Here’s my list, and I encourage you to assault, disagree or perhaps even agree, and send in your own list in our readers’ section at ad***@tr**********.com . What is most important is to keep a dialogue going about cinema as a visual medium for artistic expression where it takes its place among other art forms.

1. Robert Bresson

The point is not to direct someone, but to direct oneself. When a sound can replace an image, cut the image or neutralize it. The ear goes more towards the within, the eye towards the other. – Robert Bresson

Bresson Films for Review:

• Diary of a Country Priest (1951)
• A Man Escaped (1956)
• Au Hasard Balthazar (1966)

 2. Yasujirō Ozu

I have formulated my own directing style in my head, proceeding without any unnecessary imitation of others. I can make fried tofu, boiled tofu, stuffed tofu. Cutlets and other fancy stuff, that’s for other directors. – Yasujirō Ozu

Ozu Films for Review:

• I was born, but … (1932)
• Tokyo Story (1953)
• An Autumn Afternoon (1962)  

3. Alfred Hitchcock

If it’s a good movie, the sound could go off and the audience would still have a perfectly clear idea of what was going on. – Alfred Hitchcock

Hitchcock Films for Review:

• Notorious (1946)
• Rear Window (1954)
• Vertigo (1958)

4. Jean-Luc Godard 

If you want to make a documentary you should automatically go to the fiction, and if you want to nourish your fiction you have to come back to reality. – Jean-Luc Godard

 Godard Films for Review:

• Vivre sa vie (1962)
• Pierrot le Fou (1965)
• Masculin Féminin (1966)

5. Roberto  Rossellini 

I want you to know how deeply I wish to translate those ideas into images, just to quiet down the turmoil of my brain. – Roberto Rossellini

Rossellini Films for Review:

• Paisà (1946)
• Journey to Italy (1954)
• La Prise de pouvoir par Louis XIV (1966)

6. Orson Welles 

A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet. – Orson Welles

Welles Films for Review:

• Citizen Kane (1941)
• The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
• Touch of Evil (1958)

7. Ernst Lubitsch  

There are a thousand ways to point a camera, but really only one. I let the audience use their imaginations. Can I help it if they misconstrue my suggestions? – Ernst Lubitsch

Lubitsch Films for Review:

• Trouble in Paradise (1932) 
• Ninotchka (1939)
• The Shop Around the Corner (1940) 

8. Howard Hawks  

I’d say that everybody has seen every plot twenty times. What they haven’t seen is characters and their relation to one another. I don’t worry much about plot anymore. – Howard Hawks 

Hawks Films for Review:

• Bringing Up Baby (1938) 
• Only Angels Have Wings (1939) 
• Rio Bravo (1959) 

9. Kenji Mizoguchi 

You must put the odor of the human body into images [which] describe for me the implacable, the egoistic, the sensual, the cruel… there are nothing but disgusting people in this world.– Kenji Mizoguchi

Mizoguchi Films for Review:

• The Life of Oharu (1952)
• Ugetsu (1953)
• Sansho the Bailiff (1954) 

10. Jean Renoir  

What interests me is the interpretation of life by an artist. The personality of the film maker interests me more than the copy of an object – Jean Renoir 

Renoir Films for Review:

• The Crime of Monsieur Lange (1935)
• The Human Beast (1938)
• The Rules of the Game (1939) 

11. Max Ophüls  

The highest reaches of the actor’s art begin, I believe, at the point where words cease to play a part. – Max Ophüls

Ophüls Films for Review:

• Letter from an Unknown Woman (1949)  
• La Ronde (1950)
• The Earrings of Madame de… (1953)  

12. Luis Buñuel  

God and Country are an unbeatable team; they break all records for oppression and bloodshed. Thank God, I am still an atheist – Luis Buñuel

Buñuel Films for Review:

• Viridiana (1961)
• Belle de Jour (1967)
• Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie (1972)

 13. Fritz Lang 

To begin with I should say that I am a visual person. I experience with my eyes and never, or only rarely, with my ear – to my constant regret. Each picture has some sort of rhythm which only the director can give it. He has to be like the captain of a ship. – Fritz Lang

Lang Films for Review:

• Metropolis (1927)
• M (1931)
• The Big Heat (1953)

14.  John Ford  

My name’s John Ford. I make westerns – John Ford

Ford Films for Review:

• My Darling Clementine (1946)
• Rio Grande (1950)
• The Searchers (1956)

15. Josef von Sternberg

Shadow is mystery and light is clarity. Shadow conceals – light reveals. To know what to reveal and what to conceal and in what degrees to do this is all there is to art. – Josef von Sternberg

Sternberg Films for Review:

• The Docks of New York (1928)
• The Blue Angel (1930)
• Morocco (1930)

 16. Billy Wilder  

I have ten commandments. The first nine are, thou shalt not bore. The tenth is, thou shalt have right of final cut. – Billy Wilder

Wilder Films for Review:

• Double Indemnity (1944)
• Sunset Boulevard (1950)
• Some Like It Hot (1959) 

17. Robert Altman 

Making a movie is like chipping away at a stone. You take a piece off here, you take a piece off there and when you’re finished, you have a sculpture. You know that there’s something in there, but you’re not sure exactly what it is until you find it. – Robert Altman 

Altman Films for Review:

• McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
• Nashville (1975)
• Short Cuts (1993)

18. D.W. Griffith 

Remember how small the world was before I came along? I brought it all to life: I moved the whole world onto a 20-foot screen. I made them see, didn’t I? I changed everything. – D.W. Griffith 

 Griffith Films for Review:

• The Birth of a Nation (1915)
• Intolerance  (1916)
• Broken Blossoms (1919) 

19. Abbas Kiarostami 

My films have been progressing towards a certain kind of minimalism, even though it was never intended. Elements which can be eliminated have been eliminated. – Abbas Kiarostami

Kiarostami Films for Review:

• Close-Up (1990)
• Taste of Cherry (1997)
• The Wind Will Carry Us (1999)  

20. Carl Theodor Dreyer 

Nothing in the world can be compared to the human face. It is a land one can never tire of exploring. There is no greater experience in a studio than to witness the expression of a sensitive face under the mysterious power of inspiration. To see it animated from inside, and turning into poetry. – Carl Theodor Dreyer 

Dreyer Films for Review:

• The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
• Day of Wrath (1943)
• Ordet (The Word) (1955) 

21. Michelangelo Antonioni  

After you’ve learned two or three basic rules of cinema grammar, you can do what you like – including breaking those rules. A film you can explain in words is not a real film. – Michelangelo Antonioni

Antonioni Films for Review:   

• L’Avventura (1960)
• L’Eclisse (1962)
• Blow-up (1966)  

22. Buster Keaton 

Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot. Charlie Chaplin and I would have a friendly contest: Who could do the feature film with the least subtitles. – Buster Keaton 

Buster Keaton Films for Review:

• Sherlock Jr. (1924)
• The General, co-director Clyde Adolf Bruckman (1927)
• Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928) 

23. Chantal Akerman   

When people ask me if I am a feminist film maker, I reply I am a woman and I also make films. – Chantal Akerman

Akerman Films for Review: 

• Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)
• News from Home (1977)
• D’Est, From the East (1993)

24. Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Every decent director has only one subject, and finally only makes the same film over and over again. My subject is the exploitability of feelings, whoever might be the one exploiting them. It never ends. It’s a permanent theme. Whether the state exploits patriotism, or whether in a couple relationship, one partner destroys the other. – Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Fassbinder Films for Review:

• The Merchant of Four Seasons (1972)
• Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974)
• Berlin Alexanderplatz, a 14-part West German crime television miniseries (1980)  

