Misfortunes of Imaginary Beings: 04/20/25

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

Sunday, April 20, 2025

The Long Good Friday (John Mackenzie, 1980)

Bob Hoskins in The Long Good Friday

Cast: Bob Hoskins, Helen Mirren, Dave King, Bryan Marshall, Derek Thompson, Eddie Constantine, Paul Freeman, P.H. Moriarty, Stephen Davies, Brian Hall, Alan Hall, Paul Barber, Pauline Melville. Screenplay: Barrie Keeffe. Cinematography: Phil Meheux. Art direction: Vic Symonds. Film editing: Mike Taylor. Music: Francis Monkman.

The Long Good Friday ends with mobster Harold Shand (Bob Hoskins) being held at gunpoint by a character listed in the credits only as "1st Irishman." It provides a tour de force moment for Hoskins, as he registers a series of emotions -- fear, disgust, resignation, defiance, hope, and whatever the viewer can find there -- using only his face. Only the fact that the Irishman is played by Pierce Brosnan, making his film debut in a tiny role, distracts today from the moment, the still conclusion to an often explosive performance by Hoskins. He's beautifully supported by Helen Mirren as his mistress, Victoria, and a well-chosen cast. Only the rather too heavily laid on score by Francis Monkman feels like a flaw in this solid and entertaining British noir.