“L’Enfance Nue” or “Naked Childhood”
Director: Maurice Pialat
Starring: Michel Terrazon, Marie-Louise Thierry, Rene Thierry, Henri Puff
What’s It About: Ten year old Francois (Terrazon), a troubled foster child, is shuttled from home to home, battling with his surrogate parents and siblings and causing mischief along the way.
Why You Should Know It: Other than being a powerful film that is painfully tragic and sad enough to likely dislodge any buried, wounding memories of childhood that you may have, the picture also earned Francois Truffaut’s seal of approval. The filmmaker was deeply moved and so impressed with Pialat’s short “L’amour Existe” that he offered to produce his first feature, one that attracted him likely because of the similarity to his own “The 400 Blows.” Other directors that have counted this as an influence are Catherine Breillat, Oliver Assayas, Bruno Dumont, and Gasper Noe.
What You Didn’t Know: Director Pialat, thinking of ‘Nue’ as a failure, believed it wasn’t suitable for a film and would have preferred it to be a television production. He doesn’t watch films similar in subject to “L’Enfance Nue” and admits that he probably wouldn’t have gone out of his way to see his own film.
Are the Extras Any Good: The interviews are relatively dull, and there’s oddly no audio commentary to be found. What’s really choice about the release are the two accompanying films, “L’amour existe” and “Autor de L’enfance nue.” The former, the short that caught Truffaut’s attention and won at the Venice Film Festival, is a brief essay about life on the outside of Paris that is ruminative and captivating. The latter is a documentary taken just after the film had wrapped and released, following nearly everyone that had worked on it plus examining social services and particular children. Children that are interviewed, such as a young girl who cannot be taken in by foster parents or the boy that the film was based on, are curiously shot from behind and always in the shadows so they cannot be made out. Both films are fine pieces and are great companions to the film.
“Red Desert”
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Starring: Monica Vitti, Richard Harris, Carlo Chionetti
What’s It About: Giuliana (Vitti), a victim of a car accident, deals with neurosis and the ever changing industrial environment around her. She seeks the comfort of her husband’s coworker Corrado (Harris) to try and fill the void in her life.
Why You Should Know It: Michelangelo Antonioni pretty much defined existential angst with the films he made in the 1960s, most notably the ones starring his then cinematic muse, Monica Vitti. “Red Desert” won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival and signaled a new direction for Antonioni, who would go on to make a name for himself internationally with his next film, “Blow-Up.” While Antonioni will always be best known for his black and white trilogy starting with “L’avventura,” ‘Desert’ is his first film in color and he doesn’t take the presence of color lightly. Among the terrifically bleak landscapes featuring power plants and wastelands, there are beautiful uses of colors that directly affect the dialogue, the story, and the overall meaning. Particular attention should be paid when the film takes a detour and visualizes a fairy tale told my Guiliana, that takes place on a gorgeous beach. The abruptness of such beauty is striking and adds another layer to Antonioni’s already complex protagonist.
What You Didn’t Know: The film’s original working title was “Light Blue and Green” but Antonioni went with his intuition and changed it because he reasoned that it needed to be felt rather than understood. However, Vitti claims that the genesis for “Red Desert” came from a crisis she’d been through in her life.
Are the Extras Any Good: This release is very meaty, and the booklet alone has a great essay by Mark Le Fanu and an interview with Antonioni by Godard. Also on the DVD are two short pre-“L’avventura” documentaries “Gente del Po” and “N.U.” which showcase Antonioni’s budding talent and visual aesthetic. There’s a rather great interpretive commentary by film scholar David Forgacs, and old interviews with the director and lead actress. Film dailies from the shoot have been included and they’re rather fascinating, displayed here with no audio and in a mix of grainy color and black and white. Also included is a 9-minute interview with Vitti for French T.V. in 1990. She talks about meeting Antonioni for the first time and what it was like to be in his films while also being romantically linked in their personal lives.
“Bigger than Life”
Director: Nicholas Ray
Starring: James Mason, Barbara Rush, Walter Matthau
What’s It About: A schoolteacher (Mason) is prescribed cortisone for a fatal affliction. He becomes addicted, not to mention violent and mentally unstable. However, without the medication, he will die.
