February 21- 27, 2010
58) Umberto D. Italian film by Vittorio De Sica about a poor old man and the pregnant maid who lives in his building. It was so dramatic throughout you kind of wanted him to just go ahead and end it... is that bad? Very open ending. 3.5 stars
59) Requiem for a Heavyweight. 1962 film starring Anthony Quinn, Jackie Gleason and Mickey Rooney with appearances by Cassius Clay and Jack Dempsey. A washed up boxer tries to make it as something else. I did not enjoy it. I was bored after 20 minutes. 2.9 stars
60) Awakenings. Penny Marshall directs Robert De Niro & Robin Williams in a film about people comatose for decades who are given a drug and miraculously awaken. You have to tell people this is based on a true story or no one would ever believe it. And even still it was a little too miraculous. Wheelchair-bound people can start to walk immediately after decades immobile? Yeah right. Something about this script felt heavy-handed. It may have been in the performances and wooden interaction between the characters. The timeline was also unclear. Cheesy ending. 3.2 stars
61) The Women. Joan Crawford and Rosalind Russell. Drama-filled, melodramatic down to the ending. This film has been remade only slightly better due in part to the fact that the remake is shorter. Praise God for that! 3.4 stars
62) The Importance of Being Earnest. Original film version of the Oscar Wilde play. Quite amusing. Lolol. 4.3 stars
63) The Egg and I. 1947 film about a couple running an egg farm. Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMuray star. I certainly could've done without the deferential black role. And white people as Indians... Mildly amusing.
64) Topper. Cary Grant movie about 2 fun ghosts haunting a boring man. Amusing enough. I could've stood to pay more attention to this movie but I was cooking, too. Not really one you had to study up for though! Lol. 3.6 stars
65) Shall We Kiss. French film about friends who have an affair then develop an elaborate plot to make things right. Intriguing but after about 70 minutes you wanted some sort of payoff and this one felt far off. When it finally came it didn't feel big enough. Still worth a watch. 3.5 stars (I really want to make this 3.45 stars but I'll refrain.)
66) Indescretion of an American Wife. 1954 by Italian director Vittorio de Sica starring Jennifer Jones and Montgomery Clift. Is he supposed to be an Italian? Since it's supposed to be about a woman's Italian lover... If so, his accent is horrific. For the record, he IS supposed to be Italian. Fail. The film won an Oscar for best b&w costume design. Makes sense since Dior did her clothes. The pushy lover tries to keep her around which presents some problems. Just okay. Enough to keep my attention a little. Since it's short I might watch it again. 3.2 stars
67) The September Issue. Documentary about Vogue's largest issue ever: the September issue (always its largest). Beautifully shot! Loved the cinematography!!! Light on Anna Wintour unfortunately. You see her making cuts but don't really hear any reasoning or get a deeper look at her as a person. I know that's part of the mystique but still. There was more Grace, a top editor, who was alternately fun, a sympathetic character and irritating. Interesting combination. I think they were supposed to foil each other but that didn't quite work. Andre Leon Talley had a ridiculous tennis scene, encased in LV. Easily the laziest tennis lesson ever. The timing of the film felt very uneven and somewhat uncomfortable as you got closer to the end. A month would take the same length of time as a day. Weird. I know they were going for feature-length but I didn't really feel like there was enough of a story there to make it watchable for more than an hour. Nice access to the major players at Vogue and a great PR move on their part because I definitely want to see this issue now. Just 3.4 stars
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