25. Ousmane Sembène  

I think cinema is needed throughout Africa, because we are lagging behind in the knowledge of our own history. I think we need to create a culture that is our own. I think that images are very fascinating and very important to that end. Our forefathers’ image of women must be buried once for all.  – Ousmane Sembène

Sembene Films for Review:

• La Noire de… Black Girl (1966)
• Mandabi  (1968)
• Xala (1975) 

26. Charles Chaplin 

Laughter is the tonic, the relief, the surcease from pain. You’ll never find rainbows if you’re looking down. We think too much and feel too little. – Charles Chaplin

Chaplin Films for Review: 

• City Lights (1931)
• The Great Dictator (1940)
• Monsieur Verdoux  (1947)

27. Andrei Tarkovsky  

The director’s task is to recreate life, its movement, its contradictions, its dynamic and conflicts. It is his duty to reveal every iota of the truth he has seen, even if not everyone finds that truth acceptable. – Andrei Tarkovsky

Tarkovsky Films for Review:

• Andrei Rublev (1966)
•  Solaris (1972)
• Stalker (1979)  

28. Federico Fellini  

Even if I set out to make a film about a fillet of sole, it would be about me. – Federico Fellini

Fellini Films for Review:

• Nights of Cabiria (1957)
•  La Dolce Vita (1960)
• 8½ (1963), 

29. Ermanno Olmi

I really don’t feel exclusive. My ambition instead, perhaps because of my peasant–worker background, is to look at the world with others, not as an aristocratic. – Ermanno Olmi

Olmi Films for Review:  

• Il Posto (1962)
• The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1978)
• Tickets, an anthology film directed by Ermanno Olmi, Abbas Kiarostami  and Ken Loach (2005)

30. Akira Kurosawa 

Kurosawa Films for Review:  

For me, filmmaking combines everything. That’s the reason I’ve made cinema my life’s work. In films, painting and literature, theatre and music come together. But a film is still a film. – Akira Kurosawa

• Ikiru (1952)
• Seven Samurai (1954)
• Yojimbo (1961)

31. Sergei Eisenstein  

Now why should the cinema follow the forms of theater and painting rather than the methodology of language, which allows wholly new concepts of ideas to arise from the combination of two concrete denotations of two concrete objects? – Sergei Eisenstein

Eisenstein Films for Review:    

• Strike (1925)
• Battleship Potemkin (1925)
• Alexander Nevsky (1938) 

32. Éric Rohmer  

Rohmer Films for Review: 

I don’t think that my films are ‘literary’; they are based on the most ordinary things of life. – Éric Rohmer 

• My Night at Maud’s (1969)
• Perceval le Gallois (1978)
• Le Beau Mariage  (1981)

33. Jerzy Skolimowski  

As a poet my mind is trained along the path of poetic associations – I’m not afraid to wander away from direct narrative – I feel safe with a story that tempts you to believe or disbelieve. – Jerzy Skolimowski

Skolimowski Films for Review:  

• Deep End (1970)
• Moonlighting (1982)
• EO (2022) 

34. F.W. Murnau 

Don’t act – think! Films of the future will use more and more of these “camera angles” or, as I prefer to call them, these “dramatic angles.”  – F.W. Murnau 

Murnau Films for Review: 

• Nosferatu (1922)
• The Last Laugh (1924)
• Sunrise (1927).

35. François Truffaut

The film of tomorrow will not be directed by civil servants of the camera, but by artists for whom shooting a film constitutes a wonderful and thrilling adventure. – François Truffaut

Truffaut Films for Review: 

• The 400 Blows (1959)
• Jules and Jim (1962)
• Day for Night (1973)

36. Miklós Jancsó 

It’s very simple. Cinema has limits that it can’t exceed. It can never go beyond catching the spectator’s interest to make a spectacle. – Miklós Jancsó.

Jancsó Films for Review: 

• The Round-Up (1966)
• The Red and the White (1967)
• Red Psalm  (1971) 

37. Hou Hsiao-hsien  

The  “wu” in  “wuxia” means both “to cut” and “to stop.” It also refers to the weapon – usually a sword – carried by the assassin.  So wuxia stories are concerned with the premise of ending violence with violence. The hero’s journey is epic and transformative – physically, emotionally, and spiritually. – Hou Hsiao-hsien

Hou Hsiao-hsien Films for Review: 

• A City of Sadness (1989)
• The Puppetmaster (1993)
• Flowers of Shanghai (1998) 

38. Werner Herzog 

There are deeper strata of truth in cinema, and there is such a thing as poetic, ecstatic truth. It is mysterious and elusive, and can be reached only through fabrication and imagination and stylization. – Werner Herzog

Herzog Films for Review: 

• Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)
• The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974)
• Stroszek (1977) 

39. Satyajit Ray 

The director is the only person who knows what the film is about. Cinema’s characteristic forte is its ability to capture and communicate the intimacies of the human mind. – Satyajit Ray 

Ray Films for Review: 

• Pather Panchali (1955) 
• Apur Sansar (The World of Apu) (1959)
• Aranyer Din Ratri (Days and Nights in the Forest)  (1970) 

40. Stanley Kubrick  

A film is – or should be – more like music than like fiction. – Stanley Kubrick

 Kubrick Films for Review:

• Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
• 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
• The Shining (1980) 

41. Alain Resnais  

I use formal techniques to make the film more perceptive emotionally. – Alain Resnais

Resnais Films for Review:

• Hiroshima mon amour (1959)
• Last Year at Marienbad (1961)
• Mon oncle d’Amérique (1980) 

42. John Cassavetes  

During the actual filming, I’m not really listening to dialogue. I’m watching to see if the actors are communicating something and expressing something. You’re not aware of exactly what people are saying. You are aware of what they are INTENDING and what kind of feeling is going on in that scene. – John Cassavetes  

Cassavetes Films for Review:  

• Faces (1968)
• A Woman Under the Influence (1974)
• Opening Night (1977) 

43. Claire Denis  

I am not at all interested in theories about cinema. I am only interested in images and people and sound. – Claire Denis

Denis Films for Review:

• Chocolat (1988)
• Beau Travail (1999)
• Stars at Noon (2022)  

44. Sam Peckinpah 

The whole underside of our society has always been violence and still is. Churches, laws – everybody seems to think that man is a noble savage. But he’s only an animal. A meat-eating, talking animal. Recognize it. He also has grace and love and beauty. But don’t say to me we’re not violent. – Sam Peckinpah 

Peckinpah Films for Review:

• Ride the High Country (1962)
• The Wild Bunch (1969)
• Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973) 

45. Andrzej Wajda  

When a film is created, it is created in a language, which is not only about words, but also the way that very language encodes our perception of the world, our understanding of it. – Andrzej Wajda 

• Kanał (1957)
• Ashes and Diamonds (1958)
• Man of Iron (1981)  

46. Martin Scorsese 

Cinema is a matter of what’s in the frame and what’s out. – Martin Scorsese

Scorsese Films for Review:

• Mean Streets (1973) 
• Taxi Driver (1977)  
• Raging Bull (1980)   

47. Masahiro Shinoda

One thing I can say is either to look at films very carefully, watch a lot of films, or don’t see any films at all. Just imagine! – Masahiro Shinoda

Shinoda Films for Review:

• Pale Flower (1964)
• Double Suicide) (1969)
• Ballad of Orin (1977) 

Film as dream, film as music. No art passes our conscience in the way film does, and goes directly to our feelings, deep down into the dark rooms of our souls. – Ingmar Bergman

Bergman Films for Review:

• The Seventh Seal (1958)
• Winter Light (1962)
• Persona (1966) 

49. Sergio Leone 

When I was young, I believed in three things: Marxism, the redemptive power of cinema, and dynamite. Now I just believe in dynamite. – Sergio Leone 

Leone Films for Review:

