Channing and Jamie head north of the border ...

THE EAGLE, 2011. In 140 AD, twenty years after the unexplained disappearance of the entire Ninth Legion in the mountains of Scotland, young centurion Marcus Aquila arrives from Rome to solve the mystery and restore the reputation of his father, the commander of the Ninth. Accompanied only by his British slave Esca, Marcus sets out across Hadrian's Wall into the uncharted highlands of Caledonia - to confront its savage tribes, make peace with his father's memory, and retrieve the lost legion's golden emblem, the Eagle of the Ninth.

Peplums live! I liked this a lot - an engrossing drama and a great rousing adventure in parts, recalling Mann's LAST OF THE MOHICIANS and less CGI than GLADIATOR or TROY, with that new guy on the block Channing Tatum (MAGIC MIKE opens today here...) being a new take on the Russell Crowe type as he fits in pefectly to this sword-and-sandal era. Jamie Bell too has shaken off his BILLY ELLIOT persona as the tough slave Esca. Together they head into the wilds of Scotland to find out what happened to that Ninth Roman Legion.  The native tribes are stunningly recreated, and it all builds to a rousing climax.  No romantic interest, though the guys get pretty pally, as Esca earns his freedom after Marcus saving his life in the arena - but of course why should he have been a slave in the first place, after the Romans killing his family .... the situation gets reversed when Marcus has to pretend to be Esca's Roman slave to survive when they are surrounded by hostile tribes and have to effect a daring escape.

So, the Romans in Britain - what did they do for us? Well, they built roads and cities, towns and garrisons - I have been to that Roman villa in Sussex with it's mosaics and underfloor heating - and of course they built Hadrian's Wall to keep those northern savages out. Interesting points are made about why should the Romans want to conquer Britain at all - Mark Strong is (once again) terrific here, and there is also Donald Sutherland as Marcus's uncle.  The battle scenes are stirringly staged and it all looks terrific, as directed by Kevin McDonald (THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND). Channing acquits himself well (I thought he should be Tatum Channing when I first heard of him - but he is certainly an addition to the Ryans Gosling and Reynolds, and those other leads - Tom Cruise is 50 after all and Brad can't be too far behind!).

 
DVD extras have an alternate ending - the one they go with in the film is more upbeat I think for this type of thing, and an interesting 'making-of' shows the hard work and commitment that goes into making a film like this creating a whole new world. It is of course from a popular book, and its admirers seem happy with the end result here. Good music soundtrack as well using a lot of native sounds.. The days of magnificent historical epics may be well over, but something like THE EAGLE will do nicely for now.

Ernest Borgnine, R.I.P.

Ernest Borgnine [1917-2012] was, along with Lee Marvin, one of the best heavies in the movies and who also became an Oscar-winning leading man [they are both in BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK, 1955]. What a career spanning his 95 years. He is particularly memorable as Fatso having it in for Sinatra's Maggio in FROM HERE TO ETERNITY in '53. Ernest is also the mean one of the gang in JOHNNY GUITAR - (below, left), - the first film I ever saw, aged 8, as per my reports on that - and he is Ragnar, the father of the warring brothers in THE VIKINGS, right, a perennial 1958 favourite, jumping into the wolf pit with his sword in his hand ... I never though saw his Oscar- winning performance in MARTY, 1955. 
It just never seems to get shown now.

Above, he is married to Bette Davis in THE CATERED AFFAIR (THE WEDDING BREAKFAST), 1956 - [we will charitably overlook their re-teaming in the dreadful BUNNY O'HARE in 1971 - couldn't they have said no? ] He is also an effective heavy in that 1960 trash classic GO NAKED IN THE WORLD with Gina Lollobrigida, a recent treat. Ernest went on to classics like BARABBAS, THE WILD BUNCH, THE DIRTY DOZEN, THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE, ICE STATION ZEBRA and so many others -its one of the most prolific careers, with over 200 titles. His private life must also have been quite colourful with those tempestous marriages to Katy Jurado and Ethel Merman!

Dorian Gray: just a gigolo ?

Helmut Berger is DORIAN GRAY!    David Bowie is JUST A GIGOLO!

Here is a nice helping of juicy '70s  Eurotrash after all those highbrow items. I had not seen the 1970 DORIAN GRAY since maybe the '70s and its a delightfully kitsch period piece now as we see the petulant Dorian among the Kings Road swinging set of the time. 
I was around the Kings Road myself at that time but thankfully our paths didn't cross (though Roman Polanski passed me in the street once, near the Post Office, and I did meet Joni Mitchell and Elton John there, but those are different tales).   
This DORIAN is billed as "a modern allegory based on Oscar Wilde's work", and in fact Oscar is name-checked in the film. 

