What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Worf]

Saw it today. I only attend a movie about once every 3-4 years as there are so few that entice me, but love the Indiana Jones character. I don't get all the hate for this movie. The only Jones movie in the series I liked better was the first one.

Thanks, I was searching high and low for an "ordinary" (no insult intended) fans perspective on this film, Too many reviewers (particularly online) are quick to savage and destroy. Declare something a failure after one weekend. I thank you for giving me your perspective.

Worf

 

[Doctor Strange]

Hey Worf, I liked it too!

Indiana Jones V

Saw "Dial of Destiny" yesterday and it was not a failure by any means. It was definitely fun for a one-time watch, and I might actually view it again when it finally streams. I almost didn't go see it at all. I was truly concerned that I was going to hate it; that I would be seriously...

www.thefedoralounge.com

Last night on Netflix, the recent Living with Bill Nighy, about a repressed English civil servant in the 1950s who receives some very bad news.



Living is a remake of Ikiru, a 1952 masterpiece by Akira Kurosawa. Though set in London rather than Tokyo, it pretty much closely follows the story beats of the original film.

It's certainly well done, but at least for me, it isn't nearly as moving as the original. Kurosawa's film is much longer and slower paced, but because of that, it accumulates detail that makes for a more powerful conclusion when it arrives.

Bill Nighy is very good, as is the rest of the cast. The early 50s sets and costumes look great (plus it was shot in the old 1.33:1 aspect ratio, which is very cool). It's unquestionably a good film...

but it will play far better to viewers who haven't seen Ikiru and won't be comparing it.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Hey Worf, I liked it too!

Indiana Jones V

Saw "Dial of Destiny" yesterday and it was not a failure by any means. It was definitely fun for a one-time watch, and I might actually view it again when it finally streams. I almost didn't go see it at all. I was truly concerned that I was going to hate it; that I would be seriously...

www.thefedoralounge.com

Last night on Netflix, the recent Living with Bill Nighy, about a repressed English civil servant in the 1950s who receives some very bad news.

View attachment 531514

Living is a remake of Ikiru, a 1952 masterpiece by Akira Kurosawa. Though set in London rather than Tokyo, it pretty much closely follows the story beats of the original film.

It's certainly well done, but at least for me, it isn't nearly as moving as the original. Kurosawa's film is much longer and slower paced, but because of that, it accumulates detail that makes for a more powerful conclusion when it arrives.

Bill Nighy is very good, as is the rest of the cast. The early 50s sets and costumes look great (plus it was shot in the old 1.33:1 aspect ratio, which is very cool). It's unquestionably a good film...

but it will play far better to viewers who haven't seen Ikiru and won't be comparing it.

Has He Fish and Chips?

 

[Edward]

The Great Escape (1963) directed by John Sturges, with Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, and a host of others. If you've seen it, you know Sturges doesn't waste a single frame of screen time telling the story. If you haven't seen it, Attenborough organizes and inspires the mostly English prisoners of war in a German prison camp to undertake a mass break-out, the aim of which is to tie up German troops in a massive man hunt who would otherwise be involved in combat. Historical verities give way to an engrossing viewing experience.
Followed by Chariots of Fire (1981) which actually held the attention of the grandkids; the grown-ups liked it very much. "Sandy, the kingdom of God is not a democracy." It is impressive (to me, at least) that a Hollywood production featured old-fashioned gospel material without invoking the spirit of a DeMille spectacular. Solidly acted, wonderfully filmed, and with a well-told story about real people.
Wrapping up the list was Kiss of Death (1947) as presented by Henry (Spawn of the North) Hathaway, featuring Victor Mature as a crook who gets a second chance at life, Brian Donlevy as an assistant district attorney who uses Mature to capture some higher-ups in the world of crime, Colleen Gray as the love interest, and Richard Widmark as Tommy Udo, the creepiest thug ever on a 1940s movie screen. His sick sick sick giggle is bad news. Mature's good guy- bad guy is a the heart of the story, and you root for him to once and for all sever all ties with his past.

