TAB HUNTER; CONFIDENTIAL

Tab Hunter was almost certainly the best looking actor ever to grace a movie screen and one of the few major players ever to come out as gay. His book, "Tab Hunter, Confidential" is a hugely readable account of Hollywood in the fifties and now it's been turned into a brilliant and moving documentary by filmmaker Jeffrey Schwarz. Watching this, two things struck me about Mr Hunter; on a purely superficial level, for a man in his mid-eighties, he's still incredibly handsome, (and certainly doesn't look his age). Secondly he comes across as one hell of a nice guy, a man to be deeply admired for staying true to himself.

Like Tab's book, Schwarz's film is, of course, a great portrait of Hollywood, (even if there is something gruesome about seeing old movie stars who haven't weathered the years quite as well as Tab has), but it's also refreshing to see these people talk so openly and honestly about Tab's sexuality in the knowledge that Tab is more than happy for them to do so.

Could he act? Most definitely, though he was never given a part that really stretched him, (it's just a pity that "Gunman's Walk" was never taken that seriously). Maybe if he had been more successful it would have been a lot harder for him to be as open but his honesty, and not just about his sexuality, but about his talent, (and he was also a champion show-jumper and a fine figure skater), and his career makes this one of the best films of its kind I've seen.

THE WRONG MAN

Forget "Psycho" and forget "The Birds", the grimmest film Alfred Hitchcock ever made was "The Wrong Man". It's the true story of a musician called Manny Balestrero who was wrongly accused of a series of armed robberies and it's a remarkably fine piece of movie-making, utterly devoid of sentimentality or even conventional thrills. This film has an almost Bressonian rigour to it which is probably why it's never really proved to be that popular; (until he's finally shown to be innocent it's a downward spiral that fundamentally destroy's Manny's life and that of his wife).

Henry Fonda is superb as the totally innocent 'wrong man' and Vera Miles is surprisingly good as the wife unable to cope with events. It's shot, very appropriately and superbly in black and white, by Hitchcock regular Robert Burks and the splendid, and again very appropriate score, is by Bernard Herrmann.

FOOTSTEPS IN THE FOG

A gloriously guilty pleasure. "Footsteps in the Fog" wastes no time in getting down to business and the twists and turns of the plot are a constant delight. Stewart Granger, (surprisingly excellent), has just poisoned his wife but maid Lily, (a superb Jean Simmons), has sussed him out and starts blackmailing him and if you think you know where any of this is heading, think again. Before it's over there's another murder and even a trial. This Edwardian melodrama looks great, has a cracker of a script by Dorothy Davenport and Lenore Coffee and a stellar British cast that includes Belinda Lee, Bill Travers, Finlay Currie, Ronald Squire and William Hartnell while director Arthur Lubin shows that with the right material he could certainly deliver the goods; remember he did do the 1943 version of "The Phantom of the Opera". This may be far from a great movie but it is a hugely enjoyable one.

L'ARGENT

Marcel L'Herbier's "L'Argent" clocks in at 195 minutes. Nothing strange about that you might think but this is a silent film, made in France in 1928 and dealing, not in the epic themes of a "Ben Hur", an "Intolerance" or a "Napoleon" but in the contemporary, in the everyday, though not in the mundane. The title translates as 'Money' and money permeates every aspect of this picture which is 'inspired by' rather than based on a novel by Zola. It may not be a masterpiece but it is quite extraordinary just as it is extraordinary to think audiences ever took to this film, set largely in the world of stock exchanges and high finance, which isn't just on the long side but is also sophisticated and challenging. It requires more than patience; it requires intelligence. The plot may be melodramatic, necessary at the time perhaps to draw its audience in, but it is a film that deals in depth with unusual themes. It is also superbly acted, (the large cast includes the great Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel and in a small part, Jules Berry), photographed and edited. Indeed, this is one of the great 'lost' silent pictures and it really needs rediscovery.

THINGS TO COME

I have to admit I haven't seen any of the other films to have been directed by Mia Hansen-Love but if they are as good as "Things to Come" she will already have made her mark as one of the great directors working today, not that a great deal happens , in the conventional sense of 'cinematic action', in "Things to Come". This is simply a portrait of a woman, (Isabelle Huppert), who has settled into middle-age, neither particularly happy nor particularly unhappy. She is a teacher and writer of philosophy who uses the philosophical treatises she's always lived by to get through her largely uneventful life.

She has a dull, middle-aged husband who also teaches, two grown children and an ageing, ill mother, (Edith Scob from "Eyes Without a Face"), when suddenly her life is thrown into disarray, Nevertheless she copes, mainly due to her friendship with a younger man who was once one of her students, There is a suggestion that they might become romantically involved but it's just a hint in a film full of hints.

This is serious stuff, intellectually rigorous and yet full of humor; a film for intelligent, grown-up audiences who like to take their brains with them when they go to the pictures and Huppert, who is never off the screen, is stunningly good. Every gesture she makes, the way she walks, tells us something about this woman as much as what she says. This is great acting.
Everyone else follows suit. Roman Kolinka as Fabien, the New-Age would-be anarchist she comes to rely on, if only for company, could have been such a cliche but Kolinka brings depth and shadings to the role and makes him likeable and interesting. Even Andre Marcon as the dull husband is dull in a way that makes him sympathetic rather than a figure of fun.
By now you might have realised that I loved this film as much as any I've seen this year. Is it a masterpiece? Probably not. In the end it's gossamer thin but it is also a gem, a beautiful uncut diamond of a movie. See it at all costs.

