 |
All right, I admit it. I’m just an old softie! I had very little interest in seeing this little piece of British sweetness but, damn it, it’s just a very entertaining film. Read the rest of this entry »
The time immediately after World War II is a bit of a murky one for most of us who didn’t live through it. We get taught lots about how the war started and how it was conducted, but very little about how it was wrapped up. This is significant when you consider that many of the world’s conflict zones exist today as a result of decisions made by the victorious Allies as to how the world would be divided up politically. Set in Berlin immediately after its capture by Allied troops, The Good German turns its focus on one particularly significant episode in recent human history by throwing its protagonists into the middle of the conflicting forces that had already started to fill the vacuum left by the Axis’ defeat.
The literary classics have become sort of a bread-and-butter staple for the British and US film industries over the last fifteen years or so. Especially for American actresses, it seems to have become something of a rite of passage to portray an Englishwoman in a period piece as a pathway to respect in the profession. Although never much of a mainstream star, Robin Wright Penn is a highly regarded actress with quite a cult following, thanks to her predilection for choosing obscure and challenging character work. For that reason, Moll Flanders is a bit of an oddity, eschewing as it does much sense of being a vehicle for its star.
Could this be the most sordid period piece ever filmed? William Shakespeare meets Todd Solondz in the debut film from British director Laurence Dunmore. Read the rest of this entry »
Brian de Palma has obviously poured his heart and soul into his film of James Ellroy’s famous novel, The Black Dahlia. Unfortunately, beyond the superficial style and artistry, it fails in almost every other respect. Read the rest of this entry »
I don’t know what it was like to live in the 40’s, but that period sure looks great in film. It was the decade cinema came of age, after all, so perhaps its an appeal based in a sort of borrowed nostalgia. All the men wear hats, all the women have shoulder pads, and everyone speaks so elegantly to each other. There’s something to be said, too, for the value of the cigarette as a dramatic device. It’s an intimate prop actors can use to convey meaning, and nothing adds more atmosphere to a night scene than a miasma of cigarette smoke. But Married Life uses its 40’s setting as more than just window dressing - its mixture of social sophistication and personal restraint is a key driver in the story’s premise, involving love and passion, betrayal and murder. Read the rest of this entry »
Gone With The Wind is such a universally adulated film - let’s face it, it’s THE classic film - it feels like an act of immense hubris to have the presumption to review it. But I’m going to anyway, and no, it’s not the perfect film.
