Back When We Were Grownups (Ron Underwood, 2004) 4/10
A widow's (Blythe Danner) busy life revolves around her quirky family - her daughter (Ione Skye), three step-daughters, their husbands, grandchildren, a 99-year old eccentric uncle (Jack Palance), her brother-in-law and confidante (Peter Riegert), her childhood sweetheart (Peter Fonda), her Mom (Nina Foch) and her late husband's first wife (Faye Dunaway). No real plot, but just a series of vignettes with Danner wondering what has become of her life which she has spent running around for other people while totally neglecting herself. Typical Hallmark television film, sometimes syrupy and sometimes teary, is held together by the likeable central performance by Danner who was nominated for an Emmy award. Instantly forgettable film.
Lola (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1981) 10/10
The film is partially inspired by Josef von Sternberg's "The Blue Angel" and is the second of Fassbinder's trilogy of historical satires dealing with democracy and the free enterprise system in post-WWII Germany. It is shot using a palette of primary colours heavily influenced by the technicolor films of Hollywood during the 1950s and in particular the melodramas of directors Vincente Minnelli and Douglas Sirk. Lola (Barbara Sukowa), a prostitute and singer, is the mistress of a corrupt building contractor (Mario Adorf), and also the mother of his illegitimate child. She works in the brothel owned by him and entertains the town's mayor and other crooked officials. Her desire to rise above her "station" and become one of "them" - the town's elite - sets her plan in motion when she hears that an idealistic building commissioner (Armin Mueller-Stahl) has been newly appointed. She seduces him (dressed in virginal white) without divulging her true identity. Smitten by her he proposes but she eventually breaks off their engagement telling him to leave town because his honesty does not gell with the rest of the town citizens. When his assistant informs him that the contractor is behind all the corruption and also exposes Lola's actual profession the devastated man comes down hard against all the politicians. However, when he is offered to take Lola and do what he wants with her he arrives drunk at the brothel and hires her for the night. She realises he is deeply in love with her and she accepts his proposal of marriage. The ironic ending is in contrast to the von Sternberg film which had the old man destroyed by his love for the prostitute. Fassbinder exposes Germany's political corruption during the 1950s and has his protagonist make a deal with the contractor. He gets his whore in exchange for turning a blind eye towards the corruption. And she gets "respectability" through marriage even though she continues being the contractor's most "expensive mistress". Everybody in the end gets what they want. Both Sukowa and Muller-Stahl are superb and the director's regular group of actors - Karin Baal, Ivan Desny, Elisabeth Volkmann, Rosel Zech, Matthias Fuchs, Günther Kaufmann - all appear in small but vivid parts. This is one of Fassbinder's best films - a sumptuous, cynical historical satire that celebrates corruption and infidelity.
Operazione paura / Kill, Baby...Kill! (Mario Bava, 1966) 9/10
Bava takes what are typical gothic elements of the horror genre and uses an atmosphere of dread to create a chilling film. A small run down village lives in fear of the ghost of a small girl. Legend has it that when a young girl, killed years before by drunks, shows herself to someone that person dies an agonizing death. A coroner (Giacomo Rossi Stuart) is summoned when the body of a girl is found impaled to death. Scoffing at the legend but amazed to find the villagers so scared - a young girl has seen the ghost and the local witch (Fabienne Dali) "treats" her in order to save her - he tries to solve the mystery with help from a medical student (Erika Blanc). Low budget film had a troubled production history but despite that Bava's lush production design - the crumbling village buildings, misty cobbled streets, tall spiral staircases and mansions with large halls and eerie decor - and Antonio Rinaldi's hallucinogenic cinematography, which periodically zooms into intense closeups, give it a feeling of an acid trip very much in keeping with the mood prevalent during the swinging sixties. The film with its iconic image of the little ghost girl in a white lace dress bouncing a white ball influenced a spate of film directors from Fellini to Scorsese to Lynch. The film never lets up creating a mysterious aura from start to finish.
Venom (Piers Haggard, 1981) 6/10
An interesting cast have a go with a deadly black mamba on the loose just as a kidnapping plot is underway. An international criminal (Klaus Kinski) plots with his girlfriend (Susan George) to kidnap the asthmatic grandson of a great African hunter (Sterling Hayden). The plan goes awry when the child gets delivered a poisonous black mamba instead of the harmless pet snake he had ordered. Matters come to a head when the chauffeur (Oliver Reed), also a member of the gang, shoots a cop and the entire police force lays siege to the house from outside. Negotiations for a safe escape are turned down by the head cop (Nicol Williamson) and a toxicologist (Sarah Miles) is called in to warn everyone inside the house about the snake. As with most such films the behind the scenes infighting between cast members - both Kinski and Reed were daggers drawn throughout the shoot - is just as interesting as the on-screen drama with the snake. The camera slithers around taking on the view point of the snake as it starts biting the cast members one by one allowing the actors to go all out in their death throes, writhing in agony as their bodies contort in grotesque ways. Despite every cliché in the book the film still manages to deliver as it goes way over the top - with some of the actors hamming it up to high heaven - making it a fun film to sit through. It is strictly a B-film with stars no longer in vogue but who gamely give the stale material a stab. However, the best performance is given by the nasty snake as it bares its dripping fangs and lunges at whichever cast member it can reach.
Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
In Harm's Way (Otto Preminger, 1965) 8/10
Old fashioned film was the last all-star WWII epic shot in black and white by a major studio. Panned by critics when it first came out the film actually works despite its soap opera trappings with a number of exciting action sequences scattered throughout. The film follows the lives of a group of Naval officers and their wives and girlfriends stationed in Hawaii - the film begins with the attack on Pearl Harbor - and across the Pacific islands as the Japanese offensives increase. The screenplay ensures a relatively unromantic and realistic view of the American Navy and desists from presenting events with a patriotic fervour usually always present in all the war films made during the 1940s which reeked of propaganda. Leading the main plot is John Wayne as a disgraced Captain who later becomes an Admiral given a diificult assignment. We follow his relationships with a fellow officer (Kirk Douglas) - a psychological mess after his trampy wife (Barbara Bouchet) is killed with her lover during the attack on Pearl Harbor, his prickly relationship with his estranged son (Brandon de Wilde) who is in love with a young nurse (Jill Haworth). She is the roommate of a doctor (Patricia Neal) with whom the Admiral falls in love - a striking mature romance with Neal giving a superb performance (she won a Bafta award) as the world weary but optimistic nurse who thaws rigid Wayne. Tom Tryon and Paula Prentiss play another couple going through war traumas while senior officers on the periphery are played by Burgess Meredith, Dana Andrews, Franchot Tone and Henry Fonda as Admiral Nimitz who figures during the pitched sea battle at the end when many of the cast members either die or are wounded. Adding to the drama is an unfortunate rape, a suicide and the perpetrator making "amends" during a suicide mission. Shot in stunning wide screen - Loyal Griggs was nominated for an Academy Award - with a rousing score by Jerry Goldsmith, the film is great entertainment with the use of excellent special effects during the battle sequences.
Es geschah am hellichten Tag / It Happened in Broad Daylight (Ladislao Vajda, 1958) 8/10
Riveting police pocedural with a retired Inspector (Heinz Rühmann) doggedly trying to find a serial killer who has been murdering little girls by slashing them with a razor. The case comes to light when a derelect peddler (Michel Simon) discovers the body of a girl in the woods and reports it to the police. The old man is relentlessly interrogated, is incarcerated in prison and accused for the crime despite protesting his innocence. When he hangs himself in despair the former Inspector continues to investigate using another child as a bait to capture the actual murderer (Gert Fröbe). Chilling cat-and-mouse thriller with noir overtones manages an atmosphere of dread without showing any violence on the screen. It was after watching this film that the producers cast Gert Fröbe as "Goldfinger". Sean Penn remade the film years later as "The Pledge".
The Mist (Frank Darabont, 2007) 8/10
Unsettling horror film about a group of people - Thomas Jane is the dad with a young son, Marcia Gay Harden is the Bible-spouting fanatic who thinks she is a direct link to God, Frances Sternhagen a feisty old lady, Laurie Holden a pretty young lady, Toby Jones an unexpected hotshot with a gun, Andre Braugher an unbeliever and a number of other small-town folk - trapped in a supermarket trying to ward off strange deadly creatures that come out of a mist that has enveloped the area. Superbly directed film never lets up leading upto the horrific "Twillight Zone"-inspired ending. B-movie, based on the novel by Stephen King, harks back to all the monster movies from the 1950s but with a lethal sting up its sleeve. The creatures are an amalgam of something out of the pages of Jules Verne with a strong mix of the creature from "Alien" and assorted other monster movies. The screenplay also explores the power dynamics between people and how when cornered their minds can twist away from being civilized into creatures not far off from savage beasts. Twisted and shocking film is one of the best in the horror genre.
The Jigsaw Man (Terence Young, 1983) 1/10
Troubled production became a silly spy thriller about a defected MI6 Director (Michael Caine) no longer of use to the Russians who gets a face lift and sent back to England by the KGB to retreive a hidden list of spies. Once back home he contacts his daughter (Susan George) and plays a cat-and-mouse game with his former colleague (Laurence Olivier) and his cronies (Robert Powell & Charles Gray). Dull film has the somewhat pleasure of seeing both Olivier and Caine reuinited after "Sleuth" but both actors phone in their performances looking bored throughout.
Blind (Michael Mailer, 2007) 5/10
I thought this was going to be a thriller about a psychotic man chasing a blind woman but as the film began I realized that I was thinking of the thriller elements from the stars' previous movie together "The Juror". They appeared in that film when both were big stars at the top of their game with very bright futures ahead of then. But careers have a habit of taking strange twists. The intense Alec Baldwin went downhill only to put on weight and become an even bigger star but as a comedian on a sitcom on television. Demi Moore, after a stint as the highest paid female star in Hollywood while married to Bruce Willis, ended up divorced and in the gutter thanks to a drug problem. After years away she is gradually emerging on the screen again with a somewhat restructured face which is now a norm with almost all Hollywood divas. A Manhattan socialite (Demi Moore) finds herself in trouble with the law when her high flying financial wheeler-dealer husband (Dylan McDermott) ends up in jail awaiting trial for something nefarious in his business dealings. The judge sentences her to do 100 hours of community service which leads her to an irascible blind writer and University professor (Alec Baldwin) for whom she has to read his students' assignments. Their relationship gets off to a bad start which gradually thaws as she reads out loud, they take walks together, go out for dinner and inevitably fall in love. The film takes on a european flavour - two middle-aged people coming together and finding love. His wife died in the car crash which blinded him while she is basically married to a self centered asshole with a vicious temper. Manhattan takes on the romantic colour of Paris, a city which both talk about a lot. Unfortunately the film's pace is slow, the relationship not very convincing and the husband's end of the story has the psychotic thriller aspect to it which does not comfortably gel with the rest of the mood in the film. Robert Redford sings "Bird in a Cage" over the closing credits.
A Suitable Boy (Mira Nair, 2020) 7/10
Vikram Seth's sprawling epic novel has been brought to the television screen as a 6-part miniseries by Mira Nair. The book is one of the longest English language novels published in a single volume and the tv adaptation probably doesn't do it justice in just 6 episodes. The story is a fascinating look at a newly post-independence, post-partition India as the story, set in 1951, follows the lives of four families, and in particular the two main protagonists around whom the two main plots revolve. Lata (Tanya Maniktala) is a 19-year old college student, whose domineering mother is on the lookout for a suitable boy for her to marry. She starts out dead against the institution of marriage but soon finds herself being pursued by three suitors - Kabir (Danish Razvi) is a Muslim student at her university who is obsessed by her. Amit (Mikhail Sen) is an acclaimed poet and author, educated in England, who is her Bengali sister-in-law's brother. And Haresh (Namit Das) is a simple but enterprising and determined shoe manufacturer. Lata's story revolves around the choice she is forced to make between her suitors. The second main plot revolves around Maan (Ishaan Khatter), the highly romantic, feckless son of a State Minister who has to suddenly grow up after his life takes strange twists and turns. He falls passionately in love with an older courtesan and musician, Saeeda Bai (Tabu), who reciprocates his feelings but realises that their affair is doomed. Both Tabu and Ishaan Khatter bring a deep sense of erotic longing to their scenes which are depicted in a sexually frank manner. And in doing so easily lift the film up by a notch or two. The melodramatic story encompasses everything from family intrigues, politics of the nation, extra marital affairs, incest, homosexual longing, mob riots involving Hindus and Muslims and attempted murder. Mira Nair deftly handles all the interconnecting story lines keeping a sharp eye on the smallest details involving the eye-popping production values that bring a bygone era to life. Every character, no matter how briefly shown, is instantly relatable, and one immediately gets a sense of their life arc - Shahana Goswami as the slutty but gregarious Bengali sister-in-law, Randeep Hooda as her slick lover, Manoj Pawhwa as a fat and sleazy Nawab who is a regular client of the courtesan, Ranvir Shorey as an opportunistic backstabbing servant and Vijay Varma as a disgruntled villager. The film has been criticised for not doing justice to the book but then not many adaptations measure up to the original. Not having read the book was probably a plus point for me as I found the story throroughly engrossing, although I felt it could have been far better sketched out with a couple more episodes. The most jarring aspect of the production for me was the dialogue spoken almost entirely in english. The story would have been more visually alive and authentic if the entire dialogue had been spoken instead in Hindi and Urdu with a smattering of english as it happens in reality in India.
