Reviews

A suitably stiff performance from Bill 'Cardboard' Pullman, with his stapled on, excrement-eating smirk proves almost as irritating as Margaret Colin's Brooklyn accent ("Doivid, Doivid"), but fortunately help is at hand with excellent showings from Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum and the aliens who give far more realistic performances than Pullman. Some of the special effects are excellent, others (such as the cartoon style explosions) are atrocious, but it's a lot of fun from start to finish at any rate. Judd Hirsch is good as Goldblum's father, whilst Mary McDonnell's cheesy overacting wouldn't look out of place in one of DW Griffith's epics; she almost (but only almost) makes Pullman look good - maybe that's why some "schliemiel" dreamed up the idea of putting them together in the film.

It's a tie between this one and 'The Avengers'. None of the cast can act, the storyline is unoriginal and completely fails to get the spectator involved on an emotional level, the rugby sequences are useless... I could go on. Samantha Janus is awful, though she does take her clothes off which is worth a look, Neil Morrissey chews the scenery (if only he really did, then at least something would happen). It's this sort of tripe that makes you wonder how Morrissey/Janus/Jones could possibly make a career as actors. The leaden directing certainly doesn't do them any favours, though. Definitely bad enough to fall in the so bad it's funny catalogue, though I'd add that it's also so bad it's almost unwatchable. Really, really awful.

Well, that's one take on it. Dorothy McGuire is superb as the hardened mother who wants the best for her children, but doesn't know quite how to achieve it. It is only after her husband's death that she shows how jealous she is that her daughter always got on better with her husband than she did, although her burgeoning relationship with her daughter seems slightly implausible given her inability to reverse the process of "coldness" which has overtaken her, before this. Kazan's direction is excellent, making great use of the pathetic fallacy, in particular with the rain towards the end of the film. The lack of music in the bed scene is compensated for by alternate medium close-ups of the mother and daughter, as the mother turns, for the first time, to her daughter. Peggy Ann Garner is good as Francie, though she falls just the right side of hysteria at some points. Joan Blondell is good too, if a touch too affected.

This film typifies the white telephone dramas against which the post-war neo-realist films represent a reaction. Alida Valli shows potential, although she isn't helped by the stilted script. The film's depiction of the sole black character is the most interesting thing about it. Whilst it establishes that he is stupid and like a child (he allows himself to be tied to a tree by a small boy, then screams for help) and "back home" he used to eat people, the hero of the story states that "he is a lot less black than some of those (high society) people". Hardly risque stuff though, and the caricatural racism is typical of the Mussolini regime. 5/10.

I've just finished watching this film, which I've been wanting to see for years and I was impressed without being overwhelmed. Wallace Beery's not bad (though a bit stilted) in the leading role; he's better than Irene Rich, playing his ex-wife, who throws herself around the screen, swooning from sofa to sofa in a totally over-acted performance. However, it's Jackie Cooper who steals the show with a portrayal which manages to be both heart-rending and realistic. I know the concept of "real sound" is a disputable one, as sounding real on screen may just entail being a good actor, rather than a realistic one, but nonetheless he does seem far more genuine than the rest of the cast. 8/10.

I have to say I disagree with those who consider Brookes' acting to be wooden, the range of emotions her face portrays in this film is staggering, and she glides across the screen like a dancer (which, of course, she was). German Expressionism produced some fantastic films, but this is has to be just about the best. Pabst obviously knew how to get the best out of her, as she performs better here than in any of her Hollywood vehicles. Her acting is really understated, which led many people to say she wasn't doing much, but her face expresses so much. Francis Lederer is pretty good as Alwa, except for the scene in which he finds her in his father's house after the court trial and completely hams it up, pulling the most excruciating "moolie" ever seen on a cinema screen. Louise Brooks was one of a kind.

Or, if you like King Kong, holy mackerel, whadda show! This movie is out of control, a great original idea, sick beyond belief and genuinely creepy (yet arousing) at times; the craziness of the whole shebang is heightened by the fact that some of the characters - not least Eileen Lord as Virginia - seem to be genuinely insane. Garrett is perhaps the craziest of the lot, just being himself, dancing around with his broomstick, doffing his top hat to all and sundry and generally munching away on anything that passes by in his time-honoured fashion.

The film is far better than Luci del Varieta (Variety Lights), and bettered only by La Strada and 8 1/2. Moraldo killing Fausto would have provided the sort of satisfactory saccharine Hollywood ending that Fellini was fighting against, the ending is unsatisfactory, precisely because Fausto is happy, and we feel he shouldn't be, whilst it is Moraldo who leaves, alone.

This is a brilliant sports documentary - the experimentation with camera angles was revolutionary at the time and the pole vault sequence at night is one of my favourite sequences in a film ever. The athletes are portrayed as superhuman, so in this sense the film is elitist and Nietzschean, but this is certainly not a racist film, politics does not play an explicit role, although one could argue that the deification of athletes (they are shown in close-up, alone, to contrast with the watching masses) promotes the idea that some men are greater than others. A fascinating film, and a definite progression from the standard documentary format of Das Triumph des Willens.

A great performance from Stewart, one of his very best, in a winningly corny movie. Manchester-born Garrett chews the scenery (often literally) throughout, but it's an encouraging debut nonetheless as he showcases many of the habits later to become his hallmarks. It is a shame that he did not become the star that Stewart did, alas...

Hey Don't mean to be pedantic but Fellini's from Rimini, not Rome

..."You're wrong... but why"? I can't believe you can dismiss this film so easily, it's one of the great westerns, with strong performances from the photogenic leads, a lot of atmosphere and a great score (Tchiakovsky's 'Symphonie Pathetique'), I can never understand why this film is not ranked up there with 'Once Upon a Time in the West', 'The Searchers' and 'Shane'.

Bergman stated that making this truly remarkable film helped him come to terms with and overcome his terrific fear of death. The portrayal of death as a tired old man is wonderfully original, the film is beautifully shot and contains some wonderful flashes of humour as well as some extremely poignant moments (such as when the knight claims that, if God does not exist, "then life is an outrage, an unspeakable outrage"). A very deep, thought-provoking film.