Barbet Schroeder's outr...
Barbet Schroeder’s outr
Le Mans
The nominal director is Lee H Katzin, but this was entirely Steve McQueen's project. Starring and driving, his 1971 film about the famous 24-hour race was his obsession, and he was in a strange place when he made it, his paranoid quest for perfection reflected in the extraordinary cinematography of motors in motion. Barely any plot, it's all wheels, speed and engine noise. Less a movie than a machine.
The nominal director is Lee H Katzin, but this was entirely Steve McQueen’s project. Starring and driving, his 1971 film about the famous 24-hour race was his obsession, and he was in a strange place when he made it, his paranoid quest for perfection reflected in the extraordinary cinematography of motors in motion. Barely any plot, it’s all wheels, speed and engine noise. Less a movie than a machine.
That’ll Be The Day – Stardust
The 1973 story of young fairground worker Jim (David Essex) making it as a pop star on the cusp of the '60s captures the very smell of small-time rock'n'roll dreaming. It ekes real pathos from the bloating of Jim's ego. Keith Moon's his drummer. In the sequel, Jim turns Lizard King, forgets his roots, shags around and gives manager Adam Faith headaches. Great.
The 1973 story of young fairground worker Jim (David Essex) making it as a pop star on the cusp of the ’60s captures the very smell of small-time rock’n’roll dreaming. It ekes real pathos from the bloating of Jim’s ego. Keith Moon’s his drummer. In the sequel, Jim turns Lizard King, forgets his roots, shags around and gives manager Adam Faith headaches. Great.
The Kid Stays In The Picture
Ridiculous documentary in praise of the gigantic ego of producer Robert Evans, 'somebody' in the '70s but a self-promoting Hollywood Del Boy now. Sure, he bankrolled great films once (The Godfather, Chinatown), but this indulgent, visually static puff-piece (chiefly composed of photos and Evans saying what a fabulous mogul and stud he is) isn't one of them.
Ridiculous documentary in praise of the gigantic ego of producer Robert Evans, ‘somebody’ in the ’70s but a self-promoting Hollywood Del Boy now. Sure, he bankrolled great films once (The Godfather, Chinatown), but this indulgent, visually static puff-piece (chiefly composed of photos and Evans saying what a fabulous mogul and stud he is) isn’t one of them.
Trapeze
Burt Lancaster, gruff and manly, and Tony Curtis, delicately fey, star in Carol Reed's howlingly homoerotic tale of two leotard-clad acrobats in '50s Paris, vying for each other's respect, for the affections of Gina Lollobrigida, and for mastery of the triple somersault. "Teach me the triple!" says wide-eyed Curtis to Lancaster. "Are you crazy?!" splurts Lancaster, outraged.
Burt Lancaster, gruff and manly, and Tony Curtis, delicately fey, star in Carol Reed’s howlingly homoerotic tale of two leotard-clad acrobats in ’50s Paris, vying for each other’s respect, for the affections of Gina Lollobrigida, and for mastery of the triple somersault. “Teach me the triple!” says wide-eyed Curtis to Lancaster. “Are you crazy?!” splurts Lancaster, outraged.
Alice’s Restaurant
Arthur Penn's follow-up to Bonnie And Clyde, based on Arlo Guthrie's blues hit about his arrest for littering and how it led to him being rejected for service in Vietnam. Penn's movie follows Guthrie as he wanders the US from draft board to college to commune, providing a time capsule of the dreams and rituals of late-'60s drop-out America; and one that, with its lingeringly downbeat ending, now looks prescient.
Arthur Penn’s follow-up to Bonnie And Clyde, based on Arlo Guthrie’s blues hit about his arrest for littering and how it led to him being rejected for service in Vietnam. Penn’s movie follows Guthrie as he wanders the US from draft board to college to commune, providing a time capsule of the dreams and rituals of late-’60s drop-out America; and one that, with its lingeringly downbeat ending, now looks prescient.
The Rules Of Attraction
Prompting both genuflections at its breakneck brilliance and gasps at its gung-ho grisliness, Roger Avary's comeback has been a startling opinion-divider. Fans of the Bret Easton Ellis novel will relish the former Tarantino sidekick's fidelity to the blank immorality of the prose, yet the movie bursts with visual ideas. James Van Der Beek is fearlessly irredeemable as Sean Bateman (younger brother of the American Psycho), flailing across campus, gobbling up narcotics, rock'n'roll (it has a great soundtrack), girls, boys, suicides, whatever. Shannyn Sossamon is equally brave as his potential partner/victim. Cameos from Eric Stoltz and Faye Dunaway are just amphetamines on the cake. A hurricane. Unforgettable.
