Archives for April 2011

‘Strangers on a Train’ brings out the bad in the best of us

April 14, 2011 by

Farley Granger and Robert Walker

Strangers on a Train/1951/Warner Bros. Pictures/101 min.

A friend of mine once went on a second date with a guy who showed up wearing saddle shoes. Let’s just say there wasn’t a third date. If only he’d seen 1951’s “Strangers on a Train.”  Alfred Hitchcock understood the importance of footwear and it shows in this stellar film.

He starts the story by contrasting the shiny, two-toned spats of Bruno Anthony (Robert Walker) with the sensible black dress shoes of Guy Haines (Farley Granger) as each emerges from a Diamond cab. We follow these parallel footsteps as they board the same train, hence the title.

These brief shots contain the crux of the film: Model citizens often hide hard-core badness and the most unsavory renegades and reprobates can surprise you with a virtue or two (especially if we count charm and fashion sense as virtues).

Marion Lorne

Despite their differences, Bruno and Guy both have monkeys on their backs. Bruno is a spiffy playboy with psychopathic tendencies. Besides drinking and gambling, he spends his time hatching schemes for space travel and blowing up the White House. Even though Bruno has his wealthy and wacky mother (Marion Lorne) wrapped around his little finger, his father (Jonathan Hale) isn’t so flexible. In fact, he keeps threatening to have Bruno “taken care of, if necessary, put under restraint.”

Guy is a pro tennis player who wants to marry his dream girl Anne Morton (Ruth Roman), daughter of Senator Morton (Leo G. Carroll). Hitch’s daughter Patricia plays Anne’s little sister, Barbara. Unluckily for Guy, he’s already married to venal and unfaithful Miriam (Kasey Rogers, credited as Laura Elliott).

So, during their train trip, Bruno strikes up a conversation with Guy, telling him: “I certainly admire people who do things.” Over drinks, smokes and a lamb-chop lunch, Bruno proposes a daring, if absurd, solution to both of their glitches: If Bruno murders Miriam, that would leave Guy free to marry Anne. In exchange, Guy would bump off Mr. Anthony. Guy laughs it off, but Bruno takes it as mutual pledge and proceeds to carry out his part of the deal, trailing Miriam to a carnival and murdering her.

When he hears the news, Guy’s shocked, but if he tells the police, Bruno will claim that Guy was an accomplice. Besides, he had motive. As the police investigate, Bruno pressures Guy to fulfill his part of the plan.

Guy resists, but Bruno won’t back down and turns into a bit of a stalker. Bruno also has an ace in the hole: he nabbed Guy’s engraved cigarette lighter when Guy left it behind after their lunch on the train. Guy may lack Bruno’s warped brilliance but he pushes back when cornered and he’s determined to set things right.

If you don’t love “Strangers on the Train,” I’ll be shocked. It’s a gloriously suspenseful story, based on a Patricia Highsmith novel. Raymond Chandler wrote the screenplay, but most of that was trashed and rewritten by Czenzi Ormonde, with uncredited help from Ben Hecht. (Whitfield Cook adapted.) Hitch and Chandler apparently had a hate/hate relationship. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Classic Noir Reviews Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Quick hit: ‘Strangers on a Train’

April 14, 2011 by

Strangers on a Train/1951/Warner Bros. Pictures/101 min.

Of the noir genre’s many chance meetings on trains, this is tops. Clean-cut tennis star Guy (Farley Granger) and loony playboy Bruno (Robert Walker) get to chatting. Turns out, they both have thorns in their sides, in the form of Guy’s wife and Bruno’s father. Bruno suggests each of them murder the other’s nemesis and shortly after follows through with his end of the bargain. One of Hitchcock’s best.

Filed Under: Classic Noir Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

My quest for the perfect eyeliner: Part One

April 13, 2011 by

Aah college … a taste of independence, man-packed parties, the luxury of spending an hour or more getting ready in the morning. Alas, the older I get, the less time it seems I have to pull myself together before rushing out the door. So to expedite the process, I thought I’d try a marker-tip eyeliner.

Chantecaille's Le Stylo is a breeze to apply.

