Yes, they could be seen in American, usually first in New York.
Stromboli opened in February, 1950 at 120 theatres in New York, unusual for a major film in that era. It was not well received either by the critics or the public. Subsequent films opened later than in Italy, The Flowers of St. Francis in 1952, Europa '51 in 1954 and My Voyage to (in) Italy in 1955.
Here's the N.Y. Times review of Stromboli:
Stromboli (1950)
February 16, 1950
THE SCREEN IN REVIEW; 'Stromboli,' Bergman-Rossellini Movie, Is Unveiled at 120 Theatres in This Area
By BOSLEY CROWTHER
Published: February 16, 1950
After all the unprecedented interest that the picture "Stromboli" has aroused — it being, of course, the fateful drama which Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini have made—it comes as a startling anticlimax to discover that this widely heralded film is incredibly feeble, inarticulate, uninspiring and painfully banal. At least, the picture of this title that was flashed upon screens here yesterday at the Criterion and a host of neighborhood theatres cannot be more flatteringly described.
Whether this dismal culmination of high hopes and distinguished enterprise can be blamed altogether on Rossellini, its producer-director, is not yet sure. Some share of the responsibility may be borne by its distributor, RKO. For, to add to the mystery and confusion already surrounding this film is the rumor that considerable re-editing was done in Hollywood by RKO upon the footage and the "cut" of the picture prepared by its producer-director in Italy. And a cable from Rossellini, which arrived on Tuesday, implies that this is not the "version" originally arranged by him.
Whoever is to blame, the curious picture tossed out to the American public yesterday is not one of which any professionals—least of all, two major artists—can be proud. For a strange listlessness and incoherence is perceptible through the whole film, as though it had been dreamed up and put together not by masters but by earnest amateurs. Indeed, even amateurs might hold back from some of the arrant banalities in this film.
Let's be quite blunt about it. The story is a commonplace affair, completely undistinguished by inventiveness or eloquence in details. A Czechoslovak woman, whom the handsome Miss Bergman plays, marries an Italian ex-soldier to escape from a displaced persons camp and goes to live with him, without love or interest, on Stromboli's bleak volcanic isle.
There, amid harsh and grim surroundings—and among people who seem equally as dour—the lady feebly endeavors to make a life for herself. She asks the priest's meagre assistance, she hopefully approaches the village dames and she even casts bold (but plainly guileless) eyes upon a handsome lad. Finally, with child and well frustrated, she tries to escape the isle, gets caught on the side of the live volcano and experiences regeneration in the smoke and acrid fumes. As the sun comes over the peaceful mountain, she is ready to return, radiant, to her home, comfortably armed with salvation and the blessing of the screen's Production Code.
Except for a few vivid episodes, which are stuck suddenly into this tale as though to provide local color—such things as a realistic scene of Stromboli fishermen netting tuna or a flash eruption of the volcano, with the villagers' flight—the action of the story is dull and paceless, played largely in static medium shots with Miss Bergman placed against fine backgrounds, engaged in assorted duologues.
Unfortunately, the lady's character—if character she has—is never drawn with clear and revealing definition, due partly to the vagueness of the script and partly to the dullness and monotony with which Rossellini has directed her. Miss Bergman's expressions are vacant, her manner is irresolute and whatever passion or animal spirit her character might conceivably have are not exposed. Incongruously, she is usually turned out in ruddy and glistening style, which clashes like artificial make-up against the hard roughness of the islanders.
And these poor people, played by natives and by "unknowns" picked up for the few key roles, appear completely awed and self-conscious in proximity to her. Mario Vitale, who plays the husband, is a good-looking dark-skinned little man with no more than a dutiful disposition to try to do as he is told, which in this case is simply to look sweetly at Miss Bergman and then smack her a couple of times. At both of these simple endeavors, he behaves like an overwhelmed fan.
