Dec 15 2025

1948 – Bicycle Thieves

1948 – Bicycle Thieves – (Ladri di biciclette)

It’s an Italian neorealist drama film directed by Vittorio De Sica. It stars totally unknown actors Lamberto Maggiorani as the father (Antonio) and Enzo Staiola as the son (Bruno), who are looking for a stolen bike in poverty stricken post-WWII Italy. I saw it on YouTube, thanks to this amazing list I found on there. I chose it because it was at one time (1952) rated number 1 in Sight an Sound’s Greatest Movie of all time.

As a kid, I loved my bike. Rode it up and down our little neighborhood in the afternoons, down dirt paths, trying to get amazing jumps in. On the weekend my dad would take me to the BMX park and I would dive into the bowl with joy and try (and fail) some jumps on the half pipe. I even dreamt of my bike, that I could fly over the big cliff near our house, that I would win some bike race. I wasn’t even super good at it; I just loved the bike. Not for nothing, at one point I could recite you the lines of Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, by heart. Poor Peewee’s beautiful red bike (mine was red, too) gets stolen and he has to track it down all over America, what’s not to like?

I was also captivated by the two staples of Italian cinema when I was young: Cinema Paradiso and Life is Beautiful. Both are centered around the relationship between a boy and his father figure and both boys are so cute to look at. The pictures I had seen of Bruno in this movie seemed enough to convince me to watch this movie.

But then… I kinda hated this movie. First of all, the bleakness – yes, of course, post war Italy is bleak. People are fighting for survival, there aren’t any jobs around. But that’s just it, everybody is miserable, everybody is suffering, of course some people are going to resort to stealing. I could just simply no warm up to the main character. So self righteous, as if he deserved special treatment, as if he is the only one to be believed by the police. He gets all indignant and impatient when his wife goes to see a fortune-teller and nags at her, but then he goes to see her himself and whines that his wife nags at him. But the worst is his treatment of his son, he constantly yells at him when all he’s trying to do is to help his father. Poor kid falls and gets scraped in the rain, gets beaten by his old man and in the end is berated for having such a dead beat dad.

And the movie drags, too. It gets boring after a while to go from street to street of Antonio accusing yet another person of stealing his damn bike. There are some scenes, which are cute, for example Bruno eating his mozzarella sandwich (yum!), but I had to stop the movie at several points, because I was bored. Sorry, but I will just go back to Pee-Wee and let Antonio wallow in his misery.

This is my second-to-last entry for this year and I don’t want to end my last entry on a sour note, so before I leave, I want to wish you, some happy holidays and merry Christmas! Thanks for reading the blog!

Nov 16 2025

1946 – Gilda

It’s an american noir directed by Charles Vidor. It stars Rita Hayworth as Gilda, Glenn Ford as Johnny Farrell and George Macready as Ballin Mundson in a deliciously elegant antagonist role. It’s the story about a gambler rediscovering his old girlfriend in Argentina, only she’s out for revenge and is married to his new boss. I rented it on Apple TV for 3.99 Eur.

One of the reasons movies are so special to us is they often transport us to a world that is far beyond our reach. Whether it’s a fantasy adventure like Lord of the Rings or a historic epic like Gladiator, heck, even a Western like The Searchers, you are wholly in an unfamiliar setting. What has become less and less prevalent, are movies about far away lands, the exoticism, coupled with opportunity of a clean slate. Even growing up, the movies of the 80s and 90s were often: “I did a crime, I’m going to Mexico!”. 80 years ago, every country outside our own seemed ripe and full of possibilities, because we didn’t know any better. The world of sophisticated and elegant actors, a dream to journey on for riches.

Today, nothing is exotic anymore, every little cafe in the middle of nowhere has a Google review and GPS makes sure you aren’t lost even in the deepest jungle or the most arid landscape. I’ve been fascinated this year reading about Point Nemo or the adventures of wandering to Bir Tawil, the last truly unknown places. It seems I am not alone with this feeling, one of my favorite YouTubers expressed as much for the way we travel, in that it somehow lost its magic.

