Dostoevskiy (2011)

 English title: Dostoevsky

Biographical mini-series about the Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881). We get to witness his prison years, his conservative views, his several women, his gambling addiction, his health problems, his financial problems, his writing, etc.

Exceedingly well-done biopic. I usually don't enjoy this genre very much, and I frankly don't know how accurate this mini-series was, but overall I found it quite watchable and also lovely to look at on account of the many natural and urban views on display throughout the narrative. The acting was splendid too. I feel like I know more about Dostoevsky now than before I watched it.

Rating: 66

Olivia (1951)

U.S. title: The Pit of Loneliness 

At a French finishing school, an English student falls in love with the headmistress. There is another teacher who is always indisposed and jealous of the attention the headmistress receives.

This is similar to Mädchen in Uniform, but for some reason which is not exactly clear in my memory I liked that film a lot more than I liked Olivia. Anyway, so many films depicting so similar situations makes me think that colleges for girls used to be cesspools of unnatural desires; I suppose parents maybe looked the other way with the comforting thought that at least they wouldn't have to worry about unwanted pregnancies. In this film, the headmistress refrains from fully indulging her desires towards the protagonist, out of scruples. It is implicit, though, that she had had no such scruples with some of the other students, besides having relationships with one or more of her colleagues. The film is not explicit about her reasons, but seems to suggest that the intensity of the girl's passions, as well as her inexperience, raised a red flag on the older woman. The villain of the film is the German teacher. I guess Germans were still an easy target in 1951. Maybe one of the main flaws here is that the protagonist's feelings are aroused too soon and without a development which would make it more convincing. Or maybe the shadow of a previous better movie with a similar plot made this one feel kind of redundant.

Rating: 37

Un homme à abattre (1967)

 English title: A Man to Kill

A small organization locates a possible former SS officer in Barcelona. They try to ascertain his identity with the intent to kill him in case he is really the man they think he is.

Rather gloomy thriller which possibly would inspire more sympathy for its "good" guys if some scenes depicting the alleged cruel acts of their nemesis were actually shown. As it is, the film feels rather cold and mechanical. The only memorable scene is when a female character reveals her real hair. I am not sure this is memorable in a good way, though.

Rating: 34

Evel Knievel (1971)

A motorcycle daredevil is about to perform a great stunt and he recalls his early life and how he got where he is now.

This is a conventional biopic except for the unusual fact that the subject matter was still alive and only 32 at the time of its release. I really cannot find anything useful to say about the film, which is watchable in a trivial way but has all the banal clichés one usually finds in biopics. In fact I was led to watch it due to a probable mistake: I had read a mention to it (by Christopher Mulrooney) which probably meant to refer to another movie -- the later Viva Knievel! (1977) -- and got the titles mixed up. I think the only thing I will remember from this film is how impressed I was by the vocals on the two songs which play during the movie (one during the opening and closing credits and another during the film proper), and how intrigued I was that the name of the singer was absent from the film's credits, and even from the IMDB and Wikipedia pages. It was not very easy to find that name by searching the web, but I did find it (here): it is Jim Sullivan. Here is a piece on him and the mystery surrounding his disappearance.

Rating: 31

Clérambard (1969)

 A nobleman goes through a transforming experience (there are more detailed summaries online).

This isn't a terribly interesting film, I'm afraid. Partly, that's because the actions of the protagonist after his metamorphosis do not make much sense, despite the film's attempt, through some of the dialogue, to make us think otherwise. Well, from where I stand, giving away one's meager possessions at random is not a very rational or efficient way to end the world's "injustice". And it's the story of a man who goes from broke to destitute, therefore not exactly a paragon of self-sacrifice if you ask me. Anyway, what happens in this movie is rarely funny, and, while it's not extremely dull either, it is mostly barely entertaining.

Rating: 40

Un nuage entre les dents (1974)

English title: A Cloud in the Teeth

Two reporters roam Paris in search of newsworthy incidents. During a news coverage, one of them loses his two kids. After a fruitless search, they begin to suspect the kids have been kidnapped. They get in touch with their newspaper, who in turn decides to run headlines with the story. A citywide search is put in motion, with comical results.

The vogue of buddy movies was rising at the time, only this movie is a little atypical for having reporters instead of cops as protagonists. The only review in English I found for this movie, by IMDB commenter Klaas-2, sums it up well: "hilarious, perhaps somewhat overdone". Anyway, I think their depiction of newspapers' ethical standards is perfectly believable.

Rating: 51

Città violenta (1970)

 English titles: Violent City; The Family

A professional assassin is betrayed by one of his clients and by his girlfriend. He goes to prison and upon release receives an offer to join a criminal organization.

Well-filmed but poorly written crime thriller. The initial car chase is the high point of the movie. What follows seems to have been written as they went along (by a ridiculously high number of screenwriters), in such a way that sometimes we wonder whether we are watching one of those avant-garde movies where events do not follow a strictly logical order and the story repeats itself with minor variations, like in Last Year in Marienbad, or Cet obscur objet du désir, for two examples off the top of my head (but I watched those so long ago that I may be making a mistaken comparison). Also, the characters seem more like an evocation of earlier fictional avatars than any real life counterparts. As in most European genre productions, it is impossible not to sense a certain self-parodic quality. I don't understand, however, why IMDB categorizes the tarantula in the prison cell as a goof due to the fact that there are no tarantulas in Europe -- I thought he was in a prison in the Caribbean; well, maybe I was mistaken.

Rating: 38

Les intrigantes (1954)

 English titles: The Scheming Women; The Plotters

The two owners of a theater are walking on a footbridge inside the premises of their theater when one of them falls to his death on the floor below. A man working for their company as a kind of production manager sends an anonymous letter to the police accusing the surviving owner of murdering his associate. It turns out the accuser covets the wife of the man he accuses. She advises her husband to get himself  committed to a psychiatric institution while she tries to find proof of his innocence. But she soon strays from that purpose...

There is really not much in the way of a mystery here, things follow a more or less predictable course. The behavior of the female lead might be a little surprising to some, and might put others off a little, but movies are hardly to be expected to be psychology manuals. As a depiction of theater folks it is somewhat interesting, and as a criminal drama it is watchable but not top notch.

Rating: 45

Avenging Force (1986)

 A retired agent investigates a ring of White supremacists who resort to terrorism. The villains enjoy human hunting in the Louisiana bayous and seem to embrace a sort of Darwinist credo.

The chief baddie in this film gives a speech in which he warns of "rioting in the streets of our cities" and "civil disorder everywhere". Oh boy, where did he get such wild notions, I wonder? And in 1986, to boot. The plot is entirely along those lines, and we could objectively say that it is functional, in the sense that it provides support to a fair number of action set-pieces. Those are very watchable, with very competent second unit work.

Rating: 37

L'amour en question (1978)

English title: Question of Love

 A man is murdered as he was arriving at his house. The prime suspect is his wife's lover, a foreigner, with the possible complicity of the wife herself. The lover leaves the country, and so the two suspects face trials in different countries.

This is a very plausible and well-constructed narrative, but still not all that interesting or memorable. The culprit is not exactly hard to guess either.

Rating: 40

La souriante Madame Beudet (1923)

English title: The Smiling Madame Beudet 

A married woman lives in a chronic state of boredom and develops a disliking towards her husband as she daydreams about a celebrity tennis player. Out of an impulse, she sets a deadly trap for her husband.

Based on a stage play written by two men, the "feminist" plot is not terribly interesting. On strictly cinematic terms, the job of replacing words with images sometimes pays off in psychological intensity, while other times the absence of intertitles makes it simply incomprehensible.

Rating: 39

La cigarette (1919)

English title: The Cigarette

 A man decides to commit suicide after he deduces that his wife is cheating on him. He opts for an unconventional manner of ending his own life.

This is from a time when people thought there was such a thing as a non-poisoned cigarette. Anyway, this film is not likely to provoke many emotions in modern audiences (and I suspect it didn't even in its day). I am usually opposed to tragedies, as they feel artificial and unrealistic, but a tragic ending would at least bring some life to this dull story, in a paradoxical way.

Rating: 45 

Baby ryazanskie (1927)

 English title: Women of Ryazan. 

Alternative titles: The Village of Sin; The Devil's Plaything; The Peasant Women of Ryazan

(*mild spoilers*) Life at a small rural village. Vassili is a rich farmer; his son Ivan falls in love with poor peasant Anna, an orphan. They marry. Vassili's daughter Vassilissa wants to marry poor blacksmith Nikolai, but his father forbids their relationship, so she leaves home to live with him. World War One breaks out and both Nikolai and Ivan are drafted. During Ivan's absence, Vassili rapes Anna.

Mildly interesting as a chronicle of peasants' lives and customs, with some well-filmed sequences, such as of a wedding and of a primitive amusement park. As a narrative, it has an educational slant through a somewhat manicheistic schematism: older women are gossipy and bigotted against their own kind; older men are brutes and satyrs; youngsters are pure and often victimized; etc. It's interesting to notice how some of the U.S. titles of this film didn't seem to get the film's message.

Rating: 37

The Blot (1921)

 A teacher has difficulties in providing for the well-being of his family. A religious minister wants to marry the teacher's daughter, but he is also poor. A wealthy student has a crush on the young woman, and starts courting her as well.

This well-made drama is quite acceptable for the most part of its duration, but towards the end becomes considerably implausible. Furthermore, there are serious problems with the way it conveys its defense of a better payment for teachers. The main problem is that the newly enrolled champions of that cause were never interested students, and that does not have anything to do with the teacher's salary; neither is it a question of morals; it is perfectly plausible that people become better through experience, but that has no bearing on their academic interest. Another problem with that last section is that the love triangle does not get a satisfactory solution.

Rating: 50

Le roi des aulnes (1931)

 Based on the poem by J.W. Goethe, written in 1782.

