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Spetters (1980)
The language is not politically correct, but it sure is realistic
"Spetters" is a coming of age movie situated in a Dutch medium sized city. Three friends are having dreams of becoming a famous motorcycle racer, just like a successful fellow citizen of them. At the end of the film none of them has realised his dream.
At the time of release "Spetters" caused a lot of commotion in the Netherlands. When I ask myself if today (nearly 25 years later) the same commotion would break out, the answer is mixed. We are certainly accustomed to the level of violence in "Spetters". Regarding the sex scenes I am not so sure. The last decade nude in films has become less rather than more. The biggest problem anno 2024 would be the explicit language of "Spetters". In times of "Me too" and "Black lives matter" we are very sensitive to language that is racist, sexist or homophobic. The language in "Spetters" contains all of them. In defense of "Spetters" I must say that, given the social environment the film is situated in, the choice was between politically correct language or realistic language. Director Paul Verhoeven unequivocally chooses realistic language.
The fact that Verhoeven liked to provoke, and also liked the publicity that this generates, also would have influenced the choice for realistic language. Verhoeven is known as a somewhat sensation seeking director. Fons Rademakers, a famous Dutch director from the previous generation, on the other hand is known for adapting Dutch literature from writers like Multatuli, Willem Frederik Hermans and Harry Mulisch. I think this stereotyping as a director of high culture (Fons Rademakers) and low culture (Paul Verhoeven) is not justified. Also Paul Verhoeven was often inspired by Dutch literature, although by other writers. "Turkish delight" (1973, Paul Verhoeven) was based on a novel by Jan Wolkers, who also assisted in the screenplay for "Spetters". "The 4th man" (1983, Paul Verhoeven) is based on a novel by Gerard Reve.
Apart from the three friends the main character in "Spetters" is Fientje played by Renée Soutendijk. She sells fries from a stand. All the friends are head over heels in love with Fientje. Fientje may not be a "femme fatale" (she does not actively ruin her lovers) but she sure is very opportunistic. She chooses the one with the brightest career opportunities because she doesn't want to make fries all her life. Because career opportunities alternate during the film at the end Fientje has had all of the friends, but she didn't get rid of the fries!
Renée Soutendijk was at the top of her trade in those years. A year later she would not play an oppurtinistic girl from low descend but an idealistic girl from upper middle class in "The girl with the red hair" (1981, Ben Verbong).
Hell or High Water (2016)
Some strange kind of Robin Hood
"Hell or high water" is a crossover between Crime (it's about robbing a bank) and Western (it is situated on the country side and not in the big city).
More revealing however is in my opinion that "Hell or high water" is a typical film in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008.
There are films in which the relation with the financial crisis is more obvious, such as "Margin call" (2011, Jeffrey Chandor) and "The big short" (2015, Adam McKay), but these films are about the perpetrators of this crisis. "Hell or high water" is about the victims. It is about the two brothers Toby (Chris Pine) and Tanner (Ben Foster) Howard, who risk to lose the familt farm to a bank on account of the reverse mortgage of their mother.
The two men decide not to let that happen. The two men decide to act like a strange kind of Robin Hood: steal from the rich (i.e. The bank in question) and give it to yourself. "Hell or high water" is one of those rare movies where you sympathize with the bank robbers!
Despite their determination the two brothers don't embody the American dream at all. One of them compares poverty with "a disease passing from generation to generation". Not the spirit that you can achieve anything you want, as long as you realy want it. Not the spirit that you can become millonaire starting as a newspaper boy within one generation.
Het meisje met het rode haar (1981)
Final recognition of a Communist resistance heroine
"The girl with the red hair" tells the story of the Dutch resistance fighter Hannie Schaft (1920 - 1945). Together with "Sophie Scholl, the final days" (2005, Marc Rothemund) "The girl with the red hair" forms an interesting combination. In both films a young girl goes into resistance against the Nazi regime and in both films she pays with her life.
There are however also differences between the two films. Sophie Scholl remained nonviolent while Hannie Schaft hardened during her career in the resistance movement and ultimately performed liquidations. "The girl with the red hair" is mainly about the character development of Hannie in the resistance movement.
In the beginning of the film Hannie gives up her law school in order to serve justice in a more practical (and violent) way. This reminded me of "A short film about killing" (1988, Krzysztof Kieslowski). In this film from the Dekalog series a law student is portrayed both during his final exam and his first case.
In practical life al sorts of ethical issues arise. Focused on working in a resistance movement during the Second World War one can think of the following.
How to take into account possible reprisals the German occupier would undertake? This issue is at the heart of "The assault" (1986, Fons Rademakers). This film centers around a liquidation not performed by Hannie Schaft, but it is presented in a way very much like a liquidation Hannie Schaft did perform.
How to eliminate personal motives in selecting actions and targets? This issue appears in "The girl with the red hair" after the death of the fiance of Hannie.
It is also interesting to compare "The girl with the red hair" with "Soldier of Orange" (1977, Paul Verhoeven). In this comparison the ethical issues are not so much ones that the resistance fighter has to take into accoount regarding the society but much more the other way round. "Soldier of Orange" is the story of Erik Hazelhof Roelfzema, also a resistance fighter, but one of a more glamerous kind than Hannie Schaft. Roelfzema had also connections with the royal family. Right after the war Roelfzema was very popular, but his popularity diminished when it was revealed in 2015 that he was involved in planning a coup in 1947 to prevent the independence of Indonesia.
Hannie Schaft on the other hand was not very popular after the war because of her Communist background. After the end of the Cold War her popularity is once again on the rise.
Hannie Schaft is played by Renée Soutendijk, an actress that was at the top of her game in those years. She played both in arthouse movies such as "The girl with the red hair" as in more commercial films such as for example "Spetters" (1980, Paul Verhoeven). She could also play very different characters. In "The girl with the red hair" she plays an idealistic girl from the higher classes, in "Spetters" on the other hand she plays a very opportunistic girl from lower descent.
