Lift to the Scaffold

Year of Release:  1958
Director:  Louis Malle
Screenplay:  Louis Malle and Roger Nimier, based on the novel Ascenseur pour l'echefaud by Noel Calaf
Starring:  Jeanne Moreau, Maurice Ronet, Georges Poujouly, Yori Bertin, Ivan Petrovich
Running Time:  88 minutes
Genre:  Crime drama

In Paris, arrogant businessman, Julien Tavernier (Ronet) plots with his lover, Florence Carala (Moreau), to kill Florence's husband, who also happens to be Julien's boss.  Julien goes through with the crime, and makes it look like a suicide.  However, as he leaves the office building he realises that he has forgotten a crucial clue, and heads back in to fetch it.  However, the office is shutting down for the weekend, and Julien finds himself trapped in the elevator.  Meanwhile, Julien's car is stolen by small-time crook Louis (Poujouly) and his girlfriend Veronique (Bertin).  Waiting for Julien, Florence sees his car speeding away and catches a glimpse of Veronique, making her think that he has run off with something else, and sets off on her own odyssey through the nighttime streets of Paris. As events spiral out of control, Julien soon ends up the prime suspect in a completely different murder.

This was the debut feature from acclaimed and prolific French filmmaker Louis Malle.  It's a very enjoyable slice of film noir with the grit and style of the early Nouvelle Vague (New Wave) movement.  The film opens with what appears to be a perfect crime, but one small detail is missed, and that one detail triggers a series of accidents, misunderstandings and terrible decisions which results in further murder and disaster for everyone.  Much of the film passes between three simultaneous but separate storylines: Julien, trying to free himself from the elevator; Florence wandering the bars and cafes of Paris to find information about Julien; and the murderous joyride of Louis and Veronique.  The film is beautifully photographed in black-and-white and features a evocative, melancholy score from Jazz legend Miles Davis.

Jeanne Moreau in Lift to the Scaffold
             

Limelight

Year of Release:  1952
Director:  Charles Chaplin
Screenplay:  Charles Chaplin
Starring:  Charles Chaplin, Claire Bloom, Nigel Bruce, Buster Keaton, Sydney Earl Chaplin, Wheeler Dryden, Norman Lloyd
Running Time:  137 minutes
Genre:  Comedy-drama

London, 1914:  Calvero (Chaplin), a once famous comedian who is now a washed up drunk, rescues a young woman, Thereza (Bloom), from suicide.  As he nurses her back to health, Calvero learns that Thereza is an aspiring ballerina.  He helps her regain her confidence to dance again, and in the process finds himself yearning to return to the stage.

This was not Chaplin's last film, but it does feel like a final film.  It heavily references Chaplin's own life and career, the film is set in London, where Chaplin grew up, and takes place in 1914, the year of Chaplin's own debut.  Calvero became famous, like Chaplin, by playing tramp character, and, again like Chaplin, is left behind by a changing world and changing audiences.  Although the film has comedy in it, including a hilarious silent skit between Chaplin and fellow silent comedy legend Buster Keaton, this is essentially a drama.  The film is overlong and feels at times like a filmed play, it also suffers from some quite obvious back projection.  However I feel this is one of Chaplin's best films.  The film is melodramatic, and the speeches may seem naive, but there is real power to it, and it feels very heartfelt.  Certainly by the end, it's hard not to have tears in the eyes.  This is a very personal film and it's rare that you find a film that does feel as if it is a direct message to the audience.  It's a film about success, failure, the possibility of redemption, the power of art and the necessity of facing life and persevering, no matter how painful that may be. 
  

Make 'em laugh: Thereza (Claire Bloom) and Calvero (Charlie Chaplin) in Limelight.

"If Beale Street Could Talk" by James Baldwin

Year of Publication:  1974
Length:  230 pages
Genre:  General fiction

New York City:  Clementine "Tish" Rivers is nineteen years old, pregnant and engaged to Alonzo "Fonny" Hunt.  However Fonny is in jail, having been accused of rape.  As Tish and her family fight against a racist system to prove Fonny's innocence, the story of their relationship is told in flashbacks.

This book is powerful, angry, compassionate and beautifully written.  James Baldwin is one of the most important American writers of the 20th Century, and this is an urgent and vital book - that is as relevant today as it was in 1974.  It's frequently dark and gritty read, but there is a hard-won optimism here, and the love story between Fonny and Tish is beautifully detailed, and Baldwin writes beautiful, poetic prose.  It's also a novel about being black in America, and just tying to live life when the whole system is against you. 
It's a great book, that everyone should read.

The Front Runner

Year of Release:  2018
Director:  Jason Reitman
Screenplay:  Matt Bai, Jason Reitman and Jay Carson, based on the book All the Truth is Out:  The Week Politics Went Tabloid by Matt Bai
Starring:  Hugh Jackman, Vera Farmiga, J. K. Simmons, Alfred Molina
Running Time:  113 minutes
Genre:  Drama, politics

In 1988, US Senator Gary Hart (Jackman) is running as the Democratic candidate for the President of the United States.  Despite his initial success, Hart's presidential bid is scuppered due to scandal, when allegations surface of an extra-marital affair.

