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Rififi is an archetypical heist film, where many of the forms of the movie were created. Other heist films that come to mind include Rififi's own director, Jules Dassin's Topkapi (in which Peter Ustinov won an Academy Award), and several of the Pink Panther movies. The most interesting part of these movies is the actual robbery, and here it was, for the first time, film sans dialog or music. A full 28 minutes go by during the heist without either, and believe me, you don't notice them missing for a second! It is an incredible piece of moviemaking, and even without a solid film backing it up, would make this movie a must see.

Tony le Stéphanois, played with a gruff weariness by Jean Servais, has just been released from prison after serving 5 years, taking the fall for his substitute son, Jo le Suedois, played by the prototypical Aryan, Carl Möhner. His girl stolen, no prospects, and a haggard face to reflect the losses, but his old partners are planning a new heist and want him aboard. After a run-in with his old girlfriend, he decides to take them up on it - the robbery of a fortress-like corner jewelry store. Much planning follows, and then they pull the heist off. But the ex-girlfriend's new beau, a gangster leader, tries to horn in, with tragic results for everyone.

It was interesting to note that one of the 4 robbers was played by the director Dassin - the Italian dandy safe cracker. One of the extras with the DVD is an extensive set of production notes as well as an interview with Dassin, where he explained that the original actor backed out at the last minute so he had to step in, and he did a wonderful job. Also, the black and white filming of Paris is beautiful, and the acting is all around top notch.

As I mentioned before, it is the actual robbery that is breathtaking. In fact, until I read about it later, I didn't even notice the lack of dialog or music, that's how involved you get with the job. And the terrible repercussions don't feel like some kind of Hayes Code demanded retribution, but rather it somehow seemed pre-ordained and how it would work out for these guys.

Jean Servais was perfect for the part. He plays Tony with a real weathered outlook, both internal and external. He seems revived by the new "job" and gives it his all. But his eyes show no surprise in how badly it all turns out, and he uses all his cunning to get the kidnapped boy back. I really liked this movie and have added Topkapi and the Italian Big Deal on Madonna Street to my list of movies on Netflix, as this genre really showed its stuff.

A Very Long Engagement is the 2004 film from the Amelie crew, including director Jean-Pierre Jeunet and actress Audrey Tautou. It concerns a young fiance's search for answers after word gets back her lover has been lost at the front. It elegantly captures the ugliness of World War One's trench warfare, yet is curiously uninvolving after the mystery is solved.

As the movie opens, we see four men being marched along a trench, ankle deep in water as the rain pours down. We are sequentially introduced to each of the condemned men, as they were sentenced to death for "self mutilation", some on purpose and some by accident. This death penalty was invoked to keep others from trying to get sent home due to injury by shooting themselves in the hand. We follow this dreary, wet band of men as they get passed off from one guard to the next, eventually getting pushed up over the trench and into "no man's land", left to fend for themselves as daybreak comes.

One of the condemned men is Manech, who's lover awaits him at a seaside cottage, living with her aunt and uncle. Mathilde (Tautou) and Manech (Gaspard Ulliel) were engaged to be married upon his return from the front, and she doesn't believe in his death, as she never felt the psychic shock. She often plays mental games, to test her faith - "If my uncle knocks before the clock strikes 5, Manech is still alive.". Strangely enough, these games often end ambiguously.

Mathilde goes on a long search, hiring a renown detective (Ticky Holgado, a veteran French film presence in his last film) to help in her search. They unravel a tortuous paper trail, a vengeful other woman, and much sadness and lunacy. Like her mind games, the movie ends in an ambiguously Pyrrhic victory.

Jeunet, who directed other wondrously inventive films like Delicatessen and City of Lost Children, goes for the more serious side here, and only partially succeeds. He does have a couple of cool camera touches, and the scenes from the front are truly visceral, right up there with Saving Private Ryan for visual and aural impact. The sound in particular is incredibly well done, and he mentions in the commentary that he made his sound folks go back and listen to Private Ryan whenever he felt they were coming up short. And due to the subject matter of the nearly pointless trench warfare of World War One's Western Front, it has an even more visceral impact.

One problem I had was I felt Tautou was just too old for the part. She was supposed to be 17 years old when he left for the front, and only a few years older during the main part of the movie, yet she is 26 at the time of the filming. And a couple of places, where they put her in tiny braids, had an almost embarrassing touch, as it felt like they were truly straining to make her look younger. And I just never felt her pain and sorrow, so by the time the movie ended, it was like "big deal".

