Li'l Duce's Reviews Palace

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We saw this in film class (1974); before this all I knew of Robards was from Once Upon a Time in the West.

Interesting to know he was not so famous over  there exactly as over here. I had had so far the impression  that he was a familiar name in the U.S.A.

[Cusser]

Interesting to know he was not so famous over  there exactly as over here. I had had so far the impression that he was a familiar name in the U.S.A.

Before Once/West, I'd say that Robards was most famous/known for his Broadway career.

Robards was a winner of a Tony Award, two Academy Awards and an Emmy Award, making him one of 24 Triple Crown of Acting winners. He was also a United States Navy decorated combat veteran of World War II.

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Der Untergang (2004) I hadn't realized this was 16 years old. The reconstruction is obviously fascinating. I would have done without some episodes and dialogues outside of the bunker but maybe that's because I read much on the subject. 8/10. 

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Avec la peau des autres (1966) So-so spy-story notable only for the cast and the Wien places of the time. Lots of talk and little action. 6/10

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L'Alpagueur (The Hunter Will Get You)(1976) The first half is tedious as the plot hangs on a spit and is quite childish (the "Hawk, rather than being the most terrible criminal of France is the most imbecile: he lets live the boy he hires for the jewelry hold up which is a job he could on his own and who causes his downfall at the end, as the guy is the only one who could identify (gay theme: he had picked up the boy earlier for sex); in the second bank heist he is sure that the boy he hires by buying him a motorcycle won't leave while he's doing the hold up. The trailer episode with Belmondo makes you puke. The movie starts having some vitality toward the end, after the prison break and earns it a 6/10, even thanks to a good OST. But I won't watch it a second time.

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Cent mille dollars au soleil (Greed in the Sun) (1964)

Great adventure movie. The finale is just too fast and banal. But for a couple of hours keeps you riveted to the screen with wonderful images of the Sahara. 8/10

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Serie noire (1979)  Uneven, as it alternates comedy and drama and so even the characters do not appear to be well defined and credible. Blier's especially is absurd in the finale and so the wife's, her insisting where D. got the money (and how does she come to infer that the money is related to the double murder, as all the papers concur in describing the old woman as pennyless?). The part with D. and the Greek at D.'s home doesn't make sense and could have been cut out profitably. D. thinking that B. won't check on him and wonder where he got the money is incredible. I'll check the Thompson book (with little hope it will make more sense than the movie). 6/10

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L'As des As (1982)  This one has got some strange merits. Wonderful photography and reconstruction of Berlin in 1936. But the plot, as usual, takes up the persecuted Jewish family with the orphan kid and proceeds aound that instead of concentrating on the Belmondo's don't-give-a-damn figure put against the Nazis. A pity. 5/10   

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Les Aventuriers (1967) This movie doesn't know which way to go and so the result is quite uneven: romantic adventure, adventure of the title, crime. But it has some good parts and watchable at least once thanks to Ventura and Delon. 6/10

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Le Magnifique (1973) A kinda Walter Mitty variation, with a very funny slapstick approach in the first part. But when it comes to the part dealing with the writer's real life the plot is quite hackneyed and really boring. Caprioli doesn't belong there, picked up only for co-production's sake. 6/10

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Capone (2020) Depressing movie on the last year of the gangster. It is more about a sick man than a infamous mobster, though his memories haunt him and are given a little room in the plot to vivify it. But for people  who had to assist people with the same pathology it could be disturbing. Which might also explain some of the low rates at IMDB. Though a HBO production I still find hard to understand how it could find somebody to produce it. 6-7/10

[cigar joe]

Capone (2020) Depressing movie on the last year of the gangster. It is more about a sick man than a infamous mobster, though his memories haunt him and are given a little room in the plot to vivify it. But for people  who had to assist people with the same pathology it could be disturbing. Which might also explain some of the low rates at IMDB. Though a HBO production I still find hard to understand how it could find somebody to produce it. 6-7/10

You gave it higher marks than the reviews I've heard.

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You gave it higher marks than the reviews I've heard.

Yes. Because the low rates were given by those who expected the usual gangster biopic. This is about a a man with neurological disfunctions getting aggravated each passing day. Of course, that man being who he was, that makes some kind of difference in the treatment of the case, but it was an approach which makes the movie interesting, especially if you had the misfortune to deal with similar pathological cases, like I, unfortunately, had.

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Peur sur la ville (1975) Plotwise this is almost idiotic, the story being below the credible. But the flick must not be missed because of  the Belmondo's stunts, doubled only for a couple of shots showing him walking above a metro car. In facts there is the roof chase above the Galeries Lafayette rooftops (which might very well be the best of the kind ever), followed by a car chase in the streets and finally one in the metro. That is the only, but solid, reason to watch this movie. 6/10

Morricone's theme average:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8svSFZc3Qto

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Okasareta hakui (Violated Angels) (1967) Hadn't realized how much furnished were jap girls backwise. This is a T&A sexploitation flick I had wanted to watch, but didn't manage to, since the early '70's when it was shown in a small cinema over here. But I had no idea that it was about a serial killer and quite disturbing at that. Still at not even an hour of lenght it is 15' too long, trying to give some reason for the psycho's behaviour. 7/10

It is based on the Richard Speck's case of the year before.