Annie Hall

Annie Hall; romantic tragicomedy, USA, 1977; D: Woody Allen, S: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts, Carol Kane, Paul Simon, Shelley Duvall, Christopher Walken, Jeff Goldblum, Beverly D'Angelo, Sigourney Weaver

Alvy Singer, a Jewish comedian in New York in his 40s, is having problems because his every relationship fell apart. He remembers how he grew up in Brooklyn when he was a kid, how he wrote jokes for other entertainers until he tried to perform himself and how he eventually started visiting a psychiatrist until today. One day, as he was playing tennis with his friend Rob, he met Annie and started dating her. For the first time he senses this romance has a future and falls deeply in love with her. But with time problems occur and Annie breaks up with him.

"Annie Hall" is, unlike other comedies, a very personal comedy, and that's why a lot of people tend to not understand it—or to even try to understand it. But if they ever tried to connect to the film's unusual level, they would maybe realize that there's a lot of amazing things in this shining film, the best Woody Allen ever made. Allen's fans will notice his films were pretty silly, thin filmed before 1977, than the most he did after that, which were more complex, emotional and aspirational. In that aspect, "Annie Hall" was his revolution—like all of his films, this one is also hermetic, a 'slice-of-life' piece without a story, with characters "just talking", and some will find that boring since it has no excitement. But Allen is simply a static, understated author, who de-dramatizes this film to the point of unglamorous reality, until you can practically taste and feel the life of New Yorkers in the 70s. The protagonist Alvy is a tragic figure pretending to be in a comedy: he realized life is meaningless already as a kid ("The Universe is expanding." - "What has the Universe got to do with it?"), became suicidal as a grown up ("I would have killed myself, but I was in analysis with a strict Freudian, and if you kill yourself, they make you pay for the sessions you miss!"), and hoped that he finally found a way out of depression through his true love Annie, who made him happy, but then she left him.

Allen's emotional stories tend to be as introverted, as routine as real life, but Allen discovers magic in that routine: for instance, when Annie and Alvy are out on a balcony they formally talk about art, but the subtitles in that scene "translate" their dialogues and tell what Alvy's really talking, about how he finds her attractive and likes her. Even later on the film proves to be so innovative that even Godard would be jealous of it: Alvy is walking down the street saying how he saw Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" when he was a kid and fell in love with the witch—and in the next scene he is shown in that animated film, discussing with the witch, about their marriage and her period. While Annie and Alvy are having sex, he complains she is "distant", and her soul is seen leaving her body and planning to do some drawing in the meantime. While watching a basketball game on TV, Alvy is asked "what is so fascinating watching a bunch of pituitary cases trying to stuff a ball through a hoop". In a fantasy sequence, Alvy guides Annie through his childhood memories in "3D". This "real-life comedy", Allen's version of "A Guy, A Girl", is so full of genius scenes and dialogues ("Those who can't do, teach. Those who can't teach, teach gym. And those who couldn't do anything were assigned to our school"; "I came out to get some shock therapy, but there was an energy crisis") many of them fly off so fast that some will not even register them, but it is so rich with abstract beauty, male-female observations, themes about the loneliness, disappointment and sadness of outsiders, unattractive intellectuals. Because of its surreal tone and dry cleverness, some will be quick to dismiss "Annie Hall", not seeing trees from the forest, and the quiet romantic masterpiece hidden in that unbelievable hermetic style.

Grade:++++

Mr. & Mrs. Smith

Mr. & Mrs. Smith; Action comedy, USA, 2005; D: Doug Liman, S: Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Vince Vaughn, Adam Brody, Kerry Washington

John Smith and his wife Jane are married for 6 years but their marriage is sinking deeper and deeper into crysis so they decide to get help from a marriage counselor. But neither John nor Jane know that the other is a member of a secret organization of assasins - John is a killer in a completely male, Jane in a completely female firm. When they are assigned to kill te same man, the finally discover the truth. They get orders to kill each other, but they discover their real identities and new passion, thus liquidating their bosses.

