Les Diabolique (1955)

“I may be reactionary, but this is absolutely astounding - the legal wife consoling the mistress!”

            The first time I had ever heard of Henri- Georges Clouzot I had rented L’Enfer (The Inferno). I rented L’Enfer because I saw Bérénice Bejo’s name on the cover and being a huge fan of hers I had to see it. L’Enfer has an interesting story I am not going to fully explain and I am sure you are asking yourself how is Bérénice Bejo attached to a Clouzot film if he was around in the 1950s and 1960s. I can only suggest looking up the film to understand. Anyway… Ever since I saw L’Enfer I have wanted to see another of Clouzot’s films. Les Diabolique was that other film. I did not know what Les Diabolique was about before I watched it and I am very happy I did not. Not knowing the plot made the film a great experience.

            Christina Delassalle (Vera Clouzot) and Nicole Horner (Simone Signoret) are teachers in a boy’s school in a small French village. The school is run by Christina’s husband Michel. Michel is not a nice man. He has been seeing Nicole, the whole school knows it and so does Christina. The two women cannot stand Michel he is an abusive controlling man not only to them but to the whole staff. Nicole wants to get rid of Michel and needs Christina’s help. Christina was a former nun she does not believe in killing people but Nicole is very persuasive.

            In the middle of the night wife and mistress sneak away from the school. They travel for hours to the town of Niort where Nicole runs an apartment for teachers. Nicole has Christina call Michel to tell him where she is and that she was a divorce from him. Christina makes the call but she begins to get cold feet. Nicole tells her that Michel would not hesitate to kill her Nicole’s plan is to drug the wine and Christina give the wine to Michel. In the mean time Nicole will be upstairs visiting her neighbors as part of her alibi.

            Michel arrives. At first Michel tries to charm Christina saying they can sell the school and go away somewhere. Then all of the sudden his mood changed he turns mean and threatening. Christina quickly changes her mind and hands her husband the wine with the sedative. Michel passes out on the bed. Nicole with Christina’s help take Michel to the bathtub and drown him.

            The next morning they wrap Michel’s body in a table cloth and place it in a trunk. They place the trunk in the truck they took from the school and drive the body back. The body is almost discovered when they stop for gas. Nicole and Christina arrive at the school late at night and dump the body into the dirty blackened pool water.

            Christina’s conscience begins to eat away at her. She cannot focus on teaching or any of her other activities of the day. She tells Nicole they have to alert someone to the body in the pool the body needs to be discovered so it is no longer there. Nicole comes up with a plan for the body to be discovered, she sees one of the boys has been kicked a ball into the pool. She throws keys to the boy to get a pole and throws them short so they fall in the pool. A boy jumps in the pool and all he comes up with is Michel’s lighter. Since the keys were not found Nicole has the grounds keeper empty the pool. Christina’s fears are brought to a new height when the pool is emptied and Michel’s body is not at the bottom.

            If I were to say anymore I would give too much of the film away and I do not want to do that.

            To me the most interesting fact about this film is that it is based off of a novel by Pierre Boileau. Alfred Hitchcock wanted to buy the rights to the story but Clouzot was faster. I like Hitchcock he is my favorite director but there is no way that the film would have been the same if he had made. Clouzot was able to create suspense through the cinematography and his direction. I cannot even explain how incredible this film. The cinematography is stunning it ranks with Night of the Hunter.  The story is not intense it is just suspenseful.

            Les Diabolique is one of the most perfect films to have been made in the history of cinema. Everything about it works together so well. Vera Clouzot was awesome her acting as this nervous woman with this enormous guilt on her conscience. Simone Signoret fit the aggressive driven mistress to a “T”. Les Diabolique is worth watching as many times as you can. From the moment the film starts you are hooked with its twist and turns, fantastic storytelling, and genius direction. 

