Movie thoughts and fiction updates.
Jacques Tati followed one of the normal paths towards feature film directing: through short films. He wrote, starred in, and eventually directed a handful of shorts, culminating in his directorial debut of "School for Postmen" with Tati playing a smalltown French postman named Francois who rapidly moves through his small town to deliver the mail… Continue reading Jour de Fete
#8 in my ranking of Jean-Pierre Melville's filmography. Jean-Pierre Melville was born Jean-Pierre Grumbach and took the nom-de-guerre Melville during his time with the French Occupation against Nazi rule during World War II. With the war ended, he struck out to become a filmmaker, being rejected by the actual French studios, and went independent, adapting… Continue reading Le Silence de la Mer
#9 in my ranking of Akira Kurosawa's filmography. One of the earliest buddy cop movies, pairing up a young police officer with a more seasoned one, essentially Lethal Weapon but postwar Japanese, Straw Dogs is basically a police procedural about the search of a lost police pistol. What makes it really work is twofold: the… Continue reading Stray Dog
#12 in my ranking of Akira Kurosawa’s filmography. One of those lesser known films from a great director that gets largely ignored and dismissed, The Quiet Duel is the story of suppressed emotions in an extremely Japanese context that I found wonderfully affecting. I've seen the film dismissed as melodrama, a word I often feel gets… Continue reading The Quiet Duel
#21 in my ranking of Akira Kurosawa’s filmography. And so was born one of the most famous director and actor combinations in movie history. Helped in no small part by a 51-day strike that they did not participate in, Akira Kurosawa cast Toshiro Mifune as the gangster to Takashi Shimura's doctor, supposedly with the original plan… Continue reading Drunken Angel
David Vining, Author 