11 posts tagged “repost”

As a follow up to yesterday's post on our Saturday night viewing of Casablanca, I thought I would post this review I wrote on June 14, 2007. And no, I still haven't seen it in the theaters, although it is coming to the Brattle for its annual Valentine's Day visit, so I need to block the time out for it.

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Ahh, Casablanca...  What more can I add to all the paens that have been written, and all the odes of love that have yet to be written?  I can say it is one of my all time favorite movies, and is the one I've seen the most.  A conservative estimate would be that I've seen it 30 times, quite possibly up to twice that number.  And to all those people who wonder how someone can watch a movie that often, I refer you to Roger Ebert's wonderful review in his book The Great Movies, where he compares watching Casablanca with listening to your favorite music CD - just a nice evening with a comfortable friend.

The serpentine story of a disillusioned saloon owner Rick (Humphrey Bogart), who meets an old flame, Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman), who, it turns out, is the wife of a Resistance leader, Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid).  After much twisting and turning, they all try to do the right thing, and it ends with one of the most famous lines in film history:

Rick: "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.".

My favorite character, actually, and the one I would most like to play in the sequel, is Captain Renault, the Louis in the above quote, played most wonderfully by Claude Rains.  While something of a slimeball, he's a happy-go-lucky one, who knows what he likes and what he can do, and is happy with that.  He has some good lines ("I like to think you killed a man.  It's the romantic in me." and "I'm shocked, shocked to find out gambling is going on here!" ), and in general comes out smelling like roses, as you would expect to happen with someone like Captain Renault.

The DVD is simply spectacular.  We've watched all kinds of incarnations (although, sadly, I've yet to actually see it in the movie theaters), but the DVD is like watching a brand new movie.  The filmmakers went to great lengths to have all kinds of action happening in the background, and you can finally see it.  The "colors" are gorgeous shades of black and white, and the sharpness is eye-popping.  It also includes a nice little documentary, as well as trailers for Casablanca and many other Bogart and Bergman films, including the Casablanca'ssort-of sequel, Passage to Marseilles.

We spent some time last night dissecting Rick's motivations, and to see when he gets over being bitter and finally gives Ilsa credit for doing the right thing.  It takes a couple of incidents for him to figure it out, but while he is pissed, he's got some wonderfully poisonous lines, like "I saved my first drink for you." and "Did you leave me for Laszlo, or was there someone in between.... or aren't you the kind that tells?" .  But the nice sub-plot of the young Hungarian couple (notice they are in several crowd shots before that, and are also trying to get a visa while Ilsa and Victor are visiting Capt. Renault) resolves itself through the "honest" roulette wheel, reminding him that perhaps somebody did love him that much.  Ilsa then visits him and explains to him just how complicated life can be.  So much has been written about the happenings on the Casablanca set (too much, I think, robbing the movie of some of its magic), but the fact that Ingrid Bergman didn't know the ending (heck, no one knew who she would end up going with until the last takes), gives her confusion some real credence and adds a special poignancy to the visit in Rick's apartment.  It is a fun line of investigation and one that I'll certainly visit again with my friend who introduced me to the Casablanca drug.  We watch it together quite often, and I'm sure more mention of this all-time classic will happen in here.

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And, as a added bonus, here's a great "speed painting" of Rick and Ilsa, courtesy of el otro yo's Vox blog:

High Fidelity is a good movie about relationships and I was glad to pick up my own copy. I have since read the book and found the book to be as enjoyable as the movie. Given the current World Series run of the Red Sox, I need to watch Fever Pitch again, and read the book, which I haven't read (and is, I guess, actually about a fanatical soccer fan). I originally wrote this review in March 2005.

High Fidelity is the Stephen Frears (director) / John Cusack (writer/producer/star) movie from 2000, based upon the Nick Hornsby book of the same name.  It is about a man who ruminates on his life, loves and losses, as he struggles to grow up and stay involved.  A pretty solid movie all around, and a real feather in Cusack's cap, as he was involved in so many pieces of this production.

