The last movie mashup before Christmas, from my friend, Tom Gale . . .

Time is always against us and no time is this more apparent than during the holiday season.  It is ironic that the busiest holiday should fall so close to the shortest day of the year.  What’s up with that?  Wouldn’t it have been so much more sensible to put this time of year into summer when the days are long and there is plenty of extra sunlight around to make holiday preparations so much easier?  And without school in session and people already taking vacations, there would be plenty of time for being together and visiting and traveling and taking the holiday at a leisurely pace.  Someone messed up when they put Christmas on Christmas Day, or rather when they put it all in December and then to make matter worse stuck Thanksgiving right ahead of it, making this four weeks of hustle, bustle, and something else that doesn’t rhyme with either.  Sometimes it would be really nice to posses Kris Kringle’s apparent ability to fold the very fabric of space time to allow the localized black hole that would be scientifically necessary for delivering gifts to all the world’s households in a single night (and that’s assuming that the jolly old elf happens to have a completely accurate census of every corner of the Earth).  Federal bureaucrats take note: save money next census and just buy Santa’s list outright; I’m sure he’d be happy to black out the nice/naughty entries in the interest of protecting the innocent and an additional income source is always helpful even for Santa’s manufacturing and delivery operations.

The bottom line, though, is that the whole Christmas season is chock full of mystery, miracle, and magic.  Whether you are focused on the more secular elements of gift-giving and family and feasting and friendship, or the more religious elements of light in darkness and the birth of a soul savior so long ago and praise for the miracle of life out of death this is after all a fitting time of year for it reminds the heart that despite the long dead winter ahead new life is always waiting for us if we keep our doors open to it.  Such elements  would cease to have meaning in the midst of the long indolent and comfortable summer; they best serve us when we are looking the cold, harsh future square in the face as we do around this time of year.

CLICK TO ENLARGE

The fifth in Tom Gale’s series of Adapted-Just-In-Time-for-Christmas movie posters!

What is the city that never sleeps?  Various cities around the world have claimed the title including Las Vegas, Mumbai, Tel Aviv, and Bangkok.  But the one that most Americans know by that title is our own New York City, The Big Apple itself.  Of course a city of any size can realistically lay claim to the idea that it never rolls up the pavements, but NYC is somewhat unique in its wide variety and scope of things to do around the clock.  More than just a corner pharmacy stays open 24 hours in that town.  New York’s insomnia has been referenced in song (Frank Sinatra) and cinema (1924 The City That Never Sleeps directed by Jame Cruze).  Even as early as 1912, the phrase was popularly connected to New York enough to be referenced in a Fort Wayne News article describing the city’s grand new gas plant that would also make it the city that never grew dark.

So it’s a bit of a surprise that the 1953 film of that name, starring Gig Young and Edward Arnold, referred not to NYC but to Chicago.  No other connection between The Windy City and that moniker seems to exist which may suggest that the film wasn’t the biggest box office smash of 1953.  If you are interested, two films tied that year for the biggest box office grosses.  They were The Robe and Peter Pan.  Reviews that I found were not very complimentary, calling it at best “whimsical” and at worst, “hardly more than adequate”.  So it’s not a memorable example of the noir genre of gritty realism, dirty urban settings, and despicable characters.  The story follows a cop who is weary with the world through which he wanders listlessly and planning to make a break to a new life (which the audience immediately knows is an act of shallowness that will haunt him should he act on his impulses).  As luck, or fate, would have it, his intended last night on the job turns out to lead him to self-realization (much like the far more noble George Bailey of It’s a Wonderful Life) and a reaffirmation of the seed of goodness that had been push down deep into his heart.

This season seems to be one time of year, no matter which of the seven major holidays are being celebrated, when redemption and forgiveness are traditionally looked to for the re-invigoration of tired hearts and souls.  That every story of this season has, as its villain, an unrepentant humbug  who must first learn to forgive himself so he can accept the forgiveness of others, shows the remarkable resilience of this theme in western culture and certainly in modern times.  Most of these antagonists are not evil but simply those who have forgotten what is important in life.  It is the nature and indeed the reason for this season to serve as a reminder of just that.  It is no mistake, I think, that the Christmas season begins with Thanksgiving, for how can we truly give and forgive without first understanding how thankful we must be for what we have?  Even George Bailey forgot how much he truly had because he became too wrapped up in what he had “lost”.

City That Never Sleeps may not be a great tale, but even in its mediocrity, it can serve to remind us that redemption is simply a matter of viewing life as a collection of gains rather than as a collection of losses.  Meaning cannot be imposed upon us as Ebeneezer Scrooge discovered; the ghosts of Christmas did nothing but to show him what was already all around him so that he, by his own volition, could discover what was inside.  The dark and gritty landscape of the big city may seem impossible to navigate, but in truth, everywhere you turn is a door behind which is a warm, well-lit room waiting to welcome and forgive.  And the first door, is always your own.

Merry Christmas.

Tom

Now go to sleep.

CLICK TO ENLARGE

I took a film class with Tom Gale back at ODU in the dim, dark ’70s, but I don’t remember seeing this film there.  Nevertheless, Tom has fond memories of it, and has had fun with the poster.  Here’s #3 in Tom’s Christmas poster parodies.

