03 September 2006

Mickey One


(Poster 'Mickey One' copied from: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_KETk_nJdn6M/S7Gs5TGqtxI/
AAAAAAAAAMY/CVAyvBUoNZE/s1600/Mickey-One-LC.jpg)


Saturday 2/9: Cinemateket. We saw 'Mickey One' by director Arthur Penn with among others Warren Beatty.

Beatty plays a stand-up comedian who owes the Mafia money. He flees and try to find work in other cities. He becomes to popular wherever he goes and this causes him problem as the mob tends to find him wherever he tries to hide.
The violence in the film is typically 'Penn-like'.
The end is ambiguous and Penn writes that he didn't have a definitive answer to present the audience. I like Penn's aesthetics, though this movie has a thin story.

(Poster from 'La grande strada azzura' taken from: 
http://www.budterence.it/img_video/dvd/dvd_ita/_ter_strada.jpg)

'La Grande strada azzurra, by Gillo Pontecorvo with Yves Montand and Alida Valli (who died this year).

The frame story is about a fisherman (Montand) who uses illegal methods when he goes fishing - dynamite. His wife (Valli) is always worried that an accident will occur, not least because he always brings his son's when working.
He can also be said to characterize the individual and his right to make his own decisions without obeying the collective, in this case the other fishermen.
As the police dissaproves of his methods he is a threat to the his fellow friends at sea.
He also causes his wife a lot of trouble with his stubbornness.
The film was a dissapointment even though the actors and actressess were good.

Pontecorvo has made a much better film, namely 'La Battaglia di Algeri,' ('The Battle of Algiers'), a film most of you must be familiar with.
If not, I recommend it as it's one of the best descriptions of war, far from the American clichées with heros and 'heroic deeds'.


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