Movie of the Week – Monsieur Verdoux

This week’s movie: Monsieur Verdoux (1947)

Henri Verdoux is a suave operator who turns to a life of crime after losing his job as a bank teller, needing to support his wife and child. His crime of choice? He marries and murders rich women for their money.

Monsieur Verdoux is auteur Charles Chaplin’s final film that he made in America before being essentially deported. It is also one of his best (and most under seen). He got the idea from Orson Welles and developed it into a dark comedy. He worked with frequent collaborator cinematographer Roland Totheroh on the film, which he scored himself.

Chaplin stars in the film as Verdoux, and Mady Correll, Martha Ray, Isobel Elsom, Margaret Hoffman, and Marilyn Nash feature in support.

The film is Chaplin’s second talkie and features an excellent performance from Chaplin. It is very funny, but more so has real dramatic weight as well. Verdoux is a complex character. He is a murderer, but somehow he is sympathetic. The film was a complete failure in America as the media and powerful political figures had waged a successful war against Chaplin, destroying his public image and popularity, pegging him as a deviant and communist. Monsieur Verdoux did not help his case as it ends on a very political note, as the main character faces the guillotine and pleads that humanity turn away from violence and embrace peace and goodwill towards all men. Not the message Americans wanted to hear on the eve of the Cold War. Nevertheless, it is a wonderful film that has now found a cult following. It is a must-see for Chaplin fans.

Trailer: Here

Available on: Blu-ray and Video On-Demand

Top 100 Films of the 20th Century – Part 21: 5-1

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Rank: 5

Title: Sunrise

Release Year: 1927

Genre: Romance

Director: F.W. Murnau

Cast: George O’Brien, Janet Gaynor, and Margaret Livingston

Plot Summary: A married farmer falls under the spell of a sultry city woman who tries to convince him to drown his wife so that he can be with her.

What Makes It Special: Sunrise is stunningly beautiful. Its cinematography is groundbreaking and incredibly dynamic. In addition to being a visual marvel, it has a wonderfully deep emotional narrative as well. Love is at the center of the story, as German Expressionist filmmaker F.W. Murnau leaves behind some of his overbearing symbolism and politics to focus more acutely on the narrative of a man torn between the allure of the city and his simple life on the farm. The film is extraordinary in every way, with superb performances, directing, and unforgettable visuals.

Trailer: Here

Available on: Blu-ray

Rank: 4

Title: 2001: A Space Odyssey

Release Year: 1968

Genre: Sci-Fi Drama

Director: Stanley Kubrick

Cast: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, Leonard Rossiter, and Margaret Tyzack

Plot Summary: After humanity finds a mysterious object buried beneath the lunar surface, believing it is of alien origin, they set off on a quest to discover new life, bringing along the ultra-intelligent computer H.A.L. 9000.

What Makes It Special: Stanley Kubrick forever changed sci-fi cinema with 2001: A Space Odyssey, dramatically influencing everything to come after it. The film epitomizes our modern aesthetic for Space. Tonally, the film is also a masterpiece of suspense, tension, and atmosphere – the use of silence and darkness are as terrifying as any film monster (along with H.A.L.’s glowing red eye). 2001: A Space Odyssey marks the height of Kubrick’s style and directing prowess.  

Trailer: Here

Available on: Blu-ray and Video On-Demand

Rank: 3

Title: Citizen Kane

Release Year: 1941

Genre: Mystery/Drama

Director: Orson Welles

Cast: Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore, Ray Collins, Everett Sloane, and Orson Welles

Plot Summary: With his final words, publishing tycoon Charles Foster Kane uttered “Rose Bud”. Intent on discovering the meaning, newsman Jedediah Leland goes on an investigative assignment.

What Makes It Special: Coming from theatre, Orson Welles brought a whole new style and aesthetic to cinema, challenging everything. Citizen Kane remains today a profound work of art, Welles and his collaborators setting out to do everything different and more interesting. The result is a majestic film, both artistically and narratively. The film is loosely based on William Randolph Hearst, but the brilliance of the narrative comes from its story of a man who had everything except the one thing he really wanted, something that he lost long ago to his grand ambition. Citizen Kane is not just an influential film; it is the film that rewrote the language of artistic cinema. It is a touchstone of today’s movies – it is essential.

