BEST FILMS OF 1987 - List In Progress
by Mike Lorefice

Boyfriends and Girlfriends
Eric Rohmer

The sixth and final entry in Rohmer's comedies and proverbs series is a love story that examines friendship within (loyalty) and between (openness) genders. Appears to be a lightweight Rohmer, and it's true it's not one of his greatest, but there's a lot more to it than meets the eye. It's slyly an invaluable and rare look at the effects of increasingly generic society on relationships. In Rohmer's hands what would normally be a sitcom situation, two best friends wind up switching men, delves into the effect surroundings have on human nature and interactivity. The characters can't decide on anything, playing musical chairs because they don't know which partner they are made for and keep finding rationale and excuses to miss their mark. Their lack of communication and interaction tends to center around the dullness of the sanitary environment. The oppressive force of the characterless manicured surroundings never leads to any openings for the characters to have a legitimate conversation; they just go in circles or split up due to their inability to agree on a place to amuse all. [7/16/06] ***

Camp de Thiaroye
Ousmane Sembene & Thierno Faty Sow

This struggle for African dignity would have been a perfect subject for one of Sembene's fictions if it weren't already entirely true. Assorted Africans from the French colonial empire are demobilized in a Dakar transit camp near the end of WWII for repatriation. These soldiers survived the horrific Nazi prison camps, so they expect a lot more from their own side's camp. If there's one good thing about war it's that it has the power to swiftly initiate social progress. Having just liberated extremely grateful French citizens, they think they might finally have achieved the equality they deserve. However, the racist French military has other ideas, and the conscripted soldiers are soon shown they are back to being nothing more than inferior blacks. This forces the Africans to make a choice, either keep their mouths shut and accept an eternity of unjust treatment or risk their lives in an effort to maintain the dignity they've earned on the battlefield and perhaps extend it to their fellow countrymen. It's important to notice the camaraderie of the Africans. They have no language in common and thus can only communicate through their poor version of their oppressor's language, but ultimately they are the more unified group because they understand their common needs and goals, allowing these to bring them together. Sembene is an invaluable historian. The thoughtful way he goes about handling the event makes it an important lesson not only for the Africans, but for the French, and even allows it to function as an allegory for current colonialism. What makes the work so good is it's novelistic complexity and depth, it's rare to see a film that fully develops so many three dimensional characters. Though Sembene and Sow are clearly for the Africans they don't make all the whites bad. Actually, every character from either side has their own credible logic, strengths and weaknesses, allowing the film to explore and debate the needs of both sides and the conflict between needing and exploiting the colonies. [7/24/06] ***1/2

Cobra Verde
Werner Herzog

Werner Herzog & Klaus Kinski's fifth and unfortunately final mad adventure is a true cinematic messterpiece. There's no sense of whole to this endeavor, but all the parts are fascinating, if not mesmerizing, in some way. It's an exotic film of epic grandeur loaded with spectacular wide angle long static and tracking shots of African custom and ritual, the ocean, the forest, and hordes of extras including an army of topless Ghanaian women. Herzog was able to achieve all this location beauty for a mere $2 million, insert your own joke about the ridiculous ways Hollywood squanders their vast resources. Unfortunately, Herzog's plot, much less his metaphors, may not even be clear to him. He starts off examining the hard life of power hungry Brazilian bandit Francisco Manoel da Silva, dubbed Cobra Verde (Kinski), but winds up exploring the entire African slave trade. Perhaps the point is the two atrocities are similar in that they were chosen by man, with the fictional Cobra Verde serving as a link due to his own problems and ambition leading him to do things he's great at that ultimately crush him. Even if he feels he had no choice, he still can't rid himself of some semblance of a conscience. If da Silva weren't so good at it or could find an honest way to achieve something, perhaps he wouldn't hate himself and his actions, but he can't even find any other way to occupy himself. I think the film is largely about Kinski the man, with the Cobra Verde character being a thinly veiled version of him. Herzog lets Kinski run wild or simply can't contain him anymore, leading to his most uninhibited and unhinged performance. Kinski is perpetually restless and bored; nothing can diminish his inner turmoil so he lashes out in rage. As always, Kinski's character attempts the impossible, and is fearless, resourceful, cunning, and insane enough to more than make headway. The maniacal grimacing crazed dog elements of Kinski's performance are always pointed out, but there are quiet if not silent scenes with and without him that are as memorable as any of Kinski's raving. Kinski was 61 when he gave this highly physical performance, but it's not just his inner turmoil, his speed and strength as he leads and works with the Africans is that of a 25-year-old. [2/14/07] ***