The Golden Hawk (Sidney Salkow, 1952) 4/10
Old fashioned swashbuckler, based on a bestseller by Frank Yerby, has wooden Sterling Hayden as a french sea captain clashing with a female pirate (Rhonda Fleming) as they take on the Governor of Cartagena (John Sutton). The Franco-English-Spanish War of the 17th century is the backdrop for this adventure film involving sea battles, gold bullion, a kidnapped heiress (Helena Carter) and the hangman's noose. Totally unspectacular despite a couple of well staged action sequences. It merely apes far better films from the genre. The colour cinematography is stunning to look at as is the lovely Rhonda Fleming in a feisty role.
Fear in the Night (Jimmy Sangster, 1972) 4/10
Psychological horror film from Hammer Film productions uses female hysteria as its central motif - a common theme found in many British films of the 1970s. A mentally-fragile young woman (Judy Geeson), recently married, is attacked by a person with a prosthetic hand but nobody believes her. Joining her husband (Ralph Bates), who works at a secluded boarding school, she is again attacked from behind and faints. The next day she takes a tour of the empty school and meets the headmaster (Peter Cushing) who unbeknownst to her has a prosthetic hand. Later she meets his standoffish wife (Joan Collins) who nearly shoots her on their sprawling property claiming she was aiming at a rabbit. That night the mysterious attacker breaks into her house but before she is attacked she manages to shoot him with a shotgun and runs into the school. It is the headmaster and he chases after her and finds her cowering inside a room. She shoots him a second time and faints. The following day her husband discovers her in a catatonic state with no sign of the headmaster. The derivative plot with its glaringly obvious conclusion uses prowling camera movements and sound effects to create an eerie atmosphere. The cast is game - sinister Cushing, bitchy Collins and highstrung Geeson - but the plot is just too old hat to be effective.
Six Minutes to Midnight (Andy Goddard, 2020) 3/10
During the summer of 1939 a teacher at an exclusive girl's finishing school on the southern coast of England is found washed up on the beach. The 20 students at the school are the daughters of high ranking Nazi officials sent to learn english and to become ambassadors of a new socialist world order. The school is run by a kind but naive headmistress (Judi Dench) with the help of her German assistant (Carla Juri). Matters come to a head when a newly hired teacher (Eddie Izzard), who is actually a British agent, falls foul of an informant at the school and goes on the run chased by a cop (James D'Arcy) who may or may not be a german spy and helped by a passing bus driver (Jim Broadbent). Lifeless thriller is supposedly based on a true story but fails to generate suspense. A good cast is wasted - Dench throughout looks like a deer caught in the headlights of a car, Izzard looks weird without his female attire and Jim Broadbent looks confused like someone who has wandered on to the wrong film set. The only memorable part of this lousy film is the location - the film was shot on the stunning coast of Wales with gigantic cliffs, the beach and the countryside playing a part during the drama.
The Blackwater Lightship (John Erman, 2004) 6/10
A young man, dying of A.I.D.S., is cared for by his grandmother (Angela Lansbury), mother (Dianne Wiest) and sister (Gina McKee) at the old lady's cottage by the sea. While he is going through the last days' agony of his illness, his mother and sister thrash out long simmering resentments against each other. The drama is played out in the beautiful surroundings of County Wicklow in Ireland with the entire cast adopting an Irish brogue. One of numerous television films that came in the wake of the A.I.D.S. epidemic, this one takes a teary but heartwarming route and deals with acceptance and reconciliation. Lansbury steals every scene with her hammy performance and was nominated for an Emmy award.
Old fashioned film was the last all-star WWII epic shot in black and white by a major studio. Panned by critics when it first came out the film actually works despite its soap opera trappings with a number of exciting action sequences scattered throughout. The film follows the lives of a group of Naval officers and their wives and girlfriends stationed in Hawaii - the film begins with the attack on Pearl Harbor - and across the Pacific islands as the Japanese offensives increase. The screenplay ensures a relatively unromantic and realistic view of the American Navy and desists from presenting events with a patriotic fervour usually always present in all the war films made during the 1940s which reeked of propaganda. Leading the main plot is John Wayne as a disgraced Captain who later becomes an Admiral given a diificult assignment. We follow his relationships with a fellow officer (Kirk Douglas) - a psychological mess after his trampy wife (Barbara Bouchet) is killed with her lover during the attack on Pearl Harbor, his prickly relationship with his estranged son (Brandon de Wilde) who is in love with a young nurse (Jill Haworth). She is the roommate of a doctor (Patricia Neal) with whom the Admiral falls in love - a striking mature romance with Neal giving a superb performance (she won a Bafta award) as the world weary but optimistic nurse who thaws rigid Wayne. Tom Tryon and Paula Prentiss play another couple going through war traumas while senior officers on the periphery are played by Burgess Meredith, Dana Andrews, Franchot Tone and Henry Fonda as Admiral Nimitz who figures during the pitched sea battle at the end when many of the cast members either die or are wounded. Adding to the drama is an unfortunate rape, a suicide and the perpetrator making "amends" during a suicide mission. Shot in stunning wide screen - Loyal Griggs was nominated for an Academy Award - with a rousing score by Jerry Goldsmith, the film is great entertainment with the use of excellent special effects during the battle sequences.
Es geschah am hellichten Tag / It Happened in Broad Daylight (Ladislao Vajda, 1958) 8/10
Riveting police pocedural with a retired Inspector (Heinz Rühmann) doggedly trying to find a serial killer who has been murdering little girls by slashing them with a razor. The case comes to light when a derelect peddler (Michel Simon) discovers the body of a girl in the woods and reports it to the police. The old man is relentlessly interrogated, is incarcerated in prison and accused for the crime despite protesting his innocence. When he hangs himself in despair the former Inspector continues to investigate using another child as a bait to capture the actual murderer (Gert Fröbe). Chilling cat-and-mouse thriller with noir overtones manages an atmosphere of dread without showing any violence on the screen. It was after watching this film that the producers cast Gert Fröbe as "Goldfinger". Sean Penn remade the film years later as "The Pledge".
The Mist (Frank Darabont, 2007) 8/10
Unsettling horror film about a group of people - Thomas Jane is the dad with a young son, Marcia Gay Harden is the Bible-spouting fanatic who thinks she is a direct link to God, Frances Sternhagen a feisty old lady, Laurie Holden a pretty young lady, Toby Jones an unexpected hotshot with a gun, Andre Braugher an unbeliever and a number of other small-town folk - trapped in a supermarket trying to ward off strange deadly creatures that come out of a mist that has enveloped the area. Superbly directed film never lets up leading upto the horrific "Twillight Zone"-inspired ending. B-movie, based on the novel by Stephen King, harks back to all the monster movies from the 1950s but with a lethal sting up its sleeve. The creatures are an amalgam of something out of the pages of Jules Verne with a strong mix of the creature from "Alien" and assorted other monster movies. The screenplay also explores the power dynamics between people and how when cornered their minds can twist away from being civilized into creatures not far off from savage beasts. Twisted and shocking film is one of the best in the horror genre.
The Jigsaw Man (Terence Young, 1983) 1/10
Troubled production became a silly spy thriller about a defected MI6 Director (Michael Caine) no longer of use to the Russians who gets a face lift and sent back to England by the KGB to retreive a hidden list of spies. Once back home he contacts his daughter (Susan George) and plays a cat-and-mouse game with his former colleague (Laurence Olivier) and his cronies (Robert Powell & Charles Gray). Dull film has the somewhat pleasure of seeing both Olivier and Caine reuinited after "Sleuth" but both actors phone in their performances looking bored throughout.
Blind (Michael Mailer, 2007) 5/10
I thought this was going to be a thriller about a psychotic man chasing a blind woman but as the film began I realized that I was thinking of the thriller elements from the stars' previous movie together "The Juror". They appeared in that film when both were big stars at the top of their game with very bright futures ahead of then. But careers have a habit of taking strange twists. The intense Alec Baldwin went downhill only to put on weight and become an even bigger star but as a comedian on a sitcom on television. Demi Moore, after a stint as the highest paid female star in Hollywood while married to Bruce Willis, ended up divorced and in the gutter thanks to a drug problem. After years away she is gradually emerging on the screen again with a somewhat restructured face which is now a norm with almost all Hollywood divas. A Manhattan socialite (Demi Moore) finds herself in trouble with the law when her high flying financial wheeler-dealer husband (Dylan McDermott) ends up in jail awaiting trial for something nefarious in his business dealings. The judge sentences her to do 100 hours of community service which leads her to an irascible blind writer and University professor (Alec Baldwin) for whom she has to read his students' assignments. Their relationship gets off to a bad start which gradually thaws as she reads out loud, they take walks together, go out for dinner and inevitably fall in love. The film takes on a european flavour - two middle-aged people coming together and finding love. His wife died in the car crash which blinded him while she is basically married to a self centered asshole with a vicious temper. Manhattan takes on the romantic colour of Paris, a city which both talk about a lot. Unfortunately the film's pace is slow, the relationship not very convincing and the husband's end of the story has the psychotic thriller aspect to it which does not comfortably gel with the rest of the mood in the film. Robert Redford sings "Bird in a Cage" over the closing credits.
A Suitable Boy (Mira Nair, 2020) 7/10
Vikram Seth's sprawling epic novel has been brought to the television screen as a 6-part miniseries by Mira Nair. The book is one of the longest English language novels published in a single volume and the tv adaptation probably doesn't do it justice in just 6 episodes. The story is a fascinating look at a newly post-independence, post-partition India as the story, set in 1951, follows the lives of four families, and in particular the two main protagonists around whom the two main plots revolve. Lata (Tanya Maniktala) is a 19-year old college student, whose domineering mother is on the lookout for a suitable boy for her to marry. She starts out dead against the institution of marriage but soon finds herself being pursued by three suitors - Kabir (Danish Razvi) is a Muslim student at her university who is obsessed by her. Amit (Mikhail Sen) is an acclaimed poet and author, educated in England, who is her Bengali sister-in-law's brother. And Haresh (Namit Das) is a simple but enterprising and determined shoe manufacturer. Lata's story revolves around the choice she is forced to make between her suitors. The second main plot revolves around Maan (Ishaan Khatter), the highly romantic, feckless son of a State Minister who has to suddenly grow up after his life takes strange twists and turns. He falls passionately in love with an older courtesan and musician, Saeeda Bai (Tabu), who reciprocates his feelings but realises that their affair is doomed. Both Tabu and Ishaan Khatter bring a deep sense of erotic longing to their scenes which are depicted in a sexually frank manner. And in doing so easily lift the film up by a notch or two. The melodramatic story encompasses everything from family intrigues, politics of the nation, extra marital affairs, incest, homosexual longing, mob riots involving Hindus and Muslims and attempted murder. Mira Nair deftly handles all the interconnecting story lines keeping a sharp eye on the smallest details involving the eye-popping production values that bring a bygone era to life. Every character, no matter how briefly shown, is instantly relatable, and one immediately gets a sense of their life arc - Shahana Goswami as the slutty but gregarious Bengali sister-in-law, Randeep Hooda as her slick lover, Manoj Pawhwa as a fat and sleazy Nawab who is a regular client of the courtesan, Ranvir Shorey as an opportunistic backstabbing servant and Vijay Varma as a disgruntled villager. The film has been criticised for not doing justice to the book but then not many adaptations measure up to the original. Not having read the book was probably a plus point for me as I found the story throroughly engrossing, although I felt it could have been far better sketched out with a couple more episodes. The most jarring aspect of the production for me was the dialogue spoken almost entirely in english. The story would have been more visually alive and authentic if the entire dialogue had been spoken instead in Hindi and Urdu with a smattering of english as it happens in reality in India.
The Golden Hawk (Sidney Salkow, 1952) 4/10
Old fashioned swashbuckler, based on a bestseller by Frank Yerby, has wooden Sterling Hayden as a french sea captain clashing with a female pirate (Rhonda Fleming) as they take on the Governor of Cartagena (John Sutton). The Franco-English-Spanish War of the 17th century is the backdrop for this adventure film involving sea battles, gold bullion, a kidnapped heiress (Helena Carter) and the hangman's noose. Totally unspectacular despite a couple of well staged action sequences. It merely apes far better films from the genre. The colour cinematography is stunning to look at as is the lovely Rhonda Fleming in a feisty role.
