Jeff Costello's film diary

The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz (1955) - Luis Bunuel

With this being one of the most acclaimed films from his Mexican period, I have to admit I expected a little more. It definitely has an intriguing premise of a a man who's obsessed with commiting a murder, but it was treated very conservatively,which is kind of uncharachteristic for Bunuel. It lacked an intriguing dialogue and surreal images, which are obligatory parts of Bunuel's masterpieces. There were couple of scenes ,which were really hypnotic and interesting like burning of a wax figure and Archibaldo's vision of making his bride pray before he kills her, but it was just too few of them. The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz worked well as a psychological comedy and Bunuel's usual satire on aristocracy, but unfortunately wasn't that captivating and lacked Bunuel's trademark touch, which usually lefts me in awe. Perhaps it could benefit on a rewatch, but right now it didn't really impress me. Right now I'm excited to explore more of his work from Mexican period.



Rating: +

Love Judgement At Nuremberg. That's actually the only one i've seen so far.

Days of Heaven is a real good one. Probably would make my top 200.

And E.T. was my number 111.

The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser is certainly a good movie but it didn't resonate with me like a few other Herzog flicks. It reminds me of Bad Boy Bubby lol.

Never heard of Bad Boy Bubby before. From what I have read now, it seems to be quite bizarre,haha.

It's very weird and a little sick too. The lead characters look and act similar though.

Rear Window (1954) - Alfred Hitchcock

After having my attention drawn to the Hitchcock film discussions, I decided to rewatch this classic, considering I only remembered it through flashes. However I didn't end up particularly impressed with it.

Rear Window follows a wheelchair-bound, who gradually starts to observe his neighbours and suddenly discovers a murder plot. First of all, I have to say I quite liked the private setting that Hitchcock constructed. It was very intriguing to see people's lives unraveling behind the closed curtains, or in this case not so closed. Also I was suprised to see the amount of comedy in this flick, such as the man and the woman desperately trying to enter the house through the window during the rain or when Doyle starts to stare at half naked ballerina and Jeffries asks him "How's his wife?". Those particular moments got a laugh from me. The chemistry between Stewart and Kelly was very good and their scenes were perhaps my favourite parts of the film. I also really liked Thelma Ritter's character, who I've just recently saw in Pickup on South Street.

- Hitchock's cameo

Still, I thought the pacing of the film was pretty poor. I understand it took quite a while to introduce the characters and set the atmosphere, but It just took too long. Eventough most of the dialogue from the beggining was cleverly scripted, it wasn't really that relavant to the plotline and I gradually started to lose my interest because of it. And ultimately, when things start to unravel and tension reaches its breaking point in the last 20 minutes, the execution really wasn't the sharpest. There were some moments that I felt didn't really make sense, which Hitchock used to achieve the dramatic effect, but instead they ended up quite silly. Like for example when Lisa is in Thorwald's apartment and Jeffries is whispering on the phone with Doyle, eventough he's alone in his apartment and no one can really hear him. Or the confrontation between Jeffries and Thorwald. There were literally 2 minutes of Jeffries preparing for Thorwald's entering and yet it didn't even cross his mind to uhm, lock the door or pick up a knife or something. Instead he chooses a camera and decides to blind sight Thorwald with it in a rather comical scene. The only moment in the film that I believed was really intense was when Thorwald finally noticed Jeffries spying on him. I thought his stare right into a viewer's eyes was just brilliant. The light-hearted ending also appealed to me and it kinda reminded me of the one in Blue Velvet, where after a major chaos,a piece is restored and we are shown sort of a cynically utopistic final shot.

Ultimately this was a fun Hitchcock experience, but for a film that was suppose to be a crime thriller, it sure had more of a comedic elements than suspenseful ones to me personally.

Rating:

I loved this review! I'll be keeping tabs on this thread from now on.

I like it. It's slightly exploitative though. You kind of have to have the taste for that sort.

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Another thing that bugged me a little with Rear Window, which I forgot to mention in my write-up...

