Misfortunes of Imaginary Beings: 11/08/24

A blog formerly known as Bookishness / By Charles Matthews

"Dazzled by so many and such marvelous inventions, the people of Macondo ... became indignant over the living images that the prosperous merchant Bruno Crespi projected in the theater with the lion-head ticket windows, for a character who had died and was buried in one film and for whose misfortune tears had been shed would reappear alive and transformed into an Arab in the next one. The audience, who had paid two cents apiece to share the difficulties of the actors, would not tolerate that outlandish fraud and they broke up the seats. The mayor, at the urging of Bruno Crespi, explained in a proclamation that the cinema was a machine of illusions that did not merit the emotional outbursts of the audience. With that discouraging explanation many ... decided not to return to the movies, considering that they already had too many troubles of their own to weep over the acted-out misfortunes of imaginary beings."
--Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude

Friday, November 8, 2024

The Beat That My Heart Skipped (Jacques Audiard, 2005)

Linh-Dam Pham and Romain Duris in The Beat That My Heart Skipped

Cast: Romain Duris, Niels Arestrup, Jonathan Zaccaï, Gilles Cohen, Linh-Dan Pham, Aure Atika. Emmanuelle Devos, Anton Yakoviev, Mélanie Laurent. Screenplay: Jacques Audiard, Tonino Benacquista, based on a screenplay by James Toback. Cinematography: Stéphane Fontaine. Production design: François Emmanuelli. Film editing: Juliette Welfling. Music: Alexandre Desplat.

Cry of the Hunted (Joseph H. Lewis, 1953)

Vittorio Gassman and Barry Sullivan in Cry of the Hunted

Cast: Barry Sullivan, Vittorio Gassman, Polly Bergen, William Conrad, Mary Zavian, Robert Burton, Harry Shannon, Jonathan Cott. Screenplay: Jack Leonard, Marion Wolf. Cinematography: Harold Lipstein. Art direction: Malcolm Brown, Cedric Gibbons. Film editing: Conrad A. Nervig.

Mac (John Turturro, 1992)

John Turturro, Carl Capotorto, and Michael Badalucco in Mac

Cast: John Turturro, Michael Badalucco, Katerine Borowitz, Paul Capotorto, Matthew Sussman, Ellen Barkin, Dennis Farina, Olek Krupa, John Amos. Screenplay: John Turturro, Brandon Cole. Cinematography: Ron Fortunato. Production design: Robin Standefer. Film editing: Michael Berenbaum. Music: Richard Termini, Vin Tese.

The Hard Way (Vincent Sherman, 1943)

Ida Lupino, Jack Carson, and Joan Leslie in The Hard Way

Cast: Ida Lupino, Dennis Morgan, Joan Leslie, Jack Carson, Gladys George, Faye Emerson, Paul Cavanaugh. Screenplay: Daniel Fuchs, Peter Viertel. Cinematography: James Wong Howe. Art direction: Max Parker. Film editing: Tomas Pratt. Music: Heinz Roemheld.

Pickup Alley (John Gilling, 1957)

Bonar Colleano and Victor Mature in Pickup Alley

Cast: Victor Mature, Anita Ekberg, Trevor Howard, Bonar Colleano, Dorothy Allison, André Morell, Martin Benson, Eric Pohlmann, Alec Mango. Screenplay: John Paxton, A.J. Forrest. Cinematography: Ted Moore. Art direction: Paul Sheriff. Film editing: Richard Best. Music: Richard Rodney Bennett.