Being brought up in a religious household, I well recall Chariots of Fire being very much celebrated. It still holds up well. Back in 2012., the film was adapted for the London West End stage as a 'play with music'. I saw it, and was pleasantly surprised at how good it was ("Musical of the film" is the new Jukebox musical in the West End this past decade; sometimes they are good, more often than not they are ill-conceived, lazy, uncreative populism). The Christian element was not at all watered down; presumably, the producers trusted a wider audience to be able to pick up on the bigger picture theme of being true to your own ethics, as it were, which was nice. The show didn't run long - like a lot of things, it suffered badly from the obvious (to all but the organisers of the superannuated sports day that ran a little to the East of the West End that Summer) hit to tourism that always comes as part and parcel of the Olympics.

I say hit to tourism - it basically devasted London tourism that Summer, and the Olympic events themselves sold poorly to the point that at one stage they were drafting in squaddies and all sorts with free tickets to fill the seats for the cameras.

 

[Edward]

Hey Worf, I liked it too!

http://[URL]https://www.thefedoralounge.com/threads/indiana-jones-v.85388/page-39#post-3021542

[/URL]

Last night on Netflix, the recent Living with Bill Nighy, about a repressed English civil servant in the 1950s who receives some very bad news.

View attachment 531514

Living is a remake of Ikiru, a 1952 masterpiece by Akira Kurosawa. Though set in London rather than Tokyo, it pretty much closely follows the story beats of the original film.

It's certainly well done, but at least for me, it isn't nearly as moving as the original. Kurosawa's film is much longer and slower paced, but because of that, it accumulates detail that makes for a more powerful conclusion when it arrives.

Bill Nighy is very good, as is the rest of the cast. The early 50s sets and costumes look great (plus it was shot in the old 1.33:1 aspect ratio, which is very cool). It's unquestionably a good film...

but it will play far better to viewers who haven't seen Ikiru and won't be comparing it.

Interesting - I've not seen the original. I did rather enjoy Living, though. Nighy was an excellent casting - and I think we can all be very glad Richard Curtis didn't get anywhere near it.

 

[Fading Fast]

Mildred Pierce form 1945 with Joan Crawford, Ann Blyth, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott and Eve Arden


With a famous movie like Mildred Pierce, you come to see that its well-done story - a divorced mother builds a business to support her two children, but nothing she does is good enough for her stuck-up eldest daughter - isn't why the movie is a classic.

It's everything else that makes it timeless and special. It is the excellent acting from the entire cast, the incredible characters they create and the screenwriters' sharp and funny dialogue - all amplified by the picture's beautiful cinematography and enduring themes.

Joan Crawford's captivating performance, as the mother who takes an entire movie to finally see her daughter for who she is, earned her an Oscar and enough box-office mojo to extend the leading-lady phase of her career for another decade.

She's matched, though, by Ann Blyth playing 5'2" of one of the scariest daughters ever on screen. Blyth is so good, she even returns Crawford's signature slap with a better one of her own that knocks Joan off her feet.

Blyth and Crawford's uber dysfunctional relationship drives all the drama as Crawford can't accept who her daughter really is, while Blyth has a sociopath's skill at exploiting the people who love her. It's a sick and incredibly engaging relationship to watch.

Jack Carson, Warner Bros.' big-guy utility infielder, gives a career performance as the jolly friend who is shrewd as heck. You almost don't take him seriously until he dope slaps the arrogant white-shoe attorney around in the tense divorce-negotiation scene.

Zachary Scott as the old-money playboy who is now out of money but not out of tricks and Eve Arden, once again playing the wisecracking best friend, bring verve and depth to what could have been two-dimensional characters.

Bruce Bennett as the good husband, Lee Patrick as "the other woman" who proves to be a very kind person and Moroni Olsen as the sharp but understanding police inspector all elevate their small but impactful roles.

