Summer '04 (Sommer '04)

 

Director Stefan Krohmer

SUMMER ’04 (Sommer '04)       B+                                                                                      Germany  (97 mi)  2006  d: Stefan Krohmer

Some reviews have compared this style to French director Éric Rohmer, but maybe not, as within minutes this breezy looking film with quiet intelligence has the decisively cruel confrontational tone of German films which offer a candor simply not seen elsewhere.  Written by Daniel Nocke as an icy chamber drama that could very easily fool us as Nordic or Scandinavian, largely character-driven with elaborately developing psychological insight into each character, featuring a gorgeous looking wealthy family on a summer holiday in northern Germany along the Baltic coast near the Danish border, spending nearly all of their time outdoors, fixing up their impressive summer cottage, sailing one of their two boats in the wind-friendly sea, drinking plenty of wine and eating outdoors where relationships and sexuality are constantly under review.  What sets this apart is the self-loathing of the male characters, not off the charts, but distinctively present due to an absent moral compass, a factor that plays havoc with the viewer’s expectations.   André (Peter Davor) and Mirjam, Martina Gedeck from MOSTLY MARTHA (2001) and The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen) (2006), are spending the summer with their 15-year old teenage son Nils (Lucas Kotaranin) and his 12-year old girlfriend Livia (Svea Lohde), who all agree is probably more mature than their son.  He likes to watch historical documentaries on Germany’s military-laden past analyzing various WWI military strategies and is in fairly routine disagreement with his liberal minded dad on just about everything, including the role Livia plays hooking up with and spending the day sailing with an older man, Bill (Robert Seeliger), a complete stranger, something of a rich playboy who has recently returned from America, leaving Nils out of the picture.  All are concerned on the effect Livia’s sexually active curiosity is having, especially on their suddenly forlorn and isolated son, and what moral obligation they have to deal with the older man in the picture.  André feels she’s perfectly capable of making her own decisions, while Mirjam is more hands on, especially when Livia doesn’t return home one night, so she drives unannounced to the man’s home expecting to confront him in the act.

Maintaining a certain moral ambiguity, Bill gets defensive and remains uncomfortable when questioned directly by Mirjam, yet in the interest of openness, he is included in the next day’s sailing, but it is Mirjam, not Livia, who sails with Bill.  Her sexual candor is intimidating, as she intentionally arouses him at one point, catching him completely off guard, not knowing what to think, as the sexual focus has suddenly moved away from Livia to Mirjam, who is openly asserting herself with such easy nonchalance.  She is drawn not only by his rugged, outdoor features, but by his introverted intelligence, somewhat ashamed of how he’s spent his life, scarred by the superficial outpouring of easy money and sex in America, but no real happiness to speak of.  Next thing you know, she comes after him like an animal in heat.  Becoming more comfortable in his presence, he continues to have an interest in 12-year old Livia, which in the face of what’s staring him in the face, is a phenomenal step backward into no man’s land, where the low-key psychology bears an unmistakable similarity to Roman Polanski’s KNIFE IN THE WATER (1962).  Beautifully shot on 35mm by Patrick Orth, Mirjam develops a maternal instinct to protect Livia, who is viewed as her competition as she remains as free-spirited as ever, carefree and oblivious to any serious consequences.   Both André and Nils remain out of the picture even when they’re in the picture, as they’re too busy repeating the live-and-let-live, mind your own business mantra.  Despite their disagreements with one another, they couldn’t be more alike in their dispassionate non-involvement.   Mirjam, on the other hand, is lividly furious underneath her calm demeanor, and when she finally gets a chance to speak her mind to Livia, it comes during a difficult sail on a ferociously windy day where obviously Livia’s thoughts lie elsewhere. 

