Listen
to Professors Paul Helford and Paul Ferlazzo discuss the films in the
series (and kibbitz about movies in general) every Tuesday morning
at 8:20 on The
Eagle, 103.7. For more information contact Paul Ferlazzo 523-9312.
The College of Arts and Letters and Cline Library Present
Cinema and the City
Our Fall 2008 series focuses on films which have “the city” as
setting and metaphor. From the sweeping travelogue shots of Paris
and Rome in Gigi and Three Coins in a Fountain tothe
gritty and grainy neo-realism of those cities in The 400 Blows and Roma:
Open City; from the hard-boiled Noir of New Orleans in Panic
in the Streets to the urbanity of Manhattan in Woody Allen’s Annie
Hall, we will explore the cinematic spirit of the city, be it
cold and impersonal or enlivening and vital. From the light and patriotic Mr.
Smith Goes to Washington to darker evocations of the city in The
Day the Earth Stood Still, Blow-Up, and Ghost Busters, the
cinematic metropolis has always been used as an allegory for civilization
and its discontents, including early gems like Chaplin’s City
Lights and Cagney’s Angels with Dirty Faces right
up to Dirty Harry and Amadeus. We will have
a special focus on the streets, the hills, and the fog of San Francisco,
with films like Vertigo and The Maltese Falcon, as
well as many others mentioned above.
August 26
City Lights
(Charles Chaplin, 1931, 87 minutes)
“Tomorrow the birds will sing.”
“Conceived as a “comedy romance in pantomime,” Chaplin’s City
Lights is at once filled with humour, social commentary, and romance,
all with poignancy that helps transcend its heartrending melodrama. At the
time of filming, audiences were coming around to talkies with the advent of
sound. However, Chaplin gambled, against all advice, and refused to introduce
synchronized sound into the film, leaving The Little Tramp, his classic and
most famous character, silent. The film begins with the Tramp being instantly
smitten with a blind flower girl, but with no money, his infatuation with the
woman (Virginia Cherrill) can only be realized from afar. After rescuing an
eccentric and inebriated millionaire (Harry Myers) from committing suicide,
the two strike up an unlikely friendship that allows the Tramp to get involved
with several high-class predicaments, such as a drunkenly night out on the
town. This action is paralleled with his desire to get the money needed to
help the blind woman and her grandmother, forcing him to take odd jobs throughout
the city, including a fixed-boxing match against a formidable opponent. Of
course, all of the action is staged with impeccable timing and precision, and
is usually captured in just one shot. It’s impossible not to be in awe
of Chaplin’s graceful performance. It’s genuinely funny, filled
with enough eccentricities to always keep it interesting, and honestly balanced
between emotional nuance and outright slapstick. The romance between the Tramp
and the blind flower girl, though, is where the film really delights. Beautifully
acted, it’s a remarkable example of cinema’s powerful emotional
effect. This all culminates in a terrific ending that movingly encapsulates
the pathos, humour and insecurities of all involved. I’m not saying anything
most people aren’t aware of, but Chaplin’s City Lights is
an endearing classic,” Richard X, Cinephile Magazine.
Entered into the National Film Registry, 1991. City
Lights was named the # 10 love story ever by the American
Film Institute, and was named in their top 100 films of all time. It places
in the top 50 romantic comedies of all time in their current “genres” competition.
September 2
Angels with Dirty Faces (Michael
Curtiz, 1938, 97 minutes)
“Always remember: Don't be a sucker.”