King Lear
Jean-Luc Godard

Though not one of Godard's most successful works King Lear still represents a master at his creative and inventive peak, defying the audience to figure out what he's up to, what's setting his work apart from the run of the mill waxed and polished product. Godard sets out to do no less than reinvent modern cinematic art, if not culture in general, in apocalyptic post Chernobyl times. Once again he is more successful at adding a little brightness to the bastardized commercialized world he laments, but it's nice that a few people didn't give up after the '60's. This is not really an adaptation or modernization of Shakespeare's work, though it's some of both. More than anything, it uses the old classic as a starting point for a sometimes surrealistic, often experimental mediation on the creative process. Godard develops the (dolby) audio end with a tremendous amount of complexity, including having brief voice over narrations (usually to identify the still photograph he's changed to) come in over more lengthy ones that are ruminating on art. The characters don't so much interact as think out loud, allowing Godard to explore the differences between what people can, will, and do say. But this, as well as some of the other distortion and seeming distraction, actually brings us back to Lear, to the father-daughter conflict that's at the center of the play. You certainly have to know something about cinema to appreciate this film because Godard is on a first name basis with all the great directors he's channeling for ideas and inspiration, as well as attempting to preserve for a world that has seen it's art destroyed. You also have to know something about Lear because while Godard maintains some of the characters and themes he does away with the plot. Of course, placing prerequisites and requirements on the audience is one of the reasons Godard is so much more interesting than the directors that waste half their time explaining everything. [3/25/06] ***

The Stepfather
Joseph Ruben

Underrated horror film that has a lot to say about the American myth before contracting Lyne disease. Terry O'Quinn gives his best performance as the title character, a man forever in search of the perfect suburban existence, the idyllic family as defined by 1950's TV shows and advertisements and revived by '80's war party domination. Of course, since US TV is completely phony and the advertisements completely untrue the stepfather is perpetually miserable. The utter happiness and cheeriness of television does not uplift him (like every advertisement it merely creates the problem). It leads him to believe this world does exist, thus condescending to him (like every advertisement) because obviously it's his fault that he's been unable to find it. His public life is one of complete denial, always acting roses even when it's obvious they've all wilted. The truth is always bottled up inside, so he has to go into hiding in the basement to vent. His insanity stems from this inability to make his life approach the dream, and thus he kills his old family and moves on to a new one he's sure will be the one, the perfect family. And of course no matter how hard he tries, he's ultimately disappointed and forced to admit yet another failure because he allows his life to be defined not by what he decides it should be but by what the corporations are selling him. But more important than the falseness of the dream is the emptiness, the fact that none of it would bring happiness in the first place, everyone and everything in it are nothing more than a possession, another showy trophy. The film opens with a great scene where the stepfather walks past the mutilated body of his last wife and comes out the front door whistling and picking up the paper like it's another ideal ordinary day. We soon meet his new family, Shelly Hack of Cheesy Angels shame as the mom and the ultra cute Jill Schoelen as the daughter; the former believes him to be perfect, while the latter is immediately suspect of his Ward Cleaver persona. The film has a sharp ironic wit, and despite it's grimness is generally a fun parody. Unfortunately, this largely well written Donald E. Westlake work never escapes it's slasher routes and the last fifteen minutes are completely unbelievable, with everything so conveniently scripted and perfectly timed. It goes from a study on what the myth can do into a Friday the 13th ripoff through Fatal Attraction and all the other films those two stole from. As bad as the finale is, the atrocious sequels rarely even rise to that level. [3/23/06] ***

Walker
Alex Cox

***1/2

Full Movie Review

Where Is the Friend's Home?
Abbas Kiarostami

Full Movie Review

***1/2

Yeelen
Souleymane Cisse

Every would be fantasy film director needs to see Yeelen because it proves you can make a top notch entry without much money and do not need to rely on special effects. The key is returning to the past, the elimination of technology eradicates the need for much frivolous expense. This mystical metaphysical film depicts Mali's ancient Bambara culture; it's one of the most beautiful simply by exploiting 13th century settings, in other words nature. It has all the spells and hocus pocus you could ask for, but it values mental power over physical, everything is performed through hyper concentration. It's far more intense and surprising because rather than those boring punishing spells that blow the receiver backwards and are so obviously gimmicked even the smallest child is more likely to laugh at them than fear them, you aren't sure what the spell is going to be or do until it unfolds. And there's no need to finish it off with gore or concede to sanitized MPAA friendly violence; it's all psychological so though it seems to have action it essentially does not in any traditional manner. This highly atmospheric work thrives on the subjective point of view, putting you "in the zone" of the spell caster. In that sense it's The Red Shoes of magic films, but things are much more toned down. The decision to always rely on the least makes the film more sensual and exotic and adds much to the credibility by refusing to expose the filmmaking process. The actors are non-professionals, but the dialogue is sparse and the film mainly features leaders (two sorcerers and one king) who demand respect and thus need not explain themselves. Though it's a fantasy film, it's actually based on ancient legend passed down aurally through the ages and offers the opportunity to learn a decent amount about African history and mythology in a non soporific manner. Part of its greatness is its ability to maneuver between fact and fiction in a manner that doesn't take away from one by shifting the balance too far in the other direction. The cinematography is top notch, really dragging you into this ancient world and making it transcend ordinary boundaries and limitations. The frugal score featuring African drums has a lingering mesmerizing effect, providing just enough in short bursts to set and maintain the mood. Salif Keita & Michel Portal's work here sounds like what you might get if Toru Takemitsu was working with African period instruments rather than Japanese. Though in a sense a very foreign film - it has to explain a few key words in the beginning so we have an idea what they are talking about - it's essentially a very accessible tale of the good son coming of age by overcoming his evil powerful father who is out to kill him. [3/23/06] ****