Schindler's List directed by Steven Spielberg - 10/10
Wow this is quite simply one of technical and artistic achievements of traditional narrative cinema. Everything from the black & white cinematography to the music to the acting to the story is simply masterful. For me, there is only one real huge flaw which is the shower scene, which is one of the most immature scenes I have ever seen as it adds unnecessary suspense to an otherwise understated story. Some may find the ending scenes to be flawed, but I don't, I found both endings (in my opinion, Schindler's departure can be viewed as one ending) to be some of the most emotionally powerful scenes I have seen in cinema. That's where the film redeems itself because I hated that shower scene so much I was going to put my score down to a 9. Now in response to a lot of criticisms especially from cinephiles and other filmmakers, of course the film is manipulative. Every film is manipulative, it is only a matter of manipulating the viewer in the appropriate manner. And I believe that here Spielberg succeeds. Look at every killing the Nazis make, none of them are intensified by drama, in fact they only last on screen for a few seconds without much consequence. Look at the way the plot unfolds, Schindler's actions are never made to look grandiose. The directing is simply a superb mix of polished Hollywood craftsmanship with a rawer edge that outlines the story. Therefore, I think that most detractors of the film simply don't like the story that is being told, or at least expected the film to represent a definitive portrait of the Holocaust as a whole. Of course with such a view there is disappointment, Spielberg simply told ONE of many Holocaust stories as honestly as he could, who can blame him for that? And also, you can't expect any film, book, or any work of art to fully encompass all of the horrors of the Holocaust, if you want something that reaches close to that then watch Claude Lanzmann's
Shoah. But I believe there is a place for
Shoah, for
Night And Fog, and for
Schindler's List as masterworks tackling one of the most difficult subjects. Although I haven't seen all of Spielberg's filmography, I believe that
Schindler's List represents his greatest masterpiece (which is a great statement considering that he has made multiple masterpieces in multiple genres).
The Daughter Of The Samurai directed by Arnold Fanck and Mansaku Itami - 4/10
This is an interesting film as it is a German-Japanese production made for the war effort during World War II. It also happens to be the film that put Setsuko Hara (the famous actress in Ozu's and Naruse's films) on the map. For me the film has some great moments but it's ultimately not a good film. I'd describe this film as a Japanese film made with European sensibilities. The amount of experimentation and European visual style is quite staggering, and although these moments seem to come out of nowhere they definitely leave an impression. On the other hand there is more traditional Japanese melodrama, with one notable difference, it deals with cultural differences between Europe and Japan. Unfortunately although these two parts seem very interesting, they are very unfocused and lack vitality in the third act of the film. Any scholar of World War II propaganda films or classic Japanese films should watch the film, but it lacks cohesion which makes it ultimately fall apart. It also suffers from the foreigner-made film aspect which gives a touristy look to the country it's made in (in this case a German made a Japanese film look to touristy). It did get me thinking, I've seen lots of Japanese films but almost none feature sumo wrestling apart from this one lol. Time to dig for some sumo films to watch soon! It's unfortunate that such an interesting film falls apart in such a terrible way lol, for me films like this are tragedies
Manon Of The Spring directed by Claude Berri - 8/10
The second half of Claude Berri's adaptation of Marcel Pagnol's tragedy is even more brilliant than the first film. I love the emotion, the pacing, the scenes of this film, but I have similar complaints with the first film. It is just straight storytelling, and for me cinema should almost always be a little bit more. It also got me thinking, if the story was done in one 4 hour film it would be even better, maybe even a near masterpiece. Still this is a really great film with one of the most tragic stories I've seen on film. I watched both of these films in French class in less than ideal conditions (noisy classmates, mediocre projection, bad sound/low volume) so my score for these films may improve with re-watches in better conditions. For now they'll settle for scores of strong 8's. I'd say that both films together may be a near masterpiece but each individual film is just a very good film.
