DODES'KA-DEN

Japan, 1970, 140 minutes, Colour.
Zuch Yoshitaka, Kin Sugai, Kazou Kato, Junzaburo Ban,
Directed by Akira Kurosawa.

Dodes'ka-den was the first colour film made by Akira Kurosawa. Kurosawa is one of the best and most renowned of the Japanese directors. As early as the '40s he made such striking short films as Judo Game. In the '50s he reached a peak with the classics Rashomon, Living, The Seven Samurai. He made a number of Samurai films, with an eye on the American western for a parallel treatment (Throne of Blood based on Macbeth, Yojimbo, Sanjuro and The Hidden Fortress.

The Americans took back some of his themes and transferred them to the West e.g. The Seven Samurai becoming The Magnificent Seven, Yojimbo becoming A Fistful of Dollars. He also made the very striking film Red Beard about a Japanese doctor in the 19th. century. This present film follows it, although there was a gap of several years.

In this film Kurosawa observes a group of people in the slums on the outskirts of Japan. Compassionate, optimistic, realistic, he views the people as people and presented them most vividly, interlocking their stories so that we really feel we get to know the people and the atmosphere of this part of Tokyo.

Kurosawa had to wait several years before making his next film, the superb Dersu Uzala, the story of a Russian explorer at the turn of the century and his Siberian guide. One of Kurosawa's masterpieces.

1. The quality of this film? Interest, entertainment? The work of Akira Kurosawa? The decades of his work, his portraits of Japan both present and past? His insight into character? His distinctively Japanese approach and yet his being influenced by western styles? An adaptation of a novel? The story aspects of contemporary Japan - and the choice of characters with the overtones of myth and legend?

2. The importance of the colour photography - the emphasis on unusual colours, the houses and huts, the ground, the sky, paint, realism and fantasies? A surreal as well as realist atmosphere? The background of painting? The contribution of the musical score and its relation to mod and colour?

3. The structure of the film and the audience's entrance into the village especially through Rokuchan and his home, his mother, her prayers and rituals, his being retarded, the drawings of the tram and his imitation of the tram - the return after visiting all the people on the hill to Rokuchan's room? His presence throughout the film? The structure of the screenplay and the interweavinq of so many characters and their stories? The effect of counterpointing these characters and stories? How did the film retain interest in each of the sub-plots? The moving of audience sympathies for so many people with such difficulties? The counterbalance of humour, sentiment, sadness? Did the screenplay inform the audience sufficiently in the way of life of these people?

4. How well drawn were the characters? To what extent were they caricatures? The director declaring that he was sketching characters briefly even to the extent of caricature to make their impression quickly and suggest their background and characteristics rather than present them in great detail? The background of old English humours? The cross-section of people, men and women, old and young, the poor and the poorest, the mad and the sane? The honest and the dishonest? A cross-section of the world? The need to survive? The various types, representing the basic issues of human existence?

5. The values of the people on the hill - right and wrong, life and death, truth. sadness and joy, passion. sin and forgiveness?

6. The intermeshing of the stories of the various characters and what they represented:
i) Shim - the little clerk, his convulsions and their comic tone and their pathos? his patience with his wife? Her shrewish behaviour, a bully, her cigarette, her buying the vegetables and bullying the sellers? His inviting his friends home, the tensions of their being entertained, the slovenly behaviour of his wife? His ferocious defence of his wife after his colleagues criticised her? The love and his own self-consciousness?
ii) The drunken labourers, their work, their wives and their almost being indistinguishable, the wife-swapping pleasantly? The neighbours not knowing who was with whom? The wives and their colourful dresses, meting in the central square, washing? The men and their drinking? The monotony of their lives and their coping with it?
iii) Ryo, the generous and friendly man, the large brood of children, the slatternly wife and her having a different father for each child? Her continued pregnancy? Devotion and a happy household?
iv) Katsuko - the orphan girl, her making of the paper flowers, her incessant work, her aunt and her illness, the ne'er do well uncle and guardian and his wasting time, money? His raping her and the effect on the girl? Her friendship with the delivery boy and the pleasant and innocent friendship? The sudden violence in her knifing the boy? Her unwillingness to admit that her uncle raped her? The boy and his recovery and his devotion to the girl? Her apology?
v) Hei - his brooding over his wife's infidelity, his hunger and thinness? Her visit to him, her confession. her attempts at reconciliation and his unwillingness to forgive her? His hardness of heart?
vi) The beggar and his son living in the old car? The begging of the food? The little boy and his suffering, the length of his final illness? The father and his grandiose dream and the way these were visualised - the house, the fence and the gate, the pool? The joy of the little boy in hearing of these dreams? His pride and unwillingness to get food for his child? The colours suggesting their illness and undernourishment? The frantic father and the boy's death?
vii) The thief, the vegetable seller bullied by the accountant's wife, the thug who gets periodically drunk terrorising the neighbourhood, the gossipping wives around the central fountain and their washing, gossipping?
viii) Tamb - the wise old watchmaker: his unpredictable behaviour and attitudes, taking people's dreams seriously? The way that he stops the man threatening suicide by giving him poison? His handing over the money to the burglar? The return of the police and the interrogation and his saving the burglar?
ix) Rokuchan and his mother, her love for him, their prayer with the monotonous chanting ritual? The room and his drawings of the tram? His pretending to be a tram and the title of the film as his noise for the tram? His running up the hill, people mocking him? His simplicity and his being a norm for judging the attitudes of the various people on the hill?