THE MOVEMENT

Visually Benjamin Naishtat's "The Movement" is one of the starkest and most beautiful films ever made. Shot in black and white and dealing with a time of war and plague in 19th century Argentina it should immediately remind you of the work of Miklos Jancso, both in subject matter and in style or perhaps the films of Bela Tarr.

What little plot there is, is shorn away until there is nothing left but the barest of bones. Short scenes that don't automatically appear to be leading anywhere fade into blackness in a film shot mostly at night. The acting, and what dialogue there is, appears improvised and yet utterly brilliant. This is 'pure' cinema at its most basic and on the strength of it I predict one hell of a future for Naishtat.

I CONFESS

"I Confess"is one of Hitchcock's least known films. The plot is pure melodrama but the treatment is superb. Montgomery Clift is a Catholic priest suspected of a murder that has been committed by a man who has confessed to him that he is the killer but Clift, under the rules of the confessional, can't reveal the killer's name and defend himself when he is tried for the murder. The waters are muddied further by the fact the victim was blackmailing Clift and the woman, (Anne Baxter), who is in love with him and further still by the fact that he, Clift, knows the killer personally. Since we, too, know who the killer is from the outset what suspense there is comes from seeing how the murderer might give himself away, but what interests Hitchcock isn't so much the mechanics of the thriller plot as the moral maze Clift's priest finds himself in. A brilliant use of close-ups and some superb location work, (it was filmed in and around Quebec), go a long way to detract from the overall theatricality, (it was based on a play), and the climax is impeccably handled.

IN WHICH WE SERVE

David Lean and Noel Coward co-directed "In Which We Serve" which, we are told, is 'the story of a ship' and which begins in fine documentary fashion before getting down to the serious business of jingoism and what Coward could do to help the war effort, (remember this was only 1942 and the War was still at its height). It is, of course, incredibly British, ('cocoa, sir), and with nary a quiver of its stiff upper lip but it's also deeply moving and beautifully made, a classic in fact, with some splendidly realistic action sequences, (Ronald Neame's superb cinematography must take a lot of the credit).

Coward produced the picture, wrote it, composed the score as well as co-directing and taking the lead and the Academy thought enough of him to give him an honory Oscar. As an actor he was very much of the old school, but you can't fault him for sincerity and his 'big' moments are genuinely touching while Celia Johnson, John Mills, Bernard Miles, Richard Attenborough, Joyce Carey, Kay Walsh and Kathleen Harrison are all outstanding. At a time when American entries to the war effort were largely ham-fisted affairs, ("Mrs Miniver, anyone), this is refreshingly forthright, honest and intelligent.

THE SHELTERING SKY

As photographed by the great Vittorio Storaro, Bernardo Bertolucci's "The Sheltering Sky" is one of the most visually beautiful films ever made, almost every frame a painting in light. It is based on the novel by Paul Bowles about an American couple travelling in North Africa and trying to rekindle any passion that might have been in their marriage. Unfortunately, that flame seems to have been extinguished a long time ago. They are brilliantly played by Debra Winger and John Malkovitch, both at their very best. They have in tow a handsome young American, (Campbell Scott, excellent) and on their travels they meet an eccentric British couple, (Jill Bennett and Timothy Spall), and then there is the handsome young Arab, (Eric Vu-An), that Winger succumbs to. Bowles himself pops up now and then to comment on the action

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It is a slow and cerebral film. Neither Winger nor Malkovitch say very much but convey their feelings in the way they interact with each other. Of course, for a great deal of the time it is impossible to tell if they really love each other or if they simply need each other or if they need each other at all and again, thanks to Storaro, it has all the beauty of a travelogue even if the vast alien landscapes and the appalling conditions in which they find themselves are more likely to put you off visiting North Africa. It is also one of Bertolucci's most underrated films, an intimate epic on the transience of human relationships and the need to go looking for ourselves in the most unlikeliest of places.

CLOSE UP

Abbas Kiarostami's film "Close Up"isn't a documentary although it deals with incidents that have happened and 'the actors' are the real people involved 'acting out' those events, and it's a masterpiece. The events it depicts concern a Mr Sabzian who introduced himself to an Iranian family as the director Mohsen Makhmalbaf, promising to put them in his new film, his arrest for fraud and his subsequent trial. Everything we see happened but what we get is a dramatic 'reconstruction', played out by the participants themselves. It's part of Kiarostami's genius that the 'performances' he gets are superb, particularly from Hossein Sabzian himself, (if this is 'acting' it may be the greatest performance by a non-professional ever). The result is a wonderful love letter to the cinema, to those who love it and, of course, to Sabzian that is both very funny and deeply moving as well as a brilliant deconstruction of the whole movie-making process. (Is the final sequence actually happening as in a real documentary or is it too a reconstruction?). It has just been voted the 42nd greatest film ever made; it's easy to see why.

PURPLE BUTTERFLY

Sixth Generation Chinese director Ye Lou's visually stunning revolutionary romance "Purple Butterfly" is set in Japanese occupied Manchuria in the 1930's and for the first 45 minutes  or so you may find it impossible to figure out who's who or what's going on, (I certainly did). Lou uses hand-held cameras to dizzying effect and shoots mostly in various shades of blue and with an awful lot of rain. What is clear is that there is an underground organization, (the Purple Butterfly), dedicated to fighting the Japanese and that there's a traitor in their midst. Otherwise the plot is reasonably complex and the time structure not always clear while a case of mistaken identity does little to help. Nevertheless, trying to put the pieces together in some kind of logical order turns out to be hugely rewarding and, as I've said, it's visually magnificent with superb performances from the entire cast. Inevitably it will remind you of the cinema of Kar-Wai Wong but Ye Lou remains his own man and even if you need to see this a couple of times to 'get it' it will be time well spent.