The Immigrant/ The Godfather Part II

I am playing catch-up with the film series, as I haven't been in the right frame of mind as of late. These days I feel like a stranger in a familiar land. An outcast. An alien. I want to rise above this and become something great. Someone respected and powerful. Someone loved and beloved. Someone comical. How I am feeling, and my obvious love for great films have led me to these two great movies we will be viewing tonight. The Immigrant by Charles Chaplin (my idol) and The Godfather Part II by Francis Ford Coppola.

First up, The Immigrant. I admit, I am a huge Chaplin fan. His physical humor and his non-verbal wit leaves my sides aching. I have seen all of his full length films, save his final film. And I have seen almost all of his shorts. So, to my surprise, I had never seen The Immigrant. The Immigrant is a 20-minute film about an immigrant's voyage to America. The rocking boat and struggling to maintain equilibrium is an often used image toward the beginning of the film in the first reel. Later, the immigrant cons a conman and has a couple of run-ins with a drunkard. When happening upon a poor woman consoling another destitute femme, the immigrant decides to be a Samaritan and secretly gives her some of the few dollars he owns. A boat guard sees this and assumes the immigrant is pick-pocketing. Upon entering America, the tramp is nearly penniless and hungry. He decides to go into a restaurant for a bite to eat uncaring of how he will pay for the meal. He sees the same dame in the same restaurant that he was accused of pick-pocketing. They strike up an accord. He offers her of his sop, and orders more beans for her. When seeing the maltreatment of a patron who was 10 cents short of his bill, he becomes worried. He prepares for the worst and tries to quickly hone his boxing skills for the inevitable toe to toe. Upon finding that the waiter's trousers had a hole in the pocket allowing change to sluice through, the immigrant goes through several attempts to discreetly pick up the coin. When an artist sits with him and his date, the immigrant takes advantage of the artist's payment of meal and is able to pay for his meal. He leaves with the woman, and they immediately go to get a marriage license to be married.

This is a cute little short. With some good gags. And an interesting commentary on the poverty of the immigrants that are trying to assimilate themselves into American society. Although not expressly shown in the film, it appears that the immigrant adopts well to swindling and stealing to sustain a life in his new environment. The film was written, directed, and starred Charlie Chaplin. Already a famous star, he was given freedom to make this picture. This film was conceived while on set, and was going to be a completely different film with a different plot. Chaplin's first day of filming was a scene where he loses a quarter from his pocket unbeknownst to him, but picks it up from the ground thinking he found more money. Chaplin thought of his destitute situation, and devised the idea that he was an immigrant, penniless, and hungry. The scene where the immigrant kicks the immigration officer in the butt was later used as evidence of Chaplin's "anti-American" attitude which led to his deportation. The events leading to his deportation left a bad taste in his mouth for America. The film is a quick little plot with a little imagination and little social commentary. Needless to say, this is merely a dime in a pocket full of silver dollars in Chaplin's oeuvre.

* 1/2

The Godfather Part II. I won't go into much detail about the plot of the film, except that this is a sequel that won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor at the Academy Awards. Coppola was granted much more freedom from the studios to make this film because of the enormous success of Part I. Many critics argue that the sequel is slightly superior to the first film, but I am not one of those critics. This film tells the parallel stories of Don Vito Corleone's rise to power, and his son Don Michael Corleone's continued seedy practices and descent into corruption, greed, power, and wealth.

What makes this film great, along with its predecessor, is the acting. Such exceptional acting. One of Pacino's best performances. His collected demeanor in contrast with his explosive anger captivate. From the first film as an innocent, willing, and conflicted member of a mob family, to this volatile, power hungry, corrupt mob boss. It's amazing to watch this transformation. It's a testament to the pedigree of acting phenoms that grace the celluloid in this picture. Lee Strasberg, the acting teacher of Al Pacino and a slew of other notable actors, was coaxed to "come out of retirement" to make this picture. It's one of the few films he ever did, but his performance is up in the pantheon of great performances. John Cazale also makes an indelible mark in the film. His weakness, his insecurities, his vulnerability, his anger. Cazale, himself, did very few films before he was taken too soon, and yet again, his performance just blindsides the audience. It blindsided me, for sure. And let's not forget Robert DeNiro, who won an Oscar for his calculated and brave performance. He studied Brando's performance, and incorporated the mannerisms of the boy who played young Vito. Stellar is all I can say. So many great performances, so little time.