"The girl with the red hair" is a rather slow movie, and so is the music. I imagined hearing music similar to that from films of the brothers Taviani. I was right. Nicola Piovani wrote the music, as he did for "Fiorile" (1993, Paolo and Vittorio Taviani).
The cinematography is very beautiful, somewhere in between color and black and white. A bid like the cinematography in "Sleepy hollow" (1999, Tim Burton). Of course the red hair is in color and really sets the images on fire.
Challengers (2024)
Slow motion plus drops of sweat does not make a new "Raging bull"
"Challengers" is a love triangle situated in the world of tennis. The two male rivals are childhood friends that have been driven apart over the years. One has become a world class tennisplayer, the other has wasted his talent due to a lack of discipline. At one moment they are facing each other again at the tennis court in a second rate tournament. For one this is his usual habitat, for the other it is a come back event after an injury. The game between these two men is however about much more than just winning a game of tennis.
The film is told using multiple flash backs, jumping back and forth in time. In "Challengers" this results in a plotline that is sometimes confusing. In this respect the jumping back and forth in time is done better in "Blue Valentine" (2010, Derek Cianfrance).
As already indicated, the love triangle is at the core of this movie. In this triangle the character of the woman is not very convincing. She sometimes alternates between fighing and making love very fast, a little too fast.
The film frequently uses slow motion, in the tennis scenes often accompanied by falling drops of sweat. Sounds familiair, because this combination was also used in "Raging bull" (1980, Martin Scorsese). In this film these images proved to be very effective, in "Challengers" they are used much too often and become laughable at last.
The film contains some images in which the tennis match is followed trough the point of view of the ball. These images are really stunning, but not enough to save the film.
When my newspaper published a review of this film it also published an article of love triangles in films through the last few decades. Compared with these films "Challengers" is certainly not on top.
Cyrano de Bergerac (1990)
Some stills resemble a Vermeer painting
Most of the time I start reviews with the themes of the movie, the content. In the case of "Cyrano de Bergerac however I would like to start with the design and the performances of the actors, because in my opinion this is what makes the film form good to superb.
The cinematography of exterior scenes is sometimes very beautiful using misty landscapes. At some moments these images made me think of "Tess" (1979, Roman Polanski).
The cinematography of interior scenes is also very beautiful, mainly in relation to candlelight. In these scenes my thoughts wandered in the direction of "Barry Lyndon" (1975, Stanley Kubrick). Another comparison is with the paintings of Johannes Vermeer. Vermeer painted a lot of women reading (love)letters and in "Cyrano de Bergerac" Roxane (Anne Brochet) also reads a lot of love letters.
With respect to the actors, Anne Brochet is beautiful enough to make it plausible that so many men fall in love with her. However I would like to call attention in the first place to the performance of Gérard Depardieu as Cyrano. His performance is both comic and tragic in equal measure. Later in this review I will mention a scene in which his performance contains both elements. In later years Depardieu would become a rather nasty and aggrieved old men that makes it easy to forget how good he really was in his best years.
At last I would like to say something about the theme of the film. The film is not about a love triangle but even about a love quadrangle, a woman (Roxane) loved by three men (Cyrano, Christian (Vincent Perez) and the Comte De Guiche (Jacques Weber)).
Two of these men however combine to be one lover, Christian delivering the looks and Cyrano delivering the charms and the eloquence. In a rather comic balcony scene Christian conquers Roxane with the aid of the poetry of Cyrano. When Christian and Roxane go inside to make love, Cyrano walks away in heavy rain, his head bended. A really heartbreaking image.
The other lover, de Comte De Quiche, uses more worldly means to reach his goal. He is a high ranking officer and sends his competitors in love into war in the hope they don't survive. In this way the old Biblical story of David, Uriah and Bathsheba enters the film.
Sophie Scholl - Die letzten Tage (2005)
A show trial with very much show and very little trial
There are many movies about the Second World War, but relatively few of them are made by a German director. Most of these German war movies contain an element of repentance, from "Die Mörder sind unter uns" (1946, Wolfgang Staudte) to "Der Hauptmann" (2017, Robert Schwentke).
"Sophie Scholl" (2005, Marc Rothemund) is somewhat different in the sense that its main (historical) character (Sophie Scholl played by Julia Jentsch) was a war heroine. "Sophie Scholl" preceded other German war films with the main character on the right side of history. Think of "Elser" (2015, Oliver Hirschbiegel) and "Der Staat gegen Fritz Bauer" (2015, Lars Kraume), although in the last mentioned movie the hero was active after the war and fought against the tendency in Germany to remain silent and forget about all those war crimes.
"Sophie Scholl" has much in common with "The girl with the red hair" (1981, Ben Verbong). This film is about the Dutch resistance fighter Hannie Schaft, who was also executed during the war. The similarities are obvious: girl, student, resistance fighter, executed. Cinematographically it can be added that in both films the color red is dominant. In "The girl with the red hair" the reason is obvious, in "Sophie Scholl" it is caused by the red Nazi banners in, among other places, the court room.
There are however also differences between the two films. Sophie Scholl remained nonviolent while Hannie Schaft hardened during her career in the resistance movement and ultimately performed liquidations. "The girl with the red hair" is mainly about the character development of Hannie in the resistance movement while "Sophie Scholl" is in essence a court room drama.
"Sophie Scholl" is based on the proces-files of the Nazi regime, so not only Sophie is an historical figure but also Gestapo investigator Robert Mohr (Alexander Held) and President of the court Roland Freisler (André Hennicke). Both are Nazi's and thus essentially bad, but what a difference.
After getting a confession Mohr gives Scholl the opportunity to express regret, which may have saved her life. She refuses.
Freisler is a judge and public prosecutor in one person. The trial is a show trial with very much show and very little trial. You may wonder if the film makes a caricature of Kreisler, but I am afraid this is not the case. Freisler had studied the Soviet show trials very carefully, he even visted them in 1938. Freisler was responsible for more death sentences than all other Nazi judges combined.
