stigmata

stigmata follows frankie page (patricia arquette), a young woman enjoying her free and single life in pittsburgh when she is assaulted by nightmarish visions and mysterious wounds on her wrists. a scientist from the vatican, andrew kiernan (gabriel byrne), is tasked with establishing whether frankie has a genuine case of stigmata or something else. what neither of them realise is that frankie’s affliction is linked to a secret that has the potential to tear the catholic church apart.

the structure of stigmata mirrors the exorcist in so much as the victim, frankie, first subjects herself to a barrage of medical tests before seeking help from the church. the story then becomes a battle between byrne's troubled priest and the entity possessing frankie, and though she is more mobile than linda blair we are still never too far from a bed. however, there is much more to stigmata than a reboot of a controversial classic.

although the film tries to focus on andrew's story (as in he is the character with the most defined arc - a priest who must recover his lost faith in order to save the woman he loves) i think frankie is the most interesting thing about it, and it's her character who raises the most questions. firstly, and perhaps most importantly, why her? there is a plot reason to explain why frankie is targeted, in that her mother sends her a rosary as a souvenir unaware that it had been torn from the hands of a dead priest, but what is the narrative reason? much is made of frankie’s lifestyle – the opening titles show her partying with friends, having sex, drinking, smoking and while she doesn’t get to have sex again (despite spending most of the film in bed) cigarettes and alcohol are recurring visual indicators that this is more than basic character background. ultimately, it’s hard not to watch this film without thinking that frankie is being punished for her chosen lifestyle. so the next question is, does the film concur with this punishment or is it a comment on how our society punishes independent women?

two other recurring ideas play into this. one is pregnancy, which frankie initially thinks is the cause of her problems. it’s not explicit but it is implied that this is something she wants, which undermines her seemingly carefree existence. the second is a cancer parallel that is suggested visually when frankie starts to wear a bandana to cover the wounds on her head, as well as by the constant close-ups of cigarettes being lit and extinguished. both ideas have the same implication – there is a deadline; a time limit and at 23 frankie is apparently coming to the end of her allotted free time. again, whether this is a problematic depiction of a young female character or a depressing comment on the way society keeps its women down is really up to the viewer (i'm still undecided, in case you were wondering).

the true plot of stigmata is difficult to go into without giving it away, and there is a neat if predictable twist in the story towards the end. what struck me watching it now are the parallels between possession, demonic or otherwise, and having your social media account hacked. stay with me here, but at a certain point frankie, who appears to look like herself, begins to speak with the voice of another. i’ve had my twitter account hacked a couple of times in the past and the effect is kind of the same – it’s my picture on the profile but not my words. of course, i am slightly obsessed with online profiles right now so i’m obviously bringing my own baggage to this (check out my most recent video for proof) but it’s also really interesting to see how a film from 1999 can be relevant to social and technical developments that didn’t exist when it was made. behind the victimisation of a woman who was doing just fine on her own, this is a film about messages and interpretation – ideas which are more important now than they ever were.

overall i think stigmata is a really interesting film – much more interesting than it was given credit for when it was released. on top of that, arquette and byrne are both great in it and there’s some nostalgia to be enjoyed from the 90s visual style and soundtrack. the blu-ray comes with some fascinating extras including a documentary from the time and an alternate ending that actually makes frankie’s journey seem so much worse in comparison to the original cut. definitely a film worth seeing and an interesting one to revisit if you’ve already seen it because for me there was certainly more to talk about than i remembered.

stigmata is available now from eureka entertainment on blu-ray for the first time in the uk in a dual format edition

enemy mine

enemy mine takes place in a war-torn future in which a human fighter pilot crash lands on an alien world where his only companion is the enemy pilot he shot down. initially hostile, the two men are forced to rely on each other for survival when they realise the biggest threat to their existence is actually their new found home.