The movie starts with Rob Gordon's (Cusack) live-in girlfriend Laura (played by Iben Hjejle) checking out of the relationship, one she finds at a dead end, due to Rob's inability to change, or even more basically, grow up.  While Laura has matured into a successful lawyer, Rob remains stuck as the owner of a backwater used record store.  After she leaves, Rob begins his countdown of his personal top 5 breakups.

While reliving these memories (and talking to us), his life goes on.  His record store has two employees who, he says, he hired to work 3 days a week but started showing up every day.  Dick (Todd Louisi) and Barry (a bravura performance by Jack Black) are also record junkies as well as musical snobs.  Dick is a shy, withdrawn guy, while Barry compensates for him by being over the top and in your face.  There is an especially funny scene when a man tries to buy a light pop record for his daughter and Barry browbeats him right out of the store.

Laura continues to float in and out of Rob's life, while Rob plays catch up with some of his former lovers.  He also has a quirky relationship with a local pop singer Marie De Salle (Lisa Bonet).  He struggles to make it work out, and seems to have life under control by the end of the movie.

This is a real fun, light movie.  There are some excellent scenes, and lots of "name" actors helping out, including Catherine Zeta-Jones as the "out of his league" girlfriend, Tim Robbins as Laura's fling, and even several big names that ended up on the cutting floor, like Harold Ramis and Beverly D'Angelo.  John's sister, Joan has a great turn as the friend caught between Laura and Rob, while even lesser Cusack brethren Susie (sister) and Dick (father) show up.  There are several laugh out loud scenes, even if Rob is a bit of a selfish loser, but at least he's working at it.

Another notable component of the story is, of course, the music.  I can't even imagine the difficulty and cost of obtaining the rights to all the great music to be found in this movie.  There are over 60 songs listed in the credits!  The cost for the rights to these alone could probably float many smaller countries.  And it's great music too - what a soundtrack album this movie would make.  There is a definite love of modern music shown by all involved.

The DVD is pretty solid, with pretty good Dolby Digital 5.1 sound and a good picture.  The extras a pretty thin.  There's a bunch of deleted scenes (the only place you'll see D'Angelo and Ramis), which only go to show you the director is usually right in cutting them.  D'Angelo's turn as an embittered wife trying to sell off her philandering husband's priceless 45 collection is pretty good, and is one of the rare spots that show Rob not being selfish.  And there are some talking head interviews with Cusack and Frears, that I haven't quite entirely waded through. And that's about it.

Well, I really enjoyed High Fidelity when I first saw it a year or so ago, enough so that when I saw it on the cheap at my local grocery store, I picked it up.  There's some good, albeit dime store, psychology happening, some nice one liners, and Black's over the top job as the record store dweeb.  Well worth a visit, I say!

Speaking of Solaris, here's my original review, written in April of 2003. As I said in my review of Soderbergh's version, it is a true epic, but really more of a comment on its length, as opposed to its scope. It has a very short focus, on just a few people, like a narrow yet deep stream. Talking about it so much makes me want to see it again. There are plenty of spoilers in the review ahead, so watch out!

Solaris is director Andrei Tarkovsky's science fiction opus from 1972, and is considered a masterpiece of Russian filmmaking, along with several of his other movies like Andrei Rublyov.  But to call it a "science fiction" movie is not doing it justice, as Tarkovsky was interested in much more than merely bringing Polish author Stanislaw Lem's novel to life.  In keeping with a common thread running through all of his movies, Tarkovsky was examining the relationship of Man, Nature, and the inner self more than merely giving a view of the future.

Kris Kelvin (Bulgarian actor Donatas Banionis) is a scientist being sent to a space station orbiting the planet Solaris, who is to decide if the station should be kept funded.  Its mission is to investigate a possible alien life force found on the planet, seeming to emanate from a vast "ocean" on the surface of the planet.  In the 20 years of investigation, nothing conclusive had yet been found.  The movie begins with a clash between Kris and his father, who are on the 'what is the benefit now' vs. the 'what is the long term benefit' sides of the arguments.  Kris views a film of Solaris' discovery, brought to them by the pilot of the ship in question, where the pilot talks of seeing strange sights in the "ocean".

