reviewId int64 363k 588k | userId int64 33.9k 15.9M | itemId int64 1 1.42M | rating float64 1 10 | title stringlengths 1 10.9k ⌀ | content stringlengths 81 11.6k ⌀ |
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408,753 | 2,567,136 | 42,792 | 9 | The Great Racist | This is from the first great flowering of Mank the writer / director ; in 1949 he made House Of Strangers and A Letter To Three Wives , in 1950 he made this one and All About Eve , after that came People Will Talk and Five Fingers . This falls well within the Fox series of late forties films addressing social problems ... |
408,903 | 2,567,136 | 456,396 | 9 | Child's Play | The Dardenne brothers make it look easy . Their films have simple story lines , basic photography , little or no music and certainly no cgi but they do have exceptional acting which is , in the main , free from the kind of histrionics that some actors assume IS great acting . Once again they offer a simple plot ; Man m... |
408,981 | 2,567,136 | 498,380 | 9 | Capital Letters | Clint Eastwood is like a fine wine in that he improves with age . A couple of years ago I found myself crying as I watched Million Dollar Baby , the last thing I expected from a Clint Eastwood movie and now he has equalled if not surpassed MDB with Letters From Iwo Jima . It's not exactly a novel idea to portray war fr... |
408,909 | 2,567,136 | 152,976 | 9 | Straight And Narrow | This was the last film of Bernard-Deschamps and only his third Sound film at all in a career largely spent in Silents . It was also the last film of the tragic young actress Jacqueline Prevot , who had been rising gradually since her debut in 1936 and finally it was the last film of Erich Von Stroheim's first great Fre... |
409,985 | 2,567,136 | 34,075 | 9 | Adam Had Four Sons | this was the last film that the great Harry Baur made in France and the next-to-last film he made anywhere for having completed it he was conned into travelling to Germany to shoot what would prove to be his 79th and last movie after which he was tortured to death by the Nazis . Given these tragic circumstances one may... |
410,239 | 2,567,136 | 67,108 | 9 | Ham On Ruy | Writing yet another screenplay for her father , Gerard Oury , Daniele Thompson went to Victor Hugo's Ruy Blas , used it for a door-stop and fashioned a glorious romp out of it ( incidentally her own third film as writer-director , Fauteuils d'orchestre , opens in Paris next month and I for one can hardly wait ) . There... |
410,232 | 2,567,136 | 34,063 | 9 | The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face | I suppose it's natural for non-French admirers of French cinema to define it by those titles that achieved international distribution such as Pepe Le Moke , Hotel du Nord , Les Enfants du Paradis , Le Jour se leve , etc but I would prefer to define it in terms of what in England we would describe as the ' second eleven... |
409,635 | 2,567,136 | 53,459 | 9 | The Eyes Have It | Over and above the technical brilliance , sure-footed storytelling and top-class acting on display here is the fact that this film was released in 1960 , a defiant nose-thumb from a real filmmaker to those petulant schoolboys , Godard and Truffaut , so busy with their hand-held Arris , Sun-guns and Nagras , playing at ... |
409,260 | 2,567,136 | 37,913 | 9 | Raising Cain | Chronologically this was the fourth adaptation of a James M . Cain novel and the second from Hollywood ( the first two were European ) and it definitely raises Cain a notch higher than the previous years ' Double Indemnity - and given the Indemnity was a collaboration between Billy Wilder and Ray Chandler that is quite... |
409,438 | 2,567,136 | 29,604 | 9 | This One Breaks Both Legs | This is a brilliant ensemble piece that more than holds up after seventy years . Trivia buffs will have a field day asking which movie finds Ann Miller and Giner Rogers dancing together but they are only a small part of a great cast that includes Eve Arden , Lucille Ball and Katie Hepburn . There's also a nice touch of... |
408,925 | 2,567,136 | 443,706 | 9 | Over Capricorn | This is an excellent film whichever way you look at it and it certainly didn't feel like two and a half hours . I have to say that I knew nothing about the real events which the film depicts except for reading a couple of reviews since it opened her on Friday and catching a screening on Sunday . There are elements of A... |
409,207 | 2,567,136 | 29,546 | 9 | They Won't Take THIS Away From Me | This is undoubtedly one of the best that Fred and Giner made at RKO in glorious black and white and it's singular inasmuch that one is able to wallow in the melodic melodies and literate lyrics whilst simultaneously marvelling at what Depression audiences would sit still for in terms of credibility . All three writers ... |
