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Une vraie jeune fille (1976)
Uneventful coming-of-age / slice-of-life / soft-core porn
Catherine Breillat has gained, over the years, a reputation as a particularly provocative female writer - director, and she certainly lives up to that description right from this 1976 film, her directorial debut. Although there is nothing really new here thematically, what makes "Une Vraie Jeune Fille" unlike probably any other coming-of-age film up to that time is Breillat's almost microbiological obsession with touchable things and bodily fluids, including flies, eggs, trees, wax, blood, vomit....and others you can imagine. Charlotte Alexandra is voluptuous and sensual in the title role, but after a while the lack of script becomes painfully evident. ** out of 4.
Carry on Screaming! (1966)
Padded horror parody
"Carry On Screaming" (1966) is a well-photographed (by Alan Hume, who later worked on some Bond films, among others) horror parody, with some nice sets and some amusing double-entendres ("Will you show me your whistle? Can I blow it?"). But it feels awfully padded and stretched-out - it clearly has enough script for about half-an-hour's worth of screen time, which is expanded to 90 minutes by the old trick of the characters repeatedly repeating things to each other. Bodacious, raspy-voiced Fenella Fielding is certainly an eye-catching presence, as are the two monsters who seem like crosses between Frankenstein's creations and werewolves. ** out of 4.
Les soeurs Brontë (1979)
Elegant but disappointing
"Les Soeurs Brontë" is an undeniably handsome production, but also a bleak and shallow film. For at least half its length, it could be re-titled "Branwell & Co.", because he is the main character. But even when the sisters have the film to themselves, Andre Techine and his co-screenwriters have chosen to focus too much on their misery and not enough on their artistic / creative impulses and processes. If you bypass the obvious language discrepancy (at one point, one of the sisters says "we know a little French" - the entire film is in French, of course), the three female leads are well-cast, especially as sisters: Marie-France Pisier (who later became a novelist herself) outshines her two more famous co-stars on this occasion. ** out of 4.
Le lieu du crime (1986)
Low-key thriller
"Scene Of The Crime" (1986) is a "calm" thriller very much in the Claude Chabrol tradition: the crime(s) is used as a catalyst for human drama, in this case mostly about a dysfunctional family. Pretty rural scenery and another strong Catherine Deneuve performance (here middle-aged, but ageless) are the film's main assets: in some of the best scenes, she shares the screen with another French cinema legend, Danielle Darrieux. On a small note, this is probably the first film I have seen that - logically - suggests that characters who have spent a lot of time in prison should be ghostly pale! **1/2 out of 4.
Barocco (1976)
Strange, self-indulgent film
Dark-haired Depardieu kills blonde Depardieu, then courts blonde Depardieu's girlfriend, Adjani, who only accepts his advances when he agrees to be made to look exactly like the man he killed; it sounds more fun than it plays out. Only the later intimate scenes between the two stars really work, suggesting a sort of gender-reversed "Vertigo". The stuff surrounding them, involving politicians and journalists and gangsters, is murky and uninteresting (lots of things are not clear, including the significance of the title). Philippe Sarde's music score has a grandeur that does not really fit with the images. Despite a top cast and director, "Barocco" is for the most part a misfire. ** out of 4.
Strange Impersonation (1946)
Blonde vs. brunette
While never quite escaping its programmer roots, "Strange Impersonation" is somewhat unusual for its time for being so female-driven: three women (Brenda Marshall, Hillary Brooke, Ruth Ford) run the show, look great, and give strong performances, while the men are incidental. The film ALMOST punches above its weight, but the plot seriously strains credulity in the second half (I don't understand why the film pretends that Marshall "changed" her face through plastic surgery when she looks exactly the same!), and leads to a disappointing cheater of an ending, which drops at least half-a-star from my rating. It must have been fashionable at that time, because there is a more famous Fritz Lang film that uses the same device. ** out of 4.
