MAKSQUIBS CINEMATHEQUE: MÉLODIE EN SOUS-SOL / ANY NUMBER CAN WIN (1963)

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Like just about everyone with an interest in the movies, I'm watching more films on DVD and going out to movie houses a lot less. Convenience trumps the better experience.
Of course, you lose audience interaction and the poor film now has to compete with all the comforts of home.
It's a bit like seeing Rembrandts & Titians in a book reproduction, or from posters with iffy color values, no texture or weight to the surface and the wrong dimensions . . . all while snacking on chips & soda. (Oops! You get that at your local cinema,too.)
The ease of instant movie gratification risks turning an art form (well, sometimes) into little more than low-grade eye-candy & mindfodder. So, maybe it's worthwhile to write a bit down on what we're all viewing, just to keep fully engaged.

DVDs: the latest opiate of the people meets the internet, where everyone's a critic.
God help us.

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Monday, August 19, 2024

MÉLODIE EN SOUS-SOL / ANY NUMBER CAN WIN (1963)

This standard issue casino caper from dependably mediocre French director Henri Verneuil likely got an undeserved critical bump from having Old Guard cinematic royalty meet New in co-stars Jean Gabin and Alain Delon. Gabin, as fat & reserved as he ever got, is a just released recidivist, home after twenty years to a world he doesn’t recognize and a long-planned robbery he plans to retire on. But with his old partner in dicey health, he needs a young replacement to act as ‘inside’ man. Enter fellow jailbird Delon (punked out in leather motorcycle jacket), joined by his brother-in-law, who’ll act as driver. Paint-by-numbers stuff (in tone, if not plot, it’s close to Jean-Pierre Melville’s superior breakthru caper pic BOB LE FLAMBEUR/’56 (https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2022/08/bob-le-flambeur-1956.html); in detail & silent set piece robbery, filched, as usual, from Jules Dassin’s RIFIFI/’55. That’s all fine, if only it generated the suspense it thinks it is. Verneuil’s helming nearly as impassive as Gabin at rest.

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT/LINK: In addition to the titles mentioned above, Gabin, Delon & Verneuil, now with Lino Venturi, reunited to better effect (Gabin positively mobile) in THE SICILIAN CLAN/’69. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2023/04/the-sicilian-clan-le-clan-des-siciliens.html

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: The ironic ending (it’s NOT have your cake and NOT eat it, too), popular back when you had to punish thieves to get a film released, and a particular favorite of John Huston.

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Now Over 5500 Reviews and (near) Daily Updates!

Monday, August 19, 2024

MÉLODIE EN SOUS-SOL / ANY NUMBER CAN WIN (1963)

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