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| bartist |
 Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2013 10:39 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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Quote: In summary, Ruby Sparks is a slighter version of the already slightly slight, Stranger Than Fiction, is all premise and little delivery. It’s not without charm or wit, but it needed to get dark and deep or fly or…2½ Stars (out of 5).
Dark and deep, like "The Inner Life of Martin Frost" ? Paul Auster's film is the one that sprang to mind when I saw the synopsis of RS. If you haven't seen it, Jeremy, check it out. |
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| knox |
| Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2013 12:07 pm |
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Joined: 18 Mar 2010
Posts: 1246
Location: St. Louis
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| Another with a similar theme is Secret Window, with Jon Turturro and Johnny Depp as the writer whose reality and inner life start to mix it up. I found it more interesting than TILOM Frost or STF. It certainly meets the "darker" criterion. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2013 8:34 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| Bob le Flambeur ("Bob the Gambler") isn't quite the classic it's been proclaimed here, but it's reasonably entertaining in the early going and gets particularly good toward the end when it takes a left turn from what seems like an standard caper movie, heading toward a humorous ending which seems a bit odd considering the dire events that just took place. Isabelle Corey is very sexy as his young friend and protégée. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2013 9:21 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Houston
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Born to Kill is the only noir I can think of that rivals Nightmare Alley for its twisted, sleazy atmosphere. It's got a superbly constructed story that breaks nearly every Production Code mandate I can think of, with the various elements and character relationships continuously growing more constricted, a tightening a noose around their necks.
Robert Wise was the right choice for the project. He particularly lights and stages an early violent sequence well, recalling the horror films of Val Lewton that he served his directorial apprenticeship on. Apparently the French New Wave critics thought he was too restrained, but I think it's his very restrait that makes the material work. There's a cool objectivity here that I like, and frankly a class to Wise's work in general that throws the material into relief.
Unfortunately, the dialogue is often so ripe it's dying on the vine, and the actors are all under the influence of a performing style I call High Middle Hollywood: not one of them is convincing or realistic, although at least Walter Slezak and Esther Howard are appealing in their artificiality. But Claire Trevor and Lawrence Tierney are wooden in the leads, and Elisha Wood, Jr., Phillip Terry and Audrey Long are soggy as secondary characters.
Noir historian Eddie Muller provides a nice commentary track (a few audio comments spliced in from Wise as well, but sadly he was in his last years by this point and too old and infirm to provide much information). Muller considers this one of the great noirs. I don't think it's a classic, but I think what works in it works enough to make it a movie worth checking out. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2013 9:52 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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| Speaking of ripe dialogue, I was put off a bit by the Significant Noir Lines in Bob le Flambeur. |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2013 10:44 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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Syd wrote: Bob le Flambeur ("Bob the Gambler")
Other French noir/heist films of the same era:
Touchez Pas au Grisbi (1954)
Rififi (1955)
Grisbi stars Jean Gabin and was an influence on Flaming Bob. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2013 11:18 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: NYC
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A couple of weeks ago I saw a pretty good noir on TCM called "The Pitfall," with Dick Powell as a happily married insurance executive who has to make a list of the items stolen by a convicted robber. The person holding most of the loot is Lizabeth Scott, the prisoner's beautiful blond girlfriend, and sympathetic Powell becomes involved with her when the private detective hired by his company, a sinister Raymond Burr, becomes obsessed and starts stalking her. It all comes to violence and murder, of course, but it's a bit confusing toward the end because we don't see anything happening between Scott and Powell except a few clandestine meetings after work--but apparently there's been more to their relationship than that, since he's anxious to keep his wife from finding out, and when she does, she considers divorce. The film was made in 1948, and I can't help but suspect that some suggestive scenes were scissored.
By the way, TCM is showing "Lifeboat" tomorrow night at 8, just in case anyone here is a Tallulah fan. A bunch of other Hitchcocks are being shown on Sunday. |
Last edited by carrobin on Fri Sep 13, 2013 11:28 am; edited 1 time in total |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2013 11:27 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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carrobin wrote: By the way, TCM is showing "Lifeboat" tonight at 8, just in case anyone here is a Tallullah fan.
It also happens to be--incredibly--one of Hitchcock's pitiful handful of Oscar nominations as director. "Incredibly" because it's not so hot. My favorite thing about it is Hitchcock's own appearance, which was difficult to manage since all the action is in a lifeboat with a very few characters. The movie is worth seeing for the Hitch cameo and Bankhead's performance but not much else. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2013 12:10 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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| "Reduco, Obesity Slayer!" |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sat Sep 14, 2013 11:53 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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I'm at the 1:14 point in House of Games and screaming "Maggie, wake up!" Enjoyable movie even if Lindsay Crouse can't act worth beans.
It's good to see Lilia Skala in the film. She was 90 years old when she made the film (and looks 20 years younger), and lived to be 98, proving that sometimes the good die old. She's best known for playing the Mother Superior in Lilies of the Field.
Edit: I'm satisfied with the ending, but not with the scene where Margaret has everything spelled out for her. Come on, she's fallen victim to a con that has been spelled out three times right in front of her. Wouldn't it have been better if she'd figured it out through her own brainpower? |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sun Sep 15, 2013 12:59 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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That's the one where Ricky Jay explains a short-change hustle? Yeah, I really had problems with that film - not just the mannered and wooden acting, but the seeming lack of savvy from a shrink who is supposed to specialize in gambling addictions. I was constantly aware that Crouse was only there, reading lines, because she was the director's GF....this, combined with some kind of weird saturated color scheme pitted against the noir thematic material, induced a kind of cinematic nausea.
And, coincidentally, I saw recently part of that Mamet thing with William H. Macy as the college professor accused of sexual harassment - can't remember the title, and am glad of the lapse. Mamet, like M. Night Shyamalan, shouldn't ever be let out of director's jail. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Sun Sep 15, 2013 3:41 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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| Oleanna. |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Sun Sep 15, 2013 3:42 pm |
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Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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Ooops. Just realized what the the "glad of the lapse" bit meant. Sorry.
Awful play, too. |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sun Sep 15, 2013 3:59 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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| S'ok. It really takes some kind of evil genius to make William H. Macy look so terrible and sound so unnatural. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Sun Sep 15, 2013 4:14 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| I've been watching the Hitchcock films on TCM this weekend, and enjoyed "Lifeboat" last night--the Hitch "cameo" was indeed clever. And having seen neither "The Trouble With Harry" nor "Family Plot" since they first came out, I remembered very little about them but liked them more than I did the first time, because I knew better than to expect them to resemble "Psycho" or "North by Northwest." They're lightweight but fun--only slightly above TV movie quality, but worth the attention. |
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