A Farewell to Arms (1957) Review

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(More customer reviews)When David O. Selznick undertook to remake "A Farewell to Arms" he was hoping to top Gone With the Wind. Needless to say, every movie he made after GWTW would be compared to it and deemed inferior. Most of his films have merit. However, "A Farewell to Arms" is a bona-fide disaster on most counts. David O. Selznick, who broke up Jennifer Jones and Robert Walker, was only concerned with Jones and her portrayal. Unfortunately, Jennifer Jones with her distracting facial contortions (which the director should have kept in check) is terrible in this film right down to the last reel where we have to endure an interminable child birth scene and her subsequent death. "A Farewell to Arms" could have been a superb film. Instead, it is an overlong, talky, mishmash of romanticism between two characters who are portrayed by good actors who have no chemistry between them. Hudson was perfect. He did the best he could under less than ideal circumstances. But Jones is the flaw in this film. A fine actress if directed properly and that twisted mouth and deep voice inflection distracting kept in check, Jones is horribly miscast. At the age of 38 she is certainly too old to be playing Catherine, a 23 year old nurse. She is supposed to be british but her playing is stilted and forced, not to mention over-intense. Even the musical score is unmemorable. No wonder this film failed at the box office. And no wonder David O. Selznick never made another film. He was an anachronism by this time. Skip this one folks unless you are a die hard JOnes and Hudson fan. I recommend "Song of Bernadette", "Portait of Jennie" or "Love Letters" if you want to see Jones at her best!

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Set against the backdrop of the Italian front during World War I, an American Army volunteer (Rock Hudson) meets a British nurse (Jennifer Jones) on the eve of the big offensive in the Alps and they fall passionately in love. Torn apart, then reunited, they escape to Switzerland to await the birth of their child - and the tragic conclusion to their once-in-a-lifetime romance. "Moving and realistic" (The Hollywood Reporter), this sweeping epic remains a powerful and emotional experience.

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Tea With Mussolini (1999) Review

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(More customer reviews)My wife insisted we watch this film - since it was not something in which I was interested (dramas and romances are not usually what I prefer to watch)I picked up a book and began reading. Within minutes, I was completely enraptured by this movie and forgot about the book. While a picture with the title TEA WITH MUSSOLINI sounds leisurely, trust me, it's not. It moves forward beautifully telling a true story of English and American women in Italy at the breakout of the war and its effect on them and the Italian child they have all raised together. This is a remarkable film (an epic in small movie disguise)with indelible performances from a perfect cast esp. Cher and Joan Plowright. Why neither they nor this film have appeared on many (if any) best of the year lists is completely mind-boggling to my wife and myself. The play is truly the thing here and director Zeffirelli has done a marvelous job telling a wonderful story (his own life)that's ultimately irristible. Filled with humor, hope and inspiration - words that usually make producers cringe these days but words that still mean the best in great moviemaking. My choice for best film of the year and one of the best of all time. A minor masterpiece. Please give it a try...I don't think you'll be disappointed if you're looking for something with great heart that has something to say about the dignity of the human spirit. Better than LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL. A gem!

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Florence, Italy, on the brink of WWII: it was a time of social unrest and, of course...afternoon tea. Join OscarÂ(r) winner* Cher and an incredible cast of leading ladies as they host this "radiant, beautiful film" (Gene Shalit, "Today Show") that is "worth savoring" (Mademoiselle).Prewar Florence is the place to be for any proper British woman who relishes culture and the arts. These ladies have everything they could ever want or needincluding a promise from dictator Mussolini himself that not even the imminent world war will impose upon their lifestyle. But when itappears that his word is not kept, and these expatriateswho chose to stay in Italy instead of seeking refuge in their own countryare in trouble, it takes a young outcast boy and a brazen American woman (Cher) to keep them in the high life and out of harm's way.