Silent Sundays: The Black Pirate (1926)

If you have ever read about Douglas Fairbanks I am sure that besides reading that he was married to Mary Pickford and the two were Hollywood royalty you would have come across that he performed all his own stunts. Seems boring to read since so many actors and actresses throughout the history of film have done their own stunts. Before I had watched The Black Pirate I felt the same way. But now I can see Douglas Fairbanks was an acrobat, he was lighter than air and completely graceful. He made climbing up walls and rope to reach his lady love look flawless and simple.

            A gang of pirates has been ravaging the seas. They board ships, take all the loot, and set fire to ship while her surviving captured crew is tied up to the mast. Only two survivors were able to get off the ship and swim to safety. The Duke of Arnoldo (Fairbanks) and his father make it onto an island. Unfortunately Arnoldo’s father dies. He vows to seek revenge against the pirates who killed his father.

            The pirates have come to the same island Arnoldo is on to bury their treasure chest from the ship. Arnoldo sees this as an opportunity to see his revenge. He revels himself to the pirates and says he wants to join them. The pirates make Arnoldo prove he can join them by fighting one of them. Arnoldo swiftly defeats the pirate with several tricks and tactics. To really prove himself he tell the pirates that he can capture a ship all on his own.

            Arnoldo take the ship over with ease. The pirate board the ship. Arnoldo cannot bear to see the crew of the captured ship being hurt and does not want to see the ship burned down. He yells out to the men that they can get a lot more money if they hold the ship for ransom. A woman named Princess Isobel in on board. Some men find her and want her for their own including a nasty man named MacTavish (Donald Crisp). He plots to do anything he can to have Isobel for himself. Arnoldo has another ship sail out to inform the governor of the ransomed ship. MacTavish has one of his men make sure that the ship never reaches the governor telling the man to blow it up.

            Arnoldo makes sure that the Princess will be sent ashore the night the other ship leaves. MacTavish sees what Arnoldo is doing with the princess. MacTavish has Arnoldo and the princess brought back onto the ship. He turns all the men against the new pirate immediately. Now the princess is truly in danger of the men on board since there is no one to defend her. MacTavish and the pirates send Arnoldo to the plank but Arnoldo has stolen the key to the handcuff. He manages to swim to shore to help.

            Of course this being a pirate adventure film as well as a love story Arnoldo and a crew of natives are able to save the ship and the princess. And Arnoldo asks the princess to marry him since he is a duke.

            The Black Pirate was good. I found it a little boring and long. Douglas Fairbanks was awesome. His stunts were amazing. No leading actor today would dare do the stunts that Fairbanks did in this film. I can see why Fairbanks was so popular he was daring and charming and I have to say even a little handsome. The direction in the film was good there were some great scenes. I suggest seeing The Black Pirate at least once since, as I said, it was a little boring and long. It is worth seeing Douglas Fairbanks in action. 

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

“They're coming to get you, Barbara, there's one of them now!”

            Night of the Living Dead is a movie I have heard about but had no desire to watch because it is a horror movie and I am not a particular fan of horror movies (except for the original and remake of Amityville Horror). I am going to nerd out big time and reveal that I sat down to watch Night of the Living Dead because of the TV show Leverage. At the end of the episode my favorite character Parker was watching it and then my other favorite character Hardison went on about how it is the best horror movie of all time. There was a clip of the movie and it looked interesting so I figured I would give it a try. And also my best friend Mike really likes Night of the Living Dead and he once told me about it. I trust his judgment when it comes to movies especially horror ones because he knows I am not a huge fan of the genre. Pretty much right from the beginning I was floored with how awesome Night of the Living Dead is. Not for one moment did it let up with the tension and scariness.

