Precious Doll wrote: Raggedy Man (1981) Jack Fisk 10/10
Remember how Eric Roberts, after King of the Gypsies and then this, was touted as being the next big leading man? He’s had an astounding number of credits but largely fell off the radar after Runaway Train in 1985, for which he received his sole Academy Award nomination. I seem to remember that he was derailed by a cocaine problem.
A Woman's Revenge (2012) Rita Azevedo Gomes 4/10
Dog Lady (2016) Laura Citarella & Veronica Llinas 6/10
Just 6.5 (2019) Saeed Routsayi 4/10
An Easy Girl (2019) Rebecca Zlotowski 5/10
Occidental (2019) Neil Beloufa 4/10
Wonders in the Suburbs (2020) Jeanne Balibar 4/10
Sicilia (1999) Daniele Huillet & Jean-Marie Staub 5/10
The Kingmaker (2019) Lauren Greenfield 6/10
The Bird (2012) Yves Caumon 4/10
Repeat viewings
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) Sergio Leone 9/10
Town Bloody Hall (1979) Chris Hegedus & D.A. Pennebaker 8/10
The Tenant (1976) Roman Polanski 8/10
The Queen (1968) Frank Simon 7/10
Homicidal (1961) William Castle 8/10
Raggedy Man (1981) Jack Fisk 10/10
North Sea Hijack (1980) Andrew V. McLaglen 6/10
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
Vitalina Varela (2019) Pedro Costa 6/10
Wet Season (2019) Anthony Chen 7/10
The Hater (2020) Jan Komasa 8/10
Atlantis (2019) Valentyn Vasyanovych 4/10
Hiroshima (1953) Hideo Sekigawa 7/10
Servants (2020) Ivan Ostrochovsky 5/10
The Painted Bird (2019) Vaclav Marhoul 8/10
Peninsula aka Train to Busan 2 (2020) Sang-ho Yeon 2/10
Exit (2020) Visar Morina 4/10
The Phynx (1970) Lee H. Katzin 7/10
Ordinary Love (2019) Lisa Barros D'Sa & Glenn Leyburn 4/10
Cuck (2019) Rob Lambert 3/10
La Llorona (2019) Jayro Bustamante 7/10
Papicha (2019) Mounia Meddour Gens 4/10
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
Sultry Kim Novak, in her first lead role after three minor parts, is a major highlight in this noir crime caper film. After a night of fun at a casino four army vets are told by a cop that its impossible to rob the place. The brainy one (Kerwin Matthews) comes up with a fool-proof plan to rob the casino but only as a prank to prove that it can be done. The geek (Alvy Moore) and the brawn (Brian Keith) both agree to participate but they need a fourth so they casually include the straight-arrow pal (Guy Madison) who brings along his cabaret-singer girlfriend (Kim Novak). One of the early films to take a look at the psychological toll taken on vets by the war as the brawny pal, who has a hair-trigger temper - the result of suffering combat fatigue - suddenly decides that the robbery is not going to be merely a prank and pulls a gun on his pals to go through with the heist in order to keep the stolen money. Keith is very good as the emotionally scarred vet and Karlson's taut direction keeps the plot moving swiftly despite the talky script. Novak, with her soft voice and sexy tight outfits, is memorable throughout. She became a huge star with her next film ("Picnic") and her "stiff" acting style, for which she was often criticised then, actually works to her advantage when her films are viewed today. She is still around at age 87 - paging the Academy to give her an honorary Oscar.
Ashes of Time (Kar-Wai Wong, 1994) 4/10
This has to be to be one of the most confusing films of all time. I had no idea what was going on from start to finish.....and this was while I was simultaneously reading a summary of the story on Wikipedia. Couldn't keep a track of who's who amongst the actors - everyone from the Hong Kong film industry seems to be in it - Leslie Cheung, Tony Leung ("Little Tony"), Jacky Cheung, Tony Leung Ka Fai ("Big Tony"), Maggie Cheung and Brigitte Lin. Stunning imagery, courtesy of Christopher Doyle's camera, captures spectacular sweeping desert vistas and sword fights. Pity couldn't understand what it was all about.
