ulicknormanowen Reviews

Bullet for a Badman (1964)

A not so bad badman.

[8 June 2024]

The most interesting thing in this western made when it was slowly but inexorably an old-fashioned genre is the Logan /Sam relationship : the choice of the actors is quite relevant ;although only two years Murphy's senior , McGavin 's mature look sharply contrasts with the former's always boyish face ; another baffling thing: when the story begins, it looks like a follow-up to an imaginary prequel .

Although they became enemies , their relationship remains ambiguous and the very last sequence is revealing : in spite of what happened, friendship had survived ; the rest of the movie is more routine, but the borderline between good and bad is becoming blurred ,as far as the so-called lawmen are concerned .

Le dénommé (Oublie que tu es un homme) (1990)

Descent into hell.

[8 June 2024]

The first sentence of the storyline is not accurate even though the retribution is disproportionate to the offence .

Jean-Claude Dague (died 2017) directed four films before committing a heist to try to save his production company from bankruptcy. Having used his own vehicle for this misdeed, he was arrested without difficulty . He spent eight years in prison, an experience which he reported in his book Le Dénommé which he then adapted for the cinema. It was not the first time ,though ,that a French ex-convict had depicted his time in jail : José Giovanni was a good exemple .

Plunging into the prison world, he discovers, to paroxism, love, hatred, violence, drugs, depravity, decay, death. An alternate title of the film is: "forget when you come here that you are a man". Here he is forced to survive among characters such as Bull Rosenthal, the boss, Imbert, the rapist, Macadam the executioner, Rispal the resigned, Leleubellac the unpredictable guard and Vautrot the all-powerful director.

The principal ,Jean Dolande -the unfortunate hero was given the actor's name -,made a handful of films before opting for painting ; but his director who lived through this descent into hell , does not really succeed in adapting his calvary for the screen : I saw one of the movies he made before the events, "le bal des voyous" ,and it was really very mediocre,to put it mildly .

Had he used a talented director, his plan could have succeeded ;but left to his own devices, he produces a disjointed film , with so many characters it's often hard to decipher their motives ; the journalist -the only real female character- is particularly badly written and acted .And a long-haired warden in the 1969-1975 period!!

It must be the lack of a story structure ; the movie consists of sketches ,with big time gaps. Most of the actors are unknown or non-professional ; oddly though, the cast includes more famous names such as Philippe Léotard, Bernard Fresson,Michel Galabru ,singer Lény Escudero ,Claude Brosset ,but they are wasted .

Cent francs l'amour (1986)

Bohringer blows everyone off the screen ;

[7 June 2024]

Jeremy, a young art photographer, is kept by Maurice, a strange bachelor who only lives for Jeremy's appearances. To occupy his evenings, Jeremy wanders from sex shops to peep shows and becomes passionately in love with Otie, a pretty blonde.

But this gorgeous girl is the star of a peep show and at first sight she does not dote on him ;she had so many temporary admirers than she does not trust men anymore ; this exposure of the world of peep-shows and (male and female) prostitution is not really convincing (and has been treated many times,often more successfully than here)Besides the young couple is cute but bland ,and you can see how the movie will end from a mile off.

The reason why you would see through this movie is Richard Bohringer ,who steals the show every time he appears ;but his excellent performance throws the film off balance :Maurice , a sullen antique dealer, a heir (the black sheep of a wealthy family?), an admirer of a silent age actress , and a gay in love with the hero , heterosexual through and through. Actually one feels to use the fast forward button when he's not present; watch the movie for him!

Bright Victory (1951)

Victory on the night,a new dawn .

[9/10 · 7 June 2024]

This is the same subject as "pride of the marines" ,starring John Garfield and Eleanor Parker ; it's a very absorbing story featuring the outstanding Arthur Kennedy who was rarely given the lead , which ,with hindsight , is decidedly a shame ;to think that ,for instance,in Williams' "the glass menagerie" , he took a back seat to Kirk Douglas (I have nothing against him but his character appears late in the play) whereas he played the main character !