How this plays out is somewhat predictable, as it was impossible not to think of Haneke’s Funny Games (1997) hidden beneath the veneer of bourgeois social respectability, as a crisis is simply waiting to happen, and the various characters have already established their limited character under fire, but what follows is a trip into an existential wasteland, where each character is left out on a limb with no one else to hold onto, which from each age perspective is decidedly different.  Emotions are prominently displayed, though perhaps out of character, so an associated awkwardness comes along with a certain embarrassment where they’re not used to having to rely on feelings, having to be so rational and all, so everyone is caught off guard, but sucked into the vacuum of their own moral abyss.  But Martina Gedeck as Mirjam is an assertive force to be reckoned with, never overbearing but amazingly direct, who despite having a smart, mildly troubled, still developing teenaged son continues to feel like she’s in the prime of her life.  There isn’t a hint of melodrama or overreach, directed with an understated minimalist flair and a chilly control, but instead offers a sober view of how people get bogged down by how they define themselves, where in their effort to assert their own individuality, they’re actually confining themselves to the same role they’re likely to play out for the rest of their lives, imprisoned by their own limitations.  Not knowing how they got there, as they’re bright, caring people who would by any measure be judged successful, there is something reminiscent of Bergman, Two from the 70's: Cries and Whispers (1972), as even the most well meaning families contain individuals who have lost the capacity to love, who stopped trying so long ago, safe in the empty gestures of their economically secure routines that they’re too late in discovering they’ve actually stopped learning how to live.    

Niagara

 

Director Henry Hathaway

Hathaway with Monroe

Hathaway, Monroe, and Joseph Cotton

Marilyn Monroe

NIAGARA                 B+                                                                                                             USA  (92 mi)  1953  d: Henry Hathaway

The first film where Marilyn Monroe received top billing, and it’s one of her more mysterious performances, though not yet that screen icon she would soon become, where it’s startling to realize this was her eighteenth film, as it took Hollywood a long time to discover her distinctive vulnerability, taking that long road from bit player obscurity to major star.  It’s equally surprising that she doesn’t use that breathy voice, but speaks normally, and while she’s sexually tantalizing, she’s also treacherously deceptive playing a James M. Cain-style morally compromised femme fatale, but she’s never really what she seems to be, and nothing like Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity (1944) or Lana Turner in The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946).  Unlike them, Monroe’s danger does not lie from evil within, but from something unknowable, as she exudes an all-too visible sexuality that is like nothing America had ever seen before, giving the film a mix of film noir, like Tay Garnett’s The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), where two lovers driven by lustful desires plot to kill her husband, creating a powerful atmosphere of sexual tension, but also Bunuel’s Él (1953) and Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958), linked by infamous bell tower sequences, symbolic of a male hysteria swept up in a dominant control and possession of women, where the jealousy and paranoia of Bunuel merges into Hitchcock’s fantasy and longing for an unattainable object, exposing underlying delusions and outright psychoses that have likely been there all along.  Using the backdrop of Niagara Falls, never showcased on such a massive scale before, this is an explosive expression of the force of nature, where the power dwarfs and overwhelms humans, who seem small and insignificant, as the film unleashes pent-up obsessions and emotions, creating a psycho-sexual thriller with lurid undertones.  It’s surprising how overlooked this film is, along with the director who made it, who is viewed as an utterly competent journeyman director, never making a truly great film, but he was intelligent and well-read, perhaps best known as the man who blacklisted actor Dennis Hopper from Hollywood during the filming of FROM HELL TO TEXAS (1958), but this packs a punch, filled with atmospheric tension and psychological intrigue, balancing the blossoming innocence of new love with a marriage on the brink of destruction, filled with murderous impulses and the dangerous realms of film noir territory, creating a shock to the senses, taking us along a somber journey with fatalistic implications.  Monroe had a difficult childhood, the daughter of a woman who had a mental breakdown, diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, and was frequently institutionalized, spending much of her time in and out of hospitals, rarely having contact with her daughter, who never knew who her father was, feeling the sting of abandonment, as she was orphaned and passed around from family to family during the Depression, repeatedly sexually abused, and married early at the age 16 just to avoid going back to an orphanage.  By her own autobiographical accounts, she was a sad child, desperate for attention, eventually getting into modeling, with aspirations of becoming an actress, dying her naturally brunette hair blonde to make herself more employable, inevitably equating her beauty and sexual allure to her self-worth.  Landing small roles in ALL ABOUT EVE (1950), ASPHALT JUNGLE (1950), DON’T BOTHER TO KNOCK (1952), and MONKEY BUSINESS (1952), she became a pin-up model and developed a fan base among American troops during the Korean War, finding herself in a highly publicized romance with legendary Yankee baseball player Joe DiMaggio, who she married in 1954, but divorced just a year later (bothered by the frenzy surrounding Monroe’s publicly flaunted sexuality), where the discovery of earlier nude photos created something of a Hollywood scandal, which the industry used to publicize their latest sex symbol.  Monroe proved to be such a visual emphasis onscreen that all eyes are drawn to her, to the point of distraction, pulling viewers out of the narrative, compelling them to literally “consume” her image.  Fox launched an advertising campaign that questioned what Miss Monroe wore when she slept, then providing the answer, Channel No. 5.

