Furious on Film 10.04.07: Issue 108
Posted by Arnold Furious on 10.04.2007
Several lists, Jet Li back in the Hong Kong days, Greta Garbo just wants to be alone, Jeunet weirdness and classic romance
Furious on Film 10.04.07: Issue 108
Several lists, Jet Li back in the Hong Kong days, Greta Garbo just wants to be alone, Jeunet weirdness and classic romance.
Before we start this week I'd like to remind everyone why it's taken so long to get back to reviewing films. Here below lies a list of links to the Furious on Film top 100 directors column. The one that took a huge chunk out of my life but earned me more positive feedback than a bundle of WCW reviews. Be warned though, this is a long read.
Thanks for reading, thanks for taking the time to email me and thanks for your continued support over the past hundred odd columns. I'll keep writing them if you keep reading them.
This week I have the following cinematic delights for your reading pleasure;
Once Upon a Time in China, Grand Hotel, City of Lost Children, Brief Encounter
But first a new feature thanks to my lead off movie this week; Once Upon a Time in China. As soon as I thought about the title I started thinking about other movies that start "Once Upon a Time". There's a few. Thusly I have myself a new feature;
ONCE UPON A TIMELINE
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968). Although Sergio Leone didn't coin the phrase "once upon a time", it's been the traditional beginning of fairy tales since the 14th century; he was the first guy to incorporate "Once Upon a Time" into his movie title. Although "Once Upon a Time" as a title had been used several times. There were five "Once Upon a Time" movies before the second World War. Leone's iconic use of the term spawned many variations on the theme in years to come. The general associations of making a "Once Upon a Time " movie is that is has a sense of epic about it. After all the scroller on Star Wars starts off with it.
Once Upon a Time in the East (1974). This film didn't do quite as well as "West". Its attempt to piggyback the popularity of Leone's Western didn't really work. A series of criss crossing stories from writer Michael Tremblay it was made in Canada by Andre Brassard. I've heard of it, because of the familiar use of name, but I've not seen it. I imagine that's the cast with a lot of people. Decent idea though. Why not use a similar title to an existing film? Might draw in some extra box office.
Once Upon a Time in America (1984). This is Leone's second use of the title. Having already made a series of complete Westerns and dominated the genre he felt the need to do something different. "America" is a gangster film, a long one, crossing several decades of American history. I actually liked it a great deal more than "West" and felt it was the better film. Not everyone agrees with me.
Once Upon a Time in China (1991). This week's spotlight shines on "China". The Jet Li martial arts actioner was tremendously popular and spawned five sequels. Six if you count Last Hero in China. The original trilogy features Jet Li and Rosamund Kwan as his 13th Aunt. After the third film neither appears. Since Li's departure the series has grown gradually less inspired. Although the 6th film; Once Upon a Time in China & America is quite popular due to the return of the original cast.
Once Upon a Time in Shanghai (1991). There's every chance this was name-changed to suit the popularity of Jet Li's film. Given the films gangster connections it seems also likely it was named for "America" as well. Suffice to say it wasn't as popular as the other similarly named films.
Once Upon a Time in the Triad Society (1996). I thought I'd throw this one in as it's as close as a "Japan" film has come to using the title as yet. Your typical triad movie, of which many are made every year in Japan, it made no kind of an International splash like some of Miike's triad movies.
Once Upon a Time in India (2001). Also known, better perhaps, as Lagaan or Land Tax. Based in India during the colonial times it features a cricket match between the oppressive English rulers and the local Indian peasants. It certainly holds up the epic end at 224 minutes. It was also up for an Oscar for best foreign film. A worthy addition to the title genre.
Once Upon a Time in the Midlands (2002). This is from Shane Meadows who went on to make Dead Man's Shoes and This is England. He's swiftly becoming one of the better English directors albeit somewhat following a Hollywood pattern in his very English movies. "Midlands" starred Robert Carlyle and by all accounts should have been successful but no one saw it. In fact I haven't and I'm from the Midlands. Meadows has gone on to better things and perhaps this title was a little early in his career.
Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003). This is the other well known use of the title. Robert Rodriguez borrowed the old phrase to complete his Mariachi trilogy. Featuring an excellent performance from Johnny Depp. "I can't see you fuck-mook, I have no eyes". While it's not the best of the trilogy it has some very memorable scenes. It doesn't really hold up the epic nature of the title at 102 minutes although some of the scenes get quite busy towards the end. I guess Rodriguez wanted to keep the budget down as he tends to.
