Jeff Costello's film diary

Oh cool, another Gene Tierney fan! She's breathtaking. I haven't seen that one, but I have seen her in other films. My favorite film of hers would be Leave Her to Heaven (1945) I reviewed that one. Have you seen it? What other of her films have you seen?

I've seen her in Son of Fury, Heaven Can Wait, Leave Her To Heaven, Laura, Dragonwyck, The Razor's Edge, The Ghost and Mrs Muir and Night and the City.

Eventough my favourite Gene film is The Ghost and Mrs Muir, I definitely think her greatest role was in Leave Her To Heaven. She was simply flawless in it.

I agree

I've seen Gene in all those movies (except Son of Fury) also in a pair of film noirs Night and the City and Whirlpool. And in her last film before she had a mental break down, The Left Hand of God.

I really need to see more of her films

Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) - Stanley Kramer

Brief sinopsis: Four German judges are trialed for the crimes against the humanity they commited under National Socialist regime.




When making a film with historical importance like this one, there's always a danger of a filmaker getting too preachy and pushing his own propaganda, but I'm pleased to say that's not the case with Judgment at Nuremberg. One of its greatest attributes is it actually ,examined the facts and happenings from different perspectives and provided an impressive study on thoughts and actions of German people who found themselves under Nazi dictatorship.

I was particularly impressed with powerful performances, which this film was filled with. Maximilian Schell gave a strong performance, as a charismatic and strong willed court defendant. His acting was so persuasive that he even managed to remain symphatetic at times. The scenes where he interrogated Judy Garland's character were especially intense.



Than there are some performances from the supporting cast which were really touching. Especially the ones by Montgomery Clift and Judy Garland, who were masterful at portraying victims of the Nazi regime. Their display of emotions during the interrogations scenes was devastating and heart wrenching.

The film features some giants of the cinema aswell like: Spencer Tracy, Richard Widmark, Burt Lancaster and Marlene Dietrich. What I especially liked about Lancaster's character was that eventough he first real spoken 2 hours in the movie, he managed to remain a powerful presence by displaying his tortured sole persona mainly through face expressions.

I also have high praise for Kramer's direction and sharply written screenplay by Abby Mann. If I had to cherry pick I'd say I wasn't really a fan of the dramatic close up shots, eventough I thought they were properly suited in some scenes.

The emotional response that Judgment at Nuremberg brings shouldn't be understated aswell .The scene in which they showed real holocaust footage was particularly unsettling and difficult to watch.

Lastly I'd like to mention a great pacing that this film possesses. With being 3 hours long I was astonished with how invested I managed to remain throughout its entire course.

Truly an exceptional film !

Rating: +

Agreed, agreed and agreed...Judgement at Nuremberg is one of most amazing works of cinema. Like you said it balances both sides during the trial and never preaches to us, which is rare for a film of this magnitude. Compare it to, 12 Angry Men, which delivers it's message with a sledge hammer.

Good review! I enjoyed it.

Leon Morin, pretre (1961) - Jean-Pierre Melville

Brief Sinopsis: During an occupation of France, young faithless widow (Emmanuelle Riva) encounters a local priest (Jean-Paul Belmondo) and gradually starts falling in love with him.

Nowadays Melville is generally known for his stylish crime-flicks with impeccably suave characters, one of the being on my avi pick
However this could possibly be his most unusual and experimental work.

At the beggining we are introduced to Marny ( Emmanuelle Riva), also a film's narrator, who is spending most of her time fantasizing about her lesbian crush Sabine, her supervisor. One day she enters a church with intention of playing a joke on local priests. As she randomly chooses a confession room and starts to criticize Catholicism, she's baffled when father Morin( Belmondo) starts engaging in conversation about religion. After a while they develop a friendship and most of the film actually focuses on their theological discussions, which I found to be very profound and interesting, without really pushing certain agenda.



The first thing that striked me was how beautifully shot the film was, consisting of many short cuts, but also providing kind of a dream like scenery. All Melville's films I've seen so far had expectional aesthetics and Leon Morin was no exception. I especially find the zoom in shot to the confession room from the film's beggining to be rather fascinating.

