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SHIP OF FOOLS
(1965, Kramer)
(1965, Kramer)
"Are you happy?"
"Who is happy?"
"Who is happy?"
That's the exchange between two characters during a climatic conversation in this film. It goes to the core of every passenger, each of which is coping with different shades and levels of unhappiness. And yet, most of them pretend things are not what they seem as they try to "avoid being fools". Knowing where the ship, and their lives, are headed, we know things aren't getting any easier.
Set in 1933, Ship of Fools follows a group of passengers on a ship headed to pre-World War II Germany. The passengers include a "flirty" divorced woman, a young couple that can't stop fighting and making up, a disgraced former baseball player, an opiate addict, a troupe of flamenco musicians and dancers, a dwarf, Nazi sympathizers, Jewish people, and hundreds of poor Spanish workers sent back to their country. Through their interactions, the film addresses themes like classism, racism, xenophobia, regrets, love, infatuation, happiness, and the lack of it.
The film boasts an impressive ensemble cast that includes Vivien Leigh, Oskar Werner, Simone Signoret, Lee Marvin, José Ferrer, and George Segal, among many others. Most of the performances are solid, with Werner probably being my favorite. His role as the ship's medical officer, Dr. Schumann, is the closest that comes to a protagonist and his complex relationship with La Condesa (Signoret) provides a lot of the emotional baggage of the film.
Ferrer also seems to be having a lot of fun with his performance as a loud anti-Semite while Marvin, although not as effective, still has a particularly solid scene as he drunkenly reminisces on his career. Michael Dunn also has an excellent performance as Glocken, the dwarf that seems to be on the sidelines most of the time, observing everything and even breaking the fourth wall to comment on what he sees in this "ship of fools".
Like it often happens with ensemble films, the attempt to juggle so many characters results in some of the subplots falling by the wayside. For example, even though Leigh is pretty good, her subplot was one that I didn't particularly care about. The film also relies often in the use of dramatic irony, which sometimes ends up feeling like forced attempts of the film elbowing us and going like "get it?".
Despite those few flaws, I still find this film to be quite effective. Even though it's not as subtle as one would want, I appreciated how it showed the many ways that these passengers try to find happiness; whether it is in sex or love, a dance or a drink, a seat at the table or a moment alone, or maybe even a spray from a water hose in a hot day. They might not end up finding happiness, but they'll be happy... at least for a moment.
Grade:
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