Il buono, il brutto, il male chauvinist

Eli Wallach as Tuco in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966).

One of my favorite shots of the whole movie.

Writing this, I just realized that Eli Wallach is still alive. At least according to IMDb and Wikipedia. The guy is like a century old! When he was born Abraham Lincoln was still just a twinkle in his father's eye, and Europe had not yet converted to Christianity. He's like that old!

Just a thought.

So I watched The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo., 1966) with my beau yesterday, and it's as amazingly fudging awesome as ever. The obligatory goose bumps all over my arms when I heard the first tunes of "Ecstacy of Gold" teasing in the far background of the soundtrack, where of course present.

But I actually just wanted to share one tiny little observation with you all: If you are really, really perceptive... you might just spot a few women in this film! I know, it sounds totally ridiculous and unnecessary. But I can, off the top of my head, mention a total of three women that I managed to spot. Chronologically, here they are:

1)
In the very beginning, there is the wife and mother of a family. Remember her? She does of course not have any lines of dialogue. That's not necessary for putting the food on the table, is it? Apart from feeding her husband and the strange visitor, she faints when family is suddenly decimated.
...That's, like, it.

Woman 1.1

Woman 1.2

2)
The Bad One, Angel Eyes, needs to extract some information from... some woman. The only way to get that stupid bitch to talk is, of course, to beat her up a bit. It's her own fault, really - not being clever enough to sell out her lover before getting physically abused. Duh.

Look! Her character has a name. And several lines.


Maria: Is that you Bill? Bill!
Angel Eyes: Go on talking about Bill Carson.

 Woman 2.1

 Woman 2.2

Woman 2.3

3)
The Ugly, Tuco, and his men are looking for The Good One ("Bloooondiiiiieeeee!!!"), and a woman dares to speak up when a man is pressed for information:

- You leave him be, He doesn't know who rides every horse!"
- You stay quiet, old hen!

And of course, she had no clue about anything. The man with a gun in his face did have information. Stupid old hen, indeed.

Woman 3.1

Now, don't get angry with me. I realize that women were pretty much either breeding stock or prostitutes in the Wild West era, and to portray that society as egalitarian would be revisionism. But I don't really buy that there was only one woman in each village either, and that all women were peripheral in their existence.

And YES, I can watch these kinds of films as entertainment only, and I do. I don't need to analyze everything, especially not something as tiring as the portrayal of women in classical movies. But why is it a tiresome subject? Because it's such an obvious issue! You can not NOT notice the skewed gender roles in popular culture. But I'll leave it for now. Cheers, darlings of mine.




The theatrical trailer, where Lee Van Cleef is branded ugly. That's kind of mean.*


* Copy-pasta from IMDb's trivia page:


In the theatrical trailer, Angel Eyes is "The Ugly" and Tuco "The Bad," which is the reverse of their designations in the actual film. This is because the Italian title translated into English is actually The Good, the Ugly, the Bad, not The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and the Italian trailer had "The Ugly" and "The Bad" in that order. When the trailer was transferred to English, The Ugly and The Bad were not reversed to coincide with the altered title, causing the incorrect designations. 

Tura Satana (1938-2011)

If I ever decide to star in campy exploitation films, I'll sure do my best to become a disciple of Tura Satana. She's one ice cold, voluptuous femme fatale who twisted both mind and limbs of male characters in questionable films of the 1960's. She has now, sadly, followed the trend of this year and kicked the bucket like other actors and actresses I've loved.

[Around New Years Eve the man responsible for Sweden's first television nude shock in 1962, and responsible for a hell of a lot of great film characters in collaboration with among others Ingmar Bergman, died with his wife in a house fire. R.I.P Per Oscarsson. Then the celebrated Swedish actress Lena Nyman, who gave Americans a nude shock in I Am Curious (Yellow) in 1967, died in February 4th. May your slightly intoxicated soul rest in peace, too. I should also mention Maria Schneider, who died February 3rd. She deserves credit since she stuck her fingers up Marlon Brando's bum in Last Tango in Paris 1972, and never was remembered for anything else.]

