chandler-47 Reviews

Why Does Herr R. Run Amok? (1970)

Early work of Magic Fassbinder

[9/10 · 3 September 2006]

I always found this movie the best Fassbinder ever did. Mr. R. is working in an engineer office, a job that isn't bad, but - as we see later - he is more a musician (his son is called Amadeus). R. wants to have a life that is organized, with things you have to do and things you like to do. In some scenes he gets in conflict with the flower power generation to whom nothing is duty but all is okay. R. does not understand it.

R's wife and her girlfriend are talking about clothes and he wants to see a feature about Muhammad Ali in television, but he does not dare to turn on the sound (this is against his rules) whereas the women don't have problems to disturb him with their conversation. He then killed them both and also his son.

The movie is difficult to watch. Some camera angles go about several minutes without any change. Is boredom the right way to explain boredom in life? I think you can only do a movie like this one time in your life.

The Shining (1980)

Nicholson saves the movie

[7/10 · 3 September 2006]

To begin with the film has three good scenes. Not much for a two hours movie that some people rate very high. The first good scene is the opening panorama shot which is more than good and one might think this is the right movie to sit through, unfortunately it falls down minute by minute. Based on a novel by Stephen King director Stanley Kubrik tries to tell the story of the writer Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) who takes a job in an empty hotel in winter Colorado together with his wife and son. His job is to heat the rooms because of frost damages. In the beginning (2nd scene) it is told him that a man who had the job years ago killed his wife and daughters because he couldn't stand the loneliness of the empty hotel ...

Then problems occur, not only for Jack who is going mad like the man years ago, but also for Kubrick and his co-screenplay writer. They do not find a concept to translate King's novel into a good film. They take elements out of it (Jack's son has supernatural powers) that do not work in a movie even if it is two hours long. A more coherent scenario would have been to focus on Jack and his visions. This leads to the second good scene. In one of his visions Jack meets the man who has killed his family and who was a former waiter in the hotel. This is a subtle and well written horror scene and we see that Jack is now taking this man as a model of his own behavior towards his family.

The third good scene is Nicholson's acting before Duval hits him with a baseball bat. This is brilliant acting in a furious monologue. We can also add the scene where he speaks to Duval in a closed room (interesting camera angle too).

Generally the movie is way too long and way too boring. It lacks of a good and tight concept and Kubrick's direction disappoints again.

Conflict (1945)

Excellent Noir

[8/10 · 28 August 2006]

This is a not much known film noir directed by Kurt (Curtis) Bernhardt. Starring Humphrey Bogart as the architect Richard Mason who kills his wife because he is in love with her sister the movie switches from a straight forward crime story to a mystery when Mason gets letters from his wife though he knows she is dead. This is an clever idea but it's very easy for an experienced crime novel reader to pre-construct the movie after thirty minutes if you listen closely. This is somehow a weakness of the whole movie, nevertheless the interest is still there because of the other qualities the movie offers. The screenplay and the editing is fast paced, the dialog is sharp without any paraphrases, the acting is to the point. The plot line offers another question: Is the sister of Richard Mason's wife also in love with him as he thinks she is? Since we see the movie from his point of view it is very unclear.

"Conflict" creates a dark atmosphere and we see Mason acting like an immoral person which we also can call existencialistic. He does not question his crime, it seems it is just something that had to be done.

Nice appearance by Sidney Greenstreet as the psychologist Hamilton.

Lantana (2001)

Uninteresting

[5/10 · 8 February 2006]

Sometimes it is a mess with film critics. Last week I have seen two movies and both were wrongly rated. The one which was written down was "The Sphere" by Barry Levinson, a pretty good sci-fi thriller, and the one praised by critics is "Lantana" - a very average movie.

The reason I sat through the two hours is because it was announced as a mystery thriller which it is of course not. The "mystery" (a vanishing wife) happens after one hour of film and one does not really care what happened to her or who might have killed her because she is an uninteresting character. The same goes for the other people in this movie. If the plot is weak the characters have to be strong. Unfortunetely the movie also fails in this direction. The main character, a policeman, is depressed and angry from the start and is depressed and angry at the end.

The women in the movie are mostly hysterical like the psychiatrist (Barbara Hershey). She fulfills the cliché that the psychiatrist is the craziest of them all. Another example is the woman with the two small kids. Though she seems to have a good relationship with her female neighbor she gets completely hysterical when her husband is invented for a short morning coffee by her neighbor. What a bunch of likable characters.

The dialog is weak also. The policeman interviews the husband of the vanished wife. Instead of focusing on the facts he asks him if he has an affair and if he is gay (!). Generally the movie has a mild undertone against homosexual people (because they might destroy families). Maybe this is the deeper message of this movie.

The only interesting thing of the movie is the editing. But we know this already from "Magnolia".

Blast of Silence (1961)

A call from the underground

[10/10 · 2 February 2006]

Blast of Silence is interesting in many ways. There is a narrator telling the story of Frank Bono whom we see arriving at Manhattan Station. It is Christmas and Frank's job is to kill a drug dealer. The narrator tells us about Frank's birth (visiualized by the train rushing through a tunnel) and that Frank never had a father. The voice-over is not used - as in other movies - to tell a story without dialogs, it has it's own function. The voice-over, spoken by the nearly 60 year old Lionel Stander, is not Frank himself (around 30 years old), it is the father he never had and who only exists in his mind.

