BEAUTIFUL BLACK AND WHITE

     Several years ago a new dirty word snuck into the language. It may have even made it into some of the lesser dictionaries. It is COLORIZATION. It means taking movies originally shot in black and white and coloring them. Yeccch! Well- as far as I can tell that process is as dead as film darkrooms. I sure hope so.

     For some reason, many people seem to have something against black and white movies. I think this is a mistake. Good directors and cinematographers know how to use the shadows and nuances of black and white to great advantage. Some of the greatest movies ever made are in black and white. 

     Orson Welles perhaps understood how to use the subtle shadings of black and white as well as anyone. 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. (Bonus trivia: this movie features, of all people, cowboy star Tim Holt!)

     In Raging Bull (1980) 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 become 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. I cannot imagine it in color and hope Ted Turner and his lackeys can't either.

      My favorite example of black and white cinematography is How Green Was My Valley (1941), about life in a Welsh mining village and a boy who wants out. Use your freeze button on any frame in this movie and you could hang it on your wall.

     Some other splendid examples of black and white: Shindler's List (1993), The Hustler (1961), High Noon (1952), On The Waterfront (1954), The Maltese Falcon (1941) and Brief Encounter (1945).

     One of the best recent examples of great black and white cinematography is George Clooney's Good Night And Good Luck (2005) a splendid film with David Strathairn perfect as newsman Edward R. Murrow (a Tar Heel!) taking down fascist Senator Joseph McCarthy. Even more recent is the superb Nebraska (2013) featuring Bruce Dern's career best performance.

      Okay so I'm a purist. But- if you happen to be one of the "no black and white" people, I ask only that you give any of the films in this article a look. Then ask yourself if it would have been as good in color.

     All of the movies herein are available on DVD and for streaming. None are really suitable for children under 12, mostly because they wouldn't like them. 

     

DANCING

     Every society has dancing. OK, maybe not Afghanistan; I don't really know. Many people love to dance and even more love to watch dancing. Hollywood is right there with the wonderful Astaire-Rogers movies, the MGM musicals, and there's even a whole film about it aptly named That's Dancing (1985). In these films, the dancers are professionals in the story as well as personally. 

     What about just your ordinary Joe and Jane who just like to dance? I thought you'd never ask! There are some wonderful movies on just that subject.

      Queen Of The Stardust Ballroom (1975) stars Maureen Stapleton and Charles Durning as an older couple who discover each other at the Stardust Ballroom. This is a made-for-TV-movie, but it is excellent. The actors are good, he dancing is fun, and the story is a good and unusual one demonstrating that even people over 50 can fall and love and be romantic.

     They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969) is about the little-known Depression-era phenomenon of marathon dancing. Jane Fonda is impossibly young and fresh and Michael Sarazin plays her partner. Gig Young (Oscar, Best Supporting Actor) is wonderfully sinister and seedy as the master of ceremonies. The whole thing works on several levels as a fascinating look at a long-ago fad and as a metaphor for lives. 

     Strictly Ballroom (1992, Australia) is about ballroom dancing contests down under. This is way before all the TV shows now rampant everywhere. The movie provides a peek at a world most of us didn't even know existed; it's almost a parallel universe. Paul Mercurio is the hot-blooded individualist who takes on ugly duckling Tara Morice as a new partner. She blossoms, and they enter the big dancing contest. Load of fun for them and us. 

     Shall We Dance? (1996, Japan) is an absolutely superb movie about a Japanese businessman who secretly takes ballroom dancing lessons to brighten up his very dull life.  He meets lots of interesting characters, becomes a proficient dancer and rather poignantly meets himself. This is one of the best films you probably never heard of. 

     And by the way, remember all those movies where the kids in town want to (fill in the blank): twist, lambada, Charleston, rock and roll, tango, breakdance, etc., etc., and the blue-nosed grown-ups want to stop them? Are any of these any good? No.

     All of the movies in this articles are available on DVD and for streaming. All are fine for 10 and up.

2014 SLEEPERS

Part 1

     Here are five movies from last year that are worth a look and which may have slipped beneath your movie radar.

