love and bullets ( 1979 film )
love and bullets (1979) – mike' s take on the movies ………. rediscovering cinema' s past
this movie' s working title was' love and bullets, charlie' .
this was not the first movie ever made with the' love and bullets' title. two silent comedy shorts made in the nineteen - tens preceded it [ see: love and bullets (1914) and love and bullets (1916) ] .
charles bronson can always be counted on for a lot of bullets in his films…but love and bullets adds another layer to his iconic screen persona .
principal photography on this picture started late 1977 but the film did not debut theatrically until 1979 .
“love and bullets” is rated pg (“parental guidance suggested”). it contains some violent episodes and a relatively tasteful shot of a nude corpse .
overall, love and bullets has some first rate action scenes and bronson is watchable as always but the supporting cast let it down with hammy performances and poor accents .
love and bullets is a british 1979 crime drama directed by stuart rosenberg and starring charles bronson as phoenix pd lt. charlie congers who is sent by fbi in switzerland to brink back in usa jackie pruit (jill ireland), a former mistress of a crime boss joe bomposa (rod steiger) .
solid cast makes it worth a look. love that film poster as well! yes it’s in my personal collection .
the film won a silver bear at the 1968 berlin film festival for best first film and was hailed by the influential film critic lotte eisner as having
a romantic spirit inspired by german silents
.
both transfers are adequate though not overly impressive. love and bullets was shot in widescreen but is presented here in full screen ratio. russian roulette is presented in letterboxed format. there are no extras .
the only other' 70s bronson where he plays a cop. the other being, the much better, the stone killer (1973). love and bullets is awful and jill ireland looks terrible in that wig .
i couldn’t disagree more. i love this movie, even without having read the novel .
top bronson film, a worthy film to my bronson collection. fast delivery, item as described .
a similarly titled movie, love and a bullet (2002), another hollywood action film, was made about twenty - three years after this movie was made and released .
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with let the bullets fly, jiang wen and his team have a clear agenda to synchronize their creativity with the new chinese film market. bullets preserves the most popular elements of its immediate predecessor and irons out the idiosyncrasies that kept audiences (and critics) at a distance. if a blockbuster was the plan, then jiang’s success is unmitigated .
some feature films: signs of life, 1968; even dwarfs started small, 1971; aguirre, the wrath of god, 1972; the enigma of kaspar hauser, 1974; heart of glass, 1976; stroszek, 1977; woyzeck, 1979; nosferatu the vampyre, 1979; fitzcarraldo, 1982; invincible, 2001 .
love and bullets, directed by stuart rosenberg; an original story written for the screen by wendell mayes; film editors, michael anderson, lesley walker and tom priestley; cinematograhers, fred koenekamp and anthony richmond; music by lab schiffrin; produced by pancho kohner; a sir lew grade presentation for itc entertainment ltd. at the rivoli, broadway and 49th street, and other theaters. running time: 103 minutes. this film is rated pg .
as early as 1979 nationwide were given enough access to warrant titling a whole edition kate bush on tour, following rehearsals and the official first night in liverpool of the successful tour of life .
.. where the worlds of film noir and pre - code collide. .
stuart rosenberg, who directed “the amityville horror” as well as “love and bullets, ” is one of the great wonders of the movie world. mr. rosenberg has had a long and successful career, and yet he still pays little heed to the most basic tricks of the trade, like establishing clear time sequences or letting the viewer know on which continent the action is taking place or even keeping his actors’ faces out of the shadows. the swiss scenery for “love and bullets” involves a lot of bright, snowy outdoor shots in which mr. bronson and miss ireland virtually disappear .
“love and bullets, ” which opens today at the rivoli, also features rod steiger as a godfather with a very large mansion and a stammer. his performance, which could seem restrained only in comparison with his “amityville horror” turn, would have been quite overwrought enough without the speech defect .
he took promotional images for hounds of love in 1985, the album that remains bush’s best - seller and which spawned hits such as running up that hill and cloudbusting .
by the late 1970s, charles bronson was as famous in america as he had been for many years in the 1960s in europe. many european thrillers and westerns had taken advantage of the actor’s impassivity before his american stardom was guaranteed in his partnership with michael winner for such as chato’s land, the mechanic and death wish. although bronson had had his first effective flop with the white buffalo, he was still very much at the top of the box office rankings when he accepted the role in love and bullets, effectively cast opposite his wife and frequent co - star jill ireland. love and bullets was originally scheduled to have been directed by the great john huston but when this fell…
glenys groves, one of the two backing singers on bush’s 1979 tour of life, devoted a chapter to that experience in her recently published memoir ballads, songs and snatches, thus earning a plug on the kb fan sites .
