2020 Academy Awards

By the end of April award season is typically a distant memory. Folks will often bitch a bit about what won a few months back but the focus is on what delightful new Marvel movie or dreadful remake is about to officially open summer movie season. I’m not wasting virtual ink to tell you how this past year was different because we are all aware. In fact I’m not sure what the actual telecast of the Academy Awards is going to look like this year, but based on the propensity to go for low hanging fruit, I’m sure our host/presenters will make plenty of quarantine jokes. 

With the shift away from theaters to home streaming complete more and more people had a chance to see far more nominees this year than normal. The late show this year also gave extra time to catch up on things, but well at the risk of sounding redundant, this year was different. I could barely muster up any interest in watching any of the nominees. I had very little excitement about what was nominated and very little enthusiasm for snubs. Frankly put I did not have a dog in this year’s race and collectively the best picture nominees are probably the weakest since 2008. I’ll let you look it up if you want, but that was the last year of 5 best picture nominees when Slumdog Millionaire took home the top honor because frankly nothing was interesting.

As fewer films were released, and a few that didn’t get made the field was wide open and also strange. Film Comment ceased publication this year so my most trusted year end list was nowhere to be found. The Golden Globes proved to be an extra batch of head-scratching this year with several questionable nominees. So with little fanfare, an extended delay comes a quick recap on what is nominated in the major categories, so forgive my lukewarm takes on this years shit. As a surprising bonus though this is the first year in memory where I was able to see every best documentary nominee. For the record I am rooting for Collective to win that although Time and The Mole Agent are also excellent. I can practically guarantee Crip Camp will win because well it’s exactly the type of thing Academy voters love to pride themselves on recognizing.

 

Best Supporting Actress:

OK so Glenn Close made history this year by becoming the first person nominated for a Golden Raspberry and Academy Award for the same performance. This indicates the polarizing nature of that film, which I honestly didn’t bother sitting through. Yeah it’s on Netflix but man this year has been a huge bummer and I don’t think Hillbilly Elegy is going to make it better. Yuh-jung Youn is little known but the kooky grandparent is a lightning rod for Academy voters, but usually if that actor is best known for younger roles. Speaking of I-had-to-look-up-how-to-spell-their-name-actresses, Maria Bakalova was the breakout of the year in the pedestrian Borat sequel. She is the bright spot of the film and recognizing new talent isn’t an impossibility. Olivia Coleman and Amanda Seyfried are perfectly fine in their roles (Coleman more so) but neither seems to be running away with it. Hopefully Bakalova takes it but I am often wrong.

 

Best Supporting Actor:

 

Speaking of Borat, Sacha Baron Cohen is nominated for his delightful turn in Trial of the Chicago 7, a perfectly cromulent best picture nominee.His accent is odd, but would you expect anything else from the man? Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stanfield might cancel each other out although I felt like Stanfield should have been considered the lead there. Chicago and The Godfather 2 have proved that someone can win an Oscar when more than one person from the same film are nominated. One Night in Miami was fine, and Leslie Odom Jr. was as good as anyone in it but I literally had to look up who he played. Please read that as “that film was forgettable” rather than “black people all look alike”. Paul Raci is fine in Sound of Metal, but that is the theme of this year. Everyone is ok. For the record I’m pulling for Cohen, but I’m sure Odom wins.

 

Best Actress:

 

It’s a good year if you wanted to play a black singer from long ago. Viola Davis lays it on quite thick in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, but Chadwick Boseman more than stole the show there. Andra Day is this year’s musical biopic representative for the instantly forgettable The United States vs. Billie Holliday. Lady Sings the Blues covers much of the ground in this film, so yeah we’re getting to making remakes of biopics. Vanessa Kirby is outstanding in the bummer of a movie Pieces of a Woman. Carey Mulligan delivers probably the best overall performance for Promising Young Woman, but I’m not sure how much of a shot she has of actually winning. Frances McDormand makes her sporadic return to potentially win another Oscar. The fact that she already won this award twice would severely handicap her in this race. Nomadland was one of my favorite films of the year but honestly McDormand probably could have done this movie in her sleep.