My first experiment: Le Stylo Liquid Eyeliner, $26, from Chantecaille, a New York-based cosmetics company with an emphasis on botanicals. It is perhaps best known for its natural-looking, translucent foundations. The brand name comes from French-born Sylvie Chantecaille, a beauty industry veteran, who founded the firm with her daughter in 1997; another daughter and her husband are also involved.

Chantecaille’s web site describes Le Stylo as “a dramatic, long-lasting liquid liner [that] delivers a highly precise thin line of color. … A specially designed applicator tip ensures optimal control in application, while a high percentage of water ensures intense, extreme color.”

And indeed it is a breeze to apply. The light formula makes it easy to blend the line with little mess. It’s also great because it doesn’t flake off throughout the day the way heavier liquid liners tend to do. That said, I can’t give it high marks on staying power. When I use it on lower lashes, even with a dusting of powder first, it fades by midday. It’s easy enough to reapply but, at $26 a tube, that was a little disappointing. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Noir Stuff Tagged With:

COL•COA Festival offers first-rate lineup, mais oui!

April 11, 2011 by
Tickets are going fast for the 15th annual City of Lights, City of Angels (COL•COA) Film Festival that runs today through April 18 in Los Angeles.
#
In addition to 26 shorts, the festival will present 34 features, including several premieres. “The relationship between COL•COA and our audiences has evolved into a genuine love story over the last 15 years,” says Director and Programmer François Truffart. “We are thrilled that for this 15th anniversary year, we will bring an equally exclusive and high-profile lineup, keeping the passion for French cinema alive.”
#
And Friday, April 15, is the film noir series featuring:
#
At 5:45 p.m.: In “The Night Clerk” Vincent Rottiers plays Frédéric, a young man trying to return to society after his release from prison. He finds work in a mountain hotel owned by the bad-tempered Jacques (Jean-Pierre Bacri). Though Frédéric suspects Jacques may be involved in the mysterious disappearance of a hotel client, he remains silent to protect him. But police inspector Sylvie Poncet (Sylvie Testud) makes it harder and harder for Frédéric to keep quiet. Directed by Raphaël Jacoulot.

Romain Duris and Marina Foïs star in "The Big Picture."

#

At 7:45 p.m.: “The Big Picture” stars Romain Duris as a successful lawyer who seems to lead an enviable life. When he learns his wife is having an affair, he accidentally kills her lover. His orderly life now in ruins, he assumes the dead man’s identity and flees to the former Yugoslavia. Supporting actors include Catherine Deneuve, Branka Katic and Niels Arestrup. Based on a novel by Douglas Kennedy; directed by Eric Lartigau.

At 10:15 p.m.: “The Long Falling” tells the story of a battered woman (Yolande Moreau) who kills her husband of 30 years, tries to reunite with her estranged son and ends up on the run. Based on a novel by Keith Ridgway; directed by Martin Provost.
#
Other highlights include the following; see the site for details:
*CLASSIC REVIVAL: “Cold Cuts” (Bertrand Blier, 1977) With Gerard Depardieu, Bernard Blier, Jean Carmet. Classic black comedy about three inept murderers. Cast member Bernard Blier, a famous French actor, is director Bertrand Blier’s father.
#
*CLASSIC REVIVAL: “Les Bonnes Femmes” (Claude Chabrol, 1960). With Bernadette Lafont, Stephane Audran and Claude Berri. Noir master Chabrol’s classic New Wave tale of four Parisian shopgirls and their lives and dreams.

Catherine Deneuve

*“His Mother’s Eyes,” a drama starring Catherine Deneuve as a celebrity news anchor and Nicolas Duvauchelle as a troubled young author who wants to write her unauthorized biography and seduces her estranged daughter (Géraldine Pailhas) as a means of gathering information. Directed by Thierry Klifa.
#
*“The Clink of Ice,” Bertrand Blier’s new film; Blier will appear for discussion.
#
*Also be sure to check out: New films by well-known French directors Claude Lelouch, Guillaume Cantet, Catherine Breillat, Cedric Klapisch, Nicole Garcia, Jean Becker and Benoit Jacquot.
#
*To celebrate the announcement and recipients of the 2011 COL•COA awards, two of the winning films will be re-screened for free on Monday, April 18 at 7:30 p.m.
#
All films are screened at the Directors Guild Theater Complex, 7920 Sunset Blvd., in Los Angeles (half a block west of Fairfax Avenue and two blocks east of Crescent Heights). Free parking is available at the Directors Guild. Enter on Hayworth Avenue.
#
“The Big Picture” image from www.indiewire.com; Catherine Deneuve photo by Brigitte Lacombe, from www.altfg.com.
#
Filed Under: Noir Style Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A literate, exciting action movie that’s drop-dead gorgeous

April 9, 2011 by

Hanna/2011/Focus Features/111 min.

