WHAT FOREIGN FILMS HAVE YOU WATCHED LATELY?

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JackFavell
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Re: WHAT FOREIGN FILMS HAVE YOU WATCHED LATELY?

Post by JackFavell »

I was disappointed that I couldn't sit and watch all day long! Two in a row was enough, but I would have loved to see Once a Thief. I did see his section of The Yellow Rolls Royce which was quite good. But I like that kind of movie anyway.

It's so odd that a man that good looking could really act. He had it all. I wish Alison was here, she'd have some good things to say about Delon.

I haven't seen The Talented Mr. Ripley, nor have I read the book. I felt solidly on Delon's side, because he seemed to really care about the girl at first, and Greenleaf was such a _______, but when you think about it, he's just as bad. Of course, once he was in for a penny, he was in for a pound, there's no stopping once you've started with a whopper like that. It was just fascinating to watch him cooly go through with it. There were things in that movie that really make you wonder about Rene Clement, or perhaps it was the writer who came up with those little touches on forgery and such. And the locations really put it over the top for me, that was as big a draw as Alain Delon's face. Everything was so perfect, so richly detailed, and expensive looking. Even the guy's typewriter looked expensive!

You could have ended it, Player-style, with him getting away with it just as easily, and left those disturbing thoughts in the viewer's head.
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JackFavell
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Re: WHAT FOREIGN FILMS HAVE YOU WATCHED LATELY?

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Yes, I got a definite new wave feel from Purple Noon. I think that's what made it so fascinating... it seemed to happen in real time, and the edits SEEMED just a bit ...arbitrary, in that sort of New Wave way, though I'm sure each one was carefully crafted. it was all done to create an impression of .... laissez faire, I think, combined with a very ambivalent, unsettled feeling. Especially the scenes on the boat struck me as disjointed and off kilter, slow, moody and stark, but a different stark, more of a sunlit aloneness. One really feels time passing in this movie.

The battle between Greenleaf and Ripley lent itself to the kind of methodical, Peter Brook, Lord of the Flies power game style of film-making, but it felt instead loose and easy, primitive, instinctual, sun-washed and lazy. It's a great combination, lazy and deadly. I can't tell you how much I hated Greenleaf. That's the set-up. Clement took care to create an entire mindset for us, very subjective, letting us in on Ripley's feelings (which at first were quite high minded, LOVE, after all was his motivation) while keeping us gawping at his beauty which matched the setting perfectly. You could really see how he would feel entitled to that luxury! I felt he deserved it after all his hard work and of course his beauty didn't hurt. He looked like he belonged. You can't help admiring him.

I think this is what's great about the movie - you have these battling ambivalent or even not so ambivalent feelings. Of course he couldn't get away with it forever, but I loved that he came that close to closing it, only to have an entirely fateful accident stop him. It reminded me very much of Day of the Jackai which I like a lot, because it jerks you up against your own prejudices and emotions. Through his workmanlike approach to 'the job' at hand, you come to have feelings for the bad guy - until he does something so heinous you can't like him anymore. You, the audience actually become the enablers of the most evil character, allowing him to do his job even more efficiently. And it makes you realize all the more how phoney he is, that you yourself have been played and that's what makes him so successful. The rug is pulled out, the scales fall from your eyes in one swoop. All the movies I've seen lately kind of point the way toward this kind of movie making... The Killing is maybe the beginning of those 'rooting for the bad guy' films where you are so on their side that it's kind of disturbing. I admit, I love that kind of subjective film making.

I did watch the first half hour of Have I the Right To Kill, but I realized about the point where he put the straw through the keyhole that I was going to be sucked into watching for another couple of hours and I had to tear myself away and do some actual work. :D
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CineMaven
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Re: WHAT FOREIGN FILMS HAVE YOU WATCHED LATELY?

Post by CineMaven »

:o I'm sorry...watching movies and writing thoughtful reviews is not work? :shock:

You must be talking to the wrong people.

( I've got to see this "Purple Noon" you two are talking about, because I absolutely loved "The Talented Mr. Ripley." And I think staring at Alain Delon for two hours is nice work if you can get it! )
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JackFavell
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Re: WHAT FOREIGN FILMS HAVE YOU WATCHED LATELY?