Trailer: Here

Available on: Blu-ray and Video On-Demand

Rank: 2

Title: Vertigo

Release Year: 1958

Genre: Mystery

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Cast: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes, and Tom Helmore

Plot Summary: Retired police detective, Scottie Ferguson, who now suffers from acrophobia due to an accident involving the death of an officer as well as almost his own death, is hired by a wealthy old friend to follow his wife around San Francisco. She is behaving peculiarly, but as Scottie follows her around he begins to become obsessed with her.

What Makes It Special: Vertigo was a complete critical and commercial failure upon its release. The film is incredibly dark, as Scottie’s obsession with Madeleine Elster is just plan creepy. Yet, Alfred Hitchcock’s film is profoundly compelling as well. Hitchcock has the audience on Scottie’s side completely, even though his behavior is disturbing. The film peers into our own souls, revealing something a bit ghoulish in us all. In addition to the film’s magnificent aesthetics, music, performances, writing, and directing, Hitchcock also offers one of cinema’s most fearless endings. It may have been a failure in 1958, but today it shines as the embodiment of cinematic narrative, character, and emotional mastery.

Trailer: Here

Available on: Blu-ray and Video On-Demand

Rank: 1

Title: Lawrence of Arabia

Release Year: 1962

Genre: Adventure/War Drama/Biography

Director: David Lean

Cast: Peter O’Toole, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, Jack Hawkins, and Omar Sharif

Plot Summary: British officer T.E. Lawrence achieves wonders during his service in the Middle East during WWI.

What Makes It Special: David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia fulfills the promise of cinema in every way. It is a grand epic, featuring many of film’s most iconic and spectacular scenes. It is visually breathtaking, with startlingly beautiful photography and Lean’s flare for employing an ambitious and striking camera. Its music is absorbing and rousing. Peter O’Toole gives possibly the greatest film performance, and the supporting cast is excellent throughout. It is a film that challenges its viewer with its themes and ideas, while wholly entertaining and thrilling with its adventure, action, comedy, drama, and glorious locations. It is simply the finest film the medium has to offer.

Trailer: Here

Available on: Blu-ray and Video On-Demand

Top 25 by Decade

Top 100 Films of the 20th Century – Part 12: 50-46

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Rank: 50

Title: The Wild Bunch

Release Year: 1969

Genre: Western

Director: Sam Peckinpah

Cast: William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Edmond O’Brien, and Warren Oates

Plot Summary: As the Wild West disappears around them, a gang of aging outlaws looks to make one last big score.

What Makes It Special: Director Sam Peckinpah made a statement about violence in the world (possibly and probably directed at the conflict in Vietnam) with The Wild Bunch, especially in its final scene (a brutal shootout). With the death of the Production Code in 1967, films were suddenly much more graphic (films like Bonnie and Clyde and Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs), as a new generation of filmmakers began to completely transform cinema artistically and content wise. The Wild Bunch is also a testament to the death of the classic Western. The world was just no longer a place for clear cut heroes and villains.

Trailer: Here

Available on: Blu-ray and Video On-Demand

Rank: 49

Title: M

Release Year: 1931

Genre: Mystery

Director: Fritz Lang

Cast: Peter Lorre

Plot Summary: There is a child-murderer on the loose in Berlin, and the police cannot seem to catch him. As fear and anxiety grip the city, criminals too join the manhunt (while the man they are looking for, Hans Beckert, feels the rope ever tighter around his neck).

What Makes It Special: M is a beautifully shot and wonderfully designed film, creating a dark and suspenseful moody atmosphere. Peter Lorre gives the performance of his career as Hans Beckert, a child-murdering psychopath. Director Fritz Lang masterfully captures the emotional depth of his characters, especially Beckert – in a way creating a protagonist out of a villain. Lang also sets up an absolutely gripping and thrilling third act. Arriving in cinemas in 1931, M became the benchmark by which all thrillers and mystery films would be judged – even today.

Trailer: Here

Available on: Blu-ray and Video On-Demand

Rank: 48

Title: The Apartment

Release Year: 1960

Genre: Romantic Comedy

Director: Billy Wilder

Cast: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, and Fred MacMurray

Plot Summary: C.C. Baxter wants to get ahead at his company. He comes up with an idea of how to get in good with the executives. He will let them use his apartment for trysts. It is all going along splendidly until Baxter falls for one of the girls an executive brings to his apartment.