“The great success of Dead End, the 1937 film that starred Joel
McCrea, Humphrey Bogart, and the 'Dead End' kids, inevitably led to a sequel. Angels
with Dirty Faces reunited Bogart and six of the 'Dead End' gang. Because
the producing studio had been changed from United Artists to Warner Brothers,
the character names were also changed. McCrea was both romantic lead and good
guy in Dead End. In the sequel, James Cagney takes over as leading
man, while the good guy is the priest played by Pat O'Brien. The plot tells
the familiar story of childhood pals going separate ways, become rivals as
adults. Rocky Sullivan (Cagney) grows up to be a career criminal and racketeer,
while Jerry Connelly (O'Brien) becomes a priest. They both vie for the souls
of the 'Dead End' kids, who seem destined to become the next generation of
Rocky Sullivans. Other story lines have Sullivan double-crossed by his lawyer/partner
Frazier (Bogart), and Sullivan romancing a reluctant Ann Sheridan. Cagney is
excellent. He is perfectly cast as a gangster, the little tough guy with a
deeply hidden heart of gold. During shootouts with the police or rival gangsters,
one can't help but root for him, all the while aware that the 1930s code requires
him to come to a bad end. Bogart's character is cowardly and two-faced when
compared to his aggressive character from "Dead End", while the hoodlum
kids have been softened and placed in more secondary roles. Angels with
Dirty Faces is Cagney's film, and he dominates every scene he is in. …Cagney
was already very familiar with gangster roles, having played them with regularity
since Public Enemy from 1931. Angels with Dirty Faces received
three Oscar nominations; Best Actor (Cagney), Best Director (Michael Curtiz,
who would go on to direct Casablanca) and Best Original Story (Rowland
Brown)”—Brian Koller. Nominated for three Oscars. Angels
with Dirty Faces was nominated as one of the top 50 gangster
films of all time in the current American Film Institute’s “genres” competition.
September 9
The Maltese Falcon(John
Huston, 1941, 101 minutes)
“I don't mind a reasonable amount of trouble. “
“One of the first and best film noirs to ever come out of Hollywood.
Bogart finally gets the star treatment as street smart detective Sam Spade,
a man caught in a sticky web of lies, betrayal and murder. He's drawn into
the desperate search for the Maltese Falcon – a priceless 400-year-old,
jewel-encrusted statue – by a lovely woman, played by Mary Astor, who
does nothing but lie to him from the moment they meet. Despite this, he allows
her to use him because he wants to see where her stories lead. The men she's
battling for possession of the statue are extremely dangerous, but they only
amuse Spade. He's not a threat since, for most of the film; he has no idea
what they're looking for. However, Sam's no chump. He's only being amenable
in order to be included in the final discovery. One really has to pay attention
to the proceedings since everybody double-crosses everyone else at least once
and sometimes twice. The film ends as it should, with the bad guys getting
exactly what they deserve. The reason this film is considered a classic is
because of the great dialogue, colorful characters, brilliant cinematography
and intriguing story. Lorre and Greenstreet are two of the best character actors
to ever come out of Hollywood and prove why here. Astor is bad to the bone,
but gives the usual vamp role class and intelligence. Bogart moves up to the
A-list with this performance. He has an ugly mug, but no one plays hard-boiled
with a heart of gold better. A must-see worth seeking out”—Crazy4Cinema
. Nominated for three Oscars. The Maltese
Falcon was nominated as one of the top 50 mysteries of
all time in the current American Film Institute’s “genres” competition
and recently named as their the #31 best film of all time.
September 16
Roma, Città Aperta (Rome,
Open City, Roberto Rossellini, 1945, 100 minutes)
“It would mean there is no difference in the blood
of a slave race and a master race. And no reason for this war.”
