Screening Room

by Ari

Rocco and His Brothers (Luchino Visconti, 1960)

One of Visconti's enduring classics, Rocco and His Brothers is an epic story of a family torn apart by sibling rivalry after moving to the city and working to survive. The two central characters are Rocco (the legendary Alain Delon) and his brother Simone (Renato Salvatori). Rocco is the saint of the family, a nice, well-meaning, genuinely caring young man who works for his money and does whatever he can to help with his brother's needs. Simone trains to be a boxer, but he's too reckless and self-centered to succeed. He has the mentality of a criminal, and is easily jealous and violently tempered. Once Simone's ex-girlfriend falls in love with Rocco and his career flops, he turns his aggression and anger towards his innocent brother. The performances by Delon, Salvatori and the rest of the cast are tremendous, and Visconti's direction and visual touches are impeccable. It's an exhausting film, but rewarding. One of the great Italian films I've seen.

Frenzy (Alfred Hitchcock, 1972)

Late Hitchcock thriller isn't quite on par with his best work, but it's still entertaining and memorable. Hitchcock creates a considerable amount of tension and suspense after Richard Blaney (Jon Finch) is accused of killing his ex-wife. The film is surprisingly edgy and even explicit compared to some of Hitchcock's earlier films. As Blaney tries to evade the police and clear his name, his situation only get worse and worse and worse. Finch is particularly good as the short-tempered lead, and the film does a good job of holding the viewer in its grip.

Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)

This was the redux that I watched, not the original theatrical cut. I know some people despise the longer version of Apocalypse Now, and while I agree that some of it is excessive and unnecessary, I'm still fascinated by the additions. Apocalypse Now is my favorite example of fevered, off-the-wall, absolutely uncompromised filmmaking. You don't have to see Hearts of Darkness to tell how crazy it was behind the scenes. The chaos of this production is right there as you watch it. Coppola's mad genius is alive in every frame of this beast, similar to what you find in the films of Werner Herzog. In Apocalypse Now, Brando is Coppola's Kinski. He appears late in the film, but his performance as Colonel Kurtz is one of the most unforgettable things ever put to film. Apocalypse Now is a haunting and thrilling American masterpiece by one of the most important and independent voices of our time.

I'm a huge admirer of Francis Ford Coppola. He's one of my favorite directors and I firmly stand by the opinion that his "lesser" films are still quite good. I've mentioned it before, but Bram Stoker's Dracula is visually inventive in a way that dwarfs what most people do with visual effects today. The Godfather Part III is flawed and uneven, but Al Pacino gives a heartbreaking and tragic performane that concludes the trilogy with tremendous force. The Cotton Club is, simply put, a great movie. Underrated and misunderstood, it's a glorious nod to the gangster films and musicals of the 30s and 40s with classic performances by a huge cast of talented actors. I don't understand where that movie goes wrong for some people. Youth Without Youth made my ten best films of 2007 list. If the pacing was a bit sharper in the second half, it would've placed much higher than #10. His next film, Tetro (which he described as something similar to Rocco and His Brothers) is highly, highly anticipated for me. The fact that he's fulfilling his dreams as an independent artist is exciting and inspiring. It doesn't get much better than that.