Paul-250 Reviews

The Field (1990)

An Extraordinary Film

[8/10 · 29 May 1999]

Richard Harris gives a towering performance as a farmer determined to prevent anyone else buying a piece of land. This is a moving and powerful film about obsession, stubbornness and a refusal to acknowledge another person's view and the self-destructiveness such traits can engender.

The Flight of the Phoenix (1965)

A Really Good Film

[8/10 · 29 May 1999]

Another interesting and intelligent character-study from Robert Aldrich. The film is about a small group of very different people stranded in the Sahara desert after an aircrash. Jimmy Stewart is the epitome of American can-do decency, whilst Hardy Kruger plays the introverted but resourceful aeronautical engineer who believes he has the solution to their problems. Look-out for Stewart's remark towards the end about the future belonging to people with slide rules! Faultless performances from the whole cast.

Eyewitness (1981)

An unusual thriller

[7/10 · 23 May 1999]

William Hurt stars as the brooding janitor in this sub-Hitchcockian thriller directed by Peter Yates (Bullitt). No-one in the film is quite what they seem, and Hurt plays the role of ambivalent hero/anti hero intelligently. Sigourney Weaver shows what a fine actress she really is whilst Christopher Plummer adds gravitas to the proceedings. Like Benton's Still Of The Night the film is well-crafted and often intriguing. Definitely well worth watching.

Eye of the Needle (1981)

A Surprisingly Good Wartime Thriller

[7/10 · 23 May 1999]

This film about a German agent trying to escape from Britain might seem to offer limited scope for interest, but Sutherland's menacing performance and the events on the island turn it into something approaching a study in psychopathy, laden with uncertainty and fear. The vulnerability of Lucy (Kate Nelligan, a sensitive and intelligent but definitely pre-feminist woman helps to give the film an added poignancy. Sutherland's performance is such that we are always fascinated by the damaged and ruthless character he portrays. Those who dislike war films may find themselves surprised by this film.

Zig Zag (1970)

An Absorbing Thriller

[7/10 · 23 May 1999]

George Kennedy plays what may well be his best performance as a man who frames himself for a crime he didn't commit so his wife can benefit from the reward money, and then becomes enmeshed in a complex and gripping spiral of events after he discovers he is not going to die after all. Anyone who enjoys thrillers will enjoy this film, and it is a mystery to me why it is not available in video.

Far from the Madding Crowd (1967)

Film Adaptation of Thomas Hardy's Novel

[8/10 · 23 May 1999]

Shlessinger has never been known as an 'optimistic' director, so it was perhaps as inevitable as some of the events in the film that he should have chosen to adapt a novel by Thomas Hardy. Julie Christie plays Bathsheeba a beautiful and financially independent woman in late Victorian England who is desired by three very different men. Hardy's highly-developed sense of tragedy is ably conveyed by all the principals in this beautifully-photographed and well-directed film, as events move towards what seems to be an almost pre-determined resolution.

Breathless (1960)

French New Wave

[7/10 · 23 May 1999]

An early piece of New Wave cinema by Goddard in the days before his films became totally incomprehensible, it was inspirational for directors like Bertolucci in its vigour and willingness to challenge conventional attitudes. The film is, in fact, deeply morally ambivalent, with Belmondo as the 'cool' hero with no apparent loyalty or obligation to anyone but himself, but like Antonioni's L'Avventura it seems to usher in a new kind of world, a world of complexity, uncertainty and, in the case of Bout de Souffle, a world dominated by the young. It would not be too far from the truth to see most pop videos of today as direct descendants of this film. Seberg's performance is strangely melancholic, presaging the later tragedies of her own life, and the image of her wandering the streets of Paris as a young girl selling copies of The International Herald Tribune is for some reason the one that I remember most clearly from this film.

The Man Who Came to Dinner (1941)

Wonderful Farce

[8/10 · 23 May 1999]

A wonderful, quick-witted and beautifully acted farce. Monty Wooley steals the show as a celebrity who slips on the ice and ends-up taking-over a respectable American household. If you don't like black and white pictures you won't like this film!

