Regularly updated blog charting the most important films of the last 104 years.
Friday, December 15, 2006
76. Queen Christina (1933)
Directed By Rouben Mamoulian
Synopsis
Famous bisexual transvestite Queen Christina of Sweden falls in love with a Spanish envoy and abdicates her throne to be with him only to find him dead after a duel! Feel good movie of the year.
Review
Garbo has the same X factor as Marlene Dietrich and it is no wonder they were such rivals in Hollywood. If anything Garbo is the better actress, at least in this film she is superb. There is a bit of a feeling on uneasiness in her earlier speeches as a Queen, but I am not sure if this is purposeful as the Queen eventually abdicates and so that uneasiness works with the character.
The film's plot it great, it bears little resemblance to the real history of Christina which is equally, if not more, fascinating but it is a very entertaining film nonetheless. Also, as the period piece that it is there are fantastic costumes ans scenery as would be expected.
The film is quite a light affair for the first half, working almost like a romantic comedy with all the gender bending and identity problems working as the comedic fuel. However it quickly goes from that to the story of starcrossed lovers and all the tragedy shows up. This actually makes it a very good film as both part work perfectly and meld seamlessly. Very much worth watching, buy it from Amazon UK or US.
Final Grade
9/10
Trivia
From Wikipedia:
One could imagine why Garbo would be intrigued by this project. She was given the opportunity to play a queen from her homeland of Sweden. And as such, Garbo was in total control of Queen Christina. She chose the director, cameraman, and cast. One of the screenwriters, Salka Viertel, was a personal friend. She had initially requested that Sir Laurence Olivier play the part of Christina's lover, since she was impressed with him in a previous film. But during rehearsals in August 1933, Garbo and Olivier did not have any chemistry. Instead, Garbo requested that Gilbert (who was once her fiancé) get the part.
In the feature film, Garbo's Christina is made to abdicate her throne for the love of a Spanish ambassador, Don Antonio, played by Gilbert. There is also no mention of the real Christina's conversion to Catholicism. The conclusion of Queen Christina contains one of the most famous shots in the history of feature film. In a long, silent tracking shot which moves into a close-up, Garbo is standing on the brow of a ship, gazing out at the horizon. It has been interpreted in many different ways, mostly due to Garbo's own ambiguity as an actress. According to the director, he told Garbo to think of absolutely nothing, to have her face be a mask, and never to blink in order to create this final shot.
Fairly or unfairly, this film was snubbed at Oscar time, and it did not do that well at the box office either despite good reviews from critics. Many consider Garbo's performance in Queen Christina to be among her best.
Rufus T. Firefly becomes the ruler of Freedonia! Hilarity ensues.
Review
The Marx brothers... I am sure this was pretty funny in 1933, and in some points it still is now, Groucho Marx's delivery is perfect and his surplus of double entendres is amusing, even if it becomes very old very soon. Where this film really gets points is in its visual gags.
The jokes have dated terribly, I am sure that if you live in the States and have been watching these films since you were a kid they are pretty funny, because admit it, no matter how shit something is, if you found it funny when you were 5 you will find it funny always.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, I come to the Marx brothers with a clean slate; it's the first Marx brothers film I've seen. This means that I really don't have any emotional relation to it, and the jokes just seem to simple and puerile. However, the visual gags are brilliant. You can tell that there is a lot of influence from surrealist movies and that is a good thing.
The two big musical numbers are very funny, and the last one spoofing music genres of the time is particularly so. The mirror scene, imitated endlessly since 1933 is also brilliant as is the hat scene and the whole of the war scene at the end.
If you haven't seen it don't expect it to be that funny, but some moments are comedy perfection. Buy it at Amazon UK or US.
Lady Lou is very successful as a singer in a saloon. Impressive diamond collection. Shady acquaintances. She falls in love with a guy from the mission next door. Oh noes! He's a detective. They get engaged.