• The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
• Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
• Once Upon a Time in America (1984) 

 50. Agnès Varda  

I’m not interested in seeing a film just made by a woman – not unless she is looking for new images. – Agnes Varda

Varda Films for Review:

• Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962)
• Le Bonheur (1965)
• Vagabond (1985) 

51. Jacques Rivette  

I guess I like a lot of directors. Or at least I try to. – Jacques Rivette 

Rivette Films for Review:

• L’amour fou (1969)
• Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974)
• La Belle Noiseuse (1991)

52. Clint Eastwood 

I keep working because I learn something new all the time. – Clint Eastwood 

Eastwood Films for Review:

• Unforgiven (1992)
• Mystic River (2003)
• Million Dollar Baby (2004) 

53. Erich von Stroheim

In Hollywood, you’re only as good as your last picture. – Erich von Stroheim

Stroheim Films for Review:

• Blind Husbands (1919)
• Foolish Wives (1922)
• Greed (1924)

54. Chris Marker 

An object dies when the gaze that lights on it has disappeared. – Chris Marker

Marker Films for Review:

• La Jetée (1962)
• Sans Soleil (1983)
• Loin du Vietnam, short in compilation film (1967)

55. Robert Flaherty

Sometimes you have to lie. One often has to distort a thing to catch its true spirit. – Robert Flaherty

Flaherty Films for Review::

• Nanook of the North (1922)
• Man of Aran (1934)
• Louisiana Story (1948)

56. Claude Chabrol

Films with a message just make me laugh. – Claude Chabrol

Chabrol Films for Review:

• La Femme infidèle (1969)
• Le Boucher (1970)
• Juste avant la nuit (1971)

57. Michael Powel & Emeric Pressburger 

Of course, all films are surrealist. They are because they are making something that looks like a real world but isn’t. – Michael Powell

Powell & Pressburger Films for Review:

• A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
• Black Narcissus (1947)
•  The Red Shoes (1948

58. Joseph Losey

Films can illustrate our existence… they can distress, disturb and provoke people into thinking about themselves and certain problems. But NOT give the answers. America has abandoned the strong woman of spirituality and is shacking up with the harlot of materialism. – Joseph Losey

Losey Films for Review:

• The Servant (1963)
• Accident (1967)
• The Go-Between (1971)

59. Preston Sturges

I did not think that a good movie was the equivalent of a good stage play, any more than I thought an automobile ride was as exhilarating as a drive behind a spirited horse, nor a trip by steam as soul-satisfying as a voyage by sail. – Preston Sturges

Sturges Films for Review:

• Hail the Conquering Hero (1944)
• The Lady Eve (1941)
• Sullivan’s Travels (1941)

60. David Cronenberg

Everybody’s a mad scientist, and life is their lab. We’re all trying to experiment to find a way to live, to solve problems, to fend off madness and chaos. – David Cronenberg

Cronenberg Films for Review:

• Spider (2002)
• Dead Ringers (1988)
• A History of Violence (2005)

61. Carlos Saura

I can’t separate cinema from my life. The two things are interrelated and enrich or impoverish each other. – Carlos Saura

Saura Films for Review:

• Ana and the Wolves (1972)
• Cría cuervos (1975)
• Flamenco Trilogy (1981 – 1986), Bodas de Sangre, Carmen, El Amor Brujo 

62. Wim Wenders 

Film is a very, very powerful medium. It can either confirm the idea that things are wonderful the way they are, or it can reinforce the conception that things can be changed. – Wim Wenders

Wenders Films for Review:

• Alice in the Cities (1974)
• Kings of the Road (1976)
• The American Friend (1977)

63. John Huston

The directing of a picture involves coming out of your individual loneliness and taking a controlling part in putting together a small world. – John Huston

Huston Films for Review:

• The Maltese Falcon (1941)
• The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
• The Man Who Would Be King (1975) 

64. Shōhei Imamura  

I am interested in the relationship of the lower part of the human body and the lower part of the social structure on which the reality of daily Japanese life obstinately supports itself. – Shōhei Imamura 

Imamura Films for Review:

• Vengeance Is Mine (1979)
• The Ballad of Narayama (1983)
• Black Rain (1989)

65. Nicholas Ray 

An actor can be as talented as another, but if he doesn’t stick to what the director’s intentions are, it all falls down. – Nicholas Ray 

Ray Films for Review:

• In a Lonely Place, (1950 )
• Johnny Guitar (1954)
• Bitter Victory (1957)

66. Jean Vigo 

However paradoxical it may seem, the film studio’s ideal would be to produce only one film which would go on making money forever. – Jean Vigo

Vigo Films for Review:

• Zéro de conduite featurette (1933)
• L’Atalante (1934) 

67. Vittorio De Sica

Art has to be severe. It cannot be commercial. It cannot be for the producer or even for the public. It has to be for oneself. – Vittorio De Sica

De Sica Films for Review:

• Sciuscià (1946)
• Ladri di biciclette (1948)
• Il Giardino dei Finzi-Contini (1970)

68. Jacques Tati

The images are designed, so that after you see the picture two or three times, its no longer my film, it starts to be your film. You recognize the people, you know them, and you don’t even know who directed the picture. – Jacques Tati

Tait Films for Review:

• Les Vacances de M. Hulot (1953)
• Playtime (1967)
• Trafic (1971)

69. Richard Lester

Cinema must reflect the temper of the times. We must choose material not only on the basis of whether we feel deeply, but on whether or not anyone’s bloody well going to see it. – Richard Lester

Lester Films for Review:

• A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
• Petulia (1968)
•  Juggernaut (1974)

70. Kon Ichikawa 

I’ve made various types of films: period dramas, modern dramas, films set in the Meiji period. But I don’t make any distinctions between them – they’re all films. True, with a period drama, there are certain conventions. With a modern drama, there is a different style of shooting. So you have to make changes according to the genre, but I never think, “This is a period drama, so I have to shoot it in such and such a way.” Films are films. If you don’t understand that, then you start filming lies. – Kon Ichikawa

Ichikawa Films for Review:

• The Burmese Harp (1956)
• Odd Obsession (1959)
• Fires on the Plain (1959)

71. Laurent Cantet 

I think we’re going through a really precarious period in film production, and I very much fear that it’s going to be a lot more difficult to make my kind of cinema. If you make films that don’t exactly announce themselves as surefire hits, you feel like you’re walking a tightrope.  I don’t want to take larger scale films in order to show my evolution as a director. – Laurent Cantet

Cantet Films for Review:

• Human Resources  (1999)
• Time Out (2001)
• The Class (2008)

72. Jean-Pierre Melville

I believe that you must be madly in love with cinema to create films. You also need a huge cinematic baggage. – Jean-Pierre Melville

Melville Films for Review:

• Le Doulos (1962)
• Le Samouraï (1967)
• Army of Shadows (1969)

73. Krzysztof Zanussi

I think cinema has a unique capacity to show the passage of time. When the camera can cover a distance of forty years, and you see what really happened to the faces of the actors – how they really aged, with no need for make-up – you see what happens to us. In literature, it is only reference, it’s not sensual; in cinema it’s sensual. – Krzysztof Zanussi

Zanussi Films for Review:

• Contract – FR TV (1980)
• The Constant Factor (1980)
• A Year of the Quiet Sun (1984)

74. Luchino Visconti

I could make a film in front of a wall if I knew how to find the data of man’s true humanity and how to express it. – Luchino Visconti

Visconti Films for Review:

• Rocco e i suoi fratelli (1960)
• Il gattopardo (1960)
• Morte a Venezia (1971)

75. David Lynch

Life is very, very complicated, and so films should be allowed to be, too. – David Lynch

Lynch Films for Review:

• Blue Velvet (1986)
• Lost Highway (1997)
• Mulholland Drive (2001)

Readers, feel free to comment or send your own lists to ad***@tr**********.com .

