"Learn to go see the 'worst' films; they are sometimes sublime." - Ado Kyrou, Le Surrealisme au Cinema.
*Check out my horror movie blog, too, at 1000daysofhorror.blogspot.com and my SciFi blog, 1000daysofscifi.blogspot.com
February should be dedicated to comedian, actor, director, and producer, Charlie Chaplin.
On February 7, 1914 - 109 years ago this month - Chaplin debuted his famous "Little Tramp" character in his second film, "Kid Auto Races at Venice." In his first film, "Making a Living," a one-reel comedy also released in February of 1914, Chaplin plays a con man who tries to convince a passerby to give him money. It turns out this stranger comes from a wealthy family. That leads to a bunch of shenanigans involving a newspaper scoop, and hilarity ensues.
Chaplin appears in his first movie with a top hat, frock coat, monocle, and droopy handlebar mustache. It's a film full of pantomime and action. Though Chaplin's character is largely different in appearance from the character he introduces in his next film, the act of obtaining easy money, trying to court the pretty daughter of this wealthy family he intrudes upon, and trying to make a good impression on the mother is typical of the "Tramp" who would introduce himself to the world soon after the release of "Making a Living."
In his book "My Autobiography," Chaplin says in regard to his "Little Tramp" character, "I had no idea what makeup to put on. I did not like my get-up as the press reporter [in "Making a Living"]. However, on the way to the wardrobe I thought I would dress in baggy pants, big shoes, a cane and a derby hat. I wanted everything to be a contradiction: the pants baggy, the coat tight, the hat small and the shoes large. I was undecided whether to look old or young but remembering [Mack] Sennett had expected me to be a much older man, I added a small moustache, which I reasoned, would add age without hiding my expression. I had no idea of the character. But the moment I was dressed, the clothes and the makeup made me feel the person he was. I began to know him, and by the time I walked on stage he was fully born."
Incidentally, Chaplin's first film as the "Little Tramp" was "Mabel's Strange Predicament" (1914) but that wasn't released until after "Kid Auto Races at Venice."
The movie was shot during the real Junior Vanderbilt Cup races in Venice, Calif. Both Chaplin and director Henry Lehrman improvised most or all of the gags during the filming.
In this film, produced by Mack Sennett as mentioned in the quote above (i.e. the "King of Comedy'), Chaplin plays a spectator at a "baby-cart race" in Venice.
A cameraman (Frank Williams) is trying to film the race. Chaplin, however, spots the camera and takes more of an interest in it than in the race. He constantly enters the frame while the cameraman pushes him and pleads with him to get out of the shot. What starts as an act of vanity becomes retaliation on Chaplin's part.
He obnoxiously tries to get into the shot as the cameraman moves around in frustration trying to shoot the race. He makes faces at the camera, and even sticks his tongue out. Chaplin introducing himself to audiences by sticking his tongue out is mockery and cynicism at its best. It makes me think of satirical humor seen in American comedy platforms like "National Lampoon" and "Mad Magazine."
Chaplin however becomes more and more persistent in trying to be in the shot. The more the cameraman pushes Chaplin out of the way, the more Chaplin intentionally gets in the way.
The entire film is depicted like a newsreel. In some shots, the camera is the one actually filming. At other times, the audience's point of view is through a second camera, watching this other cameraman work his camera on screen while dealing with the intrusive Chaplin.
It's certainly in character for Chaplin to insist that he be in front of the spotlight where an audiences' attention is narrowed in.
It brings to mind his 1952 film "Limelight" in which Chaplin's character, Calvero, an old Vaudeville performer, is no longer in the spotlight. There's a scene in "Limelight" where Calvero has a dream that he's back in Vaudeville performing his act. When the act is over, Calvero looks out and notices the theater seats are completely empty. No one is out there applauding him. No one cares enough about him anymore to come see his act. "Limelight", by the way, takes place in 1914 - the same year Chaplin got his start in film.
Chaplin seems to have carried on this affinity for being in front of the camera. He's insistent on being seen and making a spectacle of himself for a laugh in "Kid Auto Races." The worst thing to happen to someone like him would be to have no one laugh and applaud his performance.
The comedy in this movie still holds up a century later.
In one scene, the camera pans along the crowd of spectators watching the race. And in the middle of the crowd is Chaplin just staring at the camera. As the camera continues panning, he gets up and follows along the movement.
The crowd is forced to stay in behind the ropes. Chaplin, meanwhile, moves freely around refusing to be forced to go someplace else that's out of the way. This little fellow won't be pushed down. He gets back up and starts all over again.
