Forgotten movie stars - an occasional series: Anna, Nils

Anna May Wong (1905-1961)

The first Chinese-American movie star, a third-generation American, she managed to have a substantial acting career during a deeply racist time when the taboo against miscegenation meant that Caucasian actresses were cast as "Oriental" women in lead parts opposite Caucasian leading men (even Katharine Hepburn in DRAGON SEED in 1944!). The discrimination she faced in the domestic industry caused her to go to Europe for work in English and German films, as in PICCADILLY in 1929 or   Von Sternberg's SHANGHAI EXPRESS with Marlene Dietrich in 1932. One of her final roles was in Ross Hunter's PORTRAIT IN BLACK in 1960 and she was signed to play in Hunter's FLOWER DRUM SONG before her death. 

Her IMDB biography is fascinating showing the racism of the time when Asian women could not be cast opposite white actors or have leading roles in films. Anna should be a major discovery now.  http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0938923/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm

Nils Asther (1897-1981)

Nils was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1897 and raised in Malmö, Sweden. He moved to Hollywood in 1927, where his exotic looks landed him romantic roles with co-stars such as Garbo, Pola Negri and Joan Crawford, and his exotic Chinese warlord in THE  BITTER TEA OF GENERAL YEN with Barbara Stanwyck in 1933. Although his foreign accent was a hindrance in "talkies", his Hollywood career continued until 1934 when he was blacklisted for breaking a contract and went to Britain for four years. After his return to Hollywood in 1938, his career declined and by 1949 he was driving a truck. In 1958, he returned to Sweden, where he remained until his death, making occasional appearances in television and on stage. He was also unabashedly gay at a time when gays remained discreet about their sexual orientation so there was no public suggestion of impropriety.

Next: Charles Farrell, Ramon Novarro, Anton Walbrook - who may not be so forgotten ...

Mitchell Leisen, Hollywood Director

"Mitchell Leisen, Hollywood Director" first published in 1973 and reprinted in 1995, by David Chierichetti, is a fascinating return to Hollywood's golden age, from the 1920s onwards. The blurb says: "Mirchell Leisen's lengthy film career which spanned the silents through the advent of television, began in 1919 when he was hired as a costume designer for Cecil B DeMille. In the 1920s he moved up to set design and art direction, and he began directing in the 1930s. As director, Leisen's unique cinematic eye was responsible for such hits as TO EACH HIS OWN, EASY LIVING. LADY IN THE DARK, MIDNIGHT, REMEMBER THE NIGHT, and DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY. His story is a fascinating study of Hollywood's Golden Age." The book also gives an indication of Hollywood's rampant gay and bisexual scene back then ... Amusing stories too on those Leisen was great pals with (Carole Lombard) and those he wasn't (Miss Fontaine). 

My friend Daryl, also says this about Leisen:  "Mitchell Leisen was one of the master directors at Paramount in the 1930s; as a former set and costume designer, his films always had an elegant visual surface, and when that was coupled with a script of some merit, the results were some of the true delights of the period. (It's unfortunate that Leisen's reputation was tarnished by Preston Sturges and Billy Wilder - their anger over what they perceived as his meddling - he often cut the scripts if speeches got too unwieldy - caused them to strike out as writer-directors.)"

Leisen (1898-1972)  is now perceived as one of Hollywood's gay directors, but he was also avidly bisexual, being married and also having a long-time mistress, as well as his relationships with men. His early costume designs for Douglas Fairbanks for ROBIN HOOD and particularly THE THIEF OF BAGHDAD in 1924 are still marvellous now.In 1932 he was assistant director, and did art direction and costumes for DeMille's SIGN OF THE CROSS which I like a lot (see Peplums-1 label). He had to measure up a nude Claudette for her bath in ass's milk which DeMille wanted to come up to her nipples - but the heat of the studio was turning the milk to cheese .... 
Lets have a look at some of his successes:

MIDNIGHT, 1939. Today' guest reviewer, my friend Martin did this review of it on IMDB ten years ago, and sums it up perfectly:

