104 in 2009 Week 1: Lessons in Darkness and Pickup on South Street

Lektionen in Finsternis (Lessons in Darkness)
Werner Herzog, 1992

I love Werner Herzog. Whether eating his shoe, hauling a steamboat up a mountain, pulling Joachim Phoenix from a wrecked car, or continuing an interview after getting shot by an air rifle, the man continually proves himself to be better than everyone else. He’s basically my hero.

That said, I didn’t enjoy Lessons in Darkness very much. Herzog is probably best known for his documentaries, but I tend to prefer his narrative works – although, to be fair, I prefer narrative films to documentaries in general. It’s more of a clear distinction with Herzog than with many other filmmakers, however, because his style of documentary leans in a very unstructured direction – he likes to present you with images and music, maybe a little narration, and leave it at that. There is rarely a strong through-line or story to be told – it’s all about the experience. In general, I think this is laudable – but in practice, I just can’t handle it for the length of a full movie. The somewhat overbearing (particularly the choral passages) classical music score didn’t help.

This is not to say there weren’t some amazing things to be seen. My favorites were the melted, twisted oil reservoir (which I thought was a tarp at first) and the bit at the end where the firefighters re-ignited some of the oil wells. And, while there was not much narration, what we did get was in Herzog’s own voice, which is second only to Roger Corman for being soothing and comforting.

5.5/10

Pickup on South Street
Samuel Fuller, 1953

I’ve not, historically, been a fan of Samuel Fuller. He’s a prominent figure in the history of cinema, so I keep trying to watch his movies – but so far (Shock Corridor, House of Bamboo), it hasn’t really worked out. The third time has turned out to be the charm, however, with this rather wonderful little film.

I chalk the difference between this and the other two Fuller films up to Thelma Ritter’s Oscar-nominated performance, mostly. She manages to convey a lot about her character and engender a lot of sympathy without a lot of effort – and in fact, the parts of her final scene in which she gets to speechify about herself are her weakest moments. The movie also benefits from the presence of the late, great Richard Widmark, in one of his more heroic roles.

There are a few sour notes in the mix. The ending (in particular, the final line) is kind of awkward and kind of edges the film in a different thematic direction than it seemed to be going. Also, our heroes fall deeply, deeply in love at a breakneck pace (as movie characters from the 50’s are wont to do). It’s a little ridiculous. Still, the pacing is nice and lean, the dialogue is snappy, and the fight scenes are remarkably brutal for the era. In particular, keep an eye out for the scene in which Richard Kiley assaults Jean Peters, all done in one take (with no stuntwoman!).

8/10

Progress: Par