The post Traveling Boy Selects the 75 Greatest Film Directors of All-Time appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Ekwa Msangi’s directorial debut, Farewell Amor is a tender story about an immigrant family facing new beginnings.  Essentially a three-hander, the finely fleshed out characters are brought to life by Msangi and the stirring performances of the principal actors.

It’s time for the character’s rediscovery and director Msangi divides the film into three segments to reflect the adjustments each character is trying to make.  The first segment focuses on Walter, amazingly brought to life by Ntare Guma Mbaho. He left his wife and daughter in Angola 17 years ago to escape a civil war.  Since then, he has been working as a cab driver earning just enough money to pay for his claustrophobic Brooklyn apartment, sending whatever is left to his wife.

The time has finally come when all the immigration red tape has been met and his family can now join him. His wife Esther, played by Zainab Jah, embodies the complexities of her character, and arrives at La Guardia Airport with their daughter Sylvia, played by Jayme Lawson.

There is an awkward greeting between them when they meet again almost as strangers, soon finding themselves caught between two cultures. As the newly arrived immigrants take their first ride through the busy streets, Ekwa Msangi and cinematographer Bruce Francis Cole capture both the grittiness of New York and the wonder reflected in the eyes of the newcomers.

At the family dinner, Esther insists that they say grace first, and Walter begins to get a glimpse of how deeply religious she is, which began when she fled to Tanzania.  Confessing that she’s been celibate since they separated, there is an attempt at lovemaking, but Walter is clearly conflicted and turns his back away from her. It becomes also clear that Esther would rather go to church than participate in any spousal intimacies.  He tries to accommodate some of her wishes by attending a church service, but clearly is having difficulties and doesn’t participate in singing any hymns.  Other forbidden things on her list include drinking wine and dancing, both of which he has been enjoying. Osei Essed’s lively soundtrack is a wonderful blend of African roots music as well as popular American selections. Walter grabs a bag hidden in a closet, and we realize that there is another woman in his life.  He subsequently throws the bag in the trash and continues to remain present and distant at the same time. At one point his daughter says, “Poppa do you love us?”

The next segment is from Sylvia’s point of view. On her first day at school, she meets fellow student D.J., nicely portrayed by Marcus Scribner. He grew up in the south without a father, and on discovering that she likes to dance, suggests that she try out for the Step Team. He walks her home, but when Esther sees D.J in their tiny apartment, she forbids Sylvia to have friends or dance, forcing her to kneel and pray for forgiveness.  At school, Sylvia injures her hand and Walter takes her to the hospital.  While waiting, he shares how he and her mother met at university and what great times they had dancing together, adding “This country is very hard for black people and dancing is the one place I can show myself,” encouraging her to dance. Sylvia doesn’t understand why he didn’t send for them sooner, and he explains that it was difficult due to government red tape.

In the segment devoted to Esther, we see her slowly uncovering Walter’s secret when mail addressed to Linda keeps arriving at the apartment. Though she spends most of her time cleaning, cooking, and talking to her sister back home, she finally confronts her husband about Linda and he replies, “She gave me hope.” We begin to understand that although Walter was in this loving relationship, he is committed to his wife and daughter. In an effort to discuss their dilemma, he takes Esther out to dinner in a beautiful restaurant.  She bought a new dress and looks lovely, exuding a softness we haven’t seen before. They discuss their past, and what takes place is surprising; evoking the audience to smile or shed a tear or two.

Farewell Amor could have easily slipped into a soap opera, but the finely honed script and razor-sharp directing, results in an unforgettable family drama, illuminating aspects of the universal human condition and the inherent challenges therein, including sacrifices for the greater good. While all the performances are fully realized, Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine’s totally internalized characterization of Walter is spellbinding and we patiently await his next role.

“Farewell Amor”

Release Date:  December 11, 2020

Where: In Theatres and on Digital and VOD Platforms

Language: English

Running Time: 101 Minutes

Rating: Unrated

The post Film Review: Ekwa Msangi’s Directorial Debut With “Farewell Amor” appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Living with the harsh reality that the United States Supreme Court is the most conservative since the 1930’s, we are faced with the possibility of reversal of protections – from healthcare to environmental. In that regard, Alan Ball’s compelling feature length directorial debut,  Uncle Frank, couldn’t be timelier, as it’s a reminder of the harsh laws that governed alternative lifestyles and the severe consequences of getting caught.  Known primarily as the writer of American Beauty and creator of the True Blood franchise series, Ball’s film deals with a very serious subject, but still retains plenty of amusing moments.

Plot Summary:

Set in 1973, Uncle Frank is a family drama told through the eyes of young Beth Bledsoe, wonderfully played by Sophia Lillis. She lives in Creekville, South Carolina where her grandfather Daddy Mac, played by Stephen Root, is the strict patriarch at its head.  Beth has been accepted by New York University, where her Uncle Frank, beautifully characterized by Paul Bettany, is a highly respected professor of literature and has avoided family visits for decades. From his remarks, it is clear that her grandfather does not like his son. Beth doesn’t understand this as she finds her uncle to be the most interesting member of the family. He encourages her to reach her goals and in an intimate conversation, promises that he will always be there for her. What she is about to find out is that her uncle is gay and created an acceptable heterosexual lifestyle story for the family.

At college, Beth becomes friends with Bruce, a duplicitous young man played by Colton Ryan who, although virgin Beth would like to have sex with him, he declines. She surprises Frank by showing up at his office with Bruce who she introduces as her boyfriend. Frank is happy to see her, but is swamped with work so the visit is short. Beth finds out that her uncle is having a party and decides to show up with Bruce. Frank’s lover Wally (Walid,) tenderly played by Peter Macdissi, opens the door and introduces himself as her uncle’s roommate. Bruce finds the professor sitting on the fire escape smoking and offers a sex act. Irritated, Frank tells him to get lost and warns Beth about whom Bruce really is. It is during this visit that Frank reveals his true identity to his niece.

Shortly after the party, Frank’s father dies but he is reluctant to go to the funeral. He knows his father has despised him since he was a teenager when he caught him in bed with a boy named Sam, played by Michael Perez. ­Wally encourages his partner to attend the funeral and to use that time to “come out of the closet.” Wally wants to go with him but Frank says that’s a bad idea.

In the meantime, Beth’s parents Kitty (Judy Greer) and Mike (Steve Zahn) won’t allow her to fly home, so it becomes a fun road trip between uncle and niece. She is curious and wants to know if he ever kissed a girl and when he knew he was gay. It became clear to him when he was 16. In a flashback, he and Sam are swimming in a lake and have their first kiss. Despite telling Wally that he cannot attend the funeral, he follows them down and they run into each other at a gas station. Frank is upset and asks him why he didn’t respect his wishes, to which he replied, “I brought you a razor and a tie.” Frank’s car breaks down so the three of them wind up in Wally’s convertible. It’s a long drive from Manhattan to Creekville so they decide to overnight in a motel. Frank tells his partner that they cannot share a room. “We could go to prison if we’re caught.” In one amusing scene, the desk clerk at the motel demands to know the relationship between them and after answering to her satisfaction, she insists the young girl must have her own room, which leaves the two guys to share a room. But being closeted isn’t the only challenge Frank faces, as it appears he is also a recovering alcoholic. Faced with the prospects of being with his family, he starts drinking again, which is of grave concern to Wally who says, “I won’t go through it again.” After the funeral, there are flashbacks and one where Frank’s father catches him in bed with Sam and tells him, “You can’t see that boy again. If you do, I’ll kill both of you.” The rest of the film focuses on Frank’s grappling with his demons and an event that further cements his father’s contempt for him.

