c o m i n g s o o n

The Sugurland Express (1974)

The Sugarland Express is a 1974 American drama film starring Goldie Hawn and William Atherton. It is the first theatrical feature film directed by Steven Spielberg. It is about a husband and wife trying to outrun the law and was based on a true story. The event partially took place, the story is partially set, and the movie was partially filmed in Sugar Land, Texas.

Other scenes for the film were filmed in Lone Oak Community, Floresville, Pleasanton, Converse and Del Rio, Texas.

In May 1969, Ila Fae Dent assisted her husband Robert Dent escape from the Beauford H. Jester prison farm in Texas, because she feared their son will be placed in the care of her mother. During their flight, they overpowered and kidnapped Texas Department of Public Safety trooper Kenneth Crone, holding him hostage in a slow-moving caravan, along with reporters in news vans and helicopters. The Dents and Crone travelled through Port Arthur, Houston, Navasota, and finally Wheelock, Texas. In contrast to the film the events took only several hours.

The Dents brought Crone to the home of Ila Fae's mother, where they encountered numerous officers. An FBI agent and county sheriff shot and killed Robert Dent, and later arrested Ila Fae. Trooper Crone was unharmed. Ila Fae spent five months in a women's correctional facility, and later died in 1992. Crone was an advisor on the film and had a small role as a deputy sheriff.

The promoters of the film played up the grassroots support that existed for a mother trying to claim custody of her child.

Some posters used the tagline:

A girl with a great following

Every cop in the state was after her.

Everybody else was behind her.

For the DVD release, the first line was dropped.

Black Sunday (1977)

Black Sunday is a 1977 American thriller film based on the novel by Thomas Harris. The film was nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Motion Picture in 1978. The inspiration of the story came from the Black September attack on Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics.

Michael Lander (Bruce Dern) is an American blimp pilot deranged by years of torture as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, a failed marriage, and a bitter court martial. He longs to commit suicide and take as many people as possible with him, so he conspires with Dahlia Iyad (Marthe Keller), an operative from a Palestinian terrorist group known as Black September, to launch a massive suicide bombing on American soil. Lander plans to detonate a flechette-based bomb, housed on the underside of a blimp, over the Miami Orange Bowl during the Super Bowl X between Pittsburgh and Dallas. American and Israeli intelligence agencies, led by Mossad agent David Kabakov (Robert Shaw) and FBI agent Sam Corley (Fritz Weaver), race to prevent the catastrophe. The President of the United States is also attending the game.

The film was a commercial hit when it was released in 1977. Although director John Frankenheimer lamented serious shortcomings in the visual effects of the climax (due to time and budgetary shortfalls), many critics trumpeted the final scene featuring a helicopter/blimp chase over the Orange Bowl as one of the more riveting and unusual in movie history. Black Sunday also features a film score from John Williams.

A significant portion of the filming was done during actual Super Bowl X at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida, on January 18, 1976. In the movie, Kabakov discusses the security arrangements for the game with Miami Dolphins owner Joe Robbie, who plays himself. In the movie, Jimmy Carter is shown as the President of the United States who attends the Super Bowl, although Gerald Ford was President when Super Bowl X took place.

The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company granted use of all three of its U.S.-based blimps for Black Sunday. The landing and hijacking scenes were photographed at the Goodyear airship base in Carson, California with Columbia (N3A); a short scene in the Spring, Texas base with the America (N10A), and the Miami, Florida Super Bowl scenes with the Mayflower (N1A), which was then based on Watson Island across the Port of Miami. While Goodyear allowed the use of their airship fleet, they did not allow the "Goodyear Wingfoot" logo (prominently featured on the side of the blimp) to be used in the advertising or movie poster for the film. Thus, the words "Super Bowl" are featured in place of the logo on the blimp in the advertising collateral.

Renaissance (2006)

Renaissance is a 2006 black-and-white animated cyberpunk/science fiction detective film by French director Christian Volckman. It was co-produced in France, United Kingdom and Luxembourg and released on 15 March 2006 in France and 28 July 2006 in the UK by Miramax Films. Renaissance features a rare visual style in which almost all images are exclusively black and white, with only occasional colour used for detail.

