Vintage Trailer of the Week 54

Whatever happened to Christopher Crowe? Well, I know what happened, he now owns a business constructing racing cars for NASCAR, having apparently been a Racing Driver before he began his career in film. But what I mean is: what happened to that film career?

The answer seems to be that he emerged in television, and after a few cinematic projects of varying quality, he returned to television. Then, he just walked away. But he left a couple of intriguing credits behind him. Most obviously, he shares a writing credit with Michael Mann on The Last of the Mohicans, perhaps Mann's most accessible and downright entertaining film. He also wrote James Foley's Fear, a middling home invasion thriller with a Pre-stardom Reese Witherspoon and Mark Wahlberg. His best known tv work is probably the time travel show Seven Days or the Twilght Zone-aping The Watcher.

He wrote and directed two films which received theatrical distribution. In 1992, the derivative, badly cast erotic thriller Whispers in the Dark may have ended his budding directorial career, so abject was its failure.
His first feature, made in 1988, had marked him out as a director of promise. That film was also a thriller, only it was set in modish 60s Vietnam, in a city crawling with servicemen and the scum who feed off them. It was called Off Limits in the US, but given a better, far more evocative title in International territories; Saigon.

Coming near the end of that second, strangely eclectic cycle of Vietnam movies - which included comedies like Good Morning Vietnam alongside the likes of Platoon and Full Metal Jacket - it pairs Willem Dafoe and Gregory Hines - back when both still seemed like possible stars - as M.P. Investigators, hunting a killer who is murdering Vietnamese prostitutes. When they realise the man they're after may be Top Brass, a whole new World of corruption and other words commonly used in trailers for thrillers opens up to them. The plot may be pretty standard for the erotic thriller genre, but the movie is sweatily atmospheric and intense, with a great sense of place and a sure tone throughout. The performances are also strong in the main - Fred Ward is as reliably good value as ever - and in comparison to much of the genre cinema produced in America in 2011, it seems an impressively mature piece of work, for all its melodramatic excesses. It suggests that Crowe may have made an exceptional genre film, sooner or later, and that NASCAR's gain is cinemas loss.



Full trailer: http://youtu.be/2ehPfwCg3wk

Vintage Trailer of the Week 53

I've written here before about how I adore Elmore Leonard's Western writing; I think its his best material. Not nearly as dialogue-led as his Crime fiction - altough the dialogue is still tough and witty - his Western books and stories showcase his exceptional descriptive prose, fine storytelling and unmatched facility for creating brilliant villains and thoroughly impressive, capable heroes. My favourite of his Western books is Hombre, which was made into a terrific and seriously underrated film by director Martin Ritt in 1967.

Ritt and Newman were habitual collaborators at that time, with Hombre standing as their sixth - and last - film together (the most famous and celebrated of that series is probably the fabulous Hud (1963)). Ritt was a successful director for almost three decades but his reputation had declined since his death in 1990, perhaps because of the worthy, stolid nature of some of his more high-profile late work, particularly the likes of
The Front (1976) and Norma-Rae (1979) and the awkward stiffness of some of his earlier literary adaptations, such as The Sound and the Fury (1959) and the Newman co-starring Hemingways Adventures of a Young Man (1962). In this, he reminds me of Richard Brooks, a peer of his who liked risky literary adaptations (including films of Lord Jim, In Cold Blood, and The Brothers Karamazov) but whose gifts as a storyteller and technical expertise mean that his most lasting work is the genre material he occasionally lowered himself to, such as the Westerns The Professionals (1966) and Bite the Bullet (1975).

Similarly, Ritt's genre films are his most satisfying work. The Spy Who Came In From the Cold (1965) is a brilliantly dour, grim LeCarre adaptation, and the best of his social issue films is the one with genre elements: labour dispute drama The Molly Maguires (1970) with its gripping undercover plot. But Hombre is a purer genre film and a tense, exciting, well-mounted cinematic experience all round. It has the classy cast and James Wong Howe photography of an Oscar contender, and a fine Newman performance at its centre too. Its one of the best Leonard adaptations - certainly the best version of one of his Westerns - which alone should make it compulsive viewing...

Vintage Trailer of the Week 52

Alain Delon is 75 today. He was probably the first French actor I was aware of. I knew and loved him as a boy from his
appearance as the villain in Red Sun (Terence Young, 1971), which featured a samurai-gunslinger collision which blew my ten year old mind, but also from the rollicking French gangster film Borsalino (Jacques Deray, 1970), in which he stars alongside Jean-Paul Belmondo. What a treat to discover as I grew up that he had enjoyed a fine career, working with directors like Antonioni, Losey and Visconti. And Jean Pierre Melville, of course.
This is the trailer for one of my favourite films, and one of the greatest genre films ever made, Melville's superb Le Samourai (1967), in which Delon is brilliant. The trailer is entirely in French, but Melville's visuals, they're universal (the image above is from another Delon-Melville collaboration, the only slightly less brilliant Le Cercle Rouge (1970).