Classe tous risques (1960)
A criminal becoming a family man
"Classe tous risques" is the debut movie from director Claude Sautet. It's a crime movie and as such not very representative for the oeuvre still to come. It builds upon the movies of directors such as Jacques Becker, Jean Pierre Melville and Jules Dassin.
The film depicts the crime scene in a very realistic way, and this is no wonder because it is based on a novel by José Giovanni, a writer who had first hand knowledge of this scene. Also "Le trou" (1960, Jacques Becker) was based on his work.
I was especially intrigued by the tempo changes in the movie. It begins fast, is slow in the middle and accelerates again towards the end.
In the opening the main character Abel Davos (Lino Ventura) tries a last heist before retiring. Had he seen some crime movies he would have realised that a last job just before or just after retirement is risky business. See for example films like "Touchez pas au grisbi" (1954, Jacques Backer) or "Rififi" (1955, Jules Dassin). "Classe tous risques" is no exception, but Abel does not get shot or arrested. Instead he loses his wife and ends up being a widower with two little kids.
Here starts the (slow) middle part of the movie. Abel changes from criminal to family man and his main concern is finding a safe haven for his children. This middle part may not be so at odds with the rest of the oeuvre of Sautet as I have suggested above.
Abel contacts his former gang members to help him, but in the preceding years they have grown accustomed to quiet and luxurious civil lives (see also the problem of the main characters in recruiting their old band members again in "The blues brothers" (1980, John Landis)). They recruite the young gangster Eric Stark (played by Jean Paul Belmondo who would become famous in the same year in "A bout de souffle" (1960, Jean Luc Godard)) and although Eric does the job, Abel is disappointed in his former comrades and considers their behaviour as breaching the code of honor.
In the last part of the film Abel takes revenge on his former comrades. The ending scene shows him disappearing in the crowd while a voice over tells us about his final fate, thereby depriving this fate of all glamour.
"Classe tous risques" is a real men movie, with men's friendships arisng and perishing. However don't underestimate the women's part. I am not only referring to the character of Liliane (Sandra Milo), the love interest of Eric Stark. There are also a couple of women that have very limited screen time and no obvious contribution to the plot that nevertheless contribute to the look and feel of the movie (at least for me). Think of the woman looking out of the window when Eric is refeulling ths car. Think also of the girl in the apartment building (Betty Schneider) with whom Abel has a conversation when tapping water.
Borgman (2013)
Disrupting a middle class family from the outside
The films of Alex an Warmerdam are unique, and "Borgman" is no exception. Nevertheless it is possible to find some recurring themes and make comparisons with other movies.
A recurring theme is for example the dysfunctional family, which can be seen already in his debut as the director of a feature length film "Abel" (1986). In "Abel" however the disruption comes from within, as is already obvious in the dinner scene at the opening of the movie. Some interpretations of "Able" may see Zus (Annet Malherbe) as a disruptive force from outside, but to me this interpretation is a little bit far fetched.
In "Borgman" the disruption comes clearly from the outside in the form of the title character played by Jan Bijvoet. The next questions are who is Borgman and what are his motives?
These questions are not easy to answer in "Borgman". Take for example "Cape Fear" (1991, Martin Scorsese). Also in this film there is an outsider (Max Cady played by Robert de Niro) exposing the hypocrisy in a middle class family. This outsider has however obvious reasons for revenge. Borgman does not have these reasons. Yes the man of the couple is very aggressive at the first meeting, but this first meeting takes place on the initiative of Borgman. Before this meeting they didn't know each other.
A film where the motive of the outsider is equally unclear is "Teorema" (1968, Pier Paolo Pasolini). Whatever the motives of this "visitor" (Terence Stamp) are, his deeds are much nicer.
Right at the beginning I got my suspicions about the Borgman character when he is being hunted fanatically by some villagers. Where does the hatred of these villagers come from? We will never know because we will see these villagers never again, but with the film progressing we will see that Borgman doesn't bode well.
Last but not least I will make a comparison with "Invasion of the body snatchers" (1956, Don Siegel). At first sight this film seems far removed from "Borgman", but let's not forget about the Biblical message with which Borgman opens ("And they came down to the earth to strengthen their ranks"). This directly gives the movie something extra terrestrial. This extra terrestrial element is reinforced by metamorphosis (scenes with greyhounds), strange scars on the back of Borgman and his companiens and mind control.
Borgman is able to guide the dreams of the wife of the couple by sitting naked on her body when she sleeps. These images are both very strange, very strong and very discomforting.
All in all "Borgman" is a very unfathomable movie, even for van Warmerdam standards. For some this will be a recommendation. For me the film did a very great demand on my ability to come up with my own interpretation.
Hereditary (2018)
Complex feelings of guilt
2018 was a good year for the horror genre. Two young directors made their debut in this genre. John Krasinski with "A quiet place" and Ari Aster with "Hereditary". A year later Aster would make the folk horror "Midsommar".
In horror movies the horror can come from the outside or from within (psychological horror). In "A quiet place" the horror clearly comes from the outside world. Hereditary" is a much more psychological movie.
I think the most important theme of "Hereditary" is the bereavement of a mother after the death of her child, especially when there are also feelings of guilt involved. In this respect "Hereditary" can be compared with a (non horror) movie like "Three billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri" (2017, Martin McDonagh).
In "Three billboards ..." the feeling of guilt has to do with the fact that the daughter has died after she had left the house after a quarrel. In "Hereditary" the daughter has died because her older brother has not taken care of her at a party. He was much to busy seducing his girl friend. The mother was the one who insisted upon the daughter accompanying her brother to the party. The feeling of guilt in "Hereditary" is therefore more indirect than in "Three billboards ... ", but also more complex. The one more directly to blame for the dead of the young girl is the elder son, but what are the feelings of a mother towards her child that is responsible for the death of another of her children?
A mistake horror movies often make is following up a slow build up in the first half with excessive shocks in the second half. "Hereditary" does not manage to avoid this mistake, but neither do "A quiet place" or "Mother!" (2017, Darren Aronofsky) from a year earlier.
