August 30 - September 5, 2025

 

To answer these trivia questions, please email me at scinema@earthlink.net.

Brain Teasers:

Which French actress worked with directors Georges Lautner, Jean Chapot, Gerard Oury, Damiano Damiani, Bertrand Blier, and Marco Bellocchio?

Bertrand van Wonterghem knew that it was Miou-Miou.

Which Italian actress worked with directors Claude Pinoteau, Francesco Rosi, Sergio Leone, Antonio Isasi-Isasmendi, Henri Verneuil and Michelangelo Antonioni?

Bertrand van Wonterghem knew that it was Lea Massari.

Which Italian actor worked with Sergio Leone, Michelangelo Antonioni, Oliver Parker, Peter Hunt, Peter Del Monte  and Edgar G. Ulmer?

Bertrand van Wonterghem and George Grimes knew that it was Gabriele Ferzetti.

And now for some new brain teasers:

Which American actor, who appeared in Italian Westerns, was cast, and then fired, from the original production of Edward Albee's play AN AMERICAN DREAM?

Which American actor was offered to make an Italian Western after bumping into the Italian producer in the hallway at the William Morris Agency?

Which American actor, who appeared in Italian Westerns, credited Johnny Mercer with helping him to get his first movie role?

Name the movies from which these images came.

Bertrand van Wonterghem and George Grimes identified last week's frame grab of Miou-Miou and Terence Hill in UN GENIO, DUE COMPARI, UN POLLO, aka A GENIUS, TWO PARTNERS AND A DUPE.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

Bertrand van Wonterghem identified last week's frame grab of Rory Calhoun and Lea Messari in IL COLOSSO DI RODI, aka THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

Bertrand van Wonterghem last week's photo of Lisa Gastoni and Edmund Purdom in L'UOMO CHE RIDE, aka THE MAN WHO LAUGHS.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

George Grimes identified last week's frame grab from AN AMOROUS WOMAN OF TANG DYNASTY.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

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I am interested in knowing what movies you have watched and what you enjoyed or not. So please send me an email at scinema@earthlink.net if you'd like to share. Here's what I watched last week:

Appreciated:

WE WILL DANCE AGAIN (2024) - Combining on-camera testimonials from survivors of the October 7th, 2023 attack by Hamas on Southern Israel, with cell phone footage provided by the survivors and the coverage live streamed by the attackers, this is a vivid portrait of survival. Recounting the experience is obviously emotional, as is witnessing this film. It really is beside the point, but as I watched this on Showtime/Paramount +, why did the filmmakers make the information titles too small to be easily read on TV - since that is where the intended audience would see it?

Mildly enjoyed:

MAN AT THE TOP (1973) - In 1957, John Braine published the novel ROOM AT THE TOP about a working class young man named Joe Lampton with a driving ambition to become rich. It was made into movie in 1959 which marked the directoral debut of Jack Clayton, which garnered six Academy Award nominations - and won two. While striving to marry the daughter of a factory owner, Lampton fights off lonliness by taking up with a older married woman. In the end, he succeeds in getting the rich girl pregnant, thus getting the go-ahead to marry her. Unfortunately, he discovers, too late, that he is actually in love with the married woman who kills herself when Lampton tells her that he will marry the rich girl. In 1962, Braine wrote a sequel called LIFE AT THE TOP. A movie version came in 1965 which showed that living the life of a rich man was disappointing for Lampton, especially since he didn't love his wife. In 1970, Braine helped to turn the story of Joe Lampton into a TV series called Man At the Top, which ran for two seasons totaling 23 episodes. I wouldn't be interested in any of this if Hammer 

Films, under Roy Skeggs, wasn't trying to keep going by doing feature film versions of successful TV shows. Partnering with Dufton Films, Hammer released MAN AT THE TOP (the movie) in 1973, with most of the team behind the TV show working on it. Star Kenneth Haigh (who played Brutus in the 1963 version of CLEOPATRA) was given strong support by Nanette Newman (who did an episode of the Hammer produced TV series Journey to the Unknown in 1968) and Harry Andrews. Unfortunately, the movie was bad, with a predictable and meandering screenplay which was supposed to climax with Lampton being menaced during a fox hunt. The fox hunt, and the drama, amounted to nothing really. Having only seen this on a censored U.S. TV showing, I finally got an uncut UK DVD and I couldn't help but be embarrassed for Nanette Newman having a body double doing some gratuitous full frontal nudity. At least Angela Bruce, Margaret Heald and Mary Maude did their own nude scenes, which were quite nice, really. 