Once Upon a Time in the Hood (2004). I added this last film to show how in modern times there's a shocking lack of originality. Set in Chicago this modern gangster movie might be well be very good, although I doubt it, but does the name here work in favour of the film or against it? Much like "Midlands" it doesn't really make me think this will be a good film. It's too localised and doesn't excite me. Not like "West", "America", "China" or even "Mexico".
And that is basically where my first film's title comes from; Sergio Leone. So I guess I wasn't wrong to pay him lip service during the top 100 directors count down. Still inspiring long after his retirement and even death.
Once Upon a Time in China (1991) aka Wong Fei Hung.
EXPECTATIONS I recently reviewed Jet Li's latest martial arts epic; Fearless, which is a superb film albeit marred slightly by needless CGI. I requested, from you the reader, some recommendations for older Jet Li films made in his native tongue. I got a few emails in recommending various flicks but there was one common theme; Once Upon a Time in China. The director here is Hark Tsui. He's pretty well known to the Western audience for his Eastern pictures but his attempts at films in Hollywood didn't go down too well. He ended up directing lousy action films like Knock Off and Double Team. His skills going sorely to waste. Recently he's disappeared up his own arse with the likes of Seven Swords, which looks pretty but has none of the depth of strength of better wuxia movies. But that reputation had to come from somewhere right? He also has a reputation as an overbearing and intrusive producer having a public falling out with the more talented John Woo over films produced by Hark and directed by Woo. Once Upon a Time in China is Hark's most successful franchise thanks to him making wuxia fun again with 1990's the Swordsman.
TRAILER Being the original Hong Kong trailer this is 4 minutes long.
PLOT As China is falling prey to Western influences Wong Fei Hung (Jet Li) builds a militia to protect his town from foreign forces. He's also sworn to protect his Westernised aunt Yee (Rosamund Kwan) from danger, which could be problematic as various forces seek to eliminate Wong, his martial arts school and his reputation as the best martial artist in Foshan. He's challenged in that respect by "Iron Robe" Yim (Shi-Kwan Yen), a rival instructor fallen on hard times, thus setting up a rivalry for control of Foshan.
OPINION This is certainly a good lark. There's nothing more fun than a martial arts film that glosses over plot in favour of various cool looking fight scenes. While they get a little repetitive during Once Upon a Time in China, unlike the more focused and changing nature of the fights in Fearless for example, Jet Li has enough tricks up his sleeve to make the showdown with Yim come off as something better again. The scene involves a lot of gunplay, although none from either fighter, and ladder climbing. It's like watching a ladder match in a massive ring with dozens of ladders and two of the most athletic wrestlers ever involved in the action. Where Once Upon a Time in China succeeds where other martial arts films fall flat is by developing a supporting cast for Jet Li's central character. Both he and Yim are fairly well rounded but there are also others in Wong's school that keep it interesting with their own concerns. Those include Leung Foon who ends up as an apprentice to Yim as he's so in awe of Yim's skills. Also there's Buck Teeth So (Jacky Cheung) who speaks English and is very dignified, for the most part and therefore doesn't fight. He's also studied, like Wong himself, to be a doctor but only seems capable of putting casts on people. Which makes for a few chucklesome early scenes where a potential student ends up with casts on his arm and leg and left only able to do rolls, which he assumes is some sort of test. Finally there's Porky Lang (Kent Chang), the local butcher and somewhat of a hothead. He's loyal to Wong and the school and doesn't want to embarrass them but he also can't back down from a brawl with a bunch of Westerners, which gets him into trouble. It's Wong's own stance of non-violent aggression that's almost like Gandhi's beliefs but he doesn't really stick to them and ends up more William Wallace than Mahatma Gandhi. A theme of Chinese films is that they're a proud nation with a great history that didn't deserve the treatment they got at the end of the 19th century when anyone who felt like it invaded them and they were left occupied by several nations. This created folk heroes who rebelled against the system and one of those was Wong, who was a real person. In fact he'd already been played onscreen before by numerous actors including Jackie Chan in Drunken Master. Once Upon a Time in China came at a good time though with triad movies getting tired legs at the cinema and the public yearning for a new twist on an old genre. Once Upon a Time in China started the craze of wire-fu' where fights are aided with wire work. Some people really hate this and I have to admit I'm not a big fan although it works wonderfully well when the subject matter has a dreamier almost mythical feel about it (Crouching Tiger, Hero, House of Flying Daggers). Here it's pretty subtle and doesn't come up as often as it does in films made since this. It's just there to enhance the action. And it works.
