What classics did you see last week, Feb 6 to Feb 12?

Two weeks worth


REWATCHES




Suspect I'm probably on my 10th viewing of this dazzling musical - a smash hit in 2002 and with MOULIN ROUGE it probably resurrected an interest in the genre after a 30 year fallow period. Terrific performances down the line with an oscar winning Zeta-Jones. Some glorious songs ("Cell Block Tango" my favourite)  and wonderful lyrics (Ebb rhymes Methuselah with Bamboozler in one) and those Fosse moves recorded for posterity. My only quibble is the frenzied editing - necessary for the segues between "reality" and "fantasy" versions of what the characters experience - but the cynic in me wondered whether the dance numbers were put together in the editing room.  Compare them to Fred Astaire dancing on the ceiling or Vera-Ellen back flipping down the stairs in WHITE CHRISTMAS  - or Fosse himself with Carol Haney in KISS ME KATE - long shots of the number with few cuts - dancers who really performed the whole number in front of you.



Sixth viewing - Unseen in full for some 45 years - I was taken to see it at the cinema 5 times  before my teens - ever since then just hearing  the first 7 bars of the chorus of Do Re Mi  would send me to a dark and melancholy place. The recent discussion thread prompted me to man up and give it another go - happy to report I was ensorcelled. It really is an amazing achievement - Terrific R&H score - almost every number a winner - Julie Andrews in her defining role, drop dead gorgeous scenery and imaginative staging of the songs. Great editing too - Do Re Mi and the whole picnic sequence esp fine. Cute choreography - esp involving the kids. I thought Plummer brought a much needed sharpness to counteract the saccharine potential . I'm always puzzled that the Baroness (Eleanor Parker) gets referred to as the villainess - she isn't at all - just a worldly patrician beauty - if a little fuzzy in the close ups - who knows when she's licked and who retires gracefully. I did think the first half much stronger - The Nazis and reprises and Baroness deficit being the main factors in my diminished Act 2 enjoyment. With my WEST SIDE STORY rewatch a month or so I'm now keen to check out everything on Robert Wise's CV I have missed. So park your prejudices musical and/or Julie naysayers - give it a whirl - your classic cinema education is incomplete until you have viewed it. 





Second view - Unmemorable mystery with attractive cast.



Probably my 6th or 7th viewing. Abysmal drug trade thriller which I watch every so often because I like to be reminded of how bad a film can be. Seberg's Sank No Deeper - the second directed by Romain Gary, her husband - the marriage unravelling at the time - Gary's jibes at his wife's real life "Actorvist" activities shine through - read Gary's memoir WHITE DOG for more detail - the true story of his involvement "reforming" a dog trained to attack Black people against the backdrop of late 60s Civil Rights happy Hollywood - a profoundly cynical view of the era and Jean's involvement with Black Power and "Civil Rights" charlatans.


FIRST VIEWINGS

RECOMMENDED 



Emma Thompson can be a fearfully irritating "luvvie" - and can ham it up badly on occasion - but no denying she is a very talented woman and in the right role can take your breath away. THE CHILDREN ACT is one of her best recent films I have seen (LATE NIGHT even better) - she's a judge involved in a difficult judgement when a Jehovah's witness minor refuses blood transfusions that will save his life. An unfaithful hubbie presents problems on the domestic front.




Absorbing study of disabled alcoholic  who finds salvation in becoming a cartoonist- based on true story  - Funnier than you'd imagine - Nice supporting turns from Jonah Hill as the AA "sponsor", singer Beth Ditto and cult actor Udo Kier as support group members, Jack Black as bad choice random drinking buddy. Rooney Mara again made no impression - what can't I see?

WATCHABLE/OF INTEREST/IF YOU HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO


 
Three women who meet at compulsory anger management classes team up to remove unwanted men from the lives of local women. Some very funny lines, the wonderful  Jennifer Coolidge in a lead role at full throttle, and it clocks in under 90 mins.



Dakota Fanning impressive as autistic Star Trek fan who dreams big....




Comedy dramas about weddings amongst dysfunctional families are a dime a dozen but this one has a good cast. Producer Ellen Barkin gets the fattest part , but Ezra Miller as druggie, challenging son, Diana Scarwid as acid tongued sister and Demi Moore as ex hubbie's second wife/bitchy step mom stand out.


  Wallace Beery as unlikely leader of Chinese Gang smitten by Florence Vidor. Atmospheric if implausible melodrama.

  Jake Gyllenhaal as grieving widower struggling to put his life back together. 


Plush silent version of ANNA KARENINA - best version I have seen (faint praise)


Formulaic but cute lightweight romance with a touch of crime. Arthur & McCrea work well together. 


 A family gathers together when the patriarch becomes ill. Not very original but good cast (including Genevieve Bujold) makes it seem better than it is.

  Horror thriller has slow build up to  a reveal of a really hideously unpleasant "monster"... Amy Madigan's


I was still in a Rodgers & Hammerstein mood and this lengthy recording of the Trevor Nunn stage triumph sufficed. 


