The Fortune (1975)

The Fortune was then back in 1975 at the time not so fortunate...a good time to revisit now on Jack's 89th BB (Birthday Bash-I hope so...)

For Jack and Warren one of their most obscure films and the only one they did together except Beatty's own REDS...This was Beatty's film trying to greenlit Shampoo (1975) and the studio made that film in order to get this made and guess which film flopped bigtime...

Directed by Mike Nichols, (shot in summer 1974), it was a huge flop at the time of the relase, the guyz had a lot of fun tho but not also Nichols (!) and the film has way more fun values today !

via my post from 2007, `You Don't know Jack! on DVD. 

The Fortune /Averea in Ro.-1975 (Columbia Pix), with Jack's buddiest friend Warren Beatty. What they thought they would reissue Some Like it Hot, became Beavis and Butt-head avant la lettre. Or Stan and Bran dadaists. Abbot and Costello meet the Stooges. Without Iggy. With Stockard Channing (nominated for a Golden Globe as a newcomer), who did not become the new Marilyn Monroe. Compared to something like Wedding Crashers, B & B (i.e. Nicholson and Beatty), are rocket scientists. Plus the sexiest movie star chick since Chicken Little the cartoon. Director Mike Nichols had previously made, in 1970, with Jack and Art Garfunkel, Carnal Knowledge and would direct Jack again in Heartburn and Wolf. Nichols had such a bad experience that he didn't make another film for 7 years...:( 

Maybe Billy Wilder would've made it better and less chaotic ? Or Blake Edwards' more succesful ?

Written by Carole Eastman, Jack's buddy (wrote 4 films for him and Jerry Schatzberg's Puzzle of a Downfall Child), under the pen name Adrien Joyce. 

Shot by master John A. Alonzo (working with Jack after Chinatown, Black Sunday, Scarface). Widescreen 2.35.1, ANAMORPHIC. 

Exceptional production design by Richard Sylbert in his last film with Nichols, and with Jack via Chinatown. The villa apartment is the same as in Day of the Locust , 'cos it's the same set, Schlesinger's film is also 1975). 

Jack's buddy, Scatman Crothers has a cameo as a fisherman, one of his many in Jack's films (One Flew, The Shining). 

more trivia from wikipedia:

Because the start of principal photography on One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was delayed, Jack Nicholson, who had worked with Nichols on Carnal Knowledge, was available for the role of Oscar Sullivan. During filming, the actor was forced to deal with two events that impacted his personal life. First, a fact checker working on a biographical piece for Time discovered that the woman Nicholson believed was his sister was actually his mother, and the woman who raised him was his grandmother. Then his close friend Cass Elliot (mama Cass!) died in her sleep, and rumors about the cause of her death circulated in the media. These two events, linked with the film's eventual failure, made The Fortune a subject that Nicholson never discussed in interviews and biographies.

3 1/2 stars out of 5 / 7 out of 10 !!! (raised it a half-star after that viewing in 2007).

LMA Jack Nicholson -Jack is 89 !!!

The one and only Jack Nicholson is Today 89 !!!

my Blog series on him here 

Retired from acting in 2013 though his Last Film was How Do You Know (2010), where he played a supporting role.

Sae him last on the big screen in the special screening of The Shining in IMAX in Porto. Planning for a long time a screening of Chinatown, now it might be the best time ;)

Happy Birthday Jack !!! Stay Healthy !!!

We finally re-saw an obscure slapstick comedy that was infamous at the time of its release, The Fortune (1975), Jack's only film with his buddy, Warren Beatty. 

The Passion of Anna / En Passion (1969)

 Tagline: Man is the king of beasts

Uncanny but I watched this because of Kristoffer Borgli's The Drama that features the poster for this specific film. Was curious to see any influences and realised I haven't actully seen this Bergman famous piece from 1969. It's actually better titled originally, as A Passion / En passion.

His first 'real' film in color, brilliantly shot by Sven Nykvist (did I say Brilliantly? ;), masterfully restored in 2016 by the Sweedish Film Institute and thus issued on the Criterion collection, the copy I saw. Third part of "the island trilogy" (Fårö island that is), following Hour of the Wolf and Shamem and shots in the same sets, in only 45 days.

Tough, dark, cruel, bitter to the core, includes these postmodern interviews of actors -Von Sydow, Andersson, Ullmann and Josephson, all four brilliant, all four Bergman ensemble troopers to the core-, that cut into the narrative, no music score, an aloof narrator voiceover (Bergman himself), and I see even an influence on Tarkovski's The Sacrifice. 

As character Elis Vergérus (erland Jospehson) observes: ’I don’t imagine that I reach into the soul with this photography. I can only register an interplay of forces, large and small. You look at this picture and imagine things. All is nonsense All play, all poetry. You can’t read another person being with any claim of certainty. Not even pain gives a reaction.’

it can be exactly what the Auteur direktor says.