Another problem is one Jeunet mentioned in his commentary, where it was hard to tell everyone apart. Several had similar names and even despite the device he used whereby they were often mentioned with an identifying clause ("Benjamin the carpenter", "Benoit from Notre Dame", etc), it was still hard to tell who they were talking about. I couldn't often follow the "mystery", nor even who was getting revenge on whom. Even Jodie Foster making an appearance as a grieving widow didn't help. I just plain never got involved in the whole thing.

So it makes for a fascinating, gut-wrenching view of life in the trenches, but it doesn't spend much time there. The other story, the quest for "truth", is only partially successful. And I thought it went on for too long; I was ready for the ending after less than two hours, and I still had 15 minutes or more to go. So it is worth a rental, but I wouldn't stand in line for it.

One of the amazing Australian director Peter Weir's first films, Picnic at Hanging Rock, is an evocative, lyrical, and mysterious foray into the unknown, during a hot summer's day picnic for the girls of Appleyard's Academy for Girls, at the foreboding and primitive place called Hanging Rock. No, this isn't a western, featuring a lynch mob, but rather a beatifully filmed, hauntingly scored movie about repressed sexuality, strange happenings, and, uncomfortably enough for some people, no easy answers.

The movie opens with the girls of the Academy, all around high school age, reading romantic poetry to each other. Shot in soft focus, from oblique angles, the real world seems far away. It is Saint Valentine's Day and the annual picnic to the huge rock outcropping called Hanging Rock is today, and everyone is excited. Being Down Under, it is the middle of the summer, and the heat and lethargy are perfectly captured for the viewer as the carriage heads out. While there, four of the girls take a forbidden walk into the Rock, but only one comes back. Also missing is one of the teachers. A search is quickly mounted, while the negative repercussions on the school's image have their deletorious effect. A week later, one of the girls is discovered by a boy who had seen them disappear and is wracked by nightmares about them. The discovered girl is in remarkably good condition and is still, in the vernacular used in the movie, "intact".

You know this movie isn't about answers when, in the opening splash scene, you are given a complete synopsis of what is to come. And if you need neat answers to questions posed in a movie, this won't be a movie for you, because Weir doesn't give you any. There are perhaps clues as to what went on, but they point in many different directions. This is a movie about atmosphere and repressed primitive carnal longings, not about solving a mystery. Which, by the way, is not basedd on a true story, despite what is said on IMDB and the implications at the beginning of the movie. It is based on a novel, although I have to admit after I first saw this movie, many years ago, I did spend some time at the Boston Public Library searching the archives for mention of it, as in one place, Ms. Appleyard says it is being reported in newspapers worldwide!

This is a movie that absolutely positively requires complete attention. It is better seen in a dark, quiet movie theater, but if you have to watch it at home on this beautiful, sharp, DVD, be sure to unplug the phone and turn off the lights. Let the incredible music, both classical and Zamfir's Pan Flute, wash over you. Feel the heat, hear the cicadas, sense the emotions and wonder about the motives. Then, I think, you'll begin to have an idea of where Peter Weir wants you to go.

This is the movie that started me on my love of all things Australian, including a trio of contemporary directors in Weir, Fred Schepisi, and Bruce Beresford. This love culminated in a 3 1/2 week trip Down Under, that remains among my most cherished memories. Unfortunately, despite staying in Melbourne an extra day, we never made it to Hanging Rock, at a park just north of Melbourne. A movie that needs to be seen and felt at a visceral level, Picnic at Hanging Rock won't disappoint.

High Fidelity is the Stephen Frears (director) / John Cusack (writer/producer/star) movie from 2000, based upon the Nick Hornsby book of the same name. It is about a man who ruminates on his life, loves and losses, as he struggles to grow up and stay involved. A pretty solid movie all around, and a real feather in Cusack's cap, as he was involved in so many pieces of this production.

The movie starts with Rob Gordon's (Cusack) live-in girlfriend Laura (played by Iben Hjejle) checking out of the relationship, one she finds at a dead end, due to Rob's inability to change, or even more basically, grow up. While Laura has matured into a successful lawyer, Rob remains stuck as the owner of a backwater used record store. After she leaves, Rob begins his countdown of his personal top 5 breakups.

While reliving these memories (and talking to us), his life goes on. His record store has two employees, who, he says, he hired to work 3 days a week but started showing up every day. Dick (Todd Louisi) and Barry (a bravura performance by Jack Black) are also record junkies as well as musical snobs. Dick is a shy, withdrawn guy, while Barry compensates for him by being over the top and in your face. There is an especially funny scene when a man tries to buy a light pop record for his daughter and Barry browbeats him right out of the store.