Fallen Angels (Kar-Wai Wong, 1995) 5/10
Two unconnected stories are shot like a music video - but without the song - in an almost hyperkinetic frenzy. The director is clearly impressed by latter-day Godard as he resorts to quick cutting, slow motion, hand-held shaky camera, wide-angle lenses, fast motion, black and white shots and flashing neon signs, all of which almost made me cross-eyed. The film's two plots are just an excuse to have characters parade around through assorted rooms, across crowded streets and on trains in Hong Kong. The first story involves a hitman and his female "partner" who supplies him with names of people he has to kill while she scrubs his apartment dressed in a mini-skirt and fish net stockings and orgasmically writhes on his bed with a cigarette in her hand. There is also a prostitute in a blonde wig who wanders in and out of the plot with whom the hitman has an affair much to the chagrin of his "partner" who in her infatuation puts out a hit on him. The second story involves a crazy delinquent who escapes prison and forms a friendship with a young girl who cries on his shoulder about her lover who ran off with a blonde woman. Flashy, absurd film is not a complete right-off and manages to hold interest although it's an exhausting ride all the way to the end. The film resembles the director's Chungking Express (1994) in tone and was in fact meant initially to be part of that film.
My Voyage to Italy (Martin Scorsese, 1999) 8/10
Scorsese traces his Italian roots and discusses his love and fascination with movies and in particular Italian cinema. He looks at many classic films, particularly covering the Italian neorealism
period. There is a detailed emphasis on the films of Roberto Rossellini. Other directors mentioned include Vittorio de Sica,
Luchino Visconti, Federico Fellini and Michelangelo Antonioni. Scorsese critiques their important films in great detail as the scenes play out on the screen and we hear his voice on the soundtrack.
The Ship That Died of Shame (Basil Dearden, 1955) 6/10
Three WWII vets (Richard Attenborough, George Baker, Bill Owen) buy back their small gunboat after the war and use their faithful ship to smuggle minor contraband items across the English channel. When they start smuggling more and more sinister items the ship decides to teach them a lesson as the three men get way over their heads with greed. Attenborough has a flashy role as a cocky crook. Based on a novel by Nicholas Monsarrat, the film was an attempt by Ealing to create a noir while showing the stress and steain servicemen went through while trying to adjust to life after the strain of war. Exciting scenes set on the high seas which were probably all shot in a tank in the studio. There are small but vivid roles for Bernard Lee and lovely Virginia McKenna.
Il generale della Rovere (Roberto Rossellini, 1959) 10/10
Rossellini once again explores his countrymen's reactions to the German occupation of Italy during the War. And he again does so by superbly recreating war-torn Italy - this story is set in Genoa - with its bombed-out cityscapes and cramped interiors of homes and prisons, often interspersing real newsreel images which give the film a haunting quality. The story revolves around a petty crook (Vittorio De Sica), always immaculately dressed, who has a distinguished aura about him. It is to De Sica's credit that he makes the character sympathetic allowing the audience to understand why such people did what they did during the War. Survival was the name of the game and it was easy to play both sides if one could. He has a gambling habit and to feed into it swindles his neighbours by giving them false promises about saving family members caught by the Gestapo. He keeps losing at the gambling table and tries to stay one step ahead by conning innocent men and women into giving him more and more money. He is not averse to stealing from one mistress (the ravishing Giovanna Ralli) but is sensitive enough to spare another (Sandra Milo) who genuinely loves him. When he is finally caught after trying to swindle a rich woman (Anne Vernon), his captor - the local German officer (Hannes Messemer) - who is amused by his antics decides to make a bargain with him. Impersonate a dead Italian General who was inadvertently killed by the Germans and go into prison to try and ferret out a Resistance leader from amongst a group of men caught and imprisoned. Will the conman take the bait of a cash settlement and eventual freedom or will he transform from being a collaborator into a hero of the anti-national socialist resistance? Stunning film hinges on the performance of the great De Sica who gives a marvelously nuanced performance. The film won the Golden Lion prize at the Venice film festival and was nominated for an Oscar for its screenplay. One of many classic films to come out of Italy and a must-see.
Wolfen (Michael Wadleigh, 1981) 5/10
After seeing numerous closeup shots of naked dead bodies in this film I realised that all these shots were censored and cut out on VHS when I first saw this film in 1982. A mystery crime-horror story seemed pretty derivative back then as it came after a couple of similarly themed slasher films about werewolves. Watched it again to see what made Albert Finney take on this film - apparently he was first choice of the director and Dustin Hoffman, who desperately wanted the part, was turned down. There appears to be a re-evaluation of this film over the years with its theme of decaying urban areas and Indians and wolves exchanging souls. Well the plot was mumbo jumbo then, just as it remains now, but it does manage to initially create a creepy mood by using an in-camera effect to portray the subjective point of view of a wolf. Former NYPD Captain (Albert Finney) is brought back to investigate the brutal murders of a high profile magnate, his wife and bodyguard. Helping him solve the mystery are a criminal psychologist (Diane Venora) and a coroner (Gregory Hines) who discovers that no weapon was used to kill the victims and in fact jagged teeth were used to rip the bodies apart. The discovery points to werewolves and Native Indians of which one (Edward James Olmos) gets naked, acts like a wolf and stalks the cop. Bordering on camp the film ends rather abruptly although with more spectacular violence and a decapitation. If blood and gore move you then do watch this. Otherwise avoid unless, like me, you are a fan of the star and remain wondering why on earth he took on this film. Also interesting to see Venora, Hines and Olmos so early on in their careers.
