|
Post by berkley on Apr 29, 2024 22:31:11 GMT -5
Looks like May will be a heavy movie-going month for me. Apart from new films, there are several classics coming up at the two cinemas I mostly go to here, so many I won't be able to catch them all: but I'll try to get to as many as a i can. Tomorrow night at the one closer to me they're showing Wings of Desire and later in the month John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness, both of which I've seen before, but not for a long time and PoD I've only seen on video on an old-style tv. And at the other place, farther away, they're showing four Alain Delon movies, none of which I've ever seen before: -Le Samouraï, Purple Noon, The Red Circle, and Red Sun.
|
|
|
Post by Hoosier X on Apr 29, 2024 22:49:49 GMT -5
Looks like May will be a heavy movie-going month for me. Apart from new films, there are several classics coming up at the two cinemas I mostly go to here, so many I won't be able to catch them all: but I'll try to get to as many as a i can. Tomorrow night at the one closer to me they're showing Wings of Desire and later in the month John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness, both of which I've seen before, but not for a long time and PoD I've only seen on video on an old-style tv. And at the other place, farther away, they're showing four Alain Delon movies, none of which I've ever seen before: -Le Samouraï, Purple Noon, The Red Circle, and Red Sun. I’ve seen all those. Le Samourai and Purple Noon are the two most famous. I’m not such a big fan of Le Samourai, but Purple Noon is great. But Red Circle is my favorite of these! Such a great movie! And Red Sun has Delon, Mifune, Charles Bronson and Ursula Andress! It’s been a while since I saw it, and I remember it as being an OK movie but well worth watching just for that cast. Of course, my favorite Delon movie is L’eclisse.
|
|
|
Post by codystarbuck on Apr 30, 2024 20:47:30 GMT -5
I thin Le Samourai is fine; but, it is meant to be existential, which limits the crime aspect. It was the direct inspiration for John Woo's The Killer. Red Circle is a pretty good crime film.
My favorite Delon is Zorro. You can tell he is having a ball, in that one; and, it is a pretty good Zorro movie.
|
|
|
Post by berkley on Apr 30, 2024 21:07:23 GMT -5
Looks like May will be a heavy movie-going month for me. Apart from new films, there are several classics coming up at the two cinemas I mostly go to here, so many I won't be able to catch them all: but I'll try to get to as many as a i can. Tomorrow night at the one closer to me they're showing Wings of Desire and later in the month John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness, both of which I've seen before, but not for a long time and PoD I've only seen on video on an old-style tv. And at the other place, farther away, they're showing four Alain Delon movies, none of which I've ever seen before: -Le Samouraï, Purple Noon, The Red Circle, and Red Sun. I’ve seen all those. Le Samourai and Purple Noon are the two most famous. I’m not such a big fan of Le Samourai, but Purple Noon is great. But Red Circle is my favorite of these! Such a great movie! And Red Sun has Delon, Mifune, Charles Bronson and Ursula Andress! It’s been a while since I saw it, and I remember it as being an OK movie but well worth watching just for that cast. Of course, my favorite Delon movie is L’eclisse.
Haven't seen L'eclisse/L'Éclipse, will add that to the list.
Actually now that I look up Delon's filmography, I think I've seen Purple Noon - I didn't realise that was the English title for Plein Soleil. And I remember that I tried watching Le Samouraï once on a French-language tv channel but wasn't able to follow the dialogue without sub-titles.
You're right, great cast in Red Circle, though I find great screen beauties like Andress and Capucine often aren't shown in their best light in westerns. Something about the costumes and settings doesn't bring out their marvellous beauty to the full. But there are exceptions, maybe this will be one.
In the 1950s viewing I've been doing lately I have another early Delon movie lined up to watch at home, Christine (1958), with Romy Schneider, with whom he made great pair in The Swimming Pool (La Piscine, 1968), which I saw at the cinema a year or two ago.
I missed Wings of Desire tonight - walked down to find a huge line-up, which is unusual for this cinema and usually happens with newer movies so I hadn't been expecting one for this classic. But it's playing again tomorrow night so I have one more chance.
|
|
|
Post by codystarbuck on Apr 30, 2024 22:29:13 GMT -5
Don't forget Lost Command, with Anthony Quinn and George Segal, as an Algerian Legion paratrooper.
Yep, George Segal.
|
|
|
Post by berkley on Apr 30, 2024 23:38:59 GMT -5
Don't forget Lost Command, with Anthony Quinn and George Segal, as an Algerian Legion paratrooper. Yep, George Segal.