Paris in the year 2054, where every deed and gesture is checked and filmed, Ilona Tasuiev, a young female scientist, is kidnapped. Avalon, the megalithic corporation for which Ilona works, puts pressure on Karas, a controversial policeman specialising in abductions, to find her as quickly as possible. But Karas soon feels a little presence in his wake.

He isn't alone in the quest for Ilona, and his pursuers seem poised to overtake him. Finding Ilona becomes vital: the brilliant young woman is involved in a conspiracy which is bigger than any imaginable. She holds the key to a secret that puts humanity's future in question: The Renaissance Protocol...

The film opens with scenes establishing the kidnapping of scientist Ilona Tastuiev, who works for the megacorporation Avalon. The focus transitions to Barthélémy Karas, a policeman, as he defuses a hostage situation by killing the hostage-takers. Karas is soon after charged with solving the mystery of the disappearance of Ilona. Karas begins by contacting Jonas Muller, a former Avalon scientist familiar with Ilona.

After following a series of dead leads, Karas find Illona's car being driven. After capturing the driver, Karas turns him over to Farfallah, a Islamic mobster, in return for footage of Illona's car initially being stolen by an incredibly old appearing man.

Karas turns to Illonas sister, who breaks into Avalons archives and finds the man she saw in Illona's journal, Dr. Nakata. Nakata and Muller both studied progeria, and were part of an Avalon project to cure it. After Dr. Mullers' brother died of progeria, he destroyed all the groups research, including killing the remaining child patients.

Karas eventually finds Dr. Nakata, who reveals that Avalon cared little about the cure of the actual disease. By curing progeria, they would effectively create clinical immortality.

The producers used motion capture and computer graphics to create the film's unique look. The cast performed their scenes in motion-capture suits in front of a blue screen. Computer animators translated these animations to digital models used for the characters. The animated characters were placed in three-dimensional computer backdrops, with post-process effects added to achieve the film's final look.

In a similar way to Audi with its RSQ for I, Robot, French automaker Citroën designed a car specially for the film, imagining what a Citroën might look like in 2054.

The film cost 14 million € to make over six years. It was funded by Disney with 3 million USD provided from Miramax.

The voices are provided by Daniel Craig, Catherine McCormack, Jonathan Pryce and Ian Holm among others.

Games (1967)

Games is a 1967 psychological thriller, directed by Curtis Harrington and starring James Caan, Katharine Ross, and Simone Signoret.

Paul (James Caan) and Jennifer (Katharine Ross) are a pair of wealthy but blasé Upper East Side New York socialites with an attitude sometimes acompanying the overpriviledged; a propensity to amuse themselves in a bizarre, chic, and upscale fashion, in this case playing socialite games for their peers, and occasionally revealing what appears to be a playfully sadistic streak. Lisa (Simone Signoret), an older woman from France, arrives at their door one day selling cosmetics; the couple invite her in, and when the conversation reveals that Lisa is believed to have psychic abilities, Paul and Jennifer ask her to arrange some "games" for their amusement. Lisa proceeds to set up several situations of simulated domestic discord that the couple can react to. The plot turns deadly when an acquaintace is accidentally killed during a so-called "game." Paul has to go to enormous lengths to conceal any evidence. He fears being blackmailed by Lisa, whose psychic activities continue and intensify during her stay. Ultimately, at the request of Paul, Lisa leaves, for the welfare of an ever more anxious Jennifer. Toward the fim end we see Jennifer, alone at home, softly falling asleep in the courtyard, a mild breeze blowing leaves and rustling the window curtains. A calm, yet tense, momentary quiet seems to settle on the film. What follows is worthy of Hitchcock, and the super-twist ending outdoes itself.

Stylish photography, very well acted and very well written and directed thriller that will keep you guessing until the end. Katherine Ross and James Caan as the bored kinky NY couple are outstanding in one of their early roles. Made in 1967 this film was way ahead of it's time with it's themes. If you like offbeat mysteries "Games" is a game you will want to play! Hard to find on tape, not on DVD and rarely on TV. Too bad because this film is like one of those lost cinematic gems of late '60 that introduces us to a new Cinema.

