEXANDER THE GREAT, WAR AND PEACE, then THE VIKINGS in 1958 and those biggies in 1959: BEN HUR and SOLOMON AND SHEBA, plus THE BIG FISHERMAN, THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES and those Steve Reeves movies, and the Sixties dawned with SPARTACUS followed by EL CID, BARABBAS, CLEOPATRA, FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, GENGHIS KHAN ... Visconti's 1963 THE LEOPARD is an epic too. Lots of these are covered at epics, peplums labels.

THE SILVER CHALICE is the oddest of the lot, with those surreal sets. Jack Palace is in his element as the mad magician who thinks he can fly with that great climax as he climbs the tower to fly off it .... as Helena tries in vain to stop him .... Mayo is great here with that odd eye make-up, a petulant Nero then has her thrown off the tower to see if she can fly. This entertaining farrago is a riot now, directed by Victor Saville - a long way from those 1930s Jessie Matthews musicals. 
Palance also scored in '54 as Attila The Hun in Sirk's entertaining SIGN OF THE PAGAN (while Anthony Quinn in Italy was also a ferocious Attila in ATTILA with young Sophia Loren); Virginia Mayo also amused that year as the Plantagenet princess wooed by Saladin (Rex Harrison) in the enjoyable farrago that is KING RICHARD AND THE CRUSADERS. 

Class of '54: Woman's World

We are looking at some favourites from one of my favourite years: 1954 - when I was 8 and discovered movies (starting with JOHNNY GUITAR and A STAR IS BORN), as per the 1954 label here.

Today its back to Jean Negulesco's comedy-drama WOMAN''S WORLD which finally is available in a good print, so I can chuck my ropey copy.  We have covered this here before, but its one movie that bears repeated views. As I said back in 2011: 

For me this 1954 Fox movie is the '50s in aspic. Its a fabulously entertaining variation on the '3 girls sharing an apartment and looking for love' genre that Fox and director Jean Negulesco did so well (HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE, 3 COINS IN THE FOUNTAIN, THE BEST OF EVERYTHING, THE PLEASURE SEEKERS) - here the 3 girls are married and visiting New York - cue great views of '50s Manhattan - as Clifton Webb, the head of a motor company, has to choose a new general manager so the top 3 candidates and their wives are being vetted too to see if they are suitable material for company events.

The 3 couples are out-of-towners Cornel Wilde and ditzy (or is she?) June Allyson, sophisticates on the point of divorcing Lauren Bacall and Fred McMurray, and ambitious Van Heflin and Arlene Dahl who will go to any lengths to get her man the position. The gals get to wear to some marvellous frocks, Allyson and Bacall play their usual personas so the unknown quantity here is Dahl who steals the film - particuarly when she enters poured into that green clinging sheath with a divine little fur-trimmed bolero which she knowingly removes as she puts the make on Clifton and lets him see how grateful she will be if Van is the man. June spills coffee on her cocktail dress so she can get to be alone with Clifton's all-wise sister Margalo Gilmore (who is advising him), while Bacall gets the measure of Dahl: "have a cookie, cookie"! Those early Fifties automobiles look good too as Clifton gets the measure of his three candidates at the factory .... 

Finally, once the manager is announced (right man, wrong wife - but that is soon rectified) they can all eat dinner! Clifton is in his element here and even seems to be (can it be possible in '54) a coded gay as he is not married and seems devoted to his general managers. Whatever, its an absolute treat to see anytime, a nice contrast to that other '54 star-studded executive drama EXECUTIVE SUITE. Arlene Dahl is the only cast member still here in her late 80s. 

Its one of a dozen or so '50s movies I simply adore - not classics like EAST OF EDEN, SUNSET BOULEVARD, ALL ABOUT EVE or A STAR IS BORN (though of course I love them too), but simple splashy, star-studded entertainments where fabulous gals wear fabulous clothes and live the high life, or the most delirious costume epics [more on them at Glamour label]. 
As well as WOMAN'S WORLD, bring on THE OPPOSITE SEX, DESIGNING WOMAN, LES GIRLS, THE RELUCTANT DEBUTANTE, HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE, THE BEST OF EVERYTHING, JUPITER'S DARLING, ITS ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER, QUENTIN DURWARD, MOONFLEET, THE PRODIGAL, THE EGYPTIAN ... i enjoyed all those as a kid, and still do now.

Next 1954 revival: THE SILVER CHALICE.

