Jason's Blog, page 190

Louis Malle

I've been curious about Louis Malle, only knowing his American films, so I got the collection of his early French films, and will start watching those. First up: Lift To The Scaffolds. Jeanne Moreau and Maurice Ronet are the lovers whose plan it is to kill her husband and make it look like a suicide. So far everything works out, but then fate steps in. Also starring Lino Ventura as a policeman, music by Miles Davis.

The film reminded me of the Coen brothers, the way that nothing goes as planned and the characters constantly being tripped up. Malle films the story in a nonchalant style. He doesn't really seem that interested in the plot. Instead we get a long sequence of Moreau walking around in Paris, in the rain, looking for Ronet and having a very French and poetic voiceover. The film has almost a dreamlike quality. Ronet climbs up a building in broad daylight, easily visible from the street, but is seen by no one. After the killing he then forgets to bring the rope with him, starting the whole chain of reactions. It's a bit hard to believe, but in a dream it would make perfect sense. The two main characters never curse the Gods for what is happening, instead calmly accepting the way their well laid plans fall to pieces, ending the film just as it begun with a close up of Moreau's face.

Next: Le Feu Follet

A-ha

A drawing made for a Norwegian music magazine, a review of A-ha's album Stay on These Roads.

Chapterpage drawing...

...from Mitt Liv Som Zombie, the Norwegian version of Pocket Full of Rain. Originally it was in black and white, this is my first attempt at colourization in photoshop.

Atlantic City

Burt Lancaster is an old nobody from the glory days of Atlantic City that finally gets to be a hero. Also starring Susan Sarandon, directed by Louis Malle.

This is very much a European vision of America. Just like Barfly by Barbet Schroeder it's more interested in the backside of the American Dream. It's a great role for Lancaster. In a small part we also see Wally Shawn from Malle's My Dinner With André. This is the last Lancaster film for now, but I hope to find some more. I'd like to see the other films he did with Frankenheimer and also Elmer Gantry that he won his Oscar for.

The Train

August, 44. The Allies are approaching Paris. A German Colonel collects the best of French art to have it sent to Germany on a train. It's up to stationmaster Burt Lancaster and the French resistance to stop it. Also starring Paul Scofield and Jeanne Moreau, directed by John Frankenheimer.

It's another great Lancaster/Frankenheimer film, again based on real events. There's the usual problem with English language films from World War II - a strange mix of accents or lack thereof. Some of the dialogue by the French actors are clearly dubbed. Lancaster himself plays a Frenchman, and with a handrolled cigarette in the side of his mouth he actually looks a bit Jean Gabin-ish. It's easier to believe in him as a Frenchman than in Tom Cruise as a German in Valkyrie. The film is shot in gorgeous black and white. It asks an interesting question: How many lives is a painting worth?

Birdman of Alcatraz

Burt Lancaster is a convict sentenced to a lifetime of solitary confinement. Finding a sparrow in the yard one day he eventually becomes a renowned ornithologist. Also starring Karl Malden, Thelma Ritter, Edmond O'Brien and Telly Savalas, directed by John Frankenheimer.

This is one of those films I first saw on tv when I was a kid, automatically giving it a magical quality. It's over 30 years ago, but I still remember some of the scenes from then: the building of the bird cage and the bird pulling the little wagon. The film lasts two and a half hours, so it's possible I never saw the ending. Rewatching the film now, the ending is the weakest part - the whole Alcatraz part. That's the trouble with basing movies on real events, sometimes there's no satisfying third act. If it was fiction, he would probably have been paroled, lived with the woman he married while in jail, and continued his studies of birds. In real life he had to give up the birds and spent the rest of his life behind bars. Despite this, it's a great film, and possibly better on tv than on a big cinema screen.

Field of Dreams

A Capraesque fantasy about redemption and baseball starring Kevin Costner, Amy Madigan, James Earl Jones, Ray Liotta and, in one of his last roles, Burt Lancaster. Directed by Phil Alden Robinson.

It's just a small part for Lancaster, but he adds class to the whole film. Costner is very good, I think, in his role. The film works as well as it does partly because Robinson never overdoes it - it's not sirupy; I can only imagine what Spielberg would have done with it. Even as a European I could enjoy the film, not knowing anything about the rules of baseball, but connecting with it on an emotional level.

Criss Cross

Burt Lancaster apparently didn't learn his lesson in The Killers. This time he's getting involved with his no good exwife Yvonne DeCarlo, now married to hoodlum Dan Duryea. Directed by Robert Siodmak.

You're immediately dropped into the middle of the story, then in pure film noir style you're told what has happened so far in flashbacks and voice over. The heist is once again a bravura sequence, DeCarlo is dreamy and Duryea can do this sort of bad guy in his sleep. The story takes place in Los Angeles, and part of the fun of of the film is that you get to see some of Raymond Chandler's city, things he wrote about in his books, like Bunker Hill and the Angel's Flight funicular railway. John Fante's Ask The Dust took place in the same neighborhood. This film has also been remade, as The Underneath, by Steven Soderbergh, which I've never seen, but that could be interesting to watch. I doubt it will surpass the original, though.

Some other old strip

Burt Lancaster

Watching the remake of The Killers made me want to rewatch the original. Charles McGraw and William Conrad are the two killers, Burt Lancaster is the victim, Ava Gardner the femme fatale. Also starring Edmond O'Brien, directed by Robert Siodmak.

Now this is how you light a film noir! - it's a lot darker and moodier than The Big Heat. The first 12 minutes is a pretty faithful retelling of Ernest Hemingway's short story. Then we follow the insurance investigator trying to find out what happened, and why Lancaster didn't try to run is told in flashbacks. It was because of a girl, of course. In this film it's Ava Gardner, and it's totally understandable that she made a sucker out of Lancaster. Ah, those doublecrossing dames, I tell ya, what would film noir be without them. The film is still great, not as dated as the remake. There is particularly one remarkable shot of the heist and the getaway, all done in one take, in one sweeping camera move, that wouldn't look out of place in any film made today.