7. The importance of experiencing a film like this - within a short space of time sharing in the human experience - both comic and tragic?

DR SCORPION (SHACK)

US, 1978, 100 minutes, Colour.
Nick Mancuso, Roscoe Lee Browne, Christine Lahti.
Directed by Richard Lang.

Dr. Scorpion is a comic book reworking of Ian Fleming's Dr. No and other espionage thrillers. It is done with a blend of seriousness and tongue-in-cheek with high production values. It is undemanding action entertainment - with some shots at the C.I.A. (so fashionable in the late '70s: All the President's Men, Three Days of the Condor ... )

Director Richard Lang moved to feature films with The Mountain Men, A Change of Seasons). Here he handles the action and the high-blown melodrama competently. Nick Mancuso (Ticket to Heaven, Nightwing, Mother Lode) is a sombre looking hero - though he has his moments of humour. An ex-C.I.A. agent, he is brought to Langley, Virginia and re-recruited. Needless to say he thwarts Dr. Cresus. Dr. Cresus is celebrated African American actor Roscoe Lee Browne doing an imitation of Dr. No, a power-hungry maniac living in isolated splendour somewhere in the Caribbean. He is involved in stealing American nuclear missile systems and their plans. Needless to say, things go wrong and he is defeated. Christine Lahti (who was to move into feature films with And Justice for All, Whose Life Is It Anyway, Swing Shift) is an attractive heroine.

The film has colourful locations, a great deal of stunt work. It is also in the vein of the James Bond films of the '80s, Roger Moore's Octopussy, Sean Connery's Never Say Never Again) where the focus of the world crisis is on nuclear weapons and missile systems. At the end, the hero and heroine are able to recover the plans lost at the bottom of the ocean -but then in a spirit of goodwill and optimism, throw them away. Here's hoping.

DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE

UK, 1981, 115 minutes, Colour.
David Hemmings, Lisa Harrow, Diana Dors, Toyah Wilcox, Leo Mc Kern, Desmond Llewelyn.
Directed by Alistair Reid.

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson's classic 19th century novel about the split personality - the inner evil and the exterior good (with reminiscences of Wilde's The Portrait of Dorian Gray) - has been filmed many times. John Barrymore, Fredric March, Spencer Tracy have all portrayed the Doctor. There have been various parodies as well as horror versions. This B.B.C. made tele-version has a very good performance by David Hemmings. The screenplay approaches Jekyll's transformation to Hyde with parallels to Dorian Gray. Dr. Jekyll is older and when transformed turns into a younger, more dapper Mr. Hyde.

The film also plays with the two women in a similar psychological way. The refined Anne is revealed as being very similar to Dr. Jekyll with her inner passion. The prostitute becomes a fourteen-year-old flower-seller who though on the exterior is a whore, interiorly is innocent. This provides the film with novelty as well as more psychological tension. The supporting cast is made up of regular British B.B.C. and movie character actors. Direction is by Alastair Reid - with production collaboration of the Australian Broadcasting Commission.

1. The popularity of the novel? The familiarity of the audience with the story and issues? The tradition of the various cinema versions? The direction of the film towards the home television audience? Adaptation for the television audience? A psychological Jekyll and Hyde for the '80s?

2. The television style? The expertise of the special effects - with echoes of such films as Altered States? The adaptation of a novel to the screen? The atmosphere of Victorian England, London, society, scientific advancement, psychological development, morality?

3. The perennial themes taken by Stevenson: the two sides of the one personality, a dualistic theory of an origin of good and an origin of evil and their war? The good and evil within the human being? The allegory of human life? The symbolic nature of the plot? Its psychological insight?

4. The Victorian atmosphere: period, detail, language? The Victorian era as a Jekyll and Hyde age: respectability, Jekyll and his religious background, Stern father and his injunctions, his portrait in the laboratory, standards imposed on his son, Jekyll's prayers, propriety? His work in charity? Education? Science? The advances of these in the Victorian era? Yet the background of Jekyll and his inner drive to evil, Anne and her interior passion, Oliver and his drinking, Lanyon and his ambition, the poverty, the prostitution? The role of the police?

5. David Hemmings as Jekyll and Hyde? The parallel with The Picture of Dorian Gray? Audiences expecting the special transformation effects? The style of the changes? The use of psychedelic style effects? The handsome monster?

6. Dr. Jekyll as a character? The voice-over, his scientific background, his obsession and drive, his idea and theory? Relationship with Anne, his friends, peers? His charity and being on the organising committee? The significance of his visit to the area for prostitutes and poverty? The prison sequence and his compassion? The build-up to the experiments? His experience of being Mr. Hyde - his delight as Hyde in his new, younger self? His arranging the household to convenience Mr Hyde? Moving in and out? His changing his will and his colleagues' surprise and regret? The mixture of propriety and impropriety? His regrets, the experiences of reversion? His experiences as Hyde? With Janet and the seduction, her pregnancy, her suicide and his responsibility? The encounter with Mary and his degrading her - and her innocent response? The eventual attraction for Anne and her lust? His boldness, confronting people? The sudden changes? The growing agonies? The police chasing him? The crawl through the slime? Dr. Jekyll's attempts to destroy Hyde - the key, the formula? The build-up to the marriage and Dr. Jekyll's inability to go through with it? Mr. Hyde spending the night with Anne? The device of his recording his experiments? The voice and the two endings? The failure - and his asking forgiveness for his arrogance?