English title: The Erl King

A man is riding with his son when their horse suffers a fall and the boy is wounded. They take shelter in a nearby house. The boy isn't feeling well, but the man must continue his journey. They go through a forest, and the child has hallucinations.

Rather boring translation into images of a famous poem; the images are nice to look at, but they don't capture the emotional strength of the poem.

Rating: 35

Elle boit pas, elle fume pas, elle drague pas, mais... elle cause! (1970)

 English title: She Does Not Drink, Smoke or Flirt But... She Talks

A housemaid learns compromising information about one of her employers and reveals it to another; she goes on doing that with all three of them; that entails mutual blackmailing among those employers.

Nonsensical farce which does not shy away from vulgarity but is mildly funny, though a bit too monotonous. The title is funny too, but has nothing to do with the film; the protagonist is a smoker and an occasional drinker; her talking is calculated and essential to the plot, rather than the annoying kind that is the product of an uncontrollable urge, as the title seems to imply; she indeed does not flirt but that is neither here nor there; in short, it is a deceitful title, perhaps intended at enticing a certain kind of audience.

Rating: 40

Le petit soldat (1960)

English title: The Little Soldier

(warning: *mild spoilers*) Geneva, 1958. A member of a rightwing organization refuses to perform an assassination. He is blackmailed into it, but plans to escape to another country. He is kidnapped by the rival leftwing organization and tortured. He later finds out that his girlfriend is part of that leftwing organization. She is kidnapped and tortured by the rightwing organization, which once more demands that the protagonist do the assassination he had earlier refused to do.

This is a very early film of this writer/director, and he was still somewhat bound by a narrative structure, of which he would progressively free himself along his career. Still, it is very evident that he is not interested in psychology, or in plot realism. His notion of a man who deserts from a war and subsequently goes to fight *for* that same war as a terrorist may make sense to him, but I honestly do not see how. Not only that, but he also *refuses* to obey orders within his organization. Why did he join in the first place? Well, apparently he is some kind of romantic hero. A loner who likes poetry and engages in literary quotations and philosophizing at every possible opportunity. And what about his girlfriend? In the first half of the movie she is a somewhat lethargic model from abroad and then she suddenly turns into a dangerous leftwing activist (though she somehow can't shake her lethargic looks). As an essayistic dissertation about political and assorted other themes, framed as a semi-parodic spy thriller, however, the film works reasonably well. It is well filmed and well photographed, and provides an interesting document about its time without being too boring.

Rating: 50

Le boucher (1970)

 English title: The Butcher

In a small town, a butcher meets a schoolteacher (and headmistress) and they start a friendship. Concurrently to that, a series of grisly murders of women terrorize the town, and the police doesn't have a clue as to who is committing them.

I can't say I find all, or even most, of this film's plot and characters very plausible, but somehow it manages to engage the viewer's attention and even produce an emotional response to it. The film might appear to some to be primarily concerned about the titular character, but is it really? It is left for the viewer to decide (or not) about some more obscure aspects of his psyche, e.g., what role, if any, his war experience had in his present psychological affliction. I think, however, that the moral point of the film is made through the character of Hélène, the schoolteacher. Her ordeal is ironic: she had been scarred by a first relationship in which she was abandoned, and got wary of men subsequently. Hers is a dead end, though: even if she comes to be loved, she will not feel loved, because she lost her faith in men. Unless, of course, the man proves it to her, but then she will learn that one cannot eat one's cake and have it too.

Rating: 60

La jument verte (1959)

Based on the novel by Marcel Aymé, first published in 1933.

English title: The Green Mare

Two rural families develop a rivalry which grows into a frank enmity due to a wartime incident. Years later, the young daughter of one of the families becomes enamored of the young son of the other. When a letter containing references to that aforementioned incident goes missing, things take an unexpected turn.

This is one of the most outrageous films I have seen, on account of the behavior of some of its characters. It's not exactly the most interesting, let alone exciting one, but I confess I found it entertaining enough. It was criticized at the time for its unflattering depiction of peasants, and I wouldn't know whether it's reliable as a sociological study of peasant life. But what matters in fiction is plausibility, and I think the film acquits itself nicely at that. There is a review in French (by Frédéric Mercier) which I think covers a wide range of aspects of this film; it may be read here.

Rating: 51

Eu Sou o Tal! (1960)

 A young man from a small town tries to make it as an actor in the big city. He has a huge advantage in his instant memory, but an equally enormous disadvantage in that he is extremely shy when he is watched by a crowd.

Very repetitive comedy which gets tiresome very early on. It's hard to find a positive quality about this movie, but the notion implied in its final section that a series of disasters during a performance can be more attractive as a spectacle than the original play being performed is kind of interesting.

Rating: 13

Rocky III (1982)

 The boxing world champion decides to retire but changes his mind after he is challenged by an up and coming new fighter.

While the first and second movies of the franchise could claim to some social concern, though strictly devoid of any collective spirit, this movie is entirely an abstraction. The kind of reward the film offers is mechanical and, in a way, detached from reality. One has to acknowledge that it is well done, though.

Rating: 23

007 1/2 no Carnaval (1966)

 A British agent is sent to Brazil to retrieve some secret technological information which has leaked and is to be sold to the highest bidder. He is to make contact with a man posing as a taxi driver, but makes contact with a real taxi driver instead, who then follows him around in his mission. An enemy agent shoots the scientist who was supposed to be in possession of a microfilm with the secret information. Then two shipping company employees carry a box containing the unconscious scientist, unwittingly.

 Terrible espionage satire, with some unrelated Carnival songs thrown in for good measure. The narrative is occasionally incoherent and the humor falls completely flat. I saw a restored copy of the film, which nevertheless remains badly damaged especially in the audio track.

Rating: 12

Rémi sans famille (2018)

 Based on the novel Sans famille, by Hector Malot, first published in 1878.

English title: Remi, Nobody's Boy

Rémi is a boy who is sold by his adoptive father to a street entertainer. Rémi's wanderings as a street artist lead him to find out the truth about his origins.

I read an abridged version of the source novel as a child, and remember being very fond of it. I was disappointed at this filmic version, though I am not sure whether the fault is entirely on the film itself or on my having grown up. Anyway, it has some beautiful landscapes and passable acting performances. As for the narrative, it is melodramatic and not very exciting.

Rating: 40

Les compères (1983)

 English title: The ComDads

When her teenage son runs away from home, a woman contacts one former fling, an investigative journalist, and tells him that he is the kid's biological father. As he doesn't seem convinced, she contacts another of her former flings, a depressive guy, and tells him the same. He in turn seems very excited with the idea and starts to search for the boy. It so happens that the journalist guy has a job in the same city where the boy is supposed to be, and the two men end up meeting and joining efforts in the search.

Dull comedy which quite inexplicably was a huge box-office success in France. In Brazil, on the other hand, exhibitors didn't see any revenue potential and it wasn't shown theatrically. Fourteen years later there was a remake which was slightly less dull than the original (you can read my review here).

Rating: 31

La chèvre (1981)

 English titles: Knock on Wood; The Goat

A wealthy man's daughter is kidnapped while vacationing in Mexico. No ransom is asked, and after an unsuccessful attempt at finding her, a new strategy is proposed by one of her father's employees: seeing as the kidnapped woman is notoriously acident-prone, they should hire an equally accident-prone person to accompany the detective in charge of finding her. The theory is that, by suffering the same kind of misfortunes the young woman suffered, that person might stumble into a lead into her whereabouts.

Comedy consisting basically of the development of a single idea (expressed in the synopsis above). It's watchable but nothing extraordinary.

Rating: 42

La carapate (1978)

English titles: The Escape; Out of It

May 1968. A lawyer is visiting his sentenced-to-death client when a prison riot bursts. The lawyer is wrongfully accused of assaulting a prison guard; his client escapes. Later, the two rejoin and go through several incidents while on the run.

Mildly entertaining comedy with a frantic pace. As is usual in this director's movies, everything is very well done but also very formulaic; the setting at the time of the 1968 student rebellion adds to the film's interest, although the film is not very interested in politics.

Rating: 41

Le coup du parapluie (1980)

 English title: The Umbrella Coup

An actor, due an address mistake, thinks he is auditioning for a role when he is actually being hired as a killer. Concurrently, he has troubles with his girlfriends.

Very conventional yet also very well done comedy of errors which entertains provided one is not looking for anything terribly innovative or intellectually stimulating. The best -- or at any rate most curious -- joke is when the protagonist, while pretending to be blind, refers to a nose he discerns by touch as "anti-semitic".

Rating: 40

Le bal des casse-pieds (1992)

 Henri, a veterinarian, has his first son. His wife leaves him some time later. He finds a new love.

The synopsis above does not really describe the film, which consists of the protagonist being serially annoyed by everyone he meets: his relatives, his customers, his friends, even the people who are supposed to serve him. The pursuit of that theme is carried out very conscientiously but, alas, the result, though far from unwatchable, is eminently contrived and not often funny.

Rating: 36

Nous irons tous au paradis (1977)

 U.S. title: Pardon Mon Affaire, Too!

Translation of the original title: We Will All Go to Heaven

New adventures of the characters from Un élephant, ça trompe énormément. Étienne suspects his wife of adultery. The four friends buy a house in the country. And so on.

Unnecessary and uninspired sequel of sorts. I guess that in an age of sitcoms any movie which saw the possibility of begetting a sitcom as well jumped at the opportunity, even if it is in the form of a theatrical movie.

Rating: 35

The Razor's Edge (1984)

Based on the novel by W. Somerset Maugham, first published in 1944.

 Larry is a young American from a well-to-do family who serves in World War One as an ambulance driver. After the war he gets second thoughts about becoming a stockbroker and decides instead to search for a meaning in life, or the meaning of life, or whatever. That entails some lifestyle choices which do not agree with his fiancée's expectations.

