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Notes: It is considered as the first âtalkingâ movie so it was pretty huge when it was released at the time. Well, I was rather surprised by how little dialogue was actually involved in the damned thing after all and they still used intertitles for most of the duration. Basically, the sound was mostly used for the songs performed by Al Jolson. The songs were actually all pretty good by the way. And, yet, during these songs, Jolson did improvise some dialogues and it was basically the first time ever that you had some audible dialogue. Well, I thought that even when you watch this movie almost 100 years later, the effect was still really neat. Concerning the movie itself, well, to be honest, the story is not really strong and you might wonder why it has been remade twice already (the Neil Diamond version has especially a really lame reputation). There was also the issue that Al Jolson was in his 40âs and at least 20 years too old to play this character, even if he was a great performer (it's quite incredible that they made exactly the same mistake with the Neil Diamond remake). There was also the fact that he kept performing with some blackface and, even though it was apparently a common practice at the time, it is still really unsettling to watch it nowadays. The weird thing, at least to me, was that Jolson didnât sound like a black guy at all when he was singing so I didnât really see the point of this make-up.
“I wasnât sure what to expect but since this movie had been a success at the box-office and since it seemed to be a decent comedy, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, I was surprised by how lame it actually turned out to be. Seriously, right from the very first scene, I was ” read more
Notes: I haven't seen this one yet...
“To be honest, I have never been a huge fan of âMary Poppinsâ (since I have Disney+, I should re-watch it at some point though) but since I have a weak spot for Emma Thompson and Tom Hanks, I was quite eager to check this movie. Well, even though it was a decent watch and easily better than most ” read more
Notes: I always felt bad that discovered Buster Keaton so late. Well, it took me even longer to see my first movie starring Harold Lloyd but, at least, it was definitely worth the wait, thatâs for sure. First of all, I saw a restored version on YouTube and I must say I was amazed by its pristine quality which you wouldnât expect from a silent movie already almost 100 years old. Concerning the movie itself, it was apparently Harold Lloydâs favorite among all his films so I got lucky to discover his work with, allegedly, one of his best movies. Sure, like most silent comedies, the whole thing was rather random but I thought the story was actually fairly well developed. Above all, the damned thing was just so entertaining. Seriously, I canât remember the last time I saw such a hilarious silent movie. Basically, the whole thing is an endless succession of very clever gags and I was amazed that so many of them worked so well. In fact, there were so many, I donât think I could pick up any of them as a favorite and, maybe, thatâs a downside, but I think it was more a luxury problem.
“I wasnât really sure what to expect from this movie but since I have a weak spot for Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, this movie was one of the victims in the Weinstein debacle as it was supposed to be released just around the time the scandal broke do” read more
Notes: I haven't seen this one yet...
“I wasnât really sure what to expect from this movie but since I have a weak spot for Steven Soderberghâs work and since it was available on Netflix, I was quite eager to check it out. Like anyone else, I heard about the Panama papers but, to be honest, I didnât really dig too much in this affa” read more
edlongshanks
Notes: Itâs only when I started to watch this movie that I discovered that it was actually directed by Josef von Sternberg and Iâm pretty sure it was the first movie I saw from the famous director. It is interesting to note that, even though this movie is nowadays highly regarded, it was actually barely noticed when it was released because was it was one of the last films of the silent era and, at the time, everyone was more obsessed about the first talkies coming out, even if they were not really that good. Concerning George Bancroft, he was some kind of combination of Jean Gabin with John C. Reilly and I wonder if I have ever saw him before. Anyway, I thought he was pretty good. Concerning the movie itself, it turned out to be an interesting combination of dark and grim realism with an almost fairy-tale like romance. The best example would be the wedding which is often considered as the most famous scene in this movie. Indeed, on one hand, it might seem pretty sordid and it was rather obvious that Bill Roberts wouldnât keep his vows and, and yet, Mae actually believed in this ceremony while the crowd around them was not exactly sweet and gentle and these strong contrasts were really interesting. Itâs too bad they didnât develop more the characters though but, on the other, the fact that we knew so very little about them automatically made them more mysterious and intriguing.
“To be honest, I wasnât expecting much from this flick but somehow, I still ended up watching the damned thing. Well, sure, it turned out to be a really generic and predictable romantic-comedy but, probably because I had such low expectations, I didnât think it was so bad after all. Indeed, Kathe” read more