So it was nice to travel back in time with this movie, to a place where you could Tabula Rasa your way in – Buenos Aires, Argentina (and also Montevideo later) seemed exotic enough. The war had just ended, the world full of possibilities for gamblers and sinners to start anew.

And boy does this movie look great. It’s not for nothing that Andy Dupree was stricken by Rita Hayworth and put her up on that wall in The Shawshank Redemption, that flick with the hair inmortailized. The hip action in her songs – what amazing rendition of Put the Blame on Mame dubbed in by Anita Ellis. And even old Johnny chap is very nice on the eyes. I only ever knew him for being Pa Kent in Superman, but that smirk and the way he leans… swoon. And the electricity between them is crackling, apparently it was real and they become “on again, off again” lovers during the filming of the movie.

But the plot is a convoluted mess, haha. As I said, go for the exotics, the elegance, the worldliness, but not for the story. Of course the villain is somehow involved with the Germans. Of course the elegant local policeman will be the one handing out sage advice. Of course our hero is a plucky american, a little rough on the edges, but with a little gamble in him, he’ll get what he want. At least the ending didn’t quite adhere to noir tropes. So an entertaining movie all around and a great escape to a time when you could just “escape” to Argentina – just don’t try looking for logic and please overlook the millions of plot holes.

Nov 2 2025

1945 – Brief Encounter

It is a British romantic tragedy directed by David Lean from a screenplay by Noel Coward based on a 1936 one-act play Still Life. It stars Celia Johnson as Laura and Trevor Howard as Alec. I saw it on YouTube thanks to the wonderful restoration by the British Film Institute, the David Lean Foundation and Digital restoration by CineImage

I feel like my life has settled into a comfortable routine nowadays. It’s great, I get to travel the world and do amazing science and get to meet super interesting people. And then I get to go home to a kind and loving family. I have no money troubles, no illnesses, no major burdens. But one thing, I do try to do every so often, is to realize the uniqueness that lives in that routine, the small things you know. It occurred to me when I heard yet another person complaining about air travel, how we have forgotten how magical it is that we get into a metal flying tube and are at our destinations so quickly it was unimaginable just 120 years ago. It’s a bit like being in love sometimes, grateful for it, your senses are more tuned to the world around you and you see the good in everything.

I think that is what I take from this movie the most. It’s about a love story between two married people, that was so brief, it didn’t even fully get off the ground. It was so powerful for them, it makes it seem so powerful to us, too. Yet life around them goes on as normal, I like the little “will they, won’t they” routine the train conductor has with the refreshment room lady or how the kids are petulant, but nice. When they’re in love, suddenly everything, even a lady playing the base weirdly is wildly funny or an excursion to an old stone bridge meaningful.

Did I buy into the romance? Yes, I did. Celia Johnson plays the part marvelously, strikes just the correct balance (for that time acting, at least) to make us see and believe what she is going through. Her change in face when she is lying to her friend on the phone asking her to cover for her to when she hangs up, is well portrayed to us. And Trevor Howard makes it very easy for us, the audience, to fall for him, too. I also like the realism on how it won’t last – like what are they supposed to run away together? It takes me back to one of the final scenes in “The Bridges of Madison County“, how she is clinging to the door handle, but doesn’t act on it.

The movies this is most compared to, is the “Before-Trilogy” by Richard Linklater, the giddiness of the first encounter on the train, the played upon non-chalance in the second movie and the setting in of the realism in the third movie. It’s not just me, one of the top comments on Letterboxd is a misquote from Before Sunset (my favorite one of the three): “Baby, you’re going to miss your train!” (she says plane in the movie) and it’s all we can think of, that Laura (of Brief Encounter now) should give in to her feelings. Sadly, I do give the slight edge to the “Before Trilogy” in that sense, “Brief Encounter” is just a tad too melodramatic.

