civex Blog

Under discussion:

Male and Female  (1919)

Sunset Boulevard  (1950)

This is one of several silent movies that are still interesting to watch. "Male and Female" is an early effort by Cecil B. DeMille, and it stars Gloria Swanson, who was about 20 when it was made. Her co-star is Thomas Meighan, who was 20 years her senior and the bigger star in 1919 when "Male and Female" was made. But adorable Lila Lee steals the show as the scullery maid, Tweeny.

Silent movies were very different from talkies. The beginning of the movie introduces the viewers to the cast of characters and tells who plays each role. The introduction is unnecessary by today's standards, and it's very leisurely, reminding us that audiences in 1919 were very unsophisticated (and not just in movies). The title role is Crichton, the family butler to the family of Lord Loam. DeMille has Meighan introduce his character very elegantly, making Crichton admirable from our first view of him (the movie is based on a play called "The Admirable Crichton"). All characterization is done in mime, of course, so the camera lingers on Meighan's face as Crichton's emotions ficker across. Meighan was quite a good actor, effortless and devoid of the mugging we often associate with silent films (most of our experience is with clips from the Keystone Kops, it seems to me). Lila Lee is equally good here, playing a maid who is in love with Crichton, but who can see his secret crush on Lady Mary Lasenby (played by Swanson), a love which must never speak its name because it crashes against the boundary of class.

The family sails to the South Pacific with Crichton and Tweeny in tow, and they apparently run aground on Santa Catalina (the island of romance, romance, romance, romance) which substitutes for a tropical paradise. It is here that roles reverse completely, as Crichton somehow knows all the skills not only to survive, but to live in royal comfort: after two years on the island, they have a forge (and appear to have made their pots and pans so well they can be used as mirrors), a potter's wheel, a lovely home, more food than they can eat, and Crichton is treated as the king, with Tweeny and Lady Mary having a cat fight to see who gets to serve his dinner to him.

The lack of sophistication in early movies is either charming or damning depending on your point of view. They use bows which are barely able to launch the arrows out of the frame of the film; parts of the island are clearly a set with palm trees and brush, but outside views really do look like they were shot on Santa Catalina, a mountainous island without trees; there's no indication of how these people were able to get iron, but we have a large smelting operation with bellows and kiln made of apparently fireproof bricks. We let those objections pass.

Since this is a C.B. DeMille movie, we have a fantasy scene from Babylon which is more interesting than the movie, foreshadowing DeMille's rise as the master of spectacle with a cast of thousands and sets to match. In the fantasy, Crichton plays a Babylonian king, Tweeny his would-be queen, and Lady Mary the Christian slave captured but refusing to kneel. Crichton tells her to accept his advances willingly or go to the lions; Lady Mary of course chooses death before debauchery. These scenes show DeMille already advanced in setting up tableaus and scenery which are beautifully composed and shot.*

Our hero and his charges are rescued and returned to England where the roles are unreversed, and Crichton returns to being a servant, unable to marry Lady Mary, who has learned to love him. Instead, Crichton accepts Tweeny as his wife, they emigrate to America, and live happily ever after as farmers. At the end, we see Lady Mary accepting the offer of marriage from a suitor who acknowledges that her love will always be with the absent Crichton, and the last shot of her fades with Swanson showing an empty sadness. We then dissolve into Crichton and Tweeny on their farm, and the movie ends with their embrace, both obviously in love. I'm sorry to have missed what I think would have been some excellent character development in seeing how Tweeny made Crichton's love bloom, apparently making him forget Lady Mary. To Lee's credit, I think she could have pulled it off. And I miss Lady Mary's remorse in choosing not to marry Crichton for love, choosing instead to maintain her peerage and her money. 

This is an interesting movie in spite of its shortcomings. We see Gloria Swanson at the start of her career; many of us remember her better for her role in "Sunset Boulevard" (released in 1950**) where she played the aging actress with the constant refrain, "I'm ready for my close up, Mr. DeMille." Thomas Meighan was at his peak, a manly man with a soft streak for beautiful women. And Lila Lee had not yet suffered her several failures of luck, work, and health. We also see that DeMille was not at his best with naturalistic scripts and that his segue into epic movies was a good career move.

*Silent movies can be truly beautiful, as the directors, lighting directors, and cinematographers worked together to create shots as compelling as any professional still photographers then or since can make. The silent camera can linger on an empty shot, then have a character enter and pose, beautifully lighted in luscious black and white while we admire the tableau. For some reason, none of this works in color. Black and white film made better photographers of its directors. DeMille showed his genius for sets and spectacle in the Babylon fantasy, while letting the main story fall to mere competence.

**"Sunset Boulevard," of course, is a remarkable movie in its own right. The cast included not only Gloria Swanson but Cecil B. DeMille himself, Eric von Stroheim, Buster Keaton, Hedda Hopper, and other well-known actors.

Under discussion:

Film Name  Production Year

Constantine  (2005)

"Constantine" has the best Satan I've ever seen (in a movie). Peter Stormare (also in "Fargo") brings true savoir faire to the role of Lucifer. Keanu Reeves plays the hero, John Constantine, and my initial reaction was that he couldn't carry it off. I pictured Constantine as a hard-bitten dick like Sam Spade, and Reeves just doesn't have it. However, his attempt to be hard-bitten grew on me -- maybe Constantine is really a gentle, caring guy trying to play tough. I think it works.