Review
As you can see there is not much of a plot to the film, but Mae West makes up for it in spades. This film is basically a showcase for Mae West, she is fantastic throughout, more impressively it is based on one of her plays, so she wrote it as well!
Her dialogues are great, saucy and full of double entendres, and the unique dilivery of her lines is equally impressive. Mae West is, however, the only real reason to see this film, no other character is as interesting as her, even Cary Grant as the detective pales next to her.
The direction is also sub par, nothing particular to point out about it. It is still worth watching on the whole, with the sexually liberated Mae putting in a superb performance. So, watch it for her before the code put a dampener on her feisty demanour.
Though Mae West's line is "Why don't you come up some time and see me?" in She Done Him Wrong, she changed it to "Come up and see me sometime" in her next movie, I'm No Angel, which was released the same year.
Rich kid makes music for musicals, his brother tries to stop him from marrying chorus girl. Brother gets taken for a ride by other chorus girl, it all ends in everyone getting married.
Review
This is a much better film than either 42nd Street or Footlight Parade, it is still a Busby Berkeley musical but it also has some plot and a got story to it unlike the two previous ones. The reason for this is surely Mervyn LeRoy who is a much better director than Lloyd Bacon.
This is an interesting film in several respects, firstly it is has a quite interesting plot and dialogue, secondly the acting is quite good, with the exception of Ruby Keeler who gets another big part in this film despite being shitty in the last 2 films reviewed here. Thirdly and maybe most importantly this is a very socially aware musical comedy. The film starts with the famous We're In The Money, but ends with a musical act about the forgotten veterans of World War I in a poingnant political message as well as a musical spectacular. The film is very aware of the problems facing people during the depression, and despote being a comedy does not tone down the horrors of depression America.
The only problem with this film is that the Berkeley musical numbers are not as spectacular as in Footlight Parade for example. They are still quite good but not nearly as flabbergasting as in that film. That doesn't matter as much here anyway because the film isn't carried by the musical numbers, but by the fact that it is a good film in itself. Buy it at Amazon UK or US. Final Grade
8/10
Trivia
Shadow Waltz:
From Wikipedia:
The film contains four song and dance sequences choregraphed by Busby Berkeley.
"We're in the Money" is sung by Ginger Rogers accompanied by showgirls dancing with giant coins. Rogers sings one verse in Pig Latin.
"Petting in the Park" is sung by Ruby Keeler and Dick Powell. It includes a tap dance from Keeler and a surreal sequence featuring dwarf actor Billy Barty as a baby who escapes from his perambulator.
"Shadow Waltz" is sung by Powell and features a dance of female violinists with neon violins that glow in the dark.
"Remember My Forgotten Man" features sets influenced by German Expressionism and a gritty evocation of Depression-era poverty.
James Cagney comes up with a company which makes musical prologues to talkies. In the effort to obtain a big contract he puts on the best prologues ever made. There's some shit about relationships in it as well.
Review
Lloyd Bacon can suck my balls frankly. He's just a run of the mill director and although this film was much better written than 42nd Street it was still pretty uninteresting until Busby Berkeley got his hands on it directing the three huge production numbers at the end.
The film is basically worth watching because of the aforementioned 3 musical numbers at the end. And it is very much worth watching because of them. It's hard to overrate the genius of Busbby who directed the musical numbers, in fact they are still extremely visually impressive in our days of CGI and huge special effects.
Busby is a genius in making musical numbers for the screen; of course there is a great big rip with the film's plot in the musical scenes, particularly because they would never work on stage, they need the camera to be seen from above, to catch the little details and to get a sense of the hugeness of the sets and choreography.
There is a stand out number, the middle one, By A Waterfall which is simply amazing and also very risqué - there's a lot of half naked wet ladies and lady's crotches on show and then the choreographies are simply amazing. It's a kaleidoscope of naked legs probably best experienced on drugs. By A Waterfall is the most visually impressive thing that I've seen up until now on this list; you are simply wide-eyed with amazement. I can't praise it enough. A pity that the rest of the film doesn't have the same standart of quality. Of course Cagney is great in it, but the other actors not so much, the dialogue is funny and fast paced and that's about it. Buy it from Amazon UK or US.