Kennedy is excellent from start to finish ,from utter despair to determination ; the subplot about the black soldier is a lesson about anti-racism ,and the final scene is even more moving than the sentimental story which seems contrived: the first girl the blind sergeant meets is the one !she seems to have been introduced in the screenplay just to secure a happy end .

But the official fiancée ,Chris ,allows us to meet people that are meant to help but treat him gingerly, notably the wealthy father (who reluctantly agrees to let his daughter marry him)who offers a job to the hero who does not want charity ; against all odds ,the victory will be bright and the future is no longer bleak ,braille is here to allow any study ; and it's credible ,remember Helen Keller who was blind,and deaf and dumb to boot !

Cargaison clandestine (1947)

Listen to the music.

[6 June 2024]

Ricardo Mendi's gypsy orchestra lands a contract in the El Dorado cabaret, in San Juano in Central America. Mila, Mendi's girlfriend, is having an affair with José, the singer. But weariness eventually gets the better of her and the beauty lets herself be seduced by Mendoza, the cabaret director. José, disappointed, does not take long to console himself in the arms of Luisa Heim, the charming owner of the place. The troop soon discovers that their hosts are involved in drug trafficking, in which they participate despite themselves. An unenviable fate, prison or death, awaits them...

A vehicle for bel canto singer Luis Mariano masquerading as a thriller of sorts ;it's actually 50% musical acts ,and 50% film noir ; Mariano is not only a singer but he also plays the violin. The movie begins with Liszt 's Hungarian Rapsody which outstays its welcome in what is finally a smugglers affair (like "Carmen" of which Bizet wrote an opera ).

You will easily guess who the baddies are :they are VIP ,and their method is quite shrewd: to indicate where the clandestine cargo will be delivered , they use music tunes (hence the connection with the concerts) on the national airwaves ,much to the prefect's displeasure ( Pierre Renoir) who cannot catch these sharks red handed.

Replay (1977)

Past in shreds.

[4 June 2024]

Amnesia has become a recurrent feature of the thriller : the best of the genre is probably Cayatte's "piège pour Cendrillon " in France and "spellbound" in America ;the heroine is also a a distant relative of George Peppard in Jack Smight's "the third day" (1966) and Tom Berenger in "shattered".

Michel Drach,then husband of Marie-José Nat ,who starred in most of his works was an electic director and that probably went against him :today he is unfairly forgotten :now comedies ("la bonne occase" ), now psychological drama about amour fou ("Amélie") ,now politically commited director ("Elise ou la vraie vie" ,"le pullover rouge ",) now remembering his childhood ("les violons du bal" ) and ....yes ...thrillers ..

The first movie he directed was a black and white film noir "on n'enterre pas le dimanche" in which the principal was a black man ,a daring move in the early sixties ;"le passé simple" looks like a Hitchcockian thriller in which the heroine is lost in a world she does not know anymore : even her husband has become a stranger ; on the verge of paranoia , she's afraid of the people she meets ,all seem to be living threats ; the best sequence shows Cécile, in a dehumanized urban landscape where her reflections in the glasses enhance her confusion :who is he? It's all the more disturbing since her husband lies to her and that visions haunt her ,a girl on a poster,a man named Bruno .

The title has too meaning : it's a tense of the French conjugation (past historic) which is only used in the books , in a distant past but never in the spoken language ; it can also be taken literally : Cecile's past is relatively "simple" and may disappoint the thrillers buff ; but Marie-José Nat displays a quivering sensitivity ,a hope against hope which will win you over ;Victor Lanoux,more at ease in comedies ,is less convincing .The accident will remind you of that of "les choses de la vie" (1970).

Universum History: Elisabeth - Kaiserin auf der Flucht (2019) Season Unknown, Episode Unknown

Schicksal einer Kaiserin

[9/10 · 3 June 2024]

An interesting doc, including scenes played by actors ,portraying aging characters ,much less handsome than those of the Marischka trilogy , which is ,according to one of the historians who intervene ,the contrary of reality .