as a narrative enemy mine is hugely impressive in scale if perhaps a little too ambitious at times. while the initial set-up of two warriors on opposite sides of a galactic war finding themselves stranded together is a good one, the premise is dealt with fairly quickly. the two men actually come to terms with their predicament within the first twenty minutes and the film then relies on unearned sentimentality to carry us through a rushed first half. then again, it kind of has to in order to leave room for the craziness of the second half, and that's really where the issue lies. this is two stories. one is straightforward; it's hell in pacific in space, mixed with a little robinson crusoe, or even robinson crusoe on mars. the other is a little more complicated and aims to use to this small story of two enemies who become friends as a route to solving the problem of the galactic war itself. while i would have preferred to spend more time on the first story, the second half is certainly unexpected and allows us to see much more of the world than we first expect to see.

what really stands out in enemy mine is the production design. the alien world resembles every fantasy/sci-fi inspired seventies album cover ever, with brightly coloured skies, bizarre plant life and strange rock formations in every wide shot. the hostile nature of the environment is also effectively established, with regular meteor showers and snowstorms making it feel like nowhere is safe. then there is the local wildlife which consists of small, turtle-like creatures and large predators that hide in the dirt and seek out their prey with spiked tentacles. while the creature effects themselves are a bit dated the design work is great and it's always fantastic to see a good old practical creature effect at work.

the best effect work however is on the make-up for louis gosset jr.s character, jeriba. as well as the suitably alien design, parts of jeriba's head seem to breath independently giving the flesh a living quality and making it seem much less like a guy in a mask. speaking of that guy, gosset jr.s performance is incredible considering the discomfort the appliance must have caused. he makes jeriba seem warm and gives him a humanity at odds with his appearance. the combination of gosset jr.s performance and the incredible make-up effects make jeriba one of the most compelling alien characters ever seen on film.

as jeriba's human companion a young dennis quiad puts in a nice performance too, although often has to compete for screen time with a beard that is probably the least convincing effect in the whole film. that said, his relationship with jeriba feels genuine, particularly in the more tender moments when the film isn't afraid to become more like a love-story than a war drama. this is certainly something the filmmakers embrace with jeriba taking on more feminine traits (including, spolier, becoming pregnant) as their relationship develops.

another highlight is brion james turning up to play that character he always used to play in movies, the one that's always brion james. you know, this guy.

despite it's contrivances and overlong running time, there is something really interesting about enemy mine, both in the progressive nature of the relationship it presents and the use of a vast new world to tell a relatively small story. like the best science-fiction movies it focuses on ideas rather than plot, similar to films like silent running, solaris or more recently, moon. if you haven't seen it in a while it's worth revisiting, especially on blu-ray where the bright colour palette really stands out, and if you haven't seen it then it's a great alternative to the epic space operas that are currently coming back into style.

enemy mine is available now on blu-ray from eureka entertainment

eureka

eureka tells the story of gold prospector jack mccann who strikes it rich and retires to a life of luxury only to fear that his daughter and her husband have their eyes on his fortune. however, the real threat comes from the gangsters intent on taking mccann's wealth by any means necessary.

the story is based on the real life unsolved murder of sir harry oakes in 1943, a case that was notorious for the high profiles of the people involved and the brutal fashion in which oakes was killed. there are several books about the oakes murder and subsequently a number of films, but eureka was the first adaptation of the story for the screen. notably, writer paul mayersberg and director nicolas roeg take some interesting liberties with the story.

the film opens with a sequence of events that show how mccann found his gold, including a particularly shocking encounter with a fellow prospector. he later enlists the help of a fortune teller, which does indeed lead him to his fortune. it's these surreal, shocking and mysterious elements that elevate the story from a sordid true crime tale to something profound and fascinating.

one of the most striking elements of the film now is the amazing cast, most of whom went on to forge legendary careers themselves. gene hackman does his best to make you dislike him with his fiery performance as mccann, but manages to include just enough humanity to make you empathise with him. theresa russell and rutger hauer are great as mccann's daughter and her husband, portraying an incredibly complex emotional relationship that seems to thrive either entirely on love or entirely on sex, varying from scene to scene. hauer in particular does a fantastic job of playing a character whom you never know whether to like or despise. there are also great supporting roles from mickey rourke, joe pesci and en lauter, and even a typically creepy appearence from joe spinell.

