Federico Fellini Scores a Cinematic 10 with 8 1/2

 

           One of the most personal, honest and experimental self-portraits by a major filmmaker, 1963’s 8½ allows Federico Fellini the platform to explore his art and personal life in semi-autobiographical fashion, providing viewers with insight into how the legendary director’s relationships and actions influenced his artist path. Detailing a critical juncture in the life of Fellini’s alter-ego, Guido Anselmi, who is taking a rest cure at an upscale resort to rejuvenate his creative facilities in order to attempt to oversee his latest project involving a spaceship built to take a large populace to outer-space safety during the atomic age, the multi-layer, non-linear screenplay by Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano and Brunello Rondi ingeniously combines the use of flashbacks, dreams and a more straightforward narrative design to convey the many demands and inner conflicts inhabiting the mindset of a talent of Fellini’ stature. A playful score by Nino Rota enlivens many scenes as comic moments are frequently inserted to grant a light touch and offset the more introspective themes concerning the nature of art, religion and politics. Truly phenomenal black and white cinematography by Gianni Di Venanzo, showing a masterful knowledge of shadow and light to create unforgettable cinematic images, impactfully highlights the equally astounding art direction and costumes by Piero Gherardi, who utilizes black and white design as brilliantly as even seen on a screen. A top cast, led by Marcello Mastroianni at his most charmingly urbane and weary, captures the many moods of a rich collection of players who coexist in the chaotic and fascinating world surrounding Guido.

          At the height of his abilities after getting his start in Italian films as a screenwriter in the 1940’s, with an Oscar nomination as co-writer of Roberto Rossellini’s landmark of neorealistic cinema, Open City, before rising to prominence as one of the most gifted filmmakers with the moving, enduring classics La Strada and Nights of Cabiria, which allowed wife Giulietta Masina a Best Actress Cannes award for her indelible portrait of the title character and a Best Foreign Film Oscar for each film, before starting the new decade with the worldwide success of La Dolce Vita, which placed a spotlight on the idle upper-class. After these three seminal works, Fellini was clearly prepared to dive deep for an internal look into his life and career, pushing his distinct talents to the limit in bringing this highly original and entertaining work to the masses, with Fellini carefully balancing an array of diverse plot elements and personalities while unfolding his uniquely surreal tale.

Fantasy sequences add much flavor to the involving storyline, with Fellini showing the full range of his imaginative gifts from the outset of the film, wherein Guido appears trapped in a car filling with smoke as other passengers in nearby vehicles look on with detachment, before Guido escapes and floats heavenward. A later sequence concerning Guido controlling his “harem,” which consists of nearly all the women in the cast, shows Fellini fearlessly poking fun at his chauvinistic tendencies as Guido’s matter of fact, condescending behavior comes face-to-face with rebellion from the fairer sex. In another revealing passage, Guido’s wife claims he is painting an altruistic image of himself with his project, while a viewer is being shown through this scene and others Guido has many flaws to weigh against his more understanding and likable traits, providing Fellini was willing to grant the audience a full-bodied take on his complicated persona. After 8½ Fellini would continue to put his individual mark on films often featuring increasingly bizarre content, while gaining two more competitive Oscars and a 1992 honorary Academy Award for his unsurpassed contributions to the cinema.

            Mastroianni, who started in films as a teen, then after two decades in the business gained international superstardom with La Dolce before cementing his position with an Oscar-nominated, Golden Globe-winning comic turn in Divorce, Italian Style, scores again with an ennui-laced portrayal as the blasé, forlorn Guido, while also using his comic gifts to add a sophisticated bemusement to Guido in the character’s more playful and imaginative moments. Also, Fellini must have been pleased to have himself represented onscreen in such a glamourous manner as, with wavy, peppered locks and his chiseled movie star countenance, Mastroianni is one of the most attractive ruminators ever caught on film. He incorporates a likeable low-key, urban quality to Guido that allows a viewer to connect with the sometimes detached and self-centered catalyst as he works his way through a myriad of setbacks, instilling the role with humane aspects that make Guido more relatable than off-putting. Following 8½, Mastroianni would remain a leading light in Italian cinema, with several fruitful collaborations opposite ideal costar Sophia Loren to his credit, gaining acclaim with two more Best Actor Oscar nominations, two Cannes Best Actor wins, two British Academy Awards, two Venice Film Festival acting prizes, and five David di Donatello Best Actor awards, including one for his reunion with Fellini, 1986’s amusing Ginger and Fred, opposite Masina. Mastroianni would pass in December of 1996 at 72, leaving behind one of the most formidable lists of film credits, with his work for Fellini aiding in ensuring his legacy. 

            As the image of Guido’s idealized woman for his film, the elegant, serene Claudia Cardinale, who just passed away on September 23rd at age 87, holds the screen with a dreamy magnetism in her brief appearances, leading to a more pronounced sequence with Guido as her radiant same-named star arrives to take part in the film. 1963 would prove to be a banner year for Cardinale, with 8½ preceding her work in Luchino Visconti’s equally-esteemed epic The Leopard, before her successful move, after five years of honing her craft in Italian films, into international stardom via The Pink Panther, leading to more success during the decade in major films, specifically The Professionals and Sergio Leone’s terrific 1968 Once Upon a Time in the West. Anouk Aimée was also witnessing a period of career highs in the 1960s, after making a film debut at 14 in 1947 and establishing herself in the French Cinema during the 1950s, before breaking out alongside Mastroianni as his paramour in La Dolce, then finding an iconic role as the alluring, bewitching title character of Jaques Demy’s Lola. With 8½ Aimée intelligently brings a knowing jadedness to her portrayal of Guido’s conflicted, bitter wife Luisa, who understands her husband’s faults and assets as well as anyone, while memorably sporting ultra-chic specs in a movie featuring top eyewear across the board. After 8½ Aimée would reach her film apex with Oscar-nominated and Golden Globe and British Academy Award winning work via director Claude Lelouch’s 1966 critical and box-office smash A Man and a Woman, then reunite with Demy at the close of the decade for Model Shop, working periodically thereafter, including more collaborations with Lelouch for the Man and a Woman sequel in 1986 and her final role in a 2019 Man and a Woman follow-up, The Best Years of a Life, before passing at age 92 in 2024.