A Few Good Men (1992)
A cat and mouse game, but who is the cat?
"A few good men" is a court room drama. Unlike most other court room drama's it is character driven and not plot driven.
The story is about abuse of power by a high ranking officer (Col Nathan Jessep played by Jack Nicholson). He does this not by himself but commands some subordinates to do his dirty work. These subordinates must appear before a court-martial when someone dies.
The film contains three different psychological relationships.
Between the suspect subordinates and the lawyers from the army.
Between the two lawyers (Lt Daniel Kaffee played by Tom Cruise and Lt Cdr Joanne Galloway played by Demi Moore).
Between Kaffee and Jessep during an interrogation in court.
I will make some remarks about each relationship.
At first Kaffee tries to make a deal with the suspects, a reduced sentence in exchange for a confession. Both suspects are shocked. They have done nothing wrong, they have only followed an order. Only gradually it dawns on them that there is a difference between following a legitimate and illegitimate command.
As I have already said, at first Kaffee tries to make a deal. He is not very fond of studying an extensive file and he sees a deal as a guick solution. Joanne Galloway is not very charmed of his approach. She knows more about the hierarchy in the army and suspects what has actually happened. Besides in her opinion a lawsuit entails more than just making a deal. It is also about principles and truth. Piece by piece she convinces Kaffee of her approach. It remains rather vague whether this is due to the fact that she is Kaffee's superior, the strength of her arguments or her female charms. It is a wise choice by director Reiner to avoid giving away clues by inserting a romantic ending, but the impression remains that feminine charms at least play a role. The chemistry between Cruise and Moore is one of the gems of this film.
Last but not least the relationship between Jessep and kaffee during the interrogation. This game of cat and mouse is power-acting of both Cruise and Nicholson. The only surprise is who is the cat and who is the mouse. Jessep is untouchable at his home base. Just like the subordinates a command is for him a command, the only difference being that he is giving them. It is precisely this total lack of opposition that makes him vulnerable in court.
De aanslag (1986)
How one event damaged multiple lives
"The assault" is a film which shows the interaction between "big history" and "small or family history".
Two years later "The unbearable lightness of being" (1988, Philip Kaufman) would use the same theme with respect to a love triangle situated during the Prague spring.
"The assault" is situated in Holland during the last winter of the Second World War. A Dutch traitor is killed by the resistance before the house of the family Steenwijk. As a retaliation the whole family Steenwijk is killed by the Germans except for their youngest son Anton (Derek de Lint). During most of the rest of his life Anton tries to find out what exactly happened in that night.
The film covers the years 1944 - 1981, that is almost forty years. In doing so the film shows how one drastic event can change an entire life. In order to explain the leaps in time a voice over is necessary. This voice over feels somewhat formal in an otherwise compelling movie.
Maybe the strongest point of the movie is that one event is highlighted from different perspectives. Not questioning the existence of a single truth, as in "Rashomon" (1950, Akira Kurosawa), because at the end of the film (but not a moment earlier) we know the truth.
Instead the film shows how one event can influence not one but multiple lives. Sure, the story of Anton Steenwijk and his family remains the main story, but apart from Anton we meet:
Fake Ploeg (Huub van der Lubbe), the son of the traitor, whose life after the war was very difficult because his father had been on the wrong side in the war.
Cor Takes (John Kraaijkamp Sr), the man who shot the traitor although he knew a possible retaliation would kill innocent people.
Karin Korteweg (Ina van der Molen), the woman who, together with her father, was the first to see the dead body of the shot Ploeg. They had to make a difficult decision.
"The assault" is an adaptation of a novel by the famous Dutch writer Harry Mulisch. It was the first Dutch movie to win an Oscar in the category "Best Foreign language film".
Much of the oeuvre of director Fons Rademakers is based on novels by famous Dutch authors. Earlier he made "The dark room of Damocles" (1963, based on a novel by Willem Frederik Hermans) and "Max Havelaar" (1976, based on a novel by Multatuli).
Scarface (1983)
Al Pacino did a great job by convincingly playing both Tony Montana (Scarface) and Michael Corleone (The Godfather)
"Scarface (1983, Brian De Palma) was inspired by "Scarface" (1932, Howard Hawks), and thus indirectly by Al Capone, but it is certainly not a remake of it.
In other reviews I read that the film is much closer to "The Godfather" trilogy (1972, 1974 and 1990, Francis Ford Coppola). In my review I will predominantly compare "Scarface" with this trilogy, not in the least because I haven,t seen the 1932 version of "Scarface".
I will focus most on "The Godfather part II" (1974), because in both films Al Pacino is the lead actor.
To begin with the story. In both films an immigrant to the United States makes a big career in crime. Ruthless himself he assumes the same ruthlessness in his opponents and grows more and more paranoia. At the end of the film he is like a prisoner in his own luxurious bunker (although what is happening in this bunker in the respective last scenes is very different. Very different indeed).
There are differences too. Tony Montana comes from Cuba and has already a criminal career before he comes to the Unites States. Michael Corleone aspires a civil career at first and only slowly becomes the new Godfather.
Another difference is that the "Scarface" of De Palma is firmly rooted in the 80's. The eighties of "Greed is good" and the hedonistic and swaggering culture of a TV series such as Miami Vice, a TV series situated in the same city as "Scarface" (1983). This eighties culture (greed, hedonistic, swaggering) turns out to be a perfect match with the personality of Tony Montana.
Lets move on to the characters. Michael Corleone is introverted, thoughtful and diplomatic. Tony Montana on the other hand is extroverted and bluffing is his strongest (or only) weapon. It is really amazing that Al Pacino manages to convince as such diametrically opposed characters.
In both films family loyalties are important, but the loyalty of Tony Montana to his sister Gina is rather strange. It is not quite an incestuous relationship but Tony opposes every sexual rapprochement between a man and his sister, thereby in fact refusing his sister a normal sex life. This can't go well for very long, and it doesn't.
