EMO THE MUSICAL

Australia, 2016, 94 minutes, Colour.
Benson Jack Anthony, Jordan Hare, Jon Prasida, Lucy Barrett, Ben Bennett, Craig Hyde- Smith, Geraldine Viswanathan, Bridie Carter, Dylan Lewis.
Directed by Neal Triffett.

The target audience for this film will know what Emo means. For those who don’t know about the Emo trends in music since the 1980s, Wikipedia is informative: “In addition to music, "emo" is often used more generally to signify a particular relationship between fans and artists, and to describe related aspects of fashion, culture, and behavior. Emo has been associated with a stereotype that includes being particularly emotional, sensitive, misanthropic, shy, introverted, or angst-ridden. It has also been associated with stereotypes like depression, self-harm, and suicide.�
This is definitely and Emo musical.

This is an Australian story, in the suburbs, focusing on the young people, at school, at parties, music issues, bands, rivalries.

While there is a very secular attitude amongst most of the students, there is some-plot involving religious groups, religious enthusiasm.

It is designed for those interested in exploring the world of the young. Younger audiences may be able to identify with the characters very quickly – older audiences may find some of them quite exasperating.

1. An Australian story? Universal? Teens, adults? Drama and music? High school? Music courses, sports? Religious dimensions?

2. The musical score, the songs, their style, lyrics and vocals, dramatising the characters and situations?

3. Ethan, his life story, bullied, the guitar broken, depressed, no home background, decision to hang himself, the failure, faking the story, expulsion from his school?

4. Going to see more High, his arrival, the bullies want his credit card number?

5. The welcome from Isaac and Jim Marley? The offer of the tour? Seeing the notice for the demos, his hopes? The auditions?

6. The teacher, handling the classes, music, sports? The issues of depression, the medication? Songs? The principles, the spirit of the school, the principle leaving? The woman delegate? The picture of the staff?

7. Brad and the emails, Peter and his look, ring, Roz and her being tough, appearance? The Imo philosophy? Brad, make up and look? The leader? Ethan singing, his being accepted, the value of his suicide attempt, reputation round the school? The practices, the sounds, the lyrics, the ethos? Roz and the dates, at the cinema and its failure? Brad as boss? Peters genial? Roz and her playing basketball secretly?

8. Isaac, the religious group, Trinity at her place, Peter and his homosexuality, his aversion therapy, the attraction to the boy? The songs? The crisis, the group, going to the institution? The finale and his friend coming to the institution?

9. Isaac, religious, booking the room for practice, the chapel, the religious symbols? Jim Marley and her pregnancy? His lack of responsibility? His domination, the destruction of the chapel, getting the DNA sample testing it, the criticism that he did not believe in science? At the end, accepting Ethan?

10. Trinity, in the religious group, her religious language, the kiss and the attraction, the meetings in the library, at her home, listening to Ethan’s story, her being hurt by him, going to the group, telling the truth about his suicide attempt? The notices all around the school and his loss of reputation?

11. The group work, the noun, her habit, manner of speaking, letting people speak, approval or disapproval? The range of stories around the room? Deviancy? And the song that Jesus was an email?

12. The chapel, the fire, Brad and his domination, Ethan and his kowtowing? The fire?

13. The competition, the groups playing, the teacher and the MC, the happy school, the deputy principal and her sternness and wanting to expel unhappy people?

14. Ethan, love for Trinity, the emergency baptism, playing with the religious group, Isaac not wanting him to stand out, if his playing and everybody responding? Brad and is discussed?

15. Brad, the arrest, the teacher and the deal for his playing, Ethan joining him? The reconciliation? Brad going to prison?

16. The blend of realism, the artificiality of the musical?

17. The variety of stances, the screenplay and pro-and against the emailers and brats domination, his callousness and the burning of the chapel? The screenplay pro and against the religious group, Isaac and his double standards about the pregnancy? Trinity and her beliefs? Ethan and his final open quote conversion�?

18. The impact for the peer audience, teenage issues? The parents? Teachers?

BALD MOUNTAIN

Brazil, 2013, 120 minutes, Colour.
Juliano Cazarre, Julio Andrade, Wagner Moura, Matheus Nachtergaele.
Directed by Heitor Dahlia.

