PAUL JONES WITH PINK FLOYD GATHERING FOR 'THE COMMITTEE'

<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG3jjZYfg332nCaLpKofjfiho91CT4dfv06Br0oPJRDCyE7ABLgWNR7U-AuCIciW-XAVGN70VVEfBGFxjCOosyWZ8nEaGWTB1Unj_Nu3IVA9ZIg7gRkDV8gzk-k6IKwJe_Tj0AsZe1nWw0x10XlDPjxQz3VD2pg20k_E0p_05h87kiDur9GVLgHP8UkCh-/s1718/Screen%20Shot%202026-07-18%20at%2010.22.06%20PM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1042" data-original-width="1718" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG3jjZYfg332nCaLpKofjfiho91CT4dfv06Br0oPJRDCyE7ABLgWNR7U-AuCIciW-XAVGN70VVEfBGFxjCOosyWZ8nEaGWTB1Unj_Nu3IVA9ZIg7gRkDV8gzk-k6IKwJe_Tj0AsZe1nWw0x10XlDPjxQz3VD2pg20k_E0p_05h87kiDur9GVLgHP8UkCh-/s1600/Screen%20Shot%202026-07-18%20at%2010.22.06%20PM.png"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Paul Jones and Robert Langdon Lloyd in THE COMMITTEE</u><u> Year: 1968 Rating: ***</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Best known for being the first Pink Floyd soundtrack, director Peter Sykes's surreal British New Wave THE COMMITTEE feels like a ten-minute concept stretched to an hour... but never drags and has some terrific locations ranging from working-class city to gothic-manor rural...<br><br>As Floyd's music, other than sporadic mood-piece fillers (with moments foreshadowing <i>'Careful With That Axe Eugene</i>), consists of one nifty jam at different speeds... the first is faster-paced, inside a run-of-the-mill/mundane corporate filing room (artistic for the sake of being filmed), where former Manfred Mann singer turned actor Paul Jones works...</p><p><span></span></p>

arthouse, british neo noir, jimmy gardner, paul jones, pauline munro, peter sykes, pink floyd, robert langdon lloyd, sixties, tom kempinski

PAUL JONES WITH PINK FLOYD GATHERING FOR 'THE COMMITTEE'

Paul Jones and Robert Langdon Lloyd in THE COMMITTEE Year: 1968 Rating: *** Best known for being the first Pink Floyd soundtrack, director ...

PETER SELLERS AS THE OFFBEAT 'HOFFMAN' WITH SINÉAD CUSACK

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDPTKlamio29Fz__rCVVBFHbz_2GrrTp-rYIMbgT3yZ7bTlS0qUvtTfN6SZjwqSYTNVGIBPbNbEoRwSByRcszqhfLNR2-wkR0WaohGjXqfi8vxaC1M3CCUDqimOSzHdppXAZCdiyjZKD637yRScjBUfjyTwaDfSBfNpSn-GMQrFFwEs0buEdWHADeaaw5R/s2058/Screen%20Shot%202025-07-01%20at%201.02.19%20AM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1224" data-original-width="2058" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDPTKlamio29Fz__rCVVBFHbz_2GrrTp-rYIMbgT3yZ7bTlS0qUvtTfN6SZjwqSYTNVGIBPbNbEoRwSByRcszqhfLNR2-wkR0WaohGjXqfi8vxaC1M3CCUDqimOSzHdppXAZCdiyjZKD637yRScjBUfjyTwaDfSBfNpSn-GMQrFFwEs0buEdWHADeaaw5R/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-07-01%20at%201.02.19%20AM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: HOFFMAN Year: 1970 Rating: ***</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>In the deliberately bizarre, stage-play-like, counter-culture-era HOFFMAN, Peter Sellers portrays the titular character with similarities to two roles, both ten years apart, before and after...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The first, before, is his serious-mode villain/criminal from John Guillerman's kitchen-sink-noir NEVER LET GO in which he menaces teenage blonde Carol White, abusively <i>kept</i> in a formidably lavish lair... and then his penultimate Oscar-nominated BEING THERE as an endearingly offbeat nobody...</p><p><span></span></p>

arthouse, blackmail, counter-culture, crime, david lodge, drama, jeremy bulloch, peter sellers, seventies, sinéad cusack

PETER SELLERS AS THE OFFBEAT 'HOFFMAN' WITH SINÉAD CUSACK

Title: HOFFMAN Year: 1970 Rating: *** In the deliberately bizarre, stage-play-like, counter-culture-era HOFFMAN, Peter Sellers portrays the ...

