Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings

[Reza]

Murder is My Beat (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1955) 6/10

The shabby production values notwithstanding this is a nifty little mystery courtesy of Ulmer. The plot involves the usual noir suspects - a dead body, a femme fatale (Barbara Payton) accused of the crime and the foolish but hardboiled cop (Paul Langton) assigned to transport the prisoner but who ends up falling for her charms and decides to prove her innocence. This has the makings of a very good film but alas the endless use of back projection and stock footage almost does it in. Starlet Payton plays well in her last film performance and comes off much better than her uncharismatic leading man.

[Reza]

Club Havana (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1945) 9/10

Ulmer's superb melodramatic pastiche was filmed in just six days as he uses his prowling camera to explore the lives of various people - cold-blooded hoods, betrayed women and desperate characters trapped in tough situations - in a nightclub setting during the course of one evening. It is remarkable that he manages to do this with such ingenuity considering his shoestring budget and shooting time. Murder, infidelity, love, loss are just some of the many activities going on in the lives of the characters at the club. And the drama is all played out with rhumba music in the background along with two songs - "Tico Tico" & "Besame Mucho" - sung by Lita Baron. One of many Ulmer films that need to be rediscovered and given their rightful place in film history.

[Reza]

The Brasher Doubloon (John Brahm, 1947) 8/10

Phillip Marlowe (George Mintgomery) is hired by an eccentric matron (Florence Bates who is deliciously malevolent) to find a stolen coin. Along the way he tangles with her suspicious son (Conrad Janis), her secretary (pretty Nancy Guild) who hates being "touched" by men and assorted detectives and other grotesque suspects. Superbly directed "B" noir - John Brahm brings an eerie, brooding gothic quality to the proceedings - is based on Raymond Chandler's "The High Window" with a screenplay full of witty, hardboiled quips. Montgomery is surprisingly very effective and holds his own against other more famous Marlowes on screen - Humphrey Bogart, Dick Powell, Robert Montgomery and Robert Mitchum. This is a little gem that needs to be rediscovered.

[Reza]

Fast & Furious 8: The Fate of the Furious (F. Gary Gray, 2017) 5/10

Compared to the high energy level in the last installment this episode in the franchise is a shocking bore. The film has its share of thrills but nothing we haven't seen elsewhere and countless times too. We know that the series involves cars - fast cars - but here there seems to be an emphasis on newer ways to destroy as many cars as possible. The set pieces here involve a drag car race in Cuba with Vin Diesel (on honeymoon with Michelle Rodriguez) doing his thing followed by a prison break sequence which allows Dwayne Johnson to do his thing. They both flex their muscles while driving and beating up people respectively. The main plot involves a villain (Charlize Theron) who blackmails Vin to do her bidding which gets the old gang together to find out what's going on. The friendly cop on the beat (Kurt Russell) forces scowling Jason Stathman to join the gang to bring down the cunning villain who is involved with nuclear submarines which leads to a car chase across Arctic ice. All very deja vu but in a stale way. Oh yes, Dame Helen Mirren makes a brief appearance as Stathman's nicotine stained cockney mom which hardly adds any positive ripples to this rather messy affair. Skip this one and let's hope the next episode kicks some real ass!!

[Reza]

Desire (Frank Borzage & Ernst Lubitsch, 1937) 9/10

Sophisticated battle of wits between a not-so-bright American auto engineer (Gary Cooper), on holiday in Spain, and a sultry European jewel thief (Marlene Dietrich). Elegant and witty romantic comedy superbly directed by Borzage with the Lubitsch "touch" evident throughout. The two stars have great chemistry with Cooper falling for the charms of Dietrich (dressed to her teeth in Travis Banton gowns) who is surprised to find herself reciprocating. Charles Lang's cinematography greatly aids the lavish romanticism and the supporting cast - Alan Mowbray, Akim Tamiroff, John Halliday, Ernest Cossart - make strong impressions in their brief parts. Not to be missed.

