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Post by hitchcockthelegend on Apr 12, 2020 15:31:39 GMT
Doc Hollywood (1991)
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Post by london777 on Apr 12, 2020 23:20:58 GMT
Panique (1946) dir: Julien Duvivier is set in a small provincial town, during the days when a touring carnival occupies the town square. As the film opens, the handbag of the murdered woman is found by the carnies while unloading, and the final shot is of the police letting the murderer "enjoy his last ride" on the carousel before arresting him. Throughout, many scenes are set in the various amusements, or with them as background. This is 100% a Film Noir, though still with the grace of French "poetic realism". Its nearest equivalent in US noirs would be the films of Fritz Lang. The protagonist is Michel Simon as a sort of savant "outsider". I cannot offhand think of a similar role in the movies. Viviane Romance is an excellent femme fatale with a (weak) conscience. In my OP I wrote about the traditional suspicion of, sometimes turning to hostility towards, carnival folk as social outsiders. Such suspicion is well portrayed in the early scenes, and I wrongly surmised that the carnies would become suspects in the murder case but, while this idea was briefly mooted, the story took a different route. Recommended if you can access the Criterion makeover.
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Post by teleadm on Apr 14, 2020 6:38:09 GMT
The Mind Reader 1933, Warren William and Allen Jenkins plays two con-artists that travels around American mid-west with carnivals appearing in sideshows, their most successful scam is William pretending to be a mind reader, but is in reality using a hidden communication system. Digging a hole just outside the back of the temporary stage, were questions are dropped down a pipe, were Jenkins reads the questions that was supposed to have been burnt to William.
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Post by manfromplanetx on Apr 14, 2020 8:52:50 GMT
The Spieler (1928) An excellent early feature from Tay Garnet his second feature as director. A late silent drama in the transition period includes some sound effects Renée Adorée stars as Carnival owner Cleo d'Alzelle, she maintains the only "clean", no crooks sideshow in town. Flash Alan Hale and the 'Perfesser' Clyde Cook have just been released from jail, with a plan for an easy swindle and a safe hideout also in mind they bluff their way into work with Cleo's carnival... A top performance from Alan Hale a great cinematic carnival treat...
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Post by lostinlimbo on Apr 15, 2020 4:26:56 GMT
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Post by hitchcockthelegend on Apr 16, 2020 22:56:30 GMT
Amazingly Houdini (1953) hasn't cropped up yet. All the early sequences are of the great man working sideshows - whilst falling in love with Bess. Just watched it, really like it.
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Firefly
Freshman
@firefly
Posts: 75
Likes: 111
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Post by Firefly on Apr 16, 2020 23:23:03 GMT
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Post by hitchcockthelegend on Apr 17, 2020 21:27:26 GMT
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Post by manfromplanetx on Apr 20, 2020 23:02:03 GMT
The sideshow going on in Charlie's real life affected the production of The Circus (1928) causing delays and so much stress for Chaplin who almost abandoned the project. With the death of his mother then to being served divorce papers in bitter proceedings, the tax man on his back, a stolen wagon and a studio fire Chaplin still managed to complete the circus set film with much fun & laughter. He practiced his own tightrope walking skills for this famous comic scene...
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Post by manfromplanetx on Apr 21, 2020 0:11:48 GMT
Hi there london777 a little known special recommendation I suspect you may enjoy… Ne boysya, ya s toboy , Don't Worry I'm With You (1981) The fabulous Soviet, Azerbaijan co-production tells the adventurous tale of two close friends , circus performers Rustam (Mukhtar-bek Kantemirov) and San Sanych (Lev Durov). While leaving the circus early on in the film, featured throughout are the amazing feats of a highly skilled real life circus performer. Mukhtar-bek Kantemirov was a professional ring entertainer from a famous family of circus horse riders. Here as Rustam the handsome, mild mannered Ossetian showcases some spectacular talents, and was stunt co-ordinator, he was also highly proficient with throwing target knives & axes. An incredibly entertaining film with much music and scenic wonder, an exceptional uplifting story of friendship, of righteousness and kindness. ENJOY !! Rustam, (Mukhtar-bek Kantemirov)
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Post by london777 on Apr 23, 2020 20:27:16 GMT
In Jusqu'au Dernier Until the Last One (1957) dir: Pierre Billon, robber Fernand Bastia (Raymond Pellegrin) is fleeing from his associates, who he has double-crossed, and hides out in a small circus. Curiously, as the barker, which I would have thought would be one of the more conspicuous jobs.
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Post by london777 on Apr 24, 2020 1:56:53 GMT
24 Heures de la Vie d'un Clown (1946) was Jean-Pierre Melville's first movie, an 18 min documentary. Morrisondylanfan writes "Revealing in a 1961 interview that ... before cinema, the circus had been his first love."
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Post by bravomailer on Apr 24, 2020 2:04:33 GMT
Done yet?
