Film review: The White Sheik (1952)

 

Quick, when you think of Fellini, what's the first adjective that springs to mind?  Well, if it's not "funny" then you haven't seen this one, which is instantly the Fellini I most enjoyed (although there were certainly funny bits in Amarcord), although I will admit it doesn't have the heft of 8½ or La Dolce Vita.  What we have here is a whirlwind visit to Rome by a honeymooning young small-town couple with different ideas of the point of the visit.  

He, Ivan, the officious and controlling (if ineffectual) bridegroom (who kept reminding me of a mixture of Harpo Marx and Gene Wilder because of the way his eyes kept bugging) 

has an agenda that manages their time to the millisecond, and it's all to be spent with his relatives, in particular his uncle who works in the Vatican and has managed to score an audience with the Pope (along with 200 other couples). She, Wanda, the apparently mousy, but in reality determined and fanatical bride (Brunella Bovo, whose face is equally expressive and whose gift for comedy should've resulted in her rocketing to stardom after this film, instead of sliding into relative obscurity as she evidently did) intends instead to visit the offices of her favorite photo-comic (which apparently exploded in popularity in the 50s in Italy, and which were referred to as fumetti elsewhere), in the hopes of delivering a portrait she has drawn of her favorite character (the titular White Sheik) to the actor who portrays him (who, when we meet him, seems rather paunchy and ordinary, although she cannot see it).  She manages to squeeze an opportunity to do this into her husband's regimented agenda by asking for a bath in the hotel 

(it is early in the morning as they arrive in Rome by train, having apparently traveled through the night - and thus their marriage remains unconsummated) which he magnanimously allows.  She slips out while he is napping, but, alas, leaves the water running, which presents him with the first of many inconveniences on what is to be a long and humiliating day for him.  Thereafter we cut back and forth between Wanda's escapades - she starts out wonderfully, meeting the writer of all her favorite stories 

and contributing a cliffhanging line of dialogue for the latest installment of the White Sheik, but then becomes increasingly overwhelmed, as she is whisked off on a a truck to the seaside over 20 km outside Rome where she finally meets her idol 

- and Ivan's increasingly desperate attempts to convince his family that Wanda is confined to their room with a headache.  Wanda gets a role as a harem girl in the production, although her inability to stop beaming with joy rather undercuts the impression that she is in peril.  However, predictably, the White Sheik turns out to be a lech (putting the moves on her on a borrowed sailing boat) and a married one, at that, although Wanda buys his ridiculous story that his wife entrapped him with a potion (to his horror, when she repeats it back to the wife who shows up at the photoshoot).  Eventually Wanda runs off and is left behind by the crew when they can't find her.  She does make her way home (driven by another cad who had been at the beach and hung around the photoshoot all day - that's him in his undershirt) 

but cannot bear to face her husband and resolves to drown herself in the river, which, alas, turns out to be ankle deep at the place she attempts it.  Meanwhile Ivan wanders the streets sobbing until he is consoled by two ladies of the night (one of them is Cabiria, 

played by Fellini's wife, Giulietta Masina, who gets a whole film to herself later).  We do not know what happens to Ivan, but he is seen being led off by the non-Cabiria-prostitute and then shows up with a 5-o'clock shadow at his hotel in the morning to find his family already waiting in the lobby.  Before he can collect himself, he gets a phone call telling him that his wife has been institutionalized.  He faints, but recovers to find his family about to put him in the room that they think Wanda is in.  He hastily sends them away, promising to meet them at 11 at the Vatican for the rescheduled audience with the Pope.  This gives him time to rush to the institution, throw some clothes at Wanda 

and race to the Vatican.  Wanda is clearly a chastised woman as they are walking towards the Papal palace, but she insists that nothing happened and she remains pure.  At this he starts somewhat but hastily assures her that he is too (hmm....).  Fin.  What have we learned?  What have they learned?  Not enough to ensure a happy and settled life, I fear, but their tribulations were certainly fodder for our amusement over a brisk 90 minutes.  And now we just have 16 films of the 50 remaining...

NOW it's Spring

Dental (and then) Dam

Frederick's usual 6-monthly trip to the dentist is followed by the usual stroll round the Barton Nature Area on the way out of Ann Arbor. Unseasonably cold (it was supposed to snow last night). The dam is the Barton Dam.

Reports of Summer were premature

Crazy weather

For the past week temperatures have been up into the 80s, and we packed away all our Winter coats and cracked out the shorts. As the trees had yet to leaf out, it was glary and unpleasant, but we screwed on brave faces:

Then, just as the trees started to leaf out and blossoms were suddenly everywhere, the temperatures dropped a good 40 degrees and it started snowing. Michigan, eh?

