|
|
|||||||
|
||||||||
(Back to March)
APRIL...
Secret
Window 4.1.4 At the Movies April
2004
***
Secret Window.
Four Star. 1pm. Thu, 4.1.4. Entertaining enough, mainly for a good Johnny
Depp performance, plus a nice supporting cast: John
Turturro, Maria Bello, Timothy Hutton, Charles Dutton, Len Cariou. Tagline:
Some windows should never be opened. Plot Outline: A writer is accused of
plagiarism by a strange man, who then starts haunting him for "justice." Directed
by David Koepp. Screenplay by David Koepp based on the Stephen King novella
Four Past Midnight: Secret Window, Secret Garden. Produced by Gavin
Polone. Original Music by Philip Glass.
But never forget
(possible spoilers here), if it's a suspense film, and the hero has a dog,
that dog is going to be killed by the villian. And so will any private detective
that the hero hires to help him. I mean come on!
At imdb.
*** The Prince & Me. Kabuki 8. 2:30pm. Sat 4.3.4. Pg. Matinee $7. Aud #3. Ticket bought at 2:31pm. See my review at mediasharx.com here. *** The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. With Marnie. Castro. April 10, 2004. 7pm. Marnie was over and we were burning CDs, and I had the soundtrack to The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, and guess what, TUOC was playing this week at the Castro -- a new remastered print etc. So we went and got pizza and then saw the movie. I had, of course, seen the movie before. I liked it, seeing it again, but originally I had loved it. Marnie liked it. It was a musical, that was sung all the way through. Like Catherine Deneuve pulls up to get some gas and she's all sad because she's just run into her ex-love, and the gas station attendant sings "do you want regular or super" and she sings "I don't care" and he sings "but, do you want regular or super? Hello?" I'm paraphrasing. Totally good, unique, interesting movie. Mainly, this young girl falls in love with a mechanic. Her mom wants her to marry a guy with more money. Deneuve gets preggers by the mechanic. The mechanic is drafted and has to go to Algeria to war. When he comes back, Deneuve has married a rich guy and left Cherbourg. The guy doesn't shave for a while, nails a prostitute, then finally gets together with a different girl who always liked him. Marnie and I had an interesting talk after the movie. It might give too much away, but... I thought the guy was cool with his new wife, and kid, and not really still hung up on C. Deneuve, but she wasn't so sure. There was a moment at the very end (the part I remembered best from previously seeing the film -- the snow falling at the gas station -- quite beautiful!), where, one, I got teary eyed (I don't think Marnie noticed), and two (I bought the father being into his wife and kid, because of the way he played with his very young son in the snow as the camera pulled up and out -- I don't remember my father doing that, and if he had, who knows, maybe I wouldn't have to open myself up to internet surfers, and would have a real job, and a wife and two kids, and a house and garage and two cars, and sex every other Saturday (if I was nice), and not have to be in therapy and on anti-depressants, and constantly anxious and paranoid. Whatever. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg tagline: A film for all the young lovers of the world. Cast: Catherine Deneuve, Nino Castelnuovo, Anne Vernon, Marc Michel, Ellen Farner, Mireille Perrey, Jean Champion. Written and directed by Jacques Demy. Original Music by Michel Legrand. Cinematography by Jean Rabier. At imdb. Kill Bill 2 Right. Well, as you may recall, I somewhat surprisingly loved Kill Bill Vol 1 last year. I mean to say... Quentin Tarantino's best film is, of course, Jackie Brown. But Kill Bill Vol 1 is nearly as good as Pulp Fiction. Reservoir Dogs is, despite what some followers think, but an exercise in film techniques. That film has no heart, or soul. Joey Bishop's son, actor-writer-director Larry Bishop has a great role as Michael Madsen's boss. Michael Parks, who played a sheriff in Kill Bill Vol 1, here plays an 80-year-old Mexican -- Tarantino apparently loves Parks, dating back to Parks' debut film, Bus Riley's Back In Town (1965). Tarantino recently had control over Trio's programming for a day and he showed that film, as well as some Alfred Hitchcock Presents episodes, etc. Parks played Texas Ranger/Sheriff Earl McGraw in From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), as well as Kill Bill Vol 1. Tarantino co-wrote, co-produced, and acted in From Dusk Till Dawn. Parks also played Jean Renault on TV's Twin Peaks. Anyway, maybe it was over-hyped, my friend Pete freaked about how great it was, and how much better it was than the first -- as did Roger Ebert. And frankly, the first Bill left me more excited, like a "wow, this is filmmaking" attitude. Not that Bill 2 is much worse, or necessarily worse at all... but... ***** Saturday, April 17, 2004 I saw Bon Voyage at the Clay Theatre -- "Tightest Ship in the Fleet," it says on the ticket, whatever that means. 