Dreamchild (1985)

A gentle Love Story

[7/10 · 22 May 1999]

I liked this film very much when I saw it some years ago. It tells the story of an old woman who, as a child, had been the model for Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland journeying to America on a liner and, after her young travelling companion begins to fall in love with a reporter, gradually remembering her childhood, and understanding for the first time the extent to which she had been loved (not physically) by Carroll. Carroll was in real life a tutor at Christchurch College, Oxford, and there are some wonderful remembrances of Oxford, including a charming mad hatter's tea party. The real insight of the film, though, is the way it shows that memories long buried (for whatever reason) have the power, when released, to change our understanding of ourselves and the world as we have known it.

The Elephant Man (1980)

A Moving Story

[8/10 · 22 May 1999]

A very unusual David Lynch movie, this tells the story of the life of a disfigured Victorian man and the doctor who tried to help him. Few American directors have really had a feel for Britain, let alone continental Europe, (Landis (An American Werewolf in London) and Losey (The Go-Between) are exceptions that come to mind) but Lynch's portrait of Victorian society is both powerful and poignant. Similar in concept to Bogdanovich's Mask, the film is profoundly different in execution. Lynch elicits outstanding performances from all the cast and succeeds in producing a deeply humane piece of cinema.

Das Boot (1981)

Compelling Drama

[8/10 · 15 May 1999]

I have only ever seen the tv mini-series which was shown for the first time in the U.K in the mid-eighties on BBC2 in the original German, and generated record audience figures for subtitled material of between seven and eight million ( the equivalent in the U.S would be almost forty million). I cannot imagine it being cut, much less dubbed. I can only say that I found it compelling drama, though everyone I know who has seen it has been male, and it may be that this film has particular meaning to those who have at least to consider the possibility that they may one day be required to fight in a war. The British have always been able to distinguish between honourable and dishonourable German fighting units, but the acting in Petersen's film is of such a quality that you really care what happens to these people (and I speak as someone whose father fought against them). The feeling of being part of a U-boat crew that is one moment the hunter and the next moment the hunted, the elation and the fear of combat, the heightened sense of self-awareness, the questioning of one's role, and, above all, the ultimate futility of war are all powerfully brought home. The extraordinary German sense of discipline is evident throughout (helping to explain why it required the combined efforts of The British Empire, The Soviet Union and the United States to defeat Hitler's forces) but it is a discipline infused with respect and intelligence. This is a wonderful piece of filmmaking which I would recommend to anyone. Just make sure you see it in the original German.

An American Werewolf in London (1981)

A Different Kind of Horror Movie

[7/10 · 15 May 1999]

I generally avoid horror movies, but I found American Werewolf in London strangely compelling, partly no doubt because of the effort to give the film as much verisimilitude as possible. The result was one of the most accurate evocations of London in cinema, making the real horror of the film (seeing someone you love transformed horribly in a way you can do nothing about) almost believable. As in Claude Chabrol's thriller Le Boucher, the real horror comes from a gradual realisation of the truth and of its implications, and, somehow, the transformation scene contributes to that. Definitely a worthwhile film.

Casablanca (1942)

Overwrought Wartime Romance

[4/10 · 15 May 1999]

Am I the only person not to like this film, or just the only one (almost) to say so? At the time it was made, it was put together in a rush by a whole group of different scriptwriters, with most of the people involved in the film seeing it as nothing special. I agree with them! I found it generally trite and predictable. Almost everything about this film is artificial - the setting, the plot and the ending, as is normally the case in wartime propaganda films hastily put-together or not. The person whose fate we are supposed to care about is presented one-dimensionally, whilst the characteristic which defines Bogart for what he is (hard-bitten worldly cynicsym) is the characteristic he will have to lose if the film is to have a schmaltzy ending. What is his real motivation? Why does he do the things he does? There is really no character development at all. Does he believe in ideals and if he does do they have to be other people's? Or is he just chivalrous, or even whimsical or perverse? At a time when the British Empire was close to exhaustion and millions had died in Russia and central Europe, there is a little too much of the lone American saving the conscience of the world about it for comfort. Of course, the makers of the film only ever intended to make a simple propaganda film and they did their job well.They gave the audience the Bogey they wanted and were suitably rewarded with affection from more than one generation of filmgoers. But this is not a serious film, whatever Woody Allen may think.

American Gigolo (1980)

A Stylish Morality Play

[7/10 · 12 May 1999]

Richard Gere is perfectly cast in the role of decadent but vulnerable male gigolo cum prostitute who is framed for a murder he didn't commit. His emotional entanglement with a married woman (Lauren Hutton) is believable, but the film is above all a dissection of the emptiness of the kind of stylish materialism which was to become such a hallmark of cosmopolitan lifestyle in the 80's. Like many such morality tales, though, the superficial attractiveness of the 'style' as a way of life is liable to lead some to embrace rather than reject it as a way of bringing excitement into their lives. In any event, a stylish piece of cinema.