What makes this different is the stark use of color, making this a Technicolor noir, beautifully shot by Joseph MacDonald, who also shot Ford’s Monument Valley western My Darling Clementine (1946), yet this is steeped in shadows and geometrically bizarre camera angles, where gaudy color functions as a spectacle.  Most films in the early 50’s were still shot in black and white, but this was released months before the first use of CinemaScope, which would have been a huge asset on this film, as the stunning backdrop of the Falls is an everpresent image that only enhances the look of the picture, especially the way the restlessness of the water keeps moving, providing a jolt of drama in the powerful flow of the river as it tumbles over the edge, becoming symbolic as an irrepressible and unstoppable force of nature, while also signifying a primordial aspect of the inner recesses of human subconscious.  The poster tagline suggests the ferocity of the landscape’s unrestrained character is equated to hyperbolic female sexuality, “Marilyn Monroe and Niagara, a raging torrent of emotion that even nature can’t control!” Former nightclub singer and waitress Rose Loomis (Marilyn Monroe) is initially seen naked in bed (covered by a sheet) smoking a cigarette in the early hours of the morning, inhabiting a role we’ve never seen her play before, rarely getting a chance to show this kind of dramatic complexity, Niagara 1953 Marilyn Monroe Bedroom scene 1 remastered 4k YouTube (1:54), as her husband George Loomis (Joseph Cotton) is heard in the opening voiceover offering a grim outlook as he walks along the rocky base of the Horseshoe Falls, viewed as a tiny speck in the risings mists of the fog-laden landscape, setting the stage of the insignificance of man in the face of ten thousand years of the river cutting a gorge between massive cliffs, creating one of the wonders of the world.  The same could be said for Monroe, one of the most photographed women in American history, whose fame and influence have only continued to grow over time, remaining one of the most instantly recognizable female figures in history.  A bland yet happily married young couple, Ray and Polly Cutler (Casey Adams, aka Max Showalter, easily the film’s weakest link as a dopey company man, and Jean Peters, originally slated to play Rose, whose lurid next appearance would be Pickup on South Street), are on a delayed honeymoon at Niagara Falls, arriving at the Rainbow Cabins where they’ve reserved a cabin overlooking the Falls, only to discover it’s still occupied by the Loomis couple, with Rose claiming her husband was recently discharged from an Army hospital and is a psychologically damaged war veteran, claiming he’s not well, so the Cutlers try to be understanding and accept less desirable quarters, Niagara 1953 Marilyn Monroe Bedroom scene 2 remastered 4k YouTube (1:46).  Much of the film is seen through the innocent eyes of the Cutlers, as all-American girl Polly witnesses Rose kissing a much younger man at the Falls, Patrick (Richard Allan), when she claimed she was running errands, with George quickly growing suspicious as well when he finds her ticket in her coat pocket while she’s taking a shower, a scene Monroe insisted upon shooting while stark naked behind a screen, Niagara 1953 Marilyn Monroe Shower scene remastered 4k YouTube (1:46).  This leads into one of those infamous dance sequences where kids are first discovering rock ‘n’ roll, with Rose dressed in a hot pink satin dress and bleached hair, with Polly noting, “For a dress like that, you’ve got to start laying plans when you’re about thirteen.”  Rose also picks out her own dreamy choice of music, an old love standard entitled Kiss, cooing “There is no other song,” and can be heard singing along until George, in an anxiety-ridden act of jealousy, storms out of the cabin and smashes the record to bits, Niagara 1953 Marilyn Monroe Kiss me remastered 4k YouTube (2:29), taking everyone by surprise, except Rose, who seems to feed off his insecurity, knowing he is insanely jealous and obsessed with her, continually tormenting him by flaunting her sexuality, provoking the outburst before cold-bloodedly arranging for his murder the next day, hoping people will believe it’s a suicide (a regular occurrence at this location), using Patrick as her accomplice, planning to elope with him afterwards, where this song is inexorably linked to the crime.