7. Anne as a proper Victorian widow? Social concerns? The encounter with Hyde - the sensuality? Her shock at the discovery of the truth? The confrontation of herself by the image in Jekyll and Hyde?

8. The presentation of Mary - as the innocent flower-girl yet needing to be a prostitute for support? Her being degraded by Hyde's suggestions?

9. The Victorian background with Mrs. Winterton - and Diana Dors' style? Her establishment, the girls, the soliciting, the sensuality? The beneath-the-surface atmosphere of Victorian London?

10. Oliver and his friendship? His drinking? The changing of the will? Concern about Hyde? Lanyon and his snobbery?

11. Janet and her place within the household, the tidying of the laboratory, the seduction by Hyde? Dr. Jekyll's kindness? Her appeal to Dr. Jekyll? Her death?

12. Poole as the Victorian butler? His managing Dr. Jekyll's life? Suspicions? His wanting everything to be just so - and the impossibility of his actually being able to control the Victorian Jekyll household?

13. The film's attention to detail: Victorian London, society, prison, the police, the mother bringing her boy as a patient for Dr. Jekyll's kind treatment?

14. The effectiveness of Stevenson's drama? The Victorian melodrama? A fable of torment and conflict?

DOCTOR FAUSTUS

UK, 1967, 93 minutes, Colour.
Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Andreas Teuber, Elizabeth O'Donovan, Ian Marter, Jeremy Eccles, David Mc Intosh, Ram Chopra.
Directed by Richard Burton and Neville Coghill.

Doctor Faustus is Marlowe's 16th century masterpiece on the many-times-told story of the doctor who sold his soul to the devil for power, wealth and pleasure. While this film may not be a 20th century masterpiece, it is well worth seeing by those fascinated by the theme and those who would enjoy Richard Burton's recital of Marlowe's verse. It is Burton's film; Elizabeth Taylor appears in various guises as a spirit (including a silver echo of the Goldfinger girl). The only sound she utters is a cackle as she drags Faustus to hell when his contract with Satan expires. The beautiful costumes and the weirdness of the scene compensate for faults such as the too literal flashbacks of warfare when Faustus speaks of battles.

The theme of the play is evil and human longing for evil in its myriad forms; but the theme also includes the terror and horror of damnation and the longing for repentance. We can talk about human experience of evil in the abstract. Here we have a sumptuous, vivid embodying of the longing for evil, a parable with all the details pictured for our gaze - and reflection. Doctor Faustus is not meant to be a box-office success. It relies too much on a knowledge of the Faustus legend and its meaning. With this preparation, the film is worth seeing.

1. For whom was this film made? For students of Marlowe? Serious students of drama? Popular audiences?

2. The film as a version of a play? A traditional medieval morality play with all its conventions about good and evil, characters representing virtues and vices? Reflecting the attitudes of the 16th century? English with continental overtones? The styles and staging of this particular morality play for the screen?

3. Comment on the way the stage version was transferred to the screen; the editing of the text, the eliminating of passages and the transferring of passages, eg. from Tamburlaine with its excerpt from Olivier's Henry V. The use of colour, the stage and the sets, the costumes, the editing, the visual atmosphere? The fact that undergraduates were generally performing in the film?

4. What impact does the theme have in the 20th century? The 16th century moral standpoint, the view of the world, the role of religion, heaven and hell, good and evil? What picture of morality did the text offer? How was the text adapted for 20th century points of view?

5. The long tradition of the Faust myth? Its basic significance about a man trying to over-reach himself, humanity confronting the Divine and losing? The background of alchemy, the nature of Faustus' learning, his doctorate? His wanting to play God, the confrontation with Mephistopheles? The yearning for immortality, transcending time, an eternity of selfishness? The morality of the Seven Deadly Sins and their incorporation into the play? The play as an embodiment of this tradition of good and evil?

6. The film's presentation of the European setting: 16th century Germany, the religious setting of Europe, Catholicism and the Papacy? The relationship between religion and superstition?

7. Beliefs in angels and devils, Mephistopheles as angelic and devilish? The role of good and evil spirits, the way that these were visualized?

8. What did Richard Burton contribute to the performance as Dr. Faustus? The elderly scientist and alchemist, the professor? The quality of the poetry expressing Faustus' ambitions? His character and his insatiable greed and goals, necromancy, his selling his soul, the pact with the devil? Ultimately the gospel of 'what doth it profit a man to gain the whole world.... ?'

9. How convincing was the character of Mephistopheles as a devilish angel? AS representative of evil? A guide for Faustus? Mephistopheles' contempt or liking for Faustus? His obedient accompanying of Faustus?

10. The nature of Faustus' sinfulness and pride - leading to egoism, sins of lust and voluptuousness? The visualisation of these? The role of women in the fantasies of Dr. Faustus?

11. The pettiness of the poking fun at religion and the Papal sequence? The purpose of this?

12. The importance of a sense of history? The looking back over the past? Helen of Troy, Alexander the Great? The beauty of the past, Faustus trying to recapture it? His infatuation with Helen of Troy and her role in the film? The devil underneath the surface beauty of Helen?

