Red Desert (1964) - Il deserto rosso - Antonioni directed

Plot Summary - Italian language film, directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. Cold, industrialized cityscape with gritty, gray, lonely streets, rusted window frames, large, rundown factories spewing pollution, fishing ports with ghost-like ships that pass quietly by through the fog, large and looming, rusty and mysterious - and an attractive, deeply disturbed young woman (Monica Vitti) - a wife and mother - who faces mental illness after some sort of road accident a few years before. She seems unable to cope with the world around her, and sometimes views things in one color, the scene literally painted gray - or pink. She meets a friend (Richard Harris) of her husband at the factory where he works, then seems to keep meeting up with this new man, his almost lovestruck eye, a wee bit lustful, always there to observe her strange behavior.

Review - A very unusual film, weirdly visual, with striking imagery - the background music is often futuristic, sci-fi, machine-ish in nature. Is there some hidden meaning behind all this - or is the director trying too hard to be artsy and cool?! Ah, that's the rub. And what's behind the tiny fishing hut, the group of horny people, the quail eggs, and the almost orgy followed by odd, nearby ship quarantine? I found the film interesting, in any case - real weird, but oddly satisfying too. One of my favorite scenes was when the woman tells a story to her young son, the story visualized on the screen, with lovely isolated island, pink beach, a lone girl, and mysterious sailing ship - the prettiest scenery in the film is really, nothing but a story. The widescreen print of this film looked very nice, on Criterion Blu-ray. Rating - 9/10 stars

Our Mother's House (1967) Film Review - Dirk Bogarde

Plot Summary - Dirk Bogarde stars in this very strange, unusual British film about seven seemingly fatherless children whose mother dies and the kids, not wanting to get sent to the orphanage, bury her in the garden and continue to live on, attend school, etc. without telling anyone about her death. They build an odd shrine in the garden complete with her bedroom furniture and hold "Mother Time" prayer meetings - actually, more like seances as the oldest daughter (Pamela Franklin) contacts the mother and relays advice to the kids! The bunch start to go out of control a bit, forging mom's signature and cashing her weekly "check" at the bank, and dealing out harsh punishments like cutting off the long hair of the eight-year old-ish daughter. When the girl gets ill after the brutal haircut incident, they won't call a doctor - but the middle girl (family leader actually) gives the scoop that they actually have a father, a real beast apparently, and one of the boys contacts the man. Arriving on the scene one Charlie Hook (Bogarde), cockney horse-race gambler with a passion for women and hard drink. He takes over the family, the kids start to run wild, the middle daughter completely doesn't trust him - and with good reason as he secretly starts taking money out of the mother's savings account.

Review - Okay, this movie IS kind of weird and strange, but it's quite well done and memorable. I have seen this quite a few times before, but not in a number of years - I still remember that hair cutting scene, poor girl. The film has a sort of dark, gothic feel to it - school uniforms and large, rundown Victorian house adding to the atmosphere. Okay - what's with Dirk Bogarde's Moe-like haircut in this - seriously though, he's great as usual. Though Charlie isn't meant to be any kind of father figure, he comes across as really having a ball with these kids - I believe because Dirk Bogarde himself enjoyed making this film and working with the kids, it really does come across. Mark Lester appears in this film in the role of cute little stuttering Jiminee, expert at forging signatures! A memorable little music tune runs through this film that I still remember weeks later. Rating - 9/10 stars

The Servant (1963) Film Review - Dirk Bogarde

Plot Summary - Unusual UK drama about a well-to-do young bachelor, Tony (James Fox), just returned from Africa, who hires a live-in manservant named Barrett (Dirk Bogarde) to work for him in his newly acquired London apartment. Barrett, seemingly the perfect gentleman's gentleman, takes pride in his cooking (especially his souffles), is knowledgeable on decorating (so advises on the decoration process for the new digs), is well groomed and well dressed. But as the film progresses, you oh so subtly see a sort of dark side to Barrett. Soon a conflict arises between Barrett and Tony's rather bitchy fiancee (Wendy Craig) who is really pretty rude to Barrett and wishes he could "live out". Barrett brings his "sister" Vera (Sarah Miles) in as the new maid, but it's pretty obvious that she's not exactly sisterly towards him - meanwhile, sexy Vera seduces vulnerable Tony and he's completely smitten, but when Vera and Barrett get caught in the act together, in Tony's bedroom no less, they are sacked. Barrett is not one to give up easily and soon has begged and lied his way back to work as Tony's manservant - and soon a very odd relationship has developed between the two men as the roles of master and servant have seemingly flipped.

