A painful and frightening film from 1966 with a message that resonates today: Young Torless

 German director Volker Schlondorff's debut film, Young Torless (1966), based on a novel by the great if enigmatic Robert Musil, takes a while to get into gear but once the actual plot is set in motion the film becomes incredibly tense, ghastly, and provocative. It seems at first to be one of many movies about boarding-school cruelty or cruelty of children, particularly teenage boys, to one another and the need to establish a sacrificial scapegoat (think Lord of the Flies, e.g.) In this movie, the eponymous Torless is heading off to a military boarding school in Austria sometimes early in the 20th century. Knowing every a little about the plot ahead of time, we'd expect Torless, who seems timid and even effeminate, to be the victim; but, no, the film surprises us as Torless is welcomed, more of less, into a clique of the student leaders - and the small gang begins to pick on, tease, torment, and eventually brutalize a young student named Basini (is it significant that it's not a Germanic name?). Even after the overwhelmed and terrified Basini appeals to Torless for help, Torless offers him no solace and persists in watching the scenes of torture and torment, that eventually become so extreme that the otherwise indifferent faculty members step in to stop the abuse. They hold a small tribunal, during which they interrogate students, including Torless - and Torless delivers an incredibly moving speech in which he attacks those who are indifferent and feckless or cowardly in the face of abuse and exploitation; obviously, his speech resounded w/ the German-Austrian viewers of the film, then and still, I suppose. At the end, Torless is by no means heroic, but at least he purged his soul as he moves on - the final scenes show him w/ his mother after he withdraws (or was expelled from?) this hateful school. The movie is of course painful to watch, but it's not unrelieved or gratuitous pain, and its message resonates today, perhaps more than it would have, in the U.S., 50+ years ago. 

A film with an unusual narrative structure and some fine moments: Tabu (2012)

 Portuguese director Miguel Gomes's film Tabu (2012) is unusual by any measure; to really understand this narrative I would have to watch the film again (maybe I will - thanks, Criterion!) but there's plenty worth watching on a first run-through, even though some of the film doesn't make a lot of sense on first glance. Very roughly, the film - set variously in Africa (during the last days of Portuguese colonial rule, in Mozambique) and Lisbon - begins with a short prologue showing a young Portuguese man on some kind of (scientific?) expedition in what we learn or surmise is Mozambique. This prologue ends abruptly, and we get into Part 1 of the film, which centers on a middle-aged Lisbon woman (Pilar) and her relationship w/ the woman (Aurora) in an adjacent apartment/condo (in a contemporary Lisbon high-rise); the Aurora, who has a strained relationship w/ her caretaker (Santa), is increasingly ill and generally rebuffs overtures of aid and assistance. When she is eventually hospitalized, she asks Santa and Aurora to track down a Lisbon man (Ventura), whom they'd never heard of; they do find him, and it turns out he had a relationship w/ Aurora years ago on a plantation in Africa. And we jump to part 2 of the film, in which the elderly Ventura tells the entire story their tragic, long-ago relationship in voice-over narration (I have now read that Gomes is the narrator). So there's a lot of ambiguity here and a very strange plot structure (for example, Pilar, the focus of Part 1, play no role other than listener in Part 2). That said, there are some fine moments in both parts of the film - Pilar's strange and mysterious rejection by a Polish student whom she'd agree to house during a visit; terrific use of soundtrack including African music in part 2; beautiful b/w photography throughout - all told, an unusual film, surprising in many ways, confounding in others, and worth at least a look by those, like me, interested in European and African cinema. 

Rectify continues to be a high-quality, thoughtful drama through Season 3

 Season 3 of Ray McKinnon's Rectify continues building on the strengths of the 1st two seasons of this under-the-radar series (now on Netflix), which follow the central character, Daniel Holden (Aden Young) on his release from prison, where he'd been held for 20 years (half his lifetime) for the rape and murder of a teenage girl. He's clearly innocent of the rape charge (exonerated by DNA evidence); there's still some ambiguity about the murder - but, as a 40-year-old man, he does not seem like a violent criminal. He's philosophical, witty, gentle, tender toward his family members, but at a complete loss as to how to live in a world he knows nothing of - a stranger in a strange land. The series is about his effect, for good and ill, of his return to society in a small but prosperous Georgia suburb, and in particular for how this new presence in their lives has created tension and havoc among the members of his conservative blended family. Season 3, only 6 episodes, develops the plot slowly and meticulously (aided by man long, almost theatrical dialogs a soothing score - though too many "cuts" in many of the dramatic scenes) and it adds a new twist as the local sheriff, at first a hostile character who gradually develops some depth of character, begins investigating the death of a man who was present at the rape/murder 20 years back; this plot element is particularly compelling and unusual because we know from the first episode that the man killed himself (guilt about his false testimony at the trial) and we watch the sheriff, trying to right a wrong, perhaps perpetrating a new and equal wrong. My only quibble w/ season 3 is w/ the final episode that pushes the drama over the edge into melodrama: long scenes of Daniel's farewell to his family (he's "banished" from Georgia for an admission of guilt), a lachrymos dream sequence, and a few other moments drawn out for one two many beats - but aside from these quibbles, it remains a strong series, which we'll watch through the final 4th season,. 

