Loved the book and this is a super faithful adaptation that captures the meticulous nature of Forsyth's writing and the Jackal himself. It pulls from a lot of my favorite genres and feels like a mash up of political thrillers, spy movies, procedurals, and cat and mouse games between cop and criminal that remains exciting throughout despite measured pacing and an unusual length. Michael Lionsdale as Lebel belongs to the rich tradition of 70's "kind of schlubby guy that could actually plausibly be a police officer and ultimately outsmarts the criminals", joining the likes of Walter Matthau in Taking of Pelham One Two Three.
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Empire of the Sun 1987
Back to back ambitious historical dramas for Spielberg after The Color Purple with the two films sharing a lot of the same issues for me. The subject matter of Empire of the Sun is heavy in a way that the movie rarely is, a war story through the eyes of a young boy whose unbreakable spirit brightens the internment camp that the latter half takes place in. A young Christian Bale occupies the lead role and does a lot with…
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Satantango 1994
Thanks to Criterion Channel (and Arbelos for the wonderful restoration) I have finally tackled a "white whale" of world cinema: Hungarian auteur Béla Tarr's seven and a half hour slow cinema masterpiece Sátántangó. It is a film that demands your complete focus and that you don't think about focusing, not necessarily an easy place to get. If you can get yourself in that mindset and stay there it is capable of inducing a cinematic trance unlike anything I've experienced.
Tarr…
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Children of Men 2006
Anyone else heard of this little indie? The biggest blindspot I've tackled since Saving Private Ryan, Alfonso Cuarón's lauded 2006 scifi Children of Men is one I'd put off for way too long. I had seen the scene coming in but was delighted to find that the power of it was not diminished and that the film held plenty of surprises. What stands out right away is the world building which surpasses similar apocalyptic films with lazy "news footage exposition"…
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