Happy Birthday!

Yellow Treehouse Restaurant, Auckland, New Zealand

18 seated people and waiting staff in relative comfort complete with a bar

.

The tree-house concept is reminiscent of childhood dreams and playtime, fairy stories of enchantment and imagination . It’s inspired through many forms found in nature -the chrysalis/cocoon protecting the emerging butterfly/moth, perhaps an onion/garlic clove form hung out to dry. It is also seen as a lantern, a beacon at night that simply glows yet during the day it might be a semi camouflaged growth, or a tree fort that provides an outlook and that offers refuge.The plan form also has loose similarities to a sea shell with the open ends spiralling to the centre .

The Treehouse was designed by architects Peter Eising and Lucy Gauntlett from Pacific Environments Architects.

Built around a redwood tree, which is over 40m high and has a 1.7m diameter at its base, located north of Auckland, New Zealand, Yellow Tree House is designed by Pacific Environment Architects and Yellow Pages.

The structure is made of plantation poplar slats and used extensive natural lighting throughout. The tree house restaurant was built as a marketing promotion for New Zealand Yellow Pages.

In memoriam : J. D. Salinger 1919-2010

What ever happened to Baby Jane? (1962)

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) is an American psychological horror film produced and directed by Robert Aldrich. The screenplay by Lukas Heller is based on the novel of the same name by Henry Farrell. In 2003, the character of Baby Jane Hudson was ranked #44 on the American Film Institute's list of the 50 Best Villains of American Cinema.

The movie opens in 1917. Baby Jane Hudson (Julie Allred) is a vaudevillian child star. She performs to adoring crowds, and there’s even a “Baby Jane” doll. Jane is also a spoiled brat, and her doting stage father Ray (Dave Willock), gives in to her every whim. Her jealous sister Blanche (Gina Gillespie) watches from the wings.

Cut to the early 30’s. The roles are now reversed. Both sisters are movie stars, but Blanche is the successful and glamorous one, while Jane’s films have flopped. Unable to establish her talent as an adult actress, Jane has taken to drinking. One night after a party, one of the sisters is at the gate of her mansion. We see the other one in her car step on the gas and smash into the gate, severely injuring her sister.

In the present, both Blanche (Joan Crawford) and Jane (Bette Davis) live in their decrepit old mansion. Blanche is crippled from the automobile accident. She is usually holed up in her bedroom watching her old movies on television. Jane is a shadow of her former self, still drinking and wearing hideous caked on make-up. She is abusive towards her sister, who now depends on her. There are not many visitors at the house, except for their cleaning woman Elvira (Maidie Norman). Elvira fears for Blanche’s safety because of Jane’s erratic behaviour. She even tells Blanche that her sister has been opening her mail and dumping it in the trash. Later, when Jane finds out that Blanche intends on selling the house and putting her in a sanatorium, she responds by increasing her abuse. Blanche’s beloved parakeet even disappears.

Meanwhile, Jane gets the urge to go back into show business. In the living room, she sings her signature song from when she was a little girl, “I’ve Written a Letter to Daddy.” But when she gets a look at herself in the mirror and sees what time and age has done to her, she screams. Hearing this, Blanche presses a buzzer in her room to see what has happened. Jane responds by cursing and ripping the phone out of the wall in Blanche’s bedroom. She brings Blanche her lunch, and Blanche finds out what happened to her parakeet in a shocking manner. Jane serves the dead bird to her in a covered dish. Blanche is so frightened she refuses to eat the food Jane brings her.

Jane is now planning a comeback. She drives out to the local newspaper to place an ad for a pianist. While she’s out, Blanche makes an attempt to get help. She writes a note on a piece of paper and throws it out of her window. A neighbour, Mrs. Bates (Anna Lee) is outside, but she doesn’t see it. Nor can Mrs. Bates hear Blanche, because her daughter Liza, played by Bette Davis’s daughter Barbara Merrill, is playing loud music. Jane arrives back at the house, and while she is talking to Mrs. Bates, she sees the note near her foot. She picks it up, and goes up to Blanche’s room where she mocks her by telling her that she will never leave the house. Then she drops the note in Blanche’s lap. Jane gets a response to her ad. An overweight man named Edwin Flagg (Victor Buono) makes an appointment to see her that afternoon. Jane gives Elvira the day off and brings Blanche her lunch.