The title speaks for itself : " an empress on the run" The film focuses on the actress ' fascination for foreign cultures : she used to shun Vienna ,their court and their etiquette .She was in love with Hungary ,and it was the only time she dabbled with politics ;but later this country was superseded by Greece : she had a huge palace built on the island of Corfu ,the Achilleon ,which cost a fortune ;you can visit this place nowadays , its' really impressive ;she also studied Greek and it was during one of her lessons (historically accurate) that she learned her son's suicide ; also interesting is an extract of a silent movie which depicts the reconstruction of her assassination .

Dernier métro (1945)

Madame Colombo

[3 June 2024]

Two bad boys attack a young woman at night, as she comes out of the last subway. It is, for his savior, a gentle and tidy young man, the beginning of cascading adventures in which the perceptive and common-sense wife of a police inspector is closely involved.

Not to be confused with Truffaut's 1980 movie:no definite article .Actually ,after the lady and the shy law student come out of the last subway, there's no subway anymore. It's a far-fetched story which includes twin brothers, two corpses , and a damsel in distress.

The young hero, brave maybe but not foolhardy ,takes a back seat to the superintendent 's wife , played by a smart Gaby Morlay who even supersedes her cop of a husband ;Morlay has plenty of go and makes this cock and bull story palatable ; she's clever,wise ,and the student serves as a foil to her ,her doctor Watson .Woman's lib before its time.

A clue: the mark on the villain's face.

Le couple idéal (1946)

Sons of the silent age.

[8/10 · 3 June 2024]

Paris, 1912. The whole city shudders as it watches the adventures, renewed every week on the screens, always ending with a cliffhanger ,of Diavolo and Diana. The "serials" fascinate spectators to such an extent that they are convinced that, in life as in their films, the two stars form the ideal couple.

However, this is not the case: Diana is exasperated by Diavolo's conceit, and it takes all the diplomacy and all the good humor of the impresario Antoine for the two actors to still agree to smile at each other.

In spite of an unfairly poor rating, this is a marvelous tribute to the silent age ,to Louis Feuillade (Diana's tights are a nod to Musidora, the serial which tries to beat "Diavolo" is called "Justex " (a nod to "Judex") and to these far-fetched stories in which the hero (here Diavolo ) always comes to his fiancée-damsel-in-distress' rescue and triumphs over the villain called Satanas (Fantomas).

Raymond Rouleau shines in a double role: the smug narcissistic and refined Diavolo and his crude lookalike ,Henri ,who,much to his displeasure ,replaces him when he is in the slammer after a rumble ; both him and Diana have a tendency to put a spoke in their wheels.

Icing on the cake, Diavolo's maid -two short scenes- is portrayed by Simone Signoret ,whom Rouleau would direct later in "les sorcières de salem " (Miller's "the crucible")(1957) both on stage and on screen .

Forget the rating ,and watch it; it's,along "portrait d'un assassin", Bernard -Roland 's finest work.

Pandemonium (II) (2023)

The carnival of souls

[1 June 2024]

This is a complex movie,not your routine horror flick where gore and special effects get the lion's share ;

I wrote about "tous les dieux du ciel ":Quarkxx (Alexandre Claudin) is certainly one of the most promising newcomers to emerge in the decade; he will be a name to reckon with in the years to come.

That said, "pandemonium " is more uneven than his previous effort ;The opening is brilliant : only two actors on the screen, one of them not believing he's not in the great beyond ;the subject is not new and will remind you of "carnival of souls" and the numerous films influenced by this indie movie ( "au coeur de la vie" segment "an incident at owl creek bridge","Jacob's ladder", "the sixth sense " " the others" the list has become endless) But Quarkxx does it in about twenty minutes :he broaches the matters of good and evil ; the dialog between both men has something of Sartre "Hell is other people ".

Sadly , all that follows is not on the same level:the perverse nasty little girl is a hackneyed subject ,since Mervyn Le Roy's "bad seed " (1956) and Quarkxx does not really renew the subject with his young murderess, let alone with her new "friend" ; it's only in the theater when the naughty girl performs her act before two corpses that the director lives up to one's expectations.