A movie that Jennifer Aniston probably wished was never made, the satire "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" is more relevant for the fact that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie fell in love there than for some outstanding quality, but it's still a very solid, amusing and easily watchable achievement. Actually, the first half is even good and offers at times a subversive satire that's parodying "dead" marriages in which wives and husbands don't know nothing about each other, and director Doug Liman manages to put a few fresh sparks, but soon the cliches undermine the story and the finale just a routine fixated at empty action. But the two main protagonists are simply irresistibly charming, especially the funny Brad Pitt who would have been an excellent comedian if he tried, and the scenes in which John and Jane are at the marriage counselor and can't remember when it was the last time they had sex or at home where they only talk about routine things like the color of the curtains seems as if they predict the future of the famous star couple.

Grade:+

Woman in the Moon

Frau im Mond; silent science-fiction, Germany, 1929; D: Fritz Lang, S: Willy Fritsch, Gerda Maurus, Gustav von Wangenheim, Klaus Pohl, Fritz Rasp, Gustl Gstettenbaur

Germany. Helius goes to visit his friend, the old professor Manfeldt, but is surprised to see him living in poor circumstances and in a shabby apartment. Namely, Manfeldt was isolated from every scientist when he started claiming that water and gold could be found on the Moon. But they are planing a flight to the moon to prove they were right. It is planed that they will be joined by the engineer Windegger and his girlfriend Friede, whom Helius is secretly in love with. But their plans for building a rocket get stolen from Turner, who presses them to take him with him to find gold for the rich investors or he will destroy them. Forced to do so, they agree. The rocket launches and soon arrives to the Moon, together with a kid who secretly entered into it. They discover the Moon has atmosphere, but Manfeldt goes crazy and falls from a cliff, while Turner starts shooting at the crew, which kills him. Since the rocket is damaged and has limited air supplies, Helius decides to stay on the Moon. The rocket leaves, and he discovers Friede also stayed together with him.

"Woman in the Moon", the last silent film from director Fritz Lang and one of the first ever that showed the imaginary landing on the Moon, is a forgotten and overstretched achievement, but a one that once again proved his incredible, revolutionary imagination and talent. The whole film is a naive fantasy and ode to dreams without boundaries, thus it inevitably came to a few false conclusions considering the space traveling, but at the same time it was also right on some aspects. The first quarter of the film is rather monotone, stiff, since it showed the average lives of professor Mandeldt and his followers Helius, Friede and Windegger, where the romantic triangle between the latter three characters seems unnecessary. Still, with time the story slowly starts to captivate the viewer with nice little details - for instance, while urgently waiting for Windegger to answer the call, Helius is impatiently waiting at his phone and cutting the leaves of a plant with scissors (!) - and a better rhythm, where the subplot about the evil tycoons who steal the plans in order to force the crew to bring gold for them from the Moon thus planing a Moon monopoly actually gives a spark of reality and intrigue. In fact, the whole sequence that shows tycoons watching photographs and films of the test rocket that crashed on the Moon is simply fabulous.

The second part of the film is more intriguing, showing the journey to the Moon. Lang's imaginary details there are amusingly false: for instance, the rocket was actually placed in a tank with water before she launched into space. While flying with a speed of 11,200 meters per second, the crew lies down on beds. The zero gravity shows up only for a few minutes when the rocket was already half way between the Earth and the Moon. The gravity and the air on the Moon are the same as on the Earth, etc. All those details were proven to be wrong, but it's nice to see how people back in 1929 imagined how it would be. It's always fascinating to watch special effects shots in old silent films, and some shots here are really a sight to behold, like the rubber Moon seen rotating while the Earth is setting on the horizon. Sadly, despite all those virtues, the story suffers from plot holes, too long running time (2,5 hours) and one of the most bizarre open endings of all time, which in the end make the film look as if it was only good, when in fact it's actually very good.

