Cristobalito, the Calypso Colt (1970)

Wonderful World of Disney
Directed by Norman Wright
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Walt Disney)

Young fruit peddler just getting by on the streets of Puerto Rico reluctantly accepts a job in the stables of a wealthy ranch owner after being persistently hounded by thugs on motorcycles. The boy soon becomes attached to a wild palomino horse and helps train it for formal competition. However, the horse injures its leg while being chased by the bikers, and the owner decides to put it down. The boy runs away with it instead, taking it to a small village where he hopes to save the horse with old-fashioned treatments. After a few weeks the horse is back to normal and he resumes training it. Eventually he brings it back to the ranch and convinces the owner to enter it into a national competition. Standard boy and horse (or dog, cat, etc) Disney film, often resembling a travelogue for Puerto Rico.

Madame De... (1953)

Academy Awards, USA 1955

Nominee Oscar

Best Costume Design, Black-and-White Georges Annenkov Rosine Delamare

Gaumont (France)
Directed by Max Ophüls
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(Blu-ray, Criterion Collection)

Danielle Darrieux is the ignored wife of French general Charles Boyer. They spend their nights at formal balls, where she dances with handsome Italian aristocrat Vittorio De Sica and falls in love. Her husband begins to suspect when she faints after her lover falls from a horse, and is sent to Italy for a "rest". However, the affair continues to simmer, and when she returns to Paris her husband finally confronts her. Exposed, she falls into depression while he concocts a reason to challenge her lover to a duel to save his honor. Ophüls' restless camera is a major distraction from the on-screen luxuriousness of jewelry, furs and gowns, but the overly-complicated melodrama seems hardly worth the effort.

Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)

British Empire Films Australia
Directed by Peter Weir
My rating: 3.5 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(Blu-ray, Criterion Collection)

Students at a private all-girls school in rural Australia visit a nearby geological formation on Valentine's Day at the turn of the century. The day begins with the reading of love poems and dressing for the occasion. After a short buggy ride through town, where they are on display for all to see, the arrive and have a picnic. Four of the girls decide to explore the formation on their own. They reach the summit exhausted and lay down to rest. Then, three of the girls continue onward, never to be seen again, while the fourth goes screaming back to the picnic. The police form a search part the next day, and question a local young man and his valet, but come up empty. The young man decides to search for the girls himself, and manages to find one unconscious but alive. She recovers but has no memory of what happened. At the school, things become unraveled, with the head master worried if it will survive as students drop out. She singles out one girl in particular and threatens to send her to an orphanage. Tragedy and more deaths follow, but with multiple explanations possible. The open-ended nature of the central mystery is both the film's greatest asset and weakness, leaving one wanting more, but also allowing the viewer to come up with their own explanation. Breathtaking, dreamlike cinematography by Russell Boyd and pan flute music by Zamfir complete the mood.

The Sword in the Stone (1963)

Academy Awards, USA 1964

Nominee Oscar

Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment George Bruns

Buena Vista Distribution
Directed by Wolfgang Reitherman
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(DVD, Walt Disney)

Orphan Arthur befriends wizard Merlin one day in the woods. Merlin, who can visit the future, decides to become Arthur's teacher. In his first lesson he turns himself and the boy into fish to learn about physics, but they are almost eaten by a giant pike. For the next lesson, they are turned into squirrels to learn about gravity, but once again are attacked, this time by a wolf, then by an overly amorous female squirrel. In the final lesson, they become sparrows to learn about flying, this time getting attacked by a hawk. Arthur ends up in the hands of Merlin's nemesis Madam Mim, who fights Merlin in a duel. Arthur accompanies his step brother to London for a tournament to determine the next king of England, but accidentally pulls out the famous "sword in the stone" and ends up becoming king himself. Jovial if unmemorable animated Disney, with the animal lesson segments going on too long, and the magical moments with Merlin not long enough.

The Hidden Fortress (1958)

Toho
Directed by Akira Kurosawa
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(Blu-ray, Criterion Collection)

Two bumbling, greedy peasants get mixed up with a defeated general and help him transport a princess and her gold back to her home territory. They avoid capture by enemy soldiers with the swordsmanship of the general, and a lot of luck, but it eventually runs out and they find themselves in prison awaiting execution. However, the arrival of another general, whose life was spared in an earlier lance duel, saves them. Lighthearted, entertaining Kurosawa is far from his best, but the lance duel is a standout sequence, as is the speech by the princess while awaiting  her pending execution.

