The Locket is a wonderful psychological noir featuring Robert Mitchum playing a Greenwich Village artist. It’s directed by John Brahm, a German ex-pat who learned his stuff at UFA then came over here to avoid the Nazis and made some great films. I got turned onto him through the 20th Century Fox Horror Classics dvd collection, featuring three films directed by Brahm- The Undying Monster, The Lodger, and Hangover Square. These are all great and definitely worth watching.
German Genius- John Brahm
A little research led me to The Locket, an RKO gem lensed by one of my favorite cameramen, Nicholas Musuraca (the original Prince Of Darkness). Brahm also directed a Raymond Chandler based film, The Brasher Doubloon, aka The High Window, a Vincent Price vehicle The Mad Magician, and the super groovy Hot Rods To Hell! He then directed a lot of cool TV, Outer Limits, Man from U.N.C.L.E. etc. An interesting note, Brahm directed some episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, he directed a version of The Lodger years after Hitchcock did and Hitchcock’s Marnie is very similar to The Locket, but in my opinion inferior to the earlier B&W noir. The Locket is not on dvd but you can watch it as I did on YouTube.
I went to a screening of Jean Pierre Melvilles Leon Morin, Prêtre ( Leon Morin, Priest) last night at LACMA-the Los Angeles County Museum of Art . Rialto, the distributer that released Melville’s Army Of Shadows a few years ago is also releasing this film and Bravo to them for so doing. Made in 1961 and starring Jean Paul Belmondo and Emmanuelle Riva it is a very strange film. This was Belmondo’s next film after Breathless in which Melville also appeared ( in a cameo as a philosopher interviewed at the airport by Jean Seberg) and Belmondo is excellent in this film so is Emmanuel Riva, an incredible performance. Leon Morin takes place during the occupation of France by the Nazis and is narrated by Barny (Emmanuel Riva), there are no young men around due to the war and Barny fids herself attracted to a beautiful Amazon, her boss. She’s obsessed by her staring into her eyes and constantly talking about her, finally her friend blurts out ” You want to sleep with her?” and she reacts with horror. Emmanuel’s husband is dead ( he was Jewish) so she and a few friends conspire to get their children baptized to protect them from the Nazis. Emmanuel is revolted by the opulence of the catholic church and one day she goes into a confessional to tell the priest off. Here she meets her match in Jean Paul Belmondo.
She picks his confessional because she likes his name, Leon Morin, “a peasant” she thinks. They begin a fascinating verbal sparring match that continues for the rest of the film. She goes to see him certain nights at the rectory where he gives her books about dogma, the life of Christ and other religious subjects. She also sees other women going to see the priest, including at one point a infamous floozy, who boasts of 5 lovers and is being divorced. This wanton woman vows to seduce the priest but is unsuccessful. This has the effect on Barny of making her aware how handsome Leon Morin is and she thanks God in her prayers for making him so. At one point her daughter returns to her, she was living in the country, and she can no longer go to the priest’s room so he begins to come see her at home. She tries to seduce him and he runs out. She goes to confession embarrassed and ashamed. He acts like it was no big deal and tells her he wants to go on seeing her. The scenes of Belmondo in her home, playing with her daughter, putting her to bed, talking to Barny at the kitchen table, are very much like a husband and wife, the only element missing is sex. Later Barny asks the priest flat out, if he were not a priest would he marry her? And once again he storms off. He is willing to discuss anything else, even when Barny tries to insult or provoke him, “There is no God” etc. but he can’t discuss this. Melville said he saw Leon as a Don Juan, wanting to make all the women fall in love with him but never sleeping with them. He got pleasure from this. When Barny wants to convert to Catholicism, ostensibly the point behind their conversations Morin tries to talk her out of it! And we as audience members want a physical relationship to occur between our two protagonists, Melville is playing with film convention, where the two lovers that can’t see they love each other finally fall into each others arms at the end. This is what we have been conditioned to expect in movies, they kiss at the end, fade out. It doesn’t happen here. This film has a mysterious ambiguity that stays with you long after