Mario Sponza, as the young lad whom the lady admires innocently, and Renzo Cesana, as the quiet priest, are equally impressed. A heavy over-larding of Italian dialogue, which is not translated in any way, is not only a mystery for the unfamiliar but, with much broken English, it disturbs the ear. The ear is likewise assaulted by a particularly lush musical score, prepared by Renzo Rossellini, the producer's brother, who assisted on the film. His score for the sequence in which Miss Bergman struggles desperately up Stromboli's side, clutching herself about the middle and panting violently, make quite a noise. It and the sequence together seem to be frantically designed to bring some conclusive excitement to a picture which, for all that, has none.
An Associated Press survey of the metropolitan area, upstate New York and New Jersey, where "Stromboli" opened yesterday, indicated that the public was taking the Rossellini-Bergman drama in stride. Attendance fluctuated, with some theatres reporting very good business and others normal to spotty business.
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Big Magilla
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The rest of the world, then?ITALIANO wrote:Oh no... In Italy (where most famous men of the time, including some politicians, had very open extramatrimonial relationships) it wasn't as controversial as it was in America, and certainly Rossellini's earthy, unconventional catholicism wasn't going to win "minds" or especially "hearts".Big Magilla wrote:s controversy swirled around the affair of Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman, Rossellini turned to the simple piety of St. Francis to win hearts and minds in Italy.
Oh no... In Italy (where most famous men of the time, including some politicians, had very open extramatrimonial relationships) it wasn't as controversial as it was in America, and certainly Rossellini's earthy, unconventional catholicism wasn't going to win "minds" or especially "hearts".Big Magilla wrote:s controversy swirled around the affair of Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman, Rossellini turned to the simple piety of St. Francis to win hearts and minds in Italy.
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Big Magilla
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I seem to being seeing a lot of films in pairs these days.
Two about St. Francis of Assisi:
The Flowers of St. Francis (1950) Roberto Rossellini 8/10
As controversy swirled around the affair of Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman, Rossellini turned to the simple piety of St. Francis to win hearts and minds in Italy. More a collection of vignettes about St. Francis and his followers than a film with a strict narrative, the film, which features then contemporary Franciscan friars as their forebears, is simple and poignant and unique in both Rossellini's canon and cinema history. It's a one-of-a-kind rough jewel.
Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1973) Franco Zeffirelli 6/10
Zeffirelli's depiction of St. Francis and his followers as the first hippies, complete with Donovan songs on the soundtrack, is wrongheaded and all these years later just plain silly, but somehow it works. Graham Faulknor as St. Francis, Judi Bowker as St. Clare and other unknown actors have the leads with acting titans Valentina Cortese as Francis' mother and Alec Guinness as Pope Innocent II doing the heavy lifting.
Guinness doesn't appear until the last ten minutes of the film and is almost unrecognizable behind a long beard, but brings a power and majesty to the role that few other actors could have. When he unexpectedly gets down on his hands and knees to kiss the foot of the unknown actor playing St. Francis, it's as if you 're witnessing the real Pope do the same to the accused heretic he recognized as a living saint, sending him out in the world to spread his message. Makes a great prequel to the Rossellini film.
Two with Tommy Bond:
City Streets (1938) Albert S. Rogell 6/10
Hokey tale of a kindly grocer played by Leo Carrillo who takes in a crippled girl played by Edith Fellows after her mother dies.
Tommy Bond, who played Alfalfa's nemesis in the Our Gang shorts, is little Edith's pal. At a little over an hour, it's a nice movie to watch when you can't sleep and better for you than taking medication.
Hot Rod (1950) Lewis D. Collins 6/10
Jimmy Lydon and Art Baker are a sort of poor man's Andy and Judge Hardy in a charming comedy/drama in which everyone including bad boy Bond are really nice. Gloria Winters, the Sky King actress who recently passed away, plays Jimmy's girl.
Lydon at 27, Bond at 24 and Gil Stratton at 28 were a bit long in the tooth to be playing teenagers, but it works in this harmless entertainment.
Two about St. Francis of Assisi:
The Flowers of St. Francis (1950) Roberto Rossellini 8/10
As controversy swirled around the affair of Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman, Rossellini turned to the simple piety of St. Francis to win hearts and minds in Italy. More a collection of vignettes about St. Francis and his followers than a film with a strict narrative, the film, which features then contemporary Franciscan friars as their forebears, is simple and poignant and unique in both Rossellini's canon and cinema history. It's a one-of-a-kind rough jewel.
Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1973) Franco Zeffirelli 6/10
Zeffirelli's depiction of St. Francis and his followers as the first hippies, complete with Donovan songs on the soundtrack, is wrongheaded and all these years later just plain silly, but somehow it works. Graham Faulknor as St. Francis, Judi Bowker as St. Clare and other unknown actors have the leads with acting titans Valentina Cortese as Francis' mother and Alec Guinness as Pope Innocent II doing the heavy lifting.
Guinness doesn't appear until the last ten minutes of the film and is almost unrecognizable behind a long beard, but brings a power and majesty to the role that few other actors could have. When he unexpectedly gets down on his hands and knees to kiss the foot of the unknown actor playing St. Francis, it's as if you 're witnessing the real Pope do the same to the accused heretic he recognized as a living saint, sending him out in the world to spread his message. Makes a great prequel to the Rossellini film.
Two with Tommy Bond:
City Streets (1938) Albert S. Rogell 6/10
Hokey tale of a kindly grocer played by Leo Carrillo who takes in a crippled girl played by Edith Fellows after her mother dies.
Tommy Bond, who played Alfalfa's nemesis in the Our Gang shorts, is little Edith's pal. At a little over an hour, it's a nice movie to watch when you can't sleep and better for you than taking medication.
Hot Rod (1950) Lewis D. Collins 6/10
Jimmy Lydon and Art Baker are a sort of poor man's Andy and Judge Hardy in a charming comedy/drama in which everyone including bad boy Bond are really nice. Gloria Winters, the Sky King actress who recently passed away, plays Jimmy's girl.
Lydon at 27, Bond at 24 and Gil Stratton at 28 were a bit long in the tooth to be playing teenagers, but it works in this harmless entertainment.
I agree that Loose Cannons is the better movie. Not a great work of art, and not the most profound movie ever, but an enjoyable, well-made and well-acted comedy/drama which, in such a poor year for Italian cinema, could have been sent to the Foreign Film Oscar - they sometimes like films like this (the one the Italian committee selected, while not bad, will never win). It was shot in Lecce, one of my favorite Italian cities, a well-kept secret south of Bari, with, by the way, an absolutely great local cuisine.Big Magilla wrote:I Am Love (2009) Luca Guadagnino 6/10
Loose Cannons (2010) Ferzan Ozpetek 7/10
I have very recently seen I Am Love - hated in Italy, loved or at least appreciated in the US. I'd say that we were right. It is, of course, well shot - or, rather, "elegantly" shot - formally very beautiful, "classy" like the people it wants to portray. And I must admit that at first it's interesting to see Milan in a movie - and not the Milan of the poor outskirts, which neorealism showed so frequently in the 50s and 60s, but the Milan of the rich, snobbish bourgeoisie. Unfortunately today this type of family - very rich but still very tasteful - doesn't exist anymore, or, if it does, it's an exception, not the rule (the rule is the Berlusconi family, where money means arrogance). And the movie is SO obvious - a girl becomes - or realizes that she is - lesbian and of course her hair goes from long to short; the Tilda Swinton character has passionate sex for the first time and the director cut to bees and flowers - this kind of things. It's would-be Visconti, but Visconti had a depth, a culture, that this yound director can only dream of - and one needs that kind of culture if he wants to deal with this subject.
The actors are good - Maria Paiato especially - she plays the family's maid and has a very good scene at the end of the movie. As for Swinton, she is the director's best friend and personal muse (years ago they made a dreadful film together); she's definitely a great actress, and here she speaks fluent Italian with a perfect Russian accent. Still, Swinton being Swinton, when her character finally finds herself you don't find nor feel any real emotion - but then this is probably what the director, with all his good taste for houses and clothes, wanted.
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Mine (2009) Geralyn Pezanoski 710
Heart wrenching documentary about the attempts to reunite pets (dogs in these cases) with their owners in the aftermath of Hurrican Katarina. The film raises all sorts of dilemmas that people faced and whilst their are some happy endings, there are others that remain unresolved.
