A wonderfully adapted film based round the exploits of Cicero, aka Elyesa Bazna, the Albanian born valet (Mason at his best) of the British ambassador to Turkey, who sold secrets to the Germans during 1944. The valet's gentlemanly pretensions are put to the test in this tale of espionage and romantic intrigue. Ace.
find out more...Godard's hugely influential debut went on to inspire a new wave of French cinema and this is the film which epitomised the iconoclasm of the early Nouvelle Vague. Belmondo is the hip gangster, modelled on Bogart, whose escapades, including shooting a cop, leave him and his girlfriend on the run from both the cops and his enemies. The insolent casual style and cool moods make this the ultimate film noir.
find out more...The film opens with shots of a prosperous town and its stately avenues of rich mens' houses, all placidly awaiting the start of the country club season, as the venomously honeyed voice of an unseen female narrator begins spinning a web of speculation and suspicion round three married women, shortly to be completed by their receipt of a poisonous letter indicating that the narrator has run away with one of their husbands. With the three wives trapped for the day supervising a children's picnic find out more...
As a young pilot returns home in May 1945, a relationship is formed as he desperately contacts a radio operator before bailing out of the sky. He lives, evading his celestial escort, meets the aforementioned operator and falls in love. But he must face a heavenly court to decide if he should live or die. Amazing.
find out more...The father of a girl in an orphanage has been writing his daughter, who doesn't remember him, tales of his success in business. Actually, he is impersonating a friend, a handsome gambler. When the father dies, the gambler takes to girl from the orphanage and tells her the truth. But the girl is now a full-grown beauty and complications arise, including those provided by a black-sheep brother. Written by Les Adams. Excellent
find out more...
Cary Scott (Jane Wyman) is a well-to-do widow gradually re-entering a social life amongst her mostly dull country club peers. Her only apparent enjoyment in life comes from weekend visits from her college-age children. Cary then meets a handsome younger man, Ron (Rock Hudson), who owns a small landscaping business. Ron is a follower of Henry David Thoreau's Walden, and "hears a different drummer", enjoying a life focused on nature; he is deliberately uninterested in the gossipy opinions of ot find out more...