The third segment which begins where the first has left seems to regain strength : the man who died in a car crash in Hell where he's "welcomed " by a specter who tells him that in eternity time does not exist anymore and that not even the "purgatory" of sorts (the word is not mentioned in the Bible ,and it's an exclusive Catholic dogma ) can redeem a soul because the humanity is par excellence evil ;after the "40 centuries " (which echo Christ's 40 days in the desert ?), the films succumbs to special effects and the paraphernalia which mar today's fantasy and horror movies.

Even disjointed , the movie has moments of brilliance which should not be overlooked.

Variétés (1935)

Trapeze

[1 June 2024]

Georges and Pierre are two talented acrobats who perform successfully every evening in a traveling circus. Their partner is the pretty Anne who attracts ovations from the public. Everything would go perfectly if Georges and Pierre did not love passionately Anne. Because she shares Pierre's feelings but feels nothing for her other partner. So Georges is jealous, which makes him mean, even unsympathetic and dangerous.

Although the film is in need of restoration , it possesses considerable appeal for Jean Gabin's fans : although a great director's touch is lacking , he plays the part of a beautiful loser he would often resume in Carné's or Duvivier's works ; good support from Annabella ,once Mrs Tyrone Power ,and from Gravey.

The scenes of acrobatics without a safety net are the highlight of the movie,although Annabella' s escaping unharmed after a fainting fit on the trapeze is beyond belief .

Hats off to the goose that's good in arithmetic and sadly ends up as "plat du jour" .

Le chemin perdu (1980)

Have I lost my way?

[1 June 2024]

While the Easter holidays are over, a young girl named Cécile and her brother Pierre return to the family home. There they found their grandfather Léon, an old communist activist who had shaken Lenin's hand. Caring little for their parents, fervent naturalists, they preferred to focus their attention on their grandfather who shared his activist memories with them.

The Swiss cinema is cerebral ,intellectual , not very accessible and Patricia Moraz's work is no exception to the rule ; this one my put off some viewers for its lack of plot ; it's more a chronicle : the end of an activist life for the commie grandpa , the closing down of a movie theater -there was a crisis in the European cinema in the mid-seventies when the TV sets exponentially arrived in homes -

This was the last decade for giant Charles Vanel whose career encompassed almost the whole 20th century,from the silent age to the late eighties ,including works known all around the world ("le salaire de la peur" ,"les diaboliques" "to catch a thief");he was 88 in 1980,ten years older than in his "lost way" which has two meanings:it may deal with horology mechanism but it may mean that his ideals were not fulfilled : although he shaked Lenin's hand, although he organizes his funeral, although he laicizes his granddaughter's poem , it's no sure that there will be one man to carry on with the fight :Angelo who's supposed to read the short speech is not present for the funeral;and although they sing "l'internationale" , they frighten the children and the son reproaches his daddy for not letting him bury "properly " ("religiously" that is ) him.

For the grandchildren , the death of the grandpa and the "adventures" he used to tell them , the imminent closure of the movie theater, may epitomize childhood's end ;but they take refuge in their imaginary planet (which oddly reminds you of Robert Parrish 's "journey to the far side of the sun " 1969 in which all was reversed ,like in a mirror)

The parents , taxidermists , work with death in their way ;hence the admirable last picture ;Delphine Seyrig , a feminist activist is cast against type ,staying in the background most of the time ; she takes a back seat to Magali Noel ,who embodies life .

L'amour est en jeu (1957)

Trouble in a dual-income household

[31 May 2024]

Aka "ma femme mon gosse et moi" (my wife,my kid and I )

Bob, a talented designer, and his young wife Marie-Blanche, a young antiques dealer, adore their only son Gégé. But over the most trivial pretexts, the couple often argue. A more serious quarrel will lead to their separation and the initiation of divorce proceedings. Gégé spends a week with one, a week with the other, each competing in tenderness towards the little one. But Gégé understood that he could perhaps initiate a reconciliation...

Marc Allégret made more movies than his brother Yves ,but the latter's are ,at least to these eyes ,much more interesting. By and large , Marc Allégret's films depend on their actors ;"l'amour est en jeu" is a good example : Lamoureux and a young Annie Girardot (then on the threshold of a brilliant career )have plenty of go and can save the most clichéd of the scenes ; the young actor playing their beloved child does not ham it up (too much)

In the fifties ,divorce was rather rare in France ;part of the reason can be found in the fact that women generally did not work and thus financially depended on their husbands .Not only the wife works here,but she's an antique dealer and she probably makes as much money as her hubby ; they have an old maid , and by the end of the film , both have their own car ;no problem to make ends meet in the mid-fifties .

