On Blu-ray -- two small, polished gems from Douglas Sirk: A SCANDAL IN PARIS and LURED

TrustMovies didn't pay much attention to directors when he was in high school, but Written on the Wind, along with Vertigo, were two of his favorite films during those late adolescent years. Only after did he connect the name of the former's director, Douglas Sirk (1897-1987), with some other films he treasured (Imitation of Life and Sleep, My Love, for instance). Nowadays the name of Sirk (thanks in large part to the homage work of another fine filmmaker, Todd Haynes), is greatly prized -- though the prizing arrived mostly post-mortem for this talented German-born director, shown below.

All of which brings us to the first-time-on-Blu-ray release this week, via Cohen Film Collection of two of Mr. Sirk's early Hollywood movies -- A SCANDAL IN PARIS and LURED -- both of which should burnish the man's reputation to an even brighter sheen. Though Sirk worked in various genres -- from westerns to mysteries to rom-coms to mostly melodramas (I'm not sure he ever made a film that would qualify as actual drama) -- I would call him most gifted in melodrama. Have there been many better examples of this genre than Written on the Wind, Imitation of Life and All That Heaven Allows?

What Sirk brought to so many of his films, in addition to those heightened emotions, was elegance, atmosphere and just plain graceful movie-making. He also had a way of slyly bringing to our attention, within that melodrama, how somehow "off-track" were so many of our standard ideas of morality and economic class. It's always a pleasure to sink back in your seat, and take in what this director offers. A Scandal in Paris brings all of this and more to the fore. Based on the memoirs of real-life Parisian thief-turned-Chief-of-Police, the film stars that perfectly-cast, super-debonair and rakish George Sanders (above, left, with a delightful Akim Tamiroff, and below), who brings his considerable "all" to the role.

In one marvelous little scene early on, Sanders is used by an artist to model for Saint George (above), the irony being of course that few actors ever looked (or acted) less saintly than Sanders. Saint George proves a pivotal plot point in the movie (along with several others), as our anti-hero moves from rakish thief to something much more in line with that Saint (and with Hollywood morals of the day).

In the superlative cast of fine character actors and some very oddball faces, are the likes of Gene Lockhart (below) and a rarely-used-to her-fullest-ability Carole Landis (at left), a performer who becomes one of Sanders' early-then-problematic conquests. (Her song here is a silly, "fiery" charmer.) The screenplay is elegant and witty, making use of everything from stolen jewels to a pet monkey, while providing a number of smart, succulent lines (of which Sanders makes hay).

As the girl who proves to be our "hero's" true love, Signe Hasso (below, right) delivers both the necessary beauty along with subtlety and class.

Surprisingly, for a movie that's now 70 years old, there are almost no longueurs to be seen or felt, so incident-prone is the film that it scoots right along its 99-minute route.

Though this was but Sirk's third Hollywood film, his gift for melodrama, as well as for turning bourgeois morality on its ear, can already be seen surfacing in the Lockhart's final scene -- which against all odds begins to move you rather mightily so that you want to shout "unfair." All in all this little gem is such a surprising delight that Sirk fans should not miss it, while newcomers, after watching, may find themselves in the fold. (Cohen's Blu-ray transfer of both these films is top-notch, too.)

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Lured is one of several good mysteries Mr. Sirk offered up over his 45-year directorial career. Again, as in Scandal, there is plenty of elegance, atmosphere and charm here, as well as another wittier and more-interesting-than-we'd-expect screenplay that tells the tale of a serial killer targeting young woman via personal ads in the newspaper.

London-set but Hollywood-made, the movie stars a more-young-and-luscious than we may remember Lucille Ball (above and below) playing an American actress stranded in London when her show abruptly closes who must now do nightly taxi-dancing to pay the bills. When her friend becomes the murderer's next victim, she goes to the police and... we're off to the races.

In the male lead is Mr. Sanders again, in yet another of his signature roles -- the roué who's not so caddish, after all -- and he's perfectly fine, as usual. In the excellent supporting cast are the likes of Charles Coburn as Scotland Yard's top man, Cedric Hardwick as Sanders' friend and business partner, and Alan Mowbray as a naughty butler. All three are standouts. Socio- and psychologically, the film also shows us a character of veiled homosexuality whose lack of opportunity to engage or find an outlet for his caring and love leads to feelings and events that are very unhealthy indeed.

If you'll be able to spot the murderer fairly early on, the film offers plenty more reasons to see it, especially to witness what Ms Ball -- sassy and smart as anything -- could do before she became that much-loved Lucy. Oh, yes -- and there's one more famous actor who's a treat to watch here, too: a certain Boris Karloff (below, right) playing a sad and maddened artist who is one of the suspects in the case. His scene, I suppose, could be cut out without doing the film much damage, but what a pleasure it is to see him in all his glory once again.