Michael Wilmington

By Michael Wilmington

“Hanna” is “Kick-Ass” and “The Bourne Identity” filtered through “Pride and Prejudice” and “Atonement.” And I don’t mean that as a knock.

Director Joe Wright, who made the 2005 Keira Knightley version of Jane Austen’s best-loved novel and the lauded film of Ian McEwan’s grim tale “Atonement,” is a director with a style both flashy and sumptuous.

And in “Hanna,” he’s demonstrating something we might not have expected from him: burn-down-the-house action-movie skills. The movie — starring Saoirse Ronan (the jealous little girl from “Atonement”) as the kick-ass title heroine Hanna, Eric Bana as her action-mentor dad Erik, and Cate Blanchett as Marissa, the vicious C.I.A. agent villainess — is such a departure from what Wright has done before that it’s hard not to be impressed.

Saoirse Ronan

Wright starts the film with a snowy deer hunt and kill in the wilds of Finland, where the gifted 16-year-old Hanna, trained in all manner of martial arts and assassin skills, brings down a stag and muses philosophically. The story moves with dizzying speed to the Moroccan desert, Hamburg and Berlin, escalating into spectacular brawls, subway battles and bloody showdowns.

It’s quite a ride. The whole movie is a long three-sided chase: Hanna is captured early on by Marissa when Erik leaves her on her own, after arranging to rendezvous with her later in Berlin. Then Hanna escapes and Marissa pursues both her and Erik. The fights are all set-pieces and Wright shoots one of them in a virtuosic unbroken Steadicam take, which reminds you of the spectacular tracking shot on Dunkirk Beach in “Atonement.”

The three lead actors — along with Tom Hollander as the perverse villain Isaacs, Olivia Williams, Jason Flemyng and Jessica Barden as the British family Hanna meets in the desert — have the kind of acting chops you don’t usually see in movies like this, and they display them as much as Seth Lochhead and David Farr’s script lets them.

All the characters, in fact, have more fullness and surprises than the action-movie norm. They’re reminiscent at times of the psychologically detailed or richly eccentric characters in an old-style British thriller by Alfred Hitchcock.

We haven’t had many really literate thrillers lately (The “Bourne” movies excepted), and it’s a pleasure to see one here, to see filmmakers who are trying to please us on a multitude of levels and not just trying to blow us out of our seats.

The results are drop-dead gorgeous and exciting, but not completely satisfying. What we’d expect from Wright — memorable characters and high-style high drama — are here, but not emphasized as much as the story sometimes needs in order to make total sense.

The action scenes are scorchers, and they’re shot beautifully by cinematographer Alwin Kuchler on stunning sites and sets by designer Sarah Greenwood. (Her interrogation chamber below the Moroccan desert is an homage to Ken Adam’s great War Room set in “Dr. Strangelove.”) But I thought they became a little too set-piecey at times, took over the show a little too much.

Ronan has a talent for bewitching the camera and for suggesting levels of thought, memory and passion beneath the surface. Ronan is kind of strong and silent here, which deepens the film’s mysteries, including any nagging questions we might have about the relationship among Hanna, Marissa and Erik. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Neo Noir Reviews Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Drink in the pink with divine nail color by Dior

April 8, 2011 by

Maybe it was Reese Witherspoon’s blush-pink wedding dress by Monique Lhuillier. Could be I’m just ready for hot weather. But I am all about pink this week! Shocking I know.

Dior Vernis has a great brush that eases application.

So my new favorite nail polish is Christian Dior’s Vernis, in Pink Kimono, $21 (on its side in the pic). Rereleased with a new formula and an oversize brush, this polish is easy to apply — the idea is that you can do it in one stroke.

