Recent Viewings

More (1969). Directed by Barbet Schroeder. Last year, as I went through a pre-Darkside of the Moon Pink Floyd kick—a world of incredible music that I’d never explored very carefully until now—I found out about the Floyd’s soundtrack to a fairly obscure film called, simply, More. I loved the psychedelic sounds and grew interested in the film after reading a synopsis of it in the CD’s liner notes. It’s generally available now (I ordered it from Netflix) and I’m glad I saw it. A 60’s cautionary tale (I suppose) about the dangers of drug addiction, More tells us the story of a German youth who gets caught up with junkies and thieves in swinging London and then follows a gorgeous femme fatale (Mimsy Farmer--what a great name!) to Ibiza only to be drawn into the circle of a powerful drug dealer and fall under heroin’s spell himself. Though the plot is rather predictable and at times the acting seems amateurish and the dialogue dubbed (can that be Jenny Agutter's voice dubbed over Mimsy's? Naw...), the film is full of beautiful images and interesting music; the often gritty realism and honest depiction of drug use and addiction gets, if you'll pardon the expression, under your skin.

Quantum of Solace (2008). Directed by Marc Forster. What’s great about the Bond phenomenon is everyone has his or her own preferences and can claim expertise. Me? I’m a Connery man, especially the first four. After Thunderball? Meh, things get less and less interesting, culminating in some of the suckiest celluloid ever exposed: Moonraker. Timothy Dalton’s films had potential but each misfired, badly; Pierce Brosnan always seemed too pretty, but I liked him more as his face aged and creased (I’ve often thought his best turn as Bond was in The Thomas Crowne Affair). Weirdly, of all the post-Thunderball films, I think On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is probably the best. George Lazenby could have pulled it all off had he been in there before Connery. (Interesting alternative history thesis there…) But Connery set the character and was the only one to truly own it until Daniel Craig came on the scene in Casino Royale and, along with director Martin Campbell, and writers Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, and Paul Haggis, gave this tiredest of film franchises a blood transfusion. Quantum of Solace, the sequel to Casino Royale, is unfortunately rather inferior to its predecessor, but still probably better than anything from You Only Live Twice forward. Yes, the plot is a little awkward and hard to follow, the film rushes at break-neck speed, and you can count the number of times Craig smiles on one and a half fingers, but the re-imagined Bond still works for me—he’s more physical and resourceful than gadgety, more brutal than sauve and, ultimately, more cold bastard than horny one. But that’s the character I remember from the books: an assassin with a gambling habit and good taste in booze, women, and cars.

Little Fugitive (1953). Directed by Ray Ashley, Morris Engel, Ruth Orkin. God bless TMC for running Morris Engel films of late. I’d never seen this early indie and was fascinated by it: a 7 year-old who believes he has accidentally killed his 12 year-old brother in a shooting accident (a practical joke) spends a day and a half wandering Coney Island. The best thing about this film (among its many great qualities) is its documentation of the world of Coney Island in the 1950’s: the rides, the games, the beach goers, the boardwalks, the cotton candy, the cokes, the sun-burnt skin. It’s a great bit of Americana, processed through a neo-realist / cinema verite sensibility approximating Roberto Rossellini’s. See this! I've DVR'd Engel's other two films Lovers and Lollipops (1956) and Weddings and Babies (1958) and am eager to watch. TCM is also running two short docs, one about Engel and the other about his wife, the outstanding photographer Ruth Orkin. I've seen them both now and they're superb. I'll say it again, God bless TCM.

Ciao,

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