WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

[charliechaplinfan]

I watched the last part of Fanny, it ties the ends up much neater and quicker than the trilogy, with Panisse dictating a letter to Cesar for Marius asking him to marry Fanny. For me the film's fun is in the relationship between the older men and Fanny's mother. Panisse honoured Fanny and the fact she didn't feel passion for him by seeing a lady in his shop. The death bed scenes are funny and poignant but not at all realistic, whilst Cesario is missing and Panisse is dying have to be taken as pure entertainment. I don't think the build up of the relationship between Fanny and Marius is as strong as the trilogy and it's more tongue in cheek but it's fun.

Is it Mildred Natwick too, then I'm going to have to rewatch it. I find Robert Redford incredibly handsome to look at but above gazing at him in wonder he doesn't do anything for me but I feel like he should.

[JackFavell]

I think you couldn't get anyone better for their roles than Redford and Fonda, she's all mischievous fun, and he's all serious and pent up. He's a good actor at what he does, and he knows his own strengths and weaknesses, which is good. He doesn't dazzle with his acting exactly, and has a few mannerisms that I find distracting, but on the whole he's nice to look at, and I admire him for living a life outside Hollywood. The movie is cast really well, and that is a blessing, it's as good a Neil Simon comedy as you can get, outside of The Odd Couple.

I really have to watch Fanny now. Panisse's death in the trilogy was sort of bittersweet, still a little funny, with the speech about Panisse and God, and a little sad, with the chair at the card game empty. It sounds like the trilogy was more relaxed than the later film.

[charliechaplinfan]

I love The Odd Couple, Jack Lemmon clinches most things for me. I know what you mean about Robert Redford, he's given back to the industry and he's as unHollywood as you can get. He does suit the roles I've seen him in, nobody else could have been Jay Gatsby in my eyes, or played opposite Streisand in The Way We Were.

I'm going to have to watch Barefoot in the Park and you are going to have to watch Fanny, it's not sad at all in the end, it's comical and whilst I've always regarded Chevalier as an entertainer rather than an actor but in Fanny he changed my opinion.

I'm hopping all over the genres, yesterday I watched Il Bidone another emotional rollercoaster from Fellini. Il Bidone starring the expressive Broderick Crawford, Richard Basehart, Guiletta Masina and Franco Fabrizi. Il Bidone means the swindlers but these aren't swindlers who take from the people who can afford it, they are swindling people who are struggling to make ends meet, swindling them out of their savings with some inspired plans. How can they cheat their fellow man, they go amongst them, see their suffering and misery yet take off the honest and unsuspecting people. It's difficult but compelling viewing but somehow Fellini gives these men souls, makes us care about them when they are the lowest of the low. Picasso, seems very at odds with the swindling world he's part of, his partner Masina trying to turn a blind eye to the money her man brings in. Fabrizi's characters seems at first to be the one with the least conscience but it becomes apparent that it's only Fellini's portrayal making us think that. He truly fooled me, I thought Crawford would melt at the sight of the paralysed girl, I believed he'd given that money back out of pity not that he'd secreted it all about his person. His plight unsurprisingly is to be left dying with a wound to his head, never does he repent. In this way it's like La Strada, something the viewer has to come to terms with in their own head. Crawford's Augusto is something like Zampano but for me Zampano knows no better and can't help himself, Augusto can, he knows what is right and wrong. An interesting film.

[JackFavell]

You are totally making me want to watch more Fellini, especially I, Vittelloni and Il Bidone. I really have enjoyed his work so far, even the more difficult, self involved movies.

I will watch Fanny, but today they are showing a whole string of Gregory La Cava pictures and I am recording them all. I could watch Fanny in between, but I am such a knucklehead, I am quite sure I would get lost in the movie and forget what I was doing....missing my recording times.

I finished Caravan yesterday.... it left a smile on my face, with Boyer given the last frame of the picture....