 

Best Actor:

Chadwick Boseman is winning this. We can talk about the other nominees, but he’s joining Heath Ledger and Peter Finch in the posthumous trophy category. The film itself is a chore, and it is very,very clearly based on a play because there are countless monologues delivered while characters look away from everyone else in the room. It’s the type of movie some poor theater kid will probably pull from for a future audition. As an actual film everything is painfully telegraphed and a snooze. Anthony Hopkins for the record is fantastic in The Father and he deserves this award more than the one he got for Silence of the Lambs, but it’s Boseman all day. In a perfect world Riz Ahmed would have a real chance of winning this but him and Steven Yeun are going to have to be happy with the nomination.

 

Best Director:

This is the most interesting race in my opinion this year. Thomas Vinterberg is the lone nominee who directed a film without a best picture nominee. If you have Hulu, I highly recommend watching Another Round. It is all the fun of a Lars Von Trier film with half the depression. David Fincher is long overdue for one of these awards and Mank might be the one to do it. It’s certainly playing to it’s audience here but all eyes will be on Chloe Zhao who won the Globe in this category. This year’s Academy Awards are more diverse than normal but it does get a little annoying that after 90+ years we’re still having firsts when it comes to nominees. The Academy can pat itself on the back (and believe me there will be an applause break for it) by nominating two women for best director, and two Asians, what a world. I believe Zhao will take this home and her previous film The Rider was highly acclaimed even if it got no love from mainstream award shows. 

 

Best Picture:

The Father - This is the last nominee to be released to stream so I expect few people got around to even watching it. It’s a bummer and a half. Well made, it does have some resemblance to Michael Haneke’s excellent Amour without all the story. In fact that is the biggest knock against this film is that there really is no plot. It is made in a way that is fascinating and by trying to approximate what Hopkins character is going through makes things a little surreal. Like most Oscar bait, it is the type of film you can be moved by without ever wanting to sit through it again.

Judas and the Black Messiah - This film is by the numbers and honestly a little less enjoyable than I had hoped. I’m not sure how many of the nominees this year suffered by being watched in the comfort of my own home, but well I watched A Marriage Story and The Irishman last year on Netflix and they were both excellent. 

Mank - This year’s Netflix award bait was a significant drop in quality from the past two years. I’m not saying Mank is a bad film, but it’s a story I’m well familiar with. There are so many old Hollywood Easter eggs it amused me slightly to think how they can take a Marvel approach to film nerds. This struck me as a movie I could see getting plenty of nominations but probably not winning the top prize. Although the irony of a movie about the writing of Citizen Kane winning best picture when Kane didn’t would not be lost on me.

Minari - This is the last nominee I watched this season and it is a movie. Minari is unique in telling a story that hasn’t been told before, at least not like this, but man that’s about all I can say about it. I mean does a Korean family trying to start a farm in Arkansas sound like a good movie to you? Well where are the giant lizard vs. giant ape battles? We don’t even get a lot of stereotypical “go back to your country” scenes, and it takes place in Arkansas. Honestly Minari shows that even Asian people can be recognized for mediocre films. Look there’s nothing wrong with the movie but it was lost on me.

Nomadland - If I were voting for best picture, this is what I would vote for. If anyone watches this and thinks it’s boring as hell, I won’t argue with you. Not much actually happens but damn it if I still didn’t feel something watching it. I suppose my reaction to this film is what I was hoping for with all the nominees but it’s the only one to achieve it. With so many depressing things happening in 2020 it seems fitting that the best film would also be depressing. I know this film isn’t for everyone but in an incredibly weak year for cinema, this was a bright spot.

Promising Young Woman - With every film available to buy/rent Promising Young Woman was the first one we actually got. I vaguely remember seeing a trailer for it before the world ended and was not excited about it. The Us inspired re-working of “Toxic” from Britney Spears made my eyes roll quite hard. Even watching the film there were plenty of moments where I couldn’t tell if this was some brilliant Heathers/American Psycho black comedy or a tonally inconsistent lecture. I absolutely loved parts of it and kinda groaned at others. In a stronger year this might not have been nominated but I’d say it’s worth watching. Most people will have somewhat strong opinions about it, but it’s up to the individual what your take on it will be.

Sound of Metal - When this popped up Amazon Prime I was curious, then checked it out after the Golden Globe nominees were announced. Another film that surprised me by even getting made. This year is lacking many of the big productions, period pictures and epics, which makes some sense. Sound of Metal is absolutely great for what it is, which seems more like a small film that would have gotten some love at film festivals and then dropped out of sight. Riz Ahmed is fantastic, and for once an art film might win the sound design Oscars. 