JANE ASHER HYPNOTICALLY DIVES INTO THE CURIO OF 'DEEP END'

<p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJqsh6-Kzl6k6IajEEjz3Aini8IEl865Y7UiFlRKfF6R0GTCDKzW6er28VaYWl1NbN36wVvOYFEPjsgyyjzJueEASMpNpgWHdIctwhJJfa81KI4Sg8wjuJQKK9xNwLnsfOAAhRPRPXE47XBc-lntBeauCCOLeuLFkv8aLfyOPVx1URn5LaQ3E498V6fzfP/s2058/1%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1312" data-original-width="2058" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJqsh6-Kzl6k6IajEEjz3Aini8IEl865Y7UiFlRKfF6R0GTCDKzW6er28VaYWl1NbN36wVvOYFEPjsgyyjzJueEASMpNpgWHdIctwhJJfa81KI4Sg8wjuJQKK9xNwLnsfOAAhRPRPXE47XBc-lntBeauCCOLeuLFkv8aLfyOPVx1URn5LaQ3E498V6fzfP/s16000/1%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Jane Asher in DEEP END Year: 1971 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Had a more genuinely expressive, professionally-trained young actor starred in Jerzy Skolimowski's DEEP END, about virginal fifteen-year-old John Moulder-Brown working at a fictional English town's Newford Baths, this half British/half German production would be far less an exploitive art-piece and more a PEEPING TOM, TWISTED NERVE or PSYCHO style thriller — but then Jane Asher wouldn't be nearly as important...</p><p></p><p></p><p>She's a glib and worldly, experienced and extremely flirtatious bathhouse employee who shows the new kid around: in one scene failing what seems a rudimentary seduction after he timidly dodges an aggressive (and older) Diana Dors — this is obviously a place to heat-up more than cool-down... </p><span></span>

arthouse, cult, diana dors, drama, exploitation, jane asher, john moulder-brown, seventies

JANE ASHER HYPNOTICALLY DIVES INTO THE CURIO OF 'DEEP END'

Jane Asher in DEEP END Year: 1971 Rating: ***1/2 Had a more genuinely expressive, professionally-trained young actor starred in Jerzy Skolim...

JACK NICHOLSON DRIVES 'THE PASSENGER' WITH IAN HENDRY

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsawegnt2bdIasdQXVRoYby0CXk1J94aP4_bsIWCgwCe_wlBbmKM6OmrNLK8RUhEsdnky-uYXnbiD02ONpC4fPlJ4ZSWqGZHdlU0_bJW1ocaqkBMmEWYzRm65hV-jLbiGL1NC5JytbSoWdz5Alz6cpjxeYGFZzSw96c-_XqgEnJcJuIVEu-0W0D6dikQ/s1184/Screen%20Shot%202023-05-15%20at%208.04.03%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="627" data-original-width="1184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsawegnt2bdIasdQXVRoYby0CXk1J94aP4_bsIWCgwCe_wlBbmKM6OmrNLK8RUhEsdnky-uYXnbiD02ONpC4fPlJ4ZSWqGZHdlU0_bJW1ocaqkBMmEWYzRm65hV-jLbiGL1NC5JytbSoWdz5Alz6cpjxeYGFZzSw96c-_XqgEnJcJuIVEu-0W0D6dikQ/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202023-05-15%20at%208.04.03%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Jack Nicholson in Michelangelo Antonioni's THE PASSENGER Year: 1975 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>For a legendary arthouse director inclined to create more character than plot-driven films, BLOW-UP auteur Michelangelo Antonioni's THE PASSENGER is almost entirely plot — heavily built into the main character... </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>After Jack Nicholson — as a reporter originally named Locke — takes the identity of a dead arms-dealing doppelganger, he goes from scorched Algerian desert terrain into various European locations tailed by shady businessmen, separated-wife Jenny Runacre and BBC producer-boss Ian Hendry... all clinging to the secret-identity device that, while panning-out in a slow-burn, ambiguous manner, is more primary than parenthetical... <br></p><p><span></span></p>

arthouse, desert, europe, ian hendry, indie, jack nicholson, jenny runacre, maria schneider, michelangelo antonioni, neo noir, romance, steven berkoff, thriller

JACK NICHOLSON DRIVES 'THE PASSENGER' WITH IAN HENDRY

Jack Nicholson in Michelangelo Antonioni's THE PASSENGER Year: 1975 Rating: ***1/2 For a legendary arthouse director inclined to create ...

