The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981)

The sensuous wife of a lunch wagon proprietor and a rootless drifter begin a sordidly steamy affair and conspire to murder her Greek husband.

From memory: Steamy adaptation of Cain's novel is not really better than previous versions, but Lange and Nicholson's performances are excellent as well as Nykvist's cinematography.

Halliwell**: "Not otherwise any better, but an interesting measure of the times."

Maltin*1/2: "Exceedingly unpleasant adaptation...David Mamet's screenplay may be more faithful to Cain than the 1946 version, but who cares? Despite its much touted sex scenes (more violent than erotic), it's dreary and forgettable...Moodily photographed by Sven Nykvist."

Un Amour de Swann (1984)

When the elegant and educated bachelor Charles Swann falls in love with a courtesan, his friends in the most powerful and fashionable circles of Paris in the 1890's warn him against marriage.

Well produced with top credentials in all departments, the result is a unloving, coldly calculated adaptation of Proust's story; alone Hans Werner Henze's excellent score gives an impression of what this movie could have been.

Halliwell**: "Reasonably successful attempt to film part of an unfilmable book. Comparisons with Letter From an Unknown Woman are inevitable."

Maltin**1/2: "Lavish but lifeless telescoping of Proust's Remembrance of Things Past with Irons surprisingly stiff...Redeemed somewhat by the latter [Ornella Muti] and Delon (as a homosexual baron), a sexy under-the-covers scene, and Sven Nykvist photography. "