7pm. PG13. 4.17.4; $9.50. It was fun. Entertaining. Sort of a WWII comic adventure yarn. Like The 39 Steps maybe. That vein. Bon voyage (2003). Directed by Jean-Paul Rappeneau. Adaptation by Gilles Marchand, Jean-Paul Rappeneau, Julien Rappeneau, J?r?me Tonnerre, from the Patrick Modiano story IMDb's: Plot Outline: An actress, a writer, a student, and a government worker band together in an effort to escape Paris as the Nazis move into the city... Cast: Well, if you're older than my dad -- you're a pretty old dude. And writer-director Jean-Paul Rappeneau is two years older than my dad. As director, his two previous films were The Horseman on the Roof (1995) and Cyrano de Bergerac (1990) -- both featuring G?rard Depardieu -- as does Bon Voyage. This is a fun, "old-fashioned" comic war-time adventure. Great cast includes Isabelle Adjani (Queen Margot, Subway, Nosferatu), G?rard Depardieu (Loulou, Vincent, Fran?ois, Paul and the Others), Virginie Ledoyen (8 Women, Late August, Early September, A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries, Jeanne and the Perfect Guy, La C?r?monie, A Single Girl), Yvan Attal (And Now... Ladies and Gentlemen, My Wife Is an Actress), Gr?gori Derang?re (Pas de scandale), Peter Coyote (E.T., Bitter Moon), Jean-Marc Stehl? (Queen Margot), and Aurore Cl?ment (Apocalypse Now Redux, Trouble Every Day). ***** Taking Off. Castro. Part of the SFIFF. Sunday, April 18, 2004. God! Remember last year at this time? Of course we do. I was just getting into my first ever, what I like to call -- what pretty much everyone calls -- "relationship." It was also just before Amy and Cobb, and Jenny moved away. Yes, three of my closest friends moved away last year. Four: Tim moved to Atlanta. And now, the remaining friends are going. Five more: Hannah, Maya, Marnie, Patricia, Aaron. Speaking of Hannah, it is with her that I saw Taking Off. Great good times. Hannah's great. She's really the best. Can't think of anyone better. Taking Off (1971). 3:30 PM. Milos Forman?s American debut hilariously captures the absurdity of American hypocrisy circa 1971. Buttoned-down suburbanite Buck Henry searches for his daughter in a dropped-out, doped-up Greenwich Village, encountering marijuana, free love and folk songs . . . and liking it. (1971) 93m. Writing credits: Jean-Claude Carri?re, Milos Forman, John Guare, John Klein. Cast: Genre: Comedy / Drama / Music; Plot Summary: Unable to deal with her parents, Jeannie Tyne runs away from home. Larry and Lyne Tyne search for her... Runtime: 93 min. ***** After You (Apr?s vous). Directed by Pierre Salvadori. With Hannah, Patricia, Aaron, Talia. An attentive waiter who?s trained to fix any problem aims his well-pressed tuxedo towards mending a suicidal man?s life in this elegant French comedy, featuring a talented core of actors including Daniel Auteuil, Jos? Garc?a and Sandrine Kiberlain. Maitre d? of a Parisian restaurant, Antoine loves serving people and tackling any problem that arises, even saving a stranger?s life during a suicide attempt. The stranger, Louis, soon finds that Antoine won?t stop at saving his life, but hopes to fix it entirely. Unfortunately, poor Louis doesn?t want Antoine?s help or his offers of a new job?he just wants his old girlfriend Blanche back, or, failing that, to die. Believing any problem can be solved, Antoine rushes to meet Blanche, but his reserved waiter?s outlook suddenly becomes a bit messier once he meets the (rather stunning) woman. The Film Society of Lincoln Center writes, ?A dream pairing of two of France?s top comic actors, Auteuil and Garc?a, After You is an often hilarious look at the rituals of male bonding in some of the most extreme kind of circumstances." Presented in association with the French Cultural Services, Consulate General of France in San Francisco and the French-American Cultural Foundation. Show Time: 4/22 KAB 9:30 AFTE22K. Country: France; Year: 2003; Run Time: 110 minutes; Cast: Daniel Auteuil, Marilyne Canto, Jos? Garc?a, Sandrine Kiberlain, Mich?le Moretti; Producer: Philippe Martin; Editor: Isabelle Devinck; Music: Camille Bazbaz; Cinematographer: Gilles Henry; Screenwriter: Pierre Salvadori, Benoit Graffin. ***** Man on Fire. 3:45pm. Friday 4/23/4. Matinee $7. Bought ticket at 3:36. See my review here. ***** La Vie Promise. 7:15pm. Opera Plaza Cinemas. 4.25.4. $9.25. With Marnie. First Isabelle Huppert film in a long time; something of a disappointment. Although I had a great time with Marnie. Pre-movie, we went to that park, over by Fillmore and Clay. We also got some type of iced coffees as a coffee place on Fillmore.
|
