AlsExGal

... and for Chaplin that's saying something!

Chaplin's Little Tramp character encounters two people who end up impacting his life greatly. One is a beautiful blind flower girl. Due to nothing The Tramp does deliberately, she thinks he is a rich man. The other person he encounters is a wealthy man who, one night, is determined to kill himself because his wife has left him. The Tramp stops him, befriends him, and gets him back home. The entire time the rich man is drinking heavily. But when the rich man sobers up he doesn't remember what happened when he was drunk and therefore has no memory of The Tramp or their friendship. That's not so unusual as a plot device. What makes it odd is that the wealthy man is more of a Jekyll and Hyde drunk than a blackout drunk. When he's drunk he remembers everything he's done in past drunken episodes, including who The Tramp is. When sober he remembers none of this. From both of these relationships, complications ensue.

There's a boxing scene mid film that's one of the funniest scenes of any film, ever. It's perfect physical comedy, wonderfully choreographed and I laugh out loud every time I see it. To me, it's the funniest Chaplin scene in any of his films. That scene alone raises it high for me, and then Chaplin's adventures with the millionaire and the sweet romantic scenes with the flower girl seal the deal for me.

For me, it's grander in scope than The Kid, but tighter than the other works in combining both comedy and drama.

I really love this film. It belongs in the Criterion collection for being ahead of its time considering the subject matter, plus it's a good example of international cinema. I caught it on Turner Classic Movies the other night, and it really held my interest.

Made in France and set in France, it's the story of Ludovic Fabre (Georges Du Fresne) and the larger Fabre family - a husband and wife and their four children. The husband, Pierre, has just found a new job and so the family moves into the same neighborhood as his new boss, Albert. This is never a good idea, as it's best to keep work life separate from everything else, but I digress.

The complicating factor is that the Fabres' youngest son, Ludovic, is convinced he is really a girl. He feels like a girl, likes the same things as most girls and the most outward sign of this is that he likes to have his hair longer and dress up in girls' clothes.

Maybe the Fabres could have kept a lid on things if not for the fact that Ludovic develops a crush on his dad's boss's son, Jerome. It's nothing sexual - the kids are only seven. It's the same kind of crush you probably had at that age. Ludovic has them perform a mock wedding ceremony before a teddy bear priest, he tells his parents he will marry Jerome some day, and then he pulls a very public stunt at school so that he can get close to Jerome that distresses not only the other parents but the school administration. Complications ensue.

I really liked this film for several reasons. First, there is the acting talent of Georges Du Fresne, who plays Ludovic amazingly. There is a genuine naivete and innocence in his performance, of a child trying to figure out their gender. Georges was able to communicate so many things without saying anything. I have no idea how such a young child was able to understand the complexities required for such a role.

Second, because it was made almost 30 years ago and not in the US, it lacks the politicization that you would find in a film made in America on the same subject today, that would likely be made with all kinds of shrill sermonizing that just does not sound natural or the way people speak in private or to one another.

Finally, I like it because it shows modern French middle-class life. You see average people having neighborhood parties, leaving for work each day, neighborhood carpooling for getting the kids to school each morning, and worried about layoffs and paying the mortgage if a layoff happens. So many French films involve some kind of extraordinary situation or characters - gangsters and master thieves, or people living some kind of exotic life in Paris. This one is different.

I'd highly recommend this one.

This film isn't a 7/10 because it competes with the classic horror films of the 1930s. It's 7/10 because it's a campy delight.

Dr. Donald Blake (Arthur Franz), a science professor at Dunsfield University, receives a coelacanth - member of an ancient species of fish. A student, Jimmy, asks Blake if the fish is really a million years old. Blake replies, "It's the species that's old. No change in millions of years. See, the coelacanth is a living fossil, immune to the forces of evolution". Blake teaches his students that man is the only creature that can decide whether to evolve or devolve and that "unless we learn to control the instincts we've inherited from our ape-like ancestors, the race is doomed."

For being so philosophical, Blake is really careless in the lab. Blake sticks his cut hand into the water that held the fish and begins to feel woozy. He ends up transforming into a primitive and attacks and kills the assistant of a fellow professor. He awakens after the incident, remembering nothing. He calls the police, and they reach the brilliant conclusion that Blake is innocent and being framed by some anonymous enemy, although they have no idea who that enemy might be.

In time, a dog is accidentally exposed to the fish's blood as is a dragon fly. Both temporarily revert to primitive form. It takes time before Blake realizes that he might be the killer beast.

This is a fine, Jack Arnold B feature played with drama, even if the scientist and the police have all of the investigative talents of Frank Drebben of Police Squad. The monster, once he finally appears, is pretty scary. The fact that we don't see him for over an hour is even better, aiming for suspense rather than shock. Mr. Arnold is the "no budget" craftsman responsible for TARANTULA, IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE, a couple of Black Lagoon entries, THE TATTERED DRESS. And isn't there one about a guy who gets really small? Laugh all you want at the melodramatic hysterics. This is a filmmaker to reckon with.