cinema scope mag for film reviews, criticism news & comments. one of the most respected publications on film, uniting experienced critics with new writers .
steve martin reinvents edmond rostand' s 1897 cyrano de bergerac for a modern colorado setting. the film was directed by fred schepisi and martin plays charlie' cd' bales, a small - town fire chief with a large hooter who is desperately in love with astronomer roxanne kowalski (daryl hannah). the film is charming and earned martin a string of awards, including the national society of film critics award for best actor and writers guild of america award for best adapted screenplay .
this is all very chivalrous, but it' s also dull. the british‐born miss ireland has no luck in affecting a hillbilly accent, and as a comic presence she' s simply not there. however, she and mr. bronson approach each other with an appealing ease, which would be more appealing if it were not the movie' s only selling point. mr. bronson grows ever more coolly dependable with each new film, but “love and bullets” is too clumsy to show him off to much advantage .
the scene has earned the 1979 film a lot of mockery because of its campy outlandishness. but in the wake of moore' s death from cancer on tuesday, at 89 years old, the entire sequence is worth a rewatch—along with the opening skydive chase —because it captures what was quintessentially special about the beloved actor' s take on bond .
was attached to direct at one stage. in the end, the film was directed by
this is a very good film. the action is just a little slow ...
classic film collector who never tires of discovering new titles and re - discovering old ones. view all posts by mikestakeonthemovies
debut theatrical feature film of model and actress lorraine chase who played the girlfriend of vittorio farroni (henry silva) .
best line :
this film is only for madagascar and iran. neither of which follow american copyright law .
cult, b - movies, cheesy fun films to film noir to classics new to me .
chris, i certainly recognize that they are two separate mediums, but choosing to watch the film first does privilege film over books. i don’t think reading the book first ‘taints’ the experience of watching a film, or vice versa. but, i do often find that reading the book first enriches my experience of films. i would also say that it often depends on the book or film itself .
and now for something completely different. today i watched the crystal clear and perfect criterion blu ray of “the front page”. excellent. i may tip my toe into films of other cultures / countries, but i will always love hollywood pictures from back when .
“with this scum, you gotta take the law into your own hands. you don' t just book these guys, you kill ‘em. ” that' s a line of dialogue from “love and bullets, ” the new charles bronson movie, and it bears the unmistakable paw print of wendell mayes, who also wrote “death wish. ” however, this time there' s a twist: mr. bronson doesn' t speak that line, nor does he even endorse its sentiments very strongly .
an interview with writer / director boots riley about his incendiary new film ,
sorry to bother you .
at a time when everything is fake and virtual and digital, he brought back the idea that cinema is to record basic human experience ,
says his fellow film director and friend, volker schlondorff .
i grew up watching jcvd, sly and arnold destroy bad guys, blow things up and spew one - liners like it' s a fashion statement. action is everything i go to the movies for and the reason i came up with this site is to share my love for the genre with everyone .
it' s also interesting to note that the main bond girl in moonraker is an american astronaut named holly goodhead (heh), making her one of many fictional female spacefarers who predated the first american woman in space, sally ride (sigourney weaver' s ripley, who also debuted in 1979, is another example) .
born in war - time germany, he wrote a prize - winning screenplay at the age of 15 and made his first film at 20. now one of cinema' s most controversial and iconoclastic directors, he is also credited with leading a renaissance in european film. john o' mahony reports
from the film the line, the cross & the curve, 1993, london, black island studios. harari: ‘kate dances during the filming of the song lily, inspired by her healer friend lily who was in the film too’ .
the ballad of narayama
is a japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice, telling a story of startling cruelty. what a space it opens…
these are questions on which the whole plot is supposed to hinge and it would, too, if the movie were organized along rational lines. it is not .
love and bullets
is a hopelessly confused hodgepodge of chases, killings, enigmatic meetings and separations, and insufferably overacted scenes by steiger alternating with alarmingly underacted scenes by bronson. one example: after a killing, bronson and ireland are seen walking down a snowy slope next to a mountain lodge. cut to a dock, and they' re climbing out of a boat. where are they? where were they? whose boat is it? why did they have to go from one place to the other ?
this is a very good film. the action is just a little slow but still one of charles bronson best films .
looks great to me, maybe not a great film but like you, i can’t resist silva, bronson et al .
director jules dassin was attached to direct at one stage. in the end, the film was directed by stuart rosenberg .
father of the bride and its sequel garnered steve martin a host of film awards and nominations for his role as family man george stanley banks. his wife nina was played by diane keaton .