Review - Filmed in black and white, with interesting, stylish photography (a number of shots taken into mirrors, stuff like that). Dirk Bogarde gives a great performance in this film - well, he's always good! One of my favorite actors - and very handsome to look at, I must say. The print of this, as screened on TCM, looked very good. Rating - 9/10 stars

The Silencers (1966) Film Review - Cinecon 45 Screening

Plot Summary - Swinging 60s spy comedy. Suave secret agent Matt Helm (Dean Martin) is called away from his 60s bachelor pad by his company ICE to get on the job chasing after some sort of crime organization, the gist of what they are up to escapes me at the moment. On his travels on this job, he - well, basically hooks up with curvaceous women - first a tall bombshell, then a kooky redhead (no, not Lucy) he meets poolside - she's a curvy klutz named Gail (Stella Stevens). Then there's also that dancing stripper (Cyd Charisse) who gets shot while performing onstage. While dying, she slips something to Gail - then Matt and Gail end up on a road trip together; she denies she's a secret agent for the other side but Matt and his bureau think she is. Helm is given a couple of cool, spy weapons by his agency to help him out when he comes against the bad guys - a backwards shooting gun and jacket with hand grenade buttons. This all comes in handy in the action-packed finale.

Review - Spy films are one of my least favorite film genres, so wasn't sure how I would like this one - but it turned out to be a lot of full color, widescreen fun! The film spoofs spy films like James Bond and includes action combined with comedy, plus lots of scantily clad, gorgeous women, sixties music, and Dean Martin driving along, his thoughts brought to life via smooth Dean Martin vocals. Cyd Charisse opens the film performing a striptease to the title theme song. I loved all the devices and mod sixties gadgets that fill out his "love nest" - a round, rotating bed that at the push of a button rolls across the floor, tilts up, and sends prone Matt Helm rolling into a giant lather-filled bathtub where dwells his "secretary", Lovey Kravezit - when he asks her to hand him the soap it contains a bottle of liquor. He also has a full bar set up in his car! I think seeing this on the big screen, at Cinecon 45, really helped this seem better, made it more "larger than life" which seemed to work for this film (it also seemed like the males in the audience were really appreciating all the sexy women in this) - don't know how I would feel about this one on a TV screen. Stella Stevens appeared in person at this screening. Review - 7.5 to 8/10 stars

Eyes Without a Face (1960) Film Review

Plot Summary - French language horror film about a young woman, Christiane, who has "no face", after being disfigured in a car accident caused by her father, a professor/doctor, who will go to any lengths to see that her face is restored - even if illegal, evil, and totally gruesome. The professor and his secretary/assistant "nurse" (Valli) lure young, blue-eyed, pretty women who resemble the daughter to their villa in the French countryside outside Paris - and - um, chloroform the girls, then remove their face while still alive to graft onto Christiane's face - ugh (the Doc is seen at the beginning of the film giving a lecture on transplanting living tissue from one human to another). Dad has actually gone to the morgue and identified one of these young women, found in a river dead and without a face, as his "missing" daughter. The still living Christiane meanwhile, hides out in the villa, wears a white mask that looks like her to cover the disfigurement - only her eyes show through - and awaits dad's next surgical attempt, as each one so far has been a failure.

Review - Well, this film is pretty creepy - it would be a good one to watch on Halloween. It is quite atmospheric and surreal, with it's foggy, cold days, people in coats, their breath showing in the air, barren trees, wet streets, and waif-like masked Christiane roaming the villa like a gliding ghost figure, her eyes as big as saucers. The doctor's operation room where he performs his work looks like a mad scientist's laboratory, dogs bark loudly in the background as he keeps them in cages in a room connected to the lab and uses the poor animals to test his grafting procedures (ssssss - creep). One thing I wonder about: Christiane seems like a nice girl, why does she allow the dad to do something like this for so long, simply for her sake?! Really nice music score by Maurice Jarre enhances the film, by the way. The Criterion Collection DVD of this looks very good, the subtitles easy to read. Quite a good film, with memorable, haunting black and white imagery. Rating - 9/10 stars

The World of Henry Orient (1964) Film Review

Plot Summary - Terrific coming-of-age tale which follows the friendship between two mischievous, dreamy fourteen-year old outsiders who meet at an exclusive girl's school then get mixed up in a rich fantasy world of their own as they run about the streets of Manhattan. Blonde, short pig-tailed "Gil" and mop-topped "Val" (normally seen in a long fur coat) find a mutual bond in braces and a hatred for the same teachers. Gil lives with her divorced mom and mom's (implied - or am I reading too much into this?!) female partner Boothy in a New York brownstone - Val, marked "unmanageable" by the schools she's been kicked out of, is left home alone and lonely by her wealthy, jet-setter parents (Angela Lansbury and Tom Bosley) who are rarely in town. The girls decide to meet in Central Park and go "Adventuring", living in a pretend world as they imagine they are someone else (beautiful, white nurses running away from bandits, to be exact), then go for a carefree romp through the park and the city streets as they jump over fire hydrants and small children shouting "Splitzing". While in the park they happen upon a man kissing a woman on a rock - the next day, they run across him again with the same woman. A short time later the girls are taken to a concert where this man happens to be the star attraction - an avant-garde pianist named Henry Orient (Peter Sellers). Val is in love! The two girls decide to make a blood pact devoted to the "study of Henry Orient", then proceed to stalk this guy around town as they talk to each other using the "mysterious language of the Orient" while sporting Chinese bamboo hats. Love-struck Val keeps a secret Henry Orient scrapbook full of clippings, magazine articles, and fake love notes from him. Henry Orient, in reality, is a womanizer who uses a fake European accent and seems to only chase about after married women and lure them to his "lair", that is, his red, white, and black apartment. He tells his latest, she of the frosted eyeshadow (Paula Prentiss), that he's going to set her poem to music (oh brother) but she runs off when she becomes concerned that the two teens are young detectives hired by her husband - heh! When Val's parents come home around the holidays, her rather bitchy mom causes trouble for the girls when she reads the scrapbook and phones Henry Orient!