409,591 | 2,567,136 | 39,970 | 9 | Magical Mystery Tour . . . | . . . and I DO mean magical . But then why not , the script is the work of Jacques Prevert who enjoyed nothing more than dabbling in fantasy - see : Les Portes de la nuit , Les Visiteurs du soir if you don't believe me - and the direction is by his kid brother , Pierre . This was the third and last time the brothers wo... |
409,652 | 2,567,136 | 430,224 | 9 | Hell Is Other People's Screenplays . . . | . . . brought lovingly to fruition . For those living until yesterday in a remote Galaxy on the Dark side of the Milky Way maybe I should explain that the late and Great Polish writer-director Krystian Kieslowski left among his papers three Screenplays , Heaven , Hell and Purgatory and now the fine Bosnian ( No Man's L... |
409,462 | 2,567,136 | 42,988 | 9 | The Sky's The Limit | This is a brilliant example of the kind of well-crafted Professional film that had those overgrown children at Cahiers du Cinema throwing their toys out of the pram and mounting a weak resistance via the New Wavelet that was shipping serious water within a decade . Julien Duvivier left more Craftsmanship on the Cutting... |
409,799 | 2,567,136 | 44,926 | 9 | Eat Your Heart Out , Baz | What a pity that flavor-of-the-month darling of the Arrested Development Set Baz Luhrmann didn't take a look at this when he first got the idea to deal with the same era and steal the title ; had he done so he may have cut his throat and abandoned that piece of drek he foisted upon a naive public . Here John Huston dem... |
409,368 | 2,567,136 | 16,232 | 9 | Black And Blue Red | Julien Duvivier had been directing for five years during which he'd turned out ten titles before this , his eleventh in 1925 and though I shouldn't be surprised - I have , after all , seen and / or own the majority of his Sound films - at the sheer craftsmanship and quality that permeates every frame I'm lost in admira... |
408,939 | 2,567,136 | 64,165 | 9 | Like Raindrops On Roses . . . | . . . a few of My favourite things are the films of Claude Sautet such as Cesar et Rosalie , Vincent , Francois , Paul et les autres , Nelly et M . Arnaud and The Things Of Life , the film that marked both a change of direction and a maturity in Sautet's career . The premise is hardly original ; a man is involved in a ... |
409,363 | 2,567,136 | 44,893 | 9 | Well-Met By Starlight | Anyone who saw this on its initial release in 1952 would not have been surprised when Sinatra unveiled his considerable ' acting ' chops in his very next movie , From Here To Eternity for Meet Danny Wilson is a perfect Halfway House between the gauche Clarence in Anchors Aweigh ( typical of all Sinatra's roles in the 4... |
410,202 | 2,567,136 | 46,874 | 9 | Hagen Dazzler | No one ever accused Hollywood of Doing The Right Thing or of having even heard of integrity so if , after creating the role of Eliza Doolittle and playing it for more than five years in both New York and London Julie Andrews was thought unfit to play it in the film version then there was no way Paramount was going to l... |
409,300 | 2,567,136 | 49,291 | 9 | Fools Gold ( en ) Gloves | It's quite possible that had he been given the choice Bogie would have selected this movie or one of the same quality for his swan song . His Eddie Willis embodies the qualities he'd been exhibiting for years but which first attracted scholarly notice in Casablanca , i . e . the outwardly tough cynic who somehow contri... |
408,790 | 2,567,136 | 179,185 | 9 | On Song | Classical muso turned writer-director Denis Dercourt hit the ground running with this brilliant debut that contrives successfully to make Classical music both palatable and highly amusing to a mass audience . The premise is simple enough ; one of a group of freelance classical musicians is asked to put together an ense... |
409,940 | 2,567,136 | 44,716 | 9 | The Last Noel | Though he wrote several plays and the screenplay for the David Lean version of Hobson's Choice Wynyard Browne's main claim to fame was that he was at Cambridge with Michael Redgrave . The Holly And The Ivy was arguably his most successful play and his adaptation for the screen reflects - despite some misguided ' openin... |
409,611 | 2,567,136 | 216,911 | 9 | Meilleur Humaine | One sign of good writing is how they deal with the Exposition and it's not necessarily how Quickly but how Smoothly . Seamless is good . This is an excellent example ; the credits roll over a small seaside town telling us all we need to know about the kind of town it is and come to rest naturally on the hairdressing sa... |
410,235 | 2,567,136 | 51,201 | 9 | Courting Disaster | If anyone could make the creaky Agatha Christie plotting work it had to be Billy Wilder . Or , if you will , it takes a cinematic genius to make Agatha Christie work and Billy Wilder is just such a genius . Alas , not even Wilder could fully restrain arch-ham Laughton from taking the odd king-size bite out of any avail... |