As good as a movie can get. Claudette Colbert is the flapper/gold-digger/chanteuse, (take your pick), who arrives in a very rainy Paris in an evening gown and not much else. She is momentarily rescued from her predicament by a gallant taxi driver, (played gallantly by Don Ameche), with whom she immediately falls in love but from whom she runs as fast as her well-turned-out legs can carry her. She runs straight into the clutches of John Barrymore, (a magnificent comic performance), who saves her bacon, so to speak, if only she will seduce gigolo Francis Lederer who is stealing away Barrymore's wife, the always delectable Mary Astor, and thus save Barrymore's marriage.

This is a French farce of the very best kind, although it is written, not by a Feydeau, but by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett, and directed with supreme elegance by the under-valued Mitchell Leisen. Colbert is wonderful as the wide-eyed chorine, torn between love and riches, Barrymore displays sublime comic timing and Astor is as sharp as a new pin. It feels and looks like a Lubitsch but I doubt if even Lubitsch could better it.

HOLD BACK THE DAWN, 1941. Told in flashback from a preface in which the main character visits Paramount to sell his story - to a director played by Leisen himself. Romanian-French gigolo Georges Iscovescu (Charles Boyer) wishes to enter the USA. Stopped in Mexico by the quota system, his old flame Anita (a doxy on the make) advises him to marry an American, whom he can then desert and return to her, who's done likewise. But after sweeping teacher Emmy Brown (Olivia De Havilland) off her feet, he finds her so sweet that love and jealousy endanger his plans. This is a perfect romantic fantasy where the varied characters have their own stories and motives for what they do. There is that nice very pregnant American lady Rosemary DeCamp (though she is so covered up one can hardly see that she is expecting) who connives to get her baby born on American territory. Olivia again plays a good woman without being cloying - I love that school bus she drives around. She is injured in a trafffic accident after Anita (a terrific turn from Paulette Goddard) confronts her and tells her the truth about how and why gigolo Boyer married her - he then risks all to cross the border chased by the immigration people, to get to her hospital bedside to comfort her and give her the will to live .... does it all end happily? You bet - even Anita lands a new rich patsy.

Wilder and Preston Sturges, in later years, bewailed the havoc Leisen wreaked on their scripts. Painted him as a flamboyant gay aesthete, who preferred décor to drama, party dresses to pithy dialogue. For Wilder, the problem with Leisen was simple. “He was a fag window dresser.”

Ironically, though, MIDNIGHT is a sharper and more stylish satire than Wilder’s dull  LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON (1957). Lacking Wilder’s pervasive sourness and contempt (to the fore in ACE IN THE HOLE, KISS ME STUPID and THE FORTUNE COOKIE), HOLD BACK THE DAWN views its hicks and whores and schemers through a veil of sympathy, suggesting they might have reasons to act as they do.  

Wilder is said to have hated so much what Leisen had done to his scripts – although it’s hard to imagine how anyone could fault MIDNIGHT or HOLD BACK THE DAWN – that he decided to become a director himself so that his scripts wouldn’t, in the future, be ‘butchered’ . "All he did was he fucked up the script and our scripts were damn near perfection, let me tell you. Leisen was too goddamn fey. I don’t knock fairies. Let him be a fairy. Leisen’s problem was that he was a stupid fairy." 
"HOLD BACK THE DAWN, an unlikely tale of redemption, of gigolos and gold diggers conniving their way across the American border from Mexico, would have been unpalatably depressing under Wilder’s direction. Charles Boyer’s and Leisen’s decision to cut a scene in which Boyer, a down-and-out playboy in his seedy hotel room, toys with and confesses to a cockroach, one can only surmise, was a good choice. It was the elimination of this particular scene that stoked most of Wilder’s hatred for Leisen."