BEST BIT the ladder match' fight between Wong & Yim that serves as the film's rousing conclusion.
RATING - ***1/2. I have a hard time going any higher on the rating because there have been several better films made since this using the same sort of approach. As a film it struggles to really maintain a plot with a lot of half ideas floating around and not really going anywhere. The lack of focus in terms of the enemies Wong faces is also troubling. It ends up being Yim but Yim isn't a bad guy really. He's just misguided and in search of financial gain. It would have been nice for Wong to fight someone who was truly his enemy and not just a guy looking to prove his worth. That said when Once Upon a Time in China is in full flight its tremendous fun. Loads of fight sequences and every time one involves Jet Li the pace picks up a touch. I just could have done with a more focused script (and/or director) to really channel all the good things about OUATIC into a tighter movie experience. As it stands it's a little rough and ready, which you wouldn't really expect from Tsui Hark at that stage of his career although given his penchant for average yet groundbreaking films it's not THAT much of a shock. Jet Li is awesome though.
Grand Hotel (1932)
EXPECTATIONS I've never seen a Greta Garbo film. Isn't that weird? Maybe not seeing as she was a big star in the 1920's and 30's. The thing is she's known as a big star and I feel bad about missing out on a big star. Another big name I'd never seen anything from was Mae West but I found her performance to be really irritating. Here's hoping for something better here. The support for her glorious star turn comes from John Barrymore (father of Drew) and Joan Crawford. The latter is a real whackjob, old Hollyweird style, and puts modern whackjobs like The Cruiser to shame. The daughter-in-law of Douglas Fairbanks she was married five times. Oddly enough changing the toilet seats with each new husband. Although once the plumber used the toilet after it was installed and she had it removed entirely, pipes and all, to ensure the cleanliness of the area. She was also named as the "other woman" in two divorces. She spent the last seven years of her life obliterated on vodka and died of cancer in the 1970's. Bette Davis once claimed Crawford had slept with every male actor at MGM except Lassie, which helped to kick-start a lengthy feud between the two. Davis won by winning the role in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? Crawford was never the same afterwards.
TRAILER
PLOT The film follows a group of guests at Berlin's plushest hotel; the Grand Hotel. These include depressed ballerina Grusinskaya (Greta Garbo), upper class thief and general cad with a heart Baron Felix von Geigern (John Barrymore) and a common man with a terminal disease and a newfound love for life Otto Kringelein (Lionel Barrymore). Baron and Otto become friends but Otto remains blissfully unaware of the Baron's aims to rob Grusinskaya of her pearls in order to pay off a mob debt.
OPINION The dearth of characters at the start of Grand Hotel is quite overwhelming. We see various people checking in and socialising and several cutaways deal with people staying at the hotel and working there. It's hard to decide what we should be caring about; the business deal being struck up by Preysing (Wallace Beery looking suitably Germanic), the baby that's due any minute of hotel desk clerk Senf (Jean Hersholt) or Kringelein's protests that his room is too small. And why after 15 minutes is there no sign whatsoever of Greta Garbo? In fact it's Joan Crawford who seems to be romancing everyone in sight as a visiting stenographer including the two central characters who both take a shine to her. As it turns out it all plays into the bigger picture as the various storylines collide and details are revealed. The concepts are fairly ahead of their time and it's an unusually complex plot for a big Hollywood blockbuster. It was made incidentally for a whopping $700,000. Although all of that seems to have been spent on a lavish central shaft to the hotel that reveals multiple floors and a huge reception area. What really struck me about Grand Hotel was that Joan Crawford came across as the much bigger star. Greta Garbo may have had a sexy accent and was prone to wandering around in skimpy clothing (woooo, racy) bit in my book that doesn't make her the star. Her character is a diva who always wants her own way and yet has no problem falling for the Baron because he's so debonair and sophisticated. Everyone else falls for him too regardless of his lack of character because he seems like such a well meaning chap. Yes, he steals things but he's so dashing with it. The problem with Grand Hotel is everyone is charming or backwards and the villain of the piece, Preysing, is comically over the top. And the romance between the Baron and Greta Garbo is so sudden and ridiculous and non-sensical that I thought I must have missed a chapter out of the film. They go from total strangers to the best of friends overnight. While I could probably understand that with mitigating circumstances (alcohol, near death experience) there's no such thing here. Garbo's Grusinskaya is depressed so she falls in love with a total stranger overnight. It's so deliciously impossible that I almost buy into it. Unfortunately almost' only counts in horse shoes and lemonade. I don't buy into a Garbo-Barrymore trist although the more convincing Joan Crawford is hanging around and she's better looking and more fun to hang around. The only thing Garbo has going for her is the accent and pearls. Guess which one Barrymore's upper class bandit was after? So in a nutshell it's dated, melodramatic and not even particularly well acted. But did I enjoy it? Yeah, I did actually although the ending left me somewhat disappointed up until the house doctor's continuing assertion that "nothing ever happens" here as the various characters leave for the next stop in their lives.