"This time he was Andreas Winkelman."

Bergman's own notes on the film and more on Bergman's site here. 

9 out of 10 / 4 1/2 out of 5 !!!

RIP Mario Adorf

Mario Adorf, the Swiss cult actor that died on April 8th 2026 was 95. His father was an Italian surgeon, his mother a German nurse.

He acted in over 200 films, played grand theatre, wrote bestsellers. La Piovra's Acidduzzu (for the Romanians), spaghetti westerns (Gli Specialisti/The Specialists), giallos  (L'uccello dalle piume di cristallo), polizioteschi (Milano Calibro 9), but also Alfred Matzerath in Die Blechtrommel for the arthouse and posterity. Winner of the Leopard Career Award in 2016.

Cultiest movie: Deadlock (1970)

met him briefly in Cannes in 2013 after the screening of Billy Wilder's Fedora. 

https://aldmovieland.blogspot.com/2013/05/c66-mario.html

Cannes 2026 Oficial Selection

Cannes 2026 official selection includes the new Cristian Mungiu film, FJORD, his 1st International film, shot in Norway, starring Sebastian Stan and Renate  Reinsve ! The two Osccar nominated actors were together before in A Different Man (2024). I'm getting Oscar buzz already on this one...

The whole Official Selection, Un Certain Regard, Out of Competition here 

It also includes Nicholas Winding Refn's new film, the revenge thriller  HER PRIVATE HELL, out of competition.

Also Out of Competition is Andy Garcia's noir DIAMOND, starring Brendan Fraser, Bill Murray and Dustin Hoffman.

Festival special screenings includes doc  JOHN LENNON : THE LAST INTERVIEW by Steven SODERBERGH

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/steven-soderbergh-john-lennon-yoko-ono-documentary-1235470466/

Iron Maiden -Burning Ambition (2026)

 hell yeah, and yes a film about the Maidens

thought first it was out today, but it's next month !!!

8.05.2026. watch your cinema screens !!!

The Drama (2026)

The Drama (loved the title) has Bergmanesque, Woody Allenesque-through his Bergman love), Nouvelle Vague vibes too- and i must confess I enjoyed it more than the whole Sentimental Value thing. Or overbloated Baumbach's Marriage Story, all due to Bergman's tropes (ther is even a poster for The Passion of Anna, which the writer/director showed his actors in preparation for the shoot).  Don't foreget Borgli is a Swede too.

Liked the energy, the humor, the storytelling, the editing, Daniel Pemberton's score, the acting of the two leads-Robert Pattison and Zendaya in her best part yet- imo-they had chemistry. 

Dram Scenario was ok, Sick of You was intense, looking forward for more Kristoffer Borgli.

Eagles of the Republic (2025)

Eagles of the Republic  is a terrific political thriller by Tarik Saleh (third part of his Cairo trilogy), about Egypt's political and military machinations involving a film star (Fares Fares, the lead in all three Saleh films and a film star in his own right), caught in the middle of the manipulative crossfire. 

Would've been worth more attention in the actual climate, premiered in Cannes last year in competition, and it was Sweden's entry for best foreign film -did not make the short list. Shades of early Costa-Gavras. Also of Das Leben der Anderen. Gave me goosebumps in parallel with what happened in communist Romania and all dictatorships alike. 

Great score by Alexandre Desplat on his 1st collaboration with Saleh and great widescreen cinematography by Pierre Aïm (shot on 65 mm, 2.39.1).  Pierre Aïm shot also the other two Saleh films in his Trilogy -The Nile Hilton Incident (2017, which I saw at TIFF) and Cairo Conspiracy, aka Boy From Heaven (2022, seen briefly on Romanian screens). Of course this film could not be shot in Egypt, so it is all dressed up in Turkey -great job by Saleh's production design Roger Rosenberg. The director is a very persona non grata in Egypt...

Fun fact: Saleh and Rosenberg shot the action thriller The Contractor (2022) in Bucharest for Berlin !!!

Now in Romanian cinemas -very limited-see it on the big screen !

4 out of 5 / 8 out of 10 !!!

****

the press confrence in Cannes here 

and an interview in Variety with the director here 

Angine de Poitrine - Sarniezz- SOTD

Angine de Poitrine ... this name is showing up all over, today I studied them more and I agree...

Microtonal duo from Quebec. Fantastic. Plus a gimmick they have, playing incognito under weird carnival masks and pointilist costumes ! It seems they are brothers and they play:

"un répertoire d'anti-aréna-rock instrumental cartonneux qui, à la manière de la musique techno, s'articule autour d'un jeu dynamique d'ajout et de retrait de motifs sonores en constante métamorphose."

Khn de Poitrine - Microtonal Guitars 

Klek de Poitrine - Drums

check out the whole KEXP concert here. 

They describe their music as: "Dada Pythago-Cubist Mantra-Rock".

Here's Rick Beato take on them: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zO8bt94-ybg