Vintage Trailer of the Week 50

In a way, Sleep With Me (Rory Kelly, 1994), is the most 1990s film ever made. Just look at the cast. Front and centre is Craig Sheffer, a man who looked like he might be a contender in 1990 and 1991, when he made Nightbreed and A River Runs Through It. Turns out he wasn't a contender, and he's a fixture on sundry tv shows these days (One Tree Hill the most notable and regular). He had an odd, vaguely constipated presence, like he was trying reeeally hard to remember his lines, and it carried him few a few years worth of movies before his luck ran out around the turn of the Century.

The other leads are just as wedded to that decade: Eric Stoltz may have arrived in the 1980s with Mask and Some Kind of Wonderful, but he peaked between 1993 and 1995 with a run including era-defining indies like Pulp Fiction and Killing Zoe mixed with studio productions like Little Women and Rob Roy. There is something about him indelibly associated with that period, perhaps that whimsical stoner delivery he is so adept at, and he too is now a fixture on tv with Caprica.
Meg Tilly is an actress who never fulfilled her potential. Lovely, talented, perhaps too careful in her choice of projects - meaning that she worked too rarely - she is now retired from acting and writes, instead. Sleep With Me was her last film. Perhaps she found the 90s unpleasant by comparison to the 1980s, a decade in which she was Oscar-nominated.

As if that trio are not enough, this film is probably best known for Quentin Tarantino's "Top Gun" monolgue, delivered in that familiar machine gun manner to Todd Field (also now a celebrated Director, of both In the Bedroom and Little Children) in a corner at a party. Tarantino changes the ending of Top Gun to suit his thesis, but its still a hilarious riff, and at that time, with Tarantino riding high on the back of Pulp Fiction and its enormous critical and commercial success, his presence served as a welcome calling card for the movie. Then there are another pair of 90s icons, Parker Poesy and Joey-Lauren Adams, in smaller parts, Pere Ubu on the soundtrack, and the lo-fi, DIY ethos of 90sUS Independent cinema screamingly obvious in every shot and cut.
The film itself is an oddity - each of its six main passages written by a different screenwriter, making it an elliptical and tonally eclectic portrait of an eternal triangle. Some scenes work brilliantly, some not at all, as it flits between comedy and drama, becomes an elegy, then a sort of rom-com, then a social satire. Watching this trailer, however, makes the 1990s feel like a very long time ago...

Vintage Trailer of the Week 49

When I heard about Dennis Hopper's recent death, my first thought wasn't of Easy Rider or Blue Velvet, the obvious and most-mentioned references which dominated the many obituaries in the media.
Instead I thought first of his great scene with Christopher Walken in True Romance. And then, I thought of Out of the Blue (1980), his third film as director, and one of the great lost films of the 80s. Starring the eerily brilliant Linda Manz from Malick's Days of Heaven alongside Hopper, featuring Neil Young songs, its grim and moving and often hard to watch. But definitely worthwhile.

Cannes of Worms

I've done a Cannes trailers post the last two years, but this year, I've found that there seems to be relatively little I'm really interested in at the festival. Some controversy, some films that might be good, but little that stands out as obviously great to these eyes. Many of the In Competition films have no trailer, though there are excepts and clips available from all of them at the Festival's official website.
Some of these trailers don't have English subtitles, but if you speak the International language of Cinema, you should get by:


Carlos - Olivier Assayas




Carancho - Pablo Trapero




The Housemaid - Im Sang Soo




Les Amours Imaginaires - Xavier Dolan



Biutiful - Alajandro Gonzalez Inarittu



Socialisme - Jean Luc Godard



Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives - Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Vintage Trailer of the Week 48

Michael Winterbottom's superb Wonderland (1999) is quite possibly the greatest, most realistic portrayal of modern London I've seen, in all its sweaty intimacy, in its harshness and brutality, in its lonely crowds and cluttered streets and desolation, in its often stunning beauty, in its banality and dullness. Great cast and amazing Michael Nyman soundtrack, too. It needs watching if you haven't seen it:

Vintage Trailer of the Week 47

This stunningly unrepresentative trailer makes Pedro Costa's O Sangue look great.
Just not in the way it actually is great.

