WISE GUYS

US, 1986, 87 minutes, Colour.
Danny de Vito, Joe Piscopo, Harvey Keitel, Ray Sharkey, Dan Hedaya.
Directed by Brian de Palma.

Wise Guys is a modest gangster comedy. It was directed by Brian de Palma, better known for his horror films in the Hitchcock vein: Sisters, Obsession, Dressed to Kill as well as for his thrillers The Fury and Scarface. On the evidence of this film, comedy is not his forte. Danny de Vito (who emerged as a comic star in Romancing the Stone and Jewel of the Nile) tries his hardest, buffing and puffing for comic effect. There are some humorous cinematic styles used for this gangster story - however, it is only a moderate (very moderate) success.

1. The popularity of gangster comedies? The '30s tradition? Gangsters and Americana?

2. New Jersey and Atlantic City, the suburbs, casinos? The special effects, especially for contriving Harry's death?

3. The work of Brian de Palma, his skill with horror and suspense, serious gangster films? Humour?

4, A 'buddy' film: two gangsters' henchmen, a gambling comedy, a violent pursuit comedy? The blending of the elements?

5. Harry and his family, their ordinary lifestyle, Harry and the opening and his son, going to work, his job, subservient to the gangsters, the job of opening the car and turning on the ignition with the delayed explosion? Taking the money for bets, the horse and its not winning? His confessing? The set-up to pursue Mo? Escaping to Atlantic City? Friendship with Bobby? The clash with Mo? The gambling, The fake death, the funeral and the grief, his reviving? The exploding house? His final glee? An engaging comic character?

5. Mo and his mother, his birthday and everybody ignoring it, the party? Humiliated by the gangster bosses? Jobs, laundry? Going to the racetrack? His admiration of the leaders? Caution with Harry? Their brainwashing him to pursue Harry? The chase? Reconciliation? His attempt to kill Harry? Atlantic City? His panic, Harry's death? His trying to hang himself? The setting alight of the gas? An engaging comic character?

7. Mr, Fixer and his size, always eating, violence? Atlantic City, the car at the casino, eating at the funeral, getting his final comeuppance?

8. The portrait of the gangsters - New Jersey small-time, the bosses, loyalties, money, Harry's funeral? Playing To off against Harry and vice verse? Poetic justice with the explosion?

9. Bobby and the big time, Atlantic City, friends with Harry, seeming to double-cross him, engineering Harry's escape ant fake death?

10. Harry's family, his wife, son, their living with his being a gangster, the funeral? mother and her concern? The party7

11. The conventions of the gangster world? Sent up?

TALES THAT WITNESS MADNESS

UK, 1973, 90 minutes, Colour.
Jack Hawkings, Donald Pleasence, Georgia Brown, Donald Houston, Suzy Kendall, Kim Novak, Michael Jayston, Peter Mc Enery.
Directed by Freddie Francis.

Director Freddie Francis has made an interesting series of psychological and/or honor films over the last ten years. Several of these have been collections of short horror stories like this.
It is not one of the best, but some of it is effective.

Jack Hawkins and Donald Pleasence tour an asylum, listening to the stories of four mad individuals: a boy who creates an imaginary tiger against his parents, Kim Novak in a voodoo story of cannibalism, and two very good stories involving Peter Mc Enery regressing into an Edwardian past and Michael Jayston personalising a murderous tree. The ending is mysterious and unexplained, yet expected. For horror fans.


1. Was this a good horror-film? How did it use the conventions of the horror-film? Well? The significance of the title?

2. What audience-response did the film want? To the background of the stories? The asylum background? To the people in the cells? To the stories and the madness?

3. Should films present explorations of madness? What effect do theyhave on audiences? Was this film a real exploration? Did it show any insight into madness? Imagination?

4. Was the structure of the film satisfactory? The background of the inspection, the doctor’s work, the continual returning to the doctor, the four stories, the final assembling of the characters? the final madness?

5. Was the climax predictable? Was it credible? Did it make sense of the whole film?

6. How interesting was the story of the boy? Was it predictable? Was it credible in the presentation of the boy talking to the tiger, the parents quarrelling, the school master aiding the boy’s imagination? Did the parents do the right thing in their incredulity? comment on the camera’s becoming subjective for the movements of the invisible tiger? Was the violence in harmony with the madness? Was such vindictiveness on behalf of the boy credible? The basic point of the story?

7. How interesting and absorbing was the second story? The young man and his shop, his girlfriend, his ordinariness? The cameras focusing on the photo of uncle Albert and the movement, of the eyes? How effective was this as cinema involving the audience? The acting of the man as he was drawn continually towards the bike? The drive into the past? The contrast of the period-costuming situation with the present? The faceless burnt man, the love theme and the vengeance? was the madness credible? What was the point behind the young man’s madness?

8. How absorbing was the story of the couple with the tree? Its ordinariness? Relationship between husband and wife? The place of the tree and its look? The way the camera focused on
the tree? The camera gradually personalizing the tree? The trick devices of branches and fingers? The confrontation of wife and tree? The dream of the husband? The final choice that he made for the tree instead of his wife? What point was being made about madness here? How successfully?

