La Bataille du rail / The Battle of the Rails (René Clément, 1946) 10/10
Clément's film - about the efforts of the Resistance to disrupt the German war machine in France by disrupting their railroads - was partly financed by the Resistance themselves in order to disapprove International perception at the time that the French had easily capitualated and collaborated with the Nazis. Shot like a documentary with a cast of non-professionals the film is an exercise in suspense as it depicts the brave railway workers trying to sabotage and stay one step ahead of the Nazi menace. Clément won a richly deserved award for his direction at the 1946 Cannes Film Festival. The cinematography is by the distinguished Henri Alekan who had escaped a POW camp and had been part of the Resistance.
La Traversée de Paris / The Trip Across Paris (Claude Autant-Lara, 1956) 9/10
"Buddy-Comedy" set during the dark days of the Nazi occupation of Paris. An unemployed taxi-driver (Bourvil) makes ends meet by working as a
blackmarketeer delivering pork in suitcases in the stealth of night during curfew hours. When his partner is arrested he offers the position to a stranger (Jean Gabin) he meets at a café. The man soon asserts himself and terrorizes the grocer (Louis de Funes) into giving him more money for the delivery of the pig which has been cut up and placed into four suitcases. The two men embark on their journey across Paris as they try to evade curious onlookers, hungry dogs, various cops and the Germans. The two bicker constantly, a startling discovery is made about one of them as they eventually end up captured by the Nazis. Will they make it out of the mess or not? The cynical portrayal of the Occupation, contrary to de Gaulle's very different viewpoint, made the film controversial. The screenplay, very loosely based on the short story "La Traversée de Paris" by Marcel Aymé, uses the cover of a comedy to depict the harsh realities of life for the average frenchman during the Occupation. Autant-Lara depicts, through dark humour, a life where men and women scrounged for a living, became collaborators to survive and were hardly the innocent victims of occupation folklore. Expressionistic lighting by Jacques Nateau creates the deathly and dangerous atmosphere. This was the first and only time the two stars appeared on screen together and both give outstanding performances. Bourvil received the Best Actor prize at the Venice Film Festival while Gabin was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor. Classic french film is a must-see.
Lost Command (Mark Robson, 1966) 6/10
France and its chequered colonial follies in both Indo-China and Algeria where we get to see the exploits of a Basque battalion commander (Anthony Quinn). At the disastrous 1954 Battle of Dien Bien Phu he manages to stay alive despite all odds and is captured with his friends - a military historian (Alain Delon), an Indochina-born Captain (Maurice Ronet), a surgeon (Gordon Heath) and an Algerian-born paratrooper (a miscast George Segal). After the armistice they return to France via Algeria which is in the midst of retaliating against French rule. Shorn of his command for refusing to obey orders from his superiors he seeks help (and a bit of romance on the side) from a Major's widow (Michèle Morgan) to get command of a new regiment in the Algerian war. He recruits all his old comrades which brings him into direct conflict with his Algerian friend who is now fighting against the French to liberate his country. The historian falls in love with the Algerian's sister (Claudia Cardinale) and realizes his nation's misconduct towards Algeria. Based on the best-selling 1960 novel "The Centurions" by Jean Lartéguy, the film has a strong pro-peace message with dashes of romance thrown in for colour. Quinn is typically boistrous and lusty with fine performances by Delon and Cardinale. Old fashioned action-packed film has a rousing score by Franz Waxman and wide screen cinematography by Robert Surtees
The Hunted (William Friedkin, 2003) 7/10
Friedkin, known for his car chase films - "The French Connection", "To Live and Die in LA" - comes up here with another form of chase. Running on foot through forest terrain. An ex-special forces vet (Benicio Del Toro), suffering from accute battle stress - he saw far too many senseless killings in Kosovo - goes on the run while mentally unbalanced and brutally kills four deer hunters slicing them into pieces. The FBI (Connie Nielsen) gets the Army trainer (Tommy Lee Jones), who made the maniac into a killer, to go after him. The relentless chase through streets, on a high bridge, through forests and up and down waterfalls is bone crunching madness as the two men go at each other hammer and tongs (actually self made knives from stones) as they fight to the death in hand-to-hand combat. The plot is really thin having seen it play out in countless films before and since - it is like watching Rambo in "First Blood" but minus America's post-Vietnam guilt-trip. It is fascinating to see Jones' stamina at his age - still in chase mode years after "The Fugitive" - and keeping up with the younger and much more fit Del Toro. The action scenes are superbly shot - all quiet stealth - with the two protagonists acting suspiciously like a father-son duo engaged in some mysterious tussle.
Ronin (John Frankenheimer, 1998) 8/10
Frankenheimer's almost plotless film throws the viewer right in the midst of pulsating action without any formal introduction. Five "Ronins" - Samurai warriors without masters who have become hired killers - are a former American Intelligence agent (Robert De Niro), a french gunman (Jean Reno), an English firearms specialist (Sean Bean), a German computer specialist (Stellan Skarsgård) and the designated driver (Skipp Sudduth). They are hired to retrieve a briefcase (a MacGuffin which basically triggers what little plot the film has) by an IRA operative (Natascha McElhone) on behalf of a rogue operative (Jonathan Pryce). The briefcase is also desperately wanted by the Russians and the Irish which makes the whole enterprise rather tense. The statistic on the film says that over 80 automobiles were destroyed during filming so it is packed with set pieces involving chase sequences on the roads of Paris and Nice. De Niro leads the superb cast with tightly pursed lips and has great chemistry with the laconic Reno. Frankenheimer's hard-edged direction propels the film through various twists and turns mostly behind the steering wheel of a careening vehicle. Exciting film.
The Day the Earth Caught Fire (Val Guest, 1961) 7/10
The film came about out of paranoia resulting from the Cold War but it actually holds a lot of truth as it shows accute climate change the result of a nuclear explosion. Both Russia and the United States accidently test the H-bomb simultaneously - one detonating it in the North Pole and the other in the South Pole - causing the earth to tilt from its axis and go hurtling towards the sun. Low budget disaster film uses a London newspaper office as its center point with journalists trying to figure out why there are floods in the Sahara desert, earthquakes, excessive rain, eclipses and rising temperatures in different parts of the world. Leo McKern is a gruff no-nonsense senior reporter, Edward Judd is the divorced alcoholic star reporter and Janet Munro his new squeeze. Interesting matte-based special effects. The perceptive screenplay won the Bafta award.
The Very Edge (Cyril Frankel, 1963) 5/10
A happily married couple find their marriage in jeopardy when the wife (Anne Heywood) is stalked and assaulted by a psychotic man (Jeremy Brett). The shock causes her to lose the baby she is expecting and the resulting paranoia makes her turn away from her husband (Richard Todd) who is tempted by his secretary (Nicole Maurey). When the crazy man is caught the couple's life returns to normalcy until he suddenly escapes and goes again looking for the woman he is obsessed by. Creepy psychodrama goes overboard in trying to be sensational but Brett nails the part and he seems to have more of a connection with Heywood than she has with Todd. This tilts the film's sympathy somewhat towards the psycho which is sort of fatal for what the story was trying to achieve. Fine supporting cast.
Ah Wilderness! (Clarence Brown, 1935) 5/10
Brown tackled Eugene O'Neill's nostalgic memory play after a string of racy films with Garbo and Crawford. Stiff Americana is about small-town life during the turn-of-the-century and allows MGM to cast a great group of character actors as the family members of the high school graduate (Eric Linden). There is his father (Lionel Barrymore), the fussing mother (Spring Byington), a younger brother (Mickey Rooney), an annoying sister (Bonita Granville), and the spinster aunt (Aline Macmahon) in love with the tippling Uncle (Wallace Beery hamming it up). Cecilia Parker is the young love interest who refuses to kiss him but enjoys his quotes of Oscar Wilde causing her father (Charley Grapewin) to put a stop to their budding relationship. So he gets drunk at the hands of a woman of bad repute. Meanwhile the younger kids play with firecrackers during the 4th of July holiday. The film's best moments are the scenes between Barrymore and Beery as they try to out ham each other. Rooney later starred in a musical version in color at MGM playing the role of the older brother.