as expected of roeg there are moments of surreal beauty in the most unlikely of scenes, particularly in the brutal murder scene which ends with fireworks and a shower of feathers falling like snow.  the fireworks in particular are an important image and one that roeg uses a couple of times. there is a sense that mccann is essentially a bomb waiting to go off, and that his increasing anger, frustration and paranoia about his money is a flame moving closer and closer to the fuse.

when the hackman bomb does explode the film takes another turn and the final act is an unexpected courtroom drama. interestingly, roeg shows us exactly what happens to mccann so the unsolved element is removed. however, roeg being the filmmaker that he is this is no ordinary courtroom scene and by the end the court are forced to watch without interruption as russell and hauer work out the intimate problems of their relationship in front of the jury.

it has to be said that eureka can be a tough watch at times. none of the characters are particularly likable, and though all the actors add a little something to keep us interested and to see their characters as human, it is for the most part a story of greed, selfishness and paranoia. there is no light side to this story, but then given the subject matter it's easy to see why.

that said, if you stick with it this is a fascinating study of wealth and what happens to the rich when they grow older and begin to see what little they really have. worth watching for the cast alone, it's certainly an interesting film and one that deserves a place among the more recognised classics.

eureka is out now on blu-ray as part of eureka entertainment's masters of cinema series

fixed bayonets!

fixed bayonets! is set during the korean war and follows a small unit of u.s. soldiers left behind to stall enemy forces to give a larger division time to advance. the story focuses on inexperienced corporal denno (richard basehart), a man wrongly believed to be a hero when in fact he is unable to pull the trigger when faced with an enemy, and his relationship with his superior, sergeant rock (gene evans).

i've never been all that interested in war films, but anything directed by samuel fuller is worth a watch. shock corridor is one of my favourite films and remains the most terrifying film about mental illness that's ever been produced. i'll probably get in trouble for saying this, but one flew over the cuckoo's nest has nothing on shock corridor. fuller also directed forty guns, which i love and reviewed here, and was still making great films towards the end of his career with the big red one and the controversial white dog. the thing about fuller and the reason his movies are still remembered and re-released is that there's always something a little different about them. he doesn't make a standard western or a standard war film, there's always an element of fuller magic that puts a different, usually darker, spin on things.

i'm no expert, but as a war film fixed bayonets! is pretty effective. it reminded me of that documentary restrepo, where the filmmakers follow one unit for a year in the same location. this had that same sense of pointlessness and isolation. essentially rock and denno and their men are trapped on the side of a mountain for pretty much the whole film and there's a constant threat of gunfire at all times. there's a realism to this, but also there's something a but existential about it with the men constantly questioning why they're doing what they are doing and what it means to be a solider.

there are some fantastically tense scenes, including a moment where denno has to cross a minefield to rescue a wounded comrade. there's also a really thrilling battle with a tank at the end of the film. however, the real highlight for me was one of the stranger moments, when one of the characters (i won't reveal which one) effectively predicts his own death. he describes to the men what he would do if he were the enemy, and the whole time he's talking about it we're watching an enemy soldier as he actual does it, following the prediction word for word. it's a weird moment of almost magic realism and it's kind of sad and beautiful at the same time.

fixed bayonets! is a solid war film and there are things to enjoy here whether you're into the genre or not. however, it also has some moments of sheer samuel fuller genius and for that reason it's worth checking out.

fixed bayonets! was released in a dual format (blu-ray and dvd) edition by eureka entertainment on 15th february 2016

the skull

the skull is a rather strange horror movie about a possessed skull that makes people go mad and then bites them to death. if that isn't enough to spark your interest, it also features peter cushing and christopher lee playing best friends, which has to be a rare occurrence (please leave other examples of this in the comments!).