For most of us there are certain movies that you get to see only if you frequent thoughtful repertory movie theaters, happen to be a movie history geek, or take a couple of film appreciation courses at the local community college.  I saw “The Grand Illusion” while at Old Dominion University in the same film class where I saw “The Battleship Potemkin”, Ingmar Bergman’s “Persona”, “Women in Love” and a host of other unforgettable examples film as art.  The very fact that the common term for a film work is the diminutive “movie”, (a way of denigrating the status of something by making it sound childish and unimportant, like “talkie” or “techie”), suggests that on average we look to the cinema for light escapism rather than meaningful contemplation.  Of course there is not a thing wrong with great mindless entertainment as evidenced by the number of action and comedy flicks we have in our home DVD collection.  I like Bruce Willis too!  But it is a good practice every now and again to choose a film for an experience that involves us in the very best that cinema as an art form can achieve; make us ponder a larger reality and teach us something about ourselves.

Renoir’s “Grand Illusion” is a film that not only earns its reputation as serious cinema, but exists in modern form as an example of miraculous restoration luck.  The original negative, long considered lost to the destruction of World War Two, was still missing when Renoir himself helped remaster the film in the 50’s using available prints.  It was not until a film exchange between Russia and France in the mid-60’s did the original finally surface and was available to use for the most current Criterion remastering.  To watch the film in its contemporary format is to see it, as many were not able to, in as close to its original visual condition as possible.  If ever there was an argument for having a large screen TV, this is a great one.  

The poster, by the way, is not one of the few usually associated with the film.  I think it is from an Italian release of the film, but it is, in my opinion, the best of the posters, graphically.  Without this poster version, “The Grand Illusion” might have been overlooked for inclusion in this series.  That would have been a shame.  Please enjoy the review below found on the Rotten Tomatoes film review site where it enjoys a 97% fresh rating from reviewers and a 93% from viewers like you and me.

Perhaps this would make a perfect holiday gift for that special, thoughtful person in your life.  Who says a date movie has to be about romance?

Merry Christmas, 

Tom

“Perhaps the greatest anti-war film ever made.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

Jean Renoir’s (“The Rules of the Game”) subdued masterpiece is perhaps the greatest anti-war film ever made (some might prefer All Quiet on the Western Front). Uncannily, “Illusion” never showed one battle scene as it reflects on the first Great War in Europe. The first foreign film to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar is framed around a simple WW1 POW escape narrative, but it suggests a more careful look at how it’s also a pointed study of how upper class backgrounds, even in warring armies, offers a stronger bond of sympathy than even nationality. This is brought out through the deep regard the German commandant, Captain von Rauffenstein (Erich von Stroheim), had for his captive, the senior French officer, Captain de Boeldieu (Pierre Fresnay), also an aristocrat and career professional military man. 

The film offers a call for universal brotherhood and a plea for sanity in a world that doesn’t know how to settle things without going to war. There never has been a time of a lasting peace. The Grand Illusion title, one that can mean many things, most likely is derived from the illusionary nature of the war’s slogan that this was “The War to End All Wars.” It’s based on a true story of men Renoir knew when he was in the French Resistance, who told him of their escapes. 

Nazi propaganda minister Goebbels considered this film cinematic enemy number one, and tried to destroy all copies. Fortunately he didn’t succeed. The negative was taken during the German occupation of France in WWII and retaken when the Red Army seized Berlin. The Reds stored it in a hidden archive; several prints over the years were released. But it wasn’t until recently that it was put together as it was originally intended by Michel Rocher and Brigitte Dutray, who upgraded it through use of modern technology. Criterion put out a fine version on DVD. The version I saw was the updated one, which was recently on TCM.

In 1916 French pilot Lt. Maréchal (Jean Gabin) is ordered by his superior, Captain de Boeldieu, to fly with him on a reconnaissance mission to get aerial photos. They are shot down and captured by Captain von Rauffenstein and invited by him to a hospitable dinner. They are later transferred to a POW camp for officers in Germany. There they meet Lt. Rosenthal (Marcel Dalio), whose nouveau riche banking family sends him regularly food packages which he graciously shares with the others. The French prisoners are digging a hole for the last few months to escape. For relaxation they are allowed to put on a talent show and wear dresses. When Maréchal announces that the French captured the city of Douaumont, the prisoners take a break from their performances and in a grand patriotic gesture stand at attention and sing with pride “The Marseillaise.” Afterwards Maréchal tries to escape and is brought back to solitary; he’s released in time to be told that all the French officers are being transferred to another camp. When he tries to tell the British replacements about the tunnel, they don’t understand French.

The narrative picks up with Maréchal and Boeldieu, after many escape attempts in different POW camps, transferred to a camp where Rauffenstein is the commandant. He has been severely wounded in battle and can no longer be in the front, but to serve his country he reluctantly takes this new assignment he dismisses in confidence to Boeldieu as being only a policeman’s job. Rauffenstein is so fond of Boeldieu that he rooms him away from the other prisoners in his medieval castle and provides him companionship by also moving in Maréchal and Rosenthal. The later, Rauffenstein says, so they can eat properly. Rauffenstein treats de Boeldieu’s at his word, because he is an aristocrat, but doesn’t have the same respect for the working class auto mechanic Maréchal or the Jew Rosenthal. 

