Unexpected or more so after abysymal BO performace and Reviews. Definetly not a film for 2026. A combo of Flash Gordon and Guardians of the Galaxy (vol. 1), overlong (2h20 !!!; really?), some good humor and sexual innueundos in a PG fare, a dumbo Skeletor (unrecognizable Jared Lato with weird accent and Dr. Evil laughter does his bet job in many years here).
Camila Mendes as Teela is hot, Idris Elba supports bravely, Roboto is voiced by Kristen Wiig, James Purefoy is the King Randor, Morena Maccarin (the) sorceress in white and the lead Adam/He-Man- Nicholas Galitzine is funny and charismatic, also Alison Brie is fun as witchy Evil-Lyn.
Coming from a line of legendary toys (that I was never fammilar with), cartoons and comics which I never saw my only reference was the 1987 very B and B budget cult film of the same name and franchise (it was a Golan-Globus Cannon production). More so than then, this film doesn't take itself seriosusly for an even odd moment, it knows it's silly and plays it straight on.
Added value: the score is Fabulous, Power Rock pounding heroic symphonica metallic, another great one from Daniel Pemberton, one chord to rule'm all, Queen style, even features a Highlander song and puns, plus a clone Queen song by The Darkness and surely the sound was familliar because yes, the guitarist it's Brian May !!! That in itself raises the bar (and the volume) one notch (and a star of my review here). A Dolph Lundgren cameo (hero of the 1987 version) makes it even more tongue in cheeck. For the grown-up children ;)
I saw this when it came out in Romania, in 1980, obviously opened here in cinemas with a certain delay. It was called Mica romanta, a fair translation of the original A Little Romance. Why they bought it beacuse it criticises the Capitalistic American family )sort of),same as Kramer Vs. Kramer or Champ, hits in the cinema of that era. Or and the American tourists in Europe? who knows. It was a treat, and one of the best films to run in cinemas then.
I was Ten so a lot of the film meaninngs eluded me. I loved and identified with the kid, Daniel, doing l'École buissonnière like me, watching films al the time, instead of going to school. Didn't fell in love yet but I loved the character of the old man, played with French aplombe a la Charles Boyer or Maurice Cheavlier by the great Laurence Olivier, whose reputation I knew already, so I respected him tremendously.
None would have a clue then who Diane Lane would become, though Sir Larry told people she will be the next Grace Kelly !!! It was her 1st film and George Roy Hill discovered her and the other kids, Thelonious Bertrand. Him unfortunately acted in only another film, today he is a hapilly married dentist living in a small French town.
cut to:
Saw it again in the 90's and absolutely loved it. Was in my late twenties, enjoyed the meta references of George Roy Hill showing his own films, mangled in dubbing in French (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) and Italian (La Stangata aka The Sting). It has plenty of film refernces for a film buff, which was not a la mode back then.
Bonus films: The Three Days of the Condor (Redford pun again), The Big Sleep, True Grit, Hustle (why?) and the invented copiously titled Spasmes Frenetiques !!!
Arthur Hill is excellent as the foster dad, and Sally Kellerman tries to be as annoying as it gets as the distracted mom. Plus, a cool cameo by Broderick Crawford and a schlock director named George de Marco (De Palma, De Toth ?), played with sleeze approach by David Dukes- that looks a bit like Bogdanovich meets Friedkin , and the author of the crap movie, Lips / Levres !
Now, as a banale recommendation for a child's friend, a girl of eleven, felt the terrible urge of rewatching this. And of course it was an absolute pleasure, a marvelous gateau, from a moment lost in time, elegant, romantic, funny, smart and cinephilic.
Composer Georges Delerue received his only Oscar for this film. Great music, a tipically Delerue sound.
A Little Romance was also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay by Allan Burns. His script was based on the novel E=MC2, mon amour by Patrick Cauvin.