Prompting both genuflections at its breakneck brilliance and gasps at its gung-ho grisliness, Roger Avary’s comeback has been a startling opinion-divider. Fans of the Bret Easton Ellis novel will relish the former Tarantino sidekick’s fidelity to the blank immorality of the prose, yet the movie bursts with visual ideas. James Van Der Beek is fearlessly irredeemable as Sean Bateman (younger brother of the American Psycho), flailing across campus, gobbling up narcotics, rock’n’roll (it has a great soundtrack), girls, boys, suicides, whatever. Shannyn Sossamon is equally brave as his potential partner/victim. Cameos from Eric Stoltz and Faye Dunaway are just amphetamines on the cake. A hurricane. Unforgettable.
Donovan’s Reef
Rowdy late John Ford comedy starring John Wayne and Lee Marvin as Guns Donovan and Boats Gilhooley, brawling Navy veterans who stay on in the South Pacific after the war against the Japanese ("bad, black days"). Contemporary audiences will probably find it crude, noisy and rambling?but it's ravishingly shot, and beneath the slapstick there's a sharp satire on class, race and friendship.
Rowdy late John Ford comedy starring John Wayne and Lee Marvin as Guns Donovan and Boats Gilhooley, brawling Navy veterans who stay on in the South Pacific after the war against the Japanese (“bad, black days”). Contemporary audiences will probably find it crude, noisy and rambling?but it’s ravishingly shot, and beneath the slapstick there’s a sharp satire on class, race and friendship.
In This World
Michael Winterbottom veers as far away as imaginable from 24 Hour Party People, proving yet again that he's bizarrely versatile, in this "fictionalised documentary" about two Afghan refugees who flee across Pakistan, Iran and Turkey in an attempt to reach the relative safety of Kilburn High Road. Not an easy watch, it won multiple awards for its grainy worthiness.
Michael Winterbottom veers as far away as imaginable from 24 Hour Party People, proving yet again that he’s bizarrely versatile, in this “fictionalised documentary” about two Afghan refugees who flee across Pakistan, Iran and Turkey in an attempt to reach the relative safety of Kilburn High Road. Not an easy watch, it won multiple awards for its grainy worthiness.
Pal Joey
Deeply cool 1957 musical based on the feckless chancer of the John O'Hara stories. Who else but Frank Sinatra could play the nightclub crooner who's a heel to not only Rita Hayworth but Kim Novak (both of whose singing was dubbed)? Rodgers & Hart songs, some (though not quite enough) smart-ass dialogue, and Frank in full effect.
Deeply cool 1957 musical based on the feckless chancer of the John O’Hara stories. Who else but Frank Sinatra could play the nightclub crooner who’s a heel to not only Rita Hayworth but Kim Novak (both of whose singing was dubbed)? Rodgers & Hart songs, some (though not quite enough) smart-ass dialogue, and Frank in full effect.
Six Degrees Of Separation
Director Fred Schepisi attacks John Guare's stageplay, frenetically switching locations and narrators as often as possible in an attempt to movie-ise this intelligent, satirical, wordy account of sociopathic homosexual confidence trickster Will Smith (acting, for real!) and his divisive impact upon a group of pompous, wealthy, middle-aged Upper East Side culturati.
Director Fred Schepisi attacks John Guare’s stageplay, frenetically switching locations and narrators as often as possible in an attempt to movie-ise this intelligent, satirical, wordy account of sociopathic homosexual confidence trickster Will Smith (acting, for real!) and his divisive impact upon a group of pompous, wealthy, middle-aged Upper East Side culturati.
The Magdalene Sisters
Peter Mullan proves himself a director of real bite in this harsh, affecting study of how '60s Ireland's strict adherence to Catholic doctrines ruined the sanity of many a young woman. If deemed to be in "moral danger", girls were incarcerated, with nuns serving as jailers. Geraldine McEwan makes a chilling wicked witch, and a sparky cast ensures it's an engrossing, unpreachy story.
Peter Mullan proves himself a director of real bite in this harsh, affecting study of how ’60s Ireland’s strict adherence to Catholic doctrines ruined the sanity of many a young woman. If deemed to be in “moral danger”, girls were incarcerated, with nuns serving as jailers. Geraldine McEwan makes a chilling wicked witch, and a sparky cast ensures it’s an engrossing, unpreachy story.
