Category: 60’s

THE WOMEN ON THE 6TH FLOOR – The Review

 THE WOMEN ON THE 6TH FLOOR is a new period comedy/ drama from France that surprisingly has much in common with one of 2011’s American blockbusters, THE HELP. Both films are set in the societal upheaval of the early 1960s and both concern the travails of domestic workers and their employers. While the US version was tied to the civil rights movement ( with literally life and death at stake ), the French story is more concerned with social class structure along with a second chance romance. Still both films have a great deal of empathy for the sometimes invisible ” hired help”.

Jean Louis ( Fabrice Luchini) is a successful investment consultant at his old, established family banking firm in 1960’s Paris. He and his status-seeking socialite wife, Suzanne ( Sandrine Kiberlain ) and two spoiled preteen sons ( usually away at an exclusive boarding school ) reside in a large downtown apartment complex. Living above Jean Louis’s opulent apartment that encompasses the entire level are the Spanish born maids who work in the different households. These are the women of the sixth floor who each live almost in squalor, in tiny single rooms and must share one bathroom and a communal sink. One day Jean Louis’s French maid of many years finally quits after another clash with Suzanne. This occurs around the time of the arrival of Maria ( Natalia Verbeke ) a lovely young woman from Toledo who is soon seeking domestic help employment. Jean Louis hires Maria and is charmed by her and her other sixth floor friends ( one is a Daily Worker reading radical, another is deeply religious, one must escape an abusive husband, while another is out to snare a hubby ). His interactions with the ladies rekindle his zest for life after his soul had become deadened by his stale upper class routine. Finally Jean Louis must decide if he will stay on the path that his forefathers have traveled or defy convention and fully join Maria’s world.

The story of cultural and class romance has been explored in many different media ( the BBC-TV series ” Upstairs, Downstairs ” first springs to mind ). Everything here hinges on whether the film makers provide a fresh spin on this subject. I’d have to say that the results here are fairly predictable and a bit condescending. Luchini is the old stick in the mud business guy ( if this were an American film he’d be a WASP ). The breakfast egg fanaticism gives him that anal-retentive extra edge. His wife is a cold shrew only interested in impressing the neighbors, and is never really given the chance to change. Plus the sons are coarse, bullying jerks. Verbeke’s Maria is almost a sensual Mary Poppins who appears to awake the sleeping Jean Louis. She and her “sisters” are the earthy, passionate ethnics that will teach these dullards how to live. They’re each archetypes more than real people. The main problem with the film is the tentative relationship at its center. We can easily understand why Jean Louis falls for the spunky, beautiful, much-younger Maria, but it’s difficult to understand her attraction to him ( yeah, he’s wealthy and becomes more caring, but she deserves more ). The 60’s fashions and settings are well executed, but the final scenes seem hurriedly cobbled together. THE WOMEN ON THE 6TH FLOOR is a sweet-natured film full of good intentions that doesn’t succeed in bringing anything new in the clash between the classes.

Overall Rating: Two Out of Five Stars

Review: MADE IN DAGENHAM

When most folks think of Great Britain in the 1960’s they remember the Fab Four and Sean Connery keeping the world safe from S.P.E.C.T.R.E., and not the same social upheavals that were happening here in the states. One of the great 60’s movements, sexual equality, is the main focus of director Nigel Cole’s new docudrama MADE IN DAGENHAM. I must admit that I had never heard of this story, so I was ready for a dose of history during that swingin’ time.

The town of Dagenham was the home of one of several British based Ford automobile plants. After a few minutes of introductory newsreel footage and vintage commercials, we see the women bicycling into the factory to start their work day. The working conditions are not ideal as we see many of the women strip down to their undergarments (Caution! Possible eye injury! Bullet bras!) due to the lack of air conditioning. Not complaining, the ladies sit down to their sewing machines and produce interior upholstery for the new Fords. Their supervisor Albert (Bob Hoskins) enters, diverts his eyes, and reminds them that they must take action or they’ll be designated as unskilled laborers. At a party that evening, we get to know the women a bit more, particularly Rita (Sally Hawkins) who’s married to one of the Ford machinists, Eddie (Daniel Mays). The next morning, back at their meager apartment, Rita rushes to get their son and daughter off to school. She notices welts on the boy’s knuckles. Seems his teacher, Mr. Clark, took a cane to him for not having his protractor. When Rita confronts the teacher at school, he cruelly dismisses her.Later at work,Albert selects Rita to accompany him and elected employee rep Connie (Geraldine James) to a meeting with their Union rep and plant management. After being dismissed at the meeting, Rita throws several pieces of cloth on the table. “If you think we have no skill then turn these into a car seat!”, she states before heading back to the plant to tell her co-workers that the strike is on! Eventually their protest spreads to other factories and auto production ceases. They soon attract the attention of Ford in Detroit who send out Robert Tooley (Richard Schiff), and Employment Secretary for the Labour Government,Barbara Castle (Miranda Richardson). Will the women prevail in getting equal pay?