The Trial of the Chicago 7 - This is your dad’s best picture winner. The kind of movie that checks every box for a good old fashioned award season hit that everyone will forget about in less than five years. It’s good but so textbook, which seems like the biggest strike against it. This might have been the most enjoyable of the nominees and if it weren’t for a monumentally corny finale I probably would be rooting for this as best picture. It’s well acted, incredibly well structured, and compelling as hell despite it’s predictability. Of all the nominees this is probably the one you’ll hear boomers recommend this year.

 

So there you go, my take on this year’s snooze-fest of nominees. Am I still going to watch the show? Absolutely. Am I still going to lose my Oscar poll to Caroline? Probably. Looking forward to awkward jokes landing poorly, and finally having a rooting interest in the best animated short category. 

The James Bond Awards

Quarantine has led to some interesting binges for all of us. Having gone on for nearly a year it makes sense that we would have watched a lot of TV and movies by now. For some it was an opportunity to slip into the comfort of our favorite stories, for others it was a chance to finally watch that thing that everyone keeps bringing up. For myself I set a few characteristically ambitious viewing goals but wound up watching a little too much Top Chef to be productive.

Two glaring areas of ignorance in my pop culture knowledge though were tackled. The first was Star Trek. Speaking of ambitious I had designs to watch all of the original series, The Next Generation, Voyager, and Deep Space Nine. After spending several months on the original series I thought I’d press pause before starting the next 400 episodes of Trek, not to mention the dozen or so movies. The other area was James Bond. You may have noticed I didn’t mention Bond films too often on here. In early 2019 however I did decide to catch up on the Daniel Craig films which were all pretty damn good overall. Right around New Years I finally decided to start all of the Bond movies in order. I realized quite quickly that Caroline was probably not down for this marathon which is her loss but also helps me plow through them at my characteristically obsessive pace.

Then came New Year’s Day. After drunkenly finishing Goldfinger (one of the half dozen or so Bond films I had actually seen and the only one I owned on DVD) I woke up with a day off ready to get to work. There was only one catch, all the Bond films that were streaming on Hulu and Amazon Prime proceeded to vanish. I realized that if I had only started this endeavor earlier I could have been done, or at least up to Brosnan. Doing a quick search I heard that the original films had moved to Peacock, a new streaming service that I am not subscribing to. I know with what is commonly referred to as the streaming wars we all have a breaking point. Mine was Peacock, although I previously put my foot down on at least a dozen others before. No I don’t care to watch the Office again or whatever god awful Saved by the Bell reboot is happening because frankly I’m also getting mighty tired of studios scraping the bottom of the barrel for nostalgic garbage they can repackage for people longing to return to an era where they were still capable of feeling something besides existential dread.

So what’s a guy to do? Well in the olden days I would have run to the library and got my fix there, but in the age of quarantine that is significantly more complicated. So I went to Best Buy, saw the entire collection on blu-ray and purchased good old fashioned physical media. As my Criterion posts have indicated I am a fan of the antiquated hard copies, and it was either this or subscribe to another god damn thing with more shit I don’t want or need to add another 15 minutes to the already excruciating “what are we going to watch tonight?” ritual. Luckily they price matched and I’m sure in the long run I saved money, plus how cool is it I own all 24 films on blu-ray? To answer the question my cousin had, no it doesn’t include the non-Eon produced Never Say Never Again where Sean Connery was given a dump truck of money to play Bond one more time. So having not seen that film, you can argue I haven’t seen “all the Bond movies” and I hear you, but we’re going with official releases. This is the same reason I didn’t watch Ghost Rider and Fantastic Four when I ranked the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Which quick aside, I have so many theories about Wandavision and I can’t wait to be wrong on nearly all of them.

Now the purpose of this blog is essentially to put down my thoughts after watching 24 movies in a franchise over roughly three weeks. As I mentioned before my knowledge of Bond was severely limited. Other than catching random scenes here and there I had only seen about 7 Bond films in their entirety. The one surprisingly I had seen the most was Licence to Kill, which I hadn’t seen at all since the early 90s. This explains why I had the itch to finally cross them off, because a film historian such as myself should be familiar with the longest running franchise in movie history. I would make the claim of it being the most successful but I’m not sure if Marvel has passed it. Since over 2/3 of these films were being watched for the first time I quickly abandoned my idea of ranking them. After all I would have to look up what the hell the difference between For Your Eyes Only and Octopussy was, I just know they were both pretty bad.