One thing that I am not too fond of in this film is the film stock and the development processes of the film. It's too dark throughout the movie. Or it's too yellow. I watched Apocalypse Now yesterday and compared to this film (both were Blu-ray) Apocalypse Now is so crisp, so clean, so visually appealing. Part II is grainy and 70's. The graininess would be more appropriate in keeping with the tone of early Scorsese like Mean Streets or Taxi Driver, but not this film. The film is well shot. Shooting on film has its advantages and disadvantages. For one, I noticed that the turning of the film within the camera makes the frame shake ever so slightly. An advantage, so I'm told, is that film looks a lot better when shooting night scenes than digital photography. Of course, digital photography was an impossibility in shooting this film, so me bringing it up is an exempli gratia and inconsequential.

The Tramps coming to America, penniless and clueless, really corresponds to the great privilege and strata rising ascent of the penniless and clueless Vito. His meteoric rise to the ranks of one of the most prominent Cosa Nostra leaders,and his influence on his children. Although Vito wanted a different path for Michael, Michael took the good ideals with the bad mentality. His drive and desire for power and destroying the competition ultimately costs him his family. Famiglia being the most important to any Italian patriarch, causes Michael to rethink his path, his life, and priorities in the next installment of the Godfather trilogy. It goes without saying that a theme of this film is power and as the saying goes "absolute power corrupts absolutely." Nothing is more true than Michael's behavior, his hybris, his hunger for power. This film is more an allegory; a cautionary tale for the consequences of pride, greed, and power. With the cinematography, the direction, the writing, the innovative parallel story telling, and the music, this film made its way to the forefront of the American New Wave cinema, and has become an endearing piece of art that lead to the many accolades, awards, and its inclusion in the Library of Congress film registry in 1993. One of a kind, unique, masterful, intense, wonderful, gut-wrenching, educational, and entertaining. The Godfather Part II is next to Part I on a towering pedestal, but just an inch shorter. Bellissima!

****1/2

Next Set

We'll be viewing the ever charming The Immigrant by Charles Chaplin coupled with the fantastic The Godfather Part II. These two are paired by an obvious theme, and I will be reviewing and critiquing both later this evening. I hope you will join me.

Entre'Acte/ Forbidden Zone

The viewership of this movie night was nearly double than any previous movie night. What a delightful gathering of old high school chums. After nice pleasantries, I introduced the first film we were to view. The dada film Entre'Acte by Rene Clair.

Rene Clair was a man of his environment. He surrounded himself with members of the dada salon, and when he was hired to create an entre'acte between the acts of a ballet in 1924, he jumped at the chance. This is Rene Clair's first film, but definitely not his last. A famous poet and writer, whose literary achievements along with his film credits landed him a seat in the very exclusive Academie Francaise. The film is completely dada. No meaning. Anti-art. But there are great shots, and innovative film techniques; particularly the roller coaster shots toward the end of the film. It often feels more like experimenting with film techniques and attempting to innovate than a true dada piece (whatever that means). It is evident from his future oeuvre that he enjoyed the filming process and pursued it further to much success. Understanding the large number of heavy hitters that participated in this project, one could come to the conclusion that this was truly a collaborative process. Erik Satie, one of my favorite 19th/20th century composers created a multi-piece score for the the film, although, I'm uncertain that the film we viewed on YouTube had the original score as accompaniment.