Review - This film is a wonderful gem that I love, it's one of my favorites. The film has some comedy elements (as when Orient gives his radical concert), but it is also nostalgic and touching. The two actresses who play Val and Gil (Tippy Walker and Merrie Spaeth) are so great in this, they bring such a realness and enthusiastic charm to these characters - they really seem like two real teenage friends: swoony, bubble-gum chewing, getting into jams together. These two are the kind of girls I would have liked to have as friends when I was that age (and I admit I did like getting up to mischief and pranks in my junior high years, just as these two do). The film is rich in on-location scenes of New York City in the sixties, lots of street scenes and shots of a beautiful winter and summer Central Park. The direction is sometimes almost whimsical, as when the girls romp the streets near the beginning of the film and the camera romps with them - slo mo, then fast motion, upside-down and sideways - the Splitzing scene is my favorite scene in the film. The film is highlighted by a great music score done by Elmer Bernstein, with one tune in particular that runs through the film and still runs through my head as I write this - love! A few segments of the music are actually reminiscent of Bernstein's music done in "To Kill a Mockingbird". I can see how, perhaps, this film would not be for everyone - perhaps it may even fall into the category of "chick flick" as the story is totally focused from the perspective of the two girls. But for me - love it! Rating - 10/10 stars

Easy Rider (1969) Film Review

Plot Summary - "Do Your Own Thing, In Your Own Time" - - A tale of bikers, freedom on the road, and redneck intolerance in the late 1960s. The film opens as two long side-burned, shaggy haired bikers ride into the "La Contenta Bar" in Mexico, make a cocaine deal, then ride off to the strains of "Born to be Wild" for a cross-country road trip to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. "Captain America" (Peter Fonda) wears a black leather jacket with a big American flag on the back, Billy (Dennis Hopper) wears an Indian style fringed suede jacket - the two of them have a real adventure riding across the Southwest and into the South hitting a seedy motel that won't take them, camping out, and meeting all sorts of characters along the way - oh yes, let's not forget the main thing: smoking joints and getting stoned. They pick up a hippie man/hitchhiker at one point and end up with him at this sort of hippie commune where they go skinny dipping with two chicks. Later, in a small hick town with a dislike for "long-hairs", they find themselves tossed in jail for "parading without a permit", then helped out by a fellow jailmate (Jack Nicholson) who was thrown in there for the night, drunk. This guy is a lawyer, an alcoholic who breakfasts on swigs of Jim Beam, and seems to have a longing to let his hair grow long and get the heck out of Dodge. He dons his old football helmet and joins them on the road, but when the guys hit this really backward Southern town, they attract a whole lot of attention in this little diner - a table of teenage girls who seem rather desperate for new males to look at as they gaze and giggle and drool over these newcomers. Um, the redneck males at the other tables - that's another story, with real trouble brewing.

Review - Well, I quite liked this - I've seen most well-known films from the past but, amazingly, this was my first viewing of this one. It's certainly a tale of it's time, though it doesn't take me back to 1969 in a nostalgic way as this story shows a world that was not my world in that year (well, I was a little kid in Valley suburbia in 1969, dad with black-framed glasses and crew-cut, mom who stayed home and bowled on daytime ladies leagues). The cinematography in this is done in a visually interesting style, close-ups and quick edits in places, lots of tracking shots of the guys riding down the road on their choppers, and an interesting pan shot done in one-take moving from face to face around a circle of hippies at the commune. The great soundtrack of songs by Steppenwolf, the Byrds, The Band, and others really gives this film a feeling of that time and place - I really like all the shots of the guys on their bikes as they ride through empty desert vista, into small towns, past Southern mansions, and under sunset skies, while cool songs play music video style in the background. Jack Nicholson is great in this, by the way, I really enjoyed his scenes, particularly when he gets stoned and goes on a ramble about humans from other planets living amongst us. An interesting film. Groovy man, ya dig?! Rating - 9/10 stars