I caught most of Amenábar's first movie TESIS on TV last night (it went into February, so it's okay to post about it here. Phew, if not, the world would blow up). I'd seen it a few times before, and although I like the director's subsequent films, TESIS still leaves me cold. Yes, that's it, it's such a hellishly cold movie. Of course, any film that deals with the theme of snuff movies is going to be unpleasant, but in TESIS there isn't an ounce of human warmth on display. The characters are real pawns in this on, at the mercy of the suspense mechanics. The "hero" barks nastily throughout, and even the potential victim is perpetually in a bad mood (though the killer is quite charming).

One-dimensionally acted and sometimes unspeakably scripted (do people really say "Look, I'm going to ask you this once more, and for the final time"), TESIS is nevertheless quite gripping, but you'll never really care about anybody in it.

Amenábar's score is effective enough, with some chilling upwards-sliding glissandos. Synth based, it follows some of the modulations of John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN.

TESIS (Spain 1995)

Directed by Alejandro Amenábar
Screenplay by Alejandro Amenábar
Photography by Hans Burman
Music by Alejandro Amenábar

Also caught an episode of Westinghouse Studio One from the late 50s entitled The Defender. The script was by Reginald Rose who wrote 12 Angry Men and this dealt with a court case as that script did. The cast list was intense: Ralph Belamy, William Shatner, Martin Balsam, Steve McQueen, Milton Selzer, and as a juror in a non-speaking part, Ed Asner. And, to top it off, it was directed by Robert Mulligan, who would go on to do To Kill A Mockingbird among other films. Still, despite a few moments of good writing, there wasn't much to it besides getting a few lessons about the law across. And, with all the talent about, the results were competent but not particularly moving or exciting.

Also caught an Italian documentary, Rossellini Visito Da Rossellini, subtitled by Tag Gallagher who also wrote a biography of Roberto Rossellini. It's a mish-mash of film clips and filmed interviews that's more a shallow overview of Rossellini's work than it is any in-depth or even cohesive analysis. And, in that respect, it's a bit disappointing. Thankfully, we have a lot of interviews with Rossellini, even if they aren't on film, where he covers his ideas and methods in detail. On the plus side, after having read about certain Rossellini films for 25+ years, this film gave me my very first chance to see clips from some of them because they are simply unavailable in the US. And as a last grace note, there's footage of Isabella Rossellini talking about her dad. And one of the most interesting things she says is that while people and critics like to view Rossellini's films in certain periods based on the order in which they were made, she and her father liked to view them in the order of the time periods depicted in the films. In that case, Socrates made in 1970 comes first in the order since it is set in Greece BC, then come the films about Christ, Pascale, The Medici, Louis 14th, Joan of Arc, the Garabardini, up through the films about WWII where the films made in 1960-61, General Della Rovere and Nighttime in Rome, set during the war come earlier in the order than Open City and Paisa' made in 1945-6 but set just after the war. Then the order would conclude with the 50s films like Europa '51 and India '58. I thought that approach was a great way to look at Rossellini's films, and if I could obtain enough of them to show, I'd run a festival of the films in that order.

That sounds like a fine documentary on Rossellini...where did you see it, by the way? I heard "Frida" had some stop-motion in it...something about a dream with skeletons?

I watched Variety Lights (Fellini), Persona (Bergman), and Small Change (Truffaut) this weekend.

I quite liked the first two (Persona is one that would require multiple viewings to receive an adjustable critique, but a fine film...Variety Lights was fun and had some great scenes, but for Fellini's early comedy, I prefer The White Sheik). Small Change was great; when going into it, I didn't know it was about children. Truffaut was especially wonderful when making movies about children, he seemed to perfectly understood the pains (though less so here) and joys of being so young. I'd give it a solid 4/5, the other two: I think 3.5/5. All fine movies.

