PaulusLoZebra

Henry Hathaway's The Dark Corner is a well crafted detective noir with lots of gritty NYC ambiance. One of its many strengths is that it moves along quickly, it packs a lot of story into 99 minutes. Another is the cinematography. It's shot by Joe MacDonald and the film is full of great shots and atmospheric uses of light and shadow. Lucille Ball, Clifton Webb and William Bendix stand out, they bring a lot of personality to the screen. Mark Stevens, Kurt Kreuger and Cathy Downs are less interesting, but Stevens, as the protagonist, makes up for his lack of charisma with an earnestness that transmits well the plight of his character. Leo Rosten's story is clever and challenging, like a good noir should be. The screenplay and dialogue are occasionally a bit simplistic, but those are brief moments and the film never dwells too long on any scene.

I wanted to like Bertrand Blier's Buffet Froid, because I have such great memories of his father Bernard Blier, star of this film alongside the talented Gerard Depardieu. And the film has a lot going for it: a great cast (Blier, Depardieu, Genevieve Page, Carole Bouquet, Jean Carmet, Michel Serrault, and others); excellent cinematography, fine sets and great location shots. I am a fan of comedy, black comedy, whimsy and even of (some) absurdist cinema. I am also willing to "suspend disbelief" so that an absurdist film's non-traditional plot, timeline and dialogue can transmit the author's desired effects, which might include the anxiety, the meaninglessness of life, the loneliness of modern living, dehumanization, etc. And, finally, this story includes a few crimes that need to be figured out, so there is alot to potentially enjoy.

In the end, the film was contrived and boring. Its wry or slapstick moments and all those things listed above cannot relieve the tedium. It seems "too clever by half", a hyper-intellectual attempt to transmit a sense of the absurd through comedy. It didn't transmit anything to me except boredom.

Luciano Salce's Il Federale (aka The Fascist) is a bittersweet comedy that surely helped Italians to metabolize, sixteen years after the end of WW2, their 22 years of Fascist rule. Ugh Tognazzi is excellent as a high-energy true believer, a simple man who has internalized Fascist ideology and conveys that by rote recall of the regime's favorite sayings, poetry and songs. Salce, the writers Castellano and Moccia, and Tognazzi have crafted the character of Primo Arcovazzi beautifully. He's a dedicated Fascist, but not an evil caricature. In that sense he probably does represent the typical striver who joined the Fascist party and helped Mussolini control Italy. He maintains some notable degree of humanity, but keeps it all within his party's rhetoric and boundaries. Georges Wilson is excellent as the Professor and future Presidential candidate, and both Mireille Granelli and Stefania Sandrelli do a great job keeping the proceedings grounded. This was Sandrelli's film debut, at age 15, and also the "official" debut of Ennio Morricone, as his previous film work was either as a ghost collaborator or under pseudonyms.