Lambie Reviews: Films He Watched in March and April 2011

Pirates, monks, and criminals all featured in films I watched these past two months. As always, checkout why I watched it all here.

The Buccaneer (1938)

Here's a quick history lesson: In the War of 1812 (that one between Britain and the U.S.), there was a pirate named Jean Lafitte who operated out of Barataria Bay, which is just south of New Orleans. When the British set their sights on New Orleans, Lafitte refused an offer of the British to side with them, and chose to aid the U.S. army in defending the city. His supply of men, guns, and ammunition was possibly decisive in defending New Orleans. This is what that film is about.

Sort of.

It's not an entirely accurate depiction of Lafitte and what went on in his life during that point in the war, if Wikipedia is to be believed. That whole thing with that sinking ship and the lone survivor being a young Dutch woman who falls in love with Lafitte and helps out the pirates during the Battle of New Orleans is something I'm pretty sure didn't happen, yet it's almost the whole point of the film.

That being said, it was Cecile B. DeMille who directed this film. It's a pretty entertaining piece of semi-fiction, if not a bit over-acted at times by the ensemble cast. (You know how cast members on stage in a theatrical production have to over-act a bit in order to get the meaning across to the audience because they're far away? That's kind of what the acting was like at times here.) It also takes a bit of time to settle into the whole part drama, part comedy, part swashbuckler feel of things, but once it does it's a fairly decent two hours of entertainment.


Casa de Areia (House of Sand) (2005)

Occasionally a film comes along that you start watching and realise that you're not quite getting into it. Then a moment comes along about halfway through where you realise that this film is actually a brilliantly made piece of cinema and you stick with it. When the end finally comes, you're glad you have because it's all paid off and delivers an emotionally fulfilling ending. That was my experience of this film.

In 1910, Áurea ia dragged along to some isolated part of the Brazilian desert with her husband even though she's expecting a child, and she also brings along her mother Dona Maria. Her husband builds a house after trading with the locals (descendants of escaped slaves), but then all the men he brought with him run off and then part of the house collapses on him and kills him, leaving Dona Maria and Áurea stranded in the isolated wilderness. Áurea spends years trying to find a way to get herself, her mother, and eventually also her daughter Maria out. But every time she tries, something happens to prevent her from doing it. About 60 years pass from beginning to end, and we find it hard to keep track of the time until the 1940's when planes have a longer range (and so can fly overhead) and cars can more easily reach these isolated areas.

It sounds pretty dull until you realise just how much thought's gone into the little things. Áurea tells Maria that the thing she misses most about civilisation is the music, and suddenly you realise that there's no soundtrack and never has been. All you here is ambient sounds (like the wind) and dialogue. There's no music out here, so why should you hear it? We become just as isolated as they do until time marches on and the flow of information becomes easier. By the epilogue, we've become used to how the film wants us to watch it and experience it, and that's what makes the final scene as moving as it is.


Tender Mercies (1983)

A drunk country singer (Robert Duvall) winds up in an isolated Texas motel 4 miles from the nearest town. He starts work there to pay off his debt, gives up drinking, ends up working some more, marries the woman who runs the joint, and then a bunch of other stuff happens. Eventually, the film just ends with what seems to be no resolution, story-wise or emotionally.

Or maybe I just didn't get it. Maybe it's a study of the pain, love, and drama that country music is all about. Maybe all the pain that Duvall's character was running away from and his attempt to rectify his life and relationship with his ex-wife and daughter is the point of the film, in which case I should probably have paid more attention to that rather than try to figure out what the hell was going on.

Or maybe I just didn't like it because I don't like country music.


Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter... And Spring (2003)

The story of a man's life as told against the backdrop of the four seasons. It's rather difficult to explain any more of that, apart from the fact that it's set in and around a small floating monastery in a lake inhabited by (at most) two monks. This film is more about the symbolism and circularity of life, particularly as taught by Buddhism, than it is about telling a complicated story.

That should sound like a recipe for cinematic disaster, but it's not. It's actually handled very well, and the result is a stunning film. Other films like this make the mistake of telling the story of someone's life by including too many unrelated events. This film only uses a few events that resonate over the course of the man's life.


It Always Rains on Sunday (1947)

This film is like an entire season of a soap opera crammed into 90 minutes. It's a nightmare trying to keep track of who everyone is and what they're doing, apart from that escaped criminal and the woman he used to know (and was going to marry) who hides him upstairs for the day. I honestly didn't know whether we're meant to want him to escape the police or get captured, because I didn't care.


Goodfellas (1990)

Martin Scorsese made this very good based-on-a-true-story mobster film. Do you really need to know anything else about it?


The Prestige (2006) (Again)

There's a reason I'm reviewing this film again. Once you've seen it the first time, you can never experience it in that way again. You know the film's secret. And that actually makes the film better a second time, because now it's a completely different but no less enjoyable cinematic experience.

Above all, the first thing the film asks you is "Are you watching closely?" When you see the film the first time, you think you are. When you see the film a second time, you realise you weren't.