| Author | Message | ||
     Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 1480 Registered: 09-2006 |
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold Tons of early Cold War ambience, sad and complex LeCarre story, crisp black and white noirish cinematography, and a remarkably dialed-down performance by Richard Burton. As the typically excellent Criterion extras reveal, attaining that last part took some nearly Herculean effort on the part of director Martin Ritt. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 1493 Registered: 01-2005 |
Bob le flambeur and Army of Shadows. J-P Melville was a master director. Maybe I'll watch Le Samourai tonight! I can't wait until next year when Godard's My Life To Live gets a Criterion release. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 1482 Registered: 09-2006 |
Agreed, all fliques magnifique...Le Cercle Rouge is pretty darn good, too. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 1500 Registered: 01-2005 |
Le Cercle Rouge is on my short list. 1500 posts! | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 1503 Registered: 01-2005 |
Rififi Le Samourai Allen, I finally ordered Melville's Le Cercle Rouge. Have you ever seen Jules Dassin's 1955 Paris heist epic Rififi? It was a real trail blazer and touchstone for subsequent French heist movies like Melville's Le Cercle Rouge. Rififi was the first movie with a extended silent heist sequence. It was also Dassin's first movie in five years due to be blacklisted as a commie in the early 1950's. | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 1381 Registered: 08-2006 |
"Let the Right One In." I can't remember anyone mentioning this here, but a friend loaned it to me and I thought it was terrific: a Swedish-made vampire flick that does the genre proud (kind of like saying "in the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king," I know). The young leads are outstanding, the photography stark, the story weird, deeply sad and romantic all at once. Plus, what gore there is (and there's a bit) is palatable (I'm not a big fan of gratuitous blood and guts). It's maybe a disservice to call it a great vampire film - it's an excellent film, period. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 1493 Registered: 09-2006 |
Michael, I have seen "Rififi" and enjoyed it a great deal, also Dassin's "Night and the City," which I recall seeing first on TV as a teen, and being completely pulled in by Richard Widmark's portrayal of sweaty, ever-growing desperation (a forte of his). Rob, haven't seen that one yet, but it's high on my Netflix queue. | ||
| cosmo vitelli Member Username: Cosmo Post Number: 135 Registered: 05-2005 |
saw 'let the right one in' last night Rob and thought it was a work of genius, absolutely outstanding and the film of the year for me | ||
| skulldisco Member Username: Skulldisco Post Number: 192 Registered: 10-2008 |
The West Wing Complete Series 1-7 Boxset. 154 episodes - might finish them all by Xmas | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 1497 Registered: 09-2006 |
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three Speaking of superior crime thrillers...not in Melville's league but very well done, with Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw and a great number of familiar 70s character actors. I dread the Tony Scott remake coming this year. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 1519 Registered: 09-2006 |
Continuing a Powell/Pressburger binge, am rewatching "49th Parallel" and its mirror-image followup, "One of Our Aircraft is Missing," which just arrived in the mail today. | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 440 Registered: 04-2005 |
Allen, Did you read any of the reports on Scorcese's restored version of "The Red Shoes", which was shown last week at Cannes ? Apparently it will be out on DVD but I would love to see it on the big screen. Once saw 'A Matter of Life and Death' in a cinema and realised that the small screen does not do these masterpieces justice. An interview with Thelma Schoonmaker here http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/ 2009/may/19/cannes-film-festival-the-red -shoes | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 1521 Registered: 09-2006 |
No, had not read a single thing about that, Andrew...thanks very much. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 3167 Registered: 05-2005 |
The weather report for Menorca, I'm off on hols for 2 weeks, the first hols in 5 years where I haven't been towing a caravan! See y'all laters!  | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 1522 Registered: 09-2006 |
Best wishes...have a great time! | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 1515 Registered: 01-2005 |
Le Cercle Rouge One of Melville's best for sure and one which will certainly get repeated viewings. I love Melville's use of light and mutted blues in Le Cercle Rouge, Army of Shadows and Le Samourai. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 1523 Registered: 09-2006 |
The Friends of Eddie Coyle Has been getting tons of adoration upon its recent DVD rerelease, and I'd mostly agree. Wonderfully cast (Mitchum, Boyle, Jordan, Rocco, etc. etc.), plenty of naturalism in story, pace, dialogue, performance (it mostly avoids the romanticism of thug life that creeps into even the sainted Godfather and Sopranos series)...there's very little onscreen violence but nearly every scene is suffused with an elephant-in-the-room tension that's like another main character in the movie. The "mostly" above is, uh, mostly because viewing it reminds me that I might be coming close to burning out on this kind of story - crime is a sad, grubby, cold business. Only the people on top are really making out, and even they are constantly looking over their shoulder and terrified of losing it all. Any talk of a "code of honor" should be greeted with the hollow, contemptuous laughter it deserves. Just like the "legitimate" capitalist system it mirrors. But I already knew all of that from the many other stories in this genre I've seen and read. For all the movie's rich positives I got nothing new out of it. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 1524 Registered: 09-2006 |
That should be "romanticization" above, not "romanticism" | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 1525 Registered: 09-2006 |
"A Very British Psycho," the superlative combination making-of-"Peeping-Tom" and portrait of its screenwriter Leo Marks that's included on the DVD. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 1527 Registered: 09-2006 |
Wire: The Scottish Play Live 2004...so unrelenting one is almost laughing hysterically. |