bdeyes81
Joined Sep 2001
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Willi Patton's striking follow-up to his equally memorable "The Big Fiddle" is both an engaging expansion of that film's universe and a bold expression of his metaphorical approach to dramatic cinema. Food and sex provide the backdrop for an intense examination of the demise of a relationship, set mostly within the confines of a New York apartment. Everything in "Monk Fish" is at once ordinary and profound, like all the details of one's most painful memories. But the viewing experience is pure intoxication, and further proof of Patton's promise as an auteur and gift for bringing out the best in an auspicious cast and crew. Working within an effectively compact running time, Collin Smith and Mia Van De Water never hit a false note: the characterizations are relentlessly honest. Consistently impressive production values belie the film's low budget while still maintaining a gritty New York indie vibe, underlining Patton's growing body of work as both wholly unique and yet part of a vital American cinematic lineage.
When a friend recently lent me the opportunity to attend an early morning trade screening just outside of Boston of the Guy Ritchie/Madonna remake of `Swept Away', I was more than a bit skeptical. I truly believe that Madonna could be the greatest actress in the world with the proper training and direction. However, I couldn't predict ANYONE being able to top Mariangela Melato's superb work in Lina Wertmueller's 1974 original, and if Madonna failed to do so, we all know this would mean another opportunity for critics and cynics and everyone outside of her camp to hound on her acting and wobbly film career.
I started watching the film, and before long my fears were...dispelled. Yes, it's true, Guy Ritchie's "Swept Away" really is a good movie. In it, Madonna plays a rich, vitriolic socialite named Amber, and Adriano Giannini plays a poor, bitter sailor named Giuseppe. I'm not going to bother spilling the plot itself, because most of you know it anyway, and frankly, it sounds pretty stupid: the idea of a rich woman and a poor man trapped together on an island seemed stale when the original hit screens in 1974, and it's infinitely more tired some three decades later. But what makes both films work so well is the complexity of these two characters, and the notion that the confines of society, as opposed to innate human nature, may be the reason for human frailty. Neither character is particularly appealing alone, but together they spark in each other a sense of passion and intense sexuality that is rarely seen in conventional Hollywood love stories.
The film stays surprisingly faithful to the source material, despite my early fears to the contrary. The much talked about "Come-On-A-My-House" sequence was certainly not even hinted at in the original. And the biggest omission (an unwise removal, in my opinion) is the original's famous sodomy scene. It would have been great to see Madonna's take on this most erotic of film sequences, but I'm guessing that this had more to do with husband Guy Ritchie's own uncomforability than anything else. This is a shame, because this is a great scene to begin with, and wouldn't it be nice to harken back to the days of unrestrained, borderline pornographic sex onscreen? Sigh.
For the most part, though, I was surprised at how well Guy Ritchie adhered to the original film, and I commend him for it. Furthermore, he has not been bitten by the "Americanization" bug in translating the film to a new generation; in other words, the sumptuous characterizations of the first film are not simplified to appeal to contemporary, dare I say less intelligent, audiences. The lengthy discourses on Communism versus Capitalism have been toned down, but the clashing of ideals is still ever present enough, and this alteration is actually justifiable considering the vastly different sociopolitical climate of today versus Italy in the 1970s.
As some one who was never very interested by Mr. Ritchie's film work in the past, I have to admit to being converted after this movie; he struck me as far more talented, and capable of a greater deal of depth, than his first two films had led me to believe. Attempting to remake a classic film is hard enough, but attempting to remake a classic European film for an American film market is about five times more challenging. After years of lousy American remakes of great European films, I was happy to finally enjoy a solid translation.
And yes folks, Madonna is very, very good. I won't say "excellent" or "brilliant", because it's not her very best work nor is it quite as dynamic as Ms. Melato, but she proves that she is a damn good actress capable of much more than she is often given credit for. One of the few problems that I had with the original film was the 180 degree turn in the Raffaela character on the island; it may have showed off Melato's range as an actress, but for the character, it did not feel entirely believable. Madonna & Ritchie have ironed out this kink quite nicely, and Amber's "evolution" on the island is easier to swallow and ultimately much more impressive; it adds dimensions to both the character AND the actress that were not present in the first half of the film.