The writers, including James M. Cain, who is the author of the original novel, and screenwriters William Faulkner and Ranald MacDougall produced a script that is so dense with good lines, you need several viewings to catch them all.

Ernest Haller's beautiful noir cinematography not only made incredible use of the California coast and Los Angeles' art deco architecture, but he also created memorable indoor images that engage you visually as they advance the narrative.

Watch for Jack Carson looking like a scared trapped animal in an early scene when he can't get out of the beach house. Also look for the "suspects" scene in the police inspector's outer office for examples of Haller's noir cinematography at its best.

Director Michael Curtiz shows that Casablanca wasn't a one-off home run as he elevates good material to greatness by knowing when to slow the movie down to let you absorb a poignant moment or to speed it up to prevent boredom during exposition.

With themes of unconditional love, arrant greed and family betrayal, Mildred Pierce could have become an okay soap opera or just a good drama, but outstanding acting, directing and cinematography turned this Warner Bros. production into a classic.

Today, the fun in watching Mildred Pierce again and again is that each additional viewing is like visiting with an old friend, but an old friend who can still surprise you with something new and amazing each time.


N.B. The Slapfest:

Round one goes to Crawford:

But it's Blyth wining by a knockout in round two:
:

 

[Trenchfriend]

And when I mentioned Gary Oldman as the allround-actor, I definitely have to mention Stellan Skarsgard! And the older I get, the more I like him!

Everytime, He appears on the screen, it's kind of magnetizing for me. He upstages all the others.

Now I have to add to my actor favorites:

-Gary Oldman
-Stellan Skarsgard
-Lance Henriksen

Say, what you want, but any show or movie, which got Lance Henriksen in, can't be bad!

One of the most remarkable actors, for my taste.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

A good take on Pierce which I knew in school was more than another pedestrian go at a strong yet blinded
by paternal love woman. Ann Blyth always hit my heart with her looks.

I've taken a summer holiday from work but spent some time looking at Disney and Hollywood corporate approach
to movie maker biz after seeing Dial of Destiny. Though enjoyable, I saw its flaws and understand the resultant critique
but I cannot believe Dial's overall cost. A scratch across any back envelope cost analysis wise should have addressed
the issue prior to casting much less actual production. And I won't start with evident suite ideology. A fine mess.

 

[Worf]

"Renfield" - Meh is about the best I can say. I was curious about seeing a film wherein Dracula's relationship with his familiar was explored and fleshed out. I got some of that but not enough. As soon as Akwafina showed up it turned into a Kung Fu/Gun fu gore fest. The action set pieces were okay but there was never enough reality for me to take any of the threats seriously, nor did I find anyone but the two leads remotely engaging. I regret my rental, wait till its streaming somewhere for free.

Worf

 

[Bushman]

"Renfield" - Meh is about the best I can say. I was curious about seeing a film wherein Dracula's relationship with his familiar was explored and fleshed out. I got some of that but not enough. As soon as Akwafina showed up it turned into a Kung Fu/Gun fu gore fest. The action set pieces were okay but there was never enough reality for me to take any of the threats seriously, nor did I find anyone but the two leads remotely engaging. I regret my rental, wait till its streaming somewhere for free.

Worf

As a dark comedy the movie worked for me, though I definitely felt like something was missing. The comedy was dry, and the horror relatively absent except for the intro. The movie felt like it couldn't decide what it wanted to be. Acton movie? Horror comedy? Gun fu flick?

At least Last Voyage of the Demeter looks like it knows what it is and is going all in on the horror.

 

[Fading Fast]

This Side of Heaven from 1934 with Lionel Barrymore, Fay Bainter, Mae Clarke, Una Merkel, Mary Carlisle and Tom Brown


Depression Era America loved going to the movies to see dramas about wealthy families, despite the fact that most Americans were struggling just to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads. It was a quite popular form of escapism at the time.

