A Hard Day's Night (1964)

Director: Richard Lester
Country: United Kingdom

A Hard Day's Night shows us a day in a life of the rebellious group of youngsters from Liverpool during the touring years after returning from America, or in other words the years of "The Beatlemania". They have to do multiple things such as travelling by train, replying letters from fans, partying, attending press conferences full of journalists asking stupid questions and obviously getting answers full of sardonic sense of humor from the Fab Four, reharsing and playing on live TV and also running away from crazy fans and hiding themselves in customs and fake moustaches. 

John Lennon pretending to snort coke and the whole group getting excited about an orgy are two spicy moments in the film, I'm pretty sure they did that shit though (or at least Lennon himself). We can see the funny side of the touring years, but in the end of this adventure we can see how was to be a Beatle, and despite all the fun, money and fame it became a nightmare and an overwhelming and painful activity for the Fab Four and paradoxically they ended up trying to be "normal" citizens and having a break like in Ringo's segment. 

Richard Lester made a simple film with some flaws but an important piece of history because it's The Beatles, although it has some interesting technicalities such as the usage of handheld cameras, close-ups, scenes in time lapse, different camera angles (from above, below, behind, far away, etc) editing tricks and real footage, which combined delivered a great result, a magnificent documentary-fiction film. 

The acting by The Beatles is not really important because they were charming and funny in front of the camera and basically they were acting like themselves, which is great because we can see a group of four guys playing music and smiling and this Beatles' era was fantastic, they were young, beautiful, fresh and kind of innocent, they were living a beautiful dream before things turned sour and densed starting with the infamous "We are more popular than Jesus" quote by John Lennon, and the internal battles before and during the production of "Rubber Soul". This is a must-see film for any person who loves The Beatles.

                              

La Terra Trema (1948)

Director: Luchino Visconti
Country: Italy

As in "Rocco and His Brothers", Visconti tells the despondent fate of a Sicilian family of fishermen unwilling to eat shit from the salesmen and other organizations that exploit the workers, paying them a fistful of coins instead of a real salary which could enable them of making a decent living, so they decide to put at risk their house and to buy a fishing boat in order to be independent and make real money. Sicily was insular and empoverished at the time, many people faced unemployment, a low-quality of life, injustice and labour exploitation which is a form of modern slavery, we can see all those aspects affecting the life of the Valastra family and his fellow citizens in the film. 

Young and capable guys who want a revolution unlike their parents and grandparents who never complained about a thing and accepted life as it came, unfortunately they fail due to bad decisions and another burden: pride, however they claim it was bad luck instead of assuming the consequences of those wrong decisions. 

The family has to face ignominy: out of work, broken and ejected from their own house by the bank, Cola leaves the town when a stranger from America appears, maybe he goes to New York City as many Italians did, Mara the little sister is bought by an official instead of accepting the love of Nicola, a hard-working construction worker who is in love with her, and finally Tony has to bend his knees in front of the bosses and get the job he used to have. 

Visconti made a real crude pessimistic portrayal of the world, with some humorous moments and a voice over through the film narrating certain events which adds a depressive mood, techinically using static and long takes, minimalistic dialogues, natural light and real-life people instead of professional actors, "La Terra Trema" is pure neorealism that unfortunately we still living nowadays, the film is a criticism of the capitalism (the boss taking a big cut and leaving left overs for his employees) but also an analysis of going against it without the appropiate plan. 

The Valastra family suffers from the social and economic enviroment in which they live in and which also it is bigger than their good intentions. As in Luis Buñuel "Los Olvidados", The Valastra family still exists nowadays in any part of the world both in developed countries and in developing ones, 100% guaranteed.

                
                          

Häxan (1922)

Director: Benjamin Christensen
Country: Denmark

I was totally flabbergasted by this incredible fiction-documentary silent film divided in eight vignettes telling the history of witchcraft and how it has existed since Egyptian times, how it was manufactured (along with the existence of the Devil) and fueled by superstition, fear and different sets of beliefs mainly based on Catholic doctrines which interferred with the development of science, medicine and even in people's affairs of the heart . 

Using different brutal torture methods and techniques many people were forced to confess deeds they did not do; we can see how the power of the mind (autosuggestion) played an important role in supernatural events such as demonic posessions or collective paranoia; mental disorders such as histery or sleep walking were interpreted as a form of witchery or a deal with the devil; the misconception of genetic physical disabilities or physical ugliness, those ones suffering from that were also accused of being Devil's pupils; and human emotions such as jealousy or sexual attraction were interpreted as Devil's forces.

Christensen plays himself the role of the Devil and the film has an amazing production design, customes, superb dramatized reenactments full of details and disturbing images divided between real and unreal (or imaginary) situations, which Christensen decided to differentiate on the screen using a simple cinematography technique, red color for the former ones and blue for the latter ones, also the soundtrack is powerful and well adapted into the film. 

Watching Häxan nowadays could be laughable at times because science has taken the place of superstition and ignorance, but when it was released one can understand why it was censored and chopped off in many theaters around the world. A powerful horror film and a masterstroke of pure cinema.