A Tale of Winter (1992)

Life Without The Person You Love

[8/10 · 11 May 1999]

The second film in Eric Rohmer's Four Season series, Conte d'hiver is the story of a woman (Charlotte Very) who meets a man she falls in love with (Frederic van den Driessche) and has a daughter by (unknown to him) after they have said goodbye and she has inadvertently given him the wrong address, making it impossible for him to find her again. Five years later we find her in a strange menage a trois, attracted to, but not in love with, two different men each of whom she leaves for the other. Offering her different things, she is unable to choose between them, aware that she is still in love with the father of her child. Like its predecessor in the series, Conte de printemps, and so many other Rohmer films, this is a film replete with reflections on love and life. It is also a film about integrity, and the costs to oneself and others of emotional faithfulness to a lost love; indeed this is what gives the film its focus, as the purity of her lost love stands in counterpoint to the banal and seemingly meaningless choices that are available to her in her daily life. Charlotte Very's performance makes us care what happens to her, and the poignancy of her dilemma is brought home towards the end of the film by 'a play within a play' - a scene from a sumptuously produced version of Shakespeare's A Tale In Winter which should be required viewing for anyone who believes that Shakespeare and his contemporaries have nothing to say to a modern audience. This is a beautiful and moving film, which I would commend to anyone interested in the complexity of human emotions and responses.

Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)

A Modern Parable

[8/10 · 11 May 1999]

Crimes and Misdemeanors, (which is really two quite separate films artificially threaded together at the end), and Manhattan are to my mind the only two great films Woody Allen has made. But few directors even make one, and this film deserves to be seen again and again. One part, the less substantial, though at times amusing, story with which Allen aficionados will be familiar concerns an unfocused and not unattractively self-absorbed individual (Allen) who is given a job by his thrusting and even more self-absorbed brother-in-law (Sam Waterstone). The job is to produce a cinematic hagiography, but Allen has his own ideas, and his appreciation of his brother-in-law's qualities lead him to produce a less than flattering portrait of a man he despises, but who in the end if not exactly harmless is certainly not dangerous. The other story concerns a mature Jewish eye-surgeon (Martin Landau), a pillar of the community who in the interests of his marriage seeks to terminate an affair he has been having, but finds that the object of his desires (Angelica Huston) is not so keen to be brushed aside and threatens to reveal the affair to his wife, a prospect which fills Landau with enormous foreboding as it threatens his life as he has known it. As he contemplates the future, his options seem ominously to close-in on him, leading him to consider the prospect of murder. The dramatic irony underpinning the family scenes in which he acts the part of community patriarch is underpinned by the fact that he is a representative of a culture which has traditionally recoiled at violence as a solution to personal problems. His dilemma and his responses to it are powerfully evoked by Landau who gives perhaps the performance of his career.

Those who look to Allen to perform his usual role of neurotic New-Yorker will not be disappointed, but neither will those who look to more serious themes in cinema, for this is a Woody Allen film like no other.

A Tale of Springtime (1990)

Reflections on Love and Life

[8/10 · 11 May 1999]

The first in Eric Rohmer's Four Seasons series, A Tale In Springtime is the story of an introverted young girl (Florence Darel) just reaching adulthood who takes a liking to an older woman she meets at a party (Anne Teyssedre) and determines to match her off with her father (Hugues Quester), despite the latter's already having a lover of his own. There is a certain absurdity to this, apparent to both adults, who though both reluctantly attracted to each other resent Darel's attempts at matchmaking. Nevertheless, both of them are intelligent enough to understand that there is no 'proper' way to meet, and are alive to the possibilities that life brings them. Darel, for her part, is a persistent catalyst. As with all Rohmer films, the stage is set, in an age of increasing impermanence and uncertainty in human relationships, for a series of minimalist reflections on love and life.

There is no sense of inevitability in this film; indeed it acknowledges throughout the unpredictable consequences of the choices we make in life. The implicit message of the film is that it is not so much the choices we make, but the cultivation of personal sensibility, awareness of others and honesty that will offer us the greatest chance of happiness. But then again nothing is certain! If, like me, you love Rohmer's films then you will adore the subtlety of this film and enjoy the challenge of absorbing the numerous philosophical reflections that are an essential part of it. The acting is good, and you care about what happens to all three protagonists, although not too much; their dilemmas are our dilemmas too, but whatever choices they make now, they will still be making choices for the rest of their lives.