This Side of Heaven is a solid, albeit typical entry in this genre with smart writing, a strong cast and steady directing lifting it a bit above its peers.

Lionel Barrymore plays the head of a well-to-do family. His wife, played by Fay Bainter, just became a novelist about to sign a screenwriting contract with Hollywood, but away from that atypical and never fully developed storyline, Barrymore's family is very regular.

His son, played by Tom Brown, is a college kid who is too focused on getting into a fraternity, but he's an okay kid. The flighty daughter, played by Mary Carlisle, who is about to go off to college herself, is okay too, but she's thinking of skipping college to elope.

Barrymore's one level-headed kid, played by the adorable Mae Clarke, is a school teacher about to marry the "safe and practical" one of her two beaus. Rounding out the household, and providing some comic relief, is the housekeeper played by Una Merkel.

The family is so comfortable with each other they can argue amicably about bathroom time and sharing the car. And yes, the parents spoil the kids a bit, but not too much. Good-guy Dad Barrymore is, somewhat, taken for granted, but not in a mean-spirited way.

With Mom about to head off to Hollywood for a big payday, all looks good until an audit brings a crisis at work for Barrymore.

Barrymore, the head accountant, let one of the senior partners at work cash a big check "off the books" believing the partner's story that it would save the company. But the audit that is underway will now reveal the missing money and Barrymore's part in the embezzlement.

While Barrymore's intentions were good and never took any of the money for himself, his lapse in judgement and violation of accounting ethics could ruin his and his family's reputation and land him in jail.

Two thirds of the movie is watching everyone in Barrymore's family tra-la-la their way through each day's silly triumphs and problems, while Barrymore himself plays along but slowly dies inside as he sees his world is about to crash down around him.

It is very well-done drama with Barrymore convincingly playing a man painfully holding back his true emotions time and again, as his family brings one small issue after another to him. It is excruciating watching him trying to keep up this happy facade to his family.

Director William K. Howard understood that this was the movie's key drama and tension, so he let it play out for as long as he could, which is about two-thirds of the movie.

The climax is very 1930s in that several storylines - the kids' challenges with fraternities, elopements, etc. and the main one about Barrymore - all smash together in rapid succession, in a contrived way, but still, you care about what happens to these characters.

This is Barrymore's movie and he is incredible in it, but Fay Bainter, Una Merkel and, most notably, Mae Clarke deserve mention for their performances. Clarke is so good as the sympathetic daughter, you wish she had more screen time.

This Side of Heaven is a typical Depression era movie about a wealthy family facing a crisis that stands a little above its peers owing to its good story, thoughtful directing and the outstanding acting by its talented cast.

A struggling-through-the-Depression America clearly loved seeing these comfortable tales about the ups and downs of wealthy families as Hollywood made one after another of them all throughout the Depression.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

To Live and Die in LA. A criminal counterfeit operator is pursued by American federal agents within a moral
maze of hard shoeleather detective work and the choices freely made by individuals on either fence side.
A good cop film that definitely provokes thought long after its surprise ending.

 

[Julian Shellhammer]

Being brought up in a religious household, I well recall Chariots of Fire being very much celebrated. It still holds up well. Back in 2012., the film was adapted for the London West End stage as a 'play with music'. I saw it, and was pleasantly surprised at how good it was ("Musical of the film" is the new Jukebox musical in the West End this past decade; sometimes they are good, more often than not they are ill-conceived, lazy, uncreative populism). The Christian element was not at all watered down; presumably, the producers trusted a wider audience to be able to pick up on the bigger picture theme of being true to your own ethics, as it were, which was nice. The show didn't run long - like a lot of things, it suffered badly from the obvious (to all but the organisers of the superannuated sports day that ran a little to the East of the West End that Summer) hit to tourism that always comes as part and parcel of the Olympics.

I say hit to tourism - it basically devasted London tourism that Summer, and the Olympic events themselves sold poorly to the point that at one stage they were drafting in squaddies and all sorts with free tickets to fill the seats for the cameras.

