WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

[RedRiver]

One of the nice things about getting older. Women like grey hair!

King Rat, I can't say anything about the superb SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS that hasn't been said many times. I just get excited when somebody mentions this lovely piece of cinematic poetry. It's Preston Sturges' best film, and one of THE great comedies of all time.

[MikeBSG]

Well, I had a lousy movie day today.

I tried to watch "Bad Lieutenant," the original with Harvey Keitel. (I had seen the Nicolas Cage version and didn't especially like it.) I was about five minutes into "Bad Lieutenant" when I started laughing at the sex scene. Then suddenly on the screen there is Harvey in all his glory flapping his arms around, and I just said "Wait a minute. This film is coming out of the DVD player."

Later, I tried watching "1492 the Conquest of Paradise." I made it about 15 minutes into the movie, by which time there had been so many cliches and I had predicted so much of what people would say before they said it that I ejected this movie as well. I would have been better off watching "Hare We Go" in which Bugs Bunny helps Christopher Columbus discover America.

[Rita Hayworth]

Later, I tried watching "1492 the Conquest of Paradise." I made it about 15 minutes into the movie, by which time there had been so many cliches and I had predicted so much of what people would say before they said it that I ejected this movie as well. I would have been better off watching "Hare We Go" in which Bugs Bunny helps Christopher Columbus discover America.

I watched that movie 3 years ago with my friends in Vancouver B.C. and it's the most predictable movie ever made and I find it deplorable in more ways than one! ... And, I agree with you 100%!

[CineMaven]

One of the nice things about getting older. Women like grey hair!

To take a page out of that very tired, well-worn book..."I agree!"

[MikeBSG]

Tonight I watched "Washington Square" (1997) directed by Agnieszka Holland and starring Jennifer Jason Leigh and Albert Finney.

It is a remake of "The Heiress," and I have to say that I liked this film better than Wyler's. Finney was outstanding as the tyrannical father, and Leigh was electrifying as the daughter who got fed up with everything and everyone. It was fascinating to see how each character contributed to the bitterness of the final outcome, and this film made me think about some relationships I have known in real life.

Best of all, the film doesn't end on a hysterical note, the way "The Heiress" did, but its ending was very powerful. Jennifer Jason Leigh should be better esteemed than she is, I think.

[Mr. Arkadin]

Well, I had a lousy movie day today.

I tried to watch "Bad Lieutenant," the original with Harvey Keitel. (I had seen the Nicolas Cage version and didn't especially like it.) I was about five minutes into "Bad Lieutenant" when I started laughing at the sex scene. Then suddenly on the screen there is Harvey in all his glory flapping his arms around, and I just said "Wait a minute. This film is coming out of the DVD player."

Ferrara's films are an acquired taste and you almost need to see his work chronologically to enjoy it. When I first saw Bad Lieutenant, I had many of the same feelings you did. I finally had to question Dewey1960 (who recommended it to me) and ask him "What do you see in this?" The answer was in focusing on the previous works that led up to this film and the ones that came after. King of New York (1990), Bad Lieutenant (1992), and The Funeral (1996) are three distinct parts of an urban crime trilogy and should be viewed in the order they were made to get the most impact.

Start here:

[youtube][/youtube]

You might also say that Bad Lieutenant and The Funeral bookend a spiritual trilogy with Ferrara's vampire film, The Addiction (1995) sandwiched in the middle.

[charliechaplinfan]

The Cry of the Hunted is about an escaped prisoner and two prison officers, the man in charge, Barry Sullavan who is humane and his deputy who is cruel. The film opens with the lead prison officer in a fist fight with Jory which is Gassman's character and then they sit down to a cigarette, this sets the tone, there is mutual respect between the men, the proson officer has to get him to talk and reveal names and the prisoner who is prepared to take whatever is meted out to him as punishment. He escapes when he is with the other prison officer, the scene in which he escapes is at a famous LA landmark I think, if I describe a bridge going under the road with a tram going up to the left hand side of the bridge and steps to the right hand side, it's certainly been used in silent comedies and is used very effectively here. The rest of the film takes place in the swamps of Louisiana Jory heads back to his wife where the prisoner officer is waiting to take him back, he's allowed time wit hhis wife before being taken back in, very passionate scenes one might add, he makes his escape after his wife hits the officer with a bottle, the officer drinks swamp water when he comes around and nearly dies. This is when we get a surreal piece of film making, his dream when he's being haunted by Jory. He recovers and the hunt goes on, the picture does lag for me when Gassman isn't on the screen, the other performers don't have the power that he has, they're aren't bad, it's just that Gassman has the choice part and makes the very best of it. A spectacular fight scene ensues between Gassman, Sullavan and the swamp, then the plot gets tidied up and everything resolved, the censors left happy etc. It's well worth seeing.

Gassman is a very physical actor, he uses his body and eyes really well, I don't think he was ever entirely comfortable with English but he more than makes up for this in the way he uses his physicality. It's more apparent too in the American movies I've watched, in his native language, speaking fast and gestures flying everywhere as Italian as won't to do but here the typicla Italian mannerisms are very much toned down and what we are left with is an actor who can play so well with his eyes (see the scene when he meets his son for the first time) and with the way he uses his body. A first rate actor if ever there was one.

[JackFavell]

I'm not sure I think Wyler's The Heiress ends on a hysterical note, just a cold one to me anyway, but I heartily agree that Jennifer Jason Leigh is sorely underrated. She's a consistently great actress. You've made me want to watch the newer version, because both actors are brilliant in just about everything I've ever seen them in. Finney just seems to be getting better and better and better as the years go on. What a treasure, and yet no one ever talks about him as such - maybe because he's still working?