9. How well did the fourth story fit in with the rest? The focurs on Oriel and the madness in her mind? How effective was the voodoo background? How repellant? The contrast with modern London society? the flirting of Oriel, the daughter’s flirting? The irony of the gradual unfolding of the voodoo plot, the horror of the death, the ceremony of the banquet and the eating of the daughter? What point of madness was being made here?

10. How successful as tales of mystery and imagination were the individual stories?

11. What was the truth behind the madness?

VIOLETTE NOZIERE

France, 1977, 122 minutes, Colour.
Isabelle Huppert, Stephane Audran, Jean Carmet.
Directed by Claude Chabrol.

Claude Chabrol has, for years, delved (often like Hitchcock whom he studied and wrote of) into dramas of crime, guilt, responsibility and transference of guilt. Now he takes a celebrated real crime of the 1930s, giving an interesting period flavour and musical score, and does the same expertly and intriguingly, and tantalises us with the factual outcome.

Once again his wife Stephane Audran is moving as Violette’s mother, but supports a continually amazing Isabelle Huppert, surely one of the best actresses of her time, who invests Violette with schizophrenic memory, mystery, vacant meaningful expressions, dispassionate evil and girlish innocence. A fine drama of its time, crime melodrama and challenge to our feelings and judgments.


1. A good film, interesting? As a biography, crime film, presentation of its period? The blend of these ingredients for popular interest, entertainment, study?

2. The reputation of the director: and his continued interest in crime, motives, character and questions of conscience? Theme of right and wrong, good and evil? His use of facts and embroidering a fictional story about them? Crime, character, the consequences of crime? The importance on the information given at the end about Violette? The factual consequences of these incidents?

3. The importance of the period for placing Violette? the political talk in the cafes, Mussolini and Hitler and fascism, socialist France, anti-socialist France, the anti-communist feeling? The importance of the look of the thirties, the rich and the poor, fashions, wealth? The importance of the atmospheric score and the tone that it gave? As background for crime, murderous motivation, as symbolising Violette?

4. How did the film present Violette herself as a symbol of the period, as representing France between the wars, schizophrenic, victimised, victimising? Flirting with evil, appearances of good? The experience of the war and change and judgment made? is this how the writer and the director saw Violette?

5. The importance of the Paris settings, the use of exteriors especially of the house, the streets, the cafe? The interiors especially of Violette's home, the bars, her special hotel? The prison and the interior, the outside with the people gathering and protesting? the court sequence? The importance of the Paris streets? The opening with the bars outside Violette's home? The prison ending?
Paris imprisoned, Violette and prison? The guilt or non-guilt of Paris and of Violette?

6. The importance of the structure, the use of the flashbacks and audience involvement in Violette's story, her mind and her memory? The fact that the flashbacks were Violette's own memories? How objective was her memory, how subjective? The audience learning that the framework of the initial memories was immediately after the murder of her parents and then her return to clear away the evidence? The importance of the flashbacks from prison - ranging to the murder itself and beyond to her childhood and infancy? The inclination of her mind, the fragmented nature of her mind? How well could the audience piece together the events of Violette's life and her actions? How we1l could she piece them together?

7. Audience response to Violette - as fashionable in her first appearance, yet these her only clothes? He made-up appearance, reality of her age? The two different lives she led? Pensiveness on the tram, the urgency of her change? Her secrets? Presence in the bar, her girlfriend, their girlish talk, prostitute talk? the money she gained, the rings? her hotel set-up, the room, the
people that she took there, the negro musician, Jean? The mirrror and her contemplating herself? The photos of the film stars? The importance of the incident with the man who picked her up and her getting out? What did she want from this kind of life? What drove her to it? The effect on her morals, mind? Being immersed in this world? the response of the people who saw her there, the negro and her flirting, the maid and her continued attention, having her clothes at the end? Violette as living within her own world and having no interest in the outside, for example in politics?

8. Her relationship with Jean? The significance of her seeing him as a sexual symbol in the dream? Her watching him in the cafe, accepting his friendship, the sexual encounters? Their meetings? the irony of the audience knowing of Jean’s plans and his getting of money from Violette and his using, her? The importance of the emotions between them, especially the effect on Violette? her love, her giving him money, the ring? her disappointmenl at his going away and not corresponding? his hostility? At the end and her decision to save him from prosecution? What overall effect did he have on her?

9. The contrast with Violette at home, her girlish face and childlike appearance, seeing her change so often, her private room, her stealth and wariness, as a schoolgirl , her innocent look and yet her secrets? Her desk, study, her letters, the meals, games with her father, overhearing her mother and father making love? Her hold over her real father? Was it real that she could live in these two worlds so completely?

10. The portrait of her father - his railway work, age, his enjoyment of the games with her, caressing her? the truth about his role? Love for his wife? Did he merit the lies she told about him after his death? His believing her about the poison, the violence of his death? What was her attitude towards him, the motives for killing him? How well did he love Violette?