Director Ball’s brilliant script, nicely captured on camera by Khalid Mohtaseb, underscored by Nathan Barr’s music, has skillfully revealed the horrors of being gay in that era without beating you over the head. It’s deft story telling, and Bettany’s exquisite characterization of Frank is Oscar-worthy as is Sophia Lillis’ portrayal of Beth and Peter Macdissi’s Wally. The rest of the excellent cast includes, Lois Smith, Margo Martindale, Jane McNeil, Caity Brewer, Hannah Black, Burgess Jenkins, Zach Sturm, Britt Rentschler, Alan Campell, and Cole Doman.

“Uncle Frank”
Where: Amazon
When: November 26, 2020
Running Time: 95 Minutes
MPAA Rating: R

The post Paul Bettany Gives a Stirring Performance in Alan Ball’s “Uncle Frank” – On Amazon appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Plot Summary:

Pierce plays the Dutch art forger, Han Van Meegeren, an effete bon vivant artist, infamous for his decadent soirees with high ranking Nazis during World War II. The owner of over 500 Amsterdam properties, he had sold forged Dutch paintings to top Nazi officials, including Hermann Göring. While Van Meegeren lived life to the hilt, Bang’s Captain Joseph (Joe) Piller, a Dutch Jew and former tailor, was fighting in the Resistance. His record was spotless and after the war was assigned to tracking down and identifying other stolen works of art, mostly from Jewish people, with the goal of returning them to survivors or families.

It is now May 29, 1945, three weeks after the fall of Hitler’s Third Reich. While Joe searches for stolen treasures, streets crackle with public executions by firing squads for people guilty of collaboration with the enemy. Joe is particularly interested in how Göring came into possession of Vermeer’s “Christ and the Adulteress,” and traces the sale to Han Van Meegeren, with whom he arrests. In a stark jail cell, the arrogant artist requests paints, paintbrushes, and canvases.  He is to be tried and if convicted, will face the firing squad. The stories that Han tells Joe begin to plant doubts that he is guilty. He insists that he painted the Vermeers and sold the fake paintings to the Nazis for exorbitant prices. In the meantime, the Dutch government wants Han in their custody and attempts to snatch him from prison. On hearing this, Joe races back to the prison and takes Han to a loft where he can paint while he continues his investigation.

The artist reveals that despite having art critics spit on his work, he knew he was an excellent painter and decided he would pull off the hoax of the century by painting a number of pieces and then pawning them off as Vermeers. Those transactions made he and his wife incredibly affluent, owning multiple homes and enjoying a lush lifestyle. However, the government agents ultimately track him down and throw him into their prison. Despite being incarcerated, Van Meegeren maintains his elitist demeanor and still insists he painted those Vermeers. Joe enlists his former army buddy Esper, well played by Roland Møller who discovers a treasure trove of photos and cash hidden under the floorboards of Han’s studio, which included pictures of Joe’s wife attending parties where Nazis were in attendance. He confronts her and she insists that although she worked for a German officer, she was able to funnel information that saved the lives of many people. An attraction begins to heat up between Joe  and widowed Minna, played by Vicky Krieps, who has been assisting him in the investigation.

Han is now on trial and all the Vermeers that he claims he painted are displayed in the packed courtroom. Unfortunately for him, the one person who could back up his claim is deceased. With dramatic flair, he testifies that the art world treated him with distain and he deliberately painted the forgeries that fooled some of the best authenticators in the art world, bragging that one of his counterfeits hangs in Washington’s National Gallery of Art.  Experts are called to testify, all of who had authenticated the paintings as being genuine. The accused explains in great detail how he painted the fakes – from the kind of brushes, paints, and canvases he used, as well as the chemicals applied for the aging process. Joe, who is acting as his co-attorney, begs the judges to let him perform an acid test to prove the paintings are fraudulent, but the judges refuse. They convene and in just minutes render a guilty verdict punishable by death. The courtroom explodes in shock and what happens in the closing minutes will have you on the edge of your seat. Yes. It’s an intriguing but true cliffhanger.

Technically, the film is perfect from the settings to costumes to the music but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Remi Adefarasin cinematography, which beautifully captures the changing physical portrait of post-war Holland.

The Last Vermeer

Director: Jonathan Lopez
Screenplay: James McGee, a Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby
Based on the book “The Man Who Made Vermeers” by Jonathan Lopez
Executive Producer:  Ridley Scott, Peter Heslop
Producers: Ryan Friedkin, Dan Friedkin, Bradley Thomas, Vijay Waghmare
Production Company:  Imperative Entertainment, Mehra Entertainment

Distributor:  TriStar Pictures
Cinematographer: Remi Adefarasin
Edited By: Victoria Boydell
Music: Johan Söderqvist

Language:  English
Running Time:  117 minutes
Release Date: December 4, 2020 (United States)

Principals: Claes Bang, Guy Pierce, Vicky Krieps, Roland Møller

117 minute
Rating:  R
Release date:  November 20, 2020
Opening On-Screen Via TriStar Pictures

The post Guy Pierce and Clase Bang Give Stirring Performances in “The Last Vermeer” appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Any career woman, who has been faced with juggling her work with parental responsibilities will relate to French director Alice Winocour’s “Proxima.” Co-written with Jean-Stéphane Bron, the film is basically a family drama centering on a female astronaut in training for a space trip to Mars.  Driven by the impeccable characterization of Sarah Loreau by Eva Green, the film is a pre-blast-off excursion into the delicate balance between Sarah and her seven-year-old daughter Stella, beautifully rendered by talented Zélie Boulant-Lemesle, who makes her film debut.  Unlike the “Hollywoodish” superficial character and relationship development in the Netflix series “Away” starring Hillary Swank, Winocour’s script delves deeply into the changing family dynamic, which is spot on and intriguing, illuminating the roller coaster of emotions that mother and daughter experience during the pre-flight training process.

Sarah sits quietly with Stella, explaining that she has been chosen to be the only female astronaut and that her training will commence shortly, after which she will be gone for a year. In a very poignant moment, her child asks, “Will you die before me?” Sarah tries to skim over the answer and as she’s tucking her in casually says, “That is customary.”  In order to move forward, Sarah must enlist the aid of her ex-partner and Stella’s dad Lars Eidinger to become the primary caretaker. Nicely played by Thomas Ackerman, at first Lars is reluctant to be a full time dad and can’t understand why his “ex” wants to do this.  She tells him that being an astronaut has been her dream ever since she was a little girl and put a lampshade on her head.  Being in the space business himself, Lars agrees and his daughter moves in along with her cat Laika.

Sarah is the only woman selected for this special mission, the training of which will take place at the European Space Agency in Cologne, Germany under the supervision of team commander, and somewhat sexist Mike Shannon, aptly played by Matt Dillon.  On occasion, he tries to pull her off parts of the training that he thinks might be too daunting, citing that she might not have the core skills.  Offended, she insists that she can do it, and does as well as the male astronauts, including the grueling 9G Gravity machine.  The training scenes are intense and beautifully captured by cinematographer by Georges Lechaptois, who lingers on a frame  before cutting to the next shot.  Leisure time is given to the astronauts who, one night, sat around a campfire reciting poetry:  “Give me a garden of beautiful flowers where I can walk undisturbed.”

As the training nears completion, Stella and her dad are moved to housing in Cologne for families of the astronauts.  Supervised by astrophysicist Wendy, played by Sandra Hüller, she takes Stella under her wing and becomes her surrogate mother.  In between training sessions, Sarah spends time with her daughter and there is there is a sweet scene of them ice-skating together.  But, Stella is quite unhappy as being dyslectic, she is having trouble keeping up with the other kids and can’t do the multiplication tables.  Throughout the film we see Sarah’s devotion to her training, as well as her deep concern for her daughter’s well being.  As the time allowed to spend with her daughter shortens, Stella begins to withdraw and forms a strong bond with Wendy.

