BEST FILMS OF 1946
by Mike Lorefice

Beauty and the Beast
Jean Cocteau

Cocteau's enchanted version of Madame Leprince de Beaumont's fairytale is one of the only artistic films for children, though adults will enjoy it as much if not more. Cocteau delineates two distinct worlds through the wonderful visuals. Beauty's home is formalized with natural light, everything boxed in and everyone but her behaving selfishly and foolishly as in a Moliere farce. Beast's world is dreamily romantic, everything curve shaped and shadowy, the expressionist lighting just exquisite. Beauty if the only one that can move between the two worlds because she has both inner and outer beauty. Cocteau's version is the most faithful to the text, it's not the headiest of material (except to Freudian critics and people weaned on Disney) but it's wonderfully rendered implementing every magic trick in his arsenal, which not only includes a great array of cinematic effects but also showcases his talent for theatre and dance. Jean Marais is highly impressive as the beast, conveying everything with his eyes because he's behind the Wolfmanesque mask. It's been noted that Beast's transformation into a pretty boy is a letdown both to Beauty and the audience (who flooded Cocteau with letters), but that was purposeful showing that the media defined stereotype woman are supposedly attracted to will provide only a life of boredom. The beast and his interior beauty are in every way more interesting and in fact even more human. [9/22/05] ***1/2

The Best Years of Our Lives
William Wyler

***

The Big Sleep
Howard Hawks

***

The Blue Dahlia
George Marshall

***

Canyon Passage
Jacques Tourneur

***

Gilda
Charles Vidor

***1/2

The Killers
Robert Siodmak

****

My Reputation
Curtis Bernhardt

***

Notorious
Alfred Hitchcock

****

Paisan
Roberto Rossellini

****

Full Movie Review

The Postman Always Rings Twice
Tay Garnett

***1/2

Ritual in Transfigured Time
Maya Deren

After college Deren began working as an assistant to the famous dancer and choreographer Katherine Dunham, touring the US with her dance company. Her third completed short A Study In Choreography For Camera was a brief experiment in formal dancing that showed cinematically the camera plays a more important role in the choreography than the performers, even in cases where the performance is highly choreographed. The ritual here is probably Deren unwinding wool from a loom, but she is not the main focus here and the silent film is from shy Rita Christiani's perspective. Christiani is always an outsider whether she's entering Deren's apartment or a party, both at the invitation of others who appear to be more outgoing and approachable types. Fear of rejection is a key theme, with the film balancing this negative with the possibility of a friendship or especially sexual relationship as Christiani is constantly pursued by a suitor. At the party Christiani makes her way through the crowd much as a dancer would; it's typical Deren repetition and variation with Christiani growing increasingly more graceful, fluid, and demonstrative. This not only shows the link and similarity between dance and formal social ritual, but conversely that social ritual is ultimately a performance. Deren's post Hammid works are not considered to be nearly as good because they are largely finding varying ways to present the human form in athletic motion. However, this work bears more thematic similarity to Meshes of the Afternoon than it gets credit for. In a sense it's something of a reverse of Meshes with the man chasing the woman allowing for an examination into the internal (subconscious states and parallel realities) and external (wide open and closed in space). [4/15/06] ***1/2

The Spiral Staircase
Robert Siodmak

***

The Stranger
Orson Welles

***1/2