Hollywood Movie Reviews......... Options

[simplefable]

Madhavi..thanks for your review on "Les Enfants du Paradis "..will look out for that.
It is as usual, very interesting to read your reviews..
Faraaj...now, you say it so beautifully.." America America " ...will be on my lookout too..

Since we are on french films, just wanted to say a few words about a couple of films...actually one is sequel to another, which touched me...very deep. Thanks to a real film buff who impressed on me that i should watch the films, i had an experience of a life time.
The film am talking about is....." Jean De Florette" directed by Claude Berri.
Since am not that well versed with credentials of directors and actors..i mostly rely on reviews. but this started as a favorite of mine, as it starred Gerard Depardieu...( Green Card, Bogus..) and he doesnt disappoint either.

The film story is simple...
It is about quest of Water....as old as life on this planet. Still this quest continues, as no one is able to satiate the insatiable human race.
In rural france, an ex-service man returns with a lucrative idea of growing roses on his land..but he comes to know that there is no good water resource in his plot...where as the adjoining plot is endowed with a spring which is always flowing..So the man gets an idea to knock away the land of the adjoining owner. The owner happens to be a lady who is on death bed..and she bequeaths the land to his niece..and her husband.. Jean. Now, Jean is an amicable and simple person...who has his plans to cultivate the land to the maximum extent..and get rich. he has his own plans..which consists of his wife and daughter and music..and peace and love.
The Ex-service man along with his uncle plug the water spring..and watch the neighbour sink...shrink..and get sick.. Nothing is on their conscience except the spring that is going to be theirs soon...
the climax is one of the heart rending ones i have seen... Dont miss it.

Now, the sequel .."Manon Des Sources"...is a beautiful sequel. We seldom see any sequel which can equal the first part in content and consistency. This one stands out that way...Watch this back to back with the first one...and i promise you will be glad and euphoric.

[Faraaj73]

The film am talking about is....." Jean De Florette" directed by Claude Berri.
Since am not that well versed with credentials of directors and actors..i mostly rely on reviews. but this started as a favorite of mine, as it starred Gerard Depardieu...( Green Card, Bogus..) and he doesnt disappoint either.

Hi SF

I've been thinking of introducing Jean de Florette/Manon de Sources on the film thread for a few days now because I love both films. I had been on the lookout for the Marcel Pagnol novel The Water of the Hills for a long time and recently got ahold of it. The story was so epic in scale that like Coppola breaking The Godfather down into two parts, Berri decided to break Water of the Hills into two parts knowing the first would contain the most interesting bits and that the punch-line and most emotional moment would not come until the very end of Part 2. I really view them as one film, as I do The Godfather and its great stuff.

And this may surprise you - Jean de Florette is not Depardieu's finest achievement! He may look odd but he's a truly great actor and he has appeared in a number of fine movies. But, as I always say, all of them on one side and his Cyrano de Bergerac (1990) on the other. A beautiful, poetic film, Depardieu plays a larger than life character to the hilt. Apart from the wonderful period sets and photography, the colours are so lush, like technicolor films of the 30s. This is another of my top 20!!! The three greatest french films for me are Les Enfants, Cyrano and Le Salaire de la Peur - more on which later....

[simplefable]

Faraaj...this is becoming a wonderful experience for me...fantastic to read your reviews...yes, i heard about Cyrano..I like Gerard because he is so unconventional in looks and acting..Ofcourse, being the sucker i am for romantic films...I enjoyed him in Green Card immensely...
Will wait for more...

[mmuk2004]

Madhavi..thanks for your review on "Les Enfants du Paradis "..will look out for that.
It is as usual, very interesting to read your reviews..
Faraaj...now, you say it so beautifully.." America America " ...will be on my lookout too..

Since we are on french films, just wanted to say a few words about a couple of films...actually one is sequel to another, which touched me...very deep. Thanks to a real film buff who impressed on me that i should watch the films, i had an experience of a life time.
The film am talking about is....." Jean De Florette" directed by Claude Berri.
Since am not that well versed with credentials of directors and actors..i mostly rely on reviews. but this started as a favorite of mine, as it starred Gerard Depardieu...( Green Card, Bogus..) and he doesnt disappoint either.