     The Good Lie was Reese Witherspoon's other movie from 2014 (the better known one being Wild). It is the true story of a group of young Sudanese refugees helped to resettle in America after a harrowing time. Their misadventures in learning our ways are both touching and hilarious. And I guarantee a wet eye or two when this interesting film spools out.

     St. Vincent features the veteran Bill Murray as a very irascible Brooklynite who drinks, smokes and gambles, all to excess. He reluctantly befriends the 12-year-old son (newcomer Jaeden Lieberher) of his new neighbor. Like most of us, he has a rather secret side that the young neighbor discovers along with us. This film is a real charmer; Mr. Murray is outstanding.

     The appropriately named Nightcrawler stars Jake Gyllenhaal as an extremely creepy reporter, who is independent and sells news footage to TV stations. He quickly discovers that sensationalism sells. He goes further and further in his effort to be the first at the scene, crossing a red line several times. The film is perhaps a cautionary tale about the state of news in the U.S., but I'm not sure how much of it is all that far out.

     Way over on the brighter side is the crowd-pleasing Chef. Jon Favreau plays a chef at a top of the line restaurant who quits his job after an altercation with a surly food critic. He decides to begin operating a food truck selling Cuban sandwiches, and takes his young son along. Every stop they make gets a little better, and you will find yourself smiling a lot. The film features an all-star supporting cast, including Oliver Platt (the food critic), Sofia Vergara, Bobby Carnavale, Dustin Hoffman, Scarlett Johansson and Robert Downey, Jr.

     And finally there is the underrated Monuments Men, George Clooney's cinematic homage to some very unlikely World War II heroes. The mission is to save a great deal of the world's art treasures from the Nazis,who typically decide if they can't have it nobody can. Along for an enjoyable ride are Matt Damon, Bill Murray, Bob Balaban, John Goodman and Cate Blanchett. A lot of the things in this movie really happened.

     All of the movies in this article are available on DVD and for streaming. Chef, St. Vincent and The Good Lie are fine for all ages. The rest are for grown-ups. 

ELIZABETH WHO?

     In a recent article about Ian Holm, I posited that he's the guy you don't know until you see him on the screen and say, "Oh, yeah, that guy." And the possible flip side of that phrase is the late Elizabeth Wilson, who died recently at 94. Same deal- you can't place her, but when you see her on the screen you'll immediately recognize the face.

     Well, she certainly wasn't afraid of working. She played the feisty and somewhat obnoxious mother of FDR in Hyde Park On The Hudson (2012). In a heavily fictionalized account, Robin Williams is the President and Laura Linney is Daisy Suckley (one of the Prez's supposed paramours). The plot involves the visit (true enough) of King George VI,
who wanted to encourage America to enter World War II. As Sara Delano, Mrs. Wilson is everything we would expect from the character. By the way, she was 91 when this film was made!

     Let's go way back to 1967 to the classic The Graduate. Dustin Hoffman is recent college grad Benjamin Braddock. His mom is ably played by Elizabeth Wilson. The more famous movie mom is, of course, Mrs. Robinson (cue up Simon & Garfunkel) played by the sultry Anne Bancroft. She's also the mother of Elaine (Katherine Ross), Ben's true love.

     The underrated Quiz Show (1994) is about the 1950's scandal involving patrician Charles Van Doren (Ralph Fiennes) and the quiz show 21. He was the son of poet Mark Van Doren (Paul Scofield) and novelist Dorothy Van Doren (yep, Elizabeth Wilson). While Van Doren was knocking them dead with improbable correct answers, it turned out he was being coached through his headset. The pivotal character is actually Herb Stempel, played quite well by John Turturo. He was forced to lose to Van Doren by the producers and blew the whistle on the cheating. I remember the real Charles as much more likeable than Herb and I remember my Dad saying there was something not quite right about the quiz shows. (Yeah, I'm that old.)

     There are three characters to like in 9 To 5 (1980): Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda and Lilly Tomlin, all office victims of the hateful boss Dabney Coleman. The other character to hate is his nosey, officious secretary Roz, played with verve by Elizabeth Wilson. The revenge of the secretarial pool is hilarious.

