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Reviews
Parisian Love (1925)
Watch it for Bow
I watched this film because I wanted to see Clara Bow's early work. The plot is as implausible as others have mentioned, and Clara is still learning her craft, but how she lights up the screen! When doing comic or action scenes, she is superb. I love the bit where she disguises herself as a maid and has to fend off amorous 'gentlemen'. I can see how she won the hearts of movie-goers of the era. She is so pretty and so naturally animated. What should be subtle... um... isn't, but Clara made 15 films in this same year -- no one was going to wait around for retakes and guidance of a young actress.
There are some excellent comic moments from the rest of the cast, particularly Lillian Leighton as a French Ma Barker. She reminds me of W. C. Fields. You may be surprised at how much this movie entertains. Watch it for Bow, but enjoy the rest.
The Kidnappers (1999)
A silly little sketch
This is a send up of fan-aticism, by pros who are fans themselves. I still can't believe they got Peter Davison to do this. In its understanding of fan-nature, it is not far behind William Shatner's famous appearance on Saturday Night Live, in the Star Trek convention sketch. As a Fifth Doctor fan-girl, I can happily watch this over and over and over. I would rather not say why. :) I have heard that this is captioned incorrectly for one line of dialog. Mark Gatiss is not saying 'Oh my god' on being suddenly awakened, but is referring to the villain from 'The Three Doctors' and 'Arc of Infinity'. This short film is included with the extras as one of the sketches on the William Hartnell DVD, Doctor Who: The Beginning Collection box set.
The Robber Bride (2007)
It's a Man's World
I greatly enjoyed Margaret Atwood's novel 'The Robber Bride', and I was thrilled to see there was a movie version. A woman frames a cop boyfriend for her own murder, and his buddy, an ex-cop journalist, tries to clear his name by checking up on the dead woman's crazy female friends. It's fortunate that the movie script fixes Ms. Atwood's clumsy plotting by focusing on the story of these two men, victims of scheming women...
Heh. Okay, you got me. If these guys are mentioned in the book, and I'm pretty sure they're entirely made up for the movie, I'll eat the dust cover of my hardback copy. Apparently, the three main female characters of the novel aren't enough to carry the movie. Zenia's manipulations aren't interesting unless we see them happen to a man, and a man's life is screwed up. Roz, Charis, and Toni tell their stories -- to a man. Because it's not important if a man doesn't hear them.
I liked the characters in the book. It hurts to see them pushed off to the side for a man's story. I normally do not look for feminist angles on media, and I tried to enjoy the movie as is. If I hadn't read the book, I might have enjoyed the movie a lot more. So if you like the cop and the ex-cop, and you want to read more about them, you're out of luck. Read the novel, if you want to enjoy luscious prose and characterization subtly layered through a plot. It's the same plot: the movie excavated it, ironed it, and sprinkled it with male angst. It's like Zenia's revenge on Margaret Atwood.
...4 ..3 ..2 ..1 ...morte (1967)
Fun for fans (possible spoilers)
It's not a good movie, but I've seen worse bad movies. The plot is not like the books. Please consider that the books tackle the huge question of what happens when aliens are encountered and the changes it means for the world. The movie follows a familiar arc for science fiction movies of its era. The events happen, but are arranged so that when it is over the world is left essentially unchanged. It would be interesting to read an account of the making of the film from Clark Dalton's point of view.
Now that I've said that, I can say that I find it an enjoyable movie just for the simple reason of being able to see these characters on screen. Thora comes out the best: fierce, beautiful, smart, dangerous, all to a degree which I think is unusual for the sixties. Some might even find her an improvement on the book Thora; at the very least Essy Persson's beauty is easy to appreciate.
Great Performances: The Importance of Being Earnest (1985)
Delightful!
I was lucky enough to tape this when it aired on TV and have rewatched it many times since. Wendy Hiller is a magnificent Lady Bracknell, making all the more funny the scene where Gwendolyn turns into her mama. I'm especially fond of Jeremy Clyde as Algy. Cecily and Gwendolyn play off well against Algy and Jack. Watch for the back and forth dialogue in unison between the pairs! I wish they would make it commercially available, my VHS tape won't last forever. I saw several other programs at the same time that were also excellent and I think are not commercially available--and should be! I'm thinking of 'On the Razzle' starring Felicity Kendall in a male role, and a performance of a Shakespeare play by jugglers (I think the Flying Karamazovs?) that had me literally rolling on the floor and pounding my fists on the rug.