Eventough the film was set during the WW2 it wasn't really about it, rather than exploring the spirituality of people during the times of war. I was also impressed with how craftly Melville manipulated viewer's expectation on will Morin and Marny somehow end up together, by orchestrating an intense sexual tension between them, eventough the things in the end really do not go anywhere with that. Performances by Riva and Belmondo were great and very subtle. Belmondo especially did very well in an uncharacteristic role for him, as an open minded, altruistic and devoted priest. The scene I particularly liked was when Marny tried to ask him if he would marry her if he wasn't a priest and Morin angrily and visibly shaken storms out, without saying a word. Brilliant. I also liked the execution of the final scene; simple and subtle, but yet so moving and powerful.

Leon Morin is a definitely very interesting flick. Eventough very little action happens, the philoshopical thoughts and smart dialogue in it are certainly mesmerizing. I understand it could be boring to some, because of the lack of sentimental moments and stagnating plot, but for Melville fans this is a definite testament to his versatility and skill.

Rating:

A very uncharacteristic role for Belmondo, that's what I thought while watching it as well. Also uncharacteristic for the director as you also mentioned. I didn't enjoy it as much as his crime films, but I felt a strong appreciation for it.

Yeah, I prefer his crime flicks too, altough I find "Leon Morin" to be quite intriguing . I still have to see Le deuxième souffle with Lino Ventura, which I have very high hopes for and some of his earlier work.

Did you see "Le Doulos" with Belmondo? Great underseen crime flick from Melville, with very engaging plotline.

No, and it must be very underseen because I never heard of it during our 60's countdown despite all the Melville love here. It sounds good and it has an impressive rating of 7.9 on IMDb. I think I'd like to see it.

Pickup on South Street (1953) - Samuel Fuller

Brief Sinopsis : Richard Widmark plays a "fresh out of jail" pickpocketer, who unknowingly steals a film destined for Communist agents and therefore becomes trapped between police and Communist spy ring.



After being impressed with Richard Widmark's performance in Kiss of Death, I got this flick as a recommendation from edarsenal. And I have to say it was a good one...

Pickup on South Street was gritty, dark and nicely scripted. I liked the atmposhere the film had established and the whole NY underground setting seemed realistic. Eventough the story was pretty straight-forward, it was nonetheless very riveting and entertaining.

Widmark was the film's corner-stone and his charismatic and strong presence is what made the movie for me. What a cool cat this guy is... I really need to see more of his work. His first scene with Jean Peters was my favourite one, because of its sheer rawness and intensity. And their chemistry in general was very nice.

The supporting cast was pretty strong aswell, especially six time Oscar nominee Thelma Ritter, who rightfully snatched one of her nominations for the role of a professional informer, also perhaps the most tragic character in this film. She really put on a acting clinic in her closing scene.

Only thing that kinda bothered me was, how abruptly Peters character fell in love with Widmark. I thought that segment could have been more carefully developed and introduced.

I also admired how Widmark's character was constructed. On the surface he's a violent, distrustful criminal with no attachment to anyone, but later we discover he has somewhat of a decent side and some basic moral values. This added a nice human touch to his character.

Overall, this is a very enjoyable 50's Noir ,with an engaging atmosphere and some nice performances.

Rating:

VERY glad to hear you enjoyed it, I actually heard about it from reading a post by Cricket and that got me hooked.

Thelma Ritter IS pretty amazing and quite tragic which really adds to the overall grit of the movie.

Great write up!!

__________________
What I actually said to win MovieGal's heart:
- I might not be a real King of Kinkiness, but I make good pancakes

~Mr Minio

Hey nice review! of Pickup on South Street. Take a look at my Top 10 Favorite movies on my profile.

Ha, I didn't realize Pickup was your favourite. That's awesome. Also I like that you included Leave her to Heaven

From your favourites list, I've been meaning to see Rebecca for quite a while. I'm still waiting for a Hitchcock flick, that will really blow me away.

I wish my Top 10 Favorites could be Top 100, as it's so hard to list only ten movies, when I love so many of them.

What Hitch movies have you seen? And what did you think of the ones you watched? Oh, and did you know there's a Hitchcock Club here at Mofo? Anyone can join and even without joining you can still post there. The next Hitch film up for discussion is Rear Window
http://www.movieforums.com/clubs/alfred-hitchcock.html

Yeah, that's why I never bother with making a concrete list. There's just to many films that I love.