1954: Rock'n'Roll America = my childhood

Thanks to BBC4, that enterprising music channel, for the three-part series ROCK'N'ROLL AMERICA focusing on that period in the early and mid-'50s when that degenerate new music took hold of America's teenagers and quickly became upstoppable, to the consternation of the older generation. Focusing on the Deep South and Tennessee it showed how the fusion of blues, bluegress, and all that guitar music formed the new music for teenagers bored with their parents' heroes. This was still segregated America as the series shows, with seperate venues for Coloured folk, and the Ku Klux Klan were still operating, and everyone was afraid of flying saucers. The series focuses on the early black stars like Chuck Berry and Little Richard, and then it all came together in the shape of Elvis, out of Tupelo and working as a driver in Memphis. We don't need to re-hash all that, but the footage is fascinating. Sun Records were looking for a white boy who could sing black and did Elvis deliver. I love that 1956 footage of him ....

Then along came Jerry Lee Lewis, the film THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT capturing Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran, as Jayne sashays to and from the powder room in that red dress; and there were the Everly Brothers fusing their Appalachian tunes and harmonies to the new sounds .... The music biz though needed another white boy to sanitize that rather sleazy R'n'B, so Pat Boone was invented - a clean living (married with 3 little girls) and clean looking white boy eager to bowlerise those lyrics and appeal to the television audience. It worked for Pat - though not many would want to see APRIL LOVE or BERNARDINE or MARDI GRAS now. Boone, famously Christian and right-wing, now 80, is here along with Fabian and lots of other talking heads. The big re-discovery for me is Buddy Holly, with some great footage here - how I love those timeless tracks like "That'll Be The Day", "Not Fade Away", "Peggy Sue Got Married" etc. What a shame he died so young ...

Elvis had his imitators too - pretty Rick Nelson (a major talent too) struck out with Hawks' RIO BRAVO, always on somewhere and frequenly on here; Fabian had a run at Fox - I still like HOUND DOG MAN and that entertaining comedy western NORTH TO ALASKA (Fabian label), he also appeared with James Stewart (twice) and Bing Crosby, and the fantasy FIVE WEEKS IN A BALLOON, he was the first victim in TEN LITTLE INDIANS (1965) as well as appearing in surfing and hot rod movies, he also tastefully posed for "Playgirl" and is still going. Then there were Tommy Sands, Bobby Rydell and those other Philadelphia boys like Frankie Avalon.

Across the Atlantic, on the West of Ireland I was following all this from that distance, being about 12 at the time, we may not have had AMERICAN BANDSTAND but were able to read about it in the fan magazines, and hear the records and the artists like Connie Francis and Brenda Lee, I remember loving all those circa 1959, when I was 'wild in the country' on holidays. Ireland was really colonised by America then - we did not have their TV, but had the movies and the music and all those magazines and comics, from "Dick Tracy" to National Geographic spreads on Idado and Colorado, as well as LIFE and "Movieland and TV Time" and Dell's "Screen Album". The first record I actually saw and held in my hand was a 78rpm of "Jailhouse Rock" belonging to an older cousin home from London. Soon we were loving Elvis on screen in LOVING YOU and JAILHOUSE ROCK. Then there were those early cheap rock'n'roll movies and Bill Haley ,,,

But by the late-'50s it was all changing ... Elvis was a G.I in Germany and his music was changing, Buddy Holly dead in '59, Jerry Lee was in disgrace after marrying his 13-year old cousin, and wild Little Richard has found God. The music was sanitised for the television audiences, and just around the corner was The Twist and those new dances, the California surfing sound of The Beach Boys, Motown taking off in Detroit, and the British Invasion spearheaded by The Beatles not too far off. 
So, fun to enjoy again that innocent era of the late'50s and all that rock'n'roll.

It pinpoints too what a pivotal year 1954 was - one of my favourite years, I was 8 and had just discovered cinema (as per label 1954-1 - I have written lots on it): Elvis was recording those early ground-breaking records, James Dean was filming EAST OF EDEN for Kazan for 1955 release, while over in Italy teenage Sophia Loren (20 that September) was filming non-stop, plus my favourite film magazine "Films and Filming" began that October .... It would take me a few more years to catch up with those. But I remember the fuss about James Dean and the special magazines that came out after his death, as we all began to go mad over Elvis .... 

To Indo-china and Japan via the sea wall ....

I liked the French epic INDOCHINE a couple of years back, nice to see it again now, plus also that 1950s favourite of mine, Rene Clement's THE SEA WALL, also set in colonial Indo-China (exteriors filmed in Thailand in 1957); and also Mikio Naruse's 1954 LOST CHRYSANTHEMUMS was also screened here again, I was captured all over again ...... here are my reviews of these ....

INDOCHINE. This was a free dvd in one of our newspapers a few years ago, but I never bothered watching it till now. I like it a lot, it plays like a French GONE WITH THE WIND or a David Lean film with those crowd scenes and sampans sailing on marvellous landscapes .... as directed in 1992 by Regis Wargnier.