[=== SPOILER ALERT ===]

Upon arrival in the eerily quiet and messy space station, Kris begins to see things have gone awry.  The scientist he previously knew is now dead, supposedly a suicide, while the other two scientist exhibit some very strange behaviors, furtive glances, and elliptical speech patterns.  Then things get really strange when a woman shows up in his room, and we later find out it is his long dead ex-wife, Khari.

It turns out all the scientists have been having the "visions" or apparitions even, showing up, their own personal dreams or nightmares being manifested by the ocean.  Kris notices small inconsistencies in the apparition of his ex-wife, played by the beguiling 22 year old Natalya Bondarchuk, daughter of Tarkovsky's mentor, Russian actor/director Sergei Bondarchuk, like the fact that her dress doesn't properly untie, indicating perhaps the alien intelligence is just playing with the humans.

Each of the scientists react in their own way, and the movie continues to explore the human drama, especially as Kris begins to thaw out and feel his emotions more.  It is particularly wrenching, because Khari, as Solaris' creation, cannot leave the space station and also knows of the vast differences between her and "real" humans, and continually becomes despondent over it.  Kris proclaims his love for her, but she doesn't believe it to be real, and tries to kill herself again (turns out she died of in a suicidal depression after the marriage broke up).  But she is an immortal as well, which adds even more to the long list of differences - she heals at a fantastic rate and always comes back, whether she wants to or not.

[=== END SPOILER ALERT ===]

It sounds very confusing, and in many ways it is.  The movie is told at a slow, deliberate pace, as can be seen by the fact that Steven Soderbergh's 2002 remake clocks in at about half this one's 165 minute playing time.  But it still feels as if every shot has a meaning that can be discovered if you give it time.  And there are many wrenching scenes of heartache and what it means to be a feeling human being, making the journey well worth it.

The DVD, which Criterion has re-issued in its usual stellar way, is really nice.  The picture is pretty sharp after all these years, and the sound and music crisp and clear.  Included on the DVD I received from Netflix was a commentary track by two Tarkovsky scholars.  I watched this track immediately after viewing the movie, and it really helped me come to grips with the symbolism rampant in every scene.  I think watching it again without the commentary would be even more enlightening.  The package is a two DVD package, but I'm not sure what is on the other one, as Netflix sends out each DVD in a multiple DVD package as a separate rental.

I was listening to my Groove Salad station last night (I even contributed US$35 to it) when the song "Lost in Kyoto" by Air came up, one of the first times I have recognized a song on that station.  I figured I'd post my review of the movie from which it came, Lost in Translation. It is a frequent visitor to cable movie channels, and I always stop to watch some of it. I really need to add this to my collection, for those movie watching evenings when I am just looking to chill out and be mellow or even melancholic. I think in retrospect I like it even more than this review indicates. It is amazing how much talent is in that Coppola family. I wrote this review on January 29, 2005.

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Lost in Translation was one of the big "indie" hits from 2003.  Nominated for 4 Oscars, winning one (Best Screenplay), it was a critical and commercial success.  Written, directed, and produced by Sofia Coppola, daughter of Hollywood legend Francis Ford Coppola, it tells the story of a chance meeting of two lost souls visiting the bustling metropolis of Tokyo and coming together to form a bond against the confusing world.  Both Bill Murray, as the world-weary fading movie star and Scarlett Johansson, as the neglected wife of a fashion photographer, give standout performances in this very muted film.

Bob Harris (Murray) arrives in Tokyo, courtesy of Suntory, the large Japanese liquor maker.  He's here to film some promos for their whiskey.  Harris' star faded a long time ago, as a sort of Charles Bronson-ish action hero, but he is still revered in Japan. He arrives tired and worn out, and is quickly reminded by his wife back home about forgetting his son's birthday.  He hears from her on many other occasions, each time merely a domestic triviality that get funnier and funnier, culminating in a huge decision involving carpet squares.

