DEMENTIA

     I recently saw Julianne Moore's incredible performance in Still Alice (2014). She plays a university professor in the throes of early-stage Alzheimer's disease. She deservedly won the Best Actress Oscar, conveying the terror and helplessness that must affect those stricken with this terrible disease. It occurred to me later that I had seen several really excellent films centered on a character with some form of dementia.

     The earliest example I can think of is On Golden Pond (1981). Before that one, such people were generally relegated to comic relief. Henry Fonda plays the patriarch of a small family. Daughter Jane plays his daughter (!) and the legendary Katherine Hepburn is his wife. Both female characters sense Dad's gradual mental ebbing before he does. In a crucial scene, he becomes lost in a familiar setting and realizes something is terribly wrong.

     There were three splendid films on this subject in 2001, all from foreign countries. Firefly Dreams is from Japan. A petulant teenager's parents send her to the countryside to work at her uncle's inn and cafe. She reluctantly puts up with her retarded cousin who makes her finally realize how fortunate she is. She is dispatched to help an elderly woman (Maho) who lives nearby who is sliding into dementia. The girl gradually realizes that the old lady had quite a life as a young woman and that everyone is of value, regardless of their mental state. 

     From Sweden comes A Song For Martin. The afflicted character here is a renown classical music composer. Imagine standing before a huge orchestra in a packed theater to conduct your own concerto and forgetting what to do next. He does not go gently, but go he does. Martin falls in love with the lovely first violinist and they have a few months of happiness before he is diagnosed with Alzheimer's. His descent is fast: at one point while out in the water he forgets how to swim. 

      And from England we have Iris about the famous author Iris Murdoch. Kate Winslett plays Iris as a young woman and Judi Dench plays her as a mature celebrated writer who gradually loses her bearings to dementia. Jim Broadbent is very good as her long-suffering husband. All three actors were nominated for Oscars and Broadbent won. 

     Finally, the wonderful Julie Christie is the central character in Away From Her (2007). As she slides deeper and deeper into dementia, forgetting what happened the day before and who her husband (Gordon Pinsent) is, he makes the ultimate sacrifice. She has fallen in love with a fellow patient and her husband does everything he can to aid that relationship, placing her happiness ahead of everything. 

     I rate every one of these films at 9 out of 10!  All of them are available on DVD and for streaming. All are definitely for grown-ups. 

EVEN MORE BASEBALL!

     After my last effort, about the best baseball movies, an alert reader pointed out that there are quite a few very recent baseball films that deserve mention. And he was right!

     42 (2013) is a good biopic about the late, great Jackie Robinson. He was the first black player in the major leagues. Unknown Chadwick Boseman is fine as the lead, and equally obscure Nicole Beharie is good as his wife. Harrison Ford, who seems to get even crustier with each outing, nails the part of Branch Rickey. Rickey was the general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, and signed Robinson because he was a great player and because it was the right thing to do. The film is unstinting about the hatred and abuse heaped on Jackie and his Herculean efforts to control his temper and play the game. As a kid I loved the Brooklyn Dodgers and Jackie Robinson was my favorite. I still remember a game when he stole home.

     Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane is better known than lots of players and managers because he was the inventor of Moneyball (2011). Because Oakland is a very small market with a very small amount of money (relatively speaking, of course)Beane (Brad Pitt) hires a Harvard math prodigy (Jonah Hill) and studies statistics very carefully. They throw traditional scouting out the window and proceed to unbelievable success with bargain players. Pitt is quite good. When Beane has agreed on a deal on the phone, he just hangs up, saying "When you've made the deal, don't stick around." 
      The other side of the coin (personal observation over statistics) is well represented in Trouble With The Curve (2012). Clint Eastwood plays himself (as always) as an aged baseball scout on the lookout for new talent. The fact he is going blind doesn't help a lot. Amy Adams plays his daughter, who tries to help him with his scouting. A trip to North Carolina turns up an unknown pitcher who can really bring it.
     Finally, there is Jon Hamm as a sports agent down to his last athlete, who has a brilliant idea. Cricket is practically a religion in India, and he realizes from watching TV that those guys really throw hard. Maybe he could find a couple of prospects to bring to America? This is based on a true story. He starts a contest in India to select the best pitchers, and finds a couple with real velocity. Of course, they have absolutely no clue about baseball, but are willing learners. Million Dollar Arm (2014) is funny, charming and quite engaging.
     All of these movies are available on DVD and for streaming. All are fine for 12 and up. 