Bald Martin is a very strong Brazilian film – with a tough narrative and tough characters. It is directed by Heitor Dahlia who also directed films internationally, including Gone, with Amanda Siegfried.

This is a story of a gold rush in Brazil, from 1980 to 1984. Thousands of men converged on the mountain, staking out claims, working hard to find the gold, processing it, some making profits, some being victimised, accidents and increasing violence, especially with the entrepreneurs who know how to organise and make deals.

The visuals are very impressive, the sequences on the mountain itself, the slopes, the crevices, and the huge numbers of men climbing the mountain side, in the valleys, covered in mud, always eager for the gold.

The film focuses on two friends from childhood, Juliano and Joaquim – and a very strong screen presence and performance by Juliano Cazarre as Juliano, seen right at the beginning being interrogated by the authorities and under suspicion. His friend from childhood is a schoolteacher with a pregnant wife who is determined to get money to support his family but is caught up in the last four gold, staying, experiencing ups and downs, his friendship with Juliano, betrayals by Juliano, being manipulated by the other wheeler dealers. Juliano, on the other hand, is not afraid to throw his considerable weight around, clashing with some of the other bosses as well as with the click of gay men who are on the goldfields.

The film shows changes over the five years, signalling each year and what was happening, the finding of the gold, people making fortunes, the setting up of a satellite town for drinking, drugs, for prostitution. There is also smuggling of gold out of the mountains by plane, along with shifts in drugs and arms.

The film is a reminder that while there is a lot of earnestness in gold rushes, there is a great deal of rough life, harshness, the testosterone of a male group with its ambitions and hard work, the exploitation of women, men losing their characters with greed and ambitions, willing to gain the whole world and risking the loss of their souls.

1. A piece of contemporary Brazilian history? The 1980s?

2. Bald Mountain, the goldfields, the diggings, the sides of the mountains, the caverns? The makeshift town, dwellings, the sex bar, offices? The contrast with the city and family homes? The musical score?

3. The panoramas of Bald Mountain, the crowd sequences, the workers, on the mountainsides, in the valleys, trudging in the mud, digging, accidents? The feel of the gold rush?

4. Introduction to the themes, the voice-over and the commentary, from the perspective of Joaquim, his perspective on Juliano? Friends since childhood, partners, gold fever? Joaquim and his wife, pregnant, leaving her behind, phone calls, letters, the photo of the child? His ambitions to get money and come back, giving up his role as a teacher?

5. The allotments of the land, the titles, the authorities, the workers, the deals, banding together? Striking gold, the prices, the mechanisms? The beginning of smuggling? And the smugglers with drugs and arms?

6. Juliano and Joaquim, their hard work, success? The deals? Going to the club? Juliano, the encounter with Tereza, her being with Lindo Rico?

7. The opening, the interrogation of Juliano, the film in flashback, his presence, big and strong, fights and clashes, relationship with Tereza, the clashes with Lindo Rico? The hairdresser, the gay men and their presence on the fields? The violence and knives? Juliano, success, business accounts, shady? The confrontation with Lindo, the wedding and his being killed?

8. The rival businessman, wanting to own land? The approach to Joaquim, his clashes with Juliano? His decision to leave, to take the money, after his success? On the road, the cars blocking him, his being robbed? Blaming Juliano?

9. The irony of his being set up, the other owner, hitting him to betray Juliano? Possibilities for getting more money? His injuries, recovery? Finally going home, his wife waiting for him, the delight in his daughter?

10. Juliano, being interrogated, the consequences?

11. The picture of the men, the harsh backgrounds, the tough work, bonding, the women on the goldfields, the town, prostitution? The bosses, business deals, agreed? Betrayals?

12. A glimpse of Bald Mountain from 1980 to 1984?

JOSEPH, KING OF DREAMS

US, 2000, 75 minutes, Colour.
Voices of Ben Affleck, Mark Hamill, Richard Herd, Maureen Mc Govern, Judith Light, Steven Weber
Directed by Rob La Duca, Robert Ramirez.

