Monthly Archives: March 2023

Serie noire
Directed by Alain Corneau
Written by Georges Perec and Alain Corneau from a novel by Jim Thompson
1979/France
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental

“I told her the world was full of nice people. I’d have hated to try to prove it to her, but I said it, anyway.”
― Jim Thompson, A Hell of a Woman

This thought-provoking thriller made a big impact on me.

This is an adaptation of a Jim Thompson story called “A Hell of a Woman”. Thompson’s universe is a deep black one and this film certainly keeps the tone as every single character in it is corrupt.

I will not try to do a detailed summary of the complicated plot but basically it is about a weirdo salesman who tries to rescue a young girl from the clutches of her aunt who has forced her into prostitution. Our protagonist ultimately finds one murder must be followed by many others. WIth Patrick Dewaere as the salesman, Marie Trintignant as the teenage prostiute and Bernard Blier as the salesman’s boss.

This is a very good looking film and Dewaere is a phenomenon. He does many bizarre things with utter conviction. It’s a big performance that pushes at the margins of going over the top. I had to sleep on it before I decided whether I liked this enough to recommend and I do.

The Life of Brian
Directed by Terry Jones
Written by Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin
1979/UK
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Criterion Channel
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Reg: All right, but apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?

This film seems funnier every time I watch it.

Brian (Graham Chapman) was born in a stable in Bethlehem next to the one occupied by the Baby Jesus and his parents. His mother Mandy (Terry Jones) is a shrill old harridan. The three wise men (Chapman, John Cleese and Michael Palin) stop by the wrong stable first.

So begins a series of mistaken identities that get Brian in a heap of trouble. Along the way we get aquainted wth the inept People’s Front of Judea. Irreverent religious, political, and dirty jokes abound along with some general absurdity.

It takes me a while to get in the right head space for Monty Python but once I do I always laugh. Recommended.

Hair
Directed by Milos Forman
Written by Michael Weller based on the book for the Broadway musical by Gerome Ragni and James Rado
1979/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Chorus: [singing] Give me a head with hair, long beautiful hair, shining gleaming steaming flaxen waxen. Give me it down to there, hair, shoulder length or longer, here, baby, there, mamma, everywhere, daddy daddy hair! Flow it, show it, long as God can grow it, my hair!

I am perhaps too well acquainted with Hair the “American Tribal Love-Rock Musical” having seen it in the theater several times. One of my big thrills was getting to watch from backstage when my friend appeared in the play on Broadway. I know the songs by heart. So when the movie came out 10 years later, I didn’t like it much. A big part of this is that the story is changed. But now 25 years later I think that this film is excellent for what it is.

Berger (Treat Williams) is the leader of a group of free-loving free-thinking hippies in New York City. One day, the tribe meets Claude Hooper Bukowski (John Savage) in the park. Claude is a draftee who has arrived to see the sights in New York for a couple of days before leaving for Viet Nam. This sparks a superb rendition of “Aquarius”.

Claude falls for woman he sees horseback riding in the park with her ritzy friends. Berger decides to crash her family’s formal dinner party and sing “Ain’t Got No” while sliding down the table.

Berger’s second mission is to prevent Claude from going to Viet Nam. He does this is a very unexpected way.

I can’t deny that Forman staged this beautifully and the songs are timeless. One that particularly moved me was “Easy to Be Hard” as sung by Cheryl Barnes.