                 HOLLYWOOD HAS BEEN BERY BERY GOOD TO BASEBALL

     As I write this, Opening Day is upon us. Hollywood (and I) just love baseball. And for whatever reason, the very best sports movies are about the National Pastime. Herewith my personal baseball favorites.
     1. Field Of Dreams (1989). It's the best thing Kevin Costner has ever done. James Earl Jones is splendid as the kidnaped writer and Ray Liotta's debut as Shoeless Joe is top notch. The magic of baseball and something of what it has meant to America is here, as well as the ridicule true believers in any magic have to endure. When the players come out of the corn field, I always get goose bumps!
     2. The Natural (1984). Larger than life and meant to be, this is the fable of the Great American Hero. Robert Redford has it down pat. OK, guys, maybe he is a little too pretty, but live with it. Glenn Close is the hero's dream of The Lady. The argument that Roy Hobbs' home runs are impossible is completely beside the point. 
     3. Bull Durham (1988). The movie that made Durham Bulls memorabilia famous. As good as it gets in portraying the gritty, quirky world of minor league baseball. Susan Sarandon is just right (isn't she always?) as the ultimate "fan," Kevin Costner is fine as Crash Davis, and a pleasantly awkward Tim Robbins is good as The Kid. Funny, touching, and lots of fun.
     4. Pride Of The Yankees (1942). Gary Cooper is more like Lou Gehrig than Gehrig was. The complete team player with the terminal disease that was named for him won't leave a dry eye in the house when the credits roll. 
     5. Bang The Drum Slowly (1973). Another doomed player, here a none-too-bright but engaging Robert DeNiro. He gets the puzzlement of "why me" across really well. The camaraderie of the players, and even their occasional meanness, is right on the money.
     6. Major League (1989). Some of the action in this one is pretty realistic. The Cleveland Indians are the worst team in the majors and their owner tries to make them even worse. But hey, this is Hollywood and they just might win the pennant. I like the sappiness and the dialogue.
    7. The Stratton Story (1949). Not as well-known as some other baseball biographies, but better than many. Monty Stratton was a real person who really lost an arm and still played major league baseball. Jimmy Stewart and June Allyson are properly heroic. I like the way the other teams don't cut Monty any slack, and that he doesn't expect them to.
     8. A League Of Their Own (1992). Okay, so it's about women, it's still a good baseball movie. Geena Davis and Penny Marshall hit the right notes as ballplayers and Tom Hanks is good, as always, as their crusty manager. Good screenplay.
     And a special Honorable Mention to Ken Burns' Baseball, a nine-hour love story done as well as it could be.
     All of these movies are available on DVD and for streaming. All except Bull Durham are fine for all ages.

                                                             COLORIZATION


     It is the beast that will not die. Colorization is the bastardization of black and white films into dreadful colors. It has been around for a while. Ted Turner famously tried to colorize Citizen Kane, but he encountered such a firestorm of outraged opposition that he dropped the idea. He seems also to have dropped the whole colorization thing. Others have not...
     What these folks don't seem to understand is that directors and cinematographers know what they're working with. 
     Critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, the best of the best, called it "Hollywood's New Vandalism." Anjelica Huston successfully stopped the process in its tracks in France using French copyright law. The U.S. has legislation but it only protects films in the National Film Registry from colorization. 
     Here are some wonderful black and white movies that would be cheapened and perhaps ruined by being colorized.
     Let's begin with the towering Schindler's List (1993), which deservedly won the Oscar for Best Picture. The starkness of the prison camp and the situations just cry out for black and white. The very end is in color and rightly so- it makes the contrast in times greater.
     Orson Welles perhaps understood how to use the subtle shadings and shadows of black and white better than anyone else. His landmark film Citizen Kane (1941) is exhibit A. But an even better use of the medium, though a lesser film, is The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) which is shot almost entirely in the gloomy old Amberson mansion. The story of a once-mighty family is perfectly mirrored in the photography. If the ending seems a bit strange, that's because it is. The studio took Ambersons away from Welles and tacked on the hokey ending.  
     Raging Bull (1980) is one of the great boxing movies.  The brutality and violence of the ring (and the kitchen!) are more exquisitely captured in black and white than any color imaginable. The sleazy, smoky nightclubs that became Jake LaMotta's environment seem much more oppressive and atmospheric in black and white.
     Casablanca (1942) has dark filmic echoes of the war and the end of a culture and is one of the most romantic films ever made. Notice that in the night scenes you can always see what is going on. Night scenes in most modern color films are annoyingly unwatchable.
     On The Waterfront (1954) with its gritty shots of the docks and union halls is perfect for black and white. Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf (1966), in which an apparently happy marriage slowly unravels before our eyes, would be ruined by color.
     The Hustler (1961) with its seamy pool halls and seamier characters is just right for black and white. High Noon (1952) is an epic because the situation is black and white to Gary Cooper's character.
     My favorite example of black and white cinematography is How Green Was My Valley (1941). This is a great film anyway, but the photography is unmatched. It's the story of Welsh miners and their lives and their village. Use your freeze button on any frame in this movie and you could hang it on your wall.
     Director Alexander Payne decided to film Nebraska (2013) in black and white. Excellent choice! The film had five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. The dreary, barren Midwestern landscape, the dingy small towns and the dysfunctional family members are perfect in black and white.
     And while we're on this topic, remember that a black and white movie, The Artist, won the Best Picture Oscar for 2011.
     All of the films in this article are available on DVD and for streaming, in glorious black and white. All are for 12 and up.
   