A timelss gem. and a predecesor of Richard Linklater's "Sunrise/Sunset" films. Brilliance by a very underrated master-director, George Roy Hill. Another time, another space, lost innocence and beauty...
Max Cady is Back ! And this time he is Javier Bardem with a goat-e and Udo Kier type of Blue Eyes
The new Cape Fear is here...on Apple Tv + (premiered June 5th)
Episodes 1 and 2 were cool and atmospheric, but will it have enough breath to do Ten ?
we'll see...
very little from the original book John D. MacDonald's The Executioners (1957) stays on.
Also not much of the 1962 J. Lee Thompson original adaptation as Cape Fear in glorious Black and White.
cool title lettering, cool ideas from the Scorsese 1991 remake and homage (the shots on the negative, camera moves), and most of all the music stays the same. Bernard Herrmann's score, now redone by Jeff Russo.
Exec prod by Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and showrunner Nick Antosca.
***
1st episode, 'Fingers and Toes' directed by Norwegian Morten Tyldum (Headhunters, Passngers).
Ep. 2 'Why Would I Want to Hurt You?' directed by S.J. Clarkson (Jessica Jones, Madame Web), features a cameo by screenwiter Wesley Strick (who wrote the 1991 remake of CF).
Psychiatrists, psychoanalysts, therapists. Group therapy or one-on-one. Mentalist, alienist, psychoanalyst, shrink.
Speaking of the original HBO series In Treatment, which itself comes from the Israeli BeTipul, I thought of no better way to wrap up this series of rankings, especially since I had my share of shrinks in my time. :-)
The number one “psychiatric” film would be One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975, Milos Forman), but the psychiatrist there is merely window dressing; Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher) is the one who embodies the oppressive system. And then there’s virtually any Woody Allen film, especially the Gene Wilder episode from *Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask) (1972), featuring the doctor who falls in love with Daisy the sheep, which I previously discussed in my ranking of performances in Woody Allen films.
K-PAX (2001, Iain Softley), in which Jeff Bridges plays Dr. Mark Powell, treating an alien—or merely a psychotic patient? (Kevin Spacey)—and the Argentine counterpart Hombre mirando al sudeste (1986, Eliseo Subiela), are really about the patients, much like Nash (Russell Crowe) in A Beautiful Mind (2001, Ron Howard).
There’s also Dr. Marc Chabot (Yves Montand) in On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970, Vincente Minnelli), who hypnotizes Barbra Streisand and discovers she has lived previous lives. Barbra herself tried being a doctor in The Prince of Tides (1991), attempting to cure Nick Nolte.
But my personal favorite is Klaus Kinski as Dr. Hugo Zuckerbrot in Buddy Buddy (1981), Billy Wilder’s remake (and final film) of L’Emmerdeur (1973, Édouard Molinaro), unfortunately only a supporting role, complete with a fondness for nudist therapy.
And then there’s Dr. Elliot (Michael Caine) from Brian De Palma’s thriller Dressed to Kill (1980), whom I would call the “cross-dressing” variation.
Still, I decided to give the place to the illustrious Dr. Caligari. To paraphrase Siegfried Kracauer’s From Caligari to Hitler, this ranking goes from Caligari to Freud...
10. Dr. Caligari (Werner Krauss) in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920, Robert Wiene)
Variation: creepy
Dr. Caligari runs an asylum and uses the somnambulist Cesare for various dirty jobs. Similar to Edgar Allan Poe’s The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether and its idea that the inmates have taken over the asylum.
Its descendants include Asylum (1972, Roy Ward Baker), as well as the opening and cover art of In the Mouth of Madness (1995, John Carpenter).
Successors: Fritz Lang’s Dr. Mabuse, Dr. M, the mega-villains of the James Bond franchise beginning with Dr. No, etc.
Caligari controls Cesare, in a scene set to music by Lacrimosa.
(The full film can be found on YouTube.)