Missing Ten Days / Ten Days in Paris (Tim Whelan, 1940) 6/10
Frantic comedy spy-thriller tries to emulate Hitchcock's "The Lady Vanishes" with screwball elements thrown in but comes up short. An English playboy (Rex Harrison) is shot in the head and gets involved in a farcical plot trying to find why he was attacked - the head wound is superficial. Adding to the nutty plot is a blonde babe (Kaaren Verne) and a bunch of spies - led by Leo Genn - who plan to sabotage a train by planting a bomb. Harrison has a lot of fun with the part as he banters with the blonde, plays "William Tell" with a hood and chases the train during the exciting finale.
Monpti (Helmut Käutner, 1957) 9/10
Bittersweet romance between a destitute Hungarian artist (Horst Buccholz) and a rich Parisian girl (Romy Schneider) which eventually reveals their sweet relationship to be based on lies. Ironic tale is narrated on screen by Käutner himself (playing a bistro customer) as he contrasts their friendship and affair with that of a superficial romance between an older couple. Tragedy ensues when the two stories literally collide. Buccholz and Schneider, then Germany's biggest young stars, are dazzling together as they bicker, make love and dream of a life together. The cinematographer, Heinz Pehlke, uses different techniques to convey the mood of the film, including using a concealed camera to capture the sights and sounds of stunning Paris with an emphasis on the Luxembourg gardens in the Latin Quarter as one of its main locations. Sad yet exhilarating film is one of Käutner's most memorable films.
Mädchenjahre einer Königin / The Story of Vickie (Ernst Marischka, 1954) 8/10
A year before Romy Schneider became a star playing Empress Elisabeth of Austria in the famous "Sissi" trilogy, she played the young Queen Victoria in this historical film. The first half follows history - Vickie (Romy Schneider) becomes Queen of England at the young age of 18, tries to break free from her domineering mother (Christl Mardayn) who is under the influence of a wily lover, grows closer to her companion, the Baroness Lehzen (Magda Schneider), and gets tutored in diplomacy by her loyal Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne (Karl Ludwig Diehl), who also tries to find a suitable husband for her. The film's second half evolves into a charming fairy tale with Victoria falling head over heels in love with a handsome German man (Adrian Hoven) she meets at a tavern in Dover while traveling incognito to France. Kitschy fluff is just as irresistible and charming as the "Sissi" films with Schneider an absolutely radiant presence. Sumptuously produced film with lovely sets and costumes which were duplicated by the same team in the trilogy which also had the added pleasure of many scenes shot on lovely Austrian locations. The film is shot in stunning colour by Bruno Mondi.
Flaming Feather (Ray Enright, 1952) 6/10
A mysterious outlaw in cahoots with Indians causes mayhem for Arizona settlers. A rugged rancher (Sterling Hayden) comes to the rescue aided and abetted by two pretty women (Barbara Rush & Arleen Whelen). An exciting shootout takes place during the finale which is set up on the Montezuma Castle Pueblo cliff dwellings in Arizona. Colorful western holds interest but is no classic.
China Sky (Ray Enright, 1945) 7/10
Pearl Buck's story, like many of the China-themed films out of Hollywood before and during the War, treats its characters as typical self-efacing subservient types with caucasians playing orientals. This low budget film was no different but it was RKO studio's attempt to portray through the plot America's friendship for China during its occupation under Japan. What makes the film work is the central conflict of two love triangles amidst the war. An American missionary doctor (Randolph Scott) and a female counterpart (Ruth Warrick) both work in a hill-top country hospital he has built for a Chinese village. After a trip abroad he returns with a socialite wife (Ellen Drew) who immediately clashes with her husband's assistance who she rightly suspects of being secretly in love with him. This bitter love triangle is played out against constant Japanese aerial bombings while a disgruntled Japanese-Korean doctor (Phillip Ahn) secretly tries to help a captured Japanese Colonel (Richard Loo) after discovering that the Chinese nurse (Carol Thurston) he loves has fallen for the local insurgent leader (Anthony Quinn). Scott, taking a break from Westerns, plays the heroic doctor although its lovely Warrick who shines as the dedicated doctor secretly in love. Her scenes opposite a perpetually jealous Ellen Drew provide more sparks than the numerous battle scenes. Quinn, who played every manner of nationality during the first two decades of his career, is again typecast but manages to bring fiery shades to the part. Both Quinn and Thurston, courtesy of the Hollywood makeup department, make convincing Chinese characters who also surprisingly speak without putting on a pidgin sing-song lilt which Hollywood liked to indulge its ethnic characters with at the time. Interesting little film with enough melodrama to overcome its clichés.