The film story is simple...
It is about quest of Water....as old as life on this planet. Still this quest continues, as no one is able to satiate the insatiable human race.
In rural france, an ex-service man returns with a lucrative idea of growing roses on his land..but he comes to know that there is no good water resource in his plot...where as the adjoining plot is endowed with a spring which is always flowing..So the man gets an idea to knock away the land of the adjoining owner. The owner happens to be a lady who is on death bed..and she bequeaths the land to his niece..and her husband.. Jean. Now, Jean is an amicable and simple person...who has his plans to cultivate the land to the maximum extent..and get rich. he has his own plans..which consists of his wife and daughter and music..and peace and love.
The Ex-service man along with his uncle plug the water spring..and watch the neighbour sink...shrink..and get sick.. Nothing is on their conscience except the spring that is going to be theirs soon...
the climax is one of the heart rending ones i have seen... Dont miss it.

Now, the sequel .."Manon Des Sources"...is a beautiful sequel. We seldom see any sequel which can equal the first part in content and consistency. This one stands out that way...Watch this back to back with the first one...and i promise you will be glad and euphoric.

Thanks SF for the review. Apart from watching films in one's own list, it is fun to watch films recommended by people you know. This one was on my list of "to watch" films, now I have to push is forward... The storyline intrigues me...is the story purely character oriented (as in focussing on the suffering of the character, the overcoming of hardships etc) or does the story become an occasion for looking at larger philosophical issues? Btw, look out for some Auteuil's films too, he is good.

He and Depardieu made a great comic pair in The Closet. Not a great movie but a lot of fun.

This post has been edited by mmuk2004: Jun 10 2009, 11:05 AM

[mmuk2004]

Elia Kazan's America America
Only in the last 5 minutes of America, America is there any action actually filmed in America. The prelude to that - a good 2 hrs 40 minutes - is about one young man's struggle against the odds to reach America: the land of opportunity. This, director Elia Kazan's most personal project and favorite film, is partly biographical based as it is on the experiences of his eldest uncle Stavros.

Elia Kazan's name generates mixed feelings. According to some e.g. Stanley Kubrick, he was the greatest American director. Most others are unable to get past his "naming names" to the HUAC in the 50's. Be that as it may, his works need to be judged on their professional merit, and certainly no other film captures the immigrant experience in the early part of the 20th century like America, America.

The only negative to the film is the lengthy running time and the slow pace for the first hour. Some have criticized the acting of the central character who occupies center stage for virtually the entire film. He's certainly no Brando, Clift, Dean or DeNiro. However, his accent and looks are much more Greek and that adds to the documentary like feel of the film.

Instead of filming in Hollywood studio sets, Kazan and DP Haskell Wexler (who won a well-deserved Oscar) opted for locations in Turkey and Greece - the action being set in Central Anatolia and Constantinople. This gives the film a rougher, more realistic look absent from other Kazan films of the late 50s-60s. The tragedies and injustices meted out to minorities under Ottoman rule and the harshness of life are what really stays with you after the film is over. There are several emotional moments such as when Stavros gets engaged and his fiancée pleads to him, or when he finally lands in America and sends a letter home.

Faraaj,

Thank you for this review. I am seen all the high profile Kazan films. Would not have thought of watching America America. I do find some of his movies a tad slow moving, and too close to theatre. But having said that, he has made some of the most riveting films on screen, getting great performances that made legends out of actors.

This post has been edited by mmuk2004: Jun 10 2009, 11:11 AM

[Faraaj73]

Faraaj,

Thank you for this review. I am seen all the high profile Kazan films. Would not have thought of watching America America. I do find some of his movies a tad slow moving, and too close to theatre. But having said that, he has made some of the most riveting films on screen, getting great performances that made legends out of actors.

Madhavi

I posted the America, America review because I saw the film this weekend. Based on your views on Kazan's film, which admittedly have merit, I don't recommend your watching AA. You will find it very slow, of that I'm certain.

But you will not find any theatricality in Jean de Florette/Manon des Sources and its definitely not slow. The film (and I treat the two as one film) has very strong characterisations but explores several themes - hardwork and ambition pitted against greed and malice; creativity vs ignorance and the ultimate lesson that you reap what you sow....its definitely a must-see and being contemporary, very engaging as well...

[Faraaj73]

Bruno
I was familiar Baron Sacha Cohen's Ali G character years before 2006's Borat. But, I became a serious fan of Cohen only after Borat. Sure the film has some slow moments, irrelevant subplots and some potty humor that was uncalled for. But there were many moments of such sheer comedic brilliance that I was blown up. I was very keen to see Bruno knowing it was Cohen's next project and also set in America. The ad for the film also made it look great.