Sleeping Beauty (1959)

Academy Awards, USA 1960

Nominee Oscar

Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture George Bruns

Buena Vista Distribution
Directed by Clyde Geronimi
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(DVD, Disney)

At a royal celebration for the birth of their daughter, a snubbed "evil fairy" named Maleficent places a curse on the infant: she will be pricked by a spinning wheel and die before her sixteenth birthday. Three "good fairies" decide to hide her away in the forest and protect her from the curse. As her sixteenth birthday approaches, their location is given away as the fairies use magic to make a dress for the party. Maleficent appears and the curse is completed. However, the good fairies manage to keep her in a deep sleep rather than die, only to be awakened by the kiss of a true love. Enter one prince who had fallen in love with her shortly before. There is a mad dash to keep him from finding her, leading to a showdown with Maleficent who pulls out all the stops, including turning into a dragon. Good, if not great, animated Disney, with a few too many similarities to Snow White and a stereotyped good vs evil plot line.

Andrei Rublev (1966)

Columbia Pictures
Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(DVD, Criterion Collection)

Andrei Rublev is a monk summoned to the city by a prince to paint a church. The city is raided by the prince's brother, who has formed an allegiance with the violent Tatars, who rape and pillage the inhabitants while Rublev holes up in the church. The final part of the film involves the casting of a large bell, for which the older Rublev is barely an observer. Tarkovsky's supposed "masterpiece" is densely packed with stunning imagery, but otherwise there is little to hold this rambling epic together. Marred by unnecessary and extremely graphic and disturbing animal cruelty for which Tarkovsky should be ashamed.

The Hit (1984)

Island Alive
Directed by Stephen Frears
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(DVD, Criterion Collection)

Terence Stamp is an ex London gangster living in seclusion in Spain after turning informant a decade earlier. He is kidnapped by four youths and turned over to hit man John Hurt and his accomplice Tim Roth, who intend to take him to Paris supposedly to be executed. Their road trip through Spain turns out to be filled with twists and turns. In a detour to Madrid, they stumble upon another gangster squatting in a luxury condo with his young girlfriend. They are forced to murder him and take the girl along for the rest of the trip. Young Roth, an inexperienced hothead, falls for her and, it turns out, so does the older Hurt. It doesn't take long for Stamp to recognize it and turn his two captives against each other. It all comes to a head on a hilltop near the French border. Cool, hip road movie with Stamp offering up philosophical musings on the meaning of life, Hurt the unflappable hit man trying to keep it all together, Roth barely contained as the youth on his first job and Laura Del Sol as the desperate girl along for the ride.

The Boy Who Stole the Elephant (1970)

Buena Vista Distribution
Directed by Michael Caffey
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Walt Disney)

A traveling circus show struggles to survive due to the gambling habits of its owner. He calls on an old friend for help, but rather than money she loans him an elephant to help with the circus. It turns out to be a great success, as the elephant is trained and befriended by young Mark Lester. However, the owner old gambling habit comes back and he loses everything in poker game, including the elephant. Lester takes the elephant into the countryside rather than give it up. Typical Disney made-for-tv fare, with some slapstick comedy involving the elephant, and a happy ending for all. Familiar faces include Betty Lynn and Hal Smith (essentially reprising his Otis Campbell character) from The Andy Griffith Show, Susan Olsen from The Brady Bunch and even Richard Kiel as a country bumpkin heavy!

Seduced and Abandoned (1964)

Continental Distributing
Directed by Pietro Germi
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(DVD, Criterion Collection)

Teenager Stefania Sandrelli is seduced by her sister's fiance. They manage to keep it secret until her mother finds part of a ripped up love letter. The women force her to be "examined" to see if she is still a virgin, and when she fails the test her traditional Sicilian father goes ballistic. More concerned about his appearance before the locals who hang out in the street cafes than his daughter, he tries to force her lover into marriage. However, he flees the city and hides out with some relatives, rather than agreeing to marry such a "tramp" who would sleep with him before marriage! Everyone involved tries to find and "honorable" way out of the mess to save face, everyone except the girl, of course. Anchored by an incredible performance by Saro Urzi as the father, this straddles the fine line between comedy and tragedy, exposing the hypocrisy of the traditional morals of its time.