I did these reviews here some while back:

Back to 1944 for FRENCHMAN'S CREEK, a costume drama about pirates from a novel by Daphne De Maurier, with her REBECCA star Joan Fontaine. This is now a Spanish dvd: EL PIRATA Y LA DAMA (The Pirate and the Lady), by that interesting gay director Mitchell Leisen. Mexican Arturo de Cordova is the pirate, with hissable Basil Rathbone, dependable Cecil Kellway and blustering Nigel Bruce. 

Joan is the noblewoman who tires of her husband and his decadent friends in bawdy Restoration London and who decamps with her children to her country estate, run by kindly Cecil, in remote Cornwall. She soon finds out that a French pirate moors his ship in a nearby cove and has been using her house and bedroom. They get to meet and have a chaste affair.  She soon enjoys herself dressing up a his cabin boy and getting involved in his pirate activities. 
Then her husband and suspicious Basil turn up as the plot works out to a satisfactory, for its time, conclusion as she has to give up her pirate lover and settle for dull marriage and looking after her children. Joan gives it her all and gets to wear some nice gowns. Arturo and his pirate gang seem a gay lot .... a subtext picked up by my IMDB pal melvelvit, who commented:  "I see what cinema scribes mean when they speak of Leisen's "gay sensibility"; the camera practically caressed Arturo's hairy (unusual for the time) chest and there were lots of lovingly photographed bare-chested pirates" ... A sometimes campy swashbuckler then. Joan's and Basil's fight to the death on the stairs is certainly well done and packs a punch! 

Then there is GOLDEN EARRINGS made after the war in '47 - is it a comedy, a romance or a thriller? perhaps a bit of each then as Ray Milland is on the run in Germany presumably before or during the war and has to depend on gypsy Marlene Dietrich to help him get around the country. Its actually quite amusing as directed by Mitchell Leisen and Marlene is droll in her gypsy makeup and not playing a heartless vamp for once. Bland Milland is dull - the stars did not get on - I read that Marlene sucked the eye out of a fish-head from her her stewpot during his first closeup to disconcert him. Again we get lots of comic Nazis and they do not seem to mind the gypsies roaming around or telling their fortunes - or maybe the gypsies were not being rounded up just then ! You have to laugh at the end: he comes back after the war and there is Marlene with her gypsy caravan and her stewpot as though he had left just a few minutes before...

Leisen continued into the 1950s - I caught THE MATING SEASON from 1951 once on television but it does not seem available at all now, but provided great roles for Thelma Ritter, Miriam Hopkins, and Gene Tierney. We will be looking out for more Leisen films ....  NO MAN OF HER OWN with Barbara Stanwyck sounds an interesting one.

Ben-Hur, 1925

Finally, I have put on that 1925 silent version of BEN-HUR, which was included in that 3-disk dvd pack on the 1959 film some years ago, and what a fascinating contrast it is to compare both. 

First of all the silent version looks marvellous, with some tinted and early colour inserts, particularly that first 15 minutes as we follow Joseph and Mary (a beatific Betty Bronson) and the Three Wise Men and that star in the sky and some good crowd scenes, its all like some Victorian tableaus - it was from a Victorian novel .... two stunning set-pieces are the galley scene as Ben toils at the oars - with that naked man in chains - and the sea battle is well done, and the other of course is the chariot race at Antioch, which is merely stupendous, as it is in the later version. Several horses met their end here ...

Its the characters and the script thats woeful here, of course being a silent nothing is fleshed out or developed. The spirited Esther of Wyler's film is  a simpering ninny here playing with her doves, we barely see Quintus Arrius - a gruff, old man - with none of the subtle interplay between him and Ben, while Messala (Francis X Bushman) is a one-dimensional cartoon villain who barely recognises Ben when they meet again. There is also a vamp, Ires - who has to find out who the mysterious charioteer is .... he though is Ramon Novarro who is a perfect Ben. (We like Ramon too in MATA HARI with Garbo in 1931). The rest is pure standard silent movie fare. Never has the quip "loved Ben, hated Hur" been more apt. I will appreciate the 1959 film a lot more next time I look in on it, its a sublte, complex masterpiece compared to this version by Fred Niblo - though it must have astounded audiences at the time. The younger Wyler and Henry Hathaway were also involved in its production as assistant directors, which unusual for the time, was filmed in Italy - but the chariot race was filmed back in California where most of the stars of the day played uncredited extras for the race. This dvd restored version (by Thames Silents) has another great score by Carl Davis.