The film itself tells no particular story. I jokingly said after the film that is was a metaphor for "the diaspora of the Jewish people." There is a pseudo-story involved where a group of people are prancing around in a processional behind a coffin, as the pacing increases and there are jump cuts and chaos, a chase ensues and the speed of the chariot chase ends with the coffin in a field, the coffin opening up, a magician coming out and vanishing the crowd that comes to the coffin. I admit, I didn't know what to expect  from this film. I knew it was going to be a bit perplexing, but I ended up enjoying some parts and feeling my heart race as the pace of the film increased. It was very much what the kids on the Wonkaboat must've felt as the acid trip of a ride continued. Needless to say, watching something that was at the end of the dada movement, and one of the most inventive, odd, creative pieces of cinema history was insightful and educational. I am glad I got to view it with some great people.

* 1/2

And, Forbidden Zone. Well, well, well. What can I say about this film. I remember my friends Ryan showing me a two minute piece of the film, effectively introducing me to this bizarre film. It was an alphabet song number, and I was transfixed. One could say I was giddy. It made an impression on me, and when I found a bluray copy on Amazon, I decided to buy it solely on the merit of those two minutes. When I received the film, it was a U.K. disc, and I started the film to make sure it worked. The titles sequence of the film was wonderful. It was quirky, it was b-movie-esque. I thought it was great. I decided to pick this film, and knowing that it was quirky and weird, I paired it with Entre'acte.

Though the beginning starts out fun enough, it soon crumbles. We watched in black and white, which was how it was originally shown in the few art house theatres that was brave enough to show it. It was directed by Richard Elfman, older brother of famed musician and composer Danny Elfman. Richard, created the original incarnation of Oingo Boingo, but grew tired of the band and decided to make a transition to film making, handing the reins of the band over to Danny (who appears in this film as the Devil). The story goes as such: the Hercules family (comprised of Ma and Pa, Frenchy, Flash, and Grandpa) moves into an old house, whose basement is home to an entryway into the 6th dimension, where bizarre half naked, chained up concubines, queens and former queens and future queens roam. A frog headed servant, a couple of Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum characters, lines of prison cells, and the Devil and the Mystic Knights of Oingo Boingo live and roam free. When Frenchy, goes into the 6th dimension and gets kidnapped by the king for his sexual amusement, members of Frenchy's family come in one by one to find her and bring her back. The family each one more bizarre than the next. You have Frenchy: weird in her French eccentricities, she effectively became French from her trip abroad in France. Ma: A simpleton who sustains a brain injury relatively early in the film and remains catatonic throughout the film, Pa: a man who works in a tar factory between Pico and Sepulveda, who hates his circumstances, and may be mentally retarded, Grandpa: a Bluto-type character with serious rage problems as well as a penchant for sex, Flash: who appears older than Grandpa. He's a overly Jewish man with a copter cap yarmulke. He is amoral, and will give up his plan for sex. The family members are accompanied by Squeezit: (whose sister was already lost in the 6th dimension and a concubine to the midget king, played by Herve Villechaize). Squeezit is loud, a mamma's boy, acts like a chicken, and is afraid of taking a chance. He gets his courage and sacrifices himself for the good of the Hercules family. There are many musical and dance numbers. There is chaos. There are strange characters. There is anarchy.