11. The portrait of her mother and the special bonds between the two? The quality of their love? Her mother's fussing over her, possessing her? Her love for her husband? The importance of the lovemaking scene and their dialogue, their attitudes towards Violette and her age and innocence? their use of the cloth and Violette’s use of it later? Sharing the secrets with Violette, especially the letters from her father? Her tending her, washing her? Her reaction to the news about the venereal disease? Her being poisoned and his being used as a test? Why did Violette not kill her? The importance of Violette’s imagining her mother haunting her? Her mother’s reaction to the poisoning, her vengeance, her reaction to Jean with the ring, her placing her veil over her face at the possible revelation of the truth? Her change of heart lo help her daughter? How strongly drawn a character of this kind of woman, mother?

12. The importance of the venereal disease - the effect on Violette, the doctor telling her, her reaction, her letting her: parents know and her reaction to their telling her? Her father caring for her, her mother’s severe reaction? Her leading them on about the medicine? Their beliefs about the hereditary nature of the disease? The irony of the background of Violette making up a sister for the doctor, her lies about going with her, the deathly dinner being in preparation for her?

13. Why were the flashbacks about the murders from her prison cell? And not from the tram? How did the deaths affect her in prison? Her impassive face, her cellmate listening and her reaction?

14. Why so many lies? Her reaction to being found out, her quick defence when caught, her ability to make up plausible excuses? Why did she have to lie to people, why rob her parents? The sexual compulsions? Her sexual encounter after the murders? Her escape from the police and the interrogation, her wandering the city and the irony of making the dale with the young man and being caught? Did she want to get caught?

15. Audience response to the set-up - being arrested? Was it obvious, her turning up, her being arrested? Her reaction to the young man with the paper and denying her identity?

16. The character of the cellmate and her listening to Violette, sympathy, sharing the meals, talking, justifying her behaviour, the sewing,?

17. The significance of the childhood memories - her memory of her father, grandmother, as a little girl, as a teenage girl? Her mother? The place of these flashbacks from prison - did they explain anything about her?

18. The importance of the police interrogations with her mother? Her mother's vengeful action? The background of her real father and his financial support of Violette and Violette's using him? The mother not wanting a revelation?

19. The dramatic build-up with the judge's interviews, especially with the mother, the doctor, with Jean?

20. The social comment in showing the people on the streets, public opinion, the newspaper, the ballad and its lyrics and the irony of the film ending with Violette singing this?

21. The justice of the verdict, her reaction and the blackout (and the previous blackout with her father discovering her in the bathroom), her appeal?

22. How much responsibility did Violette have for the deaths, how much guilt? The importance of the final information about her rehabilitation and future life? Was this credible? The transforming effect of her violent deed and arrest and imprisonment? Would she be able to start a new life? How did this affect audience insight into her character and her behaviour in the thirties and the judgment of her? the possibility of a criminal being redeemed and changing?

THE WOMAN IN QUESTION

UK, 1949, 88 minutes, Black and white.
Jean Kent, Dirk Bogarde, Susan Shaw, John Mc Callum, Hermione Baddeley, Charles Victor, Duncan Macrae, Lana Morris.
Directed by Anthony Asquith.

The Woman in Question is a brief murder mystery. Made in 1949, it came out at the same time as Akira Kurosawa's classic Rashomon. Rashomon showed the same incidents from the differing points of view of the central characters. The Woman in Question shows a murdered woman as she was perceived by a range of people. The device has been used in many films including Les Girls.

The film was directed by Anthony Asquith, a veteran of the film industry from silent times to the '60s (The Winslow Boy, The Browning Version, The Yellow Rolls Royce, The VIPs). The film has a strong cast with Jean Kent in the central role of the murdered woman - who has to vary her performance in the interpretations of the other characters. John Mc Callum is an Irish sailor, Dirk Bogarde (early in his career) attempts an imitation American accent. There is good support from Hermione Baddeley as an inquisitive landlady and Duncan Macrae as a police inspector.

1. An interesting British drama? Murder mystery? Social comment?

2. Black and white photography? Sense of realism? The fairground, the flat, the shops and the street? The musical score?

3. The title and the focus on Astra? The questions raised about her death and about her life by the varying points of view of the characters?

4. Audiences building up their impressions of Astra? The initial presentation by 114rs Finch, the contrasting points of view of Catherine and Baker? The story of the man across the street with a return to the dignified Astra? The point of view of Murray and his love for her? Audience sympathy for her death? The puzzle of her life? Which was the real Astra? Her relationship with Mrs Finch and her ladylike manner, the same with the man across the street? Her sister seeing her as vicious? seeing her as sluttish? Murray's love for her?

5. The inspector and his listening to the various voices, the questions? His resolving the case?

6. Mrs Finch and her son, his information? Her answering questions for him? Her snobbishness? Seeing Astra as ladylike? Not liking Catherine and Baker? Her criticisms of then?

7. The man across the street and his reverence for Astra, putting, her on a pedestal? Helping her with the painting? her going into his shop? his projecting his image on to her? His jealousy?

