ABCs at the Movies: The Doubles Round!

[southendmd]

Plot:  James Bond investigates the mid-air theft of a space shuttle and discovers a plot to commit global genocide.

With scenes shot in Venice.

Bond in Piazza San Marco.

Bond in his chitty chitty bang bang gondola.

[Fran]

From IMDb:  By the time "Yuppi Du" was released in 1975, Adriano Celentano was already a household name, famous for his endlessly popular songs and film roles. "Yuppi Du," however, was a bit of a gamble, given he would fill all the important positions himself, playing the lead, directing, writing, producing, editing and scoring. The gamble paid off when the film was accepted in competition at the Cannes Film Festival (where it won a quite fitting award for the music) and has since become a cult classic in Italy. (The special screening at the 2008 Venice Film Festival was as hugely anticipated as the world premiere of "Burn After Reading.")

Appropriately enough, considering its recent "revival," the film takes place in Venice, where people are upset over a series of fatal accidents that occur in unsecured work places at the docks. Among those who work there -- for a ridiculous salary, too -- is Felice Della Pietà (Celentano), who lives happily with his wife Adelaide (Claudia Mori, the singer's spouse in real life) and his daughter while trying to deal with the difficult conditions he and his friends find themselves in. Everything is turned upside down, though, when he discovers his past love Silvia (Charlotte Rampling), whom everyone believed to be dead, didn't commit suicide but actually ran off to Milan with someone else. As things get more complicated for Felice, both at home and at work, he and the others can think of no other way to express their frustrations but through music.

A musical with a social message is a rare thing, and it is to Celentano's credit that he had the guts to go all the way with his ambitious project. The big surprise is that the film works almost perfectly, despite jumping from one genre to another every five minutes....

[memento]

Plot: A year in the life of a small Italian coastal town in the nineteen-thirties, as is recalled by a director with a superstar's access to the resources of the Italian film industry and a piper's command over our imaginations. Federico Fellini's film combines the free form and make-believe splendor with the comic, bittersweet feeling for character and narrative we remember from some of his best films of the 1950s. The town in the film is based on Rimini, where Mr. Fellini grew up. Yet there is now something magical, larger-than-life about the town, its citizens and many of the things that happen to them.

[Fran]

The "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" Round!

Movies with mountains

[oilgun]

Plot:   The real-life adventure of a dashing Italian soldier who escapes a British prisoner-of-war camp because he dreams of climbing 17,000-foot Mt. Kenya and planting the Italian flag at the summit. The obsessive British camp commander pursues him, and the two men are locked in a battle of wills, fuelled by honor and their love for the same woman.

[Fran]

Also known as:  A Brief Vacation

From IMDb:  A women lives a miserable life in the basement of her Milan apartment, with her boring in-laws and three children (boys). Her husband has been injured. Her bleak life takes an unexpected turn when she is diagnosed with tuberculosis and has to go to a sanatorium in the Italian Alps. At the medical clinic in Milan, she meets a young mechanic with the similar health problems. At the sanatorium she meets again the same man and they start a passionate love affair. All good things must come to an end. When she is cured, she has to return to that rathole from which she only briefly emerged.

[memento]

From IMDB: Based loosely on Thomas Hardy's novel "Mayor of Casterbridge" this is a valiant recreation transposed from England to the cold mountains of early California. A man sells his wife and daughter for a gold-mining claim. Years later, when he is the local sheriff, his wife and daughter return. A sub-plot documents the arrival of the railroad construction. This has all the makings of a truly great movie but unfortunately is good without being great. The first half is particularly disappointing - the camera fails to linger where there are wonderful scenic shots of breathtaking beauty or dialogue that could have emotional impact. It lingers over boring, inconsequential scenes. The movie also veers stomach-churningly between episodes of gripping realism to episodes where it simply looks all too obviously like actors on a set reciting their lines. Verging on pretentiousness at times, The Claim still manages to pull through as a worthwhile film, largely because it is worth seeing for the bits that work well.

[Lynne]

From IMDb:

Canada 1931: The unsociable trapper Johnson lives for himself in the ice-cold mountains near the Yukon river. During a visit in the town he witnesses a dog-fight. He interrupts the game and buys one of the dogs - almost dead already - for $200 against the owner's will. When the owner Hasel complains to Mountie Sergeant Millen, he refuses to take action. But then the loathing breeder and his friends accuse Johnson of murder. So Millen, although sympathetic, has to try to take him under arrest - but Johnson defends his freedom in every way possible.

[Fran]

From IMDb:  I am a big fan of Herzog. But while "Encounters" provided me with an overall positive experience, it is a flawed film. First, the good news. Hearing the inorganically musical underwater vocalizations of Weddell seals through the theater's multichannel speaker system was alone worth the price of admission. One of the scientists studying the pinnipeds aptly describes their varied and otherworldly sounds as Pink Floydian. I am also pleased to have beheld extended footage of the magnificent world beneath the sea ice. It is a teeming environment whose surface we are only beginning to scratch, and I cannot blame Herzog for choosing choral background music that perhaps screams "awe" a bit too loudly; there is no danger of it cheapening the majesty of the frozen stalactites or the splendor of the sunlight dispersing through the ice-ceiling. Lastly, I'll note the humor, usually intentional, that Herzog uncharacteristically displays. His Teutonic deadpan is not his only comedic asset; he has a keen sense of the ridiculous, and ample targets among the many dubious denizens of the Antarctic.

My complaints are essentially twofold. First, the movie is disjointed. It is a hodgepodge of Herzog's encounters with various Antarctic researchers and residents; there is no apparent order or theme. This is a minor criticism, as most of the segments make for fine viewing on their own, but it would have been more satisfying if Herzog had presented a unifying thesis or two about the Light Continent (aside from the oft-repeated observation that it is populated by a fair number of "professional dreamers"). He should have at least arranged the segments in a clearly meaningful sequence. At its best, the film made no more of an impression on me than "that was beautiful," "that was cool," or "I didn't know that." Second, and more significantly, Herzog's narration is at times irritating. As someone who has studied climate change, I share his frustration and pessimism. But there is no call for saddling the film's final moments with apocalyptic platitudes (e.g., "the end of human life is assured") and a cursory reference to global warming. These sentiments are incongruous with the rest of the film, which does not substantially address environmentalism and whose most haunting scene is of a mad penguin that abandons its flock and runs inland towards distant mountains, to certain death, with a singular determination. Herzog's doomsayings, in any event, are better communicated by the satellite images of rapidly melting polar ice that we observe on a climatologist's computer screen.

[southendmd]

IMDb user:  This movie is one of my all-time favourites. A joy to watch, mainly because of the inimitable Mr. Leif Juster in the lead. Unni Bernhoft is rather unconvincing and utterly charming as the young girl, or should we say boy, and Frank Robert does a great job (or rather two great jobs) as the ornithologist and the blasé actor. Add great one-liners, beautiful Norwegian mountain landscapes, great atmosphere, an utterly improbable story and amateurish editing, and voilà: A classic.

=aside= Fran
Re your "Encounters..." film:  I agree with the comment that Herzog's narration was beyond  irritating.