9. Dr. Constance Petersen (Ingrid Bergman) in Spellbound (1945, directed by Alfred Hitchcock)
Variation: mysterious
A thriller populated by psychiatrists, fascinated with psychoanalysis—a fairly new concept in Hollywood at the time—partly inspired by producer David O. Selznick’s own experiences in therapy.
Psychiatrist Constance Petersen (Ingrid Bergman) treats the amnesiac John Ballantine (Gregory Peck), accused of murder.
Based on the novel The House of Dr. Edwardes by Francis Beeding, the pseudonym of John Palmer and Hilary St. George Sanders, screenplay by Ben Hecht.
Memorable above all for its dream sequence designed by Salvador Dalí, and for a recurring skiing sequence.
Successor:Gothika (2003, Mathieu Kassovitz), with Halle Berry as an amnesiac psychiatrist committed to an asylum for a murder she cannot remember committing.
Trailer! (The full film can be found on YouTube.)
8. Dr. Buddy Rydell (Jack Nicholson) in Anger Management (2003, directed by Peter Segal)
Variation: out-of-control!
Jack Nicholson, usually the patient :-) (with the exception of “The Specialist” in the musical Tommy (1975), Ken Russell’s adaptation of The Who), plays an anger-management therapist—or whatever the proper term may be; the closest translation I found was “treatment for controlling one’s temper”—in a mediocre film that deserved a much better director.
A vehicle for Adam Sandler, who, when placed face to face with Jack’s explosive personality, is completely eclipsed.
Best scene: Adam, backed up by Jack, singing I Feel Pretty from West Side Story on the bridge!
7. Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence) in the Halloween series
Created by John Carpenter for the landmark 1978 film.
The name was borrowed from Psycho, from the character played by John Gavin, Sam Loomis.
Dr. Loomis is Michael Myers’ nemesis. He treated him at the institution from which Myers escaped. He is also the commentator, the voice of reason, and the only character besides Michael Myers himself to appear throughout the series: five films, including Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, released shortly before Pleasence’s death in 1995.
Played by Malcolm McDowell in Rob Zombie’s remake.
On the nature of evil!
6. Dr. Ben Sobel (Billy Crystal) in Analyze This (1999, directed by Harold Ramis)
Variation: sleeps with the fishes!
Mob boss Vitti (Robert De Niro) has problems and decides to see a psychiatrist. But nobody must find out. Otherwise Vitti might end up sleeping with the fishes too, Luca Brasi style.
Nemesis: Chazz Palminteri, to whom the meaning of the word “closure” has to be explained.
The dramatic TV version:The Sopranos, released the very same year. Which came first? Only they know who inspired whom, but Analyze This is the parody version, a kind of sitcom blown up to feature-film proportions.
Sequel:Analyze That (2002), also directed by Harold Ramis.
Explaining the Oedipus complex! “Fuckin’ Greeks!”
5. Dr. Bill Capa (Bruce Willis) in Color of Night (1994, directed by Richard Rush)
Variation: it’s so bad, it’s good!
The most improbable psychiatrist ever.
Color-blind, traumatized by the color red, trapped in a Hitchcockian thriller inspired in part by Vertigo. Someone starts killing off his patients.
The patient roster is practically a compendium of cult actors: Lance Henriksen, Brad Dourif, Lesley Ann Warren, Kevin J. O'Connor.
Steamy sex scenes with the then-young Jane March (The Lover).
Bruce also played a psychiatrist, Dr. Crowe, in The Sixth Sense (1999, M. Night Shyamalan), but I left him off the list for objective reasons: he belongs to the spirit world. :-)
A fan-made video clip for the title song (super-cheesy), performed by Lauren Christy!
4. Dr. Martin Dysart (Richard Burton) in Equus (1977, directed by Sidney Lumet)
Variation: equestrian
A drama written by Peter Shaffer, adapted from his own play, in which Harry Potter himself (a.k.a. Daniel Radcliffe) is currently appearing nude on Broadway.