A second idea sprang up during the first third of this marathon, what about my own little James Bond awards? Lots of people, websites, and magazines have ranked all number of best and worst Bond things. In many ways these highlights might seem more pure because I’m coming in largely cold, consider it a first impression list. For example the second time watching Spectre definitely had a different weight knowing that Christoph Waltz was the 4^th official Blofeld in the series. Along the way I got a crash course in the inner workings of these productions, what explained various gaps, and why SPECTRE disappeared for forty years. So for this particular blog I want to tackle a few categories, list my favorite ____ and offer a little commentary why. So let’s dish, starting with:

Best Bond - Daniel Craig

I know you’re already pissed and telling me what an idiot I am, but hear me out. It seems nearly every Bond has a three picture window before they start to phone it in. Connery clearly stopped giving a shit around the time of Thunderball, Roger Moore freely admitted the series went ridiculous in Moonraker, and Die Another Day was a bit of a turd compared with Brosnan’s other three. I nearly put Timothy Dalton here because he always was my favorite Bond growing up. Being the only Bond for 6 long years as Licence to Kill ran on cable repeatedly will do that. I do think that if MGM not had it’s issues and a third or even fourth Bond film with Dalton had been made, he might top this list. He was a hyrbrid that had Connery’s charm and some degree of Craig’s athleticism.

The reason Craig tops this list is he grounded the franchise. Even when doing some rather absurd Bond stunts, he always seemed capable, not like old man Moore who deferred to his stunt double 80% of the time. Pierce Brosnan is a fine choice that I won’t argue with but like nearly all Bonds he quickly got old (something that 52 year old Craig will have to reckon with whenever No Time to Die gets released). Brosnan like other Bonds was a product of his time, whereas Craig (and Dalton) seemed timeless. Brosnan’s films are plagued with awful CGI and seemed over reliant on effects to carry them through. Craig has the least amount of gadgets considering Q doesn’t even appear in his first two films. By loosely linking his four films into one cohesive story he also seems to show a marginal amount of growth, which only Lazenby was given an opportunity to do before. I can shit on Lazenby but On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is easily one of the better films. The best of which I’ll get to now.

Best Bond Film - Casino Royale

There are some runners up here for sure. Goldfinger set the standard, and really the first three Bond pictures are all excellent. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service was top notch, and I really fucking love Licence to Kill. I think another reason for my love of Licence to Kill beyond nostalgia is the fact that it’s an 80s action movie and would have been right at home starring Schwarznegger. Casino Royale came out in the era of the gritty reboot, aka let’s all do what Batman Begins did. Craig was a different Bond, who was more objectified than the ladies around him. He also showed signs of vulnerability, he was human and flawed, not yet the cold calculating machine he would become. I also have no idea why tense poker scenes are so fascinating to watch. Most of the action is practical and holy Christ Eva Green is mesmerizing. It’s also one of the few Bond films that would probably place in my top ten of the year (Skyfall probably would as well fwiw). I understand anyone who has their personal favorite, but this is everything someone needs to know about Bond.

 Best Bond Girl - Diana Rigg (On Her Majesty’s Secret Service)

Countess Tracy di Vicenzo is simply the best Bond girl and I will fight anyone on this. I’m not saying who looked prettiest next to Bond, or who had the most ridiculous name because there are some humdingers in there, but Rigg’s Tracy was the greatest. I like my Bond girls competent and on equal footing with Bond. All too often Bond has either been partnered with some dumb ass whose sole purpose is to get captured, or she is murdered to motivate his revenge. Some come and go, a few turn out to be villains themselves, but Rigg was something better than others. She was the first memorable Bond girl. Sure a lot of attention was given to Ursula Andress for being the original Bond girl, and everyone knows the name Pussy Galore, but can you even remember what Honor Blackman looked like, or did? Rigg was the first Bond girl more famous than Bond largely because no one then or now has any clue who George Lazenby is and The Avengers was a very popular show. She got a second life on Game of Thrones and was the first of at least four Bond actors to appear on that show (if you recall more besides Sean Bean, Charles Dance, and Jonathan Pryce let me know). For the record she does get captured, but she kicks some ass and helps save the day rather than screaming for Bond to use his manly muscles to save her. RIP, also everyone should watch Theatre of Blood.