Indochina during the 1930s: One of the largest rubber-tree plantations is owned by French colonist Eliane who lives with her father and her native adopted daughter Camille (Linh Dan Pham). Elaine gets to know young French officer Jean-Baptiste (Vincent Perez); after a short affair she refuses to see him again, as Camille falls deeply in love with him. Elaine gets him transferred to a far island where Camille goes in search of him, despite an arranged marriage. Her saga is rivetting and engrossing, as the fates of the three leads play out, rather like a parable of France's place in Indochina and Vietnam. It looks marvellous - Deneuve is perfect in those 30s clothes, and striding around her plantation in jodhpurs. Colonial life is nicely depicted showing also the brutality meted out to the peasants (like that family Camille travels with to that island).

It is a vast, panoramic love story set in the twilight years of French Indo-China. Comparisons with David Lean are inevitable, considering director Régis Wargnier's use of the setting as a backdrop to the love-triangle between the three main characters. Catherine Deneuve gives a strong, emotionally restrained performance as Eliane, the plantation owner whose colonial paradise is slowly falling apart. Linh Dan Pham is affecting as Camille, Eliane's adopted daughter whose journey from aristocratic ancestry to Marxist induction personifies the changing face of South-East Asia in the period around World War Two. It won the Oscar for best Foreign Film of 1992, and Deneuve was nominated as Leading Actress.
As I said to pal Martin to encourage him to see it, it is a saga featuring glamorous ladie wearing fabulous 1930s frocks in exotic locations making grand gestures and suffering, suffering, suffering while an epic tale unfolds about France and Indo-China; there's gorgeous men in white uniforms a well and some marvellously composed images. 

Another Fifties favourite I have featured here quite a bit, but not lately, is Rene Clement's 1957 THE SEA WALL or THIS ANGRY AGE, which I liked as a kid back in 1958.

Above is a nice clip of Tony Perkins and Silvana Mangano doing their jive number.

There is a lot more on THE SEA WALL (or THIS ANGRY AGE) at the labels below. I loved it as a kid, and it still works for me now, Silvana Mangano is as fascinating as ever, and Jo Van Fleet of course is extraordinary as always, and Alida Valli picks up Tony at the cinema! It was an early international co-production, French/Italian and shot in Thailand, from the Marguerite Duras novel. Tony of course went from Silvana to Sophia Loren in his next, DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS, while Clement stunned and fascinated me with his next - PLEIN SOLEIL .... but thats a whole different story. 

Update: I now have my third copy - the first was Italian only / then a friend sourced a black and white copy in English / last year I got a copy in colour and in English with French Sub-titles, copied from French television - and introduced by Alain Delon ! - he must have been commenting on a Rene Clement season ... perfect viewing then.

LATE CHRYSANTHEMUMS from 1954 is rather slow-moving and not much actually happens but Naruse creates this mood where we identify with each of his characters and the Japanese life of the time - all those sliding doors! - is nicely depicted. I have not seen any other films by Naruse or much Japanese cinema apart from the Kurosawa and Ozu classics. I love TOKYO STORY of course and Ozu's fellow classics like LATE SPRING and EARLY SUMMER (featuring the great Setsuko Hara as Noriko) and his earlier THERE WAS A FATHER and THE ONLY SON and his final, AN AUTUMN AFTERNOON. Naruse was equally prolific with 91 titles, the best known seem to be FLOATING CLOUDS and WHEN A WOMAN ASCENDS THE STAIRS - so, more Naruse to explore, then there is Mizoguchi ...

Mikio Naruse's examination of the lives of three idling, constantly complaining, single ex-geishas in post-war Japan is a marvellous character piece. What is the life of a Geisha like once her beauty has faded and she has retired? Okin has saved her money, and has become a wealthy money-lender, spending her days cold-heartedly collecting debts. Even her best friends, Tomi  and Tamae, who were her fellow Geisha, are now indebted to her. For all of them, the glamor of their young lives has passed; Tomi and Tamae have children, but their children have disappointed them. Okin has two former lovers who still pursue her; one she wants to see, and the other she doesn't. But even the one she remembers fondly, when he shows up, proves to be a disappointment. 

 As in Ozu's TOKYO STORY, sadness and nostalgia permeate LATE CHRYSANTHEMUMS particularly when Tomi and Tamae are getting drunk and reflecting on their children busy with their own lives, 
while Okin comforts herself with her home and deaf-mute maid. Everyone it seems wants to borrow money from her ... Haruko Sugimura (also in TOKYO STORY as the thankless daughter) is marvellous as Okin. All the characters accept the stoic acceptance of life and their circumstances. Okin has her money and the others have their memories and companionship to keep them going. The men meanwhile, particularly, Okin's two previous lovers are desperate for money ... 

The Monroe Walk ! 
One fascinating moment has the two ex-geishas walking along when a modern Japanese girl strolls by swaying her hips.Tamae asks "Is that the Monroe walk?" as Tomi imitates it. It made me realise that here in 1954 Monroe was already a worldwide sensation since 1953 and her tour to Korea.