Back to the lovely Japanese American destroyer of men - Tura Satana, who died February 4th at the age of 72. She's most famous for her character Varla in Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!  (Russ Meyer, 1965), and rightfully so. There is something severely wrong with a person who does not get willfully seduced by her evil stare, her husky voice and brutal ninja chops. The scene below is my favorite from that totally awesome movie (I give up on my poor tries at academic language - it is simply a totally awesome movie). Watch her break the neck of that cocky guy!

- You've got a weird sense of humor!

- Try again, I get funnier!

Oh, would Joseph Breen and the guys choke on their coffee dipped donuts if they'd have seen this! Perhaps he did, he died the year the film was released. Hmm...

Well, apart from this glorious piece of cinematic joy, Satana also appeared in films like The Astro-Zombies (Ted V. Mikels, 1968), which is not to be confused with Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita. I found a YouTube clip where some Satana fan has pasted together clips from her scenes in the film to the tunes of Swedish band The Cardigans. Look at that wardrobe. Look at her cruelty! Look at her body.





The lovely thing about Tura Satana is that she is so conscious of the corniness of the films and her lines, which in fact make the whole thing... awesome. Or to elaborate: according to universal studies it makes her acting sincere and humorous. I suggest you read up on her life, it's pretty fascinating. If all is true is irrelevant, in my humble opinion. Or "irrelephant", as Chico Marx would say.

Don't blame me for writing a weird post. I'm drinking whiskey on a Monday night. You do the math.

Anyway. We will miss you, Satana. The Divine Miss J and I, at least. This calls for a girls night with me, you, Varla and mojitos.

Black Girl (1966)

La noire de...
Director: Ousmane Sembène
France/Senegal
55-65 min
Starring: Mbissine Thérèse Diop, Anne-Marie Jelinek and Robert Fontaine, among others.


I really enjoyed the Christmas food discussions in the comment section of my last post! Thank you, readers. I had no idea it could differ that much from one side of the world to the other.

And from one side of the world to another, that's where the protagonist of Ousmane Sembene's Black Girl goes (yes, that was a lame transition, but I blame it on the brisk Christmas spirit that has annexed my soul). The film, which original French title translates as "The Black Girl of...", is an obvious but subtle and artistic reminder of colonialism, post-colonial identity, racism and slavery.

[It's so fun reading the forums on IMDb: someone was angry because the main character once says that she feels like a slave (or is a slave, I don't remember exactly), when she actually gets paid for her work. Well, dear stupid, you can get all the money in the world and still be treated as a slave. It's about the loss of dignity and respect. Duh.]

Black Girl is considered the first feature length film of a Sub-Saharan director (Senegal), which is pretty shocking considering it was made in 1966. The year my mother was born was the year of the first indigenous Senegalese picture. Well, France didn't recognize the independence of Senegal until 1960, so what is one to expect. Obviously the French Film Bureau tried to get in the way of this film being made, and later purchased its exhibition rights. It seems they put the scissors to work on the negatives too - the film is only one hour long, and I read about a missing color sequence.

"The black girl" is a Senegalese woman named Diouanna, and she is also the only character with a name in the film. She arrives full of expectations in France to work as a bay sitter for a French family, but is soon faced with the fact that she is just a common maid. She tries to keep some sense of worthiness by dressing up, wearing high heels and jewelry, while being treated as a dumb slave. Naturally, the lack of respect from her "masters" drives her into a depression, further nurturing the stereotype of "the lazy coon". She stops wearing her pretty clothes or doing her hair. Eventually Diouanna, who has only seen the walls of the very apartment where she works of the Western world she hopes to discover, is driven to suicide. This is mentioned in a little notice in the newspaper.

[As others before me, I feel that spoiling the end has any impact what so ever on the viewing experience. It's not that kind of film. The original short story (written by Sembene himself) began with a black maid's suicide, then unfolding the events leading up to it - apparently it was just a short notice of a similar accident reported in a newspaper that inspired Sembene to write it in the first place.]

Diouanna narrates the film in French, like an inner monologue. She keeps angrily reassuring herself that she is not a maid, while cleaning the floors in complete 1960's polka dot outfit worthy of Audrey Hepburn. The narration makes the behaviour of some house guests bizarre, who seem to take for granted that she can't speak French. The hostess and her guests arrive at the explanation that Diouanna does not speak French, but can understand it instinctively "comme un animal" ("like an animal"). Diouanna keeps silent and pours up coffee for the guests.