A difference I would like te call attention to is the relationship between crime and the regular economy in both films. Michael Corleone is politically deft enough to blur the distinction. Tony Montana is evidently not. In a telling scene he is dining in an expensive restaurant. When drunk he accuses the other clients from being hypocritical. They see him as the bad guy, but they are no better. There is a grain of thruth in this. Whether the criminal product is booze (Al Capone during the prohibition) or gambling and prostitution (Corleone family) or cocaine (Tony Montana) it is only supplied when there is demand. This demand often comes from people who consider themselves as decent.
Last but not least the design of the movie.
The cinematography of "The Godfather" is very dark and earned cinematographer Gordon Willis the nickname "Prince of Darkness". In the most famous still from the film Michael Corleone wears a black suit.
In contrast and more in keeping with the extroverted character of Tony Montana he wears mostly white costumes and the central room in his castle is in almost hallucinatory red and black. It made me almost think of the color palette of "Cries and whispers" (1972, Ingmar Bergman), a film that is completely different in almost all other respects.
Hit Man (2023)
Descending into the depths of Dionysus
The hitman is already for a long time a popular character in crime and (neo) noir films. For me the ultimate hitman-film is "The day of the jackal" (1973, Fred Zinnemann). In this film Edward Fox plays a hitman that is professional, emotionless and a typical loner.
Only the last description does apply to Gary Johnson (Glen Powell) in "The hit man". He is however not a real hit man but an undercover hit man. He meets people looking for a hit man and makes sure the compromising evidence is on tape.
In order to do this he changes outfit all the time and this leads to a comic costume parade, including an imitation of Anton Chigur (Javier Bardem), the hit man from "No country for old men" (2007, Ethan & Joel Coen).
Being partly a comedy, "Hit man" is an odd one in the oeuvre of director Richard Linklater, who is mostly known for his "Before .... " relation trilogy (1995, 2004,2013) and his coming of age film "Boyhood" (2014).
"Hit man" really takes of when Gary Johnson falls in love with one of his clients (Maddy Masters played by Adria Arjona). It is the starting point of a roller coaster of numerous unexpected twists and turns.
One of the themes is losing sight of the difference between your undercover "me" and your real "me". It happens in numerous film, but it also happens in reality. In an investigation from 1994 - 1996 the Dutch parliament studied how it happened by the police while combatting organized crime.
The fact is however that Gary Johnson has two real "me's", one as a part-time police officer and one as a professor in philosophy. The last one delivers the philosophical theme of the movie of how to find a satisfactory balance between ratio and discipline (represented by the Greek God Apollo) and feeling, emotions, instincts and living dangerously (represented by the Greek God Dionysus).
Remarkable is that where his most famous films (The "Before" trilogy and "Boyhood") are typical for an Apollonian world, "Hit man" descends to the depths of Dionysus.
By the way, "Hitman" is in my opinion not very flattering for women, showing how they prefer the sex appeal of a hit man to that of a "dull" police officer (let alone a nerdy professor).
Mindenki (2016)
A children's movie full of food for thought
In this list I usually review feature length movies, that is films with a duration of at least one hour. Exceptions to this rule are relatively rare. Examples are "The bespoke overcoat" (1955, Jack Clayton) and "Vincent" (1982, Tim Burton).
The Hungarian short "Sing" is another exception. Apart from being short (25 minutes) it is also meant as a children's movie. This is however not to be taken very literally. I saw the film from 22:15 - 22:40 PM, not children's prime time.
The film is about a girl that has recently moved to a new elementary school . She is somewhat uncertain and to make friends she joints the school choir.
I will not further elaborate on the plot. Let is suffice that the plot contains some ethical choices (to be honest versus to be successful) and some life experiences (best intentions causing serious (psychological) injuries. Both are viewed from the perspective of both children and adults.
In 2017 the film rightly won an Oscar in the category Best Live Action Short film.
Stand by Me (1986)
The best coming of age movie of the eighties
Rob Reiner is in my opinion an underrated director. Apart from "Stand by me" (1986), the film this review is about, he made other marvelous films such as "When Harry met Sallt" (1989), "Misery" (1990) and "A few good men" (1992).
"Stand by me" is an adaptation of a Stephen King novel (just as "Misery") whose original title was "The body". I understand the decision of Reiner to change the title. "The body" would have evoked an association with rancid coming of age films, a genre which the 1980s were already full of.
The new title is derived from the (very good) 50's soundtrack, but it contains also an ironic undertone. The film is about a couple of boys, about 12 years of age, at the end of the elementary school. Next year they will go to the high school, and due to differences in intelligence it is already obvious that they will go to different schools and not stick together.
During the adventure where the film is about they are however still together. In fact by revealing their most intimate secrets to each other they grow closer and closer to each other. In this respect the film resembles "The breakfast club" (1985, John Hughes), the other excellent teenage movie from the 80's.
"The breakfast club" is about 16-18 years old, in "Stand by me" the characters are some years younger. In "The breakfast club" the group consists of individuals of different social or political background, in "Stand by me" the group consists of individuals who, for some reason, are not popular guys. Being among each other they loosen up and are not afraid anymore to tell what really moves them.
In my opinion "Stand by me" is the best coming af age film of the eighties. It has a moving story, a pleasant soundtrack and the landscape from Oregon (not the mostly filmed State of the USA) is beautiful after all.
Platoon (1986)
Showing the Vietnam war as the hell it really was
There are numerous films made about the war in Vietnam, but only four of them really stand out. Two made at the end of the seventies ("The deer hunter", 1978, Michael Cimino and "Apocalypse now", 1979, Francis Ford Coppola) and two made in the second half of the eighties ("Platoon", 1986, Oliver Stone and "Full metal jacket", 1987, Stanley Kubrick).
"Platoon" is for a great deal autobiographical and does not have a clear storyline. Just as the real Vietnam war made no sense after all. The film is not very flattering from an American point of view. Right at the beginning when the soldiers arrive, the return load of their plane happens to be a lot of body bags. In the rest of the movie we encounter drugs abuse, violence against Vietrnamese citizens and internal disagreemens between American soldiers escalating in a violent way. On top of this the film emphasizes that most of the American soldiers are from the poor and low educated parts of society.