The Red Sea Diving Resort (Gideon Raff, 2019) 6/10
A reckless Mossad agent (Chris Evans) and his team (Alessandro Nivola, Haley Bennett, Michiel Huisman, Alex Hassell) help to evacuate thousands of jewish Ethiopian refugees from war torn Sudan to Jerusalem with the help of the Israeli Navy and Air Force. They do it by striking a deal with the Sudanese government to buy and refurbish a sea resort and use the premises to secretly house refugees before smuggling them out via the sea. The local rabid police captain suspects them but they manage to hoodwink him and help 400 refugees fly out from an abandoned airfield in a plane arranged by a CIA officer (Greg Kinnear). Rousing film, although with a screenplay full of potholes and dollops of melodrama, showcases a true story where many people targeted for death were saved. Sir Ben Kingsley plays a high ranking Mossad agent who is behind the mission. The screenplay distorts a lot of what actually happened as it amalgamates a lot of incidents for dramatic effect.
Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Heaven's Gate (1980) - 7/10 - This is based loosely on the Johnson County War in Wyoming toward the end of the 19th Century. Wealthy cattlemen try to intimidate and murder small ranchers, including a number of immigrants, who are challenging them on the use of the land. I was enjoying the film quite a bit for the first hour or so, but then started to lose interest. The film has really nice cinematography and I never completely lost interest, but it felt bloated and overlong. Overall, I thought it was a decent film with the potential to have been much better. Of course, the production problems, cost overruns, and other issues doomed its release early on.
Shenandoah (1965) - 7.5/10 - James Stewart stars as a farmer in Virginia during the Civil War who has a big spread that he works with his six sons, his daughter, and his daughter-in-law. Confederate and Union forces are in the vicinity near his farm, but he wants no part of the war and just wants his farm and his family to be left alone. His youngest son is mistaken for a Confederate soldier and taken prisoner so he goes off in search of him. I thought this was a pretty good western, even if it doesn't take place out west.
Lawman (1971) - 8/10 - Burt Lancaster stars as a lawman from a town called Bannock who travels to the town of Sabbath with a list of names of cowboys who shot up Bannock and unknowingly killed a man earlier in the year. One of the men on the list challenged him before he got to town and is now dead. He meets with the town marshal and sets a deadline for the next day for the men to turn themselves in. He says that none of the men will be killed and they will get a fair trial in Bannock, but some of the men have other ideas. I thought this one was really good.
Shenandoah (1965) - 7.5/10 - James Stewart stars as a farmer in Virginia during the Civil War who has a big spread that he works with his six sons, his daughter, and his daughter-in-law. Confederate and Union forces are in the vicinity near his farm, but he wants no part of the war and just wants his farm and his family to be left alone. His youngest son is mistaken for a Confederate soldier and taken prisoner so he goes off in search of him. I thought this was a pretty good western, even if it doesn't take place out west.
Lawman (1971) - 8/10 - Burt Lancaster stars as a lawman from a town called Bannock who travels to the town of Sabbath with a list of names of cowboys who shot up Bannock and unknowingly killed a man earlier in the year. One of the men on the list challenged him before he got to town and is now dead. He meets with the town marshal and sets a deadline for the next day for the men to turn themselves in. He says that none of the men will be killed and they will get a fair trial in Bannock, but some of the men have other ideas. I thought this one was really good.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
The Woman in the Fifth / La femme du Vème (Pawel Pawlikowski, 2011) 6/10
A divorced writer (Ethan Hawke), with a history of mental illness, moves to Paris to be near his daughter. He is robbed the first day and ends up staying at a seedy hotel in a room next to a man who refuses to flush the toilet. He gets a job working as a night usher while he writes his second book. He gets involved with two women - a mysteriously dark erotic woman (Kristin Scott Thomas) who allows him to meet and have sex with her but only on specific days and at a specific time, and the hotel barmaid (Joanna Kulig) who aspires to be a writer. Typically offbeat film that Hawke likes to inhabit and one that has a supernatural element built into its plot along with a kidnapping and murder. Wispy little story that appears to be the figment of the main character's mental state of mind.
Un carnet de bal (Julien Duvivier, 1937) 10/10
Duvivier's episodic film is one of the great pre-war classics of french cinema with a cast boasting the very best at the time. A widow (Marie Bell), having spent a married life without love, looks wistfully back twenty years when she had attended a magnificent ball where many young men were entranced by her charms while they danced around the ballroom. Impulsively she decides to visit the men who danced with her in order to see if she still has a chance at love with any of them. However, life has not been kind to many. One killed himself over her and she finds his delusional mother (Françoise Rosay) imagining he is still alive. A promising lawyer and poet (Louis Jouvet) became a mob boss and she arrives just in time to see him get arrested but not before he recites romantic poetry at her in memory of their time at the ball. A composer (Harry Bauer) is now a priest teaching young choir boys to sing. Another (Pierre Richard-Willm), still a bachelor, lives in seclusion on a mountain top. The mayor (Raimu) of a small town is about to get married to his maid and a former medical student (Pierre Blanchar) is now a drug addicted doctor performing illegal abortions on the waterfront docks. The fun loving card trickster (Fernandel) is now a hairdresser very content with his life. A group of motley suitors who have not amounted much in life is what she finds and when invited to the same ballroom she discovers it is peopled by very ordinary people and the once magical moments she remembers are nowhere to be found. With time we cloud our memories imagining them to be something which in reality is not. The film has echoes of the films of Max Ophüls and along with being an elegant romantic drama with stylistic flourishes - the dreamy effect of back projection during the flashback sequences - it is also a melancholy meditation on memory, loss and disappointment. The director later remade this film in Hollywood in 1941 as "Lydia" with Merle Oberon.
Maya (Raymond Bernard, 1949) 8/10
Set in a claustrophobic seaport resembling Marseille or Algiers, this film reeks of noir elements while borrowing heavily from Duvivier's "Pépé le Moko". Maya, which means illusion, is the feeling given off by the town's most enigmatic prostitute, Bella (Viviane Romance), who acts like a mysterious femme fatale. She is whoever her client wants her to be and for an instance magically transforms herself making men forget their problems. Trapped in a milieu she can barely rise above from, she is finally redeemed by love although that too proves to be illusory. Adapted from a 1924 play by Simon Gantillon, Bernard’s Maya heavily resembles the poetic realism of 1930s French cinema. One of the many films which created the sultry Romance persona on screen.
A divorced writer (Ethan Hawke), with a history of mental illness, moves to Paris to be near his daughter. He is robbed the first day and ends up staying at a seedy hotel in a room next to a man who refuses to flush the toilet. He gets a job working as a night usher while he writes his second book. He gets involved with two women - a mysteriously dark erotic woman (Kristin Scott Thomas) who allows him to meet and have sex with her but only on specific days and at a specific time, and the hotel barmaid (Joanna Kulig) who aspires to be a writer. Typically offbeat film that Hawke likes to inhabit and one that has a supernatural element built into its plot along with a kidnapping and murder. Wispy little story that appears to be the figment of the main character's mental state of mind.
Un carnet de bal (Julien Duvivier, 1937) 10/10
Duvivier's episodic film is one of the great pre-war classics of french cinema with a cast boasting the very best at the time. A widow (Marie Bell), having spent a married life without love, looks wistfully back twenty years when she had attended a magnificent ball where many young men were entranced by her charms while they danced around the ballroom. Impulsively she decides to visit the men who danced with her in order to see if she still has a chance at love with any of them. However, life has not been kind to many. One killed himself over her and she finds his delusional mother (Françoise Rosay) imagining he is still alive. A promising lawyer and poet (Louis Jouvet) became a mob boss and she arrives just in time to see him get arrested but not before he recites romantic poetry at her in memory of their time at the ball. A composer (Harry Bauer) is now a priest teaching young choir boys to sing. Another (Pierre Richard-Willm), still a bachelor, lives in seclusion on a mountain top. The mayor (Raimu) of a small town is about to get married to his maid and a former medical student (Pierre Blanchar) is now a drug addicted doctor performing illegal abortions on the waterfront docks. The fun loving card trickster (Fernandel) is now a hairdresser very content with his life. A group of motley suitors who have not amounted much in life is what she finds and when invited to the same ballroom she discovers it is peopled by very ordinary people and the once magical moments she remembers are nowhere to be found. With time we cloud our memories imagining them to be something which in reality is not. The film has echoes of the films of Max Ophüls and along with being an elegant romantic drama with stylistic flourishes - the dreamy effect of back projection during the flashback sequences - it is also a melancholy meditation on memory, loss and disappointment. The director later remade this film in Hollywood in 1941 as "Lydia" with Merle Oberon.