BTW, going back to your post about Miss Marple as portrayed my Joan Hickson, we are working through the Hickson episodes. Her characterization is less, ah, "perky" than the Geraldine McEwan performances, a little more poker-faced perhaps. Still very good story-telling-

 

[Julian Shellhammer]

View attachment 531636
Mildred Pierce form 1945 with Joan Crawford, Ann Blyth, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott and Eve Arden


With a famous movie like Mildred Pierce, you come to see that its well-done story - a divorced mother builds a business to support her two children, but nothing she does is good enough for her stuck-up eldest daughter - isn't why the movie is a classic.

It's everything else that makes it timeless and special. It is the excellent acting from the entire cast, the incredible characters they create and the screenwriters' sharp and funny dialogue - all amplified by the picture's beautiful cinematography and enduring themes.

Joan Crawford's captivating performance, as the mother who takes an entire movie to finally see her daughter for who she is, earned her an Oscar and enough box-office mojo to extend the leading-lady phase of her career for another decade.

She's matched, though, by Ann Blyth playing 5'2" of one of the scariest daughters ever on screen. Blyth is so good, she even returns Crawford's signature slap with a better one of her own that knocks Joan off her feet.

Blyth and Crawford's uber dysfunctional relationship drives all the drama as Crawford can't accept who her daughter really is, while Blyth has a sociopath's skill at exploiting the people who love her. It's a sick and incredibly engaging relationship to watch.

Jack Carson, Warner Bros.' big-guy utility infielder, gives a career performance as the jolly friend who is shrewd as heck. You almost don't take him seriously until he dope slaps the arrogant white-shoe attorney around in the tense divorce-negotiation scene.

Zachary Scott as the old-money playboy who is now out of money but not out of tricks and Eve Arden, once again playing the wisecracking best friend, bring verve and depth to what could have been two-dimensional characters.

Bruce Bennett as the good husband, Lee Patrick as "the other woman" who proves to be a very kind person and Moroni Olsen as the sharp but understanding police inspector all elevate their small but impactful roles.

The writers, including James M. Cain, who is the author of the original novel, and screenwriters William Faulkner and Ranald MacDougall produced a script that is so dense with good lines, you need several viewings to catch them all.

Ernest Haller's beautiful noir cinematography not only made incredible use of the California coast and Los Angeles' art deco architecture, but he also created memorable indoor images that engage you visually as they advance the narrative.

Watch for Jack Carson looking like a scared trapped animal in an early scene when he can't get out of the beach house. Also look for the "suspects" scene in the police inspector's outer office for examples of Haller's noir cinematography at its best.

Director Michael Curtiz shows that Casablanca wasn't a one-off home run as he elevates good material to greatness by knowing when to slow the movie down to let you absorb a poignant moment or to speed it up to prevent boredom during exposition.

With themes of unconditional love, arrant greed and family betrayal, Mildred Pierce could have become an okay soap opera or just a good drama, but outstanding acting, directing and cinematography turned this Warner Bros. production into a classic.

Today, the fun in watching Mildred Pierce again and again is that each additional viewing is like visiting with an old friend, but an old friend who can still surprise you with something new and amazing each time.


N.B. The Slapfest:

Round one goes to Crawford:
View attachment 531638

But it's Blyth wining by a knockout in round two:
: View attachment 531639

Spot-on review, FF. Mildred Pierce is one of my all-time favorite films. The characters almost border on parody, but then the whole story is but a few steps away from being over the top.
With James M. Cain providing source material, and Curtiz at the helm we can't stop watching to see just how everyone ends up. However, I can't get the Missus to revel in the melodramatics as I do, so it's generally enjoyed while she's engaged in something else.

 

[Julian Shellhammer]

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) with Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, Claude Rains, Alan Hale, Sr., who played Littlejohn in both the 1922 version and this one, and Eugene Pallette as Friar Tuck. This was a story so big and bold that it took two directors to bring it to the screen, Michael Curtiz and William Keighley.

