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JohnP-6
Reviews
Joan of Arc (1999)
A Best of the Genre?
Milla Jovovich's intense performance had one wonder if she was in fact overacting or being misdirected. My latest conclusion was neither: the shooting script and direction were simply not up to her exhibited capabilities while too much of the French soldiery, and what has become the overrated casting of the Delphin, were simply not up to the par she set. The director's attention seemed hopelessly caught between making the extraordinary story of Jean D'Arc a serious subject, while underestimating Jovovich's overwhelming enthusiasm, and attempting to equal or surpass the court and field intrigues of "Braveheart," while also overestimating both the supporting script and its casting: both of which lacked the cohesive, and even fundamental, understanding for a treated subject that, in turn, can only yield the ironic nuances, and deliveries, expected of what had obviously been strived for: a best of the genre. The premise of the script itself suffered irrevocably when finally laid bare despite the final, and even straining, performances between Jovovich and Hoffman to save it. The inconsistencies made inherent, and thus transitions (or better said: lack of transitions): from the heartily skeptical and defiant, and, for the most part, unconvincing French soldiery to the sudden declaration of allegiance to Jean by its toughest member, from the ardently Catholic, and even prescient, Jean before her Inquisition to a Protestant, and no longer prescient, Joan during her Inquisition, from the Burgundian Inquisitor who would defy the English for "Mother Church" by promising confession to nevertheless deny confession -when even, at the end' there was nothing to loose- and, still, from there to, then and only lastly, make subordinant the concept of the confession of possible truth to a priest-confessor to, ultimately, a confession of irrevocable skepticism to, supposedly, only individual conscience or even godhead -the very antithesis of the concept of the sainthood the film's closing would nevertheless celebrate, and which Jean D'Arc was, to the contrary, canonized, all marks the script, and its premise, as subject material which was not only profoundly beyond its authors' capabilities to conceive, but also material which they would, nevertheless, make instrument to, as recent films seem to be making vogue, an evangelism for a modernly self-serving fundamentalism which not only simply did not then exist, but is also so uniquely conflictive, as was the resulting film, as only present-day fundamentalism can only contrive.
Though, at times, over compensating for the lack of script, Jovovich, I think, will be remembered best for, nevertheless, not having underestimated herself, while the film's director will be, I'm afraid, at best remembered for having over compensated his film for his having grossly overestimated its having a script -and, perhaps most of all, for having overestimated himself when having accepted it. -John Pastore
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
if audience interpretation of a film's point still requires a point
Was Kubrick trying to say something?
Certainly Cruise and Kidder were acting as if he did.
The film did teach me a new aspect of overacting: It's being relative; and, in this case, any acting would have been overacting.
The only thing I could derive from this film was:
If Kubrick was saying anything, he was saying that, during some real life experience, he himself knew of a place as in Glen Cove, and until this flick, never told anyone about it -while still not telling anyone about it.
Meanwhile, if audience interpretation of a film's point still requires a point, then Kubrick was leaving it to the audience to make one up.
And, while I'm sure there will be plenty, I doubt any will surpass the casts' own obvious befuddlement on there having been any.
Cliffhanger (1993)
Theater projectionists everywhere should have been instructed to, at least, run the film in reverse.
After a stupendous beginning of alpine photography and climbing, Cliffhanger so progressively bogged down by mercilessly milking one lamer calamity after another, in just as many lame attempts to follow its own first act, that, by its end, I was seriously disappointed that Sylvester himself didn't also take a mortal fall -even, if by that point, from the only calamity that could have been left: Off someone's basement floor.
Theater projectionists everywhere should have been instructed to, at least, run the film in reverse.
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
Masterpiece?
To say 'All Quiet on the Western Front' is the all-time masterpiece of war films may be an understatement -as it may very well -also- be the all-time masterpiece of all films.
Technically dated?
The design of its, sometimes, sporadic cinematography wasn't so much to capture the era as it was the era.
Its universality?
As universal as battle is everywhere ugly, as universal as battle is its privates, and as universal as its privates are its youth.
Its comparisons to other war films?
Sixty years from now 'All Quiet on the Western Front' will still be the pinnacle to which all war films strive.
What other film -of any genre- can inarguably be more so?
Middle of the Night (1959)
Mismatch?
A previous comment says Fredric March was a 'mismatch' for Kim Novak. Ahh-hum.
Kim Novak was, as well cast as she was, lucky to be in the film with Fredric March. I think she was just 18 years old at the time the film was shot; and her natural innocence was the perfect foil for, not only one of the greatest screen actors of all time, but, in this film, also arriving as 'A Grand Old Man of the Theater' -a very rare accomplishment which mere age does not qualify.
The scene when Fredric March is silently sitting in the chair with mounting facial tremors and fingers atremble spreading a lap blanket as he so reluctantly resigns himself to dotage -until the phone rings and he, again, must become a man of action, is one of the greatest exhibitions of sheer acting power ever to exude on screen.
With Spencer Tracy, he would do it again as Matthew Harrison Brady in "Inherit the Wind", and still again as Willy Loman in "Death of a Salesman."
Fredric March a "mismatch" for Kim Novak? Fredric March was an absolute powerhouse from the beginning of the movie to its climatic end, and Kim Novak (as the whole of the set) must have been absolutely awestruck by the time the chair scene was finished. I am sure she realized just how priviledged she was to be present amidst such genuine success-in-the-making; and I do believe it even shows when she tells Fredric March that she will marry him.
In any event, not only were there no mismatches, but the match of Fredric March with the director, Paddy Chayefsky was a very great one indeed -Paddy Chayefsky whose unpretentious films have always exuded the greatest humanity, and in this -perfectly matched film- so unpretentiously captured that success.