Maya (Raymond Bernard, 1949) 8/10
Set in a claustrophobic seaport resembling Marseille or Algiers, this film reeks of noir elements while borrowing heavily from Duvivier's "Pépé le Moko". Maya, which means illusion, is the feeling given off by the town's most enigmatic prostitute, Bella (Viviane Romance), who acts like a mysterious femme fatale. She is whoever her client wants her to be and for an instance magically transforms herself making men forget their problems. Trapped in a milieu she can barely rise above from, she is finally redeemed by love although that too proves to be illusory. Adapted from a 1924 play by Simon Gantillon, Bernard’s Maya heavily resembles the poetic realism of 1930s French cinema. One of the many films which created the sultry Romance persona on screen.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Wolf Children (2012) - 8.5/10 - A young woman in college meets a mysterious young man and the two fall in love. He turns out to be a wolf in human form and they have two children who are half human and half wolf. When he dies, she is left to raise the two children on her own. I enjoyed the manga adaptation when it came out here back in 2014 and the anime is also very good.
The Red Lanterns (1963) - 7.5/10 - We get to see some of the lives of the women working at a brothel in Greece called the Red Lanterns. They entertain many customers during the week, but get Sundays off. Some of them have a man they are close to and would like to get out of the business, but it is hard. The brothel is likely to be shut down soon due to a new law.
Sholay (1975) - 8/10 - A former police officer recruits two criminals to capture a bandit who has been terrorizing his village. He wants them to capture the bandit alive and the two men will earn a large reward if they succeed, though the bandit also has a large gang that will need to be dealt with. I thought the film was pretty entertaining with some good action scenes and humor as well. The songs mostly didn't seem out of place either.
The Class (2008) - 8/10 - The film mostly follows one class with a French teacher at a middle school in Paris with lots of foreign born students. It can be a tough group and we get to sit in on teacher meetings as well as the class itself. The teacher walks the edge a bit between trying to get their cooperation in working and being confrontational or insulting at times. I found it to be pretty realistic. I had a number of classes over the years that resembled this particular class in a variety of ways.
The Red Lanterns (1963) - 7.5/10 - We get to see some of the lives of the women working at a brothel in Greece called the Red Lanterns. They entertain many customers during the week, but get Sundays off. Some of them have a man they are close to and would like to get out of the business, but it is hard. The brothel is likely to be shut down soon due to a new law.
Sholay (1975) - 8/10 - A former police officer recruits two criminals to capture a bandit who has been terrorizing his village. He wants them to capture the bandit alive and the two men will earn a large reward if they succeed, though the bandit also has a large gang that will need to be dealt with. I thought the film was pretty entertaining with some good action scenes and humor as well. The songs mostly didn't seem out of place either.
The Class (2008) - 8/10 - The film mostly follows one class with a French teacher at a middle school in Paris with lots of foreign born students. It can be a tough group and we get to sit in on teacher meetings as well as the class itself. The teacher walks the edge a bit between trying to get their cooperation in working and being confrontational or insulting at times. I found it to be pretty realistic. I had a number of classes over the years that resembled this particular class in a variety of ways.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
All the Old Knives (Janus Metz Pedersen, 2022) 7/10
CIA agent (Chris Pine) meets up with his ex-colleague and former lover (Thandie Newton) after eight years when an old case they were both involved in - a terrorist hijacking that ended in tragedy - is re-opened by the Agency. The two meet at a posh restaurant in Carmel where he gently interrogates her as a suspect who may have provided inside information to the terrorists on board the airplane which resulted in mass murder and suicide. Flashbacks to their Vienna office explore what went on that fateful day when negotiations were underway with the hijackers. Both he and his lover tried desperately to get information from their contacts on the street which included a former ally now turned Islamic fundamentalist. The terrible betrayal is the result of an intense love affair and a sacrifice which finally explains the mystery of the tragedy that took place. Cerebral spy thriller seems to be from the pages of John le Carré although it is based on the book by Olen Steinhauer.
Slow Horses (James Hawes, 2022) 9/10
Riveting 6-part British series about MI5 agents who have screwed up big time and hence have been exiled from the mainstream for various offences. They form a band of useless file pushers at Slough House under the leadership of Jack Lamb (Gary Oldman) - a once formidable agent now reduced to a slovenly heap, chugging back alcohol, ragging his equally motley team and prone to loud farts of the very smelly variety. When a British-Pakistani student is kidnapped by a left-wing group threatening to behead him, it brings the Slough House team directly into conflict with MI5 and their enigmatic Director-General (Kristin Scott Thomas) who suspiciously seems to know more about the kidnapping than what she would like to reveal. Superbly paced thriller has an interesting cast of actors portraying Oldman's team of rejects who rally up to the cause and show their true worth. The scenes between Oldman and Scott Thomas crackle as each tries to pull the wool over the other's eyes.
Ma saison préférée / My Favorite Season (André Téchiné, 1993) 7/10
Téchiné uses his camera to quietly observe a family's dynamics which are in full conflict. An elderly widow (Marthe Villalonga) is forced to move in with her daughter (Catherine Deneuve) after an illness. She hates living with her and makes it quite clear as well. The daughter's family - husband (Jean-Pierre Bouvier), daughter (Chiara Mastroianni), adopted son (Anthony Prada) and his Moroccan girlfriend (Carmen Chaplin) - gather for dinner on Christmas eve. Also joining them is the hostess's estranged brother (Daniel Auteuil) who ends up in an altercation with the host causing the old lady to walk out with her son and go back to her home. Long suppressed emotions, pent-up since childhood, surface and cause much consternation all around. In its quiet way the screenplay touches upon various life issues - grown up children having to look after aged parents, the elderly realizing that their time on earth is almost over and wanting to settle their financial matters, children discovering and experimenting with sex and the complex bond between siblings. Villalonga is a delightful crotchety standout and was nominated for a César award - as were the film, Téchine, the screenplay, Deneuve, Auteuil and Mastroianni (daughter of Marcello & Deneuve) in her film debut. Slow but meaningful drama about life.
L'Africain (Philip de Broca, 1983) 5/10
Noiret & Deneuve are no Bogart & Hepburn although the film tries to revive memories of the 1951 classic John Huston film. A frenchman (Philippe Noiret), working as a grocer in Africa and running a boat called the African Queen II, also helps the local administration in trying to prevent elephant poaching. A Parisienne travel agent (Catherine Deneuve), hoping to open a resort, arrives and immediately clashes with the grocer who turns out to be the husband who abandoned her years before. In between their clashes they get up to many adventures evading the murderous poachers and trying to stop them. Colorful if rather tedious film relies on the offbeat chemistry of Noiret and Deneuve. Lots of shots of the flaura and fauna.
CIA agent (Chris Pine) meets up with his ex-colleague and former lover (Thandie Newton) after eight years when an old case they were both involved in - a terrorist hijacking that ended in tragedy - is re-opened by the Agency. The two meet at a posh restaurant in Carmel where he gently interrogates her as a suspect who may have provided inside information to the terrorists on board the airplane which resulted in mass murder and suicide. Flashbacks to their Vienna office explore what went on that fateful day when negotiations were underway with the hijackers. Both he and his lover tried desperately to get information from their contacts on the street which included a former ally now turned Islamic fundamentalist. The terrible betrayal is the result of an intense love affair and a sacrifice which finally explains the mystery of the tragedy that took place. Cerebral spy thriller seems to be from the pages of John le Carré although it is based on the book by Olen Steinhauer.
