World War I: Drama, World War II: Comedy
Hell's Angels, Howard Hughes, 1930
The most impressive scene in Hell's Angels was Hughes' midair fight scenes in part because the then-new flying technology put no layers of mystery between the pilot and his machinery or between the filmmaker and his audience, activating an involved anxiety for the viewer. The whirling and humming of the multi-aircraft dog fight was stunning just on scale.
The Great Dictator, Charles Chaplin, 1940
Charles Chaplin's mockery of Hitler, his supporters, and his collaborators turned out to be a heartfelt tribute to the plight of Jewish people under the dictator. The slapstick comedy, while self sufficiently an example of worldclass showmanship, also served as two hours of build up to a surprisingly moving final speech; an urgent plea for human decency and cooperation.
All Movies Lead to Rome
The Bicycle Thief, Vittorio de Sica, 1948
Le dolce vita, Federico Fellini, 1960
L'Avventura, Michaelangelo Antonioni, 1960
From a family of four struggling for basic provisions and basic decency to bourgeois malcontents drifting between luxuries and flings, these three Italian films offered starkly different takes on mid-century life there.
I most appreciated Fellini's meandering and far-reaching depiction of Marcello's "sweet life" which in fact comes off as a continual downward arc to it's touching finale: the protagonist rendered deaf to the possibility of a simple and pleasant lifestyle. Fellini impressively includes an extreme amount of nuanced thought and characterization while venturing into a vast scope of human consciousness through different sets and phases in Marcello's adult life.
In retrospect, though representing stratified segments of Italian class, all of the movies traffic in the language of desperation and isolation. But, of course, certain cases inspire lament more than others.
