HIGH AND LOW is screening September 8 as part of Film Forum’s NYPD festival
HIGH AND LOW (TENGOKU TO JIGOKU) (Akira Kurosawa, 1963)
Film Forum
209 West Houston St.
Thursday, September 8, 3:00 & 7:00
Series continues through September 13
212-727-8110
www.filmforum.org
On the verge of being forced out of the company he has dedicated his life to, National Shoes executive Kingo Gondo’s (Toshirō Mifune) life is thrown into further disarray when kidnappers claim to have taken his son, Jun (Toshio Egi), and are demanding a huge ransom for his safe return. But when Gondo discovers that they have mistakenly grabbed Shinichi (Masahiko Shimazu), the son of his chauffeur, Aoki (Yutaka Sada), he at first refuses to pay. But at the insistence of his wife (Kyogo Kagawa), the begging of Aoki, and the advice of police inspector Taguchi (Kenjiro Ishiyama), he reconsiders his decision, setting in motion a riveting police procedural that is filled with tense emotion. Loosely based on Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct novel King’s Ransom, High and Low is divided into two primary sections: the first half takes place in Gondo’s luxury home, orchestrated like a stage play as the characters are developed and the plan takes hold. The second part of the film follows the police, under the leadership of Chief Detective Tokura (Tatsuya Nakadai), as they hit the streets of the seedier side of Yokohama in search of the kidnappers. Known in Japan as Tengoku to Jigoku, which translates as Heaven and Hell, High and Low is an expert noir, a subtle masterpiece that tackles numerous socioeconomic and cultural issues as Gondo weighs the fate of his business against the fate of a small child; it all manages to feel as fresh and relevant today as it probably did back in the ’60s.
Even though it takes place in Japan and not New York City, High and Low is screening on Thursday, September 8, in a double feature with William A. Berke’s 1958 police drama, Cop Hater, as part of Film Forum’s “NYPD” festival, paying tribute to the tenth anniversary of the amazing, selfless work done by New York’s Finest on September 11 (as well as every day of every year). The festival, which continues through September 13, also includes such cool double features as Sweet Smell of Success (Alexander Mackendrick, 1957) and The Wrong Man (Alfred Hitchcock, 1957) on September 7, Phantom Lady (Robert Siodmak, 1944) and I Wake Up Screaming (H. Bruce Humberstone, 1941) on September 8, and the inspired pairing of William Friedkin’s controversial 1980 serial killer movie Cruising and Abel Ferrara’s awesome Bad Lieutenant on September 12, two pictures that are cult classics for very different reasons.
When a pair of disaffected Parisians, Arthur (Claude Brasseur) and Franz (Sami Frey), meet an adorable young woman, Odile (Anna Karina), in English class, they decide to team up and steal a ton of money from a man living in Odile’s aunt’s house. As they meander through the streets of cinematographer Raoul Coutard’s black-and-white Paris, they talk about English and wealth, dance in a cafe while director Jean-Luc Godard breaks in with voice-over narration about their character, run through the Louvre in record time, and pause for a near-moment of pure silence. Godard throws in plenty of commentary on politics, the cinema, and the bourgeoisie in the midst of some genuinely funny scenes. Band of Outsiders is no ordinary heist movie; based on Dolores Hitchens’s novel Fool’s Gold, it is the story of three offbeat individuals who just happen to decide to attempt a robbery while living their strange existence, as if they were outside from the rest of the world. The trio of ne’er-do-wells might remind Jim Jarmusch fans of the main threesome from Stranger Than Paradise (1984), except Godard’s characters are more aggressively persistent. One of Godard’s most accessible films, Band of Outsiders will be playing a one-week engagement at Film Forum September 7-13, with no screenings on September 11.
Ever go to a party and feel like an outsider? Well, you’ll feel like that for more than two hours if you sit through all of this vanity project that a bunch of Hollywood buddies call a heist movie. The only real heist is the money taken from people’s pockets who actually paid to see this oh-so-hip series of inside practical jokes and smug performances by Dino, Sammy, Frank, Joey, Peter, and the rest of the Rat Pack as they attempt to rip off five casinos on New Year’s Eve in Las Vegas. Nelson Riddle’s music seems to be part of the joke, as does Akim Tamiroff’s overdubbing. Even cameos by Red Skelton and Shirley MacLaine don’t help this self-serving mess. Who knew Christmas in Beverly Hills and New Year’s Eve in Vegas could be so tedious? Steven Soderbergh’s 2001 all-star remake, with George Clooney, Don Cheadle, Matt Damon, Elliott Gould, and Brad Pitt, was much better, although you can pretty much forget about the sequels. The original Ocean’s Eleven is screening September 3-4 at the Museum of the Moving Image, concluding the “Films of Frank Sinatra” series, which included such classic Sinatra flicks as On the Town (Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly, 1949), From Here to Eternity (Fred Zinnemann, 1953), Suddenly! (Lewis Allen, 1954), and The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer, 1962).