409,025 | 2,567,136 | 119,723 | 9 | Cry Woolf | There's a certain type of ' art ' film the English do very well and likely as not Vanessa Redgrave won't be far away - I can't wait til someone has the good sense to release A Month By The Lake on DVD so that I can write about it without having to rely on the memory of having seen it twice within one week on its initia... |
409,215 | 2,567,136 | 96,336 | 9 | Taking The Mike | This is the movie that Mike Leigh ripped off in Vera Drake and it's on view again as part of the Isabelle Huppert season at London's National Film Theatre . The overriding impression is the magnificent central performance from Huppert , definitely one of her best and that's saying a lot ; one wonders at the folly of as... |
408,765 | 2,567,136 | 449,851 | 9 | Cat Among The Pignons | Now that Billy Wilder has gone it's nice to know that Francis Veber is still here to remind us of the Wilder style , charm and class . This is not to say that Veber is in the same league as the Master but he's definitely in the same ballpark ; let's put it this way , if Wilder was a fifteen-to-one martini then Veber is... |
409,914 | 2,567,136 | 42,593 | 9 | Cold Steele | Bogie's Dixon Steele suffers the same affliction as Gabin's Jacques Lantier in La Bete Humaine ; both are prone to unexplained violent rages that may ( in Steele's case ) and do ( in Lantier's ) lead to murder . The flaw in both films is the failure by the writer and / or director to offer an explanation for the outbre... |
410,195 | 2,567,136 | 40,367 | 9 | Love Among The Ruins | This has the Wilder stamp all over it ; cynical , trenchant , classy , stylish . It was common practice for Hollywood studios to use music associated with a given studio as background in subsequent films yet who but Wilder would select Isn't It Romantic as a background to sleaze and squalor , love among the ruins indee... |
408,827 | 2,567,136 | 35,979 | 9 | Van Cleve And ( H ) Arp ( H ) ells | Lubitsch was on a roll in 1943 ; since 1938 he had made Bluebeard's Eighth Wife , Ninotchka , The Shop Around The Corner , That Uncertain Feeling and To Be Or Not To Be , five classics one after another and although he would complete two more movies and leave one unfinished Heaven Can Wait was his last undisputed maste... |
409,924 | 2,567,136 | 465,551 | 9 | Teachers Pet . . . | . . . or at they would if Judi Dench had her way . I'm slightly bemused at the critical comments I've read in the Press inasmuch as they seem almost startled that Judi Dench is playing Evil . Come on , fellas , she's an ACTRESS for God's sake and that's what actors DO . ACT . It appears she's paying the price for years... |
408,822 | 2,567,136 | 38,146 | 9 | Hi , Spirits | The mid-forties saw something of a vogue in ' ghost ' films ; 1945 brought a film adaptation of Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit , with David Lean at the helm , 1947 yielded Mank's The Ghost And Mrs Muir ( with Rex Harrison as the ghost rather than the object of the ghost's desire ) and in the middle was Claude Autant-Lara'... |
408,946 | 2,567,136 | 143,894 | 9 | Memories Are Made Of This | Billy Wilder began Sunset Boulevard with a shot of the morgue in Hollywood ; one by one the stiffs started talking amongst themselves explaining how they wound up with tags on their toes but when they sneaked it the punters didn't get it and started laughing so they junked the whole sequence . That same year , 1950 , C... |
409,541 | 2,567,136 | 44,744 | 9 | The Joker Is Wilde | This is , hands down , the definitive film version of Wilde's finest play rendering all others superfluous . Puffin Asquith made something of a specialty of adapting stage plays and his resume ' includes Pygmalion , Quiet Wedding , Cottage To Let , French Without Tears , plus the definitive film version ( the Albert Fi... |
409,042 | 2,567,136 | 391,488 | 9 | Think Ink | Daniel Duval has some fifty acting credits to his name not least the father in Will It Snow For Christmas and this is by far the best of the handful of films he's directed overflowing with warmth and charm . In some ways it covers similar ground to Le Grand Chemin inasmuch as a young boy is initially a fish out of wate... |
410,090 | 2,567,136 | 78,913 | 9 | Alice Doesn't Live There Anymore | For a film that embraces Alice In Wonderland logic it's appropriate that it starts as a man ( Alphonse Tram ) descends into a hole in the ground and by extension into a subterranean nightmare . Having reached the train level of La Defense metro station Tram ( Gerard Depardieu ) ignores the acres of empty space and choo... |