“Developed in Rome during the Nazi occupation, shot
in the still war-torn Roman streets shortly after the Nazi withdrawal,
Roberto Rossellini’s Open City stunned audiences the
world over who recognized in it an unmediated authenticity more evocative
of the documentary quality of wartime newsreels than of the artificiality
of earlier, more conventional WWII dramas. This sense of raw reality
was in part due to a number of factors that later became hallmarks
of what would be called the Italian neo-realist movement — though
Rossellini chose them more for pragmatic than aesthetic reasons. Rossellini
shot with available light on real locations in the battered Roman streets
in part because the studios had been bombed, and sets and lighting
were out of the question. Because there was no money for a professional
cast, he employed an ensemble of mostly nonprofessional actors who
gave unmannered, naturalistic performances because they were simply
enacting the drama rather than trying to create characters. Even for
film stock he had only whatever miscellaneous leftover remnants he
could find — including abandoned German newsreel footage — resulting
in an uneven, assemblage-like quality. Just as important to the film — and
to the later neorealist movement — is the humanistic values that
unite Italian Catholics (represented by a heroic priest) and Communists
against the Nazi occupation. The story, co-written by Rossellini and
Federico Fellini, doesn’t center around a single heroic character,
but tells an ensemble story that allows not just dedicated resistance
leaders …like Giorgio Manfredi (Marcello Pagliero) but also
ordinary citizens like pregnant single mother Pina (Anna Magnani),
the priest Don Pietro (Aldo Fabrizi), and even children… to
play a role in resisting the Nazi occupiers and fight for their country…”--Steven
D. Greydanus. Winner of the Grand Prize at Cannes, and
Best Foreign Film from the National Board of Review and the New York
Film Critics Circle.
September 23
Panic in the Streets
(Elia Kazan, 1950, 96 minutes)
“If there's a plague here, you're the most important
guy in this town.”
“Elia Kazan's 1950 film noir, in which the noir element refers not to
the darkness at the heart of humanity … but instead a potential outbreak
of pneumonic Black Death plague in New Orleans, Panic in the Streets is
a balancing act between race-against-time melodrama (the incubation period
for the exposed parties is roughly 48 hours and the mystery of the murdered
Patient Zero's identity isn't helping the authorities) and proto-naturalistic
Kazan flourishes (clumsy-albeit-ruthless blocking, loping, occasionally unfinished
conversations, veracious location shooting) that almost give off the sense
that his refusal to give his characters the full slate, cinematic "real
time" to solve their dilemma is an act of cruelty. Standing in for (as
well as personifying) the stylistic Molotov cocktail are Richard Widmark and
Paul Douglas as, respectively, Dr. Clinton Reed, Lieutenant Commander of the
U.S. Public Health Service, and N.O.P.D. Captain Tom Warren. Assigned by the
Mayor to work in tandem to apprehend whomever it was who shot the infected
body, the gulf between their actorly sensibilities, with Widmark implosive
resentment prefiguring Brando's method sensationalism in Kazan's next film
and Douglas's studied fury and hardboiled professionalism, is as potent as
their hunt through the coastline shanties and flophouses. (The heterogeneous
chemistry between the two is more than matched on the flip side by antagonists
Zero Mostel, the quivering jester of Off Broadway, and Jack Palance, whose
matinee idol charisma practically in itself reads as shorthand for dastard-ism
under Kazan's Actors' Studio mise-en-proscenium.) Though the events of the
film threaten to bust wide open into chaos at every turn, Kazan's execution
of the narrative is as tidy and nontoxic as Reed's endless supply of hypodermic
inoculations he dispenses upon prying investigative testimonials from the film's
cast of vaguely union-minded dock grunts (imagine!), insipidly grinning Chinese
ship cooks, and crusted-over formerly glamorous street dames. As tense and
pulpy as Panic in the Streets manages to be, opening on a loopy high
note when the stumbling plague carrier narrowly misses walking directly into
a speeding train's path, it still winds up in front of Dr. Reed's homestead
outdoor porch with his vanilla family waiting for him, played by…Barbara
Bel Geddes and … Tommy Rettig”—Slant Magazine. Won
an Oscar for writing and the International Prize at Cannes.
September 30
The Day the Earth Stood Still (Robert
Wise, 1951, 92 minutes)
“Klaatu barada nikto!”
