#60 - Autumn Sonata

#60 is what some call Ingmar Bergman's tour de force of his later career - (all the remaining movies he did were telemovies, so to speak) -

My only exposure to Ingmar up till now has been the Seventh Seal, and as I watched the trailer beforehand, it was very clear to me this was NOT going to be that kind of movie - LOL - in fact I thought the trailer was kinda dull

But it's a pretty good film - a mother and daughter reunite 7 years after their last time together when the mother's husband (lover?) dies.   Both of them bring a ton of baggage with them and that's kind of how the movie plays out

some thoughts - I guess close-up's are one of Ingmar's signature moves but I was surprised how much of this movie was closeups - Sometimes it was in dialogue, or sometimes watching a face as a slightly off-kilter piano performance is played for a period of a couple minutes.  If I knew an actor/actress who was looking for inspiration, I'd probably recommend this one as there is a lot of subtle playing out of emotions on these faces, especially Ingrid's face during her daughter's performance

as a side bit of snark, this is probably the kind of expression that can't happen today in modern cinema as the botox revolution practically takes away most of the facial expressions an older actress can make - but snark aside, to see an older Ingrid in this role is a stark reminder of how few good roles are available for women after a certain age

There is a ton of literature out there to suggest there is some biographical hints in this film in Ingmar's life as well as pointing out it pairs Ingrid and Ingmar together for the first time.   Liv Ullmann, who I guess was Ingmar's muse and lover for several years, plays the other lead role.   As I keep watching his films it's my understanding she pops up in a lot of lead roles in other films and for this one she is made up to look almost twice her age with none of her beauty.

I regret I did start to fall asleep on first viewing - (at 1am - dialogue driven movies in a foreign language can be a little tough) but I got thru it fairly well

in regards to special features, there's the usual interviews, an alternate english track.  If you love the film, there's a ridiculous oversized 3.5 hr documentary about every facet of the film-making, from table reads to costume trials, etc that you can watch and enjoy.

as a whole, I liked this movie more than I thought i would which is good cause some of these European dramas can be a bit of a chore - part of me wishes more external shots of the beauty of Norway were available - (dialogue in Swedish, but shot in Norway) but c'est la vie

I might get one more movie in here this month but I'm about to move so I've got to start looking at packing and starting up again when i get back to Minneapolis

RB

#59 - The Night Porter

Ugh.... I checked my phone a lot during this one - I'm not a big fan of the Nazi S/M exploitation category and I was sorta not fully aware of where this one was going.

there's a lot of stuff said about this film - some good, some bad - but like Salo, I'm not sure really what it contributes as a whole to the issues it's trying to address -

I just didn't like it - and I don't have much else to say about it except I wouldn't watch it again unless forced to at gunpoint

#58 - Peeping Tom

you can tell when the wife is out of town - I get three films in a weekend - being on call and not able to easily leave the house helps

here we have another film from Michael Powell - (The Red Shoes was the first)

Interestingly enough, the opening scene almost flashed back to the Red Shoes - a shop window on what is obviously a set of a street, almost like a stage is where we start, and it's very reminicent of the performance set in the Red Shoes - in another scene Moira Shearer gets a chance to do a dance number 12 years later

The movie as a whole is an interesting thriller released about two months before Psycho - (rumor is the reviews for this one were bad enough that Hitchcock decided to show Psycho two months later without any press screenings) - it has been rumored to be the first slasher film, and the killer does a great job of showing his creepiness

Of course, I couldn't help but think of the themes of voyeurism and cameras in a modern context where everyone wants everything they do on film and everyone carries a camera now - probably a good essay there

it was a good film - but currently out of print in the Criterion collection - it is on Filmstruck if you want to watch it though

RB

#57 - Charade

Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, and Paris - what else could one ask for? 

Here's a 1963 comedic spy thriller set in you know where with Audrey as the Lead - never heard of this one but it has a lot of the big name American actors of the day - Matthau, Kennedy, Coburn

It was a pretty good film - as Bruce Eder's essay pointed out, it was a time of macho spy thrillers, but this is the only successful one to center on a woman who is trying to figure out who killed her husband and the where/why of the finances

I always enjoy seeing color Paris of the 1960's - if I could time travel it would probably be Paris and Vegas of the 50's and 60's - a different time and world we'll never get back

some extras are included - this one isn't on filmstruck though it is still in print - so head off to the Netflix or Barnes and Nobles if you want it

#56 - The 39 Steps

Another classic Hitchcock film for #56 - The 39 Steps - it is an adaptation of a story from 1915, and was done in a couple other formats (Radio Dramas) before he got to it

Like his other early work from England (#6 - The Lady Vanishes) - it's a bit of an unusual feel - it does feel very English

the one thing that stuck out to me is that Hitchcock mentions this film as a pioneering technique of using a Macguffin, which is to say a device to drive a plot that may or may not even be known - I think the most famous one I can think of is in the Movie "Ronin" with Robert DeNiro, where the Macguffin is the Silver Briefcase, which drives the movie, and the actual contents of are never known.

Ya know - this was a decent story but I don't quite get the whole "One of the greatest films of the 20th century" drive behind it - but I'm dumb

Lots of good extras - features about Early Hitchcock, some audio that Francois Truffaut did for an interview - a radio adaptation from 1937, and some other things -

I didn't HATE it - I just didn't feel it the way some people seem to in their souls - LOL

RB