CARNAGES

(Fr. with English subtitles)

 

“Carnages”  is an episodic tour deforce by a  filmmaker in full control of her creative faculties. That filmmaker is writer/director Delphine Gleize. She uses snippets of dialogue, the slightest of  gestures, and carefully placed images the way a painter uses brush strokes to reveal bits of character. Each vignette is a story unto itself that adds flesh and substance to an assortment of people from different age groups, different walks of life, and different countries. A bull fighter has his last conversation with his father. The fates of this man and the bull will forever change the lives people of the people we are about to meet. A kindergarten age girl draws a picture of a dog much bigger than herself. Her teacher believes she is incorrigible but it is something else. The girl later watches TV with her dog. The subject of the TV show is a bullfight. A chance encounter with an old lover stirs up memories of an ill fated love affair and a broken heart. Two brothers long to reunite with their father. A husband frets over his financial problems while his wife carries on about her pregnancy. On and on it goes, one story after another like the waves on a beach, each returning time an again with new nuances and revelations, each dependent on the other.  After a while even a  random sampling of number and color schemes start to make sense under the sure hand of the movie’s creator. Order comes out of  chaos and lives are renewed by the carnage left behind by others.  “Carnages” is  one of a kind and not to be missed.

 

                                                                                                                      Copyright 2003

 

Four classic  Hollywood movies with a multiple stories and a hook to tie them together.

 

If I Had a Million (1932) - A multi-millionaire gives a million dollars to people from all walks of life. Their stories are sometimes poignant, sad, ironic and one is downright hilarious. With an all star cast that includes Gary Copper, George Raft, Charles Laughton, and W.C. Fields. This was also the basis for “The Millionaire,” a hit TV series in the fifties.

 

Tales of Manhattan (1942) - A top coat changes hands and changes the lives of the people who possess it. Another all star cast with Edward G. Robinson, Charles Laughton,

Henry Fonda, Charles Boyer, Rita Hayworth, Ginger Rogers, Paul Robeson and more!  A cut sequence with W.C. Fields was restored for video.

 

O’Henry’s Full House (1952) - “The Gift of the Magi,” one of the five stories by O.Henry that is dramatized, has made this a Christmas favorite. Farley Granger and Jeanne Crain, play the loving couple who sacrifice vanity for the sake of the perfect gift. The rest of the all star cast includes Charles Laughton (again!), Richard Widmark, Anne Baxter, Dale Robertson,  and Marilyn Monroe.

 

It’s a Big Country (1951) - Segments depict the cross section of American archetypes to show how great our country is. The best segment has Gary Cooper tall in the saddle as a symbol of the contemporary American West. Also with Gene Kelly, Frederic March and Van Johnson among other. Not as good as the first three but worth a look since it came out as a flag waver during the McCarthy Era. (Charles Laughton is not in this one!)