Grade:+++

Tokyo Story

Tokyo monogatari; Drama, Japan, 1953; D: Yasujiro Ozu, S: Chishu Ryu, Chieko Higashiyama, Setsuko Hara, Haruko Sugimura, So Yamamura

The small seaside town of Onomichi is the home of an old married couple, Shukichi and Tomi, who have passed their 60s. One day they decide to pack their things and go for a week to visit their grown up kids in Tokyo. First they arrive in the home of the oldest son Koichi, bu he as a doctor doesn't have time for them, as well as his wife who is busy taking care of the children. Their youngest son Keizo also doesn't have time for them. When they visit their daughter Shige, a hairdresser, they realize she is too busy for them too. Shukichi and Tomi get the only warm welcome from Noriko, the former wife of their deceased son. After a week they return to Onomichi where Tomi dies. All of their kids come to the funeral.

Classic "Tokyo Story", the most praised and well known film from director Yasujiro Ozu, sometimes even regarded as one of the best films of all time, is a slightly overrated and overstretched but still relevant and ambitious achievement that, ironically, gains it's strength from the weaknesses of human relationships, emotions and mentality. The simplest possible story about a visit of grandma and grandpa to their grown up kids in a big city was used as a quiet analysis of the modern Japan where Capitalism sucked in every tradition and human value, and where the fast rhythm of business doesn't give people any time for their relatives. Ozu's rhythm on the other hand is slow, some would say boring, easily putting observations everyone could identify with (for instance, in one sequence the grandson is protesting because his table was moved when the grandparents came to visit, leaving him with no place to learn for school - in the other, father Koichi is so busy with his job that he doesn't have time for the grandparents so he sends them to a hotel! ). Ozu's camera is extremely static - apparently it moves just a few times during the whole film - the emotions understated and the uncomplicated, problematic relationships between the guests and the visitors look as real as the real life, thus it's a pity that the overlong ending reduced the pleasure of this minimalistic film. Of all the actors, the best job was done by Setsuko Hara, simply charming in the role of devoted Noriko.

Grade:++

Who's That Singing Over There?

Ko to tamo peva; comedy / road movie, Serbia, 1980; D: Slobodan Šijan, S: Pavle Vuisić, Dragan Nikolić, Danilo 'Bata' Stojković, Aleksandar Berček, Neda Arnerić, Taško Načić, Slavko Štimac, Bora Todorović

Serbia, '41. Two gypsies are singing how they would want the "whole world is just a dream", and then they go off to the local bus station in the middle of a countryside. A couple of other passengers, among them a hunter, a singer, a distinguished gentleman Brka, a sick man and a war veteran, are also waiting there for the bus that's going to take them to Belgrade. The bus arrives and they start their journey. The conductor's name is Krstić, while his son Miško is the driver. On the next bus stop they take a freshly married couple with them. But their journey is full of troubles: they have to make a detour due to a military blockade, the bus gets a flat tire and an old bridge turns into an obstacle. Just as they were about to enter Belgrade, the passengers accuse the gypsies of stealing and the Nazi airplanes start bombarding and destroy the bus. Only the two gypsies survive.

Who would have thought that one of the best films in the history of Serbian cinema of the 20th century would revolve around—a bus trip? Excellent comedy "Who's That Singing Over There?", the only great film the director Slobodan Šijan ever made, is a hilarious satirical road trip about the misadventures of passengers traveling in a bus that engages the viewers through its simple, completely authentic and spontaneous, fresh, sometimes raw charm—with a regression of two kid gypsies who sing their song from time to time, looking directly into the camera. It is a completely simple film, subtracted of any kind of complicated visual style or meta-film gimmicks, seemingly like a normal comedy, but full of wise observations, social commentaries about the human mentality, a tragic ending, and a humane touch, suitable for endless repeated viewings. The bus represents the Yugoslavia in small—it is a world for itself, showing how people from different areas interact, and ironically almost none of them has a job, which can be interpreted as a social critique. 