Best Theme Song - “Live and Let Die”

I mean this is one of the few un-debatable Bond facts. So much so that I wanted to rebel against this choice and put the absolute banger “A View to Kill” from Duran Duran which is the only Bond song I heard multiple times without knowing it was from a Bond movie. Now for the past month Caroline and I have been doing our best Shirley Bassey and saying “Goldfinger” while walking around the house, but for my money her second theme, “Diamonds are Forever” was the superior song. Kanye West seemed to think so and sampled it, twice but let’s not let his approval be an endorsement. McCartney’s theme took on a life of it’s own, and turned into a hit by Guns ‘n’ Roses 20 years later. It was also the only time I believe McCartney and George Martin collaborated post-Beatles.

Best Villain - Christopher Lee (The Man With the Golden Gun)

So allow me a brief respite to say I am 100% biased by the fact that Christopher Lee was in a Bond movie so he wins. Now not always has a great actor turned into a great villain. The jury is out on Christoph Waltz’s interpretation of Blofeld, who is clearly Bond’s most important villain but with so many actors playing him it somewhat splits the vote. Christopher Walken was wasted as a villain in the pretty shitty A View to Kill. Goldfinger, The Spy Who Loved Me, and Moonraker had villains overshadowed by their henchmen. Christopher Lee was the most fascinating of his many arch-nemesis. He wasn’t necessarily hell bent on world domination, he was a man like Bond who wanted to beat the best. Christopher Lee could be frightening as hell considering he played Dracula at least 2000 times and he helped salvage what was easily one of the weakest films in the series. In fact if it weren’t for him and Odd Job, Man with the Golden Gun probably would top my list of worst Bond films. Francisco Scaramanga is clever, capable, and believable as a superior foe, also what a name.

Best Henchman - Herve Villechaize (The Man With the Golden Gun)

I can’t for the life of me explain my fascination with Villechaize’s Nick Nack or why this movie was so bad despite having my favorite antagonists. Jaws is great, Odd Job is great, and I love me some Benecio del Torro in Licence to Kill. Hell Dave Bautista makes an excellent henchman complete with only one word of dialogue in Spectre. However I simply love the fact that this little shit is somehow a menacing person, long before Austin Powers made mini-me a deliberate joke. He also seems to be the rare henchman who has wavering loyalty, willing to fuck over Scaramanga so he can inherit everything, but is that just a set up? Now there are some Bond girls who turn out to be in bed with the enemy which makes me think of Sophie Marceau in The World is Not Enough but Villechaize’s acting career was so brief he deserves this. Speaking of further viewing, Forbidden Zone is certainly a movie.

Best Bond Ally - Joe Don Baker (GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies)

Jack Wade is one of several CIA allies Bond works with over the years. Baker is unique because he is one of four actors to play a villain as well as an ally to Bond, being the somewhat incompetent villain with toy soldiers in The Living Daylights. The first three Brosnan Bond outings are pretty good, and honestly Die Another Day isn’t irredeemable, but Joe Don Baker’s Wade is my favorite part of those movies. Just a gregarious American stereotype there to help out Bond officially and sometimes unofficially for the greater good. Bond typically does work alone, and I’m tempted to put Desmond Llewelyn here because Q has by far offered Bond the most help. However I’m trying to single out some individual performances and well I wanted to throw some love to at least something in the Brosnan era.

Now let the hate flow, as I shit on some of these movies.

Worst Bond - George Lazenby

I hate to pick on the guy but this one doesn’t need much explanation. I am curious what he could have done if he didn’t have the worst agent in history who advised him not to return. Hell even though I liked this film I would have to look up a picture of Lazenby to remember what he looked like. Easily the most forgettable, his Bond at least showed a few human traits that Dalton and Craig were able to tap into.

Worst Bond Film - Octopussy

I’ll be honest, you can flip a coin on Roger Moore’s mostly terrible Bond output. He worked as a Bond for awhile, until he shockingly didn’t. He seemed too old for this role almost immediately being four years older than Connery, but by 1983 he was definitely phoning it in. I remember absolutely nothing about this movie I watched two weeks ago. Oh yeah this had someone in a clown suit, a Faberge egg auction, and snore. Homer Simpson might have liked it but it was a waste. The theme was forgettable, the cast had no standouts, and overall it was an insufferable 131 minutes. For Your Eyes Only at least had Carole Bouquet and a marginally better opening.

Worst Bond Girl - Britt Ekland (The Man With the Golden Gun)

Mary Goodnight was the worst kind of Bond girl. Pretty, skinny, looked good in a bikini and colossally useless. In fact the only thing she seems to do is stumble blindly into setting off a doomsday device. There’s a reason The Man With the Golden Gun is so bad (more on that later) despite having my favorite villain and Henchman combo. I could have selected from the many forgettable ladies in these films but I chose the one that made me actively angry.