This is an interesting and well-acted enactment of a real-life political scandal.  However, you never really get a sense of who Gary Hart is, he dismisses any scandal or examination of his personal life as being irrelevant, which is really the theme of the film, whether or not someone's personal life should be made public.  Hart comes across as prickly, defensive and not particularly likeable, despite a great performance from Hugh Jackman and, in the age of Donald Trump, Hart's scandals seem almost quaint.  Interestingly the film never really states whether Hart had an affair or not.  The film does a good job of taking you inside a political campaign and political journalism, and manages to be always interesting and entertaining.  It does have some points to make about separating the public from the personal, despite being dated and never really exploring it's central character., 

Hugh Jackman is The Front Runner

An Autumn Afternoon

Year of Release:  1962
Director:  Yasujiro Ozu
Screenplay:  Kogo Noda and Yasujiro Ozu
Starring:  Shima Iwashita, Chishu Ryu, Keiji Sada, Mariko Okada, Teruo Yoshida, Noriko Maki
Running Time:  113 minutes
Genre:  Drama

Tokyo, 1962:  Shuhei Hirayama (Ryu) is a widowed businessman in his late 50s with three adult children.  The eldest son, Koishi (Sada), is married and lives away from home, but his 24 year old daughter, Michiko (Iwashita) and youngest son, Kazuo (Shin'ichiro Mikami) still live at home with him.  Under pressure from his friends, Hirayama realises that it is his duty to arrange a marriage for Michiko, even though she is in no hurry to get married at all.

This was Yasujiro Ozu's final film, completed a year before his death on his 60th birthday, and deals with many of his familiar themes:  the ebb and flow of life, accepting change, the tension between youth and age, tradition and modernity, and the changing face of Japanese society, as well as the impermanence of all things.  It's a very quiet, gentle film, composed of long static shots, elegantly composed and usually shot form low angles, with the action seen in medium close-up  or framed in doorways and hallways.  The main plot often plays out almost in the background, with many important events taking place off-screen, being more concerned with the small details of everyday life.  This is a calm, understated film, graceful, slow, gentle and wise.  It's the kind of film that makes the world seem a better and kinder place.

Shima Iwashita and Chishu Ryu in An Autumn Afternoon     

Stan & Ollie

Year of Release:  2018
Director:  Jon S. Baird
Screenplay:  Jeff Pope
Starring:  Steve Coogan, John C. Reilly, Shirley Henderson, Danny Huston, Nina Arianda, Rufus Jones
Running Time:  97 minutes
Genre:  Comedy, drama, biography

It's 1953, sixteen years after legendary comedy double act Stan Laurel (Coogan) and Oliver Hardy (Reilly) were at the height of their fame.  In the hopes of raising backing for a comeback film that Laurel is writing, based around Robin Hood, the estranged duo reunite for a grueling tour of Britain.  However, the pressures of the tour soon start to put strain on Laurel and Hardy's relationship and Hardy's increasingly fragile health.

This is a touching, gentle film that pays an affectionate tribute to the genius of Laurel and Hardy.  It is also very funny.  Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly (acting under heavy make-up) are pitch perfect as Laurel and Hardy, nailing their physical comedy style, as well as their appearance and mannerisms.  Shirley Henderson is good as Hardy's wife, Lucille, and Nina Arianda is hilarious as Laurel's blunt but loving wife Ida.  It's a film about friendship, comedy and the value of art.  It's great not only for fans of Laurel and Hardy, but  also anyone interested in the world of show business.  A refreshingly sincere and affectionate film, this is a bittersweet tribute to a bygone era. 

Stan Laurel (Steve Coogan) and Oliver Hardy (John C. Reilly) are Stan & Ollie

Pom Poko

Year of Release:  1994
Director:  Isao Takahata
Screenplay:  Isao Takahata
Starring:  Konkontei Schinchou, Makoto Nonomura, Yuriko Ishida
Running Time:  114 minutes
Genre: Animation, fantasy, comedy  

In the Tama Hills, in the outskirts of Tokyo, a group of tanuki (Japanese raccoon dogs) find their homes threatened by human developers.  The lazy and capricious tanuki take a break from their favorite pastimes of partying, eating and fighting to use their considerable shape-shifting powers to fight against the developers.

This is one of the lesser known entries in the back catalogue of Japan's great Studio Ghibli .  The storyline suggests a fairly conventional plot of cute animals fighting to save their homes from greedy developers, but the film is far weirder and darker than that suggests.  Writer and director Iasao Takahata (who also made Grave of the Fireflies (1988), Only Yesterday (1991), My Neighbors the Yamadas (1999) and the Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013)) specialised in films inspired by and based around Japanese history and folklore and this is the case here.  The film uses a variety of animation styles, from realistic depictions of landscapes and animals, to more traditional cute animation, to images based on traditional Japanese art, one sequence even animates the action as video game graphics.  The film uses a documentary-style voice over and moves from goofy, slapstick comedy (true to the folklore the tanuki have massive testicles which they use in their shape-shifting), to surprisingly dark and violent.  It's funny and entertaining, but it's very inconsistent in tone and certainly too long.  Some of the sequences used when the tanuki terrify people with grotesque monsters and demons are genuinely nightmarish, and they are far from averse to straight up killing people, so it might be worth checking it out yourself before showing it to young children.  The films' tonal inconsistencies and the donwbeat ending really threw me when I first saw it, but I enjoyed it much more on a second viewing        

Tanuki in Pom Poko