The story by Dušan Kovačević is full of funny jokes: a man rides a donkey by sitting at the very end of its rear; the bus stops to pick up two live pigs for the conductor in the trunk; and in one scene the bus is forced to drive through a farm field, so the farmer demands a "pass-through tax" or he will puncture its tire. But the best job was done by the brilliant, underrated comedian Danilo Stojkovic, here playing the distinguished gentlemen with a moustache, Brka: in one scene he joins every passenger on a hill secretly observing the married couple making love in the forest, saying: "They should be ashamed of themselves!" Someone replies to him: "But they don't know that they are being watched!", upon which he adds: "Well...still!" In another sequence, Brka wants to prove that it is safe to drive the bus over a shabby looking old bridge, so he boasts by leaning on to it, to demonstrate how stable it is, yet the tree fence breaks, causing him to fall into the river, and everyone else to panic and run away from the bridge. Later, he emerges alive and well, spots a rabbit, wants to catch it in the forest, but then falls down when the hunter shoots. One of the passangers adds: "Now he's really done for!", but Brka stands up again, alive and well. Stojkovic's comic timing is something like this character: indestructible. A cheerfully-silly masterpiece that it never even intended to be, "Who's That Singing Over There" is one of the greatest films the world has never heard of.

Grade:++++

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan; satire / mockumentary / black comedy, USA, 2006; D: Larry Charles, S: Sacha Baron Cohen, Ken Davitian, Luenell, Bob Barr, Pamela Anderson

Kazakhstani TV journalist Borat got an assignment to film a documentary about the great USA for the Kazakh Ministry of Information. Borat first introduces himself and his village, then his sister prostitute, 43-year old mother and wife Oxanna. Together with producer Azamat he leaves for New York to learn something from the civilized and advanced Americans. But he spots Pamela Anderson on television and falls in love with her, thus leaving with his crew for California to marry her. On his way he meets religious fanatics, radicals and snobs, creating chaos. Anderson rejects him, so Borat marries a prostitute and leaves back for Kazakhstan.

Mockumentary "Borat" is one of those films that are anticipated with great expectations due to critical praise and popularity, but once you see it you realize it is so straight-forward that even 12-year olds could have been able to film some scenes without much effort. Vile, gross, overhyped and full of recycled jokes from previous films, "Borat" is more an exercise in excess (the sequence where the Kazakh people destroy the "Jewish egg" in a ceremony) than it is genuinely funny. While some are going to characterize it as an intelligent and clever satire on America (the title hero goes to learn something from civilized and advanced Americans, but it turns out that they also have primitive, antisemitic, snobby and heartless people as much as his home country) masked as a stupid comedy, others are going to denounce it as a senseless farce that doesn't differentiate itself from "Jackass" or "Beavis and Butt-Head". The only undoubtedly true thing is that Sacha Baron Cohen is excellent in his role, putting himself completely into the character and devoting his whole charisma to it, and the role thus became his lifetime achievement. Some of Cohen's gags are really great, for instance when he enters a subway train for the first time and decides to greet every passenger in it, or when he enters a conservative rodeo and starts talking how he hopes that "America is going to destroy Iraq so much that in the next 1,000 years not even a lizard is going to be able to live there", but his humor and style are not especially sophisticated at times (he and his overweight assistant running around at the hotel nude).

Grade:++

Sister Act

Sister Act; comedy, USA, 1992; D: Emile Ardolino, S: Whoopi Goldberg, Maggie Smith, Kathy Najimy, Wendy Makkena, Mary Wickes, Harvey Keitel

Ever since she was a little girl, Deloris Van Cartier wasn't in best relations with nuns. As a grown woman, Deloris became a lounge singer in Nevada, but without any big success. Also, she is unaware that her lover Vince is a mobster. Just as she wanted to break up with him since he was already married, she accidentally saw him killing a police mole. In fear she ran away and asked for police to protect her. The witness protection program disguises her as a nun and places her in a Catholic convent, and gives her a new name, Sister Mary Clarence. At first she doesn't like it there, but when she enters the choir she manages to attract people to the empty church with great songs. Vince eventually finds and kidnaps her, but police and the other nuns save her. In the end, she organizes songs in the choir for the visit of the pope.

