Tag Archives: 1960’s

#390- The Nutty Professor

Quick recap: Professor Kelp is tired of being bullied by everyone so he creates a potion to turn him into a stronger version of himself. What emerges instead is Buddy Love- a handsome but absolute jerk of a person.

Is it weird that the pigtails turned me off more than Professor Kelp’s nerdy look?

Fun (?) fact: Here’s some hot 1960s gossip for you: Buddy Love was apparently based off of Jerry Lewis’ partner Dean Martin. What a scoop!

Baby Professor Kelp is the most offensive part of the movie. Fight me

Thoughts and Observations:

As my ten-year-old put it, ‘ That movie was………something. Not what I expected at all’. And to be fair, I agree wholeheartedly with him. When I suggested watching the movie together I roped him in by saying it was a light comedy. I think my exact words were, ‘It’s got NUTTY in the title! You can’t go wrong with that!’

It didn’t take long at all to realize how very wrong I was. The meanness of the bullies in the film didn’t bother me as much as I thought they would, which was surprising. Lewis worked hard to make sure everything was over the top in that regard. If I had to put my finger on it, I guess I felt mostly annoyed at the character of Professor Kelp more than sympathetic. Sure, the Dean of the college could’ve been nicer but this guy just blew a hole through a classroom on top of constantly letting football players stuff him into cabinets. And then there is the matter of Kelp having a mad crush on his student Stella, who looks 35 but wears pigtails for some unknown reason. I was so relieved when it came time for the transformation to happen because no matter what emerged, it had to be better than Kelp.

And here comes the second time I can admit being wrong- what emerged was not in fact better. Buddy Love, Kelp’s alter ego, may have been better looking but he was an absolute jerk to everyone, including his crush. Sure, Love could sing well and had a presence that made girls swoon but he was so awful. I did eventually have sympathy when Love transformed back to Kelp in front of everyone at the dance and admitted how awful both parts of him were. It was a really touching scene in a movie filled with so many cringeworthy moments.

The 1001 movies book that I get my research from made an excellent point that in some ways, Jerry Lewis playing Professor Kelp vs Buddy Love was showing Lewis’ public vs private side. The entertainer in different forms, so to speak. I don’t know much about Lewis to comment but I think that theme is one that almost anyone can relate to, to some extent.

Watchability score: I’ll go with 3/5 although my son would give it a 2.

Up next: Gallipoli

 

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#389- Chimes at Midnight

Quick recap: Prince Hal loves his good buddy Falstaff until it’s time to become king and then he completely breaks off the friendship.

Fun (?) fact: Orson Welles had to actually slim down for the role of Falstaff.

Thoughts and observations:

Shakespearian language is beautiful, I suppose, except that I only understood about 10% of the movie. Maybe 15% if I’m feeling generous. To make matters worse, there wasn’t a subtitles option so I had to listen carefully like some commoner. About halfway through the movie I decided to stop trying to pay attention to what was said and instead treat Chimes at Midnight as if it were a silent film or a film in another language. And it worked, for the most part. I read the synopsis afterward, quite proud of myself for getting the gist of the movie.

But only getting the gist of a movie does not a good movie make. Was it well acted? Sure! Did the music set the tone? Definitely! Was the setting appropriate for the plot? Of course. But I just don’t see the point of ANOTHER film based on Shakespeare. This movie was made in 1965, coming right after several versions of Shakespeare plays and right before many, many more. Now, I’m a bit biased in this regard because literally the only version I have every enjoyed is Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet. Minus the battle scene, which I’m still not entirely sure who was fighting who, making a film version didn’t add to the play at all. Same costumes as I’m accustomed to, same stale language, same pompous acting. And from the research I did (which was very little) really the only thing people loved was how fat Orson Welles was. If that’s the only criteria here, then this movie is a MASTERPIECE. I have no idea how Welles was able to move around and didn’t just keel over the second the director yelled, ‘cut!’. He actually went on to live another 20 years, which I’m more impressed about than anything else I learned from this movie.