Era notte a Roma / Blackout in Rome (Roberto Rossellini, 1960) 6/10
Rossellini returns to the war genre, many years after the classic films Roma città aperta (1945), Paisan (1946) and his most recent one Il generale Della Rovere (1959), with this rather plodding if atmospheric film. Three escaped allied prisoners - an American (Peter Baldwin), an Englishman (Leo Genn) and a Russian (Sergey Bondarchuk) - hide from the fascists and go in search of their displaced units. A beautiful young woman (Giovanna Ralli), impersonating a nun but actually a spirited black marketeer, comes to their rescue and hides them in her attic at a great cost to her life. The film is shot like the director's early neorealist films using real sets and naturalistic techniques to lend the film an almost documentary feel. A lot of the film also borrows from wartime melodramas of Hollywood and Britain with sinister villains and dramatic moments of espionage. The screenplay also makes points on how Italians took their time to resist the fascists. Unfortunately the pace of the film is deadly as it goes on and on. Giovanna Ralli is a superb presence - fiery, vivacious and forceful - like a young Anna Magnani.
Adventure in Iraq (D. Ross Lederman, 1943) 4/10
Campy programmer is a remake of the old George Arliss chestnut, "The Green Goddess". Three Americans (John Loder, Ruth Ford, Warren Douglas) are forced to land their plane in Iraq and find themselves prisoners of a British-educated Sheik (Paul Cavanagh). The story, based on a play, this time round is set in an Arabian Nights setting with Cavanagh alternating between wearing a turban, flowing robes and a dinner jacket. Since the film was made during WWII a pro-Nazi angle is thrown into the plot with Anti-British and Anti-Arab sentiments running through it making this the only Hollywood production not shown outside America. Rather tired plot is kept lively by Cavanagh's crisp delivery.
Halls of Montezuma (Lewis Milestone, 1951) 6/10
One of numerous anti-War films by Milestone showing the terrible toll war takes on soldiers as fatigue, fear and disillusionment takes over. A battalion of weary U.S. marines land on a Japanese-held island in the Pacific. Their mission is to take the Japanese prisoners in order to interrogate them into revealing their strategic position from where rockets are being launched. The marines are a close-knit group having served together at Guadalcanal but the war is now taking a toll on them all. A tough Colonel (Richard Boone) spearheads the mission and the men are led by a Lieutenant (Richard Widmark) suffering from psychological migranes. Gritty film uses actual film of combat footage from the Pacific War which is integrated into the film. The cast is rounded up by many actors who were at the start of their careers and would go on to become stars of varying degrees - Jack Palance, Robert Wagner, Jack Webb, Neville Brand, Karl Malden and Martin Milner. The film, later used as a recruitment for marines, is less about war and more a study of the psychological effects battle has on the human spirit.
When Willie Comes Marching Home (John Ford, 1950) 8/10
This Americana with a comic bent is Ford's unjustly neglected mini-masterpiece. Willie (Dan Dailey) is the first man from small-town Virginia to enlist when the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor. Unfortunately he gets a home posting as a shooting instructor much to the consternation of his town, including his irritated dad (the hilarious William Demarest), who had initially given him a huge send-off thinking he is going to war. Two years of begging for overseas combat and by chance he finds himself on a plane heading for Europe. As luck would have it the crew bails over England while he is asleep and when he finally bails out it's over German-occupied France and into the hands of a group of Resistance fighters headed by gorgeous Corinne Calvet in a low-cut dress. The film suddenly switches gears to an intense WWII drama with the discovery of a German rocket, close calls with soldiers, a dramatic escape in an inebriated state all the way home but not before he unexpectedly finds himself made a war hero after all. Very funny story was nominated for an Oscar with Dailey - who also gets to sing - simply marvelous in a slapstick role. Ford shot the European sequence on Santa Catalina island.
The Trouble With Women (Sidney Lanfield, 1947) 3/10
Weak combo of Hawks' "Bringing Up Baby" and "His Girl Friday". A wily newspaper editor (Brian Donlevy) springs his star reporter (Teresa Wright) onto a befuddled professor (Ray Milland) who has written psychology textbooks with controversial views about women. The silly plot alternates between two settings - a newspaper office and a university classroom - and has Wright arguing with Milland over his views about wife beating and his recently written book called "The Subjugation of Women". Terrible film - not only because of the sexist plot - sat on a shelf in the studio for two years before being finally released. This film proves that frantic acting, as in the two Hawks film it superficially resembles, does not always result in a comedy classic. Wright comes off better than Milland who seems uncomfortable with the screwball elements of the plot.