Charlotte (Johansson) has been married two years, but is already disillusioned with life and her marriage.  Her husband is a photographer who already pretty much ignores her, leaving her to wander Tokyo, a stranger in a strange land.  She crosses paths with Harris a few times, each time getting a little closer.  When her husband goes off for a 3 day trip, Charlotte asks Harris to accompany her to a local friend's party, after a chance meeting at the swimming pool.

Charlotte and Bob get closer and closer, with several touchingly quiet scenes of them discussing life from different ends of the rainbow.  Charlotte isn't sure what she wants to become, while Bob isn't satisfied at his destination.  Each offers the other a missing piece of the puzzle; Charlotte brings her youthful, albeit muted, optimism, while Bill shows her that things can work out okay in the end.  They orbit around each other for the movie, which ends on a satisfyingly ambiguous note.

All in all, a very low key movie. Probably too low key for its own good, really.  There was no denouement, as there was no real conflict.  Just two people struggling to figure things out, and offering a new perspective to the other.  Bill Murray had some really funny scenes, both laugh out loud (like the exercise machine) and more understated, like the many laconic comments.  Scarlett Johansson was beguilingly beautiful, without being movie star-ish, if you know what I mean.  She contrasted nicely with Anna Faris, who played a movie star promoting her movie and was a confidant of Charlotte's husband.  Johansson's understated beauty contrasted nicely with Faris' perky movie star blondeness.

The DVD had a pretty interesting "Making Of" featurette, that was basically just a hand held video camera, filming while they were filming.  It showed the "guerrilla" filming as it happened, which was pretty fun.  There was also an interview with Murray and Coppola, as they talked about the movie. The music was excellent, while the sounds did not, of course, push your speakers at all.  There was also a collection of cut scenes, which once again showed that these movie makers know what they are doing, leaving these on the floor
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So I liked it enough to think about buying the DVD, although it is more of a mood piece than a real conflict-laden movie.  Sort of like listening to a favorite CD when in the mood - a blue and confused mood.  I'm not sure I understand all the hype though. For most people, a rental would work just fine.

A Very Long Engagement is a movie by the Amelie team and included many of their signature video effects. It strained credulity in a few spots and so slipped down below their earlier efforts, but still worth viewing. I think Delicatessen remains my favorite Jeunet movie. I originally posted this on January 1, 2006.

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A Very Long Engagement is the 2004 film from the Amelie crew, including director Jean-Pierre Jeunet and actress Audrey Tautou.  It concerns a young woman's search for answers after word gets back that her lover has been lost at the front.  It elegantly captures the ugliness of World War One's trench warfare, yet is curiously uninvolving after the mystery is solved.

As the movie opens, we see four men being marched along a trench, ankle deep in water as the rain pours down. We are sequentially introduced to each of the condemned men, as they were sentenced to death for "self mutilation", some on purpose and some by accident.  This death penalty was invoked to keep others from trying to get sent home due to injury by shooting themselves in the hand.  We follow this dreary, wet band of men as they get passed off from one guard to the next, eventually getting pushed up over the trench and into "no man's land", left to fend for themselves as daybreak comes.

One of the condemned men is Manech, who's lover awaits him at a seaside cottage, living with her aunt and uncle. Mathilde (Tautou) and Manech (Gaspard Ulliel) were engaged to be married upon his return from the front, and she doesn't believe his death, as she never felt the psychic shock.  She often plays mental games, to test her faith - "If my uncle knocks before the clock strikes 5, Manech is still alive.". Strangely enough, these games often end ambiguously.

Mathilde goes on a long search, hiring a renowned detective (Ticky Holgado, a veteran French film presence in his last film) to help in her search.  They unravel a tortuous paper trail, a vengeful other woman, and much sadness and lunacy.  Like her mind games, the movie ends in an ambiguous Pyrrhic victory.