I thought it was interesting to compare it to The Merry Widow. Whereas this one relied on group dances and songs, The Merry Widow was all about the personalities of the stars, focusing on them and their emotions more than the lavish sets. It makes you really see why TMW is still around to be seen today, while poor Caravan has faded into obscurity.

Boyer was by far the best character in the film, and I can see the parallel to Liliom. He had two great speeches, one at the beginning, about how the Princess would hear his music. and the one at the end about how music is a more loyal lover. The philosopher always. Loretta was pretty, but she really drove me crazy! She was so spoiled, making two men miserable like that! I could have used less of Jean Parker as the amoral, amorous gypsy, but she did a good job. And I wanted at least one clinch, with Boyer or Holmes that didn't get interrupted. I enjoyed the film, but it was terribly hard to watch that print - so choppy and difficult to see, it's a shame there won't be a restoration of at least some kind on this movie. I wish the director had left the camera on his stars more, he was forever cutting away from them, and I just wanted to see a scene where I got enough of Boyer.

[charliechaplinfan]

I didn't want to say too much about Caravan until you'd seen it Wendy. I honestly can't remember Philip Holmes that much because the camera didn't linger on him long enough. The story failed because no one was faithful to the ones they loved, Boyer wasn't faithful to Jean Parker, there was no revelatory moment for him to see the light and see the two women as they were and who he should love, he was resigned to make the best of it with her. I thought the film would have been better turned on it's head with the gypsy marriage taking place against everyone's advice and with Loretta's misgivings only to turn out to be successful and for Philip Holmes to realise that Jean Parker was his ideal. Loretta's character was too spoiled and capricious to be able to relate to, she married him out of pique and for riches, flaunted the gypsies in the faces of her retainers and then capitulated completely to Philip Holmes. Who would want him above Latsi? Latsi at least was exciting and he wasn't going to beat her very hard. It felt that it was made on the back of the taste for musicals set in Eastern Europe only to miss the boat, the times had changed and it's characters weren't developed enough make people return and see it again. I liked the songs, they were catchy although I wish the principles had chance to sing, Boyer got to start one song and got drowned out. Latsi was the best characer but that end shot as you say was a let down. Despite all this I enojyed it and I would watch it again.

[JackFavell]

I totally agree, and very well put, Alison. No surprises, a little flip in the story and more depth for the characters would have been so much better.

[MikeBSG]

Yesterday I watched "Strange Days," the 1994 (?) Science fiction film directed by Kathryn Bigelow.

Well, it was no "Hurt Locker." It was too long, the plot was pretty trite, and while I think the movie tried to be "Soylent Green" or "Blade Runner," the movie I kept thinking of was "Streets of Fire," the 1984 failed rock-and-role SF movie from Walter Hill. apart from Juliette Lewis, I didn't really think the rest of the cast (Ralph finnes, Angela Bassett) really fired on all cylinders.

On a side note, I was somewhat surprised at all the violence against women in this movie. This is really a rather unpleasant film in some ways.

[MichiganJ]

I had a problem with the misogyny in Strange Days, too. Interesting concept, but didn't work for me.

Streets of Fire I like, though. A lot.

[feaito]

Streets of Fire I like, though. A lot.

Me too! One of my favorite films from the '80s

Last Friday I revisited "The Devil and Miss Jones" (1941) and showed it to my brother. He liked it very much and I enjoyed it like the first time I saw it. Jean Arthur and Charles Coburn make an excellent team! (Ditto in "The More the Merrier" (1943)) And Norman Krasna's clever script is a major asset! Gotta love those scenes in Coney Island! A true gem...the supporting cast is fantastic, especially Spring Byington, Bob Cummings and Edmund Gwenn....and S.Z. "Cuddles" Sakall too!

On Sunday I saw Anatole Litvak's "Out of the Fog" (1941) a good drama with Noirish touches, starring John Garfield playing one of the most despicable characters ever. I hated him on sight! Ida Lupino is very good as the restless girl who falls for this gangster-racketeer and Thomas Mitchell & John Qualen are also superb. Engrossing film.