Barbara Steele, in perhaps her best role outside of the horror genre wherein she made her greatest claim to fame via 1960’s Black Sunday, brings her singular screen presence, angular offbeat looks and a perverse sensibility to her role of Gloria Morin, the mysterious young girlfriend of Guido’s close friend Mario (Mario Pisu, happily sweating through the character’s midlife crisis as he seeks to hold onto some semblance of youth through his affair with Gloria). In one of the film’s most entertaining set pieces, Gloria twists and sensually undulates with and then perplexedly away from Mario at an outdoor dance forum in joyful rhythm with the music’s upbeat tempo. Sandra Milo also lends highly original shadings to the movie as Carla, Guido’s spirited, impish mistress who seeks to get her husband a job with Guido amid her trysts with the powerful director. Madeleine Lebeau is tellingly on point as Madeleine, the alert, desperate actress cast in the project and looking for more attention from Guido, along with an expanded role. Rossella Falk has cosmopolitan flair and an appropriately caustic tone as Luisa’s loyal friend Rossella, while Eddra Gale possesses one of the most unforgettable visages in a Fellini picture as the robust, lustful La Saraghina, who puts over a few lively dance moves of her own on a beach in possibly the richest and most entertaining flashback sequence. Additionally, providing takes of their actual roles in Fellini’s moviemaking endeavors, Mario Conocchia, Bruno Agostini and Cesarino Miceli Picardi offer insightful takes on certain colorful types of moviemaking production figures.

Wide acclaim and high audience interest in Fellini’s most innovative and flamboyant work to date allowed 8½ to rank with the top praised and highest profile of the 1963 cinematic crop. During awards season 8½ was often cited, with Best Foreign Film awards from The National Board of Review and the New York Film Critics Circle, a nomination for Fellini from the Director’s Guild of America and inclusion on The New York Times list of 1963’s top ten films. Five Academy Award nominations (rare at the time for a non-American film) were allotted to 8 ½, including a Best Director nod for Fellini, who would go home with another Best Foreign Film Oscar and one of the most warranted Best Costume Design (Black and White) wins for Gherardi. The lasting legacy of the film has led to a hit, Tony Award-winning 1982 Broadway musical adaptation, Nine, and regular placement of the imposing work on “All-Time” list of the greatest movies ever lensed, including regular placement inside the top ten on the Sight and Sound poll of the greatest films, conducted every ten years (achieving its highest rank of #4 in 1972, and coming in at #32 on the 2022 poll). For a stunning behind-the-scenes take of an artist seemingly at the peak of his career and abilities, but at a professional and personal crossroads simultaneously stunting his progress, film connoisseurs looking to be rewarded with a rich, funny and provocative viewing experience need only stop at 8½.

Humphrey Bogart Seeks Cinematic Gold via John Huston’s Peerless Treasure

 

                Allowing a resourcefulness and intensity seldom see on the screen, writer/director John Huston’s stark 1948 drama The Treasure of the Sierra Madre details a parable of greed with stunning precision. With on-location shooting in Mexico bringing a realism to the tale rare to find in a classic Hollywood production, Huston translates his screenplay (based on the B. Traven 1927 novel) to film with a skill and depth that ensures the colorful characters and their adventurous trek to find gold in the title locale reach the audience with maximum effectiveness. Featuring Humphrey Bogart in possibly his most demanding role as Fred C. Dobbs, the down-on-his-luck anti-hero desperate to find and lay his claim on the gold at any cost, Huston unfolds the story with an admirable straightforwardness and dramatic force in scenes of overwhelming potency, aided by Ted D. McCord’s B&W cinematography, one of Max Steiner’s tensest, most rousing scores and a first-rate cast surrounding Bogart, including Huston’s esteemed father, Walter, in one of his signature roles as Howard, the sage old prospector who accompanies Dobbs on his quest, and Tim Holt as a third party in the expedition, the earnest young Bob Curtin.

Treasure represented an exceptional return to form for the adventurous John Huston who, after gaining solid ground as a screenwriter in the 1930s, announced himself as a director of skill and style with Falcon, before leaving Hollywood to make films for the Army Signal Corps during WWII. With Treasure, Huston perfectly captures the uneasy tone of the piece, as alliances shift among the main characters and jeopardy constantly looms for Dobbs and his colleagues. Unfolding the dark tale with straightforward honesty and without a trace of sentimentality or slickness normally found in films of the period, Huston crafts one of the most mature and intelligent works from Hollywood’s Golden Age. After this powerful, insightful picture, Huston would continue experimenting with the film medium with ample success as a director and writer, including one of the great noirs with 1950’s Asphalt Jungle, gaining commercial and critical success with the prime entertainment of The African Queen and an intriguing take on Toulouse-Lautrec via 1952’s Moulin Rouge, ambitiously tackling one of his biggest productions with 1956’s Moby Dick, helming 1961’s interesting The Misfits, the swansong for both Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe, then proving his sure touch was undiminished in the new 1970’s cinema era with enjoyable, potent fare such as Fat City and the rousing The Man Who Would Be King. Huston also scored a degree of merit as a character actor, with an Oscar nomination for 1963’s The Cardinal and one of filmdom’s most notable villains as the lecherous Noah Cross in 1974’s Chinatown. Just before his passing in 1987 at 81, Huston again witnessed major directorial success, artistically triumphing with Prizzi’s Honor (bringing an Oscar to daughter Anjelica) and The Dead.

Bogart, reuniting with director Huston for a dramatic assignment that ranks among his most indelible and rewarding work after a beneficial association that included Falcon and, later in 1948, a hit with Key Largo, fully commits to the challenging role, lending a riveting conviction to Dobbs that intensifies as the prospector becomes progressively more desperate concerning the idea of gaining life-altering fortune and keeping it for himself. Having carefully built a career as an action hero with a romantic edge since his 1941 breakthrough via High Sierra and The Maltese Falcon to become one Warner Brothers and Hollywood’s most respected and profitable talents, in Treasure Bogart daringly goes against type while pushing his thespian abilities to the limit to display the nervous paranoia and avarice that propels a man to drop any semblance of scruples, as well as his grasp on sanity. After Treasure, Bogart’s filmography would continue to experience unabated highlights, including another classic endeavor with Huston for Bogart’s Oscar win as the unkempt captain of The African Queen, in a perfect pairing with Katharine Hepburn, as well as further striking, emotionally revealing dramatic work in 1950’s top noir In a Lonely Place and as the sweaty and paranoid Captain Queeg in 1954’s The Caine Mutiny,  which provided Bogart with one of his biggest hits and best reviews, as well as a final Best Actor Oscar nomination in a competitive year that saw Marlon Brando finally winning for On the Waterfront, before Bogart’s passing in early 1957.