So Dear to My Heart (1948)

Academy Awards, USA 1950

Nominee Oscar

Best Music, Original Song Eliot Daniel (music) Larry Morey (lyrics) For the song "Lavender Blue"

RKO Radio Pictures
Directed by Harold Schuster and Hamilton Luske
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(DVD, Walt Disney)

Little Bobby Driscoll adopts an orphaned black lamb against the wishes of his grandmother in a turn-of-the-century small Indiana town. The lamb grows up to wreak havoc in their house and at the local grocery story. He builds a pen with the help of his uncle Burl Ives and raises money to enter it in the county fair. He doesn't win, but gets a special award to recognize his efforts. Live action and animation combine combine to make this a hidden gem buried deep in the Disney catalog. Featuring superb period flavor, winning performances, good music and a heartwarming story.

3 Women (1977)

Twentieth Century-Fox Film
Directed by Robert Altman
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(Blu-ray, Criterion Collection)

An awkward and shy Sissy Spacek starts working at a spa for the elderly in California. She is trained for her job by Shelley Duvall, an outgoing but unpopular girl. Spacek becomes enamored with her new friend, eventually becoming roommates. However, when Duvall sleeps with the owner of their apartment complex, it drives Spacek to a suicide attempt. She spends several weeks in a coma during which Duvall, feeling guilty, visits daily, and even brings her kooky parents all the way from Texas. Spacek wakes up, claims not to know her parents, moves back into their apartment and exhibits a completely different personality. Drifting apart and increasingly antagonistic, they end up helping the wife of the hotel owner deliver a baby, leading to more tragedy and personality swapping. Dreamlike film might best be described as the bridge between Ingmar Bergman and David Lynch. Spends most of its running time examining the boring lives of its quirky characters set against a southern California desert backdrop, but then the last half hour turning it all upside down.

Mala Noche (1986)

Directed by Gus Van Sant
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(DVD, Criterion Collection)

Tim Streeter is a cashier at a liquor/grocery story in the dirtier part of downtown Portland, Oregon. He lusts after a young Mexican immigrant who comes in the store, resorting to offering money if he will sleep with him. However, the immigrant responds with homophobic slurs and refuses. His friend, however, will do nicely for the insatiable Streeter, who figures it is as close as he will ever get to the other one. They slowly develop a friendship, with Streeter nursing him through an illness, teaching him how to drive, and offering money and a place to stay. He also continues to pursue the other guy. The police get called for a disturbance, leading to tragedy. Van Sant's directorial debut is an independent, black and white wonder, but is poorly acted, with some truly awful, awkward dialogue. Almost saved by John Campbell's graceful, enigmatic cinematography that manages to make street life in the worst part of Portland beautiful.

Unfaithfully Yours (1948)

Twentieth Century-Fox Film
Directed by Preston Sturges
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(DVD, Criterion Collection)

Rex Harrison is a famous symphony conductor with a beautiful wife, Linda Darnell, who dotes on him. He returns from a long trip during which he asked his brother-in-law, Rudy Vallee, to "watch" his wife. Instead, Vallee hired a detective to follow her, leading to a conspicuous visit to Harrison's handsome, and much younger, assistant's hotel room in the middle of the night. At first Harrison ignores it, but he can't put it out of his mind and suspicion gets the best of him. Soon, he is arguing with Darnell and everything is falling apart. It culminates in a series of "fantasies" during a performance of three classical pieces. In the first, he plans the perfect murder, in the second he pays her off with a large check, and the third plays a game of Russian roulette! After the performance, he contemplates each one in real life, but they fall apart in various hilarious ways. In the end, Darnell confesses that she was in the assistant's hotel room, but it was all innocent and they reconcile. Lesser Sturges requires one to check logic at the door, but has the usual crisp dialogue for which he is well known. Unfortunately, Harrison's change of character from loving husband to raging creature of anger and hate and back again is just not that believable. The violence in the "perfect murder" fantasy is jarring even now, much less for the late 40s.

Terminal Station (1953)

Academy Awards, USA 1955

Nominee Oscar

Best Costume Design, Black-and-White Christian Dior

Lux Film (Italy)
Directed by Vittorio De Sica
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(DVD, Criterion Collection)

Montgomery Clift and Jennifer Jones are lovers in Italy. She is married back home in America and decides to break it off and take a train to Paris. Clift shows up to convince her to stay. They wander around the great train station, finding some solitude in a closed restaurant, then later in a train car where he tries to seduce her. They are spotted by the police and arrested, but the inspector releases them after finding out she is married and has a child. Clift almost convinces her to stay, but the embarrassment of the situation causes her to change her mind. Magnificently acted by Clift and Jones, this is an overlooked gem from De Sica. It takes place almost in real time, with frequent references to clocks and train schedules. There is a subtle symbolism at work as well, with "Terminal Station" the place where relationships go to die, or perhaps more, with priests and nuns showing up at inopportune times. Truman Capote is credited with some dialogue. I have not seen the shorter version re-edited by Hollywood producer David O. Selznick, which De Sica did not authorize or endorse. Stick with his original version.

