My Week 5/25 - 5/31
American Buffalo - 1996 - Michael Corrente
With all due respect to Mr. Corrente, this is a David Mamet work. Adapted by Mamet from one of his own stage plays. Three actors, one location, and one day does not leave much to work with as a director. The location is a junk shop in an unnamed city. The shop is owned by Don, Dennis Franz, his friend Teach, Dustin Hoffman, hangs around and young Bob, Sean Nelson, is in and out over the course of the day. All of the action takes place around the shop, mostly inside but at times out front or out back. Don is planing on robbing a man that purchased buffalo head nickel from him, feeling that the man did not pay what the coin is worth. Initially Don plans to have Bob help him with the job but Teach talks him out of involving Bob and gets in on the plan himself. There is one other major character, the unseen but much discussed Fletcher.
Being an adaption of a Mamet play it is the dialogue that makes the movie. Listening to people speak Mamet's words is always entertaining. Nobody would ever talk like a Mamet character and if someone tried they would doubtless be committed. The characters say cryptic things and tend to repeat lines. They talk about the 'thing' or the 'man' even when it appears that their interlocutors are unaware of the subject. Asking about the topic in question never leads to a straightforward answer. Ask what of the 'thing' in a Mamet screenplay and the response will likely be a reiteration of 'the thing'. Maddening if you are trying to find details about what is going on but a joy to listen to when delivered well. Hoffman and Franz do the heavy lifting here and they are up to the task. They never reach the heights of the Glengarry Glen Ross cast but they never come off as overwhelmed by the snappy, often nonsensical dialogue.
Mamet's dialogue celebrates the joy of artifice in a way similar to the visuals of someone like Baz Luhrmann. There is nothing 'real' about the way his characters talk but it does not matter.
Sagrada - The Mystery of Creation - 2012 - Stefan Haupt
As just a documentary about a church that has been under construction it is fine. But as an additional peice to the puzzle that is Antonioni's The Passenger. I was first made aware of the possible connections between Antoni Gaudi and Jack Nicholson's character David Locke in this Senses of Cinema article. The Passenger is one of the films that has stuck with me most over the years so I welcome anything that may be able to shed even a little bit more light on that masterpiece.
Across the Pacific - 1942 - John Huston
It should be better. John Huston directing* Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, and Sydney Greenstreet in a thriller about a secret Japanese plot to take out the Panama canal. They even got Don Siegel to cut the montages a few years before he began his directing career. On paper this should be an all time classic but instead it is just okay. Bogart feels out of place as the undercover army captian. And it is not just because of the antiquated racism and sexism. Mary Astor's character exists only to wooed by Bogart. She doesn't even seem to notice at the end when her father is gunned down. Of course the Japanese are the stereotypical foreign menace. All of that could be more or less forgiven if the move worked. I do credit to Sydney Greenstreet, he is wonderful in his usual duplicitous role.
*IMDB lists Vincent Sherman as an uncredited director of the final scenes
All Trough the Night - 1941 - Vincent Sherman
Comedy spy thriller about Nazis in New York. Who can stop the evil plot? The cops? The FBI? The army? No, to stop the Nazis we need the power of the New York underworld lead by Humphrey Bogart's Gloves Donahue. It is almost like the director wanted to makes a Marx brother movie. It works out fine but the result is forgettable. And as a side note it is a little weird to have Bogie get the girl just a few hours after punching her in the face.
Best of the Week: American Buffalo - 1996 - Michael Corrente
With all due respect to Mr. Corrente, this is a David Mamet work. Adapted by Mamet from one of his own stage plays. Three actors, one location, and one day does not leave much to work with as a director. The location is a junk shop in an unnamed city. The shop is owned by Don, Dennis Franz, his friend Teach, Dustin Hoffman, hangs around and young Bob, Sean Nelson, is in and out over the course of the day. All of the action takes place around the shop, mostly inside but at times out front or out back. Don is planing on robbing a man that purchased buffalo head nickel from him, feeling that the man did not pay what the coin is worth. Initially Don plans to have Bob help him with the job but Teach talks him out of involving Bob and gets in on the plan himself. There is one other major character, the unseen but much discussed Fletcher.
Being an adaption of a Mamet play it is the dialogue that makes the movie. Listening to people speak Mamet's words is always entertaining. Nobody would ever talk like a Mamet character and if someone tried they would doubtless be committed. The characters say cryptic things and tend to repeat lines. They talk about the 'thing' or the 'man' even when it appears that their interlocutors are unaware of the subject. Asking about the topic in question never leads to a straightforward answer. Ask what of the 'thing' in a Mamet screenplay and the response will likely be a reiteration of 'the thing'. Maddening if you are trying to find details about what is going on but a joy to listen to when delivered well. Hoffman and Franz do the heavy lifting here and they are up to the task. They never reach the heights of the Glengarry Glen Ross cast but they never come off as overwhelmed by the snappy, often nonsensical dialogue.
Mamet's dialogue celebrates the joy of artifice in a way similar to the visuals of someone like Baz Luhrmann. There is nothing 'real' about the way his characters talk but it does not matter.
Sagrada - The Mystery of Creation - 2012 - Stefan Haupt
As just a documentary about a church that has been under construction it is fine. But as an additional peice to the puzzle that is Antonioni's The Passenger. I was first made aware of the possible connections between Antoni Gaudi and Jack Nicholson's character David Locke in this Senses of Cinema article. The Passenger is one of the films that has stuck with me most over the years so I welcome anything that may be able to shed even a little bit more light on that masterpiece.
Across the Pacific - 1942 - John Huston
It should be better. John Huston directing* Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, and Sydney Greenstreet in a thriller about a secret Japanese plot to take out the Panama canal. They even got Don Siegel to cut the montages a few years before he began his directing career. On paper this should be an all time classic but instead it is just okay. Bogart feels out of place as the undercover army captian. And it is not just because of the antiquated racism and sexism. Mary Astor's character exists only to wooed by Bogart. She doesn't even seem to notice at the end when her father is gunned down. Of course the Japanese are the stereotypical foreign menace. All of that could be more or less forgiven if the move worked. I do credit to Sydney Greenstreet, he is wonderful in his usual duplicitous role.
*IMDB lists Vincent Sherman as an uncredited director of the final scenes
All Trough the Night - 1941 - Vincent Sherman
Comedy spy thriller about Nazis in New York. Who can stop the evil plot? The cops? The FBI? The army? No, to stop the Nazis we need the power of the New York underworld lead by Humphrey Bogart's Gloves Donahue. It is almost like the director wanted to makes a Marx brother movie. It works out fine but the result is forgettable. And as a side note it is a little weird to have Bogie get the girl just a few hours after punching her in the face.
Best of the Week: American Buffalo - 1996 - Michael Corrente
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