Two years after Dreamworks had great commercial success with its version of the Exodus, Prince of Egypt, they released this small-budget story from the book of Genesis.

The film is entertaining in its way but certainly designed for younger audiences, an opportunity for them to learn the story of Joseph and his brothers, their betrayal, Joseph sold into slavery, his life in Egypt, his interpretation of dreams, his success in Egypt on behalf of Pharaoh, the arrival of his brothers and the gradual revelation of who he was.

75 minutes, along with some songs, especially a very long Miracle Child in the opening minutes, the screenplay enables audiences to immediately appreciate and remember the outlines of the Joseph story. To that extent it is of religious and catechetical aid for younger audiences.

The film is very bright, scenes in Canaan with Joseph and his brothers, the devotion of Jacob and Rachel, the multi-coloured coat. There are the visualising of Joseph’s dreams, especially with his being the largest sheaf and his brother’s sheafs bowing down before him. This is too much for them and they sell him to slavers and he goes into Egypt.

As with the title, the important thing is that Joseph is able to interpret dreams and, after being betrayed by his master’s wife and imprisoned, is able to interpret the dreams of fellow prisoners, one disastrous, one profitable – which means that he is drawn to the attention of Pharaoh and interpret his dreams about the seven years of plenty and the seven years of starvation.

Ben Affleck voices Joseph and Mark Hamill voices Jacob. Singer Maureen Mc Govern (from The Poseidon Adventure) is Rachel and has the opportunity for a song.

The film is colourful, storytelling American-style, modest ambitions, but successful in what it was setting out to do.

1. Telling the story from Genesis for the younger audience, brief, animated, simple, musical, visual images?

2. The brevity of the film, the colourful animation, landscapes of Cannan and Egypt, the characters, the rough Canaanites, Joseph and his coat, the Egyptians and their costumes? The years of plenty, the years of famine?

3. The musical score, the range of songs especially the Miracle Child? Rachel’s song? Joseph’s wife and her song? The effect of having songs in this biblical context?

4. Audience familiarity with the Genesis story, the outline of Joseph, his brothers, Jacob’s love, Rachel’s love, his being sold, slavery in Egypt, Potiphar’s wife, prison, the interpretation of dreams, interpreting for Pharaoh, his being put in charge, the prosperity of Egypt? His brothers, the return, his deception, the gold in Benjamin’s sack?

5. The background of Miracle Child, the older brothers, adults, Jacob and Rachel, the birth of Joseph, the favourite, the collage of his being a child, youth, young man, studies and scrolls, the coloured coat, with his brothers, their antagonism, his dreams, the death of the Ramsey, the sheafs bowing down?

6. Joseph and his brothers, the characters, the hard work, the father sending them to work after being woken by Joseph’s dream? The sheaves? The attack on Joseph, his falling down the hole? The slaveowners? His being pulled out, sold into slavery, the silver, his appeals?

7. In Egypt, the market, too small, Potiphar buying him? The work at home? The approach of his wife? Tearing his cloak? The accusations, Potiphar and his reaction, believing his wife’s word? Sending him to prison? His wife later repenting?

8. In prison, the dreams, the baker and his negative dream, his death? The servant, his prosperous dream, his release, speaking on behalf of Joseph?

9. Joseph in prison, suffering, food? Planting the seed, its growing, Time passing?

10. His release, interpreting the dream for Pharaoh, the visualising of the dream, the seven prosperous years, the seven harsh years? Joseph and his plans and advice? Being put in charge?

11. The prosperous years, the crops, Joseph and his plan, the irrigation of the fields, the gathering of the crops, their being stored? Everybody cheerful?

12. Joseph and his marrying, his wife, the children?

13. The harsh years, people lining up, the allotting of the grain, the children coming? Joseph’s brothers and their arrival? Their being rejected as Canaanites, their offering to pay?

14. Joseph, his anger, the possibility for revenge, gradually revealing the truth to his wife? Sending them for Benjamin, imprisoning his brother’s hostage? Their coming back, Benjamin, the further testing of them with the gold in the sack? Their arrest, Benjamin being blamed, the brothers bowing down to Joseph, wanting to take the blame so as not to
hurt Jacob?

