Mado

1976 Director Claude Sautet

In a corrupt, ruthless, dog-eat-dog world, are the bonds of friendship and loyalty more important and reliable than the fleeting connections of passion and romantic/erotic love? That is the rhetorical question posed in Claude Sautet's Mado, a clear-eyed, sombre, yet surprisingly sweet drama masquerading as a sort of noirish thriller.

The film recounts the misfortunes of Simon Léotard and his unique relationship with Mado, a prostitute whose services he avails himself of, who also acts as his buddy, moral conscience, and advisor in difficult times. Simon is a real estate developer whose business partner has committed suicide after having irretrievably indebted them to Lépidon, a corrupt competitor who means to undermine their enterprise by any means necessary. A toughened, world-weary old hand at the vicious games of the business world, Simon finds himself in real need of Mado and her loose group of idealistic, unemployed or wage-slaving acquaintances who can offer him ideas, knowledge, and aid as he manoeuvres to save his business and turn the tables on Lépidon.

 

Sautet is remarkably successful at smoothly shifting our attention away from the obligatory material aspirations and dealings of his characters and toward their human feelings, the responsibility they feel for one another. He ends the film not with any resolution or reassurance that our dreams and ambitions can work out, but with a gentle, empathetic sense of half-hopeful resignation. The characters cannot even come close to doing all they would really like to, for themselves or each other; but despite that disappointment, they will do what they can, and there is some small, unspoken glory in that.

Valerie and Her Week of Wonders

1970 Director Jaromil Jires

Take Ingmar Berman's Seventh Veil mix it with Fellini's Amacord and have Andy Warhol direct it and you get this curious Czechoslovakian time piece. Although it contains much that is surreal it is not a surrealist film. It contains much that is gothic yet it is not a horror film. It contains much that is allegorical yet is not an allegory.

It charts the early passage of a girl from pre-pubescence to womanhood from her first period through a series of dreams and visions and her interpretations of others. Since Valerie is in shot the whole time, the film is definitely purely subjective and this would account for characters having multiple roles and incarnations. The motivation is overtly sexual in nature without becoming explicit, while her reactions are almost ambivalent.

Bearing in mind that this was produced in the early days of a communist regime it is a bold and intriguing film. There is much that irritates; some very stilted if not stiff acting, some very obvious continuity breaks, some very poor choreography. Yet there is a certain naive charm and fascination that comes some days after watching it. I think it is a small lost gem. There has certainly never been anything like it since.

Woyzeck

1979 Director Werner Herzog

This film is based on the haunting stage play by Georg Buchner. Klaus Kinski delivers a wild and stunning performance in a role only he could play.  Werner Herzog helmed this cinematization of an anti-military tale of depersonalisation run amok. Utilising the more grotesque elements of German expressionism, combined with his own sense of the outrageous, Herzog plunges us directly into the middle of his story of a soldier who is conditioned to be an unthinking machine. His one vestige of humanity is his love for the beautiful wife, but even this is corrupted.

Franz Woyzeck is a hapless, hopeless soldier, alone and powerless in society, assaulted from all sides by forces he cannot control.  Abused both physically and psychologically by commanding officers, doctors and his unfaithful wife, Woyzeck struggles to hold on to his humanity and his fragile sanity.  In the film's shattering climax, he is finally driven over the brink into madness and murder.

Filmed in the stunningly atmospheric town of Telc, in the Czech republic, its 16th century architecture makes for a visual feast of a backdrop for this rather depressing tale. Kinski's manic energy carries the film and although the ending is at odds with the rest it is still a good example of Herzog at the peak of his career.

Trafic

1971 Director Jacques Tati

This was Jacques Tati’s last foray in to the chaotic world of his hapless alter ego Hulot and also his penultimate film.

The bumbling Monsieur Hulot, outfitted as always with tan raincoat, beaten brown hat, and umbrella, takes to Paris’ highways and byways. For this, his final outing, Hulot is employed as a car company’s head designer, and accompanies his camper, fitted out with absurd gadgetry, to a trade show in Amsterdam. Naturally, the road is paved with modern-age mishaps.

After the financial disaster of Playtime, Tati embarked on this project undeterred, returning to his finer observational filming. This late-career delight is a masterful demonstration of the comic genius’ expert timing and side splitting visual gags, and a bemused last look at technology run amok.

The American Friend

1977 Director Win Wenders

Wim Wenders' mines Dennis Hopper's real-life experience as a painter and collector in this existential take on the American gangster film based on a Patricia Highsmith novel featuring the notoriously sociopathic Tom Ripley.