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Post by manfromplanetx on Apr 24, 2020 21:14:20 GMT
The Ring 1927
A great still and film , I left a brief note also on page 4 "The boxing tent is a popular fairground attraction. The Ring (1927) is Alfred Hitchcock's only original screenplay, the excellent silent drama tells the tale of an undefeated fairground boxer named "One Round" Jack Sander (Carl Brisson) who is beaten in the ring by a mysterious challenger, later revealed to be... Sideshow challenge, step right up...'
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Post by london777 on May 5, 2020 23:24:16 GMT
Yoyo (1965) directed and co-written by, and starring, Pierre Etaix, is a film which strongly divides opinions. It is like a cross between Tati and Chaplin, and is said to have inspired Michel Hazanavicius' Oscar-winning "The Artist", as it is in black-and-white and largely mimed. It is a fantasy about a billionaire whose life changes when the circus arrives at his mansion.
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Post by manfromplanetx on May 6, 2020 0:18:32 GMT
Čovek nije tica , Man Is Not a Bird (1965) Yugoslavia. The excellent debut feature of director Dušan Makavejev highlights a hypnotists side show and features an eye-opening travelling circus that entertains the locals in a bleak Serbian industrial town...
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Post by hitchcockthelegend on May 8, 2020 19:49:39 GMT
Adventureland (2009)Mottola strikes one from the heart. It's 1987 and James Brennan is home for the summer after earning himself a degree in Renaissance Studies. Which unsurprisingly isn't any use to him when trying to gain employment in this part of Pittsburg. Which is now a problem since his planned trip to Europe has fell by the wayside due to his father's enforced unemployment. So thus he finds himself working at Adventureland, a rusting time warp amusement park where only odd balls and idiots appear to frequent. But here James will make friends, learn life lessons and maybe just find true love?. Be under no illusions, Adventureland is no teen sex comedy reliant on crude jokes and cringe slap-stick moments to get its humour. Which as it's brought to us by the director of Superbad may come as something of a surprise. Greg Mottola is the said director, who here has crafted an ode to his own teenage strife's concerning first jobs and first loves. Though not really offering anything new as such, I mean the old "summer I came of age" film is hardly new is it? Mottola has however managed to blend youthful spirits with a serious kink and nicely cloak it in a bittersweet 80s haze. Some parts are clearly aimed at the guffaw teen viewers, awkward erections and friends who punch you in the testicles - tee hee hee, Adventureland feels, and is, a subtle film made by someone who clearly lived it. The care and thought that Mottola has put into it benefits the cast as much as it does the viewers. Jesse Eisenberg (James) is a splendid bit of casting, almost poetically slow, he nicely plays it to have the upcoming tribulations totally believable. Enter Kristen Stewart as Em, pretty and smartly essaying a girl, soon to be woman, trying to make sense in her off kilter world. Her scenes with both Eisenberg and the buff Ryan Reynolds, in a role that takes some skill to get as right as he does, are the highlights of the piece. While Martin Starr is the other performance of note as the pipe smoking intellectual, Joel. What youngsters that I know who have seen the film have had less than favourable reactions to it. This can probably be put down to two things. One is that the expectation of another Superbad-a-like comedy has not been met. Two is that, you know what folks? Mottola hasn't made this for kids, he's made it for those who were once kids themselves in a decade not so very long ago... 8/10
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Post by london777 on May 8, 2020 22:22:45 GMT
Adventureland (2009)Mottola strikes one from the heart ... One is that the expectation of another Superbad-a-like comedy has not been met. Two is that, you know what folks? Mottola hasn't made this for kids, he's made it for those who were once kids themselves in a decade not so very long ago... 8/10 A fairly impassioned review from your heart too, Hitch. (You are not an investor in this film, are you?) Anyway, thanks for adding a very pertinent film to this thread. Surprising that no-one has nominated it before, since it has two trendy stars. I would not have been expecting another Superbad because I have never heard of it, but Mottola's The Daytrippers (1996) is an intelligent, fairly funny and adult movie. Edit: Someone must agree with me because The Daytrippers is in the Criterion Collection.
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Post by teleadm on May 9, 2020 15:11:36 GMT
I watched a British movie called Wanted for Murder 1946. and some scenes were made at something called Hampstead Fairgrounds, both real and some only using (very bad) back projection.
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Post by london777 on May 9, 2020 15:42:15 GMT
I watched a British movie called Wanted for Murder 1946. and some scenes were made at something called Hampstead Fairgrounds, both real and some only using (very bad) back projection.There is a long clip of the fairground scene on YouTube here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ4WqGFQ-5Qbut I cannot get it to load on this site. I love a bit of Eric Portman! Here he plays a hangman's son. Two years later (1948) he plays a hangman in a much better movie, Daybreak dir: Compton Bennett. The bank holidays fairground on Hampstead Heath was London's most famous.
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