Similarly impressive is Adriano Giannini, whose father, Giancarlo Giannini, played the same role in the original! Giannini Jr. is not quite as good an actor as Giannini Sr. (who headlined many of Wertmueller's best works), but he's some one to look out for. He's much more strapping than his father, and he also boasts a tangible sexual presence that should take him far. I hope that the bad press the film has already endured won't stilt his career, because I'd be very interested in seeing where this chap is headed in movieland.
Michel Colombier's score is superb, and brilliantly showcases the emotional journey of these two characters. In fact, I found it so personally stirring that I was reminded at times of Michel Legrand's legendary music for "Summer of '42", and this is particularly true during the final minutes of the film; fans can rest assured that the scene at the telephone is damn near as heartbreaking this time around as it was in the original. I am too familiar with much of Colombier's work but I wouldn't be surprised if he earned the film's sole Oscar nomination.
All in all, I was pleasantly surprised, and wholly satisfied, by Guy Ritchie's take on "Swept Away". True, it does not match up to Wertmueller's original, but that's understandable; hers was a great film, his is a very good film. I would heartily recommend seeing the original first, as it will surely enhance your viewing of the remake. However, Guy Ritchie has managed to put together a memorable, entertaining, and refreshingly unconventional film that can stand quite nicely on its own, and thus I enthusiastically recommend `Swept Away'.
I started watching the film, and before long my fears were...dispelled. Yes, it's true, Guy Ritchie's "Swept Away" really is a good movie. In it, Madonna plays a rich, vitriolic socialite named Amber, and Adriano Giannini plays a poor, bitter sailor named Giuseppe. I'm not going to bother spilling the plot itself, because most of you know it anyway, and frankly, it sounds pretty stupid: the idea of a rich woman and a poor man trapped together on an island seemed stale when the original hit screens in 1974, and it's infinitely more tired some three decades later. But what makes both films work so well is the complexity of these two characters, and the notion that the confines of society, as opposed to innate human nature, may be the reason for human frailty. Neither character is particularly appealing alone, but together they spark in each other a sense of passion and intense sexuality that is rarely seen in conventional Hollywood love stories.
The film stays surprisingly faithful to the source material, despite my early fears to the contrary. The much talked about "Come-On-A-My-House" sequence was certainly not even hinted at in the original. And the biggest omission (an unwise removal, in my opinion) is the original's famous sodomy scene. It would have been great to see Madonna's take on this most erotic of film sequences, but I'm guessing that this had more to do with husband Guy Ritchie's own uncomforability than anything else. This is a shame, because this is a great scene to begin with, and wouldn't it be nice to harken back to the days of unrestrained, borderline pornographic sex onscreen? Sigh.
For the most part, though, I was surprised at how well Guy Ritchie adhered to the original film, and I commend him for it. Furthermore, he has not been bitten by the "Americanization" bug in translating the film to a new generation; in other words, the sumptuous characterizations of the first film are not simplified to appeal to contemporary, dare I say less intelligent, audiences. The lengthy discourses on Communism versus Capitalism have been toned down, but the clashing of ideals is still ever present enough, and this alteration is actually justifiable considering the vastly different sociopolitical climate of today versus Italy in the 1970s.
As some one who was never very interested by Mr. Ritchie's film work in the past, I have to admit to being converted after this movie; he struck me as far more talented, and capable of a greater deal of depth, than his first two films had led me to believe. Attempting to remake a classic film is hard enough, but attempting to remake a classic European film for an American film market is about five times more challenging. After years of lousy American remakes of great European films, I was happy to finally enjoy a solid translation.
And yes folks, Madonna is very, very good. I won't say "excellent" or "brilliant", because it's not her very best work nor is it quite as dynamic as Ms. Melato, but she proves that she is a damn good actress capable of much more than she is often given credit for. One of the few problems that I had with the original film was the 180 degree turn in the Raffaela character on the island; it may have showed off Melato's range as an actress, but for the character, it did not feel entirely believable. Madonna & Ritchie have ironed out this kink quite nicely, and Amber's "evolution" on the island is easier to swallow and ultimately much more impressive; it adds dimensions to both the character AND the actress that were not present in the first half of the film.
