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multiplepov-1
Favorite Live Action Movies:
Les enfants du paradis (Children of Paradise)
Casablanca
Billy Liar
The Maltese Falcon
Tirez sur le pianiste (Shoot the Pianoplayer)
Cidade de Deus (City of God)
LA Confidential
Chinatown
Love and Death
Hail the Conquering Hero
It's a Wonderful Life
The Wizard of Oz
Empire of the Sun
Der Amerikanische Freund (English translation is obvious)
M
Twelve Monkeys
Cyrano de Bergerac (Jose Ferrar version)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Charles Laughton version)
Adaptation
The Usual Suspects
Annie Hall
The Year of Living Dangerously
The Stuntman
The Godfather (Parts I and II)
Sunset Boulevard
All About Eve
Groundhog Day
Favorite Animated Movies:
Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (Spirited Away)
Aladdin
An American Tail
Toy Story (all three!)
Akira
Ratatouille
Favorite TV Shows:
Deep Space Nine
Forever Knight
Cracker (the original, of course)
The Rockford Files
Cidade dos Homens (City of Men)
Burn Notice
Arrested Development
Taxi
Malcom in the Middle
Hillstreet Blues
Cheers
I Spy
The Fugitive
Law and Order (the original, SVU, CI)
The Twilight Zone (the original)
Harry O
Kaub�i Bibappu (Cowboy Bebop)
Gargoyles
30 Rock
3rd Rock from the Sun
King of the Hill
The Forsyte Saga (60's version)
Numb3rs
Favorite TV Characters:
Elim Garak
Lucien LaCroix
Bobby Goren
Favorite Actors:
Peter Lorre
Anthony Zerbe
Johnny Depp
George Sanders
Gary Oldman
Favorite Actresses:
Veronica Lake
Madeleine Stowe
Sally Field
Guilty Pleasures:
Mad Love
Dark Shadows
[popcorn]
Reviews
Le meraviglie di Aladino (1961)
Not so much a review but a nostalgic anecdote...
Years ago when the first Ninja Turtles movie made its way to VHS, my five-year-old neighbor girl (who liked coming by to play with my toddler), knocked on my door, pressed her copy of the movie into my hands and said, "You've *got* to watch this. It's the *best* movie ever made." When I first saw "The Wonders of Aladdin," I thought it was the best movie ever made. I was eight. My favorite thing in the world at that time was listening to the Broadway cast album of "Kismet" (the movie of which I didn't see for many years) and reading 1001 nights tales in picture books. When I saw "The Wonders of Aladdin" on television with my family, I remember being absolutely enthralled. (I remember my mother being surprised that Vittorio de Sica was in it.) I loved every plot twist. The genie appearing in a matte shot, smaller and smaller with each appearance, made perfect sense to me. I rooted for Donald O'Connor. I was thrilled when he won the princess (who I'd thought was Annette Funicello).
When I saw it again, about age 12, I was appalled. What a cheesy picture, I thought. The wink-wink-nudge-nudge joke of O'Connor (but not the audience) accidentally seeing the princess (not Funicello after all) nude seemed embarrassing. The "special effects" were just cheap.
When I caught the movie again at college age--after several years of reading about films and seeing films of all eras--I was ready to forgive "The Wonders of Aladdin" its failings and enjoy it again.
If you like 1001 nights type stories and you appreciate films of different eras, "The Wonders of Aladdin" is an enjoyable B-movie fantasy.
Carola (1973)
I remember this TV play after 31 years
This is the story of a Parisian acting troupe during World War II that has to accommodate itself to the occupying force. As the story progresses, it is slowly revealed that the troupe's star (Leslie Caron) once had a love affair with the German officer who is expected to drop by (Mel Ferrar). I still remember as poignant the moment when the troupe's manager (Anthony Zerbe), who is also the star's lover, asks Caron to play along with Ferrar (whom Zerbe assumes is just another fan) for the sake of the theater--then realizes with quiet alarm that she has had a past relationship with Ferrar and is still in love with him. Zerbe's subtle reaction to this realization gets across that he always knew this day was coming--when his good fortune of being the lover of this beautiful, desirable woman would fizzle away--but that he's aghast to find that the day is today and that the other man is a Nazi officer. Zerbe is a standout in this TV play. I'd love to see it again.
