Film Reviews by Mr Aquarium

This French film is a mix of Buster Keaton and Monsieur Hulot; a dotty, often very physical comedy. Silly in the best sense of the word; visually inventive, slapsticky but also nudging on serious threats to characters' well-beings [to explain that more would be a plot-spoiler]. Abel and Gordon's other films are also worth pursuing, such as "Lost in Paris".

This should be an engaging film, and critics at the time liked it; Radio Times still gives it 4 stars - "superb comedy". Despite the great cast, however, it somehow doesn't really take off. The lead actor's penchant for underage girls no longer seems a funny quirk in the age of Jeffrey Epstein, and there's something too male about the tone of the film, despite the quite appealing performances of the female actors. As with some of David Mamet's other films, the script isn't quite as clever as [you feel] he thinks it is.

Many of the reviews below are spot-on, especially PD's comments. The acting is superb, giving the film a documentary feel at times. There are only two moments of "comedy", albeit of a black kind. The film uses the central drama [of a dogged farmer fighting against a co-op which has fallen into authoritarian ways]to show Icelandic farm life as tough and unyielding. It's not in the same dramatic league as "Rams" [it's somehow a little too straightforward] but it did keep my attention, wanting to know what would happen next.

It's b&w, subtitled, over 3 hours long, set in the Paris of the long-distant 1840s, and although there is a duel, a murder, and physical assaults, these dramatic actions are [mostly] off-stage. If you can accept this, you'll find a romantic tale of a working-class woman, Garrance, who has four very different men in her orbit. She is, like the actor who played her [Arletty] determined to live fully but retain her independence. The film revels in the details of Parisian theatrical life and is wonderfully restored, the original prints having suffered over the years. It's a mature, perceptive film that is about the difficulty of being true to yourself. It benefits from being taken seriously; when I saw it at our local cinema club, there was an interval. This disc I saw over two evenings. Sorry if this makes it sound a bit heavy, which it's not; it's full of life and creates a convincing picture of 1840s Paris, especially the "Boulevard de Crime". You could call it Dickensian, except that it's much more honest about passion than Dickens ever was.

Some of the extras are very illuminating about the making of the film, and its actors.

Slow in a perceptive way; don't expect ragingly-unrealistic drama. Instead, you get a wonderful recreation of 1950s east-coast USA, superb performances and an even-handed dealing. Thus, for example, the wounded husband is not a cardboard villain, but more clumsy and baffled than nasty. The film is pleasingly true to the novel's refusal to be [ultimately] gloomy about same-sex love. But be warned! This will be too slow for many contemporary tastes...

Beguiling love song to Paris, the silliness of lovers, harmless pleasures, well-travelled garden gnomes. The reviews of CP Customer and JD sum it up well; "wise, funny and wonderful" & "a gem".

More than a gay farce; it's also about a crisis in the partnership of a long-established couple, played for humour and for sympathy. The gay people here are not milked for jokes at the expense of them not being straight - they're the decent heart of the movie. It's straight society's expectations which create the action; there's a Minister of Moral Standards [think Mary Whitehouse crossed with Michael Gove]. Inventive and, at the time, for a British and US film culture something different. As with much comedy, you'll either tune into it or find it leaves you just bemused.

Daring to base a comedy on past New England witch-burning, but this somehow gets the tone right. The action, mainly set in contemporary 1940s New England, is witty and farcicial, and the tight pace rarely drops. "Bizarre but beguiling" one critic wrote at the time of the film's release, which I think is spot-on. For the time, the special effects are very good. Its French director, Rene Clair, is an interesting figure from the start of French film-making, and his surviving films are worth pursuing if you have an interest in Gallic movies. There's a surreal undertone to much of his work, which comes across in this film.

I would've given this 4 stars, but this particular DVD seems to have been reproduced from an creakily ancient copy of the film. It badly needs someone somewhere to unearth a good negative and restore this film to its original glory.

Gritty biopic of Loretta Lynn; her tough early upbringing and too-young marriage are shown sympathetically but with a realistic edge. The poor people of the Appalchian coalmining country are given their due by strong supporting actors, and Sissy Spacek and Tommy Lee Jones are convincing leads, always holding attention. If you like country & western, this is one of the best biopics; even if you don't, her story still resonates.

As good a Patricia Highsmith crime novel adaptation as Hitchcock's "Strangers on a Train" or her sapphic novel adaption, Todd Haynes' "Carol".

The cast in this film is superb, [the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman's character is wonderfully odious] as are the twists, and the sense of time and place. So good is the sense of time and place, that the film really benefits from Blu-Ray and an ace TV.

Truffaut's last film is in that difficult genre, the comedy crime thriller. The film is interesting in that Fanny Ardant is the key protagonist, trying to solve the mystery, rather than the male suspect, and she's very watchable. However, the beginning of the film, when the first murder happens, is meant to mislead us, but does so in a way which, in retrospect, is rather unfair.

The tone doesn't quite work; the black and white filming evokes film noir and metaphorical darkness, but the occasional attempts at humour jar rather than amuse. In addition, the relationship between Fanny Ardant and the chief suspect, Jean-Louis Trintignant, never quite convinces.

Nonetheless, it's worth watching if you're a Truffaut devotee, or an admirer of the strong presence of Fanny Ardant.

On the surface, and to begin with, this film is about the dryly-humorous clash of Swedish efficiency with rustic Norwegian ways. As the film develops, it reveals itself to be about relationships and, especially, that of lonely men. Lovely performances, wonderful period details; a slow but gradually engrossing film. Worth seeing for the silent Swedish observer's stepladder in the kitchen corner.

Warning: If you haven't already done so, don't read the Cinema Paradiso Review unless you want more-or-less the whole plot revealed - it badly needs a spoiler alert! In addition, its final verdict is rather harsh.

An apparently perfect Danish couple come, one winter, to stay in a snowy Norwegian village. Opposite is a Norwegian couple, the wife being rather gushingly innocent - at least to begin with. Of course, things unravel, as all are hiding secrets, fears and hopes. Excellent performances, even from the children. The mix of humour and revelations is handled well.

It's old, black and white, and some of the accents are [as was often the way in British pre-1960s films] rather la-di-dah. However, the film is tightly scripted and is an interesting mix of the psychological and the - perhaps - supernatural. One of the pleasing aspects of this film is that it's socially subversive, almost as a casual by-product of the script. At several points, hard-working and endangered workers are contrasted with the hedonistic rich; very unexpected for a British film of the 1930s. Worth a look if you accept the usual limitations of films of this time.

This starts off as a feminist film - though not heavy-handed, by any means - and then shifts gradually into a crime thriller. If you can accept this shift, [and don't mind subtitles] it's worth seeing. The two main actors are very effective.