greg, i didn’t have much, if any exposure to foreign film’s until i was in my 40′s and dvds became the standard for home video. i’m at the point now where i visit “streamline” to discover films such as “judex” which expand my film horizons. always more to see .
t’s established in allen lore that the picture was originally a two - and - a - half - hour solipsistic ramble, with alvy and annie’s fling relegated to a subplot. but in the edit, their relationship was what brought the film to life, and the dead wood was mercilessly cut back. allen’s preferred name for the film he’d originally planned was anhedonia: a greek term for the inability to feel pleasure. there couldn’t have been a less appropriate title for the finished film .
streamline is the official blog of filmstruck, a new subscription service that offers film aficionados a comprehensive library of films including an eclectic mix of contemporary and classic art house, indie, foreign and cult films .
steve martin' s film career began in 1972 with a small role as a hippy in a political comedy called another nice mess. but the stand - up comedian' s first real triumph was the 1979 carl reiner - directed movie the jerk. martin starred as navin r johnson, the simpleton adopted white son of african - american sharecroppers. the jerk is a warm and engagingly silly film, featuring jokes about cat jugglers, but at the time of its release it had a mixed reception .
it took a long time to get over the bad reviews ,
martin later said. he added that british comedian peter sellers had offered him great encouragement at what was a difficult time in his career .
american detective charlie congers (bronson) is sent to the swiss alps to find and protect jackie (jill ireland), the lover of a notorious gangster so that she can potentially testify against him. the stakes become even higher for congers when he and jackie fall in love and the jealous crime lord sends out assassins to put a permanent end to their budding romance .
the movie doesn' t really care. it' s all texture and no plot, which is fine for a travelog but not so hot for a thriller. there' s so little dialog we begin to suspect that' s deliberate: has the wordage in this movie been kept to a minimum to make it easier to dub for the international market? thrillers, even sure
pure
thrillers as hitchcock' s
north by northwest ,
work on some level because we' ve gotten to know the characters and care about them .
love and bullets
seems to expect us to care about bronson simply because he is bronson the attempts to flesh out his character are brief and routine .
more and more screens, rising ticket prices, and a more affluent ticket - buying middle class means that records will continue to be broken rather rapidly (to the professional delight of these upbeat chinese producers and investors). but let the bullets fly owes its success to deliberate design. this chinese action comedy connected with audiences and critics in an unprecedented way, earning a kind of across - the - board critical and public acclaim that i haven’t seen in the eight years i’ve been in china .
woody’s fourth and, thus far, final london film is a lightly cynical ensemble juggling act, taking in gold - digging, psychic love advice and ambulance - chasing literary plagiarism. josh brolin is well cast as a desperate novelist, but gemma jones has the best of it as the jilted wife of anthony hopkins, whose new girlfriend is a tacky ex - hooker (lucy punch). allen, alas, seems above all of his characters here, and inflicts petty twists of fate on them which feel forced and malicious rather than wise or illuminating .
he first film in which allen directed diane keaton was also, perhaps not coincidentally, the first film to suggest he had more in him than than madcap, gag - driven comedies. (they appeared in a film together before his directing days). that’s not to say sleeper isn’t as madcap and gag - driven as his earliest work: a film about a health food shop owner who falls into a vat of liquid nitrogen and wakes up 200 years later kind of has to be. but allen’s painting with new colours here: romance, melancholy, and even – gasp! – coherent plotting, while the uproarious robot butler sequence showcased his talent for silent - era physical clowning .
also agree about the casting of the child. i actually think the stills of bennent are far more powerful than his performance in the film .
this movie marks the second time that star actor charles bronson has appeared in a movie written by wendell mayes. mayes adapted brian garfield' s death wish (1974) novel and wrote the story and co - wrote the film script for this picture. this movie was made and released about five years after death wish (1974) and some dvd tag - lines emphasize that this film is from the writer of death wish (1974) .
a gift from aphrodite, wonder woman’s lasso makes persuasive capacity external and material rather than something internally sourced. in ancient greek textual and material culture, and from nuptial vases to cultic spaces, aphrodite was often accompanied by peithō (persuasion), also a goddess. in his descriptions of greece, the second - century ce historian pausanias peered through dense mythic mist to report that when the hero theseus united attica, he established a shrine with two statues on the acropolis to hold the union together: one of aphrodite pandēmos (all the people’s goddess of love) and the other of peithō (1. 22. 3). a capacious love joined with persuasion made political unification possible .
