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Agamemnon7
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Naked City: Burst of Passion (1959)
Haunting, downtown based episode of Naked City.
This is less a review than it is a correction of reprtr's review. Halloran's neighborhood is not in Queens. He lives on the north side of Stuyvesant Street, where it intersects with E.10th Street, in the East Village. The opening corner shootout shows the shooter crossing from 10th to Stuyvesant just west of 2nd Avenue, and then turning the corner to 2nd as he continues his rampage. One of the shots in the second scene is a bit confusing as to location, as you can see Ratner's across the street and Ratner's was, I believe, located further downtown, but the famous Second Avenue Deli was in that location for years and it's possible it once was known as Ratner's. St. Mark's church figures prominently in these scenes as well.
This opening sequence gives pause to those who like to think of the 1950s as a less violent time than our own.
Although none of the businesses shown on this episode are still there, the buildings mercifully haven't changed very much at all. I loved looking at my recent neighborhood as it appeared in 1959!
(POSSIBLE SPOILER) It is, as are most, an excellent episode of the series in its half-hour format. The final confrontation between Halloran and Eisart on a near-deserted wintry Coney Island backdrop is haunting both dramatically and visually.
The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936)
Almost laughable
Muni does give a good performance in this film, but he gets no help at all from a comically inept screenplay. You keep expecting someone to say "Eureka! I've got it!". Things wouldn't be more preposterous or clichéd if they did.
I realize movies date over time, but I love older films and usually find them far, far better written than their more recent counterparts. This film is a sorry exception.
Pasteur's efforts, struggles and eventual triumphs would certainly make a worthy subject for a good film biography. This, sadly, is not it.
I think the Academy was acknowledging what Muni had to contend with in awarding him for this. Had they waited, he might have been awarded for an equally good performance in a much better movie (THE LIFE OF EMILE ZOLA) one year later.
Peeper (1975)
Not very good, but a curio.
I don't think Peeper is a very good film, but I agree that it shouldn't have completely fallen off the map the way it did. It was given a belated if limited DVD release last year.
Timing was not on this film's side. Chinatown paid tribute to film noir in classic fashion only a year before it was released; Play It Again, Sam had spoofed it successfully only a year before that. Those two films, not to mention the films of the film noir era, leave Peeper looking very slight indeed.
Still, Caine has fun as an almost bumbling detective, and Natalie brings smarts and unparalleled sex appeal to her role as a shady lady. The supporting cast is pretty nigh flawless as well, and production values couldn't be better. The script, unfortunately, doesn't add add up to much.
Director Hyams, in a special feature interview, recalls telling Natalie to turn around at the end of a long tracking shot at the end of a long day. She asked what would motivate her to do that and he answered that the camera couldn't follow her if she didn't. She paused and said, "okay, I can feel that". It's too bad that at no point in her last decade did Natalie get to make a movie where character motivation was prioritized, but it's unsurprising to hear that she was a good sport about it.
Breaking and Entering (2006)
Ultimately a misfire
"Breaking and Entering" strikes me as an effort by the extremely talented Anthony Minghella to prove he is more than a director of epics set against impressive landscapes. He is successful with enough of "Breaking and Entering" to prove this point, but the film is still his least satisfying. Lead characters who (as both written by Minghella and played by Jude Law and Robin Wright Penn) seem like rejects from films we know all too well almost fatally weigh him down.
****SLIGHT SPOILERS INCLUDED FROM THIS POINT ON**** Minghella certainly starts the film off intriguingly, with a heist at Law's architectural firm that is well orchestrated and which is later quite audaciously repeated. Whether given maximum or minimal screen time, all of the characters we come into contact with at and around the firm, either working there or investigating the break-ins, hold our attention effortlessly. Vera Farmiga steals it and damn near walks off with the film as a working girl whose beat includes the surrounding alleyway.
A third attempted and failed theft leads Law to the home of his cleaner, played by Juliette Binoche. She is a Bosnian refugee, and her son, working for a group led by his uncle, is the fleeing thief followed by Law. Binoche is as good as Farmiga, albeit in a far less flashy role, and this film could easily garner Oscar nominations for the two actresses. Rafi Gavran is similarly impressive as the conflicted son.
Unfortunately, the central focus of the film initially and ultimately is on the Law/Wright Penn relationship, and the two seem to be giving strained, acting-class level performances to prove how emotionally raw they can get. They are not helped by the heavy-handed metaphors their dialogue is laden with (nor is Law helped by his character's referring to his penchant for metaphors). Though their scenes never seem to be up to the level of the rest of the film, the film takes a nose-dive from which it never recovers when they get into an argument in their car. This scene is almost comically overwrought and is even less convincing than the weakest of those which precede it, including their trips to a therapist and an accident involving Wright-Penn's daughter at Law's work site. Law's final act on behalf of Binoche and Gavran also rings fatally false.
So, in spite of some unquestionably involving plot twists and outstanding supporting performances, "Breaking and Entering" is ultimately a misfire.