To Joy
1850. Directed by Ingmar Bergman

My first Bergman film! If you read this blog much, you know I’m a big Woody Allen fan, and since Allen’s favorite filmmaker is Bergman, I knew I had to watch some of his films. I grabbed two at random in the library last week. One was To Joy, a film that really runs the gamut of drama and both surprised and delighted me. What can I say that can even come close to all the well-educated published discussions of Bergman’s films? Probably nothing, but I can state my observations. First off, the language is beautiful. I’ve never seen a Swedish film with subtitles, and I was surprised by how melodic the language is. Secondly, the acting is raw and passionate to a degree I’ve never seen. It’s both melodramatic and realistic and it really drew me in. The film’s story is incredibly dramatic. A young couple meet while working in an orchestra. They live together and eventually get married. They separate multiple times, due mostly to the man’s infantile nature and lecherous tendencies, but each time they re-unite, they come closer. The title is also the focus of the story. What is joy and how do we find it in others? A tragic ending nevertheless concludes the film with a strange poignancy. For Bergman, joy can be found even in suffering not because of any Christian hope, but simply because of the spirit of human love and passion. To Joy is an excellently photographed and acted film with a wonderful classical score. I’m looking forward to seeing more of Bergman’s films.

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It wasn’t the best year for movie-going. Iron Man 2 was a disappointment, Harry Potter wasn’t half as good as it could have been, and apparently the new Narnia film wasn’t too hot either. Big surprise. All the re-tread summer action stuff and cg animation just kind of slipped past me without notice, and when I finally saw Toy Story 3 on DVD I was underwhelmed. Even the art cinema down the street hardly played a single film that sounded interesting. Thus, most of my movie viewing this year was classic and from the library.

That being said, I did find myself in the cinema a few times this year, often for repeat viewing of the same films, and these are the best I saw.

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White Heat
1949. Directed by Raoul Walsh

Film noir used to be a moral medium. Sure, the main character in White Heat, played powerfully by James Cagney, is a homicidal criminal with major emotional issues and a mean streak a mile wide, but he’s clearly presented as the bad guy, and the intricate FBI plot to take him down leads to a thrilling and satisfyingly just ending. That’s not to say that Cagney’s character gets no sympathy. As the story progresses we get to see deeper and deeper into his character and motivations, but his immoral actions are never justified. Basically, you feel for Cagney, but you root for the cops. Now most noir films have descended to Sin City-level depravity, anti-authority sentiments and moral relativism. We could use more films like White Heat, where strong morality and engaging gangland action go hand-in-hand.

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
2010. Directed by David Yates

I was surprised how faithful Deathly Hallows: Part 1 was to its source material. Yates clearly wants to bring this series back to its roots. As the film slowly and surely ticked through the  many plot points of J. K. Rowling’s 7th and last Harry Potter novel, I was reminded of the first two films in the series, faithfully adapted by director Chris Columbus and deemed slow and boring by many critics and viewers. This film is anything but boring, and it’s slow-burn pace only builds suspense, complimented by occasional furious scenes of action.

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Zelig
1983. Directed by Woody Allen

A mocumentary extraordinaire, in Zelig Allen pulls all the stops and creates such a masterful fake that it seems real. He plays a mysterious mental patient in the 1930s who has the strange ability to take on the physical attributes of anyone he is around. He becomes a black man, a Native American, a Hasidic rabbi, an obese man etc. The film is told through old audio recordings, stock footage, fake newsreels and interviews with surviving participants. This makes the film move sluggishly, and I got impatient seeing only photos of Allen, waiting to see his neurotic character in live action. But the film finally pays off, and even though the live segments are short, they’re all priceless. Zelig starts out kind of dull, but it grows on you slowly and by the end you are entirely invested in the characters. I found myself cheering near the end. I’ve never been more entertained by a “historical documentary,” and the doctored footage is phenomenally well done. There’s a scene involving actual footage of a Hitler speech that blew me away.

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