[JackFavell]

I love both those movies, Ferchu!

Out of the Fog is such a great picture, it isn't often that you get two character actors playing the lead roles. I think of it as an early pitch against fascism.

[feaito]

I agree, I was tremendously pleased about the amount of screen time that Mitchell and Qualen have...and since they played Scandinavian people, I immediately remembered Vidor's "The Wedding Night" and had a yearning to watch it once again...I've seen it at least three times in the past years and I love that film... Arguably, Sten's best and of Cooper's better perfromances too...

[charliechaplinfan]

I watched Out of the Fog recently, I don't think I've hated a character quite as much on first sight. I felt the same about the supporting players, excellent players given plenty of screen time.

I watched Night of the Iguana last night (thanks Nancy) I've never seen it before but I've read the play. Sometimes I live Richard Burton and sometimes I feel he's not trying as hard as he should however I thought he was great as the Reverend Shannon, pursued by Charlotte/Sue Lyon, tortured by demons, descended from two bishops and one clergyman but not made of the same stuff, it tortures him, he belongs nowhere and bristles at the kind of people that he has to take around on Blakes coach tours, especially Miss Fellowes played by Grayson Hall who has made it her mission to remove the preacher from being a spiritual tour guide. She fails to see at first that it is Charlotte who throws herself at the Reverend and he who tries his upmost to resist her. The Reverend takes the coach tour to Maxine Faulks/Ava Gardner hacienda instead of the modern hotel they were expecting, to make sure they stay, the reverend takes the distributor cap. Having no choice they stay. Here they comes across Miss Jelks, Deborah Kerr and her elderly grandfather Cyril Delevanti, who travel together making portraits and reciting poems to pay their way. Maxine is an old friend of the reverend, recently widowed and often a shelter for Larry and his demons. Miss Jelks is a New England spinster but very perceptive and able to soothe the troubled reverend. Miss Fellowes continues to try to get the Reverend sacked, Grandfather continues writing his poem and reciting his poetry. The ending is uplifting for a Tennessee Williams play.

The leads here, Burton, Gardner and Kerr gives powerful performances, I don't think I've seen Gardner give a better one, her looks faded only a little, she is Maxine and is quite brilliant and obviously the one who can save Larry from his demons. Kerr is great as Miss Jelks although she often plays upright characters she fits Miss Jelks like a glove. Part of me would love to have seen the ladies reverse their roles but I'm sure John Huston knew what he was doing. Richard Burton acts with his costars rather tha against them, am I cruel here? Perhaps I've seen the wrong films but I find he has tendency to dominate which he doesn't here and the chemistry is evident with all three ladies.

The RO interview at the end, telling of the group of people staying in Puerto Vallerta, a journalists paradise. Ava was a good match for Burton drink for drink, Kerr's husband had had an affair with Gardner at one point, Elizabeth Taylor was there as was Sue Lyons boyfriend worried that Burton would seduce her.

[MikeBSG]

I watched "Night of the Iguana" for the first time last year, and I was really impressed.

Richard Burton has never been one of my favorite actors, but he was very good here, as was everyone else. I thought Huston did a fine job "opening up" the play. Apparently he fell in love with the area where he filmed this movie, because didn't he end up living there?

I find that I like Huston's work more and more. I read the U of Mississippi book of interviews with him (called, startlingly enough, "John Huston Interviews") and really enjoyed that.

[JackFavell]

I am finding more and more of Huston's work satisfying, too. I recently watched The Red Badge of Courage, and though one can see that it was messed with, I think most of it is extremely good. I agree about Night of the Iguana - his opening of the play into a movie is excellent.

[charliechaplinfan]

Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor ended up living there, I remember seeing their connecting houses and Burton's house that he bought after splitting from Liz. I think huston lived there too. I feel much like you do Mike about Burton but here, he was very good. Ava Gardner really surprised me too, I felt like she was Maxine.

I've enjoyed all the Williams films of his plays, even The Fugitive Kind.