Showing posts with label Foreign Film. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Foreign Film. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 24, 2023

El vampiro negro (1953)

 



Despite the title, there are no vampires in this movie. It's not even horror. Instead, El vampiro negro/The Black Vampire (1953) is a brilliant Argentine film noir adaptation of Fritz Lang's M (1931). It takes the original story of a whistling serial killer who roams the streets looking for young girls to kill and adds some new characters—most notably some interesting female characters—and transports the viewer to 1950s Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Directed by Román Viñoly Barreto, El vampiro negro stars Olga Zubarry as Amalia, a beautiful cabaret singer and single mom who works hard to keep her daughter in boarding school. One night Amalia witnesses a mysterious man dump the body of a young girl. The man in question is Teodoro (Nathán Pinzón)—an English professor by day and a deranged serial killer by night. Teodoro feels isolated by society and has never had a relationship with a woman.. He pays Amalia's friend Cora (Nelly Panizza) for the opportunity to visit her without any sort of sexual touch. In return, Cora takes his money and humiliates him for her own enjoyment. Teodoro takes out his sexual frustrations by stalking for new prey. It's suggested that he's only attracted to adult women and that he seeks out young girls solely because they're easy prey to kill. 

The other prominent male figure in the story, Dr. Bernard (Roberto Escalada), is investigating the case of the serial killer dubbed "the black vampire." Bernard seeks out Amalia for information about what she saw that fateful night. Dr. Bernard and Teodoro are not very different from each other. Like Teodoro, Dr. Bernard is sexually frustrated and while devoted to his invalid wife he seeks an affair with Amalia who rejects him. Both men channel their frustrations on either side of the law. As Teodoro continues to kill, the community is both terrorized and brought to action to capture "the black vampire."

El vampiro negro/The Black Vampire (1953) is a thrilling film noir. It comes out of the golden age of Argentine cinema and is clearly influenced not only by early German cinema but also American film noir. The story is told in one long flashback sequence and employs many other film noir elements including its use of light and shadow, most notably in the sequences where the killer is being chased through the sewers. The film explores themes of isolation and humiliation as well as social responsibility and the importance of community. While it has the same framework as M (1931), it's a loose adaptation with plenty of new elements that make it seem more like an original story. 

Olga Zubarry really carries the movie as the story's main protagonist. While her performance was at times a bit over the top, Zubarry's character Amalia is the emotional core of the film and she adeptly guides us through the story and always keeps us aware of what is truly at stake. I was most captivated by Nathán Pinzón who is a dead ringer for Peter Lorre who was in the original film. He has the same wide set eyes and a countenance that expresses sadness with a hint of danger. According to film historian Fernando Martin Peña, Pinzón was a great admired Lorre and modeled his own acting style after him.




El vampiro negro (1953) is available in a beautiful Blu-ray and DVD deluxe set from Flicker Alley. The film was rediscovered and restored by the Film Noir Foundation and the UCLA Film and Television Archive. They were also responsible for bringing to light another wonderful Argentine film noir

Los Tallos Amargos/The Bitter Stems (1956) which I highly reommend you watch if you haven't already.

The Flicker Alley set includes the restored version of El vampiro negro on two discs as well as a booklet and reversible cover. The extras include an introduction by Eddie Muller, a documentary about the three adaptations of M, an interview with director Román Viñoly Barreto's son Daniel Viñoly, an essay by Imogen Sara Smith as well as audio commentary by Fernando Martin Peña. For those Spanish speakers out there, the discs also include Spanish subtitles. I always prefer to watch Spanish movies with Spanish subtitles so I really appreciated having this option!



El vampiro negro (1953) is available wherever Flicker Alley discs are sold.

Amazon — Barnes and Noble — Deep Discount — Flicker Alley


Thank you to Flicker Alley for sending me a copy of El vampiro negro for review.


Watch me discuss this film and more on the latest episode of my Classic Movie Roundup on YouTube.


Monday, May 8, 2023

Sambizanga (1972): Luso World Cinema Blogathon 2023


"On February 4th, 1961, a group of militants set out from Sambizanga, a working-class district in Luanda, intending to storm the capital's prison. At the same time, they gave the signal for the armed struggle for national independence that has engulfed Angola ever since. But for years before that day, thousands of fighters in the villages and towns had braved the police's reign of terror, patiently paving the way for insurrection and organizing a clandestine network of political movements. And so, on a work site in the midst of the Angolan bush, we find a certain Domingos Xavier..."


