A curiosity and a film far ahead of its time: L'Atalante

Jean Vigo's L'Atalante (1934) is on many lists of classic movies, and it's far ahead of its time in some ways, just emerging from the tradition of silent movies but using the best of that genre to tell a simple story largely through images and editing - there is some dialog of course but the story is told visually, not through spoken language - so it's a long way from Vigo to, say, Eric Rohmer. In some ways, the film does show its age, as the story is rather slow-moving and takes a long time to develop its conflicting forces, certainly by today's standards. Simple, elegant story line, however: Movie begins with a post-wedding processional - at first we don't know where they're heading - and, in parallel sequences, an old salt and a young lad preparing a canal barge - the L'Atalante of the title - for a launching; we gradually realize that they are preparing to meet the bride and groom - the groom is the captain of this small barge. The townspeople note that the bride has always wanted to leave the little town and they expect never to see her again - one of the first of many great scenes in the movie is the townspeople standing in complete silence and stasis as the barge pulls away. The predictable consequences ensue: the bride wants to see the big city (Paris), but husband is tied to his work tending the barge; she flirts quite brazenly with the old sailor, and with others on shore, leading to a fit of jealous rage, quite understandable. Eventually, she leaves the barge to look around Paris on her own; husband becomes deeply melancholic, nearly suicidal - but at last the reunite when the barge reaches the ocean port of Le Havre - though the ending is not quite romantic and we realize they are very different people with a tempestuous relationship unlikely to endure. The beauty of the film consists of a number of terrific scenes, almost a documentary look at life along the canal (and to a lesser extent in Paris near the canal) in the 1930s, so different and mysterious - material that Puccini used successfully in a one-act opera, BTW. Also some very powerful interior scenes, especially her flirting with the old sailor, discovered by husband, leading to husbands destructive fit, smashing dishes and turning over a table. The dance-hall scene in Paris is also great, and the ghostly scenes in the night-time fog. Some of the editing sequences are terrific, too - the film is far more sexual and erotic than most others of the era, in particular the scene when the man and woman are apart and each fantasizing about the other. All told, L'Atalante is quite dated, a bit of a curiosity, but certainly worth watching at least once and appreciating how much Vigo was able to accomplish within a very limited scope (a film w/ essentially 4 actors and almost all shot on or near the canals of northern France).

Mad Men sprints toward the finish and stumbles a bit on the way

The half-season of Mad Men has ended with a closing segment all too familiar: reorganization of Sterling Cooper, this time sold out to McCann and continuing under Rodger's management independently, the sale making all the partners quite wealthy. I find the corporate dueling the less interesting part of the series, and actually not very credibly presented - these matters take months or years to work out, but in the show they seem to take a ten-minute meeting and show of hands. To me, the season seems to have focused on Don and has left far too much unanswered: His marriage to Megan seems to be over, as she prefers to be in LA with a set much more attuned to her age and to her artistic interests. In others words, to her he's a hunk but a square, and a father figure at that. I think where the final season has to push is Don becoming clear about his background and more focused on his goals and responsibilities, a transformation of Don, similar to the process of therapy in a way: discussing or admitting all the trauma he endured (he touched on that in the Hershey meltdown), coming clean about his switched identity, and then moving on; it appears to me that staying in NYC advertising will kill him. That said, I do like to see the ad pitches and how they develop the concept and sell it to a client - and hope we can see more of that - but the pitches all must be in the service of character development, or, as it happens, of character conclusion as we near the end. Betty and the children played a surprisingly big role in this final episode of the half-season: is that a hint? Megan had almost no role; she may be being pushed aside, on line speculation to the contrary. We all hope Peggy and Joan will find some happiness, right? But why is Ted being brought back to NYC (and into the plot again, after almost vanishing for 7 episodes) - something to do w/ Peggy, or a rivalry w/ Don, or a new element, as he has said he's sick of advertising, yet he's bound to the wheel of fire. Not much of a spoiler, but: Was anyone surprised that Cooper died? But what was with that soft-shoe he performed post mortem? For a moment I thought I was watching an Ally McBeal re-run.