Film review: Pepé le Moko (1937)

The latest in the 50-film boxset, this one is quintessentially French, which is to say, don't get too attached to the protagonist, who is very charming but also very much a male chauvinist pig.  Of course, it's the great Jean Gabin in his breakout role, and if it was anyone less likeable you would cheer Pepé's inevitable demise given how shoddily he treats his devoted Gypsy lover Inès (hint - that's not her in the poster).  

Essentially, Pepé is a notorious thief and bankrobber (although we have to accept this on reputation, as stated by all the cops we see plotting his arrest - we never actually see him and his gang in action - the closest is them having their regular fence ("Grandpa") assess some jewels' worth before they are interrupted by a police raid) who is holed up in the Casbah region of Algiers.  This is really the true star of the film, as it is a convincingly (I imagine it was all sets) portrayed maze of alleys, courtyards and rooftops containing a polyglot multi-ethnic throng into which Pepé can vanish to escape capture, and they will close ranks around him owing to his legendary reputation.  However, he's been holed up there for two years at least, and he's itching to escape (he's missing Paris - you would think the Paris tourist board sponsored this film the amount of waxing lyrical about its many delights that goes on (at one point Pepé flatters his love interest by saying she smells of the Metro(!))

Anyway, the plot (well, it's more a series of events) is roughly as follows.  Different forces are intent on bringing down Pep: the stodgy white Frenchies just want to do raids into the Casbah, but these turn up empty.  Then two factions of locals try their hand: the slimy-but-undoubtedly-cunning informer Règis, and the cynical but upfront local police inspector Slimane. Pepé sees through Règis, but tragically his young gang-member (whom he regards as like a little brother) Pierrot, who originally came to the Casbah because he was a deserter, does not, and is tricked into leaving the Casbah when he gets a letter that purports to be from his mother, who is ill and waiting for him in Algiers.  This is overseen by Pierrot's girlfriend who gets panicky when Pierrot doesn't return and tells Pepé, who immediately suspects Règis and has him confined to a room with the rest of the gang while they wait for Pierrot to return. Règis realizes he's pretty much done for, 

and understandably finds it hard to concentrate on the card games they have him playing.  Somehow Pierrot has escaped capture but is mortally wounded, so his buddies hold him up so he can execute Règis (and have to take over when he dies just before he can do it).  

This is probably the best part of the movie - it's genuinely gripping, intense, and very film-noiresque.  Slimane, on the other hand, Pepé respects.  

He makes no secret of the fact that he intends to arrest Pepé, and Pepé likes him for it.  However, it is Slimane who brings about Pepé's downfall by first (accidentally) introducing him to Gaby, the much-bejewelled trophy-wife of a fat visiting Parisian, and then strategically managing their relationship.  It is Gaby into whose eyes Jean Gabin is gazing in the poster, and she who "smells of the Metro." 

It also emerges that she grew up just streets from him and has clearly dragged her way up the social ladder by cunning much as he has.  You have to believe that they are soulmates for the inexorable tragic arc of the movie to make sense, and I'm not sure you do.  Certainly poor old Inès is mystified how her lover of two years can have fallen so quickly and completely for this upstart, and is motivated eventually to betray him.  But Slimane's victory is somewhat Pyrrhic, and his respect for his longtime foe undercuts the victory he has cleverly won.

On the whole, I'd say this is a slight movie, but the characters (particularly Slimane) are well-drawn and complex (echoes of Claude Raine's character in Casablanca) and if you wanted to trace the history of noir, this definitely counts as a proto-noir.  And I'll watch just about anything with Gabin in it.

Sights of early Spring

Film review: Palm Springs (2020)

 

As I have noted in my review of Happy Death Day, it wasn't actually Groundhog Day that invented the idea of the time-loop-that-only-one-character-is-reliving-again-and-again - apparently it was a 1973 short story called "12:01" (short film version here.)  Be that as it may, this device is forever associated with Groundhog Day, and rightly so, as it is an almost perfect film (and, I just heard on the radio today, Alison Bechdel's fave film, despite it failing the eponymous test fairly drastically).  However, the device has proved a rich vein to mine, as evidenced by the TV show Russian Doll, the surprisingly clever slasher pic HDD, and this one, which might even be the best since GD (or at least since Edge of Tomorrow).  This is particularly surprising, because it stars two actors who are famous for reasons that suggest they are ill-suited for the romance and dramatic depth that this film (in between pretty good jokes) requires: there is the huge-eyed pixie Cristin Milioti, 

who is probably best-known for the sitcom How I Met Your Mother, which I confess I have not seen but which does not sound promising, and the equally-disproportionately-mouthed Andy Samberg, 

