Expect the Unexpected

The French film poster for EVERYONE WANTS TO KILL ME (1957), directed by Henri Decoin.

When a movie refuses to fit snugly into a specific genre, that could be a sign that the filmmakers were either unable to capture the desired approach and tone or that the story/screenplay dictated a less conventional approach to the narrative. I suspect that the latter reason is why Tous Peuvent Me Tuer (English title, Everyone Wants to Kill Me, 1957), directed by Henri Decoin, is hard to place into any specific film category. If you were to watch the movie with the sound turned off, you would probably classify it as a brooding French noir. Yet, if you add in the music score and the animated performances, it comes across as an almost lighthearted crime caper flick. Add to this a segue into prison melodrama which soon becomes a whodunit murder mystery. And just to keep things off balance, stir in a romance, some comic relief and a wrap-up that positions the entire affair as a morality play. 

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Dreamer Schemer

Vittorio Gassman as the overly ambitious Guido in Il Successo (1963)

Vittorio Gassman as the overly ambitious Guido in Il Successo (1963)

“The worst poverty is not wanting to be rich!”

Something is gnawing at Guido. It’s the feeling that life is passing him by and he will never be anything but average which, to him, is the same as being a nobody. We’ve all known someone like Guido whose desire to be rich, famous and envied by all becomes his all-consuming obsession. Is it because his parents were peasants? Despite that, he still went to college, has a steady, respectable job at a major real estate firm and is married to Laura, a beautiful, talented woman who is on the fast track to success at a public relations firm with high end clients. So what’s the problem?   Continue reading

Adrift in a L.A. Haze

Anouk Aimée in Jacques Demy's Model Shop (1969)

Anouk Aimée in Jacques Demy’s Model Shop (1969)

Los Angeles has served as the backdrop for countless Hollywood movies but in Jacques Demy’s Model Shop (1969), the French director’s first and only American film (if you don’t count the 1984 made-for-TV movie Louisiana), the city becomes the real protagonist. With its sprawling urban landscape, oil derricks, desolate beaches and constant traffic, it  provides a vivid canvas for a contemporary love story about romantic longing, missed connections and unrealized dreams. Film writer Clare Stewart referred to the film in the film journal Senses of Cinema as “a road movie that doesn’t go anywhere” but that’s not a putdown. It’s an apt description of what Demy was trying to create here – a drifting, dreamy mood piece.   Continue reading

Golden Salamander: Treasure and Death in Tunisia

Golden Salamander posterThough relatively unknown today, Golden Salamander (1950), Ronald Neame’s second directorial effort, is one of those unexpected but welcome cinema excursions that actually delivers on its exotic title. On the surface, it appears to be no more than pure pulp, a B-movie thriller, but the casting, direction, music score and atmospheric setting elevate it to A-picture status. It might not be great art but it’s total escapism, executed with flair.      Continue reading