I’m not that good, but I’ve used it a few times and I didn’t have too many mistakes, i.e. polish glopped on my cuticles or oozing into the sides of my nails. I had my nails done Sunday and the color held up well all week.

I don’t know if it’s thicker than other nail polishes, but somehow it’s more clingy or springy; it seems to grab onto your nail and stick there. Because the Saks sales guy was so animated about the products, I also bought Diorlisse Ridge-filling basecoat, in Pink Petal, $21, a soft shade that also looks good on its own.

Now if it would just warm up outside; it’s cloudy, cold and 43 degrees today in Los Angeles. But, hey, at least it’s Friday!

Product Source: From my own collection. I did not receive products or compensation from Dior.

Filed Under: Noir Style Tagged With: , ,

Film noir’s feline fatales: The cat in ‘The Asphalt Jungle’

April 6, 2011 by

More on the most famous kitties in film noir …

The Cat in the Diner in “The Asphalt Jungle” 1950

Name: Lola Pawsingham                                                

Character Name: Doris the Diner Cat

Bio: Unlike her “Asphalt Jungle” character Doris, who led a precarious and hardscrabble existence (stingy scraps and threats of harm from surly customers), feline actress Lola Pawsingham grew up in a secure and loving home, the daughter of Vaudeville’s Boots ‘n’ Hoots, a soft-shoe and comedy duo.

Lola Pawsingham

Lola and her parents were visiting relatives in Los Angeles when she ran into director John Huston at the Pig & Whistle in Hollywood; he immediately cast her in “The Asphalt Jungle.”

After filming wrapped, Huston invited her to join him on his next trip to Ireland. It was there, at the Owl & Pussycat pub in Galway, that she met the dashing, Sligo-born poet Seamus O’Haraball. Sparks flew and the pair embarked on a creative and romantic partnership that flourished for several years.

She inspired many of his works, perhaps most famously: “Lola and the Faun,” which was later turned into a play that premiered at the Tabby Theatre in Dublin. After that, they divided their time between Paris and Nice. But in 1959, tragedy struck and O’Haraball died in a plane crash on his way to London for the Eliot Awards, honoring feline-inspired verse and furry scribes. (O’Haraball was the favorite to win the highly coveted Jellicle lifetime-achievement award.)

Pawsingham was devastated, but a few years later met comedian Al E. Doode who managed to mend her broken heart and was by her basketside when she passed away peacefully in 1966.

Image from http://catsinsinks.com

Filed Under: Noir Style Tagged With: , , , ,

Free stuff from FNB: Win ‘Blow Out’ or ‘The Maybelline Story’

April 6, 2011 by

Gerald C. has won March’s giveaway and will receive a copy of “Sweet Smell of Success,” recently rereleased by Criterion. For the April giveaway, I have two nice prizes and will pick two winners.

John Travolta in "Blow Out"

First, the lovely people at Criterion will provide a copy of Brian DePalma’s 1981 neo-noir thriller, “Blow Out,” starring John Travolta, Nancy Allen and John Lithgow. Extras include new interviews with DePalma and Allen.

Second, eyeing up a family drama: In 1915, when Tom Lyle Williams watched his sister Mabel fix her fire-singed lashes and brows with petroleum jelly, coal dust and ash, little did he know he was making a date with destiny. Read about the building of an iconic brand in “The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It,” a book by Sharrie Williams with Bettie Youngs.

To enter, just leave a comment on any FNB post from April 1-30. The winners will be randomly selected at the end of the month and announced in early May. Include your email address in your comment so that I can notify you if you win. Your email will not be shared.

Good luck!

Filmways Pictures image

Filed Under: Noir Stuff, Noir Style Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Farley Granger (1925-2011): A face born for film noir and a movie immortal

April 4, 2011 by

By Michael Wilmington

Farley Granger

Farley Granger, who died at 85 on March 27, was the darkly handsome, sensitive-looking lead in four indisputable noir classics: Nicholas Ray’s “They Live by Night” (1949), Anthony Mann’s “Side Street” (1950), and by Alfred Hitchcock: “Rope” (1948) and “Strangers on a Train” (1951).