     Elizabeth Wilson can be glanced in fairly minor roles in Neil Simon's The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1975) and Catch-22 (1970). 

     All of the movies in this article are available on DVD and for streaming. Adults only, please.

GOOD 2014 DOCS

     2014 was a spectacularly good year for documentaries. Two of my top three films for that year were docs, and there were many other very good ones.

     Finding Vivian Maier is the fascinating and almost unbelievable story of a quiet low-key Chicago woman who took the most astonishing photographs. She was a nanny for all of her adult life. She never married and was unassuming and very private. Almost nobody knew what she was up to with that old camera. The film depicts how John Maloof stumbled on a cache of nearly 100,000 pictures after Ms. Maier's death. It also presents interviews with the few people who knew her, and a generous helping of those wonderful photos. You will be dazzled!

     Roger Ebert was my very favorite film critic. He died in 2013 after a long struggle with a cancer that took away his voice and half of his face but none of his spirit. Life Itself tells the story of his career and life. He and Gene Siskel invented the television movie review program in the 70's. Their discussions and sometimes heated arguments were the stuff of TV legend. Roger wrote for the Chicago Sun-Times and Gene for the Chicago Tribune. They got together once a week to vote thumbs up or down for the latest releases. 

     Keep On Keepin' On is the true story of the unlikely friendship between 93-year-old jazz trumpet legend Clark Terry and 23-year-old blind piano prodigy Justin Kauflin. The music is wonderful and the interaction between these incredible talents is so good you won't want it to end. 

     Whitey: The United States Vs. James Bulger tells the story of how the title figure hid in plain sight from the FBI for 16 years. He was indicted for 19 murders and suspected of committing many more. Because he was thought to be an informant, the bureau let him slide for a long time. When the law finally caught up with him, his FBI handler tipped him off and he high-tailed it. The film doesn't exactly shower glory on the FBI. We're used to the Feds being the bad guys in TV shows and movies, but this story is true!

     Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me is about the fabulous life and career of the title character, who entertained on Broadway, TV and film for over 70 years. Her body was ravaged by diabetes and various other illnesses, but her spirit was undaunted and she performed well into her 80s. Her performance as Alec Baldwin's hateful mother on 30 Rock is vintage Stritch. Mr. Baldwin and numerous other entertainers weigh in on their experiences with Ms. Stritch in an entertaining film about a show biz legend.

     All of the films in this article are available on DVD and for streaming. All are definitely for grown-ups. 

BALTIMORE

     In the midst of all the bad news from Baltimore, I got to thinking about all the good movies I've seen from that city. So why not an article about them?

     At a little over 600,000 it's only the 18th largest city. But Baltimore is the birthplace of Edgar Allen Poe, the home of the Orioles, the Inner Harbor and the best crab cakes in the whole world. It is also fortunate to be the beloved home of director Barry Levinson, who has turned out several good movies about his town.

     Barry Levinson's quartet of cinematic love letters to his city starts with Diner (1982), a coming-of-age story that is not only a delight, but the launching pad for lots of acting careers. Steve Gutenberg, Daniel Stern, Ellen Barkin, Mickey Rourke, Kevin Bacon and Paul Reiser are part of the then-unknown repertory company. The director's affection for the time and place is evident and contagious.

    Richard Dreyfuss and Danny DeVito literally run into each other on the streets of 1963 Baltimore in Tin Men (1987), a dark comedy about aluminum siding salesmen who might cut a corner or two. A little uneven, and the least successful of the four, it still has moments of humor well worth getting on board for.

     There really isn't a better immigrant film than the wonderful Avalon (1990), the third of Mr. Levinson's cinematic missives to his city.  The immigrants happen to be Jewish, but their story of making it in America applies across the board to all of us immigrants. At 126 minutes, it takes its time on small, interlocked and telling stories.

     The last (so far) Levinson-Baltimore film is Liberty Heights (1999), a story of a Baltimore neighborhood's reaction to the influx of African-Americans into an historically Jewish enclave. Adrien Brody, Joe Mantegna, Bebe Neuwirth and Orlando Jones are part of a fine cast.