I just find in improbable, Jeffries could nonchalantly spy on his neighbours from day-to-day, without ever being observed or caught by one of them, until the very end. I mean he even used zoom in lenses and big bincoulars, while oftenly being just a couple of centimeters from the window with open curtains. It's not like he was very subtle with his methods. Perhaps I'm giving this way too much thought, but the whole thing seemed pretty unrealistic to me.

So my write-up didn't sent for whatever reason and I can't even recover the written text. Beyond pissed right now...

I always save in 2 MW Word docs, then backup on an external hard drive.

Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972) - Werner Herzog

I'm just in love with the locations, Herzog uses to shoot his films. Like in Fitzcarraldo, the visuals were simply breathtaking. Especially the opening scene of soldiers slowly marching through the Andes mountains. Sheer visual poetry...

Herzog's distinctive style was on full display here with the long nature shots, minimalistic dialogue and slow pace with the very naturalistic approach . All of those aspects served as a platform to amplify Aguirre's slow descent into deluded madness, caused by an unmerciful Peruvian setting. I liked how convincing all was, with very little to no dramatic scenes, just a painful coexsistence between men and nature.



Klaus Kinski did a hell of a job and was the perfect choice to play ruthless tyrant Aguirre. With his devilish looking eyes and menacing posture, he managed to embody a gigantic screen presence with very little dialogue and display of emotions, but yet with a colorful palette of mood swings. He even used a special kind of "crab walk" throughout the film, which I thought was very intresting. I especially liked his final monologue, for which I read Herzog had to use manipulative tactics to bring out of him. And it turned out just perfect. The same final scene was powerful aswell, because of its ambiguity, which added another layer of mysticism and surrealness to it.

Eventough I thought the artistic value of the film was extremelly high, I kind of struggled to be fully invested in it, like I did with Fitzcarraldo for example. Perhaps it was because of the gloomy atmposphere, I don't know. I'll probably have to revisit it, so I could fully appreciate it.

Also throughout the film, it became blatantly obvious how much Coppola borrowed from it for Apocalypse Now.

Aguirre, the Wrath of God is certainly a fascinating work. The cinemtography is as good as it gets and its subtle study on existentialism, religion and human character is definitely intiguing. Very impressive directing by Herzog.

Rating: +

I liked Aguirre but preferred Fitzcarraldo. Herzog is such one of a kind.

Agree with you on Rear Window too; when I watched it recently, it wasn't as great as I remembered!

The Lost Weekend (1945) - Billy Wilder

Brief Sinopsis: This Oscar winning drama follows a life of an desperate alcoholic writer Don who goes on a 4-day drinking bout.

I have to say this was one of my favourites, I've seen this year so far. Alcoholism is a topic that's still very much relavant today and Wilder handled it expertly. The film was very accurate and realistic in illustrating the devastating effects of alcohol and its destructive force.

The man that made this film, was masterful Ray Milland who practically lived his character. His drunken wobbling and despair was on point, and his entire mannerism in general was particularly great. His interactions with his girlfriend Helen (Jane Wyman) were probably one of my favourite scenes, but were at the same time very saddening, as we later learn Don pushed her away because of his own insecurities and inability to escape the jaws of alcoholism, I like how we've got to see retrospective insight in Don's past and the roots of his addiction. This was very vital in understanding Don's actions and him as a character.



I also liked the music in it and the concerto orchestra, which progressively got more aggresive, as Don slipped through madness more and more, adding a great intensity to the film.

The Lost Weekend featured couple of scenes, which made a great impression on me. First one was ,when Don was caught stealing woman's purse in a restaurant. I could almost sense the humiliation, he was objected to, especially when the people mockingly starting to sing "Who Stole the Purse". The second one was the night Don spent in an alcoholic ward. The nightmarish, psychodelic atmosphere set there was like I said very impressionable and jawing.

I also noticed the reccuring theme of a judgmental society, which was very quick to berate Don, but very little of them except Helen and his brother was actually willing to help him. In the end I was glad the film ended on a positive note, because in all honesty it would be really too darn depressing. Instead we've gotten a nice uplifting ending with a positive message.