The final interesting aspect, which I didn’t know, was the music. In the background it kept playing the second movement of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, but we do now know it by the name “All by myself” made mostly famous by Celine Dion. If you don’t know the story of that note, how it gives you chills how she sang it after he husband died, I fully recommend this YouTube video David Neely made of the song. Anyway, I kept thinking about the sadness of the song as I watched the movie and it fit so perfectly. Well done, David Lean! I am now a bit more melancholic and romanic, but tuned to what is happening around me, thankful for what it has given me.

Oct 19 2025

1944 – Arsenic and Old Lace

It’s a dark screwball comedy directed by Frank Capra and starring mainly Cary Grant as Mortimer Brewster. It’s based on a play with the same name by Joseph Kesselring, which was very successful, so it was stipulated that the film would not be released until its Broadway run ended. I rented in on YouTube, since both Apple and Amazon only had the German version here for sale.

The leaves have been falling like crazy these last few days here in Berlin. Fall is here and with it pumpkins (soups, pies, lattes, jack-o-lanterns, …), corn mazes (though there aren’t as many as in the past…) and Halloween stuff! Also movies; from marathons the streaming services releasing a bunch of horror movies to the over the air TV channels issuing their Halloween night schedule (apparently it’s actual Halloween marathon this year). So this movie fit right into the season, its whole plot unfolding over Halloween night. Plus, it’s not scary, but a macabre, black comedy.

As to what makes it dark – well it’s two extremely sweet, old ladies murdering lonely older gentlemen (they just bagged their 12th victim in the windowsill) out of pity. It’s wrong, but when you look at them, how they prance around the hall with their arsenic infused wine, you can’t help but laugh. They’re pleasant, give toys to the poor, are in good standing with the police and clergy, how can you not love them? And in their sweetness, they don’t feel remorse either. In fact, there’s quite some commentary over how some people do some truly horrible things in the name of pity, going over the heads of the victims, but present themselves as honorable citizens.

But the movie doesn’t linger on this too long. It’s more on the desperation of their nephew to save his aunts from the police by trying to pin it on his delusional younger brother “Teddy”, who things he’s the actual Teddy Roosevelt. Teddy has buried the bodies in the basement (no, that’s not a metaphor) thinking it’s Panama and they were victims of yellow fever. Getting him interned in an insane asylum is a way to bury… ahem… to keep the skeletons in the closet.

But then hilarity ensues when Mortimer’s other estranged brother Jonathan shows up with his sidekick Dr. Einstein (Peter Lorre is really becoming my favorite actor in this blog, he again is a reason why the whole plot doesn’t fall apart). He’s become quite a killer, I mean criminal on his own also claiming a dozen murders on his side of the ledger. Can Mortimer remain sane with all things crashing upon his once very simple world? The murderous aunts, the crazy brothers, one evil, one naive, his new wive, the police, the director of the asylum, the taxi driver in front of his house, etc., etc., Yes, at a certain point it becomes slapstick and the conclusion is also quite rushed, but in the middle it is quite funny, being punctuated by Cary Grant’s excellent over-the-top acting. His “deer in the headlights” look is especially great and we feel for him when he mumbles to himself trying to hatch a scheme to get out of the newest comeuppance driving a dent into the old plan.

It is quite clear that the movie was born out of a play. The whole thing takes place in the main room of the aunts’ house, with some elements on the outside or the stairs, but which can fit the stage quite comfortably. It’s a plus and minus an some points. Plus, because it keeps everything contained and there are no long excursions into a distraction to the main plot, but minus, because it retains too much of the play character. It’s not like filming the play of Hamilton and calling it a movie and there are some cinematic elements (close-ups, the shot from the stairs, the music, …), but overall the movie made me even curiouser about the play. There was even a line where the brother Jonathan grows incensed because the plastic surgery has made him look like Frankenstein’s monster. Everybody says: “He looks like Boris Karloff!”, which makes him angry. Well, in the Broadway play, he was played by the actual Boris Karloff.

