The big clock/Farrow/USA/1948
A media mogul’s mistress is murdered and the main protagonist is asked to find a mysterious man who was seen with her the previous night (I dare you to try to put more “M”s in a sentence
); too bad that supposedly nefarious man is none other than himself. Some parts are reminiscent of the Costner vehicle where he is trapped into a building while conducting a search for, you got it, himself. Drama, humor, crime and love all wrapped into one. This film is a great mix of noir and Hitchcockian mischief.
Flic Story/Deray/France/1975
Standard, semi-realistic drama about decent cop (Delon, wearing some great 40s outfit including a grey flannel suit with back pleats and half-belt) trying to catch a homicidal, nihilistic robber with nothing to loose (Trintignant). Watch it for the costumes or because you’re either a fan of Delon, Trintignant or Deray, otherwise give it a pass. BTW Deray’s best film is “On me meurt que deux fois” (You only die twice) so if you’ll only watch one, find this one.
Tajja/choi-dong-hun/Korea/2006
A gambling movie sort of inspired by the famous God of Gamblers series starring Chow-Yun Fat. The remake falls short of the original though, as the over the top bids in money and especially body parts (I’ll bid my right hand!!!) aren’t matched by sufficiently staged and spectacular setups. The public doesn’t want the last match to be in a mid-size boat with 4 witnesses, he wants a floating casino and hundreds of gangster guests in tuxedos carrying deadly blades. This movie should scream “danger, excitement, romance!!” but sorts of whispers it, and still attempt to remain a commercially viable vehicle that follows the expectation of the genre to the letter.
The blue gardenia/Lang/USA/1953
Dignified leading lady gets dumped by her army sweetheart stationed in Japan, accepts to get dinner with a forceful playboy, gets drunk and wakes up next to his corpse. Now she must try to hide her involvement and lives in fear of the police. A journalist looking to sell copies keeps writing about the mysterious lady who left a blue gardenia on the crime scene and asks her to contact him, secretly harbouring intentions of handling her to the police after getting her exclusive confession. Lang US noirs are pretty nice, I’d look for some of those; he really make you feel like he’s got a score to settle with repressive social mechanisms and institutions and the cowardly sheep mentality that perpetuates them.
Panic in the streets/Kazan/USA/1950
Police find the corpse of a murdered man that is infected with the plague; they have 48 hours to find the murderer before the virus spreads like wildfire to the whole of New Orleans. Good clean fun from your favourite McCarthy collaborator.
Police python 357/Corneau/France/1975
A solitary to the point of autism police inspector falls for a mysterious girl who is, unbeknown to him, his own boss’ kept mistress. When the later learns that his girlfriend has an unknown lover, he ends up killing her and disposes of the evidence. As luck would have it, the inspector has to conduct an investigation that, no matter how extreme a step he takes to muddy the trail, inexorably leads to himself. The interest of the film lies in the gradual depersonalization of the inspector (a terrific Yves Montand) who is so affected by the death of his lover he suffers from a gradual depersonalization that leads him to connect his identity more and more to his gun (a python 357) to the exclusion of anything else. There’s also an emotionally shattering scene between Montand and his real life wife (Simone Signoret), who plays the police commissioner’s wife.
and Jane Birkin more than make up for this.