Stage and screen veteran Walter Huston is granted one of the juiciest roles of his revered career, and he devours the choice assignment with a greedy gusto befitting the central theme of the movie. Bearing a cheerful but sage attitude and a slyness that allows the audience to judge Howard as no one’s patsy, Huston invaluably brings a liveliness and humor to the otherwise intense storyline that enriches the action and provides some needed levity from the grim outlook facing the team, while also showcasing his dramatic finesse in scenes of conflict with the increasingly edgy Dobbs. Starting his stage work as a teen in 1902, Huston would ply the boards in vaudeville and theater until a Broadway debut in 1924, followed by an enriching move into films at the start of the Sound Era in 1929, wherein for the rest of his life he remained one of the most sought-after actors in the business, with Oscar nominations for his enduring, deft work as the title character of 1936’s Dodsworth, an excellent adaptation of his Broadway triumph, All That Heaven Allows and Yankee Doodle Dandy preceding Treasure. Following Treasure, Huston would make a couple films before going out on a high note onscreen opposite Barbara Stanwyck in another imposing, meaty role as a sinister cattle baron in the florid, noir-tinged Western The Furies, released posthumously in 1950 after his passing.

As Bob, Tim Holt combines an earnest everyman quality with a believable ruggedness Holt honed from his experience during the decade as a top star of B Westerns, after starting in films as a child and alternating his low-budget endeavors with classics such as Stella Dallas, Stagecoach, My Darling Clementine and, memorably, as the spoiled George in Orson Welles’ The Magnificent Ambersons. By nature of his boyishly honest demeanor Holt allows for a strong identification figure the audience can follow as events develop and one fears more and more for Bob’s safety. Portraying James Cody, who arrives on the scene mid-film to join the trio in their gold-digging exploits, the handsome, lanky Bruce Bennett (also known as Olympic Herman Brix, and thereafter a screen Tarzan before working his way up in movies to one of the male leads in 1945’s Mildred Pierce) in one of his best performances brings  a weary decency to the role that ranks Cody, along with Bob, as the most sympathetic characters on screen.

Alfonso Bedoya aligns with Huston’s Noah Cross as one of the screen’s most sinister characters as the malevolent “Gold Hat,” a bandit without a trace of benevolence in him. Bedoya imposingly portrays the dangerous nature surrounding Gold Hat’s careless-yet-aggressive, spontaneous actions, indicating the volatile evilness at his core, specifically while uttering one of the cinema’s most famous lines concerning his thoughts on displaying badges. Supreme character player Barton MacLane relishes in conveying an oily underhandedness as the sneaky contractor Dobbs unfortunately encounters, while the adolescent Bobby Blake makes a charming impression as the boy trying to sell Dobbs a lottery ticket at the film’s outset. Finally, John Huston makes one of the best directorial cameo appearances as the wary gentleman twice accosted for a handout by Dobbs early in the film, fully suggesting the passerby’s disgust with Dobbs with a sour glance and brief chastising of the downtrodden wanderer.

                Released in January of 1948, Treasure managed to gain solid box-office returns (grossing just over $4,000,000 worldwide, according to Variety) despite the bleak nature of the story, which was so powerfully depicted that, unlike many early year releases that fade from favor come awards season, Treasure collected a trove of prizes to match a wealth of initial critical praise. Among other honors, the film placed among the ten best on The New York Times and The National Board of Review lists, with Huston also winning for Best Screenplay and father Walter winning for Best Supporting Actor, while the Golden Globes bestowed Best Picture (in a tie with Johnny Belinda), Best Director and Best Supporting Actor wins on the movie. The New York Film Critics’ Awards cited the film as the year’s best, with another Best Director prize for Huston, while the Writer’s Guild gave Huston a nod for Best Written American Drama and a win for best scripted Western. On the international film festival circuit, Max Steiner gained a Best Original Music prize from Venice. Come Oscar night, Treasure won John Best Director and Screenplay Academy Awards, with Walter taking home a richly deserved Best Supporting Actor win. Time has found Treasure’s status as one of Hollywood’s most influential and absorbing classics undiminished, witnessed by the film’s inclusion on the initial 1990 National Film Registry list of films for preservation, followed by placement at #30 and #38 on the AFI’s 1998 and 2007 lists of the 100 greatest American films. Illustrating the dangers of greed as artfully and profoundly as any other cinematic endeavor, Treasure of the Sierra Madre is sure to thrill anyone seeking out a superior viewing experience loaded with a wealth of dramatic riches.

Bidding Adieu to Robert Redford, a Golden Icon Onscreen and Off

 

One of the most influential and beloved figures in cinema for his notable achievements both in front and behind the cameras, Hollywood’s most renown fair-haired male superstar Robert Redford passed September 16^th at 89. Starting his career in the late 1950’s on stage with Tall Story, Redford would thrive in the early 1960s on television, including “Nothing in the Dark,” one of the best Twilight Zone episodes, and gaining an Emmy nomination for “The Voice of Charlie Pont,” while making his film debut in a bit via the 1960 screen adaptation of Story, which coincidentally also featured Redford’s future and most frequent costar Jane Fonda in her first film. Gaining momentum and a Theater World Award for Sunday in New York, Redford would raise his career bar substantially as the male lead in the 1963 Broadway smash Barefoot in the Park, then make an impression opposite Natalie Wood in 1965’s Inside Daisy Clover (which one Redford a Golden Globe as best new male star) and This Property is Condemned before his first real teaming with Fonda in the all-star potboiler The Chase.

 Those three weren’t hits, but Redford soon broke through as a leading man of great charm, allure and comic deftness with the smash 1967 screen version of Barefoot opposite Fonda, wherein Redford plays one of his most relatable, likeable heroes as newlywed Paul Bratter, generating a beguiling, believable chemistry with Fonda to create an ideal, lively romantic couple of genetic perfection. Redford may look like a million bucks, but as Paul he conveys a decency and down-to-earth appeal audiences can relate to, while delivering his lines with ace comic brio for an endearingly funny, handsome and affable hero. Following this, Redford would reach the pantheon of top male box-office stars teaming with the current king in that area, Paul Newman, as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The rare camaraderie the two possess during the unfolding of this breezy Western helped Butch become one of the blockbusters of its era, and set Redford up for a run as one of the most bankable and admired stars of the 1970s, while also winning the British Best Actor Academy Award for Butch and his other two 1969 releases, Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here and Downhill Racer.