Here are some shots from the 1959 version: Heston and Boyd; plus Bette Davis visiting her old director Wyler.

Christmas treats: The Thief of Bagdad, 1924

Back to the silent world for THE THIEF OF BAGDAD, in a sparking new Blu-ray edition, highlighting those fantastic sets and the tinted colours - blue for night exteriors, yellow for dawn, green for under the sea etc. Its another silent classic that dazzles, like Griffiths' ORPHANS OF THE STORM, or those early Frank Borzage's with Charles Farrell (THE RIVER) etc, as per Silents label. I really must put on that 1925 BEN HUR one of these days ....

I first saw this THIEF OF BAGDAD decades ago during a christmas holiday at my parents home in Ireland, there was not much on Irish television in those days, so we fell on this and were enchanted with it. Marvellous to have it now, in a perfect edition. Let me quote from the blu-ray essay by Laura Boyes of the North Carolina Museum of Art:

An enchanted Arabian Nights fantasy unfolds in a dazzling Art Deco kingdom as a lowly thief quests for the love of a dainty princess. Flying carpets, winged horses, fearsome beasts and an invisibility cloak are a few of the state of  the art special effects, the main one being Fairbanks' boisterous athleticism and joyful smile. 

Douglas Fairbanks is know today primarily for the swashbuckling silent classics in which he impersonated the likes of Zorro, Robin Hood and D'Artignan ... 

Fairbanks and Mary Pickford were the undisputed King and Queen of Hollywood in the 1920s .... as two of the founding members of United Artists they exercised complete control over both the business and creative ends of their careers.

His movements here are influenced by the mordernistic dance techniques of the Ballets Rousses whose Orientalist decor is echoed in the sets and costumes. Fairbanks is forty-one in this film, incredibly fit, vibrant and beautiful.

Ah yes, the sets, by William Cameron Menzies are still stunning now, costume designer was (gay) future director Mitchell Leisen, the Blu-ray music score incorporated themes by Rimsky-Korsakoff (conducted by Carl Davis), and Anna May Wong is delightfully art deco as the princess's treacherous hand-maiden, in league with the Mongol prince who has his own designs on Bagdad.  It was also of course director Raoul Walsh's first major success - he of course (wearing that eye patch) had many future successes, particuarly in the 1940s with Bogart, Cagney, Flynn et al, in that long career that stretched from 1912 to 1964. 

90 years old and it still delights now and is a Christmas treat for the ages and all ages. It is as visually stunning as say Von Sternberg's SCARLET EMPRESS in 1934.  

After Christmas: Films of the Year, a Jane Fonda mini-festival (I have 4 of hers lined up), more Romy Schneider and Catherine Deneuve, and all those Sondheim LITTLE NIGHT MUSICs (3 stage productions and the 1977 film) ... plus more Arabian Fantasy with Minnelli's KISMET, part of a trio of his including BELLS ARE RINGING. We might start on those HAMLETs and MACBETHs too ... and that 1962 Best Foreign Film of the year: SUNDAYS AND CYBELE.

A discovery: The River, 1929

Frank Brorzage's THE RIVER, a lost silent from 1928/29, has turned out to be an unexpected treat. I only discovered it as two pals over at IMDB were discussing it the other week. 

As Daryl said: Borzge was "The master romanticist of the American cinema! He developed his distinctive romantic style during the silent period, when he became one of the most prominent and celebrated directors at the Fox Studio; though it exists only as a fragment, THE RIVER is one of his most sensual films, with an almost mystical emphasis on the physical connection between the protagonists (and Charles Farrell's nude swim remains enchanting). LILIOM is a gorgeous phantasmagoria: using the leftover sets from Murnau's SUNRISE, Borzage was able to create an entire universe for Molnar's theatrical conceit.,,,,,,  The Janet Gaynor-Charles Farrell partnership was the most celebrated of Fox movie couples, but both would be paired with others in an attempt to show their versatility". 