REVIEW OF 'NIGHT TIDE' WITH DENNIS HOPPER & LINDA LAWSON

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHf2Vmnzr_8t0Amyq5v0hLx0sts6bmmWT2ihr85N6wt6tiyGzltRY4Z9n6o2z3Az11pBs8rXcKe5ihceXNasECIxW1IX32i36ByM3V9RLE5NnsSf-YyzXX2krPD6h0bmErkTVoJvNIw1yi9zbgsUF9Ad3t-QueO12VgIjO5tVQJBtmWO_zVdtuoqyxJ7eH/s1824/361299165_1767949773634191_2885771630620816365_n%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1215" data-original-width="1824" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHf2Vmnzr_8t0Amyq5v0hLx0sts6bmmWT2ihr85N6wt6tiyGzltRY4Z9n6o2z3Az11pBs8rXcKe5ihceXNasECIxW1IX32i36ByM3V9RLE5NnsSf-YyzXX2krPD6h0bmErkTVoJvNIw1yi9zbgsUF9Ad3t-QueO12VgIjO5tVQJBtmWO_zVdtuoqyxJ7eH/s16000/361299165_1767949773634191_2885771630620816365_n%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Curtis Harrington's NIGHT TIDE Year: 1961 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Many early-1960's films had a million dissolves, and didn't always know where they were going. But this low-budget arthouse knows exactly what it is, even if the audience is never quite sure: Taking place in the early, sparse days of Venice Beach, California, a sailor meets an exotic woman who works at a carnival as a mermaid... and a few men she's dated have turned/washed up dead...<br> <br> A young cherubic-faced Dennis Hopper is fun to watch as the gullible love-sick sailor. He won't listen to all the warning about her track record. Let's face it, the guy is <i>hooked</i>... And it's nice seeing Hopper as a normal person, not a burn-out, weirdo or psychopath, in a movie with gorgeous B&W cinematography and a jazz score, and club...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><span></span>

arthouse, curtis harrington, dennis hopper, indie, jazz-score, linda lawson, luana anders, mystery, romance, sixties, thriller

REVIEW OF 'NIGHT TIDE' WITH DENNIS HOPPER & LINDA LAWSON

Curtis Harrington's NIGHT TIDE Year: 1961 Rating: ***1/2 Many early-1960's films had a million dissolves, and didn't always kno...

HARVEY KEITEL AND ROMY SCHNEIDER IN 'DEATH WATCH'

<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmqjJRNvmXnWgdxdqJO6WsfKU7E0O5mgJYGP2QSbUbHMMONmuh0SSSGvcWJMjvi5p4Oo96k73qrF1YoRmzdDJuysp2B4Bzng0b9Avo8NaHocs4SQConsHIGSbU1XMN16ocLj2dwP9vb69dBjR9xJODzl40txOWS-TkPoKwQr4LIbzIJiZKYKSlBs3JtQ/s1915/1.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="988" data-original-width="1915" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmqjJRNvmXnWgdxdqJO6WsfKU7E0O5mgJYGP2QSbUbHMMONmuh0SSSGvcWJMjvi5p4Oo96k73qrF1YoRmzdDJuysp2B4Bzng0b9Avo8NaHocs4SQConsHIGSbU1XMN16ocLj2dwP9vb69dBjR9xJODzl40txOWS-TkPoKwQr4LIbzIJiZKYKSlBs3JtQ/s16000/1.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: DEATH WATCH aka </u><u>LA MORT EN DIRECT aka DER GEKAUFTE TOD Year: 1980 Rating: ***</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>An intense firebrand of a crime-genre actor playing against type during the 1970's Renaissance opposite a beautiful dying European woman is reminiscent of BOBBY DEERFIELD, where Al Pacino put the breaks on his otherwise aggressive persona as a subdued race car driver driving around with doomed Martha Keller, and Harvey Keitel opposite Romy Schneider will seem like deja vu, only it's science-fiction along with romantic melodrama...</p><p></p><p>Both elements coexisting in a not so futuristic-looking future where people rarely die of diseases, and a television series called DEATH WATCH does what THE TRUMAN SHOW would later... </p><p><span></span></p>

arthouse, disease, french, future, harry dean stanton, harvey keitel, max von sydow, melodrama, road movie, romance, romy schneider, science-fiction

HARVEY KEITEL AND ROMY SCHNEIDER IN 'DEATH WATCH'

Title: DEATH WATCH aka LA MORT EN DIRECT aka DER GEKAUFTE TOD Year: 1980 Rating: *** An intense firebrand of a crime-genre actor playing aga...