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The Devil's Brigade (1968) Review

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(More customer reviews)This fact based WW2 film is one of the great whip 'em into shape movies. When the call went out for U.S. and Canadian volunteers for a commando unit many commanders used this as a oppurtunity to unload their trouble makers. Choir boys don't make good commandos so the right men were available for the job. This film shows the tough training that these men endured including skiing, mountain warfare and advanced hand to hand combat. I've read a few books on these men and the film accurately potrays the bonding developed between the US and Canadians as they teamed up in the local bars to fight lumberjacks and miners. After their harsh training the force is sent to Italy. The film makes no mention that the force's first mission was against the Japanese in the Aluetion Islands. The climax of the film is an assault on a mountain top in Italy. These scences are so well done that when I attended the USMC mountain warfare school at Bridgeport CA. they used this clip as a training tool. The film has a great soundtrack and lots of hero type actors. Just one problem-where did those red berets come from? Read the 2001 published book, "The Black Devil Brigade" told by the men themselves.

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They were misfits, rebels and heroes. Oscar(r) winners* William Holden and Cliff Robertsontopline this riveting World War II saga based on the true story of the First Special Service Force.Capturing the drama of combat with "outstanding" cinematography and an "exceptionally strong cast" (The Hollywood Reporter), The Devil's Brigade is a thrilling tribute to this renowned fighting unit.Lt. Col. Robert T. Frederick (Holden) takes on the daunting task of melding a renegade group of American and Canadian recruits into a crack team of commando warriors. Frederick's superiors doubt the rookies until Frederick volunteers them for a perilous attack on a Nazi stronghold in the mountains. His men will be outnumbered and outgunned, but that's a fair fight to "the devil's brigade."

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The Garden of the Finzi Continis (1971) Review

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(More customer reviews)In "The Garden of the Finzi-Continis" (1970)--based on the autobiographical novel by Giorgio Bassani--legendary Neorealist filmmaker, Vittorio de Sica, dramatizes the human cost of the "racial laws" gradually implemented against the Jews in Fascist Italy during the years 1938-43. The more Bassani's young middle-class Jewish protagonist feels the brunt of Mussolini's anti-Semitic edicts encroaching upon him, the more he feels drawn to the aristocratic Jewish Finzi-Continis' estate--their Edenic "garden"--and to Micòl, the family's beautiful young daughter. Psychologically, this compulsion seems to stem from a deep emotional attachment to a perpetually innocent, untroubled state of childhood, which both Micòl and her garden seem to represent. Throughout the film, there is a marked conflict between childhood and adulthood, between the distant past and the immediate present, between the act of retreating into a world of comfortable illusions and confronting a world of harsh and bitter realities.
I found this particular aspect of the story very fascinating, although too tantalizingly obscure and open-ended--and thus, not quite as illuminating or fulfilling as it might have been were it more clearly explained. (This could the reason why some people find the film--and its heavily symbolic, impressionistic style--a little confusing and underwhelming.)
For Giorgio--both the naive hero and wisened author of the story--Micòl embodies the mystery and allure of the Finzi-Continis, as well as their insularity and their apparent passivity in the face of the escalating Fascist crackdown. She always appears distant and unattainable, with no obvious reasons for her actions, and never really provides a direct, comprehensible explanation for her insistent rejection of Giorgio or for what appears to be a subtle streak of cruelty towards him. Her conversation with him always seems deliberately vague, and her refusal to make any further connection with him has a curious, almost perverse kind of fatalism about it.
Again, this is another feature of the film that is certainly intriguing--and strangely seductive-- but, alas, never quite pays off enough to become fully understandable to either the protagonist or the audience.
When the Fascists finally do arrest the Finzi-Continis and confiscate their estate it comes as something of a surprise. The muted and deliberately spare representation of these characters and their feelings, as evidenced in their unusually restrained behavior, is meant to isolate and heighten the impact of a few devastating strokes of sudden realization and lucidity--pointed indications that the protective spell of the Finzi-Continis has been finally broken.
All in all, well-acted and gorgeously, languidly poetic in its imagery...yet, narrative-wise, the picture seems overly elliptical and ultimately opaque--and leaves just a few too many rough fragments and loose ends lingering at the end of the story (not quite Proustian irony, maybe?). In spite of this peculiar drawback, the film finishes very effectively, and by the final desolate shots, you are left with an unexpectedly intense feeling of loss and anguish.
"The Garden of the Finzi-Continis" is a very unusual and interesting (and thankfully, non-sentimental and non-self-important) addition to the ever-expanding canon of dramatic films about life in the shadow of the Holocaust.
Good show. I give this one four out of five stars.

