Vertigo + Dressed to Kill
Hitchcock’s underrated masterwork paired with Brian DePalma’s (his most ardent student) biggest hit. Watch for “pure cinema.” So much of each film is about the image on screen, how two frames alone mean nothing but when cut together say something fucking crazy. These are two primal examples of what the cinematic art form can do. Both films are quite deranged, which we’ll talk about after you see them. But they are prime examples of visual storytelling.
(Vertigo is streaming on The Criterion Channel until 1/31; Dressed to Kill is streaming on HBO MAX)
Above: Kim Novak in Vertigo, seen from James Stewart’s voyeuristic perspective.
Below left: Nancy Allen watched by the killer in Dressed to Kill. Below right: The killer.
Double Indemnity + Sunset Blvd
In the 1940s, America was entrenched in the war and Hollywood took notice. A new genre emerged – Film Noir. There are about 540 of them. These are two of the finest. A noir will usually consist of a hard-nosed male protagonist seduced by a female…with ulterior motives. Behold, the “femme fatale.” And the attraction becomes the ultimate downfall. Both pics here are directed by Billy Wilder, who wrote most of his scripts as well. Both films give away their endings in the first 5 minutes. So why watch? Because Wilder hooks us so severely such a short time-span that we become desperate to find out how the characters met their fate, even if we already know what their fate is. Listen to the characters talk to each other and find the subtext (correct, it’s about sex!). Today we have Neo-noirs–Fargo, LA Confidential–but they’re mostly in color. The B&W is what made classic noirs so surreal.
(Both films available to rent on Apple TV, Amazon, Google Play. Sorry, no freebies.)
Above L to R: The opening image of Double Indemnity and Sunset Blvd.
Below L to R: Barbara Stanwyck hides behind a door while her partner in crime is interrogated. Gloria Swanson readies for her close-up in Sunset Blvd.
On the Waterfront + Mean Streets
Two films about the lower east side. One made by the great Elia Kazan, one made by a feverish acolyte, a young Martin Scorsese. Both films are intensely personal. Kazan was famously entwined in the McCarthy-era HUAC hearings and “named names” of Hollywood cohorts who were thought to be communists. He wasn’t blackballed but he lost many friends, and this story, starring Marlon Brando in his best role, is Kazan’s personal “fuck you” to anyone who looked at him crosseyed thereafter. Mean Streets marks the arrival of two generational cinematic voices, Scorsese and DeNiro. Heavily influenced by Waterfront, before which, representations of Italian-Americans were quite stereotypical and silly. Kazan made them real people with something to say, and in doing so, possibly birthed the greatest filmmaker of all time. The conflicting moralities of Brando and DeNiro in their respective roles give these two films a tremendous sense of contrast.
(Waterfront available for rent on Apple TV, Amazon, Google Play; Mean Streets is streaming on HBO MAX.)
Above L to R: Marlon Brando as Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront. Robert DeNiro in his breakout role as Johnny Boy in Mean Streets.
Chinatown
Don’t watch it on a double bill because you may have to watch it twice. Arguably the best Hollywood film of the 1970s. American greed distilled into a 2 hour and 10 minute Neo-Noir starring the never-better Jack Nicholson as the wisecracking Jack Gittes. Robert Towne’s (and maybe another writer’s) script is hailed by many as the best screenplay ever written. Roman Polanski’s first film in America after his wife and friends were brutally slaughtered by the Manson family in 1969. Clearly, the bleakness of the film’s ending (and shocking twist) was borne out of a seething cynicism festering in Los Angeles and in the artistic and political zeitgeist of that time. (Nixon, Watergate, “Law-and-Order.”) An absolute must see.
(Available for rent on Apple TV, Amazon, Google Play.)
Network + Ace in the Hole
Two films about the news. I recently watched Network in theaters and fell completely head over heels in love with it again. I’d challenge anyone to find a film as biting, smart and spot-on satirical before or since. It’s the most prescient film ever made. The fact that this film was released in 1976 is mind-boggling. Paddy Chayefsky had a crystal ball or he was an alien. Ace in the Hole revolves more about the print side of our wonderful news system, and what a famous reporter will do for the sake of his story, you know, what we’d call “click-bait” today. Who he will hurt, who he will cross? What he finds out is that he’s only crossing himself. Kirk Douglas in a performance bad (good) enough to make you question humanity.