Fear in the Night (Jimmy Sangster, 1972) 4/10
Psychological horror film from Hammer Film productions uses female hysteria as its central motif - a common theme found in many British films of the 1970s. A mentally-fragile young woman (Judy Geeson), recently married, is attacked by a person with a prosthetic hand but nobody believes her. Joining her husband (Ralph Bates), who works at a secluded boarding school, she is again attacked from behind and faints. The next day she takes a tour of the empty school and meets the headmaster (Peter Cushing) who unbeknownst to her has a prosthetic hand. Later she meets his standoffish wife (Joan Collins) who nearly shoots her on their sprawling property claiming she was aiming at a rabbit. That night the mysterious attacker breaks into her house but before she is attacked she manages to shoot him with a shotgun and runs into the school. It is the headmaster and he chases after her and finds her cowering inside a room. She shoots him a second time and faints. The following day her husband discovers her in a catatonic state with no sign of the headmaster. The derivative plot with its glaringly obvious conclusion uses prowling camera movements and sound effects to create an eerie atmosphere. The cast is game - sinister Cushing, bitchy Collins and highstrung Geeson - but the plot is just too old hat to be effective.
Six Minutes to Midnight (Andy Goddard, 2020) 3/10
During the summer of 1939 a teacher at an exclusive girl's finishing school on the southern coast of England is found washed up on the beach. The 20 students at the school are the daughters of high ranking Nazi officials sent to learn english and to become ambassadors of a new socialist world order. The school is run by a kind but naive headmistress (Judi Dench) with the help of her German assistant (Carla Juri). Matters come to a head when a newly hired teacher (Eddie Izzard), who is actually a British agent, falls foul of an informant at the school and goes on the run chased by a cop (James D'Arcy) who may or may not be a german spy and helped by a passing bus driver (Jim Broadbent). Lifeless thriller is supposedly based on a true story but fails to generate suspense. A good cast is wasted - Dench throughout looks like a deer caught in the headlights of a car, Izzard looks weird without his female attire and Jim Broadbent looks confused like someone who has wandered on to the wrong film set. The only memorable part of this lousy film is the location - the film was shot on the stunning coast of Wales with gigantic cliffs, the beach and the countryside playing a part during the drama.
The Blackwater Lightship (John Erman, 2004) 6/10
A young man, dying of A.I.D.S., is cared for by his grandmother (Angela Lansbury), mother (Dianne Wiest) and sister (Gina McKee) at the old lady's cottage by the sea. While he is going through the last days' agony of his illness, his mother and sister thrash out long simmering resentments against each other. The drama is played out in the beautiful surroundings of County Wicklow in Ireland with the entire cast adopting an Irish brogue. One of numerous television films that came in the wake of the A.I.D.S. epidemic, this one takes a teary but heartwarming route and deals with acceptance and reconciliation. Lansbury steals every scene with her hammy performance and was nominated for an Emmy award.
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Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Dreading the remake of Rebecca, though I will watch it at some point, maybe even today.
It was one of my favorite novels when I was ten, along with 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Goodbye, Mr. Chips. Hitchcock's film was a masterpiece even it was more Selznick than Hitchcock. While it is rare for any remake of a highly lauded film to approach the greatness of the original, it is folly to even try to remake a Hitchcock film. He is one of the few classic directors, maybe the only one now, whose films are still seen and loved by new audiences on a regular basis.
It was one of my favorite novels when I was ten, along with 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Goodbye, Mr. Chips. Hitchcock's film was a masterpiece even it was more Selznick than Hitchcock. While it is rare for any remake of a highly lauded film to approach the greatness of the original, it is folly to even try to remake a Hitchcock film. He is one of the few classic directors, maybe the only one now, whose films are still seen and loved by new audiences on a regular basis.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Rebecca (Ben Wheatley, 2020) 5/10
I've been waiting in dread ever since it was announced that my favourite Hitchcock film was getting another big screen remake. It's always rather unfair to any remake to be compared to the original but inevitably one ends up doing just that. The original in this case is a much loved classic and a masterpiece to boot. I never understand why Hollywood churns out remakes. An answer always given is that it is to reintroduce a classic to younger generations. But damnit the original is not dead and buried. It is still very much around and should instead be revived for today's youth. No doubt this retread is handsomely produced. The vintage stately homes used as the backdrop for Daphne du Maurier's "Manderley" are spectacular as are the location shots of the Devon countryside, cliffs and coastline. And Armie Hammer looks dashing in his striking yellow suit but does he have to wear it three days running? No gentleman would repeat an outfit as glaringly bright as that. The screenplay pretty much follows the book (and the 1940 film version) but differs slightly at the end when it veers off hilariously into "Nancy Drew" territory and then caps that moment with a ridiculously melodramatic finale. The film also lacks the spooky atmosphere and suspense of the Hitchcock version. A shy young girl (Lily James), companion to a rich and vulgar American (Ann Dowd), meets the enigmatic widower Max de Winter (Armie Hammer) in Monte Carlo. After a whirlwind courtship he marries her and takes her back to his family estate, Manderley, in Cornwall. She immediately finds herself in over her head in her new surroundings. Adding to her woes is the intimidating housekeeper, Mrs Danvers (Kristin Scott Thomas), who never lets a moment go by singing the praises of Rebecca, the first lady of the house, who died under mysterious circumstances. The entire cast compares unfavourably to the actors in the older version - Laurence Olivier as brooding Max de Winter, Joan Fontaine as the frightened new bride, the great Judith Anderson as Mrs Danvers, the hilariously vulgar Florence Bates and Gladys Cooper, Nigel Bruce and George Sanders. Hammer comes off much better than James who cannot shake off her modern sensibility in a story set during the 1930s. Scott Thomas has been directed to emulate Judith Anderson - they probably didn't want to veer too far off with this famous character. She captures the deadpan stillness but fails to get across the lesbian undertones that Judith Anderson brought to the part. The sad thing about such remakes is that it draws today's audiences even further away from the old classic version. Its playing on Netflix so millions will get to watch it yet many will never even know that there is a better version out there. Now that is something truly sad to contemplate.
Bloodline (Terence Young, 1979) 3/10
An amateurish screenplay based on the bestselling potboiler by Sidney Sheldon makes for an incredibly lousy film. The surprise is seeing Audrey Hepburn making her screen comeback in a part turned down by Diane Keaton, Candice Bergen and Jacqueline Bisset. The 23-year old heroine of the novel is played by 50-year old Hepburn so Sheldon had to do a hasty rewrite to accomodate the star. Her presence in the project attracted a long list of famous actors who play the assorted characters with shocking ineptitude. The owner of a pharmacutical empire is murdered and his daughter (Audrey Hepburn) inherits his seat on the Board. The other board members want the company to go public but like her late father she refuses. Her cash hungry relatives on the board are a sorry bunch - an elderly British cousin (James Mason) whose gambling wife (Michelle Phillips) has put him in debt, a greek cousin (Irene Papas) is married to a lecherous Italian (Omar Sharif) who is being blackmailed by his mistress (Claudia Mori), a German cousin (Romy Schneider) is married to a frenchman (Maurice Ronet) who has stolen her jewels and invested in a failed venture. All are desperate for money and one of them is a murderer with the suspects also including her father's trusted aide (Ben Gazzara) and secretary (Beatrice Straight). Shot in exotic locations in Sardinia, Munich, Paris, New York and Sicily, the plot keeps getting more and more ridiculous as attempts are made on Hepburn's life while an inspector (Gert Fröbe) tries to figure out the identity of the murderer. Trashy film has a memorable score by Ennio Morricone and lush cinematography by Freddie Young. The supporting cast seem to be around strictly for their paychecks and don't even bother to try and inject some life into their underwritten roles. Sloppy film throws in a lot of kinky sex, constant bickering, badly staged action sequences and even a serial killer who acts in snuff films. Only Hepburn, dressed in chic outfits, manages to rise above the mess she is surrounded by and gives a convincing performance.
I've been waiting in dread ever since it was announced that my favourite Hitchcock film was getting another big screen remake. It's always rather unfair to any remake to be compared to the original but inevitably one ends up doing just that. The original in this case is a much loved classic and a masterpiece to boot. I never understand why Hollywood churns out remakes. An answer always given is that it is to reintroduce a classic to younger generations. But damnit the original is not dead and buried. It is still very much around and should instead be revived for today's youth. No doubt this retread is handsomely produced. The vintage stately homes used as the backdrop for Daphne du Maurier's "Manderley" are spectacular as are the location shots of the Devon countryside, cliffs and coastline. And Armie Hammer looks dashing in his striking yellow suit but does he have to wear it three days running? No gentleman would repeat an outfit as glaringly bright as that. The screenplay pretty much follows the book (and the 1940 film version) but differs slightly at the end when it veers off hilariously into "Nancy Drew" territory and then caps that moment with a ridiculously melodramatic finale. The film also lacks the spooky atmosphere and suspense of the Hitchcock version. A shy young girl (Lily James), companion to a rich and vulgar American (Ann Dowd), meets the enigmatic widower Max de Winter (Armie Hammer) in Monte Carlo. After a whirlwind courtship he marries her and takes her back to his family estate, Manderley, in Cornwall. She immediately finds herself in over her head in her new surroundings. Adding to her woes is the intimidating housekeeper, Mrs Danvers (Kristin Scott Thomas), who never lets a moment go by singing the praises of Rebecca, the first lady of the house, who died under mysterious circumstances. The entire cast compares unfavourably to the actors in the older version - Laurence Olivier as brooding Max de Winter, Joan Fontaine as the frightened new bride, the great Judith Anderson as Mrs Danvers, the hilariously vulgar Florence Bates and Gladys Cooper, Nigel Bruce and George Sanders. Hammer comes off much better than James who cannot shake off her modern sensibility in a story set during the 1930s. Scott Thomas has been directed to emulate Judith Anderson - they probably didn't want to veer too far off with this famous character. She captures the deadpan stillness but fails to get across the lesbian undertones that Judith Anderson brought to the part. The sad thing about such remakes is that it draws today's audiences even further away from the old classic version. Its playing on Netflix so millions will get to watch it yet many will never even know that there is a better version out there. Now that is something truly sad to contemplate.
Bloodline (Terence Young, 1979) 3/10
An amateurish screenplay based on the bestselling potboiler by Sidney Sheldon makes for an incredibly lousy film. The surprise is seeing Audrey Hepburn making her screen comeback in a part turned down by Diane Keaton, Candice Bergen and Jacqueline Bisset. The 23-year old heroine of the novel is played by 50-year old Hepburn so Sheldon had to do a hasty rewrite to accomodate the star. Her presence in the project attracted a long list of famous actors who play the assorted characters with shocking ineptitude. The owner of a pharmacutical empire is murdered and his daughter (Audrey Hepburn) inherits his seat on the Board. The other board members want the company to go public but like her late father she refuses. Her cash hungry relatives on the board are a sorry bunch - an elderly British cousin (James Mason) whose gambling wife (Michelle Phillips) has put him in debt, a greek cousin (Irene Papas) is married to a lecherous Italian (Omar Sharif) who is being blackmailed by his mistress (Claudia Mori), a German cousin (Romy Schneider) is married to a frenchman (Maurice Ronet) who has stolen her jewels and invested in a failed venture. All are desperate for money and one of them is a murderer with the suspects also including her father's trusted aide (Ben Gazzara) and secretary (Beatrice Straight). Shot in exotic locations in Sardinia, Munich, Paris, New York and Sicily, the plot keeps getting more and more ridiculous as attempts are made on Hepburn's life while an inspector (Gert Fröbe) tries to figure out the identity of the murderer. Trashy film has a memorable score by Ennio Morricone and lush cinematography by Freddie Young. The supporting cast seem to be around strictly for their paychecks and don't even bother to try and inject some life into their underwritten roles. Sloppy film throws in a lot of kinky sex, constant bickering, badly staged action sequences and even a serial killer who acts in snuff films. Only Hepburn, dressed in chic outfits, manages to rise above the mess she is surrounded by and gives a convincing performance.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Silent Cries / Guests of the Emperor (Anthony Page, 1993) 4/10
The fall of Singapore in 1942 with the Japanese marching in and hauling up women and children. A subject done to death by Hollywood but given yet another spin as we watch the Japanese inflict atrocities on a bunch of imprisoned women. Suffering appropriately are Gena Rowlands, Annabeth Gish, Chloë Webb, Cherie Lunghi, Gail Strickland, Phyllis Logan and Judy Parfitt. Dull film that has nothing new to say about the subject in terms of story or presentation.
In nome della legge / In the Name of the Law (Pietro Germi, 1949) 9/10
A young judge (Massimo Girotti) is transferred to a small Sicilian village and comes up against local opposition from the simple villagers, a corrupt mine owner and the local mafia boss (Charles Vanel). Stark drama, shot in the southern Sicilian town of Sciacca, is a fascinating look at the workings of the mafia who prefer to follow their own rules providing brutal justice at odds with the law. Girotti is a strong presence as the lawman who decides to stand up to all that oppose him. Both Mario Monicelli and Federico Fellini were part of the team of writers on the riveting screenplay.