                                                     UNCOMMON SPORTS

     Watching, and greatly enjoying, McFarland USA (2015) it occurred to me that while I think the best sports movies are about baseball, and there are some decent basketball and football flix, there are also a goodly number of movies about sports not in prime time. It so happens that two of them are recent.

     Kevin Costner is so good as the flawed motivator and is at his best in McFarland. After an unfortunate incident gets him fired as from his high school football job, he lands on maybe one foot at a poor California school which is about 90 per cent Latino. He notices how these kids can run and starts a cross-country team. There are the usual speed bumps along the way- parents who don't want the kids to miss work, mercurial teen-age temperaments, etc. But the team gets better and better and eventually competes for the State Championship. What happens? Hey, this is a Hollywood movie! But- it is based on a true story and at the end credits, the actual runners who were portrayed in the movie make a cameo appearance. 

    Last year produced another very good movie about a little-known sport: amateur wrestling. This is not the hit-em-with-chairs professional stuff. Foxcatcher is about one of the most cerebral sports, involving incredible conditioning, ability and smarts. Steve Carrell was nominated for an Oscar for his role as John du Pont, scion of the wealthy chemical family and would-be coach of Olympic wrestlers. Channing Tatum is quite good as a slightly dim wrestler and Mark Ruffalo is also good as Tatum's wrestler-brother. 

     Invictus (2009) is about the all-white South African rugby team pulling the country together after apartheid ended. Rugby is indeed weird, but you'll catch on to the rules (if any) pretty quickly. The iconic Morgan Freeman plays the saintly Nelson Mandela. Matt Damon is the captain of the rugby team. 

     There aren't many movies about women in sports of any kind, but one of the best is Heart Like A Wheel (1983) with Bonnie Bedelia as drag racer Shirley Muldowney. There is heart-stopping action footage from this little-known sport. Beau Bridges is good as the racer's husband.

     Breaking Away (1979) is about bicycle racing. The quirky humor and good characterizations make this a fine film. The underdog against the world is a staple of sports films, and that ancient plot works well here. Paul Dooley give a career performance as the Dad and Barbara Barrie is quite good as the Mom. Dennis Christopher (whatever happened to him?) is the kid racer.

     And finally, in the world of off-beat sports, what could be more off-beat than chess? Searching For Bobby Fischer (1993) is one of my unsung favorites. Max Pomerance is superb as a child chess prodigy trying to be a real kid. Lawrence Fishburne is really good as a park speed player. What can parents do to nurture a world-class talent while trying to provide a normal childhood? 

     Well, of course, almost all of these movies (and most sports movies) are really about something else, with the sport mainly serving as a good background. All of these movies except the first one are available on DVD and for streaming. All, except Foxcatcher are actually fine for all ages.

WENDY HILLER

     She wasn't beautiful or particularly glamorous. Her career spanned 50 years yet she  made only 17 movies. But she won an Oscar, was nominated for another, and was George Bernard Shaw's favorite actress. Dame Wendy Hiller lived to be 91, and left a legacy of outstanding performances in very good films.

     I cannot say that Pygmalion (1938) is better than the musical version, My Fair Lady. But I can tell you that it is very good indeed, and Wendy Hiller is simply marvelous as the whining cockney Eliza Doolittle. These two films would make a great double feature!

