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andrewkenyon
Reviews
Lost Horizon (1973)
Give this film its break on budget DVD
Well, come on it's not THAT bad! This film should have worked .. and in a way it does. Okay the stars are not singers but the story is perhaps one of the best escapist stories ever written. Don't we all long for a place far away from it all....
Listening to the soundtrack some thirty years on Burt Bacharach's songs are really quite good. "If I could go back" captures the yearning of a man torn between a love he's never known but found in paradise and trusting himself to believe he's found a better place and life than the world he's left behind.
"The world is a circle" is a catchy tune that has stayed with me since I first heard it. "The things I will not miss" is a stylish duet and holds well. One terrible cut is when Conway first arrives at Shangri-La and is blinded by sunlight having left the icy slopes of the Himalayas a moment earlier - it always jarrs as this should have been a scene filled with wonderment. Nul Point!
Yes, it's schmaltzy and the choreography is naff (shame on you Hermes Pan!) but the weight of the stars - John Gielgud, Peter Finch and Michael York - manage a half decent job and it was deemed good enough to be chosen for The Royal Film Performance of 1973.
With all the dross that's currently being churned out on DVD by the studios (I for one am sick of Terminator 99's) why not give space to this musical - after all, the point of musicals is that they're meant to transport you to another world which is just where Shangri-La is. Be interesting to see if a straw poll were taken how many voters would want this released....
Summertime (1955)
Superb!
What a gem of a film this is!
Katharine Hepburn, David Lean, 1950's fashion and Venice herself. A bitter-sweet romantic comedy this film has all the right ingredients and takes you back to a time when Hollywood was still making movies that were a joy to watch and showed the stars and directors at their best.
Katharine Hepburn is glorious here. Forget all the Tracy/Hepburn wise-cracking comedies. Here she is allowed to shine. Here we see the comedy of "Bringing up Baby" honed down to a look here, a gesture there - but we also see what was to become the legendary vulnerability. She was 48 when she made this film but she never looked lovelier and Lean photographs her in glorious Technicolour so that her freckled face and auburn hair radiate off the screen. These, together with her spunky personality capture the eye (and heart!) of Renato di Rossi (well played by Rossano Brazzi - eleven years KH's junior) and they play so well together. She as the lonely spinster experiencing love for the first time. He the married man flirting the holiday romance. Or is he?
The minor characters are a foil to the main action (rather like those in Brief Encounter) and work well.
A touching story. Well played, beautifully shot and still a tear-jerker some fifty five years after its release. Hepburn was nominated but missed out on the Oscar for this to Anna Magnini (who she?) for The Rose Tattoo(remember that? - thought not!) but hey, who needs an the Academy vote when you've got a team like this?
Highly recommended but have your Kleenex ready.