In one of the cinema’s most macabre moments, Blanche lifts the cover off the dish to find a dead rat. This sends her into hysterics. Later, Edwin shows up at the house. While Jane is showing him a scrapbook of herself, Blanche activates the buzzer. Enraged, Jane goes upstairs where she rips the buzzer apart and smacks her sister. Back in the living room, Jane rehearses with Edwin at the piano. She does a grotesque version of “Daddy.” Edwin tries to hide his horror because he realizes he can take advantage of the situation. They agree to his salary and Jane drives him home. While she’s out, Blanche discovers that Jane has practiced forging her signature and is writing checks. She tries to get down the stairs to use the telephone. When she reaches the phone, she calls Jane’s doctor and tells him that she needs help.

Jane arrives back and finds Blanche talking to him. Blanche abruptly gets off the phone, and Jane beats her senselessly, kicking her in the head and stomach. Disguising her voice as her sister’s, Jane picks up the phone and calls the doctor back. She tells him not to come because “Jane” has found another doctor. Then Jane drags her sister to her room, ties her up by her arms, gags her and leaves her there.

The next day, Elvira arrives to work. Jane tells her that her services are no longer needed and dismisses her. Jane then drives off to the bank to withdraw her sister’s money. Elvira pretends to get on a bus to go home. But instead she goes back to the house and finds that Blanche’s door has been locked. When Jane comes back, Elvira confronts her and demands the key to the room. Jane gives it to her, then finds Blanche bound and gaged, but as the maid enters the room, Jane hits her on the head with a hammer and kills her. Then she puts the body in her car and disposes of it.

The police call the house and tell Jane that a relative of her maid has reported her missing. She tells them that she hasn’t seen her for a week. Jane prepares to leave with her sister, fearing the police will discover what she’s done.

Suddenly Edwin shows up to receive his first payment. Blanche is able to knock something down in her room and Edwin goes up and sees the condition she’s in. She begs for help, and Edwin runs out of the house to get the police. Desperate, Jane puts her sister in the car and drives to the beach. The next morning, the search is on for them. Elvira’s body was found and there are bulletins on the radio. Blanche is lying on the sand with Jane sitting beside her. Knowing that she is near death, she tells Jane the truth about what happened all those years before. It was she, Blanche, who tried to run over her sister. However, Jane moved out of the way in time and Blanche slammed into the gate and snapped her own spine. Jane was too drunk to realize what happened and has since believed she was responsible for her sister’s condition. Now with her mental condition completely deteriorated, Jane goes off to get ice cream cones for the two of them.

The police arrive to find her as she is dancing on the sand, with a crowd surrounding her. Finally she has the attention again that she’s craved.

The house used for the exterior of the Hudson mansion was located at 172 South McCadden Place in the Hancock Park section of Los Angeles. The final scene on the beach was shot in Malibu, reportedly the same site where Aldrich filmed the final scene of Kiss Me Deadly (1955).

The small role of the neighbor's daughter was played by Davis' daughter B.D. Merrill who, following in the footsteps of Crawford's daughter Christina, later wrote a memoir that depicted her mother in a very unfavorable light.

Before, during and after the film's making and release, there was heavy fighting between both Davis and Crawford, which included Davis actually kicking Crawford in the head (she went for small stitches) and Crawford putting weights in her clothes for the scene of Jane's dragging Blanche (Davis got muscular backache as a result). Not even director Aldrich could stop the fighting, which escalated in the coming months. At Oscar time, Crawford was infuriated when Davis was nominated for an Oscar and she was overlooked. She contacted the Best Actress nominees who were unable to attend the ceremonies and offered to accept the award on their behalf should they win. When Anne Bancroft was declared the winner for The Miracle Worker, Crawford triumphantly pushed her way past Davis saying "Step aside!", and swept onstage to pick up the trophy. Davis later commented, "It would have meant a million more dollars to our film if I had won. Joan was thrilled I hadn't."