Worst Theme Song - “GoldenEye”

Yeah this song is a crud rock. Dishonorable mention to Shirley Bassey’s third and by far weakest outing for Moonraker. The fact that this song was written by Bono and the Edge of a still relevant U2 and sung by Turner who was channeling her inner Bassey it just sucks. To be honest quite a number of the themes are very forgettable, a few that are just instrumental. So again I’d rather highlight a theme that disappointed me more than one I don’t remember. Although to be perfectly frank I’m not a big fan of any of the Brosnan themes.

Worst Bond Villain - Toby Stephens (Die Another Day)

There are a number of lame and ridiculous Bond villains. Did you even remember Hugo Drax was the actual villain of Moonraker? Some people terribly miscast (Living Daylights, Diamonds Are Forever), but sometimes it’s just compounded garbage, ala Stephens portrayal of Gustav Graves. Bad CGI aside I actually liked Rosamund Pike and Halle Berry in this film, and the over the top fencing scene had it’s moments, but Graves is just the worst. On top of it I’m supposed to believe he is North Korean with plastic surgery, like how lazy could they get with the casting? I actually enjoy the other villains in Brosnan’s films largely because the actor’s portraying them were so good, but Stephens is the black sheep of that quartet.

Worst Henchmen - Lola Larson “Bambi” and Trina Parks “Thumper” (Diamonds are Forever)

Predicting the onslaught of awful campy nonsense that would pop up in Roger Moore’s films I almost forgot these two useless ladies were in Connery’s last official outing. I mean the names, the gimmick, their extreme incompetence are just the worst. How bad were these actresses? Well when I saw a girl that looked like Trina Parks in Moonraker I had a panic attack that for some reason these two were back. The fact that these sexy would be assassins are able to be held underwater simultaneously by Bond put a cap on how dumb their very inclusion was.

Worst Bond Ally - Clifton James (Live and Let Die, The Man With the Golden Gun)

Oh Christ do I hate this character. I can take some lame and campy nonsense because frankly that’s what this series was largely about but the fact that Clifton James’ tone deaf bumbling redneck cartoon character was brought back for a second Bond film is perplexing. Yeah a redneck Louisiana sheriff goes on vacation in Thailand. The second he appears in Live and Let Die I broke. That movie is not good despite it’s amazing theme song, but he was easily the worst thing about it, so when he shows up for no reason in The Man With the Golden Gun I knew there was no god. Guy Hamilton was apparently a fan of his and asked him to be written into Gun. Perhaps it was just a casual British fascination with a redneck stereotype complete with a giant wad of chewing tobacco. I hesitate to call him an ally because he was shaking his fat redneck fist in anger during Live, but he actually teams up with Bond in Gun. Either way, maybe Clifton James was a swell fella but there are few characters in movies I have hated more.

So there you have it, my take on Bond and it’s many facets. Perhaps one day I’ll go through the series again and update my rankings but man the thought of sitting through Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, and A View to Kill sounds like torture. Had I taken better notes I would have loved to rank the opening title sequences and the cold open action scenes, but that will be for another time.

 

Rules of the Game (1939) - Jean Renoir

Today is election day and while we’re all sweating out the results, or blissfully ambivalent towards things, I needed a distraction. Last night we started The Queen’s Gambit after watching the most recent adaptation of Emma. Emma got me thinking about Jean Renoir’s masterpiece, and sometimes through no fault of itself a competent movie makes you think of a better one. Emma was predictable and enjoyable to a point but I found myself annoyed that all the servants were nothing more than furniture. Rarely moving, never interacting, and borderline invisible to any of the people in the film. In Rules of the Game as much attention is paid to the help as the ambivalent rich people who can’t stop sleeping with each other. Does that alone make it a better film than Emma, well yes but this is like saying Wagyu steak is better than White Castle. Ok maybe Emma isn’t that trashy, but Rules of the Game is that good.