Tetro (2009) Francis Ford Coppola 7/10
Curiosity from Coppola, beautiful shot in black and white, and starring a typivally unhinged Vincent Gallo. Carmen Maura makes an amusing appearance.
[Rec] 2 (2010) Jaume Balaguerio & Paca Plaza 6/10
Effective sequel to the earlier film which picks up at the same time that the first one finished. Nicely set up for a third iinstallment.
Trash Humpers (2010) Harmony Korine 5/10
Indulgent to the extreme and nothing more then a curiosity. Approach with caution. Thank goodness Korine was not filming the drowning some poor helpless kittens as he did in Gummo.
Sagan (2008) Diane Kurys 4/10
Pedestrain film about the life of author Francoise Sagan who created something of a scandal with her first book at the age of 18 that was later made in Bonjour Tristesse. Everything is so rushed through there is no sense of place or time. Sylvie Testud plugs away at the role but the whole thing is told in with such broad strokes by Kurys that they is nothing much to respond to.
The Girl on a Train (2009) Andre Techine 7/10
Inspired by a true incident that allegedly took place on the Paris Metro when a young girl claimed to by the victim of a racist attack when she was mistakenly taken for being Jewish. That is just one part of the film, whilst the other deals with the same girls relationship with a man she has recently met. This may not be prime Techine, but it nevertheless makes for some compelling cinema.
Ivul (2010) Andrew Knotting 6/10
British filmmaker Andrew Knotting is barely known in the UK, much less the rest of the world. His first film was the documentary Gallivant, a one of a kind road trip around the entire coast of England with his grandmother and young daughter - there's nothing made quiet like it. I don't have much recollection of his first fictional film - This Filthy Earth, only that I did quiet like it. His latest film made in France, Ivul due to lack of financing in the UK was a bit of a disappointment for me. It has some beautiful, lyrical moments but falls into an abyss with no where to go. Still it's worth checking out if you want something out of the mainstream and it does confirm Andrew Knotting as a talent to look out for.
The Man Who Loved Yngve (2008) Stian Kristiansen 7/10
Lovely coming of age story set in a small town in Norway about the attraction and sexual awakening of two highschoolers. With the quality of queer cinema at an almost low point this was a nice surprise.
Black Death (2010) Christopher Smith 1/10
Medieval plague drama were Christians meet Pagans and all hell breaks loose. Ugly in every respect and I only sat through it because I enjoyed Christopher Smith's earlier film, the very grusome Severance a couple years back.
Leap Year (2010) Anand Tucker 1/10
This 'romantic comedy' would make a good double bill with the equally nauseating PS I Love You. It's putrid nonsense and has put me completely off the whiney Amy Adams once and for all. How does she get work?
The Town (2010) Ben Affleck 7/10
If anything, this proves that Gone Baby Gone was no fluke and that Ben Affleck is an up and coming talented director. It's a shame is decided to appear in the film, as his performance was the weakest like. But Rebecca Hall was outstanding and the whole exercise was tense and involving to the end credits.
Morgiana (1972) Juraj Herz 7/10
Another crazy off-beat film from Juraj Herz this one about the fractured relationshop between two sisters, with the evil sister making Bette Davi's of Joan Crawford in Baby Jane look like a walk in the part. The film tappers of in the last 20 minutes but it is for the most part of rewarding experience.
Edited By Precious Doll on 1287660382
Heart wrenching documentary about the attempts to reunite pets (dogs in these cases) with their owners in the aftermath of Hurrican Katarina. The film raises all sorts of dilemmas that people faced and whilst their are some happy endings, there are others that remain unresolved.
Tetro (2009) Francis Ford Coppola 7/10
Curiosity from Coppola, beautiful shot in black and white, and starring a typivally unhinged Vincent Gallo. Carmen Maura makes an amusing appearance.
[Rec] 2 (2010) Jaume Balaguerio & Paca Plaza 6/10
Effective sequel to the earlier film which picks up at the same time that the first one finished. Nicely set up for a third iinstallment.