An image that capture the insidious nature of advertising

Though apparently there's one more episode in the current half-season of Mad Men, it's worth weighing in on a few points in episode 6, which, while not the best written of the series - it's a bit choppy and over-burdened with plot - does advance the story line in some significant ways. As we depart from episode 6 we see that Megan is moving ever farther, emotionally and professionally, away from Don: she doesn't seem to miss him all that much, and she's bring more and more of her "stuff" out to California. Suddenly, the character of Joan is revived in this episode, and she makes a rather beautiful confession: that she's truly for romantic love, for a man who will care for her, and, as she puts it, rather than accept a proposal of convenience (from a gay colleague who wants to be married for appearances, and will certainly treat her well every way but sexually and romantically) she would rather die at least hoping for that chance. This moment is significant largely because of its contrast with everything else in the MM world. As this season focuses increasingly on Don (with a little pull-back in this episode), we see a very beautiful scene in which he's working late at night or early a.m. even with Peggy and confesses to her that he feels his life is a failure - and we know how empty and alone she feels, how she feels she has driven men away from her - and then a Sinatra song comes on the radio and Don asks Peggy to dance, and he lightly kisses her hair, not at all as a come-on but almost paternalistic. He's still her mentor, and in this key scene, she is big enough to realize that he's the true genius and she wants to learn how he thinks. She does think: and comes up w/ the idea for their client, Burger Chef!, that at their restaurants "every table is a family table." She pitches that to Don and to the despicable Pete and in an incredibly poignant closing image we see the 3 of them sitting at a table in Burger Chef - and could there be any 3 people who are less involved w/ family? Each has spurred or destroyed a family, maybe several. Each is basically alone. They barely trust one another. But there they sit, talking about every table being a family table, and for us, it's a tableaux, like a renaissance painting perhaps, the annunciation of the insidious, deceitful, self-delusional nature of advertising - brilliant minds using words to ill effect. It's no wonder Don considers himself a failure - but what will he do?

Sad but true: Excellent documentary on adult students with disabilities

Best Kept Secret is a low-key and very sad documentary about a year in the life of a special-ed teacher in a Newark public school, JFK School, which describes itself proudly and oddly as Newark's "best kept secret." Though it's not made entirely clear, apparently this is a school for young adults with disabilities who are entitled to remain in the school system until age 21 - so itself those with profound or complex disabilities from ages roughly 18 through 21. The teacher, Ms. Mino, works with autistic students, but it's clear right away that her students have a wide array of issues; the term autism is kind of a catch-all, and these young people are far from being ready for a life with any degree of independence. The frustration for Ms. M., as for the entire system nationwide, is that the school services, publicly funded, end at 21; after that, the students become "consumers." The goal is very good - providing them with skills to live as independently as possible and with the possibility of earning a modest income. But immediately, through Ms. M's eyes, we see how far the reality is from the goal: the potential jobs awaiting these students are so meaningless and deadening that they actually regress and become far less verbal and communicative in the workplace. Or, as in the case of one of her students, the placement (he works in Burger King) requires so much one-on-one supervision that the employer either won't take them on or ends the relationship after a brief experiment. Or, the young adults are essentially warehoused - they're safe, clean, but essentially doing nothing. Or - there is one seemingly good program that offers many activities for the graduates - but it's expensive - i.e., not possible for the students in Newark - and in any case is just a glorified camp - not leading to independence financially or otherwise. Ms. M is incredibly devoted to her students - visits all of these potential placements on her own time - and we follow them all through the year, ending in a very touching graduation ceremony, which leaves us wondering, then what? The film is low-key in the manner of many of the best new documentaries: the filmmakers make no appearance, there is nothing scripted except for a few titles on the screen, no music except for an opening sequence showing scenes of blighted Newark - everything else just filmed live and edited into a coherent story, by director Samantha Buck

Stranger by the Lake - unwatchable

Not too much to say about the hyped but in my view un-watchable Stranger by the Lake - billed as a murder mystery, sure, and there is a murder - we see it about 25 minutes into the film - but in my view the first 30 minutes of the film are nothing more than gay porn - I have no problem with the fact that the murder takes place at a gay beach cruising spot and I have no problem with graphic sex in films if the sex scenes advance the plot or develop character in some way but in this film the plot and characters seem to be convenient vehicles to which to hitch the sex scenes. Maybe it's realistic, maybe not - I don't know and don't especially care - but by 30 minutes I knew I didn't care about the murder, the murderer, or how he'd be found out if at all.