Slow Horses (James Hawes, 2022) 9/10
Riveting 6-part British series about MI5 agents who have screwed up big time and hence have been exiled from the mainstream for various offences. They form a band of useless file pushers at Slough House under the leadership of Jack Lamb (Gary Oldman) - a once formidable agent now reduced to a slovenly heap, chugging back alcohol, ragging his equally motley team and prone to loud farts of the very smelly variety. When a British-Pakistani student is kidnapped by a left-wing group threatening to behead him, it brings the Slough House team directly into conflict with MI5 and their enigmatic Director-General (Kristin Scott Thomas) who suspiciously seems to know more about the kidnapping than what she would like to reveal. Superbly paced thriller has an interesting cast of actors portraying Oldman's team of rejects who rally up to the cause and show their true worth. The scenes between Oldman and Scott Thomas crackle as each tries to pull the wool over the other's eyes.
Ma saison préférée / My Favorite Season (André Téchiné, 1993) 7/10
Téchiné uses his camera to quietly observe a family's dynamics which are in full conflict. An elderly widow (Marthe Villalonga) is forced to move in with her daughter (Catherine Deneuve) after an illness. She hates living with her and makes it quite clear as well. The daughter's family - husband (Jean-Pierre Bouvier), daughter (Chiara Mastroianni), adopted son (Anthony Prada) and his Moroccan girlfriend (Carmen Chaplin) - gather for dinner on Christmas eve. Also joining them is the hostess's estranged brother (Daniel Auteuil) who ends up in an altercation with the host causing the old lady to walk out with her son and go back to her home. Long suppressed emotions, pent-up since childhood, surface and cause much consternation all around. In its quiet way the screenplay touches upon various life issues - grown up children having to look after aged parents, the elderly realizing that their time on earth is almost over and wanting to settle their financial matters, children discovering and experimenting with sex and the complex bond between siblings. Villalonga is a delightful crotchety standout and was nominated for a César award - as were the film, Téchine, the screenplay, Deneuve, Auteuil and Mastroianni (daughter of Marcello & Deneuve) in her film debut. Slow but meaningful drama about life.
L'Africain (Philip de Broca, 1983) 5/10
Noiret & Deneuve are no Bogart & Hepburn although the film tries to revive memories of the 1951 classic John Huston film. A frenchman (Philippe Noiret), working as a grocer in Africa and running a boat called the African Queen II, also helps the local administration in trying to prevent elephant poaching. A Parisienne travel agent (Catherine Deneuve), hoping to open a resort, arrives and immediately clashes with the grocer who turns out to be the husband who abandoned her years before. In between their clashes they get up to many adventures evading the murderous poachers and trying to stop them. Colorful if rather tedious film relies on the offbeat chemistry of Noiret and Deneuve. Lots of shots of the flaura and fauna.
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The Brothers Karamazov (1969) - 8/10 - I liked this Russian adaptation of the famous novel a bit more than the earlier U.S. version a decade earlier with Yul Brynner, William Shatner, etc. The characters are more exaggerated from what I remember of the other film, but it is probably more in keeping with the novel.
Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India (2001) - 8.5/10 - The cruel British commander was overdone and the romance angle involving his sister was unnecessary, but I thought the movie was a lot of fun. Even most of the requisite songs/dances were pretty good and the cricket game was entertaining.
Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India (2001) - 8.5/10 - The cruel British commander was overdone and the romance angle involving his sister was unnecessary, but I thought the movie was a lot of fun. Even most of the requisite songs/dances were pretty good and the cricket game was entertaining.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Scream (Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett, 2022) 7/10
The killer in ghost mask is back and the murders are ever more so gruesome. Also back are Neve Campbell, Skeet Ulrich, David Keith and sadly Courtenay Cox whose mouth, courtesy of cosmetic surgey, is almost as wide as the killer's masked mouth. The film takes place 25-years after "Ghostface" first appeared and is a direct sequel to Scream 4 (2011). The premise of the film remains the same as the camera plays tricks with the audience as to when a victim will be slashed to bits as he or she goes about doing their business. A new bunch of kids fall victim to the glistening knife when the original killer's daughter, her step-sister and their friends are confronted by the masked and robed killer. The film puts Hitchcock's "Psycho" to shame with it's stab quotient taken to deliriously extreme moments. In a weird sort of way the film is great fun. Dedicated to Wes Craven.
Dog (Channing Tatum & Reid Carolin, 2022) 5/10
Two Army Rangers - a soldier (Channing Tatum), suffering from PTSD, and a Belgian Shepherd with aggressive behavior - take a road trip and after a disastrous start both bond with each other. The soldier is asked to transport the dog to Arizona to attend the funeral of her master who was his army buddy after which the dog is to be euthanased. In return he hopes to get a transfer to an overseas military tour in Pakistan. The film is fun to watch when Tatum interacts with the dog but less interesting when Tatum tries to pick up chicks in bars, fakes being blind to get a free hotel room or makes contact with other human beings. Ok film but not quite one that gives you a fuzzy-doggy feeling.
The Contractor (Tarek Saleh, 2022) 6/10
When a decorated serviceman (Chris Pine) is involuntarily discharged his former service mate (Ben Foster) introduces him to his current boss (Kiefer Sutherland) who offers him a job with a fat paycheck. The Company deals in clandestine operations and his first assignment is to go rub out a scientist who is making a destructive bio-germ. After the hit is made his team is wiped out by the local police and he finds that his own Company is out to kill him. So he goes on the run trying to evade constant attempts on his life while trying to make it back home to his family. Action packed thriller has nothing new to offer, is competently made with an appropriately tense performance by Pine who goes through some gruelling action sequences.
Silent Night (Camille Grifin, 2021) 5/10
The film deceptively starts almost like a remake of "The Big Chill" - a married couple (Matthew Goode & Keira Knightley) invite their close college chums to come spend the Christmas weekend at their huge house in the countryside. There are the usual jealousies, past recriminations, plus precocious kids making a nuisance of themselves. Midway through the film's mood changes when it is revealed that a poisonous gas in the earth's atmosphere is moving towards them and they will all soon be dead. To avoid a painful death the plan is to take a poisonous pill that will cause a painless death. Dreary and unfunny black comedy does not survive it's sudden change in tone and the cast flail about trying to either act funny, sad or angry. And then there is a twist ending.
The killer in ghost mask is back and the murders are ever more so gruesome. Also back are Neve Campbell, Skeet Ulrich, David Keith and sadly Courtenay Cox whose mouth, courtesy of cosmetic surgey, is almost as wide as the killer's masked mouth. The film takes place 25-years after "Ghostface" first appeared and is a direct sequel to Scream 4 (2011). The premise of the film remains the same as the camera plays tricks with the audience as to when a victim will be slashed to bits as he or she goes about doing their business. A new bunch of kids fall victim to the glistening knife when the original killer's daughter, her step-sister and their friends are confronted by the masked and robed killer. The film puts Hitchcock's "Psycho" to shame with it's stab quotient taken to deliriously extreme moments. In a weird sort of way the film is great fun. Dedicated to Wes Craven.
Dog (Channing Tatum & Reid Carolin, 2022) 5/10
Two Army Rangers - a soldier (Channing Tatum), suffering from PTSD, and a Belgian Shepherd with aggressive behavior - take a road trip and after a disastrous start both bond with each other. The soldier is asked to transport the dog to Arizona to attend the funeral of her master who was his army buddy after which the dog is to be euthanased. In return he hopes to get a transfer to an overseas military tour in Pakistan. The film is fun to watch when Tatum interacts with the dog but less interesting when Tatum tries to pick up chicks in bars, fakes being blind to get a free hotel room or makes contact with other human beings. Ok film but not quite one that gives you a fuzzy-doggy feeling.
The Contractor (Tarek Saleh, 2022) 6/10
When a decorated serviceman (Chris Pine) is involuntarily discharged his former service mate (Ben Foster) introduces him to his current boss (Kiefer Sutherland) who offers him a job with a fat paycheck. The Company deals in clandestine operations and his first assignment is to go rub out a scientist who is making a destructive bio-germ. After the hit is made his team is wiped out by the local police and he finds that his own Company is out to kill him. So he goes on the run trying to evade constant attempts on his life while trying to make it back home to his family. Action packed thriller has nothing new to offer, is competently made with an appropriately tense performance by Pine who goes through some gruelling action sequences.