After a mass of modern comedies that are full of vulgarity, malignity, violence, it's actually rather refreshing to find one that's simply innocent and "clean" as "Sister Act", even though it isn't especially well made. "Sister Act" is a solid film, accessible, simple and moderately amusing story with some funny dialogue (in one scene a biker says: "This turns into a nun's bar, I'm outta here") of the so called "Fish out of water" concept that even has a few spiritual messages, but all in all it contains a lot of flaws and doesn't manage to use all possibilities of the story fully, so it's a little bit strange that the film was so popular back in the day. But Whoopi Goldberg was singled out rightfully for praise, since she elevates the thin story the most, for instance in scenes where she and the other nuns go to town and repel people from entering into "suspicious" bars or when she is conducting the choir into singing a beautiful song "I Will Follow Him" during the visit of the pope, thus even slightly indicating how the church's members should change their rules a little bit and go into the world to interact with the people, instead of just being in the convent.

Grade:++

Barbarella

Barbarella; Science-Fiction comedy, France/ Italy, 1968; D: Roger Vadim, S: Jane Fonda, John Phillip Law, Anita Palenberg, David Hemmings, Milo O'Shea

The year is 40.000. President of the Earth, Diantus, gives the space agent Barbarella the assignment to find the lost scientist Durand Durand who invented a dangerous positron ray that could endanger the peace in the Galaxy. With the help of her spaceship, Barbarella comes to the system Ceti but crashes on a inhabited planet. There she gets captured by children, but saved by some hunter who teaches her the secrets of intercourse. She then continues to a labyrinth, meets a blind angel, Pygara, and enters a land that is ruled by a black queen. Barbarella finally meets Durand who wants to rule the Galaxy and who captures her together with the queen. But then the strange liquid Mantos gets released and kills Durand, while Pygara flies away with the queen and Barbarella.

Some movies gain cult status regardless to all the efforts of critics who would have wanted them to be forgotten and erased from the movie history as soon as possible. "Barbarella" is one of such movies because it gained such status more thanks to it's bizarreness alone than thanks to some outstanding quality. The story is thin, episodic, poor with humor and seems more like an excuse to put Jane Fonda's attractive body into various tight costumes, while the dialogues and the mood sometimes even resemble like a soft porn without intercourse. Still, in the first half it contains a lot of charm, like in the famous sequence in which the title character undresses in zero gravity while her intimate parts are conveniently concealed by the titles in the opening credits or when she is conducting "elevated" intercourse by simply touching her palm with the palm of a man, and it's imagination and set design are memorable even today. "Barbarella" is a guilty pleasure but it's more interesting to just watch the poster for 90 minutes than the film itself.

Grade:+

Exodus

Exodus; historical drama, USA / Cyprus / Israel, 1960; D: Otto Preminger, S: Paul Newman, Eva Marie Saint, Jill Haworth, Ralph Richardson, Peter Lawford, Lee J. Cobb, John Derek, Sal Mineo

Cyprus, '47. The British soldiers have stopped a ship of 611 Jewish immigrants from proceeding to Palestine and put them in a refugee camp. Kitty, a nurse whose husband died recently, decided to nurse the people, thus making friends with the 14-year old Karen. Ari Ben Canaan, a proud Jew and member of Haganah, disguises himself as a British colonel and manages to bring all 611 Jews back on a ship. Before they can leave, the British stop them, and they all enter a hunger strike on the ship. The British eventually let them through to Palestine. Once there, the young Dov Landau joins the terrorist group Irgun to repel British soldiers from the Holly land. Ari and Kitty in the meantime fall in love and place Karen in the village Gan Dafne. He manages to rescue his uncle Akiva, a member of Irgun, from prison, but he dies from a bullet. When the UN decides to divide Palestine to form Israel, Ari hears from his Arab friend Taha that the Arabs plan to fight with the Jews. Karen and Taha eventually get killed, and Ari mourns them.