Helmut, Todd & that portrait

There's no point of giving a brief synopsis of the story as we all know it's about a man who remains perpetually young while a painting of himself ages in the attic. Dorian, as played by Helmut Berger (or Helmet as he is named on the dvd, above), hot after his sensational debut in Visconti's THE DAMNED in 1969, and the same year as his role in De Sica's FINZI CONTINI film (below) holds all in his sway including painter Basil (Richard Todd) and that witty Lord Henry (Herbert Lom - still with us now in his mid-90s).  A polyglot Euro cast is assembled: Marie Lidjedahl as Sybil Vane, Maria Rohm, Margaret Lee and best of all Isa Miranda and Eleonora Rossi Drago.

Dorian's groovy pad

It follows the usual plot with some screamingly awful 1970 interiors (like Dorian's pad with those zebra pattern curtains) or his zebra coat as he dawdles along Kings Road - and that drag pub at the start is surely the Union Tavern. Some decadent parties are involved and hi-jinks on Lord Henry's boat, where Dorian loses the soap and Lord Henry makes his move. Soon, Dorian is cruising the harbourfront in his fabulous red sports car looking for some action with hunky sailors ... and of course Sybil Vane's brother re-appears but Dorian has remained the same age ... The portrait ages nicely too. (I remember Playboy magazine at the time having some raunchy photos from this, which did not make the cut here, and the dubbing is off-kilter too at times, all part of the eurotrash soft-porn fun... if it had been filmed later in the '70s it may have had that hardcore CALIGULA or Helmut's own SALON KITTY extras ...)

Helmut & Herbert in the sauna

That outfit is groovy for the Kings Road

Dorian's source of income remains a puzzle, but more than a few grateful dowagers write him cheques ... Isa Miranda is deliciously funny here - what is Dorian doing to her in the stables?; quite a bit of money has been spent on this but it still looks deliciously seedy and sleazy. Directed by one  Massimo Dallimano and produced by Harry Allen Towers. It is all luridly decadent and the transposition to the sixties suits the material perfectly.Visconti though showcased Berger perfectly - in other hands he often appears merely petulant.

Helmut & Isa

As Dorians go though its quite nicely raunchy as the era allows for a frank portrayal of Dorian's bisexuality, promiscuity and drug addiction - hinted at so strongly in the novel, but barely glimpsed in Albert Lewin's 1945 film classic with Hurt Hatfield and George Sanders as a splendid Lord Henry. There was also that BBC "play of the month" in the mid-70s with young Peter Firth as a very petulant Dorian with sterling support from Jeremy Brett as Basil and Sir Gielgud as Lord Henry. I did not care for the recent 2009 CGI DORIAN GRAY at all with the blank Ben Barnes and Colin Firth as Wooton, complete with a daughter for Dorian to fall for!

More gigolos - a regiment of them - over at JUST A GIGOLO, the fascinatingly awful film David Hemmings directed in 1978, another polyglot Euro-pudding that wastes the likes of Maria Schell and Curt Jurgens, as well as Kim Novak and Sydne Rome. 

After World War I, a war hero returns to Berlin to find that there's no place for him--he has no skills other than what he learned in the army, and can only find menial, low-paying jobs. He decides to become a gigolo to lonely rich women.

It attracted a lot of attention at the time though (like that magazine cover, top, which I still have) as it featured the return of Marlene Dietrich, in her late '70s as the Baroness who recruits David to her regiment of gigolos. David Bowie may have been a perfect alien for Nick Roeg in THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH in '75, and ideal as a vampire with Catherine Deneuve in THE HUNGER, '83,  but he is all wrong here (as he was in MERRY CHRISTMAS MR LAWRENCE) - returning to Berlin after WWI with a pig under his arm to his impoverished mother (Schell) and trying to find work (as he hardly seems to be acting). David Hemmings is on hand too with his sinister army .... and David finally meets the Baroness Von Semering, with her army of gigolos.

This is a fantastic scene to observe now:
David and the gigolos are in Berlin - Marlene and the same gigolos are in a replica set in Paris where she lived; she spent 2 days filming this and also where she sings that title song - I remember buying it as a single. It is fascinating seeing how Hemmings cuts it all together as of course Bowie and Dietrich are never in the same shot. They never even met. Marlene (whom I saw on stage in '73, theatre label) is as magnetic as ever here for her final screen appearance. I prefer David though in his pop videos like "Lets Dance", "Fashion", "Blue Jean" or "Hello Spaceboy".