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Oh Lordy, Maven, you MUST see this movie. If I can get it on youtube or Netflix, we can watch it together if you want to. But maybe you'll want to see it by yourself - just you and gorgeous Alain, alone together..... :D :D :oops: :oops:
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Ann Harding
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Re: WHAT FOREIGN FILMS HAVE YOU WATCHED LATELY?

Post by Ann Harding »

Dear Kingrat, count me in as René Clément admirer. The Knave of Hearts is definitely a winner, a lovely film with a great performance by Gérard Philipe shot on locations in London with a hidden camera. The film had been invisible for a long time due to rights problems. But a 2 years ago, it was broadcast on French TV in a very good print. As for the three films you mentioned, the first two are available on DVD:
Au-delà des grilles is on R2 DVD (no subs though) here. I saw the film in a cinema a decade ago. I felt it wasn't among his best films.
Les Maudits is now available on DVD and Blu-ray with French subs HoH. The film has got an interesting suspense. But again, it's not a major Clément like Knave of Hearts and Purple Noon.

Edit: I just noticed Knave of Hearts is available from amazon.com on DVD with English subs. Hmmm...it looks like a bootleg. The film is still tied up with various rights problems. And Les Maudits will get a Blu-ray release in the US next August from Cohen Media Group.
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moira finnie
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Re: WHAT FOREIGN FILMS HAVE YOU WATCHED LATELY?

Post by moira finnie »

For those of us who cannot afford one more DVD (darn it!), Knave of Hearts (1954) is available at the moment on youtube with English subtitles:

[youtube][/youtube]
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Ann Harding
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Re: WHAT FOREIGN FILMS HAVE YOU WATCHED LATELY?

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kingrat wrote:It's also good to have you posting on the site. We've been missing your unique perspective.
Thanks Kingrat. I'll try to post more on SSO. I have been rather down the weather recently and didn't post much.
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Ann Harding
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Re: WHAT FOREIGN FILMS HAVE YOU WATCHED LATELY?

Post by Ann Harding »

And here I am again! :)
Yesterday I watched Le Silence est d'or (1947), a René Clair shot in France immediately after his return from Hollywood. The film is nostalgic look at the early days of movie making around 1900. Maurice Chevalier plays a film director in a primitive studio who falls in love with a young girl who happens to be the daughter of one of his former loves. Of course, he will realise - in time - that the girl is better suited to the young man (François Perrier) who works with him at the studio. This gracious comedy entirely shot in studios has got charm and I really appreciated the look at movie making in the 00s, everything looked very relaxed and improvising was the word. But overall, the film was disappointing compared with some other brilliant René Clair comedies, not least Un Chapeau de paille d'Italie (An Italian Straw Hat, 1927). But it's a nice little film.
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CineMaven
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Re: WHAT FOREIGN FILMS HAVE YOU WATCHED LATELY?

Post by CineMaven »

[u][color=#800000]JackFavell[/color][/u] wrote:Oh Lordy, Maven, you MUST see this movie. If I can get it on youtube or Netflix, we can watch it together if you want to. But maybe you'll want to see it by yourself - just you and gorgeous Alain, alone together..... :D :D :oops: :oops:
Oh geez, I missed reading this, thus my opportunity to check it out with you. Blast it! Well, uhmmmm...on second thought...maybe it IS better to be one on one with Alain Delon. I can get all his...nuances. ( Yeah, that's the ticket. ) Good suggestion Brother Rat about TCM showing this at their festival. I do give TCM great kudos on programming their films. That is what it's all about.

"Purple Noon" ey? :)
"You build my gallows high, baby."

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feaito

Re: WHAT FOREIGN FILMS HAVE YOU WATCHED LATELY?

Post by feaito »

Hi Chris....Is the Clair film available with subs?
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Ann Harding
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Re: WHAT FOREIGN FILMS HAVE YOU WATCHED LATELY?

Post by Ann Harding »

feaito wrote:Hi Chris....Is the Clair film available with subs?
There is a DVD with Spanish (Castillian) subs: here. Looks like bootleg, but no trace of a DVD with English subs.
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