This is a strange movie, as most people who have watched it have noticed. The main actor does not suit the part physically, and his way of verbal expression is clearly anachronistic, and often considerably out of character. The other characters are poorly written but well played. Since the general dramatic points of the plot remain comprehensible, it's hard to consider the film a total failure. The basic point of the plot seems to be that women are what prevents men from searching a meaning in life, and that may be a good thing because there is no meaning in life. 

Rating: 35

Un éléphant ça trompe énormément (1976)

Alternate title punctuation: Un éléphant, ça trompe énormément 

U.S. title: Pardon Mon Affaire

Original title's translation: An Elephant Can Be Extremely Deceptive

Second viewing; previously viewed on June 25, 2013

Previous review: click here.

"A group of middle-aged friends get together for tennis regularly. Étienne is married and has never been unfaithful; his wife decided late in life to get a Law degree. He is lovestruck by a woman who comes one day to the public service facility he works at. Simon is a doctor with an overbearing mother. Daniel is an unmarried jokester  with a secret. Bouli is a chronically unfaithful husband whose wife just left him." (from my previous review)

My opinion of this movie remains largely unaltered upon this second viewing. One thing that I probably should add (and which I probably hadn't noticed earlier) is how similar in premise it is to Amici miei, released the year before in Italy. I will also add (though I doubt that I hadn't notice *this* earlier) that it is rare to find such an unjudgmental, matter-of-factly view of adultery in a movie. Perhaps it's a French thing, perhaps it's a 1970s thing, or perhaps it is both.

Rating: 58 (up from 57)

Les idoles (1968)

Three pop singers are the object of an intense marketing campaign. 

Botched satire of the pop industry. It seems to be mostly a stage musical filmed as is. While it is true that pop idols are manufactured to varying extents, this film distorts a basic aspect of reality when it implies that this phenomenon is tantamount to bad quality. Some pop groups which are entirely an industrial operation issued nonetheless good music, since good composers were hired, and those idols-to-be were chosen among people who could sing and perform. So, while it may be mildly funny to watch the humorous badness which comprise the musical aspect of this movie, this has nothing to do with show business reality. Furthermore, completely "authentic" artists may produce some very poor art, and I think we all have witnessed that one time or another. Incidentally, I guess this film might be a good example of that. Being simply the spin-off of a French equivalent of a mildly successful off-Broadway play, its only points of interest are as a document of another era and as a vehicle for some very committed and energetic performances.

Rating: 23

Le bon plaisir (1984)

A woman who ten years earlier had an affair with the current President is mugged in the street and has her handbag stolen. Inside that handbag is a letter from him asking her to perform an abortion.

One of those dramas which seem to presuppose that (a) politicians are extremely important persons and (b) their privates lives are extremely interesting for the common folks. As neither (a) nor (b) are true, what we get here is in equal parts tedious and implausible. I guess the actors are the only thing here which could perhaps draw viewers to the movie. But, alas, if we don't see it, how will we know it is really that bad?

Rating: 20  

Adieu poulet (1975)

 U.S. title: The French Detective

Title translation: Goodbye, Cop

While posting political propaganda for a mayoral candidate, a man is assaulted by a gang who works for the opposing candidate and dies as a result of it. A cop intervenes and is murdered. The main suspect disappears and the police starts searching for him. While the candidate who employed the suspect tries to exonerate himself from all responsibility for the crimes, the two detectives in charge of the investigation find that claim hard to believe.

Largely unremarkable cop thriller which focus on the theme of police corruption. The plot consists basically of the two protagonists fighting the corrupt establishment and employing the most implausible tricks to overcome the obstacles to their investigation. The two main actors are good, and the film is eventful, professionally made and not too long.

Rating: 38

Lo sceicco bianco (1952)

 English title: The White Sheik

An Italian couple in Rome for their honeymoon gets separated when the wife sneaks out to search for her idol, an actor in soap opera photo strips. At the studio where that actor works, she is deceived into boarding a truck which then leaves for a location shooting. When the husband's relatives arrive for a family lunch, he has to make phony excuses for the wife's absence.

Though featuring a few noteworthy individual sequences -- the initial street sequences in Rome and the photo shoot mainly sticking in my memory -- the script's weaknesses are apparent by around midfilm and make for a rather unexciting second half. The characters are very one-dimensional and convey a stereotypical depiction of the lower middle class. Although far from unwatchable, it's safe to say that, hadn't this film's director and co-writer achieved superstar status among filmmakers through his subsequent films, this film would probably be forgotten today.

Rating: 48

Les tontons flingueurs (1963)

 U.S. title: Monsieur Gangster

Literal translation of the French title: The Gun-Toting Uncles

Fernand, a businessman with a criminal past, gets a call from Louis, one of his former criminal associates who is dying. Louis wants Fernand to take over his criminal organization after his death. The respective heads of the different branches of that organization are not happy with that situation. On top of that, Fernand becomes responsible for Louis's teenage daughter.

Mildly entertaining comedy with a completely implausible premise. The part about becoming the girl's tutor or adoptive parent is OK, though for modern times (and perhaps even for 1963) the control he applies over an 18 year-old seems a little excessive. As for the part of taking over the gang, the fact that he accepts it (and as a matter of fact that the dying man would want it in the first place) is beyond belief. The revolt of his new underlings is plausible and even just if one sees it through their eyes. This makes for a less than likeable protagonist who seems to achieve success in his goals apparently by mere tough talking and posturing. The trouble which ensues on both fronts -- parental and, say, managerial -- is exploited for humor -- in this case a somewhat childish humor with an overabundance of dialogue which reportedly has become an object of cult.

Rating: 45

You Only Live Once (1937)

Man is released from prison, marries his sweetheart, gets a job, and buys a house. He is then fired, and framed for a crime he didn't commit.

Melodrama which is ridiculous and entertaining in equal proportions. I guess in those post-depression years it was kind of normal to fantasize about criminals with a golden heart -- the protagonist here had a special fondness for frogs -- and this film really goes all the way in making the Law, and much of law-abiding society, look bad, and outlaws look good. But what makes this piece of shitheaded propaganda so entertaining is that everything in it is absolutely top quality: its shrewdly concocted -- and wildly implausible! -- script, its amazing expressionistic shots, its two superb main performances, etc, etc. Needless to say, the people involved in making this film were reasonably well-off -- some of them very well-off -- and so were never really affected by things like poverty on one side, and street crime on the other. Audiences at the time probably were wary of this kind of discourse, and the film lost money, though over the years it undoubtedly recovered from that initial loss.

Rating: 52

Der Boden unter den Füßen (2019)

 English title: The Ground Beneath My Feet

Lola is an executive at a corporate consulting firm whose sister Conny has schizophrenia. Lola has a relationship with Elise, who works with her and is her hierarchical superior. Lola starts to get suspicious phone calls.

**spoilers below**

Tautly directed drama with some serious plot problems which detract from the film's effectiveness. The biggest flaw is connected with the phone calls Lola gets. Surely it would be quite implausible that Conny would be able to get both a phone to make those calls and the assistance to set them as anonymous. But even setting aside this issue, and ascribing Lola's gullibility to her psychological condition, there is a deeper logical flaw. Lola looks for psychiatrical assistance claiming she is hallucinating. But her phone rang in front of several other persons. Surely everyone would think she was completely nuts if she started to answer inexistent calls. She would probably be forced to get a medical license. So, it simply does not make sense. There is a strong suggestion of gaslighting here, and also in other events further ahead, though nothing is really ever explained, as the film opts for a deflating denouement. Another huge plot point which requires a huge suspension of disbelief is how Lola sets her suicidal sister in a flat with a balcony. What was she thinking, for pity's sake? And hasn't she heard of protection nets? Critics seemed to like the film, probably placing a higher value on the film's subtext of social commentary, visible in the exchanges with the street beggar, and on the exposition of the cruel mechanics of corporate capitalism.

Rating: 40

Cento giorni a Palermo (1984)

French-dubbed version (title: Cent jours à Palerme)

In 1982, a general who became known for his successful fight against terrorism is appointed prefect -- a kind of administrative officer who also has authority over the police, from what I gather -- of Palermo, with the mission of putting a stop to organized crime.

Very dull account of real events. It's a mechanical film consisting of brutal assassinations, bureaucratic meetings (both of law agents and of criminal ones), and some extremely tedious interludes about the protagonist's relationship with a younger woman and his qualms of conscience about endangering her life. There is a speech in the movie which goes like that: "The real question that should be asked in Sicily, like in all other countries, is how to have only one power, a state with its institutions and laws. We can't share power with the provocateurs, the violent, or the dishonest." Now let me quote the famous definition of fascism given by Benito Mussolini: “Everything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State.”

Rating: 30

Cangaceiros de Lampião (1967)

 A couple of newlyweds returning from the church is surprised by the presence of a gang of outlaws hiding in their house. The bandits rape the wife and flee. The husband vows to avenge himself.

Brazilian revenge movie which follows the conventions of a Western, although in this case it should be called a Northeastern if it were to reference the Brazilian region where it is set. In its first section it exploits its criminal subject for shock value. After that, the film becomes duller as its engages in several extended fight scenes with rather poor choreography. 

Rating: 31

The New Kids (1985)

Loren and Abby lose their parents and go to live with their uncle who has an amusement park. The two teenagers are bullied by a local youth gang led by a psychopath.

Run-of-the-mill youth thriller which initially builds up some tension but lacks originality and completely fails to deliver a climax worthy of that name. The acting is serviceable and, in some cases, even impressive.

Rating: 31

Un taxi pour Tobrouk (1961)

English title: Taxi for Tobruk

During World War II, four French soldiers in a jeep  get stranded in the African desert. They take a German prisoner.