These words begin Sambizanga (1972), director Sarah Maldoror's poignant story about Angola's battle to gain independence from Portugal. The film stars Domingos de Oliveira as Domingos Xavier, a construction worker who lives in Sambizanga, a working-class community on the outskirts of Luanda, the capital city of Angola. Suspected of being member of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola or MPLA), Domingos is arrested by Portuguese officials. His devoted wife Maria (Elisa Andrade) goes on a quest to discover what happened to Domingos and find out where he's imprisoned. Her journey gives the viewer an opportunity to explore the landscape and culture of Sambizanga and Luanda. Domingos' story gives us an insight on Angola's severe income and racial inequalities and just what was at stake for Angolans in their rebellion against the Portuguese.

"The rich give in a way that keeps the poor poor and give work to keep the rich rich. If there were no rich, there'd be no poor.... It's the labor of the poor that earns money for the rich and makes the rich richer. But the poor? Always in the same fix."

Sambizanga was based on José Luandino Vieira novel The Real Life of Domingos Xavier published in 1961. The screenplay was a collaboration between novelist Maurice Pons, French director Sarah Maldoror and her husband Mario Pinto de Andrade, an Angolan native and the founder of the MPLA. The film was produced and released during the final years of the Angolan War of Independence and the actors were mostly non-professionals and members of the MPLA. Sambizanga is considered the first feature film (non-documentary) produced by a Portuguese speaking country in Africa. 

If you're looking to expand your horizons with international films especially ones made by female filmmakers, make sure you check out Sambizanga. It's currently streaming on the Criterion Channel and it's part of Criterion's boxed set Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project Vol. 4. The edition they have was restored by The Film Foundation's World Cinema Project in collaboration with Cineteca di Bologna. Sambizanga offers a straightforward story of familial strife and incarceration as a platform to further explore the nuances of inequality, Angolan pride and a pivotal moment in the country's recent history. Storywise, it's quite reminiscent of the American film Sounder (1972), released the same year which also tells the story of a wife (Rebecca played by Cicely Tyson) in search of where her husband (Nathan played by Paul Winfield) has been incarcerated. The two films would make a great double-bill and if you're reluctant about trying out Sambizanga use Sounder as a jumping off point.




This review of Sambizanga (1972) is my entry into the 2023 Luso World Cinema Blogathon hosted by Spellbound with Beth Ann and Crítica Retrô. I've had an interest in participating in this blogathon for a while because I'm half-Portuguese and Portuguese is one of three languages I'm fluent in. Furthermore, one of my half-sisters lived in Angola for sometime and I had an Angolan pen pal growing up. I picked Sambizanga because of my personal interest in Angola, the Portuguese language and African cinema. For anyone interested in the Portuguese language, Sambizanga is mostly in Portuguese (Lingala and Kimbundu are also spoken) and the dialogue is quite easy to follow which makes it perfect for language learning or improving fluency.




Friday, July 29, 2022

Armageddon (1977)

 After the sudden death of his younger brother, repairman Louis Carrier (Jean Yanne) acquires a large inheritance and he sees an opportunity to make something of his life. Louis has always lived in obscurity and poverty. With his new found wealth, he concocts a plan. He wants the celebrity that comes with being an international criminal. Louis recruits his buddy Einstein (Renato Salvatori) to be his sidekick. Einstein, who wants to help his friend but isn't fully aware of the gravity of the situation, learns photography skills in order to be Louis' personal paparazzi. Einstein photographs Louis in public settings alongside well-known figures. These photos are printed, packaged with threatening letters and recordings, and sent to officials under the pen name 'Armaguedon.' Louis is threatening to commit mass murder and begins practicing on people whom he thinks are either disposable or a threat. Dr. Michel Ambrose (Alain Delon), a psychiatrist skilled at working with exceptionally difficult mental health cases, is hired to analyze Armaguedon's words and actions, track down his real identity and help the authorities find Louis before he poses a real threat to the public.

Armageddon/Armaguedon (1977) is a heavy-handed crime thriller that tries to do too much with an ultimately flimsy plot. All of the action comes at the expense of any real character development. I'm reluctant to call this a psychological thriller because even though one of the protagonists is an actual psychiatrist, there is very little conveyed to the audience about Louis' psychosis. We learn more about Dr. Ambrose' techniques but very little about him as a psychiatrist or even as a person. There is one scene where we see him with his wife and two children. Later in the film, he and inspector Jacques Vivien (Michel Duchaussoy) are seen in bed with prostitutes. No context is given. They're just expected to cheat on their wives because they're professionals who work high stress jobs and need to unwind? In general the female characters are depicted as sex objects or they're just a pawn to move the plot forward. The way the gay characters are depicted is even worse. Overall, there is no complexity or nuance with any of the characters other than some with Louis and his buddy Einstein. 

