Cinema Retro
Entries from Friday, November 27. 2015
“SONGS OF HUMANITYâ€
By Raymond Benson
I’ll
bet many of you cinephiles out there have heard
of Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray’s acclaimed trilogy of films from the
1950s (Pather Panchali, aka
Song of the Little Road, 1955; Aparajito, aka The
Unvanquished, 1956; and Apur Sansar, aka The
World of Apu, 1959), but have
never actually seen them. Here is your chance to rectify that egregious error.
Quite simply put, anyone interested in film history needs to have this trio of
motion pictures under the belt.
Satyajit
Ray, who received an Honorary Oscar for Lifetime Achievement in 1992, began his
career as an illustrator of books. One of these was Pather Panchali, a classic of Bengali literature (1928) written by
Bibhutibushan Bandyopadhyay, and its sequel, Aparajito (1932). They comprise the story of the growth of a boy
from infancy to adulthood over the course of twenty-five years or so (from the
1910s to the 1930s), and how he rises from the extreme rural poverty of his
humble beginnings to becoming a writer and husband-then-father in the big city
of Calcutta (now called Kolkata).
These
two novels eventually became the basis for the trilogy of films Ray would make
between 1952 and 1959, when he kick-started his work in cinema. A lover of movies—especially
the Italian neo-realist works such as De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves (aka The
Bicycle Thief)—Ray founded a film society in Calcutta in 1947 and became an
assistant to Jean Renoir in 1949 when the French filmmaker was in India making
his seminal The River (1951). With
Renoir’s encouragement and inspiration, Ray set out to begin making his own
films. He chose Pather Panchali to be
his debut.
Because
of continual problems with funding, the picture took nearly four years to make,
and with an inexperienced crew to boot. Released to overwhelming critical praise
and numerous prizes, including the “Best Human Document†award at the Cannes Film
Festival, Song of the Little Road stands
as one of the greatest debuts of any filmmaker.
Arguably
the most striking of the three pictures, Song
presents in neo-realist style what it was really like to live in the rural jungle
of Bengal in the 1910s. Apu Roy is born the second child to very poor parents
who live in a crumbling ancestral home. Harihar, the father (Kanu Banerjee), is
something of a priest and writer, but he is always traveling, gone for months
at a time, and never brings home enough money. While he seems to be a nice man,
he is ineffectual as a husband and father. On the other hand, Apu’s mother,
Sarbajaya (brilliantly played by Karuna Banerjee, no relation to Kanu), is the
long-suffering, anxious, and stoic parent who provides for the children and
fends off criticism from neighbors. It could be said that Apu’s older sister, Durga
(played first as a younger child by Shampa “Runki†Banerjee, the real-life
daughter of Karuna Banerjee, and portrayed later as a young teen by the
wonderful Uma Das Gupta), is really the protagonist of the first film, and Ms.
Gupta is especially good in the role. And then there is “Auntie†(amazingly characterized
by 85-year-old Chunibala Devi, a veteran of Indian stage and silent films). The
woman is half-disabled, wrinkled, toothless, and cross-eyed—and despite being
addicted to opium during the shoot, her performance is quite remarkable. Apu
(Subir Banerjee, no relation to the others) is around 5 or 6 years old in this
picture and is mostly an observer of the hardships and tragedies that fall upon
his family.
The
picture is poetic, tender, and honest. Filmed by first-time cinematographer
Subrata Mitra, who went on to become Ray’s go-to DP, and scored by a young Ravi
Shankar (the sitar and bamboo flute music is fabulous!), Song of the
Little Road is a one-of-a-kind film that will move you in
unexpected ways.
When
the picture became a hit, Ray was encouraged to continue the story from the
novels and made The Unvanquished, in
which a slightly older Apu and his parents move out of the jungle to the holy
city of Benares (also known as Varanasi) on the Ganges. There, Harihar works as
a priest and Sarbajaya is still the strong one in the family—until tragedy
strikes again. Apu and his mother move back to the country, and there Apu
decides he wants to go to school and not be a priest like his father. It takes
money to attend school, so his mother does what she can to make it happen. An
older, teenage Apu then goes to Calcutta to attend college. Karuna Banerjee is
the focal point of this middle entry in the trilogy, and her performance is powerful
and heartbreaking. Apu is played by two different actors throughout the course
of the picture.
Finally, The World of Apu was made
after Ray took a break from the trilogy and made a couple of other films
in-between (e.g., the acclaimed The Music
Room, 1958). In the third
chapter, Apu (played by longtime Indian star Soumitra Chatterjee) is now in his
twenties and living alone in Calcutta. He is a loner, a dreamer, and an artist.
He is writing a novel in which he has little faith, he isn’t interested in
working, and he has no money. And yet he is somewhat happy with his “freedom.â€
Then, by happenstance, he is talked into an arranged marriage to a young girl,
Aparna (played by the beautiful Sharmila Tagore in her first film role—she went
on to become a star in Indian cinema), and Apu’s life is changed once again. The World of Apu is primarily a love
story, but it’s also about the assuming of responsibility for one’s actions.