Jeunet, who directed other wondrously inventive films like Delicatessen and City of Lost Children, goes for the more serious side here, and only partially succeeds.  He does have a couple of cool camera touches, of course, and the scenes from the front are truly visceral, right up there with Saving Private Ryan for visual and aural impact. The sound in particular is incredibly well done, and he mentions in the commentary that he made his sound folks go back and listen to Private Ryan whenever he felt they were coming up short.  And due to the subject matter of the nearly pointless trench warfare of World War One's Western Front, it has an even more visceral impact.

One problem I had was I felt Tautou was just too old for the part.  She was supposed to be 17 years old when he left for the front, and only a few years older during the main part of the movie, yet she is 26 at the time of the filming.  And a couple of places, where they put her in tiny braids, had an almost embarrassing touch, as it felt like they were truly straining to make her look younger.  And I just never felt her pain and sorrow, so by the time the movie ended, it was like "big deal".

Another problem is one Jeunet mentioned in his commentary, where it was hard to tell everyone apart.  Several had similar names and even despite the device he used whereby they were often mentioned with an identifying clause ("Benjamin the carpenter", "Benoit from Notre Dame", etc), it was still hard to tell who they were talking about.  I often couldn't follow the "mystery", nor even who was getting revenge on whom.  Even Jodie Foster making an appearance as a grieving widow didn't help.  I just plain never got involved in the whole thing.

So it makes for a fascinating, gut-wrenching view of life in the trenches, but it doesn't spend much time there.  The other story, the quest for "truth", is only partially successful. And I thought it went on for too long; I was ready for the ending after less than two hours, and I still had 15 minutes or more to go.  So it is worth a rental, but I wouldn't stand in line for it.

I originally posted this review of Rififion September 11, 2006 - not all that long ago! I'm a real fan of "heist" movies and this is a true classic of th genre and still one of my all time favorites.

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Rififi is an archetypal heist film, where many of the forms of the movie were created.  Other heist films that come to mind include Rififi's own director, Jules Dassin's Topkapi (in which Peter Ustinov won an Academy Award), and several of the Pink Panther movies.  The most interesting part of these movies is the actual robbery, and here it was, for the first time, filmed sans dialog or music.  A full 28 minutes go by during the heist without either, and believe me, you don't notice them missing for a second! It is an incredible piece of movie making, and even without a solid film backing it up, would make this movie a must see.

Tony le Stéphanois, played with a gruff weariness by Jean Servais, has just been released from prison after serving 5 years, taking the fall for his substitute son, Jo le Suedois, played by the prototypical Aryan, Carl Möhner.  With his girl stolen, no future, and a haggard face to reflect the losses, he turns to his old partners, who are planning a new heist and want him aboard.  After a run-in with his old girlfriend, he decides to take them up on it - the robbery of a fortress-like corner jewelry store.  Much planning follows, and then they pull off the heist.  But the ex-girlfriend's new beau, a gangster leader, tries to horn in, with tragic results for everyone.

It was interesting to note that one of the 4 robbers was played by the director Dassin - the Italian dandy safe cracker.  One of the extras with the DVD is an extensive set of production notes as well as an interview with Dassin, where he explained that the original actor backed out at the last minute so he had to step in, and he did a wonderful job.  Also, the black and white filming of Paris is beautiful, and the acting is top notch all around.

As I mentioned before, the actual robbery is breathtaking.  In fact, until I read about it later, I didn't even notice the lack of dialog or music; that's how involved you get with the job.  And the terrible repercussions don't feel like some kind of Hayes Code-demanded retribution, but rather it somehow seemed preordained how it would work out for these guys.

Jean Servais was perfect for the part.  He plays Tony with a real weathered outlook, both internal and external.  He seems revived by the new "job" and gives it his all.  But his eyes show no surprise in how badly it all turns out, and he uses all his cunning to get the kidnapped boy back.  I really liked this movie and have added Topkapi and the Italian Big Deal on Madonna Street to my list of movies on Netflix, as this genre really showed its stuff.

