The Maid (La nana) (2009) 8.5/10 2nd viewing
Jovana Lukina (1979) 7.5/10
Yesterday I saw a travelogue about Italy - it was quite attractive showing Rome, Venice and the Italian countryside.
There's not a lot else I can say about Three Coins in the Fountain (1954) as the story was very slight. I think it may have been made following the success of Roman Holiday made in the previous year as Maggie McNamara could have been selected as an Audrey Hepburn clone. The opening scene is meant to be a travelogue with the song which got an Oscar. Unusually the singer was not mentioned in the credits, but it was obviously Frank Sinatra.
Originally Posted by jackassfan:
That is a film that I want to see but it never seems to get shown on the Freeview TV channels. From what I've heard the acting is outstanding and goes to show that Burgess Meredith was a fine actor even though he seems to be remembered most for The Penguin.
The film is on youtube (i got it through lovefilm)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3Ww8BKxtZU
The acting is brilliant and the part of Lenny wasnt overracted at all
I resaw the classic Laura (1944), an excellent film. 3 minor points. Firstly in the scene where Dana Andrews meets Clifton Webb, Webb is sitting in his bath tub. If you look closely, there a a couple of times where you can see that Webb was wearing swimming trunks - this is confirmed on IMDB.
Secondly, having seen this film before I was able to appreciate some of the minor roles more. Of particular note was the maid played by the uncredited Dorothy Adams.
Thirdly, the poem which was included in Webb's radio broadcast was by Ernest Dowson:
"Vitae Summa Brevis"
"They are not long, the weeping and the laughter,
Love and desire and hate:
I think they have no portion in us after
We pass the gate.
They are not long, the days of wine and roses: (source of the 1962 film)
Out of a misty dream
Our path emerges for awhile, then closes
Within a dream."
Originally Posted by jackassfan:
I think The Hudsucker Proxy is one of those films which you need to be in the right mood to appreciate it. I've only seen it the once and thoroughly enjoyed it though it is a very strange film. I thought of it as if Fellini at his most extravagant (such as Roma) trying to make a Frank Capra film whilst high on drugs.
Strangely enough the film was made in the same year as The Road to Wellville, another very strange film, and both dealing in a highly fictionlised way with the development of well known real products - the frisbee in the former and Corn Flakes in the latter.
I thought the performances in Hudsucker Proxy were very good and is the reason i didnt rate the film lower than a 5
Deep End (1970) 7/10
Originally Posted by jackassfan:
Deep End (1970) 7/10
I am probably one of the small number of people who saw this at the cinema when it was first released.
The Ninth Gate (1999) or should that be 1666 which is when the book being seached for was written.
The end of this intriguing Roman Polanski film is ambiguous as it ends with Johnny Depp walking towards to the light shining through the now opened 9th gate but doesn't show what happened next. And who really is the mysterious girl? I'm guessing that she is the whore of Babylon who at the end of the film seduces Johnny Depp, and he walks through the gate to see that she gives birth to Lucifer the antiChrist.
Paju (2009) 7/10
Dark Passage (1947) 8.5/10
Zmory (1979) 7/10
I started watching the Japanese animated version of Metropolis (2001) but gave up as it didn't work for me. That's possibly because I have seen the original a few times, and the animated version just didn't give me the sense of awe of the original. Also some of the scenes were intended to be humerous but not to me.
I saw Cheyenne Autumn (1964), John Ford's last western. A good sombre account of the mistreatment of Cheyennes by the white man though not without its faults. Ricardo Montalban and Gilbert Roland were the two lead Cheyennes but neither were native Indians. But the main fault was the out of place section in the middle of the film involving 4 Texans and Wyatt Earp (played by James Stewart). This section had no real connection with the rest of the film and belonged to another film. The film was long enough as it was and this just seemed to be put in to make the film longer. It seems that Ford had put this in as a sort of intermission.
Hesher (2010) 6/10
I saw Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948). This was directed by Max Ophuls and starred Joan Fontaine giving one of her best performances such as it is hard to think that the film could have been made with any other actress, Although an American film, it felt much more like an European film.
I saw Letter From An Unknown Woman about 4 years ago and thought it was a great film
I saw two very different films. Kiki's Delivery Service (1989) is a delightful Japanese animated film with as much for adults as for children and is free of violence and catastrophes.
The Spy in Black (1939) a WW1 story filmed on the eve of WW2. This is an important British film as it is the first time that Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger worked together. Although not credited in the titles Alexander Korda was involved as producer and the film was made at the Denham film studios, Korda's base. The music was by Miklos Rozsa who worked on some of the Korda films. Powell was to work with Korda and Rozsa a year later on The Thief of Bagdad.