The filmmakers do an excellent of recreating 1968 through fashions, hairstyles, and settings. My main problem with the film was making out the thick cockney accents. At times I was almost reaching for an imaginary remote so I could click on the subtitles. Hawkins makes for a plucky “Norma Rae” type heroine to root for. She gets great support from Mays when the strike puts a lot of strain on their marriage. Eddie really struggles to keep the household functioning while Rita’s on the picket line. We also see the strain at Connie’s house as she deals with her husband who’s still affected by his war experiences. Jaimie Winstone is terrific as Saudra, who’s tempted to break the strike in order to fulfill her dreams of modeling stardom. It’s always a pleasure to see Roger Rabbit’s pal Hoskins on the big screen again. His Albert beams with delight as he sees his beloved gals standing up for their rights. Richardson brings a great deal of authority to her role as Castle. I must admit that when I first saw her in her red bouffant, I thought she was playing Margaret Thatcher (maybe she worked her way up to PM!). Her scenes with her clueless young male assistants are hilarious. Schiff (of TV’s West Wing) does a great job as a 60’s businessman who might prefer having a martini with Don Draper. Rosamund Pike is memorable as a factory exec’s wife who’s sympathetic to the working gals. I know it’s an important story, but very few surprises are in this telling. The pace really drags in it’s final act. I just wished that some of the scenes had the pizazz of the opening montage. This is a middling attempt to show how working class British women were treated in those “go-go” 60’s. Be sure and stick around for the end credits and see old news reports and recent interviews with the ladies from the old Ford plant. Their stories seem more compelling that some of the characters invented for this film.

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars

Review: ‘Must Read After My Death’

mustread

Ram  Man:

I received an email from Gigantic Releasing wanting to know if I would screen their new documentary ‘Must Read After My Death’. I told her I am a “Movie Geek” and I never refuse to see a film. I thought it seemed like a good title and found out when I got the DVD it was an even better story.

Morgan Dews, the writer-director-producer and most important “grandson”   of Allis and Charley on which the documentary is based. Dews who discovered a cryptic box of letters, photos,recordings and super 8 home movies that Allis has labeled “Must Read After My Death”   Dews has now shared his discovery about his  family with the world told in a very unique way as told in the film of the same name ‘Must Read After My Death’

Charley and Allis (no last names were given out of consideration of the surviving siblings) were married following World War II and had moved to Connecticut to raise their four children Anne, Chuck, Bruce and Doug. Allis was the homemaker and stay at home mom raising the kids while Charley had to spend 4 months or more out of the year traveling to Australia. Charley invested in a Dictaphone recorder to make records in order to communicate back and forth with the family during his long absences away over seas. These recordings and home movies allow the audience to see inside the picture perfect family and see the real dark secrets bubbling to the surface. Charley had begun drinking, sometimes heavily. And during an Australian trip in the 60’s decided to shack up with a local gal there and begin swinging. He informed Allis of all of this in one of his records home along with a rendition of “Tie Me Kangaroo Down” by Charley and Merle (the Girlfriend).

Charley was not the only problem for the family. Allis was struggling keep the house going and raising the children. One of the boys was raging to the point they had to have him inturned for psychological testing. This was the 60’s and a very male driven world. Allis is repeatedly told by medical professionals that everything was her fault and she was causing the problems with the children. The family would suffer even further turmoil in the years to come with Anne moving away from home just to try to lead a normal life (and give birth to filmmaker Morgan Dews). There is also the untimely death of the oldest son Chuck in a car accident. Once your half way through this film you feel is if your part of the family and could only imagine what shock Dews must have gone through sifting through his grandmothers tales she had left him.