The film's success led to other projects featuring psychotic older women, directed and/or produced by Aldrich, including Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte and What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice?.

The film was remade in 1991 as a television movie starring real-life sisters Vanessa and Lynn Redgrave.

Happy Birthday!

Betty White, Screen Actors Guild's 46th Annual Life Achievement Award Recipient

Betty White has been named Screen Actors Guild's 46th Annual Life Achievement Award Recipient.

Nominated and voted on by the Guild's National Honors and Tributes Committee, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award is bestowed for outstanding achievement in fostering the finest ideals of the acting profession.

In memoriam : Jean Simmons 1929-2010

Leave Her to Heaven (1945)

Leave Her to Heaven is a 1945 20th Century Fox Technicolor film noir motion picture starring Gene Tierney, Cornel Wilde, Jeanne Crain, with Vincent Price, Darryl Hickman, and Chill Wills.

It was adapted for the screen by Jo Swerling, based on the novel by Ben Ames Williams, and was directed by John M. Stahl. Tierney received an Oscar nomination as Best Actress in a Leading Role for this film. The film grossed over $5,000,000 and was Fox's highest-grossing picture of the 1940s.

It tells the story of a young novelist, Richard Harland (Cornel Wilde), who meets beautiful Ellen Berent (Gene Tierney) on a train. They fall in love and are married. Harland soon finds his life blighted when tragedies take first his handicapped young brother, then his unborn son from him. Gradually, he realizes that his wife's insane jealousy, which turns her own family away from her, may be the cause of the tragedies in his life. Yet another shock awaits them all, as Ellen's emotions become uncontrollable.

The sets, including mid-century New Mexico and Maine homes to die for, were nominated for an Academy Award. Leon Shamroy's gleaming cinematography - providing a stark contrast to the dark themes - won an Oscar.

The title is a quote from William Shakespeare's Hamlet. In Act I, Scene V, the Ghost urges Hamlet not to seek vengeance against Queen Gertrude, but rather to "leave her to heaven, and to those thorns that in her bosom lodge to prick and sting her."

Happy Birthday!

Black Narcissus (1947)

Black Narcissus (1947) is a film by the British director-writer team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, based on the novel of the same name by Rumer Godden. It is a psychological drama about the emotional tensions within a convent of nuns in an isolated Himalayan valley, and stars Deborah Kerr, Sabu, David Farrar and Flora Robson, and features Esmond Knight, Jean Simmons and Kathleen Byron.

It tells the story of group of Anglican nuns who travels to a remote location in the Himalayas (the Palace of Mopu, near Darjeeling) to set up a school and hospital and 'tame' the local people and environment, by conversion and gardening, only to find themselves increasingly seduced by the sensuality of their surroundings in a converted seraglio, and by the local British agent Dean (David Farrar). Clodagh (Deborah Kerr), the Sister in charge, is attempting to forget a failed romance at home in Ireland. Tensions mount as Dean's laid-back charm makes an impression on Clodagh, but also attracts the mentally unstable Sister Ruth (Kathleen Byron), who becomes pathologically jealous of Clodagh, resulting in a nervous breakdown and a violent climax. In a subplot, 'the Young General' (Sabu), heir to the throne of a princely Indian state who has come to the convent for his education, becomes infatuated with a lower caste dancing girl (Jean Simmons).

