Romancefest 2014: I Know Where I'm Going!

Now back to the UK for the thrilling conclusion of Romancefest with yet another Powell/Pressburger flick, I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING!

This flick suffers a little from the conceit being dated -- the movie seems to put a lot of stock in the charm of the idea that their main character (Wendy Hiller) is a young woman who knows what she wants and, by gosh, is going to get it! That's not to say the movie itself isn't any good. It's just a little hard to overlook how in love with their own premise the filmmakers seem to be, especially within the first half hour or so.

After that we have other stuff to keep us busy. The story concerns a young woman (Hiller, who knows where she's going) who is traveling to a Scottish isle to marry a rich industrialist. On her way there, she's stopped when stormy weather makes the water impassable. Lingering in a small town, she meets another traveler who is also on his way to the Scottish isle, a naval officer (Roger Livesey) who also happens to own the Scottish isle in question, through family.

It's not giving much away to say that a romance develops between the two and it isn't long before our heroine is torn between the love that's right in front of her and the love that's across the water, the object of her ambition.

Like most Powell and Pressburger joints, I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING! is beautifully shot and features great special effects in the most unassuming of places, this time during a storm at sea. Livesey, who played the best pal in A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH, is just as likable, if not moreso, here, and of course Hiller is plucky in her plucky role.

So, this is the end of Romancefest 2014. I'm proud to say I made it this year after failing last year. Well, no one's perfect.

Romancefest 2014: Badlands

Now, here's one I'm ashamed I hadn't seen until now.

I've been a huge Terrence Malick fan ever since I saw THE THIN RED LINE on the big screen back in high school. Later, I was able to see DAYS OF HEAVEN on the big screen in college, and it only cemented my love even more. Still, somehow, his first film, BADLANDS remained unseen by me until just a few days ago.

This is the last (and best) of the "lovers on the run" flicks for Romancefest 2014, starring Martin Sheen as a wandering 25-year-old who has just quit his job as a small-town garbage man and Sissy Spaceck as the 15-year-old schoolgirl who he falls in love with. After a disagreement with her father (Warren Oates) turns Sheen into a murderer, the two lovers split town and hit the road, first living in a treehouse in the wilderness but eventually fleeing cross-country as Sheen's trigger happy ways lead to bodies piling up.

This is a more straight forward narrative than what Malick would eventually become known for, but it also has all of the more poetic elements that would eventually become his trademark, spending equal times with nature and scenery as he does with his main characters, allowing the film to wander between Scenes Where Stuff Happens and smaller, more microscopic moments that don't make it into most films.

Sheen and Spaceck are both great, about as naturalistic as you can get, which is insane, since they're both super young. Or, maybe it's because they're both super young. I don't know.

One of the interesting things about this movie is how Spaceck's character straddles the line between hostage and willing participant. A lesser movie would make a definite decisions -- she'd either be out for blood, or she'd be cowering and look for escape. But BADLANDS is too realistic for that. This is the kind of movie where shades of gray exist. I mean, how many people have followed someone they wanted to get away from? A lot.

How perfect is it that a movie so beautiful should be about a subject as mundane as teenage love and senseless murder?

Romancefest 2014: La Belle et la Bete

I've seen Disney's excellent version of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST roughly ten billion times but this is the first time I've seen French director Jean Cocteau's 1946 version, LA BELLE ET LA BETE. This flick has been on a ton of "best of" lists, so it's about time I got around to it.

The familiar fairy tale stars Josette Day as Belle, the only decent daughter of a father (Marcel Andre) who has recently lost the entire family fortune at sea. On a hot tip that one of his ships may have survived, Belle's father sets off on a journey to recover some of the fortune. When asked what she wants him to bring back for her, Belle simply requests a rose. Unfortunately, Belle's father's mission is unsuccessful, and upon getting lost in the woods, he seeks refuge in a creepy, seemingly abandoned castle, and picks The Wrong Rose for Belle.

Turns out, the castle and the rose belong to The Beast! This is Jean Marais in some pretty sweet makeup for the time, even featuring articulated ears in some scenes! He can fully emote, even with the head of a lion, thanks to his visible eyes and mouth.

Anyway, long story short (too late), Belle agrees to take her father's place and go off to live with the Beast FOREVER. The Beast, in turn, asks her to marry him every single day. At first they don't get along, then she starts to love the Beast, eventually the Beast lets her return home as long as she promises to come back... and so on.

