LFM: Libertas Film Magazine

By Joe Bendel. Georges Simenon led a colorful life. There might have been a few women and some fast living. After the war, he also faced allegations of collaboration, but his defenders always maintained he was too self-absorbed for such matters. Harry Baur was one of a multitude of actors to play Simenon’s signature detective, whose wartime experience is tragically above suspicion. Imprisoned and roughly interrogated after ill-advisedly appearing in an early 1940’s German film, Baur either succumbed to injuries sustained or was helped along the way shortly after his release. His biographic details add further tragic context to Julien Duvivier’s A Man’s Neck, which screens during the Anthology Film Archives’ Cine-Simenon retrospective.

Willy Ferrière has a rich aunt who refuses to die, but a mystery pen-pal offers to help the old dear along for 100,000 francs. The freelance killer also has a scapegoat lined up to take the fall: the clueless Joseph Heurtin. Yes, this is the Maigret case Burgess Meredith later adapted as The Man on the Eiffel Tower, but it is simultaneously similar and different in intriguing ways.

As it happens, both films also serve as time capsules of Paris, pre- and post-war. Not surprisingly, though, the earlier French film is darker and somewhat franker than the RKO production. The stories run along parallel lines, but diverge on key points, such as the complicity of Ferrière’s mistress in Duvivier’s film. Indeed, there is little innocence per se in this distinctly dark crime drama.

Both Baur and Laughton look like world weary civil servants, but the latter could not help playing the part with panache. He was Charles Laughton, after all. In contrast, Baur’s Maigret is a down-trodden bureaucrat often at risk of fading into the background, until roused to outrage by the psychotic Radek. It is a close call, but in a head-to-head match, Laughton probably takes it by a jowl.

Likewise, Meredith’s Heurtin is a truly unique portrait of a man made vulnerable by his acutely anti-social nature. Alexandre Rignault’s Heurtin is also quite effective, but we have seen such simple-minded hulks before and since. However, Valéry Inkijinoff’s frenzied and lusty Radek is something else entirely. Franchot Tone exceeds expectations in Eiffel Tower, but the Russian Inkijinoff is truly creepy.

In fact, both are very good films.  Duvivier shows an eye for procedural detail, giving viewers an unromanticized look inside the Paris gendarmerie. While more naturalistic and generally jaundiced in his portrayal of human nature, Duvivier also shoehorns in small, elegantly telling moments, as when Maigret and Radek take time out from their verbal sparring to listen to his Chanson-singing neighbor.

Neck is a lean, mean film noir that packs surprising punch. It depicts a deeply flawed world, but not one in which moral judgments are impossible. Recommended by itself or in conjunction with Meredith’s Eiffel Tower (showing separately), A Man’s Neck screens this Saturday (8/10) and next Wednesday (8/14) as part of Cine-Simenon, now underway at Anthology Film Archives.

LFM GRADE: A

Posted on August 8th, 2013 at 1:36pm.

By Joe Bendel. To give credit where it is due, the underground bouts produced by a shadowy criminal syndicate are not fixed. On the other hand, they often end with a fatality. Three of their up-and-coming wrestlers have a distinct advantage. After all, they are not wearing that headgear for Lucha Libre style points. The cult 1960’s wrestling manga and anime series gets a darkly super-heroic facelift in Ken Ochiai’s The Tiger Mask, which screened yesterday as part of the 2013 Fantasia International Film Festival.

After watching the landlord bully the gentle director of his beloved orphanage, young Naoto Date resolves to stop being a victim. Unfortunately, this makes him ripe for recruitment by the mysteriously powerful Mr. X, who whisks him away to train in the Tiger’s Lair, too, as a wrestler. Most of the boys arriving with him will not make it, but the top three will be awarded Tiger Masks. Either through science or black arts, these strange accessories amplify the natural powers of those who wear them, but leave them drained after their matches.

Ten years later, Date receives the Black Tiger Mask and duly triumphs over his first opponent in the ring. His friend Dan will grapple as the Gold Tiger Mask and the final White Tiger Mask will go to Jo, the mean-spirited trouble-maker. Obviously, there is a grudge match brewing between him and Date, especially when the disillusioned wrestler decides to go rogue.

