Tag Archives: thriller

#249- Bob le Flambeur

Quick recap: Bob, a gambler, is almost broke- you guessed it- from gambling. Instead of bowing out gracefully, he decides to plan a heist to rob a casino.

Film_150w_BobFlambeur_bw_original

Fun (?) fact: Stanley Kubrick once said that he gave up doing crime films because of Bob le Flambeur.

url

My thoughts: When I think of the genre ‘crime film’, I picture a bunch of hot guys in suits being all clever and flirty and through sometimes bumbling efforts, somehow end up pulling off the heist. Bob le Flambuer invented all that. Being French, however there is an undercurrent of sadness and a lingering feeling that even if the robbery does go through, it won’t change anything for anyone, so why bother, really?

So, this isn’t the most fun crime film I’ve watched, but it was definitely interesting to see such an American concept integrated with something so quintessentially European (in case you are keeping count, I’m pretty sure that’s the most pretentious thing I’ve written on this blog yet). The beginning of the film, as Bob describes Montemarté, reminded me so much of Lola or Cleo From 5 to 7. That makes sense because director Jean Melville is considered the father of French New Wave films. I loved the scenes with Bob interacting with his friends. He seemed so suave, it’s no wonder even the police loved him. Yet, there was this lingering sadness to him that I also liked. He wanted to pull off the heist, but not as a ‘screw you’ to society. Instead, he was doing it as a last ditch effort to find happiness.

The planning of the heist, including the gathering of the team, bored me the most. I couldn’t keep up with all of the men and their roles and it was clear to me early on that this wouldn’t end well. Bob, however, shouldered on, against everyone’s advice. I admire that, though. His insatiable urge to come out on top shielded him from logic, which is a very French thing to do. The end of the movie drew me back in, as Bob’s luck changed inside the casino. He was finally winning the hands and by the end, had won so much money that he completely forgot about the heist going on downstairs. The police were there, though, and by the time Bob remembered, he too had been rounded up and handcuffed. Being Bob, he managed to stay on top one last time as the casino staff shoveled in the massive amounts of money he had won. It was a very smart ending, to show Bob succeeding in the only way he truly cared about.

Final review: 4/5

Up next: The Crying Game

Leave a comment

#246- Foolish Wives

Quick recap: A con artist, Count Wladislaw Sergius Karamzin, seduces many people and swindles them out of a lot of money.

stro2

Look at those ankles, though. Who could resist that??

Fun (?) fact: Director Erich von Stroheim (who also played the Count) insisted on everything on set being of the highest quality: the champagne, the caviar, the underwear. Not surprisingly, he went way over budget.

images

there were also these weirdly poetic cards thrown in

My thoughts: My 1001 Movies book added Foolish Wives, based on the 85 minute version. As is my life, though, the only version I could find online was the two and half hour one. The movie was originally 6 hours so I guess it could’ve been worse. Still. I appreciate von Stroheim’s attention to detail, but this movie dragged on and on and on.

The Count had a pretty successful operation going on until he took it too far. At one point in the film, he had promised marriage to the maid and also had his scheme going on with Mrs. Hughes, the rich American wife. As if that wasn’t enough, he was probably sleeping with ‘Princess’ Olga and her ‘Cousin’, Vera. And then, for some reason, the Count also went after a guy’s intellectually disabled daughter. Now, I’m not an authority on schemes by any means, but that just seems like a lot to keep up with. I’ll give to him, though- he would’ve gotten away with it, too, if it hadn’t been for that meddling maid who burned down the castle with him inside. He lived, of course, but was disgraced when he jumped for safety without trying to save Mrs. Hughes first. That’s actually really funny, now that I think about it: this dude was sleeping with all these girls, running a counterfeit money ring and who knows what else, but it was manners, or lack thereof, that did him in.

People in 1922 went nuts over all the fancy things in the film and specifically the sets, which were built exclusively for Foolish Wives. It didn’t impress me all that much because that’s the age I live in, but I can see how exciting that would’ve been back in the day. I watched a version of the film that was very blurry so had I watched something more high quality, I would’ve appreciated it a little more. I was impressed, however, with the camera angles. I’m not going to attempt to describe them but it wasn’t just a camera set on the actors. The focus was much more advanced than I have seen in a silent film before and it kept me from going insane from the dragging plot.

8648_4

The Count looked like Macklemore in some angles, which kept me entertained more than it should’ve.

Final review: 3/5. Would I watch this again? No. But it was more interesting than I thought it would be.

