Category Archive: Drama Film
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 →Lawrence of Arabia
"The trick is not MINDING that it hurts."
(Dir. David Lean) (1962) Despite Lesley having almost invariably impeccable taste, we strongly disagree with her charge that this is the Worst Movie of all Time. Dare we suggest L was prejudiced by the abundance of sand, the monolithic presence of her beloved Peter O’Toole, and the undeniable fact this is a ‘blokes’ picture’? Long (few films these days have an overture, an intermission, an entr’acte) but not overlong (compare and contrast The Hobbit), this is film history on an heroic scale, focusing on T(homas). E(dward). Lawrence’s fostering of the revolt in the desert by numerous squabbling Bedouin tribes, against the…
Continue Reading →Incitement
Caesar stabbed in the forum & elsewhere, painted by Vincenzo Camuccini (@ Moderna)
Julius Caesar (1601) (Dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1953) A good film of a great play, scribbled when Shakespeare was limbering up and entering his white hot phase. The story is mainly of Brutus, nicely and very glumly played by James Mason as the ‘reluctant’ conspirator. All of the key players are good, although one might say Louis Calhern plays Caesar much like he was as the big spy boss in Notorious (that playing strangely fits the minor but key part in the play but is much too vigorous for a 66 year old prone to fainting spells). Suetonius called Caesar “deified” and suggested that…
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