The plot is taken from a comic book that I've never read. I think it's called "John Constantine: Hellblazer," or maybe just "Hellblazer." I don't care. Most movies based on comic books suck pretty bad, and I had low expectations on this film. But "Constantine" very much exceeded my expectations solely because of Stormare and Tilda Swinton - more on her later.

Okay, the plot. Angela Dodson (Rachel Weiss) is a Catholic woman whose sister appears to have committed suicide, a big no-no in the Catholic Church. This means the sister (Isabel, also played by Weiss) is refused a Catholic funeral and will burn in hell for all eternity. (The name Angela is obvious, of course, but it turns out that Isabel means "God's promise.") John Constantine has a reputation as a sort of supernatural private eye, so naturally Angela seeks him out and puts him on the case - did Isabel fall or was she pushed? So Constantine and Angela pursue the case in this world and the next, learning there's a plot to let Satan and his minions overrun earth. Can they foil it? Of course.

Director Francis Lawrence keeps the film moving, lots of action and special effects (although I thought his depiction of hell was mundane), unburdened by boy-girl sparks between our hero and his client (it is a comic book, after all). Two pieces of casting makes the movie rise above its comic book status: Stormare and Swinton.

Swinton plays Archangel Gabriel. I have no idea if the role was written with a man in mind, but if so, no concession was made for Swinton to play it. At one point she's seen in a mannish suit, and I don't recall references to Gabriel's gender (and I may well have forgotten -- what gender are angels, anyway?). She plays the role to the hilt. At one point, Constantine says with all sincerity, "Gabriel, you are insane." Best line in the movie, in part because it's totally true. Gabriel has definitely gone off the deep end, and Swinton plays Gabriel not as a thrashing lunatic but as utterly sincere.

Stormare plays Lucifer with all the panache of a mafioso who's got a job condemning to hell everyone that he can, he's good at it, and he likes the job. Total confidence, total competence. There are a couple of special effects hinting at his satanic powers, but it's pretty much just Peter Stormare giving Satan character. I really liked his work.

Under discussion:

American Beauty  (1999)

Lester (Kevin Spacey) is bored with his life, his job, his wife, Carolyn (played by Annette Bening), and his home. In the midst of what appears to be a mid-life crisis, he is laid off his job and falls hard for a high school girl, his daughter's best friend. His imaginary affair with her renews and reinvigorates him, and Lester decides to make his life, if not exciting again, at least not stagnant. Lester's family and life are contrasted with two other families: the next door neighbors, a family headed by a retired military man (Chris Cooper) who is a closet psychopath and whose son is a drug dealer; and two gay men, who live the only normal family life we see, bringing welcome gifts to new arrivals in the neighborhood. Lester becomes the order taker at a fast food restaurant, and lives a second childhood with much comic relief. The movie is well-written and well-acted, with a lot of tension at the end as we wonder how Carolyn is going to resolve her own conflict concerning ending her marriage with Lester.

This is a movie about plastic. The title is a reference to American Beauty Roses, which are the roses presented to the winner of the Miss America Pageant. Lester's fantasy girlfriend, Angela, represents the youthful dream of plastic, and his wife, Carolyn, represents the dream turned real plastic. Lester's life has become plastic, the real future from as far back as "The Graduate." Lester's daughter, Jane (played by Thora Birch), thinks herself unattractive (Angela is blonde, a model, and claims sexual experience) and wants plastic breast implants to improve others' view of her.

While this is a very enjoyable movie, it's not great. Sam Mendes, the director, really pounds us over the head with the rose petal metaphor. The petals fall from the ceiling and Carolyn doesn't notice, Lester spits petals out of his mouth and they just sort of disappear -- these are huge clues that the petals are a metaphor, so then we have to figure out what for. 

I'll say that the roses appear during scenes which are Lester's fantasy or in which he is shown having a fantasy. Angela in the bath, covered in floating petals is a scene which is Lester's fantasy. Lester in bed smiling rapturously with petals floating down from nowhere is a scene in which he is shown having a fantasy. So what are we to make of this? My suggestion is that Lester is having a midlife crisis and he's trying to have a second -- well, not childhood but there's no word for teenagehood, so let's make it up: a second teenagehood. The petals in the bath represent that first love and the first exploration of sexuality while Lester was in the bloom of youth -- as Angela is at the time of the movie. I would even go so far as to suggest that the petals represent Angela's labia and that when Lester finds a petal in his mouth, it represents his fantasy of the taste of Angela, as well as the taste of youthful love.

The petals are a metaphor which we use to compare Lester's fantasy of his and Carolyn's lost youth and lost youthful love with how things are at the time of the film. Objects have become more important than fun -- Lester is not supposed to drink beer in his living room because it might stain the fabric. Appearances are more important than feelings -- watch their dinner scenes; listen to Jane talking about herself; listen to Angela and Jane talk. Thus, I see the petals as a metaphor for loss.

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS 

DO NOT READ PAST THIS POINT IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE MOVIE

Ultimately -- as he should, of course -- Lester realizes that actually realizing his fantasy of sex with Angela would be wrong. (I think of Woody Allen's line in "Annie Hall": Annie says, "Sex without love is an empty experience." Alvy replies, "Yes, but as empty experiences go, it is one of the best.") And then we come to the scene where his blood on the wall replaces the petals of the rose as a metaphor for loss.