who is most famous for being part of the comedy-musical-group Lonely Island, who in turn are probably best known for a SNL sketch called "Dick in a Box".  BUT, they both acquit themselves very well, and manage the dramatic parts as well as the humor, and also manage to have very solid chemistry.  So, what does this add to the whole Groundhog Day idea?  Well, first of all, we meet Samberg's Nyles as he has already been stuck in the loop for possibly years.  He is an old hand, and has more-or-less resigned himself to his Sisyphean existence, adopting a nihilistic view.  As with all of these time-loop stories, dying is no escape, so it is a literal Sisyphean existence, and he can only get by by focusing on little pleasures.  A wrinkle that this adds to Groundhog Day (but shared by Russian Doll and Edge) is that others can join him.  In fact, he has intentionally (albeit while under the influence) recruited Roy, a man in his early 60s (or at least played by the ubiquitous J.K. Simmons, who is in his early 60s), when Roy wished out loud (also under the influence) that he could enjoy this night forever.  (All it takes is to visit a particular glowing cave at a particular time, when an earthquake has triggered some kind of fissure.)  Roy has not taken kindly to this, and in fact, the first time we see him, he is hunting Nyles with a bow-and-arrow.  This freaks out Milioti's Sarah and, despite Nyles's shouted warning not to, follows him into the cave where he has crawled to re-set his day and escape the pain of the arrow-wounds.  Thus she is recruited.  The film is called Palm Springs because that is the setting, specifically a wedding where Sarah is sister of the bride and Nyles is boyfriend to (the unfaithful) Misty, who is (I think) related to the groom.  This allows for plenty of desert scenes, including one involving dinosaurs, which may or may not be the result of the ingestion of magic mushrooms. 

Anyway, once Sarah works out what's happened to her, she is similarly upset, and intent on finding a way out. Nyles, of course, knows this is futile, but she has to find out for herself.  Then it's on to the process of Sarah falling for Nyles.  Nyles, it turns out, has already fallen for Sarah, and we have, in fact, come in on only the most recent in many seductions he has made of her.  (She's not the only one, as we discover in a funny discussion of his sexual experiences in the time loop - that's an aspect of this predicament that previous versions haven't plumbed.)  Anyway, soon after falling for Nyles, Sarah remembers a reason why she wakes up feeling ashamed every morning, and also finds out something that makes her go off Nyles.  Then, after another scene with Roy, she steps in front of a truck and thereafter is not to be found.  Nyles's problem is that he wakes up after her every morning, so she has time to disappear before he can do anything about it.  This sends him into a bit of a tailspin, so much so that he actually seeks Roy out (he lives in Irvine, which is why, on the occasions he decides to hunt Nyles, it can only be later in the day).  Turns out Sarah's almost killing him has brought about a change of perspective on Roy's part and he's more content in his timeloop existence.  They even have an amicable chat.  In fact, Roy is even prepared to kill Nyles one last time just to save him the trip back to Palm Springs.  Where has Sarah gone?  Has she found a way out?  Well, she's been trying.  Turns out she's been teaching herself quantum physics, and she thinks she has found a way out...

Well, that's the basic plot. But as with other films of this kind, the subtext is the absurdity of life, something Nyles has already recognized when we come in.  An odd side-effect is that we end up seeing the other characters in the film as if they were NPCs in a video game.  They are like prisoners in the cave who think the shadows on the wall are real, whereas our heroes are the only ones who know they're prisoners.  In a way, these films are good arguments for Buddhism: you see why breaking the cycle of birth and rebirth is a good thing, even though (of course) escaping the timeloop means ending one's immortality.  (It would probably be hard to recapture one's fear of dying and not accidentally commit suicide for real.)  This makes the final pact between Sarah and Nyles all-the-more touching - he ends up joining her because he'd rather die with her than live forever without her.  However, that said, I have some issues with particular aspects of the film (stop reading here if you haven't seen the film - go see it - it's on Hulu and it's great).  

Ready?  Okay, first, why would Sarah be fully clothed when she wakes up in Abe's room?  If she was compos mentis enough to get dressed after her illicit fling with her soon-to-be brother-in-law, why would she stay in his room?  Next, Sarah experiments on the goat and according to her, her method works because the goat disappears.  But in the mid-credit sequence after we know that Sarah and Nyles have escaped, Roy meets a version of Nyles who has never met him before.  

So clearly he has now become an NPC character too.  But in that case, the same thing would be true of the goat.  Finally, in theory everybody gets out of the timeloop.  Are we supposed to think that there is no next day in the universe?  That the entire universe is stuck in that day?  But if not, then everyone else exists in the next day including Sarah and Nyles.  So all that is stuck in the endless loop is a version of each of their (and Roy's) consciousnesses.  Finally, of course a problem with the basic premise is that one's body never changes, but one retains memories and indeed talents (witness Bill Murray's piano-playing in Groundhog Day).  But aren't those just features of the brain?  Or does one have to be a substance dualist to enjoy these films.  But these qualms aside, this is a grade-A romcom with a surprisingly philosophical streak running through it.