JEANNE MOREAU AND STANLEY BAKER IN JOSEPH LOSEY'S 'EVA'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz2d-VoasZzq8G0jp-mP2v4vAPrIPBamboeajPsYml50CfB7TxGa1ezspYYPmKDRfHrNBxsm7srndaiBGHOAn3t_i0ovOh7Unr58Gpc9GJoIHbxG_-eAh-BnV0DunJn4WLXxPq9gBVSy2VcZz6dbrcS0NXwTaUuXDgiYH4FBoWtKhzuoa0iK7tyT1njlZx/s1664/Screen%20Shot%202025-06-09%20at%204.45.55%20PM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="886" data-original-width="1664" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz2d-VoasZzq8G0jp-mP2v4vAPrIPBamboeajPsYml50CfB7TxGa1ezspYYPmKDRfHrNBxsm7srndaiBGHOAn3t_i0ovOh7Unr58Gpc9GJoIHbxG_-eAh-BnV0DunJn4WLXxPq9gBVSy2VcZz6dbrcS0NXwTaUuXDgiYH4FBoWtKhzuoa0iK7tyT1njlZx/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-06-09%20at%204.45.55%20PM.png"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: EVA Director: Joseph Losey Year: 1962 Rating: ***</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>The only person more entranced by the spontaneous beauty of Jeanne Moreau's titular EVA than a smitten Stanley Baker is director Joseph Losey, who created a Moreau Valentine set in Venice on the outskirts of the Cannes Film Festival as Baker's newly-famous, working-class writer Tyvian Jones can't get enough from the very minute she crashes his rented villa... </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>He's a boisterous, womanizing fluke of an author and she's a visually artistic muse, captured by Losey's camera-creative style (following Baker perpetually following Moreau) inspired by the French New Wave yet also coinciding with his own same-year's British thriller <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2021/12/TATDamned.html">THESE ARE THE DAMNED</a>... <br></p><p><span></span></p>

arthouse, british, jeanne moreau, joseph losey, stanley baker, virna lisi

JEANNE MOREAU AND STANLEY BAKER IN JOSEPH LOSEY'S 'EVA'

Title: EVA Director: Joseph Losey Year: 1962 Rating: *** The only person more entranced by the spontaneous beauty of Jeanne Moreau's ti...

ELIZABETH TAYLOR IN AN ARTHOUSE RIDE FOR 'THE DRIVER'S SEAT'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi_SCnYcip5Lz2hcUlLFy2ac2SaXfmW-C6Y_HvtkjVxvlpX4OzbvgjwrGtcNdtXQIizY6ZyYOK6xbWqRsxLI85KfjXtpmzGV3ET6Gh8FJpktHngru3cwBCGcAgt_U7LE94WlDrPt40vJ5-WjnAY2FaqkTUWud44aO0hKPqctO6E6WY5lT4r37Q9EF04Aw=s1918" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="909" data-original-width="1918" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi_SCnYcip5Lz2hcUlLFy2ac2SaXfmW-C6Y_HvtkjVxvlpX4OzbvgjwrGtcNdtXQIizY6ZyYOK6xbWqRsxLI85KfjXtpmzGV3ET6Gh8FJpktHngru3cwBCGcAgt_U7LE94WlDrPt40vJ5-WjnAY2FaqkTUWud44aO0hKPqctO6E6WY5lT4r37Q9EF04Aw=s16000"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: THE DRIVER'S SEAT aka IDENTIKIT Year: 1974 Rating: ***1/2 </u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Since this Italian-shot art film... looking science-fiction futuristic with hypnotic phosphorescent interiors from an ominous airport to a vibrant shopping mall... stars screen legend Elizabeth Taylor, it's considered an utter travesty...<br></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Yet THE DRIVER'S SEAT is actually a unique, sparse yet hallucinatory neo noir in which the central plot's completely spoiled from the online description all the way back to the back of the VHS tapes: <i>A woman travels through Italy to find someone to kill her</i>... But are we really supposed to know that?</p><p><span></span></p>

arthouse, dino mele, elizabeth taylor, ian bannen, import, italian, mona washburn, neo noir, seventies

ELIZABETH TAYLOR IN AN ARTHOUSE RIDE FOR 'THE DRIVER'S SEAT'

Title: THE DRIVER'S SEAT aka IDENTIKIT Year: 1974 Rating: ***1/2 Since this Italian-shot art film... looking science-fiction futuristic ...