     Another Bernard Shaw entry, Major Barbara (1941) stars Ms. Hiller as the rich girl who joins the Salvation Army and Rex Harrison as her suitor. This is an excellent screenplay by Shaw himself and others. It's also Deborah Kerr's first film!

     One of the unsung wonders of British filmdom is the superlative I Know Where I'm Going (1945). Ms. Hiller is a city-bred girl all set to marry a very rich man who owns an island. When the weather keeps preventing her from sailing across the strait to her wedding, she meets and falls for Roger Livesey's Scottish gentleman.  Beautiful black and white photography and a gentle, affecting love story make this one a real keeper.

     Separate Tables (1958) is an under-appreciated story of quietly desperate lives at a seaside resort. Wendy Hiller won her Oscar here for her portrayal of the rather timid mistress of Burt Lancaster. David Niven, Rita Hayworth and Deborah Kerr complete a fine cast in a film that amplifies and exceeds Terrence Rattigan's play. 

     A Man For All Seasons (1966) is Robert Bolt's outstanding drama about St. Thomas Moore's principle-based defiance of the mercurial Henry VIII. There are few better screenplays than this one; the dialog crackles and prods. Paul Scofield is Moore, Orson Welles is Cardinal Woolsey, and Robert Shaw, Leo McKern, John Hurt and Susannah York are on board also. The movie won six Oscars. Wendy Hiller was nominated for an Oscar as Moore's practical, but steadfast, wife. She lost to Sandy Dennis in Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf. No argument here.

     Other good Wendy Hiller outings are in David Copperfield (1970) as Mrs. Micawber, and in The Elephant Man (1980).

     All of the movies herein are available on DVD and for streaming. There's nothing harmful in any of them, but under 10s are not mature enough for the subject matter. 

                                                    LOUIS JOURDAN

     Louis Jourdan was born in France and became an American citizen. He was pretty much typecast as a debonair Continental bon-vivant, a niche he got tired of fighting and later embraced. He lived to be 93, and his film characterization notwithstanding, was married to his beloved Bette for 58 years. She died last year; he quickly followed.
     Mr. Jourdan's first significant role is in Hitchcock's The Paradine Case (1947). The plot is too complicated to summarize here. Full of Hitchcockian surprises, it features Charles Laughton, Gregory Peck, Ethel Barrymore and Charles Coburn. Seen at first as a low-grade servant, Mr. Jourdan turns out to be the pivotal character of the film.
     In the first of many editions of Madame Bovary (1949) Louis Jourdan plays the caddish Rodolphe Boulanger who woos, wins and leaves in the the lurch the title character, played by Jennifer Jones. He is suave, debonair and hateful- a good job!
      Three Coins In The Fountain (1954) is a rather sappy romantic film more famous for the title song by the Four Aces than the movie. Louis Jourdan is perfectly cast as the playboy prince Dino di Cessi who has a well-deserved reputation as a womanizer. He woos, wins and throws over All-American girl Maria Williams (Maggie MacNamara). But this is a a 50's Hollywood film, so of course everyone falls into the proper arms at the Trevi fountain by the end.
     Gigi (1958) is a musical Parisian love story with Maurice Chevailer as an aging roue' and Louis Jourdan as hs playboy nephew Gaston. Leslie Caron is shopped out as a proposed mistress, but she isn't having that. Eventually Gigi and Gaston find they are meant for each other after all and there is a beautiful wedding to look at. This movie features Mr. Chevalier's rendition of the rather creepy "Thank Heaven For Little Girls." The title song, sung very creditably by Mr. Jourdan, is quite good.
     After several more Parisian playboy roles, Louis Jourdan landed the bad guy part of Prince Khan in the 007 thriller Octopussy (1980), This particular James Bond film features Roger Moore, rather effective as the iconic hero. The plot involves a real and a fake Faberge egg and a scintillating finale with everyone on an airplane that is about to crash. You'll be amazed to remember that Bond somehow lives through all this and that the villainous Khan doesn't make it.
     Louis Jourdan liked playing the baddie for a change, and really swung to the far end of villainy in the campy Swamp Thing (1982), He is the evil Anton Arcane, whose really awful lab work turns the hero from a regular guy into the title character. But the Thing rescues beautiful Adrienne Barbeau and the two successfully battle the bad guy.
     All of the movies in this column are available on DVD and for streaming. All are OK for all ages.