Burton delivers a magnificent performance as a doctor determined to cure an extremely disturbed young man obsessed with horses (Peter Firth).
Nominated for three Academy Awards (Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay) and winner of two Golden Globes, for Best Dramatic Actor (Burton) and Best Supporting Actor (Firth).
In the original Broadway production (1974–75), Anthony Hopkins played Dysart.
Trailer!
3. Dr. Leo Marvin (Richard Dreyfuss) in What About Bob? (1991, directed by Frank Oz)
Variation: funny
Bill Murray is Bob, the patient who relentlessly torments Dr. Leo Marvin (Richard Dreyfuss).
The Romanian title used on television (since it never received a theatrical release) was The Psychiatrist on Vacation.
Similar: the Burt Reynolds / Dom DeLuise pairing in The End (1978, directed by Burt Reynolds).
The “Gimme Gimme, I Need I Need...” scene. (The full film can be found on YouTube.)
2. Col. Vincent Kane (Stacy Keach) in The Ninth Configuration (1980, directed by William Peter Blatty)
Variation: red herrings!
Based on William Peter Blatty’s novel Twinkle, Twinkle, Killer Kane (The Exorcist).
How Do You Fight A War Called Madness?
A new commander arrives at a castle where he applies shock therapy to former soldiers suffering from mental illness.
An entirely male cast: Jason Miller, Stuart Wilson, Neville Brand, Robert Loggia, Joe Spinell.
A film about post-war trauma—in this case Vietnam—one of the greatest unknown films ever made, although it enjoys a loyal cult following. Now available in its longer director’s cut.
Packed with references to The Exorcist, also written and produced by Blatty.
Filmed in Hungary. The castle is Burg Eltz in Germany.
Successor:Shutter Island (2010, Martin Scorsese).
Part One: the opening sequence set to “St. Antone” by Denny Brooks. (The full film can be found on YouTube.)
1. Dr. Freud (Alan Arkin) in The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976, directed by Herbert Ross)
Variation: Freudian :-)
The film in which Dr. Freud (Alan Arkin) treats Sherlock Holmes (Nicol Williamson), brought to him by Dr. Watson (Robert Duvall) for cocaine addiction—hence the film’s title.
Based on the novel by Nicholas Meyer.
Laurence Olivier plays Professor Moriarty and Vanessa Redgrave is the romantic interest, Lola Deveraux.
A special, one-of-a-kind film that clearly influenced Alan Moore’s graphic novel The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
Predecessor: Freud had appeared on screen before, from John Huston’s 1962 biopic Freud, starring Montgomery Clift, to the less likely incarnation played by Jamie Elman (his co-star from California Dreaming!) in the film where Armand Assante portrays Nietzsche, When Nietzsche Wept (2007, Pinchas Perry).
The complete version of Kill Bill (s), aka The Whole Bloody Affair, is in Selected Romanian cinemas, for a Very Limited period of time ! With an Intermission too, just overlong, who needs 15 mins?? and in Glorious Shawscope !!!
Let's be Crystal Clear on this, Kill Bill was supposed to be just one film, not two, it was separated due to duration by the infamous youknowho producer and distributor. Tarantino was a bit upset but he conformed. Then he did his own cut. Now he even extended it. Results: a new film, better than any other version, superior in storytelling, rhythm, timing and flow.