Surcos (1951)

Director: José Antonio Nieves Conde

Country: Spain

A modest family from the Spanish country side decides to emigrate to the capital city of Madrid in an effort to earn more money and become part of the post-war society but soon they struggle to survive and have to face the hostile environment of the concrete jungle: poverty, misery, unemployment and crime among other hindrances. 

 

The main story revolves around the three brothers (like in Visconti's Rocco and His Brothers, except that this one was made 9 years before): Pepé, Tonia and Manolo, whom their different ambitions corrupt their souls little by little while coping with thieves and gangsters like Chamberlein, greedy and materialistic women like Pili or with the inability to find a job due to lack of skills and techniques to perform any job in the industrial field (like the scene when their father is in a factory and he's about to faint, that sequence contains a nice mixing of images and sounds and maybe is the only highlighting moment in the editing department). 

 

We can see how Spain was a developing country at the time, living with the consequences of the Spanish Civil War and the economic impact of the Second War World. This film is considered part of the Spanish neorealism, and was shot basically without technique like many other neorealist films from the era such as Vittorio De Sica's "Ladri di Biciclette", also the ending and some parts of the movie had been adultarated and censored by the Spanish goverment and the Catholic Church but fortunately they were restored in recent years. 

 

I personally enjoyed the dark humor dialogues in the film that work very well, especifically the ones on machismo and sexism. A great Spanish film which unfortunately has been forgotten over time.

                              

María Candelaria (1943)

Director: Emilio Fernandez
Country: Mexico

Written and directed by Emilio Fernandez, the story revolves around Maria Candelaria (performed by the gorgeous Dolores del Rio) a beautiful indigenous woman and her relationship with Lorenzo Rafael (Pedro Armendariz) whose story is told by a misterious painter. The action takes place in 1909 in an empoverished and underdeveloped but beautiful village of Xochimilco. 

For some reason the villagers hate Maria Candelaria, whose mother's life is never revealed, was she a prostitute or a witch? the only thing we know is that she was killed for being a "sinner". This film could be considereded a social one despite its love story, because we can see the division between white Mexicans and the indigenous, with the former ones being medical doctors, priests, artists and bureaucrats, and the latter ones being oppressed by the system and the Catholic Church, which in combination with the indigenous superstitions and the close-minded life style they have, the results are catastrophic such as the rejection of medical care, law enforcement or artistic disciplines, and characters such as "la chismosa", "la huesera" or the ruthless "patrón" are excellent examples of it. 

The film also has many dark humor and satiric dialogues that give balance and help to keep the pace, the cinematography by the legendary Gabriel Figueroa (Los Olvidados, Macario, The Fugitive, Animas Trujano, etc) is stunning and one of the best in Figueroa's career, with a masterful use of natural light, shadows and a perfect framing we can see how beautiful Xochimilco was at the time, and the performances of Dolores del Rio and Pedro Armendariz are very accurate, because portraying indigeous characters was not an easy task for sure, there was the risk of being ridiculous or fake, but they changed their accents and manners so well and the result was succesful. 

Definitely a must-see in the Golden Age of the Mexican Cinema and one of the key films of Emilio "El Indio" Fernandez.



                               

Salvatore Giuliano (1962)

Director: Francesco Rosi 
Country: Italy

This is a dense political-social film based on real facts, shot in a documentary style following a non-linear narrative about the circumstances around the assesination of Salvatore Giuliano, a bandit and the leader of a separatist movement in Sicily, that was responsible for a massacre against members of a communist party, he only appears as a corpse three or four times in the film. 

We can see how Sicily was after the departure of the allies, an empoverished, dejected, dangerous and corrupted place controlled by the local mafia, full of street codes such as the Omerta, and curfews by the military (North Italians who look down on Sicilians calling them savages.) Shot by the legendary Gianni Di Venanzo, the film has a stunning cinematography and a  pure neorealist look . 

Amazingly this film portrays how some goverments around the world still operating nowadays!, with the help of local mafias and bandits, definitely an incredible film.

                                 

Le Trou (1960)

Director: Jacques Becker 
Country: France

For the first time in my blog I'm not writing too much about this film, I don't want to spoil anyone's experience, all I can say is that this is the best minimalistic film ever made and my favorite in the prison genre of all time, Becker only needed little dialogue, five characters and one room, so if you want to have a great night, turn off the lights, turn on your DVD player in a quiet room and concentrate on this tour de force, period.

                               

Classe Tous Risques (1960)

Director: Claude Sautet
Country: France

A ruined criminal looking for help is trying to escape with his family and children from Milan to Paris after many years of criminal activities but a death sentence is waiting for him. Lino Ventura is Abel Davos, a cold-blooded crook, a decaying mafioso, but a tough mothefucker who once was a respected guy in the underworld, and a kind of "godfather" for some of his friends who now disrespect him, and this film is precisely about respect, loyalty, honor, friendship and betrayal and by no means idealistic gangster bullshit. 