[Reza]

Chandni (Yash Chopra, 1989) 8/10

One of Yash Chopra's many blockbuster romantic films came at the close of a decade which saw mainly action oriented films. It's success was not due to it's ordinary screenplay which repeated a variation of countless similarly plotted films from the past. A simple but vivacious small town girl (Sridevi) falls head over heels in love with a rich boy (Rishi Kapoor). They soon get married despite opposition from his family. An accident paralyses him - he falls out of a helicopter while serenading his lady love by showering her with rose petals from up above - and he turns his wife away leading her into the arms of a widower (Vinod Khanna) who falls in love with her. The film's massive success was based on the film's hit soundtrack ("Mere Haathon Mein Nau Nau Choorian", O Meri Chandni", "Aa Meei Jaan", "Parbat" & "Mitwa" in which Sridevi's stunning saree clad look was repeated by Chopra for all his subsequent leading ladies - Juhi Chawala, Madhuri Dixit, Karisma Kapoor, Priety Zinta, Katrina Kaif and which was in turn carried forward by Aditiya Chopra and Karan Johar via their leading ladies Kajol, Aishwarya Rai, Rani Mukherji, Kareena Kapoor & Anushka Sharma) and the incredible chemistry between Kapoor and Sridevi who became an even bigger star - she had lost a lot of weight for the film and played a character quite unlike the larger than life women she usually portrayed on screen. The usual Chopra traits were all present - melodious romantic songs (sung by Lata Mangeshkar), Switzerland as a backdrop where the leading lady (dressed in chiffon sarees) dances across lush meadows beneath snowcapped mountains. The absurd exaggerated acting by the supporting cast is offset by the natural performances by the two leads - chubby Rishi Kapoor wearing his trademark sweaters and bouncy Sridevi who gets to display her dancing skills throughout - she gets two song sequences where she gets soaked in the rain - there is nothing more sexy than a woman writhing in wet grass, getting drenched while wearing a saree . The plot even manages to rip off a major plot point from the Broadway play "Whose Life is it Anyway?". Watch this strictly for the songs, the two leads, lovely Waheeda Rehman in a small part and Juhi Chawala making a special appearance as Vinod Khanna's late wife.

[Reza]

Hiroshima Mon Amour (Alain Resnais, 1959) 9//10

Alain Resnais’ first feature film is a landmark French New Wave film that featured innovative flashback techniques that altered the narrative’s chronological order and used silence to indicate the past. One of the most influential films it changed the course of how films could be made and perceived. The film serves as a bridge between the linear films coming out of Hollywood and most of the world and paving the way for modern filmmakers to make innovative non-linear films.

Fourteen years after the atomic bomb was dropped, a married French actress (Emmanuelle Riva) making an international peace film in Hiroshima has an affair with a married Japanese architect (Eiji Okada). The film concerns a series of conversations over a 36-hour period in her hotel room as they both reminice about their past and how war has altered their lives and what Hiroshima means to them. The story shows how the Japanese man’s life was changed forever when he experienced the bomb first hand as a young man of 22 living in that city while the memory of war was devastating for the French woman who carries emotional scars from a traumatic past involving a love affair in Europe as an 18-year old during WWII.

For all it’s surreal imagery, it’s unconventional love story, and non-linear storyline, this allusion shows that the film is still the classic ‘’same old story, a fight for love and glory, a case of do or die’’. Both characters are just two people struggling with the imagery of a distant war and the fate of their own relationship. The film remains as stark and impressive, as touching and demanding, as it was in 1959

[Reza]

