slaytonf

The furniture is wretched, but that house is killer! A major theme in Tati's work is the inexorable supplanting of the old (France) with the modern, uniform, and sterile. Something he deplores. Notice at the opening the shots of construction sites, and at the end how workmen are demolishing old buildings, presumably to make way for modern stuff. In another movie of his, Playtime, you see different travel posters of major cities, all with pictures of the same box skyscraper, and monuments of the old Paris show up as mere reflections in cold plate glass windows.

It would be difficult to find a director who had a more varied and wide-ranging career than Rene Clair. Journalist, editor, author, actor, and of course, film auteur. The last, because he, along with contemporaries like Chaplin, oversaw all the aspects of his films, the subjects of which also ran a large gamut, from surrealist shorts in the 20s through fantasy, romantic comedy, tragic drama, to mystery and suspense. His best known film is perhaps And Then There Were None, an adaptation of Agatha Christie's famous story of attrition among guests at a bleak island house. But his best, in my opinion, were the musical romantic comedies he made in the early thirties, two of which will be shown tonight. They are clever, charming, delightful soufflés of absolutely no consequence. Yet at the end of them, you still feel something worthwhile has been portrayed about the human condition and society. In Á Nous La Liberté, two convicts attempt an escape from prison. One fails, but the other gets out, poses as a cyclist in a race, starts selling phonographs, and, through hard work and the American Way--I mean the French Way--becomes a major phonograph manufacturer. But he has not completely cut his ties with his past, as evidenced by the reappearance of his old buddy. Complications ensue. There is lots of wonderful visual comedy, especially in the comparisons of prison life and the production line. Le Million is about a lottery ticket, two friends who fall out over it, one of them an unfaithful ami of a cute-as-a-button grisette, the other his rival for her affections. The plot--well, don't worry about the plot, it's just an excuse for betrayals, reproofs, reconciliation, songs, chases, frippery and fun. Try and figure out how he did the opening sequence.

Some of her films are on YouTube (sanctioned, it looks like). Just watched The Dance of Life (1929), a film that gives the lie to the conventional view of early talkies' stiff direction and flat acting. The plot is conventional, a backstage story of a talented, but weak comic, destined for the big time (or the big wheel, as they call it in the movie), and the woman who loves him, no matter what. But the dialog and performances are what make it a cut way above the average. It has a naturalness of speech and easiness of delivery rare in movies, a quality which the pre code-enforcement era seemed to foster. A fragile quality, which the imposition of the code destroyed as a corollary effect along with the other, more noted features of those movies; and which wasn't seen again in film for another twenty-five years or so. You can certainly see why Nancy Carroll was a popular star in her time. She is a fine actress and comes across as unpretentious and sincere. I've only seen her in roles of working class girls, which may be what she specialized in. I'm glad to see she fulfilled the promise of Child of Manhattan. I look forward to other of her films. Though the camerawork is static, especially in the musical numbers, it certainly isn't immobile. And there are some absolutely arresting moments where the camera studies the characters while they study themselves. I attribute this to John Cromwell's direction. He was a director whose work, no one, as the man said, need be ashamed of. It's unfortunate that TCM's lack of access to some studios' production gives us an incomplete picture of the filmworld of the past. Let's hope their efforts to penetrate their libraries will be successful.

At the bottom of the picture in my post you will see a scroll bar that you can use to to scroll the picture sideways to see to two actresses.

This pic is from Les Demoiselles de Rochefort, a charming movie by Jacques Demy, and a companion piece, in a way, the The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. Deneuve is on the left, Dorleac the right (sorry about the size):

If people aren't Truffauted-out yet, we have coming up tonight a mix of movies. One true masterpiece (Jules and Jim), a good one that I remember dimly (The Man Who Loved Women), one I started to watch, but lost interest (The Woman Next Door), and two I look forward to seeing for the first time (well, you know what they are). People should be well-familiar with Jules and Jim, as it's one of the most famous movies, and been shown on TCM a number of times. The Man Who Loved Women reminds me a lot of Love on the Run, in that it is an over-view of a man's relations with women. As for The Woman Next Door, although I force myself to watch whatever I can of the work of a director I admire, I'm not always successful. I'll try again tonight.

And her name is Nancy Carroll. Two huge orbs in a sweet pan of a face. Move over Claudette Colbert--at least to the side, a little. She seems to have been a popular star in her time--the 30s, mostly. Why haven't we heard and seen more of her here? Her movie this morning was Child of Manhattan. Standard romantic stuff, though it starts out fresh enough. And, it being pre code-enforcement, it's open enough about extra-marital affairs and even (gasp!) abortion. But, convention wins out, and true love conquers all the insurmountable obstacles of class, ethnicity, and--oh well, true love wins out. But it's Nancy Carroll's eyes that are the true stars of this little movie. My, how they capture your attention. I'll be looking for other of her films to see if her acting matches her eyes.

No, I will not watch Despicable Me 2 online free!

Here are a couple links (I can't personally vouch for them): http://www.celebritiesfans.com/addresses/actors/eleanor-parker http://www.fanmail.biz/111013.html

>FlyBackTransformer >I think he should have gone with the ETs along with Dreyfuss. They wouldn't have him.