WEAPONS (2025) - Overall, this was an enjoyable watch. Writer/director Zach Cregger created a suspenseful atmosphere and even splitting the story into chapters - headed by character names - didn't spoil the mystery. Unfortunately, the solution to the mystery was disappointing, but the film had a rip-roaring climax that was exceptional. The disappointment grew later while reflecting on the movie and finding many unsatisfying elements. As a long time fan of Amy Madigan, I was unable to recognize her. I didn't recognize Sara Paxton either. Nor did I know that she was Cregger's wife. This was perhaps the strangest commercial for Campbell's Soup I've ever seen. For those keeping score on such things, this movie had three actors from the MCU - Josh Brolin, Julia Garner and Benedict Wong. The film lost some points by having the narrator open the film saying that it was a "true story".

Did not enjoy:

PARSIFAL (1982) - When I picked up this two-VHS tape set I expected to see a filmed version of a live performance of the opera written by Richard Wagner. All of the other videos of Wagner's operas were such. While I rarely found these videos very entertaining, I enjoyed figuring out the stagecraft behind the performances. So, I was quite distressed to find that what I had was a work of cinema by director Hans-Jurgen Syberberg. At first, I was thinking that Syberberg was a well-known opera director who had many visual ideas that he knew couldn't be created on stage, so he decided to make a movie. That proved to be incorrect. Syberberg was a film maker who had previously made three features dealing with the legacy of Richard Wagner: RICHARD WAGNER: LUDWIG: REQUIEM FOR A VIRGIN KING, THE CONFESSIONS OF WINIFRED WAGNER and HITLER:  A FILM FROM GERMANY. Reportedly inspired by a combination of Bertolt Brecht's concept of Epic Theatre and Wagner concept of Opera, Syberberg concocted this rather unique interpretation of PARSIFAL, including a prelude performed with puppets. The opening credits were shown over some still pictures spread out on a table, including one showing a destroyed New York City and a fallen Statue of Liberty.

Around the age of 60, Wagner embraced Christianity, leaving behind the Northern European legends of SEIGFRIED and The NIBELUNGEN. PARSIFAL imagined an Holy Kingdom on Earth which was empowered by the possession of the Holy Grail and the Lance that pierced the side of The Redeemer while he was on the cross. This concept was an unique interpretation of the legend of King Arthur, here called Titurel. Titurel left the kingdom to his son Amfortas, who was seduced by an evil woman created by Klingsor. Klingsdor was unable to enter the Kingdom of the Grail because of his past sins, so he began living nearby, where he raised beautiful women who were evil temptresses. While Amfortas was distracted, Klingsdor stole the Lance and stabbed Amfortas with it. At the beginning of the opera, Gurnemanz recounted the continual pain Amfortas suffered from a wound that would not heal. The "wild woman" Kundry arrived with a balsam from Arabia which might sooth Amfortas' pain. She then went to sleep. Meanwhile, King Amfortas kept calling out for Gwain, but the knight had gone away. On his death bed, Titurel called out for Amfortas to uncover the Grail, which filled with the blood of The Redeemer granted the knights immortality. 

However, in  his pain, Amfortas wanted to die so he refused to uncover it. When some prayed to the Grail for help, it replied that an "innocent fool" will be sent to solve their problems. The "innocent fool" arrived after he shot an arrow into an Holy Swan. Gurnernaz explained how wrong that was, and then gave the young fool a tour of the Holy Kingdom. Deciding that the young man didn't understand what he had been shown, Gurnernaz left him alone on stage af the end of Act One. 