the skull follows demonologist christopher maitland (peter cushing) and his dealings with dubious antiques dealer, marco (patrick wymark). marco has recently acquired a human skull that he is convinced is the skull of the marquis de sade. it’s also possessed by the same demon that possessed the marquis and marco is understandably keen to pass it on. despite being warned off by his friend and fellow collector sir matthew phillips (christopher lee), maitland decides he needs the skull. not long after he takes it the bodies start to pile up.

the skull is an amicus production, which on the surface means it’s hammer in all but name. kim newman explains the history of amicus in a much better way than i ever could on a special feature on this release, so check that out if you’re interested in finding out more. amicus used the same stars as hammer and many of the same personnel, including director freddie francis who had worked on a number of hammer films as cinematographer. he was also the cinematographer on jack clayton’s the innocents, which is a really beautiful, creepy film. there are a couple of moments in the skull that seem like pure visual indulgence, particularly in the dream sequence, and it’s in these moments that francis really stands out as a filmmaker.

the dream sequence is by far the best moment in the film, partly because it’s unclear for most of it that it’s a dream. maitland is 'arrested' and taken to a large, empty courtroom, where a judge forces him to put a loaded gun to his head and indulge in a light-hearted game of russian roulette. it’s an incredibly tense and wonderfully weird scene that jars against the rest of the film in the best possible way.

the other highlight of the skull is the relationship between maitland and phillips as fellow collectors. while we have seen lee and cushing onscreen together many times, it seems rare to see them in such informal, even friendly circumstances as are shown here. in a key scene, maitland and phillips discuss the skull over a game of snooker, and their friendship in the scene is one of the most genuine moments in the film. i don’t know if cushing and lee were friends in real life, but they do a good job selling it here if not.

the skull is based on a short story by robert bloch (who also wrote psycho) and while the story itself is good, the fact that it’s a short really shows. at times the skull feels like it should be a shorter piece and would have fitted in well as an episode of a portmanteau movie, like dead of night or dr. terror’s house of horrors. as a feature, it sometimes doesn’t feel like there’s enough story to fill the running time. a parallel story showing the fate of the skull’s first owner helps, but even this occasionally feels like filler. as a result, the skull often feels slow-moving, particularly as it’s clear from the outset where the story is going.

the film is also let down by its climax, which is particularly hard to take seriously. it’s not an issue with the effects, just the idea of a floating skull that bites people to death is kind of ridiculous and really dissolves the tension built up by maitland’s struggle with madness.

despite the ridiculous concept, cushing plays every scene as seriously as if it were shakespeare and in very convincing as a much more vulnerable character than we are used to seeing him portray. maitland is a really interesting character, and i could quite easily have watched a film about cushing running around london solving demonology-related incidents, as that’s certainly how it’s set up at one point (possibly wishful thinking on my part). what we actually get is a character who so badly wants to believe in the existence of the supernatural that he will put himself in serious danger to prove it and that's a fascinating concept, far more interesting than the idea of the possessed skull itself.

like it's namesake in the film, the skull is more of a curiosity than a forgotten masterpiece, but there are certainly some interesting elements to enjoy and some unusual moments. it’s also worth watching simply for the dream sequence, which looks stunning on blu-ray.

eureka entertainment release the skull in dual format blu-ray and dvd on 26th october 2015

the naked prey

the naked prey is one of those ‘hunter becomes hunted’ films that have been popular since forever. it’s also kind of beautiful and marks a real achievement for it’s writer/director/producer/star cornel wilde.

the naked prey opens with a group of white hunters stalking elephants in nineteenth century africa. when they insult a local tribe their camp is attacked and the men are taken to the local village to receive punishment. for one of the hunters, that punishment entails becoming the human prey in a manhunt across the wild plains.

