The Film Junkie

In this film Jean-Luc Godard sets out his plan with a voice over from the very beginning.  He wants to make a movie, to do so he needs money and actors, preferably one American movie star so he can get more money.  This film begins as a naked exploration of what it really takes to make a film, more than ideals or dreams: money.

As we move through the film we meet Jacques (Yves Montand), a former art film director who finds himself directing commercials rather than commercial films beacause he thinks they are more honest, and his wife Suzanne (Jane Fonda), an American radio host with a strong interest in telling the stories of social revolution in the wake of the student protests of May 1968.

Fonda’s French is actually not bad, she certainly has a strong American accent, but what other actor of the era would have the guts to make an art film in another language.  This is simply more proof that Fonda was always an individual.

The film follows a group of factory workers fighting for their rights, but also for the way to win and fight for their rights. 

It is an interesting film that gives no easy answers and plays with the preconceptions of how a movie should be designed and for whom.  It is an honest film that certainly has its pretentious moments, but above all it is a film about people as flawed and passionate as they can sometimes be.

Grade: A-

This film is based on Lillian Hellman’s Broadway play about rumours of lesbianism between two teachers at an all-girl’s school. 

Though this film, and the play, were decades ahead of their time, it still ends in the way most lesbian pulp fiction of the era had to end: with death.  Homosexuality was always forced to be seen as a curse or malady that would be cured by death.

Shirley Maclaine is outstanding as Martha, the teacher who has an ‘unnatural’ obsession with her best friend, Karen (Audrey Hepburn).  Karen intends her marry her long-time boyfriend, which causes severe jealousy from Martha.  One troublemaking student (Karen Balkin) accuses the teacher when she becomes frustrated by no one giving her enough attention.  However though Karen is adamant that the idea is entirely false, Martha feels as though her subconscious thoughts are finally being revealed.

This may not be a revolutionary film, but it is refreshing to see a 1960’s film that does not centre around women in bikinis or women frozen in scenes like a perpetual Ziegfield Follies.  These women are smart and capable, they run their own school and they stay loyal to one another no matter what the accusations or realizations about them may be.

Refreshing, if not revolutionary.

Grade: B+

Yes it is a Buster Keaton vehicle and yes the story is strung together with little purpose other than to show various scenes of Keaton failing (albeit hilariously) at several sports, however above all the contrivinces it is very funny.

Keaton plays a scholarly geek who loses his girlfriend because he doesn’t know how to play sports and then decides to prove to her that he can, in fact, play sports. 

The baseball scenes are funny, but somewhat predictable, as in Keaton not knowing how to catch a ball or accidentally forcing other players out.  The track scenes, however, are perfection.  Keaton fails fantastically as everything from sprinting to long jumping and is thoroughly entertaining.  The cinematography in these scenes are incredibly forward thinking, and the athletes themselves are impressive.

The film has a great final payoff, as predictable as it may be, and though this is no ‘Steamboat Bill Jr’ or ‘The Navigator’, it is a Keaton classic that continues to be referenced (where modern actors know it or not).

Grade: B+