It’s
too bad that there was never a fourth chapter in the story. It would have been
interesting to see what happened to Apu when he was in his forties or fifties.
Like Truffaut’s Adventures of Antoine
Doinel, which covers the life of a young man over the course of five films, The Apu Trilogy is a monumental epic—but an extremely personal and intimate one—that covers universal truths, emotions, and values recognizable
in any culture and language. It stands as one of the most heartfelt statements
on humanity ever put on celluloid.
The
Criterion Collection’s new boxed-set contains all three films, gorgeously and
meticulously restored in 4K digital, undertaken in collaboration with the
Academy Film Archive at the AMPAS and L’Immagine Ritrovata from existing prints
(the negatives were long ago destroyed in a fire). There are many supplements
on each of the three discs that include new interviews with Soumitra Chatterjee,
Sharmila Tagore, and Shampa Banerjee (now Shampa Srivastava), as well as with film
historian Gideon Bachmann, camera assistant Soumendu Roy, film writer Ujjal
Chakraborty, Ray biographer Andrew Robinson, and film historian Mamoun Hassan.
Vintage interviews include several with Ray, Ravi Shankar, members of the crew
and cast, and more. A handful of vintage documentaries are included, along with
footage from the 1992 Oscar ceremony, in which Ray received his honorary award
in a bed in a Calcutta hospital. The booklet features a selection of Ray’s
storyboards for Song of the Little Road,
as well as essays by critics Terrence Rafferty and Girish Shambu.
The Apu Trilogy on Blu-ray is a
landmark release from the Criterion Collection of milestones not only of
Bengali cinema, but of motion picture history. Check it out—you will find it a
profoundly rewarding experience.
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BY DANIEL D'ARPE
If there is one scene that sums up the
tone of Sergio Martino's Craving Desire, it is the climax. After her true nature is revealed, a deranged
Sonia (Vittoria Belvedere) begins to sensually strip down to nothing but her garter
and panties. While doing so, she uses the
heel of her stiletto to brutally attack Luigi (Ron Nummi), who is helpless
against the assault. Belvedere’s
performance here is many things: disturbing, terrifying, deranged; yet also
mildly erotic. Such are words that not only perfectly sum up the movie, but many
of the films produced in the giallo style of horror.
Filmed by legendary Italian low budget
director Sergio Martino, Craving Desire
was made in the 1990s, long past the golden age of the genre. Although more of an erotic horror/drama
hybrid than a pure giallo, it still contains enough hallmarks to somewhat
qualify as one. Overall, it is a truly
dark film that leaves viewers with a distinct sense of unease. For horror fans, this undercurrent of dread has
the potential to hook you up until the very final seconds.
The story of the film follows Luigi, a
man who seemingly has everything. He
lives in a beautiful apartment, has a gorgeous fiancée (even if she is a total
witch), and seems to have a fairly decent job. Yet it is clear that Luigi is simply unhappy in life. This all rapidly changes one day after a
funeral, when the beautiful Sonia shows up on his door step. They quickly jump
into bed and overnight Luigi’s existence becomes full of the excitement that he
so desperately craves. Yet as he
continues to spiral deeper and deeper into debauchery, his life begins to fray
before completely falling apart. Finally
hitting rock bottom, he tries to end things with Sonia, only to realize what a
true monster his lover is. He becomes
trapped in mortal peril, with no possible escape in sight. Thus, Luigi learns
the hard way an age old lesson: man should always be careful about what he
wishes for.
To start, credit must go where its due. Ron Nummi does his best with what’s given to
him, trying to make us like his character. Yet the truth is that Luigi comes across as a very flat, one dimensional
guy who has a knack for poor decision making. As the film progresses, it becomes clear that he simply is an idiot who
falls into a trap of his own construction. To sum up, he is too much of a dirty minded moron to really feel pity
for.
As that stands, the real focus of the
film goes to Nummi’s lovely costar Vittoria Belvedere, and understandably so. Her character is not developed any better than
Luigi, yet she still does quite the exceptional job regardless. Belvedere portrays Sonia as some type of succubus;
although there is something clearly off about her, she radiates a sexuality
that is both mystifying and alluring. She is like a praying mantis whose entire
existence consists of feeding off a victim’s lust. The thing is, no lover can ever satisfy her
completely, even after they torpedo their entire life for her: a disappointed
Sonia is unfortunately also a very deadly
Sonia. Belvedere, who was only in her
twenty’s at the time, proves that she has some real acting potential. Sadly, she is the only real bright spot in a
film that screams “mediocre†right from the get-go.
