Film clips - takeaways from recent movie watching (and match the text to the pictures)

The Silent Partner (Daryl Duke 1978). As yes, the early heyday of Hollywood North, where all of Toronto was in a tizzy that Hollywood was making movies (for tax reasons) up in Hogtown. The media couldn’t get enough of the fact stars like Elliot Gould and Chris Plummer deigned to descend on the Big Smoke for the shoots. But this movie, made in the Eaton Centre (!), is just a bit cheesy.

A New Leaf (Elaine May 1971). Embarrassed to say I’d never seen a movie by or with Elaine May, the famous comedian and director. This film was a hoot, with Walter Matthau – master of personas – donning a misanthrope Richie Rich demeanor as he marries the incredibly diffident and clumsy May, all in an attempt to reboot his wealth. Absurdist supreme.

The In-laws (Arthur Hiller 1979). I will never miss a film with Alan Arkin, or Peter Falk for that matter. Here they team as the unlikely brothers-in-law who engage in an international spy plot. Arkin’s deadpan innocence is ensnared in Falk’s mastermind craziness. There are hints of Woody Allen’s Bananas (1971). 

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three: (Joseph Sargent 1974). I’d never seen the whole thing. Yes, a thriller. But I didn’t expect the comedy that peppers the plot, most of which is of the New York “Bronx Cheer” sort as bumbling city officials and cops try to track down the unlikely subway hijackers. Walter Matthau, again, as the top transit cop, is the only one on the ball. And now I know what “one two three” means.

A Quiet Place in the Country (Elio Petri 1968). Wow. Here’s a horror story about the art world. Franco Nero, a famed modern artist named Leonardo, buys a house in the country to clear his creative block. But strange things happen when his canvasses overturn. Vanessa Redgrave also stars as his saner enabler. A great modernist score by Italian master Ennio Morricone.

Metropolitan (Whit Stillman, 1990). Preppies live! This must be the last film where people in their Twenties sit around in each other’s (luxury) apartments talking philosophy and the way of the world, all the while wearing tuxedos and evening dresses. Grunge, unfortunately, was just around the corner. 

Golden Eighties (Chantel Akerman, 1986). My first reaction was to click this off when the staff of a hair salon in a shopping mall broke into song. Then I clicked it back on and let myself be lulled into this very different and sweet musical about love and consumer culture all dressed up in the bright colours and frizzy hairstyles of the 1980s.

What Happened Was (Tom Noonan 1994). Tom Noonan is one of my favorite actors/directors and here he is with Karen Sillas in his stage play remake about a dinner date where two people can’t connect. A probing psychological drama it’s anything but comedy.

Just shows low budget films can be the greatest

Of all the films I’ve seen over the past two weeks – and there have been 11 – two especially stand out. Both are low budget flicks and both date from the 1970s. The first was News from Home by the late great (suicide 2015) Belgium auteur Chantal Akerman. Akerman spent some of her early adult days scratching out an existence in New York City. And News from Home seems to reflect her life as an immigrant to the Big Apple. All it is, is a series of long still shots of life in Manhattan circa 1976. The camera dwells on individual locations – intersections, blocks, parking lots - several minutes at a time. Recognizable locations are the Lower East Side, Midtown, 10th Avenue in Hell’s Kitchen and various subway stations. Interspersed is voice over of her mother’s letters from home – a typical provincial mother who worries about her daughter in what was then considered a very dangerous American city. But the letters are typical of an overconcerned parent anywhere, dwelling on the little events that make up family life – “Sylvaine is taking her exams, I hope she does well” - and impatient for her daughter to write more often. What the film shows, however, is the stark grit that was Manhattan in the 1970s. The streets look moody, dim, buildings dilapidated and poorly lit, a type of mist – or is it pollution? – enveloping the sky, and the bleakness and indeed filth and anarchy of the subway. Trains pull into stations, each car a canvas of grime and graffiti, the passengers like walking dead, numb to it all. (This was Son of Sam time and before the infamous Bernard Goetz vigilantism). Todd Phillips’s 2019 Joker starring Joaquin Phoenix encapsulated the era……The second film was Alfredo Giannetti’s 1971 The Automobile starring the wonderful Anna Magnani. Magnani may be lesser known to North American audiences but she was a heralded star in Italy with descriptions of her as “volcanic” and “passionate, fearless, and exciting." Tennessee Williams wrote The Rose Tattoo for her. The Automobile is the simplest of stories, yet its magnificence comes from the great Magnani, who no doubt plays herself, a suffer no fools independent woman who brushes would-be pick-ups like dandruff off her shoulders. But she’s aging. “When you are at a certain age what is there but loneliness?” she muses. The solution? Getting a car! Perhaps its midlife crisis. But no one will deter Anna from learning to drive and purchasing a yellow sports car. This film is a quirky character study of a person who won’t conform to society’s rules, living life to the beat of her own drum. A genuinely  engrossing performance…..Both films are available on the Criterion Channel.

A twin city Jewish fest & Missing the theatre?

In these “interesting times” Windsor’s Jewish film festival is hooking up with Hamilton’s Jewish festival for a joint film event this week. Richard Kamen of the Windsor Jewish Federation told me the festival will be held, virtually, on one website May 2- 13. Usually the Windsor Jewish festival, which was supposed to celebrate its 18th year last year, is held in the spring at Devonshire Cineplex. But Covid cancelled it last year and the joint virtual festival is taking place this year. Kamen said Hamilton already had a small three-film festival and it was logical to hook up with Windsor’s 10 flick event, as the two Jewish federations had collaborated on other projects. “The films were chosen by Windsor but they were reviewed and approved by Hamilton,” he said. A website at eventive.org has been created to buy tickets and passes, watch trailers and “unlock” the films for viewing. (whjff.eventive.org/welcome). “It’s basically a one stop shop,” Kamen said. There will be 10 films, one released each night at 7 pm except for Friday and Saturday because of the Sabbath. But each film has 48 hours to be unlocked and then another 48 hours to be viewed. “So technically from the moment we release it you technically have 96 hours." The films have been “critically acclaimed” and shown at numerous other festivals. Among them are Fiddler - A Miracle of Miracles (Max Lewkowicz), a doc about the making of the iconic Fiddler on the Roof. Shepherd: The Story of a Jewish Dog (Lynn Roth), is an endearing drama about a boy separated from his dog by the Nazis only to rediscover the beloved animal in a concentration camp. And Love in Suspenders (Yohanan Weller), a romantic comedy about two septuagenarians who fall in love - will their budding relationship survive the scrutiny of their children?

Am I missing going to the theatre since Covid lockdowns began over a year ago? Well, yes. There was an experience in going to a bricks and mortar venue and sharing that with others. But it wasn't even that. Physically getting up and going to a scheduled film was, for lack of a better description, an event. And I think that's what we all miss. But it's very ironic. I subscribe to the Criterion Channel. At any given moment there is a retrospective - actually several - of the films of some of best names in cinema. Currently I'm watching films of the great French post-war actress Jeanne Moreau. It's wonderful to have at my fingertips more than a dozen of her films on offer. Yet part of me is blasé. Had these same films been offered as a retrospective at a Detroit art house (Detroit Film Theatre, DIA photo), I'd be excited as hell. I'd be crossing the border (when it was opened) every night to see them. On the other hand, each time I crossed the border and attended a film in the US it would cost at least $20 - $30 US ($25 - $35 Can), once bridge tolls, gas and sometimes parking were included. That's about a third what I pay to subscribe to Criterion Channel for a year! Despite that, I would have been immensely more excited by the theatre event.