Author Archive: Peter Jakobsen
Glory
"lo gran disio dell' eccellenza" (the great desire of excelling) (Painting by Luca Signorelli)
In his book The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, Jacob Burckhardt wrote as follows: “As publicist and man of letters, [Dante] laid stress on the fact that what he did was new, and that he wished not only to be, but to be esteemed the first in his own walks. But even in his prose writings he touches on the inconveniences of fame; he knows how often personal acquaintance with famous men is disappointing, and explains how this is due partly to the childish fancy of men, partly to envy, and partly to the imperfections of the hero himself.*…
Continue Reading →The Maltese Falcon
"You may have the Falcon but we certainly have You..."
(Dir. John Huston) (1941) Best film noir ever – even the colourised version seems shot in glorious black and white – the morality of the characters, on the other hand, reflect all 50 shades of grey. Humphrey Bogart is tough, wily, cynical detective Sam Spade, engaged by Mary Astor, pretending to be a damsel in distress. Spade is being circled meanwhile, by an unholy trinity: Joel Cairo (Peter Lorre), Kaspar Gutman (Sydney Greenstreet) and Gutman’s henchman Wilmer (Elisha Cook Jr). They are all interested in an artefact originally chosen by the Knights Templar as a gift for King Phillip of Spain, known as the…
Continue Reading →Alexandra’s Project
(Dir. Rolf de Heer)(2003) A remarkable film, though hard to watch at times. Its creepy, claustrophobic plot device is so potent that it has been widely parodied: Alpha Male Gary Sweet has had a few beers at the office on his birthday and slides home (he lives in an attractively sinister cul-de-sac) to find that his put-upon wife (Helen Buday) has arranged a birthday surprise. From the moment Gary settles in to watch the video Mrs Gary has assembled to catalogue his various faults, we can quickly conclude that this couple makes George and Martha seem like Mike and Carol Brady. An…
Continue Reading →Midnight Cowboy
Are we there yet?
(Dir. John Schlesinger) (1969) A glorious story of two World Class Losers. If you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere, but Joe Buck (Jon Voight) and Ratso Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman) are freezing to death, living in utter squalor and their prospects of success as hustlers are approximately nil. This is a great, bleakly charming and square-toed study of marginal depravity, with two towering performances (both suggesting an incongruous naivety), great direction and keen settings about some of the most scummy parts of the city. The deep sadness of the scenario is mitigated by a profound compassion,…
Continue Reading →The Slaying
Fred Phillis ('Earn your pay with 18 goals on the day')
Central District v Glenelg 1975 The day dawned ominously on this minor round game. Glenelg would make yet another Grand Final that year, were near to full strength, and hungry. They had beaten the Dogs earlier in the year by a lazy 23 goals. Centrals were struggling, had had shocking luck with injuries and were forced to play boys who had started the season in the Under 17s. Glenelg wanted to go into its finals campaign with a full head of steam and wanted its mercurial full forward, Fred Phillis, to get near to his century so as not to prove a…
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