“Rope” (1948)
A New York Times review by Vincent Canby, of Alfred Hitchcock’s experimental 1948 film Rope — dated June 3, 1984…
A Stunt to Behold
”What a lovely evening,” says the impeccably dressed Brandon (John Dall) to his impeccably dressed, great and good friend Philip (Farley Granger), as he draws back the curtains in their elegant penthouse living room to reveal the Manhattan skyline. ”Pity we couldn’t have done it with the curtains open, in bright sunlight.”
The ”it” Brandon is talking about is the carefully planned, coolly executed ”thrill” murder of their long-time friend, David Kentley, whose impeccably dressed, still-warm body they’ve just hidden in an antique chest that occupies a prominent place in their living room. Read the rest of this entry »
“A Woman Is a Woman” (1961)
A review of this French New Wave classic by Jean-Luc Godard, by John Boonstra, June 19, 2003 — taken from The Hartford Advocate…
It’s timely to catch the freshly restored print of Jean-Luc Godard’s A Woman Is a Woman hot on the heels of the recent Down with Love. What Love attempted and never quite achieved, Godard nails – a full 42 years before Hollywood would try to poke fun at itself in the same vein.
This was Godard’s third feature film. He was 30 years old; he’d been a film critic for the influential journal Cahiers du Cinema. He’d just married the Danish actress and model Anna Karina, 10 years his junior. Her exceptional beauty and the remarkable resume she acquired working for Godard (until their 1967 divorce) and other New Wave directors cinched her reputation as the thinking-man’s sex kitten of French cinema. The sheer playfulness Read the rest of this entry »
Prince – “3121” (2006)
Taken from Perfect Sound Forever, October 2006, and written by Ben Newman…
Is he still royalty and where does he get those wonderful (musical) toys?
As a new generation gets exposed to the man who is again calling himself Prince, (although apparently he never officially lost his name anyway) does it matter to the future of music that this intermittent genius is back after years of out-takes, side projects, compilations and fan-club-only releases? With a generation trying earnestly to get rid of a relentlessly youthful Madonna, do we really need another ’80’s maverick on TV? Prince, however, does have advantages over the aforementioned rival. He was always the more ingenious of the two, and although still on good physical form (despite rumours of a hip problem), he realises his age and is not cavorting around in uncomfortably flexible position in minimal amounts of spandex. Read the rest of this entry »
The Beat Patrol 