Book review - "Chasing the Panther: Adventures and Misadventures of a Cinematic Life" by Carolyn Pfeiffer

 I read this because I was keen to read about Pfeiffer's adventures as a producer in the 80s with Alan Rudolph, Chris Blackwell, Shep Gordon etc but there is very little of that. This memoir is mostly about her time in Europe in the 60s - as a student, then working in Italy as Claudie Cardinale's assistant, meeting people like Burt Lancaster, Visconti, Delon and Fellini, then working for Delon (being raped by one of Delon's dodgy bodyguards), then Omar Sharif as an assistant (shagging Robert Bolt), being friends with Nathalie Delon and Geraldine Chaplin, becoming a publicisit then eventually working for Shep Gordon, hanging with Robert Altman, dope with Blake Edwards. 

It's pretty interesting stuff - having Sean Connery put his hand on her leg while Diane Cilento was there, a fling with photographer Terence Donovan etc. There is heart break - a daughter (son of an affair with a married man) dies as a child, she finds true love with a journalist who dies of a heart attack. I wish there had been more on her work as producer. But I enjoyed the book.

 

Movie review - "Is Paris Burning" (1966) **1/2

 I think Paramount were hoping for their own version of The Longest Day, with this all star account of the liberation of Paris. Thing is, most of the stars were French, so the film was a hit in France but not America. Also, don't mean to be rude, but the battle wasn't that important militarility, more politically (hugely so) - and the film doesn't really go into that, the fact that France might've wound up in civil war. To be fair the film does allude to some of this  - there's no colonial troops though. Or British.

Still there are powerful scenes - the last train of prisoners being sent off to the camps, the massacre of young resistance workers, Orson Welles as the Swedish diplomat persuading Gert Forbe not to blow up the city. And many of the cast lived through the events so it has an authenticity that you just can't get now.

Kirk Douglas is Patton, Glenn Ford is Bradley, Anthony Perkins and George Chakiris are soldiers, Robert Stack is a general - but most of the stars are French: Leslie Caron, Jean Paul Belmondo, Simone Signoret, Bruno Cremer (a large role), Alain Delon, Charles Boyer, Michael Piccolo, etc.

Gore Vidal and Francis Coppola worked on the script. Vidal whined about it a lot.

Movie review - "Texas Across the River" (1966) **

 Brat Pack Western with only two of them - Dean Martin and Joey Bishop - with Alain Delon playing a role that might have been intended for Frank Sinatra... a rival of Martin's in love and guns... but to be fair the role has been clearly adjusted for him playing a Spaniard. He's quite animated and fun, Martin is fun. The film is a little lazy and the comic Indian stuff is bad (Bishop plays an Indian). 

It's got 60s Universal crapness and could have done with more star power - for instance the similar Four For Texas also had Ursula Andress, Anita Ekberg and Charles Bronson, this has Peter Graves, Rosemary Forsyth and Tina Aumont... just not the same. It has its pleasures and Martin and Delon fans especially will get something out of it.

Sidebar: Delon was a Western fan, an admirer of Sam Peckinpah and tried to make two films with him. I wonder if this prompted the French stuff in Major Dundee?

Book review - "Jean Gabin: The Man Who Was France" by Joseph Harriss

 Gabin's a very good actor, extremely effective in some films. Made some legendary movies especially in the late 30s, no so much after the War. He was a nepo baby in a way, in that his father was in the biz, but he worked his way up.

A decent book. Relies a lot on the work of others but some fresh stuff, like a quote from Brigitte Bardot. And it's put together in an easy to read style.

My main thing: Gabin was a wanker. A bore. Got some good movies but that maybe was more luck. Most redeeming thing was his war service - only he and Jean Pierre Aumont had good reacords on that, apparently. But he beat Marlene Dietrich and I'm sure there would've been others. He whinged. Sooked about the state of France, new directors, women. Wouldn't attend his daughter's wedding. Just an old whiny wanker.

I totally respect what he did as an actor and star and a French icon. I just got a bit sick of him.

Movie review - "Scorpio" (1973) ** (warning spoilers)

This film is silly. At its core it is simple - a veteran assassin is chased after by the CIA who send the assassin's protege after him. Burt Lancaster is ideal as the veteran - sad eyed, old but still athletic.