It's true to Chaplin's form that he successfully steals the show during an auto race at Venice Beach. Despite the lack of a story, some seeds are planted in this film. Here, he has discovered the motion picture camera, and the motion picture camera has discovered him. He grimaces. He sticks his tongue out. He runs around. He intrudes. He leaps and skips down the racetrack. The film is a beautiful introduction to a humble not-so-humble legend that would continue this same act to the pleasure of audiences for another 30 years, and then some.
It's been about 30 years since I've seen the 1989 comedy "Parenthood" directed by Ron Howard. My family and I were visiting some friends in Southern California at the time. For a movie night, the grownups that be put this on.
I wasn't even a teenager at the time, so my interest in watching "Parenthood" was non-existent. All I remembered from the movie was the ending.
My wife and I decided to watch it the other night as we saw it was streaming on Netflix. As it was her time seeing it, I can honestly say it was my first time, too.
It's a movie that has made quite an impact on pop culture. And there has been a lot said about it.
It led to a short-lived television series in 1990 along with another, more successful, television series adaptation from 2010 to 2015.
The film surrounds the Buckman family, starting with Gil Buckman (Steve Martin) who is struggling in his attempts to balance family life and work life. Gil works as a sales executive in St. Louis.
He and his wife, Karen (Mary Steenburgen) find out their oldest son, Kevin (Jasen Fisher), is having emotional issues at school. The school's counselor advises them to seek a therapist for Kevin.
Distraught at this news, Gil starts questioning his capabilities as a father. He tries hard to understand what his son is going through and help him accordingly.
Karen later learns that they're going to have their fourth child.
With financial troubles, and career issues, Gil is deeply concerned as to whether they can handle another child or not.
Gil confides in his father, Frank (Jason Robards) if he's even capable of being a dad despite that he's already raising three children. Frank simply tells him that he worries too much, but that worry for one's kids doesn't end after childhood. It carries on into adulthood.
Meanwhile, Gil's older sister, Helen (Dianne West), is a single mom as her dentist husband left her and their kids - Julie (Martha Plimpton), who's still in high school, and her youngest, Garry (Joaquin Phoenix).
Julie is involved with a doofus boyfriend, Tod Higgins (Keanu Reeves) who doesn't embrace responsibility very well. Helen only wishes Tod would disappear from Julie's life as she, too, is rather troubled and takes no interest in her high school education. This leads to a lot of mother/ daughter quarreling. Helen finds out that Julie and Tod married behind her back, and that Julie is pregnant. She and Tod end up living at Helen's house.
Garry, meanwhile, is cold towards his mom. He finally opens up to her that he wants to live with his father. While Helen doesn't think it's a good idea, she still lets him try.
He calls his dad to ask if he can live with him, but his dad doesn't allow it, which breaks Garry. In retaliation, he trashes his father's dental office and is later caught with pornographic video tapes.
Helen quickly notices a turnaround for the better in her son after Tod becomes a positive male influence in his life as Garry can confide in. And Tod also starts to take on responsibility, especially as he's about to become a father at a young age.
Jasen Fisher and Steve Martin in "Parenthood" (1989).
Elsewhere in this family, Gil's younger brother, Larry (Tom Hulce), is both a pariah in the family, as well as Frank's favorite son.
Larry refuses to enter a career. Instead, he falls for various easy money schemes.
As the Buckman's hold a family get-together at the beginning of the film, Larry shows up with a young bi-racial son named "Cool" (Alex Burrall). It turns out this child is the product of a short-lived love affair Larry had with a Las Vegas showgirl. This showgirl left Cool with Larry as he claims she shot someone and fled the country.
And in typical deadbeat fashion, Larry asks his dad for money.
What Larry doesn't tell his dad, until it's too late, is that he owes gambling debts in the amount of $26,000. If he doesn't pay up, Larry says "they" are going to kill him.
Frank is truly disappointed, especially after Larry secretly tries to sell his dad's prized vintage car.
Sorely disappointed, Frank still decides to help him by tapping into his retirement funds which he'll now have to delay.
However, he gives Larry an ultimatum. He'll only help him if Larry learns the family business so he can later take it over.
While Larry initially agrees, he suggests another idea that involves a quick money scheme down in Chile.
Despite his better judgement, Frank agrees to it, as well as looking after Cool even though he knows Larry won't be returning.
Gil's younger sister, Susan (Harley Jane Kozak) who works as a middle school teacher, is married to researcher scientist Nathan Huffner (Rick Moranis). They have one child together, Patty (Ivyann Schwann) whom Nathan has pushed to be the advanced child that she is.