Count the Hours! (Don Siegel, 1953) 6/10
A lawyer (Macdonald Carey) races against time to save a man (John Craven) from the gallows. Disturbed to see his wife (Teresa Wright) being browbeaten by the cops he confesses to the murders to get them off her back. When the actual murderer arrives on the scene it proves difficult for the lawyer to find proof. Neat little suspense film is one of Don Siegel's earlier films.
danfrank wrote:I’m glad to see you liked Moffie, Precious. I’m looking forward to seeing it whenever I can find it!
It's out on Blu Ray in the UK - though the disc is Region B locked. I actually suspect it will turn up locally at the September Gay & Lesbian film festival in September here. Because the festival is so popular they have two every year: February & September. I didn't go to anything at the February festival as I was pre-occupied the unfolding pandemic and am now kicking myself for missing Monsoon.
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
The Bare Necessity (2019) Erwan Le Duc 4/10
Hunted (1952) Charles Crichton 6/10
Fragile as the World (2001) Rita Azevedo Gomes 4/10
While at War (2019) Alejandro Amenabar 6/10
Deerskin (2019) Quentin Dupieux 4/10
Mrs. Fang (2017) Bing Wang 5/10
The Postcard Killings (2020) Danis Tanovic 2/10
State Funeral (2019) Sergey Loznitsa 6/10
Moffie (2020) Oliver Hermanus 8/10
Repeat viewings
Strait-Jacket (1964) William Castle 4/10
Viva Maria ! (1965) Louis Malle 6/10
13 Frightened Girls (1963) William Castle 6/10
The Virgin Suicides (1999) Sofia Coppola 8/10
Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964) Robert Aldrich 6/10
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
The Turning (2020) Floria Sigismondi 1/10
Perfect Nanny (2019) Lucie Borleteau 7/10
The Mad Fox (1962) Tomu Uchida 7/10
Litigante (2019) Franco Lolli 6/10
23 Walks (2020) Paul Morrison 4/10
Resistance (2020) Jonathan Jakubowicz 2/10
Repeat viewings
Daisies (1966) Vera Chytilova 7/10
The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1978) Ermanno Olmi 8/10
Murder, He Says (1945) George Marshall 7/10
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) Celine Sciamma 9/10
Motorpsycho (1965) Russ Meyer 6/10
Mahanagar (The Big City) (1963) Satyajit Ray 10/10
Up! (1976) Russ Meyer 6/10
Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983) Nagisa Oshima 7/10
Poor Cow (1967) Ken Loach 7/10
A Man For All Seasons (1966) Fred Zinnemann 7/10
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
I'm being Santa Claus with this review because I REALLY think the script deserved a little better. Or maybe just the idea. I'd bet any amount of money this pitch started as "What if Wolf of Wall Street but a lady and debt collectors?" But the world of debt collectors is rather unexplored territory and I'm a fan of late-stage capitalism hustle films. Just better than this one. Brian Sacca's script is a professional machine in good and bad ways. It is Blake Snyder to its core, always working double and triple-time to ramp up the stakes, set up everything, pay everything off, and keep moving that nobody comes across as more than one-dimensional. And the threats feel very cartoonish. That said, I really think this script could've been made into a better film if the director didn't over-direct every scene and if someone besides Zoey Deutsch was cast in the lead role. Wexler cranks every scene up to a ten and favors broad caricatures over human interaction, while Deutsch just isn't quite up to the challenges of carrying a feature like this. Peg is a funny character but she never tries to find anything human. But the script just covers so much ground that there are worse ways to spend a Friday night.
Also, Buffalo never really comes into view as a location and the final minutes are a total wash. Again: I'm just a sucker for films about broke manic hustlers.
Riveting combat film pits a small group of U.S. soldiers against hundreds of Talibans during a pitched battle in North-Eastern Afghanistan. "The Battle of Kamdesh" turned out to be the bloodiest engagement of the Afghan War in 2009 and the American soldiers who fought became the most decorated units of that 19-year conflict. Boxed in at the bottom of three steep mountains, just 14 miles from the Pakistani border, was an American army outpost built originally to engage the locals in community development projects. The outpost was under constant sniper threat so when the officials decided to close it down, the Talibans went on a rampage in a coordinated attack. Gripping film shows the young soldiers going about their daily routine with gallow humour, comraderie and interacting with local Afghan elders during the first hour of the film while occasionally warding off sniper attacks. The second hour puts the audience feet first into a pitched battle with bullets zipping fast and furious as the body count rises. A mostly unknown cast is led by a few familiar faces - Orlando Bloom and a bunch of star kids with famous surnames, Scott Eastwood, Milo Gibson, James Jagger, Will Attenborough, Scott Alda Coffey - playing the brave soldiers fighting for their lives. The extremely realistic combat scenes are a marvel of choreography, sharp editing, long camera takes (following one character in battle, then another) and exceptional sound design. The battle is very much in the same vein as in "Zulu" and during "Custer's Last Stand", with soldiers making a brave stand against impossible odds. Intense film is easily one of the year's best and must be seen on the biggest screen available during this Covid menace.