Presented in fabulous Techicolor, with almost no time to catch our breath between battles, duels, and ambushes. The murderous schemes of Rains' Prince John to usurp the throne from King Richard the Lion-Hearted, and the growing attraction between Maid Marian and Robin of Locksley are sometimes expositional, and slow the picture down just a tiny bit; the kids got restless during the dialogue-heavy scenes. No worry, in a few short minutes of screen time Flynn will resume bounding about, winning archery contests with impossible shots, and locked in combat with whatever bad guys are silly enough to take him on. He is an irresistible force with sword, arrows, athletic ability, and the smiling quip.

De Havilland volunteers to act as spy in Prince John's castle, showing her character to be more than a luminous damsel who exists only to be rescued, Rathbone is Prince John's chief thug who aims for power via the shirt tails of PJ, and Rains is by turns elegant, eloquent, cold-blooded, and a despicable reptile whose smoothness only barely masks his drive for power.

The duel between Flynn and Rathbone is iconic. The sets are astounding, the costumes lavish, and Flynn pulls off being stunningly self-confident without a smidgen of smugness. A big hit in the household.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Robin Loxley, Earl of Huntington is buried Kirklees West Yorkshire. An iron fence surrounds his grave where
he was buried by John Little upon arrow's flight from Robin's hand inside Kirklees Priory, 1247AD.

 

[Fading Fast]

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) with Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, Claude Rains, Alan Hale, Sr., who played Littlejohn in both the 1922 version and this one, and Eugene Pallette as Friar Tuck. This was a story so big and bold that it took two directors to bring it to the screen, Michael Curtiz and William Keighley.

Presented in fabulous Techicolor, with almost no time to catch our breath between battles, duels, and ambushes. The murderous schemes of Rains' Prince John to usurp the throne from King Richard the Lion-Hearted, and the growing attraction between Maid Marian and Robin of Locksley are sometimes expositional, and slow the picture down just a tiny bit; the kids got restless during the dialogue-heavy scenes. No worry, in a few short minutes of screen time Flynn will resume bounding about, winning archery contests with impossible shots, and locked in combat with whatever bad guys are silly enough to take him on. He is an irresistible force with sword, arrows, athletic ability, and the smiling quip.

De Havilland volunteers to act as spy in Prince John's castle, showing her character to be more than a luminous damsel who exists only to be rescued, Rathbone is Prince John's chief thug who aims for power via the shirt tails of PJ, and Rains is by turns elegant, eloquent, cold-blooded, and a despicable reptile whose smoothness only barely masks his drive for power.

The duel between Flynn and Rathbone is iconic. The sets are astounding, the costumes lavish, and Flynn pulls off being stunningly self-confident without a smidgen of smugness. A big hit in the household.

That's a really nice write-up of an iconic movie. I haven't watched it from beginning to end in about a decade, so I'm due, but it's one I loved as a kid and never grew out of. TCM did a segment one time on the sound the arrows make in the movie - had to do with the feathers or something like that - but ever since, I've noticed how freakin' great the arrows sound in the movie.

 

[Fading Fast]

Bay of Angels from 1963 with Jeanne Moreau and Claude Mann - a French film with English subtitles.


Style is integral to most movies, but in Bay of Angels, style takes a typical gambling-addiction story and turns it into an appealing Shakespearean Tragedy. The contrast of the movie's beautiful style with the protagonists' despairing lives is captivating.

A young man, played by Claude Mann, is bitten by the gambling bug after winning big at a Paris casino. He then, and against the warning of his pragmatic father, takes his two-week summer vacation, from his mundane job as a bank clerk, to gamble in Monaco.

There he meets an inveterate gambler, played by Jeanne Moreau. She's middle-aged with fried platinum blonde hair and a pretty but fatigued face. Clad in a striking all-white Pierre Cardin suit covering what we'll see later is a rockin' little body, you can't help noticing her.