you’ve seen it. It is very thought provoking and discussion inducing. I wonder why Melville made it! Because of his obsession with the Occupation? An examination of a Don Juan character? He loved the novel and wanted to make it into a film right away. The philosopher Melville before becoming the Master of Noir.It doesn’t try to explain anything, just presents portraits of these characters under this specific set of historical conditions. It makes you think! Incroyable! Another thing that struck me is Barny’s daughter played by a young girl, Patricia Gozzi. She is an amazing actress. There is a scene where German soldiers practice maneuvers next to the country house she’s staying in. She goes out and meets a German soldier after they’re done practicing, he hugs and kisses her, gives her candy, she sings a song to him, all innocent, later she tells her mother she loves Gunther. The girl is about 9 or 10. One year later this same brilliant actress starred in the wonderful Les dimanches de Ville d’Avray (Sundays and Cybele) where a traumatized Vietnam veteran falls in love with this beautiful 12 year old. An incredible film! Winner of the Academy Award for best Foreign film of 1962. And here is a miniature version of that film, one year earlier in Leon Morin! Patricia Gozzi only did a few more films and then stopped acting, what a pity. She was incredible.
The Wonderful Patricia Gozzi
They’re showing Leon Morin again tonight ( Saturday August 15, 2009) at LACMA, check it out. By the way as you all know they announced the end of the film series at LACMA causing an uproar among Cineasts, Martin Scorsese wrote an editorial about it in the LA times, I hope it can be saved, last night the screening was packed!
Jack Nitzsche told me he really dug Michael Jackson’s song Ben the theme from the movie about a rat. I think this song says a lot about what it was like to be Michael Jackson. Here ’tis.
Mike Malloy and Mike Martinez have been working on a mind boggling documentary about the kick ass Italian Crime genre of the 70’s. They’ve got great interviews with some of the stars and filmmakers of that Golden Age. Here’s a prieview to whet your appetite.
I finally got to see John Cassavette’s wonderful Minnie And Moskowitz. They showed it at the New Beverly Cinema and it was great! A former girlfriend of mine had sung it’s praises back in the 70’s and I’d been wanting to see it ever since then. Finally I got my chance! It was worth the wait! This movie is funny, a John Cassavettes romantic comedy, if you can stretch your brain around that concept. It’s so offbeat and different, so crazy and brilliant, it was like a breath of fresh air to a coal miner that’s been trapped in a mine for 40 days and nights!
And what great performances, everybody in the film is so cool and natural and alive. Especially Seymour Cassel! This is a tour de force performance! His car parker, Seymour Moskowitz is a true Romantic, psycho! The interesting thing is that this film reflects the real behavior of these characters at that point in time, you’ll have to see it to get what I’m saying. But you do not see people acting this way today, in movies or real life. The late 60’s earl 70’s morays are incredible to watch, amazing. The film cruises along like a beautiful meandering river, never boring yet it finds the time for so many interesting characters to really express themselves, reveal a thought provoking part of their humanity. It’s beautiful and funny! After the screening Seymour got up and spoke to the crowd about his experiences working with John Cassavettes, it was a great tribute to an old friend and collaborator. Then I wound up going with Seymour and some friends to Cantor’s Deli for some late night corned beef. Rodney Biggenheimer was ensconced at his corner table looking like a mummified Beatle. Seymour told some more great stories about the making of the film and a good time was had by all! Here’s a scene from the film.
I just watched 3 short films made by modern masters of Italian Cinema. Click the magic link here and you too will be able to check them out. They are all great! The first one I watched Il Premio(The Award) was directed by the great Maestro Ermanno Olmi, check out The Tree Of Wooden Clogs, a masterpiece. Olmi’s short is wonderfully acted and directed a little jewel of a film, and very moving in an idealistic youthful way. That’s kind of the point, these three films are all designed to present a positive spin on life, in particular life in Italy. They are designed to encourage and give positive reinforcement to Italian youth, a wonderful raison d’etre. And they all succeed in different ways.