Having just seen it, I confess to being disappointed. Sure my expectations were high, but most of the jokes in Bruno just did not work. There was a mean-spiritedness to the whole exercise. Where in Borat, he baited the humor coach, car salesman or feminists for laughs, here he actually offends. What he did with Ron Paul or the TV pilot previewers was just simply cheap behavior. Any normal, civilized person would behave the way they did - there is nothing homophobic about their reaction. The last moments were actually quite dangerous and he should've had better sense.

The admirable thing about Bruno is that Cohen retains his courage and audacity, which means there is hope for the future. And yes, it is good for one viewing because the handful of laughs in the movie are genuinely inventive comedy. I especially found his germanic-speak hilarious. But, while I remain a fan of Cohen I'm not a fan of Bruno the movie.

This post has been edited by Faraaj73: Jul 13 2009, 01:25 PM

[simplefable]

Faraaj...thanks for the pointers in the mine field..
Have you seen Seven pounds...starring Will smith?? it has been highly recommended.and am waiting for DVD..

[Faraaj73]

Faraaj...thanks for the pointers in the mine field..
Have you seen Seven pounds...starring Will smith?? it has been highly recommended.and am waiting for DVD..

Hi SF

I haven't yet seen it nor expect to for some time although I know it has a decent rating.

I usually don't watch films immediately on release (unlike Bruno) unless there is a special reason. I generally wait 2-3 years for the DVD + have a pretty big backlog of international and old movies in my collection that I still need to plough through.

[Faraaj73]

Inglourious Basterds
I still remember the rush I got when seeing Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction for the first time. I ended up seeing both multiple times and took something new away from each viewing. The media hype around Tarantino, which I believed at the time, was that he could do no wrong. It really seemed in '94 that he was not only the greatest director in the world, but would change cinema forever. Unfortunately his produce since Pulp Fiction was neither prolific nor impressive. The primary weakness with Tarantino's three works post Pulp Fiction and pre Inglourious Basterds was his constantly parroting or paying tribute to other works he had admired instead of going out and doing his own thing, creating something original. An excess of verbosity slowed the pace as well. Viewing the trailer and reading initial reviews of Inglourious Basterds led me to believe it suffered the same shortcomings. To be honest, the trailer for Inglourious does not sell the film I saw. And Tarantino's frequent arrogance and more recent track record have opened him up to a lot of criticism - much of it unjustified in the case of this film.

Anyone who has read any review of Inglourious would know that the villain is a sinister Col. Hans Landa and that the opening sequence is one for the ages. He is a unique movie villain like Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men or Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs. He doesn't speak, he interrogates and interviews in a eerily calm manner. It requires nerves of steel to maintain your composure with him around! His audacity in the last 20 minutes is breathtaking. The opening sequence was worthy of Sergio Leone, whose Once Upon a Time in the West and Lee Van Cleef in The Good The Bad and The Ugly no doubt influenced Tarantino's handling of the entire sequence.

I actually liked the criticized bar sequence even more than the opening. Long yes, but it slowly builds up to a brilliantly directed climax. The twists and turns, the playful banter which turns into something deadly are among the memorable sequences of cinema history. Mélanie Laurent as Shosanna Dreyfus has given a performance that is almost on par with Christopher Waltz's Col. Landa. If his performance is Oscar worthy (not that that should be the yardstick!), his interview of her and her reaction when he exits is also equally worthy. I should mention here that the name star of the film, Brad Pitt, is really only one part of a great ensemble cast. His performance is superb and not the caricature that the trailer implies. A sequence where his hick officer is forced to act 'Spanish' is just brilliant comedy. He has the accent of a southerner down pat. I only wish he'd been given more time. I hope the director's cut adds something to his role.

In closing, I'll add that Tarantino's knowledge of cinema was never in doubt. His camera-work and understanding of the mechanics of film-making were always good, but he has exceeded himself in this film. There is something classical about the photography (beautiful long takes) and cinematography, which almost no director can emulate. As a former fan and later critic of Tarantino, I'm blown away by Inglourious and despite his cheek, I do think he may just have made his masterpiece!

