- Rear Window
Did magazine photographer L B “Jeff” Jeffries (James Stewart) really witness a murder from his wheelchair that happened across from his apartment while he was recovering from his broken leg? All through his recovery, he has been watching the goings-on of his neighbours from his vantage point and we, the viewers, are given his same viewpoint so perhaps we too suspect Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr) of murdering his wife. His girl (Grace Kelly as a fashion model) agrees to help him out because she loves him so much abd wants him to realise that they really can and should get married. The other residents are beguiling enough viewing even if there were not a murder of anything more than a dog. Enjoyable, especially with the banter between James Stewart and Grace Kelly or his nurse.
- The Talented Mr Ripley
Anthony Minghella’s sumptious version of Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley novels. Matt Damon manages to be very convincing and gorgeous while making you really feel sorry for him. He was a lowly toilet attendant when because he filled in as a piano player for someone else while borrowing their Princeton jacket was asked by Greenleaf (senior) to convince his son to return (for a $10000 fee). He only kills Dickie Greenleaf when he is backed into a corner and he discovers that his love for him is not reciprocated and never will be. He only kills again when backed into a corner by Freddie Miles which threatens to pull his whole new world down from under him. Then finally when he slips up after he is finally free with Peter Kingsley-Smith (a rather good Jack Davenport) who does, in fact, love him. Of course we can never be sure of Tom Ripley’s final fate.
- Plein Soleil (or, apparently, Purple Noon)
Based on Patricia Highsmith’s novel “Mr Ripley” (sound familiar?), we have a Philippe (rather than Dickie) Greenleaf who has an intensity rather similar to that of Jude Law in the recent remake. We start in Rome with Philippe, Tom and Marge all together but here Philippe is definitely stringing Tom along while he has money and he is sure about not knowing Tom at Princeton. Philippe also seems rather more capable of writing without relying on a typewriter. Tom comes across less as a victim here too since he actively discusses killing Philippe and we are left to assume that he is about to be arrested at the close of the film. There is a definite air of the actors involved being pulled straight from a catalogue shoot but otherwise it’s worth seeing.
- Le Dîner de Cons
Every week a group of friends have an “idiot dinner” where they each invite a guest who they hope will be the prize idiot of the night. Of course they can’t tell the guests the truth. This week, however, it doesn’t quite go according to plan for one of the friends when he injures his back on the golf course. He is unable to call his guest off but is unable to go to the dinner so experiences rather more trouble in that night than he could have possibly expected. It does all almost get sorted out by the end but then... It’s a very entertaining and funny film provided you can stand the unpleasant (in a Windmills of your Mind way, though it only appears during the title credits) title song.
- The Godfather
This being the third of the trilogy that I have seen may have affected my opinion of it. Marlon Brando just seemed silly compared to the Robert De Niro’s performance in Godfather II but the film is undoubtedly bloody, violent but very good.
- Oscar and Lucinda
I saw the film before I read Peter Carey’s novel.
- Rosetta
The tale of a Belgian girl who wants to have a normal life and not “fall into the rut.” When she gets fired from her job at the start only because her trial period was over she gets (unsurprisingly) a little (slight understatement) annoyed.
She tries to get by with her alcoholic mother on the caravan site with the lecherous caretaker, laying traps with coat hangers and bottles to catch fish and mending old clothes and selling them on. Rosetta meets Riquet, a waffle seller (with an annoying whiny moped and rather poor drumming abilities), and he helps get her a job in the local bakery, preparing waffles and perhaps things are looking up. Soon, however, she gets sacked with a dodgy excuse and so tries to sort her life out all over again. She nearly believes she has when she gets Riquet’s job when she tells the boss that he has been selling waffles he has prepared at home rather than those he has paid the boss to sell.
Soon, however, Riquet starts following her on his annoying whiny moped and she decides to take rather drastic action as she believes that life holds nothing more for her or her mother. Even this doesn’t go quite according to plan as the gas bottle runs out and as she goes to get a new one, Riquet starts hassling her again at which point we are left to wonder how many people are left in the rut. If you can avoid motion-sickness during the opening moments just after Rosetta is fired from the factory, it’s well worth watching. Oh, it won best film and best actress at Cannes.
- The Godfather Part II
- Three Kings
- Magnolia
Certainly long and some of the connections between the intertwined tales seem rather peculiar and tenuous but overall well worth the effort of sitting in a dark auditorium for a bit over three hours. Almost all of the performances are very good indeed and the opening scenes as the various characters are introduced is masterful. Well done there Paul Thomas Anderson.
- The Godfather Part III
- You Only Live Once
Fritz Lang’s
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