409,988 | 2,567,136 | 38,396 | 9 | Czech Mates | The old saying if you're going to steal , steal from the best rings true in this case which is essentially In Which We Serve in khaki ; both feature men in confined spaces reminiscing about their lives in Civvy Street with the main difference being that instead of a lifeboat we have a prison camp where a similar cross-... |
409,214 | 2,567,136 | 40,308 | 9 | One Happy ( Easter ) Bunny | I'm gradually putting together a fairly respectable DVD collection of Fred Astaire movies and this is up there with Top Hat , Swing Time , The Bandwagon etc . In the forties it must have been one of the best examples of the genre which is saying something as during the war years for example the studios went into overdr... |
409,284 | 2,567,136 | 33,045 | 10 | Clerk Watching | This , despite not being the original - it began life as a play in Central Europe - has weathered the several incarnations that followed ( MGM's own remake with period songs In The Good Old Summertime , the Broadway show She Loves Me , even the excellent theatre revival in Paris a couple of years ago ) and remains the ... |
408,823 | 2,567,136 | 39,061 | 10 | Many Happy Returns | A full decade ahead of the New Wavelet Christian Jacque , Louis Jouvet and a belle equipe were showing the Godards and Truffauts how the Big Boys do it and neither Godard nor Truffaut ever made anything even remotely as good as this and Godard never will . It all comes together like clockwork from Henri Jeanson's caust... |
409,371 | 2,567,136 | 50,658 | 10 | pmt | Let's face it , you can't copyright a title so let's be clear that this is sparkling Wilder not insipid Rohmer . The two are , of course , chalk and cheese ; whilst Wilder epitomises wit , sophistication , urbanity , style , class to name only a handful of qualities Rohmer epitomises slow-drying paint . Like Rodgers an... |
409,776 | 2,567,136 | 204,709 | 10 | Pawns In The Game Of Love | This movie proves that a wonderful film will overcome a stupid title that can only attract the wrong kind of audience . From the very first frame it's clear that the two protagonists who met only in the interests of pure unadulterated ( sorry about that ) sex are going to fall in love and it's just a question of watchi... |
409,152 | 2,567,136 | 75,932 | 10 | Seamless Seamstress | To revisit this exquisite performance from Isabelle Huppert is to forgive her the sleaziness of some of her recent choices . Like the other posters I have just read here this film - or rather this performance - has remained vivid in my memory since I saw it first on television some years ago . I bought the DVD in Paris... |
409,677 | 2,567,136 | 464,828 | 10 | The Singer Not The Song | The London Film Festival is only three days old and already we've had the finest film , this one . Not that the pretentious pseuds who actually run the BFI will agree - if they did I'd be seriously frightened - even as I write they've probably got scouts out scouring the world for something from the Galapogas Islands s... |
409,808 | 2,567,136 | 405,094 | 10 | The Worst Years Of Our Lives | This film has just opened in London and I attended one of the first screenings . I wish I could add something to the whole host of superlatives made by previous posters . This is a truly awesome film , at the very least a mini masterpiece and possibly even a fully-fledged one . With the best will in the world people in... |
410,095 | 2,567,136 | 99,266 | 10 | I Remember Mama | I'm delighted to find that every single comment on this beautiful movie is Positive , indeed , it would be difficult if not impossible to find anything negative to comment on . If you've ever been a child , if you ever had a beautiful but fragile mother , if you ever danced and skipped through a Golden childhood - or j... |
409,149 | 2,567,136 | 37,059 | 10 | MEET you ? I'll Be There With Bells On | At one level this is what any Andy Hardy film would have looked like had they thrown a budget at it and shot it in colour - an impossibly perfect Americana that existed only in the rich imaginations of serial nostalgics . Like most , if not all , of the great Hollywood movies I missed them first time around and caught ... |
409,735 | 2,567,136 | 19,646 | 10 | Right On The Money | This is a very welcome release in the Masters of Cinema series and whilst academics will no doubt seize the opportunity to use it as a tool in the ' teaching ' of film the admirers of French Cinema will relish the chance to view and / or even own a genuine early masterpiece . Marcel LHerbier made some 58 films between ... |
409,958 | 2,567,136 | 41,587 | 10 | Three On A Match | Another 5 star entry from Mank ( in passing could I point out that it was Joe's older brother Herman who co-wrote Citizen Kane with Awesome and not Joe himself as at least one poster seems to think ) and what irony that the actress who steals everything that isn't nailed down , the great Thelma Ritter , isn't even Cred... |
