Andrei and Alec
The Horse's Mouth
Unrated
1958, Criterion
The Steamroller and The Violin
Unrated
1960, Facets
Long before comic actor Jim Carrey dazzled us with his role-playing versatility, Alec Guinness earned his status as one of film's great chameleons. Director Ronald Neame's British comedy The Horse's Mouth, a smart and sassy adaptation of Joyce Cary's novel that was scripted by Guinness, gives the veteran British actor one of his best screen roles. Guinness plays Gulley Jimson, a crazy London artist who will do anything to get the money he needs to complete his paintings. Jimson is a great con artist and an even greater painter. He is the creator of massive, meaty canvases that are alive with vibrant color. He constantly borrows money from his friend, Coker (Kay Walsh), makes harassing phone calls to his past benefactor, Hickson (Ernest Thesiger), and invades the home of wealthy arts patrons, Lord and Lady Breeder (Robert Coote and Veronica Turleigh). Jimson's home is a rundown houseboat on the Thames River, but the entire city is his canvas.
1950s London looks great in the film's wide-screen transfer. Special DVD features include an extended interview with Neame as well as D.A. Pennebaker's beautiful documentary short, Daybreak Express, about a morning train ride into Manhattan. Daybreak Express played during The Horse's Mouth's New York theatrical run, and the opportunity to watch it again is thrilling. Still, the most enjoyable moments on The Horse's Mouth DVD are found in the film itself. In its funniest scene, Jimson and his sculptor friend, Abel (Michael Gough), argue over the Breeders' apartment while a large block of marble crashes through the floor. After Neame explains how Guinness created that scene especially for his screenplay, it's clear The Horse's Mouth capitalized on Guinness' comic talents.
Jimson is an energetic step to the right from the more subtle comic characters Guinness played in Ealing Studios comedies like The Ladykillers, The Lavender Hill Mob and The Man in the White Suit. He remains best known for his dramatic performances in the David Lean films Oliver Twist and The Bridge on the River Kwai, his role as George Smiley in the TV adaptation of John LeCarre's spy novels and his role as Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars. Still, nothing compares with the laughter Guinness creates in The Horse's Mouth.
Shot three years after the landmark 1957 Soviet film The Cranes Are Flying and two years before his feature debut, 1962's Ivan's Childhood, Russian auteur Andrei Tarkovsky's 43-minute diploma film The Steamroller and The Violin has been made available to audiences. Its poetic tale, about the unlikely friendship between a young violin player (Igor Fomchenko) and a gruff operator of a steamroller (V. Zamansky), is a brilliant discovery. Tarkovsky's student work is as rich in spirituality and humanism as his later films, Andrei Rublev and The Mirror. Co-written with Tarkovsky's Andrei Rublev collaborator, Andrei Konchalovsky, The Steamroller and The Violin matches well with other films early in the period of the Khrushchev Thaw, a time where the film arts struggled to break free from the constraints of Stalinism and re-create a revolutionary spirit as vibrant as Soviet cinema in the 1920s. Tarkovsky fought against the Soviet authorities throughout his career. He was censored and vilified. Watching this early student film, one can't help but wonder what else Tarkovsky might have accomplished in a time of artistic freedom.
The Steamroller and The Violin is one of the most beautiful student films you're likely to see. There are kaleidoscopic images, flashes of sunlight, a close-up of a wrecked building and warmhearted dream sequences. Incredibly, The Steamroller and The Violin also possesses many of the dramatic themes that would later signify his films. In Tarkovsky's childhood tale, the need to overcome differences and maintain an honest friendship lies at the soul of its story.
The Horse's Mouth grade: B.
The Steamroller and The Violin grade: A.
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