“Klaatu, an extra-terrestrial ambassador on a peace mission, and his robot, Gort, land in Washington D.C. in their flying saucer. Klaatu dismisses the Cold War consuming Earth as a "petty squabble" but fears its capacity for triggering mass destruction. Politicians, soldiers and the media are the enemy, squared off against the sane influences of women, children and an Einstein-ish scientist. The evocative Theremin score is by the maestro who wrote music for films from Citizen Kane to Vertigo and Psycho to Taxi Driver, thrillingly underscoring the mission of an interstellar Messiah. "Gort! Klaatu barada nicto!" …This film was envisioned from the beginning as an "A" picture with first rate production values and cast, and struck such a chord with Cold War audiences that Sci-Fi films have been taken seriously ever since. Robert Wise directed TDTESS. …In an interview, he was asked what "grabbed" him about TDTESS: "Two or three things. Number one, it was (for once) an alien from outer space who was not an evil alien. Also, it was a science fiction film set on earth here, and I thought that was marvelous. I liked the setting, the fact that it was in Washington, the heart of our country. I thought that made it very real, very believable, very mundane. I tried to heighten that with my casting, too. I wanted to make it just as credible and believable as it could possibly be, and I think that is one of its strengths”—Moviediva. Winner of a special Golden Globe for “Best Film Promoting International Understanding” TDTESS was nominated as one of the top 50 science fiction films in the AFI “genres” competition and as one of the top 100 thrillers of all time.
October 7
Three Coins in a Fountain (Jean Negulesco,
1954, 102 minutes)
“Make it mine, make it mine, make it mine”
“So frequently is it seen and alluded to that Rome's famous Trevi Fountain
virtually becomes a leading character in 20th Century Fox's lush, lustrous and
completely irresistible 1954 early CinemaScope romantic bouquet Three Coins
In The Fountain, which won two Academy Awards (Best Cinematography and Best
Song) and was nominated for Best Picture…One of the two secrets of Fountain's massive
success becomes immediately apparent in an absolutely stunning pre-credit sequence
of more than four minutes duration, in which the (then new) CinemaScope cameras
traverse the length and breadth of a deliriously idealized city of Rome to strains
of the Oscar-winning title song sung so beautifully by the then recently invigorated
Frank Sinatra….Indeed, with the possible exception of David Lean's full
screen Summertime, no cinema cameras have caressed the nooks and crannies
of an Italian city with such warmth and incandescence. The other secret of the
film's success rests with the charm and earnestness with which its glamorous
cast imbues the workmanlike though uninspired screenplay with. The ladies are
each, in their own distinctive ways, warm and winning, and Rossano Brazzi (the
leading man in the afore-mentioned Summertime) miraculously manages
to inject believability into his role as the improbably noble love-sick Italian
swain of the delectable Peters, while Louis Jourdan's stint as the rakish but
similarly idealistic Italian Count is only marginally hampered by the fact that
he is in fact a (gasp!) Frenchman, a fact which Jourdan makes no effort to obscure. …Romantics
will savor every moment of this deliriously sumptuous, if admittedly lightweight
concoction, which transforms the reality of Rome into a fancifully inaccurate,
but completely irresistible fantasyland”-- Dick Dinman. Nominated
for three Oscars, it won for Cinematography and Music.
October 14
Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock,
1958, 128 minutes)
“You shouldn't keep souvenirs of a killing. You shouldn't have
been that sentimental.”
“John Ferguson, ‘Scottie” (Stewart) is a detective who has
left the police force because he believes his fear of falling (acrophobia,
resulting in vertigo) caused a colleague’s death. When an old college
friend pleads with him to investigate the eccentric actions of his psychologically
perplexing wife Madeleine (Novak), Scottie’s life takes a new, obsessive
course from which he never recovers, and which leads him to follow this mysterious
woman to the death - but whose death? The journey that Scottie (Stewart) begins
when he reluctantly accedes to his friend Gavin Elster’s (Henry Jones)
request to follow Madeleine, the Mrs Elster (Novak), is full of irony, mystery,
subterfuge and finally a love that bursts its banks into full blown obsession.