chow yun - fat’s depraved, corrupt, and powerful monopoly - capitalist huang silang appears to be the purest villain of the piece: brilliant but dishonourable, lacking moral restraints. he could be, in allegorical terms, an embodiment of the corrupt capitalist base of chiang kai - shek’s kuomintang, the “nationalist” party who temporarily brought a kind of order to warlord - ridden china shortly after the period in which this film takes place, and who were subsequently overthrown by the communists in 1949, partly because the kuomintang’s venality and corruption drove people to the ccp. or huang silang could equally well incarnate the nexus of local power and corruption that has taken over the communist party since deng xiaoping introduced capitalist reforms after 1979 and jiang zemin opened the floodgates to massive official corruption in the ‘90s .
an older bronson paired with jill ireland typically doom a film from the onset. fortunately this film benefits from an interesting location (switzerland), the casting of some of the best character actors working at the time (strother martin, michael v. gazzo, paul koslo and henry silva !), and a crazed performance by rod steiger. with this dream cast the film must be a winer... sadly no. it' s good but charlies
blow - dart
attacks on the mafia hitmen is a real letdown and jill ireland is more annoying than usual .
allen cast a fond eye back to the hollywood musicals of his childhood for this all - singing, star - stuffed confection, which follows a clan of wealthy manhattanites chasing after love in new york, venice and paris. edward norton, drew barrymore, julia roberts and goldie hawn are among the game cast singing their hearts out. despite those names it was a commercial flop, and its airiness can sometimes play as insubstantial. but when the film works, it really works: not least when hawn defies gravity on the banks of the seine in its magical finale .
this picture was not the first time that star actors rod steiger and charles bronson worked on the same film production. previously, the two had both appeared in the 1950s westerns jubal (1956) and run of the arrow (1957) .
truthfully this isn’t all that great of a film but it’s hard for me as a bronson fan to come right out and say it. when he’s on screen he dominates so what can i say .
eceived wisdom has it that manhattan is a cinematic love letter to new york. but it’s actually the opposite: a thank - you card from new york, via allen, to cinema – for the alchemical process by which light and shade and music can turn buildings and streets into a miraculous, shared dream of a city. in theory it’s a romantic comedy, though its romance and humour are by turns anxious and wistful, and its characters come weighed down by manifold flaws and neuroses (not least the troublesome may - september romance between isaac, allen’s conflicted comedy writer, and mariel hemingway’s 17 - year - old student) .
it’s a glorious premise, explored by allen and his cast to dazzlingly funny ends. what gives the film its existential bite, though, is a two - part acknowledgement late in the game: firstly, that the beautiful solace film offers is a lie, and secondly, that it doesn’t matter. watching it, you feel (and probably look) like farrow’s heroine: a smiling face in the dark, lit up, flickering, alive .
alexander payne was just at the tribeca film festival for a director’s series edition of tribeca talks, where he revealed that “downsizing” was the most difficult film he’s ever made. dick cavett moderated the discussion, which eventually touched on the icy reception of his ambitious drama released last year. matt damon and hong chau star in the film, whose out - there premise helped make it one of the most anticipated films of 2017. payne said it was difficult on every level — writing, financing, editing — and also addressed the lukewarm reviews it was met with upon opening late last year, suggesting that its ambitious narrative may have been too much to fit into the framework of a single film. payne was also asked whether any of his movies would be different if he made them today. “if you’re an open director, you cannot help but have the winds of history blow through your film ,
steve martin was nominated for a best actor golden globe for his portrayal of gil buckman in director ron howard' s sentimental comedy. the film was a box - office smash hit, grossing more than £120 million worldwide. keanu reeves also starred in the film. in real life, martin is a talented banjo player .
if you happen to be a chinese film producer, china looks like the promised land, if not the wild west—a place that’s available, for the taking, with its doors wide open. (though if you’re an activist in the marginal non - governmental sphere these days, the picture looks quite different). 2010 box - office numbers continued their exponential rise, with blockbuster hit succeeding blockbuster hit all the way to december. and the biggest box - office earner yet in chinese movie history is jiang wen’s let the bullets fly (rang zidan fei). released in december, jiang’s eagerly awaited film raced past the record set by feng xiangang’s aftershock (2010), which held up for a scant five months .
others have criticised herzog for being monomaniacal and exploitative. after the filming of heart of glass, co - writer herbert achternbusch wondered whether herzog
might possibly nail his actors to trees in his next film
.
classic wife and husband duo flick here starring the late charles bronson and also the late jill ireland who sadly were in some great films in the 1970s and always liked charles bronson and jill ireland together in heartbreak pass and assassination .
in the comic books, diana receives her lasso at least twice. in the first offering, her mother, queen hippolyta, hands her the lasso, which contains aphrodite’s power to gain submission from men and women alike. in the second offering, aphrodite and athena make a special delivery. having prayed to them and shown herself to be “bound by love and wisdom, ” she has earned the power to bind others. wonder woman’s lasso, then, is originally a lasso of obedience .