IMO don't stay after the overlong credits, you'll get a boneheadish animation entitled The LOST CHAPTER which makes no sesne and it;s actually a Tie-in of a video game. Go home with the
Resume:
Kill Bill vol. 1 -2023 -1h51 = 69 % metascore nr 153 top imdb
Kill Bill vol. 2 -2004 -2h17- metascore: 83%, not in top imdb
Soundtrack: 'Music a silouthette at doom' by Morricone -from Un dollaro a testa Sunny road to Salina -Christophe 1970 The Chase -Alan Reeves About Here with samples from Rod Argent Zombies' "She's Not There" Goodnight Moon-Shivaree
The whole soundtrack here: https://download-soundtracks.com/movie_soundtracks/kill-bill-whole-bloody-affair-soundtrack/
Credits:
2004 -2025 restored, Visiona Romantica
Now the differences (atken from various sources on the net):
The first change you'll notice is an extra 10 minute animated sequence that shows O-Ren Ishii getting revenge on the man that killed her parents. It's animated beautifully and gives O-Ren's character even more depth than she already had. Secondly you'll notice that the legendary fight scene at the House of Blue Leaves is now in full color. With this scene in full color you get to really see the carnage that The Bride creates. You see guys heads being chopped off and geysers of red blood bursting from their neck. You see limbs chopped off with bursts of red blood. You fully see the red blood soaked floor of the building and the red bloody water of the pond. It makes the scene so much more impactful. The third change you see, albeit a minor one, is you actually see how The Bride interrogates Sofia for information. Which of course includes her asking her questions and in turn chopping her arm off for not answering. But the last change and by far most important is at the end of Volume 1, Bill makes no mention of The Brides child still being alive. That small change not only improves Volume 1 but drastically improves Volume 2. Originally you go into Volume 2 technically ahead of The Bride as you know about her kid and she doesn't. But that small change puts us on equal footing with The Bride. It makes the scene of her coming through the door to her child not just shocking and impactful to her but to us, the audience. +++
The old Klingon proverb "Revenge is a dish best served cold." shown at the beginning of the standard theatrical version of Kill Bill Vol. 1 is not present. A dedication to filmmaker Kinji Fukasaku is in its place, as was also the case in the opening of the Japanese theatrical release of Kill Bill Vol. 1. +++
While the 2004 Cannes cut of this film has had various special screenings throughout the past two decades, Lionsgate's 2025 theatrical release is the first time this unified version of Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) and Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004) has become accessible to a wider audience.
There may have been minor alterations made from the Cannes cut to Lionsgate's cut, but here are some notable differences that separate THE WHOLE BLOODY AFFAIR from VOLUME 1 and VOLUME 2.Modern Lionsgate logo plays before VOLUME 1's original Miramax logo. [*2025 only] The "Kill Bill" title card during the opening credits contains the subtitle "The Whole Bloody Affair". The uncensored Japanese version of VOLUME 1 is used for the first five chapters. In Chapter 3, an additional 7.5 minutes of content is added to VOLUME 1's anime sequence in which a 13-year-old O-Ren attempts to kill Pretty Riki in an elevator. At the end of Chapter 5, every shot after the Bride's final exchange with Sofie from VOLUME 1 is omitted (from airplane to end credits). Between Chapters 5 and 6, a static "INTERMISSION" title card (white text, black background) stays on screen for 15 minutes. "Lonely Shepard" plays over the first few minutes of the intermission with the remainder being silent. Everything from the opening of VOLUME 2 that precedes Chapter 6 is omitted (from Miramax logo to "Vol. 2" title card). In Chapter 6, the Bride's opening narration at the Two Pines chapel from VOLUME 2 is omitted. Entire cast, crew and song list from VOLUME 1 is integrated into VOLUME 2's end credits. The uncensored version of Yuki's Revenge (2025) plays after the credits, front-loaded with an animated lobby jingle. [*2025 only]
9 out of 10 !!! 4 1/2 out of 5 !!!
Mega-trivia: In Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004), Beatrix Kiddo (The Bride) is buried alive in the grave of Paula Schultz. This is a famous Quentin Tarantino "Easter Egg" connecting the film to Django Unchained (2012), as Paula Schultz is believed to be the deceased wife of Dr. King Schultz. This video explains the connection between the grave of Paula Schultz in Kill Bill and Dr. King Schultz in Django Unchained.