Tedious war drama which reportedly was the most watched French film of its year in France. Everything in this film is predictable and cliché. Also, the plot bears considerable similarity with that of the much superior Sahara (1943), a fact which seems to have gone unnoticed in reviews. For justice's sake, the fine cinematography lends the film a certain aesthetical appeal, and the actors are competent. The dialogue, credited to an experienced professional, is mostly painfully uninspired, but does include a curious speech, by a Jewish character, who was against setting the German prisoner free: "But me, I don't forget anything. I'm the nasty one, the spiteful one. I don't like being a cuckold. When I started reading Hegel, you guys were already on Mein Kampf. The French always are a book too late." I wonder whether this speech was created by the writer of the original screenplay, whose mother was Jewish, or by the dialogue man, who was an anti-semite.

Rating: 35

Hacksaw Ridge (2016)

About a guy who enlists in the army during World War II, but refuses to use a rifle (even during training). He faces some resistance, but goes on to be a medic. His outfit's mission is to take the titular ridge in Okinawa.

Cliché-ridden "true story" with a particularly absurd leading character and fine battle sequences.

Rating: 37

Chère inconnue (1980)

 U.S. title: I Sent a Letter to My Love

A woman and her cripple brother live together. She places a personal ad under a pseudonym in the newspaper looking for a companion, and receives a reply... from her own brother!

This is one of those premises which look promising but seem to be difficult to develop into a complete story. Perhaps in the source novel it delves into some interesting points which in the movie got lost or were just implied. Anyway, it is all very frustrating.

Rating: 30

A Ilha dos Paqueras (1970)

A cruise ship is transporting some beautiful models to a fashion show. Two stewards on the ship keep flirting with them. On the trip back, they meet again and the two men devise a plan to be with them on a supposedly deserted island which they happen to pass by on their route.

Terrible comedy which starts with a certain level of technical professionalism and falls into sheer amateurism after a while. Some really pretty girls and a mildly agreeable soundtrack are the only things that keep the movie from being totally unwatchable.

Rating: 11

Rocky II (1979)

 Rocky is a previously unknown boxer who became somewhat of a celebrity after a fight with a world champion which Rocky lost by points. Being in dire need of money, what with his wife having their first child, Rocky accepts a rematch with the same guy.

The Rocky movies are noteworthy for two things: they have working-class characters, and they have an individualistic worldview. In a way, they do a reductio ad absurdum of individualism by implying that a guy must be punched to a pulp to escape his miserable condition. The big problem is that this irony is lost on most viewers, who get stuck in the enjoyment of very elementary emotions and come out of the movie with a sense of vindication for the poor hero. As a user review by one darin-wissbaum in IMDB very appropriately points out, around the sixth or so sequel "if you count how many times Rocky has been hit in the head and face he should either be dead or a vegetable". Anyway, this was 1979, and the next year Reagan was elected, marking a conservative turn in the U.S., so there you have it. The film is technically well made, and, though decidedly on the dull side, it is watchable, barely.

Rating: 32

Unfaithfully Yours (1984)

 Based on the homonymous 1948 film.

An orchestra conductor is married to a younger wife. Some apparently incriminating evidence is brought to him concerning his wife's activities while he had been on a trip. Further inquiries by him seem to point to a violinist who plays with his orchestra as her lover. He devises a retribution.

This begins as an examination of communication and the sources of its failure; in its final section, it is a contrasting of plans with their realization. So, the general theme seems to be Ideal vs. Real. I don't remember the source movie too well, but, from what I have read, the two do not differ a great deal in plot. That movie ascribed the misunderstanding to an artist's "creative temperament" (I take the words from Wikipedia). Well, explaining creativity through garbled communication is certainly intriguing. Anyway, this film is not an examination of paranoia: the husband was provoked by fortuitous misinformation; besides, the film implies that women do cheat, and so mistrust is not in itself unreasonable. Overall, it is a nice pastime, and the acting is very good.

Rating: 52

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010)

 Alfie and Helena, an elderly couple, get divorced because Alfie wants to live as a young man. Helena starts consulting a fortune teller. Their daughter Sally is married to Roy, a writer. Due to financial pressures, Sally gets a job in an art gallery. Roy starts flirting with a woman he spots through his window. Sally becomes attracted towards her boss. Alfie marries a call girl.

Agreeable dramatic comedy which relies on somewhat overused themes and concepts, but still manages to entertain due to its polished text and its very competent cast. One of the central themes in the movie is the need for faith, and an amusing insight it displays is how peculiarly cruel the people under the spell of a particular creed can be.

Rating: 51

Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978)

A drug dealer has a dent in his reputation and decides to assassinate a famous police chief as a means to restore it and thus secure an upcoming drug deal. It turns out that at the moment of the attempt someone else is in the police chief's car instead of him. The police chief takes advantage of being presumed dead to conduct a secret investigation on the criminals who attempted against his life.

Much of the humor here is a rehashing of jokes which are recurrent on the series. It manages to be funny at times; at other times it is mildly annoying, or simply dull. There is an idea here (a female actress which plays a male character impersonating a woman) which may have been the germ to the filmmaker's remake, a few years later, of Viktor und Viktoria (1933). The last act, at a Hong Kong shipyard, has an uncanny resemblance to one of the hypotheses put forward regarding the recent catastrophe in Beirut.

Rating: 45

Rio Fantasia (1957)

Four friends from a small town who have formed a musical quartet move to a big city in the hopes of becoming widely known. A TV producer becomes interested in one of them, a woman, and rejects the remaining three men. She becomes a star, and her former companions struggle to land a contract as a trio.

Drama with some comic bits and some musical numbers. Conventional and predictable, but done with a certain competence; the musical numbers are mildly agreeable.

Rating: 34

Cala a Boca, Etelvina (1958)

Adelino lives above his means and is constantly harassed by creditors. He fails to keep his payments on the fur coat he bought for his wife, and, after it has to be returned, she decides to leave him. On that same day, Adelino's uncle, from whom he expects to inherit a fortune, drops in to stay for a few days. Adelino doesn't want his uncle to know his wife left him, and so he makes his maid pass off as his wife.

Unimaginative comedy. The second half is filled with mildly attractive musical numbers. Not a terrible film; it is effectively staged and paced.

Rating: 33

O Gato de Madame (1956)

A wealthy woman's cat escapes and she places an ad promising a reward to the person who finds it and returns it. A poor shoe shiner finds the lost animal and plans to collect the reward, but is kidnapped by a gang who also covets the reward.

Poor comedy with a very basic comicity. The 50s ambiance and cityscapes are quite interesting to watch, though.

Rating: 32

Zui quan (1978)

 English title: Drunken Master

A young man gets involved in a series of conflicts and his father hires an old martial arts instructor with a reputation of extreme rigor to discipline him. The young man is terrified at first and flees; he eventually accepts to undergo the training.

Curious fight comedy with elaborate choreography and childish humor. The central thesis of enhancing fighting performance through alcoholic intoxication is absurd but probably just intended for comic effect. The protagonist learns in the end to stop fearing his feminine side and instead use it to his advantage.

Rating: 51

Fathers' Day (1997)

Based on the film Les compères (1983).

When her teenage son runs away from home, a woman looks for an old boyfriend and tells him he is the boy's father and asks him to help find him. Then she phones another old boyfriend and tells him the same thing. Those two guys accidentally meet and join in a search for the missing kid.

Unremarkable comedy which might help pass the time in a desperate situation. The dialogue has a tendency to try too hard to be funny, with variable results. I haven't watched the French original, but what we see here is a really uninspired comedy.

Rating: 33

Uma Certa Lucrécia (1957)

A seamstress falls asleep while reading and dreams she is Lucrezia Borgia.

While the idea behind this movie is interesting, the humor displayed in the dialogue is not funny at all, and was surely aimed at a very undemanding audience. The only funny thing in the movie is the carnival costume which is being finished at the protagonist's workshop. On the other hand, if you forget the humor and imagine this as a strictly adventure movie, it isn't as unbearable as all that, and has decent production values for a Brazilian movie.

Rating: 31

The Rains of Ranchipur (1955)

Based on the novel The Rains Came, by Louis Bromfield, first published in 1937.

A rich slut visiting India falls in love with a physician who is inexperienced in matters of the heart. A local princess of sorts is against the romance. There is also an American expatriate who drinks all the time. The resolution of dramatic conflicts is accelerated by the arrival of an earthquake which destroys a dam and causes a general flood.

Disagreeable drama. It's hard to take an interest in these characters and their conflicts seem most of the time overblown. The  romantic parts are interminable. Most of the actors seem ill at ease in their parts, though admittedly the leading lady is fairly convincing in hers. The 1939 filmic version of this novel was, if memory serves, reasonably engaging and effective, which proves that the fault is not in the overall plot.

Rating: 31

Golias Contra o Homem das Bolinhas (1969)

Augusto is a poor office worker who is bullied by his wife at home. He meets a prostitute in a bar and gets her telephone number. He sets a date with her at her apartment and, when he gets there, finds her dead. He becomes the main suspect of having murdered her.

The main actor in this film is billed second to a famous TV comic whose real name appears in the film's title. It's a mostly predictable and tame comedy in which the unassertive protagonist gets involved in a lot of trouble; there's also a poorly-done sequence featuring the protagonist riding in the sidecar of a motorcycle driven by the semi-idiot played by the top-billed comic. This is yet another entry in the prolific Lima's career, this time unusually exploring the cityscapes of São Paulo instead of his native Rio de Janeiro.

Rating: 31

Juventude e Ternura (1968)

Beth, an aspiring singer, rises to stardom with the help of her manager Stênio, who is also a bootlegger. Stênio's illegal activities are being monitored by a police detective. Beth is in love with Gui, a composer, but Stênio also develops feelings towards her.

Boring Svengali-type drama with lots of song numbers. The only minimally interesting part of the movie is a car chase through the streets of the Brazilian city of Salvador.

Rating: 22

O Meu Pé de Laranja Lima (1970)

In the 1920s, a five-year-old boy from a poor family suffers domestic violence from his father and his sister. He befriends a middle aged man from his neighborhood.