Comparing "Platoon" with "The deer hunter" the fact that most soldiers are poor is in my opinion told more effectively in "The deer hunter" In "Platoon" it is just told to us by Chris (Charlie Sheen), a volunteer from the middle class that feels morally obliged to fight in the Vietnam war because his dad fought in the Second World War and his granddad in the First World War. We see the movie through the eyes of Chris, who is the personification of Oliver Stone. In "The deer hunter" however the movie starts in America and we see for ourselves that the recruits are poor factory workers. For me this is much more convincing than just a spoken line.
Another difference between "The deer hunter" and "Platoon" is that in "The deer hunter" the Vietnamse are torturing American prisoners of war. In "Platoon" Vietnamese soldiers are nearly invisible (but always present in the minds of the American soldiers) and the most shocking scene is the burning down of a Vietnamese village, maybe inspired by the real massacre of My Lay. In the seventies showing American war crimes was apperently still not acceptable, a decade later it was.
This scene in the Vietnamese village is a key scene in the film. It is the cause that a conflict between Sgt Barnes (Tom Berenger) and Sgt Elias (Willem Dafoe) arises or at least worsens. Sgt Barnes is in this film the bad guy for whom a soldier is just a weapon. Sgt Elias is the good guy for whom a soldier is in the first place a human being.
Both Tom Berenger and Willem Dafoe put in a great performance. At that time they were both at the beginning of their career, as were Robert de Niro and Meryl Streep when playing in "The deer hunter". The most prominent film of Tom Berenger to date at that time was "The big chill" (1983, Lawrence Kasdan), that of Willem Dafoe "To live and die in L. A." (1985, William Friedkin). Compared to these two the performance of Charlie Sheen is a little disappointing. A peculiarity is that the Sheen family is acting in 2 of the 4 famous Vietnam movies, father Martin playing in "Apocalypse now".
Chris comments about the disagreement between Barnes and Elias: "I can't believe we're fighting each other when we should be fighting them.". I think this quote characterizes "Platoon" as a whole. At the eightes it was already possible to discuss the dark side of American actions in Vietnam, but there was still no real thinking about the question why we should be fighting "them". The recognition that Vietnam was a post colonial conflict and not a conflct fitting in the Cold War was still to come.
November (2017)
Estonian folk horror
"November" is a film from Estonia. Apart from "Darkness in Tallinn" (1993, Iikka Järvi-Laturi) I can't remember that I have ever seen another film from Estonia. And even counting in "Darkness in Tallinn" is not wholy justified as this film is situated in Estonia but made by a Finnish director.
"November" can be characterized as "folk horror". A genre in which christianity is mixed with or even overgrown by pagan religion. This genre was given a boost by Robert Eggers, for example in his films "The witch" (2015) and "The lighthouse" (2019). Given his success the genre proliferated to other countries, for example to Estonia but also to my homecountry the Netherlands ("Moloch", 2022, Nico van den Brink).
The story of "November" is rather simple. A girl loves a boy but this boy loves another woman. By means of black magic the girl tries to make the boy fall in love with her. The problem with the movie is however that the black magic part is rather incomprehensible. "November" shares this feature with some other Eastern European movies situated in the Middle Ages, such as "The Saragossa manuscript" (1965, Wojciech Has) and "Marketa Lazarova" (1967, Frantisek Vlacil).
Folk tales often contain a core of moralism. Take "Little Red Riding Hood" who warns teenage girls for men with sexual intentions. That later versions (Grimm brothers) took the sharp edges off is another story. For an adaptation of the original version of "Little Red Riding Hood" see "The company of wolves" (1984, Neil Jordan).
Like folk tales also folk horror often contains a core of moralism, and "November" is no exception. In this film the girl faces the (moral) question how far to go with the use of black magic in order to get the boy she wants.
Apart from black magic the story also contains some historical content. The peasants in "November" are native Estonians, but the nobility is German. This draws attention to the fact that the Baltic states for a long time belonged to the sphere of influence of East Prussia. You can still see that from the names of some cities. The Lithuanian city of Klaipeida was formerly known under its German name of Memel.
Laura (1944)
Ceci n'est pas un triangle amoureux!
In "Laura" inspector McPherson (Dana Andrews) investigates the murder on title character Laura (Gene Tierney). His suspicions soon fall on two men in Laura's life: lover Shelby Carpenter (Vincent Price) and mentor Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb).
A love triangle doesn't seem to be the case because the relationship between Laura and Waldo looks entirely Platonic. At first sight.
The casting of "Laura" is strong. Gene Tierney was one of the Hollywood beauties of that day. Vincent Price would become famous in Roger Corman movies from the early '60s on but proves in "Laura" that he can also play other genres than horror. Gem of the cast is however Clifton Webb. Being a homosexual there was some resistance inside the production company, but to be honest this makes the Platonic kind of his relationship with Laura only more credible. Webb was nominated for best actor in a supporting role for his performance.
This credibilty of the Platonic kind of the relatiosnhip is starting to show cracks however when Lydecker, who is a newspaper columnist, attacks all men who come close to Laura in a romantic sense in his colums. In this way Lydecker resembles the character of J. J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster) in "Sweet smell of success" (1957, Alexander Macjendrick), who "protects" his sister in a similar way.
There is another similarity that is worth mentioning. During his investigation inspector McPherson gradually falls in love with Laura. Laura being murdered he does so however in response to a painting. A man falling in love to a painting, which movie does that bring to mind? Exactly, "Vertigo" (1958, Alfred Hitchcock)!
Westfront 1918: Vier von der Infanterie (1930)
Ende ?
"Westfront 1918" is a film about the First World War that was released in the same year as the more famous ""All quiet on the Western front" (1930, Lewis Milestone).
Both films have similarites. For exampla both films contain a love affair between a German soldier and a French girl, implicating that it is the leaders of the countries that are at war, not the citizens. "Westfront 1918" is made on a smaller, more intimate, scale and is in my opinion the bleaker film.