I originally wrote this review on July 7, 2002, but I had seen it a few times before and a few times since. But I am definitely due for another viewing, as I haven't watched it on my upgraded system yet, and it is a true "visual feast". Boy, when I came out of the theater after watching this the first time, how fascinated (and perplexed!) I was by the experience.

One of the amazing Australian director Peter Weir's first films, Picnic at Hanging Rock is an evocative, lyrical, and mysterious foray into the unknown. Set during a hot summer's day picnic for the young students of Appleyard's Academy for Girls, at the foreboding and primitive place called Hanging Rock.  No, this isn't a western, featuring a lynch mob, but rather a beautifully filmed, hauntingly scored movie about repressed sexuality, strange happenings, and, uncomfortably enough for some people, no easy answers.

[=== SPOILER ALERT ===]

The movie opens with the girls of the Academy, all around high school age, reading romantic poetry to each other. Shot in soft focus, from oblique angles, the real world seems far away. It is Saint Valentine's Day and the annual picnic to the huge outcropping called Hanging Rock is today, and everyone is excited. Being Down Under, it is the middle of the summer, and the heat and lethargy are perfectly captured for the viewer as the carriage heads out. While there, four of the girls take a forbidden walk into the Rock, but only one returns. Also missing is one of the teachers. A search is quickly mounted, while the negative repercussions on the school's image have their deleterious effect. A week later, one of the girls is discovered by a boy who had seen them disappear and is wracked by nightmares about them.  The discovered girl is in remarkably good condition and is still, in the vernacular used in the movie, "intact".

[=== END SPOILER ALERT ===]

You know this movie isn't about answers when, in the opening splash scene, you are given a complete synopsis of what is to come.  And if you need neat answers to questions posed in a movie, this won't be a movie for you, because Weir doesn't give you any.  There are perhaps clues as to what went on, but they point in many different directions.  This is a movie about atmosphere and repressed primitive carnal longings, not about solving a mystery.  Which, by the way, is not based on a true story, despite what is said on IMDB and the implications at the beginning of the movie.  It is based on a novel, although I have to admit after I first saw this movie, many years ago, I did spend some time at the Boston Public Library searching the archives for mention of it, as in one place, Ms. Appleyard says it is being reported in newspapers worldwide.

The most beguiling of the girls is Miranda, played with ethereal loveliness by Anne-Louis Lambert. She later appeared as the slightly more worldly but still incredibly lovely Mrs. Talmann in The Draughtman's Contract.

This is a movie that absolutely positively requires complete attention.  It is better seen in a dark, quiet movie theater, but if you have to watch it at home on this beautiful, sharp, DVD, be sure to unplug the phone and turn off the lights.  Let the incredible music, both classical and Zamfir's Pan Flute, wash over you.  Feel the heat, hear the cicadas, sense the emotions and wonder about the motives.  Then, I think, you'll begin to have an idea of where Peter Weir wants you to go.

This is the movie that started me on my love of all things Australian, including a trio of contemporary directors, Weir, Fred Schepisi, and Bruce Beresford.  This love culminated in a 3 1/2 week trip Down Under, that remains among my most cherished memories.  Unfortunately, despite staying in Melbourne an extra day, we never made it to Hanging Rock, at a park just north of Melbourne.  A movie that needs to be seen and felt at a visceral level, Picnic at Hanging Rock won't disappoint.

A wonderfully weird and chaotic movie from the wonderfully weird and chaotic mind of Peter Greenaway, The Draughtsman's Contract is a movie I watched twice, just to try and figure it out. Wonderfully twisted plot with plenty left unsaid and hanging in the air, it truly rewards multiple viewings. I originally wrote this on September 2, 2002.