15. Jacob, his arrival, the revelation, the reconciliation?

16. The effective ingredients of a saga as incorporated in the Genesis narrative and in the story outline of this version?

KING OF THE NEWSBOYS

US, 1938, 65 minutes, Black and white.
Lew Ayres, Helen Mack, Alison Skipworth, Horace Mc Mahon.
Directed by Bernard Vorhaus.

During the 1930s, especially after the impact of the Depression, Hollywood made many films about tough life in the cities, employment and unemployment, the role of gangsters and syndicates, and stories of people trying to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, motivations for success.

This is that kind of film.

Lew Ayres had made an impact in 1930 in All Quiet on the Western Front. He was to appear in films throughout the 30s. However, he was to move to some kind of stardom with the Dr Kildare series at the end of the 1930s and into the 40s when Hollywood shunned him because of his conscientious objection stands during World War II. He did continue his career but mainly as a character actor into the 1960s.

This is a story about the poor areas of New York City, the young man, Jerry, confident in himself, who rides a horse making away for the steam train that moves through the district. He has a girlfriend but she is desperate to move out of the slums, takes up with a racing fixer. There are some obvious clashes in the backgrounds of the families who stay.

Fighting and getting into trouble, Jerry is persuaded by authorities and good advice to take up selling papers. He has a group of gawky friends, including very young Horace Mc Mahon, and persuades them to work with him, generating headlines, persuading the powers that be to employ them, making profits by confronting people in the street, even intimidating them, building up a mini empire.

Which means then that Jerry and the girlfriend will encounter each other, each discovering that the ambitions they had for wealth and position, are not all that they hoped – and, ultimately, not without some gangster clashes, that they will be with each other.

THE GOLD RACKET

US, 1937, 63 minutes, Black and white.
Conrad Nagel, Eleanor Hunt, Fuzzy Knight, Frank Milan, William L.Thorne.
Directed by Louis J. Gasnier, Joseph H.Lewis.

This is only a moderately interesting thriller. It is a G-man story.

The action of the film is on the American Mexican border, gold mines in Mexico, illegal diggings, gold smuggling into the United States.

Conrad Nagel portrays an officer sent down to investigate. While the hero, he is something of a stolid type. He gets his work done, investigating, infiltrating. However, more in the Hollywood style, there is a female agent is also sent down but in the role of a rather exotic dancer in a club. She gets quite a lot of information to collaborate with the agent.

There are various villains, businessmen, racketeers, schemes for smuggling gold.

Another central character is a freelance pilot who is employed by the mine owners to fly in and get the gold and take it to the United States. He is very much attracted to the dancer, not taking much notice of the smuggling.

The film does build up into some action, pursuits through the mines, explosions, shootouts. Both agents are involved, the young woman able to keep her cover with plausible reasons for why she is in the mines.

The climax is arranging for the plane to land and for the apprehension of everybody involved.

A film of its time and with contemporary issues between Mexico and the United States and gold standards.

DIRTY HO

Hong Kong, 1976, 103 minutes, Colour.
Yue Wong, Chia- Hui Lo.
Directed byChia- Liang Liu.

Released in 1976, this martial arts saga can be seen as an anticipation of the success of the Hong Kong and later Chinese industries in their presentation of martial arts fantasies, symbolised by Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film of 2000).

This was the period of the Shaw Brothers in Hong Kong, the years after the films of Bruce Lee and his death, the collaborations between Hong Kong and Hollywood.

This film is pure Hong Kong, pure China. It can be seen as something of a colourful martial arts pantomime.

The narrative outline is fairly basic, a thief trying to charm the girls and give them jewels, his being counterbalanced by a merchant with more money, more jewels, the women moving from one to the other. The merchant is impressed by the skills of the thief, trains him, has him as his bodyguard when there are attempts on his life. Eventually they return to Peking for a happy culmination.

The film is very vivid in it costumes, sets and decor, everything in bright colours.

However, the main interest of the film, apart from the thin narrative and the engaging characterisations of the actors as Prince and thief, is the martial arts and the fights that capture the attention. And they recur regularly and frequently throughout the film.