Laura continues to float in and out of Rob's life, while Rob plays catch up with some of his former lovers. He also has a quirky relationship with a local pop singer Marie De Salle (Lisa Bonet). He struggles to make it work out, and seems to have life under control by the end of the movie.

This is a real fun, light movie. There are some excellent scenes, and lots of "name" actors helping out, including Catherine Zeta-Jones as the "out of his league" girlfriend, Tim Robbins as Laura's fling, and even several big names that ended up on the cutting floor, like Harold Ramis and Beverly D'Angelo. John's sister, Joan has a great turn as the friend caught between Laura and Rob, while even lesser Cusack brethren Susie (sister) and Dick (father) show up. There are several laugh out loud scenes, even if Rob is a bit of a selfish loser, but at least he's working at it.

Another notable component of the story is, of course, the music. I can't even imagine the difficulty and cost of obtaining the rights to all the great music to be found in this movie. There are over 60 songs listed in the credits! The cost for the rights to these alone could probably float many smaller countries. And it's great music too - what a soundtrack album this movie would make. There is a definite love of modern music shown by all involved.

The DVD is pretty solid, with pretty good Dolby Digital 5.1 sound and a good picture. The extras a pretty thin. There's a bunch of deleted scenes (the only place you'll see D'Angelo and Ramis), which only go to show you the director is usually right in cutting them. D'Angelo's turn as an embittered wife trying to sell off her philandering husband's priceless 45 collection is pretty good, and is one of the rare spots that show Rob not being selfish. And there are some talking head interviews with Cusack and Frears, that I haven't quite entirely waded through. And that's about it.

Well, I really enjoyed High Fidelity when I first saw it a year or so ago, enough so that when I saw it on the cheap at my local grocery store, I picked it up. There's some good, albeit dime store, psychology happening, some nice one liners, and Black's over the top job as the record store dweeb. Well worth a visit, I say!

Les Diaboliques is the classic French suspense film from 1955, starring the incomparably beautiful Simone Signoret and directed by the French Alfred Hitchcok, Henri-Georges Clouzot, who barely beat Hitch to the rights from the novel. A well acted and directed story of murder, betrayal and suspense, it was a sensation when it first came out. It had an epilogue that The Crying Game would imitate many years later, asking the audience not to reveal the ending to others. While it has lost a little of its bite in the ensuing 50 years, it is still an excellent and taunt film.

Christina (Véra Clouzot, the director's wife), her abusive husband, Michel (Paul Meurisse), and his lover(!) Nicole (the aformentioned Signoret), all work at the boarding school that Christina and Michel bought with Christina's inheritance. It is a dreary place, with a penny-pinching Michel doing his best to make everyone's lives miserable, including both (or maybe especially) Christina and Nicole. Michel is constantly playing one off the other, lord of his roost, not shy about using physical as well as mental abuse to get his way.

The women begin to talk about murdering Michel, with Nicole being the stronger of the two. They finally build up their courage and run off to Nicole's place, where Michel follows them. Christina, despite her misgivings, works up the courage to finally put Michel away for good.

Or is he? Funny things begin to happen, and the women begin to wonder. Fichet, a private detective, offers to help Christina to find her "missing" husband, despite her desire for him to stay clear. In a manner that would be mimiced by Peter Falk 15 years later, Fichet slowly begins to unravel the mystery. Things come to an unbearable climax, amid myriad plot twists and turns.

This was a movie that was a lot of fun, especially thru the first half or so, until it became clear to me what was going on. There were several nearly comedic points of high tension and surprise, that just kept building and building, leading to a not altogether surprising (to me anyway), ending. But still, incredibly well done - bravo!

But, like I said, it wasn't as surprising as I thought it would be. It was really tense until I guessed what was going on. And I'm also confused as to why they call the movie "Diabolique" in the US. That doesn't seem to be any less foreign than "Les Diaboliques", and it makes a whole lot less sense, because there are multiple devils in this story. I was also a little confused as to where Fichet came into it, and why he stuck around.

The black and white picture was pretty crisp, as befits a Criterion Collection disc. As is also true of many earlier films, this one contains no extras at all. But it is a highly recommended disc in any case, a real suspense classic.