David & David

This should be fascinating with all that talent involved but somehow it is a fatally dreary mess, ticking every cliche in the book - veering into CABARET territory at the end with the emergence of that sinister new force.... Hemmings does his best but is defeated by the material. But the moments with Marlene are priceless. I love her vocal here: "when the end comes I know, they will say just a gigolo, and life goes on without me..."

The Garden of the Finzi-Contini's

It was certainly good to see Vittorio De Sica back with a popular and highly-regarded film in 1970 - when the likes of Pasolini and soon Fassbinder ruled the arthouse scene. THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINI'S from Giorgio Bassani's novel was a commercial success, and won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film. [His 1973 A BRIEF VACATION with Florinda Bolkan only ever surfaced on television in the UK and we never saw his last THE VOYAGE, in '74 with Burton and Loren, until only recently - I shall have to get around to reviewing that too].

In the late 1930s, in Ferrara, Italy, the Finzi-Contini are one of the leading families, wealthy, aristocratic, urbane; they are also Jewish. Their adult children, Micol and Alberto, gather a circle of friends for constant rounds of tennis and parties at their villa with its lovely grounds, keeping the rest of the world at bay. Into the circle steps Giorgio, a Jew from the middle class who falls in love with Micol. She seems to toy with him, and even makes love to one of his friends while she knows Giorgio is watching. While his love cannot seem to break through to her to draw her out of her garden idyll, the politic forces close in to end their idyll.

Helmut Berger & Fabio Testi

First the tennis club is off bounds to the Jewish community - so the gilded youth we see at the start have their long tennis afternoons at the gardens of the Finzi-Contini's, safe behind their high walls. Giorgio remains hopelessly in love with Micol but she sees him like a brother.  Her own brother Alberto (Helmut Berger) slowly succumbs to some malady ...

Berger & Sanda

Giorgio's brother gets away to study in France as Giorgio visits him at Grenoble with some family money. We see and share their father's concern at how events are moving, while the Finzi-Contini family seem to ignore what is happening outside their walled estate. They're different from the other Jews due to wealth and privilege. They hardly seem to know, or even care, that their rights are slowly being taken away. De Sica orchestrates events magisterially as the langurous mood at the start changes to darker colours and hues. It is only a 90 minute film but it takes it time setting up the mood and events. 

Dominique Sanda with her large, soft eyes is mesmerizing as the beautiful, enigmatic, but icy and rather malicious Micol - this role and FIRST LOVE, THE CONFORMIST, 1900 etc made her one of the great European stars of the 70s. Lino Capolicchio is her boyhood friend Giorgio whom she does not see in a romantic light - he almost forces himself on her at one stage .... Fabio Testi is Bruno Malnate that other friend who fares better with Micol, but is then sent to the Russian front ... and Paolo Stoppa plays Giorgio's worried father. The final scenes of the round ups of the Jews is effective, with De Sica's mastery evident as Micol comforts her aged grand-mother.  One wonders once again at these kind of stories why they did not escape in time or resist more forcefully ...

This is as affecting as that great 1966 Czech film Kadar's THE SHOP ON MAIN STREET - another one I must return to...along with Wertmuller's SEVEN BEAUTIES in '75 (one of the great '70s films), and that recent 1961 re-discovery THE LONG NIGHT OF '43 -and Bolognini's GRAN BOLLITO, reviews at Italian label, also about the rise of Fascism in Italy, and of course Visconti's '69 opus THE DAMNED. I have Bassani's novel - I shall now have to include it in my summer reading....

That concludes my summer arthouse revivals - now for some lurid Eurotrash .... and some more recent releases and more People We Like and Movies We Love ....

Street life: Umberto & Flag

UMBERTO D, 1952 - The simple, heartbreaking story of an aged Roman named Umberto (played by Carlo Battisti, non-professional actor and retired college professor) who struggles to survive in a city which disregards the plight of the elderly - there certainly are Umbertos still around today. With his little dog, Flag, as his only companion, Umberto faces imminent eviction, as his insufficient pension and failed attempts to raise money lead him to contemplate suicide... if he can find a home for Flag. 

His dilemma - and director Vittorio De Sica's compassionate, unsentimental handling of it - results in a film of uncompromising grace and authenticity, like De Sica's earlier masterpieces SHOESHINE and BICYCLE THIEVES. If this timeless classic doesn't make you smile and cry, you'd better check for a pulse. Overall though it is deeply affecting - what will become of Umberto and Flag?, reunited as they are at the climax after Flag runs away after realising what Umberto was trying to do as the train approached .... the masterly last shot though has them walking away in the background as we focus on children - the future - up front.

