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OSS 117: Rio ne répond plus (2009)
Came for the music, stayed
I was searching for a movie about bossa nova and this came up! It is set in Rio in the '60s but there is not much bossa nova in it -- until one pay-dirt scene: a Nazi band playing "Girl From Ipanema" at a big party! And they do a fine job with it, surprisingly enough. For one thing, they actually play it in the key of the big hit version by Joao and Astrud Gilberto with Stan Getz -- Db! I know that sounds like a music-nerd thing to notice, and it is, but most jazz bands play it in F instead, and this really gives it a different and more authentic character. Impressive that a French film would get it right, apparently they hired Brazilian musicians instead of US studio players. Unfortunately we don't get to hear much of the song, as it gets interrupted by action, but it is a cool scene!
There also are a couple Dean Martin songs and one by Minnie Riperton in the soundtrack. I wouldn't recommend watching it just for the music, but that's what I did, and was somewhat entertained by the film besides.
It's a spy spoof that takes itself less seriously than Bond but more seriously than Austin Powers or Peter Sellers. Jean Dujardin is not really a comedian, but he's charming. The women are lovely, and the main one detests and usually outsmarts 117, although we know she's going to fall for him in the end. The scenery, clothes and plot twists also keep it interesting.
Let's Make It Legal (1951)
Strangely progressive and entertaining
The two main male characters are both pursuing and fighting over the older woman (Claudette Colbert) and ignoring the charms of the young bombshell (Marilyn Monroe)! Surely that is a progressive and unusual story line for 1951, maybe for any era. Colbert and the two men do fine work, and Monroe looks great and does a few funny physical bits in her small role (it is absurd that the DVD is promoted as a Marilyn Monroe movie). Great period costumes, decor and language, too. This is an entertaining, sometimes funny '50s film with a strangely progressive bent, a strong older-woman lead, and some interesting character quirks (how can you not love a guy whose passions are horse betting and rose cultivation), plus a Marilyn Monroe cameo.
The Blood of Jesus (1941)
A unique and fabulous film
Fabulous, in more than one sense of that word. A unique and wonderful film. Angels and other visions float in and out of a surreal Southern landscape. The acting is perfectly suited to what is clearly a director's film. The music includes lots of downhome spirituals, and some blues and jazz. The vaudeville scene, with that contortionist woman, is something else. The swing dancing in the jook joint also is terrific. The story is felt more than told. High artistry -- I might have to see it a few more times to really understand it. It also is marvelous to consider what Williams must have gone through to finance and make and promote and distribute this film. True art has a way of getting made and getting out there, somehow.