One of Otto Preminger's last films, "Exodus" is an interesting 3.5 hour drama that serves almost as a three dimensional insight into the circumstances that formed the modern Israel, as opposed to sparse, black and white history lessons about the same event. The film actually shows that Israel didn't form overnight, but with a lot of troubles and complications, capturing the status quo situation of Jews in British Palestine, a state before their state was formed. The first half of the film, that plays out in Cyprus, cleverly analyzes how Jews suffered even after the end of World War II since they were citizens without a country - the refugee camps in Cyprus deliberately gained parallels with concentration camps - showing how antisemitism was present in small traces even in British soldiers. Many complained at Paul Newman's portray of Ari Ben Canaan but he pulled his role just right and made a good job out of it, especially in some amusing scenes, like the one where he disguised himself as a British colonel and managed to smuggle the Jewish refugees right in front of British soldiers. The hunger strike on the ship is powerfully presented, but it was a wise choice to end it fairly quickly and not make the whole film out of it.

The second part of the film, playing out in Palestine/Israel, is rather unorganized and leaves an impression as if it's not sure where it's heading. Sal Mineo, who won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Oscar, is very good in his small, sparse role as Holocaust survivor Dov, in one scene painfully admitting how he was "used" just like women in Auschwitz on some occasions, but Jill Haworth is even better. The story engages in realistic observations of the locations at that time; British soldiers and Arabs can be found on every corner, and Jews are settling the land in small communities, but some subplots in that part seem unnecessary no matter how good they are, for instance in the jail break of Irgun member Akiva where a girl smuggled the dynamite in her mouth and gave it to an inmate through a kiss. "Exodus" is slightly overlong, preachy and dry at moments, but it served a nice purpose as being an elaborated history lesson for those who are interested in that area.

Grade:++

The Blue Angel

Der Blaue Engel; drama, Germany, 1930; D: Josef von Sternberg, S: Emil Jannings, Marlene Dietrich, Kurt Gerron, Hans Alters

Professor Rath is an ugly, overweight man who is working in a high school in a very strict manner, thus making his pupils call him Un-Rat (anti-advice). One day he catches his pupil Angst and discovers pictures of a local club, a mix of a brothel and a circus, in which a lot of boys from the school tend to enter, so he decides to go there and catch them red handed. But once he enters the club he is instantly fascinated by the blond performer Lola. They meet, she implies that she finds him attractive and they spend the night together. When Rath marries her he gets fired for indecency and is forced to join Lola's club as a clown. 5 years later, during a performance in his native town, Rath goes crazy and leaves Lola. He goes to his old school and dies.

Impressive tragic drama "The Blue Angel" that analyzes the impact of prostitution, loneliness and dignity on society has quality since the controversial story from that era is rather true and bitter by today's standards, and the excellent Marlene Dietrich subsequently became a star, although her supporting role is rather sparse and underdeveloped. The first part of the film is the best since it explores the life of the ugly professor Rath who is projecting his loneliness and lack of love on being a strict teacher who oppresses his students, but later on finds his first love in the "Blue Angel", and the rhythm is good since his degradation as a clown and the sappy tragic ending are pretty weak and pathetic, thus reducing the quality of the story as a whole, falling into von Sternberg's typical melodrama. The details of contrast are quite clever, for instance in the scene in which loud music can be heard but when the door are closed it suddenly becomes totally silent or when Rath is repelling everyone away from Lola. Their romance is pleasant, portraying an unusual relationship between an ugly, prestigious and an attractive, but morally despised person, despite the fact that it's not clear why Lola finds him attractive, yet the sparse humor functions much better than the overemphasized emotions.

Grade:++