Movies, Drama
Recently a friend watched a film that I had seen before. I did not see it but only heard the dialogue through the speakers in an adjacent room. It quickly became obvious that without the pictures films don’t work. The Artist, however, shows that even decades after sound movies (talkies) displaced silent films, it is possible to make a silent movie. Moving pictures itself works. The Artist is a wonderful piece of art set in Hollywood just ask the talkies are luring movie goers away from the silent films. A big star of the silent movies meets a young nobody who has charms that his rich wife is missing. And now the drama starts.The Artist
Movies, Drama
Mark Zuckerberg allegedly is spending is honey moon in Rome right now. If you are thinking you can can follow in his footsteps by watching Roman Holiday, you will be disappointed. The film did not age well. Our eyes need more than a princess who wants to break out her cage for a day by strolling through Rome with a dashing newspaper man. The last 10 minutes of the film give it some redeeming quality. Andrey Hepburn probably won the Oscar for these ten minutes, in which her face does an amazing acting job.If you are in mood for a romantic comedy, watch Pretty Womaninstead. Roman Holiday
Movies, Drama
Breakfast at Tiffany has receive higher ratings than in my mind it deserved. It is a love story with a cute cat and an always beautiful-to-watch Audrey Hepburn. But that is about it. Watch the wonderful My Fair Lady if you want to see Hepburn and experience a much deeper story. My Review of My Fair Lady.Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Movies, Drama
Watching this exquisite crime movie, I wondered: Who wrote the story for the script. So I did some research and discovered that it was indeed a Swede to wrote the story. Frequently, writers live rather boring lives. Not so in the case of Stieg Larsson. According to his partner of 20 years, Larsson’s witnessed a rape when he was young and never forgave himself for not trying to stop it. In real life he tried to be a journalists but apparently did not have the social skills and personality to fit into a news organization. Larsson worked tirelessly to counter radical right wing activists in Sweden. This endangered his life. Larsson and his partner never married because the address of a newly married coupled is published in Sweden and Larsson’s would have been more easily targeted. The hero, Mikael Blomkvist (Craig Daniel), and the heroine, Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara), seem to be an amplified version of Larsson, but not in a way that this would became in any way tedious.The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Movies, Drama
Four short year after the Golden Gate Bridge opened in 1937, this detective flick was produced in San Francisco. Humphrey Bogart plays a private detective. He is retained by a beautiful women, who under false pretenses has Bogart’s partner shadow a man, who allegedly has let her sister to run away with him to San Francisco. Before we know it, two people are dead. The plot turns fast. While the themes of the film (greed, love, passion) are eternal, the film did not age as well as the Golden Gate Bridge, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. I had more fun with African Queen, another old Humphrey Bogart film. But the writing is very good.The Maltese Falcon
Movies, Drama
When I saw Women on a Verge of a Nervous Breakdown almost twenty year ago, I did not find it very funny. In fact, I was bored by it. Perhaps I was simply too tired. But the film (or I) aged well. Almadovar in 1988 build into his film a refernce to Islamic terrorist. After September 11, 2001 this reference has gained a lot of poignancy. If you have a woman in your life who is on the verge of a nervous breakdown, this comic film will help.Women on the Verge of Nervous Breakdown
Movies, Drama
The decor and the language of the film reminded me so much of other films of this era that I erroneously thought the film was written by Riginald Rose or directed by Sidney Lumet. A mafia boss who wants to get back into major deals descents with his entourage on a small hotel in Key Largo in the middle of the summer when no one in their right mind vacations on the Florida Keys. The owner of the hotel runs the hotel together with his daughter in law who lost her husband in World War II. Frank McCloud (Humphrey Bogart) was with the son and husband just before he was hit in Italy. To help them come to terms with this death, Mcloud pays them a visit to tell them the details how he died. But before he can do this, the mobsters hold him and everyone else hostage and now Frank’s courage is tested and his heart is opened up by the beauty of his comrade’s widow. While it would not make my top 100 list, the film is worth seeing, especially if you are on a visit to the Florida Keys.Key Largo
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