Movie #142 Nights of Cabiria *1957*

Reason 1.  The most expressive female face I have ever seen, Giulietta Masina.

Reason 2. Frederico Fellini.

Reason 3. I hated the end of this movie.  I fell in love with Cabiria and wanted to take care of her.

Rating: ★★★★1/2

Movie #59 The Black Swan

Haters gotta hate.

This review is for Darren Aronofsky' s newest film Black Swan.  Why did I start this blog out that way?  Because it seems to me that all the artsy film snobs went into this film looking for one thing and found something entirely different.  They wanted to see a better ballet movie, or they wanted to see more of a thriller or something totally different.  Perhaps the critics wanted to see something closer to Aronofsky's last film The Wrestler.  Both of these films share a hand-held aesthetic that make them comparable and decent companion pieces. 

What the critics did see was a brilliant performance from Natalie Portman that I think makes her a front runner for Best Actress at this years Oscars.  Portraying Nina Sayers Portman brings a delicate, uneasy, insecurity to her performance.  Her metamorphosis in this film is long and grueling.  Portman manages to convey both her physical and emotional deterioration in a way that is sympathetic and empathetic.  Most critics will agree with that.

She is aided by a stellar cast including Mila Kunis as the up and coming free spirit that play a foil to the perfectionist of Sayers (that is if she is even a real person and not just a figment of Nina's imagination).  Also Vincent Cassell as her fascist and predatory director.  Another great performance comes from Barbra Hershey.  She is Sayers obsessive and resentful stage mother.  She is in total vamp mode.  She has the acting knob turned up to 11 and I loved every insane moment!  The critics are ripping Cassell to bits and I think it is unfair.  This is melodrama and Cassell is filling his part perfectly.  He sets the bar so high for Nina all the while beating her down.  If this were any cheesier I would have expected Rock Hudson's ghost to to have a role.

The quick story is of a ballet company putting on Swan Lake.  The director needs a dancer that can play both the white swan and its beauty and the black swan with all its sultryness.  Nina has the white down perfect, but lacks the confidence and freedom to preform for the black swan.  Along her journey she begins to show signs of an illness that may actually be transforming her into an actual swan. 

Along with melodrama this film is a physiological thriller.    And it had me white knuckling my seat on many occasions.  Does Black Swan have faults?  Yes.  The script is a little weak and Aronofsky attempts to fill in the void with some of his visual flair.  Most of the time it works flawlessly.  When it doesn't, it only draws attention the the times it did.  Wynona Ryder is completely wasted in her small role as the "past her prime" dancer that was once a favorite by Cassell and has now been replaced by Nina.

Black Swan is an extreme film that puts it all out there.  I think that is very brave to have such a bold presentation of such a small personal story.  It falters along the way, but those moments are few and far apart.  I give Black Swan a 4.5/5 stars.  Check out the Trailer Park to see for yourself.

Movie #56 Singin in the Rain

There seems to be a natural aversion built into the human psyche to anything that your parents thought was cool.  That is what I am blaming my stubbornness when it comes to seeing classic movies from the 50's.  It is either that or a feeling that these movies have been built up too much.  Movies like Singin in the Rain, Vertigo, On the Waterfront and Some Like it Hot are all movies that I waited far too long to watch.  I think a good deal of it has to do with not wanting to be let down.  I am glad to say that in none of those cases was I ever let and with many of them my expectations were far surpassed.  Singin in the Rain was one of those films.

If you are unaware of the plot for Singin, it goes like this:
Set in Hollywood in the late 20's, right on the preface of the introduction of movies with sound and vocals (talkies) Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont (played perfectly by Gene Kelly and Jean Hagen) are silent movie stars at the height of their popularity.  There is only one problem, movies are adding soundtracks and Lina has the voice of a castrated Jersey chihuahua.  Don on the other hand is a wonderful singer and dancer.  Don, who solely for publicity purposes, is alleged to be romantically involved with Lina has meet a woman he quickly falls in love with.  Debbie Reynolds plays the love interest (Kathy Seldon).  Kathy has a beautiful / young face and singing voice to match.  The plan is to have the unknown Kathy dub over superstar Lina's voice.  Hy-jinx ensue. 

Singin is rightful considered one of the best movies about the movies.  There are so many great things to talk about in this movie.  First off would be the singing and dancing by all parties.  Donald O'Connor play Cosmo Brown, Don's best friend and sidekick.  He is amazing to watch.  His dance move rivals and I would say sometime surpasses Gene Kelly's.  Next is the acting.  There is a realization from the page to the screen that you rarely see now a days.  I felt like the script had came to life.  It is silly and touching.  It is a romantic comedy before that became a dirty word. 

One of the things that I never realized was how many of the songs from this movie are in my common knowledge.  Obviously there is the title song, Singin in the Rain.  I think most people would recognize the song and scene even out of context.  Then there is Make 'em Laugh, Good Morning, Fit as a Fiddle and You were Meant for Me.  It was fun to see the root of all of these songs I have been singing most of my life and never knew where they came from.

Another thing that I found interesting was the way the Hollywood was dealing with the introduction of sound into their pictures.  It reminded me a great deal of how Hollywood of today is coping with the introduction of the new 3-D technology.  Example: In Singin, it appears that every studio is running around like crazy trying to adapt this new technology to their current productions.  Don and Lina were filming a silent swashbuckling movie called The Dueling Caviler when The Jazz Singer premiered.  The studio then insisted that the sword fighting film be a talkie.  Remind you of anything?  Maybe Avatar blowing the roof off the box office and Hollywood scrambling to post-convert all their films to 3-D?

I want to mention the sets and costumes.  Really the entire production staging.  The directors Stanly Donen and Gene Kelly himself must have been well versed in traditional studio settings.  Singin has both homages to those silent pictures as well as using some of the same techniques of capturing a mood or location all while being shot entirely on the lot.  Some of the sets and action-esque sequences were stunning.

You really can't talk this movie up too much.  Which is a little ironic that I didn't see this films sooner because I was afraid that it wouldn't live up to it's hype and here I am saying that it is underrated.  It is pretty obvious that I loved this film.  i now consider it to be among the greatest American movies of all time.  It gets a 5/5stars from me.  I will link the Singin in the Rain dance sequence in the Trailer Park.