13. Did the film gain momentum as the time elapsed for Faustus to return and go to Hell? The impact of the realisation of his damnation? The poetry accompanying this?

14. The visual presentation of Hell - appropriate to the sinfulness and pride of Faustus? The sense of damnation and loss of God?

15. How effective was the presentation of this medieval play in terms of visuals music, use of language? How useful for a 20th century audience?

DOCTEUR POPAUL

France, 1972, 95 minutes, Colour.
Jean -Paul Belmondo, Mia Farrow, Laura Antonelli.
Directed by Claude Chabrol.

Docteur Popaul is a little-seen film by writer-director Claude Chabrol. The screenplay of this film is by Paul Gegauff, who was to collaborate with Chabrol during the '70s and act in his film Une Partie de Plaisir. The film comes after Chabrol had made quite a number of very serious crime thrillers with the emphasis on guilt, responsibility and the taking of responsibility by others. The film is similar in them but is given the comic book tone and is a spoof of the more serious films. It shows something of the way Chabrol made films during the mid-1970s with ironic twists of plot and characters manoeuvring against one another with the audience not entirely in the know e.g. Innocents With Dirty Hands.

Chabrol's irony is manifest in the casting of the film: Jean Paul Belmondo who had been seen in so many action comedies and adventures, Mia Farrow quite convincing in a French context and glamorous Italian star Laura Antonelli. The film moves between the farcical and the serious and has quite an ironic ending including Chabrol's use of murder attempts. Docteur Popaul is an engaging film -the irony is that the characters in themselves are unappealing as well as their behaviour. The film thus jolts moral standards and conventions.

1. This film in the work of Claude Chabrol? His interest in crime drama, themes of relationships, death, guilt, acceptance of responsibility? His keen observation of the French bourgeoisie? His ability to present dramatic situations, explore characters? The ironies of this film in comparison with his usual films? The critics hostile to it? Chabrol enjoying himself, sending up his usual interests - but doing it with quality and style?

2. The screen image of Jean Paul Belmondo and Mia Farrow? The ironies of their performances in this film? Playing to image and against image?

3. The French atmosphere: hospitals, homes, the countryside, Bordeaux? The contrast with the interludes in Tunisia? French middle-class lifestyle, behaviour, morals? The musical score? The ironic songs?

4. Audience alertness during the opening accident? The key to the film in the opening images - and their later explanation?

5. The flashback structure of the film? Audience's introduction to Paul? Judging him? The shift of emphasis in judgment? His being a scoundrel - and finally a defeated buffoon? The callow hero? The buffoon becoming suicide victim? The screenplay continually putting the audience off balance? The irony of Paul's commentary throughout the film and the intimate relationship of his confidences to the audience? How did this affect audience judgment on characters, situations, morality?

6. The choice of Jean Paul Belmondo for the central role? His cinema image - daredevil, comic adventurer hero? His playing to type as the ladies' man? His transition from cad to victim? Initial accident, his behaviour in hospital - and its ironies when the truth was known? His relationship to Berthier, Carol? The emphasis on sexuality, his listening on the intercom? The importance of the flashbacks from the hospital? His relationship with his friends, the visit to the brothel? The bet about the ugliest woman - and the sexism of the attitude of the men, their comparing photos? The irony of Paul's winning to competition and his trip to Tunisia? The encounter with Christine in the atmosphere of Tunisia? Her shyness? His considering her ugly - and his callousness because of her being crippled? His pursuit of her, his comments on interior beauty - and the later irony? Spending the night with her? The beach scene and her offering him the money and his refusal? The letter at the hotel? His return to Bordeaux and the encounter with Christine as an episode?

7. The passing of time, the irony of meeting her again, her father as the head of the hospital? His acceptance of the hospital and Christine? His being feted at the hospital? His way of life, money? The build-up to the marriage and the irony of his meeting Martine? His absentmindedness at the ceremony - indication of what was to come?

8. The callow marriage? His considering Christine ugly - and Mia Farrow made up to be ugly? His affair with Martine? The irony of its being discovered? Christine seeming to be merely a cypher, her presence in the marriage, being deceived? Her primness? The deceit about her sleeping and the use of pills to deceive Christine as well as Martine -and the birth of Claudine?

9. The farce with the range of suitors and the irony of their deaths? Parody on French types? Skittish behaviour, insults? Paul and his antagonism towards the suitors? His plot about Martine's pregnancy? His freedom, his having a child, his being married with the clinic, his having Martine?

10. The irony of the accident, the talk of Claudine's death, Martine and her not visiting him? The letter about Lulu's? The grimness of the X-rays? Berthier and Christine building up the tragedy and his readiness to commit suicide? Christine's tenderness?

11. The pathos of his taking the pills? Playing with the intercom? The irony of the truth and the transformed Christine, the relationship with Berthier? The memories, the flashbacks, the truth? Christine appearing as opposite to all that she represented?

12. Paul's desperation, the irony of the deaf woman scrubbing the floor and his previous abuse of her? Her saving him?

13. The final ironies with the arrangements about marriage, Martine, Christine and Berthier? The family car?

14. Chabrol's interest in murder-thrillers and using the murder-thriller background as well as the mystery for ironic purposes? The themes of morality, judgment, guilt and responsibility? Who was worse, Paul of Christine? The end and the comic adjustment to the future? A critique of sexist attitudes, the morality of the middle class, sexuality and marriage, relationships, career, money, power and manipulation?