            The movie begins when brother and sister Johnny and Barbara driving up to a cemetery. They are at the cemetery putting a grave blanket on their father’s grave for their mother. Johnny is anxious to get back since they drove almost three hours to get to the cemetery they have to drive another three back home. They see a man walking up the road. Johnny starts teasing Barbara that the man is coming to get her. As the man walks closer he looks odd. He attacks Barbara and runs after Johnny until Johnny falls on a gravestone and hits his head. The man continues to his pursuit of Barbara. She runs to her car and locks the doors. The man picks up a rock and breaks the passenger side window. Barbara drives the car down the road but something happens to the car and she has to get out and run. The man is still behind her chasing her. Barbara finds a farm house. She enters the house. Whoever the house belonged to stands empty. Barbara goes up the stairs only to find a woman dead on the stairs.

            A man named Ben drives up to the house. He comes storming in looking to get away from the undead creatures outside. Ben immediately starts asking questions while looking around the house for things to board up the doors and windows. Barbara at this point is slowly losing her mind and going into shock. She tells en what happened to her and Johnny and she cracks up. Ben punches her out and lays her on the couch. As Ben works around the house the radio is playing. No one is sure at that point what is causing these undead people to come back and kill the living. They tell everyone listening to stay in their homes and do not go outside.

            Shortly after Barbara comes to, two men come up from the basement named Cooper and Tom. Ben is angry with them for having not come up sooner to help. Cooper is a short tempered man he tells Ben that they did not know if they were the things outside. Cooper’s wife and daughter are still in the cellar. He believes the cellar is the safest place for them to be if the creatures start attacking. Ben, who has been the only one thinking clearly, yells that he does not want to be caught down in a cellar with only one way out if the things outside get in.

            Ben and Tom are able to find a TV. The news reports that the things going around murdering people are the unburied dead. According to scientists the undead are eating killing the living and eating their flesh. Rescue centers with food, shelter, and medical help have been set up at local hospitals. Cooper’s daughter needs to get to a hospital since she is not feeling well. He tells everyone that when a bunch of the undead flipped their car over one of them bit her in the arm. There is a gas pump near the barn. Ben has a car in the front. Tom knows more about cars then Ben does so he goes with Ben to fill the car up. They come up with a plan to have Cooper throw Molotov cocktails out the window since the things do not like fire. The plan goes along well until Tom gets gasoline on the truck and it catches fire from the torch Ben was carrying. Tom drives away with his girlfriend in the passenger seat. He gets out of the car but her coat is caught. Both die when the truck catches fire.

            After this their situation becomes dire. Hundreds of the undead have no gathered around the house. All at once they begin their attack on the house.

            The ending is tragic. It is not even scary or satisfying it is just tragic. It is one of the perfect movie endings because you do not seeing it coming at all until the last second… well at least I did not see it coming.

            George A. Romero is a genius. He directed the movie and he wrote it with another screenwriter. There were so many scenes that were excellently filmed. My favorite scene of the movie is when Ben was going around the house looking for objects to block the window and he has the radio on to the news. We find out what is going on and how and why this happening all as Ben is moving around. Two things are going on at once we are watching Ben moving around and hearing another. I liked how Romero kept the situation real. Obviously the undead coming back to life to kill the living is fake but the panic and the people are real.

            What I really liked about the movie was the undead beings. I liked them because they were not the disgusting zombies like the ones from The Walking Dead. They look sinister which makes them scarier as they move about. The fact that the movie was filmed in black and white make them even scarier.

            Night of the Living Dead is one of the best movies I have ever seen. I liked all the characters even Cooper who was the biggest moron and deserved what happened to him in the end. The story was really good it gives you information about the attack but it is not definite. I wish “horror” movies today could have good stories with decent acting. Today “horror” movies are a horror they are terrible. Night of the Living Dead is a perfect movie I recommend it to all film buffs and movies lovers.

 

Amelie (2001)

“Amelie has a strange feeling of absolute harmony. It's a perfect moment. A soft light, a scent in the air, the quiet murmur of the city. A surge of love, an urge to help mankind overcomes her.” 