La signora senza camelie/ The Lady Without Camelias (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1953) 8/10
Fascinating look at the Italian film industry during the 1950s. The screenplay takes us on a no holds barred view through the corridors of Cinecitta, the famous film studio in Rome, in this tale of a young girl (Lucia Bosè) who is plucked from being a sales girl and made into a star when her film is a hit. Antonioni, in his second film and working again with Bosè (he had initially offered the part to Gina Lollobrigida and Sophia Loren), paints an unflattering portrait of the harsh realities of the film industry and what it was like for women working in that medium. With her second film she is expected to perform more risqué scenes by her director (Gino Cervi) with an eye towards the boxoffice, which she does, but then gets waylaid into marriage with a producer (Andrea Checchi) who decides he doesn't like his wife being a sex symbol. So begins the starlet's fall - her subsequent film based on pure Joan of Arc (a nod to Rossellini & Bergman) flops, she is estranged from her controlling husband, has an affair with a diplomat (Ivan Desny) who is insincere and only wants to chalk her up as yet another notch on his sexcapade list and finally going back to the kind of cinema she started with in order to help her bankrupt husband. The film's final scene among extras as she smiles through tears becomes her greatest acting performance realizing the futility and unhappiness of her life but pretending all is well. Antonioni's obsession with using architecture as a metaphor for bleakness is seen here so early in his career - the huge fake studio sets Bosè is photographed against and later seen dwarfed in the interior of her house, a nouveau riche monstrosity, that her husband has built. Through this melodrama the director paints a scathing picture about suffering, loss and cruelty.
Le mani sulla città / Hands Over the City (Francesco Rosi, 1963) 8/10
Rosi's scathing view of political corruption through illegal land deals still remains a topical subject in many parts of the world. The screenplay takes a semi documentary approach about a corrupt land developer (a dubbed but perfectly cast Rod Steiger) who uses his clout to purchase farm land on the outskirts of Naples at a throwaway price in order to construct apartment blocks. When part of an adjoining building collapses due to construction going on next door, the fallout for the tragedy becomes an obsession for the builder to somehow escape and put the blame elsewhere. Most of the film revolves around government bureaucracy - also in his pocket - shifting the onus of the blame around. Superbly photographed film is any eye-opening depiction about corruption and nepotism during post war reconstruction.
Hangman's Knot (Roy Huggins, 1952) 6/10
Underrated post Civil War-era western with an excellent cast. A Confederate officer (Randolph Scott) and his officers tasked with stealing a gold shipment from Union soldiers suceed. They are unaware that the war is over so stealing the gold has made them outlaws in the eyes of the law. They are pursued by a posse and find themselves at their mercy while holed up at an isolated way station. The motley group inside consists of a Yankee woman (Donna Reed), a psychotic gunslinger (Lee Marvin), a pacifist (Claude Jarman Jr.), a gambler (Richard Denning) and a grieving mother (Jeanette Nolan). All the characters have various issues and in conflict with one another. Despite the claustrophobic setting the film still manages a number of action set pieces.
Unleashed (Louis Leterrier, 2005) 6/10
The film is stolen by the two veteran actors in the cast - Bob Hoskins as a cockney mobster with more lives than a cat and Morgan Freeman as a blind piano tuner with a kind heart and a sassy tongue. A man (Jet Li), raised as a vicious killing machine, is used by his vicious master (Bob Hoskins) to beat, maim and kill during illegal no-holds-barred brawls to earn money. He is treated like a dog with a metal collar around his neck. Savagery and sentimentality, a decidedly odd concoction via the pen of Luc Besson, results in a film where martial arts star Jet Li gets to "act". We do get the obligatory scenes of mayhem where Li takes on 30 men and beats them to a pulp via carefully choreographed fight sequences. However, a chance encounter with a blind man (Morgan Freeman) and piano music snaps his mind taking him towards a direction that causes the mobster's shit to hit the fan. Running away he takes shelter with the blind man and his daughter and discovers his own origin and the fate of his mother. A final confrontation remains as he has to settle scores with the mad beast who raised him. Action packed film packs a punch but the fun is in seeing the hilarious Hoskins having a ball with his role as he gets to be way over the top with deliciously funny lines. Freeman, for whom the role was written, is a contrasting foil and the gentle voice of reason that helps to tame the rabid dog in Jet Li.