Poorly made literary adaptation. The source novel suffers from suffocating sentimentality, which is a bit attenuated on the screen. While that is not exactly unfortunate, it also makes more evident the banality of much of the narrative. For justice's sake, the film has some virtues: the main actors don't do a bad job, and as a portrait of a specific era in Brazil it is not completely worthless.

Rating: 31

Fome de Amor (1968)

English title: Hunger for Love

Felipe, a frustrated painter, takes his wife Mariana to live in a deserted island. Mariana comes from a bourgeois family and Felipe is penniless. After a few days, they notice that another house has dwellers, Alfredo and Ulla, with whom Felipe was already acquainted. While Felipe begins to spend his days with Ulla, Mariana feels attracted towards Alfredo, a former revolutionary who became blind, deaf and dumb after an explosion. Mariana feels more and more ill at ease with the situation she is living in, and is increasingly suspicious of Felipe and Ulla.

Mostly mediocre drama with a few interesting moments. The last section is probably the best part, with its nightmarish atmosphere and crescendo of paranoia which explodes into ideological delirium. Much of the film, on the other hand, has its characters simply wandering about and conveying information to the viewer through dialogue. Anyway, it is a valuable document about youth in the late 1960s and the madness it was subjected to by Mao and his writings. In that, it makes a curious third-world companion to La chinoise.

Rating: 45

Sonhando com Milhões (1963)

*spoilers below*

A tax inspector is going through the tax declaration of some big sugar mills who have defrauded the IRS on a large amount of money in taxes. At that time, his maid is sacked by his wife and, through happenstance, goes to work for the owner of one such company. She then acts as an intermediary between the defrauders and the tax inspector, with the mission of bribing him into exonerating the companies from the payment of their due taxes and fines. The inspector's wife -- who is fed up with her materially mediocre life -- is the maid's ally in her mission.

This drama deals with a chronic problem in Brazil: corruption of public agents. It exposes the social and psychological mechanisms through which corruption comes to happen. In Brazil, things haven't changed much from what they were at the time this movie was made. The ending leaves a certain amount of doubt in the viewer as to whether the author was being naive or cynical. (*big spoiler ahead*) The protagonist does not yield to the temptation of accepting the bribe, and is "rewarded" for his honesty with a job offer in one of the companies he was auditing. He accepts it, and everyone is happy. Though this goes unstated, this would be a very clever way of getting rid of the tax problem for the companies in question. The film does not see a moral problem in it for the protagonist. The maid remarks that "sometimes honesty is rewarded" and that's that. As I said, that is either very naive or very cynical. Anyway, although the film has merits and depicts a very real situation, its sense of humor isn't terribly sophisticated, and neither is the dramatic development.

Rating: 37

Gisaengchung (2019)

Englisht title: Parasite

A young man fakes a diploma in order to be hired as a private English teacher for a rich girl. He manages to get the whole household staff fired and replaced by members of his family. Complications ensue.

Social inequality is the theme here. It has some clever touches and twists, and does a fine balance of humor and horror. Its director states that the title is a two-edged sword, but, according to Wikipedia, an Irish critic named Kehoe was not satisfied with the film because it will not cause "riots in the streets". The revolutionary potential of Irish critics is something not to be taken lightly. Still according to Wikipedia, and on a perhaps lighter note, the Associated Press, that paragon of progressivism, thought that the Academy Awards made up for not acknowledging women in the past by acknowledging diversity in 2019. Yes, absolutely. South Korea is one of the most diverse countries in the planet, and you can check that out by watching this movie, which shows pets of assorted breeds getting along just fine under the same roof.

Rating: 60

Guns Don't Argue (1957)

Made by putting together several episodes of TV show Gang Busters, possibly with some new material added to it, this is an episodic narrative about several famous criminals of the 1930s, e.g., Dillinger, Van Meter, Karpis, the Barkers, Floyd, etc. The stories are fictionalized to varying degrees.

My assessment about this film would be roughly the same as that of Gang Busters, which I reviewed prior to it. Overall, a passable entertainment, except that character Ma Barker, as it is depicted here and in many other films and assorted media, is a notorious and ridiculous fabrication which somehow I find hard to enjoy.

Rating: 37

Gang Busters (1955)

This movie was edited from three episodes of the eponymous TV show which specialized in fictionalized versions of real life crimes. These three episodes dealt with a fellow named Pinson, who escaped several times from prison. A former fellow inmate who worshipped him went to extremes to draw his attention.

Very low-budget criminal thriller. One sequence allegedly inspired another in Taxi Driver, according to the latter film's director. Not exactly high art but has a tough quality which makes it kind of exciting in a very low-brow manner.

Rating: 39

The Magnificent Seven Ride! (1972)

The sheriff of a small town recruits some convicts to fight Mexican bandits.

Western without much stamina. The plot is busy in the movie's first half with finding a motivation for the protagonist's involvement in the fight against the bandits; the second half is basically a series of action sequences which involve some ingenious gadgets and lots of shooting.

Rating: 33

Assassination Tango (2002)

An American assassin travels to Buenos Aires to perform a hit on a retired Argentinian general. Things don't go as planned as the general suffers an accident and is hospitalized. While he waits he meets a tango dancer and learns to dance the tango. Then some more things don't go as planned.

Quite unsatisfactory blend of drama with thriller. It falls flat on both departments. It is not an overly unpleasant movie, though.

Rating: 33

Cops and Robbersons (1994)

A nice suburban family lodges two cops who are doing a stakeout on the house next door to them. The family head is a fan of cop shows.

By-the-numbers comedy with a predictable sense of humor, but watchable all the same.

Rating: 45

Stranger on the Run (1967)

A bum arrives at a small town looking for a certain woman and gets into real trouble with the sheriff and his men, who represent the railroad company. He is helped by some cattle ranchers who are in opposition to the railroaders. Later, he gets further help from a widow whose son wants to become a lawman.

Cliché-ridden Western made for television. Though it is professionally done, and the story flows at a sufficiently steady pace, an overall feel of dullness pervades the thing.

Rating: 41

Action Jackson (1988)

The Detroit police investigates a series of murders of union leaders of the automobile sector. The owner of an automobile industry is behind those murders. A cop who got demoted in the past because of that industrialist investigates the case by his own initiative.

This film has some spectacular explosions and glass smashings, but the script seems to have been written in a hurry. The most conspicuous moment of silliness takes place at a hairdresser salon whose owner makes for a very improbable informant. Overall, professionally filmed but forgettable.

Rating: 33

Hollow Triumph (1948)

Alternative title: The Scar

A criminal on the run from a gangster whose casino he tried to rob finds out he has an almost exact lookalike in the person of a psychoanalyst. It so happens that said criminal has some medical background thanks to having been a student of medicine for two years.

Entertaining crime drama. Don't expect too much plausibility from it, but there are some clever plot twists and some equally clever psychological insights too. This film is curious also for the fact that, while dealing with the subject of dead ringers, it features a leading lady who looks remarkably like the leading lady in Samson and Delilah; also curiously, both actresses were married in succession to the same man. The leading actor in this film must have had a special liking for this subject matter, seeing as he went on to direct a TV movie named Dead Ringer in 1964.

Rating: 51

D.O.A. (1949)

A public notary from a small town decides to take a few days off in San Francisco and, while there, has his drink switched with a poisoned one at a bar. He then has only a short time left to live, and devotes that time to finding his killer. The first clue comes from his secretary and girlfriend: she had phoned to tell him that a man was looking for him. He had refused to take that call, and now that man is dead.

Ingenious thriller which, for some reason, is labelled as a film noir, although I fail to see enough noirish elements in the film. There are some weak points in the plot, but overall it abides by logic. It is a fairly entertaining movie. I had watched the 1988 remake long ago, and liked it too. Christopher Mulrooney (1956-2015), a writer whose Internet-published film reviews I enjoy reading, wrote a somewhat hallucinatory yet interesting review of this film.

Rating: 51

Suna no onna (1964)

English titles: Woman in the Dunes; Woman of the Dunes.

An amateur entomologist spends the night at a small village and finds himself trapped there, living in a sand pit with a young widow.

This is one of those films which have no transcendental meaning whatsoever, and precisely because of that are viewed by critics and intellectual viewers as a 'parable', or anyway ellicit multiple philosophical interpretations. After all, there is nothing like a blank slate for writing whatever one wants on. One thing there is agreement upon, however, is that it is visually attractive, and well filmed. As for the narrative, I guess that by imposing a relatively logical development upon a very far-fetched premise, the film somehow manages to engage the viewer's attention. The user reviews on IMDB are very amusing, and I advise you to read them all. My favorite excerpt (by Platypuschow, on this link) is:

*begin quote*
Things I Learnt From This Movie:
Don't look up when going down a sand bank on a rope
Damp deserts aren't a thing
Pregnancy can be smelt
*end quote*

Rating: 53

Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse (1933)

English titles: The Testament of Dr. Mabuse; The Last Will of Dr. Mabuse

A supercriminal who has been committed to a psychiatric institution spends his days writing criminal plans who are then collected by the institution's chief psychiatrist. Concurrently to that, a series of crimes are committed by a gang of criminals run by someone who identifies himself as that supercriminal but is never seen by them. A police inspector investigates the issue.

Sequel to Dr. Mabuse the Gambler which is even sillier than its predecessor and considerably less interesting. Again, one has to admire the technique with which it was filmed, but this time the whole affair feels like pushing the boundaries of nonsense a little too far, without a body of ideas which might amuse the viewer or provide commentary on political or social issues.

Rating: 45

Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler (1922)

English titles: Dr. Mabuse the Gambler; Dr. Mabuse, King of Crime.

Second viewing of the first part; first viewing of the second.

An archcriminal uses hypnosis to win at card games; he is a master of disguise, and also manipulates the stock market and runs a money counterfeiting operation. A police inspector (here for some reason called 'state prosecutor') investigates his crimes and, little by little, arrives at his true identity.