BEST BIT "I want to be alone". Sure, Garbo was upstaged by Joan Crawford throughout but when she got really sultry and really depressed her delivery was immaculate. This line is a classic.
RATING - ****. It's a fun nostalgia picture. While it's not particularly good it is quite good fun, which was enough for Snakes on a Plane to get the thumbs up from me so why change that scoring system for older films? I almost have a top ten movies for the 1930's now although I need to work on it. Prior to starting Furious on Film I think I may have seen one feature film from before World War II.
City of Lost Children (1995)
EXPECTATIONS Jean Pierre Jeunet went on to direct Alien Resurrection, Amelie and A Very Long Engagement. Before this he made Delicatessen with Marc Caro. This was the film that caught the eye of the Alien franchise producers and convinced them that Jeunet could make a suitably weird fourth instalment in the Aliens series. It was also the star of Ron Perlman's career as a star rather than a bit part player. It still took him 9 years to catch another lead; Hellboy. I guess they don't make movies around goofy looking guys that often. This would be one of those instances.
TRAILER This should give you an idea of how weird this flick is
PLOT A mad scientist, Krank (Daniel Emilfork), has an assortment of minions working for him in order to kidnap children so he can steal their dreams and regain his youth. His network picks up the brother of a strongman from a travelling circus act. The strongman, One (Ron Perlman), goes in search of his brother with the help of street urchin Miette (Judith Vittet). In his way are green mist, clones, midgets, conjoined twins, a brain in a fishtank and what appears to be an organic version of Bombshell from the G1 Transformers universe.
OPINION Good fucking gravy this thing is insane. It's just totally nuts. The opening scene is a dream sequence of a child where his room is full of Santa's and he starts screaming. This screaming then dissolves away into a room with Krank in it and he's screaming. Around him are some of his minions including a female midget and Dominique Pinon. Six of him. They all start screaming. I thought someone had spiked my dinner with LSD. You don't expect midgets and clones and multiple Santa's in the opening minute of a movie. And no one talks for ages. It's just weird. Totally weird. And it doesn't stop there. It's all very surreal like a French version of the Naked Lunch only without the heavy homosexual overtones. It's a warped modern fairy tale from the minds of lunatics. So it's probably no shock that Ron Perlman is running around in the middle of it looking every bit the part of the strongman with a low IQ. Although he doesn't feature in the films best scenes. Those all seem to involve Krank and the Pinon clones. Especially the one where he sings along to a record while dressed as Santa to try and entertain the kids he's captured. It's freaky and weird and just out there. It ends with the record sticking, "Santa" still trying to lip sync and the clones all slapping each other while claiming to be the "original". It's a complete head trip. I think a lot of it is a tip of the hat to the surrealist films of Luis Bunuel and Jean Cocteau. Anyone who's seen Amelie knows that Jeunet is very capable but with City of Lost Children it's THAT much weirder. It's a credit to Jeunet's skill that it doesn't become an overblown messy joke like Alejandro Jodorowsky's Fando y Lis. That film featured weirdness for the sake of it. City of Lost Children makes more sense. The weirdness intensifies the situation that Perlman's One is thrown into. Like the Cyclopes, a street gang with weird powers and one eye each. These eyes are technologically advanced and makes them look like Borg. Star Trek not Bjorn. They also have incredibly sensitive hearing, which makes for some unusual scenes when they're all in one room and a loud noise happens. They all simultaneously recoil in horror. There's an insinuation that they can hear people's thoughts, which is pretty wiggy stuff. From all this you can probably make your own assumptions as to whether you'd like this film or not. There are a few great performances in here including Perlman, Vittet as the little girl and Pinon in seven roles. The story is also quite touching with Miette and One sharing a friendship that's borderline magical. Vittet's performance is quite similar to Ivana Baquero's in Pan's Labyrinth. Both surprisingly strong performances for little girls. I think Vittet's may be even better than Baquerro's although Baquerro seemed to do a better job of showing a range of emotion. You could put that down to Vittet being in character as the tough street kid. Regardless Perlman is always on hand to guide her through with a towering performance. I'm amazed it's taken so long for him to get another lead after seeing this. He's so amiable and heroic. It seems he always gets quirky smaller roles but he is a star and both here and in Hellboy he's shown it.