THE DESPERATE HOURS

US, 1955, 112 minutes, Black and White.
Humphrey Bogart, Fredric March, Arthur Kennedy, Martha Scott, Gig Young, Dewey Martin, Cathy O'Donnell.
Directed by William Wyler.

The Desperate Hours is an enjoyable melodrama - rather grim. It features Fredric March as the father of a family which is taken hostage by a gang of criminals on the run. The material is fairly conventional, even B grade material. However, with the direction of multi-award winning director William Wyler, the film is quite striking. Photography in black and white is expertly done by Lee Garmes. Humphrey Bogart, towards the end of his career, moves to a gangster role once again. The supporting cast is very good indeed. The film has the look of the 50s, but its theme and treatment is relevant to any decade. William Wyler was to make Friendly Persuasion at this time.

1. How successful a thriller was this? where did it gain its tension? It was based on a play. Was this evident? How did the black and white photography, the house atmosphere, the sense of time add to the atmosphere of the film? The melodramatic overtones and details? The use of the musical score?

2. How well did the film create its ordinary atmosphere? Breakfast in the how, the various members of the family beginning the day? Ralph and his father? Mother's orders about talking in the car? The ordinary atmosphere of housework etc.? How well could an audience identify with this ordinariness? How important was this atmosphere for the rest of the film?

3. How did Dan Hilliard represent the ordinary man in the suburbs? His home life, his job, ordinary wealth, ordinary style? How did his wife represent the ordinary housewife? His daughter and her romantic ups-and-downs? The young boy and his school friends?

4. How did the film show the gangsters and the danger transforming the lives and personalities of the family? How were they changed? In what ways for the better? In what ways for the worse?

5. Insofar as they had to resort to violence, how were they equalized with the gangsters? The wife and the gun? The father and his use of tricks? Ralph and his unwary daring? The contempt of the daughter?

6. How well did the film make the transition from the gangster atmosphere (via the radio) to the police and the menace to Jesse Bard? Was the police atmosphere and the threat to Jesse well communicated?

7. How well did the police handle the situation? The FBI and the local police? Jesse and his personal fear? How well did the police handle searching for the criminals?

8. How important was it that the family not communicate with the police? The risk of Hilliard's note? How helpless did they feel? The fact that they had to do their ordinary work and life despite what was happening at home? How wearing was this? How suspenseful for the audience? In which details was this best illustrated?

9. What was your response to the gangsters themselves? Glenn Griffin and his brutality? His master-minding of the attempt? His revenge on Jesse Bard? The Humphrey Bogart style? His resourcefulness in keeping them in control? How well did he behave towards the family? Could they have expected worse? Hal and his devotion to his brother? His attraction towards the daughter? His final exasperation and leaving? How repulsive was Kobish? His lack of brains? His brutality? His childish brutality? The fact that the others had to keep him in control?

10. How violent was this film? Was the violence well integrated into the story and themes? How much violence was necessary from the family?

11. How important was the sub-plot with Chuck and Cindy? The suspicions of Chuck and the audience tension when he began to investigate? was he wise in manoeuvring Cindy out of the home as he did?

12. How did your attitudes towards the criminals change when Kobish murdered the old man? How did it reinforce the real danger for the family?

13. Were you sorry when Hal left? Were you sorry about his death? How necessary was it?

14. The importance of the final siege? Did it seem overdone with so many police? The risks for the people inside? The local police and politicians with an eye on elections rather than human lives? The cynical overtones of these characters?

15. How daring was the final confrontation between Hilliard and Griffin? How much courage did it require? How had Hilliard changed because of this experience? How violent had he become? His home, his family, his life? The deep feelings of revenge? Why was he unable then, to kill Griffin? Is this the reaction of the ordinary man?

16. How well did the film explore the questions of brutality and violence? Courage and fear? Revenge in the heart and revenge in action?

17. Although the film was made in the mid-50s, how real is it in the 70s? Have things changed at all?

DESIREE

US, 1954, 110 minutes, Colour.
Jean Simmons, Marlon Brando, Merle Oberon, Michael Rennie, Cameron Mitchell, Elizabeth Sellars, Cathleen Nesbitt. Isobel Elsom.
Directed by Henry Koster.

Desiree is a lavish Cinemascope version of a popular novel of the '50s by Anne-Marie? Selinko. It was in the form of the diaries of Desiree Clary, who was once engaged to Napoleon, whose sister (played by Elizabeth Sellars) married Joseph Bonaparte (Cameron Mitchell) and who encountered Napoleon every so often at crisis points during his career. She married General Bernadotte, who was appointed by Napoleon as King of Sweden - she found it difficult there but remained eventually faithful to Bernadotte and was asked to receive Napoleon's sword in surrender.

The film's production design is lavish - decor and costumes being the emphasis rather than the dramatic military highlights of Napoleon’s career. These are alluded to and sometimes seen in collage (for example the retreat from Moscow). The film thus becomes an edgy romantic affair - with set pieces as balls. drawing rooms, coronations. The dialogue by Daniel Taradash (From Here to Eternity) tends to be of the soap opera variety.

