Luxury Car shines a light on China ‘s generational chasm between traditional rural life and the modern embrace of urban consumerism at any cost. No, it’s not a documentary, but by focusing on the microcosm of one father-and-daughter relationship it speaks volumes about the monumental macro changes impacting Chinese culture. At the same time, it presents a gripping and rewarding family drama.

An aging farmer travels to the bustling metropolis of Wuhan in search of his only son. His wife has a terminal illness and begs to see their son one more time before she dies, although the son has been missing for years. While in Wuhan , he reconnects with his daughter (pop star Tian Yuan) and learns that her life may not be playing out in the manner he had hoped. She’s taken up with a local mobster and earns her keep as a karaoke bar escort, putting her in contact with some decidedly rough characters. Dad is no country bumpkin, in fact he spent his formative years in Wuhan as well, but was forced to flee to the country during political upheaval. However, he’s long since adjusted to the rural way of life and is clearly uncomfortable with his daughter’s lifestyle choice. As a result, what starts as a search for his son ultimately becomes a wake-up call for his daughter as she’s forced to reflect on her direction and determine her future path.

The film could have easily drifted toward parody if the daughter was a mindless gold digger or the father was a judgmental simpleton, but thanks to superb direction and acting, the characters are fully formed as intelligent and complex individuals. The father in particular carries himself with a stoic grace that fully conveys his conservative mindset without the need to talk about it. Tian Yuan nails her part as the prodigal daughter with just the right balance of world-weary charm and buried emotions. The only other supporting characters with significant screen time also avoid becoming caricatures in spite of their seemingly one-note roles: the mobster and a local cop who assists the father in his search. None of the characters are innocents, and their wizened approach to their situations helps to give the film significant depth and resonance.

Musgo here again with his proverbial hat in his hand.  Recently I attempted to put down a review for the Anniversary release of The Wizard Of Oz, one of my favorite films of all-time.  Today, I’m faced with the 50th Anniversary of North by Northwest.  It’s easily one of the top five films from my favorite director of all-time.  Director Alfred Hitchcock’s films litter my Top 100 like signposts marking the way.  Like The Wizard Of Oz, I’m challenged to say something about a film that others have written complete books and thesis over, and I have to review two-disc set that builds upon previous releases of the film.

North by Northwest came rather late to me in my Hitchcock journey.  I started on this path with Psycho, Vertigo, and Rear Window during my high school years in the mid-'80s.  It was a few years later that I first caught North by Northwest.  In a year span, I saw it for the first time on the huge screen of the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor, watched in on VHS, and then studied it in-depth in a Hitchcock class I took that summer.

It’s amazing to watch the title sequence of the film today and think that this is considered the first use of moving type in titles.  The Saul Bass opening sequence is memorable and feels like the technique must have been around for years.  Even on a smaller screen, the kinetic movement of the type and the staccato score by Bernard Herrmann hint at the restlessness that will follow the viewer throughout the film.

The film was released in 1959 through MGM, and it sits squarely between Vertigo (1958) and Psycho (1960).  These three films form an apex that the remaining six films of his career just wouldn’t reach.  As the middle of those three, it’s interesting that North by Northwest (despite being a direction slightly off-center) serves as a culmination of many of Hitchcock’s common themes dating back to the 1930s with The Man Who Knew Too Much, The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes.

This film marks the fourth and last time that Hitchcock would work with Cary Grant as his “every man”.  On the Special Features disc, there is a new documentary entitled Cary Grant: A Class Apart that gives an in-depth career profile of the actor.  Comparing his work with Hitchcock against Jimmy Stewart’s is an interesting contrast.  Cary and Jimmy are used in similar fashion to represent the “common man”.  But Cary is a much classier version.  In North by Northwest he is a Manhattan adman that must navigate through an adventure that covers many states and famous attractions.  Jimmy Stewart was often a simpler man who dealt with the stress of being trapped and not able to maneuver through society.  In Rear Window and Rope he doesn’t leave a single room in either film.