[MikeBSG]

I think "The Heiress" ends on a note of hysteria because there is Clift pounding on the door as if this were "The Fall of the House of Usher" or something Gothic that needs a LOT of emoting.

I also liked "Washington Square" much better than "The Age of Innocence." "Washington Square" is about the people, while, to me, "Age of Innocence" got bogged down in the furniture and the china.

It's funny about Albert Finney. He keeps slipping off my radar. I know I saw him in "The Dresser" years ago, but that film didn't do anything for me. I did love him in Tim Burton's "Big Fish." (Somebody ought to show that this Father's Day weekend.) He is masterful in "Washington Square."

[CineMaven]

Try Finney in Sidney Lumet's "BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD." Devastating...

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi3636003097/

[JackFavell]

He has a habit of slipping in and slipping out quietly, with no fuss. Finney was also in the Julia Roberts hit, Erin Brokovich, and also in the Bourne movies, excellent as usual, propping up the stars, leading them to career highs without ever looking hammy or overblown.... Just doing very fine acting that the younger ones have to keep up with. Big Fish was wonderful and Finney was absolutely marvelous - you are right, I hope someone shows it for Father's Day.

I too hope that TCM might get him as a guest, but he works an awful lot... it might be hard to fit into his schedule. I'd just like to see him get some credit before he slips away from us.

[feaito]

I saw Ferrara's "Bad Lieutenant" (1992) many years ago and it was highly praised by critics at the time and I remember finding it an interesting, if not easy to watch, and complex film; but in those days I was more prone to watching independent & Art-House films; then in 2009 Herzog remade it and some critics still felt that Ferrara's opus was superior; others preferred this new version. I haven't seen the latter son I can't give an opinion.

Today I watched another of those Gainsborough melodramas I enjoy so much: "Fanny by Gaslight" (1944), a film with a Dickensian plot, about the illegitimate daughter of a prominent English man who's raised by her mother (of humble origins) and the man she married and whom Fanny believes to be her dad. Some aspects of the story are somewhat far-fetched and melodramatic (the odd business that Fanny's dad carries in the basement of the building in whihc the family lives or Fanny going to work at the worst jobs when she tries to leave -for his own good- her socially prominent suitor), but all in all it is an enjoyable, worthwhile melodrama, although the first half of the film is better. Phyllis Calvert plays the dear, good natured, suffering Fanny, with charm and elegance. James Mason, although heading the cast, has very limited screen time as a cad, the villain in Fanny's life, responsible (directly and indirectly) for all her sorrows; Stewart Granger is Fanny's dashing beau; Jean Kent is Lucy, Fanny's pretty and flirtatious friend from childhood; Cathleen Nesbitt is Granger's old, bitter and disapproving sister; Helen Haye, Nesbitt's and Granger's mum; Amy Veness, Fanny's father's "Nanny"; Margaretta Scott, the charming, alluring, tremendoulsy attractive wife of Fanny's prominent papá, who's unshamedly scheming and adulterous, but sympathetic and appealing at the same time, calling Fanny "Only Hooper"; Nora Swinburne, Fanny's devoted mother.

If you are interested it's available on youtube:

[youtube][/youtube]

[charliechaplinfan]

I do like Phyllis Calvert, she must have decided to stay in Britain, I can't imagine Hollywood passing her up, she's lovely and a real jewel in our cinematic crown. IMO you have to make James Mason really nasty for him not to appear as the hero, I'd pass up Stewart Granger everytime for a chance to sit and listen to James Mason. I've never seen Stewart Granger play nasty, he's always too nice. The title Fanny By Gasligt would just illicit giggles here today as in the 60 odd years since it's release, Fanny now means something unmentionable. A pity because it's a nice name.

[feaito]

Dear Ali, I can see that you are not fond of some British actors (Brian Aherne, Stewart Granger -whom my wife's grandmother adored- and others); I'm realizing you like actors with a kind of devilish, mischievous quality (Mason, Raft, Cary Grant, Chevalier...). But then, being an English lass you're perhaps supposed not to be taken by English actors....Christine does not like Louis Jourdan (whom I know you love); you're indeed partial to Frenchmen (especially Boyer)

By the way I get the "fanny" stuff in Britain Did you know that "Fanny by Gaslight" was banned in the USA because it transgressed the Hays Code? I bet that this was due to the fact that Calvert did not want to marry Granger for a while and they lived together as lovers, and besides, slept in a queen bed!!

Today I saw another vintage British film -love your films from the 1930s and 1940s Ali- "Love Story" (1945) with Margaret Lockwood, Stewart Granger and Patricia Roc. Lockwood is a famous pianist who suffers from heart failure and who's supposed to die in about three months; she goes to the Cornish coast and meets devil-may-care engineer Kit (Granger) who also has some dark secret concerning his future. Enter lovely Patricia Roc, an actress who's Kit's childhood pal, but who secretly carries a torch for him. A melodramatic, soapy film in the "Dark Victory" (1939) vein, with an impressive performance by Roc as a real human being; her character is definitely the most interesting, although I had a great time watching the film, which holds up quite well.

BTW, I was confused when the film began: The Rank Gong appeared; then, the Eagle-Lion logo; then, the beautiful, kitschy Gainsborough lady and when it ended it read "made at Gaumont-British" studios!! What a confusion of film companies!!

[CineMaven]

Just a little bit of heaven watching Jean Peters and Tyrone Power dance in "Captain From Castile." They're beautiful to look at.