i caught this film for the first time in the early eighties when it made it’s network premier. i was far to young to see most bronson films at the theater so i would catch most of his seventies output on late night television. this film boasted a cast of well known faces and offered the swiss alps as a backdrop to the carnage that bronson was about to unleash .
when kinski threatened to leave, herzog came close to fulfilling this wish :
i told him i would do him in if he left the set now ,
says herzog ,
that i had a gun with nine bullets, eight of which i would use on him, leaving the final one for myself. he understood that it was not a joke .
the salary of star charles bronson was a then exorbitant us $ 1, 500, 000. moreover, this did not include his back - end points percentage profit from the film' s box - office grosses and the cost and expenditure for his and wife jill ireland' s entourage of about a dozen personnel .
moonraker has inspired a
love it or hate it
reception since its release. but it captures the magic of space - age visions in the final year of the 1970s, reflecting the afterglow of the apollo program while anticipating president ronald reagan' s weird obsession with building a space - based laser defense system during the 1980s .
steve martin plays private investigator rigby reardon in this 1982 comedy directed by carl reiner. it' s a parody and celebration of the forties film noir thrillers and has a running gag (a vaudeville routine tribute) in which martin goes berserk every time he hears the phrase :
the cleaning lady
. using splicing and trick photography the black - and - white film also has appearances from celebrated actors and actresses including ingrid bergman, humphrey bogart, james cagney, joan crawford, bette davis and lana turner. legendary costume designer edith head, who had created outfits for films such as double indemnity (1944), notorious (1946) and sunset boulevard (1950), created more than 20 suits for martin .
the film also received a dm300, 000 government film award which helped fund his next projects, including fata morgana, a trek through the sahara in search of mirages, and a wildly offbeat feature, even dwarfs started small, the story of an anarchist uprising in a criminal institution for small people. this picture caused uproar when shown at the 1970 new york film festival, with herzog accused of fascism for what was perceived as a satire on the 1968 student uprisings, and of exploiting his actors :
they were performing in some sort of a' tiny town' amusement park ,
he counters .
for the first time they got some real, decent work and enjoyed it tremendously .
t opens with one of allen’s most vividly written, shot and acted scenes ever, as judy davis and sydney pollack arrive for dinner and announce their separation plans. the way their best friends, allen and farrow, respond – shocked, but also offended – turns this into a rapid marvel of four - way characterisation. this is allen’s most scorching anatomy of marital bonds, a film so bitter, witheringly frank and unsentimental he entirely reinvented his style of shooting and editing for it .
as i said i haven’t read the novel (yet) but i wonder how grass handled the problem of a boy talking like an adult. that he behaves like one i disagree with; he keeps playing with toys even when the bullets fly. but i agree there’s an uneven mix between adult and childish behaviour. i’ve always seen oskar as a boy who’s born fully formed: how else can he make a conscious decision not to grow at age three ?
fter a run of russet - hued collaborations with cinematographer darius khondji, allen is working here for the first time with the venerable vittorio storaro, and the change has done him the good. a couple of scenes with bobby and vonnie together are the most visually beautiful sequences in an allen film in goodness knows how long. and then there' s
f allen’s many mooted returns to form, here’s the film that actually was one: a lacerating comedy of financial and romantic recessions, and his best work since his extraordinary mid - career hot streak came crunching to a halt in the early 1990s. cate blanchett won an oscar for her heart - tightening performance in the title role – a kind of blanche dubois of park avenue brought low by her husband’s economic chicanery. jasmine’s dogged denial of her desperate circumstances is the fire under the film’s feet, and watching her crumble is agonising, thrilling – and, most damning of all, great fun .
due to hijack and terrorism threats from the terrorist organization the baader - meinhof group, a permit request to film at the geneva airport (aka the cointrin airport) was denied, and as such, the intended shoot - out sequence was relocated to the same city' s elegant hotel beau rivage .
this movie was the first film of a three picture contract that star charles bronson had with lord lew grade' s itc films. borderline (1980) was the second whilst the evil that men do (1984) was the third and final .
even the film that was supposedly made of before the dawn has still not seen the light. that means that anyone who has got something original to say or show about her is guaranteed attention .
steve martin has one of the great hollywood fictional names in this 1983 carl reiner comedy: doctor michael hfuhruhurr. hfuhruhurr is a widowed brain surgeon who has invented a method of
cranial screw - top
brain surgery. kathleen turner plays hfuhruhurr' s nasty and unfaithful second wife, dolores benedict. sissy spacek voices the disembodied brain that hfuhruhurr falls in love with. it' s a brilliant madcap comedy .
