Saturday 6 February 2016

1979 Page Added

Best Movie-Viewing Experiences 18/1/16 - 6/2/16      

TESS (1979)
A   MOVIE JUKEBOX
d: Roman Polanski
CAST: Nastassja Kinski; Peter Firth; Leigh Lawson
Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy is one of my very favourite pre-20th Century novels; I read it for the first time when I was 17, and its belief that all of life is rigged before you even get here, mixed with luscious, pastoral imagery triggered something in my adolescent soul; Roman THE perfect director to turn it into a film and he did a superb job; it looks gorgeous (as does Nastassja) and some of the images (the growing bloodstain; eating a strawberry) will stay with you; shame the two male characters are so totally reprehensible; one of those rare tragedies which never slides into brow-beating melodrama; the film is pre-empted with a dedication to Sharon Tate, which is very moving



ROOM (2015)
A   FIRST VIEWING   IN-CINEMA
d: Lenny Abrahamson
CAST: Brie Larson; Jacob Tremblay; Joan Allen; William H. Macy
> emotionally powerful film which somehow manages to successfully combine two disparate plot elements: the aftermath of an appalling crime, and the world seen as new & wondrous by a little boy; Brie is a totally real person living through the unthinkable; Jacob gives what must be the greatest cinematic performance by a child actor under 10; even the tiniest of roles don't appear to be acted, and this, in combination with the handheld camerawork (which, for once, is not overdone), gives the film a documentary feel - you are there 
Award-Worthy Performances 
Brie Larson; Jacob Tremblay



THE FOUR FEATHERS (1939)
A-  SECOND VIEWING
d: Zoltan Korda
CAST: John Clements; Ralph Richardson; C. Aubrey Smith; June Duprez
> another British Empire movie, in the same quality company as Gunga Din / The Lives of a Bengal Lancer / Zulu / Breaker Morant / North West Frontier; lots of derring-do and boy's-own-adventure antics; gorgeous 1939 Technicolor; apart from C Aubrey's splendid old-soldier routine, the acting is merely serviceable, but I guess it doesn't have to be much more than that; Ponderous Question: why hasn't there ever been a movie made about the Siege & Relief of Mafeking? In the right hands (Ridley Scott?), it could be as good as this, doncha think?
Award-Worthy Performance
C. Aubrey Smith 



PLACES IN THE HEART (1984)
A-  RE-EVALUATION / ORIGINAL GRADE: B
d: Robert Benton
CAST: Sally Field; Danny Glover; John Malkovich; Lindsay Crouse; Ed Harris
> third viewing and I have mysteriously taken to this movie after years of ignorantly dismissing it; I find it quite touching and am impressed by qualities such as the set design (the smalltown houses in particular, right down to the screen doors slamming and the paint peeling off the weatherboard) and the acting of the support cast; I've always thought Sally Field's talents are generally overrated, but she does a respectable job here; love LOVE the open-hearted ending, a true classic final scene
Award-Worthy Performances
Danny Glover; John Malkovich




ACT OF VIOLENCE (1948)
A-   FIRST VIEWING
d: Fred Zinnemann
CAST: Van Heflin; Robert Ryan; Janet Leigh; Mary Astor; Phyllis Thaxter
> exciting post-WWII thriller about a Nazi informant (he really did it - no misunderstanding here) being tracked down for payback-killing by one his fellow POW inmates; Robert plays the typical Robert Ryan role (very well, of course); standout is Mary (playing way against type) as front-bar floozie who doesn't have a heart of gold but does have the smarts to recognise and flee from trouble; effective noirish imagery and techniques employed throughout; ending is predictable but still makes an impact (great car crash!)
Award-Worthy Performance
Mary Astor




THE LODGER (1944)
B+   SECOND VIEWING
d: John Brahm
CAST: Merle Oberon; Laird Cregar; George Sanders; Cedric Hardwicke; Sara Allgood
> still the best of the Jack the Ripper movies; creepy foggy shadowy streets of 1880's London beautifully done; George & Cedric were born for stories set in this era; Laird proves that his death soon after this film at the age of 31 (heart attack brought on by the stress of crash dieting) was a great loss to cinema; Merle proves yet again that her film stardom was a enigmatic fluke; music is too heavy at times and stomps on a number of scenes that would have benefited from silence; John Brahm was an interesting director and some of his choices of shots and camera positions here are inspired 
Award-Worthy Performance
Laird Cregar  




YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE (1967)
B+   FIRST VIEWING
d: Lewis Gilbert
CAST: Sean Connery; Donald Pleasence; Bernard Lee
> I'm not much of a Bondophile but I believe this to be slightly underrated in the 007 universe; it has a number of things going for it: Sean of course (although he looks pretty silly with a Ninja makeover) / the Japan locale is appropriately exotic and interesting / the campy stuff is kept to a minimum (as are the stupid sex-quips) / the mini-copter is fun (I love the Dymo labels on its dashboard!); pace is a bit slack for an action flick though; Donald comes across more as an eccentric cat-person than an evil genius; love the the subterranean lair!
CAN YOU SPOT: the guy who was the narrator in The Rocky Horror Picture Show? / the guy who played Inspector Clouseau's always-on-the-attack houseboy? / the guy who was the voice of Scott Tracy in the original Thunderbirds?




THE RAILWAY CHILDREN (1970)
B+   FIRST VIEWING
d: Lionel Jeffries
CAST: Jenny Agutter; Dinah Sheridan; Bernard Cribbins
> yes, yes, it holds six teaspoons of sugar, but as a temporary antidote to cynicism, if you can keep it down, the film works a treat; episodic in structure and as inevitable as dental work, the story meanders along, using every opportunity to show how just-plain-good-and-decent these three children are (like everybody else in the quaint little English village); nice to see Dinah Sheridan (of Genevieve fame) and hasn't Jenny Agutter had an interesting career (did you spot her in Captain America: Winter Soldier?); overall, it's pretty naff of course, but it still gently warms a few cockles; I wonder when & why we started sneering at depictions of kindness?





ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ (1979)
B+  SECOND VIEWING
d: Don Siegel
CAST: Clint Eastwood; Patrick MacGoohan; Fred Ward
> nifty suspense flick directed by one of the action-movie-masters; breaking out of jail is an instant buzz-thrill, especially if the good-bad guys can beat the bad-good guys by using intelligence rather than violence; both Clint and Patrick are not much more than cardboard cut-out characters, but this film doesn't need any more than that from them to be effective; love the music score: tension-producing industrial-lite, used with such subtlety that you aren't conscious of it even playing half the time; the build-up to the escape is superior to the rather rushed outcome unfortunately, so there is a slight feeling of anticlimax





FRIENDLY PERSUASION (1956)
B+   RE-EVALUATION / ORIGINAL GRADE: A-
d: William Wyler
CAST: Gary Cooper; Dorothy McGuire; Anthony Perkins; Marjorie Main
> hadn't seen this since I was a kid but inspired to re-view it after reading William Wyler biography; not as good as I remembered it, but still fairly enjoyable; humour is often too broad and there's too much of it; message is "fighting is bad, but sometimes you just gotta", but it takes far too long to get there; Gary & Anthony (pre-Psycho mannerisms) match up as father & son and are quite endearing; one of the rare films that needs more rather than less explicit violence - the climactic river battle ends too quickly and its aftermath is brushed over; best battles are the buggy races and boy vs. goose
Award-Worthy Performances
Gary Cooper; Anthony Perkins



Worst Movie-Viewing Experiences 18/1/16 - 6/2/16  

AGATHA (1979)
B-   SECOND & LAST VIEWING
d: Michael Apted
CAST: Dustin Hoffman; Vanessa Redgrave; Timothy Dalton; Helen Morse; Timothy West
> hard to tell what the director's intentions were for this movie - it maintains an awkward tone right throughout, as if the story wasn't being told in its native tongue; the four main actors reflect this: they just don't agree with each other; Dustin seems to be acting in a drawing-room farce / Vanessa is in an "Ugly Duckling" romance / Timothy is in a straightforward bio-drama (and comes across as the only participant who seems to know what he is doing) / and Helen seems to be suppressing the urge to suddenly break out into the Charleston; the story itself is not particularly mysterious and is only briefly (and halfheartedly) interested in suspense; an all-round waste of everybody's time, money and talent


BEAR ISLAND (1979)
C   FIRST VIEWING
d: Don Sharp
CAST: Donald Sutherland; Vanessa Redgrave; Richard Widmark; Lloyd Bridges
> an action thriller with little action and no thrills; starts off with interesting acknowledgment of climate change (in 1979!) and even comes complete with a scoffing sceptic; big name stars unsuccessfully attempt a range of accents which they drop in and out of; music score has been composed with a sledgehammer; backdrop of Arctic wasteland is initially impressive then becomes monotonous; constant traversing across snowy mountains becomes as boring as watching deep-sea scuba-diving; the big avalanche scene is pathetic and too many things are suddenly blown up just for a change of pace; who the bad guys are is too obvious right from the get-go; evil Nazi bastards + illicit gold...not again...




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