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The Draughtman's Contract is an intriguing, beguiling, confusing, and intricate drama of manners, set in the English countryside of the 17th century.  Directed and written by the controversial Peter Greenaway, it is an early indicator of his brand of movie - sexy, brutal, dialog heavy and very watchable!  A woman hires a draughtsman (an artist who specializes in buildings) to draw her mansion while her husband is away, as a present.  The draughtsman gets involved in a sticky web of deceipt spun by the woman and her daughter, and in the end, gets his just desserts.

The movie opens at a dinner party, where all the main characters are introduced.  Mr. Neville, played by Anthony Higgins, is a draugtsman of some renown and Mrs. Herbert (Janet Suzman) wishes to get him to draw 12 pictures of thier country mansion.  She can't afford him, so they work out a contract with extras built in; namely, she will trade sexual favours to Mr. Neville in return for the pictures. The party is shown in small conversational snippets, with the characters all dolled up in a typical 17th century scene.

Then they get to the mansion, where Mr. Neville proves to be an exacting taskmaster, both with his drawings and with his favors.  Mrs. Herbert tries to back out, but cannot.  Mrs. Talman, played by Picnic at Hanging Rock's ethereal beauty Anne-Louise Lambert, is Mrs. Herbert's daughter, who is married to a German dandy played by Hugh Fraser, who believes the English to be beneath him.  Mr. Neville begins to notice some things of Mr. Herbert's that are in the scenes he is asked to draw (shirt in the laundry scene, a ladder leads to Mr. Herbert's room, boots in the meadow scene) and it is pointed out by Mrs. Talman that Mr. Herbert has gone missing and the information in the drawings might indicate Mr. Neville to be an accomplice.  So she blackmails him into sexual favors!

Mr. Herbert's body is dredged up from the one pond where Mr. Neville was never allowed to draw, and it slowly dawns on Mr. Neville that he never was in charge, and rather was more probably being set up for a fall.  When he returns a few days later after finishing the pictures, it is laid out before him how he had been used. He still doesn't see how deep he's gotten himself in, and he soon pays the ultimate price.

And yes, it is all that confusing!  I watched this movie twice, although I probably let too much time go between viewings, and it still wasn't all that clear.  The dialog is very dense and each word is crafted with the utmost care.  Even when I didn't understand what was going on, it still was a pleasure to hear the repartee.  And to add to the confusion was a strange painted naked man, who appeared at various times, like a garden imp who keeps getting into trouble.  He even witnesses the dramatic final ending of Mr. Neville.

I wish there had been a director's commentary on this one, but the DVD itself was pretty barren. A filmography of the 3 main actors and Peter Greenaway was about it.  The picture was good and the sound excellent, as was the score.  Like I said, the dialog was great to listen to, even if it didn't always add up!  I highly recommend a rental, but be sure to watch it twice.

As I mentioned in my review of Georgia, I went into a bit of a Jenifer Jason Leigh overload, after being bowled over by her job in Mrs. Parker. The Anniversary Party is another excellent outing by a first time director (or directors, in this case). Never going down the obvious path, and often funny and touching, albeit most of them are quite foul-mouthed!  Maybe they use that sort of language in Hollywood, but it isn't used very often in my social "circle".  But definitely a good movie to watch. I originally wrote this review on April 5, 2002.

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The Anniversary Party is a good serio-comic ensemble movie about a couple's sixth anniversary party. Joe (Alan Cumming and Sally (Jennifer Jason Leigh), after a troubled year, are throwing a party to celebrate their sixth year of being married, and are inviting some close friends, as well as a troublesome neighbor couple. As most of the people are both acting as movie people, and are really good actors, the parts are played to perfection by people you either know (Gwyneth Paltrow and Kevin Kline, for instance) or just recognize (actors like Phoebe Cates and Jennifer Beals). There's some pleasantly surprising twists and turns, along with some laughs and some real squirming moments, when embarrassing dramas are unfolding.