8. Bob and his roughness, the encounter with Astra at the fair, at home with her, the clashes? His love for her?

9. Catherine and the clashes with her sister, jealousies? Her love for Baker? Further provocations? The differing interpretation of visits, coming to the door, violence and arguments?

10. Baker and his background, accent, origins, meeting Astra, her liking for him, acting, clashes, with Catherine?

11. The build-up of the clues? Audiences assessing the different points of view? Understanding the complexity of characters? Differing perspectives?

WISE BLOOD

US, 1979, 101 minutes, Colour.
Brad Dourif, Harry Dean Stanton, Ned Beatty, Dan Shor, Amy Wright, John Huston.
Directed by John Huston.

Wise Blood is an arresting adaptation of Flannery O'Connor's novel. O'Connor, a writer from the South and acclaimed in the literary world, was preoccupied with themes of religion and mania. These are to the fore in this portrait of a returned soldier, reacting against his Christian upbringing and wanting to establish a Christianity without Christ. However, like most people over-preoccupied with religion and Christ, he himself becomes obsessed with religion - to the point of his own passion and death.

Brad Dourif (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Dune) is excellent in the central role of the obsessed soldier. He receives fine support from a cast which includes Dan Shor as the slow-witted Enoch, Ned Beatty as a southern con-man evangelist and Amy Wright as the daughter of allegedly blind Harry Dean Stanton. John Huston himself appears briefly in a flashback as Hazel's grandfather.

The film has been updated to the Vietnam war - and the relevance of Flannery O'Connor's themes is still obvious.

The work is characteristic of John Huston (whose wide range of credits includes The Maltese Falcon, the Oscar-winning Treasure of the Sierra Madre and adaptations of such novels as Moby Dick, Under the Volcano). Another offbeat film dealing with religion and madness was his mediaeval study, A Walk With Love and Death.

1. The work of Flannery O'Connor in American literature? A focus on the South? Its culture, society, religion? Its particular brand of fundamentalist Christianity? obsession with religion, rebellion? Themes of religion and madness? Good and evil?

2. The adaptation of her novel for the screen? An offbeat novel adapted successfully for an offbeat film? The success of the adaptation of situations and characters. of themes? Acclaim? The updating to the '70s and its relevance? For a specialist audience?

3. The atmosphere of Tennessee (filmed in Georgia)? The '70s, the contemporary mood, the man who moved away from the South, the experience of war - with little explicit comment on this? The opening sequences with the range of religious posters - fundamentalist, pious, kitsch, commercial? The decay and decline of the towns of the South? The hero returning from the war - and his collapse? The visual style of the film? Atmosphere? The blend of the ordinary and the eccentric? The musical score and the atmosphere of the South? Hymns? Editing contributing to mood: tracking, angle shots etc.?


4. The title and Enoch's explanation? His own intuitions and wise blood? Hazel and his wise blood, intuition and drive? The importance of natural wisdom, religious wisdom - and delusion? The blood of Hazel and its being linked visually with the blood of Jesus? The religious theme of blood, wounds, torture, self- inflicted torture? Death?

5. The credits - the atmosphere of the South, the focus on Jesus and redemption, the range of images, themes of salvation and justification? The posters, the lights, the roadside? Kitsch and the phoning of Jesus etc.? The woman in the train looking at Hazel and thinking he was a preacher? A context for a southern preacher? The significance and visual impact of the flashbacks with John Huston as Hazel's grandfather, religious background? The Protestant tradition of the dichotomy between good and evil, predestination, salvation by faith? The role of good works?

6. Hazel and his religion and its hold on him, rejection? Beliefs, commitment? His decision to rebel and to do everything that he wanted to do? The visit to the whore? His assertiveness against God? Yet the role of the preacher. the mesmerising power? The range of charlatans? The effect on people? Hazel and his being caught up. his buying the car and its being a sign of predestination? The loss of the car and his loss of faith in himself? Retirement, suffering, self-inflicted penance, repercussions? The film as a critique of this kind of religion?

7. The focus on the grandfather: preaching, awe, salvation. dreams of sexuality, sex and religious rebellion?

8. Hazel and the lift, his seriousness, his going to the house. looking for things - and his note about 'stealing killing'? His new clothes, the train? His going to the city? The taxi driver commenting on his looking like a preacher? The prostitute and his return? Preaching of a gospel of Christianity without Christ?

9. Asa Hawkes and his daughter Sabbath Lily Hawkes - in the crowd, the salesman with the peeler. Hazel's response, the encounter with Enoch? The focus on the theme of blindness and sight? Hazel following the blind man, suspicious of him? Enoch following Hazel and devoted to him? Being found and saved? Hoover Shoates and his listening to Hazel's preaching, offering to set him up, the alternate preacher and Hazel's confrontation? Hazel going home, boarding where the Hawkes boarded, the encounters? A landlady? Eventually retiring to this house - his exposure of Asa Hawkes as not blind? Asa as a character, charlatan, evil?

10. Sabbath Lily as her father's eyesight? Her knowing that he was a fraud? The plot? The outing, her seducing Hazel? Hazel's obsession about her father's blindness? The breakdown, the bed? The mummified figure and it becoming a baby symbol for her, Hazel destroying it? Her relationship with her father, with Hazel - each mirroring the other?