There is a lot of delight in seeing the various combats, the movements, the skills, the athleticism, the special effects – though they are more naturalistic here than in the films to come.

No great demands on the mind. Rather, something of a visual feast for the senses and the excitement of the martial arts confrontations.

WRECKING CREW

US, 1942, 73 minutes, Black and white.
Richard Arlen, Chester Morris, Jean Parker, Joe Sawyer, Esther Dale.
Directed by Frank Mc Donald.

Wrecking Crew is what might be called a man’s man’s movie. It was released as the United States entered World War II after Pearl Harbor.

While the story is average enough, and the performances solid enough, there are some above average sequences with special effects for the demolition of buildings, especially at the end of the film.

There are not many films about those who knock down buildings! And this is in the period when, as we look back, it might be thought that buildings were going up. However, there was demolition in New York City for further building. No capacity for implosions at this time.

The company is managed by a tough elderly lady called Mike, played with vigour by Esther Dale. The brains in the company is Matt, played by Richard Arlen. The troublemaker is Duke, played by Chester Morris who had been in leading role since the early 1930s and who, at this time was in the series of Boston Blackie films. Joe Sawyer is in the good friend supporting role as a baseball player suffering from an arm injury, needing an operation, getting it but sacrificing himself at the end to save the lives of his friends.

Apart from Esther Dale, there is strong women’s presence with Jean Parker, always lively – this time a young woman caught stealing, suicidal, rescued from the river by Duke, passed of as his cousin, Matt being attracted, getting a job with Mike, having to make an ultimate decision.

Duke is considered a troublemaker and fears he has a jinx, people dying on his watch. However, he has an opportunity to be heroic which leads up to a climax on the top of a collapsing building, a line stretched from the collapse to safety and the slow progress along the line, seeming calamity, but the men being saved, swinging into the windows of a downstairs floor.

There is a religious touch in the film with one of the men inviting his friends to the baptism of his son, welcoming the priest, who has a Polish background as does the family. However, the religious dimension and the moralising of the film, saving other people’s lives, comes from the leader of a Salvation Army Band.

Director Frank Mc Donald began his work in the railroads and progressed through various aspects of filmmaking to writing and directing.

Not bad small-budget supporting feature of the early 1940s with some effective special effects.

GREEN EYES

US, 1934, 68 minutes, Black-and-white.
Shirley Gray, Charles Starrett, Claude Gillingwater, John Wray, William Bakewell, Dorothy Rivier, Stephen Chase, Arthur Clayton.
Directed by Richard Thorpe.

Green Eyes is a typical enough murder mystery, small-budget supporting feature of the early 1930s. It is modelled on theatrical plays rather than on opened up screenplays, practically all of the action taking place within a house, upstairs and downstairs.

There is a murder very early in the film, an entrepreneur killed in his room, wearing Chinese clothes and mask on the occasion of a fancy dress party. There are quite a lot of suspects. One of the suspicious aspects is that the granddaughter of the murdered man drives away with her boyfriend, having cut the cables in all the other cars, but then pulled up by the police and brought back for the interrogation.

The police investigators are routine enough. However, at the party is a writer of detective stories. He is played by one of the popular actors of this time and into the 40s, Charles Starrett. He wanders around the house, looking smart, if not smug, dropping hints, collecting material for the novel. Of course, it is he who works out what happened and confronts the murderer.

Amongst the suspects, apart from the granddaughter and her boyfriend, the granddaughter having been seen going into the grandfather’s room, are the loyal maid, a tough type, a visiting miner from Mexico who had dealings with the dead man in the past, the dead man’s accountant and his wife.

Most of the action consists of the suspects being interrogated, the variety of stories, lies told – with a couple of flashbacks especially concerning the grandfather reprimanding his granddaughter and her wanting to marry whomever she liked and putting $12,000 in a box for when she came to her senses!

Then the tycoon from Mexico is also murdered.

The novelist does more checking on things than do the police and comes up with the solution, confronting the accountant, vast discrepancies in the accounts, a rather luxury lifestyle for himself and his wife – and his attempt to murder the novelist but tables being turned.