And that is as it should be.

Dangerous Liaisons (1988)

A Masterful Study In Manipulation And Intrigue

[8/10 · 11 May 1999]

English director Stephen Frears directed this eighteenth century French tale of sexual deception and intrigue, and although most of the leading cast members are American the film has a distinctly European feel to it. The story centres around the machinations of two decadent French aristocrats (Glenn Close and John Malkovich) for whom the principal pleasure in life is to be found in the cynical manipulation of the sentiments of others. Malkovich, entirely believable as a powerful and ruthless seducer of women is first given the task of seducing a young woman (Uma Thurman) whose husband-to-be has deserted Close to marry Thurman, but finds the task insufficient and soon turns his attentions to the perfectly virtuous Madame Touvier (Michelle Pfeiffer). The liaison is to prove dangerous to both of them. Close, Pfeiffer and Thurman are all perfectly cast, as is Malkovich who plays the role of his life. Not possessed of matinee-idol looks, he nevertheless shows how it is possible to attract and stimulate women on quite different levels, and that mental and imaginative stimulation is the most powerful and dangerous of all. The film possesses extraordinary energy and sophistication and, while it shows that the devil has the best tunes, functions not only as a fascinating study into sexual motivation but as a profoundly moral warning against the complete disregard for the profoundest feelings of others. The final denouement is as unexpected as it is dramatic. One of the best films of the decade.

Coma (1978)

A Tense Thriller

[7/10 · 11 May 1999]

Michael Crighton wrote and directed this tense and unusual thriller. Crighton is himself a qualified medical doctor, but on the evidence of this film he would appear to have no particular love for his original profession. His loss to the world of medicine, though, has been cinema's gain, as admirers of The Andromeda Strain as well as this film can testify. Like the English director Bryan Forbes, Crighton has always seemed able to produce thoughtful and original work which touches on the boundaries of normal experience, and this is no exception. Crighton gets good performances from the whole cast, with Genevieve Bujold, in particular, reminding us of what a fine actress she can be. As a doctor suspicious of certain goings-on in her hospital but disbelieved by everyone around her, including her on-screen lover Michael Douglas, she shows courage and determination (without ever losing her femininity) which is welcome in a female lead. She is also forced to question her own sense of perspective, even her sanity, as she struggles to uncover the mysteries that surround her.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

Errant Nonsense

[2/10 · 11 May 1999]

This film, like almost all other Steven Spielberg films is notable only for its infantility and its special effects, a mesmerising combination which sadly set the tone for so much American popular cinema of the 1980's. There really isn't anything more to say.

The Conformist (1970)

A Compelling Psychological Study

[9/10 · 11 May 1999]

This film is to my mind Bertolucci's finest film (made in the days when his films were properly edited) and would probably rank in my personal top ten list. The story of a man who was raped when a boy by his chauffeur and struggles for the rest of his life to affirm his sense of 'normality' through the embrace of political orthodoxy even to the extent of becoming an assassin for Mussolini's regime, the film has been interpreted by some critics as a political allegory, but I think it is best understood as primarily a psychological study. The narrative structure is sometimes confusing, but the flashbacks help to highlight the fracturing effect which this traumatic event has had on our 'hero's psyche, and his inability to escape the past. In that sense it serves a legitimate cinematic purpose and is not deliberately obscurantist in the manner of late Bunuel or Goddard.

The film is also about friendship and betrayal, and achieves great poignancy the night before the assassination is due to take place, with all the major characters eating, dancing and laughing together. It also achieves a haunting evocation of 1930's Europe, presaging the horrible and traumatic events that are to come. An extraordinary piece of cinema.