A girl wants to make it in show business! The main actress break her ankle! Girl needs to take main part! Oh Noes! She makes it in show business!
Review
It is a perfectly unremarkable film in everything except the last 10 minutes. Yes, there are jokes, and it can be quite funny. The directing is not bad, but nothing extrordinary, some of the acting is just passable and none of it is stellar.
That said, when you have Busby Berkeley directing the song and dance bits it can't just be run of the mill. So in the last 10 minutes the film definitely pays off with some brilliant musical numbers.
And that is all this film is, a simple musical comedy with a plot that has been rehashed again and again throughout film history with some truly great dance sequences and great music as well, with hits as 42nd Street or You Are Getting To Be A Habit With Me, and these two things are well worth the admission.
It is also worth seeing one of Ginger Rogers first parts, in what is probably the best character in the whole film. Bebe Daniels, the main actress is nothing special however, she is a good dancer, an okay singer and a crap actress. Buy it at UK or US. Final Grade
7/10
Trivia
No Films for this :(
From Wikipedia:
In private life, Berkeley was as flamboyant as his work. He went through six wives, an alienation-of-affections suit involving a prominent movie queen, and a fatal car accident which resulted in his being tried (and acquitted) for second degree murder. In the late 1960s, the camp craze brought the Berkeley musicals back into the forefront. He hit the college and lecture circuit, and even directed a 1930s-style cold tablet commercial, complete with a top shot of a dancing clock. In his 75th year, Busby Berkeley returned to Broadway to direct a success revival of ‘No No Nanette’, starring his old Warner Brothers colleague and “42nd Street” star Ruby Keeler.
Berkeley died in Palm Springs, California at the age of 80 from natural causes
Jean Vigo makes surrealism in this film. It is hard to give a final grade to a film like this, in fact it is so much outside conventionality that you need to get past the weirdness to get to the film itself.
There is not much of a plot here, kids are in a boarding school under an oppressive regime, even though the members of that regime are kids as well - at least in their Id - whereas their Superego casts them as authoritarians. The language of the unconscious is as good as any to talk about this film which is in the end every child's fantasy at school, through the eyes of Vigo.
Of course surrealism is a bit childish anyway, and it suits itself to stories about children, we are all naturally surrealist, at least I was as a child, random associations of ideas and the fantastically impossible are part of our lives. Vigo seems to capture that quite well, but the film misses what it could have been as it seems at times to be too disjointed from reality for it's own good. It goes too far and not far enough, any idea of motivations is lost but the fantasy isn't as fantastic as it could have been. There is of course the limitation of 44 minutes to take into account. All in all a film that makes you think after you've watched it and those ideas are interesting, even if the viewing experience is not as interesting as it could have been.
Some highlights however are the animation sequence and the pillow fight followed by the processions in a rain of feathers. Buy it at Amazon UK or US.
Final Grade
7/10
Trivia
The whole film in one minute... basically:
From Wikipedia:
Vigo was born on April 26, 1905, to Emily Clero and the prominent militant anarchist Eugene Bonaventure de Vigo, (who adopted the name Miguel Almereyda - an anagram of "y'a la merde", which translates as "there is shit"). Much of his early life was spent on the run with his parents. His father was strangled in his cell in Fresnes Prison on the night of 13 August 1917. It was believed to have been the doing of the authorities, as Almereyda had earlier that day asked to speak to his lawyer, who was due to see him the following day. The young Vigo was subsequently sent to boarding school under an assumed name, Jean Sales, to conceal his identity.
Vigo was married and had a daughter in 1931. He died of complications from tuberculosis, which he had contracted eight years earlier.
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