Hopper stars as the eponymous American, currently a middleman selling the work of American painter who has feigned his own death to increase the value of his paintings. While auctioning this work in Berlin, he meets art restorer, Jonathan, who he learns is suffering from an incurable blood disease. When a shady friend requires Ripley to find a "clean" non-professional to do a contract hit in order to pay off a debt, even he is reluctant. But he quickly realizes that the physically vulnerable Jonathan would be perfect for the job, and tries to get him to accept by employing various subterfuges to persuade him that his condition is even worse than it is. For his part he guarantees the restorer that his family will be financially secure for life, and a deal is struck. As usual, nothing works out quite as expected.

This is a forgotten little gem. Dennis Hopper is really at his very best here. There is a touching reference to his earlier "Easy Rider" film but his persona is as different as can be. A dark gripping tale where the unpredictable ending does not disappoint. Although filmed in the 70's this film does not have all the tacky style that hallmarks that era. Filmed largely in an area of Hamburg harbour that no longer exists it is quite a trip down memory lane. Hard to find but well worth the hunt.

Fata Morgana

1971 Director Werner Herzog

The film's title, Fata Morgana, refers to mirages or optical illusions brought on by heat, and is an apt title for this storyless, hallucinatory work shot in the deserts of North Africa. It is a rhythmic, musical succession of images and short scenes.

One of the images is a pianist and drummer who play tiredly, surrounded by endless tracts of desert. This is an image that has been adapted and re-used in countless music videos and is a small piece of evidence suggesting that this is a very influential film. The narration, in English, comes from a Guatemalan creation myth, and the accompanying music ranges from Couperin to Cash, with significant contributions by Leonard Cohen.

Fata Morgana is one of Herzog's early features. His crew encountered many problems during the filming, most notably being imprisoned because cameraman Schmidt-Reitwein's name was similar to the name of a German mercenary who was hiding from the authorities and had recently been sentenced to death in absentia.

Herz aus Glas

1976 Director Werner Herzog

This is Herzog's treatise on the power and importance of art.

It is the story of an 18th-century Bavarian glassblower who by virtue of his delicate work casts a spell over his neighbours. He is the principle employer in the town and his wares are the stuff of legend. So when he dies without revealing the secret to the famous "Ruby Glass", the townsfolk will do literally anything to find the answer.

Herzog was known to put his actors through the wringer to get the results he wanted. In this film he decided that the best way to get his people to dance to the crack of his whip was to actually put them under hypnosis. The dazed, zombie-like performances certainly fit the subject matter.  The word usually used to describe Heart of Glass is "haunting". Some viewers have gone beyond haunted and into "possessed." Watch carefully and spot director Herzog in a bit as a glass carrier.

La Cage Aux Folles

1978 Director Edouard Molinaro

Oddly, this was one of the most successful foreign films ever shown in the U.S. A comedy based on a French stage play, La Cage aux Folles depicts the farcical chaos that results when a gay man attempts to play it straight.

Young Laurent returns to St. Tropez bearing the news that he has found the girl of his dreams and they are engaged.  What's more, she and her family are on their way over for dinner at his father's home to meet the in-laws-to-be.  This traditional meeting of families seems typical, but because this ultraconservative family will be expecting to meet Father and wife, they'll never be prepared for the shock of meeting Renato and his flamboyant, campy, outrageous lover and drag-queen, Albin.  So in a great effort to please his son, Renato asks Albin for the performance of a lifetime. Thus setting up an unforgettable evening that is charged and ready to detonate an explosion of zaniness and absurdity.

La Cage aux Folles' pleasant, nonthreatening comic sensibility attracted a large mainstream audience in both Europe and the United States, which was at the time unusual for a film with a homosexual theme. Indeed, the film was popular enough to inspire two remakes: a stage musical and, nearly two decades later, the hilarious Hollywood comedy The Birdcage with Robin Williams, Nathan Lane, and Gene Hackman.

The Mirror

1974 Director Andrei Tarkovsky

As the son of a famous Russian poet, this is a stream of consciousness overlayed by his father's poetry.

This non-linear autobiographical film is Tarkovsky's most personal meditation on time, history and the Russian countryside. Through a series of episodes and images, he captures the mood and the feeling of the period just before, during and after the war. Lyrical reminiscences of his mother and of his father's poetry figure large in the film, along with extraordinary images of nature.

