I always thought people were just being Francophobic when they pronounced Dassin's name like 'jools' and assumed he was a Frenchman working abroad, but I had it all wrong: the director of Rififi was American!
The Naked City has some novelty value, narrated as it is by producer Mark Hellinger emphasising the reliance on location shooting - no studios whatsoever! Certainly the gorgeous black and white photography is a major draw and buried amongst the plot's machinations there is a…
One of the few mainstream films to explore the production of stag films, even if Inserts repeats many of the urban legends: that legitimate (if potentially washed-up) Hollywood directors anonymously shot them, that aspiring starlets appeared in them, that the mob had a finger in the stag pie, etc. Dan Erdman's excellent book Let's Go Stag challenges all of these ideas and there is really no evidence for almost any of this. In the context of a fictional feature made…
Wow, some Letterboxd reviewers take such joy in willingly missing the point. Helen is certainly a strange and quite difficult film, but it would be idiotic to suggest that the filmmakers don't know what they're doing. The acting is blank and non-naturalistic to an almost Brechtian level. Takes are long and slow, with lots of silence and deliberately bland dialogue. The cinematography at times reminded me of mid-60s Godard. The central idea is compelling and well-judged - heart-warming at times, but essentially quite creepy. It's not a great film, but it certainly has some interesting ideas.
I don't have anything original to say about this, but I will say that if you're considering a nostalgic rewatch, do it. It is true what people say - this film is way better than it needs to be. The visual darkness is something to heold and all subsequent big screen Turtle outings should have followed suit, but sadly they did not. I also got a kick of what I thought was location shooting, only to learn it was mostly…
