The Sun Also Rises (1957)

 

THE SUN ALSO RISES  (1957)  ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Henry King

    Tyrone Power, Ava Gardner, Mel Ferrer,

    Errol Flynn, Eddie Albert, Juliette Greco,

    Gregory Ratoff, Robert Evans, Henry Daniell

In the "making of" feature on the DVD of "The Sun Also Rises", screenwriter Peter Viertel and others talk about the challenges involved in making a movie out of Ernest Hemingway's book. One of them has to do with Viertel's observation that the novel hasn't got much of a plot. Another involves Hemingway's approach to writing it, keeping much of what's going on below the surface and off the page. And there's the casting, with actors who are visibly too old for the characters in the story. Tyrone Power gives a bland preformance as Hemingway's war-damaged protagonist, Jake Barnes, a part that would've been perfect for Montgomery Clift. Ava Gardner as Brett Ashley, the woman at the center of it all, isn't hard to watch, but looks more like a 1950s movie star then a 1920s bohemian. Errol Flynn has a colorful late-career role as an aging playboy who won't let being broke and on the road to ruin get in the way of a good time. The craziest casting choice has Robert Evans as a dopey-looking matador who hooks up with Gardner. A lot of the movie is just people hanging out in cafes and bars, drinking. Don't try to keep up with them.

Suzanna Andler (2021)

 

SUZANNA ANDLER  (2021)  ¢ 1/2

    D: Benoît Jacquot

    Charlotte Gainsbourg, Neils Schneider, 

    Julia Roy, Nathan Wilcocks 

A woman who's wealthy and bored mopes around a seaside villa she's thinking of renting for two million euros a month. She talks briefly with the real estate agent, and then with the guy she's cheating on her husband with and a woman with whom her husband has cheated on her. Sometimes, just to break the monotony, she and her lover smoke cigarettes. (Did I mention the movie is French?) The woman is played by Charlotte Gainsbourg, sporting a rich-girl look and wardrobe, and there are some exceptionally long takes, which is something, I guess, but the movie just drags on and on for what feels like days, and then it's over, but not soon enough.

Picture Claire (2001)

 

PICTURE CLAIRE  (2001)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Bruce McDonald

    Juliette Lewis, Gina Gershon, Callum Keith Rennie,

    Camilla Rutherford, Peter Stebbings, Kelly Harms,

    Tracy Wright, Raoul Bhaneja, Mickey Rourke

Juliette Lewis plays a small-time thief and sometime police informant who escapes from Montreal after some drug dealers torch her apartment. She lands in Toronto, broke and at loose ends, but trouble seems to follow her everywhere. I wouldn't know whether Juliette's French is any good, but she doesn't say much, so maybe it's okay. Mickey Rourke is his usual scuzzy self and (thankfully) gets killed off in the opening reel. The late Tracy Wright turns up as a police detective and gets just enough screen time to make you wish she'd stuck around a lot longer. In the pantheon of escapist thrillers you've probably never heard of, this is a good one. Made in Canada.

Time of the Heathen (1961)

 

TIME OF THE HEATHEN  (1961)  ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: Peter Kass

    John Heffernan, Stewart Heller, Barry Collins, 

    Orville Stewart, Ethel Ayler, Nathaniel White

In a remote rural area, presumably in the South, a black woman is raped and murdered. The most convenient suspect, guilty or not, is a drifter passing through on foot, wearing a black suit and carrying a Bible in his pocket. He and a mute young boy - the dead woman's son - are also potential witnesses, and a couple of rednecks armed with rifles give them a running start and then start hunting them down. A gothic nightmare shot cheaply in black and white, played with unsettling conviction by a no-name cast. It's like George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead", but without the zombies - not as gruesome and just as creepy.

One Cut of the Dead (2017)

 

ONE CUT OF THE DEAD  (2017)  ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Shin'ichirô Ueda

    Takayaki Hamatsu, Yuzuki Akiyama, Harumi Shuhama,

    Kazuaki Nagaya, Manabu Hosoi, Hiroshi Ichihara

A film within a film within a film within a film about a television crew trying to shoot a 30-minute zombie picture live in one take with no cuts. First you see what they shot. Then you see how they shot it. Lots of fake blood, a severed arm, a severed head, a video camera, a bottle of sake, an 

ax . . . 

The North Water (2021)

 

THE NORTH WATER  (2021)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Andrew Haigh

    Jack O'Connell, Colin Farrell, Sam Spruell, 

    Stephen Graham, Peter Mullan, Tom Courtenay

A gripping survival adventure about a 19th-century whaling ship that sails too far up into the Arctic and gets stuck in the ice. Tom Courtenay plays the ship's owner, who has paid off the captain (Stephen Graham) to sink the vessel, hoping to collect the insurance. Colin Farrell plays a harpooner named Henry Drax, a swaggering brute whose pastimes include drinking, whoring, molesting cabin boys and  killing for the fun of it. Jack O'Connell plays the ship's surgeon, addicted to laudanum and on the run from a troubled past. You won't find much warmth in this anywhere, but it keeps you engaged (and glad not to be in the Arctic), and Farrell's performance is frightening. 

Showgirl Murders (1999)

 

SHOWGIRL MURDERS  (1999)  ¢ 1/2

    D: Dave Payne

    Maria Ford, Matt Preston, D.S. Case, Kevin Alber,

    Bob McFarland, Jeffrey Douglas, C.B. Baldwin,

    Floyd Baldwin, Jane Stowe, Crescendo, Nikki Fritz 

A girl walks into a bar and talks her way into a job serving drinks for tips. Before long, she's onstage dancing in a thong, the men are lining up with their dollar bills, and the money's pouring in. And there are murders. A less-than-captivating erotic thriller off the straight-to-video assembly line, with exotic dancer and B-movie siren Maria Ford as the resident femme fatale. Ford choreographed the dance routines, which are easily the high point of the film.