     John Waters' hilarious Hairspray (1998) is a distinctly different take on the integration of Balitmore, this time through a teenage dance show. This film became a hugely successful Broadway musical, and then a movie musical in 2007.

     Ann Tyler is perhaps Baltimore's finest author, and two of her novels have become movies. The Accidental Tourist (1988) features William Hurt as a travel writer for business people who want only to avoid problems. His marriage to Kathleen Turner is disintegrating and he is being pursued by the pugnacious Geena Davis. You can find out how this turns out by watching it... Breathing Lessons (1994) is a made-for-TV (but quite good) movie. The book won the Pulitzer Prize. The movie stars James Garner and Joanne Woodward in a story about a woman who discovers her life hasn't quite turned out right. She is afflicted with telling everyone everything and trying to better the lives of strangers. Her husband is long-suffering but loving.
     Finally, I must mention The Wire (2002-2007), which ran for five years and to my mind is the best TV series ever made. 
     All of the movies in this article are available on DVD and for streaming. All are suitable for 12 and up except The Wire, which gets a little rough. 
     

IAN HOLM

     Ian Holm (83 and still working) is one of those character actors whose face you can't come up with- until you see him in a movie and think "Oh, yeah, that guy." A reader requested I write an article about him, and with over 135 acting credits, there is plenty to choose from, so here goes:

     Most recently you would find Ian Holm appearing in most of the Lord Of The Rings and Hobbit films. He also could be heard as the voice of Skinner, the head chef in the animated Ratatouille (2007).

     In Alien (1979) Holm is cast as Ash, a really bad guy who tries to scuttle the mission along with the human crew. Fortunately, though maybe not so much for him, he is decapitated and turns out to be an android!

     In Robin And Marian (1976) Holm is the hated King John, who hunted the noble Robin Hood like a dog and who was forced to sign the Magna Carta. Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn shine was the title characters, middle-aged lovers, still charming. 

     In Chariots Of Fire (1981) one of the two British runners who are the movie's heroes is Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross). In 1919 he breaks with tradition and hires a professional trainer. And that trainer is Sam Mussabini, played adeptly by Ian Holm. Later his protege makes headlines by refusing to compete on the Jewish sabbath.

     In Kenneth Branagh's marvelous adaptation of Shakespeare's Henry V (1989) Mr. Holm is Captain Fluellen,the right hand man of the fighting king. I think this version is only a half-step behind the 1944 Henry V with Sir Lawrence Olivier.

     Franco Zefferelli's splendid adaptation of Hamlet (1990) has Ian Holm as the foolish and doomed Polonious. He is surrounded by a stellar cast including Mel Gibson as the title character, Glenn Close, Alan Bates, Paul Scofield and Helena Bonham Carter. 

     Playing the part of a rather quackish physician is no problem at all for Ian Holm, and he is such as Dr. Willis in The Madness Of King George (1994). His idea for curing the king's craziness is to strap him into a tight vest whenever he goes off the tracks. Right...

     Ian Holm is the dastardly Pascal in Big Night (1996). Brothers Primo (Toy Shaloub) and Secondo (Stanley Tucci)are trying to succeed with a new Italian restaurant. Pascal tells them he will have a famous opera star appear there at a certain time, on the Big Night. I will just say that Pascal is a competitor and doesn't play fair.

     Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter (1997) involves a horrific school bus accident in which many children are killed. Many of the parents are recruited by attorney Michael Stevens to file a class action lawsuit. That lawyer is played by none other than Ian Holm, and this is one of his best roles. I will reveal no more!

     Joe Gould was a semi-famous gadfly in New York in the 1920's and after. He compiled an "oral history" of characters he encountered and many people were intrigued by this opus. One of them was Joseph Mitchell, who put together this story and this movie. Joe Gould's Secret (2000) is the result and Mr. Holm plays the title character. What is the secret? My lips are sealed!

     Ian Holm can also be seen as the somewhat evil Gideon Largeman in Garden State (2004) and as the quirky Professor Fitz in Martin Scorcese's The Aviator (2004).

     All of these movies are available on DVD and for streaming. All of them are adult films.