Trash Humpers (2010) Harmony Korine 5/10
Indulgent to the extreme and nothing more then a curiosity. Approach with caution. Thank goodness Korine was not filming the drowning some poor helpless kittens as he did in Gummo.
Sagan (2008) Diane Kurys 4/10
Pedestrain film about the life of author Francoise Sagan who created something of a scandal with her first book at the age of 18 that was later made in Bonjour Tristesse. Everything is so rushed through there is no sense of place or time. Sylvie Testud plugs away at the role but the whole thing is told in with such broad strokes by Kurys that they is nothing much to respond to.
The Girl on a Train (2009) Andre Techine 7/10
Inspired by a true incident that allegedly took place on the Paris Metro when a young girl claimed to by the victim of a racist attack when she was mistakenly taken for being Jewish. That is just one part of the film, whilst the other deals with the same girls relationship with a man she has recently met. This may not be prime Techine, but it nevertheless makes for some compelling cinema.
Ivul (2010) Andrew Knotting 6/10
British filmmaker Andrew Knotting is barely known in the UK, much less the rest of the world. His first film was the documentary Gallivant, a one of a kind road trip around the entire coast of England with his grandmother and young daughter - there's nothing made quiet like it. I don't have much recollection of his first fictional film - This Filthy Earth, only that I did quiet like it. His latest film made in France, Ivul due to lack of financing in the UK was a bit of a disappointment for me. It has some beautiful, lyrical moments but falls into an abyss with no where to go. Still it's worth checking out if you want something out of the mainstream and it does confirm Andrew Knotting as a talent to look out for.
The Man Who Loved Yngve (2008) Stian Kristiansen 7/10
Lovely coming of age story set in a small town in Norway about the attraction and sexual awakening of two highschoolers. With the quality of queer cinema at an almost low point this was a nice surprise.
Black Death (2010) Christopher Smith 1/10
Medieval plague drama were Christians meet Pagans and all hell breaks loose. Ugly in every respect and I only sat through it because I enjoyed Christopher Smith's earlier film, the very grusome Severance a couple years back.
Leap Year (2010) Anand Tucker 1/10
This 'romantic comedy' would make a good double bill with the equally nauseating PS I Love You. It's putrid nonsense and has put me completely off the whiney Amy Adams once and for all. How does she get work?
The Town (2010) Ben Affleck 7/10
If anything, this proves that Gone Baby Gone was no fluke and that Ben Affleck is an up and coming talented director. It's a shame is decided to appear in the film, as his performance was the weakest like. But Rebecca Hall was outstanding and the whole exercise was tense and involving to the end credits.
Morgiana (1972) Juraj Herz 7/10
Another crazy off-beat film from Juraj Herz this one about the fractured relationshop between two sisters, with the evil sister making Bette Davi's of Joan Crawford in Baby Jane look like a walk in the part. The film tappers of in the last 20 minutes but it is for the most part of rewarding experience.
Edited By Precious Doll on 1287660382
"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)
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Big Magilla
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I Am Love (2009) Luca Guadagnino 6/10
Loose Cannons (2010) Ferzan Ozpetek 7/10
Here are two Italian films abut the same subject but handled in two completely different manners, one lavishly praised by U.S. critics, the other not even released in the U.S.
I Am Love plays more like grand opera than a movie. It's gorgeously photographed in Milan and acted to the hilt by Tilda Swinton and company.
Swinton doesn't have a lot of dialogue, possibly owing to her lack of fluency in Italian. Her performance consists mostly of longing looks. This is not the kind of virtuoso acting job she's been doing lately. It's more a throwback to her Orlando days, not that that's a bad thing, just not we've come to expect from her.
She plays the wife of an industrial leader who with two straight sons and a gay daughter. When her elderly father-in-law retires due to ill health, he turns the business over to her husband and eldest son. She then has an affair with the son's friend, a chef. A family tragedy causes her to leave her husband and family and run of, presumably to live happily ever after with the chef.
Loose Cannons, which I saw on the plane coming home from Italy, basically covers the same territory, but it moves along much better and infuses the heavy drama with lots of comedy.