Hard to follow but worth a try: The Testament of Dr. Mabuse

 Fritz Lang's 1933 film, The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, is a follow-up to his 4-hour classic from the "silent era," Dr. Mabuse - the Gambler, which I haven't seen and probably never will. Too bad, as it no doubt would have cleared some of the confusion I experienced as I tried to make sense of The Testament. I couldn't, though the fault may be mind. And even w/out following all the nuances of the plot - two police officers (a "commissioner" or chief and his somewhat comical assistant) are engaged in trying to solve a murder, which it turns out leads them and their forces to a crime cult that follows the suggestions and strategies scribbled out in hand by Dr. M, imprisoned in a mental hospital. There's love-story element as well! Even w/out following the plot details - which I may get more from if/when watch the Criterion Channel "commentary" version - there are many aspects of The Testament that still impress; it laid the groundwork for many police procedural movies (the banter between the two lead investigators, the young officer trying to prove himself to win the girl and to rescue her from danger) as well as some terrific scenes that seemed to me well ahead of their era for structure, timing, and craft: the weirdness of Dr. M scribbling endlessly in his hospital cell; the hero and his "gal" caught in a room with water rising toward the ceiling (this was done not so long ago in Titanic), the strange sequences in which the crime-syndicate leader orders his men about while concealed behind a drapery (Wizard of Oz, anyone?), and most of all a night-time car chase crossing several rr tracks. The downside, however, is some stilted acting with gestures and expressions so broad and static - remnants of filmmaking among the silents. 

Season 2 continues with the excellence and intelligence of the first season of Rectify

 Season 2 (10 episodes) of the Ray McKinnon series (now on Netflix) Rectify maintains the excellence and intelligence established in season one; this series is developing as one of the strongest character studies among recent miniseries and it's a tense psycho drama as well, with a lot of aspects, all of them developed with care and understatement throughout the first two seasons. On the surface - a series about a man (Daniel Holden, played by Aden Young) who returns to his suburban Georgia family after 20 years imprisoned and freed as a result of DNA samples - but still a possible subject of a retrial. The series carefully develops a range of family tensions and ambitions, surrounding, confusing, and at times overwhelming Daniel, who just doesn't have the wherewithal to cope w/ a world so radically changed as he was locked away for half of his life. The supporting cast is strong throughout, and the series so far has a lot of family drama but not melodrama and seems start to finish credible and true-to-life. Season 2, of course, ends with some cliffhangers regarding Daniel's fate and next step in life, especially as he's created havoc, unwittingly, among all the members of his family (and stepfamily). This series fell under the wire - it debuted 7 years ago on Sundance channel), but it doesn't feel dated at all and is definitely worth more notice than it's received. 

A film with some great moments but a lot of confusion

 The strange Brazilian film Bacurau (2019, dir. Kleber Mendonca Filho and Juliano Dornelles) is worth watching up to a point, depending on your tolerance for gruesome shootouts and assassinations ripe w/ gore. The film is highly atmospheric and tantalizingly strange, even if a lot of it remains unclear and unresolved. IN short, the film is about a small town or village in a remote region of Brazil that local politicos have cut off from its main water supply for a reason never fully explained, though we can surmise it may have something to do w/ a land seizure for development. The highlight of the film is the re-creation of this village life, with family rivalries, political pressures, festivities, and mourning ceremonies. The villagers - one suspects that most or all were not professional actors - are the stars, with all of eccentric charm: the village elder and leader, the village doctor (a woman w/ a serious alcohol issue), the young woman returning - along with a tank load of water and a cache of needed medicines - from a Brazilian city, a guitar-playing guy who looks just like Dylan, et al. At about the mid-point the film kicks into action as we learn that a team of assassins - most of them American - has been assigned to eradicate this village (we never learn why). Improbable as this seems, it does inevitably produce some tense scenes of ambush, assault, and resistance. So it's a film comprising many fine moments, but at its core the film is a mishmash of unexplained and unresolved rivalries and conflicts. It would be better just to watch and appreciate the film for its strengths and leave the rest unexamined. 