I also watched Part 2 of Martin Scorsese's stunning "My Voyage to Italy" documentary. Loved it immensely, this is one of the finest film documentaries I've ever seen. Informative and inspiring. I LOVED finally seeing some glimpses from Fellini's "La Dolce Vita," a film I've refused to see for so long because I've refused to see it in pan and scan, and a 2.35:1 print is not in US circulation. A shame, the over-view of it was absolutely incredible. Another one that looked incredible that's not in circulation is Fellini's "I Vitelloni." It's a good thing the over-views of these films were quite lengthy, since it may be a long time before I see either of them in their entirety. He didn't go any further than 1963 in Italian cinema, but I think it's excellent that he focused on all older films.
I'm sure his goal for to turn people like myself onto these films, and it certainly worked for me, I feel love for these movies now (I bought The Bicycle Theif on DVD today). Too bad that he is correct, though, when talking about the MAJORITY of younger film fans and how (when attempting to go through it) they think of our great film heritage as a chore, but that's nothing new.

At the library I found Scorsese's other documentary "A Personal Journey through American Movies." Loved this as well, though I think his one on Italian film was much better. But that's not saying anything, because this was excellent. The film noir section, with "Detour," "T-Men," "Raw Deal," "D.O.A," "The Red House," (which was, to my astonishment, accompanied by a Rozsa theremin score! I didn't know he did another one besides Lost Weekend and Spellbound...Raw Deal also had a theremin in it's score, btw), and also Douglas Sirk films, "Shock Corridor," westerns, the musicals (the Busby Berkeley films looked like a lot of great fun, I'll have to see some of those soon), etc. Good stuff.

I also got the DVD of the cult film "Incubus" this weekend. Snagged a sealed copy off of eBay for $5. I've watched a few scenes, and remember the impact this had on me when I saw it a year ago (along with The Outer Limits, both by my favorite cinematographer Conrad Hall...Hall provided a commentary for the Incubus DVD, can't wait to hear it). This is a beautful transfer that delivers for such a lushly photographed cult piece. Lou, the trailer you saw for this film, if it's the same 'trailer' that's on this DVD, good god. It completely misses the point, makes the film look like Robot Monster....sort of making fun of the film. Oh well, I'd recommend this film for anybody who enjoys Hall's B&W work, and cult films. Shatner is pretty good here too, more relaxed and less campy/militant than in his Star Trek work. Well, I have to go. Take care.

Best Regards,
Dylan

I'm rubbing this in: I've seen both I Vitelloni and La Dolce Vita in 35mm in a theater.

I found the Rossellini doc (in English it's called Rossellini on Rossellini) at Amazon.com--I just paid the bucks and it arrived by mail.

The sequence in Frida involves skeletons dressed as doctors to indicate Frida's fear and disgust at having her body manipulated. The animation is by The Quay Brothers, who if you haven't seen any of the films they have made themselves, I think it would be worth your while to check into: dark but wonderful.

Yes, Rozsa used the theremin on The Red House as he did for Spellbound and The Lost Weekend. The Angel CD that includes the suite from The Red House also has the theremin in it. Raw Deal's theremin score is by Paul Sawtell.

Oh yes, I know of and LOVE The Brother's Quay. I own their video collection as well as their b&w live-action film "Institute Benjamenta."

As I've said in the past, stop-motion is one of my passions, and the Quay's are indeed incredible: from the design and construction of the puppets, to the awesome sets, to the eerie sense of atomosphere...but probably the greatest elelment is the way they force you to think. In the Quay's world there are no simple plots, (really no plots) their imagery comes from the depths of a haunted dream landscape. Sounds like an interesting scene in Frida, I'll have to see the film when it's on DVD...I heard there are also numerous references to King Kong.

You wern't rubbing it in, I know a lot of people who have the luxory of seeing marvelous and rare films projected in a theater.

I'll have to look into that Angel CD of Rozsa, as I loved what I heard of The Red House. So, were these the only three times Rozsa utilized the theremin? I know he did use it for at least two cues in "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid." Any others?

