Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville and taken from Jean Cocteau's 1929 novel of the same name. There is much debate as to whose film it actually is: Melville or Cocteau. This is only Melville's second feature film and a lot of film scholars give credit to Cocteau as the true director.
The story is simply about the relationship between a teenage brother and sister who are orphaned shortly after the story begins. The older sister seems to be the authority, making the decisions for the family. The relationship between the two siblings seems combative at times, but it is obvious that they are two halves of the same personality.
This musical by Vincente Minnelli takes place in turn-of-the-century Paris. Louis Jourdan plays Gaston, a rich playboy who is tired of the conventions of the high society of which he is a part. He finds refuge visiting the residence of Madame Alvarez (Hermione Gingold), the grandmother of Gigi (Leslie Caron). In their welcoming home, Gaston and Gigi can just be silly playing card games or singing songs. However, Gigi's Aunt Alicia (Isabel Jeans) is grooming her to be a lady. And soon both Gigi and Gaston realize that she is turning out to be quite a beauty.
This documentary by filmmaker Jessica Yu ("In The Realms Of The Unreal") is very hard to describe. On the basic level, it presents four men who tell their tales. There is a homosexual, Christian minister; a Hispanic bank robber; a weakling who becomes a martial artist; and a German terrorist. The facts and events of these stories are completely different. However, all these men experienced the same journey. It is a progression down a dark path that they do not realize that they are taking. We see each of their milestones as the film moves along, highlighted by puppets acting out scenes from Euripides. The marionettes also present scenes from the narratives, such as when one of the men is abused by his father. It is a compelling film and each of the protagonists are excellent storytellers.
This is a remake of a 1981 film of the same name. When I first saw the trailer for this I didn't think that it looked very good. However one of my favorite actors, Mads Mikkelsen, is in it so I decided to watch it. Besides, we had just seen Malpertuis, so Greek mythology became a little mini-theme for the week. It was definitely not as a bad as I expected. Nevertheless, it was terribly unoriginal. I thought that Ralph Fiennes (whom I did not recognize) was terrible, playing a kind of Panto villain. And there were hardly any scenes involving the gods! The extras on the DVD included many of the excised gods scenes and gives you a glimpse at how halfway decent the movie could have been if someone wasn't so determined to just showcase the action and the CGI.
Quirky western film that was quite entertaining. Stars John Rubenstein & Don Johnson as two young, fairly naive men who set out to become gunslingers. Along the way they meet quite a cast of characters including two electric rock bands (Country Joe & The Fish; James Gang), a ruthless outlaw (drummer Elvin Jones), a strange fiddler (Doug Kershaw), and a lovely Madame (Patricia Quinn).
This is the live-action version of the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels, literally. Director Edgar Wright seems to have used the comic as a literal storyboard and matched the scenes exactly.
The story centers around geeky Scott (Michael Cera) who falls in love with cool girl Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). The path to love is very rocky though. Scott must fighter her "seven evil exes" before the road to happiness is clear. There are lots of comic book, video game and Manga references & imagery through-out.
And our favorite character has to be Scott's roommate Wallace played by Kieran Culkin.
Based on the Gothic horror novel by Belgian author Jean Ray, this film version stars Orson Welles as the intimating Cassavius, an aging, bedridden old man who is ruler of his mansion. His sailor nephew (Mathieu Carriere) has taken leave from his ship to visit his sister. However Cassavius has convinced him, and all the other bizarre characters (with actress Susan Hampshire playing three different women), to forever stay at Malpertuis as a condition of his Last Will and Testament. The existence at the chateau is surreal to say the least.
In 2009, actor Joaquin Phoenix announced that he was retiring from acting and pursuing a career as a rap music performer. This shocking bulletin was accompanied by a radical change in his appearance and behavior that would make one believe that maybe he was losing his mind or having a breakdown. A good example of this is his bizarre appearance on David Letterman's show in January of that year.
During this period, Phoenix's brother-in-law Casey Affleck filmed him to document this transition to Hip-Hop star. This is that story.
This is the first feature film by African-American director Melvin Van Peebles. The story is about a black soldier stationed in France who gets a good promotion. Before starting his position, he is given a three-day pass to visit Paris. There he spends the day sightseeing but not doing much else. He eventually ends up in a nightclub and meets a young white woman. They decide to spend the rest of his vacation together.
This movie is a documentary about Lemmy Kilmister, the founder and frontman of the heavy metal band Motorhead. There's not much else to say except that this is an excellent movie. Lots of musicians have their words of praise for Lemmy and include Metallica, Dave Grohl, Scott Ian and Ice-T.
Although I have read the book, I don't remember details enough to say with certainty how accurate an adaptation this is in general. I do know that Dorian's corruption of Sibyl Vane was much more evil in the novel. In this movie, it just seems that Dorian gets bored of her while in the manuscript her downfall is terribly tragic and quite malicious on Dorian's part.
This film uses CGI in its representation of the painting. I personally liked it for the most part because it is actually quite scary. The portrait is supposed to be evil, not just old, and the slight bit of animation that is used is effective.
This horror film is inspired by, rather than based on, the Edgar Allan Poe story "The Raven". Like other Poe stories that were produced at this time, the title and various elements were taken from the original story, but the plot is usually totally new.
The film stars Bela Lugosi as a doctor who is totally obsessed with Poe. He ends up falling in love with a woman that he saved after she had gotten into a terrible car accident. His desire for the woman reaches the point where the doctor decides to eliminate all who get in his way...Poe-style.
Boris Karloff is an extraneous character. He is a murderer on the run who comes to the doctor hoping to get a new face so that he can escape the law. However, it is thanks to Karloff that we have a happy ending (sort of).
This is one of many in the Three Fantastic Supermen series of movies. The three supermen are one government agent and two crooks that work together to bring justice to whatever small portion of the world they are assigned to. Their costumes protect them from most weapons and they use their martial arts and gymnastic skills to do the rest.
The supermen this time around are Brad Harris, Sal Borgese, and George Martin. On the eve of his marriage, a government agent must rescue the other two supermen from prison and execution in a foreign country. Then all three are sent to get back the lease for a uranium mine from some jungle natives before the Russians can get their hands on it.
Alternate Titles: Che Fanno I Nostri Supermen Tra Le Vergini Della Giungla?
One of the classics of French New Wave Cinema, this is the first film directed by Jean-Luc Godard. It is all style and imagery with a very bare-bones plot.
A petty criminal (Jean-Paul Belmondo) kills a policeman during a joy ride in a stolen car. He goes back to Paris and hides out with an American girlfriend (Jean Seberg) until he can get some money owed to him. He plans on going to Italy and hopes the girlfriend will come along with him.
This is the first sequel toSister Street Fighter. Again, our Chinese heroine must travel to Japan to find a missing person. This time it is the daughter of a friend. The baddie this time is a diamond smuggler who imports his merchandise in the buttocks of beautiful women and then prostitutes them. Fairly perverse stuff that includes a she-male, although I am not sure if he is supposed to be a she or not.