Jean Simmons is very attractive in the central role. Merle Oberon makes an impression as a dignified Josephine. Michael Rennie is a very upright Bernadotte. The main interest was in Marlon Brando as Napoleon. It is a mixed odd performance - sometimes dashing, sometimes narcissistic. Brando uses the British-type accent he was to use in Mutiny on the Bounty and Burn. There are moments - but it sometimes seems evident that Brando was not particularly interested in the role. Direction is by Henry Koster, a director of a variety of films
including the first Cinemascope feature The Robe.

1. The popularity of this kind of colourful costume romance in the '50s, later? Its value as entertainment? As memoir? Historical record?

2. The production qualities: wide screen, sets. decor and costumes? An atmosphere of pageantry? The set pieces e.g. Napoleon's coronation and its rehearsal. battle sequences? The technical flair in the presentation? The musical score?

3. The popularity in Hollywood of the historical romantic melodrama? The ways of communicating the atmosphere of period. place? The Marsellaise for the French Revolution etc.? The introduction of historical characters and re-creating their dialogue? Credible or not? Exploration of motivations for well-known historical events? The sweep over years and decades of history? Satisfying for this kind of romantic entertainment?

4. The transition from a book of Desiree's diaries to a portrait of Desiree and Napoleon? The device of Desiree recording things in her diary? Her perspective on the period, on France, on Napoleon and his career, on Sweden? How 'accurate' is the screenplay? How contrived?

5. The focus on Desiree as a young girl - Jean Simmons' vitality and charm? Her work in the shop at Marseilles? Her family and its protectiveness? Julie and the attraction towards the soldiers in Marseilles? Julie and the attraction towards Joseph Bonaparte? The marriage? Desiree's encounter with Napoleon? Her falling in love - the romantic walks and scenes? His promise? Her living the romance? Her breaking through conventions? Going to Paris? Her being lost in the city, the introduction to the Salon, the discovery that Napoleon was engaged to Josephine, her flinging the champagne glass? The attraction of General Bernadotte? His saving her from throwing herself from the bridge? Her disappearance? Caught up in the entourage of Joseph and Julie? The return to France? The new encounter with Bernadotte and his discovering her identity? Her reactions to Napoleon - and his infatuation? Her friendship with Josephine? Josephine's delight and sadness at the birth of her child? The preparations for the coronation, the rehearsals, her place at the coronation? The battles and Napoleon's success? Failures? Bernadotte's being transferred to Sweden? Desiree's fidelity? The snow and the conditions in Sweden, the court and the traditions, her inability to remain there? Her bursting into meetings etc.? The return to Paris? The fresh encounter with Napoleon - after the retreat from Moscow? Napoleon's defeat, imprisonment? Desiree's finally going to him and surrendering and his surrendering his sword? An interesting portrait of a girl caught up in great events?

6. The portrait of Napoleon - his background, the importance of the family, Joseph and the other brothers and their later getting positions of power in Europe, the squabbling and jealous sisters? His presence in Marseilles, the shop, the attraction towards Desiree, romance, promises? His arrest? His later being commissioned? His ambition - and the Salon sequence with Josephine and the champagne glass? His rise to power? Indications of his military ability? His preparations for coronation - the pageantry of the sequence and his crowning himself? His disappointment in not having an heir? The time passing and the annulment of his marriage to Josephine, his rejection of her (and Desiree's sympathy)? Napoleon's harsh attitude towards Josephine and her buying more dresses etc.? Getting rid of Bernadotte, Bernadotte's decision to be independent? His wanting him in his battles? The ambitions in Europe, in Russia, the defeat? imprisonment and escape, the Battle of Waterloo? His secret visits to Desiree? His final isolation and surrender? The controversies concerning Marlon Brando's interpretation?

7. General Bernadotte as an upright soldier? His gallantry towards Desiree, his infatuation with her, marriage? The happiness of their marriage? His awareness of Napoleon and his attraction for Desiree? His decision to go to Sweden? The political details and his arrival, acceptance by the court, his attention to details in Sweden? His understanding of the people and the country? His becoming King? Motivation for Desiree, his son? Allowing Desiree to return? The final reconciliation?

8. The sketch of Josephine and Merle Oberon's presence and beauty? At the Salon? The background? Marriage to Napoleon? The coronation? Her inability to have a child - and her explanation of this? The annulment and her grief, Desiree's support?

9. The sketch of such characters as Joseph Bonaparte and his wife? Madame Bonaparte, the sisters? Talleyrand and other French dignitaries of the time?

10. The film's attention to socialising, salons, balls? Coronations and rehearsals? The domestic contrasts of Marseilles and Paris? Of Sweden and tradition and France?

11. Popular themes of romance? Politics? History?

DESIGN FOR SCANDAL

US, 1941, 84 minutes, Black and white.
Rosalind Russell, Walter Pidgeon, Edward Arnold, Lee Bowman.
Directed by Norman Taurog.

Design For Scandal is yet another comic battle of the sexes from the M.G.M. studios in the '40s. It was in the tradition of the screwball comedies so popular in the '30s. Rosalind Russell was one of the best exponents of this kind of comedy. Here she does well - is a well-educated stern and just judge. She becomes the victim of a newspaper tycoon played with comic relish by Edward Arnold in some kind of parody of his frequent villainous roles of the time, and by Walter Pidgeon as a Clark Gable type carefree journalist. The film is the romantic hostility between the two principals. It is the usual battle of the sexes - one-upmanship, witty lines, romance coming upon the two almost unawares. There is a final mock courtroom sequence to resolve the problem.