I caught Kubrick's "Killer's Kiss" last night. A cool film, with some cool music (a mix of some 50's jazz/dance numbers, and a love theme). Fine shots, interesting construction/editing, etc.

Gae

I should know the Rozsa answer, but I'm unsure. I mean did Rozsa use the theremin on Secret Beyond the Door? I don't think so. He planned to use it on Ben-Hur then used the organ instead. Maybe LW, S, TRH, and DMDWP are the only ones. I'm probably missing one somewhere. Maybe not, he got tired of using the thing, especially after it became a trend.

The Quay Brothers sequence in Frida is short and there is only a brief clip from King Kong.

Killer's Kiss is interesting and it has that ambiguous "happy" ending where the two get together but have betrayed each other earlier. Many people have talked about its photography and shot compositions and set pieces like the fight in a room of mannequins, so I'm not going to repeat what they said here.

But, this does lead me to something. As I said in an earlier post, I got some benefit from the Rossellini doc because of my own previous research on him. Watching movies is great but reading about movies is important too, especially since every film about film is not by Scorsese. There are a number of books on Rossellini, Kubrick, Bergman, and all the rest that you might find worthwhile to consult after seeing a film like Persona or Killer's Kiss.

But man, read or don't read, am I impressed by the amount of good cinema you are putting down! Reminds me of a guy I went to college with who told me he saw 500 films in one year.

I caught a film today: For Ever Mozart, a film by Jean-Luc Godard from 1996. And like most recent Godard films, it seems populated by headstrong people who conflict and bicker with each other as well as his book-loving soul-searching types who use the past to comment on the present. Divided into two sections, the first involves three people who plan to go to Sarajevo to put on a play but are captured and killed [their captors are more clowns than serious soldiers, a point made in many previous Godard films], and the second involves the making of a low-budget film that doesn't seem to please its director, producer, or its audience. The film concludes with a concert of Mozart, the point being that due to modern war and commerce, the only lasting arts of any value are the classics.

Hehe, actually, I have to tear myself away from all of these film books and read more novels! I am surrounded by books and magazines on film, and even more on animation. I get a lot of film books from the library as well as the many I personally own (I have read two on Fellini, two good ones on Welles {I've avoided the ones Welles fans say are plauged with BS}, Truffaut's "The Films of My Life," (about films that inspired him), David Lynch, my favorite: A Heart at Fire's Center: The Life and Music of Bernard Herrmann, etc.). Sometime in the future, I'll certainly pick up volumes on lives/work of Rossellini, Kubrick, Truffaut, (and certainly more novels, though I read novels as well), etc. As far as upcoming film books, Ray Harryhausen has finished a new book that will be out later this year, and biographer Lawrence French is preparing what will possibly be the definitive biography on Orson Welles. Lots of great stuff coming, and McFarland Books has some gems in their release schedule as well. Of course, a good documentary is a marvelous, visual treat (I actually don't get to see enough of them {outside of DVD docus}, as most of the time they require purchase...I've been lucky to catch the wonderful Scorsese ones, of course).

Silly me, I actually have that Gerhardt recording of Rozsa scores (too bad though, that the Spellbound portion doesn't include a performance of the extraordinary love theme), I guess the music sounded so different in the film clips I saw (no doubt due to the theremin) that I didn't make the connection. If I recall correctly, synth might have been used, but I remember there being a chorus performing what I now understand was originally a theremin in the original recording.

I watched my DVD of "The Bicycle Thief" last night (first time I've seen it, I was too tired to stay up when it was airing on TCM). I have to cut this short, but it's certainly one of the greatest films I've ever seen, the greatest film I've recently discovered since my viewing of "The Last Picture Show." It was beautiful, funny, and heartbreaking. Great score as well. It's a fantastic film to own (I'm glad I didn't wait another 5 months or longer for the next TCM airing, especially if it's on at 2:00 AM again).