Similarly impressive is Adriano Giannini, whose father, Giancarlo Giannini, played the same role in the original! Giannini Jr. is not quite as good an actor as Giannini Sr. (who headlined many of Wertmueller's best works), but he's some one to look out for. He's much more strapping than his father, and he also boasts a tangible sexual presence that should take him far. I hope that the bad press the film has already endured won't stilt his career, because I'd be very interested in seeing where this chap is headed in movieland.
Michel Colombier's score is superb, and brilliantly showcases the emotional journey of these two characters. In fact, I found it so personally stirring that I was reminded at times of Michel Legrand's legendary music for "Summer of '42", and this is particularly true during the final minutes of the film; fans can rest assured that the scene at the telephone is damn near as heartbreaking this time around as it was in the original. I am too familiar with much of Colombier's work but I wouldn't be surprised if he earned the film's sole Oscar nomination.
All in all, I was pleasantly surprised, and wholly satisfied, by Guy Ritchie's take on "Swept Away". True, it does not match up to Wertmueller's original, but that's understandable; hers was a great film, his is a very good film. I would heartily recommend seeing the original first, as it will surely enhance your viewing of the remake. However, Guy Ritchie has managed to put together a memorable, entertaining, and refreshingly unconventional film that can stand quite nicely on its own, and thus I enthusiastically recommend `Swept Away'.
"The Case of the Bloody Iris" (as it has been redubbed for DVD) is, without a doubt, one of the finest gialli to come out of Italy during the subgenre's heyday in the early 1970s. It's tense, it's funny, and it's deliriously inspired, the type of film that could almost pass for a work by genre masters Dario Argento or Mario Bava.
Jennifer (Eurohorror fave Edwige Fenech) is Jennifer, a beautiful model who moves into a luxury highrise shortly after its previous tenant had been brutally murdered. Soon enough, she encounters a masked man creeping into her room at night; her estranged husband's possessiveness turns violent; she finds herself falling in love with the most peculiar landlord....and, of course, the bodies start piling up.
'Bloody Iris' is a most unusual giallo in that it was released in 1971, at the peak of the genre's Italian output, and yet it always seems so supremely self-conscious. The traditional giallo elements (the gloved killer, the violent flashbacks, the sexual taboos) are all present here, but not necessarily in the manner you'll usually find them. It is as though director Giuliano Carnimeo put all the cliches into a blender and let the screenplay mix itself up...meaning that seasoned fans of this type of film will have a much more difficult time guessing the killer's identity, and thus a much more satisfying time watching the film. As some one who has seen more of these movies in recent years than I would care to count, I was shocked to find that I was WAY off on figuring out the killer OR the motive. The red herrings are all so subtle and the colorful supporting characters (usually fertile ground for the killer in these movies) so expertly presented that the viewer never feels manipulated by the director. It's anyone's guess as to who is killing and why, and it makes the experience all the most exciting.
Furthermore, the film has more going for it than merely a good mystery. The acting is surprisingly solid throughout, especially Edwige Fenech, who is every bit as goregous and innately watchable as you've heard. Bruno Nicolai's score is appropriately minimalist while being beautiful and often creepy, and at least one piece certainly seems to have influenced music played in a similar scene in "Halloween"...astute fans should pick up on this towards the end of the film, when Jennifer sneaks into a neighbor's apartment... There is a fair amount of humor throughout the film, most of which is, surprisingly, quite effective (!), and several of the suspense sequences are smashingly successful; you don't have to be easily scared to find yourself hanging off the edge of your seat during several of the film's most memorable set pieces. Speaking of which, fans may want to note that some of the film's highlights actually predate (and dare I say influenced?) similar bits in such Dario Argento classics as "Deep Red" and particularly "Tenebre". Although those two gems are, ultimately, superior films, 'Iris' does deserve credit for influencing later efforts of the man who essentially defined the genre in the first place.
