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audresonmichael
Reviews
Le secret (1974)
Well worth tracking down.
It's not that well known when great french films are discussed but this is a wonderful film, cunningly written and directed so that our expectations are constantly being changed. It works then as an entertainment but it has one of the greatest endings of any film. There's no way of describing it that won't spoil it. There's a time and a place for SPOILERS but there's nothing to be gained by putting them here. The end conveys love as well as anything I've ever seen. Not the joys of a quick affair but the sense that two people have been in a relationship which has matured over many years. Very special and well acted by the three leads.
Fade to Black (2006)
Orson would have loved it!
I enjoyed this movie immensely. It captures the sense of Orson Welles as an adventurer, trying to raise money for movies which he understands better than those around him and instead making ones for other people which he knows are rubbish. On his travels in 1948 Italy, he stumbles into a murder mystery connected, perhaps too loosely, with a political conspiracy.
It's cleverly made and very funny. I loved the playfulness which nodded at Welles's work without doing anything as crass as obvious references. It's an enjoyable story. Not a great thriller, the insights and revelations weren't surprising but that only made it more real and engrossing.
Huston was encouraged to do part Orson and part his Father, John. He's a likable, believable hero matched by a good, mainly Serbian cast. Paz Vega is excellent as the heroine and Diego Luna gives a wonderful turn as the second hero to Welles, reminds me of James Macavoy, only likable.
And When Did You Last See Your Father? (2007)
How to take a familiar subject and make a superb film from it
This is a beautifully written, well acted but above all wonderfully directed film looking at a man who learns about himself by finding out about his father. Colin Firth plays a real writer who wrote an auto-biographical novel about his relationship with his father played by Jim Broadbent. It's not a spoiler to say that the father is dying because that diagnosis is given very early on. While the family waits for him to die, events take Firth's memories effortlessly through his past showing him played very well by young actors at 8 and 17.
The events are funny and moving but restrained within a believable reality. Firth learns to live with his father's behaviour as we see that he isn't perfect either. It's positive about life without being sentimental, terrific film.
Romance & Cigarettes (2005)
For people who love movies
I've only seen this once and will watch the DVD whenever it comes but I'd love to see it for the first time again as some of the joy came with the surprises - and how often do you get those these days?
So although I've warned re spoilers, I'll give the 10 best bits as teasers rather than give away any pleasure.
1. Openings are often dull set-ups taking advantage of your not going to walk in the 1st 10 minutes. Here there's a nice joke which establishes the mood of the picture without words. 2. Christopher Walken's entrance. 3. His dance routine with policemen who've come to arrest him. 4. Gandolphini and Buschemi's characters are influenced by the Flintstones or more accurately the Honeymooners, a hit live action show the Flintstones were based on. This was set in the 50's and the time of the movie is uncertain whether its 50's or present day. I realise that others might not think this a good thing but I liked it. 5. Elaine Stritch has one scene and would have stolen most other films with it. 6. Best dialogue ( on way to confront cheating husband): Walken: That's a very small knife. Would you like me to stop off and get you a bigger weapon? Sarandon: It's big enough for what I have in mind. 7. Kate Winslet taking off the infamous Daphne Moon accent - no wonder Americans are confused - no one talks like that! 8. The fight with the neighbours in the snow. 9. Kate singing underwater. 10. Eddie Izzard - little used, hopefully more on the DVD