Frank is preparing for the job, observing the dealer ("You have to be careful, Frank" says the man in his head). There are problems with the gun (Big Ralphie wants more money) and Frank has to kill him. This is not the main problem, Frank meets a former girlfriend and is thinking for a moment he could make a new start in life. But the woman was just friendly because he looked so depressed. Bono makes a mistake and tries to cancel the job ...

The movie has a very realistic atmosphere, some public scenes in New York are shot with a hidden camera. The audience does not have feelings for Frank, but it understands that he is fighting with himself. He wants to be a better man and wants to lead a better life. It is just too late. When the movie starts with Frank arriving at Manhattan Station it is already too late.

One or the Other (1974)

Thrilling crime story

[8/10 · 19 January 2006]

Based on a crime novel by Horst Bosetzky (-ky) this is one of Wolfgang Petersen's first cinema productions. The student Bernd Ziegenhals discovers that one of the professors at university has faked his doctoral thesis and blackmails him. The plot is thrilling because the professor does not stay passive, he tries to get rid of Ziegenhals. Who of them will survive at the end?

The movie is much better than the novel (which is very rare). The end is surprising and also different to the novel. I'm wondering if Petersen is thinking about a Hollywood remake of this film. The plot has a lot of potential and with better special effects than it was possible in 1974 it could be a winner.

Wanda (1970)

Unique

[9/10 · 18 January 2006]

It begins with the office clerk telling Wanda she is "too slow in every working process". Wanda loses her job. Her husband also doesn't want her anymore. He wants the divorce and the children. Wanda is asked by the judge if she agrees with the divorce. She says it doesn't matter. Wanda makes a journey. She goes to the cinema, meets a guy, sleeps with him and he leaves her. The movie goes on.

Wanda goes into a bar. There is no barkeeper but a robber who ties the barkeeper. He tells Wanda to leave. She stays. The man, Mr. Dennis, takes her into his apartment. There is something like a relationship that develops between Mr. Dennis and Wanda though Mr. Dennis is very rude. He plans a bigger robbery. Wanda wants to help.

Barbara Lodens "Wanda" is a road movie on the road to nowhere. Wanda wants to be part of something and she doesn't know of what. In her eyes we can see the whole emptiness of a not self-determined woman's life. There is not much hope, the last picture of the movie is frozen.

Jeopardy (1953)

Small piece of art

[9/10 · 16 January 2006]

It seems to be a perfect day for swimming. A normal family wants to gain advantage from it and takes a trip to the beach. Unfortunately it happens that the father is trapped under a pier and neither his wife nor the small son is able to help him out of this - whereas the tide is rising. The woman (Barbara Stanwyck) takes the car and searches for help.

John Sturges' short movie (69 minutes) is powerful because of unanswered questions. Stanwyck finds a guy who could help, but there is a price she has to pay for this. There is a double question the movie poses. How far would you go to help the man that you love, and on the other hand - observing Stanwyck's behaviors towards the stranger - does she really love her husband? Like a good short story this movie leaves the viewer to himself with questions he can only answer himself.

I... For Icarus (1979)

Top notch thriller

[9/10 · 14 January 2006]

I'm not tired to say this is one of the best political thrillers ever made. The story takes place in a fictional state, but obviously it deals with the murder of Kennedy. A truthful and honest district attorney (played by Yves Montand) does not believe that the murder was planned and executed by the single man Daslow (=Oswald) and though all other officials want to close the case he continuous to investigate with his team.

The screenplay is written tight and fast and holds the tension till the end. Just the part dealing with the Milgram experiment about authorities is (though not uninteresting) a bit out of place. The ending sequence - explaining who Icarus really is - partly shot in slow motion and intensified by a Morricone soundtrack is the most powerful sequence I have ever seen in a movie.

The Hunter Will Get You (1976)

Great entertainment

[7/10 · 13 January 2006]

This movie from 1975 is maybe the best Belmondo action thriller. He plays the headhunter Roger Pillard who is hired by the police to catch "the beast", a robber that no one can identify because he kills all witnesses. Then it happens that a robbery goes wrong and a witness survives ...

The screenplay is full of ideas with subplots and a lot of surprising twists. The subplots are well integrated in the story and do not disturb the main plot. Bruno Cremer as the beast is perfectly casted as the counter player.

Recommended.

Red Lights (2004)

Just a dream

[7/10 · 13 January 2006]

"Feux rouges" is an interesting thriller about a man searching for his wife. The plot turns when he meets a criminal and takes him up with his car on a night trip to Bordeaux. The film is thrilling until the end because you do not know what happens next. The audience is misled by some red herrings that could have been pulled out by Hitchcock. The herrings are no plot holes because the whole film is a dream. It begins with the man sitting in a bar waiting for his wife. Imagine you put this scene at the end of the movie with the man waking up out of a short sleep. It also explains the improbable happy ending and the dreamlike pictures of the night trip.

Nevertheless, it could have been a better movie. Based on a story by Georges Simeon it lacks of character building. The characters are one-sided and not very likable. Underacting is sometimes part of the film noir, unfortunately it does not work here.