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The Foolish “Monsieur Verdoux”

With Monsieur Verdoux (1947), Charles Chaplin tried to write a comedy, or at least a comic tragedy (which I distinguish from a tragicomedy). The humor and the dark elements of the film do not gel, however, and that is just the beginning of its problems. To support his crippled wife and young son, Henri Verdoux (Chaplin), a laid-off bank clerk, marries and murders, for their money, middled-aged women. Granted, the movie is thought-provoking, but contains no sympathy for the women—and one man—Verdoux kills. Just as bad, and tasteless, near the end it attempts to give the serial murderer the high moral ground in a wicked world. The attempt is unsuccessful. Really, Verdoux is remarkably foolish, a failed comic tragedy. Moreover, unlike co-stars Martha Raye and Isobel Elsom, who are credible, Chaplin is monotonous in his performance.

“Late Spring,” Of You I Sing

Cover of "Late Spring - Criterion Collect...

Cover of Late Spring – Criterion Collection

Another great, or at least very good, Yasujiro Ozu film, Late Spring (1949) concerns a young Japanese woman, Noriko (Setsuko Hara), whose 56-year-old father (Chisu Ryu) wants her to marry despite the daughter’s insistence that she is happy simply to live with and take care of the  middle-aged gent.  Indeed, it is a matter not only of happiness but also of obligation—in Noriko’s eyes, not the eyes of others.  Sadly, Noriko feels despondent over the upcoming matrimony she has agreed to.

This Ozu (director-scenarist)-Kogo Noda (scenarist) adaptation of a novel is excellent on the theme of painful transitions, and as open-eyed about loneliness as other Ozu films.  There are longueurs here and rather too much music, but certainly the film is far more interesting than the boring Noh play several of the characters serenely watch.  Hara is superlative and Ozu’s style a gentle wonder ready to undergo a nice extension for such later movies as Tokyo Story.

(In Japanese with English subtitles)

Setsuko Hara in the Japanese motion picture La...

Setsuko Hara in the Japanese motion picture Late Spring (1949). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Briefly, “Trap”

In Trap, by M.Night Shyamalan, a psychopathic killer/family man does everything he can to escape the trap orchestrated for him by multiple police. With a certain guilelessness (except for Josh Hartnett) the cast is largely appealing. Hartnett succeeds as the killer; Alison Pill is unerring as his wife. But the film doesn’t come off. Shyamalan is no writer. There is in Trap, as Ross Douthat indicates, a “ludicrous but memorable setup.” It is ludicrous, though.

Old And With Dignity: “The Whisperers”

Mrs. Ross, in the Bryan Forbes film The Whisperers (1967), is an elderly woman who lives alone and whose mind is leaving her. She is often ill-treated. Based on a novel by Robert Nicolson, this is another Sixties British piece about the working class, with concentration on human callousness.

The technical-artistic efforts of director Forbes and editor Anthony Harvey are estimable. So is Forbes’s scriptwriting except that the movie’s finish minimizes loneliness. The celebrated Dame Edith Evans is magnificent in the difficult part of Mrs. Ross. There is a persistent simple dignity in the intelligent portrayal here. As the husband who abandoned Mrs. Ross, Eric Portman is superlative.

Now You See Face To Face: “All Your Faces”

All Your Faces (or, translated from the French, I Will Always See Your Faces, 2023) reflects the attention-paying of filmmaker Jeanne Henry to Western therapeutic culture. She uses French actors in the roles of crime victims and crime perpetrators who converse with each other in what is called a Restorative Justice project. Actors such as Elodie Bouchez play therapy professionals and volunteers for RJ, a social creation which in France does indeed exist. The purpose is, well, “healing,” although one character mentions that restorative-justice represents something that people in our time detest.

A victim named Chloe (Adele Exarchopoulos) could have easily detested it, but I don’t believe she does. Sexually molested as a child by her half-brother, Chloe agrees to meet with him. Counselor Judith (Bouchez) makes the mistake of mentioning forgiveness to Chloe, which angers her, and to be sure Chloe does not forgive her half-brother.

Faces is sometimes moving despite Henry’s personal detachment from the goings-on. She offers no view on the efficacy of the “dialogue.” Yet crime victims here do seem to need psychological healing; they are traumatized. Thefts have occurred (there are no murderers) and not without physical injury. The film is fascinating—not quite flawless but still very good. And although a contempt in many quarters for restorative-justice is inevitable, never do we feel contempt for any of Henry’s characters.

(In French with English subtitles)

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