BEST BIT The weird opening couple of minutes as described above.
RATING - ***1/2. I'm not big on surrealism but Jeunet's handling of this film shows he knows how to deal with it. Everything fits and the universe he created makes sense within itself. A bit like Alex Proyas' Dark City. Most importantly this is incredibly original, which is something I'm sure many people are crying out for. Well worth a look.
Brief Encounter (1945)
EXPECTATIONS By most accounts it's a classic romance story. It resides way up at #148 on the IMDB top 250 films thus making it the 8h best film I've never seen by those voters' selections. For those interested here's the top 10
1. The Lives of Others (65)
2. Ratatouille (82)
3. The Bourne Ultimatum (94)
4. Grindhouse (127)
5. Les Diaboliques (141)
6. Nights of Cabiria (142)
7. Battle of Algiers (147)
8. Judgement at Nuremberg (157)
9. Superbad (170)
10. The Grapes of Wrath (175)
Now amended to remove Brief Encounter and Letters from Iwo Jima that I saw last week. The top four are all awaiting DVD release. I find most people haven't seen Les Diaboliques or Nights of Cabiria so I think I'm doing ok there. Just for kicks here's the top ten highest grossing movies I've never seen.
1. Shrek The Third (2007) $320M
2. Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End (2007) $308M
3. Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix (2007) $283M
4. Meet the Fockers (2004) $279M
5. Night at the Museum (2006) $250M
6. 300 (2006) $210M
7. Ratatouille (2007) $199M
8. Happy Feet (2006) $197M
9. Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006) $195M
10. The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) $186M
Well, that's how it stood when I was doing the Top 100 directors thing. I've now seen both Happy Feet, which I hate, and Ice Age 2, which is ok but totally superfluous.
TRAILER
PLOT Laura (Celia Johnson) is a bored housewife who one day has a chance encounter with a doctor called Alec (Trevor Howard) at the train station. When he helps to remove a piece of grit from her eye it kicks off a romance doomed from the off and given only a few weeks to blossom in before Alec goes to Africa.
OPINION The weird thing about Brief Encounter is its remarkable conciseness. It runs at a mere 86 minutes. While that's not strange for most films for something directed by David Lean, who's not known for his parsimony, it's quite bizarre. I'm so used to Lean's standard approach to any film being long scenes and elaborate character development, as seen in films like Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago, that seeing him helm something so succinct is strangely enticing. Lean doesn't let up on the character development but Brief Encounter is just as brief as its title, which is entirely appropriate. It stresses how little time Laura & Alec have together. The film is terribly dated though with incredibly cheesy dialogue. I imagine it probably had a bigger impact in 1945 when such things were rather taboo. But their love affair amounts to a few drives in the country and a kiss. There are very few moments where the English stiff upper lip starts to quiver and it gets emotional. One of which being Alec's eventual departure, which seems so low-key at the start of the film but becomes much more impressive at the end when the gaps are filled in. The rest of the time it's rather stilted and the dialogue is so stiff. It's hard to see how these two could fall in love so very quickly and with so little time to do it in. Plus when it all comes down to it; wasn't Alec just after a quick fuck on the side? Otherwise why would he invite Laura to his friend's apartment? He's blatantly just after a ride and Laura (and the audience) falls for it. He comes on to her hard right from the start. I think that my viewpoint of the film effected how romantic I found it to be; which isn't very. That said there are some superb shots in the station and Lean's camera work is exemplary. Especially on my best bit
BEST BIT Laura runs out of the café to see Alec one last time but his train is gone. Her face as she runs towards the camera and a train hurtles past her is amazing. The one moment was so visually stunning it almost made up for all the mediocre acting that went before it.
RATING - ***. It's a classic and I can see why people admire it but it has aged quite badly. Lean provides enough visual excitement to compensate for the iffy script and acting.
NEXT
Cary Grant classic comedy Bringing Up Baby, Once Upon a Time in China II (might as well seeing as the original is so fresh in my mind), reader recommendation C.R.A.Z.Y. and Taxi 3.