The film was made primarily at Pinewood Studios, but some scenes were shot in Leonardslee Gardens, West Sussex, the home of an Indian army retiree which had appropriate trees and plants for the Indian setting. The film makes extensive use of matte paintings and large scale landscape paintings to suggest the mountainous environment of the Himalayas, as well as some scale models for motion shots of the convent. Powell said later, 'Our mountains were painted on glass. We decided to do the whole thing in the studio and that's the way we managed to maintain colour control to the very end. Sometimes in a film its theme or its colour are more important than the plot.' Of the three principal Indian roles, only the Young General was played by an ethnic Indian; the roles of Kanchi and the Old General were performed by white actors in makeup. The role of Kanchi was a change indeed for 'the demure Miss Simmons.' Kanchi, 17, is described by Rumer Godden as ' a basket of fruit, piled high and luscious and ready to eat. Though she looks shyly down, there is something steady and unabashed about her; the fruit is there to be eaten, she does not mean it to rot.' On landing the part Simmons told her mother she had been given a part in which she had to have 'oomph'. 'The Indian extras were cast from workers at the docks in Rotherhithe. For the costumes the art director Junge had three main colour schemes. The nuns were always in the white habits that he designed from a medley of medieval types. These white robes of heavy material stressed the nuns other-worldliness amid the exotic native surroundings. The chief native characters were robed in really brilliant hues, particularly the General and his young nephew aglitter in jewels and rich silks. Other native characters brought into the film merely as 'atmosphere' were clad in more sombre hues, with the usual native dress of the Nepalese, Bhutanese and Tibetan peoples toned down to prevent overloading the eye with brilliance.

According to Robert Horton, Powell "set" the climactic sequence, a murder attempt on the cliffs of the cloister, to a preexisting musical track, staging it as though it were a piece of visual choreography. Also, on a note of personal tension that existed behind-the-scenes, was the fact that Kerr was the director's ex-lover, and Byron his current one. "It was a situation not uncommon in show business, I was told," Powell later wrote, "but it was new to me."

In Michael Powell's own view this was the most erotic film he ever made. "It is all done by suggestion, but eroticism is in every frame and image from beginning to end. It is a film full of wonderful performances and passion just below the surface, which finally, at the end of the film, erupts."

The Comedian (1957)

The Comedian is a 1957 live television drama written by Rod Serling from a novella by Ernest Lehman, directed by John Frankenheimer part of the hugely popular live American television PLAYHOUSE 90, a series of plays of the 1950s that become the stuff of legend. Combining elements of theater, radio, and filmmaking, they were produced at a moment when TV technology was growing more mobile and art was being made accessible to a newly suburban postwar demographic. These astonishingly choreographed, brilliantly acted, and socially progressive “teleplays” constituted an artistic high for the medium, bringing Broadway-quality drama to all of America.

Mickey Rooney stars as a raging, tyrannical TV star stepping on anyone on his way to the top, including his browbeaten brother (Mel Tormé), despairing wife (Kim Hunter), and washed-up scriptwriter (Edmond O’Brien). Powerfully directed by John Frankenheimer from a script adapted for the screen by Rod Serling, The Comedian is a volatile glimpse behind the showbiz curtain.

The 90-minute drama was broadcast live on February 14, 1957. The show was captured on kinescope and is available for viewing at The Paley Center for Media in New York and Los Angeles.

The Kremlin letter (1970)

The Kremlin Letter is an American noir film directed by John Huston, starring Richard Boone, Orson Welles, Max Von Sydow, Bibi Andersson, Patrick O'Neal and George Sanders.

It was released in February 1970 by 20th Century-Fox. The screenplay was co-written by Huston and Gladys Hill as a faithful adaptation of the novel by Noel Behn, who had worked for the United States Army's Counterintelligence Corps.

Said by reviewers to be "beautifully"and "engagingly"photographed, the film is a highly complex and realistic tale of bitter intrigue and espionage set in the winter of 1969-1970 at the height of the US-Soviet Cold War.

The Kremlin Letter was a commercial failure and thinly reviewed in 1970, but the film has gathered steady praise from some critics throughout the decades since its release. French filmmaker Jean-Pierre Melville called The Kremlin Letter "masterly" and "...saw it as establishing the standard for cinema."

La fille sur le pont (1999)

The Girl on the Bridge, directed by Patrice Leconte, is a moving, visually stunning meditative work on solitude, fortune, and salvation. The film blazes a trail through Paris, Italy, Monaco, and Istanbul, adding contortionists, Greeks, and more circus performers on the way.