Vintage Trailer of the Week 46

A genuinely great and important movie, Haskall Wexler's Medium Cool (1969) is that rare thing, an American film which bears the real influence of the European cinema of the 1950s and 60s. Following a cameraman in Chicago during a few turbulent weeks in the last year of that decade, its drama is loose and elliptical, without any of the leaden ironies or contrived plotting of most Hollywood product. Shot documentary style on location, its cast and crew find themselves at one point amidst a real riot with tear gas and fleeing protesters all made part of the narrative.
Yet its still a lovely piece of cinema. Wexler made his name as a genius-level cinematographer, and this film is frequently inspired in its visual storytelling and lighting. A young and beautiful Robert Forster proves a magnetic lead, too:

Vintage Trailer of the Week 45

Knightriders (1981) may just be George Romeo's strangest and most little-seen film. Following a ragged bunch of Carnies around the slightly odd Renaissance faire circuit in the States it centres on Ed Harris' modern day King Arthur figure as he jousts (on motorcycle) and tries desperately to keep his warring court of rival riders and their women together. This is set against the pressures of the modern world, with corrupt sheriffs, rowdy crowds and greedy promoters all obstacles to Harris' need to live his life according to his Arthurian principles. Portentous and too idiosyncratic for its own commercial good, Romero's film is a fascinating one-off with a great performance from Harris holding it together.

Vintage Trailer of the Week 44

Banned in the UK because of its subject matter, Monte Hellman's adaptation of Charles Willeford's novel is one of the best American films of the greatest decade for American cinema, the 1970s. A beautiful, existential portrait of a troubled man, it benefits from a terrific Willeford script, Hellman's assured direction, and Warren Oates' towering performance in the lead. Hellman and Oates were both on fire in the 70s, so this one just couldn't miss:

Vintage Trailer of the Week 43

Nils Gaup's 1987 Finnish-Norwegian adventure movie is one of the best of that decade; a taut, spare tale based on an old Sami legend, and the first film to be shot entirely in Sami, the native language of the people of Lapland. It was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars and Writer-Director Gaup directed a few Hollywood films on the back of its success, but these days it seems almost forgotten. Not entirely, though - Marcus Nispel's lame 2007 Pathfinder borrows its title (though the Sami title is Ofelaš) and part of its plot to much inferior effect. Gaup's film feels authentic. Shot in temperatures as low as -47°C and employing an original, superb score, its better than this trailer suggests:

Vintage Trailer of the Week 42

A first-ever viewing of Jacques Demy's terrific Model Shop (1969) made me think about the brilliance of everything else I've seen by him (and if anybody was wondering what to get me for Christmas, that massive complete Box-Set available in France will do nicely, thanks), especially his two most famous films; the incomparable Les Parapluies des Cherbourg (1964) and the amazing Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (1967). Even if you don't like musicals (you fool) you should admire these for their wit, beauty, romanticism and exquisite style:

Vintage Trailer of the Week 41

"PRODUCED BY DAVID PUTTNAM" sits proudly beneath the title card at the end of this trailer in an only barely perceptibly smaller font. Meanwhile there is no mention of the Director David Dury. But Dury does Puttnam proud with this slick and gripping conspiracy thriller, the ending of which absolutely devastated my 14 year old self when I watched it on TV many years ago. A whip-thin, shockingly handsome Gabriel Byrne showed he had what it took to be a leading man and Gretta Scachi and Denholm Elliot provide classy support. I love any film set in late 70s/early 80s London, all concrete and bleak Thatcherite gloom, and this is no exception. Dury went on to a long and distinguished career in British TV drama.

Vintage Trailer of the Week 39

One of the few lower budget, post-Star Wars Sci Fi features to be any good, Aaron Lipstadt's Android (1982) is a cracking little Frankenstein update with a brain, some truly wooden acting and a great ending. Plus: Kinski!

Vintage Trailer of the Week 38

Steven Soderbergh's post-Sex, Lies & Videotape commercial lean patch included this terrific coming-of-age movie, set during the great depression. Much more tough and gritty than this trailer suggests

Vintage Trailer of the Week 37

Peter Fonda, given free rein after the massive bounty of Easy Rider in 1969, followed it with this far superior though nicely modest, near-perfect little Western. Warren Oates is even better than usual, Fonda is great, and the score and photography are both fantastic:

Vintage Trailer of the Week 37

Writer Director Larry Cohen is a sort of twisted genius. Nobody has ever mastered high concept quite so well as he did in a string of low-budget b-movies through the 1970s and 80s including God Told Me To (1976) Its Alive (1974) and The Stuff (1985). In recent years his work as a Screenwriter has maintained that focus on a single compelling idea - he wrote Phone Booth (2002) Cellular (2004) and Captivity (2007) - but his best work remains this deranged pulp Classic which plays like a straight gritty New York police thriller for the most part...only its got an enormous stop-motion Dragon as the villain. Nesting in the Chrysler building. feeding on Manhattanites. David Carradine seems so stoned hes incapable of emoting and Michael Moriarty gives a hysterically hyperactive performance and its all great fun:

Vintage Trailer of the Week 36

Godard. Bardot. Palance. Delerue. Contempt. Supercool.

Vintage Trailer of the Week 35

Francis Ford Coppola's most underrated film is a swanky, gaudy, ahead-of-its time chronicle of man against corporate America with a great (as usual) Jeff Bridges at its heart. It feels a bit autobiographical on the Godfather's part, to me, with its story of a charismatic visionary and genius surrounded by people who just don't understand. Unavailable on DVD, of course...