Combining black-and-white and color work, with some unusual documentary footage, this highly regarded movie is structured with the logic of a dream. It's a wonderful, slow amble through someones innermost fond memories.

Roma

1972 Director Federico Fellini

This is Fellini's autobiographical tribute to Rome. Narrated by Fellini himself it features a stream of consciousness made up of a mixture of real-life footage and fictional set pieces.

It flows from one episode to another, beginning with his early years in Rome in the 1930's during the time of Mussolini. At the age of 18, he moves in to a tenement building and explores the wild characters living in neighborhood. The events that follow switch between the past and contemporary times, including a story line that involves a 1970's film crew making a movie about Rome. He also incorporates segments of Roman history and problems in the government, including an improvised speech from Gore Vidal. Throughout this journey there are visits to an outdoor restaurant, a movie theater, a music hall, and a brothel. In one famously surreal segment, groups of clergymen gather together for a Catholic fashion show spectacle. After a visit to a street festival and some on-camera interviews, the film concludes with a long night sequence of a large group of motorcycles driving around some of the major landmarks of Rome.

This is a "sit back and let it roll over you" type of film. It is quite enjoyable providing you're not expecting a plot nor much cohesion between the various episodes.

Stalker

1979 Director Andrei Tarkovsky

This is Tarkovsky’s seminal masterpiece loosely based on Arkady and Boris Strugatski’s science fiction novel, Roadside Picnic.

The film is based on the premise that at some point aliens visited our planet and left behind dangerous and contaminated zones. Stalkers are those that have mastered the art of navigating those zones and plundering their riches. The film deals with a writer and a professor taken into to the zone by such a stalker in search of a fabled room where their innermost wishes can be granted. It is a journey of introspection and changing motives.

This is Tarkovsky at his very best. Although the original version was completely destroyed by the developing laboratory because an experimental film stock was used, Tarkovsky set about re-filming the entire project anew making many changes along the way. He employs no special effects whatsoever relying instead on atmosphere and beautifully choreographed cinematography. A haunting soundtrack compliments the long close up tracking shots and the careful juxtapositioning of black and white and colour shots makes this a landmark film.

Stroszek

1977 Director Werner Herzog

This is Herzog's most poignant film, and sadly, Bruno Schleinstein's last film. Written specially for Bruno because of Herzog's preference of Kinski in the lead role of Woyzeck, this is a wry vision of the "B" side of the American dream.

Bruno Schleinstein plays a dysfunctional street busker who, having just been released from prison, finds it difficult to pick up a life outside. Having been attacked and humiliated by his girlfriend's pimp they decide to throw in their lot and emigrate with their elderly neighbour to Wyoming, USA. The great American dream soon turns to disillusionment and despair.

This is a keenly observed study of the American way of life with all its anachronisms and has one of the most surreal endings of any film ever made.

Even Dwarfs Started Small

1970 Director Werner Herzog

To call this film the German version of Tod Browning's Freaks without the romantic element, would be to do it an injustice. This is without doubt Herzog's most bizarre film and makes for uncomfortable viewing.

I have heard it said that the film is set in a dismal mental institution, wherein dwell several midgets, dwarfs and other "oddities", but since there is a complete absence of any traditionally shaped humans including the Head of the asylum and a passing motorist, I am inclined to think that this is set in a world of misfits. The inmates stage a coup, taking over the asylum and utterly reversing the status quo. Their newly found freedom rapidly spirals into cruel anarchy.

There are several scenes of taboo content that one almost never sees and won't forget once seen. This is a very brave voyage for Herzog considering the substantial ban that Freaks had to endure.

Amacord

1974 Director Federico Fellini

This is a delightful romp down Fellini's memory lane. It centres around the seaside village of Rimini during the Mussolini era and is more a stream of consciousness than a plotted story. The film's greatest asset is its ability to be sweet without being cloying, due in great part to Danilo Donati's surrealistic art direction and to the frequently bawdy injections of sex and politics. Fellini clearly has deep affection for the people of this seaside village, warts and all, and communicates it through episodic visual anecdotes which are seen as if through the mists of a favorite dream, playfully scored by Nino Rota and lovingly photographed by Giuseppe Rotunno.

It won the 1974 Academy Award as Best Foreign Film.

Solaris

1972 Director Andrei Tarkovsky

Based on a novel by Stanislaw Lem, this is Tarkovsky's famous seminal science fiction film which explores the bounderies of reality.

