Reviews and Editing by R. Allen Leider
with CJ Henderson, Andrew Johnson and Monis Rose

November 23rd, 2011

"Hugo"

Based on the best selling book"The Invention of Hugo Cabret" Scorsese has created a masterpiece with a not so subtle plea for film preservation and restoration at the core. The use of 3D is very effective and the atmosphere of the 1930's is brilliantly captured and engulfs the audience completely. A tale of all ages, "Hugo" is THE film for the holidays.

The story is set in 1930s where orphaned and alone except for alcoholic Uncle Claude (Ray Winstone), 12 year old Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield) lives in the walls and catacombs of the main train station in 1930's Paris. Together with his father (Jude Law) the mystery is all about an automaton who writes which has been rescued from a museum. In the midst of the repair job, Hugo's father is killed in a fire and the child is attache dto his booszing Uncle Claude (Ray Winstone). Hugo's new job is to oil and maintain the train station's clocks, but to him, his more important task is to protect the automaton and notebook left to him by his late father.

His life in the train station is a bizarre one, navagating catacomb-like mazes of tunnels and passageways as he steals food and drink and avoids his nemesis, the train station master ( Sasha Baron Cohen ) a disabled war veteran with an eye for the flower vendor ( Emily Mortimer). Hugo's life changes when he meets Isabelle (Chloe Grace Moretz) the 14 year old goddaughter of embittered toy merchant Georges (Ben Kingsley) who has engaged Hugo to repair toys.Hugo shares the secret of the automaton with Isabelle after he discovers she possess the key that winds it up. The two then embark on a quest to solve the mystery of the automaton and find Hugo's destiny.....which take the duo into the realm of the cinema, a bookstore operated by the wizebned owener Mssr Labisse ( Christopher Lee) and a discovery about Georges that astounds them . This is a must see holiday film.

The Players: Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen, Asa Butterfield, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jude Law, Christopher Lee and Ray Winstone

The Filmmakers:
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Screenplay by John Logan and Brian Selznick
Released by Paramount Pictures

"The Artist "

Reviewed by Andrew Johnson
There’s an old romantic ballad that has the lyrics: “One look and I have found my future at last . . . and not a word was spoken.” This about sums up the new creative motion picture from writer/director Michel Hazanavicius. He has made a black & white silent film of old, a daring, dialogue-free comedy-drama. What an undertaking by this young film director with a vision, seemingly knowing that today’s audience might want to see an original silent movie as audiences first viewed the film, hearkening back to the late 1920’s
The tale concerns Peppy Miller, an adoring young female fan and ambitious chorus girl. She sees her film matinee idol, George Valentin, at a premiere and secures his autograph. Miller tries out for a small bit part in a film, gets some help from Valentin, and eventually rises to stardom in the medium, especially in the films of the new sound era which has come into being. He, on the other hand, refuses to embrace the new sound film and gradually finds himself spiraling downward mostly because of his pride. When audiences are embracing the new sound, he insists on sinking his money into one last epic silent film. He directs and stars in the endeavor which turns out to be a flop on release. The arrival of sound marks the end of his career, as it did so many other stars of the silent screen in reality.

Shot in Hollywood, Jean Dujardin plays George Valentin and Berenice Bejo is Peppy Miller. She really adores him and will do anything for his rescue in life, but he cannot accept all that she wants to give him. When he first met her, he was smitten with her, but never made an advance because he was married (far from perfect), had the good life, and lived in a mansion. When he’s down, even his wife walks out on him. A love story with heartwarming sequences, the film gives that feel-good feeling to the viewing audience.

In the supporting cast are John Goodman as a studio movie mogul, James Cromwell as Valentin’s chauffer, plus Penelope Ann Miller, Malcolm McDowell, and Ed Lauterin other key roles. Stealing the film to a degree is an amazing dog named Uggy who is Valentin’s dog; he’s almost the legendary Rin Tin Tin but a much smaller version.
“THE ARTIST” is certainly a breath of fresh air in filmmaking today, poignant and showing that pride certainly devastates. You, as a viewer, will be totally satisfied by the experience, as I was, and realize that there are filmmakers out there who just don’t go along with tried and tired formulas just for film profits. This is one film that you definitely should not miss. And the ending of the film is mesmerizing, and the best in a take without a cut . . . watch for it.

The Players: Jean Dujardin, Berenice Bejo, John Goodman, James Cromwell, Penelope Ann Miller, Missi Pyle, Ed Lauter, and Malcolm McDowell

The Filmmakers:
Written and Directed by Michel Hazanavicius
Director of Photography: Guillaume Schiffman
Original Music: Ludovic Bource
Released by The Weinstein Company

"A Dangerous Method"

Reviewed by Andrew Johnson

Here’s the film that tells of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung with the beginnings of all those theories concerning psychoanalysis. Thrown into the mix is an enigmatic young girl, who at first is a disturbed patient of Jung’s, but eventually becomes someone important in psychoanalysis: Sabina Spielrein. Viggo Mortensen brilliantly plays Freud while Michael Fassbender is equally brilliant as Jung. Keira Knightley, in one of her best roles ever on screen, is the troubled Spielrein who, although Jung is married with a child, seduces him into a relationship and becomes his mistress.