I now have four more Borzage's with them on order: STREET ANGEL, LUCKY STAR, LILIOM (which was turned into CAROUSEL) and 7TH HEAVEN. 

Borzage died aged 68 in 1962, I also like his MAN'S CASTLE from 1934 with Tracy and Loretta Young as the perfect Depression waif (see 1930s label); Stewart and Margaret Sullavan in THE MORTAL STORM, one of my favourite '40s films; Sullavan again in THREE COMRADES; Crawford and Gable in STRANGE CARGO, and his 1932 version of A FAREWELL TO ARMS was re-released here recently

In all Gaynor and Farrell did 12 films together between 1927 and 1934, yet he is almost forgotten today. Born in 1900 he lived until 1990, so practically all of the 20th century! He retired from movies apart from some television in the '50s (THE CHARLES FARRELL SHOW in 1956), married and moved to Palm Springs where he became mayor. It is interesting now discovering this attractive matinee idol of the late silents and early talkies. 

The 55 minutes that remains of THE RIVER is a marvellous treat now, with its stylised sets for that mining village in the Rockies, its cartoon villain with his pet crow, the deaf mute who saves the day, and the odd romance between innocent Allen John (Farrell) and the more wordlywise Rosalee (Mary Duncan) and that cabin by the river where she first sees him swimming naked ... he amusingly keeps missing the train (surely a model train set) to go to "the city" after sailing downriver on his homemade barge. Oh, those innocent days ... it reminded me of W C Fields' THE FATAL GLASS OF BEER, one of his great shorts which I have also ordered, so more on them, and the Borzage-Farrell films in due course.
Below: a perfect late '20s shot: Johnny Mack Brown, Flash (the dog) and Charles Farrell.

Hollywood ! - an occasional series ...

For all you people out there in the dark: That astounding Buster Keaton stunt in STEAMBOAT BILL JR, and a few Norma Desmond and Margo Channing moments from SUNSET BOULEVARD and ALL ABOUT EVE, both 1950 at the dawn of THAT decade (as like PSYCHO, L'AVVENTURA, LA DOLCE VITA and THE APARTMENT ushered in the '60s), Billy Wilder's and Joseph Mankiewicz's tributes, curdled cocktails both, to the movies and the theatre - Bette and Gloria should have jointly won the Best Actress Oscar, and both movies replay endless re-viewings ...

"Fasten your seatbelts ..."

Both films of course were turned into musicals, successful at the time - several productions of the Andrew Lloyd Webber SUNSET, Norma is a great role for ageing divas (though not it seems for Dunaway, whom The Lord dismissed).  EVE became APPLAUSE, which seems dreadfully dated now with that '70s look and Bacall was, frankly, miscast. I saw the '73 London production, and seeing a recording of it recently was GRIM! - as per post on it (Bacall label).

Exit Smiling

I first saw the 1926 silent EXIT SMILING back in my 20s at the old London National Film Theatre (now BFI Southbank) and was enchanted with Bea Lillie as the hapless heroine, the skivvy of that tatty touring group of theatricals. She played "nothing" in "Much Ado About Nothing".  It is now though available on Warner Archive.com, and is just as amusing as I remember.

A maid who works for a traveling theatrical troupe wants desperately to be an actress, and manages to get some small roles in the company's productions, but is determined to do anything she can to show that she deserves a shot at the big time.