That said,this is a pleasant harmless comedy , its optimism is equal to anything. A prehistoric "Kramer VS Kramer" .

Deserted (I) (2016)

Inferno

[23 May 2024]

The cinematography is splendid indeed ,enhancing magnificent but hostile landscape;the soundtrack for once fits the pictures,including such luminaries as Tom Waits whose tired hoarse voice works wonders .

As for the characters,they are clichés ,like in all the "survival movies" ,so fashionable ,mainly at sea when the heroes are lost in the middle of the ocean ; but no killer, no loony peasants,no trained former marines , just ordinary people who have to fight against the elements .I remember being once in this place ,and the temperature was "hotter than July' ,I was not able to stand it ;they say that at night ,it becomes icy but I did not probe it. It's unlikely that these people can survive several days without gallons of water ; even the old "inferno" in which Robert Ryan with a broken leg was crawling across the desert was more credible,

See it for the cinematography ,it deserves it.

A Man and His Woman (1934)

Can money buy me love?

[23 May 2024]

Papon, a brave civil servant learns one day that his wife Jeannette, whom he adores, is cheating on him. He pretends to ignore everything and goes into business. Papon becomes very rich and thinks in this way of winning back Jeannette.

A fable on the well-known "money can't buy happiness " proverb ,for the denouement shows that it's not by becoming a millionaire that he will find back his beloved wife ; the title " a man of gold" is no misnomer : Harry Baur,the legendary actor, portrays a good man ,with a beautiful mind who understands that his younger wife cheats on him with a more handsome man, but in the end ,he will teach the greenhorn a lesson or two ,whithout holding him any grudge .

The rise of the modest civil servant whose business in chocolate trade makes him almost overnight a tycoon is not very convincing ;thus the best scene may be the moment when the businessman makes all his telephones ring by pressing a button before his impressed wife .

Guinguette (1959)

Illegal motor trade .

[22 May 2024]

Renée known as Guinguette, a former prostitute , earned enough money on the Parisian sidewalk to be able to buy her dream: an open air dance hall by the water. Her new lover, Marco, offers to use an unused adjoining barn to store used cars in which he deals. But the "opportunities" are actually stolen cars, and the charming Marco, a bad boy.

With a good cast , fine lines by Henri Jeanson, this is a nostalgic look at the guinguettes ,those open air dance halls which had begun to disappear in the late fifties ,a place depicted by the masters of the French cinema ,Jean Renoir ("une partie de campagne" ) Julien Duvivier ("la belle équipe" ) and Jacques Becker ( "casque d'or") ; Jean Delannoy is not to be mentioned in the same breath as them,but he was a solid craftsman ,as well as one of the bêtes noires of the notorious New Wavelet .

Zizi Jeanmaire ,essentially a dancer , is not exactly the character (the Arletty of the late fifties nohow) but she manages quite well ;the stand out is definitely Paul Meurisse who blows everyone off the screen every time he comes up ;on the other hand ,Italian B movie starlet Cristina Gaioni puts on her Brigitte Bardot act ,but only BB is BB, and her exaggerated swagger makes her a caricature of a nymphomaniac ;too bad for her character is not unlike Danielle Delorme's in Duvivier's highly superior "voici le temps des assassins " (1956) the best scenes of which took place in a guinguette too ; she's a sex kitten ,but she's pure evil too :don't we learn that her grandma's fall in the stairs was perhaps not an accident?

Half comedy and half drama ,it's certainly watchable even though the guinguettes have become a thing of the past.

C'est arrivé à Aden... (1956)

Who sows the wind will reap the whirlwind

[20 May 2024]

A French traveling theater troupe finds itself stranded in Aden during a foreign tour. The officers of the English garrison take the opportunity to woo the three stars who have landed in their city and Albine, the young first, becomes Captain Burton's mistress. In the meantime, and on the very day of the performance given by the troupe, the Prince of Khamarkhar arrived in Aden to sign a treaty with England. He attends the performance and appreciates everything...