The performances are a bit of a mixed bag. Delon seems to be sleepwalking through his performance. Jeanne Yanne, on the other hand, does an excellent job conveying Louis' increasing mania and downward spiral.

The movie was directed by Alain Jessua and produced by Alain Delon. They both worked on the script, adapting David Lippincott's novel The Voice of Armageddon to screen. From what I've gathered, Jessua and Delon butted heads. According to unit manager Alain Depardieu (Gerard's brother), Delon didn't even want to breathe the same air as Jessua. This must have made for a lot of tension on set and could explain why the end result was a mess of a movie. This was Delon and Jessua's second collaboration, Traitement de choc (1973) being the first. Delon hired Astor Piazzolla to compose the film's score. French is the movie's main language but Italian, English and German are also spoken. Armageddon/Armaguedon did well at the French box office. It doesn't seem to have gotten a US release.

Armageddon/Armaguedon (1977) is worth watching if you're an admirer of Alain Delon or you're looking for a movie about the psychology behind mass murderers. Otherwise, this weird, macabre and ultimately empty thriller is one you may want to skip.





Armageddon/Armaguedon (1977) is available on DVD and Blu-ray from Kino Lorber. The Blu-ray edition comes with subtitles, trailers and audio commentary by film historians Howard S. Berger, Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson.

Tuesday, April 14, 2020

Olivia (1950) on OVID




Directed by Jacqueline Audry, Olivia (1950) is a little-known French drama about an English student who, while attending a French finishing school, falls in love with her headmistress. The film is based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Dorothy Bussy and stars Marie-Claire Olivia as the title character. The young English teen struggled to fit in at her previous school and finds the new school more welcoming. The girls at the new school are separated into two cliques: one clique favors Mademoiselle Julie (Edwige Feuillere) and the other favors Mademoiselle Cara (Simone Simon). Mademoiselle Julie is a competent headmistress. However Mademoiselle Cara is volatile, emotionally manipulative and suffers from a mysterious ailment that may be a figment of her imagination. When Mademoiselle Julie whisks Olivia away for a private field trip to Paris, Olivia's feelings for her headmistress deepen. Back at the finishing school, tensions arise. Secrecy, jealousy, tragedy. What will become of Mademoiselle Julie and Olivia?

Olivia (1950) is a rare gem. A lesbian drama directed by a woman is not unusual to find these days but back in 1950 it was virtually unheard of. Olivia is not the best film. It's overblown and a bit convoluted. Simone Simon is in her element as the temperamental and pouty Mademoiselle Cara. Feuillere and Olivia are  dutifully restrained in their performances. But if you've seen such films as Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019), which is a masterpiece in its own right (you can read my review here), and want to watch an equivalent from a different era, Olivia is a good companion film. I had never heard of this film before discovering it on OVID.tv, a newer streaming service that I've been having a great time exploring. Olivia was recently restored and is currently distributed through Icarus Films. I highly recommend you seek out this rarity if you get a chance.




OVID streams a variety of independent and foreign films. Visit OVID.tv for more information about their offerings.

Tuesday, June 4, 2019

Kate Gabrielle on Francois Truffaut



Over on my YouTube channel I posted an interview video with Kate Gabrielle. I met up with Kate in New York City and we sat down to discuss her favorite film director Francois Truffaut. I love how this conversation turned out and Kate had lots of great insights and fun stories to share. If you're a fan of Truffaut films make sure you watch the video! And if you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, please do so! There's lots of great content coming in the future.




If you enjoyed the video, please consider making a contribution to my new Ko-Fi goal. All of the details are on my page. Thanks!

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Monday, July 23, 2018

Cinema Shame: Le samouraï (1967)




When I was curating my Cinema Shame list for 2018, I looked to FilmStruck for some inspiration. Le samouraï (1967) is a staple on FilmStruck's Criterion Channel and one of the first films I noticed on the service when I signed up as a beta user. I wasn’t familiar with director Jean-Pierre Melville’s work and hadn’t seen many Alain Delon films. For me that’s good enough a reason to dive in because I love exploring unfamiliar territory. In addition to that, my love of French cinema and the influence of my friend Kate Gabrielle, who is a big Alain Delon fan, helped put Le samouraï on my FilmStruck watchlist.

