Well? Ralph Fiennes and Donald Sutherland really wanna know! That is one helluva bizarre tagline. Yet, it really makes me want to see the movie just so I can figure it out. I can think of a few things better than big juicy steak, although that's pretty high up there on lists of great things in the world. Mmm, cow!
And, yes, there is more updating of the sidebar. I've finally finished the link section so that it is divided into sections. Obviously more will be added when I find them and like them. But... yay.
I am listening to Sophie Koh's debut album All the Pretty Boys and it's one of those albums that is just beautiful to listen to. She came out of the same development program at JJJ (Unearthed) as Missy Higgins (who went on to have her album The Sound of White going something like seven times platinum which is HUGE). I always had a problem with Missy, her whole album was terribly bland except for "The Special Two" (try and find that song NOW!!!!) but I Sophie's album is far from that. It's haunting in a way. Much like Sarah Blasko, Sophie has a distorted pop sound. And with songs such as "Boat People" and "Timor Song" she won't be finding mainstream success anytime soon. Shame really, because much like another Aussie singer from a couple of years back called Sandrine, Sophie's first album is a bonza.
What happened to Sandrine too? her album Trigger was really great and it was critically acclaimed yet she disappeared. Shame, she was an artist with real potential to keep going and getting greater, much like Sarah Blasko (who I always saw as a mix between Missy Higgins and Bjork - hence, better. MUCH better). Hopefully Sophie is hear to stay for All the Pretty Boys is a wonderful album. A-
I watched two movies yesterday.
Blackmail (1929, dir. Hitchcock) - I've had this on DVD for ages. It came in the package that I bought just to get Hitchcock's 39 Steps (read: masterpiece) and had never popped this disc in. It's an interesting film. It was apparently Hitchcock's AND Britain's first "talkie" picture. I have seen Hitchcock's silent The Lodger which was good for what it was and that's pretty much all I can say about this one. There's no denying that it's dated and it's all a bit hokey. And I'm not even going to get into the fact that there isn't actually any "blackmail" in the movie!
This movie stars Anny Ondra (who had starred in and continued to star in European films) as a girl dating a Scotland Yard detective (John Longden - of not much else from what I can see, however he does look scarily like Stephen Fry minus the bad nose) but leaves him one night to go off with another man (Cyril Ritchard - again, not from anything I can see on his IMDb page). This man attacks her and she kills him with a knife (that has no blood on it, lol). Her detective boyfriend soon realises it was her and they must hide the fact, but then another mysterious man, who we are never actually told how he fits in to the story, shows up saying he knows it was Anny's Alice that did the crime.
I reneg my comment about there being no blackmail, there is. The mystery man makes the detective buy his cigar because he has no cash on him. ooh.
It's all fairly standard, although it is much better than it has any right to be. Once the mystery man shows up it does add something to the story that wasn't really going anywhere. From his arrival the film turns into more of a psychological type of thriller. It was all in good fun, but it should be viewed as more of a Hitchcock curiosity than any piece of great filmmaking. C+
Please Note - the first 10 minutes or so of this movie are silent! I thought was watching a silent movie until the characters suddenly started talking! turns out it was to be a silent but then got changed to a talkie.
The Man with the Golden Arm (1955, dir. Preminger) - Now THIS was a treat. Much like Blackmail this movie has been sitting on my DVD shelf for ages and I never paid attention. I got it free with a DVD magazine I bought over a year ago and just decided to watch it (in my urge to see more old movies, as you will have noticed if you read the screening log). And boy am I glad I did. This movie was astounding.
Frankie (Frank Sinatra, you know him!) returns from rehab adament not to fall into the world of drugs and gambling that he was in before. He just wants to join a band and help his crippled (or is she?) girlfriend (Eleanor Parker). Soon he falls into the traps though as he is surrounded by his ex-employers and drug dealers day in-day out. Soon enough he's unravelling, but with the help of old-flame Molly (Kim Novak, a few years before her Vertigo turn would seal her fate in cinehistory) he tries to get through.
It's an amazing piece of filmmaking here by Otto Preminger, of who I had never been exposed to before, although I have Anatomy of a Murder on DVD queue - i hope it arrives sooner rather than later. The performances here are all excellent. Frank Sinatra who was Oscar nominated is just amazing as Frankie, and the two women - Parker and Novak - are equals. It's a surprise neither got any award support, Parker has a delicious character to devour as Novak has some scenes of real emotion. Her scene in the bedroom with Frankie was mesmerising.
The techs too are meticulous. The Oscar-nominated score by Elmer Bernstein is top of the shelf calibre. Love how when the drug-dealer places each piece of using-equipment on the table the horns on the soundtrack blew out loud. The Oscar-nominated production design, too, is a work of art. The skid-row streetscapes are wonderfully designed. Costuming and cinematography are also appropriately wonderful.
I can't help but wish that I had been around when films like this were being made. Not only can I see the brilliance in this film, but it makes a film such as Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream even more powerful. Yes, Golden Arm has 1950's sensibilities (nobody recovers from cocaine addiction that fast, okay and the book is apparently MUCH darker) but that doesn't take away any of the power. This film was astounding. A
Strange. That now makes three films from 1955 that I have absolutely loved and neither of them got nominated for Best Picture. Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray), East of Eden (Elia Kazan) and The Man with the Golden Arm. And of those, only Kazan received a Best Director nomination. Thankfully Frank Sinatra and James Dean got nominations (Dean for Eden and not Rebel. It's hard to decide which movie he deserved it for me!). Add to that Rififi and Bergman's Kvinnodröm [Dreams] and with even limited knowledge, 1955 was a really good year.
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