another close up from the set of the line, the cross & the curve. harari' s total access on the set of her film allowed him' to capture some interesting candid moments' .
when fans noticed the absence of women of color — especially philippus, a prominent black amazonian general who guides wonder woman in the comics, and nubia, diana’s black twin — from early promotional material for the film, director patty jenkins promised a diverse cast. how can we ensure that these roles are prominent and meaningful? and how can diverse wonder women join in the fight for all that is good and just? ”
e’s speaking to the film’s other main character, allen’s documentary filmmaker clifford stern, in the one scene they share, sitting apart from a wedding celebration at the film’s very end. not here the fortune - cookie insights that some of allen’s lesser pictures call philosophy. here he’s thinking deeply about moral choice, the question of whether guilt in your own eyes or the eyes of the world matters more. this bubblingly wise film, rich with beautifully dovetailing metaphors about blindness and conscience and the perils of self - knowledge, has only grown in stature since its release. it is allen on soaring form, gliding so elegantly through its maze of ideas it’s as if the spirit of fred astaire gave it lift - off .
london films achieved the weird distinction of getting no theatrical release in its place of origin, despite the returning presence of scarlett johansson, and hugh jackman in the lead. the reasons are simple: it’s flagrantly disposable, continues allen’s embarrassing love affair with a london that doesn’t exist, and cooks up no intrigue worth bothering with, for all the ins and outs of its thin man - esque plot. the one redeeming feature, surprisingly, is allen himself, in the supporting role of an amusingly befuddled stage magician called the great splendini .
steve martin joined up with singer and songwriter randy newman (and saturday night live' s lorne michaels) to write this spoof western, directed by john landis. newman also contributed some songs. martin (lucky day), chevy chase (dusty bottoms) and martin short (ned nederlander) star as the hollywood silent film actors who portray the amigos on screen and get dragged into a real - life battle with mexican bandits .
overall a great cast here that is mostly wasted but for fans of the stone faced bronson you’ll have to pick up a copy that was recently released on dvd as a double bill with the film russian roulette .
arms akimbo, wonder woman stands with one well - greaved leg in the ancient world and one in ours. the imminent release of the first full - length, live - action wonder woman film is an occasion for classical reception work that joins dynamic efforts already underway on the classics and comics and the classics and modern fantasy. the decades of interpretive enthusiasm wonder woman has inspired, however, make it difficult to put a new spin on things .
described by janet maslin, the new york times critic, as the
consummate poet of doom ,
herzog is one of cinema' s most crusading directors. along with wim wenders and the late rainer werner fassbinder, he has led german film - making out of the post - war doldrums and into a period of rebirth. this has been mirrored by a personal quest for a
cinema of illiterates
, that has led him to explore subjects such as collective insanity (in heart of glass) and the rise of nazism (in his new film invincible, which opens this week) and taken him to the depths of the peruvian jungle, (for films such as aguirre, the wrath of god and fitzcarraldo) and the sahara desert (for fata morgana) .
facing deportation back to germany, he fled to mexico where he worked at the charreada, the mexican equivalent of rodeo. this period has since mutated into reports that he was a gun - runner .
it has a grain of truth ,
herzog admits .
i stole a special commuter pass which allowed me to get across the border without being checked. some wealthy rancher asked me to take across a pistol made of pure silver and bullets of silver. now it has transformed me into a gun - runner .
ere it is: not just allen' s creative pinnacle, but perhaps the most perfectly assured braiding of comedy and drama in mainstream american film. it feels like the miraculous sweet spot between all of its filmmaker' s many modes and tones – biting without being cruel, profound without seeming sanctimonious, warmly humane without collapsing into goo .
though he was never shy of publicity, marston seems particularly at ease in an interview printed in the magazine family circle in 1942 and entitled “ our women are our future. ” the interview was conducted by his lover, olive byrne (using her nom de plume olive richard), and appeared as part of a series of articles she published to make good press for his comics. when she ribs him that “we ordinary mortals” do not have “any such fantastic weapons such as bracelets that repel bullets or her magic lasso that compels whomever it binds to obey her commands, ” marston sharply disagrees :
the success of nosferatu paved the way for what is arguably herzog' s finest film, fitzcarraldo. shot once more in the peruvian jungle, the movie has also been the source of the director' s most disfigured and destructive dàppelgangers: herzog the imperialist, who pays scant regard to the natives or their culture; herzog the delusional romantic, who places the success of his film above all else; herzog the dictatorial
pharaoh
, as pauline kael put it, who
risked other people' s lives and put his co - workers through misery
.