Most impressive if you count the director, Kane Parsons is 20 years old ! It's based on his youtube found footage series & Kane Pixels.
To be seen and appreciated in a cinema !!! Really !
Plot description: After a therapist's patient disappears into a dimension beyond reality, she must venture into the unknown to save him.
I saw it tonite., and the theater was packed with teenagers. They knew the backstories, the innerworld of the film, the odds and inns. I guess it's one of the reasons Backdoors has a great thetrical run, the best of A24 til now (overpassing Civil War ).
Totally psychedelic & psychotronic, some M.C. Escher angles and tricks, reminding recent Exit 8, and some other cool mindf*cks, Cosmatos' Beyond the Black Rainbow, Tarsem's The Cell, Cube, Us, Severance office sets (actually inspired by the Backwoods originals) and Twin Peas Black Lodge landscape and soundscape, even shades of Eraserhead.
The production /set design is all practical, was built as a maze. And the colors (yellowish) and the lightning. Widescreen cinematpgraphy mixed with video formats.
Could've been more claustrophobic, and it has some weaknesses, clumsiness, confusing ideas, also starts too slow and it's too long, but still, as I wrote above, Impressive.
Chiwetel Ejiofor is Clark, the Alone Man, the furniture shop `Architect` and Renate Reinsve (fresh from Oscar's Sentimental Value and Cannes fare, Fjord) is Mary, a shrink whose book Window of self is a also a clue. Mrk Duplass is the Third Man, as a scientist with a more complicated backstory...
A sort of Malice in Wonderland occurs. Some RMI too, or not ?
And there is also a clue from a classic film and tale/book, The Neverending Story...
Anyhu, I hope a new serious genre Director was born...
Clint, The Man with No Name has hung up his director’s chair.
At 96, the legend has officially retired from directing. Clint Eastwood’s son Kyle confirmed it: the man who defined the Western, owned the action genre, and delivered Oscar-winning dramas has stepped away after nearly 70 years behind the camera.
From A Fistful of Dollars to Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby, and Gran Torino — Clint didn’t just act in movies. He built an era.
Thank you for the squint, the grit, and the unforgettable stories.
The credits may have rolled, but the legacy never will.
I caught up with Damian McCarthy 1st feature film Caveat after seeeing Hokum in a cinema last week and Oddity in 2024.
Caveat in Latin means Warning/ Beware.
Creepy, claustrophobic, atmospheric very low key and extremly well done low budget debut feature shot in Cork, Ireland.
Loses some steam in the third act but it's paced at 1h30 so it's all good. It's basically for the viewer a one person drama and experiences and emotions -through Issac (Jonathan French's amnesic character).
The harness is a gimmick worthy of Edgar Allan Poe's stories.
The film's dialogue is minimal, and the sound design/ soundtrack is keeping the ternsion up, as with the camera movements and the set design of the creepy house with falling walls, the basement, floors creaking and those distant cries of the foxes...
***The toy rabbit featured in the film was acquired via eBay by McCarthy, who "always had an interest in wind-up toys". It was stripped of its fur and sent to costume and prop builder Lisa Zagone, who finalised its design.
3 1/2 out of 5 / 7 out of 10
Sight and Sound: The uncannily claustrophobic design of the setting matches the tightness of the irrationally unfolding narrative in this slice of ghostly surrealism, so beautifully styled that you can practically smell the mildew-stained walls.
maybe the best, most intense horror of the year yet.
To be seen on the big screen. It's widescreen - 2.39 : 1, -by Colm Hogan, kudos! - but it's claustrophobic and the sound design is Great !!! And the music too-atmospheric, as a tool of building more sound !
From the director od Oddity and Caveat, Irishman Damian McCarthy, a name to follow...
McCarthy provides some genuine good scares
and gets a restrained performance from Adam Scott (Severance series), at his most serious and downbeat. His character is the obnoxious and depressed writer Ohm Bauman (reminiscences to Richard Bachman, The Shining -Kubrick's- and other Stephen King characters, Jack Torrance, Mort Rainey, George Stark included).