Blast-off is nearing and reality of the potential danger of the mission is setting in and each astronaut is asked to write a “just in case” letter to their families.  They are also allowed to bring a few mementoes on board to remember their earth connections, such as favorite family photos, shots of water, forests, and even ladybugs.  They can bring enough stuff to fill a shoebox – no more than that. Being so close to takeoff, and to avoid any contamination, the astronauts can now only see their families through a glass partition and you can see the pain Sarah is feeling in not being able to hold her child one last time before she leaves for outer space.  It is about here that she takes what is an implausible dramatic action that endangers not only herself, but also the mission.  Perhaps it was to heighten the drama and to hammer home Sarah’s devotion to her child. However, taking that action flies in the face of all her training and leaves you doubting her commitment.  Not a good message as breaking serious rules doesn’t shine a positive light on Sarah and brings into question the ability of a woman to walk the line between parenting and career.  Despite this contrived dramatic moment, the schedule is maintained and all the astronauts are suited up. But is it a “go?”

“PROXIMA”

A Vertical Entertainment Release
Where:  Digital HD from Amazon Video, iTunes & Pay TV
Genre:  Action/Drama
Running time: 1 hour 47 minutes
Languages:  French, English, Russian, German (sub-titles when appropriate)
Not rated.

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Wonderfully produced and directed by Laura Naylor, this enchanting film presents an intimate look at the daily lives of a group of working class men, some of whom have been showing up for the harvest drive at the Jacques Selosse vineyards for the last twenty-five years.  The film captures the heart and soul of this particular harvest experience, which takes place from August through November, culminating with the bottling of the wine.

Complimenting the excellent direction, the film is exquisitely shot by cinematographer Ryan de Franco, and begins with a series of establishing shots – an outdoor barbeque, men working in the vineyard, a worker tasting a grape, and scenes of women brought in to prepare meals for the workers.  As the men arrive from different parts of France, they greet each other warmly as most of them have known each other for years. Sleeping accommodations have been made and after a slight discussion over the arrangements, everything is settled amicably.  Soon, we are taken into the vineyard where every day the grapes are carefully cut and placed into crates.  It’s backbreaking work, but the men are cheerful, playful, very respectful of each other, and take their work seriously.

These workers are not just pickers.  They are wine experts capable of detecting and identifying the inherent complexities of a particular variety.  On their cigarette breaks, they lie down amongst the vines and playfully joke with each other or share family stories.  The wife of one of the workers is part of the group of women who will be preparing the mouth-watering meals and there are delightful scenes of the cooks comparing recipes, deciding what food items needed to be purchased, and fun shopping trips to the markets. But, with the younger members of the family taking on greater roles in the running of the business, there are occasional culture clashes between the aging pickers and the younger family members who might not embrace all of their traditions. However, at the end of the harvest, they all gather in a beautiful, candle-lit dining room and between the gourmet food, plenty of fabulous wine, and singing, any tensions during the harvest melt away. Brian Bender and Deniz Cuylan’s rousing musical score fully accents the joy and spirit of these people. There are sweet scenes of the workers with their families illuminating their lives away from the vineyard.  Director Naylor was meticulous in painting the crew with a fine brush so that they are multi-dimensional showing how they spend their days away from the vineyard.   A very delightful scene is with one of the workers playing a variation of bocce ball with his wife, who also happens to be one of the fabulous cooks.  At last, with the harvested completed, the dorm is stripped, floors are mopped, pay is handed out, and these dedicated workers, most of whom will return next year, are once more headed home to their families.

For anyone interested in an intimate look at a complicated wine harvest, this film walks you through the process from beginning to end, capturing the humanity of everyone involved as well as the symbiotic relationship between the owners and the workers.  It also reveals the pivotal role Mother Nature plays in the final product, which could impact on the level of success of the harvest.  However, one can see why the Domain Jacques Selosse, now run by the founder’s son Anselme, has earned an excellent reputation for producing very fine champagne, perhaps due in part to using oak barrels for fermentation rather than the usual stainless steel.

The film features: Miguel Delhaye, Samuel Delhaye, Bastien Favier, Léa Favier, Bruno Santiago, Anselme Selosse, Caroline Selosse, Corinne Selosse, Guillaume Selosse, Michel Waret, and Renelle Waret.

*Cinéma vérité or “truth cinema” was a French film movement of the 1960s that captured  people in everyday situations with authentic, unscripted, predominantly  improvised dialogue.

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Atom Egoyan’s film is one that you will either love or hate.  I fall somewhere in the middle as the following review will demonstrate.

The movie begins with a haunting scene of a young girl “playing” wine glasses, emitting a beautiful sound.  We immediately segue to Veronica (Laysla De Oliveira) who, wearing a red dress, arrives at a church to speak with Father Greg (Luke Wilson) regarding services for her deceased father.  She describes his work in detail explaining that he devoted his life to being a Department of Health Inspector and spent his days going from restaurant to restaurant to ferret out any animal droppings with the preciseness of a skilled brain surgeon.

In a series of flashbacks that take us into a variety of restaurants, we see Jim, embodied by the gifted actor, David Thewlis, doing his job.  He pays meticulous attention to detail as he pokes his nose into every nook and cranny where an unwelcomed pest might be hiding.  His mantra is that he has devoted his life to keeping people’s food safe and clean. It is about at this point, that a series of flashbacks begin, spanning a 15-year period, taking us from Veronica’s childhood to the present time. In one scene, we see dad giving his young daughter a baby rabbit, whose ears and feet will play a part later in both their lives.

As Veronica talks to a most sympathetic Father Gregg, we learn that she was in prison for sexual misconduct with one of her students named Clive (Alexandre Bourgeois). A music teacher, Veronica was friendly and supportive of all her students but found Clive to be especially talented and gave him a lot of extra time. A school bus driver named Mike, played by Rossif Sutherland, has a crush on Veronica and becomes increasingly jealous of the friendship with her student.  He fiddles with her cell phone, which was customarily left on the bus during recitals, figures out her password, and sends a seductive email to Clive who thinks it’s from his teacher. Despite being innocent of raping her young student, she pleads guilty and goes to prison, which is somehow connected to her perception of her father’s behavior when she was a child.  Before going to prison, driven by a flawed memory from her childhood, she had been acting out by indulging in a string of one-night stands. So, the plot gets a little tricky as sub-plot upon sub-plot is introduced. I know this all sounds a bit “soap opera-ish” and you would be right to some extent. However, the rotating timeline is executed so delicately as to be almost imperceptible, and it takes a bit of concentration to navigate these mercurial time-line transitions.  Some might call it “clunky,” but I call it creative.

In one mysterious scene, Jim carefully plants rat droppings in the bathroom of a Brazilian restaurant.  At first I was surprised, but his reason become clear as to why he commits such a fraudulent, dishonest act and slowly, ever so slowly, the narrative begins to crystallize.

Despite a flawed script, David Thewlis’ brilliant performance is worth the price of admission. I found myself hanging on to his every word, delivered in a precise, non-melodramatic way, one of the real dangers of precise in his moment-to-moment reality and delivers a perfect, steady performance with the quiet sub-text permeating his every word. For any actor out there, it is a lesson in “not playing the text.”  I also thought that it was interesting story telling, slowly revealing the reason for Veronica’s strained relationship with her father.  Rather than being critical of the sometimes confusing timeline, I like to think of this film as a giant puzzle, with pieces scattered all over the table, requiring a patient assembly to achieve a coherent completion.  It should be noted that the film was an Official Selection at the Venice International Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, BFI London Film Festival, and is currently being screened via virtual cinemas through Kino Marquee.