 

Even before I became certifiably obsessed with movies sometime in 1999, I would get obsessed with individual films. As a child I knew every word and sound effect in movies like Clue, Batman, and Big Trouble in Little China. In my junior high years it was Dead Alive, Planet of the Apes, and Woodstock for some reason. Citizen Kane, The Maltese Falcon, Singin’ in the Rain and others were obsessions of mine at various points in time. Luckily when discussing a French film there is a French term for a movie with that special something, je ne sais quoi which literally translates to “I don’t know”. Although never widely dubbed a cult film, Rules of the Game does check off some of those boxes. In particular it was a flop upon it’s release, it was cut and mangled, and a devoted audience of another generation rediscovered it and restored it to it’s current standing. To me the most important feature of a cult film is a desire to repeatedly watch it, which this certainly has for me.

 

You may recall from the last time I ranked my top 100 films that Grand Illusion made the cut and Rules was left out. Since that list was made I have probably watched Rules of the Game 6 or more times. It is the perennial answer to the question “what do I want to watch?” Yesterday as Caroline was heading to sleep and I was facing an uncertain tomorrow I reached for the comfort of the familiar. It’s hard to really articulate what draws you back to a film over and over again, particularly one that might not have made a huge impact on the initial viewing. Admittedly the first time I saw Rules it was a very crappy VHS with subtitles that blended into the image so a large chunk of dialogue I couldn’t even read. I gave it another viewing before eventually getting it on DVD when Criterion put it out. I watched it with commentary and had a begrudging “oh I guess it is a good film”.

 

The fact is though that Rules holds a very exalted place in the lexicon of cinema. It is the only film to make Sight and Sound’s Top 10 films of all time list since 1952. The fact that it is highly praised and has remained so for decades speaks to it’s reputation. That might be one reason why I have watched it multiple times. When someone tells you a particular movie is the greatest of all time or even one of the top ten it is nearly impossible to appreciate it on a single viewing. At best you can say “That was good, but I wouldn’t rank it that high.” Many of you reading can probably think of a masterpiece that has been beaten over your head that you appreciate and respect but would still slap an overrated label on. For many people seeing it once and coming to this conclusion is sufficient. For me I’m curious to know why I don’t agree with the hordes. I wonder if I missed something, or is everyone crazy.

 

If you are not a native French speaker I attest that it is impossible to grasp everything in Rules of the Game on a single viewing. I might argue it’s impossible on three trips through it, but no one wants to read about a movie and be told they have to watch it at least three times to appreciate it. For many it’s not worth the effort, and I can’t blame you. No one needs to watch Goodfellas 3 times to appreciate it. Some films, including some of my favorites start to show cracks on multiple views. Scenes that slip past you when you’re wrapped up in the story or the acting. When you see it multiple times you might pick up on questionable decisions. Fight scenes are usually the easiest area to miss details. Perhaps everyone patiently waits their turn to attack the badass hero, or someone gets their ass kicked without bothering to block or defend themselves in any way (Goodfellas, The Godfather, The Irishman). The truly great ones that often fall into the cult territory are movies that reveal their brilliance multiple times through. You start to look for cracks in the veneer only to see there are none. What once seemed routine or imperceptible is actually flawless execution.

 

There is a beauty to simplicity but it can be shockingly difficult to make things seamless to the naked eye. Casablanca is one of those movies that multiple viewings only seem to enhance. The Big Lebowski on paper seems kind of stupid and it’s only after many, many viewings do you start to realize just how intelligent it is. Lebowski I know is one of those movies people are told about so often that they often have that dismissive attitude towards it on first glance. I feel like I was one of the generation that discovered it’s brilliance through time, so by the time I noticed it’s intricate plot machinations and hidden callbacks the rest of the world was slowly discovering it as well.

 

The question might be, what the hell does this have to do with Rules of the Game? Well it often gets praised in a brief snapshot that doesn’t offer much justice. When you’re told it was made on the eve of World War II and mirrored the French obliviousness to the approaching Nazi invasion it seems timely but dated. Then you read about the innovative ways Renoir shot in depth and utilized multiple planes of action within a shot. Renoir shot like this on multiple films before, and frankly many modern audiences might not be that impressed that a director would have gone to those lengths. For the same reason people today might roll their eyes at the similar technical achievements of Citizen Kane. The virtuoso staging is definitely one of the things that would go unnoticed on a couple of viewings, unless you had a particularly observant teacher pausing and pointing it out to you. You can appreciate something based on the time in which it was made but for the truly exceptional picture, it needs to hold up beyond that.