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And the Ship sails On - Criterion Collection (1994) Review

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(More customer reviews)To my mind, "And the ship sails on" is maybe Fellini's best movie.
The story is delightful, fantasmagoric allegory about the last days of Grand Old Europe, when the "old order" with its nobility and social hierarchy blows up in smoke, in 1914, with the events that lead to WWI.
Fellini, though, is not interested in real events and precise history. He is a fable teller, portraying old Europe, to a grand ocean liner, set on a ceremonial voyage, to scatter the ashes of a famous opera diva, who had recently died. Upon the ship are all the rich and famous of Europe's nobility, as well as all the top musicians and opera singer-stars who joined in for the ride. Stacked in the lower compartments are the poor and the hungry, fleeing refugees brought on board as an act of compassion, that form the powder keg that will ignite the inevitable final explosion .
It is impossible to describe the kaleidoscopic scenes that occur between the passangers as the ship sails on. Imbued with fantastic portrayals of musical rivalry, political intrigue, lascivious affairs, and a pervasive sense of magic tinged with irony- the entire voyage, with its lavish scenery, turns into a tragi-comic, dream-like happening, where the spectator is tickled as much as emotionally moved. Only Fellini the master could conjure such a dazzling, symbolic and unbelievably lovely spectacle of a human folly of an era.
A lot of fun and a classic must.

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In Fellini's quirky, imaginative fable, a motley crew of European aristocrats (and a lovesick rhinoceros!) board a luxurious ocean liner on the eve of World War I to scatter the ashes of a beloved diva. Fabricated entirely in Rome's famed Cinecittà studios, And the Ship Sails On (E la nave va) reaches spectacular new visual heights with its stylized re-creation of a decadent bygone era. Criterion is proud to present this rarely-seen gem in an exclusive widescreen transfer with new English subtitles.

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Malena (2000) Review

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(More customer reviews)The European release of this film was 106 minutes. This version was cut down to 92 minutes for North American audiences, both to make it more acceptable to short attention spans and to eliminate some of the scenes that included nudity. For those of us who are capable of sitting still for 106 minutes and who are not horrified by the nude body employed in the presentation of a film such as this one, this is nothing less than insulting. Serious viewers of film should be able to see films as the director intended them to be seen, and should not settle for this sort of censorship.

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The latest triumph from Giuseppe Tornatore, the writer and director of the Academy Award(R)-winning CINEMA PARADISO, MALENA is an utterly unforgettable story of a boy's journey into manhood amid the chaos and intolerance of World War II. In a sleepy Italian village, the most beautiful woman in town, Malena (Monica Bellucci), becomes the subject of increasingly malicious gossip among the lustful townsmen and their jealous wives. But only her most ardent admirer, young Renato Amoroso (Giuseppe Sulfaro), will learn the untold true story of the mysterious and elusive Malena! In a captivating motion picture nominated for two Academy Awards, the eventual struggles and hardships that Malena must bravely endure serve to inspire Renato to new heights of compassion, courage, and independence!

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The Star Maker (1996) Review

