The book is one of THE great genre classics. Forsyth is no interior decorator of his characters, they are usually very flat affairs, owing to the semi-documentary nature of his books. But for his fiction debut this actually also helps keeping the Jackal shrouded in mystery and the cat and mouse play on the highest level right to the last page. Highly recommended.
7 Likes
Which is a tribute to Zinnemann’s genius and craft. I have loved this movie since it came out. We may not have gotten his version of “Man’s Fate,” which was scrubbed at the last minute, but TDOTJ more than makes up for it in my opinion.
4 Likes
I have never seen that - thanks for mentioning it, will seek it out!
2 Likes
This is the German version:
I have the blu ray, you can watch it in French with German subs.
3 Likes
I‘m thrilled to see it, rediscovering Belmondo (after decades of neglecting his extensive filmography.
1 Like
There is also a great German blu ray boxset with ten of his movies in excellent quality.
Including the great “Peur sur la Ville” aka “Fear over the City”.
2 Likes
Caged (1950 film noir with a tour de force by Eleanor Parker, also featuring Agnes Moorehead in a surprisingly empathetic supporting role, and Hope Emerson in the “villain” role I would have considered typecasting for Moorehead):
Here’s another “Why have I never seen this before?” film presented on TCM’s Noir Alley program. Eddie Muller has showcased so many great films that I’d never seen or heard of before. As he noted, Caged is the mother of all WIP (“Women in Prison”) films. Because later WIP films were essentially exploitation films, Eddie said, this one is greatly misunderstood because it gets lumped in with the rest of them. But it’s actually a starkly believable, unsettling look at what happens to people in prison and why the experience changes them. Parker’s bravura performance in the lead role brings that home.
I’m curious about the shooting order of the film, as Parker’s character, Marie Allen (or “Allen, Marie” as she is reprimanded to say on her first roll call), gets her head shaved partway through the film. It didn’t look like she was wearing wigs or a prosthetic cap … but maybe she was and her hair wasn’t really shaved off.
Moorehead’s prison superintendent Ruth Benton is steadfastly incorruptible, but it seems she’s playing a losing game. Emerson is the flip side of that coin, as a sadistic prison matron. I’d seen her before in Cry of the City (also on Noir Alley), and was impressed by her ability to play such a tough, imposing character.
But, even with a stellar supporting cast in many of the roles (including Ellen Corby, best remembered from The Waltons TV series), it’s Parker who steals the show. She visibly (and audibly) ages before our eyes from an innocent, naive 19-year-old to a hardened, embittered, world-weary young woman.
4 Likes
Watching Enola Holmes 3. It’s very much meant as a star vehicle but i will say Henry Cavill is better as Sherlock Holmes than he was as Superman.
5 Likes
American Beauty (1999). I watched it earlier today, and then I read the screenplay for it. Now the screenplay that I read was basically the final version of the movie that we saw. I was hoping for the alternate beginning/ending with certain characters, but alas. But for all the flaws that people have with the movie, the writing is well worth it’s Oscar win. The writing is truly something that should be studied not just in film schools, but in writing and psychological classes as well. Was it overpraised at the time of its release? Arguably yes. Is it still enjoyable despite its flaws, and unfortunate real life events with Kevin Spacey? Yes, but let’s separate the art from the artist. Woody Allen seems to get a free pass, more often than not, doesn’t he? But I’m not here to debate about gross men, honestly.
When I first saw this in high school (around the same time Sam Mendes was announced to be directing then Bond 23, which is why I sought it out), I thought it was an instant classic for me. My dad, my friends and I would have debates about what it meant. It is a thought provoking film. But one that should be watched more than once. And it is relatable in more ways than one for a lot of people (in particular the work parts, or low self respect as a teenager). Which is why it shouldn’t be erased from memory. The acting alone is a lot of the cast’s best work. Kevin Spacey deserved the Oscar, and he plays out the part perfectly with true emotional feelings. Annette Bening should have won the Oscar with Kevin Spacey. Thora Birch proved her worth as a child actress who could succeed as an adult actress. She should be in more projects. The other teenagers play their part realistically, and they have some great plot twists. Allison Janney proves she has a true acting range with little dialogue. Chris Cooper is great as a villain who has flaws and a few secrets of his own. All the actors are at the top of their acting craft here.
So in conclusion, American Beauty sits comfortably in my top 20 favorite movies list. I can see why people have problems with it. It’s content, it’s real life similarities with certain people involved with it, just to name a few. As for the message or meaning. I think it’s about how you should enjoy life and the people that you want to spend it with. What makes American Beauty great is that everyone truly views it differently and takes a different message from it. It makes you laugh, sad, and above all think about life, and the people in yours. A mix of laughs, sadness and thoughts will make any story about life worthwhile.
5 Likes
I loved it back then - but strangely I never felt the urge to revisit it.
Maybe in the 90‘s this kind of satire was fresh. These days, we have seen countless variations which are better.
5 Likes
That’s fair. It is a tough rewatch for a lot of people I know. I do respect it’s realism, though.
3 Likes
The cinematography is still great, so is the score. But the suburban malaise has been better shown in tons of tv shows later on, i.e. Breaking Bad or Mad Men.
4 Likes
With everyone celebrating the 250th, one of my movie channels is doing it right:
- The Dirty Dozen
- Kelly’s Hero’s
‘Nuff said.
