018 - The Lady Eve

Synopsis: 40's comedy - female con-artist tries to rip off rich adventurer but falls in love, blah, blah, blah..

Director: Preston Sturges

Actors: Henry Fonda, Barbara Stanwyck, Charles Coburn

Date: 1941

How viewed: already in my collection

Rating: 3/5

David Meyer says: 

The smartest of all screwball comedies, with dialogue that flows so smoothly you may not notice the best lines until after the movie's over

I say:

Essentially a 2-act play - Stanwyck and her dad (Coburn) are on a liner back from S America to New York and try to fleece the richest man they can find (Fonda, heir to an ale company, travelling back after a year up the Amazon). But they start to fall in love, the plan wavers, he finds out and dumps her. She's out for revenge, and in the 2nd half manages to pass herself off as another woman and get him to marry her. Then she dumps him. But eventually it all ends happily... Stanwyck is great, the 2nd half is much better, but Fonda is weak (just imagine what Cary Grant would have done with the role) and the supporting characters just are generally simply not eccentric enough. Perhaps I'm too harsh - Preston Sturges (writer, director) was clearly pushing the envelope. This is what wikipedia says: In recent years, film scholars such as Alessandro Pirolini have also argued that Sturges' cinema anticipated more experimental narratives by contemporary directors such as Joel and Ethan Coen, Robert Zemeckis, and Woody Allen, along with prolific The Simpsons writer John Swartzwelder: "Many of [Sturges'] movies and screenplays reveal a restless and impatient attempt to escape codified rules and narrative schemata, and to push the mechanisms and conventions of their genre to the extent of unveiling them to the spectator. Perhaps I should watch it again!

017 - The Wages of Fear

Synopsis: Four guys with nothing to lose drive 2 trucks of nitroglycerin across mountain roads

Director: H G Clouzot

Actors: Yves Montand, Vera Clouzot, Charles Vanel

Date: 1948

How viewed: already in my collection

Rating: 4/5

David Meyer says: 

With his single lens, unmoving camera, and apparent determination to kill his cast, Clouzot merges the pre-war action extravaganza with the post-war personal statement picture.

I say:

This takes an awfully long time to get going, as the first half of the film just records the day to day existence of a bunch of guys who have somehow finished up in a back of beyond town in South America and don't have the money, passports, visas or wherewithal to get out. There's a lot of bitching about the local American oil company, until one of their wells 300 miles away catches fire and they offer a bucket load of money to recruit 4 drivers to take 2 truckloads of nitroglycerin taken there to blow out the fire (remember how Red Adair used to do that every week a few decades ago..). But once the drive starts the tension builds up incessantly. Predictably rivalries emerge and everything can go wrong does, and the good guy survives, but it's still a great roller coaster ride. Interesting connections with Speed (at one point they have to drive at a consistent 40mph), 2001 (the truck and the townsfolk waltzing to Strauss), and the Italian Job (those treacherous mountain roads..), and I kept thinking of that road in Peru - I found this but almost can't watch it:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0153h6s/Worlds_Most_Dangerous_Roads_Peru/

aargghhhhh.....

016 - The Outsiders

Synopsis: Rights of passage (teenage gangs fight etc)

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

Actors: Thomas Howell, Ralph Macchio, Matt Dillon, Patrick Swazye, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, Tom Cruise, Diane Lane, Tom Waits

Date: 1983

How viewed: watched lovefilm online 

Rating: 2/5

David Meyer says: 

Coppola bring a European-art-film sensitivity to a subject only an American could ever understand

I say: 

This film probably works better if you know the book (in the US apparently it's a teenage classic) but for most of us, the interest is in seeing so many stars (Dillon, Swazye, Lowe, Estevez, Cruise) very early in their careers, though 2 lesser lights (Howell and Macchio) actually play the lead parts. Spoilt for me by appalling background music and theme (perhaps the worst song that Stevie Wonder has ever sung!), and I also couldn't believe the way the bad kids transformed into civilised, educated, poetry quoting teenagers after a few days in the countryside - though apparently the book gives a lot more detail about the characters (as you would expect). The film re-issue apparently removes some scenes, includes deleted scenes and replaces the Coppola penned music with tracks by Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins, so perhaps I should have watched that!! PS features some great cars though!

