MAKSQUIBS CINEMATHEQUE: FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT (1940)

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There are (currently) eight different LABELS to look for on MAKSQUIBS.

CONTEST - Win a review of any available DVD or 'Streamer' of your choice* if you're the first to answer a Q attached to one of the write-ups. Please refrain from either Googling or searching for an answer via IMdB or other web movie services! These contests are plenty easy to solve just be using your little grey cells.

RECOMMENDED - Meaning Strongly Recommended. A film that's good enough or historically important enough to demand viewing. WARNING: A few real stinkers are important enough to rate this label. And, on the other hand, lots of pretty good or pretty valuable films, don't quite measure up to our RECOMMENDED level. (See also UNIQUE, below.)

FAMILY FRIENDLY - CAREFUL!! Not necessarily a KIDDIE pic, but a film that school kids may get into if the subject interests. You'll find foreign & silent pics in here as the need to read the sub-titles & inter-titles to follow the narrative and get all the jokes does wonders for ADD types.

LINK - To quickly find any Write-Up that includes an InterNet Link of interest for that specific film.

UNIQUE - Films that may not fit into the usual critical categories of Good, Bad or Indifferent, (certainly not indifferent!), but are worth watching because there just ain't nothing like 'em. Sui generis pics. (Phooey generis if they don't work for you.)

READ ALL ABOUT IT - While there's a book or two (or ten dozen) closely related to just about any film you might think of, here's a specific book you might not have known about (or thought of) that opens a window on the chosen title.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY - A place to vent those out-of-left-field thoughts.

POSTER - Hmm, I bet you can figure this one out.

(Hint: most of the posters will enlarge if you click on them.)

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT - sort of like those EAT THIS, NOT THAT diet books only with film instead of food as the topic. Sometimes, the substitute pick isn't the obvious 'better' choice, but one of those 'flawed-but-interesting' films that often get left behind.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID - some easy to miss element worth noting.

SILENT FILM - hey, figure it out (LOL)

. . . and DOUBLE-BILL - a suggested second feature.

To bring up the complete list in any of these categories, simply click on one of the LABELS when you come across one and everything with that designation will come up when the page reloads. Just scroll down. There's also a LABELS list near the bottom of all the pages.

Please let me know if there are any other LABELS you'd like to see.

AND YOU'RE DOING ALL THIS BECAUSE . . . ?

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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Sunday, June 14, 2015

FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT (1940)

Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘other’ 1940 Best Pic Oscar Nominee, the one not produced by David O. Selznick. And, unlike the award-winning REBECCA, it feels like a Hitchcock pic . . . about 25 minutes in. Up to that point, this politically topical thriller tags along with news-beat reporter Joel McCrea as he gets up to speed on the international peace movement in New York & London. But it’s a move to Amsterdam for the next conference that gets Hitch up to speed, displaying a lux Hollywood version of his personal cinematic style in a masterfully organized assassination sequence, played under umbrellas. After that tour de force, one picaresque set piece follows another to smash effect. (And one dud, Edmund Gwenn’s unlikely retired hitman.) Only the non-starter romance between McCrea & Laraine Day holds things down. Hitch always regretted missing out on Gary Cooper for the lead, but McCrea’s great, with a mid-weight approach to this American naïf in the woods that's both attractive and makes dramatic sense. It’s Day who drops the ball; wholesome & efficient as daughter to Herbert Marshall’s peace ambassador, she doesn’t connect with McCrea or Hitch. (Her cool-to-the-touch facade works better against Cary Grant’s heat in MR. LUCKY/’43.) But with so many spot-on supporting players (George Sanders, Albert Basserman, Eduardo Ciannelli); phenomenal production values & eye-popping visual effects (check out the fine EXTRA on Criterion’s DVD); as well as fun-to-spot Hitchcock motifs (tower plunge/nuns; a Mr Memory style MacGuffin; even probable ideas from Hitch’s never made TITANIC film, refitted for the plane crash at sea); it's terrific entertainment.

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ERNST LUBITSCH

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Now Over 5500 Reviews and (near) Daily Updates!

Sunday, June 14, 2015

FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT (1940)

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