the most enigmatic figure is jiang wen’s zhang muzhi, whose own identities are multiple. he is muzhi, former soldier in the xinhai revolutionary army and something of a complicated idealist. at the same time, he impersonates the fearsome bandit zhang mazi, pillaging towns in the area of sichuan where the film is set. (all three main characters, in fact, have double identities: huang silang has an idiot double for protection, and councillor tang is in fact ma bangde, the would - be county governor in waiting .) he’s also very clearly jiang wen playing someone much like jiang wen, the dominant force and omnipresent onscreen auteur of the film. jiang is immediately present, maintaining control with his macho dominance of shot and setting and tone, and exploiting all his gifts: physical charisma, theatrical verbal command, and a powerful moral charisma emanating from the jiang wen persona well known to (and revered by) chinese audiences .
allen has often shown an interest in stage magic and hypnotism (see also: scoop, magic in the moonlight), but this enthusiasm reached its unfortunate nadir in this dodo of a light comedy, his most expensive film (it cost $ 33m) and by his own reckoning among the worst. his own performance as a wisecracking insurance investigator hypnotised into jewel theft was one problem, but helen hunt doesn' t fare much better as the ruthless efficiency expert he wants off his back. all the film achieves is managing to look lavishly nostalgic for a more sexist era .
the chemistry between eddie murphy and steve martin works terrifically in this satire on hollywood film - making. martin stars as director robert k' bobby' bowfinger and murphy plays actor jefferson' jiff' ramsey. the film was directed by frank oz. asked whether he would like to be a director one day, martin replied :
even after all these years of doing films, the camera, the lenses... maybe i' m a little bit lazy, i don' t know. i like dealing with the script, i like dealing with the comedy .
jackie pruit is the girlfriend of gangster joe bomposa, and when her life is endangered by some of his henchmen, the fbi begins to protect her. the agency, hoping that she will be able to supply them information they can use to put bomposa in prison, assigns agent charlie congers to her case. congers soon learns that jackie does not have any useful information for the fbi, and he also quickly falls in love with her. but in spite of the fact that jackie cannot incriminate him, bombosa decides he wants her dead. his men slip through security and kill her, but no one anticpated the intensity of anger and determination for vengeance of congers .
instead, in 1963, he accepted a fulbright grant to study literature and theatre at the university of pittsburg. on the atlantic crossing he met martje grohmann, on a fulbright to study literature in wisconsin :
one day werner came to our table and talked about one of his dreams that he had the night before ,
she remembers .
it was so visual, so visionary i would say that it impressed me very much. he came more often and i thought, my god, he has the quality of a biblical prophet or something .
after a courtship conducted mostly on deck playing shuffle - board, they fell in love and married in 1967 .
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so bronson is off to the alps to bring back jill ireland to testify against her former love. it isn’t long before a team of assassins descends upon them. henry silva plays it slick and along with paul koslo are one step behind the real life married couple of charlie and jill. they begin to realize what we the viewers have known all along. that this small time cop is no amateur. the bodies are piling up as charlie takes out one killer after another demonstrating his prowess at designing make shift weapons put together from a tool box .
the following essay was produced as part of the 2017 nyff critics academy, a workshop for aspiring film critics that took place during the 55th edition of the new york film festival. the western is an iconic genre tied to the very genesis of cinema itself, but it doesn’t have the currency it held decades ago. that’s why it’s such a thrill to see chloe zhao ’s “ the rider ” and valeski grisebach’s “ western ” — two highlights from this year’s new york film festival — reshape the genre from the ground up. it’s only possible to appreciate that if you consider how far the genre has come. the western reigned hollywood for decades—particularly from the ‘30s to the ‘60s. the genre’s appeal was that its unequivocal good vs. evil narrative could translate to any cultural zeitgeist. it wasn’t until sergio leone ’s spaghetti westerns and
for the last 10 days of shooting, herzog claims, kinski was quite docile. however, the film was given a low merit classification by the german film board and struggled to get a release. undaunted, herzog proceeded to his next project, the enigma of kaspar hauser, the true story of a young man who appeared in nuremberg in 1828, unable to speak or walk. for the lead, herzog chose bruno s, a disturbed individual who had been brutalised as a child by his prostitute mother, losing the power of speech as a result, and had spent 23 of his 40 - odd years in mental institution. when the film was released in 1974 it was hailed as a
stunning fable
, though herzog was again accused of exploitation, in particular for allowing bruno to return afterwards to his squalid life .
