The Arrangement

A kind of mid-life crisis drama for Kirk Douglas as the high flying as exec who loses the plot because of Faye Dunaway. Could have been tighter with a bit less rambling. As most Warner-7 Arts films of the lte 60's-early 70s it looks great.

Carefree

Sweet and charming romcom with Astaire as the psychoanalyst and Rogers, his best friend's girlfriend who falls in love with him. pretty standard though, but some funny bits.

Flying down to Rio

Fairly charming but far from great musical with Dolores del Rio. The first film to feature Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, but not as the main chaacters. The last number of the planes is swell.

Home from the hill

A big 50's drama in scope and Metrocolor with Mitchum as a head of a fairly disfunctional family. Minelli's direction is good, but maybe not at his best in rural Texas. It feels like a soap opera.

Casino Royale

Very disappointing as I expected much more. Daniel Craig is ok as a tougher James Bond, but he has limited charisma and charm. Hard to believe action scenes, and the end of the baddies not great. Eva Green is very pretty and the art direction is ok, but overall nothing outstanding.

Dans la peau de Jacques Chirac

Excellent documentary on the life of Chirac and his many contradiction. Very funny at times, espeially when mocking his opponents, and some great archives, including songs from plde campaigns, but one can see the last years have not been good at al.

Colt 38 Special Squad

Bozzufi leads a small squad of elite cops to get some baddies with dynamites in 70s Torino. Good car chases, good bad guys and cool funky music (with a young Grace Jones performing in a club).

Naked City

Entirely filmed on the streets of New York City, in a kind of documentary style and inspired by neo-realism with no big stars, Jules Dassin's film noir shows the real New York in the heat of summer, and detectives at work to solve a murder. The voice over narration is a bit annoying though.

Dieu Seul me voit

There are some fairly funny moments, but the Poladyles brothers are trying a bit too hard to be Woody Allen, in a very French way.

The Prestige

An intriguing story, which sadly gets slightly preposterous and quite long, about 2 competing magicians in late 19th century. Scarlett Johansson is surprisingly quite good in a supporting role. Christain Bale is really annoying = a decent big budget Hollywood film.

Inauguration of the Pleasuredome

Very colourful and striking, but a bit dull, the operamusic doesn't really help, would have been better with some old songs as Puce Moment.

Liberté Oléron

Not as funny as I thought it would be. It has some charms, but is no more than a little bourgeois film.

Phantom of the Paradise

A pretty crazy film from De Palma, who mixes, opera rock, inspired by glam rock, Faust and the Phantom of the Opera, in a kaleidoscopic maelstrom, of noise and colours. Some of the music is good, and the actors are all over the top.

Borat

Only a few funny moment, in a pretty stupid film, lazily written and directed.

Klute

I like the feel of look of Warner's early 70's look. Pakula was great at the time, and Gordon willis' photgraphy is dark and rich, the soundtrack kinds of rips off Morricone, but unlike giallos which are entertaining, Klute is a bit boring, with long periods where not much happens.

The Host

Fun film and good blockbuster, with a crazy disfunctional family chasing a big nasty monster in the sewers of seoul, with some bad yanks. However I was expected a bit more, based on a good ritics who liked it, and not as strong as Memories of murders.