by Dean | Apr 14, 2016 | General
Cover of Funny Face
With savvy and imagination Stanley Donen directed the musical, Funny Face (1957), wherein a book store clerk (Audrey Hepburn) is rapidly turned into a fashion model.
Early on, the movie’s appeal is perfectly evident: Hepburn passably sings a pop masterpiece, “How Long Has This Been Going On?,” by George and Ira Gershwin. After that, well, it’s strange to see the young Hepburn fall in love with the middle-aged Fred Astaire, and Hepburn’s dancing is sheerly mechanical in the café scene, but the good stuff keeps rolling nonetheless. Astaire charms us with another top-notch Gershwin song from the Twenties (terpsichore included)—“Let’s Kiss and Make Up.” And, yes, even though Hepburn’s singing voice is sometimes less than passable, her acting is gracefully decent, properly amusing.
by Dean | Apr 13, 2016 | General
Edvard Munch (film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
From Germany in 1976 came a biopic and dramatized quasi-documentary on the life of Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, and though seriously flawed, it is also fascinating and felt.
Peter Watkins directed and, in collaboration with the cast, wrote the script for Edvard Munch, which concentrates on the man’s art and very humanity with equal effectiveness. Where it goes wrong, I believe, is in permitting the crosscutting between shots of Munch as a sick child and those of Munch as an aspiring and suffering adult to produce a certain blatancy, an overexplicitness. For, after all, there are also shots of Munch’s sister Sophie as a sick child, necessary as it is to demonstrate that Munch’s attitude toward life was formed in part by the household illnesses he grew up with. Blatancy, however, is blatancy. Sometimes the film grips too hard.
Also, notwithstanding he resembles Munch, Geir Westby is too stolid in his portrayal of the gifted painter. But I repeat: the film is fascinating (and essentially unhappy).
by Dean | Apr 10, 2016 | General
With an outstanding range, Sally Field terrifically enacts a poorly conceived character in Hello, My Name is Doris (2016), a pack-of-lies movie by Michael Showalter and Laura Terruso. Pack-of-lies? Yes: Doris is a bashful woman deeply silly enough to chase a much younger, good-looking man—one who is forever tolerant and understanding. Too, though frumpy, she holds her own among the young man’s lively young companions.
A waste of time, this. Launched by the idea that Doris is a naif who must learn a lesson, critic Alan Scherstuhl, though a slight fan of this flop, correctly asks: “What are we supposed to get from watching a naif learn a lesson we already know?”
by Dean | Apr 4, 2016 | General
It’s mainly for Christian viewers, yes, but deals with something serious in American affairs: the effort to suppress all references to Christian doctrine in public institutions, and to suppress Christian actions (such as the refusal to make a same-sex “wedding” cake, of all things) elsewhere.
Unfortunately, this filmic drama, and sequel, directed by Harold Cronk is egregiously preachy. The courtroom material can get quite bad, and excessive closeups are used. I like Melissa Joan Hart, though.
by Dean | Apr 3, 2016 | General
Cover via Amazon
The film is one of Elia Kazan‘s best—a work of considerable realism and intelligence. A political picture, it never gets as tiresome as Kazan’s A Face in the Crowd. Not exactly an art film, with its pastoral long shots it nevertheless reflects the filmmaker’s admiration for the old-time Russian directors such as Pudovkin. Moreover, Wild River is usually impressively acted.
by Dean | Mar 31, 2016 | General
I just finished watching the seventh episode of Game of Thrones (Season 5) on DVD.
In this season, there is a religious cult called the Faith Militant which reminds me of the Taliban. It’s a wonder even Cersei (Lena Headey), who ends up being arrested by the cult, tolerates it. I take it she was pleased by the Militants’ treatment of Margaery (Natalie Dormer), social-climbingly married to Cersei’s young son.
Speaking of Dormer, I’m glad she is now permitted by the show to exercise her acting chops: She convinces as an angry Margaery as well as a sweet and sly one. . . Also, there seems to be better cinematography than in the past—better lighting, more beauty. Truth to tell, although too much nudity appears in the series, much of this beauty can be seen in the excellent body of the show-offy Tyene, played by the California-born (not British) Rosabell Laurenti Sellers.