Best Regards,
Dylan

What books do the Welles people say you should avoid for the BS factor?

Lastly, I spent some time working on a list of recommendations but it just got out of hand. There's a whole 100+ yrs of film history to cover: big films, small films. It got to the point where I couldn't just list films, I had to list directors, meaning you should watch most of the listed director's films. And at that point you just have to give up listing.

Directed by Andrew V. McLaglen
Screenplay by James Lee Barrett, from the novel by Davis Grubb
Photography by Harry Stradling Jr.
Music by Henry Vars

Main Cast: James Stewart, George Kennedy, Strother Martin, Kurt Russell, Anne Baxter

On his release from prison, a man has to go into the town he has been banished from in order to cash a cheque.

The British release title DYNAMITE MAN FROM GLORY JAIL gives another slant to things, probably to market the action, of which there is some. But it seems to be more of an ideas film, especially in its notions of the spiralling consequences of decisions and/or luck. However, I felt it really needed a sharper eye or a greater sense of irony. For the most part the handling is exasperatingly routine. Attractive 30s semi-Western settings though.

The acting's okay. Jason Robards certainly looks the part, whilst David Warner gets some easy laughs as the false preacher with his hands perpetually inside girls' blouses. Strother Martin is supremely snivelling - I really wanted to kick him (yet Cable Hogue himself was interestingly benevolent towards him). Stella Stevens on the other hand was disastrous casting - was she Peckinpah's choice? Unconvincing, plastic and vacouos, she seemed unable to convey anything at all.

So, THE BALLAD OF CABLE HOGUE may be fascinating for auteur theorists, but I didn't see many signs of greatness here.

It's Jerry Goldsmith though, from the days when he could do no wrong, and even if it is one of his minor works, it's charming enough (and lively, with typically interesting punctuation amidst the songs from plucked strings, strummings from inside the piano, and that noise you get when you put a finger in your mouth and pop your cheek).

THE BALLAD OF CABLE HOGUE (USA 1970)

Directed by Sam Peckinpah
Screenplay by John Crawford and Edward Penney
Photography by Lucien Ballard
Music by Jerry Goldsmith

Chicago--This begins with a woman looking at a stage wanting to be a part of this same celebrity/cinemascape as well (isn't anyone just happy to be themselves in the real ole regular world?). When a promise to get there doesn't pan out, she shoots the guy. Under arrest, she still has fantasies about stardom, and ironically, uses the situation to turn herself into a celebrity. But this is a film that tells me an adulterous murderer should get off just because she's cute or can create an entertaining spectacle, that the men who get killed "had it coming," and that if I were betrayed, I'd shoot people too. Uh, sorry, I'm not buying it. One of the songs in the film suggests that when you have no real content you "Razzle-Dazzle 'em" which is exactly what this film is doing. Except that the song and the film are wrong--you can see through the scam to realize there is nothing here. [Though maybe the film's cynicism is correct since the film fooled the Golden Globes awarders.] In other Fosse, like say All that Jazz, there are these moments, like when the surgery is juxtaposed against fan dancers, where reality and fantasy meet in a surrealism that speaks volumes. But in Chicago, when they try for something similar and the courtroom is seen as a literal circus ring, the metaphor hits with a dull thud. I have to admit that the cast is energetic and they all have great bodies (and RZ acts well in a thankless role), but in the musical numbers it looks more like they're working out at the gym than anything called dancing. In the old days, the camera would plunk itself down and sit still while Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly would do all the work. In Chicago, the camera never stops moving, the shots never stop cutting, the lighting is garish, and the energy is imposed rather than emenates. Plus, for a film with so many chorus girls with flat stomachs and spread legs, this was the least sexy film I'd seen in a while. All that flesh became just so much wallpaper. This was supposed to be a film that was slick, smart, urbane, sexy, sophisticated. But, in the end, it was just heavy-handed and vulgar (and vulgar isn't a word I use too often, nor is it something I see in films that often). Gee, people are either gullible and easily-led or corrupt, self-serving, and hypocritical (and in-between like to dance a lot): big statement I didn't already know.

