axpalm Reviews

Other Losses (2015)

Searing Documentary

[10/10 · 22 December 2021]

OTHER LOSSES...

A horrible chapter of World War 2 history, concerning the disgraceful treatment of German soldiers by American, British, Canadian, French and Soviet allies, near and after the war's end.

Incredible stories suppressed by political, financial and media elites since the events themselves, the facts are slowly coming to light, thanks to heroic individuals like the late Professor James Bacque of the University of Toronto who wrote the book, OTHER LOSSES and then directed this documentary, which is based on his own book.

A moving work by a most humane scholar.

Cross of Iron (1977)

Best War Film Ever

[10/10 · 19 April 2020]

Sam Peckinpah's version of battle between Germany and the Soviet Union on the Russian front is stunning. A modern hym to Homer. James Coburn, smashing as Steiner, leads a first-rate cast which includes Maximilian Schell, James Mason and Senta Berger but the first star is Peckinpah - his directorial eye cutting to the essence of a scene with electric force, orchestration of movement, editing with incision and elan, the violence bewildering and hallucinatory. Orson Welles sent Peckinpah a telegram with high praise after seeing the work. 2mm of this film is worth 10 Saving Private Ryans. RIP Sam.

The Aviator (2004)

Fine but flawed...

[7/10 · 18 March 2020]

A fine, assured film in so many ways but with, for me, two significant flaws... DiCaprio and it should have been in black and white.

DiCaprio doesn't have the lankiness and his voice is too high pitched. Physically, he looks better in the role with the moustache in the latter half of the film.

Visually, the black and white would have elevated the picture to another stratosphere and perhaps hidden some of DiCaprio's shortcomings.

Anyway... the rest of the picture is mostly first class. Scorsese's direction, the production, etc. I'm an avid fan of both the film and Charles Higham's book and have my own copy.

Casanova (1976)

Fellini's Epic on a Great Rogue

[10/10 · 22 November 2019]

Fellini's darkest, most haunting and melancholic film. The direction, images and music are stunning. My only criticisms are that the costumes/makeup are over the top and some of the sex is silly. Less would have been more. Still, Sutherland gives a heroic performance and the work remains an alchemical masterpiece.

Bluebeard (1963)

A favourite of Stanley Kauffmann's...

[27 December 2018]

Kauffmann was a distinguished critic and one I read avidly over many years. He loved this film. Out of respect for him I was curious to see it and now, I'm sorry to say, have and feel disappointed.

For one, very disappointed in Jean Rabier's flat colours - too pale orange and boring browns. The film looks like a mediocre Hollywood musical. Which is doubly sad because the costumes are spot on. One would think that with Claude Chabrol at the helm, the Belle Epoque would have been conveyed so well.

Charles Denner is a bit stiff, mannequin-like in the lead role but still impressive due to his intensity and voice. His voice, like so many first-rate French actors, is his best instrument - deep, rich, wonderful to hear. Less stiffness in body movements would have rounded out a first-class performance.

The women are wonderful - Danielle Darreaux, Michele Morgan, Catherine Rouvel, etc. Luminous and moving, even under the flat colours.

There are occasional Chabrol pleasures to be had now and then - the opening shot of Denner's head at the family dinner table followed by the WW1 newsreel, his time in bed with his lover and his walks with the other women were impressive and promised much but alas, the work felt repetitive, even predictable and never did come together for me. It felt more like a teasing theatrical matinee play than a gripping film about a notorious serial killer, caught between the beauties and horrors of his age.

Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973)

Peckinpah's Poetic Rock Western

[2 October 2016]

Sam Peckinpah had many demons and encountered many battles during his artistic life but his work, survives. What an exceptionally gifted man he was.

I watched PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID again tonight. Despite disagreements with young author Rudy Wurlitzer (who turned into one of the best writers around) and the usual, obnoxious movie studio heads, Peckinpah's mastery shines thru.

