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Reviews
The Caveman's Valentine (2001)
Casting Ruined It for Me
I loved the novel, read long before the movie came about. As I recall, Romulus was written as well-built and large, making his aesthetic nature and musical skill a dramatic surprise when he leaves his cave and re-enters society (rarefied society at that).
When what was needed was a black version of Broderick Crawford, Paul Douglas or Mike Mazurki. The closest to that in the contemporaneous stable of Hollywood talent was Danny Glover. He would have have been a great improvement over Jackson.
I was disappointed every moment he was on the screen.
Maybe someday "Caveman" will be remade with a more fitting choice as the movie's central character. I'd love to see it.
My own rating system is like the halcyon grade-school report card: A down to F, with the possible ornamentation of pluses and minuses. I'd give a "D" to "Caveman's Valentine."
I have the movie in my own home library, but I don't believe I've ever played it. I think the casting error, as I see it, must get in the way.
Dharma & Greg (1997)
Charmed Out of My Mind
Loved the show. See below:
I, wearing a double breasted brown business suit, sitting on a park bench overlooking San Francisco Bay and reading a copy of The Wall Street Journal, was accosted by a beautiful young blonde in long Gypsy skirt and low-cut blouse, who pulled me into a wild dance that that had me supporting her on my upraised hands and feet while lying on my back on the grass and then she doing the same for me.
It was real, but part of a duet we improvised as part of a summer workshop led by the dancer, Anna Halprin -- where members self-selected partners and then improvised ways to "dance" with aspects of San Francisco, and thus, all of us combined amounted to a collective dance "with" the city as added "partner." Larger groups than our twosome came about, but it was just my bad luck to be saddled, alone, with a beautiful blonde).
We also tried playing SF sophisticates while having coffee and cake at the Embarcadero Hilton. Then we, and other groups, reported our experiences back to the larger group.
However, my best female friend and a former girlfriend was a real-life version of Dharma (albeit with a German accent), who wound up marrying a true "Greg" (then a "planetary engineer" at Cal Tech) and helped to "reform" him. The three of us remain good friends many years later.
For Men Only (1952)
"Nick and Nora (Not) Unbound"
I saw this film (at age 21) on its original release and thought it handled its theme (anti-hazing) very well, but its important and strikingly new element for me was that the marital relationship between the Henreid character and his wife had a subtle but pervasive erotic element (a continuous low sizzle) that I'd not previously seen enter any on-screen marital relationship that didn't involve psychosis (In the "Thin Man" films, the closest detective Nick and apartment-wife Nora exhibited to mutual erotic attraction was steady but bland repartee). I've intended to watch "FMO" again, but the DVD remains long on my shelves and still unplayed.
Faustine et le bel été (1972)
A surprise delight
Seen during original U.S. release in small Wilshire Bl.theater west of downtown L.A.
I found it a surprise delight. Fluffy, yet still poignant, as opposed to somber, which was the predominant mood of contemporaneous imports:"Monika"'s for example.
Haven't seen it since.