104 in 2009 Week 17: Boxcar Bertha and Les Diaboliques

Just two this week, which I suppose makes this week kind of like most weeks I've had so far. It just feels like a bit of a let down after last week.

Boxcar Bertha
Martin Scorsese, 1972

Boxcar Bertha doesn’t start off well – when an 88 minute movie has time to list the cast twice during the opening credits, it’s a good sign that things are going to be stretched to the breaking point. The awkward plane crash that was clearly well beyond the budget of the movie is a bad sign as well. Things eventually do look up, though, and some of Scorsese’s future promise shows through at times, particularly in the surprisingly mobile and dynamic camera. The chemistry between the four members of the gang is comfortable and enjoyable, and is probably the primary strength of the movie – which unfortunately means that the last third, during which Bertha is separated from the others, kind of drags. The final shot is a killer, though – far more poetic and cruel than anything else on display. Not a bad movie, but certainly far from Scorsese’s best.

6/10

Les Diaboliques
Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1955

Les Diaboliques is really two movies in one. The first movie is the passable tale of Christina and Nicole, the wife and mistress of an abusive headmaster at a boarding school, who plot to (and ultimately do) murder him. It’s a little slow, and the characters are drawn pretty broadly, but the murder sequence itself is quite impressive.

The second movie is the much more interesting story of Christina and Nicole, the wife and mistress of an abusive headmaster who, after murdering him and dumping the body in a swimming pool to be discovered by the groundskeeper, are horrified to learn that the body has disappeared, and that the headmaster himself may still be alive and out for revenge. This is the point at which the movie really takes off, and manages to even become a little scary at points. The sequence where Christina what may or may not be the ghost of her husband through the dark corridors of the school is terrific. Unfortunately, it all works out in the most pedestrian way imaginable, and once the explanations start, things are wrapped up so quickly that one gets the impression Clouzot was a little embarrassed by the resolution and wanted to skip past it as quickly as possible. Fortunately, there is also a rather nice little coda that, while feeling like a bit of a cheat, does end things on a high note. I’d tell you what happened, but the title card at the end of the movie instructed me not to, so I suppose I can’t.

7/10

Progress: 37 (Par +3, still)