Silent Night (Camille Grifin, 2021) 5/10
The film deceptively starts almost like a remake of "The Big Chill" - a married couple (Matthew Goode & Keira Knightley) invite their close college chums to come spend the Christmas weekend at their huge house in the countryside. There are the usual jealousies, past recriminations, plus precocious kids making a nuisance of themselves. Midway through the film's mood changes when it is revealed that a poisonous gas in the earth's atmosphere is moving towards them and they will all soon be dead. To avoid a painful death the plan is to take a poisonous pill that will cause a painless death. Dreary and unfunny black comedy does not survive it's sudden change in tone and the cast flail about trying to either act funny, sad or angry. And then there is a twist ending.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Shah Rukh Khan won India's equivalent of the Oscars - the Filmfare Award - for both the films you mention. In fact the film you did not like him in has been playing in a single theater in Mumbai since 1995.gunnar wrote:Swades (2004) - 7.5/10 - Mohan is a non-resident Indian who works for NASA and has lived in the U.S. for 12 years. His parents died long ago, but he decides to take a break and return to India to find the woman who helped raise him and acted as a second mother to him when he was young and bring her back with him. He eventually finds her in a rural village with a woman who was a childhood friend and is now the local schoolteacher. He finds himself falling in love with her and with India, though he has some issues with their traditions. The movie can be kind of preachy at times and throws in a bunch of somewhat random music videos (it is a Bollywood film after all), but I enjoyed it and think it is a good film. Shah Rukh Khan and Gayatri Joshi each did a nice job in their lead roles. I certainly liked Khan a lot more here than in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Swades (2004) - 7.5/10 - Mohan is a non-resident Indian who works for NASA and has lived in the U.S. for 12 years. His parents died long ago, but he decides to take a break and return to India to find the woman who helped raise him and acted as a second mother to him when he was young and bring her back with him. He eventually finds her in a rural village with a woman who was a childhood friend and is now the local schoolteacher. He finds himself falling in love with her and with India, though he has some issues with their traditions. The movie can be kind of preachy at times and throws in a bunch of somewhat random music videos (it is a Bollywood film after all), but I enjoyed it and think it is a good film. Shah Rukh Khan and Gayatri Joshi each did a nice job in their lead roles. I certainly liked Khan a lot more here than in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Hustle (Robert Aldrich, 1975) 6/10
A high class whore (Catherine Deneuve) is in a live-in relationship with an L.A. cop (Burt Reynolds) but also has sex with her rich clients on the side for a fat fee. They like to watch movies and are inspired by the romantic french film "A Man and a Woman". Their supposedly hip relationship turns conventional when he begins to rough her up insisting she give up her profession. Meanwhile the cop and his partner (Paul Winfield) are upto their ears in a suicide case with the dead girl's parents (Ben Johnson & Eileen Brennan) insisting it was a murder. A probe reveals the girl was working as a whore for the same rich man (Eddie Albert) who is the high class whore's prime client. Neo-noir is a slow mood piece with the characters engaged in long conversations with barely any action on the side. For a film about whores there is barely any sex. Deneuve looks lovely and bored while Reynolds, minus his trademark moustache, gives off a boyish and detached aura. Johnson, as the tightly coiled Korean vet braying for his dead daughter, is a standout. Keeping in vogue with the decade's moody angst Aldrich paints a bleak picture of 1970s America where the average people are weak and nobodies while the rich are corrupt. The ending is appropriately noir-tinged but the film does not hold a candle to the previous year's "Chinatown".
The Amateur (Charles Jarrott, 1981) 2/10
Canadian revenge thriller was nominated for 10 Genie awards. But why? An extremely slow pace and a bland leading man are this film's death knell. CIA computer analyst (John Savage) blackmails his superiors at the Agency to reveal the whereabouts of a group of terrorists who assassinated his wife - a journalist who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Convoluted plot, with the CIA involved upto their necks in the killing, has a few tepid action sequences, Christopher Plummer as a snarky Russian cop and Marthe Keller who may or not be an ally. Vienna and Toronto stand in for the Czech Republic where the action unfolds. An absolute bore.
The April Fools (Stuart Margolin, 1969) 3/10
A wisp of a story - nebbish man (Jack Lemmon), stuck with a wife (Sally Kellerman) he does not love, picks up an unhappily married woman (Catherine Deneuve) at the swinging party of his boss (Peter Lawford). He walks around Manhattan with her, in Central Park, and inspired by the love of an old couple (Charles Boyer & Myrna Loy) decides to give up his recent promotion, dump his awful wife and run off with the lady to Paris. The only problem is she is the wife of his boss and he is unaware of this fact. Slow moving film has the two stars staring at each other through endless scenes with glistening eyes as Dionne Warwick warbles the title tune. Deneuve, a last minute replacement for Shirley MacLaine, is an etherial but mannequin-like presence. One of her very few films in the english language she is luminous but in a dull way. Lemmon looks star struck opposite her and their chemistry is strictly asexual. Easily stealing the film from the big-name cast are Kenneth Mars, Melinda Dillon, Jack Weston and Harvey Korman in brief but very vivid and funny parts as the lead couple's friends. Contrived story is a serious waste of all the talent on display.
A high class whore (Catherine Deneuve) is in a live-in relationship with an L.A. cop (Burt Reynolds) but also has sex with her rich clients on the side for a fat fee. They like to watch movies and are inspired by the romantic french film "A Man and a Woman". Their supposedly hip relationship turns conventional when he begins to rough her up insisting she give up her profession. Meanwhile the cop and his partner (Paul Winfield) are upto their ears in a suicide case with the dead girl's parents (Ben Johnson & Eileen Brennan) insisting it was a murder. A probe reveals the girl was working as a whore for the same rich man (Eddie Albert) who is the high class whore's prime client. Neo-noir is a slow mood piece with the characters engaged in long conversations with barely any action on the side. For a film about whores there is barely any sex. Deneuve looks lovely and bored while Reynolds, minus his trademark moustache, gives off a boyish and detached aura. Johnson, as the tightly coiled Korean vet braying for his dead daughter, is a standout. Keeping in vogue with the decade's moody angst Aldrich paints a bleak picture of 1970s America where the average people are weak and nobodies while the rich are corrupt. The ending is appropriately noir-tinged but the film does not hold a candle to the previous year's "Chinatown".
The Amateur (Charles Jarrott, 1981) 2/10
Canadian revenge thriller was nominated for 10 Genie awards. But why? An extremely slow pace and a bland leading man are this film's death knell. CIA computer analyst (John Savage) blackmails his superiors at the Agency to reveal the whereabouts of a group of terrorists who assassinated his wife - a journalist who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Convoluted plot, with the CIA involved upto their necks in the killing, has a few tepid action sequences, Christopher Plummer as a snarky Russian cop and Marthe Keller who may or not be an ally. Vienna and Toronto stand in for the Czech Republic where the action unfolds. An absolute bore.
The April Fools (Stuart Margolin, 1969) 3/10
A wisp of a story - nebbish man (Jack Lemmon), stuck with a wife (Sally Kellerman) he does not love, picks up an unhappily married woman (Catherine Deneuve) at the swinging party of his boss (Peter Lawford). He walks around Manhattan with her, in Central Park, and inspired by the love of an old couple (Charles Boyer & Myrna Loy) decides to give up his recent promotion, dump his awful wife and run off with the lady to Paris. The only problem is she is the wife of his boss and he is unaware of this fact. Slow moving film has the two stars staring at each other through endless scenes with glistening eyes as Dionne Warwick warbles the title tune. Deneuve, a last minute replacement for Shirley MacLaine, is an etherial but mannequin-like presence. One of her very few films in the english language she is luminous but in a dull way. Lemmon looks star struck opposite her and their chemistry is strictly asexual. Easily stealing the film from the big-name cast are Kenneth Mars, Melinda Dillon, Jack Weston and Harvey Korman in brief but very vivid and funny parts as the lead couple's friends. Contrived story is a serious waste of all the talent on display.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Resistance (Todd Komarnicki, 2003) 5/10
Old fashioned WWII action adventure set in Nazi occupied Belgium. The lone American survivor (Bill Paxton) of a crashed reconnaissance mission bomber is discovered by a young boy and provided shelter by members of the resistance - a farmer (Philippe Volter) and his wife (Julia Ormond). So while the husband is away bombing tunnels and bridges the pilot has an affair with his wife. The screenplay takes this cliché and forgets to run with it. Instead we get endless sappy scenes of the two in bed, bathing and parenting the young boy who has witnessed Nazi reprisals where many town folk are hanged. Paxton is stuck in a thankless role where his static character has nothing much to do. With very little action and some very weird decisions taken by the two leads the film quickly begins to unravel. Ormond, speaking mostly in french, is a lovely etherial presence throughout while Paxton's American (bordering on hick) persona quickly begins to grate. Many lovely Dutch countryside locations where the film was shot.