            I cannot remember the first time I watched Amélie. I must have seen it when I was taking French in school because quite a number of years ago I bought the DVD. I can actually remember buying the DVD like it was yesterday.  Ever since I bought the DVD and watched it I have not seen Amélie since. I watched it with new eyes and the mind of a movie lover. Amélie was just as fantastic as I remembered it.

            The movie is about a woman named Amélie Poulain (Audrey Tautou). She grew up a lonely child because her doctor father thought she had a heart condition. Since she did not get a chance to go to school and make friends so she had to use her imagination. Now as a grown up Amélie has a job in Paris at a café called The Two Windmills.

            One night she drops the cap to a bottle she was holding and the cap rolls to a tile on the floor knocking it loose. Amélie removes the loose tile and discovers a tin box full of old toys. Amélie decides to find out who lived in her apartment during the fifties. She finds out the man’s name and manages to track him down. Without meeting the man Amélie returns his old box of toys to him. The man walks into the café where she works and he talks about how this box as made him happy and how this makes him want to reconnect with his daughter and see his grandson.

            This event makes Amélie want to help others around her. She helps a woman she works with find a man who helps her get her mind off of being  hypochondriac, she helps her superintendent of her building find closer over the death of her husband twenty years before. The most important person Amélie helps is a man named Nino who collects torn photographs from photo booths in train stations.

            There are so many stories and situations in this movie that it would be too long to explain them all and it is more fun to watch the movie than have it explained.

            Every cast member was perfect. No one could have played Amélie any better than Audrey Tautou. With Tautou in the main role you can believe her character is a naïve woman with a wild imagination and a big heart.

            What I love about Amélie is how it takes you into an imaginary world in Paris. Paris is the dream of millions. So many idealize the city as this fantastic bright place of love and captures the imagination. The colors and the story help to bring this Paris of imagination to life.

            Amélie not only one of the best French movies ever to be made but one of the best all around movies ever made. You truly do feel so much better after have watched this not just because of the story but by how well it was created from the acting to the direction to the lighting. Amélie is a movie I feel anyone with a heart and anyone who says they love movies should see. Amélie for two hours and two minutes let you escape into the Paris and a world of imagination you did not know you needed and wanted to escape to. 

The Ilusionist (2006)

“Everything you have seen here has been an illusion.”

            There was a time when The Illusionist came out on DVD that my mom and one of my brothers watched this movie all the time. I always happened to come in on the same parts and never fully understood what the movie was about. They told me some of the story based off the parts I had seen but what they told me was never enough. Six years after The Illusionist was released I have finally sat through the whole movie. I greatly enjoyed movie from beginning to end.

            The story of The Illusionist takes place in the late 1800s in Austria. It begins with the arrest of a man named Eisenheim (Edward Norton). The arresting officer, Chief Inspector Uhl (Paul Giamatti) is speaking with Crown Prince Leopold. The story from here until the last few minutes of the movie is told from Uhl’s perspective at this time.

            Uhl tells Leopold what is known about Eisenheim. His name had been Edward and was the son of a cabinet maker. Edward had met an old magician on the side of a road when he was younger which lead him to become a magician himself. He practiced all the time even out in the street where he catches the eye of Sophie a local duchess. The two become great friends. Her family does not approve of her being friends with a peasant but Sophie sneaks out anyway whenever she can. They plan to run away together. Their plan comes to nothing when guards come looking for Sophie and take her away. For the next fifteen years Edward spends his time traveling the world.

            Edward comes back as Eisenheim- The Illusionist. His first show creates so much his next few performances are sold out. At his first performance is Uhl. Uhl becomes fascinated with an illusion Eisenheim did that he returns to the theater with some other police officers to inspect the trick and also to tell the illusionist that the prince will be coming to the performance that night. Eisenheim asks for someone to come up on stage after he had just talked about death and the soul. The prince stands up and then points to a woman next to him. When the woman walks onto the stage Eisenheim quickly recognizes her as Sophie.

            Sophie is heavily watched by Leopold claiming it is for her protection. She sees Eisenheim the next day and says she remembers who he is. Sophie takes out the locket he had for her when they were younger and still has his photograph inside it.

