| a |
"Indochine",
from Tuna
Tuna's commentary:
"There is no doubt that Indochine is one
of the most beautifully photographed films ever
made. The location -- French Indo China or Viet
Nam -- is breathtaking. Catherine Deneuve plays a
wealthy French rubber plantation owner who adopts
the daughter of neighbors when they die. The girl
(Linh Dan Pham) grows into a beautiful woman at
about the time communist-backed rebels start
trying to oust the French. The first exposure
follows a scene where she collapses on top of a
male school friend who is shot by the police. A
young French navy captain who has had an affair
with Deneuve carries her home and cleans her up,
and she falls madly in love with him.
The film could be called an historical period
piece, but has been slammed as full of historical
inaccuracies. My take is that it catches the mood
and attitudes of the French and the Viet Namese,
even if it does take some poetic license with the
facts. I see this film as a collection of love
stories. There is the love of the French for
their landholdings and way of life, the love of
Deneuve for her adopted daughter and then her
grandson, and the love of Pham for the Navy
captain. I am not quite alone in considering this
a masterpiece. It won an Oscar for Best Foreign
Film, and numerous international awards.
In a way, it reminds me of watching Gandhi,
Tora Tora Tora and Amadeus. The pace is not
sufficient to please those with short attention
spans, but it is a masterful bit of film making.
thumbnails
Linh Dan Pham (1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9,
10)
"The
House of Exorcism", from Tuna
Tuna's commentary:
This is a remake of Mario Bava's La Casa
dell'esorcismo with a lot of added footage
capitalizing on the popularity of The Exorcist.
They even had the pea soup. There is also
full-frontal nudity from a lovely unidentified
actress who plays the part of the Exorcist's dead
girlfriend whom Satan uses to tempt the priest.
Satan is played by Kojak (complete with
TootsiePop). A tourist (Elke Sommer) becomes lost
and is tricked into spending the night at Chez
Kojak, while her alter ego is being exorcised by
the priest (Robert Alda) in the added footage.
Elke wins the award for overacting in a lame
movie hands down, and ties with Unknown Woman for
best breasts.
The DVD quality is odd. The image resolution
is not bad at all, but there are hundreds of
white specs of dropout throughout the film. It
should be obvious by now that this is not in my
top 100 list.
thumbnails
Elke Sommer (1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9)
Sylva Koscina (1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6)
Unknown (1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9,
10)
"The Hot
Spot", from GR
Ya know, I've never seen
this movie. Shhh, don't tell anyone, because it
could get me drummed out of the celebrity
pornographers union, since this movie represents
one of the high water marks of bare breasts in
cinema.
Oh, it's a sorry thing
to see when they strip away your commission, like
the opening scene of "Branded", when
Bob Guccione calls you up in front of the room,
and breaks your dildo over his knee, and points
to the door.
Anyway, it features
Jennifer Connelly sitting there topless in broad
daylight, not moving around, just a perfect shot
of her chest which, by many accounts, is the best
in Hollywood. And Virginia Madsen is no slacker
in the chest department either, so it has to be a
good movie, no matter what else happens. Hell,
I'd put up with Rob Lowe and Rosie O'Donnell
making love and telling jokes and singing, if I
could see Connelly and Madsen. OK, maybe not the
singing.
Where's the DVD on this
puppy?
Jennifer Virginia
|
a |