This breakthrough year promising greater things ahead for the newly-minted megastar indeed panned out, with successes such as Jeremiah Johnson and his 1973 one-two punch consisting of smoothly reteaming with Newman for The Sting (which won Best Picture and gained the suave, sly Redford his sole Best Actor nomination at the Oscars) and The Way We Were opposite Barbra Streisand, who wanted no one but Redford as her costar, such was his status in the movie industry as the preeminent male star of the period, made evident by the resounding popularity of both films. Following this astounding year, Redford possibly hit a snag with the big-budget, highly publicized 1974 rendering of The Great Gatsby, but recovered nicely with Three Days of the Condor and The Great Waldo Pepper, both  hits, then another critical and financial smash opposite Dustin Hoffman in All the President’s Men, before closing the decade out in another all-star endeavor, A Bridge Too Far, and a successful romantic comedy reunion with Fonda for The Electric Horsemen.

                The end of the 1970s also brought a shift in Redford’s career focus, with the establishment of the Sundance Film Festival in 1978, which became and remains one of the biggest venues for independent filmmakers to showcase their works, and his switch behind the camera to helm 1980’s profoundly moving and skillfully crafted Ordinary People, which enabled Redford the chance to display his talent as a sensitive, thoughtful director capable of drawing great performances from an exceptional cast. Following this triumph, which won several Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Redford, Redford would focus more on Sundance and Director/Producer duties with The Milagro Beanfield War, the serene A River Runs Through It and the riveting Quiz Show, which brought Redford nominations as producer and director, while still bringing his calm, sage persona to major productions as Brubaker, The Natural, involved in another Best Picture endeavor and top female costar with Meryl Streep in Out of Africia before convincingly moving into more mature roles with 1993’s Indecent Proposal, Up Close and Personal and The Horse Whisperer, his first starring feature wherein he also served as producer/director.

                In his later years, Redford became an elder stateman for American cinema, particularly through his continued dedication to Sundance. He continued in front and behind the camera, with distinct recognition for his acting in indies, including 2013’s All is Lost, which offered Redford a Best Actor win from the prestigious New York Film Critics, a touching final pairing with Fonda in Our Souls at Night before another imposing performance as The Old Man & the Gun and returning to the mainstream for Disney Studios’ Pete’s Dragon and, for Marvel, as Alexander Pierce in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and his final film appearance in another mammoth money spinner, 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. For his many significant contributions to cinema, Redford also gained several major awards, including the Cecil B. DeMille Award from the Globes in 1994, an honorary Oscar in 2002, a 2005 Kennedy Center Honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama in 2016 and a 2017 Lifetime Achievement Golden Lion from the Venice Film Festival. Rest in Peace to one of the most important, virtuoso and classy figures in motion pictures, Robert Redford.

Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse Board The Band Wagon to Cinematic Greatness

 

             One of the primary films responsible for MGM’s reputation as the preeminent studio behind the “Golden Age of Musicals” in the 1940s and 1950s, The Band Wagon allows two of the screen’s supreme terpsichorean talents, Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse, the opportunity to pair up for some of the most memorable dancing ever seen, while Vincente Minnelli brings his typically exceptional taste, sophistication and Grade-A utilization of those MGM top production values to offer a visually-stunning, constantly enjoyable 1953 cinematic undertaking that constitutes one of the classiest and most indelible entries found in the musical genre. Betty Comden and Adolph Green, at their peak as a screenwriting team just after penning the immortal Singin’ in the Rain, offer up another fresh, amusing, and knowing take on a show business theme, detailing the various behind-the-scenes complications involved in putting on a Broadway show, specifically in relation to Jeffrey Cordova, an egomaniacal actor/director, Tony Hunter, his hoofer costar looking for a comeback, and Gaby Gerard, the beautiful, elegant ballerina chosen for his dancing partner and Lester and Lily Marton, the writers of the musical who also know their way around a number. Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz’s great songbook is artfully meshed with the storyline, combining classics such as “Dancing in the Dark” (from the otherwise unrelated the 1931 revue The Band Wagon starring Astaire and his sister Adele) and “A Shien on Your Shoes” with a new instant showbiz anthem, “That’s Entertainment,” while Michael Kidd’s ace chorography ensures each number is staged to the best advantage, further aiding The Band Wagon’s status as one of Hollywood’s most sparkling musicals.

Vincente Minnelli was in the midst of an incredible run at MGM, with a decade of quality output behind him by the time he helmed Band Wagon. Starting with his directorial debut via 1943’s Cabin in the Sky (after years as one of the most ingenious set and costume designers on stage and in movies) Minnelli would forge one of the most creative and diverse filmographies, with such prime offerings as 1944’s holiday perennial Meet Me in St. Louis starring soon-to-be wife Judy Garland, the wonderful 1945 romance The Clock with Garland ideally paired in a dramatic vein with the equally sensitive Robert Walker, the inventive The Pirate, then starting the 1950s off with the one-two-three punch of Father of the Bride, guiding An American in Paris  to a Best Picture Oscar, then moving to some florid melodrama with the Tinseltown-themed The Bad and the Beautiful. Clearly witnessing a peak period of artistry, Minnelli brings to the Band Wagon’s production design and the scenario rich flavor and color, while focusing on the star performers’ abundant gifts to allow each the opportunity to shine in a distinctive manner. Among many Band Wagon highs, Minnelli reaches an apex with the gorgeously constructed “The Girl Hunt” set piece, an elaborate, fasted-paced and quick-witted musical take on the popular Mickey Spillane crime novels. Following his impeccably-crafted work on The Band Wagon, Minnelli would continue his beneficial partnership with MGM with other notable works including Lust for Life, a Best Director Oscar for Gigi, the same year he staged the compelling drama of Some Came Running, Home from the Hill and The Courtship of Eddie’s Father. After leaving the studio following yet another hit (at least in box-office terms), the Elizabeth Taylor/Richard Buton led (or misled) The Sandpiper, Minnelli would wrap up one of the more substantial film careers working Babara Streisand through the large-scale movie adaptation of On a Clear Day You Can See Forever before teaming with no less than Ingrid Bergman and multi-talented daughter Liza for his final film, 1976’s A Matter of Time.