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(More customer reviews)It didn't surprise me that few Americans appreciated this film. Unless you know something about Sicily or have traveled there, you might not appreciate the full scope of this film, which is understandable -- but still, it is a fantastic and highly original movie that stands easily on its own merits.
Set in the late 1940s or early 1950s, the story revolves around Morelli, a conman from Rome who steals a truck, camera, and discarded film from the movie company he works for and drives down to Sicily. Posing as "Dr. Morelli", the conman (played by Sergio Castellitto) convinces whole towns of ordinary Sicilians that he is really a talent agent scouting out new genius in the poverty-stricken island of he south. He could have stepped out of the dream world of the circus. Charging 1,500 lire for a chance to pose before his camera and take a stab at making it as an actor, Morelli offers these Sicilians a chance of fame and fortune in the glitzy world of Rome and America that also means an opportunity to escape the impoverishment of their homeland.
In incredible scene after incredible scene (made even better by a phenomenally good screenplay), Morelli gets these Sicilians to open up. Although they aren't actually being filmed (they don't realize that the film Morelli is using is junk), they think this may be their chance to break into acting, so they spill out their inner worries and life stories as though they were talking in front of a psychiatrist. What results is not only a panoramic and extremely original portrayal of the Sicilian people (including the mafia, bandits, an old Spanish Republican, a 112-year-old Garibaldino, a harassed homosexual, and a beautiful but naive teenage girl whom Morelli falls in love with). It is also a blisteringly sharp attack on the causes of backwardness in Sicily (which still exists today), as well as the sneering attitude of many northern Italians toward the South. While he initially took them to be just "idiotic rednecks" ripe to be ripped off, Morelli slowly discovers the Sicilians' humanity without this film being in any way a quaint or "cutesy" portrayal of how a man discovered the natives in "quaint, sun-baked Italian villages".
"The Star Maker" is full of humor as well as tragedy. As the great Sicilian writer Leonardo Sciascia wrote, humor is a staple of life in Sicily as in few other places -- it has to be in order for survival to go on. Moreover, unlike the stereotypical Hollywood portrayals of Sicily in "The Godfather" movies, "The Star Maker" has a very profound social message. As the girl, Beata, says at the end of the film, "I like movies with a happy ending, where lovers kiss in each other's arms". Unfortunately, in Sicily, a happy ending just would not tell the entire story.
I was flabbergasted and sobered by this film. I was even more flabbergasted by its lame critical reception in the United States and by reviewers at Amazon.com. If moviegoers in this country go on thinking that "Legally Blonde" is the supreme height of cinematic achievement, I really think we're going to go totally brain-dead. Five stars.

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This critically acclaimed motion picture from the creator of the Academy Award(R)-Winning favorite CINEMA PARADISO, was heralded as a masterpiece by critics from coast to coast. Joe Morelli is the "star maker" -- a con man who travels from one small town to the next, claiming to be a talent scout for a top movie studio. And wherever Joe goes, people turn out in droves for a chance at being seen and becoming the world's next big-screen sensation! A lively and entertaining story about the magic of movies and the extraordinary dreams of everyday people, THE STAR MAKER earneda 1995 Academy Award nomination as Best Foreign Language Film!

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A Walk in the Clouds (1995) Review

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(More customer reviews)I read all the other reviews for this movie, and I was amazed at the negative comments the guys made about it. Well, I'm a guy and I loved this movie. Okay, so Keanu Reeves doesn't get the award for best dramatic actor of the century, but he's a lot better than, say, Jim Carey. I didn't perceive him as "woody" or "stoic," but rather I saw him portraying a polite and shy young man who helps out a young woman in distress at his own personal inconvenience. That's a trait you don't see very often these days. It's a pleasant and refreshing change to see a young soldier who is actually moral and decent and willing to help, even at personal loss to himself. Yes, it's a huge chick flick. So what? A lot of chick flicks are great movies, and this is one of them. Buy it and watch it with someone you love. You'll have a great time. The photography is spectacular. The music is great. The story is predictable, but then, so are the plots of most of the action movies. It's a rare movie that is completely unpredictable. This is one you won't forget. Thanks to those who produced it for giving us a good example of the way real men act around women, particularly women in need. This is one movie you can watch with anyone... your spouse, your kids, your date. It's a good, clean, moral tale of shivalry that warms your heart and restores your faith in humanity. It's a totally enjoyable experience.

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After returning from World War II, a young G.I. (Keanu Reeves) finds he has little in common with the wife he left behind. Disillusioned, he heads north to work as a travelling salesman where he meets the daughter (Aitana Sanchez-Gijon) of a wealthy vineyard owner (Giancarlo Giannini). On her way home, she is unmarried and pregnant. The young man gallantly offers to help by posing as her husband for one night, unaware that doing so will change both of their lives forever.

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