It is all conventional material, though done with the M.G.M. gloss of the time. The direction is by Norman Taurog, a director prolific in his films from the '30s to the '60s. He made many comedies and dramas at M.G.M. at the tine and was to direct many of the Jerry Lewis and Elvis Presley films. While Rosalind Russell is expert at this kind if film, it is an unusual role for Walter Pidgeon, a generally serious actor, but he carries this off with some aplomb. The usual questions about the American way of life, the interrelationship of men and women and the jokes at the expense of the American Establishment - the courts, newspaper tycoons, gold-diggers, divorce. Entertaining fluff.

DERSU UZALA

USSR, 1975, 142 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Akira Kurosawa.

Akira Kurosawa has made many masterpieces like Living, Rashomon, The Seven Samurai and Toshiro Mifune Samurai epics. Here he offers a majestic simplicity, the bonds between a Russian military explorer in Siberia about 1907 and the Siberian peasant-hunter, Dersu Uzala, who guides him. The adventures they share, the comradeship, the sense of being alive are superbly communicated in a long and slow-paced film which beautifully portrays the grandeur and savagery of the Siberian landscapes. This Russian film, made by a Japanese artist, shows how basic human values transcend nations, politics and cultural differences. It shows how cinema itself transcends these boundaries. Oscar, Best Foreign Film 1976.

1. The impact of this film in interest, enjoyment, awareness of the qualities of human nature?

2. The film and its impact as a Russian film, Russian people and history, atmosphere and environment, style? How would the film have been made differently in another country?

3. The impact of the Japanese director? His creative meeting of Japanese style and technique with Russian history and character?

4. The use of colour, Panavision, musical background? The visual presentation of the landscapes and their variety, the seasons, the atmosphere? The impact of visualizing the remote parts of Russia and Siberia, the geographical expeditions and the looking at the landscapes with those eyes, the contrast with city life at the end? The impact of Russia and its terrain at the beginning of this century?

5. How well did the film visualize and explore the theme of man within primitive nature? Civilized man the explorer within mountains, lakes, winter and summer, storms and blizzards, rivers? The hunters who lived within this environment and their approach to life? The soldiers and the hunters meeting and sharing their experiences? Man and nature?

6. Comment on the structure of the film, the flashback framework, Captain Arseniev's narrative? His viewpoint on his own work, on Russia and its landscape, on discovery, on the hunters, on Dersu Uzula and his character and friendship?

7. How interesting a character was the captain? His qualities as a nun, as a soldier, as a Russian, as an explorer? His skill at his work, his judgement? His relationship with his men? The work and spirit which he had in his exploration?

8. The dramatic impact of the arrival of Dersu? His introduction, his skills, his basic humanity and simplicity? The background of a wild nun? The encounter with the Chinese? The contrast and learning from the contrast of the ways of civilization and the wild?

9. The importance of the encounter with the Chinese? The impact of the episode in itself, its revelations especially concerning Dersu?

10. The scenes of exploration, the growing bond between the captain and Dersu, how was this summarized by the episode of their being lost on the lake, the atmosphere, the long sequence of the growing blizzard, their sense of being lost, the cutting of the grass, survival, the captain's unconsciousness and Dersu's saving him? The quality of human nature portrayed in this episode?

11. The strength of the bonds created? The nature and quality of the affection and the way this was represented, the best in human nature? The final eating scenes, the goodbyes?

12. How well did the film make the transition to 1907, the new expedition, the visual impact, the use of the seasons and the beauty of summer, the contrast with the winter? The new group of men and the captain's leading of them? Morale within the group? The captain as anxious to find Dersu, his alertness, the joy and his running to find his old friend? The dramatic impact of Dersu's arriving again? The fact that he was older slower, becoming blind? The spontaneous joy in seeing the captain again? The importance of the encounter with the tiger. the overtones of primitive religion and superstition. symbolizing Dersu's fears and his age? The importance of the encounter with the bandits and their local police? The episode of the raft and Dersu's endangerment, his swift thinking in helping with the rescue, the joy with the rescue? The beauty of the photo collage showing the relationship between the captain and Dersu and their work together. a memento?

13. The impact of age, his eyes and his trying to shoot and aim, superstition and the preparation for death? The encounter with the real tiger?

14. The visual impact of the city the home., the contrast of civilized family life with the rooms the meals piano etc.? Family relationships and the personalities of wife and son? The captain as fitting into this, the studious nun at home? The impact of Dersu's being boxed in, the fires, chopping down the trees. his incomprehension of the law? His friendship with the captain's son and communicating his skills and experience? The importance of the gift of the gun? Of the captain's letting him go?

15. The pathos and anonymity of Dersu's death? The sad irony of the motive because of the gun? The importance of the captain going to the funeral, the impatience of the local policeman? The continuation of this theme throughout the credits?

16. The representation of human achievement, the outlook of realism, the hopefulness in human nature, the implicit sadness if not pessimism in the ending?

17. The portrayal of man and human nature, natural man, intelligent man, the laws of nature and of society? The bonds of friendship transcending this?

DEMONS IN THE GARDEN

Spain, 1982, 100 minutes, Colour.
Angela Molina, Ana Belen.
Directed by Manuel Guttierez Aragon.