                Band Wagon allowed Astaire the vehicle to enter a third decade in film with his great style and hoofing dexterity undiminished. First gaining fame as a youth on stage with his sister Adele, leading them to triumphs on Broadway and in London in early adulthood, after Adele’s retirement Astaire was first seen onscreen in 1933 winging it with Joan Crawford in one of her biggest hits, Dancing Lady, before forming the ultimate cinematic dance team with Ginger Rogers in the same year’s Flying Down to Rio. After a string of successes, including the peerless Top Hat and Swing Time, the professional duo would seek careers individually in the 1940s, with Astaire first finding his footing with the enchanting Rita Hayworth in two films, then hitting it big opposite Bing Crosby in Holiday Inn and Blue Skies and with Judy Garland in Easter Parade (after a brief screen retirement), before reuniting with Rogers at the decade’s end for another sizable hit, The Barkley’s of Broadway. Continuing fairly apace in the early 1950’s, with a Golden Globe for 1950’s Three Little Words opposite the lovely and adept Vera Ellen and creating one of his most famous routines dancing on the ceiling in Royal Wedding countering the less-successful Let’s Dance and The Belle of New York opposite Ellen, Astaire would reach the peak of his 1950’s screen endeavors with The Band Wagon. Astaire lends an easy likability to his playing of Tony as he faces a career crossroads, while being given ample chances to showcase his astounding singing and dancing abilities, both in solo fashion with a rousing opening number, “Shine on Your Shoes”  and later the plaintive “By Myself,” then in truly spectacular duets with Charisse, first in their ultra-romantic traipsing in a park to the strains of “Dancing in the Dark,” then in yowzah fashion throughout “The Girl Hunt.” In both instances, the pair are in magical alignment with each movement, causing a viewer to smile in admiration at the physical perfection of their artful, unforgettable work together.  

Astaire continued gracing musicals such as Daddy Long Legs and in a welcome reteaming with Charisse for 1957’s Silk Stockings before turning to television specials, having a major impact via his work with Barrie Chase in 1958’s An Evening with Fred Astaire and its 1959 follow-up, while taking a dramatic turn onscreen in On the Beach to close out the decade. With the decline of film musicals, during the 1960’s Astaire’s screen output lessened, with 1968’s Finian’s Rainbow offering a return to the genre, but late in his career he would finally gain a competitive Oscar nomination (to go with his 1950 honorary Academy Award) for charming work in one of the 1970’s disaster blockbusters, The Towering Inferno. Seemingly as nimble as ever in his pairing with Gene Kelly for 1976’s That’s Entertainment, Part II, Astaire would finish up on screen (outside a documentary appearance) with 1981’s Ghost Story, before his passing in 1988 at 88.

Cyd Charisse cemented her place as cinema’s most beautiful and graceful presence with her electrifying dancing skills, seizing her Band Wagon opportunities to make a lasting impression in her signature role as Gaby, one of the first leading parts of her career. After touring with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo starting at 14, Charisse would first gain attention onscreen at MGM with Ziegfeld Follies and 1946’s hit The Harvey Girls, as the ingenue friend of Judy Garland. Missing her big break in Easter Parade, Charisse would toil a few years in various MGM productions, then finally gain her major breakthrough in the all-timer Singin’ in the Rain, as the sizzling siren who woos Gene Kelly during the climatic “Broadway Rhythm” ballet. The sensuality and magnetism Charisse displays in this number showed her ability to act in dance as effectively as anyone has ever done on screen, a trait that serves her very well in her big Band Wagon moments. Opposite Astaire in “Dancing in the Dark,” Charisse conveys a lovely, romantic persona as Gaby and Tony become bonded, as dance partners and personally. Later, in “The Girl Hunt,” Charisse magnificently portrays both the fragile blonde looking for protection and the temptress who causes both Tony (in private eye mode) and the audience’s eyebrows and temperatures to rise. Dancing doesn’t get more exciting than when Astaire intertwines with Charisse here, whether she’s garbed in that iconic red sequined dress while jazzing it up in a bar in perfect synchronicity with Astaire, or moving in a gentler, poetic but equally dazzling manner as the fetching blonde. Firmly established after Band Wagon, Charisse would have a few good years at MGM as the studio’s premier female dancer, costarring with Gene Kelly in Brigadoon and It’s Always Fair Weather, highlighting Meet Me in Las Vegas with a stirring “Frankie and Johnny” number before another peak opposite Astaire in Silk Stockings (possibly her best performance, with several standout numbers) and again offering maximum sex appeal in movement via Party Girl. After the 1950s Charisse’s film output would slow down, with 1952’s Two Weeks in Another Town and classing and steaming up 1966’s The Silencers with her undiminished allure and dancing aptitude standing out. Moving more into television appearances in the 1970s and 1980s, Charisse would make a fitting final big screen appearance as one of the stars presenting in 1994’s That’s Entertainment, Part III, before her death in 2008 at 86.

As the flamboyant Jeffery Cordova, veteran British star of stage and film Jack Buchanan takes his late-career showcase and makes an indelible mark, infusing the picture with his breezy, good-natured performance style, lending distinction and verve to his duet with Astaire and selling his part of “That’s Entertainment” with brio. Buchanan had earlier starred in Ernst Lubitsch’s 1930 Monte Carlo before making a name for himself in British films, allowing The Band Wagon to serve as a fitting bookend to his other most notable Hollywood work. As the Martons, a performing/playwriting team inspired by Comden and Green, Oscar Levant and Nanette Fabray also add plenty of zest. As Lester, Levant is more genial than his normal acerbic self that scored in pictures such as Humoresque and Minnelli’s American in Paris, while Fabray gets to join Astaire and Buchanan for the film’s funniest number, “Triplets,” while also demonstrating the musical comedy gifts that made her a Tony-winning hit on Broadway via her “Louisiana Hayride” solo. Fabray would go on to greater success on television, winning three Emmys in the process, with The Band Wagon lingering as her finest screen outings. In other roles, Ava Gardner can be seen at her loveliest in a cameo as herself, the handsome and agile James Mitchell works so well as Charisse’s choreographer that they re-teamed the following year for one of Deep in My Heart’s best segments, an erotically-charged dance, while the lithesome Julie Newmar makes an early screen appearance in “The Girl Hunt” ballet.

Debuting at NYC’s Radio City Music Hall in July of 1953, the film’s sophisticated humor, class production design and artful numbers found great favor at the Hall and other metropolitan venues critics, while faring decently in “the sticks,” leading to The Band Wagon to amass a solid but (given the film’s high quality and production costs) not spectacular $2,550,000 in film rentals, according to Variety. Critics roundly praised the stellar efforts of The Band Wagon cast and crew, including Newsweek magazine, which placed Astaire and Charisse on the cover as part of an overview of the movie. Despite the somewhat lukewarm initial audience reaction, time has held the film in high esteem as one of Hollywood’s most entertaining and durable musicals, with the picture making the 1995 National Film Registry list for preservation, coming in at #17 on the 2006 AFI list of greatest musicals, and having no less a film historian than Martin Scorsese ranking the Band Wagon as his favorite musical. Those interested in catching benchmarks in the careers of Minnelli, Astaire, Charisse, and nearly everyone else associated with the sterling Band Wagon need make no delay in hopping aboard for a trip through one of the cinema’s most enjoyable song-and-dance ventures.