ESSAY ON FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA'S ARTSY-TOUGH 'RUMBLE FISH'

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg57xzOzFbA_vCjJAIFw1yXK2s0KuwHr2nB3lmJ1tNlSqxMcYsp8gk1idj7XtnvSgKbIFWKvfyl_FrF-ux1jGkbftMINLJv5IupocWnPOlByv7QUpuIKPzLBk4Xb5GusDCPTKnBZlndf3Ha/s1600/117231461_1037755393320303_6396216417352977145_n+2.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="435" data-original-width="553" height="314" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg57xzOzFbA_vCjJAIFw1yXK2s0KuwHr2nB3lmJ1tNlSqxMcYsp8gk1idj7XtnvSgKbIFWKvfyl_FrF-ux1jGkbftMINLJv5IupocWnPOlByv7QUpuIKPzLBk4Xb5GusDCPTKnBZlndf3Ha/s400/117231461_1037755393320303_6396216417352977145_n+2.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Matt Dillon and Mickey Rourke doing time in RUMBLE FISH</u></td></tr> </tbody></table><p> Beyond the dynamic B&W cinematography by director Francis Ford Coppola, RUMBLE FISH is a different kind of art film as it's both that and a teenage angst flick: The difference is that both main characters... younger brother Rusty James played by Matt Dillon and Mickey Rourke's legendary The Motorcycle Boy... want nothing to do with one or the other... <br> <br> In other words, the rumble-tough movie is fully embodied by Matt Dillon's character, who walks the walk and talks the tough guy talk while his now passive mentor, who once genuinely ruled those same streets, is dead-set against all the nostalgic street savvy shit while embodying the deep arthouse aspect which, during some of the best scenes, Dillon's character not only loathes but annoyingly doesn't understand (especially drunk dad Dennis Hopper's surreal drunken rambling), much like young audiences who initially rejected what Coppola intended as an "art film for teenagers" (a cerebral b-side to THE OUTSIDERS, both S.E. Hinton adaptations) but eventually grew to, like Rourke's wandering, pondering nomad, embrace as a one-of-a-kind cinematic experience where brothers and genres simultaneously collide onscreen. "Man, what the f--- do the Greeks have to do with anything?" The answer is... Nothing. And Everything.</p><span></span>

arthouse, dennis hopper, eighties, essay, francis ford coppola, matt dillon, mickey rourke

ESSAY ON FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA'S ARTSY-TOUGH 'RUMBLE FISH'

Matt Dillon and Mickey Rourke doing time in RUMBLE FISH Beyond the dynamic B&W cinematography by director Francis Ford Coppola, RUMB...

JACK NICHOLSON 'THE KING OF MARVIN GARDENS' BRUCE DERN

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkEM-zVMB89sc_7TmeDqIvqQ9m2rtwmfY1fs53Xy5z9e49AlaH_OrwCgdumwlUDeU1_lkzx1wLIUguhcELz7iswHOAyeI9ni8ASq5HfjTr5K6FIv8mnhbSk0bfJ85ct36haqsew3HuUu7X/s1600/Screen+Shot+2020-07-28+at+5.05.59+AM.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="730" data-original-width="1075" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkEM-zVMB89sc_7TmeDqIvqQ9m2rtwmfY1fs53Xy5z9e49AlaH_OrwCgdumwlUDeU1_lkzx1wLIUguhcELz7iswHOAyeI9ni8ASq5HfjTr5K6FIv8mnhbSk0bfJ85ct36haqsew3HuUu7X/s400/Screen+Shot+2020-07-28+at+5.05.59+AM.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Jack Nicholson in THE KING OF MARVIN GARDENS Year: 1972</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> Who knows, maybe directors never really outgrow their primal, rudimentary, symbolic, allegorical, idealistically pretentious, metaphysical, narcissistic, nostalgic mindset of film school...<br> <br> And in that, following what would forever remain their collaborative pinnacle, FIVE EASY PIECES director Bob Rafelson gave his close friend and future multi-collaborator Jack Nicholson a break from the (possible) stereotype of being the discontented, blunt, feisty rebel type, which he'd proven to be perfectly suited for: Then again, maybe he should have played Bruce Dern's conniving con-man older brother Jason Staebler, on the stumbling verge of an Atlantic City land deal with a few obstacles including a potentially dangerous kingpin and especially his women...<br>

arthouse, bob rafelson, bruce dern, drama, ellen burstyn, indie, jack nicholson, scatman crothers, seventies