Across the Bridge (Ken Annakin, 1957) 6/10
Steiger twitches method acting style as a German financier on the run from the law. After embezzling from his own company in London he takes a train ride from New York to Mexico to escape the FBI and Scotland Yard. Enroute he takes on the identity of a lookalike passenger by drugging him, taking his Mexican passport and tossing him off the train. Not only does the man survive but he is also a wanted murderer with a price on his head. Once inside Mexico his troubles are far from over as the local police want money and a British cop (Bernard Lee) is waiting to capture him as soon as he walks back across the international bridge into America. His only loyal friend is a dog who stays by his side as everyone turns against him. Steiger has a field day with the part taking his character's arc from being arrogantly sadistic at the start to the ironic end where he has been reduced by circumstances to being a pathetic groveller. It takes the love of a dog to finally show his human side which lay buried within his relentlessly despicable exterior.
Nachts wenn der Teufel kam / The Devil Strikes at Night (Robert Siodmak, 1957) 8/10
During the waning years of the War a serial killer - Bruno Lüdke - is strangling women with brutal force. He has a mild intellectual disability and is also a petty thief. A decorated soldier (Claus Holm), wounded in the war, is assigned to investigate the latest murder of a barmaid. A Nazi soldier, her drunken boyfriend, is arrested at the scene of the crime although the detective thinks he is innocent. Siodmak's film uses this backdrop to explore instead the politics prevalent amongst the German people during the Third Reich during the years when Germany started taking a beating at the hands of the Allied troops. Even high ranking officials are seen mouthing propaganda in a wishy washy cynical way. When the actual murderer (Mario Adorf) confesses to the crime, the Nazi commander (Hannes Messemer) immediately orders a cover up and instead blames the crimes on the caught scapegoat because according to the Führer no pure-blood German could be mentally challenged or be capable of mass murder. Ironic conclusion considering the genocide that was going on all around. The detective is ordered to the Russian front while the Gestapo awaits his friend (Annemarie Düringer) who knows the truth as well. Siodmak, after a long stint in Hollywood, returns to german cinema with this memorable film which was nominated for an Academy Award in the foreign film category.
Rifkin's Festival (Woody Allen, 2020) 6/10
One has to credit Woody for being resilient in still coming up with his yearly film output despite the almost total ban on him now courtesy of the judgemental population in the United States. Since 1992, when his troubles with Mia Farrow began, he has directed a total of 28 films many of them netting him and his cast Oscar nominations with even a personal win for his screenplay back in 2011. For the last two years or so he suddenly become persona non grata with a number of stupid actors moaning that they regret having worked in his films. Have they been deaf, dumb and blind since 1992? Were they unaware of his situation when they accepted roles in his films and spent months on set with him? Hypocricy beyond belief. With no financing available to him in the United States he has sought to shoot his films abroad with european financing. The San Sebastian film festival in Spain is the backdrop to his latest film and Wallace Shawn gets to play the familiar middle-aged neurotic character made famous by Woody himself in his earlier films. This frustrated novelist is the husband of a movie publicist (Gina Gershon), both in town to attend the festival, and whom he suspects of being sexually involved with a pretentious young director (Louis Garrel) she is representing. Stressed out, jealous and a hypochondriac, he imagines a heart problem and looks in on a doctor (Elena Anaya) who he later discovers is stuck in a lousy relationship with a hot-headed artist (Sergi López). In his confused state of mind he quickly becomes infatuated with her. He is also having weird dreams at night - shot by Vittorio Storaro in black and white - which allows Allen to parody Fellini, Bunuel, Welles, Truffaut and Bergman in witty small episodes. Amusing little film may not be amongst his best but the director manages funny moments throughout. Shawn and particularly Gershon are very good as the mismatched couple. My only regret with the film is that Allen does not shoot more of the city or the Spanish countryside, concentrating instead mostly in and around the Hotel Maria Cristina and La Concha bay which can be glimpsed from the hotel terraces. Woody should write his next film for Diane Keaton who was not only his first muse but the one actor with whom he had the best rapport on screen. Although this is the first time ever there is no announcement of Allen's next project. In the past whenever his latest film started screening his next screenplay would already be going through the casting stage. It would be sad if there were no more films by this great director.
Ten Little Indians (Alan Birkinshaw, 1989) 5/10
Ten people are invited to an African safari and one by one they start dying. Agatha Christie's old chestnut gets yet another retread although this time the story is not based on her 1939 book "And Then There Were None" but instead on her 1943 play which was originally titled and performed in the UK as "Ten Little Niggers" but later changed out of racial sensitivity to "Ten Little Indians". This hilariously shoddy film was produced by Harry Alan Towers who also made the 1965 and 1974 film versions of this murder-thriller, setting each in an exotic location with an all-star cast. This time he seems to have stumbled getting his cast as the lead is played by Frank Stallone - Sly's brother. Hamming it up are character actors Herbert Lom, Donald Pleasence, Moira Lister and Brenda Vaccaro playing the various victims. Usually the story is set inside a mansion with shadowy corridors and creepy basements allowing for a modicum of suspense as the characters move about before being found dead. Here the outdoor location - shot in South Africa - is a series of tents in the outback with the characters parked next to each other. So when the murders occur its quite ludicrous to imagine that the characters would not know what is going on. The film's ending does not follow the book's famous ending choosing to go by the one in the play. Despite the film's shoddy production values the story remains fool proof in terms of its basic plotline so it is still an enjoyable watch with a certain curiosity value.
Garde à Vue (Claude Miller, 1981) 8/10
Riveting police procedural that maintains a slow pace, is extremely talky but makes great use of the claustrophobic setting inside a police precinct. The entire film is mostly shot in two rooms but the wonderful group of actors and the constantly moving camerawork by Bruno Nuytten help keep the film engrossing. A wealthy and influential attorney (Michel Serrault) is brought in for questioning for the rape and murder of two small girls. He is held in custody and relentlessly interrogated by two inspectors - one calm and polite (a memorable Lino Ventura) and the other (Guy Marchand) who beats up the suspect, who continues to insist on his innocence. As the night wears on his alibi is shaken by the arrival of his beautiful but vengeful wife (Romy Schneider) who provides damning evidence against him. Extremely let down by his wife and the evidence against him he confesses to the rapes and murders. However, there is a last minute twist in the plot which takes everyone by surprise. The film won well deserved Cesar awards for its screenplay and editing. Both Serrault and Marchand also won awards for their exceptional performances.
La passante du Sans-Souci / The Passerby (Jacques Ruffio, 1982) 6/10
The sublime Romy Schneider plays two roles in her last film shot while she was undergoing great trauma in her personal life which led to accute depression and an alcohol problem. The production shut down when she broke her leg and then had to have kidney surgery. Her 14-year old son died after impaling himself on a fence. It was only after Simone Signoret's insistence that she returned to finish this suspended production. She completed the film but died of a heart attack a week after the film's premiere. A prominent member of a humanitarian organization, a jew and a pacifist (Michel Piccoli), shoots in cold blood a South American diplomat much to the surprise and horror of his beloved wife (Romy Schneider). During the trial that ensues the truth is revealed. In flashbacks we get to see his childhood during the war. The Nazis kill his father and break his leg. He is given shelter by an anti-fascist (Helmut Griem) and his wife (Romy Schneider) who look after the child with a lot of love. Realizing that his days are numbered he manages to send his wife and the boy to Paris. He is arrested and sent to a camp while his wife desperately waits for his return. To make ends meet she works as a cabaret singer in a sleazy club and sleeps with a Nazi to try and get information about her husband. When the husband is released and brought back the Nazi has both husband and wife murdered. The young boy thus loses his "parents" a second time but will get his revenge in the future. Melodramatic story is erratic with a bittersweet and ironic twist at the end. Schneider gives a beautifully nuanced performance and was posthumously awarded a Cesar award nomination. There is also a memorable cameo by the great Maria Schell as another victim of the Nazi menace.
The fall of Singapore in 1942 with the Japanese marching in and hauling up women and children. A subject done to death by Hollywood but given yet another spin as we watch the Japanese inflict atrocities on a bunch of imprisoned women. Suffering appropriately are Gena Rowlands, Annabeth Gish, Chloë Webb, Cherie Lunghi, Gail Strickland, Phyllis Logan and Judy Parfitt. Dull film that has nothing new to say about the subject in terms of story or presentation.
In nome della legge / In the Name of the Law (Pietro Germi, 1949) 9/10
A young judge (Massimo Girotti) is transferred to a small Sicilian village and comes up against local opposition from the simple villagers, a corrupt mine owner and the local mafia boss (Charles Vanel). Stark drama, shot in the southern Sicilian town of Sciacca, is a fascinating look at the workings of the mafia who prefer to follow their own rules providing brutal justice at odds with the law. Girotti is a strong presence as the lawman who decides to stand up to all that oppose him. Both Mario Monicelli and Federico Fellini were part of the team of writers on the riveting screenplay.
Across the Bridge (Ken Annakin, 1957) 6/10
Steiger twitches method acting style as a German financier on the run from the law. After embezzling from his own company in London he takes a train ride from New York to Mexico to escape the FBI and Scotland Yard. Enroute he takes on the identity of a lookalike passenger by drugging him, taking his Mexican passport and tossing him off the train. Not only does the man survive but he is also a wanted murderer with a price on his head. Once inside Mexico his troubles are far from over as the local police want money and a British cop (Bernard Lee) is waiting to capture him as soon as he walks back across the international bridge into America. His only loyal friend is a dog who stays by his side as everyone turns against him. Steiger has a field day with the part taking his character's arc from being arrogantly sadistic at the start to the ironic end where he has been reduced by circumstances to being a pathetic groveller. It takes the love of a dog to finally show his human side which lay buried within his relentlessly despicable exterior.
Nachts wenn der Teufel kam / The Devil Strikes at Night (Robert Siodmak, 1957) 8/10
During the waning years of the War a serial killer - Bruno Lüdke - is strangling women with brutal force. He has a mild intellectual disability and is also a petty thief. A decorated soldier (Claus Holm), wounded in the war, is assigned to investigate the latest murder of a barmaid. A Nazi soldier, her drunken boyfriend, is arrested at the scene of the crime although the detective thinks he is innocent. Siodmak's film uses this backdrop to explore instead the politics prevalent amongst the German people during the Third Reich during the years when Germany started taking a beating at the hands of the Allied troops. Even high ranking officials are seen mouthing propaganda in a wishy washy cynical way. When the actual murderer (Mario Adorf) confesses to the crime, the Nazi commander (Hannes Messemer) immediately orders a cover up and instead blames the crimes on the caught scapegoat because according to the Führer no pure-blood German could be mentally challenged or be capable of mass murder. Ironic conclusion considering the genocide that was going on all around. The detective is ordered to the Russian front while the Gestapo awaits his friend (Annemarie Düringer) who knows the truth as well. Siodmak, after a long stint in Hollywood, returns to german cinema with this memorable film which was nominated for an Academy Award in the foreign film category.
Rifkin's Festival (Woody Allen, 2020) 6/10
One has to credit Woody for being resilient in still coming up with his yearly film output despite the almost total ban on him now courtesy of the judgemental population in the United States. Since 1992, when his troubles with Mia Farrow began, he has directed a total of 28 films many of them netting him and his cast Oscar nominations with even a personal win for his screenplay back in 2011. For the last two years or so he suddenly become persona non grata with a number of stupid actors moaning that they regret having worked in his films. Have they been deaf, dumb and blind since 1992? Were they unaware of his situation when they accepted roles in his films and spent months on set with him? Hypocricy beyond belief. With no financing available to him in the United States he has sought to shoot his films abroad with european financing. The San Sebastian film festival in Spain is the backdrop to his latest film and Wallace Shawn gets to play the familiar middle-aged neurotic character made famous by Woody himself in his earlier films. This frustrated novelist is the husband of a movie publicist (Gina Gershon), both in town to attend the festival, and whom he suspects of being sexually involved with a pretentious young director (Louis Garrel) she is representing. Stressed out, jealous and a hypochondriac, he imagines a heart problem and looks in on a doctor (Elena Anaya) who he later discovers is stuck in a lousy relationship with a hot-headed artist (Sergi López). In his confused state of mind he quickly becomes infatuated with her. He is also having weird dreams at night - shot by Vittorio Storaro in black and white - which allows Allen to parody Fellini, Bunuel, Welles, Truffaut and Bergman in witty small episodes. Amusing little film may not be amongst his best but the director manages funny moments throughout. Shawn and particularly Gershon are very good as the mismatched couple. My only regret with the film is that Allen does not shoot more of the city or the Spanish countryside, concentrating instead mostly in and around the Hotel Maria Cristina and La Concha bay which can be glimpsed from the hotel terraces. Woody should write his next film for Diane Keaton who was not only his first muse but the one actor with whom he had the best rapport on screen. Although this is the first time ever there is no announcement of Allen's next project. In the past whenever his latest film started screening his next screenplay would already be going through the casting stage. It would be sad if there were no more films by this great director.
