The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun (1970) Pre-neo-noir

[titoli]

I was flabbergasted by the title when it first came out: too long, it must be boring, I thought.Then, a few years ago I read Rossi's novel and now, having watched the movie (on youtube) I am convinced that Rossi was the true heir to Woolrich. This is a living proof of what the common authors of books on the genre dub as "absurd": this is the most absurd plot of all, a squared Woolrich. In fact the plot makes little sense, the characters act far away from what a common person would act and (I'll add) having shot the movie with the main actors being english, they had to add the even greater absurdity of showing most of french people being able to speak their language: which is absurd to assume today but completely crazy in 1970. So it is not pure chance that a classic noir practitioner like Litvak picked up this french noir for his last production (though I wonder how Mrs Chabrol's - here acting dubbed? - hubby let it slip through his hands).  And it gets 8/10, though McEnery  looks and acts like a poor man's Terence Stamp and visually there is little noir except the psychedelic lights in the interiors subbing for the contrasted b&w of old. And Legrand, alas, is not in his best form.

[dave jenkins]

having watched the movie (on youtube)

Found it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rJ6vMVmTxU
Thanks, I've been wanting to watch that for some time but it hasn't been readily available in R1.

[stanton]

The remake from 2015 is a stylish film by Joaan Sfar with a strong erotic touch.

tps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lady_in_the_Car_with_Glasses_and_a_Gun_(2015_film)

[noodles_leone]

Wait, that was by Joann Sfar?

[stanton]

Yes.

Now you understand how important it is to name the director.

[noodles_leone]

I was thinking about that. Couldn?t find anything funny to say so I didn?t say anything. But yeah it can help.