Le Million (1931)

Films Sonores Tobis (France)
Directed by René Clair
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(DVD, Criterion Collection)

A struggling Parisian artist wins the lottery, but misplaces the ticket in his jacket which he left with his fiance. She gave it away to a man who dropped into her apartment from the rooftop while fleeing the police. He left some cryptic clues as to his identity, which sets in motion the search to find him. The artist, his "best friend" and his fiance all compete to find the ticket first. The jacket changes hands several times, eventually ending up with an opera singer who wears it during a performance. The artist and his fiance end up on-stage, hidden from the audience, while the singer performs a love duet, in the movie's best sequence. The rest is a hit-or-miss affair, an early romantic comedy with frequent breaks for songs.

The Tin Drum (1979)

Academy Awards, USA 1980

Winner Oscar

Best Foreign Language Film West Germany

United Artists

Directed by Volker Schlöndorff

My rating: 4 stars out of 4

IMDb Wikipedia

(Blu-ray, Criterion Collection)

Three-year old Oskar decides to stop growing after watching the behavior of the adults around him. His mother is having an affair with a cousin while her husband apparently does not know or care. Oskar, his mother and two lovers take a vacation on a beach, where a fisherman retrieves eels out of a dead horse's head. She binges on fish and eels for a few days, reveals that she is pregnant, then apparently kills herself. His other father gets involved in a firefight with Nazis at a Polish post office, is wounded, then executed. His lone remaining parent hires a sixteen year old girl to help him, and Oskar promptly falls in love and seduces her. However, his father is also sleeping with her, and when she gets pregnant Oskar is convinced he is the father. Oskar decides to get away from it all by joining a circus of traveling dwarfs, where he becomes a star attraction due to his ability to shatter glass with his voice. However, the Nazis ruin that as well, forcing him back home to his father in their ruined city. The Russians find them hiding in the basement of their bombed out home, and his father chokes on his Nazi party pin. The orphaned Oskar decides to start growing again at his father's funeral, put passes along the ability to his son. Schlöndorff's adaptation of the Günter Grass novel is the high mark of the New German Cinema of the 1960s and 1970s. Steeped deeply in symbolism, it is a stinging rebuke of Nazism and of the so-called adults who were complicit. A surreal fantasy, a grotesque nightmare, a coming of age story; it has many layers that demands multiple viewings to even begin to unravel. The soundtrack by Maurice Jarre is haunting, playful, unforgettable. A modern masterpiece of the cinema.

Divorce Italian Style (1961)

Academy Awards, USA 1963

Winner Oscar	Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen Ennio De Concini Alfredo Giannetti Pietro Germi
Nominee Oscar	Best Actor in a Leading Role Marcello Mastroianni
	Best Director Pietro Germi

Embassy Pictures
Directed by Pietro Germi
My rating: 3.5 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(DVD, Criterion Collection)

Marcello Mastroianni, a former nobleman, is unhappily married to his devoted but unattractive wife. He lusts after his much younger and beautiful cousin, Stefania Sandrelli, and it turns out she after him. He studies an Italian law which provides for a lighter sentence for a murder committed in the heat of passion. First, he must find a lover for his wife, which he does in a local artist whom he hires to repair some frescoes in their mansion. They are slow to warm up to each other, but eventually run off together by train. Mastroianni misses it, but the other man's wife humiliates him in public then challenges him to find them. With the help of a mafia boss, he does, but the other wife gets there first. Superb black comedy with Mastroianni in one of his best roles, which is saying something given the roles he has played.

Dillinger Is Dead (1969)

Amanda Films
Directed by Marco Ferreri
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(DVD, Criterion Collection)

Michel Piccoli is a bored industrial designer of gas masks. He returns home after work to find his wife in bed with a headache, so proceeds to make himself a gourmet meal. Their apartment is stylishly decorated in a mod style and filled with paintings, nick-nacks and gadgets that constantly distract him. He finds an old gun in the pantry, wrapped in an old Chicago newspaper linking it to John Dillinger. He takes it apart, cleans it, and then plays with it. He watches home movies of an earlier visit with his wife and friends to a bullfight. He seduces his live-in maid. Still bored, he returns to his bedroom and murders his wife with the gun. Morning arrives and he gets in his small car and drives to a nearby swimming hole. Another incredibly pretentious Ferreri film, which has nowhere to go after making its initial points about the alienation of the modern worker. Resorts to disgusting bullfighting imagery for "art".