Extreme Prejudice
Not quite the outright remake of The Wild Bunch it's often written up as, but still by some distance Walter Hill's most explicit homage to Sam Peckinpah. Based on a story by John Milius, 1987's Extreme Prejudice pitches upright Texas Ranger Jack Benteen (a suitably monolithic Nick Nolte) against old buddy Cash Bailey (a colourfully demented Powers Boothe), a former DEA enforcer turned major drug baron who's flooding the US with massive amounts of cocaine from his Mexican fortress, where he's surrounded by a small army of heavily-armed desperadoes. Thrown into this volatile mix are Michael Ironside's black ops team, covert specialists in mayhem, out to retrieve secret documents from the increasingly fucked-up Cash. There are echoes galore of classic westerns, a Hawksian sense of duty and honour in Jack's conflicted loyalty (does he side with his former friend or the people who want to bring him down?) and powerhouse performances from Nolte, Boothe, Ironside and Rip Torn. The body count is staggering and the set-pieces terrific?including a cantina shoot-out, a roadhouse gunfight, a brilliant bank robbery sequence and, of course, Hill's reprise of the Bunch's bloody last stand.
Not quite the outright remake of The Wild Bunch it’s often written up as, but still by some distance Walter Hill’s most explicit homage to Sam Peckinpah. Based on a story by John Milius, 1987’s Extreme Prejudice pitches upright Texas Ranger Jack Benteen (a suitably monolithic Nick Nolte) against old buddy Cash Bailey (a colourfully demented Powers Boothe), a former DEA enforcer turned major drug baron who’s flooding the US with massive amounts of cocaine from his Mexican fortress, where he’s surrounded by a small army of heavily-armed desperadoes. Thrown into this volatile mix are Michael Ironside’s black ops team, covert specialists in mayhem, out to retrieve secret documents from the increasingly fucked-up Cash.
There are echoes galore of classic westerns, a Hawksian sense of duty and honour in Jack’s conflicted loyalty (does he side with his former friend or the people who want to bring him down?) and powerhouse performances from Nolte, Boothe, Ironside and Rip Torn. The body count is staggering and the set-pieces terrific?including a cantina shoot-out, a roadhouse gunfight, a brilliant bank robbery sequence and, of course, Hill’s reprise of the Bunch’s bloody last stand.
La Jetée – Sans Soleil
French director Chris Marker's short "film novel" from 1962, La Jet...
French director Chris Marker’s short “film novel” from 1962, La Jet
Forbidden Dreams
It's such a classic snob remark: oh, I prefer his early work. In the case of Polanski, however, it's thunderously true. The Pianist won Oscars because it was a dignified statement about war's horrors, and technically excellent. But it also demanded that other classic snob comment: worthy but dull. I...
It’s such a classic snob remark: oh, I prefer his early work. In the case of Polanski, however, it’s thunderously true. The Pianist won Oscars because it was a dignified statement about war’s horrors, and technically excellent. But it also demanded that other classic snob comment: worthy but dull. It wasn’t as annoying as Benigni’s Life Is Beautiful, but was less convincing than Schindler’s List. It was, basically, Oscar-fodder. Polanski may have meant it, but he made the earth-shattering seem rather mundane. Whereas what made him special, as an egomaniacal young turk, was that his films made the mundane seem earth-shattering.
His first three full-length works?Knife In The Water, Repulsion and Cul-De-Sac?gathered for this box set alongside eight of his early, intensely surrealist shorts (see “Short But Bittersweet”, right), are miraculous pieces of cinema. Timeless, monochrome and riddled with murky mystery, they sneak into your dreams and nightmares and squat there, cackling. They deal with fear, competitiveness and master-servant sexual insecurity, with a lethal instinct for cutting to the universal quick. Welding the absurd to the atmospheric, they don’t over-explain themselves. It’s all done with smoke and mirrors, and knowing just how far to push so as to leave you teetering on sanity’s edge. If he could have brought an ounce of this freakishness, this clammy claustrophobia, to The Pianist, he’d’ve made the strongest WWII film imaginable. He’d never have got near on Oscar, of course, but we’d’ve got nearer to what I think he wanted to convey.
Strangely, Knife In The Water was Oscar-nominated (losing out honourably, in ’62, to Fellini’s 8
Short Cuts
Wandering in from the Americana column (see page 113) comes Alison Krauss And Union Station Live 
. The first disc of the double-disc package features the bluegrass favourites in concert, while the second has interviews, behind-the-scenes footage and home videos. From similar territory comes The Three Pickers , a country-folk-bluegrass variant on the operatic template. Earl Scruggs, Doc Watson and Ricky Skaggs all do their thang individually before they unite for a back porch-style picking session. Almost Elvis is an uproarious account of the world of Presley impersonators, of whom there are allegedly 350,000 in the world. It's amusing, but by the time you get to the extras you've seen enough. Prog rock lives on in Supertramp?The Story So Far , which tells their history via interviews, memories and highlights of a 1983 world tour. Recorded last year, Fairport Convention 35th Anniversary Concert finds the folk-rock pioneers creaking a bit. But it's good to hear the likes of "Matty Groves" and "Meet On The Ledge" again. Springsteen, Costello, Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt all guest on Roy Orbison Greatest Hits 
. But it's the Big O and that astonishing voice that still holds the attention on a dozen performances of different vintage. Compilation DVDs are usually spotty affairs, and The Singer And The Song is no exception. The '60s/'70s German TV show Beat Club is once again the source for 22 performances that range from the dull (Kiki Dee, David Essex) to the memorable (Ray Charles, Van Morrison). Maximum R&B is the order of the night on Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes?Live At The Opera House . Storming performances of all the hits such as "I Wanna Go Home" and "This Time It's For Real" are supported by interviews and other bonus material.