Last Call (Henry Bromell, 2002 5/10
Dreary account of the last year in the life of F. Scott Fitzgerald (Jeremy Irons). Ensconsed in an alcoholic stupor he is attempting to write a novel - which proved to be his last - the unfinished "The Last Tycoon" based on the character of MGM producer Irving Thalberg. He is in the midst of a volatile relationship with gossip columnist Sheila Graham while his wife Zelda, diagnosed with
schizophrenia, has been tucked away in an institution. A ravaged Sissy Spacek plays Zelda Fitzgerald who seemingly appears to her husband while he is in an alcoholic haze as she mocks, taunts and berates him. Into this overcharged atmosphere he hires a young woman (Neve Campbell) to act as his secretary and "Man Friday". She tries to get him to kick his alcohol habit, deflect his paranoia and try and get him to write again. The screenplay is based on the memoir by Frances Kroll Ring who tried to help Fitzgerald as much as she could during his difficult last year. Heavy going with Campbell a sublime presence and Irons and his mellifluous voice mesmerizing as always.
Spacek was nominated for an Emmy for her harrowing performance.
Willie and Phil (Paul Mazursky, 1980) 2/10
Hollywood remake (or a re-imagining) of François Truffaut's 1962 classic "Jules et Jim" is transplanted from Paris to the New York of the late sixties and seventies. Willie (Michael Ontkean), a high school English teacher who plays jazz piano, and Phil (Ray Sharkey), a fashion photographer, befriend each other after watching a screening of the Truffaut film. Through the course of the film the men find their friendship challenged when they meet an enigmatic freespirit, Jeanette (Margot Kidder), whom they both desire. The decade and its well-run clichés swing by - as the boys dodge the Vietnam draft, the trio drop acid, discover yoga and the joys of a sexual threesome - as Willie and Jeanette get married and have a child. When Willie leaves the country to find himself his wife moves in with Phil who has relocated to California. Both Ontkean and Sharkey are terribly bland - the original bizzare casting was Al Pacino and Woody Allen which, at least on paper, sounds much more interesting. Kidder, with her wide sunny smile, comes off better than her two co-stars but this is pretty shoddy material and comes off as a third rate homage to the french classic. Vividly standing out in this messy film is a teenage Laurence Fishburne in a brief bit as a student who recites the "To Be or Not to Be" soliloquy from Shakespeare's "Hamlet. He simply jumps off the screen and its an electric moment which is sadly lacking throughout this overlong and very boring film.
Old fashioned WWII action adventure set in Nazi occupied Belgium. The lone American survivor (Bill Paxton) of a crashed reconnaissance mission bomber is discovered by a young boy and provided shelter by members of the resistance - a farmer (Philippe Volter) and his wife (Julia Ormond). So while the husband is away bombing tunnels and bridges the pilot has an affair with his wife. The screenplay takes this cliché and forgets to run with it. Instead we get endless sappy scenes of the two in bed, bathing and parenting the young boy who has witnessed Nazi reprisals where many town folk are hanged. Paxton is stuck in a thankless role where his static character has nothing much to do. With very little action and some very weird decisions taken by the two leads the film quickly begins to unravel. Ormond, speaking mostly in french, is a lovely etherial presence throughout while Paxton's American (bordering on hick) persona quickly begins to grate. Many lovely Dutch countryside locations where the film was shot.
Last Call (Henry Bromell, 2002 5/10
Dreary account of the last year in the life of F. Scott Fitzgerald (Jeremy Irons). Ensconsed in an alcoholic stupor he is attempting to write a novel - which proved to be his last - the unfinished "The Last Tycoon" based on the character of MGM producer Irving Thalberg. He is in the midst of a volatile relationship with gossip columnist Sheila Graham while his wife Zelda, diagnosed with
schizophrenia, has been tucked away in an institution. A ravaged Sissy Spacek plays Zelda Fitzgerald who seemingly appears to her husband while he is in an alcoholic haze as she mocks, taunts and berates him. Into this overcharged atmosphere he hires a young woman (Neve Campbell) to act as his secretary and "Man Friday". She tries to get him to kick his alcohol habit, deflect his paranoia and try and get him to write again. The screenplay is based on the memoir by Frances Kroll Ring who tried to help Fitzgerald as much as she could during his difficult last year. Heavy going with Campbell a sublime presence and Irons and his mellifluous voice mesmerizing as always.
Spacek was nominated for an Emmy for her harrowing performance.
Willie and Phil (Paul Mazursky, 1980) 2/10
Hollywood remake (or a re-imagining) of François Truffaut's 1962 classic "Jules et Jim" is transplanted from Paris to the New York of the late sixties and seventies. Willie (Michael Ontkean), a high school English teacher who plays jazz piano, and Phil (Ray Sharkey), a fashion photographer, befriend each other after watching a screening of the Truffaut film. Through the course of the film the men find their friendship challenged when they meet an enigmatic freespirit, Jeanette (Margot Kidder), whom they both desire. The decade and its well-run clichés swing by - as the boys dodge the Vietnam draft, the trio drop acid, discover yoga and the joys of a sexual threesome - as Willie and Jeanette get married and have a child. When Willie leaves the country to find himself his wife moves in with Phil who has relocated to California. Both Ontkean and Sharkey are terribly bland - the original bizzare casting was Al Pacino and Woody Allen which, at least on paper, sounds much more interesting. Kidder, with her wide sunny smile, comes off better than her two co-stars but this is pretty shoddy material and comes off as a third rate homage to the french classic. Vividly standing out in this messy film is a teenage Laurence Fishburne in a brief bit as a student who recites the "To Be or Not to Be" soliloquy from Shakespeare's "Hamlet. He simply jumps off the screen and its an electric moment which is sadly lacking throughout this overlong and very boring film.
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Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
One of the worst wastes of time of recent streaming binges for me.Reza wrote:Anatomy of a Scandal (S.J. Clarkson, 2022) 7/10
Fast paced, six-part, courtroom drama which also works as a psychological thriller. An MP (Rupert Friend), with a posh background - Eton, Oxford - a stunning wife (Sienna Miller) (he met at Oxford) and two cute kids is also a very close friend of the PM - they were together at Oxford too. Their perfect seemingly sunny life comes crashing down when he confesses to his wife about an affair he had with his parlimentary aide (Naomi Scott) which is about to be leaked by the press the following morning. His important government position demands that the situation be immediately handled by admitting to the affair and rally around the family and his constituents with an apology. After the initial shock his wife grits her teeth and forgives him for his "mistake", he apologises to the public and matters regain some sort of semblance when suddenly he is accused of rape by his ex-mistress. A prolific prosecutor (Michele Dockery) takes this high level case and as it progresses many secrets are revealed that will change the lives of everyone involved. Flashbacks flesh out the character's motivations by exploring their past when they were at University at Oxford and the screenplay gradually starts putting the pieces of the puzzle together. Based on the book by Sarah Vaughn the story explicitly deals with themes of sexual abuse and sexual harrassment and culminates in a plot twist. The film's outstanding performance is by Sienna Miller as the shocked wife who sees her life crumbling around her but manages to steer herself right up as she makes important adjustments to correct the wrongs done to her. Art imitating life in Miller's case as in 2005 her then-partner, Jude Law, confessed to her that he was having an affair with the children's nanny which led to their parting.