Documentary on a new photographer worth watching for its crime-scene photographs

 There's one great thing about Kim Longinotto's 2019 documentary, Shooting the Mafia, and that's the b/w stills of the photographer profiled in this film, the news photographer Letizia Battaglia, a brave woman who has spent most of her late-to-life (she didn't take up photography until age 40, some 30 years back) career covering the news, which is to say primarily covering the doings of the mob, in her native Palerma, Sicily. Her shots - bodies, sinister figures, police procedurals, every image we associate w/ the world of crime and corruption, but each a startling moment captures often at great risk and always beautifully composed so that the formal beauty of the images contrast sharply against the often gruesome and sinister matters of record. LB was often threatened by those trying to intimidate her - she was a particular target as the first woman photographer to cover this beat - and deserves kudos for perseverance and fortitude. As a documentary film, however, this work fall short or flat for a # of reasons: way too much time spent on telling us the life story of Battaglia, including information about her youthful beauty and her many love affairs; complete confusion as to which images from the past are Battaglia's and which are standard news or home-movie footage from the time; lack of context as to how LB got her shots and about how her career changed and progressed; not much at least in the first half - I probably won't watch the rest - about her relationship w/ those she covered may have had an effect on her work and on her life, which was always at great risk. All told, probably worth seeing esp for fans of WeeGee and other great news photographer working in b/w, though it's poorly paced as a documentary, at least for those who knew little or nothing about LB's work. 

Short documentary about Mance Lipscomb worth watching to see his Delta Blues guitar work

 Les Blank's 1971 short documentary, A Well Spent Life, is a time capsule, a glimpse into life in a remote Texas village of farm workers scrabbling out a living from the earth and not more than 2 generations removed from slavery; among the residents is a Mance Lipscomb, not too well known today but at the time and among aficionados recognized as one of the greatest Delta Blues guitarists, up there w/ Lightnin' Hopkins and Elmore James. Blank's film follow ML closely and, thankfully, it includes many of many of his songs  absolutely beautiful, resonant guitar work, sometimes w/ a slide sometimes w/ fingers on frets. The film is worth it for a look at ML's work and his music - I don't think any of the compositions were his own but I'm not sure of that - and into the personalities of ML, his long-suffering spouse, and other neighbors - filmed 50 years ago but it seems 100. ML was about 75 at the time and looked strong but aged, and in fact his life and career were almost over; great to have his work and voice preserved. But where the film falls short is its lack of context: We, or at least I, would like to know how ML was "discovered," how his life changed if at all (probably not much) by his late-life success, what it was like for him to record and to headline at blues festivals, and what he listened to, how her learned, what has influenced him. But that would be a longer and more ambitious project, probably w/ too many talking heads - though I would have liked him to ask ML at least about his music career and his formative listening and learning. 

The first season of Rectify is well acted, well written, and much smarter and more engaging than I'd expected

 The Sundance 4-season series (now on Netflix) Rectify (2013-16) is so much better than one would expect from material that could easily have been hackneyed or melodramatic. The basic plot (Season 1) concerns a 40-something man, Daniel Holden (played very well by the laconic Aden Young) who'd been held 20 years in prison for the murder of his girlfriend, a teenage classmate in their small, prosperous Georgia town. Daniel is released based on new DNA evidence and returns home, but he's like a stranger in a strange land - so much has happened at home and in the world and he's missed so much of life's experiences that he's a near-helpless innocent, now in a world viciously hostile to him, in that many in the town believe him to be guilty and free just on a "technicality" that they don't or won't understand. So there are many intense conflicts and rivalries, and the creator, Ray McKinnon, and his team play them out with subtlety and w/ highly intelligent writing. Through several painful flashbacks we see pieces of Daniel's life in prison, and in the present we see, in Season 1, the foundations of a lot of the frightening hostility that Daniel faces and will face - and throughout we can believe in all of the characters, even the haters; nothing's overplayed and randomly abusive. Oddly, the first season ends w/out any major resolution and w/ many open questions - as if McKinnon knew that this would play out only in 2 seasons or more; the first season is like a preview, in some ways. Among many highlight scenes: Daniel's sister telling off the sheriff who won't protect the family from violent harassment; Daniel's account to his hateful stepbrother of "conjugal visits" on death row; Daniel's baptism and its aftermath. Definitely a season to stay w/ for Season 2 and beyond. 

