- screen captures of old rare movies from vhs -

Friday, July 22, 2005

This Above All (1942) - part1 - Anatole Litvak

"Another movie, another planet".
This week let's get a close up on a Hollywood movie in the Forties made during World War 2. This Above All aka Ames Rebelles was directed by Anatole Litvak, who did also a beautiful Mayerling in 1936 with Charles Boyer & Danielle Darrieux.
You can think it is one more propaganda film under a melodramatic story but it's much more than that thanks to Tyrone Power and the moving and adorable Joan Fontaine.

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I could have dedicate these 24 frames to this only scene because it is so rare to watch a first encounter filmed so delicately.
Maybe i'm old-fashioned, so what ?

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The cinematographer Arthur C. Miller also did the lightning for the underestimated The Razor's Edge which i would have been delighted to present to you on this blog but as it is available on DVD...

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Do you know that Joan Fontaine is still alive somewhere in California ?
She's 87.
I love her.

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"If i say it was all those things, he will laugh because those words have been said so often before".
This is the most famous scene of This Above All. Poetry, love, fight, honor.
Great monologue.
This was the first 12 frames i'll post of this movie.
Next monday you'll see the last 12.
In the meantime, any comments will be appreciated.

Monday, July 18, 2005

Leviathan (1962) - part 2 - Leonard Keigel

So this is my last 12 frames taken from Leviathan aka Dark Journey.

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I bet you've never seen Louis Jourdan as a stalker !!

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One of his first major film was in The Paradine Case Directed by Alfred Hitchcock alongside Gregory Peck.

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Don't you think that Marie Laforet bears a striking resemblance to Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas ?
or maybe it's just me !

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Of course, i also have to pay my tribute to Nicolas Hayer, the cinematographer who also filmed "Le Doulos" by Jean-Pierre Melville the same year !! He's also responsible for the brilliant filming of Orphée by Jean Cocteau.

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I haven't seen a lot of Maïtena Doumenach (Marie Laforet real name)'s movies but i doubt she'll be as moving and beautiful as in this movie.
The year after in 1963, her first ep "Les Vendanges De l'Amour" will be a huge success in France and her movie career will be put aside. Can you believe it after looking at these moving frames ?

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I almost forgot to write about the fantastic score of this movie.
Leonard Keigel use Arnold Schönberg's Verklärte Nacht op. 4 (1899) with great care.
You'll be enthralled when you'll hear it at the end when Marie Laforet whispers "I was sure that you'll come". I personally prefer the interpretation of l'Ensemble InterContemporain by Pierre Boulez recorded in 1985.

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Well, it's time to give you the plot as i only focused on the first part of the movie :

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PLOT
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In this moody and slightly eerie film, Jourdan plays a married tutor in a small French town. He meets Laforet, a young girl who lives in the village, and becomes wildly infatuated with her. His attraction grows into obsession, and he begins following her everywhere. He discovers that she is the mistress of the man whose son he has been tutoring. When Jourdan confronts her, she denies this, and he makes a pass. When she resists his advances, he tries to kill her and disfigures her face permanently. From then on he's on the run, killing an older man along the way.
(TVGuide)

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NOTES
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These frames are taken from a broadcast on french cable tv Cine Classics a couple of years ago.
To my knowledge, this movie hasn't been released yet on VHS nor DVD of course.

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bye bye now...
See you next friday.

 
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