Why You Should Know It: One of the few films in the 1950s to call bullshit on the Television and Movie image of American life and the nuclear family, Ray’s film is also particularly strongly plotted (with stakes like no other) and intense. Mason gives a pitch-perfect performance and displays his uncanny ability with two very different and very affecting performances.
What You Didn’t Know: The filmmaker was displeased with all of his films, but particularly with this one because of how he treated the medical industry. Ray was upset at naming what Mason was addicted to, claiming it made the film more like a “case history” than anything else. He was also, through pressures from the medical establishment, ordered to tone down the portrayal of doctors in this film, who were originally portrayed in a much more negative light (the doctors were the ones that upped his dosage constantly, trying to find his “maximum tolerance”).
Are the Extras Any Good: There is a long interview with Nicholas Ray, not to mention an interview with his wife Susan Ray. Much appreciation is given to the director, including a “video appreciation” by author Jonathan Lethem, an essay by critic B. Kite, and audio commentary by critic Geoff Andrew. Lethem brings some life with him, but Andrew’s commentary is a tad too lecture-like.
“Mystery Train”
Director: Jim Jarmusch
Starring: Youki Kudoh, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Nicoletta Braschi, Elizabeth Bracco, Joe Strummer, Steve Buscemi, Rick Aviles
What’s It About: The film is comprised of three different stories that take place simultaneously in the same run-down hotel in Memphis. Each story prominently features people from other countries including Japan, Italy and England, and how they react to a city steeped in rich, musical history with the ghost of the King, Elvis Presley himself, present in one form or another.
Why You Should Know It: Jarmusch was an American indie film darling in the 1980s and 1990s and Mystery Train continued his fascination with looking at America through the eyes of foreigners and the disenfranchised.
What You Didn’t Know: Tom Waits’ D.J. character is in fact the same character he played in “Down by Law.” And the barren and bleak look of Memphis in the film was not Jarmusch’s invention, as the town had fallen on hard times when he made “Mystery Train.”
Are the Extras Any Good: As he has done for past Criterion editions of his films, Jarmusch answers questions submitted by fans in lieu of an audio commentary. They are by no means restricted to the film but the bulk of them do pertain to it. The extra, “I Put a Spell on Me” features excerpts from a 2001 documentary on Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. Jarmusch is interviewed and talks about when he first heard Jay’s signature song, “I Put a Spell on You.” Jay talks about working on “Mystery Train” and shares some amusing anecdotes on this fantastic extra. “Memphis Tour” revisits many of the locations used in the film. We get a brief history of each location and what happened to it since filming. This is a fascinating extra that takes a look at how these locales have changed over the years.
“Night Train to Munich”
Director: Carol Reed
Starring: Margaret Lockwood, Rex Harrison, Paul Henreid, Basil Radford, Naunton Wayne, James Harcourt
What’s It About: Undercover agent Gus Bennett (Harrison) helps Axel Bomasch (Harcourt) and his daughter Anna (Lockwood) escape from the Nazis so that the scientist’s armor plating invention will not fall into the wrong hands.
Why You Should Know It: Set on a train before World War II began, this British thriller was made in the tradition of Alfred Hitchcock and was a hit both in England and in the United States, but quickly faded into obscurity because it was often deemed a pale imitation of the Master of Suspense.
What You Didn’t Know: When “Night Train to Munich” was first proposed as a film, it was originally intended to be more serious in tone and had the working title of “Gestapo.” Despite being based on “Report on a Fugitive,” a serialized novel by Australian writer Gordon Wellesley, only the first ten minutes of the film used material from the book. When screenwriters Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat, fresh from their success scripting “The Lady Vanishes” for Hitchcock, came on board, the tone of the film shifted to a comedy-thriller.
Are the Extras Any Good: The lone extra features a conversation between film scholars Bruce Babington and Peter Evans as they talk about the contributions of screenwriters Launder and Gilliat and director Carol Reed. This is a very informative extra that provides plenty of backstory on the two primary creative forces behind the film.
“Everlasting Moments”
Director: Jan Troell
Starring: Maria Heiskanen, Mikael Persbrandt, Jesper Christensen, Callin Ohrvall, Ghita Norby, Emil Jensen
What’s It About: Set in early 20th century Sweden, the film is about the tumultuous marriage between Maria (Heiskanen) and Sigfrid (Persbrandt) Larsson and how Maria’s passion for photography improves her lot in life.