Black Angel (1946)
Not as good as I'd hoped it would be....
If you are a film noir fan, you'll want to see this for yourself no matter what anybody says. I personally was not that impressed.
First, let me say that Dan Duryea (Martin) is excellent as a decent fellow whose weakness of drinking when he can't face a problem has serious consequences. June Vincent (Catherine) is lovely and sings well. Peter Lorre (Marko) is, well, the reason I rented this DVD. He's a treat (as always) despite his small part (more later after a "spoiler" alert).
Disappointments: Most of the story revolves around a red herring. After the final twist, subsequent scenes just drag out the inevitable. The characters do some dumb things because they need to for the plot to work. Catherine doesn't start her investigating until *after* her husband is convicted (to add that "time crunch" element). Marko holds on to an incriminating letter that any normal person would have destroyed (because the plot needs him to). Although the rest of the actions the characters take are not unbelievable, the implications are not as fully explored as they could/should be--of the premise that Catherine is possibly risking her life to prove innocent of murder a husband who is guilty of cheating on her; of why Martin carries a torch for such a despicable woman as Mavis; of the revelation of who is innocent and who might be owed an apology; of the main twist and what being guilty and the ultimate consequences mean to the murderer. The 81 minute length of this movie may be more to blame than the scriptwriter and director, but a hint that the above situations cause internal approach-avoidance conflicts would have truly raised this film above a "B" movie to a noir classic (Duryea gets the closest to achieving this--but the intermittent drinking bouts the script gives him provide him the opportunity).
The scenes introducing Mavis at the beginning are shot in an effective "noirish" manner, but I found most of the direction to be so-so: close-up inserts (of letters and other clues) are at incorrect angles; the camera pans during a nightclub scene and doesn't end up on anything interesting or pertinent to the plot; the sequence where Catherine is about to be caught snooping is not played out to full suspense; the last of Martin's alcoholic binge montages include a couple of pretty silly-looking shots.
***SPOILER ALERT!!!****************************************************** For those of you who've already seen this movie... I can't believe one reviewer here said Peter Lorre is playing a villain. Come on, now! He's playing a red herring. The only "villainous" thing Marko does is direct Lucky to twist Catherine's arm until she tells where she hid the items she was trying to steal from him. Since he didn't know she was looking for clues to clear her husband and believed she was looking for material to blackmail him (which he'd inexplicably kept!) and his motive is to hide the fact that he is an ex-convict in order to save his married daughter from embarrassment, well, his actions are not much more villainous than Catherine's pretending to be attracted to him in order to get close to his safe and rob him. After the viewer learns he is *not* the murderer, the magic of rewind can show you that, actually, Marko treats Catherine pretty decently throughout the movie and he's probably sincere when he tells her he knew who she was all along but had appreciated (more than other people, because he's an ex-con) that she was trying to make a new start. It's just that soft, "bedroom" voice of Lorre's that allows whatever he says to be interpreted as "menacing," which makes this red herring work. *I*, at least, was taken in. I thought the movie was building toward a confrontation where Marko would discover Catherine was using him and would attempt to kill her with the cry that that was why he had killed Mavis. When this didn't turn out to be the case, I thought Catherine would feel bad about her misconceptions and apologize to Marko as she'd apologized to Martin (in which case her suspicions were *not* misconceptions). She didn't.
Alex & Emma (2003)
A saccharine romance based on Dostoyevsky
No, Alex and Emma is not based on a Dostoyevsky story--it's based on an event in Dostoyevsky's life (1867). When he was 46, he married his 19-year-old stenographer whom he had hired while working on "The Gambler"--hastily written to fulfill a contractual obligation in order to pay off gambling debts. The stenographer was the calming influence in his life after a wild, doomed love affair with a woman who didn't mind spending his money but who refused to marry him.
I saw this story previously in the Russian film, "Sixty Days" (Hollywood just has to speed up the clock). This played at a film festival, is awaiting five votes on IMDb, and will probably never be available again for viewing.
But it was the better of the two movies.