1944: Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder)

1944: Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder)
What don't I like about this film?  It's one where everything seems to be  in exactly the right place for me.  

If I were making a film noir and putting together a checklist of some of the elements usually associated with this type of film, here's how I would break down Double Indemnity:

1.  Femme fatale: Barbara Stanwyck, perhaps my favorite femme fatale in the history of film.  

2. Voice-over narration:  Like a few of my other favorite voice-overs (Shoot the Piano Player being at the very top of the list), Fred MacMurray's helps tell the story, but even more important, it allows us at times to get into the head of our protagonist.  

3.  Non-linear script:  The movie begins with the end and then tells the entire film in flashback.  Along with Carlito's Way (I've read that Wilder's film was a major influence on De Palma), this is my favorite use of the device in the history of film.

4.  Moody score: Miklos Rozsa immediately thrusts us into this dark world and and then periodically reminds us of the inevitable with one of my favorite scores in the history of this type of film.


5.  Fatalistic ending (SPOILER!): The story, so well-written by the way, takes us where we don't want to go but know we can't avoid.  This movie accomplishes the task as well as any I've ever seen in the history of this type of film.

Other contenders for 1944: It's nice to be back on a year where I don't have quite as many gaps.  The major films from this year I still need to see are: Michael Powell's A Canterbury Tale, Raoul Walsh's Uncertain Glory, Marcel Carne's Les Enfants du Paradis, Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat, and Laurence Olivier's Henry V.  I love Double Indemnity so much that I can't really say any other film is a close runner-up.  However, there are a few other films from this year that I also really like: the two zany Preston Sturges films Hail the Conquering Hero and The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, Fritz Lang's wonderful noir The Woman in the Window, one of my favorite films ever dealing with marital paranoia George Cukor's Gaslight, and yet another excellent Howard Hawks entry To Have and Have Not.

9/29/10 I watched Laurence Olivier's Henry V.  No doubt very impressive and ambitious storytelling by Olivier.  But some of the artifice and a movie driven by words are always a little difficult for me so I did not connect entirely with this one.  

10/2/10 I watched Marcel Carne's Les Enfants du Paradis.  Incredibly well-made, ambitious, epic storytelling.  A bit impersonal and tidy for my tastes but a white tablecloth restaurant of the highest order.  

10/3/10 I watched Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat.  It's tremendous what Hitch is able to accomplish on one location, and the camerawork is subtly and brilliantly employed to emulate a boat adrift at sea.  But a fairly dry affair with only a few moments that really held me.  

10/5/10 I watched Michael Powell's A Canterbury Tale.  A rather bizarre concoction.  Powell's style is lyrical and poetic, neorealist and baroque, deep and whimsical.  Some extraordinary moments, such as when the organ player finally has his moment at church, but somewhat meandering too, in a way that can be off-putting at times.  

6/23/11 I watched Leo McCarey's Going My Way.  Likable enough, but a humanistic trudge that's more cloying than affecting.  

9/15/19 I watched Raoul Walsh's Uncertain Glory.  The ending is fairly interesting but the rest of it just felt like Walsh and Flynn going through the motions.

12/15/21 I watched Jean Gremillon's The ciel est a vous.  More than any film I can recall, it explores the settled and normal every day person's desire to chase fame, even at the risk of losing everything in the process.  Gremillion has a keen eye and feel for French provincial which gives the arc of the story real feeling and depth.  

6/9/24 I watched Edward Dmytryk's Murder, My Sweet.  A very interesting noir that has the twisty, almost dreamlike, plot typical of Chandler's work.  I'm not all that familiar with Dmytryk but this is a noir that deserves to be talked about in any conversation about the early, important noirs.  

1942: The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles)

1942: The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles)

I'll never forget the first time I heard this narration below.  It was 1995. I was a student at the University of Caen, in France, and I was watching a double-feature on campus of The Magnificent Ambersons and Touch of Evil:

"The magnificence of the Ambersons began in 1873.  Their splendor lasted throughout all the years that saw their Midland town spread and darken into a city.   In that town in those days, all the women who wore silk or velvet knew all the other women who wore silk or velvet and everybody knew everybody else's family horse and carriage.  The only public conveyance was the streetcar.  A lady could whistle to it from an upstairs window, and the car would halt at once, and wait for her, while she shut the window, .. put on her hat and coat, ...went downstairs, ...found an umbrella, ...told the 'girl' what to have for dinner...and came forth from the house.  Too slow for us nowadays, because the faster we're carried, the less time we have to spare."


In some ways, this narration, and the film in general, changed my life. It made me aware of what is still probably my biggest obsession:  life is moving too fast, how can we slow it down? 


Welles conveys this theme beautifully throughout the film.  We see it, experience it, feel it, and know it on some level to be true.  It's a film of a bygone era that when it's all over makes me want to scrap everything and go back in time 140 years.  


Although this film is one of the most famous victims of studio interference and recutting, the version that remains still has great power to move me.  And, as always with Welles, the movie humbles me with its absolute mastery of the medium.




Other contenders for 1942: This is a year where I fortunately have fewer gaps.  The only major films I haven't seen are Alfred Hitchcock's Saboteur, George Stevens' Woman of the Year, and Luchino Visconti's Ossessione.  This is also one of those years where I only have one close runner-up.  I like Casablanca, but it's never been a favorite of mine.  I really like Ernst Lubitsch's To Be or Not to Be.  It's probably my second favorite of what I've seen so far from the director.  And, I love The Palm Beach Story.  In fact, I might like it the most of all the Preston Sturges films I've seen.  My only true runner-up though would be Raoul Walsh's Gentleman Jim.  For me, it's one of Flynn's greatest performances, and like my top pick for 1941 (Sergeant York), it's a biopic that pulls me into Corbett's life and completely satisfies me with the telling of his story.   Ultimately though, I have to give the top pick to this Welles film, which has always been very personal to me.  Its themes, its grace and charm, and even its playful streak, affect me deeply. 


8/30/10 I watched George Stevens' Woman of the Year.  It covers some very interesting territory at times, probably more Mankiewicz than Stevens.  But it doesn't feel totally fulfilling.  But when it's mining some of the possible shortcomings of marriage, it's as depthful and adult as anything I've seen from this period.  


9/7/10 I watched Humphrey Jennings' Listen to Britain.  It's an interesting twenty minute short film that uses sound to drive the narrative.  But it's mostly a propaganda film that I admired more than really liked or loved.


9/8/10 I watched Alfred Hitchcock's Saboteur.  I found it to be one of the less accomplished films I've seen from Hitch, particularly the second half.  But as with all the great director's work, there are several excellent scenes, including the initial explosion, as well as some unexpected warmth at times from the film.  


9/14/10 I watched Luchino Visconti's Ossessione.  I was blown away. It seemed like such an influence on Godard's Breathless and the way that he wanted his film to look and sound.  And I found it so much more satisfying than either American version I've seen of the same story. Visconti seems incredibly inspired, and his film is full of many wonderful details.  


2/3/11 I watched Yasujiro Ozu's There Was a Father.  Ozu is without a doubt my favorite directorial discovery of the last year.  His movies tell us so much about ourselves, and when it comes to showing us aging and family, I'm not sure Ozu has a rival.  I particularly like his bold, editing style in this one.  He jumps ahead between scenes, always knowing that we'll eventually catch up.  I'm not a huge fan of the actor playing the older son in this one, but all in all, another wonderful experience in the world of Ozu.    

2/11/18 I watched Ernst Lubitsch's To Be or Not to Be.  Another Lubitsch that I don't think is up there with Shop  or Cluny but it is fun a good amout of time.