Michel Boisrond 's works do not go in history ; the most watchable flicks remain his fifties comedies , "le chemin des écoliers" "cette sacrée gamine" or "un soir sur la plage " an intriguing thriller;afterward ,he would keep up with the fashions : yeah-yeah generation, spy thrillers , bourgeois sex liberation, even hateful male chauvinism .

I was expecting the worst from this exotic comedy ; much to my surprise, it's an enjoyable comedy thanks to a seasoned actors ;some kind of "Viva Maria" of the fifties , it's full of riotously funny scenes , of unexpected twists.

The way they butcher Shakepeare's "Othello" ,including extra -lines and the intrusive dog is just a joy ; the three unconscious soldiers who take the actresses to a picnic in a particularly dangerous valley are a poor man's Hathaway's Bengal lancers ; the commander of the garrison insists that scandal be avoided , assisted by a holier-than -thou minister with two twin nieces in tow , one of whom will be " dishonored ". The prince falls for charming actress Dany Robin but as far as the treaty is concerned ,he wonders how a woman (Queen Victoria!) can take an interest in politics.

A great cast and a good time is guaranteed for all!

Serge Panine (1939)

Today ,my prince has come.

[18 May 2024]

Madame Desvarenne has two daughters, Micheline and Jeanne, her adopted daughter who fell in love with Prince Serge Panine. An unscrupulous adventurer, he marries Micheline for her fortune and soon reveals his true nature...

A remake of an English silent movie (1915) ,the plot is more or less the same. Film which would take place in Russia were trendy in French thirties. Russia comes home here in sthe shape of a fake prince played by a real aristocrat He was a member of the princely Trubetskoy family, son of Prince Nikolai Nikolaievich Troubetzkoy (1867-1949) ; he was driven away from his land by the 1917 Revolution and would live in America .

So who could be better than.an authentic highness to portray a handsome prince? Youcca Troubetzkoy remained unknown in France ,in spite of this melodrama ,but the cast was not: Françoise Rosay ,Pierre Renoir and Sylvia Bataille were household names over here .Thanks to them , the film displays some charm ; even the would be prince short of the readies ,who even sings a song in Russian, has enough charisma to win over a mom and both her daughters ,even though their attitude takes naiveté to new limits ; it a bit unlikely for a bossy businesswoman who rules over the family should accept so easily a fortune-hunter as her son-in-law.

A womanizer who cheats on his wife ,who woos an adventuress who married a wealthy American who could be her grandfather (third marriage) , who gambles the family dough away ,who forms an association with a crook ......And yet ,his wife still loves him .Mom will have to take emergency action .

One Foot in Hell (1960)

Hell is other people.

[8/10 · 17 May 2024]

The evolution of the main character is amazing as the movie progresses : in the first sequences ,he's a good father whose pregnant wife dies because of the unseemly intervention of people from this Yankee town ,we do feel for him and we do not expect the unenviable fate in store for his fellow men ; this once victim is driven by two rancours : the lost Civil War and mainly ,the death of his beloved wife for 1.87 measly dollars ;Alan Ladd is all the more threatening since he remains straight-faced nay meek ;his hatred for the Yankees extends to the other human beings ,to his own accomplices ,even to Julie ,the saloon gal, "a slut who could not compare with his late beloved Ellie "; in the end ,one wonders whether the 100,000 $ matter that much to him;the more the inhabitants of the town try to undo the harm they made to him (they make him their sheriff,they give him his own house) ,the more it increases his hatred .This is a cruel movie anyway: see the way they recruit a sharp shooter !and the way the sheriff does away with him!

On the other hand ,Don Murray (a personal favorite,who recently died) ,as an alcoholic ex-confederate whose land his parents sweat blood for and which was burned down by the Yankees ,has a more predictable role and he 's in it to secure a happy end ;but anyway the barfly falling with the girl with a racy past (my father used me to make money),it makes sense.