409,959 | 2,567,136 | 48,104 | 10 | With Old Waves Like This Who Needs New or : Eat Your Heart Out , Godard | Class , Style , Brilliance Is Alive And Well - or at least it was in 1952 when top writer Henri Jeanson collaborated with top director Julian Duvivier on this Faberge egg of a movie which incredibly provided the basis for the dire Paris When It Sizzles a decade later . On paper the premise is simple ; two scriptwriters... |
409,895 | 2,567,136 | 35,015 | 10 | I C'est Magnifique And The Hell With It | This is , of course , Old Awesome's follow-up to Kane and several forests have been decimated arguing the toss about whether or not and if ' yes ' how MUCH was it butchered . Like any committed film buff I too weep for what might have been but I also rejoice for what IS and what is is really something . Awesome's voice... |
409,109 | 2,567,136 | 43,686 | 10 | Game On | Yet another truly outstanding French film about childhood and featuring a performance by a child to rival that in Poil de Carrotte . The brilliant script is the work of Jean Aurenche and Pierre Bost , shortly to be savagely pilloried by the inferior Francois Truffaut . Rene Clement's sure hand behind the camera keeps a... |
409,028 | 2,567,136 | 56,592 | 10 | Peck's Bad Boys | It's often a mistake to revisit a film that one has enjoyed , admired or even loved in one's youth as so many times a second visit makes you wonder what you ever saw in it first time around and if , in the meantime , a film has achieved cult status the odds against it holding up grow progressively slimmer . What a reli... |
409,133 | 2,567,136 | 65,439 | 10 | I'm confessing That I Liked It | More often than not it's disappointing when an elusive film finally turns up and often the disappointment is in direct proportion to how badly one has looked forward to seeing it but I'm delighted to say that this one lived up to my expectations . Bowing as I do to no one in my love , respect and admiration for Yves Mo... |
409,211 | 2,567,136 | 431,493 | 10 | Anatomy Of Melancholy | This was , with Les Parrains , the joint last film appearance of Jacques Villeret and although his performance is only one of several reasons to see this exceptional film it is a more than fitting swansong . I doubt very much whether Villeret has ever played someone so wicked - evil may be just a tad too strong - as hi... |
409,199 | 2,567,136 | 91,480 | 10 | Well Of Loneliness | I've already commented on the first part of this timeless story ( Jean de Florette ) and sought to embrace both parts in one comment but always in the back of my mind has been a thought that I didn't do right by this second half so here I am again to give it equal time . Whilst it's true that the films are to a certain... |
409,411 | 2,567,136 | 1,032,846 | 10 | Babes In Arms | This is one of those films that are released in January and the critics say en masse that it is destined to be one of the best films of the year . In this case they are right on the money . Like Germany Roumania is turning out some world-class films and this is arguably the cream of the recent crop . It's already attra... |
409,143 | 2,567,136 | 34,891 | 10 | Timeless Capsule | It's very difficult to watch this masterpiece without a lump in the throat . Noel Coward and Terence Rattigan , two homosexuals , produced between them ( The Way To The Stars and this film ) THE two definitive British films of World War Two which must surely give students or irony pause . To watch this film in the 21st... |
409,830 | 2,567,136 | 30,127 | 10 | Baker's Dozen | This one comes with a rep that almost dares you NOT to like it for none other than the Great Orson Welles declared it the greatest movie ever made and star Raimu the greatest actor . Welles is no slouch himself and many there are , including myself , who consider his own Citizen Kane to be in the all-time No # 1 spot b... |
409,965 | 2,567,136 | 25,791 | 10 | Frailty , Thy Name Is . . . | This is a stunning early sound film from Max Ophuls which deservedly won a ' technical ' award at Venice . It's difficult to imagine that old Awesome did not include this in the dozens of films he watched before making Kane because Ophuls uses , some seven years earlier , many of the techniques , not least overlapping ... |
409,252 | 2,567,136 | 401,383 | 10 | Deep Waters | I am in total , full and absolute agreement with all the praise that has been lavished on this film . It is simply terrific . Cognizant of the subject matter going in I was prepared to be depressed or possibly bored - let's face it , how many ways can you show a man in total paralysis - and as a lifetime fan of French ... |
409,689 | 2,567,136 | 319,061 | 10 | Throw This One Back | I can't believe I saw the same movie as all those who have already posted comments . Basically it's a crock . The expression mish-mosh springs to mind . Ewan McGregor is off the credibilty scale followed closely by Albert Finny . There's scarcely a believable character / situation from beginning to end . It's like a ba... |