From a creative and technical
standpoint, Craving Desire isn’t a
very good film. At times, it struggles just to be watchable,
let alone enjoyable. For one thing, the production value leaves a lot to be
desired, with abrupt transitions between scenes and a music score so bad it
makes the soundtrack’s of adult films seem like platinum sellers. (One scene
sums all this up perfectly: early in the film a boom mike can clearly be said hovering
directly above an actor’s head. It’s
pretty difficult for any movie to recover from a start like that). While other films can rely on a decent plot
to cover up such shortcomings, Craving
Desire sadly has no such luck. Evidently,
Martino and his producers realized all this and decided to follow an age old tradition
that has helped visual media thrive for generations. Vis-a-vis: sex and nudity. Lots of it.
Ms. Belvedere’s figure (“assets†is a
more accurate term) is often used in an attempt to distract viewers from the film’s
numerous flaws. (One memorable scene involves Belvedere and a female club goer
involved in a very “breezy†sequence that probably melted some of the cameras
on set). Although it’s unlikely that
many (male) viewers complained about such obvious gimmickry, it sadly makes the
movie devolve into pure T&A at times. In fact, it’s not really unfair to claim that most of the movie simply lurches
from one T&A moment to the next before it ultimately culminates in a rather
gruesome fashion. Hence, the results are
anything but impressive.
To further add to the list of negatives,
much of the content in Craving Desire
will shock and/or upset many viewers. Foremost on the list is that the fact that Sonia and Luigi, the film’s
lustful lovers, are cousins, or at least have been raised as such. Such gross revelations aside (there’s an even
worse one at the end), the violence can get shockingly brutal. The aforementioned heel scene is a prime
example of this, becoming very uncomfortable to sit through. As such, it’s strongly recommended that one check
out the movie’s content beforehand if they plan to watch it.
Craving
Desire was released by Mya Communication, the
notorious label that quickly squandered away its promise by releasing horrible
quality films ripped straight from old VHS. Thankfully, Craving Desire is
not such a feature. The audio is respectable
while the video quality, while not Blu-Ray, is still quite crisp. The special features are, well,
nonexistent. The DVD simply comes with a
language selection (English/Italian) and chapter viewer (which at only six, seems
a bit insufficient). There are no
subtitles, so whichever language one chooses (Nummi speaks English while
Belvedere only talks in Italian) some characters are going to get dubbed. Thankfully, the dubbing is, for the most part,
fairly well done and not too noticeable.
All in all, the film was not this
reviewer’s cup of tea. So why the
recommendation? Although falling short,
the movie does represent something that makes it special. It’s bad but different; a quality often
lacking these days. After all, horror (like
many Hollywood genres) has been recycling content for some time now, making the
genre grow somewhat stale of late. In today’s film market, originality is a
characteristic that is getting harder and harder to come by. Even when something novel does come along, it
is often rehashed so rapidly that within a year we have an entire trilogy, if
not franchise, of diminishing returns. All in all, it is not a pretty picture.
In a nutshell, Craving Desire is a movie that hints at a better place for horror
fans, pointing to a sub-genre that was sadly never really noticed in the United
States. Although giallos are the
forbearers of the American slasher film, they are also so much more. With a focus on eroticism and paranoia, they
are films that truly focus on the psychological aspect of fear. While it is true that their heyday has long
past, occasional films continue to be made today, often with respectable
success.
At the very least, Craving Desire can be viewed as a kinky date movie for Halloween. But
even more so, the film can be regarded as the doorman to the giallo genre. If one can sit through the movie, and
actually enjoy it, then they might want to consider giving other (and better
made) giallos a chance. Odds are they
are the missing link that your horror collection has been waiting for.
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By
Eddy Friedfeld
If
you’re above a certain age, Sylvester Stallone is more than an icon, he is an
inspiration. The real-life backstory of Rocky is just as mesmerizing as the
film itself, as a struggling actor refused to sell his script unless he was
able to star as The Italian Stallion. The rest of his history is also ours.
Strolling
through the private preview in Manhattan was a tour through my own
recollections, as well as Stallone’s filmography. Over 750 props, costumes and personal items
will be offered. Boxing gloves, trunks,
robes, and the original handwritten script are up for sale, as well as the ball
Rocky plays with as he walked through the streets of Philadelphia.
Rambo’s
field jacket, machete and Bowie knife, as well as a set of costumes, prop
armour and gun from Judge Dredd are on the block. You
can also buy pieces ranging from Freddy Heflin’s bloodstained peace officer
uniform from Copland, to Stanley Rosiello’s gang jacket from The Lords of
Flatbush, to Angelo “Snaps†Provolone’s three piece suit from Oscar.
Also
up is Deke DaSilva’s flight suit from one of my all-time favorites, 1981’s
Nighthawks, where Stallone and Billy Dee Williams play undercover New York City
Detectives tasked to the Federal government to fight terrorist Wulfgar (Rutger
Hauer in his first American starring role) long before 9/11, with a great tense
climactic scene atop New York’s Roosevelt Island Tramway.
The
auction will be held in Los Angeles on December 18-20. Visit HA.com/Stallone, or call 866-825-3243866-825-3243 FREE
for more information.
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