Sheesh. That was 115 mins of a film listed as being 255 mins long. Because Syberberg revealed in THE CONFESSIONS OF WINIFRED WAGNER that the widow of Wagner's son still had great admiration for Adolph Hitler, the Wagner organization forbade the filmmaker from using any previous performances of the Opera. So the filmmaker arranged for a new performance of the opera conducted by Armin Jordan. The performers in the film all lip-synced to this new recording.

At the beginning of Act II, Klingsdor awakened the Temptress, who seemed to be the alter-ego of Kundry. Together they sing of the young fool attacking the castle and slaying the knights trying to stop him. The fool entered the castle garden which was filled with the flowermaidens lamenting who will play with them now that the fool had killed their lovers. When the fool meets the Temptress, she revealed that his name is Parsifal, which he had forgotten. The Temptress knew Parsifal's mother, reveals much of the youth's past and told him that his mother died longing for him to return to her. As Parsifal felt remorse, the Temptress kissed him. However, this attempt to awaken in him desire failed, as Parsifal now felt the pain Amfortas felt after she seduced him. In Syberberg's movie, to illustrate the transformation in the young boy, the male actor was replaced by a female actor - who still sang with the male voice of the character. Having failed, the Temptress and Klingsdor died. 

Gurnernanz awoke to hear Kundry moaning to begin the third act. According to a synopsis, it was now many years after Act 2. Gurnernanz had to work hard to awaken Kundry just as Parsifal arrived carrying the lance. Eventually, Gurnernanz recognized the much changed young fool and seeing the lance decided that Parsifal should be proclaimed the new King. Parsifal seemed to recognize Kundry as the Temptress and said that her remorse redeemed her. While all of the knights gathered around Amfortas begging to have the Grail uncovered, he again proclaimed that the wanted to die. Parsifal showed up, proclaimed that Amfortas' wound was now healed and the the Grail should never be covered up again.

Obviously, Wagner's idea of Christianity was different from mine, though I agree that forgiveness and love were key ingredients. However, if religious purity meant chastity, how were new Christians supposed to be born? For the filmmaker, Christianity seemed to mean sleepwalking, as no one celebrated the happy ending. With the operas by Richard Wagner that I previously watched, there was fun to hear themes which I recognized that were used outside of the operas for which they were written. (Like the cues director John Boorman used in EXCALIBUR.) None of the music in PARSIFAL clicked for me. None of it was currently playing in my head as I wrote this.

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Angel Rivera  Enjoyed:

"ROOM 222" S1,E15 "EL Genio"; S3, E18; "We Hold These Truths"; (1969/ 1972)
From 1972: a middle aged adult male immigrant played by Fritz Weaver is at Walt Whitman HS to take a night class for US citizenship. Fritz gets most upset when he sees what he sees as disrespect  for the US flag. Enter two black students who feel the nation is going down the crapper and as an art  project, they take an American flag and actually have it entering the crapper as their statement of protest. This sets off Weaver who is the culprit when the art project is found destroyed. What follows is a discussion on perspectives. Interesting with what is going on now.
From 1969: Karen Valentine becomes aware of a Mexican-American male student who until the class had begun to discuss "The Alamo" showed no interest in school. She makes it her mission to help him reach his full potential by helping him get a scholarship to college. The student successfully passes the test to get the scholarship. Except the student does not want to go college as his passion is gardening.  

"FIREFLY" S1, E13 "Heart of Gold" (2002)
One of my favorite episodes. Mal, (Nathan Fillion, the skipper of the Firefly class spaceship, "Serenity" and his crew and passengers are enlisted to help a friend of Inara's, (Morena Baccarin), the resident "companion" ("courtesan"). Inara's friend is played by Melinda Clarke, better known for her role on the popular evening soap-opera, "The OC" (2003-2007) and she is the madam of  an "unlicensed" bordello (meaning they have no outside protection) who are under attack by the "father" of the baby of one of the "girls".  And "the father" happens to be the local boss of the "town" and he wants his "son." A very well made episode that was nominated for a Hugo award.