408,731 | 2,567,136 | 93,779 | 10 | A Film For All Seasons | As a dedicated Bill Goldman buff I read the novel long before he adapted it for the screen and just as the novel had everything plus spin so too does the movie . I've checked out sufficient of the previous postings to realize that virtually everyone rejoices in its blend of irreverence and wonder , likewise enough post... |
410,032 | 2,567,136 | 43,338 | 10 | Aces Back To Back | As if to rub viewers noses in his versatility Billy Wilder shot Sunset Boulevard and this one back to back with Sunset being released one year earlier in 1950 . Not surprisingly a failure on its release this movie is as good a definition of Wilder as any in his vast and impressive repertoire indeed the words cynic , cy... |
410,063 | 2,567,136 | 43,362 | 10 | The English Disease | This is , quite simply , the Best One-Act play ever written , any time , any place ; it's a Faberge egg with a Swiss movement and the fact that as I write , June , 2005 , a French translation has just picked up a couple of Molieres is indicative of its wider appeal . It was Terence Rattigan who first identified and nam... |
408,725 | 2,567,136 | 37,558 | 10 | The Land That Time Forgot | Over and above any quality in the Writing , Directing and Acting departments this film is a must for Nostalgics . To anyone under 50 who lacks a degree in or a highly developed passion for Social History the social landscape against which the story plays out will appear all but incomprehensible , as remote from the wor... |
409,165 | 2,567,136 | 37,604 | 10 | Timeless | I saw this first on TV some twenty years ago and was blown away by everything about it from the black and white photography to the strong support from the likes of James Gleason and his real-life wife , Keenan Wyn , Chester Chute , Marshall Thompson , etc to the utterly captivating performances by the two leads and I c... |
409,696 | 2,567,136 | 1,068,649 | 10 | Great Scott | I think it's fair to say that the serious film buff has a set of yardsticks by which to measure newer titles and these of course are of necessity individual . With English speaking films one tends to use Brief Encounter , The Browning Version , Citizen Kane , Casablanca , Shane just to cover a reasonable genre spectrum... |
409,451 | 2,567,136 | 47,522 | 10 | Where The Rainbow Ends | To all intents and purposes THIS star ( Garland ) was born when she sang a plaintive Black and White Somewhere Over The Rainbow in ' The Wizard Of Oz ' and now , fifteen years later after a lifetime of ups and downs that unique talent flowered for one last , glorious time and dazzled anyone with eyes to see . In some w... |
409,774 | 2,567,136 | 29,929 | 10 | The Pajama Game | For some perverse reason best known to themselves these IMDb boards seem reluctant to credit the great Billy Wilder as co-scriptwriter on at least two ( this one and Ninotchka ) of his early classics when any buff can detect the Wilder hand at work . As it happens this represented the first time he was teamed with Char... |
409,493 | 2,567,136 | 35,521 | 10 | What A Night | The beauty of this stand-out collaboration between Jacques Prevert and Marcel Carne - in the middle of their great hitting streak - is that it works even without the ' coded ' references which were a necessity at a time of German Occupation in France . So even when you watch Jules Berry as just the Devil and not a symb... |
410,069 | 2,567,136 | 58,385 | 10 | Gateau For Galatea | There are 142 comments for this movie and the handful I've read all address divers points . This seems to make a strong case for Musicals with strong ' Books ' and songs written specifically to further the action as opposed to the Amateur fumblings of the Baz Luhrmans of this world and their inept attempts to quart of ... |
409,269 | 2,567,136 | 111,579 | 10 | All In The Golden Afternoon | Though I love Chekhov the better a production of one of his masterpieces I see the sadder I am that I am still missing wonderful nuances because 1 ) I don't speak Russian and 2 ) I have no Direct , or Primary Source if you will , knowledge of Russia and so have to rely on reasonably extensive reading which is , of cour... |
409,448 | 2,567,136 | 47,437 | 10 | The Wilder Shores Of Love | It seems to be not just stating but over stating the obvious to say yet again that Billy Wilder was a writing-directing genius , that Audrey Hepburn was not only drop-dead gorgeous but also a gifted actress , that Bogie and Bill Holden were consummate professionals who were virtually strangers to bad performances but I... |