Hokum is psychological horror mixed with folk supernatural lore, but also a bit more,
Opening and ending bookends raise the quality of the film a lot.
Liked it better than Weapons and felt the kind of vibe Hereditary gave me back when I saw it in a cinema.
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, Columbia Pictures, 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 !
Plot synopsis: Two bumbling hustlers in the 1920s attempt to gain the fortune of an heiress. Nothing will stop them, not even murder.
In The Fortune /Averea in Romanian/1975, Jack joins his 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. Jack as Oscar plays as madcap as it gets, Beatty as Nicky keeps it dandy,. It's an all-mus-go cynical farce, tango featured, bonus the moustaches. 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 8 years...:(
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).
Merry period music and adaptations by David Shire. I Must Be Dreaming is sung by Stockard Channing.
Jack's buddy, Scatman Crothers has a cameo as a fisherman, one of his many in Jack's films (The King of Marvin Gardens, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Shining).
Another Nicholson great buddy, Harry Dean Stanton has a silent and uncredited cameo at 1h21.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Chuck Norris became legendary through the jokes about him, that he is invincible and imortal. He was Not. But gone now at 86, he was an inspiration to many, especially in the 80's Romania.
A Force of One, a man who knew Good Guys Wore Black and An Eye for an Eye he was a Lone Wolf Mc Quade -the inspiration for the later series Walker, Texas Ranger.
I first saw him in the cinema in Breaker ! Breaker !, translated as Orasul fantoma -Ghost town (1977), which I tremember cleartly they had a print in Black and white. Re-saw that on video later on. The battle with the broken bottle stayed vividly in my mind. He had no moustache at the time. Then on video fisrt films I saw was The Way of the Dragon, his first part in the 1972 Bruce Lee film (also directed by Lee), where he battles Lee in the Colosseum. The Colosseum would never be the same again. Oh, yes, for a bit, in Double Team where JCVD, a huge Norris and Lee fan, battles Mickey Rourke again in the Rome Arena.
He was a Karate champion and he became Steve Mc Queen's instructor and McQueen adviced him to go into acting.
Here's some Chuck Norris jokes:
Chuck Norris didn't die, God called him for backup!
Chuck actually died about 15 years ago. Death was too afraid to tell him
Chuck Norris went to Heaven to Judge God for his sins
RIP to the man who can put out a fire with a gallon of gasoline
The man who can beat the sun in a staring contest
The man whose diary is called the Guinness Book of World Records
Tom Noonan, most famously known as Francis Dollarhyde/ The Toothfairy in Michael Mann's Manhunter, the first Hannibal Lecter (spelled Lektor) film in 1986, is gone at 74. I re saw the film last year...It's the best Lecter / Thomas Harris film for me still. And Noonan is pretty scary.
Great character actor , he was also iFrankenstein's monster in The Monster Squad, the baddie in Robocop 2. He returned for Michael Mann in Heat.
In his youth, Noonan was a guitarist and a composer and a theatre actor. He directed 2 indie feature films, a play and some shorts.
Terribly sad about Tom Noonan passing. In casting Manhunter I auditioned about 10-15 actors in New York when Tom walked in the door and said, “I don’t want to talk. I just want to read.” He read and it was magical. We worked closely. I based Dollarhyde less on the novel’s character and more on a convicted killer whom I met and with whom I corresponded who was doing life in Vacaville. I took Tom into that world and he made it his own. It was an automatic to cast Tom in a wheelchair as Kelso in Heat. He did so much more fine work, but it was as the battered child become a killer adult - both alive in the same bottle - that projected the range and deep soul of this so acute and committed artist. Rest in peace, Tom.
...when in Rome...just landed and in the taxi I hear the news, celelbrissimo attore Robert Duvall, etc..surely I get it. Gone. I mean he was 95, lived a great and long life and his films are immortal.
