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luigimarchini
Reviews
The Westerner (1940)
Forgotten Classic
I saw the film again after a gap of 25 years recently, and it really is as good as i remembered it. So good in fact it almost made it into my list of top ten westerns. Everything about is top notch-the performances, the photography, the humour and the screenplay. It is only let down by the contrived ending. The fight scene between Cooper and Tucker is as realistic as you will see anywhere, and the scene where Cooper cuts off a lock of Davenports hair is erotically charged. Of course the two main plusses are the performances of Brennan and Cooper-each fills the frame with their presence even when they have no lines, and Brennans portrayal of Judge Roy Bean results in one of the more memorable characters in westerns. In the hand of another actor the result could have been a caricature but Brennan treads the very thin line between parody and homage perfectly.
Wait Until Dark (1967)
Overrated film
THe film takes a long time to get going, which wouldn't be so bad, if the characters had been drawn a little more convincingly. Crenna and Zimbalist Jr are totally wooden anyway, and the Zimbalist Jr character is not convincing as Hepburns husband-would she really love such a misogynistic arrogant man? Especially after only a year? There are many flaws in the narrative, but these are compensated by the last fifteen minutes which are very well done, and the performances of Hepburn and Arkin. T hey add a quality which the rest of film doesn't deserve, even though the scenes where Arkin impersonates two different people jar-they simply don't ring true and one wonders if the crooks would really go to all that trouble. The film should have been so much better given the premise-one wonders what Hitchcock would have done with it!
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
Th Best Film Ever
The summary says it all. I really do rate this film that highly. True it is a little confusing towards the end with gaps in the narrative, but there is no such thing as a perfect film: but this comes pretty close. It is good v evil seen through the eyes of children-a sort of Brothers Grimm fairytale, but it is also a meditation on greed and has similarities in my mind to Traesure of Sierra Madre. The most striking thing is of course the photography-it is lit like a dream, with images that will stay with the viewer for ever. Then there is Mitchum, in his best performance ever. I have yet to see a scarier character in any movie-in fact he embodies the American Dream: good and shimmering on the surface, but underneath a dark and malevolent heart. Think David Lynch and Blue Velvet. Lillian Gish is almost as memorable and the children are fine. Shelley Winters plays the stupid widow superbly, and the script is resonant. And of course Laughton, in his only film as director, brings it all together with an eye that has spent all its time in heaven. As perfect as you can get!
Videodrome (1983)
It lingers in the mind
Videodrome, to my mind, is a really underrated film. When people assess Cronenberg they tend to focus on Crash, Dead Ringers and The Fly, but this is just good as these (and in Dead Ringers case, better). First let me say that it is not a horror film: not in the conventional sense anyway. It is a fantasy with images that are disturbing, a voyage into the recesses of James Woods mind. The pace is consistent and the tone dark all the way through; the photography fits the subject matter superbly, and even if the script is a little uneven in places, this is more than made up for by the best performance of Woods' career. A much better film than i expected.