Susan wants more children, but Nathan is more interested in Patty's continuous advanced learning.
In retaliation, Susan starts eating more junk food and sabotages her diaphragm in the hopes of getting pregnant.
But Nathan doesn't want to have another child. He's persistent about it. So, Susan leaves him. Crestfallen Nathan later walks in on one of her classes and serenade her hoping she'll come back. And she does.
Frank's own mother, "Grandma" (Helen Shaw) plays the wise sage who really observes and says very little. And when she does say something, it's simple wisdom for her family to take what they can from it. The family, though, takes her as "grandma" who's just old.
In one scene when Gil is complaining about how his life is too complicated, grandma randomly says,
"You know, when I was nineteen, Grandpa took me on a roller coaster."
Gil thinks she's just lost in her old mind. "Up, down, up, down. Oh, what a ride," she says.
"Great story," Gil says sarcastically. "I always wanted to go again. You know, it was just so interesting to me that a ride could make me so frightened, so scared, so sick, so excited, and so thrilled all together! Some didn't like it. They went on the merry-go-round. That just goes around. Nothing. I like the roller coaster. You get more out of it." Frank's relationship with his mother can be summed up in one line. When the family gets together in the first act, and grandma arrives, Frank snidely comments "Yeah, she's still alive."
It's not any revelation to say "Parenthood" is a relatable film. It cleverly covers the job of being a parent from childhood through the teenage years and into adulthood. Afterall, a parent is a parent forever, tied in with Frank's statement that the worry of a parent over their children never goes away.
There are good things I like about this movie. And there are things I don't like. That pretty much sums up my thoughts.
Thankfully, children aren't portrayed as completely chaotic. A house with children doesn't need to be chaotic during all waking hours, and into the night. In films, that's such a tired cliche.
I can certainly get behind the good decisions made by some of the characters despite the terrible ones that precede them.
I appreciate the portrayal of Tod embracing the responsibility of fatherhood though the circumstances leading up to that were less than admirable. Things happen. We all make dumb decisions, some more stupid than others. What's important is how we handle the aftermath of our poor choices.
On top of that, the need for a strong male role model as seen in Garry's troubled youth is also, generally speaking, sensible and true despite that both he and Tod still have maturing to do. They have to start somewhere.
Jason Robards and Tom Hulce.
And above all, I truly appreciate the depiction of children still being a welcomed part of life despite the difficulties and stresses in day-to-day life they may bring about.
Karen mentions the reprehensible notion of aborting their fourth child since their life is difficult at the moment.
Thankfully, they both agree not to abort their unborn child simply because they're facing the same kind of difficulties millions of other people have to deal with each day. Difficulties come and go. Solutions are accessible. No innocent unborn person needs to die because life is hard sometimes. Both agree they'll be happier having another child.
One thing I couldn't wrap my head around was Frank's decision to let Larry go and leave his son behind so easily. He doesn't put up any protest at his son, whom he deems his favorite, to make such a terrible decision. Sure, Larry is an adult and can make his own decisions whether good or bad. And Larry can't force him to stay. After he reluctantly agrees that Larry go to Chile, his grandson Cool, who looks to be about five or six years old, approaches Frank and asks, "Is he ever coming back?"
"No," Frank says.
Cool looks dejected and sad at this answer.
"Would you like to live here, with us?"
"Yeah," Cool responds.
"Good."
Aside from the comedy, and the stellar cast, the story's relatability is certainly one this movie's strongest elements.
That relatability can only sprout from honesty and truth. And the way each story within the Buckman family is balanced is impressive. Each is treated in its own time. Nothing seems overdone.
We're given enough time with each member which allows the audience to grow invested in their troubles, thoughts, personal victories, and bad decisions.
No matter how maddening or difficult children can be, they're value and influence on their parents, who grow alongside their children (intellectually) even amidst the good times and the bad decisions.
The positive memories stay with parents.
Worry for children never ends. Still, we as parents want them in our lives more than anything else. Almost every type of parent is within the Buckman family, represented through four generations. There's the self-questioning parent. The no good, lousy, greedy parent. The single parent struggling to keep it all together. The over-achieving parents. The doting parent. And the parent who has lived their life and are approaching the end.
All the details are keenly observed while not overplayed. Each story throughout the family is well crafted and tied together truly organically. The resolutions are the important parts. Nothing is far-fetched or over dramatized.
Kids are hard to raise. They consume their parents time and energy. Sometimes, they're the most frustrating people to deal with. Regardless, they're the reason good parents exist. To think of life without these people is a painful thought. They help parents grow in selflessness. No one can make a someone a better person like a child can. No one!
