The Lady from Shanghai

The Lady from Shanghai (1947)
Director: Orson Welles

This is a beautifully directed, gorgeously shot, and bizarre little movie by the wunderkind himself.  It's 90 minutes of confusion, discomfort, and a bad Irish accent by Orson Welles.

Still, it's pretty good.  Really, only the accent and the plot drag the movie down.  Everything else is fascinating.  Apparently this film suffered dreadfully at the hands of the studio - its current length is far from Welles' vision, and the cut footage has never been found.  So, it might not be his fault that the movie can be confusing.  Especially disconcerting were the giant jumps in time (from the Caribbean to Acapulco, months later, in a flash).

Movie Notes: The Quiet Man

The Quiet Man (1952)
Director: John Ford

There are some movies that I'd like to love, but there are things about it I just can't get behind.  The Quiet Man is a fantastic movie in a lot of ways.  This movie is fantastically well crafted.  The crescendo at the end is hectic in the best John Ford tradition, full of a warm and rich humor that may leave you grinning silly.

Unfortunately, the sexual politics are just terrible!  It's supposed to be funny, and it is, but it struck me quite often as simply inappropriate.  Dragging your wife (literally, sometimes) for five miles in a fit of anger may produce needed reconciliation, but it's still a form of abuse.

It occurs to me that John Ford's movies are always fantastic, but always have something that I can't quite get behind.  I like how he doesn't fit in a box; it really matches his prickly personality.

Movie Notes: The Best Years of Our Lives

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Director: William Wyler

I just loved this movie.  This is the kind of movie that I almost feel like discussing might cheapen.  You should know that I love sentimentality in film.  City Lights is the movie I always list as my favorite because it connects so well with me on a sentimental level.

This movie also has heart.  Lots of conflicted hearts dealing with the unimaginable fall-out of having experienced war and coming home to a world that has also just been through the same war, but in a very different way.  Naturally, nothing can be the same for anyone, but everyone wants it to be.  If you've never seen it, you're missing out.

Movie Notes: Ninotchka

Ninotchka (1939)
Director: Ernst Lubitsch

This was our introduction to the great Greta Garbo.  She makes a great stone-faced government worker from the Soviet Union in this film set in Paris before the war.

The movie trades on the glamour of Paris against the cold reality of the Soviet Union.  In the end, though, it's only love that matters for the principals.  The movie is especially interesting as a historical artifact, but entertaining enough in its own right.

Movie Notes: Wings of Desire

Wings of Desire (1987)
Director: Wim Wenders

Re-writing myths is hard, but can reap great benefits for a story-teller.  Western society's conception of what an angel is, and the way in which Wim Wenders presents them are not the same, but they are in tension and dialogue.  He's using your idea of angel to give power to his story, but we also have to be careful to let his distinct concept breath within the world he's constructed.

The angels in Wings of Desire are observers with very little influence.  They seem to have no special connection to God, and to be somehow dependent on humanity for their understanding and the fullness of their lives.  So, we should pay attention to the movie's theme of engaging life to its fullest rather than be too critical of whether or not it's a true myth. It's a movie that beautifully explores this theme, in commentary with art, especially film, which is a medium that specializes in observation (see Rear Window).

However, despite this intriguing use of angels, the movie lacked emotional resonance for me.  The first part of the movie, seen from an angels' point of view, is long and its lack of engagement makes it hard to watch.  After it takes on color, there's more human feeling, but it's not something I'd condone.  All in all it's an interesting, worthwhile, but imperfect film.

Tree of Life (2011)
Director: Terrence Malick

 On a retreat last spring, Libby and I participated in an exercise called family sculptures.  This involved using the other participants at the retreat to stand in as family members in order to illustrate our family dynamic around age 10.  After setting up the sculpture, participants spend time asking questions and coming as a community to a better understanding of the sculptor.  This is a difficult exercise, and if performed honestly, can bear both pain and fruit for one's spiritual development.

The middle part of Tree of Life strikes me as a similar exercise for the director.  The crux of the story involves the relationship of a child entering adolescence, his parents, and the inter-relationship of that family dynamic with the character's adult understanding of God and the universe.  I cannot think of another movie that so honestly deals with this topic.  It plays out like memories projected on a screen.  Snippets of beauty, pain, life, and death, all dealing with nature and grace.

Mallick gives it a more cosmic and universal scope by confusing but intriguing capstones giving the creation and ending of the world.  All in all, it makes for a film that can be a difficult and rewarding source of meditation.

Movie Notes: Days of Heaven

Days of Heaven (1978)
Director: Terrence Malick

This is a beautiful, languorous movie full of golden light, bucolic wheat stretching into the horizon and the twilight heart of man.  I think that it's trying to say something about how these are all inter-related, but I have to admit I do not understand it.  I think to a degree it is a non-rational film, full of evocative moments and images that appeal to our emotions and appetites before it connects to our intellect.

The plot, which is undoubtedly important, if not the most important part of the movie, involves a man and his woman -- pretending to be brother and sister -- fleeing the city after he accidentally kills a foreman in an act of rage.  Sound familiar?  Later, the farm owner where they're working the harvest under these false pretenses will fall in love with the woman.  Before the end, there will be a plague locusts, the land will be cleansed by fire, and there will be more death.  Malick's film making is essentially from a Christian place, whatever he believes.

The thing everyone talks about from this movie is the imagery.  It's undeniably lovely.  There are scenes that powerfully evoke the feeling of a summer evening, and there are herons, and there are biplanes floating as if by magic off of the ground.  It seems like Malick is searching to sample those moments of life that flit by unless we stop and take a breath and look around and notice them.  If you have the patience to do that, you'll have the patience for this movie, and I think you'd enjoy it.

