Sally Fields’ mom (Margaret Field) sees an alien on the Scottish moors and is told by her astronomer father to have a hot drink and go to bed. The pasty-faced alien — yes, dad, there really is an alien and I really did see it — turns out to be a spotter for a race of beings whose world, swiftly approaching Earth, is dying. The nearby townspeople scurry off to lock their doors and the Constable admits that even if the men wanted to help defeat the alien, their “lasses wouldn’t let them.” So it’s up to an intrepid American reporter to win the day for humanity. With lots of fog and absolutely no atmosphere. Bland.
++
Sally Fields’ mom (Margaret Field) sees an alien on the Scottish moors and is told by her astronomer father to have a hot drink and go to bed. The pasty-faced alien — yes, dad, there really is an alien and I really did see it — turns out to be a spotter for a race of beings whose world, swiftly approaching Earth, is dying. The nearby townspeople scurry off to lock their doors and the Constable admits that even if the men wanted to help defeat the alien, their “lasses wouldn’t let them.” So it’s up to an intrepid American reporter to win the day for humanity. With lots of fog and absolutely no atmosphere. Bland.
0 Comments
++1/2 French-Italian compendium of three short films, all based on stories by Edgar Allan Poe. Metzengerstein (dir. Roger Vadim) Dissolute countess mistakenly causes the death of her infuriatingly sanguine cousin, then forms inseparable bond with a wild horse, at one point embarrassingly serenading it with a flute. And that's about it. Watchable only for its 60s-style debauchery and Jane Fonda's many sexy costumes. William Wilson (dir. Louis Malle) Incorrigible boy grows into adult scoundrel, thwarted at every stage by an honorable doppelganger. Notable for the rogue's nefarious schemes, including a long card game with a dark-haired Brigitte Bardot that ends -- or almost -- with her being whipped with a riding crop. Toby Dammit (dir. Federico Fellini) The standout here (based on "Never Bet the Devil Your Head"), though not for its satirical story of an alcoholic English actor being fêted in Rome (he is there to film the world's "first Catholic Western"); rather for the actor's waking nightmare of a young girl with a big white ball, who leads him at breakneck speed, in a Ferrari, through the narrow streets of Rome toward a violent, masterfully edited climax. The Stories & The Adaptations "Metzengerstein" - Young baron reaps the vengeance of his hated neighbor in the form of a fabulous horse with which he becomes fascinated. Not one of the author's better stories (unlike the other two represented here), but enjoyable enough, particularly for the clever way in which Poe fulfills his prophecy. Vadim's adaptation, allowing for the substitution of a woman for the count, has many surface similarities with the story; however, that substitution leaves Vadim free to alter the characters' motivations beyond all recognition, which, of course, he (rather dully) proceeds to do. "William Wilson" - Well-told tale of mystery and suspense as a dissolute man flees from city to city to escape his doppelganger, discovering too late the true nature of the other man’s existence. In other words, a substantial match for Malle's adaptation -- though, again, where Poe showed us a man cheated at cards, Malle gives us a woman (in this case, merely altering the subtext). Otherwise, a reasonable, if somewhat more literal, version of the story. "Never Bet the Devil Your Head" (Toby Dammit) - One of Poe's humorous tales, this one tells the story of a man whose inveterate use of a particular gambling phrase ultimately gets him into serious trouble. And if that doesn't sound a bit like Fellini's "adaptation," you read the description correctly: this short film is the only one of the three to state outright that it is a loose adaptation. So loose, in fact, that if it weren't for its satirical tone, the physical presence of Evil, and an important element of the ending, it would be unrecognizable. "'Toby Dammit,' the first new Fellini to be seen here since 'Juliet of the Spirits' in 1965, is marvelous: a short movie but a major one." - Vincent Canby, The New York Times, September 4, 1969 +++1/2 Alternate history (and I Ching symposium) about several people whose lives intersect in a post-World War II world dominated by the Germans and the Japanese. Sweeping the globe, however, even though banned by the Nazis, is a novel (written by the mostly unseen titular character) that posits a different ending to the war, one in which the United States and her allies won. In spite of the inclusion of action elements like spies, political intrigue, and mortal threats to civilians, Dick's book isn't really about any of that: it's an examination of culture and ethnicity -- Japanese, German, and American, roughly in that order -- each with its own strengths and weaknesses, and all of them subject to the forces of fate and chance, represented by the I Ching (which, being Chinese, stands apart). On that level, this is a fascinating book with a fully-realized setting and interesting and introspective characters. The plot, on the other hand...well, you may find yourself halfway through the book and still wondering where, exactly, it is all heading -- even if, by then, you will have gained some insight into why it has never been turned into a movie. (A TV series began last year, in 2015.) Winner of the Hugo award for Best Novel for 1963. +++ It is significant that this film credits screenwriters Hugh Gray, N. Richard Nash, and John Twist with the "adaptation" of Helen's story without mentioning any single source for their interpretation. As told by numerous authors throughout the years, Helen's story is a mythic mess, one that is so unclear that, for all we know, Helen may have been a fully-grown woman who was complicit in her own "abduction," or a 10-year-old child, the victim of kidnapping and rape. Robert Wise and his screenwriters, however, pull from a variety of sources (including their own imaginations) to give us a coherent version of Helen's story that hits a number of familiar passages and lines with pleasing regularity. The crux of it all is the abduction of Helen (Rossana Podestà), a Greek princess, by Paris (Jacques Sernas), a prince of Troy, an act that unites the rulers of the Greek city-states, who set sail (in a thousand ships) to lay seige to Troy. In this version, Paris