Leon Morin, Pretre--Perhaps the oddest of all the Melville films, the story of a young good-looking priest who uses the fact that girls are attracted to him to work on them to become Christians. There is a lot of talk about religion (some of it great but probably the reason the public didn't go for this film) and Morin uses a number of tactics to confront and push his flock. The key woman is Barny and she falls in love with Morin which is a tragedy for them both even if her contact with and rejection by Morin leads her to convert to religion. Though interesting, I can't say this film was successful. It's also set during the German occupation for no apparent reason that relates to the actual content of the story, unless the interest in religion can be seen as another form of resistance against Nazism. Still, it has these disparate elements that just don't completely come together. One neat plus though was its score by Martial Solal. Usually Solal scores are jazz but this was all orchestral and not bad.

Here's another movie that just couldn't decide what it wanted to be. It could have been a great sci-fi drama, but the silly humor really hurts the film. The fact that the aliens are 'so smart but so stupid' was really strange. I don't think it was ever explained why they couldn't figure out how to open or break down a door.

M. Night Shyamalan playing a part in the movie was very distracting to me. If he had a little non-speaking Hitchcock-style part, like I first expected, it would have been "cute." Instead, he ends up playing a person who is really important to the whole story and I think that role would have been better for a character actor. Gibson's acting as Graham was the most "wooden" yet... I'm not sure if he's doing this on purpose for a weird style of humor or perhaps he's just gotten into some sort of "how use the James Horner method for acting" mode. How many Culkins are there in the world? I can't wait for all of them to go away.

It made me nearly sick to watch Graham talk to his dying wife while she was pinned to the tree. It's not a gory scene with blood and guts hanging out, but just the idea of it really disturbed me. Her prophecy of the future to "keep swinging" was equally sickening, but in a different way.

For such an expensive movie with a budget of $62M, it looked awfully cheap. Just where did all of that money go? I'm sure Gibson was paid his huge fee and then it must have cost about $500 for those amazing Commodore 128 CGI 'alien' effects. Still, that leaves about $50M that I just can't see come across in this film. There just must have been a huge catering bill or something.

James Newton Howard's score is fine for the film. I might buy the end credits if they were on a compilation album of some sort.

This film had zero new ideas. I'd skip it. Just see Independence Day again and imagine the aliens being really stupid and attacking a farm in the middle of Nowhere, PA instead of major cities. Just speak out "Move, children! Vamanos!" during one of the fake ID4 newscasts and you'll capture the presence of Signs just fine.

[If random words are missing it's because I guess I didn't get enough sleep last night.]

National Security - It was pretty funny, it struggled at a number of times, but the characters were genuine at a number of times, despite the he hit me thing.
Score was okay, i might pick up a copy if it's been released.

Jonathan, SIGNS got very polarised crits here in Spain - people either loved it or hated it. Being a wishy washy namby pamby, I neither loved it nor hated it. I did think it was really slow and talky for the most part, but in this age of wham bam movies, that's almost a virtue. What really surprised me was the appearance of the stereotypycal egg-headed alien. Was he supposed to me a metaphor or something? I couldn't believe that Shamalamadingdong might want it to be taken literally, after all that careful build-up. By the way, I didn't think that Gibson was "wooden" at all. If anything he overacted once more (all those eyeball movements). As regards that scene where his wife is dying in the car accident - I'm not sure what you mean about it being...what did you say? Oh, and about Shamalamadingdong's lengthy cameo, I think he's only out of place once you know he's the director. But how many people know what he looks like anyway? (Ah! He's the director that looks like a cross between Cary Grant and Rowan Atkinson, Indian style!)

Have been overdosing on Peckinpah. Saw CABLE HOGUE, as you know. Also saw THE GETAWAY, which I liked up to a point. And Clouzot's LES DIABOLIQUES - great film. I'll try and get some thoughts together and be semi-coherent about them in a day or two.