Varda's documentary film about a typical Paris street in 1975 - a world as it once was

 The late Agnes Varda is well known and remembered for her pioneering work in documentary film, in particular documentaries that also stand as personal essays in film about different aspects, eras, and interests in her life. One of the lesser-known of her documentary essays is Daugerreotypes (1975), which is film-essay about the street, rue Daugerre, in Paris 14th, on which Varda and her family lived in the 70s; it's a neighborhood far from the tourist attractions and the Right Bank hotels and restaurants - just a typical working-class street of its time, with apartments on the upper floors and retail businesses, for the most part, on street level. AV notes that all of the shops she visited in this film were w/in a few hundred feet of her own dwelling. So we see Paris as it was then, a city built upon thousands of small retail businesses; in this one stretch we see such places as a shop selling perfumes and lotions (and not in a kitsch/tourist/new age manner - just items that the elderly proprietor concocts), a small beauty salon, a tailor, a butcher, an accordion instructor (!), a driving school, and others. For our perspective 45 years later, it's obvious that no such neighborhood shops exist in Paris today (w/ the exception, probably, of the "convenience store" run then and today by immigrant entrepreneurs). For ex., in the perfume shop - how many people could possibly stop in during a business day? 10? 5? - and to buy what: a tiny jar of lotion for a few "centimes"? How could these people and their businesses survive? And I guess that they don't, really, but many of the proprietuers - almost tall of whom, we learn, moved to Paris as they set out on career and marriage, from small towns in the distant countryside - were probably helped by generous government support for the ill and elderly (just guessing there). Varga made a short follow-up film 30 years later, which I'll probably watch, but we can be pretty sure of what she'll see and show us: A street with upscale shops and offices and lots of car traffic. Today AV's film stands as a time capsule, giving us a glimpse into a world as it once was. 

A documentary this helps us understand the work of Wim Wenders

 Wim Wenders's documentary Tokyo-ga (1985, within a year of the completion of Paris, Texas) is a curiosity. Wenders explains in his voiceover narration that he undertook this project - a filmed record of his visit to Japan - as a tribute to one of his favorite filmmakers, Ozu; that in itself was to me a surprise. Not that Ozu wouldn't be on anyone's list of the greatest filmmakers of the century, but it's hard to see any direct connection between the work of these 2 directors. In fact, Ozu seems in most ways the antithesis to Wenders: his films are strongly driven by character and plot; though visually interesting, they are only rarely visually arresting; in methodology, Ozu is known for his complete control of the shoot, built upon extraordinary elaborate planning ahead of time, allowing little leeway for the DP, lots of stills and long shots, almost no tracking ever. As to Wenders - think the exact opposite of everything I just said about Ozu. That said, however, WW's film is a quirky and odd look at Japan as he searches for images and oddities, so we get extensive looks at pachinko, arcade games, a workshop where they manufacture waxed-images of food for display us in restaurants, a lot of time w/ a group of young Japanese who gather in a park to listen and dance to American early R&B, and some long takes of the elaborate patterns of Japanese railroad tracks (here is something that WW does share w/ Ozu). All these make the film worth watching and help us understand WW's narrative films, even though I think this travelog/documentary  won't shed much light on Ozu (other than an long interview w/ his long-time cameraman, who bursts into tears at the end of the take and asks to be left alone). At the outset, WW shows some clips of Ozu's greatest work, Tokyo Story (in particular some views of the home town of the father several hours from Tokyo), and I'm surprised WW didn't counter these w/ shots of the same locales in 1985; you can look online and see how these scenes have changed over time - when I first did so, I gasped. 

A series in the shadow of Mindhunter that's worth watching in its own right: Manhunt

 The 2017 Netflix series Manhunt: Unabomber was overshadowed by the excellent series Mindhunter - both are about the FBI's early forays into using psychology and linguistics to identify criminals and criminal behavior (rather than the more conventions forensics of concrete evidence such as prints and artifacts). Mindhunter was probably the better series, but Manhunt has its strengths as well. Though it gets off to a rocky start with its over-emphasis on the traditionalists w/in the FBI bureaucracy, particularly one top agent who time and agent harangues and harasses the protagonist in the search to ID the Unabomber, that is Agent James Fitzgerald (the Sodroski-Clemente-Gittelson series is "based on true events," and apparently the central figure is a composite of traits and actions of many involved in linguistics), without remorse or letup - OK we get the point! That said, the series, unlike Mindhunter, focuses on the one case only and in doing so it's well-detailed and compelling. The 8-part series pits agent Fitzgerald, who is trying to ID the Unabomber by textual analysis of his manifestos and other communications, looking for language clues that are is clear and indelible and prints, against the traditionalists, who of course have pursued the wrong course over years and created a profile of the Unabomber that turns out to be way off the mark. As a personal drama - the long-suffering wife, the agent almost obsessive about "proving himself" by his work on this case, the secondary characters who blur into one another - the series is mediocre at best, but as a re-enactment of a major event in criminology and a frightening era in the U.S., the film is really good - in particular an episode that I would have thought almost impossible to bring off in which they build some sympathy for this lonely, sick man - in particular by re-creating his incredible mistreatment in the 1960s by a leading professor (Murray, psychology) at Harvard involved in experiments (on his students!) that can only be described as sadistic (this episode so odd that I had to check it out and found that it's quite accurate and truthful).