The saving grace for this film are some of the musical numbers, and you can really hear Danny Elfman's influence on the music. The music numbers are oddly catchy, and in the vein of Broadway numbers, but in juxtaposition to the events of the film confuse the audience. It appears that the gifts of the composer and what he is capable of does not match the bizarre mise-en-scene shown to the audience. I have been known to champion the 'weird' but this doesn't seem to serve a point. It is weird for weird's sake, and not weird to prove a point or weird to expose something deep within ourselves or society. There are bits like the boxing scene that made me chuckle, and the nudity (specifically the princess) made me raise my eyebrows among other things, that I enjoyed, but, overall this movie is like the subconscious gone awry. I must say, I appreciated the film more than the rest of the viewing party, who wish that I wouldn't have subjected them to it, but I would stray away from calling this film brilliant or even good. It's a film, perhaps, that aspired to be the next Rocky Horror Picture Show or Pink Flamingos, much like Repo! The Genetic Opera* attempted to do in the 2000s, but it failed in that regard. I am glad I saw it. It was enlightening and parts were enjoyable, but overall it was, for lack of a better work, claptrap. It is full of cool trivia bits, like the actors who played the king and queen were literally former lovers, but had broken up prior to this film. Another bit, all the actors did the film without being paid. One of the two "Kipper Kids" is married to Bette Midler. This was one of the last movies of Godfather actor Joe Spinell. And this was the first film scored by future, brilliant composer and frequent Tim Burton collaborator, Danny Elfman. Many critics felt that this film was racist, anti-Semitic, and sexist, but I disagree to two of the three. I found myself cringing with a few of the sexist lines or scenes where women were hit or harassed. The blatant nudity was also ever-present and was distracting for me. Of course, many people can argue all three points from both sides quite effectively, but for brevity's sake, I will stop here. If you are feeling bold and are in a weird place, or you're on drugs are are looking for a trippy film, Forbidden Zone is for you. Enjoy!

*





*Repo! was a far worse movie than Forbidden Zone...for the record.

Entre'Acte/ Forbidden Zone

Sorry this is short notice, but the next film night will be this evening. We'll be watching two bizarre films one from the 20s called Entre'Acte by René Clair and the other Forbidden Zone by Richard Elfman. I know Entre'Acte is available online. I invite you to watch along. If not tonight, then sometime soon, because these two will be a wonderful and delightful pairing. Embrace the weird!

Shaking Tokyo/Groundhog Day

The list of films that I have compiled for my short film/feature film pairings are very scant when it comes to the Asian continent. This changes tonight. Although the short film Shaking Tokyo is the only Asian film out of the fifty-two chosen, it is still a good one. Due to my temporary agoraphobia and the fact that each day has seemed to meld together in a blur of the same thing over and over again, I bring you Shaking Tokyo by acclaimed director Bong Joon Ho and Groundhog Day by the late great Harold Ramis.

Boon Joon Ho was asked to be a part of a film tryptic about a subject, much like Allen, Copolla, and Scorsese did in 1990. The subject, one could argue the star, is Tokyo. The star is a peripheral character as the desert was for westerns. The film starts out with a roll of toilet paper being finished and the introduction of a hikikomori, a shut in. He has been living on his own stacking his refuse and supplies in his cramped apartment. Only getting the necessities of life through delivery, never looking people in the eyes, he leads a depressing life; a life full of routine. He receives pizza once a week. Every Saturday.  He receives the money he needs via the post, and lives his life in a box, much like the pizza boxes he stacks along a bare wall. When he notices that the pizza delivery man is a woman, he looks up. They make a connection. The ground starts to shake. An earthquake. Immediately the woman collapses and remains motionless. The hikikomori tries to revive her comically. He notices a series of tattoo buttons on the woman with accompanying English explanations, and upon looking up the Japanese translation of the explanations, he is able to the revive the girl. And as quickly as she came, she disappears. He tries to order pizza in hopes to be delivered to by the intriguing pizza delivery woman, but to no avail. The pizza delivery man explains to the hikikomori that the woman had quit the day before. She, becoming a hikikomori. How is an agoraphobic man supposed to go and reach out to an agoraphobic woman he has become attracted to? After a brief questioning, the man decides to leave his apartment. Once out of his element and into the elements of outside, the man starts to doubt his decision, but decides to press on. His positive self-talk allows his to follow the directives he is telling himself to do in his head. As he explores the city he has cut himself off from ten years prior, we find that the entire city has become agoraphobic. Now the streets are barren. Now robots deliver pizza. The man finally finds the woman who has just applied a new button tattoo. The man tries to coax the woman out of her apartment exclaiming, "If you don't come out now, you never will." She shuts him out and another earthquake hits the town. People come out of their house, out of their apartments only to slowly creep back into their lodgings after the earthquake has ceased. The man finds the woman has left and tries to keep the girl from re-entering her apartment like the others had. He presses the new tattoo button: Love. They stare at each other as the scene shakes to a black screen.