Ten Little Indians (Alan Birkinshaw, 1989) 5/10
Ten people are invited to an African safari and one by one they start dying. Agatha Christie's old chestnut gets yet another retread although this time the story is not based on her 1939 book "And Then There Were None" but instead on her 1943 play which was originally titled and performed in the UK as "Ten Little Niggers" but later changed out of racial sensitivity to "Ten Little Indians". This hilariously shoddy film was produced by Harry Alan Towers who also made the 1965 and 1974 film versions of this murder-thriller, setting each in an exotic location with an all-star cast. This time he seems to have stumbled getting his cast as the lead is played by Frank Stallone - Sly's brother. Hamming it up are character actors Herbert Lom, Donald Pleasence, Moira Lister and Brenda Vaccaro playing the various victims. Usually the story is set inside a mansion with shadowy corridors and creepy basements allowing for a modicum of suspense as the characters move about before being found dead. Here the outdoor location - shot in South Africa - is a series of tents in the outback with the characters parked next to each other. So when the murders occur its quite ludicrous to imagine that the characters would not know what is going on. The film's ending does not follow the book's famous ending choosing to go by the one in the play. Despite the film's shoddy production values the story remains fool proof in terms of its basic plotline so it is still an enjoyable watch with a certain curiosity value.
Garde à Vue (Claude Miller, 1981) 8/10
Riveting police procedural that maintains a slow pace, is extremely talky but makes great use of the claustrophobic setting inside a police precinct. The entire film is mostly shot in two rooms but the wonderful group of actors and the constantly moving camerawork by Bruno Nuytten help keep the film engrossing. A wealthy and influential attorney (Michel Serrault) is brought in for questioning for the rape and murder of two small girls. He is held in custody and relentlessly interrogated by two inspectors - one calm and polite (a memorable Lino Ventura) and the other (Guy Marchand) who beats up the suspect, who continues to insist on his innocence. As the night wears on his alibi is shaken by the arrival of his beautiful but vengeful wife (Romy Schneider) who provides damning evidence against him. Extremely let down by his wife and the evidence against him he confesses to the rapes and murders. However, there is a last minute twist in the plot which takes everyone by surprise. The film won well deserved Cesar awards for its screenplay and editing. Both Serrault and Marchand also won awards for their exceptional performances.
La passante du Sans-Souci / The Passerby (Jacques Ruffio, 1982) 6/10
The sublime Romy Schneider plays two roles in her last film shot while she was undergoing great trauma in her personal life which led to accute depression and an alcohol problem. The production shut down when she broke her leg and then had to have kidney surgery. Her 14-year old son died after impaling himself on a fence. It was only after Simone Signoret's insistence that she returned to finish this suspended production. She completed the film but died of a heart attack a week after the film's premiere. A prominent member of a humanitarian organization, a jew and a pacifist (Michel Piccoli), shoots in cold blood a South American diplomat much to the surprise and horror of his beloved wife (Romy Schneider). During the trial that ensues the truth is revealed. In flashbacks we get to see his childhood during the war. The Nazis kill his father and break his leg. He is given shelter by an anti-fascist (Helmut Griem) and his wife (Romy Schneider) who look after the child with a lot of love. Realizing that his days are numbered he manages to send his wife and the boy to Paris. He is arrested and sent to a camp while his wife desperately waits for his return. To make ends meet she works as a cabaret singer in a sleazy club and sleeps with a Nazi to try and get information about her husband. When the husband is released and brought back the Nazi has both husband and wife murdered. The young boy thus loses his "parents" a second time but will get his revenge in the future. Melodramatic story is erratic with a bittersweet and ironic twist at the end. Schneider gives a beautifully nuanced performance and was posthumously awarded a Cesar award nomination. There is also a memorable cameo by the great Maria Schell as another victim of the Nazi menace.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Roma città libera / Rome Free City (Marcello Pagliero, 1946) 6/10
In Rome three strangers come together by chance during the bleak post-War days of Italy. A man (Andrea Checchi), jilted by a woman who has run off with all his money, is about to commit suicide when he is saved by a cat burglar (Nando Bruno) who enters his apartment by chance. They both realize they have a lot in common, become friends and decide to go to a bar for a drink. The man's next door neighbour is a lonely poverty stricken woman (Valentina Cortese) who types throughout the night to make a living. Fed up with her life she decides to sell herself on the street like her roommate to make money. When the police make a sudden raid and haul up all the prostitutes she makes a run for it and is saved by the two men outside a bar who tell the police she is with them. The three spend the rest of the night traveling through the city meeting an assortment of people - a thief who is carrying a stolen pearl necklace which keeps changing hands, and a well-dressed amnesiac gentleman (Vittorio De Sica) who may or may not be someone important. The cat burglar is the most positive of the three willing to help everyone. Their journey through the night together gives them all hope. Downbeat film is no classic but along with being an excellent character study also has a strong pedigree - a good score by Nino Rota, atmospheric cinematography by Aldo Tonti who captures Rome during a rainy night and Cesare Zavattini is one of the numerous writers who worked on the screenplay. The film is another example of Italian neorealism cinema. Well acted by the three leads and the charming De Sica in a cameo appearance.
It's My Turn (Claudia Weill, 1980) 3/10
This was the third in an unoffocial trilogy - "An Unmarried Woman" & "Starting Over" came before - about a smart, independent but conflicted woman in love. And is played by Jill Clayburgh, one of the quintessential leading ladies of the seventies who unfortunately quickly fell off the Hollywood ladder. A glamourous math professor (Jill Clayburgh), in a stilted relationship with a building developer (Charles Grodin), meets a retired baseball player (Michael Douglas) and is willing to change her job and shift to New York for him. He is the son of the woman her widowed dad wants to marry. Unfortunately the two otherwise very appealing stars lack chemistry as lovers - in fact Douglas surprisingly always lacked charisma during that period - while the slow, very talky and boring screenplay just drones on and on. The highlight of the film comes during the end credits over which Diana Ross croons the hit title song.
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Aaron Sorkin, 2020) 8/10
The "circus" came to town, presided over by the sadistically clownish Judge Julius Hoffman (Frank Langella) representing the US federal government, and set the stage to deliberately malign seven anti-Vietnam War and countercultural protestors
who were said to have been the cause of riots during the the occasion of the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois. The defendents charged with conspiring together and inciting violence by crossing state lines were - Abbie Hoffman (Sacha Baron Cohen), Jerry Rubin (Jeremy Strong), David Dellinger (John Carroll Lynch), Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne), Rennie Davis (Alex Sharp), John Froines (Danny Flaherty), and Lee Weiner (Noah Robbins). The eighth man indicted was Bobby Seale (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), co-founder of the Black Panther movement, who had no legal representation and despite protests ended by bound, gagged and chained to his seat in court. Leading the prosecution team was Richard Shultz (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and for the defence stood William Kunstler (Mark Rylance) and Leonard Weinglass (Ben Shenkman). The trial, replete with hilarious (and sad) courtroom antics, was a travesty as "justice" was repeatedly proved to be a fallacy of epic proportion with the court (and government) standing firm on their pro-Vietnam War stance. Eventually many of the decicions were overturned and sentences reduced. Sorkin presents the trial, intercut with flashbacks to the night of the protests and riot, almost like the insanity of an actual war with over-the-top theatrics. Gripping film is fascinating from the historical perspective and moreso due to its relevance now, at a time when the US in engulfed in debates over authoritarianism surrounded by crazy radicalism. Well acted film (both Sacha Boren Cohen and Frank Langella standout in their epic buffoonery) has strangely dank cinematography by Phedon Papamichael which makes it hard to focus clearly on the actors during the trial scenes.
In Rome three strangers come together by chance during the bleak post-War days of Italy. A man (Andrea Checchi), jilted by a woman who has run off with all his money, is about to commit suicide when he is saved by a cat burglar (Nando Bruno) who enters his apartment by chance. They both realize they have a lot in common, become friends and decide to go to a bar for a drink. The man's next door neighbour is a lonely poverty stricken woman (Valentina Cortese) who types throughout the night to make a living. Fed up with her life she decides to sell herself on the street like her roommate to make money. When the police make a sudden raid and haul up all the prostitutes she makes a run for it and is saved by the two men outside a bar who tell the police she is with them. The three spend the rest of the night traveling through the city meeting an assortment of people - a thief who is carrying a stolen pearl necklace which keeps changing hands, and a well-dressed amnesiac gentleman (Vittorio De Sica) who may or may not be someone important. The cat burglar is the most positive of the three willing to help everyone. Their journey through the night together gives them all hope. Downbeat film is no classic but along with being an excellent character study also has a strong pedigree - a good score by Nino Rota, atmospheric cinematography by Aldo Tonti who captures Rome during a rainy night and Cesare Zavattini is one of the numerous writers who worked on the screenplay. The film is another example of Italian neorealism cinema. Well acted by the three leads and the charming De Sica in a cameo appearance.
It's My Turn (Claudia Weill, 1980) 3/10
This was the third in an unoffocial trilogy - "An Unmarried Woman" & "Starting Over" came before - about a smart, independent but conflicted woman in love. And is played by Jill Clayburgh, one of the quintessential leading ladies of the seventies who unfortunately quickly fell off the Hollywood ladder. A glamourous math professor (Jill Clayburgh), in a stilted relationship with a building developer (Charles Grodin), meets a retired baseball player (Michael Douglas) and is willing to change her job and shift to New York for him. He is the son of the woman her widowed dad wants to marry. Unfortunately the two otherwise very appealing stars lack chemistry as lovers - in fact Douglas surprisingly always lacked charisma during that period - while the slow, very talky and boring screenplay just drones on and on. The highlight of the film comes during the end credits over which Diana Ross croons the hit title song.
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Aaron Sorkin, 2020) 8/10
The "circus" came to town, presided over by the sadistically clownish Judge Julius Hoffman (Frank Langella) representing the US federal government, and set the stage to deliberately malign seven anti-Vietnam War and countercultural protestors
who were said to have been the cause of riots during the the occasion of the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois. The defendents charged with conspiring together and inciting violence by crossing state lines were - Abbie Hoffman (Sacha Baron Cohen), Jerry Rubin (Jeremy Strong), David Dellinger (John Carroll Lynch), Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne), Rennie Davis (Alex Sharp), John Froines (Danny Flaherty), and Lee Weiner (Noah Robbins). The eighth man indicted was Bobby Seale (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), co-founder of the Black Panther movement, who had no legal representation and despite protests ended by bound, gagged and chained to his seat in court. Leading the prosecution team was Richard Shultz (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and for the defence stood William Kunstler (Mark Rylance) and Leonard Weinglass (Ben Shenkman). The trial, replete with hilarious (and sad) courtroom antics, was a travesty as "justice" was repeatedly proved to be a fallacy of epic proportion with the court (and government) standing firm on their pro-Vietnam War stance. Eventually many of the decicions were overturned and sentences reduced. Sorkin presents the trial, intercut with flashbacks to the night of the protests and riot, almost like the insanity of an actual war with over-the-top theatrics. Gripping film is fascinating from the historical perspective and moreso due to its relevance now, at a time when the US in engulfed in debates over authoritarianism surrounded by crazy radicalism. Well acted film (both Sacha Boren Cohen and Frank Langella standout in their epic buffoonery) has strangely dank cinematography by Phedon Papamichael which makes it hard to focus clearly on the actors during the trial scenes.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
No one dare plot against your country. Sadly the plot is against your African-American population and from within the country which needs to be resolved.Sonic Youth wrote:What about The Plot Against America?Reza wrote:It Happened Here (Kevin Brownlow & Andrew Mollo, 1965) 10/10
Now this is a film that could never be made during today's politically correct climate
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Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
What about The Plot Against America?Reza wrote:It Happened Here (Kevin Brownlow & Andrew Mollo, 1965) 10/10
Now this is a film that could never be made during today's politically correct climate
"What the hell?"
Win Butler
Win Butler
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
It Happened Here (Kevin Brownlow & Andrew Mollo, 1965) 10/10
Now this is a film that could never be made during today's politically correct climate as the screenplay goes into vicious directions about the "jewish problem" as dicated by the fascists. It is 1944 and Britain has lost the war and under German occupation. The country has been converted into a fascist state. Some Britons collaborate while others resist. Amongst the collaborators are many who don't believe in the cause but are forced to join up in order to survive and earn a living. The story follows a trained nurse from the Midlands who is evacuated to London along with most civilians. She joins a pro-Nazi civilian organization known as Immediate Action (one character refers to it as sounding like an advertisement for a laxative), which she does even though she is avowedly non-political. However, once in the job, she is faced with horrifying complicity in a number of disturbing acts being conducted by the organization like forced euthanasia on humans considered to be "useless" to the State. One of the very early films in the alternate history genre was the brainchild of the then 19-year old Kevin Brownlow and it took 8 years for the film to be completed. Fascinating amateur film is full of disturbing images, a scene where a group of people are casually seen discussing a lecture on the "repugnant" Jews vs. the "superior" Aryans, and a propaganda newsreel is shown in the old style and tone blaming the rubble of the Blitz on a Jewish and Bolshevist conspiracy. The film poses the question “How is it possible to fight fascism when the only means to do so are to use its own methods against it?”. The resistance movement is seen as being just as bad as the Nazis, which is a darkly contrary outlook to the prevailing attitude that saw World War II and the continental resistance as a just cause combating a profound evil. The film was completed with the help of Stanley Kubrick who donated film stock and Tony Richardson who helped to distribute it. An important film that needs to be seen more widely.