  Passable 50 minute biog - I marked it down because a) it only mentions three of her post BAREFOOT CONTESSA movies - IGUANA natch  and THE SENTINEL and CASSANDRA CROSSING as examples of the programmers she appeared in later in her career - blithely ignoring BHOWANI JUNCTION and ON THE BEACH, both of which are generally regarded as career high points and b) it mistakenly states she got her oscar nom for THE SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO, when it was for MOGAMBO. That is just sloppy.


FIND SOMETHING BETTER TO DO than watch any of the rest, which range from mediocre to atrocious.




Shatner Fans note he plays twins, and one spends half the film with his shirt off.




STINKERS OF THE FORTNIGHT

The completely incomprehensible



and the wretched



At one point this was in my all time bottom 10 - with heavy hitters like TENET and the new BEN HUR hoving into view that may not now be the case - but it is diabolically bad.[/spoiler]

I seldom care about sport on TV, Olympics though, when we win medals it's we, when we loose it's them, the travel for free tourists. Sweden - Canada Lady Hockey 0 - 11, we are too far away. .

Over to the movies:


Bruce Almighty 2003 directed by Tom Shadyac.
Complaints and complaints, and the Almighty says OK, now you take care of business! and it's not as easy as it sounds.
Hadn't seen this one in years, and it's one of the few Jim Carey comedies I can stand, and it's bubbly amusing nearly all the time, and dares to take a few serious turns.
A black actor playing the Almighty that's dazzling in it self too!


Victor/Victoria 1982 directed by Blake Edwards and based on an old German movie by Reinhold Schünzel.
Gay Paris of old days isn't just merry, Gay Paris men't Gay! When a singer poses as a man poses as a female impersonator and becomes the rage of Paris, attracting even nearly gangsters from Chicago, who feels uncomfortable being attracted to a man or woman.
Unashamedly art-deco studio bound delight gives an old fashioned feeling that actually works, thanks to music and actors.
It's gay gay gay! As a straight man I had no trouble whatsoever enjoying this gem!




Continental Divide 1981 directed by Michael Apted.
Tough Chicago reporter get too tough and and is forced by his publisher to hide away in the mountains, writing a human interest story, instead of usual columns exploring political corruption. In the mountains were the Bald Headed Eagles lives he is out of his usual element, and out of breath too, and the one saving those eagles is a woman, it's hate at first glance.
James Belushi in one of his rare roles as a reasonable normal guy, is actually charming in a wry kind of way, slowly falling for the Eagle woman.
Made in beautiful locations in many USA mountainous States when the Bald Headed Eagle was endangered, something it's apparently not anymore.
As a movie, it has an old-fashioned charm that I liked, that sometimes opposites can attract.


Pociag aka Night Train 1959 directed by Jerzy Kawalerowicz.
I should be enthusiastic since it takes place on a train, and maybe I was fooled by some reviewers that called this Hitchcock like thriller and a masterpiece of Polish Cinema. It's non of that, yes there is a murder mystery, and yes some passengers behaves mysteriously and Yes it do have some great cinematography but otherwise it was like a normal train ride, long a boring with boom-chicka-boom sound.
Iron Curtain James Dean Zbigniew Cybulski at least shows some spark as a lovelorn who didn't understand it was just a fling and not forever romance, next year he starred in Ashes and Diamonds 1960.
This movie went above my head though.


Time without Pity 1957 directed by Joseph Losey and based on a play by Emlyn Williams.
An alcoholic's son is going to be hanged for murdering a young woman, is there an error in the judgement? Having a hangover and yearning for a drink, the father sees a few flaws and finds them, but must puzzle them together before his son is hanged.and he is great as a degenarated man 
Lesser known Redgrave movie, and he is great as a degenerated person, trying one last thing and doing it right, before disappearing into obscurity...
This was Peter Cushing's last movie (playing a lawyer) before acting in a monster movie... as if that would be a career LOL!


Nicholas Nickleby 1947 directed by Cavalcanti and based on a novel by Charles Dickens.
Since I wrote about Cavalcanti I thought I better watch some of his movies, and this was it.
It's true it doesn't measure up to David Lean's Great Expectations 1946 and Oliver Twist 1948 or even MGM¨s David Copperfield 1935, but those are masterpieces, and this is not up there, but still a damn good movie in itself.
Derek Bond as Nicholas lacks the charisma to carry the movie, he's not bad but lacks the important "it" and feels bland. Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Sir Bernard Miles and Stanley Holloway all play the more interesting characters.
Not bad, but lacks the spark of the other three great Dickens' movies mentioned.

Well that was all from me!

How guilty a 9/10 was

Belfast (2021)




Capone (2020)




In the Heights (2021)




House of Gucci (2021)




Cruella (2021)




What's Love Got to Do with It (1993)




The Firm (1993)




Dave (1993)




Six Degrees of Separation (1993)




Shadowlands (1993)

Madigan (1968)

It was very good. It covered several aspects of policing, examining the lives of of the commissioner and detectives. Many fine performances.

timshelboy

Red Joan / Trevor Nunn (2018). Really wanted to like this, watched it for Judi Dench. Turns out, even though Dench is featured prominently on all the poster art and other promotions, Dame Judi is barely in the movie. While there are a couple of good scenes in the goings-on, mostly we get a good looking but talkie, slow moving British period picture. I was distracted through most of it. Only when Dench is under questioning or trying to explain her actions to her astonished barrister son did the screen hold my interest. Disappointing.