Babbitt (1934)

The second and surprisingly most recent film adaptation of Sinclair Lewis's famed 1922 novel of the same name (the first movie version was a 1924 silent). Staring Guy Kibbee as the titular Babbitt, a successful though thoroughly middle class real estate agent living in the fictional midsized mid-western city of Zenith. Babbitt gets involved in various mis-adventures designed to showcase the vacuity of American middle class conformity, only the film falls something short on that front. Now I haven't read Babbitt, though now having seen this film I genuinely want to and learn what I missed, but I do know that it has a reputation as being a pretty spot on work of social satire, which though it has a few moments, this movie certainly is not. This is due, at least in part, to the way films were made at the time and the shortcomings of the adaptation process. Because Babbitt the book is said to be a work in which nothing much really happens, its more about observations then happenings, the script writers try to play up the more salacious parts of the story, the arrest of a friend of Babbitt's for beating his wife,  and Babbitt's flirting with having an affair with a young client. The problem with this approach is this film was made at the dawn of production code enforcement, if made a year earlier this movie could have been more salacious, but with a production code seal there are a lot of things it can only hint at. This results in a mediocre rendering, a film that feels natured, and an ending that just doesn't feel right, in fact an ending that if anything is an endorsement of middle class conformity, not a condemnation of it. So what was the point. **

Russian Ark (2002)

Shot in one continues 96 minute steadicam take, the longest single unedited shot in cinema history, Russian Ark is a wonder, a beautiful, beautiful motion picture. Filmed at St Petersburg historic Winter Palace, now part of the state Hermitage museum, the film displays 33 rooms of the museum, which are filled with a cast of over 2,000 actors and 3 orchestras. Once the home of Tsar's and now the home of arguably the greatest art collection in Russia, the film is a dreamlike journey throughout the place, your guides are a faceless narrator (director Alexander Sokurov),and the French Marquis de Custine (Sergei Dontsov), who in a dream like state and unstuck in time travel through the rooms of the palace as they represent different eras and encounter such Russian  historical figures as Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, Nicholas the 1st and 2nd, as well as various party guest, solders staff, museum visitors and others. It's a beautiful place, beautifully filmed, with beautiful people in beautiful costumes, and it just becomes hypnotic. This is a truly original piece of film making, firing creatively and artistically on all cylinders. I loved it and  plan on purchasing a copy. ****

The Trials of Henry Kissinger (2002)

Documentary that grew out of Christopher Hitchens 2001 book The Trial of Henry Kissinger, which in turn grew out Kissinger's well known outrage at the 1998 arrest of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in Britain. As Secretary of State Kissinger had important dealings with Pinochet at the time of the coup that brought him to power, and in fact was instrumental in making that coup happen. A comprehensive look at Kissinger's career brought Hitchens to the conclusion that the man is a war criminal and should be prosecuted, a case which he makes in his book and which is also made in this documentary. Kissinger appears in archival footage and interviews conducted for other sources, there was no way he wanted anything to do with Hitchens, but crusading journalist Seymour Hersh and others did and serve as the films talking heads. A good, straight forward examination of Kissinger and his crimes, it is available to watch for free on the Youtube.  Informative. **1/2

Petals on the Wind (2014)

Right around a second after the ratings success of their 2014 adaptation of the  V. C. Andrews novel Flowers in the Attic, The Lifetime Network announced that they were going to make a movie out of the next book in authors 'Dollanganger series', Petals on the Wind. Well they certainly wasted no time, Flowers came out in January and Petals premiered May 26th. The rush in production no doubtl contributed greatly to the rushed feeling of this film, which I have heard memorably described as "cliff notes on crack" as it speeds through melodramatic plot-point after melodramatic plot point, drops entirely large portions of the beginning of the book, and I believe changed the ending (I haven't read these books, but I've heard my mother talk about them). Petals is directed and acted competently, its the story that makes it like watching a car wreak, its morbidly fascinating and I just couldn't look away. At the end of the first film I was desperate for the Dollanganer mother Corrine (Heather Graham) to get her come-uppance, which she did in this film, but neither in an entirely satisfying, nor an entirely disappointing way. I liked the casting of the film, good lookers all (including Rose McIver and Bailey Buntain), which brings the rot/vulnerability beneath their characters out in a weird way. Anyway this was enjoyably exploitive trash, treated with more care then it might seem to warrant, which again was a V. C. Andrews specialty. **1/2