Anyway (and I've found this with other Peckinpah films, particularly BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA - which I hated) THE GETAWAY, for all its pyrotechnics, seems curiously static, semi-professional even, like the first films of David Cronenberg and George Romero. I thought the timing was way off in some scenes too, and some of the acting is terrible. After watching Stella Stevens in CABLE HOGUE and Ali MacGraw now, I'm beginning to think that Peckinpah did this on purpose, but I still don't get his point. Whatever, Ali MacG is dreadfully wooden, but she was lumbered with terrible lines like "Now listen boy" - to Steve McQueen! McQueen himself is a bit wooden too, but at least he gives the impression that something is seething underneath all that self-control.

Quincy Jones' score sounds like 70s TV cop music, if with a characteristically idiosyncratic edge to it. I love Quincy Jones and I love 70s TV cop music, but I think the rejected Jerry Fielding score might have been more in keeping with the director's original vision - whatever that was.

THE GETAWAY (USA 1972)

Directed by Sam Peckinpah
Screenplay by Walter Hill, from the novel by Jim Thompson
Photography by Lucien Ballard
Music by Quncy Jones

But apart from being influential, it's also good. You never know where you stand here. Sometimes it seems that it's a Hitchcockian dissection of how difficult it is to kill a person and get away with it - the wicker basket that won't shut just when there's a body being transported in it, the vigilant landlord, the drunk soldier who climbs into the van with the corpse, etc. Or perhaps it's just a detective film, with the late appearance of the COLUMBO guy. And at times you think it's even a ghost story. Well, I think it's all of those things, but especially a character study. Who is the most perverse character in this film? There's a great scene where Vera Clouzot as the wife doubts for a moment about killing her husband - it crosses her mind for an instant to just get a divorce - but murder seems easier (and she's spurred on anyway by... her lesbian lover?) Actually, having said all that, maybe the whole thing is just one big enormous Grand Guignol joke. If it is, it's a hugely effective one.

No music except for an approbriately "diabolical" horror theme over the credits. Inexorable and strident, it sounds like 50s Gerald Fried horror music.

LES DIABOLIQUES (France 1954)

Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot
Screenplay by Henri-Georges Clouzot, Jérome Géronimi, Rene Masson and Frédéric Grendel, from the novel by Pierre Boilleau and Thomas Narcejac
Photography by Armand Thirard
Music by Georges Van Parys

Every one of the musical numbers was far too repetitive with each of them going on for about two minutes longer than they should have. I still have the freaking "He Had it Coming" pounding into my head. The ventriloquist act ("We Both Reached for the Gun" I guess it's called) I found to be the most enjoyable and amusing. Perhaps I liked it because of my general distaste of the media, but I thought showing them as puppets was so appropriate.

I don't know if I should fault the movie for this or the theater (probably the latter), but the damn bass in this movie's soundtrack annoyed the hell out of me. I can't even tell what sort of instrument was producing this sound -- it didn't sound like a bass fiddle but instead I think it was a "huge boom machine"(TM) put there to just annoy me. Again, this was probably because of a poor Dolby Digital track made worse by a lackluster speaker setup.

Is there some reason why Renee Zellweger's dancing daydreams always had everybody in lingerie? I daydream sometimes too, but they don't always have women dancing around in their undies. And how about the half dozen tight shots on women's crotches? What a such tasteful and fantastic touch. It was the crotch shots that really added quality to this production.

I'd give the film a C at best. I really didn't find any of the musical numbers or dancing to be that amazing or memorable, besides the closeups of crotches. None of the singing lit me on fire at all and the jazzy music (and that damn bass) just got tiring after the first few numbers. Moulin Rouge still sends chills down my spine when I watch some of its musical numbers, but I just couldn't feel any emotion from the songs in Chicago at all.