Wandering in from the Americana column (see page 113) comes Alison Krauss And Union Station Live . The first disc of the double-disc package features the bluegrass favourites in concert, while the second has interviews, behind-the-scenes footage and home videos. From similar territory comes The Three Pickers , a country-folk-bluegrass variant on the operatic template. Earl Scruggs, Doc Watson and Ricky Skaggs all do their thang individually before they unite for a back porch-style picking session. Almost Elvis is an uproarious account of the world of Presley impersonators, of whom there are allegedly 350,000 in the world. It’s amusing, but by the time you get to the extras you’ve seen enough. Prog rock lives on in Supertramp?The Story So Far , which tells their history via interviews, memories and highlights of a 1983 world tour. Recorded last year, Fairport Convention 35th Anniversary Concert finds the folk-rock pioneers creaking a bit. But it’s good to hear the likes of “Matty Groves” and “Meet On The Ledge” again. Springsteen, Costello, Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt all guest on Roy Orbison Greatest Hits . But it’s the Big O and that astonishing voice that still holds the attention on a dozen performances of different vintage. Compilation DVDs are usually spotty affairs, and The Singer And The Song is no exception. The ’60s/’70s German TV show Beat Club is once again the source for 22 performances that range from the dull (Kiki Dee, David Essex) to the memorable (Ray Charles, Van Morrison). Maximum R&B is the order of the night on Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes?Live At The Opera House . Storming performances of all the hits such as “I Wanna Go Home” and “This Time It’s For Real” are supported by interviews and other bonus material.
The Onion Field
Two cops are shot at; the survivor (John Savage) is ostracised by his colleagues for alleged cowardice, which takes him years to live down. Joseph Wambaugh's novel was faithfully treated by Harold Becker in this 1979 curate's egg, but brilliant as Savage is, it's an up-and-coming, intense actor named James Woods who lights the bonfire.
Two cops are shot at; the survivor (John Savage) is ostracised by his colleagues for alleged cowardice, which takes him years to live down. Joseph Wambaugh’s novel was faithfully treated by Harold Becker in this 1979 curate’s egg, but brilliant as Savage is, it’s an up-and-coming, intense actor named James Woods who lights the bonfire.
The Quiet American
Brendan Fraser is an American aid worker in Vietnam who just might be masterminding a US-backed anticommunist coup while seducing Phuong (Do Thi Hai Yen), the classically demure oriental lover of cynical British hack Thomas Fowler (Michael Caine). An intriguing, morally muddy adaptation of Graham Greene via director Philip Noyce.
Brendan Fraser is an American aid worker in Vietnam who just might be masterminding a US-backed anticommunist coup while seducing Phuong (Do Thi Hai Yen), the classically demure oriental lover of cynical British hack Thomas Fowler (Michael Caine). An intriguing, morally muddy adaptation of Graham Greene via director Philip Noyce.
Jackass—The Movie
Johnny Knoxville and his cohorts torture, humiliate and occasionally shave themselves and others in this big-screen outing for the cult TV show. Much of their wanton destruction and reckless self-endangerment you can take or leave, but the bowling ball in the bollocks induces a major wince, as does the bungee wedgie and the between-toe paper-cutting.
Johnny Knoxville and his cohorts torture, humiliate and occasionally shave themselves and others in this big-screen outing for the cult TV show. Much of their wanton destruction and reckless self-endangerment you can take or leave, but the bowling ball in the bollocks induces a major wince, as does the bungee wedgie and the between-toe paper-cutting.
Bound For Glory
Hal Ashby's unsatisfactory Woody Guthrie biopic from 1976 uses a shovelful of sentiment to flatten out most of the bumps in Guthrie's life, but David Carradine contributes a glorious, low-key performance as the visionary legend who travelled his country throughout the Great Depression, singing for the beat-down folk and fighting off the Fascists. The real star, though, is Haskell Wexler's radiant dustbowl cinematography.
Hal Ashby’s unsatisfactory Woody Guthrie biopic from 1976 uses a shovelful of sentiment to flatten out most of the bumps in Guthrie’s life, but David Carradine contributes a glorious, low-key performance as the visionary legend who travelled his country throughout the Great Depression, singing for the beat-down folk and fighting off the Fascists. The real star, though, is Haskell Wexler’s radiant dustbowl cinematography.