"COME SEPTEMBER" (1961)
TCM in its annual "Summer Under the Stars" where they highlight a different movie star each night. Well I saw these films of Gina Lollobrigida on her night. The first, co-stars Rock Hudson as a tycoon who owns a villa in Italy and shares it with his girlfriend (Gina), but only comes to visit and stay for the month of September each year. Fun is assured when Rock decides to surprise every one and comes to Italy in July, instead of September. Everyone gets a surprise. Gina, tired of being the flavor of the month is about to get married to some else and Rock's majordomo played by Walter Slezak has turned Rock's villa into a five-star hotel which he calls the "Dolce Vista". Along for the merriment are: Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee who actually first met on the set of this movie while shooting in Italy. I read in an article in "Cinema Retro" magazine, where someone wrote about what he called the sexless sex comedies of the sixties. By that I believe he meant in the movie sex is on everyone's mind, but no one actually has sex. (outside of wedlock) Entertaining piece of fluff. Gina looks great and Rock is a dependable lead. Best scene is when Gina and Rock do a sexy kind of Latin style dance. 


THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME" (1956/7)
The second Gina Lollobrigida movie is where she plays the gypsy, Esmeralda opposite Anthony Quinn as Quasimodo in the first color version of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame". Of interest is that TCM aired the French version of the film with English subtitles. I had seen the English-dubbed version which streams on YouTube, but I didn't note many differences. It also seems that Quinn dubbed his own voice in the French version. Gina is mesmerizing as the gypsy and her performance includes a very sensual dance. I'm not sure, but I believe that this adaptation is the first to feature the  ending as it appears in the Victor Hugo novel. Beautiful Technicolor and Cinemasope film. 

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Bertrand van Wonterghem Highly enjoyed:

La polka des menottes (1957, Raoul André)

Enjoyed:

Mr Socrates (2005, Choi Jin-won)

The adventures of brisco County Jr (1993) – episodes 1 & 2

Mildly Enjoyed

The black knight (1954, Tay Garnett)

Un drôle de paroissien (1963, Jean-Pierre Mocky)

Did not enjoy:

Cattle queen of Montana (1954, Allan Dwan)

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 David Deal Enjoyed: 

L'ECLISSE (62)

DATE WITH THE FALCON (41)

THE TREASURE OF SILVER LAKE (62)

GUN CRAZY (49)

SHORT NIGHT OF GLASS DOLLS (72) - From 2019: "Investigative journalist Jean Sorel is inexplicably found comatose and assumed dead - but he's not.  Sorel's story is told in flashback in Aldo Lado's directorial debut.  Here, Lado does for Prague what he would do to even greater effect in the next year's followup Who Saw Here Die?  An off-season sense of doom saturates the light as well as the characters' slow motion decent."

GOLD OF THE SEVEN SAINTS (61)

CARPET OF HORROR (62)

DR. CYCLOPS (40)

DEADLOCK (70) - From 2000: "Serious squalor in this Mario Adorf heist/western shot in the middle of a desert hellhole." I liked it better this time.

LE BALANCE (81) - Welcome to the Paris underworld. The cops are after gangster Maurice Ronet and they trap a low-level hooker and her pimp husband into giving away Ronet's plans. It works but no one comes away unscathed. This hard-hitting, gritty French crime film doesn't have a lot of star power (excepting Ronet, who died a couple of years later) but makes up for it in violence and action. However, this isn't a cookie cutter policier; the characters are fleshed out nicely so when the inevitable happens it's hard not to feel sorry for the criminal victims caught in the middle. Recommended.

NAKED LUNCH (91)

ORGASMO (69)

QUEEN OF BLOOD (66)

POWDER RIVER (53)

DR. TERROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS (64)

THE VAMPIRE DOLL (70)

RONIN (98)

Mildly Enjoyed

THE SINGING THIEF (69) - Nightclub singer Jimmy Lin Chong used to be a gentleman thief; he specialized in stealing diamonds, and always left a trademark red carnation at the scene of his crimes. He got busted and did five hard, so now he's treading the straight and narrow. Trouble is there's a copycat thief out there throwing suspicion on Jimmy, so he vows to catch him or her. There are plenty of action scenes in the last act, and this is another colorful example of the "bangpian" film, but there is too much singing for my taste. To each his own tho.

VALLEY OF THE DOLLS (67)

THE MURDER CLINIC (66)

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