As for Hitchcock, I've only seen a few films from him to be quite frank. Only Psycho, Vertigo, Rope, North by Northwest (altough my memory's a bit foggy on that one) and Rear Window.

Eventough it's not usually on top Hitchcock lists, my favourite from him was actually Rope and I even watched it twice.

I could might aswell rewatch Rear Window if I catch time, to join the discussion.

Rope has a lot of love for it here at MoFo, it's not my favorite Hitch, but it's interesting. I need to see North by Northwest again as I can't even remember it. Hope to see you at the Rear Window thread.

What would you put as your top 5 Hitchcock films? I already know you're very fond of Psycho from your review, which was btw pretty well written and informative.

Hitchcock is definitely one of directors ,whose films I'd like to explore more in the future.

Psycho has a lot going for it, but it does have what I consider to be flaws ( I guess most all movies do). It's not my favorite but still a good one!

Ohh, a hard question to answer! Some of Hitch's films I can't remember very well (time for a rewatch). I would say these are my favorites:

Rebecca (1940)
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
Notorious (1946)
Strangers on a Train (1951)
The Trouble with Harry (1955)
The Wrong Man (1956)
Psycho (1960)
The Birds (1963)
Spellbound (1945)
Vertigo (1958)
Foreign Correspondent (1940)


I've seen these too...
The Lady Vanishes (1938)
Marnie (1964)
Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941)
Suspicion (1941)
Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
Lifeboat (1944)
The Paradine Case (1947)
Rope (1948)
Stage Fright (1950)
Dial M for Murder (1954)
Rear Window (1954)
To Catch a Thief (1955)
North by Northwest (1959)
Torn Curtain (1966)
I Confess (1953)

Rope is my favourite of his.

I also rate Rebecca, Rear Window, Psycho and North by Northwest really highly.

The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974) - Werner Herzog

Being familiar with the real case, I was very eager to watch this, especially when I learned it was directed by an aclaimed director like Herzog. For those that are not familiar with it, the film is based on a true story (19th century) of a young man who suddenly appeared on a market place in Nuremberg , without being able to walk or speak or perform virtually any comprehensive skill. The story of Kaspar Hauser remains to this day one of the biggest unsolved mysteries.



The star of this film was relatively unknown street performer named Bruno S, whom Herzog discovered through his appearance in documentary about street musicians.. With spending most of his childhood in mental institutions and even (from what I have read) having Nazis perform experiments on him, Herzog felt he could relate with the role of Kaspar because of his tragic past. And I have to say that, Bruno S. played his role to perfection. In an early scene we are shown Kaspar being held in captivity, sitting on a filthy floor, letting out almost animal grunts and playing with his train toy. In this disturbing scene, which gave me a lot of "The Elephant Man" vibes, Bruno S. really displayed all of the pain and vulnerability his character possessed.

The opening shot of the movie consisted of an image of a rye field during the wind, with a quote that said: "Don't you hear that horrible screaming all around you? The screaming men call silence." The same quote perfectly embodied the mood of the film, where silence was oftenly the most important display of emotions.

Visuals were hypnotically stunning and I especially liked how Kaspar's dreams were shot. Beautiful images were accompanied by a melancholic pieces by Di Lasso and Pachebel. The film featured some bizzare and absurd moments like the street circus scene, which were very riveting, aswell as the connection to Kaspar's isolation and peculiarity.

- The Scene with the Little King

As Kaspar begins to make a significant progress with his cognitive skills, he almost starts to have autistic posture and mannerism,while still possessing his innocence, which remained untouched. The scene which particularly touched me was when Kaspar stated, he had it better when he was held in captivity. His inability to ultimately adapt to the real life ,showcased in that scene, was really heart -wrenching and sad.

The lyrical atmosphere Herzog established was very fitting and captivating, with many exterior shots. Simply beautiful! What adds to the enjoyment was how historically accurate the film was. A lot of the sequences and dialogue were actually based on Kaspar's letters and journals.

The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser is a "must watch" simply because of Herzog's extraordinary vision and its poetic elements. Beautiful work of art!

Rating: +