Reviews

Exceptionally good, and in ways that will take more than one viewing to fully appreciate. It is highly enjoyable the first time out for the story and the acting. Bogdanovich brings out the best in all of his actors, and Kristen Dunst is a revelation here. Does this movie have the best dramatic production sound work in recent memory? Usually I'm most conscious of sound with explosions, screeching tires or bullets. Here is a film with absolutely no noticeable special effects, but the use of ship sounds, particularly the engine, adds special layers to some of the films most powerful scenes. The camera placement and cutting are as important as the script and the acting, but it will take more viewings to get into the subtleties of how they work. It might also the best Orson Welles movie that Welles didn't make. The all-powerful man brought to his breaking point...sound familiar? Also, Hearst as Othello and Ince standing in - despite differences in motivation - as his Iago.

You really could organize a film course around this one film: mise-en-scene, cutting, sound, editing, early Hollywood history, Charlie Chaplin, Orson Welles...

Final note: that Bogdanovich isn't able to make a film a year is one of our national cultural wastes.

The European-release version of "The Sicilian" is 31 minutes longer than the US version. Supposedly, the director was ordered to deliver a version under 2 hours, so he recut the film to render it incoherent with the expectation that Fox would have to release the complete film. Only, they went ahead and released the deliberately botched shorter cut. This may be apocryphal, but it would help explain the critical drubbing it got in this country. I was lucky enough to see the complete film in Paris and was mesmerized. Gore Vidal was denied credit for the screenplay, but the film has a literacy, intellectual depth and acidity that is pure Vidal; the character played by Terrance Stamp is essentially Vidal's stand-in. The only comparable film might be "The Godfather," but with an even stronger historic/political context. It is certainly the highpoint of Michael Cimino's career to date, and I'm one of those odd ducks that fervently admires "Heaven's Gate". If you can see this in Europe, or if it comes out over there on DVD and you have a region-appropriate DVD player, grab the opportunity to see it.

How can something this good already be forgotten and unavailable? A French minister's mistress leaves him with the declaration that she could make the first man she sees on the street more interesting than him. That first man is an anemic academic, whose life she not only turns upside down but drops the bottom out from under. Sort of an existential "Bringing Up Baby". For years after first seeing this film I walked about in yellow shoes (if you see it you will understand why). Brilliantly written, directed and acted. Exhilarating and thoughtful.

I first caught this at the Eros Cinema in Bombay. Even without English subtitles this non-Hindi speaker thoroughly enjoyed it. Recently I found this on DVD with the subtitle option and liked it all the more. Much funnier than the original "Mrs. Doubtfire", not nearly so cloying. I first knew Kamal Hassan (writer, director, lead actor) from a Tmail gangster film, "Narayan". That he is so funny, and subtle even in a larger-than-life role, was a great surprise. Don't miss this if you ever get the opportunity. The fight scene in he baazar is an instsant classic!