Elephant Stampede (1951)
Equal-opportunity eye-candy
The least that can be said about "Elephant Stampede" (1951) is that it offers equal-opportunity eye-candy to both genders of viewers: Bomba (Johnny Sheffield) looks jacked and hunky, and his female friend in this episode, Donna Martell, has an especially nice back. Other than that, the plot of this film could not be more standard (ivory hunters....again), though at least it does deliver on the title promise by the end, even if only on a small scale. There is also one particular shot, of the bad guys shooting a vine that Bomba is swinging on, that I think I've seen reused in every Bomba film so far! ** out of 4.
Une si jolie petite plage (1949)
Subdued mood piece
Subdued, melancholy and unwaveringly downbeat, "Une Si Jolie Petite Plage" aka "Riptide" is more of a psychodrama than the film noir it might appear to be at first. The film is atmospheric (drenched in near-constant rain) but, especially during its first half, slow and inert, full of blackout scenes in which very little actually happens. Perhaps the most notable thing about it is how morally gray, if not questionable, it is: essentially it tries to justify murder as part of the "hero"'s "doomed" mystique. Gerard Philipe and Madeleine Robinson are the attractive though deliberately unglamorous this time leads. By the way, the beach is anything but "petite" - in fact it is enormous! **1/2 out of 4.
Pleins feux sur l'assassin (1961)
The chateau is the star
An imposing, magnificent lakeside chateau, where almost the entire action takes place, is the real star of this offbeat yet old-fashioned murder mystery; written by the duo that also penned the French classic "Les Diaboliques", it is essentially a variation on the "And Then There Were None" formula. Certain scenes do have a poetic flair, but otherwise George Franju's direction is mostly static. But perhaps the film's biggest failing is that it does not manage to make the characters distinct enough for the viewer, which is crucial in a mystery; Jean-Louis Trintignant and Marianne Koch display the most star power, but some of the others just blend together. **1/2 out of 4.
Strange Interlude (1932)
Just like we do with stock
An unusual gimmick - we can hear the characters' private thoughts, which often differ from their spoken words - enhances this overblown soap opera. It is intelligent but overlong (at nearly 2 hours) and stagey, further hurt by unconvincing "aging" makeup and especially by Robert Young's farcical casting as Norman Shearer's grown-up son (even with all her makeup and white hair, they look about the same age, not to mention he kisses her rather passionately on the mouth!). It is a film that pulls out all the melodramatic stops; you have to be in the right mood for heavy melodrama to get something out of it. **1/2 out of 4.
Our Blushing Brides (1930)
One of the very first talking "women's pictures"
"Our Blushing Brides" (1930) is probably one of the very first talking "women's pictures": it is entirely told from the three women's point of view, it has a strong sense of female friendship and solidarity, and some of the dialogue has a distinctive "woman's touch" (one of the three screenwriters WAS in fact a woman, named Bess Meredyth). It is surprisingly modern (the technologies may have changed, but the essential themes remain mostly the same), and surprisingly cynical and downbeat (despite a last-minute sort-of "happy ending"). It is also unmistakably pre-code, with chic (and often reavealing) costumes for the ladies & lavish sets, including one particularly extravagant treehouse. Worth seeing, and not only for early-talkie or Joan Crawford fans. **1/2 out of 4.
Tarzan and the Green Goddess (1938)
Cheap, dull, clumsy, with one memorable sequence
"Tarzan And The Green Goddess" (1938), as well as its predecessor "The New Adventures Of Tarzan" (1935), were apparently shot on location in Guatemala; somehow the production still looks cheap. This film is also dull and often clumsily staged - the fight scenes are mostly a blur. It does coontain one memorable, and hot, bondage sequence: Bruce Bennett gets tied up onto a tree and has to flex ALL his body muscles, of which there are plenty, to break the ropes. Bennett, who possesses an impressive physique (he was a real-life Olympian, after all) plays Tarzan as a regular two-fisted hero who only occasionally ventures into the jungle; at other times he is fully dressed in more populated areas. He does attempt probably the worst Tarzan yell of them all, though. *1/2 out of 4.
