Friday, 2 August 2019
10 (1979)
A Hollywood composer goes through a mid-life crisis and becomes infatuated with a sexy, newly married woman.
From memory: On the surface an old-fashioned sex comedy, but the jokes utterly misfire behind misogynist premise.
Halliwell (no star): "Randy farce which struck some, but not all, audiences as the funniest thing since sliced bread."
Maltin**: "Blake Edwards' idea of a real sophisticated movie; sporadically funny but tiresome, glib, and pompous."
Thursday, 1 August 2019
Violette Nozière (1978)
In an interwar France struggling with profound social and political change, 18-year-old Violette Noziere rebels against the constraints of her claustrophobic, working-class (and possibly incestuous) family, with troubling consequences.
Excellent true-case period murder drama is a bit unusual work by this director, but it manages to recreate the enigma of the crime, and Isabelle Huppert is extraordinary in the title role.
Halliwell*: "Oddly erratic but interesting recapitulation of a famous French murder case, not quite typical of its director."
Maltin**: "Slow-moving...Huppert sleepwalks through the role, and Chabrol lacks his usual directorial flair."
Yôjinbô (1961)
A crafty ronin comes to a town divided by two criminal gangs and decides to play them against each other to free the town.
Highly influential, much copied Kurosawa masterpiece is flawlessly scripted and staged, tough, very violent and witty, and Mifune plays as if he was born for the role.
Halliwell****: "Masterful, beautifully composed, witty movie that inspired the 'spaghetti Western' cycle when it was remade by Sergio Leone as A Fistful of Dollars."
Maltin****: "Superb tongue-in-cheek samurai picture, the plot of which resembles a Western; Mifune is perfection as samurai...Beautiful on all counts..."
Being There (1979)
A simpleminded, sheltered gardener becomes an unlikely trusted advisor to a powerful businessman and an insider in Washington politics.
From memory: Excellent oddball satire on American life and politics with lots of witty dialogie, and Sellers' and MacLaine's performances are spot on.
Halliwel**: "Overlong serio-comic parable hinging on a somewhat dubious star performance. Chance made it a popular urban success, but few who saw it were enthused."
Maltin**1/2: "Low-keyed black humor, full of savagely witty comments on American life in the telvision age, but fatally overlong."
Willie and Phil (1980)
Life imitates art when two Manhattanites become friends after a thought-provoking screening of "Jules et Jim," Truffaut's classic film about a decades-long ménage à trois.
From memory: Nicely made, well-intentioned, but utterly superfluous reimagination of Truffaut's classic Jules et Jim; likable, but a far cry from the original.
Halliwell (no star): "Curious attempt at an American Jules et Jim; not badly done if you have to do it, but why do it?"
Maltin***: "Affectionate, perceptive, underrated retelling of JULES AND JIM...A wistful tale of how chance encounters alter lives, how camaraderie between friends is everlasting, how men always do the asking but women do the deciding."
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