In both films there is a scene in which a soldier has furlough and returns to his hometown for a while. The main difference in my opinion is the way in which this hometown is portrayed. In "All quiet on the Western front" the homefront is represented by Professor Kantorek, the schoolteacher still holding his pro war speeches to recruit his pupils. In "Westfront 1918" the homefront is represented by the wife of the soldier, caught in bed with the butcher, driven as she is by hunger. It goes without saying that the furlough, to which the soldier has been looking forward so much, becomes a torment for both. I would almost say that this scene is just as fierce as the battle scenes, but this is not true.
Towards the end of the film the scenes are becoming ever more shocking. It begins with a cynical foreshadowing. When the soldier returns from the (disappointing) furlough he passes a workshop for crosses on the grave. Not long thereafter begins the French attack on the German trenches. This scene is memorable among other things because of the oppressive sound of gunfire and exploding grenades. A fine performance by Pabst, who was mostly a silent film director. "Westfront 1918" was his first talkie.
Few scenes have illustrated the madness of war as clearly as the scene in the field hospital that ends the film. The end is announced with a question mark "Ende?". Eerily prophetic when you realise that the film was made at the same time as the rise to power of the Nazi's.
Verdens verste menneske (2021)
Millenials having choice stress
In "The worst person in the world" there is a love triangle between two men and a woman. This is however definetly not what the film is about. Central theme in the film is rather the Millenium generation not knowing what they want.
This is illustrated by main character Julie (Renate Reinsve). Julie changes study, lovers and jobs all the time and is unsure about the question of (not) haviing children. Being thirty already she is still not grown up.
The theme is illustrated by the poster of the movie. This poster shows us Julie running, but it is unclear if she is running away from or running to.
The poster refers to one memorable scene in which Julie has a dispute with one lover, stops the world with the help of a light switch, runs to her second lover and kisses with him, runs back, sets the world in motion again and continues the dispute with her first lover.
Another memorable scene is connected to Julie's 30th birthday. This scene shows in which stage of life previous generations along the female line were at their 30th birthday.
"The worst person in the world" can be seen as the third film of the Öslo trilogy" of director Joachim Trier, the first two films being "Reprise" (2006) and "Oslo, August 31st" (2011). Apart from being situated in Oslo all of these films are about the choise stress of Millenials.
"The worst person in the world" is somehow more relaxed than the two other films. This is due to leading actress Renate Reinsve in the first place, who makes Julie a really likeable person. On the other hand the fact that Julie comes from a wealthy family also plays a role (I think). However it may be, in this film Julie can afford it economically to keep doubting endlessly.
Earlier I saw "Thelma" (2017) from Joachim Trier. The two films form an interesting contraposition. Thelma knows deep inside what she wants but struggles with the fact that her strict parents are disapproving. Julie knows obviously not what she want, but her regular chances of course are tolerated by a liberal mother.
Brooklyn (2015)
Feel good (boy meets girl) and bittersweet (homesickness) blended very well
"Brooklyn" is sort of a boy meets girl film, but a pleasant one.
When searching for the opinion of others I read a very negative review. However it turned out that this review was written from an ideologically rather biased point of view. The film was bad because it contained no bad men, an unemancipated girl and a lucky couple.
Maybe the girl is somewhat old fashioned according to today's eyes, but don't forget the film is situated in the 50's. And the girl Eilis may be somewhat timid, Saoirse Ronan (the actress playing her, what a beautiful Celtic name) is certainly not. In both "Ladybird" (2017) and "Little women" (2019), both films of Greta Gerwig, she does play emancipated women.
The strong point of "Brooklyn" is that the feel good emotion of the "boy meets girl" aspect is blended very well with the bitter sweet emotion of homesickness. Because of the death of her sister Eilis has to go home to Ireland and has to make the decision to leave for America twice. Not an easy decision!
Homesickness permeates also the life of immigrants in Brooklyn, every nationality having his own clubs and events. Eilis meets her boyfriend on an Irish evening. What does an Italian boy do on an Irish evening she asks him. I like the Irish girls is his answer, and he is right. Look at the scene in which Eilis is on the boat to America and waves goodby. Look at the girl next to her, what a gorgeous redhead!
The soundtrack is full of beautiful Irish folk music. I thought i heard music of The Gloaming but I couldn't find them at first in the listing. I did find Iarla Ó Lionáird howver, which is the lead singer of The Gloaming.
Out of Sight (1998)
When there is more between a cop and a criminal
"Out of sight" is based on the novel of the same name by Elmore Leonard. The first movie based on an Elmore Leonard story was "3:10 to Yuma" (1957, Delmer Daves) but in the second half of the nineties his stories were really popular in the filmindustry. Apart from "Out of sight" there were also "Get shorty" (1995, Barry Sonnenfeld) and "Jackie Brown" (1997, Quentin Tarantino").
"Out of sight" was also the come back film for director Steven Soderbergh. After his well received debut movie "Sex, lies and video tapes" (1989), his next films disappointed.
Formally "Out of sight" is a heist movie, but in reality it is not so much about the plot (which is rather complicated, above all because it is not told in chronological order) but about the relation between the criminal Jack Foley (George Clooney) and the US Marshal Karen Sisco (Jennifer Lopez).
This relationship resembles very much the relationship between Robert de Niro and Al Pacino in "Heat" (1995, Michael Mann). In both films the policeman / - woman and the criminal are not only enemies. In "Heat" the "not only" consists of mutual respect, in "Out of sight" it is all about romance.
This romance starts at the beginning of the film in the memorable "trunk scene". Against all genre conventions it is the woman who is mainly haunted by erotic fantasies.
A Most Violent Year (2014)
More and more tiny little cracks in the appearances
"A most violent year" is situated in the New York of the early 80's. A New york that is violent and in decay, a New York we know from "Taxi driver" (1976, Martin Scorsese).