Like many other episodes, "The Man Who Was Never Born" is hugely flawed, and much of it seems silly now, really rushed through. It's like so much had to be crammed in that it didn't really matter how it was done - "Okay, you're in the future, you see a mutant. Ask him who he is. Cut. Right, let's shoot the romance."

Directed by Sam Peckinpah
Screenplay by Rudy Wurlitzer
Photography by John Coquillon
Music by Bob Dylan

Main Cast: James Coburn, Kris Kristofferson, Bob Dylan, Richard Jaeckel, Katy Jurado

Another duff Peckinpah. I've really given up on him. Of course, PAT GARRETT may be another of the director's elegiac musings on the passage of time, so you know it's not going to be exciting, but I didn't expect it to be so boring. It's not that it seems to be deliberately anti-action (even when there's action), but rather that it's anti-tension too, even anti-drama.

The Bob Dylan ballad-like music kind of fits, because it does distance the events, and is in itself anti-drama. On the other hand it could just be considered ineffectual strumming.

Directed by Steven Soderbergh
Screenplay by Steven Soderbergh, from the novel by Stanislaw Lem
Photography by Peter Andrews (Steven Soderbergh)
Music by Cliff Martinez

Main Cast: George Clooney, Natascha McElhone, Jeremy Davies, Viola Davis, Ulrich Tukur

I don't know the Lem book, but Tarkovsky's film was painfully boring for me as a 12-year old. This new version is an hour shorter, and as such it's considerably more digestable, and that's my minor gripe - it's like a mere digest of themes. When it was over, I had the feeling that it had barely scratched the surface. The good thing though is that this approach leaves the audience to do the work (and I'm still working on it).

Not really SF (Soderbergh, and, I suspect, Tarkovsky and Lem, had little interest in the hardware - the very few few concessions to the standard "alien on board" aspect is uncomfortable), SOLARIS may not be mind-blowingly brilliant, nor as clever as it would like to be, but it's still pretty damn good, and the best film I've seen in months in which nothing happens. Clooney is excellent too - that face he puts on when he sees his dead wife for the first time on the spaceship was a great reaction (though the head-slapping routine he went through immediately prior to that great face he put on brought titters from the audience).

Extremely good music, long-held floating chords evoking introspection and the vastness of inner-space.

Like Jonathan, I’m not a real Chicago fan. I appreciate the brilliance of the acting
from all of the leads and the fine singing. It was brilliantly edited, and I was amazed by
how the songs dovetailed with the story. The ventriloquist number was stunning. Yet, the
movie left me cold. There isn’t a song in the whole movie that I’d want to hear again.
I’m used to musicals with memorable melodies, and this one left me NOT wanting the buy
the CD. Still, it is a well-made movie, and I appreciate its artistry while at the same time
missing and longing for some lovely music.

Saw Hitch's MARNIE again. Fascinating in the context of his recurring obsessions (identity, sex, mothers), but disconcertingly bland for much of its running time (she's a frigid kleptomaniac - so what?), although the revelation is meaty.

Tippi Hedren is quite good, but Sean Connery seems a bit out of place, with his unconvincing delivery of lines which mix upper class English twitisms with hard-boiled Americanisms - whilst all the time trying to disguise his REAL accent (though he takes pains to do so to a greater extent than in many of his subsequent roles). Actually, my favourite character was Connery's horny sister-in-law (Diane Baker with good hair, a sexy twinkle in her eye, and a lovely green dress indicating jealousy). She, for me, was the real fiery counterpoint to Marnie's ice, not Connery.

I don't think MARNIE is really great, but it does have some great things in it, not least the quintessential Herrmann score, which treats everything as if it were a twisted romance - which it probably is anyway.

MARNIE (USA 1964)

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Screenplay by Jay Presson Allen, from the novel by Winston Graham
Photography by Robert Burks
Music by Bernard Herrmann

This week was a Spielberg-fest...

1. Jaws
2. CE3K
3. ET
4. Jurassic Park
5. Lost World