Bob Le Flambeur

	Rating: 5 out of 5 Release Date: 1956 Director: Jean-Pierre Melville Netflix Link IMDb Link

Aaaaah, Melville. I’ve been watching his films sparingly since there aren’t that many of them and he’s one of my favorite French directors. Melville just doesn’t have a bad film and this one is on par with everything else I’ve seen by him. It does have a heist, but the character, Bob, is less of a laconic gangster than Melville normally portrays. He is a worldly, old-time, happy-go-lucky, ex gangster who is trying to make it straight. Bob finds himself at odds with the world around him and, eventually, is forced into his old gangster ways by circumstance. The world is changing while he stands still, in contrast to his plucky protege, Paolo, who embraces change easily while Bob struggles.

Claude Chabrol, François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard are generally credited with starting The French New Wave (La Nouvelle Vague), but most of the elements can be seen right here in Bob Le Flambeur, years before Chabrol’s Le Beau Serge (1958), Truffaut’s The 400 Blows (1959) or Godard’s Breathless (1960). Nouvelle Vague’s deep contrast shadows, hand-held camera, voyeuristic visual style, on-location shooting, unusual editing sequences, and narrative with lots of hip street lingo and indirect social commentary can all be found in this film. Melville rarely gets any credit, yet his influence on the world of film is incalculable. Godard acknowledges that this is his favorite Melville film and it’s quite obvious just how much influence it had. Everyone from Godard and Truffaut, to Scorsese and Tarantino have borrowed from it.

In context, Bob Le Flambeur was well ahead of its time, but even half a century later, it has an interesting, intricate story (written by the director) with great characters and cool direction. Bob Le Flambeur is a must-see for fans of French cinema.

Make Way For Tomorrow

	Rating: 4 out of 5 Release Date: 1937 Director: Leo McCarey Netflix Link IMDb Link

Make Way For Tomorrow is raw and brutal. It deals with one of humanity’s biggest problems and biggest fears; being unable to fend for yourself in your elder years and having no one to take care of you. The elderly couple in this film hope that their five children take care of them, but the children all have worries and families of their own, and try to pawn their parents off on each other. The couple, played effortlessly by Victor Moore and the omnipresent character actress, Beulah Bondi, feel useless. All their efforts to try to help end in rebuke. They are simply not needed or wanted; they no longer fit into the world or their own family.

I watched the remake first, Tokyo Story, simply because this one was unavailable; it was just released on dvd a few weeks back. Ozu’s film is a tale of hope, sunshine and lollipops in comparison to this one. Ozu’s is much more subtle in getting its point across, while Make Way For Tomorrow smacks you over the head and doesn’t stop until the credits roll. Make Way For Tomorrow is a really interesting film considering it was made in 1937. It is every bit as relevant today as it was then.

2009: Lost Memories

	Rating: 3 out of 5 Original Title: 2009 로스트 메모리즈 Release Date: 2002 Director: Si-myung Lee Netflix Link IMDb Link

The first problem with this film is that it’s over two hours long. It could have easily been chopped down to just over an hour. The second problem is that, even though it actually has a unique story line involving an alternate version of history, it still somehow manages to be incredibly boring, cliched and predictable. Plus, the way they filmed it, including but not limited to the incongruous piano score, made it seem like a soap opera. Actually, to be fair, it has way better production values than your average soap opera. Let’s say it makes it seem more like a chick flick. There is a ton of angst in this film with people staring out of windows out at the horizon while the rain pelts allegorically against the plate glass windows. Sigh.

The third problem is that the story is all over the map as far as subplots, geography and timeline. It starts off with an execution scene from a hundred years ago, which barely ties into the rest of the story. By the time it’s mentioned again, you’ve forgotten about it altogether. You think to yourself, “Oh, that scene was in this movie?” since there’s no way that human memory can remember that far back as it seems that you’ve been watching this movie for three years. Maybe that’s what the lost memories in the title is referring to.

Anyway, 2009: Lost Memories isn’t a bad movie, but it’s not a good movie either. It ends up being merely something to watch. We can do better.

Battle of the Warriors

	Rating: 4 out of 5 Original Title: Mo Gong Release Date: 2006 Director: Jacob Cheung Netflix Link IMDb Link

Another large scale historicalish Chinese period war movie. How many of these has China made in the last decade or so? A lot. Battle of the Warriors has the same general elements as most of the others: a peaceful city in peril from a really evil invader where they are outnumbered at least two to one, a brilliant military strategist who will outmaneuver the really evil bad guy to save the day, lots and lots of arrows flying, gushing blood, an angsty “war is evil” scene, a quasi-love story, etc, etc, etc. It’s good, but it doesn’t stand out all that much from others in the same genre. In fact, you’d be hard pressed to find any film these days that comes anywhere close to the spectacle that is Red Cliff, but it is worth watching if you like these types of films.