#55 - The Unbearable Lightness of Being

#55 is one I had heard the title of for years but never gotten around to - The Unbearable Lightness of Being - a story about the lives of bohemians and lovers in 1968 Czechoslovakia at the time of the Soviet Crackdown

This was based on a novel, and at 3 hrs, must have gotten most of the source material in, I hope - an exquisite performance by Daniel Day Lewis, Juliette Binoche, and Lena Olin -

I've always been fascinated by the ideas of intellectual revolution and what one keeps hidden in a repressive authoritarian regime - A German film called "The Lives of Others" takes place in East Germany under the similar circumstances of Communism over all

As a whole the film got my attention but at 3 hrs I was hoping it could go a bit quicker - the Criterion Edition is out of print but I think the 2006 print by WB has the same commentary with the director, writer, and Lena.

Possibly my favorite part of the movie is the invasion where authentic footage of the Russian invasion is interspersed with the actors interacting - for example, in one scene, footage of two covered bodies is seen, and on the other side you see new footage (in B&W) of the actors cut into this historical footage - and with other scenes of action and motion it's even more pronounced - it's almost worth watching that part again for those 20 minutes alone

It's a book about life, exile, and love translated to the big screen - I heard the writer was unhappy with the film's adaptation and never allowed another one to be made of his books.

I liked it - not greatly - I wouldn't buy it but I might watch it again :)   BUT that's what we got - they ain't all gonna be Yojimbo - LOL

Interesting sidenote - Milos Forman was asked to do this film but turned it down because he had family living in Prague so he couldn't put them at risk doing this subversive movie :)



RB

#54 - For All Mankind

#54 is probably our first full Documentary - (not counting Nanook, which is sort of a docudrama) - This film is quite simply a document of the Apollo missions as shot by NASA, who apparently had thousands of hours of film in the archives that had never been seen before by the public.

Strictly speaking it is footage of all nine missions, and they are intercut to appear as one mission, from boarding the spacecraft, to launch, to the lander and moonwalks, back to re-entry - the Astronauts on the missions narrate some of the action and what they saw.

It's honestly something I wasn't sure I'd get into too much but when you remember again what we did - (and haven't done since) - it seems like such a massive undertaking - the sheer size of the Saturn rockets, the amazement of Earth from a distance, and some of the footage was incredibly clear - (and some was 16mm grainy) -

it's a pretty good film - there's a few extras on Filmstruck - There is also apparently - (though I didn't find it) - an ingenious use of closed captioning that is used JUST to identify faces and voices in the documentary, as you might be curious which Astronaut and mission is being seen at the time.

it would be very interesting to see an extended version with lots more footage released - (they certainly had the footage) - but as it stands it seems like just the right length - good stuff and a nice change up from the usual foreign film fare.

#53 - Sanjuro

#53 is the follow up to Yojimbo - the entertaining sequel called Sanjuro

Many of the same actors and production team are in both movies - In face, we have the same guys playing the villians, including Tatsuya Nakadai.   The interesting transition is that this time we have left the lawless world of bandits in a town and moved to the formal world of the Samurai and a corrupt administrator.   Sanjuro takes it upon himself to help a number of young samurai attempt to flush out the corruption.

In that regard it's a totally different vibe - the young samurai now look at him like the ruffian and gangsters from the first movie - he is unkempt, undisciplined, and shocking to them at times.   The Swordplay at times is excellent, and the ending is one of those eye openers the first time you catch it.

Interestingly, I learned that Tatsuya filmed his roles in these two films in breaks between parts 2 and 3 of The Human Condition, a 9 hr. epic that spanned 3 films.   Suffice it to say, now that he had gotten a chance to act for Kurosawa, he was going to work his tail off to make it happen, and he would be one of Akira's goto guys in the later samurai epics Kagemusha and Ran.

The commentary is interesting - Stephen Prince goes out of his way to highlight some of the most interesting parts of the story - in both these films, Kurosawa makes great use of the telephoto lens to flatten the action and allow you to see large amounts of in focus detail. 

Mifune would go on to play a similar character two more times - in "Zatoichi meets Yojimbo" and in "Incident at Blood Pass" but not the same one.   Nevertheless, the archtype of the scruffy ronin was one he did to great effect, and of course, he would play regular Samurai in many other period pieces, as well as a multitude of contemporary roles

I don't remember if I've spoken in detail yet about Tatsuya Nakadai, but at some point he will come up again and we can talk about him more - suffice it to say he's not usually a villian, but in these two films, he runs the gamut from crazy bandit to noble, but corrupted retainer.

Two great widescreen movies that can be found in a complementary box set with some extra documentaries, commentaries, and features.