The set-up is pretty much the same, the wealthy family (in this case it's pasta the Southern Italian family makes), features a husband and wife and their three children - two gay sons and a straight daughter. Neither son is out to the family. When the younger one tells the older one he's gay and wants to return to his doctor boyfriend in Rome, the older one upstages him at the family dinner and announces he is gay and is leaving to find himself. The father promptly has a heart attack and the younger son now feels duty bound to stay in the closet. A family tragedy sets everything right in the end.
I admired I Am Love for its artistry but I liked the lighthearted Loose Cannons more.
Loose Cannons (2010) Ferzan Ozpetek 7/10
Here are two Italian films abut the same subject but handled in two completely different manners, one lavishly praised by U.S. critics, the other not even released in the U.S.
I Am Love plays more like grand opera than a movie. It's gorgeously photographed in Milan and acted to the hilt by Tilda Swinton and company.
Swinton doesn't have a lot of dialogue, possibly owing to her lack of fluency in Italian. Her performance consists mostly of longing looks. This is not the kind of virtuoso acting job she's been doing lately. It's more a throwback to her Orlando days, not that that's a bad thing, just not we've come to expect from her.
She plays the wife of an industrial leader who with two straight sons and a gay daughter. When her elderly father-in-law retires due to ill health, he turns the business over to her husband and eldest son. She then has an affair with the son's friend, a chef. A family tragedy causes her to leave her husband and family and run of, presumably to live happily ever after with the chef.
Loose Cannons, which I saw on the plane coming home from Italy, basically covers the same territory, but it moves along much better and infuses the heavy drama with lots of comedy.
The set-up is pretty much the same, the wealthy family (in this case it's pasta the Southern Italian family makes), features a husband and wife and their three children - two gay sons and a straight daughter. Neither son is out to the family. When the younger one tells the older one he's gay and wants to return to his doctor boyfriend in Rome, the older one upstages him at the family dinner and announces he is gay and is leaving to find himself. The father promptly has a heart attack and the younger son now feels duty bound to stay in the closet. A family tragedy sets everything right in the end.
I admired I Am Love for its artistry but I liked the lighthearted Loose Cannons more.
Reds (Warren Beatty, 1981) 4/10
A personal project for Beatty and he was rewarded for it with an Oscar. It was such a chore to sit through this film again years after I first saw it....although truth be told it was a chore then too. I found it totally lifeless with characters I didn't care about or their plight. The film gets an A for effort, ofcourse, with kudos to the production design, costumes, cinematography (although everything and everyone looks dark and dinghy) and especially the tight editing (thankfully scenes don't linger and move quickly from one to the other). Jack Nicholson comes off best as O' Neill and is the romantic center of the film with his presence and scenes with Diane Keaton. Although on a whole I just could not buy her in this period role. She is miscast and has zero chemistry with Warren Beatty. Their scenes together just do not convey the longing and love the characters are supposed to feel for each other. Maureen Stapleton is good and I'm glad she finally got her Oscar but really, what did she do here to deserve it that year?
I think I now understand why Chariots of Fire won best picture over this film.
Edited By Reza on 1287572128
A personal project for Beatty and he was rewarded for it with an Oscar. It was such a chore to sit through this film again years after I first saw it....although truth be told it was a chore then too. I found it totally lifeless with characters I didn't care about or their plight. The film gets an A for effort, ofcourse, with kudos to the production design, costumes, cinematography (although everything and everyone looks dark and dinghy) and especially the tight editing (thankfully scenes don't linger and move quickly from one to the other). Jack Nicholson comes off best as O' Neill and is the romantic center of the film with his presence and scenes with Diane Keaton. Although on a whole I just could not buy her in this period role. She is miscast and has zero chemistry with Warren Beatty. Their scenes together just do not convey the longing and love the characters are supposed to feel for each other. Maureen Stapleton is good and I'm glad she finally got her Oscar but really, what did she do here to deserve it that year?
I think I now understand why Chariots of Fire won best picture over this film.