the first striking thing about this film is the opening credit ‘cornel wilde as man’, which seems an incredibly arrogant opening statement from the self-proclaimed auteur behind this film. however, the lack of a name for the main character is in keeping with the minimalist nature of the whole piece. there is barely any dialogue in this film, and most of the dialogue we do hear is not in English and not subtitled. for the most part, we watch wilde’s man trek alone across a vast, dangerous landscape that makes him and his trials seem small and insignificant in comparison. occasionally he is forced to fight his pursuers and the fights are as savage and raw as the stock wildlife footage of predators taking down their prey that is cut into the film. there is nothing noble about the violence and the struggle for survival in this film, it is simply portrayed as necessity.

of course, all this happens after we are forced to endure one of the most cruel and brutal sequences ever shot when the other hunters are tortured and killed by the tribe. perhaps the most brutal death involves a man being caked in mud then roasted slowly over a fire as he screams. it is scenes like this that caused controversy when the film was released as the obvious assumption is that the filmmaker is representing all african tribes as bloodthirsty murderers. however, as the film progresses the group of hunters in the tribe are shown in a more sympathetic light, mourning their dead companions with genuine sadness as they are picked off one by one by their wily prey. later, wilde’s character is shown as perhaps more of a callous killer than any of his pursuers as he dances with glee at the sight of the hunters almost burning alive. by the end of the film balance is restored and the two parties find a kind of mutual respect, but what’s important is that the film isn’t afraid to show the extremes on both sides.

ultimately the message wilde was trying to deliver was that in the right circumstance men are no different to animals and that there is neither glory nor shame in that, simply truth. at the same time, he tells this story in a very entertaining way. wilde’s man is the ultimate underdog, stripped of everything and challenged to survive against armed men who know the land much better than he does. it’s exciting to see him figure out how to survive against these odds and taking on the challenge of the landscape as well as that of his hunters. wilde does a fantastic job making the character and his feats believable, partly due to the fact that he is in amazing shape for a man approaching fifty. he also plays the desperation very well, which makes the story all the more compelling.

there are, of course, hundreds of films with this same setup, going all the way back to richard connell’s 1924 short story, the most dangerous game, filmed in 1932. since then there have been numerous reworkings, my personal favourite being 1994's surviving the game in which homeless ice-t is hunted by rutger hauer and gary busey (gary busey, these days a bit of a joke, delivers an amazing speech in that film). there are still elements of the most dangerous game around today, most notably in the hunger games, but the reason that the story is so frequently retold is that it’s a good story. we love to see an underdog prevail, whether it’s katniss everdeen or a naked cornel wilde. it’s also a story that will always be universal and that’s never been more clear than in the naked prey.

this is a really well-produced, beautifully shot film with some fantastic setpieces, and it’s also a thrilling 90-minute ride that looks gorgeous on blu-ray. if you like to be entertained in style and don’t mind the odd stock footage clip of animals killing each other, you should definitely give this a watch.

the naked prey is released by eureka on blu-ray on 19th october 2015

a letter to three wives

a letter to three wives is an oscar-winning film from 1949 that i’d never heard of until recently. there’s a newsreel clip on the dvd that shows part of the oscars ceremony from that year and i’d never heard of any of the films that won, which makes me wonder how many great films i’ve never heard of and whether the oscars are really that important anyway. mostly i’m just glad i got to see this film at all, because it has interesting women doing stuff and dealing with issues in a way that's often missing from contemporary films.

the film follows the titular three wives on a day trip with a group of school kids. before the boat leaves they open a letter from their mutual friend, addie ross, in which addie declares that she is going to run away with one of their husbands that day. away from the mainland and with no way of contacting their husbands, all the three wives can do is each reflect on their marriages and wonder if it’s their husband addie has stolen.

a letter to three wives is a comedy-drama, although i’ll be honest, i didn’t realise it was supposed to be a comedy until one of the jospeh l. mankiewicz biographers mentioned it on the commentary track. sure, there are funny moments but i wonder if the definition of  ‘comedy’ has changed over the years. it doesn’t really matter, because it’s the drama that’s interesting here.