11. Hazel's mission, preaching holiness, Christianity without Christ, the opportunity for conversions, the people's reaction, preaching, rejection, his own prophecies? The response of the disciples?

12. Hazel and his anti-religious stances, memories, dreams, doing things, themes of infection, the Church of Christ without Christ, Hoover Shoates and his despising of him, the symbol of the car and his cherishing it, the scene of buying it, its breakdown on the highway, the encounter with the police?

13. The landlady and her ordinariness, helping Hazel, serving, looking after him in his illness, shocked at his penance, wanting to marry him, her cherishing him when it was too late?

14. What happened to Hazel: salvation and hatred, abuse, the reason for his blinding himself (and the parallels with Asa and his false blindness)? Themes of atonement, a personal Calvary, stones in his shoes, wire, the pathos of his death?

15. The portrait of Enoch - a simple young man, his following Hazel, his loneliness. his talk. the wise blood? His talking to the monkeys and the scene of his lining up to greet Gonga - the gorilla suit, the museum. the mummified figure, the mummified figure seeming a Jesus figure? The role of Enoch as a genuine disciple - and turning Hazel into a saviour redeemer figure?

16. Hazel as a Christ-figure - an anti-Christ figure? Suffering, effecting grace for people, the theme of blood, his disciples, the story of torture, Sabbath Lily and the baby and her Madonna like appearance, the futile Jesus figure? Salvation for whom - the landlady and the Pieta figure?

17. Themes of madness, sanity, normality? The portrait of people of the South, the cross-section - backgrounds of prejudice, race, religious superiority? A piece of Americana?

WISDOM

US, 1986, 104 minutes, Colour.
Emilio Estevez, Demi Moore, Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright.
Directed by Emilio Estevez

Wisdom is an offbeat drama written and directed by its star, Emilio Estevez who had written That Was Then, This Is Now by S.E. Hinton. This is an offbeat story of a young man, convicted of a felony, who can't be employed and who decides to become a criminal, not against the people but for them. He robs banks for their foreclosure records and, with his girlfriend, becomes an American hero, a mixture of Clyde and Robin Hood. Can it last? Well-made with touches of irony in the seriousness, it moves to a dramatic climax, and then the ending needs thinking about to determine what the film is really saying and that is worthwhile. Estevez, son of Martin Sheen, appeared in many significant films of the '80s including The Outsiders and Stakeout, St. Elmo's Fire and The Breakfast Club. Demi Moore is the leading lady (St. Elmo's fire, No Small Affair).

1. The title and expectations? Theme? John Wisdom’s name?

2. The work of Emilio Estevez, writing, directing, acting? His age and experience? His comment on American experience?

3. The opening and John in the bath, the voice-over, expectations, narrative? The ending and John in the bath, the irony and its meanings?

4. John Wisdom: his name, family and style, their expectations? The teenage felony and his drinking, the crash, four years' probation, his sliding, it being on the record?

5. His applications for jobs, the jobs that he received, being fired? The interviews and his failure? Tis working as a cleaner and the black cleaner as the 'owner' firing him because he was too well qualified? The hamburger place and his having to tell lies (and the guest spot by his brother Charlie Sheen? his thinking about criminals, his deciding to be a criminal? His not wanting to hurt his parents? relationship with Karen, love for her, wanting her to be proud of him?

C. John as a man, in himself, work, study, hopes, interests? love for Karen? Parents and permissions?

7. His reflections and the decisions, the poor and the owners, the need to reclaim the documents on behalf of the poor, the television denunciation? The easy buying of the gun? The practice and the shooting? The place of the gun in American society? His decision to dress as a terrorist? His father's reaction, his mother's car and the irony of the breakdown?

8. Encountering Karen by chance, her following him, the breakdown of the car, going with her? The first ' job: the shooting, the withdrawing cash (his own only), the documents and burning then? Handling the situation, the timing, Karen not there with the getaway car, the police passing, the final getaway?

9. The drive, Karen stopping in the desert, wanting the truth, the effect on her? The motives, the achievement, more jobs, Karen's involvement, how credible?

10. The Media and its reporting of John and Karen? Making him a hero? The reaction of his parents, the interviews by media, the F.B.I? His own TV interviews, becoming a hero, the applause of the people? Tie social point behind getting the documents about mortgages and ownership? Becoming a contemporary Robin Hood? Floyd?

11. The decisions to do more, enjoyment, the dangers?

12. The hotel and the owner, the television, getting his friends together and giving them lifts? The strict sexual mores compared with the praise of the bandit?

13. The FBI and the relentless following of the couple, the investigations, parents, motives - Vietnam? The siege of the motel - and the irony of the dump?

14. The supermarket, tension, the policeman, Karen caught and frozen, her shooting and the changing of everything. Her grief, the effect on them both, his phoning home and explaining things to his parents?

15. Arriving at Minneapolis St. Paul, the hold-up, the hydrant, the cars and the chase?

16. The parking, the siege, the violence, the souring of the dream? The school and Karen shot? His not coming back? The sports ground, the final confrontation, the melodramatic ending with his being shot?