JACK NICHOLSON 'THE KING OF MARVIN GARDENS' BRUCE DERN

Jack Nicholson in THE KING OF MARVIN GARDENS Year: 1972 Who knows, maybe directors never really outgrow their primal, rudimentary, sym...

NICOLAS CAGE & MATTHEW MODINE IN ALAN PARKER'S 'BIRDY'

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpcQDEXU6P5BSackhD_h0rYAuitsBysEKC7H5Ca-0T8RFjc3xVMxFybfjkjupkEjsULRqFw9IBnMW_tfU47fG-RjzMiD6xSMcBUk6eOaREbaUO2p9mmlf_4LJUOetyMJmiGYzt4ZsTiNAy/s1600/Screen%25252BShot%25252B2020-05-21%25252Bat%25252B8.18.01%25252BPM%25252B2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="920" data-original-width="1600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpcQDEXU6P5BSackhD_h0rYAuitsBysEKC7H5Ca-0T8RFjc3xVMxFybfjkjupkEjsULRqFw9IBnMW_tfU47fG-RjzMiD6xSMcBUk6eOaREbaUO2p9mmlf_4LJUOetyMJmiGYzt4ZsTiNAy/s1600/Screen%25252BShot%25252B2020-05-21%25252Bat%25252B8.18.01%25252BPM%25252B2.jpeg"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Nicolas Cage looking a hybrid of middle eighties and early sixties in Alan Parker's BIRDY Year: 1984 Rating: ****</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> Alan Parker was an inspired choice to direct a feature combining anti-war sentiment and tortured, surreal insanity having pulled off PINK FLOYD: THE WALL a few years before BIRDY...<br> <br> A neglected gem that, despite the title, centers equally on two "Philly Kids" Nicolas Cage as alpha male Al and passive Matthew Modine nicknamed BIRDY, living more in his mind (and with his bedroom birds) than on the outside, where Al revels in girls and muscular bravado...<br> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzEN-F1NvB2ZVDNM7gXxAR6lVCbAFsMyccrKgyfMMitrGkIA-5v8LvUAOSqmcq1UppguP7SyfzLCU8x7Dz1XvpLXLGXMQy0CMbxx1xiuSc6ZD5p6TJpo6bzvjnsgrIInLYhVoRFOBPwZ3B/s1600/Screen%252BShot%252B2020-05-21%252Bat%252B8.16.22%252BPM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="914" data-original-width="1600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzEN-F1NvB2ZVDNM7gXxAR6lVCbAFsMyccrKgyfMMitrGkIA-5v8LvUAOSqmcq1UppguP7SyfzLCU8x7Dz1XvpLXLGXMQy0CMbxx1xiuSc6ZD5p6TJpo6bzvjnsgrIInLYhVoRFOBPwZ3B/s1600/Screen%252BShot%252B2020-05-21%252Bat%252B8.16.22%252BPM.jpeg"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Nicolas Cage and title character Mathew Modine in the present story of BIRDY</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> Yet the frame story has a meek, post-war/face-bandaged Cage at a military psych-ward trying desperately to bring his friend back to reality: mostly by reminding him (and us) of their fairly recent high school era past... <br> <br> Modine, with lanky bird-like features to begin with, spends the present-time silently perched in locked quarters while Cage provides the hot and cold acting, which includes plenty of diatribes to sink his teeth into...<br>

alan parker, arthouse, buddy, coming-of-age, eighties, elizabeth whitcraft, matthew modine, nicolas cage, vietnam

NICOLAS CAGE & MATTHEW MODINE IN ALAN PARKER'S 'BIRDY'

Nicolas Cage looking a hybrid of middle eighties and early sixties in Alan Parker's BIRDY Year: 1984 Rating: **** Alan Parker was an...

