Movies at Home: La Chimera, Funeral in Berlin and Magnolia

 

In La Chimera, we are in Tuscany in the 1980's as Josh O'Connor as Arthur (a British archaeologist) is returning to the scene of the crime after spending time in prison. He is welcomed back to his ex-girlfriend's mother's place full of her family and friends. His old gang who search for artefacts (ancient Etruscan culture) know he will be looking for more even though his earlier finds are mostly missing. It's Arthur who has the talent for divining such buried objects, quite against the law. They are "tomboroli" or grave robbers.

Alice Rohrwatcher has written and directed a superb movie with excellent cinematography by Hélène Louvart. (Thank you, spell check, for the apostrophes.) The landscape looks so great, and the music is perfect. There are the occasional different aspect ratios which might be a dream. The overgrown railway station looks wonderful. 

Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian gave it a deserved five stars and was "utterly captivated" by the film that was "garrulous, uproarious, and celebratory". Mark Kermode loved it, especially the performance of Josh O'Connor.  

I must have seen Funeral in Berlin when it was first released in 1966. Directed by Guy Hamilton from the 1964 novel by Len Deighton, it stars Michael Caine, reprising his role as Harry Palmer from the earlier film The Ipcress File. There are plenty of twists and turns as Palmer is sent to Berlin to effect the defection of a Soviet intelligence officer. Although the film is showing its age, the period shots of Berlin are interesting, and Michael Caine showed promise of that stellar career.

I wanted to see this early movie from one of my favourite directors. Paul Thomas Anderson. Magnolia features an all star cast in alternating stories. At first I thought this was going to be a three-hour sprawling mess. But when you get used to the ultra-sharp editing between the alternating scenes, it becomes a staggering piece of filmmaking. All these separate fragments come together in that even stranger ending. One day in the San Fernando Valley, not to be confused with that other great movie, Two Days in the Valley. Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian called it "a sprawling, howling miasma of strangeness" and "a dark and bitter poetry of regret, ..... a real wail of regret".

The cast is an amazing collection of top acting talent. Tom Cruise as you have never seen him before. Such an awful person, but when we at last find out his background, no wonder. William H. Macy playing... William H. Macy. John C. Reilly is also great. But of all the cast, I thought Philip Seymour Hoffman was the best. That poor man trying his best. It may be even better on a second viewing in the future.