Curtiz may be a moralizer, but he is not a facile one. Rockys final capitulation is a tough pill to swallow, and the director does not sugarcoat it. Rocky is a charismatic rebel, and Father Jerry is a sanctimonious nag, but the film leaves little doubt which choice serves the greater good. The harrowing climax, a nightmare of gruesome details and expressionist shadows as Rocky is dragged whimpering to the electric chair, still has the power to enrage viewers who do not share the films stern moral viewpoint, but, for Father Mike, such attitudes are sentimental at best and irresponsible at worst. Amen.
MR
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1930s
OLYMPIA (1938)
OLYMPIA 1. TEIL: FEST DER VÖLKER
PART 1: FESTIVAL OF THE NATIONS
OLYMPIA 2. TEIL: FEST DER SCHÖNHEIT
PART 2: FESTIVAL OF BEAUTY
Germany (IOC, Olympia Film, Tobis) 118 m and 107m BW
Language: German
Director: Leni Riefenstahl
Producer: Leni Riefenstahl
Screenplay: Leni Riefenstahl
Photography: Wilfried Basse, Werner Bundhausen, Leo De Lafrue, Walter Frentz, Hans Karl Gottschalk, Willy Hameister, Walter Hege, Carl Junghans, Albert Kling, Ernst Kunstmann, Guzzi Lantschner, Otto Lantschner, Kurt Neubert, Erich Nitzschmann, Hans Scheib, Hugo O. Schulze, Karoly Vass, Willy Zielke, Andor von Barsy, Franz von Friedl, Heinz von Jaworsky, Hugo von Kaweczynski, Alexander von Lagorio
Music: Herbert Windt, Walter Gronostay
Cast: David Albritton, Jack Beresford, Henri de Baillet-Latour, Philip Edwards, Donald Finlay, Wilhelm Frick, Josef Goebbels, Hermann Göring, Ernest Harper, Rudolf Hess, Adolf Hitler, Cornelius Johnson, Theodor Lewald, Luz Long, John Lovelock, Ralph Metcalfe, Seung-yong Nam, Henri Nannen, Dorothy Odam, Martinus Osendarp, Jesse Owens, Leni Riefenstahl, Julius Schaub, Fritz Schilgen, Kee-chung Sohn, Julius Streicher, Forrest Towns, Werner von Blomberg, August von Mackensen, Glenn Morris, Conrad von Wangenheim
Venice Film Festival: Leni Riefenstahl (Mussolini Cupbest film)
Leni Riefenstahls epic documentary of the 1936 Olympic Games held in Berlin is sometimes criticized for its politics. Sponsored by Hitler, the film does contain some sequences that seem to support the notion of Aryan superiority. Still, the filmmaker did receive a gold medal for her efforts from the Olympic Committee in 1948, long after Hitlers dream of a thousand-year Reich had disintegrated. This is not to deny that Olympia is a piece of propaganda; Riefenstahl would never have received the incredible funding and support needed if the result had not been politically useful. In many ways, though, Olympia transcends politics. Overall, it is more a hymn of praise to athletic prowess and to the poetry of the human body in motion.
Few filmmakers have shown Riefenstahls aesthetic interest in physical form and motion, and her feat in making this documentary has never been duplicated. Filming the games and supervising the immense task of postproduction would take a Herculean effort today. In the late 1930s, the job was done with primitive equipment. Despite its overtly political message (the opening traces the carrying of the Olympic torch from Greece to Germany as a kind of holy quest), the film is an artistic triumph, evidence not only of Riefenstahls personal talent and vision, but also of the energies and expertise of her team of assistants, who numbered several hundred.
Huge preparation was necessary. Steel camera towers were constructed in the stadium, platforms built for tracking shots, and Germany scoured for the best talent. Nearly 250 hours of film was shot, and the task of editing (including the addition of sound effects and music) was personally supervised by Riefenstahl. The final edited version, in the best tradition of German documentary cinema, is masterfully paced, with exquisite matched cuts and just enough variation in repetitive events (such as the featured track and field) to sustain visual interest. Riefenstahls protestations of political innocence may be unconvincing, but Olympia does have another and more enduring side. Simply put, it is the most moving cinematic record of human sport and physical competition ever produced. RBP
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1930s
LA FEMME DU BOULANGER (1938)
THE BAKERS WIFE
France (Marcel Pagnol) 133m BW
Language: French
Director: Marcel Pagnol
Producer: Leon Bourrely, Charles Pons
Screenplay: Marcel Pagnol, from the novel Jean le Bleu by Jean Giono
Photography: Georges Benoît
Music: Vincent Scotto
Cast: Raimu, Ginette Leclerc, Robert Vattier, Robert Bassac, Fernand Charpin, Edouard Delmont, Charles Blavette, Marcel Maupi, Maximilienne, Alida Rouffe, Odette Roger, Charles Moulin, Yvette Fournier, Charblay, Julien Maffre
Orson Welles thought that Raimu was one of the greatest actors of his time; The Bakers Wife proves him right. Directed by Marcel Pagnol from a short story by Jean Giono, this is the tale of Aimable Castanier, a middle-aged baker (Raimu) in a small Provençal village. When his young wife Aurélie (Ginette Leclerc) deserts him for a handsome shepherd, the distraught baker stops baking and without bread the village comes to a halt. Catholic priest, left-wing teacher, lord of the manor, and all the villagers forget their old feuds and gang up to bring back the errant wife. Life resumes happily.