Rose and Polly are on opposite ends of the feminine scale, as one is blatantly exposing her sexual assets in a classic art of sultry seduction, mired in unfaithfulness, deceit, and vengeance, while the other is openly sympathetic, much more faithfully discreet, and inclined to use her intellect.  Monroe was admittedly a willing participant in her own objectification, where her scenes literally sizzle with sexuality, the first signs of what would become her movie persona, as her sensuously indulgent, tightly confining close-ups clash with the deeply repressive conservatism of the 1950’s, which includes the fallout from the political hysteria and paranoid overreach of McCarthyism.  Hathaway basically allowed Monroe to direct herself in this film, making as few takes as possible without exerting that autocratic control that others were guilty of, like the endless takes and excessive rehearsals in Billy Wilder’s THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH (1955) or Laurence Olivier’s THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL (1957), while getting substantially inferior and more mechanistic results.  The stature and maturity that Joseph Cotton brings to the picture is indisputable, forever associated with Orson Welles in CITIZEN KANE (1941) and The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), as well as their work together in THE THIRD MAN (1949), but also with Hitchcock in the deliciously evil Shadow of a Doubt (1943).  Despite being drawn to Monroe’s earthy performance, with her unknown past and present, where her sexuality is attached to the chiming bells of the tower, where the playing of the Kiss song is the secret message that the murder has been successfully accomplished, it is Cotton who remains the tragic center of the picture, doomed by his war injury and his fatal attraction to Rose, where the musical theme becomes a siren’s song associated with the lure of death, with Cotton captured by the spell.  It has a similar fascination for Rose, as the bell tower music awakens something deep inside, as if calling out for her, where she hypnotically moves toward it in a memorable walk across the cobblestone street that accentuates the curves of her posterior, promoted by the publicity team as holding the record for the longest walk in cinema history (Alida Valli’s long walk at the end of THE THIRD MAN is more than twice as long), Niagara 1953 Marilyn Monroe scene remastered 4k YouTube (57 seconds), remaining haunted by that music even while under sedation in the hospital, suffering the aftereffects of shock from identifying the dead body in the morgue, Niagara 1953 Marilyn Monroe City Morgue scene remastered 4k  YouTube (2:10).  Written by a trio of writers including Charles Brackett, producer and co-writer of SUNSET BLVD. (1950), along with Walter Reisch and Richard Breen, but an early scene foreshadows everything that follows, as George cautions Polly about the river leading into the Falls, “Let me tell you something, you’re young, you’re in love.  Well, I’ll give you a warning, don’t let it get out of hand, like those falls out there.  Up above, d’you ever see the river up above the falls?  It’s calm, and easy, and you throw in a log, it just floats around.  Let it move a little further down and it gets going faster, hits some rocks, and in a minute it’s in the lower rapids, and nothing in the world, including God himself, I suppose, can keep it from going over the edge.  It just goes!”  This may as well be the outline for the escalating tension of the thrilling finale, starting with a Hitchockian Vertigo-style murder in the bell tower, taking on a more expressionist visual aesthetic, cast in giant shadows and extreme high-angle shots, with close-ups of the bells remaining eerily silent, the only film where Monroe’s character dies, becoming increasingly vulnerable through escalating terror, MARILYN in NIAGARA (1953) Dir. Henry Hathaway YouTube (2:20), with the film pausing for a moment to examine the minor details of the possessions that fell from her purse, including a stick of red lipstick, which would forever be associated with Monroe, wearing it in the shower, remaining perfect on her lips when she gets out of bed in the morning, and even while anesthetized in the hospital.  The film then abandons her for an exciting yet melodramatic finish involving the Falls, culminating in a waterlogged boat chase, with Polly in tow, that takes us to the precipice of the Falls, like those Damsel in Distress melodramas of a woman tied to railroad tracks as a steaming locomotive approaches, 1947 Bw Ws Woman Screaming While Tied To Train Tracks ... YouTube (6 seconds), where it seems inescapable that someone will get sucked over the edge.         

Watch Niagara Full Movie Online Free With English Subtitles YouTube (1:28:51)