ABCs at the Movies: The Doubles Round!

[Fran]

From a newsgroup review at IMDb:

If nothing else, UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL will remind you just how hideous the hairstyles of the 1980's were, especially among media personalities. Fortunately, the film accomplishes a lot more than that, giving us a nice romance that isn't harmed too much by its attempts at melodrama.

UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL tells the "loosely based on reality" story of Sally (who becomes Tally) Atwater (Michelle Pfeiffer), a vain upstart girl from Reno who wants to make it big in television. Robert Redford costars as Warren Justice, a Miami news director who gives her her big break and takes her under his wing. Under his influence, Tally is transformed from brash loudmouth to The Next Big Thing, and of course, the two fall madly in love along the way.

With a smart script enhanced by some excellent comic relief, Pfeiffer and Redford work together with a good chemistry. And while there are a few substantial plot gaps as the film tries to do too much in too little time, the exciting climax set in the midst a prison riot makes up for any holes in the movie's continuity.

Still, this isn't NETWORK, and at times UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL really can't decide between being romantic comedy or a tough drama. This unfortunately creates some unevenness and a couple of false endings with a tacked-on tearjerker finale. The supporting cast is also uniformly bland, with Joe Mantegna's talents totally wasted and both Kate Nelligan and Stockard Channing looking very scary and beyond over-the-top as cutthroat "I'm so tough I eat men for breakfast" newswomen.

But there I go, nitpicking again. Altogether, UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL mostly works and only occasionally doesn't. It will certainly be successful as a pleasant spring romance flick with broad appeal, but most importantly, it's a whole lot of fun.

-- Christopher Null   

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Review
Rated by François Truffaut as one of the best films about the Nazi Occupation of France, L’Vieil homme et l'enfant marks a spectacular cinematic debut for the young film director Claude Berri, his first full-length film (and arguably his best film).  Drawing on his own wartime experiences, Berri skilfully narrates a warm and touching tale of friendship between an old man and a young boy, set in France during its darkest days of World War II.

It’s a simple, understated yet very effective film, genuinely poignant, strikingly naturalistic in style, and without any of the laboured sentimentality and artifice that would mar some of Berri’s later films.  Although it was made more than twenty years after the end of the war, it was the first French film to tackle the thorny issue anti-Semitism head-on, and it does so with extraordinary sensitivity and compassion, not to mention a certain amount of humour.   By showing us the absurdity of prejudice and bigotry from a child’s perspective, it stands as one of the most potent and engaging films about racism.

The film is also significant in that it afforded the legendary Michel Simon his first major film role in over a decade.   After an accident which left him partly crippled in the 1950s, the actor was reduced to playing bit parts for several years.  L’Vieil homme et l'enfant sees Simon's long-awaited return to form, in a part worthy of his talents and which won him the Best Actor award at the Berlin Film Festival in 1967.  Simon’s portrayal of the old man Pépé is one of his most memorable and heart-rending - in spite of the fact that our sympathy for his character is undercut by his racist utterances.  The on-screen rapport between the elderly Michel Simon and his adorable young co-star Alain Cohen is nothing less than pure magic.
© James Travers 2007

Short scene:
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2vqaE1Z4zM[/youtube]

[southendmd]

IMDb:  I had read this book before I actually saw the movie, and this was quite a long time ago. I thought both the book and the movie were just great. The scenery is magnificent and the characters are vivid and fleshed out. This is a story about a family of young kids who live in the mountains and the adversities they face. It is a beautiful story and one that I'd tell anyone to see. There's a Steel Magnolias touch to it(meaning you'll cry a lot!) but you'll also fall in love with these kids and the loveliness of the scenery. I rarely see this movie playing on television anymore and do not even know if the book is still in print but it is a truly lovely movie that should be a lot more known then it is and is a great movie to view.

=aside= Players
I'll be away for a week, going to where the movies bloom, i.e. the Provincetown Film Festival. 

[Shakesthecoffecan]

Where the Llies Bloom was filmed in the western most part of North Carolina, on the Tennessee boarder. My friend Marty was a kid at the time and saw the film crews, it was the biggest thing that had ever happened 'round them parts.

[Fran]

aka Hotaru no haka



From IMDb:

"September 21, 1945...That was the night I died."-- Seita

Reading war statistics and even seeing bloody images on television does not fully communicate the horror of war as well as the heartbreaking Grave of the Fireflies, an anime feature directed by Isao Takahata, a long-time colleague of Hayao Miyazaki. The film tells the story of two children, Seita, a 14-year-old boy and Setsuko, his 4-year old sister and their uphill struggle to survive the effects of American firebombing in Kobe near the end of World War II. Based on the semi-autobiographical novel of Akiyuki Nosaka, Grave is a powerful experience that powerfully communicates the strength of the human spirit to carry on against overwhelming odds.

Though despairing, the film does not resort to cheap melodrama to achieve its effect but delineates simple and direct images that are not watered-down to appeal to the children's market. It would indeed be too sad for most children under 13. In an interview with Cedric Littardi, AnimeLand magazine from 1992, Takahata said that he did not set out to depress the audience but to show a natural death, as opposed to a "scientific" death, the way most of us view it -- behind closed curtains in a sanitized hospital.

Takahata in some ways softens the impact of the tragedy at the outset by showing Seita dying outside a subway station and his spirit reunited with his little sister Setsuko. The story is told by flashback as the two children are left alone to fend for themselves when their mother is killed in the bombing campaign. When their father is also killed in the Navy, they must struggle against starvation, the cruelty of an aunt they trusted, people's general indifference, and their own pride. Though both children eventually succumb to malnutrition (or radiation poisoning), the animation is so lyrical that it creates a magical, dream-like effect. This does not mask the tragedy but makes it all the more poignant.

Nothing sums up the message of this film better than the beautiful poem, "I Come and Stand at Every Door" by Nazim Hikmat, one of the most important and influential figures in 20th-century Turkish literature.

I come and stand at every door,
But no one hears my silent tread.
I knock and yet remain unseen,
For I am dead, for I am dead.

I'm only seven although I died
In Hiroshima long ago.
I'm seven now as I was then.
When children die they do not grow.

My hair was scorched by swirling flame.
My eyes grew dim, my eyes grew blind.
Death came and turned my bones to dust,
And that was scattered by the wind.

I need no fruit, I need no rice.
I need no sweet, nor even bread.
I ask for nothing for myself.
For I am dead, for I am dead.

All that I ask is that for peace.
You fight today, you fight today.
So that the children of this world,
May live and grow and laugh and play.

[Fran]

From IMDb:

Excellent film that brought tears to my eyes more then once. It is a documentary of a boy who bravely fought cancer and won. Recommended. See it. You won't forget it.

[oilgun]

Not to be confused with DON'T MESS WITH THE ZOHAN 



From IMDb:  Based on real life story of Israely oriental singer Zohar Argov, who grew up in a poor family, became rich & famous but the drugs brought him down.

==COMMENT==
I don't know if it's a tearjerker but the story sounds pretty tragic, so it will have to do because we are running out of Z titles. 

==ASIDE==Paul
Have fun in P-Town.  Try to catch LA LEON if it is being screened, it's a gorgeous film and of course we'll want a full report... 

[Fran]

Love Stories!

                       

                       

[memento]

[oilgun]