Richard Pryor Live in Concert (Jeff Margolis, 1979)
I almost didn't write anything up about this, but I mainly thought I would because sometimes I think that people will automatically like it or dislike it just because of the subject matter and the language Pryor uses. The comedian does use a ton of the N-words (something he later stopped altogether) and mofos everywhere, that's for sure. He talks about sex, family, racism, pets, drugs, hunting, boxing, heart attacks, sexism, funerals, children, corporal punishment, wet Q-tips, mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, long lines, freaky-deaky,
The Exorcist, the Vincent Price
The Fly, "Macho Man", "dead person", Long Beach, and much more. I laugh longer and more often at this movie than any other movie I've seen, and when I'm not laughing, I'm wearing an enormous smile of recognition.
Honeysuckle Rose (Jerry Schatzberg, 1980)
This film was actually renamed
On the Road Again to take advantage of the film's hit song. It's a two-hour flick which is about one hour's worth of pretty good Willie Nelson concert footage (in character with his movie band and singers) interspersed with a slight reworking of the Ingrid Bergman films
Intermezzo (she made two versions). Willie is married to Dyan Cannon, but when he takes the young daughter (Amy Irving) of his retiring guitarist best friend (Slim Pickens) on tour with him, a love affair ensues. The film is both a drama and a comedy (Willie and Slim make a good team), and Robby Müller's photography is especially evocative and makes things seem more complex and important than they actually are. However, I used to think better of this one, so maybe I was just not in the best frame of mind when I watched it (although probably not).
A Night Porter's Point of View (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1977)
This short film is technically a documentary about one man who has very strong ideas about supporting the Communist government and inflicting as much "justice" against as many people as he possibly can. The title translates as "Night Porter", but in the U.S. we used to call him a night watchman and nowadays a security guard. This guy though goes on and on about having public hangings and that when individuals question the government that it's just not right. If taken as a straight doc, it's a bit scary, but even at 17 minutes, it's a little too long and cinematically-flat. However, if you take it as a satiric jab at a man's thinking (I'm not even sure the guy isn't an actor) and at the government in charge in Poland in the '70s, it's more interesting.
Le Boucher (Claude Chabrol, 1970)
This is probably my fave Chabrol film. It's set in a small French town where a school headmistress (
Stéphane Audran) strikes up a friendship with a butcher (Jean Yanne) who's recently returned to cater a wedding. Meanwhile, a serial killer seems to be terrorizing the area, and it definitely affects the relationship between the two adults. Right from the weird opening credits which show a cave near the town where the school children later go on a field trip, the film is unsettling, especially when accompanied by Pierre Jensen's freaky music. Chabrol always uses Hitchcockian touches such as subjective camera, long shots inside cars, and a general way of being able to shoot in long takes while showing a lot without being flamboyant, but here he's really at his best. The two lead characters are also two of the more realistic leads he's ever built his films around. You can see the humanity and pain in their eyes when they remember their pasts and think about their futures. If you haven't watched much in the way of Chabrol, I suggest starting with this one and branching out if you enjoy the flavor and cut of it.
Waltz With Bashir (Ari Folman, 2008)
Basically, this is an animated documentary about the 1982 Lebanon War and how the director cannot actually recall certain key incidents he was witness to, but still has nightmares stemming from some memories. He visits friends and soldiers who were there with him and together they try to piece together what really happened. Although the animation is striking, it's mostly in the use of color and added-on effects. The faces of the people all have something almost resembling a lifeless quality, but that's undoubtedly the point. Also, if you aren't aware of the political and historical significance of what's been happening in the Middle East at least since WWII (but basically since written history), the film's pace and occasional talkiness might get to you before some intense action, heady surrealism and powerful truths sink in during the second half. Overall, it's an important film and an artistic one as well which can only grow in stature the more one learns about the subject and sees it tragically repeat
ad infinitum.
Heaven's Gate (Michael Cimino, 1980)
I was one of those people who actually saw
Heaven's Gate in 1980 in its original version before UA pulled it, recut it and dumped it back on the market five months later. At 219 minutes, it certainly is a formidable film and one which you have to be prepared for. (Of course, any movie over three-and-a-half hours needs your dedication, especially at the theatre.) What got
Heaven's Gate into trouble with most viewers (and critics) is that it started out with several long, mostly-impressive (in and of themselves) set pieces which didn't especially seem to connect to each other and further the plot. In other words, the most-difficult part of the film was the beginning. Of course, several foreign epics have been structured similarly and hailed as masterpieces, and although I won't namedrop them right now, most of them are Italian. Then, there is the other thing which caused
Heaven's Gate to bomb, and that was that there was a backlash against Cimino for winning the Oscar Best Picture (
The Deer Hunter) with what some wrong-headed people (including Jane Fonda) thought was a pro-war, right-wing flick.
Now, I went back in 1981 and rewatched the film, cut by 70 minutes, and it's true that it was faster-paced and that it seemed action-packed (most all of the action was rear-loaded originally), but it also seemed choppy because the set pieces which used to be 20 minutes were now five minutes long. It also eviscerated much of the character motivations, the acting, the thematic complexity, and left you wondering who some people were. Today, I rewatched the restored version, and although it's still something of a tough row to hoe, it's certainly the way to watch the film. For one thing, Vilmos Zsigmond's sepia-toned cinematography is both spectacular in the context of the film and in the way we see history often through old sepia photos of the West. The film is about the Johnson County Wars of Wyoming in 1892, and the scenery is impressive and makes you feel as if you were close to Heaven's Gate, but in this version, there's just as much hellfire as anything.
Heaven's Gate is a big flick, and it has a big cast. The central character is obviously the man played by Kris Kristofferson who sides with the European immigrant settlers against the Cattleman's Association and eventually the U.S. Army. He meets and falls in love with a wild Frenchwoman (Isabelle Huppert), but she also loves Christopher Walken who's actually on the wrong side of the situation. Sam Waterston plays a scumbag who's basically in charge of arranging the killing of the settlers, and John Hurt, who doesn't believe in what he stands for, is also on his side just because he's too ineffectual. The cast is full of many other names, including Jeff Bridges, Brad Dourif, Joseph Cotten, Mickey Rourke, Terry O'Quinn, Geoffrey Lewis, Richard Masur, Tom Noonan, and a few others. David Mansfield's elegaic musical score is a strong asset (he's the violinist in the movie every time you see one), and the sets and costumes are spectacular. Ultimately,
Heaven's Gate comes across as some strange melding of
1900, McCabe and Mrs. Miller and
Soldier Blue. Some people will hate it, others will love it, and many will scratch their heads. But if you get through it to the end, it's obvious that it's trying to be about something important, and in more than one way, it succeeds.
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