Lured runs a slightly lengthy 103 minutes (it doesn't quite bounce along like Scandal) but it is definitely worth a watch for Sirk, Ball and mystery aficionados alike.

Both films, together in a single package, each on a separate disc with audio commentary included, hit the street this coming Tuesday, September 27 from Cohen Film Collection -- for purchase and (one hopes) rental.

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A SCANDAL IN PARIS, costume melodramas, Douglas Sirk, LURED, memoirs, murder mysteries, old Hollywood,

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Stick with Kirsten Johnson's unusual memoir/ doc, CAMERAPERSON, for its cumulative power

At the beginning of CAMERAPERSON, a strange -- and not immediately accessible -- documentary by Kirsten Johnson, we are faced with the following short paragraph of explanation:

"For the past 25 years I've worked as a documentary cinematographer.

I originally shot the following footage for other films, 

but here I ask you to see it as my memoir.

These are the images that have marked me

and leave me wondering still."

Fair enough, TrustMovies thought to himself, as he settled back to watch. Ms Johnson goes first to Bosnia and a sheepherder (below) along the road; to Nigeria where a midwife tends a newborn; back to Bosnia and then to New York, where a young boxer is in training. Locations are initially identified, but then for a time, they are not. (People are just people, anywhere, everywhere, right?) But then the identification begins again. Ms Johnson, shown at left, often seems to build to an important moment and then simply cut to elsewhere, leaving us wondering about what happens next. Then we also begin to wonder: Whose memoir is this, exactly? It certainly does not seem particularly "personal."

And then we see a pair of cute toddlers identified as the filmmaker's twins, and from there we go immediately to an interview with a young black woman (below) whose face is not shown but who appears to be in a some kind of clinic, where she may be about to have, or has previously undergone... an abortion? (I wished at this moment for English subtitles so that I could better understand what was being said.) In any case, a connection has been made: children who exist and those who don't.

We also meet the filmmaker's parents, and especially spend some time with her mom, who has, a few years previous, received a diagnosis of Alzheimer's. We return again to various places we've already seen, and each time we do, further connection is made. I must admit that it took me perhaps one-third to a full half of this film before I began to feel and understand what was going on. Initially I felt that the film was anything but personal, and yet, overtime, it became so, and fiercely.

By the time we are back in that Nigerian clinic, watching the midwife (below) succeed in bringing to life a newborn (I wish I knew what happened to this infant: Did he survive without the oxygen he needed?), then seeing a Bosnian grandmother making bread (Why is it that bread-making always seems so primal and wondrous?), we are thoroughly hooked -- even when we're not quite sure what we're watching. (Is that some kind of Christian ballet being performed in Colorado Springs? Swan Lake it sure ain't.)

Remember that young boxer we saw toward the film's beginning? Expect to meet him again near the finale and witness what may be the biggest "sore loser" of all time. This is frightening stuff, and one wonders at Johnson's fearlessness. We often don't know the details of what went on previously (or after), and even when we do (the tree-cutting women of Darfar), we hear and see only one side of the equation, though that does seem enough to make a judgment call. Yet part of what Ms Johnson is doing forces us to realize that documentary film, even in the best of hands-guiding-cameras, still gives us only one perspective. And how that camera (and microphone) are wielded can make a huge difference.

Johnson is not a "war" cinematographer, but you might call her a post-war one, as she shows us people in places like Bosnia, Darfar, Rwanda and the locales of our current mid-eastern wars -- where genocides have happened and the results are there to be seen. Or not. Listen as the Bosnian grandmother -- such a stylish dresser! -- tells us that nothing bad has happened here. Really? But then we recall another woman who had earlier explained what happened in the camp where women were held prisoner and raped, telling us the story of the young girls who did say aloud that bad things were happening. The moral here would seem to turn a current slogan, much expressed in America, on its ear: If you see something, don't say anything.

Truth in documentary cinema can be as difficult to find as can fairness and kindness in how one approaches the subject of an interview (Johnson's with a young mid-eastern boy, above, who has lost vision in one eye is a fine example of both, I think). The filmmaker spends quite a bit of time in Texas, too, covering the case of that man, James Byrd, Jr., who was chained to a truck and then dragged to his death. We may remember the details that came out at the time -- much prior to the Black Lives Matter movement -- yet what we see and hear here is still something else.

At the end, Ms Johnson offers a long list of films from which this footage has come. You may be surprised to realize that you've seen a number of these. Yet how the footage fits together in this "memoir" proves an entirely different kettle of fish. It may take some patience and faith to fully experience and appreciate Cameraperson, but the cumulative effect is powerful and thought-provoking -- and most definitely worth one's time and effort.

From Janus Films and running 102 minutes, the documentary opens tomorrow, Friday, September 9, in New York City (at the IFC Center), and on Friday September 23 in Los Angeles (at Laemmle's Royal).

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American documentaries, CAMERAPERSON, documentary styles, Kirsten Johnson, memoirs, post-war cinematography, truth,

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