Movie Notes: How to Train Your Dragon

How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
Directors: Chris Sanders, Dean DuBlois

This was a really good non-Pixar animated feature. It's formulaic and conventional in its themes, but the world, the characters, and the visuals are all top notch.

As per normal practice, it's the relationship between the parent and child that is the weakest in the film. It's so incredibly hard to understand that dynamic in the best of times, and to boil it down to a simple misunderstand/ forgive on the part of the parent -- essentially the same theme here as we saw recently in Brave -- seems cheap to me.

Anyway, the movie is formulaic and toothless in theme (get my little joke?). It's also a lot of fun. The dragons are great. The main character is really sympathetic. Toothless is a great movie pet, reminiscent of the Black Stallion. The flying scenes are exhilarating, and both the final confrontation and the conclusion are satisfying.

Movie Notes: Easter Parade

Easter Parade (1948)
Director: Charles Walters

This is an entertaining technicolor musical.  It contains several very fun numbers that take full advantage of the talents of its stars.  Astaire's dancing is always fantastic, and Garland's singing equally so.

The plot was also interesting, as it kept me guessing until near the end as to who would end up with whom.  Part of this stems from a lack of chemistry between Garland and Astaire, but there was also some interesting commentary on the nature of feminine attraction and empowerment.  This is typified in the two women to whom Astaire's character is drawn.  In their climactic and competing headliner acts, they express their talent very differently.  Garland dances dressed as a man alongside Astaire and uses her powerful voice and comedic ability to bring the house down (in "A Couple of Swells"), while the character played by Ann Miller depends on her looks and sensuality in an act about cover girls (in "The Girl on the Magazine Cover").

All in all, a decent musical.  Not the best for either actor, or for Irving Berlin, but it was a bright, light hearted way way to spend a couple of hours.

Piute Creek to Merriam Lake

The next day we headed to Merriam Lake.  This involves an easy hike down Piute Canyon to Hutchinson Meadow, an easy hike up French Canyon, and then a strenuous hike out of French Canyon to the meadows below Merriam Lake.  From there, you meander through meadows and up some benches to the lake itself.

View Piute Creek to Merriam Lake in a larger map

The day wasn't uneventful, however.  We got out of camp around 8:00 (our normal starting time the whole trip).  As we crossed French Creek in Piute Canyon, Libby slipped into the stream and banged up her shin and knee pretty badly.  The pain would linger all trip, but was fortunately didn't impact her ability to hike!

Dad and I had been up this trail together before, but the only part that was really familiar to me was the changing view of Pilot Knob and the meadow in French Canyon where we had lunch.

 

I didn't remember the hike from the above meadow to Merriam Lake being such a grunt.  It's a very steep and sandy knapsack trail to the left of the outlet stream with only very small switchbacks. You basically go straight up the hill.  Thankfully, that's a fairly short stretch, and then it becomes much more mellow.

That night we camped along the shore of Merriam on a rocky area above some pretty beaches.  It was a good opportunity to bathe, and I took the chance to go fishing.  The fishing wasn't great, but I caught two for dinner.  After eating, we enjoyed watching the sunset and alpenglow in the east on Mt. Humphreys across the lake.

 

More pictures at the usual place.

Children of Paradise

Children of Paradise (1945)
Director: Michael Carné

In 1995, a French poll of 600 critics and filmmakers decided that Les Enfants du Paradis was the best film ever made.  I don't know about that, but this is truly a great film.  It has the sweep and emotional weight of a great 19th century novel.  In fact, Libby and I were both strongly reminded of The Idiot in the first half.

Of course, it's also remarkable in that it's a sumptuous period epic made by a French studio during the Nazi occupation.  Two of its production team were Jews working from hiding!

The basic story revolves around Garance, a side show actress who attracts four very different men.  They all relate to her in their own particular broken way, and we hopefully can learn a little something about ourselves in their respective failings.  It's very much a romantic tragedy, but its tone is a well-balanced mix of humor and weight.

Piute Pass

Dad, Libby and I undertook a seven day pack trip this July. The point was to visit the Bear Lakes basin above Bear Creek. Our entrance was via Piute Pass and we exited via Italy Pass to the Pine Creek Pass Trailhead. It was, of course, beautiful and wonderful.

Our first day we went over Piute Pass, and then down to camp along Piute Creek.  We stayed the night before at the Profitas' in Bishop after Joe helped us set up a shuttle by picking us up at the Pine Creek trail head. He hiked with us up to Piute Pass the first day, but couldn't come along for the full trip.


View North Lake to Paiute Creek in a larger map 

The day before we started hiking was stormy.  Giant dark clouds loomed ominously amongst the high peaks around Piute Pass.  Scattered sprinkles started at the cabin at noon, and we were hit by torrential rain on the drive to the Pine Creek trailhead that afternoon.  While Joe was ecstatic to enjoy weather in the 80s down in town, it made me a bit nervous about the prospects for our trip.  Sure enough, the next day, hikers on their way back out over Piute Pass described a four hour uninterrupted deluge.  That's something the Sierras don't see too often.

Oh, and on a different note, did I mention that Dad treed a bear at the cabin that same day?

Anyway, our hike on Monday was cool and damp.  It sprinkled on and off, but never rained substantially.  We made it to the pass around lunch time, and followed quite a crowd of people down the west side toward the Golden Trout Lakes.  Thankfully, our campsite along Piute Creek was perfectly solitary, with only the rumble of the creek, the whine of (many) mosquitoes, and a passel of tiny Golden Trout to keep us company.

 

Pictures are up on Flickr:

Exploring petroglyphs north of Bishop with Joe Profita

First day's hike over Piute Pass in stormy weather