The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)

 Second viewing; previously viewed on December 20, 1994.

Eugene is an inventor who is developing an automobile. He loves Isabel, who belongs to a traditional family, but she decides to marry someone else. Years later, both become widowed and try to rekindle their romance, but Isabel's son is against it.

Marvelously filmed period drama which was cruelly shortened by the producers. Also, the plot suffers from schematism in its attempt to make its characters and situations embody a historical transition. Despite all this, the end result is positive.

Rating: 67 (unchanged)

La salamandre (1971)

English title: The Salamander

Pierre, a journalist, accepts the job of producing a script for a drama about a real event. The subject is a young woman who was initially suspected of shooting at her uncle, but then was cleared for lack of witnesses. Paul, a writer, is summoned to collaborate with him in the scriptwriting. Pierre interviews the young woman while Paul tries to sketch a narrative without knowledge of the interviews.

Interesting examination of the journalistic process which is also a snapshot of European society at the time it was made. However, if you are concerned with plausibility, this film is not for you. For example, why didn't the police examine the rifle for fingerprints and Rosemonde's hand for powder? Anyway, it seems that using cold-blooded animal analogies for women deemed as outliers seemed to be in fashion around that time; e.g. there was also La truite (1964 novel, 1982 film). Both movies had blonde stars, perhaps for some reason.

Rating: 57

Cyrano de Bergerac (1950)

 Second viewing; previously viewed on March 28, 1992.

A man (Cyrano) with a long nose is in love with a beautiful woman (Roxane), but is afraid of being rejected by her. She confides to him that she is in love with another man (Christian). Christian does not have a talent for rhetoric, and Cyrano offers to write love speeches for him.

The play superposes a layer of 19th century romanticism on a 17th century person. To make matters worse, the screenwriter, in one sequence, superposes yet another layer on the text, of 20th century feminism (when Roxane complains about women's subaltern role in society). The result of these anachronisms makes for a somewhat awkward text. To be fair, the first third, where one may still glimpse 17th century society, is excellent; the second third is still quite watchable, though it is obviously an ideological fabrication; the final third is where everything goes wrong, into irredeemably cringeworthy territory.

Rating: 58 (up from 49)

I crudeli (1967)

 English title: The Hellbenders

(English dub)

In the aftermath of the American Civil War, a Southern colonel and his sons massacre and rob a group of soldiers who were transporting money in order to destroy it. They hide the money in a coffin and pretend they are transporting a dead man; a woman they bring along poses as the widow.

Mostly mediocre Western. Near the end it improves a little, the high point of the movie being the sequence with the beggar.

Rating: 34

The Hunt for Red October (1990)

 Second viewing; previously viewed on February 9, 1991.

The captain of a Soviet submarine scheduled to perform military exercises plans to defect to America along with the officers on board. The Americans detect its presence and fear it is planning an attack. Only one man guesses their real intention.

This is about a Soviet submarine captain and an American CIA man who admires him, and how they are punished in the end by turning blue. Now, seriously, the main faults of this film are several implausibilities in its plot's premises; also, the Soviet submarine in question possesses a nimbleness which is simply unbelievable, even supposing it is equipped with fictional technology. This is well filmed, well edited, and overall watchable, but not more than that.

Rating: 40 (down from 57)