Jun-Dai and Lucía on DVD at 30 Central in the late evening on 13 June 2010.
Jun-Dai:
I think I’ll have to rewatch this film at some point. The story and acting seemed a bit overwrought, but there was much to like about it. The setting was quite gritty and severe, but there was a sense of realism in the fairy-tale.
Jun-Dai and Lucía on DVD at 30 Central in the evening of 13 June 2010.
Jun-Dai:
Definitely the worst Bogart film I’ve seen so far. The story-within-story-within-story-within-story setup only adds to the tediousness of the film, which is full of chaotic, rear-projected backdrops, stock characters, propagandistic monologues, and totally empty dramatic moments. The top-notch cast couldn’t save the film, and neither could James Wong Howe.
Jun-Dai and Lucía on Apple TV at 30 Central late evening on 12 June 2010.
Jun-Dai:
I enjoyed the film, though not as much as Hable con ella or Volver. The story is good, and even Penelope Cruz’s performance was pretty watchable. It made me realize I’d like to watch more of Rossellini’s films.
With Lucía on Blu-ray at home late at night on 28 April 2010.
Pretty funny. Makes the Oaxacan countryside seem very nice.
With Lucía on DVD in Port Washington on 24 April 2010.
Charming film. Not a great film, but entertaining in a dated sort of way.
With Lucía on DVD in Port Washington on 24 April 2010.
Pretty disappointing. I’d heard this film recommended so many times, but I found it a bit overwrought, the story a bit predictable, and the characters not particularly interesting. There were a number of scenes that felt tedious, probably because they were calculated for an emotional impact that I just wasn’t feeling.
The location was pretty well-captured—I felt like I got a good feel for the place. The photography was nice. But given the talent involved, the film was quite a let-down.
On DVD at home with Lucía on 15 August 2009 in the evening.
Jack Palance plays Charles Castle, who is determined not to sign a renewal contract with Stanley Hoff studios, largely to save his marriage with Marion Castle (Ida Lupino) (they have a son), and but also he’s not happy with the films he’s made. Marion Castle, who separated from Charles before the film, has a standing marriage offer with writer and friend-of-the-Castles Hank Teagle. Charles is eventually coerced by Hoff into signing the contract through some thinly veiled blackmail. Hoff, it seems, saved Charles from prison time when Charles ran over a child while drunk driving (he had Charles’ friend Buddy take the fall). Through some careful manipulation (it’s always about me, what about you), Charles is able to convince Marion to come home. Once these two matters are settled, it seems a third party to the car accident conspiracy.
We’ve been on a bit of an Ida Lupino kick lately, and so we wound up with this film. If I realized it was an Aldrich film when I added it to my queue, I’d forgotten. The look of it is very Aldrich, as is the overacting. Despite a fairly in-your-face cinematographic style, the film has a very theatrical feel to it. Something to do with the way the setting is so limited (almost exclusively in Charles Castle’s home), the dialogue is so constructed, and the characters are constantly moving (e.g., from one end of a room to the immediate vicinity of another character for a few lines, and then to the couch on the other side of the fireplace, etc.).
This is probably the best Jack Palance performance I’ve seen, but then his roles in [i]Shane[/i] and [i]Le Mepris[/i] are much less nuanced and are talked about more than seen.
All in all, the film held together fairly well, and whenever my attention waned, I found I could entertain myself by paying attention to Aldrich’s trademark visuals—lots of distorting extreme wide angles, strange angles to the frame, lines going every which way…
On DVD at home with Lucía, John, and Elizabeth on 3 July 2009 at around 22:00.
Not a very good movie. Ralph Fiennes plays three generations of a family and performs them in almost the same way. None of the characters are very appealing, and the dialogue is a bit tough to sit through. I doubt there is any movie in which you see as much of Ralph Fiennes as in this one.
On DVD with Lucía at home on Monday, 22 June 2009 at around 22:00.
I’m not as much a fan of Hitchcock as I used to be. I still like his films, and The Man Who Knew Too Much is no exception. There is one scene when Doris Day finds out her son has been kidnapped and her husband has drugged her (to prevent a heart attack? to prevent her from doing something stupid?)—it’s a dramatic moment that has a raw emotional power that I’ve never seen before in a Hitchcock film (more like something out of Douglas Sirk).
I don’t remember the original version of the film too well, though Lucía just saw it recently.
The story overall isn’t so interesting, but the execution is so nice that it’s just easy to go along for the ride, even though so many of Hitchcock’s masterful moments of suspense seem kind of transparent and a little silly now.
Jimmy Stewart’s character, and the decisions he makes throughout the film are probably the most interesting part of the film, in retrospect. His character is very enigmatic, and Jimmy Stewart really seems to play that up a good deal in his performance.
Jun-Dai: B
Lucía: B
On DVD at home with Lucía on 11 June 2009 at around 23:00.
A very bizarre film. I’m not quite sure what to make of it. A fair bit of moralizing. Not my favorite Claudette Colbert character. But the pure comedy and surreal behavior was enough to sustain my interest in the film.
What’s really strange is that I have no recollection whatsoever as to why I added this film to my Netflix queue. It must have come up somewhere.
One thing I noticed during the film was that a character in the film, Carlo, is the basis for a similar character (also named Carlo) in Cradle Will Rock. A sort of genius composer protégé that hangs around the house and does nothing.