Very well made criminal drama, with stunning interiors and brilliantly executed exteriors as well. The text is juvenile in its ideas, and has a terrible credibility problem in the way the titular character performs his psychological manipulations, seeing as he apparently doesn't even have to be near his victims to hypnotize them, among other inconsistencies. The existing ideological interpretations of the main character are somewhat disparate; you can read a summary of them on the film's Wikipedia page and decide for yourself which ones are reasonable.

Rating: 60

Cancel My Reservation (1972)

A TV show host living in New York takes a vacation in Arizona and is framed for the murder of a young Native American woman. His wife joins him and both join efforts to prove his innocence. The owner of a big ranch is involved in some shady businesses and might be the culprit.

This film has a mix of serious criminal drama and comic gags. Most of it does not work, but can be viewed with a small effort. Some of the one-liners are funny but most are just intrusive.

Rating: 33

Life Stinks (1991)

A billionaire bets with a business competitor that he can survive for one month as a homeless person without access to any of his possessions except the clothes he is wearing. If he wins he gets to buy from his rival the very area where he will be living during that month (he wants to build on that area). If he loses he will have to sell an adjacent area to that rival. During that month he will make friends, get cheated and change his outlook on life.

Easy to watch yet uninspired comedy with a similar premise to Sullivan's Travels (1941).

Rating: 43

Roberto Carlos e o Diamante Cor de Rosa (1970)

A bunch of singers touring in Japan accidentally run into a statuette which is Phoenician in origin and contains a map to an ancient treasure. They are chased by a guy who covets that treasure, but are protected by a Japanese swordsman.

Touristic adventure with lots of sightseeing and some fine songs. It is mostly idiotic but a few sequences are visually interesting.

Rating: 13

Truman (2015)

Julián is an actor living in Madrid who has a terminal disease; he receives the visit of long-time friend Tomás who lives in Canada and came to spend a few days with him and try to persuade him to continue his treatment.

Mediocre drama about dying. The problem with contemporary films is that they try to mirror reality but have little else to justify one's sitting for two hours watching them. So, if you want a mirror to reality, watch it, but do it at your own risk. Don't blame me if you end up thinking it fails at mirroring reality, since I am not even sure that it succeeds at that. How could I be anyway? What is reality, if you don't mind my asking?

Rating: 37

Esse Mundo É Meu (1964)

English title according to IMDB: That World and Mine.
Correct translation of the Portuguese title: This World Is Mine.

In a shantytown live two men, one white and one black. The white guy is an ironworker and the black guy is a shoeshiner. The white guy has a fiancée who moves in with him and wants to have a baby. The black guy wants to own a bicycle so he can conquer the girl of his dreams.

Social drama. Not exactly a well-made movie, it especially lacks a decent script. The abortion angle lacks plausibility; we never get to know why the white woman changes her mind from first wanting a baby despite presumably knowing that it would be difficult to raise it to being resolutely determined not to have it. Overall, a curious movie but not much more than that.

Rating: 32

Topaz (1969)

Second viewing; previously viewed between 1983 and 1986.

Version watched: 126'.

A Soviet intelligence official defects to the West, and reveals that the Soviets are installing nuclear missiles in Cuba. A French agent working for the Americans is sent to Cuba to find out what is happening. After returning to the U.S., he goes to France to uncover a Soviet espionage ring.

Unexciting, though well-filmed, spy thriller. The plot is diffuse, traveling through various countries and situations without much of a climax or central point. The French wife's infidelity is a plot point which is only glossed over; it seems, furthermore, to be completely irrelevant and should probably not be in the movie at all.

Rating: 40 (up from 28)

Good morning Babilonia (1987)

English title: Good Morning, Babylon.

Second viewing; previously viewed on May 14, 1996.

Two Italian brothers who work in old building restoration move to Hollywood where they find work on the set of Intolerance. After being initially rejected, they become part of the team that sculpted the sets for that film. In Hollywood, they also meet love, and tragedy.

I rewatched this because I was a little disconcerted with the abysmally low rating I gave it upon my first viewing. Well, I raised it a little. Just a little. What we have here is hollow sentimentality, absurd character behavior (e.g. the production director's animosity), and a missed opportunity for dramatizing in a minimally realistic way the lives of Hollywood workers of the silent period. On the good side, I found the theme of the equality between the two brothers, and the recurring threat of its disruption, an interesting one. But there are better films on that theme, for example Dead Ringers.

Rating: 20 (up from 10)

Lolita (1962)

Second viewing; first viewing with the original audio; previously viewed on September 20, 1994.

A middle-aged professor falls in love with his landlady's teenage daughter.

I found this terrible on my first viewing, but perhaps I was too easily bored then. Character Quilty provides some funny bits, but he is obviously not a realistic character, and that seems a little at odds with the rest of the movie. The film has some brilliant sequences, but its big problem is that its plotline is not terribly interesting.

Rating: 50 (up from 30)

I pugni in tasca (1965)

English titles: Fists in the Pocket; Fist in the Pocket

It depicts an impoverished family living in a big house. The father is absent, presumably dead; the mother is blind; the three sons and a daughter are, respectively: Alessandro, who has incestuous feelings towards Giulia, who in turn has incestuous feelings towards Augusto; there is also Leone, an idiot. Augusto wants to marry Lucia, but has no money.

Drama with interesting and well acted individual sequences, but psychologically inconsistent as a whole. It reportedly caused a commotion among the filmviewing elite who saw it upon its release, but its predictability makes it ultimately ineffective as a shock piece. Also, must they really have two epileptics in the same family?

As for the title, Spiritoso78 at WordReference.com says:

"fists in your pockets it could mean that you can no longer stand the situation around you; basically you're fed up about everything surrounding your everyday life, therefore sooner or later you'll blow up.....and then you'll pull your fists out!"

Rating: 44

Roberto Carlos em Ritmo de Aventura (1968)

Roberto Carlos is a pop singer who is starring in a movie; he is chased by a gang led by a woman who has a plan to use a computer to write songs for him and other famous singers. But our hero is a composer too, and does not want to be replaced by a machine. Meanwhile, the actor who plays the villain in the film R.C. is doing is a real villain who wants to kill him. R.C. gets to drive a fast car and a helicopter, and even ride a rocket to space.

This exercise in metacinema follows the vogue of madcap films starring pop stars in the 1960s; it is possibly out of sheer frankness that at the very start, through the voice of its protagonist, it confesses: "I am terrible". So, viewers cannot claim they weren't warned. Anyway, A Hard Day's Night it ain't, though many a spectator will want to cry for Help! while watching it. Speed driving is a recurring motif in the songs' lyrics.

Rating: 12

Beto Rockefeller (1970)

Beto is a penniless guy who mingles with rich people pretending to be rich himself. He employs cunning tricks to get away with his imposture, and also to avoid paying for the basic items of survival (like his rent, or cab fare). His goal is to enjoy life and to make love to beautiful rich women. His friendship with a car mechanic is instrumental to his schemes, since he is the one who provides him with cars "borrowed" from the garage where he works. Beto is mistaken with an international jewel thief.

Spin off from a very popular daily TV serial (telenovela). Class struggle in this film (as on the serial) comes down to the poor envying the rich. Not exactly a marxist approach, of course. The film is very thin on plot, and fills its running time with lots of scenes of jet set gatherings, yachts, natural landscapes, urban architecture, and, on the opposite end of the social spectrum, street scenes. There is no sophistication whatsoever in the humor, or in the narrative, but the succession of images is not exactly unpleasant.

Note: on IMDB, as in most other places, the spelling of the title is Beto Rockfeller, which is different from the film's title credits, but matches the spelling of the TV serial's title credits.

Rating: 31

Coffy (1973)

A nurse seeks revenge against drug dealers and pimps who turned her sister into a vegetable. Her politician boyfriend, it turns out, is a scumbag as well.

Mildly entertaining -- albeit extremely silly -- crime thriller.

Rating: 42

Beverly Hills Cop II (1987)

Second viewing; previously viewed on February 16, 2007.

A Detroit police detective goes to Beverly Hills to informally help in the murder attempt against a police captain he was friends with. He uncovers a scheme of robbery and insurance fraud.

This sequel clearly lacks the brilliance of the first film. The funny bits mostly don't work, making the criminal plot the only source of passable entertainment.

Rating: 33 (up from 21)

La baie des anges (1963)

English title: Bay of Angels

A twentysomething man meets a thirtysomething woman in a casino and the two bond. They go from one casino to another, winning some, losing some. He is a newcomer to this world, she is experienced and an addict.

Drama on the oft-visited subject of gambling. It may get a little dull around the middle, and the ending is a little disconcerting, but overall it is quite solidly directed and easy to watch.

Rating: 57

Blue Hawaii (1961)

Probably not the first viewing; certainly the first one with the original audio and correct aspect ratio.

A man is back to his native Hawaii after two years in the army. He reencounters his girlfriend and decides not to take a job at his father's fruit company, employing himself instead at a tourism agency.

The plot here is pretty banal, but the film has at least one funny character (the mother), several funny one-liners, and of course stunning locations, which deserved a better rendering than that of the copy shown by my TV service.

Rating: 41

Incident at Vichy (2016)

(Episode of TV series Theater Close-Up)

Based on the play by Arthur Miller, written in 1964.

Several individuals are gathered in a room after having been detained by the Vichy police, in 1942. They talk about their situation, what to expect and what to do.

This is just a filmed play. The text is an intelligent discussion about the persecution of Jews by the German State in the 20th century. I could comment on every aspect of that discussion, but it would be too extended and boring; furthermore the play is for the most part self-explanatory, so I don't think my considerations would be very enlightening. I will just note that the play was written before many of the atrocities committed by the State of Israel happened or became known, and those atrocities shed an interesting light over some lines said by the psychoanalyst character. As a final note, I was shocked to learn of the participation of an actor whom I knew mostly from a famous 1970s show. I didn't recognize him at all in the role of a middle aged aristocrat!