015 - Fearless

Synopsis: Plane crash survivor believes he has become invincible

Director: Peter Weir

Actors: Jeff Bridges, Isabella Rossellini, Rosie Perez

Date: 1993

How viewed: bought on Amazon - region 1 DVD

Rating: 3/5

David Meyer says: 

.. themes of responsibility, the limits of caring, and how one brief moment can completely alter what seemed to be lifelong values.  A genuine moving, insightful picture from a major modern studio.

I say:

Whilst any film with Jeff Bridges (what a CV he must have!) and Isabella Rosselini is worth watching, this all seemed too far fetched to me. I kept being reminded of 'Lost' and the aftermath of a plane crash where you're are not sure if in fact all the 'survivors' are actually dead, and I was expecting the film to take on a fantasy element, but ultimately it didn't. I guess it's all about the ways that post-traumatic stress affects different people in different ways, but do any people really behave like the Jeff Bridges character? Almost worth watching just for the terrifyingly realistic plane crash at the end. However, what did we learn from watching this (perhaps I should ask that question of every film I watch!) - in this case, parhaps, if you know you're going to die, stay calm, it's all going to be OK (echoes of The Hit (005 in my list) there!). 

014 - Let it Ride

Synopsis: Gambler hits a winning streak at the race track

Director: Joe Pytka

Actors: Richard Dreyfuss, Teri Garr, David Johansen

Date: 1989

How viewed: bought on Amazon - region 1 double feature with 'Lucky Numbers' 

Rating: 4/5

David Meyer says: 

A rare find: a contemporary film to make adults laugh without ever feeling insulted [or] patronized.. [Dreyfuss] has never been so low key or so likeable

I say:

That was fun - lightweight stuff, but the film keeps you enthralled until the end, and you can't help routing for Dreyfuss's luck to continue. Can't say I've warmed to Richard Dreyfuss previously (Jaws, Close Encounters) but he was great, as are all the supporting actors: Teri Garr (who seems to light up a lot of films without ever making much of an impact), Robbie Coltrane, Michelle Phillips (ex Mamas and Papas, who I note married and divorced Dennis Hopper in the course of 8 days!!), Jennifer Tilly (who is also a World Series of Poker Ladies' Event bracelet winner - whatever that means - what would we do without Wikipedia???), and unexpectedly David Johansen (New York Dolls, and aka Buster Poindexter). 

013 - Cabeza de Vaca

Synopsis: The 8 year travels across America of a 16th century Spanish conquistador after being shipwrecked

Director: Nicholas Echevarria

Actors: Juan Diego

Date: 1993

How viewed: bought dodgy copy on ebay from Mexico...

Rating: 4/5

David Meyer says: 

For all the strangeness, infinite spells without a word of dialogue, and explicit violence, there's also plenty of cool western action, plus landscapes out of nightmares.. .. this may prove one of the enduring filmic experiences of your life. 

I say:

The film is based on the true story of Cabeza de Vaca, who was part of a Spanish expedition of 600 men shipwrecked on the coast of Florida in 1528, who travelled across America, encountering various native tribes, until he and the 3 other survivors were found by another Spanish expedition in Texas 8 years later (but I only found that out later - see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Álvar_Núñez_Cabeza_de_Vaca). Actually the film probably works better if you don't know the story. It provides you with very few clues, and thus echoes his experience: you don't know where you are, or where you're going, or what will happen next, or whether the next band of natives you encounter will be friendly or not, or what they are talking about. Consequently it's a real journey into the unknown and is pretty scary at times. It reminded me somewhat of Gulliver's Travels - at times he was enslaved, at times treated like e messiah - and at times it was like a documentary of the rituals of undiscovered Amazonian tribes. However, for all it's good points, there was a lot of emotional weeping and wailing, and over-emphasis on the allegory for the imposition of Christianity on natives. Enjoyed it though, and learning about Cabeza.