Finally, I should close my review by offering typical kudos to Anchor Bay Entertainment for yet another stalwart DVD release. Can they do wrong? Probably, but I have yet to find any concrete proof myself! Simply put, their transfer of this film is out of this world. Taken from what seems to be an immaculate print of the film (or, perhaps more likely, the original negative!), the gorgeous job they have done made it hard to pay attention to what was going on onscreen during several sequences. Stelvio Massi's gorgeous photography looks stunning on this DVD, boasting a unique and highly appealing array of pastel colors and bright lighting; an unusual choice for a thriller, but a smashing choice all the same. And as Anchor Bay has been kind enough to present the film in its original 2.35:1 scope ratio, fans can fully appreciate director Carnimeo's masterful use of the widescreen lens. I don't know of any other thrillers he has directed, but if this is his only contribution to the genre, then it is a damn shame...with a few more titles under his belt, he could easily have wrestled his way onto the same shelf as Argento and Bava.
All in all, this is a terrific, wonderfully inspired giallo that any fan of Italian thrillers will want in their collection.
My Grade: A-
Jennifer (Eurohorror fave Edwige Fenech) is Jennifer, a beautiful model who moves into a luxury highrise shortly after its previous tenant had been brutally murdered. Soon enough, she encounters a masked man creeping into her room at night; her estranged husband's possessiveness turns violent; she finds herself falling in love with the most peculiar landlord....and, of course, the bodies start piling up.
'Bloody Iris' is a most unusual giallo in that it was released in 1971, at the peak of the genre's Italian output, and yet it always seems so supremely self-conscious. The traditional giallo elements (the gloved killer, the violent flashbacks, the sexual taboos) are all present here, but not necessarily in the manner you'll usually find them. It is as though director Giuliano Carnimeo put all the cliches into a blender and let the screenplay mix itself up...meaning that seasoned fans of this type of film will have a much more difficult time guessing the killer's identity, and thus a much more satisfying time watching the film. As some one who has seen more of these movies in recent years than I would care to count, I was shocked to find that I was WAY off on figuring out the killer OR the motive. The red herrings are all so subtle and the colorful supporting characters (usually fertile ground for the killer in these movies) so expertly presented that the viewer never feels manipulated by the director. It's anyone's guess as to who is killing and why, and it makes the experience all the most exciting.
Furthermore, the film has more going for it than merely a good mystery. The acting is surprisingly solid throughout, especially Edwige Fenech, who is every bit as goregous and innately watchable as you've heard. Bruno Nicolai's score is appropriately minimalist while being beautiful and often creepy, and at least one piece certainly seems to have influenced music played in a similar scene in "Halloween"...astute fans should pick up on this towards the end of the film, when Jennifer sneaks into a neighbor's apartment... There is a fair amount of humor throughout the film, most of which is, surprisingly, quite effective (!), and several of the suspense sequences are smashingly successful; you don't have to be easily scared to find yourself hanging off the edge of your seat during several of the film's most memorable set pieces. Speaking of which, fans may want to note that some of the film's highlights actually predate (and dare I say influenced?) similar bits in such Dario Argento classics as "Deep Red" and particularly "Tenebre". Although those two gems are, ultimately, superior films, 'Iris' does deserve credit for influencing later efforts of the man who essentially defined the genre in the first place.
Finally, I should close my review by offering typical kudos to Anchor Bay Entertainment for yet another stalwart DVD release. Can they do wrong? Probably, but I have yet to find any concrete proof myself! Simply put, their transfer of this film is out of this world. Taken from what seems to be an immaculate print of the film (or, perhaps more likely, the original negative!), the gorgeous job they have done made it hard to pay attention to what was going on onscreen during several sequences. Stelvio Massi's gorgeous photography looks stunning on this DVD, boasting a unique and highly appealing array of pastel colors and bright lighting; an unusual choice for a thriller, but a smashing choice all the same. And as Anchor Bay has been kind enough to present the film in its original 2.35:1 scope ratio, fans can fully appreciate director Carnimeo's masterful use of the widescreen lens. I don't know of any other thrillers he has directed, but if this is his only contribution to the genre, then it is a damn shame...with a few more titles under his belt, he could easily have wrestled his way onto the same shelf as Argento and Bava.
All in all, this is a terrific, wonderfully inspired giallo that any fan of Italian thrillers will want in their collection.
My Grade: A-