#130 - The Shop on Main Street

This was a great film and the 1965 Academy Award winner for best foreign film.  It's a product of what we would call the Czech New Wave, and featured some masterful acting.

The year is 1942, and a small village is starting to deal with the effects of Aryanization and the Nazi Ruling party starting to remove the Jews from their conquered territories.  A small carpenter is given the chance to take over a Jewish Widow's shop, but her inability to understand his role ends up with him more or less becoming her assistant rather than her boss.  In the end he's more her protector, repairing her furniture, and looking out for her as events ramp up in the 2nd half of the film.   The first hour or so is almost comedic and humorous, but as the film winds along, he has to determine if he is going to help the innocent, or collaborate with the regime coming to deport the Jews for the Holocaust..   This film is done without any shock or trauma as you might expect, but it ends up being the kind of film where you quietly watch in horror knowing what is going to happen, but is never said or seen on camera.   A woman cries out for a son who's missing, and she tells the protagnist to let her boy know where she is so he can join her, and inside you're recoiling as you realize if he does show up, it's a death sentence.  You also see the transformation of people who know what is right and are willing to do it turn into people desperate to save their own skins.

Meanwhile you see it all occurring, literally, from the p.o.v. of the Shop on Main Street listed in the title - it ends up becoming where everything plays out or where we see everything playing out.

I'm always fascinated by movies that happen under these Communist Regimes, and in this case it does make it a pretty good anti-Nazi film.   It's comedic and tragic, and is part of a big batch of Czech New Wave films currently showing up on the Criterion Channel this month as part of their features.

This kind of film is why I do this - otherwise it would have escaped my radar but it's a masterpiece of a film.

#129 - Le Trou

So back to some fun stuff - this is a thrilling prison break film set in the La Sante Prison Paris. 

I guess we're lucky to have the Criterion Channel as this is out of print and even the website doesn't have any essays on it - sorta slipped thru the cracks but I enjoyed this more than most of the films in the first half of the 100's so far

So one of the things I didn't know was at the beginning, one of the characters looks up from a car he is fixing, addresses the camera and says this is his true story of a prison break - (the 2nd guy on this DVD cover) - so a couple things..

This is based on a book that was based on a true story of a convict escape from this prison..

and, get this, this guy IS THE CONVICT who helped plan that escape and served as a consultant and under a stage name basically agreed to act the part he played in the escape - he seemed familiar to me and I thought he was an actor, but he was the real deal - which may be the most incredible "appearing as himself" cameo I've ever heard of :)

So, of course, what we have here is a prison break film - 4 guys get a new fifth guy and so they're going thru the motions of getting out as well as figuring out if the new guy is good news or bad news.   One of the things that struck me in this film are the long monotonous prison sequences - there is a 4 minute prison sequence banging thru concrete, and there's a long 2-3 minute sequence of a guard unlocking a cell, letting someone exit, on to the next cell, etc.   I suppose here we're catching the monotony of prison life, but during the concrete breaking, you're also freaking out that they can make this much noise in a cell without being caught and can they get away with it and the suspense keeps you on edge

Obviously I'm not going to spoil the film but it was very suspenseful and entertaining to watch   Something else that struck me, and it's probably fictional, was the easy way the convicts and guards got along - it felt more like Hogan's Heroes than the prison environments we're familiar with today. 

This is the first time I've heard of Jacques Becker, the director but he was assistant director on The Grand Illusion - (all the way back to spine #1) and this was his last film, from what it appears.   Obviously being French, and a dramatic sort of heist, it reminded me a lot of Rififi, especially the scenes where the illicit acts are carrying out - but the tension runs pretty high, and it's a really good film

on we go

RB

#128 - My Metier

Managed to get a copy of this out of my library and judging by the quality of it, it has never been played before - LOL - pristine disk

This was a documentary with some of the actors from Carl's films - it takes a timeline view of his work and ends with the last two films we saw - if you were a massive fan I could see why you'd want to watch this - I've watched similar films with Satyajit Ray - (who man, we are years away from getting to in this catalog)

Anyhow....I started it a 2nd time cause I was multitasking the first time and thought it deserved the credit - even made a copy cause it's so freaking hard to find - it was just a nice feature and I got thru it - onward!