Lost in Translation was one of the big "indie" hits from 2003. Nominated for 4 Oscars, winning one (Best Screenplay), it was a critical and commercial success. Written, directed, and produced by Sofia Coppola, daughter of near Hollywood legend Francis Ford Coppola, it tells the story of a chance meeting of two lost souls visiting the bustling metropolis of Tokyo and coming together to form a bond against the confusing world. Both Bill Murray, as the world-weary fading movie star and Scarlett Johansson, as the neglected wife of a fashion photographer, give standout performances in this very muted film.

Bob Harris (Murray) arrives in Tokyo, courtesy of Suntory, the large Japanese liquor maker. He's here to film some promos for their whiskey. Harris' star faded a long time ago, as a sort of Charles Bronson-ish action hero, but he is still revered in Japan. He arrives, tired and worn out, and is quickly reminded by his wife back home about forgetting his son's birthday. He hears from her on many other occasions, each time merely a domestic triviality that get funnier and funnier, culminating in a huge decision involving carpet squares.

Charlotte (Johansson) has been married two years, but is already disillusioned with life and her marriage. Her husband is a photographer who already pretty much ignores her, leaving her to wander Tokyo, a stranger in a strange land. She crosses paths with Harris a few times, each time getting a little closer. When her husband goes off for a 3 day trip, Charlotte asks Harris to accompany her to a local friend's party, after a chance meeting at the swimming pool.

Charlotte and Bob get closer and closer, with several touchingly quiet scenes of them discussing life from different ends of the rainbow. Charlotte isn't sure what she wants to become, while Bob isn't satisfied at his destination. Each offers the other a missing piece of the puzzle; Charlotte brings her youthful, albeit muted, optimism, while Bill shows her that things can work out okay in the end. They orbit around each other for the movie, which ends on a satisfyingly ambiguous note.

All in all, a very low key movie. Probably too low key for its own good, really. There was no denouement, as there was no real conflict. Just two people struggling to figure things out, and offering a new perspective to the other. Bill Murray had some really funny scenes, both laugh out loud (like the excercise machine) and more understated, like the many laconic comments. Scarlett Johansson was beguilingly beautiful, without being movie star-ish, if you know what I mean. She played off nicely with Anna Faris, who played a movie star promoting a movie and was a confidant of Charlotte's husband. Johansson's understated beauty contrasted nicely with Faris' perky movie star blondeness.

The DVD had a pretty interesting "Making Of" featurette, that was basically just a hand held video camera, filming while they were filming. It showed the "guerilla" filming as it happened, which was pretty fun. There was also an interview with Murray and Coppola, as they talked about the movie. The music was excellent, while the sounds did not, of course, push your speakers at all. There was also a collection of cut scenes, which once again showed that these movie makers know what they are doing, leaving these on the floor.

So I liked it enough to think about buying the DVD, although it is more of a mood piece than a real conflict-laden movie. Sort of like listening to a favorite CD when in the mood - a blue and confused mood. I'm not sure I understand all the hype though. For most people, a rental would work just fine.

Monsters, Inc

Sulley (Goodman) and Mike Wazowski (Crystal) are the top "scaring" team working for Monsters, Inc. MI provides the power for Monstropolis, by bottling up the screams of scared children. But close behind the leading team is Randall, who has a nefarious scheme of his own to catch the leaders.

One evening, Sully comes back to the work floor only to discover that a little girl has come the wrong way through the closet door and now threatens all of Monstropolis. See, it is thought that a human touch will contaminate all who contact it and the very fiber of Monstropolis depends on avoiding them. But she is so cute, and quickly becomes attached to Sully, calling him "Kitty", and Sully also comes to adore the little girl.

But now they need to get her back on her side of the door, all the while trying to elude the Child Decontamiation Team as well as the evil Randall and his schemes. Many chases ensue, and, of course, all ends well.

My girls (5 and 4) and I enjoyed ourselves with this movie. I think we all liked Shrek [Info] [Buy] better; for myself, I though Shrek a much funnier movie. Several of the chases in Monsters, Inc. seemed to drag on forever. The door sequence in particular went from cool to clever to tiresome. But the various monsters were all incredibly well animated and of course the picture and color of the film were beyond criticism. The soundtrack by Randy Newman was engaging, and Adrienne especially seemed to like the title song, "If I Didn't Have You".

As has also become the norm for animated movies, there are a ton of extras. And because I rented the movie from Blockbuster (yech), I actually got the second disc (Netflix makes you "spend" another rental to get it). The short, Mike's New Car had Adrienne and I falling all over ourselves laughing, and she also enjoyed the simple game that was on it (find the hot spot where a piece to Boo's door is hidden). So it is a real good movie, although I wouldn't put it in the class of Shrek or either Toy Story.