 

Watchability score: 2/5. There are plenty of other films to watch if you want to see kings doing king things.

Up next: The Nutty Professor

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#387- Breathless

Quick recap: After randomly killing a police officer, Michel tries to convince a recent hook up to escape to Italy with him.

 

I am equally in love with both Jean Seberg and Jean-Paul Belmondo

Fun (?) fact: There’s a rumor that the movie was scriptless but that’s not entirely true. Godard wanted a spontaneous feel so he fed lines to the actors instead of having them memorize their own parts.

Thoughts and observations:

I don’t know if I’ve gotten better at understanding Godard’s films or it’s because I’ve had no social contact for the last three weeks because of quarantine, but I REALLY enjoyed this movie. I suspect the latter. What excited me so much about Breathless wasn’t the random philosophical discussions but instead seeing all the people! As US films from the 1930s need a spinning newspaper, French movies always need a coffee shop scene and this one had me at the edge of my seat. No one had to keep 6 feet apart and they could linger at their table for as long as they wanted.

Jean Seberg, as Patricia, had my attention from the very beginning when she was walking down the street selling newspapers. Seeing as how I’m now in sweatpants 90% of the time, I loved living vicariously through her as changed into outfit after outfit for no apparent reason. I’d forgotten about dressing up and going out somewhere. And more than that, I loved how complicated her love for Michel was. When they first met up she was confused, saying that they only hooked up a few times so didn’t understand why he wanted her to flee to Rome with him so badly. But then in the next scene she insinuates that she is pregnant with his child. The way she looked at him sometimes was pure love but by the end of the film she had turned him into the  police. I wanted the best for her the entire time but I didn’t know what the ‘best’ was.

And as for Michel, I had no idea how to feel about him at all. On one hand he killed a cop and stole several cars. But on the other hand, look at him:

I rest my case

He was the very definition of toxic and there would be no way he would actually make it out of the country but I still would’ve taken my chances.

Watchability score: 4/5. I’m as surprised as you!

Up next: M

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#383- Terra em Transe (Entranced Earth)

Quick recap: A poet is somehow responsible for two leaders getting elected but he really sucks at choosing anyone decent.

MRW the movie is over

Fun (?) fact: I spent the entirety of the film confused why Brazil was called Eldorado. Come to find out, this movie is a thinly veiled story about a real political mess and about the only thing that was changed were names. In other words, Eldorado is fake.

Thoughts and Observations:

I’m not going to pretend I understood a fraction of this movie. Even at the end I couldn’t tell you if anyone was ‘good’ or had the best intentions because everyone seemed to suck. The main character is Paulo Martins, a jaded journalist who somehow has a lot of influence. At first he supports the candidate that says he is for the people- that is until the people protest and many are killed. Oops! So Martins does a bunch of stuff that I don’t understand and somehow the conservative elite jerk wins the election and that’s somehow even worse than the previous guy who killed all those people.

Now, if I was Brazilian I might have related more to this movie but since I had no context for the time period, it was so hard to keep up with what was going on. I couldn’t even nail who Martins was sleeping with (turns out he shared a girl with another corrupt guy). I suppose the lesson is that in politics everyone sucks and is not to be trusted. And maybe it’s best to just stay out of the race altogether. But what I took from it is that, as always, it is the people that get screwed over in the end and they should be the ones to hold all the power.

Stylistically, this movie looked more like a French avant-garde film than political thriller. There are straightforward scenes cut with a couple dancing and breaking glass and long shots of a man twirling around with a gun. I’m sure it was all symbolism but as referenced above, I couldn’t even figure out that Eldorado wasn’t real so I don’t know how the director expected me to understand the point of the guy dragging around a black flag and a cross.

 

Watchability score: 2/5, only because it’s a pretty film

Up next: Naked Gun

 

 

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