Lifes Rich Pageant

Ripleys Game

Ripley's Game is a 2002 feature film (released in the uS on DVD in 2003) based on the 1974 novel of the same name, the third in Patricia Highsmith's "Ripliad," a series of books chronicling the murderous adventures of con artist Tom Ripley. It is set in Venato Italy 17 years after The Talented Mr Ripley

John Malkovich stars as Highsmith's anti-hero, opposite Dougray Scott and Ray Winstone. Malkovich is slitheringly evil and magnificently manipulative

The director is the veteran Italian filmmaker Liliana Cavani, whose career dates back to the 1960s and includes one of the 1970s' most controversial movies, The Night Porter.

This is a great overlooked psychological thriller and has  switched me onto Highsmith which will be the focus of a coming post.

Last Year in Marienbad

Weekend - Godard's view

Godards view from the 1960's - could be the LIE today

The Grocers Son

The son - thirty year old Antoine Sforza - left his village ten years before in order to start a new life in the big city. His father, a traveling grocer, is in hospital after a stroke, he is persuaded by his mother to come back to replace him in his daily rounds. He is accompanied by his Parisian girl friend Claire, who he is hesitant to committ to.

Back in the village with Clair's help he does the job half-satisfactorily. Too blunt, not in harmony with the locals, he offends them more than he serves them. Fortunately Claire, who has more business acumen, helps him to improve his skills. On the other hand, the relationships are tense with his brother François and even worse with his father, who despises him. So when the latter is back in the village, the situation deteriorates.

A small treasure of a film.

Ultimately, this surprise French box-office hit is about the coming-of-age of a man re-discovering life and love in the countryside.

NYFF #2

"I'm Gonna Explode"

A really fun but thought provoking  film proving that Mexican film making is currently cutting edge

            

I’m Gonna Explode / Voy a explotar Series: 46th New York Film Festival [Sept. 26 – Oct. 12, 2008] Director: Gerardo Naranjo, Country: Mexico, Release: 2008, Runtime: 106 Was this the movie we secretly wanted to live? Mexican director Gerardo Naranjo hits his stride and promptly accelerates with this boldly hectic youth film. I’m Gonna Explode is a mood-shifting mock epic that channels Pierrot le fou complete with Georges Delerue music, albeit transposing the myth of the Last Romantic Couple to an upper middle-class Mexico City exurb. Ramon, the son of a sleazy right-wing congressman, contributes to his new high school’s talent show by ineptly attempting to hang himself on stage. Maru is the only one who claps. They bond in detention, and then it’s off in a stolen Volkswagen with daddy’s gun to the end of the night… or something like that. Absurdist and ultimately heartbreaking, I’m Gonna Explode is further proof of Mexican cinema’s ongoing vitality, a prime example of its nuevo nouvelle vague.

Paul Newman RIP

Sad news about a great actor and a fine humanist.

Here is a clip of the screen test for East of Eden with James Dean and Paul.

James Dean & Paul Newman Screen Test

New York Film Festival Opening Night

Take a classroom full of outspoken, multiethnic teens from a tough Parisian junior high school, none of them professional actors, add a real-life teacher trying to make a difference, and you’ve got Laurent Cantet’s utterly engrossing portrait of the new France, The Class - the triumphant winner of this year’s Palme d’Or at Cannes.

François Bégaudeau, from whose nonfiction account of teaching in just such a school the film is adapted, plays himself in this unsentimental, superior addition to the canon of classroom movies, set over the course of an academic year.

Cantet, a veteran of several Film Society programs including the New York Film Festival (Time Out, NYFF 2001), has pioneered a new kind of social cinema, one that explores the key issues of our day and avoids sermonizing and easy conclusions. The Class is the finest and most important example of his work yet.

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Michael Clayton

Michael Clayton: A modern corporate conspiracy/thriller tale that's wordy and relatively slow paced but intelligent, gripping and marked by oscar worthy performances by Clooney and Tilda Swinton.

Clooney is the in house corporate fixer for a major New York law firm who is assigned to look after a high profile litigator who has a moral crisis with his work and begins to undermine his class action case for a chemical company.

There are no real twists or CGI theatrics just a realistic portrayal of life in the gritty urban jungle that is modern America and the moral ambiguities and complexities we are forced to confront.

New York has never looked more dangerously grimy. Clooney has never looked more weary or angry. Its worth a look.

Hotel Chevalier

Wes Anderson's latest film The Darjeeling Limited opens the New York Film festival tonight.

At the Apple store Soho last Wednesday he and Jason Schwartzman launched the short film prequel - Hotel Chevalier. Schwartzman is so short. It was also screened at the Apple stores in LA and San Fran. It is now also available on Itunes.

I was originally intended to screen before all showings of Darjeeling Limited. The entire short takes place in Jack Whitman's (Schwartzman) parisian hotel room. It stars Natalie Portman as his grilfriend and tells the story of their breakup that apparently leads Jack to meet his brothers Francis (Owen Wilson) and Peter (Adrien Brody) in India for the "Darjeeling' spiritual journey and adventure.

Jack, the baby of the family and a writer who bases his "fictional" characters on everything that happens to him, comes to India still so obsessed with the ex-girlfriend he left behind in Paris, he can't stop eavesdropping on her answering machine, for which he still has the code.

Its a very cute and mysterious introduction to the main film. Apparently Anderson filmed it 12 months prior to Darjeeling. It makes me want to go back to Paris - it looks so gorgeous. It was filmed at the 4 star Hotel Raphael on Ave Kleber next to Place de 'Etoile and the Champs Elysees.

I also want the luggage it is Marc Jacobs for Vuitton.

The 11 pieces of distinctive Louis Vuitton luggage made specifically for the movie was designed by Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton and includes monogrammed steamer trunks, duffels, and suitcases covered in a jungle pattern created by Anderson's brother, Eric. The luggage will be auctioned off with proceeds going to benefit UNICEF and the Rawal Mallinathji Foundation, a medical treatment charity in India. The luggage is on display at the Louis Vuitton store in New York and you can enter a silent bid for the pieces there.

Have a look at the 13 minute movie here: Download iTunesScreenSnapz001.mov

Here is the trailer for Darjeeling Limited:
Download the_darjeeling_limited-tlrb-h.ref.mov

The Brave One

So Azz was out and about not expected back for hours - what better time to settle in with a large diet coke and popcorn and catch a good movie at the rather ghetto cinema on our block? Firstly, what a surprise they were playing something fairly interesting - The Brave One. Usually its some Pixar classic or worse one of the latest "comedies" from Ben Stiller.

A long (2 hours) moral tale and love poem to New York City with a truly stunning actress - Jodie Foster. Then there was the cameo by Naveen Andrews (did they get their money's worth from his five minutes?) and an too long appearance by  Terrance Howard - I don't understand why the buzz!

Unfortunately Jodie cant rescue this mess of a film. It tries but in the end its not moody, dark or believable. By the time the "shock" immoral ending comes about you just want outta that theater.

And this is the gayest I have ever seen Jodes - she channels every dike you can imagine.

Perhaps my mood was ruined by the baby in the audience, who in every quiet moment, cried out for its moma. This is an R rated movie people - get a babysitter! I told you that my local cinema was downmarket.