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With Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Jamie Foxx in lead roles, how could anything go wrong in this action, sci-fi thriller written by first-time screenwriter ​Mattson Tomlin and directed by Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost?  In a word – plenty.

It’s 3:00 am in New Orleans, nicely captured by cinematographer Michael Simmonds. The drug dealers are hard at work selling a shiny new pill which, when taken, endows the recipient with super powers. At $500 a pop, this magic bullet is not stable and while it could gift you with superhuman strength allowing you to lift a car up over your head, or turn you into a super hero where bullets bounce off your cheeks, or render you invisible, or enable you to sprint at almost 50 miles per hour, the pill is unstable and, as Colson Baker, a.k.a. ​Rapper Machine Gun Kelly, demonstrates, after taking the pill he turns into a flaming torch.  I guess you could say you pays the price and you takes your chances.

Frank, a LAPD officer played by Gordon-Levitt, arrives on the scene and busts a young girl named Robin, who is a drug pusher/wannabe Rapper, played by Dominique Fishback.  They then become partners in the pursuit of the major supplier.  Every once in a while throughout the film, she breaks out in a Rap riff germane to a particular situation and becomes a pivotal character in the ensuing silly action.  In order to level the playing field with the bad guys, Frank takes a pill and taps into his hidden strength.  Yes, there are shades of Bradley Cooper’s starring role in the well-done Limitless, which also involved taking a pill – giving new meaning to “on the pill.” Sorry.  Couldn’t resist that. There are also vague, superficial similarities to Marvel and DC Comics super heroes.

Enter now Jamie Foxx as Art, a former army major whose daughter has been kidnapped by the sinister, cartoonish bad guys played by  Rodrigo Santoro and Amy Landecker, leaders in Teleios, the outfit peddling Power. Their creepy plan is to mass produce the Power Pill and create an indestructible militia that could take over the world.  It seems that Art’s daughter Tracy, played by Kyanna Simone Simpson, has special antibodies in her blood that allows her to achieve the same effects of the Power pill without actually taking it.  She is currently being held captive on a cavernous cargo ship turned into a massive floating laboratory with endless winding corridors and secret hatches controlled by a highly intricate set of computers, let’s say on the scale of NASA or the CIA.  Art is determined to rescue his daughter and in a flashback remembers the two of them in a car when his daughter is dragged away by the bad guys thus beginning his unrelenting determination to rescue her.  So, the three of them – Frank, Art, and Robin make their way to the ship and lo and behold, she figures out how to work the unbelievably intricate computer system controlling the doors and hatches, giving Frank and Art blow-by-blow instructions on how to retrieve Tracy without getting caught.

Having rescued her, now the four of them have to get off the ship alive and thus, popping a pill, Art becomes a version of the Hulk and a big punch-out ensues.   And, like any good fairytale, the good guys win, the bad guys are dead, and Robin, the former drug dealer, gets to cut her first rap single.  Other members of the supporting cast include, Allen Maldonado, Casey Neistat, Tait Fletcher, Colson Baker, Michael Thomas, Andrene Ward-Hammond, Yoshi Sudarso, and a cameo guest performance by Courtney B. Vance, who delivers one of the most believable moments in the film.

While it might sound good on paper, the film is weighted down by predictable clichés, and rather absurd plot points.  It’s a wonder that despite the poor script, and intermittent unfocused direction, that the three principal characters gave creditable performances – especially Fox and Fishback.  Gordon-Levitt, who is usually solid in creating characters, did have a bit of a challenge in maintaining consistency throughout the R Rated, 1 hour and 51 minutes of an action film that ultimately falls flat.

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There are films that are destined to remain in the time frame in which they were shot, as the themes do not travel well into the future.  Then there are films that explore the human condition and continue to have universal relevance.  One of  those motion pictures is the 2009 The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, adapted from Rebecca Miller’s book, who also directed with a soft, but steady hand   The compelling story is one that speaks for women who have never found their own individual “voices.”

Pippa Lee, extraordinarily well played by Robin Wright, is a woman whose life has been defined by others resulting in her having no sense of who she is, and much like a chameleon, whose colors change to suit the demands of the environment, she becomes whatever is asked of her.  She is married to the much older successful publishing giant Herb Lee, played by Alan Arkin, an actor you can always count on to deliver a solid performance.  He’s has several heart attacks and in the interest of living a longer life, he and his caretaking wife leave New York and move to the Marigold Retirement Community in Connecticut.  Akin to a Stepford wife, Pippa is serene, dutiful, caring, and loving, and is outwardly perfect in every way. Herb is not happy living in the Marigold because it reminds him that he is well on his way to dying, but his wife constantly reassures him that he will be fine.

It seems that Pippa is pretty content with being a wife, mother, and good friend, but there is another narrative.  In a series of flashbacks, we see her as a little girl who grew up with a crazy, drug-addicted mother, Suky Sarkissian, excellently portrayed by Maria Bello. This fine actor captures the essence of a woman popping Dexedrine multiple times a day, which jet-propels her into the simplest task such as vacuuming.  For a short time, as a little girl, Pippa lived with her lesbian Aunt Trish characterized by Robin Weigert and her girlfriend Kat, brought to life by the one and only Julianne Moore.

In her late teenage years, Pippa has blossomed into a stunning young woman with absolutely no direction and an addiction of her own.  Skillfully acted by beautiful Blake Lively, we see the flamboyantly dressed 19-year-old meeting Herb at a wild party at his much young wife Gigi’s opulent beach house.  He is clearly unfaithful and he and the young woman begin an affair.  Eventually, he wants to marry yet another “trophy wife.”  His current wife, played by Monica Bellucci, agrees to a divorce but first wants them to all have dinner together at her home.  Her way of granting his wish is well, rather shocking.

Back in the first narrative, Pippa has become friends with her neighbor Dot, well played by the late Shirley Knight, whose dysfunctional son Chris has come back home to live with her.  He has no particular ambitions and works in the local Kwik-E-Mart. Like every part Keanu Reeves plays, his character is believable, steady, and fascinating to watch as this popular actor has a very unique cadence in the way he delivers his lines.  In what is probably an escalating manifestation of her rebelling sub-conscious, Pippa develops several disorders including sleepwalking, where she raids the kitchen at night leaving it in total disarray, but with no memory of the event.  She meets Chris during one of those episodes where, dressed only in a nightgown, drives to his store asking for a pack of cigarettes whose brand she cannot remember.  He realizes something is terribly wrong and offers to drive her back home, and thus begins the barest traces of a new relationship.  Eventually, he tells her that he’s getting a divorce, lost his job and that his best friend is screwing his wife.

Rounding out the family unit are the two children – Ben (Ryan McDonald) and his sister Grace (Zoe Kazan).  A close family friend is the neurotic poet Sandra, played aptly by Winona Ryder.  She turns out not to be such a good friend and just like the tale of the scorpion and the turtle, Herb is at it again because that’s who he is and that’s what he does.  Except in this case, metaphorically speaking, he goes down in the middle of the lake.

As a viewer, you are watching a narrative within a narrative, and thanks to Miller’s perfect direction, and Declan Quinn’s spot-on cinematography, each sub-plot is well presented. Although it takes a little adjustment to get into the flashbacks, the 98-minute journey through this woman’s heart and soul lifts the veil on how and why she became that woman, one without hopes and dreams of her own, and how a new friendship becomes the spark that ignites our heroine’s determination to see what lies ahead in the new beginnings of her first real personal journey.

The post “The Private Lives of Pippa Lee” – Currently Streaming on Netflix appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Curated by Ed Boitano.

