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Last weekend I watched L'Avventura, a relatively early Michelangelo Antonioni that helped define the French New Wave of the 60s. I've been wanted to see it for a long time but never got around to it.
Monica Vitti (who is gorgeous) plays the friend of a disaffected well-off young woman who disappears while with a bunch of friends (all seem to be wealthy) on an island in the Mediterranean. Vitti and the woman's boyfriend spend much of the movie searching for the woman, following clues because neither really believe she's dead. They two become lovers and life goes on. Black & white. Disaffection of the young rich? Ennui, existential boredom? The viewer never really gets under the surface of any of the characters, many of whom flirt, seduce, and are sometimes cruel to each other.
Bell, Book and Candle with James Stewart and Kim Novak made two years before L'Avventura and the same year Hitchcock cast them in Vertigo--made a strange contrast to the Antonioni. It's based on a stage play by John Van Druten and takes place in a Greenwich Village as imagined by Hollywood, with Novak as a "bohemian" who incidentally is a witch and sells ethnic masks for a living. Her goffy, mischievous aunt is played by Elsa Lanchester and her bongo playing brother is Jack Lemmon. The Novak character decides she wants Jimmy Stewart, her next door neighbor even though he's about to be married so with the aid of her familiar Pyewacket, she casts a spell on him. Fun, silly, and aggravating when at the end (spoiler, but was there any other conclusion) she wins the guy by falling in love, learning to cry, losing her magic, and becoming all girly. Pooh!
Tonight I watched Leon: The Professional for the third or maybe fourth time. Directed by Luc Bresson (which I never remember) but Jean Reno and Natalie Portman and Gary Oldman as a totally doped up psycho are all great. About a hit man in NYC who takes in a 12 year old after her family's wiped out. Good show. It was Portman's first full length movie and she's good vamping as Madonna and Marilyn Monroe to amuse Reno (who doesn't know who they are).
And because everyone recommended it, I watched On Her Majesty's Secret Service with George Lazenby, who is pretty stiff (in a bad way ;-)), Diana Rigg, and Telly Savalas. Wonderful ski and toboggan chases. I kept thinking how much better it would have been with ...oh ANY of the other Bonds. Oh well. Glad to have seen it-it's the only one I'd never seen.
Monica Vitti (who is gorgeous) plays the friend of a disaffected well-off young woman who disappears while with a bunch of friends (all seem to be wealthy) on an island in the Mediterranean. Vitti and the woman's boyfriend spend much of the movie searching for the woman, following clues because neither really believe she's dead. They two become lovers and life goes on. Black & white. Disaffection of the young rich? Ennui, existential boredom? The viewer never really gets under the surface of any of the characters, many of whom flirt, seduce, and are sometimes cruel to each other.
Bell, Book and Candle with James Stewart and Kim Novak made two years before L'Avventura and the same year Hitchcock cast them in Vertigo--made a strange contrast to the Antonioni. It's based on a stage play by John Van Druten and takes place in a Greenwich Village as imagined by Hollywood, with Novak as a "bohemian" who incidentally is a witch and sells ethnic masks for a living. Her goffy, mischievous aunt is played by Elsa Lanchester and her bongo playing brother is Jack Lemmon. The Novak character decides she wants Jimmy Stewart, her next door neighbor even though he's about to be married so with the aid of her familiar Pyewacket, she casts a spell on him. Fun, silly, and aggravating when at the end (spoiler, but was there any other conclusion) she wins the guy by falling in love, learning to cry, losing her magic, and becoming all girly. Pooh!
Tonight I watched Leon: The Professional for the third or maybe fourth time. Directed by Luc Bresson (which I never remember) but Jean Reno and Natalie Portman and Gary Oldman as a totally doped up psycho are all great. About a hit man in NYC who takes in a 12 year old after her family's wiped out. Good show. It was Portman's first full length movie and she's good vamping as Madonna and Marilyn Monroe to amuse Reno (who doesn't know who they are).
And because everyone recommended it, I watched On Her Majesty's Secret Service with George Lazenby, who is pretty stiff (in a bad way ;-)), Diana Rigg, and Telly Savalas. Wonderful ski and toboggan chases. I kept thinking how much better it would have been with ...oh ANY of the other Bonds. Oh well. Glad to have seen it-it's the only one I'd never seen.
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