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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Post by commond on May 18, 2024 17:49:26 GMT -5
Roger Corman Appreciation Night -- Not of This Earth (1957)
Corman was hugely prolific during the period where he worked for American-International Pictures, churning out 9 films in 1957 and another 9 in 1958. The pick of the crop was this highly entertaining sci-fi horror film about an alien visitor to Earth who constantly requires blood transfusions to survive. Shot on a shoe-string budget with plenty of dodgy day-for-night shots, Corman excels at maintaining a tight narrative focus. Paul Birch is eerily convincing as the alien visitor, who uses mental telepathy to control his victims' minds and has piercing eyes that burn right through a man's skull. The film is not without sympathy for Birch's character, whose home world appears to have been devastated by nuclear war, but ultimately there are allusions made to emotionless, foreign invaders and there's no prizes for guessing where they came from in the 1950s. The film is tightly focused until the end, and there is a terrific climax and resolution, which is another reason why this is a cut above the typical B-films of the era. Great stuff.
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Post by Batflunkie on May 18, 2024 20:29:40 GMT -5
Watched Cobra (1986), been on my movie bucket list for quite some time. It's about a tough as nails cop who takes out psycho criminals who's tasked with protecting a woman who has valuable info regarding the "night slasher". Overall I thought it was a fun flick, but for some reason watching it reminded me a lot of Schwarzenegger's Commando from the previous year (which feels similar in kind of a comic-booky, over-the-top tone) Great soundtrack too
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Post by codystarbuck on May 19, 2024 23:04:59 GMT -5
I don't necessarily mind a dumb action movie, from time to time; but, I never made it very far with that one. Not one of Stallone's better efforts, if you ask me. Even stuck onboard ship, at sea, I couldn't sit through it and went to read a book (and I sat through at least two Segal movies. at sea).
Now, maybe if David Rasche had played Sledge Hammer in the film, instead of a fashion photographer, I might have watched!
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Post by berkley on May 19, 2024 23:50:32 GMT -5
I don't necessarily mind a dumb action movie, from time to time; but, I never made it very far with that one. Not one of Stallone's better efforts, if you ask me. Even stuck onboard ship, at sea, I couldn't sit through it and went to read a book (and I sat through at least two Segal movies. at sea). Now, maybe if David Rasche had played Sledge Hammer in the film, instead of a fashion photographer, I might have watched!
Speaking of Sledge Hammer!, there was a movie earlier in the 1980s in which Rasche played a somewhat similar over-the-top character that I used to think might have been one of the things that got him the leading role in Sledge. Looking at his filmography, I think it was probably Best Defense (1984) in which he's listed as playing a KGB agent named Jeff, which sounds familiar. I don't recall much else about the movie - a little to my surprise as it starred Dudley Moore, who I usually liked, and also Eddie Murphy, who was so popular at the time - but Rasche was really good in it in a relatively small part.
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Post by Batflunkie on May 20, 2024 9:10:44 GMT -5
I don't necessarily mind a dumb action movie, from time to time; but, I never made it very far with that one. Not one of Stallone's better efforts, if you ask me. Even stuck onboard ship, at sea, I couldn't sit through it and went to read a book (and I sat through at least two Segal movies. at sea). From what I heard, Stallone basically saw Beverly Hills Cop, thought that it wasn't violent enough and re-wrote it. And let me tell you, it certainly feels like it
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Post by codystarbuck on May 20, 2024 10:22:55 GMT -5
I don't necessarily mind a dumb action movie, from time to time; but, I never made it very far with that one. Not one of Stallone's better efforts, if you ask me. Even stuck onboard ship, at sea, I couldn't sit through it and went to read a book (and I sat through at least two Segal movies. at sea). From what I heard, Stallone basically saw Beverly Hills Cop, thought that it wasn't violent enough and re-wrote it. And let me tell you, it certainly feels like it He was on better ground with Tango & Cash. Of course, having Kurt Russell makes any film good. Having Teri Hatcher dancing in very little, to the sounds of Yaz, doesn't hurt, either.
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