NEVERENDING FILM FESTIVAL
#402
I’m Not Rappaport (1996)
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)
Imagination (1943)
The Immigrant (1917)
The Legend of Rita (2000)
every movie ever made, in alphabetical order
(we’re in the I’s, with random anti-alphabetical cheats)
I’m Not Rappaport (1996)
I saw the play I’m Not Rappaport at Seattle Rep in the 1980s, but all I remembered was that it’s about two old coots sharing a park bench, and that it’s good. The movie is better than I’d remembered the play.
“And the masses. Have you checked out your beloved masses lately? They still don’t give a crap.”
Walter Matthau plays an old radical rabblerouser, so full of BS about the old days you’re not sure you believe him when he says his name. Ossie Davis plays Carter, who’s still a janitor in his 80s, but about to be laid off. Between them there’s a movie’s worth of laughs and Meaningful Moments, plus Amy Irving as Matthau’s daughter, and Craig T. Nelson and Martha Plimpton as other folks in Central Park. Plimpton’s particularly good, of course.
Matthau’s a ham, Davis is wry. They’re grand together, but the film can’t decide whether to be realistic about them, or exaggerate for comedic effect. That’s a minor quibble, though. It’s an enjoyable movie.
Written and directed by Herb Gardner (Something Wild), based on his play.
Verdict: YES.
♦ ♦ ♦
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)
Christopher Plummer plays Dr Parnassus, a grumpy old wizard who runs a traveling circus. Behind the stage is a magical mirrored gateway folks can walk through, but they shouldn’t, because it leads to alternate realities or something. “You don’t go through the mirror!” Doc Parnassus shouts. “Never! You know that!”
All through the movie, though, people keep going through the mirror, and when they’re not walking, running, or stumbling through the mirror, they’re shouting. More dialogue is shouted than spoken. Oy, my head hurts.
Lily Cole, Andrew Garfield, Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, Jude Law, Verne Troyer, and Tom Waits travel along the mirror superhighway, but I never made sense of where they were headed, or why.
Many of the individual scenes are visually spectacular, because it’s by Terry Gilliam (Monty Python, Brazil), and Brazil gave me a headache, too, the first time I saw it. Even as that headache hammered me, though, I knew I wanted to see the movie again. Imaginarium provides no such urge.
Verdict: MAYBE.
♦ ♦ ♦
Imagination (1943)
This is an 8-minute cartoon, mostly poetry and singing, about a little girl’s dolls and sickness. The animation is colorful, the songs are kinda sticky, and there’s no dialogue. Never funny, but it’s not trying for funny. It’s a fairy tale, with dancing ragdolls and honestly too much singing.
Verdict: MAYBE.
♦ ♦ ♦
The Immigrant (1917)
This is a sweet and frequently funny Charlie Chaplin short, in which he sails the Atlantic and into New York Harbor. He passes instantly through immigration, which makes him as American as you or I. He finds a quarter so he’s no longer broke, finds a pretty lady so he’s no longer lonely, and has lunch served by the world’s worst waiter. Chuckles and smiles aplenty, but the best of it comes early on, when Chaplain does his famous ‘Tramp’ walk while on the ocean liner, wobbling from side to side with the waves, but never losing his footing.
IMDB says The Immigrant is 30 minutes, and maybe it was, once, but the longest version I could find is 25 minutes, linked above.
Verdict: YES.
♦ ♦ ♦
The Legend of Rita (2000)
It’s the 1970s, when political activism sometimes meant more than merely picketing. In West Germany, a small band of far-left fanatics blows stuff up, robs banks, etc. Rita Vogt is one of them, though she only joined because she had the hots for the group’s leader.
He’s not the same actor, but seems to be exactly the same character as the terrorist leader in The Baader Meinhof Complex — cold, mean, principled, but his main principle is being cold and mean.
The movie isn’t about him, though, which makes it batter. Like the title says, it’s about Rita. While breaking a comrade out of prison, things go wildly wrong, and Rita draws a gun, shoots, and kills a policeman. From there things go even wronger, until Rita and her cohorts are captured at the border by the East German secret police, the Stasi.
The film is based on real events and people, and in a wild but true twist, the Stasi doesn’t imprison the terrorists; it offers them safe harbor in East Germany — false identities, and the right to be part of the glorious workers’ paradise they’ve been fighting for. The only condition is, they’re not allowed contact with anyone from their old lives, or with each other.
Which seems a good place to end my synopsis. Telling you where the story leads would reduce the experience of the film, and it is definitely worth experiencing.
The film’s English-language title, Legend of Rita, is not so grandiose as it sounds. In German, the English word legend refers to the documents that support a cover story, so in essence the title translates as Rita’s Passport and Driver’s License.
The early action sequences are powerful, but the film’s long, pained stay in East Germany is unlike anything you’ve seen. It’s an entire nation of people who’ve given up, leaving Rita as perhaps the only person in the country who believes in its publicly-claimed ideals. There’s a great scene in the lunchroom, at the drab factory where she’s working, where Rita idealistically stands up for the principles of Marxism, and her co-workers look at her like she’s out of her mind.
She’s a radical, an active participant in acts of terror and violence, literally a killer, but the script and acting are so strong, you’re pulling for her even if you’re not radical yourself. The film’s second half, with less violence, is even more compelling. The Legend of Rita is a political film, sure, but at its heart it’s personal, and that’s what hits hardest.
Verdict: BIG YES.
9/2/2025
Logo illustration by Jeff Meyer. No talking once the lights dim, and only real butter on the popcorn, not that fake yellow stuff.
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