In Part 1, I explored the films that maybe haven’t aged as gracefully as other films from the past. This set of films in Part 2 is built around great directors, and some of the films they are known for.
Here is a set of films that I saw in the final days of this streaming service.
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What is it about?: Werner Herzog’s epic tale of Spanish Conquistadors as they search for the City of Gold deeper and deeper into the Amazon.
Does it hold up?: People certainly love Apocalypse Now, the story of American soldiers…..going deeper and deeper into the Vietnamese rainforest. I’m almost certain Francis Ford Coppola watched Herzog’s film 7 years earlier and transplanted the idea to the Vietnam, but Herzog was the radical original. This whole film is famous for being shot on location, with the live animals, and insane working conditions that tortured his actors, who may not be acting by the end of the movie. Technically, directors love the hell out of this film, Herzog’s breathtaking direction, and Klaus Kinski’s amazing performance as the titular Aguirre. However, this movie is LONG and gets repetitive after a while, forcing more and more horrible situations to befell the Conquistadors, at which point you’ll start picking up your phone a bit…
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What is it about?: Pedro Almodovar’s farce about Stockholm Syndrome, where a porn star is kidnapped by a young Antonio Banderas off his meds.
Does it hold up?: Pedro Almodovar is one of the great filmmakers, but sadly, this is not one of his memorable films. It is VERY sexy, with a super hot and young Antonio Banderas sauntering around the stunning Victoria Abril, building to as hot of a sex scene as I’ve seen on film. The movie is set up to be perfect erotic thriller material, with Banderas playing a man who leaves a mental institution and kidnaps Abril, who is a porn star he is obsessed with. His idea of love is strapping her to a bed and feeding her, forcing her to fall in love with him. Multiple people are worried about Victoria Abril too, terrified something bad has happened to her. And Almodovar directs the movie like a farcical romp. Dude has some really heavy material going on too, so those scenes clash harshly with the amusing tone Almodovar wants to tell the story with. The movie ends up being very watchable, but pretty dismissive of women and confusing in its messaging.
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What is it about?: Federico Fellini’s tale of an Italian woman named Gelsomina (Giuletta Masina) is sold by her family to the burly but offputting Zampano (Anthony Quinn), becoming a performing duo across Italy.
Does it hold up?: This one is a mixed bag. The part about a meek helpless woman choosing between 2 broken men does not exactly sound 2018. However, Fellini, like Vittorio de Sica’s Bicycle Thieves, taps into the deep sadness of the poor and semi helpless, just not quite as bleak as Thieves. This one’s more fun, with Gelsomina’s clown act and Zampano’s stupidity good for a fare number of laughs, plus this movie is basically a circus road trip across Italy, and all its beautiful countryside and interesting cute towns. At the core of the story though is Gelsomina getting to see the world for the first time, and finally choosing for herself who she wants to be and who she should be with, as she is presented with Zampano’s opposite, notably called The Fool (Richard Basehart). Masina’s performance is weird: at times she feels like she’s pretending to have a learning disability. However, Anthony Quinn’s Zampano is really great, playing a one trick performer who’s so warped in his masculinity he doesn’t see how good Gelsomina is to him and that he really loves her. It’s a depressing story wrapped in a silly package, and better represents its time than being timeless.
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What is it about?: Akira Kurosawa’s story of a samurai (Toshiro Mifune) who winds up in a town enraptured by a gang battle in which he inserts himself for personal gain.
Does it hold up?: Any of you like A Fistful of Dollars, one of Sergio Leone’s spaghetti Westerns that helped put Clint Eastwood on the map? It’s widely regarded as a classic with a great story…that is completely stolen from this Kurosawa film. Mifune is great as ever, and Kurosawa has some more amazing moments and sets, like two gangs coming close to fighting each other, but then slowly backing off. However, coming off the highs of Seven Samurai and Rashomon, this movie just isn’t as good as either of those films…which still makes it the best movie on this by far: a testament to Kurosawa’s genius.