Sandy, you hit the nail on the head, it is like neo-realism, very much so! That's a great call.
Robert, I was thinking that exactly as I was watching it! I'm sure the people watching Sunset Blvd. for the first time were like, "Oh my gosh, is that Anna Q? My how she's changed." And we're sitting here watching saying, "Is that Anna from Sunset Blvd.? My how good she looks!" Isn't it funny how we go backwards sometimes? Maybe it's better that way. Wish I was like Merlin and aged the other way around... to a point anyway.
I started to watch "Regeneration." I got interrupted but was struck by how squalid the conditions were. The people looked so regular, not at all movie people. I thought the fire scene on the boat was well done. I have to get back to it though to see how the main character is redeemed.
I can tell that between the dissolve shot of his drinking a beer with the change of the him as a kid eating the ice cream cone that some of that still lives in him and he'll be fine in the end.
Back to you on the rest.
Chris
"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana."
Lovely! I'm so glad you are watching it. They do seem like regular people. This movie has very little "emoting" or stageyness. I found the scenes in the bar to be very realistic, almost as if there was no camera there.
It's a simple story but there is some complex movie making going on here.
The people looked so regular, not at all movie people
That's something you don't usually see in a Hollywood film. SALT OF THE EARTH, OUR DAILY BREAD, indy stuff by Mike Leigh and the likes; you see it there. Not so much in mainstream movies.
Hey Wendy, you didn't make me feel like my opinion on Lincoln wouldn't be valued. It's my own silliness that made me feel funny about posting my love of the film. My old people-pleaser tendencies sometimes stop me from expressing my opinion online. Trying to post more here and stop lurking so much.
I saw The Place Beyond the Pines last night and I'm still thinking about it today. It's one of the most though provoking movies I've seen in years. While not a solid 5 stars, it was still excellent and well worth viewing.
It starts with an audacious shot right out of the classic films we all love. Touch of Evil, Hitchcock, with maybe a bigger nod to Goodfellas. We see only the back of Ryan Gosling's head. It's night, and we follow him as he weaves through a crowd at a low rent carnival, neon lights in the background. he's turning corners, walking through tents, maneuvering around groups of people we see it all as the camera follows him relentlessly. Finally after a few minutes of walking, he turns the corner and the camera pulls back ever so slightly, and we see him hop on a motorcycle and ride into a small globular cage, barely big enough for 3 men and their bikes. They ride around at dizzying speed, frighteningly close, spinning, whirling around, within inches of crashing into each other. It's a metaphor for the film, a bravura 3 part descent into destiny and bad decisions, where men really do crash into each other, changing their fates and their sons fates.We've entered a noirish film where men react to violence frighteningly and are corrupted by it.
The cast is WONDERFUL. Gosling and then Bradley Cooper hold our attentions completely. Eva Mendes is appropriately sexy and worn out, as Gosling's fling from the year before, when he was in town with the carnival. Mendes' secret comes out - she's had Gosling's baby over the last year he's been gone, and he's drawn back at the thought of having a son to provide for. She's with another man, a stand up guy who is taking care of them while she tries to better herself, working and going to school. Gosling begins to envision a life where he and his son enjoy many firsts together, so he quits his job at the carnival. This seemingly innocuous and rather heartfelt act leads to a death spiral of events that almost seems comic, if it weren't so tragic.
While racing his cycle through the pines at lightning speed (another incredibly scary ride filmed beautifully) one day, he meets a corrupting influence. Jack, played by the beautifully grimy and toothless Ben Mendelsohn. Jack's is a bit of a hermit, a down and out guy who runs a garage that never gets any business. He hires Gosling, telling him he probably can't pay him, but he can stay in the falling apart trailer he has in back of his shop. This unlikely friendship is at once touching and the beginning of the end for Gosling. Mendelsohn (my favorite actor in the entire movie) mentions to Gosling that he has robbed 4 banks, that as long as you don't do too many you can get the money and not get caught. But Gosling IS caught, not by the cops, but by his own addiction to this new 'job'. It's exciting and easy. With his 'skill set' as Mendelsohn calls it, he's a perfect robber, he escapes by motorcycle, riding quickly into Mendelsohn's truck which is waiting down the road for him.
So Gosling is at once a sweet guy, and a violent loser. It's a great performance, and would be good enough, but then we throw in the second section of the film, where Gosling comes up against Bradley Cooper. Cooper is just as good in his role, that of a beat cop from a good background who runs smack into Gosling in a twist of fate that will turn his life into a dark game of chess. I can't say any more about the plot without giving away the film, but the scenes with Cooper are harrowing and psychological. The fil takes on qualities of Serpico and Dog Day Afternoon. That Cooper can pull of the sweet guy who is a victim of circumstance, and turn him into a vile ambitious liar is pretty amazing. As fate encircles him, the chance encounter with Gosling takes on huge proportions in his life, causing irreparable damage to him, his wife and his son.
The third part of the story has to do with the two boys, Gosling's son and Cooper's. It's not as good as the first two sections, but it was still engrossing. This is where the film starts to look a little like Cimarron or So Big, the family epics we know, but with a black twist. I was on the edge of my seat throughout this very suspenseful movie, never more so than at the end. I had no idea where the whims of fate were going to take these characters. It's a dark film about fathers and sons, and how one moment's corruption can change lives right through future generations. Deeply disturbing on quite a few levels, I would say this is an ambitious movie with power. It's nice to see someone stretch and perhaps fail just a bit, rather than to see a movie where the director didn't try at all.
Wendy, I had pegged this one, as I do almost all new films, as a wait-for-dvd. Now, your vivid review has convinced me to Email my daughter Sally and ask for a date! Although, I have seen a lot of crime films during the past year, for that matter all my life, this sounds different. Thanks for making this one come alive.
A few days ago I watched "13 Rue Madeleine" (1947) directed by Henry Hathaway.
It was a good film, although I think I like "Cloak and Dagger" better in the OSS film sweepstakes. I think I give Lang's film the nod because I can buy Gary Cooper as a scientist who is suddenly thrust into an espionage mission more than I can buy James Cagney as a master spy with experience going back to WWI.
Still, I found the "spy school" scenes fascinating, and I was very surprised to discover that the plot was (somewhat) about fooling the Germans as to where the D-Day landings would take place, something I thought was still mostly classified in 1947.
I think Richard Conte as the German spy made this film very interesting. There is a noir sense of paranoia to "13 Rue Madeleine." Identities and loyalties switch suddenly and Conte hints at the emotional costs of such a life. Had the film been more of a duel of wits between Conte and Cagney, I might have liked this one more. When Conte was gone for too long, the film sagged.
It was neat to spot Karl Malden and E. G. Marshall in bit roles.
Thanks for posting that review Mike. I have always been interested -beforehand- in this particular film and more so when Moira wrote that her father, a war veteran, had a favorable opinion of it in terms of depiction of reality.
Other than "Rebecca" and "Pride and Prejudice" I finally watched two films with Laurence Olivier that I actually enjoyed this past week on TCM. With a great cast, both "The Entertainer" and "Term of Trial"
were entertaining for me and held my interest.