The Velvet Underground (2021)

Yesterday's parties

[9/10 · 17 May 2024]

Made by the "far from Heaven " director ,this is a very interesting doc about one of the most influential rock groups of all time (many say they are second only to the Beatles ,some say their influence was even bigger. )Each member of the group ,but Doug Yule who gets the meanest share , has a detailed portrait :John Cale ,the classical-trained musician , Lou Reed ,the magicians of words ,Sterling Mother the intellectual whose guitar parts were always relevant , Moe Tucker , the only female drummer in a pivotal group who had her own style (hear her on the live version of "ocean" ). Nico was never really part of the group ,she was imposed by Warhol because he thought that Reed was not attractive enough : she would carry on with a solo career like every member but Morrison ;her son ,she supposedly had with a French actor fleetingly appears in the rehearsals .

A kaleidoscopic movie,which sometimes makes you dizzy ,like the music of this seminal band;

Les enfants du placard (1977)

Les enfants du paradis perdu .

[17 May 2024]

The hero's situation is not unlike that of the unfortunate young man his father confined in a psychiatric hospital in Georges Franju 's "la tête contre les murs" (1959) , but it's given another treatment which is best depicted as "neo nouvelle vague meets Bresson ", a masterpiece or a big bore ,depending on which side you're on ;at the time ,the movie was highly praised by the (esssentially leftist ) critics ,and Benoit Jacquot was hailed as a director opening new horizons using the theories of Lacan .

The well-read dialog is so sophisticated that the excellent actors (Georges Marchal,Brigitte Fossey ) have rather self-conscious manners ;as for Lou Castel ,a committed actor close to the Italian communist party ,he is dubbed in French in a namby-pamby voice .

The hero's sister calls her husband by his surname and they sleep apart ;himself is broke,but does not refuse the (dirty?)money his sibling brings ;father's and hubby's business is thriving : they are supposedly helping poor people from Africa to come to their wealthy country (disguised slavery?)Of course,theres' the obligatory flashback who shows the blood ties (made with a swordstick which plays a prominent part in the story) and the brother's "crime" .

The sister (whose relationship with her brother is rather ambiguous)drives him to Laure who's supposed to study but is living off the largesse of her bourgeois parents who work abroad;this affair is totally devoid of interest with lines such as " I do not know if I smoke but I'm gonna buy cigarettes " or " there're no cigarettes;they're on strike" what do you suppose that politically means?

If you want to spend 105 minutes watching people contemplate their navel,it's up to you.

Impasse des vertus (1955)

Virtue is always rewarded .

[15 May 2024]

Young Monique leaves the preventorium where Doctor Delaunay lovingly treated her. Painful return. Her mother Denise lives with a disreputable hunk, Eugène, who is easily taken care of and, on occasion, would not hesitate to steal. He circles around Monique, excited by her freshness,and every five minutes , tries to have sex with the virtuous young girl.

One does not make movies like this one anymore ,and I'd add fortunately ; after a ridiculous warning which tells us that ,in the end , good people are right , one knows which lies in store:as soon as a character appears , one knows which role he will play in this obsolete melodrama : the mother who thinks she's still attractive, the good doctor who reappears to secure the expected happy end, the selfish greedy hunk, the pure virgin, the good family friend ,the evil genius who urges the hunk to become part of jewellers stealers ,the children who pretend they are cops,all are stereotypes.

Too bad for the cast :they are more estimable than the characters they portray Christian Marquand ( here spellt Marquant ) was a handsome actor and an occasional director -"Candy " starring Burton and Brando ; Isabelle Pia showed she was able to play a much more ambiguous character in Duvivier's "Marianne de ma jeunesse"; and Raymond Bussières was a nice fellow.

Clenched Fist (2023)

My father the killer

[15 May 2024]

Lucien, a young boy who lives retired with his mother Cécile and his older brother in a village in the Ardennes, carries a heavy secret, he avoids contact as much as questions. However, he gets closer to Freddy, the father of Lies, his only friend, and spends his time in his modest sawmill. But when Lucien's grandmother dies and his father is granted release from prison to attend the funeral, everything changes.

