"Joseph Andrews" is not as witty, charming, and disarming as its predecessor, "Tom Jones", but performances by Ann Margaret and, even moreso, Beryl Reid, lend this film its best moments. The film's hero is a bit bland, his love interest beyond bland, and the film has the feel of "haven't we been here before... and wasn't it funnier then?" There are some genuinely funny moments, but the real reason to see it is the aforementioned Ms. Reid. The late Beryl Reid, one of the most underrated (and sadly least filmed) character actresses of the film age, is Lady Booby's maid, Slipshod. Her scenes are the best in the film and it's a rare opportunity to see this actress in a role that she can sink her teeth into. See also the hard-to-find "Entertaining Mr. Sloane" and "The Killing of Sister George".
Lady Booby: 'nuff said
What can I say? AM's finest moment. Spectacularly sleazy.
Oh, and the rest of the film's nice too, etc.
Underrated period comedy classic!
JOSEPH ANDREWS is a glorious adaptation of the Henry Fielding novel. Done in much the same style as Tony Richardson's previous film TOM JONES. This viewer prefers JOSEPH ANDREWS as a more satisfying film experience. The adaptation from book to movie works better. The performances from all the classic British actors are priceless. The dialogue, filming, editing, costumes and locations are perfectly brought to life. Special mention has to go to Ann-Margret for her performance as Lady Booby. You won't see a more controlled, flawless, hilarious performance in any other film. She is striking to watch. Not only in her beauty, but in the delivery of her lines. Her accent is totally convincing. When has an actress made eating asparagus look soooooooo enticing! JOSEPH ANDREWS is definitely one of the forgotten gems from the 70's. Mixed-up identities and bawdiness at it's best!
Luchino Visconti's adaptation of the Thomas Mann novel is the very definition of sumptuous: the costumes and sets, the special geography of Venice, and the breathtaking cinematography combine to form a heady experience. At the center of this gorgeousness is Aschenbach (Dirk Bogarde in a meticulous performance), a controlled intellectual who unexpectedly finds himself obsessed by the vision of a 14-year-old boy while on a convalescent vacation in 1911. Visconti has turned Aschenbach into a composer, which accounts for the lush excerpts from Mahler on the soundtrack (Bogarde is meant to look like Mahler, too). Even if it tends to hit the nail on the head a little too forcefully, and even if Visconti can test one's patience with lingering looks at crowds at the beach and hotel dining rooms,... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Dirk Bogarde Director(s): Luchino Visconti DVD Release Date: Released the 17 February 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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This 1966 masterpiece by Michelangelo Antonioni (The Passenger) is set in the heady atmosphere of Swinging London, and stars David Hemmings as an unsmiling fashion photographer hooked on ephemeral meaning attached to anything: art, sex, work, relationships, drugs, events. When a real mystery falls into his lap, he probes the evidence for some reliable truth, but finds it hard to reckon with. Vanessa Redgrave plays an enigmatic woman whose desperation to cover something up only seems like one more phenomenon in Hemmings's disinterested purview. This is one of the key films of the decade, and still an unsettling and lasting experience. --Tom KeoghMore Info about this DVD Actor(s): Vanessa Redgrave - David Hemmings Director(s): Michelangelo Antonioni DVD Release Date: Released the 17 February 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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With this magnificent Criterion DVD release, Luchino Visconti's 1963 historical drama The Leopard will finally earn widespread recognition as one of the most beautiful epics ever produced. In adapting the popular novel by Giuseppe Tomassi di Lampedusa (an Italian equivalent to Gone with the Wind, set during the tumultuous Garibaldi revolution of 1860-62), Visconti was initially reluctant to cast Burt Lancaster as the melancholy Prince of Salina--the aging aristocrat "leopard" of the title--who accepts change as inevitable during the struggle for a unified Italy. But Lancaster (even with his voice dubbed in the fully restored Italian release) delivered one of his finest performances, modeled after Visconti himself, and reacting to political and familial upheavals with the... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Burt Lancaster DVD Release Date: Released the 08 June 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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This brooding, operatic movie about Nazism makes Cabaret look like wholesome family fare. The family in The Damned is a symbol of German society circa 1934. The Krupp-like steel magnate Baron von Essenbeck represents the spineless establishment. The Nazis kill the baron, then frame one heir apparent, a socialist (married to the stunning Charlotte Rampling). A bearish, boorish Essenbeck representing the SA, the Nazis' early goon squad, takes the reins. But Hitler murdered the SA in the 1934 "Night of the Long Knives," providing The Damned with its bravura action scene, a Nazi massacre at a gay SA orgy. The winning Essenbeck is the murderous, pedophilic, transvestite, mother-rapist Martin (sharp-featured Helmut Berger), who represents Nazism. Though he's better in... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Dirk Bogarde - Ingrid Thulin - Helmut Griem - Helmut Berger Director(s): Luchino Visconti DVD Release Date: Released the 17 February 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The second of the three Merchant/Ivory films adapting E.M. Forster novels (between A Room with a View and Howard's End), Maurice deals with a theme few period pieces dare mention--a young man's struggle with his homosexuality. It's not just a gay coming-of-age story, however. The hero wrestles with British class society as much as his personal and sexual identity.
The film opens on a stormy, windswept beach, as an older man awkwardly instructs young, fatherless Maurice Hall (James Wilby) in the "sacred mysteries" of sex. The same turbulent, wordless struggle with passion lasts throughout this slowly evolving, beautifully filmed story. Novelist E.M. Forster's brainy, British melodrama hinges on choice and compulsion, as the pensive hero falls for two completely... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Rupert Graves Director(s): James Ivory DVD Release Date: Released the 24 February 2004 Special Order
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