            Eisenheim is asked to the palace for a special performance. Leopold wants everything explained he does not like being tricked. Eisenheim asks Leopold for his sword and does a trick that is like the Sword and the Stone. He places the sword on its tip. No one can pull the sword from the floor it is as if it is being kept down by magnets. Leopold tries to pull it up and is mocked by some men in the audience. Furious and humiliated the prince wants Eisenheim shut down.

            Sophie goes to Eisenheim’s house that night. They speak of running away together and know that she could never do so. She could only run away if she was dead.

            After this night, news gets out that the prince could have been involved in a murder. He had been before when he his temper got the best of him. The whole town speaks nothing of this murder and wants answers. Eisenheim has been shut down but finds a way to come back with an illusion so mysterious and somewhat terrifying the police are ordered to arrest him. He does the trick again this time with the prince in the audience. The prince and the audience are shocked and stunned.

            The Illusionist came out around the same time as The Prestige. The Prestige won out in the contest of what-was-the-better-magic-themed-movie contest at the box office. I have yet to see The Prestige (actually I did see it but I do not remember a thing from it since I saw it so long ago). My brother Anthony is obsessed with The Prestige he says it is one of those movies you can watch over and over again and still find new things. Anyway, The Illusionist has a very good story. It almost reminds me of the TV show Leverage (you will get it if you know the show). The cast was alright I am not a huge fan of Jessica Biel I think she is not a very good actress. Edward Norton was good but he does not impress too much.

            The Illusionist is interesting to watch because you try to think how a trick like the ones Eisenheim performs could have been done in real life in the late 1800s. I know most of the tricks were done with CGI but it is fun to try to figure out how they could actually have been done.

 

The Blue Dahlia (1946)

“Seems I've lost my manners or would anyone here know the difference?” 

            I saw the Blue Dahlia for the first time most likely a few years ago. I know I liked it when I saw it because I looked for it again. I did like The Blue Dahlia this time around especially because I have more of an appreciation for classic films and like Film Noir. The Blue Dahlia is considered, depending on who ask in the scholarly film world, to be one of the quintessential Noirs. I would not go that far but it is a good example of a Noir how an innocent normal man is convicted of a crime he did not commit and has to find the people who are the ones truly responsible.

            Johnny Morrison (Alan Ladd) and his two friends Buzz (William Bendix) and George have just returned home from the War. The three friends stop for a drink before returning to their homes. Buzz goes a little off the wall and is short tempered because of a head injury with a piece of shrapnel behind his ear. George and Buzz plan on finding an apartment to share while Johnny has a wife to get back to.

            Jonny’s welcome home is not so pleasant. His wife Helen is throwing a party and he is not happy to see them all drunk and partying. Helen’s friend Eddie says he will be going, she walks him to the door and Johnny sees them kissing. Johnny shoots out of the room and punches Eddie. Helen tells everyone to leave. Alone, Helen is a mess. Since Johnny left she felt she had a life and went out to parties and got drunk especially after their son Dicky died. Helen confesses that Dicky did not die of an illness as she had written him the boy died when she had to bring him to a party and she smashed her car because she was drunk. Johnny walks into his room takes his gun out of his bag, grabs his bag, and goes to the living room. He points the gun at Helen but says she is not worth and leaves the bungalow.

            Helen calls up George and Buzz worried. George does not do anything because whatever happened is none of their business. Buzz is worried though and he leaves the apartment without telling George where he was going. Buzz goes to the hotel where Johnny was living. He happens to run into Helen. They have no idea who the other is since they have never been introduced before.

            Johnny is walking in the rain. He gets picked up by a woman named (Joyce). He tells her his name is Jimmy Moore. Joyce takes Johnny to Malibu. He almost ditches her but she sees him and tells him not. At a hotel the next morning Johnny hears the news about his wife and how he is wanted for questioning in the murder. Joyce sees Johnny leave the hotel and knows why he was leaving San Francisco.