Everything and everyone blend in well, no matter the flaws - especially because of the flaws. The comedy is genuine, and the storyline is truly sensible and accurate.
Cast Jack Lemmon - C.C. 'Bud' Baxter Shirley MacLaine - Fran Kubelik Fred MacMurray - Jeff Sheldrake Jack Kruschen - Dr. David Dreyfuss Naomi Stevens - Mrs. Mildred Dreyfuss
Ray Walston - Joe Dobisch
David Lewis - Al Kirkeby David White - Mr. Eichelberger
Edie Adams - Miss Olsen Willard Waterman - Mr. Vanderhoff
(Spoilers ahead)
I've wanted to watch director Billy Wilder's comedy "The Apartment" (1960) for a long time. I've checked it out from my local public library three times only to "never got around to it" the first two times. I forced myself the third time to put it on despite my mood to watch something else.
When it comes to movies, desires and moods can conflict. Maybe they should call that "watching 'The Apartment' syndrome." That's what I'll call it, anyhow.
The movie being a Billy Wilder film, as well as its classic line-up of actors (Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, and Fred MacMurray) are what pulled me in.
When it comes to Jack Lemmon, he's simply a favorite comedian of mine. I'll watch anything with Lemmon in it, and I have. Of course, when he's paired with Walter Matthau, it's even better.
Lemmon also mixes well with Billy Wilder. He's directed Lemmon's most notable films - "Some Like It Hot" (1959), "Irma La Douce" (1963), and "Avanti!" (1972). He also directed Lemmon and Matthau in their first film together, "The Fortune Cookie" (1966) along with "The Front Page" (1974), which is a favorite comedy of mine, and "Buddy, Buddy" (1981) - Wilder's last movie. I've previously reviewed the latter.
Anyways, in "The Apartment," Lemmon stars as C.C. "Bud" Baxter, an office wage earner at an insurance company in New York City.
Baxter, who's single and lives alone, moves up the ladder in his little corner of the corporate world by lending his Upper West Side apartment at 51 W. 67th St. to his company managers and their mistresses, whomever they happen to be at the time, for some unsavory extramarital foolin' around.
Baxter sacrifices his reputation as his neighbors and landlord think he's quite the playboy. They often see all these different women coming in and out of his apartment. To them, he's a shameful sort as they have no idea what he's really doing. Of course, if they did, that wouldn't improve their impression of him.
Still, he makes sure his apartment availability schedule doesn't conflict among his four supervisors. As long as he plays ball, they each give Baxter raving performance reviews to personnel director, Jeff Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray).
Once Sheldrake takes notice of Baxter, and promises him a grand promotion, he also requests the use of his apartment that very night to have an affair. This will seal the promotional deal. He even goes so far as to request Baxter's spare key so he can access the apartment at will.
To compensate for the short notice, he gives Baxter two theater tickets for that same night.
Baxter, meanwhile, has a crush on the office building elevator operator, Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine). So, he uses the opportunity to ask her out to the theater.
She graciously accepts the invitation. Little does Baxter know that she's Sheldrake's mistress and is meeting him that night. Still, she agrees to meet Baxter after her (ahem) appointment.
While Baxter is waiting for her at the theater, he doesn't realize Fran is back at his apartment with Sheldrake. Needless to say, she stands Baxter up at the theater.
Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine in "The Apartment."
Later, during an office Christmas party, Sheldrake's secretary, Miss Olsen (Edie Adams) tells Fran that she's not the first nor even the second girl Sheldrake has fooled around with. She admits that he's even had a fling with her before.
When Fran meets up with him again at Baxter's place, she confronts him about this information Miss Olsen let out of the bag.
She wants to break up with Sheldrake who promises to divorce his wife in order to dissuade her from calling things off.
Sheldrake throws out empty assurances that he loves her before heading back to his unsuspecting wife and children.
It's not long before Baxter realizes his boss is having an adulterous fling with his crush, Fran. Heartbroken and feeling defeated, he meets a random gal at a bar and takes her back to his place.
When the two walk in, he finds Fran passed out on his bed as she overdosed on some sleeping pills she found in his medicine cabinet.
He quickly gets his neighbor, Dr. David Dreyfuss (Jack Kruschen) to revive her.
Of course, Dr. Dreyfuss thinks this is all Baxter's doing and though he does help, he scolds Baxter for what he believes is a morally depraved philandering lifestyle.