No Way to Treat a Lady (Jack Smight, 1968) 6/10
Amusing black comedy about a cat-and-mouse game between a serial strangler (Rod Steiger) and a police detective (George Segal). The killer has a mother fixation and uses an assortment of disguises to entrap elderly matrons who he sweet talks followed by strangling them. He leaves a lipstick mark in the shape of lips on their foreheads. After the first murder he begins to contact the detective on a regular basis boasting and divulging details about his latest kill. The exasperated cop, with an overbearing jewish mom (a funny Eileen Heckart), starts dating a witness (Lee Remick) who glimpsed the killer. Steiger is creepy and his usual hammy self as the psychotic. Remick has a hilarious scene with Heckart as she tries to win over the old lady. Segal gives the film's best performance as the frustrated but dogged cop, a gentle lover to Remick and an irritated but accepting son to Heckart.
Gente di rispetto / The Flower in His Mouth (Luigi Zampa, 1975) 8/10
More than the mystery at the center of the film is the fascinating Southern Sicilian city of Ragusa where the events play out. I liked how Zampa uses this small city, built on a wide limestone hill between two deep valleys, as the actors walk through the narrow alleys around the baroque buildings and we get to see the sweeping views of public parks with churches, fountains and piazzas. A school teacher (Jennifer O'Neill) arrives to take up a position in a small school. She is harrassed by a man on the bus and later in a crowded piazza which she ignores. The following day the man is found seated in the town square, shot dead with a flower in his mouth. The townfolk think she had a hand in the execution. Also adding to the mystery is her rich landlord (James Mason), once owner of the town and still privy to most of its secrets, who allows her to stay in one of his apartments free of rent. Sympathetic to her situation is a colleague (Franco Nero) at the school who soon becomes her lover but wants to keep the relationship a secret. When a second man is found killed - he also offended her - the townfolk begin to think she has some mysterious power which she then uses to her advantage by getting the local government officials to pass rules in favour of education breaking old traditions that still prevail. The mystery turns out to be rather underwhelming but the film's almost dream-like quality and the stunning beauty of both O'Neill and the city makes it worth a watch.
Now this is a film that could never be made during today's politically correct climate as the screenplay goes into vicious directions about the "jewish problem" as dicated by the fascists. It is 1944 and Britain has lost the war and under German occupation. The country has been converted into a fascist state. Some Britons collaborate while others resist. Amongst the collaborators are many who don't believe in the cause but are forced to join up in order to survive and earn a living. The story follows a trained nurse from the Midlands who is evacuated to London along with most civilians. She joins a pro-Nazi civilian organization known as Immediate Action (one character refers to it as sounding like an advertisement for a laxative), which she does even though she is avowedly non-political. However, once in the job, she is faced with horrifying complicity in a number of disturbing acts being conducted by the organization like forced euthanasia on humans considered to be "useless" to the State. One of the very early films in the alternate history genre was the brainchild of the then 19-year old Kevin Brownlow and it took 8 years for the film to be completed. Fascinating amateur film is full of disturbing images, a scene where a group of people are casually seen discussing a lecture on the "repugnant" Jews vs. the "superior" Aryans, and a propaganda newsreel is shown in the old style and tone blaming the rubble of the Blitz on a Jewish and Bolshevist conspiracy. The film poses the question “How is it possible to fight fascism when the only means to do so are to use its own methods against it?”. The resistance movement is seen as being just as bad as the Nazis, which is a darkly contrary outlook to the prevailing attitude that saw World War II and the continental resistance as a just cause combating a profound evil. The film was completed with the help of Stanley Kubrick who donated film stock and Tony Richardson who helped to distribute it. An important film that needs to be seen more widely.
No Way to Treat a Lady (Jack Smight, 1968) 6/10
Amusing black comedy about a cat-and-mouse game between a serial strangler (Rod Steiger) and a police detective (George Segal). The killer has a mother fixation and uses an assortment of disguises to entrap elderly matrons who he sweet talks followed by strangling them. He leaves a lipstick mark in the shape of lips on their foreheads. After the first murder he begins to contact the detective on a regular basis boasting and divulging details about his latest kill. The exasperated cop, with an overbearing jewish mom (a funny Eileen Heckart), starts dating a witness (Lee Remick) who glimpsed the killer. Steiger is creepy and his usual hammy self as the psychotic. Remick has a hilarious scene with Heckart as she tries to win over the old lady. Segal gives the film's best performance as the frustrated but dogged cop, a gentle lover to Remick and an irritated but accepting son to Heckart.
Gente di rispetto / The Flower in His Mouth (Luigi Zampa, 1975) 8/10
More than the mystery at the center of the film is the fascinating Southern Sicilian city of Ragusa where the events play out. I liked how Zampa uses this small city, built on a wide limestone hill between two deep valleys, as the actors walk through the narrow alleys around the baroque buildings and we get to see the sweeping views of public parks with churches, fountains and piazzas. A school teacher (Jennifer O'Neill) arrives to take up a position in a small school. She is harrassed by a man on the bus and later in a crowded piazza which she ignores. The following day the man is found seated in the town square, shot dead with a flower in his mouth. The townfolk think she had a hand in the execution. Also adding to the mystery is her rich landlord (James Mason), once owner of the town and still privy to most of its secrets, who allows her to stay in one of his apartments free of rent. Sympathetic to her situation is a colleague (Franco Nero) at the school who soon becomes her lover but wants to keep the relationship a secret. When a second man is found killed - he also offended her - the townfolk begin to think she has some mysterious power which she then uses to her advantage by getting the local government officials to pass rules in favour of education breaking old traditions that still prevail. The mystery turns out to be rather underwhelming but the film's almost dream-like quality and the stunning beauty of both O'Neill and the city makes it worth a watch.
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Precious Doll
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Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Beast from Haunted Cave (1959) Monte Hellman 4/10
A Sun (2019) Mong-Hong Chung 4/10
McLaren (2017) Roger Donaldson 2/10
On the Rocks (2020) Sofia Coppola 4/10
Story of Judas (2015) Rabah Ameur-Zaimeche 4/10
Saladin (1963) Youssef Chahine 4/10
Hammamet (2020) Gianni Ameilo 5/10
Babenco: Tell Me When I Die (2019) Barbara Paz 4/10
Two Monks (1934) Juan Bustillo Oro 5/10
Stage Mother (2020) Thom Fitzgerald 1/10
First Cow (2020) Kelly Reichardt 7/10
Waiting for the Barbarians (2019) Ciro Guerra 1/10
Made in Hong Kong (1997) Fruit Chan 7/10
A Decent Man (2016) Emmanuel Finkel 5/10
Repeating viewings
Mädchen in Uniform (1931) Leotine Sagan 7/10
Pixote (1981) Hector Babenco 9/10
A Sun (2019) Mong-Hong Chung 4/10
McLaren (2017) Roger Donaldson 2/10
On the Rocks (2020) Sofia Coppola 4/10
Story of Judas (2015) Rabah Ameur-Zaimeche 4/10
Saladin (1963) Youssef Chahine 4/10
Hammamet (2020) Gianni Ameilo 5/10
Babenco: Tell Me When I Die (2019) Barbara Paz 4/10
Two Monks (1934) Juan Bustillo Oro 5/10
Stage Mother (2020) Thom Fitzgerald 1/10
First Cow (2020) Kelly Reichardt 7/10
Waiting for the Barbarians (2019) Ciro Guerra 1/10
Made in Hong Kong (1997) Fruit Chan 7/10
A Decent Man (2016) Emmanuel Finkel 5/10
Repeating viewings
Mädchen in Uniform (1931) Leotine Sagan 7/10
Pixote (1981) Hector Babenco 9/10
"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)
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Passione d'Amore / Passion of Love (Ettore Scola, 1981) 9/10
Scola's bitter romantic drama, based on the 1869 novel "Fosca" by Iginio Ugo Tarchetti, is an ironic reversal of the fairy tale, "Beauty and the Beast". It is also a look into the human psyche showing how guilt, pity, power and a self destructive nature can move a person into strange areas. Giorgio (Bernard Giraudeau), a handsome Italian soldier with good career prospects, is involved in a passionate affair with a beautiful married woman (Laura Antonelli). He is transferred to a remote outpost on the frontier where he is invited by the Colonel (Massimo Girotti) to dine daily at his house with him and a few senior officers. The Colonel's psychologically scarred and strikingly ugly cousin, Fosca (Valeria D'Obici ), misinterprets the young man's kindness towards her and forms a pathological attraction towards him. Suffering from assorted ailments, including hysteria and fits of epilepsy, the regimental physician (Jean-Louis Trintignant) thinks contact with the young man may help, so he encourages Giorgio to spend time with her. However, her manipulative nature puts a strain on him and he falls sick. In the meanwhile his affair with his mistress comes to a deadend when she refuses to leave her husband because of her child. When news of his transfer is announced during a Christmas party the pathetic woman goes into massive hysterics in front of all the guests which inexpicably leads that night to a consummation of their relationship, followed by a duel the next day that seals his fate as a career officer. Does he finally show passion towards the woman out of love or does he go to her out of pity? The entire film's success rests on the shoulders of Valeria D'Obici who is made up to look grotesque - a receding hairline, a hooked nose and large teeth (a bit like Nosferatu but with hair) - and she nails the part. Apart from her off-putting appearance Fosca is otherwise a sensitive and cultured woman but with an unfortunate past. For her the young man appears to be her "last hurrah" and she uses every delusional trick up her sleeve to nab him. Despite his blunt protestations at first his genuine kind nature allows him to respond to her desperate pleas for love. He realises that nobody has ever loved him like she has. This unusual "love" story starts of with the audience wondering how this woman will fall in love with the handsome man but in fact it turns out more about the man gradually falling for this disturbed ugly woman. The story's central themes of love, sex, obsession, illness, passion, beauty, power and manipulation formed the basis, many years later, for the Tony winning Broadway musical "Passion" by Stephen Sondheim.
Soldier Blue (Ralph Nelson, 1970) 6/10
Revisionist Western about the 1864 Sand Creek massacre in the Colorado Territory is actually an allegory for the then raging Vietnam War and in particular the Mai Lai massacre where unarmed South Vietnamese civilians were murdered by U.S. troops in 1968. A naive cavalry officer (Peter Strauss) and a white woman (Candice Bergen), who has lived with Indians, are the sole survivors of an attack by the Cheyenne on their group. The two join hands as they struggle cross-country through Indian territory to reach Fort Reunion where the U.S. army is stationed. She is scornful of him, calling him "Soldier Blue", because of his beliefs which are sullied by years of army propaganda about the "savage" Indians. Nelson tries to make the film "contemporary" for the audiences at the time and has Bergen act "modern" by having her dialogue liberally littered with four letter words and her general behaviour far from what a woman from the past would act like in those circumstances. The entire central part of the film is like a dreamy sun-dappled comic romance as the two banter and fall in love (Bergen gives a really bad performance while Strauss is terribly bland) with brief suspenseful encounters with Indians and a wily gunrunner (Donald Pleasence wearing a strange set of dentures). The film's savage and brutal end caused controversy with some calling it "an exploitative gore-fest of blood and amputated limbs" while others praised it for its pro-Indian stance - an antidote to all the John Ford-John Wayne Westerns that glorified cowboys and treated Indians as dastardly villains. The shocking scenes of violence - women and children being impaled by bayonets, women's breasts being sliced, heads chopped off, children being shot through the face and their heads being hoisted by whooping soldiers on wooden sticks - is stomach churning. This slaughter (and many others since) was a reality what the United States army was doing in Vietnam at the time. This radical film forever shattered the enduring movie myth of the cavalry as good guys riding to the rescue. The film was not a success in the United States but was a hit elsewhere.
Laws of Attraction (Peter Howitt, 2004) 3/10
Audrey (Julianne Moore) and Daniel (Pierce Brosnan) are high-powered divorce lawyers. She works strictly by the book while he relies on cheap theatrics to usually win his cases. They find themselves battling in court for their respective rich clients - a rock star (Michael Sheen in grunge mode) going through a nasty split with his dress-designer wife (Parker Posey) who are trying to decide on the settlement of an Irish castle. The lawyers end up at the castle to get details and trying to avoid a growing mutual attraction reluctantly attend an Irish festival. A wild night results in both finding themselves married to each other. This rather lame attempt at a screwball comedy is no "Adam's Rib", which is clearly what the silly premise hints at. Midling film also has the misfortune of having zero chemistry between the two stars. The usually suave Brosnan has annoyingly disheveled hair and one keeps wanting to reach into the screen to slap it down into place. Moore writhes about eating junk food after every altercation with Brosnan which is meant to be funny but after one too many of those scenes it becomes tiresome. Frances Fisher, as Moore's tart-tongued mother, has a few funny moments but they are not enough to put over the general boredom of the main plot.