 One noted interesting aspect of the film is the fact that Diouanna's motives for coming to France are purely shallow - she keeps repeating to herself what she believes that those back in Dakar (the capital of Senegal) thinks of her, and how envious they are of her opportunity to come to France. However, as the psychological abuse continues those thoughts seem more and more tragic. At one time she inspects an African mask she gave her employers on the first day of work, that looks strangely out of place on the blank white wall:

As is apparent from the screenshots, Sembène has played with stark contrasts in the visual narrative. Black against white all the time, and that is not just because the film is in black and white. Diouanna wears a white dress with black polka dots, a black African mask against a clean white wall, floors striped in black and white, a whiskey with the lable "Black and White"... I could go on. It is in any way both aesthetically appealing and a clear metaphor for the theme of the film.

The whole film is full of symbols and metaphors, like the flashback scene where Diouanna gets her job as a maid. Women looking for a job are gathered in the street, while the future employer walk back and forth eying them - it all resembles a slave market. Another symbolic scene is with Diouanna skipping barefoot over a colonialist war memorial in Dakar - much to her boyfriend's dismay.

I can also mention Diouanna's hot politically active boyfriend in the flashback scenes. (See screenshot - Damn! More bare chested men, please.). Some inside information: the man on the wall of his room is nationalist hero Patrice Lumumba, and the school teacher with the pipe in Dakar is Sembène himself.

As for the white characters, none are actually demonized in any way, and that is probably the most effective part of this movie. (All actors are non-professional, by the way. Most only have one film listed at IMDb. Pretty admirable performances, considering that.) As vicious as the wife may seem, she actually seems mentally ill. She smokes frustratingly and seems to get something out of treating Diouanna more and more inhumane, which makes her look more pathetic and in need of help than demonic.

The saddest character, apart from Diouanna, is the oblivious husband. He has a drinking problem and seems to think that money solves everything. At least that is the only solution to a sad maid that he can find. He does not realize how his actions are condescending and paternalistic, only trying to do right.

The worst moment of his good intentions degrading Diouanna is when she receives a letter from her mother. As she is illiterate, the husband offers to read it to her. The letter shows to include mostly reprimands about her not sending money home - a humiliating moment the husband obliviously turns to the worse by starting to write a response letter for Diouanna.

When Diouanna has committed suicide, he understands that the right thing to do is probably to visit her mother in Senegal. He does however not understand what to do when he has arrived, and tried to give Diouanna's mother money. Although she probably needs the money, she shakes her head and denies what is probably understood as a payment for guilt. He returns home, and the last pictures of the film shows a little boy looking into the camera, literally unmasking his face. Such symbolism.

I liked the film, by the way. Watch it if you get the chance.

Daisies (1966)

Sedmikrásky aka Daisies
Director: Vera Chytilová
Czechoslovakia 1966
74 min
Starring: Jitka Cerhová and Ivana Karbanová, among others.

Trivia: Was banned by Czech authorities, since it was considered "depicting the wanton" in a Communist country.

Nobody understands Marie I and Marie II - They don't even understand who is who.

This film may be difficult to review, since it has no linear story whatsoever and the only characters have no history, future or meaning - they don't even have their own names, they are both named Marie (Cerhová and Karbanová - I dare you to figure out who is the blonde and who is the brunette, I tried and failed). But I will do my best to write a review, since this is an awesome movie. People will disagree violently with me, because this is a film you either love or hate.

Director Vera Chytilová.

The film begins with a montage of world war film clips, presumably from WWII. What is important to remember when viewing this film is the politics of the 1960's, which the opening sequence surely wants to remind us of. The previous two generations of the 1960's youth had experienced a world war each, and the 1960's did not look any more hopeful. It was the Cold War and Communism a threat that needed to be fought - Czechoslovakia has been taken over by a communist regime in 1948, and the film movement that came to be called the Czechoslovak New Wave was a response to this. As will become apparent when taking a closer look on Daisies! (Note that this film was made two years prior to the "Prague Spring" in 1968, Czechoslovakia's liberalization period.)

With the circumstances hastily cleared up, it's time to go on with the film. After the opening sequence we are introduced to the main characters, Marie and Marie. While sunbathing they talk about how nobody understands them, and how the world has gone bad. When they move their arms and legs squeak like rusty machinery. The squeaks only stops when they get the brilliant idea that if the world is bad, then they don't need to care about anything - they can do whatever they want without concern for the consequences.

