La Crème (The Cream) - Reaction

[France]

A good, black-comedy-drama about a man who finds a skin cream that makes people think he's famous and therefore treat him very well. (The comedy-drama aspect is the usual way the French combine these genres that I like so much.) The story has multiple unexpected events, making the story delightfully difficult to predict. The film speaks about the desire to be famous and about how we respond to celebrity.

I just wish they used a better quality camera. The film was a little grainy.

La Combinaison (The Combination) - Reaction

[France]

A fairly cute, funky short about a guy who's played the same lottery numbers every week for ten years. One week they hit.

Lawrence of Arabia - Reaction

This movie, grand in scope, feels like a classic. Based on a true story, it's about a flamboyant, complex, unique, and sometimes enigmatic British officer who leads the Arab tribes, despite internecine fighting, against the Turks during World War I, and, notwithstanding British misgivings, encourages their independence. As such, it plays simultaneously like a character study / psychological profile and an adventure story. The film, at nearly four hours in length (with an intermission), feels stately in style and in pacing. One can't make movies this long or at this speed anymore. Thus, it's unrepeatable. A solid film, it's not a surprise that it won many Academy Awards and Golden Globes.

Speaking of the intermission, I liked the musical score that played during it, before the movie started, and at the end.

The film includes dramatic, expansive desert vistas. The battle scenes had a similarly wide angle and used many extras. According to the commentary, shooting in a pristine desert was hard work. One had to rub out tracks (or wait for the wind to do it for you) between takes. And, as this film was made long before computer graphics, some scenes, such as a striking sunrise, simply required luck, early morning setup, and patience, in order to capture the cinematic magic.

The movie is about skin color and fitting in, and about compassion and mercy. It also explores the ambiguity of motives, such as the conflict between political expediency versus personal morality.

It's interesting that the movie works and was successful without any love interests or indeed any women in speaking roles at all. (I didn't notice this fact while watching; I only read about it later.)

The Road to Nod - Reaction

[Germany]

A black and white movie about a prisoner who is released from prison and finds out his old gang has been disbanded, another has taken over, and they want him dead. It's simultaneously a road movie and a noir, as he looks up old associates and runs for his life. Although apparently a low budget film, it's hard to tell. It uses a high quality camera, and the camerawork is smooth and good.. The framing and cutting is better than in most professionally made movies. (Indeed, that might be a reason to see it.) On the other hand, although the stoic main character is played well, some of the supporting characters are not. Some seem like they're just reading their lines. Also, there's no visible pursuing enemy, no sense of a chase, and thus the movie lacks a sort of imminent threat that could keep us on our toes. My overall impression of the movie: while I'm glad I saw it, I could've taken it or left it.

Incidentally, many actors and the soundtrack come from Swiss Rock musical groups. I enjoyed the music, feeling it added a soulful and unconventional yet appropriate ambiance to the film. The indiefest person who introduced the film believes the music alone might be reason to see it.

Night and the City - Reaction

Important note: I saw the 1950 version. The movie has apparently been remade later.

A respectable, compelling, action-filled noir about a con artist/tout/huckster for whom, although slick and wily, nothing goes right. Perhaps the events are a bit exaggerated at times, but most good noir are like that.

Road House - Reaction

A decent enough noir about two men, one of whom is psychotic, caught in a love triangle in a small town. The movie meanders, building characters, for quite a while as nothing happens. In fact, except for a suspenseful ending in a foggy forest, there's not much action. Also, the plot is straightforward, lacking twists, turns, and unexpected events. Given the last three sentences, I'm hard pressed to call this a noir in the traditional sense.

Quiz Show - Reaction

A dramatic, engrossing movie about the 1950's scandal about quiz game shows being fixed. It's suspenseful all the way through its more than two hour length. The writing is smart and the characters appropriately articulate. Also, I love the accents.

Beside the obvious moral issue in the film, there's a number of other themes. The movie speaks a bit about ethnic/race and class issues, especially as seen through the producers and sponsors of the show thinking about the image they want to convey and what the public wants. The movie also speaks about father-son issues, as exemplified by the two main characters' relationships with their father's/son's. In addition, in some sense, it speaks about America's loss of innocence in general and about the media in particular. Finally, we also see the rise of television culture, as families gather weekly to watch their favorite shows, and the tyranny of audience ratings.

The movie is based loosely on a true story. Although all indications imply the movie is truthful, and it even names names of real people and companies, it apparently takes substantial dramatic license. For instance, the lawyer didn't really play any role in uncovering the scandal, despite how the movie makes it appear. It's ironic that a movie about misleading the public into believing something happened that actually didn't does the same with its plot.