>JefCostello: >I don't think he ever made a great, great film. As in "one of the top 10 French films ever" great. I know The 400 Blows and Jules and Jim are considered as such, but they've never been amongst my favorite films of his, and I think both are a little overrated. People have their likes and dislikes. But it is difficult to ignore the influence both those films have had on filmmakers and filmmaking. In fact, it's hard to think of two other films that have had a greater effect. As I said earlier, Truffaut's effect on filmmaking was much like Charley Parker and the other Be Bopper's influence on jazz. He and the other members of the New Wave remade movies, introducing new themes and styles. They came up with a fresh, vigorous, and lively approach to movies, free of the stultifying mannerisms of the mainstream cinema. You can look to Rhomer, or Renoir, or Bresson, or Godard, or Clouzot, but you will not find more influential or more highly regarded work. Nowadays, people who really like a movie will readily call it a 'masterpiece.' These two films are two that deserve the term, and are, indeed, two the the ten best French films. The 400 Blows can also be considered as among the ten best anywhere.

>StBartsActor: >For me it is the loss of watching the facial expressions while reading the dialogue That is the major drawback of watching a subtitled film. There are a few things I do that help me follow the film and allow me to watch the actors more. One is, I realized it is not necessary to carefully read all the words in the subtitles. It's surprising to learn how much you can get from glancing at the entire subtitle all at once. Also, for long subtitles, I find looking at the end of the sentence helps a lot in getting the gist of the entire subtitle. And, once I've seen the film and I know what's going to happen, when I watch it on subsequent occasions (for films that are worth it) I pay more attention to the action.

Looks like Truffaut Noir tonight. One has already been shown, and that recently, Shoot the Piano Player. It's the best of the bunch, in spite of the unfairness of the ending. I don't mind unhappy endings, but this one seems wrong to me, as well as the way Truffaut deals with it, or fails to. The other movies are almost as good, or more enjoyable to watch. My favorite of them is The Bride Wore Black. As I said, it requires a considerable amount of suspension of disbelief, as much as a bungee jumper over the Grand Canyon would need, but it's such an engaging story, you're willing to work as hard as Truffaut does.

You can do it indirectly now through Roku. TimeWarner cable is one of the Roku channels. If you get TCM with your TimeWarner, you can stream stream it over the internet.

I get the impression from the comments posted that Truffaut's b/w films are generally more powerful and appreicated than his color films. And indeed they do seem to have more liveliness, and energy in thier direction. The later films in the Doinel series do seem to flag, but it's hard to be critical of Truffaut. After all, once you've thrown a brick through the window of convention, you don't have it around to throw any more bricks through. The only thing that remains is to build up your own conventions, and then, when you've finished, throw a brick through them (I can't think of a director who's ever done that, except maybe Nicholas Ray). Love on the Run is the best of them, even if it is made up to a considerable extent of clips from the other movies. It has a substance missing from Stolen Kisses and Bed and Board.

Both by TCM and Hollywood, or by TCM because of Hollywood. She is another in that category of talented, yet neglected actresses. TCM regularly shows her best films (Red River, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, All the King's Men), and really, there's not much else. In any case, TCM will be showing them, and some others of hers all day Friday, a nice lead-in to the Friday Night Spotlight. Of course, her best role is in Red River. And like in her career, she is often neglected in discussion of that movie, to which she contributes substantially.

Dang! I did miss it! And I was going to record it, too. Two of my favorite character actors.

If the bathwater didn't make me throw out the odd baby or two, it certainly did make me underrate this one. The Music Man dosen't just use popular themes of American life to elicit automatic responses in the viewers, it uses them as a backdrop for some really good music and songs, and, something rare in a musical, a well-told story. As for my other comment, I was being too clever. It never occurred to me Canadians or English (people who use 'favourite') would have a liking for Americana. But many Americans ('favorite') are Anglophiles, so perhaps I shouldn't be so surprised.

You've hit on it, misswonderly. I've seen so much schlocky Americana used in such crude manipulative ways, whenever I get even a hint of it, it creates a negative reaction in me. On a side note, it is interesting that a person who uses the word 'favourite' would be so avid about Americana, unless it's North-Americana. I should not be so surprised, I suppose. People who use the word 'favorite' get all gooey inside whenever a snug English village is portrayed. Especially if it has a vicarage (unless all English villages have vicarages).

A stiff lineup. But Preston nailed it.

Whaddayatalk? whaddayatalk? whaddayatalk? Yessssir! Yessssssir! Yessssssssir!

When I think of watching a musical, I have a list I usually chose from, mostly Stanley Donen, or Rogers/Astaire ones. If I hear of The Music Man, I think, "I've seen that. It's ok," but I don't have a great impulse to watch it. But if it's on, and I happen to start watching it, even in the middle, and even if I was going to watch something else, I inevitably get hooked into watching it through to the end. The songs, the music, the writing, the performances are so well done; and the story of the con man whose machinations work real good in spite of themselves (even for him) is so enchanting, it gets me every time. What I wonder is why I don't feel it is as good as I know it is.

You words you wrote there was a thing in it I was reading and I said to myself thats the best worst writing I seen even better than the movies themselves.

Thanks, MissW for your post. I was looking for more comments, but perhaps after some of his films are shown tomorrow people will have more to say. I'm interested in hearing what their impressions are. I'm definitely keeping my DVD recorder warmed up.

You mean an actress whose role was an actress in the movie?