But too many moments feel like "ooh let's have a twist" or "let's have a cool action bit" or "let's do a cute bit". Lancaster's wife is shot, and Delon's girlfriend is a double agent, and Delon likes cats.

There's no momentum - they keep having action sequences then Delon goes back to the office and reporting to John Colicos. Delon seems silly working for the CIA - he has trouble with English, he feels ill at ease.

There is plenty of action and bang bang but what should be a simple story is made pointlessly confusing... you don't care or feel anything. At least I didn't. The locations help and the quality of the cast is strong - it also includes people like Jame Sikking and Paul Scofield, whose scenes with Lancaster are the best thing about the movie which should have been about their relationship.

Movie review - "Concorde - Airport 79" (1979) *

The fascinating thing about this movie is not that's bad, but all the different ways it manages to be bad. Whether it's George Kennedy going "they don't call this the cockpit for nothing" or constantly talking about his dead wife or his awkward banter with fellow pilot Alain Delon... actually make that everything Kennedy does... or Delon struggling with hi English and lack of chemistry with Kennedy or his poorly devised love subplot with Sylvia Kristel, or an assassin turning up at Susan Blakely's house or Blakely crawling on the roof escaping said assassin.. or the subplot where Blakely uncovers an arms racket run by boyfriend Robert Wagner who arranges for a missile to try to shoot down the Concorde, or Jimie Walker playing on a saxophone, or Martha Raye getting drenched in the toilet or... or...

The least silly thing about it is the romance between Jon Davidson and a Russian gymnast and that's still pretty silly. There are some scenes where the Concorde does a 360 with everyone wailing which are dumb too. Other highlights include Charo and her dog and Eddie Albert being an idiot in the cockpit waitinf for a subplot and... it's all pretty bad.

Structurally the film has a major problem in that the film consists of two flights - the Concorde takes off, is attacked by a missile, but manages to land safelty. Then it takes off again, a bomb goes off, and manages to land safely.

I should say that the moments where the bottom of the plane falls out and passengers can look through to the ground are well done. And I liked Delon having to land the plan on the snow at a ski field he was familiar with. Ed Begley Jr helps clear the ski field. Eric Roth wrote this. The ending feels very abrupt - a bit more of a denouement would've been nice.

Movie review - "Joy House" (1964) ***

Not highly acclaimed critically and probably could have been done in colour but I liked it. It was an MGM shot in French in France with French stars but also two American stars. 

Alain Delon is perfectly cast as the lover of a gangster's wife who just escapes said gangster's hoons and winds up seeking refuge in the house of wealthy Lola Albright and her niece Jane Fonda. Albright has a lover shoved in the attic years before Parasite.

Fonda is seriously hot in this movie - she's beautifully shot and is alive and full of energy. The role might have been more effective if played by someone more plain - who would want control over Delon. I mean seriously how hard is it for Fonda to trap Delon?

Delon was peak pretty at this stage too which suits the role and Lola Albright isn't too shabby either. They have some hot sex. Gangsters come after her.

They could have done more with the cuckolded gangster and the lover in the attic but it was sexy and atmospheric, beautifully shot, with a Lalo Schifrin score. It got hostile views I don't know why.

Movie review - "The Leopard" (1963) ***1/2

I always wondered about the high reputation of this film - a really rich family realises the world is passing on... Is that the stuff of grand cinema? It's epic and stately and deals with the passing of time. It was like The Magnificent Ambersons I guess. You can feel its influence on The Godfather films with its rich tapestry of period detail, family scenes, country rituals.

It's extremely well made - you can feel the love and care and detail. The acting is beautiful - it took a while for me to get used to Burt Lancaster being dubbed but he has the gravitas the part needs, he has weight and can act... at the end his face is very moving.

I'm just not sure I cared. Lancaster inherited his position. People get where they are because of nature and God as opposed to what they actually do. I guess Alain Delon and Terence Hill at least fight in the army.

Claudia Cardinale is stunningly beautiful as the daughter of the nouve riche though Visconti packs the film with more beautiful young men - Alain Delon, Terence Hill and that random relative who gets all these close ups.

It's stately and beautiful and all that. I absolutely recognise its quality -the big screen, the period recreation, the battles, the ball. I'm just not sure it was for me.

Movie review - "The Sicilian Clan" (1969) ***

A French crime film aimed at the big time by featuring not one not two but three big stars associated with that genre: Jean Gabin, Alain Delon and Lino Ventura.