the three main characters seem bold and interesting by today’s standards but whether that’s a reflection of a forward-thinking writer/director or a sad indictment of the decline of gender representation in contemporary cinema, i’m not sure. the least interesting character is probably linda darnell’s gold digging lora mae, and yet her character has the most complex relationship with her husband. she’s more than just a gold-digger, that’s the point, and her later scenes with paul douglas provide some of the more surprising and touching moments in the film.

then there’s ann sothern’s rita, a radio writer who has shot to fame and made a fortune from her career. the issue is that her husband, played brilliantly by kirk douglas, is a low-paid schoolteacher at a time when it was unusual for the woman in the relationship to be the breadwinner (to be honest, sometimes i think that’s still considered unusual, even if it is more common these days). ultimately, it’s not douglas’ character who has an issue with this, it’s rita who wants to bring him up to her level without understanding that money isn't all that important to him. in this way, the film becomes a real study of class and status, but rather than simply playing that out between the couples, the difference between the classes is more prominently represented between the individuals in the actual relationships.

this is most evident with jeanne crain’s deborah, a woman who met her husband while serving in the navy. many films of this period tackled the subject of soldiers returning from war only to struggle to fit back into society, but few of those films chose to focus on a woman in that situation. it would have been particularly difficult for women returning from war because suddenly they were expected to go from a position of authority and activity back to being housewives again, a predicament that was highlighted in betty friedan’s seminal 1963 feminist text, the feminine mystique. in deborah’s case, the difficulty of fitting back into society is made worse by the fact that she is also a small-town farm girl thrust into middle-class society because of the man she met in the navy.

all three stories here are equally interesting and thought-provoking, helped by mankiewicz’ assured direction which keeps a steady pace and gives the ideas room to breathe. structurally the film makes innovative use of flashback’s and narration to weave the various strands of the story into a compelling whole. but as great as mankiewicz is as a filmmaker, it’s the performers who really make this story work, particularly the darnell, sothern and crain.

a letter to three wives feels like a kind of film we don’t see too often anymore, certainly not among oscar-nominees. it’s a film where the stakes are domestic and the drama is familiar, and this makes it all the more emotionally charged. more than anything, this is an entertaining, accomplished film from a writer and director at the height of his powers working with a truly great cast, and for that reason alone it’s worth a watch.

eureka entertainment will be releasing a letter to three wives on blu-ray in a dual format edition as part of the masters of cinema series on 29 june 2015

life of riley

life of riley is a french film based on an alan ayckbourn play set in yorkshire. if that sounds odd, it’s actually only the first of a number of unique and interesting things about this film.

the film follows two middle-aged couples in the process of rehearsing a play for their amateur theatre group. everything changes when they discover their friend, george riley, is dying from a terminal illness and only has six months to live. to help take his mind off the situation they invite george to be in the play but his presence soon starts to tear their relationships and friendships apart.

director alain resnais employs a number of interesting stylistic techniques to tell the story in what would unfortunately become his final film. the film opens with the camera moving through real yorkshire locations, and he uses this device to link the scenes together throughout the film. however, when we actually go into the scenes the locations are marked by a cartoon drawing of whichever house we’re going into. the locations themselves are deliberately made to appear like stage sets, with the backdrops made to look like curtains that the actors move in and out of when they enter or exit the scene. as you would expect from a film that has taken so many elements from theatre, many of the scenes are filmed in long takes, and resnais does some really interesting things with the camera during these takes. however, when one of the characters has a monologue or a particularly emotional moment resnais not only cuts to a close-up, he replaces the background with a monochrome, cross-hatched backdrop that takes us out of the scene but really emphasises the actor’s performance at the same time.

with so many alienating and sometimes distracting techniques at play, you would expect life of riley to be a confusing mess. however, resnais’ methods are all suggested by the playful nature of the source material. ayckbourn’s play has it’s own stylistic touches, such as the fact that the title character never appears onstage, or the fact that the play the characters are rehearsing is another ayckbourn play. resnais’ interpretation of the play seems like a perfect extension of the themes and ideas ayckbourn established, because resnais seems to have been really inspired by the source material rather than restricted by it.