17. The irony of John's final comments about dreams, Americans fabricating heroes? The wisdom of reflection on this theme/reality/dream?

THE WAGES OF FEAR (LA SALAIRE DE LA PEUR)

France, 1954, 148 minutes, Black and white.
Yves Montand, Charles Vanel, Peter Van Eyck.
Directed by Henri- Georges Clouzot.

The Wages of Fear is a French classic of the '50s. Set in a seedy outpost in South America, the film tells the simple story of drivers hired to carry nitro-glycerine to a disaster site. The roads and the terrain are in poor condition. The film has been considered a masterpiece of suspense.

The director Henri- George Clouzot gets excellent performances from a cast led by Yves Montand, Charles Vanel and Peter Van Eyck. While some of the sequences in the town are slow, they do provide a setting for the journey and its dangers. There are some marvellous visuals - a classic scene whereby a match is lit and there is a suggestion of fire followed by an explosion.

There was a multi-million-dollar American remake in the mid-'70s with Roy Scheider, directed by William Friedkin (French Connection, Exorcist). It kept close to the original while having spectacular scenery and special effects. However, it was one of the worst box office disasters of its year. The reputation of the original remains classic.

1. The quality of this film? Its status as a classic? Suspense, character sketches, themes?

2. Location photography, black and white, light and dark? Isolated South American locations? The world of drifters, oil workers? Life in the town? On the road? Editing and pace, special stylistic effects? The musical score?

3. The title and the biblical connotations? Sin and fear? Death? The film as a parable, 'What doth it profit .... ?' The title with reference to the men, their work, the difficulties, money, needs and motivation?

4. The importance of the setting: South America, isolation, the hot dull and dusty town, vagrants and drifters, heat and thirst? A lost population? - Seeking opportunities? Rough and tumble? The group, the proprietor of the girl? Drinks and money? Prospects? Interactions, playing games, arguing, bickering, flirting?

5. The arrival of the plane? The small plane, Joe, the style, passport and money, Mario and the bond, flair? The taxi? The proprietor? Joe and O'Brien, the question of jobs and age? Mario in himself, attracted towards the girl?

6. The type of work available, hard, demanding? The workers? The oilfields, the plant, the need for drivers?

7. The crisis and the demand for drivers, the tests, age questions, interviews? Joe and his being rejected? The other man and Joe? Being taken on?

8. The dramatic impact of the journey, danger, the terrain? Experience? The prospect for suspense?

9. The filming of the journey: pace, editing, audiences sharing the experience of the terrain, the roads, the cargo, the skills of the drivers, speed? The rivalries, the ledge, the backing of the trucks out on the ramp, the rotting wood and its collapse? Timing? The boulders and the explosions? The oil leak? The trees and the leads?

10. The fire and its danger, the spectacle, the resolution of the problem?

11. The truck-drivers and their hopes, the background of the war, work, the growing friendships, speed, ingenuity with the rotting wood, the nitroglycerine and the explosion of the boulders, nerve? The cigarette tobacco, the blowing of the match and the transition to the explosion of the truck?

12. Mario and Joe? Tough qualities? The facts, the boulders and the rocks, the oil? The role reversal - especially Joe and his nerves? Running, humiliated, his leg?

13. The end of the journey, the relief, the desire to return and have the drink at the bar, the music playing? The crescendo of the music, the truck swerving? The spectacular death?

14. A film about human nature, hopes and achievements? A fable - what doth it profit to gain the whole world and lose one's life?

WINTER PEOPLE

US, 1989, 105 minutes, Colour.
Kurt Russell, Kelly Mc Gillis, Lloyd Bridges, Mitchell Ryan.
Directed by Alan J. Pakula.

Winter People is the story of the Depression, set in the snow-clad mountains of North Carolina in 1934. The screenplay is an adaptation of a novel by adapted by Carol Sobieski (writer of such diverse films as Annie, The Women's Room). it was directed by Ted Kotcheff,-who made impact with a range of films over three decades, including Wake In Fright in Australia as well as First Blood.

Kurt Russell is good as the clock-maker who is taken in by the mountain people. Kelly Mc Gillis, in a role reminiscent of Witness, is the unmarried mother. Lloyd Bridges is her father. There is a good supporting cast portraying the Wrights and the Campbells, families feuding in these mountains.

The film moves at a leisurely pace, portrays the life of this isolated community, the codes of honour and justice. The outsider breaks into these codes, even though he is welcomed. (There is a strong physicality about the film with its cold mountains, icy water, bear hunts - which may be interesting comparisons with the dust and the kangaroo hunt of Wake in Fright.)

The film is a symbolic fable, a study of human nature - with an upbeat, possibly sentimental, ending.

1. The impact of the film, about a community, people? The work of Ted Kotcheff and his style?

2. North Carolina, the mountains and the river, the town, isolation? The atmosphere of the wintry season? Atmospheric score?

