A Woman's Face (Cukor, 1941) #DTC 1407

A criminal woman with a disfigured face is restored to beauty and (some sort of) innocence.

Not too many details stick to the mind from this one. There are a lot of interesting close-up shots of Crawford, hiding the disfigured side of her face under a hat. The story seems to be concerned with the new magic of the times of applied psychology and restoration surgery.

There is one fantastic scene where Crawford rides on a cable car, with a little boy she is supposed to kill. Her back and forth, until she decides that she cannot do it, are quite remarkable. Another  memorable moment was the horse sled chase. Nothing compared to modern chase sequences, but the idea struck me as very original.

The film might have been quite enjoyable at the time, but has not aged too well in my opinion. It might be a good example of a highly structured screenplay, I think:

1. Setting up the blackmail and the operation
2. At the new home
1. A new life at the farmhouse
2. She has to kill the boy and will get arrested at one point
3. Hunting down the real killer and showdown in court

Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows (Ritchie, 2011)

The genial sleuth mutates into a spectacular superhero to save the world from another evil crimelord.

There is an interesting trend to superheroize anything - spearheaded by the deadly avalanche of more or less cleverly made or marketed comic adaptations, the box office has started to execute power on the neighboring genre, such as the classical detective story.

It was a smart move to choose Downey as the slightly crazy sleuth, given his real-life experience with drugs, his relentless sarcasm and him having just the right age for this role. Jude Law also gets his moments, but they are few and their numbers quite possibly related to some kind of co-production contract. So - this leaves practically the whole cake for Downey. And he gets it and he eats it. (at least as Holmes)

Some of the more spectacular jokes didn't quite work for me and sometimes the video-game style editing takes you completely out of the movie and places you on the sidewalk outside the theatre. I remember at least two occasions, where there were edit sequences just to show off. But the rest is fantastically put together.

Great scene: restaurant scene in the beginning. Nice idea, good execution.

The Goat (Keaton, Cline, 1921)

A young man is taken for the escaped criminal and hunted all over town.

I still can't remember if the title has any specific meaning there are definitively no animals harmed, ridden, or otherwise made fun during the whole course of this small slapstick shtick. Somewhere it says "funny" on a wall, but the irony is superfluous - the film is just as funny, as all the other Keatons I have come to really like. The slapstick ideas are numerous, and even after a hundred years still really enjoyable and surprising to watch.

I'm starting to wonder if there has been no physical comedy at all in the last 30 years? And I don't mean police academy which I vividly remember being extremely predictable humor.

Cops (Cline, Keaton, 1922) #DTC 95

A man gets into the trouble with police men that seem to multiply faster than rabbits.

I can't really remember the original incident that sets off this wonderful chain of mishaps and myriads of slapstick action. It's been a while since I watched it, and what definitively remains is the image of Keaton being chased by an enormous army of increasingly disgruntled police men. This one didn't have the melancholy of the other Keatons that I enjoyed so much. But in terms of physical action there is so much going on, that it got even hard to follow sometimes.

Maybe I need a re-watch of this one sometimes.

The Shanghai Gesture (Sternberg, 1941) #TSPDT #790

The daughter of a businessman in Shanghai is lured into the swamp of booze and gambling by the owner of a troubled casino.

This movie caught me on the wrong foot. Largely, I didn't know what to make of it WHILE I was watching. It seems to me, that this is the much better *after* you've seen it, than during the course of its run. There is a bizarre quality in how Sternberg has framed his shots. Sometimes it felt that he just recorded close-ups of every actor, added some stunning total shots and then tried to figure out the script after the fact.

Obviously, this is totally untrue, but those amazing close-ups only came to life in my head after the film was over. Huston as the brooding father with the dark past has amazing images and looks like somebody with a seemingly very dark past. The hairstyles have not to be commented on - an image is more than enough and Tierney looks breathtaking.

There is one jaw-dropping sequence where the camera enters the casino for the first time. The image is simply amazing and the architecture of the room works great for the camera. I've never seen this in a newer film, but I'm sure people must have tried to copy it here and there.

Kampf der Königinnen (Steiner, 2011)

The yearly cow battles in the canton Valais of Switzerland to crown the queen of cows is a spectacle.

I've missed this movie twice at festivals and was looking forward to see it now. Steiner tried to weave a documentary-style story around the actual event, trying to bring the characters closer together. He didn't manage that on all accounts and once in a while I dropped out of the narrative, wondering where he was going with that. I really liked the genuine farmers that breed those cows for fun (they don't give milk or meat) and let them fight each other in a increasingly popular competition once a year.

These are not your vachequirit cows, they are more sinister, they seem dangerous, they're heavily built and they look very powerful. I have been told that the cows are obliged to be pregnant to able to fight, because otherwise they might prove too aggressive. I was a little disappointed that they've let this pretty bizarre fact out of the movie, it might have added to that final fight. Those approximately 12-15 minutes of pure fighting accompanied by a pretty driving interpretation of the Bolero are really amazing to watch.

If I'm doing a fight scene, I'm absolutely going back to this part of the movie. Pure cowdrenalin!

The more, the merrier (Stevens, 1943) #DTC 124

A housing shortage in Washington leads to a bizarre flat share of McCrea, Arthur and Coburn.

The film is one of those romantic comedy prototypes. Which means you can guess the ending pretty early, the exchanges are witty and there is a big breakup somewhere in the middle. But with Coburn thrown into the mix the whole thing became way more unpredictable and for me way more enjoyable.

The demeanor with which Coburn sets up the whole affair between McCrea and Arthur is just amazing. And I have to admit that I loved that little scene with the trousers. Totally silly, but in its harmless way a great deal of fun. There were a couple of other scenes like that, but this one just stuck to my mind.

Some of the jokes are a little "stagey" - woman is in one room, man in the other, they meet in the hallway, walk back into their respective rooms, come out again, act surprised. This is run-of-the-mill fun, not very clever. But many other little visual jokes are. Like what happens with the wall between their respective bedrooms.