Rating: 65

The Pawnbroker (1964)

Second viewing; first viewing with the original audio; previously viewed on November 20, 1988.

Sol is a pawnbroker in Harlem whose shop is used as a money laundry front for Rodríguez, a local gangster. Sol treats his assistant Jesús coldly. Some local hoodlums besiege ambitious Jesús to help them rob the shop's safe. Sol has flashes of his suffering past life in Germany. A social worker woman wants to befriend Sol. Sol's customers are very peculiar people whom he treats coldly. Sol has second thoughts about his association with Rodríguez.

This is not as interesting as I perceived it to be on my first viewing. It's hard to know what the film's point is, ultimately. Christopher Mulrooney claims it is a Christian allegory where Jesús stands for Jesus. I, on the other hand, think it has some points in common with Marx's The Jewish Question. On a more down-to-earth analysis, the Nazis were bad to this guy, so he viewed the people who fought the Nazis (and made him a citizen of their country) as just as bad? Weird logic. But overall it is mildly interesting for some ideas it generates, and for the depiction of a social environment, even though the main character is a little implausible. The cinematography produces some dazzling imagery, though, and the filming technique is quite impressive, too.

Rating: 56 (down from 74)

Beverly Hills Cop (1984)

Second viewing; previously viewed on October 14, 1990.

A Detroit cop takes a vacation in Beverly Hills with the intent of investigating the murder of a childhood friend. Over there he is tailed by the local police and ends up interacting with them in the pursuit of the murderer, who happens to be an important art dealer who is involved in drug dealing and other shady businesses.

This is probably the most shocking case of a very good film which I utterly (and mysteriously) failed to enjoy on my first viewing. And when one looks at the complicated production process it underwent, and the several catastrophic paths it nearly took, its artistic (and popular) success is nothing short of a miracle. The script is almost flawless in its seamless integration of humor, action stunts and plot. And it is very competently rendered into images. The dazzling opening credits sequence deserves a special mention.

Rating: 71 (up from 28)

Across 110th Street (1972)

Some smalltime criminals disguised as policemen barge into a room where some members of organized crime are  handling the earnings of the numbers game, kill everyone there and steal their money. Then they are chased by the mafia and by the police.

This is an interesting film, well filmed except possibly for the cinematography, which leaves something to be desired at some points. Most characters are strongly delineated, no matter how small their screen time, and that's the film's forte. It's also an entertaining film, with a fairly engaging plot and good action sequences. There is a mystery in its premise, though. I seem to be the only person who questions this at all. Before the robbery, character 'Harris' is a very poor criminal who has just been out of jail and, by his own words, has had a very hard time finding a job (we assume he doesn't have one). Yet, he owns a machine gun (and lots of ammunition too)! He uses it to perform the robbery, and also later in the film to defend himself from the police and from the people he robbed. The police knows he has a machine gun. I don't know whether the mafia knows it too. Anyway, no one else uses a machine gun in the movie. When they try to catch him, most (all?) of them use pistols. I just thought this was funny. A mystery, as I said.

Rating: 62

Commando (1985)

Second viewing; previously viewed in 1986.

John, a former U.S. Special Forces colonel, has his daughter kidnapped by Arius, a former Latin American president who was deposed by a U.S. special unit led by John. Arius demands that John kill the current president which was instated in place of Arius, if he wants his daughter back alive.

Over-the-top actioner not devoid of entertainment value in the way of stunts and chases. The movie completely puts aside any concerns over plausibility, as the hero is seen liquidating vast numbers of armed enemies and only suffering a minor wound, among other outrageous stuff. But its stunts are well made, and it has a fast pace that keeps it watchable throughout. It's best not to think about the movie's premise though: the 'good' guys in this film stand for American intervention in sovereign countries, which operates under the guise of the defense of liberalism worldwide, and is probably great for a small number of interested parties, but not so great for world peace or for the majority of the American people.

Rating: 31 (up from 12)

The Stranger (1946)

Second viewing; previously viewed on June 23, 1996.

After the end of World War II, a fugitive German ex-official assumes a new identity in a small American town. Just as he is getting married to a local woman, an investigator in an international organization tracks him down to that town but must prove that he is really the man they are looking for.

One of the fundamental premises for The Stranger is that the elite of a certain people is displaced from their land after it is conquered by others in a war. In exile, they hope to, when the situation permits it, assemble a cabal which would plan a future ruling of the world. Aside from the identity of the nations involved, doesn't this sound like a prequel to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion? And an exciting one, too, full of suspense and marvelously designed shots and sequences. On another angle, this is a problematic film, because it doesn't question the ethical implications of putting the suspect's wife in danger in the course of an investigation. There is a curious detail in the plot which intrigued me, and here's a warning that this is going to be a SPOILER: at one point, the German impostor says that Marx was not a German, but a Jew. This is crucial for the plot, because the investigator changes his mind about giving up on him as a suspect; he reasons that only a Nazi would say such a thing. But what intrigued me was that he only came to such a conclusion hours after the event. If it was such an obvious thing, why wasn't he immediately shocked by it?

Rating: 54 (up from 30)

Uma Pistola p'ra D'jeca (1970)

Eulália works as a maid in a landowner's house; one evening, during a social gathering in that house, she is raped by her boss's son. Eight years later, she lives with her father and the son born out of that act of violence. They are still tenants of that same landowner, who has become rich by stealing other people's cattle. Her rapist is now about to get married with the daughter of another landowner, and the presence of Eulália and her family is a nuisance to him, so his father decides to expel them from their property.

Heavy drama with deficient script and direction. The main actor, who is also the producer and co-writer, by that time had fully migrated to "serious" drama territory; he somewhat kept his comic mannerisms and inserted a few comic subplots, but they are very ineffective and have a serious mismatch with the overall tone of the movie.

Rating: 21

Love & Friendship (2016)

Based on the novel Lady Susan, by Jane Austen, written c. 1794.

Lady Susan is a young widow who sets her eyes on a younger man, but has a concurrent affair with a married one. Everyone is concerned with the young man's fate if he gets involved with that woman.

Not exactly exciting, but rather a mildly entertaining jigsaw puzzle where all the pieces must fit in the end, sort of. As in all Austen adaptations (and presumably in her own works, only one of which I have read), it all revolves about weddings. Austen's position is very conservative, but fiction is a two-edged sword and the feminist case is easy to make: it is not Lady Susan who is evil, but the situation she is in.

Rating: 57

Partner. (1968)

A nervous and romantic schoolteacher meets a lookalike of his with an opposite temperament.

The above synopsis should be taken with a grain of salt, because it wasn't always clear for me who is who in each scene of the movie. It's a silly movie anyway, which plays with concepts in vogue at the time, yet with little reflection or articulateness. It's hard to take the protagonist seriously as a teacher; he looks more like a student, and his pupils have the same age as him, apparently. Of course, this is not the only thing in the movie which is hard to make sense of.

Rating: 23

O Jeca e a Freira (1968)

A rich landowner takes the child of one of his workers and raises her as his own daughter. When she is 15, and is on vacation from boarding school, she goes to stay with him in his house, and he becomes possessive towards her. Her real parents continue in his service, but she ignores that she is their daughter.

Very poor drama. The only noteworthy sequence is that of Sigismundo in the police precinct; some sense of comicity is displayed in it. The rest of movie is hard to watch.

Rating: 13

No Paraíso das Solteironas (1969)

A poor ranch hand (Joaquim) is devastated when his boss sells his favorite cow, and so he decides to leave the ranch, and also his wife and his daughter, in search of a way to buy that animal back before it is put to death. He settles down at a small town where there is an excess of unmarried women.

Low-brow comedy. There are some vaguely surrealistic elements in the script, as well as a veiled denunciation of authoritarianism in the person of the local police chief. Gypsies are an important part of the film; they provide some social content and also some gaudy costumes to be captured by the very colorful cinematography.

Rating: 30

Elle s'appelait Sarah (2010)

English titles: Sarah's Key; Her Name Was Sarah.

Two plots in different periods develop: in 1942, a Jewish girl and her family are taken from home and sent to camps during the Vélodrome d'Hiver Roundup episode; in present times, a journalist who wrote a story for a magazine about the Roundup finds out that her husband's family has a connection with that event.

Although the sequence at the Vel d'Hiv is quite impressive, the rest of the movie does not hold up to that level of impact. To be fair, the part set in the 1940s is somewhat interesting, even though not all of it is very plausible. The modern-day drama, however, is quite tedious, and doesn't sit too comfortably with the other part of the movie. To make things worse, one never gets a sense of why the journalist character becomes so personally obsessed with the titular character.

Rating: 32

Rain Man (1988)

Second viewing; previously viewed on April 1, 1989.

An importer/salesman of cars (Charlie) learns about his father's passing and that he has left most of his money in trust to the mental institution where his hitherto unheard of brother (Raymond) is a patient. Charlie is in a desperate financial situation and decides to take Raymond with him without the permission from his guardian.

I previously disliked this film very much, but I can only speculate about the reasons for it. I probably focused too much on the lack of accuracy in the medical and psychological depiction of Raymond as an autistic person; perhaps I also objected to what I then perceived as misplaced sentimentality. Although I still don't find Rain Man exactly what I would call a good film, I think those points are not of such great importance. Ok, the film's plot and characters are made of clichés. Also, Charlie's decision to kidnap, so to speak, his brother is a completely irrational move which stresses believability somewhat. But I think the film succeeds, to a certain extent, at showing two kinds of self-centered people. One of them is superficially a normal one, but shows a very limited emotional attachment to everyone around him. The other has a psychological disorder, and can't respond to emotional stimuli in a normal way. The question the film poses, and perhaps avoids to answer in an explicit way is: what makes Charlie behave the way he does? The implicit answer seems to be that American society has some inner disorder in its values that conditions its normal members to act abnormally. And that disorder has a name: Capitalism.