Le samouraï stars Alain Delon as Jef Costello, a professional hitman hired to kill the owner of a jazz club. He goes through an elaborate ritual in preparation for the kill: he dresses up in his signature trench coat, with popped collar, hat and white gloves, he establishes an alibi with his girlfriend Jane (Nathalie Delon) and he steals a car. The hit goes according to plan until it doesn’t. The club’s pianiste (Cathy Rosier) becomes a witness to the murder. Jef is put in a police line up and is suspected of being the killer by Le Commissaire (Francois Perier). This puts his bosses, which include some of the club’s staff, in a precarious situation. They decide that they must get rid of Jef to protect themselves. Jef goes from killer for hire to target.

Jean-Pierre Melville was heavily influenced by American Film Noir and it shows in Le samouraï. This French neo-noir thriller is atmospheric and strikingly visual. I love how the film plays with light and shadow. Alain Delon is a perfect fit for Jef, the cold, detached and methodical protagonist. Delon brings a mystique to the character that makes Jef one cool mofo. Delon is a work of art in motion. I love how beautifully he’s positioned in the different scenes. With his amazing blue eyes are piercing through the screen, Delon is someone you just want to keep looking at. Yes there are other actors in this movie but they all seem to serve as pawns to tell Jef’s story.


Alain Delon in Le samouraï

Alain Delon in Le samouraï

Alain Delon in Le samouraï

Alain Delon in Le samouraï

Alain Delon in Le samouraï


Alain Delon in Le samouraï


And his story is brilliantly told. The first 10 minutes are without any dialogue. We watch Jef go through the motions of his pre-kill ritual. Just watching him we learn about what kind of man he is but also we’re held at a distance. In one of the early, it’s a rainy day, Jef has just stolen a car and a beautiful young woman looks over at him while they sit in traffic. He acknowledges her presence but makes it clearn he has no interest in pursuing any form of interaction with her. As the audience we have the same dynamic with him. In Jef’s apartment is a bullfinch in a cage. I like to think the bird represents Jef’s fear of being trapped. He’ll do anything to be free and stay free. At any cost.

I fell for Le samouraï hook, line and sinker. I’m here for more Melville, more Delon and more French neo-noir. It was by happenstance that I watched Robert Wise's film noir thriller Odds Against Tomorrow (1959) immediately after watching Le samouraï . I found out later that Melville adored that film, kept his own 35mm copy, and watched it over 80 times. A review of that film is coming soon!

Le samouraï is available to watch on FilmStruck's Criterion Channel. There is no expiration date so this one is not going anywhere anytime soon.



Le samouraï (1967) is the fourth of eight films that I am watching for the 2018 Cinema Shame challenge. Check out my original list and stay tuned for more reviews!
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Monday, April 24, 2017

Panique (1946) with Pierre Simenon at #TCMFF

Pierre Simenon and Bruce Golstein at the 2017 TCM Classic Film Festival
Pierre Simenon and Bruce Golstein at TCMFF

Based on Georges Simenon's novel Les Fiançailles de M. Hire, Panique (1946) is a thrilling French Noir directed by the great Julien Duvivier. This rarely seen film was screened at this year's TCM Classic Film Festival . Last year I had attended the screening of the Argentine Noir Los Tallos Amargos (1956) and followed it up this year with an equally dark film. One could say that Panique, like Los Tallos Amargos, puts the Noir in Film Noir.

Panique stars Michel Simon as Monsieur Hire, a lonely voyeur. When murder of a local woman rocks a small town community, Hire has a hunch who did it. He tries to warn Alice (Viviane Romance) about her boyfriend Alfred (Paul Bernard) whom he suspects as the killer. Hire doesn't know that Alfred has already confessed the crime to Alice and fully intends to get away with it. Smitten with her beau, she battles internal conflicts then decides to lure Hire into a trap. The film is relentlessly dark with an ending that is an emotional punch to the gut.

Rialto teamed up with TCM to host a rare screening of Panique, kicking off a tour of the newly restored print. Rialto's Bruce Goldstein was on hand to interview special guest Pierre Simenon, the youngest son of Georges Simenon. Goldstein made it a point that although the novel is in French, Simenon was Belgian. He went on to give the following intro to elder Simenon:

"Simenon is best known for his 75 novels and 28 short stories featuring detective Jules Maigret. But he wrote nearly five times as many books making him a towering figure in French language literature. Simenon was the most translated French language author of the 20th century. And the 17th most translated author of all time according to UNESCO. He died in 1989 at the age of 86."