And a fond farewell to Polly Holliday, who died September 9^th at age 88. A native of Jasper, Alabama, Holliday would hone her craft on stage in college and beyond before transitioning to films and television, wherein she became a true cultural phenomenon playing sassy waitress Flo Castleberry on the hit comedy series Alice, putting over one of the most famous catchphrases of the 1970s whenever the forthright Flo told her boss at Mel‘s Diner to “Kiss my grits!” Quickly establishing herself as a major character player via Flo, which would win her Emmy nominations and a couple Golden Globes, after her benchmark success on Alice  and the inevitable spinoff, Flo, Holliday would continue in television, stage and film, wherein she would score another indelible role as the cantankerous Ruby Deagle, who is served one of the screen’s more memorable exits in the 1984 smash Gremlins, while also making impressions in other high-profile movies such as All the President’s Men, Mrs. Doubtfire and The Parent Trap before her final film role in 2010’s Fair Game. Rest in peace to a unique comic presence who claimed a major generational impact on audiences, Polly Holliday.

Steven Spielberg Dives into Uncharted Cinematic Success with Jaws

 

A true game changer in the history of films, Jaws became a cultural phenomenon upon release in June of 1975 as the original summer blockbuster, obtaining record-breaking box-office figures while bringing director Steven Spielberg worldwide fame as possibly the most gifted young director to come Hollywood’s way since Orson Welles, as well as keeping more impressionable viewers out of the ocean waters for years to come. Keenly crafted to offer nail-biting suspense from the famous first scene Spielberg, aided by terrific on-location shooting at Martha’s Vineyard by Bill Butler, John Williams’ renown tension-filled score, and a first-rate screenplay adaptation of Peter Benchley’s  1974 best seller by Benchley and Carl Gottlieb, Spielberg manages to keep viewers on edge the entire 124-minute running time, setting up a series of singularly designed and cleverly shot sequences as the story unfolds concerning the title character’s rampage near the beaches of the small-but-touristy coastal town of Amity Island during a fateful July 4^th season, with a finely-chosen cast creating characters of individually, humor and resolve also assisting in setting the right ambience as the audience is drawn into their plight. 

                Exhibiting mastery of the film medium unheard of in so new a directorial talent, Steven Spielberg, only 27 when the film was shot, after already starting strongly in television with such fare as Night Gallery and the superior t.v. film Duel before his outstanding theatrical debut with 1974’s The Sugarland Express, took on the mantle of the go-to director for quality entertainment of a thrilling and fantastic nature with Jaws, and confidently ran with his new status to create some of the most impactful, nuanced and absorbing films of his generation, following Jaws with Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark  and E.T. to name a few highlights. However, his complete focus and dedication as a filmmaker to achieving a perfect balance wherein elements of terror, drama and comedy are supremely interwoven to keep the tone of the work and a viewer’s involvement admirably consistent and entertaining may never have been better demonstrated than with Jaws. Spielberg appears to instinctually know when to offer up the chilling attack scenes or unsettling moments wherein these tragedies are discussed, or the results of them shown, with more humanistic, identifiable instances, such as the downcast police chief hero’s son mimicking his father at a dinner table to bond with his dad, or the unforgettable passage wherein a victim’s tormented mother confronts Martin Brody, the overwhelmed police chief, making Jaws a chiller with an unusually strong component of humanity mixed in with the more explosive action. The astounding editing of Verna Fields greatly aids Spielberg in maintaining his vision, as she delineates each slowly mounting attack with a skill and precision that allows for some of the biggest shocks found in a major film, while Spielberg wisely opts to wait to reveal the main villain of the piece, leaving much of the terror surrounding the attacks to the macabre portion of the audience’s imagination. Although Spielberg would move from strength-to strength throughout his amazing career, if he had only directed Jaws, his place among the top craftsmen in Hollywood history would be unquestioned. 

                As police chief Brody, Roy Scheider helps anchor the film in reality and humanity, adding intriguing layers far from the black-and-white portrayals of brave, commanding heroes normally found in movies. With calm fortitude, Scheider suggests how the dilemmas surrounding him are weighing down the chief, who among other drawbacks prefers to stay out of the water even before the most unwelcomed title visitor shows up to wreak havoc on the townspeople and tourists. Scheider is unafraid to show Brody’s lack of courage as danger looms at sea, leading to the most famous retort in the movie concerning the need for a “bigger boat.” However, Scheider also lends a quiet nobility to the thoughtful, sometimes wary lawman as he fights to resolve the serious issue and again bring peace to the community, allowing him to gain sympathy from audiences towards this likable, identifiable everyman. Starting in films in 1964 after a career with the U.S. Air Force, Scheider had a breakthrough 1971 with both Klute and Oscar-nominated work in Best Picture winner The French Connection. After Jaws, Scheider’s preeminent decade in cinema continued with Marathon Man, Sorcerer, the inevitable but popular Jaws 2, before exiting the decade in glory with his expansive, Oscar-nominated work in All That Jazz. He then continued with on with sturdy, sincere work in such eclectic offerings as 2010, 52 Pick-Up, The Russia House and Naked Lunch. Scheider would pass in 2008 at age 75, then have a posthumous final film credit with 2009’s Iron Cross.

                Richard Dreyfuss, continuing his upward career trajectory after starting out in bits in 1967’s Valley of the Dolls and The Graduate before claiming stardom with 1973’s American Graffiti and one of his career roles the next year via The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, scores heavily as Matt Hooper, the alert, sage young oceanographer who aids Brody on the quest to find the killer shark. Dreyfuss, with his spirited presence and deft ability to mix dramatic and comedic moments in creating a fully rounded portrait of Hooper as an intelligent, concerned scientist who wants to get to the bottom of things at the bottom of the sea, leading to one of the biggest surprise shocks in movies as Hooper inspects a deserted fishing boat and finds a lot more than he expected, is magnetically convincing throughout. Post-Jaws Dreyfuss would continue on his superstar path, reaching his zenith in 1977 with the one-two box-office and critical punch of Close encounters and his Oscar role in The Goodbye Girl. The ten years following this peak brought Dreyfuss ill fortune, but he would return as a major star thereafter with fare such as Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Stakeout, What About Bob? and a second Academy Award nomination for Mr. Holland’s Opus, while continuing to enhance his credits via film, television and theater work on Broadway and elsewhere.