Written, directed and produced by first-timers Leigh and Cummings, The Anniversary Party is fun to watch and often surprising. Just when you think it is getting too smarmy, the action picks up and the story gets dark, coinciding, probably not coincidentally enough, with the drugs getting rolled out. Ecstasy isn't all it cracks up to be, I guess. One thing to be aware of is the almost excessive using of the f-word, particularly at the beginning of the film. Perhaps it is an early attempt by the neophyte writers to establish credibility, but a little would have gone a long way here.

All the acting is solid, but I especially like real life couple Kline and Cates, who, along with their real life children, ground the picture on a bedrock of reality. While I don't agree with the Maltin review that says the kids almost steal the picture, they are really endearing and the scenes of domestic felicity between the four come across as truly heartfelt. Cates in particular has several nice scenes with Leigh, trying to explain how a solid marriage and what being a parent really ought to be. Also, Mina Badie as the wife of the fractious neighbor has a real sweetness about her that counterbalances her wonderfully sour husband played by Denis O'Hare.

The DVD is excellent, although some of the lighting changes don't come across too well. It was all filmed on digital video, as the nice little documentary from Sundance Channel explains, and it has some really nice angles and shots. The commentary track by Leigh and Cummings is pretty solid, with some good background. Leigh explains how the project came about, and how she used it as therapy for herself, coming off a break up of her own. This movie is definitely worth a rental, perhaps even a purchase.

The first Hannibal Lecter movie, Manhunter is a stylish thriller. The Director's Cut did come out, but I'm not sure what was added. This review was originally posted on June 6, 2003. I still haven't seen Red Dragon.

Manhunter is the first movie featuring AFI's #1 Movie Villian of all time, Hannibal Lecter.  It was directed by Michael Mann, of TV's Miami Vice fame, and owes a lot to his arresting visual style.  It is a very intense movie, although the ending is something of a letdown.

William L. Petersen stars as the troubled FBI agent Will Graham, who, in his previous case, finally put Hannibal Lecter behind bars.  But it left him with emotional scars, and he only reluctantly gets involved in the next serial murderer's trail.  His wife, nobly played by Kim Greist, is, of course, dead set against it, and despite even his misgivings, he heads off.

In order to get his head back into the game, Agent Graham goes back and talks with the incarcerated Lecter, played with a smarmy British evil by Brian Cox.  Cox's Lecter holds up very well to the one later made famous by Anthony Hopkins, even if he has only two short scenes.  I really like the completely white cell he is caged in.

Tom Noonan plays the wacky Francis Dollarhyde, who steals home movies of his victims and gets off watching them before slaughtering the entire family.  He does a great job of using his face and especially his hands to indicate the trauma tearing him up inside.  For reasons not explained in the movie, he only attacks during the full moon (a tad mainstream, wouldn't you say?), and there is a race to find him before he kills again.

Francis is almost saved by a relationship with a blind woman, Reba McClane (Joan Allen), who shows him that sight isn't everything.  But his own special blindness strikes again, and he envisions her cheating so he grabs her and takes her off to his house.  There the FBI, local police and Will Graham crash his planned party, with much bloodshed and violence.

I have not seen the second take on Thomas Harris' first Lecter novel Red Dragon, which starred Hopkins, Ralph Fiennes as Dollarhyde and Edward Norton as Graham, but I will and will compare it to this one.  I did really like the film work - the lighting and soundtrack did a great job of conveying the mood and action, as one might expect from Mann.  I did not like the ending, because, as a friend who watched it with me said, it didn't have anything to do with the crimes being planned.  It was an impetuous kidnapping of Reba, and the subsequent shootout happened to coincide with the kidnapping, not the planned serial murder, so you never really got a feel for his criminal mastery, except whe he sees through a ruse of the FBI, who used a reporter to try and lure him out, much the reporter's chagrin.

But it is a definite rental, and word on the street has it that there is a new "Director's Cut" DVD coming out.  This DVD was pretty barebones - a couple of small featurettes interviewing some of the actors, and the trailer.  But the new one promises to have full commentary from Mann.  Be sure to turn the lights down real low, and enjoy the film!