Good acting from the series' three stars, Miller, Dockery, and Friend is ultimately defeated by the absurdity of the plot.
The first three episodes are intriguing despite this being a standard "he said she said" drama. It starts to go downhill with the fourth episode, reaches bottom with the fifth and ends in total absurdity in the sixth.
There is no way outside of a soap opera that the "big reveal" would pass scrutiny in today's world. It's like something out of a 1920s Fannie Hurst novel.
The ending in which the guilty are punished not for the central theme crime but for something else is also beyond credulity. The only way British and other first world politicians are punished these days is at the ballot box. Otherwise, they literally get away with murder.
On a side note, the nanny with whom Jude Law was having an affair in 2005 was the nanny of his children from his marriage to Sadie Frost from whom he was divorced in 2003. He and Miller did not have any children together. Her children are from a later relationship or relationships.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Wild Target (Jonathan Lynn, 2010) 7/10
A fast paced, very droll British black comedy. When a con woman (Emily Blunt) sells a fake Rembrandt to a crook (Rupert Everett) he puts a hit on her. The prim and proper hitman (Bill Nighy) can't bring himself to kill her and they end up going on the run along with an innocent teenage bystander (Rupert Gint). Things get nasty when the crook hires another hitman (Martin Freeman) to go after the trio. Dame Eileen Atkins is hilarious as Nighy's unhinged, knife & shotgun-wielding, wheelchair-bound, domineering mother who conjures up memories of "Psycho". The cast, playing it completely straight, seem to be having the time of their lives with their twisted characters. Remake of the 1993 french film "Cible émouvante" with Jean Rochefort, Marie Trintignant and Guillaume Depardieu.
The Time of Their Lives (Roger Goldby, 2017) 7/10
A road trip. Two old ladies. New friendships forged. Life changes occur. Nothing new here but it does allow Joan Collins and Pauline Collins a couple of interesting lead roles to play at their advanced age. Selfish, egocentric and manipulative, has-been actress (Joan Collins), living in an old person's home in London, decides to take a trip to France to attend the funeral of her ex-lover and favorite director and hopes to rekindle her dead career. On the way she bumps into a timid and very downtrodden housewife (Pauline Collins) who gets coerced into the trip as well. Both ladies harbor sad secrets from their past lives as they embark on the adventure of their lives which also includes a bit of romance with a reclusive artist (Franco Nero) who comes to their rescue when their car runs out of petrol on a backroad. Old fashioned gentle film has laughs and tears, a great cast headed by the two delightful stars and with charming Nero even managing a hilarious nude scene at age 76. In brief roles are Ronald Pickup as the stubborn husband of Pauline and Joely Richardson as the dead director's daughter who gets to hear a shocking truth by Joan. Lovely location work as the two old birds make their journey across the Channel via assorted stolen cars. Unbelievable but fun.
A fast paced, very droll British black comedy. When a con woman (Emily Blunt) sells a fake Rembrandt to a crook (Rupert Everett) he puts a hit on her. The prim and proper hitman (Bill Nighy) can't bring himself to kill her and they end up going on the run along with an innocent teenage bystander (Rupert Gint). Things get nasty when the crook hires another hitman (Martin Freeman) to go after the trio. Dame Eileen Atkins is hilarious as Nighy's unhinged, knife & shotgun-wielding, wheelchair-bound, domineering mother who conjures up memories of "Psycho". The cast, playing it completely straight, seem to be having the time of their lives with their twisted characters. Remake of the 1993 french film "Cible émouvante" with Jean Rochefort, Marie Trintignant and Guillaume Depardieu.
The Time of Their Lives (Roger Goldby, 2017) 7/10
A road trip. Two old ladies. New friendships forged. Life changes occur. Nothing new here but it does allow Joan Collins and Pauline Collins a couple of interesting lead roles to play at their advanced age. Selfish, egocentric and manipulative, has-been actress (Joan Collins), living in an old person's home in London, decides to take a trip to France to attend the funeral of her ex-lover and favorite director and hopes to rekindle her dead career. On the way she bumps into a timid and very downtrodden housewife (Pauline Collins) who gets coerced into the trip as well. Both ladies harbor sad secrets from their past lives as they embark on the adventure of their lives which also includes a bit of romance with a reclusive artist (Franco Nero) who comes to their rescue when their car runs out of petrol on a backroad. Old fashioned gentle film has laughs and tears, a great cast headed by the two delightful stars and with charming Nero even managing a hilarious nude scene at age 76. In brief roles are Ronald Pickup as the stubborn husband of Pauline and Joely Richardson as the dead director's daughter who gets to hear a shocking truth by Joan. Lovely location work as the two old birds make their journey across the Channel via assorted stolen cars. Unbelievable but fun.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
The Last Metro (1980) - 8/10 - In occupied Paris in 1942, a small theater is barely hanging on. The Jewish theater owner/director has signed over the theater to his gentile wife (Catherine Deneuve) and is thought to have fled France. Instead, his wife is helping him hide in the cellar of the theater. Bernard Granger (Gerard Depardieu) is hired as the lead actor for the theater's new play and also secretly works for the resistance. Truffaut directed this film and I thought it was very good.
The Twilight Samurai (2002) - 9/10 - Set a few years before the Meiji era in Japan, a poor low ranked samurai looks after his aging, senile mother and two young daughters after the death of his wife from tuberculosis. He works in castle stores and has many debts, but is happy with his life and the time with his girls. His life begins to change when Tomoe, a childhood friend, is divorced from her abusive husband and returns home to live with her elder brother. This leads to a duel and eventually the attention of his superiors. This is an excellent film.
The Twilight Samurai (2002) - 9/10 - Set a few years before the Meiji era in Japan, a poor low ranked samurai looks after his aging, senile mother and two young daughters after the death of his wife from tuberculosis. He works in castle stores and has many debts, but is happy with his life and the time with his girls. His life begins to change when Tomoe, a childhood friend, is divorced from her abusive husband and returns home to live with her elder brother. This leads to a duel and eventually the attention of his superiors. This is an excellent film.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Anatomy of a Scandal (S.J. Clarkson, 2022) 7/10
Fast paced, six-part, courtroom drama which also works as a psychological thriller. An MP (Rupert Friend), with a posh background - Eton, Oxford - a stunning wife (Sienna Miller) (he met at Oxford) and two cute kids is also a very close friend of the PM - they were together at Oxford too. Their perfect seemingly sunny life comes crashing down when he confesses to his wife about an affair he had with his parlimentary aide (Naomi Scott) which is about to be leaked by the press the following morning. His important government position demands that the situation be immediately handled by admitting to the affair and rally around the family and his constituents with an apology. After the initial shock his wife grits her teeth and forgives him for his "mistake", he apologises to the public and matters regain some sort of semblance when suddenly he is accused of rape by his ex-mistress. A prolific prosecutor (Michele Dockery) takes this high level case and as it progresses many secrets are revealed that will change the lives of everyone involved. Flashbacks flesh out the character's motivations by exploring their past when they were at University at Oxford and the screenplay gradually starts putting the pieces of the puzzle together. Based on the book by Sarah Vaughn the story explicitly deals with themes of sexual abuse and sexual harrassment and culminates in a plot twist. The film's outstanding performance is by Sienna Miller as the shocked wife who sees her life crumbling around her but manages to steer herself right up as she makes important adjustments to correct the wrongs done to her. Art imitating life in Miller's case as in 2005 her then-partner, Jude Law, confessed to her that he was having an affair with the children's nanny which led to their parting.
The Awful Truth (Leo McCarey, 1937) 10/10
Classic screwball farce with Grant divorcing Dunne, fighting for custody of their dog and then followed by both realising they still love each other. So they slyly try to ruin each others' romances - Dunne with a rich mother-pecked Oklahoma hayseed (Ralph Bellamy) and Grant with posh blueblood heiress (Molly Lamont). McCarey deftly directs the cast (and the delightful dog) with the actors improvising most of the dialogue and scenes. The film finally propelled Grant into the A-list and for which he was shockingly overlooked for an Oscar nomination. The film, Dunne (who should have won the Oscar), Bellamy, the screenplay and editing were all nominated for the Oscar with McCarey the lone winner for his direction. Hilarious film still holds up with superbly timed comic performances by Cecil Cunningham as Dunne's sardonic aunt and Esther Dale as Bellamy's disapproving mother. A must-see.