So, final verdict. I laughed in quite a few places, so yes, very successful in that, but don’t go around looking for the heart we see just 2 years later in Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life. It never leaves its screwball roots and as such is a good time and some very good, funny lines, but not much more behind it. Hey, it’s Halloween in 1944, sometimes you just want amusement!

Aug 24 2025

1940 – Ahí está el detalle

1940 – Ahí está el detalle (You’re missing the point)

The movie is a mexican comedy, directed by Juan Bustillo Oro. It stars the great “mexican Charlie Chaplin” Cantinflas (Mario Moreno) as himself with a great supporting staff. It is his breakout role, even though he had portrayed this character in many skits and even films before. I saw it on YouTube for free thanks to the restoration of Cineteca of the UNAM from material of Televisa A.C.

The week between Christmas and New Year’s is a black hole for productivity. It’s often a period of lounging from food coma to food coma and boring family visits; kids running around, adults getting out some whiskey with a snicker, everybody trying out their new Christmas presents, whether it is clothes, toys, perfumes, etc. In the background there is some movie playing that always plays during that time and you take it in, sometimes non-consciously, sometimes jumping into the middle or not finishing it.

Even last year, that’s how I spent my week, with my mother in law on her last Christmas (she passed away in April) – watching the original Sissi marveling at the beauty of Romy Schneider or Little Lord Fauntleroy with Alec Guiness, a staple of movies shown that week. I guess in the US, they probably watch It’s a Wonderful Life on Christmas and The Sound of Music over that week.

Well, growing up in Guatemala, back when we didn’t have cable or were visiting relatives that didn’t have cable, it was Cantinflas time. I don’t remember details of what I saw, it’s more like feelings, like watching the one where he gets to become a pilot at my aunt’s place with my dad, while my cousin had fallen asleep next to me. The shtick of Cantinflas movies is always the same – he gets in a situation way above his vagrant status (e.g. becoming an ambassador, a musqueteer, a congressman, an anthlete, a prince, a movie star, a priest, etc.) and hilariousness ensues. Yes, in Guatemala Cantinflas is cult, even if it is a Mexican figure! And growing up even as kids, you copied the mannerisms of him, his affected way of speaking hilariously mocked in the kids program Chiquilladas, which I also saw as a kid by Carlos Espejel’s Carlinflas. I personally like Chespirito much more and he is (sort of) more of my time, but you have got to acknowledge the tremendous influence he had over Mexican cinema and Latin-America as a whole.

So for 1940, I was almost ready to watch The Philadelphia Story (ah, yes, yet another screwball comedy with Cary Grant…), when I saw the Cantinflas movie way down. Hey, I hadn’t seen that one, and it’s the one that made him famous, so off I go into nostalgia territory.

I had a blast! I do understand that this movie is probably not for everybody, especially non-native spanish speakers as so much of the comedy is wordplay (very simple wordplay, but nonetheless). One thing I like, is that Cantinflas is not perfect, in fact, he becomes a quite despicable character when he’s drunk. He takes advantage of people, he’s lazy, always looks out for himself. But in the end, you can’t help to love the doofus. There’s a reason he became so famous and it’s different from the US-American brand, very Latin-American coded, yet he truly makes it his own (even if he apparently became quite insufferable in his opinions in old age, which thankfully I didn’t consciously experience).

But can I recommend this to anybody? Like, if you want to get to know this “Cantinflas” phenomenon? There are probably better, more visual stories from him that don’t rely on the word play comedy as much, so no, not anybody. But this one goes right up among the best old movies I have seen this year and it’s just the combination of situation comedy, wordplay, but good old nostalgia playing a role. For a little while, I was a kid in Guatemala again, just enjoying the simple life of watching an old movie on the basic local channels.

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