[mmuk2004]

Wonderful, wonderful review, Faraaj. Thank you. Tarantino, Nazis, cruelty and comedy breaks... I am very curious to see the color he gives to the mix, the mood of a Tarantino movie is very difficult to capture in a review. I do agree with you about Tarantino's excessively intricate directorial nods to his favorite B and cult movies, (I feel that the Coen brothers are also guilty of that) and ditto for the arrogance bit too... . Still, I plead guilty to enjoying...no wrong word... a fascinated viewing of Kill Bill. Have not seen anything after that. Will write more on the film after seeing it.

This post has been edited by mmuk2004: Aug 31 2009, 07:31 PM

[Faraaj73]

Wonderful, wonderful review, Faraaj. Thank you. Tarantino, Nazis, cruelty and comedy breaks... I am very curious to see the color he gives to the mix, the mood of a Tarantino movie is very difficult to capture in a review. I do agree with you about Tarantino's excessively intricate directorial nods to his favorite B and cult movies, (I feel that the Coen brothers are also guilty of that) and ditto for the arrogance bit too... . Still, I plead guilty of enjoying...no wrong word... a fascinated viewing of Kill Bill. Have not seen anything after that. Will write more on the film after seeing it.

Madhavi

The Coens are my favourite directors, eclipsed temporarily in the 90s by Tarantino. I like the occasional nod to B movies, often spotting and appreciating the reference. But if you waste two hours of your life and see Grindhouse you'll understand what my beef with him was. But, all that is forgiven with this gem he has created. If you read many reviews of Inglourious you'll find the occasional criticism of the long bar sequence. Would love to know if you agree with the critics or with my view that that 30-40 minutes is the highlight of Tarantino's directorial career.

Also, please note this is a very violent film....you can't go into a Tarantino film expects The Remains of the Day!!!

[Faraaj73]

The Long Goodbye (1973)
No mixed feelings about this one....worked for me

It's true. You can't have mixed feelings about The Long Good-bye; you'll either love it or hate it. I started the movie with what I pretended was an open mind, but a secret hope that I'd be fully justified in hating it. In my defense, The Maltese Falcon is my favorite movie and Bogie is my favorite actor. Noir is my favorite film genre and I love Howard Hawk's The Big Sleep wihich had Bogart as the definitive Marlowe.

Altman's take on Chandler's other book with private eye Marlowe, The Long Good-bye, updates the action to the 1970's. He introduces a very 70's theme song and finds as different an actor as he can from Bogart for the role of Marlowe. From the opening frame, Elliot Gould plays Marlowe like a push-over. He's a man who constantly mutters to himself, suffers nervous tics, can't even fool his cat, is afraid of dog's and seems to be the only man not attracted to his sexy hippie neighbors despite their friendliness towards him and obvious promiscuousness.

However, Gould really creates a unique persona with the way he walks, talks, wise-cracks and operates. He becomes a believable person - which is why the uncharacteristic ending is so impacting. The photography, especially the night scenes, are beautifully filmed. The theme music plays everywhere - a Mexican funeral, a doorbell, a car radio etc and with different singers. There are other layers of flesh added to the telling that really work - like the compound security guards impressions of James Stewart, Barbara Stanwyck, Cary Grant and best of all Walter Brennan aka Stumpy from Rio Bravo.

This movie worked great for me and the plot, intricate though it was, was understandable. I will not compare this Marlowe to Bogart's, but do find it admirable that Altman just stuck to the goal of making a good movie without trying to ape or make obvious references to the noir genre.

[Faraaj73]

Yojimbo (1961)
Kurosawa's most entertaining film

Yojimbo, based on noir writer Dashiel Hammett's Red Harvest is a magnificently entertaining film. Toshiro Mifune stars as the nobody who calls himself Sanjuro (thirty but closer to forty). He enters a town destroyed by warring factions and plays a double-game to pit one faction against the other thus destroying the criminal element.

Yojimbo (aka The Bodyguard) is one of the coolest and most stylish films ever made. Starring Toshiro Mifune, Kurosawa's favorite actor, as the scruffy looking Samurai, Yojimbo has all of Kurosawa's qualities and none of the flaws. The music score is an essential element of the plot and strikingly good, but admittedly bettered by the Ennio Morricone version in the Spaghetti Western remake Fistful of Dollars. The visuals are great, from the samurai swordplay, to the desolate streets, the town crier announcing its 3 a.m. to the brutal torture scene.

One of the unique things about Yojimbo is the central character. He is an anti-hero. We see him initially as a killer and a man greedy for money. But then, he saves a family by re-uniting mother and child and giving them all the money he was advanced. Mifune has never been cooler than in this film and Eastwood could only aspire to equal such a performance.