Warpath (Byron Haskin, 1951) 7/10
A mystery-thriller aspect added to the screenplay mixed with historical characters makes this an interesting B Western. Man (Edmond O'Brien), searching for the three killers of his fiancé, enlists in General Custer's 7th Cavalry where he suspects two to be in hiding after he finds one and kills him. Lots of Indian action - although the Little Big Horn massacre takes place off screen - as he circles the two suspects - a fellow officer (Forrest Tucker) and a store owner (Dean Jagger) - and falls in love with the latter's daughter (Polly Bergen). Lovely color production shot by the great Ray Rennahan who photographed Gone With the Wind.
The Dark Avenger / The Warriors (Henry Levin, 1955) 7/10
Robust historical adventure film was star Flynn's last swashbuckler which he only agreed to do because he was bankrupt. Set during the Hundred Years' War between the French and English in the French province of Aquitaine captured by King Edward III of England (Michael Hordern) and now ruled peacefully by Edward, Prince of Wales (Errol Flynn), his son and heir. The screenplay involves his conflict with Comte de Ville (Peter Finch), a french nobleman who refuses to bow to the English Lord - lots of sword fights ensue to allow Flynn to do what he did best on screen. There is romance with an English widow (Joanne Dru) - who would later become Edward's wife and queen - who gets captured by the French and naturally needs to be rescued. Colorful film has Finch hamming it up as a dastardly villain, Guy Green's lush color cinematography, beautiful costumes and a dashing but subdued Flynn - slightly overweight and apparently constantly drunk on set. Not top-tier Flynn but worth a watch.
They Met in Bombay (Clarence Brown, 1941) 8/10
Breezy fluff allows Clark Gable to reunite with a tried and tested leading lady - Rosalind Russell, in the third and last of their outings together. They both play rival jewel thieves out to get the "Star of Asia" from around the neck of a Duchess (Jessie Ralph). The film's exotic locations include India and China but by way of California where it was shot in Hollywood. The film shifts tones from a light crime comedy to a ludicrous action war adventure in China where Gable battles it out with the invading Japanese winning himself the Victoria Cross no less. It's great fun with both leads very amusing as they banter it out and there is a typically slimy turn by Peter Lorre. MGM goes all out with the team behind the camera - William Daniels on camera, sets by Cedric Gibbons and Roz dressed to her teeth in Adrian gowns.
The Ledge (Howard J. Ford, 2022) 5/10
Psychotic man and his three friends kill a girl which is secretly filmed by her friend. They then go after her up a mountain which she climbs to get away from them. Stuck on a tiny ledge just below the men she tries to survive their onslaught as they try to retreive the video camera from her. Campy cat-and-mouse thriller, â la "Cliffhanger", has an over-the-top villain but not quite like the deliciously evil John Lithgow in that Sly Stallone "classic".
Fast paced, six-part, courtroom drama which also works as a psychological thriller. An MP (Rupert Friend), with a posh background - Eton, Oxford - a stunning wife (Sienna Miller) (he met at Oxford) and two cute kids is also a very close friend of the PM - they were together at Oxford too. Their perfect seemingly sunny life comes crashing down when he confesses to his wife about an affair he had with his parlimentary aide (Naomi Scott) which is about to be leaked by the press the following morning. His important government position demands that the situation be immediately handled by admitting to the affair and rally around the family and his constituents with an apology. After the initial shock his wife grits her teeth and forgives him for his "mistake", he apologises to the public and matters regain some sort of semblance when suddenly he is accused of rape by his ex-mistress. A prolific prosecutor (Michele Dockery) takes this high level case and as it progresses many secrets are revealed that will change the lives of everyone involved. Flashbacks flesh out the character's motivations by exploring their past when they were at University at Oxford and the screenplay gradually starts putting the pieces of the puzzle together. Based on the book by Sarah Vaughn the story explicitly deals with themes of sexual abuse and sexual harrassment and culminates in a plot twist. The film's outstanding performance is by Sienna Miller as the shocked wife who sees her life crumbling around her but manages to steer herself right up as she makes important adjustments to correct the wrongs done to her. Art imitating life in Miller's case as in 2005 her then-partner, Jude Law, confessed to her that he was having an affair with the children's nanny which led to their parting.
The Awful Truth (Leo McCarey, 1937) 10/10
Classic screwball farce with Grant divorcing Dunne, fighting for custody of their dog and then followed by both realising they still love each other. So they slyly try to ruin each others' romances - Dunne with a rich mother-pecked Oklahoma hayseed (Ralph Bellamy) and Grant with posh blueblood heiress (Molly Lamont). McCarey deftly directs the cast (and the delightful dog) with the actors improvising most of the dialogue and scenes. The film finally propelled Grant into the A-list and for which he was shockingly overlooked for an Oscar nomination. The film, Dunne (who should have won the Oscar), Bellamy, the screenplay and editing were all nominated for the Oscar with McCarey the lone winner for his direction. Hilarious film still holds up with superbly timed comic performances by Cecil Cunningham as Dunne's sardonic aunt and Esther Dale as Bellamy's disapproving mother. A must-see.
Warpath (Byron Haskin, 1951) 7/10
A mystery-thriller aspect added to the screenplay mixed with historical characters makes this an interesting B Western. Man (Edmond O'Brien), searching for the three killers of his fiancé, enlists in General Custer's 7th Cavalry where he suspects two to be in hiding after he finds one and kills him. Lots of Indian action - although the Little Big Horn massacre takes place off screen - as he circles the two suspects - a fellow officer (Forrest Tucker) and a store owner (Dean Jagger) - and falls in love with the latter's daughter (Polly Bergen). Lovely color production shot by the great Ray Rennahan who photographed Gone With the Wind.
The Dark Avenger / The Warriors (Henry Levin, 1955) 7/10
Robust historical adventure film was star Flynn's last swashbuckler which he only agreed to do because he was bankrupt. Set during the Hundred Years' War between the French and English in the French province of Aquitaine captured by King Edward III of England (Michael Hordern) and now ruled peacefully by Edward, Prince of Wales (Errol Flynn), his son and heir. The screenplay involves his conflict with Comte de Ville (Peter Finch), a french nobleman who refuses to bow to the English Lord - lots of sword fights ensue to allow Flynn to do what he did best on screen. There is romance with an English widow (Joanne Dru) - who would later become Edward's wife and queen - who gets captured by the French and naturally needs to be rescued. Colorful film has Finch hamming it up as a dastardly villain, Guy Green's lush color cinematography, beautiful costumes and a dashing but subdued Flynn - slightly overweight and apparently constantly drunk on set. Not top-tier Flynn but worth a watch.
They Met in Bombay (Clarence Brown, 1941) 8/10
Breezy fluff allows Clark Gable to reunite with a tried and tested leading lady - Rosalind Russell, in the third and last of their outings together. They both play rival jewel thieves out to get the "Star of Asia" from around the neck of a Duchess (Jessie Ralph). The film's exotic locations include India and China but by way of California where it was shot in Hollywood. The film shifts tones from a light crime comedy to a ludicrous action war adventure in China where Gable battles it out with the invading Japanese winning himself the Victoria Cross no less. It's great fun with both leads very amusing as they banter it out and there is a typically slimy turn by Peter Lorre. MGM goes all out with the team behind the camera - William Daniels on camera, sets by Cedric Gibbons and Roz dressed to her teeth in Adrian gowns.
The Ledge (Howard J. Ford, 2022) 5/10
Psychotic man and his three friends kill a girl which is secretly filmed by her friend. They then go after her up a mountain which she climbs to get away from them. Stuck on a tiny ledge just below the men she tries to survive their onslaught as they try to retreive the video camera from her. Campy cat-and-mouse thriller, â la "Cliffhanger", has an over-the-top villain but not quite like the deliciously evil John Lithgow in that Sly Stallone "classic".