A police sergeant who is a Christian (Edward Woodward) is duly outraged by a truly pagan Scottish island, thinking a missing young girl might have been murdered there. The 1973 The Wicker Man is a fairly intelligent and intriguing entertainment but, to me, there is something cheap and offputting about it. This is due to the unnecessary female nudity the film offers (though some of it is necessary), especially that of Britt Ekland‘s body double. There is more to it than that, however, but what? Perhaps it’s because its depiction of human evil is too outre, too bizarre. I don’t know. All the same, Woodward’s acting is rivetingly true.

A priest—celibate, of course—in the Guy De Maupassant short story, “Clair de Lune,” is suspicious of the frequent tenderness of women. “According to his belief,” the author writes, “God had created woman for the sole purpose of tempting and testing man.” But this is false, and what occurs with the priest’s pretty niece becomes the impetus for his realization that it is false. In the beauty of the night she is with a man and . . . “Perhaps [the priest thinks] God has made such nights as these to idealize the love of men.”

An interesting concept in a sublime story. “Clair de Lune” is included in the Everyman’s Pocket Classics anthology Love Stories (2009), and a unique and incisive love story it is.

Baz Luhrmann‘s Moulin Rouge! (2001) is childish—along with colorful, gaudy and sensual—but also, to me, weird fun. By childish I mean cartoonish—inappropriately so. Then again, Satine’s solitary foreplay (provided by Nicole Kidman) may seem silly but it gives way to her pleasant fascination with Christian’s romantic feeling. It’s palatable comedy.

Christian (Ewan McGregor) breaks out in song, of course; the flick is a jukebox musical, which means Luhrmann was free to search the warehouse for tuneful hits. Never mind the unfamiliar stuff. I like quite a few of his choices but, regrettably, all brains and taste break down during the “Roxanne” number. The film’s editor, Jill Bilcock, though, is a successful hard worker, and Donald McAlpine’s cinematography is tasteful and lovely. MR can be ingratiating. When it was released in 2001, it was a big-screen wonder.

Baz Luhrmann‘s Moulin Rouge! (2001) is childish—along with colorful, gaudy and sensual—but also, to me, weird fun. By childish I mean cartoonish—inappropriately so. Then again, Satine’s solitary foreplay (provided by Nicole Kidman) may seem silly but it gives way to her pleasant fascination with Christian’s romantic feeling. It’s palatable comedy.

Christian (Ewan McGregor) breaks out in song, of course; the flick is a jukebox musical, which means Luhrmann was free to search the warehouse for tuneful hits. Never mind the unfamiliar stuff. I like quite a few of his choices but, regrettably, all brains and taste break down during the “Roxanne” number. The film’s editor, Jill Bilcock, though, is a successful hard worker, and Donald McAlpine’s cinematography is tasteful and lovely. MR can be ingratiating. When it was released in 2001, it was a big-screen wonder.

Cover of The Passenger

Although disappointed with Michelangelo Antonioni‘s The Passenger (1975), Stanley Kauffmann called the film “a fairly successful high-class entertainment.”  I pretty much agree with the “high-class entertainment” part, but not with the “fairly successful” judgment.  The narrative is too weak and mystifying for any ultimate success to emerge.

The film’s premise, as described by Kauffmann, is: “a man changes identity [illegally] and tries to live a new life.”  Antonioni transcends the entertainment value by summoning something interesting:  the man who tries to live a new life (Jack Nicholson) is taking a wayward course and is doing so in a world that is even more wayward.  In fact, because of how the film was shot, his waywardness and the world’s have a way of blending.

Less than compelling, The Passenger is very compellingly directed except where acting is concerned.  Antonioni’s eye is the one to have for a travelogue-like art film.