is sailing on a mission of peace to Sparta when he is tossed overboard in a storm. He is found washed ashore by Helen, who, along with her slaves (including a young, suggestively randy Brigitte Bardot), nurse him back to health. In less time than that, Paris and Helen have fallen in love. When Helen's husband, the king Menelaus (Niall MacGinnis), imprisons Paris, Helen helps him escape, and it is ostensibly to protect her from advancing soldiers that Paris takes her with him back to Troy, and inadvertently starts the Trojan War. (One major departure here from earlier stories of the war is the idea that Helen's abduction simply provides a convenient pretext for the Greeks to attack, they being more interested in Troy's gold than Helen's honor.) As historical epics go, this is not an exceptional film, but it is a solid piece of work, with good (if uninspired) acting and direction, and a well-paced story that covers a lot of ground in two hours. If some of the sets and props fail to capture the poetry of romantic myth, this is off-set by one that does: the famous Trojan horse. Perhaps the best shots in the film occur just after the departure of the Greeks, as the bacchanalian celebration of the citizens of Troy gives way to a slowly emptying courtyard where stands the giant wooden horse that will be their destruction. "Sir Cedric Hardwicke as King Priam, Torin Thatcher as Ulysses, Niall MacGinnis as Menelaus, Stanley Baker as Achilles and many more make broad sweeps and eloquent gestures. But they are strictly two-dimensional -- like the film." - Bosley Crowther, The New York Times, January 27, 1956 +++ Well-directed thriller starring Harrison Ford as a doctor, in Paris for a medical conference, whose wife (Betty Buckley) mysteriously disappears. Local authorities think she is having an affair, but her husband knows she has been kidnapped. His only clue to getting her back: a suitcase belonging to a young Frenchwoman (Emmanuelle Seigner) that his wife mistakenly picked up at the airport. Ford is good as the meek Dr. Walker, whose frustration and desperation eventually get the better of him, while Seigner is bright and pretty enough, but forced to play an under-written role thanks to a script that takes its MacGuffin much too seriously. "[E]very scene, on its own, seems to work. It is only the total of the scenes that is wrong." - Roger Ebert, The Chicago Sun-Times, February 26, 1988 "Miss Seigner does what she's supposed to do, which is stop traffic." - Janet Maslin, The New York Times, February 26, 1988 *** A psychiatrist is drawn into mystery and murder after meeting a new patient, a young man who claims to be working for leprechauns. Mildly successful when first published, and rediscovered by the Brits in the 70s, who admired (then overstated) its psychological components, it's really all about the mystery, which is unusual and intriguing, and features along the way such things as Percheron horses being left at murder scenes, amnesia, and torture. "Spotty -- but hard to put down." - The Saturday Review, June 1, 1946 *** Jilted paleontologist joins team hunting overgrown crocodile at a remote lake in Maine. Borrows freely (albeit knowingly) from other films (Jaws, particularly, of course) and might have been just another ripoff, but this surprisingly entertaining monster movie gets major boost from game cast and fun script (by David E. Kelley) that keeps its eye on audiences rather than critics. Bridget Fonda is joined by Bill Pullman as a soft-spoken fish and game warden, Brendan Gleeson as a small-town sheriff, and Oliver Platt as an eccentric millionaire who believes crocs are divine. Followed by three sequels, all of which were made for TV. "Instead of rooting for Pullman and Fonda, we end up praying that the crocodile is hungry enough to put them out of their misery." - Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly, July 16, 1999 "[A]t 83 minutes, this short-attention-span cinema seems more geared to the braces and training bra set than to those who actually pay for tickets with their own money and have driver's licenses." - Michael O'Sullivan, The Washington Post, July 16, 1999 ** Boston cop uncovers corporate and government corruption in his vengeful search for the man who gunned down his daughter. What he fails to find, however, is a reason for us to believe a single thing that happens in this movie. From the moment Thomas Craven (Mel Gibson) is allowed to work the case, we know we’re headed into fairyland. And it just gets progressively more implausible as it goes along, until Craven is pointing guns at corporate bigwigs and threatening high government officials as if they had no more protection than local pimps and drug dealers. Gibson does well as a dad on a mission of justice, but the story’s too convoluted and the conspiracy goes too high to be supported by emotionalism alone. And all Craven’s got to fall back on is his aging tough-guy cop status, which, at one point, even he admits wouldn’t be enough to keep him alive ten minutes if he were up against real professionals, instead of the collection of facile dunderheads in this movie. "[The movie] lurches forward like a battered old Chevy being started in third gear." - Tim Robey, The Telegraph, 28 Jan 2010 ***** Superb horror novel about a young woman who becomes convinced that her unborn child has been targeted by a coven of witches for sacrifice to the Devil. With suspense so tightly wound it's funny, yet sublimely subtle and wittily observed. The characters are sharply drawn and believable throughout -- and yes that includes the surprising ending. Adapted first by Roman Polanski for his classic 1968 film, then as a two-part miniseries in 2014. "Not since the late Shirley Jackson has there been quite this kind of spellbinder" - Kirkus Reviews, April 13th, 1967 **** Fascinating, exceedingly low-key noir horror film about a young woman (Kim Hunter) whose search for her missing sister leads her to an odd cult of satanists in Greenwich Village. From the producer (Val Lewton) and writer (DeWitt Bodeen) of Cat People and Curse of the Cat People, so expect the off-beat. The sister (Jean Brooks) says things like, “I’ve always wanted to die.” This haunting, depressing film is not recommended for the clinically depressed. "[T]otally unbelievable hocus-pocus about a strange Greenwich Village coterie." - Variety, December 31, 1942 |
KinoLivresBooks. Movies. Mostly. Archives
July 2017
Categories
All
|