Manhattan Murder Mystery (Woody Allen, 1993) 7/10
Long gestating project with it's main plotline initially a part of "Annie Hall". It was put on the back burner by Allen and after his acrimonius breakup with Mia Farrow - he had originally written the part for her and she had been all set to do the project - his old flame Diane Keaton was roped in to co-star in the film with him. Keaton is delightful, takes to the role and runs off with it. The film is inspired by the screwball comedies of the 1930s and in particular the characters of amateur sleuths Nick and Nora Charles from "The Thin Man" series of films. A middle-aged couple - a book editor (Woody Allen) and his daffy wife (Diane Keaton) - suspect their elderly neighbour of having murdered his wife. She begins to take a perverse delight in trying to prove that something foul took place much to the irritation of her rather straight laced husband who is horrified to learn that she has broken into the old man's apartment in search of clues. Helping her on this madcap quest is her friend (Alan Alda) who is just as enthused at the possibility of a murder. Meanwhile the editor, jealous of the friend who is spending so much time with his wife, decides to join in on the search while meeting up on the side with an over-amorous client (Anjelica Huston) who teaches him how to bluff on the poker table. Lighthearted amusing film benefits from a witty screenplay with many one-liners and Allen harking back to his earlier comedies by playing the book editor as a Bob Hope-style scaredy-cat character. The film also benefits from the sexual tension between the four characters. Allen ends the film in wacky style which is clearly an homage to Orson Welles' "The Lady From Shanghai". As with all his films Allen's inspired use of music - nostalgic jazz here - sets the tone for the goofy plot. An amusing rumour about the film was that despite the very public and nasty breakup between Allen and Farrow she actually came at the start of production for costume tryouts until she was abruptly told she was no longer in the film.
Fireflies in the Garden (Dennis Lee, 2008) 3/10
Dreary, meandering family melodrama, written by the director, which seems inspired by his personal memories still festering in his mind. If it's true then I feel sorry for him having to live out his childhood with a monstrous father (Willem Dafoe) who here has an antagonistic relationship with his sensitive son. The film switches back and forth between the young boy's miserable childhood and the present where the family are gathered together after a terrible car crash kills his mother. She had just finished graduating from college which she had earlier missed out on as she was busy raising two children. Constantly picked upon by his high strung writer father, he finds love and support from his mother (Julia Roberts) and finds a friend in his aunt - his mother's much younger sister - who comes to stay with them during the summer. The scenes during the present are set just before and after the crash at the home of his aunt (Emily Watson) where father, who survives the crash, and son (Ryan Reynolds) continue their war. Adding to the family woes is the sudden arrival at the funeral of his alcoholic ex-wife (Carrie-Anne Moss) who has unexpected news of her own and startling information is divulged about the late matriarch. The screenplay predictably moves towards the expected reconciliation between the father and son but does it in such a hurried clumsy way that it seems impossible to believe anyone could forgive someone who has spent his whole life being an asshole. Dafoe is memorable as the prickly old man but Reynolds is such a damp squib giving a one-note deadpan performance. Roberts shines in her brief role while Watson struggles with her Texan accent. Tiresome repetitive drama with just too much shouting going on between people you just don't care about. Skip this one.
Scola's bitter romantic drama, based on the 1869 novel "Fosca" by Iginio Ugo Tarchetti, is an ironic reversal of the fairy tale, "Beauty and the Beast". It is also a look into the human psyche showing how guilt, pity, power and a self destructive nature can move a person into strange areas. Giorgio (Bernard Giraudeau), a handsome Italian soldier with good career prospects, is involved in a passionate affair with a beautiful married woman (Laura Antonelli). He is transferred to a remote outpost on the frontier where he is invited by the Colonel (Massimo Girotti) to dine daily at his house with him and a few senior officers. The Colonel's psychologically scarred and strikingly ugly cousin, Fosca (Valeria D'Obici ), misinterprets the young man's kindness towards her and forms a pathological attraction towards him. Suffering from assorted ailments, including hysteria and fits of epilepsy, the regimental physician (Jean-Louis Trintignant) thinks contact with the young man may help, so he encourages Giorgio to spend time with her. However, her manipulative nature puts a strain on him and he falls sick. In the meanwhile his affair with his mistress comes to a deadend when she refuses to leave her husband because of her child. When news of his transfer is announced during a Christmas party the pathetic woman goes into massive hysterics in front of all the guests which inexpicably leads that night to a consummation of their relationship, followed by a duel the next day that seals his fate as a career officer. Does he finally show passion towards the woman out of love or does he go to her out of pity? The entire film's success rests on the shoulders of Valeria D'Obici who is made up to look grotesque - a receding hairline, a hooked nose and large teeth (a bit like Nosferatu but with hair) - and she nails the part. Apart from her off-putting appearance Fosca is otherwise a sensitive and cultured woman but with an unfortunate past. For her the young man appears to be her "last hurrah" and she uses every delusional trick up her sleeve to nab him. Despite his blunt protestations at first his genuine kind nature allows him to respond to her desperate pleas for love. He realises that nobody has ever loved him like she has. This unusual "love" story starts of with the audience wondering how this woman will fall in love with the handsome man but in fact it turns out more about the man gradually falling for this disturbed ugly woman. The story's central themes of love, sex, obsession, illness, passion, beauty, power and manipulation formed the basis, many years later, for the Tony winning Broadway musical "Passion" by Stephen Sondheim.
Soldier Blue (Ralph Nelson, 1970) 6/10
Revisionist Western about the 1864 Sand Creek massacre in the Colorado Territory is actually an allegory for the then raging Vietnam War and in particular the Mai Lai massacre where unarmed South Vietnamese civilians were murdered by U.S. troops in 1968. A naive cavalry officer (Peter Strauss) and a white woman (Candice Bergen), who has lived with Indians, are the sole survivors of an attack by the Cheyenne on their group. The two join hands as they struggle cross-country through Indian territory to reach Fort Reunion where the U.S. army is stationed. She is scornful of him, calling him "Soldier Blue", because of his beliefs which are sullied by years of army propaganda about the "savage" Indians. Nelson tries to make the film "contemporary" for the audiences at the time and has Bergen act "modern" by having her dialogue liberally littered with four letter words and her general behaviour far from what a woman from the past would act like in those circumstances. The entire central part of the film is like a dreamy sun-dappled comic romance as the two banter and fall in love (Bergen gives a really bad performance while Strauss is terribly bland) with brief suspenseful encounters with Indians and a wily gunrunner (Donald Pleasence wearing a strange set of dentures). The film's savage and brutal end caused controversy with some calling it "an exploitative gore-fest of blood and amputated limbs" while others praised it for its pro-Indian stance - an antidote to all the John Ford-John Wayne Westerns that glorified cowboys and treated Indians as dastardly villains. The shocking scenes of violence - women and children being impaled by bayonets, women's breasts being sliced, heads chopped off, children being shot through the face and their heads being hoisted by whooping soldiers on wooden sticks - is stomach churning. This slaughter (and many others since) was a reality what the United States army was doing in Vietnam at the time. This radical film forever shattered the enduring movie myth of the cavalry as good guys riding to the rescue. The film was not a success in the United States but was a hit elsewhere.
Laws of Attraction (Peter Howitt, 2004) 3/10
Audrey (Julianne Moore) and Daniel (Pierce Brosnan) are high-powered divorce lawyers. She works strictly by the book while he relies on cheap theatrics to usually win his cases. They find themselves battling in court for their respective rich clients - a rock star (Michael Sheen in grunge mode) going through a nasty split with his dress-designer wife (Parker Posey) who are trying to decide on the settlement of an Irish castle. The lawyers end up at the castle to get details and trying to avoid a growing mutual attraction reluctantly attend an Irish festival. A wild night results in both finding themselves married to each other. This rather lame attempt at a screwball comedy is no "Adam's Rib", which is clearly what the silly premise hints at. Midling film also has the misfortune of having zero chemistry between the two stars. The usually suave Brosnan has annoyingly disheveled hair and one keeps wanting to reach into the screen to slap it down into place. Moore writhes about eating junk food after every altercation with Brosnan which is meant to be funny but after one too many of those scenes it becomes tiresome. Frances Fisher, as Moore's tart-tongued mother, has a few funny moments but they are not enough to put over the general boredom of the main plot.
Manhattan Murder Mystery (Woody Allen, 1993) 7/10
Long gestating project with it's main plotline initially a part of "Annie Hall". It was put on the back burner by Allen and after his acrimonius breakup with Mia Farrow - he had originally written the part for her and she had been all set to do the project - his old flame Diane Keaton was roped in to co-star in the film with him. Keaton is delightful, takes to the role and runs off with it. The film is inspired by the screwball comedies of the 1930s and in particular the characters of amateur sleuths Nick and Nora Charles from "The Thin Man" series of films. A middle-aged couple - a book editor (Woody Allen) and his daffy wife (Diane Keaton) - suspect their elderly neighbour of having murdered his wife. She begins to take a perverse delight in trying to prove that something foul took place much to the irritation of her rather straight laced husband who is horrified to learn that she has broken into the old man's apartment in search of clues. Helping her on this madcap quest is her friend (Alan Alda) who is just as enthused at the possibility of a murder. Meanwhile the editor, jealous of the friend who is spending so much time with his wife, decides to join in on the search while meeting up on the side with an over-amorous client (Anjelica Huston) who teaches him how to bluff on the poker table. Lighthearted amusing film benefits from a witty screenplay with many one-liners and Allen harking back to his earlier comedies by playing the book editor as a Bob Hope-style scaredy-cat character. The film also benefits from the sexual tension between the four characters. Allen ends the film in wacky style which is clearly an homage to Orson Welles' "The Lady From Shanghai". As with all his films Allen's inspired use of music - nostalgic jazz here - sets the tone for the goofy plot. An amusing rumour about the film was that despite the very public and nasty breakup between Allen and Farrow she actually came at the start of production for costume tryouts until she was abruptly told she was no longer in the film.
Fireflies in the Garden (Dennis Lee, 2008) 3/10
Dreary, meandering family melodrama, written by the director, which seems inspired by his personal memories still festering in his mind. If it's true then I feel sorry for him having to live out his childhood with a monstrous father (Willem Dafoe) who here has an antagonistic relationship with his sensitive son. The film switches back and forth between the young boy's miserable childhood and the present where the family are gathered together after a terrible car crash kills his mother. She had just finished graduating from college which she had earlier missed out on as she was busy raising two children. Constantly picked upon by his high strung writer father, he finds love and support from his mother (Julia Roberts) and finds a friend in his aunt - his mother's much younger sister - who comes to stay with them during the summer. The scenes during the present are set just before and after the crash at the home of his aunt (Emily Watson) where father, who survives the crash, and son (Ryan Reynolds) continue their war. Adding to the family woes is the sudden arrival at the funeral of his alcoholic ex-wife (Carrie-Anne Moss) who has unexpected news of her own and startling information is divulged about the late matriarch. The screenplay predictably moves towards the expected reconciliation between the father and son but does it in such a hurried clumsy way that it seems impossible to believe anyone could forgive someone who has spent his whole life being an asshole. Dafoe is memorable as the prickly old man but Reynolds is such a damp squib giving a one-note deadpan performance. Roberts shines in her brief role while Watson struggles with her Texan accent. Tiresome repetitive drama with just too much shouting going on between people you just don't care about. Skip this one.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Precious please check your inbox message.Precious Doll wrote:And ouch for Monsoon - I've been looking forward to Monsoon for so long. I missed it at a film festival earlier in the year and it is opening in a couple of weeks at a cinema that I have been boycotting since January. I was going to purchase the British Blu Ray to be released in November but I think I will wait for Monsoon to stream in the new year now.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Yes really overlong. It really gets boring after they leave East Berlin. The film was overstuffed with far too much.Precious Doll wrote:Ouch for Never Look Away but I concede it's a tad overlong and becomes less interesting as it progresses.Reza wrote: Werk Ohne Autor / Never Look Away (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, 2018) 4/10
Monsoon (Hong Khaou, 2019 3/10
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Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Ouch for Never Look Away but I concede it's a tad overlong and becomes less interesting as it progresses.Reza wrote: Werk Ohne Autor / Never Look Away (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, 2018) 4/10
Monsoon (Hong Khaou, 2019 3/10
And ouch for Monsoon - I've been looking forward to Monsoon for so long. I missed it at a film festival earlier in the year and it is opening in a couple of weeks at a cinema that I have been boycotting since January. I was going to purchase the British Blu Ray to be released in November but I think I will wait for Monsoon to stream in the new year now.
