Oh the mountain of must-see movies and my humble attempts to scale it...
Progress will be compiled at the end of each month with films listed in order of preference.
The Hustler
Robert Rossen (1961)
The shadows of neo realism hang heavy in the late night bars
of this gritty New York tragedy. Paul Newman plays a pool hall hustler called
‘Fast’ Eddie Felson. Felson wants to beat the best in town but a boozed up ego
seems to hold him back. He meets a similarly troubled woman (played by Twin
Peak’s Piper Laurie) who helps him find his way. That is until a sly local
gambler decides to back his talents. Felson hones his skills but in turn, his
world crumbles. Laurie gives a performance of reserved brilliance and the young
Newman- pocketing some incredible shots- is electric. In a wonderful moment
Eddie talks about his cue having “nerve endings”. He’s trying to articulate
what it feels like to have flare course through your veins or, perhaps, what it
feels like to be alive. The film seems to catch that feeling in a bottle, both its
strength and its fragility.
Zéro de conduit/L’Atalante
Jean Vigo (1933/1934)
Despite the apparent tragedy there is something nice about
taking in a master director’s entire back catalogue in less than three hours. Tuberculosis
was to end Jean Vigo’s life aged just 29. He only directed one feature film but
is still held in the utmost regard. The French, who are hardly short on
choices, named their premier directing award after him and it’s difficult to imagine
Truffaut or his mates picking up a camera had L’Atalante not happened.
His medium length film Zero For Conduct, Inspired by Vigo’s days in boarding school, has a group of lads rise up against their teachers on the day of the school’s inspection. Light on its feet and flavoured with the sublime, it would be remade 35 years later as Lyndsay Anderson’s If… only Anderson would give the lads guns.
Then came L’Atalante. Silent era star Dita Parlo bursts with vitality as a recently married woman who takes her honeymoon on the titular barge before being tempted off by the bright lights of Paris. Its loose narrative style, earnest camera work and natural acting lend the film an enormous sense of youth and joy; for the art form or whatever else. Rightly considered one of the best of all time, Vigo would die less than a month after its release.
His medium length film Zero For Conduct, Inspired by Vigo’s days in boarding school, has a group of lads rise up against their teachers on the day of the school’s inspection. Light on its feet and flavoured with the sublime, it would be remade 35 years later as Lyndsay Anderson’s If… only Anderson would give the lads guns.
Then came L’Atalante. Silent era star Dita Parlo bursts with vitality as a recently married woman who takes her honeymoon on the titular barge before being tempted off by the bright lights of Paris. Its loose narrative style, earnest camera work and natural acting lend the film an enormous sense of youth and joy; for the art form or whatever else. Rightly considered one of the best of all time, Vigo would die less than a month after its release.
Imitation of Life
Douglas Sirk (1959)
Hollywood’s master of melodrama takes a look at
racial issues in middle-class American life with this quietly subversive effort.
The film follows the adult life of a single mother, played by Lana Turner, who
is struggling to make it as an actress. Juanita Moore plays the woman she hires
as a live in assistant. Both have daughters and so we see the four grow older
together. Turner’s character makes it big on Broadway while Moore’s struggles
to identify with her paler skinned daughter. As with most things of this
nature, the film’s edge has blunted a touch over the years but even with Hollywood’s rose tinted glasses firmly in place, Sirk’s
honesty about human nature still manages to shine through.
Roger and Me
Michael Moore (1989)
Michael Moore was already a dab hand at sticking that thorn
in the side when he released his first feature documentary. General Motors CEO Roger
Smith ransacked Moore’s once prosperous home-town of Flint Michigan when he decided
to close the local auto factory. The film concerns Moore’s attempts to get an
interview with the man. Everything that we would come to love about Moore is on
show here- His dry delivery, use of music, wry sense of Irony- but as he
sniggers at some defenceless local beauty queen, also what some would come to
hate.
