Movie Notes: Meet Me in St. Louis

Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
Director: Vincente Minnelli

The most remarkable element of this film to me was the fantastically rendered nostalgic Victorian setting.  Buildings inside and out, costumes, and family dynamics all capture and communicate in Technicolor the same feeling you have walking down main street at Disneyland.

The music is good, if not (with some exceptions) as catchy as some other musicals.  There's no doubt that Judy Garland can sing!  Also, I didn't know that "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" was from this film.  I kept waiting for "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."

The narrative arc is pretty weak, and has a pleasant smallness to it.  It's just about people living lives without any real remarkable drama.  I imagine it's capturing quite well the spirit of its midwestern inspiration.  Still, when it ended Libby and I both looked at each other and said, "That's it?"

Movie Notes: Spellbound

Spellbound (1945)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock

This film draws more explicitly from psycho-analysis than any other I've seen (The Woman in the Window comes to mind as a competitor).  It ends up doing so quite well, and is an entertaining and suspenseful film.

Ingrid Bergman plays a psychiatrist at a mental hospital where Gregory Peck arrives as its new head.  However, it soon becomes clear to her that, although she has fallen head over heels in love with him despite her analytical and detached nature, he is an imposter suffering from amnesia derived from a guilt-complex.

As he becomes suspected of the man he's imitating's death, they run away from the law and work on solving the mystery by breaking down the barriers in his mind.  Suspenseful moments come both from the external dangers on their trail, but also from the terrifying possibility that Peck's character may kill anyone around him at any time.  And perhaps even that the truth they'll discover will be the one they fear!

This film was a bit slow at the beginning.  Peck's swooning about and Bergman's swooning over the swooning didn't really win me over.  Later, though, as the suspense builds and they go on the run, it became very engrossing and entertaining.

It's worth mentioning that there is a dream sequence central to the plot designed by Salvador Dali.  Apparently Hitchcock didn't very much like that, and there is a disconnected feeling to the film perhaps stemming from this dissatisfaction and Selznick's interference.  Still, it's a very good film and I highly recommend it.

Movie Notes: The Thief of Baghdad

The Thief of Bagdad (1940)
Directors: Michael Powell, Ludwig Berger, Tim Whelan

This is a remake of the 1924 silent version, but the story is completely rewritten.  In fact, it has more in common with a famous Disney animated movie of my childhood than it has with the Douglas Fairbanks adventure.  It includes a toy-loving sultan, a wily thief and lovable sidekick named Abu, an all powerful but silly genie, and an evil vizier named Jaffar intent on stealing away the toy-loving sultan's daughter.

This is not a perfect film.  Ahmad, the romantic male lead, is dull and uninteresting.  So is the princess in whom he is interested.  However, Sabu plays the titular character Abu to perfection.  He brings energy and life to the whole movie and is a joy to watch.

At the end, the movie springs a philosophical reflection that justifies the whole exercise in spectacle and nonsense in a vein of thought that  reminded me pleasantly of Winnie-the-Pooh or Peter Pan.

Movie Notes: Moonrise Kingdom

Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
Director: Wes Anderson

This movie was a blast.  I enjoyed myself so immensely while watching it that I had no time to stop and consider the meaning flowing underneath or the technique used in presenting it.  Still, I caught enough to know it was because of, and not in spite of, the meaning and art of the film that I so enjoyed it.

I'm not up to understanding or explaining everything that's going on in the film, so I won't try to spell it out.  This is a movie that taps into classical themes about leaving the city to renew the city, Biblical themes about a lost Eden, and a very modern aesthetic and moral compass.  It's so sweet and simple that it feels just like a kid's movie, but you can't take your kids to see it.  It's outrageous and fantastical with real and sympathetic characters making realistic, frustrating and heartwarming decisions.  It features severe disappointments but ends up optimistic.

And it's also a movie about the meaning and power of art -- especially film, but through the metaphor of music and painting.  If you enjoy -- or can even simply tolerate -- Wes Anderson's aesthetic, you should go see the movie.  There is some underage sexuality in the movie, so if that would bother you, you've been warned.