Naive Mann is so overmatched it's silly. Moreau is an addict as far out on the curve as one can be before completely crashing. Her gambling has cost her, her marriage, her child, all her money and any dignity she once had, but she's still all about "the action."

She lies with the skill and disregard of any addict. Words and her body are, for Moreau, just tools to get a "stake" for the next gamble. When she and Mann win the first time they bet together, it's fun and sexy and leads to sex, but like any addict's high, it's fragile.

After their initial success, the movie takes on the familiar pattern of all gambling, really all addiction movies: alternating highs and lows where the lows get more frequent and worse. Eventually, the money goes, possessions get sold and tempers flare.

Mann is newer to and more controlled in his gambling addiction than Moreau is. He also takes their affair more seriously as she understands herself quite well and knows, eventually, she'll throw him over for her gambling habit.

Moreau is the fascinating one here as she, no-longer young and now battle-scarred from her addiction, is pretty honest with herself for an addict. She knows that nothing - not money, luxury, sex or even love - means more to her than the gambling itself.

One time, when they are broke and lying around their hotel room, a hotel room whose bill they won't be able to pay, Moreau shows Mann a small roulette wheel she has and explains to Mann that she "gambles with herself" when she has no money.

It could be the saddest moment in a movie of sad moments as we watch Moreau excitedly pull out of her small suitcase, which contains all her worldly possessions, a cheap toy roulette wheel, not a frayed picture of her child or a small cross, but a roulette wheel.

All this sadness, though, takes place, as do so many French films of this era, amidst an incredibly beautiful world of black and white style. Director Jacques Demy understands how to set a scene to a mood for maximum effect.

Monaco and Paris, especially Monaco's old-world opulent casino on a visually stunning seaside promenade, provide an incredible opportunity to contrast architectural splendor with Mann's and Moreau's failing relationship and lives.

Monreau's clothes, too, including her noted white suit, the cute sports car they buy after a big win, the hotel suites, his dinner jacket and the thirty-packs-a-day habit are all post-war French cool. Sure, their lives are circling the drain, but they're going down in style.

Moreau's performance as an addict so far gone that she has all but no honest humanity left in her is captivating. Mann holds his own in most scenes with her, but Moreau drives this picture playing a woman being consumed by her addiction.

Bay of Angels is a powerful picture in the sadly popular genre of addiction film. While the details are different in each telling, all addiction stories are the same: lives get destroyed as, eventually, nothing matters to the addict, even life itself, except feeding the addiction.

 

[Edward]

BTW, going back to your post about Miss Marple as portrayed my Joan Hickson, we are working through the Hickson episodes. Her characterization is less, ah, "perky" than the Geraldine McEwan performances, a little more poker-faced perhaps. Still very good story-telling-

The difference is really interesting that way, yes. I liked both, but Hickson was certainly Christie's pick it seems. Interesting to have a wide range of material to compare them both with, though - we don't as much have that with Poirot, given 'the others' only had a couple of films, whereas Suchet stands alone having not only done a wide range of stuff, but being the sole actor who has played Poirot in every single one of the published stories - at least to the best of my knowledge.

 

[Edward]

I went to see Dial of Destiny yesterday, and I adored it. For me, up there with the original three. I did like Crystal Skull, on a par with Temple. Dial, for me, is on a par with Raiders and Crusade. There's a thing [redacted plot device] which does happen that I was concerned about going in, but if you accept it in the course of the plot as exists it works very well - and it's no more outlandish than a Grail Knight. I think the writing is tighter this time. I also think not having Lucas and Spielberg so directly involved is key here: in 2006, they were too busy trying to recreate themselves. I honestly believe it was easier for someone else to come in and rebottle the lightning than for them to self-consciously recreate when they did in the eighties.

FWIW, the trailers for both Oppenheimer and Barbie look superb, and I'm keen to see both of those on the big screen.