The Wages Of Fear

The only way out of this hellhole of a company town is on a flatbed truck loaded with nitroglycerin!? Actually, two trucks ... just in case, you know, something happens to one of them...

Let's just leave this review in the hands of Alfred Hitchcock, shall we:

We are now having a very innocent little chat. Let us suppose that there is a bomb underneath this table between us. Nothing happens, and then all of a sudden, 'Boom!' There is an explosion. The public is surprised, but prior to this surprise, it has seen an absolutely ordinary scene, of no special consequence.

Now, let us take a suspense situation. The bomb is underneath the table, and the public knows it, probably because they have seen the anarchist place it there. The public is aware that the bomb is going to explode at one o'clock and there is a clock in the décor. The public can see that it is a quarter to one. In these conditions this same innocuous conversation becomes fascinating because the public is participating in the scene.

The audience is longing to warn the characters on the screen: 'You shouldn't be talking about such trivial matters. There's a bomb underneath you and it's about to explode!'

In the first case we have given the public fifteen seconds of surprise at the moment of the explosion. In the second case we have provided them with fifteen minutes of suspense. The conclusion is that whenever possible the public must be informed. Except when the surprise is a twist, that is, when the unexpected ending is, in itself, the highlight of the story.

Rooting for *anyone* to come out the other side of this story is the twist. They don't all make it, in case you were wondering...

Monsieur Hulot's Holiday

The first film I've seen in a theater this year, and the first film I've seen at SIFF Cinema since their Grand Opening Janus Films Fest a couple of years ago. Wow, been a long time.

The debut of Jacques Tati's anti-hero Monsieur Hulot, featuring dogs, boats, and firecrackers. Having already seen "Mon Oncle" and "Playtime" on DVD, I finally got to the source by seeing this one on a big screen.

Bowing, halting, succumbing, M. Hulot absorbs what happens around him but never quite adapts. He bows so frequently that he seems to perpetually tilt forward even when standing still. And he never drops the pipe.

A door opens and closes, each time making some sort of loose rubber-band twanging sound. Why? Because, that's why.

Changing a car's flat tire somehow morphs into a memorial service for ... someone, we're not sure who. Does it really matter?

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Screenplay, as was 2001: A Space Odyssey, and just like that there's little dialogue to speak of. Sounds, action, adventure, yes. Script? Jacques Tati don't need no freakin' script.

I like to wait until several months into the year to start picking favorites, but this is an early favorite.