His only human contact seems to be with the rather simple minded maid, who is pregnant by either of her two soldier boyfriends - and the landlady who wants him out and begins to dismantle his room. The plight of losing your room is too horrible to contemplate for such a proud old man. Umberto though is no kindly old gent, he can be cantankerous and stubborn too. He tries to give the dog away, and also tries to beg but cannot quite do it. Presumably they will end up in the poor house - but will he be able to keep Flag? Dogs of course don't act - they are simply in the moment, its probably all a game to them. But after Flag here and Uggie in THE ARTIST and Pudsey who won our UK "Britain's Got Talent" show who does not like a talented dog. 

Again scripted by Cesare Zavattini, and directed with De Sica's consummate skill, he orchestrates a torrent of emotion.  This film is touching, memorable and manages to draw us into Umberto's life without ever becoming maudlin.

The denouement is heartbreaking, but the film never lapses into mere sentimentality.  The moment when he finds Flag in the dog pound (and sees a crate of unwanted dogs put in the gas chamber) and he clasps the animal to himself as the only thing in the world he can love and be loved by, is utterly overwhelming. The ending when Flag comes back to him is just masterly in every way. These scenes are justly extolled by Martin Scorsese in his documentary tribute to the Italian cinema MY VOYAGE TO ITALY (review at Italian label). It it almost a Dickensian view of the world: We live- we suffer. We are UMBERTO D.

Street life: Bicycle Thieves

Cinema senza tempo - Timeless Cinema

Vittorio De Sica's remarkable 1948 drama of desperation and survival in Italy's post-war depression earned a special Oscar for it's affecting power. Shot in the streets and alleys of Rome, De Sica used a real-life environment and cast non-professional actors to frane this moving drama.

Impoverished Antonio's new job hanging cinema posters (its a Rita Hayworth film) is at risk when a street thief steals his bicycle. Too poor to buy another, he and his son Bruno take to the streets in an impossible task to find the bike.

This landmark film defined the Italian Neo-realist approach with its brutal portrayal of post-war life, its truthful acting, its compassion and poetic rhythm. De Sica uses the wandering pair to witness the lives of everyday folk while ultimately depicting a story of love and hope between father and son.

That is the bare bones of the film. What is fascinating is how De Sica fleshes it out. The wife takes the sheets off the beds to pawn them so they can redeem his bicycle which had been pawned already. It is a very telling moment when the bundle of sheets is put at the top of a huge mountain of similar bundles - everyone has pawned their sheets!

THE BICYCLE THIEVES like Rossellini's ROME OPEN CITY is a key work of the Italian Neo-Realism and like Bergman's THE SEVENTH SEAL, Fellini's LA STRADA or Kurosawa's SEVEN SAMURAI one of those key early world cinema films that became so popular in the '50s.

I have done several posts on De Sica here before, both as director and actor. He is someone I enjoy a lot: that flamboyant style of acting, enjoying himself in front of the camera. Not only was he a matinee idol in the 1930s but a great character actor later, as in Ophuls' MADAME DE... or Rossellini's IL GENERALE DELLA ROVERE,. His Loren and Mastroianni films are favourites and of course he acted with them frequently too in those 50s films like TOO BAD SHE'S BAD. See Italian, De Sica labels for more. 

What is amazing here is the rapport between father (Lamberto Maggionani) and son (Enzo Staiola) - De Sica was able to get some great performances from children, as in SHOESHINE. The ending here could be depressing, but when the son puts his hand in his father's and they walk away into the crowd it is such a perfect moment - after the son's shame at seeing his father reduced to stealing another bicycle and getting caught. 

The Arrow Films dvd had a great documentary too on De Sica: Cinema Senza Tempo - on his timeless cinema with Vittorio obviously enjoying himself hosting a documentary on himself with regular writer Cesare Zavattini, showing us clips from lots of his acting and directing.

One amusing scene has a rather distant Sophia Loren smoking a cigarette as Vittorio is interviewed at an airport, after the sucess of TWO WOMEN, when he is asked about a proposed film with Marilyn Monroe and Marlon Brando - which Sophia had not heard about before! Her surprised expression is delightful! We also get to see him at work on one of his flops - that supposedly dreadful WOMAN TIMES SEVEN in '67 with Shirley McLaine ... much as I like Vittorio I would never want to see that ...

Coming up: UMBERTO D, THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINI'S and we will get around to re-seeing Vittorio's entertainments YESTERDAY TODAY & TOMORROW and  MARRIAGE ITALIAN STYLE. I recently reviewed his  1962's THE CONDEMNED OF ALTONA, as well as GOLD OF NAPLES, '54 and '62's BOCCACCIO 70, and  have now got his 1961 THE LAST JUDGEMENT (IL GUIDIZIO UNIVERSALE) which I do not know at all. Review in due course...