To conclude ,this is a very detailed study on consequences of alcoholism, with a brilliant performance from Ray Milland. I've read some comments that "The Lost Weekend" has aged badly, but I cannot disagree more. This film is still very much relavant, entertaining and insightful.

Rating: +

Through a Glass Darkly (1961) - Ingmar Bergman

First one in Bergman's unofficial "Silence of God" triology and actually my favourite. Shot on an island Farro with the cast of only 4 people, it follows a life of disfunctional and emotionally dissconnected family. Every cast member was great, but for me Harriet Anderrson absolutely steals the show, playing a schizophrenic young woman, who starts to believe she's being visited by God. Her role was very challenging, but she really put on a powerhouse performance. Beside theological thematics, the most fascinating part of the film were the relations between the characters. A son desperately seeking for his father's attention, a young woman gradually drifting apart from her fiancee, suicidal father who can't emotionally connect with his children and so on... The atmosphere was very melancholic, gloomy and dark like most of Bergman's films. Also it had quite of disturbing content with some implied incestual actions and with God being firstly introduced as "God spider". Yet despite quite of tragic story, Bergman ends the film on a somewhat hopeful note, reaffirming his faith, claiming that God's existence is manifested through love. Definitely a film that will stay with me, because of it's haunting and distinctive tone mixed with powerful themes and images.



Rating: +

Winter Light (1963) - Ingmar Bergman


The story focuses on a priest in a remote village, who is experiencing a crisis of faith and is therefore unable to commit himself to a woman who's in love with him. If I had to describe Winter Light with one word, it would be dreary. My goodness, this film depressed the hell out of me. Nonetheless it is a very powerful and poetic film, which contains some uncomfortable and difficult scenes to watch. It appears that Bergman had dismissed the narattive set in a previous film and had established more of a skeptical and hopeless outlook on faith, shown in some intriguing theological discussions, which were my favourite part of the film. Peformances were a great as always, with much depth aswell. Bergman's veteran Gunnar Bjornstrand especially shined here. The visuals were outstanding and despite many monologues and slow pace, Winter Light is an extremelly captivating film. However I can't say I really enjoyed it, neither I think I was to meant to enjoy it, as to really experience it and embrace it. Bergman once again showcased his uncompromising vision in a rather personal and relatable piece.



Rating:

Silence (1963) - Ingmar Bergman

The last film in the "Silence of God" triology and the most enigmatic I'd say. I have to admit I struggled with this one and had quite of difficult time to be invested in the storyline. In my opinion it was too draining and the story wasn't really that intriguing or interesting. The dialogue was very minimalistic and there was a complete absence of music, which added a special tone to it. I liked the performances by Ingrid Thulin and Gunnel Lindblom, who played sisters being in an implied incestual relationship. Their destructive relationship has taken a great toll on them, destroying one physically and the other mentally. Their pain and suffering felt very real and their interactions were very cold and convincing. Alongside them was a child, a symbol of innocence, completely unaware of its surrondings and a major rift between his mother and aunt. What I also liked about this film, is because it was ambigous and left to countless intepretations and analysis, hence I believe it will benefit greatly as I revisit it. Theme of religion or God isn't even mentioned in Silence ,symolizing Bergman's final departure from religion and a comlete denial of God's existence.



To summarize, this is a very poetic film, filled with symbols and methapors, which I'll hopefully be able to decipher and appreciate more in the future. Likewise a stunning exploration of themes like alienation, loneliness and unability to communicate.

Rating: (for now)

Way too low a rating for Rear Window.

I appreciate The Lost Weekend, but it's not really a favorite.

I appreciate the works of Bergman, but I only saw Through a Glass Darkly out of those three.

I liked Silence and Through a Glass Darkly, but Winter Light is the Bergman film I most struggled with so far.

I wish I liked it more, but the final act was kind of a letdown for me and I didn't find it that believable and tense as I hoped it would be. Still a very fun and atmospheric film.


What did you think of it? If you liked it, I suggest watching the other 2 pieces. They paint a clearer picture of Bergman's vision and his own reflections on faith.