Cinema Paradiso (1988)

A Hymn To Cinema

[8/10 · 9 May 1999]

Cinema Paradiso is a film about growing-up as much as it is a homage to the cinema; the pains of growing-up, the compromises and, eventually, the separation that it involves from those we love and the familiar surroundings that have helped to shape us. And in a real sense, despite what Varlaam (in an earlier comment) said about 120 minute popcorn ads, it acknowledges the role of film as fantasy, a fantasy that cannot last. But what a beautiful fantasy! Anyone who knows Italy well will recognise the emotional warmth that permeates the film, and in that sense, like Fellini's Amarcord, the film is inescapably Italian. But it is also universal in it's acknowledgement of loss through the inevitability of change. This is a beautiful homage to cinema, but also to the ties of friendship and community that help people to develop as fully-rounded human beings. That we see little of what the townspeople do is not the point. We don't need to. One advantage of films like Cinema Paradiso and Belle Epoque is that they may encourage many people to watch subtitled films, and to appreciate that a film robbed of it's original language and sounds is a film castrated. To those unaccustomed to subtitles, that alone is a reason for seeing this wonderful film.

Burn! (1969)

A Complex Political Thriller

[9 May 1999]

Albert Oyahon (a previous review) seems to have said it all. This indeed is a deeply complex, gripping and deeply political film. For those who are used to simple moral tales it will seem confusing, uncomfortable even, but for those who relish the complexity of the human condition it is a challenging and thoughtful film. The number of truly outstanding political thrillers can be counted on the fingers of one hand (A Man For All Seasons and Z come to mind) but this ranks amongst the best. With the possible exception of On The Waterfront, it is difficult to think of a film in which Brando gave a better performance. He is outstanding as a complex political manipulator. The film also has qualities that arise only when different cultures (in this case Europe and The Americas) come together. To an intelligent filmgoer I cannot recommend this film too highly.

The Browning Version (1951)

A Study in Cruelty

[7/10 · 9 May 1999]

Based on Terence Rattigan's play, this is a moving story of a public (private) schoolmaster's disappointments as his life slips away from him, and his increasing sense of isolation from everyone around him as even his wife makes clear her bitterness towards him. Michael Redgrave's performance is masterfully poignant. The film was made in an era when the values inherent in the film still had considerable currency, helping the film to achieve a degree of authenticity which it is doubtful could be achieved today. (I have not seen the more recent version, though, so it may be that I am wrong). If you are interested in the human condition, or simply want to see a masterful portrayal of human pain then you should watch this film.

Citizen Kane (1941)

The Most Overrated Movie Of All Time!

[5/10 · 9 May 1999]

Here goes! Citizen Kane regularly tops the list of American critics' best films of all time lists and runs in the top ten in European critic ratings, despite having been a huge commercial failure at the time of its original release. It is a serious, well-acted and groundbreaking film certainly, but to describe it as the best film ever made is ludicrous; in fact I would rate it the most overrated movie in the history of film. Because I don't like Welles? Not at all. Welles had one of the most original and creative careers in world cinema and Othello (1952) would probably rank in my own top ten list. So why my scepticism? One of the biggest problems I have with the film is that, like Apocalypse Now, it requires a certain political position in order to fully appreciate it. Pauline Kael, the doyenne of American film critics, is on record as saying that the film was an important cultural statement for left-wing Americans at the time, and that is certainly true. But a film which has that kind of appeal usually makes assumptions that are far from universally shared, and often ungenerous ones at that. Hearst was a bete-noir of the American left whose newspapers had decades earlier encouraged a jingoistic war in Cuba. Did that give Welles the right though to dissect his life without even knowing the man (he later met him once in a lift) and, in particular to characterise him as cold an ungiving at a personal level? (It is worth remembering, in this context, that when Hearst later fell on hard times his wife apparently so starved of love sold her jewels and remained with him). The film has too much the feel of a hatchet job. Someone could make a similar movie today about Rupert Murdoch and it might be well-acted and beautifully shot but you see the problem! Welles was only twenty-five when he made this movie and it shows. Certainly he had a right to an opinion and a right to state it, but life is a little more complex than you would know from this movie.

Defenders of the movie often point to the originality and quality of its cinematography and the influence it has had on American cinema in particular. This is undoubtedly true. In the same way that Eliot, Joyce and Nabakov changed literature, Welles helped to change cinema. But Picasso was unquestionably the most influential figure on twentieth century art and yet his influence would not necessarily be universally accepted as benign.

I am not suggesting that the influence of Citizen Kane was malign, but influence and quality are discrete concepts. As for the cinematography itself is it really as original as many American critics seem to think? What about early Eisenstein or, at the risk of being non-pc, the extraordinary cinematography several years earlier of Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph Of The Will? A serious film? Yes! An important film? Unquestionably! The greatest film ever made? Move over! It is simply too cold ever to be that.