The Bad Sleep Well (Warui Yatsu Hodo Yoku Nemuru)

The excellent Toshiro Mifune in The Bad Sleep Well

Francis Ford Coppola once said that the first half an hour of this Kurosawa gangster film was about as perfect as film-making gets. Was he right? And what about the rest?
In actual fact, I found the first half an hour a little hard to follow as the characters were established and the mystery set in motion. It is helped, however, by that typical Kurosawa trait (over which he has has such vast influence on Hollywood) narrative and focalisation. The use of the press pack as early narrators (they fill us in on a crooked company, which is celebrating the marriage of the boss's daughter) is very effective and falls by the wayside a little too abruptly.
As I've said, this is classic noir territory, the tale of a crooked company responsible for a number of sinister cover-ups stalked from the inside by the mysterious, avenging (?)angel(?) Nishi (Toshiro Mifune), who rises through the ranks by virtue of his marriage to Keiko, the boss's daughter.


As I'm sure you're sick of me repeating, great film-making means the film stays with you long after the credits role and the film demands questions of you. Kurosawa, in my view, consistently does this on a level few other film-makers can manage (Terrence Malick is one who can) - witness the celebrated final scene of The Seven Samurai and the entire of Ikiru and Drunken Angel - and the trait is in evidence here. Who's "bad" and why? Kurosawa demands us to make up our own minds as to what we make of Nishi and his motives. He's helped by Tosiro Mifune, who delivers a "list-busting" (patent pending) performance and by the excellent but underused Kyoko Kagawa. Takashi Shimura is also very effective in a surprising role as a villain and Kamatari Fujiwara does a decent impression of Shimura's Watanabe (in Ikiru) as assistant Wada who helps Nishi on his quest. In short, good performances all round.

Whilst I don't feel this is Kurosawa at his very best (parts do drag and, perhaps, the love story - one of the film's vital components - is not effective as it might be, though that's purely down to screen time), it is still a very good film and comes recommended. It's quite long though, so prepare yourself for a bit of a sit. I doubt non-Kurosawa fans (Adam) will find much to change their minds here, although it should also appeal to straight fans of noir, as this is effective, suspenseful, film-making even if it doesn't hit the heights of other films of the genre, and, indeed, of other films of the director.

B+

13 Tzameti

I'm afraid my esteemed colleague's reviewing is continuing to put me in the shade as I still haven't made it to the cinema since returning. I'm still catching up with reviews, so I'm afraid you'll just have to put up with them. But when the film is as good, and as intruiging, as 13 Tzameti it's all good.

The plot is an interesting premise. A down-on-his-luck (and money) labourer is working for a dubious character when said character commits suicide leaving behind a clandestine set of instructions. Since he has nothing to lose, Sebastien (played with real aplomb and panache by George Babluani, the director's brother), decides to take the instructions and follow them himself. Intruigued? I'm afraid these meagre words don't do the concept justice and I'd be surprised if you weren't intruiged by the time Sebastian boards the train to Paris.

Shot in a stylish and fashionable black and white, the tone and bleakness of the film is very much in hommage to some of the great French new wave films of the fifties and sixties and the choice of the black and white proves highly effective. It is really and truly Sebastien's film. Other characters are poorly developed and flit in and out very superficially, not that this is intended as a huge criticism. The film is intended to be one man's story and it works - thanks, in no small measure, to Babluani's performance. I can't say too much more without giving a lot away, suffice it to say that the film's second half is increddibly tense and gripping so have an arm of a chair near by. I don't remember feeling so tense and chlostrophobic in a film for a long time. Which brings me to my final point. I actually saw this well over a month ago and, though I liked it, thought that it couldn't possibly stand up to a second viewing. I realise I was wrong and I'm looking forward to seeing it again in - hopefully - the not-too-distant future and I have no hesitation in giving it a well-deserved...

A-

See it without finding out anything else about it and, possibly, before the Hollywood remake comes out, although it is being directed by Babluani (Gela) himself.