somehow, all these disparate and distracting elements come together to form a story that really works. despite the actors being french and the locations looking like stage sets, i never doubted that we were in rural yorkshire. the characters really come to life, mostly thanks to some excellent performances from the veteran cast, and it’s impossible not to become engaged in the story, even when it seems like resnais is doing all he can to distance you from it. this is a film that takes some real risks, but for the most part, those risks pay off.

the only thing i’m not sure about is the animatronic mole. i didn’t quite get that part.

ultimately what holds this film together is the story of four people who need their lives to be shaken up, and that shake up comes in the form of the imminent death of their friend. relationships are tested, secrets are revealed but in the end, and as is fitting for a film structured around the performance of a play, the show must go on.

i’ve seen a few films based on stage plays, and usually my criticism is that they felt too much like plays, in that not enough has been done to adapt the material. resnais avoids this by embracing the medium and making use of the best of both worlds. somehow this works, and it’s worth seeing the film just to see how resnais pulls this off.

eureka entertainment will be releasing life of riley on blu-ray and dvd in a dual format edition as part of the masters of cinema series on 25th may 2015

paper moon

peter bogdanovich started out as a film critic who learned filmmaking the fast way through working with roger corman, most notably on the boris karloff classic, targets (if you haven't seen targets, you should seriously check it out). bogdanovich went on to become one of the most acclaimed directors of his generation. paper moon was made at the height of that acclaim and is considered by many to be his best work.

the story follows travelling con man moses pray (ryan o’neal) who visits the graveside of a former lover only to find himself agreeing to take the woman’s orphaned nine-year-old daughter, addie (played by o’neal’s real life daughter tatum o’neal) cross country to stay with her aunt. it’s not long before addie has not only worked out how moses makes his money but also decides to help him. as they near their destination the usually cautious moses is pushed into bigger and more risky cons by his young protégé.

paper moon is a fascinating film about family, loyalty and greed and the depression-era setting perfectly captures an america on the brink of disaster. moses pray’s america feels almost like the wild west, as he drifts from town to town always on the lookout for the next mark. the roads he and addie travel seem almost as empty as the towns they find along the way and there is a real sense that something has failed; that the american dream didn’t work out and now everyone has to do whatever they can to get by. addie takes this idea to a new level.

in the opening minutes, it appears as though paper moon will be a story of innocence corrupted. addie is a girl who has no one, and now she’s stuck with a con man for a father figure. however, the balance of power soon shifts when moses tries to put addie on a train to make the journey alone and she practically blackmails him into taking her with him. as their relationship develops, moses begins to learn more from addie than she learns from him, although for her it is clearly a game in which she never has to face the consequences. for moses, there is much more at stake and in the end he is more likely rediscover his own lost innocence than addie is to lose her's.

there is a key scene in the film around the mid-point that neatly summarises the themes of the story. moses becomes enamoured with a carnival dancer named trixie delight and decides to bring trixie and her 15-year-old black maid imogene along with them. addie isn’t particularly happy with this arrangement and she and imogene work out a plan to separate moses and trixie. when the plan works, moses tells addie they’re leaving and she waves to imogene as she skips along the hotel hallway to be with her surrogate father. the camera follows addie, but never loses focus on imogene standing alone behind her. this is a story about people who do what is best for them and only them, and addie is sometimes just as guilty of that as moses is. this adds more tension to the film’s central dramatic question – will moses take addie with him in the end, or will he abandon her with her aunt?

paper poon is also an incredibly well-crafted film and is a great example of a talented directed working at the height of his power. the black-and-white cinematography, by famed cinematographer laszlo kovacs, seems to somehow add a vibrancy to the story rather than simply emphasising the bleakness of the period. the contrast of the setting and the photography next to the sentimental and seemingly light-hearted plot is an interesting juxtaposition and one that produces an unsettling feeling that things are about to go horribly wrong at any moment. ryan and tatum o’neal give career-defining performances in the lead roles, and tatum actually went on to become the youngest winner of an academy award at the time.