It centers on a widowed psychologist Kris Kelvin, who is sent to a space station orbiting a water planet called Solaris to investigate the mysterious death of a doctor, as well as the mental problems plaguing the dwindling number of cosmonauts on the station. Finding the remaining crew behaving oddly and aloof, Kelvin is more than surprised when he meets his seven-years-dead wife Khari on the station. It quickly becomes apparent that Solaris possesses something that brings out repressed memories and obsessions within the cosmonauts, leaving Kelvin to question his perception of reality. 

These concepts were pretty ground breaking in 1972, which lead to this film being compared to Stanley Kubrik's 2001. In actual fact there are very few touching points. Much as I admire Tarkovsky's work his lack of attention to detail in this film makes it very dated. In 2002 Steven Soderbergh remade the film and cast George Clooney in the lead to much greater effect.

The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser

1974 Director Werner Herzog

Herzog's film is based upon the true and mysterious story of Kaspar Hauser, a young man who suddenly appeared in Nuremberg in 1828. This was Herzog's "breakthrough" film. Kaspar Hauser is played by Bruno Schleinstein an equally enigmatic figure of Herzog's finding.

Hauser shows up unannounced in the middle of a village square, intriguing the people with his bizarre behavior. He cannot talk, nor is there any indication of his parentage, thus Kaspar is immediately the object of close scrutiny by the authorities. When he finally does develop the power of speech, he reveals a highly advanced state of intelligence. His child like innocence and questioning mind cause consternation to the more conservative members of the community.

This is a charming film full of irony and subtle comic wit in a tragic setting.  Bruno plays the part with insightful sympathy that marks him as an outstanding actor. Unfortunately this genius came with a tragic amount of mental illness and this was only one of two films he took part in, the other being another Herzog production, Stroszek in 1977. Kaspar Hauser was the winner of the 1975 Grand Jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

Aguirre, the Wrath of God

1972 Director Werner Herzog

Based on the real-life journals of a priest, Brother Gaspar de Carvajal, this film is the most famed collaboration between Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski. Shot entirely on location in the Peruvian mountainous jungle it presents the viewer with stunning vistas of this most hostile environment.

Exhausted and near to admitting failure in its quest for riches, the 1650-51 expedition of Spanish conquistador Gonzalo Pizarro becomes bogged down in the impenetrable jungles of Peru. As a last-ditch effort to locate treasure, Pizarro orders a party to scout ahead for signs of El Dorado, the fabled seven cities of gold. In command are a trio of nobles. Traveling by river raft, the explorers are besieged by hostile natives, disease, starvation and treacherous waters. Crazed with greed and mad with power, Aguirre takes over the enterprise, slaughtering any that oppose him. Nature and Aguirre's own unquenchable thirst for glory ultimately render him insane, in charge of nothing but a raft of corpses and chattering monkeys.

Kinski delivers an inspirational performance as the power crazed Aguirre. This coupled with the breath taking scenery that he finds himself in makes this a powerful and evocative film.

Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht

1979 Director Werner Herzog

This is a remake of F.W. Murnau's classic 1922 silent horror-fest Nosferatu and stars Klaus Kinski. A great deal of homage is paid to the original including the makeup style used by Murnau's leading man Max Schreck.

Essentially this is a retelling of Bram Stoker's Dracula that misses the mark on a number of levels. Kinski fails to deliver the menace and madness that he managed so well in "Aquirre, the wrath of God", and Herzog fails to imbue the atmosphere with anything resembling tension or foreboding.

I can't fathom why Herzog embarked on this film. It does his other work a great disservice. Stick with the Murnau original.

The Spirit of the Beehive

1973 Director Victor Erice

In a small Castilian village in 1940, in the wake of the country's civil war, six-year-old Ana attends a traveling movie show of Frankenstein with her teasing sister and becomes possessed by the memory of it. She comes upon a deserter in a remote animal shelter on her father's farm and draws parallels between his plight and that of the monster.

The film's cinematography is lovingly shot with long atmospheric scenes. The child that plays Ana shows a remarkable talent. In particular the dinner scene where her father shows her the watch that the soldier was discovered with. The eye contact shots make all dialogue superfluous.

It is noteworthy that all characters have used their real first names. Apparently this was a late alteration to the script because Ana became too confused with the character's names.

Produced as Franco's long regime was nearing it's end, The Spirit of the Beehive is a bewitching portrait of a child's haunted inner life and one of the most visually arresting movies ever made.