"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)
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Werk Ohne Autor / Never Look Away (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, 2018) 4/10
Triple 9 (John Hillcoat, 2016) 6/10
Hillcoat seems to be channelling Tarantino, Guy Richie and Michael Mann (without the sheen) in this relentless dirty-cop heist story involving the Israeli-Russian mob. The idea of seeing Kate Winslet as a Russian mobster's tough wife sounded like such a hoot but she fails to pull it off - she has the "look" - the tarty make-up, the big blonde hair and the flashy dress sense - but she fails to get the woman's toughness considering what all she does through the course of the film. A jailed Russian mobster instigates a robbery from a safe to retrieve something he wants. Pulling the strings on the robbers is his wife who on the side runs a meat factory. Holding the young son of an ex-cop and Special Forces ace (Chiwetel Ejiofor), she cajoles him into robbing a safe with his gang consisting of ex-military and an active cop (Anthony Mackie) whose straight laced partner (Casey Affleck) is the nephew of their Chief (Woody Harrelson). The film has three tightly shot and very suspenseful set pieces involving different heists but the overall plot is extremely hard to follow as the screenplay leaves out important facts so when all the double crosses come fast and furious one is not sure what the hell happened. Most of the characters are extremely unsympathetic (the actors are all very good) and there is a dire gloom about the whole enterprise which drags the film down. Amongst all the macho posturings - from the cops, the criminals, the gang members - Winslet does stand out but it would have been far more fun to see her chewing the scenery instead of holding back.
Monsoon (Hong Khaou, 2019 3/10
Young British Vietnamese (Henry Golding) returns to the country of his birth after 30-years. As a child he had escaped Saigon when the Vietnam War started. He finds the country much changed as he reconnects with estranged relatives, struggles with his cultural identity, searches for a place to scatter his parents' ashes and falls in love with an African-American whose father had fought in the War. Boring, slow film that meanders along while a loud score keeps drowning out the dialogue.
The Glorias (Julie Taymor, 2020) 6/10
It takes four actresses to journey through the life of feminist Gloria Steinem. Taymor literally shows the woman on a journey as monochrome shots of her traveling in a Greyhound bus are interspersed throughout as she looks out at the world passing by in vibrant colours. There are also a few wacky touches - the "Wizard of Oz" homage - which don't quite come off. This is basically a by-the-numbers screen biography zipping by all the important events in her life which Taymor scrambles by playing with the timeline structure. Alicia Vikander plays her from age 20 through 40 - her years at Smith College, the time spent traveling in India with poor downtrodden women in villages and small towns, the start of her writing career and her groundbreaking undercover work in 1963 inside the Playboy Mansion when she wrote an article about the condition of waitress bunnies inside. She is taught public speaking by Dorothy Pitman Hughes (an excellent Janelle Monáe), a pioneering African-American small business owner, activist, child-welfare advocate, mother of three daughters and the co-founder of Ms. Magazine with Steinhem. There are flashbacks to her childhood (played by Ryan Kiera Armstrong) with her struggling but loving entrepreneur dad (Timothy Hutton) and teen years (played by Lulu Wilson) when she cared for her ailing mother - a journalist who was forced to publish under a male
pseudonym - which brought on her desire to fight for other women and their rights. Juliane Moore takes over during her life after age 40 with the years dealing with the magazine as Taymor incorporates generous amounts of fascinating real life newsreels of the time throughout the film. Both Vikander and Moore are standouts. Bette Midler is funny and grotesque as fiery Bella Abzug leader of the Women's Movement who was one of the founders of the National Women's Political Caucus. Overlong film - with superbly detailed production and costume design, and lushly shot by Rodrigo Prieto - is an interesting companion piece to the recent television film Mrs. America as it revisits an important tumultuous era.
The Silencing (Robin Pront, 2020) 6/10
A reformed hunter (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) turned alcoholic, whose daughter went missing five years before, spends his time hoping to find her. When the body of a dead girl is found it appears there could be a serial killer on the loose who may be the wayward brother of the cop (Annabelle Wallis) investigating the case. A cat-and-mouse game ensues between the hunter and the killer after he rescues a young woman who had been held captive and hunted. Cold bleak thriller is played out in the stunning surroundings of a small mining town in Sudbury Ontario with thick forests and a raging river playing a role during the chase. Despite the familiar tropes of the genre this is an engaging and brutal mystery with Coster-Waldau giving a spirited performance as the grieving father who might have a chance to resolve the mystery of his missing daughter.
Mackenna's Gold (J. Lee Thompson, 1969) 8/10
A perennial favourite from my childhood with an amazing cast, both in the leads and in support. Some of the cardboard sets and the too obvious back projection are quite jarring but the story is quite exciting about a group of people looking for a hidden valley full of gold. A lawman (Gregory Peck), who knows where the gold is hidden, is kidnapped by an old adversary (Omar Sharif camping it up delightfully) and his gang of cutthroat outlaws (Keenan Wynn and Ted Cassidy are both memorable). Camilla Sparv is a beautiful hostage who catches the eye of the lawman who in turn is lusted after by a scarred Indian (Julie Newmar who has a memorable underwater scene in a lagoon where she swims completely in the nude). Also scoring points is Telly Savalas as a greedy and ruthless sergeant. The group of "respectable businessmen" also wanting a piece of the pie are played by an eclectic group of character actors - Eli Wallach, Lee J. Cobb, Raymond Massey, Burgess Meredith, Anthony Quayle and Edward G. Robinson. Ford's Monument Valley is the spectacular backdrop for the film. An underrated Western that deserves a re-appraisal.
Mad as Hell: Peter Finch (Robert De Young, 2011) 7/10
Fascinating documentary about an actor-chameleon who hated being confined to set roles in life. A wanderering soul from Australia who kept moving, getting married - to a Romanian-born Russian ballerina, a South African and a black Jamaican - often uprooting his family between movie stints playing characters who were free spirits. Off movie sets life for him consisted of either quiet time of reflection dabbling in painting or hell-raising under the influence of booze with highly publicized affairs with Vivien Leigh and Shirley Bassey. Despite his tumultuous life he gathered a rewarding and very eclectic list of films on his CV winning Bafta Award nominations for Windom's Way (1957) & The Nun's Story (1959), and winning the award for A Town Like Alice (1956), The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960), No Love For Johnnie (1961), Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971) and Network (1976). He was nominated for an Oscar for the latter two films, winning posthumously for Network. He also received a posthumous Emmy nomination for Raid on Entebbe (1977). His wives, children and co-stars talk with candor in this documentary about this very complicated man who in the end is remembered mostly for his love of the craft of acting.
Triple 9 (John Hillcoat, 2016) 6/10
Hillcoat seems to be channelling Tarantino, Guy Richie and Michael Mann (without the sheen) in this relentless dirty-cop heist story involving the Israeli-Russian mob. The idea of seeing Kate Winslet as a Russian mobster's tough wife sounded like such a hoot but she fails to pull it off - she has the "look" - the tarty make-up, the big blonde hair and the flashy dress sense - but she fails to get the woman's toughness considering what all she does through the course of the film. A jailed Russian mobster instigates a robbery from a safe to retrieve something he wants. Pulling the strings on the robbers is his wife who on the side runs a meat factory. Holding the young son of an ex-cop and Special Forces ace (Chiwetel Ejiofor), she cajoles him into robbing a safe with his gang consisting of ex-military and an active cop (Anthony Mackie) whose straight laced partner (Casey Affleck) is the nephew of their Chief (Woody Harrelson). The film has three tightly shot and very suspenseful set pieces involving different heists but the overall plot is extremely hard to follow as the screenplay leaves out important facts so when all the double crosses come fast and furious one is not sure what the hell happened. Most of the characters are extremely unsympathetic (the actors are all very good) and there is a dire gloom about the whole enterprise which drags the film down. Amongst all the macho posturings - from the cops, the criminals, the gang members - Winslet does stand out but it would have been far more fun to see her chewing the scenery instead of holding back.
Monsoon (Hong Khaou, 2019 3/10
Young British Vietnamese (Henry Golding) returns to the country of his birth after 30-years. As a child he had escaped Saigon when the Vietnam War started. He finds the country much changed as he reconnects with estranged relatives, struggles with his cultural identity, searches for a place to scatter his parents' ashes and falls in love with an African-American whose father had fought in the War. Boring, slow film that meanders along while a loud score keeps drowning out the dialogue.
The Glorias (Julie Taymor, 2020) 6/10
It takes four actresses to journey through the life of feminist Gloria Steinem. Taymor literally shows the woman on a journey as monochrome shots of her traveling in a Greyhound bus are interspersed throughout as she looks out at the world passing by in vibrant colours. There are also a few wacky touches - the "Wizard of Oz" homage - which don't quite come off. This is basically a by-the-numbers screen biography zipping by all the important events in her life which Taymor scrambles by playing with the timeline structure. Alicia Vikander plays her from age 20 through 40 - her years at Smith College, the time spent traveling in India with poor downtrodden women in villages and small towns, the start of her writing career and her groundbreaking undercover work in 1963 inside the Playboy Mansion when she wrote an article about the condition of waitress bunnies inside. She is taught public speaking by Dorothy Pitman Hughes (an excellent Janelle Monáe), a pioneering African-American small business owner, activist, child-welfare advocate, mother of three daughters and the co-founder of Ms. Magazine with Steinhem. There are flashbacks to her childhood (played by Ryan Kiera Armstrong) with her struggling but loving entrepreneur dad (Timothy Hutton) and teen years (played by Lulu Wilson) when she cared for her ailing mother - a journalist who was forced to publish under a male
pseudonym - which brought on her desire to fight for other women and their rights. Juliane Moore takes over during her life after age 40 with the years dealing with the magazine as Taymor incorporates generous amounts of fascinating real life newsreels of the time throughout the film. Both Vikander and Moore are standouts. Bette Midler is funny and grotesque as fiery Bella Abzug leader of the Women's Movement who was one of the founders of the National Women's Political Caucus. Overlong film - with superbly detailed production and costume design, and lushly shot by Rodrigo Prieto - is an interesting companion piece to the recent television film Mrs. America as it revisits an important tumultuous era.
The Silencing (Robin Pront, 2020) 6/10
A reformed hunter (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) turned alcoholic, whose daughter went missing five years before, spends his time hoping to find her. When the body of a dead girl is found it appears there could be a serial killer on the loose who may be the wayward brother of the cop (Annabelle Wallis) investigating the case. A cat-and-mouse game ensues between the hunter and the killer after he rescues a young woman who had been held captive and hunted. Cold bleak thriller is played out in the stunning surroundings of a small mining town in Sudbury Ontario with thick forests and a raging river playing a role during the chase. Despite the familiar tropes of the genre this is an engaging and brutal mystery with Coster-Waldau giving a spirited performance as the grieving father who might have a chance to resolve the mystery of his missing daughter.
Mackenna's Gold (J. Lee Thompson, 1969) 8/10
A perennial favourite from my childhood with an amazing cast, both in the leads and in support. Some of the cardboard sets and the too obvious back projection are quite jarring but the story is quite exciting about a group of people looking for a hidden valley full of gold. A lawman (Gregory Peck), who knows where the gold is hidden, is kidnapped by an old adversary (Omar Sharif camping it up delightfully) and his gang of cutthroat outlaws (Keenan Wynn and Ted Cassidy are both memorable). Camilla Sparv is a beautiful hostage who catches the eye of the lawman who in turn is lusted after by a scarred Indian (Julie Newmar who has a memorable underwater scene in a lagoon where she swims completely in the nude). Also scoring points is Telly Savalas as a greedy and ruthless sergeant. The group of "respectable businessmen" also wanting a piece of the pie are played by an eclectic group of character actors - Eli Wallach, Lee J. Cobb, Raymond Massey, Burgess Meredith, Anthony Quayle and Edward G. Robinson. Ford's Monument Valley is the spectacular backdrop for the film. An underrated Western that deserves a re-appraisal.
Mad as Hell: Peter Finch (Robert De Young, 2011) 7/10
Fascinating documentary about an actor-chameleon who hated being confined to set roles in life. A wanderering soul from Australia who kept moving, getting married - to a Romanian-born Russian ballerina, a South African and a black Jamaican - often uprooting his family between movie stints playing characters who were free spirits. Off movie sets life for him consisted of either quiet time of reflection dabbling in painting or hell-raising under the influence of booze with highly publicized affairs with Vivien Leigh and Shirley Bassey. Despite his tumultuous life he gathered a rewarding and very eclectic list of films on his CV winning Bafta Award nominations for Windom's Way (1957) & The Nun's Story (1959), and winning the award for A Town Like Alice (1956), The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960), No Love For Johnnie (1961), Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971) and Network (1976). He was nominated for an Oscar for the latter two films, winning posthumously for Network. He also received a posthumous Emmy nomination for Raid on Entebbe (1977). His wives, children and co-stars talk with candor in this documentary about this very complicated man who in the end is remembered mostly for his love of the craft of acting.
Last edited by Reza on Mon Oct 05, 2020 11:26 am, edited 2 times in total.