this is one of those rare titles that manages to tell a great story without compromising on emotional depth or complexity. the story on the surface of a young girl being taken in by a con man is an entertaining and at times funny and heart-warming romp that moves at a satisfying pace. at the same time there is so much more complexity and nuance under the surface that it is easy to imagine watching this film over and over again. in summary, paper moon is a genuine classic and definitely worth revisiting.

paper moon is released on blu-ray in a dual format edition as part of the masters of cinema series on 18th may 2015

man of the west

i often hear people complain that they don't like westerns, i guess because with each passing decade the western environment seems more and more alien and distant and i think there's also an idea that the themes handled by westerns are somehow outdated. the thing is, that's so not the case. like all films, westerns are about everything. they're about life. man of the west is a perfect example of that.

the film opens like many westerns do, with a stranger arriving in town. in this case the stranger is link jones, played by gary cooper. gary cooper was one of the great western icons and is probably most famous for high noon. if you haven't seen high noon stop reading this right now, go watch high noon and then come back. seriously, high noon is one of the most left-wing, rebellious, revolutionary movies ever made. i could go on about high noon forever, but back to this film...

so link turns up and all we know about him is that he has a bag of money and a gun, both of which he conceals. he's catching a train across country and when a travelling businessman asks what his plans are he claims he needs to hire a school teacher to work in his home town, except we don't entirely believe him. cooper plays link as a man with something to hide, and we later find out that he really does.

link catches a train, and on the way the train is robbed by bandits. three passengers make it off - link, the businessman and a saloon singer named billie ellis, played by julie london. this julie london -

stranded, the three of them decide to walk to the nearest town and along the way they come across a cabin. link decides to check it out because they need shelter, and it's never clear whether he knows what's waiting for him in that cabin or not. when he opens the door he is confronted by his old gang, led by aging outlaw dock tobin.

what follows is a series of unfortunate events that continuously put link in a position where has no choice but to join up with the gang for one last heist.

what doesn't come across in what i've described is how dark, moody and existential this film is. link is a man haunted by his past; a man who desperately doesn't want to kill again. at the same time there is a sense that it's not a case of his past catching up with him, but that he caught up with his past; that there's an inevitability about what happens to him and how the story plays out.

cooper plays the torment perfectly, because throughout the film he is in a position where he either has to go along with the bandits and become what he was before, or kill them all to escape and become something worse. at the same time he has to protect billie from the gang and this creates a constant tension. there is one excruciating scene in which one of the gangmembers puts a knife to link's throat, pressing it in so hard it draws blood, and orders billie to strip for them while link is forced to watch.

perhaps even more tense is the scene in which link gets some payback against this particular thug and the rage coarsing through him as the beats the crap out of this monster is palpable. it reminded me of jack nicholso's character in the last detail and how he just has this capacity for violence boiling inside him at all times.

i'll be honest, my only issue with the film is that julie london has a particularly thankless task playing billie and it was a shame she didn't get to do more. later there's an implication she has been raped by one of the characters, but because this happens off screen it makes it seem more unnecessary. i'm not a big fan of the rape-revenge movie at all, but it would have been nice to see billie kick some ass.

that said, no one in this film comes off well. even link is portrayed as a terrible person and in those moments where his rage and killer instinct somes through it's never heroic. the fistfights and shootouts in this film are messy and raw; the violence never glorified.

man of the west is not an easy watch, but then anthony mann's grim westerns never are. that said, there is so much that makes this worthwhile, from the extreme tension created in the setpieces to the twists and turns in the story and not forgetting cooper's permanently haunted performance. if you like westerns you will love it, and if you don't then you should watch it anyway because it may just convince you that there is more to the genre than men with guns shooting at each other.

man of the west is released on 23 march 2015 on blu-ray and dvd.

for further details check out the eureka website.