Fran spends a couple days at Baxter's apartment, recovering from her suicide attempt. During this time, they develop a friendship (in a good way, I mean) as she opens up about her affair with Sheldrake and her overall failed pursuits at romance.
While Baxter prepares a nice meal for her one night, one of his managers drops by unannounced to try and get the apartment for the night.
Baxter, however, persuades him and his gal pal to hit the road.
Before he leaves, he sees Fran and recognizes her right away.
So, in retaliation he tells his colleagues about Fran being at the apartment with Baxter. Word of Fran's whereabouts gets to her brother-in-law, Karl (Johnny Seven). As he and his family have been looking for Fran, he drops by the apartment and scowls at Baxter as a less-than-savory character. In fact, he decks him pretty hard.
Sheldrake, meanwhile, finds out Miss Olsen got to Fran regarding his affairs. So, he fires her. But Miss Olsen gets the final blow when she tips off Sheldrake's wife about his cheating. This leads to his wife kicking the two-timing bum out of the house. Being the selfish jackass that he is, Sheldrake sees this as an opportunity to get to Fran with less obstacles in his way.
Baxter tells Sheldrake about Fran's attempted suicide, but he doesn't really seem to go out of his way to assist. He expects Baxter to cover for him.
Baxter finally comes to the conclusion that his integrity, reputation, and personal interest as well as Fran's are much more important than the unsavory desires of the untrustworthy horn dog higher-ups at the insurance company. And he lets them know it, including Sheldrake.
As far as Billy Wilder's comedies go, this is one with a more dramatic side. Wilder knows how to treat the mood and atmosphere of his comedies the right way. I admit, though, that I've seen a small handful of his movies. Even so, I still get that impression.
The comedy here is in the situation rather than in the dialogue. If you watch his comedy "The Front Page" after watching "The Apartment," the difference in comedic style is very apparent. With "The Front Page," the comedy is in the situation along with the circumstances, characters, plot and dialogue.
"The Apartment" is a perfect balance of comedy, sadness, and romance. I won't get preachy on the subject of adultery which is presented with a hint of avantgardism. It's not the typical setting for a love story for the time. I wouldn't say it glamorizes adulterous relationships based on the outcomes of everything that's going on. In other words, the audience doesn't need to be slapped in the face with the fact such activities are wrong. Rather, we let the story do its work, consequences and all. When we see Sheldrake secretly taking a call from Baxter in regard to Fran on Christmas morning while his sons and wife open their presents, the morality and gravity speaks for itself. The audience is given the respect to draw the right conclusion without being lectured. Wilder is a sensible director and knows his audience is just as sensible.
The drama isn't completely with Baxter initially having to deal with the setback of thinking about the girl he admires in the arms of his conceited, immoral boss.
It also exists in how empty everyone is. All these business type characters tout love when they're really all a bunch of entitled assholes. What's really unfortunate at first about Baxter is that he's a pushover. Though he's not quite an ass like his bosses, he's still just as selfish as he's willing to let men destroy themselves and their families by giving them the space to do that in. The only difference is that Baxter has a more likeable personality. The movie gives the audience feelings of sympathy, disdain, and hope.
Once Baxter gets his principles straight, then he starts to win at the end. He becomes respectable when he gives up his position at work for at least some amount of honor.
Like his other films, Wilder uses a lot of widescreen shots which gives the actors space and atmosphere to support their emotions - tension, frustration, tightness, love and tragedy.
Lemmon makes a perfect everyman. He's unassuming but the audience is drawn to him. He's sympathetic but not a complete mouse.
Most of the story takes place around Christmas, when pain stings more severely. It's the most wonderful time of the year, after all. This definitely plays more on the audience's emotions.
Two Charlie Chaplin movies came to mind while I watched this - "The Gold Rush" (1925) as well as Chaplin's 1952 dramatic comedy "Limelight."
In "The Gold Rush" Chaplin plays "the little fellow" who, in the final act, is stood up at a New Year's party by Georgia (Georgia Hale), the girl he falls in love with earlier in the movie. Instead, she spends New Years with the jerk who claims to love her but is really brutish and self-seeking. It plays out a bit similarly in "The Apartment."
And like the movie "Limelight," Baxter's care for Fran after she attempts suicide is similar to Chaplin's character, Calvero, taking care of Terry (Claire Bloom) in his apartment after her suicide attempt. Both films use this as a major plot point of the film.
"The Apartment" is a sort of lost time, or lost weekend, type of romance. It has a bit of poignancy, comedy, and romance that overcomes selfishness. That's certainly due to Lemmon's brilliant ability to evoke such emotions, and Wilder's keen sensability.
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