BEST FILMS OF 1983 - List in Progress
by Mike Lorefice

Ballad of Narayama
Shohei Imamura

***1/2

Le Dernier Combat
Luc Besson

Wasting away in a resourceless desert haunted by crumbling vestiges of consumerist euphoria, Luc Besson thrusts the audience headfirst into his empty isolated post-apocalyptic world by showing The Man (Pierre Jolivet) screwing his only remaining companion, an inflatable doll. Stealing a battery from local sewer-water drinking looters, he gets a plane off the ground just in time to whisk himself off to a rubble-laden city where he's swiftly mauled by The Brute (Jean Reno). It's quickly apparent that man has devolved to primitive times, partly due to atmospheric changes rendering speech impossible, ushering in a second dark age where medieval armaments are back in vogue. By establishing The Doctor's (Jean Bouise) refusal of The Brute into his hospital before The Man shows up, we expect that The Doctor trusts no one and will stop at nothing to keep everyone out. However, Dernier Combat is anything but another hauntingly bleak vision of tomorrow where man automatically battles for territory and possession. Balking at the macho nihilism of the post-apocalyptic genre, most notably George Miller's consistently devoid of humanity sequel to Mad Max, The Road Warrior, Besson shows the rebirth of feeling and interaction sparked by The Doctor nursing The Man back to health. Bresson celebrates activities such as painting and playing ping pong, with even The Brute being a nerdy character you'd expect to be thoughtful if not for that damn pollution! The comedy comes from the cat and mouse game The Doctor is forced to play to deny entry to The Brute, but rather than being inherently evil, we feel the lack of options has reduced The Brute to ravaging and plundering to survive. Besson's most sensitive film ultimately comes down to his characters grasping for the emotional depth the director himself lacks. He never made any personal statements or revealed an outlook on life, but has set himself up to triumph by showing humans functioning in the most interesting cinematic methods he can devise while placing the blame for their mechanical nature elsewhere. Dernier Combat is probably Besson's most successful film due to the lack of dialogue masking his inherently shallow stylistic exercises that lack interest in what makes his characters tick. One reason Hollyplastic products provide a wholly unsatisfying experience is they force feed every point to the popcorn chomping audience. Everyone who watches Le Dernier Combat is encouraged to complete Besson's film in their own ways, which if the future tells us anything will probably be deeper and more thoughtful than what Besson would concoct. But, in any case, Dernier Combat works quite well because Besson is an expert craftsman who knows how to reveal his story in intriguing ways. [9/16/07] ***

The Meaning of Life
Terry Jones & Terry Gilliam

Monty Python's swan song returns to the sketch style that made the funniest TV program ever more humorous than their movies. There's still more consistency than the TV show since the segments progress from birth to death, and even more variety than the previous two features. It's their most mature film, but it continues the trend of each film growing progressively less amusing. Even as the film progresses, it goes from brilliant with the "Every Sperm is Sacred" song and the drill sergeant driving the soldiers away to the mediocrity of Exorcist vomiting taken to the nth degree. They still do social, religious, and fighting humor expertly, but there's nothing particularly new or surprising here and their attempts to take things to the next level seem forced. It's still funnier than 99% of the other comedies, but it's one of those films where if you've watched a lot of their previous material you can probably guess which segments you will or won't like almost from the outset. [10/6/06] ***

Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence
Nagisa Oshima

Ambitious WWII prisoner of war film has Oshima, in his first English language film, seemingly siding with the British captives rather than his brutal countrymen. Oshima is one of the most enigmatic filmmakers, and beyond an excellent portrayal of the cultural divide it's often hard to say what he's trying to do here. Some of the material has little to do with anything beyond being highly interesting and very offbeat, but with the brilliant moving ending his critique on war becomes clear. The cast is all male, and the film combines their nature to bond with their nature to believe their side is correct. This mix of homoeroticism and sadism is what you might expect from the taboo breaking director, though it's generally tame by his standards, perhaps partly because he is also criticizing a mainstream genre. It's all about power, so extending the control from physical to sexual may be natural. Ryuchi Sakamoto contributes arguably his best score, greatly aiding the lyricism, and is also effective as the brutal commandant. Takeshi Kitano gives an early standout performance as the sadistic guard, a real eye opener to the Japanese who were used to seeing him on TV as a comic performer. Tom Conti is also excellent in a role that ties it all together; he's the translator and the only one that has some understanding of each side. Some will criticism the material for embracing suicidal fascism, but that's war, whether the sides know it or not is another story. [7/18/06] ***1/2

Pauline at the Beach
Eric Rohmer

****

Full Movie Review

Sheer Madness
Margarethe von Trotta

***1/2

Full Movie Review