But why everytime I go somewhere this kind of news get heavier and harder?
Duvall was one of the Greatest, like Hackman. As as kid I knew him first by name, my father showed me, he was in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most versatile actor of the '70's. Opposed to Hackman he was the quintesential Character Actor. Capital A.
He was in over 100 films and television series.
He got an Academy Award (for the forgotten Tender Mercies-1983), a BAFTA Award, four Golden Globe Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
His film debut was as Boo Radley in the book adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird (1962).
His shot at Movie Mythology came with Consigliere Tom Hagen in The Godfather and more for Coppola, a bit part in The Conversation-uncredited-where I saw him last-last year, as a Gene Hackman homage series of films), lt. Kilgore "love Napalm in the morning" in Apocalypse Now. He refused to reprise his part in The Hodfather III doe to a salary quarrel.
Loved his parts in Lucas' debut THX 1138, Jesse James in The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid, the gangster in The Outfit, based on the Donald E. Westlake book, the German colonel in The Eagle has Landed, the baddie in Sam Peckinpah's Killer Elite, a TV producer in Sidney Lumet's Network, Dr. Watson in The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, the cop in True Confessions, another cop in Dennis Hopper's Colors, then later on Tony Scott's Days of Thunder, written by Robert Towne, Joel Schumacher's Falling Down, Kevin Costner's Open Range. Also Sling Blade, Get Low, the part of the Old man in the adpatation of Cormac McCarthy's The Road, The Judge in 2014, last bit in 2022 Scott Cooper's Netflix flick The Pale Blue Eye.
He directed five films films, most notably The Apostle in 1997 and in 2002 in Argentina, Assassination Tango. I gotta catch-up with that last one, never saw it.
He lived in his ranch in Virginia, surrounded by his family. Never will be gone, just left this stage and sets...
"Somebody once said that the best life in the world is the life of a second leading man. You travel, you get a per diem, and you’ve probably got a better part anyway. And you don’t have the weight of the entire movie on your shoulders.”
The Nicolas Cage is back with something cool in black and white (and color) but I'd rather see it Noir as in the title. Premieres May 24th on Amazon Prime as in in collaboration with Sony, who's only Marvel character they got rights too...
From the looks it's more of a Sin City / Frank Miller, The Spirit / Will Eisner.
Breendan Gleeson is the villain.
Hopefully this will rock, as gamebased Fallout TV series did, or DC / HBO recently two interesting spinoffs, The Penguin and The Peacemaker and Marvel/ Disney did mega meta Wonder Man.
Tough cookie, lost count of how many films I've seen. Less than probably any year. Over 200, less than 300 ? More ? I started to put them on Letterboxed starting late October but still didn't catch up with the rest.
***
Top of the series is here and films from 2024 are again a problem, The Brutalist and The Substance should've make the 2025 list, as there still are some of 2025 which I haven't seen yet (Hamnet,-saw it,. did not like at all- Resurrection, Sound of Falling ?). Marty Supreme would make Top 5 but I've seen it in Januaray 2026.
Just caught up with Park Chan-Wook's No Other Choice that makes the list. It's limited in Romanian Cinemas now, so try to see it on the big screen, it's worthy.
Kinda disappointed with Romanian Cinema this year too. I liked Kontinental '25 and that's it. Could 've been also Jude's Dracula but he made it such an intentional mess and duration wise a whole calvary...
Finalmente l'alba - Saverio Costanzo -2023, on which I wrote:
Rome and Cinecitta 1953. More like a drreamlike story, a false thriller, homage to Fellini and La Dolce Vita, Notti di Cabiria, and linked to a real muder cold case known as the Italian Black Dahlia. Interesting slow film, in the Venice Competition in 2023. Modern beat score, strange and eerie. Song Last Nite by The Stokes (2011) on the end credits.
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