Edited By Reza on 1287572128
/Rosemary's Baby/ (Polanski) - 9/10
Saw it projected at the New Beverly. I found myself very interested in how Polanski shoots very small scenes packed with information, how he uses onners to cover basically everything, and how this essentially creates a feeling of throttling through a book...and a pregnancy. It's gorgeously shot and scored. There is something subversive about the casting of John Cassavetes as the husband. He's doing something interesting in his outright portrayal of a cad with very little ambiguity to speak of. There's little doubt that he's involved in something wrong...maybe it's because the ending has become canon that when he reveals his shoulder to be bare it carries no relief or dispersion of doubt.
Black Devil Doll from Hell (Chester N. Turner) - um...
Appeals to the oft-ignored sub-sect of shitty 80's VHS, African-American puppet soft-core aficionados. This movie is beyond belief, revealing a misogynist slant of a woman needing to be tamed, dominated, puppet-fucked, such that puppet-fucking becomes another form of domination just like her Christian upbringing. It's also just a gloriously bad VHS feature with a two key synth soundtrack, horrible acting, unrecognizable cinematography, and an actress who got far too naked in this film for whatever she must have been paid.
Saw it projected at the New Beverly. I found myself very interested in how Polanski shoots very small scenes packed with information, how he uses onners to cover basically everything, and how this essentially creates a feeling of throttling through a book...and a pregnancy. It's gorgeously shot and scored. There is something subversive about the casting of John Cassavetes as the husband. He's doing something interesting in his outright portrayal of a cad with very little ambiguity to speak of. There's little doubt that he's involved in something wrong...maybe it's because the ending has become canon that when he reveals his shoulder to be bare it carries no relief or dispersion of doubt.
Black Devil Doll from Hell (Chester N. Turner) - um...
Appeals to the oft-ignored sub-sect of shitty 80's VHS, African-American puppet soft-core aficionados. This movie is beyond belief, revealing a misogynist slant of a woman needing to be tamed, dominated, puppet-fucked, such that puppet-fucking becomes another form of domination just like her Christian upbringing. It's also just a gloriously bad VHS feature with a two key synth soundtrack, horrible acting, unrecognizable cinematography, and an actress who got far too naked in this film for whatever she must have been paid.
"How's the despair?"
The Special Relationship (Richard Loncraine, 2010) 6/10
Michael Sheen and Hope Davis are superb as Tony Blair and Hillary Clinton in this take on the relationship between the American President and the British Prime Minister. The Brits get all the hilarious dialogue especially in their reactions to the Clinton and Monica Lewinsky ''affair''. Dennis Quaid (as Clinton) is also very good although the actor looks too bloated compared to the real Clinton.
Michael Sheen and Hope Davis are superb as Tony Blair and Hillary Clinton in this take on the relationship between the American President and the British Prime Minister. The Brits get all the hilarious dialogue especially in their reactions to the Clinton and Monica Lewinsky ''affair''. Dennis Quaid (as Clinton) is also very good although the actor looks too bloated compared to the real Clinton.
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Precious Doll
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Arise, My Love (1940) Mitchell Leisen 4/10
Where Love Has Gone (1964) Edward Dmytryk 3/10
Many Wars Ago (1970) Francesco Rosi 7/10
Please Please Me (2009) Emmanuel Mouret 4/10
Madeinusa (2006) Claudia Llosa 7/10
The City of Your Final Destination (2010) James Ivory 5/10
Repeat Viewings
Bonjour Tirstesse (1958) Otto Preminger 7/10
Sundays and Cybele (1962) Serge Bourguignon 7/10
Marlene (1984) Maximillian Schell 6/10
Edited By Precious Doll on 1287052266
Where Love Has Gone (1964) Edward Dmytryk 3/10
Many Wars Ago (1970) Francesco Rosi 7/10
Please Please Me (2009) Emmanuel Mouret 4/10
Madeinusa (2006) Claudia Llosa 7/10
The City of Your Final Destination (2010) James Ivory 5/10
Repeat Viewings
Bonjour Tirstesse (1958) Otto Preminger 7/10
Sundays and Cybele (1962) Serge Bourguignon 7/10
Marlene (1984) Maximillian Schell 6/10
Edited By Precious Doll on 1287052266
"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)