The trio hide a rope and scheme to escape, but Boeldieu tells Maréchal and Rosenthal he will stay behind and cover for them because the plan would not be possible for all three to escape together. During the escape the noble Boeldieu is shot by Rauffenstein, as he offers himself up as a sacrifice so the two could escape. Before he dies Boeldieu forgives Rauffenstein, saying he did his duty and he would have done the same thing if things were reversed. The war is seen as a changing view of the social order where, according to the German aristocrat, the working class man and the dirty Jew return to freedom while the aristocrat will not because he’s a member of a dying breed.

During their escape through the German wintry countryside, the two desperate and hungry men stumble upon an isolated farmhouse of a German war widow, whose hubby was killed in Verdun, Elsa (Dita Parlo) and her young daughter Lotte. Even though they don’t speak the same language Elsa and Maréchal fall in love, and make plans to meet after the war if he survives. The men in the last scene make it to safety in neutral Switzerland by crossing the invisible border in a mountain covered with snow.

REVIEWED ON 4/17/2005        GRADE: A+

Dennis Schwartz: “Ozus’ World Movie Reviews”

© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED   DENNIS SCHWARTZ

http://www.sover.net/~ozus

CLICK TO ENLARGE

From my friend, Tom Gale:

I haven’t actually seen this movie although I have seen a whole bunch of B grade science fiction disaster films in my day.  I grew up with them screening most Saturday afternoons along with The Outer Limits and The Twilight Zone.  It was all part of being a generation growing up inside the fear bubble of nuclear war.  I even had dreams of worldwide disaster; I’m sure many of us did.  The whole 50’s and early 60’s craze of science-run-amok films grew out of our fears of nuclear destruction.  Cinema is just a reflection of society’s angst at the moment.  And we had a lot to be afraid of in those days.  Today we have zombie films.  I’d tell you what part of our social consciousness they represent but then I would give away the heart of the doctoral dissertation I’m planning.  I’ll give you a hint though; it started when McDonald’s went global with their first overseas franchise in Australia.

Social comment aside, this movie may actually be worth watching and not just by scyfy freaks (who by the way can’t spell).  The movie review web site, Rotten Tomatoes gives the movie an 83% fresh rating by reviewers and a 70% by regular viewers.  That’s good enough for me to put in an extra dollar for some popcorn.

Read the review below if you want or just enjoy the second entry in this year’s holiday greetings.  Whatever you do DON’T FORGET TO CHECK THE WATER.

Merry Christmas.Tom

The Day the Earth Caught Fire

June 11th, 2004 by Doug Cummings 

Every year around this time, I start getting a series of emails from an old college bud who’s now in Tampa. Tom Gale, theatrical artisitic director non pareil, usually takes classic pieces of art, Photoshops in a Christmas tree, has maniacal fun with Goya or Picasso or Gainsborough, and makes me laugh.


This year, he’s changing things up.  Merry Christmas from Tom and from me.  I’ll be presenting his works as I receive them, and there should be twelve this year, one for each day of Christmas…

So this year will mark a serious departure from the last seven years of Famous Artists Holiday Greetings for a number of reasons.  In no particular order I have very little spare time this year for either imaging or background research.  I have, for reasons of my own, been browsing through books about famous and infamous movies.  This year I’ve spent a lot of time designing posters and fliers both big and small.  And lastly, and perhaps most importantly, my principal source book, The Annotated Mona Lisa, has just about fallen apart and I can’t yet afford a new copy.

So instead of witty, hip, and topical parodies of famous works of art twisted into idiosyncratic and edgy holiday greeting ecards, this year you will be receiving witty, hip, and topical parodies of famous movie posters twisted into idiosyncratic and edgy holiday greeting ecards.  Wow.  Big difference. 

Don’t expect any deeply considered reviews or comparisons with other films or riffs on why the film did or did not make it onto AFI’s top 100 films or Leonard Maltin’s 100 Must See Movies List or really any list at all.  Frankly, as Tommy Lee Jones said so well in The Fugitive, “I don’t care.”  I expect the cards will stand on their own (at least they will if you print them out on heavy card stock and put a crease down the center) and if they make you chuckle or think then great.  If they make you go see the movie in question or rent the DVD, even better.  I am copying these to all the appropriate studios with a self addressed stamped envelope (who else would I get to address my envelope?) so they can send me royalty checks against all increased sales and viewings of these films due to the influence of my greetings.  My business plan is modeled after the current plan for reducing the national debt and lifting the country out of its recession.  I also just told Eric that his allowance won’t go up for the next two years. 

Be that as it may, I hope that these e-greetings will spread a little of the joy, wonder, and bemusement of the season.  The heck with the Christmas Parade in NYC or black Friday in October, this marks the TRUE start of the holiday season.  The best is yet to come.  

Happy Holidays.

Tom

CLICK TO ENLARGE, MOFO