My Man Godfrey (1936)

Academy Awards, USA 1937

Nominee Oscar	Best Actor in a Leading Role William Powell
	Best Actress in a Leading Role Carole Lombard
	Best Actor in a Supporting Role Mischa Auer
	Best Actress in a Supporting Role Alice Brady
	Best Director Gregory La Cava
	Best Writing, Screenplay Eric Hatch Morrie Ryskind

Universal Pictures
Directed by Gregory La Cava
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(DVD, Criterion Collection)

Bum William Powell is picked up by socialite Carole Lombard as part of a scavenger hunt. She takes him to the ritzy hotel where the party is taking place, where the well-spoken Powell promptly insults everyone there. Impressed, Lombard offers him a job as the family butler. He accepts but her household turns out to be filled with spoiled, slightly kooky relatives and hangers-on. Lombard's sister eventually finds out his secret past as a wealthy Boston socialite who dropped out of sight after a love affair went bad. She tries to frame him by planting a necklace in his bed, but he outwits her and uses the necklace to help not only her father who is going bankrupt, but his old buddies living down at the dump by the bridge. Powell is good as the butler with a heart of gold, but Lombard overstays her welcome as the ditzy blonde who falls in love with him, and improbably he with her by the time of the contrived ending. 

This Sporting Life (1963)

Academy Awards, USA 1964

Nominee Oscar	Best Actor in a Leading Role Richard Harris
	Best Actress in a Leading Role Rachel Roberts

Rank Organisation
Directed by Lindsay Anderson
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(DVD, Criterion Collection)

Brutish coal miner Richard Harris finds his calling on the rugby field of northern England. His dirty play gets results, but off the field he finds nothing but unhappiness. In love with his widowed landlady, he tries to win her over by befriending her children, but she can't get over the death of her husband. They frequently quarrel, eventually leading to a brief burst of violence which may or may not have caused her tragic death. Rare look inside the daily life of the working class in and around Wakefield, but weighed down by melodramatics. Editorial style, meant to be a bold use of flashbacks in telling the story, actually confuses rather than helps.

The New Land (1972)

Academy Awards, USA 1973

Nominee Oscar

Best Foreign Language Film Sweden

Svensk Filmindustri
Directed by Jan Troell
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(Blu-ray, Criterion Collection)

The further adventures of the extended Swedish family introduced in The Emigrants the previous  year. Karl Oskar, the head of the family played by Max von Sydow, hurriedly finishes a small house before their first winter in Minnesota. Broke, they have to borrow a cow to survive, however by the following spring they are able to plant their first seeds and eventually, with much hard work, make a good living. Oskar's younger brother and a friend decide to leave for California in search of gold. Instead, they find only misery. Oskar's brother returns years later, lying that he had found gold and was wealthy, but the paper money he presents as proof turns out to be worthless. Oskar's wife struggles to bear more children, eventually becoming ill and dying. Oskar lives out the rest of his life alone, eventually giving up farming and tending to her grave. Just like the first film (they were made concurrently), this has incredible attention to detail. However, it also suffers from overlength and a tendency to be melodramatic. A couple of scenes of explicit violence are unnecessary, but are brief enough as to not completely ruin it. The hallucinatory tale of the younger brother's trek to California might be the most interesting part of both films.

The Lion King (1994)

Academy Awards, USA 1995

Winner Oscar	Best Music, Original Song Elton John (music) Tim Rice (lyrics) For the song "Can You Feel the Love Tonight".
	Best Music, Original Score Hans Zimmer
Nominee Oscar	Best Music, Original Song Elton John (music) Tim Rice (lyrics) For the song "Circle of Life".
	Best Music, Original Song Elton John (music) Tim Rice (lyrics) For the song "Hakuna Matata".

