by Dean | Jul 21, 2014 | General
In my view, the facial play of Rowan Atkinson, who enacts Mr. Bean in Mr. Bean’s Holiday (2007), is more over-the-top than funny, but he grows on you. And this movie grows on you. It grew on me, anyway. It turns out to be an appealing slapstick farce, its titular character bungling his way across France.
Sometimes nicely helpful, Mr. Bean is also intermittently unscrupulous when he gets in a jam—and so deserves every problem he incurs. In short, he’s recognizably human. And despite the facial play Atkinson’s portrayal of him is wonderfully droll and vigorous. The leading lady, Emma de Caunes, is charming.
Although funny, much of what happens at the Cannes Film Festival in Holiday is pretty hokey, but the picture serves up some unusual comic invention in a scene such as the one where Mr. Bean as busker lip-synchs to Puccini’s “O Mio Babbino Caro.” Even better, more hilarious, is the Harold Lloyd stuff with the bicycle pursuit and the startling making of a yoghurt commercial. Here the movie really makes antic hay—just what we want from a visual comedy. It instantly becomes less important that Mr. Bean is recognizably human than that he is pratfall-funny.
Cover of Mr. Bean’s Holiday (Widescreen Edition)
by Dean | Jul 15, 2014 | General
Liberty Island is a website that publishes stories whose meaning is essentially conservative. So far I have read several of them, one of which, Jamie Wilson’s “Murder at CPAC” (2014), is a tasty spoof and then some. More than a spoof. In the noir thriller mode, it’s nicely unpredictable (for all the clichés) and engaging. Its ending resembles that of Kiss Me Deadly, and the message is about progressives not being able to face the TRUTH.
Few liberals will like “Murder at CPAC”, if any of them read it. (CPAC, of course, stands for Conservative Political Action Conference.) But I suspect that conservatives, libertarians and some apolitical people will like it.
Another story is “Beautification Claws” (2014), a clever fantasy by Karina Fabian. Here, a jejune girl confronts the talking dragon that protects a crime-ridden neighborhood. The theme is the need of certain vicinities not for Great Society luxuries like beautification but for constant, big-guns security. First things first.
There is admirable wit in these tales, and they are not just meant to entertain. No, sir.
The website’s address is libertyislandmag.com
by Dean | Jul 6, 2014 | General
Style and theme are everything in the exquisitely made Italian film Eclipse, or L’Eclisse (1962), one of the four or five major pictures of Michelangelo Antonioni.
This is the one about Vittoria (Monica Vitti) and Piero (Alain Delon) in the modern age. Here, reinforced by the visual black-white contrasts, indifference and insensitivity eclipse love, worry eclipses passion, aimlessness eclipses belief. For all this, however, Antonioni makes clear that ours is a fascinating world, not only because of nature but also because of what human beings have wrought. Airplanes, light poles along a street, the stock exchange, a rural café—all are presented as having the power to captivate.
Eclipse is less sad than L’Avventura and La Notte, even though, granted, the world of the film is menacing. The closing sequence is famous, and according to Stanley Kauffmann, it has been seen as Antonioni’s “statement that man must come to terms with his new environment before he can love.” This is probably as good an interpretation as any, if interpretation is needed. Whether or not such a sentiment about love is true, though, we are led to observe that, at the film’s end, main character Vittoria certainly seems accepting of her life—obviously a good thing.
(In Italian with English subtitles)
Cover of L’Eclisse – Criterion Collection
by Dean | Jul 2, 2014 | General
Queen Christina (1934) transcends its flaws. Directed by Rouben Mamoulian and starring Greta Garbo, it relates historical nonsense about the 17th century’s Queen of Sweden who abdicated her throne, but the historical nonsense is not a flaw. We can take comfort, after all, in such elements as S.N. Behrman’s literate dialogue and the disturbing effect of the abdication scene. Mamoulian worked well with what he had, albeit he didn’t have much in the way of production design. For outdoor scenes (not all of them), there is too much studio fakery. Garbo deserved better, I think. Not only is she beautiful, she also supplies just as much femininity and tomboy toughness as Hollywood’s Queen Christina needs. The real Christina—or Kristina—was a lesbian; Garbo’s queen renounces her crown for a man’s love. The man in question is played by John Gilbert, who, unfortunately, overacts for a while. Garbo’s acting is steady.
Queen Christina ought to have been a stronger achievement, but it entertains us all the same. That is all it was meant to do.
Cover of Queen Christina
by Dean | Jun 29, 2014 | General
In the movie version of Jersey Boys (2014), Vincent Piazza does deft work as Tommy DeVito, an obnoxious member of the Four Seasons pop group. The part is an Italian stereotype, though, which is hardly surprising for a film that has zero character exploration.
Here and there Clint Eastwood’s semi-musical is as likable as the Village Voice critic says it is, but it is also insipid. A nun takes a swallow of wine and burps. Every girl either sashays or makes a fool of herself, often while listening to the Four Seasons. The movie is obtuse.
Winning performances come from Christopher Walken and Renee Marino (who plays Frankie Valli’s wife). Also from John Lloyd Young (Valli)—in his singing. It was his falsettos that were in the Broadway show.
Clint Eastwood (Photo credit: Siebbi)
by Dean | Jun 26, 2014 | General
SPOILER ALERT if you haven’t seen the latest (June 23) episode.
In my view, the final season of the old 24 series was lousy. For one thing, Jack Bauer committed the immoral act of shooting down an unarmed Katee Sackhoff. In the reboot, he throws an unarmed Margot Al-Harazi (Michelle Fairley) out of a high window—just like Jezebel—but no one cares because Margot is so incredibly, appallingly evil. Just like Jezebel.
Other individual deaths have occurred as well. Sorry to see you go, Jordan. . . I’m not sure whether Margot’s daughter Simone (the very pretty Emily Berrington) is dead 0r not, but I don’t think so. She’s had quite an experience with vehicles lately (being hit by a bus, being involved in an insane car chase). Everybody is waiting to see when Steve Navarro (Benjamin Bratt) gets it in the neck. How do so many cold-blooded “moles,” which is what Navarro is, manage to get inside CTU? Why such background check deficiencies?