Just Imagine (1930)
One-of-a-kind
"Just Imagine" (1930), the first sci-fi musical in screen history, and perhaps the only one since "The Apple" which coincidentally was made in 1980, begins as a visionary epic, but degenerates into slapstick comedy. It boasts some amazing special effects and some incredible sets; it also foretells things like video conferences and automatic hand driers (but, sadly, no flying car-planes, yet). However, the film's imagination does not extend to the music and the dressing codes, which are still unmistakably 1930s (people still wear hats). A pre-Tarzan Maureen O'Sullivan is lovely but bland; Marjorie White is cute and perky as her pal. What really brings the movie down are the loads of unfunny comedy relief by El Brendel, a sort-of prototype Jerry Lewis. Sample joke: "he is an idol" - "he is idle with all those girls?". The film is a mix of the amazing and the terrible. **1/2 out of 4.
Allez Oop (1934)
Delightful short
"Allez Oop" (1934) is a delightful little short for Buster Keaton. It has some very funny gags, particularly when Buster sets up a "trapeze practice" system in his own backyard that doesn't go all that well, but it also manages to tell a simple but complete story in just 20 minutes: Buster proves his mettle and gets the girl, you could hardly ask for much more. Speaking of the girl, Dorothy Sebastian, who had also co-starred with Keaton in a silent film, is a perfect partner for him: not only is she beautiful, but at times she has a similar deadpan expression / reaction to his antics. *** out of 4.
Delicious (1931)
The title is a little too presumptuous
It is hard to see at what audience exactly "Delicious" (1931) would appeal; perhaps that's why it has been almost completely forgotten today. It is not funny enough to be a comedy; it is not dramatic enough to be a drama; it does not contain enough music to be a musical; and while the romantic chemistry between Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor kinda works, they are kept apart from each other for long periods of time. Speaking of time, the film is definitely overlong at 106 minutes. An imaginative dream sequence is the only real highlight. Gaynor's Scottish accent comes and goes; El Brendel provides the alleged comic relief. ** out of 4.
The Gold Ghost (1934)
First half is very funny, second half less so
The first half of "The Gold Ghost" (and by "half" I mean about 10 minutes, as this is a short) is very funny: Buster Keaton has the stage, or rather the screen, all to himself and he engages in one smart visual gag after another (my favorite: the switched shooting targets), with almost no dialogue. As he explores a Western "ghost town" where everyone has left after the gold has run dry. In the seccond half, multiple characters intrude upon Buster, as does dialogue, and the final slapstick "fight" sequence seems more befitting to The Three Stooges than Keaton. Still, it is nice to see that Buster kept himself occupied after his feature-length era came to a stop. By the way, there are "real" ghosts as well, but they feature in very briefly. **1/2 out of 4.
Enemy (2013)
An exercise in style over substance
"Enemy" is extremely well-crafted. Like the other (earlier) Denis Villeneuve films I've seen so far, it has the mysterious power to captivate and hypnotize an audience. It is not wholly satisfying on a narrative level, though; the final shock image is certainly memorable but doesn't provide any sort of closure or answers. The film is also overly portentous: the characters react to something amazing not with wonder or curiosity, but with fear. And Jake Gyllenhaal, although he gives two fine performances, is arguably miscast, being perhaps already too much of an "everyman" for the existence of someone else who looks exactly like him to be as extraordinary as intended. **1/2 out of 4.
What - No Beer? (1933)
More for fans of Jimmy Durante than of Buster Keaton
"What? No Beer?" is a loud comedy starring Jimmy Durante, with Buster Keaton, who seems overwhelmed, in pretty much a supporting role. Most of the comedy consists of low-grade slapstick, and Durante belting out all his lines. There is one terrific sequence with multiple beer barrels rolling down a hill and chasing Buster, but the film's two best gags actually don't involve either of the two main stars: one has to do with the "shooting" of a radio announcer, and the other with a drunken horse. Other than those, it is easy to see why this film marked the end for Keaton's MGM feature-length talkie period. ** out of 4.
Le cheval d'orgueil (1980)
Probably Claude Chabrol's least-known movie, and it's easy to see why
Claude Chabrol had a great career, spanning more than 5 decades, during which he experimented with various genres (and even shot in various countries). "Le Cheval D' Orgueil" aka "The Horse Of Pride" may well be the least-known entry in his entire filmography, and with good reason: it is well-photographed but boring, overlong, without the slightest amount of plot - or a point to make. There are some random fantasy elements (a man who comes back from the dead, "misery" manifesting as a wild dog) which never pay off. Chabrol seems out of his element in the farming environment he depicts here; give him the bourgeoisie instead. *1/2 out of 4.