It's a film of set pieces - Delon escapes from prison with the help of the mafia, Delon escapes from the cops from a hooker's bedroom (topless moment - there's a bit of nudity in this movie), Delon watches Irina Demick bathe nude on the beach (a hot scene - they go for it), a hijacking of a plane, the final confrontation with a dame and a bag of cash.

It's not really an epic - it could have been an epic but doesn't explore the relationships between the characters to any great degree. Gabin has all these sons who are just ciphers, and their wives are just wives except Demick who is an outside (French in a Sicilian family). There's no real relationship between Gabin and Delon - some father-son stuff (like Gabin preferred Delon to Demick's whimpy husband or something) would have worked wonders.

The actors mostly stand around and look cool. Since they are cool that's actually fine for the most part. Ventura doesn't get to do much except glower and slap around some crims. He has a scene with Delon's sister that I thought was going to lead to romance - it should have, would have given him more to do.

It's an enjoyable programmer - I liked its style and what not - but there's not a lot of meat on the bones.

Movie review - "Attention the Kids Are Watching" (1978) ***1/2 (warning: spoilers)

A film I'd heard nothing about and never would have watched if i hadn't been on an Alain Delon completionist drive but it's a little gem. It's based on an American novel about a group of siblings who watch too much TV and whose parents have left them under the supervision of a slack nanny. The kids want to be left alone... they put the sleeping nanny on an air matress and shove her out to the water as a joke, but she can't swim so she drowns. They decide not to mention it to anyone so they can live their lives as they want - smoke, eat whatever they want, watch whatever they want.

It's kind of Lord of the Flies slash High Wind in Jamaica stuff - the kids are presented matter of fact as lacking morals. They swear, they snap, they have low cunning.

There are four of them - the ringleader girl, who is 13, the oldest - a skinny brother and a fat brother with glasses who reminded me of Piggy in Lord of the Flies and a five year old. The fact the kids are so genuinely young really lifts this. The actors are excellent too - the director did a superb job of casting and handling them. They seem like real kids.

The plot comes from Alain Delon watching what happened then moving in. It takes him 50 minutes to do this, which is a worry - as the nanny dies 15 minutes in. I think they would have been better truncating this bit because although it's full of great moments (them going shopping, covering up) it tends to hit the same beat. But when Delon turns up that's fixed - he's very good too by the way, playing a bit more of a character type, swigging alcohol and looking shady.

The film commits to the end - Delon manipulates the kids, or tries to... then they decide to kill him... and do it! And cover it up! And get away with it!

It's a very good movie. Nice locations - some beach town. The kids are brilliant. Sophie Renoir is a standout as the leader but they're all good.  I can't believe it flopped. Maybe it was too bleak.

Movie review - "Shock Treatment" (1973) *** (warning: spoilers)

This has the sort of fun, junky plot line you'd expect from say a Hammer horror film or even Monogram - a woman visits a clinic where she discovers everyone is rejuvenated and she discovers that there are Nefarious Reasons for this.

Annie Girardot is winning as the the middle aged heroine who comes to rejuvenate herself. Alain Delon is perfect casting as the ageless doctor (did he ever play a vampire? He should have). The guests are other middle aged people - one of them includes the blonde who felt up Sylvia Kristen in Emmanuelle. They all cavort naked in the sauna and at the beach a lot. The exploited underclass here are the Portugese, which gives this an interesting European colonialism undercurrent.

There's a decent theme song, Girardot stabs Delon to death in a satisfactorily way and then is disbelieved the locked up for it. It's unpretentious, silly fun.

Movie review - "Un Flic" aka "A Cop" (1972) ***

The last film from Jean Pierre Melville, best known for Le Samourai.It's got a name cast - Alain Delon (as a cop rather than a robber), Richard Crenna of all people (Americans were popping up in French films around this time) and Catherine Deneuve.

It starts brilliantly with a heist in a bank by the seaside during a wind-swept storm - how did they film this? There's another superb set piece in the middle - a heist on a train involving Crenna being dropped on board via a helicopter.