Rating: 36 (up from 24)

Akira (1988)

Second viewing, sort of; previous viewing (in February 2, 2003) was somewhat compromised by stretches of sleep during the film; previous viewing was of a dubbed-in-Portuguese copy.

After a nuclear explosion destroys Tokyo, it is reconstructed. The government is conducting research on some individuals endowed with psychokinetic and extrasensory powers. One of them is kidnapped by an underground organization. During his recapture, the government agents take a teenager (Tetsuo) into custody and find out that he is also endowed with special powers. Apparently one such individual (Akira) had been responsible by the catastrophe which destroyed Tokyo. His remains are cryogenically kept at a secret location. Tetsuo escapes and threatens to provoke another catastrophe.

Specifically targeted at teenage audiences, this features lots of mayhem and shouting, and some impressive visuals. There is a bit of social and political comment seving as background to the main plot which suggests the existence of a dark underside of corruption, decay and unrest to Japan's apparently thriving society. Overall, it provides decent entertainment.

Rating: 50 (down from 66)

The Rookie (1990)

Second viewing; previously viewed in November 16, 1991.

A young policeman is assigned as partner to a veteran one, at the auto theft division. The older cop is obsessed with catching a notorious gangster responsible for a huge number of car thefts. They catch him at last (plus his girlfriend and accomplice), but the rookie makes a mistake and the bandits escape taking the veteran cop as hostage.

This has an extremely formulaic plot, but it keeps the viewer entertained; also, the action sequences are well done.

Rating: 38 (up from 24)

C'era una volta il West (1968)

English title: Once Upon a Time in the West.

Second viewing; previously viewed in February 15, 1987.

(165 min version, English dub) (Atypically for this webpage, this synopsis will be accompanied by comments.) A stranger with a harmonica arrives at a small Western town. He's set a date with a man (Frank) who doesn't show up, but sends three of his henchmen instead. The three men are there to kill Harmonica, but he possesses supernatural shooting speed and kills the three men. Frank's motive for wanting Harmonica dead is not known yet. In fact, it will never be known, since Frank doesn't even know Harmonica's identity at that point. I guess he just likes to have random people killed. The railroad owner (Morton) feels that one particular man (McBain) who owns a property near the prospective passage of the railroad needs a scare. This is one plot point you should not ask me about, because I do not understand it. Morton tells his henchman (who happens to be Frank) to do the job, but he overdoes it and kills McBain and his entire family. Again, don't ask me why. On that very day, McBain was meeting his new wife (Jill) who was coming on the train. When she arrives and sees everyone of her new family dead, she decides to live on the property. Why she decides to do that is not known, so don't ask me. She may be crazy in the head or something. One of the town's bad guys (Cheyenne) enters a bar wearing shackles, after gun shots are heard on the outside. How he managed to escape his captors single-handedly and shackled is something we will never know. The plot continues on, with many more obscure points. At a certain point, Harmonica turns Cheyenne in for the reward. The excellent synopsis on IMDB conjectures that this is a "scheme devised by both  men", which is probably correct, since they were on friendly terms before and would remain so afterwards. Cheyenne is sent to a maximum security prison, but some of his henchmen follow the detachment and, later, Cheyenne appears again, free. His henchmen must be very competent indeed. Anyway, the basics of the plot is that Frank and Morton are the "bad" guys and all the other characters are more or less on the "good" side.

This film's strong point is doubtlessly its visual side. The framing of each shot, and how they are edited, is superb, particularly so in the opening credits sequence. The coupling of the visual narrative with the musical score is also artfully constructed, though some have objected, perhaps with reason, to a certain repetitiveness and intrusiveness of the score (this is a characteristic of all films by this director, however). The plot has its problems, as I somewhat outlined in the above synopsis, and the film really does not seem to make an effort in that direction: plotless moments are played out at the most leisurely pace imaginable, and key plot points are simply not played out at all, having to be presumed by the viewer. The performances are adequate for the most part; Ferzetti probably deserves some special accolades. My previous rating probably reflected some of the film's problematic aspects, but also that probably the copy I saw then was pan-and-scan and had a poor Portuguese dubbing.

Rating: 61 (up from 30)

El secreto de sus ojos (2009)

English title: The Secret in Their Eyes.

A justice agent is put in charge of a case of rape and murder. He befriends the victim's husband and promises to catch the killer. The agent feels a certain attraction to his boss, a woman. Also, his assistant is a drunk. The case continues to affect his life even after the killer is caught.

This is a horrible movie, and just as horrible is the realization that I am almost alone in this assessment. It won awards, and is currently at the 143º position on IMDB's list of top rated films. I will not bother to write my considerations about it (watching it has been trouble enough), but Metala84's review points out some important deficiencies in the plot (warning: spoilers ahead):

*begin quote*
The plot of the movie is horrible. Even TV series have more believable "investigations". Finding a killer after watching a few pictures in an old family album? Seriously? Hey what's wrong and so suspicious in admiring a beautiful girl you know from your childhood that makes you a murder suspect? Okay lets put this aside. So our murder suspect writes barely understandable coded letters to his mothers, containing the names of his favorite football players. Who does that? And a few drunks in a bar decode them and here the main characters catch the suspect right away at the next football game on a stadium with thousands of people. Just like that - as soon as they arrive there. Then, how do you get a confession from him? Easy. Get your boss, a beautiful woman, to tell him that his penis is small. There you go, he puts off his pants and shows her she's wrong and also confesses the murder. Piece of cake.
*end quote*

The rest of his/her review raises a few other points which made me think, but I am not so sure I agree exactly with him/her on them. Regardless of that, the fact remains that this is a lousy film.

Rating: 20

Le amiche (1955)

English title: The Girlfriends.

A woman is supervising the opening of a fashion shop in another town and befriends some of the local women in connection with a suicide attempt next door to her hotel room. She also gets romantically involved with the assistant to the architect who is responsible for the shop's premises.

This is very similar in style to soap operas made two  or three decades later (I'm thinking of the Brazilian ones, but I suppose they don't differ much from one country to another). All the same, it is quite entertaining if one does not demand great thrills or complexities.

Rating: 51

Jaws III (1983)

An aquatic park which is opening a new underwater tunnel for visitors has some trouble with a big shark.

While not as unwatchable as some reviews lead one to believe, this is really short on thrills. It was originally exhibited in 3-D, and I presume that watching it in two dimensions, as I have done, makes it even duller.

Rating: 31

Les faux-monnayeurs (2010)

Based on the novel by André Gide, first published in 1925.

English title: The Counterfeiters

A writer returns to Paris after a stay in London, and reconnects with his relatives. He becomes close to his teenage nephew, who has literary ambitions. Other subplots include another teenage boy who abandons his family after discovering that the man who raised him is not his biological father; a woman who is about to marry and discovers she is pregnant from another man; an old school teacher who wants to meet his grandson; another writer who leads a life of debauchery; etc.

Although I haven't read the novel, it feels like they oversummarized it and one has to build an understanding by connecting the dots made of mildly implied events and words; Wikipedia also helps. Les faux-monnayeurs revolves around ephebophilia, which is defined as "the primary sexual interest in mid-to-late adolescents, generally ages 15 to 19". In the case of this novel (and film) we are talking specifically of homosexual ephebophilia. With a little help from those readings, it becomes apparent that the thesis of the film is that there are "good" ephebophiles, exemplified by the protagonist, and "bad" ones, exemplified by Passavant. The film is neither convincing nor engaging, though it has a sufficiently polished narrative so as to be watchable.

Rating: 34

Tropic Thunder (2008)

The director of a war movie, under the advice of the source book's author, decides to turn it into a cinéma vérité experiment without telling the actors about it. As a result, they get involved in dangerous situations.

This is a satire of much of the Hollywood filmography of the 1980s and 1990s. The humor is occasionally of a predictable kind, but spot-on nevertheless. As has been remarked, the opening faux commercial and trailers are the funniest part of the movie. All the actors do an excellent job, and have been very smartly chosen for their parts. Overall, entertaining enough.

Note: If I haven't made any calculation mistake (I had to time the commercials and subtract them), the version I watched was 113 minutes long. Oddly, it doesn't match in length either of the versions which IMDB lists.

Rating: 59

The Hangover (2009)

100 min version.

Doug is getting married; Phil, Stu and Alan take him to Las Vegas for a stag night. The next morning Doug is missing, and the others have no recollection of the previous night.

Lightly amusing comedy. While not exactly funny, it has an imaginative script and good performances. Precedents have been detected in Dude, Where's My Car? and Very Bad Things.

Rating: 58

La Pointe-Courte (1955)

Man and wife discuss their relationship while sojourning at his place of birth, a fishing village. Parallel subplots concern the day-to-day life of villagers: the conflict between fishermen and health inspectors, the death of a child, a young man who wants permission to court a 16-year-old woman, a water joust, a dancing ball, etc.

Somewhat underdeveloped mix of ethnographic semi-documentary and intimate drama. I wonder whether the remarkable similarity in style between the dramatic portions of this film and the work by a few other famous directors made after it are just a coincidence; by the way, a shot from this film (two faces in close-up, one in front view and another in profile) is identical to a shot in Persona. These French villagers, all of which apparently have Italian surnames and faces to match, acquire a nearly mythical aura through the filmmaker's lens; this is an example of how a privileged cinematic point-of-view influences the opinion of viewers. While probably constrained by a survival imperative to break the law, they are obviously harming their customers by selling them infected shellfish; in reviews, however, they are never criticized ( "poor but proud people", says Wikipedia); the Law, on the other hand, is implicitly placed under suspicion ("a small lagoon they have been forbidden to use because of an alleged problem with bacteria" (Wikipedia, my italics).

Rating: 40