Movie Notes: Brave

Brave (2012)

Director: Brenda Chapman and Mark Andrews

I never saw Cars 2 because the reviews were so poor, so my high expectations from Pixar have been forever lowered.  Brave surpassed these lowered expectations.  I was prepared to be critical of the film, but ended up wrapped up in the story and simply enjoying myself.  And, that's one of the things I'm looking for when I go to see a movie, so I have to say I liked the movie quite a bit.

That's not to say I liked everything about it.  I think there's wisdom in the old ideas of living to your place in the world.  Part of that involves a healthy degree of respect for one's parents.

I also think the reconciliation between Merida and her mother was more wish-fulfillment than meaningful art.  How many times in your relationships with other people have you had to give up little of what you'd like and receive exactly what you're looking for from them? 

Movie Notes: The Thief of Bagdad

I've decided to use the blog to post notes about movies that we've seen.  I used to use Flixter, but that app's been totally repurposed and is no longer suitable for my casual purposes.  You can expect to see a lot of movies posted about here, but don't expect anything insightful or incisive.  The purpose is just to jot down a few thoughts about the movie after watching it in the vein of a film diary.  I find taking notes help cement the films in my memory and it's nice to have some touchstone to check back on.

The Thief of Bagdad (1924)
Director: Raoul Walsh

This appears to be a pet project of Douglas Fairbanks.  He helped write, starred in, and produced the picture.  His energetic performance as the title character is certainly memorable, if dated; his wild gesticulations and stomping stride were appropriate to their time.  On the other hand, Sojin's more subtle performance as the sinister Mongol Khan is riveting even today.

Where Fairbanks excels is the physically demanding elements of his role.  He runs, jumps, swings, and swashbuckles his way through enormous sets.  It's good enough to inspire me to add his version of Robin Hood to our queue.

All in all, this film is a spectacle.  Fairbanks, gigantic detailed sets, fantastical creatures and effects, and chaste romance combine to make this a very entertaining film.  It's a bit on the long side, but I'd recommend it to fans of swashbucklers and film history.

Through Slide Canyon

Our next day was spent hiking up Slide Canyon to the benches below Mule Pass. This was a beautiful and lonely area. We didn't see anybody all day, and it was a bit like having Yosemite Valley to one's self.

It was a pretty easy day of hiking because we were walking through gentle terrain.  It started out in these big green meadows as you can see in the picture, before the canyon narrowed and we ended up strolling through forests, avalanche meadows strewn with tree trunks or willow thickets.

When we took lunch, it was very warm, so Dad and I jumped into Piute Creek to clean up a little.  We didn't stay very long, though, as it was viciously cold!  We also engineered a bridge to cross a creek coming in from the east, and Dad took a dip that time, too.  Unintentionally.

The unique feature of Slide Canyon is, of course, The Slide.  The Slide is an enormous rock-fall.  Apparently a big piece of Slide Mountain just collapsed and slide down into the valley.  The power of the fall is demonstrated by the fact that huge boulders actually continued travelling hundred of yards up the opposite side.  I'd never seen anything like it.

Piute Creek disappears for a while below the Slide, and forms a little pool on the uphill side.  After the Slide, it was meadows again until we decided to cross the creek.  When we did decide to cross the creek, we did it where it was deep and fast.  We used a rope to be safe as there were cataracts above and below the spot.  The water was running well above our knees on this one!

While we had hoped to find the trail, it turned out we couldn't find an easy ford of the creek coming down from the benches we were heading for, so we just went straight up the side of the canyon.  Thankfully, our route had no snow, and we just toiled our way up and up.

The reward for our effort was the most spectacular view from our campsite of the whole trip.

Of course, the camp was surrounded by a lot of snow.  We weren't really sure where the trail went, as it was buried, and as it got darker the snow started firming up and that made it hard to get water.  In fact, that night I had my worst slip on the snow of the whole trip.  I was carrying a bear can completely full of water and fell.  I may have landed flat on my face, but at least I barely spilled any water!

More pictures from the day are at Flickr.