Robert Shaw is robust and sly as the mysterious Quint, who arrives on the scene after the initial attack to offer his services, at a hefty price, to remove the shark. The confident, entertainingly hammy Shaw has a field day in illustrating the daring seaman’s haphazard behavior and derring-do as he loads his boat “Orca,” then goes out to sea with Brody and Hooper determined to blow the shark down. Shaw wrests every ounce of color to be found in the eccentric seafarer’s persona, as a viewer stares on in wonder mulling over the surprising extremes Quint follows to conquer the ocean predator, while also enjoying the at first adversarial, then friendlier banter between Quint and his more practical colleagues (Shaw works extremely well with Dreyfuss in the famous, humorous sequence wherein they compare scars they’ve encountered during their aquatic endeavors). Following this smash Shaw, who also toiled as a writer and had debuted in films via 1951’s The Lavender Hill Mob before bolstering his name value in the 1960’s via From Russia with Love and Oscar-nominated work in 1966’s Best Picture A Man for All Seasons before work in another Academy Best Picture, 1973’s The Sting, made ample use of the top stardom Jaws brought him before his passing in 1978 at only 51, with appearances in top late-1970’s action-oriented movies such as Black Sunday, The Deep and Force 10 from Navarone.

Among the rest of a memorable cast, Murray Hamilton exudes calculated sneakiness at every turn in a subdued, smart performance as Larry Vaughan, Amity’s nervous mayor who seemingly wants the beach to remain open on Independence Day at any cost. Lorraine Gary is warm and appealing as Ellen, Brody’s concerned wife, working very well with Scheider to establish a strong relationship dynamic filled with touching and funny moments. As Chrissie, the most unfortunate swimmer in the annals of film, Susan Backlinie earns her place in movie history with her indelible and justifiably renown opening scene. Lee Fierro has perhaps the prime dramatically transfixing scene in Jaws as the bereft Mrs. Kintner who angrily addresses Brody, enacting the role with a gripping emotional truth that lingers as one wonders what became of this distraught mother in the aftermath of her darkest holiday. Jeffrey Kramer has a nice comic presence as Brody’s out-of-his-league deputy, and screenwriters Gottlieb and Benchley make brief appearances as well. 

                The seismic success of Jaws changed how movies were offered to the general public, with filmmakers and studios realizing significant profitable gains could be garnered by emphasizing summer releases after witnessing receipts pouring in, with Jaws amassing a little over $121,000,000 in U.S./Canadian rentals (according to Variety) during its first run, ending up as the highest-grossing movie ever (not adjusted for inflation) until the behemoth known as Star Wars took the crown a couple years later. Critics were also rhapsodic concerning the merits of the one-of-a-kind production, specifically throwing hosannas Spielberg’s way for pulling off such a challenging assignment with flair and intelligence. Come award season, in a very competitive year (Dog Day Afternoon, Nashville and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest were just three of the other top 1975 releases) Jaws did receive some of the attention it deserved, although bias against its massive success may have kept it from ultimately achieving as praise as it should have, awards-wise. Spielberg did receive notice with nominations from the Director’s Guild of America and the Golden Globes, which also granted Jaws a Best Picture nomination, while Time magazine placed the film among its top ten and the Writers Guild of America nominated Benchley and Gottlieb. At the Academy Awards, Jaws won richly deserved Oscars for Field’s uncanny editing, Williams’ legendary score and for Best Sound, while also finding a place in the Best Picture lineup, which proved victorious for Cuckoo’s Nest. However, in one of the biggest oversights ever, Spielberg was not among the Best Director candidates, having to wait a couple years for his first nomination in the category for Close Encounters, before finally going on to win two directorial Oscars for more Academy-friendly WWII pictures. 

 Jaws has lived on with a series of sequels and rip-offs, some more successful than others but none matching the ingenuity and massive entertainment value of the original, with the film’s great white shark becoming a beloved figure as a Universal Studios’ main attraction and as one of the most villainous characters ever to fill an audience with dread, with some granting a measure of compassion for the fish who was simply doing what comes naturally asea. Among other honors, Jaws was included on the National Film Registry’s 2001 list of movies for preservation, while making many lists of the top 100 greatest movies of all time, including placement on the AFI’s 1998 and 2008 polls of the best American films and inclusion at #104 (tied with three other masterworks, including The Godfather, Part II) on the most recent Sight and Sound poll from 2022. Jaws far-reaching appeal is also suggested by it claiming the #2 position (behind Weapons) when last weekend’s box office figures were tallied during the 50^th anniversary release of the classic. As a child, this author was among those easily-susceptible to the many beautifully illustrated scare factors so artfully visualized in the movie, with what is generally regarded as the biggest shock “jump scare” in the movie resulting in overpowering screams in his kiddie matinee showing (which an older kid finally stopped by yelling for us to “shut up!”) he has never heard again in a movie house, just one example of how resourcefully and effectively Spielberg and his cast and crew were able to pull off one of the greatest achievements ever seen on the silver screen.

Arletty and Jean-Louis Barrault Iconically Shine in Marcel Carné’s Masterful Paradise

 

                One of French Cinema’s crowning glories, director Marcel Carné’s mesmerizing romantic drama Children of Paradise (Les Enfants du Paradis) spins a fascinating tale involving a wealth of intrigue and the complex, complicated relationships involved therein. Centered around the shifting fortunes, artistic and otherwise, found among a group of colorful characters introduced on Paris’ “Boulevard of Crime” circa the 1830’s, the transfixing plot is beautifully laid out via frequent Carné collaborator Jacques Prévert’s incisive, efficient screenplay, which carefully outlines the progression of the rich array of imposing personages working and interacting at the Funamblues Theater, some based on actual historical figures, including a jovial, amorous actor, Frédérick Lemaître, the melancholic but ultra-gifted mime, Baptiste Deburau, the ignoble, dangerous Pierre Lacenarie, the proud Count de Montray and the woman they all covet, the serene, forthright Garance Reine. How these four form relations and impact each other in surprising, unorthodox ways during the abundant 190-minute runtime is illustrated by Carné and his brilliant cast and crew with a depth and flair that allow Paradise to place among the most engrossing narratives in film history.