409,831 | 2,567,136 | 29,706 | 10 | Shadow Waltz | This is one of the Great ones : In terms of French cinema in the first full decade of Sound it belongs right up there with Marius , Fanny , Cesar , Quai des Brumes , Le Jour se leve , La Femme du boulanger , La Grande Illusion and you can't put anything higher than that though Duvivier's own La Belle equipe and Pepe Le... |
409,069 | 2,567,136 | 111,590 | 10 | Russian Buffaloed ( courtesy D . Mamet ) | I sympathise with the Russian poster who took exception with Mamet's tampering with Chekhov but I still admire this film a great deal . As a non-Russian and non-Russian speaker I have loved Chekhov since the time I was able to distinguish great writing from mediocre and I have always felt that no matter how fine a give... |
409,017 | 2,567,136 | 41,113 | 10 | Hix Trix Pix Clix | It's one thing to come up with a great title and quite another to write a novel that lives up to it and Robert Penn Warren more than succeeded with his Pulitzer Prize winner All The King's Men ; it's possible that not too many people in England were aware that Huey Pierce Long was also known as the ' Kingfish ' and tha... |
408,902 | 2,567,136 | 43,014 | 10 | Beyond Sunset | Although I long ago taped every Billy Wilder movie off TV I can't resist seeing them again on the Big Screen as part of the Wilder retrospective running at the NFT in November and December . Every movie Wilder wrote and directed was on the Great side of Good but seeing all the titles in print in a brochure reinforces j... |
410,242 | 2,567,136 | 395,251 | 10 | A ( Bad ) Taste Of Honey | It's difficult to know which to celebrate first ; the laugh-til-you-cry jokes or the glorious finger it extends to the PC brigade . Even the most liberal among us have had it up to here with extremists who want , for instance , to ban Christmas in English schools in case it offends Asian terrorists and in that respect ... |
410,030 | 2,567,136 | 37,884 | 10 | Is It A Masterpiece ? Natch , Gloria , Natch | Wilder strikes again . Although it's swell to be the first to laud a NEW movie and have that opinion endorsed by later posters it's equally swell - for me at least - to endorse a truly great movie like this one - and indeed most of the Wilder canon . My self-imposed rule of not writing about an old movie until I see it... |
410,170 | 2,567,136 | 809,407 | 10 | Ah , yes , I Remember It Well | This is a lovely , gentle satire that comes across even to Westerners who know next to nothing of Romanian politics and must be exquisitely rich to Romanians themselves . There's a lovely air of the quiet desperation that Thoreau claimed informed the lives of the majority . The setting is a small town in Romania where ... |
409,780 | 2,567,136 | 31,725 | 10 | Tenderized Comrade | When I saw this film first , perhaps twenty years ago , I was so ignorant of things Russian that I thought the Garbo character had actually been christened Ninotchka and / or it was a genuine Christian name . Since then I've learned that Russians have a charming habit of ' tenderising ' names by adding a suffix so that... |
409,285 | 2,567,136 | 31,647 | 10 | We SHALL Go To The Ball ( And Have One ) | With the NFT poised for a major Wilder retrospective next month I've been getting out my Wilder collection , a mixture of dvds and taped-from-TV videos to remind myself , as if I NEEDED reminding , of a unique and fantastic talent . Most people on this board have said it for me , it IS inexplicable why this gem got los... |
409,610 | 2,567,136 | 42,531 | 10 | Sophocles And Sundance | Over a span of exactly 10 ( 1949 - 1959 ) years journeyman director Henry King shot five films starring Gregory Peck ; two of them , The Snows Of Kilimanjaro and The Bravados were pretty ho-hum whilst the last one , Beloved Infidel with Peck as Scott Fitzgerald ( King's next and final film was Fitzgerald's Tender Is Th... |
409,674 | 2,567,136 | 31,309 | 10 | At The End Of The Day . . . | . . . this has to be ranked as one of the finest films about Acting as a Profession and Actors as human beings . Noel Coward gave us his own take on the subject in his 1960 play Waiting In The Wings and whilst he may have got more mileage out of his multi-layered title - " The Wings " is the name of the theatrical Reti... |
409,395 | 2,567,136 | 49,314 | 10 | Now You Has STYL | This movie comes THAT close to being the Perfect Musical Film - and nothing comes closer . The ingredients were all there - a brittle , social satire penned by socialite and sophisticate Philip Barry and tailored expressly for the talents of Katie Hepburn who , in the late thirties had been branded ' box-office poison ... |
409,402 | 2,567,136 | 38,238 | 10 | The Way To The ( Ten ) Stars | This is one of those ' period ' films replete with the kind of dialogue that we've heard ' sent up ' a thousand times and responded to the send ups by laughing at them but this film that SHOULD be faintly risible holds the attention and inspires tears rather than laughter . This is probably because it is as finely craf... |
