Palme d'Or 101

DeMille, yes, but not truly epic, since the film's just too saddled down with a love triangle plotline with Barbara Stanwyck as pivot gal.

Stanwyck delivers brogue Irish well and she's interesting enough to watch, but the romantic melodrama shares at least equal stage, if not more, with the advertised theme of forging America's first intercontinental railway.

And even much of that story feels fairly cliche - Injun attacks, trestle collapses, train robberies and such. There's not much truly historical footing to be found here either. In fact, the Chinese coolie labor is conspicuously absent.

Oddly, this film was awarded the 1939 Palme d'Or - retroactively in 2002. The first official Cannes was in 1940, but it apparently wanted to be on record regarding 1939, classic Hollywood's most golden year. They couldn't really award it to any of the titles hindsight now honors - and still be insightful - so, pass the envelope please, it's Union Pacific!

RECOMMENDATION: It's no Saturday afternoon oater, it's better-than-average Western fare compared to its period but, again, it's not truly epic in scope. Consider checking out a far-feistier Stanwyck in "The Furies" (1950) instead.

***REVIEW: ORIGINAL ITALIAN VERSION***

1963's Palme d'Or. Visuals are the main viewer reward. Epic in scope, brimming with extraordinarily lush/lavish period set-pieces & costuming, "Leopard" tells the political downfall of an Italian aristocratic family, set against 1860's historical & political events. It's a far more subtle telling than "Gone With The Wind" or "Doctor Zhivago," but such comparisons are natural and fair.

Sicily's among the last provinces to be conquered toward a unified, democratic Italy, so when Garibaldi and The Risorgimento sack Palermo, a Sicilian prince (Lancaster) anticipates the ending of his provincial aristocratic privilege, granted 230 years prior by the King of Spain. So he sets upon ever-so gracefully crafting his family's transition into membership within Italy's new elite. The leopard must change his spots.

From an Italian novel of GWTW stature, based upon true facts from the author's ancestry. Not much wide-screen wasted here; epic-viewing, becoming of an epic storyline. Massive, ornate, elaborate interior set-pieces emphasize the characters' highly-insulated nobility. The final Grand Ballroom scene, at 45 minutes, is epic in itself. The camera floats through the cavernous space, wafting over gorgeous costuming, capturing nuanced gestures and expressions that substantiate everyone's resolutions with their futures.

Criterion resto, from a Super Technirama 70mm negative. Technicolor. 2.21:1 ratio. Too frequently there's fuzzy contrast or oversaturated color. Sad, since original visual satisfaction likely rivaled, if not surpassed, "Barry Lyndon." The coarse overdubbing of Lancaster in this 185-minute Italian version is tedious, but still preferable to the 161-minute US/English hatchet-job. (Both versions included in the 3-disc box set.)

TRIVIA: Serious influence upon Coppola's "Godfather" trilogy; some character names and scoring are overtly co-opted.

RECOMMENDATION: Restoration's not entirely up to snuff, but still, for the cinematography, recommended. Mangia!

***REVIEW: ENGLISH VERSION RELEASE***

Watch the 185-minute Criterion-born Italian Version (with English subtitles) instead of the English version release. The coarse overdubbing of Lancaster in the Italian version is tedious, but still it's far preferable to the 161-minute US/English hatchet-job done by 20th Century Fox to make the film run within the time-frame typically more palatable to American theater-goers.

The Criterion Italian Version is better viewing as well. It was transferred in 2003 (in Hi-Def) off a newly discovered Super Technirama 70mm negative. ST70 negatives were derived from the 35mm anamorphic Technirama source negative by "unsqueezing" the anamorphism to true, then fitting that result onto higher-resolution, higher-quality 70mm negatives. ST70 prints were intended for deluxe (eg, "roadshow") exhibition in large-screen and/or "movie palace" venues. The 2.21:1 aspect ratio presented in the Criterion Italian Version is that which is native to 70mm film.

By directing and choreographing his own death within this 1979 musical filled with superlative dancecraft, Bob Fosse took the Palme d'Or at Cannes, four Oscars and five Oscar nods.

Fosse survived a 1975 massive heart attack and hospitalization (while producing "Chicago" and cutting "Lenny"), brought on by his substance abuse and stress-driven approach to crafting Broadway production. The experience left Fosse (played here by Roy Schneider at the top of his game) with inspiration for this autobiopic and highly choreographed recreation of the personal and professional events leading to his brush with the Grim Reaper (Lange).

The film is labeled semi-autobiographical - since no real names are employed - but it's autobiographical to the core. Schneider couldn't have missed his marks - with Fosse sitting in the wings directing him how to play Fosse. Delivering as Schneider's mistress is Ann Reinking, Fosse's true mistress at the time. (Fosse made her audition, nonetheless.) And Fosse directs himself flirting and jousting with Death; it probably came easy given he'd also had an affair with Lange. Most of the other characters and content are also historically based.

Fosse's vehicle successfully directs his own death into a crescendo of admiration and sympathy, an opportunity not afforded most everyone else. Eight years after this film, however, Fosse simply sat down on a park bench and let a second heart attack take his life in far quieter fashion.

Aside from this intriguing doppelganger backstory, the film entertains through its saturation with highly stylized, provocative and talent-drenched dance numbers. It also leaves the viewer with an sympathy for the ruthless business of Broadway - and for those obsessively driven talents that create the stage.

REcOMMENDATION: If you've ever sat down in a theater wanting to be properly entertained by song and dance, then this film will likely do the job for you.

1984's Palme d'Or at Cannes by unanimous vote. A beautifully shot-and-colored cinematic tribute from German director Wim Wenders and cinematographer Robby Muller toward their vision of classic Americana.

Massive vistas of blue skies, white clouds, dark storms and orange sunsets. The artful neon and dingy rooms of mid-Century motels. Towering stone monuments within the Mojave Desert. The skyline of Houston. A conversation under an L.A. spaghetti junction. A 3am pit-stop diner with a massive T-Rex out front. All this imagery and so much more, drawn from nearly 100% location shoots and authentic props.

Criterion's restoration is outstanding; images are top-notch crisp and color/lighting is outstanding (and highly innovative). Composition is often extraordinary. Note, for example, in-car shots where the rear-view mirror image and the highway far ahead are both simultaneously in perfect focus.

Ry Cooder's twangy-bluesy slide guitar echoes precisely and sadly the 'hollow man in search of redemption' that Harry Dean Stanton delivers.

The film opens with Stanton found wandering in the desert, after he and his wife disappeared four years prior, abandoning their child in care of Stanton's brother. Then the viewer's on-the-hook for 2.5 hours to find out what really happened.

The film's split into two parts. Only the first 80 minutes was scripted/plotted pre-production, and that time flows slower than molasses under sparse, focused dialogue authored by Sam Shepard. Then Wenders - sans script, storyboards or plotline - starts winging it. The pace quickens, much is improvised, loose ends dangle - and Stanton's delivery gets stronger with every passing frame.

Though the viewer waits far too long for it, Stanton's near-fin spousal reunion/confessional (also scripted by Shepard) is undoubtedly one of cinema's great works of drama and visual composition.

Wenders' commentary is worthy.

RECOMMENDATION: See it. Serious plot-patience is required up front, but visuals astound throughout.