Of the two remakes, I liked Fistful of Dollars for starting the Spaghetti Western genre, although Yojimbo is a far more superior and stylish film. The gangster version, Last Man Standing, was not very good and Bruce Willis made for a poor substitute to Yojimbo. This film looks fresh and undated even today - watch it!

[Faraaj73]

Show Boat (1936)
Show Boat has virtually slipped into oblivion and any recognition of it would be as a splashy 1950's Technicolor big-budget production. This film version, a true American treasure even if its not recognized as such, is based on Edna Ferber's epic novel of 1926. Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein turned it into a musical which was filmed first as a mostly silent version in 1929. Show Boat, as presented at Florenz Ziegfeld's Follies, revolutionized the musical. In fact, the starting point of the modern Broadway musical is Show Boat. The epic story spanning 47 years covers the lives and loves of three generations of a showboat family. The play was a very frank depiction of race relations at the time and included an important sub-plot (entirely omitted in the 1951 film version) around miscegenation (white-black marriages).

This film version has many of the original stage actors reprising their original roles and apart from not compromising on the themes explored in the original and controversial production, it does not compromise of the authenticity of either the show boat or the look of the Mississippi towns through which the show boat passes. Charles Winninger, a forgotten little actor, is sensational as Capn Andy, the father of little Magnolia. He is the moral epicenter of the film and gives a fine comic turn. Little Noli is played by Irene Dunne and she is lovely and carries the bulk of the film. Her little dance in Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man is celluloid magic. I've rewound and watched that song a dozen times in the past 24 hours!!! The tragic Helen Morgan, a front-runner to Judy Garland, died a few short years after this film which was to be her comeback vehicle. She had cleaned up her alcoholism to get this role and she is a lovely singer and true entertainer. There is a tragic beauty to her that is quite haunting.

Finally, there is Joe, played by Paul Robeson. Almost no Robeson films are available and he spent many years outside the US so his film roles were limited. Like The Manchurian Candidate, many of his films were suppressed deliberately because he was 'undesirable'. In fact, his passport was canceled and he wasn't allowed to leave the US for several years. Exceptionally handsome and educated, Robeson was a true scholar (scholarship to Rutgers University as the third African-American to be accepted, Columbia Law graduate, student at SOAS in London), a noted athlete, fluent in 12 languages, a recipient of the Stalin Peace Prize and a leading civil-rights activist. A front-runner to Martin Luther King and Sidney Poitier, he had it tougher and fought harder. Its because of the barriers that he brought down that Sidney Poitier even had a chance at being a leading man and Denzel Washington is a star today. Under surveillance for over two decades because he openly supported the Soviet Union for giving him full dignity regardless of his skin color, his passport was revoked because of "his frequent criticism of the treatment of blacks in the United States should not be aired in foreign countries" — it was a "family affair." Till after his death, his recordings and films were simply withdrawn from circulation which makes his small role here all the more valuable.

The songs in this musical, while not to the standard of a My Fair Lady or King and I, are uniformly lovely. The two stand-outs for me were Ol' Man River (Jerome Kern's finest moment) and Can't Help Lovin Dat Man. Ol' Man is performed by Robeson in the beginning of the film and its enough to hook you till the end. Can't Help, a lovely tune, is performed by Helen Morgan with some support from Hattie MacDaniel and Paul Robeson and a lovely dance from the enchanting Irene Dunne.

Its funny how this ground-breaking musical is today criticized for being racist! The argument is that the depiction of blacks and the way they speak is inaccurate. Show Boat had a pivotal role to play in the early years of the civil rights movement and its sad to see how some people have forgotten that. Some of the criticism just doesn't make sense to me. For example, in Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man, Queenie sings:

My man is shiftless, An' good for nothing', too. He's my man just the same. He's never 'round here When there is work to do, He's never 'round here when there's workin' to do.

That's apparently unacceptable since 1966 and has been replaced with:

My man's a dreamer, He don't have much to say He's my man just the same Instead o' workin, He sits and dreams all day, Instead o' workin', he'll be dreamin' all day.

I appreciate some aspects of political correctness, but others don't make sense. True, Show Boat is dated, but this is the only case I know where being dated works to the films advantage. We do get a true perspective on an era instead of a glossy, modern-day interpretation. A cinematic treasure, Show Boat is one for the discerning viewer.