The plot of the film is relatively thin in depth but it’s long on action.  The movie wastes no time introducing the viewer to Roger O. Thornhill (Cary Grant) (the “O” stands for nothing) an ad exec who is mistaken for a Mr. George Kaplan and is kidnapped and questioned by some nefarious fellows.  Since he cannot give them the information they think he has, the bad guys attempt to stage an accident to kill Thornhill.  The failure of this act sets in motion the remaining two hours of the film.  It puts the police after Thornhill and puts Thornhill on the trail of the people who did this to him.  Along the way, he is thrown into a situation where it appears to the public that he has committed a murder, upping the stakes even more.

While fleeing from New York to Chicago on a train, Thornhill meets the beautiful Eve Kendall (the gorgeous Eva Marie Saint).  Her ability to balance the ambiguity of her character strikes me as one of the brilliances of Hitchcock’s casting.  If she is played any other way, the plot would ultimately start to fall apart at this point in the film.  But while she is guiding Grant’s character along, we, as viewers, are now squarely invested in our hero and see something that he doesn’t in her.  Or we think we do.

At this point, Hitchcock rightly starts to speed the events forward as if we are rushing towards a conclusion.  The story that started in New York City and rushed towards Chicago rushes headlong into the countryside of Illinois.  This iconic scene is just the twist that the film needs when the viewer feels like they are becoming accustomed to the pace of the film.  All of a sudden, we’re in the middle of nowhere, in the open and surrounded by corn and quiet.  It’s disconcerting.  Even more so than it would be normally.  I realized that few directors today play with pacing as much as Hitchcock.  There is a tenseness in the distant sound of the crop duster that you can’t pull off if we hadn’t just come off the confining, loud train.

This journey North and Westward across America is detailed in the great documentary Destination Hitchcock left over from a 2000 DVD release.  This extended making-of includes many interesting sidebars of thrown out ideas for the plot including ending in Alaska – a true North by Northwest journey.

The ending at Mount Rushmore is still fun and unexpected.  The chase has a true James Bond feel to it with the ability to use recognizable locations to add legitimacy to the plot.  The iconic nature of the location makes this truly an American film and adds “historical importance” to the espionage of the plot.  I don’t get the same feeling at the end of Saboteur on the Statue Of Liberty.

Watching from the perspective of 50 years, the film is only dated in the Cold War undertones of the main plot.  But the humor and arc of the story are still fresh and don’t feel as derivative as so many similar movies today.  Few directors know how to control the pace of their films – much like a roller coaster, the viewer should feel pushed and pulled by unseen forces – unable to control what is happening, only being in control of one’s reactions.

The 50th Anniversary release looks amazing.  It is the only MGM film for Hitchcock and one of their few Vistavision releases.  In addition to the previously mentioned Special Features, there is a commentary with the screenwriter Ernest Lehman, a new documentary entitled The Master’s Touch: Hitchcock’s Signature Style.  This documentary provides some fresh perspective on the film from current directors including Guillermo Del Toro.  There’s another new documentary entitled North by Northwest: One For The Ages that takes a look at the important innovations in the production of the film and its influences.

While many studios are cutting back on their restoration of classic films, Warner Bros. are to be commended on this release and The Wizard Of Oz release.  These films are important works that still have impact on the works we see onscreen today.

North by Northwest is so much a culmination of themes and ideas of Hitchcock’s previous films but it goes beyond just being a jumble of scenes.  It’s a blueprint that takes lessons learned in previous films and shows us how to use the film medium to tell a compelling story.  And it’s quite a ride.  It was for young Musgo sitting in the Michigan Theater in 1986 and it is today for old Musgo sitting in front of his computer.

Restored 1959 Venezuelan Masterwork Never Before Released in U.S.

Now playing at the Nuart for one week only!

Milestone Films presents ARAYA, showing at Landmark’s Nuart Theatre from Friday, November 6 through Thursday, November 12, 2009.


Following up on Milestone’s acclaimed releases of Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep and Kent Mackenzie’s The Exiles, the availability of the long-unseen ARAYA will change the face of Latin American film history.  The distribution of Margot Benacerraf’s brilliant 1959 tone poem ARAYA commemorates the 50th anniversary of the film’s first showing at the Cannes Film Festival. Although it shared the International Critics Prize with Alain Resnais’ Hiroshima, Mon Amour, ARAYA was never picked up for widespread distribution. Rarely shown, this masterpiece was largely forgotten by the film world. Milestone’s worldwide release in 2009 will give audiences the chance to rediscover Benacerraf—a powerful and distinctive voice in the history of cinema.


