MADCHEN IN UNIFORM ****

 A legend amongst LGBT films, Leontine Sagan's "Madchen in Uniform" is also so much more. This German film, made in 1931, not only presents us with a positive view of a lesbian relationship but it also highly critical of the rules and regulations prevalent in Germany at the time and it's extremely unlikely it would have been made even a few years later.

Set in a German boarding school, standing in for the nation and ruled over with a rod of iron by its disciplinarian headmistress, (Emilia Unda, terrific), a young girl, (Hertha Thiele), falls in love with her teacher, (Dorothea Wieck). That is the film's core but around it swirls a whole host of relationships and incidents, all beautifully handled by first-time director Sagan, (who only made two subsequent films in a very short-lived career). Indeed, on the strength of this film alone it's clear she could have been one of the major film-makers of her generation. All the performances are excellent, particularly that of Thiele as the fourteen year old schoolgirl, (she was actually twenty-three at the time). In some respects this is a film that could sit quite comfortably on a double-bill with Lindsay Anderson's "If..." and its status as a classic is richly deserved.

SHIVA, BABY ****

 

Emma Seligman's "Shiva Baby" is very definitely a movie in miniature, (it only runs for 77 minutes), but its bright, widescreen palette belies the fact as does the immense skill of everyone involved. It's a Jewish comedy of the old school but with a razor sharp edge, (think Elaine May), and it almost all takes place at a shiva, the 'after-party' following a funeral though we are initially introduced to its central character Danielle, (a terrific Rachel Sennott), having sex with her sugar daddy, Max (Danny Deferrori) in his apartment. You see, Danielle supplements her income, the one she gets from her rich parents, as a sex worker, not because she needs the money but because she seems to enjoy it and you can just imagine her reaction when she runs into Max at the shiva with wife and baby in tow.

The film, Seligman's first feature, began life as an 8 minute short which she has now expanded into the cinematic equivalent of a really good short story and as comedies of embarrassment go this is a gem. Sennott is a star in the making but then everyone in this film is pitch-perfect especially Molly Gordon as Danielle's ex-girlfriend, (yes, she's bisexual), and Polly Draper as the archetypal pushy but loving Jewish mother. Throw in a score by Ariel Marx that seems to be priming you for some 'Psycho'-like action and you have one of the very best films of the year.

THE BURNT ORANGE HERESY no stars

 If you're wondering what Mick Jagger gets up to when he's not prancing around the stage as a seventy-eight year old Rolling Stone I can tell you he's acting, and not very well, in "The Burnt Orange Heresy". It's based on the book by Charles Willeford and it's about a theft of sorts, here a canvas and it's carried out by a very devious art-critic, (the very unattractive Claes Bang), who is hired to 'steal' it by rich, reclusive Jagger from equally reclusive artist Donald Sutherland, (excellent). Needless to say, things don't go quite according to plan.

It's an interesting yarn that director Giuseppe Capotondi never develops, (he actually makes a thriller plot boring), though the beautiful and talented Elizabeth Debecki almost redeems it when she's on screen but ultimately this is a film with no meat on the bones and it just drifts along to its highly unsatisfying conclusion. Best just give it a miss.

GARDEN OF EVIL **

 Unusual and slightly above average western about three treasure-seekers in Mexico, (Gary Cooper, Richard Widmark and Cameron Mitchell). Who are hired by American woman Susan Hayward to rescue her husband who is trapped in a gold mine in Apache territory. Even if none of the actors are at their best here, director Henry Hathaway keeps things ticking along nicely and it's certainly a handsome looking picture, shot in Cinemascope by Milton Krasner and Jorge Stahl Jr. And with a good Bernard Herrmann score. Plot-wise it takes a little while to get going and if the title "Garden of Evil" hints at perhaps something a little more risque than what's delivered it's good matinee fare nevertheless and in the Hathaway canon is certainly undervalued.

UNCLE SILAS *

 As hoary old Victorian melodramas go "Uncle Silas" is as ripe as they come which isn't to say that it's a stinker. It's based on a Sheridan Le Fanu novel so you should have some idea of what to expect and it's been adapted for the screen by Ben Travers. Am eighteen year old Jean Simmons is the heiress who comes to live with her murderous uncle after her father's sudden death. Derrick De Marney camps it up as Uncle Silas and a totally over-the-top Katina Paxinou is Simmons' hard-drinking and scheming governess and they are the most entertaining things in the picture which is actually very handsomely designed and beautifully shot by Robert Krasker. A decent supporting cast that includes John Laurie and Esmond Knight hams it up just as you would expect them to and while anything resembling suspense is conspicuously absent the film is still good daft fun nevertheless.