Beatrice Lillie's sparking screen debut! Running away to join the circus was a popular romantic sentiment in the 1920s for those wishing to escape life's drudgery. For wannabe actress Violet it was joining a third rate travelling actors troupe specialising in over-the-top melodramas. Too plain to play the vampy vixen, she was relegated to the menial but necessary tasks to keep the show afloat. She tutors and supports (and of course falls for) the handsome young man (Jack Pickford - Mary's brother) who becomes the male lead. This silent classic is a riveting time capsule into a pre-Depression world that will fascinate, draw tears and ultimately cheers ... 

Well thats the blurb. It is indeed a fascinating look at a vanished world of entertainment, as directed by Sam Taylor. Even silent, Lillie is the perfect clown - the business with the pearls and the boa are blissfully funny, as is her put-upon drudge who of course does not get her man.

I first encountered Lillie, as most did, as the wacky white slaver Mrs Meers "Sad to be all alone in the world" in THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE where she effortlessly stole the film from Julie and Mary and Carol - that is a perpetual pleasure. I like too her perfect clowning and diction in ON APPROVAL in 1943 and she and Franklin Pangborn (also funny here in EXIT SMILING) do that hilarious routine about the damask napkins in an otherwise unremarkable Bing Crosby film in 1947, DR RHYTHM. Bea's rare appearances (like in AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS) are to be cherished, like those of the very individual comediennes Carole Lombard, Kay Kendall or Joan Greenwood.What a fascinating life Lillie (1894-1989) led, with her showbiz pals like Noel Coward in the 20s and 30s when she was indeed "the funniest woman in the world".

Lists, 2

Continuing a recent thread based on IMDB's best of each decade. I did my choices for the 1930s, '40s, '50s and '60s - see Lists label.  Here, we go back to the 1920s and on to the '70s and '80s. Wonder if they will be doing the '90s and the 2000s ... well I can do my own.

1920s

Last year's discovery: THE MAN WITH THE MOVIE CAMERA  / THE THIEF OF BAGHDAD (left) / STEAMBOAT BILL JR  / ORPHANS OF THE STORM / THE WIND  / WAY DOWN EAST  BEN HUR (1925) / METROPOLIS / SUNRISE / FLESH AND THE DEVIL / EXIT SMILING / DIARY OF A LOST GIRL / PHANTOM OF THE OPERA / OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS / OUR MODERN MAIDENS / PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC.

1970s

THE PASSENGER / BARRY LYNDON / L'INNOCENTE / TAXI DRIVER / OBSESSION / CHINATOWN / NETWORK / THE GODFATHER / GODFATHER II  / LUDWIG / DEATH IN VENICE / DON'T LOOK NOW / ALL THAT JAZZ / THE AMERICAN FRIEND / FOX AND HIS FRIENDS / CABARET / DELIVERANCE / KLUTE / THE HONEYMOON KILLERS / M.A.S.H / Z / THE CONFORMIST / SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY / HAROLD & MAUDE / McCABE & MRS MILLER / HISTORY OF ADELE H / LES VALSEUSES / CESAR & ROSALIE / LE CHOSES DE LA VIE / YANKS / NEW YORK NEW YORK / DAYS OF HEAVEN /

INNOCENTS WITH DIRTY HANDS / FELLINI SATYRICON / ZABRISKIE POINT / NASHVILLE / THE GO BETWEEN / AMARCORD / FELLINI ROMA / AUTUMN SONATA / CRIES & WHISPERS / DAY FOR NIGHT / SEVEN BEAUTIES / THE STEPFORD WIVES / THE PARALLAX VIEW / THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR / THE MUSIC LOVERS / BROTHER SUN SISTER MOON / YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN /  / ANNIE HALL / MANHATTAN / INTERIORS /

COMA / THE EUROPEANS / THE CONVERSATION / DOG DAY AFTERNOON / DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS / DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE / PADRE PADRONE / THE NIGHT OF SHOOTING STARS / THE MAGIC FLUTE / DON GIOVANNI / ROYAL FLASH / THREE & FOUR MUSKETEERS / APOCALYPSE NOW.