What Makes It Special: With The Apartment, auteur Billy Wilder made one of the quintessential romantic comedies, and possibly the best of the genre, a romantic comedy that would influence the genre for decades to come (something that continues today). The film works so well because its characters are developed very well and most importantly it is very funny. The romantic comedy developed out of the screwball comedy (taking out most of the physical comedy, but not all of it, and digging deeper into the characters their relationships).Wilder, one of Hollywood’s greatest writers, perfected the storytelling style for the genre with this film.

Trailer: Here

Available on: Blu-ray and Video On-Demand

Rank: 47

Title: La Grande Illusion

Release Year: 1937

Genre: War Drama

Director: Jean Renoir

Cast: Jean Gabin, Pierre Fresnay, Dita Parlo, Marcel Dalio, and Erich von Stroheim

Plot Summary: During WWI, two imprisoned French soldiers try to escape from their German POW camp several times, until they are sent to an impenetrable fortress, thought to be impossible to escape from.

What Makes It Special: La Grande Illusion is an antiwar masterpiece from French auteur Jean Renoir. Set during The Great War, a war that was supposed to end all wars, and yet Renoir made this film just as the world was on the brink of WWII with Europe and Asia in chaos. But, La Grande Illusion goes deeper. Something that is always very powerful about combat is that from afar opposing forces appear as enemies, but close up, in different circumstances, these men and women in conflict find that really they are not so much different – that they all want, dream, and fear the same things, which then begs the question of why are they fighting each other, killing each other. Renoir touches on this beautifully in his film.

Trailer: Here

Available on: Blu-ray and Video On-Demand

Rank: 46

Title: Touch of Evil

Release Year: 1958

Genre: Mystery

Director: Orson Welles

Cast: Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, and Orson Welles

Plot Summary: After an American building contractor is killed (via car bomb) in a small US-Mexican border town, Mexican Narcotics officer Ramon “Mike” Vargas has to interrupt his honeymoon to investigate, as the bomb was planted on the Mexican side of the border. American Police Captain Hank Quinlan tries to take charge of the investigation and already has a suspect (a Mexican); however, Vargas catches Quinlan planting evidence on his suspect. Vargas now realizes that this crime goes much deeper and that he is alone in town run by corruption. He begins to go after Quinlan, but this leaves his new American wife Susie vulnerable as a target.

What Makes It Special: The long-take tracking shot that opens A Touch of Evil is alone enough to make this a cinema classic, as is Orson Welles’s villainous Captain Quinlan. Welles’s neo-noir mystery thriller is utterly gripping. The opening shot grabs the viewer and the cat-and-mouse game that follows keeps them hooked throughout. Welles displays a complex storytelling that is often not found in Hollywood films. The black & white cinematography is also top notch. The original theatrical release was edited from Welles’s true vision; however, his cut was released on DVD in 1998.

Trailer: Here

Available on: Blu-ray

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Movie of the Week - Cradle Will Rock

This week’s movie is Cradle Will Rock (1999).

The film is about politics and art in 1930s America, focused around a liberal musical drama and the attempts to stop its production. Directed by Tim Robbins (its sort of a follow-up to Bob Roberts thematically), the film is a mix between comedy and drama with musical numbers. What makes this film great is its cast and scope. There are wonderful performances throughout, but the film is highlighted by Angus Macfadyen’s Orson Welles and Cary Elwes’s John Houseman constantly arguing. John Cusack plays Nelson Rockefeller, Ruben Blades as Diego Rivera and many other fine performances capture real people (check out the full credits), while there are also fictional characters, like Bill Murray’s vaudevillian ventriloquist, coming to the realization that his era is ending – mirroring industrialist capitalists facing the advent of unions. The scope of the film is vast, encompassing the mood on multiple levels of the time period. The film also features great numbers from the musical it is centered by, along with original music from David Robbins and wonderful cinematography by Jean-Yves Escoffier. For those interested in the period, it is a must see. Check out the trailer.

Cradle Will Rock [DVD]

Movie of the Week - F for Fake

This week’s movie is F for Fake (1973).

F for Fake is a documentary directed by Orson Welles about fraud and fakery focusing in part on art forger Elmyr de Hory and his biographer Clifford Irving (who also wrote the famously fraudulent Howard Hughes autobiography). The film also looks at Hughes a little closer and at Welles’ own career. The film has wonderful music by Michel Legrand and Welles’ narration is brilliantly captivating. What makes this film great, however, is how it cannot be trusted. Welles spins a world of trickery and fakery to the point where the audience is no longer sure if anything is true or if everything is just slight of hand. It is possibly Welles’ last masterwork.

F for Fake [DVD]