Godzilla (2014)

Latest American reboot of the venerable Japanese giant lizard franchise is leaps and bounds better then the memorably  awful 1998 Ronald Emmerich version, but still.... One should remember that in Japan Godzilla actually became a kind of 'good guy' battling as he did an array of other giant monsters hell bent on smashing-up Tokyo. British director Gareth Edwards decided to go this rout with his film, as here Godzilla battles a couple of  MUTO's (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism's), that look kind of like the aliens from Starship Troopers crossed with a Plymouth Prowler, as they tear up some Hawaiian resorts as well as San Francisco in their search for sources of radiation, which they somehow are said to live on, as in solely, as in no organic food, as in violates basic biology.

The film kills off its most interesting character early on, Bryan Cranston as an obsessed scientist, and leaves us with terminally bland leading man Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and his equally bland love interest Elizabeth Olsen, Ken Watanabe and Sally Hawkins do show up occasionally, but are left with little to do. The summer blockbuster, with rare exceptions such as Gravity (which wasn't actually released in the summer, but rather in October) has largely lost its ability to awe, there's impressively animated CG monsters and wanton destruction on a large scale here, but basically no emotional or story investment. I hear that based on the supposed strength of this Godzilla Gareth Edwards has been taped to direct one of the new Star Wars films, which judging form this will likely by technically proficient, and competently structured, but lacking in soul. **1/2

Return From the Ashes (1965)

Okay so here's the plot, from Wikipedia (spoilers aplenty):

"Shortly before the Nazi invasion of France, Dr. Michelle Wulf (Thulin) encounters the younger Stanislaus Pilgrin (Schell) over a game of lightning chess, not being aware that Pilgrin is a chess master. She becomes intrigued with the fortune-hunting Pilgrin and the two begin a liaison. Upon the Nazi invasion, in order to protect Michelle, who is Jewish, "Stan" marries her, to no avail it turns out when the Gestapo arrests her and sends her to a concentration camp.

An unspecified amount of time after the war, Michelle returns under the identity of Mme. Robert and encounters her colleague, plastic surgeon Dr. Charles Bovard (Lom), who at first does not recognize her because of her disfigured state. She undergoes plastic surgery to restore some of her looks, and then by chance encounters Stan, who has assumed and still believes that Michelle is dead. Surprised at the resemblance, Stan tells her that Michelle's step-daughter Fabi (Eggar) cannot inherit her step-mother's estate because no body was ever produced. He asks "Mme. Robert" to impersonate Michelle and she agrees. Upon moving back into her own house, she quickly becomes aware that Fabi, now a beautiful woman, resents her for her former neglect, and what is worse, is now Stan's lover. Eventually, Michelle reveals herself and insists on resuming her relationship with her husband.

While taking a bath after consuming alcohol and barbiturates, the jealous Fabi tells Stan her plan for killing her step-mother. Stan will go to another city on the pretext of attending a chess championship. He will set up a gun to go off when Michelle opens her safe. After establishing his alibi, he will call her and tell her that he has put a gift for her in the safe. When he hears the shot, he will know she is dead, and he can return home to adjust the scene to make the death appear a suicide.

Though it is not clear if Fabi is serious, the amoral Stan drowns her in the bathtub in such a way that it looks like an accident related to an overdose, and then carries out her plan. When he returns, he discovers what appears to be Michelle's body, but is caught by the police in the act of manipulating the scene. Charles, who has loved Michelle all along, had entered the room just as she was opening the safe and caused her to step aside to avoid the bullet."

Though based on a novel and  adapted into a screenplay by the great Julius J. Epstein  the fact that this is a "near-do-well husband will he or won't he kill his wife" mystery wedded to the Holocaust as a plot device, well it makes one a bit uneasy. It's well executed, and petty well acted, has a good cast and is nicely shot, yet the set up, the wife returning home after the Holocaust, the play boy husband under the assumption that she's dead, well there could be a real good movie in there somewhere. Instead this is just a fairly good movie, though a bit uneven, and as mentioned before, using the Holocaust angel as feeder for this kind of movie of the week murderous husband story, well it felt kind of uncomfortable. **1/2