Images (Robert Altman, 1972) 9/10

Altman's study of madness is strongly influenced by Polanski's "Repulsion" and Bergman's "Persona" but has none of their claustrophobia. Instead the story is played out not only inside a farmhouse but also in the wide open spaces of the Irish countryside (beautifully shot by Vilmos Zsigmond). A lonely writer (Susannah York) of children's stories hallucinates about sex and death while writing a new book holed up in her country house. She interacts with three men - her husband (Rene Auberjonois), a former lover (Marcel Bozzuffi) who years before died in a plane crash and an amorous neighbour (Hugh Mallais) who has the hots for her. Reality and fiction intermingle as Altman borrows shock effects from the thriller genre to superbly create a woman's terrifying descent into madness. John Williams' Oscar nominated score accompanies the strange goings on which eventually end in murder. Or has it all been an enactment in the schizophrenic woman's mind? Superbly directed film has one of Susannah York"s greatest performances for which she won the best actress award at the Cannes film festival. This is one of Altman's most underrated and neglected films which needs to be rediscovered.

[Reza]

When Thief Meets Thief (Raoul Walsh, 1937) 6/10

A crook (Douglas Fairbanks Jr) is framed for a murder by his equally crooked partner (Alan Hale) and they part company. Years later they meet up when one of them falls in love with the other's girl friend (Valerie Hobson). Minor caper film with the theme of redemption built in and smartly acted by the three leads.

[Reza]

The Imposter (Julien Duvivier, 1944) 6/10

Odd film in the Duvuvier-Gabin oeuvre as it strands the director-star combo in Hollywood during the war years - both having left Paris when the Nazis invaded France. It is typical WWII propaganda with dialogue and speech-making of the the usual "gung-ho" we love Americans" attitude. Gabin is the only unusual part of the enterprise playing his familiar loner persona from his past French films - a condemned man who has murdered a fellow soldier on the verge of execution when through a twist of fate gets saved, takes on the identity of a dead man, joins the army in Africa and rises up the ranks which allows him redemption. He is surrounded by Hollywood character actors playing assorted army types. The film is also an ode to the free French army of de Gaulle which Gabin would soon join in real and fight the Nazis as part of the resistance. Interesting, rare but ordinary film - one of two box office failures Gabin acted in during his exile in Hollywood.

[Reza]

Rope of Sand (William Dieterle, 1949) 8/10

A lust-and-revenge thriller with serious noir undertones courtesy of Charles Lang's cinematography full of shadows and light streaming through shuttered windows. This back stabbing melodrama plays out between various desperate men with a sexy femme fatale in the mix. As with many films made during the 1940s this, too, is a mix of various better films. Here we have a whiff of "Casablanca" with the reunion of Paul Henreid, Claude Rains and Peter Lorre. A former hunting guide (Burt Lancaster) returns to a steamy desert town partly to seek revenge on the sadistic police chief (Paul Henreid) but mainly to retrieve a cache of hidden diamonds. He tussles in turn with the wit of the sinister head of the local mining company (Claude Rains who steals every scene he apppears in) and a sultry French wench (Corinne Calvet) with whom he gets into a relationship. Exciting film alternates scenes of brutal action, double crosses and steamy romance which is the result of a perfect rapport between the script, director and cast. Lancaster ended the decade a full fledged star which he attained via a series of superb noirs of which this was one of the last. He would begin the next decade by turning to swashbuckling followed by social dramas and playing complex characters far removed from his contemporaries. However, of his many screen personas his best were the tough, brutal but vulnerable men he played in a slew of film noirs during the latter half of the 1940s.

[Reza]