                Carné, a leading figure in French cinema after making his feature film directional debut via 1936’s Jenny then finding great success with his previous work, 1942’s Les Visiteurs du Soir, poured all of his talent and resources into creating the opulent Paradise, somehow managing to pull off the bold undertaking during the mid-1940’s while in the midst of WWII devastation surrounding him and his large group of technicians in front and behind the camera. Overseeing the challenging assignment, including a mammoth cast and difficult on-location shooting that captures the perfect mise en scène for the story via Roger Hubert’s impeccable cinematography, with great attention to detail Carné upholds a firm focus on conveying the main themes concerning how art and passion affect the lives of the main players, outlining their various predicaments with conviction and dramatic clarity, while directing some major set pieces, including the elaborate segments on the fast-paced, congested Boulevard of Crime, with riveting style and sense of place, specifically during the stunning recreation of a frenetic carnival at its peak of activity on the Boulevard. After this phenomenal accomplishment, Carné would continue as a leading director, gaining critical and public acclaim in the 1950s with 1953’s Thérèse Raquin, which won the Silver Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival, and 1958’s Les tricheurs, a huge hit in France and Switzerland, after first being responsible for early film appearances by Yves Montand and Jean-Paul Belmondo, then later granting Robert De Niro his film debut in 1965’s Trois chambres à Manhattan. After building one of the more influential filmographies of his era, Carné would pass in October 1996 at age 90.

Arletty, who debuted in films in 1930 after extensive stage work, holds the screen with a mystique and easy command in her signature role as Garance, a street-smart, impetuous siren that lives life on her terms with a modern independence, but reveals a tender side once she connects with the equally smitten Baptiste. Possessing a bemused countenance with a frequent smile that suggests Mona Lisa’s trademark, Arletty imbues Garance with a rare, captivating stillness and practical nature that marks her among the most unique presences in film, allowing Garance to fall somewhere in between heroine and femme fatale. Her intuitive, natural acting talent is exquisitely showcased by Carné, continuing his work with Arletty after their fruitful collaborations which started with Hotel du Nord in 1938 and included Le jour se lève and Les Visiteurs prior to Paradise. Arletty is clearly in her element as Garance, performing with a confidence and instinct that make it hard for a viewer to focus on anyone else whenever she’s onscreen. Although Garance is often self-serving and tough, her brave, fearless demeanor draws the audience to her side as they wish her to overcome adversity and find some harmony in life. The gifted, skillful star is also winning in adopting a gentle, caring attitude in highly personal moments with the sensitive Jean-Louis Barrault as Baptiste, whether Garance is initially attempting to seduce the mime with her claim of the easy nature of love or, later in the film, revealing how vulnerable and sincere Garance, now fully enveloped in her passion for Baptiste, has become. After her unsurpassable triumph in Paradise Arletty, although sidelined around the time of the film’s release by a brief imprisonment for treason after an affair with a German officer, would remain a leading star of French films while also starring on stage, highlighted by her appearance as Blanche in the French production of A Streetcar Named Desire. Later in her career, Arletty would finally appear in a Hollywood production, as part of the all-star cast in Darryl Zanuck’s epic 1962 war drama The Longest Day, before retiring from films, outside of voice work and an appearance as herself, the following year in Le voyage à Biarritz opposite the top clown of French Cinema, Fernandel. After a lengthy retirement, Arletty would pass in 1992 at age 94.

For Jean-Louis Barrault, Paradise also represented a chance to leave his indelible footprint in a part perfectly suited to his thespian talents and distinctive physical presence. As Baptiste, the gangly-but-graceful mime, Barrault is given ample opportunity to enact several creative pantomime routines on the Funamblues stage, making a huge impression as “The Man in White,” the title of the second half of the film, who is adorned in a white ensemble, including stark, chalky facial makeup that literally paints Barrault with one of the most original visages seen in film. Out of costume, the gaunt Barrault is also eye-catching, with his soulful eyes and sharp facial features matching up well with Arletty’s equally romantic profile, while they exude a tender, moving chemistry as the fragile love affair plays out. Beginning in the theater in 1931, wherein he studied pantomime as well as other artistic forms of expression, Barrault would make his start in films with a 1935 appearance in Beautiful Days, then work regularly in movies, including two projects with Carné before Paradise, while also achieving great success as a star of the renown Comédie-Française in the 1940s. After his landmark role as Baptiste, Barrault would continue to make his mark on stage and film, with Max Ophüls’ La Ronde from 1950 offering another top entry in Barrault’s filmography, before his retirement in 1990, followed by his passing in 1994 at age 83.

Pierre Brasseur is responsible for providing the most joie de vivre in Paradise in a multifaceted, vastly appealing performance as the carefree, amorous Frédérick who, similar to Garance, appears to live free of societal norms as he forges his own path in regard to life and career. Brasseur colorfully allows a viewer to see the egotism that would drive this charismatic talent to success on stage as he works his way into the pantomimes at the celebrated Funamblues despite having no prior experience in this particular field, while also showing Frédérick possesses the sense of humor to take nothing too seriously, starting with himself. Marcel Herrand adds dark dimensions to his unsettling portrayal of Lacenaire, bringing a diabolical fierceness to the role that suggests Lacenaire is capable of any crime known to man, and maybe some others as well. Pierre Renoir, son of the legendary impressionist painter and brother of director Jean, also channels a heap of sinisterness into his work as the untrustworthy ragman Jėricho, while Louis Salou is coolly regal and stoic as Garance’s patronizing, jealous lover, Count de Montray. As Baptiste’s loyal, long-suffering wife and acting colleague, María Casares makes a solid film debut and effectively procures audience sympathy However, unlike her esteemed costars, Casares would wait a few more years before obtaining her most powerful and lasting cinematic exploit as the figure of Death in Jean Cocteau’s Orpheus, wherein Casares utilizes her magnetic eyes to eerily devasting effect.

                Paradise was an immediate hit both critically and with audiences upon its Paris premiere in March of 1945, wherein it played for over a year in one theater. This strong initial showing in France carried over internationally, with the movie winning Special Mention at the 1946 Venice Film Festival and Prévert going on to win an Academy Award nomination for Original Screenplay, a rare feat at the time for a foreign language film. The reputation of Paradise as one of filmdom’s most significant works has been enhanced over the years, with the classic named the “Greatest French Film” via a 1995 poll of 600 French critics and industry experts, then going on to find a place on Time magazine’s 2005 list of the 100 greatest films, and placing at #136 on the recent 2022 prestigious Sight and Sound poll, after coming in at #75 on the 2012 survey. A must-watch for film lovers seeking out the most impressive cinematic achievements from the Golden Age of movies, Children of Paradise offers an epic, enticing, and thoroughly engrossing viewing experience sure to linger in memory, thanks to the skillful, highly individual efforts of Carné and his sterling team of illustrious artists.