I have an inkling that the squeaky machinery sounds might be a reference to the Soviet people, that en masse are like... machinery, doing whatever Big Brother tells them is for the good of the country. But I may be wrong. (Oh yes, the movie and its weirdness has only begun. Time to get nerdy and frustratingly interpretive!)

Next, Marie slaps the other Marie, and they fall down onto a flowery field with a lone fruit tree. They jump like rabbits, dance and behave like children. Kind of cute children, of course. The cool thing with this sequence is the transition to the next scene, via a weird eye-line match in the middle of a dialog. Just watch:

Why does it have to be more difficult than that? Classic Hollywood editing is sooo 1950's!

Marie and Marie start doing random things without caring about what other people think about them, and they quickly get more and more extreme. They begin with dating old men with doubtable intentions, only to lure them on trains by themselves. They snatch food and wine from restaurant tables, stuff their mouths full with desserts and as a whole weird people out.

If you didn't already notice - the editing and aesthetics of the film follow the same whimsical pattern as the girls. Going from black and white to color, to sepia and different coloring of the black and white films à la tinted silent film. None of the screenshots from the film have been manipulated in any way - the film just says "f*** you" to all traditional editing, like most New Wave films do in one way or the other.

[Yes, I know that I usually write the word "fuck" without those silly stars, but the CMBA thought that my readers may have difficulties understanding the content of my posts using naughty words like that. You know, there are nicer words to use! Well, if I need to self censor like it's fucking 1935 and the hight of the Hays Code era - fuck you. I believe my readers have intelligence enough to understand my posts, ain't I just naïve?]

We'll have a little phallus cutting on that:

There are some reoccurring themes in Daisies. The snipping of phallic symbols is one thing, scissors another, and apples yet another. What they are supposed to mean can be interpreted a hundred different ways, but to me the first thing is (quite obviously) an act of feminism, something that too was controversial in Czechoslovakia at the time. My first thought about the scissor theme is that it could be self-referential to the New Wave style, of cutting films to millions of pieces in a controversial way of editing. About the apples... I don't know. The symbol of wisdom?

The ending of the film is really fun to analyze. The climax begins with the Maries finding a banquet hall full of extravagant dishes - the ultimate symbol of the bourgeoisie society. They start to feast on the food, using different plates for everything and drinking liquor from several glasses at the time. It ends up with them having a food fight, dancing on the tables and crashing all the tableware.

The scene cuts to them drowning in a lake, and the informational text "What had to happen happened". They hang on to some oars, shouting to the men on the boat that they are drowning because they are depraved. "Can the evil be repaired?"  They beg for their lives, saying that they will be good from now on.

[My interpretation: "What had to happen happened" may be a sneer to the classic Hollywood theme of a naughty woman having to pay for her wrongs toward the end of the film, by either sacrificing herself, get killed or reform. And obviously these girls have been bad, and needs to be put into place.]

"If we were to give them a second chance, this is what would happen."
The film cuts back to the banquet, crashed and filthy. The Maries tiptoe around with newspaper clothing (see screenshots), cleaning up the mess while chanting that everything will be fine, they are so nice and to the right thing when they clean up their mess, everything will be the same.

[Possible interpretation: I read somewhere that the newspapers and the chanting could symbolize the brainwashing messages to the people under a Communist regime: you will be happy if you work, you will be happy if you do good for your country.]

 As you can see, the result is not that good. But the girls keep cleaning up, trying to be good.

[My interpretation: What would happen is someone managed to quiet a revolution, for example a feminist revolution? No matter how hard they tried to get everything back to what it was, it could never be. When women has started to think for themselves and revolt, they will likely not forget all about it. A broken plate can never look like it did before.]

 So, what happens when a person has been a good citizen, worked all his/her life and never thought about him/herself?

They die. That's the payment you get.
The last message to the viewer is:

"This film is dedicated to all the people indignant only when their salads are trampled."

Well, is that a message to a country on the verge of a revolt, or not? Daisies is an awesome movie. Watch it.
 And don't feel bad if you haven't watched an Eastern European film before. I haven't either, but that will probably change. (If not by my own will, by being forced to in film school.)

And... cut!