Crenna has the better role - because he gets to rob things, while Delon has to not catch him until the end (this is standard in heist movies though). So Delon walks around looking tough, bangs away on a shooting range, interrogates and later slaps a transvestite (I think) and hook up with Catherine Deneuve who has a small role as Crenna's moll (it's good to see her though - she suits these parts particularly when dressed up as a nurse and heading in to kill someone for Crenna).

Michael Conrad, the sergeant from Hill Street Blues pops up as a member of Crenna's gang and he's very effective despite his dubbed voice.

Like a lot of French gangster films it's a love story between two men, in this case Delon and Crenna who make eyes at each other over the table at Crenna's nightclub, with the woman in there to prove everyone's straight.

I wonder if this influenced Michael Mann's Heat?

Movie review - "Purple Noon" (1960) **** (warning: spoilers)

The film that made Alain Delon an international star and no wonder - his youthful beauty and charm are used to superb effect in this thriller. It's been a while since I saw The Talented Mr Ripley but from memory this version is much better - less fat on it, more confident. Delon is more animated and better than Matt Damon.

Maurice Roget is extremey good too and Marie Laforet is stunning. There's some visually fantastic scenes like Delon and Roget on the yacht, particular Delon when the water is choppy.

There's plenty of twists, near misses, excellent locations and decadent atmosphere. I didn't mind that Delon got caught at the end, that was fine. He'll figure out a way to get out of it.

Aside - many French movies show the police to be very efficient. That's the case here.

Movie review - "Two Men in Town" (1973) *** (warning: spoilers)

Jean Gabin prolonged his career by teaming with younger stars - this one reunites him with Alain Delon, who also produced. It's a pretty good crime melodrama - it seems to have been influenced by the Warner Bros gangster flicks of the 30s and 40s. You could imagine, say, John Garfield and Edward G Robinson doing it.

Delon gets out of prison and comes under the watch of parole officer Gabin. Delon is tempted by his old gang, who include Victor Lanoux... and young punk Gerard Depardieu. I wish these two had more screen time because they're great.

This has some silly moments - montages of Delon frolicking - not enough action, and occasionally drags. But a lot of it is good too - the ending, with Delon going to the guillotine, is great. It has a down beat fatalistic mood that is effective, even it at times it seems shot like a TV movie.

Delon is a bit pretty at times but very effective. Gabin has a great sad eyed look. Mimsy Farmer pops up as Delon's second girlfriend (he has one who waits for him when he's in prison but is killed off quite quick)..

Movie review - "Le Samourai" (1967) ***1/2

Famous action film which I've wanted to see for a while because it was so influential on the works of filmmakers like, notably Walter Hill and Michael Mann. You can see it all over this - the minimal dialogue, the wide framing, the taciturn hero.

I was surprised how much this seemed to borrow from This Gun for Hire - it's basically got the same plot: a hitman does an assassination, is chased by a cop, crosses with a girl, is double crossed by his bosses and goes looking for revenge.

The role of the girl is split between black Caty Rosier, a singer, and the seriously gorgeous Nathalie Delon. I feel this was a mistake and splits the film's focus.

The cops are very professional and solid.

I think I would have liked this more had it not been copied so much. Delon looks a little silly in his fedora and trenchcoat. It is a realised piece though - the whole film I mean.

Movie review - "Diabolically Yours" (1967) ** (warning: spoilers)

The last film of Julien Duvivier, this was a flop despite the presence of Alain Delon and Santa Berger in the leads, and a decent idea: Delon wakes up with amnesia, with a lot of money and a hot wife and begins to suspect that he isn't who they say he is.

There's a few familiar tropes - urst with the wife, turbulent dreams, a dodgy butler. It isn't done particularly well. Delon and Berger look attractive; Berges always about to have a shower or getting a massage.

It lacks a bit of oomph and some decent twists. It's got the story elements of say something like Scent of Fear but none of the spookiness, psycho drama or "oh my god" moments. I have trouble remembering scenes from it and I saw it not that long ago.

Movie review - "Jeff" (1969) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

Alain Delon as a gangster, once more - not the title role though, oddly. He's part of a gang who commit a robbery; the leader disappears and most of the gang think the leader's done a runner but Delon (who kind of loves him in that French cinema way). They torture the leader's mistress, Mireille Darc (who Delon kind of loves in that French cinema way).

This isn't a great film but it's full of interesting moments: the crims setting around in a gym after the heist, gabbing away like they're in Reservoir Dogs; the death of a bee keeper; Delon being shot at the end. The direction is fresh; the supporting cast strong. Delon produced this.

