On the waterfront

A fight between good and bad. At one side police and church, on the other side a criminal rather than a criminal organization.  Crime cannot get stopped unless the workers support the institutions (police and church). I can hardly believe in all this. The movie comes to an end when the conspiracy has been uncovered. Usually behind the crimes are powerful organizations, it is not possible to put all their members into jail and the people who fight against them have to fear reprisals. So the movie ends more or less at a starting point.

Woman in Gold

I did appreciate this movie of Simon Curtis because it is balanced. The past throws its shadows to the present. An old woman dies. She has fled from Austria to the United States. When Austria became part of the German Reich, her family were rich and owners of a valuable painting from Schiele : Woman in Gold.
The dying woman leaves one relative, her sister, played by Helen Mirren. She gets aware of the painting which is now exhibited in an Austrian Art Galery. For many years noone has claimed this painting. Now laws and point of view towards history in Austria have changed, there is a law that spoiled artwork has to be handed over to its former owners. The older woman meets a young lawyer whose parents have also left Austria during these days. Both have to travel several times to Austria, and the old lady remembers the days of her youth : persecution and terror against her family because they are jews. She could escape, but other members of her family have died in the camps. The painting has been taken away in an assault at her home and deposited in an art gallery. The young lawyer played by Ryan Reynolds is of Austrian origin, too. He gives up his job and files a lawsuit against the Austrian Government. The issue reaches the Supreme Court. The final decision taken by an arbitration committe in Vienna is favorable to the owners sister.

Rio Grande

Uno de mis directores preferidos es John Ford, y esta tarde me fui a ver Rio Grande en la Filmoteca.  Lástima que por ahi no saben arreglar las altavoces que emiten un sonido tan fuerte.  No he podido reconocer John Wayne en su papel de teniente Kirby. En esta pelicula cumplir el deber hacia la sociedad vale mas que la relación parental. El teniente trata todos sus soldados justo y su hijo no tiene ningún trato preferencial. Su madre quiere sacarle fuera del ejercito, pero ambos, el hijo Jeff y sus padre resisten.

Marlon Brando

Was ich nur bei Marlon Brando kenne, und sonst bei keinem anderen Schauspieler, ist dass er in Rollen schlüpft, in denen er nicht auf den ersten Punkt sympathisch wirkt. Seine Entwicklung scheint offen. So als deutscher Offizier in “The Young Lions”.  Es gibt bei ihm eine Vertrautheit mit dem Fremden.   In dem Film “Mao’s Last Dancer” wird erwähnt, dass er in “The Teahouse of the August Moon” einen japanischen Dolmetscher spielte. Dies alles ohne an Glaubwürdigkit zu verliegen