Demons in the Garden is one of many films of the Spanish film industry in the post-Franco era, in the '70s and '80s, which looks back to the past and tries to re-assess what happened to Spain during the Franco regime. This film opens in the '40s and moves to the early 1950s. It is a family portrait - literally in the final photo, which reveals the dark side of the Spanish character and its potential for destruction. The tone of the film is satirical. It is also symbolic, especially in the person of the child Juanito, the pampered sick boy who eventually gets better and has to stand on his own feet. The film also comments trenchantly on the power of the matriarch in Spanish society - despite the macho presuppositions of dominance. The film is very well-acted and the cast is led by Angela Molina. looking very gaunt after being the sensuous heroine of so many of the Spanish films of the '70s including Bunuel's That Obscure Object of Desire.

1. An insight into Spain? A narrative of a Spanish family? A symbolic allegory of Spain during the Franco regime? The religious tones of the title and the reference to the various characters?

2. The re-creation of the '40s and '50s, the Spanish town, shops, homes? The glimpses of Madrid and Franco and his entourage? Newsreels? The use of Alberto Lattuada's film Anna and its poster with Silvana Mangano and both nun and vamp, the excerpt with her singing the famous song, and her sensual dance from the film (and the reference to banning by the Vatican)?

3. The screenplay and its portrayal of characters and politics? Its viewpoint about the Franco regime? Memory, a re-assessment, critique?

4. The opening wedding setting the tone? The roles of the various characters? Power and control. service? The tensions? The subsequent behaviour of these characters - in the light of their symbolic behaviour at the wedding ceremony?

5. The '50s and there being less pomp about the family, the audience seeing that they were an ordinary family, the shop, Anna and her marriage, Angela exiled to a farm, Juanito growing up on the farm? An ordinary Spanish town? Their hallowing of Madrid? The over-hallowing of Juan and his links with power - the newsreel, his being able to get penicillin? The impact of the truth that he was merely a waiter? Juanito as the sick, pampered boy of the '50s? His getting better and having to change, stand on his own two feet? The potential for violence?

6. The final photo - an effective dramatic ending. the irony of the group and the audience knowing what was behind each character in the photo?

7. Spain in the '30s and '40s: the aftermath of the civil war, people taking sides, those not supporting Franco called communists? The police and their jibes? Franco and his regime? The inflation of Franco's regime? The difference between pomp and reality? The role of men during this time, their arrogance, power, presumption? The role of women - subordinate, yet smouldering? The control of the matriarch? The potential for eruption? The role of government. the role of the church? The boy symbolising Spain - pampered, faking his illness, getting well, having to stop faking and get up?

8. Gloria as the matriarch, her control over the wedding ceremony, the clash with Angela and the breaking of the bottles, with Anna coming into the family, her pampering of her two sons, the favouritism towards Juan and spoiling him? Her role in the shop - and wanting Juanito, showing him over the shop and explaining all the people who came in? His illness and she able to see that he was faking? Giving money to Juan? Trying to control the women? The ultimate truth and her bashing her two sons and accusing them of being Cain and Abel? Her wanting to reorganise and order the family? Her place in the centre of the final photo?

9. Angela and her work, the smashing of the bottles, Gloria as her aunt? Her loving Juan, her pregnancy? Left alone? Her boy and loving him? Her having to give him up to the family in the town? Her visits? His illness, her pampering? Staying, reading for him? His wanting her to return - her allowing herself to be manipulated by him? His stealing the food for her? His wanting to see his father and her reaction? Her disdain? Her being accused of stealing the money from the safe? The final request that she marry Juan? The feast and her refusal? Support of Anna?

10. Anna and her loving Juan, marrying her husband, her disdain for him and resisting him? Her work in the shop, her stealing the money from the safe for Juan? Her love for Juanito? The friendship with Angela? Her ultimately shooting Juan?

11. Juanito as Juan's son, resembling his father, resembling his mother? Life on the farm, going to the town, the tour of the shop, his grandmother explaining the women to him? His being trapped in the barn? His illness - and listening in? His loving to be pampered, his faking. the food (and the men eating the Spanish omelette), his stealing out to eat ordinary food? His tantrums? His wanting to see his father. the newsreel, writing the letter to Franco? Going in the car to see his father? The to-do in taking him to see his father? His discovery that he was a waiter and his horrified reaction? His seeing Anna steal the money? His saving his mother? His going to the film - and his first mortal sin watching Silvana Mangano? His power over the women? His hearing that he was healed - and his not wanting to get better - but having to? His wanting his mother to marry his father?

12. Juan as the handsome younger son, the violence at the wedding, the clash with the brother, his being shot at? His leaving Angela pregnant? Not coming to see them? His work in Madrid, his connections - and audience expectations of his importance? The shock that he was a waiter? His return, rendezvous with Anna, his debts? His proposal to Angela and her rejection? The confrontation with Anna and her shooting? His mother beating him? The downfall of the arrogant macho man?

13. The contrast with his brother, jealousy at the wedding, the shooting? His later speech about his jealousy of his brother and wanting him dead?

14. The background in the town of the police, the accusations of communist to Angela etc.?

15. The town, the shop, Gloria's explanations of the customers, the projectionist. the crowds going out to see Franco?

16. The film's use of set pieces e.g. the long wedding sequence. the customers in the shop. the eating of the omelette, the going to see Franco's procession, the visits to the doctor, the end with the photo?