Evidently, Tiger Mask is a beloved franchise in Japan that spawned a succession of real life Tiger Masks in Japanese pro-wrestling. Even by cartoon standards, the ring action in Ochiai’s reboot is pretty crazy, with the Masks’ opponents looking more like Dick Tracy villains than underground athletes. It definitely follows in the darkly stylized Sin City tradition, but it carried the seal of approval of its late producer Hisao Maki, the younger brother of Tiger Mask creator Ikki Kajiwara, who passed away shortly before the film was created. Obviously, there must be hopes this will be the start of a new franchise, but uninitiated viewers might be somewhat frustrated by the limited ground covered by the narrative, basically giving viewers the temporary closure of a ninety minute TV pilot rather than a feature tent-pole.

Still, there is some unapologetically meathead action in Tiger, staged with relish. Yet the film also has some heart, especially from Gantz’s Natsuna Watanabe, pleasingly upbeat and idealistic as Ruriko Wakatsuki, the grown-up daughter of the old orphanage headmaster. Cross-over pop-star Eiji Wentz also broods decently as Date, but perhaps the considerable amount of time he spends masked it not such an unfortunate thing.

Ochiai keeps the energy level nicely pumped-up and never lets the quite presentable special effects overwhelm the human element. In terms of tone and themes, it is like a fusion of Ender’s Game, Battle Royale, and Rikidozan. Despite the more contemporary sensibility, Tiger Mask will probably still be best appreciated by those familiar with the original series, as well as Japanese (non-sumo) wrestling. Recommended for fans of action films based on manga and anime, The Tiger Mask screened during this year’s Fantasia Festival.

LFM GRADE: B-

Posted August 5th, 2013 at 10:38am.

By Joe Bendel. Remember when Microsoft was in the ink-and-paper reference business? Now the Encarta seems like a relic from a past era. In contrast, the new dictionary a diligent Japanese publishing team develops might just live up to its hype in Yuya Ishii’s quietly nostalgic The Great Passage, which screens today up at the 2013 Fantasia International Film Festival.

In the mid 1990’s, the publishing industry had barely progressed beyond a stylus-and-stone level of technology. CD-Roms were projected to be the next big thing. Mitsuya Majimme, a socially awkward former linguistics student, performs poorly as a sales rep, but he finds his niche when he is transferred to his company’s sleepy reference imprint. Obsessively detail-oriented, he is the perfect editor for the director’s ambitious new dictionary, The Great Passage.

Over the next fifteen years, Majime will compile a definitive dictionary of the Japanese language as it is truly spoken, identifying and defining scores of new words, while refining the definitions of words that have evolved over time. It is an arduous, time consuming process, involving note-cards more than computers. Frankly, it is not the sort of investment his publishing conglomerate is inclined to make. Fortunately, Majime has a high-placed ally in Masashi Nishioka, a former dictionary colleague transferred to the corporate marketing department. As Majime invests years of his life in the dictionary, he also slowly but surely develops a romantic relationship with Kaguya Hayashi, his landlord’s granddaughter. An apprentice chef and compulsive knife-sharpener, she is the same but different from Majime in all the right ways.

Based on Shion Miura’s novel, Passage can stake a strong claim to be the great Japanese reference publishing movie we have all been waiting for. Its operational understanding of the dysfunctional business is almost scary. Yet, there is something aesthetically pleasing about its affection for language and book people. It is also refreshing to see a film with a sufficient attention span to follow the in’s and out’s of the fifteen year editorial and production process. While Passage’s one hundred thirty-three minute running time is not exactly breakneck, the consistently absorbing film never feels slack or padded. Rather, it pulls viewers along with its own gentle rhythms.

In a radical change-up from his work in I’m Flash, Ryuhei Matsuda is terrific as Majime. Without the benefit of a big epiphany moment, he vividly portrays the editor’s subtle but steady personal and professional growth. Likewise, Aoi Miyazaki is genuinely engaging as the spirited yet only somewhat more outgoing Hayashi. Yet it is Shingo Tsurumi and Kaoru Yachigusa who really lower the emotional boom of time’s passage as the reference director and his devoted wife.

Yes, this is definitely the sort of film that will choke viewers up. Let’s face it, there’s nary a dry eye in the house when that blasted dictionary finally comes out. However, Ishii never indulgences in cheap manipulation, earning his sentiment the hard way. At every turn, he opts for small, telling scenes over big melodramatic show-pieces. The cumulative impact is deeply satisfying. Highly recommended for fans of Japanese cinema and anyone connected to the book business, The Great Passage screens today (8/2) and Sunday (8/4) at the J.A. De Seve Theatre as part of this year’s Fantasia Festival.

LFM GRADE: A-

Posted on August 2nd, 2013 at 4:16pm.