Both Goldstein and Pierre Simenon shared some interesting facts about Georges Simenon's writing career. He was the most prolific French-language Belgian author of the 20th century. 70 film adaptations and 350 TV adaptations have been made from his novels. Estimates say that Simenon's books have sold 750 million copies, in 55 languages across 44 countries. He wrote his first book at the age of 16 and the last at age 80. It would only take him 7 days to finish one novel.

Georges Simenon
Georges Simenon


Simenon had a love-hate relationship with the movies, with an emphasis on hate. As Pierre Simenon explains, "at the time he was a young writer. [He said,] 'I'm going to write the screenplay, I'm going to give my insight.' He was full of ideas. But of course as we know in Hollywood that's the last thing a producer wants. He wants to do it his own way. So the results were mixed."

The early adaptations included Jean Tarride's The Yellow Dog (1932), Night at the Crossroads (1932) and La tête d'un homme (1933) directed by Julien Duvivier who was also the director for Panique. Pierre Simenon explained, "my father was not happy with the industry. He quickly discovered that there was a lot of meddlers in the project. When you're a writer, you are just alone with the page. When you dabble in movies, there are hundreds of people with something to say and my dad didn't like that."

At one point Simenon refused to sell film rights to his books and this embargo lasted six years. Pierre Simenon joked that his father was as prolific a writer as we was a spender. There were two things Simenon wanted: money and artistic control. During the 1930s, authors made quite a bit of money with newspaper serializations. Sometimes these papers would trim the novels so sections would fit perfectly on the last page. In essence they were editing down the book; something Simenon despised. He knew there was a lot of money to be made in film and he picked the lesser of two evils by abandoning serialization altogether.

Georges Simenon with son Pierre
Georges Simenon with son Pierre, circa 1980. Photo source: Film Forum

Simenon struck up friendships with many key film industry figures including Jean Renoir, Charlie Chaplin, Frederico Fellini and others. Pierre Simenon shared a potentially apocryphal story of when the great Alfred Hitchcock called up his father. The secretary told Hitchcock that Simenon was too busy to come to the phone because he had just started a new novel. Hitchcock's reply, "It's okay, I'll wait."

Then there was the time Georges Simenon was the president of the Cannes Film Festival jury. His buddy author Henry Miller was on the jury and according to Pierre Simenon pleaded with Georges, "I'm here to see you, to see friends, to see the ladies and to drink a lot. Just tell me who you want me to vote for." Frederico Fellini's La Dolce Vita was up against a lot of other amazing films including L'Avventura which was the favorite to win the Palme D'or. Simenon lobbied for La Dolce Vita and it won. According to Pierre, his father was met with many boos and whistles in opposition. Pierre Simenon reflected, "[my father] was trashed by the critics and he became friends with Fellini. And if you watch the movie now it hasn't aged a bit. It's a masterpiece." Simenon had a life long friendship with Jean Renoir and Pierre remembers sitting on Charlie Chaplin's lap. At this point in the conversation, Bruce Goldstein points out that Norman Lloyd, who worked with both Renoir and Chaplin, was in the audience.  Lloyd stood up for his usual standing ovation. I was so glad to see him again!

Panique (1946)


Goldstein called Panique one of the best adaptations of a Simenon novel and asked Pierre if his father ever saw it. Pierre's response, "nobody knows. And if he did nobody knows if he liked it or not." Panique opened on Thanksgiving day 1947 at the Rialto theatre in New York. According to Goldstein, it got rave reviews in the states but got trashed by French critics. Pierre Simenon noted that in post-WWII Europe, many artists were under serious scrutiny. You were either seen as a collaborator with the Nazis or if you fled you were considered a coward. There was some push back against both stars Michel Simon and Viviane Romance. I'm not sure if Pierre meant it was because of their possible connections to the Nazi regime or not.

The original novel, translated into English as Monsieur Hire's Engagement, is very different from the film. Pierre Simenon explained that in the book there is a lack of intense action and that the lead character was very ambiguous. His voyeuristic tendencies were more pathological. Duvivier and screenwriter Charles Spaak added "social commentary about mob justice and prejudice" according to Pierre. The book was published in 1933 but the film adaptation speaks more to the post-WWII era.

Rialto continues it's nation-wide tour of Panique starting next month. Check out the full schedule here. I hope a North American Blu-Ray/DVD release is in store for this title so a wider audience can have the pleasure of seeing the film.

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