409,331 | 2,567,136 | 40,338 | 10 | Stairway To Paradise ( Or Not , As The Case May Be ) | In my memory I have always rated this higher than the subsequent ( one year later ) Greene-Reed collaboration The Third Man and now that it has just been re-issued I see no reason to amend that verdict . Coincidentally both films turn to the Continent for their love interest , respectively Michele Morgan and Alida Vall... |
409,420 | 2,567,136 | 60,138 | 10 | Donkey's Years | This film belongs right up there with Citizen Kane and it's impossible to rate any film higher than that . Both should be mandatory viewing in every film school in the world where they would serve , with luck , to deter the average and inspire the gifted . Between them they represent everything that is good about the a... |
408,770 | 2,567,136 | 48,966 | 10 | Outfoxed | I haven't seen Norman Brook's play ' Fragile Fox ' on which James Poe based his screenplay , indeed I doubt if many people saw it but it's reasonable to suppose that Poe has ' opened it out ' considerably and in doing so effectively ' shown ' us what could presumably only be spoken of onstage . What is undeniable is th... |
409,268 | 2,567,136 | 53,604 | 10 | - Wise Guys | This is as close as makes no difference to the very best of Billy Wilder and that is , essentially , the Best of the Best . We'd be here all day if I were to list EVERY great Wilder film but the majority are great on one level - Double Indemnity , The Lost Weekend , Ace In The Hole , Sunset Boulevard , great Drams all ... |
559,341 | 2,626,332 | 76,009 | 1 | THE worst sequel of the horror genre . | This movie , in its attempt to be clever , ends up being just plain ignorant . It has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the original , and as fantastic as was the original , this detestable sequel is just that bad . Four years later , what does she remember ? Apparently , what she does - not - remember are those... |
559,573 | 2,626,332 | 273,041 | 1 | Putrid . | One of the worst movies I've ever seen . Poor Robert Guillaume . Whose sister did he anger to end up in this stinker ? This was AWFUL ! I should have known , when I saw Christopher Atkins listed in the credits . Remember him ? Richard from the Blue Lagoon with Brooke Shields all those years ago ? This was so slow , bor... |
558,767 | 2,626,332 | 91,344 | 1 | WtH is this ? Original Title : King Kong Lives | I was one of the masses who enjoyed the ' 76 remake , but this " sequel " absolutely reeked . I am at a total loss for what to say about this flick . I was totally amazed that Linda Hamilton had anything whatsoever to do with such a disappointing jaunt into the area of camp . The critics have knocked the ' 76 remake of... |
558,917 | 2,626,332 | 444,723 | 1 | Fails On All Levels | Once a horror ( or creature feature ) fan has seen Jaws , they have seen the ultimate creature feature with a shark as the antagonist . Orca was awesome in places ( and is not a shark , obviously ) , but Jaws is the epitome of a masterpiece creature feature . It stands comfortably alongside The Creature From The Black ... |
558,694 | 2,626,332 | 303,970 | 1 | Classic , traditional Chinese horror . | In a word ? BAD . This has all the elements of a badly done " B " movie ; ie : poorly developed characters , horrific cinematography , deplorable cacophonic soundtrack , and terrible over-dramatized acting . The CGI used does not even begin to redeem this detestable smack-fest of sugar-coated zombies / vampires / whate... |
558,793 | 2,626,332 | 424,774 | 1 | This Is Just A Rip-Off of The Neverending Story , And It's TERRIBLE ! | This uses color and glitz in place of story , character development , and heart , and falls flat on its face in the process . There is a story here , but it's lost among the detritus of cheesy effects , bad CGI , and some pretty bad Spam performances by three underage over-actors . If THIS is what Robert Rodriguez had ... |
559,488 | 2,626,332 | 118,772 | 1 | This Is HORRID ! | Salma Hayek is quirky and delightful in this work , but let me ask you a question : With a title like Breaking Up , did you really expect them to work it out ? WHO in their right mind would want to be with a man like Crowe ! ? ! All too often , his characters are rude , crude , abusive , and psychotic . It leads me to ... |
558,777 | 2,626,332 | 120,434 | 1 | Griswold no longer dorky ; now he's just a jerk | Look out Vegas ! The Griswolds are coming ! Actually , it's Ellen Griswold who needs to look out . Poor Ellen ! Frankly , I would divorce a man like Clark and marry Wayne Newton ( were I interested in that sort of thing ) . I've never seen a Chevy Chase movie in which I hated his character more than in this one . Not o... |
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