January: Quick Reviews and Ratings

I don't have the time and energy to review every film I watch, so I'll give a quick capsule review and rating of some first viewings I have not looked at in a feature length review throughout January:

Cabaret (Bob Fosse 1972) - Cabaret won eight 1972 Academy Awards, losing out to The Godfather for Best Picture. Bob Fosse took home Best Director and Liza Minnelli (excellent) won Best Actress, and the film is widely considered to be one of the revolutionary musicals ever created. Not having much of an interest in musicals, I was skeptical about whether I would enjoy this film, but due to its significant prestige, I figured it would be worth a look. It is excellent - and I was impressed by the strength of the emotional impact produced by the story, and the catchiness of the song and dance sequences. Set in Berlin in 1931, Cabaret follows the lives of an American singer and cabaret star, Sally Bowles (Minnelli), and Brian Roberts (Michael York), a reserved English academic, who moves into her building at the start of the film and later becomes her lover. Amidst the turbulent political period, they also experience ups-and-downs in their own lives. Even the subplots (a romance between two of Brian's pupils - a German Jew posing as a Christian and a wealthy Jewish heiress) have real bearing on the story. What gives Cabaret a lift beyond simply being an engaging romance, or a catchy musical, is the fact that it is socially conscious. Almost all of the musical interludes, which feature inventive choreography, are shot and edited in a dynamic and visceral style - seamlessly captured from all angles (from the POV of the crowd, from off-stage). They also directly relate to the narrative and the rise of the National Socialist Movement, while also existing as a performance in the Kit Kat Klub. Even for cinephiles with little interest in musicals as a genre, this one is well worth a look. ★★★★

The Werckmeister Harmonies (Bela Tarr, 2000) - Considered to be one of the masterworks of Hungarian master Bela Tarr. It is based on the novel, The Melancholy of Resistance by Laszlo Krasznahorkai. It is shot in black and white and the 145-minute running time is composed of just thirty nine lengthy shots. The central character is Janos (Lars Rudolph), a kind-hearted and gentle young man living in a small town surviving a bitter winter on the Hungarian plains. He is a postal worker who also takes care of an elderly music historian, and has great interest in the cosmos and the miracles of creation. One night - and casting a sinister shadow over the town, despite it being the dead of night - a traveling circus arrives in town with an enormous dead whale entombed in a corrugated iron trailer. Rumour quickly spreads around town about another accompanying attraction, dubbed "The Prince", whose feared influence over the bewildered and restless townsfolk, who assemble in the cold around the trailer, soon becomes horrifically apparent. The plot, to say the least, is bizarre, but what Tarr manages to convey in this series of richly textured, and marvellously constructed sequences (despite their length, they never cease to be captivating), is simultaneously beautiful and haunting, but above all, thought-provoking. There is sparse use of music throughout the film, but when it is present (the wonderful opening sequence, the beautiful moment where Janos first investigates the whale, and the finale, are examples) it is unforgettable. But scenes like these are reciprocated with equally disturbing ones - the townfolk's mass ransacking of a hospital ward as if under a trance. Tarr's floating camera takes us through these strange occurrences - never relinquishing this feeling of ominous tension. Masterful. ★★★★★