Nightlife

(Robin Lehman/1976/USA)

Nightlife is a light hearted, eleven minute look at marine life under the Irish Sea with the footage edited to the rhythm of the soundtrack to choreograph the creatures into a visual dance with good comic effect. You won’t learn anything about the nature onscreen but that’s not the point, it’s more about eliciting some smiles and maybe a few exclamations of wonder along the way too. It seemed very familiar to me and I would hazard a guess it aired on RTE TV on more than one occasion during my childhood of the late 70’s and early 80’s and I have most probably seen it before!

(3/5)

The Hired Hand

(Peter Fonda/1971/USA)

This post hippie western works as an allegory for the end of the 60’s generation of peaceniks and long haired love lubbers and is paced just right, lolloping along like a ranchero after hot knives. On the cusp of a golden era of American cinema it fits in very nicely as a mildly experimental reworking of western tropes with some sweet cinematography and a decent soundtrack too. Fonda directs and stars as Harry, the travel weary hipster cowboy who decides to return to his abandoned family; attempting to literally work his way back into their affections as a hired hand on his wife’s farm. The friendship he has forged over his seven years of wandering the frontier with Archie draws him away once again though when news of Archie being in trouble reaches him.

The story centres on character and emotional transition, not action, unusual for the western genre but done really well. There are two scenes with typical western action that pivot the rest of the narrative but in the main The Hired Hand hones in on how the desire for freedom conflicts directly with the traditional family set up. And that’s where the allegory for the death of the 60’s comes in; it questions if any real contentment or fulfilment is found in the free ranging life of Harry and Archie and suggests that ultimately, happiness is rooted in settling down. It’s a slow burner but the measured pace is a sign of maturity, allowing the emotional resonance of the story to gently expand to the final scenes. A quirky 70’s revisionist western that put me in mind of watching The Missouri Breaks, which treads similar ground; they’d make a great double bill.

(3/5)

The Fall of the House of Usher

(James Sibley & Melville Webber/USA/1928)

This 10 minute adaptation of the Edgar Allen Poe story is an impressionistic and surreal interpretation that utilises experimental techniques and artistic designs that would have been way ahead of the time in 1928. It disposes of traditional narrative by inter-frame titles and relies wholly on the audience piecing the story together from the scenes presented. Some background knowledge of the Poe story helps in a full understanding of what’s going on but it also works as a standalone sensory cinematic experience. 

Full of multiple exposures and chiaroscuro lighting it resembles a dream at times, or an opium reverie (the drug is referenced in the original story). Some of the set design looks decidedly Cubist in style and is reflected too in a lot of the shot framing. The clashing montage of stairs and the random words appearing as things escalate perfectly portray the psychosis on screen. It builds tension to its climactic scenes of the “fall” of the house in visuals and music and is an amazing piece of cinema for its time.

(4.5/5)