The subject of the child killer has often been treated;but none of the previous films thoroughly focused on his family , the insults ,the threatens ,even the cruelty -they hang their dog - they endure, all the harassment they have to cope with from the populace ;One of the members of the family ,Lucien ,11, finds it hard to live in this menacing atmosphere. At school, he does not find support and comfort ,he's the killer's son...

Seeing his father in tears, handcuffed and protected from popular fury by an impressive police deployment upsets Lucien. Against the advice of those around him, Lucien wants to see his father again. .. His older brother disapproves of his decision ;actually there's a wall betweeen them :the only moment when the boys hug is when they discover their ill-fated pet ; of his father and of his crimes ,we know almost nothing : the boy may have a vision of this horror in a gripping nightmare scene -is it only a nightmare or did it actually happen ?-

The father desperately tries to relate to this only human being who seems to care for him ;but entering a place where you are searched as though you were entering a plane in an airport is not pleasant for a 11 -year-old kid ; and of course ,there's always a third person (a psychiatrist) who attends the meeting.

No easy way out, no facile redemption ,this movie is unforgiving , harsh ,desperate ;lucien 's sad face will haunt you long after watching this work.

L'homme de ma vie (1952)

Home coming.

[14 May 2024]

Madeleine, a former prostitute, joyfully awaits the return of her daughter, Suzanne, whom she had placed in a wealthy school. Suzanne, haughty and quite contemptuous, is greatly disappointed when she notices that her mother is of modest means. Suzanne tells Alberto, the man who promised her marriage, about her mother's situation.

By and large ,it will remind you of Marcel Carné 's "Jenny"(1936) ,but the ending is more tragic. Guy Lefranc's directing is flat and uncreative ,but it's a gripping melodrama ,from start to finish. How come? It must be Henri Jeanson ,one of the greatest writer France had ever had , whose lines always hit home ; often caustic, bitter ,cynical , they fit like a glove a story where everybody lies .

It must be the cast : the old school meets the pre-NV one for the best ; Madeleine Robinson is as brilliant as ever : a mother who bled herself dry so that her belover daughter (born out of wedlock) can be carefully taught and educated ;matching her every step of the way is Jeanne Moreau (whose career began long before the notorious NV: see "meurtres" ,the first French movie with includes euthanasia)in her part of a haughty despising cold daughter who thinks her mom's place is nothing by a dump,nothing to do with the chic school where she was brought up ;and great support comes from the third lady , played by excellent Jane Marken ,a former prostitute too , the mother treats like a friend, but is nothing but a servant for the young girl.

Henri Vilbert dominates the male cast ,as Madeleine 's crude former lover and Suzanne's father who makes her the "manager" of his crummy movie theater (the staff includes his shrew of a wife and a moronic son);Gianny Musi as the rich kid ,who wants to use the ill-fated Suzanne as a sex object is not on a par with the others and is perhaps too bland for this kind of part.

Tragedy will have to strike before Suzanne calls Madeleine ,at last ,"mommy ".

Pendulum (1969)

It always swings between right and wrong

[13 May 2024]

A very good thriller ,rather simple,but this is the kind of simplicity we are in need of today ,when screenplays are complicated instead of complex ; the principal, played by talented George Peppard ,is an ambiguous character ,not really black or white ,but rather gray ,for his methods of questioning -we don't attend - can easily be called into question;on the other hand, his wife 's role is not developed enough and at the time some critics complain that she should disappear so early in the film ( coincidence ,Seberg's premature death in real life has remained mysterious ,because of her political commitment ,she had become a Joan of Arc of sorts ,a figure she portrayed for Preminger )It's possible she disapproves of her husband's brutality but she has too little time on the screen .The title is well chosen and besides the thriller ,the film has a welcome reflection on justice which is still relevant today ( see the remarks of the judge when he dismisses the case for lack of evidence .)

The lousy house of the suspect's mom and her relationship with her mentally-ill son has a Tennessee Williams touch ,reinforced by the fact that Madeleine Sherwood notably played the part of Mae in Brooks's "cat on a hot tin roof" .

Even though you easily guess the whodunit , the movie sustains interest throughout.