Vanessa Paradis and Daniel Auteuil star in this French black and white caravan adventure through Europe. Paradis plays Adele, a lost soul for whom brief affairs (brief meaning a few minutes to a few days) that serve only to lead her on to the next guy who will, hopefully, offer something more than his penis. She is an unlucky, visceral girl who does not beg for pity. Seeking an end to her misfortune, she decides one Parisian night to jump into the Seine. Along comes Gabor (Daniel Auteuil), who stops and offers her a proposition: since she has nothing to lose at this point, why not join him? He is a knife-thrower and she is to be his target. On the one hand he tells her luck is his specialty. On the other, if he misses, well, she did want to jump off that bridge, right? At best, he will show her something exciting where her role is pivotal—at worst, he will just prolong the inevitable. She jumps anyway, and he goes in after her. A relationship has begun.

After they leave the hospital, the wanderer becomes the target. Gabor's full attention is on her. He whisks her off to Monaco, to beauty parlors, boutiques, and fancy hotels, all paid for with his scheming. She still manages to fall into the loveless arms of strangers (notably a contortionist), but the only true mutual intensity shared is when he hurls knives at her. This is not a sexual relationship—though the intensity and trust involved during the knife throwing create a fiery atmosphere. Their seduction of each other is not sexual, though it is physical even if they don't touch, and above all heartfelt. Neither Adele nor Gabor are seeking sexual pleasure, though Adele's persistent liaisons are almost funny in their lack of passion. Ironically she keeps leaving an obviously intense guy for 30 seconds of fun with strangers.

Adele does prove to be his good luck charm. She wins at the casinos and wins a new car in an Italian lottery. She poignantly asks, this luckless girl, if this is the only kind of luck there is. Though he was to be her luck charm, she has become his Lady Luck. Is fortune more than winning big? For the both of them, obviously.

The knife throwing scenes are most intense. The public has tired of mere knife throwing, so Gabor must up the ante. Adele is covered with a white sheet-he aims for her silhouette. Adele is placed on a spinning wheel-again his aim is perfect. In a private knife throwing moment, Adele goes to find him at a train station in Italy after she has left him for an Italian waiter. In an abandoned barn, her body framed by blades of light between the wood planks, he pelts the wood with knives, eyes closed. The trust shared between them is immeasurable and makes most modern day love stories about as compelling as telephone commercials.

As this is a girl who knows not what she wants, she next leaves him for a newly wed Greek. Particularly moving in the following scenes is that though apart, they speak to each other as if the other were sitting along side, as only soulmates can. Mercifully, the scenes lack the cheesiness that would be inherent in the American version. Thankfully they can talk to eachother, because they are lost in Istanbul and Greece, respectively.

Half child, half woman, Paradis plays the perfect blend of innocence tempered with the weathered wisdom only known to those with no luck. Auteuil, for his part, plays very well a loser with some fire left in him. Their fatalist-yet-sparky chemistry is perfect, and Tom Waits could easily write a song about them.

The tragi-comic edge to the movie infuses some humor into pitiful situations. From the scene at the hospital where they are warmed back to life next to the other bridge jumper (who urges Adele "to keep trying") to love scenes with circus contortionists, there is an energy that moves from one scene to the next. The music chosen keeps the beat moving, from Cuban dance songs to Marianne Faithfull, and lends a dose of old time charm to this very modern tale.

RosaliaDeSouza: D'Improvviso

Beautiful bossa from Rosalia De Souza -- and a set that's got a sweet little difference from some of her earlier Schema albums! This time around, the sound is warmly acoustic throughout -- very jazz-based, and wrapped around Rosalia's vocals wonderfully -- sometimes with a groove that's right in club jazz territory, other times with a mellower vibe that really fits the bossa spirit of the material! De Souza's vocals somehow sound even more beautiful in this setting -- with soulful jazz inflections, and a maturity we might not have heard before -- and the great trumpeter Fabrizio Bosso adds his talents to the core group for the session, working alongside tenor, trombone, piano, and lots of live percussion. Toco duets with Rosalia on a few tracks, and titles include "Banzo", "Candomble", "D'Improvviso", "Carolina Carol Bela", "Sambinha", "5 Dias De Carnaval", "Luiza Manequim", "Amanha", "Bossa 50", and "Samba Longe".

Home@last!I ...one year later...