The movie takes place in an interesting dream world where half the scenes are shot in fairly realistic location settings and the other half are shot in the Beast's fantastical castle, complete with living statues, eyes peering out of the walls, and living arms that hold candelabras. The film has touches of horror, and of course lots of romance, and even some comedy. It's definitely a fairy tale, but not really for kids. They might enjoy the surface level, but pretty much all of the symbolism would be lost on them. To be honest, the symbolism was probably lost on me, also, but I do believe that kind of thing enriches a movie even if you're not fully conscious of it. Actually, that kind of thing probably works better the less conscious of it you are.

If I had to point out the biggest strength of the movie, I'd say it's Jean Marais as The Beast. Despite what could have been a clunky costume, Marais is able to get a full performance across, and even does double duty as Belle's greedy would-be suitor back in town, Avenant.

The biggest weakness of the flick, I think, is the portrayal of Belle. This isn't the fault of Day, and I guess you could even say if all Cocteau is interested in is symbolism, it's not really his fault either. Still, as far as a traditional narrative is concerned, Disney's more modern version of Belle is preferable as a three dimensional character who has more going on than simply being "pure of heart."

Romancefest 2014: The Last of the Mohicans

Normally I reserve Romancefest for flicks I've never seen before. I made an exception for LAST OF THE MOHICANS because it's as if I've never seen it before. Yes, I've seen it, but I could barely remember it and haven't watched it since probably the first time. Which is weird, because I vividly remember my best friends going on about how awesome it was. Where I was when they saw it, I don't know. All I know is, I always felt kinda left out when it came to LAST OF THE MOHICANS.

Anyway, now I feel less left out. This 1992 Michael Mann flick, straight outta Hollywood, tells the tale of Hawkeye (Daniel Day Lewis), a frontiersman who travels the woods of colonial America with his adopted Mohican brother (Eric Schweig) and father (Russell Means). The trio becomes unwittingly involved in the French and Indian war when they rescue the survivors of a betrayed and ambushed company of British soldiers and citizens, consisting of a Major (Steven Waddington) and the two daughters of a besieged British Colonel (Madeline Stowe and Jodhi May).

I don't want to waste too much time on the plot, but basically a bunch of colonials have pledged to help the British fight the French, but in the mean time the French and some Huron mercenaries they've hired, led by a warrior called Magua (Wes Studi) are trashing unprotected colonial settlements. This causes conflict between the British army and their colonial conscripts. Meanwhile, the British Colonel (Maurice Roeves) is on the verge of surrendering as reinforcements do not appear to be coming any time soon.

Lewis' Hawkeye is caught in the middle of all this at first because he sympathizes with the colonials and later because he falls in love with the Colonel's eldest daughter (the Stowe one).

This is all just an elaborate setup for an extended chase sequence in which Lewis attempts to rescue his party from the Huron mercenaries.

Look, I admit it. I cried like three times during this movie. The thing is, it's just so badass. Once Lewis is in love with Stowe, there's nothing that'll stop him from saving her. He chops guys up with his hatchet and jumps through waterfalls and climbs mountains and all kinds of stuff. There's even a subtle subplot romance between Lewis' adopted bro and Stowe's younger sis that brought me to tears. Turns out if you get a warrior running in slow-mo towards his about-to-be-chopped lover, I will cry.

Aside from all that, the movie's beautiful to look at. The plot be damned, this thing has scenery and cinematography that's amazing. Set that to a pretty score by Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman, and it's hard to resist. This is the kind of stuff that Hollywood does best.

Romancefest 2014: Ali: Fear Eats the Soul

Ever since Roger Ebert put ALI: FEAR EATS THE SOUL on his "Great Movies" list, I've wanted to see it. It's a shame I haven't gotten around to it until now, because it's great. Just like he said it would be!

Rainer Werner Fassbinder directed this 1974 German film. It stars Brigitte Mira as a 60-year-old widow who finds herself drawn into a bar she passes every day but would normally never visit. Here, she meets Ali (El Hedi ben Salem), a much younger Arabic immigrant, who asks her to dance after some mean-spirited prodding from some of the other barflies. They dance together and instantly strike up an unlikely but easy rapport, and end up sleeping together that night.

They both realize they're lonely and that they'd be less lonely if they were together and make the pragmatic, if unorthodox, decision to get married. Of course, no one else understands this, including both characters' friends, family and co-workers.

