Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) Weir. This is a film that has been around for nearly 50 years. In that time I’d watched it once (not sure when but it was a couple of decades ago, at least) and didn’t like it. So again I ask: what the hell is the matter with me? There have been a lot of movies that I didn’t like the first time but discovered after a second viewing such as L’Aventurra, Cries and Whispers and The Exterminating Angel. Picnic at Hanging Rock can be added to that list. A masterpiece. Maybe like a lot of viewers I was bothered by the fact that there was no answer to the film’s central mystery. An all girls school goes on a picnic in Australia in 1900 at a place called Hanging Rock. Four go missing along with a teacher. One is later found with no memory of what happened. What the hell happened to those picnickers? In watching the film again I realized that not only do we not require an answer to that question, we’re probably better off without one. The story is in the survivor’s reaction to what has gone on and how they react to it. Picnic is also beautiful to look at. Images from the film linger long after watching. It is powerfully evocative. Somehow in watching it I was reminded of Sofia Coppola’s Virgin Suicides. I subsequently read that Coppola admitted that Picnic greatly influenced two of her films, including Virgin Suicides. Sounds like a great double bill.
Elevator to the Gallows (1958) Malle. There have been few women who’ve looked lovelier on the silver screen than Jeanne Moreau did in this, Louis Malle’s first feature. It is surely the greatest French noir ever made. It is tightly plotted, lovingly shot to emphasize Moreau’s stunning features and features an excellent score done entirely by Miles Davis. Most of Moreau’s scenes are of her walking around Paris at night wondering what became of her illicit lover and whether he killed — as planned — her husband. Little does she know that he is stuck in an elevator. Of all the rotten luck. Complicating matters is the theft of her lover’s car and identity by a young couple who go on to commit the most serious of mischief. Elevator is much much more than just Moreau’s pretty face, but if it wasn’t that would still he a helluva picture.
Young and Innocent (1937) Hitchcock. Whenever I think of Young and Innocent one indelible scene immediately comes to mind. A car drives into an old mine and starts to sink. The heroine desperately tries to get out and the hero manages to reach for and barely pull her to safety. It’s an extraordinary moment from Hitchcock who directed many such memorable scenes. Young and Innocent is one in a long line of stories he directed in which an innocent man stands accused of murder and as in other of these type of pictures he’s on the run but benefits from the help of a lovely young woman who initially doubts his innocence. Just because he trots this same theme out all the time doesn’t mean it isn’t always successful. It is always successful. This iteration is set in England and features a cast that would be mostly unfamiliar to even a rabid cinephile such as myself. In any event it’s a good cast and an excellent film. With a stunningly shot conclusion.
Nobody’s Fool (1994) Benton. It’s a really nice movie in which Paul Newman gives a very nice performance. It’s based on a Richard Russo novel of the same name. He writes nice books. Newman is a crotchety old man in a small upstate New York town. It is a cold winter, which adds to a certain gruffness and a certain coziness. Newman’s son, a college professor, reconnects with his dad after many years then spilts from his wife and pop and son get to know each other. Blah, blah, blah. There are characters in the film who are “real characters” who wear their personalities on their sleeves. Newman, who works occasionally for a contractor played by Bruce Willis is the center of everyone’s attention because he’s more interesting than anyone else. Melanie Griffith as Willis’ wife flashes her tits to Newman and that’s a nice moment in a nice movie that ultimately goes nowhere and does nothing original but again, it’s nice.
Blackmail (1929) Hitchcock. If I’d seen this film before it was a long time ago and I somehow didn’t fully appreciate it. Simply put it’s Alfred Hitchcock’s first masterpiece. It was also both his last silent and first talking picture as he made both versions of it. I’ve now watched both versions and both are criminally underrated. I prefer the silent one. A woman who is dating a Scotland Yard detective kills a man in self-defense and as the title suggests she is blackmailed. The story is fine and moves along nicely with a satisfactory denouement (ending at the British Museum the first time Hitch used a well-known place for a climactic scene) but it is all the little touches throughout that make Blackmail special. The seconds after killing (which we don’t see) are remarkable in large part owing to the facial expression and movements of Anny Ondra. Indeed it is from that point on the film that Hitch emphasizes key points with camera angles, highlighting sounds, camera focus and trickery. Utterly compelling.
Nazi Agent (1942) Dassin. It’s World War II propaganda and pretty effective at that. Conrad Veidt (best remembered as Col. Strasser in Casablanca) plays twin brothers. One is a bookish philatelist (is there any other kind?) who has emigrated to the U.S. to escape the horrors of Nazism; the other is quite the opposite, a dedicated Nazi who is German Consul and is also involved in espionage against the allies.
Reunited after many years they struggle, they fight, a gun goes off, one is dead and the other assumes his identity. It’s an interesting film capably directed by Jules Dassin. It was only his second feature in a career that would span forty years and it evidenced his great promise. The ending seems implausible but was clearly designed to stir up wartime audiences and I’d wager it succeeded.
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