RB

#127 - Gertrud

I believe we have another play here adapted into a movie, Dreyer's last one.   This one was really a struggle to hold my interest - I won't lie - I might have bounced into TikTok a few times and had to rewind - I won't pretend to write a lot here - I'm honestly....just glad it's done

Lots of long dialog and extended 10 minute shots about a woman in a loveless marriage, drawn to a man who doesn't love her, and rejecting a 3rd man who has never gotten over her.   When she flees for new adventures at the end you expect the story to end but instead you skip ahead 30 years to an old spinster sitting along wondering whether she made the right choices or not

Anyways...gonna need nitrous or weed to watch this one again - sorry, Carl

RB

#126 - Ordet

Feeling better about my pace - just got about 20 new Samurai movies so I may be slowing down once I get to the documentary in a couple films just cause I can't get them until the libraries reopen.

Another film by Dreyer based upon another play - (Ordet translates to Word) - about a couple of pious families, one more so than the other, hashing out their difference when two of the kids want to wed.

I won't get too deep - (I never do) but what stood out here were some pretty long shots that Dreyer took - one sticks out to me of the crazy son who thinks he's Jesus and his niece discussing whether her mom would die and what he would do about it - it's just a long shot that the camera slowly works it's way around and it stuck out to me in a film of mostly longer shots - (some as long as 7 minutes)

I thought this tidbit from Wikipedia about how long he took to shoot - (4 months) and how he did a shot was very interesting...

Dreyer's shooting method was to shoot one individual shot per day. In the mornings Dreyer would rehearse with the actors while simultaneously blocking their movement, set up lights and block the camera movement. Then at the very end of the day Dreyer would film the single shot, usually shooting between 2 and 3 takes. Dreyer chose not to pre-plan any shots and every decision was made the day of the shoot.

These Danish films are a bit slow to get started and I've been multitasking too much when watching time - will try better next time.

RB

#125 - Day of Wrath

I probably didn't give this film my best 100% undivided attention - it was a bit slow in pacing and so I struggled cause it was on my PC and I split screened it - I had to go back a couple times.

But it's an interesting film in light of the Nazi Occupation of Denmark which was going on at the time.   It's a film about the oppression of society and authorities, and I guess it had an impact on the Dutch at the time.   There's probably a documentary out there about the cinema in occupied WWII countries, and I know there's on about 3rd Reich Cinema called Hitler's Hollywood.

it's interesting to see this in light of Le Corbeau, another occupation film coming up later (#227) - also a film about oppression, rumors, communial persecution, etc...and I'm wondering if all occupation cinema, the good stuff anyways, has these kind of themes

So basically, it's based on a play about an old pastor and his young wife who he apparently got to marry him under less than honorable circumstances.  As one might imagine, said wife's fancy turns to his young son when he comes home.

It's a little funny to see this in light of Joan of Arc, although he did some other stuff in between.   You have another situation at the beginning with a woman being hunted, religious inquisitors, and someone being burnt to death as a witch - (see that old lady on the cover - yep, she's crispy) - so he isn't going over entirely new ground here but it's a good film and it did feel very well shot

We'll see how the next two hold up.

RB

#124 - Carl Theodor Dreyer Box Set

So, we're still at a point where the box sets and the films in them have seperate numbers so I GUESS before I watch a film, the OCD in me needs an entry for #124 - let's see what we have found

we saw Carl's wonderful work in "The Passion of Joan of Arc" about 60 films back.   It appears he is Danish but was working French Cinema at the time.   Based on what I have read, we're getting his three Sound films (at the end of his career) that were in Danish, not including one before these where they mostly still used title cards.  We're also getting a documentary about his life, but it's not in the Criterion Channel.   It is in some of my local libraries and I can go curbside to pick it up - LOL - but I'll get thru these first and see if I want to drive to a library for curbside pickup - LOL

anyways, should be some good stuff coming up - it'll be a nice change from the contemporary settings of the last few films - at least a couple I believe are set in the 17th century

RB