Benacerraf’s film portrays a day in the life of three families living in one of the harshest places on earth—Araya, an arid peninsula in northeastern Venezuela. For 450 years, since its discovery by the Spanish, the region’s salt was manually collected and stacked into glowing white pyramids. Overlooking the area, a 17th-century fortress built to protect against pirate raids stood as a reminder of the days when the mineral was worth as much as gold and great fortunes were made in the salt trade. Benacerraf captures the grueling work of these salineros in breathtaking high-contrast black-and-white images. Her camera gracefully pans and glides to reveal the landscape and the people of the peninsula.  All night, the Pereda family toils in the salt marshes. In the morning, the Salaz clan arrives to load and stack the crystals under the hot brutal sun. Down the coastline, the Ortiz family fish and tend their nets, while the youngest member, Carmen, collects seashells and coral.


An acclaimed pioneer feminist filmmaker, Benacerraf has been an important inspiration and mentor to Latin-American artists, writers and filmmakers. After her films jumpstarted international interest in Latin American cinema she went on to found Venezuela’s Cineteca Nacional and Fundavisual Latina—restoring films and screening cinema from around the world which she continues to oversee today.


Milestone restored ARAYA from the original 35mm materials long archived in Paris, with the help of the experts at Fotokem, Pro-tek, DJ Audio, Audio Mechanics and Modern Videofilm.


Official Website





“Fifty years after its debut, ARAYA has lost none of its ability to fascinate and move us with its hypnotic combination of beauty and hardship. It’s a gift to cineastes that this unforgettable film has been restored.”—Steven Soderbergh


“Stunningly shot and brilliantly crafted, this is a singular work from an incredibly distinct filmmaker. ARAYA is at once a revealing study of a very unique way of life and also a powerful meditation on the inextricable ties between society and place. We should all feel lucky to have this almost-forgotten gem unearthed and restored in all its beauty.” - Barbara Kopple


“Lyrical and commanding…Benacerraf communicates the weight of hundreds of years of uninterrupted tradition. ...manages to inspire both joy and sorrow at once, a testament to the success of her eloquent and elegiac evocation.” - IndieWire


“Wonderfully restored… I can compare the film only to Luchino Visconti’s great La Terra Trema for its combination of extraordinary beauty, outraged social conscience and almost mythic grandeur… The experience was stunning in 1959. It’s every bit as stunning today.” - Stuart Klawans, The Nation


“Majestic…Arresting…Overwhelming beauty!”—Richard Brody, New Yorker


“Thanks to Milestone Films’ restoration of this semiforgotten 1959 cine-essay (a cowinner of the Fipresci Critics’ Award at that year’s Cannes), the movie’s b&w images of craggy landscapes and shirtless young men have never looked more vibrant. A compadre of both Rossellini and Buñuel, Benacerraf has a knack for making neorealistic scenes of labor seem vaguely surreal (and vice versa)” - David Fear, Time Out New York


“It promises to be one of the major film discoveries of recent years.” - New York Magazine


“Not that the mesmerizing film, directed by Margot Benacerraf, looks 50 years old. In fact, it has a timeless look—and that’s a compliment… I’m not sure why it took 50 years for ARAYA to reach New York, but let us be thankful to Milestone Films for giving life to this forgotten film.” - V.A. Musetto, New York Post


“After the recent successes of Killer of Sheep and The Exiles, the good folks at Milestone Films keep the re-discovery bonanza rolling… Araya is another stunningly photographed document of a singular culture.” - Village Voice


“This mesmerizing, highly textured film from director Margot Benacerraf will surely now attain its place in the pantheon of important ethnographic documentaries. With the correct handling by Milestone Film & Video, ARAYA’s box-office should be excellent at art houses and beyond… A significant and memorable work” - Film Journal


Five Stars! ” ARAYA is a singular achievement because of its poetic management of images.” - Slant






WNYC Leonard Lopate interview with Margot Benacerraf


NPR’s Morning Edition Movshovitz interview with Ms Margot Benacerraf


View a clip from the film