Stewart rises to the challenge and so does Novak in creating a complex, double-sided
character that is as haunting as she needs to be. It is full of great moments,
and a building tension that is at once gripping and enjoyable. One of many
scenes that is a tribute to Hitchcock’s cinematic instincts is a long
sequence in which Scottie follows Madeleine in his car as she drives slowly
around San Francisco, turning left, right, right, left: the details and continuity
are so perfect that you almost reach out to touch the steering wheel in Scottie’s
car to help him take a turn. Hitchcock’s perfectionist trait is at its
peak here, with every tool of the filmmaker’s art used to maximum effect,
from the tiniest sounds (lovingly recreated in this stunning restoration) to
the most sweeping sounds of Herrmann’s score…. Do yourself a favour
and see it"--Andrew L. Urban. Nominated for two Oscars. Nominated
as one of the top 50 mysteries in the AFI “genres” competition,
it was named their # 8 thriller, #9 film, # 12 score, and # 18
love story of all time.
October 21
Gigi (Vincente Minnelli,
1958, 116 minutes)
“Bad table manners, my dear Gigi, have broken up more households than infidelity.”
“Gigi was unfortunately the last of the great MGM musicals, but
what a way to end a genre already filled with classics! Based on the novel by
Colette, Gigi tells the story of a young girl (Leslie Caron) who is
reared by her grandmother and great aunt to follow family tradition by becoming
a courtesan. The family is scandalised, however, when the handsome and eligible
Gaston Lachaille (Louis Jourdan) proposes marriage to her. Despite the delightful
performances of Caron and Jourdan, the film is almost stolen by Hermione Gingold
and Maurice Chevalier, who perform the classic and touching "I remember
it well" - just one musical highlight in a film containing many. Gigi is
a stylish triumph from start to finish, magnificently photographed in Metrocolor
and CinemaScope by Joseph Ruttenberg to highlight the sumptuous costumes and
sets. But the real praise deserves to go to the team of director Vincente Minnelli
and producer Arthur Freed. Sustaining the brilliance of their earlier musicals,
like Meet Me in St Louis and An American in Paris, Gigi once
again displays brilliant use of colour and rare ability to portray a romance
simply and delightfully without becoming bogged down in schmaltz...” --Kathryn
Parkerson. Won nine Oscars, including those for Picture, Director,
and Cinematography. Named the # 35 love story of all time by AFI, as well
as having the # 56 movie song of all time (“Thank Heaven for Little Girls.”)
October 28
Les 400 Coups
(The
400 Blows, François Truffaut, 1959,
99 minutes)
“I have no socks left around these holes.”
“After watching this movie it's almost impossible, or maybe just in my
case, to not want to go get a camera and start making a movie. The film is
drenched with a love for cinema that's infectious. Truffaut fills every moment
with an excitement to be living his dream. Every scene is engaging and unpredictable. Films
should strive for moments of life, as cinema itself is a dead medium, meaning
it’s happened so there’s no chance for spontaneity. Within these
constrictions Truffaut fills the film with life; there is a strong pulse in
the movie. And with all this excitement and delight in watching it unfold it's
a strange contradiction given how the film's story is quite sad. Leaud's Doinel
is not really cared about, he longs to be free or to be loved, whichever, and
finds himself in constant trouble. There's the dread of childhood mistakes
whether it's lying, missing homework assignments, or stealing and the impending
consequences. But even with the weight of the story, there's such an enthusiasm
in its telling that hope and optimism are always on the horizon. The film could
serve as a metaphor for the burgeoning French New Wave as well. A movement
that sought to free cinema from its stylistic plot anchored shackles and let
it go to places it hadn't been before. It's the cinema of exploration and experimentation,
to create something new. It's what Doinel longs for, freedom from his constraints.
And in the end, the final shot is a perfect summation for the limitless possibilities
of freedom and the thrill of filmmaking.”—Paul Logan. Director
Truffaut was nominated for three awards at Cannes for this film, winning two.