**

I decided on Groundhog Day in January about a month before the great Harold Ramis passed away. His movies have been a big inspiration on me, and I have come to cherish him as time has gone by. For my tribute to him, I give you Groundhog Day. Now I am not going to bore you with the plot of the film, because we know it. We love the film, right? What's not to love. This is what one would classify as an existential comedy. And by one, I mean me. I would consider it as such. This is a story of a man being forced to live the same day over and over again. The thematic elements between this film and Shaking Tokyo are frequent. Desire for finding love. Alienation either voluntary or involuntary. Repetition of routine.

The great work of Bill Murray is undeniable in this film. He starts on a journey and ends in a completely different place. Growth takes place. He starts out with his iconic snark that oozes throughout the first few scenes. As his situation starts to mount in from of him, his snark turns to panic and denial. And, in fact, the Kubler-Ross model of grief could be applied to Phil Conner's transition throughout the film. The loss he is experiencing is the normalcy of life. Phil has an existential crisis. "What would you do if you were stuck in one place and everything was exactly the same and nothing you did ever mattered?" The Sisyphean circumstances causes Phil to reflect on life, existence, and the universe. It causes him to self-reflect on himself, what's really important, love, and improving oneself. Time is relative and infinity is a long time. One of the most poignant scenes for me is when Phil suggests that he is a god. He theorizes that maybe god is god because he's been around long enough to know everything. He goes on to explain in detail each patron of the cafe, and goes on to "predict the future." The end of the scene is very touching as he talks about Rita with such sincerity, warmth, and love. It usually makes my misty. Though he contemplates his potential divinity or approval of deity to allow him to relive the same day over and over, he is confronted with mortality with the death of the beggar. No matter how hard he tries, the old man dies. Upon giving the old man CPR in the alley, the man breathes his last breath and we see it. Phil then looks heavenward, as if to say "Why?" After Rita stays the night, Phil enters the acceptance phase of the stages of grief. He develops an insatiable appetite to improve himself and to accrue skills not just for the betterment of himself, but for the woman he woos each day. He also embarks on the assistance and service to others. One comes to two realizations of Ramis' intended message for the audience. The first is that we all have those spans of time where routine seems to suck the fun out of life and living. Where it seems like we are reliving the same cycle over and over again, but it will benefit us if we allow ourselves the ability to go about the natural course of events through the day with happiness, acceptance, and love. As well, we should strive to improve ourselves. To increase in knowledge. To increase our skills, because we are full of potential. The second is to share with others. To help other people and give service. To a person with a religious background, this film can have theological implications, but things can be gained from any viewer, regardless of religious background (if any).

There are some amazing bits of comedy that, after over a dozen views, continue to make me laugh. The montage of suicides is hilarious, particularly Bill Murray's choice to open and close his hands before he gets run over. His imitation of Larry's eating habits was chortlingly funny. Phil trying to re-position himself in the exact spot that almost got Rita and him to kiss the previous Groundhog Day was so funny. A special shout out to Stephen Tobolowsky and his Needlenose Ned character. Plus dozens and dozens more little bits that were just outlandishly funny.

I love that a young Michael Shannon is in this film. I love the existential tones of the film. I don't like the horribly stained teeth of the two leads, but I love this movie. There's comedy, warmth, confusion, sweetness, sadness. It's a fantastically made film. Bill carries this movie. He is a joy to watch. The movie is a joy to watch. This film was added in 2006 to the U.S. Film Registry for its impact to society and its artistic relevancy and it's so clear to see why. This film remains one of my favorite films of all time and one of the few movies I watch every year. At the end of the day, I got you Groundhog Day, I got you Groundhog Day, and baby, you got me.

****1/2