Why You Should Know It: Jan Troell is a legendary filmmaker in his native country and the auteur of such critically acclaimed films as “The Emigrants” and “The New Land.”
What You Didn’t Know: The film is based on an actual poor, working class woman who, in 1900, won a camera in a lottery.
Are the Extras Any Good: “Troell Behind the Camera” is a 2007 making-of documentary done during the production of the film. We see script meetings, rehearsals and footage of the cast and crew filming on location. Troell comes across as a very thoughtful and intelligent artist. “The True Story of Maria Larsson” is a documentary that takes a look at Maria’s photos while also examining and giving insight into her fascinating life. Finally, there is “Troell’s Magic Mirror,” an hour-long documentary that examines the director’s career, spanning his breakthrough films to his brief stint in Hollywood, up to his latest film — an excellent primer for those unfamiliar with his work.
“Summer Hours”
Director: Olivier Assayas
Starring: Juliette Binoche, Charles Berling, Jeremie Renier, Edith Scob
What’s It All About: A family must deal with the passing of its Matriarch; beginning with a gathering for her final birthday, followed by her three children coming to terms with her death and the wealthy estate that she left behind, and ending with a youthful party held by the grandchildren at the ancestral home.
Why You Should Know It: With Assayas and all of the adult leads, you have the crème de la crème of French filmmaking and since the film focuses on such an intimate glimpse into the heart of family, it helps to have the masters guiding us through such delicate waters. Assayas uses a deft and honest tone to immerse us in their world and wonderful dialogue to help us understand how they all got there, without actually making it feel like it’s being narrated to us. Throughout the film we share wine and tears, laughter and conversation with the family as they address the unpleasant task of handling their mother’s estate after she’s died. Often a scene tends to linger on moments where it seems so hard to let go; two brothers refusing to say goodbye as they stand in the rain, a wife attempting to comfort her husband in a dark room, the grief of loss, stranded on the side of the road under the shadows of overhanging branches. Each frame holding onto the delicate nature of their lives with the warmth and beauty of a precious painting, masterpieces for the halls of museums. Eric Gautier’s beautiful cinematography and the subdued soundtrack translate well on this special edition release. In the intimacy of your own home it easily captures the imagination without all of the grandstanding and manipulation of the massive productions geared toward the large cineplex.
What You Didn’t Know: Assayas’s films have a very distinct International flavor, reflecting the emerging global society. His movies often travel across borders as if they don’t even exist but not in a Jason Bourne “I am the king of the universe” kind of way but rather in a more mundane fact of modern day life type of existence. Even though “Summer Hours” is a very French film in the sense that it is shot entirely in France and way for Assayas to reconnect with his roots, the movie still has a unique cross-cultural reality of the current world climate. Adrienne (Binoche) works in Manhattan as a designer for a Japanese department store. Frederic (Berling) is an author who has just written a book regarding the state of economics. Jeremie (Renier), has taken a job working for a multi-national conglomerate and is living in China. Their mother Helene (Scob) has accumulated a great wealth of art from all over the globe and her uncle was a world renowned artist.
Are The Extras Any Good: A separate disc holds three extensive features that allow great insight into the world of art and filmmaking. The first is an exclusive interview with Assayas for Criterion that reveals a special perspective on one of the great directors of our era. The second is a behind-the-scenes making of documentary that was filmed during the shoot. It’s full of commentary from Assayas, Berling and Binoche, as well as a look behind the curtain that we’ve come to expect from any DVD release nowadays. The most rewarding may be the third installation, an hour long documentary about the Musee de Orsay, which plays an important role in the film when the family must evaluate their mother’s estate. Apparently museums were initially invented as a medium to motivate the modern artist to create new work by using the example of the past. With this same idea in mind the curators of the Musee de Orsay approached noted filmmakers in France, including Assayas, to use the museum and this unique perspective on art within their movies.
“In Vanda’s Room”
Director: Pedro Costa
Starring: Vanda Duarte, Zita Duarte, Pedro Lanban, Antonio Moreno, Paulo Nunes, Fernando Paixão
What’s It All About: The second film in Costa’s “Fontainhas trilogy” follows a few lost souls as they struggle to maintain a marginal existence in the deep slums on the outskirts of Lisbon. Surrounded by the slow process of the government sanctioned destruction of the community, Vanda, her family and a couple of acquaintances, all habitual drug-users, perpetually spend their days of captivity in the rubble of a scavenged tragic existence.