SALLY FIELD IN HELLO MY NAME IS DORIS

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEO_2MxsAzl_Q0Ap_6dRBLzz3ODg1MUb3D0Xfubw5CsomIiin1FIXf6vl7ZvJUoKIoRgfcQEFBYJKHZwZsVEN-1K_YS-J_OsyZQD51sof1lki88OUUoR1H2wdsuEM0UpaHn9oGxl4d8l0/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEO_2MxsAzl_Q0Ap_6dRBLzz3ODg1MUb3D0Xfubw5CsomIiin1FIXf6vl7ZvJUoKIoRgfcQEFBYJKHZwZsVEN-1K_YS-J_OsyZQD51sof1lki88OUUoR1H2wdsuEM0UpaHn9oGxl4d8l0/s1600/1.jpg"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Sally Field returns to the romantic comedy genre but with a few dozen twists and turns... one being her age</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> Boy oh boy, man oh man, girl oh girl, old bag oh bag... Okay, not really... GIDGET'S FLYING NUN has gotten pretty old, but she doesn't look too bad, and for a chick-flick made for the elderly but trying hard for both the millennials and middle-aged, HELLO MY NAME IS DORIS, the title sounding like a melodrama about an alcoholic, is yet another big star in a relatively low-budget indie: Where Sally plays a frazzled, eccentric older lady working at... one of those jobs that never has a clear description yet for entertainment purposes, employees can walk around doing anything they want, as if they were drinking at CHEERS...<br>

arthouse, quirky, sally field

SALLY FIELD IN HELLO MY NAME IS DORIS

Sally Field returns to the romantic comedy genre but with a few dozen twists and turns... one being her age Boy oh boy, man oh man, girl...

MICHAEL KEATON STARRING IN BIRDMAN

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQMHh7dxg19wU6sHWQQdsGr0tvXS_UkYZQ0BPactK-cN7dAufMwiU0x9vGhUY5jYrG-65m21A8XdM8xO-bS3qwX3n3Dz7II4eN0xcBmZYTCGtd7uHPASFQ8wOoFwjNS-EBuIqJrbo8G2o/s1600/birdman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQMHh7dxg19wU6sHWQQdsGr0tvXS_UkYZQ0BPactK-cN7dAufMwiU0x9vGhUY5jYrG-65m21A8XdM8xO-bS3qwX3n3Dz7II4eN0xcBmZYTCGtd7uHPASFQ8wOoFwjNS-EBuIqJrbo8G2o/s400/birdman.jpg" width="243" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">year: 2014 rating: ***</td></tr> </tbody></table> Orson Welles, who opened TOUCH OF EVIL with a brilliant four-minute tracking shot without cuts (intentionally outdone by Robert Altman in THE PLAYER while Fred Ward mentions TOUCH OF EVIL), once noted that for directors, a scene without cuts separates the men from the boys. Well in this case, BIRDMAN filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu is Methuselah… <br /> <br /> The entire movie consists of several long sequences without the impression of any cuts... A prolonged single take allowing the actors to venture backstage and on stage of a Raymond Carver adaptation that Keaton’s Riggan Thomas... who once played a cinematic superhero named Birdman... is starring in to revamp a nostalgic career. <br /> <br /> As is completely obvious, Keaton’s casting is no accident… He was Batman in two films and Riggan was Birdman in three: And neither has broken any real ground since. But pop culture coincidence aside, BIRDMAN feels more like a John Cassavetes meets Darren Aronofsky impromptu piece, zigzagging through cathartic diatribes only to be hindered by distracting special effects.   <br /> <br /> Keaton does a good job whenever speaking his mind with a desperately primitive heart and soul. One particular scene as he lectures a snobby critic is topnotch. But there are moments where he seems to be going through the motions – yet these motions leap beyond any character he's ever played, which could be the intention all along. Even when BIRDMAN flies higher than necessary, there’s always something, and someone… including Edward Norton as a moody stage actor and Emma Stone as Riggan’s disgruntled daughter… to marvel at. But Keaton deserved a more subtle approach to be completely effective. In a canvas stretched beyond its own paint, our hero gets lost in the shuffle.

2014, arthouse, edward norton, emma stone, indie, michael keaton

MICHAEL KEATON STARRING IN BIRDMAN

year: 2014 rating: *** Orson Welles, who opened TOUCH OF EVIL with a brilliant four-minute tracking shot without cuts (intentionally out...