            Now Johnny has to prove he did not kill Helen. It seems that no matter where Johnny goes he gets kicked around by thugs. He finds a note from Helen behind a photograph of their son saying Eddie is wanted in New Jersey for a murder in case anything were to happen to her. Johnny tries to tell Eddie he has this information but Joyce walks in. Joyce knows he did not kill his wife and is willing to help him.

            The real murderer is eventually caught, no surprise there. I did not remember who the murderer was so I was kept on my toes the whole time.

            The cast was very good. This was one of several films that Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake were paired in. Veronica Lake is one of the ultimate femme fatales… maybe not a femme fatale but definitely one of the ultimate Noir actresses. She had that cool calm to her like nothing ruffled her feathers, an attitude and demeanor that was perfect for the genre. Alan Ladd was also perfect in the Noir genre. He too had the coolness and calm but he also had a tough side. I like Lake and Ladd paired together their acting styles (maybe more so their characters) were in sync with each other. William Bendix I am not a fan of he tends to annoy me but I will admit that he was good in his role.

            The Blue Dahlia I am going to say is a must view for the Film Noir fan. To me it is not one of the best Noirs but it is a great example with its dark story and the innocent man accused of something he did not do and must clear his name. The one major element that brings this film down is Alan Ladd’s meeting with Veronica Lake, it is too coincidental and unreal. There was actually no reason for the character of Joyce to be included in the story but I guess the main character needs a love interest. Raymond Chandler who’s story the film is based off of was not too happy with the character either… well he did not really like Lake he called her “Moronica Lake” because he hated her acting. Anyway, The Blue Dahlia is absolutely worth a watch, maybe even more. The Blue Dahlia is available to view on Youtube. 

Silent Sundays: Battle of the Sexes (1928)

“The battle of the sexes- Always being fought but never won”

            Battle of the Sexes was a silent film I have heard of but was never able to see until TCM aired it some time ago. As with all movies I have loaded on my DVR it takes me forever to get through them (I still have some of Ginger Rogers’s and Kay Francis from TCM’s Summer Under the Stars!!) because they are on the only DVR in the main living room of my house where everyone is and there is no way they would let me watch an old movie in piece. Anyway, I finally got around to watching Battle of the Sexes. I saw it was a DW Griffith film and I almost died but then I saw the length and thought well that is pretty good since all the films I have seen of his so God forsaken long. Unfortunately for me even with a shorter length the film just dragged as with all of the Griffith films I have seen so far.

            I am not even going to write out a summary. All you have to know is that a family man comes into money through a very good business deal. He loves his family with all his heart and his wife and children love him even more in return. Down the hall lives a younger woman who is a gold digger and in on a scheme with another guy that I do not know if he is her boyfriend or just a guy she does business with. She reads about the newly rich man and tries to win him over. She does win the man over and they begin an affair that almost breaks up his marriage and almost leads to his wife committing suicide and his daughter killing the woman. In a not so surprising ending the man realizes how much he loves his family and what he has done to them and the wife and children take him back.

The End

With a title like Battle of the Sexes I was expecting this to be a slinky sexy silent pre-code and instead it turned out to be boring. When I hear a title like this one I imagine sex and cheating and all kinds of pre-code goodness.  Maybe that was my major problem with the film I was expecting a Divorcee/A Free Soul type film and it just fell flat. DW Griffith was a great director he got some excellent shots… when he stuck to the main story that is. I cannot stand the way Griffith goes off the main story to add some humor. That bothered me to no end in Way Down East I felt he got so far off the main story.

   I do want to mention that I loved the clothes the actress playing the daughter was wearing. The outfits were so late 1920s they very pretty. They were pieces of clothing I would love to wear today... actually I think I have seen outfits like that around lately. 

            Battle of the Sexes is currently on Youtube. I am not going to say not to see it, give it a try if you want.