Why You Should Know It: At the turn of the century Costa made a huge impact on the art of filmmaking with his Fontainhas movies, showing a bleak and desperate world with beautiful and honest visual clarity. Each scene languishes with an exquisite eye, a precious photograph of the type of communities that tend to turn our faces away as we skirt past in our isolated privilege. Costa’s cinematic vision is a medium for us to experience those hidden realms of human suffering with an amazing light, and three hours later it’s impossible for us to shake the shadow that has settled over us.
What You Didn’t Know: Vanda was a major departure for Costa regarding his technique. He switched to DV, shed his crew and spent a year filming the movie practically alone, living with his actors amid the squalor that surrounded their lives. Even though the film is considered fictional, he wanted it to reflect the impoverished reality of Fontainhas and it turned into a hybrid of the two formats. The film even won the FIPRESCI Prize at the Yamagata International Film Festival in 2001 “for presenting life in its near-original form.” Costa did oversee some minor color adjustments but due to the original format, not much could be done to alter the transfer onto disc. Though many of the shots are dark and quiet, the images are surprisingly lovely and hold a deep intimacy that is seldom found onscreen. Costa was critical of much of the sound quality and tried to hide it with background noise when necessary but that’s bound to occur with no crew. Since the sequences are so spare, the lack of quality regarding the sound isn’t that noticeable.
Are The Extras Any Good: This single disc has a commentary track between Costa and filmmaker Jean-Pierre Gorin where Costa reveals an extremely compelling understanding of human nature. The man is simply very humble and grateful for the filmmaking opportunities that have come his way. He has a natural ability to show the fringes of society and give us a unique perspective of film, without actually trying. There are so many artists out there trying to be cool or edgy but this man truly does things unconventionally. Criterion has released this movie as part of a four disc set that includes Costa’s two other Fontainhas films as well as a separate DVD with a bunch of extras.
“Downhill Racer”
Director: Michael Ritchie
Starring: Robert Redford, Gene Hackman, Camilla Sparv, Jim McMullen
What’s It All About: An arrogant rookie on the United States ski team must navigate the bumpy landscape of international sports as he ambitiously ascends the ranks to the top of the mountain and Olympic gold.
Why You Should Know It: Filmed in 1969, it was the first film that Redford produced, following a string of successful roles that made him one of the most sought after leading men in Hollywood. Though he was an avid skier at the time, Redford wanted the movie to focus on the motivation of elite athletes just as much as the high intensity drive of the sport. It turned out to be a perfect blend of action movie and emotional character study that is often emulated in movies to this day.
What You Didn’t Know: Famed director and pedophile in exile Roman Polanski was originally on board to direct the film but fell out due to his commitment to “Rosemary’s Baby.” The Polish filmmaker was very intent on making this movie his American film debut and did a lot of the pre-production work on the project, including scouting locations in Europe. His replacement, Ritchie, was plucked from the television community and ended up influencing the final look of the film, a more documentary style of filmmaking that was innovative at the time. He and Redford developed a good friendship and went on to make the film “The Candidate” in 1972.
Are The Extras Any Good: The disc comes with a few extras that take you back to some of the rocky moments of the film’s production. There are interviews with Redford, screenwriter James Salter, film editor Richard Harris, production manager Walter Coblenz, as well as with Joe Jay Jalbert, a professional downhill racer who was used as a technical consultant during the shoot. Also included is the short film, “How Fast,” a 12-minute promotional featurette Redford made for forty thousand dollars with the studio’s blessing. Listening to Redford communicate his perspective on the film after all of these years is a gift to the craft. With thoughtful and introspective analysis we learn that the difficult experience of bringing “Downhill Racer” to the screen was what motivated him to begin the Sundance Institute in order to help independent filmmakers fulfill their dreams of making movie magic.
Again, they’re late, but we’re playing catch-up, and these films are always worth talking about. Coming up next will be the Eclipse series by Nagisa Oshima and more. – additional reporting by J.D. & Wade Pavnoz