ph: Craig McDean
Saturday, May 30, 2015
Solitary Man (2009)
A car magnate watches his personal and professional life hit the skids because of his business and romantic indiscretions.
Basically a well-played and produced tragicomedy (or rather just a touch humour) about a quite unnerving and disagreeable character.
Maltin***: "Provocative character study of a louse, played with charismatic bravado by Douglas, who's surrounded by good actors in similarly three-dimensional roles."
Friday, May 29, 2015
First Lines: Josephine Tey - The Franchise Affair
It was four o'clock of a spring evening; and Robert Blair was thinking of going home.
New Stuff: Funeral Parade of Roses
An underground classic from Japan: "A feverish collision of avant-garde aesthetics and grind-house shocks (not to mention a direct influence on Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange), Funeral Parade of Roses takes us on an electrifying journey into the nether-regions of the late-'60s Tokyo underworld."
Zui hao de shi guang (2005)
Three love stories set in three times, 1911, 1966 and 2005, the two main characters in each story played by the same actors.
Masterfully elegiac study of the complexity of communicating love througout different ages.
Maltin***: "Although the last part is its weakest, this languid and lyrical film, which is shot in varying styles reflecting each of its time periods, is an accomplished and moving mood piece."
New Stuff: Kenji Mizoguchi
A nice 4 movie set from Kenji Mizoguchi's middle phase, still need to find Ugetsu monogatari.
Band of Angels (1957)
A young woman grows up as a privileged southern Belle in the ante-bellum South but after her father dies broke, her world is destroyed when she discovers her mother was black.
Lush production of an otherwise long-winding and absurd story.
Halliwell (no star): "Long-winded romantic adventure, rather lamely scripted and developed. The star's presence reinforces the impression of sitting through the ghost of Gone With the Wind."
Maltin**1/2: "Flat costume epic..."
New Stuff: Ornette Coleman
Finally: the complete Atlantic recordings in a re-issue for a reasonable price!
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
First Lines: Len Deighton - The IPCRESS File
They came through on the hot line at about half past two in the afternoon.
Driftwood (2006)
Riddled with guilt over the loss of his rock star older brother a16-year-old becomes obsessed with death, leading his misguided parents to send him to Driftwood, an attitude-adjustment Camp for troubled youths.
OK as a youth prison camp drama led by a corrupt and sadistic ex-marine, but the supernatural conclusion ruins it.
On second view: I still agree with my original assessment.
Les Misérables (1935)
In early 19th Century France an ex-convict who failed to report to parole is relentlessly pursued over a 20 year period by an obsessive policeman.
Nearly perfect Hollywood adaptation of the classic novel, fast-paced and straightforward, with excellence in all departments, especially cast, photography and settings.
Halliwell****: "Solid, telling, intelligent version of a much-filmed classic novel; in adaptation and performance it is hard to see how this film could be bettered."
Maltin***1/2: "Meticulous production..."
Monday, May 25, 2015
First Lines: Wilkie Collins - The Moonstone
In the first part of ROBINSON CRUSOE, at page one hundred and twenty-nine, you will find it thus written:
"Now I saw, though too late, the Folly of beginning a Work before we count the Cost, and before we judge rightly of our own Strength to go through with it."