1. Viaggio in Italia (1954)

Director: Roberto Rossellini;  Story and screenplay: Vitaliano Brancati & Roberto Rossellini); Cast: Ingrid Bergman, George Sanders, Maria Mauban

Roberto Rossellini’s groundbreaking spiritual masterpiece is still ahead of its time and widely misunderstood. An unhappily married English couple (played by Rossellini’s wife, Ingrid Bergman; and George Sanders) drive to Naples for an inherited property. There is mundane dialogue and bickering about the collapse of their marriage.  As the film closes, they are caught in a religious procession, and an off-screen miracle takes place. All they can see is a lame man, euphorically waving his crutches in the air. Overwhelmed by the experience, they make a new commitment to their marriage.

2. Kings of the Road (1976)

Director/writer: Wim Wenders; Cast: Rüdiger Vogler, Hanns Zischler, Lisa Kreuzer; Cinematography by Robby Müller

Wim Wenders’ Kings of the Road is about a movie projector mechanic (Wenders’ regular, Rüdiger Vogle), traveling the lonely backroads of pre-reunification West Germany to dilapidated movie theaters. He meets a depressed linguist, who just bungled a suicide attempt. The two decide to travel together in an attempt to come to terms with their own lives in a changing world. The final installment of Wenders’ Road Trilogy, shot in stark b/w by the brilliant Robby Müller (another Wenders’ regular).

3. Wild Strawberries (1957)

Director/ Writer: Ingmar Bergman; Cinematography: Gunnar Fischer; Cast( Full of Bergman regulars): Victor Sjöström, Ingrid Thulin, Bibi Andersson, Gunnar Björnstrand and Max von Sydow (the Seventh Seal’s courageous knight in a bit part as a gas station attendant).

Ingmar Bergman’s richly humane masterpiece, dramatizes one man’s journey of self-discovery. Driving from Stockholm to Lund  to accept an honorary degree, an aging professor (played by veteran filmmaker, Victor Sjöström), confronts the emptiness of his existence and the inevitability of his own death. Traveling with his pregnant niece (Ingrid Thulin),  the narrative is conveyed through iconic imagery of flashbacks, dreams and nightmares. The final two shots, linked through a dissolve, are among the most heartfelt endings in the history of the cinema.

4. Thelma & Louise (1991)

Director: Ridley Scott; Writer: Callie Khouri; Music: Hans Zimmer; Cast: Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis, Harvey Keitel, Michael Madsen, Christopher McDonald, Brad Pitt

Two working-class women (Susan Sarandon, Genna Davis) bust out of small town Arkansas life in a 1966 T-Bird to blow off a little steam. Their Road Trip transitions into a couples-on-the-run when Thelma shoots a man, stopping a brutal rape of Louise. The characters undergo a rite-of-passage and sense of self-discovery as they traverse the U.S.’ expansive landscape. With sheriff’s cars behind them, their road ends at the edge of a cliff. Rather than surrender, they decide to floor the T-Bird over the cliff, leaving the audiences with a freeze-framed symbolic image of them flying through the sky.

5. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

Director: John Ford; Writers: Nunnally Johnson (screen play), John Steinbeck (based on his novel); Cinematography: Gregg Toland; Cast: Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine, Charley Grapewin; John Qualen

The Grapes of Wrath is a film adaptation of John Steinbeck’s novel, directed by legendary John Ford. The narrative focuses on the plight of the Joad family, who have been forced off their land due to the Oklahoma Dust Bowl. In a barely functional truck, the group heads to the promised land of California. They are met with inhumanely low wages, corrupt orchard owners and savage strike-busting vigilantes. The film is blessed with many of Ford’s hallmarks, Tom Joad’s (Henry Fonda) ending soliloquy, and the innovative use of deep-focus cinematography by pre-Citizen Kane cameraman, Greg Tolland.

6. La Strada (1954)

Director: Federico Fellini; Writers: Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli (story and screenplay), Tullio Pinelli (dialogue), Music: Nino Rota; Cast: Anthony Quinn, Giulietta Masina, Richard Basehart

Gelsomina (Giulietta Masina) is a gentle peasant girl, sold by her mother to  Zampanò (Anthony Quinn), a brutal strongman in a battered traveling circus. She endures physical and emotional abuse as his assistant, but still manages to carry on. The film ends in tragedy when Gelsomina finally breaks down and is abandoned. Later, Zampanò is confronted with his own brutality and drops to his knees at the seashore in remorse. The ‘sea’ and Chaplin films, where Masina plays a version of the Little Tramp, are recurring influences in the work of Federico Fellini. The film launched Fellini and Masina (Fellini’s wife, seven films together) to international stardom.

7. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974)

Director: Sam Peckinpah, Writing: Gordon T. Dawson, Sam Peckinpah (screenplay), Frank Kowalski, Sam Peckinpah (story). Cast: Warren Oates, Isela Vega, Kris Kristofferson, Robert Webber, Gig Young, Emilio Fernández as El Jefe

Bring the Head of Alfredo Garcia is pure Peckinpah at his best and most personal. Made on a shoestring budget with an all Mexican crew, Benny (Warren Oats), a washed-up piano player in a Tijuana bar, overhears that a bounty  has been placed on the head of Al Garcia by a Mexican Mafia Kingman (actor/director, Emilio Fernández). Benny knows Al is dead and buried; he only has to dig him up and cut off his head to earn the money, providing a new start for him and his prostitute girlfriend. But there are other unsavory characters in the mix, leading to a ruthless treasure hunt.  Benny readdresses his priorities in an attempt to regain his own self-respect and get to the top of the madness. For Peckinpah, ‘the top of the madness’ was Richard Nixon and interfering film studio executives.

8. Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

Directors: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris; Writer: Michael Arndt; Cast: Greg Kinnear, Alan Arkin, Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Paul Dano, Abigail Breslin

Initially regarded as a simple family satire, Little Miss Sunshine captured the hearts of mainstream audiences and fits the bill as an uplifting American Road Movie. The directorial debut of a husband and wife team, and a first time writer; a stellar ensemble of six-players, pile into vintage VW Van for a 700-mile journey from Albuquerque to Redondo Beach. Their goal is to make it to a Ramada Inn, the location of a beauty pageant, so their young daughter can participate in the contest. On the journey, the family tries to come to terms with their own personal dilemmas and piece of the American Dream

9. The Straight Story

Director: David Lynch; Writers: John Roach, Mary Sweeney; Cinematography: Freddie Francis; Editor: Mary Sweeney; Music: Angelo Badalamenti; Cast: Richard Farnsworth, Sissy Spacek, Harry Dean Stanton

David Lynch made a G-rated movie for Disney, and it is as unique and Lynchian as any of his past films. An ageing farmer (Richard Farnsworth) must complete his final act of redemption: To mend wounds with his estranged brother, whom he has not seen for decades. His old truck is severely out-of-order, so he rigs up a lawn mower to make the long trek to the distant state.  Due to the comical mode of his transport, he attracts much attention, meeting a cross-section of rural Americans, facing their own problems. Former stuntman Farnsworth passed away at 80, shortly after the film was made.

10.  Green Book (2018)

Director: Peter Farrelly, Writers: Nick Vallelonga, Brian Hayes Currie, Peter Farrelly; Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Mahershala Ali, Linda Cardellini

Green Book offers easy lessons learned about an accomplished African-American pianist chauffeured by a streetwise New York Italian-American bouncer to musical engagements in the U.S. South’s Jim Crow years. At first they are ambivalent about each other, but become friends, learn from one another, realizing that they were prisoners of their own stereotypes of others. It’s a safe movie, but serves as a reminder how things once were – Ali being refused service at hotels, mocked by locals as a man of color wearing fancy ‘uppity’ clothes. Peter Farelly captures some iconic images, and Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali are a delight to watch.

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