BEGINNERS

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEillVTmT0cp0v_6Y6zOtiX5jezVyLwgGsDflExKyvaFZe4HVvnwQY-YauAfCDLTXfrO-UWLBNW_pLPmGE_t-4L3Dj63kgfXsgeYq8IgfCO1N77NbIhv1xS7e21wHsAV74aiO9QLx0CuV_MQ/s1600/beginners-movie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEillVTmT0cp0v_6Y6zOtiX5jezVyLwgGsDflExKyvaFZe4HVvnwQY-YauAfCDLTXfrO-UWLBNW_pLPmGE_t-4L3Dj63kgfXsgeYq8IgfCO1N77NbIhv1xS7e21wHsAV74aiO9QLx0CuV_MQ/s200/beginners-movie.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><b>title: </b>BEGINNERS<br /> <b>year: </b>2011<br /> <b>cast: </b>Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer<br /> <b>rating: </b>** <br /> <br /> If Gus Van Sant directed Cameron Crowe’s SINGLES, you’d have BEGINNERS, or pieces of it: like whenever Ewan McGregor, as a brooding thirty-eight year old single artist whose dying father comes out of the closet, contemplates life: making up most of the screen time with an intoxicating art-house rhythm and a bouquet of devises (other than narration) to tell what the main character’s feeling… using photographs, graffiti, or a Jack Russell Terrier’s subtitles… but the ponderous navel-gazing gets tiresome. And while Christopher Plummer turns in a good performance as the dying man embracing his new gay lifestyle (although his own personal situation often branches off into a distracting propaganda), and Ewan McGregor maintains a dependable subtlety taking on a new horizon… consisting of a relationship with an artsy French girl more troubled than he is… they’re not interesting enough characters to make up for a nonexistent plot, which, being so obviously intentional by director Mike Ness, makes sense in its own unique fashion. It's just too bad the characters are too proverbially dressed up to be genuinely fleshed out, making for a visual pleasing but ultimately vacant experience. And yet, as vacant experiences go, this one has a heart beating, somewhere...

arthouse, christopher plummer, ewan mcgregor, indie, tens

BEGINNERS

title: BEGINNERS year: 2011 cast: Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer rating: ** If Gus Van Sant directed Cameron Crowe’s SINGLES, you’d...

GUINEVERE

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkqtiEVGd7zBbU3uS2qutxBZIWdjOJCZZ72GRr2AGX9p7EnrWpDGeMtUUXaO3MczSscL2ScH0jz_NDOv2fZXmA8MCMce2n-c5ydMbPmUW5AUsdf5-BcwyRAzepk78gZVytXBCh-Cz9sFW7/s1600/guinevere.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5698087620959316002" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkqtiEVGd7zBbU3uS2qutxBZIWdjOJCZZ72GRr2AGX9p7EnrWpDGeMtUUXaO3MczSscL2ScH0jz_NDOv2fZXmA8MCMce2n-c5ydMbPmUW5AUsdf5-BcwyRAzepk78gZVytXBCh-Cz9sFW7/s400/guinevere.jpg" style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 175px;" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">title:</span> GUINEVERE<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">year:</span> 1999<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">cast:</span> Sarah Polley, Stephen Rae, Jean Smart<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">rating: </span>***1/2<br /><br />At last, a LOLITA for modern audiences and not treated like your typical male fantasy. Stephen Rae, possessing a sly charm tucked within a tragic countenance, is perfect in the role as a struggling artist/photographer named Connie who takes in young female “students,” referring to them as Guinevere. Sarah Polley is Harper, a melancholy rich girl who lacks enthusiasm for life and especially art, until meeting the free-spirited photographer at her sister’s wedding. She needs guidance from an experienced mentor and most importantly, a place to crash, where she gets lessons in love and possibly becoming a future artist, contrary to what she considers a boring, mathematical lineage. Her uptight suburban family’s dissociated from the ineffectually hip city folk: especially the mother played by Jean Smart who – in one scene as she tears Connie apart in a viciously condescending monotone – practically steals the show. And although it’s not always apparent what Connie has over Harper and the string of former students, including Gina Gershon and Sandra Oh, and his health decline is a bit rushed towards the end, Rae plays the character so genuinely the flaws don’t matter: it’s a beautifully filmed character-study about life, love, art, and understanding where each one belongs.

arthouse, indy, jean smart, nineties, sarah polley, stephen rae, tani cohen

GUINEVERE

title: GUINEVERE year: 1999 cast: Sarah Polley, Stephen Rae, Jean Smart rating: ***1/2 At last, a LOLITA for modern audiences and not tre...