The Great Waltz (Julien Duvivier, 1938) 8/10
Lavish MGM musical is a completely over-the-top, highly fictionalised screen biography of composer Johann Strauss. The screenplay focuses on the love triangle between Strauss (Fernand Gravet), his saintly, long-suffering wife (Luise Rainer) and the diva opera star (Miliza Korjus who was nominated for an Oscar) who makes him famous while singing to his music. The two ladies are in sharp contrast to each other and hilariously so. Rainer, fresh after winning two back-to-back Oscars - her first win was for a celebrated scene in "The Great Ziegfeld" where she talks to her womanizing husband on the phone pretending to be jolly while fighting back tears. She repeats that moment here as she confronts her husband and his mistress with a big smile on her face as she encourages him to go on tour with the diva following which she dramatically collapses in tears. Korjus, who was sort of like the European version of Mae West, plays her part with a perpetual smirk on her face as she twists the composer to her bidding. The scenes where Strauss composes his famous music is pure camp - while riding with his mistress in a horse drawn buggy through the Vienna Woods the sounds of the horses, the carriage and the birds (and with help from the coachman) make him dream up the famous waltz "Tales From the Vienna Woods" and a visit to the Danube river conjures up his memorable "Blue Danube" waltz. Sumptuous production, with deliriously shot waltz sequences, won an Oscar for Joseph Ruttenberg's swirling cinematography and a nomination for editing. Oscar Hammerstein II provided the lyrics to Strauss' music which Korjus sings. This was her only film as an actress as rumour had it that reigning opera queen at MGM, Jeanette MacDonald, made it perfectly clear to the bosses that there was no room for her at the studio while she was in residence.
The Outriders (Roy Rowland, 1950) 4/10
Despite the interesting cast this is a shockingly mediocre western from the MGM stable. Confederate soldiers (Joel McCrea, Barry Sullivan, James Whitmore) escape from a Union prison and latch onto a wagon train run by an aristocratic Mexican (Ramon Novarro). They have their eyes on the gold shipment being carried and on a young widow (Arlene Dahl). Plodding pace is somewhat redeemed by a great sequence during a perilous river crossing.
Les liens de sang / Blood Relatives (Claude Chabrol, 1978) 3/10
Dull thriller shot in Montreal by Chabrol in English. A young girl is savagely murdered in the presence of her cousin who is also attacked but manages to escape. When interrogated by the detective (Donald Sutherland) on the case she describes in detail the attack along with the description of the killer. A few days later she changes her story and accuses her own brother of being the murderer. The plot veers off into bizzare tangents involving the girl's sordid family - a dubbed Stéphane Audran plays the alcoholic mother - which involves incest discovered through a diary which the detective reads as flashbacks reveal the life of the dead girl. Based on one of Ed McBain's "87th Precinct" detective novels the film is shot in a flat television style and only during the end there is suspense when Chabrol goes for the jugular recreating the murder sequence shown only in darkness at the start. Sutherland sleep walks through the film while Donald Pleasence has one inexplicable scene as a child molester. David Hemmings also pops up as a randy old man with the hots for the young teenager. Skip this boring film.
Cheyenne (Raoul Walsh, 1947) 6/10
Fast-moving Western with an interesting cast, surprisingly risqué dialogue, sly charm and a noirish screenplay dripping with cynicism. A gambler (Dennis Morgan) is blackmailed by a detective (Barton MacLane) to go in search of a stagecoach robber who is known as the "poet". He decides to impersonate the "poet" and runs into a prim lady (Jane Wyman) with a number of tricks up her sleeve, a dance-hall girl (Janis Paige), a group of disgruntled robbers led by their leader - the Sundance Kid (Arthur Kennedy), a cowardly lawman (Alan Hale) and a smooth-talking bank officer (Bruce Bennett). Morgan and Wyman create sparks with their sexually charged banter which was quite unusual for a film set in this particular genre. Walsh stages an impressive ambush sequence between Morgan and Kennedy's gang creating suspense through sharp editing and framing. Max Steiner's bombastic score is out of place as it completely overwhelms the many action packed chase sequences.
I Believe in You (Basil Dearden, 1952) 6/10
One of Dearden's early social film is almost like a documentary about teenage delinquents and the social officers required to monitor their lives. The film is a fascinating look at the unglamourous side of Britain, still reeling after the War, as the upper-middle-class British Probation Service tries to solve the problems of the lower class Britons often without having ever set foot in the East End. The story revolves around a retired civil servant's (Cecil Parker) attempt at social work as he gets involved in the lives of three teenagers - a sensitive boy (Harry Fowler) abused by his father, a young vicious thug (Laurence Harvey) and a wild party-girl (Joan Collins) who gets involved with both boys. Celia Johnson (nominated for a Bafta award) is the no-nonsense career social worker. The screenplay emphasises Britain's class division where accent, clothes and speech determined one's future. The main leads are well supported by many familiar character actors, a number of whom would go on to become famous names in leading roles - Sidney James, Katie Johnson, Brenda de Banzie. Both Harvey and Collins (only 19 in her film debut) make a strong impression.
