Category Archive: FILM
A New Leaf
"..rich...that's all I ever wanted to be."
(Dir. Elaine May) (1971) Henry Graham (Walter Matthau) has a big problem: his sizeable inheritance has dried up and as his disdainful uncle tells him, he is “an aging youth, with no prospects, no skills, no character.” The confrontation with Mr. Graham’s solicitor, Mr. Beckett, is a classic. After explaining with some difficulty to his client that he is broke, Beckett declares that “I have given you $550 of my own money for only one reason. Disliking you as intensely as I do, I wanted to be absolutely certain that when I looked back upon your financial downfall, I could…
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 →Foxcatcher
The 'ornithologist, philatelist, philanthropist' (front left) at Penn U.
(Dir. Bennett Miller) (2014) The historical facts are unedifying and abstruse. John Eleuthère du Pont was an heir to the du Pont family fortune, his personal fortune assessed at about $200m (U.S.). A decidedly odd fellow, he was nevertheless a man of some accomplishment as an ornithologist, philatelist, philanthropist (and fantasist). He was also a sports enthusiast and established a wrestling academy at the family estate for a tilt at the Olympics. It was in pursuit of this that the Schultz brothers, world and Olympic wrestling champions, came to live on the du Pont estate, Foxcatcher Farms. The relationship seems to have been interesting,…
Continue Reading →