What a beautiful film PAT GARRETT is and James Coburn is smashing as the lawman (and friend) who hunts down Billy the Kid (Kris Kristofferson). The cast is legendary - Jason Robards, Emilio Fernandez, Katy Jurado, Slim Pickens, among numerous other veterans. The soundtrack, by Bob Dylan, is among the finest ever put on film.

Peckinpah's eye, choreography, sense of tempo, are both poetic and exhilarating. Is it possible that such a maverick actually worked in Hollywood at one time?

Wurlitzer, who had disagreements with Peckinpah over the script, nonetheless wrote a beautiful novel, SLOW FADE, about a legendary director of westerns coming to grips with his sorrows in the twilight of his life. Many believe the novel was inspired by his working relationship with Peckinpah.

Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man (1981)

Bertolucci's Most Underrated Work

[10/10 · 29 February 2016]

A decade after the worldwide success of LAST TANGO and a half-dozen years following his ambitious failure NOVECENTO (1900), Bernardo Bertolucci makes his most restrained, workmanlike and nuanced film.

There's nothing as stylish as there is in his great film THE CONFORMIST, there's no Marlon Brando as the last American in Paris as there is in TANGO, there's only a wholly-realized work, full of quiet daring.

Ugo Tognazzi, a veteran of Italian film and theater, is Primo Spaggiari, a cheese factory owner in Northern Italy, who accidentally witnesses the kidnapping of his only son.

Flanked by his glamorous French wife, played by the accomplished Anouk Aimee, his son's radical, sexy girlfriend, played by the talented Laura Morante, and a priest who seems capable of anything, actor Victor Cavallo... the drama unfolds. A cloud of mystery hangs over the autumnal landscape. A director who made his career an Oedipal quest in search of the father, now turns his gaze around... the father searches for his son.

Bertolucci, working with his actors and aided by veteran cinematographer Carlo Di Palma, who made his name working with Michelangelo Antonioni (RED DESERT and BLOW-UP), transforms the countryside of Emilia (where he's from) and the estate with the factory, into a vast theater of contemporary Greek tragedy. The stunning shot of large cheese wheels in the factory refrigerator that Spaggiari refers to as his "Fort Knox," Spaggiari's bicycle ride across the city of Parma that is a small time capsule of postwar Italian cinema and the beguiling ending are scenes that, alone, would make this film worth seeing.

I've watched this film a number of times at repertory cinemas, on television, and on old VHS. It grows with each viewing. Something new to see or discover every time I watch it and WATCHING is one of the various themes of this film. It's a major crime that such a film is not on DVD or Blu ray in North America.

A hearty thank you to Bertolucci for this superb work, his most underrated film.

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974)

Peckinpah's Dark Journey...

[11 January 2016]

BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA is Sam Peckinpah's most intimate and underrated film. I can think of few other films of this caliber that are as neglected or unsung.

A bizarre, sleazy film that has Peckinpah's signature trademarks - his romance with John Huston's TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE, loners, Mexico at it's grittiest, slow-motion violence.

When I saw it the first few times, the film seemed to wander aimlessly at various stretches and Peckinpah's direction felt tired to me. Even though Peckinpah can still lift you two inches off the ground with his action sequences, it doesn't have the kinetic impulse running thru it like THE WILD BUNCH, STRAW DOGS, THE GETAWAY or CROSS OF IRON.

Knowing now what I do about his career, I suspect the tiredness was authentic, due to his battles with studio executives and a self- destructive life. This knowledge and the ensuing years of experiencing the picture, have taken on added meaning and enriched it for me. Bennie the down and out piano player, memorably played by Peckinpah's Bogart, Warren Oates, is a wonderful alter ego for the director.

Starring Oates and Isela Vega and a strong supporting cast which includes Gig Young, Robert Webber and Emilio Fernandez. The excellent score is by Peckinpah's best composer, Jerry Fielding.

It may take several viewings but sit back and relish the sad poetry of an authentic film artist, Sam Peckinpah.