Zidane un portrait du 21e siecle

Technically great, Gordon and parreno used 17 HD cameras and lots of pros to handle them, but it is indeed very conceptual and almost meditative at times, Zidane looks lonely on the pitch.

Criss Cross

Classic film noir from Robert Siodmack, with a doomed Burt Lancaster smitten with Yvonne de Carlo, who annoyingly keeps saying 'Steve!'. A long flashback, a heist, some bassies, a bar with a rumba orchestra, all the elemem=nts are in place. The first 10 minutes are quite amazing.

The Departed

So Scorcese finally won an Oscar for best director and best film with this remake of Internal affairs. A good cast but way too long again, it could have been 30 shorter at least, and I lost interest mid-way through.

Children of men

Alfonso Cuaron films life in 2027, when all women are infertile, and have been for the past 18 years. Lots of techno punks, terrorists attacks in a London described as a war zone with heavy police beating refugees, too many shootings I didn't get into into and got bored.

The good guys and the bad guys

A very minor Mitchum, the end of the old west, the film is set in the early 20th century, with a bunch of good guys and bad guys as a dying breed hanging on to the past.

Pocket Money

I'm continuing to wonder if Paul Newman has done any very good films. This one sounded good on paper, with a partnership with Lee Marvin, script by Terrence Malick, music by Alex North, and directed by Stuart Rosenberg (who is just a pro), but it is another disappointing film, despite the fairly nice 70's style photography, and lots of cowboy hats.

Angel Face

Apparently one of Godard's favorite sound film. It's a good Preminger film set in Beverly Hills, with a cool Mitchum, and Jean Simmons as the cold witch. She is a bit annoying, but I guess that's the point. Not a masterpiece but a solid film noir.

The Atomic Submarine

Moderately fun, due to bad dialogues, a good electronic score and very cheap special effects, with model submarines lost under the arctic pole.

The Court Jester

I saw this film when I was little and loved it. It's pure family entertainment, but still fun packed with romance, action and songs. Basil Rathbone is as usual playing the baddie, and Danny Kaye is good,

Bicycle Thieves

I never liked any of De Sica films i have seen so far, and wasn't expecting much from this one despite of its reputation as one of the best film ever made. In fact, it is very good, and surprisingly quite thrilling, and De Sica doesn't go too much into miserabilism like he does in Umberto D.

When a woman ascends the stairs

Filmed in black & white Tohoscope in 1960 with a solid cast of great actors lead by the beautiful Hideko Takamine as the struggling widowed bar hostess in the Ginza and a young Tatsuya Nakadai as her bar manager. Takamine's character has reached the point in her life when she can only hope to marry a rich man or start her own bar business and not work for somebody else. Naruse shows the hardness of the nightlife and despair of the br hostesses, the men are all quite pathetic, wonderfully shot and edited (with a few major ellipses), and all gracefully done.

Corridors of Blood

An old Boris Karloff vs a young Christopher Lee (as Resurection Joe), in a b-film from England. Karloff gets loopy while trying to discover anesthesics in filthy London in 1840, with some good baddies.

A Canterbury Tale

A very sweet and charming film, with some odd mystery around a glue man, and 3 'modern' pilgrims ending up in the Canterbury cathedral and find something special to them. Nicely shot in the Kent countryside. It could have been a little tighter.

Green for Danger

I don't usually particularly like English film, but this one is a well crafted and entertaining film, a whodunit set in a hospital at the end of the war, with doctors and nurses and the funny inspector Cockrill solving the case.

A Scanner Darkly

The crudish animation is a bit annoying as everything moves a lot, a give kind of sea sickness. The story is confusing at times, but at the end all is clear. Philip k. Dick was a very paranoid character, and Linklater is playing on this, plus all the drug addiction stuff. Great cast too.

Innocence

A very strange film set in a boarding school with little girls dressed in white with different coloured ribbons according to their age, and a couple of techers, no men, a park and a river, lots of green, not a lot happens and it's all quite mysterious and atmospheric.

There was a father

A rare Ozu from 1942, in a farly poor shape, with Chishu ryu as a professor who stops teaching after a dramatic accident and his relationship with his son. Minimal and sad.

Eaux d'artifice

Anger beautifully shots a princess (in fact a midget) running arounf the majestic gardens of the Villa d'Este to Vivaldi's 4 seasons (winter).

Repast

Setsuko Hara is the bored wife who is being taken for granting by her husband and is stuck with chores in a suburb of Osaka. She leaves him for a while when she goes back to Tokyo, but it all ends happily.

One + One

Godard plus the Rolling Stones. Destruction, chaos and creation, politics and entertainment all mixed together for a heavy film. Godard capture the Stones at work and mixed up with 1968 politics, the Black Panther and the revolution.

Performance

Gangsters, sex, drugs and rock n roll in the late 60s in London. Donald Cammell had to re-edit the film for warner, but it is still crazy. It really kicks in in the Powis Square flat with a great looking Mick Jagger and Anita pallenberg, mad visuals and cool music. It hasn't aged too badly.

First man into space

Cheapo, fairly cheesy space sci-fi film, which relies on some stock footage to make the thing fairly credible. Typical 50s film, made on a tight budget, midly interesting, but not great.

Macao

Not a great Von Sternberg (who was sacked and replaced by Nick Ray), but good performances from Mitchum and Jane Russel.

Kenneth Anger

Fireworks is very homoerotic, with body builded and mean sailors beating up Anger, inspired by one of his dreams.

Rabbit's Moon was shot in studio in Paris, with Pierrot, Arlequin and Columbine and a white rabbit and the moon, visually striking and cool soul music.

Puce Moment, is only 6 minutes but really amazing, starting with shots of several colourful 20's hollywood dresses, and a girl putting the puce dress on, being rolled out on a chaise longue and finisihing on the stairs of a Hollywood mansion with 4 Borzois, the music is really cool.

God told me to

A crazy film from Larry Cohen, starts with a snipper shooting a bunch of people in front of Bloomindale's, other crimes happen for the same reason. Tony Lo Bianco is the religious cop investigating, and turns out he is also has some weird powers from ouer space. Cool shots of NYC in the mid 70's.

The Yakuza

Culture clash, with Robert Mitchum having to deal with a bunch of Yakusa in 75 Tokyo. A bit slow compared to Fukusaku, but there are some good scenes and nice sets, the pool is very cool, as is Tanner's office. A complex script from Schrader and Towne and very professional direction from Pollack.