Saturday, February 12, 2022
Good
- Commentary: Under Construction.
It was so hard to find a review of this film that I ended up attaching the watchers review page from IMDb to the title above. The reviews are, literally, all over the place. In addition, no one with any "critical" integrity, i.e., people who call themselves critics and are paid to publish as critics, wanted to touch this film. This surprises me because I really like this film, which is why I acquired it. It will, in fact, be the first film I'll watch in the batch I just received. Question for myself to answer: Are the scenes in which Mortensens' character imagines inmates singing in choruses and playing in small orchestras at a concentration camp in black and white or color? I remember them in black and white, but I'm wondering, now, if that's my edited, or correct, memory.
Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Viggo Mortensen John Halder Jason Isaacs Maurice Israel Glückstein Jodie Whittaker Anne Hartman Halder Steven Mackintosh Freddie Mark Strong Philipp Bouhler Gemma Jones Halder's Mother Anastasia Hille Helen Halder Adrian Schiller Goebbels
Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
Release Date: 2008
Directed by Vincente Amorim.
Labels: §4, period6, play-adaptation, political5, tragedy2
The New World
- Commentary: Under Construction
Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Colin Farrell Cpt. John Smith Q'orianka Kilcher Pocahontas Christopher Plummer Cpt. Christopher Newport Christian Bale John Rolfe August Schellenberg Chief Powhatan Wes Studi Opechancanough David Thewlis Edward Wingfield Yorick van Wageningen Samuel Argall Irene Bedard Pocahontas' Mother John Savage Thomas Savage Ben Chaplin Robinson Jonathan Pryce King James VI & I Ben Mendelsohn Ben Raoul Trujillo Tomocomo Brían F. O'Byrne Lewes Alexandra W. B. Malick Queen Anne
Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
Release Date: 2005
Directed by Terrence Malick.
Labels: §3, ben-mendelsohn, christian-bale, Criterion3, period6, wes-studi
Sweet Smell of Success
- Commentary: This is a hard driving movie in which, in one way or another, all the characters are smarmy except for the one primary female character who gets belted by everyone's smarm and deals with it by leaving the vicinity of the smarminess, while the viewer, me, of course, hails her endurance and her strength. I suspect, when this movie was made, the point of it was to highlight all this smarminess, but, viewing it over half a century after its release, it is Susan's endurance which stays with me. Her brother J.J., her brother's "henchman" Falco, they are all so much spoiled meat against Susan's incorruptibility.
Roger Ebert, by the way, christened this as a Great Movie. I have mixed feelings about this designation. Certainly, the acting and directing qualify, but, I don't know, the story, hmmm, well, I'll have to think about it, maybe watch it again.
Still under Construction.
Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Burt Lancaster J. J. Hunsecker Tony Curtis Sidney Falco Susan Harrison Susan Hunsecker Martin Milner Steve Dallas
Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
Release Date: 1957
Directed by Alexander Mackendrick.
Labels: burt-lancaster, Criterion3, dramaE, film-noir1, melodramaC
Barry Lyndon
- Commentary: Under Construction.
In 2009 Roger Ebert reviewed this movie a second time (his first review is attached to the title of this post above) as part of his Great Movies class. Here is that review.
It was also reviewed by Jim Emerson at Roger Ebert's site in 2004, discussed from a cinematographic perspective by Mr. Emerson in 2006 and discussed by Peter Sobczynski in 2017 when it was added to The Criterion Collection. Me? I just love these sweeping period dramas, especially when they're done in an epic style, which this is. In addition, Stanley Kubrick made some surprising acting choices for this film, then coaxed the hell out of his performers.
Hapless lives are lived in every time and place. For that reason, this film is both sobering and bracing to watch, no mean feat in itself.
Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Michael Hordern Narrator Ryan O'Neal Redmond Barry Lyndon Marisa Berenson Lady Lyndon Patrick Magee Chevalier du Balibari Hardy Krüger Cpt. Potzdorf Gay Hamilton Nora Brady Marie Kean Belle, Barry's mother Godfrey Quigley Cpt. Grogan
Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
Release Date: 1975
Directed by Stanley Kubrick.
Labels: §3, Criterion3, period6, stanley-kubrick
