Fiction writer Mark Helprin provides in his short story “The Pacific” the portrait of a woman called Paulette, who is married to a marine lieutenant sailing during wartime (WWII) on the ocean Paulette lives very close to. The Pacific, of course. The woman is a trained welder, spunkily working while her husband is away. Will he return? The ardor of the dutiful in spite of separation, the heavy demands of devotion, war’s threat to marriage—all are themes in this striking piece. And as always, Helprin is fascinated by nature’s display and organizational work and technology.

In “Last Tea with the Armorers,” there is another heroine, Annalise—Jewish and not quite pretty. By 1972 she “had been in the [Israeli] army in one form or another for sixteen years . . .” and has an awful connection with the Holocaust. Unmarried and caring for her father, Annalise does the best she can, with a broken heart. But a possible future marriage is emerging. The dark past gives way to the present, the present to the future. What’s more, belief in God shan’t be rejected. “Armorers” is a unique and lovingly written story.

Numerous adults are far from being good role models for young people. A teacher called Jim McAllister—in Tom Perrotta‘s 1998 novel, Election—is one of them. At the high school where he works, McAllister is in charge of the election for student president, a position coveted by the high-achieving, 17-year-old Tracy Flick.

Tracy is nice but has no friends. However, she is much gratified over a sordid affair she is having with McAllister’s fellow teacher, Jack, who is married. McAllister, aware of the affair, dislikes the girl, even though there is not really much to dislike. As it happens, he wrongs Tracy in the election. Shabby behavior here mirrors the kinds of things plaguing adult political elections.

Perrotta’s book is breezy and wise. We never feel superior to the characters, certainly including Tracy, not “just a sweet teenage girl,” McAllister claims. But Tracy, in truth, is a child of divorce, and is let down by the book’s grownups. Election‘s denouement is brilliant in a way that the ending of Alexander Payne’s movie adaptation of the novel is not, for it shows Tracy conciliating with a man, McAllister, who has lost his job and his reputation. She doesn’t need to reject him.

European auteurs did not abandon artistic cinema beyond 1963. No, it continued and some of their films were very good. 90 Degrees in the Shade (1965) is no Closely Watched Trains, but it’s another black-and-white art film that manages to be meaningful. A Czech-British production, it was audaciously directed by Jiri Weiss—ah, those closeups—and has jazzy, quirky music in it. The movie is about desolation and immorality, not necessarily in that order. British actress Anne Heywood, in an affecting performance, plays a shop worker involved in illegal activity with her unsatisfactory married lover. I saw Shade on Tubi. Unusual and more or less sensual, it deserves to be available and seen.

Kris Kristofferson‘s first cinematic vehicle Cisco Pike (1972), written and directed by Bill L. Norton, is dark and offbeat but not very successful. A cool dude, Cisco Pike, has quit selling drugs but must submit to a hypocritical—and damaged—establishment figure, Gene Hackman‘s police detective. The cop is driven to force Cisco to raise money for him—yes, through selling drugs. Some effective details crop up, but the story is vacuous and wispy. The ending is worthless . . . The acting of Hackman and Harry Dean Stanton is solid. Kristofferson, though, is uninteresting as Cisco. He mainly goes around just looking wary. Karen Black (as Cisco’s girlfriend) is terrifically attractive both clothed and in the nude. But she is not histrionically “natural” enough to portray a character, this woman.

I wish the documentary 20 Days in Mariupol (2023) had not been necessary to make, but the Russian invasion of Ukraine did take place, the city of Mariupol an early target. Associated Press journalist Mstyslav Chernov shot the film, adeptly, over 20 days, and the wreckage and grief are very troubling. Right away homes are destroyed; people hide in basements (not bomb shelters). Parents agonize over the deaths of their offspring. Putin is killing children. A maternity hospital is bombed. A Mariupol university stands quiet and empty and flatly ruined by shelling. All the work of a murderous aggressor. The footage is moving and stunning.

After seeing Mariupol, I’m convinced the previous U.S. appropriation of billions of dollars to Ukraine was justified. I don’t believe Ukraine can win the war, however—alas. And there must be a ceasefire.