Up next: Rio Bravo

 

Leave a comment

#240- Run Lola Run

Quick recap: Lola has 20 minutes to come up with 100,000 Deutschmarks before her boyfriend is found and killed by the mob.

tumblr_mblp2r8qnY1qlejw3o1_500.gif

Run Lola run!

Fun (?) fact: There are many spirals in the film because director Tom Tykwer loves the movie Vertigo.

giphy.gif

My thoughts: I find it a little weird to 1) have two movies with Lola in the title on one list and 2) to have watched both films unintentionally so close to each other. Whereas the first Lola I watched a couple of weeks ago was sweet and sad, this Lola is spunky (you can tell because of the red hair) and much more resourceful than her counterpart. This Lola would laugh at the thought of sitting around waiting for her love to return. I highly doubt Other Lola did any running at all, and if she did,it certainly wasn’t to save anyone from being murdered. Get it together, Other Lola, or should I say Lesser Lola?

What the movie lacks in plot, it more than makes up for visually. There is so much to take in that it becomes overwhelming at times, and it was difficult for my mind to figure out what I was supposed to be paying attention to. There seem to be a lot of clues hidden throughout the movie, although I never could figure out what they meant.There are actually three different scenarios Lola goes through as she tries to find a way to save her boyfriend and I kept trying to figure out which was the ‘real’ scenario.In the end, I had to tell myself that this isn’t Memento and maybe I should stop analyzing what might not even exist. Run Lola Run works best if you think of it like a live action video game. With each ‘death’, the character learns what not to do and how to make it to the end successfully.

One aspect that I did manage to pick up on was how everyone’s lives intersected with each other in some way. Many of the meetings fall in to the ‘butterfly affect’ philosophy, with the idea that merely brushing into someone can drastically change the entire course of their life. The film also relies heavily on the concept of time- that being one second early or one second late can also have major consequences. It was interesting to see this played out, although I don’t think the idea itself is all that complicated. Many people attribute things happening to fate when really, it all boils down to being in the right or wrong place at the right or wrong time.

Final review: 4/5. The movie is a lot of fun and I recommend checking it out if you haven’t before.

Up next: Good Bye Lenin!

1 Comment

#239-Memento

Quick recap: A man without the ability to form short term memories hunts for his wife’s killer.

giphy

Fun (?) fact: There aren’t many fun facts that don’t give away the mystery, so I’ll go with a personal one I just realized: Natalie and Teddy in Memento played Trinity and Cypher in The Matrix.

memento_natalie

Someone should do a mashup of Memento and The Matrix where Neo can’t form new memories and the entire movie is spent reminding him that he is The One.

My thoughts: While searching for images from Memento, I fell down a rabbit hole of memento mori blogs. In case you don’t know, memento mori is/was the practice of photographing people after they die. It was most popular in the Victorian Age, a time when people didn’t have Instagram and pictures took 15-20 minutes to take. It turns out that most memento mori pictures are fakes or are people who just closed their eyes at the worst possible moment. I’ve taken some really bad photos in my lifetime and it mortifies me to think someone would find it 100 years later and think I was dead because I looked so bad.

096a0aafc06d8fd53548d8dd01e8a46c

‘I hope I don’t end up on Tumblr for this picture’

And now on to my actual review of Memento– I liked it. I knew I would like it because it’s been one of my favorite movies since it came out, but it especially pleased me that it has aged well. The movie is shot backwards, so the first scene you see is chronologically the last, which sounds gimmicky but totally works. Plus, Memento is directed by Christopher Nolan so if anyone can pull this off, it’s him. My favorite thing about this movie is that when you watch a scene, it’s incredibly confusing and your opinions of people change constantly, but then you watch the next scene (or chronologically prior scene) and a little more context comes to light. It’s a puzzle within a puzzle and it’s just as complicated as I remember.

Watching Memento this round, I found myself drawn to the concept of memory. It’s basic knowledge at this point to know that memory is faulty and too heavily relied on at times. But there’s this darker side, which I won’t get into because it would spoil the movie, that memory is what we want it to be. It can be manipulated. And as much as I’d like to be honest with myself, there are just some things I’d rather not remember. So as reprehensible parts of Memento are, I’m guilty of doing the same thing- whether it’s deleting a song off of Spotify because it reminds me of someone or deleting an entry in my journal I don’t want to look at again. At the same time, memory is you, the good and the bad side of it. And when your memory is gone, who are you, really?

77272-1-large-b419916277911583

Final review: 5/5. A lot of people loved this movie when it came out and if it’s been awhile since you have seen it, go watch it again. It gets better with time.

Up next: Run Lola Run

2 Comments