Blessed (or sometimes cursed) with pretty-boy looks, dark curly hair and an expression that could vary from bruised innocence and outright anguish to wary bemusement and dissolute sadism, Granger became a Hollywood movie star at 18, right out of North Hollywood High, when Samuel Goldwyn decided to sign him and groom him.

The teenager was cast in two Lewis Milestone World War II movies, “North Star” (1943) and “The Purple Heart” (1944). Goldwyn signed him again when Granger returned from WWII service in 1948.

It’s his noirs that make Farley Granger a movie immortal. We remember him best as the murderous but conscience-plagued college boy modeled on thrill-killer Nathan Leopold in “Rope”; as the desperate young husband caught in a web of crime in “Side Street”; as the bank-robbing outlaw, Bowie, part of a Bonnie-and-Clyde team with Cathy O’Donnell’s Keechie in “They Live By Night” (O’Donnell also co-starred with him in “Side Street”); and as socially ambitious tennis star Guy Haines, bedeviled by the persistent “criss-cross” killer, Bruno Anthony (the magnificently deranged Robert Walker), in Hitchcock’s masterpiece “Strangers on a Train.”

After a minor noir “The Naked Street” and a lush period crime drama “The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing” (both 1955), Granger returned far less often to the big screen, though he remained a permanent part of Hollywood’s historical landscape.

And of the international film landscape. One of his finest performances was as the handsome, seductive and amoral Austrian Army officer, Lt. Franz Mahler, the wastrel who ruins Alida Valli’s life, in Luchino Visconti’s great operatic Italian period drama from 1954 “Senso” – a role that Marlon Brando had wanted and read for.

(“Senso” has just been released in a splendid Criterion edition, complete with a documentary, interviews and a bonus disc of the English-language version, “The Wanton Contessa,” with Granger’s voice.)

Farley Granger starred in "Side Street" from 1950 directed by Anthony Mann.

Sensitive or troubled in most of his famous parts, Granger may have suffered in ’50s Hollywood, a time and place where his bisexuality – hinted at in his “Rope” and “Strangers” roles – could be something of a career killer. (Among his lovers: “Rope’s” screenwriter Arthur Laurents, composer-conductor Leonard Bernstein, Shelley Winters and Ava Gardner.) [Read more…]

Filed Under: Noir Style Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Honey, your April horoscope is here …

April 1, 2011 by

Fate reigns supreme in film noir, but that doesn’t mean we don’t love us some zodiac fun. Hope your April is devoid of tiresome fools and fretting over taxes, and instead marked by spring’s sensual delights and adorable bunnies bearing baskets of treats. And happy birthday, Aries and Taurus! A special shout-out to Aries bad asses Bette Davis, Spencer Tracy and Gregory Peck (April 5), Francis Ford Coppola and Russell Crowe (April 7), Julie Christie and Sarah Michelle Gellar (April 14), Maria Bello (April 18) and Taurus mega-talents Jack Nicholson (April 22), Al Pacino (April 25) and Penelope Cruz (April 28).

Bette Davis

Aries (March 21-April 20): Just when you thought strong-willed Aries was aptly personified by Joan Crawford (March 26), along comes Bette Davis (April 5) to give Joan a run for her money. An actress, a fighter and a thinker, Davis was always ahead of her time. One off-screen example: When she co-founded and ran the Hollywood Canteen, a nightclub for WWII servicemen, she insisted that the venue be racially integrated, pointing out that in combat, “The black soldiers take the bullets the same as the whites.” This month, follow in her determined footsteps and, on the creative front, adhere to this Davis maxim: “Attempt the impossible in order to improve your work.” Meanwhile, live it up! Be spontaneous, sexy and silly, and don’t waste time on guilt.

Taurus (April 21-May 21): It might be high time for a spring shopping spree. But before you whip out your wallet, consider the singular beauty of a big fat bank balance; it is a sight to behold. Perhaps you could get by on last year’s haul or restrict yourself to one frugal purchase. Don’t forget to tap your crafty, ever-so-slightly conniving side to dream up a few clever April Fools’ jokes. You shouldn’t deny your adoring fans the chance to enjoy your terrific flair for fun. Be bold with your man the week of the 18th. Come to think of it, why wait till then? [Read more…]

Filed Under: Noir Horoscopes Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
« Previous Page