November 4
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
(Frank Capra, 1939, 129 minutes)
Special Election Night Screening
November 11
Blow-Up
(Michelangelo Antonioni, 1966, 111 minutes)
“Did you ever have to make up your mind/Pick up on one and leave
the other behind/It not often easy and not often kind…”
“Antonioni’s masterpiece of British New Wave cinema set amongst London’s hippest denizens. Thomas, a photographer (David Hemmings) spends his time taking pictures of the loveliest models (spot the Verushka cameo!) in the outlandish fashions of the day. But, rather than a mere exercise in style and technique, Blow-Up is both a detailed portrait of a certain strata of mod London society and the emerging counterculture, and a satire of that same society. This is a film where irony resides in the gaze, doubly focused by the photographer’s lens. While Thomas enjoys the cachet of being a fashion photographer… he is also frustrated by the lack of creative scope. When he photographs a group of models, they are so utterly self-absorbed that his insults seem to bounce off right off their glossy faces. While shooting in an eerily deserted park, Thomas happens upon an embracing couple. When the woman, Jane (Vanessa Redgrave), notices him, she demands he hand over his roll of film. Thomas refuses. It is only after he develops the prints that he notices something in the background of his shots: a body. Thomas obsessively makes increasingly blurry enlargements of the shot of the body in the hope of discovering whether a crime has really been committed. When Jane comes looking for the negatives of herself and her lover, Thomas is drawn even deeper into the mystery” -- Sarah Artt. Nominated for two Oscars, it won the Golden Palm at Cannes.
November 18
Dirty Harry (Don Siegel,
1971, 102 minutes)
“…you've got to ask yourself a question: Do I feel lucky? Well,
do ya, punk?”
“Ambiguous yet manipulative, uplifting yet depressing, sincere yet cynical,
Siegel's masterpiece gave us one of the greatest and certainly one of the most
profound police thrillers, as well as setting Clint Eastwood off on the path
of consistently lucrative if increasingly derisory Dirty Harry sequels.
When it came out it was Dirty Harry's fundamental ambivalence that
split the critics, not to mention the inevitable political readings of the
film. At grass roots, though, you've got a gripping police thriller, benefitting
from a number of key elements which set it apart from the rest. Siegel uses
the San Francisco locations to superb effect, switching from dramatic skylines
to the cross in Mount Davidson Park, from the Golden Gate Bridge to the James
Cameronesque steel mill. Bruce Surtees' photography is raw and grainy, giving
an entirely applicable realistic gritty feel to the whole proceedings, while
Lalo Schifrin's music oscillates between urban funk and disturbing singing
and culminates in a memorable Fender Rhodes fade-out. Siegel also builds up
an acrid portrait of San Francisco low life through the various walk-ons and
bit-parts who intermittently stagger into the frame. Siegel's ambiguity remains
though, whether he's relishing Callaghan's toying with his captive felons or
conversely pulling away from Callaghan's misdeeds, as in the bird's eye shot
at the cross, or the helicopter shots at the end of the film and at the end
of the stadium scene, one of the most memorable scenes in modern cinema. It
remains a stunning and rewarding film nonetheless, and one which will leave
you deeply affected one way or another” -- Mark Radice. Winner
of the Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best Picture. Named AFI’s # 41
best thriller and having one of the best film quotes of all time.
November 25
Annie Hall (Woody Allen, 1977, 93 minutes)
“Sun is bad for you. Everything our parents said was good is
bad. Sun, milk, red meat... college”
“Woody Allen's best film. “The story is centered around the
main character, Alvy Singer (Woody Allen) as he recalls his relationship with
Annie, the titular character, played by Diane Keaton. The movie jumps around
as he recalls various events in their relationship, both the good and the bad.