3. The physical impact of the film: the weather, the cold, the bear hunt, the fights, the freezing water?

4. Wayland and Paula: introduction, packing and leaving, the argument about the pig, the visit to the mother's grave and the words there, the hopes, the car stalling in the river, walking in hope through the mountains?

5. Collie and her suspicions, letting the couple in, her own baby, the meal, the warmth, letting them stay, her beginning to talk and tell her story?

6. The Wrights and the Campbells, the age-old feud, the land, the divisions, the tradition? Deaths? The Campbells on horseback robbing Wayland's car? The Wrights and their friendliness, assessing Wayland, the discussion about the clock, taking him In? Their consideration of him as a man, his needing to be blooded by the hunt, belonging?

7. Kurt Russell as Wayland, his gentleness, clock-maker? His short experience as husband, the death of his wife and her walking into the sea because of her pain? Her wanting to be called other names so that the pain would go away? As a father to Paula, her vigorous attitudes? His not attacking the Campbells when Collie was whipped? Paula and her angry reaction? His explanation that he had to be there for her? The discussions with the Wrights, being accepted? The decision to go on the bear hunt, the macho attitudes in preparation, on the way, his reading a book and Young scaring him, the bear, Young not having a weapon, Wayland jumping on the bear's back, shooting him, the dispute with Gudger about the trophy? Getting the skin, coming home and accepted?

8. Wayland and his making the clock for Collie, the gift,(and Cole shooting it)? His offer of building the clock on the tower, the family accepting him? The father and his support? The collage of his work?

9. Collie and her situation, a member of the Wright family, her brothers, the secrecy of the father of her baby? Calling him Jonathan? Her father's care, the brothers looking after her, the food, etc? The mother's disdain? Cole coming and Paula seeing him? The clash with the Campbells? Her falling in love with Wayland, her response to Paula, concern about the bear hunt, the gift of the clock? Cole coming and his being drunk, Wayland coming in, the talk, the physical fight, Wayland with Cole in the river, freezing, sending him off? Their worry about his going to his death? The irony of Gudger prowling in the night (as earlier seeing Wayland) and not responding to Cole, letting him die?

10. Wright and the tradition, the mother worried, the sketch of the sons, Gudger and the shop, Young and his exuberance, his father calling him silly, his friendship with Cole?

11. The Campbells and their reaction to the killing, the Wrights meeting, the pros and cons of who was to be exiled, the father working out what had happened? Realising Gudger's responsibility?

12. Collie and her decision, going to the Campbells, the glimpse of the clan and the way of life, Campbell and his hostility? Her giving the baby, her doing the deal? Her coming back to the Wrights, grief and screaming?

13. The build-up to the wedding, Wayland's decision to visit the Campbells, Margaret helping him, his explanation to Campbell and blaming Cole for the divisions? The accidental shooting? The ceremony, the opening of the clock? The joy of the town? Campbell coming with the baby and offering it? The happy ending?

14. The ending of the feud, peace, sacrifice?

WINTER MEETING

US, 1948, 104 minutes, Black and white.
Bette Davis, James Davis, Janis Paige, John Hoyt, Florence Bates, Walter Baldwin.
Directed by Brentaigne Windust.

Winter Meeting was a Bette Davis vehicle of the late '40s, a time when her popularity was declining, although she was soon to make her great success, All About Eve. The film echoes Now Voyager and Bette Davis plays a repressed spinster poet.

She encounters a young sailor hero from world War Two who had intended to become a priest. There is an unlikely romance as well as very long sequences in which each explains life to the other. These sequences were considered very talkative at the time. However, especially on television, they illustrate the range of Bette Davis' acting ability and her capacity for holding audience attention. There is an interesting performance by John Hoyt as a Noel Coward-type gentleman about-town. The film is sombre and romantic in the Warner Bros.-Bette Davis style.

1. The impact of Bette Davis, her impact in her time, now? Acting range, skills?

2. Warner Bros. production: New York, black and white photography, sets, light and shadow, the cast, Max Steiner romantic score?

3. The contrived screenplay: the establishing of the characters, the atmosphere of New York, social set, the melodramatics, romance, the long discussion sequences?

4. New York and the atmosphere of the late '40s? The girl on the train and the reading of the paper, Stacey on the train? The hustle and bustle, Susan on the streets, parties, restaurants? The aftermath of the war, charities? Work? How authentic did the atmosphere seem? Authentic for this group of people and their interaction?

5. Bette Davis' style as Susan: repressed spinster, successful poet, the encounter with Stacey, going out as the blind date? Her interest in the other girl, the success of the meal and Novack and his drinking? Dancing? The return home and Novack's forcing his attentions on her, her caution? Her exhilaration in his company? His advising her to go to the country? The lyric country sequences? His persuading her to tell her story? The importance of her father, her runaway mother and the McGuire? side of the family? Madness, hurt? How persuasive was her story-telling? Her persuading him to tell his story? Her joy, sudden leaving? Her relationship with the couple looking after the house? Stacey and the second restaurant sequence and its ironies? The encounter with Novack, her persuading him to face his future? Her future and her ringing of her mother? A character study? Detail?

