Anna Christie

Absolutely dreadful! Sound came, and all the innovations of silent films went with it. Instead, plays were adapted for the silver screen, often with bad acting and no visual sense, as in this case. Yes Garbo talks, but not very well. Awful!

Dirty Harry

Another great score by Lalo Schifrin. The film is not as good as Bullit. Nicely shot at the beginning, but it gets quite standar after.

Camille

After watching the Kevin Bromlow documentary on Garbo and her career, here she is in probably one of her very best role. It helps that for once she is directed by a good director (Cukor). A big romantic film adapted from Alexandre Dumas.

The Wild Bunch

A great impure film, that is pure Peckinpah. Kind of in-between classic western, Italian one, with a Mexican revolution background. As often it is marked by failure and self-destruction, ending up in a long blooded massacre. William Holden is magnificient.

Kind hearts and coronets

I fell asleep, which tends to be a bad sign. Supposedly an hilariously funny black comedy, I didn't find it particularly funny. Yes Guiness is great playing 8 different characters, all from the same family but Dennis Price is very annoying. Nicely shot and lighted but I may have to revisit it.

Ride the high country

An early Peckinpah film from the early 60's, and it already smells the end of Western, mostly because it features a couple of great actors (Scott and McCrea) playing old timers. A bit disappointing though, mostly because of a weak story.

Bullitt

I have never been a huge fan of it, always found it too slow and kind of dull. Reading the interview book recently published in france on Lalo Schifrin, I decided to revisit it. I still find it a bit slow, but very stylish, lots of dark scenes and great location shooting in and around San Francisco, and the score is really great, despite being quite sparse.

The savage innocents

A very strange film from Nicholas Ray made at the beginning of what seems to be his European exile, away from Hollywood. With an Italian producer and tech team, partly in the artic and quite a bit in studio. Anthony Quinn is good as Inouk the eskimo, and Peter O'Tool as the white man chasing him. The eskimos have strange practices, mostly involving sharing wives and hunting in the cold. it's a bit long and some of the eskimos' routine get a bit annoying, but the last part is great. Quite unusual, although Ray shows he digs odd characters.

L'Enquête Corse

Adapted from the Petillon comic book, Clavier is Jack Palmer in Corsica and Reno Ange Leoni. Lots of jokes about the corsicans, it's modererately amusing with a lazy script.

Drifting Clouds

Another fab Aki Kaurismaki film! About a couple who lose their jobs and struggle to find a new one. It gets wuite depressing until the end where they finally get a lucky break. I love the quirkyness of the characters and the settings.

The thin blue line

Errol Morris re-opens a murder case, and interviews all the main protagonists of the murder of a cop in Dallas in the late 70's. Scary how justice can go wrong, and a weird collection of people in and around Dallas.

They died with their boots on

The full story of General Custer played by a Errol Flynn at the peak og his career, again with De Havilland and Anthony Quinn as Crazy Horse, superbly directed by Raoul Walsh. It is an unusual western, with comedy, romance and drama, and battles. A superb film.

Dominion

The prequel to The Exorcist as filmed by Paul Schrader. Not really a surprise that the studio execs decided to have a reshoot and a new director. The script is not very good, not scary at all, poor CGI effects, bad music, and not many good things in fact, the evil is laughable, and the whole thing falls completely flat.

Love and Anger (Amore e Rabbia)

Very radical (and quite boring) omnibus from 1969. The first segment from Lizzani is the most 'enjoyable' by far, the Godard is sleep inducing, the Pasolini is short and seems to have inspired JLG with the use of war footage superimposed with the film, the Bellochio is set in a university with students debating and is quite annoying and the Bertolucci one is absolutly awful!

Metropolitan

A relatively charming film about a group of preppy and proud, albeit slightly tortured with self doubt and the mild fear that their social class is facing decline. The action takes place over about a week, before during and after Christmas, all fairly dressed up parties in uptown Manhattan, spent talking about deep topics and bits of romance (or lack of).

Captain Blood

The film that catapulted Errol Flynn to stardom. A bit disappointed as there is not much swashbuckling, and only a big battle scene at the end. it's mostly a romantic film, the first of 8 films Flynn did with De Haviland. Professionally directed by Michaell Curtiz, with the Caribbean recreated in Hollywood.

The adventures of Errol Flynn

Interesting documentary from TCM, once again demonstrating that the life of movie stars is often tragic. Flynn was a star for about 7 years really and died at the age of 50, consumed by 3 wives, morphine and booze.

Dodge City

Errol Flynn's first western in 1939 and Technicolour. Great supporting cast, a massive saloon brawl, a few nasty vilains, the innocent girl (De Havilland). A solid classic Michael Curtiz western. Much better than I expected it to be.

Les Invisibles

interesting first feature film from Thierry Jousse, with Laurent Lucas as the arty musician who becomes obsessed with a woman's voice over a telephone network, meets her in a dark hotel room and loses her. There are some strong Lynch influences here (the strange Mr Willaims and Michael Lonsdale's character) and the laptop beats style music can be a bit annoying. Still it is intriguing and well done, and tight.

My name is nobody

A Sergio Leone project directed by Tonino Valerii, the star of Trinita meets a hollywood legend and fight against a large wild bunch (150 of them). Terence Hill tries hard to convince Henry Fonda he has a place in history. Good, but not as great as i remembered it when I saw it when I was little in Pont-Audemer.

Return to the 36th Chamber

I knew this one wasn't as good, but it is painfully bad. Gordon Liu over-acts, it's a weak HK comedy, and the kung fu is not even particularly good.

The 36th Chamber of Shaolin

It doesn't start very well, with some terrible acting and unspiring story, but gets much better once Gordon Liu joins the Shaolin temple and gets his training underway, going through the 35 chambers in 7 years to become a real master and gets his revenge. Greats sets and cool training games.

Red Eye

Above average thriller from Wes Craven, despite a not terribly believable script. It is short and tight which is good, and the cast is good. Entertaining.

King Boxer (la main de fer)

Awesome! The bad guy is really evil and treacherous and his cronies are as evil and very violent. the sneaky son, the tough head butting kungfu dude and the very violent Japanese guys. Eye gouging (ouch) and other nasty tricks, old masters, innocent girls in love with the hero, a true classic. Lo Lieh ends up mastering the hand of iron, and kicks the shit out of all the nasty evil guys. And Tarantino stole the siren bit for Kill Bill.