Dogs Bark

So Werdet Alt, Ihn Zu Verstehen - - Ripley’s Game (2002, Italy, Color, 110 min) - - 25 September 2020

Recommended. I wonder if Patricia Highsmith knew how many actors would try to inhabit Tom Ripley . . . her most famous character. Most probably, she did, and she admired the versions given us by Alain Delon (Purple Noon) and Dennis Hopper (The American Friend). The last was the first version of Ripley’s Game and Highsmith suggested that director Wim Winders adapt the novel. The 2002 version is more true to the book and a more conventional storyline. John Malkovich (In the Line of Fire) has made a cottage industry of psycho killers so adding Ripley seems obvious. Dougray Scott (My Week With Marilyn) - - Ripley’s homicidal protégé - - has one of the most crucial jobs, giving us an enigmatic final smile that even puzzles Ripley. Liliana Cavani (The Night Porter) was the director of record but Malkovich reportedly finished the film due to a scheduling conflict. Ennio Morricone (The Untouchables) provides another great score.

Almost Ready For Prime Time - - The King Of Staten Island (2020, USA, Color, 136 min) - - 6 September 202

Recommended.  I don’t know who to blame for the fact that The King Of Staten Island isn’t a better movie but it probably was a group effort. Judd Apatow (The 40-Year-Old Virgin) should be a competent director by now. But then, directing a talented comic, Pete Davidson (Saturday Night Live), in a movie based on his own life faces a yawning - - literally - - pit of self-indulgence. This movie is likable enough, just like Davidson, but at least twenty minutes too long and crammed full of bits and characters that don’t contribute to the whole. And there clearly IS a whole here: Davidson WoodyAllen-splaining to us why he’s a bit of a mess, yet indicating that enormous potential for adult funniness is in there . . . somewhere. Marisa Tomei (The Wrestler) continues to segue her crushworthy personna through mid-life. Stand-up Bill Burr (Date Night) does good work as Davidson’s almost stepfather.

A Magnificent Monad - - Le Samouraï (1967, France, Color, 105 min) - - 3 September 2020

Strongly recommended.  More Melville (Bob Le Flambeur) . . . and similar to Bob Le Flambeur in that Melville attempts to stretch characterization even further, creating a hit man who dresses like Alan Ladd (This Gun For Hire) but murders like Lee Marvin (Point Blank). Actually, Point Blank came out two months before Le Samouraï. Melville again takes advantage of his lead actor’s physical gifts - - herein Alain Delon’s (L'Eclisse) extreme good looks and symbolic wardrobe - - to create a mask. Delon’s Jef Costello is a cypher to which we can apply all sorts of deeper meaning. Equally mysterious is Cathy Rosier (Last Leap) as the piano player who pointedly refuses to identify Costello in a police line-up. Thus, the question is: why do each of these two characters do what they do by the end credits? Melville lets you form your own answer. François de Roubaix (The Old Gun) provides a nice score.

I Never Lose. Not Really. - - Bob Le Flambeur (1956, France, B/W, 98 min) - - 2 September 2020

An essential. Jean-Pierre Melville (Le Samouraï) made only thirteen movies in his short career, but his impact was overwhelming. Almost all action and neo-noir auteurs of the current era either cite his influence or pay outright homage to it. He is often cited as the father of the French New Wave . . . procreating an entirely separate lineage. And Bob Le Flambeur is the start of all this. It’s frequently chuckled over that the guy who played homage to the great hard-boiled/crime movie of the US 30’s and 40’s returned the favor to American movies of the 90’s. Paul Thomas Anderson’s marvelous neo-noir Hard Eight is one the most lovingly made tributes. The similarities between Bob and Philip Baker Hall’s Sydney are amusing. The breezy illogic of the heist and the criminal insouciance of Montmartre is fertilized by dialogue credited to scripter Auguste Le Breton (Rififi). The ending is a laugh-out-loud delight.