TCM
TiVo ALERT
For
July
8–July 14
DAVID’S
BEST BETS:
LITTLE
CAESAR (July 8, 6:15 am): The movie that made Edward
G. Robinson a legitimate movie star. Warners set the standard for its
gritty, engaging, violent, tense-filled gangster films in 1931 with
the release of Little Caesar on January 9 and Public
Enemy with James Cagney on April 23. Both are among my
favorite films. In Little Caesar, Eddie G. plays Caesar
Enrico "Rico" Bandello, a small-time hood who does
everything possible to become a mob boss in Chicago. Robinson's
portrayal of Rico, also called Little Caesar, is among the most
authentic in cinematic history. His ability to get into character,
playing someone that cold-blooded, ruthless and single-minded without
a concern about anything or anyone else is impressive. The ending is
a classic with Rico gunned down in the gutter saying with surprise,
"Mother of mercy! Is this the end of Rico?"
HARLAN
COUNTY, U.S.A. (July 10, 11:30 pm): This is an
interesting 1976 documentary about a lengthy strike that started in
June 1972 by coal miners in Harlan County, Kentucky, against a
subsidiary of Duke Energy, which, today, is the nation's largest
electric power company. The film is completely one-sided in favor of
the striking workers, who gave complete access to Barbara Kopple, the
director. The company and the hired strike-breakers were interested
in far more important things, such as keeping the mine open and
making a lot of money, than giving their side to "balance"
this film. What the film shows is the struggles, difficulties and
violence of a lengthy strike in a rural, poor community whose
citizens depend almost entirely on its coal mining. There is no
narration in the film with the strikers, their families and their
supporters telling what's happening and the challenges of being on
strike. The company and those they hired mean business with a number
of scenes showing violent confrontations and evolving from hiding a
handgun to those on both sides not concerned about showing off their
hardware as the strike continues. The people interviewed provide
compelling and fascinating perspectives, and the impact the mine and
the strike have on their lives. The movie is also a precursor to the
diminished power unions would experience in the coming years, and how
they tried to change with the time by attempting to be more
"corporate" and "professional," and forgetting
why they were so important in the lives of its members.
ED’S
BEST BETS:
THE
SPY IN BLACK (July 11,
8:15 am): Director Michael Powell and screenwriter Emeric Pressburger
teamed for the first time in this fine espionage drama set in World
War I about a German spy (Conrad Veidt) assigned to gather
intelligence about the British fleet stationed in Scapa Flow. A
female agent (Valerie Hobson), posing as the town’s schoolmistress,
and a disaffected British naval officer (Sebastian Shaw), are sent to
provide assistance. Veidt is charmingly sinister and becomes involved
in a bittersweet romance with Hobson. There are several nice little
surprise twists as the story progresses, and the ending is not quite
what we expect, which makes it all for the better. Powell and
Pressburger are one of my favorite screen teams and this movie is an
excellent example of their work.
WESTFRONT
1918 (July 11, 3:00 am): Americans weren’t the only
ones making films with strong antiwar messages such as All
Quiet on the Western Front. Director G.W. Pabst was doing the
same thing in Germany, in the same year as the American production.
It’s his first sound film, and it packs one hell of a punch. While
every bit as unremitting and bleak as All Quiet, it’s
even more pessimistic in tone than the American production, painting
the German homefront as a bitter, corrupt society on the verge of an
economic breakdown. Is it any wonder this movie as among the first to
be banned by the Nazis when they came into power in 1933?
WE
DISAGREE ON ... SANS SOLEIL (July 10, 3:30 am)
ED:
B. This is a
documentary, and at the same time it’s not a documentary. Rather,
it’s a first-person viewing of the state of civilization in the
late 20th century. The main focus is in two impoverished African
nations, Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde Islands, with side trips to a
rarely seen side of Tokyo, Iceland, and San Francisco, where the
filmmaker follows the footsteps of James Stewart’s character
in Vertigo.
As the influence of Cocteau and Bunuel can be seen throughout, this
is a film that should be seen when there is time. Some see it as
pretentious claptrap, others as art. I see it as an interesting
first-person narrative that challenges our perspectives and takes us
to places we might not ordinarily wish to go. I would have graded it
higher but for the fact that at times the director’s sense of
artiness conflicts with the story he’s trying to tell. However,
that doesn’t take away from the sense that this is an interesting
film to watch, if only for its flaws.
DAVID:
C. I saw this film about four or so months ago on
HuluPlus, and it left no impression on me. It's not compelling or
even well made, and comes across as a random, mixed-up collection of
film clips with no direction. Worst of all, it is neither interesting
nor fascinating. Ed mentions that some see the film as pretentious
claptrap while others view it as art. I found it somewhat
pretentious, but not over the top. As for art, all cinema is art, but
some of it is good, some of it is bad and most of it is somewhere
between the two. For example, I'm not a fan of Jackson Pollock's
abstract impressionist paintings, but I recognize it as art. Sans
Soleil is a confusing collage of images at various locations
throughout the world. If there was something that legitimately tied
it all together, it could have worked. Just because there's a
narrator talking about a supposed world traveler and discussing his
adventures doesn't mean it's a cohesive story. It most definitely
isn't. But, hey, I've seen a lot worse.
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