We can see the human side of Abel Davos as a father, a husband a friend and struggling moments in his life which make him think he's a kind of King Midas in reverse. A young Jean-Paul Belmondo as Eric Stark in the pivotal role is very solid too, not to mention Sandra Milo (Eric's girlfriend) was stunning and gorgeous at the time. 

The film was adapted from a novel by Jose Giovanni (an auteur, a great writer who also wrote works like "Le Trou" and "Le Deuxiemme Souffle", which later became cinema masterpieces), Sautet made a great job, basically he just needed a car, two main characters and some pistols to make a great storyline, he also made a precise usage of the voice over, the silence, the dialogue, the editing and some shots from the car's point of view. 

These kind of films were the foundation for future crime films (like those of Jean-Pierre Melville) and we can see how iconic characters in American TV Series like The Sopranos were influenced by all those French crime-noir films as well, Classe Tous Risques is unfortunately an underrated masterpiece.

                                  

Battle of Algiers (1966)

Director: Gillo Pontecorvo
Country: Italy

"Should France remain in Algeria? if you answer 'yes', you must accept all the necessary consequences."

Told from the point of view of Ali and General Mathieu (who is based upon a real life soldier named Jacques Massu) it's a great juxtaposed story based on real life events. An Algerian guerrilla movement trying to get independence from France, starts a bloody battle and is willing to die for the cause no matter what. 2015 and 2016 have been difficult years for developed democracies in Europe and the rest of the World, terrorist attacks, radicalism and insurgent militias in the Middle East have been some of the problems, and is amazing how this movie made in the 60's can explain many things happening right now, so whether if you want to know how terrorism and radicalism work or how many soldiers work, you gotta see this film.  

Pontecorvo not only shows us how radicals approach children, women, vendors, old ladies, etc and turn them into terrorists, they are heartless fanatics indeed, but also he shows us the brutal practices of the military, in particular the many forms of torture and ruthless acts such as chopping up heads of political prisoners or burning people with blowturches . 

The film portrays in a realistically way how colonialism worked in Africa for years: an apartheid system, where European whites lived apart from the native population while oppresing any form of political discomfort, just like the European conquistadores "worked" for centuries in the Americas. Pontecorvo is a genius because he's always neutral, he does not interfere with the story and let us alone to judge the situations, such a huge contrast compared with those American movies about Vietnam War or Second War World, where American troops are martyrs and heroes in contrast with the evil communist Asians and Nazis who wanted to destroy the world. 

A solid, superb piece of work with a critical and incisive argument which is remarkable because for Pontecorvo would have been easy to be biased and to portray the military as the villians (due to his communist past and marxist ideology) but he chose not to. Pontecorvo's masterful use of camera, documentary and guerrilla style shooting are superb, we can see close ups, detail shots, kinda news footage and along with Ennio Morricone's soundtrack, consisting mainly of percussive instruments and background pre-recorded music which adds tension to the images, such as in the simultaneous terrorist bomb attacks, the result is so powerful. 

This is a very complex film, shot in a minimalistic way and in my opinion it's one of the best films about social conflicts ever made . The French won the Battle of Algiers but were defeated and finally kicked out from Algeria in the real life, and then unfortunately the native people faced years of repression and dictatorship...

                            

Saltimbancos (1951)

Director: Manuel Guimaraes 
Country: Portugal

The first Manuel Guimaraes' film, who had been an apprentice of the legendary Portuguese filmmaker Manoel de Oliveira, "Saltimbancos" (which is a derogative word for a street artist) it's a tragic-comic neorealist film adapted from the novel "Circo" by Leao Penedo, about a group of circus artists struggling to make a living in an impoverished Portugal, the film belongs to the Portuguese Golden Age of Cinema and was made with a very limited budget.

The film starts with a voice over narration by Toni (Artur Semedo) who is looking for a job, and whose past is never revealed except for his passion for circus, he finds O Circo Maravilhas which is managed by Miss Dolly (Maria Olguim) an old woman , her husband Felismino (José Victor) and her daughter, a beautiful blonde named Delmirinha (Helga Liné) the circus is destroyed during a rainstorm and since that moment things get hard because they have to deal with poverty, misery, hungry and debts, Delmirinha's mind shifts during the road to Lisbon, because she wants to live a decent life and to have a steady job but those goals clash with her background and traditions and her boyfriend (Toni) knows it. 

Ambition fades away in the face of death but loyalty remains intact. One of my favorite moments in the film is when Felismino is trying to train his beloved friend named "Pombinho" (which means little pigeon), a stubborn but smart donkey, in order to perform a circus act, the donkey is the only animal acting in the film, and he did a great job. 

The narration through the film sounds beautiful and melancholic, and the movie brings Saudades of an innocent age when children enjoyed going to the circus, after all, Portuguese language is the language of the poets. Guimaraes was severely criticized at the time by the Portuguese critics, his movies were chopped up and he never received the recognizition he deserved, otherwise we would be talking about the Portuguese Fellini. This is a beautiful Portuguese gem and unfortunately a hidden and almost forgotten treasure that everybody must see.