‘Must Read After I’m Dead’ is a surprising look at the family unit told in the most unique way. The only real knock I have on the film is sometimes the timeline seems  a bit confusing . But I really liked this film and the way director/producer Morgan Dews put the films and recordings together to let Allis and Charley tell their story. ‘Must Read After My Death’ opens today in New York and L.A.,  and is worth the hunt to find what local theater is showing the film. Gigantic Releasing is also making the film available digitally through a weekend download for the rest of the country. You can purchase a digital ticket for $2.99 at www.giganticdigital.com and it will allow you unlimited viewing of the film for 3 days beginning today. The film is streaming in HD quality and has no ads or commercials. So if your on one of the coasts go find this film! If not, I encourage you to download it and enjoy.

[Overall 4 stars out of 5]

  

Nick:

‘Must Read After My Death’ is an intimate look into the dark heart of the American family. This documentary’s only agenda is to expose the raw emotions of a family teetering at the brink of a complete meltdown. It is insightful, heartbreaking and even frightening.

The film is directed by Morgan Dews and assembled from an extensive collection of home movies and audio recordings. This collage of archival material introduces us to Allis and Charley, a seemingly typical family in 1960s America. They have three sons and one daughter.

Charley has a job that takes him to Australia for four months out of the year, so the couple purchases Dictaphone recorders to stay in touch. The husband and wife are frank and open in their relationship, encouraging each other to find solace in the company of other men and women during their extended separation. Trouble brews on the horizon.

What starts as a habit in which a separated family can feel closer together, becomes a cathartic exercise in which all members of the family can voice the ways they’ve grown apart. The recordings become confessionals. They range from melancholy to bitter and to hopelessly desperate.

Late in the film, much of the conflict comes from the institutionalization of one of Allis and Charley’s son. Misdiagnosed, their son spends years away from home. He goes from being a frustrated boy to a young man who has disassociated from his family and brimming with rage.

I hope this powerful film, the 2008 Grand Prize winner at the International Documentary Festival in Marseilles, finds the same audience that lauded ‘Capturing the Friedmans’. It is every bit as involving as that film and a far more rewarding experience than its close, fictional cousin ‘Revolutionary Road’.

‘Must Read After My Death’ is distributed by Gigantic Releasing. Interestingly, they are the first distributor to open first-run films simultaneously in cinemas and day and date online. Gigantic is able to do this through their Gigantic Digital broadband theater. Gigantic Digital streams in ultra high quality, commercial-free and at a modest price. $2.99 gets you a three-day, unlimited ticket. Do take note that cities in which the film is or will be playing in theaters will be blacked out so that the digital release does not compete with cinema bookings.

[Overall: 4.5 stars out of 5]

Ang Lee to Helm a Woodstock Movie

Focus Features will begin production late this month on “Taking Woodstock,” scripted by James Schamus and to be directed by Ang Lee (Hulk, Brokeback Mountain). Lee’s ensemble cast includes Emile Hirsch (Speed Racer), Imelda Staunton (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix) and Liev Schrieber (X-Men Origins: Wolverine).

Pic is an adaptation of the memoir of Elliot Tiber, who played a role in helping the historic 1969 music festival unfold on his neighbor’s farm.

Less than a month ago, Focus had been thinking about postponing the start of production over concerns that a possible Screen Actors Guild strike could force a shutdown later this year. But numerous studios have begun to move forward on feature starts, and it’s understood that Focus has worked out contingency plans in the event of a work stoppage.

Demetri Martin (“The Daily Show With Jon Stewart”) had already been set to play Tiber, an aspiring interior designer in Greenwich Village obliged to run the family business, a Catskills motel. In summer 1969, he found himself at the center of a generation-defining experience when he volunteered the motel to be the home base for Woodstock concert organizers after his neighbor, Max Yasgur, made his farm available for the event.

Staunton and Henry Goodman will play Tiber’s parents, and Jonathan Groff (currently starring in the Shakespeare in the Park production of “Hair” in Gotham) will play Woodstock organizer Michael Lang; Hirsch will play a recently returned Vietnam vet, Eugene Levy (American Pie) will play Yasgur, and Schreiber is in talks to play a transvestite named Vilma.

Jeffery Dean Morgan (Watchmen) is set as a closeted married man having an affair with Tiber, while Paul Dano (The Will Be Blood) and Zoe Kazan play a hippie couple attending the concert. Dan Fogler (Balls of Fury) will play a local theater troupe head, and Mamie Gummer will play Lang’s assistant.