The second film I watched was a beautiful piece of Cinema Artifice, a psychological sleight of hand that worked brilliantly. It’s calledStella, directed by Gabrele Salvatores .The lead actress is incredible, she has a face that evokes so much, is so deep, you can get lost staring in to her eyes. My favorite performance of all the films.
The third film is a gem as well, La Partita Lenta (The Slow Game)directed by Paolo Sorrentino, beautiful in it’s ambiguity, in the unspoken emotions transmitted in the looks of it’s characters. And beautifully photographed in glorious Black and White. Bravo! Bravo to all three filmmakers and Bravo to Intesa Sanpaolo for making this happen. All countries should pursue creative ways of inspiring their young citizens, they are the future.
Here’s a short film about MGM’s new star Sharon Tate. It was made to publicize her during the making of her first film Eye Of The Devil. In spite of the idiotic narration there are some great moments, Sharon getting vocal instruction, Sharon go-going in swinging London with co-star David Hemmings. Every shot of her is beautiful. I recently saw some behind the scenes footage from Fearless Vampire Killers, the film where she met her husband Roman Polanski. If I find it I’ll post it as well.
Here’s the opening sequence from the seminal 60’s TV show The Prisoner. It starred Patrick McGoohan as Number 6. One of the most surreal things ever to appear on the small screen. Check it out, I still don’t know what the final episode means!
Here’s some footage shot during the making of Fellini’s Satyricon. Thanks to Jeff Gent for pointing this out. Oddly enough a guy I worked with many years ago told me he shot a lot of documentary footage on the set of this film, his name is John Taylor, we worked on a PBS kids film with Morgan Freeman. This was just before Freeman’s breakthrough role as a pimp in Street Smart. He had just finished working on Electric Company as The Count and the first thing he told us was ” I ain’t putting on that fucking cape!” So here’s to John Taylor, maybe this is some of his film.
Bernie Hamilton has shuffled off this mortal coil. Bernie was probably best remembered as the gruff, no no nonsense Captain Dobey on the 70’s TV series Starsky And Hutch. But he also appeared in some interesting films , most notably The Swimmer and Bunuel’s The Young One. The latter was almost impossible to see until fairly recently.
Bernie in Bunuel’s “The Young One”
It opened to extremely mixed reviews due to it’s racially charged subject matter, nominated for the Palm D’Or and winning a Special Mention at Cannes , one Harlem newspapper called for Bunuel to be hung from a lamppost! Hamilton plays a marooned jazz musician fleeing a potential lynch mob, an interesting role considering his brother is the great jazz drummer Chico Hamilton. Chico appears in the super cool Sweet Smell Of Successwith Burt Lancaster, Bernie was in The Swimmer with Mr. Lancaster. Bernie was also in The Jackie Robinson Story, a strange, yet moving film starring Jackie Robinson chronicling his breaking of the baseball color barrier. He also appeared in some 70’s classics like Nam’s Angels, Scream, Blacula, Scream, Hammer, and Synanon . So farewell Bernie , see you at the South Central Memorial Bar-B-Que with a hell of a band playing some cool tunes./
What the heck, here’s another classic Kung Fu epic starring the great Gordon Liu. This film influenced Quentin Tarantino quite a bit and the ShawScope opening banner seen on this trailer is the one used at the beginning of Kill Bill. It came from a print of this film. Here’s the trailer – This is essential Kung Fu, Check it out!
In the mood for some imaginative, entertaining, kick ass kung fu? Then check out Dirty Ho starring the great Gordon Liu. I had the pleasure of working on a film Mr. Liu appeared in, Kill Bill. He was in both parts of KB and to me is especially memorable in his portrayal of Pai Mei. But here is the trailer from Dirty Ho.
