THE LADY NOIR AFFAIR / BY LADY DIOR / CHAPTER ONE / DIRECTED BY OLIVIER DAHAN FEAT. MARION COTILLARD

Marion Cotillard- Behind the scenes Lady Dior campaign

Last Year at Marienbad comes to DVD-Don't worry it is still pretty weird...

This film, an earlyl work of the French New Wave also doubles as an arty head game film. Director Alain Resnais’ haunting (and haunted?) Last Year at Marienbad (L’année dernière à Marienbad) has been maddeningly enigmatic as a film experience for almost 50 years.

Written by the somewhat controversial novelist (and former scientist) Alain Robbe-Grillet, this eerie work somehow wraps the past with the present in telling its murky tale of a man and a woman (Giorgio Albertazzi and Delphine Seyrig) who met a year ago (or maybe not) at the very chateau they are now rambling around in (or maybe not).

This film has a mixed reputation (it is on the occassional worst films list) and its willful lack of real narrative and resolution can be frustrating to movie goers who tend to place some importance on plot and resolution. Still, in the right mood one can appreciate a film like this as one might enjoy a photo, poem or sculpture that does not have any immediate definition...

Criterion has some extras on this release including extensive interview with Resnais who tries to explain the film for you...

Set your TIVO-German Western showcases Stewart Granger's cracking gravitas...

Stewart Granger, a perpetually underrated matinee idol who had a long career as a leading man (he actually got more handsome as he got older) is set to be Turner Classic Movies' Star of the Month in July. Some of Granger's late in his life roles were German films and one of these films, Frontier Hellcat (German Title-Winnetou und der Bärenjäger), is set to be part of the many Granger films screened by TCM in July. The film, a German language production, is based on a series of novels by Karl May, is given considerable gravity due to Granger's rakish authority.

This film is part of a German tradition of Westerns which romanticized the 19th Century American West even more than some of the Hollywood films by Ford, Hawks, etc. There were almost 600 produced in Germany between about 1960-1975. The films varied in quality, but were part of a supernova of European Western Films of the 60's and 70's which made a real impact on the European Film market (and counterbalanced the artful reputation of European films of the time). It was a little rare for an established Hollywood leading man to partake in this kind of thing (Eastwood left Hollywood a second tier TV star and went to Italy to become a superstar).

Strangely enough, Granger's films are not widely available on DVD, so this screening is more than a rarity, it is a bit of a re-discovery of Granger's charasmatic, appealing screen persona.

The film is set to screen July 14 at 130 am...

How to Run a Homegrown Film Event: Rooftop Coming to a Roof Near You?

How to Run a Homegrown Film Event: Rooftop Coming to a Roof Near You?

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If you hurry, you can catch Beatrice Dalle's Big, Beautiful Ass in the Betty Blue Director's Cut at Cinema Village.....

Beatrice Dalle, only 21 at the time of Betty Blue's release, stoked a whole generation of art house nerds' libido (including yours truly) as she flounced around in exotic (for the time) Euro-lingerie and showed off her curvy assets. Looking back, I missed the bipolar fits and propensity for screaming fits...Still, Dalle's star turn is one of the most underrated of the time (and definitely the most underrated European performance of the 80's). Plus, that first scene retains it's raw intimacy and never fails to satisfy. Give the actress her due and check in with the film and see how it has aged after 20 plus years...

June 12 only...Better make it quick
www.cinemavillage.com

Korda/Laughton impress with landmark British Production Rembrandt

Alexander Korda's Rembrandt from 1936, (which is featured in the Korda Directed Private Lives series (available in box set form from Criterion) caught the great thespian Laughton in particular rare form as the film is one of the best depictions of the art and life of not only a great painter (but, as it demonstrates), a great man.

The film is successful cinema because the script (by Carl Zuckmayer, from a story by June Head) makes Rembrandt verbal artfulness and charisma as captivating as his visual skills. The early part of the film focuses on the death of his wife, Saskia; no Stoffels. Laughton's allure and fascninating presence are in every frame of the film whether recounting the tale off King Saul or enoying the pleasures of a pickled fish. There are few actors like Laughton today (oddly enough, Rusell Crowe is one of Laughton's spiritual decadents) and these films help remind the viewer what an odd, attractive and interesting presence he was. Indeed, these British films capture Laughton at a weird moment in his career when he was close to being a leading man. As you probably know, this was for but a moment...