Agatha (Michael Apted, 1979) 8/10

In 1926 Agatha Christie (Vanessa Redgrave) mysteriously disappeared from London and reappeared eleven days later with no explanation given despite the massive manhunt which was conducted for the famous author. The story purposes to "explain" - the screenplay is a fabrication courtesy of Kathleen Tynan - what happened during those eleven days during which she checked into a spa in Harrogate under the name of her husband's (Timothy Dalton) mistress. Distraught because he wants to divorce her she goes about planning something strange which an American columnist (Dustin Hoffman) plans to discover. Charming little film with it's chief interest being in it's rather oddball casting choice - the incredibly tall and gangly Redgrave playing the shy author opposite the diminutive Hoffman as the brash and forward reporter who not only acts as her saviour but also professes his love for her. There are many memorable moments - the two characters at a pool table silently communicating with each other during a game, awkwardly paired as dance partners in a ballroom but moving gracefully across the floor, swimming in a pool and Redgrave leaning down to plant a kiss on Hoffman's lips. The two stars are surrounded by an exquisite team behind the camera - the great Vittorio Storaro's dreamy cinematography bathed in soft lights and Shirley Russell's lovely Oscar nominated costume designs which Redgrave wears elegantly throughout. This is a quiet film with a sense of sadness and loss played to perfection by two chameleon like stars who easily get into the skin of their characters while suppressing their incredible star power.

[Reza]

The Pilot's Wife (Robert Markowitz, 2002) 6/10

Tv film with the always excellent Christine Lahti in a by the numbers mystery. When a plane crashes due to a massive explosion the pilot (John Heard) comes under scruitiny by the FBI and the airline association (Campbell Scott floats around unconvincingly as spy or lover?). This causes not only a great deal of trauma for his wife (Christine Lahti) and daughter but also brings up questions of the pilot leading a double life. Was he a terrorist, a smuggler or a bigamist? The soap opera plot is lifted by a great understated performance by Lahti and the lovely Nova Scotia locations substituting for Ireland.

[Reza]

Colonel Redl (István Szabó, 1985) 8/10

Szabó uses elements from John Osborne's celebrated play '"A Patriot For Me" to weave the historical life of Redl (Klaus Maria Brandauer) - a low peasant during the waning years of the Austro-Hungarian empire who joins the military academy and gradually rises up the ladder silently observing people and comrades around him and denouncing traitors in service to his Emperor Franz Josef. He befriends an aristocratic soldier (Jan Niklas) with whom he is silently in love and whose sister in turn loves him thus using their family to gain acceptance in society. It is also a biting character study of a man with an identity crisis. He is part Ukrainian, part Hungarian, part Jew and part Catholic. The Ukrainian and Jewish roots are quickly hidden, as they are not what society respects, while his homosexuality is another aspect of social exclusion. Blackmailed by the Russians he indulges in counter espionage which leads to his spectacular downfall. The enigmatic Brandauer weaves his special magic playing the quiet observer using his facial muscles to convey depths of emotion - the icy cinematography (by the great Lajos Koltai) captures every moment as the camera observes moments in history through the protagonist. This second part of Szabó's Hungarian trilogy is a love letter to his muse the great Brandauer. Nominated for the best foreign film Oscar it won the special jury prize at Cannes.

[Reza]

Love in a Cold Climate (Tom Hooper, 2001) 7/10

Adaptation of two novels by Nancy Mitford - "The Pursuit of Love" & "Love in a Cold Climate" - gets remade for television but in a rather truncated fashion. The story comes across as a series of vignettes in the love lives of two cousins - Linda (Elisabeth Dermott Walsh), like Nancy Mitford herself, from the British country (Oxfordshire) aristocratic set who lives with her garrulous bigoted father (the great Alan Bates in hilarious form) and sensible mother (Celia Imrie) who marries for love into London aristocracy, gets bored, leaves her husband and daughter for a communist, goes to Spain to help during the Civil War and later has an affair in Paris with a frenchman. Her cousin Fanny (Rosamund Pike), abandoned as a child by her flighty mother (Frances Barber), also marries for love but to a poor writer. Their lives are surrounded by colouful eccentrics many played by great actors from the British stage - a snobbish aunt (Sheila Gish), a fop (Daniel Evans) and assorted Uncles (John Standing, John Wood, Rupert Frazer, Anthony Andrews). Lavishly produced on location and shot in exquisite stately homes this is no "Brideshead Revisited" although it follows a similar path. The film's short running time tries to cram in too much with the result the numerous characters only get a superficial look-in which is extremely jarring. It is superbly acted by the entire cast though. It still gets an "A" for effort.