The sound at the heart of rock n roll: Muscle Shoals

The best thing about the documentary Muscle Shoals is that it makes you want to go back and re-listen to so much of the great music that came out of the 2 rival recording studios in that small Alabama town; I'm sure there's a soundtrack, and it must be very good. The doc is a little too long - obviously because all of the archival footage, recording sessions and early performances from the Stones, Percy Sledge, and other greats - is so powerful that nobody had the will to cut or edit; the photography is beautiful, but there's probably too much of the talking heads interviews filmed explicitly for this documentary. The story line is pretty powerful - Rick Hall (corrected from first posting, thanks WS) was raised in extreme poverty in Muscle Shoals, had many tragic childhood events that were clearly traumatic, and with chip on shoulder he set out to make good, mostly through music - started off writing and recording and then set up his own studio, Fame, and had some major hits with early r&b - building the studio into a rock monument. One question is - why? Why at this studio? Several answers, I think: terrific studio band (the group, the Swampers, later broke away and opened its own studio in town), an uncanny ability to draw from various sources: country, r&b, jazz - mixing and blending white and black traditions; Hill's personal genius at mixing - he created a sound that some referred to as "funky" and I think, in this film, Bono expressed it best: there's a huge emphasis on base and drums, pumped way up. I would say that changes the way we hear music - the recorded sounds very different from how it were to sound if you were hearing the band live - and put an emphasis on rhythm and beat rather than on melody. Later, Hill got away from this - to less success - and he never fully adapted to the next phase of music, 60s psychedelic rock, with its focus on guitar. The three  members of the Swampers who participate in this are great - amazing how you see these three older men and would never in a million years believe that they are seminal figures in rock history; also surprising that an all-white backup band performed be hind Sledge, Pickett, A. Franklin and others. As a movie, this is good but not great, but as a look at rock history as seen from an entirely different angle, it's definitely worth seeing and enjoying.

A very dark and challenging film with a ridiculous title

The recent (2013) British indie film about two boys who steal copper wire has only one thing seriously wrong with it: the ridiculous title, The Selfish Giant, which would make anyone think this is an animated children's cartoon or something like that and in fact it's nothing like that at all - it is one of the darkest, most challenging films of recent years and a very sad and powerful look at extreme poverty and abuse in the north of England: "council" housing, families crowded into tight quarters, constant yelling at one another, fathers either absent or drunken abusers (verbal, not physical), few or no effective social services, no way out. The two boys are best friends and polar opposites, one a feisty and hyperkinetic kid constantly in trouble and the other a sweet and sensitive overweight kid, subject of bullying. Both boys get expelled from school and take on life on their own, thinking they can steal copper cable and sell to a scrap dealer and get enough $ to get their family lives back in order, to a degree. The scrap dealer takes advantage of them in all sorts of ways, and the two kids getting deeper into trouble and way over their heads, and nobody seems to know or care about them in the least. Some truly powerful scenes - all of the family outbursts in the tiny apartments, the illegal horse race on some sort of abandoned track, to name two - also some beautiful photography of English landscape scarred by industrial waste and huge concrete cooling towers. The film reminded me a little of Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner from two generations ago - similar themes and mood, though - and the other very dark, troubling, engaging films from the Scottish director - Andrea Arnold (Red Road, Fish Tank). I will warn about the language, though - it's even more impenetrable than some of the gang-talk in The Wire; I could honestly understand only about half of what the characters say, like watching a foreign film w/out subtitles - but that said you can very well follow the story without catching every line of dialog and the impenetrable nature of the dialog actually adds to the mood: the kids and their families are isolated from their culture by the very nature of their language; in England much more than in the U.S., accent and regional dialect are still huge determinants of class.