(Network available for rent on Apple TV, Amazon, Google Play; Ace in the Hole is streaming on The Criterion Channel)
The Searchers + Taxi Driver
John Wayne, fiercely conservative, lamented the revisionist westerns of Peckinpah and his sixties cohorts because they weren’t “patriotic” enough. But the Duke must’ve forgotten about (or misunderstood! Dare I say) his performance in The Searchers, released in 1956 and directed by John Ford. In the film, Wayne is no longer that fresh face from Stagecoach (’39) or that sympathetic Union officer in Fort Apache (’48). He’s a bad dude. He’s a killer. He’s hateful. The same could be said to describe Travis in Taxi Driver. Despite each character’s moral shortcomings, they both set out to perform incredibly moral acts. Both are on a mission to save young girls. Wayne’s Ethan Edwards is a cowboy who hates the Comanche Indians. The Comanche have kidnapped his niece. He begins a years-long journey to save her. De Niro’s Travis Bickle is a racist Vietnam vet in cowboy boots who longs for the “scum” of New York to be washed away. He decides to rescue a 12-year old prostitute, Iris, from the cess-pool and those in it who he believes have robbed Iris of her innocence. The endings of both films are harrowing – one a triumphant shortcoming, the other a quiet recession into stark loneliness. Which ending is which? Decide for yourself.
(The Searchers is available for rent on Apple TV, Amazon, Google Play; Taxi Driver is streaming on Netflix)
Above L to R: Travis Bickle and Ethan Edwards – villains or heroes? Right: The famous closing shot of Ethan leaving all alone at the end of The Searchers.
Persona + Through A Glass Darkly
If you find yourself in an existential crisis during this winter blast, maybe this pairing will do you some good. And if you haven’t been introduced to Ingmar Bergman, well…you will never be the same. Bergman is most challenging. He challenges the audience and himself. Persona is one of the great films of all time. Who are we? What are we doing here? Through A Glass Darkly deals with something similar but on a familial level – who are family? What are boundaries? These films are uncomfortable – they deal with existentialism, incest, God’s silence, etc. They’re both about 80 or 90 minutes, so knocking them out on a double bill is totally plausible.
(Both are streaming on HBO MAX and The Criterion Channel)
Above L to R: Through a Glass Darkly and Persona. What is life, though?
Casablanca + Midnight Run
On the one hand, you have Casablanca, the first screenplay considered to have literary relevance, which paved the way for Hollywood structure and screenplay-as-art. We follow Rick, who’s long, lost love appears one night in his bar… with her new husband. Humphrey Bogart grows from disaffected old bat to understanding old bat in the most organic way ever put on screen. On the other hand, you have Midnight Run. Considered the “Casablanca” of buddy pics, here we elevate the “perfect screenplay” into the “perfect Hollywood screenplay” complete with stunts, action, explosions, helicopters, etc. Pure 1980s American moviemaking, but with all the feels. De Niro as Jack Walsh gives one his most underrated and moving performances, who, like Rick in Casablanca, also grows from disaffected old bat, to understanding old bat (with the only $1000 bills in movie history, to my knowledge.) The endings of both films will have you believing in humanity again.
(Casablanca is streaming on HBO MAX; Midnight Run is available for rent on Apple TV, Amazon, Google Play)
Above: A classic romance followed by a classic bromance.
Lolita + Dr. Strangelove
Kubrick pre 2001: A Space Odyssey. I paired these two because of Peter Sellers. His performance in Lolita is my favorite comedic performance of all time. In Nabakov’s Lolita, we are constantly taken by his command of the English language. We are sustained not only by the story but his unparalleled skill as a linguist. In the film adaptation, language is transposed into something visual, and the vehicle by which this transposition takes place is the brilliant, hilarious, Peter Sellers. Strangelove on the other hand, is the greatest farce of all time (This would also be good with Network, come to think of it.) I heard someone recently describe Strangelove as “a miracle.” It sure is. And in these strange times, what better way to laugh than hearing the President of the United States say, “You can’t fight in here, this is the war room.”
(Both are available for rent on Apple TV, Amazon, Google Play)
Above: 1 Peter Sellers. 2 films. 4 characters. All hilarious. Right: Shelly Winters with Sellers in Kubrick’s Lolita.
