Reviews

This is the 4th version of A Star Is Born I've seen - 5th if you count What Price Hollywood - each version had a life of their own and reflected the times of the time in which it was made. The 2018 version is no exception. For me represented also the revelation of Lady Gaga as a phenomenal film presence. She is, quite simply, superb. Moving, powerful and real. Janet Gaynor had brought a form of overwhelming innocence, Judy Garland exploded in heartbreak in a Hollywood that doesn't exist anymore and she was, unquestionably, memorable. Barbara Streisand was tough with a strong sense of self even during her tribulations. Lady Gaga brings a little of each of them as well as something profoundly personal. Kudos to Bradley Cooper. His Norman Maine has a new name and a totally new presence. At times this version seems more about him than about her. In any case, I loved them both - Bravo!

It's often a strange experience to revisit a film that made a big splash decades earlier. I remember enjoying it enormously and enjoyed it enormously again last night but the reasons for the enjoyment have changed. The film as a film has remained solidly planted in 1983, specially the score but what will lead this film into the forever ever are the writing of course and the performances. Shirley MacLaine's truthfulness warts an all is a work of art. She is present one hundred per cent of the time and let's remember, Shirley MacLaine didn't start as an actress, she was a dancer who became a star thanks to a twist of fate and she has remained there as an example of honesty and courage ever since. Her Aurora in Terms Of Endearment is a monumental treat. Debra Winger's performance is a revolution of sorts. Every detail confirms and/or challenges our feelings for her but she's never less that one hundred per cent truthful. It's impossible not to love her even if she doesn't make it easy for you. Jack Nicholson is a terrific interference and every one of his moments have a pleasure of their own. So, a 35 year old movie with a teenager's heart.

Morris West's novel carries an element of prophecy but the film is far too heavy in every department to, ultimately, be taken seriously and yet you do. I did. Anthony Quinn is a credible Kiril, the priest who survived years in a Siberian prison to become Pope. There is enough humanity in Quinn to make that leap in our hearts and minds - that is a massive plus in favor of this huge super production - Laurence Olivier tries a new accent as the Russian premiere and okay but when the Chinese Chairman is played by Burt Kwouk - you know Kato in the Pink Panther movies - I had to readjust myself and start from scratch. Oskar Werner belongs to another movie altogether but he's wonderful as the priest questioning his faith. Vittorio de Sica and Leo McKern play two Cardinal/Politicians with saintly ambivalence but it is the soap opera outside the Vatican that drags the movie out of everywhere. David Janssen, famous then because TV's "The Fugitive" looks really uncomfortable. Alex North provides a respectful and resounding score. The long sequences about Vatican procedure are priceless and I will recommend it because here I am, weeks after I've seen it, thinking about it which means I've enjoyed it more than I should have. What a ridiculous thing to say, right? Right.

One spent so much time detesting Margaret Thatcher's policies and its consequences that one forgets she was a human being. Silly isn't it? Yes, but true. Now Meryl Streep, with all her powers, reminds us. Mrs Thatcher was a real person, a real woman and no matter how much we disagree with her, we cannot dismiss her. Meryl Streep makes sure of that. Her performance is an extraordinary piece of art and I have the feeling that it will grow in meaning and scope as time goes on. The humanity of the actress at the service of a political icon that thought that it didn't matter what people felt but what they thought as if the two were mutually exclusive. Thank you Meryl Streep, you've done something that my grandchilden's grandchildren will benefit from.

I've seen Oscar Wilde portrayed on film before. I remember Robert Morley and also Peter Finch. They both provided inklings into the heart and mind of of one of the literary giants of the 19th Century. But one aspect of the tragedy, because, let's face it, it is a tragedy. His relationship with Alfred Douglas that in a very direct way, will mark his destiny. It was so difficult to believe that Peter Finch's Wilde will go to war for someone like John Frazer's Bosie. Good looking yes but devoid of the most important element, if you are going to believe in the power that Bosie had over Wilde. Finch and Frazer have the sexual chemistry of two slices of white bread but here, in this 1997 Wilde with Stephen Fry in the title role the mystery is revealed, Jude Law makes the whole thing totally believable. The desire he inspires we see in Oscar Wilde's eyes. Stephen Fry is another Humbert Humbert to Jude Law's Lolita. Amazing when the most incomprehensible action becomes totally understandable in the face of an actor. That alone, makes this Wilde my favorite.

This review should start with a confession. I discarded Apartment Zero the first time I saw it, as an artsy-fartsy piece of slow nonsense. But I kept hearing about it over the years, about Colin Firth and Hart Bochner's performance, people quoted lines from the film and I, still loyal to my first impression, kept saying meh. I spent last weekend with some old friends I hadn't seen in years. The subject of Colin Firth came out and that lead to Apartment Zero and to an argument that ended in a challenge. My friends have an HD 70" LED TV and of course a DVD of Apartment Zero, the theatrical version with special features. I took the challenge and I sat through it. Well okay, I may have been too young when I first saw it because what I saw last Saturday night was totally new to me and it blew my mind! Yes it blew my mind. Even the slow start has that ominous sense of dread that grabs you and doesn't let you go. Looking at Colin Firth as Adrian, years after Pride and Prejudice and A Single Man is quite something in itself. He was then already a genius actor but, perhaps, unaware of it. There are details in the performance that are mesmerizing, so vivid so intimate. The real story of Adrian is all in Colin Firth's eyes. That throbbing heart buried somewhere deep, deep inside the man. And then, Hart Bochner and his performance is as in tune with Colin Firth as Abbot's was with Costello's. Spectacular, painful, funny. The rest of the cast is a Pandora's Box of hinted characters, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Miguel Ligero,Dora Bryan, Liz Smith, artists from all over the globe are the tenants of the building and identity is the theme. Of course I was too young when I first saw Apartment Zero. The score, a phenomenal mix of love, fear and tango. I intend to order it as I intend to watch Apartment Zero again, very soon. And a big lesson learned, now I'm going to watch Philippe de Brocca's King Of Hearts, another film I didn't care for the first time I saw it, but my friends seem to love. I let you know. Thank you Paul and Sarah PS: I've just found out that the director Martin Donovan was assistant to Luchino Visconti. That may explain a lot of things and how is it I didn't know that? Visconti is my hero.

I'm crazy about Alida Valli. I'd seen every film she's ever done except "The Paradine Case" until today that is. Today I met Mrs Paradine for the first time. Strangely enough it doesn't feel like Hitchcock it feels more like Carol Reed the director who gave her a major International hit with "The Third Man" a couple of years later. I fell in love with Alida Valli in the 1954 Luchino Visconti's tragic romantic epic "Senso". Now having seen "The Paradine Case" I see a glimpse of the woman in "Senso" where her actions, are also atrocious but govern by love. A love who will only lead to tragedy. Visconti showed us an Alida Valli that other than a great beauty was also a great actress. Hitchcock introduced her as VALLI in this film, a gimmick with very short legs. Here she plays the widow of a blind man that "allegedly" she killed. The casting of Gregory Peck is a major problem, maybe not for the box office in 1947, but it certainly detrimental to the suspension of disbelief, so needed in a thriller. Charles Laughton is superb in his few, short scenes. I wonder if Hitchcock himself was the inspiration for his role. A judge, a lascivious man with an roving eye for young pretty women. Ethel Barrymore plays his wife, to absolute perfection. Then, Louis Jourdan, beautiful of course, Charles Coburn, Ann Todd but, it is Alida Valli who gives this film that extra something. Considered a "minor" Hitchcock by most but not by me. 9/10