EDIT: Also, as it was a cinematic adventure, 20 years ago today, myself, 004 (Matt) & 009 (Joyce) enjoyed a twilight dinner atop the Fairmont Monte Carlo and then took the casino for about 5000 euros (collectively) and had a memorable night of debauchery and a bar tab that took a pinch of our winnings.
9 Likes
Nobody celebrates America like Robert Aldrich!
Great photo.
4 Likes
Speaking about movies can be fun, but watching them beat it all.
After talking about it I finally watched “Arabesque” (1966) from director Stanley Donen again a couple of days ago.
It still is a strange movie, but not as strange as I remembered it.
It is a fun watch and although a lot happens, it is after a few days already difficult to remember everything. It concerns a piece of paper with a text in hieroglyphs; in the film, it is referred to as a cipher, although I didn’t quite understand that.
Compared to “Charade”, this film features more action and chase sequences. The interplay and dynamic between Peck and Loren are somewhat hard to describe; while it seems a bit odd and awkward at first, it ultimately works.
There is also a silly scene where Peck has been drugged with truth serum; he is then kicked out of the car and, believing he is in a bullring while standing in the middle of the highway, tries to dodge the oncoming traffic. Finally, he grabs a bicycle and rides off straight into the oncoming traffic.
It was also peculiar to see an actor like Alan Badel—whom I had seen just days earlier playing a French minister in “The Day of the Jackal”—made up to pass as a shady Arab figure. I don’t think that would be possible today.
But a very nice, entertaining film; definitely worth a watch.
4 Likes
Hahaha!
Cats can be real predators, so this is could have been the real “Alien vs. Predator” movie.
4 Likes
Hook (1991)
Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman
Dir. Steven Spielberg
Haven’t seen this one in so long that it almost felt like watching it for the first time. Really not sure where the negative critical reaction comes with this one. While it doesn’t reach the cinematic heights of other Spielberg fare such as Jaws or Schindler’s List, it’s a wonderful film about rediscovering yourself and reconnecting with what’s really important.
It’s also hard to find better casting than Robin Williams to play the adult version of Peter Pan. He plays the disconnected version of Peter in the opening act of the film so well, a credit to his acting prowess, before finding and reconnecting with the inner-child that we all know him to have, both because the character is Peter Pan but also because the actor is Robin Williams. In this respect, the film serves as a means for an older audience returning to the film after decades to reconnect with it and, by extension, their own childhood much in the same way that Peter does in his journey from obsessed businessman to the caring father we would all expect from Robin Williams.
The story is mostly a non-factor, but that’s somewhat the point, I think. The film uses the kidnapping of Peter’s children as a metaphor for time and the world at large taking an important part of Peter’s own self away from him, which he must once again find within himself before he can save his children. There is a moment when Peter first arrives back in Neverland where he is offered a chance to take his children home with him if he can just “fly” up to their net and release them. He, of course, doesn’t fly up to them, but rather climbs up the ship until he is just an arm’s reach from them, but separated by a large drop between the ledge he clings to and his children, symbolizing his ironclad grip on his current life, which finds him clinging to his work while paying lip service to spending time with his children while they literally beg for him to be there. It’s a powerful moment that didn’t register nearly as well when I saw the film as a child as it did while watching it here recently.
Hook, on the other hand, serves to stand in for both the world we currently live in as well as time itself, which is ironic considering his absolute fear of the ticking of a clock. This is a diminished Hook, to be sure, much like Peter is diminished in the opening acts of the film, but they’re both diminished, like we all are, by time. He doesn’t ever seem like much of a physical threat for Williams’ Peter Pan, but that’s not the point either. He’s a catalyst seeking to jolt Peter from his obsessive negligence of his family into confronting both his past (as Peter Pan) and his future (as a family man who actually lives up to that billing). Dustin Hoffman is wonderful in the part, managing to be both charming and charismatic in places while also being appropriately sleazy for a pirate that essentially rules at least part of Neverland on the basis of the legend of his cruelty that has probably passed by him somewhat.
Spielberg is on point here, as he always is, creating a Neverland that is sufficiently different from the world in which we live to make it a fantastical world to get lost in. It does suffer a bit from obviously being filmed on sets, where the proportions are always just a bit off, but that’s part of its charm and can often work in a film’s favor if done well, and it’s done well here.
The rest of the cast is terrific as well. Maggie Smith is wonderful as the older Wendy of the original stories, serving as a link to the original stories of Peter Pan and this new version. Bob Hoskins is his usual superb self in the comedic relief role of Smee, providing several good laughs for the audience through his interactions with the more aloof Hook. Julia Roberts is also terrific as Tinkerbell, serving somewhat as the audience’s entryway into the world of Neverland, trying to help Peter see what we all know he should remember because we’re familiar with it ourselves while also providing the viewer with an emotional entry point that revolves less around the kidnapping plot and more around the sense of loss that we might feel when we realize that we have wandered astray from the path that we have always known that we should be on, as she tries to get Peter to see the error of his previous ways and reclaim the goodness of his past self in order to improve his future.
While Hook isn’t a film that will be remembered among the undisputed cinematic masterpieces from Spielberg’s catalog, I think it’s misunderstood by critics and gets far more grief than it deserves. It’s quality filmmaking, a film that can both serve as a quality adventure film for younger audience while also serving as a cautionary tale and a moment for reflection on the part of its older audience.
7 Likes
I’ve been meaning to rewatch Hook and now I just might have to. Great write up.
3 Likes
The book -based on the screenplay- by Terry Brooks is also terrific!
The only thing about the movie I wasn’t keen on is that at some places it is too much of a children movie with the lost boys scene’s.
3 Likes