6. Novack as hero - the war hero, his background from Liberty, his being in New York, outings, drinking, the encounter with Stacey, attraction towards the girl, dancing? Getting out of the cab with Susan? His attraction? Going to the country, the outings? Listening to Susan's story? His own story, childhood, priesthood, discussions, disillusionment, war heroism, thinking that he was unworthy of God? The importance of his leaving, encountering Susan again, the discussion and the possibility of the priesthood?

7. Stacey and the man-about-town - type, work, secretary, socialite, parties, friendship with Susan, his barbed manner of speaking?

8. The secretary and her style, attracted towards celebrities, enjoying life, dancing, meals, put out when Novack went with Susan?

9. The family in the country and their loyalty to Susan?

10. The significance of the title - the way that the seasons Were used? A meting that would come to no fruition? The mutual influence of each? The unlikely romance - and its unlikely consequences?

WINSTANLEY

UK, 1975, 91 minutes, Black and White.
Miles Halliwell, Alison Halliwell, Jerome Willis, Terry Higgins.
Directed by Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo.

Winstanley is a serious and sombre costume drama. It was written and directed by Kevin Brownlow (the historian of the silent film era) and Andrew Mollo. They had previously made a documentary-style drama about an invasion of England called It Happened Here.

This film is set in the England of Oliver Cromwell, focusing on a group of people who have been disillusioned by the Civil War, are living in poverty, their land taken from them. They are able to create a community, they call themselves Diggers. Gerard Winstanley (Miles Halliwell) is the leader, who has a dram of a Utopia, an Eden where people can all live together with dignity.

Commentators said that the film reflected the disillusionment and the revolutions of the 1960s. However, the work of Brownlow and Mollo is very serious. They are historians and relish this re-creation of history. The small-budget film was shot in black and white and they filmed for over a year. In the background are General Fairfax as well as the presence of Oliver Cromwell.

Other images of the Cromwellian period include Ken Hughes's Cromwell with Richard Harris as the leader and Alec Guinness as Charles I. In 2003, there was a historical re-creation, To Kill a King, focusing on Cromwell (Tim Roth) and the leadership of Fairfax (Dougray Scott). Rupert Everett was Charles I.

This is a significant period in British history and films like this contribute to audience awareness and knowledge of the era. Unfortunately, this specialist film was not seen by as many people as it deserved to be.

1. An interesting film? Entertaining? Message? For British audiences? Audiences with interest in history, history of Christianity?

2. Production values: contribution of the British Film Institute? Small-budget production? Non-professional acting? The style of black and white photography, light and shadow? The starkness of the decor and atmosphere: the countryside, the town, the seasons, the wildness of England during the Civil War period? Editing and a sense of pace, the lifestyle of the non-conformists? The special effects for the battles? The reliance on close-ups and profiles for psychological insight into the main characters? The musical score? Sense of period, religious chant?

3. Audience knowledge of 17th. century history? The Jacobean era? The transition from the Tudor and Elizabethan period to the Jacobean? The Civil War? The Puritans? The importance of the prologue and the battle? Cromwell's attitudes, status? Religious stances? Social stances? The social concern of the Puritans? The positions of the antiroyalists? 17th. century Britain and subsequent centuries - and the influence of this movement into the 20th century? Contemporary interest in socialist experiments?

4. The focus on the group, the group as a symbol of the Puritan period? Audience interest in the group and understanding? Letters of sympathy? The diggers and the social movements and religious movements of the 17th. century? Social oppression, the peasant classes? The creative interplay between social reform and religion?

5. The portrait of Gerard Winstanley? As a man, of his times? His personal qualities and strengths? His being seen as a prophet? His writings? The importance of the voice-over with its tone and content? His earnestness, piety, knowledge of sacred scripture and application to 17th century England. Protestant theological stances, theology of faith, justice, justification? His personality? His qualities of leadership? Leading the diggers in their squatting? The setting up of the commune? Hard manual work? The supplying of basic needs? Prayer? The attacks? Drake? Platt? His wife and the journey? Winstanley's help, the plea - and her disillusionment? The mad anti-religious attitudes? The disciples and his hold over them? The quality of life, the hardships? The visits to General Fair fax and his pleas? The court and its harshness? Platt and his obstinacy? The destruction of the group? Yet their
hope? Winstanley as a symbol of religious protest and reform? Social reform? The symbol of the hill. the road and the lake?

6. The picture of Winstanley's disciples: their background, rough experience, suffering, the squatting, beliefs, petitions? The attacks? The turmoil? The courts? Prisons? Sympathy from other diggers?

7. Fairfax and his reputation in the Civil War? His advisers? His sense of justice? His statements of fairness? The visits and the possibilities of his support?

8. Drake and Platt - at home, Platt's severity, his wife and her reaction, her behaviour at home, piety, birth, her decision to go to the diggers. the military attack, her disillusionment, return? What Drake and Platt stood for?

9. The mad group and their behaviour, religious fanaticism. impression on people? The unbalanced side of the social reform?

10. The film's contribution to an understanding of oppressed peasant classes, hardship in the English countryside?