The film is in turn touching, funny and tragic, as the innocent relationship between our two likable main characters is put to the test, not just by their surroundings, but by themselves. A lesser film would have the two main characters be saints, paragons of an enlightened age. But not here. Here, they make mistakes, buy into what other people are saying about them, and do things they regret.

Apparently this film was partially inspired by ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS, which I just watched the other day, and it was nice to see them so close together. Still, ALI is the better film, if only because it allows for extremes that HEAVEN does not. For instance, in ALI the age difference is visible just by looking at the two characters. In HEAVEN, it's superficial.

Romancefest 2014: Betty Blue

Back to France for Jean-Jacques Beineix's 1986 film, BETTY BLUE.

First of all, instead of reading this, you should just go read Roger Ebert's review. It's hilarious. I liked the movie more than him, but there's no way I can be as hilarious as him.

Okay, are you done reading yet? Funny, right? Nobody did it better.

Anyway, BETTY BLUE is the tale of a stormy relationship between a young would-be writer turned handyman (Jean-Hughes Anglade) and a beautiful (but unstable) woman (Beatrice Dalle) who suddenly appears in his life. When I say unstable, I mean she does stuff like pour paint on her lover's boss's car, throw all of her lover's shit out the window, and eventually burns down the house on purpose. That kinda unstable.

But, our young hero loves her. Or, at least, loves to fuck her. No, he loves her.

In any case, thanks to their tumultuous lifestyle, the two lovers are forced to move from place to place, taking one odd job after another, falling in with one group of friends and allies after another. One thing that keeps them together (besides the sex) is the girl's passion for getting the guy published. Early on she finds his notebooks comprising a massive hand-written novel, decides it's a masterpiece, and becomes its only champion. And he likes this.

This is charming for a while, and I do think there is more to the flick than Ebert saw. There is a certain inherent drama to these kinds of relationships, and it is interesting to see the mechanics at work and fascinating to see how a couple of characters like this stay together.

Still, the version of the flick I saw clocked in at about 3 hours which was about 1 hour too many. After a little research it seems like maybe I watched the director's cut. I wonder if I would have liked the 2 hour version better. It's funny, I realize the 2 hour cut is probably a "Best of" of the entire running time, and they didn't just snip off the last hour, but my favorite parts were within the first couple hours, so if it did snip off the last one, that'd be okay with me. I liked when the two lovers were on the beach living in the little cabins. I liked it when they were trying to work in a friend's restaurant. I liked them less when they were running a piano shop 2 hours later.

Romancefest 2014: All That Heaven Allows

We’ll stick with Hollywood for now for the 1948 Douglas Sirk flick, ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS. I remember reading about Sirk after I saw Todd Haynes’ FAR FROM HEAVEN about a decade ago (sheesh) and wanting to check him out. So, I’m glad I finally have.

Jane Wyman stars as a middle-aged widow and mother of 2, whose kids are in college and on the verge of moving out of the house.  She has a nice gentlemanly suitor (Conrad Nagel) who is a little too boring and old for her, and an annoying group of shallow country club friends.

She starts to open up when she begins to speak with her gardener (Rock Hudson) who is younger than her, and viewed as lower class, due to his profession. This, coupled with the general attitude of the time concerning widows moving on, results in a controversial romance in which her friends and her own children judge her so harshly that the relationship is almost destroyed.

Sirk’s movies were famous for being melodramas that dealt with domestic “women’s issues,” but viewed in retrospect there is of course a lot to be said about how films like this one expose the hypocrisy of the ultra-conformist 1950s and the shackles it placed on people who just wanted to be happy, especially women and minorities.

Watching it today, it’s tempting to say, “What’s the big deal?” but I think that’s the entire point. Things like this should not be a big deal, and yet they are. That’s what makes them injustices. That’s what makes lonely people, desperate people, unhappy people. Shit that shouldn’t be, but is.

The movie is beautifully shot with gorgeous, deep color and fantastic settings that turn suburbia into a grander setting than you might imagine. It combines reality with decadence in a way that filmmakers like Tim Burton would go on later to emulate with such intensity that it borders on parody.

The thing is, if the movie seemed insincere for just a moment, it’d all fall apart. Because it appears that Sirk really knows what he’s doing, it all works. What could be over the top is only over the top in service of Sirk’s point, which is sadly still poignant today.