He also recalls other previous relationships and his childhood. All throughout
this, there are little surreal moments of Alvy's fantasy, including a memorable
one where he shows up a know-it-all blowhard who's standing behind him by pulling
Marshall McLuhan out from behind a movie standee to tell him off. This movie
also is the first Woody Allen movie to really have any real characters and
not just be an assemblage of jokes. You really have a wonderful feeling for
these characters and they're little quirks. For example, Alvy obsesses about
death and unhappiness, which makes things difficult in his relationships. All
of them seem to self-destruct, possibly due to his inability to experience
joy. Annie is also a real character, with a distinct style. She comes from
Wisconsin which is a distinct departure from Alvy's Brooklyn upbringing. Probably
the most interesting thing about the film is just how non-linear it is. When
we first meet Annie and Alvy, they're already in the relationship, and then
we see them meet and get to know each other. It moves around back and forth
for most of the film until we get towards the end where things get more linear.
Sprinkled throughout the film are clear feelings Woody has regarding things
around him, his preference for New York as opposed to Los Angeles, and him
becoming physically ill at the sight of his friend adding fake laughs to a
T.V show that he appears in. Overall, Annie Hall is a thoroughly
funny look at a romance that is a little quirky, a little neurotic and 100%
Woody Allen” —Nate Anderson. Nominated for five Oscars,
winning for Director, Picture, Writing, and Actress. Nominated
as one of the top 50 Romantic Comedies in the current AFI “genres” competition,
it was named #35 in the best films of all time list, the # 11 love story, and,
of course having one of the best quotes, “La-dee-da, La-dee-da.”
December 2
Ghost Busters (Ivan Reitman, 1984,
105 minutes)
“Well, let's say this Twinkie represents the normal
amount of psychokinetic energy in the New York area. Based on this
morning's reading, it would be a Twinkie thirty-five feet long, weighing
approximately six hundred pounds” …. “That’s
a big Twinkie.”
“Ghostbusters is a head-on collision between two comic
approaches that have rarely worked together very successfully. This
time, they do. It's (1) a special-effects blockbuster, and (2) a
sly dialogue movie, in which everybody talks to each other like smart
graduate students who are in on the joke. In the movie's climactic
scenes, an apocalyptic psychic mindquake is rocking Manhattan, and
the experts talk like Bob and Ray. …The movie stars Bill Murray,
Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis, three graduates of the Second City/National
Lampoon/Saturday Night Live tradition. They're funny, but they're
not afraid to reveal that they're also quick-witted and intelligent;
their dialogue puts nice little spins on American clichés,
and it uses understatement, irony, in-jokes, vast cynicism, and cheerful
goofiness. Rarely has a movie this expensive provided so many quotable
lines. The plot, such as it is, involves an epidemic of psychic
nuisance reports in Manhattan. Murray, Ramis, and Aykroyd, defrocked
parapsychologists whose university experiments have been exposed
as pure boondoggle, create a company named Ghostbusters and offer
to speed to the rescue like a supernatural version of the Orkin man.
Business is bad until Sigourney Weaver notices that the eggs in her
kitchen are frying themselves. Her next-door neighbor, Rick Moranis,
notices horrifying monsters in the apartment hallways. They both
apparently live in a building that serves as a conduit to the next
world. The Ghostbusters ride to the rescue, armed with nuclear-powered
backpacks. There is a lot of talk about arcane details of psychic
lore (most of which the Ghostbusters are inventing on the spot),
and then an earthshaking showdown between good and evil, during which
Manhattan is menaced by a monster that is twenty stories high, and
about which I cannot say one more word without spoiling the movie's
best visual moment. Ghostbusters is one of those rare
movies where the original, fragile comic vision has survived a multimillion-dollar
production. It is not a complete vindication for big-budget comedies,
since it's still true, as a general rule, that the more you spend,
the fewer laughs you get. But it uses its money wisely, and when
that, ahem, monster marches down a Manhattan avenue and climbs the
side of a skyscraper ... we're glad they spent the money for the
special effects because it gets one of the biggest laughs in a long
time”—Roger Ebert. Nominated for Two Oscars and
Winning for the Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film. AFI’s
# 28 best comedy of all time.
December 9
Amadeus (Milos Forman, 1984, 160
minutes)
“I think you overestimate our dear Viennese,
my friend. You know you didn't even give them a good bang at the
end of songs, to let them know when to clap?”