 The script is extremely talkative. It’s hard not to spend the majority of the film watching the bottom third just to keep up. About a year ago I was pretty drunk and decided to watch the film with the goal of not reading a single subtitle, I just wanted to experience the visuals. It helped that having seen it approximately 10 times I know perfectly well what’s happening in any given scene. This helps explain some of the cultural differences in favorite films. An American equivalent would be Pulp Fiction. There are brilliant tracking shots, subtle sound design Easter eggs, and mesmerizing dialogue that might go completely unnoticed by a foreign audience. Some of the very specific references can also be wasted on certain groups, which is one reason why that film although highly praised doesn’t have the same universal recognition as others. I could argue this is what sets Rules back for many American audiences.

 

There is history that needs to be known, class structures to be aware of, societal mores and norms and so much repartee to keep up on that mise-en-scene can be missed. Knowing there’s a great film under there might seem pointless to try and dig out for others. If someone tells you duck confit is amazing and you order it three times without thinking it’s worth the price you might not be inclined to keep trying it. Luckily there is enough in the film that it works with little context and study. The slapstick chasing between Schumacher and Marceau is actually quite comical. It allows the dialogue to take a breather and allow the visuals to carry the load for a bit. The relationships all have a very modern flair to them that has aged quite beautifully as well.

 

As a plot there is a lot to unpack here. We might view it as particularly French or specifically Parisian for everyone to be in love with everyone else, but it can be hard to keep track of who is sleeping with who (spoiler the answer is everyone with everyone). Where the relationship drama starts to get interesting is the vacillating between jealousy and acceptance everyone seems to have. Christine, Andre, Marceau, Genevieve, the Marquis and Octave all seem quite alright with each others indiscretions then become violently jealous before coming to their senses and repeating the process all over again. Only Lisette the maid seems to be completely ambivalent towards any romance including her own husband. She takes life as she finds it and despite being married has very little interest in being a wife and seems to view infidelity as something to pass the time. She might be the most emancipated woman in the bunch but it is ultimately her that sets the final tragedy in action, despite it being perpetrated by her husband and jilted would-be lover.

 Her character might seem thoroughly modern but not everyone else is on her level. Perhaps a question of casting but I never understood the widespread obsession all the men seem to have towards Christine. Perhaps their infatuation for her is simply because it seems like the thing to do, trying to win her affection. She is so flaky that it’s a wonder she ever settled down long enough to get married to the Marquis. He in turn carried on his extramarital affair with Genevieve before he was even married. Perhaps it is her foreignness that intrigues their set, or her shifting allegiance that convinces all men that she is within their grasp.

 

It is worth noting that the men in domestic capacities do not pursue Christine. Their attentions seem focused on Lisette who is one of their own, drawing parallels between the two classes. Only Octave, who oscillates between both circles because of his upbringing but also because of his lack of means courts both women at various points. His affection for Lisette is little more than flirtation but Marceau despite being one with a weakness for the ladies doesn’t seem to interested in chasing one of the rich women at the chateau, at least not seriously. Even the Marquis seems content with Andre running off with his wife because at least he’s part of their set. This is echoed in Renoir’s earlier Grand Illusion where social class is more binding than nationality.

 

I would be remiss not to discuss Renoir’s humanism while discussing this film. As a thesis for his entire career Rules of the Game is probably as great of an example as can be found. It brings me to why the shortcomings of Emma and to an extent Jane Austen made me compare it to this. Even though people have their place in society, no one in particular looks down on the help. The Marquis is quite sympathetic to Marceau, looks out for him, and even asks his advice. Andre and Octave are friends despite the former’s status as a national hero and the latter’s limited means. The servants all dine together but they’re essentially eating the same as the people upstairs. The General is more concerned with class than any financial position. There isn’t any great sermonizing about the class differences in the house. People have their place, but they’re still people, and Renoir effortlessly shows that the problems of the servants directly mirror those of the rich guests. In effect everyone has the same struggles and we would do well to remember that.

 

Much of the technical achievements and the legacy of this film have been covered in great detail over the years. The segment on depth staging in Observations on Film Art is a nice little capsule of how great the mise-en-scene is. It’s reputation might make the film seem a little boring or worse that it has something to prove. I can’t necessarily explain why it’s taken me 20 years and about a dozen viewings to agree completely with it’s status as one of the all time great films. I’m not sure what it is about the film that makes me want to watch it a dozen more times, perhaps the fact that every subsequent viewing just makes it better. More is revealed and a testament to the greatest cinema is something that unveils new joys at every view. So hopefully the world doesn’t burn down tonight and we can all take a sigh of relief while watching this masterpiece about a group of entitled promiscuous people unaware the end of days is approaching.