Movie review - "The Black Tulip" (1964) ***1/2 (warning: spoilers)

Alain Delon tries his hand at swashbuckling, in this adaptation of an Alexandre Dumas novel which I've never read but apparently this isn't very faithful. It would seem to owe more to The Scarlet Pimpernel and The Prisoner of Zenda with Delon playing twin brothers, one a dashing freedom fighter who runs around the countryside robbing the rich in the name of the poor, the other a more quieter, nebbish type who takes over his brother's position when the cool brother is injured.

There's a good twist in that the quiet brother discovers the groovy brother actually doesn't care about the poor, he robs for kicks - he's like the villain in The Wicked Lady. He finds love in the comely shape of peasant Virni Lisi whose father is a revolutionary.

The other great twist is the bad brother is captured and gets hung... and actually dies. This was like The Corsican Brothers. But it gives the piece some emotional kick. (Even if the movie shies away from going into the emotional turmoil the surviving brother must feel).

There's plenty of banter, action and pleasing production design, though I feel it would be prettier had it been shot in France rather than Spain. Delon is handsome and charismatic and gives two distinctive performances - it's some of his best work. The support characters are fine: some rich aristocrats and comic revolutionaries.

Movie review - "Red Sun" (1972) **1/2

In the 70s this film was help as as an example of the most international of international co productions - with its Europudding finance, and casting including Charles Bronson, Toshiro Mifune, Alain Delon and Ursula Andress... something for everyone, except maybe Americans, where the general public didn't take to it.

It's not much of a movie. There is a great novelty in the basic idea - outlaws in the American west pinch a samurai sword intended for the President Grant so Mifune, who was assigned to look after it, goes after him. And it's a good complication to have him accompanied by an outlaw, Bronson, seeking to take down his treacherous deputy, Delon. There is, as you could expect, plenty of star power. Andress goes topless and is lively. Capucine even pops up as a hooker who sleeps with Bronson.

But Bronson and Mifune don't make a good team - both are stoic, silent types but because Mifune's English is so poor, Bronson is forced to be chatty. The film is at heart a buddy movie between these two but I never got a firm grip on their characters. 

Maybe more could've been done with Andress, who accompanies them. Delon's part isn't very big - he's a strong villain, I wish he'd had more to do.

The action scenes are patchy - this is frustrating. It also lacks suspense. I mean, this movie is okay... it's not a disaster. It's more dull. I kept feeling opportunities for culture clash (comedic, whatever) were missed. Action scenes are only so-so. 

I'm glad it exists, though!

Movie review - "Spirits of the Dead" (1968) ***1/2

Anthology films were all the rage in Europe in the 1960s - they were reasonably popular in Hollywood too. Roger Corman had done an Edgar Allan Poe anthology, Tales of Terror - some enterprising producers had the idea of getting art house darlings to do one. This has Fellini, Vadim and Malle, not a bad line up (Orson Welles, Chabrol, Visconti and Bergman were also approached).

Vadim's segment is the campiest fun - Jane Fonda is a vixen who runs around her estate killing people, having orgies and seducing unwilling women as part of threesomes.  She falls in love with the boy next door... played by Peter Fonda! Which is a bit perverse, even for Vadim... but they don't kiss or anything he's not keen until so she accidentally kills him and then lives to regret it. Its all garish and not particularly well made but the Fondas make it fun (Jane really, that is - Peter is only in it briefly).

Malle's segment is much better directed, more serious. Alain Delon is very effective as a nasty piece of work (it's a shame Delon didn't play more villains, he suits them) who tackles his own conscience - manifested as an actual person. Brigitte Bardot is not convincing in a black wig and feels wasted but I enjoyed this bit - it's not as highly regarded, I'm not sure why.

Fellini's segment is superb. It's a sort of companion piece to La Dolce Vita and 8 1/2  with Terence Stamp, at the height of his sixties groovy-ness, playing a Shakesperean actor who is in Rome to make a Christian Western. He's hassled by various parties - the paps, director, interpreter, press, random women etc. Its done with flair and vivacity. The "horror" is more muted but Stamp hooning along the highway is genuinely scary - I wish Fellini had made a horror film or two.

A strong, entertaining film with gorgeous colour.