this post really clarified my ambivalence towards this film. i found the book powerful, but i certainly wouldn’t say that i liked it, rather that it effected me – it made me feel queasy and uncomfortable and frustrated. the movie, on the other hand, just didn’t effect me very much. there’s something thin about it and i think you’re totally right that there’s something rather staid and conservative about the style of the filmmaking. the movie lacks something, even though visually it’s so rich .
throughout the seventies charles bronson had been a busy action star appearing in an average of two to three films per year. after telefon, the white buffalo and raid on entebbe in ’77 he took a break with no releases in 1978 and only this film from director stuart rosenberg in ’79. thus it was his final release of the decade that saw his greatest period of success .
michele kennerly is an assistant professor of communication arts and sciences at penn state university. she is the author of editorial bodies: perfection and rejection in ancient rhetoric and poetics and co - editor of ancient rhetorics & digital networks, both of which are forthcoming in 2018 .
harari notes,' my collaboration with kate owes everything to my work with lindsay kemp (on the left) in the late 70s'. kemp would be one of the leading actors of the film the line, the cross & the curve .
but jiang wen is not only a master populist in the manner of, say, feng xiaogang. his films reveal a chinese artist bearing the typical crushing burden of “responsibility for the nation, ” something this country’s artists have borne since at least the qin dynasty. jiang is an institution, a powerful national figure with a strong sense of his own cultural significance. his films together take on the project of reinterpreting and reconfiguring chinese history. with exactly what ideological commitment, though, is an open question. critical readings of bullets in chinese have distributed themselves more or less evenly along the political spectrum: an arch - maoist allegory; a post - socialist or post - capitalist text; a subversive anti - communist work. can it be all of these? a brief look at the genre, plot, and characters of the film can show how it presents a corresponding allegory for almost every kind of ideologically engaged viewer .
seemingly unconvinced, richard takes the conversation into geopolitics, claiming that nazi “chains” seem inordinately stronger “than the bonds of personal charm. ” marston concedes a difference between persuasive charm and dominating force, but he points out that hitler initially gained power by “stirring oratory and personal magnetism” — the magic lasso method stretched from interpersonal relations to mass communication — as did mussolini, churchill, and fdr. many can be captivated by persuasion, but the trick is never to surrender independent judgment. wonder woman can be bound by the power of others, and she may want to be bound temporarily for some greater strategic purpose, but ultimately she has the power to break free from whatever contraption used to keep her down. her bracelets, also from aphrodite, are emblematic of her strange relationship with resistance and submission, since they repel bullets but also, when held together tightly, make her weak .
llen does pygmalion, complete with a borscht belt greek chorus, although the jumbled, snobbish and emotionally curdled results fall noticeably short of mythic. a well - to - do new yorker (allen) decides to trace the birth mother of his adorable adopted son, and is horrified – plus more than a little turned on – to discover she’s a hooker and porn starlet. mira sorvino gives an oscar - winning, eardrum - tightening turn in a thankless role: the film patronises sorvino’s character relentlessly, and when it works, it’s because the actress heroically refuses to roll over and take it .
herzog returned to the us and then to germany in 1965. with a camera which he is reputed to have purloined from a munich film school, he managed to make another short film entitled the unprecedented defence of the fortress deutschkreutz, in which four youths defend a fortress against an invisible enemy. then, in 1966, herzog finally managed to raise the budget to make his first feature signs of life, the story of a recuperating soldier who is put in charge of a munitions dump on a greek island, a plot loosely adapted from a novella by achim von arnim.
love and bullets is a 1979 film directed by stuart rosenberg . starring charles bronson , it is based on a screenplay by wendell mayes and john melson . the film was originally to have been directed by john huston and advertisements were taken out in variety to promote this fact . huston apparently did film some scenes but walked off the set after disagreements with the producers . veteran director rosenberg stepped in on the troubled production . the resulting movie received almost-unanimously poor reviews . 
love and bullets is a 1979 film directed by stuart rosenberg. starring charles bronson, it is based on a screenplay by wendell mayes and john melson. the film was originally to have been directed by john huston and advertisements were taken out in variety to promote this fact. huston apparently did film some scenes but walked off the set after disagreements with the producers. veteran director rosenberg stepped in on the troubled production. the resulting movie received almost-unanimously poor reviews.
love and bullets is a 1979 film directed by stuart rosenberg. starring charles bronson, it is based on a screenplay by wendell mayes and john melson. the film was originally to have been directed by john huston and advertisements were taken out in variety to promote this fact. huston apparently did film some scenes but walked off the set after disagreements with the producers. veteran director rosenberg stepped in on the troubled production. the resulting movie received almost-unanimously poor reviews.