Incendies (2010)
Exceptional film
Absorbing, novelistic, and unpredictable: its challenging, puzzle-like structure slowly but surely reveals a devastating tragedy of immense proportions - an Ancient Greek tragedy in modern times, perhaps. There are a couple of sequences that are as harrowing as anything you'll ever see, however compared to some of the real-life horrors that we've been witnessing in the Middle Eastern region for the last several months, they seem almost "tame". Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin and Lubna Azabal give powerful performances; the wordless reaction of the former when she finally learns the truth is absolutely bone-chilling. ***1/2 out of 4.
The Passionate Plumber (1932)
Irene Purcell is the main draw of this film
Not one of the better Buster Keaton talkies. It has few memorable gags - it even resorts to the constant mispronounciation of Buster's character name as a major running gag. Jimmy Durante's loud brand of comedy clashes with Buster's quieter style. Buster's own character comes off as too much of a stalker in the latter half; at the same time, the film is not as racy as it could have been, given that it was made pre-code. The little-known Irene Purcell is incredibly beautiful - like an even more attractive Joan Blondell! If you want to see Keaton in a bedroom farce, try "Parlor, Bedroom And Bath" instead. ** out of 4.
Sidewalks of New York (1931)
One of the better Keaton talkies
In "Sidewalks Of New York", Buster Keaton proves that he is equally adept at pratfalls and verbal gags, sometimes combining the two at the same time. The film has some very funny moments: the courtroom sequence, the duck, the voice recording, the door barricade. It also has parts that don't work, like the wrestling / boxing bouts; coincidentally, Keaton's main "rival" Charlie Chaplin exploited the comic possibilities of the sports in a better, and shorter, fashion in his "City Lights", the very same year. There is also a dark undercurrent to the film, especially in the scenes with a young boy bullied into a life of crime and even murder! The big action climax is quite unusual. Anita Page has a spicier role here than in Keaton's "Free And Easy". **1/2 out of 4.
Free and Easy (1930)
The queen has swooned
"Free And Easy" (1930), Buster Keaton's first talkie, gets novelty points for also being one of the earliest examples of the "movie(s)-within-a-movie" (several famous, and not so famous, actors and directors of the time appear as themselves, working in the MGM studios). There are some creative gags (best routine is without a doubt the "queen has swooned" one); there are also some prolonged sequences (like the "Buster getting beat-up" rehearsals) that don't work, as well as too many musical numbers of a type that Busby Berkeley's work would soon render obsolete. It is also one of the very rare comedies with a sad ending. ** out of 4.
Doughboys (1930)
Not as bad as it reputation....not that great, either
I've read some terrible things about «Doughboys" (1930) , Buster Keaton's second talkie, over the years, but it's not really all that bad; mind you, it's not all that great, either. It is probably the archetypal "wrongly-enlisted-in-the-army" comedy, which has enough entries to make up an entire sub-genre. Keaton is a master of deadpan comedy, and his voice perfectly matches his demeanor. The film has occasional funny gags, but not enough to sustain its feature length. The script, if it can be called that, is very weak, but there are some impressive pyrotechnics, this being an MGM production. There is also a most bizarre "army revue" song-and dance show where the entire troupe, including Buster and apart from one girl, are men in drag (!). ** out of 4.
Requiem pour un vampire (1972)
More bondage softcore than horror
"Requiem Pour Un Vampire" aka "Caged Virgins" (1972) begins with a bang - multiple bangs, literally: shots fired in the middle of a car chase. But it slows down considerably after that, and its pacing in general is deadening. The dialogue is sparse, especially in the first half. It is also never really scary as a vampire movie, but I'm not even sure if it was trying to be. With that said, the dilapidated chateau is an admittedly impressive "real set", there is some mildly erotic bondage, and Marie-Pierre Castel (the blonde girl) is one hot Lolita....or rather, given the visual motif, one hot Little Red Riding Hood. ** out of 4.