[center][color=yellow][b][img]http://www.njedge.net/~knapp/FuForMayor.jpg[/img][/b][/color][/center] [color=yellow][b]The Blood of Fu Manchu[/b] (1968, Jess Franco) *½[/color] [color=yellow][color=white]Boring 4th entry in the Fu Manchu series (but the first I have seen). Typical Franco mess with incoherent plot, poor camerawork. [/color] [b]The Castle of Fu Manchu[/b] (1968, Jess Franco) **[/color] [color=yellow][color=white]Definitely an improvement over Blood. Entertaining in a comic book, Saturday matinee kind of way (I watched it on a Saturday morning). Fu Manchu plots to overtake the world by changing the oceans into ice! [/color][/color][color=white]Some stock disaster footage added for effect.[/color] [color=yellow][b]The Bloody Judge[/b] (1970, Jess Franco) **½[/color] [color=yellow][color=white]Well Christopher Lee is a medieval judge who likes to sentence people to hang for things like witchcraft. Some unpleasant torture scenes thrown in as well. More historical drama than horror.[/color] [b]Circus Of Fear[/b] (1966, John Moxey) ***[/color] [color=yellow][color=white]Entertaining British whodunnit in which Christopher Lee wears a black mask for most of the film. [/color] [b]King of the Grizzlies[/b] (1970, Ron Kelly) **½[/color] [color=yellow][color=white]Another nature-oriented Disney film. Not as intriguing as some, but a pleasant, low key viewing experience. [/color] [/color] [center][color=yellow][b][img]http://www.sensesofcinema.com/images/directors/03/24/carabiniers01.jpg[/img][/b][/color][/center] [color=yellow][b]Les Carabiniers[/b] (1963, Jean-Luc Godard) ***[/color] [color=yellow][color=white]The Godard film fest continues. This one actually ranks as one of the best Godard's I've seen yet. His amateurish, cinema verite style is a good fit to a war film. Still, annoying tricks detract from the film, this time fast cuts to black in the middle of scenes. Anyway, incredibly unlikable country bumpkins go to war so they can rape and pillage the enemy, and return home with a suitcase full of postcards. Another picture portraying the insanity of war, literally. [/color] [/color] [center][color=yellow][/color][/center] [color=yellow][/color] [color=yellow][b]Elizabeth[/b] (1998, Shekhar Kapur) ***[/color] [color=yellow][color=white]Exquisitely photographed, vividly detailed period film. Deep down, though, it wants to be a "chick flick", with its emphasis on the doomed love between Elizabeth and her suitor. Nauseatingly romantic at times, I was actually yelling at the screen to get 'Dudley' off camera and out of the story. [/color][/color] [color=yellow][color=#ffffff][/color][/color] [color=yellow][color=#ffffff][/color] [/color]

[color=yellow]Stalag 17 (1953, Billy Wilder) ***[/color] [color=white]Growing up with endless episodes of [b]Hogan's Heroes[/b], the novelty of the film becomes considerably lessened. Schulz was a similar character in both, as well as the Commandant, and of course the setting and general plot are nearly identical. William Holden's performance, which garnered him an Oscar, was subdued, befitting his character. Somewhat of a let down, but entirely due to the familiarity bred by Bob Crane and friends. I only wish I had seen the film first. [/color] [color=#ffffff][/color] [color=yellow]The Bear (1988, Jean-Jacques Annaud) **½[/color] [color=yellow][color=white]Begins as a Disney film with an edge (and I am a fan of live action Disney, compare to [b]The Bears and I[/b]), complete with Jan Svankmajer animated bear dreams. It was rolling along great, until the bear-on-shrooms segment. The rest of the film marred by anthropomorphization gone astray, waving bears, crying bears, merciful bears... Nonetheless, a beautiful film with a message I fully support. [/color] [/color]

[center][color=yellow][img]http://frenchfilms.topcities.com/1960_Le_trou.jpg[/img][/color][/center] [color=yellow]Le Trou ([/color][color=yellow]1960, Jacques Becker) ***½[/color] [color=#ffffff]Vividly realistic portrait of five cell mates and their attempt at escape. One gets the sense that this is how it is [i]really[/i] done, using crude yet ingenious tools, hours of backbreaking labor, and an obsession bordering on the insane. Remember, if caught, they would likely face execution by beheading! Environmental sound replaces music throughout the film....especially effective was the extended sequence when the hole was begun, the pounding of metal on cement reverberating through the cell for seemingly an eternity. [/color][color=white]The little periscope made with a tooth-brush gives raise to a shocking scene, a few seconds of great cinema. [/color]

[color=yellow]Hang 'Em High (1968, Ted Post) **½[/color] [color=white]American attempt at a spaghetti western. The music works most of the time, and the film does have its moments, especially the beginning. However, much too long, mainly to blame a contrived romantic subplot.[/color] [color=yellow]The Littlest Horse Thieves (1977, Charles Jarrott) ***[/color] [color=white]Disney production filmed entirely in the UK. Vivid period atmosphere, set in a small English colliery town (coal mining) in the early 20th century. [/color] [color=yellow]I, A Woman (1965, Mac Ahlberg) **[/color] [color=white]Very early example of erotica, originally imported to the US by Radley Metzger. Flashbacks hard to distinguish from reality. Really nothing more than episodic melodrama. DVD transfer horrid. [/color] [center][color=yellow][img]http://tdartois.free.fr/site_jcoteau/images/groupesix/damesBoulogne2.jpg[/img][/color][/center] [color=yellow][/color] [color=yellow]Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne (1944, Robert Bresson) ***[/color] [color=white]Second Bresson film this week, not nearly as good as Diary of a Country Priest, this one more talky. I was confused as to motivations through a good part of the film, but all is revealed in the last 10 minutes, and I was a little surprised.[/color]

[center][img]http://images.dvdpost.be/actors/zouzou.jpg[/img][/center] [center] [/center] [color=yellow][b]Chloe in the Afternoon[/b] (1972, Eric Rohmer) ***½[/color] [color=white]ZouZou! I think I was falling in love with her at the same time as the character in the film... how he resisted her advances, I'll never know. By now, my 6th Rohmer film, I have grown accustomed to his style of filmmaking, and with this final installment of the "Six Moral Tales", he has finely crafted his technique. Great![/color]