The End of the Affair (Edward Dmytryk, 1955) 5/10
The first screen adaptation of Graham Greene's novel comes off rather prim, typical of the films in Hollywood during the conservative 1950s. The story concentrates more on the inner conflict of the characters instead of lust and sex which the 1999 British remake unashamedly explored. The plot hinges on an unbelieving woman's sudden realization that God may exist after a shattering event makes her pray for her lover's life. The love affair between a self-centered, jealous American writer (Van Johnson) and the bored and occasionally promiscuous wife (Deborah Kerr) of a civil servant (Peter Cushing) plays out with the two leads displaying no passion - Johnson seems like a spoilt wilful boy while Kerr acts too arch and stagy. Cushing and John Mills - as the detective hired to follow the wayward wife - are more interesting than the two main characters. The story's bleak and maudlin Catholic guilt angle bogs the plot down. This version is faithful to the book's ending which was dramatically changed by Neil Jordan in his adaptation of the remake. That ending was criticised by many critics but I think it works because both Ralph Fiennes and Julianne Moore play out their affair at such a melodramatic fever pitch that the changes to the book's ending works perfectly. Guilt, Catholic or otherwise, seems more forceful when played to the gallery instead of quietly whining about it with hands folded praying to God for forgiveness which is how Kerr plays her scenes in complete contrast to Moore. In any case I could never imagine the lady-like Kerr as an adulterous wife and this is despite her roll in the surf with Burt Lancaster in "From Here to Eternity". Glad the remake got Graham Greene's story right.
The End of the Affair (Neil Jordan, 1999) 8/10
Exquisite adaptation of Graham Greene's novel is set in London during and after the Second World War. A story about obsession, jealousy and Catholic guilt revolving around a love triangle between a civil servant (Stephen Rea), his bored and lonely wife (Julianne Moore) and the writer (Ralph Fiennes) with whom she falls passionately in love. Fiennes and Moore create sexual sparks as their affair takes on a melodramatic turn during one split-second event that forever changes their lives. Moore gives a luminous performance as a woman at war with herself, torn between loyalty to God and desire for her lover. Fiennes basically repeats his role from "The English Patient", brooding, steely-eyed and in lust for another man's wife. Moore was nominated for an Oscar as was Roger Pratt's cinematography which perfectly captures a grim, rainy and depressing London along with delicately lit interiors which makes the three stars seem ethereal. Special mention to Ian Hart who plays a private detective who uses his profession to nervously nurture his interest in voyeurism.
Family Romance, LLC (2019) Werner Herzog 4/10
The King of Staten Island (2020) Judd Apatow 6/10
Notre Dame (2019) Valerie Donzelli 4/10
The Mystery of Henri Pick (2019) Remi Bezancon 7/10
Little Joe (2019) Jessica Hausner 7/10
Baxter, Vera Baxter (1975) Marguerite Duras 5/10
The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019) Armando Iannucci 6/10
Babyteeth (2020) Shannon Murphy 5/10
The Burnt Orange Heresy (2020) Giuseppe Capotondi 4/10
Only You (2019) Harry Wootliff 5/10
The Old Guard (2020) Gina Prince-Bythewood 1/10
The Portuguese Woman (2019) Rita Azevedo Gomes 5/10
The Invincibles (1994) Dominik Graf 6/10
Happy Birthday (2019) Cedric Kahn 7/10
Repeat viewings
Lust, Caution (2007) Ang Lee 7/10
Good Morning... and Goodbye! (1967) Russ Meyer 6/10
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
OscarGuy wrote:Here's a question, since you've seen The Hunt.
What I've heard is it makes both conservatives and liberals look bad. Can you give me an idea if it actually takes sides or makes both sides look like total asshats?
Makes them both look like asshats, though in some respects the liberals come off looking worse but that is only because they tend to be held up to a higher standard and their motive for their 'game' would I think be considered unacceptable by most fair minded people. It doesn't actually take any sides with the conservatives or liberals per say. The only character that actually does have audience sympathy is Crystal played by Betty Gilpin who is tagged as a deplorable but there is a lot more to that story.
Don't know what Amy Madigan a well known Hollywood liberal is doing in this largely distasteful film. She can't be that hard up for cash surely.
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
She can't be that hard up for cash surely.