There is a point when this actress gets a seizure and juts out her jaw in “Neanderthal” fashion … quite a feat (and quite an honest interpretation of what a person may go through in this situation according to a psychoanalyst who viewed the film at the screening I attended). Then too there’s a disturbed patient who Freud sends to Jung, Otto Gross (Vincent Cassel) who truly tests the doctor’s professional resolve. Handled well by director David Cronenberg, the film is a fascinating view of the beginnings of patient-doctor-couch encounters.

Jung and Freud are forever coming together and splitting apart as does Spielrein too. The boundaries of understanding of why people do what they do are pushed to the extreme, though Freud wants to keep in mind that the public may rebuke and frown down upon all that they are accomplishing if they go off the deep end in their theories. The tale is a good one and fairly accurate. The 29 year old psychiatrist Carl Jung in 1904 Zurich lives at Burgholzli Hospital with his pregnant wife at the beginning of his career. The 18 year old Sabina Spielrein becomes one of his patients as he tries the Freudian experimental treatment of the talking cure (psychoanalysis) on her.

Interesting that today the doctor faces the patient but then he stayed unseen in a chair behind Spielrein. Sabina Spielrein is Russian, well educated, and speaks fluent German. She’s been diagnosed with hysteria and is disruptive and at times violent. Her childhood involved humiliation and beatings from her abusive father, and there is a sexual dysfunction present as well. The friendship between therapist and patient grows, finally becoming one sexual encounter after another. She also loves to be spanked which Jung gladly accommodates. The film ends in 1913 with success for the three as World War I beckons. A bittersweet closure is accomplished between Jung and Sabina, while Freud and Jung no longer collaborate in the field. We are also left with the thought from the film that only a wounded physician can heal .

Acting is superb and the production values terrific. The film is exquisitely shot in this very literate screenplay. Director David Cronenberg does justice in showing what made these individuals tick in an atmosphere of upheaval, mistrust, and impending warfare. A motion picture to satisfy the mind and the intellectual in all of us, don’t miss this screen gem.
Interesting points to note:
1. Dialogue in the film comes from diaries and written letters, thus making the film quite authentic.
2. Most of Jung’s theories came out when he himself went into his depths of depression.
3. Freud always feared losing his patriarch authority in the field.
4. Lectures in America by Freud and Jung had Freud hating the new land while Jung loved it.
5. There is not that much known about Sabina Spielrein and her brilliance. She did however became a successful psychoanalysist.
6. As to what eventually happened to the four is not depicted in the film:
* Otto Gross starved to death in Berlin in 1919.
* Sigmund Freud was driven out of Vienna by the Nazis and died in 1939 in London from oral cancer do to his insatiable habit of cigar smoking. Four of his five sisters died in Nazi concentration camps.
* Sabina Spielberg returned to Russia and in 1941, a widow with two children, was shot and killed, along with her children, by the Nazis.
* Carl Gustav Jung, after suffering a prolonged nervous breakdown during World War I, emerged and became the world’s leading psychologist. He outlived his wife Emma and died peacefully in 1961.

The Players: Keira Knightley, Viggo Mortensen, Michael Fassbinder, Vincent Cassel and Sarah Gadon

The Filmmakers:
Directed by David Cronenberg
Screenplay by Christopher Hampton
Director of Photography: Peter Suschitzky
Music composed by Howard Shore
Released by Sony Pictures Classics

"My Week with Marilyn"

In 1956 England, Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne) lands a job as a production assistant on the set of "The Prince and the Showgirl," starring Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams). Marilyn is also honeymooning with her new husband, playwright Arthur Miller (Dougray Scott), but the combined pressure of work, especially under the formidable perfectionist Olivier, the demands of the Hollywood hangers-on and her personal demons drive her to exhaustion.

Olivier balances his work relationship w Marilyn with the jealous nature of his own wife Vivien Leigh ( Julia Ormond) while looking for a way to get a performances and a timely wrap for his film. When Miller departs for Paris, Colin seizes the opportunity to give Marilyn respite during a week in the idyllic British countryside. This seriously endangers his own romance with the costumer's assistant Lucy ( Emma Watson sans magic wand).

Branagh and Williams are worth the price of admission. Both performers nail their characters and make Oscar bids that will be hard to beat.

The Players: Michelle Williams, Eddie Redmayne, Kenneth Branagh, Dougray Scott, Julia Ormond

The Filmmakers:
Directed by Simon Curtis
Screenplay by Adrian Hodges, Colin Clark
Released by The Weinstein Company