Buena Vista Pictures
Directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff
My rating: 3.5 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(Blu-ray, Walt Disney)

Mufasa is a lion who rules over an animal Kingdom in Africa. He raises his son Simba to one day take over his role. However, Mufasa's brother "Scar", jealous from being deprived his line to the throne by the younger lion, devises a plan to kill them both with the help of hyenas. He succeeds in killing the older lion, but Simba is driven to the desert and assumed dead. Simba is saved by a wisecracking meerkat and warthog, who raise him in a nearby jungle with the creed, "no worries". Simba grows up to be carefree and apparently leaving his past behind him, until a lioness shows up and reminds him of his duty to the animal kingdom which has been taken over by hyenas and is suffering a devastating drought. Simba reluctantly returns to face his old nemesis Scar. Epic animated Disney story just gets better with age. Part Greek tragedy, with doses of comic relief and occasional breaks for songs, with stunning animation, the best from the Disney "renaissance" era, it is mostly hand drawn with some computer assistance.

Red River (1948)

Academy Awards, USA 1949

Nominee Oscar	Best Writing, Motion Picture Story Borden Chase
	Best Film Editing Christian Nyby

United Artists
Directed by Howard Hawks
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(Blu-ray, Criterion Collection)

John Wayne leaves California hoping to start a cattle ranch in Texas. Along the way, his girlfriend is killed in an Indian attack on her wagon train. A teenage boy, the only survivor of the attack, is adopted by Wayne. Fifteen years pass, and now Wayne and the older boy, Montgomery Clift, have a very large herd but no buyers because of the Civil War. They decide to drive the herd to Missouri. They encounter many obstacles along the way, not the least of which each other. After a falling out, Clift takes the herd to Kansas. Wayne soon catches up with him for a final showdown. Classic western certainly has its moments, but every time a woman shows up it gets bogged down in some uncomfortable melodrama.

The Naked Island (1960)

Toho
Directed by Kaneto Shindo
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(Blu-ray, Criterion Collection)

A husband and wife carve out a meager existence for their two young sons by farming on a small island on which they are the only inhabitants. Their daily routine, shown in detail, consists of hauling water from the mainland by boat, then carrying it up the steep hills to their small hut and nearby fields. They carry out the backbreaking work without complaint, or really any emotions at all. The kids attend school and help with the daily routine. They are often left alone on the island, and one day one of them falls ill with a fever. His father must row across the sea and find a doctor by foot, and the long delay costs the boy his life. A very moving burial follows involving the boy's classmates. The husband and wife return to their farm work. Widescreen black and white cinematography by Kiyomi Kuroda is often stunning, but the pacing is glacial, the music repetitive and even the eventual emotional drama is muted by the poor placement of a still image to show the boy's death.

A Canterbury Tale (1944)

Eagle-Lion Films
Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(DVD, Criterion Collection)

Three people arrive by train at a small town near Canterbury during the war: a British Sergeant, an American GI who has gotten off at the wrong station by mistake, and a civilian girl who has volunteered to work on a local farm. The girl is immediately attacked by the "glue man": who pours a sticky substance on her hair then flees. They chase him long enough to see that he wears a uniform, then lose him in the town. All three spend the next few weeks trying to figure out the identity of the attacker. Clues lead to a local magistrate whom they confront on a train to Canterbury. He does not deny it, revealing his motive to be to make the girls less attractive to servicemen. In Canterbury, the three of them each receive "blessings", apparently for their good work at rooting out the glue man! An odd film, to say the least, that just seems plain silly at times, but perhaps is just very British and impenetrable to the rest of us.

Brazil (1985)

Academy Awards, USA 1986

Nominee Oscar	Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen Terry Gilliam Tom Stoppard Charles McKeown
	Best Art Direction-Set Decoration Norman Garwood Maggie Gray

Universal Pictures
Directed by Terry Gilliam
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(Blu-ray, Criterion Collection)

Government worker Jonathan Pryce escapes from his dreary life with daydreams about being a flying hero who rescues a beautiful girl. One day while serving papers to the wife of a man mistakenly arrested and killed by the government, he glimpses the girl of his dreams. He uses his government position to find out more about her, getting pulled deeper and deeper into her supposed terrorist activities. He is eventually arrested himself and just when he is about to be tortured, is rescued by some of her friends. The events that follow suggest the entire movie was just in his mind! Well, depending on which version you watch, since this has had multiple releases, with the main difference being the ending. Made during Terry Gilliam's most creative period, sandwiched between Time Bandits and Baron Munchausen, it is probably the lesser work. The over-the-top production design has influenced everything from the Coen brothers to steampunk, but the story seems to be left behind in the dust. It is very entertaining, though.