And Claudia Cardinale, I see. Don't think I've seen that one either. My impression is that Alain Delon made a few attempts to break into Hollywood and the English-speaking market, but never succeeded in becoming the huge star as he was in French films, where he was one of the top guys for much of his career. Whether that was just bad luck or what, who knows.
On the subject of acting in a second language, a friend of mine was telling me about an interview he saw with Michael Ironside once: Ironside's an anglophone Canadian who does speak French but apparently felt he wasn't able to act in French as well as he'd like (this was an interview about a Canadian miniseries called The Last Chapter, a bike gang crime story that was filmed in both French and English versions).
How was Delon's English-language performance in the ones you've seen? I think his screen presence and star power come over in a big way in his French films, or the few of them I've seen at least, but perhaps it didn't carry over completely to his English-language movies, though I haven't seen or don't remember enough to judge from my own viewing.
|
|
|
Post by codystarbuck on May 1, 2024 11:30:20 GMT -5
Don't forget Lost Command, with Anthony Quinn and George Segal, as an Algerian Legion paratrooper. Yep, George Segal.
And Claudia Cardinale, I see. Don't think I've seen that one either. My impression is that Alain Delon made a few attempts to break into Hollywood and the English-speaking market, but never succeeded in becoming the huge star as he was in French films, where he was one of the top guys for much of his career. Whether that was just bad luck or what, who knows.
On the subject of acting in a second language, a friend of mine was telling me about an interview he saw with Michael Ironside once: Ironside's an anglophone Canadian who does speak French but apparently felt he wasn't able to act in French as well as he'd like (this was an interview about a Canadian miniseries called The Last Chapter, a bike gang crime story that was filmed in both French and English versions).
How was Delon's English-language performance in the ones you've seen? I think his screen presence and star power come over in a big way in his French films, or the few of them I've seen at least, but perhaps it didn't carry over completely to his English-language movies, though I haven't seen or don't remember enough to judge from my own viewing.
His acting is fine, in Lost Command, where he mostly gets to play angry or indignant. The film is about a group of Legion paratroopers, who survive Dien Bien Phu and a POW camp, then are sent to Algiers to keep the peace. Delon is a staff officer who volunteers to jump into Dien Bien Phu, with supplies and what reinforcements they can muster. Quinn is the colonel in command, a man of Basque heritage, who hates the upper class senior command. He immediately takes a disliking to Delon, as a "staff lackey, but comes to respect him, as a soldier. Delon thinks Quinn is coarse and brutal, but comes to respect his leadership. After they are released from the POW camp, Quinn finagles a command in Algeria and the rest join him, except Segal's character, who witnesses the brutal treatment of his friends and neighbors and goes AWOL to join the resistance. When the parachute detachment is posted to Algiers, Segal's character is their main target and Cardinale is his sister. She is acting as a courier and Delon falls for her. Delon increasingly objects to the brutal methods being employed by another officer (a French colonial, driven out of Indochina), with Quinn's tacit approval. Cardinale is caught and interrogated and Delon reacts to the perceived betrayal. He gets to do a little romancing and a lot of arguing and admiring. It's not the greatest range for a character, but it is decent. He is second lead, after Quinn, who gets the biggest scenes, as he romances a former general's widow, which helps gain his command, plus a scene in his old village, in the Pyranees, where he had been a shepherd and smuggler. It's one of the few English films about both Indochina and Algeria and the French colonial wars there, though it is neither as good as the French films Dien Bien Phu, nor The Battle of Algiers.
|
|
|
Post by codystarbuck on May 1, 2024 11:32:07 GMT -5
ps I think he was dubbed in Zorro, though I haven't seen it in quite a while, to be certain. Stanley Baker was the villain, so it was a mixed international cast. Also featured the comedic actor Moustache, who also appeared as a guard, in the caper film How To Steal a Million, with Peter O'Toole and Audrey Hepburn.
|
|
|
Post by Roquefort Raider on May 12, 2024 17:36:07 GMT -5
I just watched The Chosen (1978) with Kirk Douglas. I had never seen it, despite being a fan of 70s films dealing with the upcoming apocalypse.
Tonally, it felt a lot like The Omen, but with the marching orders "do The Omen, but differently". Nowadays, after decades of movies exploiting the Book of Revelations, the literal interpretation of some biblical passages feels a little quaint; however, back then, I suppose it could have felt pretty clever.
There isn't much tension, I must say, but I give the movie added bonus points for its inconclusive ending. I fully expected it to end in a certain way (a very old cliché) and it did not.
Not particularly recommended, but not one to avoid either.
|
|