In a different kind of ending, rather than the culprits being arrested, the accountant shoots his wife and then himself. And the novelist put the finishing touches on his novel.

Directed by Richard Thorpe who made a number of standard films like this in the 1930s, had bigger budgets in the 1940s, moving to MGM and in the 1950s directing such action adventures as The Knights of the Round Table and Quentin Durward.

SHADOWS ON THE STAIRS

US, 1941, 64 minutes, Black and white.
Frieda Inescort, Paul Cavanagh, Heather Angel, Bruce Lester, Miles Mander, Lumsden Hare, Turhan Bey, Charles Irwin, Phyllis Barry, Mary Field.
Directed by D. Ross Lederman.

Shadows on the Stairs is based on a popular play of the late 1920s. Is a very suitable basis for this kind of film, action happening in the interiors of a London house. The setting is London, 1937, a boarding house with several lodgers – quite a mixture, some shady dealings, some intense relationships, then some murders and disappearances.

Frieda Inescort, often very haughty in the roles she played, is the landlady but much more down-to-earth although getting near hysterical after the murders. Veteran director and actor, Miles Mander, plays her rather absent-minded husband whose main attention is given to chess. Heather Angel is the daughter, Bruce Lester the playwright who lives in the house and is attracted to the daughter. Mary Field commands all the scenes she is in as a rather older what is referred to in the film as “maiden lady�, rather romantic and highly strung in her reading of poetry and caught in a crisis where she is missing her dentures and cannot reply to the police. Paul Cavanagh, who often looks suspicious, is a businessman connected with character actor, Turhan Bey, who is involved in political smuggling. There is also the maid, Phyllis Barry, who is the object of intense dislike by the landlady but who seems to be carrying on with the businessman. At one stage, a man dressed as an Indian, turban and all, climbs in window and is stabbed.

It is all very British and the cast consists of many of the British actors in Hollywood the time – and it is surprising to see that this is a Warner Brothers film.

There is plenty of dialogue, drama and melodrama, the relationship between the landlady and the businessman, his contacts with the Indian, the mysterious stabbing, the firing of the maid for dropping all the crockery, her being seen by the young couple at midnight going downstairs. There is also information where the audience knows that the playwright is actually a celebrated author living quietly to get background for his writing.

Just when it is getting very complicated about who did what, where did the disappearing people go to, what is the nature of the relationships and why is the landlady becoming so hysterical, there is one of those surprise endings where it seems that this is all the work of the playwright, and he is recounting the plot, involving them all fictitiously, as they sit forming an audience. A copout? Or a tongue in cheek ending?

A SHOT IN THE DARK

US, 1935, 69 minutes, Black and white.
Charles Starrett, Robert Warwick, Edward Van Sloan, Marion Shilling, Helen Jerome Eddie, Doris Lloyd, James Bush.
Directed by Charles Lamont.

This is a typical enough small-budget supporting feature of the mid 1930s, a murder mystery with plenty of suspects and some twists.

We are introduced to Charles Starrett as the hero, in love with the sister of one of the students whom he visits at the University College, meeting up with his father, a distinguished criminologist. The student is then found dead, hanging outside his window but, injected with poison before his death. So, the title doesn’t refer to shots from guns but to guns which fire needles injecting poison.

The police inspector insists on his rank and is assisted by policeman giving the touch of comedy support.

There are various aspects including a professor of music, the mother of the dead man and the revelation that she had had an affair in Paris and borne another son who was given out for adoption. There is also the rather prim chaperone for the young woman – an early suspect because of her manner and behaviour.

There are also some other students who are involved in pursuing the case.

Part of the action takes place in an old deserted house, no lights, the revelation of the second son and his being shot.

Which means and that everybody assembles in a room, the criminologist takes charge and goes through the situation, and does not have to point the finger because as the mother of the two men enters the room she recognises the professor and he her. He is the villain – and there were issues of a large inheritance involved.

Directed Charles Lamont made a number of films like this in the 1930s but, in the 1940s and 50s he directed many Abbott and Costello comedies as well as some of the Ma and Pa Kettle films.