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Italian neorealism came out of the hardships in Italy during and after the second world war. It looked at the hardscrabble life in Italy with an unblinking eye and achieved a film milestone, Bicycle Thieves. But Shoeshine is not just an example of neorealism, but also how uncalibrated realism can become sentimental and melodramatic. It tells the story of two boys who live on the streets of Rome shining shoes of the GI Joes. One thing leads to another and they end up in a prison. The depiction of of the juvenile prison is brutal and there is a real possibility of some genuine insight into the human condition. But that is not to be. De Sica makes the film into a lurid tale of bad boys making innocent boys bad, a familiar storyline. It is done so poorly that some in my audience were laughing at the exploits of the imprisoned boys. I suspect that this happened because the tragedy of the two boys with a small dream never really affected the audience. When you pile one misfortune upon another two little boys, the film becomes a melodrama and loses its realism, neo or otherwise.

What is Irma Vep about? The obsession of a failing director for a classic silent film serial translates into an electricity filled (I mean this literally) short reel of a remake. Along the way we meet several frenzied and frazzled characters doing pretty much- nothing. They rehearse a scene or two, but mostly talk, talk and talk. Very French with shades of Robert Altman. Many characters, many obsessions and a subtle exploration of hidden selves. In particular, Maggie Cheung walks onto the film set knowing virtually nothing about it and learns something about her own predilections through a mere costume change. However, the rest of the film is a bit muddled and somewhat conventional. References to French New Wave and other cinematic touchstones abound within a chaotic story structure. In the end, the film is slightly amusing, but leaves you mostly Breathless. There- I achieved the level of cinephilia demonstrated by the director Olivier Assayas in this film. I will skip the new HBO series, although I love Alicia Vikander.

Let us get this out of the way- Phantom Thread is a beautiful film with a great premise and promise. A couture dress designer (Daniel Day Lewis) is demanding in the extreme and finds a muse (Vicky Krieps). He enjoys using her as a dress model and a companion, but she wants more. Along the way, the director, Paul Thomas Anderson, throws hints of intrigue starting with the title of the film. There are empty pretensions of dress-making as high art, secret messages sown into dresses and haunting memories. All of this leads to- exactly nowhere. Everything Lewis and Krieps do is recorded lovingly and meticulously on film with great mood music in the background. But there is no great reveal, no deep insight into human psyche, no higher truth. In the end it comes down to what a woman wants and what the man can live with. Lewis and Krieps are excellent, especially Krieps, but Lesley Manville as Lewis's sister has the thankless job of looking stern in every scene. Nothing in the film sticks with you when you leave the theater except the dresses, photography and the music; because Anderson has not come up with anything really interesting in the story. Unlike his "There Will Blood", which was a great film, Phantom Thread is a phantom film. It is a beautiful ghost of what should have been a really good film. See it if you wish to say goodbye to Daniel Day Lewis, but keep your expectations low.