Abel Morales (Oscar Isaac) runs a transportation business in fuel oil and tries to do this with integrity. The ethics of his competitots however is on a less high level and so his drivers are confronted with hijackings. His wife Anna Morales (Jessica Chastain) fears that the violence wil escalate and threates their family life.
This is the starting point of the film. During the film more and more cracks appear in this appearance. Director J. C. Chandor presents these cracks in a very casual manner, as if detached from the main story. To give an example on a nightly drive home the Morales run over a deer. Anna says that it is better to put the deer out of his misery, but Abel find this hard to do. After some moments Anne steps out of the car and shoots the deer. After this incident you look at Anna with different eyes.
For me this is the strongest point of the film. There are a number of small events that have nothing to do with main plot, but change our view on the main characters. This different view on the main characters on his turn certainly alters the main plot
At the end of the film we ask ourselves if the family Morales is really that different from the family Corleone ("The Godfather trilogy", 1972, 1974 and 1990, Francis Ford Coppola).
Elements that reinforce this question are:
The role of the in house lawyer Andrew Walsh (Albert Brooks), almost a "consigliere" like Tom Hagen in "The Godfather"
The meeting with the competitors like the meeting with the heads of families in the "Godfather".
The entanglement of crime and politics. Compare the role of District Attorney Lawrence (David Oyelowo) in "A most violent year" with that of Senator Pet Geary in "The Godfather part II".
After showing unethical behaviour in the financial economy with "Margin call" (2011) director J. C. Chandor focuses on the real economy in "A most violent year".
New York may have been in decay in the early 80's, the images of cinematographer Bradford Young are very beautiful. Certainly when the landscape is covered with snow.
The Tragedy of Macbeth (1971)
Faithful to both language and mood of the original Shakespeare play
The story of Macbeth was adapted for film numerous times. A few examples of directors are:
Orson Welles and his 1948 version.
Akira Kurosawa and his 1957 version known as "Throne of blood".
Joel Coen (without his brother Ethan for the first time) and his 2021 version.
Simon Godwin and his 2024 version, which is a live stage performance.
I didn't see the Orson Welles version and the Simon Godwin registration (which I will see however next weekend) and the Kurosawa version is from a very different culture.
Someone adapting a Shakespeare play ought to make two decisions:
Do I stay faithful to the original Shakespearean language or will I translate it to more normal spoken language?
Do I situate the story in its original time or do I translate it to modern times?
Fortunately most adaptations stay faithful to the original language. Why throw away such beautiful language when it's up there for grabs?
More diverse is the situation with respect to the time in which the story is placed. Joel Coen made a very abstract version and Simon Godwin has translated the story to modern times.
The version of Roman Polanski which I discuss in this review is situated firmly in the Middle Ages, and I like that very much. It is also very much situated in Scotland.
Maintaining the beautiful but also somewhat artificial language sometimes lead to the temptation to make the adaptation too cultural, too sterile. Laurence Olivier did not direct Macbeth but he did direct "Henry V" (1944), "Hamlet" (1948) and Richard III (1955). From these adaptations I suspect he would have succumbed to this temptation had he done Macbeth. Not Roman Polanski's version however, which is raw, full of mud and violence. Some reviewers link the violence to the fact that "The tragedy of Macbeth" was the first film Polanski made after the murder on his wife Sharon Tate in 1969.
The story of Macbeth is very well known and the value of an adaptation is to no small extent dependend on the interpretation of this story.
I was struck by the Greek elements in the story. A king receiving a prophecy that a certain child will succeed or even kill him when grown up tries to eliminate this child when still young. Prophesies that are very cryptic and are misinterpreted by the main characters of the story to become true still in a very unexptected way. Both elements fit in with both "Macbeth" as with for example the Greek myth of "Oedipus", although in Oedipus the child is his own child and in Macbeth the child is the son of his friend.
An important element in the interpretation of the story is the character of Lady Macbeth. Is she the evil genius that encourages Macbeth to murder the reigning monarch King Duncan? In the Polanski interpretation she certainly encourages but she encourages a plan that is already lingering in the mind of Macbeth himself. When the first phrophecy of the witches comes true (Macbeth becoming Thane of Cawdor) he thinks whether he has to wait passively for the second prophecy (Macbeth becoming King) to become true or give fate a helping hand. In fact the opening scene with the witches already gives the answer to this question.
The film ends with a scene that is not taken from the play of Shakespeare but which is in my opinion very omnious. After Macbeth has been killed, misled by the prophecy of the witches, another Scottish nobleman visits the same witches suggesting a devilish continuity.
The Godfather Part II (1974)
One of the best sequels ever
"The Godfather Part II" is both a prequel and a sequel.
In the prequel we see how Vito Corleone, this time played by Robert de Niro, becomes the Don Vito from part I.
In the sequel we follow Michael Corleone, again played by Al Pacino, after he has succeeded his father.
Sequels and prequels got a bad name in the '80s with the Rocky and Rambo films being commercially exploited leading to an ever lower quality. This is however not the case in "The Godfather Part II". According to some people this film is even better than the original "Godfather" (1972). There are a number of reasons for this.
In the first place cinematographer Gordon Willis, Prince of darkness. His dark images fit perfectly with the shady dealings the Corleone family is involved in.
In the second place the melancholic music of Nino Rota, making you identify with even these criminal characters.
But last and not least the two leading actors Robert de Niro and Al Pacino, at that time still at the beginning of their careers. It would last until 1995 before we could admire them together again in a film ("Heat", Michael Mann).
In the sequel, in my opinion the strongest part of the film, we see Michael Corleone becoming more and more paranoia. He trusts nobody and, as a result, is eventually trusted by nobody. In the final scene, just as brilliant as the final scene of the original "The Godfather", he sits in his luxurious, well-guarded house by Lake Tahoe, all on his own.
The prequel is in my opinion of lesser quality. In some scenes the young Vito Corleone is portrayed as some kind of Robin Hood. Maybe this is done to make the contrast with the cynical Michael Corleone even greater, but from the first part of the movie we know it isn't true.