1980s

THE DEAD / THE ELEPHANT MAN / RAGING BULL / AMERICAN GIGOLO / BODY HEAT / E T / RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK / AMADEUS / FANNY AND ALEXANDER / STARDUST MEMORIES / WINGS OF DESIRE / ORDINDARY PEOPLE / ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA / CINEMA PARADISO / BIG / RADIO DAYS / HANNAH AND HER SISTERS / CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS / MY FAVOURITE YEAR / DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN / ROOM WITH A VIEW / LETTER TO BREZHNEV / MAURICE / LAW OF DESIRE / DONA HERLINDA AND HER SON / WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN / QUERELLE / PRIVATES ON PARADE / PRICK UP YOUR EARS / DANGEROUS LIAISONS / THE SHINING / HOPE AND GLORY / LONGTIME COMPANION / PARTING GLANCES / DISTANT VOICES, STILL LIVES / CHOOSE ME / THE HUNGER / COME BACK TO THE 5 & DIME JIMMY DEAN JIMMY DEAN / QUARTET / THE LONELY PASSION OF JUDITH HEARNE.

The man with the movie camera goes to Rome

I had never heard of MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA, a 1929 Russian silent movie by Dziga Vertov - but there it was at number 8 in the recent "Sight & Sound" list of the greatest films ever made (the list they do every 10 years, see Magazines label). Then luckily it was screened on television here over the weekend by the enterprising Sky Arts channel.

"Sight & Sound" say: Is Dziga Vertov’s cine-city symphony a film whose time has finally come? Ranked only no. 27 in our last critics’ poll, it now displaces Eisenstein’s erstwhile perennial Battleship Potemkin as the Constructivist Soviet silent of choice. Like Eisenstein’s warhorse, it’s an agit-experiment that sees montage as the means to a revolutionary consciousness; but rather than proceeding through fable and illusion, it’s explicitly engaged both with recording the modern urban everyday (which makes it the top documentary in our poll) and with its representation back to its participant-subjects (thus the top meta-movie.

Phew. It certainly shows how inventive silent cinema was, it is an astounding portrait of a city (it could be any city really, until one sees the picture of Lenin) over the course of a day, the trams, the people at work and at play - was life that different 83 years ago?, not really it seems - the astonishing editing and that pounding score ... which, as per end titles, was composed in 1996 by Michael Nyman! - I thought it perfectly of its period and so Russian. I had never heard of this film before the Sight & Sound poll - so thanks for that. It is absolutely fascinating to watch now - the rapid editing, the mix of music and image, factory production lines, all getting quicker and quicker until the fantastic climax. This is one to return to. It must have been stunning at the time (well, it still is now - viewers would have seen nothing like it, as that editing was so much quicker than usual).

Another man with a movie camera: Woody goes to Rome. We all loved MIDNIGHT IN PARIS, but it looks like a drubbing all round for his next one: TO ROME WITH LOVE - as per most of the reviews. While one has to applaud the director in his late 70s still making a film a year,  but it may be to diminishing results. One reviewer says: "TO ROME WITH LOVE isn't one of Woody Allen's worst films, it is four of them" (it being in 4 segments). It seems here that his vision of the Eternal City is about as authentic as ham and pineapple pizza. I loved his last London one YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER (mainly for the cast: Gemma Jones, Pauline Collins etc) and of course his last foray to Paris (his first being WHATS NEW PUSSYCAT all those years ago..) but I will wait for the dvd on this one. If though he is doing a valentine to Rome why not find a role for some of those Italian greats like Loren or Cardinale? - and why import a Spanish actress (even if she is Penelope Cruz) to play Italian? - and yes Roberto Benigni - one of those comedians in the Jerry Lewis/Danny Kaye mould (ie you either love or hate him). The best thing about the Barcelona film was the music, so presumably we will like the soundtrack here too. 
I keep meaning to re-visit the Woody of MANHATTAN, INTERIORS, STARDUST MEMORIES or those middle-period dramas like ANOTHER WOMAN or SEPTEMBER. BROADWAY DANNY ROSE is in the schedules again next week - that's a start!