Country life: Au Hasard Balthazar

A new-born donkey is baptised, loved, sold, beaten and cruelly abused over several years and is passed from owner to owner and, as director Robert Bresson intends, "through all the vices of humanity". Such is AU HASARD BALTHAZAR (1966) in a nutshell - what an experience to return to this which I had not seen since the 1960s.

The sheer simplicity of the tale and the presentation of the donkey from its happy days as a young foal playing with children as it grows up to be a beast of burden [as donkeys still are today] and then abused by some dispicable people, to finally it expires in a field, surrounded by sheep. Is it a parable about human nature and man's capacity for cruelty? The only love shown to the adult donkey is from Marie (Anne Wiazemsky) who is abused almost as much as Balthazar.  Balthazar, like most donkeys, suffers in silence and is finally released from suffering. I wonder how many donkeys were used and they were not ill-treated unduly - I mean that paper tied to his tail and set on fire looks authentic enough as the animal runs away ... one marvellous sequence is when he is working in a circus and we share his wonder as he stares at those other strange animals - a tiger, a bear, an elephant, a monkey - all caged.

Much has been made of the parallel between the lives of Christ and Balthazar (Bresson was a French Catholic). The donkey is baptised before suffering and dying for and at the hands of others. The narrative is elliptical; we do not at times understand what is really going on between those humans as we are treated to a litany of corruption - legal (a man is accused of fraud), social (provincial France has never seemed so mean and bleak), criminal (a gang of violent teenage smugglers), as well as a murder and suicide. . Is the brutality they mete out to each other overdone? Balthazar endures all kinds of treatment, being wilful and stubborn (well he is a donkey..., I love them) before succumbing to his destiny.

BALTHAZAR confirms Bresson's reputation as a fiercely morally-engaged director and a rigorous stylist but it is also perhaps his most sublime and lyrical film, as photographed by Ghislain Cloquet - over a period of more than six months in the Pyrenees.  Animals of course don't "act" - they simply are or can be trained to do certain actions - as I shall discuss further when commenting on De Sica's UMBERTO D before too long.

I did not care for Bresson's later films like LANCELOT DU LAC, but think I should now seek out those other highly-regarded items like his DIARY OF A COUNTRY PRIEST, A MAN ESCAPED or PICKPOCKET. He directed 14 titles in all and had a great lifespan: 1901-1999, being a prisoner of war by the Germans in WWII.  He created a unique minimalist style in which all but the barest essentials are omitted, with mainly non-actors giving deliberately flat, expressionless performances. It's an intensely personal style, which means that his films never achieved great popularity while he was rated as one of the greatest artists in the history of cinema. AU HASARD BALTHAZAR packs it all into 90 minutes.

Belmondo

Staying French for a moment, a mini-celebration of Jean-Paul Belmondo - 80 next year. I think my favourite of his has to be L'HOMME DE RIO in 1964, (Belmondo, French labels - which also has a lot on Alain Delon) where he does his own stunts in Brazil in De Broca's still wonderful caper. Today's action stars with their CGI stunts should see it and weep. Never got to see BORSALINO though, and it does not seem available now. I have quite a few more Belmondo's to catch up with though, so more in due course. Here he is looking sensational with Claudia Cardinale, Francoise Dorleac, Catherine Deneuve, Alain Delon.

 

Among the Belmondo box-sets the British 'Screen Icons' is a good jumping-off point, featuring Chabrol's 1959 A DOUBLE TOUR, the 2 Godard essentials BREATHLESS and 1965's PIERROT LE FOU, Resnais' STAVISKY in '74 and one of his later actioners LE PROFESSIONNEL, '81 with Robert Hossein. He is in 2 of the Melville box set: LEON MORIN PRIEST and LE DOULOS; then there is THAT MAN FROM RIO and he pops up, along with everybody else, in Clements' IS PARIS BURNING? in 1966 and 1967's CASINO ROYALE - and that's just the tip of the iceberg - IMDB lists 83 titles of his! I suppose I should seek out Truffaut's MISSISSIPPI MERMAID with Deneuve now, and that glossy one with Jacqueline Bisset: LE MAGNIFIQUE, also by De Broca in '73, must be worth a look then! Plus his appearances with Loren in TWO WOMEN and Moreau in MODERATO CANTABILE. 

(Another French actor I have been catching up with (along with Delon, Ronet, Sorel and Trintignant) is Robert Hossein, who also directed some offbeat little movies - more on him later then.)